2015-06-25 - Future Imperfect - The End

The time is passing too quickly, with updates from Martian Manhunter. Apparently making a portal that can do the job is extremely difficult, and required Kal to get some very hard to find materials. From other planets. It took longer than they thought. But Kal gets a call, some days later, to please come to the Watchtower. Because if he's got the last few things from Alpha Centauri, they're ready to go with the machine.

It had taken several days, but Kal had finally gotten all of the components that J'onn needed for the portal to retrieve Kara. He had flown all the way to Alpha Centauri, but he would have gone to the edges of the galaxy if it meant that his cousin would be safe. It had only taken a few hours to make the trip at his speed, so when he returns, he doesn't bother with the teleporter. He just flies in through the loading dock of the Tower and goes straight to J'onn's lab. "I've gotten everything that you requested. I'm ready to go whenever you're finished making the final touches."

Given their proclivities for amazing machines and out of this world tech, the team have managed miracles but this project pushed even them. The materials just weren't available in this system for some of the things they needed. J'onn has sent the team for a rest, but he's still on the job when Kal comes in with the ore. "Feed it into the processor please. I've gotten a solid reading on the other end of the tunnel we need to form, and it appears that someone else is there trying to get to US. So I'm glad you're here, because for all that it could be Kara, we don't know what's on the other end. The reality is that in a red sun world, she's very likely to be the least powerful creature there, and if something has the technology to make a time portal trying to get back where she came from, then it could very easily be highly dangerous."

Kal nods at J'onn and his expression grows thoughtful as he listens to him talk. "Yeah. I've considered the possibility that the person sending the signal isn't Kara. But in order for them to know what time she came from, they had to have had contact with her." Kara hasn't really experienced what it's like to not have powers since she came to Earth. However, he's had multiple occasions where his abilities were gone and he had to rely on his other skills. He frowns. "I do feel pity for anyone who might have harmed her, though. No matter what time they come from." That's about as close to a threat as he usually gets. But the expression on his face is another thing entirely. He meant it.

With the ore being processed, J'onn continues working on setting up the portal. "A moment longer, Kal. Just so long as you're ready for a fight in case that's what we have coming. I've linked up with their incoming portal. I should have powers under a red sun, so if it isn't her, I might be able to enter it and go get her, but first we need to deal with whatever's on its way here."

He frowns at his fancy machinery, then pokes the button to make it open a few more times. Then he actually kicks it once, and the lights start to glow. And a circular portal begins to shimmer into being in the air. "Get ready."

-

On the other end of the portal, Vandal Savage speaks a few words to Kara, smiling with a warmth that is hard to merit. "So.... what now?" she asks, unheard by the heroes back home wondering if there is a hero or a villain coming home to them.

"Now, you go back home," says the super-villain. "I trust you."

Kara kisses Vandal Savage on the cheek, then steps into the portal, heading for home.

-

Kal stands at the end of the portal, his body posture suggests that he's ready for a fight. His eyes narrow and a little red glow appears inside of his irises as his muscles tense.

A human-sized person comes through the portal. A person that was very, very recently was in extremely close proximity to a yellow sun to recharge.

When Kara sees Kal in the distance through the portal, she heads towards him. Unfortunately, 4.5 million years of travel sort of also speeds up a person's acceleration. A LOT. Soooo.... she winds up hitting into Superman, tackling him across the room with herself. "OOF!!!!!" she manages to say upon impact.

Ready for a fight, Kal braces himself at first, but then a small look of confusion comes across his face just before he is impacted by a blonde teenager whose clothes are the same color as his. All he can say is, "Pfft." As Kara hits him and they fly across the room and into the wall. It's not until a couple seconds later that he sees who it is exactly and his face breaks out into a huge grin. He holds her to him in a bear hug. "Kara. I am so very glad to see you alive."

J'onn glances into the portal after identifying Kara, just to make sure nothing ELSE is coming, then turns off the portal. Which significantly adjusts the lights, having drawn energy from the main reactor. "I believe we may have shortened the life of our power systems by a few years," he says, but he's smiling on his green face regardless. "It is good to have you back."

Kara Zor-El oofs as they both impact with the wall. The poor, poor wall. Then she gets all hugged, goes mfhfh, then "Wow... Vandal was right. You were on the other end to connect to the portal!" She smiles and hugs back - her body healed from the fight with the giant bugs pretty quickly after the yellow sun, but her costume's pretty tattered and could use a washing after 3 weeks on a red sun Earth. She smiles. "Kal, you wouldnt believe who I met in the - wait actually you probably would. He said you had been there before me...." she says thinking. Then shrugs, then hugs again.

Kal coughs. "Vandal? As in Vandal Savage?" His expression grows thoughtful, but he doesn't really say anything more than that. "Interesting." He rises from the floor and then offers Kara a hand to help her up to her feet. "All the same. It took some work to find you. I was lucky that Mia helped me figure out what happened to you. She's been filling in for you in Metropolis. She'll be estatic to find out that you're back." He hugs her again while looking over her shoulder at J'onn. He mouths a 'thank you' to the martian before snuggling Kara a little more before letting her. After sniffing the air a little. "We...should probably get you home."

J'onn phases out and goes to spread the good news. And to tell everyone that they can use their appliances again, because it took everything the entire station had to run that portal. o.o

Kara Zor-El gives Kal a little hit on his shoulder. "Yes, Vandal Savage. He was nice.... I felt so bad for him. He said you had met him 300,000 years beforehand and did something to prevent the future he was in... then it all happened again and...." She shakes her head. "It doesnt matter. He told me what to do and it'll be a long while before it needs to be done." She hugs her cousin again tightly. "It was so scary. I had no powers and I fixed a car and a freeze gun and ate bugs and fought a giant bug but I was able to beat it and I almost got-" She stops when Kal-El sniffs the air.

Then pauses. "And I didnt really have a lot of water except what the freeze guns made and I sorta stink..." she says, scrunching her nose.

And Lex Luthor is 'sorta bald.'

Kal grins at Kara. "I wasn't going to say anything, I swear." He does listen to what she says about Vandal, but it doesn't ring any bells for him. Perhaps it simply hasn't happened for him yet. Temporal paradoxes. Now that he knew about it, it would probably happen. At any rate there was more than enough time to worry about such things. He places a hand to his ear. "Superman to transporter room. Two to beam down to San Francisco." He pauses. "You still live there, right? I know you purchased an apartment complex recently."

The portal machine sparks, then explodes a little from overheating, having never really been meant to exist in the first place. And the machine slowly melts into slag, the stuff from Alpha Centauri being....unstable. well, that's it for having a time machine.

Kara Zor-El nods at Superman, smiling. "Yeah.. I still have the house there, but I mostly have been living in Metropolis. It's not a difficult commute. A lot less difficult than 4.5 million years." she says before they transport down.

Superman nods after they transport. "Yes. I wasn't sure which place you were living in now. Though, I have to ask..this move of yours to Metropolis doesn't have anything to do with that boyfriend of yours, does it?" He looks tenative, almost as if he doesn't want to know the answer before he rises up into the air and flies at a leisurely place towards Kara's buidling. Of course, he's not in a hurry because he's hoping the wind whipping through those clothes help the smell a little.

Kara Zor-El bites her lip and smiles and shrugs a little, noncommittally. "I dunno..." she says as they fly together. "Maaaaybe?" she says with some embarrassment, then looks at Superman. "I sort of love him, Kal. I havent ever loved anyone before. I mean... you know... in a 'you and Lois' way."

Kal looks a little surprised at that. "Well, I trust you to know what you're doing with him. Though if things are getting -that- serious, then perhaps it's time I had a talk with the young man about his intentions." He has a serious look on his face as he speaks. He frowns. "I trust you can go the rest of the way on your own. Dinosaurs have just come alive at Metropolis Museum. This one may be a little bit much for Mia. I'll take it myself. You go home and rest." And with that, he banks away and accelerates towards the scene.

-

Thousands of years in the future:

Superman, an adult Supergirl, and the rest of the Legion of Super-Heroes stand over Vandal Savage as he lays on the floor, his great machines in ruins around him, his work to rule the world destroyed. All of his manipulations undone, his pawns have left him and he has nothing left but failure.

Flash zips up, holding the last remnant of the great plan and tosses the disabled time bomb on the ground to spark and fizzle, with his grin showing how much fun he's having. Which is a lot. "That was fun! Too bad we can't do it again. Oh wait, can we do it again?"

Green Lantern swats Flash in the back of the head, making him say a little less enthusiastically, "Guess not."

Vandal Savage looks up at Superman and says, "This is impossible. I left nothing to chance. Nothing! You aren't smart enough to have beaten me, even at your greatest period."

Superman nods, then says, "It wasn't me, actually. We are a team, and for all our failings, there is always someone else who can cover for our weaknesses. That has always been our greatest strength." Glancing back at Kara, he acknowledges her great influence, her unstoppable strength and her famous patience.

"But, you couldn't even be here! I took ages to plan for this, it shouldn't be possible!" says Vandal Savage to them, the ones who by all rights shouldn't be here at all! "My plan was perfect!"

"Odd," says Kara, her voice shining with the memory of an old friend. "So was mine."