So this chapter and Ascension's slot are switched, with Ascension being posted sometime on Friday.
Chapter Two "Message in a Bottle Part One."
It was back to the old grind as it always was at Patronus Incorporated on that morning. Harry and Kara in particular took a moment to sit back, kick back, and hopefully make sense of what they were going to plan to do next. The Birds of Prey group was getting off the ground, the expanded Young Justice group was getting off the ground, and as for them, well they were getting back into the swing of things, despite the problems.
"The city is oddly quiet this morning," Kara said in an observational tone she watched Harry with a frown who nodded beside her.
"Yeah, it's too quiet," Harry answered whilst he leaned back and listened a little bit to his surroundings. There were times where a moment of quiet was a good thing but there were days like this one where quiet could be a bad thing. And the couple waited for the other shoe to drop, where something would occur to bring them out of their thoughts and into a potentially problematic situation.
Whilst they waited, Harry and Kara went through the reports for the weeks that they were off training. Stocks took a dip in some way but remained steady in other ways. They actually remained strong all things considered, being in the midst of a potential global recession that brought many companies to their knees and put them under. That was something else that the Justice League was blamed for, despite the fact that they had no reason or just cause for putting any of those companies down.
'People will find a scapegoat for anything,' Kara thought as she bit her lip and added in a frustrated mental tone. 'And controversy creates cash. I can't forget about that old gem stone, I really can't.'
Time ticked on by with Harry and Kara figuring out what they needed do next. Their plans were to train up their powers, the powers of the Flamebird Entity, before they made their next move. The only problem is, their next move did not involve helping people who they considered to be ungrateful. No they refused to go down that route once again.
Supergirl and Arcane were still out there and they thanked Laura and Linda for keeping up that charade.
"So, Laura has been the newest blonde to catch your eye," Kara commented as she blinked and watched Harry, before a calculating smile. "Only one more to go, you know."
"I know," Harry answered but he did wonder if they could get lucky for a sixth time. Actually there were instances where he thought that he was very lucky all of these times. To get Kara in the first place, then Karen, then Linda, then Galatea, and then finally Laura.
"So why don't we fire on the Interstellar Portal to begin with and find our sixth and final blonde Kryptonian bride?" Kara asked, in a half teasing manner but Harry eyed her through narrowed eyes. "Harry, you remember what you said at Christmas over a year ago."
"Yeah I remember what I said," Harry commented as he looked back at Kara.
"So you remember what you said, but are you sticking by what you said?" Kara asked to him and then she added. "No one should hold you to a vow that you make when you are fifteen, almost sixteen years old. That might as well have been a life time ago."
Harry thought about that and he was very into Kara.
"You do know that you're the most special girl to me," Harry added as he eyed Kara, who responded with a careful nod, looking at Harry.
"Yeah, I know," Kara answered, a bright smile crossing her face. "But just because you have a favorite type, doesn't mean you can't like other types, does it?"
'Tell me that someone of his status can get as many bitches as he wants,' Galatea thought to Kara through their own bond link. Between all of the links, those two had the strongest due to the fact that they were twins.
Kara frowned but Harry chuckled when he reached forward and gripped Kara's hands, holding them nicely in his.
"You know Kara, she does have a point, but I did say six versions of you first," Harry responded and Kara nodded in agreement. "And I can tell that there are other women who might have their eye on me."
'That's telling, I can feel the lust radiating off of them,' Karen thought before she decided to bring up the question. 'Raven might be a good choice, wouldn't you think?'
'Half demon, that could be pretty damn kinky,' Kara chimed in carefully. "And there's always Diana and M'Gann and Starfire…."
'It's almost like you girls have a wish list or something,' Harry thought but he'd be lying if he did not think about the possibilities more strongly. Especially since his latest upgrade with powers even if he'd love his Karas beyond all other girls but perhaps tastes changed slightly or were added to when one grew older.
There was no time to think about that when the alarm buzzed to light and Kara bolted up, before she picked it up.
"Someone help….help….help me!" a strangled voice yelled as he was knocked on the back of his head and dropped down to his knees. The man was dropped to the ground with a thump.
Kara recognized his voice immediately and her eyes widened.
"Kal," Kara breathed heavily as she clutched her hands together and began to fire up the Interstellar Portal Device, without missing a beat. "We got to hone in on his coordinates, we're going to get there now."
Karen, Linda ,Laura, and Galatea swooped in as quickly as they could. It was almost as if they teleported in because they got there so quickly. Regardless they were there and everything was going to go together.
"Hang on Kal-El, I'll get to you as soon as I can, just hang on," Kara breathed, biting down on her lip, feeling the frustration and the distress. Harry placed a hand on hers.
"So, let's go save the day," Laura responded, in a firm voice, her eagerness contagious.
Galatea rolled her eyes a little bit but smiled. "Yeah, leave it to Kara's cousin to get himself in trouble."
"So when he gets himself in trouble, he's just my cousin," Kara answered with a cross look when she glared at Galatea.
"Yeah, pretty much," Galatea stated but Karen, being the oldest and most mature out of the group, decided to clear her throat and give a warning.
They stepped into the portal, to where, well they'd find out when they got there.
Clark found himself flying, without the aid of his powers. That was because he got tossed down into the pit by his slavers, landing in a dirty pit face first. He had been bombarded by enough yellow solar radiation to keep him alive enough to work. Despite his protests, he could not get through their heads that he was innocent of all crimes. He put the shovel in his hand and began to dig.
The red sun beat down over the back of his head, indicating that he was not going to get his powers back any time soon. His gambit for help was all for nothing and he hoped that he got through to the Patronus Incorporated main office complex. Even though it seemed like he was going to struggle to get that little bit done. His hands blistered when he tried to dig up the dirt that was beneath his feet and he gritted his teeth.
A whip cracked across his back, making his skin raw.
"Faster, baby killer."
Clark could not resist saying something, even though these words cut through him like a knife that stabbed him. "I don't know…I don't know what you think but….your people skills need work."
There was another huge crack and a whip, when his knees buckled slightly and now the man watched him carefully. His slimy skin offset a pair of black teeth, hat dripped with decay. Another woman, blonde, with brown eyes, stood in the slave pits, dressed in a white top with black jean shorts covering her legs. The slavers forced her to stand in the burning hot dirt despite the fact that she wore no shoes.
"Make sure to get this work done, we'll get back to work."
Clark gritted his teeth as he stumbled across the pit to work this other woman.
"So what's your story?" Clark asked as his heart beat heavily, feeling the exertion with no powers.
"I'm….I'm someone who they sent to help but they found me and forced me into these slave pits," the woman responded, her teeth gritting as she continued to mine for the precious minerals that this alien race needed to live. "I needed to find someone, anyone to help before it was too late."
Clark's eyes focused on the woman's before he asked the question. "What is too late? What are you talking about?"
The woman looked reluctant to part with any more information and Clark decided to offer her a calm voice and a smile, watching her carefully. He talked in what he hoped was an appeasing tone of voice.
"That's okay, you can trust me."
The woman thought that she might live to regret to trust him but told her tale.
"Years ago, I was part of a city of an alien planet that has long since perished. We were going about our business in the city, when suddenly there was a blast of light and we were engulfed by this ray. The city was vaporized or so they would believe on the outside world. However, that wasn't the case, it was merely shrunken and transported out into space, preserved inside a bottle."
"Who did this?" Clark wondered, when he leaned on the shovel, sweat continued to roll down his hands. His breathing became quite heavy and labored.
"I'm not sure but we were…we were in the city, divided into two groups," the woman stated in a fretful voice. "One of the groups went feral and decided to resort to cannibalism."
Clark grimaced at the thought.
"They were put down and thankfully we were able to sustain a food supply, at least for a short time but it is running out," the woman explained to Clark who nodded as he invited her to continue. "We salvaged what we could, to send one person to the outside world. It was a desperate gambit but I was captured, and they were starving."
"You're from Kandor, aren't you?"
The woman nodded, surprised at this knowledge. "How would you know?"
"I am Kal-El, I am among the last survivors of Krypton," Clark stated and the woman's eyes widened when she watched him.
"You must hurry, you must save them, for they will perish soon," the woman said, almost getting on her knees to plead with Clark. "Time has not passed in that world but people still have needs, and they will still perish from not having them fulfilled."
Clark wondered one thing and he decided to ask that question.
"Where is it? Where is the Bottled City of Kandor?"
The woman bit her lip quite nervously before she relayed the information to Clark, crossing her arms but she shook that thought off. She decided to bring him up to speed.
"The emperor of this planet, he's the one that has it, he collects antiques and a bottled city would be the rarest of them all. Especially if it's a bottled city of a dead planet."
"I wonder if the Emperor would like to collect a real life Kryptonian," Clark responded, he had a plan, he hoped that it would work. "Might I inquire what your name is?"
"It's…."
The woman was nailed in the back of the head and crumpled down to the ground, the eyes rolling into the back of the head when her limbs spasmed out of control when she slumped to the ground. Clark moved over to check on her but the lights were on and no one was home. She could barely breathe.
"You could have killed her," Clark stated but the nasty guard snarled at him.
"Why would you care? You've killed countless."
Clark decided to throw that statement back into their faces. "You know, using your position to bully people, that doesn't make you much better…..I want to speak with the Emperor."
The guard stepped back as he eyed Clark. "No one speaks to the Emperor."
"I know he has Kandor in his collection and I'm going to offer him a fair trade," Clark stated as he looked up at the guard from the pits. "Let my people free and I'll give him me. He can do whatever he wants to me. He can have the last Son of Krypton as a trophy on his wall."
"You drive an enticing bargain, killer," the guard stated, spitting his chew at Clark's feet nastily as he pondered it in his mind. "I shall return once I have spoken with our grand leader."
Clark knew that he was risking a lot by offering himself as a bargaining chip but his mysterious friend stated that Kandor was on its last legs. If he did not do something soon, the people of the city would all die. There were others like him in that bottled city, they deserved a chance to live a life, although they had no idea what it might be like.
He tended to his fallen friend in the meantime, hoping that he could revive her.
Harry lead the way, with his wives following behind him, the group knew what was on the line so there was no real need to run that over in their mind. All they needed to know was that they could really be up a creek without a paddle if they failed.
'Kal has to be here somewhere,' Kara thought, desperation filling her thoughts when she shifted her head over and she heard footsteps. 'And there's someone coming, just when this day couldn't get any better.'
'Stay sharp,' Karen thought, hoping that they could be friendly, although that was unlikely.
"Halt, no one will dare pass upon the stronghold of the Reach."
'The Reach?' Karen thought as she heard them. 'Oh boy, that can't be good.'
'What is the matter with that?' Kara wondered, she vaguely heard of them but she wanted to be for certain.
Karen was all too happy to offer an explanation to her sister wife. 'The Reach is a group of aliens who have gone to world after world, taking all of the resources and destroying the planet. At least this is true in my universe, although I'm sure it's true in….just a second."
Karen fired a blast of heat vision, wielding the door shut and Laura, Linda, and Galatea offered their own contributions. That should keep them out for a little while, although it would not keep them out for very long. Still they had to keep them out for long enough to figure out where they were going with their plan next.
'So the Reach,' Karen thought to them as she rolled her tongue and bit down on her lip. She then continued her mental explanation. 'They take over worlds under the pretext of helping them. They send a scarab which infuses with someone on that planet to use as a champion but in reality, that champion is a puppet of the Reach. They weaken the minds of the people on that world and mine for their resources. When the Reach is done, they leave the world barren and the people helpless, providing they don't blow the planet up.
'Charming,' Galatea thought as the doors burst open and she punched at her enemies hard. 'So we got another group of psychotic aliens with delusions of domination. Doesn't this day keep getting as good to me as it does for you?'
'Yeah, kind of,' Harry agreed, unable to help the smile that crossed his face when he knocked them back with a blasting spell. 'So what do the Reach want with Superman?'
'Best I can tell, he may have run into one of their planets that they inhabited when he was on his Darkseid inspired trek of domination,' Karen offered them with a shrug as she blasted her enemies with super breath, sending them forward. 'And they riled up the natives, thinking that they are in control.'
Kara punched one of the guards and held him by the throat, squeezing him around the throat. Her eyes widened and her teeth gritted when she spat out this next question. "Where is Superman?"
"The pits…the slave pits….you'll never get to him, no one leaves the pits alive," the guard spat as Kara slammed him into the wall. His eyes rolled into the back of his head but he gasped out with a shuddering moan. "The only escape is the sweet and tender embrace of death. The other slavers…they feast upon the corpses of the lost, that is their own food source."
Kara's stomach turned as she tossed that guard out of the high window of the floor that she was on.
"That's nasty," Laura remarked as she pulled a face. "It's about as bad as people actually eating pigs."
"Oh come on, not this one again," Galatea stated as she looked at her youngest sister wife.
"They're sentient," Laura responded with a shrug but Harry stared at them, which got the two newest wives to fall back into line.
'Hear that humming,' Linda thought as she strained her hearing from the room that was the third door down.
'Yeah, I hear it, there's something happening,' Kara thought to Harry, grabbing his hand and the two flew forward into the next room. Galatea followed closely behind them, with the other three hovering closely behind them.
Kara gasped as she spotted it in all of its bottled glory, she could hardly believe her fortune or her luck but there it was before her. It disappeared when she was very young but it was Kandor, sitting there in a bottle.
'Kandor,' Kara thought, eyes widened, she could scarcely believe it and she moved closer to it, with Harry following before her. She peered with her vision, much sharper and much more acute then any human on Earth. Her hearing focused as well towards the inside of the bottle and she tapped on it. 'There….there might still be Kryptonians alive in there.'
'That's….impossible,' Galatea thought in a skeptical voice as she eyed her twin.
'I know but we got to find a way to help them, get them out of there,' Kara thought as she held the bottle in her hand, careful not to jostle them any. Moving it would be tricky, given that it could lead to an Earthquake like situation in the bottled city and that would be a mess in general. She frowned and bit down on her lip in deep thought.
'We need to think of something,' Karen thought beside them but before they could react, something happened.
A bright blue life engulfed Harry, Kara, and Galatea. The other wives stepped closer but before they could react, the blue light shrunk them down to microscopic size, bringing them into the bottle. They were sucked in, being drawn into the bottle.
"NO!" Laura yelled in a frantic voice; she reached forward and tried to grab the bottle but it was out of her reach. Linda grabbed her by the wrist.
"We need to find out what happened," Linda stated as the younger girl folded her arms and sadly hung her head, her stomach turning at the very thought of what happened.
"Oh I know what happened, Tea, Harry, and Kara, they all got sucked into that bottle."
Karen summed that up in a grim assessment. "That means they're in Kandor."
Clark found himself dragged along like a common criminal, something that he was not used to being the Man of Steel. Despite all of that, there was guilt that filled him, the thought that he caused deaths, even if he was an unwitting palm of Darkseid.
"You work for an enemy of the Reach, therefore you will be punished for your crimes," the guard stated in a nasty voice and then he spat his chew on the ground.
Clark could not resist with stating the next thing that came to his mind. He knew that there was a lot on the line and he was risking a lot by even opening his mouth. Still he had to say what he felt. "You know, that's a nasty habit to pick up."
The guard's face contorted into a nasty grin when he stared down the Man of Steel. Superman could tell that he mulled over whether or not to assault him in his mind. The Man of Steel could tell that this particular individual was sorely tempted by doing so. Yet, something held him back, not that helped Clark all that much. The Last Son of Krypton waited for the other shoe to drop and something to happen that would result in his freedom.
"The emperor is through this door, killer," the guard commented in his most nasty tone, when something flickered through his eye, it was a nasty expression, one that indicated that he would take care of Superman himself.
There were footsteps and the guard pulled himself up. Karen showed up and blew him over with her super breath as she grabbed him around the neck and slammed him against the wall.
"Kal," Karen stated with a nod of her head, before she slammed her enemy into the wall.
"So I see you got my distress signal," Clark commented as Karen dropped down, focusing her heat vision before she burned the cuffs of his wrists. This allowed him more movement, even though his powers were not completely restored.
Karen smiled at her cousin. "Yeah, and you can't stay out of trouble for one day."
"I was following a lead on Kandor," Clark stated as he threw his hands into the air defensively. "There's this other woman, she was in the pits, her name….well she didn't get to say it but she was Kryptonian as well. And she was from the bottled city of Kandor."
"Harry, Kara, and Tea got sucked into the bottled city of Kandor," Karen answered without warning or pretext and Clark sped up as fast as he could go.
"There was some kind of yellow solar chamber around here, it gave me enough powers to work in the fields but not enough to…." Clark told them but he stopped. "He knew about it the entire time, he knew it was here."
"Who knew it was here, Kal?" Karen asked him, before Clark responded.
"Byth Rokk, he was a Thanagarian, a con artist, I wonder if he was the one who had the bottled city of Kandor," Clark stated, before he did an about face, and Karen, Linda, and Laura followed him down the hallway.
"Is it just me, or is anyone else confused about what in the name of Rao is going on?' Laura asked and then Linda patted her on the arm and gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Trust me, it's not just you."
The group moved forward as Clark lead the charge. He had something that he could ask about what was going on before him at all times but he neglected to really take advantage of him. Now it was the time where he would have to ask those burning questions, providing he knew anything. There were a million theories that rocked through the head of the Man of Steel, which twisted and turned his stomach like a knot that triggered many thoughts in the back of his head.
He knew about the entire bottled city at once, and maybe was the one who had his greasy little palms on it. Clark suspected that this Rokk character used the city as a bargaining chip for his own freedom, but these people decided to throw him away.
"It's a wonder that you haven't been sent to the slave pits like the rest of us," Clark remarked as he put the hands on the bar and stared down the winged vermin that stood before him. He looked at Karen. "She's in the field, go and rescue her."
Karen nodded, before she spun around and flew off, but Clark's eyes, along with that of Linda and Laura fixed on that of Rokk but to his credit, the winged warrior was cool and crisp as all could be when he eyed them. He carefully chose his next words, perhaps realizing that if he did not say the right thing, they would be among the last he would ever speak.
"Well naturally I wasn't going to brave the pits, because look at this face, damage these good looks, I mean come on now. I held onto Kandor and it's a good thing I did, it's a bargaining chip."
"My cousins and their husband got sucked into the city," Clark stated but Rokk stared back at him, uncaring expression dancing in his eyes.
"That's a shame but hey….at least they'll get to live in a bottled city. Until the Reach decides to destroy it in their attempts to extract whatever technology that they can, but such is life, isn't it?"
Clark's eyes widened as he reached through the bars of the cell. "What?"
"Don't shoot the messenger," Rokk stated defensively he threw his hands up. "I just don't….I don't want any trouble from you. Although with a temper like that, I can tell why the people of this planet wanted to not believe you. That's such a hostile temper, you could really hurt someone with your violence if you're not careful."
"I haven't even begun to get violent," Clark said in a dangerous voice, if he had heat vision, things would be ugly but Linda shook her head.
"Cool it Kal, he isn't even worth the breath," Linda stated as she cupped her chin in thought but Karen returned with her mysterious Kryptonian. "And there you are and you are…."
"My name is Raya, I was one of the people in the bottled city of Kandor," the woman stated in a tense voice. "I cannot believe that there would be other survivors outside the city, even if so many of you look similar. Are you sisters?"
"In a matter of speaking," Linda offered but they had a far bigger problem. "Two of our fellow wives and our husband, they got sucked into the city, with some kind of shrinking ray."
Raya frowned, that was not good, that was not good at all.
"I've been searching for a way to safely extract them before I was captured but so far that I've been unable to find a way," Raya stated but Karen turned around.
If there was a way, they would find it, with all of the technology at Patronus Incorporated. Karen tried to focus her link on Harry, Kara, and Galatea but they were now on a different plane, so their buzzing could not be heard.
"I don't suppose you can slip them a note," Laura stated jokingly.
"Maybe if we shrunk it down but a piece of paper would crush them," Karen mused thoughtfully. "I'm sure we'll think of something and soon."
That much was agreed upon, especially when Clark relied to them to the fact that they might not have that much time. The technology in Kandor was failing at an increased rate and would not be able to sustain people who lived in there for very long.
Kara blinked and breathed when she dropped down to the ground, making sure that her two spouses stood beside her as always. When she verified Harry and Galatea were there, she turned to them. Concern washed in her bright blue eyes as she gripped Harry's arm and tried to steady herself.
"Harry, Tea, are you okay?" Kara asked and the two spouses nodded. They looked around in awe, when they saw the cracked crystal towers around them and the architecture that could be only be made by one world. Her heart beat steadily as she took careful note of her surroundings. "We're inside the city."
"Great, we're inside the shrunken city," Galatea stated as she threw her head back and rolled her eyes slightly. "The shrunken city that's about to fall apart at any moment."
Kara turned around nervously, peering over her shoulder. Sure enough it was about to fall apart, but thankfully they had the ability to perform magic whilst still inside the city. That much was proven when they were able to levitate the rubble in above them. Their rings still worked, Harry and Kara's glowing white, while Galatea's glowed blue.
A pair of eyes peered from the other side of the building, with an apple sitting in the middle of the street. Two children dove at the lone apple and it was a rather alarming sight to see two children, barely old than six or seven, brawling over a piece of food.
Galatea sent a spell, to multiply the apple into several apples.
This was a mistake, as it caused a stampede of people to pick up the suddenly edible feud. Galatea shrugged, her face contorting into a frown before Kara and Harry grabbed her by the hands.
"Come on," Kara stated in a frustrated tone and Galatea's eyes filled with frustration but Kara understand where she was coming from. "It's going to be fine, believe me, I know things seem bleak but we'll find a way out. We always find a way out, that's who we are, that's what I do."
"Good luck, we've tried for years. You might be our last hope."
Kara, Harry, and Galatea spun around, their ears perked up when they heard the voice. The group edged forward, they figured that they saw someone, anyone in the shadows. But there was no one there, rather the group carefully edged forward, and the young woman standing in the shadows watched them.
"There used to be thousands of us, now less than three hundred, maybe four hundred, although disease continues to fill the city, a plague, and the ground has cracked, its seeping in," the woman commented as she watched them. "The radiation slowly kills us, this green death."
"Kryptonite," Kara whispered as her body shook. The same radioactive elements of the core would be there in this shrunken city. She stepped forward but suddenly the woman's eyes flashed with anger and surprise.
"You!"
Kara was surprised but then she stood rigid. "Me, what did I do?"
"You were born," the young woman stated, her eyes flashing with fury and Harry spun around, looking from Kara to the shadowed figure, frowning.
Galatea was not about to let this statement pass without a comment. "Could you stand to be just slightly more specific?"
The woman stopped and stared, if she had known who they are, there would be no way that she would have co-opted their technology and brought them into the city. Despite that, despite how she was loathed to admit it, these three were their only hope. They were the only hope for the salvation of Kandor, as much as that depressed her.
Kara in particular was more confused. She tried to access the bond link, she got to Galatea and Harry, but Linda, Laura, and Karen, that was a blank. Something severed the bond link when they were inside the city, exactly what that was, she could not say. Her stomach twisted in wonder and indeed plenty of worry when her eyes spun around to face the person in the shadows.
"Just come out and face us," Galatea encouraged she watched the person, about ready to drag her out and slap her around if she did not comply.
The woman in the shadows stepped out. She had shoulder length black hair but otherwise she resembled Kara. The blonde watched and she understood for a moment.
"Lila?" Kara asked in confusion, she heard that she was hear but never believed it.
"Faora!" the woman snapped hotly as she watched Kara. "They replaced me with you, don't think that I got over that!"
Harry felt tension now, and things were about to heat up.
To Be Continued in the Next Part.
Written on May 30th 2013, Published on October 25th 2013.