The air screeched with the roar of plasma engines. Above the ruins of a shattered city, a sleek, angular predator of a drone sliced through the acid-stained sky, its crimson optics glowing like a demon hunting at twilight. Beneath its baleful gaze, industrial husks lay sprawled like the skeletons of prehistoric beasts, their girders twisted and scorched. The eeriness of it all was punctuated by haunting wisps of black smoke curling from craters on the battle-scarred ground.
Kara Zor-Rei leaped from the crumbling ledge of a decaying skyscraper, her vibrant blue bodysuit catching the dim light of the burning horizon. The iconic red and gold “S” on her chest gleamed against the gloom, a defiant emblem amid desolation. Her flowing red cape snapped sharply in the sulphur-laden wind as she soared downward, her red thigh-high boots landing without a sound on the debris-strewn pavement.
She crouched for just a moment, her sharp, symmetrically chiseled cheekbones and clear bronze skin contrasting with the dull lifelessness of her surroundings. Her high ponytail whipped behind her like a streak of golden lightning, emphasizing her lethal grace. But her breathing was heavier than it should have been. She wasn’t tapping into her full power; the fragments of a red sunstone embedded in her left shoulder pulsed maliciously, tainting her strength with waves of weakening pain.
Behind her, a distorted crackling rang out from a cluster of toppled comm towers. “Zor-Rei,” came a static-laden voice. “Sector Gamma-3 breached. Multiple seekers inbound.” It was Theo, her backup—human, resourceful, and infallibly infuriating. His voice carried frustration, laced with worry. “You need to retreat. Now.”
“Not happening, Theo,” Kara snapped, wiping blood from the corner of her stern jawline. She straightened, standing tall against the chaos, her eyes scanning the horizon for her quarry. “I’ve got this.”
“You’re bleeding and limping, but sure, fine, ‘you’ve got this,’” Theo retorted sarcastically. “…I’m gonna keep the exit corridor open. Just don’t die on me.”
Kara didn’t reply. His voice dissolved into static, leaving the lone hum of the drone circling above. Her gaze was locked forward, muscles tensed as she took in the enemy battalion marching out of the fog ahead. The sentient machines emerged with a mechanical lack of elegance, their dark crush-resistant carapaces gleaming as they fanned out tactically. Their leader, a towering battle-forged automaton with a head shaped like a sunburst shield, stepped forward and pointed a vibrating energy blade in her direction.
“Kryptonian,” it bellowed, its voice a song of corrupted thunder. “Dismiss yourself or be terminated.”
Kara folded her arms, trying to look far more confident than she felt. “I’ve got one better—how about you run home to whatever god-awful scrap heap belched you out?”
The machine almost seemed amused. And then it lunged.
Its speed was staggering for something so massive, a blur of flashing steel and thrumming cybernetic joints. Kara ducked the first swing of its blade, her enhanced reflexes barely keeping up. She countered with a vicious uppercut to its core, the hit shattering through layers of reinforced alloy. Sparks erupted as the beast staggered from the blow.
But she didn’t account for the others. From both flanks, a swarm of smaller drones rushed her position like a tidal wave. Kara braced, but halfway through dispatching the first wave, a plasma coil seared into her ribs. She hissed sharply and dropped low to avoid a follow-up strike, the wound sizzling beneath her suit.
Her vision faltered for a moment—just a moment—and that’s when she heard Theo’s voice again, louder now. “Kara! You’re surrounded. You don’t have time for this—pull out! We couldn’t get that sunstone fragment out of you, remember? Every punch you throw makes it worse!”
Through grit teeth, she managed, “Not an option.” She vaulted through the chaos with gritted ferocity, delivering a brutal spin-kick that decapitated another sentry. Her inability to fly hampered her movements, but that determination burning behind her electric-blue eyes hadn’t faltered. Not yet.
Meanwhile, Theo was pacing inside the reinforced hull of the stealth transport, an advanced cockpit glowing with flickering holograms of battle heat signatures. He was wiry, with a perpetual five o’clock shadow and hands stained with centuries-old machine grease. His head bobbed with frustration. “Why do I even bother?” he muttered to himself, slamming the console. Then, as if by divine wrath, Kara’s voice cut through again.
“Theo,” she growled, her voice taut with strain. “They’ve got something. A core, a central relay tucked under their flagship. This doesn’t end until it’s destroyed.”
“And where is this ‘central relay’?” he asked venomously.
Kara paused. Then her voice carried even steelier resolve. “Right above me.”
She glanced skyward, locking onto a massive warship hovering overhead. From its belly, spindling metal claws extended downward, busy extracting forgotten minerals from the depths of human construction. This wasn’t simple conquest. It was excavation — and dissection.
“Theo, get me an access route,” Kara barked even while sprinting into the thickest swathe of enemy units. Her fists hammered through automated combat lifelike crushing aluminum cans, but her fatigue was mounting. “I’m ending this.”
Theo swore under his breath but began feverishly typing commands into the cockpit systems. “You’re lucky I live for suicidal plans, Zor-Rei.”
The warship’s faint gravitational pull tugged at her cape, but as Kara reached her final enemy for now—surging upward toward the mammoth construct’s descending hook—she felt it. A surge of renewed strength, perhaps born of desperation. She leapt, her battered form backlit in red-orange hues of the horizon’s smoldering glow, making for the heart of her adversary’s mechanical lair as Theo monitored silently in both awe and dread.
Perhaps there really were still heroes left for a world so broken.
Genre: Superhero/Science Adventure
The Source…check out the article that inspired this amazing short story: Supergirl Cosplay Costume Inspiration – Blue Bodysuit with Red Cape & Boots | iNthastyle
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