Chapter 61

Yo, I wanted to post this chapter much earlier, but I wasn't able to write for three to four days and I'm only now back on my laptop.

Anyways, fight's over, we're calming down a little, I hope you guys enjoy the aftermath.

Also, I have a question for you guys, until now I posted the NSFW sections in separate but smaller chapters, around 1.5 to 2k words of pure smut, do you guys want me to continue that way or would it be better if I incorporated it into chapters? More natural and exciting to read?

I'd still put a warning for those who DON'T want to read smut, but the writing would be incorporated into the writing.

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"Haaa… hahahaha… Well, I had a blast. How about you?"

Kara stared at the Villain, his back against a piece of rubble and his purple suit half destroyed by the impact. Such a fragile man… and yet, such a dangerous enemy if given time and motivation.

Kara could just step on him now, crush his head even easier than she did Faust's.

Then she dismissed the thought and turned to check on her girlfriend, she was far more important than the clown any time of the day.

Kori was already up, floating a few centimeters above the ground and watching where the portal had been, making sure it was well and truly gone. Her armor looked damaged, a small dent on the side of her belly where Major Force's blast had hit her, but it hadn't been breached.

Slowly, with pained movements, the Joker grabbed a pack of cigarettes from his chest pocket and pulled out one, staring at the thing with a confused face for a second before sighing. "Ah, I don't even have a lighter, and it seemed like such a good deal at the time."

"What kind of deal?" She couldn't help asking while thinking about his fate.

She had already used both her vision and the remaining sensors on her armor to verify he didn't have any last tricks hidden away —he did, but nothing that could threaten her or Kori— so she felt safe just considering him.

The problem was… she wasn't sure he wouldn't come back, there was more than one being capable of that in this universe after all. If one needed proof, a portal to Hell had just been formed not even 20 meters from where she stood.

Granted, nothing from over there had really crossed over, but could she risk it?

"My soul," the Joker started to laugh again, but had to cough and ended up just snickering. "I found it pretty funny that someone thought it was valuable."

Well, that was one worry off her chest. Kara had been fairly sure the Joker had made a deal with Neron, but she couldn't even guess what he had asked for. A pack of cigarettes was both harmless and completely in character.

Still, could Neron make use of Joker's soul once he was dead? Could the Demon resurrect him or turn him into one of his own species?

All around her, she felt the shadows moving, stretching impossibly wide before starting to gather in pools at the corners of the underground parking lot, gaining a new depth she hadn't known was possible.

Staring at one particularly large spot, she swore she could sense something looking back, her new senses telling her something large and powerful was paying attention to her, but no matter how hard she looked, she only saw darkness.

With a beep, Kara felt the magic-draining device locking onto her chest, the armor itself making sure it couldn't be dislodged before completely draining her.

So, it had been three minutes.

From the corners of the room, the shadows exploded in motion, gaining physical substance as they wrapped around the plant's roots, covering them in pitch-black tentacles that seemed to consume anything they touched.

No longer under the Joker's control, the plant had been content to just dig deeper into the ground for nutrients, but the shadow's attack awoke the damn thing, vines, and roots fruitlessly attempting to fight off the assault.

Without infernal energy to fuel its power, the botanical horror lost.

Checking the drones outside, Kara saw Minion 3 had stopped shooting and even the Martian Manhunter was flying away from the plant as fast as he could. A simple command later and Kara had all her drones rush towards her, picking up her expended dimensional lock on the way.

On top of a tall dark tentacle, The Shade stood with his arms open, only his face remaining uncovered by the shadows, a minuscule human thing in the middle of the deep shadows he was controlling.

Soon, the darkness had covered the entire plant like a blanket and it started disappearing, sinking into the shadows slowly at first, but speeding up as less and less of it remained. They were almost done here.

Three drones flew towards Kara, the nanomachines that formed them starting to disassemble, becoming material to fix the holes in her armor —a literal patchwork solution at best; the tiny machines weren't a match for properly forged plates, but it would do for now.

Reactivating and snapping back into position with the quick fix, Kara's shoulder gun fired four times, four beams of heat burning through the Joker's arms and legs while also cauterizing the wounds so he wouldn't bleed out.

The Clown screamed, his muscles tensing from the pain to the point he instinctively curled onto himself, his limbs falling uselessly to the ground, the cigarette sleeping from his limp fingers

"Was that strictly necessary?" Kori asked through their private channel while floating to Kara's side and watching the man taking deep breaths while trying to overcome the pain. There was no reproach on her tone, only genuine curiosity.

"Unfortunately," Kara said, let's see him do anything without limbs. "I'd rather kill the bastard, but I don't want to risk him coming back."

She expected to feel some guilt, torturing the Clown like that, but there wasn't any, thankfully, there was only a small amount of spiteful satisfaction instead. No, Kara mostly felt safer.

"I did not know that was an option. Villains are certainly obstinate, yes?"

"That's one way of looking at it. I think Earth's just special that way, Heroes do it too from time to time."

Finally, Kara felt the energy leaving her, the power of Aten draining from her body until, with a flash of lightning, she was no longer a champion of the gods but simply Kara again, the amulet containing Teth-Adam's soul was also back in her hand.

She felt… diminished, tired, clumsy and unnaturally aware that most of her cells still weren't functioning at their peak, even if they were well on their way there.

Thankfully, the feeling quickly faded away and Kara had to recognize that gaining the power of the gods wasn't quite as large a power-up as reaching a yellow sun… or even becoming a Kryptonian in the first place.

Still, it had been interesting, having the muscle memory and experience of an ancient warrior, one easily able to match Kori or Wonder Woman in ability. Kara had felt graceful.

Perhaps she should increase her physical training.

Her armor was also back to normal, but it seemed like losing the transformation hadn't fixed the destruction Circe's magic had wrought upon its frame. There was still a hole in the shoulder area and several circuits had been destroyed, lowering the armor's overhaul performance by 47%.

Ugh, she'd have to reforge the entire thing later, at least it would be faster than the first time.

With a command, Kara had two of her drones lock the Joker inside a shield, administering a heavy dose of drugs to knock him out. The remaining drones scattered through the parking lot as fast as they could move, scouring the place until, only a few seconds later, she found the device she was looking for.

Above them, The Shade had almost finished banishing the plant to the shadow dimension. Lowering his arms, he reverted back to being only a man, his clothes regaining their texture and becoming merely black, losing the darkness of the Shadowlands.

Kara was almost out of time, she really doubted the Martian would just let her kill the Joker, much less take him away altogether. No, better if he was already gone when the Hero got here.

Connecting one of the drones to the machine, Kara deactivated it, then thought better and also had the nanomachines start to disassemble the teleportation blocker, stealing both its coding and design. —the Fog had been a hacking tool before she repurposed it after all.

Another command had some of her machines also consume the gloves the Joker had been using to control the plant and any other device she found in the abandoned hospital for later study, including what little of Red Volcano had been left behind.

With teleportation no longer blocked, she quickly called her platform back and used a drone to move the Joker on top of it.

Once she was at her moon base, she'd put him inside one of her stasis pods, preferably as far away from Poison Ivy as she could manage… and with as many redundant safety measures as she had available.

Rao, she really needed to have somewhere better to put prisoners if she was going to keep acquiring them, using her Cousin's fortress just wouldn't cut it anymore and the moon base was much too important.

That personal dimension idea was looking better and better by the second.

"Do you wish for me to deal with The Manhunter?" Kori asked, finally sheathing the Sword of Beowulf. Kara hadn't seen it, but the Tamaranean must have recovered the weapon during the fight.

"...Why? What's the point of having minions if they can't handle something like that?"

Well, Green Arrow would be able to deal with the Manhunter much easier than her, and he could also take the chance to report back to the Justice League as he was meant to do.

Kara wished she could believe Major Force's explosion had killed Neron, but she knew better than to even hope for it. Regardless, even if the Demon knew her true identity, it was still best that Forge didn't interact or cooperate too much with the Justice League. After all, it's not like every single Villain just shared information, even when they could benefit from it.

No, the impression she got from the Demon was that he truly enjoyed his deals too much, he'd be loath to just give away information. Kara had no illusions that her alternative identity would last forever, but the price for that information would probably be someone's soul and not many people were willing to pay that, not yet.

So, for now, her Forge identity should still be safe from The Light, and probably even from the other Villains that had been here. There was no reason to push her luck and appear to be too involved with the Heroes… Also, she really wanted a bath.

No, she needed a bath, a long, relaxing bath.

With one last look at the hole where the portal had been, Kara stepped onto the teleportation platform and extended her hand. Kori took it, floating down to land beside her.

With the Joker safely behind them, Kara teleported back to her Moon base.

They appeared inside Kara's safe room, several heavy weapons retreating back into the walls as they verified it was only authorized personnel, but one large cannon locked on to the Joker, awaiting Kara's command.

Kara ordered it to deactivate too, watching as the sealed doors snapped open with a hiss and release of white smoke. She stepped down from the platform and motioned to her drones, making the Joker float a few meters behind her.

Kori rose a few centimeters in the air and followed her. "Please, where are the others?"

"Designation: Poison Ivy is being analyzed inside a stasis pod at the third laboratory," Kara's newest AI assistant answered with a robotic voice that only slightly resembled Alfred's. "Designation: Kite-Man and Designation: Catwoman are being treated inside the Medbay. Designation: Detective Chimp is accompanying them."

Ugh, she'd have to change that. In her defense, she had never worked on an AI and it had been a side-project done in an afternoon. Maybe she should just make a copy of the Fortress AI?

She was no expert at that type of coding and, most importantly, didn't find it fun. Fascinating to look at, yes, but not fun to do, more tangible engineering was so much better.

"Go on, if they're here they'll be fine, go home," Kara said. "With his wounds, Kite-Man should already be awake and I don't want to reveal your identity to him. Go, get out of the armor, I know you don't enjoy it."

"I do not despise it, moreover, it has proven invaluable in battle… But it is slightly constraining for normal activity, yes?" Kori looked down at her covered belly and sighed. "Are you certain?"

"Yeah, it's only gonna take a few minutes. I'll deal with the Joker first and check on the base's analysis before transferring them to another location," Kara had an involuntary shudder at that thought. "Ugh, having so many people in my secret lair is giving me hives."

Even without working limbs, she didn't dare leave the Joker alone.

"Very well, I will await you at home. Be prepared, such a successful mission demands pizza!"

With a smile, Kara watched Kori leaving, flying towards the Medbay at a fast pace. Now that there was no danger, she couldn't help but admire how hot she looked wearing the armor, or how hot she had looked wielding her sword to fight villains.

Rao, for a second, Kori had faced all five Villains alone and managed to score hits on three of them, stopped Circe's casting and, if he were designed anything like his siblings, almost pierced Red Volcano's core, taking him out of the fight with her sword before being repealed.

Yes, the Villains had been underestimating them, but the fact Kori could manage that…

Shaking her head, Kara refocused on the task at hand. Soon, the Joker was locked inside a stasis pod in her first laboratory, the device itself protected in every way she could think of, she even attached the magic drain to his pod just in case.

Later, after she got her companions out of the base, she'd use the Medbay to operate on him. Her tech could keep him alive as long as the brain was intact and a head was much easier to store.

For a second, she stared at the frozen body inside the pod, then thought about Klarion's arm still in her safe… Kara sighed.

Being honest with herself, she quite enjoyed the Mad Scientist motif she was cultivating, but collecting body parts… She never wanted to be that kind of Mad Scientist. "Kal must never find out."

Ordering the drones to take her more valuable devices to the second lab, Kara also blocked access to the entire room. The damn Joker should stay there until she built him a true prison… or found a way to kill him and make it stick. She knew the universe had ways of annihilating a soul, even if she couldn't remember any right now.

Ten minutes later, she stepped into the Medbay, armor still on. Kite-Man was already missing from the place, but the Detective was analyzing some of her computers.

Catwoman was still on the medical table, there was a box covering her chest area while some of Kara's medical bots worked, but the woman was awake for it.

"So, am I in the market for new swimsuits?" the thief asked.

"Don't worry," Kara said, opening the information on her display. "Actually, I've no idea, but even if it looks bad, I'm sure I can fix you… On an unrelated note, how do you feel about biomechanical enhancements?"

"Kara, that really doesn't make me feel better!" Selina growled, even with the rest of her body immobilized, her eyes were still alert.

"No, really, human bodies are surprisingly simple, as long as you get to one of my laboratories alive I can fix anything physical, and I do mean anything. But that doesn't mean I can't make improvements if you want."

"I'd rather keep my body as is, thank you," Selina said, letting her head rest on the bed. "I spent far too much effort getting it just right."

"What about bigger breasts?" Kara teased, reading the data with a frown. "I can make them entirely natural… Talia's are quite large."

Quickly, she took a look at Kite-Man's information, he had lost the arm, but that was easily fixed though so she switched to Poison Ivy. The Villain being the most wounded by far… And the most puzzling.

"As much as I enjoy hearing your amusing friendship ritual," Detective Chimp said while stepping away from the computers and pocketing a memory stick. "I'd rather be sent back to the planet now. I've a borrowed sword to return and half an hour of footage to review."

Kara frowned harder. There shouldn't have been any clues they weren't on Earth, her base was made to mimic the planet perfectly, but she couldn't really say she was surprised he had figured it out.

"Have you ever heard of a demon called Neron?"

"Can't say the name's familiar," Bobo shrugged, then scratched at his chin in thought. "Ah, he's the organizer then? Must be powerful to have Circe as an ally, I'll have to ask around."

"I'll send you a report later, I don't think my drones caught our meeting," With a look, one of the Karabots stepped away from the wall and nodded to the Chimp. "Just follow the robot and it'll send you back."

"Right," Bobo gave the robot an odd look, but followed it, just as he was about to leave the room, he stopped. "By the way, I think I've a lead on the girl you had me searching for. It's weak, but if I've time I'll follow it."

"Thank you, Detective. I appreciate the help," Kara called out as he was walking away.

Bobo didn't turn back or stop, just lifting a hairy arm in the air and waving dismissively, but Kara's senses didn't miss his satisfaction at hearing it.

"Alright," Kara finally closed Selina's file and turned to her friend. "I've good and bad news, which do you prefer?"

"Damnit, you said you could fix everything!"

"I can," she quickly amended. "It's just gonna take a little longer than expected."

"Fine, what's wrong and how can you fix it?"

"Well, the plant pierced through your liver, stomach and one kidney, almost completely destroying them. It also injected you with a combination of Demonic magic and the Blockbuster formula that mutated them and infected your lungs but didn't quite reach your heart. The drug is what's keeping them functioning for now.

"Now, I've already drained the magic away and the amount of Blockbuster wasn't enough to fully mutate the rest of your body, but I'll need to remove it from your system, and the fastest way of doing that is to excise the affected areas."

Without even making noise, the box around Selina's chest retreated back into the table, revealing her bandaged body. With her organs empowered by Blockbuster, she was able to function for a week's time, but they'd cause problems if left alone.

"Shit," Selina pushed herself into a sitting position and tried to stretch like a cat, but had to wince as it pulled at her wounds. "Kara, correct me if I'm wrong, but humans need their organs."

Kara sat on a large chair, made specifically so she could lay on it with her armor on and crossed her legs. "As I keep reminding people, I can easily clone body parts and I can transplant them with no rejection chance. It will only take a few days to grow the replacements, and about a month of recovery, less if it weren't for the Blockbuster. After that you can go back to your normal activities."

Selina grimaced again, a hand carefully touching the bandages on her chest. "Is there no other way?"

"Well, I've someone working on cleansing the effects of Blockbuster, but that's still months away, and I believe you already made your stance clear about the augmentation thing," Kara leaned back in her chair and glanced down at her prosthetic leg. "With mechanical replacements, you could be better than before in three days, but I can honestly say I understand the reluctance."

"I'll be out of action for an entire month then? Can I at least exercise?"

"You know," Kara said, smiling inside her helmet. "I think I can convince Batman to take care of you if you want?"

"What, and stay together with the hussy he's watching over?"

"Well, the alternative is to continue to leave him alone with Talia…"

"Well, when you say it like that," Selina mumbled, then her face lost some of her sadness, turning into a cheshire smile. "Defeating so many Villains without a single civilian hurt was quite heroic wasn't it? I suppose I can relax in a cave for a month, it's surprisingly quite comfortable."

"Good, I'll have things ready in three days."

"I suppose Kite-Man is already dealt with, but what about Ivy?"

"I'll have to wait a few days to figure it out, actually," Kara put her chin on her fist as she thought about the Villain's situation. "The infernal magic is dealt with, and I was planning on having her go through the cleansing when it was ready, but her body's more plant than human and it seems to be… overcoming the substance."

"Well, I've seen her regrow limbs before, I don't know why I'm surprised."

With a command, Kara had one of her bots fetch Kite-Man. With a sample of his DNA, she'd have a new arm for him in only two days, then she'd be just as happy to never have them on her moon base again.

A little over an hour later, Kara had both Villains standing on top of the teleport platform, she was just about done with people hanging out in her personal sanctum.

"I'll see what I can do about your recovery location," she said, being vague now that Kite-Man could hear the conversation.

"You know, I'm really warming up to the idea," Selina smiled. "Perhaps it's time this stray found a home."

"Can I stay with Ivy until she recovers? I want to be there for her," Kite-Man asked, trying to gesticulate with a missing arm and frowning at the result.

"... No." with a click, Kara had them both disappear, sent back to Selina's bar at Gotham before they could say anything else.

She still had to check on the result of the battle, but she still hadn't had her bath. She could debrief tomorrow.

In another flash, she teleported directly into her apartment, finally unlocking her armor and taking off her helmet, freeing her hair. With a sigh, she stepped out of the armor in her skintight suit, some of it damaged where she had to purge the flower spores.

Kara had taken far too long dealing with things at her moon base, so she assumed Kori was already sleeping. She knew she certainly wanted to go to bed.

Dexter was waiting for her at the bathroom door, mewing loudly and scratching his body against the wood from side to side before looking up at her. With a smile, she lifted him in her arms, touched his nose with her own, and put him on top of the sink, letting a small stream of water run so he could drink.

By the time she managed to fully strip, the cat was done drinking and jumped to the floor, running out of the bathroom and letting her close the door.

Opening the shower stall, she widened her eyes to see a filled bathtub waiting for her. It was formed from her own nanomachines, the surface covered with bubbles and flower petals scattered all over the edge.

Rao, she loved Kori.

Nearly an hour later, Kara stepped out of the bath and used a blast of heat vision to dry herself, her mood greatly improved. Walking into her bedroom she froze, her brain taking a second to recover from the impact it had just received.

Kori was lying on her bed, naked as the day she was born, a thin layer of sweat covering her body as she took a hand away from her breasts and smiled sheepishly. "Apologies, watching you deal with so many Villains may have affected me a little too much, I could not wait."

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Thanks to Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.

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