Chapter 38
Kate ducked into the front left corner of the room the three ladies had found at the end of the tunnel. They had unfortunately found out that Lillian had a suit of her own, just as their alien friends feared. The matriarch of the Luthor family had not skimped on her suit either – there was a cannon on the left arm, just like Lex's, but the other held a large mace. It was the cannon that shot at the Gothamite while Nia had had to dodge the mace. Lena just stood there, in the doorway, staring at her mother, and Kate was about to knock her out of the way when suddenly the youngest Luthor wasn't in the spot she had been.
"You ok?" M'gann asked, just appearing in front of her. She had made sure to stay invisible to reach the Gothamite.
"Yeah, but Mama Luthor is on a rampage," Kate told her. Another blast from the cannon just missed them and they quickly moved from the corner, heading behind a piece of equipment nearby.
"She made herself a handy tool huh?" The White Martian frowned.
"That she did. Almost caught Nia a couple of times. How do we get her out of the suit? I have a feeling that if she made herself a tool…" Kate let that thought hang there. M'gann nodded. Of all the Luthors and their planning abilities, Lillian was the most cunning and the most patient. There was a good possibility that the suit had other features that Lex's didn't.
"Lena are you ok?" Kara asked. She'd saved her friend from the middle of the doorway and they huddled in the far-right corner of the room.
"I know it seems silly, but I had hoped my mother hadn't fully gone to the dark side on this new Earth. It seems we are way past that point. I should have known better," Lena frowned.
"She's family. It wasn't silly," Kara tried to reassure her. Nia blasted Lillian's suit and the blonde knew she had to get back into the fight.
"Kara, you're bleeding," Lena said, noticing the slight red tinge to her friend's super suit.
"Worry about that later. Right now, we need to make sure there aren't any more missiles that can be launched from here and we have to contain Lillian," the blonde told her.
"Keep her clear of the computer bank and I'll see what I can do," Lena promised.
"On it," Kara smiled and took off for Lillian and her suit. M'gann quickly joined her along with Kate and Nia – the four were managing to engage her when J'onn entered the room.
"Sorry I'm a little late to the party," he announced as he punched the glass that helped to hold Lillian into the suit. With five heroes ganging up on her, the elder Luthor pressed a button on the control panel and an electrical charge surged through the suit, knocking anyone on it or near it away.
"Nice little trick," Kate shook her head.
"Lillian! Don't do that!" Kara shouted. Nth metal is a nonconducting metal when used by itself, which meant that every time she used the large electrical charge, Lillian was expecting the circuits and relays installed on the outside and just under the surface of the metal to hold. It prevented her from being shocked, but it also heated the Nth metal. While the substance was known to protect the wearer from the harshest of weather elements due to its own heat generating properties, internally heating it could cause it to liquify or for it to try and bond with the nearest living being. The Thanagarians used that ability of symbiosis to their advantage as the metal bonded to the host wearer and vastly augmented their physical dexterity. There had even been proof of the Nth metal restoring lost physical attributes when symbiosis was achieved with an aged being. However, as far as Kara knew, no human had attempted to merge with the metal. Human bodies were much weaker than Thanagarian bodies, which is why humans wore protective suits while they used it to make items used in building construction.
"Why? Because I can knock you into next week and you know it?" Lillian demanded as she swung the mace at the Maiden of Might.
"The Nth metal might do something to you!" Kara knew that the elder Luthor had to know that but perhaps she wasn't thinking clearly enough.
"Not before I do something to you!" Lillian blasted the cannon at Kara and M'gann and J'onn tried to hit the suit, breaking the glass as had been done with Lex's suit. Kara dodged the blast just in time to hear,
"Get back!" before a batarang whizzed by the blonde's head. The batarang stuck into the already damaged glass of the cockpit and exploded. Glass shards flew everywhere and even down onto Lillian. This allowed J'onn and M'gann to get in there and try to pull Lillian out but the Luthor pressed the button and again electrical charges shot through the suit, forcing the Martians back for a second or two. That's when Lillian hit a different button and everyone in the vicinity heard,
"Countdown sequence engaged. T-minus thirty seconds and counting."
"What have you done?" J'onn demanded. Lillian only had a smirk on her face before pressing the electrical charge button again. The Nth metal was starting to shift and move. J'onn and M'gann tried again to grab Lillian but as they did the Nth metal grabbed back.
Meanwhile, no one had realized yet that Nia was not in the fight. That's because she was busy fighting a different demon. Andrea had made her appearance once again and tried to pry Lena off the computer. The youngest Luthor was working to stop the countdown that had just interrupted her search for weapons. Nia blasted at Andrea with her powers and the focus of the shadow creature shifted toward her but not before she hit her former friend, causing Lena to back away from the machine.
"T-minus fifteen seconds," came the announcement. Kate hurried toward the bank of computers, knowing that she couldn't help Kara, J'onn, and M'gann. That's when she saw Nia locked in battle and Lena trying hard to catch her breath.
"T-minus ten, nine, eight," Kate focused on the buttons trying to find the kill switch.
"Seven, six, five," there was no big red button like they show in the movies.
"Four, three, two," Kate managed to find a small black button that said, "manual override" and she pressed it.
"One," the computer chirped. The screen popped up and said, "manual override failed".
"Supergirl!" That's when they heard it. Another missile had left the silo and Kara took off after it.
To Be Continued…