Chapter 62: Chapter 57
Kara made one last adjustment to Kori's power armor and stepped back.
Her own armor was larger, entirely black and had predominantly masculine features —well, it was better to say the armor was unisex— with several armored plates.
She also had a heavier model ready in case it was ever needed, one that traded flexibility for strength and defense, but the one she operated as Forge was balanced.
Kori's armor took, in some ways, the opposite approach. Made for a mix of agility and flexibility, it was very clearly female. Lighter and sleeker, the armor relied more on a force field for protection over more straightforward means.
The material could still take a few kryptonian level blows if the forcefield failed, but the equipment was made to hug Kori's form, allowing for a wide range of movements and not optimized for protection. The helmet was metallic, with only a red visor that blocked some of her field of view, but not enough to cause serious problems.
While the armor did have a few projectile weapons, the main offense was the Sword of Beowulf at her waist. The sheath had been put inside a metal casing so it wouldn't be immediately recognized, but the sword could easily be drawn out and its magic would augment Kori's already impressive powers and skills.
Looking at the end product, Kara nodded. At least the armor should cover the Tamaranean's entire body.
Kori had NOT liked the first version of the armor, the thick metal plates had blocked her movements and, while she hadn't said anything about it, she had clearly disliked the bulky look.
Kori wasn't as strong or resistant as some of the supers like Superman, Black Adam, and Martian Manhunter, so improving her defenses was good, but the Tamaranean's sheer martial skill more than made up for any lack of durability.
Turning her girlfriend into a tank was meaningless if Kara also curbed her ability to fight effectively.
Still, Kara reached for her tools and leaned forward again. Perhaps she could improve the shield's output by another percent if only she could…
An arm wrapped around her neck and, before she could react, pulled her back, dragging her out of the room without a pause.
"That will be quite enough," the owner of the arm said, peeved.
"Kori! Come on, I'm almost done," Kara moaned, but didn't resist too much.
"Kara!" her girlfriend continued to drag her away from the armor as the AI finished its last minute calibrations. "Please, have you not pledged not to spend such an extended period in your laboratory?"
"It's not my laboratory, just the workroom," she complained. Kara didn't have a laboratory at home yet. That particular failing would be ratified once they finally moved into the reformed house. "I just wanted to have the armor ready for tomorrow."
"Your excuses will not fool me. My armor does not need any more adjustments," Kori shook her head and tightened the grip on Kara's neck. "Perhaps it is time for you to stop worrying and come eat. You still require rest and nourishment, yes? Conceivably, it could be helpful tonight."
"Conceivably," Kara grudgingly admitted, her stomach growling at the thought of food and causing her to flush. "Yeah, I guess I could eat, thanks."
Lifting his head, Dexter seemed to have heard her because he immediately jumped from the sofa and started weaving between their legs, releasing a few meows as if to remind them he wanted food too.
"No, it's my food, you have your own," Kara glared at the cat, but it only stared back, round eyes slowly eroding her resolve.
Turning away before he could win, she saw that Kori had ordered pizza. With a sigh, she sat at the table and watched the Tamaranean cover a slice with mustard.
"I will not be hurt," Kori hugged her, kissing her cheek before floating up to sit at the counter. "I understand Earth has a culture of saving damsels, but this princess is entirely capable of fighting by your side."
"I know," Kara sighed, pulling one of her toppings and dropping it to the cat. "Sorry about this."
"I understand, I worry for your well-being too," Kori gave her a gentle smile. "That you have a team ameliorates my worries, but only to a modest degree, wherefore I asked to fight by your side. I can not stop you from taking risks, I can only be with you when you do."
Ugh, 'ameliorate'? 'Wherefore'? Why did Kori have to be so smart and wholesome? Now she really couldn't go back to tinkering. Biting into the pizza, Kara tried to stop thinking about the Injustice League… She really should have just dropped the League on top of them.
Perhaps if they had more time, she would. Unfortunately, while she could rely on both Captain Marvel and Martian Manhunter showing up, most of the League was currently busy and she didn't want to leave them without possible backup.
Her team would suffice.
The Lanterns were still at war, Wonder Woman as well as the Hawks and Zatara were in the Magiclands helping Doctor Fate put the magical world in order again after his extended absence and The Flash was having trouble with an unusually active rogues gallery.
Her cousin would show up if needed, but he was helping with several relief efforts and she didn't want to call him away from that to solve her problems, again.
Aquaman could be called, but he had just repealed an attack from Black Manta and was recuperating, Red Tornado had taken a family leave so he and his brother could help Dany get settled and Batman had exhausted himself with the reforms and taking care of Gotham.
It wasn't like none of the others would show up if the situation called for it, but stretching the already strained League further was a bad idea. There was always a chance something would happen or The Light would use the fight as a distraction. Asymmetric attritional warfare had been their goal from the beginning after all.
"So, how did the Titans like the bunnies?"
"They are most delightful. Robin and Kid Flash are still attempting to discover how you plan to use them as weapons, but the others enjoy their presence. Lagomorphs can be surprisingly adorable, yes?"
"I suppose I could use them in planetary sieges or something?..." Kara mumbled. "Rabbits can have around 10 to 12 litters a year, with up to 12 kits each, if I release a hundred breeding pairs in a resisting planet, very few would actually die and they'd probably devastate the planetary food supply in what, six to ten years? I wouldn't have to do anything.
"Also, with kryptonian powers, they could burrow even in urban areas, causing tremendous infrastructural damage to existing cities even if they didn't attack anyone, making an attack much easier."
"Bad Kara," Kori booped her in the head . "Plotting to starve your enemies is forbidden."
"Hmph, it probably wouldn't work anyways. They'd find out about red Sunlight and start exterminating them before too much damage was done."
"I see. In that case, I shall inform the others you will not be releasing kryptonian lagomorphs as means of warfare. I am certain Robin and Kid Flash will be most relieved."
"Say, wanna go dancing at Catwoman's again after this? I kinda liked it."
"Joy! May I invite Master Diana with me?"
"Sure, I'll call Dany too, we can make this a girl's night out."
Having Wonder Woman at Selina's club would be an… interesting affair, especially if Ivy was there too after her rescue. Would she agree not to arrest her if Pamela agreed to getting treatment?
Well, that was a problem for later. Picking up another topping from her pizza, she cut it into four and pushed it toward the cat. At this point, Dexter had jumped on the counter and was watching, a single paw extending forward before Kara glared at him and he pulled back.
Pucking her slice, Kara bit into it, enjoying just… spending time with Kori and not thinking of anything else.
Later, the two of them entered the workroom, both armors ready. Swiftly, Kori turned towards Kara and wrapped her arms around her neck, giving her a kiss that curled her toes and stole her breath.
"I have been told that giving the kiss of good luck is tradition before such operations."
"... I'm definitely not opposed to it," Kara smiled at her, giving Kori another kiss.
Separating, Kara watched as the Princess stepped inside her armor and it closed around her. With a hiss, the clasps locked in place, tightening the plates around her and giving her the full width of movement she needed.
Kori tested the armor again, bending her body and stretching her limbs, but the equipment only hampered her a little bit. Kara stared at the armor's curves and almost wanted to call it a day. Damn, Kori looked hot in it.
Grabbing the helmet, she stopped behind Kori and took a moment to tie her hair before putting it on her and clasping the equipment in place.
Snapping her arm up, Kori activated all the guns on the armor, causing two missile launchers to rise from her shoulders and both railguns on her arms to glow threateningly red. Lifting her nose into the air, she spoke in a strangely modulated voice. "Surrender or be eliminated. Muwahahahaha!"
"Is that supposed to be me?" Kara snorted, stepping away from the armor. "Come on, I don't laugh like that."
Kori didn't say anything, but Kara could feel her stare even through the armor.
"Shut up! Anyways, how's the armor?"
"Disturbing yet intriguing. I did not know having such great capacity for destruction could feel so empowering."
"Hah, the weapons are only slightly stronger than your starbolts. The defensive fields and sword are the important bits."
Stepping into her own armor, Kara checked one last time to see if everything was working correctly before the both of them stepped into the teleportation platform and disappeared from the apartment.
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The meeting happened in one of her safehouses. With the ability to teleport and Bobo having left a camouflage surveillance drone watching the building in Midway City, there was no need to be anywhere close before the rescue happened.
When she entered the warehouse, Kara couldn't help lifting an eyebrow. On one side, sitting around a table were Detective Chimp, The Shade and Green Arrow, aka Minion 3 with his armor. On the other, Catwoman, Kite-Man and Red Bee stood awkwardly and kept giving them odd looks.
The not-quite-so-famous Red Bee was an average man, he wore a red costume with only a tiny black mask, his pants were striped red and yellow reminding her of his namesake and blue boots. The man looked extremely fit, only slightly behind Batman in that aspect.
Kara had done a search on the hero after hearing about him and she was genuinely impressed. While he wasn't the greatest detective —wasn't even in the ballpark, really— he was very competent and strong enough to deal with multiple criminals.
In fact, despite not having powers himself, she'd give him an even chance against most lower-level villains, his skill more than enough to deal with some powers.
Kite-Man wore a modern green costume with a visor protecting his eyes, he wasn't as fit and probably sucked in a fight, but he didn't look as idiotic as his name suggested at least.
"Excellent, we're fashionably late," she said, stepping into the room.
"Don't worry, you're perfectly on time," the Shade spoke, briefly taking off his hat.
"Forge," Red Bee greeted her.
Dropping a holographic projector, Kara connected to the camera watching the building, and created a complete display for them all to observe. The building wasn't huge, only seven stories tall, having once been a hospital that had closed doors.
At the side of the image, the data about every member of the Injustice League was there, including their rescue target. A picture for every one of them.
On one side of the projection, Wotan, wearing a long, black coat, his eyes black and blue skin making him very evident. Black Adam, a lightning bolt on the chest of his black costume. Atomic Skull, wearing a yellow jumpsuit and his typical helmet.
On the other side was the Ultra-Humanite, currently in the body of a white gorilla, brain exposed. Count Vertigo, wearing an elegant suit, his posture perfect. The Joker, his usual purple suit with a pack of cigarettes in the front pocket, a huge smile on his face.
Finally, Poison Ivy, their rescue target. The camera could see through the building's walls, marking where every one of them currently was.
Looking around the room, Kara spoke. "Detective, was there any change in their activities?"
"Nope, still all there," the chimp touched his chest, looking for a cigarette but took his hand off the packet. "Suspiciously so, if I'm being honest, what with the jester being, well, the jester. Doubt they like staying in the same city as him, much less the same building."
"You think it's a trap?" Catwoman asked.
"No offense, but Bee-Guy there did escape a little too easily if ya ask me," Bobo shrugged. "The houses around the building are empty, but there was no violence and the building is filled with Joker's traps. Meaning they've been in the area long enough for him to go nuts and people to get spooked.
"Worse, the only reason it took so long to track them was that the Joker kept moving between five other locations, one's that don't exactly paint a pretty picture," Spreading a map of the city on top of the table, he revealed five red dots surrounding their target location.
"Should we retreat?" Red Bee asked with an uncertain voice. "If it's a trap, we may have far more time to plan this."
"Just because it's a treacherous pitfall doesn't mean they're not going to be through with the attack, my dear," The Shade said. "As Bobo pointed out, the Joker is very aggravating, people like Wotan or Black Adam wouldn't agree to such an arrangement without a time limit."
"Yep, they're almost finished," the Detective said. "Whatever they're doing in there is big and it needs Poison Ivy and Ultra-Humanite. Since the place isn't covered in plants, they needed equipment.
"A little bit of legwork and I found several suspicious deliveries. None to the building itself, but to nearby commerce areas. Orders too big for the neighborhood, from suppliers too small to have the storage space to fulfill them. Several of those trucks are coming back tonight and tomorrow."
"They're taking away the equipment," Kara said. She definitely could understand wishing to keep her equipment. Some of it was a pain to create in the first place. "They're either finished or nearly so."
"Yep, they either attack tomorrow or vanish with the complete product and catch us by surprise later," Bobo shrugged.
"As I'm sure the detective noticed, the five locations he's marked aren't random," The Shade said again. "I have made use of something similar before to battle two powerful entities. Depending on the details, this may have just become far more dangerous."
Looking at the map, Kara immediately noticed the problem, drawing lines between the dots. They easily formed a perfect pentagram around the building they were going to assault, one that covered the entire city.
She didn't remember the Injustice League using anything like this to enhance their plants, which meant this was a change, one to strengthen the trap or empower the attack even more.
"Anything strange at the locations?" She asked.
"Nope, they're empty houses, no carved runes or strange rituals," Bobo said. "The Joker isn't exactly known for playing with magic, but the houses did have a story of people going mad."
Fuck, another unknown in the attack. "What could they use such a ritual for?"
"Wotan is Viking while Adam's Egyptian," Bobo said. "Since I didn't find any runes in the place, it's not something that's easy to divine. They could be summoning something or empowering Ivy's plants."
"Such symbols are very versatile," The Shade said. "When I made use of it, I chose five locations where I had killed in the past to strengthen my connection to the Shadowlands and call upon the power of a god. The other time an enemy used places where he had been defeated to summon a demon."
"So it could be anything?" Minion 3 asked, drawing the connection lines himself. "Any idea how to narrow it down?"
"Well, Wotan did use the Clown to fetch things instead of acting himself and the houses had history," Bobo said. "The ritual probably has something to do with madness or trickery, but I really can't narrow it down more."
Kara just stared at the building and the pentagram, thinking. Was she really going to attack today? Yes, yes she was.
"I'm not letting them keep Ivy," Kite-Man broke the silence, hands tightened into fists. "Whether you help or not, I'm going in."
Taking a deep breath, Kara spoke. "We'll act today. There are seven targets, of varying degrees of danger. Catwoman, you've dealt with the Joker before, can you disable his traps?"
"If given time," the woman nodded. "But I don't like my chances against any of the big boys."
"Good, we'll try to simply teleport Ivy out before the fight but, if that fails, you, Red Bee and Kite-Man will wait until we engage before infiltrating the building and rescuing Ivy. By that time, the Injustice League should all be busy, so you'll only have to deal with the traps."
"I have adapted my gliders for stealth operations, they won't be visible and shouldn't trigger any alarms," Kite-Man said, pointing at the holographic display. "We could enter directly from the fourth floor. I can also help with electronic traps."
Seeing as the guy rode on a freaking kite, Kara didn't think he had any technological know-how, she turned to stare at him and he shrugged.
"I helped build the Jokermobile," Kite-Man shrugged, but Kara could feel the anger in his body. "I know how he designs things."
"Good, Plan A is simple, my weapons should be able to disable most of them through the walls. At the same time, I'll try to teleport Ivy away," Kara revealed, causing several larger drones to form behind her from the nanomachines. "Unfortunately, they're not strong enough to disable Black Adam and, maybe, Wotan depending on his defenses, we'll have to lure them outside. I have made two Nth metal projectiles that should disable the duo, but I don't want to risk missing by shooting through the walls."
Creating the projectiles meant losing her magical defenses on one glove, but she should be able to recover the metal after the fight and she still had her right hand to block magical attacks.
It was unfortunate that she couldn't just coat several bullets on the material or shoot minuscule particles, Nth metal's disrupting ability increased with the size of the metal, if she made them too small they may not even pierce Black Adam's skin.
"I don't like the thought of going immediately lethal," Red Bee protested.
"I won't aim for any immediately lethal shots," except toward the Joker who was fair game. "As long as they survive the initial shot, I can keep them alive."
"And what if the walls are reinforced with magic?" Green Arrow asked.
"If they can block the opening shots we'll go to Plan B," Kara said. "Black Adam is arrogant enough that he should still be easily lured outside and disabled. Shade, can you deal with Wotan?"
"Easily," The Shade nodded, then adjusted his grip on his cane. "Even empowered by a ritual, I should be capable of at least delaying him."
Kara nodded, getting ready. "Good. Worst case scenario, I and Fatale should be able to fight Black Adam even at full power."
"I'll be accompanying the cat lady. I know the Clown is usually the furry's business, but I've studied his case enough to be useful," Bobo said. Bending down, he pulled out a long case and opened it, lifting a longsword over his shoulders. Seeing Kara's stare, he smiled, showing his large fangs. "Felt a little left out at Morrow's lab, so a friend lent me a little something."
Staring at the Sword of Night, possibly a stronger blade than the Sword of Beowulf at Kori's waist, Kara couldn't help wanting to grab it for herself... She wouldn't, but Rao did she itch to.
Well, at least Bobo just became vastly more helpful in this confrontation.
"What's Plan C?" Green Arrow absent-mindedly asked, already touching one of Kara's larger drones.
"Overwhelming firepower," Kara said. "If things get too dangerous, we get Ivy away and I blow them all to hell… probably quite literally. I found a way to limit the area of damage from the demo...."
"We will ask for reinforcements," Kori interrupted her. "Raining hellfire will be Plan Z."
Kara looked at her girlfriend and sighed. "Very well, I should be able to call on Justice League assistance, a trade for the help I provided against the Eldritch creature at Salem," at least that would be her justification to keep Forge separated from Supergirl.
An hour later, the team teleported a few kilometers away from the target and slowly moved invisibly through the street.
The rescue team positioned themselves in a higher position from where they could glide directly at the target while Kara, Kori, Minion 3 and The Shade, stood a kilometer away. Slowly, Minion 3 loaded two Nth metal bullets in his rifle and waited.
Staring through the camera and following the Injustice League movement inside the building, Kara lined up her drones, each one with both a teleport gun and a railgun in case they blocked teleportation.
Getting the correct dimensional coordinates, she pulled the trigger.
_______________________________________________
Thanks to Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.
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