You're Dead (Power Girl)

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Something lured Bruce back to place where he first lost his parents. The anniversary of that terrible moment was months away, but he found himself staring at the area where they had died. Roses laid where their bodies once had. No tears were shed. Perhaps, he no longer had them in his body, but he hadn't cried in a very long time. Shortly after the clones attacked, he found himself in a depressed state. He had not heard from Selina or any other family member in a very long time. All he really needed was one word that they had not perished. A huge weight would be lifted from him if he heard that. Why had he lived, when they hadn't? That was the one question that dominated the mind of Bruce.

It was one of the rare moments when he wasn't wearing his costume. A vast majority of his moments spent outside of his home was in his Batman costume. It allowed him to sneak around Gotham and find survivors. Bruce continued to stare at that terrible space. It was hard to imagine that he'd face even more tragedies would fall on him. The fate of nearly one hundred people was in Bruce's hands. He had to protect them, as he felt responsible for it. Although he would support heroes for the longest time, he knew that heroes had pretty much caused the creation of the clones. It was a terrible thought, but it was better than denying any responsibility for his actions.

Only a very small part of the blame was on hero community. The government had grossly miscalculated the danger of heroes. If it wasn't for heroes, the entire world would be world by people with terrible intentions. Super heroes had been around for the longest time, but they felt the heroes were doing too much. Police couldn't stop those with powers, nor did they have enough forces to bring down big gangs. There was not a chance that a cop could bring down a person like Bane. Not a chance in hell. They'd be crushed in mere seconds. Even Batman had been paralyzed from the beast of a man.

It was a bit surprising that a clone hadn't come by. Wayne Manor was untouched, due to its remote location. Everything else had been destroyed. Almost all of the sane population made it to Bruce's home, after hearing it was a safe haven. The first survivors had been rescued by Batman. There was no reason in hiding his identity anymore. Secret identities meant nothing anymore. People in Gotham now knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman. No one could harm his family. He could now fight openly, and it gave people faith that Wayne Manor was a safe place to be.

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She floats on high. The highest perch one can achieve while still calling themselves a part of earth. It's orbit. The tenuous sphere several thousand miles away from the planet where satellites, space stations and even the moon hung in careful suspension. From this place, Powergirl could see everything, hear everything, though the voices were faint, this high up, the air was so thin, it didn't carry sound as well.

What she couldn't hear she could see, no place on earth was safe from her gaze, she could see the germs floating in the air of a basement under a mountain. the only thing she can not see through is something that just about nothing can, which is solid lead. There aren't any buildings made of solid lead, so she doesn't need to worry about it.

When she see's bruce standing where his parents died, she pauses, then rapidly descends, She breaks the sound barrier she drops so fast, bruce can probably hear the boom from far above, but it's so faint. She stops about ten miles up, far to high for any human normal eyes to see.

She narrows her eyes, unsure of what to do. Something in the back of her mind wants to kill him, but there's no rhym or reason to it, it's pure lunacy, absolute psychopathy. She bites her lip and looks away, snarling some. A bit of lime green acid drips from her lips but she licks it back before it can fall. She wouldn't want any of this caustic stuff getting free, it tends to burn through anything.

Against her better judgement, she continues to descend, maybe meeting him face to face, hearing his voice, will curve her urge to murder him. That kind of logic passing through her mind alone should give her fair warning of her own insanity.

But we never really are truely aware of our own insanity, to us, it seems sane.

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Heroes, villains, and civilians now shared one common trait. They had all made it through the nightmarish attacks of the clones. All of them could be filed under the category of survivors. The clones were the real enemy to those who lived on Earth. One thing that everyone could team up to stop all of it. It sounded so very simple to just work together to rid the world of clones, but personalities never meshed. People were constantly going to clash, and not a single thing would actually get done. Besides, most of the super hero community had pretty much abandoned him. Thinking that Gotham was a lost cause. Several Justice League members had asked him to join them on the satellite, but he had to stay with his people. They needed him.

Two heroes had shown up at his door willing to help him take care of the survivors. Mockingbird and Storm. Two people was not enough to take care of nearly one hundred people, and find even more survivors. They both had powers, but he'd need a little more help to prove to the hero community that Gotham was not a lost cause. In time, perhaps, it could turn into a city that would be modeled by many others. That was a rather far fetched idea to have. Hope never killed anyone, so Bruce would continue to believe that he could bring Gotham City back from the edge that it had tumbled over. If one city was cured, then the rest of the cities would be to.

No news had come from the other countries. Most information he had gathered had merely been rumors. People thought that Europe was possibly a safer place for people to go, but Bruce doubted that the clones' sphere of influence spread much further than America. It was likely that the clones had spread to Europe and other continents. There was not a single safe place for people to live. Wayne Manor was the safest place to live in Gotham, but it was constantly in danger of clone attacks. It was just a surprise that it had yet to be touched. Plenty of clones had been near. None had attacked.

A muffled boom reached the ears of Bruce, which caused him to look to the sky. Something was going on nearby. Most likely it was a clone attacking random civilians or something resembling a human. It was not an unusual sound to hear in Gotham. The clones were constantly causing trouble and destroying anything that they could. After a short amount of time, Bruce's eyes return to that spot. The picture of his parents' murder replayed in his head over and over again. Then, a new image filled his brain. Deaths of several people. His brain tried to push those away, but he kept seeing it. He had seen a few people die, as he was one of the first to see the attacks in Gotham. As much as he tried, the image of their horrified faces would not go away.

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Powergirl moves like a machine, stiff and rigid, she floats down until she's nearly upon batman, then she lets life fill her limbs, one leg lifts a little higher and her arms spread out slightly. Her cape whips in the wind of the moment and she stares bruce down. Her eyes are glowing with electric blue current, tiny arcs of electricity spark off her eyes against her cheeks and forehead.

"Bruce...I..."

She isn't sure what to say, her feelings are a mixmash of homocide and affection. Bruce was a friend, a good friend. Some one she could turn to as powergirl or karen starr. Now she's just so confused, she can't speak or act. She has to fight these strange feelings of aggression. She must not hurt her friends. It's not all that unnatural though, she's simply cracked, broken. Her mind couldn't handle being resurrected and in time she may learn to cope and become healthy, or she may become this worlds worst nightmare.

There is some obvious pain and anguish in her voice, and the expression on her face is tell tale of some one struggling with something, but who knows what. As far as bruce knew, power girl was dead.

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Shockingly, criminals had not returned to a place that had been named after them. Most of them had lurked in the park. They were more than willing to return to their old ways. The clones had made everyone equal, and gave people chances to change their life. Inmates found a way to try to make them above everyone else. Those who ran to the park to try to save themselves from the clones soon found themselves terrorized by the criminals who now called the park home. With the few heroes that patrolled the city, there was not a damn thing that Batman could do. As far as he knew, many of his allies were now deceased.

Except for one, it seemed, as a familiar voice entered his ear. It was a person who's death had actually been confirmed. Her death had hit him hard. It was almost as difficult as hearing the death of his close friend Superman. Sure, they had not be the closest before the clones had attacked, but he had invested money and time into her and her business. Only a few people on Earth actually knew who Bruce was outside of his costume, and she was one of him. Hell, if she had learned of his troubles, she'd probably help him with the assistance of her wife.

"Karen?" Bruce says, turning around expecting to see his old friend. No, of course, she would not be standing on the ground. People who could fly tended to hover above a person who they talked to. They never could act like a normal person and just stay on the ground. Quite comical, but there really wasn't time for any laughter. A look of surprise filled the adventurer's face. It'd likely be locked in that expression for sometime, but, finally, he was able to pull together a friendly smile and bring his eyes to her face. No Bruce expression could lack a little trace of sadness.

"It's good to see you again, Karen."

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Karen holds her head in a way becoming of a woman not quite as sane as she accustomed to being. tilted down a little, to the left, unable to really keep it still for long, it twitches and fidgets, as do her hands and fingers, Karen does not suffer from hyper activity disorder.

"It's g-good to see you too Bruce. I have not been well."

The bridges the gap between them, so far so good, listen to his voice Karen, she tells herself in her minds eye, look at his face, it's Bruce wayne, your business mentor, investment partner and fellow hero. He can't possibly be responsible for ANYTHING wrong with Karen herself, or the world.

She lands, her feet rest on the pavement gently, she looks as if every action she makes takes a great deal out of her. Like John Nash struggling with his own insanity, Karen now must make the precarious choices of choosing between reality and fantasy. Unlike John Nash, Karen see's no phantasms, no illusions, it is all in her memories. A scrambled memory and a short circuited emotional spectrum are a quick one way trip to insanity, which is right where Karen Starr has landed.

"I heard you've done some good work at Wayne Manor."

Yes, focus on the positives, Karen coaches herself. She uses her wifes voice in her minds her, the recent memory of Sakkara's words of inspiration and guidance to calm her troubled mind.

The blue arcs of electricity continue to splay off Karen's eyes. They delicately kiss her cheeks, brows and forehead. These are not typical of Karen Starr, in fact no kryptonian exhibits blue electrical pulses of any variety, least of all around the eyes, Kryptionian's laser eye vision is in all documented cases red, so this is highly unusual.

Perhaps even suspect...