CapitaoCaverna Alright, I have a lot to say, but I'm trying to learn how to keep my mouth shut.
Instead, I'll just give you guys a recomendation. If you enjoy superheroes and you haven't watched the DCAU yet, stop and go do it. Like, right now!
Rao damn it, JL and JLU are masterpieces, and the other assossiated series are so, so good.
I was trying to think about things for some later chapters and decided to watch some episodes and... yeah, modern depictions of DC are so underwhelming.
I watched the episode "For the Man who Has Everything." an adaptation of a story by Alan Moore, writer of Watchman.
WHY COULDN'T WE GET THAT INSTEAD OF THAT BATMAN VS SUPERMAN CRAP?!
To give you guys an idea, "For the Man who Has Everything." was the only adaptation of one of Alan Moore's works that the man aproved, ever. It is that good, and so perfectly captures Superman's character.
Ugh... seems like I failed, it was still too long.
“Muwahahaha, It’s finally finished!” Kara said and pushed herself away from the controls. “Want to be there when he wakes up again?”
At her side, Danette Reilly gave her an odd look, but Kara didn’t mind. Sometimes, she just felt like laughing after working, nobody would sue her for it.
The android nodded her head. She was wearing civilian clothes rather than her superhero outfit, had also cut her hair short and had a haunted look on her face, something that Kara hadn’t been able to remedy in only a few days.
With the Morrow android’s knowledge, Kara had managed to reactivate both Red Torpedo and Firebrand. The first had wanted nothing to do with superheroes, while the second was… complicated.
Danette had woken up startled, thinking she was still back in 1945 and having just taken a shot meant for Flash. Finding out she was currently more than sixty years in the future had been hard; finding out she was an android, even harder.
The young woman was confused, distraught and highly emotional, refusing to meet anyone and keeping close to Red Torpedo since Kara had reactivated him.
The old man was another story. Dr. Lockhart had an entire human life of experiences to draw upon in order to calm himself, a lifetime as a doctor, where he had faced death and grief quite a few times. He also had nearly a month of time to think about his new situation, even if that time was under Prof. Morrow’s control.
He had acted as a touchstone for Danette, but really, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his normal life, to the point that he had begged Kara to reapply his synthetic skin as soon as possible. He also wanted to look old instead of returning to his prime.
Although… he did ask Kara to modify the part of his programming that gave him arthritis. Apparently, he was willing to miss out on that part of being old.
The two of them quickly entered the operating room to find Dr. Lockhart just as he was putting on his coat. “How do you feel?”
“Old, grumpy, strange. Humph, thanks.” The old man grumbled and nodded towards her. “I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again but… it’s good to be able to at least pretend to be human again.”
“I could give you the back pain back if you want, or the deteriorating vision, for realism?” Kara offered with a smirk.
“No thanks.” The old man combed his gray hairs and then looked at Danette. “Thanks for keeping me company, didn’t think I’d have a family at my age.”
“Seventy isn’t that old, Brother.” Dannete said with a shrug.
“I’ll go prepare the teleporter. You two can talk, but try not to take too long, I don’t want to be here for much longer.” Kara said as she started to walk away.
“Humph, supervillains and moon bases, I’m too old for this shit.”
Making an effort not to listen, Kara walked towards the teleport room on her moon base and started getting it ready. Since she had last been here, the moon base had grown from a single room into a moderately sized installation.
With Lobo still after her, Kara hadn’t dared to come here alone. The man was known as one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy, and one capable of tracking his prey anywhere, but, with Dr. Lockhart begging her, she had decided to take the chance anyway.
All of her advances on the synthetic skin and touch receptors had stayed on the ship after all, as well as her supply of the materials needed. In truth, it’s not like the Fortress couldn’t replicate those components, but it would take time and resources best used elsewhere.
Kara decided that the short trip wouldn’t be too risky and, even if Lobo could track her there, she had her armor now, as well as Red Torpedo and Firebrand for backup.
Still, the base’s location was supposed to be kept secret so Kara had installed a device that blocked any incoming or outgoing signals from the location, but the lack of communications was leaving her feeling anxious.
She still had her miniature portal creator integrated into the armor so it wasn’t as if she couldn’t call for help if it was truly needed. In a way, she was safer here than at her own apartment, it just didn’t feel that way.
Kara caught herself tapping her feet against the floor and had to forcefully stop herself, then she started again. Crossing her arms, Kara glanced towards the interior of her base and couldn’t help but activate her X-Ray vision, catching sight of Danette and Dr. Lockhart approaching before releasing a breath.
It had only taken three hours to install the new touch receptors and coat the old man in his synthetic skin, but Kara regretted every second of it. She should have just dealt with his complaints and waited for the Fortress to create the necessary facilities.
The three of them stepped into the teleportation device and Kara pressed the button. In a flash of light, they appeared back into the Fortress, Kara’s armor reconnected with her communication network and she stumbled.
With several warnings blaring into her head, Kara jumped away and released her drones on instinct. The majority of the drones formed a defensive barrier around her, while others became weapons aiming at everything around them, ready for the ambush.
There wasn’t one.
Her heart beating in her throat, Kara took the time to look around and found the Fortress empty, then she glanced at the warnings on her armor and cursed.
“What happened?” Danette yelled, a ball of blue flames above one hand while the other held a barely contained field of plasma in the shape of a sword.
“Sorry, it’s not here.” Kara waved her away and dropped back to the ground.
It took her two seconds to read everything. It seemed like The Light had discovered her takeover of CADMUS and decided to raid the place. With the wave of a finger, Kara connected to Erin, the G-Elf in charge of communications.
The second Erin answered, Kara started yelling. “What’s the situation?!”
“Miss Kara, it’s-it was…” The G-Elf swallowed and Kara could hear the yelling in the background.
“One of you, help him!” Guardian was shouting.
“We-We don’t know how! Genomorphs that showed defects were either repurposed or put into a healing tank, without the equipment we can’t…”
Kara didn’t wait to hear more, turning towards Dr. Lockhart, she asked. “Do you know how to operate someone? Ever worked on an alien or mutant?”
“Yes and yes. I had to operate on a meta-human before retiring, but he was still mostly human.” The old man grumbled and squinted at her.
“Good enough. Erin, use the platform to bring whoever needs help to the Fortress. Even if I can’t cure them, I can put them in stasis here.” Grabbing Dr. Lockhart by the arm, Kara dragged him through the Fortress and towards the main room, Danette following closely behind her.
As they walked, Kara thought about what to do, she needed more information. Digging into the data sent her way, she found the video Dubbilex sent and watched it as fast as she could manage.
Ra’s al Ghul, Brain, Ocean-Master and Lex Luthor were at CADMUS. They were all together at CADMUS, without Klarion. Fuck, why did Dubbilex stop her from putting a bomb in the facility for self destruction? It would have been so easy.
Right, the collateral damage.
Haphazardly collapsing 52 floors in the middle of Washington D.C. could kill a lot of people, and Kara just hadn’t had the time to make the necessary calculations, or preparations to make it safe.
Still, she could get them all!
With a flash of light, the large teleportation platform appeared in the middle of the Fortress front entrance, the only place big enough for it at the moment.
On top of the platform, a giant G-Troll collapsed to her knees, large wounds bleeding all over her body. For a moment, Kara didn’t recognize the G-Troll, then she saw her face and realized it was Karen, the gentle genomorph who liked to read fiction.
Beside her, Guardian was kneeling together with a black woman, both of their hands were soaked with blood as they tried to keep Dubbilex from dying.
“Alright, let me see!” Dr. Lockhart yelled and jumped up onto the platform, taking Guardian’s place.
“What happened?” Kara asked the clone as she approached. “There wasn’t supposed to be any fighting!”
“Brain was able to disable most of our defenses remotely. We had to delay them to get everyone out and Ocean-Master managed one last hit on Dubbilex.” Guardian said and squeezed his hands in anger. Taking his helmet off of his head, he threw it down on the floor with all his strength causing it to bounce through the room.
“Was Klarion there?” Kara asked, grabbing the man’s shoulders and shaking him. “Was he there or just the four of them?”
“Four? No, the League of Assassins was there too, but I only saw Ra’s, Brain and Ocean-Master from the leaders.”
“Good. Take care of him.” Kara turned towards the Zeta-Tube. With her armor, she was pretty sure she could take care of all of them, even Ocean-Master wouldn’t be a challenge outside of the water.
With a command, she contacted the Fortress AI and ordered it to start calculating the correct amount of force needed to destroy CADMUS. She didn’t have a bomb, but she could throw a rod of metal down into the facility, utterly destroying it.
Hell, even if it caused collateral damage, The Light certainly had evacuated anything nearby to prevent getting found out. It took the Fortress a full minute to make the proper calculations, Kara knew she didn’t have the control to follow them, but her armor did. And it was strong enough.
Ra’s, Brain and Ocean-Master weren’t really a threat towards her or her cousin, but Lex Luthor was, and taking out four of its members would be a huge blow. She couldn’t resist.
Just as she was about to activate the Zeta-Tube, Kara froze in place. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”
As fast as she could, she called Red Arrow’s phone. Thinking a little about it, she also called Green Arrow’s phone, both his hero and personal ones.
While the call was going through, Kara composed a message towards Kal. She wrote as fast as her computers could handle, informing her cousin of the raid on CADMUS and the fact the villains were still there, then she made a copy for Kori and Batman, but she didn’t send it.
Once she informed anyone with a stiff enough moral spine of what was going on she knew her nascent decapitation strike was off the table.
“Supergirl?” Green Arrow answered his heroic phone first.
“Where is Red Arrow?”
Green Arrow sensed the haste in her voice and didn’t ask anything. “He told me he had an operation, I offered to help, but he said he could do it alone.”
“Where?” Kara almost yelled at the phone. She could already hear the man running through his Arrow Cave.
“He didn’t tell me. Wait, I’m activating a tracker.” Kara heard the man acting as fast as he could, fumbling through his equipment in a hurry. “What’s going on?”
“The Light just raided CADMUS, Green Arrow, they know someone’s found Roy.” Kara said while gritting her teeth, her feet tapping against the floor at super speed until she had to stop herself to prevent damaging the Zeta-Tube.
“Shit, fuck, he’s on Infinity Island!” The man shouted.
“Send me his location.” Kara had to wait a few whole seconds before she had Red Arrow’s location on her display.
Gripping her weapon, Kara silently cursed herself, her eyes waving between CADMUS and Red Arrow’s location as she struggled with herself.
Red Arrow could protect himself, he was an experienced hero who had been fighting for far longer than her, and he had some of her equipment. Kara had given him one of her emergency teleporters and several of her civilian drones. He wouldn’t die, or even get hurt.
To be able to eliminate so many of the Light in one single action would be a devastating blow, one they wouldn’t be able to recover from. Kara could send Red Arrow’s information to the League and the Titans. Even if they weren’t ready immediately, it would only take a few extra minutes.
“Rao damn it all!” Kara screamed and activated the Zeta-Tube.
CapitaoCaverna
f you enjoy my work take a look at my other fics: Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (SFW) / Reincarnated into a H World (VERY NSFW).
Also, think about giving me a tip if you have some spare change by supporting me on patreon, ko-fi with the buttons bellow the chapter, or just a one time donation directly to PayPal. All my content is free and you can support me for a single dollar.
A shout to Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Icewing, Comics, DERMONIAN, Davvy chappie, Banh Bao, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, Scott, Tony Martinez, Travis cox, Chaos, Rootbeerguy and High Priest of Torga for supporting my work!
Thanks again for Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.
CapitaoCaverna Alright, I have a lot to say, but I'm trying to learn how to keep my mouth shut.
Instead, I'll just give you guys a recomendation. If you enjoy superheroes and you haven't watched the DCAU yet, stop and go do it. Like, right now!
Rao damn it, JL and JLU are masterpieces, and the other assossiated series are so, so good.
I was trying to think about things for some later chapters and decided to watch some episodes and... yeah, modern depictions of DC are so underwhelming.
I watched the episode "For the Man who Has Everything." an adaptation of a story by Alan Moore, writer of Watchman.
WHY COULDN'T WE GET THAT INSTEAD OF THAT BATMAN VS SUPERMAN CRAP?!
To give you guys an idea, "For the Man who Has Everything." was the only adaptation of one of Alan Moore's works that the man aproved, ever. It is that good, and so perfectly captures Superman's character.
Ugh... seems like I failed, it was still too long.
“Muwahahaha, It’s finally finished!” Kara said and pushed herself away from the controls. “Want to be there when he wakes up again?”
At her side, Danette Reilly gave her an odd look, but Kara didn’t mind. Sometimes, she just felt like laughing after working, nobody would sue her for it.
The android nodded her head. She was wearing civilian clothes rather than her superhero outfit, had also cut her hair short and had a haunted look on her face, something that Kara hadn’t been able to remedy in only a few days.
With the Morrow android’s knowledge, Kara had managed to reactivate both Red Torpedo and Firebrand. The first had wanted nothing to do with superheroes, while the second was… complicated.
Danette had woken up startled, thinking she was still back in 1945 and having just taken a shot meant for Flash. Finding out she was currently more than sixty years in the future had been hard; finding out she was an android, even harder.
The young woman was confused, distraught and highly emotional, refusing to meet anyone and keeping close to Red Torpedo since Kara had reactivated him.
The old man was another story. Dr. Lockhart had an entire human life of experiences to draw upon in order to calm himself, a lifetime as a doctor, where he had faced death and grief quite a few times. He also had nearly a month of time to think about his new situation, even if that time was under Prof. Morrow’s control.
He had acted as a touchstone for Danette, but really, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his normal life, to the point that he had begged Kara to reapply his synthetic skin as soon as possible. He also wanted to look old instead of returning to his prime.
Although… he did ask Kara to modify the part of his programming that gave him arthritis. Apparently, he was willing to miss out on that part of being old.
The two of them quickly entered the operating room to find Dr. Lockhart just as he was putting on his coat. “How do you feel?”
“Old, grumpy, strange. Humph, thanks.” The old man grumbled and nodded towards her. “I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again but… it’s good to be able to at least pretend to be human again.”
“I could give you the back pain back if you want, or the deteriorating vision, for realism?” Kara offered with a smirk.
“No thanks.” The old man combed his gray hairs and then looked at Danette. “Thanks for keeping me company, didn’t think I’d have a family at my age.”
“Seventy isn’t that old, Brother.” Dannete said with a shrug.
“I’ll go prepare the teleporter. You two can talk, but try not to take too long, I don’t want to be here for much longer.” Kara said as she started to walk away.
“Humph, supervillains and moon bases, I’m too old for this shit.”
Making an effort not to listen, Kara walked towards the teleport room on her moon base and started getting it ready. Since she had last been here, the moon base had grown from a single room into a moderately sized installation.
With Lobo still after her, Kara hadn’t dared to come here alone. The man was known as one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy, and one capable of tracking his prey anywhere, but, with Dr. Lockhart begging her, she had decided to take the chance anyway.
All of her advances on the synthetic skin and touch receptors had stayed on the ship after all, as well as her supply of the materials needed. In truth, it’s not like the Fortress couldn’t replicate those components, but it would take time and resources best used elsewhere.
Kara decided that the short trip wouldn’t be too risky and, even if Lobo could track her there, she had her armor now, as well as Red Torpedo and Firebrand for backup.
Still, the base’s location was supposed to be kept secret so Kara had installed a device that blocked any incoming or outgoing signals from the location, but the lack of communications was leaving her feeling anxious.
She still had her miniature portal creator integrated into the armor so it wasn’t as if she couldn’t call for help if it was truly needed. In a way, she was safer here than at her own apartment, it just didn’t feel that way.
Kara caught herself tapping her feet against the floor and had to forcefully stop herself, then she started again. Crossing her arms, Kara glanced towards the interior of her base and couldn’t help but activate her X-Ray vision, catching sight of Danette and Dr. Lockhart approaching before releasing a breath.
It had only taken three hours to install the new touch receptors and coat the old man in his synthetic skin, but Kara regretted every second of it. She should have just dealt with his complaints and waited for the Fortress to create the necessary facilities.
The three of them stepped into the teleportation device and Kara pressed the button. In a flash of light, they appeared back into the Fortress, Kara’s armor reconnected with her communication network and she stumbled.
With several warnings blaring into her head, Kara jumped away and released her drones on instinct. The majority of the drones formed a defensive barrier around her, while others became weapons aiming at everything around them, ready for the ambush.
There wasn’t one.
Her heart beating in her throat, Kara took the time to look around and found the Fortress empty, then she glanced at the warnings on her armor and cursed.
“What happened?” Danette yelled, a ball of blue flames above one hand while the other held a barely contained field of plasma in the shape of a sword.
“Sorry, it’s not here.” Kara waved her away and dropped back to the ground.
It took her two seconds to read everything. It seemed like The Light had discovered her takeover of CADMUS and decided to raid the place. With the wave of a finger, Kara connected to Erin, the G-Elf in charge of communications.
The second Erin answered, Kara started yelling. “What’s the situation?!”
“Miss Kara, it’s-it was…” The G-Elf swallowed and Kara could hear the yelling in the background.
“One of you, help him!” Guardian was shouting.
“We-We don’t know how! Genomorphs that showed defects were either repurposed or put into a healing tank, without the equipment we can’t…”
Kara didn’t wait to hear more, turning towards Dr. Lockhart, she asked. “Do you know how to operate someone? Ever worked on an alien or mutant?”
“Yes and yes. I had to operate on a meta-human before retiring, but he was still mostly human.” The old man grumbled and squinted at her.
“Good enough. Erin, use the platform to bring whoever needs help to the Fortress. Even if I can’t cure them, I can put them in stasis here.” Grabbing Dr. Lockhart by the arm, Kara dragged him through the Fortress and towards the main room, Danette following closely behind her.
As they walked, Kara thought about what to do, she needed more information. Digging into the data sent her way, she found the video Dubbilex sent and watched it as fast as she could manage.
Ra’s al Ghul, Brain, Ocean-Master and Lex Luthor were at CADMUS. They were all together at CADMUS, without Klarion. Fuck, why did Dubbilex stop her from putting a bomb in the facility for self destruction? It would have been so easy.
Right, the collateral damage.
Haphazardly collapsing 52 floors in the middle of Washington D.C. could kill a lot of people, and Kara just hadn’t had the time to make the necessary calculations, or preparations to make it safe.
Still, she could get them all!
With a flash of light, the large teleportation platform appeared in the middle of the Fortress front entrance, the only place big enough for it at the moment.
On top of the platform, a giant G-Troll collapsed to her knees, large wounds bleeding all over her body. For a moment, Kara didn’t recognize the G-Troll, then she saw her face and realized it was Karen, the gentle genomorph who liked to read fiction.
Beside her, Guardian was kneeling together with a black woman, both of their hands were soaked with blood as they tried to keep Dubbilex from dying.
“Alright, let me see!” Dr. Lockhart yelled and jumped up onto the platform, taking Guardian’s place.
“What happened?” Kara asked the clone as she approached. “There wasn’t supposed to be any fighting!”
“Brain was able to disable most of our defenses remotely. We had to delay them to get everyone out and Ocean-Master managed one last hit on Dubbilex.” Guardian said and squeezed his hands in anger. Taking his helmet off of his head, he threw it down on the floor with all his strength causing it to bounce through the room.
“Was Klarion there?” Kara asked, grabbing the man’s shoulders and shaking him. “Was he there or just the four of them?”
“Four? No, the League of Assassins was there too, but I only saw Ra’s, Brain and Ocean-Master from the leaders.”
“Good. Take care of him.” Kara turned towards the Zeta-Tube. With her armor, she was pretty sure she could take care of all of them, even Ocean-Master wouldn’t be a challenge outside of the water.
With a command, she contacted the Fortress AI and ordered it to start calculating the correct amount of force needed to destroy CADMUS. She didn’t have a bomb, but she could throw a rod of metal down into the facility, utterly destroying it.
Hell, even if it caused collateral damage, The Light certainly had evacuated anything nearby to prevent getting found out. It took the Fortress a full minute to make the proper calculations, Kara knew she didn’t have the control to follow them, but her armor did. And it was strong enough.
Ra’s, Brain and Ocean-Master weren’t really a threat towards her or her cousin, but Lex Luthor was, and taking out four of its members would be a huge blow. She couldn’t resist.
Just as she was about to activate the Zeta-Tube, Kara froze in place. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”
As fast as she could, she called Red Arrow’s phone. Thinking a little about it, she also called Green Arrow’s phone, both his hero and personal ones.
While the call was going through, Kara composed a message towards Kal. She wrote as fast as her computers could handle, informing her cousin of the raid on CADMUS and the fact the villains were still there, then she made a copy for Kori and Batman, but she didn’t send it.
Once she informed anyone with a stiff enough moral spine of what was going on she knew her nascent decapitation strike was off the table.
“Supergirl?” Green Arrow answered his heroic phone first.
“Where is Red Arrow?”
Green Arrow sensed the haste in her voice and didn’t ask anything. “He told me he had an operation, I offered to help, but he said he could do it alone.”
“Where?” Kara almost yelled at the phone. She could already hear the man running through his Arrow Cave.
“He didn’t tell me. Wait, I’m activating a tracker.” Kara heard the man acting as fast as he could, fumbling through his equipment in a hurry. “What’s going on?”
“The Light just raided CADMUS, Green Arrow, they know someone’s found Roy.” Kara said while gritting her teeth, her feet tapping against the floor at super speed until she had to stop herself to prevent damaging the Zeta-Tube.
“Shit, fuck, he’s on Infinity Island!” The man shouted.
“Send me his location.” Kara had to wait a few whole seconds before she had Red Arrow’s location on her display.
Gripping her weapon, Kara silently cursed herself, her eyes waving between CADMUS and Red Arrow’s location as she struggled with herself.
Red Arrow could protect himself, he was an experienced hero who had been fighting for far longer than her, and he had some of her equipment. Kara had given him one of her emergency teleporters and several of her civilian drones. He wouldn’t die, or even get hurt.
To be able to eliminate so many of the Light in one single action would be a devastating blow, one they wouldn’t be able to recover from. Kara could send Red Arrow’s information to the League and the Titans. Even if they weren’t ready immediately, it would only take a few extra minutes.
“Rao damn it all!” Kara screamed and activated the Zeta-Tube.
CapitaoCaverna
f you enjoy my work take a look at my other fics: Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (SFW) / Reincarnated into a H World (VERY NSFW).
Also, think about giving me a tip if you have some spare change by supporting me on patreon, ko-fi with the buttons bellow the chapter, or just a one time donation directly to PayPal. All my content is free and you can support me for a single dollar.
A shout to Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Icewing, Comics, DERMONIAN, Davvy chappie, Banh Bao, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, Scott, Tony Martinez, Travis cox, Chaos, Rootbeerguy and High Priest of Torga for supporting my work!
Thanks again for Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.
