Chapter 26

The ringing in Claire's head from Brainiac's attack finally ceased and allowed her to rise up, a bit more alert, and a bit more mindful of her surroundings. She realized that she was not on Earth. She was in a large tower, made entirely of some kind of crystalized substance which glinted in the corner of her eye. One look out of the window caused Claire's eye to widen ever so slightly.

It all sank into her mind, the horrible and terrible truth of it all. Somehow, Claire had been sent to the lost city of Kandor, which was not lost anymore. The Woman of Steel rubbed her temples, and recalled the fight with Brainiac, and how hopeless it seemed. The fact was that Earth was doomed, and some of the cities on Earth were destined to be trapped. And Clair had no way out of this bottle.

"You're awake. But, you should lie down. You had a lot of damage done to you both physically and mentally, and I would hate to have to undo the repairs."

Claire's eyes shifted open a fraction of an inch when she came face to face with an extremely attractive woman with brunette hair and vibrant blue eyes, which looked very familiar in Claire's hazed recollection. Despite the woman's warnings, Claire rose to her feet.

The woman placed a firm hand on Claire's shoulder and hummed lightly, brushing a strand of hair away from it. She took out a large crystal and scanned the woman in front of her. The vibrant red sun, the exact opposite of what fueled Claire's powers, poured through the room, and hit her. Claire broke out into a soft sigh.

"You're fine," she said. "The damage you had, including that to your mind, it has been healed. You underwent some trauma that you're still going to have to face...Ms…."

"Claire Kent," she said. "At least that's my name on Earth...but we're on Krypton."

"Technically, we are," the woman said. "I could tell you're Kryptonian, although you live on a planet underneath a yellow sun. Your scans tell me about as much."

The woman gave Claire a reassuring smile, as if to tell Claire that she could be trusted. And Claire did feel a whole lot less guarded than she had been ever since her death. A grim smile crossed over Claire's face, as she always found it a bit weird that she could sling out that comment so casually.

"Clara Jor-El," she sad.

"So, much time has passed," the woman said with a smile. "My name is Alura In-Ze."

That caused Claire's eyes to widen when she realized that she was face to face with Kara's mother, her aunt. That shocking revelation almost threw Claire completely off, but thankfully, thankfully, she had a chance to recover extremely quickly and return back to the conversatio at hand.

"Kara survived," Claire said. "She's on Earth now."

Alura hated to admit it, normally she would be happy that her daughter was safe and secure, but given that was where Clara was sent, and she was here, that was Brainiac's next target.

"And I think you know by now this is the lost city of Kandor," Alura said. "Let me show you around while we discuss...what your situation will be."

Claire had a feeling it was not going to be easy to escape this fortress. She met more family, and the thought of family caused Claire to feel an extremely harsh guilt that she had been making every attempt to suppress over the past number of months.

Karen, Megan, and Harry arrived at their destination, and it was the former lab of Doctor Henry Pym. Karen knocked on the door, hoping that someone would be there, although it did not seem to be the bustle of activity it was a year ago when Doctor Pym suffered the accident that killed him.

The door opened up and an attractive brunette dressed in a button up blouse, tight jeans, and a lap coat turned up.

"Karen?" she asked.

"Hello, Jan," Karen said. "I'm glad to see that you're well."

"Well, and busy," Jan said. "And also worried...you heard about that…."

Jan stopped instantly when she caught sight of Harry and she had been struck by Harry.

"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor Van Dyne," Harry said. "I would like to say more, but we really need access to something that your boss was working on. And you know about the alien who has been threatening to shrink cities and entrap anyone he could get his hands on."

"Oh, I know all about that," Jan grimly stated. "And I saw what he did to Superwoman...so I'll do anything to you...to help Superman...and you as well….Power Girl and…."

"Miss Martian," Megan supplied helpfully.

"It's an honor to meet you by the way, I just wished the world didn't have to be almost ending for me to do so," Jan regretfully said. "Okay, let's get you down to the vault...because you're here because you need to be shrunk down into that city that this Brainiac guy put Superwoman in."

Despite being thrown off by being in Harry's presence, Jan snapped into an all business mode and lead them downstairs. Karen, Megan, and Harry followed her, waiting for her to open the vault. She was gushing, despite the fact that she tried not to make an idiot of herself. Boy, was that always a sketchy proposal at best. She sucked in her breath and pushed a finger towards the opening of the vault, pressing several numbers on the vault.

She opened up the vault and the first thing staring at her was a robot's head which made her shudder.

"Still creepy," Jan murmured. "Pym said it was shaped like an ant's head, but to be honest, that doesn't really make it less creepy….right...here we are….they should work."

Jan pulled out three belts and motioned for Power Girl, Miss Martian, and Superwoman to follow her to the lab so she could test them all out.

"It should be a simple enough process to shrink you down," Jan explained. "Getting you into the city, that's going to be a problem."

"Yeah, that might be," Karen agreed.

"I've got an idea," Harry said.

Before Harry could say his idea, someone came into the open door in a blur. A blonde haired and blue eyed young woman, dressed in a half blue shirt with a red "S" on it and a red mini-skirt, along with a cape which fluttered on it. She wore thigh high red boots on and struck a very heroic pose when wearing this particular outfit.

"Kara?" Karen asked.

Karen just broke out into a smile. History did have this very interesting tendency of repeating itself, and now Kara stood before her, dressed as Supergirl, and Karen could barely keep the smile off of her face.

"So, do you have room for one more in the rescue party?" Supergirl asked.

"Yes," Superman said with a smile. "I was just telling others the plan to rescue Superwoman."

Kara smiled, hoping that it worked better than her smash and grab style plan. At least that was what was going through her mind right now, but maybe, just maybe, she could be very wrong. Of course, assumptions had been the tools of fools and the mother of all failure, and pretty much any saying you could go through.

"Someone is going to have to divert Brainiac's attention," Harry explained.

"Miss Martian and I can do that, right?" Supergirl asked.

"Oh, I'm sure that we can," Miss Martian agreed with an eager nod.

"And that leaves Power Girl and I and….."

"I'm coming with," Jan said.

"Are you sure about that?" Karen asked.

Jan looked at her determination, she had been waiting her entire life for an opportunity like this, and she knew how to utilize the Pym particles better than anyone else. She looked towards the rest of the group, with Superman just breaking into a smile.

"She'll be up for it, I believe," Harry said. "And she can back us up in case something goes wrong with the belts. Although, they have been tested."

"Yes, although not for a situation like this,' Jan confirmed.

Right now, desperate times called for desperate measures and the situation to extract Superwoman from the lost city of Kandor had been one of the most desperate. The heroes moved in for the plan.

Thankfully, it had been not hard to track where the platform was going, especially when Harry had been watching Cat Grant's report the entire way on the city.

"And this is Cat Grant, and the Mayor is ordering the citizens of Metropolis not to panic, and to stay indoors at all times."

One could argue that might not be the best idea, as it would leave them open as sitting ducks for Brainiac's assault, but they did not have too many choices. Brainiac's platform appeared outside of Metropolis. Several military helicopters hovered around it, blasting the platform, but it had little effect.

A beam came out of the platform and forced the military helicopters to perform a daring movement, to scatter all around. The beam of light shot through the air one more time.

Several civilians stood, transfixed in horror, as the falling rubble trapped them inside of a burning building. Thankfully, a figure swooped down from the shadows, and managed to get them out.

Only the cameras caught a flicker of Nightwing moving around as she managed to extract the civilians. All eyes had been upon the platform and what it was going to do.

"Now, it remains stationary, as you can see," Cat commented. "And….oh my…."

Three large drones emitted bright light from the platform and circled around the city. Despite orders to the contrary, several Metropolis citizens came out to watch. Some of them in the direct line of fire as it began to slice down into the pavement, at the best angles to rip Metropolis out of the Earth and store it forever more.

A blur came past Cat's ear and towards the drone. The reporter's eyes widened when following the progress of the blur which kept shooting directly at the drones from up above.

"It's not a bird, it's not a plain...it's….Supergirl?" Cat asked.

Cat's question had been answered by the cameras fixing on the Girl of Steel who stopped the drone cold with a clap of her hand. She hurled one of the drones into another, with Supergirl flipping up high into the air and smashing down. The crowd moved in ah.

"Miss Martian, your move!" Supergirl shouted.

'We should...use the telepathic network,' Miss Martian projected to Supergirl. 'It gives us more of the element of surprise.'

One thing that was not surprising was the numerous drones coming down high from the heavens and threatening to bombard the two heroines. Miss Martian and Supergirl darted to either side, hopefully diverting Brainiac's attention from the ship and in their direction

"So, I've been thinking of a codename to go along with…."

Jan was shut up by the sound of the security drones which looked extremely big and they obviously packed a punch. Superman put a hand on her shoulder and eyed the ship. It had been shielded all over. However, everything had a weakness and this particular ship, it had a glaring weak spot which Harry intended to exploit to the fullest.

"To the right, and up," Harry said.

"Call me Wasp when we're on the field," Jan whispered when they were out of range.

Power Girl, Superwoman, and Wasp snuck through the ship. Wasp shrunk, the battle suit she was wearing allowing her to do so without the belt. So far, she did not find any kinks in it, at least no kinks that would be problematic for their mission. They swerved around another one of the drones.

Wasp opened up her tiny fingers and Superman and Power Girl followed them inside. They noticed the bottles and bottles of cities lined up on the wall against them.

"Kandor should be down this way," Superman said.

No drones, no security, whatever Megan and Kara were doing, it must have paid off, quite nicely in fact. Power Girl pointed towards a transporter device outside of one of the bottles. It had been recently been used. The writing on it seemed very familiar to her, although there was enough of it to make her hesitant in using it.

"Use the belt to shrink down," Harry told her. "And I'll get you inside and then I'll follow you."

"You sure that you can work the transporter?" Karen asked.

Harry put his hands on the controls and made a quick translation of the symbols. It was a mixture of a few alien languages, but he got the hang of it very soon. It appeared that Claire's training through the Fortress, bits and pieces of it, trickled through his memories. He did not have the entire picture, but he had enough of one to work the transporter.

"Go, I'll cover you!" Harry hissed.

A flash of light emitted from the transporter above their heads after Karen shrunk down alongside of Jan. Wasp and Power Girl transported into the bottled city.

Then Harry programmed the coordinates, and transported himself into the city. He felt a trickling against his skin and a swooping sensation which he hoped that he did not have to experience too many times. And yet, it was a somewhat familiar sensation despite it tearing up parts of his stomach.

He dropped down with a loud clatter inside of the Bottled City of Kandor. Power Girl and Wasp helped him to his feet.

"Not so graceful with the landing are you?" Power Girl asked.

"Never have been," Superman said. "Hate transporting, much prefer flying."

Regardless, despite the situation, Harry had a brief look around. It was a marvel of architecture, and he just could not help but whistle. Jan looked impressed and Power Girl cleared her throat.

"Let's find Superwoman," Power Girl reminded them.

Claire could not help and feel a sinking feeling in her heart for the plight of the Kandorians, many of whom had died. Including her uncle, Zor-El, who granted, her father only spoke seldom about during her training. But, still it was a loss.

"We have managed to survive and salvaged all of the technology we could," Alura said. "Unfortunately, we have been unable to use it. We want to create a platform to transport the citizens of Kandor to safely."

One could sense there's a slight issue with this and Alura breaks out into a very soft and ragged sigh. She placed a hand on her niece's shoulder.

"The problem is we never quite know where here is," Alura said. "We could be in the depths of space and in an extremely bad position. "It's always a gamble and one which I'm not willing to take."

Claire grimly nodded, understanding what she would not want to take such a risky gamble. She really wished, well she wished that things would have gone differently.

"Superwoman!"

The figures of Power Girl, Superman, and a woman that Claire did not recognize showed up. She had been relieved for a second, but horror struck her suddenly.

"You're here...did Brainiac track you inside of Kandor as well?" Superwoman asked.

"No," Power Girl said. "You remember Doctor Pym and his Pym Particles?"

"So, you used those to shrink down, to get inside of the city," Superwoman said slowly, understanding. "But, exactly how did you...how did you get inside of the city?"

"Superman figured out the transporter, and we can easily get out from here," Power Girl said. "Right?"

"Yes," Superman agreed.

Claire just offered a smile, there were so many things that she wanted to say to Harry, just so many things, but now was not the time or the place. Regardless, the woman who had shown up with her cleared her throat.

"Right, I have a Pym belt for you, but for not all of these people," she said. "Oh, and I'm Wasp by the way...at least in this outfit I am."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Superwoman said shaking her hand.

"Oh, trust me, given who you are, the honor is all mine," Wasp said when she turned to the other. "So…."

"Alura."

Here, Karen blinked for a second. Technically not her mother, but rather her counterpart, Kara's mother. Still it had been nerve racking to come face to face with a woman who had died saving her from the destruction of Krypton. Granted, her Alura, Krypton, and her Earth had been a memory.

Karen could feel Harry's hand down on her shoulder and it made her focus a few seconds later.

"You need to get out and save the world," Alura said. "Underneath the yellow sun, you might be strong enough to stop Brainiac, but you're going to have to work together."

"Right, together," Superwoman agreed. "All of us."

After a mild hiccup, the sky platform locked onto Metropolis and within a matter of minutes, this city and all of the people inside would have been secured.

An explosion echoed as the sky platform had been rocked by an explosive charge which was unlike anything that had been thrown at it, at least on this planet. The nanobots poured outside of the bomb and tried to latch onto the platform, in an attempt to eat through the ship.

Two more bombs eat and more nanobots absorbed the ships metals. For one brief second, the attack had worked.

Lex Luthor stood on the ground, basking in the glory. The men on the ground looked towards their savior, and Lex prepared to bask in the adoration.

Suddenly, the platform healed the damage caused and began to assimilate the technology from Earth. Lex activate the remote control override, but it was unfortunately not responding. His state of the art technology had been absorbed by this platform, which now had been sending out some strange signals.

"Luthor kill it!" the General yelled.

"What do you think I've been attempting to do?" Lex asked, fiercely gritting his teeth.

His attempts to detonate the platform did not work out as planned. Leaving Lex with nothing other than bleeding fingers and heavy frustrations. He repeatedly and endlessly slammed his hand on it, howling in misery.

Brainiac soaked in some fresh technology, while dodging one of his miniature platforms being hurled at him by this Supergirl. Another Kryptonian, for a dying race, there seemed to be many of them. He created a shield out of thin-air and flung the shield, razor sharp edges pointed, towards Supergirl. Supergirl dodged the flying assault and landed on his shoulder.

Miss Martian tried to sneak up from behind him. He created a shield of fire and knocked her back. Her weakness was as pathetic. Brainiac grabbed Miss Martian by the head and flung her against the room. He sent cables flying her direction, with Miss Martian growing intangible right before Brainiac would have stabbed her through.

"You cannot fight this," Brainiac said. "I don't know why you would have thought that you would have won this confrontation."

He had grown tired of their games, any amusement that the supercomputer android would have gotten from them, ceased to be. Brainiac's long cables wrapped around Supergirl and Miss Martian. The two fought him fiercely, but he sent a simulated pulse of red solar energy and white hot fire at them both respectfully which ensured they would not escape.

"Another Kryptonian is useless," Brainiac said. "But a Martian….especially a specimen as unique as yourself...you will serve properly from my collection. Mars is next."

"You won't!" Miss Martian yelled fiercely.

"It is illogical for you to think that I won't, given that you know my purpose by now," Brainiac said.

Miss Martian broke free and ripped one of Brainiac's limbs off, snapping it back and knocking him into the side of the ship. He used the nano-bots to create several drones out of scrap metal. Miss Martian fought them them fiercely, with Supergirl joining her. Supergirl used super breath to rip through the drones.

"You will be mine," Brainiac stated in his cold voice.

"Sorry, we weren't finished."

Superwoman knocked Brainiac through the side of the ship at the force of light. Brainiac and Superwoman crashed through the edge of the ship and to the ground below.

Several missiles launched from the military, with one final assault on the ship. It rocked the entire ship. Power Girl, Superman, and Wasp joined Supergirl and Miss Martian in the battle.

"I don't know if the bottled cities can take another hit!" Wasp yelled.

"Get Kandor!" Karen yelled.

"And I'll get as many other cities as I can grab," Harry said.

He swooped up the farm village that Brainiac took, fresh in its bottle. Kara pulled Kandor out of the city. Several of the other bottled cities shattered and fluids spilled from their glass bottles, what would be a river of blood. Despite his attempts to save them, Harry could not save many.

"They're going to tear the ship in half!" Karen yelled. "We better go."

Kara clutched Kandor against her. Her parents were in Kandor, given a presentation to the council when the city had disappeared, or rather had shrunk down. Dare she hope? Dare she hope? Well, there was nothing in life wtihout hope!

The five heroes cleared the ship, just before it had been bombarded with more constant attacks, the missiles rippling through the air and striking the ship constantly.

For a second, Brainiac collapsed to the ground. Superwoman rushed to finish him off until Brainiac launched her back and she smashed through three buildings. Brainiac rose up far more dangerous than ever and shot a beam of green light at Superwoman to bring her down to her knees.

Pain, worse than the worst exposure of Kryptonite, brought her down to her knees. Superwoman struggled, sucking in as many breaths as she could, but she could not rise up and fight this monster.

"All of my work had been destroyed," Brainiac said. "Lost in an instant. And it was all because of you. All because of your interference."

"Don't blame me, you were the one who chose to come to Earth," Superwoman said.

"Earth is too dirty and insignificant to be preserved," Brainiac said. "Therefore, it will be destroyed."

"No!"

Brainiac slammed Claire down hard, the green energy bombarding her body like thousands of tiny little hot knives digging into every last crevice of her body. She screamed, anguish hitting her at every angle.

A beam of golden light sliced off Brainiac's arms. Brainiac turned his attention towards the person who attacked him. She blasted him with the same green light, but he powered through with a smile on his face.

"This was an unforeseen event," Brainiac said.

Harry jacked Brainiac back with a huge uppercut punch, almost ripping his head off with it. Superwoman came from behind and the two of them punched Brainiac with a huge force from either side.

"Your ship is destroyed!" Superwoman yelled. "And now that shell that you call a body is going to be destroyed as well."

Harry super charged Brainiac's body at the same time that Claire punches him hard. His body explodes into pieces, ejecting a metal core, glowing in white light. The core grows so hot it incinerates in mid-air.

The sky platform finally explodes, and the people of Metropolis scream as flaming debris rain down. Supergirl and Power Girl hit the skies to navigate the debris and the people away.

Superwoman and Superman hit the skies, fighting side by side, with Brainiac's out of control drones hurling to the Earth. They swoop up as many people out of harm's way as possible.

Harry stops by, and lifts Cat off of the ground in the midst of a frantic report of the flaming debris.

"And this just in, Superman saves this reporter, yet again," Cat managed.

Time passed, and the aftermath was there. Claire joined Harry, Kara, and Karen. Kara held the bottled city of Kandor, almost in numb shock at the revelations of today.

"Today opened my eyes to a lot of things," Claire commented. "And it's how distant I've been with you...with all of you...and I have a lot of apologizing to do...so it's best for me to start right now, and tell you that I'm sorry."

She placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and looked him earnestly in the eye.

"I shouldn't have held anything against you, especially when you had no control over what happened," Claire said. "My DNA was stolen, I felt violated because of it, but that's not your fault. And if you hate me for how I acted, I understand."

"I don't," Harry said. "It's just….they created me to replace you, but you came back. But, I don't think that I want to just be Superwoman's...brother or son...or whatever I am for you."

"And I can respect that," Claire said. "Because, I know that you're so much more, seeing you in action."

Harry smiled, somehow, he thought no idea.

"And I was too stubborn to admit that I needed help," Claire said.

"So, am hearing that today snapped you back to life?" Karen asked.

"I'm getting there," Claire said. "I've got others that I'm going to have to have this conversation with...some less pleasant than others."

"You'll figure that out," Harry said.

"I hope so," Claire said. "Because, Lois can be even more stubborn than I am when she's pissed."

Harry just gave her a sympathetic smile and a nod. Claire moved over to Kara, who had been oddly quietly through the conversation.

"Kara, I'm sorry," Claire said.

"My mother is alive in there," Kara said. "But my father…."

"He didn't make it," Claire said.

"Well, I'm happy that I have the family that I do," Kara said. "And I….I know that you really were trying to protect me. It's just a shock because last time...you were a baby and now you're this grown woman, the greatest heroine that the world has ever seen."

"But, I'm not Wonder Woman," Claire said.

"Oh, you're about as funny as Jor-El is," Kara said. "That wasn't a compliment by the way."

"I figured," Claire said.

They had one city on Earth that they would need to restore though, and then they would figure out what they do with Kandor.

Jan's help and the tech they salvaged from Brainiac's ship restored the farm village. The people were shaken, but they were in one piece, and there was very little damage. They had been fortunate enough.

"Kandor's going to be harder," Harry told Kara.

"I know," Kara said. "Because, there's really no place to put it."

That was a huge problem that they were going to have to settle in due time. Megan joined Kara and Harry, overlooking the restored village.

"You were amazing out there!" Megan cheered, hugging Kara from behind.

"And what about me?" Harry asked her.

"Well, you being amazing goes without saying," Megan said. "But, we wouldn't want it to get to your head."

The two exchanged a smile and Harry wrapped his arm around Megan, which caused the Martian girl to look pretty pleased with herself.

"You were good out there as well, holding off Brainiac," Harry said.

"You know for a Martian, you can go pretty red," Kara said.

That made Megan frown and give Kara a glare. Harry put his arm around Kara.

"So, are you in a better place?" Harry asked her.

"Yeah, you caught me at a pretty bad time," Kara said. "I hope that means I have a bit more freedom. The farm's pretty nice, and Martha's awesome and Lana is too...but it's just...there's so much more out there."

Harry understood, he honestly and completely did.

"So, how did I do?" Jan asked Karen.

"Good," Karen told her. "Thank you for your help."

"Any time," Jan said. "You know, I might want to make this hero thing a long time thing. There's always people out there who could use a hand, and you got to admit, the rush out there is pretty awesome."

Karen patted Jan on the shoulder, understanding. She had been bitten by the bug and hard.

"So, is the League in the market for new recruits?" Jan asked. "Not that I think I'm worthy…."

"Work hard, and you just might be considered," Karen said. "We couldn't have saved Superwoman without your help, so that's a good start."

"Don't let me get a swollen head," Jan said.

"Trust me, Jan, you won't," Karen said.

Claire dropped down behind Kara, Harry, and Megan. Harry turned to face the woman.

"I'm heading to the farm," Claire said. "I've got a lot of talking to do….maybe we can do that dinner tomorrow if you're interested?"

"Love to," Harry said.

He had a couple of people to check up on in the aftermath. Today had not gone as planned. He slipped one of the busted mini-drones into his bag, hoping that Whitney would appreciate the souvenir he brought back from this adventure. Most of the other tech had been locked up at Starrwave safely, along with Brainiac's fried out motherboard.