I do not own Supergirl or any Marvel characters. All rights go to the CW and Marvel.
Supergirl lost
Chapter Fifty-six: Showdown
"Oh good, you're back!" Luke said as he walked down into the batcave. He took notice of everyone in the room and put a file down on the nearby table. "We have a problem," he said seriously.
Kate opened the file and swore violently. She set down the picture of Scarecrow's mutilated body hanging by the ankles on a streetlamp near the Narrows. It was a clear message to everyone, including Kate, when she saw the Kryptonian glyph burned into his chest.
Kara was pissed, and she wasn't fucking around.
"She knows. She tortured him. She knows where Beth is," Kate shook her head and began suiting up once again, this time preparing to deal with an angry Kryptonian.
"I don't think so," Luke said. "The radar on top of the tower has been scanning her movements. She's been flying all over the city; definitely looking for something or listening would be my guess."
"Good. That buys us a little time to come up with a plan to subdue her," Kate said as she began rapidly typing on the keyboard in front of her.
Kara snarled as she hovered above Gotham, ripping her earpiece out and shouting her frustrations into the wind.
She wasn't stupid. The moment Harper had told her about Kate's plan, Kara had Booster hack into the computer Kate used. The software hadn't been updated recently, about a year now judging by the code, and Booster had no trouble getting in. He had turned on the mic, but that was it. Kate was as paranoid as Bruce and didn't have any cameras in the batcave.
Kara had hoped, a pipedream really, but she had hoped that her old friends from Earth one would tell Kate to fuck off and she would come back here where Kara would proceed to pummel her for trying to turn her friends against her. Now, Kara scowled as she hovered over the city she had worked so hard to fix.
Both National and Coast City were as safe as they had been in years, and Gotham was beginning to get to that level. It would still take about a year of work, considering that politics and crime went hand in hand here, but Kara knew she just hadn't pushed the right people yet.
She'd get to them after she dealt with Kate and her latest scheme, because now it was personal.
And oh, if Kate was gonna play it that way, so would Kara.
After torturing Scarecrow for a few hours on the information she wanted, she had hung his body from a lamppost. A bit excessive, yes, but it got results. Two minor crime lords had turned themselves in and given up another two major drug dealers that had been working out of Gotham bay. All Kara had had to do was show up and the drug dealers and smugglers surrendered.
The location of Kate's sister on top of all that was the cherry she'd been looking for.
Kara flew around this city, confusing the radar she knew was on top of Wayne tower and whoever was watching her movements, making them think she was looking for Alice, that Scarecrow hadn't given her up. In reality, that was the first thing he gave up, thinking it would save his skin.
Across town, she heard the distinct whine of Kate's high-tech motorcycle. Along with several others. Kara scowled before taking off and ordering Booster to scramble her signal on the radar. It would appear that her friends weren't as loyal as she thought.
Kate parked her bike, as did the five she had brought with her who knew how to ride motorcycles. Oliver, Sarah, laurel, Thea, and John pulled up right behind and parked as well while Barry stopped. Felicity had decided to stay back at the cave and help Luke with comms and any other tech related business.
"You're in the clear. She's on the other side of Gotham right now," Luke said.
"I don't like this," Oliver muttered.
"Ambushing her is the easiest way. We can talk to her while she's weakened and then take her in for a few weeks. I've already got a therapist lined up," Kate said, repeating what she had said when they were making their plan. She unpacked the gear and handed several of the red solar lamps out. "Go put these up in the corners of the warehouse. I'll call in anonymously that Alice has been spotted."
Everyone nodded and went into the warehouse.
None of them were aware of the floating woman glaring down at them in anger as she was sorely tempted to let go of the struggling woman in her hand and watch her plummet to earth. None of them understood what she was doing for this Earth. She reached up to her ear and pressed the comm.
"Crimson, send the Warsuit," Kara hissed before she began to descend, not waiting for word from her attendant. She descended silently, her cape making the barest noise as it fluttered around her, the wind catching it.
"Guys, something's wrong," Felicity said over the comms. Kara could hear it plain as day. She reached up to her ear again and spoke.
"Booster, jam their comms."
"What do you mean?" Kate asked, setting down her larger lamp.
"I mean, the police aren't responding to the anonymous tip at all. They didn't hear Batwo-" Felicity was cut off by static.
"Overwatch?" Sarah asked, pressing her own Comm. "Overwatch can you hear me?"
"Of course she can't," Kara said above them. Kate tensed first before looking up.
"Kara," she whispered in shock. Held up by Kara's impossibly strong arm was her sister, hanging by the collar of her jacket. Blood dripped down her face from a wound on her head. "Beth!" Kate shouted.
"Did you honestly think for a moment Kate that I wouldn't find out?" Kara sneered, floating down to the center of the warehouse floor, Beth hanging limply, but still breathing.
"How did you-" Kate started to ask before the answer hit her. Luke said that Harper had been gone ever since Kate had left for Earth one. "Harper," Kate said in realization. Kara laughed darkly before she stopped and lapsed into an uneasy quiet. She looked around to the people she had considered her friends once upon a time. She looked back to Kate.
"It's so hard to find loyal allies these days, much less friends," she sneered. Barry and Sarah both flinched at her words.
"Kara, we just want to help you. That's all," Sarah said, stepping into the light cast by the moon through the overhead window. "Now let Beth go, nobody needs to die tonight."
"That's rich, coming from you," Kara growled. "And no. I don't want your help unless it's to help me fix Gotham and then to other places all over the world."
"Kara this isn't you. The Kara I know would-"
"Would what, Barry? Would let a murderous bitch like her get arrested where she would break out of jail?" Kara spat. "That Kara died, Barry."
"We heard about what happened. We know you're grieving," Oliver tried his hand as well. Kara laughed sarcastically.
"What do you know, Oliver? What she told you? Secondhand knowledge at best of what happened?" Kara asked.
"Then what happened?" Laurel asked. "Tell us what really happened. We know you lost someone important to you."
"She died right in front of me. Because I held back. As I explained so many times before," Kara said with a pointed glare at Kate. "I'm done limiting myself. Acting human. Acting like I was ever human to begin with."
"I get it," Laurel said, shaking her head. "I really do. I had someone I loved, and he was taken from me along with my father. I lost myself in the anger and the grief. I wanted to make someone, anyone, feel what I was feeling." Kara glared for a moment, no sign of looking bad or feeling guilty anywhere on her face. And Laurel knew in that moment that Kara was different from her in one way; she could do both.
She could make herself hurt, and punish herself just as much as she could make the people she killed or scared.
Kara smirked as she looked at Kate and then proceeded to drop the now semi-conscious Beth to the ground, eliciting a groan from the insane woman.
"You know…you didn't have to hide her from me," Kara murmured. "And I'm a little insulted you ever thought I'd kill her."
Kate stared at Kara in dumbfounded shock.
"What?"
"She's insane, and it didn't take me long to figure out why once I broke into your files," Kara explained. "I used my x-ray vision on her when I found her. Hundreds of breaks over several years and a lot in rapid succession. Scars across her body that were too neat to be anything but torture. Whoever had your sister hurt her until she broke, and then they kept going, hurting her until she became the perfect weapon for them. She was a victim just as much as her own victims were," Kara said angrily.
"But-"
"And frankly, I'm a little-no, a lot pissed off that you felt the need to hide her from me!" Kara shouted. "I'm not some heartless monster Kate," Kara murmured before sighing. "But I am angry that you felt the need to do this, to drag them here under your own false perceptions when there's a threat just waiting in the wings to make a move."
"Lex and Lillian," Kate murmured. Kara scoffed.
"Yes. I'm amazed that it took the great Kate Kane, the woman who knows what's best for everyone, to finally see things how I see them."
"I don't. I still think how you're going about things is wrong," Kate growled.
"Look beyond your own narrow view of morality Kate!" Kara exploded. "Beth being how she is right now is just as much on you as it is on the people who tortured her. If you had stopped her and truly cared about her, you wouldn't have sent her to be locked up."
"That's not fair, Kara. I didn't know who she was until recently," Kate defended.
"Bullshit!" Kara screamed, causing everyone to jump at the power behind it. "It's not even about who she is personally to you! It's about how you ignored someone who was so obviously mentally traumatized and didn't get her help that she desperately needed!"
"Then what about those other criminals!" Kate shot back.
"Like Scarecrow or Two face!" Kara said. She laughed harshly, a sound that nobody every thought they'd hear coming from the blonde. "They were so far gone. They enjoyed what they did and had no regrets. Scarecrow loved torturing people with his fear toxin, and Two face didn't care who he hurt."
"They still didn't deserve to die or for you to play judge, jury, and executioner," Kate growled.
"Up your ass, Kate! You're just angry that I've gotten more done in a few months than you have in the years you've taken up the cowl. That the people here seem to no longer agree with your passive-aggressive bullshit and support me just rubs salt in the wound for you," Kara sneered.
"Hey!" Sarah shouted, breaking Kara and Kate out of the fight. "Look. You're both right, in a sense. Kate, I'm sorry, but I think I speak for all of us when I say this was a waste of time. Kara's not gonna fly off the deep end any time soon. I think it's time we head back to our world."
Kate was about to protest when she put her hand to her ear.
"Repeat that again, Rose?" Kara said, looking around to the east. Everyone waited as Kara's eye's widened and she began hovering. "Son of a bitch!" she shouted before taking off towards Metropolis. Not two seconds later, the comms unjammed, and Kate found out what was happening.
"Where do you need us?" Oliver asked without hesitation.
"We're going to Metropolis. Lex and his mother are making their move, and Superman can't fight them both off," Kate explained as she ran out and hopped on her bike, but not before injecting her sister with a powerful sedative and asking Luke if he could come get her.
Kara flew over the harbor towards the sounds of fighting in Metropolis. She could see the smoke from several fires raging. "Crimson, the war suit," Kara said as she stopped for a moment. When she did, a few moments later, a hard object slammed into her back. The nanites began to swarm around her, covering her completely from head to toe.
The war suit had been a secret project, one of a few, that Kara hadn't finished to perfection even if it was good. It was a solid black suit with plated armor. While her Anti-K emitters did phenomenal work, they weren't perfect, and could be overloaded with too much Kryptonite. This was a fully sealed suit that absorbed solar energy and nothing else.
Kara continued flying as the clear nanites swarmed in front of her face, sealing her off from the rest of the world. When she touched down in Metropolis, it was just in time to catch Kal who had been thrown through a few buildings.
"Kara?" he asked in confusion, shaking her head free of the fuzziness from hitting the last building. His cousin rolled his eyes and got into a fighting stance he hadn't seen before.
"We're family Kal. Family fights together," she said as Lex and Lillian touched down.
"Well well well. I wondered when you would show up," Lillian mocked. Kara spoke no words as she used her max speed to throw several large pieces of debris towards the Lexosuit clad duo. Lillian couldn't even react as she was hit in the chest and then the head by the rubble, sending her flying.
"Don't hold back, Kal. There's no way those suits can handle us at our full strength," Kara said before flying off after Lillian.
The woman staggered to her feet, her internal diagnostics blaring that yes, something was broken inside and that immediate repairs were-
"Don't you learn, Lillian," Kara taunted, her own war suit gleaming in the fading sunlight, mocking the woman below her.
"Of course I learn!" Lillian spat. "I learned that you showed your true colors eventually!" Kara laughed, the sound grating on Lillian's nerves. She tried to shoot off several kryptonite rockets but Kara merely dodged them all.
"I'm simply what people like you made me," Kara sneered. She moved fast, far faster then Lex had built his systems to anticipate, a put a fist in Lillian's gut. The woman wheezed with the hit as it cracked two of her ribs. "I stopped fucking around and just decided to not hold back," Kara whispered tauntingly. Lillian's eyes widened in fear. She knew that, despite all their power, Supergirl and Superman always held back. She never could've calculated they held back this much.
"Oh don't worry. I'd imagine you know exactly how strong I could be…or not, but you had no hope of knowing how fast I truly am. I only ever use about sixty percent of my total speed on average," Kara smirked. Behind her, Kal went flying through the air, Lex hot on his heels. Kara sighed with a growl and looked away from Lillian.
"Hang tight. I'm gonna go cave your sons head in really quick," Kara said with a grin before she hit Lillian again in the chest.
When she stepped around the corner, she saw Lex holding her cousin up by the hair, a kryptonite knife at his throat. Kara sighed and pinched her nose.
"Damnit Kal," she groaned, stalling for time to think of a way to get Kal out of this situation. Lex frowned at the almost disappointed sound rather than the panic he was hoping for.
"I'll do it, Supergirl. I'll kill him right here," Lex threatened.
"You'd kill your arch nemesis? Here I thought all these years you were gay and secretly just trying to do anything to get his attention," Kara said, looking up slightly when her eyes caught a yellow blur behind Lex and a green blob on a nearby rooftop. Lex stuttered in shock before he growled. He pressed the knife harder, drawing a little blood. Suddenly, an arrow flew from above him and exploded. A yellow blur punched him at high speed, and Kara flew forward, slamming him into the ground.
"It pays to have friends, Lex," she hissed. Lex looked over Kara's shoulder and smirked, blood dribbling down his chin and from his ears.
"And it pays to work with family," he said. Kara whirled around right as she heard a sharp crack sound through the air and a pained grunt a moment later. Kal collapsed against the pavement, blood coming from his chest.
Kara's vision tunneled on her cousin as she watched him begin to bleed to death. Her vision filled with red and she grabbed Lex for Lillian to see. Both hands gripped the sides of his head and she gave a sharp twist.
At first, it looked like nothing happened. Lex stood still, the shock on his face never going away. Kara had twisted so hard that his head rotated a full three hundred and sixty degrees. He collapsed with a thud before Kara turned to her cousin.
Only to hear his heart stop.
Tears fell down Kara's face as she rocketed to the woman responsible.
In one swift moment that didn't even last half a second, she grabbed Lillian by the helmet of her suit and pulled hard, throwing her into the pavement over her head. The older woman lay in shock as Kara ripped the suit off her body. Kara roared as she incinerated Lillian with her heat vision. She then turned back to Kal and cradled his body. She sobbed, rocking back and forth before Lois ran up to the scene where she fell to her knees in the rubble.
Many who looked upon the scene that day would note the haunted look in Supergirl's eyes that dominated every part of her face. They would remember that was the last time she was ever confirmed being seen in public.
Of course, there were a few people that swore they had seen her ducking into alien bars with a hoodie pulled low over her head, but those rumors were unconfirmed.
"I heard you were back…" a voice came from behind the drunk blonde. Kara slowly turned around, nearly falling off the stool she was sat upon. "Also heard about your cousin." Kara looked at the detective that could've been her sister in law had she not disappeared.
"Waddya want, Maggie," Kara slurred.
"Nothing…just didn't take you for a drinker," Maggie replied.
"Didn't take me for a lotta things, didja?" Kara said.
"Guess not," Maggie whispered as she sat down with Kara and began drinking human alcohol.
"Pamela Isley," the green skinned woman heard from the dark shadows in her green house. She stiffened, having heard this voice on the news.
"Supergirl," she replied, her back straightening as the woman walked out of the shadows. Pamela couldn't help the surprise on her face as she took in the face of the fallen superhero. She looked like shit. It had been a few weeks since Superman's death, and it looked like the blonde had taken it pretty hard. She knew something was wrong when she saw blood on the girls knuckles.
"S'not mine," Kara said tiredly as she looked at it, as if it meant nothing. "Some cut rate thug thought he'd try to mug me…guess he didn't recognize me."
Who would? Pamela could see that the blonde had fallen off the deep end. She wasn't even in her suit, just a grey baggie hoodie and a pair of loose sweatpants.
"What do you want? I've kept my head down according to your unofficial rules," Pamela said. She subtly twitched her hands, the plants in the greenhouse coming to life.
"To ask for a favor," Kara said. "I need you to join Harley's little pet project…or well…I want you to join for her."
"Why?" Pamela asked.
"Because I don't care anymore. If I can't even save the most important people in my life…then what good am I? Humans? You all can go kill yourselves for all I care. Or not, because if you're a hero, maybe, just maybe you'll have enough of a voice to save this worthless planet. All I know is that I can't be the hero I thought I could be, and I'm done," Kara said. Pamela couldn't form a reply fast enough before Kara took off, flying into the night.
Harley Quinn returned to Gotham permanently, forming the birds of prey that eventually included one Pamela Isley, though she neglected to say why she joined up with Harley. Rose formed her own team on the west coast, watching over National City primarily.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Alex asked, her teeth chattering as she looked across the frozen tundra.
"Yeah. This is pretty much the exact coordinates Kara built her base," Nat said, looking around on her scanner. Daisy rolled her eyes.
"Let me," she sighed, taking off her glove and digging her hand into the snow. She sent out weak vibrations before taking her hand out with a wince. "Found it," she said before walking a few feet to the right and brushing the snow off the door.
She used her powers and broke the lock before pulling it open.
When she got down the ramp, she clicked on her flashlight to illuminate the dark corridor. Nat and Alex joined her a few moments later. Daisy frowned at all the dust before walking forward.
"Is she even here?" Nat asked.
"She is. I can feel her," Daisy said. She looked around and saw all equipment gathering dust as she walked into the main room. None of the main lights were on, and there were two deactivated robot looking things on the table, both destroyed, smashed and dented. There were several burn marks around the room and an entire hallway had collapsed. Down the other hallway came a soft red glow. Alex took the lead and walked slowly down the hallway where a door was ajar. She put her hand up to it and pushed. Daisy and Nat only had time to hear the gasp as Alex rushed in and disappeared into the room.
So, I understand the big fight was a bit lackluster. It's on purpose. I'm admittedly burned out on this story. I don't have much energy to right it. The big fight is between Supergirl and Thanos, not Supergirl and the Luthor's. Kara will be returning to the MCU very soon, so stay tuned.
