A/N: What is consistency in this episode? It's like the alien towers grow and shrink in size depending on the scene they are in. And how fragile is the material the aliens use? One moment breaking from gravity then the next being able to withstand Wonder Woman's full strength?
Chapter 6: Why are there so many aliens?
They had managed to make contact with Superman a few days after the attempted kidnapping, but not much could actually be done about it. None of them specialized in investigations, and those that Superman did know were either unavailable to help or simply refused to deal with him at all.
So, as much as it pained them to admit, they simply had to let it go for the time being.
Months had passed since the incident happened, with Kara and Mew still having to take extra patrol shifts to cover for Clark's absence for most of the day and sometimes into the night. They did eventually find out over the news what he had been working on to regain the people's trust and the reaction was mixed.
Superman and Senator Carter had come up with a plan to disable all nuclear missiles across the globe, entrusting the defence of the entire planet to Superman if another alien attack took place.
After Kara explained to Mew what a nuclear missile was, she could somewhat agree with the plan. A bomb that was used to wipe out tens of thousands of people at a time and left a lingering cloud of sickness? No thank you, there was no argument from either of them that having something like that around was a bad idea.
The issue was having just Superman defend the world like that.
Whenever Kara and Mew were able to meet with him, it was clear that the stress of the whole situation was getting to him. While his personality never changed, it was clear he was pushing himself too much with even his face looking gaunt. He simply couldn't juggle both his civilian life, his duty to Metropolis, and the safety of the world.
"But he is just being so stubborn!" Kara cried out in frustration as they sat on top of one of the skyscrapers for a late dinner "Even his parents can't talk him out of this." It was true, even the Kents noticed how poorly Clark was doing, but his attempts to reassure them did little.
"He needs to choose between Metropolis and the world," Mew agreed as she took a bite from her apple tart. "And Metropolis is already pretty safe in your hands."
"Ah come off it Mew, we both do this. You are a hero," Kara poked Mew in the sides, repeating a topic they had gone over several times; Mew's refusal to be called a hero. Even when she was caught by reporters, she would claim to just be 'helping out a friend'.
But even her claims of 'just helping out a friend' didn't stop people from labeling Mew a hero. She had already seen herself in the news enough times and couldn't walk down the street without people pointing and staring when she wasn't on patrol. They had even tried to push different superhero names on her, but would shoot them down.
She wasn't Catgirl.
She wasn't Beast Girl.
She wasn't a hero.
"I refuse it, and will continue to do so," Mew shook her head in denial. "At most, I am a sidekick or a lovable mascot." She suddenly gave Kara a wide eyed stare in an attempt to be cute. "I am lovable, right?" That only caused her friend to snort and playfully push her away, causing both of them to laugh.
"You're something alright," Kara quipped as she crumbled up the wrapper of her food. Narrowing her eyes down at the street below, she took aim and launched the trash down the building where it whizzed through the air before hitting a trash can.
"Show-off," Mew joked as she simply teleported her trash to the same can. "So what do we have for tonight's patrol?" She asked as she stood up and wiped away the crumbs from her clothes.
"Nothing really," Kara shrugged as she began to float into the air, Mew following as well. "Clark's been hanging around town so crime has gone down with the three of us now on patrol. Oh, and apparently Batman has been seen in town as well."
"Should we be worried about that?" Mew asked with some concern. From the stories she heard about Batman, him being in town would likely mean half the city burning, being poisoned, being frozen, or overrun by plants. Sometimes a mix-and-match of those. For someone with no powers, he tended to attract some powerful enemies.
"I'm sure it's fine," Kara dismissed the worries as she flew backwards to give her friend a reassuring look. "Batgirl hasn't called me, so it must be something small. Like he is tracking a lead or retrieving something that was stolen from him. Nothing world ending."
As a meteor broke the sound barrier and flew past them only a block away, Mew was pretty sure that the creator of this world was watching them and couldn't help but contradict Kara's words.
Taking in a deep breath, Kara spoke once the meteor impacted the Metropolis Central Park.
"Not a word," She said as she flew off at great speed to the impact sight, doing her best to ignore the smug look from the shapeshifter following just behind. When they reached the crash sight, firefighters were already working on putting the flaming rock out.
Superman was flying nearby, helping move rubble away that was blocking the firefighters from getting close enough to put out the fires. While he was doing that, Kara and Mew went to work helping get civilians away from the crash; getting any of the injured away from the crash and healing them with Heal Pulse.
The two of them were in the middle of getting a family of three out of a car crash when they heard the hissing. Letting the family out of their car, they both flew up to get a better view of where the noise was coming from and found it was coming from the meteor, it was hissing and letting out steam from within.
Then it started to crack. A lone pale scythe-like appendage burst from the crack covered in a gooey substance. The thing then impaled itself onto the ground before another one emerged from the meteor soon followed by a third. Working together, the three things pulled out a bulbous white and red head that sat on top of the limbs.
"What is that?" Kara didn't hide her disgust at the thing dripping with a slime as it stood next to the meteor it came from.
The tripod stood there, a red central 'eye' seeming to dilate as it stared forward. A red glow then appeared and a laser shot down and destroyed a police car.
"Not good," Was Mew's reply as they both moved towards the alien device.
Superman made it to the thing before them though, and charged forward at it. But the tripod turned to look at him and shot him back with it's laser, sending him flying over several buildings before hitting the street.
"Superman!" Kara called out in worry before refocusing on the tripod. "Bad move mister." She growled as she flew at the thing, now knowing to avoid the eye's gaze. Coming in from the side, she gave it a mighty blow that caused the thing to stumble back. She continued to lay in on the alien tripod, but found that other than unbalancing it, her attacks were no harming the thing. "What is this made of?!" She cried in frustration.
"Well, if the armor is too much-" Mew began as she flew overhead and landed on top of the thing. The moment she landed down, she shifted to a Swalot, it's slime letting her hold on without risk of being knocked off. Her cheeks then puffed out before she let out a purple liquid that landed on the tripod's head, hissing and dissolving all it touched.
Shifting again to her Kanto form, she took off as her Acid Spray did it's work.
"Get rid of it." She finished her statement, giving Kara the sign to go ahead.
Nodding her head, Kara's eye began to glow as she used her heat vision and was easily able to pierce where Mew had burned away the tripod's protection. At the attack, the tripod's main body blew up in a spray of fire and organic chunks as it collapsed to the ground.
"Woo, go girl power," Mew held up her hand in a high five that Kara readily gave.
Overhead, they saw a black jet-like vehicle pass by and circle around. Given its shape, neither of them second guessed that it was Batman's.
"And now he's here," Mew dryly commented as she watched him fly around before glancing at Kara. "Is this the part where we learn these things can regenerate?" She half joked.
"I hope not," Kara said with a frown as she turned to look at the meteor. "But I'm guessing we aren't done yet." She pointed at it as a second and third tripod pulled their way out.
"Which one do you want to start with?" Mew asked as she sized the two new pods up, they were identical to the last one, but there was always the chance there was something different about them. Fortunately, their choice was made for them as the Batwing launched its missiles at one of them. When the smoke cleared, they could see no damage done to the pod, but its attention was drawn away. "Guess the other one then."
With that, the two of them flew towards the other tripod. The thing caught sight of them flying at it and it's eye began to glow red, so Kara flew to the side while Mew disappeared from view and reappeared above it. Since the pod had no clue where she went, it simply kept tracking Kara and failed to hit due to both the speed and distance.
Repeating their earlier tactic, Mew gave the outer shell of the pod a Swalot Acid Spray. But instead of leaving right away, she slid her way towards the eye of the thing till she was just in it's line of vision.
The 'pupil' of the eye darted up to look at her before she let out a Sludge Bomb onto it. The pod gave no reaction to the attack, but she could see the sludge starting to turn red so she quickly slunk back as the laser fired and singed her whiskers. Taking that as her que, she shifted back to her Kanto form and teleported away just as Kara crashed into the pod and took a large chunk of it off.
"That's two for two," Kara said with a grin as floated up next to Mew before she frowned at seeing the other pod still up. It was no longer interested in Batman and was just firing indiscriminately at the city. "Looks like we gotta take out that one too… Where is Clark?" She asked, looking around, seeing no sign of him fighting anywhere. Even x-raying where he was before showed him to be gone.
"Batman is gone too," Mew pointed out the lack of the Batwing in the sky. "There might be more to this going on." She reasoned as they took off to the last pod. "And given our record so far, they can trust us with these things."
And rightfully so, as the last pod proved to me no more difficult than the others. With them gone, that just left them with one last problem to deal with, the meteor itself.
After they destroyed the last pod, they decided to check for any more pods inside of it.
"Yeah, there is still something in there," Kara confirmed as she looked it over with her x-ray vision. "But it doesn't look like the pods, more like a wiggling mass of… I'm just going to say milk and oil? Not really sure what I'm looking at."
"Well, given what has come out of the meteor already, I don't think it's good," Mew commented as she looked the meteor over before looking in the distance. "Any chance you can carry this thing out of the city?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Kara asked with a cocky smirk as she flew down to the base of the meteor and lifted the rock with a grunt of effort. "Now, let's get this out of here." She said as she took off at a slower speed due to the weight, and Mew flew beside her as they carried it several miles out of Metropolis.
When they felt like there would be no one around that would be seriously hurt by the rock and what was inside it, Kara put it on the ground and flew away from it to join Mew in the sky.
"So… what now?" Mew asked as they looked over the rock, and from the expression on Kara's face, she didn't know either. Do they destroy it? Leave it for Superman? They didn't even know who was attacking them or why.
"I guess we wait?" Kara suggested with a shrug.
xXx
And wait they did, for over an hour in a field in the middle of nowhere.
Mew had taken to shifting to a Sandshrew and rolled laps around the meteor while Kara was doodling on the ground with her heat vision. It was almost a relief when something finally did happen.
Jumping back from the meteor as it began to rumble, Mew shifted back to human, the two gained some distance from it in the air. A green smoke began to emanate from the top as bright red cracks began to appear before the rocks fell away revealing a mass of black tentacles reached upwards. They were admitting a terrible screeching noise that made their hairs go on ends.
The tentacles twisted around one another before they began to take on a more mechanical sound as they formed together into a solid, twisting mass with similar red orbs like the tripods had. From near the base a drill popped out of the construct and began to burrow into the ground as red air sacks began to inflate and shrink. From the top, great clouds of smoke began to pour out and cover the sky.
The field was lit up as lightning began to jump around inside the clouds as it expanded further and further out.
"A thunderstorm generator?" Mew questioned as she watched the sky be consumed. "Do you see anything inside?"
"It's… confusing," Kara stated as she looked over the structure. "The insides make no scene with how it is built, but I can see what I could describe as white jelly people inside." At the look Mew gave her, she felt the need to defend herself. 'What, that's what they look like!"
"It is fairly accurate," They turned to see Superman floating behind them and a masked woman with a large pair of grey wings. "You two did good work while I was gone." He he scanned the structure himself.
"So what's the plan?" Kara asked, excited for some action.
"You two are going to wait out here while me and Hawkgirl destroy this factory," Superman instructed, Kara getting an indignant look at the order. Just before him, and the now named Hawkgirl, were about to take off, Mew interrupted them with a question.
"So you want us to destroy it from the outside while you are destroying it from the inside?" Mew asked, misinterpreting the orders and found them to be a bit confusing. "But what if we accidentally hit you guys?"
"No, you won't be attacking," Superman stated, frowning at the question as he tried to explain better. "Me and Hawkgirl will be heading inside the factory to destroy it so they can't block out the sky for their invasion."
"Why do you need to head inside for that?" Mew was getting exasperated by this line of thinking, it made no sense at all. "The smoke began to pour out when the drill and those air lung… things on the side started working. So we only need to destroy those things to stop it from spewing out the clouds." She stated, pointing out the only moving parts of the building that were exposed.
That brought the two older heroes up short. Then it was Kara's turn to chime in at her own insight.
"Or we could just bend or seal off the smoke pipes up top," She pointed out at the top of the building. "And if they are made of the same stuff as the tripods, we can just take out enough of the bottom so it will fall over like a tree. I mean, just look at the thing, how is it standing?"
"Those are some valid points," Superman slowly stated as he began to look over the building again. They were right, there really was no need for any of them to actually go inside to destroy the factory. The more he thought about, the worse the idea it became. These aliens had been leading him by the nose for a while now and would likely plan for him to attack, so a trap was almost assured to be waiting.
"While I would prefer to attack," Hawkgirl began as she shouldered her mace. "Heading into enemy territory when we don't need to, would be a waste of our time and energy." She said, agreeing with the girls' assessment.
"You're right," Superman said as he scanned the areas that the girls had pointed out before glancing over at the two, a bit of pride causing him to smile at them. "Good work, again. You two might end up letting me retire one day if you keep this up."
Kara beamed at the praise, while Mew was simply happy that Superman was willing to see logic.
"Yeah, when this blows over, take a vacation," Mew half-joked. "You need some rest and me and Supergirl have been kicking butt and taking names." She had no idea how tempting that sounded to Superman right now, he considered taking them up on that offer one day.
"Alright, new plan," Superman stated as he finished observing the area. "Hawkgirl and I will be working on bringing the structure down." He looked at the winged woman. "I expect them to try and stop us, but I trust the mace isn't for show."
"It most definitely isn't," Hawkgirl stated as she swung her mace through the air, looking ready for battle. "And I'll look forward to showing my skills against these invaders."
"Now, you two," Superman looked to address the others. "Work on bringing down the drill first, I don't know what is in those air sacs and don't want it spreading across the ground, so don't attack them." He instructed and this time the two girls obeyed as they all took off towards the alien tower.
They split off from each other as they reached the tower. Hawkgirl led the charge to the base of the tower with a warcry as she crashed her mace against it, taking a chunk of the wall. Superman began to use both his super strength and speed to almost mow through the wall and began to take out supporting pieces of the internal structure.
While they were at that, Mew and Kara were using the tried and true method of melting and blasting at the upper shaft of the drill. It was a very solid piece of material so it was slow going, but they were getting through it. They had just made it over half way through when it began to bend under the strain of its own movement.
Moving quickly, Kara grabbed Mew from her spot stuck to the side of the shaft and flew away as it snapped in half, leaving the drill bit still pierced into the ground while the useless broken shaft continued to try and work.
"Well, that worked out…" She then stopped when she could begin to feel something moist trickling down her skin. She had forgotten what Mew currently was and quickly dropped to the ground to deposit her friend on the ground as she tried to clean off the slime. "Ew, ew, ew."
Shifting back to her Kanto form, Mew could only give a sheepish grin at her friend.
"Sorry," She apologized before deciding to try and preserve some of her friend's pride by looking away. She could see Superman and Hawkgirl were also disengaging from the base of the tower, a swarm of jelly men shooting at them. From the rather impressive number laying on the ground, they had missed a good fight.
Superman glanced over at them before breaking off from Hawkgirl and up the tower. When he reached near the top, he pressed himself against the wall of the structure and began to push. It was a true testament to how strong he was as the building began to bend and groan under the effort before the weakened base gave way under the strain.
The ground shook from the impact, a series of explosions happened along the fallen structure before the smoke coming from it sputtered out and came to a complete stop.
"We did it!" Mew cheered, and Kara gave a half hearted cheer herself, still cleaning off the slime. Looking over to Superman, she could see him and Hawkgirl talking before they headed off somewhere else at highspeed. "And looks like we are done here as well."
"Good, because I need a shower," Kara groused as she took off away from the city and towards the Kent's farm, leaving Mew alone in the field where she decided just to lay back and enjoy a day well done as the morning sun came up.
xXx
(Omake)
"What did you call me for?" Superman asked as he walked into the main control room of the Watchtower. The one he was addressing was the newest hero of their group, J'onn, the last surviving Martian. Due to him not feeling too comfortable on Earth yet, he spent most of his time up in the tower.
"I was running scans for any anomalies," J'onn began as he typed away on the computer as the screen flickered through all he had pulled up. "Checking for any possible retaliation or remains of the Imperium when I found some odd readings on your moon."
Superman's expression grew serious at that, thinking that they might be having another alien attack so soon after the last. But when the screen pulled up the image that J'onn found, it took all his effort not to bang his head against something.
There, sitting in a crater on the moon, was the missing Daily Planet Globe and his cape tied to a pole like a flag.
Without another word, Superman walked from the room and prepared himself for the long journey to the moon.
xXx
"Well, someone found my stash," Mew said as she laid in the back room of Devon's Pawn Shop. She would normally be upset, but she had learned a few weeks ago that the bookseller was a dirty liar and that her gold coins were worth plenty
It was also the only reason that Devon put up with her now, since she would just toss him a coin so she could hang around and pretend to work there. Not like she had an apartment to go to anymore, and a pile of old unsold blankets was still comfortable to sleep on.
"Oh, they did?" Devon idly asked as he input his sales into the computer. "Where did you hide it, or will you still not tell me."
"I decided to follow your advice," Mew shrugged, not seeing the harm now. "I hid it in plain sight, right on the moon."
…
"It's a sad day in my life when I can't tell if you are joking or not."