Chapter 34: Conclusion
Johnathan and Alex were going to the closest hospital but the entire city was in shambles. Their path was obstructed every ten feet, but they were able to make a move at a decent speed.
"Well, well, well. Look at what we have here," a woman said from behind the duo. They turned around to see who it was, to their dismay, it was Astra floating behind them.
"Looks like you have your hands full now, but that makes it much more fun," Astra added with a sinister smile as her eyes began to glow blue. Alex threw Johnathan to the side and drew her sword to block the heat beam aimed at them. Alex was knocked back but backrolled to regain her footing, then she pulled out her kryptonite pistol and shot off a couple of bullets toward Astra. Astra dodged the bullets with ease and began to make her way closer to get a hold of Alex. Alex knew that Astra was trying to close the distance so Alex did her best to keep the distance. She also needed to lead Astra away from the injured Johnathan, but Astra already took notice of what Alex was trying to do. After using her x-ray to find the injured Johnathan, who was currently hiding and slowly recovering in a broken-down building.
"There you are," Astra said with a smile and shot toward Johnathan's building. Alex noticed that Astra was not coming her way but another and instantly knew what was going on. Alex quickly reloaded her pistol and began running toward Astra.
"Get away from him!" Alex shouted as she rushed toward Astra while shooting more bullets. Astra swiftly turned around and grabbed a giant piece of debris to protect herself from the bullets. Astra then threw the debris at Alex, who slid under the debris with her amazing reflex, she then charged up her exo-suit and jumped upward toward Astra with great speed. Astra began to grab multiple pieces of debris to throw at Alex, along with shooting her heat vision as well. Alex used her sword to cut through the debris and used her exo-suit abilities to dodge the heat vision. Alex was able to close the distance within seconds, but what she didn't know was that this was all a part of Astra's plans to close the distance. Why risk herself, when she could make the opponent rush in recklessly and make it easier to kill? Johnathan peaked around the corner and noticed that Astra was holding a sharpened pole that she found. He instantly knew what was going on and quickly ripped the rest of his shirt. Johnathan tied it around his stomach to keep it from bleeding even more and used his reserved Ki that wasn't being used to keep his injury sustained to create metal gauntlets. Johnathan took a deep breath and waited for the right moment to sneak attack Astra, within seconds the opening appeared. Alex was in mid-air about to slash Astra, but Astra had the sharpened pole in her right hand and a block of debris in the left to block the sword. Alex's sword slashed into the debris but was not able to cut all the way through and was stuck. Astra took that chance and tossed the debris away and the sword was ripped from Alex's hand due to the momentum. Astra was about to stab Alex, but then she felt someone grab her right arm so she turned around to see who it was. The only thing she could see was a silver fist accelerating toward her face, it was too late for her to dodge, and had no chance to block it either due to her poor stance. Johnathan was able to land a solid hit and Astra was sent flying due to the impact. Astra was able to regain her balance in the air after flying for about a few feet, but she was seething with anger due to underestimating the two and letting them land a hit on her.
"Alright, I won't be holding back anymore. I was trying to get a little bit of pleasure of torturing you a bit in front of my niece's stepsister, but it seems that it will take too long and I don't have a lot of time now." Astra commented before moving her head side to side to crack her neck and sped toward the duo.
"I'll cover you, so you can go get your sword," Johnathan said to Alex before rushing toward the incoming Astra. Alex didn't hesitate and began running toward the last place she saw the sword flung. Johnathan used a bit more of his reserved Ki to enhance his speed to keep up with Astra and the two engaged in close combat. Johnathan was doing his best to dodge the most damaging attacks and took the less lethal attacks head-on so that he could counter them. Johnathan and Astra exchanged about forty blows before he noticed Alex running toward them with the kryptonite sword in her hand. He swiftly threw a roundhouse kick to Astra's right ribs and she caught the kick and smiled at him, but that was what Johnathan was hoping for. He quickly jumped for a flying triangle, which Astra was not prepared for, and was caught in Johnathan's hold. Alex was able to get close enough as Johnathan grabbed a hold of Astra and turned her blade backward to try and knock Astra out. Astra noticed Alex's presence from behind and quickly swung Johnathan around to smash into Alex. The three collided with one another and everyone was sent flying in different directions.
"Damn, why is your head so damn hard, Johnathan," Alex shouted as she rubbed the side of her head.
"I need a hard head to keep all of my secrets intact and hidden," Johnathan joked as he got back up.
"Enough!" Astra shouted then shot a heat beam, while grabbing two giant pieces of debris and throwing them as well, at Alex, who quickly blocked it, but was knocked back for a moment, in those moments of space, Astra charged straight for the injured Johnathan. Johnathan, who was very low on his Ki reserves due to using most of them to keep his insides from falling out, was unable to react in time and was caught by Astra easily. She held him by the throat and slowly began to put pressure from her hand onto Johnathan's throat, Alex quickly sprung back into action but Astra was able to dodge the attack and counter. Astra used Alex's momentum to trip her and put Alex onto the floor face down, then kicked away the kryptonite sword, Astra then swiftly locked Alex's left arm behind her back and Astra kept it from moving with her right foot.
"I will enjoy killing this man in front of you, This will be the first punishment for your disobedience," Astra said with a wicked smile and began to tighten her grip around Johnathan's throat. Johnathan let out a strained noise which excited Astra,
"Yes! Keep your pointless struggling going, after all the trouble you two put me into, I deserve to listen to your screams." Astra added. Alex was trying her best to escape from underneath Astra but the Kryptonian was too powerful, but she knew that Johnathan wouldn't be able to last a second more. Astra could feel Alex struggling underneath, Astra put more pressure on Alex, which caused Alex to sink into the ground more due to Astra's strength. Alex let out a scream of pain and Astra's wicked smile became bigger to the point where she began laughing. Astra began to put more pressure on Alex and Johnathan,
"Why do I keep getting myself into these horrible situations and it is always against super strong people," Johnathan thought as he grabbed Astra's arm trying to break free, Astra noticed that Johnathan was struggling to break free from her grasp. It made her laugh even more,
"Struggle all you want, but you will never break free from my grasp," Astra said with glee, while Johnathan tried to say something but due to not being able to breathe all that came out was a strained voice. Astra noticed this and decided to listen to his last words so she released some pressure from him.
"I will show you some mercy and listen to your last words," Astra said before bringing him closer to hear. Johnathan took a deep breath,
"Fuck you," Johnathan said before materializing a kryptonite kunai with the rest of his ki, resulting in not being able to keep his insides from falling out, he used the last bit of his ki to increase his speed and stabbed through Astra's heart. Everything happened in less than a second and it caught Astra off guard before she knew it there was a kunai in her chest. Johnathan was sent flying by Astra and the kunai's handle broke off as well. She began to lose all strength in her body then she began to cough up blood and soon fell backward landing on the ground. Astra let out a small laugh,
"Looks like this is what I get for being too ignorant, it seems that my sister was right about my personality," Astra said to herself. Alex was able to get back up and was doing her best to keep Johnathan's insides from falling out. Astra was looking at the duo then for a moment she could see her sister and herself from when she hurt herself back in her youth. Astra's sister helped patch her up and they had a good laugh. Then another memory flashed through Astra's mind of her holding baby Kara. A single tear began to flow out of Astra's right eye,
"It seems that even sealed memories tend to leak through during weakness, please tell Kara that this was not her fault. Tell her that everything that I did was for our survival and that I would not change a thing," Astra said to the duo before closing her eyes for the last time.
"Well, at least she passed still believing in what she was fighting for, most people don't get that luxury," Johnathan said while sitting on the ground while Alex was quickly wrapping up his stomach with leftover bandages found nearby.
"I can't believe you are capable of being non-chantant at this time while you are practically half-dead," Alex scolded Johnathan, he then turned toward Alex and smiled with his tongue out on the side while making a peace sign,
"Teehee," Johnathan said before Alex smacked him on the back-side of his head making him bite on his tongue.
"Ah!" Johnathan let out,
"What was that for?" Johnathan asked while holding his mouth,
"I see you need another hole in your stomach," Alex said as she raised her sword and Johnathan began to wave his hands in defense,
"It seems that everything has been handled from both sides," Hank said as he levitated toward the duo. Johnathan and Alex looked up at Hank,
"I am glad you are okay," Alex said as she let out a deep sigh and sat down on the ground.
"When you say handled, I am assuming that Supergirl and the others defeated the doomsday?" Johnathan asked Hank.
"Yes, we were able to send it flying into the sun. Your team was able to come up with the plan, but it seems that you had a tougher time than us." Hank replied with a smile. Just then Johnathan could sense Supergirl coming toward them, so he quickly equipped the rider armor,
"We don't have that much energy left, boss," KZ stated.
"It's okay, I just need to keep my face covered," Johnathan replied, and soon after their conversation, Supergirl landed next to them.
"Alex! Are you okay?" Supergirl asked right away after landing and grabbing Alex.
"Yes, I am okay, Kara," Alex replied while patting the back of her sister, Then Supergirl looked around the area and noticed her aunt Astra lying on the ground. She walked over to her aunt slowly taking everything in at once, soon Supergirl made it to Astra and knelt beside her. Kara picked Astra up and hugged her for one last time, after a couple of seconds she noticed the kryptonite kunai's broken handle. Rage began to build within her and she gently put her aunt back to the ground, then she turned toward the person responsible. Before anyone could react, Kara sped toward Kabuto and grabbed him by the neck lifting him in the air,
"Kara! Stop it!" Alex shouted but Hank held her back and shook his head.
"Why?" Kara shouted at Kabuto,
"She gave me no choice, it was either her or us. I choose to save us," Kabuto replied.
"We could have solved this differently! You didn't have to kill her!" Kara retorted but Kabuto just shook his head.
"Yes, we could have solved it differently but we didn't have the time. Not with the city being destroyed along with Luthor's Doomsday trying to kill everything in sight." Kabuto replied and Kara let out a frustrated scream and tossed Kabuto to the side. Kabuto couldn't land properly due to all the injuries and lack of Ki, so he stumbled and was lucky there was debris he could use to keep himself up.
"I will never forgive you for this, Kabuto. You have crossed the line twice now and there is no coming back from it," Kara said before taking off.
"Kara, wait!" Alex said but felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around a saw that it was Kabuto,
"It's for the best, better for her to hate Kabuto than you," Kabuto said.
"You are just making this more difficult for yourself when you tell her all this or are you doing this so that you have to tell her," Alex retorted before walking away with frustration. Hank and Johnathan were the only ones left standing in the rubbles,
"You know that she is right. It's not good to carry all of that hatred from everyone on your shoulders, especially knowing that you have been doing your best as an entrepreneur for a lot of places." Hank stated.
"Yes, yes. I know but make sure you don't spill the beans to Kara and please do tell her you found me in a dungeon of an isolated place under a suspicious group that you guys have annihilated," Kabuto said before initiating clock up and running away.
"Wait!" Hank shouted but it fell on deaf ears,
"I swear to..." Hank added before flying off on his own.