6297/A falling star named Kara

A falling star named Kara
Date of Scene:	22 December 2017
Location:	Gotham, December 2017
Synopsis:	(FLASHBACK) Kara Zor-El makes land fall on Earth after losing two decades while her baby cousin grew up to be Superman. With Batman's help, she is reunited with her seriously injured cousin and begins her journey of learning about Earth, her new home.
Cast of Characters:	Kara Danvers, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent
Tinyplot:	Gotham City Stories

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Kara Danvers has posed:
    It's an unusual night for Gotham in that it's not raining. The moon is crescent and the clouds are thick casting the city in its accustomed darkness. This darkness is interrupted unceremoniously by a shooting star streaking across the sky and brightening the streets and windows of people sleeping with a light that makes it seem like sunrise has come early.

    As quickly as the shooting star had come, it was as quickly gone following a loud boom from Gotham bay. The shockwave kicked the water up against the piers and quay walls. Boats rocked in their moors and then, once more, Gotham had returned to darkness.

    ~ ehk :dol ehk :dol ~ the computer system inside Kara's pod blares as she is suddenly shook from her hibernated slumber. The last few moments of her life on Krypton flash before her eyes, the planet exploding behind her as her pod flew away. Her father trapping her in this tiny space.. the horrific dreams of being trapped in it forever.

    Kara panics and beats at the canopy. "zha!" she cries out. The hatch opens and water floods in. She's learnt to swim, but not in these odd Earth pressures and she's not sure which way is up. Kicking her feet she surfaces against some rocks and draws in gasping breaths. Her Kryptonian garb drenched, a white dress with light gray lining, clings to her body.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Every now and then even Gotham City gets some good weather. Amazing but true. Of course what constitutes a good evening can vary quite radically depending on one's point of view. Nice weather isn't always a good thing in this particular city. It can make it more likely for people to leave their homes after dark, to stay out just a little later. And dark is when Gotham City is at it's most forboding.

While the weather might not be completely out of character, a shooting star in the night sky is a little more unusual. Even more so when it's trajectory takes it over Gotham to crash into the harbor. A few windows rattle, and the loud boom that echoes across the city's waterfront will definitely catch a few people's attention. Boats in the marina are jostled about in their moorings as the impact sends out a whole lot more then small ripples, the creaking of ropes and the slapping of boats against their bouys filling the night air.

If it's night time in Gotham City chances are it's prtector will be prowling about. Certainly the Bat Signal happens to be lit, shining that symbol up into the night sky -- a psychological plow as much as anything else, concocted by Jim Gordon to try and make the more timid criminals think twice before trying anything. But the Dark Knight is nowhere near Gotham Central this evening. No, he prowls up around the Bowery, the north end of Gotham, the decayed neighborhoods that even gentrification have not yet touched. It has been a busy night so far. Three muggers, a would-be thief and a gang-turf war all averted thus far. So when that falling meteorite soars overhead with a brief flash of light and then a much more prominent -Boom- that cowled gaze turns upward for just a moment, eyes narrowing behind that mask.

Space is big. The sky vast, and difficult to monitor. That doesn't mean that he doesn't suppliment NASA's efforts to do so with his own of course. And while every object in space certainly can't be tracked, the Dark Knight doesn't remember seeing anything due to crash anywhere around Gotham on this particular evening.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Kara, relieved to finally be out of that small space, pulls herself up and flicks back her hair. She climbs up the cement quay wall and on to the side walk. The sounds of Gotham insulting her ears. It gets louder and louder and she clamps her hands over her ears as she stumbles on to the road.

    The truck driver barely had time to hit the breaks as the young woman staggers out on to the road. The crash is sudden and violent, thought he seat belt and airbag save the driver.

    The bright lights of the fast moving vehicle surprise Kara. They didn't do roads like this on Krypton because it simply wasn't safe! but the vehicle, whatever it is, seems to have been designed to save a pedestrians life as the entire engine block has crumpled around her small body.

    Kara stumbles back from the smoking front of the vehicle and its now flickering headlights. She runs off down the street feeling the odd road surface under her toes. Finally, she sees some people. Rushing over to talk to them, she hits glass and it crashes around her. The people, they are fake.. dummies dressed in clothes.

    The glass falls harmlessly from her skin, not even scratching. She stares at the dummies and pokes one, "aja-nahvruht, ta.. ta-kri..," she says and then the alarm of the store starts to burn in her mind, a flashing blue light and a siren to attract attention.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Certainly car companies are generally trying to find advancements that make their product safer and while they certainly are designed to crumple more easily with current models, as a general rule that is what happens when a car slams into another car, or a telephone pole, or anything else solid or more or less immovable. They do not, as a general rule, do that when a fairly large truck slams into a young woman.

There are not a whole lot of people out and about at this hour. But this is still Gotham City and the town never entirely sleeps. Still, down here by the waterfront those still up and about at this hour are fairly few and far between. The big, industrial wharfs are just slightly north of where she makes landfall, and just to the south is that marina -- most of the boats in their berths unoccupied. Most, but not all. A few lights shine through cabin windows and a face or two appears in those, peering out into the darkness for some sign of the disturbace.

There is no one good rule to follow in a city like this. Some people might prefer to stay in bed, to lay low and hope that nothing terrible out of the night comes their way. Others would rather see it coming. At least that way you might be able to run and hide. What few are interested in doing? Getting involved. If it involves more then a quick call to the police? Forget about it.

It's probably not the worst outlook. At least not in this city.

Across town, well north of even those seaport docks the cowled figure reaches a sleek, black vehicle, the canopy sliding open as he nears, allowing him to hop into the car with one, quick motion. The engine revvs to life and instant later and the Batmobile leaps forward, already picking up speed, even from a dead stop as Gotham's Dark Knight starts to guide that car through the city's quiet streets.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Kara runs away from the alarmed building and pauses as suddenly her vision stretches off in to the far distance, then it starts looking through things and she holds out her arms trying to feel ahead of her, unable to see properly.

    "tulem khap vokai," she says in alarm and her vision snaps back, though her eyes feel hot. She runs inside what looks like a warehouse filled with boxes and slumps against them. The sounds of voices draws her to walk around.

    Seeing what she thinks are people, though they are bags of flesh with bones in them and beating hearts... "sokao-vokai khap," she says to them in her strange almost Swedish like accent.

    Her eyes begin to burn and she rubs at them, then as her hands move away intense heat leaps from them and starts to carve through boxes, the ground, the walls. The people go running and fires begin to burn the stored goods.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Gotham City is big. While much of the focus is on the skyscrappers, throw back buildings from the early Twentieth century with all the gothic accompaniments that give it such a unique skyline, the city also sprawls. It sprawls across three islands as well as a healthy chunk of the nearby mainland. It is hardly unusual for something happening at one end of the city to go completely unnoticed on the other side. More often then not that is the case. Crimes are committed, disasters happen and only a fraction of the population is every really aware.

The same is true of this evening as well of course. But anyone awake, anyone looking outside are almost sure to notice those heat blasts that tear up into the night sky.

While most who see such a display are likely to go back to bed, to burrow into their covers a little more deeply and hope that it doesn't come their way, hope that they don't have to do more then maybe read about it in tomorrow's paper, or hear about it on the drive into work that is not the case for everyone. As the Batmobile races south, rapidly closing in on the source of the disturbance the Dark Knight sees those rays flash, carving up into the night. While the car continues to race towards that ultimate destination, the heads-up display in his cowl begin to replay the scene in one corner of his eye, feeding him information garnered from the WayneTech satellites in orbit.

Behind that mask, Batman's eyes narrow once more, his face hardening into that unmovable expression as the sleek black vehicle finally screeches to a stop, less that a block from the scene of the disturbance.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    One of the warehouse workers is braver than the others. When the beams stop blasting and setting things on fire, he enters with a crowbar. "Hey! You!," he says. Kara turns and says to him "ta-nahn nahvruht vo kahp?!." He smirks, "Yeah blahdiblah to you too. You've caused a lot of damage and I'm gunna stop you. Kevin, warehouse manager!"

    He charges in at Kara and strikes at her with the crowbar. It bends against her arm. She looks back at him with a look of confusion and anger. This person just attacked her. She strikes him in the arm and the man crumples to the ground. "nim voiehd w zha-giehrehd!" she shouts down at the whimpering man who probably has several broken bones now.

    Kara turns and sees flames everywhere. Smoke is filling the place and she rushes for a side door left open by fleeing workers.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Reports are beginning to filter in by now, the Bat Computer programmed to forward all such items of note to the head's up display in his mask. What is known about the object that crashed into Gotham Harbor -- nothing that he didn't see with his own eyes -- and the report of the car accident nearby where a young woman just walked away leaving a crumpled truck behind. That's more noteworthy, worth investigating to be certain.

It does not take very much investigating to see that the reports clearly have some validity, no matter how outlandish they might seem on the surface. Gotham's Dark Knight arrives at the far end of the warehouse just as the night manager tries to prove himself to his underlings. He watches as that solid-looking crowbar has absolutely no effect, as it crumples instead, and then sees the effect she has on him from even the most glancing blow.

With the fires growing, he races in as she begins to flee, pausing by the fallen man, stooping to drape him over his shoulder before rising and starting after the unlikely blonde, hardly slowed despite his burden as he bursts out of the plume of smoke that is pouring out that open doorway.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    That feeling you get when someone is watching you but you're not sure from where. Kara turns and sees.. Batman. That dark foreboding figure in black with ears and in general, just a very scary menacing visage that sends chills down her spine.

    "zha-pil Cythonna w khap!," she cries out in defiance of the monster chasing after her and starts to run faster from what she perceives as a monster. The timbre of the language has a vague ring to it. Kryptonian is hardly Superman's first language - he grew up on Earth in America, but the sound of someone speaking it natively is much like hearing a dead language like Latin spoke natively for the first time.

    Kara slumps against a building wall and can still feel the effects of hibernation draining her body, despite her body being absolutely full of solar power. But it's the confusion of everything that gets to her..

    She drops down to the ground and covers her eyes as she begins to cry, "ka-nahn khap w utoi rriv voiehd." May be she is in the realm of monsters. Why would her father send her to a horrible place like this?

Bruce Wayne has posed:
He does not have a great deal of time to attend to the man, though none of his injuries seem life-threatening. He coughs hard and whimpers, that arm clearly broken quite badly. But increasingly the Dark Knight has a suspicion that he likely got of lightly. Either way, he is laid aside as Batman alerts both the fire department and an ambulance. "Stay there," he says in a tone that brooks no disagreement, no argument, that cowled-gaze shifting to some of the warehouse workers who have gathered nearby, letting them know that they are included in that particular order.

Who knows? Maybe a few of them will still be around by the time the authorities arrive.

And then he is after the fleeing blonde, racing down the street. And despite his conditioning, his longer stride, she easily begins to out-distance him. A grapnel appears in his hand and he takes to the air, swinging up to one of the nearby rooftops and racing along that narrow ledge, keeping an eye on her from above to better see where she goes.

He creeps across the rooftop as he hears the soft cries from up ahead, creeps close until he is at the edge of the roof, peering down at her from above. And then he descends, leaping from that perch to land crouched in front of her, only a few feet away. "Wait!" he says, his tone a little less hard and intimidating then normal, holding a hand towards her but not immediately springing any closer.

He repeats "Wait," once more, less urgently and slowly reaches towards one of pouches that line his belt, ducking within and pulling out a piece of chalk. Then he begins to sketch out a symbol on the pavement between them.

It's a familiar symbol. One known to virtually everyone on Earth, even if its origins are extra-terrestrial. And when he is done that emblem from Superman's costume gleams there in bright yellow in that dark Gotham alley.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Kara hears the foot steps from above and looks up to see the dark monster there once more. A language she doesn't understand.. this is an alien world, there is only one moon and the sky is a strange color even at night. The air smells very strange.

    She holds up her hands defensively as he drops down and she says quickly, "zha-plehs khap!." When the monster doesn't try to eat her though and instead draws on the pavement, her eyes open wide, still glistening with her tears.

    "ehl," she says with excitement and then places a hand to her heart. Somehow this man knows her? "kara zor-ehl," she repeats to him and the fear she had for this beast diminishes slightly.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The Dark Knight speaks a surprising number of languages. At least those in Bruce Wayne's circles would probably be surprised by just how many he speaks.

Kryptonian, unfortunately, does not number amongst them. Still, he's heard it spoken and has both an excellent ear and memory for such things. He has also seen enough Kryptonian symbology that he could manner any number of recreations. Her words sound vaguely Kryptonian. So all of this seemed worth a try. And it was likewise logical to utilize the symbol he is most familiar with. He didn't expect quite this sort of reply.

At the best of times, the Dark Knight is pretty unreadable and he does not display any surprise when the frightened blonde young woman uses the same name as Clark. Could she be family? Or is the El name on Krypton like any of the common names here on Earth, with tens of thousands of families boasting them? A shame that he can't ask Clark.

With her response, something seems to be decided in him and he reveals a little microcomputer embedded in his gloves, tapping at it for a moment before sealing it back up once more, only then lifting his gaze to her. "Kal-El," he says simply, though doing nothing to indicate himself. Instead he stands and starts towards the nearby fire escape, motioning for her to follow.

"Kal-El," he says again, gesturing with his hand once more before climbing up to the roof. And by the time she joins him the Batwing is soaring across the night sky, closer and closer until hovering just off to the side of the building, the roar of the engines loud. Again he motions for her to follow him, helping as needed to get her into the unique jet.

Then they are off. He really didn't expect to be travelling to the Arctic tonight.

Clark Kent has posed:
Meanwhile, at the Fortress of Solitude.

Kelex, the little robot Jor-El sent to ensure this exact situation never happened hovers back and forth, looking up at the chamber with worry on his cold, metallic face. Normally signs of Kryptonian technology on earth would be Defcon One at the fortress, but the Fortress's currently on lockdown. Nothing in or out unless you have a special keycode, a last resort against the impossible. An all out assault of Superman's worst enemies, the cream of the super-criminal crop, it's the only thing that could...

That could...

"Shit." Kelez says, as the little robot looks at the chamber. It was never meant for this, not with him this old.

And inside, the Man of Steel struggles for his very soul.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Kara slightly less afraid now can see he really is a man, just one wearing a very strange outfit and equiped with a lot of strange technology. And then he says the absolute magicist of magic words. She was sent here by her father to survive, to live, but to also look after her baby cousin Kal-El.

    "ta-khap sojehb, ta-vi-raozh rrup w khap sojehb kal-ehl," she says and stands back up. "giehrehd rrup khap bim kal-ehl," she adds, suddenly very chatty with the dark knight.

    With the gesture, she does follow after him. The ship that approaches them is a strange sight for her, she's never seen a traveller like this before. Once inside, she realises communication is going to remain a problem. She will have to learn his language. The only word so far is 'Wait' but this doesn't seem like the right time to use it.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The little blonde visitor from another world is likely to be disappointed conversation wise. Even if he knew her language the Dark Knight is not exactly the most loquacious of heroes that she could have run into on her first night here on Earth. But he doesn't know her language, aside from recognizing a word here or there. Operating in the dark. When it comes to time of day, or location that's just fine. When it's due to a lack of knowledge? Well, that's never Batman's favorite situation.

Maybe moreso when dealing with what appears to be another Kryptonian. Suddenly Superman is not the the last survivor of Krypton if this is true. The implications to that are huge. And potentially terrible. The little monitor in the front of the Batwing cockpit shows him his passenger, lets him keep tabs on her. She doesn't look like a threat of course. But then not all threats look that way at first.

As advanced as his technology is, the trip hundreds of miles into the barren Arctic is not a simple hop, skip and a jump. It takes time and by the time they are setting down outside the mound of ice that makes up Superman's home the sky is beginning to lighten. When the cockpit opens the chill of the air hits like a sledgehammer, threatening to steal breath away. But the Dark Knight shows no reaction, just drawing his cape about him a little more and offering her a hand down.

He considers trying to see if he can communicate with her enough to try and use the actual key to get access to the Fortress. It would give him a good baseline of just how powerful she is. But in the end he simply leads her to that more discrete entrance, tapping the code that Clark provided him should the worse ever happen.

Clark Kent has posed:
The code is something silly and personal: the first date they exchanged Christmas gifts. Clark was later pretty embarrassed about getting Bruce 'The Mark of Zorro' but, in all fairness, his gut WAS right about the Dark Knight liking the film.

The Fortress has always been quiet; an island of peace for a man otherwise consumed by noise and movement. But there'd been a homeliness to it; the silly decorations, Clark's half finished modeling projects, the trophies are all still there. Perhaps hauntingly, the great chessboard of justice has been moved so that the Superman piece is in checkmate, and tipped over in defeat.

Superman robots trudge along, doing their daily duties. There's a whole zoo to maintain, after all, even if there's no one to maintain it for. The drones aren't bothering to wear their master's image today, instead their default of faceless, jury-rigged K-tech with little capes and numbers on their chests. Robots, at least Kryptonian style drones, cannot get depressed, but there's a noticable slump in their movements regardless.

Lights flash, then, as Batman takes a step in. New drones, hovering eye shaped pods, come to intercept the pair of you, green lights flashing as they chatter in some obscure machine language.

A voice says, "behold the DEADLY enemies of SUPERMAN." as a projection shows a quick montage of the very same; "Toyman!" scanning, "The Prankster!", scanning, "The Parasite!", scanning, "Mongul of Warworld!", the holographic images seem to pose and strut and leer just like the real things, united in their hatred if nothing else.

and finally, "Luthor!", this one lingers a bit, as electronic brains process potential threats. This is strange, Bruce. The Fortress has never felt subtly hostile like this. Could something be wrong?

Kara Danvers has posed:
    The cold hits her hard, but strangely doesn't really affect her. She ponders this - yet another in a long list of weird things going on with her body. Every time her eyes feel warm she shuts them, worried the explosions will happen again.

    The long trip in silence gnaws at her. He knows the name of her cousin, he knows the name of her family. It's a strange coincidence, but it gives her hope she will find that child and look after him as her father asked her to.

    The mound of ice is.. uninteresting, at least, until the door opens and she sees a strange slice of home inside. "ta-," is all she gets out as she steps inside and strokes her fingers over the crystalline walls.

    The place is like some sort of compacted remote research station someone has been forced to live in. The look of wonder at what could possibly be going on here is written all over her face and posture. The sudden appearance of the drones makes her take a half step backward. They're speaking a language that sounds similar to what Batman was speaking. But the technology looks Kryptonian.

    "What are you talking about? who are those people? what is this place? state the nature of your programming," the sixteen year old Kryptonian native asks the fortress in her native tongue. A hand lifts up and gestures to summon a holographic computer interface. It's a natural reaction and one she expects to work. It would have worked back home. Like any teenager she is used to a certain kind of computer technology.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
No, the Fortress does not seem the same at all. One would never think of Batman being particularly empathetic but he does have an excellent tendancy to be able to get a read on any situation. And this is not a particularly pleasant one to put it mildly. Behind that cowl eyes narrow once more as he takes in the drones and their display, takes in the current state of the Fortress -- that giant chessboard standing out in particular. It is off.

But then perhaps that is only to be expected. He is no longer here and that absence is like a void, a little dark and forboding. Somehow a threat. Perhaps it is only natural that his home away from home would take on some of that sense as well.

While the Dark Knight is certainly interested in exploring that a little further, he is also interested in his guest's reaction. In theory some of this should be familiar to her. This is supposed to be Kryptonian tech afterall and so Batman glances back towards the young blonde, watching impassively but with an air of interest. Watches as she interacts with the tech, seemingly fmailiar with it. The question is how will it react?

"Kelex," he says, breaking that self imposed silence. "Where's Kelex?" he asks, trying to head off any potential difficulties by summoning the Fortress' caretaker.

Clark Kent has posed:
The eye-drones chirp and whir, moving around the pair in a broad circle.

The Kryptonian catches one of them off guard, but it...narrows, still repeating the strange mantra. "Jax-ur." A picture of the mad scientist shooting Clark in the face, "Phantom King." a floating, ghostly suit of armor shoving a phantasmal fist through Clark's chest, "Dru-Zod.", Superman and Zod just in the middle of wailing on each other, bare skin touching like savage animals. What kind of world IS this, Kara. "Defensive strategy X-2..."

"Woah!"

Kelex, the strange little steward, hovers over, holding his hands up. "Guys, guys, that's Batman! We like Batman! Come on, Toyman doesn't know where this place is, he's NOT a robot! I'm so sorry, Master Batman, we're all on edge here, with the Master being totally super for real dead and all..."

Kelex trails off, instantly recognizing Kara; his systems aren't as degraded as the other drones, which look more like a horrific caveman jury rigging of Kryptonian technology than the real thing to a native. Kelex actually IS a proper Kryptonian steward machine, and can instantly sense the DNA of the house he was constructed to serve. "Impossible. You...you're dead. You're all dead. All that's left are criminals, madmen and ghosts."

Kara Danvers has posed:
    There's a look of shock on Kara's face as she sees Jax-Ur.. followed by Dru-Zod. Zod was leading a rebellion against the high council in the days leading up to her being sent away. Her mouth drops open seeing a man she doesn't recognise fighting Zod.

    Finally, an actual robot appears - kelex - and she stares at it. Lost for words for a moment, "Construct. My name is Kara Zor-El. I am very much alive. Please take me to Kal-El." The instruction is simple. She looks down at her hand, no holographic interface. What is going on in this mad house?

    At least there might be something in this place to help her understand what is happening to her. First, worry about her baby cousin - second, worry about herself - third, figure out how this Batman knew about this place and the name of her cousin.

    Her blue eyes look over the little models Kal has been constructing. The chess board with a piece that looks like the man in the hologram... and that man in the hologram did look a little familiar, kind of like her uncle Jor-El, but also not.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The drones do nothing to put them at east and the Dark Knight tenses ever so slightly, using that cape that drapes about him like a shroud to prepare to defend himself -- and his guest -- should the need arise. He is very much hoping however that by trying to summon the Steward of this place that perhaps that can be avoided. The last thing he wants is to do anything to damage this place. It is, afterall, a shrine to one of their fallen now. And if anyone knows the hold that the dead can still have over the living it would certainly be him.

Fortunately it seems that not everything about the Fortress has changed and as the Kryptonian Robot floats up the Dark Knight lets those weapons slip from his hand, back into the belt pouch at his side. No testing his devices against Kryptonian tech today it would seem.

"Kelax," he says, dipping his head in acknowledgement -- and probably a little thanks -- before he falls silent and lets the bot evaluate the situation on its own. Clearly the self identified Kara seems to recognize it, though seems almost as confused as their robotic host. "I can't say for sure if she is genuine," he states quietly. "But she did fall from the sky over Gotham. I have drones searching the harbor floor to see if there was a ship. Perhaps they'll tell us more," he adds impassively. "She has shown super-strength, a degree of invulnerability and heat vision that I'm aware of," he adds, providing the information that he knows quickly, quietly and efficiently. Very Dark Knight.

"And when I drew his symbol on the ground she identified herself as Kara Zor-El. She was frightened of me, but when I spoke the name Kal-El she calmed right down and followed me here willingly..."

Clark Kent has posed:
"Your first instinct was to graffiti the symbol on the ground." Kelax says, and it's a little eerie how the tiny robot picked up his master's deadpan midwestern humor over the years. It even crosses its arms. "Well it is Kara Zor-El, I'd know that genetic sequence anywhere. Kryptonian DNA is a little denser than human, it's...complicated. She's his cousin."

Kelax gets orders. The machine sparks, actually, and seems to be...resisting? It speaks in slightly rusty Kryptonian. "<Mistress, your cousin is...>" Another trail off. "<...this is the Bat-Man. The people of Earth like to invoke the symbolic power of animals by dressing like them, sometimes. Despite this, he is Master Kal-El's closest ally on the Earth. He is to be trusted.>" Though Kara may pick up what Kelax is actually saying is 'trusted to an extent'. Kryptonian is a language that loves its layered meanings.

Kelax frets a little, again, clearly, CLEARLY hiding something. "It'll be easier this way. Hold still, Master Batman, I'm going to shoot you."

And then Kelex does, right in the face! Batman's head will spin for a minute as his mind literally expands. "...this info-beam will teach you old Kryptonian for twenty four hours, Batman." Kelax explains, "I thought it'd make explaining everything simpler. And safer."

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Kara is getting the sense that Kelax isn't telling her something very important. She furrows her brows and then nods her head, "I understand." That is, that Batman is to be trust.. to an extent. But then, suddenly Batman could understand too. Kara just said 'I understand'.

    "Whatever it is you're not telling me, please.. I've had a very stressful day. Please just tell me, or show me," she says and then realises just what Kelax did to Batman. Her eyes widen a touch and she peers at him, "Was that safe? is his brain okay? can you really do that to a.. whatever their species is called?" Her eyes travel up and down over Batman with concern.

    She then speaks to him slowly like he's had a concussion, "Are You Okay Bat Man." She motions to herself, "My Name Is Kara. I Am From The Planet Krypton." Her eyes search over him looking for recognition he understands her.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Look, Kelex is hardly the first 'person to question some of his decisions and he does not seem anymore phased then when anyone else asks him what he was thinking. "She was terrified and demonstrating uncontrolled powers resembling a Kryptonian. And his symbol was the one in your language that I know best. It made sense to start there," he says flatly, his voice just as unreadable as ever. Besides, was it really graffiti? Or was it exquisite street art? That's not for him to decide!

There is no doubt that better lines of communication here would be helpful. It probably should not come as a surprise that Kryptonian technology has some means of dealing with this sort of thing. He does, however, question the design choice.

The Dark Knight is pretty unshakable, but he clearly does not expect -- nor appreciate -- being told that he is going to be shot. And then actually shot. In the face none the less. For a moment he staggers -- though probably less from the surprise then the ray doing whatever it needs to do to his brain -- andfor just a moment his expression shows discomfort before he quickly regains control and it's washed away.

"I'm fine," he says, waving off her concern for him, straightening once more, his face again an unreadable mask. The look he shoots Kelex's way might be just a little hard however, the slightest tightening of his lips. "You can call me Batman, Kara. You are on the Planet Earth, my home. And the home to your cousin for the past few decades," he says quietly.

Clark Kent has posed:
It is an open question if this sort of thing is a Kryptonian trait, a house of el trait, of Kelax having been quietly malfunctioning since the rocket crashed. The robot's never admitted to it, and to be honest Superman used to be pretty abrupt about this sort of thing too. Like getting a shot, he'd argue, clearly enjoying himself.

Kelax breaks. He can't hold this information from these people. It'd be wrong. The master'd be disappointed. "Come with me. Quickly. This will explain everything. But...no one can know. Not even the League, not yet. It is a delicate time."

Kelax leads the way to the science wing; Superman's forge-lab, hall of super-weapons, vinter's room, and the remains of the computer that was supposed to raise and protect him are all here. And there's something else too; it almost looks like an upright coffin, large and black and full of some strange, simmering liquid. Cables are connected to it, as Kryptonian technology flashes and whirs, looking for all purposes a bit like an iron lung from space.

Kal-El of Krypton floats in there, the wounds and gashes Doomsday tore through his body still there. But, perhaps, somewhat smaller?

"We do not have what we should." Kelex says, sadly. "If the rocket had landed properly, there would've been enough of a world seed for a proper facility, but we've been running on fumes. Master Kal-El always said it was for the best, that it was inappropriate for the ghost of Krypton to impose itself overmuch on another world. But he would be alive to say that."

"A monster, a bioweapon, was unleashed on this world. The Master opposed it, as is his way. The world thinks he is dead because of this, and because if his enemies knew he was here, powerless, they would come from around the galaxy to lay siege to the Fortress and the world that dared shelter him. Behold, Kara Zor-El. Behold the Superman."

Kara Danvers has posed:
    The idea of a man dressed up like a monster, a symbol of power, looking after her baby cousin is a bit perplexing to her. Closest ally is an odd way to describe a baby sitter. But she is thankful that her cousin has had someone to look over him.

    She doesn't get the chance to thank Batman for her constructed idea of who he is and what he's done because the first words out of her mouth are: "Two Decades!?" Her eyes begin to feel hot again. She covers her eyes quickly with her hands. "Ahh... what is happening to me?" It takes her a moment to feel herself calm and the heat disappear from her eyes.

    She peers at Kelex accusingly, "Who the heck is the league?" She then peers at Batman and nods curtly, "Earth... thank you. I was going to ask. But how can Kal-El have been here two decades? I left right after him."

    She follows after Kelex with annoyance in her step.. but seeing the strange medical device on display and a grown man inside it. The man who was fighting Dru-Zod and Jax-Ur. She shakes her head, "NO nono... this can't be happening."

    She walks up and presses a hand to the container and stares in, "Kal-El??." She failed. He grew up here without her. "Cousin...," she says and then looks back at the pair with her, "Superman?"