2015-06-22 - Future Imperfect - Side Trip

The ride back to where this all started is surprisingly uneventful. Kara seems a little lost in her own thoughts, and Vandal is content to not intrude. He responds of course if spoken to, having had more than his fair share of silence in his life.

But the ride comes to an end as the red sands appear, and the complete lack of anything that could once have been called civilization except for the piece of rubble that marks her 'spot'. The hover tractor holds the machinery well, having been designed for just that kind of thing.

Vandal Savage brings the truck to a halt with the rubble piece a few hundred yards ahead, then says, "Well. Are you ready?"

Kara Zor-El looks at Vandal. "Maybe we can go over the plan quickly, one more time?"

Vandal chuckles at that. "Basically we set this thing in the back up and see if there's any sign of any return emissions. So we can tell if it's worth turning it on or not. Honestly if we can't find any sign of them reaching out from their end, we might as well go with plan B. Which is put you in stasis until I can make a reliable portal. Which is fine, I'd just have to take a few months to set up the stasis bed for you. But we should try this first, since it can get you back right away."

He cracks the seal on the doors and hops out, being remarkably mellow for someone who's sending a person back to basically end his existence.

Kara Zor-El nods a little. Then considers saying, "You.... do know that if I succeed at this, you'll never become... well... you'll remain that jerk you were in the past. Right?" but instead realizes this is a stupid thing to say, considering it also will save 7 billion lives. So she doesnt say it. She just nods a little and says, "Yeah, lets definitely try this plan first. How do we start this?" she says as she goes around to the back.

Vandal hits a palm control and the machine is lowered to the ground, on a hover field. "Well, you need to show me the exact spot you arrived at. Then we can plunk this down and basically we start from there. It's odd, I know that the planet is whipping through space and we're nowhere near the actual spot we were at, but for some reason it still works that way."

Kara Zor-El looks around. Good thing the yellow sun isnt responsible for her being either smart or having an eidetic memory. She looks around. "Okay well... The car was over here...." she says, walking over to the spot where she got into the car, where the tire tracks still are. She then takes a few steps away to where she woke up as well. "Annnnd I was riiiight over here."

Vandal floats the machinery in that direction, then his eyes widen as he says, "Look out!" And something bursts out of the sand a little to the right of where Kara is standing!

A bug-looking thing with pincers around its face, looking to be about fifteen feet tall and part of its body still in the sand! It spreads wide some 'arms' that seem quite threataning and very very sharp. Vandal reaches for his sword without hesitation.

If, a few days ago, this happened, Kara would react by attacking. But no longer having any powers except maybe a little strength left, she instead jumps out of the way, before running for the vehicle to get the hammer and spear that she took from the Hall of Justice

Vandal tries to parry the great arm of the beast, but the bug is far too strong. His sword flies out of his hand and his shoulder is gashed open, sending him sprawling to the ground. He rolls back out of the way of the bug, unable to do much against it's power. "It's ...forgive the name, I called them antlions. They live underground. We'll need to deal with it to set up the portal, it's just too close."

Kara Zor-El backs up, and throws the spear. Which basically bounces off the chitinous armor. She backs up near Vandal. "Annnnd do we have a plan on how to do that, given that I don't have superpowers, this hammer is pretty much just a hammer now, and that thing's skin is pretty much like armor?"

"Well, my normal plan is to just let it die of old age," Vandal says almost jokingly. His arm is already healing, and he's straightening up again. "Given that this thing is probably almost four hundred years old already, I don't think that's viable."

Circling around for his sword, he says, "Wait, I have an idea!"

Kara Zor-El looks at Vandal briefly as she swings her hammer at one of the talons that get close. "If you tell me the plan is to outlive it while I go in the stasis chamber, I might have to hit you with this hammer..." She asks, "That being said - what's the idea?"

Vandal nabs his sword, then tosses it to Kara. "Take too long to explain...keep it busy for a minute. Actually eighty-five seconds." He dashes back toward the machine, which is still a little bit too close to the thing for comfort, and if it reached for him he'd probably get stabbed. "Try not to die! Very important!"

Kara Zor-El catches then swings the sword at another talon, then swings the hammer as well, before dodging out of the way of a third talon. "Yeah! Most of my plans involve not dying! It's this thing I try to not do whenver possible!" She manages to impale a limb into the ground, before using the hammer to smash it. She then pulls the sword out of the ground and lops off the limb. "This idea doesnt involve me being bait, right? Wait... this idea involves me being bait, doesnt it!? Am I being bait right now???"

"Not at all, just a distraction," comes Vandal's voice as he fiddles with dials. Not being as picky about exact numbers as he was when setting this thing up at the lab, and he went to all that trouble back then to explain how far off a single digit could mean. No, right now he's just working from the hip. "Time and space are both part of the same thing, right?"

At that point, the bug seems really quite focused on Kara. Having parts of its body cut off under its armor does that to anyone. It doesn't rear back, it attacks immediately and grabs her around the waist, lifting her up high in the air with its other grippy arm. That mouth looks awfully big and tooth-filled.

Kara Zor-El acks as she gets grabbed by the bug and is brought closer to its gaping, razor-tooth-filled maw. She yells at Vandal, "THATS THE SAME THING AS BAIT WHEN ITS A DISTRACTION TO A 15 FOOT MANEATING BUG!" At which point she swings the hammer at its teeth, followed by a stab upwards into the bug's mouth with the sword. As in right inside its mouth and jabbing it upwards. Kara Zor-El doesnt answer the question Vandal asks. Since she's too busy trying to not become bug chow.

Vandal works the dials, peering at the specific numbers now. "I'm targeting another G-type main sequence star like ours, but younger," he calls out as you're lifted. Then the bug rears back from the sword aimed at its mouth, pulling back. Squeezes Kara a bit, and reaches for Vandal.

Not paying attention, he's grabbed by a leg and lifted up into the air, still reaching for buttons. "Guaaagh! Kara! We need to turn the machine on! It's not...perfect, but it should be close enough! Can you..." And without a weapon, the bug stuffs Vandal directly into it's open mouth.

Kara Zor-El take the hammer and throws it right into the bug's mouth. Maybe it'll choke on it. In the meantime, Kara holds the sword with both hands and swings it downward at the talons gripping her to slice it off.

Hitting a joint, the talon holding Kara falls to the ground, and so does she. Sixteen feet, but onto basically dirt, she's bruised but not broken. The hammer hits the thing though, and it seems to choke on it a little as it's chewing on Vandal a bit, slowing down his ...well, he'll be fine but it won't be pleasant.

Kara Zor-El runs over to the machine while the bug is choking on the hammer. And probably on Vandal as well. She turns the machine on so it can target the G-type main sequence star, which was probably to use that star to power the time machine - although it was still more complicated a piece of technology than anything she'd ever dealt with.

The machine hums faintly, and a portal appears in front of it, the way it's designed to do. Supposedly a time portal, this one is focused instead as one that travels through space, and there's a massive wind as air is sucked into it. It opens onto vaccuum! Kara without the ability to fly, is far too close, and she is sucked in with a cry, into empty space beyond!

And on the other side, is literally space. The void between planets, and Kara finds herself freezing to death without air. But she has the one thing that was lacking on that old planet, as she can still see the portal from this side. A view of a G-type Main Sequence Star. A YELLOW STAR.

There's about a 30 second time period between when a human being can survive the vaccuum of space before they suffocate and their bodies and blood freeze. Fortunately, yellow solar radiation is almost instantaneous for the biomatrix to activate - something human beings don't have, but Kryptonians do.

So there's a second of fright, then relief when she no longer has to worry about stuff like breathing or the icy cold blackness of space the total lack of pressure which would cause most people to explode or freeze solid or... whatever bodies do in space. Kara closes her eyes, taking in that great, pure yellow sunlight. Then flies back through the portal.

"Hey! BUG BRAIN!" she says as a blast of heat vision shoots out at it, vaporizing the top half, just above where Vandal Savage was being digested. Then, before he gets sucked through the hole, she grabs him, saying a little 'ew' sound since he's sorta dead-ish temporarily, and looks to see if the device has powered up from the yellow sun just like she had. Yep. So she quickly turns it off before this hole in space does something like.... sucks the machine itself through the portal.

The machine shuts off, the portal closing, and will of course require re-setting. But so does the mechanic who build it, the bug falls over backwards in a mess on the red sand. Dust flies everywhere, but this doesn't bother Kara. Not one bit. Because yes, she's back to normal. For how long? Long enough.

Kara Zor-El doesnt have the same problem with killing a man-eating bug that JUST tried to kill her and killed the only person on this planet who can get her back to her own time that, say, her cousin would have. Besides, she'd eaten a bunch of bugs since in this future time. And Kal lived on a farm. With cows and pigs and chickens. Which were for eating too. Probably not via heat vision but still - they don't try to eat the farmers.

Kara shakes Vandead Savagely Digested. "Hey.... start... coming back to life right now! I got the machine powered up and need to know what to do with it now.

Vandal coughs, his body knitting and his smile re-appearing, as awful and threatening a smile as ever. He doesn't mean anything by it. Just how his face is. "I'm working on it...sorry to delay your trip."

Kara Zor-El gahs. "Don't... DO THAT! With the mouth and the teeth!" She shakes her head. "I mean.... glad to see you're better. Um.... got my powers back for a little while. Probably should do something to take advantage of that?"

The old man nods, offering a hand. "Help me up, and we'll get you right away. I wouldn't want to argue with a fully powered Kryptonian after all." He's up quickly though, and helping with the machine to get it scanning for your friends reaching out to you. "Okay, so we have enough power, let's see if this is even going to work."

He pulls the lever, pushes the buttons, and the screen lights up green. Green is still good, right? "It looks like your family is waiting for you, Kara, we've got a clear path home at your command. We're basically ready here."

Kara Zor-El helps Vandal back to his feet, making sure to look around to make sure there won't be any more bugs, then says to Vandal, "Yes. Green is still good. Plus you made the machine so... you sorta should know that." Yes, this is not a problem that this guy who built this super-advanced quantum-dimensional time portal... but forgot if 'green' is 'good.'

"So.... what now?"

Vandal smiles, then hits a button and the machine hums. And a portal opens behind Kara, as his smile gets a little bit sad. "Now, you step back a little bit and vanish from this time, and go back home. The work's done, and if you look behind you, the portal is opening."

He motions with a hand, to the widening hole and the timespace tunnel beyond it. "I'm finding I can't bring myself to ruin your life by telling you your time of death, Kara. So I'm just going to let you go, and tell you please, please take your time. I know you're smart enough to beat me if you just...think of something I couldn't have prepared for. I trust you."

And the sad, lonely old man, lowers his hand. Because he can't bring himself to hurt Kara, not even for the entire world.

Kara Zor-El takes a step forward. "I'll try to think of something that you'd never think of. I'm going to miss you how you are now. Even if you're a teensy bit totally crazy." She gives Vandal a kiss on the cheek, before taking a step back and going through the portal.

Left behind, the portal closes on Kara leaving the last human behind. He looks around, patient even now, and finds a place to sit. Because there's nowhere to go anymore, not really. But losing his last friend, well. He wonders how she'll fare, saving the world from him, so long ago.

And then, he looks around. Odd. There seem to be buildings, just hints of them in the air. And the sun feels cooler, more yellow. He looks at his hands, and finds he can see through them, and a person's form walks past, chatting with another.

The oldest man of all time, Vandal Savage, says, "Oh well done, Kara. I knew you could do it, my friend." As he fades slowly from sight and the world...becomes.

Death smiles, already seated next to Vandal. The appearing people sort of slow down around him. "I guess she figured out how to stop you. I had a hunch she would." The goth-looking girl smiles. "Don't worry, Vandar Adg ... I just slowed things down a little just to talk first.

Vandar looks at Death, giving her the most surprised look he's had in a million years. Then it becomes a quiet smile, and he nods, and asks, "I never thought to meet you, I must admit. Is it finally over?"

Death smiles back at Vandar. That was his real name, after all. She put her hand on his shoulder. It was sort of cute. "I know... there were rules. You're one of those special cases where I wasn't supposed to take you for a very, very, very long time. From your perspective, at least. You weren't supposed to be all alone though. I could only imagine how that felt. And again... I can imagine a lot." She folds her legs under herself, indian-style.

She clicks her tongue a bit. "And... normally, in a situation like this, and there have been situations like this before.... it would just be nonexistence." She pauses. "But, I think you've suffered enough. Would you like to come with me now? I think I can break the rules this one time."

Genghis Khan, Vandal Savage, Vandar Adg...he had so many names. That one was the oldest. So long ago. "I want to go, miss. It's a gift I'd given up hoping for. Just one question....will I have friends there?"

Kara Zor-El smiles, then looks around at the people still frozen in mid-existence. "I can't tell you about what's after me, but I can tell you one thing." She gives him a little peck on the cheek, and ruffles his hair a bit. "You'll have at least one friend." She points to herself. She gets up and says, "And Vandar?..." She holds her hand out to him. "...As your friend? I just want to say.... You did good."

Vandar Adg, the greatest villain the world ever knew, leans over and takes Death's hand. He honestly never expected something so wonderful after all he's done wrong. Closing his eyes to accept what she offers, he says, "Thank you."

Death smiles as he takes his hand, and the world that almost never was starts to catch up with time. She doesnt judge him for what the bad things he's done. She's known far worse beings than Vandal Savage who were more deserving of punishment. Or the good things he's done. She tries to not play favorites in that respect. She starts to walk off with Vandal Savage as they both slowly vanish.

"You'll be happy."