Sins of the Past (Part VI)
Keystone City, 2065
It wasn’t possible. There should have been no way for them to bring her back, but somehow they found a way. The last time Connor had seen Kara Zor-El alive, had been thirty years ago, at the Battle for Metropolis. A blast from a Kryptonite cannon had rendered her human long enough for Bane to run her through. The wound had been so fatal that there was no way to heal from it. She had died on the spot, and afterwards Superman cast her body into the sun. There was no way this was the real Kara Zor-El.
Connor stood firmly to his feet as he faced down his opponent, the clone of Kara Zor-El who matched the sight of Connor’s long lost friend like a picture except for a solid white one piece that covered most of her body. She began to charge him with an animalistic ferocity, but she was slow. As she swung strike after strike at him, Connor dodged side stepping each blow with relative ease. This was good. This would give him time to make sense of what was going on.
This Kara was obviously a clone, probably an early prototype model, and the others in the tubes below Keystone General were mass produced copies, most likely. When he had studied the monitors, he saw the truth behind what they were trying to accomplish. They were attempting to make full Kryptonian copies, which never worked well. A Kryptonian’s cellular structure was so vastly different from humans, and if the proper measures were not taken then a mental collapse would occur. The mind was too young, and would be overloaded with information right out of the tube resulting in extreme aggression, terror, and paranoia. The Kryptonian clone would instinctually lash out at anything it perceived as threat, and since it was impossible for a clone to differentiate friend from foe, which meant anything that got in its way.
The only way, he had survived the process was having a mixture of both human and Kryptonian strands of DNA, and even then it had been a struggle. With female Kryptonians, matters were much more severe. From his understanding of the time he had spent with the real Kara Zor-El, female Kryptonian seemed to metabolize sunlight at a much faster rate than Kryptonian males did, which could mean a variety of factors. In Kara’s case it meant being able to rival Kal-El’s strength at only sixteen years of age. Had she been able to fully mature, she would have been far stronger than Kal could have ever hoped to have been. Now Connor had to fight her clone, and since that meant an accelerated growth process that meant the absorption rate was amplified. The poor creature’s entire body probably felt like it was on fire.
Kara’s clone roared as Connor continued to dodge her strikes, and went for a tackle which ended up with her missing and crashing into the ground.
“Calm down,” Connor said gently, “I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t know what these people did to you, but I promise you I can help.” What Connor received in reply was a large chunk of pavement that the clone ripped from the ground and tossed at him like it was a softball. Connor leaped over it and dodged the attack, but it crashed into another building causing it to collapse. He could hear people running about all around him. He was going to have to stop this clone before she ended up destroying the city, but he didn’t want to kill her.
Connor sped forward using flight to easily whip around her. He wrapped his arms around her squeezing as hard as he could. She screamed and struggled trying to break free. It took all Connor had to hold her still, but perhaps if he could…
That train of thought was suddenly interrupted when the clone threw her head back and slammed it into his face, and then followed up with an elbow to his ribs, ultimately breaking his grip, she then grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder, and slammed him into the ground. After that it was hit after hit on his face. Left. Right. Left. Right. With each consecutive punch it hurt more and more as he felt his head sink further into the earth.
“Screw this!” Connor thought as the next attempted punch was met with a blast of heat vision. The clone roared in pain, but it was quickly silenced when he connected his right fist with her chin. The force of the blow sent the clone flying. Connor dug himself up from the ground and began to cough. He felt something wet and warm running down his face. He checked his face and confirmed that his nose was broken.
“Girl has a hell of a right hook.” Connor thought. He groaned in pain as he forced his nose back into place. Something wasn’t right though. The attacks were instinctual in the sense that she was coming at him with blindly driven brute force. No tactical sense was there, which was normal for a Kryptonian clone. Down in the hospital bunker though, the clone didn’t attack until Rayner had told it to, and right before then it had exhibited some knowledge of her other abilities when she had took Starfire’s hand.
That reminded Connor of Starfire. She was alone down in the bunker with Rayner, and she was hurt. In her state, there was no telling what Rayner could be doing to her. Despite all the things she had done, she was still an ally, and he wasn’t going to leave her. That was until the clone decided to use his head as a baseball.
The light post slammed into the side of Conner’s head, knocking him off balance. Then the light post hit him again, but this time it came from above knocking him to his knees. He prepared to jump out of the way, but she was already on him, having tossed the remains of the light post away she slammed one punch into his gut, and then another causing him to double over, and the air to leave his lungs. Next thing Connor knew the clone was grabbing his head, and he felt himself being pulled downward, and his vision was filled with the sight of her knee.
She was getting faster, and Conner’s head was pounding. His vision was fuzzy, and as two more massive blows of pain on each side of his head overwhelmed him, his ears started to ring. This was his only chance. If he didn’t retaliate now, he was done for. He forced himself to get his air back, and despite the pain in his chest, he drew in as much air as he could and blew directly into the clone’s face. His vision was still blurry, so he couldn’t tell if he was truly hitting his target, and his ears had failed. The only thing he had to go on was the feeling of the air around him as it rapidly cooled to frigid temperatures. He waited for a hit to come, but it never did. He stumbled backwards, and his vision slowly began to return to him. When it fully returned what stood in front of him was a Krypto-sicle in mid-swing. He would have to forget about Starfire for now, because that ice wouldn’t hold the Kara clone for long. He had to stop the clone, and going on a hunch he used x-ray vision and sure enough his hunch proved right. Her brain was laced with an entire network of cybernetic circuitry.
Connor surmised that it had probably been installed during her development and under infrared light while her skull had still been week. The girl had been used as a lab rat, and now was a puppet. It sickened Connor to think of what the girl could have gone through to be in the state she was. There was a chance he could still free her. Looking harder he found the central hub of the cybernetics. If he destroyed it, then she could possibly be freed from Rayner’s and the rebel’s control, but there was no guarantee that she would be able to rationalize, and she might continue the attack. Then there was even the possibility that if he destroyed it, it could kill her.
He didn’t know what to do, he weighed the decision over and over in his mind. He could end up breaking all chains and letting loose a monster on the world. She could kill hundreds with nothing to stop her. All those deaths would be on him. If he killed her, then he would have to live with that memory, and he didn’t know if could. If he did nothing, the rebels would continue to use her, once possibly killing thousands. Either way, it seemed every choice involved killing someone. Connor gritted his teeth.
‘It shouldn’t have to be this way,” Connor thought to himself, ‘Why can’t I just save somebody I care about for once.’ Then the ice started to crack. She was breaking free!
‘Dammit, you’re taking too long! Stop second guessing yourself Connor and make a decision!’ he screamed at himself mentally. No matter how small of a chance. If he destroyed the central hub of the circuitry in her brain. There was a chance he could stop her and she would still live. He had to go for it. He prepared to focus his heat vision.
CRASH!
The clone’s roar filled his eardrums as she burst through the ice, and slammed her fist still encased in ice into his chest. Luckily stumbling through had caused her to loose balance, and the hit wasn’t as strong as it could have been, but it still hurt, as it ripped through the front of Connor’s jumpsuit. The ice shattered and scattered all around. Her body temperature was still low causing her movements to be just slow enough, for Connor to grab each of her arms as she swung at him. Has he held her in place he tried to look into her eyes, and attempted to focus his heat vision once again, but her eyes turned red before his did. Conner screamed as the left side of his face burned, and when the most agonizing physical pain he had ever felt washed over him as several metric tons of pressure slammed into his groin all at once, he stopped breathing and everything went dark.
He fell to his knees and felt hot white foam come up his throat and out his mouth. He still couldn’t breathe, when she grabbed ahold of his face with both her hands blocking his air passages, and cutting off any chance of ever breathing again, and she pressed her thumbs into his eyes attempting to gouge them. He couldn’t focus enough to blast her hands away because the pain was too immense, and before long he wouldn’t have the strength to hold her back, and then his eyes would be gone. Was this it? Was this as far as he was meant to come? If it was, perhaps it was fate. He had abandoned those who needed him most, the world he had come to love was now a slave to turmoil, and he had let those he once cared for most turn into monsters or die. If this was his punishment, if this was to be his end, then Connor couldn’t think of a better way for it to. He let go. He stopped resisting. He prepared for the end to come, but suddenly there was yelling.
“LET GO OF HIM!” screamed a woman’s voice. There was a bright flash of green light that permeated the darkness, and huge wave of heat washed over him. Suddenly light flooded into the world again as the clones hands were ripped off his face, and air rushed into his lungs once more. His vision cleared in just enough time to see the orange skinned Tameranean princess throw the Kara clone away from them by her hair, and then blast her prone form with a Starbolt blast sending her rolling across the ground.
Starfire stood in front of Connor, breathing heavily, her entire body drenched in sweat. The stub, where her right hand had once been, was stuck under her left arm.
“Can you still fight!” She called back to him. Connor slowly stood to his feet, coughing as he did so trying to take in air. He couldn’t see out of his left eye at all, and his right was really fuzzy. It was still hard to breathe, and he hurt all over, it was amazing he could even stand let alone fight. He knew that he had to though. Starfire was powerful in her own right, but there was no way she could have stopped Kara. As a matter of fact, she probably may have only managed to piss the clone off even more, and sure enough, just as soon as he thought it, He saw the clone rise up from the ground at a high speed and hover in midair above them.
“Damn you!” Starfire screamed, “Fall!” She fired off a starbolt at the clone, and it struck her. The clone had thrown her arms in front of herself to protect her from the attack, and that was when Connor saw it. The clone was getting tired! The clone’s breath was labored, and instead of dodging the attack and attacking the clone was relying on defending itself. This was their chance.
“I think, I can stop her just keep your attack up!” Connor shouted.
“For how long!?” Starfire shouted, “I don’t have much left.”
“Just long enough to catch my breath.” Connor replied,
“Oh you have got to be kidding me right now!” She cried, and threw another blast at the clone, “damn you! You better hurry this up Connor Kent, or I’ll kill you myself!”
Connor’s vision was starting to come back into his left eye. He steadied his breathing bringing it back under control. With the clone on the defense, all he needed was one clear shot with heat vision and it would be all over. He looked up, and searched for the clones eyes. She was focused on Starfire. Now was his chance. He readied his heat vision to fire, and suddenly , she disappeared.
“What the hell!?” Connor spat, and then suddenly he heard Starfire screaming in pain. He turned in time to see the Kara clone holding Starfire by her hair and spinning around using her body as a counterweight for the spin. She spun faster and faster, until she let Starfire go seeding the Tameran soaring straight towards Connor. She slammed into Connor sending them both crashing to the ground in a tangled heap. The two of them pulled apart from one another. Starfire was the first to stand up.
“That does it!” She spat, “This bitch is going to die!” Starfire roared, and flew toward the clone as fast as she could, as starbolt charging in her hand. The clone was too tired to dodge the attack, and ended up receiving the blast straight into its face at point blank range. Connor could hear the clone screaming in pain, as Starfire continued to hit the clone with starbolt after starbolt, causing the clone to stumble backwards with each strike. The clone had had enough though, and pushed Starfire’s arm out of the way, and wrapped her hand around Starfire’s throat.
Starfire struggled and started to hit the clone’s fist trying to break her grip, but she was just too strong. Starfire tried to breath, but all that emerged from her collapsing windpipe was stifled gurgles. The clone could have easily killed Starfire then, but it was smiling as it watched the Tameran strangle. It was taking pleasure in watching its victim writhe in pain. That’s when Connor could take no more. It didn’t matter what he felt any more. It didn’t matter if he could save the clone or not. It had to be stopped.
Taking what strength he had left, he pushed himself forward, and flew head on into the clone of Kara Zor-El breaking her grip and freeing Starfire. He slammed the clone into the ground. The clone was weak now, and using all his strength there was little she could do to resist him. Connor grabbed both sides of the clone’s face, and using his thumbs and index fingers, pried open the clone’s eyes. He took barely even a nanosecond to take aim, and focused his heat vision through her pupil’s. When the clone roared in pain, he knew he had hit his mark. The clone threw him off of her, and Connor crashed a few feet away from her.
At this point, Connor didn’t care though; he knew the battle was over. He stood up from the ground, and saw the clone grab its head and flail about screaming in pain before it finally fell to the ground and stopped moving all together. For a moment everything was quiet, and nothing moved in the streets of Keystone city. After a moment Connor slowly lumbered over to the fallen body of the clone, and breathed a sigh of relief. A second later, wincing all the while, Starfire stumbled up to Connor’s side.
“Woah, easy now.” Connor said as he took hold of Starfire and helped support her. “You look like hell.”
“Be quiet.” Starfire groaned, before looking down at the fallen clone its chest slowly rising and falling. “Wow, the bitch is actually still alive. Not bad, hero.”
“You weren’t too bad yourself. You’re pretty tough, you know for a Princess.” Connor teased.
“I’m amazed you still have enough strength to jest. Consider my offer for you to join me in bed later officially retracted. Momma’s going to need a few days off.” She hissed, more so in pain than spite. Connor chuckled grabbing at his ribs as he did so. Then for a second he saw the corner of Starfire’s mouth curl upwards into a smile. It reminded Connor of the old days, and though he knew now wasn’t quite the appropriate time, he couldn’t stop himself from asking.
“Kori, what happened to you? You used to not be this way?” Starfire’s eyes widened and she looked sharply up at Connor.
“Kori?” She paused, “I haven’t heard that name in a long time.” She smiled once again, “I never thought I would ever hear anyone call me by that name ever again.” She laughed. “It’s nice.” She turned and looked at Connor and smiled. For a brief moment, Connor saw something in the eyes of the Tameranean princess. He wasn’t quite sure what it was. Happiness? Longing? The discovery of something long lost? A second chance at love? There was no way to tell. All there was, was the broken and bruised, but beautiful woman hanging onto him. He leaned in closer, not sure of what he felt. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t stop himself. His lips were inches away from hers, and he watched as he closed her eyes.
Then suddenly there was bright emerald flash, and a sharp sudden gasp, before he felt the warm splatter of blood spray across his face.
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