Kara appeared a few kilometers away from the city, her platform sparking as some kind of energy field seemed to have blocked and re-directed her teleportation, the very fabric of the world appearing to bend away from the city.
For a second, she just stared at the being slowly pushing its way into her reality, her mind growing foggy at the sight. Grabbing her head, she managed to turn away and regain her bearings.
What in Rao’s name was that? At least she had seen that the fighters were mostly safe for the moment. All of them were still locked in battle, but none seemed truly hurt. Kara was quick to look for her friend and found Dani fighting from atop of one of her shields, releasing blasts of fire or cutting away with her sword when a tentacle got too close.
Taking a breath, she looked again. This time she braced herself and what she saw seemed to lose a lot of its power, the tentacles and spots of light no longer mesmerizing to her. Stupid cognitohazards.
Above the city, surrounded by clouds, was a large, sickly green portal from which several tentacles stretched down. Some of said tentacles seemed to grip the edges of the portal, constantly trying to stretch it wider, but most struck down at the struggling heroes.
Dani, a Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Doctor Fate and Red Tornado were fighting it off, doing their best to destroy the portal while being harassed by Klarion and two demons Kara didn’t recognize.
At the city’s edge, Kara saw Jay Garrick running around. While he could probably reach the fight somehow, he wouldn’t really be as effective without flight, so he was doing his best to save as many people as he could and was prioritizing getting them out of immediate danger. Unfortunately, even with how small Salem was, there were just too many civilians to move.
What… was she supposed to do? Kara had been in several spars, she had been in two life or death fights and she had been working on getting used to acting like a hero, but this was just too much. Screams of terror filled her ears as humans desperately fled the fight or hid from it, crying like children, some WERE children.
She had thought that Mr. Mind’s attack had been bad, his lightning bolts had done a lot of damage and set buildings on fire but, despite how things appeared, because she and Kori had been in the city, there hadn’t actually been all that many casualties.
This was much worse. The only saving grace was that Salem was much smaller than Fawcett City, with less than a 100 thousand people. But the creature that was pushing itself out into reality was so massive the destruction had started to spread to nearby towns.
With another command from her armor, the larger teleportation platform used by the Genomorphs appeared at her side filled with drone boxes. With a single order, five thousand drones took flight, going straight towards the city to help with evacuation.
She had considered calling on the Karabots, but most of their battle programming was still a result of code she had reused from Morrow’s work and she didn’t trust them close to civilians. She’d have to fix that soon.
The drones wouldn’t be able to block even a stray shot from one of the powerhouses battling, but the resulting debris? The aftereffects? Those were just as dangerous to a normal human and they were more than capable of dealing with that.
Looking at the cloud of drones, Kara knew it would not be enough. She had thought she had made too many, going way overboard on their production to create a long term reserve for the League, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Stepping forward, both platforms teleported back and Kara burst into action, having finally shook off her indecision and flying directly towards the city. At the midpoint, while hidden from view by one of the larger buildings, she opened the armor, separating from it and continuing to fly wearing only her Supergirl costume.
The armor immediately fell heavily to the ground, its front closing again as it cracked the street under its weight. The limited AI assumed control and started modifying its main weapon. Usually, it would act as a powerful railgun but, thankfully, she’d had the foresight to develop equipment meant to fight off anything from an alien invasion to freaking Eldritch Kaiju.
Changing into her teleport gun would only take a few seconds, but the more devastating forms took longer, both because they were even more complex and as a safety measure. She didn’t want anyone getting trigger happy with some of the configurations available… even herself.
Without Kara in the driver seat, the armor was only 36% as effective, but she only needed it to guard the cannon while it was being deployed. She was gonna bring out one of her recently acquired trump cards.
Unfortunately, most of her heavy weapons’ capabilities couldn’t really be unleashed inside the atmosphere thanks to certain safety devices she’d put in, others would need far too much time, but she had been waiting to test something new.
Kara had made improvements after her raid at Infinity Island and she was eager to deploy it in a real battle. She had tested the device extensively, but never at this scale.
Without pause, she burst into a house, not so much breaking the walls as just… pushing them out of the way as a human would push water. One hand caught a barking dog by the waist while another grabbed a young teen and cradled him to her chest before bursting out.
Not even a second later, one of Klarion’s blasts of magic hit the house, causing it to explode and rain debris all around the street. The boy was screaming the entire time, but she didn’t actually have time to calm him, just dropping the kid on top of a shield and moving on.
Above her, she saw one of Klarion’s magic spells turn into a claw, it enlarged itself and grabbed an entire hospital, ripping it out of the ground and throwing it up with a maniacal laugh.
It seems like the bastard had given up on harassing the heroes and, instead, started trying to force them into prioritizing civilians. At the same time, both demons disengaged and flew down, releasing red blasts of power towards the small city.
Kara batted a car out of the air, saving two girls it was about to hit before throwing some of the last drones on her costume at them before taking in the monsters, her mind working overtime to analyze the situation.
One of the creatures looked like an enormous blob of fat with red skin, flying everywhere and releasing blasts of red energy that seemed to corrode the materials wherever they hit, turning them to dust.
The second was even bigger, but he was filled with muscles and, instead of flying aimlessly, seemed to stop midair and close all four of its eyes, causing a different weight to settle over the city. Kara growled at the very sight, having the sudden urge to attack him.
Gritting her teeth, she looked from the fight to the falling building, her entire body aching to start hitting things but, with a curse, she flew towards the falling civilians. Her drones wouldn’t be able to stop its drop, so she’d have to do it.
In the second it took her to decide, her cousin actually burst onto the scene, catching the entire hospital on his shoulders and stabilizing it with his bioelectrical shield, keeping the building whole and the people inside mostly safe.
Unfortunately, it seems like she wasn’t the only one to notice his arrival. The fat demon roared and flew towards Kal, four red eyes filled with glee as he attacked. Kara couldn’t have that; the ridiculous blob of fat wasn’t going to touch Kal, the very thought made a fire of anger fill her chest.
The demon had been hurt during the initial fighting, blood was flying from an open wound on his chest, he was missing an eye and there were burns all over his skin that looked raw, but he was still sharp enough to notice her as they flew towards each other.
With a laugh, he simply sent a blast of power from his eye that she dodged. When she approached, he seemed surprised, grunting in annoyance before trying to punch her, clearly underestimating her power and skills.
Kara was angry and, for some reason, being dismissed like that only increased her rage. Lightning fast, she ducked under the blow and grabbed his face, squeezing his fat cheeks and shutting his mouth while continuing to fly past his body, carrying him straight to the middle of the city’s park.
The whiplash was enough that Kara heard something snap on his neck, but the demon still managed to punch her side before trying to blast her with a red beam of energy from his eyes as she dug her fingers into his fat, the Nth metal in her gloves completely blocking the attack.
Her costume’s nano-machines hardened under the body shot and she knew some of them had been destroyed, but her Kryptonian resistance barely noticed the impact. Then they hit the ground.
Kara didn’t want to destroy the city, even as angry as she was, she didn’t want to cause more deaths. That meant that, when she smashed the back of the demon’s head down against the ground, her bioelectrical field spread on instinct, blocking the vast majority of the damage.
She still destroyed most of the park, causing the earth to ripple, trees to be uprooted and creating a large crater, but she didn’t bury the bastard several kilometers under the ground or collapse any of the nearby buildings.
Releasing his twitching body, she looked up, seeing Wonder Woman engaging with the Chaos Lord once again as Fate tried to beat the eldritch abomination’s tentacles back with glowing ankhs of light.
Suddenly, a flash of emerald green light filled Kara’s vision as the Green Lantern Kara vaguely recognized as Alan Scott exploded in power, cutting off most of the tentacles, leaving them burning with green fire and wounding the muscular demon.
“Supes, how about we tag!” Green Lantern yelled as he manifested dozens of WWII artillery pieces and opened fire on the portal, the attack doing terrifying damage to the creature, but still unable to pierce through all its defenses.
Her cousin had put down the building he had been holding on the ground, being very gentle so as to not hurt the people inside. Immediately, Flash ran inside, starting to help several patients that had been wounded in the upheaval.
Glancing around, Kal saw that Klarion had already caused far more damage and, even wounded, the second demon wasn’t making it easy, his cuts already healing as he spread his power over the city.
While the demon wasn’t physically moving, he was clearly using some spell because the civilians on the street had started to scream and rage at each other, fighting for hiding locations or because someone had ran ahead of them, their panic easily turning into mindless anger, with those closest to his location being affected first.
Flash was running as fast as he could, separating fights while Kara’s drones interfered, locking insane civilians inside isolated shields.
Still, Kal didn’t hesitate, trusting the older hero and sending a blast of heat vision while flying up towards the regenerating tentacles, his attacks driving the creature back momentarily. In exchange, the Green Lantern dropped on top of a four story building, lifting his sword in front of his face and closing his eyes.
For a full second, Alan gathered his willpower, taking a deep breath and relaxing inside his armor. Finally, he opened his eyes and inverted the grip on the sword, his voice starting to gain strength as he spoke his Oath. “And I shall shed my light over dark evil. For dark things cannot stand the light, The Light of the Green Lantern!”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
In a single motion, he pierced the building, driving the sword down to the hilt and dropping into a kneeling position. Light exploded from the weapon, pouring down the skyscraper and spreading over the city in a wave of fire almost faster than Kara could see. The fire covered the buildings and streets, forming a burning shield that consumed any attack sent its way.
Under her feet, the fat demon screamed as the flames hit his body, enveloping it in burning chains. Kara meanwhile didn’t feel a thing, the flames touching her body and washing over it harmlessly.
With a grunt, one of the demon’s fat hands grabbed her leg and she felt something draining out of her, her stomach growling as she started to become hungry.
With a snort, she stomped on the demon’s face as hard as she could, breaking most of the bones in his face and stopping his spell while also launching herself up towards the second creature, a snarl in her face.
With Alan protecting the city, Kara let the drones fully focus on evacuating civilians, separating those that succumbed to the demonic influence with shields while Jay helped the ones that needed the most immediate attention.
Squeezing her hands into fists, Kara knew she had to stop the anger demon’s influence before it became too much or spread too wide… and she really needed to punch him. The bastard was laughing, fully enjoying the effect he had on the city.
She didn’t come at him from below, the risk was too great that he’d attack her and force her to block or risk letting it hit an innocent. Instead, she flew up, punching a tentacle out of the way with a roar before diving towards the monster.
The demon still noticed her attack, but Kara just waved between two beams of magic and answered with a blast of heat vision that scored a line on his already burnt chest and drove him back.
“Bitch, that nearly hurt!” the demon taunted, his face turning into a smirk. “Well, now, you’re an angry one, aren’t you?”
Instead of answering, Kara punched him in the face, twice, one of his teeth went flying but, at the third hit, he grabbed her fist into one giant hand and pulled her out of position, preparing to deliver a hook.
Lifting her arm, Kara blocked it. With a growl, she wrapped her arm around his bulging forearm and pulled him closer, head-butting his nose. He released her and started to fly back from the impact, but she grabbed his head, pushed her thumbs into his lower eyes and did it again, her mask cracking as his nose crumbled under the impact and blood flew everywhere.
“Shut the fuck up and DIE!” Kara screamed, following after him. Catching up, she grabbed him by the throat with one hand and continued punching.
In her anger, Kara had left her guard down, trusting her costume and Kryptonian biology to resist anything he did. She would pay for that mistake.
The punch hit her in the liver with far more strength than she thought he was capable of, several times harder than his previous attack. It absolutely obliterated the nano-robots that formed her costume, the pain was instant and so strong Kara lost focus of everything, the stinging sensation on her lower torso all that she could think about.
Slapping her hand away from his neck, the demon pulled his arm back and punched her jaw before she could recover; the hit finished breaking her mask, leaving her mouth uncovered and only the upper part intact while sending her flying back.
“Ha, I love it! Such anger, give me more!” he yelled, snapping his nose back in place with a hand. “I am Wrath and I have to say, yours is absolutely a marvel to witness!”
With a laugh, he released another blast of eldritch energy from his remaining eyes, this one three times bigger than before. With her concentration muddled by the pain and anger, Kara just couldn’t get out of the way, having to lift both hands to block.
The magic hit her gloves, the nth metal dispersing most of the energy, but it couldn’t stop everything as beams slipped through her fingers, hitting her in the face and body, causing her to grunt in pain and discomfort as her face started itching.
Finally, she managed to stabilize her flight and blinked in confusion, her costume had grown in size and turned entirely black, the sunstone nano-machines having lost most of the power condensed inside as the spell increased the rate of entropy on her costume.
Thankfully, the Nth metal had blocked the majority of the power or Kara was afraid the small devices would have broken completely, dissolving into dust as they aged decades in less than a second.
More than that, Kara felt herself growing weak, exhausted, she even briefly lost control of her flight and started dropping, her hair coming undone as it seemed longer.
Finally, as the rays of sunlight hit her body and re-energized her as well as her costume, she managed to stabilize her flight before she hit the ground, her clothes slowly regaining their color.
There also seemed to be something strange about her vision, but Kara was too angry to notice or think about most of the changes, a red aura of light starting to gather around her. With a roar, she flew back towards her enemy, aiming to tear him apart.
Wrath just laughed, flying towards her even as his body grew even larger, the demon gaining strength from her uncontrolled anger, feeding off on it. Deep inside, Kara knew it was a mistake, but she was beyond being rational.
If Wrath was feeding off on her, she’d just have to hit the bastard until he stopped… and perhaps a lot longer.
They clashed midair, the shockwave of their fists hitting each other sounding like an explosion as they bounced back, Kara pushed far away by the sheer strength of her enemy, but Wrath only retreated a few dozen meters. Noticing that only increased her rage.
Flying back, her attacks grew sloppy, without any technique as she aimed to do as much damage as she could to the Rao cursed demon, shards of red light hitting his skin and breaking off against his muscles, the diffused light not strong enough to pierce his defenses.
Wrath was playing with her, dodging every hit and striking at her body repeatedly just hard enough to cause pain but not disable, he was clearly having fun with their battle.
Kara knew she had to get her mind in order, but the knowledge only made her angrier, wilder.
Finally, Wrath kneed her in the solar plexus, smashing her body against a small brick building and leaving her gasping for breath as she hung by its side, halfway buried in the wall.
Slowly, he approached her. “Hmmm, I think I’m gonna be keeping you, perhaps give you to Lust once I’m done?”
“No, you won’t.”
Wrath froze, a large hand grabbing him by the top of the head like a vice and locking him in place. Lifting his hands, he grabbed the arm and attempted to struggle free, but he may as well have not tried as the owner didn’t budge a single muscle, his red cape covering most of his body and flapping against the wind.
Pulling him back by the head, Kal punched the demon in the stomach, folding him in half and causing him to throw up in the air. Releasing Wrath’s head, Kal punched him again, his fist digging deep into the demon’s muscles before sending him flying up with a sonic boom.
Wrath hit one of the eldritch being’s tentacles so hard the limb exploded in gore and then his back bounced against a second one, finally stopping his momentum and allowing him to fall down, all four of his regenerated eyes nearly popping out of his head from the pain.
With an incoherent scream, Kara exploded from her place in the building, flying straight at the demon with Red Light covering her entire body. Just as she was about to reach his falling body, she felt something grabbing her by the leg.
Twisting around, she lashed out, blind with utter rage, but her enemy was too strong, wrapping an arm around her body and pressing it against his chest, locking her arms against her chest and holding her in place.
“Coff… Coff… That’s it! Coff… hit her!” Wrath managed to scream, his power hitting Kal straight on and causing his eyes to shine red.
“No,” Kal said, his voice calm despite all the anger in the air.
“Wh-what?” Wrath gasped, unable to understand what was happening.
“Kara, shhh, remember our lessons,” Kal whispered in her ear, his calming heartbeat filling her ears. Kara could feel his anger radiating from him, but it wasn’t affecting his words or body.
With a scream that broke the windows around her, she finally snapped out of her murderous rage, but she was still left shaking from anger, her fingernails digging into his costume and she did everything she could to hold herself back. “Ho-how can you do it?”
“Do you think I don’t feel anger?” Kal's arm relaxed, releasing the grip he had on her body. “I’m not a stranger to rage, none of us are, but it will never control me. It’s not why I fight, it’s not why I want to fight. There is so much that’s more important. Focus on what’s important to you, on why you’re angry, not the anger itself.”
“I don’t know if I can…” Kara managed to say, but Kal just smiled at her, hugging her closer to his chest.
“I trust you. You’re much stronger than you think you are.”
Breathing hard, she finally released the death grip she had on his arm and floated in place, the rage still filled her mind, the diffuse red haze surrounding her body, but she did her best to control herself, to rise above it. It wasn’t easy.
“Ah fuck off,” Wrath yelled, having finally recovered enough to pounce on them once again, but he seemed smaller, slower, less filled with power. He was unable to feed upon Kal’s fully controlled anger. “You weak hypocrite!”
Kal just leaned back, letting the punch pass in front of his face before backhanding the demon so hard he sent him flying out of the city, hitting the water and creating a huge trench before bouncing against the surface hundreds of times.
Without even glancing at the result, Kal gave her a bittter smile. “Sorry, I have to go,” then he burst into action, getting back into the fight by punching through a tentacle.
Even without Wrath around, Kara still felt the same rage, the same desire to rip and tear everything around. Taking slow breaths; she closed her eyes and tried her best to control herself.
Accept it, don’t fight against it, don’t resist. The anger was real, it was part of her but, just like Kal had said, there were so many things that were more meaningful to her.
Her family… her friends… her goals… In the end, weren’t they far more important than her desire to hurt others? Kara did her best to keep images of Kori in her mind, of Kal and Kon, but it wasn’t easy, the rage still running so strong, like fire in her veins.
She gathered her thoughts, her feelings, focusing the rage instead of just wallowing in it. Slowly, the sounds from the city started registering again, the cries for help, the desperate fighting in the sky.
Finally, when Kara opened her eyes again, they were no longer clouded. She still felt her rage simmering just below the surface, she still REALLY wanted to follow the demon and demolish him, but she wasn’t alone and, in truth, Wrath wasn’t that important in this fight.
Her rage was still running hot but, no matter how strong it was, she had realized it was unsubstantial in the face of what she truly cherished, something for her to use, not be used by.
Closing both hands into fists, she refocused and looked around. She had a job to do.