Chapter Fifty: The Return


The people of the Metropolis, at any time, always could look up into the sky and be confident they could see their caped protector flying over them. A couple of them looked up into the sky to see her, and the people of Metropolis returned to their daily work after catching a glimpse of Superwoman soaring up there. The people in this city smiled when they caught a glimpse of their heroine and their protector doing her duty.

"It does the heart good to see she's up there and watching over us," an old woman said. "Such a nice young woman….although she might be working too hard. Does she ever take a day off?"

Claire didn't adopt many principles from certain people, but one thing she would agree about was the fact crime never slept. Metropolis scaled down at a far lower crime rate than their neighbors of Gotham City. This lower than normal crime rate did not mean there were not the fair share of criminals. Some of them wanted to be the one who would tangle with Superwoman and hold his or her own.

'It's very amusing to see them try,' Claire thought. 'Until they put people in danger than it's less amusing.'

All about bragging rights, which Claire understood. Without Kryptonite, very few people could stand up to her, though, and most of them were threats not just to Metropolis, but the entire world.

'Now with vampires in the city, things are going to get rough,' Claire thought to herself. She stopped short and heard a couple of panicked screams.

Any thoughts of vampires would have to wait for another day, though. She could hear the screams and they were coming from the new Metropolis Subway System. It had been finished a couple of months ago and it had been a bustling center of commerce, cutting down on the traffic above in Metropolis by a significant amount.

Now that Claire had to worry about it, given her super powered way of flight, but that was beside the point. She shifted her head down and noticed a group of about eight hostages and about twelve heavily armed men. She could not make out much more without edging closer.

She edged closer. The Woman of Steel tried to figure out what she needed to do to take out these men. It might be easier to zip in and grab the hostages, taking them out of harm's way. Then she could focus on the terrorists in the train and hope to pick them off one at a time.

Claire took a moment to figure out if there were any occupational hazards which could cause a problem. She realized there was one really big one which could have caused her a severe fit or two.

They had a bomb, which made everything a bit trickier to deal with. The Woman of Steel crossed her arms and prepared to make her move. She was pretty sure if she got the bomb out of there, it would be…..

Those thoughts had been interrupted for the time being when something really fast zipped past Claire's shoulder. The Woman of Steel watched, eyes widen when someone flew at the speed of light in the subway system. The person moved so fast past her Claire could not even process what this person was doing. She only had one thought.

'Damn.'

The goons on the train held their hostages in tight. These men did not care about the discomfort their captives were under. They only sought to see the world burn. A woman sobbed when she was on her hands and knees. The poor hostage wondered if she would ever see her children ever again. A tense situation got even worse.

"Why?"

"SHUT UP!" one of the terrorists snapped.

Said terrorist had been knocked over at the speed of light. The others turned around, and a super fast blur took them down faster than they could go.

A second blur joined the first blur and flew up towards the edge of the train. She ripped the bomb out of the train. It had been armed and would go off in about two minutes.

Superwoman kicked up into the air, the bomb pinned between her fingers. She kept flying higher and higher, holding her breath in. Once she reached a certain spot, the bomb started to ice over. Claire flew higher yet trying to get the bomb as far as way from civilization as possible.

She thought this was not an ideal thing in the world given her super powers. Claire let go of the bomb and it detonated harmlessly above the Earth. The debris knocked Claire back down and caused her to plummet.

Immense heat surrounded her body. She dripped in sweat when flying down to Earth. The fireproof material on the suit managed to keep her from completely burning up on re-entry.

Someone swooped down from underneath her and caught Claire in her arms. Claire watched as the woman descended down to Earth with Claire in her arms.

Claire woke up to see all of the people on the ground, the hostages had been rescued, and the terrorists have been secured. The Metropolis Major Crimes Unit walked in. Captain Maggie Sawyer, of the MCU, rushed in. She was an attractive woman with short brunette hair. Maggie and Claire had a very close working relationship.

Maggie stooped down to look at Claire for a very long moment.

"Superwoman are you okay?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," Claire said. "Guess I'm not the only hero in town."

Claire looked up in the sky and caught a glimpse of the woman who had saved Claire from crashing down. She had shoulder length blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a smile. The front of her costume had been cut out, where a symbol might have gone. Instead, it showed a window of cleavage which flashed in front of Claire's face. The red cape fluttered in the wind, and the material only came down to the apex of her thighs.

"So, do you know her?" Maggie asked, catching a brief glimpse of the other savior.

"Maybe," Claire said.

'Could it be?' the Woman of Steel thought. 'No it's impossible.'

Claire reprimanded herself for thinking that. Nothing was impossible these days, absolutely nothing.


For the first time in a very long time, Helena smiled, and she smiled for a really good reason. She eased into the bond network, not surprised that Harry had a collective of women who could speak to each other in their thoughts. Something which she should have guessed from the beginning.

It did explain a lot about how Harry and his girls worked together in relative harmony.

'Does anything really bother you?' Sara asked.

'The fact I couldn't function for months without Harry Potter entering my mind every couple of hours was bothering,' Helena thought. 'But, now I got that taken care of, I can hopefully move on with my life.'

'You do have your father's stubbornness,' Talia thought.

'I'm not rather sure if I should take it as a compliment or an insult,' Helena thought.

Both women said nothing for a minute. Helena did not really expect an answer. It had been very shocking when she received one.

'Take it in any way you want,' Talia responded.

Helena thought it was fair enough. Talia likely could have meant what she said in any way. Still, she had finally relaxed, for the first time in a long time. Harry really knew how to put someone through the paces, and she was not lacking in fulfillment after her encounter with Harry. The two of them made their way up to the steps.

Bobbi and Daisy walked down the steps. The four of them separated in Gotham City, with Sara also sticking around to check up on a couple of old friends of hers, even though she could not reveal herself to them on the account of being legally dead. Daisy and Bobbi on the other hand reported back to headquarters.

"So, what's the latest news on the vampire situation?" Harry asked.

"Well, so far we have not been able to pin down Dracula, and Peggy is overturning every rock she can to find him," Daisy said.

"It makes sense she would have a better idea of where to look than a lot of people do," Harry answered.

"She does," Daisy said. "But, there's something else you should know. Not too far from here, there was a terrorist attack on the new Metropolis Train Station."

Harry raised an eyebrow, and Helena tensed up. Daisy leaned in to alleviate both of their concerns right away.

"No one was hurt, in fact, they were saved by Superwoman…and this new player on the chess board."

She handed Harry a blurry figure of a woman in a skin-tight bodysuit. Harry noticed the pictured focused on the cleavage of the woman. Not that was a bad thing per say, she had some nice cleavage. Harry just wished to have a clearer picture of the rest of her. He looked at it, noticing a hint of blonde hair, although it was mostly blurry.

"She's being dubbed Power Girl," Daisy said.

Harry studied the picture. He really wished he could get more than he did. He was pretty certain she did not allow the camera to photograph her face on purpose. As nice as those breasts were, one could not do a facial recognition off of them.

"Power Girl?" Harry asked. "Surely not Powerwoman, because it's obvious from this picture she's all woman."

Daisy's eyes drew towards the cleavage for a moment. Even in a photo, it seemed like it had some magnetic pull towards it. Which was why no one had been able to get a clear enough look at her face because they had been fixated by her breasts.

"Hey, I don't name them," Daisy said.

"We're getting off the subject, though," Helena said.

Daisy shook her head. She had this tendency to get side tracked way too many times. More times than she cared to count. Bobbi, to her credit, was able to pick up the slack.

"Lois Lane's encounter with the vampire cult here shows Dracula's influence is pretty far reaching," Bobbi said. "And he's not going to stop until he achieves his goal."

'He wanted the world, even when I fought him during the war,' Peggy thought.

Peggy hated to admit, it was Captain America who did most of the fighting. That was another lifetime ago for her, though. She stepped up and pretty much held an entire network together.

'One of his minions gave us the slip,' Buffy interjected. 'He's giving us a pretty big go around, but we're going to get him. I swear we're going to get him, one of these days.'

'Unless he's leading us into a trap, then we're the ones that are going to get it,' Faith thought.

'I think it's more likely he's running you two around in circles,' Harry thought. 'He doesn't want you to get close to his master…..but remember, you two and Elsa should keep close together. Don't split up.'

'Hey, we've seen enough horror movies to know splitting up is a bad idea,' Buffy thought. 'So, you want us to still work with Elsa?'

'Just keep her close,' Harry said. 'She's a lot better ally than she is an enemy.'

'Fair enough, although you should have given me a leash to put on her,' Faith thought. 'Unless you want to put the leash on her yourself, I wouldn't complain.'

Harry turned himself away from the bond conversation.

"So, what do we have today?" Bobbi asked.

"Meeting with Karen Starr, at Starrwave," Harry said. "She doesn't normally do meetings, although to be fair, she's still set up."

"And you managed to convince her to hold a meeting," Daisy said.

She shifted into a very knowing smile, knowing how this worked, at least how it worked with Harry. Very few women would turn down a meeting with him.


Karen Starr pinned her blonde hair back and wore a pair of glasses over her bright blue eyes. She wore a red blouse which had been unbuttoned slightly to give her chest enough room to breathe. She wore a modest length black skirt over her stocking clad legs and balanced on a pair of high heels.

She had spent the past year setting up since her return. Karen lifted her hand and noticed the silver ring with an "L" symbol on it. She could go back to visit the friends she made than at any time. The Kryptonian Survivor had pressing matters in the present to attend to.

One of the reasons why she chose this time to return to was Harry Potter would finally be moving beyond his old world and setting up here. Karen almost jumped at the opportunity to have a meeting with him. She was not one to beg for something. Karen prided herself on having a fair amount of restraint all things considered. Still, her excitement regarding meeting up with Harry could not be matched by any means.

The elevator door dinged and brought Karen out of her daydreams about Harry Potter. She turned her head around and noticed Harry walking towards them, with Helena Wayne. It was hard to believe Harry was only nineteen years of age because he carried himself with such a maturity and poise that many men.

"Ms. Starr, it's a pleasure to meet you at least," Harry said. "You're a very hard woman to pin down."

Karen smiled at the potential hard double meaning.

"Given what I've heard, you can be a pretty hard man to pin down," Karen said.

She moved closer towards Harry and smiled when sneaking a slight gaze in his eyes. It proved to be undoing. Harry's eyes had a very hypnotic appeal to them. Sometimes she wondered.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Helena said, breaking up the eye-fucking between the two of them before it could get out of hand.

There were a time and a place for hardcore sex, but Helena thought the boardroom wasn't most certainly the place. Well, maybe after business was conducted. Karen turned her attention to Helena and smiled.

"And you must be Ms. Wayne…"

"It's just Helena," the woman said.

"Then it's Karen," she responded.

"And then it's Harry," Harry said.

All three of them exchanged smiles with one another.

"Now that we're all on a first name basis, shall we begin?" Karen asked. Harry responded with a nod.

The three of them made their way into a very spacious looking boardroom. A large window of the back gave them a view of Metropolis. Harry could see anything from here, well in theory. From where he stood, the people in the city looked like little specks.

"So, why did you agree to meet with me?" Harry asked.

Karen had more personal reasons to want to meet with Harry. She decided to go with the mostly professional response, at least for right now.

"Well, you're setting up to change the world," Karen said. "I really want to get in on the ground floor of any change. Wouldn't you if you were me?"

Harry didn't deny he would want to. Hell, he was here with her right now because of a similar promise of change. He spent some time familiarizing himself with some projects Starrwave had been working on.

"I want to know more about the computer you've been working on," Harry said. "If you get it working, it has the strongest processing power in the world."

"Yes," Karen agreed. "It also has built-in virus protection, the most built in protection you can get. And it doesn't compromise the computer at all. The speed is still the same with the full protection as it is anywhere else."

Karen gave a sigh and she found a couple of flaws.

"Unfortunately there isn't any program on Earth which can stop people from clicking on links they shouldn't," Karen said. "And there's no program on Earth that can install common sense into the human mind."

Harry nodded. Helena leaned in and prepared to give her two cents.

"Why don't we research the common Internet scams, and find a way to nuke those e-mails and those links before it reaches the person," Helena said. "We might not be able to wipe them off of the Internet, but we can keep them from getting enough people into their trap."

The only reason those schemes still went on because there were a lot of naïve people using computers. Your casual users, seniors who had been more trusting to take people at face value, had been a common target of these Internet schemes.

"I might be able to do it," Karen said. "There's just a problem….the processor keeps overheating so we're going to need to find a way to stop it from doing so."

Harry thought about it. There were a couple of things in development at Horizon which might be of use, at least as far as he thought. He looked towards Karen.

"Well, since we're working together, I might be able to figure something out," Harry said. "I have some projects at Horizon which could be very useful in dealing with the processor problem. I'll take a look at them, and I'll get back with you as soon as I can."

"Really?" Karen asked.

"Well, this partnership is a partnership," Harry said. "We all should work together."

Karen would have to agree. The partnership between Horizon, Starrwave, and Wayne was going to be a big one. Despite coming from the future, she didn't really know the particulars. It would be fun to find out how their triumvirate became the powerhouse it was.

"I'm particularly interested in the solar towers you're developing here in Metropolis," Helena said.

"Well, they work on a similar premise as your solar satellite at Wayne, at least the one your father developed before….."

Karen grew silence. Helena nodded and motioned for her to continue with a very stoic look on her face.

"Why don't I show you what I have so far? They're only in the development stages."

Karen leaned over across the table which allowed Harry a glimpse of her cleavage. It was now everything clicked in Harry's mind.


Claire arrived at the Daily Planet office. Lois followed at her heels a couple of steps behind. The reporter frowned, having heard of Claire's adventure. She only had one thing to say to her.

"You mean to tell me there was a terrorist attack in Metropolis," Lois said. "And I wasn't in the middle of it."

Very nearly, Claire broke from her stern demeanor to smile at Lois.

"I know, first time for anything….."

Claire fixed herself a cup of coffee. Lois snatched it away before she could drink it. Claire took the coffee in her hand and drank it a couple of seconds.

"That's not the weirdest part," Claire said. "The weirdest part is the second Kryptonian I encountered today."

"Yeah, for being the last of your kind, there sure are a lot of you out there," Lois said. Claire raised an eyebrow. "The press are calling her Power Girl….not me, though, other members of the press. But it's sticking."

Lois was too preoccupied with the entire vampire cult thing to worrying about naming Metropolis's newest cape. She thought it was interesting. Just not interested as a group of potentially crazed creatures of the night.

"They hadn't been able to get a close enough look at her face," Lois said. "From the couple of photos I've seen, it's because they were a bit fixated on other parts when snapping the photo."

Lois showed Claire the blurry photo which showed Power Girl's cleavage. Claire found her eyes locked onto it for a second, before going red and dragging them away.

"They do have a magnetic pull to them," Lois said. "No one has been able to get a glimpse of her face."

"Oh, I got a glimpse of her face," Claire said.

Lois almost spilled her coffee in surprise. No one, not even the people she saved, or the people she picked up, or observers had gotten a glimpse of Power Girl's face.

"I saw the face," Claire said.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time," Lois said.

"It's Kara."

Lois stared back in confusion when trying to process these thoughts in her mind. She realized what Claire was talking about and already a headache was starting to form in the back of her mind. She closed her eyes.

"And by Kara, you mean the older one, the one you thought who was your cousin years ago, and then it turned out she wasn't," Lois said. "This is going to make my head hurt."

"The multiverse often can."

Claire had come up with another thought. She made sure no one was listening. Claire listened carefully and then turned back to Lois.

"Karen Starr is Power Girl," Claire said. "Karen is Kara from my Smallville years."

Lois thought things were going to get a little bit more interesting. She had a feeling the confusion would only increase.


Elsa had never been one to work with others at any time. She hated to admit with Dracula's vast army, she needed help, and the Slayers were the best bet she had. She would have preferred having Harry Potter, or the members of the League of Assassins at her side instead of them, but they would have to do.

The vampire hunter shouldered the blade over her shoulder and walked down a dark alleyway. She could see Buffy and Faith walking up behind her.

"You could wait for us, so we can do this together," Buffy said.

"They wait for no one," Elsa said. "You need to be ready to strike…"

"Why do you hate vampires so much?" Buffy asked. "Not just the ones who have slaughtered, but all of them."

"I've seen people close to me get warped, it's a disease which needs to be wiped out," Elsa said.

Buffy really didn't have any comeback for it. She had encountered her share of vampires which made Elsa's argument very convincing. Buffy reminded herself though about the cases where they could be helped. Natalie and Willow were two cases she could come up with.

"Your friend being saved is an exception to the rule," Elsa said as if hearing Buffy's thoughts. "And you are very lucky to have the Dragon on your side."

Elsa turned around and saw a man exiting a bar from across the street. She stared at the man and held her wristband up. It flashed white which showed he was not a vampire. Just a really creepy looking man.

"They're near," Faith said.

Faith gripped her crossbow tight and waited for something to happen. The creepy man across the street walked and turned around the corner. A couple of men dressed in hoods walked towards him.

"Wrong neighborhood," one of them said.

Faith caught the hooded man with a glancing blow to the side of the face. Elsa propelled herself high into the air and came down onto the head of the vampire.

Buffy was left with a third hooded man. The hood flung down, and Buffy got a glimpse of his waxy looking skin, greasy black hair, goatee, and fangs. He charged towards her and rushed her.

She caught him with a bolt to the shoulder. The vampire dropped down to the ground, completely out of it.

Elsa withdrew the blade and prepared to finish off this vampire. Buffy stepped off to the side.

"We need information," Buffy said.

Elsa nodded.

"You better talk, I won't be able to hold her back for long," Buffy said.

"Dracula….will rule underneath the Red Sun!" the vampire breathed.

This cryptic comment had been followed by all three vampires bursting into flames. The sleazy man blacked out in shock and left the two Slayers and the hunter to ponder what he meant.


To Be Continued on March 30th, 2017.


Lots of hunting in this chapter. And Dracula's plan is coming to light.

Also, we get a little bit of Power Girl in our life. And yes, there's no program in existence that will install common sense into the human brain. You can have all of the virus scans in the world, but that doesn't stop people from going where they should not.