Part 4
After a surprisingly fruitful, if frustrating discussion, we'd pretty much set ourselves on a general plan of attack. Well, plan of action, which included attacking, but also included a lot of other things. Like dealing with the Undersiders, and prepwork. So much prepwork. For the Undersiders, for the attack, for what came after, and for our group in general.
Starting with more spell cards. And Rider Belts. And a revamp of the old Rider Belt I gave Lisa along with some new models.
Thank any gods listening that Gabi had taught me about Runes. It would completely suck if I needed to do a total rebuild, every time I wanted to as much as tweak an interface.
Though, I probably was going to need to do a rebuild at some point, just to make use of better materials.
Case in point, as her part of our preparations, Kara was making use of some of the workshop's more 'conventional' facilities, and some stuff from her section of the base to spin together some Kryptonian fabric for us.
Which was something I was pretty excited by. Mostly because my Mage Armor spell scaled off of the best, actual armor that I understood well enough to properly visualize. And while my current set was good, it had nothing on the bullshit some superhero costumes stood up to. Particularly in cases where 'The Clothes made the Superman'.
Actually thinking of that exact thing-
"I don't suppose Steel ever shared how his stuff worked?" I asked Kara as she worked off to the side, while I worked on a smaller, much more simplified Rider Belt buckle. "-Or actually, was his stuff good? His armor can stand up to Kryptonian level hits in some continuities."
Supergirl stopped her work, which was… I guess it was kind of like soldering bits of fabric together. But with a blue green laser thing. Definitely adding material instead of just melting it, but more smoothly. Either way she looked up at me, "Steel? He could throw down with Metallo, and managed to hold off Parasite after they drained Clark, but Steel's stuff wasn't quite as tough as we are," she said. "I actually helped him make one of his armor composites, not his most recent one though."
"That'd still help a ton," I said. "Fabric's great for catching something trying to punch through you, but can only minimize impacts so much. There's a reason most heavier armor is a mix of flexible, rigid, and semi rigid materials," I explained. Well, reminded. Durable as she was, she probably already knew this stuff.
"Aren't you just magicing up your armor?" she raised an eyebrow.
"The Cantrip scales off of what it's based on," I explained. "Magic helps. It covers for weak points, increases relative durability, wearability, adds features like magic resistance, strength enhancement, and a whole bunch of stuff. It can even make impractical armor functional. That's actually how our dinner outfits worked." I could even make the iconic 'chainmail bikini' and not only have it comfortable enough to wear, but protective enough to shield its user from an axe to the gut. However… "But the more magic is making up for that-"
"The less it can help with other things," she followed along. "Okay, that makes sense. Well, however much sense is supposed to make," she added dryly, saying the quiet part out loud.
"Cantrip magic tends to be pretty simple like that," I confirmed shamelessly.
"So the better the base armor you have to work with, the better results you get?" she asked.
"Pretty much," I confirmed. "It doesn't need to be actual armor. A design works fine, but the more details the better."
"So you don't need to actually understand how it works?" she asked, as if annoyed with this concept. "Ugh, that's totally cheating."
"Says the Kryptonian." The look on my face as I said this could not be any more flat.
"Yeah but that's…" she started, then sighed, rolling her eyes.
"You're right though," I agreed. "Magic is absolutely cheating. That's why it's gonna help us win."
"Right," she agreed… but not with a lot of enthusiasm.
"Still not happy with the plan?" I asked her. "The 'killing most of them' thing?"
"No- Yes- I get it," she said, turning to face me directly. "I mean it. I get that these aren't the same circumstances as back home. And even there, there were times we couldn't hold back but…" she frowned.
"But?" I probed, already knowing what she was probably going to say.
"It shouldn't be like this," she said firmly. "This world… It's a complete pit. Society itself is corrupt from the core and doesn't care about any of the people who make it up. Everyone's given up hope. Even the Heroes can't do anything, if they aren't outright corrupt puppetmasters making everything the mess it already is."
I let out a hum at that. "Hmm. That's true. However."
"However?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"You're looking at it wrong," I said to her bluntly.
The other eyebrow shot up as she rested her hand on her hip. "And how am I looking at it wrong?"
"They haven't given up hope," I said in outright defiance of her earlier statement. "Think about it. This is a world where there shouldn't be any heroes," I declared. "This isn't like your world, with gods, aliens, and metas. Every superhuman you meet here got their power at their lowest. When they didn't have anyone to support them. Their power is based on the worst day of their life, reminding them of it, rewards them for reliving moments like it, when it's not outright whispering in their ear to get them to spark conflict…. And yet, there are still heroes," I reminded her.
"Lots of powers come with dark urges," she reminded me.
"Yes but not most of them," I replied. "And you're also underestimating the value of people like your Cousin. Or the Star Spangled Squadron from back in the day, of the ancient heroes of the more distant past. Of those symbols of hope. Those greats who showed people they could be better. That there were people with power who were out there to protect them. That didn't abuse their strength." I outlined. "To be the standard that is impossible for mortal men to reach, but always a goal to strive for."
I shook my head. "If I can ever consider myself even half as good a man as your Cousin? I'll die content knowing I was a true hero."
That seemed to take her aback, "Clark's not perfect."
"Well no," I said. "Obviously not, given he has evil alternates and all that. But that's the point. Those worlds also tend to be darker. And this world? This world doesn't have a Superman. Instead? They got Scion. A guy, who even outside of being a xenocidal monster who's wiped out countless species, visibly does not give a damn. He never talks to people. Acts entirely randomly, and literally projects an aura of sadness around him, bringing everyone down, even before you factor in his real motives and the entre thing with the Shards."
"But there are other-" she started, then stopped. "That's your point. There are heroes," she admitted, and this time she didn't spit the word out like their very association dirtied it.
Even thought, admittedly in a lot of cases? It kind of did.
But that was the kind of world it was. Its heroes were dirty, in one way or another. But sometimes they could get the job done despite being down in that dirt.
"There are bright spots," I agreed. "We just need to add more." It felt like I kept needing to repeat that with her.
Maybe I did. Maybe that was part of it.
Her face scrunched, "Right," she said clearly less than enthused with the image.
Welp. So much for making an inspirational speech..
I shrugged. "It doesn't have to be you," I suggested as an alternative approach.
At which point I could pretty much see her train of thought, not only derail, but fly off to the side and explode. "What?" she blinked, then frowned, "What do you mean by that?"
"It's kind of a big ask," I replied in self aware chastisement. "I mean-" I paused. "Okay, you know? This conversation probably should have happened sooner. As I understand our situation, either you, or your progenitor if you're a clone, agreed to be part of this mess. There was probably some transaction involved. It was a really shitty day for you, and those circumstances might have been the only ones where you'd take that deal, but you did agree right?" I asked.
"That about says it," she agreed, clearly not being happy of being reminded of that day. "The Earth was dying, the Life Entity with it. Constantine worked out a contract with something that could fix it, but in return several of us had to give up our 'uniqueness'. Let them make copies like me, 'for disaster relief missions', in other worlds," she explained.
Damn. Sounded like someone in recruitment managed an easy payday. Presuming that Constantine wasn't on the payroll directly.
"Right, good. I was worried about that, given some of the earlier… miscommunications," I glanced off to the door.
"Lisa?" she asked.
"Lisa," I confirmed.
"Anyway. There you go, I did agree to all of this," she confirmed crossing her arms. "I mean, this place is definitely a disaster," she replied. Then more firmly added, "I'm not running away just because things are looking bad."
"Glad to confirm that," I said. "But the point I'm making is that. How you do that is up to you."
She raised an eyebrow at me again.
"Currently, I'm operating under a number of assumptions," I admitted. "I had to, given the pace of events. But now we have the time to clear the air. I was really hoping you'd be willing to step into your Cousin's role to an extent, but if you can't do that? That's fine. If you wanna go full technical support? I can work with that, though I'll want you to advise us on stuff. You wanna split off from us entirely to operate on your own? That's fine too."
That caught her by surprise. "You'd just let me go?"
"Some people legitimately work better alone," I said in rebuttal. "I want you with us. Penny and I only have fiction to work off of on how superheroes are supposed to work, and A2 doesn't even have that, but one of the main reasons I got Lisa originally was so we had a local guide to show us how the locals do things. One of the main reasons I got you was to help show us how to do better."
Her face scrunched up again. "Kind of a big ask," she repeated my earlier words… then sighed. "But it is what I signed up for. Sorry for moping about it… It's just…" she waved her hand around.
"It's a big job?" I asked.
"That's not the problem," she admitted.
"Huh?" I raised my eyebrows in confusion.
"Like I said, I've dealt with darker universes before," she said. "Nicer ones too! That's not the problem. I mean it is a lot, but I'm used to that. It's just… It's not home, you know?" she tried."
Ah… "I get that. Probably not as well as you," I admitted.
"And there is no 'home' for me," she continued. "I'm a clone. A copy. The original me is back there, saving the day for the Earth she's grown to love. With the people she cares about."
I followed where she was going, "While here you just have…"
"No one," she confirmed. "Not that I'm calling you no one," she corrected, though not particularly apologetically. She was just making herself clear. "You seem like.. Decent enough people? You're trying to help. That's a lot better than I expected to be honest. But I don't know you. And while this world is kind of like my Earth? It's also not the same."
"That I get," I nodded along.
"The worst part is, I know it hasn't really hit me yet," she admitted. "I'm still kind of numb to it all. Like with Krypton. It took weeks of Clark trying to help me adjust before it really boiled over. And this is the second time I've lost everything." She took a deep breath at that. "It just… kinda sucks? I'm not sure I'm in the right place to be the symbol of hope for anyone."
"Okay," I replied. "Then don't. Like I said, it doesn't need to be you."
"It kind of does," she replied, and now finally smiled at me, even if it wasn't a super happy one. "Like you said, this world still needs something like that. Even if it doesn't need it to be me… I think I need to be part of that."
"Well, you've got the rest of us to help at least," I added in as optimistic a tone as I could. Then looked at her straight face, "But seriously. If you need some time off, either now or later? You know just to; Think, Adjust… Grieve. Take it. The world needs your help, but no one's asking you to carry the weight of it alone. We'll help carry the load."
A thought occurred, "And it's not like the local Heroes are entirely rotten. His friends might have crossed a few lines, but Legend is nearly as nice a guy as his public persona paints him as. Dragon's a digital saint, who we really need to get into contact with at some point. Most of the others are at least trying even if they're not perfect."
"It's something," Kara admitted, turning to the more optimistic air of things.
"I mean we've actually got a lot to work with if you think about it," I argued. "A secret, secure base in another dimension. More raw firepower than anyone this side of the Triumvirate can match. A better understanding of the overall situation and people of note than I think anyone else on the planet. Scion and the Endbringers are still an issue, but we've got time to figure them out."
"And we can cheat with magic," she surmised.
"And we can cheat with magic," I agreed in a distinctly gremlin-like way. "Speaking of, can you help me with those armor composites? Right now I'm using a suit based on supposedly advanced metamaterials but, honestly despite their hypothetical toughness, the armor they were used in always ended up being totally shredded-"Last edited: Feb 8, 2025 Like ReplyReport Reactions:Tetron, Tufwut, adamasx and 353 othersMizuki_StoneFeb 8, 2025NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6 Part 5 New View contentMizuki_StoneExperienced.May 17, 2025Add bookmark#1,023Part 5
There was still plenty of prepwork to do outside of my tinkering, of course. One of the Lisa's had taken both Penny and A2 to teach them the glories of the Internet in a bit more detail, while the other did some more work with what was left of Coil's mess and assets. Kara helped me finish revamping my Mage Armor designs, which I'd rolled into the first batch of updates for Lisa's belt along with using as a template for Mage Armor's Overmagic to spit out a new, very impressive but entirely mundane costume for Brian (of similar style to his old one), and a few more tangible undersuits for the others.
Undersuits I then enchanted with a few other subtle but likely appreciated qualities, because I wasn't a hack.
I also started work on some of the more basic (though still vital) bits of equipment for everyone. Enough to make sure everyone had Toughness, Stabilize, the best offensive option I could offer for their fighting style, along with other essentials.
And while I was distracted doing that, the meeting with the Undersiders had apparently happened. Something that I would have generally preferred to have been a part of… But I also understood we were in a bit of a time crunch, and I already had my hands full kitting out everyone and grinding up what other critical Cantrips I needed to master enough to teach everyone.
Well, of the ones I could use anyway. I actually had a lot of Cantrips that never actually used for 'quest' reasons. There was a finicky bit to the contract for that one that paid off big as long as I didn't use a number of them in certain ways for a year.
Well. A year after my official mission had begun. Because The Company Fucks Everyone, and it seemed there was always someone in the supply chain trying to weasel out of delivering on upgrades like that.
Not that the mission- I'm sorry quest made any sense. Wasn't the entire point to stress test this contract? Either way, not my department. And it wasn't like it was a big ask. Like I'd already said, it took a lot of practice to make a Cantrip usable as it was, and my schedule was already full as hell.
Getting back to current events. Once my work was done I crashed out for another quick Haste facilitated nap, only to wake up to good, if surprising, news.
We'd found our targets. Or rather, mostly the Lisas had found them. Though Penny had apparently helped, and, now that we were in position, Supergirl had just confirmed it was them.
"Blonde goatee, lady wearing stained glass, lady with burnscars on her face, a creepy-looking robot with people bits in it, a naked lady with black and white stripes, a little girl and a big multi-legged, multi-mouthed tentacle beast, everyone but the last one and stripey loaded with cybernetics?" Supergirl asked in a rhetorical tone as she looked down at the vehicle below. A pretty standard looking RV with a white van lagging a decent distance behind them, both driving down a long, barren stretch of open highway.
"That's them," I confirmed anyway, because battlefield confusion was a bitch to deal with.
"As for the puppetmaster… Swan tattoo on the back of one hand, Omega symbol on the other?" She asked, pointing down at a van trailing behind the first.
"That's him," I nodded.
"Then we're ready to fucking go already?" A2 asked, from her position held in my arms, the third and final part of our strike party. Penny and the Lisas stayed back 'home' or in the Bay to keep an eye on things, and to allow for quick portal transit if needed.
"One thing," I said. "Can you reach into my right pocket- yeah there."
A2 held out my phone with a look.
I shifted my position where I was holding her (in bridal position, for rapid deployment reasons) to get my hand free, gesturing for her to hand it to me.
She did so.
Kara frowned, "Calling back?"
"Nope," I said, as I flicked through my music playlist.
Kara must have seen the screen somehow because her expression went slack. "Really?"
I grinned inside my helmet, "Yeeeep!" Now which to pick… Something from Queen? Tempting, but I wanted something with a quicker build up. Maybe 'Dark Energy'? Nah, too serious for these clowns. 'Ready to Die'? No. Definitely not, I was saving that for a special occasion.
Oh! I knew just the song, and thumbed down the list.
I set the BGM to Rock Smasher, then hit play.
"There, you got your soundtrack. Dive already," A2 complained.
I grinned wider and promptly did as the lady requested, twisting around while shifting my grip around her as I mentally grabbed hold of my Featherfall Cantrip, cutting the minimal thrust/float effect needed to keep us hovering safely, before slamming it back on as full flight, my back pushing hard enough into my chest it felt hard to breath as we shot straight to the ground.
Or rather towards a little white van.
A2 shifted in my grasp, as I hefted her up, against the pounding force of the air slamming into us, and helped her get her impractical stiletto heels up against my armored thigh, as I tagged her with another instance of Featherfall in preparation.
Then, the moment I lined her up on the van, A2 kicked off, and the cantrip triggered, sending me spinning back as she flew down toward her target. Her huge slab of a broadsword flashed into her hand in a burst of light, as she did. Her white hair flaring wildly as the hurtled down towards her target, like an avenging angel fired out of a railgun.
I laughed as I spun in the air, stabilizing my flight just enough to lock my eyes on the van that was my target, which I knew I needed to reach first, before she landed.
Luckily, I had just the tool for that, and as I reached out to Featherfall one last time for the night, I grabbed an even firmer hold, as I pulled everything it had to give and more, triggering its Overmagic.
In a moment, I went from hugging the edge of the sound barrier to smashing through it with gusto as I crashed down to the earth with the speed of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
I should have splattered on the ground. This wasn't just time magic, with the Overmagic active I legitimately was moving a very short relative distance at something like fifteen times the speed of sound
But magic is bullshit, so instead of splattering against the ground like a watermelon hit by an anti-tank rifle, I landed smooth as fucking silk in a three point landing. Because while style isn't strictly necessary, it was nice to pull when you had the opening.
I then stood up from my crouched position, spreading my arms wide in a T-pose toward the oncoming RV.
I didn't have Kara's super-senses, but I could wager just what might be happening in there. They probably didn't recognize me, but I just pulled some definite superhero bullshit, and even with only a moment to react. Jack power would have caught something was up and pinged the rest. Siberian then might turn the van invincible 'just in case' as they ran me over.
Or maybe they just didn't notice me at all, or at least missed my entrance, and only happened to see a man sized target on the road that they could run over for some bonus points.
Oh, nope. There we go. Right as the van got in a couple hundred feet of me, speeding along at a pace that really would be a lot more concerning if I wasn't me, it flashed into the iconic Black and White striped appearance of the Siberian's signature invincibility effect.
Then that promptly vanished as A2 smashed into the van behind them, and the Siberian presumably popped like a hyperdimensional party balloon.
With that out of the way, and the van still speeding towards me, I ran a few quick and dirty calculations, waited a couple relative seconds longer… then hopped up, and with a flick of Haste/Slow, hopped again outside of time for the split second as the front of the van passed where I would have been-
-Then reappeared right in the middle of it.
The nine reacted instantly, mostly not on a conscious level, but I could see the twitch along every one of their bodies as the network of their powers twigged at their proprioception.
The exception was Crawler, he was looking right at me with several of his eyes.
But he wasn't my target.
My hands flew out. My right hand lashed out in a knife strike across the throat of a woman with tear-like burn marks running down her cheeks, her flesh parting under my diamond hard strike.
My left hand slapped into the chest of the white mannequin-like form, my Echoing Fist discharging several inches past his armor to strike directly at whatever internals were under his center mass, while knocking it off balance.
Crawler spat acid in my direction.
I ducked, letting the jet fly over my head towards the front cabin. My feet touched the floor of the RV, not so much landing as skipping since the car was still speeding under me, nearly sending me spinning into a cartwheel from the force.
The woman covered in glass looked at me in alarm, along with the person I could only assume was Jack Slash himself, starting to open his mouth in surprise-
I twisted a hand in his direction and fired a full intensity Firebolt into his face as a beam, flash boiling enough of the moisture in his head to make it explode.
My other foot touched the floor again, now two thirds through the vehicle, barely twisting myself around enough to see the Cabin ahead-
Ah, there she was. A blonde tween girl, smiling desperately to cover just how freaked out she was, her limbs hanging unnaturally like a doll's as she used some sort of cybernetic override over her body's responses.
I blinked her out of time, a full twenty minutes ahead, then right as Crawler lunged, blinked myself ahead another real world second-
-Leaving me, hovering a few feet in the air, now properly cartwheeling from the imparted kinetic force of my brief earlier touchdowns. Barely managing to land in a stable manner…. Only to immediatelythrow myself to the side as A2 zipped by in the remains of the white van she'd impaled herself halfway through.
Which… huh. I hadn't expected that thing to still be moving after an impact at that speed. Maybe one of their Tinkers did some work on it?
Behind us, the RV began to swerve to a stop, and I went ahead and dialed back on my temporal acceleration since I no longer needed sub-millisecond grade reaction times.
Crawler exploded out of the back of the vehicle, and around us the sands in the empty flats around us began to shoot up and form a deadly, distinctly funnel-like cloud.
Only for Kara to drop in and tackle the massive betentacled, acid spitting mutated cape from the side, dragging him into the air, spinning him around her at speeds that would be a blur even if I'd kept dialed to full speed before launching him up, presumably into space.
That had, after all, been the plan. Which was part of why we'd done this at night, so she could properly aim for the moon (since she disapproved of using unnecessary levels of lethal force).
A2 however, like myself, did not have nearly as many objections. So when Shatterbird started to step out of the hole Crawler had just made, the silica-controlling Shaker was promptly met by a hypersonic panel of sharpened structural steel, as A2 yeeted her broadsword directly into the woman, literally splitting her in half… vertically.
Which left… the driver.
Who was presumably Hatchetface, and apparently not coming out of the car.
That was fine though.
I lobbed another Firebolt into the RV, this one in full glorious fireball mode. Which exploded in a very impressive manner, causing that final cape to promptly eject himself through the RV driver's side door, screaming, because you know, he was kind of on fire.
Frankly I was more impressed he was still alive. At full blast my Firebolts were about as intense as an arc welder, only over a potentially much bigger area, depending on how I used them. His Brute rating wasn't just for show, I supposed.
Then Kara put him out with a blast of super breath, following it up with a (frankly more merciful than he deserved) iconic instant bonk of unconsciousness to the back of his head.
"Everyone fine?" I called out to confirm, doing a quick sweep myself.
"Still alive," Kara replied, looking up. "Crawlers passing through the mesosphere. Looks like he'll break orbit fine."
"Fine unless you count being disappointed. That's it?" A2 asked.
"That's step one," I corrected. "Now we need to finish the kidnapping part. See how the deprogramming part works, and maybe if things go smoothly, break a few immigration laws."
Kara sighed, "Do you really have to put it that way?"
"Yes," I replied instantly. "Yes I do."
Part 6
Catching Riley as she popped back into the active timeflow was a little bit tricky. She'd been in a speeding RV when I popped her outside of time, and while normally certain interesting principles would have let her 'anchor' to the seat she'd been in, and subsequently, pop back at whatever level of velocity it was moving… That only applied if the vehicle in question was at least mostly intact.
Which you know, it wasn't, because of super intense fire, tinkertech, and apparently the gas tank had been pretty full.
So instead when she popped back, it was in the middle of the air at highway speeds. Which I could explain from experience normally resulted in a quick trip to the emergency ward, or you know, a morgue. If you were the sort of delicate little flower who couldn't survive little things like having their spine traumatically shattered.
Which… Riley probably wasn't, with the degree of modifications she'd done to herself? It was still likely a good thing that we had Kara to snatch her out of the air before she faceplanted into the pavement at roughly seventy miles per hour.
Well, when she finally popped out anyway. In hindsight I hadn't needed to set Riley to pop back into normal timespace a full twenty minutes after I'd popped her out of it. It had seemed a reasonable precaution at the time, giving us a wide window in case of complications, but for once, things had actually happened largely according to plan.
"Thanks again for coming along," I said to her while we waited. "I know this isn't exactly your sort of job."
Honestly, I probably could have done the job alone. Crawler was the only one I couldn't take out in a sneak attack. I did have a possible answer with my second dedicated attack Cantrip, but using it would have exposed another one of the aces up my sleeves, and I was a bit worried about how quickly I was running through those.
Kara gave me the side-eye as she considered my expression of gratitude/apology, "No kidding."
"Looked like she did a good enough job to me," A2 said in Kara's defense.
I shook my head, "Not what I meant."
"I'm not exactly the wetworks kind of girl," Kara admitted. "Normally anyway. Life has value, even lives that it might seem like the universe is better off without."
She didn't say it in a preachy way, or even like she was trying to convince us. If anything she seemed more… tired as she said it. Maybe a bit sad.
Which is probably why A2 didn't raise any objection, despite that sort of world view clashing pretty hard with what I understood of her general lifestyle. No if anything…. She seemed sympathetic. "I get that," she replied. "Shame there's a lot of assholes out there that'll force you to pick one life or another."
I on the other hand… was busy thinking back to the slightly widening eyes of a woman whose face was marked with what looked like ornamental burns. "Yeah," I agreed.
"So what's going to happen to him?" A2 asked, pointing her sword at the still extra crispy form of Hatchet Face.
"Legally, he's a dead man," I said. "Less legally… mixed bag. They might execute him, or some lady with a Fedora might ghost him away the moment he's not being masked by our presence."
A2 snorted, "Let me guess, someone important wants to keep him around?"
"Maybe," I shrugged. "Cauldron worked to preserve 'useful' members of the nine in the past. I don't know how much of that was Jack's power messing with them, but it was something they did." Though Hatchet Face wasn't one of the ones I knew about them intervening on. He'd been dead by the time the nine came into the spotlight in the original story.
Kara grimaced. "I still can't believe the corruption is that bad here."
I raised an eyebrow. "Your world's not that much better on the higher end… You just had a lot more people able to put out all the fires they caused."
Kara frowned, "Our world isn't that bad-"
"Cadmus. Task Force-X. President Luthor," I ticked off three fingers rapid fire. "I'll leave out all the parallel-dimension evil Justice Leagues and all the space stuff. But tell me any one of them wouldn't spirit a guy like this away to use for some project or another?" Which was not a small concession. The fuckups and deniable-operations bullshit that the Guardians of the Universe had pulled alone… I mean, it was kind of understandable given the scale of it, but you so rarely saw them own up to it, much less try to correct for it, outside of a few token individuals.
Kara raised her hands defensively, "Alright, alright. Point proven."
A2 snorted, "Never thought I'd think my background was the least fucked up."
"It's-" I started to protest… Then I actually thought about it. Kara had lost her world, twice. A2's world had been built on lies and ended in a betrayal that had resulted in all her friends dying, but her actual world was still physically intact, and 'people' she had come from were not only still alive as a species, they were likely actually on the upswing by the time of her recruitment.
If you really thought about it… Yeah, A2's personal history was still pretty damned horrible. Deceived and exiled by the people who created her, merely for the crime of her existence, had to live through everyone she cared for being picked off one by one, and forced to fight for every minute of her own survival after that… But she'd also been literally built to endure all of that, for most of it. Heck, she even had a pleasure/reward mechanism caked into her coding for actually being in combat…
"Oh gods, you actually have the least traumatic backstory out of all of us," I said in surprise, and maybe even a shade of horror.
A2 actually shifted on her feet as I confirmed that, apparently surprised at my appraisal.
"Penny's life seemed pretty okay at least?" Kara offered to A2 and my mutual relief. "Well, outside of dying and all the monsters and crazy people trying to kill everyone.."
"Yeah, her Dad was pretty awesome, and most of her friends were various levels of okay, last I checked," I nodded along. "I think her agreement with The Company even solved most of the murder monster issues? That's normally a pretty easy fix in our neck of the woods."
"And that means…?" A2 started, before immediately regretting asking. Like I could see the realization on her face even before she finished talking
Did I let that stop me from dropping a monologue of exposition though? No.
I did keep it brief though. "It's pretty simple," I explained. "While dimensional mechanics are complicated, you can boil them down to 'some worlds are much easier to reach from others'. This can include two entirely different worlds intermixing a lot easier than even alternate versions of the same world. You follow?" I said.
"I'm not actually that interested," The Android replied at once.
"I'm a little interested," Kara admitted, probably more as a way to kill time.
I took that as the go ahead to continue. "Right well… Because all of us are part of the same contract. That means that, for cost saving reasons if nothing else, our worlds are all roughly 'nearby' to each other, and that'll probably also include a number of connected realities and, of course, parallel realities."
"Meaning it's easy to move the resources from one of our worlds, to another one," Kara followed along.
"Or open a permanent gateway," I said. Mary actually had a cousin whose entire job was operating and maintaining gates like that. "Linking A2's world to Penny's almost always works out extremely well for both populations. One world has a population of humans and near humans with very little livable space under the threat of aggressive monsters. One world is mostly empty outside of a bunch of robots and androids, the latter of which desperately want to serve humans, to the point of suffering species wide depression because they don't have any."
Kara winced a bit at the last part, and flicked her eyes to A2 just long enough for me to catch.
A2 however… Seemed more, bemused by the explanation. "So things just click together just like that?" she asked, not seeming to believe it.
"Oh you get issues," I confirmed. "Even assuming neither the Machine Network, or whatever governing body behind the Grimm don't react negatively, you often get some issues where the humans of her world aren't considered 'human enough' by some Androids. But 'the Council of Humanity' is nearly always pretty quick to feed the appropriate propaganda to the masses on the android side at the beginning. Though ironically, the emotive, caring, and generally more empathetic culture Remnant promotes actually tends to quickly erode the council's overall power. Or at least its tendency to treat Androids as disposable assets."
A2 let out a snort, but seemed largely satisfied with the explanation. "I guess with something close enough to 'real' humans around, they'd have 'served their purpose'. Irony at its finest."
Despite her words, she didn't actually seem to take that much schadenfreude in the probable fate of many of her betrayers.
"I mean they might also have just imported a bunch of out of context material assets to either clear the Grimm out or get them into space. Or, alternatively, sent in an agent with an uplift or troubleshooter package," I noted. "Penny's world's pretty popular. But at the stage she signed up, it's more likely they'd have just used the gate option."
Steve might still take a late insert job like that. If he wanted to retire anyway. He was the sort of guy who thrived in long term, macro-scale stuff like uplift jobs. Gabby might also go for the opportunity, though she'd probably cut right to the heart of the matter first, seducing and/or assassinating Salem, then plotting out a double case of deicide.
Gabby was always kind of scary like that. She got a lot worse after Stacy was…
Fuck I missed Stacy. I even missed Mary, the complete, calculating bitch that she was.
"Any easy solutions to my world's problems?" Kara asked.
I winced. "Ah… not any cheap ones."
The Kryptonian woman didn't seem overly surprised. "Typical."
"I mean there are a lot of known fixes to individual issues," I offered. "But… Yeah, sorry. If you don't see things coming? Your sort of reality isn't some pond with a few big fishes. It's an outright ocean. Travelers don't dip their toes there outside of the shallows without a lot of preparation."
Company MO was typically either to set up a sort of proxy trade port type arrangement, send in a high end agent, or just outright ignore the DC worlds it stumbled across. They had a lot of stuff worth grabbing, but while the reward was great, the risk was just as, if not greater.
"It'd be too late for my world anyway," Kara said with a sigh. "Either of them," she added after a moment's thought.
At least until I got a lot better at fucking with time… if her version of that universe allowed for that. Also after I got a lot stronger.
Which was possible if I did end up getting the premium contact after all of this. Though I wasn't going to voice that, until I had some idea how probable it was.
Which wasn't to say I was currently without options.
"We could probably arrange a visit to an intact one?" I offered. "I know it wouldn't be the same but-"
"I'd really rather not," Kara said at once, her face telling me at once exactly how she felt about that offer. "Thanks but… No, just no," she added a bit more gently.
A2 snorted in amusement. "Idiot."
I shrugged, not apologizing. While she hadn't liked the idea she hadn't seemed offended, and it had been made with good intentions.
"So how much longer do we wait-" A2 asked before suddenly there was a 12 year old flying down the road at highway speeds about to faceplant into the pavement.
Kara caught her.
Riley Davis's eyes were shot wide, sweeping around frantically, trying to get a grasp on her situation before she opened her mouth.
Her eyes tracked to the burned, blown up remains of the RV, and to the still unconscious (and pretty badly burnt) form of Hatchetface, before she swiveled her neck up to look at Supergirl, still currently holding her.
I noted that her neck had actually hyperrotated a little to do that.
"...Thank you?" She tried experimentally. Her face then shifted to a more childlike, innocent, scared, and completely and utterly fake expression. "Thank… Thank…" she started to blubber.
Then she tried to stab Kara in the side with some sharp bit that extended from her ring finger.
Alright! Murderloli acquired. Time to see if we could deprogram her or not.
Part 7
Now, to be clear, actual, professional deprogramming is a long, dangerous, and above all difficult process for both the subject, and the people trying to help them.
Fortunately! I wasn't a professional. I was a wizard, freshly graduated from the school of Homicida Profugo. So I planned to just skip over the vast bulk of the difficulty with magic
Of course, I couldn't just magic away all of Riley's programming, so there were a few steps to do in between.
Which unfortunately for me, involved a few steps I wasn't really looking forward to.
"Little Brat," Kara grumbled as she tried to get a good grasp on the now actively resisting cybernetically enhanced tykebomb, without hurting her.
Which was not an easy thing given some of those adjustments or her mindset. I wasn't sure if Riley had modified her joints to move like that or had just willingly dislocated them after turning off her pain.
I started walking up towards them.
Bonesaw continued to thrash. "Let me go, let me go!" she called out, sobbing again, playing for sympathy once more. Just as fake of course. She was planning, still assessing, looking for a way out. For all the threat of her deadman switches, she wasn't actually suicidal on any appreciable level. For all the sudden stabbyness, my money was that her opening attack hadn't actually been lethal. No, my money was that she had intended to take Kara as a hostage.
A pretty desperate plan, to be honest. A hostage could provide leverage, yes, but only in a fragile way, unless you had a lot of redundancy. They also both elevated enemy interest and meant you had to actually deal with the hostage, and who knew what that crazy idiot might do.
Like, you know… be immune to your weird cybertic surgery/weapon, which kind of flipped the whole 'hostage/hostage taker' dynamic. As Kara was demonstrating.
Once I got into range I spoke up. "Riley Grace Davis, knock it off. You're not fooling anyone. Everyone here has enhanced senses, and is at least enough of a brute to walk through machine gun fire."
The murderloli's attention snapped momentarily towards me as I called her by her full name in full scolding parent mode… But then near immediately lost her once the surprise of that passed.
She did, however, switch tactics, "You sure that's enough? You've heard of me right?" she asked, then took a purposefully deep breath before blowing at us.
I had no idea if that was a bluff or not. However, "We're also environmentally sealed." That was one of the most basic of basic precautions when dealing with a bio-focused mad science type. Also part of the reason why I'd mastered Life Bubble
"You sure that's enough?" Riley asked again with an evil giggle this time, though I'd wager she was internally panicking.
"Yep. Supergirl, can you bring her over to the RV?" I asked Kara.
The Kryptonian gave me a raised eyebrow at that. "O…kay?" she said questioningly while following me over along with the no longer (obviously) struggling murderloli.
"What now?" Riley asked as she was carried over. "Going to show me all my dead friends?"
"Exactly that," I said, in what I felt was about as good a Jack impression as I was going to manage without having actually talked to the guy.
Whatever either of them had been expecting, it wasn't that.
A2 snorted off in the distance, but didn't seem overly amused.
Kara gave me a clear, 'what the hell' look, as I walked over and pointed.
I threw a Minor Illusion to her ear. Too quiet for anyone else to hear. "I've got a plan."
The more experienced hero gave me a look, but followed my lead.
"There's Shatterbird," I pointed over to the split apart carcass. "Vertical bisection would probably be tricky for you to fix fresh, but it's been almost half an hour."
Bonesaw's expression was absolutely flat as she looked at the shaker's remains.
I gestured over further back onto the road. "We dragged Manton's van off over there. He was basically a pancake, nothing left to salvage even if he was an organ donor."
The only remaining (conscious) member of the Slaughterhouse nine glanced back but then looked back to me, half frowning, half pouting. Pretending she wasn't worried.
I walked over, and tore open the side of the RV. It was flipped onto its roof at this point, but that actually made it easier to find what I was looking for, which wasn't hard. The inside was remarkably intact for what it'd gone through. Probably hardened by her and Mannequiin's efforts. Crawler's presence alone would justify it.
And speaking of Manneqin's effort… There was what was left of his shell. The limbs were gone, but the torso was mostly intact, heck it was still white despite all the fire. Unfortunately for him 'almost' was pulling some critical weight..
I gave it a point, "There's Mannequin . I popped every organ in his life support pod hard enough to crack it from the inside," I said pointing at the large crack running through the back.
Riley had looked at him but only for a moment, instead her eyes had looked around until locking onto one specific seat.
"And yeah. There's Jack, well, some of him," I said pointing over to some vague bits where he had been. "High intensity fireball to the face. Even the bone pretty much evaporated." it'd been hot enough that his torso had been partially cremated from proximity.
Riley was now completely still, and I knew it was the time.
"Hatchetface's still breathing, but they're all dead. All of them," I told her. "Every member of your second family, twisted as it was. And there's not a damned thing you could do to save them. Just like you couldn't save your original family from them," I said to her. "You know you couldn't. Deep down. You've always known."
And as I did I hit her with Stabilize, dialing back all but the mind recovery to simple 'won't get worse' levels.
"Am… I dead too?" she asked, in an unsure tone.
"Bonesaw is," I said, walking over and then bending down enough to get eye level with her. "Riley Davis however… Has remarkably been found, six years after vanishing from her home. Though her name and location will be withheld from the public for reasons of her own security and privacy."
It was an odd trick phrasing things like that. I'd picked a tone like a news report, since it was both detached from the situation, and, given Jack's proclivities, certainly something she'd heard many times. Giving her a less painful way to think of things.
Which she might not use. It could just confuse her. But I suspected Riley was a clever girl, who had a lot of experience with coping mechanisms and detachment.
"Are you my new family?" she asked, not missing a beat.
A2 shifted over from where she was playing overwatch.
"If that's what you need me to be," I replied without hesitation. I hadn't been sure she'd react in that way, but it was one of the general outcomes I'd been aiming for. "But, I'm not going to lie. I'm going to be pretty bad at it," I added as an honest warning.
Not as bad as Jack obviously, but that was a really low fucking bar.
Speaking of standards. I really did need to comment on just how impressive Kara's restraint was in not burning a hole through my head with the glare she shot at me. Her expression made it rather obvious just how difficult a task that was.
"But-" I continued. "-I think I can still help you learn how to actually be a good girl, like your mother asked you to be."
"...You know?" she asked, seeming confused, maybe a bit panicked, and I couldn't actually tell if she was genuine this time or still faking.
"I know lots of stuff," I said with a shrug. "I can give you another option. Drop you off in a world where they know everything about you. Where your skills would be valued, but you'd have a lot less freedom," I paused. "Not that we're letting you free. Well, not at first."
A2 let out another snort.
"What he means," Kara interjected, "is that we're going to try and help. That means both keeping you safe, and showing you what not to do."
I gave a nod of agreement on that.
"Speaking of protection… I'm finally hearing sirens," Kara warned the rest of us.
"Which makes this time to leave," I confirmed. Manually activating the Featherfall card I'd slotted into my rider belt in silent mode. I looked over at Kara, "You want A2 or-"
Kara didn't quite shove Riley into my hands, but it was close. "Keep it below the sound barrier," she advised, then floated over to A2.
"Alright kid!" I said, accepting the (hopefully former) murder loli into my hands. "We're going for a piggy back ride. Just remember the story of the scorpion and the frog, and hold onto any further murder attempts until after we arrive safely at our landing zone!"
Personally I was betting on a midnight gas attack. At least once she figured out we weren't bringing her to anywhere with any squishies she could take as an actual hostage.