REIGN
By FAH3
The hospital room was as clean as clean could be. The strong scent of alcohol and disinfectant was heavy in the air as the various pages and announcements echoed throughout the hallways from the PA system. Inside a private room, the large African-American man stirred in his sleep. Bandages covered his various cuts and gashes while several bruises were exposed to the rest of the world. His muscles were well defined from various activities in his life while the top of his head had the stubble growing from lack of being shaved. As he opened his eyes, he was temporarily blinded from what little light that was reflecting off of the polished surface of the floor. As he tried to sit up, he felt a strong pair of hands help him sit up.
"Be careful, Dr. Irons. You've been out of it for a while." The deep voice said to him.
"H-how did you know . . . I was a doctor?"
"Because we once worked together on a project." The voice's owner said, causing the man to look up. "It's nice to meet you again, Dr. Irons."
"Dr. Load. I remember you." He said as he rubbed the side of his head and winced when he felt several stitches holding a gash closed. "Does anyone else here know who I am?"
"No. The foreman said your name was Henry Johnson. I assumed there was a reason you're living under an assumed name, which is why I didn't correct them." Wade said as he sat in a near by chair as Dr. Irons reached for a glass that had water in it and took a sip.
"How long have I been here?" he asked.
"About a day and a half." Wade answered. "What were you doing at that construction site?"
"I was working there. When Doomsday showed up, everyone began evacuating. I saw Superwoman tried to fight him and wanted to help. I grabbed a sledgehammer, but that's when the whole building fell on top of me. I don't remember a lot after that." Irons said to him. "Did she stop Doomsday?" he asked Wade.
"She did. But, she didn't make it." Wade told him.
"Oh God, no." Irons said as he closed his eyes tight and let his head fall back against his pillow. "It should have been me." Irons said to himself.
"What do you mean?"
"What?"
"What you said just now. What do you mean, it should have been you?" Wade asked him.
"It's a long story."
"I've got time. I let Mr. Stoppable know that I'm visiting a sick friend." Wade told him.
"Do – do you remember the project we were working on?"
"The armored suit. After that malfunction, Miss Gough canceled the project." Wade said.
"At the time, I was also designing several other projects. You see, I was also a weapons designer."
"You were?" Wade asked him. Wade was astounded to hear that part about his career. Dr. Irons research always showed he took a non-lethal approach to his work. But weapons? "What kind?"
"The bad kind. Growing up, my family was harassed and pushed around. And I'll let you guess the main reason why."
"Because of their skin color?" Wade asked.
"Yes. Growing up, my heroes were my grandparents. They had been through a lot, and they never let any of it keep them down. They didn't tell me a lot of what they had to go through. I guess because it was too painful. But, they always encouraged me to keep going and not to take any of the abuse a lot of people kept giving me. When I was eleven, I took an IQ test that impressed the school board. So much so, I was going to be put into high school courses. I ran to tell my grandparents, but I found something else." Dr. Irons said as he fell silent for a few moments. "It turns out, that a group of Klan members had been growing not too far from where they lived. They had caused some trouble, but nothing to actually make anyone take notice. It turned out that a few minutes after I got the news of my IQ tests, they decided to make an example out of my grandparents. I can still see the message they left on the walls." Dr. Irons growled.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Well, that was one of the main reasons I went into my field. I couldn't stand some of the things that have been going on in the world. Especially when they did it for such stupid and meaningless reasons."
"But why weapons?"
"Because I thought if I designed a bigger gun, others would back off. Well, when I took a good look at what I designed, I deleted it. At least I thought I did."
"Don't tell me that the design got out."
"It did. Several months after I deleted the design, I was sent with one of our benefactors to an oil field in Iraq. It turned out that a group of terrorists had attacked the oil fields, and several villages surrounding that area. What I saw was enough horror to last several lifetimes. The U.S. Army had been sent in and they took prisoners, and they confiscated some of the weapons they used. Several of the weapons were my design. The BG-60."
Wade's eyes widened when he heard Irons mention the weapon's name. He had heard of it before, and remembered what he was talking about. He had seen news feeds and saw photos of the villages that were attacked. The BG-60 fired a shell so powerful and so hot that it severed a human in half, and literally cooked all the tissue that was in the body at the same time. What was left was not something for the squeamish, or non squeamish, to ever look at. Ever.
"You – you're the one that – designed those?" Wade asked in shock.
"I know how you feel. When I returned to my lab, I traced any and everyone who could have been able to hack my computer system. I found out it was my – my fiancé. Dr. Angora Lapin."
"Your lab partner?"
"Yes. She stole the designs for it and sold it. I went to confront her, but she had dropped out of sight and off the grid. I couldn't find her anywhere. After that, I couldn't take it. I was responsible for so many deaths, and the one woman I thought I could trust betrayed me. So I destroyed the lab and all my files, and I faked my death. I decided to hide and start over. But not too long after we started the construction on that building I was buried beneath, I found out my weapons were being sold on the streets to gangs. And their upgrades."
"Upgrades?" Wade asked.
"I designed a sister weapon, but it was stronger than the last one. Angora must have stolen that one as well, and now she's selling it to the local gangs. I was honestly thinking about committing suicide when I was up there." Irons said. "I opened Pandora's box. Now I don't know what to do." He said to himself.
"If I were in your shoes, I'd try and put the demons back into the box." Wade said to him.
"I would if I could, Dr. Load. I would if I could."
Wade thought about it for a moment. Irons had created a very dangerous weapon, and now it was loose on the world. If they ever ended up in Gotham, Ron would be killed instantly. Oh Lord, that included Dick and Hanna. They were all in danger. There had to be a way to stop them. But the only one who could stop them was Kim, and she was – no longer with them. And the rest of the league was busy trying to compensate for her absence. Maybe Stargirl's father could help? That suit of his made him look as invulnerable as Kim in that thing. Wait a minute. Not that suit; but the suit.
"Are they only in Metropolis?" Wade asked him.
"I think so." Irons said.
"What if we got your suit up and running?"
"What?" Irons asked him.
"The suit you were making for Stoppable Industries. In theory, would it be able to stand up to those things?"
"The prototype might have stood up to one shot from it. In order to withstand more than one blast, it would have need massive upgrades. But I told you, I destroyed everything when I blew up my lab. The blue prints are gone." Dr. Irons told him.
"But I'm willing to bet that you have a photographic memory, don't you?" Wade asked him.
"Wade, what are you getting at?" Irons asked him.
"It's like I said. If I were you, I would put the demons back in the box." Wade said with a small smirk that would have made Kim proud.
"Wade, it can't be done. I don't know where the prototype itself is. After it malfunctioned, it was scrapped. I don't even know if it still exists. Not to mention, we would need a heavy duty cybernetics lab to even do a diagnostic if we ever did find it." Irons said.
"Dr. Irons, you'd be surprised at the connections I've got." Wade said to him with a smirk.
"Well Metropolis, it's another wet and rainy afternoon for you. And it looks like the storm clouds are going to be staying for the rest of the week, too. Almost like a relative you can't stand, huh? This is your weather on WMET radio, and stay tuned for DJ Mac the Maniac with his latest Top 20 countdown."
"No surprise there. Sun hasn't come out since Superwoman died." The man said as he lit a cigarette from his car's built in lighter and flipped the radio off.
He had just worked another late shift, and was on his way home when he decided he needed a quick smoke. His wife wouldn't even let him smoke on the front porch or the back patio since their daughter was born. He wasn't a smoker like he had been in his college days, but he needed a cigarette whenever stress was getting to him. And with what had happened in the past several days, he really needed. Superwoman dead, a good chunk of Metropolis was destroyed, and he had triple the workload with more to be expected. The stress was so great that it felt like his head was holding up the entire Empire State building. As he took another deep drag of the cancer stick, he couldn't help but sink deeper into a mild depression. It seemed there wasn't any hope left anymore in a world without Superwoman.
"Excuse me?"
He looked out the window and saw a man in a long trench coat not too far from his car. His hair was long, uncombed, and ver greasy. His coat was stained and tattered beyond all hope of being fixed or washed. The raggedy thing should probably be burned. The guy was most likely homeless, probably looking for a spare buck. You know, what the hell? Everyone needs a small break these days.
"How much do you need?" he asked the man as he reached for his wallet in his pants pocket.
"The car."
"What?"
"I said," the homeless man said as he pulled a Ruger 9mm from the confines of his coat and aimed it. "I want the car."
It was as if pure instinct had taken control over his body. As soon as his eyes saw the gun, he hand jammed the car into drive while his foot stomped on the gas pedal as hard as he could. He didn't care about the speed limit or oncoming traffic or even the rain at that moment, he just wanted to save his own life. As he sped away, the man holding the gun sneered in anger as he aimed the pistol and fired two shots at the fleeing car.
"You lousy mother,"
"STOP!" a voice echoed directly behind him.
The man spun around with the gun still leveled as he gazed at the person. It was still dark out because of the cloud cover, and the over head street lamp had been shorted out for months. From what he could see, he could tell that this stupid idiot was a woman. And he couldn't be sure, but she looked like she might be wearing a big ass dress. Here's hoping it wasn't one of those damned Superwoman cultists.
"What the hell do you want?" he sneered.
"You tried to take that man's car. You were going to kill him." She said.
"So what?"
"So that means I haul your ass to the nearest jail and let you rot."
"Like hell!" the man said as he aimed the pistol at the woman's chest and fired three shots.
He was expecting her to fall to the ground like a stack of firewood, but his eyes widened when he saw the bullets bounce harmlessly off of her like they were rubber. As he tried to figure out what had just happened, his jaw almost became unhinged as a car passed by. The brief light of the headlights illuminated the woman's body. He saw that what he had thought was a dress was actually a red cape, and it was attached to a red and yellow pentagon S shield that rested on her chest.
"You're dead! YOU'RE DEAD!" the man screamed as he bolted away from the woman, running deep into the alley and knocking over several garbage cans in the process.
He still gripped the gun tightly as he tried to get away. He couldn't believe what he had seen. It was Superwoman! It was her! But she was dead. He had seen it on the TV. He even saw her get buried for crying out loud. So how could she be alive?! He was so panicked that he didn't even realize what he was doing until he paused to catch his breath. He saw that he had been climbing the fire escape of one of the buildings in an effort to try and get away. He used the moment to catch his breath before he started again. The one thing that kept echoing in his mind was that he had to get away. He had to find some place to hide. As he stumbled onto the roof, he felt the first drops of rain begin to fall on his head as he tried to control his fear and his breathing. He was almost himself again when he head something fly over his head. When he looked up, his breath was stuck in his throat.
The bolts of lightning that illuminated the sky revealed the woman was floating two feet above his head. The cape flowed in the wind like a pair of fully spread wings as her hands began to glow with energy that looked like it came from the sun. As the lightning illuminated the night once more, he saw two yellow orbs covering her eyes that made er seem like a creature from another world.
"No. It can't be! YOU'RE DEAD!" he shouted at the floating figure before him.
"Superwoman is more than flesh and blood, you fool. Superwoman is a symbol. And symbol's are bullet proof. Unlike you." The figure said as her fists began to glow brighter.
His hand was shaking worse than when he tried to stop drinking as he looked at he angry creature in front of him. He raised his hand, trying to aim it at what he hoped was the figure's head. He tried to squeeze the trigger, but screamed in pain as he felt something incredibly hot strike his hand with the force of a cannonball. He looked at his hand and saw that it was still smoking while over half the flesh looked to have been burned away, revealing pink and bright red tissue beneath it.
"You can't be Superwoman. She used to bust guys like me. Not fry them." He whimpered to the floating woman.
"Things change. Life's a bitch, now 0so am I." She said as she raised her hands and hurled a wave of energy at the man as he screamed in pure terror.
Rain, rain, go away. Piss off and come back when I don't feel like crap. That's what Lois was feeling like at that moment as she sat at her desk. She kept looking at the blank screen in front of her, trying to write a story about the recovery efforts of the police and fire departments in the wake of Doomsday's attacks. But every so often, her eyes would drift back to the empty desk with the dark computer monitor. The jar full of pens and pencil with the erasers chewed on, waiting to be used by their owner. In the corner of the desk stood a framed photo of Ronald Stoppable, his foster son Richard Grayson, and his little sister Hanna. Standing by his side was a very familiar redhead with her hair tied back, and a pair of wire framed glasses. Were they already beginning to get covered in dust?
"Who are you kidding, Lane? No matter how long you stare at it, nothing's going to change. She isn't coming back." Lois thought herself.
She had seen the fight with Doomsday first hand, and she saw how bad she had been hurt. Maybe Lois could have done something to stop her from fighting. No, she couldn't have. Because if she made Kim stop fighting, Doomsday would have killed who knows how many more people? Metropolis might not even be standing right now if it weren't for her. She had to let it go and move on. The whole world did. As she looked back at the blank page in front of her, she opened a new document in her word processor, and began typing a new article.
"Why The World Doesn't Need Superwoman"
"Talk about denial." Lois said to herself as her fingers began to glide over the keyboard.
"OLSEN! CHANGE THAT CHANNEL NOW!" Perry shouted as he bolted out of his office, screaming the few people that were in the city room so early in the morning.
"Which channel, Chief?"
"CNN! AND DON'T CALL ME CHIEF!"
"Pipe down, Perry. You want to give yourself a stroke?" Lois asked him as she stood and followed him to one of the TV's that sat in the room.
"Lois, you're going to need to see this." Perry said as Jimmy found the desired channel.
"What is it? Miss Gough announcing another get richer scheme?"
"Shh!" Perry said, silencing everyone in the room.
"James Broughton, suspected to be involved in several car thefts, was hospitalized after police responded to reports of a small explosion near Hobbs Bay. Police found Broughton on a roof, suffering third and second degree burns over thirty-five percent of his body. As he was being transported to the hospital, he said Superwoman was the one that had burned him."
"Did she say what I think she said?" Jimmy asked out loud.
"This is only the second sighting." Perry said.
"Second?" Ron Troupe asked the old reporter.
"A woman was almost raped in the laundry room of her apartment building. She said a woman with a red cape and a yellow visor broke through the wall and beat the living crap out of her attacker."
"And she said it was Superwoman?" Lois asked her.
"Yup. She saw Superwoman's symbol on her chest as clear as day. Except that her savior had dark hair and had a weird energy coming out of her hands."
"So some super powered chick is pretending to be Superwoman?" Jimmy asked.
"Jimmy, remember the last time you called a woman a chick?" Lois asked him.
"Why do you think I wear a cup to work?"
"Wait a minute guys, there's something else coming on."
"On top of the recent Superwoman sightings, two others have been reported. Astronauts working on a malfunctioning communications satellite encountered problems when a short circuit ignited the satellite's maneuvering thrusters. One astronaut was almost lost until he was rescued by a strange being wearing a Superwoman costume. The astronaut claims that had rescued him looked like the late hero, but also looked more like the Terminator.
"And in Hobbs Bay, a city bus with faulty breaks almost crashed into a local Wal-Mart until a young girl, wearing the shield of Superwoman, stepped in front of the bus and stopped it with her bare hands before the bus could crash into the store. The young woman seemed to be grandstanding as bus passengers and shoppers gathered before she flew away. Reports state that the young heroine looked to be a teenager, no older than fifteen years old."
"Teenager? You mean there's a Supergirl running around?"
"What's got me curious is when she talked about the Terminator one. Does that mean a cyborg?" Ron asked.
"Cyborg?" Jimmy asked.
"You know. Half human-half machine."
"All right people, let's cut the horse crap! This is a newspaper, and we've got stories we need to get out! So I want everyone who can spare the time to find out what the hell is going on with these Superwoman sightings! NOW GET TO WORK!" Perry shouted as the reporters scattered like roaches exposed to light. As he made his way back to his office, Perry noticed Lois grabbing her purse and making a b-line to the elevator doors. "Lane, what about that society piece I told you to write about?"
"It can wait!" Lois shouted back as she stepped into an elevator as the doors closed.
"About time the real Lois came back." Perry said as he went into his office. "Now I got refill my blood pressure medication."
"How much longer until lift off?" Hanna asked as she kept her gaze fixed to the window, looking at everything outside the small private jet.
"Not much longer. They're almost done filling the gas tank." Dick said as he sat on the couch across from his best friend and frowned as he noticed how distant she was. "How are you feeling?"
"Can't complain." She said to him.
"Hanna, is there anything I can do?"
"Yeah. Rewind time and make it to where Kim could have been my mother." Hanna said bitterly as her face hardened.
The more she did that, the more she began to look like Ron when he would wear the mask. He loved Ron like he was his father, but it was beginning to get harder and harder to tell the difference between where Batman ended and Ron began. He would be damned before he let his best fried slip into something like that.
"Hanna, I'm not going to lie. I can't imagine what you're going through right now."
"That's right, you can't. So just save the psycho crap." Hanna growled.
"No, I'm not!" Dick said as she began to glare at me. "You can hate me all you want, but I'm going to say this now. I know you feel like shit. You've been lied to most of your life, thinking your grandparents were your parents. But remember Hanna, Ron didn't know either! He had no clue you were his daughter! But at least you know now. And you can be grateful that your parents are still alive!" Dick said as he began to march toward the back of the plane. Before he could take another step, he found himself shoved into one of the other chairs with a very pissed Hanna in his face.
"I know you're trying to help, Dick. But for once, JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!" she screamed, making Dick's eyes widen. "I don't mind that Ron is my dad. In fact, I'm glad he's my father. I've seen him as my dad for as long as I can remember. It's the fact that not only did the woman I thought was a family friend raped my father when he was unconscious, but Ra's Al Ghul is really my grandfather! What does that make me, Dick?! Am I going to end up like Yori and become an assassin? Is he going to force me to kill people for the rest of my life, just because someone is an asshole in his eyes? Because as far as I can tell, that's what that old buzzard wants! I don't want to kill anyone!" Hanna said as she began to break down and begin to cry.
Dick quickly held Hanna in his arms as she let all the grief poor out. Hanna had a right to be worried. If Ra's knew about Hanna, what was he going to do? Ron had told him what Yori said to him in the cave, and Dick still couldn't believe it. Even if Ra's took her from them, he knew she would never kill. She was too much like Ron; it just wasn't in their nature. If he had to, he'd make the same sacrifice for her that Kim had made for everyone. The same sacrifice that Ron had almost made. Hanna was more than his friend, she was part of his family.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Lois said as she stepped onto the plane.
"Miss Lane!" Hanna said with surprise as she wiped the tears away from her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to speak to Stoppable. Is here?" Lane asked them.
"Yeah. He's in his office talking to Wade. What's wrong?" Dick asked when he noticed how anxious Lois was looking. If there was one thing he knew about this reporter, she didn't get anxious easily.
"The Planet just found out something really big, and I wanted to let Ron know. You see,"
"There have been three rescues. And each one claims that it was someone posing as Superwoman." Ron said as he stepped out of his office. Lois had to take a step back when she saw how hardened his face was. Dick and Hanna on the other hand knew that face very well. That meant he back to being the Dark Knight again. "Thank you for trying to warn me, Lois. But we've got another problem to deal with."
"We do?" Hanna asked him.
"I just finished talking to Wade. He's not coming back to Gotham City with us." He told them.
"Do what?" Dick asked him. Wade was like an uncle to him and Hanna. Wade had been the mastermind to their suits, gadgets, and so much more. What were they going to do without him there?
"Did we do something to make him mad?" Hanna asked.
"No. He told me one of his friends was hurt in Doomsday's rampage, and he's going to help him back on his feet. So far now, he's staying in Metropolis." Ron told them.
"But who's going to run the bat cave?" Dick asked him.
"That's what's bothering me the most." Ron growled as he looked out the window.
"I want to know how the sales are going, Rabbit. I don't like waiting." Miss Gough said as she looked out her office window at the Metropolis skyline. She was so used to seeing Kim fly through the air that is was strange for her not to be there. It was still so foreign to her.
"Sales are going up. With the gangs actually seeing the weapons in action and what they can do, I've got gangbangers offering every cent they have to their name and even their mothers. Pretty soon, all the gangs are going to be packing toastmasters." The woman on the other line replied.
"Not all of them. The last thing I need is for Metropolis to look like another God damn war zone." Sherri said.
"I just can't turn customers away. Some of them have already tried to rob some of my salesmen at gunpoint."
"I've been generous by letting you use one of my outdated factories. It would be a shame if the police received an anonymous tip about what you were doing there."
"YOU WOULDN'T!"
"Try me. I better see my cut of the profits by tomorrow, rabbit." Sherri said as she turned off her cordless phone and sat back in her desk chair.
Sometimes, it sucked having your office at work doubling as your apartment at the same time. As she rubbed her temples, she was wondering if her deal with Dr. Lapin was even worth the trouble. Without Kimmie, it just seemed pointless. She glanced up at the row of monitors above her desk and activated them with a remote that had built into her desk. It had been a slow work day, and she needed something to help keep her mind off of so many things. For once, sex with Mercy didn't help. She was tempted to crack open a bottle of booze, but she quit drinking that crap after the incident with Zod and his sick bastard of a robot lackey. After that, she couldn't bring herself to touch the stuff.
As she gave her neck a quick pop, she gazed back to the monitors and immediately saw something that caught her attention. One of the local stations had Kim's Superwoman insignia up with a large question mark on top of it. Did they discover something about who took her corpse this time? And if they had, why didn't she know about it first? As she turned up the volume for the one monitor, and her eyes widened as she listened.
"The young teen, wearing the late heroine's symbol, was seen breaking up a gang war hours after CNN reported of her rescue of a runaway city bus. So far, the young super powered teen hasn't answered any questions or clues to who she really is. All she's said to reporters is that she was Superwoman, and she was back in action."
The screen erupted in a hail of sparks and smoke as Miss Gough's phone flew through the flat screen and destroyed the machinery inside. The cuffs of her blouse were beginning to smoke and burn as her hands began to glow with a faint emerald energy as she balled her fists and marched toward her office door. With barley any effort, she kicked the doors to her office open and immediately walked to Mercy's desk where the assistant sat stunned.
"Is our mole in Cadmus still active?"
"Y-yes, ma'am." Mercy said as she gulped at the look of anger in her lover's eyes.
"You tell that little stool pigeon that I was his ass down here ASAP. If he makes up an excuse, tell him that I'll personally arrange a meeting between his wife and the fishes in Hobbs Bay. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am." Mercy said as the sleeves to Sherri's blouse ignited in green flames as she went back to her office and slammed the doors closed.
Lois was sipping a much needed cup of coffee as she tried to let her head stop thinking for a moment. Of course, the café she was sitting in front of wasn't helping her thought process. This was the same café her and Kim used to come to compare notes and try and figure out who was plotting what. Ron and his kids were on their way back to Gotham City while Lois was trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Kim's tomb was empty, and now there were reports of three women claiming to be her late friend. What was the world coming to? She was sure the one with the visor wasn't her friend at all. The fight with Doomsday was the first time she had seen Kim fight so hard to take something down. Violence was always the last thing she resorted to. And the reports said that the visored Superwoman was kicking ass first and asking questions never. That was not her friend.
And a cyborg? The closest thing the world had to a cyborg was John Corbin. Or what had he been calling himself now? Metallo! That's what it was. Kim had told her all about that – thing. Thank you power hungry Miss Gough for creating a modern day Frankenstein monster. Last time she brought that tin can on-line, he went on a small rampage. After the Justice League caught him, he was powered down in a vault in STAR Labs. But could someone turn Kim into a cyborg? No, they couldn't. Kim was an alien for Christ's sake. Making a Kryptonian a cyborg would be like trying to make a piece of spaghetti do the tango. It had to be a trick somehow. What about that other one that was claiming to be Superwoman? The teenager.
"I just don't believe this, Lois. You used to write about me all the time, and now nothing? What do I have to do to make the front page now? Stop a building from falling down?" a young voice asked her.
Lois looked up and almost inhaled her coffee at what she saw. Sitting across from her, and sitting in the same position Kim used to, was the young Superwoman! Her red hair was long and tied into a ponytail. A pair of dark emerald sunglasses sat on the bridge of her nose as she glanced through a copy of the Daily Planet, much like the way Kim's glasses would when she was reading. Her uniform was a slightly dark shade of blue, with bright red trim on the shoulders and stretched down to her deltoids. She had a pair of red gloves that covered her hands and went to her forearms that almost looked more like a pair of gauntlets. The belt around her waist was a black Club Banana designer belt that seemed to have been placed there as a fashion statement. Her boots were red with gold straps keeping them in place. If Lois didn't know any better, she would swear that she was looking at a younger version of Kim. The only exception was that her skin was slightly pale. Almost like she had never been in the sunlight before.
"Who are you?" she asked the young woman.
"Let's see. Bright red hair? Check. Blue, yellow, and red tights? Check. Super powers? Check. S on the chest? Check." She said to the reporter as she lowered the newspaper.
"You still haven't answered my question." Lois stated flatly.
"Come one, Lois! Can't you tell? I'm Superwoman." The teenager said.
"More like Supergirl." Lois said and notice how the teen's expression soured slightly as her jaw popped.
"I really, really don't like being called that." She said.
"Look kid, Superwoman is dead. Not to mention that the last time I saw her, she had already gone through puberty." Lois said as she began to stand up.
"Wait!" the girl said as she caught Lois by the arm and urged her to sit back down.
"Okay, you're right. I'm not the original Superwoman. But I can let you in on a secret that no one's supposed to know about, but I'm going to let you have the exclusive." The teen said.
"I can hardly wait to hear this." Lois said sarcastically.
"You see, I'm a clone of Superwoman."
"And not her love child? I'm an investigative reporter, not a gossip columnist." Lois said to her.
"It's true! I don't have her memories because there wasn't a living brain to work from. But I am a clone. Cadmus grew me in one of their labs." The teenager said to her.
"Hold on. Did you say that Cadmus created you? As in Cadmus Labs?" Lois asked her. Cadmus was the government lab that had stolen Superwoman's body the first time and wasn't willing to give it up without a fight. If this kid was telling the truth, Cadmus was going to be up the creek without a paddle.
"Yeah. Those squints there fed everything I needed to know in my head as I grew in that oversized test tube. But when they tried to put a bunch of military junk in my brain, I decided it was time for this bird to fly." The teenager said.
"Military?" Lois asked out loud. She already didn't like the sound of that. "Those government bastards." Lois whispered to herself. "How come you're telling me all this?"
"I don't know. Something just tells me I can trust you. And you used to write about me all the time, so I thought you might be the best one to talk to."
"But why would you want to tell your story in the first place? Aren't you scared Cadmus is going to try and take you back?" Lois asked her.
"Oh please!" the teenager said, almost laughing hysterically at what Lois had said to her. "Let them try and take me back. I tied one of those nerds up and gave him a bow tie made out of a led pipe. I can take those lab geeks any day of the week." She said.
"And you like al the attention you get from being in the limelight." Lois said.
"Is that a bad thing?" the teenager asked, making Lois smirk as she reached into her purse.
"Please. Tell me more." Lois said as she removed her pen and small notebook.
"This doesn't make any sense." Ron thought to himself as he kept his eyes on the passing landscape outside the window.
He knew he went to Metropolis on a small chance that what he had seen might have been a dream, but it felt so real. Talking to Kim, holding her hand. And the rush he felt when he came back. And when they opened her tomb and saw that she wasn't there, he actually felt hope fill him. There were no signs that the vault had been broken into or tampered with. No signs at all. They couldn't find fingerprints, and nothing that showed her body was taken. The tomb was as clean as the day they put her body back in there. But these sightings of three different Superwomen didn't make any sense. What was going on? In the dream, or vision, Jor-El and Dr. Possible told Kim and himself that she was still alive. So where was she? It was obvious these vigilantes weren't her, so where was Kim?
"Get a hold of yourself, Stoppable." He thought sadly. He was grasping at thin straws here, and he knew it. He had developed himself as one of the greatest detectives, and he was acting like a rookie. So if he wanted to find Kim, alive or dead, he had better put those skills to use. That was going to be the only way for him to figure all of this out.
Ron groaned as he felt the bullet wound act up and reached for his medication. He was about to open the bottle when he stopped himself. He had been relying on too much since she had died. He had been relying on Dick and Hanna when he almost lost his mind, and he had been relying on everyone else for support. Not anymore. Gotham City needed him, and he needed to be focused again. He removed his hand from the lid, and tucked the bottle back into his pocket as he focused the discipline he learned. Something he learned form the school and from Ra's Al Ghul so many years ago. To fight against the pain and ignore it.
Too many things had happened, and he needed to adapt himself to them. Kim's body was missing again, and he needed to study the clues. Wade was gone and his replacement was making sure everything was ready for their return. He hated that Wade had been training a replacement in secret, but he understood why. It was no secret that Ron hated change, and he still wasn't that fond of it. He couldn't blame Wade for wanting to do something else. He had been the tech guy for Wade and himself for so long that others would have gone nuts by now. But one thing was obvious, something was up. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was something bug. A very big change was on the horizon.
The mansion stood like a castle, as it always had. But at the moment, it seemed a little more colder than usual; somewhat darker. Everyone knew why, they just couldn't bring themselves to admit it. Dick and Hanna pulled themselves out of the car first and went around to gather their bags as Ron took his time exiting the vehicle. He had finished his sulking on the plane, and was now pondering. He was trying to establish a list of who could steal Kim's body like that, and so far the list was growing shorter and shorter by the second. Sherri was the one who put the security devices in place, but there was also Global Justice tech in there as well. She didn't know where they had place there safe guards, so she wouldn't risk it. Her ex-husband, Lex Luthor, would be bold enough to attempt something like that. His wealth and power was equal to Miss Gough, so he had the means. But why would he want to? Loophole? No, that guy was a joke. He couldn't even think of anyone from the League database that would be able to try something like that. What about Gorilla Grodd? The overgrown chimp had once tried to unite the most powerful criminals as some kind Legion of Doom, but had failed. He had also developed a device capable of mind control, so could it have been him? Would he try to find a way to harness her powers? No, not him. He wouldn't want to have anything to do with humans. Despite his genius, Grodd was a very well known and unstable racist when it came to humans. Despite being Kryptonian, Kim looked too human for his taste. This was going to keep him up for weeks.
As Ron breathed in the Gotham air and smelled the breeze that was coming off the ocean beneath the cliffside, he felt more of his himself beginning to return. He glanced up into the evening side and saw the Bat signal shining against the gathering clouds like a beacon. Ron balled his fist and heard all the bones pop into place as his mind began to become alert. The vacation was over. It was time to go to work.
"Is it me, or does this place seem – empty?" Hanna asked as she walked into their home in Gotham City.
"Yeah, it does. It's just feels so weird that Wade isn't here." Dick said as he heard his voice echo.
"We'll get used to it, Dick. Just give it some time." Ron said as he walked in and placed his cane in a near by corner.
"Where are you going?" Hanna asked him.
"To the cave. I've sat on the bench long enough. Gotham needs me." Ron said as he made his way to the study.
"You owe me twenty bucks." Hanna said to Dick as they followed him into the study and saw him alter the time on a large grandfather clock that was propped against the wall. "Bro, it's still way too soon." Hanna said to him.
"We don't have a choice, Han." Ron said to her as the clock slid open and revealed a hidden stairway.
"Ron, you got shot and almost died; and now we just found out Kim's body was stolen again. You need a break or you're going to snap! Remember what happened with the Joker?" Dick said.
"Give it a rest, Dick. I feel well enough to go out on patrol again." Ron said as she rubbed his stomach.
"Because your meds are working! You could very well – whoa!" Hanna said as she and Dick stopped and saw the bat cave.
When they had left, the Bat cave was still being reconstructed with mainly very few people that Wade trusted. The new bat cave looked more like an advanced command center you saw from a movie like Starship Troopers. A giant computer with three large display screens was the first thing they saw that was on an elevated platform. Not too far from the cave's entrance they came through was a large display case that had the first uniforms they had worn. There were three sets of stairs that led away from the platform and led into other directions. The first set lead downward to where a series of state-of-the-art labs and clean rooms rested and waited to be used while another set led to the new and more advanced and sleeker tumbler. Along the platform where the tumbler saw were the vaults that held their separate uniforms they would need for different missions or crimes. The final platform led upward to what looked to be a large hanger. From their point of view, they could make out the shape of what may have been a very advanced jet plane.
"They did all this in a few weeks?" Dick asked himself.
"Wade's final gift to us." Ron said as he sat in the leather chair that was in front of the new computer and automatically began reading crime reports and other data from Gotham PD. It looked like things had stayed in a relative calm by shinning the bat signal. But even a small rise in the crime rate was too much for him. What was worse, the scarecrow had escaped from prison again. That fear obsessed lunatic on the loose was more than enough reason for him to suit up.
"Bro, would stop and think for a moment?" Hanna asked him as he stood up and began walking down the steps and too the new vault that had his uniforms. "Without Wade, who are you going to rely on here?"
"Ask her." Ron said as he entered the access code and the door hissed open. While Ron walked into the vault, Dick and Hanna just looked at each other blankly.
"Her who?" Dick asked.
"That would be me." A voice said the elevator from the mansion open. They turned and were surprised to see who it was. A young woman, no older than 19 years old, maneuvered her motorized wheelchair into position as she tied her red hair into a ponytail. A small smirk crossed her lips as she saw the puzzled and confused looks on Dick and Haana's faces.
"Babs?" Dick asked.
"Wade's replacement is our old babysitter?" Hanna asked out loud.
"Nice to see you too, bubble butt." Barbara said as she maneuvered her chair towards them.
"I told you not to call me that." Hanna growled at the older teen.
"Why did Wade choose you?" Dick asked her.
"Wade was my tutor for most of my college courses. After a while, he thought I would be the perfect assistant to help with your little – nocturnal activities?" Barbara asked with a small smirk. Despite what the Joker had done to her, she seemed to still be in pretty high spirits.
"Did you know about this?" Hanna asked Dick who only shrugged.
"I knew." Ron said as he emerged from the vault with a newly designed and state of the art uniform. To make sure Ron wasn't injured again, the new suits were evenly plated and overlapped to try and increase mobility while protecting him at the same time. "If you're going to be apart of this team, there are three rules you're going to be following Miss Gordon." Ron said as he reached behind his head and pulled the new cowl over his head and let it settle snugly against the upper half of his face.
"What are those?" Barbara asked him.
"Rule number one," Ron asked as he slid into his Batman persona like he was slipping into a pair of old slippers. "You give me everything you've got. Second rule. After you've given me everything you've got, you give me more. And the last one is that I make the rules. Understand?" he asked her.
"Got it." Barbara said as she began to feel intimidated as she saw the Dark Knight in front of her with no sign of Ron Stoppable to be found.
"Wade is a friend. He's family. He wasn't a butler, but his help had saved our live countless times. I expect you to be better than Wade ever was if you want to stay in this cave." Ron said as the Tumbler opened and Ron quickly entered the massive assault vehicle. "I'll be at police headquarters. You both can meet me there." Batman said as the cockpit began to close, and the engines begin to come to life.
"But how are we – going to get there?" Dick asked in vain as the Tumbler sped away with a roar, leaving both of them in the dust. Moments later, the platform the Tumbler had been sitting on opened as two large cases raises into place. Both opened like a jewelry box, and revealed two new sleek and highly advanced motorcycles.
"Is he always like that?" Barbara asked them.
"He's usually not this intense." Dick said.
"When he's this eager to get onto patrol, it means he's frustrated." Hanna said as her brows furrowed deeply in thought. "He's not sure." Hanna said.
"About what?" Barbara asked them.
"The Superwoman sightings. He's not sure on which one is – the real one." Dick said as he caught himself before he could reveal Kim's real identity.
"Or if any of them are really her." Hanna said in a scenic tone as she and Dick went to their separate vaults.
"How do you know that?" Barbara asked.
"We've worked and lived with him for years. Trust me, you learn to read his moods like they were a book." Hanna said as she emerged in her new Batgirl uniform.
It was completely black that conformed to her body like a second skin. A few impressions in the bodysuit indicated that the armored plating was underneath the upper layer of the suit that seemed more flexible than the usual uniforms. A more advanced utility belt hung around her wait as the yellow outline of a bat sat on her chest. The cape was attached to the cowl as she reached behind and pulled it over her head. The cowl itself completely covered her face, without even leaving an opening for her mouth. Instead, a dual speaker and gas mask had been placed inside the full mask with tented state-of-the art lenses sat in the cowl's eye sockets that fed her information.
"I could get used to this." She said as she walked over to the waiting motorcycle and placed the uniquely designed helmet over her head.
"Speak for yourself." Dick said as he stepped out with his new uniform. The green arms and legs were gone now. The entire uniform was reed with black gauntlet gloves and boots. His utility belt appeared to be the same as Hanna's, as his black cape with a yellow inner liner seemed to drape over him almost like Ron's cape would from time to time. His mask was completely black and wrapped around his head instead of a domino mask. Almost like it was a modified cowl. Two yellow lenses that displayed information were set into the eyes of the mask, and a gothic style yellow R sat in the upper left hand corner of his chest, with a strange black circle underneath it.
"How does it look?" Dick asked her as he walked to his motorcycle.
"I liked the old one better." Hanna said as she mounted the bike.
"Very funny." Dick said as he put the helmet on and mounted the machine. "How do these things start?" Dick asked when he couldn't see the starter.
"Place your thumbs on the plates that are in the center of your control consoles." Barbara said as she roller herself to the large computer and brought her systems online. She soon heard the engines of the motorcycles roar to life and speed away as all the data began to appear on the monitors came to life. Everything was green on the Tumbler, Red Bird cycle, but Hanna's cycle was beginning to show a small problem with her fuel mixture.
"This is Oracle. Batgirl, check your console. You need to make a few adjustments on your Nightwing cycle."
"Got it, Oracle."
"Nightwing? That's a dumb name." Robin said.
"Like Red Bird is any better." Batgirl shot back.
"Cut the chatter. Only use this channel if you need to." Batman said before everything went quiet, and the data showed that the Tumbler's speed just increased.
As Barbara kept her eyes open and her fingers ready, she had a strong feeling that it was going to be a long night.
A sigh of happiness escaped Galatea's mouth as she flew back to the fortress and enjoyed the wind in her face. She really did feel good today. It actually felt nice actually helping people out there in the world for once instead of just doing what made her happy. She wasn't really into the whole hero thing yet. But if this is what Kimmie always felt like after helping people, it was no wonder she kept doing it. As soon as she saw the blizzard the protected the fortress, her smile became wider when she began thinking about the large bed that waited for her within its walls.
She flew through the fierce wind and snow like it was a small breeze and soon flew through the entrance into the Fortress of Solitude. She touched down not too far from where Kal was sitting in a chair the fortress had created with his eyes glued to the monitors. Every one of them was tuned to a different channel that was reporting the news all over the world. A small smirk crossed her face as she quietly walked behind him Kal as he watched the news. She bent over quietly and began kissing his neck while lightly biting him every few seconds.
"Did you miss me?" she asked as she draped her arms around his shoulders.
"I wish you would have told me what you were going to do." Kal said to her.
"I didn't plan on it." She said to him.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know." She said as she stepped around the chair and sat in Kal's lap while laying her head on his chest. "I kept seeing the world going to hell, and I just felt like I had to do something. So, I grabbed this cape and left." She said to him, but noticed the small frown on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked him.
"I've been watching the news, Galatea. Did you have to be so rough?" he asked her.
"You mean that car jacker? He was going to kill somebody for a piece of,"
"Not just that." He said as he looked slightly more depressed. "You killed someone."
"No I didn't." she said, wondering what he was talking about.
"The rapist at that apartment complex?"
"Him? I threw him through a wall, but I didn't kill him. The bastard was still breathing." She said as she straightened herself and looked at him.
"You just missed the broadcast. He died at the hospital a few minutes ago." Kal told her.
Galatea's eyes began to widen to the size of saucers as his words struck her brain like a hammer hitting a large brass bell. She had hurt plenty of people in her life. Some fighting, others for pissing her off. But one part of Kimmie that was passed on to her was that she did not want to kill, nor did she ever try. She swore that she didn't throw him that hard. She didn't have her x-ray vision back yet, but her hearing was better than any bat. Everything was all right with, she couldn't hear anything hemorrhaging.
"H-how – how did?" Galatea tried to ask.
"They didn't say." Kal said and felt her begin to shake like a leaf on the water. The look on her face and her body language instantly told him she didn't mean to kill the man. Without a second thought, he held her tightly against himself to console her. "I told you, you have to be careful in this suit. You're not used to it yet, and I wanted you to train with it first." He told her.
"I didn't – mean to."
"I know you didn't." he said as he continued to hold her close, and gently stroked her dark hair. He couldn't stand to see her like this. It felt like something was actually grabbing his heart and crushing it every time he saw her upset. He just wished he could make all this pain she was feeling go away.
"I don't deserve to wear it, do I?" she asked him.
"Wear what?" he asked her. A few moments later, she lifted the S shield off of her suit and over her head as she let it and the cape that was attached to it drop to the floor. "That. I don't deserve to wear that."
"Yes, you do. It will take time, but I think you do deserve to wear it." He said to her.
"How do you know?" she asked him.
"Because you're showing me right now. You just need a break before trying to be – I mean before wearing that cape again." He said to her. "Can I get you anything?" he asked her.
"Just hold me." She whispered to him as she tried to mold herself closer to him. For the first time, she was feeling true remorse for her actions. As she sat there, she couldn't help but think that it sometimes sucked to be a real person.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT?!" Sherri screamed as she threw the latest edition of the Daily Planet in the face of a slightly balding man that was sitting in what could be loosely considered an interrogation room. Sherri was using every bit of her will power to prevent her body from erupting in green flames when she read the head line of the newspaper. Her rage only increased when she found out that Lois Lane had interviewed the wonder teen yesterday.
"Miss Gough, I can explain." The man said as he shivered with fear. Every time he got this nervous or upset, he began to tremble like crazy.
"You had better be able to. When I gave you the data I had stolen from Dr. Drakken about cloning Superwoman, you told me all the attempts failed. You said that all of the Cadmus clones had reverted to some sort of retarded simpleton when their skin began to crystallize. Did you lie to me?" Sherri asked him.
"No. What I said back then was true. Despite her appearance, Superwoman wasn't human. When we tried traditional methods, the DNA would mutate and begin to break down. The only reason that Drakken's clone survived was because he had altered and augmented the subject's DNA structure. But all the others would only hold their normal form for a maximum of two days, and then would degrade. It was impossible with our limited technology." The man said.
"Then how do you explain this little brat in the paper? She's telling everyone that not only is she a clone of Superwoman, but that Cadmus was creating her as a weapon! What I want to know is how you did it. Or is this little bitch going to become stupid and look like a bad sculpture too?" Sherri asked him.
"No. Her DNA structure is stable. She's perfectly fine. And she wasn't going to be a weapon. We had safeguards for her. Protocols. But when we tried to put them in place, she resisted. We underestimated how strong her powers were." He said.
"How does she have powers? My own squints told me that it would take years of exposure to solar radiation for a Kryptonian to build up the amount of energy Superwoman had in order to do everything that she was capable of."
"We didn't know that." He said as he took a deep breath. "We weren't sure how much solar energy she would need. So we kept her under a modified solar lamp all through her development."
"You stupid son of a bitch. Why would you do something so dumb?" Sherri asked.
"Westfield and the boys from Washington thought that the world needed Superwoman. They rushed the project into production as soon as we found a way to create a stable specimen." He said to her.
"How is that even possible, out of curiosity. How is she stable after so many failures and limited technology?" Miss Go demanded and began to grow even angrier as she saw the man's chin begin to quiver.
"When Cadmus took the corpse, our techs and scientists examined the body from top to bottom. But one thing our scans detected shocked everyone." He began to tell her.
"What was it?" she asked him.
"During the scanning process, we found evidence that she had miscarried." He told her.
Sherri froze in her tracks as her eyes widened. She slowly looked the man in the eyes as she tried to force her brain to start working again.
"Are you telling me that Superwoman was pregnant?" Sherri asked her.
"Yes, she was. From what we saw, it looked like she had lost the fetus during her fight with Doomsday. Her body had been healing at a phenomenal rate and,"
"Healing? But she was dead." Sherri said.
"I know. But we think her body still had solar energy stored in it. Apparently, even in death, it was enough to allow her body to repair itself. But as I was saying, her body had expelled most of the fetus already. But we were able to gather enough of the fetus' remains to get a decent sample."
"And what did you find?" Sherri asked her.
"We couldn't find a paternity match for the father because of the degradation, but the father of her child was most definitely human. That meant Kryptonian DNA and Human DNA are compatible for interbreeding. And that was when we made a realization. We couldn't clone the fetus because the sample was so small. But, we could use it as a blueprint for creating a hybrid since we had collected more than enough samples from Superwoman's corpse."
"A hybrid? Wait a second. Do you mean tell me that this kid is Superwoman's daughter?"
"In a way, yes." The man answered.
"Then who's the father?"
"That's – a little more complicated." He said to her.
"I'm all ears." Sherri said to him.