Prelude to Destruction
"You'll never see the moments coming that will forever mutilate your life-at least not until after they've mowed you down." ~Savitar
Evening of the final day…
Bruce sat in front of the Bat-computer his head hung low, his eyes shut stealing a moment of rest while holding his glasses folded up in his right hand. Bruce's left hand was on top of Barry's journal with papers stacked in a file. Bruce redid the murder board in a cohesive timeline of events that may give them a chance to win tomorrow a slim chance, but a chance.
Bruce had been monitoring multiple news stations tracking reports about Supergirl who recently was seen rescuing a person from a burning building. The cameraman catches Supergirl landing in front of a crowd as she sets the person down. Everyone gathered around her, reaching to her like she was some type of god or world savior.
Supergirl motioned everyone to back up before flying away. Bruce had been tracking the world's response to Supergirl. Majority of people loved her and saw her as a type of messiah figure who with her abilities would save them from the evil alien invader Zod. There was a minority of the world population calling for Supergirl to turn herself into the governments of the world to be handed off to Zod, blaming her for Zod being here.
There were mixed responses from a series of interviews being done by reporters of the world. One boy was interviewed by Lois Lane of the Daily Planet who stated Supergirl is a hero, she saved him and his mom from his abusive, violent, drunken father. Other people who were interviewed were terrified of Supergirl, what she can do, how small and weak she made them feel. Others stated no one person should have that much power let alone an entire race of people.
Supergirl floated in the atmosphere looking down at the world listening to their mixed response, of love, fear, and hate toward her. She had seen enough now she needed to know one last thing. She looks toward Gotham City, breaking the sound barrier as she flies hard and fast toward Wayne Manor.
Bruce opened his eyes, reaching out muting the T.V. there was a streak of purple lighting appearing behind Bruce on the steel walkway. Bruce turned his head and chair getting to his feet seeing the silhouette of Barry in the dimly lit cave.
Bruce noticed there was a dark change in Barry. He wore black shoes, black cargo pants, a black t-shirt, with a unzipped thin black leather jacket. Barry's bangs hung in front of his face and in the darkness of his silhouette Bruce saw a faint purple glow in his eyes. Barry slid his hands in his jacket pockets walking into the light looking at Bruce with a broken look. Bruce frowns.
"How was the visit with your parents?" Bruce inquired.
"It was good." Barry said in a sad tone.
"Look, Barry…" Bruce paused looking over by the waterfall to see Supergirl standing in the mouth of the cave.
Barry turns his head and smiles sweetly. Bruce saw the purple glow disappear from Barry's eyes. Kara had a way of filling Barry with hope and pacifying the pain, loss, rage, and hopelessness he felt toward their situation. Supergirl walked across the damp rigid stony ground up the steel steps to the walkway. Bruce and Barry turned to face her.
"You came back…" Barry said with awe in his voice.
"I had nowhere else to go." Kara told them. Barry turned his head to Bruce like a kid who brings his friend over to his dad asking if they can live with them.
"You're always welcome here for as long as you need a place to stay. I have plenty of rooms." Bruce told her, sliding his hands in his pockets and nodding his head at her. Supergirl smiles fondly at Bruce then looks over at Barry.
"I have to ask you something." Kara said looking at the both of them.
"When you found me in that hole they put me in, why did you help me?" Kara asked in a calm and curious voice eyeing both of them.
"Because you needed help." Barry quickly answered her. Kara looked away thoughtfully for a moment before looking back at them.
"Do you know what this symbol stands for?" Kara inquired.
"It means hope right?" Barry answered quickly again.
"But here it's an S and given your abilities it's why the world has taken to calling you Supergirl." Bruce interjected. Supergirl gave Bruce a thoughtful look.
"Why do you do what you do?" Kara asked Bruce.
"I lost my parents, but that pain made me who I am. I'm not sure I know who I am without, actually." Bruce said in a solemn voice.
"I spent a lifetime trying to right the wrongs of the past. As if putting on a cape and fighting crime would bring my parents back." Bruce explained to them.
"My world…Krypton was a beautiful place. We were a people of hope, not war. Zod may be from Krypton, but he is not my people. My people, my friends, my family, my world is gone." Kara told them in a dark tone.
"You have us." Barry told her with a hopeful look. Supergirl stared at them thoughtfully.
"You lost your parents." Kara said looking at Bruce.
"I lost my world." Kara said outloud rubbing the symbol of the House of El on her chest.
"And you're fighting to save your world." Kara said looking over at Barry. She understood them because she was able to connect and understand them through their shared trauma, pain, and loss they have experienced. The wrongs they wish to right, and the world they wanted to save.
"I wish I could have used my abilities to save my world." Kara told them.
"Why couldn't you?" Bruce inquired.
"Our world orbited a red sun, we didn't have these abilities like we do here under your yellow sun. In our world we are not that much different from you." Kara told them.
"Are you saying-" Bruce was about to ask before she cut him off.
"Yes, I will help you fight Zod." Kara said looking at both of them with a hopeful smile.
"So what's the play? Batman, what do we do? What now?" Barry inquired with both him and Supergirl looking over at Bruce.
"Now…Now, we try not to die." Bruce said using his Batman voice. Bruce takes his left hand out his pocket and he gestures them forward to his murder board.
"So…I guess the plan is we fake surrender Supergirl to Zod in hopes that he invites her on the gunship with her insisting on bringing you along. Once on the ship she will need to disable the shields to the gunship while you buy her time holding off the Kryptonains. Once the shields are down, I'll take down the gunship." Bruce explained pointing at the timeline of events he made based off of Barry's notes.
Barry nodes thinking if they take down the gunship early that removes one of the pieces off the board that kept shooting down the Batwing and killing Batman in his failed attempts to save them and hopefully with the destruction of the gunship it will take out Mistress Murder and Zod, essentially knocking out three birds with one stone. Barry liked this different approach to the battle; it gave him hope that they might be able to win, but it also echoed Thawne's words in the back of his mind about changing his approach to the battle.
"With the fall of the Gunship, the battle will start. When that happens, Barry, I want you to disarm as many of the Krytonains of their beam rifles as possible, putting them in the hands of the soldiers." Bruce explained.
"Right, because our weapons can't kill the Kryptonains let alone hurt them, but their weapons-"
"Wont kill them either but it will slow them down, and help prolong the lives of the soldiers and hopefully reducing the overall all loss of life by battle's end." Bruce added.
"Then when these two show up." Bruce points at Mistress Murder and the Space Giant. Kara narrows her eyes at them.
"Faora-Ul and Nam-Ek." Kara told them. Bruce and Barry nod.
"Barry, I need you to take them out as fast as you can." Bruce told him.
"Faora-Ul and Nam-Ek are my responsibility?" Barry looked worried.
"You can, I know you can." Bruce said, giving him a look. Barry nods.
"What do you need me to do?" Kara inquired. Bruce turned his head to her.
"I'm going to stay airborne and take out their sky power. With the gunship down that will only leave the four smaller ships. I can take them." Bruce said confidently knowing he already took two down at once during Flashpoint, he'll just have to do his harpoon trick twice, if not he was ready for a dog fight.
"Zod control's the World Engine, right?" Bruce asked Supergirl.
"From the computer in his wrist gauntlet." Kara explained to them.
"If terraforming happens, we have no future. Even if we lose or die in the conflict, what matters is humanity must survive and to do that we need to take out the World Engine and Zod." Bruce explained.
"I'll take Zod and stop the World Engine." Kara told them.
Bruce saw Barry's look he gave her. He knew she would die fighting Zod but at the same time she was their only chance at stopping Zod. Barry saw in his mind Zod killing her like he has done a dozen times before each time Barry ran back in time to try and save her. Only this time with Batman and him arriving too late then Zod killing them both.
"Bruce-" Barry was about to say something but Bruce cut him off.
"This is why I need you to remove Faora-Ul and Nam-Ek from the board and help Supergirl in the fight with Zod." Bruce told him. Barry begrudgingly nods. With Bruce looking back at Supergirl.
"I'm going to be honest. You both get the same power boost from our sun, but he is a trained soldier with his body at the peak of his prime while you have been…" Bruce paused.
"Starved." Barry added in darkly.
"Yes, he is going to be stronger and faster then you." Bruce cautions Kara who nods in understanding of the physical difference between her and Zod.
"Also that armor is going to further reduce the power and speed of your attacks combined with his speed and power he is going to hit alot harder then you will be hitting him. It's important for you to NOT get caught in a close quarters fight with him. You wont win and he will kill you." Bruce told her not to sugar coating anything.
"Then how-" Bruce cuts Kara off reaching into his pocket opening a lead box relieving a metallic green crystal that started to glow.
Supergirl backs away weakly grabbing the guard rails looking up at Bruce who closes the lead box.
"Where did you get that?" Kara demanded.
"From the Russians when we saved you. It's how they subdued and captured you not long after you landed." Bruce explained.
"I know." Kara said hatefully, not wanting to think back to that time.
"I studied the compensation of the crystal while I was putting this plan together. It's made up of irradiated chuck of Krypton. The radiation weakens healthy Kryptonian cells…well call it-" Bruce tries to explain before Barry cuts him off.
"Kryptonite." Barry chims in.
"Lead blocks the radiation, the plan here is to-"
"Use it to weaken Zod so I can defeat him and stop the World Engine." Kara finished Bruce's thought. Regaining her composure.
"Yes, which is why it's important for you not to get into close quarters fight with Zod and stall him out by attacking from a distance until Barry can get there with the Kryptonite." Bruce explained to them. Supergirl nods.
"But it'll weaken both of them." Barry pointed out. Bruce nods.
"I know, that's why you need to phase the Kryptonite into Zod's body. This will allow Kara to stop him and save humanity from the World Engine." Bruce explained. Barry nods, understanding the full scope of Bruce's battle plan.
"Once I take down their air power I'll join you in the fight against Zod, laying down covering fire while you guys take him on the ground." Bruce explained. Handing Barry the small lead box with the Kryptonite in it. Barry pulls his left hand out of his pocket, taking it looking over at Supergirl. He is about to say something when she speaks up first.
"I know, you got me. I trust you." Kara said with confidence nodding at Barry who put his hand and the box in his pocket.
"This is going to work right?." Kara asked, looking over at Barry.
"Of course this plan is gonna work. Nothing, we haven't done before." Barry said making it sound like to Kara, Bruce and him have been doing this for a long time, but in truth Barry was referencing their variants across the multiverse who do life saving work like this on the daily.
"Besides, we have Batman. What can go wrong?" Barry said reassuringly with a warm hopeful smile.
"Uh, for the record I think this is insane." Bruce added-in with Barry and Kara looking over at him with shocked looks.
"There are too many variables to account for, alot of things to go wrong, and I'm expecting the plan to go off the rails." Bruce told them honestly.
"Then why come up with a plan?" Barry asked, annoyed.
"So we all know each other's roles and objectives so when the plan goes to crap, which it will. We can try to adapt and get the plan back on track." Bruce explained.
"Oh…right…" Barry said. Kara smiled.
"So what now?" Kara asked outloud. Barry and Kara looked at each other then Bruce.
"You hungry?" Bruce asked with a smile on his face…