Chapter 15.2
Kon decided to stay with the Kent’s, they still had Kal’s bedroom ready to receive the boy and, since he still wasn’t certain what to do, Kara convinced him to try and stay with them instead of being alone on the mountain.
Together, she and Kal flew away from the farm and up towards space, they flew close together, so close that Kara managed to smile at him and speak.
“You may have redeemed yourself, but you know I’ll still have to punish you for neglecting the kid, right?”
“What?”
“Yep, it’s my prerogative as the older one.” She nodded with a smile. “I get to punish you went you do something stupid.”
“You’re serious, but I…” Kal looked at her with amusement, then it became worry. “Wait, what kind of punishment?”
“I guess you’ll find out.”
“Kara…” he said in a warning tone but she ignored him. “Seriously, what kind of punishment?”
She just ignored him and accelerated quickly breaking through the clouds and further still, until their presence couldn’t possible bother any planes, a second later Kal stopped beside her.
“Wanna make a stop at the fortress?” he invited, “I gotta leave something there first, but them we can stop on Metropolis for your documents, Batman left them with me.”
“About that, did Batman talk with you?” She asked him with an uncertain voice, her face changing from amusement to a far more serious look.
“About what?” he asked back.
“I went to Cadmus after discovering Kon’s existence.” She scratched at her neck and decided to just say it. “There was a second clone Kal.”
“What?” he just said with a stunned face, his body dropping a few centimeters in the air before his flight stabilized. “No, I searched the place.”
“They made sure you and the Flash couldn’t find it easily.”
“What… what happened to it?” he asked, almost afraid to know.
“It was… a prototype, they couldn’t get Kryptonian DNA right and he was deteriorating quickly, I left him on a healing chamber in the fortress, but it doesn’t have the information needed to heal him.”
They floated there in the air, Kal almost frozen between fury and horror, finally, he gathered himself and asked. “Is there anything we can do?”
“I’m looking into it, if you know a genius geneticist you can ask him.” She said and took the chance to embrace him, he let her. “I can already think of several people that could help, he’s gonna be okay.”
“I… I’ll see if anybody can help.” He said after a few minutes. “Will you be coming to the fortress with me?”
“You’re still going?” Kara said surprised.
“Yeah,” his voice had a newfound conviction as he starred down towards his home, and towards Kon, “I’m not running away from this anymore.”
“Good,” Kara released him and looked him in the eye. “You really make your parents proud, the two sets of them.”
“Thank you, are you still coming with me?”
“No, I have a different meeting waiting for me in another hour.”
“See you tomorrow then?” he asked and she nodded.
“I’ll drop by your house to get my documents.”
With that, they said their goodbyes and Kara watched Kal flying towards the fortress, his acceleration almost immediately breaking the sound barrier with barely an effort until he was beyond even her sight.
Kara sighed, if he continued to make her this proud she’d have to rethink her prank.
Putting on her mask, she followed his example, exploding into action, going from zero to a hundred in barely a second as she made her way towards New York.
It wasn’t that she was in a hurry, or showing off. Even wounded she was just that strong, the only thing keeping her from flying faster was the atmosphere of the planet, the heat generated by the air resistance wouldn’t actually hurt her, but it could hurt things around her.
Eventually, she lowered herself gently in front of a cemetery, a large, old house just beside it; it was at least four floors high, made of wood and looked almost like a castle.
Looking at the old monstrosity Kara thought it wouldn’t be out of place in a Scooby Doo cartoon.
Approaching the front door she saw the sign that read, ‘House of Mystery’.
Kara wasn’t familiar with the name but she briefly wondered if it had anything to do with the ‘House of Secrets’ from DC. She didn’t remember it correctly but there was an episode on the… first season? Where it had showed up.
Making sure nobody was watching her she took off her blank mask and made her way towards the house, then she climbed the wooden steps and knocked.
“Come in Miss Kara, your companion is already waiting for you inside.”
Kara immediately activated her X-ray vision, her hackles were immediately raised when she couldn’t actually see through the walls, they weren’t coated with lead but, even with her vision activated, she could only see the wooden door in front of her.
With a tap of her finger, her radiation shielding went up and input a communication signal towards the device on her bedroom, it sent a pulse towards the device every two minutes revealing her location and, if it stopped transmitting for more than half an hour, it would alert the entire League with her last known location.
Finally, she took a breath and entered the house.
The man who received her was short, he had brown hair combed up as if to make two horns on each side of his head, he had a pair of small glasses and held an Oil Lamp on his hand.
“I’m sorry Miss Kara but I’m afraid the house current lacks electricity.” The man smiled and waved her inside. “Still, I think we make do.”
From inside the place was enormous, it’s lavish wooden floors shone with care and there were large candles on the wall giving everything an orange light.
In the middle of the entrance there was a large set of stairs going up the first floor and, at both of its sides were three sets of doors leading inside the house.
Kara caught a glance from one of the open doors and saw an old woman carrying a tray of food towards someone in a bed, then she looked again.
The old woman’s face had cracks in it from which she could see a dark shadow almost leaking, her skin seemed as grey as granite and Kara swore something moved under her wrinkles.
Kara gulped and started preparing herself.
“Please don’t, dear Alice is terminally ill, I’d hate to bother her with your fight.”
“But that’s…” She said and shivered.
“Her housekeeper, her only desire is to heal.” The man said and led her up the stairs, “A very interesting story that one, but we’re here.”
For some reason Kara believed the man, still, she dropped a couple of surveillance drones while he wasn’t looking and sent them towards the room.
He opened the door to a huge room; there was a fireplace lit and a single occupant sitting on a comfortable seat, a large cigar in his mouth and half a bottle of alcohol resting at his side.
“Come in, it’s good you’ve arrived early.” He said and glanced towards the bottle. “I was trying to think of twelve good reasons not to finish the bottle, but could only come up with seven.”
Kara walked inside the place and couldn’t help but stare at the figure before her; he was large, much larger than she expected to tell the truth, he was also a chimpanzee, a talking chimpanzee wearing an old detective costume, cap and all.
“Go ahead, stare all you want, not like it hasn’t happened before.” The chimpanzee mumbled and took another eager glance towards the bottle.
“Sorry, I know it shouldn’t really surprise me but…” Kara shrugged and took a seat beside the chimp.
It really shouldn’t surprise her, she had seen stranger things since arriving on Earth.
“Story of my life.” The chimp shrugged and dragged on his cigarette, then he spilled it out. “So, what did the furry send you here for?”
Even as he asked, the chimpanzee’s eyes were taking everything in, paying very close attention to her body posture and reaction.
“Furry?” she tilted her head in confusion.
“Tall, dark, likes to pretend he’s a bat.” He said with a tired voice. “Should leave being an animal to those born into it if you ask me.”
Kara snorted and relaxed back against the chair.
“Alright, I’m Kara Zor-El pleased to meet you.” Kara said. “I’m in need of a team; I guess Batman thought you could help me with that?”
“Well, I’m not much of a hero mind you, but, if you have someone in mind, I can definitely find them for you.” He said and finished his cigar before straightening his back, “Bobo T. Chimpanzee, but you can call me Detective Chimp. The Bat may be the best Human detective in the world, but I’m better, it’s just fact.”