Phantom Zone, 18 months ago
"Faster!" Atal'amar shouted.
Feet braced, a flimsy piece of wood in her hand, Kara Zor-El swung the training weapon in a downward chop at Atal'amar. The large Khund was poised with one foot slightly back the other braced forward as if to plant himself against a charge while his large sword was slanted before him in a defense defensive posture. As the chop came, Atal'amar smoothly slid into a lighter and more maneuverable pose, grasped his sword in his left hand, pivoted to his left, and arched his blade upwards just as her weapon came down. The massive, keen edged blade chopped the weapon in two leaving Kara only with the butted end.
Even quicker than the movements and the slice had occurred, Atal'amar closed the distance between them and let his free right hand swing out and punched Kara in the face.
The blow took Kara off her feet and sent her flying backwards. She went soaring for nearly ten paces then fell hard on the gray sand. A groan found its way out of her sore body and she leveraged herself to one elbow. Stars were dancing in her vision and her right eye was beginning to puff up, turning her vision in that eye into little more than a slit.
All the same, she could see the burly Khund approaching her with his measured, steady tread and the look of disgust upon his squarish face. "I told you to be faster, Sand-for-Brains, now look how you've ruined the training weapon." Kneeling down, he took out a smaller knife from his belt and cut a swath of cloth from her one shirt, leaving it sorely smaller than the ragged garment already was. "Use this to try and tie it back together and let's continue."
"We've been at this for three hours," Kara replied, not knowing how much more she could take. For weeks now Atal'amar had been beating her black and blue in training that took place before what the Phantom Zone could generously call dawn. He hadn't lightened up and there were still many chores she'd have to do later.
Atal'amar nodded as he stood to his full height. "And that means we'll have two hours more since you want to bitch about it." He kicked her in the ribs, making her bite back a cry of pain. "Now get up."
Normally slave-Kara would have done as he demanded without question but the pain in her limbs and the fatigue set deep inside was setting her on edge. What was the point of freeing her from slavery if he meant to just beat her to death in training? "Why?" she challenged, her teeth grit and body shaking. "You're stronger than I am. You don't give me any sort of decent weapon. I can't win against you, boss."
Kara expected him to fly off the handle, to beat her into unconsciousness or worse for daring to snap back at him in such a way but instead he merely shrugged his shoulders. They were alone with none of the others of the gang about to see how he'd make her pay for daring to question him so he spoke freely. "You can't win yet, that much is certain but the training you had is decent and with time I'll make you better. You may be stupid as rocks, Sand-for-Brains but for what it's worth I think you have it in you to win. You may not know it, but there is something strong about you, and believe me a Khund knows strength, we can sense it."
Curiosity bloomed inside Kara by his sudden confession. She had been told she was decent before but not by Atal'amar. Khunds believed they were the warriors of the galaxy, the apex of fighting perfection. They were a martial race who prided themselves on their battle prowess, and him admitting that she had some potential was, in a sense, high praise. "Why are you half beating me to death every morning then?" she asked. "I'd do a lot better if I wasn't sore and bleeding every day."
"For starters I just like beating up on a Kryptonian," he gave a heavy snort, the Khund equivalent to a mirthful chuckle then turned serious once more. "But I do it because you lack fire in those eyes of yours. You don't lust for power. You don't want be on top. Maybe it's because you've been a slave all these years but I keep on beating you and beating you and you just keep on taking it. I'm giving you all you need to be a powerful member of my gang, but that can only go so far. You have to hate me, to hate everyone, to give you that edge to give you that snarling hunger for power that will truly open your potential. You have to want it more than anything. You have to want to make the everyone who gets in your way suffer."
Kara shivered. "I don't want to make everyone suffer."
"That's why you're stupid, Sand-for-Brains." Atal'amar kicked at her but it wasn't in earnest this time. "Everyone here can see that. You take orders well enough but you don't join in on the torture when we get a prisoner and you don't make the death of our enemies quick. You're soft."
Kara clambered to her feet, scowling. In the Zone, calling someone soft was the equivalent of the highest insult in any language. "I'm not soft. You tell me to kill and I kill. I never hesitate. Just because I don't enjoy torture doesn't mean I'm soft."
Atal'amar regarded her intently for a moment as if wondering about her nature then he shrugged, deciding, Kara could see, not to hit her over her objections to his particular labeling of her. "Not only are you soft but you lack the other facets that will ensure your strength. You don't have brains, Khund-strength, ruthlessness, or mercilessness, but most importantly you lack confidence."
"I thought I only needed to want power," she shot back.
Atal'amar shook his head like a teacher with a belligerent student. "That hunger is what you need to get the power you want. Once you have power, everyone will try to strip it from you but you can never let them take it away because that will mean you're dead or a slave again. Once you have gained strength and power, you must do what you must to keep it. Others, naturally, will try to take that power because they'll never really think you deserve it, no matter what you've done to get it. You see, that's the nature of power, everyone thinks they're suited for it and no one else really is. You don't get and keep power by just letting anyone do anything to you. You need to be mean, dominant, ruthless because that is how you gain power and how you keep it and how you take it away from others."
Kara felt her heart twist a little but the words of Atal'amar were alluring. There was far more to life than slavery and drudgery and though he was cruel and ruthless and didn't care for her much, he was trying to show her that. Still, she despaired at all she would have to do to be like Atal'amar and the rest of the gang. "Is there no other way?"
"There you go being soft again," Atal'amar chided. "But yes, there are other options. No particularly for us, in the Zone but for others in the worlds outside the Zone there are. Some our born with great powers, others gain them by accident or long training, but my way needs no boundaries, no Zone, and no special circumstances. Forget about any other way but mine. My way is the only true and real way to keep power. You want it, you fight for it and you fight hard. You can't always fight though so you make them fear you. That is the way to keep the power you get.
"So you have a choice, Sand-for-Brains, you can either do it my way and become strong so you can get and keep the scraps of power that come your way or you can go against me, try to do it your own way and be the mewling slave you are." All of a sudden, he laid a hand on her shoulder, his grip hard but not crushing. It was almost fatherly. "The others want to know why I even bother, but like I said I see potential in you and I know that once you get a taste of power, a real taste of it, you'll be a better fighter than I ever imagined because you'll never want to let it go."
8888
Gotham City, Present
Kara could feel power coursing through her body. It fused with the blood in her veins and every single cell that made up her being. She could feel it from the ends of her wild blonde mane to the tips of her toe nails. She felt like she was taking a long drink for the first time in ages. Every ache and wound was gone in an instant, every shred of tiredness or pain was gone, washed over by the amazing sensation of strength.
She had weight but she could make her body rise in the sky with a minute amount of strength and a thought. It was like walking and took no effort at all. Even as she thought about flight, she swayed a little, her concentration breaking making her wobble in the air.
Okay maybe it took a little effort.
Still, even with flight taking more concentration that she supposed, she was alert to everything not only all around her but miles in every direction; the cars honking, people talking, the clink of a spoon on glass, the rumbling of a stomach needing breakfast, and more.
Floating in the air, the sun behind her, Kara could see nearly every ghost like thought around people's heads. She could almost push herself into their heads. Penguin and the rest of his gang were all clear as bells in her mind. She could see the visualization of their fear dancing around their heads and knew by the spectral images that were their thoughts which way each would run. She could see the one with the red hood with the intentions of getting them away.
She couldn't see where Batman had gone but she wasn't worried and really she had no interest in a mere man, not when her cousin was so close. She could sense Kal-El, the son of the traitor coming back up from the ground where she'd punched him and he was all she wanted her attention on.
A geyser of rock and rubble exploded upwards as Superman shot up from the crater or debris and devastation his landing and the explosions had caused. He floated in the air right before her, blood trickling from the left side of his mouth. "We don't have to do this," Superman pleaded. "I don't want to fight you."
"Don't come after me when I fly away, then," Kara replied in perfect English. The shock of speaking the language nearly made her pause before she realized that she had tapped into Superman's thoughts and had all but copied his knowledge of the language, the one he thought in, into her own and could speak it.
Superman seemed a little startled by her language capabilities but he didn't look surprised. Kara wondered if he was going to come into her mind then as she saw his thoughts, she realized he didn't have the capability. This was her advantage. She had something he didn't.
She wondered what else she possessed that he did not but the thought was cut off when he said, "I'm sorry, I can't do that. I can't just let you fly out into the world."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why–" she got no further as laser beams shot out of her eyes and into the sigil on his chest.
Superman yelled in pain and did a double backflip in the air from the force of the blow. When he righted himself, his costume was smoking where the beams had struck him. "That's one reason why, because you have no control over your powers. You've got powers we don't know about yet and you're loose on a planet that doesn't share those powers. I can teach you how to control them and we can learn your new ones together."
"So I am dangerous then? Is that it?" she asked, recalling her question to him on the Watchtower.
Superman paused, his mouth partially opened as his mind searched for an answer. Kara didn't need him to reply though, this time she could see that the answer was yes.
A part of Kara was disappointed that he hesitated but most of all she felt vindicated in sticking her ground and not believing that he had the best of intentions for her. He was a liar trying to convince her of something that he didn't believe. He had been trying to convince her that his intentions were noble, but how could they be? Now that she had power suddenly she could not be trusted with them? He was his father's son indeed.
"Yes," he finally admitted with a defeated sigh. "You're too dangerous now. We have to think about what's best to keep the people on this planet safe."
Kara snorted as she squinted and her eyes began to glow red again. "You have to think about what's best for them or what's best for you?"
Without waiting for him to reply, Kara outstretched both her arms and flew directly towards him. Her twin fists caught him in the gut and made him double over. Not wasting the advantage, she then shot her head up, catching his face with the back of her head in an upward blow that straightened him and sent him flying into the upper atmosphere.
High and higher Superman flew, carried by the stunning blow until he was so far above ground the world looked like a patchwork quilt with toy buildings upon it. Superman shook his head, trying to clear the fugue the blow had caused when suddenly the communicator crackled to life in his ear. "Superman, do not engage," Batman ordered over the frequency.
"I'm the only that should be down there," Superman shot back as he switched his trajectory back down to earth. "I can get through to her. Everyone else will be in great danger."
"Each member of the League can handle themselves. You're going to be a liability in this battle, Superman. Others are going to get hurt because you don't want her to get hurt," Batman explained. "If things get worse–
"They won't!" Superman shouted into the communicator. "I'll handle this."
"I'm sorry Clark," Batman replied grimly. "You won't."
The communicator went dead.
Superman growled and shook his head. Batman couldn't stop him this time. Leader of the JLA or no, he wouldn't get in the way to help his family, he would do what he needed too and then he and Batman would have a long, long talk.
Emboldened, Superman began to rush back down towards earth when Shazam, Red Tornado, Steel, and others who had the ability of fly or levitation and could breathe the thin upper atmosphere flew before him.
Superman pulled up and stopped, not wishing to run into them. He opened his mouth to ask why they were up there with him and not down in Gotham then the realization hit him like a blow from a Kryptonite filled fist. The honorary members of the League weren't there to stop his cousin, Batman had summoned them because they were there to stop him from interfering.
8888
Far below the upper atmosphere, Kara watched in satisfaction as Superman went sailing and didn't come back down. She clenched her fist, testing her hands and found that her knuckles didn't even hurt! A weird, exalting part of Kara almost wanted Kal-El to come back down so she could hit him again but he would only try to stop her from what she really wanted and that was to get away.
Unsteadily turning in the air, Kara was about to take off, not caring where she went as long as it wasn't there when a tall and serious faced figure materialized in front of her, his green skin unmistakable.
Manhunter.
Kara almost expected the Manhunter to spit the same spiel that Superman had but the Manhunter stayed silent. His opalescent eyes bored into her and she felt a jab at her mind. Mental tendrils crept across her consciousness, trying to will her back down to the ground. She could almost hear his voice in her mind trying to coax and soothe her but Kara had felt the likes of his mental penetration before, worse actually, from the psionic Durlans.
Belting a cry of rage, Kara clutched her head and sent out a mental impulse. The rocks far below their feet rattled along the ground at the sudden flare of psionic energy.
J'onn hadn't predicted the powerful mind jolt nor the fury that came with it. He grunted in pain and swayed in the air as Kara finally forced J'onn out of her head with an even more power mind jolt that sent her mind tingling. She didn't know the calibration of the powers and every time she did it, she didn't know what to expect but as she looked at J'onn she realized he didn't either. He had no idea what she could do and like with Superman, she wasn't going to squander that.
Kara focused her mind upon J'onn's own and like the Durlans had once done to her she tried to bore into his mind, plucking out his fears and powers and twisting them.
On instinct, J'onn brought up his mental walls, blocking any deeper blunt force mental blows into his mind. Kara felt the door to his mine slam shut on her, making her real and telling her that his walls were up and there was no way she was breaking through his mental capacities any time soon.
Realizing she couldn't get in that way, Kara pictured her mind swamping over him, trying to hold him tight. She had only meant to encapsulate his brain with her own powers and smother his consciousness to make him black out but that didn't work. Instead of grabbing at his psionic powers and covering them, her brain translated that into an actual physical grab.
In an instant an intangible hand seemed to wrap over the Manhunter and both of them understood what she had done, using her mind as a physical force to do her bidding – telekinesis.
J'onn's limbs stuck to his sides and when he tried to fly away, he stayed still, held by her thought that didn't want to let him go.
So Batman had been right, J'onn thought. This girl did have some telekinetic powers.
J'onn envisioned different body types began to morph into animals and other people as he struggled to break or slip out of the telekinetic grip and get away but the invisible grip around him loosened and tightened with radical variation. The hold was strong but there were points it nearly weakened, the signs of a mind untrained in the ways of telekinesis. Still, her power was strong and J'onn knew he wasn't breaking away as her mind sent him hurtling down to the ground.
Manhunter struggled to break her hold, not wishing to meet the pavement and when he was nearly to the ground the telekinetic hold weakened significantly and he managed to pry himself away.
"J'onn, what's happening?" Batman's voice asked through the comm in J'onn's ears.
"She possesses some sort of telekinetic ability as well as a sort of telepathy," J'onn replied. "I think even a hint of precognition as well. Every form I tried she accommodated for as if she knew what I was going to change into."
"Keep me posted for anything new," Batman growled.
J'onn would have replied an affirmative but Kara slowly lowered herself a bit in the air and was starting down at him, her fists clenched ready for him to finally get up and fight her.
"I was hoping this would not come to violence," he finally spoke as he looked up to her.
"You and the rest of us, J'onn," Wonder Woman said as she flew in, coming down like a shooting star from above.
Kara looked from J'onn to Wonder Woman and flew to meet the Amazonian Princess in combat. Though Diana was an ambassador for peace she never liked seeing her friends hurt and it was about time someone took the girl before she did any real damage.
As they collided in the air, Wonder Woman sent out her fists in precise punches only for the girl to easily block them. She went for a Grecian grapple then but again the girl was swifter and brought up a knee, nearly catching Wonder Woman in the gut. Wonder Woman was forced to give ground and from there, the girl roared defiantly and set into Wonder Woman with a combat style she'd only seen a handful of times. Her fists flew but Wonder Woman deflected blow for blow. It was clear, however, that Wonder Woman was on the back leg, using all her power to simply keep up with the flurry of blows that Kara rained upon her.
Normally, Wonder Woman would have had no trouble beating any opponent who possessed great strength, but great strength and training were another matter altogether and someone had trained Kara exceptionally well. The girl was a fighter alright and a good one.
But then, so was Wonder Woman.
High above the streets of Gotham the pair battled. Wonder Woman desperately sought an opening to leave the defensive, but Kara granted her none, the Khund fighting style was all about offense. Legs and arms and elbows and knees flew while Wonder Woman mostly kept her arms crossed in an X formation, keeping at bay the blows that would have sent Superman reeling.
Her bracelets protected her from the worse of it but she could feel the magical gauntlets actually denting from the blows, which was never ever a good sign.
Wonder Woman continued to keep up the defensive, looking for an opening when a green streak flew over their heads and Hal Jordan, awash in green fire, came into the fray.
"Seems like you could use a little help, Wonder Woman!" the Green Lantern called out as he soared into their battle. Arm outstretched, he imaged a wall between Kara and Wonder Woman, allowing Wonder Woman to catch a breath and finally put some space between her and Kara.
That was all it did though as Kara launched another punch, breaking the construct like wet paper.
As the construct flickered away, Wonder Woman flew back at Kara but Kara narrowed her eyes sending twin beams in her direction. Wonder Woman slowed and once more crossed her arms in an X. Her bracelets took the beams, deflecting them into two wayward angles but the force of the beams sent Wonder Woman flying over the city, allowing Kara to turn her attention onto Green Lantern.
Like an arrow, Kara flew for him, her eyes no longer burning red. She hadn't wanted to get rid of the lasers but her vision now made her see the skeleton of Green Lantern and she couldn't figure out how to fix that.
"Green Lantern, get out of there!" Batman suddenly barked in his ear.
Hal Jordan snorted disdainfully at the command as his mind flipped through what new constructs he would bring up to try and subdue her. "Are you kidding, Batman? I can handle this. My rings fully charged. Green Lanterns Light."
Green Lantern focused his fist in her direction and constructed a spider web in front of him, something to hold her back and snare her long enough for the rest of the League to arrive.
No one was more surprised than Hal when Kara effortlessly moved through the web as if it wasn't even there. What was more, her body flashed green for a moment as if absorbing the power.
"She absorbs more than just sunlight!" Batman yelled in warning to Green Lantern but Hal Jordan didn't hear him. As Kara blew through the construct and punched him in the face with a force greater than Superman's he went out like a light.
The ring's protective barrier around his body was the only thing that kept Green Lantern from dying then and there. The power of the ring glowed around him in an outline but it did nothing to stop the deep impact that knocked him out cold.
Without Green Lantern's mind to direct it, the glow around Hal flickered and died and liked a stone he began to fall to earth. He would have hit the ground too had not a red hooded figure swung out on a grapple line and scooped Green Lantern out the air, landing them both on top of discount store.
Red Hood's cowl glinted in the sunshine as he settled Green Lantern on the ground and checked for a pulse. Kara wondered why he was still there but the thought was cut short as Wonder Woman hit her from behind and the fight was back on in earnest.
8888
"I thought I told you to help get Gotham evacuated," Batman said over Red Hood's frequency.
Jason stood over Green Lantern as he watched the two women battle in the sky. "And if I had Green Lantern would be a green splat on the sidewalk," he retorted smoothly. "Where's Superman?"
"I'm keeping him out of this. I don't think he'll put his all into this fight. I think she has the strength to kill him and we can't afford that. The world needs Superman," Batman replied stoically. "What happened down in that subway before we arrived, Jason?"
"Is that really important right now?" Jason asked skeptically as Wonder Woman was blasted through three buildings.
"It could mean the difference in this fight," Batman explained. "Now start from the beginning."
Red Hood breathed out a sigh and closed his eyes. Part of him didn't want to say a thing but if it was this serious then he couldn't keep it back. "Alright. So it happened like this…."
8888
Blow for blow, swipe for swipe, trick for trick Wonder Woman and Kara fought. Through series of routines like lethal dances the two women kept each other on their toes, driving into weaknesses, swinging with wild abandon, going for blood.
At some point Wonder Woman had lost one of her gauntlets and her tiara but Kara, Kara wasn't even bruised.
Wonder Woman eyed her opponent with new found respect and slowly began to unloose the lasso on her belt. "You've been a worthy fight and I detest using the lasso on anyone, especially another woman, but you force my hand."
With a lighting flash flick of her wrist, Wonder Woman sent the lasso of truth spinning out but Kara flew high above the loop.
She saw it was a trick too late.
Wonder Woman's lasso line was too short to have reached her and the woman dropped it and headed straight for Kara who was still flying upwards. Both her fists met Kara's stomach and Kara let out a great whoosh as the air in her lungs flew out of her puckered mouth in, to her surprise, a line of ice.
Wonder Woman's face froze in sudden realization as her entire body froze with her arms wrapped around Kara. The stunned Kryptonian girl lost her concentration and both began to fall as she struggled to free herself from Wonder Woman's frozen clutches. It didn't work though and both went falling to earth right through the roof of an abandoned warehouse.
Plumes of thick, choking dust filled the air making it nearly impossible to see. Kara hacked and coughed and clambered to her feet and blinked hard hoping for the vision that made her see through things.
This time, it worked.
Kara looked all around seeing through the dust and into objects like old crates. She looked down and saw Wonder Woman, her heart beating and lungs working but she didn't move.
Kara scrambled from her and was nearly about to take to the air again but when a red streak ran around her. "I've never been a fan of flying," Flash admitted. "I'm glad you joined me on my turf."
Running circles around Kara, the Flash struck out in blows that Kara could barely keep up with. He was much faster than Wonder Woman and he got in some hits but they didn't really hurt. He was doing something different, she knew, keeping her distracted.
With her telekinesis she willed the ground beneath their feet to start to move. Unable to really control the gift, the ground ruptured instead throwing up craggy shards all around so that even the Flash could not dodge them all.
The whirlwind faded as Flash went tumbling to the ground. Thinking on her feet, Kara zoomed towards him and managed to grab him by the back of his costume. The Flash yelped as Kara lifted him then sent him sailing right into the finally standing Wonder Woman.
Without looking back, Kara lifted off the ground and flew back out of the hole created in the roof. She expected to see Superman as the one Flash had been stalling for but there was the Manhunter again, in the form of a dragon coming to eat her. She could feel his mind too like bullets ripping into her own thoughts trying to break though and take hold of her mind. She couldn't keep her concentration and fight on two fronts. She was untrained and something was going to give unless she thought fast.
Kara blinked and squinted, trying to rid herself of the X-ray vision that she hadn't been able to dispel and by accident managed to switch to the lasers again. Both eyes caught the Manhunter in the dragon-formed snout and an inhuman scream escaped from the dragon's maw.
The creature the Manhunter had become transfigured back into J'onn's Martian form but this time it was smoking. Fire burned at the edge of his small cape and he dove into the water, retreating in the terror of fire.
Kara would have followed deep into the water had her eyes still not been shooting the laser beams she had accidentally summoned and could not control. Kara blinked and squinted harder now, unable to keep her eyes from shooting beams but to no avail. Everywhere she looked fire was starting or metal was slagging. She clapped her hands over her eyes and tried to hold back the lasers but the light escaped from her fingertips and went shooting in a thousand different directions. She tried to close her eyes and willed herself to focus and when that didn't work she blinked hard, trying for anything other than the laser beams until finally her vision became normal again.
When she opened her eyes to the bright and colorful world of earth and looked at all the devastation she had caused. The top of a crane was in the bay, one freight ship was sinking, two buildings were on fire, lines had been gouged out on the street by her vision, and one building had been burned to its foundation and was about to collapse.
It was the building the Red Hood stood on.
8888
Red Hood felt the foundation sway and the building buckle beneath him as the structural integrity gave way to super powered might. Hoisting the still unconscious Green Lantern over a shoulder, he ran with him, hoping to find a place to ride out the destruction. The other two building around him were on fire and it was too high to jump without breaking his neck. He wouldn't abandon Green Lantern either and there was no escape.
Honestly, they were as good as dead.
Undaunted, Red Hood still ran, still trying to find a way free even until the end but there was no way out. With a groan the roof finally gave under him opening a maw jagged stonework and twisted steel all waiting to impale and crush him as he fell. He felt as if he were being sucked down into the crumbling building, eaten by the abyss of the destruction when suddenly strong hands grabbed him and to his relief, he was airborne.
Jason, in all honesty, expected to see Wonder Woman or Hawkman as his salvation but when he looked up the girl, Superman's cousin, was carrying them.
Setting them down on a different roof away from her destruction, the woman looked over Red Hood then the KO'd Lantern as if trying to ascertain if they were a threat to her as well.
"You saved me?" Jason asked with no little amount of confusion.
"You stuck up for me in the… below place... the subway," she replied.
Though he knew she couldn't see it, Jason lofted a brow. "You save my life for that?"
Kara shrugged. "Kal-El could have killed you easy, it takes strength to stand up to someone like that. I repay what I owe."
Jason knew he should have said something noble in that space of time. He had her ear and she knew the value of favors, even if his had been unintentional. He should have pulled a Superman and tried to convince her to give up and stop fighting. But he didn't.
"You can't stay here," he told her plainly. "They're going to rally and fast."
Kara eyes him with a look that told Jason that she wasn't sure about him but had the inclination to trust him. "This gang of Penguin's is gone. You have taken them down and so has this Justice League gang. I don't want to stay here, I want to leave."
"If you're going to leave you need to get off planet," he said quickly. "If you go far enough, they won't follow you. They won't really have a reason to. I told Batman what I saw down in the subway station but I didn't tell him you killed Angelo Marco," Red Hood told her. "They'll think it was me. That'll give you a better chance to get out of here and will give them less of an excuse to keep you. "
Kara blinked in surprise. "I thought you were one of them."
"It's complicated," Red Hood replied.
Kara went to reply when suddenly an arrow came between the two of them, spurting up a thick leaden gray smoke. "Out of the way, Red Hood," Green Arrow called from someplace out side of the smoke. "Get Lantern to safety!"
Instantly Kara was back on the defensive. She wanted to do the squinty see-through power again but she didn't dare, not knowing if that would show up or if the lasers would. Red Hood was still somewhere on the roof and she hadn't saved him just to kill him with her laser vision.
"I hate to do this, kid, but you're gonna make me pull out the big guns," Green Arrow warned. "I'm not the rest of them, I'm not pulling my punches because you're Superman's cousin."
Like a wraith, Oliver slipped through the smoke, a single arrow in hand – an arrow with a Kryptonite tip. The arrow wasn't notched but he held the arrow before him, pointed straight at her chest. "Batman isn't the only one who prepares just in case things go wrong," Green Arrow explained grimly as he closed the distance between them.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way for–
He got no further as he realized the girl hadn't so much as moved. Not a hint of pain laced her face nor did she seem to stagger. Almost in a daze Green Arrow poked the fragile Kryptonite arrow at her chest and watched as it broke and the light of the green rock faded to nothing.
"Oh." Oliver Queen said, suddenly realizing his mistake. "Shit."
From the smoke, Green Arrow went sailing, his bow broken in two and his quiver emptied. He went flying over the edge of the building and would have fallen to his doom had Manhunter not caught him.
"J'onn am I glad to see you!" Green Arrow panted. "I used my Kryptonite arrow and it had zero effect, it's like she absorbed the light of it."
"It is as Batman expected," J'onn told him as he flew Green Arrow through the air.
"She not stopped by Kryptonite so what are we going to do?" Oliver asked, his normally quippy voice filled with grim concern.
"Batman has instructed me to clear the field," J'onn informed him. "He's taking it from here."
8888
As the smoke cleared Kara looked around for Red Hood or any more Leaguers but saw now. The sun was high over head now and the city block, though devastated, was bereft of any soul. Had she done it, Kara wondered. Had she won?
Eyes wide, heart pumping she looked around for any of the hero's but all that stood around her was the debris of buildings and the dust of battle. In awe, Kara looked at her arms and felt her face and body and discovered she wasn't even bleeding. She hadn't even broken a sweat. And the Justice League? They had run off. Maybe she didn't need Red Hood's warning. Maybe she didn't need to fly out into space. She had taken them down and she could do what she wanted.
Exuberant, Kara laughed and did one twirl in the air for the sheer joy of it. These were the gifts her father had meant, the power Atal'amar had told her about and she loved it. "With these powers I can do whatever I want. I don't need to be afraid of Kal-El anymore. I don't have to be afraid of him or anyone," Kara declared triumphantly.
"You will be afraid of me," Batman said from behind.
Kara slowly turned in the air until she was looking at the space Red Hood had once occupied. There was no shining Red Hood now, only the black and yellow costume of the Dark Knight and his grim visage as he looked up at her. Unlike the others he couldn't fly or float or run fast. He wore no green ring or had a large mace. He would have looked perfectly ordinary had he not been holding two silver pen-shaped objects in his hands, both aimed at her.
Kara looked over the Dark Knight once, unable to believe this was the man that they had chosen as their leader. He was no Atal'amar, that was certain. "Are you going to try to stop me too or will you let me leave?"
"There's no leaving this way," Batman replied, his aim unerring. The two silver pens both glowed a warm white as if in a charged state. "You won't fly off because if you try, I'll send you back to the Phantom Zone."
Kara froze as if Batman had dealt her a stunning blow. Her eyes went from one pen to the other. "You're lying. You can't send me back."
"I can and I will. Superman will never forgive me but I'll do it. You have two options here, you can try to fly away and I activate the projector, sending you back to where you have no power, where you're back to what you were before we brought you here–
"And the alternative to that?" Kara interrupted. "To stay here and die at the hands of Kal-El or to be depowered and controlled? I'd be a slave either way. There's no win for me. You're going to have to do better than that."
"That's not my alternative," Batman continued in his sturdily grim fashion. "The alternative is for you to accept my informal invitation to the Justice League."
Kara's brow furrowed. "What?"
"Superman told me that you called the League a gang. Red Hood explained how you fell into Penguin's clutches and you weren't trying to get away, you were trying to join him. You're looking for something you know, something you can understand, somewhere where you belong. You see the League as a gang anyway, so I'm inviting you into it. Even if you believe Superman is out to get you, you know that I'm the leader and that the leader gives the orders, and if I assure you that you're safe, you won't double guess me.
"You keep your abilities, you won't be sent back to the Phantom Zone, but you do follow orders, is that clear?"
For the first time since meeting with Enzo, if felt as if something was truly speaking Kara's language. She didn't understand all that was happening, not even a quarter of it but she understood gangs and needing a network of people to back you. If she went off, she'd be all alone and that was only if she could disarm Batman and not get sent back to the Zone.
Part of Kara wanted to test the waters with her telekinesis, just to see if she could rip the projector pens out of Batman's hands but she didn't think she was close enough and getting into Batman's mind was like trying to scale an icy wall. She could see no images around his mind and it held like a fortress of iron when she tried to penetrate in. She didn't know what other powers were at her disposal and she couldn't take the time to find out. If she showed one hint of offensive power he would shoot and she didn't want that. Though Kara had only wanted to go back to the Zone when she'd first come out, after weeks of living out of the realm of prisoners, Kara truly did not want to go back. She liked baths and soft clothes and full meals and especially her new abilities. She didn't want to go back to being the weakest thing out there on the bottom of the food chain.
But who was she kidding, a voice whispered in her mind, she had always been the bottom of the food chain. Everyone had always done what they pleased with her life and she'd never had any say. This was no different.
The thug-Kara that had been riding high since the burgeoning of her powers began to fade and slowly slave-Kara was taking her place as his ultimatum truly hit her. He had outwitted her, this one human, and had dashed from her the false hope that now she could truly have a say in her own life. She wasn't in control of this situation anymore. Like everyone else who she had known in her life he had taken that from her and done it better than anyone she'd ever encountered. But Batman was not like a slaver in the zone, he was more like Atal'amar and like Atal'amar he had given her a simple choice. She could be a slave or she could join up with him.
Batman was what Atal'amar meant when he said you needed to be smart, ruthless, do whatever needed to be done. He made her afraid. Batman, had won.
And in the Zone, to the victor went the spoils.
"Well?" Batman said, breaking her thoughts.
Kara blinked, turning her attention outwards again and slowly she began to descended. When her feet landed on the roof, she stared steadily at Batman then gave him a half-shrug. "You're the boss."
Batman regarded her coldly then he slowly lowered the pens down. Kara could see that his muscles were still tense and his thumbs hadn't gotten off the buttons but she made no move against him. That's not how things worked when you joined a gang in the Zone, the boss was the boss until he wasn't.
"Batman to Justice League," Batman suddenly said aloud, breaking the silence. "The threat's been neutralized. You can bring Superman back."
Through the comm in Batman's mask, Kara could hear the relieved sigh of a few of the fellow leaguers. "Thank heaven," Shazam replied over the comm, "I didn't know how much longer we could hold him off."
Even as Shazam said the words there was a whoosh of air over the comm and in no time a red and blue blur was streaking in their direction. Suddenly before them was Superman, his face awash with displeasure. Every muscle in Kara's body want to tighten and her stomach shriveled as she stood before Kal-El again but she didn't. She had powers now. She was his match or better and he couldn't hurt her. They didn't know what could hurt her and that made her safe in body but her mind still feared him and there was no easy way to get rid of that. But Batman was the boss of this gang and has assured her she'd be safe.
She didn't like Batman but she did believe him.
"Everything's been settled here," Batman informed Superman without looking at him, his eyes still turned to Kara as if waiting for a false move. "The honorary members of the League and the rest of us will take care of clean up the dock debris when they get here. Once everything is cleaned up here, we'll convene for a meeting in JLA headquarters."
"She's not going back up to the Watchtower," Superman ground out between clenched teeth.
"I didn't say she was," Batman replied calmly. He nodded a bit begrudgingly at Kara. "I saw what you did for Red Hood, saving him from that crumbling building. You went out of your way to do it and that says something about you, it's what gave me the idea to admit you into the League."
"You did what, Batman?!" Superman asked, shocked, but Batman ignored him for a moment his eyes only pinned upon Kara.
"Superman believes in you, I'm still on the fence but at least I have some evidence now that he might be right, so I'm giving you a chance. Go with Superman to Metropolis for now, I promise, as leader you'll be alright. Learn how to control your powers from him and try to learn about this world. I want you to remember, though, that even though I've admitted you in to the League, the next time you want to pull a stunt like this think very hard about the consequences." To seal their bargain, Batman extended a hand and Kara tentatively took it to shake. "Welcome to the Justice League–"
"Angel," Kara cut in before he could pause awkwardly at where a name should have been. "You can call me Angel."