Chapter 112: Final Countdown
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
Justice League Watchtower, 172 days left
Stunned silence permeated the conference room high above the Earth as the planet's most powerful defenders learned the harsh truth from the woman who had brought them all together.
"I refuse to accept that," Wonder Woman finally said, rising from her seat. "There must be something we can do. The Purple Ray..."
"I have already scheduled a visit to Paula," Kara assured her. "And there are several other options as well. I am not giving up or accepting anything, Diana. I promise you, I have no intention of leaving this world any sooner than I have to."
With the mood somewhat lightened by that, Kara decided to press on. "Nevertheless, I want to be prepared for the worst case. If no cure can be found and I really have less than six months left to live, then there are a few things I still want to accomplish. And I will need all of your help to make it happen."
Everyone nodded, of course. There had never been any doubt about that.
"Have you told Clark and Kona yet?" Batman finally asked, as he was not the only one who had noticed the absence of two of their members.
Kara shook her head. "No, not yet. I ... I do not really know how to tell them. Or Martha, either."
"If you need us there for support," Diana told her, "you need but ask, sister."
She smiled. "Thank you! All of you!"
Themyscira, 169 days left
Paula, the premier medical scientist among the Amazons, a healer with millennia of experience under her belt, turned off the Purple Ray and her shoulders slumped.
"That bad?" Kara asked, sitting up from where she had been lying under the Amazon's miraculous healing device.
"I am so sorry, Kara," Paula finally said. "The Purple Ray has never worked as well on you as on other Amazons, your invulnerability filtering out many of the healing wavelengths. And with your recent power increase..."
Kara nodded, understanding. "My invulnerability is preventing the ray from working at all now."
"I doubt even Kryptonite could harm you at this point," Paula told her. "I doubt anything this side of a supernova could."
"I have tried draining my energy levels," Kara told her, standing up. "But even using my powers at full strength for hours on end does not tire me out anymore." She chuckled. "Never thought I would see the day where I would want to be tired."
Paula clutched her hand in hers. "I will keep looking for a cure for you, sister, I promise you that. But if you want my honest opinion as a healer... I fear that hope is slim."
"Thank you, Paula," Kara replied, smiling at her.
"Do you wish to inform the Queen yourself or shall I?"
"I will do that myself, thank you. And do not say anything to Philippus, either, please!"
Paula simply nodded. As Kara left her, flying off towards the main island and the palace, Paula decided that a visit to the temple and a prayer to the gods would not go amiss today.
Smallville, 164 days left
Kara stood in front of the tombstone, arms clutching her chest as she felt cold despite the fact that she was radiating heat like a furnace. Without even wanting to her eyes penetrated the soil and showed her the mortal remains of the man who had been her father for most of her life. Wrenching her eyes away, she looked at the tombstone instead.
Jonathan Kent
Beloved Husband and Father
Not Gone, Only Changed
"Hi, dad," Kara finally said. "I am... not really sure why I am here, to be honest."
She looked up, trying to gather her thoughts. It was hard, seeing as the breakdown of her cells was now a constant source of irritation, like ants underneath her skin. Soon, she was sure, it would become pain.
"I just wanted to say I am sorry," she whispered. "When you died, I promised that I would be there for mom until she joined you. It is possible that I will be unable to keep that promise. Instead I might only cause her more pain."
She could feel the world turn under her feet, could hear the heartbeats of all the many living things clinging to its surface as it hurtled around the sun. Even now her over-saturated cells were soaking up even more power from the glowing orb, accelerating the process. The clock was ticking and there were not a lot of ticks left before it stopped.
"I am not afraid of death," Kara said. "You know that better than anyone, dad. When I first came here, I was far more afraid of living than of dying. I have you and mom and Clark to thank for changing that. Still, I am not scared. Not for myself, at least. But so many people will be hurt when I leave. I wish I could spare them that pain."
She chuckled. "I can imagine you felt the same way when it was your time. Knowing you, you spent your last few seconds worrying about us, not about yourself."
Straightening, she gathered her resolve. "Well, dad, I have not given up yet. And even if I might not be able to be there for mom and the world all that much longer, I promise you I will make my remaining time count. I will leave this world a better place than it was when I found it. You always said that was all that anyone could do. So I will do it."
It was utter nonsense, of course, but for just a moment the sun seemed to shine brighter, and a gust of wind was almost like a caress on her cheek.
Smallville, 163 days left
Sandy let go of Kara's hand, the nimbus of energy fading away.
"I do not believe that worked," Sandy said with sadness in her voice. The girl made from sand had gotten much, much better at articulating emotions over the years.
"I did not think it would," Kara said, "but it was worth a try."
Years ago Sandy had used her transmutation ability to purge a paralyzing venom from Kara's body. It had hurt like hell, but it had worked, even though Kara had been pretty out of it afterwards. This time, though, Sandy's powers failed to work on her.
"It is the same as with the Purple Ray, I fear," Sandy told her. "Your invulnerability has progressed to a point where even my energy form is no longer capable of penetrating it. I cannot transmute your cells because I cannot reach them."
Kara merely nodded.
"Is it time to tell the others then?" Sandy asked as they stood up.
"I think so, yes."
A few hours later Martha Kent was sitting on the patio outside the farmhouse, struggling to breathe. This could not be happening. Not to her precious daughter! She was supposed to be invulnerable, unbeatable, damn near immortal! She wasn't supposed to die! She especially wasn't supposed to die before Martha did!
Lex Luthor and Brainiac could probably consider themselves lucky that Martha Kent had no way of reaching them right now.
Karen sat down beside her. There was no outward sign of her being sick in any way. She looked as radiant as ever, possibly more so.
"Clark is flying into the asteroid belt right now," Karen told her. "I think some of the larger asteroids will soon be so much space dust once he has worked out his frustrations. Kona is meditating in the barn and trying to keep herself from flying to Stryker's Island to murder Lex Luthor."
"How can you be so calm?" Martha asked, looking at her daughter. "You... you just told us that you are going to die."
Karen shook her head. "No! I told you that I am sick and COULD die. I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening, mom."
Martha inhaled deeply, trying to keep her tears at bay. "But what if you can't?"
Karen slung her arm around Martha's shoulder, pulling her into her side. "Then I will leave, knowing that I left the world a better place than I found it."
Martha chuckled, though there was little humor in it. "Jonathan always used to say that."
"I am sorry for causing you pain, mom," Karen said. "I never wanted you to feel like that again, especially after dad died."
"None of this is your fault, my girl," Martha replied, hugging her tighter. "I thank the Lord every day that he sent you and Clark into our lives. It was the greatest gift I could ever have asked for."
"Living here with you, becoming your daughter, was all a lost little girl could have wanted. Thank you, mom!"
Arm in arm the two Kent women sat in front of the farmhouse as they so often did, each of them wondering how many more days they would have together.
Stryker's Island, 161 days left
Kona walked into the visitor's center of the prison, where a man in an orange jumpsuit was already sitting, handcuffed to a table. Lex Luthor saw her coming with a smirk on his lips.
"Well, it if isn't my favorite half-alien daughter. How are things in the family, my dear?"
Kona did not react, merely sat down on the other side of the table and stared at him.
"Tell me why!" she eventually said.
"Why what?" Luthor replied, looking as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
"You know what," she replied coldly. "Brainiac tried to kill you, too. You helped us against him. Now you help him? I want to know why!"
"You want to know why?" Luthor chuckled. "Oh, you foolish little girl. The question you should be asking instead is, why have I waited so long? That is the question that should truly be answered. The one that keeps me up at night."
Kona narrowed her eyes. "Okay, then. So why have you waited so long? Why now?"
Luthor chuckled again, but there was a bitter undertone to it.
"Why now? I will tell you why now, little girl! Twenty years! Twenty damn years since that alien do-gooder first appeared to belittle us and make us all feel smaller. And do you know what has changed in those twenty years? Well, apart from the unfortunate fact that I am getting older and SHE ISN'T?"
His voice had steadily risen as he talked, and he was almost screaming now.
"The fact of the matter is that she has killed me!" Luthor yelled, shaking his fist. "I have cancer, Kona! I have maybe a year left and by the end of that time what remains of me will be a shriveled, diseased husk of a man. All because of that alien hussy!"
Kona blinked. "Mom hasn't given you cancer, Lex! You are delusional!"
"Oh, you think so? Well, maybe you remember that I am a genius! I know exactly WHY I have cancer. It was the radiation from those Kryptonite fragments that poisoned me."
"The ones you tried to kill her with, you mean?" Kona scoffed. "I notice you are no longer calling them Lexonite now. You are blaming her for you poisoning yourself with them? You are a piece of work!"
"Those fragments came to Earth with her," Luthor hissed. "It's all because of her! I would have saved this sorry world if not for her."
Kona sighed deeply. "You could have saved the world years ago, Lex, had it ever mattered to you. For a time I really thought you had changed. I thought the closest thing I have to a father might have managed to become a better man. But I can see now that you are exactly the same man you have always been. A man who could have done so much good for this world, yet wasted all his potential on a petty grudge. I came here hating you, Lex. I honestly considered killing you today. Now, though, I can only pity you!"
Luthor shook his head. "Save your pity for your mother, you little science experiment! She will die before I do!"
Not dignifying that with an answer, Kona simply got up and left. Being led back to his cell, Lex wondered why the knowledge that Superwoman would die before he did was not making him as happy as he had expected it to.
Planet Sanctuary, 143 days left
Setting down on the planet that, one thousand years hence, would become the new home of Kandor, Kara carried a box out of the Justice League Javelin. She had landed several hundred kilometers away from where she knew Kandor would eventually appear, so as to ensure that history would not be disrupted.
Opening up the box, she took out several crystals. To most people they would look unremarkable, just ordinary crystals, but to a Kryptonian they were much, much more.
Taking but a moment to initiate the programmed sequence, Kara threw the crystal through the air. She was using but a fraction of her strength, otherwise the crystal would have ended up in space. Instead it hit the ground about a hundred meters away and immediately borrowed in, vanishing from sight a moment later.
Her enhanced vision easily penetrating the ground, she saw that the crystal was already taking root. It would grow slowly, though, and unobtrusively. Its purpose was not to create a building this time, but rather to grow into a sensor net that would cartograph the planet, its environment, its resources, everything.
One thousand years in the future, when her people landed here, they would find a cache of information waiting for them, telling them everything they needed to know about their new home. Well, she mused, they would not find it immediately. The crystals were programmed to start transmitting a homing signal roughly a year after Kandor's arrival, just to make sure that her younger self was well and truly gone by then.
Taking one last look around at the planet that would one day be called New Krypton, Kara returned to the Javelin and set a course for her next destination.
Arctic Fortress, 126 days left
"Nothing at all?" Kona asked, looking devastated.
Kara shook her head.
"Sorry, baby girl. But I fear none of them could help me, either."
On her journey home from Sanctuary, Kara had made several stops. She had met her old friend Sargon, formerly known as Dominator 177, on New Elia. She had also paid a visit to Vega and Colu, as well as Proxima Centauri and the artificial planetoid formerly known as the War World. Between the galaxy's foremost genetics expert, the highly intelligent Coluans, the hybrid being known as Brainiac 2, and her old friends in the Omega Men of Vega, she had conferred with the smartest minds in the entire Milky Way.
All for naught, sadly.
"I keep running into the same problem," Kara told her daughter. "My powers have grown to such an extent that any possible cure can no longer affect me."
"And if you stayed in Vega for a month or so?" Kona asked. "You should weaken under the red sunlight."
Kara shook her head. "I fear that is no longer an option, either. It seems my powers have grown to such an extent that they are practically self-regenerating, even under a red star. I used my powers extensively while in Vega without any noticeable drain on my energy levels."
Kona looked down, tears on her face.
"So it's hopeless?" she asked.
Kara walked over and hugged her. "It is never hopeless, Kona. I will keep looking. I have contacted Gardner to take me to Oa and the Guardians of the Universe. Maybe one of them can do something. And if they cannot, then I will go somewhere else. I am not giving up, baby girl, I promise you!"
The two women remained wrapped around each other for a long time before they let go of each other.
"On a happier note," Kona said, wiping off her tears, "I think our little side project is finished."
Kara smiled.
Metropolis, 117 days left
"What is this?" Clark asked, taking the box his mother was handing him. It was wrapped as a present and, much to his chagrin, his mother had used lead-lined wrapping paper to prevent him from looking inside. There was a knowing smirk on her face as she looked up.
"Just a little present for you and Lois," she said, sitting down on the couch. Clark and Lois' apartment wasn't large, but cozy, and the two of them very much enjoyed their shared home.
"What's the occasion?" Lois asked, joining them in the living room and handing out cups of coffee. Lois knew, of course, what was going on, but was doing her best to keep up a brave face for her idol and mother-in-law.
"Do I need a reason to give a present to my son and my favorite daughter-in-law?"
Lois chuckled. "I'm your only daughter-in-law."
Clark smiled at their interaction. It almost managed to make him forget that time was running out for his mother and there was still no cure to be found anywhere.
"Open it," Kara told them, leaning back.
Clark tore off the paper and opened the box. Inside was a clear crystal rod, which he immediately recognized as a Kryptonian data crystal. Turning a questioning gaze on his mother, he took the crystal out of the box.
"A bit more context, mom?"
"Just something I have been working on during whatever spare time I could find," she explained. "Well, Kona and I, to be honest. I could not have done this without her. This crystal contains all the information necessary for the creation of a Kryptonian-human hybrid."
Clark and Lois both just stared at her.
"Just in case the two of you ever plan on giving me grandkids." Kara smiled.
Clark had no idea what to say. The topic of children had, of course, come up between Lois and him, if for no other reason than to establish that they would never be able to have kids together in the traditional way. Despite their superficial resemblance, Kryptonians and humans were just too different DNA-wise to procreate naturally. They had talked about a possible adoption somewhere down the line or possibly a sperm donor, but it had not been a pressing topic for either of them.
Clark had never really considered that the process that brought Kona into this world might be adaptable for Lois and him.
"I... I don't know what to say, Kara," Lois said, smiling broadly. "This... thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Just be aware that the kid will end up having superpowers," Kara reminded them. "Thankfully only once they hit their teens. Can you imagine having to take care of a super toddler?"
They laughed, but then the mood turned somber again as Clark and Lois both remembered that Kara would probably not be there to see any grandkids she might have be born.
"Are you really okay with this, mom?" Clark asked. "I mean, this is a tremendous gift, but the process was originally made possible through Luthor and he, well, after what he did..."
Kara stood up and hugged him. "Clark, I want you to be happy. That is everything I ever wanted. And if you end up using a Luthor-created process to bring more happiness into this world, more little half-Kryptonian babies, well, I figure that is a form of poetic justice if there ever was one."
Lois watched as mother and son hugged each other tightly and resolved that, should they have kids, the first girl they had would be called Kara.
Metropolis, 107 days left
Press Release from K-Solutions Inc. – Marketing Dept.
K-Solutions is happy to announce that our company's former Vice-President Cornelia Jones-Kent, will take over the duties of CEO starting next month. Ms. Jones-Kent has stated that she will continue the successful course of the company started by her mother Ms. Karen Kent. Ms. Kent is leaving the company she has founded and led for 20 years to pursue new challenges, confident that she is leaving her life's work in capable hands.
Beyond Saturn's orbit, 85 days left
"This is UES Viator, we have reached the recommended safety distance from the sun and are now powering up the hyperdrive. Course for the Vega system is programmed and locked in."
Kara drifted alongside the gleaming hull of the spaceship, her skin tingling as she felt the hyperdrive within the ship slowly come alive. This was truly a historic occasion, as the first ever hyper-capable ship built entirely by human hands was undertaking its maiden voyage to visit Earth's allies in Vega. Oh, the Earth Defense Force already contained several hyper-capable vessels, but these were gifts from their allies or on loan from the Justice League. The Viator, though, was a product of human ingenuity through and through.
What made Kara even happier was the fact that K-Solutions had absolutely nothing to do with the construction of this ship. Not a single trace of Krypton-derived technology was present. Human engineers and scientists, secure in the knowledge that flying through hyperspace was possible, had figured it out all by themselves. She was feeling so very proud right now.
She had, of course, taken a discreet look at the plans to ensure that everything would work out and not lead to disaster, but that had been the extent of her involvement. Well, not quite. The think tank that had come up with the hyperdrive design had received a sizeable grant from a foundation that had both Karen Kent and Bruce Wayne as board members.
"This is Home Base calling UES Viator. Everything looks good from here. You are cleared to proceed and Godspeed! Come home safely, all of you!"
Energy began to churn over the hull of the ship, the hyperdrive roared to life, and in a blaze of light the ship vanished from the normal space time continuum. In roughly one hour it would emerge in the Vega system.
Smiling, Kara shifted the modulation of her own bio-electric aura and began to accelerate. Space began to warp around her and a moment later she was streaking through hyperspace under her own power, heading towards Vega at speeds no spaceship ever built could match. As the universe sped past her, Kara could not help but laugh.
Yes, her vast increase in power was killing her, but it did have some perks at least.
Watchtower, 58 days left
"I think we need to put a plan in place," Kara told the assembled League.
Somber faces all around the table nodded, though some of them only very reluctantly. They all knew the score by now. They knew that Kara had visited the smartest minds in the universe, had tried dozens of different procedures, and that it had all been for naught. Her powers were still increasing, and her cells were breaking apart from the strain.
In roughly two months or so, Superwoman would die.
"Brainiac remains a threat," Kara began. "I have found and destroyed no less than twenty-three of its nodes during the last few weeks, but there are probably still more scattered around the galaxy, possibly even beyond. You need to keep a constant eye out. I have informed all our allies about it as well."
"We will take care of him," Wonder Woman promised.
"What do we tell the people?" Hawkman asked. "About... well, when you are no longer here."
"Do we tell them the truth or concoct some story about you having gone on a lengthy deep space mission or something?" Green Arrow added.
Kara sat down carefully in her chair. Her powers had increased to the point where even a slightly off movement could tear apart furniture, walls, and armored hulls if she wasn't very careful.
"I have thought long and hard about this, but I think you should tell them the truth. Not about the how and why, mind you, but that I will not be coming back."
"Are you sure, sister?" Wonder Woman asked. "To many people on Earth and beyond you are already a legend. Having you simply vanish with the promise of a possible return..."
Kara shook her head, cutting her off. "I know, Diana, but I want people to know the truth. That I am just as mortal as all of them. It will probably cause a lot of distress in the short term, yes, but I think it is the better alternative in the long run."
"We will, of course, respect your wishes in the matter," Batman said.
"Sandy will make some scattered appearances as Karen Kent once I am gone," Kara went on. "About a year or so later Karen Kent will have a fatal accident. Superman and J'Onn know all the necessary details."
Her son, stone-faced, simply nodded. J'Onn, despite his alien countenance, was visibly upset. Just yesterday they had made one last attempt to save her. J'Onn had tried to put her into the same kind of suspended animation that he had used himself while still alone on Mars. The idea had been to basically put her in stasis in the hope that this would cause her cells to deplete of solar energy. Sadly it had not worked, either. Neither the Martian technology nor J'Onn's telepathy were able to affect her anymore.
Kara had not needed any sleep for several weeks now, either.
"I'm still thinking I should just run back in time and stop Solaris station from ever being launched," Flash mumbled.
"Thank you, Wally," Kara merely said, smiling. "But we both know that will cause more harm than good."
She looked around the table.
"I am still not giving up," she assured everyone. "But knowing that the world will be left in good hands is taking a huge load off my mind. Thank you, all of you!"
Arctic Fortress, 25 days left
Kara was busy finishing up some last-minute experiments and adding more notes to the Fortress' massive database when she noticed the change in the air. Gravity was warping in weird ways. The clock on the wall, infallible due to its reliance on crystal growth rates, skipped several seconds. The fabric of the universe wobbled, and Kara had no trouble seeing it as it happened.
A gleaming sphere emerged, breaking through the curtains of time to bridge the gap of a thousand years and the champions of the 30th century walked into the present. For a moment Kara was utterly transfixed as her newly heightened senses showed her the brilliant kaleidoscope of the timestream swirling on the other side of the breach before the universe sealed itself up again.
"Hello, Kara," Imra Ardeen aka Saturn Girl said, emerging from the sphere. Behind her Kara could see Garth Ranzz aka Lightning Lad and Rokk Krinn, Cosmic Boy. The three original Legionnaires. The ones who had saved her teenage self from Mordru and inducted her into the Legion of Super-Heroes. Her first friends.
"Imra," Kara smiled, ignoring the near-constant pain she was in for the moment. "Garth, Rokk. I am so glad to see you."
She embraced her friends, being extremely careful while doing so for fear of shattering them like glass. Even as she did, though, a thought occurred to her.
"This is really it then, right?" Kara asked as they separated again. As she looked at their faces, her instinct was confirmed. "You are here to say goodbye."
One did not need to be a telepath to interpret the look on Imra's face. Kara remembered a conversation the two of them had had a few years back (and a millennium in the future).
"You are here, we are talking, and I could walk over to that computer terminal right now and pull up the exact details of where, when, and how you die. Then I could walk over to the Time Institute, take a time sphere, and go back to prevent it from happening. But we can't, because not even our best computers can calculate how wide-reaching and disastrous the effects might be."
"It is part of our history," Imra merely said. "I was taught all about it in school, long before I ever met the girl who would become the legend we learned about. Long before she became my friend."
"So I will die," Kara said, a strange calm settling over her. "I kept hoping that I might find a way, but..."
Imra's hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"There is always hope," Kara," the woman from the future told her, intense blue eyes boring into hers. "Never give up hope! Hope is all we have!"
Kara met her eyes. "Are you trying to tell me something, Imra? Something that might potentially violate all the rules of time travel and causality?"
"Screw the rules," Imra said, causing Kara to almost chuckle in response. "I am saying that it does not matter what history books a thousand years in the future might or might not say about what is going to happen to Superwoman in the next few weeks. All that matters is that I know that my friend Kara, the strongest woman I have ever known, will never give up, no matter what."
"You always find a way, Kara," Garth added. "Not even gods could keep you from doing what needed to be done. No reason to change that trend now."
"Something big is coming, Kara," Rokk told her. "History calls it Superwoman's final battle. But like Imra said, screw the history books. We are here today to tell you that we have every confidence that our friend Kara will handle it."
Kara looked at them, confused. "But your history..."
Imra smiled at her. "History books can be wrong, can't they? Or maybe they are right and it will be Superwoman's final battle, who knows? Or maybe it doesn't matter either way, because every day contains the hope for a new tomorrow. And I know that my friend will never give up hope, no matter what."
With that the three Legionnaires turned back to their time sphere, preparing to head back to their own time.
"Will I see you again?" Kara asked.
Imra just smiled at her. "Time will tell, I guess."
Elsewhere
When the universe was young the mysterious force known only as the Source planted the seeds of divinity in the fabric of the cosmos. From these seeds grew the First World of Gods. Primitive beings, much like those that worshiped them, these gods were mere personifications of nature like sun, water, and wind.
When the gods of the First World annihilated each other in a battle that shook the universe, there arose the Second World of Gods. These beings were stronger, larger, and wiser than their forebears, their advancement in lockstep with the evolutionary progress of the mortal races populating the cosmos. Eventually, though, these beings, too, faced annihilation at each other's hands.
It was during the time of the Third World of Gods, though, that the universe itself became endangered. For the gods of this Third World had grown powerful beyond measure, their abilities as limitless as the imagination of the mortals that worshiped them. And when these gods eventually went to war with each other, they did so by unleashing powers that could have ended all of creation.
Be it luck, destiny, or sheer chance, the Twilight of the Third World did not end the universe, though it did come close. As the sounds of cosmic thunder finally faded, though, something was left behind. Something else, that was, than the seeds that would eventually become the Fourth World of Gods. No, something made by these older, angrier gods was left behind. A weapon forged on the broken world of Urgrund, deep within the primal gravity pit encircling the universe. A weapon so terrible that even they, who had been ready to split the firmament in half, had not dared to use it.
A weapon with no mind to guide it except for a primitive, almost reptilian instinct. So huge and at the same time so simple and implacable. Too primitive to reason with, yet too smart to allow itself to be destroyed. Intended only for mass extinction and to convert all life to death! More fuel for the war bringer! For eons this weapon had slumbered, unused, but then, as the New Gods of the Fourth World annihilated each other and almost tore time itself apart, their conflict served as a beacon that slowly but surely brough the ancient slumber to an end.
As ancient eyes opened, they saw a new light of divinity shining on a distant orb. The light blinded it, enraged it, yet at the same time the ancient mechanism was filled with an almost orgasmic sense of pleasure. Finally, after all these eons, it could fulfill its purpose.
MAGEDDON began its approach.
End Chapter 112
Author's Note: I had originally planned for a different final villain for this story. Based on vague memories of early 2000s comics I read back in the day, I wanted to use Imperiex, if for no other reason than I really, really like the name. Reading up on Imperiex, though, I realized he did not fit into the story I had constructed here at all. I briefly considered completely changing him (like the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon did, where they made him just another alien warlord in armor), but eventually decided against it. Then I realized that I had the perfect 'villain' ready to use in Grant Morrison's Mageddon, who would perfectly fit with my use of the Kirby-style gods and Kara's eventual fate. Mageddon's first and only appearance was in Morrison's run of the JLA comic from 1998 to 2000 and his 'World War III' arc.
Lex Luthor is such an interesting character to write. Here is a man who had it all, but could not be happy about it because someone else had more. More power, more fame, more influence, just more. So he ruins himself trying to bring ruin to someone else and somehow still manages to blame said other for it. A very human phenomenon, sadly.
Up next: Superwoman's final battle.