Chapter IV: The Gene Pool Part 1

Purple Labs. Chicago, IL. Planet Earth. Sector 2814.

"Two hundred and ninety-eight… two hundred and ninety-nine… three hundred!" Raquel grunted as her roommate, Karen Danvers, helped her rest the barbell on its rack. The young engineer grabbed her water bottle and poured the remaining contents all over her face. "Thanks for spottin' me, Karen." She smiled, graciously.

"No problem." Karen nodded as she handed her friend her sweat rag.

Raquel was just about to head off to the bathroom to take a shower when she saw Karen pull a notebook out of her nightstand and power up her laptop. "Whatcha working on, girl?" She asked, curiously.

"Just a little pet project." Karen replied without looking up from her screen. "I've had this idea for a sci-fi novel for a while, and now I've finally gotten around to writing a rough draft."

"Sci-fi novel, eh?" Raquel leaned over to skim through Karen's notes. "Well, if you're lookin' for inspiration, I think you should come with me to the lab sometime, later. Captain Hyper's donating the spaceship that brought her to Earth! Isn't that cool?!"

"Oh, right! I almost forgot!" Karen thought to herself. "Uh, that sounds… awesome, Raquel. I'd love to, but… I have a doctor's appointment. Maybe next time."

"Man, your loss." Raquel shrugged as she headed for the shower. "I've been waiting for a chance like this ever since I graduated from M.I.T."

Karen whipped her head towards the bathroom, even as she heard the water running. "You went to M.I.T.?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't easy." Raquel remarked from the shower. "The only reason I got in in the first place was because my foster dad is a damn good lawyer, and I was only able to stay because I worked three jobs. And Noble - my boyfriend - helped me out as much as he could. Then, after I graduated, I applied at several different research labs but it wasn't until last year that Dr. Lord finally accepted me." Karen heard the water shut off as she finished typing three more paragraphs on her laptop. Raquel exited the bathroom to grab a bra and pair of underwear. "But before that, I spent a lot of time with Noble at the Black Lives Matter rallies."

"Your life sounds so cool." Karen complimented, highly impressed by her friend's exploits.

"Eh, I guess. What about you, girl?" Raquel asked, tying her hair back. "What were you doing before this?"

"Uh…" Karen's face reddened, slightly. "I… kinda lived on a farm."

Raquel's eyes lit up as a small smile appeared on her lips. "A farm? Like, a farm-farm? With cows and chickens and stuff?"

"I know." Karen looked away, embarrassed. "You don't have to rub it in."

"Rub what in?" Raquel leaned against her desk, still smiling. "Fresh air instead of smog, lots of peace and quiet to read, early to bed, early to rise. Sounds to me like you had it made."

"Seriously?" Karen's eyebrow arched. "I mean, yeah, it was quiet, but it was boring, too."

"Karen, I've been through my fair share of hardships in my life." Raquel explained. "And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you'll be better off looking for the silver lining than by just staring at the cloud."

"Huh… I never thought of it that way." Karen nodded as her roommate finished getting dressed.

"Hey, how 'bout tonight we hit up this sweet karaoke bar and talk about it some more?" Raquel offered as she put on her lab coat. "I've been to this place before; they have the best chicken wings."

"Sounds like fun." Karen nodded with a smile.

"Whelp, have fun with your book." Raquel waved. "I'm off to make history!"

Once she was certain that her roommate was gone, Karen utilized her hyper-speed to type as many of her notes onto her laptop, organize it to her liking, and then turn off her laptop. She then changed into her Captain Hyper uniform and flew out the window towards her cousin's Citadel of Isolation in Antarctica.

Once Raquel made it to Dr. Richards' lab, she set her laptop on her desk and pulled up the notes from S.T.A.R. Labs. Suddenly, she heard a knock coming from above her. She looked up and saw Captain Hyper, herself, hovering above the lab's skylight with her rocketship in one hand. Raquel was awestruck as she opened the skylight and watched Captain Hyper gently float down to her. "Uh, hi." The engineer greeted, awkwardly. "I'm, uh, I'm Rambuel Raqeu. I-I-I mean Raquel Rambeu! I'm the one who Dr. Lord assigned to study your ship."

"Nice to meet you." Captain Hyper shook Raquel's hand, hoping the technology in her mask was functioning properly. Her cousin, Hyperman, designed it for her with the same Radonian technology built into his glasses to emit a hypnotic frequency that would warp the perceptions of anyone in close proximity to her. And much to her relief, it seemed to be working. "Where should I put this?" She asked, pointing up to the ship in her hand.

"Uh, Dr. Richards built a landing pad over there…" Raquel pointed behind the superheroine before bursting out into an awkward laugh. "I'm sorry, I just - I can not believe you're in my lab! Well, technically, it's not my lab, but, I mean-"

"I know what you meant." Karen smiled as she set the ship down where she was directed. "So, I understand this is for some kind of expedition?"

"Uh, yeah." Raquel folded her laptop into it's tablet mode and pulled up a picture of Dr. Richards' team and the Negative Zone portal. "Last time, we were only able to enter the N-Zone with a tow-line, but if we had a ship we could explore so much more of the dimension! But Dr. Richards has calculated that a cosmic storm is about to pass through the dimension at any day now, and we're going to need extra protection this time. Hence the special alloy we bought from the museum. And Dr. Storm thinks that since your ship is from Radon it might be advanced enough to keep us safe. What do you think?"

"Well, uh, engineering was never really my best subject." Captain Hyper shrugged before fondly patting the ship's hull. "But, hey; this baby got me through the Phantom Zone and kept me safe for seventy years so… maybe?"

"Hmm…" Raquel circled around the ship with an interested look. "Well, I better get started then. But it's gonna take some coffee."

"Great! I'll get it! There's espresso in the third cabinet from the fridge, right?"

Raquel looked up from her clipboard with an arched eyebrow. "Yes. That's exactly where it is. How did you know that?"

Karen slapped herself, internally, for making such an amateurish mistake. "Uh… well, Radonians have hyper-senses. So, when you mentioned coffee, I used my x-ray vision to find the kitchen, and, uh, my hyper-smell told me what kind of coffee you have."

Raquel paused for a moment before nodding. "Oh, okay." She replied before going back to her paperwork.

"Phew…" Karen wiped the sweat from her brow as she hastily made her way to the kitchen. "Really gotta watch out for that." She thought to herself.

Beryl's Brothel. Planet Xeo. Sector 2815.

An alien woman with chalk-white skin and flaming hair zipped her pants up as she looked over the pile of worn out men. "Nice improvement from last time, boys." She chuckled. "You all definitely earned your pay this time."

Helrich Beryl, the owner of the establishment, greeted his frequent customer with a smile as she whistled to summon her space-cycle. "Thank you again for your patronage, Ms. Binari. If there's anything else I can do for you-"

The harem's owner cut himself off once Binari aimed her finger directly at his face; it pulsated with enough plasma energy to cut through ten feet of steel. "As a matter of fact, Beryl, Lord Jargus has paid me fifty million units to bring you in after you stole from him."

"Uh… full services? On the house?" He tried, shakily.

"Don't bet on it, bastich." Binari chortled as she roughly pinned her target to the wall and slapped a pair of titanium restraints onto his wrists. Suddenly, the front doors of the establishment burst open and three other bounty hunters hurried into the room with their lasers drawn.

"Bertax!" Beryl cried, happily. "You've come to save me!"

"I doubt that." Binari scoffed as she shoved her latest bounty onto her bike. "Get lost, Bertax! This is my bounty!"

"If anyone's gonna bring my little brother in, it's gonna be family!" Bertax growled. "So hand him over, you keezy-fem!"

"No one tells me what to do, ya fraggin' bastich!" The three opposing bounty hunters were blown away by a strong wave of white plasma. The "Main Maiden" chained Beryl to her bike to keep him from escaping before grabbing an incendiary grenade from the secret compartment. Binari laughed as she threw the grenade and flew away into space.

"My brothel!" Beryl cried in agony as his establishment went up in flames.

Binari stuffed a bandana into her prey's mouth and activated her bike's atmospheric shields to keep Beryl safe from the vacuum of space. Her species - not needing oxygen to survive - would like to leave the shields down to watch Beryl squirm, but Lord Jargus wanted him alive. However, just as she was about to activate the hyperdrive to speed off to Jargus' planet, a beam of light enveloped the bounty hunter and her captive, teleporting them into a much larger spaceship.

Once they were aboard, they were greeted by a purple-skinned alien in pink armor. "You are the infamous bounty hunter, Binari, yes?"

"What's the big idea, bastich?!" Binari gripped the crowbar strapped to her belt as she dismounted her bike.

"There is no need for violence." The alien proclaimed. "I wish to hire you."

"I'm already on a job." Binari sneered. "If you wanna make an appointment, take it up with my secretary." Suddenly, Beryl dematerialized just as the bounty hunter turned back to her space-cycle. "Hey!"

"I shall keep your bounty secured until you have completed the task I have to offer you." He replied, insistently. "And I am prepared to pay a fair wage for your services."

Binari looked down at her bounty-pager, surprised to see such a large amount of universal credits transferred to her private account. "This is how much you're offering for one job?"

"Yes. You see, I am what you would call a collector." As her host went on, he tapped a few buttons on his gauntlet, causing the metal doors behind him to open and reveal numerous other species in cages. "You may call me the High Preserver. I have made it my mission to preserve the most powerful endangered species. Some sentient, but mostly just animals."

"Hmm… and what are you preserving these endangered species for?"

"With Darkanos and his forces gone, there is now a power vacuum in the galaxy of universal proportions." The High Preserver explained. "However, there are seldom few species left in the galaxy that can rival his sheer power. But over the past couple centuries, I have devoted my life to collecting samples of the strongest species in this universe. And thanks to the recent crisis, I have learned that there are two living Radonians on Earth. A male and female. The male is much too powerful for me to contain. But the female still has yet to mature. I want you to bring her to me alive so that I may extract her genetic code and use it to clone an indestructible army."

"Heh, I prefer procreatin' the old-fashioned way but… to each their own I guess." Binari chuckled as she pocketed her interest payment. "Ya got a mugshot for me to go on?"

High Preserver reached into his coat and handed his hired gun a holographic warrant. "This should be all you need."

Chicago, IL.

Karen - still in her Captain Hyper uniform - returned to the lab with two espressos. As she entered the lab, Raquel hadn't even bothered to look up from her work. The engineer continued to study the Radonian shuttle's software and hardware in hopes of finding an access code. It wasn't until she smelled the freshly brewed coffee that she looked up from her laptop. "Oh, thanks." She smiled, accepting the cup.

"So, how goes the examination?" Captain Hyper asked.

"I have a masters degree in engineering and a Phd in metallurgy." Raquel replied. "I've got the original notes of the STAR Labs scientists who studied Hyperman's spaceship that I've been studying for weeks before today. And I just spent the last half-hour trying to use those notes to help translate the codes. And do you know what I've come up with? Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Hyper winced. "You're not getting frustrated, are you, Dr. Rambeu?"

"Frustrated? Are you kidding?" Raquel smiled. "I'm in Heaven! I love a challenge. And cracking this ship's coding has been one of the best I've ever had!"

Karen smiled at her friend's enthusiasm before turning her attention to the ship. "Have you tried physically opening it up and looking inside?"

"Yeah, about fifteen minutes ago…" Raquel reached under a desk and pulled out a crowbar that had been bent out of shape. "It didn't work out so well."

"If you want, I could pry it open." Hyper offered, raising a plasma-charged fist.

"No offence, but you and Hyperman ain't the best at gently opening things." Raquel replied with a gentle shake of her head. "Besides, I like it when all I have to attack a problem with is logic."

Suddenly, Karen's hyper-hearing picked up a commotion coming from downtown. In an eyeblink, she was at the television set Larry had put in the lab and turned on the news channel. As she feared, there was trouble brewing in the city streets. "Sorry, Raquel. I gotta go."

"What?" Raquel looked up just as Captain Hyper flew back through the skylight. "Hey, wait!"

A few minutes earlier, the Chicago Police Department were just about to change their shifts when they heard something akin to a motorcycle parking in front of the building. The squad shared a confused glance as they heard someone walking up the steps just outside. At last, a tall, muscular woman with flaming hair kicked the front door and marched up to the front desk.

"I'm lookin' for this keezy fem." The flaming woman tossed a small device onto the desk which displayed a holographic image of a familiar Radonian.

"Captain Hyper?" The policeman scratched his head. "Uh, we don't really have a means of contacting her or the other Avengers. As a matter of fact, Mayor Payne's trying to pass a law to get them out of this city. But, uh, they usually just show up whenever there's trouble."

"Trouble, eh?" She rubbed her chin before reaching for the crowbar strapped to her belt. "Okay. I can work with that." The alien bounty hunter used the claw of the crowbar to hook under the policeman's tie and launched him through the glass window before setting the rest of the station aflame with her plasma. By the time the fire trucks had arrived, Binari had already killed half of the remaining officers and kept the others tied up as hostages. And yet, before the plasma flames got out of hand, a strong gust of wind swept through the building, caking the floor and walls in thick ice.

Captain Hyper's freeze breath had extinguished the flames and she flew inside to confront the enemy. A quick punch sent the alien invader flying out of the building and crash landing into a nearby fountain. "My hair!" The bounty hunter exclaimed, angrily. "Fraggin' bastich!"

With the threat temporarily dealt with, Captain Hyper went about freeing the hostages. "Are you guys okay?"

"No thanks to you." One of the officers sneered. "First that Patriot guy, then the flying pharaoh guy, and now this. Mayor Payne's got the right idea, you freaks just ask for stuff like this to happen!"

Karen was speechless as the police officers ran out of the building to safety. "Tsk, your welcome." She scoffed. Shaking her head, Captain Hyper decided to ignore their scorn and fly towards her opponent. She hovered directly in front of the bounty hunter just as she was climbing out of the fountain.

"Okay, listen, lady!" She snapped. "I don't know who you think you are, but-!"

"Oh, sorry. My card." The infuriated alien interrupted the Woman of Might with a swift punch to the jaw that sent her spiraling down the street. Before she could recover, Karen felt another blast of plasma coming from her attacker. At last, the alien ceased her assault and ran her plasma-infused hand through her hair, setting it ablaze once more.

"The name's Binari, bastitch!" She exclaimed, adjusting her leather vest as her hair continued to flare. "That's 'B' as in 'brutalize!' 'I' as in 'incinerate!' 'N' as in 'nullify!' 'A' as in 'annihilate!' 'R' as in 'rip to shreds!' And 'I' as in… uh… well, I guess I could use 'incinerate' twice."

"Okay, and what do you want with me?" Captain Hyper grumbled as she rose to her feet. "Are you an enemy of my cousin?"

"Nah, this ain't personal, kid." Binari promised as she gripped her chained hook in her left hand and her crowbar in her right. "All you need to know is that somebody's paid me a whole lotta money to bring in your carcass, and the Main Maiden always delivers!"

"And if I don't let you take me?"

"Well, the guy said he needs you alive." Binari smirked. "But he never said you had to be in one piece!"

Captain Hyper charged her own fists with plasma just as Binari channeled her own through her weapons. The collision sent shockwaves rippling throughout the city. Thinking quickly, Captain Hyper wrapped her arms around Binari and flew into the air to take the fight away from the city. But Binari gave a high-pitched whistle, summoning her space-cycle to circle around and clip the back of her prey's head. Once she was freed from the Radonian's grip, Binari mounted her bike in mid-air and fired a missile at her target.

Captain Hyper managed to evade the missile, but halted her attack once she noticed the school bus caught in the line of fire. Binari blinked in surprise as her prey left to chase down the runaway rocket. Hyper gripped the tail end of the missile, threw it high above the city, and fired a plasma beam to safely detonate it. Unfortunately, she left herself open to an attack from behind.

Binari wrapped her chain around Captain Hyper's ankle and dragged her through the sky. Karen grabbed the chain and tugged as hard as she could. This had the desired effect of yanking her opponent off of her vehicle and pulling her towards a hyper-punch. But with the chain still attached to her leg, Captain Hyper found it difficult to get any space for too long. The chain and crowbar didn't appear to be made from radonite, but whatever they were made of, it hurt her.

Binari may not have been as powerful as a Radonian, but she was still powerful in her own right. Add that to the years of experience she had on her, and it didn't take long for the malevolent bounty hunter to overpower the Woman of Might. At last, Binari heard the satisfying crunch of Captain Hyper's left arm breaking.

While still in the air, Binari swung her chain - and by extension, Captain Hyper - in circles before throwing her straight down to the ground. With another whistle, her space-cycle returned to her and safely carried her to the ground, where she saw a group of people surrounding the injured hero. Chief among them was a dark-skinned young woman in a lab coat.

"Whoa!" Raquel exclaimed as Binari parked her bike seven feet away from her. "Hey! Hey! Can't you give a girl a break?! Can't you see the woman's down?!" In response, the alien bounty hunter whistled for her spacebike to return to her. Binari opened a compartment on the side of her vehicle, pulled out a laser rifle, and aimed it directly at the engineer with a sinister grin. Raquel felt a chill run down her spine. "Is that a motherfuckin' laser gun…? You got a motherfuckin' laser gun?! A laser gun in a motherfuckin' motorcycle?! Whoa, whoa, wait, wait! Can't we talk about this?! You ain't gonna monologue, or nothin'?! Give a bad guy speech?!"

Captain Hyper groggily opened her eyes just in time to see Binari pull the trigger. Her entire world slowed down as the energy round escaped from the barrel of the gun. She was still weak from the beating she had taken, earlier, but she had to shield Raquel from the blast. With her last ounce of strength, she jumped in front of the beam, pushing Raquel to safety in the process. Karen was now completely drained; helpless as her attacker grabbed her by the hair and lifted her up to eye-level.

"And here I thought the whole 'girl scout' thing was just an act!" Binari laughed. "But when you went after that rocket to save those kids, I started to have doubts. And then, you used your own body to save this keezy-fem! Now, I know! You actually care about these people, don't you?"

Captain Hyper sighed; she had no energy left to fight. "Look just… just promise you won't hurt anyone else… and I'll go with you."

"That's more like it." Binari chortled before knocking the Radonian unconscious.

"No!" Raquel shouted, distraught.

"Aw, piss off!" Binari snapped and threw her crowbar at the engineer. True to her word, the crowbar merely pierced Raquel's lab coat, leaving her alive but pinned to a brick wall. Now, all she could do was watch, helplessly, as Captain Hyper was abducted into space.

Later

When Karen woke up, she was surprised to find her injuries were completely healed. But she was more surprised to find herself in some sort of cage. "Wh-what is this place?"

"Greetings, Captain Hyper. I am the High Preserver." The pink alien greeted. "And before you attempt to escape, know that I have taken the precaution of equipping your cell with a red sun lamp to keep you under control."

"Under control?" Karen sneered. "What do you even want me for?"

"I need to harvest your DNA for my army." High Preserver explained. "I have samples of ancient Martians, Daxamities, and even a small sample of White Skrull DNA. But you… with your heightened longevity, I can harvest samples of your DNA for decades before your death. Just one drop of your blood will give me an army to conquer an entire galaxy."

"You're insane!" Karen pounded on the glass before spotting Binari.

"Heh, heh, heh, have fun being a petri dish!" She mocked. "Nice doin' business with ya, sir." Binari chuckled as she straightened her vest and collected her money. "And if ya ever need some other mouth breathin' goody-good brought to ya, my door's always open."

"As a matter of fact, there is another specimen I need to create my army." The High Preserver stated. "The last female Czarnian."

"Ha! That's rich! I'm the last female Czarnian! Hell, I'm the last Czarnian, period!" The flaming bounty hunter boasted before turning to her latest captive. "I made a virus that fragged the rest of 'em for my high school science project. Gave myself an 'A.'"

Before Karen could express her disgust, a glass cylinder descended from the ceiling and trapped Binari. The Czarnian bounty hunter angrily pounded on the glass as a potent glass filled the cylinder. Karen sat back down on her bed, wondering how she was going to escape.

To Be Continued!

Captain Hyper aka Karen Danvers - Supergirl(Kara Danvers)/Captain Marvel(Carol Danvers)

Raquel Rambeu - Raquel Ervin/Monica Rambeu

Binari - Lobo/Binary

The High Preserver - Zymyr/High Evolutionary