Fall of Justice

War

Gotham burned. Pillars of black smoke sprouted between skyscrapers, snaking free toward the sky. Tanks remained still. Blackhawks were grounded. On the television, the news showed body-bags being carried to a school gym. There were laid out in rows, an improvised space for the dead. Outside, soldiers without orders sat on sidewalks, some stared blankly ahead as they smoked cigarettes.

Kara watched the silent tanks, the sitting soldiers. She looked down at them from one of the highest buildings in the city, a building which had been evacuated when the fighting began. Now she was alone among the cubicles and computers, the family photos and name-plates. It reminded her of what she had always wanted and knew she could never have, a sense of belonging. What little she had of that life was gone, and after what happened today, it wasn't coming back.

"That's the same look you had when I first met you, just after you arrived," Batman said. She was surprised but didn't show it. She was happy to see him.

"You remember?" she asked. Bruce removed his cowel. She turned melancholy eyes to him.

"Of course. Clark was so scared."

"Scared?"

"To him it was like he became a father to all at once. I told him you were old enough to take care of yourself, and you had a loving family to watch you. But he wouldn't drop it, he kept talking about how hard things were for him growing up and that for you, who remembered Krypton, who remembered everything that happened and all that you lost... not to mention all the changes you were gonna experience... he said you might never recover. He was ready to give up everything be there for you. And then... you adjusted. Dealt with it. You grew up." Bruce walked up to her, he laid his hand on her shoulder. "He was proud of you," he said, she broke down in tears before he could finish the words. He hugged her. "I've been looking for you."

"Waller had me in some facility... they hurt me," she said, looking down, as if embarrassed. Bruce's jaw locked.

"We'll take her in together," he said.

"She's the reason he's dead... she's the reason I..." she stopped herself. She looked out to the smoking Gotham outside. "I wasn't trying to hurt them but they wouldn't stop..."

"Why didn't you fly away?"

"Because I'm not letting her get away with it! Or the Joker or Luthor--"

"The Joker's been arrested. He had me, let me go. I called it in. Police used a few soldiers to surround them. They took him and his men in half an hour ago. Luthor has cancer. He's dying."

"Then it's just her," she said, moving to the TV mounted on the wall. The screen showed Waller waiting for her on a roof.

"I'll bring her in," he said.

"She's CIA. No one's going to arrest her," Kara said. "And I'm a fugitive remember... even if I wanted to tell them what she did to me, I'd still be arrested... there's no other way," she said, her focus absolute.

"They have every surrounding building loaded with snipers. It's a trap, you have to know that."

"I do," she said. "Stay here," her voice was gentle and yet, he knew it was a warning. She marched out to the balcony. He followed.

"She's not worth it," he said.

"She can't get away with it. That's what would happen if we let them take her. They took everything from me! She tortured me! They killed Kal, there's nothing left.. stay here Bruce. I don't want to hurt you." She looked to the sky, the air vibrated as it always did just before she took off flying. Bruce moved up to her, gripped her hand-- she pushed him back, he was thrown to the wall, his back smashing a dent against it. He stared at her... she looked back to the sky and with a bang, she was gone.

Bruce remained on his back, though the impact had hurt, that was not the reason he refrained from moving. He knew that when he got up, he would have to go after Kara, go to war. An alien or metahuman killing a civilian, it would be the end of them all, it would be the end of trust between people and heroes. Worst of all, it would be the end of Kara Zor El.

Finally, he stood. Bruce slipped the mask back over his face. He called the Batwing which had been hovering over the roof, it now came to a stop above him. The belly opened and he grappled inside.

All eyes turned up, first supergirl cut across the white sky, a few minutes later the batwing followed, both speeding toward Wayner Tower where Waller stood waiting. Gotham watched in silence, soldiers and police looking up from the streets, whil residents rushed to basements, crowded bars, lobbies, wherever they were, they gathered in fear.

Tanks surrounded the building, their guns turned up. Once Supergirl was in sight, the Blackhawks came like wasps. The pale clouds grew grayer as the sun began its descent.

Supergirl reached her destination. She looked down to Waller who now seemed so small, so insignificant, that her anger nearly gave way at the sight of her. And then Kara remembered her cousin, she remembered Lois and thought of her raising a fatherless child, she remembered her mother. The fire, the blood. Her own torture.

"Take her down," Waller said spoke to the device in her ear.

The silence was broken by the thundering booms of the helicopters unleashing an array of green bullets across the air. Snipers in nearby buildings also let loose, Kara shot up, disappearing in the clouds, but not before taking note of all their positions.

"Eyes open, anyone got her?" a pilot asked.

"Going thermal," another responded. Every man in every helicopter slid their thermal vision over their eyes and looked up. The evening sky was blue through the glasses, a small red stain grew hotter and hotter in the clouds above. "There!" one soldier yelled. "Break break!" the pilots commended, the Blackhawks broke formation-- Supergirl tore from the sky like a meteor, her eyes shot red, cutting the tail off one of the helicopters in the middle of the formation. Before it lost altitude she stopped another chopper, its propellers tearing off as they came into contact with her. She pushed it down, the men inside screaming-- and let it drop from a safe distance over the street.

Supergirl swooped up from below and came back, taking the falling helicopter by its landing skids, landing it safely.

The tank's guns followed her as she brought the Blackhawk to rest. The men inside ran off. She rose behind the chopper, before the tanks could fire she blew a hurricane of frozen breath over them, making their instruments lose power and their guns unable to fire.

Supergirl heard the remaining Blackhawks being called back by General Lane who saw that this was a losing fight. "Get the snipers out and get Waller off that roof, this ain't the way to do this," he ordered.

Supergirl crashed into the closest building, taking temporary shelter as she used her X-ray vision to see if his orders were being followed. The snipers retreated, the helicopters flew out of sight. Waller and someone else were making their way to the stairwell. Kara ripped through the glass window and flew to the Wayne Tower stairwell-- cracking through the wall. Supergirl stepped from the blossom of white dust, face to face with Renee and Amanda Waller.