Kara rested Talia’s unconscious body into the suspension chamber and activated it, sealing the woman inside while making sure she was unable to wake up.
Turning to the side, Kara saw Red Arrow’s body resting inside a second suspension chamber, with Clayface’s mutated body frozen inside a third one. Stepping away from the pods, Kara halfheartedly threw her tablet at the wall.
The Kryptonian tech bounced off the wall and hit the ground twice before slipping under a crystal desk. Kara sighed and dropped heavily into a chair, her eyes never leaving Red Arrow’s pod.
The boy was really dead. Kara had known it as soon as Faust opened his mouth. No, she had known it much earlier, when she had burst into the cave and been unable to hear his heartbeat. She had just refused to face it before Faust threw it in her face.
After the battle, Kara had to consider what to do with her newly acquired prisoners, and the mountain of documents and artifacts she had stolen from the League of Shadow’s base. She didn’t want to bring them to her home, nor could she risk her new company. That left her with the moon base or the Fortress. Kara had decided to use the Fortress.
It would probably mean explaining things to her cousin, but the Fortress was just better equipped to hold someone, and Kara refused to fuck up again.
Sitting on the chair, Kara felt the world starting to close in on her. What was she gonna tell Kal? What was she gonna tell Green Arrow?
Grabbing at her helmet, Kara tried to take it off, but Vortigar’s last attack had melted part of it and damaged the lock. Growing desperate, Kara threw away her gauntlets and grabbed the helmet with both hands.
Her fingers found purchase on the deformed helmet and Kara pulled, her muscles strained for a few seconds until, with a loud ‘crack’, the helmet broke in half.
Breathing hard, Kara hurried out of the armor as fast as she could; only calming down when the metal protections were fully taken off. Sitting back down, Kara rested her head against her arms and tried to regain control.
For a moment, Kara took time to center herself, trying to use her lessons with Kal to recover. Slowly, her breathing returned to normal.
Inevitably, Kara glanced at where her tablet had ended up. Rao, she had to check on Dubbilex, tell Green Arrow, organize the Genomorphs at her factory…
Suddenly, a holographic projection snapped in place in front of her, showing her an image of Dubbilex resting inside one of the Fortress’s healing pods. It wouldn’t really do much for a non-Kryptonian, but it was fully equipped to deal with a long recovery period. It was comfortable, capable of monitoring his vitals, stimulating his muscles and easy to move. Karen sat by his side, her giant body already mostly healed thanks to her healing factor.
A second screen quickly opened up, showing her Guardian, Danette and Dr. Lockhart sitting at a table and eating.
“Mistress Zor-El, I thought you’d want to check on your guests.” Jor-El’s AI materialized in front of her, his hands crossed behind his back. “I’d like to remind you that you aren’t alone.”
“Thanks.” Kara glanced at the AI and sighed. “Can you ask Kal to bring Green Arrow here? Red Arrow’s body is here and I think he deserves being told in person.”
“I am informing Master Kal-El now, do you need anything else?” The AI glanced at the pods, then towards Kara’s pile of loot thrown at a corner. “I could start cataloging the materials acquired from the League of Shadows?”
“Right, there’s that too.” Kara narrowed her eyes at the pile. “Yeah, you can start. You can use the reprogrammed Morrowbots if you need to physically move anything. I think I finished… seven of them? Yeah, seven.”
The pile contained thousands of documents, artifacts, art pieces and tech devices. Basically, everything Kara could grab from the League of Shadows’ base. Everything was held inside of a containment field that blocked any signals from getting out.
Hopefully, the AI would be able to find some useful things amongst the plunder, and find any tracking device so she could actually use the devices without fear.
Turning back towards the desk, Kara pulled out her phone and called Erin once again.
She spent the next half hour getting the Genomorphs situation in order. Their housing below the Factory was almost ready and Kara had bought a lot of the land around the small town so most of the priors had been taken care of.
G-Gnomes would still have to work overtime keeping curious eyes away, but Kara was convinced that part of the ordeal was gonna be alright at least.
Turning back towards the room, Kara saw seven white robots carefully taking the pile apart, separating and categorizing the contents under the watchful eye of the Fortress AI.
Looking on for a moment, Kara’s eyes were drawn to a metal cylinder about a meter high. Pushing herself up, Kara grabbed the device and started analyzing it. The cylinder wasn’t made from lead, so she could actually see through it. Inside, millions of microscopic drones rested in neat little rows.
Connecting one of the Fortress cables to the cylinder, Kara made sure that the drones wouldn’t just activate, then opened the device and pulled out a single drone.
Damn, it was quite an interesting little device. Kara could actually do better with Kryptonian tech, or… well, she could do smaller. Still, its design was impressive, and Kara made a mental note to hire the scientist who made it as soon as she could. That or neutralize them, if it was needed.
She was guessing that had been the woman Red Arrow rescued, Kara didn’t remember her name, but the micro robot should actually be ‘The Fog’, created to infiltrate and steal information while destroying any and all materials in its path.
“Mistress Zor-El, Master Kal-El has arrived.” The AI informed her, all seven of the robots turning their heads towards the door.
Swallowing hard, Kara gave one last glance towards Red Arrow’s body, then closed the cylinder and pushed herself up.
Sure, both Red Arrow and Green Arrow had understood the risks of trying to be a mole, and Red Arrow hadn’t even been working for her when it happened, but it was still a devastating blow. One that Kara didn’t know how to explain.
Green Arrow burst through the door fully geared in his superhero costume. “Where is he?!”
Behind him, Kal stepped into the room and quickly took everything in. His eyes flashed towards the three pods and he frowned before turning his gaze toward Kara’s face. Kal’s frown immediately turned into a blank expression. “Green Arrow.” Kal spoke softly.
The Archer whirled on him, looking at Kal’s face with some semblance of hope.
Kal put a hand on Green Arrow’s shoulder, with a sigh; he closed his eyes and gave a very small shake of his head.
Green Arrow’s bow clattered to the ground, his face became a mask of anguish as he grabbed on to Kal’s arm and almost collapsed. “But… I…” Using Kal’s arm as support, Green Arrow turned towards Kara, looking confused and in pain. “Where… where is he?”
Kara glanced at one of the pods, causing Green Arrow to run towards it, collapsing to his knees at its side.
Kal didn’t say anything, he just walked towards her and cupped her face in his hands, lifting her chin up. He stared at her face for a few seconds to make sure everything was alright with her. Once he was certain everything was physically fine, he gave her a relieved hug.
“I-I just…” Kara attempted to explain things, but she couldn’t gather her thoughts.
“Shhhh, foolish little cousin.” Kal chided, his voice filled with affection, but also frustration. “How many times do I have to say that I'm here for you? You don’t have to do things alone. In fact, please don’t.”
Kara snorted at just how heartfelt that last part was. Pushing her face away from his chest, Kara sighed, avoiding his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry you.”
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It was Kal’s turn to snort in amusement, squeezing her tighter, he rested chin on top of her head. “Sorry to tell you, cuz, but you don’t seem to be very good at that.”
“What. Happened?” Green Arrow’s voice trembled with anger; one of his hands was still on top of Red Arrow’s pod, while his other one was tightened into a fist. “Tell me everything.”
Kara did. She told them everything to do with Red Arrow’s death and her raid on Infinity Island. She explained about CADMUS, showed them the video of The Light attacking, as well as the recordings from her own armor.
Both Kal and Green Arrow watched everything without saying a word, but Kara had a pretty good idea of their reactions. Keeping a poker face was far from enough to keep things from a Kryptonian’s senses.
After watching the end of Kara’s fight with the demon, Green Arrow kept staring at the holographic display for almost a full minute. Finally, he asked. “How did they discover CADMUS?”
“I don’t know.” Kara scratched at her face. “Luthor was gonna discover it sometime, but everything was perfect on our end. It should have taken at least another month for him to even grow suspicious.”
“You’re not the only one working against them. Also, Lex is incredibly paranoid, who knows what silent security protocols might have been set off.” Kal pushed himself up and started pacing around the room. “Batman was gonna bring this up at the next League’s meeting. There seems to be at least three distinct villain groups working behind the scenes.”
“What?” Kara looked at him dumbfounded. There wasn’t supposed to be any other secret society in YJ, not at its level. Instead, the first fight she had was with the Monster Society of Evil, then The Light, and now there was a third one too. Rao damn it!
Banging her head against the desk, Kara cursed herself. This was DC, of course there was gonna be more than one evil cabal around. With her luck, there would be at least a dozen. “Does he know who they are?”
“Not yet, he was only able to find out some of their actions.” Kal opened a holographic window using the Fortress AI; it showed them a map of the world with at five colors indicating several incidents. “Batman thinks that they’re actually getting in each other’s way. Captain Cold was arrested together with three other cold powered villains about a month ago. It was obviously a part of some kind of scheme, yet only a few days ago, he was found immolated inside his room.”
“Someone killed him, and they did it before he could execute whatever plan they had in mind.” Kara whispered while looking at the map.
Right there, over Belle Reve, were three blue spots marked with cold themed villain names, and Captain Cold’s name, as a scarlet red spot. Taking in the entire map, Kara saw only a few other red spots on it but, if Kara traced a line between the five spots on the US, she easily formed an enormous pentagram over the entire country.
That… really didn’t look good.
“I don’t fucking care about that!” Green Arrow raged, smashing his hand on top of the desk with as much strength as he could manage. “I want to know about The Light and how I can hurt them. No, I need to know!”
“Green Arrow…” Kal looked at him for a few seconds.
Green Arrow just stared into Kal’s eyes, unflinching. Eventually, he turned back towards Kara. “And don’t you try bullshitting me, you know more than you’re letting on.”
“Know? Yes. But can I prove it? Not so much.” Looking from Green Arrow’s eyes towards Red Arrow’s coffin, Kara released a tired sigh and waved both hands through her hair. Finally, she glanced at the Fog on display. “Say, what exactly happened at CADMUS?”
“Green Lantern, Batman and I arrived in time to catch them in the act, but Brain had a teleporting machine with him.” Kal shook his head sadly. “We managed to arrest some of their minions, but the leaders escaped.”
“And Luthor?”
“We arrested him but, despite all his intellect, Lex is, physically, an average human. It’s pretty easy for him to claim he was forced.” Kal leaned against the desk and looked up, his voice filled with frustration. “We managed to justify detaining him for his own protection but, at this point, it’s just a minor inconvenience.”
“So, he’s still being held?” Kara smiled as a plan started to form, it wasn’t the best plan, and it wouldn’t be decisive action against The Light, but she really needed a win, no matter how small, and Green Arrow needed an acceptable target before he snapped. “Well, I think I know how we can hurt them…”
Kal didn’t approve, but he didn’t stop them either and, four hours later, all three of them floated far above a building in Metropolis, under one of Kara’s optical camouflage.
Kara had to make some changes to the Fog, put some restrictions so it couldn’t damage organics, optimizing its AI and programming it so the micro-robots would go directly for computer servers, only destroying things like concrete and metal when it was absolutely needed in order to carve a patch towards any electronics.
Green Arrow was using his tactical gear, holding a black compound bow, a quiver filled with Kara’s own arrows at his waist and the Fog’s cylinder safely attached to his back. The Archer hadn’t said much since finding out about Red Arrow, gritting his teeth and fiddling with his arrows.
With a nod, Green Arrow jumped down, falling towards LexCorp main building at an astonishing speed, his body still invisible to most forms of observation.
Ten meters above the building, he activated his thrusters, slowing his fall just enough that his gear could absorb the impact of his knees hitting the top of the building. Acting fast, Green Arrow released the Fog, watching as a cloud of microscopic devices dug a small hole through the floor and infiltrated the building.
Floating invisibly above the building, Kara started typing. Less than a minute later, the Fog had breached LexCorp’s security giving her access to all of their files and defenses.
About a minute and a half later, the Fog finally dug into some important servers, ones protected by more than just mundane tech. Some of the robots were fried with some kind of electromagnetic pulse, but the vast majority was able to disable the defenses.
“Green Arrow, hostiles are aware of your situation, three minutes until they get to the rooftop.” Kara whispered while watching a few security guards trying to fight the Fog, to no effect.
Mercy Graves burst through the rooftop’s door and immediately rolled aside, dodging an arrow that hit the guard behind her before expanding into a dense block of foam that barred the door. Turning towards Green Arrow, the woman lifted her arm which was already turning into some kind of cannon.
Green Arrow didn’t let her; a second arrow hit her atop the elbow, piercing through the thinner armor there before discharging an EMP that caused her arm to go limp.
Mercy reacted quickly, immediately ripping the arrow off and pulling out a pistol, she attempted to shoot at Green Arrow.
The hero was having none of that. With yet a third arrow, he hit the barrel of the gun and caused it to fly away from her fingers. Dropping the bow, Green Arrow rushed her while pulling out his sword.
Mercy’s arm was truly top of the line, it was able to reboot completely in less than fifteen seconds. She tried to shoot him again, and watched with gritted teeth as the energy blast went wide.
With a single step to the side at the right moment, Green Arrow let the energy shot fly harmlessly towards the horizon. He didn’t give Mercy time for a second shot, shortening the gap between them with a single leap and delivering a devastating overhead strike.
Mercy tried to block it, lifting her metal prosthetic in front of her body, but the sword cleaved right through the metal with barely any resistance, cutting through Mercy’s meticulous business suit and opening a giant gash from her shoulder to hip.
The minion fell to her back, out of breath, her blood soaking her clothes at an alarming rate.
Standing beside her, Green Arrow pointed the tip of his sword towards her heart. Slowly, the weapon tipped down and started to dig into her flesh.
Kara sensed Kal tensing beside her, his muscles straining to contain his power, but he remained in place, arms crossed in front of his chest.
“I thought you’d interfere?”
Kal turned towards her, uncrossing his arms he shook them and attempted to relax, but eventually gave up and just sighed. “I trust him.”
“Are you mad at me?” Kara turned away from the surveillance and met Kal’s eyes. “For killing Faust, I mean.”
“No. I’m mad, but not at you, not really.” Scratching at his neck, Kal looked back towards the LexCorp building. “Are you willing to accompany me next week? I think I need to show you something.”
“Yes.” She nodded almost immediately. It wasn’t like following him would be a chore for her. And Kara needed a break from dealing with things.
Green Arrow glanced at his sword, his arm was steady as always, but he didn’t seem able to continue. With a snort of disgust, he pulled the sword away and snapped it to the side, getting rid of the blood on it.
“Who-Who are you?” Mercy gurgled, blood flowing through her mouth.
“You can call me Minion Three.” Green Arrow opened a compartment on his costume and pulled out a needle. Kicking Mercy’s remaining hand aside; he applied it to her neck, and then sprayed her wound with some foam.
The needle was a healing agent made, weirdly enough, by CADMUS. It only accelerated natural healing a little bit, but it should be enough to keep her alive, while the biodegradable foam sealed her wound and stopped the bleeding.
A minute later, three military-grade hover drones floated up from the side of the building. They were large things, equipped with a pair of machine guns and three missiles each.
Before they could even aim correctly, an arrow pierced right through the vulnerable gaps on their armor. Each arrow actually held one of Kara’s micro drones and, once inside their armor, with direct access to their hardware, the devices were able to hack them fairly easily.
Soon, the military-grade hover drones were stationed in front of the rooftop’s door, further blocking any reinforcements from arriving.
“Retrieving the Fog.” Green Arrow warned them over the comms while a cloud of the machines spilled out from inside the building. “What’s next?”
As soon as the Fog entered the cylinder, Kara started accessing their information, using keywords to find anything suspicious. Soon, she smiled. “I have the next location.”
The defenses at Luthor’s private bunker were a little more impressive, but they still couldn’t block the Fog, or Green Arrow.
Still, by the third target, Kara was left with only half of the Fog they’d started with thanks to Luthor’s defenses slowly chipping away at the amounts she had available.
Kal followed her, keeping watch on the entire operation without saying anything.
Kara gave the ok and watched as Minion 3 physically infiltrated Luthor’s fourth building. With only 48% of the Fog left, she wanted him to disable more of their defenses.
The hero didn’t protest.
Kara was just about to start planning an assault on Luthor’s personal house when Kal held her shoulder and shook his head.
Lifting an eyebrow, Kara looked at him. “I thought you’d stop me earlier. So, going after his private property is too much for you?”
“Not exactly.” Kal floated closer to her and used some of her drones to form a shield before sitting down on one of them. “I just don’t think going after another target will get you any new information, and we have given them enough time to prepare against us.”
Kara checked the clock. With their speed and access to the Zeta-Tube network, all four attacks had only taken a little over an hour, just enough time for people to realize she was attacking them, and possibly predict her next move.
“Yeah, I think I got what I needed anyway.” Kara sat down beside Kal, her legs swinging freely under the shield. “I-I didn’t think you’d be alright with this kind of action.”
“Kara, you seem to be mistaken about something. I stand for many things: truth, justice, hope, life, liberty, the ability to dream and pursue happiness…” He looked down as Green Arrow finished eliminating the base’s automatic defenses and releasing the Fog. “What I don’t stand for are laws for their own sake. Not that they aren’t important, because they definitely are, but vigilantism was against the law when I first dressed like a strongman and started saving people.”
Kara stopped moving her legs, her eyes focusing fully on Green Arrow.
The hero was utterly exhausted, copious amounts of sweat dripping from his face, he could barely pull the string of his compound bow anymore, but he still managed to retrieve the Fog before anyone could intercept him.
“You think I did the right thing?” Kara turned towards Kal, but she already knew the answer.
“I think your heart was in the right place.” Kal sighed, pushing himself up, he offered her a hand. “I really wish you hadn’t felt the need to kill Faust, but I understood why you did it. I don’t agree with it, but I understand.”
“Thanks, that means a lot.” Kara took his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
Despite everything, Kara smiled. Talking with Kal had lifted a weight off her chest, and the information gathered with the Fog was invaluable. She couldn’t wait to leak all of Luthor’s misdeeds. Let’s see the slippery bastard get out of it this time.