Supergirl Guardian Angel

by Vaclav

This is a story for a possible second Supergirl movie. Kara's life is about to change dramatically and she will never be the same again. Join Supergirl in her quest to save her beloved ones and herself from the most dangerous threat she has ever faced.

4. Lost Paradise

Lost Paradise

The sun was high in earth's sky, a mist of colored petals from small flowers flew everywhere around, and the near beauty of the majestic mountainous landscape filled the world.

Kara smiled with her eyes closed and softly tilted her head to fully feel the soft touch of the warm masculine hand that gently caressed her face. She kissed the hand and opened her bright sapphire eyes to fill them with the handsome face of her true love; but something was different, it was not the face of the human she knew to love called Ethan. Still, she didn't care. She moved her face closed to his' and merged her sweet pink lips with his lips in an unforgettable kiss.

Kara opened her eyes abruptly, returning fast from dreamland. She touched her exited lips tenderly. That powerful love feeling was still there, and not only in her lips but in her entire body too, burning in an eternal fire. It was pure love! She had been in love before, but she never felt it this strong… Actually, she never felt anything like this before… And she wanted more, much more. She was shivering, she wanted him; she wanted the man that made her feel it. But…who was he? The strange part was that she never saw him before, and he was definitely not kryptonian, for Kara knew every single man in Argo and none of them had his features. And the curious part was that he wasn't Ethan. Ethan... It was very strange, but the feelings and the passion where over the top; it was so beautiful, so addictive, that Kara believed with all her hearth that it could only be a good omen.

"Yes..." Kara sat up, her sleeping robe started to morph into her regular home clothing, following her mental command. "This will be a day to remember. A day that will remain in the history of new Krypton forever!" she concluded with a marvelous smile.

A floating holographic mirror formed before her. Kara commanded it to become a full size mirror, no, even a larger one. When she was satisfied with the size of her reflection she called the statue holding her beloved Supergirl uniform.

Kara ordered the living statue to morph into a new form and it reshaped like intelligent water. The statue became an alien makeup kit where the uniform melted like liquid honey; each different part of it entered a separated bubble carefully placed into opened flower buds that formed a crystalline floating flower ornament. She commanded her current footwear to melt away and to levitate to a colored crystal mosaic at the left wall; her regular clothing wardrobe. Kryptonian wardrobes were like makeup kits where the user could mix the different kinds of clothing crystals available and play with its atomic structures to produce the desired colors, textures and shapes; it even allowed the creation of new clothing material, designs and types.

The liquefied footwear found its place in the mosaic and turned into a symbol shaped crystal, entering a deep sleep until her future call. Kara turned her attention to the floating wardrobe before her and touched the bubble containing the uniform's boots delicately. She watched as the red shinny liquid moved around her forefinger like intelligent living jelly. She smiled.

"A little shinier uniform would be perfect for the first of all the bright days of New Krypton…" announced the kryptonian girl, while playing with the liquid in her fingers. With that said, the red matter on her finger and the rest in all other bubbles became shinier, as if the small stars that were submerged on it multiplied according to her desires. Then, she applied the red jelly in her fingers into her right knee and watched amused as the liquid started to cover it completely while transforming into her Supergirl's uniform modified right boot. Satisfied with the shinier look she mentally commanded the rest of her uniform to join her again. The renewed liquid uniform distributed in each bubble turned to vapor that flew and surrounded her like a supernatural rainbow cloud. Kara let the joyful sensation overwhelm her and moved graciously in a slow kryptonian dance while her vaporous uniform solidified over her and her dayly clothes vaporized and turned into another small colored cloud that rested peacefully in her palm. She blew the cloud softly and it traveled to its place; at the wall's wardrobe.

Kara closed her eyes for a moment and breathed deeply, allowing the wonderful sensation to overwhelm her. She moved her fingers across the marvelous frictionless tissue covering her left forearm; the kryptonian intelligent tissue had adapted perfectly to her new body size and condition to fit perfectly, just like the last time. She took another deep breath, curved her shiny pink lips beautifully, and exhaled slowly while accompanying the soft blow of pure air with her opening eyes; It felt like she had regained a part of her that had been lost.

She looked in the mirror and was amazed by the image that looked back. She realized again how much she had changed. She was no longer a cute eh|dhyv but a real e}Dyv now. From an slender and athletic girl to a gorgeous 6 foot 2 big girl, 140 pounds, long wavy and flaming gold blond hair more intense in color than before, like true solar flames. Her face hoever, was as angelic as always, retaining her adolescent beauty. The gorgeousness of her young body was at full display. Her strong curvy torso was clad in a skintight blue body suit shining as if was made of countless miniaturized stars. Her hips and upper thighs were covered by a short ruby red mini skirt; her feet and tick calves by glossy red boots. A long scarlet cape hung off of her shoulders which were now pulled back, accentuating her perfect breasts sticking out proudly from behind the renowned "S" logo.

The moment was almost perfect, but something was missing…

She issued another mental command through her nexus bracelet and her room produced many holograms created from her memories of earth: trees, flowers, water, singing birds and a heart touching breeze combined perfectly in a dream garden of unmatched splendor. The virtual garden that suddenly surrounded her was so real that they even had controlled substance. She smiled and danced among the fully blossomed flowers; a human looking alien ballerina living her fantasy in a fantastic world. She was so immersed in her stunning dream that she didn't even notice her father entering her room.

"Earth is an incredibly beautiful World, Kara… Their God has surely blessed them very much…

Kara was slightly startled by her father's unexpected presence and stopped her dancing. She smiled back at her father's loving smile.

"But our god has blessed us to, Father. I can see his blessings right here." She hugged him warmly.

Zorl-El returned the hug and caressed her daughters' long wavy hair. "I wish I could have your heart my dear… Sometimes it is difficult for me to understand Rao's love."

"Look father…" She called his elegant deep blue eyes with hers. "We are together. Isn't that Rao's greatest blessing? Outside our city the evil still coexists among the goodness in the normal universe, and we are safe from that evil here. Rao allowed our former home to perish but gave us a safer one instead. Isn't that a great blessing?"

He touched her daughter's features tenderly; she looked so much like him…

"I think you are right, my daughter. And also that everyone in Argo deserves to treasure that truth also. Come; let us begin this glorious day."

Father and daughter entered the main living room and sat in their correspondent chairs in the center; the morning knowledge ring was about to begin. Kara saw her beautiful mother's empty crystal gravity chair and sighed briefly; it has been a long time sense she had joined them for one of the best moments of their advance culture. Their eyes closed and flow of soft light rose from the chairs and their bodies. Kara giggled joyfully as the endless flow of information and sensations flooded her mind; the kryptonian morning ring was the moment where each and every kryptonian shared their last findings, teachings, lessons, experiences and knowledge. While at earth people were teach to compete against each other to progress, the kryptonian way of progress was entirely based on cooperation instead of competition; everyone shared everything with everyone, thus achieving mutual progress; in this way every kryptonian would grow wiser and smarter, and would be able to overcome his/her own limitations for everyone's benefit.

Kara opened her eyes and her father stretched a bit. He went to the transporter pad and saluted her daughter while vanishing within the light dance, traveling trough dimensions to the Science Council's lab. She collected all necessary data for today's lesson and walked outside. The day was wonderful…

Every day there was another perfect mirage of the missed glory of krypton, the gone home world no one wanted ever to forget, the canyons of Shrikell where now bordering the residential area, with its 8000 km deep abyss, bristling with hundreds of waterfalls and summer cities that looked suspended in the magnificent and bright crystalline groves and fertile flower gardens contrasting the natural beauty of the crystalline formations all around.

Kara walked with pride and grace, joyfully smiling back at the sometimes astonished eyes of her fellow kryptonians that watched her well known top form now dressed with "The Miraculous Suit" as many of them proclaimed back then. She arrived at Ral's home in no time and picked him up under the bulged eyes of his parents. Ral, by the contrary, enjoyed the look of his personal mentor with more joy that he was able to express; walking at her side with his head up, holding the hand of the "Savior of Argo" with pride and enjoying the somewhat perplexes gazes of the his fellow citizens even more than Kara was.

Kara took a small detour that took them close to the perimeter of the city; near the same place the Omegahedron was lost the first time. The whole mall was different now; the Cristal shield that contained the city's atmosphere was much more advance and strong than the old version; protecting the small metropolis and its content from casual dispersion and allowing control over the inner environment of the city by avoiding external unwanted matter or energy. It also determined what could enter and leave the city in specific locations; it also detected and bonded specific molecules and atoms so it could get them outside or inside through specific systems. The crystal membrane could also allow the entrance of certain compounds for specific studies; encapsulating them in its crystalline structures at the same time the objects were pushed inside the city.

"Are we going somewhere else, Kara?"

The girl in the super suit smiled "No, Ral. I just wanted to remember a little bit. We will be in our way soon."

Without warning a loud bang resounded across the city walls. A large, refrigerator sized, egg shaped purple fireball blasted through the crystal shield, and the kryptonian sky illusion, and impaled itself on the street not too far from Kara, shooting a rain of debris above and around. The new intelligent crystal shield closed immediately after the objects penetration and instantly compensated for any atmospheric loose or alteration.

The citizens ducked immediately with the thunderous impact and only raised their heads when the city's perpetual calm seemed to return. What they saw, partially sunken in a molten crystalline crater at the center of the street near the edge was the strangest thing they had ever seen.

"Kara, what's going on?"

"I am not sure, Ral. Just stay close to me."

Two young scientists dressed with regular lab robes where the closest to the impact zone and the first ones to approach the strange pulsing egg; their natural kryptonian curiosity had taken over. One was more eager than the other.

Don-Ta extended his left palm towards it, approaching his nexus bracelet to the mutalink egg to almost touch it, while his best friend kept his distance.

"Runo, are you analyzing this? It's amazing!"

"I think we should not approach it until the Cicer Crystals encapsulate it, Don." The Cicers were small crystal bubbles with stasis gel for transportation of wounded citizens or living specimens, used when the crystal transporters where inoperable or could not be used. Cicers formed naturally because of the properties of kryptonian organic solar crystals; however most Cicers have specialized functions depending on what materials they contain or carry. Because Cicers tend to look alike, it is very difficult to tell the difference between different types of Cicers without sampling their contents. Cicers, however, were used mainly for storage and transport of materials within Argo.

"They will do it in no time. But right now we should scan it as much as we can. See the light and the pulsing pattern? I could almost feel it is organic, but the readings I receive are... Confusing, even contradictory. What about yours?"

"I am not taking any!"

"Don't let fear stop you."

"What about prudence?"

"This is a unique opportunity, Don." He turned around his head to encourage his friend with his shiny eyes, bulging from curiosity. "Com one, my friend, lets unveil this marvelous phenomena first hand."

He never could.

A nightmarish head blasted from the purple pulsing surface and attacked his hand with the speed and swiftness of a snake. Glittering translucent mandibles full of resin bite the curious forearm, gripping it strongly before returning inside the egg with the whole arm of his victim. Don-Ta's shock was so intense that it shadowed the huge pain his limb was experiencing inside the mysterious egg. He struggled and screamed until his arm was released. He pulled it out fast, groaning in pain all the way. His limb was severally burned and deformed; like a dried grapefruit. His legs went numb and he fell on his knees, breathing heavily, seizing his distorted arm with his right hand. His face was pale as paper. His nexus bracelet acted immediately, subjugating his master's pain and starting to reconstruct his severally hurt arm.

"By Rao!" Runo-Ur back paced without a second though while his friend was collapsing. "Don, get out of there!" But he couldn't, the shock and pain combination was too much for him.

All nearby citizens that witnessed the macabre attack where either paralyzed from the impression or running away as far as possible from the mysterious object. The egg's pulsations increased dramatically until it exploded in a terrifying organic blast, spiting waves of a strange humid purple mist and gelatinous rests; the creature that emerged from it, was as horrible as impressive; a 12 feet long combination between a lizard and an ant, with a purple translucent exosqueleton that allowed everyone to see its internal constitution partially.

The creature's head was repulsive, with 4 glowing yellow eyes that send a message of fear to all who witnessed tem.

Runo-Ur froze at the sight of it, paralyzed by the most pure fear he had ever experienced. He had never been terrified before; no one had since the destruction of krypton. The creature walked forward slowly, towards the paralyzed kryptonian.

Ral screamed at the sight of it. The creature turned his head and fixed his venomous eyes on the kriptonian kid, hissing at him slowly. Ral and Kara withdrew a few feet and the creature charged at them.

Panicked, Kara ran from the monster, holding Ral firmly, but their speed where no match for it and the beast leaped one, two, three times to cut the distance between them and jumped high over both, opening his monstrous mound. Ral was constantly turning back in desperation, and he saw the inevitable attack. With every ounce of strength he had he pushed his strong mentor aside, far enough from the creature's mandibles, a heartbeat before the attack. Kara stumbled and rolled over but quickly managed to get up again, just in time to see the monster eat Rall up to his waist and raise his slim frame upwards to swallow him completely.

Kara's mind froze in shock, for one second, and then an indescribable transformation occurred inside her mind and spirit, as if some kind of alternate conscious took complete control over her. Her aqua blue eyes blazed savagely in the most pure fury anyone could conceive, her angelical face was now the face of an enraged angel. She screamed, and charged towards the strange monster still devouring Ral. The creature clearly sensed the treat but decided not to bother about it, but Kara didn't attacked him as it expected; she caught the beast by the neck and applied pressure like a nutcracker, with all the power her muscular arms could deliver, desperately fighting to prevent the creature to swallow Ral completely; hoping to force it to spit him out. The beast fought the choke fiercely, while the strongest arms in Argo struggled boldly for Ral's life with a might born deep inside Kara's heart. But even a bear hug powerful enough to crush a full sized bison's ribcage was not enough... The mutalink growled, more annoyed than angered by Kara's brave but useless struggle to save his victim, and jerked his head and neck violently in a wiping motion, snapping her of instantaneously. Even Kara's mighty grip was clearly not enough against the raw power of the mutalink and embraced the air. The kryptonian girl landed in the floor roughly and rolled several feet before her gymnastic instincts took over and brought her to her feet again in a beautiful flip over a single hand stand. Now Kara could do nothing but watch has the horrific translucent beast finished swallowing the helpless Ral and transformed itself in an egg shaped cocoon a few seconds later. Val was visibly struggling inside, each second lees and lees.

Kara clenched her fists strong enough to burst tennis balls. She revealed her perfect teeth fiercely and charged towards the bizarre cocoon like a mother defending is son. She watched Val diving slowly into unconsciousness until she could not stare at it anymore. She viciously hammered the cocoon with her fists, ignoring the pain. Val shivered one last time and froze suddenly. Kara yelled at him, opened her palms and hit the bizarre surface of the cocoon with all her strength, hoping vainly to awake his protégé; to bring him back to consciousness, or back from the death, but she only provoked an even greater pain for herself. Kara cried loud as an incredibly sharp pain attacked her hands; energy covered spikes surged violently all over the cocoon, like a natural defense mechanism, impaling her opened palms in the moment they were hitting the surface. Thick blue blood splattered on Kara's face and stained her hands and the floor below. Kara shut her eyes tight, blinded by a pain she had never experienced before, as if her hands were impaled on red hot needless. She clenched her teeth and screamed at the same time, while pulling her hands out of the needle wall. Kara yelped in more pain when she finally released her hands. She fell on her knees, conquered by a seemingly never stopping and burning pain. She watched her blood stained hands shake uncontrollably until Zaltar's nexus bracelet finally subjugated the pain and started closing the blood covered holes in her hands. She thanked Rao for this technology; it was not only healing her bruises and wounds but also eliminating the poison o whatever those spines injected her system with. She stared at the cocoon again; there was nothing she could do; if she was going to try to rescue Val she needed help, lots of help. She called for help and alerted her father trough the mental channel when the real nightmare began.

A rain of mutalink eggs shoot trough the city's perimeter shielded dome like artillery shells; severally damaging everything they hit on impact.

The attack of the Ranam Cult had begun.

Panicked and sunken in deep chaos, the citizens from the last Kryptonian city ran for shelter and protection as best as they could, looking desperately for a way out of the reach of the terrible creatures that emerged shortly after each egg's impact. The monsters where just like the first one, a few ones had minor differences in color and exoesqueletal ornamentation.

Kara ran from the mutalink egg shower like a gazelle in the middle of a meteor shower. The spawning monsters where frenetically attacking and swallowing everyone they caught, in one piece, turning themselves into cocoons identical to the first's one, with their victims imprisoned inside for some unknown purpose.

She forgot about everything and everyone in that instant, and focused in one of the many temples of the city that lied ahead. More bizarre screams resounded behind her. She turned around just one second and quickly resumed her run. Dozens of creatures ran through the abandoned city mall, looking for more victims in a thundering stampede. Close to her, the huge doors of the temple where already starting to close like a human iris. She hurried up, demanding her solid leg muscles all the speed they could deliver, and hoped she could make it before the small crowd at the other side of the door sealed it completely. Kara heard quick steps behind her; the creatures where faster than her, a lot faster. She summoned hall her reserves and forced her body to the limit, running like she never did before, praying for the people at the other side of the slowly closing door to help her somehow. Her hopes were answered when a fast low flying Cicer Crystal speeded towards her. Kara measured the time and jumped beautifully, fractions before the crystal rammed her, sliding her fingers gracefully over its frictionless surface. The crystalline improvised projectile collided against her pursuer like a missile, consuming itself and its prey in a resounding explosion of light and power waves that danced in the air. Kara made one, two, three short jumps, and jumped forward as fast and high as she could; stretching her body like a diver passing through the closing iris in a blink. The crystalline doors sealed completely and the scared kriptonians at the other side caught Kara in her fall.

Kara was deposited gently in the floor; she sat down slowly conquered by exhaustion, fear and despair. The crowd started to calm down, partially relieved, and started to make the questions no one asked or answered until then.

"Ral…" whispered Kara with closed eyes. Tears began swelling up at the thought that she had lost him forever.

Nim-Ur, the eldest of the group trapped inside the sealed temple stood up and checked every survivor of the attack with bulged eyes.

"By the glory of Rao! What are those things?"

"I don't know, Nim, but whatever they are they seem eager to consume large organic life forms like ourselves!"

"Maybe they are an inner space indigenous life form we have never encountered before, and are attacking us to defend their territory!" speculated another survivor, desperately seeking for an answer and a solution.

"Imposible!" retorted Nim "We have explored and deeply analyzed several thousand light years around us; that makes no sense, we should have encountered them long time ago! Why would a creature like that...? Wait..." Nim stopped his brother's and sister's imminent words with a gesture; another missing peace took place, a crucial one. "Why did the city's sensor aura didn't warn us of their approach?"

There was a moment of tense silence after that question. The city's senses where so powerful and advance they could even perceive permeations around and within distinct dimensions, and even collect data from thousand light years around their city.

"Good question, It should have, unless…" A strident bang shook the large circular crystalline door separating them from the unknown terror behind. Van-Or touched the thick crystal and ordered its intelligent matrix to reconfigure itself to become stronger and thicker.

More loud blows resounded

"This could be an attack..." We are under attack!"

"That is absurd! We are kryptonians, we have no enemies!

"Now we do..." Kara massaged her perfectly healthy palms as if the pain and the wounds were still there, while barely lifting her head, and merging her terrified face with her brother's and sister's, feeling more than anyone else the weight of her own words.

"All right…" Nim looked at everyone in the eyes "Right now we must recover as much serenity as we can, and we need to..." A thunderous shock wave echoed through the tick door as if it were a drum membrane. The wave pushed the already frightened group of kryptonians away from the beautiful polished surface, forcing them backwards. A scar ran through the polished door and cicatrized equally fast. Van-Or almost jumped to the door and ironed his palm against the frictionless surface, commanding the sealing crystal to reconfigure to become stronger and thicker. The door started to change following Van's commands, evolving visibly into a darker, heavier and sturdier version of her former self. But even with that power in his hands Van knew it wasn't enough and that their shiny hope would soon be broken; the data flowing from his bracelet to his mind was conclusive and unfortunately accurate.

"Run! They will get trough! Get to the core! Our advance crystals could…" A dense ray of pure incandescent purple liquid energy drilled furiously trough the heavy crystal door, and straight trough Van's hand. Hearts drowned in terror as every eye turned away from the intense glow of the passing beam. Van's nexus bracelet resisted the power that went through it, and fell to the ground, resounding delicately. Everyone ran without looking back, to the praying chamber, hoping they could reach the safety of the city's reinforced core before death reaches them.

With one last act of bravery Van-Or took his fallen bracelet and ordered the structure of the ceiling to separate into many loosen layers and fall behind the running group ahead, as well as the crystals of the floor to grow upwards as pillars; blocking the path of the monsters that where consuming the doors of the temple with their energy breaths. He stood up proudly; his nexus bracelet liquefied, traveled and reshaped itself into his right wrist, and started to heal and restore his consumed hand. One of the creatures jumped inside the small improvised cave. He closed his eyes. The mutalink attacked him without delay and swallowed his body in one piece, morphing into a cocoon shortly afterwards.

The group reached the praying chamber swiftly; the door was promptly sealed and reinforced. But time was everything they didn't have, and they attackers seemed to have everything on their favor. In the middle of their desperation they hear familiar voices and begs flooding the collective conscious of the city. Everyone closed their eyes. As their minds meld with the city's a wave of paralyzing fear and indescribable terror flooded the heart of each one. The images they were witnessing could only belong to the worst nightmare; in that instant more than one wished he or her had perished with their long ago destroyed world. Every one heard and saw the desperation and the screams of his brothers and sisters. Sharp screams of fear, pain and terror blend together in the horrific spectacle; it was not just the perimeter: the monsters had invaded the entire city! The creatures where attacking everyone; men, women and children without hesitation or apparent reason; transforming their dream city into a creepy garden of semitransparent cocoons with their victims inside.

As panic overwhelmed the survivors inside the praying chamber, the words of his fallen brother echoed in their minds: "Get to the core!" Some of them where frenetically thinking in a way to achieve that feat facing a crude reality: the nearest transporters where all resting in the middle of the park behind the temple, where a heard of those monsters already cocooned the people in it.

The situation was overwhelming and the unknown creatures seemed to be already everywhere. Their purpose was also unknown, as well as their goal or origin.

"They could be feeding from us!" cried one of them in desperation.

Everything about them was a scaring mystery. Where did they come from? How did they find them? Where they perhaps some native inner space life forms? The nexus bracelets gave the survivors tons of apparently contradictory information about those creatures, as if they were natural and artificial at the same time. But they had studied the inner space deeply for many years and never found anything like that, not even clues about something alive anywhere near or far away from Argo. But then again, inner space was as infinite as normal space, and when that number steps into the equation anything was possible. Still… if they could manage to stand their ground, to shield themselves in the core, then perhaps the creatures would leave or end their feeding cycle and then they may have a chance to survive. Destiny seamed to play a cruel joke with their kind again.

Kara prayed loud to her god in her heart, begging for answers, help and mercy, peace and a safe life. Had the children of Rao disobeyed their maker? Did they deserve this? They always did what they have been told to, and the ones who do not where living an eternal hell in the phantom zone; as they deserved it. They were not like the inhabitants of earth who seemed to enjoy disobeying their god and local authorities; the vast majority at least... And even so were blessed so much more than they deserved.

Mina An-Dor lost all hope and fell to the ground. Lun-Ta fell at her side and hugged her beloved wife; merging his fearful heart with hers, embracing the same path "This is fate... It is our fate! We should have never survived our beloved Krypton. It has always been the decision of Rao…" she spoke, in the name of her heart. Kryptonians where a proud race, obedient to the last, pacific to the extreme, intelligent as few others.

"Mina as spoken the truth! Why don't we open our eyes? There is no more greatness waiting for us in the confines of time. No eternal peace, infinite enlightenment or an idyllic future for us in this universe. It is time... Time to accept our extinction and become one with Rao. Time to leave this twisted universe and embrace the eternal pace at Rao's side. I say, that if our time has come, we must face it as true kriptonians, let's accept our destiny and departure from this life with pride and happiness!"

Kara couldn't believe those words, she had to do something; she had to say something.

"How can we know for sure that this is Rao's will or doing? We were saved from the destruction of our home world by a practically nonexistent margin! If Rao didn't saved us back there then who did? And if he did, I refuse to believe it is his will to turn us to these creatures!"

Nim-Ur nodded; proud of the strong will and the heart of Zor-El's daughter.

"Kara is right! We must defend ourselves and find a way out! Survival is part of nature, if we must defend ourselves to claim our place in the universe then so be it! Who is with me?

Everyone stood up or approached Nim, allowing their actions to speak louder than any word in that dark our. Everyone except two…

"We are sorry... As for me and my wife, we will accept what Rao's providence has for us. Farewell our beloved brothers and sisters. Rest assure that you memory will always live in our hearts!"

"Yours too." Nim bowed before the couple, and turned to the brave daughter of Zor-El. "Kara..." called the elder kryptonian "You are the strongest in the group and have gone where no one of us has ever gone before and returned victoriously! I trust your courage and skills as much as Rao's power. Would you lead us?"

Despite those encouraging words Kara's fear took control.

"Forgive me, Nim, but I am no leader. I...I can't." She lied. She wanted to help, she wanted to give her best and even her own life for the sake of every one in Argo, but the fear of losing someone again under her wing was stronger than her. She lost her gaze on the impeccable crystalline floor.

Nim-Ur prayed shortly, in silence, and took the lead. He concentrated and reviewed the situation like witnessing live episodes of the past; measuring their possibilities and looking for a strategy. He focused on the cicer and the other service crystals, still flying around freely, still fulfilling their duties in the attacked city. He narrowed his eyes and a faint triumphant smile arose. "By Rao! Of course! Listen, listen everyone! The service crystals and our other labor crystals are still active and are being completely ignored by those creatures!"

"How can that help us?"

"We will do the same thing we did to help Kara at the entrance, but in a much larger scale! We can fuse our minds with them and command them to ram the creatures or block them! Like a swarm of angry kryptonian squarks!"

"Yes..." Kara raised her angelical face; her shiny blue eyes glowed with new hope. "We could even modify them to counter the invaders!"

"We may not have enough time for that, but we should keep that on mind too. Let's go!"

The mutalinks roared and waited, as hungry tigers waiting for they prey to fall in their trap, moving softly and menacing all around the majestically beautiful and great alien park, unaware of the hidden improvisation that was ready to attack them; as ghosts lurking in the shadows.

One soft tone, delicate and charming, resounded from the temple's back door. The crystal that formed the barrier diminished wonderfully, inverting its amazing growth, revealing a small group of humble and resolved kryptonians determined to fight for their lives and freedom, or die trying...

Nim-Ur walked forward, with his eyes fixed on the monstrous being growling in front of him, 40 yards away. The mutalink leading the pack hesitated a few moments; his targets had abruptly modified they behavior pattern, too much. Something had changed…

The cult's living weapon scanned his environment quickly and ordered his brothers to do the same. There was an invisible and inaudible answer that echoed within all of them. Without warning the pack leader jumped towards Nim-Ur, so fast and so powerfully, than it was impossible for him to escape or fight his destiny. Or wasn't it?

Nim-Ur drew a sweat smirk from deep within his heart. An eye blink before the fierce mutalink touched him a glowing crystalline meteor rammed the falling beast like a bullet train, with deadly accuracy. The impact resounded fiercely in the air, and the most bizarre shriek ever heard, escaped from the badly hurt monster. Nim's smirk changed to a battle hardened face and a brave cry escaped his lips.

"Nooow!"

Every one ran for their lives, for the only possible way out: the transporters.

Nim-Ur's and Val-Zar's crystals began to ram, push and ultimately to smash themselves on the confused mutaliks so violently that there was little else remaining from the impact afterwards. The beasts clearly never saw them even as a potential threat, not even minimally; but who would?

In a flash of motion, two mutalinks darted towards the fleeing crowd while another two bolted towards Kara from the other side in a pincer movement. Kara felt her tension level skyrocket at the sight of it and quickly commanded 8 crystals to spin around her rapidly, forming an intelligent circular defensive perimeter that effectively hammered every mutalink that tried to catch her or got to close; like meteoric boxing punches; hitting the mutalinks sometimes like rounds of a machine gun, other times like lighting fast jabs, body blows, and finally uppercuts.

The daughter of Zor-El moved graciously and smiled; some confidence had gained ground in her heart, reinvigorating her, making her stronger. She was now protected as if by a circle of invisible giant boxers whose punches where the only thing the monsters could see.

It was working!

Some of the group's attacks were more refined than others, but even the simplest barriers where holding the creatures back or sending them into oblivion.

They were going to make it; each and every one of them.

Nim-Ur shouted the group to form a diamond shaped formation in order to cover all flanks and to advance relentlessly towards their now close goal: a group of 4 transporters aligned close to a small lagoon. They would need to hold the mutaliks in check a while before all could escape, but given the new odds…that would be no problem. Kara took the rear and tightened her spinning barrier around her.

The group became confident, but the battle was far from over.

"Don't let them attack our rear! Once we reach the transporters we will jump in groups of four. Kara, you are doing superbly well! I need you to stay with the last group to be sure.

"Look!" Nim-Ur saw what confirmed their suspicions even more. The mutalinks stopped charging them and divided into groups that tactically blocked their way to every transporter pad; how could a beast know what that technology was meant for?

"This is surreal..." babbled Val-Zar. There where two possibilities but only one correct answer, and the gifted minds of every kriptonian in there shouted it loudly: someone was directing those beasts, someone far more intelligent, and with a completely unknown goal in mind.

Kara looked all around, trying to find the leader responsible for the creature's tactics and organization with the help of her Nexus bracelet; she couldn't find one. However, who was directing their attack must have a special mental link with this creatures; one she needed to find and block. "Nim, I am trying to determine the mental channel these creatures are using to communicate among themselves and their leader, but haven't find any so far. How about you?"

"Nothing..." Stated Nim between his clenched teeth, without letting his guard down. "And we may not have enough time right now to discover and cut it, so I suggest we focus on getting to safety. There will be time for that later".

"Yes, you are right".

The creatures had been completely surprised by the kryptonians smart improvisation, but the joy of the brave defenders didn't last long. The mutalinks had perceived the defenders tactics and switched their own, surprising them in return. The monsters regrouped at a safe distance from the victim's improvised defensive satellites, forming a tight wall between the fleeing kryptonians and their goal. Nim-Ur squinted his eyes fearfully and stopped his run; the small caravan of hope behind him broke their advance as well, carefully holding the defensive line and their positions.

The game had changed.

"What are they doing…?"

"I am not sure."

The mutalink leader examined the shocked faces of his victims carefully; their expressions gave him all the information he needed. The commanding beast turned around to examine the curiously beautiful disk shaped device behind him that the humanoids where so eager to reach. It scanned it deliberately, roaring all the way, and then attacked the device wildly like a starving lion.

Nim-Ur panicked and charged towards the mutalink line like a mad bull, shouting as loud as he could.

"They are going to destroy the transporters! Take them down now!"

Nim released roar so impressive and mighty that surprised even the brave men and women at his command. He instructed all his improvised orbiting weapons to dart towards the mutalinks guarding the teleporters in front of him and to hit them in pairs; as to squash as many beasts as possible with a speed and pattern that would be impossible for them to avoid or whistand. All mutalinks in front of him hissed and roared at the same time; with enough time before the impact they combined themselves in groups of three; like jelly made creatures melting together, turning into a bizarre luminous pool that splashed against the ground and avoiding the mighty kryptonian projectiles. The small lagoons emitted a series of tones and strange luminous patterns and started to inflate; as if someone inside where blowing the gelatinous mass up; turning it into a rare resinous and flickering balloon. Nim-Ur couldn't stop his amazement, but neither his run; determined and angered, her retrieved his protecting crystals and grouped them closer together; preparing them for his enemy's next move.

If he only knew...

The gelatinous multicolored balloons grew as big as elephants and exploded away their deadly new warriors when the kriptonians where near enough; hundreds of smaller flying mutalinks, mutated accordingly to counter their foe's defenses. Nim-Ur went wild at the sight of the horrendous swarm that engulfed him alive like carnivore wasps, he tried desperately to make the crystalline defense around him to get rid of them; it would have worked with bigger, more massive foes, but not against creatures so small... Even when dozens of mutalinks where mercilessly destroyed by the know larger defensive crystals, more than enough could avoid the rapid spinning barrier and attack him effectively like a furious swarm. In a second, Nim was covered by thousands of small mutalinks that brought him to his knees in the middle of a horrible screams of agony so terrible and fearful, than all other kryptonians stooped death in their tracks, shocked.

Nim-Ur was covered with small mutalink insects that appeared to have eaten him alive. A second later the insects formed the same kind of cocoon like the bigger ones produced. Nim was inside, floating like if trapped in an blue greenish egg, possibly death and with his barely visible body covered with terrible wounds.

The other balloons exploded as well, liberating their nightmare, unleashing a furious swarm at the now shocked kryptonians. The scene that followed the new mutalink attack was as horrible as desperate; the now poorly adequate defensive crystalline satellites orbiting or floating around the desperate kryptonians could simply not defend them again. And the once full of hope destiny challengers tried everything they could to repel the countless small horde that attacked them mercilessly. Kara's heart was now an empty kingdom where fear was the sole ruler; she backed fast, knowing very well that there was no other way than forwards. Thoughts raced one after the other; her only chance was right there! Right in front of her, if she could only reach it, if she could only shield herself from those creatures…

Her heart glowed with new hope as a marvelous and obvious idea sparkled inside.

"Shield!, of course!" she shouted in her mind.

Kara stopped, summoned all her strength and last reserves of bravery, and charged forward, jumping has high and far as she could after a few paces, right towards the transporter platform in front of her and the implacable swarm. She couldn't possibly reach the pad with that jump, and the insects where be all over her in a heartbeat. Then, it happened; something amazing. Kara shut her eyes tightly and concentrated as much as she could, the crystals orbiting her formed each one a perfectly polished piece of a translucent crystalline sphere that close around her in the last instant, protecting her like a shield bubble from the little mighty aggressors. The sphere hovered long enough to cross and opened right over the transporter, before the small mutalinks could devour her clever protection. Kara felt the soft touch of the teleporter's floor under her feet and issued the mental command. Some mutalink insects managed to bite her just before she vanished.

A soft and nice tone resounded across the elegant and scarcely furnished living room of the house of Zor-El, announcing the materialization of an individual over the house's teleporting pad. Kara reappeared and stumbled on the ground like a sack of potatoes; she was hurt and in great pain, clenching her teeth and shutting her eyes so tightly she almost felt her eyeballs where going to explode. She did her best to remain silent, but even with all her might she couldn't stop a few groans to escape her. She rolled over and tried to kneel up, she barely could, whatever poison or substance those tiny flying creatures managed to inject her with was literally burning her from the inside out, she was about to give up and scream as crazy and loud as she could when she felt the pain slowly fading away; her nexus bracelet was finally countering the substance poisoning her effectively, although it toke it more time that she expected, she was extremely thankful that it did. Kara opened her eyes and cheeked her surroundings, then rapidly took cover behind her father's large crystalline gravity armchair; as she planed when her foot touched the telepad, she ordered it to transport the little monsters outside the city, and herself to her parent's house. She knew the safest place was the core, but she needed to rescue her mother first; it was highly likely that she was still submerged in the virtual krypton, and if so...she would never see those horrible monsters coming to devour her until it was too late. She rose from behind the armchair slowly. No his or any alien sound was perceived by her ears; perhaps the monsters hadn't reached the residential area...

Kara checked the insides of the house trough its conscience and gasped at the sight of one of those beast slowly approaching the armchair where her mother was still peacefully connected to her false reality, like a tiger stalking it's pray. She opened her desperate eyes and looked everywhere, she needed a weapon, a stick, anything!

She remembered what her hands where touching.

Kara commanded the crystal that formed her fathers favorite armchair to morph and change, transforming into a mighty mace with a massive spherical tip; the first homemade weapon of a civilization that had no place for violence nor war, much less any kind of armament. She gave it as much density and mass as she could, until her impressive muscles bulged proudly, and ran to face the creature with more desperation than courage.

The mutalink jumped and attacked the beautiful and peacefully sitting blond woman, swallowing her up to her waist in a horrifically impressive bite, stealing a strange scream from her. Allura was still partially immersed in another reality, with her body releasing waves upon waves of pain to her now semiconscious mind. The creature broke the beautiful armchair she was sitting on with the attack and was holding her in her mouth like a leopard enjoying the last struggles of its prey. Kara entered the room. She only heard the partial scream and found her mother's body almost entirely sunken in the creature's expanded mouth. She went mad and charged the surprised creature.

"Leave my mother alone!"

Kara's desperate cry caught the creature's attention, but the monster was in the process of swallowing Allura and she was already too close to avoid the attack. Kara jumped and hit the mutalink in its mid section whit her crystalline mace with all she had, maximizing the effect as much as she could, hopping to force the beast to release her mother and attack her instead.

The blow was tremendous.

The gravity of Krypton was greater than earth's, forcing its inhabitants to be stronger than humans and many other life forms in order to live their lives in a normal way; and the artificial gravity at Argo was the same deal. Every regular kryptonian was faster and stronger then earth's greatest athlete; and Kara Zor-El had more than a regular life…she enjoyed the human's sport called gymnastics very much, and trained dally in the gravity pool to become faster and stronger. It was her way to fill some the nostalgic sensations the lost of her powers left her with. She was always in top form, and without a doubt, she was one of the strongest kryptonians in Argo. She even won a simple arm wrestling contest she organized at a kryptonian festival a few months ago.

Her blow had enough power to turn a bowling ball into scrap. The resounding thunder was so potent and scary that she closed her eyes and clenched her bright teeth, unwilling to witness the effect. But the mighty blow had a completely unpredicted consequence: the hammer bounced back slightly and the returned energy forced her a few steps backwards. The creature's midsection had been deformed, but it started to reshape itself slowly and steadily, and her beloved mother was still in its mouth.

The mutalink tossed Allura aside with such force that the woman flew and landed against the wall, and fell like a rag doll; her unconscious body was full of bruises and begging for relief. The creature then turned to Kara and advanced slowly, new sharp and long fangs, and serrated teeth grew in its mouth. Its claws sunk purposefully in the crystalline floor. There was no mistake about those signs; the monster was furious.

Kara readied her mace and the hammered mutalink fixed his furious four eyes on Kara's improvised weapon. She charged again and the creature released a loud roar that turned itself into some sort of solid sonic beam. The sonic beam hit the spherical top of the mace and blasted it away in a million peaces. Kara screamed wildly and fell to the ground covering the right half of her face frenetically; it was badly burnt and hurting crazily. With the desperation of an injured and cornered mouse she started to drag away from the room in a futile attempt to escape the inevitable, then, her body started to vanish. The mutalink roared and jumped to catch its vanishing pray, but could only bite the shiny floor.

Kara felt the familiar sensation of being materialized again, somewhere else.

"It worked!" Zor-El hurried up and helped her daughter to sit. "Kara, mi daughter, are you all right?" blinded by concern, he barely noticed the awful burnings that now marked her daughter's otherwise perfect face. When he finally saw them, after checking her general condition with his Nexus bracelet, he scanned them and sighed relieved; her bracelet was already healing her wounds and vanishing her scars, leaving her body as impeccable as ever.

Kara managed to speak even with every inch of her body still burning in pain and asked with a fading voice "Father?"

"I am here, Kara! Don't worry, we are safe. For now..."

She looked around, hoping to find a familiar face. Her tears started to roll out when that horrible reality hit her, still, she couldn't stop asking.

"Mother..."she was sobbing; she was desperately praying and looking for a strength she didn't have any more.

Zorl-El looked at her hurt, devastated daughter, and shared his own tears with hers.

"I am very sorry my daughter..." He closed his eyes for a second, forcing out the words he didn't want to speak. "She was still partially immersed in the Virtual Krypton, and I couldn't transport her here as I did with you. It was an experimental transportation system that only requires 1 single pad. I am sorry I only had enough time to save you and the system is already starting to destabilize..."

"Where is mom?" her face was an ocean of tears and fear. "Where is she, father?"

"That creature had cocooned her body in or sleeping chambers, my dear. I have scanned her as much as I could but I still can't determine her real condition, for those...things seem to block our sensors and are even causing problems to our transportation technology." he explained while tapping, and reshaping floating icons and symbols following him at his right. "But my futile attempt to save my beloved wife gave me another idea, I have run a test and it will work! Kara, there is a way out. But a terrible one I am afraid.

She read his eyes as looking into her father's own soul.

"Father, no!" She turned him around and paralyzed him with eyes submerged in deep fear, she begged with all her heart. "Don't do that! Please!" She had been there, in that indescribable and chaotic hell, obscure, cold; where the only reality was despair, emptiness and desperation. No soul could endure that place to long without breaking down and dry.

"It is our only chance I am afraid! I can program the mouth of the dimensional gate of the phantom zone to respond to one of our nexus bracelets thoughts. It will work for everyone except for yours' Kara, for it was one of the prototypes and lacks some of the last protocols. But I have made you another, while preparing my escape route. Please wear it on your right wrist my daughter."

"Your escape route?"

"I have isolated one specific transporter at the secondary star craft's bay. My personal research pod is ready to fly. And it is the only way, I fear… But this time that sacrifice will not be yours, my beloved daughter. You and the rest of us will suffer…but briefly, I hope. Still, you and our people will be safe from death's stinger. I need you to keep their hearts safe and alive, I need you to give them hope over there; you have the strength, I saw it, you did it once and you can do it again. I have instructed the phantom gateway to expand until it permeates the whole city, submerging every kryptonian; each one of us except me. I am redy to transport myself into the outer space. With enough power, and a bit of luck, I will be able to hide between layers of space time until I am sure those things are gone, then, I will jump to normal space, were there are more than plenty places to hide, and will build a cloaked lab and shelter in there; once properly configured, I will start all necessary researches to build a new phantom zone projector to get you, Allura and our people out to safety; even if it takes me a thousand years!"

"Safe from death?" A banished memory returned from the deeps of her mind; one she fought to forget forever: the living images of Zaltar falling into the dimensional storm that almost swallowed both. "Zaltar died inside the phantom zone, father!" her tears never left her eyes. "I saw it and you know that!"

Zor-El sighed. He wished this moment would never come, and looked at her daughter's eyes as much as he could. "Zaltar is not death, Kara. There is no death inside the zone, only suffering, eternal suffering. He must be drifting somewhere within the phantom dimensional storm; it is also possible that he stays trapped in the storm forever…"

"You could have told me, father!" protested Kara, unable to hold back how much those words hurt her; she deserved to know… and instead of the truth, her parents have lied to her.

"Why did you lie to me?"

"If we would have told you the truth then you would have tried to go back there to rescue him, and then we could have lost you forever too. Forgive me, Kara, but I could not take that chance and neither your mother…"

Zor-El froze suddenly. He rapidly called a group of screens that showed the perimeter around the core, the access points and the situation of his ship; something was terribly wrong. The creatures where already reaching the core and in a few minutes they would be all over them. One more immersive three dimensional hologram appeared, unfolding the terrible reality before their shocked eyes; almost all kryptonians in the city where cocooned but. Kara gasped at the sight and shook her head, still refusing to believe the nightmare that was consuming them. And then, to their horror, a particular hologram showing Zor-El's small ship resting peacefully in a solitary room was flooded with mutalinks.

"Nooo!" screamed Zor-El while watching the tireless creatures destroying his only hope, brutally fast. The scientist fell in his knees, his hand stretched towards the image of the destroyed ship before him. His hopes collapsed like a sack of rocks. He covered his face and his breathing became vague…

The day their civilization was supposed to resurrect had become their doomsday.

Kara wanted to say something, to do something…she just couldn't. Both became living statues for a tense minute; petrified by fear and desperation.

Zor-El rose up slowly; young tears stroke his cheeks, testifying his defeat. But he still had a last card to play; one he heated more than the creatures that where destroying them and their paradise …but he diced to use it anyways. He turned to face her daughter, with tragic eyes.

"Our time has come, Kara. Providence as spoken, and there is only one more thing to do..." He gave her the nexus bracelet he especially prepared.

She shook her head; she knew exactly what he was going to do.

The immersive holograms fused in one and showed the creatures outside the lab; they were fighting to break trough. Zor-El bowed his head.

Kara though she would never see her father like this; he looked more than broken, worst than afraid: hopeless. Strangely, in that precise instant, she remembered Zaltar in the phantom zone and for a second she saw her lost friend's face in his father's. Not everything was lost back then… Something happened there that changed fear into hope. Then, she remembered her happy days in Argo and that "something" inside her started to awake again. She could feel it, even if she couldn't name it or understand it! She could feel this strange and overwhelming emotion rushing through her body again. She wouldn't give up, she couldn't!

Kara looked at the monsters again; they only had a very short gap of time to activate the projector and send everybody inside, there was only one detail left, one that chilled her; one would stay behind. She saw the determination in her father's eyes, and her deepest fears arose again.

"Father..?"

"Someone must stay behind and destroy the projector. Whoever is behind this attack must not follow us, my beloved child…"

Kara gulped as if she where trying to swallow ice cubes. New tears marked her pink cheeks and dropped on his father's hands holding hers'. She knew her father was going to give his life for her; she wanted to live, but didn't wanted to lose her father. And at the crossroad she remembered her long lost friend's encouraging words: "Nothing is impossible Kara…" She remembered something and her eyes glowed with new hope.

"Father… "Kara hugged her father tightly, carefully controlling the little time they had left in the back of her mind. Zor-El looked at her daughter, sharing with her his love and the eyes of a defeated and condemned victim. Still…something confused him; Kara's angelical face was glowing with a rare strength and fierce determination in the sadness of their last moments together.

"I love you father!" She cried loud and hugged him even stronger. Zor-El felt her warm tears touch his face and also the potent and peculiar sensation that always accompanied the activation of the phantom zone projector. Zor-El opened his eyes shocked and turned his head around. Kara had activated the projector while hugging him and now the pre-instructed massive phantom gateway expanded like a blasting supernova; permeating everything. For his surprise, he felt his body, his mind, his entire being changing; he was being canceled. The sensation was much more terrible than the greatest pain he could feel; it was real and absolutely unstoppable. He was trespassing the barrier between life and death, but still retaining his essence. He was turning into a living ghost.

That sensation could only mean one thing.

Zor-El watched in horror as the spare Nexus Bracelet he gave Kara was resting peacefully in his right wrist. He cried loud one last time as the indescribable might absorbed his whole self into the feared eternal kryptonian dimensional prison.

"Kara!" called Zor-El, desperately fighting to remain in this reality. He was supposed to be the one to sacrifice his life for her daughter, not her life for his! Not again! But in less than a second his entire existence was sucked inside. Kara sobbed in silence as the prismatic dark purple gateway filled the entire city, passing harmlessly trough her.

The mutalinks froze suddenly, their senses yelling at them that something was terribly and inexorably wrong. The dimensional gateway passed through everything, including the mighty beasts. They began to shriek and alert his masters telepathically about the unforeseen and still unclear potential danger. But the reason for the astonishing phenomenon became very clear very soon…

The gateway permeated the silent cocoons and every kryptonian inside disappeared; engulfed into the dimensional prison, all of them… All of Sarack's wanted super slaves.

The living conscience governing the Ranam Temple, overseeing the assault on the last kryptonian city, alerted Sarack at the same time his dimensional senses sprang alive, telling him that something had happened, something bad…

"Dimensional singularity detected." dictated a cold voice all over the throne hall.

The war lord sat up and left his throne, troubled.

"Impossible!" roared the warlord, desperately looking for an answer. He was a dimensional warrior, trained to sense and understand every anomaly and singularity in existence, but this…was more than strange, more than just a dimensional distortion. A crafted mystery, with a sinister purpose…A very powerful anti-reality the kryptonians managed to shape, use, and perhaps even abuse from.

"Analysis!" demanded Sarack.

"Unknown inverted dimensional eruption in progress. I am still incapable to perform a dedicated analysis due to insufficient information and non existing entities."

"A simple 'I can't' would have been enough…"

The tattoos in the face of the cult's leader changed dramatically and the dots on them acquire a dark yellow that contrasted with his deep blue skin tone; he was very angry.

Kara was alone…alone in the proud laboratory of the last Science Council of Krypton. Her enemies where outside, close to claim her as they did with her brothers and sisters. She looked at the images of the attackers feed directly into her mind by her bracelet with furious eyes; she had 2 more things to do. The kryptonian girl touched the control crystal of the Phantom Zone projector and gave it a very dangerous command. She walked close to the door separating her from the beasts and ordered the floor beneath her feet to grow a special protective crystal that covered her like intelligent water and solidified instantaneously.

The creatures cut through the door and attacked the thick crystal covering Kara on sight. She smiled; it was time for some payback…

The Phantom Zone projector imploded violently and a powerful singularity sucked all creatures inside an endless collapsing miniverse, and severally deformed the beautiful laboratory. Kara's weakened protective crystal broke into bits right when the implosion ended. She landed elegantly thanks to her gymnastic skills and scanned her surroundings quickly; her nexus bracelet showed her that the remaining beasts where apparently confused by the forces she liberated. It was more than she could have asked for; it was her opportunity.

Kara Zor-El send a special command to the main conscience of the lab, one she had access thanks to her father… The roof of the damaged laboratory transformed and opened elegantly, like alien flower blossoming upside down. She watched exited and impatient as the Omegahedrons, nested in light buds, that powered the bright city, descended peacefully to her level. She fixed her eyes in one particular spinning orb; her hope to escape and save her people.

"Come..." Kara called the small spinning power source, whose power was comparable of that of a small star, with her voice.

'Selena' levitated out of her place and drifted freely, resting gently on Kara's open palm after a swift flight. Kara issued the power source another command and feed it with a radical and risky programming. The orb spun faster and faster, until the groves and kryptonian symbols on its surface disappeared. She closed her eyes a little as the orb glowed brighter and brighter; it was time for the wonder.

If that human, Selena, could use the matter and energy manipulation powers of the Omegahedron to mimic a strange power she called magic, then she also could use it to her advantage. Zaltar use it to build and animate things; she could do it too. It didn't matter how dangerous it was; her father's words echoed inside her heart, giving her strength "You are a hero for me…" she trusted her father's words. And heroes never turn their back on those in need.

The Omegahedron grew smaller, until it was no bigger than a small pearl. Kara gulped and prayed for courage, then she swallowed the mighty little power source, hopping for a miracle with all of her heart.

There was a story somebody told her, back at the distant earth, about a woman that turned into a salt statue. If there could be an experience that somewhat could resemble that. Then this was it. Her body experienced a terrible sensation and an intense but brief blast of pain. After it she felt as if her whole being was being smashed from the inside out, and violently transformed into something else, something completely unknown... The sensation was so overwhelmingly horrible that she couldn't even scream, only pray and hope the pain will go away, while struggling with every inch of her being to remain alive and conscious. A few seconds more and the pain was giving away to a disgusting new sensation, she felt like if her spirit was being ripped of her body and being put into another one, a cold and savagely strange one. But deep inside…there was an addictive sensation of immense raw power that stole a smile from her almost transparent crystalline lips. Her change completed fast, and she barely made it alive; she had jumped against all odds into the unknown; it was the only card she had, and it appeared to have worked. Kara straightened her new form and looked at her reflection in the palm of her crystalline hand, there were some barely visible patterns and marks inside that could resemble what had been once the insides of a kryptonian's hand, but only apparently. The change was complete. She screamed and turned around, heading outside of the core; the sounds she made where not kryptonian, but of a new life form.

Kara reached the aperture in the core's shield from where the mutalinks entered and gazed to the vastness beyond. There were literally thousands of those creatures everywhere, covering almost everything. She clenched her fists and released another mighty war cry, full of rage. The mutalinks followed with their eyes the fighting declaration of the strange creature that resembled one of their escaped prisoners, but the readings they got from it where very confusing. The creatures hesitated and Kara stormed outside; she needed to get out quickly; her goal was not to destroy all of the creatures but to escape as fast as possible. Although the idea of turning them into piles of ash tempted her more than once, wisdom dictated against it; she only did a very dangerous improvisation to empower herself with the goal to escape in mind; she didn't know if her new powers where going to be enough or if she was going to be able to properly control her new form. Kara aimed at the closest beast in front of her and punched the creature, concentrating all her new strength in the surface of her fist. The result couldn't be more satisfying...

The impact was awesome, and besides deforming the mutalink to an weird mass, it send it crashing against all others behind him like a meteorite, opening a clear path for her.

The mutalinks behavior showed an unusual level of intelligence for a creature of it characteristics again, and the creatures started to avoid Kara's wild rampage with little to zero success. Until they seemed to organize themselves better to try a counter attack; but it was not even near enough to stop the mighty crystalline kryptonian girl. Kara, on her behalf, avoided to engage any creature not directly in front of her as much as she could, and enjoyed her new powers very much.

One of the pack leaders send a command and a chosen one attacked Kara with amazing swiftness. Kara raised her hand, opened her palm and generated a scintillating star she shoot against the creature, sending him message of destruction. But this mutalink reacted fast and dodged it in an eye blink. The star passed at the creature's left. The mutalink roared and let its energetic serrated teeth to glow and invade the ambient light with its own. Kara anticipated the mutalik's intentions and with a triumphant grin ordered the star to explode. The shining projectile detonated right behind the creature. The growing blast struck the rear of the beast and literally disintegrated half of it , severally damaging the rest of the monster as well.

Kara stepped aside. The mutalink cried out in pain as it crash landed close to Kara, carving the crystal floor repeatedly in a vain attempt to sink it claws on her. She ignored the perishing creature and faced the endless horde around her. She concentrated her mighty power and transformed her human form into a prism that grew exponentially fast. The mutalink horde attacked, but the crystal grew faster than they could devour or destroy it. The growing crystal peak was close to reach the high ceiling when the growth spur stopped and the small mountain exploded, disintegrating all mutalinks that where frenetically attacking it like an army of angry ants; revealing a mighty and gigantic kryptonian girl wearing a muscle shaped armor that was part of her own body. She looked like a giant ice warrior queen protected by a bio-crystaline shiny armor. When the fanatical beasts charged at her again in all their ways and forms, she unleashed her power at them like an enraged giantess. Kara created two, slightly different in color, vaporous spheres in each hand. She developed the spheres while pushing her arms backwards to build enough momentum and power. When the horde of attackers where close enough she released a cry that shattered the surroundings, and united the spheres in each hand with a clasp. The fused spheres grew even more and exploded in the direction of the attackers, releasing a hurricane of crystalline air that transformed all mutalinks into crystal balls that exploded shortly afterwards. A rain of fragments the size of sand grains flew everywhere. Kara released another war cry and advanced with mighty paces, but the fight was far from over. More mutalinks rushed to attack her from everywhere, as if she had fallen into their very own nest.

Kara walked over the countless mutalink swarm at her feet, kicking them like small marbles. The beasts that avoided her mighty paces jumped up quickly afterwards, trying to climb up or attack her hells. But every mutalink that touched her crystalline skin for too long was instantly crystallized; the giantess smiled. Kara kept kicking and hitting the small beasts, sending them in an inevitable collision course against the ceiling, the walls, and the impeccable buildings that formed her precious city. She even blew a crystallizing wind from her lips that turned her attackers into silent transparent statues and covered her giant form with a liquid force field that vaporized the creatures on contact. She was getting close to her goal now, and the creatures looked confused; she drew a faint smile and kept her demolishing advance.

The mutalinks stopped their fanatical charge and regrouped at a safe distance from the kryptonian crystalline giantess. Kara stopped too; she saw them adapt to their tactics before and how a rushed imprudence had cost one of her brothers everything. She chose to be like water this time, to adapt to their adaptation. A new mutalink chant echoed across the ruined cityscape and hundreds of small beasts combined themselves to form a huge growing ball of mutalinks that soon turned into a specialized pulsing organ. The grotesque giant object exploded and a new kind of beast emerged; a giant mutalink as big as Kara, even more menacing in appearance as the tinny versions. She could barely scan it for the giant beast charged, jumped and collided against her in a stunning impact, sending both to the deeps of Argo Lake. Tidal waves splashed everywhere and the surface became the face of chaos as the beauty and the beast battled in the deeps with all their might. The giant mutalink struggled violently against Kara's grip to bite her head, repeatedly snapping its monstrous jaws as close as as possible. Kara closed her eyes and turned away her head in desperation as terrible and painful slashes severally punished her new form; frustrated by Kara's strength, the creature had started to use its energy covered claws and spiked tail to harm her in multiple ways. The creature's claws where damaging her torso and legs while the wiping tail hammered her back.

Kara screamed loud, held the creature's neck firmly with one hand in a colossal burst of strength, and grew sharp crystalline blades in her left forearm. Slash! A swift motion and the daughter of Zor-El sewered the vicious tail once and for all. The creature went crazy in that instant and shook violently, slashing and contorting itself without pause. Kara had to release it but she wasn't going to let that beast attack her again. The kryptonian giant grew a new crystal in her left palm that transformed into some sort of spear with hydrodynamic surface and vents. Kara swung the weapon and hit the creature in the head, causing visible damage and apparently knocking it down. In that instant she remembered a very interesting earth life form and mutated her spear into an underwater whip that looked like a tentacle. The kryptonian girl hit the giant mutalink with her tentacle-whip weapon and released it immediately. The whip acted as a living tentacle and wrapped itself around the monster, producing many other smaller tentacles from its surface that effectively incapacitated the monster and sent it to the bottom. Kara launched herself upwards and shot out of the great lake. She turned around as soon as her giant feet sunk slightly in the shore and shoot two crystallizing beams from her eyes that turned the water of the huge lake into crystal; trapping the wounded monster forever.

Kara turned around, more confident now that she managed to defeat the huge mutalink, only to face two more giant monsters bursting out of their correspondent cocoons. She clenched her teeth and charged towards the already advancing twins.

The battle was far from over.

She rammed the one at her left, surprising the running creature, and pushing it until she knocked it and fell over a beautiful house in the residential area, turning it into bits and pieces. Kara rolled with the beast secured in her arms, then, she got up elegantly thanks to her gymnastic skills and held the creature up in a powerful bear hug; squeezing frenzy screams out of the monster. One wish and dozens of energy beams shoot out all around her body, liquefying the creature in her arms; she was more than eager to return the favor to these creatures and now she did it.

Before she could react the other giant mutalink attacked her from behind, stamping her on the ground. Kara spun around as the beast slashed at her with its claws and tried to bite her head. She used her forearm as a shield and the creature bite it without hesitation. She smiled in spite the pain; a crystallizing aura grew out of her crystalline skin, permeating trough the creature's head all over, causing it to open its yaws and retreat in pain. The creature began to crystallize and the creature's natural defenses fought it unsuccessfully; the new variety of crystalline parasite Kara had produced was faster than the creature's countermeasures and crystallized it completely. Kara smiled and got up proudly, but her victories came with a prize: the giant monsters had managed to hurt her new form too quickly and she needed to be more careful. She was very powerful now, but not invincible. She was close to her goal too, but after reaching the perimeter of the residential area she would need to reduce her size to get to the city's outer ring and the airlocks; that would force her to fight her way against a much greater number of beasts. But with the aid of the Omegahedron's power she estimated she would make it.

Two new giant beasts rushed against her in a coordinated attack. One charged to Kara's blind side with ferocity and viciousness, hoping to wound her severally from behind, allowing him and his brother who was attacking her from the front to bring her down effectively. The beast was about to reach her when a very familiar face surged from the back of Kara's head, and faced the incoming beast with enraged eyes. The giant mutalink was slightly surprised and loosed it's momentum, giving Kara the time she needed.

It worked...

Soon, not just the face but a perfect clone of the kryptonian giantess emerged from her back as if it had been living inside her the whole time. The new giant Kara rammed the beast and applied a submission maneuver that brought both her and the monster to the ground. She was dominating the creature and increasing the pressure applied to the creature's neck and torso until the beast reacted and began to slash at her with its powerful claws as much as it could even in the difficult position. Kara II felt the pain and the wounds the beast was carving on her living crystalline body. She shut her eyes and repeated the maneuver that brought the other giant mutalink down; an aura of aqua blue light expanded from her body, from the inside out, starting to liquefy it. Kara II rose to her feet and held the creature up fiercely, forcing her liquefying aura to consume the creature completely, countering any and every futile attempt the beast was making to free itself from her colossal strength. In a few seconds the alien beast was so badly consumed that it was no longer necessary for her to keep the embrace. She tossed away the dissolving remains of the creature to the other one fighting the original Kara.

Kara I managed successfully to use her attacker as a shield that received the dissolving beast tossed from her sister. Both beasts where consumed by the same power an both giant Karas merged again and watched the multitude of enemies that was rushing to attack her. The swarm of mutainks seemed endless, for each mutalink she disintegrated or vaporized a hundred more where replacing it, and the city appeared to be literally over infested with them; from creatures whose only goal, now that all citizens except her had been locked inside the Phantom Zone, seemed to be her annihilation…or painful subjugation in the best case.

The mutalinks understood quickly that it would be everything but easy to subjugate or terminate the giant female trough brute force and started to attack her with energy and wave force weapons instead of claws and fangs. Kara produced elegant shields that grew out of her forearms to protect herself while a new specialized bio armor covered her body.

The kryptonian girl was quickly overwhelmed with enemy fire from the smallest to the largest creature. Some shots where easier to block than others, and some could even harm her new armored form. Kara enlarged the shields in her arms until she formed two perfect half spheres and encapsulated herself with both halves. The sphere self sealed and took the enemy fire with pride. The creatures intensified their fire to the maximum, and the perfect surface of the transparent crystalline sphere that shielded Kara started to show scars and bruises; her defense was mighty, but not impregnable to such vicious and endless firepower; the shield had started to deform and wear out like a drying fruit. Kara concentrated as much power as she could and when the badly battered shield was close to break down she released the concentrated power. It appeared like the release of a nuclear detonation. The blast turned everything around into a great and blinding void, and severally deformed the basic shape of the city, but thanks to its regenerative qualities and reinforced structure it didn't collapsed.

An apparent calm settled down and she allowed herself a few seconds to relax, but never let her guard down, her senses where still at full alert. The city's still alive senses told her about the presence of something as big as Argo City anchored to it outside. The fight could be far from over, but now that she had managed to wipe all of the creatures she was confident that she could reach her exit as planned.

The city trembled and agonized suddenly, deep wounds formed inside and outside.

It was starting again.

Kara looked at the floor ahead with a shocked expression. A huge thing broke the floor in the middle of the residential area and climbed up. It was an incredibly big monster, and it looked much more menacing than even the giant version of the small ones. It had a frightening presence, like nothing she ever saw before.

The Broom.

This time she took the initiative and attacked first, with her crystallizing beams. The shots hit the unmovable monster with a beautifully effect, but nothing happened. The creature snarled and roared as the faint effect of the beams diluted in its skin, without mayor consequences. Kara clenched her fists and backpacked slowly; that creature seemed to be much more powerful than the others and probably immune to some of her attacks. She was about to try something else when the monster attacked her with an spherical shock bomb. The bomb looked like energy in form of organic tissues and when it exploded the effects were very devastating. The eroding shock waves pulverized everything around and severally damaged Kara's crystalline body armor, sending her flying straight to crash deep into the crystallized lake. Kara was about to try to stand up when the broom landed on top of her, attacking without mercy. The creature held her limbs firmly with his numerous arms and a forest of liquid energy strands surged from its exosqueleton, attacking her like vicious snakes. Kara felt her armor suffering and giving up. She struggled as much as she could but her strength couldn't break the creature's monstrous grip. The attack was even destabilizing her capabilities to the point she could not produce active nor passive defenses anymore; she was in serious trouble...

Kara was about to lose hope when the sight of the countless little monsters running around her gave her a marvelous idea, ad like a spark of hope in dark times, that idea reinvigorated her. She roared back at the monster roaring at her face, her giant body became grayish, changing its very own nature. Kara clenched her teeth and concentrated deeper. A small human silhouette delineated in her giant's forehead; it acquired volume and in an instant, the smaller human rose from the surface, jumped down and ran as far away of the struggling giants as she could. The Broom was slightly confused, for the giant Kara in his clutches was still fighting for her life, while a small, sleeker version of her, grew out of her forehead and ran away. The Broom ordered the mutalink swarm to intercept the runner immediately. In that instant the giant Kara under the Brohm broke into thousand pieces, each piece turned into a perfect clone of the small runner. The Broom was surprised by Kara's cleaver move and couldn't react fast enough. The thousand Karas smiled and began fighting their way out, each one with impressive skills; displaying power, grace and cleverness far beyond their enemies. The game changed again and the swarm quickly switched tactics; all mutaliks around hurried to chase down and attack the fast moving clones.

Kara regained some confidence in the middle of the battle; the greatest advantage of her new cloned form was that every one of her clones would act and react just as she would, so it was impossible for her enemies to determine which one was the real Kara Zor-El. But the monsters swiftly realized what had happened and the command to hunt down every single clone spread rapidly among the pack leaders. Kara's advantage had worked marvelously. She was running in the middle of a group of a hundred clones staffing towards the academy, and the odds very favorable; her new warrior partners combined their abilities to repel the intruders like a specialized commando unit, using all the Omegahedron's capabilities to neutralize the monsters with stunning efficiency. And it worked.

Fortunately, Kara's group was not as heavily attacked as other ones, which worked on her speed advantage. She was about to cry victory in her heart when the headers in her group stopped before a weird sight; about a hundred yards away, a group of fiercely looking mutalinks with different color patters and symbols split to let another kind of creature to emerge from the center of their formation. It was a bipedal creature, but its legs where similar to the ones of an ostrich; it was covered by some curios skin that appeared to be a very powerful natural transparent bioluminescent armor. He had two big neon bright purple eyes that glowed into his transparent featureless face that rested in an oval head, different from anything she had seen before. Kara's shock and fear was momentary overwhelmed by her natural kryptonian curiosity. What kind of being was that? She couldn't recall it from their knowledge libraries so it was highly likely they have never seen nor cataloged them before. But another force, a vital question, quickly subjugated all others: was he or she or both, responsible for the attack? Kara couldn't speculated about as much as she wanted for the elite group of mutalinks preceding the strange alien charged at her group with all their might and speed. Her clones could barely hold their demolishing charge and had to employ everything they had to push them back. The strange alien gave Kara's clone group a strange look and produced four differently colored dual layered energy balls in each one of his four arms and merged them in one, like merging four water balloons; he launched the pulsing sphere at her group with a dramatic gesture.

The eye catching orb imploded and exploded in the center of Kara's defensive formation unleashing a furious rain of flashing needles that sank into almost every clone in the group. Kara ducked and dodged the notorious luminous stings as best as she could and commanded her sisters to quickly avoid the mysterious alien, at the same time, she commanded the city to turn into an ever changing labyrinth, effectively insolating the alien warriors and his minions from her and her battle group.

Kara looked ahead; the perimeter airlocks where near now and so was salvation. She ran a few yards until a sharp pain in her left side almost knocked her down. She looked down and beneath her armpit; she had been wounded, and could clearly see the remains of one of those light stings dissipating in the air like smoke, but something had gotten inside her, something that infected her new form. Her eyes hurt a little and she started to feel disorientation and dizziness; she thought it was impossible, but if it happened, that creature must have an immense power... And to make things worse, it was not just her, but also all clones around that where hit started to lose coordination as well, as if infected by some kind of disease. Kara shut her eyes tightly and struggled fiercely against the poison inside her and searched for strength in her heart; she remembered her father, her mother, and all other kryptonians whose future lay in her hands. She couldn't give up.

She wouldn't!

The strong kryptonian girl ignored the breaking pain and commanded the nexus technology in her wrist to counter whatever was attacking her. Kara and her group engaged in a terrible fight against a group of mutalinks that where blocking her way inside the academy and the ones after them. The advance of the group found a brutal resistance at the entrance and managed to get trough after sacrificing more than half of them. Kara split the remaining clones in three groups, and prepared her trap. The other two groups ran towards the nearest and easier to reach transporting pads, while her group went to the gravity pool. Most mutalinks at the academy attacked the first two, just as she expected, even when the transporters where malfunctioning the mind behind the monsters knew of their potential risk and decided to deny her any access to it; fine...she wasn't thinking on using them anyway. Her group stopped in the center of the gravity pool and stood their ground. The mutalinks wasted no time and aggressively fought the clones and Kara, who withdrew from the pool when all the beast around where inside and engaging her clones. She issued a mental command to the pool and the crystal that formed it became red; warning all people inside and outside that the gravity setting being ordered was much above safety levels. A terrible symphony of cracks, bangs and pains screams resounded across the room; all mutalinks in the pool where almost instantly crushed by the powerful gravity field. She grinned and went with her remaining clones to the praying chapel; it was empty. Kara entered and closed the ample room without delay; she called a special crystal from the data grove at the left wall and began reprogramming it for her ultimate vanishing trick.

A new group of mutalinks arrived to the perimeter of the praying chapel seconds before the whole building exploded in a thunderous explosion. The beast that where far enough managed to shield themselves from their brother's terrible fate and looked for their target: there were seven clones advancing in seven different directions. The mutalinks split as well, eagerly chasing the runners down, completely ignoring a very special and harmless Ciser crystal that flew high above, among whit other service crystals that where working in the academy. Kara relaxed as much as she could inside the small egg shaped transportation crystal and commanded it to discretely fly towards the nearest airlock. Her nexus bracelet informed her that the creatures where not attacking the fundamental bio crystals inside the confined airlocks; for they could practically never be used as escape pods nor ships, but theoretically...that was another deal.

The mutalinks where still chasing and fighting against Kara's clones everywhere in the city, while their real trophy reached her goal unsuspected. Kara's Cicer crystal went through the airlock wall as if it passed through a water wall, and opened like a blossoming flower at the other side, letting its precious cargo stumble to the ground. Kara stood up and touched the big and shiny fundamental bio crystal floating in the center of the small room while issuing similar instructions to all the other crystals in all airlocks around the city. The crystal before her morphed beautifully and became once again one of her secret ways to fly around the inner space unsuspected.

It was time to leave, forever...and to face death in a duel of time.

Kara fell on all fours as she reverted her transformation painfully fast, and became a normal kryptonian once again; she could have reverted her empowered nature slower, but that was not an option. She spat the shiny power orb into her palm and watched as it grew back to its normal size. The wound at her side burned again, much stronger this time; without the power of the Omegahedron to augment her nexus bracelet capabilities she was more susceptible to the poison that was threatening her life. She didn't know if her bracelet was going to be able to counter it, and even if it could, if it would do it before the poison inside her could claim her life. She summoned her strengths, stood up and gave the powerful kryptonian power source one last command; one last sacrifice must be done; the destruction of everything her brothers and sisters worked and lived for. None of those monsters should remain to follow her.

"Father, mother, my brothers and sisters, please forgive me! Kara shouted loud and threw the collapsing power source deep inside Argo.

The baseball size energy power source flew straight through the door and to the center of the city, making its own path like an intelligent missile while Kara entered the restricted space of the crystalline craft and assumed fetal position. the small improvised ship closed herself and produced the life sustaining gel that would protect its passenger and keep her alive. Kara counted the last seconds and ordered all airlocks around the city to open. She launched all morphed crafts at the same time than her own, and thanked Rao for escaping; she only had time for a few tears.

The otherwise marvelous sight of her floating home was corrupted by the presence the huge alien hive that was hooked to it. The Ranam Hivor was attached to Argo City with multiple energy suckers; it detected the small crafts immediately after launch and send an equal amount of bio figthers to hunt and destroy each one of the small eluding probes; the attackers resembled alien spiders with spiked legs and bio luminescent membranes that impelsed them to astounding velocities. Kara perceived the imminent danger trough her probe's senses and concentrated at maximum to dodge the imminent attacks; she had no means to defend herself now and her only weapon was time; she counted the last seconds and prayed even more that her plan would work as expected.

The Omegahedron arrived near the core of the city, flying above the batlle, and detonated in an explosion that was more beautiful and devastating than anything any kryptonian ever saw before; it was the first time an Omegahedron self destructed and provoked a chain reaction with the others that where still functional. The blast expanded spherically and advanced dramatically fast, consuming everything on its path without exceptions. The Hivor released the perishing city and tried desperately to escape but the fury of the blast was too fast and engulfed the giant nest in a second; a strange scream echoed through various dimensions as one of the Ranam Cult's proudest weapons and a countless horde was mercilessly consumed and turned into nothing.

Kara forced her pod to accelerate to damaging point; if she failed at her calculations even for a fraction, her life and hope would be consumed. The super blast kept expanding violently. The last girl of krypton yelled in pain as the wound on her side and the concentration needed to escape destruction demanded everything from her. The bio hunter at her tail tried to escape the expanding sphere of destruction behind it but it was too late, still, in the last possible second fired at Kara's speeding pod and hit it before being consumed. The kryptonian craft shuddered with the impact and momentarily lost control. Her probe had been hurt and the damage was spreading trough it like a rapidly developing disease! Her ship had being attacked by some kind of very aggressive parasite within the shot and it was consuming her escape hope too fast. She merged her mind with the probe's artificial intelligence and instructed it to counter the microscopic invader as best as possible, but the thing had already affected it more than just superficially. She had to make the transition now!There was no time left. Kara commanded the probe and prayed loud. The kryptonian research craft became translucent and drilled trough the inner space reality, drilling straight trough an ocean of dimensional unrealities to the infinitude of the outer space.