#
"I told you this was a bad idea, Randall," one of the three men said.
"Noted, William," the man called Randall replied.
"Don't give me that 'noted' crap, Randall! You fucked this up and fucked it up good. And the fuck-up is all over international TV."
The leader of the mysterious group known only as 'the Four' gave the youngest member of the quartet a stern look, but said nothing. There was very little to say. No matter how much it irked him, things hadn't gone according to plan.
The appearance of a previously unknown superbeing was not exactly an unprecedented occurrence. They had dealt with such beings in the past. Granted, this one was a lot more powerful than those they usually dealt with, but it shouldn't have been much of a problem. Using another previously unknown superbeing to take care of the matter should have solved the problem elegantly.
Only it hadn't.
"This Clark Kent ... Ultraman ... whatever he called himself, thoroughly bungled the job," Kim Süskind, the only female among the group, said. "At least we are spared the inconvenience of having to kill him ourselves."
Ultraman should have been the ideal pawn. Immensely powerful once exposed to a sample of the green xeno-mineral the Four had a small supply of, he could have been controlled easily by limiting his access to this 'Kryptonite', as he called it, and, if all else failed, simply eliminating him once his powers ran dry again. That the same mineral was toxic to the other superbeing, that blonde woman, had been an unexpected bonus.
Only the woman had survived, thanks to the intervention of yet more previously unknown superbeings. How many of them were there? The battle in Metropolis had seen at least three others, though only one of them was apparently powerful enough to go into combat with the likes of Ultraman. The other two, the ones who had come to the rescue of the injured blonde, had seemed powerless, or at least not in the same weight-class as the others.
Still, even having but two super-powered females on the loose with no information about them was something they could not tolerate.
"Did the satellites track them once they left Metropolis?" Jacob Greene asked. He and Randall had known each other the longest and were something very much like friends.
"No," Randall admitted. "They used some kind of stealth aircraft. Not up to our level of technology, of course, but good enough to disappear by flying close to the ground."
"Great," William ranted. "Not only are they super-powered, they also have some kind of technological backing. Randall, this is getting out of hand."
"And what do you propose we do then?"
William grinned, his hand bursting into flames as he drew a finger across his neck in an unmistakable gesture.
"Get rid of them. Lure them out and then sterilize whatever place they appear in."
"Taking into account the resiliency these two have shown," Kim added, "and leaving aside that we don't know the capabilities of their comrades, that would take a nuclear-level strike. Not something that can easily be hidden from the public."
"Who cares? This thing has been blown wide open already. The blonde was on TV saving that plane. A dozen news stations got recordings of the battle in Metropolis. The horses are out of the barn one way or another. If we end it quickly now things will settle down again soon enough. The little people forget what they can't understand."
"I hate to admit it," Jacob said, "but the kid here might be right. It's too late to sweep this under the rug, Randall. We need to take care of business before this actually gets serious."
Randall couldn't quite help a chuckle. Get serious? Jacob actually sounded as if he might think this could pose a threat to them personally.
"Very well. I will arrange something to draw them out. Then we will get rid of this little nuisance once and for all."
The other three nodded.
#
"How are Kara and Diana?" Bruce asked, nursing another cup of coffee. None of them had been sleeping much these past few days and events didn't seem likely to slow down anytime soon. Not after this.
"Diana is bruised and has a broken rib, but she'll be all right within a few days," Richard said. "Kara, well ... it's been a bit more complicated with her."
Bruce could imagine. How were you supposed to set broken bones and stitch open wounds when the patient was basically invulnerable? Not to mention that this same someone was also an alien that, while human in appearance, had quite a few anatomic differences. He heard Helena mumble that she wished someone called Dr. McNyder was here.
"We had no choice but to expose her to the Kryptonite again," Helena explained, "then have Diana set her bones with her greater strength and sew up her wounds while she was weakened. It was hell on her, but I think she'll be fine eventually."
"No internal injuries?"
"Impossible to tell. X-Rays can't penetrate her skin, it's too dense. We can only hope that her body can repair itself now that the worst is taken care of. She's resting at the moment."
Richard and Helena looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to fill them in on his doings.
"I had little problem with the autopsy," he explained. "It seems that this Ultraman lost all his powers after his death. Diana said that the source of them was that Kryptonite rock, but apparently it only works when he is alive. I briefly exposed his body to the rock, but it remained vulnerable."
"Any trace of how he came here or where he got the Kryptonite?" Helena asked.
"Well, I did discover one thing. Objects from parallel worlds possess a different vibratory rate on the quantum level than native objects. Ultraman has a different rate, so do all of you. The Kryptonite hasn't. It appears to be home-grown."
Richard was frowning, his mind already at work.
"So either he was incredibly lucky and found a chunk that landed here after this universe's Krypton's destruction, or ..."
Helena completed the thought. "Or someone gave it to him. Someone who somehow acquired Kryptonite and was smart enough to figure out what it would do for Ultraman."
Bruce nodded. "Kara told me that the UFO the Four were reported to have picked up in Kansas in 1967 was probably her cousin's rocketship. It's logical to think that, if that ship arrived here on a direct trajectory from Krypton, a few meteor rocks might have come along with it on the same heading. And were recovered by the Four when they found the rocket."
Helena closed her eyes. She could only imagine what the Four might have done with the infant Kryptonian inside the rocket.
"So the Four gave Ultraman the Kryptonite? Why?"
Bruce shrugged. "I would assume to take care of that flying blonde superwoman they saw on TV. Knowing them, they probably hoped the two would take care of each other."
Richard clenched his fist. "And the fact that thousands of people died in Metropolis?"
"Richard, if the stories I have told you about them haven't shown you how little regard they have for the innocent ..."
Slamming his fist on the table, Richard rose. "We need to do something, Bruce! We can't let them get away with this."
"We will do something," Bruce assured him. "First, though, we must wait for our two superwomen to recover. Without them we don't have much of a prayer, I'm afraid."
"And then?"
Now Bruce's face showed a tiny smile. "Then we'll take care of the Four. You see, I have an idea on that matter."
#
Kara woke and immediately groaned, wishing that she hadn't. Every single inch of her body was hurting. Never, not even during that time her powers had been on the fritz, had she ever been put through the wringer like this. She was lucky to be alive and knew it. This one had been too close for comfort.
Opening her eyes, she realized that she was in one of the bedrooms in Bruce Wayne's apartment tower. Moments later her hearing picked up the sound of someone breathing and she looked over to see Diana, resting on the other half of the bed. The Amazon was awake and looking at her.
"Feeling better?" Diana asked.
"No," Kara answered truthfully. "But I guess the fact that I'm hurting at all is something I should be grateful for. Thank you, Diana. I owe you my life."
Diana shook her head. "If we ever kept score of something like that our community back home would be entangled in so many life debts that it'd take forever to repay them all. Besides, Ultraman would probably have killed me, too, if you hadn't recovered in time to double-team him with me."
Kara nodded, but at the same time felt a cold, clammy hand around her heart. The memories of the battle rushed back, especially what happened at the end. What they had done to end it. Diana had been the one to actually do the deed, but Kara had agreed with her. Had seen it as the only option.
Thinking back, though, had she allowed her emotions to get the better of her? She had been so furious, seeing someone with Kal's face abuse his powers in that way. She had no idea how many people died in Metropolis, but it had to be hundreds, if not thousands. The thought that these people would remember the image of her cousin as a mass murderer ... had she allowed that to influence her decision?
"You're having doubts," Diana said, guessing at her thoughts. "Don't!"
"I can't help it." Turning back to lie on her back, Kara stared at the ceiling. "We killed him, Diana. We crossed a line."
Diana shook her head. "That man deserved death a thousand times over, Kara. After what he did every court in every world would have sentenced him to death."
"But we are not judge, jury, and executioner."
Diana gave her a look. "Aren't we?"
Kara sighed heavily, not liking the way this conversation was going. "You have changed since coming here, Diana. I'm not sure I like it."
"I have changed, yes, but not much." She rose, walking around the room. "When I first came to Man's World I was ... confused by quite a few of your practices. How you let criminals go due to a technicality. How you put small crooks in prison for decades, but allowed corporate leaders to get away with crimes much worse simply because they have money. The Justice League had the power to do so much good in the world, but restricted itself so much. We went after bank robbers, but when a dictator somewhere in the world slaughtered thousands of people we didn't get involved."
Diana turned to look at her. "I adapted. I knew that, if I wanted to fit into Man's World and teach them the Amazonian ways I needed to do things their way, bring about change gradually. Eventually I became so caught up in things that I almost lost sight of my original goal of changing the status quo, but I never saw things as black and white as most of my colleagues.
"Things are different in this world, Kara. We can't be as innocent here as we were back home. We can't afford it, the people of this world can't afford it."
Kara didn't want to hear this. "Kal taught me that killing is wrong. Always wrong."
"Your cousin is one of the best men I ever met," Diana said, "and it is important that someone like him, someone with so much power, set boundaries for himself. The temptation to change the world by force would be too great otherwise. But sometimes setting yourself boundaries like that is a luxury."
"So what?" Kara had tears in her eyes. "We just throw everything overboard? We kill our enemies before they kill us? How does that make us better than them?"
"We're better because we don't kill thousands of innocent people. We're better because we don't wipe out entire people just because we don't like them playing in our yard. We're better because we do what we do to help people, not leave them simpering in the dark."
One thing Kara did have to admit was that this world they called home for the time being was different. Harsher, edgier. Was it simply the absence of superheroes? Had the efforts of her colleagues back home made such a difference? Was it the manipulations of the Four? Or was it something else? An indefinable something that made Earth-1 so much more innocent than this place? She didn't know.
Harder measures for a harder world? Diana seemed to think so. Come to think of it, Kara really shouldn't have been that surprised. Her friend came from a race of warriors. She had read about the Amazons in ancient Greece. Diana had been brought up with their values. That she had adapted to Man's World to the degree she did was something of a puzzle. Kara had never thought of Diana as a warrior, though. Just another cape. One of the best and brightest, yes, but just another cape.
The capes were off now, it seemed.
TO BE CONTINUED