Kara Zor-El was having a really bad day, which was great since, last she remembered, she had been poisoned by kryptonite radiation and her body had started to cannibalize itself.
Mind you, she was still in a terrifying amount of pain and certain she would die alone, her entire race killed after her planet had exploded, but she was alive, she was still here.
So, in hindsight, the day being anything was a pleasant surprise.
She wondered if her cousin had made it, his ship had left Krypton earlier than hers and she was certain she could have escaped had it not been for the kryptonite shard that hit her vehicle just as it was about to leave the Rao system.
She was certain he had escaped. It was just too painful to think otherwise.
Then her mind started to get foggy and she passed out once again.
.
"It's a Kryptoan body, of course it`s fucking valuable." Said a harsh insectoid voice.
Waking up to hear someone discussing the value of your still living body was not the most pleasant of experiences but, since she hadn't been certain she would wake up at all, it was not the worst that could happen. By Rao, they had even taken the kryptonite meteorite away from her.
“It’s Kryptonian, fucking idiot.” Said a second, kryptonian voice and Kara felt herself being moved. “What kinda freak would ever want a body anyway?”
“I got contacts man. Those Psion freaks pay well for this kinda crap. Fuck, after that explosion this gotta be the last Kryptonian they ever see, it’s gotta be valuable.”
"Sold a lot of bodies, did you?" asked the second voice in amusement. “Fine, put it on ice so it doesn’t stink up the ship and get back here fast, this beauty ain’t scrapping itself. I dunno how much we can get for the body, but krypto tech is fucking expensive.”
Kara felt herself being dragged, but she couldn't move a muscle. Her mind screamed at her to get up, to struggle, to activate the ship’s defenses and resist it, but she couldn’t even open her eyes.
Finally, the pain was too much and too exhausting, she stopped even trying to struggle and felt the insect grabbing her body. A minute later, it just threw her into the freezer, the impact sent a new jolt of pain through her body, her mind went blank and she passed out again.
"Entry number five, day 102, year 12.528. Five days since acquiring the subject. Subject still showing signs of cellular regeneration despite having been deceased for at least six star rotations.” Said a cold and calculating voice as Kara woke up to the feeling of something digging into her right arm. “It seems the specimen has similar traits to Tamaraneans, at least in the way it absorbs solar radiation."
“Still no signs of brain activity on the monitors, and the retrieved samples continue showing signs of cellular division even after separation from the body.” A second voice answered.
Kara heard something moving inside her chest, but she was completely unable to feel it. In fact, she was unable to feel anything on her body.
“Any signs of full body regeneration?”
“Negative. The subject’s cells are capable of limited regeneration, but it requires elevated levels of sunlight radiation with a high energy output.”
“A pity, I had hoped the subject’s biology was similar to a Czarnian, but it seems it has truly expired.”
Kara was feeling numb, despite the horror of having some bastard scientist playing around inside her body, she was utterly paralyzed, unable to even move a finger.
Thankfully, she was still unable to feel anything and Kara barely registered as they bombarded her body with synthetic solar radiation. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she started to feel a tingling sensation on her skin.
“Hmmm, leave its heart in place, but retrieve the remaining organs and insert it into one of the Tamaranean solar chambers for further observation.” The first voice said and seemed to step away from her. “If it’s capable of some regeneration, we may be able to study it for much longer.”
Unable to feel anything, Kara heard one of the scientists carrying her away from the experimental room. Soon, they put her inside a tank filled with some liquid and lifted her into a standing position.
"The subject really shares many characteristics with Tamaraneans, I wonder if they had interbreed in the past?" Wondered one of the scientists as he locked her body in place.
Somehow, she was able to feel the invigorating sunlight hitting her naked and heavily damaged body. It felt absolutely divine, to the point that she lost several hours just basking in the sensation of the sun hitting every piece of her body, knitting her flesh closed and, together with the fluid around her, starting to regenerate the damage done by starvation, exposure to kryptonite and a vivisection.
Then the light started healing her damaged nerves and she started to wish she had died with Krypton. The pain was unbearable and she couldn't even scream. It must have lasted centuries, getting worse and worse as her nerves became better and better.
Thank Rao her body could still shut down and return to hibernation.
“Entry number seven, day 107, year 12.528. Ten days since acquiring the subject.” Kara woke up with a startle, she was actually able to feel as the knife dug into her chest and the Psion pried her ribcage open. She wanted to scream, to shout, to fight back, but her body continued to refuse her. “Hmm, it seems like the subject will need at least a week to fully regenerate its organs. Make sure to harvest them every time its ready.”
Kara wanted to cry when she felt the devastating pain caused by exposure to kryptonite, she could feel her veins throbbing and her muscles spasming even as her body didn’t move.
“Intriguing. The body quickly deteriorates once exposed to the exotic radiation.” Kara felt the scientist cutting into her flesh. “Skin resistance is almost immediately neutralized once exposed.”
“I wonder... does the exposure also cause pain?” A second voice said in a tone of conversation. “Would proximity or quantity of radioactive material increase the pain? A true pity we can’t find out.”
Suddenly, the pain proved to be too much and Kara just passed out.
Next time she woke up, Kara was resting inside the healing pod, her body being constantly bombarded with sunlight radiation. She still couldn’t feel her body or even open her eyes, but she swore she could see a petite woman looking at her from behind the glass of her pod.
A spike of pain went through her mind and she felt her consciousness becoming muddy, her life flashed through her mind and she asked herself, was it the end?
She remembered her uncle Jor-El presenting her with his own son Kal-El, the new head of house El. The baby had been so small, so fragile, not at all like those released from the birthing matrix. Kara remembered his little hand squeezing her finger as she wondered how she could take care of him by herself.
She remembered the first time she had built something worthy of House El. It had been a simple gravity stabilizer that used 1.2% less energy than the average model while using the same materials. Zor-El had been so proud of her, already innovating before ever completing her apprenticeship.
She remembered meeting her parents for the first time, the way her mother had actually hugged her, the way her father had nodded his approval with a glint in his eye as she stepped out of the birthing matrix without stumbling.
Then she remembered dying, she remembered the hours spent on a hospital bed as her organs failed her after getting hit with a truck. The memories came back to her with the same force as the truck.
Years of life on Earth, a different family, different age, and different gender even. She remembered being Jace Brown, a college graduate on his first job, reading about places like DC, Marvel and thousands of other stories. The memories overwhelmed her mind and she passed out.
“Entry number twelve, day 124, year 12.528. Twenty seven days since acquiring the subject.” Jace woke up to a new voice. A different Psion scientist was looking at his body. He felt the sharp pain of Kryptonite exposition hit him before a needle pierced his neck. “Subject’s resistance continues to increase with solar radiation, exposure to material 12A233 is now required to operate on the subject. Starting procedure nine.”
Jace felt utterly lost. No, he wasn’t really Jace anymore was he? His name was Kara now, Kara Zor-El. He/She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, was she really in DC right now? Reborn as Superman’s cousin and being experimented on by Psions?
For a second, Kara wasn’t certain which one was the real her. Was she Jace having a hallucination on his deathbed on Earth or was she Kara doing the same inside a Psion vessel?
Then she felt something boiling hot enter her body, filling her veins with heat and pain, her mind screamed and rebelled, and such questions lost all importance. When the pain became too much, she passed out.
“Entry number fifteen, day 132, year 12.528. Thirty five days since acquiring the subject.” Kara heard the Lizardman say as a new round of experiments started.
She had decided she preferred to be called Kara, she had been a man before, but she had lived sixteen years as a Kryptonian woman and her memories as Kara were also more recent, closer to her mind.
With how much pain she was usually in, Kara was convinced this wasn’t some kind of dream or hallucination, she was also pretty sure that both sets of memories were true. At least they felt like it.
She had been Jace Brown, She had been born a male and lived for 26 years on Earth, had parents and friends, but she was Kara, and her memories as a Kryptonian were more vivid.
Knowing that she’d never see her human parents again hurt but, to her, it had been sixteen years and she had become numb to it. The loss of Krypton was far more painful.
She wondered if this was how an amnesiac would feel if he recovered his memories after years. Her memories as Jace were still important, they still affected her, but she was Kara now.
The usual pain of kryptonite radiation cut her musings short. “Hmm… it seems like the time needed to fully regenerate its organs has increased.” The Psion said with some disappointment in his voice.
Kara couldn’t wait for her body to fully recover, she dreamed of finally opening her eyes and blasting the cursed lizard with her heat vision reducing him to ash. Alas, no matter how much she struggled, it was not to be.
“Entry number twenty, day 202, year 12.528. One hundred and five days since acquiring the subject.” Kara woke up to the pain of Kryptonite exposure. Hearing the date, she couldn’t help but become worried. It seems like she hadn’t woken up for months now. “Samples of the subject have finally started deteriorating. The master has ordered minimal exposure to material 12A233 and for one of the subject’s extremities to be amputated for further testing.”
Kara heard the lizard picking up a saw and felt its teeth biting into her leg but, at this point, she had gotten so used to pain the amputation felt almost relaxing. No, there was no use lying to herself, the pain was still excruciating, but it was far better than the times they opened her chest.
In the end, they finished the procedure far sooner than expected and put her body back into the solar chamber. The solar radiation quickly dulled the pain and she felt her mind relax.
“Entry number thirty eight, day 92, year 12.529. Three hundred and fifty seven days since acquiring the subject.” Kara recognized the Psion’s voice as coming from the first one to have operated on her body, but her mind struggled to even wake her up. “I have finally discovered the reason the subject’s regeneration continues to deteriorate. It seems that constant exposure to material 12A233 has permanently damaged some of the subject’s cells and repeated experimentation has overcome its recovery.”
Not for the first time, Kara cursed the Psions in her mind. Gathering her strength, she made another effort to wake up, praying to God, to Rao, to The Presence for strength, it was useless. She couldn’t move.
“Thankfully, the subject still shows promise as its body seems to be able to assimilate most forms of radiation. Starting procedure.” The cursed Psion said, Kara felt as her chest was cut open again and the lizard cut off one of her lungs, a second set of hands pried open her eyelid, but she still couldn’t see anything as they cut off her eye. “Transplant 17 is a failure, no surprise there. Transplanting the new organ and closing up the subject.”
“Master, should I take it back?”
“Yes, the subject is too valuable to continue letting others experiment on it, leave it in the solar chamber until I come to check up on it again.”
Kara woke up two more times while in the solar chamber. Her body no longer seemed to recover with sunlight. She also felt tired of fighting, of trying to recover, of holding on and hoping for something that was never going to happen.
She wanted it to end.
“Entry number thirty eight, day 92, year 12.529. One thousand and twenty three days since acquiring the subject.” Kara cursed her luck, for a while now she had hoped to never wake up again, but it seems like she was still alive. “One hundred and ninety three days after transplant nineteen, the subject continues to show no signs of rejection. I have decided to halt all experimentation on the subject until the results of the latest experimentation are clear, transplant nineteen is just too important.”
For a brief moment, Kara tried to gather the will to care about what the Psion was talking about, but she couldn’t manage it.
“I have also acquired two new Tamaranean subjects that are far more interesting.” The Psion paused as if in thought, then laughed. “I had almost forgotten how experimenting on live subjects felt. While Tamaraneans are a known species, my work with the Kryptonian subject has given me new ideas and it is far more satisfying when they can actually struggle.”
Kara felt equal parts angry and terrified when she woke up inside the pod. On one hand, it meant that she wasn't going to be subjected to a new set of experimentations and, on the other, that she was still alive.
Suddenly, she started hearing the blaring sound of sirens all over the facility, Kara’s remaining eye opened wide at the realization the damn Psions were having problems and she felt a smile on her face.
The harsh glare from the artificial sunlight hit her face, causing her to frown. Wait, she opened her eye! Her body responded!
Immediately, Kara started struggling with everything she had. At first only her toes moved, then her fingers and then her entire body started recovering, her limbs started tingling and she felt her body come fully under her control for the first time since leaving Krypton.
She wanted nothing more than to smash her way out of the chamber and run, escape, scream, do… anything. Still, she waited, absorbing more and more sunlight and gathering her strength. She’d only have one chance to escape, she couldn’t waste it.
Looking all over the room, Kara saw the plain white walls of the ship, with no details, wires or even devices. The sunlight projector looked like a two square blocks of white metal sprouting from the floor and connected by a large gray gear. Simple, uninteresting and cheap.
At this point, Kara didn’t really care if she died in the attempt, but she absolutely refused to be recaptured, or to die without taking as many of the damn lizards as she could with her.
Staying still inside her pod as she heard the commotions around her was one of the hardest things she had ever done, but she spent the time familiarizing herself with what remained of her body.
She knew she must have been inside the healing tank for a long time in order to have recovered so much, but she didn’t know how much of her organs were whole at this point. Her left eye was still missing and she couldn’t feel her left leg, clearly, she wasn’t in perfect condition.
When Kara heard the sounds of battle approaching her, she knew it was time. She had never killed anyone before, neither Kara nor Jace had even been in such dire situations, but she didn't think she would have any problems splattering a few Psions around the walls.
In her previous life, Kara had always felt that most heroes caused a lot of trouble for themselves by sparing their enemies. Kara refused to make the same mistakes, not now.
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Gathering her will, Kara started experimenting. It took her a few minutes to get control of her flight ability, when she was confident enough, she willed herself out of the tank, breaking through the glass without any effort.
Finally, she took a deep breath of air after what must have been years. Kara couldn’t help herself, she screamed.
The sensations hit her like a ton of bricks, for the first time in years, she felt the air hitting her skin, she smelt the scent of cleaning products and the dusty must of Psions.
The wind hit her and Kara’s body registered the cold, even if it didn’t bother her. She laughed, she laughed long and hard despite the situation.
For years now Kara had been locked into a Kryptonian healing coma, barely able to register any feelings beyond pain, barely able to hear anything beyond her short periods of consciousness while she tried to wake up.
All the sensations overwhelmed her and she promptly lost control of her flight, falling to the cold, metallic floor in a heap. Still laughing, Kara gathered her will and slowly floated up.
Finally, Kara managed to get into a hovering position, even if it bobbed around, going up and down as she breathed.
She knew she should have been moving immediately, not allowing the Psions any time to make a plan against her, but she wouldn't make for a very imposing, or maneuverable, figure hopping around on just one leg.
The very thought of everything the bastards had taken from her caused Kara’s flight to grow more erratic, her fists closing tightly at her sides as a strange feeling of heat gathered at her sole remaining eye.
The wave of heat she released melted a hole twice her own size in the steel wall. Dazed, Kara looked at the hole and floated closer, lifting a hand. She marveled as she felt the heat on her skin, but it felt more like a warm wind than the result of several meters of molten metal.
With a smile, Kara thought of the Psions waiting for her all over the ship, she couldn’t wait to get to them.
Looking at the hallway, Kara registered the same white metal stretching as far as her eye could see. There were plain metallic doors with strange symbols painted in black above them, they looked the same and, were it not for the huge melted hole, Kara wouldn’t be able to differentiate her own room from any other.
Moving while flying turned out to be easier than hovering in place, Kara seemed to have an instinctive affinity for flying and, much like an animal can walk a few minutes after being born, she managed to achieve controlled flight at about the same uncoordinated level.
Still, trying to maneuver with her fist extended like she saw her cousin do in the comics was a long way off, Kara bounced around the place as if drunk and moved mostly in an upright position.
The one time she tried to imitate Superman, she had lost all sense of direction and was left spinning in place like a pinwheel for a few seconds before falling on her side.
Fortunately, the advantage of being Kryptonian was that she left dents in the walls instead of collecting bruises from doing so.
Hearing the sound of gunshots coming from her side, Kara turned and, squinting her eye, gathered heat before blasting the wall as hard as she could. She melted a hole through it… and the next wall… and the next. Hell, she blasted a hole through what must have been nine walls to reveal the darkness of space looking back at her.
For a second, Kara was left paralyzed. She stared at the destruction until the vacuum started dragging everything and everyone towards the hole.
She saw armed Psions and robots flying through the air, as well as two bizarre beasts with far too many tentacles for her liking trying to keep themselves in place by grabbing at everything on sight.
Kara herself was dragged through four openings before snapping out of it and making herself stop, the cold hit her and caused goosebumps in her arms. Looking around, she saw the walls around the damaged sections starting to seal. Just before the breach to her right could close, Kara managed to fly through the shrinking gap.
Taking stock of her situation, Kara noticed a minimal but noticeable drop on her stamina from using her vision. With a sigh, she resolved herself to training with the ability a little before using it again, at least when at full power.
The fighting around the ship had briefly stopped after her attack, but it returned with renewed vigor and she could hear a female voice screaming with fury only two corridors away from her. This time, Kara decided to just fly through the walls, lowering her head and driving her body shoulder first at the metal, the metal gave way.
She burst in the middle of what looked like a war, from one side of the place an extremely hot orange girl was releasing bolts of green energy from her hands. Like Kara, the girl was completely naked while blasting Psions in full armor.
On the other side, there were Psions and robots with energy weapons shooting at pretty much everything. Their aim was terrible, but there were so many of them that the girl was getting hit almost as often as she shot, every shot left ugly burns on her skin and caused her to lose control of her own flight.
Some of the shots managed to hit Kara as she stood there, but they just felt like hard pokes, annoying but far from painful.
Hmmm… psychopathic sadistic Psions or hot orange girl who was probably Koriand'r?
Grabbing the closest robot, Kara twisted its head off its shoulders and then threw it through the body of a Psion. The lizard just exploded in a shower of blood and Kara screamed in both rage and satisfaction before using the rest of the robot as a makeshift weapon to bat Psions and robots aside.
She attacked the two dozen psions without rest, ignoring every shot that hit her and releasing all her anger and hate, all her fear. When the robot she was using was reduced to a few pieces of scrap, she threw it aside and grabbed a Psion to continue her massacre.
At one point, Kara had started to cry, her screams had turned from roars of rage to those of pain and frustration, but she continued, she continued even when they started running away, she continued even when every single one of the monsters was dead and she was left reducing one of their bodies into just so much paste.
Panting hard, she released the last robot she had been using as a weapon and lay down on the ground crying, her arms hugging her body as it all finally hit her. She was free, she was free and she was going to stay that way no matter what.
A touch to her shoulder almost caused Kara to lash out, her single eye glowed red with heat, but she snapped out of her daze just in time to stop herself. Twisting around, she saw the orange girl taking a few steps away from her, her hands held high to show no threat and her glowing green eyes wide with worry but also… understanding?
Seeing that Kara wasn't attacking, Koriand'r approached her slowly and very deliberately wrapped her arms around her. Kara released her flight and just started crying against the naked woman's orange skin for a minute.
Eventually, Kara gathered her wits and pushed herself away from the girl, she knew they couldn't stay in place. The Psions may have heavier weaponry, ones capable of hurting even a Kryptonian or, worst case; they may be able to use the kryptonite they had to trap her.
Kara knew she still wasn't thinking right, her fear and anger at the Psions still clouded her mind, but she just couldn't care about it at the moment.
Koriand'r tried to talk with her, but Kara ignored the Tamaranean, unable to understand the strangely guttural sounds of her language. Frustrated, Koriand'r grabbed her and forced Kara to look into her eyes before asking a question, still unable to understand, Kara shook her head.
"I don't understand." She decided to say in English, Kara knew from the comics that a few humans had made it into this sector, and nobody was likely to know the Kryptonian language here.
Koriand'r eyes shone brightly as she nodded in understanding before cupping Kara's face in her hands and kissing her, Kara couldn't help herself, she kissed back, opening her mouth and savoring her taste before snapping out of it and breaking the kiss. With a nervous laugh, Kara remembered about the Tamaranean nonsensical ability to learn languages with a kiss and flushed red.
Kara Zor-El hadn't been homosexual when she lived with her parents, but neither had Jace. She hadn't thought about the implications before, being more preoccupied with survival after all, but she found that she was quite attracted to Koriand'r body.
Thinking about it, she imagined a male kissing her in place of the girl and didn't mind it at all. Shaking her head, she left that little revelation for later and asked. "Can you understand me now?"
"I can, warrior, have you overcome your grief?"
"Not really, but we have more important things to worry about." Kara said and floated towards a mostly intact Psion body before starting to steal some clothes. "Kara Zor-El, nice to meet you."
"I am Koriand'r, princess of Tamaran." She greeted me before finding some clothes herself. "Do you have a plan, warrior Zor-El?"
"Call me Kara, your attack was probably what saved me, in my book that makes us friends."
"Joy! Admiration! To have an entire book dedicated towards your friendships!" She said, her face lighting up once again and her mouth opening into a wide smile. "Still, I can not imagine how those Zarbnarf manage to subdue a warrior of your power, Friend Kara."
Kara sighed before slipping into a very loose set of pants. She ripped out the missing leg and tied it around her waist in order to keep the piece of cloth in place. "I was in a healing coma and recovering from a wound, so they didn't have much trouble just keeping me from fully waking up. Do you have any idea how to get away from here?"
"Do not despair, Friend Kara, together we will most certainly be able to claim one of the ships of escaping." Koriand'r said and gave Kara a reassuring smile while helping her find a shirt.
Kara let Koriand’r continue the search and just floated in place, her mastery of the skill growing by the second, to the point that, while it still required concentration to keep herself in place, she could keep her body moving in a straight line without much effort now.
"Come on, Princess. Let's finish this before they have time to prepare any traps." They flew together, slowly picking up speed as Kara got more comfortable with her ability, but they didn't meet any other Psions or robots, allowing Kara to start experimenting with her abilities.
Kara tried to shift into x-ray vision to look through the walls for a few minutes before getting fed up with things and just using raw power to burst through them.
Eventually, they found the docking bay where the Psions kept the smaller ships, but there were Psion corpses and robots spread everywhere and the two remaining ships were in flames, while a third one seemed to be missing. "What the heck!"
"Friend Kara! My sister must have destroyed the ships of escape so they could not follow her." she said with a wide smile, happy that her murderous, traitorous sister had managed to escape. Or maybe Kara was being hasty. She had to idea which version of Blackfire she was dealing with after all. "We were separated in an earlier fight, I am most glad to know she has managed to escape!"
"I don't suppose you know a way to call her back for help?" Kara asked, already knowing the answer, but with some hope that she was wrong. After all, she was feeling extremely lucky since escaping.
"I am afraid my sister is very… practical. She would not risk coming back even if I could contact her." She said with a sad smile. "She would not risk it."
"Great… Just great." Kara suppressed her desire to curse or lash out at things around herself. She had to remember she wasn't a human anymore, lashing out was very bad now… especially for the environment around her. "Fine, if we can't take an escape vessel we're just gonna have to take this one instead."
Yeah, she quickly started warming up to the idea. Kara hadn't liked the idea of leaving behind whatever data the Psions had gathered with their experiments, Kryptonian experimentation never ended well in the comics, for anyone.
She had still been willing to do so in order to escape but, now that she had an excuse, she was eager to destroy everything and kill every single one of the cursed bastard's.
Turning back towards the interior of the ship, Kara finally managed to get her x-ray vision to work and immediately started searching for the densest concentration of psions, or the control room, that would work too.
She quickly found almost 40 Psions armed to the teeth with alien rifles and surrounded by security robots, they were getting ready for a fight, at one of the paths towards the center of the ship.
Kara took a minute or two to verify they weren't carrying any lead boxes or exposed Kryptonite then, when she was sure, she released a hysterical laugh of relief. "Ahahaha, the fools still don't know what they are fighting, Muwahahahahaha!"
"Muwahahahaha!" Came the exaggerated evil laugh from Koriand'r, it caused Kara to turn around and just look at her, dumbfounded.
"What was that?"
"I wished to partake in Friend Kara's customs to show my support." She revealed with a smile that just drained some of Kara's rage and fear away. "You have a most intimidating battle cry!"
They just stood there, staring at each other's eyes, a few seconds later Kara shook her head and snickered. "Nevermind."
Taking a deep breath, Kara accelerated in a straight line towards the Psions. She ignored every wall or floor in her way and acted like a battering ram, opening a path of destruction for Koriand'r to follow.
When they arrived, it wasn't really a fight but a slaughter. With Kara's resistance blocking most shots Koriand'r was free to show just how capable a warrior she was.
Every one of her starbolts sent a Psion flying or pierced right through them when she managed to hit exposed flesh. More than one Psion was decapitated by one of her well aimed attacks, then they reached melee range and all hell broke loose.
Even still wounded and recovering, Kara was faster, stronger and more brutal than Koriand'r. She punched through Psion's armor and all, or simply grabbed them and squeezed before throwing their bodies as makeshift projectiles.
Sometimes, Kara just ripped arms off and moved on, leaving the Psion to bleed out in pain. She moved from target to target like an unstoppable berserk, but Koriand'r wasn’t any worse, she had skill. The Tamaranean Princess didn't fight like a human would. She didn't use footwork and, in fact, didn't step on the ground even once.
Managing to steal a blade from one of the Psions, Koriand’r floated around the battlefield with catlike grace, slashing, stabbing and delivering precise punches and kicks. In the end, she had defeated more enemies than Kara herself, substituting raw power for precision and control.
"Can you find out where the command room is?" Kara asked while wiping some blood off her face, turning around, she also spit some that had gotten into her mouth.
Koriand'r seemed a little sad at the amount of death they had caused, but she was a warrior trained by warlords, she wasn't a stranger to the battlefield and its horrors while also having very little sympathy for Psions.
"Certainly, it should not take very long." She approached one of the disabled survivors and started interrogating the monster. Kara had to continue thinking of them as monsters after what she had done, thankfully, it wasn't very hard.
The wounded male just spit in Koriand'r face, the girl cleaned the spit and dropped him to choose another.
Having recovered her breath, Kara floated herself towards a third survivor and dragged his wounded body up by the arm, leaving him dangling painfully in the air. "Where is the control room?" She asked and then repeated herself in all the languages she had studied in Krypton until the lizard answered.
"Stupid humanoid, we know what you are now! They will be ready for you!"
Kara squeezed the lizard's arm until she heard the bones crack. "Thanks for the warning, where is the control room?" She continued to question him. The lizard hissed in pain and attempted to spit at her, but Kara just used her speed to whip his body around and smash him against a wall.
She sighed. Despite all she suffered she didn't want to torture them. Kara knew she could do it, she hated the Psions enough to break every single bone in one's body and smile at his pain, but that's not who she wanted to become.
Knowing she would lose control of herself again if she interrogated another lizard, Kara briefly watched Koriand'r question another survivor then shook her head and concentrated on her x-ray vision to search the ship.
She still didn't have full control of her powers, being completely new to their uses. Kara’s vision couldn't see through the entire ship and was erratic on how many layers she could look through at every moment. The ship was enormous. Easily the size of one of a small city, no matter how hard she tried, Kara couldn't find any other gathering of Psions big enough to be significant.
"Friend Kara, I have found the location of the room of control!" Koriand'r floated towards her with eagerness, green light flashing in her hands, pulling out a Psion personal computer, she opened a holographic map of the ship and showed her a red dot in the center and another green one where they currently stood.
Both young women were about two kilometers away from the center of the ship and still near the hull. Looking down at the floor, Kara frowned and tried to take a look with her vision, but it was still too far away.
"Alright, great work." Preparing herself once again Kara frowned, her back and shoulder had started to hurt from ramming so many walls, and there were so many ahead of her she had lost count. Suddenly, she shook her head and thought better of it. "Shit, alright Koriand'r, can you plot us a new path? I don't think I have the stamina to reach it in a straight line."
From the comics, Kara thought she should have been stronger than this but, then again, her cousin's power fluctuated wildly, from comics where he was just very strong, to ones where he was godlike and capable of punching holes in reality.
Kara also had to remember she wasn't in the best condition, her body was thin and malnourished, she felt hungry, thirsty and every time she fought, she had to catch her breath for longer, to the point she was wondering if perhaps her lung hadn’t healed completely.
Flying twice as fast as a running man turned out to be a hush. It even managed to bring a smile to Kara's lips despite the situation she found herself in. She followed Koriand'r as best she could, going through wide corridors and elevator shafts. Koriand'r even took the time to smash some robots and Psions whenever they found them on the corridors.
Nearly twenty minutes later, they were finally arriving when Koriand'r stopped in the middle of the corridor. Kara almost hit her mid flight before managing to bleed out all her speed, with a flushed face, she had to fly back almost twenty meters to meet the princess.
"What?" she barked harshly out of mortification, then she saw the hurt look on her companion's eyes and sighed. "Sorry, I'm not used to looking like a fool while flying."
"I understand." Koriand'r turned towards her left and pointed. "We are two corridors to the right of the center of command. I plan on breaking the walls to avoid any traps they may have on the doors."
"Right, good idea, just hold on a minute." Turning towards the wall, Kara looked at the command center searching for any threats, she found many.
Despite their precautions, the Psions were watching them move, using some kind of surveillance camera to monitor them.
The lizards had all turned towards the wall and were waiting for them. Every single one of the bastards also carried a small piece of kryptonite tied to their bodies.
A large piece of Kryptonite, the size of a large van, was lying in the middle of the room, its green glow illuminating the white walls and creating strange shadows. It must have been sold to the monsters together with her escape pod by the scavengers that first found her.
"Ah! Alright princess, we're gonna have a change of plans here."
"Do you have a plan?" Asked the orange beauty, completely willing to follow her lead.
"Not really, but I can see through the walls and the enemy is ready for us."
"That is most distressing. It will make the battle much harder!"
"It's worse than that." Kara confessed. "They have a large piece of kryptonite, it’s a radioactive rock that's poisonous to me and can weaken my body almost instantaneously. I can't enter that room without losing all my power, Koriand'r."
"Rage! Fury! How dare they use such repulsive means, do not worry, Psions are not warriors, I will be more than enough to fight them." Koriand’r gave Kara a quick pat to the back and readied herself.
"I'll give you ranged support, but I really can't enter there, Koriand'r, I can't be captured again, I just can't."
"I understand Friend Kara, I will not blame you." Lifting her glowing green hands, Koriand’r took some distance from her and released two of the largest starbolt yet, managing to blast through both walls separating them from the target.
Kara watched as Koriand'r flew into the room over a hail of blaster fire, she rammed one of the security robots through an electronic table before starting to send starbolts everywhere in the room.
Finally snapping out of her daze, Kara cursed herself for just watching like a stupid bystander, she quickly channeled energy to her remaining eye and released a controlled wave of heat without losing control of the power.
It took her a full second to burn through each wall, but she managed to hit a Psion holding a huge energy cannon, burning a hole through his chest. Slowly, Kara moved her head and burned a line through the room, forcing the Psions to focus more on survival than killing Koriand’r.
The heat ray was slow enough that some Psions managed to dodge it, but they were still forced to stop shooting at her companion to do so. Seeing that it was useful, Kara continued to aim towards the bastards, killing another two and destroying five robots, but mostly making them pause in their shooting.
Koriand'r herself wasn't just watching. As the main attacker, she moved through the enemies like a tiger, taking cover behind the Psions themselves and returning fire with quick starbolts while growling with anger.
She moved with purpose, fully demonstrating her superior strength and warrior training, but she wasn't a Kryptonian. Every time the hail of shots hit her, it caused her to release grunts of pain.
Finally, one of the larger cannons hit Koriand’r in the chest, sending her body flying and almost blasting her through another wall.
Psions may be many things, but they weren't stupid and capitalized on the hit despite Kara's best efforts to cut them down. She even increased the power to her attack. The constant release of power made her feel the strain and her eye started to water.
Suddenly, Kara fully lost control of her heat ray, she made sure to release one last blast of heat that melted a large hole through four walls, but it left her screaming in pain and cradling her remaining eye with both hands.
Koriand'r managed to take the chance to roll aside, recovering quickly, she flew up and blasted her enemies again, then dived towards one who had been flanking her and punched him in the chest before stealing his cover.
Forcing her eye to open, Kara looked at her companion and saw the cannon had left huge burns all over her chest and left arm, there were also dozens of smaller burns all over her body. Koriadn’r’ was in a bad situation, her clothes had turned to rags, one of her fingers of her left hand was missing where someone had hit her with a solid projectile and she was bleeding.
"Fuck… no just fucking no!" Kara cursed as she flew towards the room, she didn't even manage to cross the wall before feeling the kryptonite affecting her, weakening her, making her retreat as flashes of her time locked inside the escape pod and, later, under the Psion's knives, flooded her mind.
Wrapping her arms around herself, Kara started to hyperventilate.
Koriand'r managed to take out another Psion with a cannon, she also destroyed some important control, causing red lights to start flashing all over the ship. The sudden loud noise surprised the hell out of Kara, but it also allowed her to refocus on the fight in time to see her partner crying out as something hit her face.
Tumbling down to the ground and screaming in pain, Koriand’r was pinned down under fire for the second time, the survivors rained down laser fire and projectiles towards her, forcing her to curl up and try to protect herself by hiding behind tables.
"Just how many of the damn lizards are there!" Kara screamed in frustration, Grabbing at the wall, she sunk her fingers into the metal and ripped a wide sheet away.
Putting the piece of metal in front of herself, Kara held it like a shield and accelerated as fast as she could, bursting through the walls and smashing the gathered Psions around her partner. The attack crushed at least a dozen of them and scattered the others.
Before Kara could recover, she felt her body locking up under the Kryptonite radiation, a bolt of energy caught her in the shoulder, blowing a hole right through it and causing her to scream from the burnt.
Kara howled in pain and fell to all three's. The Kryptonite started affecting her more, causing her incredible amounts of pain, her veins bulged up under her skin and she collapsed under her own weight, actually throwing up from pain.
With a grunt, Kara tried to drag herself under the metal sheet, but she wasn't strong enough to even lift it while under the effects of Kryptonite and got another hit on the leg.
With a second to recover, Koriand'r exploded into action. Even extremely hurt and missing some hair, she still managed to blast everything in sight before grabbing a metal support beam that had been cracked and ripping it out to use as a projectile.
The attack crushed another four Psions and finally broke their morale. The few remaining lizards were left running for their lives. Koriand'r was breathing hard from exhaustion, but she was still standing, her eyes glowing with green light as she tried to blast the runners. Kara released a low whimper of pain and the princess refocused.
"You came!" She screamed in happiness before noticing the bulging veins all over Kara's body. "What is wrong Friend Kara, how can I help!"
"The… argh… the rock." Kara cried out, Koriand'r looked around and saw the glowing green piece of kryptonite lying covered in debris at the center of the room. In a hurry, she gathered Kara's body in her arms and flew out of the utterly destroyed command center.
Kara felt the pain starting to go away as soon as they got out of the room, leaving behind only the burning feeling in her leg and shoulder from the shots she had taken. She looked at Koriand'r face and smiled a true smile, they had won, they had won control of the ship and probably killed any Psion with the power to take it back!
Releasing a breath of relief, Kara passed out.