Part 13: Title Bout

#

National defence radar had but a moment to pick up an object speeding along the Eastern Seaboard at several times the speed of sound, leaving sonic booms in its wake. With most of the country's military attention already focused on the events taking place in Metropolis it was quickly discovered that this object was heading there as well. By the time they reached that conclusion the battle for Metropolis had already been joined, of course.

Kara pushed her speed as much as she could inside an atmosphere, leaving a blazing trail as the air around her was super-heated by her passing. She didn't care. Her eyes were already fixed on the city of Metropolis, only now appearing behind the planetary curve, and the figure tearing it apart right at this second.

Her thoughts were way ahead of her. How could this be? Kal? What was he doing? Why was he doing it? How could he even be here?

Even as her mind was thus occupied, though, her body sprang into action. Innocents were in danger. Kal was using his near-limitless power with abandon and dozens, if not hundreds of people had already fallen victim to his onslaught. Skyscrapers were tumbling, fires were burning, everything was quickly descending into chaos.

Kara adjusted her heading and sped directly toward the figure at the centre of the carnage, preparing to hit him at just the right angle to send them both careening out of the city at an upward angle and away from innocent bystanders.

Unfortunately Kal saw her coming.

The two people collided with enough force to shatter the windows of the surrounding buildings, causing a lethal rain of shards to come down onto the streets of Metropolis. Had anyone been stupid enough to stand close and watch he would have seen nothing but blurs as the two superbeings bombarded each other with punches that could split mountains in two, all within the blink of an eye.

Kara could count on one hand the times she had been forced to face-off against someone as powerful as herself. The Phantom Zone criminals, the Daxamites enslaved by Darkseid in the 30th century, a handful of others. Most of the times she was fighting people whom she would kill with a casual blow if she wasn't careful. As a result she had fallen into the habit of pulling her punches.

Her opponent seemed to have no such problem.

Taking the worst part of the furious exchange of blows, Kara broke off the in-fight and tried to get some distance between herself and Kal, hoping to catch her breath. It was not to be. In a blur of speed her larger opponent was upon her once again, hands that could crush mountains with ease closing around her neck before she could do anything to stop it. She sent a staggering kick into Kal's midsection, but it didn't make him let go.

A moment later she found herself flung face-first into the nearest building and thousands of tons of steel and concrete rained down on her.

#

"What's going on?" Diana yelled, storming into the office that Barbara Gordon had converted into one of the finest surveillance centres anywhere in the world. On numerous screens the carnage currently happening in Metropolis was displayed live and in colour.

"Someone is destroying the city," Barbara told her, her voice calm but with an undertone of panic. "Someone who is definitely superhuman. Kara took one look at him and vanished."

A moment later several of the screens went black and a thunderous crash could be heard over the speakers. Those monitors still intact showed windows blowing outwards, the ground shaking, and a huge explosion blossoming in the heart of the city.

"I'd say she just arrived at the scene," Helena offered, having slipped into the room unnoticed.

"Barbara, do you still have the picture of the attacker?" Diana asked, trying to figure out who might be causing this carnage. One of the Four? Someone else stranded here from another world? The possibilities were endless.

"Yes, give me a moment." Barbara furiously typed on her keyboard. "There he is!"

Bruce and Richard arrived just in time to see the image of the attacker appear on the central monitor. An identical gasp could be heard from three different throats.

"Su-superman?" Helena took a step back, clearly shocked by the look of rage and violence on a face she knew so well. If Diana remembered right the Superman of her world had been a role-model for all superheroes even longer than her own world's version had been. While less physically powerful than his Earth-1 counterpart, Kal-L had been an inspiration and living legend for close to fifty years.

Clearly this was not him. Regarding the figure on the screen for a moment, Diana was fairly certain she knew exactly who this man was. It filled her with dread.

"I need to get to Metropolis," she just said, wishing for the thousandth time for the ability to actually fly instead of gliding on the winds. "I fear Kara may be outmatched against this foe."

Bruce nodded, unfamiliar with the situation, but clearly recognizing that Diana was the only one among them who had even the ghost of a chance to survive partaking in this kind of battle.

"I have a private plane in the underground hangar. I'll have you there in fifteen minutes."

"Let's hope that's quick enough."

#

Kara came to, feeling a great weight pressing down on her. She couldn't have been out for more than a few seconds, but she knew only too well how much time that was for someone with her level of power. Even while she was lying here Kal could be out there killing people again.

Why was he doing this?

With a groan she rose, pressing the weight of a collapsed building with relative ease. She was hurting, but there was a fight left to fight. Kal needed to be stopped. Everything else could be sorted out later.

Her thoughts couldn't help but stray to the handful of times she and her cousin had sparred before. The times it had been serious, more than good-natured wrestling, were few, but most of those times Kal had gotten the better of her. He was larger, stronger, and more experienced than her. Kara had taken to some old Kryptonian fighting techniques in order to make up for that, something her cousin had never bothered with, and the last match between them that she could remember had ended in a stalemate.

Finally breaking free of the rubble, Kara knew she could only win this if she banished everything else from her mind. No holding back, no emotions, just taking down an enemy, no matter that said enemy was her cousin.

Unfortunately he was upon her before she even managed to see him again. In a blur of pain he laid into her, super-speed punches hammering her indestructible flesh. Kara managed to strike back, but her opponent was relentless. For every blow she managed to land he hit her with two. A thunderous uppercut caught her right on the chin and she went flying again, tearing up the pavement as she landed. Blood was seeping from her mouth and she was fairly certain she was busted up internally.

Refusing to lie down, she got up again and managed to take Kal by surprise this time. Apparently he had thought her sufficiently subdued already. Pouring every bit of strength and speed she had into her attack she took him off his feet, slamming his body into the rubble of a skyscraper that had already collapsed. She was well aware that there were still people about. She needed to finish this as soon as she possibly could.

A kick that could have split a moon in two sent Kal flying upward, arcing through the sky. Kara followed him immediately, driving her shoulder into his body and propelling them even further upward at an angle that would take them out toward the ocean. The impact caused her to cry out in pain as something broken inside her body screamed in protest, but she did her best to ignore the agony.

Even before they managed to clear the city limit, though, Kal managed to spin around and grabbed her by the throat again. For a moment their respective powers of flight pushed against each other, one trying to continue the arc out to sea, the other pushing them back towards the ground. The air between them seemed to shimmer in protest to the energy expended.

Without warning Kal's eyes suddenly erupted in crimson light, sending twin beams of searing heat right into Kara's own eyes. She screamed again, her concentration breaking like cheap glass as the world around her drowned in red pain. Kal wasted no time and propelled them downward. Kara couldn't even try to turn before he drilled them both right into a skyscraper, sending them crashing through a hundred stories in a cacophony of tearing metal and pulverized concrete.

Blacking out again, the world only started coming back into focus for Kara when she felt her body being picked up from where it had come to rest amidst the wreckage. A hand strong enough to push the planet out of its orbit wrapped around her throat. She tried to fight, to move, but her body refused to obey. Everything hurt, her muscles protesting even the slightest movement.

"This is going to be fun," she heard a familiar voice, though the hate-filled tone was as foreign as anything in this strange new world. Managing to open her eyes, she saw Kal's face only inches away from hers, his eyes blazing with built-up power and anger.

"Why?" she managed. "Kal, why?"

A broad grin spread on Kal's face. The bruises beginning to show there only made it more terrifying.

"Oh, this is so much fun. You think I'm your loving cousin, don't you? That disgusting do-gooder from Earth-1."

Realization dawned on Kara. Why hadn't she thought of that? Of course this wasn't her cousin. Kal would never ... but that meant ...

"Allow me to introduce myself," the otherworldly doppelganger of Superman said. "I'm Ultraman. Pleased to meet you."

TO BE CONTINUED