After seeing the sharp tendrils poke out of his abdomen, Nathaniel's consciousness was scarce and flickered like a broken light. Whenever he came to, he was too out of it to take notice of anything that was going on.
His hearing was fluttering, his vision was marred by black spots, his sense of touch was numbed by the blood loss, and his sense of taste was filled by the taste of iron.
It almost felt like he was floating in and out of his own body, as if he were a visitor in his own skin.
After dropping down everything was quiet for a while, before he felt the slight sensation of being held firmly combined with the feeling of wind hitting his face…though the impact felt much more intense than usual. When the sensations stopped he briefly lost consciousness once again, before coming regaining a bit of his consciousness and being assaulted by shining lights and masked men and women fluttering around him.
"W-Where..am I?"
"Jesus christ…his organs are spilling out." One of the voices shouted. "How the hell is he still alive!?"
"Stop panicking! We're losing time! Stop the bleeding!" Another voice said. "Do you all smell that? Whatever attacked him left something acidic. If we don't move fast, it could burn out what's left of him."
There was so much commotion. So much noise and yet no matter how hard Nathaniel tried, he couldn't think properly despite hearing and understanding what was being said.
"He needs a transplant!"
There was a lot of shouting. Something about time and needing too much, but Nathaniel couldn't pick up enough of it, because he was fading to black once more. He forced himself to stay awake and try to make sense of what was happening.
"We can use the other one's organs. The blood type matches and his departure wasn't that long ago."
"Doctor, we don't have consent! The organs that you're getting...it might only make it worse!"
So much shouting followed.
So much intensity.
Nathaniel couldn't hold out and passed out shortly after, catching only a few more bits of the conversation, fighting the dark shadows that threatened to overrun his vision.
"He can't die! I don't care if it's unethical or inhumane! It can't be any worse than what he'll go through if he let him be!" The voice shouted in anger. "I'll take full responsibility!"
The doctor's voice echoed as Nathaniel slowly lost consciousness. The last thing he saw were the sharp tools and the white gloves of the titans staring at him from above, making their way down his body. His eyes slowly drifted to his lower half, where he stared at astonishment, before finally blacking out.
"Huh…that was my intestine."
The city of New York wasn't a stranger to superpowered sightings. In all the years of being a battleground for all the superpowered clashes, the sight of men and women in spandex had become a part of everyday life for its citizens.
Nonetheless, the sight of Power Girl hovering above the city would have still caused anyone to stop and stare, at least for a few minutes. If anyone had stopped to stare, they would have noticed the frustrated expression on the woman's face. She was clearly in distress and anxious, floating from one point to another over and over again, float-pacing in place.
The tight sensation in her chest, funny enough, was not caused by her costume, but instead due to what had transpired earlier.
A recent spike of criminal activity had caused the Justice League to spread thin across the globe. To make things worse, a number of issues off-world had only worsened the issue, with some of the League's founding members being forced to be absent for large portions of time as a result.
The robot attack that she, the Justice League of America and a few members of the Justice League had to deal with was due to the Ultra-Humanite. The primate had chosen to add to the number of headaches they already had by launching an attack on New York. Due to an accumulation of fatigue and non-stop hero work over the past year, Power Girl's clash with the ape had damaged her quite a bit, leaving her tired and bruised.
She decided to end the day by going to the convenience store to get a few drinks and some snacks. Unfortunately, with her senses dulled and defenses lowered, she wasn't at her best when the thugs attacked the convenience store.
They were meta-humans or at least she thought they were. She could tell as much with how one of them had literal spider legs out of his back whilst his partner had her tendrils peeking out of her body.
Power Girl was injured, fatigued, and over-thought the incident at hand to the point where the cashier acted first, firing his shotgun point blank at the arachnid's head. Whilst she was able to follow suit and take out the remaining thugs, the convenience store was left burning and damaged in the process, with the cashier being mortally wounded.
"I was just talking to him." Power Girl thought in frustration. "He was so happy, thinking it was all over when..."
The look on his face as he stared at the razor sharp tendrils impaled through his stomach would be a sight Power Girl would never forget. He had been right FUCKING there in front of her, a superhero with heightened senses and power for GOD'S SAKE should have been able to see, hear, or smell any type of attack from a meta-human YEARS before it hit him.
However, the remaining meta-human thug did hit him. She was injured but not out of commission. The thug, obviously angry at how her comrade's head had been blown off moments ago, proceeded to stab the cashier in the stomach and Power Girl was too worn out to even sense it until he was bleeding in front of her.
"I'm pathetic." She thought, clenching her blue gloved colored hands into fists. Her eyes glowed red and the frustrated hero let out a yell of anger.
"If only I hadn't hesitated."
"If only I was stronger."
"If only I was smarter.
"If only I was-"
"Karen."
Power Girl turned to see another floating entity right in front of her. The tightness in her chest increased tenfold when she found herself staring at a face that looked exactly right hers.
Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl, was floating in front of her, concern written all over her features.
"Kara." Power Girl said curtly.
It was like staring at a mirror. As far as facial features went, there were no differences between them. The obvious difference that many people pointed out was how Power Girl had a more muscular and "mature" frame in comparison to Supergirl's smaller albeit deceptively strong one.
The two had a complicated relationship to say the least. The one time the two had touched each other, it had almost caused a massive conflict, thus forcing to the two to keep a distance from one another, at least physically. This all being said, Supergirl had been trying to form a bond with her "counterpart"...but had failed for a myriad of reasons.
...many of those reasons lead to the obvious conclusion that Power Girl wasn't too keen on bonding with her "twin" despite the latter's best efforts.
"Oh great..." Power Girl noted crudely. "...this is definitely what I needed today."
She gave Supergirl a measured smile as the long-haired blonde had given her a smile of support and sympathy.
"I heard about what happened." Supergirl said flying a bit closer to Power Girl, but maintaining a comfortable distance from her short haired ally. "I just wanted to see how you're doing."
"I'm doing fine." Power Girl said gruffly. Her jaw tightened and she broke eye-contact with Kara, floating away and widening the distance between them. "You can go now. I'm sure you've got more important things to do."
Supergirl's eye's drooped and a small frown grew on her face as she flew a bit closer to Power Girl.
"Karen…" She said. "...you can't be cooped up like this and act like you're okay. You're obviously hurting. This isn't-"
"I know how to take care of myself, Kara." Power Girl cut Supergirl off. All signs of courtesy and professionalism breaking just for a second, as Power Girl's voice was filled with anger and impatience. "I-I just…I messed up. I messed up really bad. These past few months have been really tough. YOU know that...but that's just life for all of us now."
"The others have support groups that help them out when they go through something like this." Supergirl said, not showing any anger or sadness from Power Girl's mini-outburst. "You're...keeping to yourself and moping. This isn't healthy. This isn't right."
Supergirl flew closer, noting how Power Girl was shaking. She kept her distance but continued speaking in a soft tone, offering as much support as she could to the short haired woman in front of her.
"Wildcat's here isn't he? Huntress is here too." Supergirl said, naming Power Girl's closest allies. She paused, pondering if her next words should be uttered at all, before continuing anyway. "...and I'm here too if you-"
"Kara." Power Girl cut her off once again. One would think she was using her ice-breath with how cold her tone was. "I'm fine. Thanks for the concern, but we're just wasting time here. I'm sure someone out there needs saving. If you're not gonna leave, then I am."
"Karen, wait! You're not in the right state of mind to-"
Without warning Power Girl blasted through the sky, leaving a dejected Supergirl floating alone in the night's sky. With a sigh, the young woman looked at the moon, wishing for a certain cousin of hers to come back as soon as he could.
"Someone out there needs saving, she says." Supergirl chuckled dryly, looking at the direction that Power Girl blasted off to.
YO! It's been a while.
A lot of irl stuff forced me to go on hiatus for a while. There were also a few of my other stories that didn't do too good...or I just lost inspiration for.
Not this one though. I really enjoy this one and hope you enjoy this new (albeit) short chapter.
Real Life is still hectic but updates should be more frequent now.