Chapter Thirty-Five:
Supergirl was extremely happy with the very obvious fact that there were one step closer to eliminating all of the resources that Cadmus had. That put her in a good mood, but it felt as if the closer they got, the more Cadmus double downed on what they did, to attempt to ensure they would not go down easily.
The Girl of Steel flew high above the sky and found a Cadmus convoy. They moved something, although she could not tell what due to the fact the truck had been lined completely with lead. To Kara, this was a big red flag that something was up, but the question was exactly what. Maybe she would find out in a matter of minutes. Regardless, the blood pumped through her body and the wind blew through her hair.
"Are you coming around?" Kara asked.
"Yeah," Gwen said. "I'm not sure if you see it, but there's a huge mech heading our way from the south. Likely to meet the truck."
Kara's eyes perked up from the wind and locked onto the giant mech. Seconds passed before she bit down on her lip and groaned in one of the most audible manners possible.
"It's a big one," Kara said.
"Yeah, I know," Gwen said. "They really don't want us to know what's on the truck."
That much was obvious. The Girl of Steel noticed that the mech noticed her. The second the mech noticed her was when it started firing on Supergirl. Supergirl pivoted in mid-air, dodging the mech prior to it coming extremely close to taking her down. Kara could feel the burn of the fire shooting from the mecha. It just blasted towards her numerous times, coming very close to taking her down.
The Girl of Steel hovered halfway across the ground and waited for the mech to come directly at her. It was getting closer and then it was right underneath her. Supergirl avoided the mech from connecting with her, and blowing her completely out of the sky. Supergirl hovered above it and smashed her feet down onto the top of the mech. The mech had been rattled, but did not get taken out.
Three guards moved out of the second truck and pointed their weapons up. As if Supergirl did not have enough problems. She braced herself for impact on this one.
Fortunately for her, Spider-Girl came down and web yanked the weapon out of the hand of one of the guards. The guard fell on his face to draw the attention of the other two guards.
"We'll be having none of that," Gwen said. "You want me."
"Exterminate her!" one of the guards yelled.
Gwen avoided the blasts from the guards, with the white hot fire coming extremely close to taking them down. A few seconds passed with Gwen turning in the air and shooting her lines of webbing directly at the guard. The webbing latched onto him and allowed Gwen to repell downwards and crack her feet down across the top of the man's head. A sickening sound echoed the second Gwen pulled back from him.
The mech turned its attention to Gwen and sought her out with a missile. If the missile would follow Gwen around, well she would use that little fact towards her advantage. The sensational spider-girl flipped several times in the air, performing a series of death defying acrobatic stunts. She performed that final flip and dropped behind the missile.
Gwen waited and the missile blew a large hole in the middle of the road. The truck stopped a second later.
More guards moved out of the truck. Supergirl knocked them all out by bouncing off of them one at a time. Here, Gwen was extremely grateful because that allowed her to focus one hundred percent on the mech which was bearing down at her and boy was that a pretty dangerous one.
"Come on!"
She meant this half as a sound of exasperation and half of a taunt. The mech fired upon Gwen and she avoided the hot flames coming at her. Her heart stammered a couple of times. She evaded the attack and flipped high into the air. Gwen stuck the landing behind the mech and smashed down onto the back of his head. The mech rattled itself back a few inches before Gwen yanked on it and knocked it down with a thunderous boom.
The mech broke apart from Kara lowering the boom onto it.
"Hopefully that's it," Kara said.
"Yeah, let's hope," Gwen said. "So, do you want to see why they were hiding something from us?"
Cadmus must have not wanted anyone to discover this. They half expected another truck to come barreling down the road. Gwen watched Kara's back while she broke open the back of the truck. The Girl of Steel climbed into the truck so she could take a pretty good look at the weapon.
What she saw did little to improve Kara's disposition. Much of which had been entirely set to frustrated to begin with. She frowned deeply and immensely as she closed in on the back of the item in the truck. Her finger pushed onto it and it rattled ever so slightly.
"We've got a slight problem," Kara told Gwen.
"Exactly how much of a slight problem?" Gwen asked her.
"Well, this is a weapon which I'm sure...and I'm going to have to hook up Indigo to verify it," Kara said.
She removed the portable from her cape and hooked it into the nearest portal. Kara switched her ear piece on so Indigo could give her either the good news or the bad news.
"So, what are we looking at?" Kara asked Indigo.
"Bad news," Indigo said. "This weapon will target aliens...although I'm afraid that it may also target some humans. And eventually the virus it emits will target all humans….I'm requesting help to come your way, so you can safely disable it."
Kara figured as much.
"Thanks," Kara said. "How long?"
"Five minutes."
What could happen in five minutes? Actually, Kara hung her head from asking such a stupid, dense, question. A whole lot could happen in five minutes and very little if any of it could be anything good. Why did she even think that asking would be a good idea?
"We just have to wait then," Gwen said.
An explosion from up the road caught their attention. Kara almost rose. Gwen caught her and pulled her back down to Earth.
"You should really stick with the weapon," Gwen said. "I'll go check it out...yes, I'll be fine."
Kara begrudgingly nodded and watched as Gwen left. Yes, she really did have to let Gwen go, because in a sense she was right. Gwen could take care of a lot, and in five minutes, the backup would arrive to allow Kara to dismantle the weapon. She just hoped that it would come soon.
Longest five minutes in her life, really.
Anticipating Lillian's next move was not easy. However, Lena decided to go for a different tact. She turned to the trio of Carol, Lucy, and Alex, and to be honest, she did not anticipate better back off if things went south when she met Lillian.
"What exactly are you doing?"
To be honest, it was a fair enough question. One that Lena mulled over in her mind. However, she decided to put Alex's worries to ease, even though her own almost popped up.
"I'm going to put myself out in the open," Lena said. "I'm sure she will want to talk to me."
"I don't know if that's a good idea," Alex said.
"Well, if you have a better idea then I'm all ears."
That caused Alex's expression to falter. It was obvious that none of them had a better idea. Lena hated to admit it, but their options had been running a bit thin.
"I know that you all will watch my back and we'll get done what we need to get done," Lena told them. "We need to shut down Cadmus. Not just for our sakes, not just for the sake of Kara, but everyone. Everyone could be a victim. Even the humans that they experimented on."
In Lillian's agenda, she almost forgot that she had tried to save the world. Lena stepped outside, hoping that this mad plan of hers would work. They were closing in on the road where Cadmus should be coming up. The network had gone dark, but Lena had acquired one final piece of information from it on her way in.
"I can't help and think this is a trap," Lucy murmured.
"It wouldn't be the first time," Carol said. "Of course, only traps work on the unprepared. If we are capable enough to turn it around, then we can set up our enemies for a crushing defeat."
"I couldn't have said it better myself," Lena said. "We have to get in there."
They all responded with nods, and the truck skidded to a stop. The Cadmus Guards moved out of it. One of them charged towards them, eyes glowing and shooting green fire balls at the quartet of woman.
"I've got this," Carol said.
She summoned the power of the Green Lantern ring and knocked the empowered mook back several feet. The huge glowing fist slammed into the side of his face. Numerous punches rocked his entire body, with Carol raising her hand back and smashing it into the hand of her enemy. The goon dropped down onto the ground and flew back several feet. Carol yanked her fist back and broke out into a smile.
"And more."
Alex tendril grabbed the weapon out of one of the goons. She shot him in one of the weak spots. Another goon pointed a sonic weapon at her. Lucy shot him in the arm to avoid the impact.
Lena watched the women step back with ease. She moved up to the truck and pounded on it, when her path was cleared.
"I know you're in there."
A blast of energy rocked Lena back from the truck. She flew down and hit the ground with a sickening impact. Although, she pulled herself back up.
Lillain approached her from the truck, wearing one of Lex's old battle suits.
"I was hoping that Supergirl would be with you," Lillian said. "I've had a score to settle with her."
Lena pressed a button on her watch and she had been covered by a glowing purple armor. The face plate added the last bit of the outfit, her alluring eyes.
"You're still wearing that clunky thing, while I've built something more practical," Lena said.
"Oh, this is very practical, although Lex did have his hang ups," Lillian admitted. "But, I did not want to fight, I wanted to talk."
Lena could have scoffed at that particular moment. She resolved not to take her eyes off of Lillian for a second. That hand blaster packed a punch, no matter how much protection Lena wrapped herself in.
"The aliens will end up hurting you," Lillian said.
"I think you're hurting more people than any alien did," Lena said. "And the key word is people. There are humans that you targetting, experimenting on. Your little biological experiment will wipe out at least a third of the human population of this planet."
"They will hurt you," Lillian said. "While it's true some will die, it's only because others may live."
Lena wondered if she could attack Lillian. Lillian, tricky as she was, put up an energy field around them. So, Lena was forced into the conversation and her backup had been cut off.
"Lex always had a complex," Lena said. "And I think he got it from your side of the family."
"You've been indulged in too much," Lillian said. "Despite you being Lionel's folly, I gave you everything. And this is the thanks that I gave you."
"You use people, and you expect thanks," Lena said.
"You're right, some people set themselves up to be pawns," Lillian agreed. "Much like Osborn, he was a great pawn. And I should thank you for getting him out of the way. Now I can have this."
Lillian popped open her suit at the shoulder and pulls out a syringe.
"You're mad if you do that," Lena said.
"No, merely the hero the world deserves, but will never understand," Lillian commented.
She injected herself with the serum and eyes started to bulge out. Lillian's entire face contorted into one extremely wide and present horror. It was absolutely insane to see what she turned into.
The suit of armor busted into pieces when Lillian grew a leathery set of wings. Her fingernails contorted into claws. Lena faced the demented gargoyle looking creature that was once Lillian Luthor. She was just a tiny bit menacing.
"You've killed yourself."
"Spare the rod, spoil the child."
A beam of white hot light fired at Lena who just narrowly avoided being sizzled to a crisp. Lena engaged in the stun beam and fired it at Lillian.
Not even a tickle when the demented creature roared. Lillian Luthor resembled more of the monster that was on the inside of her than ever before.
To Be Continued.