ALL NOVEL Chapter 12.2
Kara manipulated the Fortress controls and finished adapting the solar chamber to be able to house March’s stabilizing fluid. Throwing herself back against the chair, she sighed. “How long until you can fully understand his biology?”
“Three days, his cells seem to be mostly defective Kryptonian cells, but there is an alien DNA mixed in and holding it together. The fortress database may not have the information needed to fully cure him.”
“Not even by cloning him a new body?” she asked the AI.
“It would certainly increase his lifespan, but not solve the issue completely, his brain would still be composed of defective cells and eventually deteriorate, we could clone his brain tissue, but even Krypton was unable to ascertain if that would solve the issue or just create a new being.”
“I see... would exposure to Nth metal solve the issue?”
“Again, it would delay the deterioration, but the cells are fundamentally wrong, it is unlikely to fully solve the issue.”
“So, either I get a geneticist good enough to fix it, or I find a mage capable of transferring his soul,” Kara wondered out loud. “Does the Fortress have any information about anyone who could help me?”
“Unfortunately, the great majority of such individuals are known villains, several scientists at star labs may be able to solve the issue given enough time and investment, but it is likely the clone would have already died by then.”
“As for transferring his soul, again, the field is mostly dominated by villains, but Giovanni Zatara may be able to help with it, the former Dr. Fate or John Constantine however, are far more certain options.”
“Ugh, right, there was that Fate debacle to deal with,” Kara wasn’t completely against Fate, yes the YJ version was a mind controlling asshole, but it could have easily been avoided if people didn’t keep ignoring the man? Creature? Eldritch being?
The Lord of Order was a necessary presence in the universe, Kara doubted she could befriend the being, she’d always remember what he would have done by taking over Zatara’s body, but she could respect it… somewhat. Its situation could have been handled so much better.
She could only imagine the state of the world’s mystical problems after so many years without a Lord of Order to balance Klarion’s influence. No matter how much of an asshole Nabu truly was, a Lord of Order was still needed and, at least, he was somewhat heroically inclined.
It would really suck to get rid of the helmet and get saddled with a dictator or mass murderer, not all order was nice after all. Kara was starting to see how the Justice League could be overwhelmed; she didn’t even know where to begin solving problems.
No, that was a lie, she knew where she had to start, she had to get more allies, she had to get her own team, a team of heavy hitters capable of dealing with the likes of Klarion and Mr. Mind and coming out on top.
Maybe then she could make her cousin’s life a little easier.
She did briefly think about getting the help from the team, but there was a problem. They were kids.
Sure it was fun to watch them work in a cartoon, but she just couldn’t put them in the kind of situation she was planning on getting. In truth, the team was composed of kids with ages between 14 and 16 years. They most definitely should not be facing people like Vandal Savage and Sportsmaster, much less the eldritch abomination that was Klarion, no matter how much they protested they were ready.
For fuck’s sake, they weren’t even over the age of majority, they should NOT be risking their lives, she respected them for it, sure, but that doesn’t mean she’d let them do it.
This is why there were child labor laws, damn it, and to think that she was mostly on the team’s side when she watched the show for the first time.
At least she had to admit, most of the Team’s troubles weren’t the League’s fault. At face value, their missions weren’t anywhere as dangerous as they turned out to be.
Yes, they weren’t ready for an infiltration mission on a foreign country, but Superboy, Miss Martian and Kid flash were strong enough not to be in any danger from average drug dealers and Robin and Aqualad had the training to deal with it.
More than that, almost all of their missions were like that, things they shouldn’t have any problem with that went to hell because of things impossible to know were happening.
At least this time they’d have Kori with them, so they shouldn’t get overcome by most dangers. Starfire may not have been the stealthiest of heroes, but Kara would actually give her a fair chance against almost any member of the Justice League, the girl was just that good a warrior.
With another sigh, Kara stepped away from the control panel and stretched her neck, now it was up to the Fortress to examine the clone in depth and try to find a solution to his defective genetics.
Who knows, it may not even be that problematic and its Kryptonian database may have a ready solution? Stranger things had happened.
It had been almost two hours since she arrived at the fortress and Batman hadn’t called her back yet, Kara was starting to feel uncertain, had Green Arrow not agreed with their plan? Or was he taking his time beside his newly found foster child?
Kara’s plan was simple: to use the Light’s own creations against them, she had already taken over Cadmus and, with the G-Gnomes’ help, she could deprogram both Kon-El and Speedy, getting both an uncompromised half-kryptonian and a double agent.
The Light’s main advantages were their anonymity and the fact nobody knew where they hid, with Speedy freed from their mental commands, he could continue to act as if he was following orders and find out where they were.
The Light’s main dangers were Klarion and Savage; if Kara could take out those two it would solve half her problems.
Not that she was underestimating Lex, freaking, Luthor but the main driving force behind this particular alliance were the two immortals who had been working behind the scenes for millennia.
At least she could trust Lex’s xenophobia to turn him against someone like Darkseid in the end; she couldn’t say the same about Savage, much less Klarion.
Unwilling to stay in place just waiting for an answer, Kara made a quick search on the internet and found what she was looking for, hopefully her first teammate. “Say, does the fortress have a shovel?”
“I’m sad to say Kal-El never felt the need for a shovel, but the fortress can easily produce one in a few minutes?”
“No need. It’ll probably be faster without one anyway,” Kara waved him and entered the Fortress Zeta-Tube, adjusting it to send her to New York.
As always, the Zeta-tube left her in a small, closed off alleyway where she could easily fly up, taking advantage of the night and her blank mask to keep her identity a secret.
From the air, she had to squint a little to be able to find where the Queen’s was, but finding the memorial cemetery was actually pretty easy.
Making sure there were no guards around, she dropped on an empty patch of grass and tried to be as respectful as possible as she searched for one particular grave, finally she found it.
It read, in memory of Danette Reilly, 1924 – 1945.
Looking down at the ground, she used her x-ray vision and gave a sigh of relief to see the body was still inside, if a little bit deeper than she expected.
She hadn’t been sure just when the woman had been exhumed and there was a chance she had come a little too late.
Considering the situation, Kara had been hoping the coffin would be closer to the surface and she could just… grab it and pull it up, but it was actually buried deep into the ground, it seems she’d have to get her clothes dirty. “I guess they did bury people 6 feet under back then.”
With both her flight and the resistance of her body, a little bit of earth couldn’t even inconvenience her, but she was annoyed she’d have to take a shower later.
With a sigh, she used her flight to start sinking into the ground until she could reach the coffin and pull it open, getting earth on her eyes felt kind of funny, but it didn’t actually bother her, her eyes could bounce off bullets after all, and she had x-ray vision.
She quickly pried the coffin open and found Firebrand’s body completely intact inside the wooden casket; pulling her up by the arm, she lifted the limp woman up and out of the hole in less than a minute.
Then she looked at the mess she had made and sighed again, the grave was less disturbed than if she had actually excavated it or pulled the entire coffin out, but there was still a large, uneven hole going down which was impossible to miss.
Lowering Firebrand’s body beside her own gravestone, she considered the situation. “I do hope your problem is only a matter of hardware, I’m nowhere near as good at software stuff and I wouldn’t want to mess up your personality.”
Her clothes were already a mess, so she just started filling the hole she had made, then she got some grass from under a tree and laid on top of the bare earth before getting up and patting herself down. The grave was still a little lumpy, but nobody would notice it had been excavated unless they came very close.
Grabbing Firebrand’s body, she smiled. “Now let’s see what old man Morrow was capable of when he built you.”
Kara couldn’t wait to see if she could improve the woman with Kryptonian tech, Red Tornado may be one of the League’s heavy hitter’s but, when she was done with her; Firebrand would leave him in the dust.
