CH 27: Hercules
While Lex was always willing to prioritize saving civilians, the reality of the situation was becoming increasingly obvious. Every second Hercules remained active, more people were placed in danger. The giant wasn't targeting anyone in particular. He simply attacked whatever happened to be closest, and with the amount of strength behind every swing of that golden mace, the distinction hardly mattered. Trying to split his attention between containing collateral damage and stopping Hercules was only prolonging the fight.
Which raised another question.
Where the hell was Donna?
The thought had barely formed before Raphael responded.
A small projection appeared within Lex's mind. Even while tracking Hercules, calculating trajectories and monitoring the battlefield, Raphael was perfectly capable of supplying visual information. The image showed Donna standing several streets away, speaking to a tall, broad-shouldered woman Lex didn't recognize. The woman looked confused. Donna looked... emotional.
Lex frowned slightly as he watched the brief projection. Under normal circumstances Donna would already be helping. The fact that she wasn't meant something important had happened. Whatever conversation she was having, it was significant enough to completely pull her attention away from a city-destroying demigod.
That alone was enough for him to leave the matter alone for now.
"Raphael, stop civilian rescue operations and switch entirely to defensive support."
Of course, there was another way, but having never Used Heretic Magic on anyone, he was afraid of accidentally killing Hercules.
<Confirmed.>
The invisible pressure supporting falling civilians, redirecting debris and softening impacts vanished as Raphael immediately reallocated resources. It wasn't a decision Lex enjoyed making, but Hercules had already demonstrated that he wasn't an opponent who could be handled casually. If anything, Lex had underestimated him.
The giant was already charging again.
The cracked pavement exploded beneath Hercules' feet as he crossed the distance between them, golden mace raised high enough to blot out part of the afternoon sky. Rather than waste effort trying to restrain the entirety of the demigod's body, Lex made a different decision. Every ounce of telekinetic force he could spare compressed into a single target.
Hercules' throat.
The effect was immediate.
Invisible pressure converged from every direction. Bone creaked. Cartilage collapsed. Flesh compressed inward with enough force to crush steel.
At the same time, Hercules continued forward.
The giant's eyes remained blood-red as he ignored the catastrophic damage being inflicted upon him and swung the mace anyway. The sheer absurdity of it would have been impressive if it wasn't aimed directly at Lex's head.
Fortunately, Raphael was handling defense.
The moment the strike began, predictive calculations flooded Lex's awareness. Angles. Vectors. Timing. Expected force output. Rather than attempting to stop Hercules entirely, Raphael concentrated defensive Force exclusively where the attack would land.
The golden mace slammed into an invisible barrier mere inches from his face.
The impact detonated the surrounding air.
Storefront windows shattered throughout the street. Parked vehicles rocked violently. The pavement beneath Lex's feet cracked from the transmitted force despite never actually being struck.
For a brief moment Hercules staggered.
One massive hand rose toward his neck.
Then, with a wet crunch, the demigod spat something onto the street.
A fragment of bone bounced across the shattered asphalt.
The crushed throat was already beginning to repair itself.
"Well," Lex muttered as he watched Hercules roll his shoulders and prepare to attack again, "that's annoying."
Before he could decide on his next move, something changed.
His perception accelerated.
The world seemed to slow as Raphael pushed his thought processing closer to its limits. Dust hung suspended in the air. Fragments of broken concrete drifted through space. Hercules' next movement unfolded with agonizing clarity.
Then a blonde blur descended from above.
The punch landed with enough force to visibly deform Hercules' face.
The demigod's head snapped sideways. Bone shifted beneath skin. Teeth exploded outward. Several tons of angry Greek mythology disappeared through the side of a building before the shockwave had even fully formed.
Lex stared.
"Kara?"
The familiar blonde woman hovered nearby in her white costume, cape fluttering behind her as she glanced over toward him.
"Dude," she said, sounding mildly offended despite having just launched a demigod through a building, "call me Power Girl out here."
Lex blinked.
"Power Girl. Right."
"Also, I literally just got here." She pointed toward the distant crater where Hercules had vanished. "Who exactly is that guy? Your text message was surprisingly lacking in details."
Lex turned his attention inward.
"I texted you?"
<I did.>For a moment Lex simply stared into space.
Then he nodded.
"Oh. Right. Good thinking."
<I am aware.>Lex was beginning to suspect Raphael was developing a sense of humor.
"Anyway," he continued, gesturing toward the rapidly collapsing building in the distance, "that's probably Hercules. Or at least somebody who dresses up exactly like Hercules. He's under some kind of mystical poison that's making him violently homicidal."
As if offended by being discussed, the building exploded outward.
Hercules emerged through a cloud of dust and debris with a roar that shook nearby streets. Blood stained his mouth. Most of the damage inflicted by Power Girl's punch had already begun healing, though several portions of his face remained visibly misshapen.
The demigod locked onto the newest threat immediately.
With a bellow of pure rage, he launched himself forward and swung his golden mace with enough force to split the air apart.
Power Girl didn't bother dodging.
The weapon crashed into her raised hand and stopped.
Not slowed.
Stopped.
The shockwave flattened nearby vehicles and tore chunks from already damaged buildings, but Power Girl herself didn't move so much as an inch.
"Yep," she said, glancing briefly toward Lex. "Fighting him is gonna be tedious."
Then she grabbed Hercules by the throat.
The demigod immediately began struggling, muscles bulging as he attempted to wrench himself free, but the effort accomplished very little. Power Girl simply tightened her grip, took off into the sky, and dragged several tons of furious, screaming demigod away from the city before he could destroy another block.
Lex chose not to follow Kara and Hercules.
The battle itself was effectively over. Whatever destruction Hercules might have caused next was now Power Girl's problem, and considering the way she had casually intercepted a strike that had nearly taken Lex's head off moments earlier, he wasn't particularly worried about the outcome.
Instead, he turned his attention toward Donna.
As he moved through the damaged streets, the full scale of the aftermath became increasingly apparent. Storefronts had been reduced to rubble. Several vehicles lay overturned or embedded into nearby buildings. Dust still hung in the air, mixing with smoke from small fires that had broken out throughout the district. Above, helicopters had already begun circling the area, their rotors beating steadily against the sky as news crews and emergency responders rushed toward the scene.
The distant wail of sirens grew louder with every passing second.
Firetrucks.
Ambulances.
Police.
The entire city was reacting to the disaster.
A small part of Lex felt the familiar temptation to blame himself for the destruction around him, but he pushed the thought aside almost immediately. Hercules had arrived already rampaging through the city. Lex had stepped in the moment he realized civilians were in danger, and despite everything, the damage would have been significantly worse if nobody had stopped the demigod. He had done everything he could, saved as many people as possible, and nearly gotten his skull caved in for the effort.
That was going to have to be enough.
By the time he reached Donna, he immediately realized something unusual was happening.
Donna stood with her shoulders tense and jaw clenched, a level of visible anger that Lex rarely saw from her. Her blue lasso wrapped securely around a tall woman standing several feet away. The woman looked more irritated than concerned about her current situation, while Donna looked as though she was actively restraining herself from saying something she'd regret.
Lex glanced between the two.
"I think something definitely happened here," he observed.
Donna's eyes shifted toward him briefly before returning to the woman.
"Tell him what you told me."
The woman straightened almost immediately, lifting her chin with unmistakable pride despite the magical leash around her.
"I poisoned Hercules on the orders of my father and Lady Hera."
Lex blinked.
Well.
That certainly explained a few things.
"And who exactly are you?" he asked.
The woman looked almost offended that the question needed to be asked.
"I am Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons and daughter of Ares."
For a moment Lex simply stared.
Then he looked toward Donna.
Then back toward Hippolyta.
Then back toward Donna.
The pieces clicked together almost instantly.
"Does she resemble her?" he asked quietly.
Donna shook her head.
"Not physically."
Her answer came immediately, but her gaze remained fixed on Hippolyta.
"But the moment I saw her, I knew who she was."
There was something uncomfortable in the way she said it. Not uncertainty. Certainty.
"The connection is different here, but I can feel it." Her grip tightened slightly around the lasso. "It's like... something in my existence recognizes her."
Lex nodded slowly.
That probably wasn't easy.
Donna had spent days hoping to find some trace of home. Some connection to the life she'd lost. Instead she'd found a version of Hippolyta who apparently poisoned heroes on behalf of Hera and Ares.
Not exactly the reunion she had been hoping for.
"So..." Lex glanced toward the bound Amazon Queen. "What do you want to do with her?"
Donna exhaled slowly.
The anger hadn't disappeared, but it had settled into something colder.
"I honestly don't know. Maybe take her to Zeus and let him decide."
She gave a humorless laugh.
"Although considering it was his wife and son who ordered this, who knows how useful that'll be."
"Oh."
Lex considered that for a moment.
"Maybe just drop her on Hercules."
Donna looked at him.
"Hercules is kind of the victim here."
For the first time since he'd arrived, a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Sure."
Her gaze drifted back toward Hippolyta.
"I don't really care anymore."
The words weren't angry.
That somehow made them worse.
Finding out that Themyscira existed should have been good news. A few days ago she would have crossed an ocean for even the slightest possibility of discovering Amazons in this world.
Now she couldn't bring herself to care.
Not after this.
Not after meeting this world's Hippolyta.
A short time later they found Kara sitting atop a partially collapsed section of concrete while an unconscious Hercules lay nearby. The contrast between the two was almost absurd. One looked as though she had just finished a mildly inconvenient workout. The other looked like someone who had lost an argument with a freight train.
After a brief explanation, they asked Hippolyta whether the poison could be removed.
Unfortunately, her answer wasn't encouraging.
"It is the venom of the Hydra," she explained. "No mortal possesses the means to cure it."
Lex stared at her for a moment.
Then he reached into his Gacha Storage.
A small green bean appeared in his hand.
Without further explanation, he crouched down and shoved the Senzu Bean into Hercules' mouth.
He had kept it especially for occasions like this.
A few moments later the demigod's eyes opened.
Hercules remained motionless for several seconds as memories of the rampage returned to him. Lex could practically see the realization settling in as confusion gave way to understanding and understanding gave way to guilt.
"It seems I have caused all of you quite a large problem."
"Yeah," Kara replied immediately. "But we're not really the people you should be apologizing to."
The bluntness of the statement made Hercules grimace.
He understood exactly what she meant.
"Well," Donna added, folding her arms, "technically she's the one responsible."
She tilted her head toward Hippolyta.
"And her family."
"Speaking of which," Lex said, pointing toward the Amazon Queen, "could you take her off our hands? Put her in some Olympian prison or magical dungeon or whatever you people use."
Hercules followed his gesture.
The moment he saw Hippolyta, something flickered across his face.
Annoyance.
Then exhaustion.
Then a very obvious desire to be somewhere else.
"Of course," he replied.
A second later he grabbed the Amazon Queen and departed with considerably more urgency than dignity.
Lex watched him disappear into the distance.
"It turns out getting beaten up by Power Girl is a surprisingly effective humbling experience."
Kara looked entirely too pleased with that observation.
To be fair, Hercules had been poisoned and wasn't exactly operating at his best, but Lex somehow doubted that detail would matter much to Kara. The fact remained that she had handled one of the strongest opponents Lex had ever encountered with almost embarrassing ease.
Eventually the conversation shifted elsewhere.
"So," Kara asked as the three of them prepared to leave, "you guys coming back?"
"Yeah."
Donna's answer came immediately.
She glanced toward the distant horizon one final time before looking away.
"I don't really have anything left in Greece."
After a brief pause she added quietly,
"Let's go back home."
The final word was almost a whisper.
Something softened in Lex's expression.
A few days ago Donna probably wouldn't have referred to New York as home.
Now she did.
Despite possessing enough speed to cross continents in moments, Kara decided to accompany them on the private flight back. By the time they settled into their seats, the exhaustion of the day had finally begun catching up with everyone.
Donna glanced toward Kara.
"If I had your speed, I'd never sit in a plane again."
Kara laughed.
"Don't you have that teleportation staff thing?"
She pointed toward Lex.
"Why are you flying everywhere instead of using that?"
"It has a cooldown."
Lex leaned back into his seat.
"And I'd rather not have it unavailable if an emergency happens."
"Oh."
Kara paused.
"Honestly, I thought this was your weird way of forcing team bonding."
Lex raised an eyebrow.
"Why would I do that?"
"You know."
Kara gestured vaguely between the three of them.
"New team. New people. Shared travel experience."
"If I was organizing bonding exercises, Sharon would be here too."
The moment the words left his mouth, Kara's grin became dangerous.
"...Nah."
"I'm pretty sure you've already done plenty of bonding with Sharon."
Lex immediately knew where this was going.
"Like every night."
Lex awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
Across from him, Donna suddenly found herself remembering certain events from two nights earlier and immediately wished she hadn't.
Actually...
Considering Kara possessed super hearing...
A horrifying realization began forming.
Kara's grin widened.
"Aww."
She pointed between them.
"Look at you two blushing like teenagers."
"And who was using X-ray vision to satisfy their weird voyeuristic tendencies?" Lex fired back.
The effect was immediate.
Kara froze.
"Wait."
For the first time all day, she looked genuinely caught off guard.
"You knew?"
The surprise on her face was so sincere that both Lex and Donna immediately knew the answer.
She absolutely had.
The faint redness creeping into Kara's cheeks certainly wasn't helping her defense either, regardless of how determined she seemed to pretend it was merely the evening sunlight.
Fortunately for everyone involved, a knock interrupted the conversation before Kara could attempt to recover.
A flight attendant stepped into the cabin carrying refreshments, unknowingly rescuing the former superheroine from a battle she was rapidly losing.