Kryptonian Heritage – Chapter 3
By MagnusMagneto ( www.MagnusMagneto.com )
Commissioned by Cerebus873
This chapter is more of a shorter story / setup piece while I get back into the groove of things. Next chapter will have more of what most of you are waiting for, but I still feel that for the little narrative I want to tell this is somewhat important. For those of you who don’t care about character development, dialogue, plot, etc in an FMG story, then feel free to skip it honestly.
Also – as mentioned before, these incarnations of these characters are amalgams of various versions I’ve read/watched. Batman and Supergirl have been touched by hundreds if not thousands of writers at this point, so keep in mind that you and I may have very different ideas of what is ‘in-character’ for them. It’s important to remember that in many different storylines, while they are both heroes who ultimately do the right thing, they aren’t always morally perfect/good. On top of this, I’m also taking my own liberties in pushing their characters in new directions for the sake of the story]
1.)
Over the next few days, Kara began to really adapt to the challenges Bruce gave her. Her body was able to recover and repair itself at a rate far greater than any human being without chemical aid. With her permission, Batman had a machine scan her body overnight to search for differences, and quickly noticed that Kara’s body rested much more deeply than a regular person’s, and released greater levels of growth hormone.
The kryptonian’s depowered body progressed at a far faster rate than Bruce anticipated. With each passing day she could either lift heavier weight, perform more repetitions, or both. Additionally, her muscles looked just a little bit fuller, and she became a bit more confident.
Another hypothesis Bruce held was that Kara’s body was utilizing nutrition on a wider scale than human bodies do. He noticed that her hair was slowly becoming brighter, and it glistened a bit more each day; as did her eyes, nails, and teeth. Additionally, her skin, which was slowly becoming paler due to lack of sun exposure, was also looking better each day – albeit in a different way. A few ‘accidental’ brushes against her, and physically directing her body during training revealed that her skin was actually growing softer each day, despite Kara not using any moisturizer.
Isolated from her past life, and stripped of her powers, Kara had little else to do, so she threw herself entirely at her training. After the initial week of difficulty, she had adjusted quite well to her depowered state, and was starting to feel like her usual energetic self; of course, she possessed an infinitesimally small fraction of energy compared to life with her powers, but she still felt comparatively good.
Batman coached her as hard as he could, often bringing Kara far beyond her perceived limits, sometimes to a level that the young woman was afraid would harm her rather than make her stronger. Truthfully, the caped crusader was pushing her to a point that would have inflicted injury on a human being.
What Bruce would never admit was that he was actually performing an experiment of his own, slowly and gradually seeing just how far he could bring her body before it would become injured. To his surprise, fear, and secret arousal, there was no limit besides a drastic injury such as an entirely torn muscle, or broken bone. In fact, the further he pushed Kara into the territory of training injury for a human, the more rapid her results seemed to be.
By the eleventh day of training, Kara was performing workout routines that were proportionately more taxing than Batman’s own. This wasn’t to say that the exercises themselves used heavier weights, as Batman still possessed multiple times Kara’s strength and endurance, but she was inflicting comparatively more damage to her muscles than Bruce did to his own.
Kara had also become more accepting of her mentor’s extreme regiments. When they first started, she would often ask if she really had to do things, and claim that what he asked was impossible. This would, in turn, prompt Batman to motivate her, usually through short inspirational speech or tough love. Now however, she no longer questioned him, and simply forced herself to do whatever he said.
While things were mostly going well, there was a growing tension. Things that were left unsaid each day. Bruce hadn’t expected Kara’s body to adapt this quickly, and he questioned himself each and every night if he was doing the right thing; doubted that IF his theories were right, if it was a good idea for Kara to become stronger than Kal.
Bruce had his issues with the Man of Steel, but at the end of the day, Clark was a veritable god living among men, and he had proven himself to be trustworthy. Kara on the other hand… Kara was a loose cannon. An attractive and fun loose cannon, one that Bruce secretly wanted to watch turn into a supernova, but an unpredictable and sometimes moody one nonetheless.
He wasn’t afraid that Kara would do something like destroy the world or hurt innocents, no. She certainly was composed of moral fiber similar to her cousin. Truthfully, Kara had multiple opportunities to inflict staggering catastrophes on the planet before Kal could stop her, yet she never even harmed a fly – her powers granted her freedom from even caring about insects. What worried Bruce is the possibility that she viewed humans like that, little more than just lesser beings that she was supposed to protect – like pets, yet here he was, shoveling even more power her way. In a sense, he was validating these thoughts she potentially harbored.
Of course, all of this was just psychological conjecture. Bruce had no way to actually delve into Kara’s mind without sitting down and talking to her at length. There were quite a few times that Bruce had trains of thought like this in the past, and they had brought him to extremely dangerous places. The last thing he needed was another Brother Eye or Tower of Babel type incident on his hands. Then again… if he did somehow make Kara far stronger than Clark, and if that ended up becoming a mistake, that in itself could be a crisis surpassing either of those by magnitudes.
All of these thoughts and doubts manifested at their surface level in an unfortunate way. Bruce was becoming less outwardly supportive of Kara’s development, and more concerned about the concept of teaching her what it means to be human. Slowly, a toxic environment was developing.
–
14 days after Kara’s depowerment
–
“Damn Bruce, check this out!” Kara squealed, flexing her arm, watching as a legitimately impressive bicep popped up.
“Very impressive. Like I’ve said before, your body is improving itself at a remarkable pace far beyond that of what a human would be naturally capable of.” Bruce replied.
“And like I said each of those times I’m NOT a human! I’m a Kryptonian!” The blonde pumped the muscle a few times, watching with glee as it danced to her whims.
Batman sighed. “I truly think it’s important you understand JUST how quickly you’re progressing.”
“Why?”
The caped crusader considered his next words very carefully, he had to make sure he said this correctly. “I want you to have perspective on what it’s like to be a human being.”
“But like I JUST said, I’m NOT human!” Kara was growing flustered from this, why did Bruce care so much? What was the big deal?
“Okay. Let’s put it this way. You want to know what really separates you from your cousin? Aside from your gender, and which part of Kryptonian society you came from?”
“What?”
“Your upbringing. Clark was raised as a human first and foremost. For all of his faults, he understands the human condition better than most of us.”
Kara blinked a couple of times. She wasn’t really sure what Bruce was getting at, but she had a feeling that it was a vague insult towards her. Didn’t he want to make her so strong that she could punk Kal any time she wanted to? Wasn’t the goal here to give her the strength of multiple Supermans? Why was he acting this way all of a sudden?
The whole situation frustrated both of them. “Let’s just go work out.” Kara suggested, knowing that the flood of endorphins always helped relieve stress.
“You already did that today.”
“So what. I can take it. Let’s just get my training done as quickly as possible since you’re upset that I’m not human or something.”
“Kara, that’s not-“
It was too late – the blonde was already storming off to Bruce’s personal gym. With a sigh, the billionaire followed her.
–
Kara was wearing a tight tank-top and extremely short gym-shorts. She now looked like a bikini or fitness competitor; small muscles were visible without any prompting from moving around. Feminine abs protruded from her midsection, and a small separation between her quadriceps reminded anyone looking that her thighs were fairly powerful.
As Bruce walked in, Kara was performing standing hero curls, her biceps pumping up to fairly impressive proportions as a cute lemon shaped muscle trembled with each repetition. He walked over and started staring at her, thoroughly examining her body.
“Can I help you?” she asked in between reps.
He continued to stare.
“Hello?” Kara was slightly weirded out.
Bruce finally spoke, “I’m observing you to see how your body can handle this second daily training session.”
“Oh, really? Am I some kind of zoo animal to you?” Infuriated, she increased the resistance of the machine.
“Kara, you’re going hurt yourself if you-“
It was too late. The young woman was already pulling again, her biceps swelling up to new heights. She let out a loud feminine grunt as the action was far more difficult than she imagined.
“KARA. You have to stop-“
Bruce’s protests were made in vain. Kara continued to pull on the handles, forcing herself to pull the weight. Deep down she knew that he was right, she knew that this was far too much for her body to handle, but right now, she didn’t want to listen to him. She let out a cry of pain as she forced the weight to move. Suddenly, a loud popping noise filled the room.
“Dammit.” Bruce quickly walked towards her, “You just tore your bicep fibers right open, and not in the good way. We need to get you medical attention now. Obviously a regular hospital is out of the question. I’ll take care of it in the Batcave.”
“N-no, I don’t need you to-“
Her protests were pointless, Bruce physically picked her up, scooped her into his arms, and started carrying her towards their new destination. Kara initially squirmed, but ultimately realized that he was right.
–
Twenty minutes later
–
“Remarkable.” Bruce said, staring at the readout of the medical instruments monitoring Kara.
“What? What’s remarkable?” Kara replied. She was growing fairly agitated as Batman hadn’t explained anything other than she pushed her body far too hard.
“You’re healing far faster than a human would. I thought for sure that you’d be unable to train your arms for at least a week, but it seems that you’ll be ready to continue tomorrow.”
“And let me guess. You’re upset about this?”
“Why would I be upset about this?”
Kara rolled her eyes, “Because I’m not human. Because I don’t get to understand the struggle of having torn arms or whatever. Because I gain muscle at five times the rate of a regular person, or something like that?”
Batman considered his response for a moment, “I suppose that would’ve been a good lesson in the human condition… but, no, I’m ultimately glad that your training won’t be sidetracked.”
“Right.”
2.) The Next Day
The tension continued building. What had started off as a fun and arguably flirtatious act of defiance against Superman was quickly building into something unpleasant. Kara started to feel dejected, as if Bruce simply viewed her as some kind of weird alien to observe and lament her lack of humanity. Bruce continued to wonder if he was doing the right thing, if Kara would be responsible with even more power. Both of them were also worried that a member of the league, in particular: Superman, would eventually investigate Kara’s sudden disappearance. The last thing either of them wanted was for their little operation to be exposed, especially not with the terms they currently on.
It was lunch time. Kara had already finished her morning workout, meaning she didn’t have much else to do during the day.
“You know Kara, I can train you to be more effective in combat.” Batman offered.
“What do you mean?” The former supergirl replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Your movements and attacks are often… amateurish.”
“Amateurish?” Her face was turning red. Kara appreciated that Bruce not only was taking the risk of trying to help her become stronger, but also was so dedicated to doing so; yet… lately, he was being so damn difficult! Even more than usual.
“Throw a punch at me.” He commanded, standing up.
“What?”
“Just do it.”
Kara sighed. She got up from the table and moved over towards Bruce before tossing a right hook at him. With a blindingly fast motion he grabbed her fist with one hand and held onto its originating shoulder with the other. “From here, I could effortlessly break your arm, or throw you onto your back.”
“So what?”
“That doesn’t concern you?” Batman tightened his grip slightly, and after feeling Kara’s body recoil slightly from pain let go.
“Why should it? I’ve never needed technical fighting skills.”
“What if you needed to fight somebody with the same level of power as you, or greater? If you knew how to actually throw a punch, you would’ve had a good chance against Darkseid.”
She shot him a freezing glance; bringing up Darkseid was an easy way to quickly anger the young woman. Bruce presented his most deadpan Batman face possible. They stared at each other for a few moments, and eventually Kara lowered her eyes.
“Yeah. Alright, I guess you’re right. But that doesn’t matter, if your theory is right, I’ll just be strong enough to just beat Darkseid anyways…”
“You’d be surprised Kara. Sometimes a bit of training can overcome large differences in raw power. Trust me, I’d know.”
She let out a sigh. “I’ll think about it.”
3.) The Following Day
Another day had passed, and the situation hadn’t gotten much better. Both Bruce and Kara failed to find the words they needed to say. In fact, they spoke very little to one another, simply going through the motions of the routine they had awkwardly settled into.
That evening, Bruce was actually still at home, as he wasn’t out patrolling the streets as Batman. Kara was in bed, slaving away at reading descriptions of whale entomology in Moby-Dick; she was beginning to seriously why wonder she occasionally opened that book up.
Suddenly, Kara heard a tremendous crash. Curious about what it was, and quite bored of the story she was reading, she made her way towards the living room. As she opened the door, she noticed a man wearing dark clothing with a black ski mask on his face. He, in turn, noticed her, and quickly began running towards her.
Kara had stopped enough thugs during her time as Supergirl to know that this guy didn’t have good intentions. She readied herself in a fighting stance. While she didn’t have her powers, Kara was in better physical shape than ever before – she was confident that she could take this random mook.
The man charged at her, and as he approached, Kara threw a trusty punch up towards is face. It connected with a satisfying smack, yet… the man was unphased! Kara brought her knee upward, but the man intercepted it with his right hand, and smacked her across the face with his left. With the young woman caught off guard, the intruder wrapped his arms around her, placing her in a tight bear-hug.
With her last yelp, she screamed out for Bruce.
The man produced a knife from his pocket and held it to Kara’s neck, prompting her to become silent.
A moment later, an even louder crash came. Directly through the window a huge, black, winged figure, arms spread out as if it were a bat; it was Batman!
The thug let go of Kara, throwing her aside, and produced a handgun from his other pocket, and immediately fired off a few rounds at the caped crusader. Batman’s suit was impervious to small-arms fire like that, and the bullets flew off harmlessly. A moment later, bat-shaped boomerang appeared in his gloved hand, and with a swift throw, flew towards the thug’s gun, landing with precision and knocking the firearm out of his hand.
With speed so quickly that the human eye had difficulty registering, Batman rushed across the room and quickly tackled the intruder. A moment later, he left him unconscious and relatively unharmed.
With the cast clear, Kara got up from the ground that she was thrown onto, and threw herself at Bruce, wrapping her arms around him.
Many things about the evening didn’t quite add up. Why the man didn’t hold Kara at gunpoint, why he let her live, why wasn’t Bruce patrolling as Batman, why didn’t Alfred (who was actually quite adept at fending off invaders) do something about it – how did one of the most advanced security systems in the world get bypassed by a random thug?
For better or for worse, Kara was in no position to really think any of this over. In fact, none of these questions crossed her mind at all. They were simply things that she never would’ve needed to consider. Despite the constant threat of villains, Kara led a fairly care-free life as Supergirl; very, very few things could harm her at all, and she had no true ties to the world other than Kal and her sense of justice. Tonight, however, her perspective had been shifted.
“Bruce!” She screamed, burying her head into his plated chest.
“Good thing he’s knocked out cold, otherwise you saying that name out loud could’ve been pretty awkward.”
“Oh, hush you. I’m sure you have some kind of way to wipe memories from someone like that. Or convince him that I was just babbling nonsense.” Kara had never been more relieved to see Batman before, not even when he provided backup or intel during a mission.
“Perhaps I do.”
“Gosh Bruce, I can’t believe that someone broke into your house like that!”
“If anything, it’s surprising that there’s as few break-ins as there are.”
“But… but you’re Batman…” Kara was still visibly shaken up by what had happened.
“Yes, but to 99.99% of the population, I’m Bruce Wayne; and Bruce Wayne is a very valuable target to rob.”
“I… I hadn’t considered that.”
“Now do you understand what it means to be human? Every day, human beings are surrounded by threats. A car accident, act of violence, or even something as natural as cancer constantly threatens each and every one of us.”
“So… so being a human really sucks?” Kara quickly realized how insensitive that could come across as, “Sorry, still kind of shaken up about things. I didn’t mean it like that, honest.”
Bruce placed a hand on her rounded shoulder, “That’s not quite what it’s about. Being human is about doing your best despite these shortcomings. It’s about waking up every day and doing what’s required of you, even if a stray metahuman fight can wipe your home off the map. It’s about picking up the pieces, even after a lone gunman with a shaky finger pulls the trigger during a mugging. It’s about persevering in the face of a nearly infinite number of dangers at all times. It’s about doing your best and fulfilling your potential in a world where metahumans are strictly superior to you in almost every way. That, is what being human is about.”
“Bruce…” Tears were streaming down Kara’s face. She couldn’t remember the last time she genuinely cried for another person. “You… You were right. I needed to learn what it means to be human. I guess I’ll never truly know, but…”
Satisfied, Bruce brought a gloved hand to her cheek and wiped a tear off. “I think you have a clear enough picture.”
Kara nodded, “I’ll try to immerse myself further in what it really means. I… I guess you were right. I should learn how to fight. Will you teach me?”
A smirk emerged from the cowl, “It’d be my pleasure.”
– To Be Continued!