LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 9.2
Kara knew she shouldn’t have continued her deal with the thief. She was pretty sure Kal-El could lend her some Nth metal if she asked but, well, Catwoman was already trying to steal the metal, and asking him for every little thing still left a bitter taste in her mouth.
“You’re early.” Selina commented, but quickly shook her head and motioned her inside. “Nevermind, come in before the Bat comes knocking.”
“Batman should be out of Gotham today, the sidekicks have a meeting.”
“The Bat is finally letting the pipsqueak have some fun, huh. Good for him.” They entered the building and Selina promptly grabbed a bottle of whisky, pouring two glasses and handing her one. “Come on, I got you what you asked.”
“Good, you had any trouble?”
“Some, I found some remains of the ship you mentioned in Egypt, but it had already been looted and I only managed to steal a small sample.”
“How small?”
“1.852 grams, to be precise.” Selina finally let go of the box in her pocket and pulled out the larger container from under the table. “Plus, I think I got the attention of some powerful people when I did it.”
“I see. Do you want to renegotiate our deal then?” Kara narrowed her eyes at the woman and Selina sighed.
“No, did you bring the money?”
Kara took her time opening the box and inspecting the metal, it was a broken piece from some computer, using her vision, she could already see only about half of it was Nth metal, but it was well worth the price in her mind.
“Here, 50 millions in gold and jewels.” Kara put the backpack inside the table, almost breaking the wood over its weight. “It’s up to you to find a way to use it though.”
Selina eyed the backpack, but didn’t move to take it, a few seconds later she sighed, “Could you at least move it behind the bar, please?”
Ah, right, despite being half filled with jewels, it was still not something a normal human could comfortably lift.
With a snort, Kara moved the backpack behind the bar.
“Say, is your offer of help still on the table?” Selina asked as she drained her glass of whisky.
“Exactly what kind of trouble did you get for this thing?”
“I heard about the kind of battle that went on in Fawcett city three weeks ago after your call, you know.” She commented without answering the question. “About how a bunch of villains had joined forces to deal with Captain Marvel while the League was busy. The problem is, I don’t think that’s the only villain alliance around anymore.”
Well, now Selina had her full attention. “Is that the kind of attention you attracted?”
“It’s not certain, I don’t have any proof of this, but it just doesn’t make sense for it to be only a single villain.” She confessed and pointed at the box with the Nth metal. “Stealing that attracted far too much heat, and from far too many sources for it to be just one person. I barely got back into the country alive.”
“I see.” Kara said, seeing the signs of exhaustion on Selina’s face for the first time, the woman hid them well, but there were bruises all over her body and she had bags under her eyes. “Do you need a safe place to stay?”
“No, Gotham is the Bat’s home, they won’t be as brazen here, even if they manage to get me, it would still attract his attention and they don’t want to be discovered just yet it seems.”
Makes sense, with how united and powerful the League was, the only chance a villain alliance could survive is by remaining hidden.
Kara wondered which version of such an alliance they were dealing with. The Legion of Doom, The Secret Society, Injustice League, The Light, or something completely new? There were so many villain teams in DC she’d have to get a better idea of where things stood before she could say.
Damn, Kara didn’t even remember there was a Monster Society of Evil before meeting Mr. Mind for the first time. She had always been more of a Batman than a Captain Marvel fan.
“It seems you’re mostly safe here then, what exactly do you want from me?”
“A favor, you promised help dealing with any heat from the job so I want the ability to call on once if something turns up.” She said while pouring herself another shot.
Kara considered it, Selina was a fairly benign thief all things considered and, if Kara got the woman killed for a job she ordered, Batman would never forgive her.
Plus, she’d probably only ask Kara to steal something or protect her from someone, it could even be fun… probably.
Batman wouldn’t keep letting her escape if she was the kind of woman to hurt innocent people. Then again… Talia al Ghul was a thing.
“Fine, you get one favor, but don’t be using my name to intimidate people. I don’t want every one of my cousin’s enemies knowing I exist by next week.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll be the nuclear option in case everything goes to shit.” Selina confessed and relaxed against the back of her chair while putting a hand over her eyes. “It wouldn’t be in my best interest for them to be able to make countermeasures before I called you.”
Grabbing the piece of Nth metal, Kara spent a few seconds prying the less useful materials from it. It was pretty easy to do since the Nth metal was the only one capable of resisting her Kryptonian strength.
When she was left with only a pure sample of the thing, she put it in her pocket. Snatching the fourth glass of Whiskey from Selina’s hand, Kara drank it all in a single gulp and pulled the bottle away from the woman.
“Come on, you’re looking like shit, go to sleep Selina.”
“What are you, my mother?” the older woman complained, but got up and stretched her back. “Ugh, I really should have left this meeting for another day.”
Kara started laughing at Selina’s annoyed face. “I don’t know why you called me if you have just gotten back in the city. I know I was in a hurry, but I could wait another day or two.”
“I just wanted to be done with this whole thing.” She turned to glance at the bag full of money. “It was almost not worth it, almost.”
Kara left the Tin Roof Club very happy with her purchase, it may only be a small amount of Nth metal, but it was just what she needed to make herself safer. Better yet, it was something nobody but Selina knew she had and so, nobody knew they had to counter.
She took a cab back out of the city and then flew as fast as she could towards her hidden ship on the moon. Kara may have started using Kal-El’s Fortress as a second home, but she still kept the ship hidden in order to have some privacy on her own projects.
Working on Nth metal without ruining its properties was hard, and not something her Kryptonian education had covered, but the Psions had some information about it.
At least the damn mad scientists were good for something.
Soon, she was able to separate the sample into four pieces and integrate one of them inside the casing of her prosthetic leg; besides putting it under her own skin, it was the safest she could keep it. Inside the Kryptium casing and very hard to separate it from her.
Not that Nth metal needed protection, but it would keep someone from simply stealing the metal from her.
The second piece she turned into a simple ring to wear around her fingers, something to help in her healing and so it could start getting acclimated to her body.
It would also allow her punches to affect magic beings, which was always a good thing.
The other two, larger samples she simply left on the ship, she needed to study the metal after all, and she wasn’t certain some of its more exotic properties could be activated simply by wearing the thing.
Plus, it would be good to have some Nth metal in store in case she somehow lost what she was carrying.
When she finally arrived back home, it was already long past midnight and the lights were on in her apartment. Eager to find out how Kori’s day had gone, Kara accelerated and entered the building.
Her smile dimmed a little as she saw Kori sporting a split lip, again.
Kori was one of the best martial artists on the planet, and nearly invulnerable, Kara had to wonder how the heck did she keep getting hurt like this.
What the heck, it was supposed to be a friendly meeting, not a free for all. Did any of the sidekicks even have the kind of strength needed to give her a split lip? “What happened?”
“Fury! Scandal! Vile trickery! Friend Kara, someone has violated your cousin in a most foul manner!”
“What? Violated as in…” Kara said in utter confusion, her temper already starting to rise, by Rao, if something had happened to Kal-El right after she met him…
“Some craven scientists acquired The Superman’s DNA and cloned him, trying to create a weapon!” Kori stomped on the ground in indignation. “Worse, Superboy was not allowed to even see the sun while growing up!”
“I… see.” Kara said in a measured tone, she was starting to get a suspicion she knew where this was going and she didn’t like it, she didn’t like it at all. “And what exactly was my cousin’s reaction to this news?”
Young Justice wasn’t the worst DC setting to be in, but it certainly didn’t do the original Justice League any favors.
“The Superman was very affected, he seemed extremely hurt by what had happened, Friend Kara.” Kori laid a hand over her shoulders in support. “He refused to face the clone at their first meeting.”
Ah, it seems that, despite arriving so late, Kara would still have to teach her little cousin some lessons.
