Bane is who Kara was now, it's who most people knew her as. Not many people knew who she was under the mask though as she was careful to keep that concealed. She was a mercenary which was a fairly new thing she started after retiring from her previous line of work. Unlike some mercs though she had an honor code. Most of her jobs tended to involve snatch grabs, robberies, arson and other things that was normal typical thug work but when people are willing to pay big for you're skills you don't complain about easy work. Her current job was robbing a bank which was easy work for her. The plan was straight forward, hire some low level expendable mercs, cut the alarm before storming the place, take control of the hostages, break into the vault and steal everything. Honestly she was really only after a single item but stealing everything would keep them from knowing what she was after and keep her client off the list of suspects.
With the alarm aready taken care of Kara and the men she hired burst into the bank. Immediately they made their presence known as they took control of the employees and customers. The security guard makes the stupid mistake of going for his sidearm prompting Kara to rush him. She grabs his arm breaking it at the elbow before uppercutting him in the jaw knocking him unconscious. She hated when people couldn't simply listen and tried to play the hero. As the hired help cleaned out the vault and started loading it into the truck she went and found the safety deposit box she needed. Opening it up revealed a dull green glowing light coming from a rock. She took it placing it in her bag as she went ahead and helped herself to the rest of the boxes. She heard gun fire and screaming from the lobby meaning either someone screwed up or they had company. As she entered the lobby it turned out they indeed did have company. A man in an all black tactical suit with a metal helmet and shield had taken down her men which wasn't a big deal since they were expendable to begin with.
"You should stick to taking photos for a living Mr. Olsen. Playing the hero only gets you hurt or worse...killed." Kara told the man enjoying the obvious surprise and shock in his body language. She knew who the Guardian was before she even moved to this city as it wasn't hard. If someone would have looked hard enough it would have been obvious but many people were either to stupid or lazy. He had no real fighting experience and having some high tech tactical gear doesn't make up for that. He tended to get emotional and was quick to anger on top of being brash. When you get angry you lash out which gives you're enemy the advantage. He wasn't the strongest being tall but thin with a decent tone while lacking any true muscle making what little fighting skills he did have more of a disadvantage for him since he was a brawler. He was sloppy and left himself open to often while relaying on his shield and trinkets. He was a weakling who was obviously trying to compensate for something.
"I'll give you one chance to give up. I'd prefer not to hit a woman." He said after regaining some of his composure.
"Hit me? You can most certainly try." She sternly said.
He slightly hesitated before rushing straight at her just like she knew he would. He threw a punch that Kara simpley dodged while parrying his follow up strike by grabbing his arm and throwing him against the banks front counter. Getting up onto a knee he aimed his fist at here firing a wire at her. Him and little stupid toys she thought to herself. He set off the electrical charge it had sending volts of electricity through her body just to realize it wasn't doing anything. For Kara the shock merely tickled and amused her that he always resorted to using his toys so quickly. She grabbed the wire and pulled hard on it bringing him straight to her.
And just as she expected he released the wire from his gauntlet and rolled off the side deploying his shield. She grabbed the shield breaking it off before he could react. She broke his arm like she had with the security guard and then kicked the front of his knee snapping it. He yelled out in pain as she lifted him up over head intending to break him like she did Stephanie and plenty of others. Before she could finish the job however someone swung down and snatched him from her grasp. The person sat guardian on the far wall and stood up. It was a woman in a bat themed costume with what was obviously fake red hair coming out of the cowl.
"Didnt know Bane had a sex change." The woman joked.
"Stay out of my way Batwoman or I'll break you like my father did you're mentor." Kara told her. She knew the chances of her actually listening were slim but it didn't hurt to at least try. She knew about Batwoman and how she came to national City a few years ago. She didn't know who she was though and that was the one thing that was confusing. Batman being Bruce Wayne made sense so did Richard greyson being nightwing, even the Robins were easy to figure out. But Batwoman was a complete mystery.
"Father huh? Him disappearing like he did kinda makes sense now." She said as she sized Kara up. "Plenty have tried to take me down and failed so what makes you think you can do it?"
"Because there's always someone stronger and in this case that would be me."
"We'll see." She said as she rushed Kara.
Kara dodged the punched then the kick grabbing her and slamming her head off the nearby table. The woman tried to flollow up with a kick just for Kara to grab her leg and throw her against a wall. Batwoman rushed her again throwing a plethora of combination strikes with all of them being dodged or parried. When that didn't work she tried using a smoke pellet to gain an advantage and attack from behind. Kara had anticipated this and turned countering her strike by taking hold of her arm blocking the attack and then bringing her knee up to hit her in the gut. Kara had other work to do after this for her client so she wanted to make this quick. After several minutes and a few more failed attempts by Batwoman, Kara had beaten her down enough so she could finish this.
Grabbing her off the floor she was lifted up over Kara's head and brought down onto her knee with a loud crack forcing the hero to scream in pain. Kara wasted little time grabbing the few remaining bags of loot and simply left without saying a word. She just left Batwoman laying there in pain. Batwoman was lucky that Kara had actually been in a hurry thus not breaking her as bad as she could have. When she was finished with this job in a few weeks Kara was definitely going to that alien bar for some personal celebratory drinking and who knows maybe she would meet a pretty face she could take to bed.
By the end of her job a few weeks later Kara had gotten everything she was hired to get. It was all either wierd glowing rocks or some kind of strange technology that Kara could careless about. None of it was hard to get and despite some of it being decently guarded it caused her no trouble. The closet thing to a challenge she had was Batwoman showing up and even that was to easy. The Bat was to confident boarding on arrogant and it showed. She may have been trained by Batman but she was far from his skill level. And Guardian well he was nothing but an amateur that should have died awhile ago but was simpley lucky, luck which would one day run out, that is if he heals from his injuries well enough. Kara who was unmasked had made her way into LCorp with a bag in hand walking straight into Lena Luthor's office. Upon entering she marched up to the woman's desk dropping the bag onto it.
"Everything you wanted is in there miss Luthor." Kara told her.
"Thank god." Lena sighed with relief. "If my brother would have been allowed to keep this stuff the damage he could have done with it...I don't even want to think about it." She looked up at Kara staring into her blue eye's. "Could have done without all the injuries and collateral damage though. And beating down two of the city's heroes wasn't exactly a good thing either."
"You didn't give any specific parameters to the mission other than 'don't kill anyone'. Now the other half of my payment?" She asked.
"Yea your right I didn't but that still doesn't mean I'm happy about it. And really Kara?" Lena raised her brow. "No 'how've you been Lena' or 'what've you been up to Lena'?"
"This is business, you hired me for a job that's it nothing more." The blonde calmly but sternly said.
"Really? That's it? I help you get out from under Waller and you don't even act like we're friends." Lena said feeling a bit hurt.
"I think we were a bit more than just friends Lena." Kara shifted slightly being uncomfortable. Kara didn't like where this conversation may end up.
"Were we?" She asked as she stood up looking at Kara. "You sleep with me for a few months and then decided to tell me we weren't dating and that you were sleeping with other people. All because you don't do dating and don't like having attachments. What was it you said oh yes 'attachments make you weak'."
"It's not my fault you got hurt because you took what we had and made it into something more." Kara told her.
"So we did have something." The raven haired woman pointed out.
"That's not what I..." Kara didn't get to finish as Lena cut her off.
"You might fool everyone else but I'm not stupid Kara. Inside you're lonely and hurting. You can bury and wall off you're feelings all you want but things will always get in and out wether you want them to or not. Trust me I know this from experience." She lectured Kara with the other woman trying to ignore her. "I'm just as smart as you Kara and because of my job I can read people just as easily as you. Just from you're body language I can tell I'm right, your lonely and hurting."
"YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING!" Kara yelled out smashing Lena's desk before grabbing the woman by the collar of her suit lifting her off her feet. "DONT YOU DARE PRETEND TO KNOW HOW I FEEL!"
"Are you done proving my point?" Lena calmly asked.
"Our business is concluded. I expect the other half of my payment by the end of the day." Kara said as she let Lena go and headed for the door. "You can subtract the cost of the desk from what you owe me." She walked out the door almost knocking Lena's secretary over.
"Miss Luthor are you alright?" The girl asked her boss.
"I'm fine Jess." She told her as she moved to look out of her window.
"Are you sure because she..." She started to say.
"I said I'm fine. If a broken desk is the cost of trying to help a friend then I'm fine with that."
"But that was a 5,000 dollar desk." Jess pointed out.
"Are you forgetting that I'm rich?" Lena chucked.
Kara was pissed that she let Lena get to her. She needed to calm down and she knew of one way to do that. She went downtown to Al's Dive Bar, a small alien bar that was hidden away. It was a good place for both alien and humans alike to just relax and have somewhere they didn't have to worry about being judged. Kara knew about the place because she helped the the owner Big Al deal with some gang of thugs that were trying to extort the place. She didn't usually work for free but she didn't like bullies especially that kind of bully.
That makes her a bit of a hypocrite sure since she herself is kind of a bully but she at lest didn't try to take advantage of the misfortunes of others. Everytime Kara sat here inside the bar some of the patrons tended to stare mostly only out of fear. A few times she's been here she had to teach some people proper manners and show them that no means no. Ever since then some of them were weary of her because of how hard and easily she put those people down especially considering a few of them were aliens known for their natural strength.
Kara sat there drinking and had the occasional conversation with the bartender M'gann. She had tried to get the woman into bed a few times but was always turned down which was a shame as those shapeshifting powers would make for some interesting sex play. Most nights when Kara was here she didn't leave alone which did give her a bit of a reputation. Most women Kara slept with ended up hating her, a few even trashed her car. When Kara glanced off to her side she saw a woman sitting at a table in a wheelchair. She had short medium length brunette hair and brown eye's. She's seen her in here a few times before but the wheelchair was new.
Based on how the woman had always spoken and physically presented herself Kara knew she was no civilian. She wasn't military and definitely not a merc but also didn't fit in with the law enforcement type either which left a government agency as the only open option. If she had to guess she was probably a field agent based off her lean, toned and muscled body. And the way she would scan the room when ever came in showed she had training as well has a bit of paranoia. She was most certainly beautiful and Kara wouldn't mind getting into her pants.
There was something off about the woman though which made Kara put the thought of trying to take her home away for now. She was drinking the heavy stuff probably trying to forget or was simply drowning her sorrows. The woman's look however is what really caught her attention. Kara knew the look as she had dealt with it several times growing up. That look of sadness stemming from feeling weak, powerless and useless. She knew those feelings all to well and had no doubt this woman being in the position she is now was probably having a hard time. Kara ordered two drinks of what the other woman was having and then made her way over to the brunette's table. Sitting down she slid one of the glasses over to the woman.
"Do I know you?" The woman asked.
"No." Kara replied.
"Look if your trying to pick me up I'm not interested." She said with irritation in her voice.
"I won't lie I did think about it but I decided against it." The blonde shrugged.
"And why's that?" She asked with a raised brow of curiosity.
"Your obviously not in the mood and the kind of company you need isn't that kind." Kara took a sip of her drink.
"What makes you think I need any kind of company at all? Maybe I want to be left alone."
"What you want and what you need are two different things. And I think you want company but feel like you'll just be a bother." Kara watched the subtle body and facial movements that told her she was right on the mark.
"What are you some kind of shrink?" The brunette asked with a bit of caution and suspicion in her voice.
"Yes actually. I do in fact have a degree in psychiatry." She took another sip. "As well as bio-engineering, bio-chemistry, geology, history, computer science, biology, journalism and a few others." She didn't even bat an eye while listing everything off. For Kara it wasn't really a big deal.
"Jesus, what are you some kind of super genius?" The woman asked with a mixture of shock, surprise, and definitely an increase in curiosity.
"A genius yes but not a super genius. I'm very much human. Having Hyperthymesia and a photographic memory definitely helps."
"You act like it's not a big deal."
"Because it's not agent Danvers." Kara said with a smirk.
"Okay who the fuck are you and how do you know my name!?" She got panicked and nervous.
"This picture really doesn't do you any justice." Kara sat there holding a black object that held a gold badge and a FBI I.D. in it. "Oh and I'm Kara Diego it's nice to meet you Alexandra." She slid the badge across the table to the agent.
"It's Alex and what the hell! Kinda low pick pocketing a cripple ain't it." Alex said with announce as she snatched her badge up tucking into her pants pocket instead of her jacket where it originally was. "I could arrest you for that."
"You could but you won't." She chuckled.
"You sure about that?" The brunette smirked having become rather curios about the blonde. She was alluring, mysterious and rather charming and Alex found herself sorta drawn to her.
"Positive." Kara smiled as she took another drink.
They sat there and talked for awhile and about many different things. Alex was interested in Kara's multiple degrees thus her vast wealth of knowledge. The main thing that had Alex's interest was Kara's degree in bio-engineering since she had a degree for it as well. Alex seemed to be a nerd about the topic, the smile and excitement she had talking about it made Kara herself smile. They laughed and joked around quit a bit to which was nice and good change of pace for both women's moods. Honestly Kara was having fun talking to her and found herself hitting it off well with the agent. She was originally just wanting to cheer the brunette up but found that the woman was also cheering her up. She never lets herself open up like this but there was just something about this woman that brought it all out of her. As they continued to talk and laugh they ordered more drinks and when the the waitress came with their drinks she slammed Kara's glass down onto the table.
"Preying on cripples now are you?" The waitress angrily said.
"Darla please don't ruin my mood." Kara sighed rubbing her temples.
"Honey you should give blondie here a wide berth she's not worth it." She said looking at Alex.
"Darla knock it off we've talked about this! Leave it alone!" The bartender M'gann yelled out as she glared at the waitress forcing the woman to back off.
"Do I want to know what that was about?" Alex asked.
"I have a bit of a...reputation here." Kara told her.
"Oh you mean the whole leaving with a different woman everytime your here thing?" The brunette said as she took a drink.
"That would be it." She sighed again. "So you've noticed me here before?"
"Yes but not at first. I didn't take notice untill after the incident with the car. It's not everyday you see a Thanagarian smash a car with a mace." She chuckled out.
"I really wish people would forget about that. And I really liked that car to." Kara complained.
"Better the car than you're face." She joked.
"Good point." The blonde laughed.
"You can go ahead ask you know, I know you'd been wanting to." Alex told her with her face and tone of voice becoming more serious.
"Ask what?" Kara asked confused.
"About the wheelchair. Everyone else always asks."
"I'm curious I'll admit but I wasn't going to ask, it's not my business. Besides curious or not I could careless about the chair." Kara really didn't care about the chair since the chair didn't matter. "If you want to tell me you can if it makes you feel better."
"I can't really get into much detail but I can say it happened at work. I got into a fight I couldn't win and got the shit beat out of me. They said its bad enough that its permanent. Ever since it happened everyone keeps treating me like a baby and throwing pity at me. They act like I can't do anything."
"Then tell them to fuck off!" Kara put her drink down. "The chair doesn't matter so I don't care and they shouldn't either. Sure it changes what you can do but it doesn't change who you are as a person just as it doesn't define who you are. Them treating you like that and not letting you do things on your own just makes your situation worse. You feel weak, powerless and useless but your not. You need support but also space not pity and pampering. You survived and that shows your strength and if they can't see that then they need their eye's checked." Kara said with a fire in her eyes. "I'm more interested in the person you are anyways not the chair you sit in. I have no intention of giving you any pity."
"Do you want to get out of here?" Alex asked her with determination.
"You sure?"
"God fucking yes." Alex didn't want to be treated like a delicate little flower and Kara had no intention of doing that. If a night with Kara made her feel normal then it was worth it, besides Kara was pretty hot.
"You're place or mine?" Kara smirked.