Arrival

 Chapter 4:

Grand Entrance

 

© Dylan Clearbrook

 

Antarctica,

Superman’s Fortress of Solitude

They sat through the presentation in stony silence as Lex Luthor gave them a brief, yet surprisingly thorough outline of events over the past seventeen years.

Lex had led them to a small room that looked to be more of a living area than a conference room.  Kara was later to discover that this Superman had never designated a portion of his fortress for conferences.  This was a retreat from the world, where he, Lois, and Lanie could come and get away from it all…not a place to hold high-level meetings.

Reed and Xavier had joined them while Sue and Stephanie had elected to remain behind in the infirmary, to keep an eye on Jenny.

Upon entering the room, Kara was not too surprised to find Jean Gray busily setting up equipment that would allow Zor-El to join in.

The woman had looked up as they entered; favoring both Kara and Rogue with a smile that welcomed…yet held little recognition.  She knew them from their thoughts…but did not have the personal recollections of time spent together on Rogue’s home world that both Kara and Rogue had.

Once settled in, with everyone seated around a large dining room table and Zor hooked in, Lex had launched into his explanation of events.

Zor, having had access to the Fortress computer databanks, had already skimmed the information, but listened with rapt attention as Lex drew a grim word picture.

When he finally wound down, Kara had turned to Rogue.

“Well?”  She asked, wanting her partner’s thoughts before she revealed her own.  What she got surprised even her.

“I think we should contact Ian and get our asses back to Otherverse and let this world rot!”  Rogue spat.

“Rogue…”  Kara began, cutting off when Rogue rounded on her angrily.

“Don’t you ‘Rogue’ me!”  She snarled. “I have all of your memories, Kara…I know exactly what you have lived through and what your world was like.  There was nothing in your world that even came close to the Mutant Registration act.  You never had to deal with assholes like the Friends of Humanity!  I, for one am tired of that crap!  And I can guarantee that Jenny won’t be any happier about it!”  She shook her head. “You don’t know how many times I wondered if I had not made a mistake in siding with Prof. X and the X-men; how many times I wondered if Magneto had the right idea all along.”  She turned towards Lex with a hardened expression.  “I am sure your people had every right to be fearful after that kind of experience, but there is no way you can justify persecution of people…just because they are mutants…just because they are different.”

“You are absolutely correct, Rogue.”  Her head turned, for it had been Xavier that had answered, not Lex.  “There is no justification for it at all.”  He leaned forward in his seat. “There has never been a justification for persecution of people because they are different.  Whether that difference was religion, color, sex, or…” Now he looked back and forth between Kara and Rogue.  “…sexual preference.  But the answer to that is not running from it.  It is by fighting against it.  I don’t care where you go…even if you go back to this Otherverse you came from…you will never be able to run from ignorant people who stir up trouble against others because of…differences.”

“Running away is one thing.”  Rogue pointed out.  “Running into is something entirely different.”  She gestured towards Lex.  “The man has all but admitted that the whole place is about to break down.”

“That’s right, it is.”  Lex cut in.  “Things are getting worse…and will continue to get worse…that is why we need you!”

“No, you need her!”  Rogue pointed at Kara.

“Okay, have it your way.  We need her.”  Lex nodded, his lips tight as he sought to control his frustration.  “We need her because of who she is…what she will mean to the people of this world.”  He stood and began to pace.  “We need her because even our own tests have shown that her claim is valid…she is the cousin of Superman.”

“Excuse me?”  Kara leaned forward now.  “Your tests?”

“We ran some DNA tests before you awakened.”  Reed explained.  “And while there are some unexplained genetic differences, the similarities are enough to prove in a court of law that you could very well be a relative of Superman.”

“That is what we need!”  Lex told them.

“Then perhaps you had best look elsewhere.”  Kara stood.  “I will not be a replacement for Kal-El.  I will not have my actions judged by his.  Especially since I am not even from the same reality as your Superman.”

“Kara, I think you misunderstood.”  Xavier tried to soothe her.  “We do not want you to be…Superman in a skirt….” He smiled at his own joke then went on.  “What we want is for you to restore the one thing Superman gave this world…Hope.  Yes, there will be those that hold you up to Superman and see if you can ‘cut the mustard’, but those will be few and far between.  Especially since an entire generation has grown up without a Superman.”

“And that is why we need you, as well.”  Lex turned back to Rogue.  “We need you, all of you.  Kara would be the ice breaker…the one that people could easily identify with at first…but the rest of you….” He shook his head and looked to Kara.  “She cannot do it alone.  She will need you by her side.”

Xavier looked at Lex, his eyebrows raised.  This was a part of Lex he had never seen.  And a quick mental probe of surface thoughts showed him that the man was indeed sincere.  Cunning, but sincere.  He knew that if he did not win over Rogue, then his chances of winning over Kara were slim-to-none.  Kara had not had more than a few hours to digest the fact that Lex was not the cold blooded, murdering monster she thought she knew.  That being the case, there had to be lingering doubt…doubt that would cause her to accept Rogue’s judgment without question.  Without Rogue, they would lose them all!

“Rogue,” Reed chose that moment to step in.  “I understand fully what you feel.”  He stretched out an arm across the room to underscore his words by pointing out his differences.  “But tell me, if you had been given the choice, would you have run from your world or fight for what was right?”

Rogue was given no time to answer.  As soon as Reed finished asking his question, a thin warbling alarm sounded throughout the Fortress.  Of those present, only Lex and Kara knew what the sound meant.

“Emergency alarm!”  Kara was half way out of her seat before Lex waved her back down.

“I can tie into the monitoring systems from here.”  He told her, pulling the terminal keyboard in front.  “Sorry Zor.”  He muttered as his fingers flew across the keys.  Zor’s image winked out to be replaced by a very haggard looking man in a khaki uniform.  The scenery behind the man showed busy people and a view port that looked out…onto the surface of the moon.  The man looked up at his screen, obviously surprised to see Lex Luthor.

“Mr. President.”  The officer began but Lex waved him off.

“Not any more, Colonel.”  Lex had read the officer’s insignia correctly.  “You have sounded general alarms all over the place, Colonel.  What’s the problem?”

“I can’t raise any UEG forces, sir.”  The Officer explained.  We have a situation up here…though I think it is about to be your problem.”  He shook his head.  “A base on Farside has been destroyed by some kind of monster ship.  We thought it would then move on to us, but it seems to have lost interest in the moon and is already beginning to enter the Earth’s atmosphere.”  He looked off screen.  “Yes sir, it is entering the Earth’s atmosphere and descending over the eastern coast of the United States.”  He paused and then looked back to Lex. “It looks like it is on a heading that will put it directly over Metropolis within a matter of minutes.”

“Were you able to get any identification on this ship?”  Lex demanded, worry clear in his face.

“One of our fighter craft was able to record the ship as it accelerated away from the moon.”  The Colonel responded.  He reached off screen and a large, rectangular vessel that seemed to stretch for over a mile instantly replaced his image.

“Rao!”  Rogue breathed. “That’s a Hunter Killer!”

“No.”  Kara’s eyes narrowed.  “That is the same damned Hunter Killer that we tangled with!  I recognize the markings and the scarring!”  She stood and headed for the door and then stopped, taking a second to think.  Finally she turned to Lex.  “Did your Superman have any spare uniforms…made of Kryptonian material?”  She demanded.

“In his and Lois’ rooms, yes.  But why….” He trailed off as he realized he was talking to empty space and rushing wind.  An instant later a crunching noise rang through the corridors, causing Lex, Reed, Mercy, and Jean to jump to their feet and rush out of the makeshift dining area.

Running, Lex came to an astonished stop as he surveyed the crumpled metal that had been the entrance door to Clark and Lois’s private area.  A door Lex had sealed seventeen years ago. Within, a soft red light flooded the area, showing that some one had activated a red sun light emulator.

“What the hell?”  Lex picked his way through a cluttered mess of clothing, stopping next to a sewing machine that Clark had setup for Lois long ago.  He stooped and picked up cut tatters of red and blue material and then let them fall from his fingers as he looked around.

“Perhaps this is the answer?”  Mercy stooped and gathered up a Blue-black leather uniform…the clothes that Kara had been wearing mere seconds ago.

Before anyone could respond, a tremendous crashing rang through the Fortress, causing them to cover their ears.

“Now what the hell was that?”  Lex demanded, turning to a long unused terminal.  It took a moment to warm the unit up and then another moment to log it in and flip through the various monitors in the Fortress.  When the scene landed on the main entrance, Lex froze it, staring in utter disbelief, his face growing pale.

“I would say they got tired of arguing with the computer and simply crashed their way out.”  Reed observed, looking at the massive doorway.  A doorway that now had two man sized holes where Kara and Rogue had torn their way through.

“That is impossible.”  Lex breathed, fear and awe battling for dominance in his facial expression.

“Obviously it isn’t.”  Reed gestured towards the evidence.

“You don’t understand.”  Lex turned to Reed.  “Clark and I developed the material for this fortress.  It was meant to withstand anything.  We tested it…Clark could not have budged that door if the computer decided to keep him in or out…and there was no way he could have punched through it.  He tried…and nearly broke his hand.  He left a small dent in the door!”

“Well then.”  Reed looked back at the image with a new respect in his eyes.  “Lex, I think we just discovered what some of those unexplained differences in the DNA might be!”

New Kandor

Zor sighed as the screen blanked and he sat back.  Around him technicians were busy analyzingdata they had retrieved from the Fortress computer.  It was, admittedly, a make-work project intended to keep their minds off the horror that still gripped their devastated city.

“Sir, I think you should see this.”  A senior tech slid a memory crystal into a slot before Zor and touched a series of symbols on the keypad. “It’s from a private journal written by Lex Luthor.  It was heavily secured and took us some time to hack into it.  From the dates, we believe it was soon after the Probability device was activated.  He and a team were active in the clean up of rogue Khunds left on the planet.”

Zor leaned forward, his eyes widening as he read the journal entry that flashed up on his screen.

“Sometimes we have to lose something dear, before we realize exactly how dear it was.”  The entry began.  “We lost three members of the team today.  Two were young boys I hardly knew…the third however, was the love of my life.  It took her death for me to realize the truth.”

Zor frowned and skimmed through until he came to the list of names of the deceased.  It was the name at the top that caused cold chills to run down his spine.

“We also found this.”  The Tech touched another set of symbols and Zor let out an explosive breath as information on genetic research began to scroll up the screen.

And at the top of the data…the same name.  Mercy Graves!

Metropolis

“…GN News Alert!  We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this special bulletin! We take you now to Phil Harris in the WGN Newsroom!”

“This Phil Harris with WGN News.  Reports of a massive spacecraft appearing above Metropolis Central Park have been confirmed!  Our Roving Reporter, Lucy Lane, was at the park covering the opening of a new exhibit at the Superman Museum.  We take you now to Lucy Lane at the Superman Memorial exhibition!”

“Thanks Phil.  This is Lucy Lane at the Superman Memorial Exhibition.  At the time, my cameraman and I were inside so we did not see this massive craft that even now floats over ahead arrive.  But we felt it.  It was like standing next to a railroad track as a train went by.”

The blonde woman did not look scared, yet behind her the camera recorded people moving in a panic to leave the area.  A loud cracking noise, like a streak of lightning followed instantly by massive thunder drove the reporter and many of those around her, including the cameraman, to their knees.  Yet the cameraman held on to his equipment and, as soon as he got his bearings, he swung the camera to shoot the great dark vessel in the sky above them.

“Phil, I don’t know if you got that, but something just happened.  It looked as if this…vessel…just fired some kind of laser beam that was intercepted before it hit the ground.  Immediately thereafter, something hit the ground nearby…hard.  We can’t see anything from here but …wait a minute…Phil?  Did you see that?  Get the camera over here…quickly!”

MV E-1

Rogue shook her head as she picked herself up off the ground.  She caught her breath and then squared her shoulders as Kara landed beside her.

“Are you okay?”  The blonde demanded.

“Yeah.”  Rogue flexed her shoulders and then jerked her chin towards the Hunter-Killer.  “That thing packs a wallop.”

“Well, a lot of people would be dead if you had not seen that beam fire!”  Kara commended her.

“A lot will still die if we don’t get rid of that thing.”

“Some of those people might be Friends of Humanity.”  Kara ventured, causing Rogue to look at her in astonishment.

“Not funny, Kara.”

“You’re right…it isn’t funny.”  Kara gave her a hard look then smiled and clapped her on the shoulder; “We’ll talk about it later.  Now let’s get rid of this pest…and give these people a show!”  She turned and looked up at the craft.  “First let’s take care of those weapon mounts.  Then we’ll figure out how to disable the thing until we can haul it away from the populated areas.”

With that, they both leapt in to the sky.  Neither had noticed the insect sized figure that leapt from the grass to burrow under Kara’s cape.

MV E-1

“Phil…I don’t believe what I am seeing!”  Lucy Lane spoke in to her mic…and then noticed that the line was dead.

“Keep talking!”  The cameraman told her.  “We’ re recording everything.”

Lucy nodded and once again raised the mic to her lips.

“This is truly an amazing sight!”  Lucy tried to talk in normal tones, though the sight she saw had unexpectedly raised excitement with in her…as well as recognition.  “Two individuals, women I believe…yes, yes…women, one blonde and one red-head.  They are too far away to make out much detail, yet both seem to be wearing uniforms of red and blue!”  She trailed off as she and then cameraman followed the action in the sky above them.

The two women wove through the air, deftly deflecting each and every laser bolt the monster craft sent towards them or towards the ground.  Terrific booms sounded as, again and again, one or both of the women would zoom in to slam against the massive ship.  At one point the crowd below, the fear forgotten as they watched the battle above, gave a throaty yell of victory, as the blonde seemed to slam completely through the ship!

The Cameraman took footage of the red head zapping back and forth across the sky, intercepting laser beams and then rushing in to demolish a weapon mount on the massive craft.  Each time she dove in…a weapon went silent.

He then panned the camera towards one end of the ship where, completely dwarfed by the huge mass of alien metal, the blonde was.

He zoomed in to get a better look at what the blonde was doing…and nearly dropped his camera.  The blonde’s cape had flapped over to one side and for a brief instant, through the eye of the camera; he thought he saw something he could not possibly be seeing!

“Carl?  Carl!”  Lucy was nearly yelling as she noticed the Cameraman gazing stupidly upward.  Carl shook his head and jerked the Camera back up, once again zooming in on the blonde.  The cape flapped the other way now, showing only red.

Then, as if realizing that their methods were two slow, the two women backed away and began to circle the massive craft.

Circling slowly at first, until their movements were synchronized, they gradually increased speed.  Soon, both women were flying so fast that, to the human and electronic eyes focused on them, they seemed to be leaving solid blue and red trails behind them. 

“My god!”  Lucy squinted to see against the bright sky.  The images were leaving crisscrossing trails through the sky as the women zipped around and around.  Red beams appeared to sprout from the blurred circles, each one striking and melting a point on the giant warship.

Eventually the weapons of the ship grew silent and the people below held their breaths as the two women slowed and, as the red head hovered to the side, watching for any tricks, the blonde once again moved towards one end of the ship.

The blonde carefully positioned her hands against the hull of the craft, and then, head down, straightened her arms.  The cameraman, through the zoom lens of his camera, watched as one hand actually sank into the metal and tore a gaping hole in the dark hull.  The other hand, however, must have been positioned on a spot with extra support…for rather than her hand tearing through the hull, the entire craft shuddered and, against all possibilities, slowly began to move.

“She’s doing it!”  Lucy yelled, forgetting herself as she watched.  “She’s actually moving the ship away from Central Park.  I think…wait a minute, Carl…what is that under the ship?  Something is happening, Ladies and Gentlemen…a hatch has opened beneath the ship and something is being lowered…something green and glowing….” Lucy stopped and let the mic fall to her side.  “That’s Kryptonite!”  She breathed.

Around her, others had recognized the green material the giant ship was revealing.  And they were beginning to understand what it meant.

MV E-1

“Kara!  Rogue!  Under the ship!  Kryptonite!”

Neither Kara nor Rogue knew where the mental warning that sounded through their minds came from, but both were too professional to allow that to distract them…Especially Kara.  Allowing herself to get distracted had cost her her life…she would not allow that to happen again!

Instead, both women broke away from the craft and Kara swooped down towards the ground. Though partially hidden from the crowd, she was seen to uproot a medium sized tree. 

Watchers gasped as the tree, gnarled dirt covered roots leading the way, sailed through the air like a great spear.

The tree slammed into the Kryptonite boulder…and kept moving.  Up and away from the city to splash down far into the bay, burying the deadly chunk in hundreds of feet of seawater and the muck on the bottom.

Kara surged back into the air, slowing to hover beside Rogue as she surveyed the situation.

“We have got to put this thing out of commission and then force  it back into space.”  She concluded.

“And just how do you suppose we do that, short of ripping the engines out?”  Rogue demanded.  “I don’t think that would be a wise course, especially not while we are hovering above a park in a big city.”

“Remember when we faced this thing before?”  Kara responded.  “It ran before we could finish it off.”

“Yeah.”  Rogue nodded.  “Someday I would like someone to figure the odds of that thing appearing here just as we did.”

“I think I have an answer for that too.”  Kara smiled and then grew serious.  “I thought we might have to face it again so I studied all the data my father had on the Hunter-Killers.  Those things have an off switch.”

“You have got to be kidding.”  Rogue shook her head.

“Actually, no.  The Daxamites that created them knew, or believed rather, that they would eventually have to deactivate them.  SO they constructed them with a few fail safes.  A switch with a code that has to be entered manually.”

“You mean we have to get inside that thing?”  Rogue shook her head. “I don’t like that idea at all.”

“Not we…me.”  Kara motioned towards the people below.  “You are going to start pushing this thing up while I go in and try to deactivate it.  We have to move quickly, however.  Soon this thing will start to repair itself and the first thing it is going to bring back on line are the weapons.”

“I like that even less.”  Rogue gave Kara a dark look.  ‘But since I haven’t got a better plan…”

She trailed off and Kara gave her a spirit-lifting smile.

“Well, you might if you had studied these things like I did…but no…you were too busy being distracted!”

“By you!”  Rogue retorted in mock indignation.  “You shameless hussy!”

Kara laughed and then took a deep breath.

“Okay, let’s get this thing done.”  She started to move, only to be stopped as Rogue grabbed her arm and spun her around.  Before she could say a word, Rogue had closed the distance and planted a kiss on her lips…not realizing until later that she had done this in front of hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses.  And at least one film crew.

“For luck.”  She whispered, her eyes peering into Kara’s, pleading with her to take care.

“For luck.”  Kara smiled and squeezed Rogue’s hand and then flew upward, disappearing into the opening through which the Kryptonite had been lowered.

MV E-1

“Ahem.”  Lucy tried to hide a smile as she looked over at Carl.  “I think that can be edited from the film…don’t you?”

Carl nodded, smiling.

Both were more concerned with the privacy of the individuals rather than the kiss it self.  Same sex relationships, while still frowned upon by the older generation, were more acceptable after the destruction seventeen years earlier.  While many had not changed their minds, it was one of those things that suddenly did not seem so important to worry about once one took in all the death and destruction that had occurred.  Some issues that had been oh, so important before…paled and became insignificant.

Not too far from the news team, the red haired man, the blonde woman, and their dark haired companions watched the actions from the midst of the crowd.

The red-haired man lowered his eyes his eyes as woman with short red hair, obviously a younger relative of the red headed man, approached.  His eye narrowed as he looked beyond the woman and then scanned the crowd nearby.

“Where’s…”  He began, cutting off as the blonde laid a hand on his arm.

“She’s fine.”  The redheaded woman smiled. “We’re here to observe so she just decided to get a somewhat closer point of view.”

“Closer?  What….” The man started and then looked upwards.  The ship was still there and the red headed woman with the strange white streak in her hair was positioning herself beneath it. “Damn it, no!  She didn’t?  She wouldn’t!”

The dark haired man beside him clasped a hand on his shoulder and leaned in closer.

“Shhh.”  He whispered. “You’re attracting attention. Don’t worry, everything will work out…you’ll see.”

MV E-1

Crouched on the roof of the Superman Museum, out of site of the crowds and the cameras, Nightwing watched the action above with a sense of awe!  How had she known?

During his nightly patrol of Gotham the night before, he had found the message.  Placed there, in a place he was sure to notice.  A simple note telling him to be sure to be here, in Metropolis, at this time.  The note had not been signed, yet a small yellow bat emblem had been affixed to the end.

“Quite a show, isn’t it?”

Nightwing spun as Batgirl stepped from the shadows.  The redhead spared a glance upward and then looked back at him.

“You knew they would be here!” He said, his tone almost accusatory.

“You haven’t lost any of it, I see.”  Batgirl remarked calmly as she stepped up next to him.  “You were high strung as Robin and it hasn’t changed a bit.  You need to learn to relax.  You really are beginning to act like Bruce.”  She fixed him with a cold stare.  “And that wasn’t a compliment!”

“Who the hell are you?”  Nightwing demanded.  He reached out a hand towards her and stopped as she spoke.

“Do you really want to lose that hand, Dicky-boy?”  She shook her head “I will never understand what she saw in you.”

Something clicked in Nightwing’s mind as he recalled their first…and last…encounter.

“You said you were waiting for some one.”  He hissed.  “You meant them!”  He pointed to the sky.  “You’re here because of them!”

“Of course.” She replied in an almost flippant manner.  Her eyes were deadly serious, however, and his blood ran cold at her next words.  “The House of the Bat always watches over the House of El!”

MV E-1

Kara found herself in a large bay area.  A quick glance around was enough to cause chills to run up and down her spine.

Everywhere, small automatons, worker bots, scurried round, repairing damage and carrying in fresh supplies.  Massive bomb racks stood empty, testament to recent use.  As she watched, a team of bots floated in, trailing lines of tethered bombs, which they deftly began to load into the racks.

“Rao!”  Kara closed her eyes for a moment as she envisioned the carnage that would result if this monster were allowed to unload that deadly payload on the city below.

“EL?”  Nightwing stared upward as if he could bring the two women into focus.  One now, as the other had entered the huge machine.

“Relax, Dicky-boy, and let me tell you about Kara Zor-El…Supergirl!”

More determined than ever, she opened her eyes and began a systematic sweep of the ship with her x-ray vision, stopping in confusion when her vision passed over a large obstruction.  Lead?  On a Daxamite vessel?

“Dad did theorize that these things were built before the Daxamites developed their weakness to lead.”  She muttered.  Actually, Zor had theorized that the Hunter-Killers had not only been responsible for that, but for the Kryptonian weakness to Kryptonite as well.  One of the last ditch tactics of the Hunter-Killers was to pit the very planet on which its targets dwelt against them…by introducing DNA altering chemicals into the food chain and water table.

Now, however, was not the time to prove or disprove those theories.  Digging the schematics she had studied after their last encounter with this beast, she could determine that the lead lined area near the center of this craft was where the manual overrides would be found.  So that was where she had to go.

“…a hero!”  Batgirl went on. “It was an obsession with her…As if she were trying to live up to some image even she was not aware of…or trying to repay a debt she knew could never be repaid.  She was the cousin to the Superman of our world and they loved each other dearly.  Yet there was always a gap between them. A bridge neither of them knew how to cross.  Part of the problem might have been that Kal was raised on earth from an infant while Kara spent her formative years in Kryptonian society.  But part of it stemmed, I believe, from an event that both seemed subconsciously aware of…but had never, in our reality, occurred.”

Kara did not expect her intrusion and subsequent advances to be ignored by the Hunter-Killer…nor was she disappointed.

Barely had she cleared the first bay area before larger, more intimidating automatons converged on her location.

Red and blue beams of hellish energy swept the cold, empty corridors, tearing great smoldering gaps in the bulkheads.

Kara waded through them as if they did not exist.  Reaching out as she neared, she would grasp one of the robotic guardians and send it spinning into its companions with enough force to shatter them all.  For once, she was grateful that non-organic material from either Daxam or Krypton did not develop superpowers…especially invulnerability…under a yellow sun.  Nor were Hunter-Killers designed to deal with Super Kryptonians.  Another theory her father had developed.  At the time the Hunter-Killers had been commissioned, there had been no such thing as super-powered Kryptonians or Daxamites…despite the obvious scientific advancements and space exploration of the Daxamites at that time.  Something had happened, at a later date, that had changed both the Daxamites and the Kryptonians.  Zor had again theorized that, in both cases, the changes were due to actions taken by the Hunter-Killers.  In their blind obedience to the programming placed within their computers by their long dead insane masters, the Hunter-Killers had inadvertently introduced the changes that made super-powers a real possibility.

All of this flashed through Kara’s mind as she waded and swatted her way through the corridors.

“…were the best of friends, much as Batman and Superman were the closest of companions.  And when she died…”

“Died?”

“Yes, she died.  She sacrificed herself to save billions, if not trillions, of people living and yet to be born.” She fixed him with a level stare. “If she had not done what she did…if she had wavered, then nothing would have survived.  Not our world and not yours.  Nothing would have survived!”

Each meter closer to her destination brought her up against stronger and tougher opposition.  Yet none of it fazed her.  She knew, as the Hunter-Killer was not able to grasp, that the power it would need to stop her would destroy the ship around her long before she was affected.

“…asked me to give her eulogy.  That was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life.  Before that night, Superman and I had rarely talked.  But that night, as we shared our mutual grief, he opened up to me and told me things I don’t believe he even told Bruce.  You see, Kal did love Kara…and his grief was almost unbearable…yet he was also puzzled.  He admitted to me that, as he held Kara’s broken, lifeless body in his arms, he had the strangest feeling.  Déjà vu we call it.  As if he had been there before…but that time, it had not been Kara dying in his arms.  I couldn’t get him to tell me who it was…and after that night, he never spoke of it again.”

As she neared her objective she slowed…her eyes narrowing with suspicion.

In the forward bay and through the corridors, she had seen nothing but the black metal the ancient Daxamites had reserved for their massive war fleets…and the Hunter-Killers.

Yet now she was seeing something different.

Here and there gleaming metal access panels covered internal circuitry. Bright metal equipment moved in…

“Someone’s been here!”  Kara stopped and looked closer…yes…the workmanship was different. 

Everywhere she looked she saw massive dark equipment of obvious Daxamite design.  Yet sprinkled among the dark equipment was newer…brighter equipment…and the designs of these were most definitely not Daxamite in origin!

She continued on cautiously, making note of the different equipment as she went.  It was some time before she realized that no longer were guardian bots being sent against her.

“Okay, what have you got up your sleeve now?”  She muttered, looking around.  Her question we answered as she turned a corner and came face to face with a horror from hell!

“…forgotten!  No one even remembered that she existed.  Well, a few did remember.  But we were few and soon, we were replaced ourselves.  I found myself being held captive for what seemed ages before … well, let’s just say I was with some new friends when she showed up!  Alive!  Reborn…Resurrected.  I was sure I had finally gone mad!”

A robotic octopus would be the best way to describe the…thing.  A massive skull like gleaming head above a seething mass of telescoping tentacles that seemed to sway towards her.

“I have not got time for this.”  Kara started forward and then grunted as a massive tentacle lashed out and slapped across her midsection, tossing her back into the wall of the corridor.

“I felt that, you asshole!”  She exclaimed, as startled as she was angry.  For she had indeed felt it and it had not felt good.

She gave the octopus another glance and then activated her x-ray vision…

The damned thing was powered by a chunk of Kryptonite!  Just like Metallo!

She traced the circuitry in the thing, her eyes narrowing as recognition seemed to flirt with the edges of her mind.  Almost…almost.  She shook her head.  There was something about this she should recognize, but for the life of her, she could not place it.  She had an excellent memory…but even so, sometimes things just did not fit and memories didn’t quite click.

One thing she was able to determine from her examination was how the damned thing used its power source. 

Small charges of energy, kryptonite energy, were released with each strike.  Not enough to kill her and not enough to disable her…unless she stayed in range too long and let it beat on her.  Something she had no intention of doing.

“Okay, let’s dance.”  She growled as she sprang upward and flashed forward far faster than any being could possibly be expected to move.

She zipped in, grabbed a couple of tentacles, yanked and then moved back out of range, tossing the now severed, wiggling metallic limbs to the side.

She started back in and stopped as two new tentacles began to sprout from the stumps of the tentacles she had just ripped off.  These tentacles, however, were green…and glowing.  Kryptonite!

She hesitated a mere fraction of a second. The bulkhead behind her, she had noticed was made of lead.  Turning, she sank her fingers through the soft metal, intending to pull it out and use it as a shield.  Her fingers pierced the lead and she jerked back, gasping with sudden pain.  Through the holes left by her fingers a bright green glow could be seen. 

The space beyond the bulkhead was filled with Kryptonite!  That single bulkhead had been placed there purposely!  By whom?  No one in this probability even knew she existed!  So it wasn’t meant for her!  It was meant for Superman!  By someone that did not know that Superman was dead!  That some one had correctly surmised that, faced with a kryptonite threat, Superman would turn and try to create a shield from lead.

“Okay Kara.”  She spoke aloud.  “Time to stop acting like Superman in a skirt, as the good professor said, and think.  There has to be…”

“…a way!  It was something she would mutter to herself all the time whenever she was up against a major problem.  It was almost like a mantra she used to clear her mind, repeating it over and over.  I asked her about it once and she told me she had heard it from someone else…someone else had told her the same words.  No, she couldn’t recall who had told her and before that, she had never really thought about it.  She couldn’t remember and that bothered her.  She didn’t stop saying it, but she didn’t say it as often…and she would stop as soon as she realized she was saying it.  But she would stand there, eyes glowing red, and say those words over and over. ‘Find a way…that’s what heroes do…they find …”

“… a way!”  Kara glanced upward and then smiled.  She lifted a hand and made a little waving motion toward the robotic octopus.  “Ta-Ta!”  She leapt upward, crashing through the ceiling of the corridor…and the ceiling of the above corridor.  Up she flew, smashing her way through the craft until she realized that if she went any further she would punch through the hull.

She used her x-ray vision to check on the guardian…it was exactly where she had left it.  Obviously it was not programmed for pursuit…only to guard that particular junction before the manual control room.

Hovering in the corridor, Kara then released short bursts of heat vision in a large circle, perforating the floor of the corridor.

Round and round she went, her vision stabbing through the holes she had just made to perforate the floor below.

Soon, the guardian jerked back to awareness as beams of heat vision flashed in a circle around him.

“Bye now.”  Kara quipped as she pounced into the center of the circle she had just burned.

The perforated metal gave way easily so, rather than simply crashing through, as she had done on her upward journey, she was now pushing wreckage downward as each section collapsed on to the equipment below, causing the perforated metal to snap.

As the grinding, smashing noise of approaching wreckage reached its auditory sensors, the guardian looked upward…just as the roof collapsed and the floor gave way!

Kara slowed her descent as the accumulated wreckage, tons of twisted, mangled machinery, came to a grinding halt near the lower hull, burying the Guardian.

A quick scan with her x-ray vision showed that the Guardian was not truly harmed, but neither was it going anyplace soon.  But…Kara frowned as dozens of worker bots converged on the scene; attempting to drag pieces of the wreckage away…it would get free.  She had to get done what needed to be done before it was back in action and tried to return to its duty station.

She made her way the final distance to the lead or lead lined hatch that opened into the manual control room…and hesitated.

“There’s Kryptonite on the other side.”  It was not a question.  “Okay. So I get the door open…will I be able to remain conscious long enough to hit the override switches?”

“Perhaps I can help?”

Kara whirled and then back pedaled as a figure materialized before her.  No…she didn’t materialize…she grew!

“Salu Digby!”  She exclaimed, eyeing the younger woman with astonishment.  Younger?  She was younger than Kara remember…or was it simply that she was older?

“You know me?”  The Imskian was just as startled by Kara’s obvious recognition as Kara was by her appearance.

“Yes and no.”  Kara shook off the astonishment and grasped the woman by the arm, half pulling her to the hatch.  “Vi, I have to get in there and shut this thing down…but if there is Kryptonite in there, it will shut me down before I can do any thing.  I need you to shrink down, go in, and take a look. You should have equipment on you that will allow you to take holographic images of everything in that room.  Can you do that?”

The woman nodded a bit shakily and then shrank out of sight.

Kara waited impatiently, keeping a close eye on the progress the worker bots were making on freeing the trapped guardian.

Finally, a figure, sailing up from somewhere near the bottom of the hatch, grew in size and sailed up to land on her shoulder.  A five-inch doll like figure.  A very unhappy doll.

“There’s Kryptonite all right.”  She nodded, confirming Kara’s guess. “And something I had not expected to see.  This ship, though unfamiliar, is obviously of ancient Daxamite design.  But we happen to know that the Daxamites never built anything like this before they killed themselves off.”

“Not your Daxamites, at any rate.”  Kara corrected.  “Go on.”

“Well, like I said, the whole thing appears to be Daxamite in origin.  But that entire control room has been overhauled.  Every piece of Daxamite equipment has been replaced…and not by Daxamite technology.”  She paused and touched a control on her Legion belt and Kara’s eyes narrowed as a hologram of the control room sprang in to existence before them.  “That is most definitely not Daxamite.” Salu went on. “My best guess says its Coluan!”

COLUAN!

The memory click.

“Brainiac!”

“You know about Brainiac?”  Salu was surprised again.

“I knew a version of him.”  Kara replied in an offhand manner.  “Just like I knew versions of you and the Legion of Super-Heroes.”  She studied the hologram and continued to talk.  “Salu, what is the situation with Colu?”

“I…I don’t know if I should…”

“Vi, I don’t want to know the future.  I know you can’t reveal that.  I just want to know the current situation.  In my universe, Colu would just now be recovering after a revolution against the machine Masters.”

“The revolution never got off the ground.”  Salu shook her head.  “Kril Dox was betrayed and barely escaped Colu with his family.”  She grew silent and Kara ventured a bit further.

“Salu, in your Legion…is…is Querl Dox a member?”  Salu started to answer and Kara stopped her.  “No…don’t answer that.  It’s not something I should know.”  She brought the tiny woman’s attention back to the hologram. “You see that coupling?  That is a main trunk, I do believe.  The interface between the Daxamite machine and the Coluan brain.  We break that link, and the ship is dead in the water…I hope.  I don’t see anything that looks like a back up.”

Salu studied the hologram herself and nodded.

“The question is: how to break it.”

“That part is simple.”  Kara smiled.  “You are going to act as a forward observer.”

“Excuse me?”

“I can’t see through the lead so I’m not able to pin point a location.  You, on the other hand, can get in there and guide.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I am going to stand back here, out of range of the Kryptonite, and bore a hole through the door with my heat vision.  You are going to let me know where to aim.”

“And your heat vision will break the coupling!”  Salu smiled, catching on.  “Not bad.”  She leapt off Kara’s shoulders and grew to full size.  She then opened a small compartment in her belt and drew out a small device that Kara recognized as a telepathic plug.  And she smiled.  Whether Salu knew it or not, she had just answered Kara’s earlier question.  She was attentive as Salu explained the device, unaware that Kara already knew what it was.

“I have one already.”  Salu finished up.  “With these, I’ll be able to let you know exactly where to aim…without having to zip back and forth to tell you face to face.”

Kara inserted the plug and waited as Salu shrank out of site again.

“Make sure you are out of the way!”  Kara spoke normally, knowing her voice and thoughts would be carried to Salu, whose mind would be tricked into believing it was actually hearing the voice.  Not quite true telepathy…but close.

“All set…Let it split!”

“Rip.” Kara muttered, activating her heat vision. “You mean ‘Let’er rip!”

“Rip….right. NO…I mean….a little up and to the left.”

The twin beams sliced through the lead door and stabbed into the room.  From where she stood, Kara could still feel the tingling that let her know she was a bit too close to the now exposed Kryptonite for comfort.

“Left…Left…down…Damn…you went right over it…up a little…there!  Cut there!”

Kara intensified the beams and was soon rewarded with a tremendous shudder as the craft was disconnected from the Coluan brain.

“Uh-Oh.”

“What uh-oh?”  Kara demanded, shutting off the heat vision.  “I don’t like uh-oh, Vi!  What Uh-oh?”

“I think this thing is tied to a self destruct.”  Salu flew out through the hole made Kara’s beams and began to grow.  Kara could see the concern in her face.  “Yep, there is a self destruct mechanism.  And it’s been activated.”

“Oh that’s just great.”  Kara spat.  She looked at the woman. “Vi, shrink down and grab hold, we’re getting out of here!

MV E-1

“Whoa!”

Rogue steadied herself as she shot unexpectedly into the air.  The vessel, now powerless, had ceased its resistance and now rose quickly as she continued to exert pressure from beneath.

She was only moderately surprised when Kara came zipping through the opening and swooped up beside her, adding her own strength.

“Okay Vi, this is where you get off!”  Kara called out.

“What?”  Rogue glanced at her and then looked again as a small, insect sized figure leapt from Kara’s cape and drifted downward.  “What the hell?”

“I’ll explain later.”  Kara told her.  “Right now we have to get this damned thing as high as we can get it…it’s going to blow!”

Both women redoubled their efforts, pushing the craft as far into the upper atmosphere as they could…as fast as they could.  They had to be careful, however, or the ship would break apart under it’s own weight!

MV E-1

Lucy Lane watched as the women pushed the ship up into the sky.  Soon, they were just small dots in the sky and then not even that. 

For a long moment she looked at the empty sky, noting that all around her people were doing the same thing.  It was dreadfully quiet and everyone seemed to be holding his or her breath.

And the sky, bright already, lit up as, for a brief moment, a new sun appeared above the earth.

“Oh my God.”  Lucy muttered.  It was only then that she remembered the mic in her hand and raised it to her lips. “Though we can not be sure, it looks as if the giant ship just exploded.”

Again, silence reigned as she and the crowd scanned the skies.  No one uttered a sound, even when a dull rumbling thunder drifted down.

“LOOK!”

Several people started to yell and the cameraman swung his camera around in the direction most were pointing.

There, in the sky, two small black dots, slowly growing in size, floated downward.

At first there was muted whispering that quickly grew to a tumultuous cacophony as every one began to shout and point at once.

“We’re back on!”  Carl shouted over the crowd to be heard.  Even so, though she was standing right next to him, Lucy could barely hear.  She shook her head and pointed upward, indicating that he should just keep the camera on the descending pair.

MV E-1

“My god!”  Nightwing shook his head as he watched the two women float downward.  “You knew how this would turn out!  How did…”

He trailed off and looked around.  He was alone on the roof.  Batgirl was gone!

MV E-1

The crowd began to grow quiet once again as the two women grew closer…fear battling with curiosity.  And then a man, holding a little blonde girl, cried out, falling to his knees.  Others, seeing what he had seen, began to babble until the noise level once again rose to almost deafening proportions.

Soon, the two women were almost overhead and descending. The crowd quieted once again.

“Phil,” Lucy spoke into the mic, not caring that her voice was as shaky as the hand holding the mic. “We are witnessing something I can hardly describe.

The murmuring began again as more and more were able to see the colors and the designs of the women’s clothing…and the shapes of the emblems they both wore.

It was the blonde who attracted the greatest attention.

She wore a skin tight long sleeved blue top, with red shorts and calf high red boots.  A red cape draped down to the small of her back.

The murmuring stopped and the crowd grew deathly quiet as the two women landed directly in front of Lucy Lane. 

There was a general gasp from the crowd as the blonde stepped forward and they could all see the great stylized S emblazoned across the front of her blouse.

Many heads turned to look up at the great statue of Superman that straddled the entrance to the Superman Museum and then back to the women.

Now they could see that both women sported the emblem, the red head wearing a smaller version over her left breast.  It was the same emblem, of that they were sure, yet some how it seemed a bit different than the emblem on the statue above them.

The blonde walked forward, the crowd parting quickly, until she stood right next to Lucy.  She looked at the reporter and Lucy could swear she saw something…a touch of sadness perhaps…in her eyes.

The blonde then looked up at the statue and muttered a few words in a language not many had ever heard.  But Lucy had and she paled.  She could not understand the language, but one part she was able to make out clearly…the name Kal-El!

Lucy looked at the blonde and then turned her head to see the redhead studying her.

“A greeting.”  The redhead spoke softly, though her words seemed to carry in the deathly silence.  “A Kryptonian greeting between family members.”  She continued.  “Usually given from a younger to an elder…and the living to the dead.”

Lucy looked at the redhead and then at the blonde and then back to the red-head.  The blonde seemed lost in thought, her eyes closed, her face lifted up towards the statue.

“Fa…family?”  She finally managed to get out.  The red-head nodded and indicated the blonde.

“She is…or was…the cousin of Kal-El.”  She said, finishing by pointing up at the statue.

Her words, softly spoken, seemed to send a shock of electricity through the crowd as they were passed around and back to those who could not have heard. And even though many might not have known Superman’s Kryptonian name, they understood the gestures all too well.

Rogue, waiting for the reporter to say something glanced down, feeling a tug on her pant legs.

A small, wide eyed blonde girl looked up at her, her face full of wonder.

“Fun’y hair.”  The little girl giggled and Rogue’s mouth stretched in a grin.  Not thinking, she reached down and hefted the little girl up, completely oblivious to the gasps of the crowd.

“Wacher name?” the girl demanded.

“I’m Rogue.” She told the little one.  “And what is your name?”

The girl smiled and held up five fingers.

“Marie!”  She announced proudly.  “I’m five.”

It was like a hammer hitting Rogue in the chest.  Marie was her real name…and as yet, only Kara had dared to call her that.

“Marie is a good name.”  Rogue looked up to see Kara looking, not at the girl, but at her.

“Yes it is.”  Rogue nodded, looking back to the little one.

“My Daddy says Supman went away.”  The little girl had a serious look now as she craned her neck around to look at the statue and then back at Rogue.  “Are you going to go away too?”

Rogue was absolutely speechless.  She looked up to Kara for help…but saw the same question in her eyes.  Damnit, that woman didn’t play fair!

She half chuckled and shook her head slightly at Kara and then turned back to the little one in her arms.

“No Marie.  I don’t think we’re going anywhere.”  She said and then she looked again to Kara.  “I think we’re going to stick around for quite a while.”

Stark Industries

Pheonix Arizona

Tony gave a sigh of relief as the door to his office slid shut.  It had been a long day. His office, lit by the glow of his computer monitor was his safe place…his quiet place.

Ever since the sudden appearance of Superwoman and Rogue in Metropolis, it seemed the world had come apart at the seams.

Everywhere he turned someone somewhere was demanding information.  Information they thought he might have.

The fact that he did have the information they were looking for didn’t make him feel any better.

Sec-Pol had been all over his offices, though they, at least had had the grace to ask politely. The UIA , at least he assumed it was the UIA, had broken in and ransacked through everything.

He leaned against the closed door for a moment and then, with another sigh, pushed away and reached for the light switch.

“I would prefer the darkness, Mr. Stark.”

He spun at the sound of the soft, feminine voice, his eyes squinting towards the shadows. 

He had just about convinced himself that he was hearing things when the shape detached itself from the shadow.

“We have a lot to talk about, Mr. Stark.  Or would you prefer to be called…Ironman?”

The woman stepped closer and though he could not see her face, there was no way he could miss the bright emblem over her breasts.

A great, yellow bat!

 

End of Arrival: Chapter 4

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-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2003 by Dylan Clearbrook

-- and may not be reprinted without permission.

-- The Continuum Worlds Concept is a joint creation of

-- Dylan Clearbrook and Eldric.  Otherverse, Dark Earth,

-- and Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, as depicted in the

-- Continuum Worlds, are original creations of Dylan Clearbrook.

-- Alterverse and The Inheritors, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- are original creations of Eldric.

-- The Realm and Shadowverse, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- are original creations of John P. and Jason G respectively.

-- Some characters in Continuum Worlds stories are original creations

-- of Dylan Clearbrook, Eldric, Michael Liebhart, Jake H., Jason G.,

-- Andrew Shields, Kyle M., Brian, or Jason Froikin and may not

-- be used without express permission of the respective author.

-- All DC characters are property of D.C. Comics.

-- All Marvel characters are property of Marvel Comics.