Capítulo 2: Chapter 2 - Rewrite
Kara watched with a calm face as the medical robot worked on her missing leg. Psions may not have used anesthesia on their victims, but they did keep some to use on themselves, just in case of an accident, or a rampaging experimental subject.
So, she barely felt anything as the robot sliced open her healed knee and started connecting the prosthetic circuitry to her nerves, but she was feeling a little nervous.
Kara wasn't really worried about the robot. Despite being somewhat backwards, Psions were still far more advanced than Humans. Even their worst machines still made modern hospitals look incompetent.
Really, the only reason so many of their test subjects died was because they usually didn't care to keep them alive. Finding out just how much trauma an individual was capable of withstanding before death was part of the experiment.
No, Kara was worried about the piece of kryptonite resting on top of the medical tray close by. It was an unfortunate necessity if she wanted the medical instruments to pierce her skin, but that didn't mean she had to like it.
At least the remaining Psions had finally been killed last night. Kara didn't know how she should feel about that. On one hand, she still hated them with a passion but, on the other, she knew her cousin wouldn't approve.
After the fight, the control room had been a huge mess. Computers and delicate devices were melted or filled with projectiles, and there was Psion blood everywhere.
Still, after Kori had moved the Kryptonite into a safer location, Kara had managed to use the controls to reconfigure the ship's security robots, ordering them to hunt down any monster or Psion they found.
It had been an impulsive move. Kara had been filled with anger, pain and adrenaline when she gave the order. The result was an empty ship, with every Psion executed, but Kara couldn't bring herself to regret it.
Kara was used to dealing with crystal based technology, but she did remember using Earth technology, and she had been raised by scientists genetically engineered to be smart. So, she understood how to manipulate Psion's computers fairly easily.
Almost a week later, they were still in the Vega system. Their ship was massive, but it was geared heavily towards research and, since they were never supposed to leave the system anyway, had very little in the way of propulsion.
Turning her head away from the piece of radioactive rock, Kara looked at her new leg once more. It wasn't very pretty, and it wouldn't hold up to the kind of stress her own body could take, but it was stronger than steel and allowed her to stand without having to rely on her flight.
Kara had lived two lifetimes being only as strong as a normal human, having a leg only slightly stronger than steel wasn't all that hard to swallow.
It helped that Kara had managed to include a hidden plasma weapon and a short range personal shield on the prosthetic. The shield was capable of blocking heavy caliber projectiles while completely ignoring most energy weapons.
By Rao, if Kara was gonna be forced to have a prosthetic limb, she was gonna have a badass one!
Kara had half expected to be able to regenerate her leg, or at the very least her eye. Unfortunately, it seems like it would take time to fully recover from her healing coma and all the Psion's experiments.
Creating a prosthetic eye was a little harder, what could she put on a bionic eye that she didn't already have as a Kryptonian? Instead, Kara had just put on an eyepatch and accepted that she wouldn't be getting a new eye anytime soon.
Finishing the operation, she tested her new leg, moving the individual toes and then the joints before putting it against the floor and slowly getting up. There weren't any problems.
Really, flying was awesome, but Kara had already started to miss just walking around.
The leg itself was made from an extremely heavy dark gray metal, but it was still no wider than her own leg. All of its mechanical parts were hidden behind a metal shield, but it still granted her 80% of her feet movement.
The prosthetic wasn't perfect, the technology far behind what Krypton could do, but it would serve, for now.
Kara and Koriand'r found themselves alone on the huge spaceship. There had been other prisoners before their escape but, when they started flying towards the command room, the Psions had decided to execute every other test subject lest they manage to get reinforcements.
Kara refused to blame herself for their actions, but it still hurt to know she could have saved some lives; If only she had been paying more attention to her improved vision or hearing, she could have acted.
Walking away from the medical bay, Kara couldn't help but look at her new leg from time to time. In the docking area, she found Koriand'r carrying a giant crate of tools from further inside the ship, her arms lifted above her head.
The girl's face opened up into a giant smile. "Joy! Congratulations on the new leg, my friend!"
Koriand'r smile was contagious. Kara couldn't help but return one of her own. "Thanks, princess, want some help with that?"
"No need, it is just machinery for the automatons. Not very heavy, yes?"
"I suppose." Kara said. She was still unused to the fact that a ton of metal wasn't heavy. By Rao, a hundred tons may not be heavy for her right now. "You're looking better…"
And Koriand'r was, there was no mistaking that. Kara hadn't noticed before, but a week of good food and rest, coupled with her increased metabolism, had caused Koriand'r to recover at a prodigious speed.
The Tamaranean had bulked up. Koriand'r had looked like a beautiful but anorexic teenager before, now she was a very fit young woman, with obvious muscles and great curves.
"Thank you." She said and laid the crate down so the maintenance robots could get to it.
Thankfully, while Komand'r had laid waste to the remaining ships when she escaped, she hadn't left them completely beyond repair. By focusing on only one of the ships, the both of them had managed to get it working without much trouble.
In only a few more hours, the robots would be finished with the essential repairs and they could leave this cursed place once and for all. "Friend Kara, we have gone through battle together, shared the breaking of the feast and lunch for days. Please, why have you continued to refer to me by title?"
"I… suppose I just didn't think about it?" Kara confessed, a little embarrassed, Krypton didn't have royalty, but her previous life had taught her to treat royals with respect. "How about I just call you Kori then?"
"That is more than acceptable." Kori nodded and then floated up. "That should be enough to finish the maintenance, I believe. I am going to take one last sunbath."
Kori floated away while Kara sat down atop another empty crate and continued to play with her new prosthetic, deploying the shield or practicing taking out the small handgun hidden inside. When she finally reached earth, it would probably be full of people who knew her cousin's weakness. Kara wanted to be ready for them no matter what.
A few hours later, the mechanical bots beeped and started entering the repaired ship. It looked terrible, with patches of different colors all over the hull, some of its guns were missing and it used mismatched propellers, but it would work.
The robots would have to continue repairing the non-vital parts still damaged inside, but it was ready to depart. Kara sent Kori a message and started gathering her things.
They had managed to find what remained of Kryptonian technology on the ship, as well as all Kryptonite, which they kept in a lead box created by Kara using her heat vision to seal any openings. Soon, they were both comfortably sitting inside the ship and watching the research center from a few million kilometers away.
Kara took a strange sense of pleasure in watching the reactor of the large research station overload and explode. The ship actually broke apart in at least a dozen pieces then, with a flash of light, exploded with devastating power, shattering into millions of pieces and destroying all Psion research inside.
"In Tamaran, we do not like to live in the past or hold grudges, but I must confess I am glad to see that place gone." Kori said as she hugged Kara's neck from behind, finding and giving support.
They watched quietly while their ship picked up speed away from the station. Eventually, even Kara's enhanced vision couldn't make up the pieces anymore. With a sight, she tapped Kori's arm to be released and turned towards her. "Are you sure you don't want to be left in Tamaran?"
"Correct, the Citadel is still in control of my home. To return now would only force my parents to turn me away once again." Kori started to float away slowly, but Kara grabbed her by the arm.
"Come with me to earth then?" She asked and dragged the orange girl away from the window. "I'm sure we can get some help for your people there."
"Truly? Earthlings must be mighty warriors indeed, if they are willing to face the Citadel just because someone asked!"
"Ah… well, you'd be surprised what people would do for a hot girl." Kara laughed. Kryptonians didn't really have romance, but she had been a teenage male in her previous life, she still remembered how horny it made her. "As for being great warriors… they have some, but the majority is 'very' far from a Tamaranean."
"Then… please, how can they help me fight?"
"Well, let me explain a little about their heroes…"
It took nearly a week for the ship to leave the Vega system but, after that, the maintenance droids inside finally finished fixing the ship's drive. It allowed them to travel much faster, arriving in the solar system in only another two weeks, despite the huge distance between them.
Kara and Kori spent some of that time sparring, with the golden princess teaching Kara how to fight while flying, how leverage worked when you had no need to keep your feet on the ground and even just how to face a resisting opponent.
Kara didn't become an expert in less than a month, but at least she was no longer restricted to ramming things very fast. She also managed to get a handle on her improved strength. Kara hadn't broken a glass cup in nearly a week.
Kara had also spent at least an hour every day teaching her companion about earth culture and what to expect when they arrived. Making sure Kori remembered how fragile most humans were was a work in progress, and the princess just couldn't understand why humans would frown on too much exposed skin.
It took only a moment for their ship to land on the dark side of the moon. Kara had chosen the location because she didn't want to risk getting detected by any villain like Luthor, Vandal Savage or Brainiac.
Also, she supposed she wasn't ready to meet her cousin just yet, not without knowing which version of him she would find. Kal El hardly ever went bad in the comics but, when he did, it was always bad, Injustice and Justice Lords bad.
Grabbing a bag filled with gold and platinum she had found while passing through the asteroid belt, Kara put the ship under camouflage and took a small tank of oxygen. Ordinarily, she thought she could hold her breath long enough to make the travel between Earth and the Moon but, while her lung had healed from being harvested by Psions, it wasn't working at full capacity and she didn't want to risk it. Kori herself didn't even need to breathe.
"We're here." Kara said to her companion, noticing how Kori held her own bags of precious metals.
"Excitement! Eagerness! I can not wait to finally meet an Earthling! Do you think they will like me?"
"Nobody could dislike you Kori, it's impossible." Kara laughed. She took one last, deep breath, before holding it in and flying away from the ship, Kori quickly flying after her.
Kara took some distance from the hidden ship, not wanting to draw any attention to its location. Finally, she really let her power flow.
For the first time, Kara started flying as fast as she could, quickly gaining speed. In less than a minute, she stopped feeling the Moon's gravity pull. Seeing as she was alone, Kara stopped for half a minute so Kori could catch up.
When the Tamaranean stopped beside her, Kara pulled out her communication device and typed. "Will I have to wait for you?"
A few seconds later, Kori tipped back. "No, I seem to be much faster than usual. I can also fly much easier in space."
Giving her a nod, Kara flew away, accelerating from zero to a hundred in a single instant; if she wasn't in space, there would have been a sonic boom.
Even without a suit, the cold of space didn't really affect Kara. She was also managing to hold her breath fairly easily and feeling pretty great.
Then Kori flew beside her and bumped her shoulders, making her lose control and tumble through space for a second. Regaining her orientation, Kara saw her friend waiting for her and laughing quietly before flying away, leaving a trail of light from her hair.
"Oh she didn't!" Kara thought and narrowed her eyes, Kori's figure quickly gained distance. It took her less than a second to take out her communicator at super speed and type again. "It's ON!"
Kara started giving it her all, flying faster than a bullet, much faster. The planet itself seemed to become bigger and bigger after each blink of her eye, soon filling her entire vision. With a silent laugh, she tackled Kori and started tickling her. Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran was very ticklish.
Kara took her victory with grace, leaving the squirming golden girl lying in the air. She pulled out her oxygen tank and took a few breaths before putting it away. Lifting her nose at the recovered princess, Kara smirked, Kori pouted.
They returned to their journey, quickly entering the atmosphere and making sure to decrease their speed so they weren't flying fast enough to gather visible heat.
Kara may have lost Krypton, but she had been an Earthling in her previous life, she still had fond memories of the planet, in a way, they were much better than her current ones.
Her human parents had been much warmer than her Kryptonian ones. Also, their memories weren't tainted by the pain of her entire planet exploding.
Taking a long breath, Kara smiled, she was finally home.
.
Two hot girls flying down in space suits was not something one saw every day, it would certainly draw a lot of attention, but it was already dark. Kara just made sure they weren't caught in any cameras and dropped right in front of a lone teen with glasses.
She looked him over and dismissed him from her mind, but Kori hurriedly floated over.
"Greetings Earthling! Please, what is your name? Where are we? What are you wearing in your face? Do you want to be my friend?" She bombarded the poor guy with her questions while his eyes were glued to her breasts.
"Ahem." Kara had to intervene, making the guy snap out of his daze.
"Ahh… I guess we're in the United States, Fawcett City, I'm-I'm Ed Baker!" He swallowed hard at Kara's unamused face, forcing his eyes away from Kori's exposed skin. "I guess we can be friends?"
"Joy! You were right, Friend Kara, Earthlings are very receptive!"
"I bet he wants to be 'receptive'." She answered, narrowing her single eye at the teenager before releasing a sight and dropping to her feet on the ground. "I suppose you'll do."
"Ahhhh… I have to tell you, I'm too thin, very sickly, not at all a good probing candidate!" he took a few steps back.
"Do not worry friend Ed, I have been told probing is not a traditional alien greeting, no matter how many times it is portrayed in your history." Kori nodded in understanding.
"Those were fiction Kori, make believe." Kara sighed while pinching the bridge of her nose. "There will be no probing for you boy, do you have any money?"
"You're robbing me?" he asked, incredulously. This was DC. Kara didn't know why he was so surprised.
"No, but we need some normal human clothes." Kara took off her backpack and opened it showing him the metal bars inside. "We can pay you. We just don't have any of the local currency."
As he saw the amount of gold on her backpack, the boy lost all color, retreating a few steps and then falling on his ass. "I-I don't want anything to do with sto-stolen goods!"
"There. Was. No. Stealing! By Rao, we're aliens, we come from space! Why would we steal when we can just go to the asteroid belt and mine some gold?" Kara was starting to regret ever talking with the boy.
Ed looked from the two girls to the bag filled with precious metals twice, his face growing relaxed, and then turning into a smile as greed overcame his caution. "Look, I don't have any money, but you both are just about my cousin's size. I can get some of her clothes for one of those bars."
"Ha! I'll give you half a bar of gold."
"Three bars!"
"Half a bar! And we get to choose the clothes." Kara countered and laid an arm over his shoulders, whispering. "Next offer will only be a quarter."
"Fine! But, if you guys want to choose, you're gonna have to talk to Amber."
"That is acceptable, Friend Ed." Kori nodded, far too eager to meet another Earthling. "Please, do you think she will be my friend too?"
Seeing the boy's suspicious return, Kara gave him a break. "Don't worry. While we don't want to draw too much attention, we aren't really hiding. Going to a full mall and paying with gold bars is too much, but meeting a few people inside a house isn't a problem."
"Curiosity abounds! Please, what is this mall you speak of?"
"A shopping mall is a big building, usually filled with smaller shops, where people gather to purchase things, eat or simply to have fun." Kara explained towards her companion.
Ed took off his hoodie and handed it to Kori, it was a little too small, but still helped them to not stand out as much. As they walked, they alternated answering Kori's constant questions while the boy led them towards his cousin's house. They still got quite a few looks from some of the people on the streets, especially the males, but were easily dismissed from their minds.
They did look more or less human, the hoodie covered most of Kori's more exotic details and they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary.
Reaching a medium sized traditional house, Ed opened the small gate and led them inside before pressing the bell, when his cousin took too long to answer, he pressed it again.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" The girl shouted from inside the house.
Amber Joyce was a young girl of about 18, her hair was held up in a towel and she was already wearing plain white pajamas. She took one look at her cousin and the two girls hanging around him and frowned. "Nope, you're not doing this." Then she slammed the door on their face.
"Amber! Come on Amber!" Ed started banging on the door and pressing the bell for a full minute, leaving two very amused aliens smirking at his desperation until Amber opened the door again.
"Look Ed, just because my parents are out of the city, it doesn't mean you can just bring your cosplay girlfriends to fool around… Hey! What are you doing!?" She shrieked as Ed pushed his way inside the house. Kara decided to make the conversation easier, floating after him and smiling when Kori did the same. "Just… what?"
"Edward Jonathan Backer, what's going on here!?" She shouted and dragged her cousin away from the two floating women in her living room.
Kara just let herself fall down on the sofa and started searching for something to watch on the TV, but Kori floated around the room, looking at everything just like a curious cat.
"What the hell have you gotten yourself into?" Amber whispered in his ear after they finally got to the kitchen.
"Look Amber, don't ruin this for me, please?"
"Ruin what!?" Her whispering got louder. "Are you some kind of… henchman now?"
"What? No! I mean, technically…" The boy shook his head. "Alright, look, they just arrived on earth and don't want to stand out too much, so I thought they could borrow some of your clothes."
"Are they aliens now? I thought they were just metas. What the hell are you doing with aliens?" Then she registered what else he was saying. "And who the hell are you to lend my clothes to strangers!"
"Have I told you they have two bags full of gold and are totally willing to share?" The boy poured himself a cup of water. "Look, they just dropped down from the sky right in front of me, what was I supposed to do?"
"Call the police?"
"But… Come on!" Ed pouted at her and Amber sighed, stealing his cup of water, she drained it and massaged her temples.
"Haaa… but they were two hot girls, so you didn't want to. Fine, how much did they promise you?"
"Half a bar of gold."
"Where the hell did they find gold anyways?"
"They said it was the asteroid belt." He replied, now with some hope in his voice.
"Fine, fine, but I get 80%. They are my clothes after all."
"What! No way, 50/50!"
"80%, and I don't tell your parents what you have been doing after school" She told him and Kara smiled. Yeah, it would work out.
"Fine." He whined. Suddenly, his phone started ringing. "Shit, it's mom. Hi mom! Ah… I kind of forgot, at Amber's place, no! I mean, I can just walk, it's not too late, alright."
Ed was forced to hand the phone over to Amber, she smirked at him, not moving for a second and making him think she wasn't gonna say anything, then she took up the phone. "Hi, aunty, yeah he's here, don't worry he's not that annoying, love you too, bye."
"Look, can you stay with them?" He asked her, giving a few glances where Kori was floating up at the ceiling and poking the lamp.
"Yeah, I can deal with them." Seeing her cousin's reluctance, she punched him in the shoulder. "What were you gonna do anyway, flail your arms at the flying aliens like you did Carlos? Don't worry; anything happens I'm running away while screaming for Captain Marvel."
"Thanks Amber." He kissed her on the cheek and gathered his own backpack.
When they reached the living room again, Kara turned off the TV. "Hey, in the interest of being honest, I kind of heard everything you guys said." They both swallowed, but Kara waved their fear away. "So, this is Captain Marvel's city huh, cool."
"Ah, I'm just gonna… go then." Ed said, making his way towards the door. Kori managed to intercept him, giving him a back crushing hug which left the teenage boy equal parts happy and in pain.
"Good bye Friend Ed, we must meet again!" Kori released the boy, he was left breathing hard and cradling his back in pain, but still had a huge smile when he left for the door. Amber just stopped at the kitchen's door with a hand on her hips and looked at her two guests.
"Aren't you awfully comfortable here?" She asked, raising an eyebrow as she saw Kara's laid back posture.
"Comes with no one trying to kill or experiment on me." Kara answered, just to see her reaction, a smug smile on her face while Kori nodded beside her, equally happy.
"Yes, Earthlings seem much better than Psions, I am glad we came here!"
"Alright, I'm gonna pretend I didn't just hear that." Amber shook her head, not knowing how to deal with them. "So… you want some clothes then?"
"I did hear you saying your parents aren't home, right?"
"Riiight…" Amber answered warily.
"So, how about another deal, you lent us some clothes now, let us sleep here today, then help us for a day or two and I'll pay you a full gold bar?" Kara opened her backpack and pulled out a small and rough bar of gold from inside. "I didn't really weigh the thing when I made it, but it had about 10 kilos of pure gold, should make for a quarter million at least."
"Holy shit!" Amber stumbled away, staring at the gold bar with huge eyes, then at Kara's backpack. "Holy shit, that's a lot of money! Why the hell are you paying me so much money?"
"Convenience… mostly, we got a lot more in the bags, and it isn't exactly hard to mine some more if we need it." She confessed and Kori nodded by her side. Without knowing a lot about Earth's culture, the Tamaranean was letting Kara make most of the decisions, at least for now. "We're from another planet Amber, we don't have to value gold the same way Earth does."
Amber's eyes kept glancing towards the gold, but she seemed to steel herself, lifting her eyes, she asked. "And why have you come to Earth?"
"We're an advanced scouting party. We're here to study your heroes so our army will have it easier when they arrive." Kori gave her a mean look, but Kara let silence fill the room for a few seconds before laughing. "Just kidding, we're refugees. Kori's people were subjugated by assholes and she couldn't go back while my planet exploded."
It still hurt to talk about Krypton like that, the wound still felt fresh despite the time that had passed. Kara's new memories of another life made it easier, but not by much.
In a way, it was just something else she had lost.
With a sigh, Kara let herself fall back on the sofa and covered her eye with an arm, just waiting for an answer.
"Fine, you guys can stay, but only for today."
"Great." Kara smiled, adjusting herself on the sofa, she couldn't help but appreciate Kori's new clothes.
Amber had been smaller than her, so the clothes were very tight and showed her every curve. It most definitely didn't help that the princes chose clothes which left a lot of her skin exposed to the sun.
Contrary to Kara, the Tamaranean princess had healed and recovered very well, her body filling out in all the right places. Even her finger had been easily reattached.
Kara herself chose some baggy clothes which hid her features.
No longer looking like a supervillain, or an alien, Kara asked for Amber's phone in order to do something she had been eager for since recovering her memories.
She ordered pizza.
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