Waller walked up to the border, her heels crunching on the sand. Her hands were relaxed at her sides, as if she were entering a meeting that she controlled.
"John," she said calmly. "That is an alien ship. We don't know where it's from, who is inside, or if it carries any risks. If there is even a chance it carries unknown pathogens or contaminants, it becomes a global threat. I am here to make sure that does not happen."
She gestured toward the ship without looking at it. "Hand it over to me. We will contain it, study it, and neutralize any danger before it spreads."
John smiled.
Not a friendly one.
"Who are you kidding, Waller?" he said easily. "That's a Kryptonian ship, and I'll be damned if I let you take control of a Kryptonian. Especially after everything your little department has done with what you call them again... Ah! Suicide Squad."
He drifted a few inches higher, lightning flickering lazily along his arms.
"So here's how this goes," he continued. "You pull back your men and stop pretending this is about public safety when it's really about you wanting to control a Kryptonian to keep Superman and us in check. You might even try to replicate the DNA to create super clones. So, no. I won't allow you to enslave another life. Or if you want, you can break the peace treaty and try to take it by force, but that'll start a war with Kahndaq and the Amazons."
He tilted his head slightly. "Trust me. This will end badly for you, your friends, and your bosses. Even that little witch of yours can't save you."
Waller stared at him for a long moment.
Her expression did not change, but her jaw tightened just a fraction.
Then she lifted a hand.
"Stand down," she said flatly.
Orders rippled outward instantly. Jets banked away, drones pulled back, and ground units reversed and retreated from the border line with disciplined efficiency.
Waller met John's eyes one last time.
"We'll meet again, John," she said. "This isn't over."
John smiled wider. "It never is."
She turned and walked back toward her SUV.
'Since Waller brought Enchantress with her, then her heart must be in that SUV or with Waller.' John thought.
What happened next took less than a second.
'Godspeed!' John vanished.
The world froze.
Dust hung in the air. Jet engines stopped mid-roar. Waller's heel was halfway through a step that never finished. The only ones who were able to keep up with his speed were Harley, Maureen and Hippolyta.
'Freeze!' Maureen flicked her fingers as her eyes glowed with a green hue. She used her time freeze to give John an extra edge.
John reappeared beside the SUV, already opening the back door. Inside, secured in a reinforced case, sat a familiar box. Tech-laced steel. Runes layered under circuitry. A biometric scanner glowing faintly on the lid.
John glanced at it and sighed. 'Still using fingerprints? Amateur.'
He blinked.
Now he was standing in front of Waller, gently taking her hand. He pressed her thumb to the scanner.
Green light.
The box unlocked with a soft click.
John blinked again.
Back at the SUV, he opened the case.
Inside was the beating heart of the Enchantress.
"Bingo!" He took it and placed it inside his pocket space. It's a new magic he learned during the time skip. He closed the box, reset the locks and put it back exactly where it had been.
Then he returned to where he was at the start. He looked back and gave his girls a wink.
Time snapped back into place.
...
The jets were already shrinking into the distance when the last of the armored vehicles turned around. The border quieted again.
Harley hovered beside John, squinting after Waller's SUV until it vanished beyond the dunes.
"…Was that a freakin' heart?" she asked.
"Yep! I'll explain it later. Right now, we should check that ship."
They shifted their attention to the ship.
Up close, the vessel looked way too damaged. Deep gouges ran along the hull where the portal had chewed through it. Panels flickered. Energy conduits sparked weakly.
John walked along the side until he found what passed for a door. The frame was warped inward, metal twisted like it had been folded by hand.
"Well," he muttered as he planted his feet, grabbed the edge, and ripped.
Metal screamed as the door tore free in a shower of sparks. John tossed it aside like scrap, and dim blue light spilled out from inside the ship. "There we go..."
The air smelled sterile.
They stepped inside.
The interior looked futuristic. Strange symbols glowed faintly along the walls, pulsing slower and slower, like a dying heartbeat.
A figure shimmered into existence in front of them.
She was tall, humanoid, and made entirely of flickering blue light.
"SYSTEM ERROR!" she said, her voice echoing with static. "IDENTITY: SHIP-MIND Symbio."
John looked up at her. "You look rough."
"SYSTEM FAILURE AT CRITICAL LEVEL," Symbio replied. Her form wavered. "PRIMARY OCCUPANT IN DANGER."
Maureen stepped closer. "Who is inside?"
"KARA ZOR-L. SYMBIOSIS POD MALFUNCTION. LIFE SIGNS DESTABILIZING. ESTIMATED FAILURE IN MINUTES. REQUESTING ASSISTANCE."
Her image flickered violently before scattering into static.
'Kara Zor-L. Powergirl! Nice.' John was already moving. "This way."
He moved further inside. The corridor narrowed, walls scorched and cracked. At the end stood a heavy door sealed shut, warped from internal damage. He grabbed the doors and pulled them apart with a grunt, metal tearing free as alarms finally died completely.
The chamber beyond was wide and circular.
At its center stood the pod.
It was tall and oval, made of translucent crystal and alien alloy, cracked down one side. Cables hung loose. Energy flickered erratically inside.
And inside the pod floated a naked woman with short blond hair.
"Wow! Big booby nude lady," Harley mumbled as she squinted her eyes, focusing on Kara's breasts, then at Hippolyta's and finally back to hers. 'Boobs war.'
John forcefully shattered the pod and caught Kara in his arms. He then took out a blanket from his pocket space and covered her body.
"Is she alive?" Maureen asked.
"Yeah," John said after examining her body with his healing lightning. "She's in a state of coma or... just sleeping, I guess," He turned around and looked at her. "Maureen, take this ship and put it on the northern field and put some security around it. I don't want anyone snooping around it."
"Alright," Maureen nodded.
"Let's go..." They walked out of the ship.
Maureen lifted the ship and flew away, while the rest of them flew back to the main city.
[A few seconds later...]
They landed on the upper balcony of the mansion.
John carried her inside and laid her gently on the guest bed.
Hippolyta looked at her. "I will get clothes," she said, already turning toward the door.
John nodded.
Harley flopped onto a nearby chair. She stared openly at Kara, then at John, then back at Kara. "So," she said. "You wanna tell me why alien Barbie crash-landed in our backyard?"
John pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down, resting his forearms on his knees. "Kraang's portal messed with space time and she seems to have been dragged in."
Harley hummed. "Uh huh. And what are you gonna do with the bobelicious blonde once she wakes up?"
"That depends entirely on her," He replied.
She raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"
"Meaning if she wakes up scared and swinging, I calm her down," he said. "If she wakes up confused, I explain. If she wakes up hostile, I put her somewhere she cannot hurt anyone until she cools off. Simple."
Harley tilted her head, studying him. "And if she wakes up nice?"
John raised an eyebrow. "You're jealous of her, aren't you?"
Hippolyta walked back into the room carrying a neatly folded pajama set.
"Who's jealous?" she asked calmly, eyes flicking from John to Harley and then to the unconscious blonde on the bed.
Harley snapped upright a little too fast. "No one."
John did not even hesitate. "Harley."
Harley whipped around and pointed at him. "Excuse you. I am not jealous. I am observant. There is a difference."
Maureen stepped in behind Hippolyta, having finished setting the security wards around the ship. She took one look at the situation, then at Kara, then at Harley's expression, and smiled faintly.
"Oh," Maureen said. "Harley is jealous of her boobs?"
Harley gasped like she had been personally betrayed by reality. "I am not jealous of her boobs."
She paused, looked at Kara again, then glanced down at her own chest.
"…Okay, maybe a little jealous of the boobs," she admitted. "But mostly I am suspicious. Those are villain boobs. Or at least rival boobs."
Hippolyta walked over and placed the pajama set on the bed beside Kara, then fixed John with a look that could silence battlefields.
"John," she said evenly, "please leave the room."
He blinked. "What?"
"Now."
Harley smirked. "Ooooh, you are in trouble."
"I am not in trouble," John said, standing up anyway. "I am being unfairly removed from a situation I already handled responsibly."
Hippolyta raised one eyebrow.
He sighed. "Fine."
As he walked past them toward the door, he muttered under his breath, "Already seen her naked anyway."
Hippolyta did not look at him. "Out."
The door closed behind him with a very firm click.
Harley immediately grinned at her. "Wow. You Amazons do not mess around. I kinda respect it. Oh, do you think he got a boner after seeing our blond?"
Maureen and Hippolyta simply looked at Harley for a moment before shaking their heads.
---
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