Chapter 60: Chapter 56
"Titans, today I'm here to give you a very important mission," Kara said, her hands locked behind her back in a military parade rest position, legs evenly spread as she stared at the team gathered in the Mountain's grotto. At her side, a pedestal with a box covered in black cloth.
Everyone stood a little straighter. Their last mission had been both important and very dangerous, with two members of the League of Assassins protecting their target. Even now, Psimon had an inhibitor collar around his neck as he served a sentence in one of Qurac's prisons.
Despite being rescued by Kori, Sphere had still bonded with Kon, the boy helping repair some of the damage done by the scientists in Byalia while Dr. Spencer, the damn woman, was working in collaboration with some of StarLabs scientists on Queen Bee's pheromones.
Kori herself only had an amused smile on her face, the Tamaranean princess knowing Kara well enough to realize when she was having fun.
For a second, Kara couldn't help appreciating her girlfriend. The girl had taken off her boots and was resting her legs on the water of the grotto. The Amazonian costume left most of her well-defined tights exposed and really accentuated her curves.
At her side, Miss Martian blushed, her eyes glancing between the two girls with what Kara recognized was a knowing look. Focusing on the girl, she narrowed her eyes in suspiciousness but shook her head and continued.
"These," she said, pulling out six small, cylindrical devices. A little smaller than a hand, they were slightly larger on one end, "are your new essential equipment. They will help you tremendously if anything goes wrong."
"So, you're already expecting things to go wrong, good to know," Robin nodded.
Rushing ahead, Kid Flash spared a nervous smile towards Kara before grabbing the devices and distributing them. "What is it? Did you make us Lightsabers like Red Tornado's sister? Cool!"
With a click, Miss Martian activated her device and a bright beam of light filled the room, illuminating everything she was pointing at. In front of her, Kon frowned. "Huh, that feels odd."
"I see you're not taking my lessons to heart," Kara frowned right back at him. "Why exactly aren't you wearing your radiation shield?"
"Because we're at the mountain?" he looked at her in confusion.
Kara's frown turned into a glare, causing the boy to flinch and Miss Martian to turn off her device, the light immediately returning to normal.
"Is this a red sunlight lantern?" Robin asked, fiddling around with his device and causing Kon to frown as he tried to lift from the ground.
Unfortunately, the red light had affected him enough that he couldn't fly.
"Yes," Kara nodded, quickly turning back to Kon. "And, if you were wearing your radiation shield, it would have quickly sensed that and activated, preventing your cells from absorbing too much of it. It seems I'm gonna have to start testing you guys after all."
Kon groaned. "Oh shit."
"I feel for you, man," Kid Flash patted his shoulder in sympathy.
"Why do we need red sunlight lanterns?" Miss Martian asked. "Are we training against you or Superman?"
"As I said, I have a mission for you," Kara said, stepping closer to the pedestal.
Grabbing the black cloth, she pulled it off the cube, revealing a cage with two white rabbits sleeping inside it. The light from the grotto woke them up and they lifted their heads, noses sniffing around with curiosity.
"Those are Subjects 1 and 2. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, will be to watch them."
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AN HOUR EARLIER!
The grave was a small thing, only a tiny ceramic cross with a collar pinned around the base, the ground still disturbed from where Kal buried his pet.
Finding the location had been easy, at least for her. In the middle of the empty landscape, it stuck out like a sore thumb… and she could eliminate an entire half of the Moon since Kal had said it could be seen from Earth.
Kara floated in front of it, her feet a few centimeters above the ground as she looked at the name on the cross, Fuzzball. Pulling her hand out of the pocket, she stared at the small orange rock she had created.
Her radiation shields were active, but the stone was a rare example of kryptonite that had no detrimental effects on kryptonians anyways. In fact, the radiation did not affect sentients at all.
At first, Kara had tried for platinum kryptonite, but all the data she had indicated it simply couldn't be made from the green variant. It was better to say green kryptonite was made from platinum and reversing the process was beyond her current ability. Maybe in the future, when she further explored the entropy equipment the Fortress had.
Still, orange kryptonite would serve her goal well, she just wasn't sure it was a very good idea.
Ever since he told her about his cat, Kara had been unable to forget Kal's words. Dexter was a silly, aggressive thing, but she had grown extremely attached to the cat, the very thought of losing him felt like someone tied a massive piece of kryptonite to her chest.
The worst was that she couldn't even count on old age taking him, that she could accept. Instead, what if, back then, her programming mistake had been with one of her automatic defenses, not just the kryptonite Box?
It was improbable, yes, she took far better care with those, but she didn't think she'd mess up the box too.
What if someone attacked her home while she wasn't there, or even while she was there, but they used overwhelming force? Kara could see more than one villain killing the cat just to spite her.
Putting the stone back in her pocket, Kara flew back to her base on the other side of the natural satellite. She rested the stone on top of a small platform in her safe and activated the dimensional lock.
Stepping away, she walked into the garden room and stared at the pair of rabbits she had there. Pulling out her computer, she carefully checked them again.
One of the young mothers at the pet store had tried to say hamsters were better pets, at least to start with. They were easier to take care of and shorter-lived, so it wasn't a long commitment, but the idea of creating super-rats seemed particularly stupid. No, rabbits at least didn't eat meat.
The pair were females, spayed and from the same litter so they may get along better and spayed. Fortunately, their reproductive organs showed no signs of regeneration despite a whole day of exposure.
If they did regenerate and try to breed, they'd still have to find males and Kara could drain their powers with gold kryptonite. But they were a control pair, made to verify if there was anything wrong with the procedure both in the short and long term.
Hopefully, if they showed anything wrong, she'd be able to fix it before Dexter started suffering.
Sitting at her computer, she typed for another half an hour, double and triple checking her work before grabbing the components and carefully assembling the neural transmitter.
Contrary to the usual design, this one didn't let the user interact with electronics or connected one's mind to the internet. No, it still monitored mental activity, but its primary function was very different.
The neural transmitter also looked like a small horn… because it amused her.
Opening the cage, Kara let the rabbits out, picking Subject 1 up and fixing the little horn to his forehead. Carefully, she released the animal on top of a wooden platform, gave it some food and looked at the resulting data.
No unusual brain activity, good.
Carefully, she activated the device, watching for any changes in thought or behavior, there weren't any. Great, the device wasn't supposed to mess with the brain, just the bioelectrical field.
A kryptonian always had the field active around themselves, and the protection automatically extended to any clothes they wore, it shouldn't be impossible to make it extend to everything the rabbits touched too.
Using an automatic pincer, Kara pinched the thin wooden surface of the platform; the metallic tips didn't pierce the fragile wood despite the literal ton of pressure her robot used. She smiled.
Kara wanted to strengthen Dexter, but she wasn't blind, he was far from docile. Extending his protection field to anything he touched should prevent him from turning every stranger he met into paste without compromising his defenses.
Hopefully, with time, such measures would be unnecessary but, for now, she didn't want her kitty killing civilians… Villains that attacked him were fair game, so the device would temporarily deactivate if it was attacked with enough strength to cause actual damage.
She had already made lenses that blocked heat vision and shouldn't irritate his eyes, all that remained was to see if there were any adverse effects on the subjects before empowering him.
Fixing a second neural transmitter to Subject 2, Kara registered their brain activity and nodded. Now, who could she push the super-rabbits on? Kara had no desire to raise the cute little things.
Putting them back in the cage —not that it could really keep the pair if they wanted to escape, but it made carrying them more convenient— Kara covered it with a black cloth and teleported back to the Mountain, the place was reinforced enough to deal with the creatures if they went wild.
Also, she had sunlight lamps all over the mountain and they could easily be adjusted to red. As long as the rabbits weren't exposed to yellow sunlight too much they shouldn't be able to develop the full width of kryptonian powers, or at least not at full strength.
There was also a lovely grotto where they could make their homes and minion… No, unpaid inter… A team of brave heroes to watch over such dangerous creatures.
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NOW!
"Awwww!" Miss Martian said, floating closer to the pair, her eyes almost unnaturally large.
Seeing the soft look in Kon's eyes as he watched the scene, Kara knew she had won. Kori would side with her and Aqualad felt indebted for the equipment she provided, he wouldn't deny a favor, that only left Kid Flash and Robin. It was four against two even if they refused.
"Please," Robin said, staring at the rabbits with wide eyes. "Please tell me those aren't what I think they are."
"What?" Kid Flash asked.
"That's really not aster! It's the opposite of aster!" the boy wonder complained. Being Batman's sidekick —even if he disliked the title— allowed him to connect the dots faster than anyone else. "I forbid it, Batman forbids it, the League forbids it!"
"Dude, calm down," Kid Flash gave his friend an odd look.
Floating by Aqualad's side, Kori seemed to understand her end goal. "Kara, you know you did not need to do this," her girlfriend said, coming closer and hugging her. "We will be moving in a few days and you made sure the new habitation was entirely impregnable, yes?"
"Sorry, it just wouldn't leave my mind," she gave the girl a sheepish smile.
"It seems I'm missing something here," Aqualad said, coming closer to look at the rabbits. "Why are those creatures so important?"
"Look up, solar lamps are in the ceiling instead of the normal ones and she just gave us these lanterns, lanterns specifically made to affect someone like her," Robin said. "She's also a mad scientist and Superboy said she was experimenting with kryptonian genetics to help his other clone."
"Oh," the team leader said, taking a far more serious look at the cute animals. "What exactly did you do to those rabbits?"
"Nothing much. Just gave them kryptonian powers," Kara said smoothly. "I'll give you guys the data I have, but they are much weaker than an adult kryptonian, if you make sure to depower them for an hour every day, they shouldn't grow stronger than an Atlantean. Also, their horns will make it so they won't be able to damage anything they're touching, not beyond what a normal rabbit can at least."
The rabbits could still eat after all.
"Somehow, that's not exactly reassuring," Aqualad commented, watching as Miss Martian took one out of the cage and the other followed after, floating.
"Well, I guess the question is if they're gonna start breeding," Kid Flash joked. "I don't think the world is ready for a plague of super-rabbits."
"No, the problem is who she's gonna empower next," Robin said with dread.
"... She wouldn't," Kid Flash said, realization hitting him.
"She had to test on something else first," Robin said, looking at Kara with horror. "She's gonna use it on the beast."
"You… you ARE evil," Kid Flash said, his entire body shivering.
"Come on, Dexter isn't that bad," Kara protested.
For a second, every Titan but Kori stared at her, disbelief in their faces, even Miss Martian, already holding one of the rabbits to her chest and slowly petting it.
"If I may ask a question," Aqualad said, hesitantly. "For how long can a Kryptonian hold their breath?"
"In good health? Indefinitely," Kara said, unable to help being amused.
"... I was afraid of that," Aqualad sighed and continued in a lower voice. "I will need to warn my King."
Snatching the second animal from the air, Kara held it up, pink nose turned towards the Titan's leader. "So, will you refuse them? Leave the sisters homeless or condemned to the cold, empty halls of the Fortress of Solitude? After all the equipment I supplied you?"
Aqualad's eyes darted every which way, but even he couldn't ignore Miss Martian's eager gaze or the rabbit's cuteness, getting a nod from Kon and Kori, he sighed. "You drive a hard bargain."
"YES!" Miss Martian shouted.
Letting the rest of the Titans get acclimated to their new pets, Kara approached Kon and sat beside him on a rock. "How is Im-El doing?"
"Confused," her younger cousin said, leaning against the rock she was sitting on and crossing his arms while staring at the girls playing with the animals. "... He's having problems with CADMUS indoctrination and the learning program you used."
"Ugh, I had Dubbilex check him for mental commands, but we didn't want to intrude more. I hoped they hadn't progressed with his indoctrination since there weren't any hidden orders."
"Can you ask Dubbilex for help again? I talked with M'gann but she's not skilled enough to help him."
"Of course, but I think M'gann's uncle would be better here. Dubbilex is good and, with the other Genomorphs, he can be impressive, but the Martian Manhunter should have far more experience."
"Alright, I'll see if she can get his help."
"You could talk with Kal, he works with the Martian too," Kara commented. Turning to look at the boy, she waited until he started to move to go join the others and asked. "By the way, have you asked her out yet?"
Kon's feet slid and he had to grab the rock for support, his fingers digging into the gravel and leaving five small holes as he regained his balance and glared at her. "I… ah…"
"Come on, you're cute together," Kara teased with a smile. "I wasn't gonna start teasing until later, but you're much better adjusted than I thought you'd be by now so it's fair game now."
Kara's phone rang before he could give her an answer, interrupting their conversation. Kon shook his head and grumbled, but went to join the Titans.
For a second, Kara just watched the group, smiling as Kori gave her a wave and tried to call her over. Instead, she lifted the ringing phone and pointed to it, getting a nod from the girl.
Finally, she activated the sound blocker on her costume and lost her smile, answering the phone with a serious voice. "Bobo."
"Good news, I found them," the chimp said, immediately causing Kara to squeeze the phone tighter. "Bad news, they're ready to act, two days at most. Are you sure you don't want the Super Friends involved? Or the junior squad?"
"I'll warn them something is happening," Kara said, looking at the Titans crowded around the horned rabbits. "But I'm ready. We're more than enough."
"Listen, ya sure you want to do this girl? I know you're itching to have a go at the clown and Wotan, but some things you just can't take back. You sure you'll be able to look your cousin in the face after this? The Furry?"
That made her pause, Kal had understood her fight against Faust, but he REALLY didn't approve of it, doing so again would stretch even his goodwill. She had made a lot of progress in their relationship, grown so much closer… Unable to help herself, Kara smiled.
"I don't care about Batman. Well, I respect him, particularly now that he's working on making improvements, but his opinion doesn't affect me. As for my cousin… He'll be disappointed, but it won't change how he feels about me."
She'd like more time, to scout out the location and make more contingencies, but she always wanted more time, she could never have too much. Still, she had made enough preparations.
"Well, at least they're gonna be on watch in case they need to save our butts," the chimp sighed. "Guess I'm not drinking tonight, can't have a hangover on the job after all."
Taking a deep breath, Kara stretched her neck and got up. "Some things just have to be done. I'm willing to go on trial later if Kal wants me to, it shouldn't be that hard for you to avoid hitting the bottle for one day."
"Heh, easy for you to say, not like there's any idiot who would condemn you for it. I'll call the others."
Bobo quickly hung up, allowing Kara to turn off her sound filter, her smile returning. Later, she'd have to talk with Kori, she had promised not to fight without her, and she was going to keep it.
_______________________________________________
Thanks to Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.
If you like this story, think about reading one of my other works or giving me a tip if you have some spare change by supporting me on patr eon.com/CapCaverna or ko -fi.com/capcaverna
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