Part 6: Reunions
#
Kara, her jaw aching from a punch that would have pulverised brick, was inching back from an enraged Amazon who was perfectly able and more than willing to deliver more of the same.
"Diana, it's me! Supergirl! Don't you remember me?"
Her words didn't sway the furious woman.
"I don't know who you are, but you made a grave mistake assuming this guise. Supergirl is dead, I was there. You have five seconds to tell me if you had anything to do with what happened to my sisters before I tear you apart."
"Diana ..."
"One," Wonder Woman said, slugging her again. Kara was braced for the blow this time, but it still set her back several steps, her heels digging deep into the scorched ground. A strange taste entered her mouth and she was astonished to find that her lip had split. She was bleeding. This hadn't happened in quite a while.
"Two!" Diana aimed another blow at her, but Kara was getting tired of playing the punching back. She evaded the punch with super speed and zipped behind Diana, capturing the other in a full nelson.
"Listen to me," she yelled at Diana. "It's really me, Kara! I don't know how that is possible, but it's me! I ..."
Wonder Woman threw her over her shoulder in mid-sentence, causing Kara to land on her rear end. Moments later the Amazon's arms were around her throat, squeezing with a strength that could easily bend steel.
"Who are you?"
Kara gasped for air, taken unprepared. She had heard stories saying that Kryptonians did not need air to breathe. That was nonsense, of course. Every living being needed to breathe, whether it was oxygen, methane, or something else. Kryptonians were able to so completely oxygenate their blood that they could sustain on it for hours, even days, but only if they managed to take at least several deep breaths beforehand. Taken unprepared Kara was as susceptible to strangulation as the next woman.
"I ... am ... Supergirl," she managed to choke out. "You ... you gave ... Kal ... a replica of ... Kandor for his ... birthday. The two ... of you once ... played at ... being in love ... in order to ... fool a supervillain into ... attacking you ... instead of Lois."
The stranglehold around her neck lessened almost imperceptibly, allowing Kara to draw in some air.
"You gathered a cadre of female super beings to fight against the Judge," she quickly continued, sensing that she had made some headway. "I once joined the Justice League for a single case when Superman was missing in space and we went out to find him."
Wonder Woman let go and Kara hungrily drew in the air, making sure to pump enough oxygen to last for a while, just in case Diana was not completely convinced yet. She slowly turned to look at the other woman.
Diana's face was still filled with rage and sadness, but it no longer seemed to be directed towards her.
"Kara?" Diana asked, disbelief in her voice. "Great Hera, how is this possible?"
A small smile graced Kara's lips. "I know some people who were fashioned out of clay. I know a man who died forty years ago and still walks the Earth. If there is one thing people like us should know by now it's that nothing is impossible."
Diana just stared at her for a long moment, then caught her in an embrace that was almost as crushing as her earlier chokehold. Kara could feel her body shaking with a hundred emotions and she carefully hugged her back, her own feelings almost as strong. Seeing Helena and Dick had been great, a sign that she was not a complete stranger in this world, but Diana was different. She was from her own world. They had worked together, were something close to friends.
In the ashes and ruins of Paradise Island these two women clung to each other, eternally thankful for having found each other.
Neither of them was sure how much time had passed when they finally let go again. Diana's face was not the mask of fury it had been earlier, but Kara could clearly see the rage simmering beneath the deceptively calm surface. Diana had always been a mass of contradictions for her. An ambassador of peace from an island of warrior women, a tender and loving person yet the fiercest warrior she had ever met.
Right now she could see very little of said tenderness and Kara was certain that peace was the last thing on Diana's mind.
"Can you do me a favour, Kara?" Diana asked.
"Of course."
"Find out what happened here!"
Kara nodded. Diana knew of the superior senses Kryptonians possessed, of course, and there was a good chance that Kara would be able to figure out how the island had been destroyed simply by looking at the wreckage.
She started by checking out the glassed-over ground, the most likely point of impact for whatever weapon had done this. She narrowed her eyes until she could see right down to the microscopic level. There were leftover traces of radiation in the ground, a type she was not familiar with. Judging by the level of decay, though, she was able to give an estimate as to how long ago this weapon, whatever it was, had struck here.
"It happened about fifteen to eighteen years ago," Kara said out loud. "I can see no debris from bomb casings or such, so it probably was some kind of beam weapon."
Rising into the air, Kara looked across a vaster area of devastation and, trying to shut down her emotions, coldly calculated angles and patterns.
"The beams must have struck almost vertically," she told Diana. "My best guess is some kind of aircraft. Maybe even an orbital installation. I doubt the Amazons saw it coming."
"Paradise Island is surrounded by a magical veil that prevents detection," Diana said, her voice almost completely neutral. "Assuming that my sisters on this world had something similar, how did these weapons find them?"
"I've yet to see a computer that can match wits with magic," Kara answered. "Whoever did this either found a way to penetrate the veil or the Amazons opened it for some reason."
Diana frowned for a moment, then seemed to have an idea. One that was not to her liking at all.
"The veil on our world was only ever opened for one reason," she said gravely. "When I left or returned to the island."
Kara hesitated for a moment, then got the idea. She swept her gaze wide, searching the surroundings of the island. Finally she found what she had been looking for. Moving in a blur she dove into the ocean about half a mile off the island and returned barely a minute later, dragging a large piece of wreckage behind her. An almost invisible piece of wreckage.
"The Invisible Jet," Diana said, inspecting the debris. "Or what's left of it."
Diana's strange aircraft had been all but undetectable even to Kryptonian eyes, it's unique construction incorporating as much magic as it did technology. Yet, just like with the island itself, someone had apparently managed to see it just fine. Fifteen years under the ocean had barely scratched the material, leaving the ragged edge where an energy beam had sheared it in half quite visible.
"It's the same radiation signature as in the ground," Kara said. "They must have shot it down."
The pilot compartment was empty and Kara was quite thankful for that. The cockpit was cracked open and partially scorched, leaving little doubt regarding the pilot's fate. Unlike the plane a human body, even one magically fashioned out of clay, would not survive fifteen years underwater.
Kara's microscopic vision found some organic residue, almost completely eaten away by algae and sea life. From what she could see the DNA was a nearly perfect match for Diana.
#
Some hours later Diana and Kara had arrived at the apartment in Gotham City that Helena and Dick had rented. Kara had no idea where they got the money from, seeing as neither of them seemed to have taken over a day job like she had back in Metropolis, but right now she did not much care. Diana was much more familiar with the two heroes from Earth-2, having worked with them on numerous cases during her time in the Justice League.
"It's good to see you, Wonder Woman," Helena said. It was good, too. Even though Helena was more familiar with another, older version of the amazing amazon, just seeing her face was doing wonders.
"Helena," Diana answered with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes. "Richard. I am glad to see that you are alive. We all thought you dead when the shadow demons invaded the Earth."
"It seems a lot of that is going around," Kara interjected. "Someone snatched me away moments before I died. Someone took Dick and Helena before the shadow demons could kill them. Diana, you said the Anti-Monitor blasted you just before you woke up here."
"Yes, that is correct."
"Whoever or whatever did this to us seemed to have taken us all just before we should have perished." Dick sat down in front of the computer he had somehow acquired. "If that is the case, then there could be others here. Quite a few of us died, or seemed to die, during the Crisis."
"If nothing else it speaks of an awful lot of power. We were all snatched from different places. The Anti-Monitor's fortress, the merged Earth, Alexander Luthor's portal. Not to mention what it would take to heal Kara's wounds and provide whatever medical aid the rest of us might have needed. All while transporting us across dimensional barriers to a world so distant from our own that the Anti-Monitor missed it somehow."
Kara noticed that Diana barely seemed to listen to Dick and Helena's words. From the times she had worked together she remembered that Wonder Woman had always been the type to take charge of any given situation. Her passivity, as well as the rage she still saw in her eyes, worried her more right now than whoever might have stranded them all in this world.
"Diana?" she asked softly, laying her hand on the Amazon's shoulder. "You all right?"
"I am about as far from all right as I can be."
Dick and Helena looked up from their discussion, now also catching the murderous look in Diana's eyes.
"Whatever has taken us here," Diana said when all eyes were upon her, "could obviously have killed us. Or left us for dead. Instead it brought us here. To a world where all the people we know to be heroes have somehow been prevented from becoming what they should have been. I don't believe in coincidence and I don't believe it was chance or natural disaster that wiped out my sisters on this world."
Kara did not know what to say. She had never heard such steel in Diana's voice.
"This is a world without heroes. Without protectors. A world where someone or something has murdered an entire people and got away with it. Who knows what else was done with no one here to prevent it. What other crimes were committed without anyone noticing."
"What are you saying, Diana?" Helena asked.
"I am saying, Helena, that this world needs heroes. It needs someone to right its wrongs. However it happened, we are here. And while we are here we have a duty. I intend to fulfil it. I intend to find the murderer of my sisters. And I intend to set things right."
TO BE CONTINUED
#
Kara, her jaw aching from a punch that would have pulverised brick, was inching back from an enraged Amazon who was perfectly able and more than willing to deliver more of the same.
"Diana, it's me! Supergirl! Don't you remember me?"
Her words didn't sway the furious woman.
"I don't know who you are, but you made a grave mistake assuming this guise. Supergirl is dead, I was there. You have five seconds to tell me if you had anything to do with what happened to my sisters before I tear you apart."
"Diana ..."
"One," Wonder Woman said, slugging her again. Kara was braced for the blow this time, but it still set her back several steps, her heels digging deep into the scorched ground. A strange taste entered her mouth and she was astonished to find that her lip had split. She was bleeding. This hadn't happened in quite a while.
"Two!" Diana aimed another blow at her, but Kara was getting tired of playing the punching back. She evaded the punch with super speed and zipped behind Diana, capturing the other in a full nelson.
"Listen to me," she yelled at Diana. "It's really me, Kara! I don't know how that is possible, but it's me! I ..."
Wonder Woman threw her over her shoulder in mid-sentence, causing Kara to land on her rear end. Moments later the Amazon's arms were around her throat, squeezing with a strength that could easily bend steel.
"Who are you?"
Kara gasped for air, taken unprepared. She had heard stories saying that Kryptonians did not need air to breathe. That was nonsense, of course. Every living being needed to breathe, whether it was oxygen, methane, or something else. Kryptonians were able to so completely oxygenate their blood that they could sustain on it for hours, even days, but only if they managed to take at least several deep breaths beforehand. Taken unprepared Kara was as susceptible to strangulation as the next woman.
"I ... am ... Supergirl," she managed to choke out. "You ... you gave ... Kal ... a replica of ... Kandor for his ... birthday. The two ... of you once ... played at ... being in love ... in order to ... fool a supervillain into ... attacking you ... instead of Lois."
The stranglehold around her neck lessened almost imperceptibly, allowing Kara to draw in some air.
"You gathered a cadre of female super beings to fight against the Judge," she quickly continued, sensing that she had made some headway. "I once joined the Justice League for a single case when Superman was missing in space and we went out to find him."
Wonder Woman let go and Kara hungrily drew in the air, making sure to pump enough oxygen to last for a while, just in case Diana was not completely convinced yet. She slowly turned to look at the other woman.
Diana's face was still filled with rage and sadness, but it no longer seemed to be directed towards her.
"Kara?" Diana asked, disbelief in her voice. "Great Hera, how is this possible?"
A small smile graced Kara's lips. "I know some people who were fashioned out of clay. I know a man who died forty years ago and still walks the Earth. If there is one thing people like us should know by now it's that nothing is impossible."
Diana just stared at her for a long moment, then caught her in an embrace that was almost as crushing as her earlier chokehold. Kara could feel her body shaking with a hundred emotions and she carefully hugged her back, her own feelings almost as strong. Seeing Helena and Dick had been great, a sign that she was not a complete stranger in this world, but Diana was different. She was from her own world. They had worked together, were something close to friends.
In the ashes and ruins of Paradise Island these two women clung to each other, eternally thankful for having found each other.
Neither of them was sure how much time had passed when they finally let go again. Diana's face was not the mask of fury it had been earlier, but Kara could clearly see the rage simmering beneath the deceptively calm surface. Diana had always been a mass of contradictions for her. An ambassador of peace from an island of warrior women, a tender and loving person yet the fiercest warrior she had ever met.
Right now she could see very little of said tenderness and Kara was certain that peace was the last thing on Diana's mind.
"Can you do me a favour, Kara?" Diana asked.
"Of course."
"Find out what happened here!"
Kara nodded. Diana knew of the superior senses Kryptonians possessed, of course, and there was a good chance that Kara would be able to figure out how the island had been destroyed simply by looking at the wreckage.
She started by checking out the glassed-over ground, the most likely point of impact for whatever weapon had done this. She narrowed her eyes until she could see right down to the microscopic level. There were leftover traces of radiation in the ground, a type she was not familiar with. Judging by the level of decay, though, she was able to give an estimate as to how long ago this weapon, whatever it was, had struck here.
"It happened about fifteen to eighteen years ago," Kara said out loud. "I can see no debris from bomb casings or such, so it probably was some kind of beam weapon."
Rising into the air, Kara looked across a vaster area of devastation and, trying to shut down her emotions, coldly calculated angles and patterns.
"The beams must have struck almost vertically," she told Diana. "My best guess is some kind of aircraft. Maybe even an orbital installation. I doubt the Amazons saw it coming."
"Paradise Island is surrounded by a magical veil that prevents detection," Diana said, her voice almost completely neutral. "Assuming that my sisters on this world had something similar, how did these weapons find them?"
"I've yet to see a computer that can match wits with magic," Kara answered. "Whoever did this either found a way to penetrate the veil or the Amazons opened it for some reason."
Diana frowned for a moment, then seemed to have an idea. One that was not to her liking at all.
"The veil on our world was only ever opened for one reason," she said gravely. "When I left or returned to the island."
Kara hesitated for a moment, then got the idea. She swept her gaze wide, searching the surroundings of the island. Finally she found what she had been looking for. Moving in a blur she dove into the ocean about half a mile off the island and returned barely a minute later, dragging a large piece of wreckage behind her. An almost invisible piece of wreckage.
"The Invisible Jet," Diana said, inspecting the debris. "Or what's left of it."
Diana's strange aircraft had been all but undetectable even to Kryptonian eyes, it's unique construction incorporating as much magic as it did technology. Yet, just like with the island itself, someone had apparently managed to see it just fine. Fifteen years under the ocean had barely scratched the material, leaving the ragged edge where an energy beam had sheared it in half quite visible.
"It's the same radiation signature as in the ground," Kara said. "They must have shot it down."
The pilot compartment was empty and Kara was quite thankful for that. The cockpit was cracked open and partially scorched, leaving little doubt regarding the pilot's fate. Unlike the plane a human body, even one magically fashioned out of clay, would not survive fifteen years underwater.
Kara's microscopic vision found some organic residue, almost completely eaten away by algae and sea life. From what she could see the DNA was a nearly perfect match for Diana.
#
Some hours later Diana and Kara had arrived at the apartment in Gotham City that Helena and Dick had rented. Kara had no idea where they got the money from, seeing as neither of them seemed to have taken over a day job like she had back in Metropolis, but right now she did not much care. Diana was much more familiar with the two heroes from Earth-2, having worked with them on numerous cases during her time in the Justice League.
"It's good to see you, Wonder Woman," Helena said. It was good, too. Even though Helena was more familiar with another, older version of the amazing amazon, just seeing her face was doing wonders.
"Helena," Diana answered with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes. "Richard. I am glad to see that you are alive. We all thought you dead when the shadow demons invaded the Earth."
"It seems a lot of that is going around," Kara interjected. "Someone snatched me away moments before I died. Someone took Dick and Helena before the shadow demons could kill them. Diana, you said the Anti-Monitor blasted you just before you woke up here."
"Yes, that is correct."
"Whoever or whatever did this to us seemed to have taken us all just before we should have perished." Dick sat down in front of the computer he had somehow acquired. "If that is the case, then there could be others here. Quite a few of us died, or seemed to die, during the Crisis."
"If nothing else it speaks of an awful lot of power. We were all snatched from different places. The Anti-Monitor's fortress, the merged Earth, Alexander Luthor's portal. Not to mention what it would take to heal Kara's wounds and provide whatever medical aid the rest of us might have needed. All while transporting us across dimensional barriers to a world so distant from our own that the Anti-Monitor missed it somehow."
Kara noticed that Diana barely seemed to listen to Dick and Helena's words. From the times she had worked together she remembered that Wonder Woman had always been the type to take charge of any given situation. Her passivity, as well as the rage she still saw in her eyes, worried her more right now than whoever might have stranded them all in this world.
"Diana?" she asked softly, laying her hand on the Amazon's shoulder. "You all right?"
"I am about as far from all right as I can be."
Dick and Helena looked up from their discussion, now also catching the murderous look in Diana's eyes.
"Whatever has taken us here," Diana said when all eyes were upon her, "could obviously have killed us. Or left us for dead. Instead it brought us here. To a world where all the people we know to be heroes have somehow been prevented from becoming what they should have been. I don't believe in coincidence and I don't believe it was chance or natural disaster that wiped out my sisters on this world."
Kara did not know what to say. She had never heard such steel in Diana's voice.
"This is a world without heroes. Without protectors. A world where someone or something has murdered an entire people and got away with it. Who knows what else was done with no one here to prevent it. What other crimes were committed without anyone noticing."
"What are you saying, Diana?" Helena asked.
"I am saying, Helena, that this world needs heroes. It needs someone to right its wrongs. However it happened, we are here. And while we are here we have a duty. I intend to fulfil it. I intend to find the murderer of my sisters. And I intend to set things right."
TO BE CONTINUED