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Chapter 315: From Earth-2
Orin Vale quickly found the source of the nuclear reaction—in fact, you could hardly miss it even without super-senses.
It was a giant, about ten meters tall. He might have once been a human, seemingly clad in some kind of clumsy and ugly armor, but at this point, it was hard to distinguish between the armor and the person inside.
An extremely high concentration of energy enveloped his entire body. A red-hot light clung to his frame like a thin film, making him look like a searing-hot branding iron from head to toe.
“Surrender, woman!”
The giant freak bellowed.
“Everything here, all of it, belongs to the great Sugita!!!”
Sugita was certainly a name with regional flavor. And the man inside the armor did indeed have the features of someone from the island nation.
Or perhaps it meant “radiation” in Japanese?
What was more interesting was that Orin Vale detected a trace of Apokoliptian technology in this armor, and it was on a completely different level from the mass-produced goods used by Intergang.
It was tougher and more advanced, but its most crucial feature was its energy system. It seemed this thing was specifically designed for combat on Earth, as it was powered by nuclear energy. However, Apokolips itself wasn't supposed to use nuclear power.
Calling it armor wasn't entirely accurate either, as it was practically “welded” to the man named Sugita, fused so tightly with his body that separation was nearly impossible. He had now absorbed a vast amount of nuclear energy, which had bloated his body to its current size. Both his flesh and the armor had merged into a state of nuclear energy.
This caused him immense suffering, but it also made him incredibly powerful.
“Need... more food, more supplies,” Sugita roared. “No one can stop me, not even you, woman!”
Orin Vale soon saw who the “woman” he was talking about was.
Her stunning curves were outlined by a white uniform, her long, well-proportioned legs encased in dark blue boots, and a red cape fluttered behind her. A blonde girl with features similar to Kara's. However, unlike other members of the Super-family who wore an 'S' emblem on their chest, her distinguishing feature was her iconic chest window and a cleavage as deep as the Mariana Trench.
Karen Starr, Power Girl.
“Yours? Ha! I'm pretty sure I paid for every single screw in this place, and it wasn't cheap!”
Karen flew up to his face and slammed a punch into the monster's jaw. “So no one gets to mess with my babies, especially not a glowing red freak!”
Strangely, the earth-shattering punch from the Kryptonian only made the monster stagger. Orin Vale observed that the nuclear energy surrounding the monster seemed to act like a force field, clinging to the outer layer of its armor and neutralizing most of the power.
“I am unique! No one is as powerful as I am!”
Sugita roared and thrust out his right palm. A mechanism in his palm activated, and immense nuclear energy surged from the emitter. Power Girl let out a muffled grunt as she was engulfed by the torrent of intense heat. She was sent spinning backward, trailing a line of black smoke as she crashed through several floors of the building before landing in the ruins, motionless.
“Whoa, he's pretty tough,” Orin Vale remarked, raising an eyebrow.
To be able to inflict that kind of damage on a Kryptonian, this equipment was no joke.
In any case, the battle was taking place inside Power Girl's research institute on her private island, a large stretch of no-man's-land in the middle of nowhere. No matter how much they wrecked the place, no innocent civilians would be affected.
As for Power Girl... She's a Kryptonian, you know how it is. It looked like she was hit hard, but her health bar was massive. She'd be fine.
Wait, maybe I spoke too soon. It seems they weren't entirely alone here.
There was another girl. Her body was hidden in the shadows, her presence concealed. She moved as silently as a ninja; you could easily miss her if you weren't paying close attention.
Not a metahuman, just an ordinary human. She wore a predominantly purple-and-black uniform, a purple cape, and an eye mask that concealed her face. The weapon in her hands was a crossbow.
She was also a superhero, codename: Huntress.
There has been more than one version of Huntress in the comics. But given who this one was and where she appeared, Orin Vale had a good guess as to which one she was.
Like Power Girl, she was from Earth-2. They had been stranded in this world together, and she was Power Girl's best friend.
Her name was Helena Wayne.
The daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-2.
Helena pulled the trigger, firing an arrow. Its tip was loaded with some kind of black-tech explosives, which detonated the instant it touched Sugita's armor.
Of course, if even a Kryptonian's fist had little effect, a mere explosive arrow had no chance of breaking through his defense. However, it did get Sugita's attention. His massive head turned, his scorching gaze locking onto Helena.
“You? A human?” he said contemptuously. “Even your high-flying friend was no match for me. What makes you think you stand a chance?”
Sugita's massive body radiated an oppressive pressure almost as intense as its heat; a mortal would feel crushed just by facing him. But Helena's expression remained calm as she said in a low voice, “We'll have to see about that.”
“Interesting... Then turn to ash under my caress, woman!”
Sugita bellowed, casually raising his hand and firing a super-heated energy beam. But Helena was prepared, diving sideways in a predictive leap to dodge it.
Naturally, she couldn't be faster than the energy projection, but she didn't need to be. The training she received from her father since childhood had taught her: you don't have to be faster than the gun, only faster than the person firing it.
Observing the weapon's barrel, predicting the line of fire—that was the primary method the Bat-family used to evade bullets. From that perspective, a street handgun and a high-tech energy beam were no different.
The energy beam fired, and Helena dove away. As she landed and rolled, she raised her hand and fired another crossbow bolt.
It flew right over Sugita's head.
“Ha, you missed,” Sugita laughed. “Looks like your aim isn't so great after all.”
“Don't be so sure,” Helena said.
Sugita suddenly realized something was wrong. He looked up and saw that the arrow had struck a coolant pipe in the laboratory.
The arrow exploded, and a large amount of coolant gushed out from the rupture, instantly dousing Sugita's entire body.
“Coolant? You think you can cool me down like an overheated reactor?”
Sugita bellowed.
“How naive, woman! My equipment has long since evolved beyond this. This can't possibly...”
“Perhaps, but it was worth a try.”
Helena rolled to her feet, her voice low.
“Besides, if it can't cool you down, then this liquid will...”
Evaporate!
The large volume of liquid immediately hissed the moment it touched Sugita's super-heated shell. A massive amount of high-temperature steam billowed out, like a sudden, thick fog, and visibility plummeted.
Helena wrapped herself in her cape, took a few steps back, and quickly vanished into the steam.
“Damn, you tricky little brat,” Sugita grumbled.
It seemed it would take him some effort to catch her in this thick fog.
Orin Vale narrowed his eyes, watching the fight with great interest from his front-row seat.
One look was all it took to confirm it. That style, that way of thinking... she was undoubtedly Batman's own daughter.
(end of chapter)
Orin Vale quickly found the source of the nuclear reaction—in fact, you could hardly miss it even without super-senses.
It was a giant, about ten meters tall. He might have once been a human, seemingly clad in some kind of clumsy and ugly armor, but at this point, it was hard to distinguish between the armor and the person inside.
An extremely high concentration of energy enveloped his entire body. A red-hot light clung to his frame like a thin film, making him look like a searing-hot branding iron from head to toe.
“Surrender, woman!”
The giant freak bellowed.
“Everything here, all of it, belongs to the great Sugita!!!”
Sugita was certainly a name with regional flavor. And the man inside the armor did indeed have the features of someone from the island nation.
Or perhaps it meant “radiation” in Japanese?
What was more interesting was that Orin Vale detected a trace of Apokoliptian technology in this armor, and it was on a completely different level from the mass-produced goods used by Intergang.
It was tougher and more advanced, but its most crucial feature was its energy system. It seemed this thing was specifically designed for combat on Earth, as it was powered by nuclear energy. However, Apokolips itself wasn't supposed to use nuclear power.
Calling it armor wasn't entirely accurate either, as it was practically “welded” to the man named Sugita, fused so tightly with his body that separation was nearly impossible. He had now absorbed a vast amount of nuclear energy, which had bloated his body to its current size. Both his flesh and the armor had merged into a state of nuclear energy.
This caused him immense suffering, but it also made him incredibly powerful.
“Need... more food, more supplies,” Sugita roared. “No one can stop me, not even you, woman!”
Orin Vale soon saw who the “woman” he was talking about was.
Her stunning curves were outlined by a white uniform, her long, well-proportioned legs encased in dark blue boots, and a red cape fluttered behind her. A blonde girl with features similar to Kara's. However, unlike other members of the Super-family who wore an 'S' emblem on their chest, her distinguishing feature was her iconic chest window and a cleavage as deep as the Mariana Trench.
Karen Starr, Power Girl.
“Yours? Ha! I'm pretty sure I paid for every single screw in this place, and it wasn't cheap!”
Karen flew up to his face and slammed a punch into the monster's jaw. “So no one gets to mess with my babies, especially not a glowing red freak!”
Strangely, the earth-shattering punch from the Kryptonian only made the monster stagger. Orin Vale observed that the nuclear energy surrounding the monster seemed to act like a force field, clinging to the outer layer of its armor and neutralizing most of the power.
“I am unique! No one is as powerful as I am!”
Sugita roared and thrust out his right palm. A mechanism in his palm activated, and immense nuclear energy surged from the emitter. Power Girl let out a muffled grunt as she was engulfed by the torrent of intense heat. She was sent spinning backward, trailing a line of black smoke as she crashed through several floors of the building before landing in the ruins, motionless.
“Whoa, he's pretty tough,” Orin Vale remarked, raising an eyebrow.
To be able to inflict that kind of damage on a Kryptonian, this equipment was no joke.
In any case, the battle was taking place inside Power Girl's research institute on her private island, a large stretch of no-man's-land in the middle of nowhere. No matter how much they wrecked the place, no innocent civilians would be affected.
As for Power Girl... She's a Kryptonian, you know how it is. It looked like she was hit hard, but her health bar was massive. She'd be fine.
Wait, maybe I spoke too soon. It seems they weren't entirely alone here.
There was another girl. Her body was hidden in the shadows, her presence concealed. She moved as silently as a ninja; you could easily miss her if you weren't paying close attention.
Not a metahuman, just an ordinary human. She wore a predominantly purple-and-black uniform, a purple cape, and an eye mask that concealed her face. The weapon in her hands was a crossbow.
She was also a superhero, codename: Huntress.
There has been more than one version of Huntress in the comics. But given who this one was and where she appeared, Orin Vale had a good guess as to which one she was.
Like Power Girl, she was from Earth-2. They had been stranded in this world together, and she was Power Girl's best friend.
Her name was Helena Wayne.
The daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-2.
Helena pulled the trigger, firing an arrow. Its tip was loaded with some kind of black-tech explosives, which detonated the instant it touched Sugita's armor.
Of course, if even a Kryptonian's fist had little effect, a mere explosive arrow had no chance of breaking through his defense. However, it did get Sugita's attention. His massive head turned, his scorching gaze locking onto Helena.
“You? A human?” he said contemptuously. “Even your high-flying friend was no match for me. What makes you think you stand a chance?”
Sugita's massive body radiated an oppressive pressure almost as intense as its heat; a mortal would feel crushed just by facing him. But Helena's expression remained calm as she said in a low voice, “We'll have to see about that.”
“Interesting... Then turn to ash under my caress, woman!”
Sugita bellowed, casually raising his hand and firing a super-heated energy beam. But Helena was prepared, diving sideways in a predictive leap to dodge it.
Naturally, she couldn't be faster than the energy projection, but she didn't need to be. The training she received from her father since childhood had taught her: you don't have to be faster than the gun, only faster than the person firing it.
Observing the weapon's barrel, predicting the line of fire—that was the primary method the Bat-family used to evade bullets. From that perspective, a street handgun and a high-tech energy beam were no different.
The energy beam fired, and Helena dove away. As she landed and rolled, she raised her hand and fired another crossbow bolt.
It flew right over Sugita's head.
“Ha, you missed,” Sugita laughed. “Looks like your aim isn't so great after all.”
“Don't be so sure,” Helena said.
Sugita suddenly realized something was wrong. He looked up and saw that the arrow had struck a coolant pipe in the laboratory.
The arrow exploded, and a large amount of coolant gushed out from the rupture, instantly dousing Sugita's entire body.
“Coolant? You think you can cool me down like an overheated reactor?”
Sugita bellowed.
“How naive, woman! My equipment has long since evolved beyond this. This can't possibly...”
“Perhaps, but it was worth a try.”
Helena rolled to her feet, her voice low.
“Besides, if it can't cool you down, then this liquid will...”
Evaporate!
The large volume of liquid immediately hissed the moment it touched Sugita's super-heated shell. A massive amount of high-temperature steam billowed out, like a sudden, thick fog, and visibility plummeted.
Helena wrapped herself in her cape, took a few steps back, and quickly vanished into the steam.
“Damn, you tricky little brat,” Sugita grumbled.
It seemed it would take him some effort to catch her in this thick fog.
Orin Vale narrowed his eyes, watching the fight with great interest from his front-row seat.
One look was all it took to confirm it. That style, that way of thinking... she was undoubtedly Batman's own daughter.
(end of chapter)
