Chapter 5

Kara looked at the power drunk teenager on top of a building and sighed, she had briefly hoped the girl had escaped the city or something, but she should have known she wasn't this lucky.

One of the thunderbolts streaked from the girl's hand and struck Kara's own building, exploding her windows and making her hair stand up straight.

It seems she'd really have to deal with her before she really hurt someone, Kara could already hear the shouting of fear and distress coming from the streets, but Amber wasn't aiming at people… yet.

She had wanted to become a hero anyway, but she didn't want to do it by punching people in the face.

For Rao's sake, she was from the house of El, they had been scientists for generations now and, with the study she had on Krypton, she should be able to find better ways to deal with enemies than punching them.

She could understand why her cousin, without a proper education and having all the power of a yellow sun, would decide to fight in the frontlines, but she wanted to show a Kryptonian's power didn't come just from his body, but also his mind.

Even if it was very satisfying to just punch people who annoyed her.

"Alright, I'll deal with the angry one before she really hurts someone; can you guys wait here until I'm back? Without your powers, you shouldn't risk going after the others alone."

"But she shouldn't have the power of Zeus." Billy said, his face looking determined. "We can deal with her."

"Then she shouldn't be able to cause any trouble before I'm back." Kara answered and prepared herself for the fight. "Right now you're just a kid; you don't have to deal with this."

Billy made a face and Kara resisted the sudden urge to pinch his cheeks before flying out the window, her mind trying to come up with a way to deal with the girl.

She'd have to do it without her ranged abilities, there were hundreds of metahumans and aliens with flying brick powers but, if she started using heat vision or ice breath, her heritage would be pretty obvious.

She really didn't want to meet her cousin looking so… damaged. It was enough that she couldn't be there for him for decades, there was no need to make him worry about her too.

Taking care not to scare the girl away, Kara floated towards the building she was standing on and decided to try to fix things without violence, not everything had to be a fight after all.

"Hey, it's Amber right?" She called out as she approached, causing the girl to stop creating lightning and turn towards her. "Look, can we talk?"

"You!" Amber pointed at her and Kara tensed, but there was no lightning bolt, instead Amber started gloating. "Come to grovel have you? I defeated Captain Marvel, a little third rate superhero like you won't even be a challenge."

Great she was talking, what now?

Kara realized that, despite living two lives, she had no experience dealing with rebellious teenagers, much less rebellious teenager supervillains.

"Amy is worried about you, you know?" She tried and saw a flicker of worry on Amber's eyes, but it was quickly crushed.

"She was always weak; it was always me who had to deal with father, always me who had to take the beatings, always me who had to carry the others!" She screamed in anger and thunder rumbled in the clouds above. "But I'm free now, they can't hold me back anymore!"

"Amber you know that's not…"

"Enough!" The girl shouted and waved her hands, releasing a wave of lightning.

Kara tried to dodge, but even her speed wasn't enough and three bolts struck her in the chest sending a wave of pain through her body, locking her muscles and sending her flying back to smash into a building, leaving her twitching body on the floor of an apartment.

It took a second for Kara to recover and she shook her head as Amber started showering the city with her power once again. Taking stock of the situation, she saw that the attack hadn't actually damaged her, it just hurt a lot. "Rao, it just had to be magic, lightning already hurts, it had to have magic too."

Floating up, she patted the scorched spot on her shirt and saw a couple huddled against the wall in fear, the man trying to shield his wife away.

"Ah, sorry about that, supervillains, you know?" They stared at each other for a second before Kara flew away as fast as she could.

Flying around the building, she approached Amber from behind. Unwilling to risk punching the kid's head off, Kara grabbed her from behind and flew away as fast as she could, trying to take her away from the city before she killed anyone.

"Alright, I tried to do this the easy way!" Kara said they flew, the annoyance clear in her voice.

"How dare you!" Screeched Amber before discharging lightning from all around her, making Kara grunt in pain and annoyance. "Release me!"

"Do you want to kill someone?!" Kara screamed in her ear. "Look around; you're going to kill someone if you continue throwing a tantrum!"

"Shut up! They deserve it; they deserve it for not helping us!" Amber lifted an arm and another large thunderbolt hit her from the dark clouds above.

Kara gritted her teeth and speed up, finally breaking the sound barrier and driving both of them outside the city. They were just about to smash into the ground when Amber remembered she could turn into electricity and slipped out of Kara's grip, appearing a hundred meters away and trying to blast her.

"This would be so much easier if I already had Nth metal." Kara grumbled as she dodged Amber's aim again and tried to close up with the teen.

It quickly became a game, with Kara trying her best to grab the girl and Amber flashing away at the last second. They covered miles in seconds when Amber finally managed to nail Kara with a bolt and drove her into a road, creating a small crater.

Tires screamed as a car attempted to dodge her body, but bumped into her and went tumbling down the road, Kara could hear four people cry out from inside the van as it crashed to the side.

She tried to lift up and rescue them when another bolt struck her chest and hammered her body into the ground.

Her muscles twitching from the charge, Kara felt Amber flash down a few meters beyond her reach and call down another bolt.

"See, I'm so much stronger without them, they held me back!" The girl screamed and raised both arms to call down more and more lightning, further destroying the road and overcoming Kara's resistance to start actually hurting her flesh. "I defeated Marvel, I defeated you, I can defeat anyone! Nobody can hurt me anymore!"

Kara could smell her flesh burning from the magical lightning as it devastated the road and blinded her vision, she had to escape, and she had to leave before the girl actually managed to do permanent damage.

Then she heard the child crying from inside the van and smelt her blood.

"Mommy, it hurts." The child whispered, her voice weak.

By Rao, she was so little, just like the child Kara had met when going out for ice cream.

Gritting her teeth, Kara's fingers dug into the asphalt and, even under the assault, she managed to take a breath, then she used all of her power to briefly overcome the lightning and turned towards Amber.

"RHAAAAAAAAA!" She screamed, concentrating her voice in front of her and releasing a shockwave.

Her shout shattered the van's windows, causing the family to cry out once again, but also hitting Amber like a speeding truck, sending her body flying away and cutting off her attack.

Twisting around, Kara hacked, her lungs hurting almost as much as her skin before her hands closed into fists and she flew towards Amber.

The girl was trying to get up, but the blow had left her confused and disoriented, with blood coming off her ears. Dropping in front of the girl, she was absolutely bursting with anger.

Kara grabbed Amber's head and lifted her; unfortunately she didn't know how to safely make the girl pass out, so she forced her to look at the van and screamed.

"Look what you're doing, Look at her!" She pointed to the little girl with a crushed arm inside the van.

Amber's eyes finally managed to focus again and she stared at the little girl. Barely five years old, the kid was crying and too afraid to move as she bled out under the car.

"No, no!" She cried out in horror and struggled away from Kara's grip, her eyes never leaving the little girl. "I didn't want this. I didn't want this!"

Kara saw the fight go out of the girl and just dropped her, she felt like she'd kill the villain if she held on for much longer, and she had more important things to deal with anyway.

Flying towards the car as fast as she could, Kara saw the father finally crawl out from under the van. Grabbing a piece of the door, he used it as a weapon and tried to shield his family.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help." He still looked at her suspiciously, but Kara just made her way towards the car and used her x-ray vision to see if she could move the people inside. "I'm with Captain Marvel"

At the name of the hero, the father relaxed and dropped the makeshift weapon.

"Oh, thank god!" Falling to his knees, the man tried to crawl back and to help his family.

"Stop, let me do it."

Grabbing the car with both hands, she started tearing it apart like paper, prying it open without moving the people inside.

"What…" he swallowed hard."What about her?"

Kara gave one last glance towards Amber, but the girl was still trying to get to her feet and didn't look like she wanted to continue fighting.

"I don't have a way to contain her right now, and I'm not willing to kill." Kara told him and helped his wife out of the car.

They looked at the lost girl and frowned, but nodded. "I'm gonna call for help."

The teenager boy had passed out inside the car, but he hadn't broken any bones and his brain wasn't swelling, so Kara pulled him out of the car.

The little girl was a different matter, her arm had been crushed and the weight of the car was keeping her from bleeding out, so Kara had to be careful not to move the car or take too much weight off.

From behind her, she heard another thunder and turned around to see Amber gone in a flash, leaving another dark spot on the road.

Rao damn it! Hopefully, that had snapped the teen from her power trip.

Kara just cleared a path towards the wounded girl so the paramedics would have an easier time when they arrived and stepped back. "You shouldn't move her; the car's weight is keeping her from bleeding out but…"

Unable to do anything else, Kara heard the sound of the ambulance coming and decided her work was done. Flying up, she still waited between the clouds as the paramedics safely rescued the girl before finally going home again.

Without Amber attacking the city like a maniac, she had time to think about things.

Flying inside her home, Kara didn't see anyone there and sighed.

"Children, I swear uncle Jor-El was mad for wanting to raise a kid the old way." Cloning and help with education was far more effective.

Flying a few centimeters off the floor, Kara took off her destroyed clothes and threw them in the trash before taking a hot shower.

She grimaced when the water hit her body, but her muscles soon relaxed as she washed herself. Finally, she stood in front of a mirror and looked at the damage.

Her entire chest was filled with electrical burns, her belly was blackened with large exposed spots of red, but she could see they were already healing, everything looked painful and scary, but it wasn't actually very deep, she'd recover.

It'd still hurt like hell for a week or two, but she'd heal.

Touching one of the spots, she winced, magic was such bullshit.

Her cell phone was just a melted piece of metal, so Kara grabbed her landline and dialed Billy's number in a futile hope. The boy didn't answer. With a sigh, she dialed Kori.

"Greetings!"

"Hey Kori, how are you?"

"Most wonderful, I did not know the mall of shopping had such a diversity of nourishment."

Holding the phone against her ear with her shoulder, Kara started putting on her provisory armor. It was far weaker than her natural resistance but, when dealing with magic, it would act as a barrier and take the blunt of any attack… she hoped.

Either that or it'd melt against her skin and make things so much worse. "So, I take it Captain Marvel didn't call to ask for help or something?"

"Nay, he did not." Kori answered seriously, her voice losing some of her usual cheer. "Please, do you mayhap require my help friend Kara?"

"You know what? Yeah, I could use some help." Pulling the phone off her ear, Kara finished putting on her armor before continuing. "Can you meet me at the apartment?"

"I will be home in a moment."

By the time Kori finally arrived, Kara was fully armored and had managed to use her ship's computers to hack a government site, finding a blueprint for a prototype inhibitor collar. The principles behind its functions were simple enough for her to copy.

In a moment, she had cannibalized some of her technology and adapted it into an inhibitor shackle. She doubted it would hold up to the power of Zeus, but it should keep Amber from turning into lightning for a few minutes.

"Alright, this should be able to disable Amber for a moment if she still wants to fight." Kara said towards Kori.

"Wonderful, humans are not so dissimilar to Tamanareans, thus I should be able to disable her if she can not escape." Despite being slightly weaker, Kori had the training needed to make someone pass out without hurting them.

Koriand'r used a purple sports bra, gym shorts with a small skirt to cover her ass and ankle high boots, leaving most of her light orange skin exposed to the sun.

Kara couldn't help staring as her friend finished putting on the boots and floated up, her long, curly red hair floating around her like fire, then she shook her head and smiled. "Good, let's go."

They both flew off the apartment and Kara made a mental note to try and find another house, no way had people missed several heroes coming and going from her place.

Even with all her powers, Kara still couldn't find two kids wandering alone in the entire Fawcett city.

She didn't know if that was because her powers were still growing with exposure to the yellow Sun, or if she was in a version of DC where Kryptonians just weren't that strong.

"Friend Kara!" Kori called from her back. "Over there."

Turning around, Kara saw her friend pointing towards a hospital without lights. Activating her X-ray vision, she scanned the building and finally found everyone standing around the bed of an adult male.

Dashing through the air, they both burst through the window to stare at the scene.

The man on top of the bed was clearly related to Amy, they had the same hair and face, but he was still asleep and had a respirator over his mouth.

Beside his bed was Amy's missing personality, a kitchen knife held over the man's throat in her shaking hand.

Amy and her childish copy were huddled against the wall and trembling in fear, the girl was frozen in place, quiet tears falling from her eyes as she stared from Amber to her… father?

Finally, Amber held Billy up in front of herself like a shield and smiled with a cruel light in her eyes as she seemed to take pleasure in everything.

"Do it, end his pathetic human life already." Amber said with eagerness, lightning cracking around her head. "Come on, don't be a weakling like Amy!"

Kara frowned, Amber seemed different, the girl no longer had any hesitation in her voice and seemed to act with deliberate cruelty as she squeezed Billy's throat to keep him from speaking.

"Stop, you don't have to do this." Kara shouted, but didn't dare attack. Even with her speed, there was no way of knowing if she could disable Amber before she fired Billy.

Kara didn't actually know if Amber's lightning would be able to hurt Billy, being fuelled by the power of Zeus as it was, but she really didn't want to risk it.

"Don't listen to her, she's an adult, you know how they are." Amber mocked and approached the girl. "Finish it; you know we all want it."

Throwing his head back, Billy managed to smash it against Amber's nose and escape her grasp; the rebellious teen lifted her arm and started gathering electricity when Kara moved.

Flying as fast as she could, Kara broke the sound barrier again, making everyone but Kori wince. She grabbed Amber's arm and put on the shackles, a second later Kori hit the girl and grabbed her neck, squeezing it for a few seconds until Amber passed out.

"Well, that was easy."

"I can teach you." Kori smiled at her. "It can be very dangerous if you do not do it right."

"Amy, stop!" Billy shouted as he recovered from his fall. "You know she wouldn't want this."

"He hurts us." The girl with the knife said, her voice shaking. "He always hurts us and nobody does anything!"

"I know you don't want to do this, and you don't need to." The 10 year old said and slowly approached her. "I'll protect you, you know I can."

"No, you're not a hero anymore!" she shouted back.

Kara considered interfering, but Billy was the hero and, even without his powers, he still had the experience. Instead, she went to help Amy while Kori made sure Amber wouldn't wake up.

"It's alright; I know you don't want to do this." Billy finally reached the girl and held her arm. He was much smaller than her, but he managed to gently pull her arm away from the man's neck. "Look at me; I swear I won't let him hurt you anymore."

The girl stared at Billy's blue eyes and finally dropped the knife; Kara relaxed and helped Amy get up. Now they just had to find a way to return Billy's powers and help the girls unite.

"Utterly pathetic." Said Amber, her voice cold and without feelings. "And to think I had some hope for you still."

Turning around, Kara saw Starfire floating in the air before being launched at the bed. Billy Managed to grab the girl and throw himself aside, but Kori still smashed into the man and sent them both sprawling to the ground, the man's head bounced against the ground and Kara could hear his neck breaking.

"What?" She whispered in confusion, looking from Kori's face to Amber's fallen body. "I mean, what!?"

"This was only supposed to be a test but, once the girl came to me to complain and I saw how successful it had been, I couldn't resist." Amber said and got up from the floor, a smug look on her face even as her eyes stayed closed.

Without another word, Kara launched herself at Amber, but she suddenly smashed against an invisible barrier in the air and bounced back, her face stinging.

"To think that, after all this time, all the pawns I threw at you, you'd be defeated by a new kid." Amber looked towards Billy and mocked.

With a crack, the floor under Amber broke off and started flying, carrying her body up. Slowly, everything started floating up in the room and then flying around Amber's body like a hurricane of debris.

Shaking her head, Kara tried rushing the girl again, but she was struck by the metal frame of the bed, a number of wires and pipes burst from the walls and warped around her limbs like snakes, pulling her away and trying to choke her to death.

Glancing around, Kara saw Kori grabbing Amy and her childish copy and trying to fly towards Billy, but the breathing machine hit her in the head and forced her back.

Twisting in the air, Billy screamed and managed to throw the girl in his arms towards Kori before Amber motioned with an arm and he was held beside her body, his limbs locked in place.

"You know, I think I'll enjoy watching your face as I wipe this city off the face of the planet." Amber said as her eyes finally opened and they flew out of the building.

With a scream of rage, Kara pulled herself free from the rubble and growled. "Alright, this is getting ridiculous!"

Flying straight towards Amber, she pulled her arm back and prepared to hit the girl as hard as she could, then a telekinetic blow hit her in the chest and sent her flying back with a sonic boom.

Kara's body broke through the hospital building, smashing straight through the walls and floor and causing terrible damage before she hit the street on the other side and carved an enormous trench, sending parked cars flying and damaging every building in two blocks.

With a groan, Kara lifted her head to see Amber waving a hand and causing her Inhibitor shackle to burst apart. Lifting an arm, the girl released a house wide stream of lightning towards the sky which spread around the city before coming back down.

All around her, Kara could hear the sound of explosions and shouts of pain as the sky itself rained down death and destruction. Looking around, she saw a building get hit with one of the lightning bolts and violently explode, sending pieces of debris raining down around it.

"Come; let me give you a front row seat as I destroy your beloved city." Amber shouted at Billy and they started rising in the air while she laughed out loud. "Only then will I end your pathetic human life, ha ho hee ho haw heeeee!"