Chapter 2
Earth-205
"Good work, Kate!"
The Challengers of the Unknown, once again, had closed the book on one of their always unusual and fantastic cases.
This case involved a disgraced scientist, Olan Tagorian, sentenced to prison for numerous violations of the Patriot Act, including selling equipment and knowledge to terrorists for profit. Tagorian sought revenge on the FBI – namely, senior agent and liaison to the Challengers Tobias Fornell – going so far as to put a hit on Fornell.
When the Challengers were sent to capture Tagorian, the scientist fought back with his so-called "infinity machine" – a device which tapped into the multiversal bleed, dragging animals and beings from other worlds to Earth-205 and, in the process, causing havoc with the bleed. The Challengers were ordered to shut the device down.
Challenger agent Kate Todd went above and beyond to do so, including befriending a baby dinosaur ripped from his world, whom helped Kate and the Challs turn the tables on Tagorian and rescue Fornell.
At the moment, the team was finishing up the case, filing paperwork at its Challengers Mountain facility and seeing Tagorian off to Belle Reve Supermax prison in Louisiana. Kate was in Evidence, taking photographs of the machine to send to the FBI and inter-dimensional expert Professor Emil Hamilton.
Kate turned around to write a few notes in her pad, and saw a bright light from behind her, and the machine; she grabbed her P229 phase pistol, whipped halfway around and pointed it at the source of the light.
What she saw was herself, if she was blonde, and wearing the craziest red-and-blue one-piece uniform somebody could dream up.
"Caitlin Rose Todd of Earth 205," said the blonde woman, hovering four feet above the ground, with a yellow-and-white aura emanating from her body, "we have need of you."
Kate looked at her with much suspicion, her right hand aiming the gun at the woman (and finger on the trigger), her left hand reaching for her phone; not moving her eyes off the stranger, she dialed her team's squadroom.
"Gibbs," said her boss.
"Gibbs, I need backup right now. Unknown female has just appeared in evidence, next to the machine. Intentions unknown at this time," Kate said into her phone. "Don't you move an inch, lady."
"On my way." Gibbs hung up his desk phone and ordered his other four agents – Tony DiNozzo, Ziva David, Paula Cassidy and Tim McGee – to follow him down to evidence ASAP. Meanwhile, Kate was trying to hold the woman at bay.
The woman began moving towards Kate, who steadied her finger on the trigger of her pistol.
"You are ordered to stay put…no. Drop to your knees. Hands behind your head, cross your legs," Kate yelled at her. "Do it. Do it right now. NOW."
"Caitlin, we have need of you," said the woman, with Kate's own face and voice. "The monitor needs you."
Gibbs and four of the other Challengers ran into the room, weapons locked and loaded, and all aimed at the stranger.
"Identify yourself," Gibbs yelled at her. "Who the hell are you, what are you doing here?!"
The woman didn't bother to answer him.
She simply disappeared…and Kate disappeared with her, leaving five men and women in shock.
Of all the people to lose, Kate was the one Gibbs simply couldn't live without. Nor would he.
"MCGEE!" he screamed, more loudly and with more fear than any of the others had ever noticed from Gibbs. "GET ABBY, TELL ME WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED…NOW MCGEE!"
"Uh, y-yes, Boss," McGee said, taking off in a sprint towards Forensics.
The Auditorium
The three women mapped out the venue they had taken to calling 'The Auditorium', and found a kitchen stocked with fruits, vegetables and breads, and running water in sinks next to cupboards filled with plates and utensils. They also found restroom and shower facilities with a variety of soaps and shampoos, and adjacent rooms stocked with towels of varying sizes.
"At least we won't starve," Lantern said, sitting in one of the chairs; she considered having her ring make a couch for all three to recline in, but opted to conserve the ring's power supply.
"That is good, healthwise for ourselves, assuming the food and water are safe to consume," the Bat replied. "I want you to have your ring do a scan of the food and water, to ensure they are safe and not poisonous."
"I can do that," Superwoman said, cheerfully. "Microscopic vision. Tell me what to look for."
They figured out what to look for, and Superwoman determined the food and water were safe to consume. The three returned to their chairs and, at Lantern's insistence, the mid-20s blonde Superwoman began telling her story, hands clasped and legs crossed.
"My name's Julie, but my birth name is Kara, you can call me either one," she began. "I don't remember much about Argo. My birth parents put me in the Matrix, mother comforting me, father saying they were sending me someplace safe but they couldn't come with me. Then the matrix closed, I felt a shudder and I was away, my mind filled with as much of Krypton's history and culture, and the House of El's story, as possible.
"I landed in a cornfield east of Indianapolis, and was found by my other parents, Arthur and Melissa Todd. And they had their youngest daughter, Kate - you, but not you? Green Lantern? Not you either...sorry, BatKate. Back to my story: the matrix decided to change my appearance to make me look like Kate, maybe a more athletic version, few inches taller, but just like her.
" So...they raised me as one of their own, and helped me find my way, and learn how to use my powers the best I could. They also helped me find Kal-El, who lived in Metropolis as...can I say it?...oh? Of course. He's the same guy, both of you?...Clark Kent. His rocket landed in a cornfield, too, but this was in Kansas, and he grew up in a small town...you don't have to glare at me, Bats! That's rude!
"Kal, Clark, wanted to use me as his secret weapon, and dad would have none of it. He thought I deserved to operate out in the open if I wanted to, and I really wanted to. Finally Kal and Diana and Bruce put me with the Titans, and it was awesome to cut loose a little.
"Moving forward...I dated someone named Gar, Beast Boy, who could turn into all kinds of animals - speaking of, I got to bring some animals to help us out!...in a minute, okay, Bats...there was the Legion, where I met another cute boy, Querl, Brainiac 5, and really got to cut loose! And then I came back to the present - the Legion's in the future, Kate Lantern...you should ask Kal about them - and nearly died in the Crisis, but another Supergirl died in my place, and it was really said. That was a few years ago.
"Since then, I was asked to join the JLA, which is run by a guy named Max Lord...you know him Kate Lantern? You rolled your eyes. You don't like him...don't wanna talk about it? OK...I worked with them while training in FLET-C to be a federal agent. My 'twin' sister did, too, and she chose to go into the Secret Service and protect the President. I went into NCIS…you both know of them? Good...I work for a guy named Gibbs, and there's Tony, McGee, and Ziva, and Abby in the forensics lab, and Ducky and Jimmy in the morgue, and sometimes Paula and Cassie and Callen and Sam work with us, and we have Jenny who runs the agency with Leon as her deputy...and that's it…oh, one more thing: I wanna show you my animals."
Lantern and the Bat looked at each other. "Animals?" the Bat said. "What animals? Where are they?"
"Hiding," Superwoman said, following up with a loud whistle.
From out of nowhere appeared a white terrier; an orange cat; a brown gorilla; and a white horse, all wearing the familiar red Superman cape, with the 'S' outlined in black over the yellow shield.
"I…I gotta admit; I didn't expect this at all," said Lantern, as the horse nuzzled the side of her head. The gorilla took a position next to Superwoman, while the dog nuzzled Batwoman's leg (to her chagrin, and Lantern's amusement).
The cat, looking extremely annoyed by everybody, sat to itself in the middle, as Superwoman made her introductions.
"This is Tony, my Superdog; Stinky my Supercat; Beppo my Super Gorilla - don't worry, he's a gentle giant, unless you're one of the bad guys; and Comet my Superhorse," Kara/Julie said. "Beppo's from Krypton, the others are from Earth but got exposed to Sparkly Kryptonite which gave them my superpowers."
"Sparkly Kryptonite?" Bats replied.
"Yes. Gives earth animals superpowers," Kara/Julie said, as if that explained everything. "So anyway, enough about me. What about you...BatKate?"
Kate Todd, aka Batwoman, aka BatKate, began telling her story, as Tony the Superdog jumped on her lap.
"My family was originally from Indiana, but we moved to Gotham, a decision I did not agree with. I was in no position to argue, so I decided to make the best of it. As long as we didn't wander into the worst parts of town, we were safe.
"Until May 25, 2005, three years ago.
"I had graduated from Gotham University with a degree in criminology and was considering a career in the Secret Service. My family and I were out celebrating - all of us kids were out of the house by now, some of us lived in the city, some flew in. We rented a room at my dad's favorite Italian restaurant, and were enjoying the afternoon.
"Then he showed up...who is he?
"His name is Ari.
"He's from Israel, angry at his father who tried to turn him into a double agent, came to America, and took out his rage by committing atrocities. He fell into a vat at a chemical plant, and renamed himself the Joker. The Batman - Bruce, Bruce Wayne - Bruce has tried to capture him for years and Joker's always found a way to escape.
"One of those times, he came to the restaurant, and killed almost everyone. He killed my family. He didn't kill me. Oh, he tried. But I fought him...I know I only survived because Bruce and Dick and some of the Leaguers showed up.
"Bruce took me in and offered to train me, but he went too hard at first. I was too angry, and too hurt, to understand what he was trying to do for me. I wanted to bail, but one of the other Leaguers, one of the Original Eight - Sergeant Steel, Gibbs - made him back down. Gibbs took me on, and trained me, and by September I was working alongside Gibbs - Sgt. Steel - and with the Titans.
"That lasted for a few months, until Joker killed Gibbs.
"I felt lost and as if everyone was coming against me - Joker, that insane Mossad agent trying to use me to lure Joker, DEO Director Shepard, Waller and the Suicide Squad, that creepy woman Isley who kept making advances towards me - and it took Diana, Kara and Shayera to get me to a calm place where I could make rational decisions about my future.
"One of which was to talk with Bruce, who has turned out to be as much of a mentor and supporter as Gibbs would've been. I took my codename, Batwoman, in honor of Bruce, and my uniform include portions of the Sgt. Steel armor in honor of Gibbs.
"I work alone, and with Gibbs and his ward - currently Jason Todd, no relation...believe me, we've thoroughly checked his background four times - and with other so-called "superheroes" as necessary...that is my story, Kara, as you requested."
Lantern reached over and hugged her in comfort. Batwoman – her lap full of dog – nodded her sympathy.
Lantern then briefly reviewed what she had just heard, and how she herself got to this auditorium.
The stories the other Leaguers had told her about the multiverse – including their adventures on 'Earth 2', which had its own dopplegangers of her Earth's Justice League and Justice Society – didn't ring as true as what she was experiencing right now, first hand.
Lantern hoped her League teammates had noticed her absence, and were trying to find her.
In the meantime, she decided to take charge.
"Before we can figure a way out of here, we need to determine where 'here' is," Lantern said. "Those windows. Are we looking out at the night sky? Or space?"
"Space, most likely," Bats said. "Outer space provides more clarity than just about anywhere on Earth, due to the absence of the atmosphere—"
"And if we see stars, we can chart the sky," Superwoman said. "I'll volunteer. Astronomy is a hobby of mine, and I used the stars when Kal had me fly out to Neptune to take pictures for NASA."
"Excuse me," Lantern said. "Fly to Neptune. For NASA. To take pictures."
"Yes," she replied. "Kal was doing a survey of Saturn."
"If we see stars, and they're as clear as you suggest, that means we're in space, and that means we're on a ship," Batwoman said. "Can you see out? Either of you?"
Superwoman could not; her vision extended only to the walls. Lantern's ring couldn't get a read on anything outside the auditorium. So they went to the windows, and identified some familiar constellations – and planets.
"I see what looks like Saturn, if we were in Earth orbit," Kara said. "And at the same distance it should be from Earth. That would mean we're in orbit above an Earth….Great Scott!"
Lantern scrunched her eyebrows while Batwoman rolled her eyes at that exclamation.
"Great Scott!" Superwoman said. "That's a planet below us."
A few minutes later, they determined they were looking down at south China, and the ship was going east over the Pacific. Thinking quickly, Lantern used her ring to take a picture of what she knew to be Hong Kong.
"Five miles is as close as I could get, but I'll toss it up in the...uh, air." Lantern created a high-definition screen, showing images of downtown Hong Kong, Kowloon and Victoria Harbour.
"The city looks contemporary, to my own world and era anyway," BatKate observed, and the others agreed. "So this is an Earth. Not necessarily our own."
"When and if we pass over North America, Julie and I can look for major cities - Los Angeles, Metropolis, New York, Washington, Chicago-" Lantern said, only to be interrupted by a bright light on the other side of the station.
Harbinger was back, and she brought friends with her.
Specifically, more doppelgangers, apparently filling out this League she told Kate Lantern about.
The first doppelganger to introduce herself was adorned in red and yellow - with a tuff of brown hair sticking out the top and a brown ponytail out the back of her mask - and spoke very fast.
"HimynameisKateToddI'mfromIndianapolisandI'mtheFlashofmyworld," she said, pausing to take a breath, then resuming.
"IwashitbylightningwhileworkingacaseinHomicideandIgainedsuperspeedIstillworkfortheIndianapolisPoliceDepartment-"
Superwoman was following along just fine.
"doyouknowGibbs?He'smybossDoyouknowTonyandMcGeetheyworkwithme-"
Batwoman tried to follow along. Lantern relied on her ring to translate, and prepared to fill the Bat in with details.
"-andAbbyshe'sinthecrimelabandDuckyhe'sthecity'smedicalexaminerIalsoworkwitheJusticeLeague-"
Lantern needed the ring just to follow along. She just hoped it didn't put too much of a strain on its reserves; it'd been 11 hours since she recharged it.
"Whoa!" Lantern said, holding up both hands. "Calm down. Relax."
KateFlash did as she was asked. "Sorry," she said. "I just got pulled from a battle with Guy and Dinah against the Rogues, and against Zoom. That woman who looks like...us...said it was matter of life and death."
"Literally," Batwoman replied. "Although, she has yet to explain exactly why she needs us, and the specific nature of the threat."
"Maybe she was waiting to get them," FlashKate replied, and the other three women looked past her and saw 13 more heroines.
Looking left to right, the first person Kate Lantern saw wore Ollie Queen's Green Arrow uniform, the cowl version. Another was dressed in Black Canary's fishnet uniform, and both were suspiciously eyeballing the other.
There was a Hawkwoman, with the familiar hawk mask and mace, and Lantern saw a tiny figure on the Hawkwoman's shoulder wearing Ray Palmer's Atom uniform.
Then there was a Kate dressed in Firestorm's uniform, and Lantern briefly wondered who the other person in the matrix was - Gibbs? Tony? Ducky? Abby, McGee? Ziva? Ronnie Raymond?
Next to her was a white Martian, who morphed into a uniform that looked like something a modest female J'onn J'onzz would wear - and she definitely looked like the other Kates.
Moving to the right past Kate the Manhunter (?), was a Kate android, looking like a female Red Tornado. Besides her was another Kate, wearing Zatanna's tuxedo uniform.
And, a Kate dressed in Aquaman's orange and green uniform; a Kate with pale white skin who looked like Metamorpho; a Kate garbed, head to toe, in all Platinum; and a Kate wearing Ted Kord's Blue Beetle costume.
Lantern looked upwards, and saw the classic 'Bug' airship hovering above them.
Finally, a woman, in a purple suit, yellow piping going down one side, arms folded, and very annoyed, stood in front, looking like she was going to rip into Harbinger if she could just get her hands on the woman.
She wasn't the only one.
"Well, ladies, looks like we have our League," Lantern said. "Perhaps we can finally get to business-"
She was interrupted by another bright flash, and a moment later, Harbinger had disappeared, again, leaving 16 women to themselves, all whom had questions, either confused or frustrated.
"Looks like she's not done yet," Superwoman said.
"Maybe not," Lantern replied. "Let's not sit around and wait for her. Let's meet these other women, then figure out a way off this ship."
SUPERWOMAN (Kara Zor-El/Juliana "Julie" Fern Todd) of Earth-120
PERSONAL DATA
Occupation: Federal Agent, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, assigned to Washington, D.C.
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Zor-El (natural father), Alura (natural mother), Kal-El (cousin), Jor-El (uncle, deceased), Lara (aunt, deceased), Arthur and Melissa Todd (adoptive parents), Roger, Daniel and Gerry Todd (adoptive brothers), Rachel Todd Cranston (adoptive sister)
Group Affiliation: Legion of Super-Heroes, Titans, Justice League of America
Base of Operations: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Washington, D.C., USA
Height: 5'10" Weight: 150 lbs.
Eyes: Hazel (as Julie), Blue (as Kara/Superwoman) Hair: Blonde
HISTORY
On the ill-fated planet Krypton, Zor-El was the greatest scientist in Argo City, and the creator of the weather-proof plastic dome that covered the city. When the planet exploded, Argo was hurled into space in one piece, with its atmosphere kept intact by the dome. A few years later, Zor-El's daughter Kara was born. Unfortunately, Argo City's survival was unsustainable.
The ground beneath the city turned to deadly Anti-Kryptonite, and a floor of sheet lead was laid to protect the people. However, a meteor shower struck Argo City, puncturing the dome and the protective lead layer. As the situation disintegrated, Zor-El and Alura rushed to put their baby daughter into a matrix, and guide it away from the doomed space city.
The matrix rocketed away as Argo City died, heading towards Earth, the home of the Last Son of Krypton...young Kal-El, Zor-El's nephew and Kara's cousin.
The rocket landed in rural Indiana, and an Indianapolis couple - Arthur and Melissa Todd - happened to be driving through with their three-year-old daughter, Kate, looking at property Arthur had just purchased. They stopped, saw the matrix ship with a toddler secured inside, and took pity; meanwhile, the matrix was reconfiguring Kara's body and DNA to resemble the couple's daughter.
Somehow, Arthur was able to guide the matrix's artificial intelligence into a hiding place underneath a barn on the property, then used his connections to build a paper trail that basically allowed he and Melissa to take on the alien girl as their long lost daughter; he also prevailed upon a contact in the FBI - agent Tobias Fornell - to build a false backstory, linking her to supposed distant relatives from Italy and Serbia. They renamed her Juliana Fern Todd, and raised her as one of their own.
Several years later, when Julie was in middle school Kal-El revealed himself as Superman. Arthur, an attorney, traveled to Metropolis on business and reached out to the young Man of Steel, confiding in him; in turn, Kal-El - shocked, and happy to meet another Kryptonian - agreed to train young Julie in the use of her powers. At first, Superman trained to operate in secret, but eventually agreed to allow her to operate openly after the initial large wave of heroes began operating in the United States. She was part of the first version of the Teen Titans, and upon Superman's urging joined the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes; later, after a crisis which nearly destroyed her universe and dozens of others, Kara/Julie joined Maxwell Lord's Justice League, where she is a member in good standing.
POWERS & WEAPONS
Kara/Julie has all of the powers of Superman, including super-strength, invulnerability, flight, super-speed, X-ray vision, heat vision, microscopic and telescopic vision, super-breath, super-ventriloquism, and a super-brain.
