Chapter 687 - b

Kite-Man wore a modern green costume with a visor protecting his eyes, he wasn't as fit and probably sucked in a fight, but he didn't look as idiotic as his name suggested at least.

"Excellent, we're fashionably late," she said, stepping into the room.

"Don't worry, you're perfectly on time," the Shade spoke, briefly taking off his hat.

"Forge," Red Bee greeted her.

Dropping a holographic projector, Kara connected to the camera watching the building, and created a complete display for them all to observe. The building wasn't huge, only seven stories tall, having once been a hospital that had closed doors.

At the side of the image, the data about every member of the Injustice League was there, including their rescue target. A picture for every one of them.

On one side of the projection, Wotan, wearing a long, black coat, his eyes black and blue skin making him very evident. Black Adam, a lightning bolt on the chest of his black costume. Atomic Skull, wearing a yellow jumpsuit and his typical helmet.

On the other side was the Ultra-Humanite, currently in the body of a white gorilla, brain exposed. Count Vertigo, wearing an elegant suit, his posture perfect. The Joker, his usual purple suit with a pack of cigarettes in the front pocket, a huge smile on his face.

Finally, Poison Ivy, their rescue target. The camera could see through the building's walls, marking where every one of them currently was.

Looking around the room, Kara spoke. "Detective, was there any change in their activities?"

"Nope, still all there," the chimp touched his chest, looking for a cigarette but took his hand off the packet. "Suspiciously so, if I'm being honest, what with the jester being, well, the jester. Doubt they like staying in the same city as him, much less the same building."

"You think it's a trap?" Catwoman asked.

"No offense, but Bee-Guy there did escape a little too easily if ya ask me," Bobo shrugged. "The houses around the building are empty, but there was no violence and the building is filled with Joker's traps. Meaning they've been in the area long enough for him to go nuts and people to get spooked.

"Worse, the only reason it took so long to track them was that the Joker kept moving between five other locations, one's that don't exactly paint a pretty picture," Spreading a map of the city on top of the table, he revealed five red dots surrounding their target location.

"Should we retreat?" Red Bee asked with an uncertain voice. "If it's a trap, we may have far more time to plan this."

"Just because it's a treacherous pitfall doesn't mean they're not going to be through with the attack, my dear," The Shade said. "As Bobo pointed out, the Joker is very aggravating, people like Wotan or Black Adam wouldn't agree to such an arrangement without a time limit."

"Yep, they're almost finished," the Detective said. "Whatever they're doing in there is big and it needs Poison Ivy and Ultra-Humanite. Since the place isn't covered in plants, they needed equipment.

"A little bit of legwork and I found several suspicious deliveries. None to the building itself, but to nearby commerce areas. Orders too big for the neighborhood, from suppliers too small to have the storage space to fulfill them. Several of those trucks are coming back tonight and tomorrow."

"They're taking away the equipment," Kara said. She definitely could understand wishing to keep her equipment. Some of it was a pain to create in the first place. "They're either finished or nearly so."

"Yep, they either attack tomorrow or vanish with the complete product and catch us by surprise later," Bobo shrugged.

"As I'm sure the detective noticed, the five locations he's marked aren't random," The Shade said again. "I have made use of something similar before to battle two powerful entities. Depending on the details, this may have just become far more dangerous."

Looking at the map, Kara immediately noticed the problem, drawing lines between the dots. They easily formed a perfect pentagram around the building they were going to assault, one that covered the entire city.

She didn't remember the Injustice League using anything like this to enhance their plants, which meant this was a change, one to strengthen the trap or empower the attack even more.

"Anything strange at the locations?" She asked.

"Nope, they're empty houses, no carved runes or strange rituals," Bobo said. "The Joker isn't exactly known for playing with magic, but the houses did have a story of people going mad."

Fuck, another unknown in the attack. "What could they use such a ritual for?"

"Wotan is Viking while Adam's Egyptian," Bobo said. "Since I didn't find any runes in the place, it's not something that's easy to divine. They could be summoning something or empowering Ivy's plants."

"Such symbols are very versatile," The Shade said. "When I made use of it, I chose five locations where I had killed in the past to strengthen my connection to the Shadowlands and call upon the power of a god. The other time an enemy used places where he had been defeated to summon a demon."

"So it could be anything?" Minion 3 asked, drawing the connection lines himself. "Any idea how to narrow it down?"

"Well, Wotan did use the Clown to fetch things instead of acting himself and the houses had history," Bobo said. "The ritual probably has something to do with madness or trickery, but I really can't narrow it down more."

Kara just stared at the building and the pentagram, thinking. Was she really going to attack today? Yes, yes she was.

"I'm not letting them keep Ivy," Kite-Man broke the silence, hands tightened into fists. "Whether you help or not, I'm going in."

Taking a deep breath, Kara spoke. "We'll act today. There are seven targets, of varying degrees of danger. Catwoman, you've dealt with the Joker before, can you disable his traps?"

"If given time," the woman nodded. "But I don't like my chances against any of the big boys."

"Good, we'll try to simply teleport Ivy out before the fight but, if that fails, you, Red Bee and Kite-Man will wait until we engage before infiltrating the building and rescuing Ivy. By that time, the Injustice League should all be busy, so you'll only have to deal with the traps."

"I have adapted my gliders for stealth operations, they won't be visible and shouldn't trigger any alarms," Kite-Man said, pointing at the holographic display. "We could enter directly from the fourth floor. I can also help with electronic traps."

Seeing as the guy rode on a freaking kite, Kara didn't think he had any technological know-how, she turned to stare at him and he shrugged.

"I helped build the Jokermobile," Kite-Man shrugged, but Kara could feel the anger in his body. "I know how he designs things."

"Good, Plan A is simple, my weapons should be able to disable most of them through the walls. At the same time, I'll try to teleport Ivy away," Kara revealed, causing several larger drones to form behind her from the nanomachines. "Unfortunately, they're not strong enough to disable Black Adam and, maybe, Wotan depending on his defenses, we'll have to lure them outside. I have made two Nth metal projectiles that should disable the duo, but I don't want to risk missing by shooting through the walls."

Creating the projectiles meant losing her magical defenses on one glove, but she should be able to recover the metal after the fight and she still had her right hand to block magical attacks.

It was unfortunate that she couldn't just coat several bullets on the material or shoot minuscule particles, Nth metal's disrupting ability increased with the size of the metal, if she made them too small they may not even pierce Black Adam's skin.

"I don't like the thought of going immediately lethal," Red Bee protested.

"I won't aim for any immediately lethal shots," except toward the Joker who was fair game. "As long as they survive the initial shot, I can keep them alive."

"And what if the walls are reinforced with magic?" Green Arrow asked.

"If they can block the opening shots we'll go to Plan B," Kara said. "Black Adam is arrogant enough that he should still be easily lured outside and disabled. Shade, can you deal with Wotan?"

"Easily," The Shade nodded, then adjusted his grip on his cane. "Even empowered by a ritual, I should be capable of at least delaying him."

Kara nodded, getting ready. "Good. Worst case scenario, I and Fatale should be able to fight Black Adam even at full power."

"I'll be accompanying the cat lady. I know the Clown is usually the furry's business, but I've studied his case enough to be useful," Bobo said. Bending down, he pulled out a long case and opened it, lifting a longsword over his shoulders. Seeing Kara's stare, he smiled, showing his large fangs. "Felt a little left out at Morrow's lab, so a friend lent me a little something."

Staring at the Sword of Night, possibly a stronger blade than the Sword of Beowulf at Kori's waist, Kara couldn't help wanting to grab it for herself... She wouldn't, but Rao did she itch to.

Well, at least Bobo just became vastly more helpful in this confrontation.

"What's Plan C?" Green Arrow absent-mindedly asked, already touching one of Kara's larger drones.

"Overwhelming firepower," Kara said. "If things get too dangerous, we get Ivy away and I blow them all to hell… probably quite literally. I found a way to limit the area of damage from the demo...."

"We will ask for reinforcements," Kori interrupted her. "Raining hellfire will be Plan Z."

Kara looked at her girlfriend and sighed. "Very well, I should be able to call on Justice League assistance, a trade for the help I provided against the Eldritch creature at Salem," at least that would be her justification to keep Forge separated from Supergirl.

An hour later, the team teleported a few kilometers away from the target and slowly moved invisibly through the street.

The rescue team positioned themselves in a higher position from where they could glide directly at the target while Kara, Kori, Minion 3 and The Shade, stood a kilometer away. Slowly, Minion 3 loaded two Nth metal bullets in his rifle and waited.

Staring through the camera and following the Injustice League movement inside the building, Kara lined up her drones, each one with both a teleport gun and a railgun in case they blocked teleportation.

Getting the correct dimensional coordinates, she pulled the trigger.

So.... I'm alive.

Well, I could give a long explanation but, really there's not much to say here.

Depression hit me hard, so hard I kinda lost six months of my life doing nothing, lost a semester of college and barely interacted with anyone.

I kept saying I'd start writing again, and I started trying a little before Christmas, but I only succeeded now. I didn't even read messages before... although the notifications and knowing some people still gave my stories likes was kinda nice.

Anyways, here's chapter 58, I plan on returning to weekly posts but... yeah, I'm better, not great.

I really, really want to promise I'll post regularly, but I swore I'd restart on Christmas, then I swore I'd restart two or three weeks ago and... well, here we are.

Still, keep your fingers crossed people, and please, comment on the chapter, that certainly helps a lot.

Also, I'm really, really, sorry for the hiatus without even saying anything, I hope you guys can forgive me.

For those who follow Will of the Force, I'll probably post a chapter on Sunday.

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Kara accelerated her thoughts, her mind working as fast as she could make it, the world seeming to slow down until everywhere she looked. Everything seemed to be frozen, motes of dust unmoving in the air.

Even with enhanced vision, she couldn't see inside the building, the walls were probably reinforced with lead since they were expecting her cousin, but the cameras on her drones didn't have that weakness.

Kara had been thinking about this engagement for a long time. She wouldn't cry if every single one of them ended up dead, and if there were innocent lives at risk, that's what she'd do.

But she didn't want to simply go there and kill them all in cold blood. Contrary to Batman, she was willing to kill criminals, but she also understood how easy it could become, it was a slippery slope Kara had no wish to experiment. Even after Felix Faust, she was glad that killing had remained a burden.

Of the six enemies, she felt three of them NEEDED to die. The Joker was someone that absolutely needed to go. Wotan was a centuries-old monster that, through history, was probably worse by the numbers than the clown. They wouldn't change, they wouldn't stop and they wouldn't stay in jail even if she delivered them there gift-wrapped.

Rao, even if they somehow stayed in jail, Wotan wouldn't die from old age. Kara wasn't sure whether he could kill himself and reincarnate outside the prison, but that too was a possibility.

Ultra-Humanite didn't have the same resume, but he was an utterly amoral scientist that Kara had no doubt experimented on humans. Every time Kara thought of the man occupying the gorilla's body, she couldn't help wanting to burn him to ashes, preferably from orbit. Kara had read his psychological profile, he too wasn't going to change.

Count Vertigo would live. She could use him as an offering to start diplomatic relationships with his niece, and she was fairly sure he'd stay in jail after it was all done. He was barely a threat anyway.

Atomic Skull was a brutal criminal but, like Ultra-Humanite, he didn't have that long of a rap sheet and wasn't inclined to experiment on innocent people, so he could go to jail too. Kara didn't want to become too bloodthirsty.

Black Adam had been hard. In this reality, he was Theo Adams, once a normal man that got his hands on the ancient amulet containing the soul of Thet-Adam. He'd killed Billy Batson's parents to acquire the artifact and drew power from the amulet to become Black Adam.

Unfortunately, Teth-Adam's soul didn't completely wake from his long slumber, so the current Black Adam was mostly Theo, with some influence from Teth's warrior disposition. It made him a cruel criminal with a bloodthirst desire for battle, a murderer drunk on the power he has acquired, but far from the worst on the Injustice League's roster.

Kara also wanted to give Billy closure, and she was certain the boy would wish for his parents' killer to face justice. Without the amulet, Theo should spend a long time in jail, powerless. She felt the young boy deserved at least that much from her.

Feeling someone grabbing her hand, Kara looked aside and saw Kori's armored form. The Tamaranean squeezed once and stepped back, giving her a small nod. Shaking her head, Kara re-focused on the visor of her armor, staring at Wotan and Black Adam, their hearts in the middle of a beat, then she pulled the trigger.

All her weapons fired, there was no big bright light, no loud noise, but 18 teleport guns fired, three for every member of the Injustice League —just to make sure— Nothing happened.

For a long, drawn-out moment, Kara kept her attention on them, ready for any reaction. She saw their hearts finish beating and start again, with no acceleration in movements, no change in breathing.

Such a pity, somehow, they had blocked teleportation inside the building, but at least her attack hadn't been noticed.

"First attack failed," she spoke out loud, informing everyone involved. "No reaction, preparing for physical attack."

"Ready," Minion 3 / Green Arrow said, adjusting his sniper position.

"Damn, I knew it couldn't be that easy," Kite-Man said, getting an elbow from Catwoman.

"I am ready," Kori said, stepping ahead of Kara and preparing to charge.

After experimenting on Captain Marvel, Kara had expected Black Adam to be immune, but she had hoped the others could be dealt with through space manipulation. She didn't think the Light knew about the nature of her weapon even after her attack at infinity island…

Perhaps they had prepared for Zatara, blocking any teleportation was a useful preparation against the magician… or it was just a default protection for Wotan.

Pressing the trigger again, Kara shot the already primed railguns. This time, there was a loud explosion all around her, 18 guns releasing their ammunition, the air heating up around the muzzles.

The projectiles hit the building faster than any Earthly weapon, the surface rippling with protective magic for a single second before actually shattering under the force of their combined attack.

On her screen, she watched the Atomic Skull, Joker, Count Vertigo and Ultra-Humanite go down, through her ears, she heard their cries of pain as the bullets tore through their bodies.

Wotan only flinched, the projectiles hitting his body and making him stumble. Black Adam growled, his eyes flashing through the camera.

"Second team, GO!" Kara yelled.

"Be careful," Selina said, getting ready to rescue Ivy.

"Hell-Yeah!" Kite-man said, nodding towards Catwoman.

The fight was on.

At her side, Kori leaned forward, putting a foot on the edge of the building and preparing to fly, a hand on the hilt of her magical sword. On a different rooftop, hidden under a holographic projector and lying on the ground, Kara heard Minion 3 taking a slow breath.

Kara only spared a VERY brief glance at the rescue team preparing to glide over to the building since the teleportation platform hadn't worked, then refocused on the enemy.

Black Adam burst through a window almost as fast as Kara could move, his eyes glowing iridescent white with barely contained power. Without stopping, he continued to fly up while looking around, then he saw her and positioned himself. "Shaz—"

The bullet hit him in the chest, missing his heart by a few centimeters and piercing a lung. Black Adam's eyes opened wide in disbelief as words failed him, floating back, he spit blood and started to fall.

Minion 3 reloaded fast, the empty capsule flying out of the giant sniper as he prepared himself. Wotan flew after Black Adam, a cloud of darkness billowing out from around him, eldritch red lightning flowing from inside it.

The second shot was perfectly aimed, passing straight through five magical barriers to hit the wizard in the chest right where his lung was, enough to stop him from casting verbal spells and allow Kara to attack. Then Wotan shattered. The magic that made the illusion came undone in contact with the Nth metal.

Kori exploded in motion, pushing against the building and flying toward the wizard, hand gripping the Sword of Beowulf tightly.

Kara cursed, but she was already in motion as well, nanomachines creating a small railgun in her empty hand. Through her hearing, she located the magician inside the dark cloud and turned all 18 drones on him. Again, the teleportation didn't work, but it didn't matter.

After her fight with Faust, Kara drastically increased the strength and durability of her projectile weapons. It made aiming harder since she had to care about collateral damage, but the sight of the magical shields bursting made all that trajectory calculation worth it.

Wotan floated back among the dispersed cloud of smoke, his arm barely hanging from a thin strip of flesh, shoulder completely gone even as his body seemed to split into a dozen copies, his red eyes desperately glaring at his attackers.

Another wave of projectiles hit the Wotan from which the copies had been created, breaking through its shields to discover it was already another illusion. With a flick of her eye, she gave Minion 3 command over her drones and turned towards Black Adam.

She hoped to take Wotan fully out while she had the initiative, but he wasn't her target after all.

The false divine champion man was gasping for air and coughing, blood leaking from the wound in his chest but, somehow, he managed to steady himself, even if his eyes no longer shone with the power of Aton.

Kori arrived first, sword leaving the scabbard and aiming straight for Adam's neck. The man reacted fast, managing to use his reflexes to block with his golden armguards.

Kara took the opening, shooting the man right in the chest again, the heated projective connecting with his open wound and exploding. Unfortunately, the localized dimension-breaking effects on the bullet didn't affect him like they had Lobo. Another aspect of the dimensional protections he had.

Black Adam still screamed in pain, Kori meanwhile twisted the sword, guiding his arm out of the way and stabbing at his eye. With a shout of rage, he dodged just enough that he got a new haircut, as well as a long scar on his scalp.

Even, wounded and weakened, he was fast, too fast. Lifting his other arm, he gripped Kori's wrist, threw her straight up, and coughed. "Shazam," then he moved, dodging the incoming lightning bolt.

Kara intercepted the bolt before it could hit Kori, using the remaining Nth metal in her right gauntlet to actually slap the lightning aside enough it missed her girlfriend.

The bolt struck a nearby house, the entire structure simply disintegrating from the sheer strength of the magical attack, the ground exploding and sending giant pieces of the foundation flying up, devastating the surroundings and leaving a scorched, 40 meters deep hole in the ground.

On her visor, her armor warned her the bolt had been at least five times stronger than anything Captain Marvel had used, including the bolts Mr. Mind had hit her with when he had stolen the power of Zeus.

Her armor was specially designed to endure electricity, but it would only block one such blast head-on before some of its defenses were fried. A second hit would probably partially bypass the armor while also frying every system it had.

Well, at least it WOULD block an attack, so that was a huge advantage.

Another flashing warning on her visor drew her attention back to Wotan, who had managed to regain control over the cloud of eldritch darkness, gathering it protectively around his illusions and blocking Minion 3's vision.

A huge, scarlet spell mandala started to form all around the darkness, the effect clearly aimed at them.

"I'm afraid your opponent is me," said an educated voice right beside Wotan, the dark cloud suddenly growing claws and striking every illusion before grabbing the magician and squeezing his body until he screamed. "Very poor choice of elements, I must say."

"Forge, I require assistance!" Kori yelled.

Rao damn it, at least The Shade was dealing with Wotan!

Her brief distraction, necessary as it had been, still cost them. Black Adam, had managed to trade a few blows with Kori, using his bracers to defend against her sword. Kara saw him regaining his bearings and drawing upon Teth-Adam's experience.

She had hoped to have dealt with him before he had recovered his mind and started to draw upon the ancient general's skills. Now it was going to be so much harder!

Throwing Kori to the ground, Black Adam stomped, causing the entire street to shake and creating yet another crater. Kori rolled aside, kicking his legs out from under him. At the same time, a railgun lifted from her shoulder and shot him in the face.

Kara lifted her weapons and also shot him in the face, briefly blinding him and allowing Kori to strike again, a rising slash that left her floating in the air.

Unfortunately, even augmented, her projectiles weren't doing more than causing him to flinch, so Kara changed the setting, turning them into sonic weapons. It wouldn't cause as much direct damage but should mess with his balance.

Unable to see, Black Adam had thrown himself into the air, flying back and up almost faster than Kara could follow, but it had been too late, there was a large open gash on his chest from hip to shoulder, blood soaking his suit.

"Shazam!" he screamed again and twisted aside, the lightning bolt missing his back and aiming in a straight line toward them.

Kara couldn't dodge, it was too powerful and was nearly horizontal, it would devastate several blocks before dissipating. While their immediate surroundings were empty of civilians, the attack would still reach civilians.

She lifted her Nth metal gauntlet.

"HA!" Kori lifted the Sword of Beowulf above her head and slashed straight down, cutting the bolt in two and dispersing most of its power before the remains hit the ground around them and turned the asphalt into charcoal.

"You will pay for what you have done," Black Adam said, the wound in his chest regenerating, slowly. Then he coughed blood again, the bullet wound still remaining. "What spell is this? I will not fall for such cheap ambushes!"

He was angry, furious even, and the gunshot wound wasn't holding him back as much as they had hoped. Still, the two sides stared at each other, Black Adam waiting for his chest to regenerate and Kara taking the three seconds of calm to gather herself.

Regrettably, the wound wasn't decisive, even if she attacked, it would only cause him some discomfort, there was no sense pushing things.

Damn, if only she had more time! Kara had managed to build a device capable of copying Amber's ability to absorb Marvel's lightning, but she hadn't managed to make it work from a distance, requiring at least 30 seconds of contact with his body.

Slowly, she breathed out and let her mind calm. The adrenaline was getting to her and starting to affect her thoughts. Glancing at Kori, she felt her girlfriend's confidence, as well as her dedication.

Slowly, the two of them floated up. Behind them, they saw blasts of scarlet spells illuminating the night, revealing giant tentacles of shadow enveloping Wotan, The Shade using his power from a sitting position, legs elegantly crossed.

Somehow, Kara felt less stressed than she had ever been. Kori stood protectively in front of her, a constant reminder she was not alone, a constant source of strength.

Shielding fully deployed, Kori's armor glowed with red light. The Tamaranean floated in place, sword held in one hand, pointed at Black Adam, and tilted downwards in a ready stance, second hand in front of her chest, ready for blocking.

Rao, she looked so fucking hot like that.

Two thin limbs sprouted from Kara's lower back and reached for her sonic weapons. She let them take them, freeing her hands to fight as the Armor's AI took care of aiming.

"Together," she whispered.

"Together," Kori nodded.

Slowly, they started separating, trying to flank the villain, but he didn't let them.

Black Adam was fast, with a sonic boom, he flew straight at Kara, trying to take her out first. Her weapons fired, but he dodged the effects without slowing.

Kara retreated, letting the punch miss her, then Kori was there and he couldn't reply. Twisting around, he blocked the sword, parrying it away and attempted to grab Kori's neck.

Kara punched him in the kidney, sending him flying sideways with a cry of pain.

He turned on her, face a mask of rage. Kori used her other hand to punch him in the side of the head and followed with a return slash of the sword.

Moving faster than a normal human could follow, they traded blows, their flight taking them through a small three-story building and into the sky as Black Adam attempted to gain distance.

They didn't let him, he had to worry about the sword the most, but that left him open to blows from Kara and, every time he turned to deal with her, Kori almost took off his head or made him pay for it in another way.

Kara wasn't as experienced or skilled, but with Kori, she worked in perfect coordination, pummeling the villain through the sky until he completely gave up any attack, only protecting himself, his face one of sheer, dumbfounded disbelief.

Then Kori kneed his nose while Kara punched him right in the wounded lung and his rage and incredulity turned to pain.

Covering his head protectively, he managed to buy enough time to scream. "Shazam!"

The bolt of lightning came straight down in their position, her armor immediately warning it wouldn't hit any civilian.

The duo retreated, Kara's sonic weapons bombarding Black Adam and destabilizing his balance while distracting him. It was almost enough, almost.

At the last possible moment, the villain managed to grit his teeth and dodge the bolt of power, letting the lightning slam on the ground and evaporate everything that sat in its way, creating a twenty meters wide hole Kara couldn't immediately see the bottom of.

Still, the sonic blasts had destroyed his balance and, with all his wounds, he couldn't recover in time to avoid their charge back.

Kori slashed downwards with all her power. Out of position, Adam still managed to lift his bracers but the attack blew straight through his block, sending his arms back and opening his chest for a thrust.

The Sword of Beowulf pierced through his collarbone and burst out from his back, making him lose control of his right arm and causing blood to cover his suit.

Kara arrived right after, kicking the back of his head with so much strength he spun twice in the air, sword still stuck to his body, preventing the regeneration of his muscles.

Dazed and in enormous pain, the villain could do nothing as Kori grabbed his working arm and dislocated it, then she put him into a chokehold, her armor's lights growing brighter as the magical drain started working.

Covering Black Adam's mouth with a hand, Kara prevented him from calling his power again, then laid the Nth metal gauntlet on his chest and tried to simply pry the amulet of Teth-Adam away from him.

In yet another piece of bad luck, it didn't work, even Nth metal didn't simply allow her to rip the artifact from him while transformed. Still, she engaged her own magical drains, feeling them start to draw the power of Aton from the criminal.

30 seconds. 30 seconds until he was back to being a mortal man. A quarter of the time their fight took.

Below her, The Shade stopped being wary of Wotan's ritual and gathered his power, a thick pillar of shadow smashing through his defenses and driving the wizard to the ground.

It was almost over.

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Selina knew her second team wasn't exactly top of the line. Things would have been so much better if the teleportation platform had worked. At least they could still use the device to escape after.

Kite-Man was loyal to Ivy —the only reason she could think her friend even tolerated the obnoxious man— and he was somewhat competent when things were serious, but he was still Kite-Man.

Red Bee was no Batman, even if he did look good in that ridiculous costume… Batman was so busy with that damn al Ghul hussy anyway, perhaps she could give Red a spin later? That'd teach the Bat to neglect her.

Damn it, she really was frustrated. As a cat burglar, her fingers were quite dexterous, but they just weren't enough.

Batman had complimented Detective Chimp's investigative ability, so he should be able to help with Joker's toys, but he wasn't exactly known for his martial skills if anything went wrong, magical sword or not.

Although, it was a very beautiful sword. The guard had detailed ornaments and it emanated such an interesting aura, hmmmmm.

Selina turned her face away. Such a pity she was the one to ask for help… and she didn't think Kara would be as forgiving as the Bat. Not with the smoking hot barbarian alien as a girlfriend.

Jumping out of the building, she used one of, ugh, Kite-Man's invisible, noiseless kites to glide toward the open window on the floor Ivy was being held on. —Nobody must ever know— Opening her fingers, she dug her claws into the wall, sticking there for a second as she looked at the window.

Carefully, she disabled the trap, then spent almost a longer to disable the secondary trap before slipping inside. Only a few seconds later, the others started pushing their way through the window, kites retreating into their backs.

Detective Chimp sniffed, then looked around for a second before nodding, this room was clear.

According to the cameras, Ivy was in the center of the building, tied to a chair in a small, empty room. Without losing time, both Catwoman and Red Bee approached the door.

"Another trap?" The hero asked.

"The clown is annoying like that," Selina nodded. "It'd be worse if he didn't expect the Bat, he wouldn't try to be fair with them so even trying to disarm could be a problem."

Detective Chimp tapped his knuckles against the wall, one hand scratching his chin and then he took a few steps further away from the wall, tapping again, enough to get their attention. With a fast movement, he pierced the sword through the wall and easily cut a large hole in it.

"That… can work I suppose," Red Bee said.

"Never could do that before," Detective Chimp commented. "Still, seems even the Joker still expects you to use the door… or he just didn't have enough traps."

Shrugging, Catwoman stepped through the wall to see Count Vertigo agonizing on the ground, three wounds on the man's chest spilling blood on the floor. Red Bee approached the villain and dropped three of Forge's devices around him.

With a hiss, a shield wrapped around the villain, lifting him from the ground without moving his body, then one of the devices sprayed him with some healing agent, plugging the holes to prevent further blood loss before starting to drag him towards the window where they had entered from.

Right, more of Kara's ridiculous kryptonian tech.

"Drop a few more," she said. "Knowing Forge, they'll seek the others on their own. We don't want to spend too long here."

Red Bee nodded and did as ordered. The small army of square devices paused on the floor for a full second, then seemed to flow away looking for more disabled villains to capture.

Detective Chimp lifted his sword on his shoulder, laying an arm over the side of the blade and continued on, they all followed him in a straight line towards Ivy's location.

Selina's throat felt dry, dealing with the Joker always left her nervous, and not the good nervous of executing a job. No, the horrible kind, where she could feel goosebumps all over her arms and it made her want to just… run away.

There was no adrenaline rush, no pleasure of a job well done, just a lot of terrifying moments and, in the end, some relief when nothing happened. He really was the prince of bad jokes.

Stepping into the second room, she noticed the walls were vandalized, little drawings of bats were made in what could only be blood and there was a naked dead man in the middle of the room, a giant pentagram drawn around him and a large, colorful box on top of his naked chest.

Behind them, the door snapped shut, a clock started to sound from the box. Red Bee ran towards it, intending to disarm the thing but Selina grabbed his arm. "No, it's never that straightforward."

"What?" the hero turned towards her.

"The clown has a sick sense of humor, the box is either a dud or disarming it won't do anything," she warned. "He likes to give people false hope."

"We can get away," Kite-Man hurriedly suggested.

"There's no way of knowing how large the explosion will be," Detective Chimp noted. "Usually, one wouldn't want to affect other rooms because of your teammates, but it's the Joker."

With a sigh, Kite-Man joined her around the device. Selina was trying to check if it was one of the ones who could be disarmed or a trap to even touch.

"Detective, can you lend us your sword?" the minor villain asked.

"What?" The chimp asked, looking at the box too. "Ya think you can solve it?"

"I told you I worked on some of his devices," Kite-Man said. "Think you can cut a small hole here? I need to see inside."

Well, color her surprised, Seline didn't think the man could be this serious, or this competent. "Hmmm, I don't remember you doing anything like this before?"

"I hate the Joker," Kite-Man said with a very serious voice, carefully prying the cut metal and looking inside the device. It seems it was a bomb. "I know I'm not very talented, but I've hated him for years now… and I can be hard-working when someone motivates me."

Huh, now that she thought about it, didn't Kite-Man help the Bat put the Joker behind bars the last time too? Well, everyone in Gotham had a reason to hate the clown, but few were that dedicated to it.

"Can I take a look?" she approached.

"Sure. It has a digital clock, I think you can touch it without triggering if you can cut the purple wire and not touch those on the side," he said, indicating certain pieces while pulling a small string from his costume and handing it to her. "But I'm not dexterous enough. I see the failsafe in case you try to cut the power and the one in case you try to take out the explosives, but I think he didn't prevent us from reconfiguring the timer if you can connect this."

Selina looked through the small opening and, while she wasn't sure, she agreed. Using one of her claws, she cut the wire and gently touched the simple clock used to time the explosion. A second later, she had connected the cable and Kite-Man started working.

If she had tried to cut the power, it would have exploded, but now Kite-Man could hack the device without trouble.

"There, I set the timer to 33 hours, Joker has barely improved his programs since leaving jail."

"Will the battery run out?" the detective asked.

"Possible, but the Joker isn't the most careful bomb maker, he doesn't really care if you disable them unless they're part of his main plot," Selina said, repeating Batman's own advice.

In a way, despite all his meticulous preparations, the Joker was usually careless about his devices. For him, it would be funny if someone disarmed his bomb and it still exploded, but it wasn't essential for his plans, and he wasn't playing with Batman, so he wouldn't put that much effort into it.

Stepping away, Selina saw the rest of the team already stepping through another hole cut into the wall.

They disabled two more traps and, finally, arrived in the room before Ivy's. There was a trail of blood on the ground and the Joker was slowly dragging himself toward the door, lying on the ground between them and their objective.

All four of them stopped to watch the villain, he had three wounds on his back, places where Kara's projectiles had hit him and passed all the way through. His white face was in pain, but he still tried to move towards the door.

Seeing them, the Joker managed to lift himself a little, getting into a sitting position. "Aha… hahaha. Funny, I thought it would be the Bat, but it's just another failure."

Kite-Man grabbed a gun from his waist, but Red Bee managed to stop his arm before he aimed, shaking his head. For a tense second, they stared at each other, but the villain sighed and lowered his hand.

"You… gah, you know, you're ruining such a great joke, I-I wanted the Bat to see it," Joker spits a wad of blood to the ground, the giant smile never leaving his face. "Oh well, I didn't want to do it anyway… huff… They didn't take any of my suggestions."

Selina frowned at the Joker, she had hoped they wouldn't find him and could let him bleed out without help. With a sigh, walked towards the door, ignoring the Joker's laugh as she approached him, knowing Red Bee would release more of Kara's rescue devices and the clown would survive, again.

With a sharp scream, Detective Chimp went from calmly walking beside her to lunging at Joker with no warning, his lips peeled back to reveal giant fangs as he swung the sword with both hairy hands, aiming to cut the villain in two. Selina's eyes widened, but all three of them were too surprised to stop the chimp.

The Joker wasn't. Faster than Selina could follow, the clown rolled away, then leaped down towards the other side of the room, he laughed even harder, no lack of breath or sign of pain. "Well damn, how did you know?"

"Forge had the Joker in his aim," Detective Chimp couldn't help explaining even as he continued to stare at the Joker, sword ready for anything. "No matter what lies he told everyone, he'd never settle for capturing him alive."

"Ah, I did think it odd the bullet hit me in the head," the 'Joker' sighed. "Still, it could have been a fair mistake, there were several walls between me and the outside. Such a pity."

Selina stared at the thing pretending to be the Joker, watching as its body seemed to flow, the supposed wounds disappearing as it slowly rose into the air. Well… fuck, flying was never a good sign, not when it clearly wasn't its only power.

On the wall, a television is turned on, the Joker staring at them through the screen. "Hmmm, I had hoped Bats would make time for little old me, but I suppose his little pussy will have to do. Hey, why the serious faces? Smile people, this will be a blast!"

First, for readers of Will of The Force: I wasn't happy with the chapter as it was, so I decided to take a few days to review it before posting. Unfortunately, it's two days late, but it will be coming out in a few hours.

So, I'll be honest here, this is the first chapter I wrote after coming back (Chapter 58 was free to read on my Patreon, I just hadn't posted it anywhere else.)

As a result, perhaps it's not as good as the previous chapters? I find that I'm very rusty, taking a LOT longer to write things compared to before, but hopefully, it's actual quality hasn't dropped.

Also, this fight is kinda long, taking most of chapter 59 and 60, I really love writing fight scenes, and perhaps I'm a little too detailed when writing them, but I hope you guys enjoy it.

.

.

Ah, right, one last thing, anyone has any idea if I can just post my story again on AO3 again after it was deleted or how I can find that out?

I mean, since I stopped posting, I also stopped checking on anything related to my stories, so I don't know why all my fanfics were deleted on AO3 and, if they sent an email, I can't find it amongst the piles of spam on the email I used.

Perhaps it was because of my Patreon, but a reader had warned me it was against the site rules to post about that, and I thought I had taken any mention or link to the site from my stories. Perhaps I missed some, but on all 4 fanfics I posted?

Anyway, thanks a lot to everyone who sent me messages, the support really helps!

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Selina felt a pit forming in her stomach as she slowly looked away from the unknown Super floating in the air and towards the TV where the Joker smiled at them.

Fuck, things could never be simple with the damn Clown. Of course, he couldn't have been disabled or dead, no, he had to play his games. Almost in slow motion, a drop of cold sweat ran down her face as she hurriedly thought about what to do.

The problem of dealing with the Joker was just how damn unpredictable he was. With every other villain, she could generally count on them acting on self-interest, but the Joker was as likely to simply give up as he was to blow himself up with a nuke— heck, he had almost done just that that one time before the Bat stopped it.

The question was what he was up to now? The Joker was an attention whore so, if he had been ready for an attack, he could decide to just blow them all up in anger upon being interrupted… And yet, if he hadn't been ready, letting him monologue would just give him time to prepare.

As the one most familiar with the insane bastard, Selina knew it was probably her call to make

"Buy me time," said Minion 3's voice through the comms. "I'm using Forge's drones to locate the transmission."

She almost sighed in relief, the decision being taken out of her hands. Still, it didn't make her any less tense, muscles ready to spring into motion the second the Joker made any sudden movement on the screen.

"You know, I am quite disappointed," the Clown mumbled, putting a finger over his mouth as he looked at each member of their group in thought. Finally, he focused on her. "Here I was all ready to play with the Bat, had a speech and everything, and it turns out it's just his cat and a group of second-rate's. I almost feel… neglected."

He spoke in a quiet, even voice, Selina might have almost mistaken him for a sane man if she didn't know any better. That infernal smile never left his mouth and his eyes… Selina hated the way he looked at her as if she was a toy that had lost its shine.

"Still, perhaps disappointment is the theme of this whole play, no? The Injustice League was certainly disappointed when dear Ivy declined our invitation, and I think she was quite disappointed when we didn't take no for an answer."

Grabbing the camera, the Joker extended his arm, twisting around on his office chair while scratching his chin in thought. Briefly, Selina caught sight of at least two different silhouettes in the background.

Damn, he had some kind of backup.

"Joker is still in the building," Minion 3 whispered in her ear. "One of Forge's drones is almost there, just give me a minute and I can disable him."

"I suppose you're here to rescue your redhead friend then? It's almost cute," releasing the camera back on top of a table, the Clown licked his lips, waved a hand over his hair and sighed. "You know what's funny? I was actually planning on freeing Ivy in a day or two if nobody showed up.

"Yeah, a few days ago a new friend informed me the Injustice League was just a distraction, a sideshow. As you can imagine, the discovery was quite disappointing for me, so I was going to give the Bat another day to find us and, if not, let Ivy loose on them. Giving her the chance to use the very weapon they had kidnapped her for against them seemed like a suitable punishment… And I do so love the irony."

Selina could see the Joker doing exactly that and, if she wasn't sure he'd try to drive her friend insane before that, she'd actually regret this whole rescue operation. Using Joker's distraction, she repositioned herself, subtly sliding closer to the door containing the kidnapped Supervillain and preparing her claws.

As the Clown leaned back, Selina could see a remote control with two red buttons in his other hand, his thumb hovered over the left button, causing her to twitch and hold her breath, almost dashing towards the door.

The Joker caught the movement, smile widening as he took his finger off the button and tsked, head twisting sideways teasingly, then his eyes briefly turned to the right as if hearing something from his companions.

At her side, Detective Chimp seemed to sense something, his grip tightening on his sword. Red Bee swallowed audibly, eyes switching from the TV to the floating shapeshifter as he opened and closed his hand, arms moving in an attempt to loosen his muscles.

Kite-Man himself was ignoring the Clown, face turned towards where Ivy was, eyes moving up and down the door frame looking for traps, but Selina could see the way the Clown's voice was getting on his nerves, the barely contained rage under his green mask.

"Almost there," Minion 3 said.

"Disappointment…" the Joker continued, mad eyes refocusing on her face. "You know, my father used to tell me disappointment was just our way of adjusting to reality after discovering things weren't the way we thought they were… So, in a way, it's a good thing, enlightening even."

"Got him!" Minion three almost yelled.

The second she heard his words, Selina exploded into motion, looking away from the TV and rushing at the door, Kite-Man following closely behind.

Behind her, she heard the telltale sound of one of Forge's drones self-destructing and taking out everything in a few meters around itself. She really hoped her backup had killed the damn Clown, but she didn't dare stop.

"Enough," said a deep, refined voice from outside the camera's view. "They've already found your location, finish this now."

"Should I help?" Yet another man said with eagerness. "I am kinda bored, a good fight could be just what I need."

"No," the first voice answered. "We have interfered enough."

"Amusing effect," came a female voice. "I almost couldn't contain it."

"I recognize the technology," said a mechanical voice. "It's from the same source that attacked my father's laboratory, I'll have to analyze it later."

"Fuck!" Minion three summarized. "They've neutralized all the drones."

Selina reached the door, only briefly glancing at the still floating Super before starting to disable the trap there, Kite-Man kneeling behind her and doing the same.

"Fine, it's not as fun without the Bat anyway," the Joker mumbled, not at all affected by the assassination attempt. "Oh, I see you're already trying to rescue your friend. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disappoint. You can thank me later."

Selina cursed, she hadn't managed to open the damn lock and it opened outward, they couldn't just kick it in!

Kite-Man cut another simple tripwire and pulled her away from the door. Activating some kind of shield, he picked a metal piece from his Kite backpack and used it as a pry bar.

Selina braced herself, but, as the door started to break, nothing happened. Taking a breath, she looked at the TV.

"Hah?" The Joker seemed as surprised as she was. Looking at the remote, he hit it twice and tried pressing the button again before looking at Detective Chimp with narrowed eyes and sighing. "Guess someone messed with the ritual points. Fine, we're not going international yet. No matter, we'll go with the backup plan. Kill them, will you?"

Behind her, the flying Super attacked, moving with a speed and confidence that betrayed further powers.

Red Bee reacted. In a move worthy of the Bat himself, he refused to block the incoming punch and instead managed to use the man's own momentum to flip him, sending him flying over and through a wall, then another and another.

"Damn, I didn't think that would work!" The hero shouted, already massaging a bruised wrist from the move.

With a loud 'crack', Kite-Man managed to break the door. "Hell yeah!" Wood splinters flew at his shield, followed closely behind by a cloud of green gas. On reflex, he put a hand over his nose, but a device on his mask had already covered it.

Crackling madly, the Joker pressed the second button on his remote.

Immediately, Selina felt a wave of power exploding from the room. Looking inside, she saw Ivy tied to a chair in the middle of a magical circle burning with sickly green flames, the cursed power making it glow brighter and brighter, starting to consume her from the feet up at an alarming rate.

She extended her claws, rushing at the magical circle. Selina didn't know any magic herself, nor did she have much knowledge on how to neutralize its effects but, thankfully, she didn't need to.

When Selina had first completed her deal with Kara, she hadn't been entirely truthful. Yes, she had sold the majority of the Nth metal to the Kryptonian, but she couldn't resist keeping a smaller piece for herself.

Scratching at the floor, she caused green sparks to fly from the magical circle as the small amount of the alien metal in her claws interacted with the magic, the flames started to flicker.

Kite-Man didn't wait, ignoring the flames as he leaped into the half-destroyed circle and lifted Ivy up, chair and all. Some flames climbed to her legs, almost reaching her waist, but Selina grabbed them and her gloves snuffed out the magic.

Unfortunately, whatever trap the Joker had activated wasn't so simply dismissed, Ivy's legs were still burned, looking moist and red, with large blisters starting to form under her skin.

Worse, whatever magic had been activated seemed to have entered her body, her veins started pulsating in her flesh, red lines appearing on her green complexion, rapidly spreading through her body.

Ivy's body convulsed on the chair, muscles tensing with pain as Selina desperately tried to block the magic with the only means she had. It wasn't working.

Behind them, the flames started to overflow from where she had cut the circle and, as they rushed out of the room, the entire floor seemed to implode, a column of fire burning downwards several floors until it reached the ground.

Briefly looking down, Selina didn't see the ground but a gaping void from where the flames constantly spilled out, inside the flame, humanoid things tried to crawl up but seemed unable to.

The fire had also damaged several containers stored on the ground floor, green fumes spilling out and interacting with the magic there before dispersing into the air.

"Activate your masks!" She yelled into the comms and rushed out of the room, only to stop dead.

The Shapeshifter broke through a wall, eyes shining with greenish light as he took in the situation, he still had a large grim still on his shapeless face, but his angry posture told a different story.

"Can you fight him?" Detective Chimp asked Red Bee, readying his sword.

"Do I look like Batman?" Red Bee shook his head. "He's got super-strength too, I only managed to flip him because he doesn't have any training and was careless, I won't be able to do it again."

That was when Ivy woke up, muscles bulging until they broke through her skin in ugly red wounds. Her restraints snapped from the strain as she struggled out of Kite-Man's hold.

Falling to the floor, the villainess looked around with feral eyes that shone with green light and screamed.

________________________________________

Kara stared at the scared eyes of Theo Adams, the magic-draining device on her gauntlet glowing with barely contained power.

Gone was his confidence, gone was the cruel glint in his eyes and the power of his body, instead, all she saw was a common criminal. A murderer, yes, but one now powerless and scared for his life.

With a swift movement, Kori released her chokehold and pulled the Sword of Beowulf from Theo's shoulder without widening the wound, flicking the blood aside before slowly stepping away, her posture relaxed but ready for any surprises.

Kara's hand still kept the man's mouth closed, ensuring he couldn't call upon his power again. The draining device on her glove was beeping with a yellow light on her screen, but the energy container wasn't about to explode anytime soon.

None too gently, she ripped the Amulet of Teth-Adam from his neck and got up, dragging him up with her by the neck, his legs flailing as he desperately tried to find a foothold. Kara's size with the armor making that impossible.

Now that he was neutralized, she spared the time to check on the rest of the crew and cursed.

Behind her, the ground floor of the hospital exploded, giant vines covered in thorns the size of daggers spilling out of the damaged walls like a wave of green tentacles. Thicker than she was tall, they lashing out at nearby houses with enough strength to crush them before refocused on the taller building.

Kori floated up to analyze the situation, sword ready to fight even as she took distance from the plant. "Indeed, I was correct," she commented on their private channel.

"What?"

The plant seemed entirely focused on climbing the building, vines breaking through windows and doors to try and get to the rescue team faster.

Throwing Theo Adams behind herself with enough strength to break bones but not kill, Kara quickly ordered a shield drone after him and had her armor's computer start to analyze the vines while reconfiguring her main weapon.

"Kara," Kori said, adjusting her position. "Considering your accrued experiences, our mission could not possibly be so unchallenging, yes? I was entirely correct in coming with you."

"Come on, not everything I do goes to hell. Professor Morrow's raid turned out fine!"

Kara hadn't actually needed to create a flamethrower configuration on her main gun —Her heat vision was more than enough and she could modify the helmet to change its appearance— but the challenge in finding a way to keep the heat contained had been a fun project.

Lifting her weapon, she took aim and pulled the trigger, releasing a concentrated jet of fire hot enough to melt titanium at the plant, the flames illuminating the night like a small sun.

"Indeed," Kori nodded her head. "Conceivably, your missions can be uncomplicated, it is merely not expected."

Kara just groaned and decided to use the time it took the plant to burn to activate the replay function on her drone cameras, watching the last minutes of her recording at 100 times the speed. Unfortunately, while it only took her a second, the effort was still distracting.

Faster than she ever expected, a smaller vine broke through the asphalt under her feet, wrapping itself around her leg and squeezing, thorns sharp enough to actually scratch the metal.

At least the recordings had told her what had happened. Of course, it had to be the Joker.

On her helmet's monitor, Kara's feed had caught up to events and she watched Poison Ivy lashing out without any reason, body strengthened by what seemed like a version of Blockbuster. Catwoman and Kite-Man desperately dodging her wild attacks.

At the same time, the Shapeshifter flew at Red Bee and Detective Chimp, moving slowly to her eyes, but still much faster than any normal human could.

"Cover me, I'll go deal with the Shapeshifter," releasing the trigger, Kara stopped the flames and didn't bother tearing up the vine, she simply flew up to intercept the Super, taking off with such speed and strength the ground exploded around her.

Wrapped around her leg, the vine was dragged seven meters into the air before snapping taunt, completely arresting her momentum. It strained under her power, but showed no signs of breaking.

"What!?" With wide eyes, Kara looked at the thin vine, the thorns hadn't completely destroyed her armor, but they had cut halfway through her plate and one had even damaged the ankle joint, actually managing to hit her prosthetic leg.

Thankfully, the casing there was even more resistant than her armor, but Kara hated that it had been breached in the first place.

Rao, with Black Adam dealt with and Wotan being handled by The Shade, she had let her guard down.

It also seems like her use of fire had not been as effective as she first thought, only serving to attract the main plant's attention, the vast majority of vines now focusing on her, blocking her direct path.

Kara didn't have time for this! While she trusted the rescue team to handle any single strong enemy, they weren't ready to fight both Ivy and someone that fast!

Behind her, Kori attacked, blade flashing as it cut through the vine gripping Kara's leg, green sap spraying wildly.

Kara looked back up and restarted her flight, but she already knew she wouldn't make it in time anymore. "NO!"

A bullet tore through the building moving much faster than even she could, Minion 3 having used her cameras to aim his railgun from his hidden position on the rooftop.

On the screen of her helmet. Kara watched the projectile hit the Flying Super on the right side of his chest with a small entry wound and explode out of his back, blood painting the room red.

It didn't kill the still grinning man, didn't even delay him too much, the wound immediately starting to close, but the surprise allowed Bobo to attack, Sword of Night descending on the Villain's skull. Flying to the side, the shapeshifter couldn't dodge completely, losing an arm to the blow.

From his hiding position, Minion 3 started shooting as fast as he could without sacrificing precision, reinforced bullets hitting the building one after another and giving the rescue team a fighting chance.

Then Kara couldn't spare the focus anymore, several dozen thin vines growing from the thicker ones and attacking her like super-strong whips, covering the sky with attacks that almost matched her speed.

She dodged and weaved between them while ordering her shoulder gun to open fire at the vines, but her bullets only served to divert them, not damaging even the thinnest ones.

"Unable to determine plant species, Blockbuster variant detected," her computer warned as it finalized its analysis of the towering mutant fighting her. "Technological signal detected, analysis match Justice League database for Ultra-Humanite. Magical residue detected, sample superficially matches ones obtained from demonic entity 'Vortigar'"

Fuck, Kara didn't remember the Injustice League using demonic magic. She hated magic.

Dodging another whip-like vine, she grabbed it and used the Nth metal in her gauntlet to snap it, the vine breaking with only some resistance. Still more than any other plant on Earth, but nowhere near their previous invulnerability.

So it was infernal magic that made them nearly invulnerable.

Only a moment later, she saw the same vine splitting into two before continuing to attack her.

Around her, Kori intercepted another five strikes, using the Sword of Beowulf to overcome the vines' magical properties, buying Kara a precious second to think but creating more of the damn things.

With some breathing room, she took back control on her teleport guns and test-fired twice.

Despite the damage it had suffered, her weapons still refused to work inside the damn hospital, but the plant was a different story, its magic seeming to come from a different source.

The Kryptonian gave a command, the targeting solution on her weapons shooting the vine as fast as they could, tearing several meter-wide holes out of the plant every second, aiming for the larger vines to delay its splitting.

After only a couple of seconds, it started regenerating almost as fast as it was damaged —because of course, it could regenerate too— Then the three largest vines twisted around each other in a trunk-like shape, creating a much bigger target, but one her weapons couldn't destroy in a single shoot. Large bumps forming all along its length.

It was adapting to attacks, wasn't it?

Taking the chance to glance at her computer's analysis of Ultra-Humanite's signal, the Kryptonian realized it was a control system for the plant, one that was actively being used, probably by the Joker.

It meant she couldn't exfiltrate the rescue team without winning the fight. Yes, the plant couldn't get through her armor in a single strike, but the others were far less protected, and the thing was fast enough she didn't think she could save them all. Perhaps if there was only one or two she'd try, but not so many.

No, it was better not to give the Joker a reason to start targeting them.

Could she interfere with the signal or, better yet, take control? Probably, but Ultra-Humanite was good enough it would take her at least a minute… if she was lucky.

If not, she could spend weeks on the freaking thing.

Damn, Kara trusted Detective Chimp, Green Arrow and, to a certain extent, Catwoman, but only one of them was a fighter, she doubted they could subdue Ivy and the Super even with Kite-Man and Red Bee helping.

Dodging another small vine, Kara saw one of the lumps on the main trunk blossoming into a giant, purple flower, the center spewing out jets of green spores straight at her.

Narrowing her eyes, she watched as a few spores hit her armor, immediately sprouting and starting to spread, searching for any joints or gaps. One found her damaged ankle joint.

Kara's screen flashed red, the alarm warning her of the spore eating through the synthetic skin there and, not finding flesh, starting to climb up the casing of her prosthetic towards her thigh.

As fast as she could, she activated one of her safeguards, a wave of fire almost strong enough to hurt, sterilizing the inside of her armor and damaging the delicate electronics in the leg. Thankfully, the spore wasn't as resistant to the element as the vine, being reduced to ash together with part of her pants.

Damn, Kara didn't think these plants had airborne, flesh-eating spores in the show!

Yes, her skin should shrug off the spore but, by Rao, she didn't want to test it, not with how magically empowered the original plant was.

Just how far could those spores spread? They had made sure there were no civilians around for several blocks, but the wind was strong. A command later and a new cloud of drones was released from her back, immediately starting to burn the spores.

Thank Rao the area around the hospital had already been empty, and Kara had seen the closest civilians fleeing even further away when the fighting started, but it was only a matter of time. She had to finish things fast.

A scream of pain drew her attention back to the situation inside the building. Detective Chimp and Red Bee were still managing to fend off the Grinning Man, but Kite-Man wasn't exactly as skilled.

Breaking through a wall, one of Ivy's roots had wrapped around the villain's arm and squeezed, crushing the limb and dragging him up into the air. Another root sneaked through the ground and shot up, aiming for his chest.

Catwoman interfered, using her claws to cut through it, but Ivy just sent more and more until she too was overwhelmed, three roots spearing through her body and pinning her to the wall.

Damn it! There were too many things to focus on even for her!

The shadows arrived from behind Kara like a wave, washing through her position, flowing through the vines and seeping into the building through every window. They cut through Ivy's roots and then condensed into The Shade, cane, and top hat intact. He stood in front of Catwoman and gave her a critical look.

"Pardon me," The man said, his shadow stretching through the room in every direction. "I would have arrived earlier, but I was overly cautious with Wotan, only later realizing the magical ritual was not his to enact."

Catwoman only grunted, in too much pain to talk.

Ivy attacked again, stake-like roots growing from her very skin and flying at them both in a wave of spikes.

In one fluid motion, The Shade gathered Catwoman carefully into his arms and stepped aside, the wave of roots hit the shadow behind him and disappeared inside, a second later, they reappeared under the Grinning Man, rising from his own shadow and spearing through the Super before smashing him into the ceiling.

With a thundering noise, the ground in a perimeter around the main building cracked, seven giant stalks rising from the ground a block away from the hospital and immediately starting to sprout their own flowers that spewed spores towards the rest of the city.

Kara swore she could hear the Joker laughing under the building. Taking a breath, she flew back and briefly closed her eyes, focusing hard.

She had to get rid of the plant before the effects spread! The problem was it was just too strong for her to just… throw it into the sun. She couldn't keep spreading her forces like this.

Eyes snapping open, she spoke. "We're regrouping. Shade, get them out of there. Fatale, give me an opening."

Kori exploded into action, flying straight at the plant while her sword flashed with skill and precision Kara couldn't match even at full power. In a second, she had overcome the plant's regeneration, opening a path for her.

Kara moved, using her armor's thrusters to enhance her own flight's speed. The plant's main trunk tried to intercept her, but it was too slow.

She entered the building through a wall, ignoring metal and brick to move in a straight line without losing any momentum.

Impossibly, Ivy herself started to react to the incoming missile. Whatever power had infected the Villainess and driven her insane also gave her enough of a boost to almost stand a chance, almost..

Kara exploded through the floor, her hand extended as she grabbed Ivy by the shoulder, instead of flesh, her gauntlet grasped protective bark, but it didn't matter.

Keeping her momentum, she pulled the villain to her chest and wrapped an arm protectively around her waist, non-magically reinforced vines grew from Ivy's legs and attempted to root her to the floor, but the concrete wasn't strong enough to resist the pull.

As she continued through the building, Kara watched the shadows move in the room, converging on the rest of the team and wrapping around them, making them sink into the darkness before The Shade teleported away.

They broke through the other side of the hospital only a moment before the main plant attacked, destroying the floor where the team had been in a wild flurry of vines. Kara could hear the Grinning Man screaming as the attack hit him, but she doubted he was dead.

Ivy continued to struggle, vines grew from her enhanced body and surrounded Kara's armor, attempting to squeeze her to death, but they lacked the sheer magical might of the main root and, feral as she was, Ivy wasn't even trying to come up with an alternative.

Below them, the main plant completely demolished the hospital, revealing thousands of branches and vines that quickly started growing towards more populated areas. Even worse, Kara had already started to hear police sirens and helicopters coming towards their location.

Now outside the building, Kara called one of her teleport platforms and, before Ivy could resist, she shoved the villain on top of it, sending her straight into a stasis pod, a second later she remote-activated a dimensional lock around the pod for good measure.

The Shade and all four of the rescue team appeared beside Minion 3. Kite-Man had passed out, but Catwoman was still hanging in despite three roots still piercing her body.

Kara landed on the building and, a second later, Kori landed beside her, armor filled with scratches but otherwise unhurt. "Shade, can you get rid of the plant?"

"Ordinarily, I would simply consign it to the Shadowlands," he said, putting both hands on top of his cane and looking at the botanical horror. "Unfortunately, I sense a connection not unlike my own feeding it power… enough to resist any such attempt."

"There's… a portal…" Catwoman managed to say through the pain. "It's… ugh, on the underground floor and spreading some kind of green smoke."

Looking at the woman, Kara noticed her veins starting to bulge where the roots had pierced her costume. Whatever had affected Ivy started to change her too.

Moving towards her in a flash, Kara changed the energy container on her glove, put the used one on her hip, and laid a hand over the wounds, activating the magic-draining device again. It worked, immediately consuming whatever had infected her without much trouble.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she got up and looked at the still-growing flower. Her rescue mission had been a success, but she wasn't cruel enough to just leave… and the Joker was still there anyway.

"Did anyone recognize any of Joker's new allies?" She asked.

"I did," Detective Chimp said. "Although we're not exactly on speaking terms, I have dealt with Circe before."

"Fuck, I think one of them was Major Force." Minion 3 said. Kara couldn't agree more.

Alright, there was probably a portal to Hell under the thrice-damned flower, the Joker was controlling it and at least one ancient demigoddess was backing him, probably some kind of demon too —Circe wasn't known as an expert in infernal magic after all— this was starting to give her a headache.

Looking at the plant's progress, she finally saw what the damn spores did; they hadn't reached any humans, but one had managed to infect a hiding rat.

The spore had burrowed under the creature's skin in a second, the rodent squawking with pain before stalks broke through its eyes from the inside and its muscles bulged, immediately starting to follow the vines towards the city.

Then it disappeared, hit by one of her teleport guns and condensed into a capsule together with some asplant. Blockbuster-enhanced zombies, figures.

"Contact the League," She said to Minion 3. With all the fighting, they were probably already on the way, but she wanted to be sure. "We'll take care of things ourselves, but I don't want to risk some of the spores spreading."

Moving faster than the human eye could see, Kara detached the magic-draining device from her gauntlet and attached it under her chest place, activating safeguards that meant even her cousin couldn't rip it off too fast and set it to activate in 3 minutes, that should be enough.

She wasn't entirely sure it would work and, if it didn't, she'd have to reconsider her plan of raining hellfire upon the location, but she hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Time for plan D.

Detaching the full energy container from her hip, she pressed it against the Amulet of Teth-Adam and discharged the magic back while screaming. "SHAZAM!"

"SHAZAM!"

The lightning bolt struck their armor, electricity coursing through their body and charging it with the light of Aten. Kara/Teth-Adam, felt a wave of energy granting their every cell more power than they had ever experienced, almost too much to bear.

The blessing of the gods filled them to the brim. Shu, Horus, Amun, Zehuti, Aten, and Mehen empowered their new form, turning the mighty but still mortal frame of a Kryptonian into a champion capable of facing even the strongest of unnatural creatures.

They were confused and angry; their minds still half asleep after so long locked inside the Amulet, betrayed by someone they trusted.

They were frustrated; watching the infernal flower spread through the streets, almost covering another block with its roots and vines.

They were disgusted, losing a fight against only two people, one of whom was only moderately skilled. They were better than that, much better.

They were anxious; struggling to separate their minds and afraid of what would happen if the device on their chest couldn't drain the power of Aten away from their bodies once more.

Almost unconsciously, their hand reached towards the device, ready to rip it out of the armor / wanting to make sure it was still attached.

With all the safeguards, it would remain in place for a few minutes even if they tried.

For a second, Kara's mind struggled with Teth-Adam's, their wills clashing for control over their body. However, his soul was still weak from millennia of being locked away and, with Kara's telepathic blocker helping separate their thoughts, he quickly fell back into his dreamless slumber.

Kara stumbled, the jarring feeling of being alone in her head once more causing a momentary imbalance. Taking a single step back, she regained control and stretched her new muscles.

Her armor had remained as intact as it had been before, only the symbol of a lightning bolt on its chest indicating the change, but her body had certainly transformed, reaching a peak of power she hadn't even thought possible. But how?

Immediately, the Wisdom of Zehuti told her.

Aten was the Egyptian god powering her transformation, but despite the lightning, he wasn't a god of thunder. No, Aten was an aspect of Ra, god of the Sun and, for a Kryptonian, that meant something.

Unfortunately, her transformation wasn't permanent, like Billy, she'd revert to her normal body when the transformation was over but, until then…

Squeezing a fist, she felt the power contained there, she also knew how to use it, how to fight and move without wasting her strength. Kara couldn't help agreeing with Teth-Adam, his loss against her and Kori's assault had been quite shameful.

Again, her powers gave her the explanation. Theo Adams was a complete novice, he had never trained in any martial arts and, deep down, he was a coward. The courage of Mehen was a misleading power, it gave the champion inexhaustible physical and psychological resilience, but didn't actually make him any braver. What use was knowing the best moves when you were too timid to make them?

The most important part was that, unlike a moment ago, Teth-Adam's soul had been utterly dormant, giving Theo less access to Teth's skills and memories than she currently had.

"Forge?" Red Bee asked, causing her to look towards her companions.

Minion 3 had taken several steps back, his large rifle aimed straight at her chest, every muscle on his body tense and his finger on the trigger.

Detective Chimp and Red Bee were also tense, ready for a fight while attempting to protect Catwoman and a still unconscious Kite-Man, even The Shade seemed slightly tense for the first time, although he hadn't stepped away from her.

Only Kori remained by her side, Sword of Beowulf still in her hand but turned towards the plant. Inside the armor, Kara smiled, drawing strength from her girlfriend's trust.

Down on the streets, the spores continued to infect whatever stray animal had been in hiding. Her drones fired almost continuously as she split some of her focus to oversee their elimination… small blessings, at least insects didn't seem to be susceptible to infection.

"Don't worry, I'm still myself," she said, then turned left as she sensed a new hero flying towards them from the south where the nearest Zeta-Tube was. "What happened to the five ritual points?"

"I may not know how to fully disrupt the ritual, especially without warning the caster," Detective Chimp said, sitting down on the roof. "But I know enough to throw a spanner in the works."

Kara immediately understood, both the Wisdom of Zehuti and the Power of Aten giving her some rudimentary knowledge of magic. The Detective had left the five ritual sites intact and, if properly activated, they would still feed power to the infernal portal.

But they had never received the order to activate, the Detective had damaged that part, and only that part, of the ritual before the attack happened. It could easily be fixed, as long as the caster knew what had gone wrong and could reforge the connection.

"How long will it take to restore the connection?"

"Probably another minute, less if someone is helping Circe, but she'll need to concentrate."

"More than enough. Martian Manhunter should be here soon. Fatale and I will deal with the flower's source of power, keep it away from civilians until then."

Before her borrowed empowerment, Kara would have said more, tried to micromanage things, but the new powers allowed her to know better. Her team was experienced, they didn't need her to tell them what to do.

Kori gave her a nod and adjusted her grip, she was ready.

Kara exploded into motion, launching herself towards the main plant faster than she had ever moved while inside the planet's atmosphere, her newfound control making sure she didn't damage the world around her.

Falling through his own shadow, The Shade teleported to the north, his shadow turning into physical tendrils that attacked the growing flower, halting its advances by consuming the roots and vines.

Minion 3 immediately opened contact with the Martian, letting the hero contain things to the south while using Kara's drones to hunt down any infected creature before they could break containment.

Catwoman, Kite-Man, and Detective Chimp retreated, using one of Kara's platforms to teleport away to get treatment while Red Bee used her comms to hack into the police frequencies, informing them of the situation.

In front of her, the sky was covered in green, hundreds of vines growing from the main flower and attacking her at once.

Kara barely moved, letting them pass only a single millimeter from her body with an ease she hadn't felt before.

It wasn't just that she was faster, or that she could follow the vine movements better. No, it was sheer, imbued experience. Teth-Adam's years of battle and skill leaking in via the use of his powers despite his soul still slumbering.

At her shoulder, her mounted gun opened fire, releasing projectiles glowing with the magic of Atun, attacks powerful enough to destroy several vines.

Even the flower's infernal magic adaptation couldn't make it completely immune to the divine power she now wielded, but it would adapt, probably increasing its regeneration.

She had to deal with the source, fast.

Breaking through the wave of vines, Kara stopped above the plant and sent an order to the spare teleportation platform on her moon base before lifting an arm above her head. Almost on instinct, she yelled. "Shazam!"

The lightning bolt descended with the force of an air-dropped bomb, wider than she was tall, it came slightly from behind, aimed at her closed fist.

Right before it hit, Kara lowered her arm, letting the bolt pass her by to strike at the flower, consuming the entire top of the plant as well as most of the attacking vines, turning them into charcoal. A shower of ashes falling to the ground.

Green smoke rose from the stump that used to be the flower. Unfortunately, the main trunk was already too big and too resistant to suffer more than cosmetic damage, starting to regenerate as soon as the attack was finished, the charred husk cracking audibly as new green stalks started to grow upwards from the remains.

Just below her, Kori took the opening to fly at the hospital ruins, her body turning into a whirlwind of slashes as she cut her way through the remaining vines and straight toward the Joker's location.

Kara knew they didn't have time to waste but, Rao, couldn't she wait a second? Seeing her girlfriend charge at a team of dangerous villains left her incredibly anxious.

The teleportation platform finally arrived at her side, two square metal blocks sitting atop it —one of the few devices complicated enough she couldn't just replicate with her nanomachines onsite.

Without losing even a second, Kara threw the boxes to either side of the plant's trunk with a wave of her hand and dropped, wanting to catch up with Kori before she reached the Clown and his cohort.

She flew between the regenerating stump, moving straight towards where her new magic senses told her the infernal portal was. Behind her, a field of energy sprouted between her two devices, enveloping the larger part of the stump and halting its regeneration.

Kara's dimensional locks worked by separating the part of the world they enveloped from the rest of the dimension, keeping it in place and blocking anything outside from affecting the location. The field also served to block the infernal magic feeding the plant… and the signal Joker was using to control it.

A pity she didn't have enough spares to envelop the entire plant, but this should delay the flower's spread.

Another blast of power from her shoulder gun allowed Kara to fly through one of the upper roots, reaching the space directly under the hospital.

The underground parking lot wasn't completely destroyed, but the plant had grown between the concrete and gravel, turning it into a dark maze of half-destroyed building materials and roots.

Ahead of her, she saw the flicker of green flames coming from a section that had collapsed into the second garage, hundreds of thinner roots greedily absorbing the flames and pulsating with magic.

The edges of the collapsed area exploded outwards, asphalt flying everywhere as Kori came flying back out, the Sword of Beowulf missing from her hand.

Protected by the armor, she broke through several thinner roots before her back bounced against a larger one and she started to fall again.