Kara felt the familiar rage, —how dare they!— her vision gained a slightly red tint, but it was a cold, calculating thing, the Courage of Mehen granting her the resilience to maintain her self-control.
Instead, Kara just growled, her helmet blazing with barely contained energy as she flashed to her girlfriend's side and caught her descent, putting an arm around her waist to support her until she regained control of her flight.
"Telepath," Kori gasped, taking a second to adjust her feelings.
"Are you alright?"
"It was challenging… To use my powers…Too much pain to feel contrariwise," Kori managed to say while trying to steady herself. Then her voice gained strength and Kara could almost see the smile under her helmet. "The enchantress has been delayed."
Kara squeezed her waist, making sure she could float on her own before finally focusing on her enemies.
The villains were standing around the infernal portal on the floor, almost ten meters wide, its edges were covered in green flames while several thinner roots grew inwards, pulsating with unholy power. A green mist floated all over the entire underground floor, giving it an eerie look while starting to leak upwards.
The Joker looked nothing like she remembered from the show. Smaller than she expected, he had disheveled shoulder-length green hair, black eyeliner giving him a sinister look and the characteristic red mouth only served to highlight badly healed scars of a Glasgow smile.
His hands moved through the air as if playing the piano, delicate electronics covering his black leather gloves and controlling the movements of the plant above them.
To his left, Circe floated back. Running a hand through her form-fitting green dress, she frowned at one of her damaged sleeves before noticing the large cut on her cheek, blood starting to leak down her face, making her eyes glow with anger.
In front of her, Major Force gathered himself. Using the back of his hand to wipe his mouth, he pushed against the floor and got back to his feet before spitting a piece of asphalt back to the ground, a smile on his face. As tall as her cousin and capable of matching him in strength, the man was a mountain of muscle, body covered in a gleaming metallic shell, his head and chest painted red while the rest was yellow.
By his side, Red Volcano pulled the Sword of Beowulf off his chest, the artifact rejecting his touch and falling to the ground shortly after. The android followed the same designs as his siblings only bulkier, red lines running through his robotic body, his head surrounded by a halo of heat that distorted the air.
Finally, towering behind the Joker, arms crossed in an unamused stance was a giant gorilla, body filled with the telltale signs of Blockbuster. For a second, Kara couldn't place him, —DC had far too many intelligent apes— but then their eyes met and she saw the intelligence there. Gorilla Grodd.
Every single one of them was a heavy hitter. Villains powerful enough to threaten the Justice League with the right planning.
Rao, this was going to be hard…
Ordinarily, Kara would have made a tacticall retreat, she wasn't ready to face such a lineup of Villains even if she had brought her heaviest armor. But now… now she felt confident.
For a full second, they just stood there regarding each other, then the Joker stopped moving his fingers, leaned back on the chair and sighed, finally looking up
Waving a gloved hand through his hair, the Clown licked his lip and sucked in a breath. "I suppose congratulations are in order, good job rescuing dear Ivy," mockingly, he clapped three times and then smiled wider. "Such a pity what happened to her, infected by Blockbuster and magic, why, I heard it was irreversible."
Kara let him talk, giving Kori a little more time to recover her strength, wary of starting the fight with her friend in less than ideal condition, not when his speech wasn't affecting her.
She supposed the Joker's little act was meant to cause anger, but she didn't know Poison Ivy all that well… and her Cadmus personnel were already working on reversing the effects of Blockbuster.
"She has an impressive healing factor, you know, perhaps she can overcome the infection? It certainly made torturing her into compliance a frustrating experience… the scars just kept regenerating, you see."
Now that she was standing in front of the Joker, Kara couldn't help wondering if killing him was the right move... It seemed too easy an out for him.
She must have changed her posture because the Joker seemed to notice he had affected her and turned his head sideways. "Would you like to know how long it took for her to break? Do you think your little girlfriend can last longer?"
Staring directly at the Clown, Kara decided she was right, death was definitely too easy for him… and he was known to trick his way out of his eternal punishment anyway, repeatedly.
No, if she wanted something done right, it was better to do it herself. She knew of several beings who had their own personal hellish dimensions, how hard could it be to build one herself?
Kara's armor screamed, her telepathic blocker far from enough to defend against Grodd's mental assault, the device exploded inside her helmet and the pain hit her, needles seeming to pierce her entire body.
Instead of flinching, Kara attacked.
Wearing her rage like a shield, she trusted the Courage of Mehen to keep her in the fight and flew straight at Grodd. Her shoulder gun opened fire aimed at the Joker's head, the stream of bullets bouncing against a floating spell circle.
Circe frowned, one hand extended to keep the magical shield from breaking under the constant hail of projectiles, while the other made a wave, transfiguring a giant hand from the wall that grasped towards Kara.
The Joker laughed unconcerned, a sound that started normal but quickly descended into a mad, uncontrolled crackle, his fingers starting to move again.
Major Force leaped at her, both hands glowing with power. Actually matching her speed, he punched out like a boxer, aiming straight for Kara's head.
Without losing momentum, Kara flew between the stone hand's fingers, too fast for the spell before meeting Major Force head-on.
Catching his fist, she watched his eyes widen as she twisted his glowing hand to the side and countered with a punch to the kidney, the impact sending a shockwave that pushed the green mist away from her location.
Major Force coughed, starting to fly back down but, before he could, Kara adjusted her grip and pulled him back while using her other hand to lift the man over her head and throw him straight up. "SHAZAM!"
The lightning came down on her head, striking the villain on the back and making him scream before dispersing into smaller bolts of electricity that illuminated the entire underground floor.
From below, Red Volcano stomped the ground, sending a large piece of asphalt flying up at her, the material starting to melt from the heat of his thermokinesis.
Kori attacked, coming right behind the lightning bolt, she grabbed Major Force by the back of the head and threw him at the boulder with all her strength.
The villain flew down at tremendous speed, hitting the boulder face first and exploding through the asphalt before hitting the bare ground with enough strength to make it shake, then Kori fell on top of his back, pushing the green mist away with the impact and creating a crater.
Momentarily leaving both villains to the woman, Kara shifted her focus and flew straight at Grodd, Circe, and the Joker. All around her, roots started attacking, piercing the ceiling or lifting from the ground to halt her movement, but she was too fast and the Joker was only human.
He could somewhat predict her movements, but he simply wasn't fast enough to catch her without overwhelming numbers or a distraction.
The pain she was feeling seemed to multiply tenfold, the familiar feeling of nails piercing her skull intensifying so much that she halted midair and cradled her head with both hands, a root wrapping around her arm.
"Useless," Grodd said in her mind. "Why continue to struggle? It's only a matter of time before I get inside your mind, give up and I'll make it painless."
A second root wrapped around her leg, then a third gripped her chest and another managed to damage her shoulder gun while she struggled with the mental assault. Behind her, she heard Red Volcano speaking. "Access: Black Adam."
Damn, he had gotten his hands on Amazo's tech! Taking a deep breath, Kara relaxed, letting the pain pass through her body, she could handle it, she had felt worse.
She wasn't about to lose here.
Grodd snorted, causing her pain to intensify yet again… it only served to make her angrier.
With a scream, she strained her muscles and ripped her way free of the roots, then had to twist aside as Circe blasted a bolt of magic at her previous position. The spell so powerful it burned through the roots and the floors behind them in a straight line before disappearing up into the sky.
For the first time, Grodd moved, lifting a hand to his temple, his attack temporarily halted to gather strength. Circe also waved her arms, transfiguring the rubble into hundreds of magically enhanced birds.
Kara rushed Grodd, the Villain finally struck, but she drowned the new wave of pain with a scream of Shazam that called lightning toward him and forced Circe on the defense again.
Unfortunately, the demigoddess was no longer rattled, managing to form a shield with one hand while sending another blast of magic with the other. Kara decided to take the hit.
Widening his eyes, the ape roared, sending a blast of telekinesis down at her while uselessly trying to jump away, his movements far too slow. The desperate move didn't stop her, but together with the shield, it saved his life.
Kara had been aiming for his head, instead, her fist broke through the shield and hit his large belly, piercing through his enhanced muscle like it was tissue paper and bursting out of his back.
Circe's magic blast hit her on the shoulder before she could finish the job, overcoming her armor's defenses and burning a hole through its metal plates to reach her flesh, the impact sending her flying away from the ape.
Twisting midair, Kara dug her fingers into the ground, enhancing it with her protection field, but she still slid twenty meters before stopping.
Grodd screamed, mouth open impossibly wide as he instinctively pressed a hand to his belly, trying to keep from bleeding out while he walked towards the portal, in too much pain to continue his mental assault.
Staring at Circe, Kara flicked her arm aside, getting rid of Grodd's blood and guts before touching the hole in her armor to check the angry bruise it had left on her skin.
Red Volcano came flying between them, metal body bouncing on the ground before hitting one of the garage's support beams and stopping. "Unfortunate that I didn't have time to modify Professor Ivo's tech," he growled, shaking his head and starting to get up. "Access: Wotan."
Red Volcano just made a mistake.
Exploding into motion, Kara dodged another bolt of magic and switched targets, attacking the android before he could recover or change templates into Black Adam again. Red Volcano managed to erect a magical barrier, but Kara punched right through it with her Nth metal gauntlet.
The impact pushed him back into the support beam with a dent in his armor then, using all her strength, Kara stomped on his head, her greaves caving in his metallic skull with such force it crushed most of it, sending one of his eyes and a lot of electronics flying and smashing his body through the pillar.
Flying back, she dodged a third magic blast from Circe and used another lightning bolt to wipe out her transfigured birds.
Sparing a glance to the side, Kara saw Kori fighting Major Force, the Villain manifesting metal spikes and using energy blasts to try and hit her friend without much success. But Kori also couldn't close the distance.
With a smile, Kara noticed some of her spare drones had finally arrived, descending into the parking lot from the same hole in the ceiling she had used and opening fire upon the Joker.
Circe reacted fast enough to protect him again, an angry look on her face as she knew she'd have to play defense once more.
The Joker took a look around and sighed, finally getting up from his chair. "Ah, it was fun while it lasted," with grace, he took off his gloves and dropped them on the ground before patting his purple suit. "I suppose I should be going."
No, he wasn't escaping here.
Narrowing her eyes, Kara flew at him, ready to fight Circe head-on. The witch was in no way weak at close range, having traded blows with Wonder Woman before, but it should be easier than facing her magic.
Before she was halfway toward the bastard, the world seemed to lose color, her movements slowing down and the distance seeming to stretch between them with every meter she flew.
Stopping in place, Kara heard clapping. Turning to her left, she saw Black Adam standing with his arms crossed beside a larger super… no, he wasn't Black Adam, he was slightly smaller, with less harsh features and lacking the malice she had felt from the villain.
She was seeing Teth-Adam.
The clapping came from the second man, he was blonde with a square jaw and sharp eyebrows, his clothes were white, with a flamboyant green cape and blue eyes that looked at her with mirth.
"Impressive," the man said, a smile on his face. "I honestly didn't expect you to achieve so much here."
Kara set her computer to analyze the situation before drawing upon the Wisdom of Zehuti, but it didn't answer, somehow, she was isolated from her powers. Glancing at Circe and Joker, she noticed they hadn't moved, their bodies having gained a gray color.
Stepping back on the floor, she narrowed her eyes at the man. "Who are you?"
"Me? You may call me Neron," he bowed a kind smile on his face. "How about I make you an offer?"
Briefly, Kara glanced at the infernal portal, the only thing to retain its color inside. So this was the demon helping the Joker, or perhaps it was the other way around?
Kara didn't recognize the bastard, so he probably wasn't one of the more dangerous demons, nothing like Trigon at least, but she didn't claim to know every single being in DC, and he could be lying about the name.
"You have nothing I want."
"Really? I doubt that." Neron shook his head. "No, everyone is selfish, everyone has a price and, while I don't claim to be omnipotent, there is much I could do for you."
Kara glanced at her armor, but it hadn't been able to find a solution out of the demon's spell. They weren't in a different dimension and he hadn't accelerated time for them, even her magic sensors weren't picking anything.
"Let me rephrase then, you have nothing I'm willing to sell my soul for."
Talking about souls… Teth-Adam should still be bound to the Amulet, had the demon managed to form some kind of soul communication? Is that why she didn't feel her divine blessings? She was only borrowing them through Teth-Adam after all.
"Well then, it's good that that's not what I'm after," Neron put his arms behind his back and started walking around her. "No, I merely ask that you retreat from the battlefield, in exchange, I could heal you fully?
"Yes, I do believe that missing leg can be quite uncomfortable, and your insides don't seem to be right either, I could help them settle… or even restore your original body, healthy and unchanged, a Kryptonian doesn't need all those unwanted additions."
Kara growled with anger, how the hell did he know about her body? And after she had gone through all the trouble of creating her Forge persona.
"So you offer me something I've already solved? You're not very good at this, are you?"
Kara had to confess that getting rid of the last traces of Psion's meddling in her body was tempting, very tempting, but not enough to make a deal with a demon, much less spare the Joker.
For the first time, Neron lost his smile. Behind the demon, Teth-Adam snorted in amusement.
"Would you care for an exchange then? You have achieved your objective here, rescued Ivy, and dealt with the Injustice League, but there are still those who threaten your family. I can tell you Vandal Savage's location? With the petulant child wounded, you could easily deal with him."
Kara hesitated, Alan had managed to deal a strong blow against Klarion, it gave her a unique opening to Vandal, yes, the immortal would still have protections, but she doubted they would match a Lord of Chaos, not in such short order, if only she could locate him…
The Joker's new team would be trouble, but he had already proved ready to betray one team, and Circe was a misandrist, the new team wouldn't last very long.
"And what about vengeance?" Neron regained his smile, standing right in front of the Infernal portal and taking an arm off his back to offer her his hand. "Surely you don't think your Uncle's plans to save Krypton failed without interference? Would you like the names of the ones responsible? They're still alive."
"What?" Kara froze, her heart skipping a beat. Someone had caused Krypton's explosion? Her Krypton? "Who?"
In hindsight, Kara realized how unlikely it was for her planet to explode without a culprit, and she had read something about Brainiac or Zodd being the causes in some universes, but she knew for a fact they hadn't done it to her planet.
Had someone planned it all? Murdered her mother, her father, everyone she had ever known in this life…
Kara's arms started shaking, the red light of rage starting to overcome her self-control and spilling out into the place, giving it a new color besides the usual gray.
She wanted to scream, to attack him and beat the information out of the demon, but her training with Alan allowed her to remain in place, even if it took a lot of effort. "Fuck you."
"What?"
"Fuck you," Kara said between her teeth, the words almost hurting. She wanted to know who was responsible, she wanted to tear out their spine and send their souls deep within the Phantom Zone to be utterly consumed by its owner, but she refused to be manipulated. "No, I don't need you for any of that."
"Ah, how… regrettable," Neron said, lowering his hand. "Still, the offers shall remain open. I'm sure I'll see you again when you're desperate enough… although the price will be much higher then."
Behind the Demon, the world started moving again, although Kara didn't regain her powers and the world didn't lose its gray colors. Widening her eyes, she realized Neron planned to keep her trapped here anyway, unable to stop the Villains from leaving or even help Kori fight them.
With a roar of rage, she launched a shard of red light at the demon, but he swatted it aside with contemptuous ease and turned to watch Kori still fighting Major Force, the Villain getting closer and closer to hitting her with his powers.
"What about you, have you come to a decision yet?" Neron asked, glancing sideways at Teth-Adam.
"I have dealt with your kind before, even kept one by my side for a time, nothing good ever came out of it," the ancient Kandaquian shook his head. " Perhaps if you had offered the worm that previously wore my prison, I'd have considered it, but no, much as I desire my freedom back, I'll not take an honorable woman's body. That much of my old self remains."
"That… is even more disappointing," Neron nodded, his face turning into a scowl before he turned back to Kori. "Very good form, I wonder if she'll survive the fight alone?"
Kara stared at the situation, watching Grodd stumble into the infernal portal. She tried to blast him with heat vision, but it didn't work and, when she sent another shard of red light, the demon blocked them.
Circe motioned with her arm, pulling Red Volcano's remains from under the rubble, his damaged head and one of his arms stayed behind but she threw the rest into the portal before turning to Kori and starting to cast another spell.
Teth-Adam stared at Kori fighting and sighed. "Enough, I tolerate your games as I wanted to meet the one who wielded my powers, but you test my patience."
"Oh," Neron lifted a sharp eyebrow. "And what exactly can the shade of a fallen hero do?"
Out of the gray dimension, Major Force finally hit Kori with one of his blasts, sending the woman flying back nearly 30 meters before she finally hit the ground.
With a word of power, Circe finished her spell, and golden chains wrapped around Kori's body before she could recover, pulling her down and dragging her closer until the Major could grab her by the face.
Kara tried to fly, but the world seemed to stretch again, preventing her from gaining any ground towards the villain, frustration and fear starting to affect her even through her rage.
The Joker stopped at the edge of the portal, taking the chance to look towards Kara, she noticed he couldn't see her, but it didn't stop him from taking a mocking bow.
Circe floated above the portal, waiting with the Joker while the Major lifted Kori and started to drag her towards them. Kara wanted to scream.
"Shazam!" Teth-Adam called, the lightning bolt piercing through the gray dimension and striking his chest, his body gained a few centimeters, his muscles becoming even better defined. "You may be powerful, but without a deal, you're not yet strong enough to block the power of the gods."
Neron's eyes shone with green light, his hands gathering power as he moved to fight Teth-Adam, but the champion was faster.
Without calling on the wizard's name again, he gathered power around himself, lightning cracking around his body as he lifted a hand and pointed at Kara, releasing a torrent of electricity, the bolt tearing the gray dimension apart before hitting her.
The world seemed to crack around her, then it exploded, snapping Kara back to reality with a thunderous explosion that disrupted Circe's spells, made the Major stumble, and sent the Joker flying away from the portal, body bouncing painfully on the floor.
The witch dropped into the portal with a yelp and the Major took a second to recover, giving Kori the chance to punch his elbow and jump away.
The infernal portal finally started to close, shrinking slowly and cutting off the roots that were sucking its magic for power.
Kara felt her connection to the power of the gods returning, Teth-Adam's soul fading back into the amulet, retreating farther than he had before
"Wielding such power as I am now will weaken me again," the ancient man managed to say from the amulet. "But I have learned not to spare their kind, or let their plans succeed."
Free from Neron's grasp, Kara was livid, the red light of rage spilling from her eyes and surrounding her body like a halo. Still, she was coherent enough to know not to follow her enemies through the portal, but that didn't mean there was nothing she could do.
Her glowing eyes turned to Major Force, one of Captain Atom's major villains and someone who shared the same kind of body.
Yes, he'd do nicely.
The Major was fast enough to react with a punch, but he didn't have the skill to stop her as she blasted through his defenses, drove the air out of him with a knee strike, and then grabbed him by the throat while he was still recovering.
The villain tried to resist, but she squeezed his neck, stopping him from focusing as she dragged his body over the portal. For a second, she focused her rage, concentrating the red light around her fist into a sharp spike.
The Infernal portal was barely two meters wide when she punched his chest, the red light pierced his metallic skin right above where the heart should be, then she pulled her fist back and dropped him, light spilling from the hole instead of blood.
Looking down on the closing portal, Kara could see Neron sitting on a throne surrounded by demons, two dark figures sitting at each side of him but in a lower position.
The Demon stared at her with a furious look, but he didn't move. In front of him, Circe widened her eyes and hurried to form a shield around her and Grodd while the sitting figures snapped to their feet and flew away as fast as they could.
Unable to even speak, eyes starting to go vacant, Major Force's body cracked, light leaking through the fractures and widening them until, with a metallic groan, his breached frame couldn't contain his strength and exploded, waves of power simply vaporizing the demons around him.
The energy hit Circe's shield, causing it to crack and the witch to fall to her knees and finally smashed into Neron, boiling his flesh away before starting to consume his bones, but he never moved and his glowing green eyes never left her.
Then Kara had to jump back, some of the explosion leaking back through the portal and cutting a line straight through the building and into the sky before it fully closed.
Behind her, the Joker pushed himself to a sitting position against a large piece of rubble, his suit was ruined, one of his legs was bent the wrong way and there was a cut on his forehead leaking blood all over his makeup.
He started laughing, then wheezed, coughed, and spit some blood to the side before laughing again and lifting his arms a little, palms turned towards her. "Haaa… hahahaha… Well, I had a blast. How about you?"
Haaa… hahahaha… Well, I had a blast. How about you?"
Kara stared at the Villain, his back against a piece of rubble and his purple suit half destroyed by the impact. Such a fragile man… and yet, such a dangerous enemy if given time and motivation.
Kara could just step on him now, crush his head even easier than she did Faust's.
Then she dismissed the thought and turned to check on her girlfriend, she was far more important than the clown any time of the day.
Kori was already up, floating a few centimeters above the ground and watching where the portal had been, making sure it was well and truly gone. Her armor looked damaged, a small dent on the side of her belly where Major Force's blast had hit her, but it hadn't been breached.
Slowly, with pained movements, the Joker grabbed a pack of cigarettes from his chest pocket and pulled out one, staring at the thing with a confused face for a second before sighing. "Ah, I don't even have a lighter, and it seemed like such a good deal at the time."
"What kind of deal?" She couldn't help asking while thinking about his fate.
She had already used both her vision and the remaining sensors on her armor to verify he didn't have any last tricks hidden away —he did, but nothing that could threaten her or Kori— so she felt safe just considering him.
The problem was… she wasn't sure he wouldn't come back, there was more than one being capable of that in this universe after all. If one needed proof, a portal to Hell had just been formed not even 20 meters from where she stood.
Granted, nothing from over there had really crossed over, but could she risk it?
"My soul," the Joker started to laugh again, but had to cough and ended up just snickering. "I found it pretty funny that someone thought it was valuable."
Well, that was one worry off her chest. Kara had been fairly sure the Joker had made a deal with Neron, but she couldn't even guess what he had asked for. A pack of cigarettes was both harmless and completely in character.
Still, could Neron make use of Joker's soul once he was dead? Could the Demon resurrect him or turn him into one of his own species?
All around her, she felt the shadows moving, stretching impossibly wide before starting to gather in pools at the corners of the underground parking lot, gaining a new depth she hadn't known was possible.
Staring at one particularly large spot, she swore she could sense something looking back, her new senses telling her something large and powerful was paying attention to her, but no matter how hard she looked, she only saw darkness.
With a beep, Kara felt the magic-draining device locking onto her chest, the armor itself making sure it couldn't be dislodged before completely draining her.
So, it had been three minutes.
From the corners of the room, the shadows exploded in motion, gaining physical substance as they wrapped around the plant's roots, covering them in pitch-black tentacles that seemed to consume anything they touched.
No longer under the Joker's control, the plant had been content to just dig deeper into the ground for nutrients, but the shadow's attack awoke the damn thing, vines, and roots fruitlessly attempting to fight off the assault.
Without infernal energy to fuel its power, the botanical horror lost.
Checking the drones outside, Kara saw Minion 3 had stopped shooting and even the Martian Manhunter was flying away from the plant as fast as he could. A simple command later and Kara had all her drones rush towards her, picking up her expended dimensional lock on the way.
On top of a tall dark tentacle, The Shade stood with his arms open, only his face remaining uncovered by the shadows, a minuscule human thing in the middle of the deep shadows he was controlling.
Soon, the darkness had covered the entire plant like a blanket and it started disappearing, sinking into the shadows slowly at first, but speeding up as less and less of it remained. They were almost done here.
Three drones flew towards Kara, the nanomachines that formed them starting to disassemble, becoming material to fix the holes in her armor —a literal patchwork solution at best; the tiny machines weren't a match for properly forged plates, but it would do for now.
Reactivating and snapping back into position with the quick fix, Kara's shoulder gun fired four times, four beams of heat burning through the Joker's arms and legs while also cauterizing the wounds so he wouldn't bleed out.
The Clown screamed, his muscles tensing from the pain to the point he instinctively curled onto himself, his limbs falling uselessly to the ground, the cigarette sleeping from his limp fingers
"Was that strictly necessary?" Kori asked through their private channel while floating to Kara's side and watching the man taking deep breaths while trying to overcome the pain. There was no reproach on her tone, only genuine curiosity.
"Unfortunately," Kara said, let's see him do anything without limbs. "I'd rather kill the bastard, but I don't want to risk him coming back."
She expected to feel some guilt, torturing the Clown like that, but there wasn't any, thankfully, there was only a small amount of spiteful satisfaction instead. No, Kara mostly felt safer.
"I did not know that was an option. Villains are certainly obstinate, yes?"
"That's one way of looking at it. I think Earth's just special that way, Heroes do it too from time to time."
Finally, Kara felt the energy leaving her, the power of Aten draining from her body until, with a flash of lightning, she was no longer a champion of the gods but simply Kara again, the amulet containing Teth-Adam's soul was also back in her hand.
She felt… diminished, tired, clumsy and unnaturally aware that most of her cells still weren't functioning at their peak, even if they were well on their way there.
Thankfully, the feeling quickly faded away and Kara had to recognize that gaining the power of the gods wasn't quite as large a power-up as reaching a yellow sun… or even becoming a Kryptonian in the first place.
Still, it had been interesting, having the muscle memory and experience of an ancient warrior, one easily able to match Kori or Wonder Woman in ability. Kara had felt graceful.
Perhaps she should increase her physical training.
Her armor was also back to normal, but it seemed like losing the transformation hadn't fixed the destruction Circe's magic had wrought upon its frame. There was still a hole in the shoulder area and several circuits had been destroyed, lowering the armor's overhaul performance by 47%.
Ugh, she'd have to reforge the entire thing later, at least it would be faster than the first time.
With a command, Kara had two of her drones lock the Joker inside a shield, administering a heavy dose of drugs to knock him out. The remaining drones scattered through the parking lot as fast as they could move, scouring the place until, only a few seconds later, she found the device she was looking for.
Above them, The Shade had almost finished banishing the plant to the shadow dimension. Lowering his arms, he reverted back to being only a man, his clothes regaining their texture and becoming merely black, losing the darkness of the Shadowlands.
Kara was almost out of time, she really doubted the Martian would just let her kill the Joker, much less take him away altogether. No, better if he was already gone when the Hero got here.
Connecting one of the drones to the machine, Kara deactivated it, then thought better and also had the nanomachines start to disassemble the teleportation blocker, stealing both its coding and design. —the Fog had been a hacking tool before she repurposed it after all.
Another command had some of her machines also consume the gloves the Joker had been using to control the plant and any other device she found in the abandoned hospital for later study, including what little of Red Volcano had been left behind.
With teleportation no longer blocked, she quickly called her platform back and used a drone to move the Joker on top of it.
Once she was at her moon base, she'd put him inside one of her stasis pods, preferably as far away from Poison Ivy as she could manage… and with as many redundant safety measures as she had available.
Rao, she really needed to have somewhere better to put prisoners if she was going to keep acquiring them, using her Cousin's fortress just wouldn't cut it anymore and the moon base was much too important.
That personal dimension idea was looking better and better by the second.
"Do you wish for me to deal with The Manhunter?" Kori asked, finally sheathing the Sword of Beowulf. Kara hadn't seen it, but the Tamaranean must have recovered the weapon during the fight.
"...Why? What's the point of having minions if they can't handle something like that?"
Well, Green Arrow would be able to deal with the Manhunter much easier than her, and he could also take the chance to report back to the Justice League as he was meant to do.
Kara wished she could believe Major Force's explosion had killed Neron, but she knew better than to even hope for it. Regardless, even if the Demon knew her true identity, it was still best that Forge didn't interact or cooperate too much with the Justice League. After all, it's not like every single Villain just shared information, even when they could benefit from it.
No, the impression she got from the Demon was that he truly enjoyed his deals too much, he'd be loath to just give away information. Kara had no illusions that her alternative identity would last forever, but the price for that information would probably be someone's soul and not many people were willing to pay that, not yet.
So, for now, her Forge identity should still be safe from The Light, and probably even from the other Villains that had been here. There was no reason to push her luck and appear to be too involved with the Heroes… Also, she really wanted a bath.
No, she needed a bath, a long, relaxing bath.
With one last look at the hole where the portal had been, Kara stepped onto the teleportation platform and extended her hand. Kori took it, floating down to land beside her.
With the Joker safely behind them, Kara teleported back to her Moon base.
They appeared inside Kara's safe room, several heavy weapons retreating back into the walls as they verified it was only authorized personnel, but one large cannon locked on to the Joker, awaiting Kara's command.
Kara ordered it to deactivate too, watching as the sealed doors snapped open with a hiss and release of white smoke. She stepped down from the platform and motioned to her drones, making the Joker float a few meters behind her.
Kori rose a few centimeters in the air and followed her. "Please, where are the others?"
"Designation: Poison Ivy is being analyzed inside a stasis pod at the third laboratory," Kara's newest AI assistant answered with a robotic voice that only slightly resembled Alfred's. "Designation: Kite-Man and Designation: Catwoman are being treated inside the Medbay. Designation: Detective Chimp is accompanying them."
Ugh, she'd have to change that. In her defense, she had never worked on an AI and it had been a side-project done in an afternoon. Maybe she should just make a copy of the Fortress AI?
She was no expert at that type of coding and, most importantly, didn't find it fun. Fascinating to look at, yes, but not fun to do, more tangible engineering was so much better.
"Go on, if they're here they'll be fine, go home," Kara said. "With his wounds, Kite-Man should already be awake and I don't want to reveal your identity to him. Go, get out of the armor, I know you don't enjoy it."
"I do not despise it, moreover, it has proven invaluable in battle… But it is slightly constraining for normal activity, yes?" Kori looked down at her covered belly and sighed. "Are you certain?"
"Yeah, it's only gonna take a few minutes. I'll deal with the Joker first and check on the base's analysis before transferring them to another location," Kara had an involuntary shudder at that thought. "Ugh, having so many people in my secret lair is giving me hives."
Even without working limbs, she didn't dare leave the Joker alone.
"Very well, I will await you at home. Be prepared, such a successful mission demands pizza!"
With a smile, Kara watched Kori leaving, flying towards the Medbay at a fast pace. Now that there was no danger, she couldn't help but admire how hot she looked wearing the armor, or how hot she had looked wielding her sword to fight villains.
Rao, for a second, Kori had faced all five Villains alone and managed to score hits on three of them, stopped Circe's casting and, if he were designed anything like his siblings, almost pierced Red Volcano's core, taking him out of the fight with her sword before being repealed.
Yes, the Villains had been underestimating them, but the fact Kori could manage that…
Shaking her head, Kara refocused on the task at hand. Soon, the Joker was locked inside a stasis pod in her first laboratory, the device itself protected in every way she could think of, she even attached the magic drain to his pod just in case.
Later, after she got her companions out of the base, she'd use the Medbay to operate on him. Her tech could keep him alive as long as the brain was intact and a head was much easier to store.
For a second, she stared at the frozen body inside the pod, then thought about Klarion's arm still in her safe… Kara sighed.
Being honest with herself, she quite enjoyed the Mad Scientist motif she was cultivating, but collecting body parts… She never wanted to be that kind of Mad Scientist. "Kal must never find out."
Ordering the drones to take her more valuable devices to the second lab, Kara also blocked access to the entire room. The damn Joker should stay there until she built him a true prison… or found a way to kill him and make it stick. She knew the universe had ways of annihilating a soul, even if she couldn't remember any right now.
Ten minutes later, she stepped into the Medbay, armor still on. Kite-Man was already missing from the place, but the Detective was analyzing some of her computers.
Catwoman was still on the medical table, there was a box covering her chest area while some of Kara's medical bots worked, but the woman was awake for it.
"So, am I in the market for new swimsuits?" the thief asked.
"Don't worry," Kara said, opening the information on her display. "Actually, I've no idea, but even if it looks bad, I'm sure I can fix you… On an unrelated note, how do you feel about biomechanical enhancements?"
"Kara, that really doesn't make me feel better!" Selina growled, even with the rest of her body immobilized, her eyes were still alert.
"No, really, human bodies are surprisingly simple, as long as you get to one of my laboratories alive I can fix anything physical, and I do mean anything. But that doesn't mean I can't make improvements if you want."
"I'd rather keep my body as is, thank you," Selina said, letting her head rest on the bed. "I spent far too much effort getting it just right."
"What about bigger breasts?" Kara teased, reading the data with a frown. "I can make them entirely natural… Talia's are quite large."
Quickly, she took a look at Kite-Man's information, he had lost the arm, but that was easily fixed though so she switched to Poison Ivy. The Villain being the most wounded by far… And the most puzzling.
"As much as I enjoy hearing your amusing friendship ritual," Detective Chimp said while stepping away from the computers and pocketing a memory stick. "I'd rather be sent back to the planet now. I've a borrowed sword to return and half an hour of footage to review."
Kara frowned harder. There shouldn't have been any clues they weren't on Earth, her base was made to mimic the planet perfectly, but she couldn't really say she was surprised he had figured it out.
"Have you ever heard of a demon called Neron?"
"Can't say the name's familiar," Bobo shrugged, then scratched at his chin in thought. "Ah, he's the organizer then? Must be powerful to have Circe as an ally, I'll have to ask around."
"I'll send you a report later, I don't think my drones caught our meeting," With a look, one of the Karabots stepped away from the wall and nodded to the Chimp. "Just follow the robot and it'll send you back."
"Right," Bobo gave the robot an odd look, but followed it, just as he was about to leave the room, he stopped. "By the way, I think I've a lead on the girl you had me searching for. It's weak, but if I've time I'll follow it."
"Thank you, Detective. I appreciate the help," Kara called out as he was walking away.
Bobo didn't turn back or stop, just lifting a hairy arm in the air and waving dismissively, but Kara's senses didn't miss his satisfaction at hearing it.
"Alright," Kara finally closed Selina's file and turned to her friend. "I've good and bad news, which do you prefer?"
"Damnit, you said you could fix everything!"
"I can," she quickly amended. "It's just gonna take a little longer than expected."
"Fine, what's wrong and how can you fix it?"
"Well, the plant pierced through your liver, stomach and one kidney, almost completely destroying them. It also injected you with a combination of Demonic magic and the Blockbuster formula that mutated them and infected your lungs but didn't quite reach your heart. The drug is what's keeping them functioning for now.
"Now, I've already drained the magic away and the amount of Blockbuster wasn't enough to fully mutate the rest of your body, but I'll need to remove it from your system, and the fastest way of doing that is to excise the affected areas."
Without even making noise, the box around Selina's chest retreated back into the table, revealing her bandaged body. With her organs empowered by Blockbuster, she was able to function for a week's time, but they'd cause problems if left alone.
"Shit," Selina pushed herself into a sitting position and tried to stretch like a cat, but had to wince as it pulled at her wounds. "Kara, correct me if I'm wrong, but humans need their organs."
Kara sat on a large chair, made specifically so she could lay on it with her armor on and crossed her legs. "As I keep reminding people, I can easily clone body parts and I can transplant them with no rejection chance. It will only take a few days to grow the replacements, and about a month of recovery, less if it weren't for the Blockbuster. After that you can go back to your normal activities."
Selina grimaced again, a hand carefully touching the bandages on her chest. "Is there no other way?"
"Well, I've someone working on cleansing the effects of Blockbuster, but that's still months away, and I believe you already made your stance clear about the augmentation thing," Kara leaned back in her chair and glanced down at her prosthetic leg. "With mechanical replacements, you could be better than before in three days, but I can honestly say I understand the reluctance."
"I'll be out of action for an entire month then? Can I at least exercise?"
"You know," Kara said, smiling inside her helmet. "I think I can convince Batman to take care of you if you want?"
"What, and stay together with the hussy he's watching over?"
"Well, the alternative is to continue to leave him alone with Talia…"
"Well, when you say it like that," Selina mumbled, then her face lost some of her sadness, turning into a cheshire smile. "Defeating so many Villains without a single civilian hurt was quite heroic wasn't it? I suppose I can relax in a cave for a month, it's surprisingly quite comfortable."
"Good, I'll have things ready in three days."
"I suppose Kite-Man is already dealt with, but what about Ivy?"
"I'll have to wait a few days to figure it out, actually," Kara put her chin on her fist as she thought about the Villain's situation. "The infernal magic is dealt with, and I was planning on having her go through the cleansing when it was ready, but her body's more plant than human and it seems to be… overcoming the substance."
"Well, I've seen her regrow limbs before, I don't know why I'm surprised."
With a command, Kara had one of her bots fetch Kite-Man. With a sample of his DNA, she'd have a new arm for him in only two days, then she'd be just as happy to never have them on her moon base again.
A little over an hour later, Kara had both Villains standing on top of the teleport platform, she was just about done with people hanging out in her personal sanctum.
"I'll see what I can do about your recovery location," she said, being vague now that Kite-Man could hear the conversation.
"You know, I'm really warming up to the idea," Selina smiled. "Perhaps it's time this stray found a home."
"Can I stay with Ivy until she recovers? I want to be there for her," Kite-Man asked, trying to gesticulate with a missing arm and frowning at the result.
"... No." with a click, Kara had them both disappear, sent back to Selina's bar at Gotham before they could say anything else.
She still had to check on the result of the battle, but she still hadn't had her bath. She could debrief tomorrow.
In another flash, she teleported directly into her apartment, finally unlocking her armor and taking off her helmet, freeing her hair. With a sigh, she stepped out of the armor in her skintight suit, some of it damaged where she had to purge the flower spores.
Kara had taken far too long dealing with things at her moon base, so she assumed Kori was already sleeping. She knew she certainly wanted to go to bed.
Dexter was waiting for her at the bathroom door, mewing loudly and scratching his body against the wood from side to side before looking up at her. With a smile, she lifted him in her arms, touched his nose with her own, and put him on top of the sink, letting a small stream of water run so he could drink.
By the time she managed to fully strip, the cat was done drinking and jumped to the floor, running out of the bathroom and letting her close the door.
Opening the shower stall, she widened her eyes to see a filled bathtub waiting for her. It was formed from her own nanomachines, the surface covered with bubbles and flower petals scattered all over the edge.
Rao, she loved Kori.
Nearly an hour later, Kara stepped out of the bath and used a blast of heat vision to dry herself, her mood greatly improved. Walking into her bedroom she froze, her brain taking a second to recover from the impact it had just received.
Kori was lying on her bed, covered in sweat and with a sheepish smile on her face. "Apologies, watching you deal with so many Villains may have affected me a little too much, I could not wait."