An ugly fight

"Kara, I can explain..." Babs willed her legs to stand. For the moment, they refused her.

"Save it!" Kara screamed.

"This isn't..."

"Normal?" said Kara growling as she lifted her friend by the collar.

Babs had seen Kara through her worst days. Babs was there the day Kara thought Clark died. She was there the day Kara electrocuted Galatea. She'd even fought red kryptonite Kara.

But it was never like this. Babs had never seen her friend this angry.

“Kara, I don’t want to fight you.”

“Yeah? Then why’d you kidnap Charlie.”

“Babe, we need to talk about Charlie.”

“No… no we don’t.”

“He’s…” said Babs as she reached for her friend’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me,” said Kara. Babs flinched, but Kara softened. They both relaxed and the whole room relaxed too. Nightwing backed up from the action slowly and Ivy followed. Even Charlie began to take slow, shy peeks from his cocoon.

“Babs, you’re not gonna talk your way out of this…”

“I’m not trying to, Kara. His power affects everyone with superpower. Kori, Diana, M’Gann. Karen.”

“Obviously.”

“Obviously?”

“Yeah, it’s hard not to notice the horde of girls trying to fuck my boyfriend.”

“And that’s normal to you?”

“No, it’s the worst.”

“What about you, Kara?”

“What about me?”

“Kara, if Charlie can affect Powergirl, maybe you’re not unaffected.”

“I’m not, Babs. I know what it’s like when I’m being affected. Red kryptonite, remember?”

“Kara…”

“Babs, are you gonna let my boyfriend go? The only way this works out is if you let my boyfriend go and you swear never to bother us again.”

“Let your boyfriend… Kara, take a look around the room.”

Kara indulged her friend one last time. It was quick and easy. They were both on in the air.

“What’s up?”

“What do you mean, what’s up? Wally!”

“What about Wally? The traitor got what he deserved, Babs.”

“Kara, do you even hear yourself? Traitor? Am I a traitor too then? Is Dick a traitor? Bruce?” Babs said, her voice breaking up.

“You all are,” Kara growled.

Babs looked at her friend and recognized the look in Kara’s eyes. That’s the laser beam look. She resigned herself to hurting her friend. It was the only way to save her. Slumping her shoulder and holding tight the bombs in her hand, she hoped Kara could forgive her.

She threw the Kryptonite bomb in Kara’s face just as lasers shot from her eyes. Green smoke ignited in front of them and the room ignited back into action. Both Babs and Kara fell from the high ceiling. Batgirl held Supergirl in her arms as she glided down and broke the fall. Nightwing rushed back into the fray for Charlie and Ivy’s vine sprang up to block him.

Most exits and air vents in the Clocktower were now locked down by Ivy’s vine. The hole Kara made in the ceiling was the only source of ventilation and it was wildly insufficient. The Kryptonite haze hang lazily in the room, accompanied by Kara’s violent coughs. Ivy’s advantage was rapidly turning into a weakness.

“Kara. Kara!” Charlie shouted and bang against his cocoon.

“Please, please save her. I’ll do anything you want. I’ll cooperate with you if you just save her,” Charlie said to Ivy.

Ivy could barely hear him over the din of battle, but it was clear enough what he wanted done. When all she wanted was for him to be safe and happy, life can be fairly simple. She willed her vines to sprout sharp spikes on the floor. As they delay Nightwing’s approach she went after Batgirl and Supergirl.

It was exactly as Barbara Gordon hoped. With Ivy pursuing her and Kara effectively brought out of the fight, Nightwing had free rein to capture Charlie. Ivy’s spike trap may slow him down, but breaking into places and avoiding traps was really kind of Nightwing’s thing. He got to him before Ivy got to Batgirl.

“Dick, you gotta save Kara first. Just get her out of here, please.” Charlie shouted. “This Kryptonite stuff, I don’t know how much more of it she can take.”

“Shut it, Charlie. You’ve done enough damage.”

“Please, Dick. You gotta help her,” said Charlie with a slumped shoulder.

“Oh, we’ll save her alright. We’ll save her from you.”

“Yes, take her please and keep her safe for me. Honestly man, at this point, whatever Ivy has planned for me, I deserved it. For what it’s worth, I’m so sorry about this. About Kori.”

“Get her name out of your filthy mouth,” said Nightwing as he slammed his batons against Charlie’s cocoon like a madman.

Moments later a panicked Ivy abandoned her pursuit of Kara and came rushing back to Charlie. Knowing the jig was up, Batgirl deposited Kara, coughing and squirming, on one corner of the room. Then she too came rushing towards Charlie.

At that moment, with her mentor and Wally dead and Kara on the verge of joining them, Babs decided on the course of action. Whether or not he was complicit in the conspiracy against the League, with the situation rapidly heading for the worst, Charlie’s pheromone had to be permanently disabled. Whatever that meant in practical terms, that's a price she was willing to pay. Besides, it wasn’t as if Bruce was still around to police the killing abstinence.

Before she could get to Charlie though a laser beam cut through the wall and ceiling in a diagonal line. Part of the Clocktower began sliding downwards, taking with it Babs and Kara. In the same moment, a gust of wind rush into the room and cleared out the Kryptonite smoke. Then the room tumbled down.

“Batgirl!” shouted Nightwing as he jumped after her.

A white flash rushed into the falling debris and fished out Supergirl.

Nightwing grabbed onto Batgirl and as he fell with her shot a rope gun onto the crumbling room. Just as the ground came into sight, a mysterious **** yanked the gun’s hook. As Dick moved to break his fall, Babs fell out of his arms and crashed onto the ground.

Powergirl carried her younger self back to the crumbling Clocktower. She was knocked **** by the damage.

“Kara! Oh Kara, say something please,” said Charlie as he rushed to her.

“She’ll be okay, kid. She’s breathing and, trust me, she’ll make it,” Powergirl said smiling softly at Charlie. She gave him a moment then continued,

“We need to get out of here before the League showed up. The collateral damage must’ve gotten their attention by now.”

“But Babs and Dick…”

“Can’t be our concern right now. Besides,” said Powergirl looking down below. “they’re probably alive and spoiling for more fight.”

As concerns for his friends were addressed, Charlie shifted gears. He had a look of panic on his face. “Powergirl, Poison Ivy was here. She tried to kidnap me,” he said in a single breath.

Karen just smiled. “Oh, Charlie… we sent her to save you.”

“What?”

“Diana, M’Gann, and I. We didn’t really want to move against the League openly if we had a choice.”

A hundred emotion seemed to come over Charlie’s face all at once, but the major transition were shock, then surprise, then relief. He looked at Ivy gratefully.

Powergirl looked at Charlie with butterflies in her stomach. Charlie was precious and all she wanted to do was protect and pamper him. Maybe smother him with boobs. Well… all that and she had a new born desire to gut all his enemies. Simple courtesy of the pent up energy she had in horny jail, while under the influence of mind altering Charlie-mone. Surely that wasn’t anybody's problem.

“Powergirl,” Charlie said seriously. “I want to turn myself in. I… things can’t continue like this.”

“Charlie,” said Karen. “I’ll be honest with you, 'kay? Things doesn’t look too good right now. A lot has happened on the Watchtower before Kara and I came to get you. If you turn yourself in now, you’re looking at a lifetime of being locked away, at best.”

“I know you’ll never be allowed near any of us again ever. And if they ever change us back to the way we were…” she said. Powergirl’s powerful body visibly shuddered. “I don’t know what I’ll do to you. At the very least I don’t think you’ll have much ally and sympathy within the League.”

“Powergirl, please. There’s so much hurt and suffering because of me and things are rapidly spiraling out of control. I’ve decided. I’m going to do the right thing. I have to,” said Charlie.

“Charlie…” said Karen quietly, holding his hands. “Let’s discuss more later, okay? Right now we need to get you and Kara to safety. Then, I promise I’ll hear you out. Soon.”

“Okay,” said Charlie nodding firmly. He allowed himself to be carried by Powergirl out of the Clocktower. Goddamn if she doesn’t smell exactly like Kara.

At the base of the Clocktower Nightwing picked himself up and rushed over to Batgirl.

“Babs, are you all right?”

“I think so,” said Babs struggling to get up.

“Good. We need to get back to Batcave ASAP and secure the equipment,”

Babs nodded along solemnly. They both had the same specific equipment in mind. The Batsuit and the Kryptonites. With two Kryptonians on their side and potentially many more superpowered individuals waiting to be compromised by Charlie, this situation had to be contain.

“Dick,” said Babs suddenly, in a panic.

“What?” said Nightwing as he whipped his head around in a panick. Is it Powergirl or Wonder Woman? he thought.

“I can’t feel my legs,” said Batgirl.