Chapter 20.2
“RAAAAAAAA!” Kon screamed as he rushed from the side and punched Lobo in the head.
The Czarnian dropped Kara and took two steps back, but Kon didn’t stop there, raining a flurry of blows at his face and screaming all the while.
Kara tried to help, but she was still disoriented from the last blow and couldn’t even manage to fly, only managing to stumble towards them.
Finally, Lobo had enough. Grabbing his hook he swung up, forcing Kon to stop his attack and jump back.
In the air, Kon was unable to dodge the second hook strike. Not being fully Kryptonian he wasn’t as resistant as Kara and the hook dug deeply into his side splashing blood all over Lobo’s arm.
When Kon fell back to the ground he stumbled and fell to his knees in pain.
In desperation, Kara tried to rush to his help, only to fall down, her legs unable to support her. With one last effort she used her eye’s interface to delay her teleport by three seconds. Ripping her prosthetic leg off, she threw it as hard as she could towards Kon.
Lobo reacted; his instincts making him swat the projectile out of the sky. Kara watched it hit the ground and, with a loud pop, disappear.
“Huh.” The Czarnian looked at where the leg used to be, then shrugged and walked towards Kon with a maniacal grim on his face. “Y’know, ya punch like a chump but y’re tenacious, I’ll give you that!”
“I’m almost sorry to have to kill ya… Ah, who’m I kiddin’. I’m not sorry at all!” Kon tried to fight back, but Lobo kicked him in the head one last time, sending him back a few dozen meters, worsening his wounds and causing him to finally pass out. “Now, I never fragged a Kryptonian before, y’fella gonna be my first. I’m almost shy!”
Unable to get herself up, Kara dug into her eye socket and pulled out her last prosthetic before throwing it at Lobo as hard as she could.
Once again the bounty hunter swatted it out of the sky with his chain, his swing so fast the bomb flew a few meters away before it had time to implode.
The effect was devastating. The displaced space first drew Kara a few centimeters closer to its effect, then it seemed to break with a deafening bang, violently and randomly cutting everything in its range into a thousand pieces and teleporting them into different directions.
Kara stayed down for a few seconds. Finally, she managed to push herself into a kneeling position and laugh.
She had done it! The device should have splattered Lobo all over the place buying them enough time. It just had to!
“Hey ya fraggin bitch, those chains cost money!” All color fled from Kara’s face as she heard the Czarnian’s voice. “I was gonna do you the favor of killing ya, but nobody gets away with breaking th’ Main Man toys like that. Now I’m gonna hand ya to the bastards alive.”
Kara finally saw the bounty hunter. Lobo hadn’t escaped the explosion unharmed. He was missing his entire right arm and most of his chest, his head was only connected to the rest of his body by a small strip of flesh and his ribcage was left fully exposed.
He also didn’t really seem to care.
Blood flowed freely through the ground and he seemed to barely be on his feet, but soon the blood stopped and his exposed flesh started squirming as it regenerated.
Getting his feet back under him, Lobo used hand to hold his head in place until it grew enough flesh to stay on his body. It must have taken an entire minute, but Kara just stood there, looking.
No, she just refused to believe it.
She refused to believe this utter asshole was just gonna kill her newest little cousin.
She absolutely refused to believe he was gonna hand her back to the Psions, to once again become one of their experiments.
No!
In her first life Kara had just been getting her life in order, had gotten a job and started to be happy when it was all taken away as she died.
NO!
She had been gifted a second chance. A second life on Krypton where she had a family, a bright future, maybe even a chance to leave her mark on the world. But that too had been taken away, even more completely than her previous one.
NO!
Now she had just started to rebuild it all, she had a best friend, she had a family again, she had people who loved her and this… this… thing was just going to…
NO! She refused!
With a roar of absolute anger, Kara threw herself at the regenerating Lobo, a red aura manifesting itself around her, sharp spikes of pure rage forming around it.
Lobo used his remaining arm to punch her, but one of the spikes dug into his flesh and divided his fist in half.
Kara seemed to forget about her wounds, forget about her pain. The only thought in her mind was to utterly obliterate her enemy.
“DIEEEEE!” She shouted, her voice distorted by emotion.
In her anger she grabbed his arm and turned one of her spikes into a thin blade, severing it completely before throwing it away as hard as she could.
The aura around her arm turned physical, lengthening her fingers into claws that she used to push an arm through his chest and pull out his heart.
Lobo head butted her, snapping her head back. He then did it again and again, laughing like a maniac the entire time, but it only served to increase her rage.
Grabbing his head with both hands, she twisted it all the way around and ripped it off before hundreds of rage spikes ripped his body into pieces.
“DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!” Kara squeezed his head between her arms and activated her heat vision one last time, the heat burning through Lobo’s flesh until there was only a skull left, then even that crumbled into ash.
Despite Lobo’s total destruction, Kara continued to rage, screaming out like a madwoman. She completely lost track of time as she struck against an inexistent enemy and sent spikes of red light cutting through the ground.
Finally, she fell back to her knees breathing hard, her rage having diminishing and the red aura around her slowly fading away. Breathing hard, she felt the tears falling down her eyes and into the completely ravaged ground.
Strong arms enveloped her and pulled her closer to a chest covered with the red symbol of house El. “Shhhh, it’s alright. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
She looked up to see Kal, his face concerned but also filled with half a dozen small cuts. His costume too was filled with small cuts from her power.
A second set of arms hugged her from the front. Kara turned her eyes to see Kon, a huge gash on his forehead, an eye already starting to swell up, but otherwise fine. She cried harder.
Gently, Kal lifted her into his arms and cleaned her face with a thumb; still crying, Kara buried her face into his chest and shook as the Kryptonian equivalent of adrenaline left her body.
Lifting his eyes, he considered the destruction around them, his face turning into one of utter fury, his eyes shining red with barely contained power.
“Again.” Kal quietly whispered. His voice was sadder than Kara had ever heard before. “I won’t allow this to happen again, I can’t.”
“FRIEND KARA!” Kori shouted as she finally arrived.
The Tamaranean princess dropped right in front of Kal and was quickly followed by Wonder Woman.
With some of her regained strength Kara managed to push her face away from Kal’s chest. Her cousin reluctantly released her, letting Kara float under her own power for a brief second before Kori glomped her.
Kara buried her face in Kori’s shoulder and held on with everything she had. The Tamaranean hugged her back, her hands carefully supporting Kara in case she lost her power.
“It is alright, I am here for you.” Kori soothed and held Kara’s head in her hands. She adjusted Kara’s hair away from her face with a finger and kissed her in the forehead. “I will always be here for you.”
Kara let herself be held in Kori’s arms, enjoying the fleeting sense of security she could bring. She knew she’d have to let go, but she really wished they could stay like that forever.
“So, what are you doin’ after? Cuz bastich, that fight was hot!” Said someone from the ground.
Everyone reacted, Kori held Kara in her arms and floated up to get some distance from the sound while Kal put himself in front of Kon, his eyes shining red.
Without anyone to protect, it was Wonder Woman that advanced, finding a pool of blood and pieces of meat with a half regenerated head inside.
“What’s the matter? Ya never seen a guy regenerate from his own blood before?” Said Lobo’s head, still missing most of its left side. “Wonder where you threw that arm, cuz I tell ya, that’s gonna be a pain to deal with in a week or two.”