Part Four
“Oh, my gosh! My brother’s gone! Where did he go?! Am I
gonna be next?! Am I gonna disappear, too?!”
Jessica bounced all over the walls of the console room in
hysteria over Craig’s disappearance. She only stopped when Kara crouched down
in front of her and said directly to her face, “Jessica, honey, everything’ll
be alright. We’ll find him.”
“How?” Jessica asked. “He could be anywhere!”
“True,” Kara said as she turned to the control console
and began flipping switches and turning knobs. “But this isn’t the first time
someone’s popped out of thin air in my TARDIS. More often than not, whenever
that happens, there’s a trace of energy left behind. And if my theory is
correct…” She pointed her sonic screwdriver to the space that Craig vanished
from, taking a quick scan.
She then looked on her sonic, her aquamarine eyes
widening in discouragement.
“Oh, no…” she muttered.
“You said ‘Oh, no’ – that almost never means anything good!” Jessica exclaimed.
“You are so right, Lil’ Queen,” Kara affirmed. “I’m
picking up heavy amounts of antimatter energy from where Craig was standing a
moment ago. That kind of energy is highly dangerous – especially when it
clashes with nuage energy.” After a heavy sigh, she stated, “Unfortunately, to
find our brother and catch up with the realm he went to, I’ll have to channel
the antimatter energy through my TARDIS.”
Kara enacted her procedure, entering the data she
obtained through her sonic screwdriver into the TARDIS computer. The
Gallifreyan module dematerialized out of the infinite dimensional corridor and
reemerged within a lavish den that seemed to be underground – that much was
certain from the subway trains they heard passing close by.
“Now that was quite the entrance,” the charismatic voice
of a man spoke out.
Jessica and Kara looked all over the underground lair to
spot the man, only managing to find him behind the TARDIS. The man was donned
in a loud lounge suit, smoking a Cuban cigar and holding a glass of champagne.
“And you are quite the beautiful woman,” he said in observance of Kara. He
approached her, setting down his champagne and removing the cigar from his
mouth to take Kara’s hand and kiss it – a gesture that revolted the Time Lord.
“And…you are?” Kara asked.
The man gave a lewd chuckle. “Nice one. Pretending you’ve
never heard of Lex Luthor – the greatest criminal genius of our time.”
Kara shrugged. “Who’s pretending? I’ve honestly never heard of you, dude.”
“Me neither,” Jessica said before she pointed at Luthor’s
hair and asked, “Isn’t that a lady’s wig?” Her inquiry made Kara snicker a bit.
Luthor hid his embarrassment with an amused grin. “Kids
say the darndest things, don’t they?” Moving past his embarrassment, Luthor
closely examined Kara’s TARDIS. “Fascinating machine you’ve arrived in. It
reappears within any spatial dimensions that it chooses. And bigger on the
inside, I’d imagine.”
“Usually people wait until they’re in it to say that, but…yes, it is,” Kara said.
Luthor puffed on his cigar as he continued gazing on the
Type-Z. “I’ve always dreamt of inventing something like this. Alas, I’m limited
by the technology of my time…and my reality. Thankfully, those limitations have
come to a gratifying conclusion.”
Kara frowned. “What’re you talking abo—?”
“MISS TESCHMACHER!!!” Luthor suddenly howled, startling
Kara and Jessica.
At his beckoning, a lovely blond woman rushed into the
room. “You bellowed, Lex?” Miss Teschmacher said with a hint of wit.
“Be a dear and check-in with my ol’ lab partner and see
if he’s ready with our science experiment,” Luthor ordered.
Miss Teschmacher brought the walkie-talkie she had in
hand to her rose-red lips and called, “Otis? What’s the word on your end?”
“We’re all set and ready to go, Miss Teschmacher,” the
goofy voice of Otis answered over the walkie-talkie.
On this confirmation, Lex led Kara and Jessica out of his
underground lair and into one of the subway channels where a sleek, single-car
train was stationed. Shaped like a giant silver bullet, entry was only
accessible through a touch pad that screened Luthor’s palm print. “Welcome, Lex
Luthor,” the train’s AI computer said as he entered and seated with his guests.
“State your destination.”
“The Ace Chemicals factory in Gotham City,” Luthor
stated.
Immediately, the high-tech train rocketed through the
subway tunnel. As it headed straight towards a dead-end, Kara and Jessica
panicked, believing that the train would crash into the brick wall. However, when
they were just an inch away from crashing, the train passed through a swirling,
multicolored vortex and emerged within an entirely different subway tunnel.
“What the heck just happened?!” Kara exclaimed, her
hearts rapidly beating through her chest from all the excitement.
“That, young lady, was a dimensional rift we just passed
through,” Luthor explained. “It’s been there between the coasts of Metropolis
and Gotham City for a few weeks now.”
“How did you even know it was there?” Kara asked.
“The day Gotham City itself appeared,” Luthor said. “One
day, there was just an endless sea beyond the coast of Metropolis. The next
day, an island with a dark, foreboding city appears out of nowhere. And with it
came a visitor…a visitor from another world who shares with me a device that he
brought with him. He claims that it came to his world from beyond the reality
itself, containing enough antimatter to render an entire universe to dust. And
yet he managed to control it with a machine built from Kryptonian technology.”
Hearing Luthor’s story, the deeply intrigued Kara
questioned, “This antimatter device. What did it look like?”
Before Luthor could provide her with a description, the
train came to a grinding halt. Luthor led Kara and Jessica out of the transport
and through a secret entrance into the Ace Chemicals factory. Upon entry, Kara
and Jessica received an eyeful of a massive machine that took up most of the
space within the factory.
At the core of the machine was a geodesic sphere that
Kara recognized.
The Quantum Sphere.
It had grown massive in size since the last time she saw
it. She believed it to have been lost somewhere within the multiverse. She
first encountered it in her first regeneration (Sonia) and later in her ninth
(Reilly), the latter spending most of her life searching for the Sphere, until
the Cyber War derailed her search and forced her to abandon it.
“A magnificent masterpiece, if I do say so myself,” the
eccentric voice of a young man spoke out.
All heads turned to see the young man himself approach.
He had shoulder-length dark red hair and donned in a white t-shirt, worn
beneath a white suit jacket, with matching tennis shoes. He was accompanied by
a portly man who wore a plain suit with a straw boater.
“Ladies, may I introduce you to my lab partner,” Luthor
said while gesturing to the young redhead. “Lex Luthor of Earth-13.”
Kara gazed on Luthor’s young counterpart in realization.
“He’s the visitor you were talking about,”
she surmised. “The one who brought the Quantum Sphere to your world.”
“Quantum Sphere,” Earth-13 Luthor pondered over the name
with interest. “I believe you’re referring to the power source of my machine. I
like it. Think I’ll even trademark it.” He reached into his suit jacket and
retrieved a Jolly Rancher that he offered to Jessica. “Care for one?”
“I’m not supposed to take candy from strangers,” Jessica
refused.
Earth-13 Luthor winked at her. “Smart little lady.”
“You need to remove the Sphere,” Kara insisted. “The
antimatter inside it is highly corrosive to both
of your realms. The longer it’s here, the little time you both have.”
“You’re suggesting that we – the Council of Luthors –
throw away weeks of research and development over the word of some nameless
woman we’ve only just met?” Earth-13 Luthor mockingly gathered. With a wild
giggle, he looked to his older counterpart and asked, “Where did you find this
simple-minded woman, Lex?”
“Otis?” The other Luthor made a gesture that took a
moment for Otis – the man in the straw boater – to follow.
“Oh, right!” Otis uttered, reaching into his coat pocket
to retrieve a handgun that he aimed right at Kara and Jessica.
Shielding the frightened Jessica, Kara yelled, “That’s
unnecessary!”
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