NOVEL NEXT Chapter 51.1
Pushing her chair away from the table, Kara squinted her eyes and stared at the patch of skin, her improved vision allowing her to see every pore, every defect. It seemed the tone still wasn’t perfect, but everything else looked good.
She wasn’t exactly a medical expert, but the AI had done the majority of the work and it was easy enough to follow instructions, her muscle control guaranteeing she wouldn’t make any mistakes during the transplant.
Really, Kara would have taken more time to study some more or found an expert for anything more complicated but, while the wound was large, it had been mostly cosmetic.
Grabbing the solar lamp at the side, she adjusted the focus and pushed it closer to the skin, bombarding the new transplant with sunlight until even she couldn’t see the difference.
Turning off the device, she turned off the operating table and smiled towards the hero leaning on the wall. “It’s done. He should wake in a few minutes.”
“Thanks, his mother was about to kill me,” the Flash said. “The kids didn’t even notice how deep the wound was until they got back into the mountain.”
Kara was barely able to follow his movements with her head as the man dashed towards the side of the bed, leaning over his protégée and checking his face.
“Anything wrong?”
“Nope, looks good to me,” the Flash said and shook his head in exasperation. “You know, he really wanted to keep the scar, but it was a little too visible.”
“Hard to keep a secret identity when he shows up with thirty stitches in his cheek,” she nodded. Another good reason to use full-face masks.
Wally’s wound would have healed completely… Eventually, his accelerated healing factor made sure of that, but Cheshire had hurt him enough that it would take months, time in which anybody could notice he had gotten a VERY large scar at the exact same time as Kid Flash.
“Still, sad to admit but, having to fix it was a shame. The kid looked badass with that scar,” Flash said, a smile on his face as he leaned against the operating table.
Getting up from her chair, Kara scratched an itch on her prosthetic leg and cracked her neck. “You know, I thought you guys would be angrier about this?”
“I mean, don’t be mistaken, we are angry they got hurt,” Flash said, scratching at his exposed face with a finger. “But we’re also really proud, their coordination was something else and they achieved every objective despite the surprises. I didn’t even know Deathstroke had a psychotic daughter.”
Kara nodded in agreement, she had seen the recordings and the operation had gone about as well as anyone could hope for.
With a snap of her finger, two Karabots walked into the room, the robots working in perfect synchrony to put away everything she had used for the operation. “Still, is the League gonna let them continue after this?”
“Ugh, those things give me the creeps,” Flash shivered, giving both robots a wary glance. “Anyways, you think we can stop them now? After they got their first successful mission? I’m just glad they’re smart enough to accept our supervision. Besides, those emergency teleports you gave them take a huge worry off my chest and it’s not like they haven’t gotten hurt in patrols before. Thanks for that, by the way.”
”Huh, you’re welcome,” a third Karabot walked into the room, a plate with some snacks in its hands. After getting blasted by the demons, Kara’s hunger was finally getting back to normal.
“Speaking of coordination,” Flash said, using his speed to steal a handful of her food before she could react. “The League is planning on starting some exercises to help with that, want in?”
“What kind of exercises?” Kara asked, quickly protecting her remaining snacks while glaring at the speedster.
“Well, we do train together sometimes, but that’s more so we don’t get in each other’s way in a battle. Knowing there are villain teams out there, we’re thinking of copying the kids and organizing some larger exercises, maybe coordinating something with the military, even,” Flash said, a glint of excitement in his eyes as he bit into a cookie. “Not now, obviously, everybody’s too busy for that, but after the League finishes reorganizing itself?”
“So you guys want me to act as an independent hero then? See how the League deals with an unfamiliar hero trying to help out in the field?”
“Well, that’s certainly important, but I was thinking in another direction,” Flash shrugged, finishing his meal and glancing down at his sidekick. “You see, the League will need an opponent and I keep hearing you’d make a great villain.”
Kara lifted an eyebrow at the hero and, slowly, her face opened in a vicious smile, a chance to plot against the League… She had so many ideas.
“There! That’s exactly what I mean!” Flash pointed at her smile. “That’s totally a vicious smirk if I ever saw one.”
“I’ll think about it,” Kara snorted, then noticed Wally starting to move on the table.
“Ugh, is it over?” the kid asked, still a little out of it.
“Yeah,” Flash said, helping Wally to get up into a sitting position. Then he put on a completely serious face. “Don’t worry; I made sure she didn’t put any explosives on your skin.”
Wally shivered and then managed to turn, giving his mentor a vicious glare. “Haha, very funny. You do know that’s a perfectly rational worry with her, right?”
“I heard that,” Kara said. She thought about teasing the kid a little, but she heard he had been far more polite since she tattled on him, so he deserved a break. Instead, she threw him a cookie and smiled. “Here, great job with the mission, I watched the recordings and you guys were impressive.”
“… Thanks?” Wally said, staring at his cookie with suspiciousness until Flash tried to steal it.
Wally reacted quickly, slapping the thieving hand away and stuffing the snack into his mouth instead. Looking up, he grabbed a mirror from Kara’s extended hand and looked over the new skin.
“Anyways, the transplant was a complete success,” Kara said. “Next time, if you want a cool scar, either change to a full mask or try to get hit in a less visible place.”
“Please don’t,” Flash said. “Your mother already yelled at me for this one, there’s no need to go for another.”
“Don’t worry, I have no intention of getting stabbed like that again, it hurts.” Wally said, stepping on the floor and testing his balance. It seems like he was almost fully recovered.
Kara gave them a few minutes to fully get over the anesthesia, but then she almost pushed the duo towards the Zeta-Tube. She liked the Flash and, when he wasn’t trying to hit on her girlfriend, Wally was a great kid, but she had more things to work on.
Like starting to plot how to fight the entire League. Would they allow her to hire underlings? Maybe use the Titans?
Watching them disappear in a flash of light, she locked the Zeta-Tube for anyone but her cousin and walked further inside her side of the Fortress, passing through the deactivated Karabots and into her personal workshop.
Floating in the air, held in place through several anti gravity devices, Kal’s ship was almost fully disassembled, several pieces floating independently from one another, but still roughly in the same position they were while attached to the ship.
Floating up, Kara entered the gravity field to start working, unlocking pieces and slowly prying the ship open with her own hands. One advantage of working on Kryptonian tech was that there was no oil or lubricant needed, so she didn’t even get dirty.
Finally, she touched the inner latch on the power source. Rotating the lock clockwise, she pulled it down, revealing the still functioning hyper-drive inside. Carefully, Kara pulled the large device out, using her flight to avoid any of the ship’s components.