Chapter 5.1
Kara looked at the power drunk teenager on top of a building and sighed, she had briefly hoped the girl had escaped the city or something, but she should have known she wasn't this lucky.
One of the thunderbolts streaked from the girl's hand and struck Kara's own building, exploding her windows and making her hair stand up straight.
It seems she'd really have to deal with her before she really hurt someone, Kara could already hear the shouting of fear and distress coming from the streets, but Amber wasn't aiming at people… yet.
She had wanted to become a hero anyway, but she didn't want to do it by punching people in the face.
For Rao's sake, she was from the house of El, they had been scientists for generations now and, with the study she had on Krypton, she should be able to find better ways to deal with enemies than punching them.
She could understand why her cousin, without a proper education and having all the power of a yellow sun, would decide to fight in the frontlines, but she wanted to show a Kryptonian's power didn't come just from his body, but also his mind.
Even if it was very satisfying to just punch people who annoyed her.
"Alright, I'll deal with the angry one before she really hurts someone; can you guys wait here until I'm back? Without your powers, you shouldn't risk going after the others alone."
"But she shouldn't have the power of Zeus." Billy said, his face looking determined. "We can deal with her."
"Then she shouldn't be able to cause any trouble before I'm back." Kara answered and prepared herself for the fight. "Right now you're just a kid; you don't have to deal with this."
Billy made a face and Kara resisted the sudden urge to pinch his cheeks before flying out the window, her mind trying to come up with a way to deal with the girl.
She'd have to do it without her ranged abilities, there were hundreds of metahumans and aliens with flying brick powers but, if she started using heat vision or ice breath, her heritage would be pretty obvious.
She really didn't want to meet her cousin looking so… damaged. It was enough that she couldn't be there for him for decades, there was no need to make him worry about her too.
Taking care not to scare the girl away, Kara floated towards the building she was standing on and decided to try to fix things without violence, not everything had to be a fight after all.
"Hey, it's Amber right?" She called out as she approached, causing the girl to stop creating lightning and turn towards her. "Look, can we talk?"
"You!" Amber pointed at her and Kara tensed, but there was no lightning bolt, instead Amber started gloating. "Come to grovel have you? I defeated Captain Marvel, a little third rate superhero like you won't even be a challenge."
Great she was talking, what now?
Kara realized that, despite living two lives, she had no experience dealing with rebellious teenagers, much less rebellious teenager supervillains.
"Amy is worried about you, you know?" She tried and saw a flicker of worry on Amber's eyes, but it was quickly crushed.
"She was always weak; it was always me who had to deal with father, always me who had to take the beatings, always me who had to carry the others!" She screamed in anger and thunder rumbled in the clouds above. "But I'm free now, they can't hold me back anymore!"
"Amber you know that's not…"
"Enough!" The girl shouted and waved her hands, releasing a wave of lightning.
Kara tried to dodge, but even her speed wasn't enough and three bolts struck her in the chest sending a wave of pain through her body, locking her muscles and sending her flying back to smash into a building, leaving her twitching body on the floor of an apartment.
It took a second for Kara to recover and she shook her head as Amber started showering the city with her power once again. Taking stock of the situation, she saw that the attack hadn’t actually damaged her, it just hurt a lot. "Rao, it just had to be magic, lightning already hurts, it had to have magic too."
Floating up, she patted the scorched spot on her shirt and saw a couple huddled against the wall in fear, the man trying to shield his wife away.
"Ah, sorry about that, supervillains, you know?" They stared at each other for a second before Kara flew away as fast as she could.
Flying around the building, she approached Amber from behind. Unwilling to risk punching the kid’s head off, Kara grabbed her from behind and flew away as fast as she could, trying to take her away from the city before she killed anyone.
"Alright, I tried to do this the easy way!" Kara said they flew, the annoyance clear in her voice.
"How dare you!" Screeched Amber before discharging lightning from all around her, making Kara grunt in pain and annoyance. "Release me!"
"Do you want to kill someone?!" Kara screamed in her ear. "Look around; you're going to kill someone if you continue throwing a tantrum!"
"Shut up! They deserve it; they deserve it for not helping us!" Amber lifted an arm and another large thunderbolt hit her from the dark clouds above.
Kara gritted her teeth and speed up, finally breaking the sound barrier and driving both of them outside the city. They were just about to smash into the ground when Amber remembered she could turn into electricity and slipped out of Kara's grip, appearing a hundred meters away and trying to blast her.
"This would be so much easier if I already had Nth metal." Kara grumbled as she dodged Amber's aim again and tried to close up with the teen.
It quickly became a game, with Kara trying her best to grab the girl and Amber flashing away at the last second. They covered miles in seconds when Amber finally managed to nail Kara with a bolt and drove her into a road, creating a small crater.
Tires screamed as a car attempted to dodge her body, but bumped into her and went tumbling down the road, Kara could hear four people cry out from inside the van as it crashed to the side.
She tried to lift up and rescue them when another bolt struck her chest and hammered her body into the ground.
Her muscles twitching from the charge, Kara felt Amber flash down a few meters beyond her reach and call down another bolt.
"See, I'm so much stronger without them, they held me back!" The girl screamed and raised both arms to call down more and more lightning, further destroying the road and overcoming Kara's resistance to start actually hurting her flesh. "I defeated Marvel, I defeated you, I can defeat anyone! Nobody can hurt me anymore!"
Kara could smell her flesh burning from the magical lightning as it devastated the road and blinded her vision, she had to escape, and she had to leave before the girl actually managed to do permanent damage.
Then she heard the child crying from inside the van and smelt her blood.
"Mommy, it hurts." The child whispered, her voice weak.
By Rao, she was so little, just like the child Kara had met when going out for ice cream.
Gritting her teeth, Kara's fingers dug into the asphalt and, even under the assault, she managed to take a breath, then she used all of her power to briefly overcome the lightning and turned towards Amber.
"RHAAAAAAAAA!" She screamed, concentrating her voice in front of her and releasing a shockwave.
Her shout shattered the van's windows, causing the family to cry out once again, but also hitting Amber like a speeding truck, sending her body flying away and cutting off her attack.
Twisting around, Kara hacked, her lungs hurting almost as much as her skin before her hands closed into fists and she flew towards Amber.
The girl was trying to get up, but the blow had left her confused and disoriented, with blood coming off her ears. Dropping in front of the girl, she was absolutely bursting with anger.
Kara grabbed Amber's head and lifted her; unfortunately she didn't know how to safely make the girl pass out, so she forced her to look at the van and screamed.
"Look what you're doing, Look at her!" She pointed to the little girl with a crushed arm inside the van.
Amber's eyes finally managed to focus again and she stared at the little girl. Barely five years old, the kid was crying and too afraid to move as she bled out under the car.
"No, no!" She cried out in horror and struggled away from Kara's grip, her eyes never leaving the little girl. "I didn't want this. I didn’t want this!"
Kara saw the fight go out of the girl and just dropped her, she felt like she'd kill the villain if she held on for much longer, and she had more important things to deal with anyway.
Flying towards the car as fast as she could, Kara saw the father finally crawl out from under the van. Grabbing a piece of the door, he used it as a weapon and tried to shield his family.
"Don't worry, I'm here to help." He still looked at her suspiciously, but Kara just made her way towards the car and used her x-ray vision to see if she could move the people inside. "I'm with Captain Marvel"
At the name of the hero, the father relaxed and dropped the makeshift weapon.
"Oh, thank god!" Falling to his knees, the man tried to crawl back and to help his family.
"Stop, let me do it."
Grabbing the car with both hands, she started tearing it apart like paper, prying it open without moving the people inside.
"What…" he swallowed hard.”What about her?"
Kara gave one last glance towards Amber, but the girl was still trying to get to her feet and didn't look like she wanted to continue fighting.
"I don't have a way to contain her right now, and I'm not willing to kill." Kara told him and helped his wife out of the car.
They looked at the lost girl and frowned, but nodded. "I'm gonna call for help."
The teenager boy had passed out inside the car, but he hadn't broken any bones and his brain wasn't swelling, so Kara pulled him out of the car.
The little girl was a different matter, her arm had been crushed and the weight of the car was keeping her from bleeding out, so Kara had to be careful not to move the car or take too much weight off.
From behind her, she heard another thunder and turned around to see Amber gone in a flash, leaving another dark spot on the road.
Rao damn it! Hopefully, that had snapped the teen from her power trip.
Kara just cleared a path towards the wounded girl so the paramedics would have an easier time when they arrived and stepped back. "You shouldn't move her; the car's weight is keeping her from bleeding out but…"
Unable to do anything else, Kara heard the sound of the ambulance coming and decided her work was done. Flying up, she still waited between the clouds as the paramedics safely rescued the girl before finally going home again.