A Hollow in DC

"So, getting skimpily dressed and then getting water thrown on me, will give me superpowers somehow?" Kara deadpanned as she held her towel tightly around her chest as Galatea had dragged me, and Kara out to Miami beach through a Zeta tube teleportation.

Granted Galatea wanted to bring Conner and Megan with us as well, but they decided to go on a date somewhere else in NYC.

Galatea being that she had little body shame didn't bother to hide her body behind a towel as we sunbathed next to one another on an almost deserted section of the beach. Nope she was confidently wearing a two-piece white bikini with some gold highlights kind of similar to her costume.

"Kara, we Kryptonians get our strength from absorbing the yellow sun's solar radiation, and although it will take a while, you will get stronger and more durable than other humans. Then we can speed up the process by doing things like putting you in a special tanning booth that sends out condensed solar rays... Or I can fly you to the edge of the atmosphere and allow you to absorb there." Galatea said and I quickly vetoed that idea.

"Let Kara get used to Earth... She literally just watched her planet blow up to her, not even hours ago." I said and Kara's deadpanning look died off and a haunted look crossed her as she looked over to me.

"What would you know about the loss of a world then?" She said rudely and I felt Galatea's hand that was holding mine tighten as she rose to tell or smack Kara, I don't know either way I simply wrapped an arm around Galatea's waist making her pause.

Then as I stared into Kara's blue eyes that were almost a match for Superman's I spoke. "Kara, I too was taken from my own home world and thrown into this one and given powers I never asked for... Sure I certainly love them as I am sure you will when you get your own. But I know all too well the loss of never being able to see your family or friends again." Actually, that last bit was kind of a bit of a lie, it was certainly possible for her to see said dead people if she got into the occult.

But the words hit Kara in the heart as she began to empathize with me and with not a damn person seemingly caring to make sure she was comforted after being taken out of her pod after Superman had to go to stop Luthor from detonating a series of nukes in the volcanoes of Hawaii in order to get more lava to operate his 'all natural' power generators her eyes seemed to take me in anew as someone who was like her.

Not that Superman didn't care about her, or that Kara didn't care about Superman, but literally as I said hours ago Kara held Superman, Kal-El when he was younger than two years old... At this time, she was basically all alone as she had no real connection to this Superman. Hell, and just like with Conner and Galatea, she had been practically dumped here at the Mountain for the team to watch over as I kind of went to get her at the spur of a moment.

"Just... Take it slow Kara, I am willing to listen if you need to talk." I said as I slumped back down onto my towel to relax as Galatea snorted and laid back down beside me so I was between Kara and Galatea with Kara on her own towel a couple feet away from us.

"Alright, Jake. I will do as you say and take it a day at a time." Kara said softly and then I heard some cloth rustle, I looked over and saw that Kara had dropped the towel she was wearing around her and was barring her trim body clad in a one-piece swimsuit that was predominantly blue with some red trim that allowed a bit of her cleavage to be seen in its middle cut out.

I then just enjoyed the sounds of the ocean's waves crashing against the beach we were lying upon.

Eventually, such peace was disrupted when we all got hungry and got changed to walk around Miami Beach's street vendors to get some food.

"Hmm. This food is so different from Kryptonian modern food which consisted of genetically perfected food sources. Has this planet created a Feast Tree yet?" Kara asked as she ate her chicken salad.

"What is a feast tree?" I asked curiously with the mental image of a tree that would grow large coconuts with a whole Thanksgiving feast within the nuts coming to mind.

Kara shook her head before shrugging. "It's a tree that would produce several different species of fruits and vegetables due to how it wasn't a single tree but a large hybrid combination of pro symbiotic relationships between many other species of plants that came together to make the supertree," Kara explained making my head blank out and I was reminded on how Kara came from a much more technologically advanced world.

Some of the stuff she talked about from Krypton was like me going to some little African village that had its people still living in mud huts and trying to explain all the functions of a smartphone. I just didn't have the context in growing up around it to understand.

"So, you and Galatea are dating? How is that going?" Kara asked curiously after she took a drink out of some Dr Pepper and her face scrunched up at the bite of the carbonation and the strong flavor.

Galatea hummed in thought as she put down her rib meat sandwich looked over to me and gave an appraising look before nodding. "It's going quite well I would say. He takes care of my needs. I take care of his needs. Thus, we are both happy in this right Jake?" Galatea said leadingly as she nudged me jokingly making me roll my eyes.

"Yeah, our relationship was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing. But it's going well, and I am happy with how things are looking." I spoke making Galatea smile and preen at I guess being a good girlfriend.

Then our conversation was broken as the ground rumbled and I held onto the table we were sitting at and frowned as I thought. 'Earthquakes in Florida aren't that common, are they?'

"Jake there is huge flowers bursting up through the ground in the city and attacking people. We need to go!" Galatea said stamping backwards and breaking the wooden bench as she grabbed Kara into her arms. "I am sending Kara through a Zeta Tube, so you start helping deal with the plants!" Galatea said as she took off with the stunned form of Kara in her arms and I quickly flew into the downtown section of Miami to see what the hell Galatea saw with her enhanced vision.

But with a mind-numbing crashing noise I saw one of the skyscrapers crash down as the building was constructed by the school bus thick vines that grew out from the ten-story tall, massive plant that was sending such tendrils outwards to attack everything that moved in its surroundings.

"Shit, it took hostages." I cursed as I felt the human souls inside the plant through my Pesquasia. But regardless of the damage the massive plant was doing to the city's infrastructure, I was more worried about how the damned plant was creating pods on its sides that when struck or bumped into things, would burst open sending Joker Gas everywhere that was killing the firefighters and cops that were trying to destroy the plant.

Remembering that this was the opening move of the so-called Injustice League and its League of Villains I realized I likely wasn't going to be getting any help dealing with this thing as its likely that this was happening everywhere. Not to mention the Del Toro vampire family had Miami locked down and no heroes or villains survived to actually get a foothold in the city either so there was no local help I could expect.

"Dammit, I hate tentacles." I cursed as I used a Sonido to smash into the plant with my hand outstretched in a knife shape and hardened with my Hierro so I could begin tearing the plant apart so I could get to the people that were within.

"Get away from the plant! The air is polluted with poison gas!" I yelled out and I saw the Cops and Firefighters give up on destroying the plant as they realized a superhero was here to get rid of it and then moved on to rescuing people trapped under debris and such.

Then with a groan, I took a breath and pinched my nose as I burrowed into the plant's flesh to go for the souls I could sense.

Christmas Mass Release
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