CHAPTER SIX

SMALLVILLE, KANSAS. THE TALON.

Tony Stark, Peter Parker, and Kara Zor-El sat at a corner booth in the quaint little coffee shop known as The Talon. Tony had ditched the medieval armor as well as his tie and jacket, and he had undone the top couple of buttons on his shirt. He nonchalantly poured a splash of something from a flask into his coffee. Kara sat to his left, cautiously sipping the mocha latte that had been recommended to her by the barista as she held it with both hands. At the end of the table Peter was stirring a cup of hot tea and staring off into space. All three of them appeared to be in a silent state of shell shock.

A young woman with long raven hair came over to their table.

"Can I get you anything else?" she asked with a charming smile.

"No thank you, miss," Tony replied, raising his cup toward her complimentarily.

Kara winced and held her forehead, experiencing a sudden pang of pain.

"Is your friend all right?" the young lady asked with concern.

Peter noticed with surprise that the woman was wearing a necklace with a small green jewel.

"Um, yes, our friend is just prone to migraines," Peter said quickly. "She'll be okay in a minute. We'll just take the check please when you have a chance."

"Oh, that man over there took care of your bill," she said, pointing across the coffee shop. "Actually, he picked up everyone's bill. Do you know him?"

Tony, Kara, and Peter looked to see who she was referring to. On the other side of the shop Bruce Wayne sat alone at a small table, reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee.

"For goodness sakes," Tony muttered. "Yes, we know him. That will be all, miss, thank you so much."

The young lady left, and Kara's headache instantly vanished.

"We know that guy?" Peter asked, confused.

"That's Bruce Wayne," Tony said. He took a sip of his coffee. He just looked at Peter, waiting patiently for him to put two and two together.

"But we don't…" Peter started, still confused. He looked across the room at Bruce again, then back at Tony. Then suddenly his face lit up in recognition. "Oh! Wait! Is that…?!"

"I can't really imagine him sitting there drinking a cappuccino in the bat suit, can you?" Tony asked. "Although he is pretty eccentric."

"Look who's talking," Kara mumbled.

"All right, look, She-Ra," Tony shot back. "I'm not the one who tossed Lionel Luthor into some kind of mirror universe."

"The Phantom Zone is not a mirror universe," she scoffed. "It's an interdimensional realm that exists outside of the traditional flow of time and space. Our people used it as a prison world for criminals that were too dangerous to remain in society."

"And you're able to send people there with that little crystal?"

Kara pulled the "S" sigil out of her pocket. "This crystal is more advanced that any technology on your primitive planet," Kara said.

"All right, all right, watch where you're pointing that thing, sister," Tony said, reaching out and lowering Kara's arm with his hand.

"Hey, Kara," Peter piped up. "Is it just me, or is that thing starting to glow again?"

All three of them studied the crystal carefully. Peter was right. It was very faint, but there was a glow starting to emit from the "S" shield sigil.

"How is that possible?" Tony asked.

"It's not… unless there is another Kryptonian on Earth…" She stared at the crystal with great care, seeming to read something into it that the other two could not see. "Whoever it is, they are north. Far north. VERY far north."

"How can you tell?"

"Do you know how to read Kryptonian crystals?"

"No…"

"Well I do. Whoever the crystal is sensing, they are in the area you would call the arctic. It must not have picked up their signature before with Kal-El being so much closer."

Tony stood up and started walking away from the table.

"Where are you going?" Peter asked.

"To ask our eccentric friend if we can use his plane."

. . . . . . .

MUCH LATER. THE ARCTIC.

The Batwing gently touched down on the frozen surface of the arctic. A few minutes later, Kara, Tony, Bruce, and Peter disembarked. The three men all wore heavy parkas over their clothes. Kara was still in just her halter top and blue jeans. It was eerily quiet; the only sounds were the whistling of the wind and the soft crunch of their shoes as they stepped across the snow.

"Are we sure this is the right place?" Tony Stark asked.

"Yes," Kara replied, still holding the "S" sigil aloft as she ascended to the crest of a nearby hill.

"How can you tell?" Peter asked, hustling to catch up with her.

"Oh… that, for instance," she said. Kara paused as the other three caught up with her at the top of the hill.

A few hundred yards ahead of them, shimmering majestically on the horizon, was a fortress made entirely of beautiful white crystal spires.