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Cara Lace
Cara Lace
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Joined: 29 Dec 2011
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re: Cara Part 16: Carastar the Legendary Outlaw Part II

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Carastar the Legendary Outlaw: Part II

Staring…
Carastar
Comanderette America / Maggie Doyle
Iron Beauty / Jenny Styger
Fraulein Uhrmacher

September 24th, 2016
Metropolis


Maggie Doyle, known to the world as Comanderette America, continues through her routine regimen of one-armed pushups while Jenny Styger sits on an exercise matt not far away sipping some absurdly named and overpriced grand-venti-mocha-cinnamon-latte-quad with six shots of espresso in one hand and texting on some fancy device in the other. The multi-billionaire CEO of Styger Industries doesn’t normally see this time of morning unless she has already stayed up all night, but she promised to join Maggie for a fitness training session at her humble abode which she calls Fort America. And Maggie begins at 5am.

“Look, all I’m saying is that in today’s world if you want to survive you gotta change with the times.” Jenny says finishing in a yawn. “You wouldn’t have to train so hard… or so early… with a few tech upgrades.”

“I like getting up early.” Maggie says in perfect breath despite still doing her pushups. “It builds character.”

“I’d rather build armor, I got loads of character.” Jenny quips. “Speaking of which, I’ve already designed a suit for you, including an upgrade to the shield. And don’t worry; I kept your color scheme.”

“Jenny, armor would just slow me down.” Maggie says rising from the floor having finished her set of pushups. “And it’s not just a shield; it’s like an extension of my arm. If you change it in any way…”

“Just admit it Maggs…” Jenny interrupts. “…you’re afraid of new tech; it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe we can find you a Technophobia support group or something. Admitting you have a problem is the first step.”

“Golly Miss Styger, all these modern doohickies are just so ‘gall-darned’ confusing.” Maggie says in her best country bumpkin voice while walking over and snatching Jenny’s fancy PDA from her hand. “How does this thing work? Is it coal powered or… a miracle?”

“Ya know, sarcasm must be a twenty first century invention…” Jenny scowls snatching her PDA back from her friend. “When you do it, it just sounds wrong.”

“I don’t have a problem with technology, Jenny.” Maggie continues as she turns and heads up a nearby stairway towards her bedroom. “But no machine can replace human intuition, or just plain old fashioned guts.”

“Wait a minute…” Jenny replies indignantly following Maggie upstairs. “…you’re saying I don’t have guts?”

The pair step onto the top floor loft of Fort America which serves as Maggie’s sleeping quarters. It is a ‘hodge-podge’ collection of old war relics; including a full size genuine WWII era tank sitting in the middle of the room. Jenny has often wondered how Maggie could have possibly got it up here but has never asked. Along one wall are stacks of various unopened boxes, all of which bear the Styger Industries logo. In the very corner of the room sits Maggie’s bed that is little more than an army barracks cot, and a small antique dresser. At the foot of the bed is an old army foot locker with Colonel John Doyle stenciled across the front. Jenny recognizes it as the one she found in a newly discovered collection of items that belonged to her Grandfather and gave to the young soldier a few years ago.

“I know from experience that you have guts, Jenny. You know I’m not saying that.” Maggie answers as she opens a dresser and pulls out a military looking jogging suit. “But you aren’t ‘just’ a machine either. I don’t want to rely on tech is all, and I don’t need armor.”

“I still say you’re just afraid of anything new.” Jenny says as she plops down on Maggie’s bed with a squeak of the old mattress springs. “Like this for instance. Just look around…” Jenny waves arms in dramatic motion at the stacks of unopened boxes. “…I’ve sent you all of this. You could at least open a few before you reject them. Some of this stuff is useful, and actually pretty cool… I mean, not like in temperature but, well, it’s a just a phrase…”

“I know what ‘cool’ means, Jenny.” Maggie interrupts in a dry tone.

Jenny takes a breath to continue her tirade, but then oddly stops for a moment as her gaze falls upon the foot locker and she sees the shipping seal is still in place on it. Jenny knows this means that Maggie has not opened it either. Maggie turns at Jenny’s uncharacteristic silence and follows her friends gaze…

“Don’t start.” Maggie says bluntly.

“Really?” Jenny says simply. “Is it a just a box thing in general? Do they even have a name for ‘box phobia’?”

“I am not afraid of boxes.” Maggie says firmly.

“Seriously, Maggs…” Jenny says with sudden sincerity. “…that old foot locker could be a time capsule of your Father’s life. What gives?”

“I don’t expect you to understand… I’m not sure I understand it myself.” Maggie explains. “…but if it is a time capsule, then it’s not supposed to be opened until the time is right. I guess I just don’t feel its right, yet.”

“I get it Maggs… sort of.” Jenny says with a grin. “It’s just that you missed so many years in your life, I don’t want you to miss those too.”
Maggie considers Jenny’s words and smiles at her friend. “Wait, was that… sincerity from Jenny Styger?!”

“Nope.” Jenny says quickly.

“I think it was.” Maggie counters.

“Screenshot or it didn’t happen.” Jenny quips. “…which, by the way, you might have had if you weren’t afraid of tech.”

“You know what, Styger?...” Maggie says leaving her statement unfinished as she and Jenny begin to laugh.

Explosions and earthquakes are not uncommon in Metropolis, being the home of so many super powered beings, but they are uncommon in Maggie’s second floor gym. So the sudden appearance of a bright energy ball there causes Maggie and Jenny both to drop to the floor at the sudden shockwave. Being an open loft, Maggie and Jenny see a bright light emanating from the floor below. Waves of force continue to emanate outward from it and the absence of any flames or debris show that whatever it is, it is pure energy.

Jenny fights stubbornly against the shock waves and makes it to her feet. She steps slowly toward the edge of the bedroom loft to peer down on the event happening below. Maggie in turn does an army style belly crawl to the edge.

“Jenny, get down!” Maggie commands as Jenny ignores her and keeps looking.

“It’s an energy field…” Jenny yells over the turbulence. “…some kind of portal…”

Maggie peeks over and sees exactly that, a ball of brilliant white light bristling with energy and expelling it in waves of force. She turns back to tell Jenny to get down again, but sees that Jenny is simply gone.

“Jenny?!” Maggie yells and she gets no answer... “STYGER!! Sound off!!”

Panic begins to set in and Maggie for a moment realizes she has no idea what to do. Then, just as suddenly as it began, the energy portal vanishes and the soldier girl peers down to see a Time Sphere parked in her gym area. It is just like the one Rip Hunter has only more ‘beat up’ looking and the normally transparent dome is darkened and obscures the interior from view. Then there is a voice, but not Jenny Stygers’ voice, that reaches the soldiers ears.

“Comanderette America … how exciting.” An arrogant sounding female voice says with a thick German accent. “I don’t know which gives me more pleasure; killing you again, or the fact that you will never know why.”

“Yea? Is that so?” Maggie says standing to face the intruder. “I don’t know who you are lady…but I don’t die easy. Now tell me what you did with Jenny Styger or so help me….” She stops as this new arrival steps into view and the young soldier is momentarily stunned by sheer disbelief.

Standing on the loft below is a woman in a German officer’s uniform that is tattered and torn in many places. Mud and dirt cover much of her black leather trench coat as if she had crawled from the grave itself. The skin visible through tears in her clothes is a sickly, blood red color and almost rotting away. Under these wounds appear recesses of bronze colored metal with gears and levers all moving as she moves. As she lifts her half metal, half flesh face to stare directly back at Maggie, a chill runs down the young soldiers spine.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me…” The Comanderette begins under her breath, but is cut off by a sudden ‘shimmering’ effect all around her, as if reality itself changes for just a brief instant around her. She watches as her surroundings shift from her normal perception of reality to one of a perverted nightmare. Her personal belongings flicker from view to be replaced by displays of some twisted propaganda. Posters of this new intruder appear on the walls and statues of her visage replace Maggie’s tank for just a second before flickering back to normal.

“Look around you, Comanderette!” The woman says with grim satisfaction. “Time is already reshaping. My victory is assured. Surrender and I shall make it quick and painless.”

Before Maggie can react, a new voice chimes in. “Personally, I have a strict policy against trusting someone who is literally, every single 80’s science fiction movie villain all rolled up into one.” And a new figure steps from the Time Sphere. “I mean seriously, you’re a time traveling undead-alien-cyborg-Nazi!” She is tall and skinny wearing a brown trench coat with matching gloves and boots. An almost ‘whispy’ aura of golden energy dances off of her as she stands swaggering with one hand on her hip. Her face is covered by a mask with two large orange lights for eyes.

“Carastar…” The stranger almost spits. “A last ditch effort to stop me, or perhaps some morbid desire to watch me kill your friend a second time?”

“Ah ahh, spoilers! Hello Comanderette. I’m Carastar, good to see you again… or meet you? One of those…I’m always forgetting.” Carastar answers while drawing dual pistols and firing. Multiple energy blasts strike a barrier surrounding the nightmarish ‘Fraulein’ and harmlessly dissipate. “Fraulein Uhrmacher… not so much, I’m afraid. Sorry.”

“Insolent!” The Fraulein shouts. “Do you not recall? Your weapons are useless!”

“Oi, please! I understand you picked up the German accent to fit in back in 1942, but it really is annoying now! Considering that you aren’t even from the Earth.” Carastar scolds as a pair of energy disks forms beneath her feet and lift her up to the loft. She lands softly next to a confused Comanderette America. “Your mystical, magical force field is very good at stopping energy. Not so much with solid matter apparently. Oh, and by the way, there’s something on your belt.”

Fraulein Uhrmacher looks down at her belt to see the small blinking sticky-bomb that Carastar had deftly attached when she arrived. Before she can react it goes off in a series of small explosions that throw the would-be dictator further and further down the adjacent hallway and blast her into the next room. She crashes into set of various statues and trophies that the Comanderette has collected on her many adventures. They topple and fall on top of her in a heap of dust and debris.

Before Maggie can finish processing all that just happened, Carastar turns to her with a serious look on her youthful face.

“Maggie, listen… Jennifer’s not dead. Well she IS dead, if never having existed is death, but it’s not the end of the world. Well, actually it IS the end of THIS world… but the universe should be safe, mostly… probably. Don’t worry though, I have a plan!”

“What do you mean Jenny’s dead?! And how do you know my name? I don’t know you.” Maggie shouts again.

“You don’t know me now, but you will back then, which from your point of view is the future but it happens in the past. Time travel… you can’t keep it straight in your head.” The woman rambles.

“Who are you?!” Maggie demands. “Make sense this time!”

“Captain Carastar…” The woman says as she touches a button on her mask which causes it to dematerialize and reveals a beautiful, freckled face young woman with short brown hair. “…legendary outlaw… you’ve probably heard of me… yes? No? …The point is, time is unraveling and reality is re-writing itself from an event in the past. That’s why Jennifer Styger disappeared, because in the new time line she doesn’t exist. “

As if to emphasize the point, the world around the two women flickers again into some Orwellian future scene with crowds upon crowds of people worshiping images and statues of the Uhrmacher and her heralds, the Clockwork Angels, and all of them raising their hands as if to fly. The vision remains for several seconds this time before returning once again to Maggie’s loft apartment.

“I know it’s impossible to believe but you have to trust me right now; because this timeline is collapsing and if we don’t stop it then this moment will become ‘fixed’ and the world you just glimpsed will become the new and permanent reality.” Carastar finishes as she stares intensely into Maggie’s eyes.

Maggie considers her options in the face of what she has witnessed in the last few minutes of chaos and comes to the only conclusion possible. “…You said something about a plan?”

“Good girl…” Carastar smiles as she pulls one of her futuristic looking dual pistols from its holster on her back and hands it to the Comanderette. “We have very little time and there’s a lot to tell you. Take this and listen to me very, very carefully…”

Several minutes later…

The smoke from Carastar’s sticky-bomb has just dispersed by the time Fraulein Uhrmacher stirs. Her cybernetic parts finish their self repair and with a single shove she pushes a large statue off her chest. Her sneer is raging as she stands and brushes the dust off her uniform.

“I have had enough of your surreptitious tactics, Carastar!” The Frau yells in defiance as she stomps angrily across the room, back towards adjacent gymnasium. “The Comanderette will die. Give me what I want or I shall tear off your hands and hang them as trophies from my belt!”

To be continued…


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