While the villains were ‘discussing’ things, our two heroes had been making a plan of their own.
“Any ideas?” Dick whispered to Kara as the two sized up their new adversary.
“Only if you count running,” Supergirl replied in a low voice of her own. “What about you?”
“Not yet, and we’ll keep that idea as plan ‘B’.” Nightwing watched carefully as Houngan disintegrated the statue of Johnny Thunder, noticing the effect it seemed to have on this Amalgamax. “Interesting,” he muttered, a plan forming. However he had no chance to say anything else before the villain charged him.
He winced instinctively, eyes opening again to see Supergirl standing before him. “I got a plan,” he told her quickly. “Our ‘pal’ here seems to be connected to the statues they stole.”
“I noticed,” Supergirl replied. “Let me guess. You want me to keep him busy while you break this ‘spell’ or whatever’s going on.”
“Exactly,” Dick nodded.
“Works for me,” Kara replied with a grin. “Be careful… Don’t want that pretty face messed up.” Without a further word Kara charged at Amalgamax, crashing into him and knocking the two of them through the remaining walls of the house.
“Guess it’s just the two of us,” Dick said, turning his attention to Houngan.
“Guess so,” the villain replied. “And yet… I’m not worried in the slightest.” He chanted something, letting loose a blast of energy that Nightwing barely managed to dodge.
* * * * * * * *
Kara sat atop Amalgamax, pounding into him with her fists. “And here I was worried you’d be a threat,” Kara commented, before a fist to the face sent her flying. She had just recovered in mid-air when Amalgamax appeared before her, hitting her with another punch that sent her crashing through a building, and smashing into the street beyond.
“Still concerned?” Amalgamax taunted, from behind his gasmask while he floated before Kara.
“Yeah… Just a bit,” Kara replied, charging up from the ground, fist aimed straight at the villain’s face. He was fast though, even faster then her, as he caught her attack. Grabbing her arm, Amalgamax quickly swung her around before launching her, sending her flying through two more buildings.
Dizzy, sore and fighting the urge not to vomit, Kara pulled herself up, still inside an empty office in the second building. “Stupid, stupid,” she muttered to herself, “Have to figure out what he can do… Maybe…” A small grin crossed her face as she shot off, heading towards the museum.
* * * * * * * *
Nightwing bounced around the room, or what remained of it, staying just a few steps ahead of Houngan’s blasts. “You getting slow in your old age?” Dick mocked. “Last time we fought you did much better.”
“Last time we fought I didn’t have to worry about a house falling on my head,” Houngan replied, another magical blast just missing Dick.
“True,” Nightwing commented. “I still think you need more practice though,” he chuckled as he landed in front of one of the statues.
Houngan growled, about to let lose another blast before he realized where Dick was standing. “Ooo… Nice try, Nightwing. But I’m not that stupid.”
“Well it was worth a shot,” Nightwing replied, reaching behind him. He grabbed the statuette of Captain Marvel and threw it towards Houngan.
Houngan quickly chanted something, as the statue came to a stop, floating in front of him. “Thanks,” the villain said. “Wouldn’t want this one to be damaged.” He muttered another spell and the doll disappeared. “Now then…” He grinned as he fired another magic bolt towards Dick, who only just managed to dodge.
* * * * * * * *
By now, the police had arrived at the museum, sealing off the crime scene and starting their investigation. “Doesn’t make much sense, does it, Stan?” one of the cops said to his partner. “Who’d break into a museum and just take a bunch of statues, especially since nearly everything else here is worth far more.”
“No clue, Jack,” his partner replied. “Maybe it’s one of those costumed nut jobs from out east, or up north.”
“Maybe,” Jack muttered, looking over the remains of the display cases, looking at the cards that listed the name and some basic information on each of the heroes that the statues had been dressed as.
Suddenly a strong breeze and a red and blue blur sped through the room; when Stan looked back at the display cases, the cards had vanished. “What the--?” he shouted.
“Maybe they wanted to finish the ‘set’,” Jack joked.
Supergirl flew through the night sky, looking at the cards she’d grabbed, hoping for any clues as to how to defeat Amalgamax. “Bad enough there’s little light to read,” she muttered, landing beside a lamppost. “Now let’s see.” She held the first card in front of her, and looked it over...then let out a loud growl of frustration. “Argh… Idiot!” she scolded herself, the words on the cards a blur. “You don’t wear contacts anymore!”
* * * * * * * *
Linda had just turned on the DVD and was setting down with a bowl of popcorn when the front door swung open. The brunette turned to see Kara enter the house. “Hey there,” she said with a smile. “How’d the ‘patrol’ go?”
“Can’t talk,” Kara replied as began rummaging through a table. “I’ll tell ya later.” The young woman finally pulled out one of her pairs of glasses. “Here we are,” she said to herself, putting them on. “I’ll be back soon,” she told Linda. “Enjoy the film.”
“Oh… and I met that Nightwing tonight,” she added as she raced back out the door. “I’ll tell you more later but… yum!” And with that she was gone. Linda just shrugged and went back to watching her movie.
* * * * * * * *
Now that she could actually read the cards, Kara rushed through the night sky again, flying low to the ground so she could use the streetlights to see. She started reading the first card in the pile. “The Shadow. Real name… Unknown. Powers… Unknown.” She growled as she finished reading it. “Why did they even bother putting more then his name if they don’t KNOW anything about him!” she muttered tossing the card away.
She was about to start on the next card when a blast came out of nowhere, crashing into her back and knocking her to the pavement. “Found you!” came a shout as she turned to see Amalgamax floating towards her, a glowing green ring on his hand.
“Let me guess,” Kara moaned. “Green Lantern.”
“Good guess,” Amalgamax said, aiming the ring towards her.
“Umm… You wouldn’t hit a person in glasses would you?” Kara pointed out.
“Well seeing as the fact that you’re a woman hasn’t stopped me…” Amalgamax replied, his ring glowing even more.
“Good point,” Kara replied. She pulled off her glasses, and a red beam fired from her eyes, crashing into the green beam from Amalgamax’s ring. The two forces of energy seemed to hold each other back for a second. Taking this chance to recover, Kara sped out of the way as the green energy blast drilled into the ground where she had so recently stood.
Kara sped through the air, but within seconds Amalgamax had caught up. He looked over at Supergirl, his face hidden by that eerie gasmask. “Oh… crap,” was all Kara had the chance to say, before another punch sent her crashing into a nearby wall.
“You know this is really getting old!” she yelled as she picked herself up, an idea forming in her head. “Hey finhead!” she shouted to him. “Come and get me!”
Amalgamax said nothing as he charged Kara, fast, far faster then she could fly. Fortunately, it was also so fast that the villain couldn’t stop himself in time. Kara simply moved to the side and let Amalgamax’s momentum send him straight through the building behind her, and into the next one.
“Olé!” Kara yelled out as she made a playful pose, quickly reading through the next few cards. “Ah… This could be interesting,” she said to herself as she noticed Amalgamax pulling himself from the rubble out of the corner of her eye.
Kara soared straight up into the air, Amalgamax following closely behind her. When he was just a few feet away she turned and shouted. “SHAZAM!!”
Amalgamax paused, floating in front of her. “And what was
that supposed to do?” he asked.
“Well Captain Marvel’s card said that that word is often heard before he appears, so I thought…”
“It’s what turns him
into Captain Marvel,” Amalgamax told her. “It won’t work for you.”
“Oh…” Kara said. “What won’t work?”
“The word.” Amalgamax replied.
“What word?”
“The word on the card.”
“What word on the card?”
“The one you just said.”
“What one?”
“You know,” Amalgamax growled, getting frustrated.
“What, ‘what’?”
“No! Not what!”
“Then what word?”
“SHA…” Amalgamax paused. “Oh… I see what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?” Kara asked.
“You’re trying to get me to say that word.”
“What word?”
“You know what word!” Amalgamax roared, he charged Kara and the young woman just moved out of his way.
“You know that’s very rude,” Kara commented. “I’m just asking a simple question.”
“Would you stop it!” Amalgamax shouted, Kara moving out of the way as he fired a beam at her from his ring.
“Stop what?”
“Trying to get me to say that word!”
“What word?!”
“SHAZAM!!!! Oh crap…” Kara covered her eyes as a bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere, crashing into Amalgamax. Before he could recover Kara was on him, her first punch knocking him downwards.
She quickly flew towards him, grabbing his outfit (altered slightly by the lightning) and picked up speed so that the two were moving downwards faster then gravity could pull. “I hope you’ve still got some invulnerability, cause otherwise
this is going to hurt.” She pushed herself as fast as she could go; hoping to have him hit the ground before he could recover. But it wasn’t fast enough.
“Shazam!” Amalgamax called out, lightning crashing into the two of them just feet from the ground. Kara screamed out in pain as the magic energy coursed through every nerve of her body. The blast flung Kara through the air away from him, and she actually bounced off the street a few times before she smashed into a car.
Fighting off the darkness that threatened to overwhelm her, Kara pulled herself from the wreckage. She looked over to the large, smoking crater where Amalgamax had hit the ground, the pavement melting from the heat of the impact.
“I hope that’s taking him out,” Kara muttered. She started to stumble towards the crater when…
“SHAZAM!”
“Crap!” She hissed as she saw a hand reach up and grasp the edge, her eyes going wide as Amalgamax pulled himself from the hole.
“It’ll take more then that to—” His words were cut off as Kara hit him with a lamppost she pulled from the ground, the wooden pole shattering on contact. He stumbled back.
“More then that to stop—” Again, his words were cut off, this time by a fire hydrant that Kara had thrown at him. However he quickly recovered. “To stop—” This time a car rammed into him, knocking him back into the hole. “Would you stop that?!” Amalgamax yelled as he flew back out of the crater, a blast from his ring finally knocking Kara backwards.
* * * * * * * *
Back at Houngan’s hideout, the battle continued. Houngan kept himself and the statues safe from Nightwing’s attacks, while Dick managed to dodge his return strikes. Neither had made any progress.
“I can do this all day… ‘Hero’,” Houngan mocked as another magic blast sent Dick ducking for cover.
“Your point?” Nightwing replied. He pulled out one of his stylized batarangs and sent it flying toward Houngan. The magician easily threw up a shield, which was what Nightwing had expected.
As soon as it contacted the shield, the batarang burst in a bright flash of light. While Houngan covered his eyes, blinded for just enough time, Nightwing launched two more batarangs, slashing through the statues of both Wildcat and the Atom.
“Oh dear. There go my plans for managing the next world boxing champ,” Houngan mocked, casting a spell that knocked Dick back against the far wall.
* * * * * * * *
Kara smiled as she saw Amalgamax’s costume change again. “Way to go, Nightwing!” she shouted triumphantly.
“You really think whatever he did is going to stop me?” Amalgamax asked.
“Nope… But this might!” Kara charged in, feinting an attack to his left side, her right hand reaching out to tear off his gasmask. “Yoink!”
“You little brat!” Amalgamax roared, knocking Kara back with his first attack. The heroine rolled quickly back to her feet.
“What’s the problem ‘Malgy’,” Supergirl mocked. “Can’t see?” Fortunately for Kara, Dr. Mid-Nite’s info card had been very informative, telling her that the hero required special glasses to see. Without them, he could only see in total darkness, and right now Kara was a very fast blur under very bright lights, striking quickly and not staying in arm's reach for more then a second.
Amalgamax staggered under Supergirl’s blows, the woman of steel quickly setting up for a long charge down the street, one she hoped would knock this villain out for good. Unfortunately, as she sped towards him she saw his costume change again. A wicked grin came to his face as he looked right at her, arm raising, ring glowing. “Gotcha!”
Kara had just enough time to block her face before the green bolt crashed into her, knocking her to the ground. “Way to go, Nightwing,” she muttered as she started to pull herself from the rubble.
* * * * * * * *
Nightwing stood next to the destroyed statue of Doctor Mid-Nite, watching Houngan and preparing for the voodoo master’s next move.
‘Man, Bruce is going to kill me for doing this,’ Dick thought to himself, chuckling slightly at the idea.
“Laughing in the face of your demise, Nightwing?” Houngan mocked. He had pulled the Wonder Woman and Shadow statues towards him, and they now floated around him along with the Captain Marvel figure, all of them protected by a magical dome that circled the villain.
“Actually, I just realized that you’re a grown man playing with dolls,” Dick replied, grinning.
“Is that supposed to anger me?” Houngan commented, idly casting another spell towards Nightwing.
“Well that was the plan,” the hero answered, diving in the direction of the Flash statuette. “Sorry, Jay,” he whispered to himself, pulling out another batarang.
* * * * * * * *
Supergirl found herself sailing through the air once more, but this time not under her own power. Before she could recover from the emerald attack, Amalgamax had charged, using his insane speed to knock her around like a rag doll. As his next hit struck, Kara was starting to realize that Amalgamax had been playing with her this whole time.
Fighting against unconsciousness, Supergirl saw him streak towards her. But again his costume changed, this time cutting his speed in half.
“Thank Rao,” she muttered. Curving out of the way, Kara hit the villain with almost everything she had left, knocking him to the ground. She followed him downwards, zipping across the ground for a moment to grab a wooden chair before she soared back up into the sky.
She pushed her tired body to the limit, dodging emerald blasts as she flew up and into a cloud formation, disappearing from Amalgamax’s view.
“You really think you’re gonna hide here for long?” the villain called as he followed her into the clouds. “I just have to do this.” He let loose a blast from his ring that filled the entire cloud, radiating out like an explosive burst from him.
Kara winced as the energy tore into her arms and legs, shredding parts of her already torn costume. Fortunately, the chair blocked her from most of the blast. Kara had done her research well: the ring’s energy didn’t affect wood.
“Nice try… ‘Malgy’,” Kara called out, mocking him from the fog-like clouds.
“Show yourself!” Amalgamax yelled out, launching volley after volley of green beams throughout the cloud. Kara remained silent. For all of the villain’s powers, there were a few he didn’t have—her super-senses.
Silently, she floated through the cloud, using her hearing to zero in on Amalgamax; finally she saw a slightly darker spot appear in her sights. Kara struck quickly, hitting him from each and every angle she could, like she had when she’d temporarily blinded the villain early.
“Fall! Damn you!” Kara hissed as Amalgamax rocked under her blows, somehow managing to stay in mid-air. Finally her attacks sent him tumbling downward, with Kara in quick pursuit. This time, Amalgamax outsmarted her; he had faked his fall, and grabbed Supergirl in mid-air, sending her flying with another powerful punch.
* * * * * * * *
Nightwing carefully circled Houngan. He had to find someway to bring this fight to an end. His eyes raced around the room for any possible advantage, and then he saw it. With a wicked grin, Dick flipped backwards, landing near the door of the room and then threw as many of his remaining batarangs as he could in one toss. Each one easily sailed past Houngan and the statues.
“You missed!” the villain laughed as he prepared another spell.
“Oh did I?” Nightwing replied. The batarangs exploded as they crashed into various walls. The damage had been done. With all the fighting between the two, along with the damage from Supergirl and Amalgamax’s early battle, the building could no longer support itself.
Dick turned, running out of the collapsing house. He heard Houngan scream from inside as the building fell on top of the villain.
* * * * * * * *
Supergirl somehow managed to pull herself up as Amalgamax approached. Gasping for breath, the heroine turned to look at the evil grin on the man’s face. “Give up,” Amalgamax said. “And maybe I’ll let you live.”
Supergirl sighed. “Fine,” she said, kneeling before Amalgamax, a small smile coming to her face. “Loser!” She struck up quickly, her arm coming up between his legs. Superhuman or not, that was going to hurt.
Amalgamax let out a roar of pain as Kara got to her feet. “I will NEVER… EVER… GIVE UP!” she yelled, punctuating each word with a punch that rocked Amalgamax, making him step backward with every hit. Supergirl kept up her attack, throwing everything she had left into her punches, continuing to knock Amalgamax backward, her final hit sending him flying through a brick wall.
“That all you got, girly?” Amalgamax replied as he pulled himself out of the hole. He was a mess, nose bleeding, covered in bruises, costume torn (even more then Kara’s was) but still he stood, and Supergirl knew it was finally over.
Then he began to shimmer, his eyes growing wide. “No!” he roared as the costume vanished, leaving only the human form of Joseph Meach.
The next punch was the most satisfying for Kara as she let loose, knocking Meach across the room on the other side of the wall, only stopping when his unconscious form slid into the opposite wall.
* * * * * * * *
Nightwing rummaged through the remains of the house, smashing any statues that still seemed undamaged, finally pulling Houngan from the wreckage. As Dick had expected, the man’s magic had protected him from most of the falling debris, but he wasn’t strong enough to stop them all. Making sure he was still breathing, Nightwing gagged Houngan and tied him up, carried him out of the remains of the building and dropped him on the street, before he turned to examine the minor tear in his costume.
As he waited for the police to arrive, Supergirl joined him, tossing the unconscious and tied up from of Joseph Meach to the ground beside Houngan. “I see you’ve taken care of our problem,” she commented.
Dick nodded. “Are you okay?” he asked. Unlike him, Kara was a mess: her hair and outfit dirty, cape shredded, skirt torn. He did, however, notice that the few cuts she had seemed to be healing right before his eyes.
“I’ll live,” Supergirl replied, looking down at her costume. “Guess we’ll have to have that coffee another time. After I get a new outfit.”
Dick chuckled. “Well it’s no worse then some of the things I’ve seen ‘the kids’ wear,” he commented.
Kara laughed. “Maybe not,” she nodded as the two heard sirens in the distance. “Looks like our work here is done,” she added.
Nightwing nodded. “And I believe it’s time for me to go,” he held out a hand. “Here’s hoping we can meet again soon, and under better circumstances.”
“Here’s hoping,” Supergirl agreed as she shook his hand, before she pulled the young man in and giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “Take care,” she winked as she flew off into the sky.
“I just kissed Nightwing,” she said to herself, a wide grin on her face.
* * * * * * * *
Muscles still ached as Kara pulled herself out of her bed the next morning, and got to work on time all the same. The cuts and bruises from the night before had already vanished as if she’d never had them in the first place.
By early afternoon she’d finished the repairs on Dick Grayson’s bike, nearly two hours before the young man arrived to pick it up.
“Here you go,” she told Dick, rolling his bike out. “You were right. It was the carburetor,” she added. “All fixed now, though,” she grinned.
“Thanks,” Dick replied, reaching out to shake her hand. “How much do I owe you?” he asked.
“Rick’s got all the paperwork in the office,” Kara told him, shaking his hand and nodding towards the door. “He’ll get you all taken care of.”
Dick nodded, seeming to pause for a moment as if looking closer at her before he thanked her again and turned to head towards the office.
Kara frowned as she watched him walked off, wondering why he looked at her that way, her eyes taking in all of his form.
‘Nooooo…’ she thought to herself as an idea popped into her head.
‘He couldn’t be… could he?’
