[LN] Don't Mess With the 'S'

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon was excited. As soon as Mikey said Manny had given the word that a woman wearing an S on their chest had showed up, he'd been psyched.

"I wonder if it's Linda. I haven't seen her in ages; she retired from superheroing a while back and dropped off the radar. Or it might be my cousin Kara. There's been a couple Supergirls."

He brought the sleigh down towards the location Manny had given, Aurora, Nevada, an abandoned ghost town. The rickety buildings that were still standing looked like they were made of driftwood, dry and lifeless.

Comments

[matchmadeinhell]

"You're not the only one."

He hated that this wasn't black and white. That she wasn't pure evil. That she was related.

As much as Lois and her had their adversarial thing, he was pretty sure Lois still loved her sister, at least somewhat.

"And it ain't pity. That'd mean I'd think you're pathetic for getting duped. I don't. Crazy thing, and I know you don't believe it, but there's little thing called empathy that even us aliens and half-aliens are capable of. All I think is that you never deserved that."

He added dryly, "You deserve me caving your face in for what you did to me, but you didn't deserve that. Especially when you decked yourself out in those duds because of Krypton. Which was a threat." Strange that he'd admit that. Wasn't he half-alien? "You government people are paranoid but this started with you wanting to protect people."

[superwoman]

Had Lucy known about the fact that they were related - really related, not just by virtue of being Kryptonian - would that have changed anything?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

If anything, learning about it now would just make her feel more betrayed.

"You agree that the Kryptonians were a threat?" Lucy's lips twitched. "Guess there is a little bit of Lex inside of you after all." That much, at least, was promising.

"Regardless," she added, "We're not paranoid. We're realistic. Paranoid is dressing up like a giant bat and patrolling the streets, thinking you can make a difference." Easy blow? Maybe. But it was, as far as Lucy was concerned, the truth. "Newsflash. You can't."

There was another heavy, heavy moment of silence. "So. What now?"

[matchmadeinhell]

"Don't have to be Luthor. Just have to live on Earth."

He rolled his eyes at her.

Of course he'd be against the Kryptonians and their threatening shenanigans. His home was Earth. He was one of the idiots that lived on it. His friends and family were there.

"As for what's next..." He drew in a deep breath and blew it out. "This part's the part I don't even know how to explain. So I'll start by saying this: you're not in Kansas anymore."

[superwoman]

"Sorry," Lucy said. "Not a Kansas girl." She'd been around a lot, of course. Being an army brat did that to a girl. But Kansas? Not one of the places that she identified with.

Lois loved it, of course, but then that's where Lois' in-laws were from.

"Try again."

[matchmadeinhell]

"We're in another universe and there's a threat here that's trying to break it's way in from outside the universe. If it breaks all the way in it'll destroy this world and then use it as a stepping stone to destroy all of existence. Every universe. Every world."

That was why he was going to have to tolerate her as long as she wasn't trying to kill or torture him or capture him again. She was a heavy hitter and they needed all the help they could get.