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Hello all. You're probably wondering if you'd see a pic from me this week. Well, I was planning to put this out a couple days ago, but for several reasons (some of them my own, others thrust upon me), I didn't get to it until now. Still, to see an image like this can sure be worth waiting for, right?

This pic was something that came into my head recently, as I began some serious brainstorming for a Justice League Unlimited fanfic idea that I've had in the works for quite some time...namely, the return of the Supergirl Clone, Galatea (aka. the DCAU incarnation of Power Girl). While the argument could be easily made that she was killed by Supergirl in the episode, "Fire in the Sky", my take on it is going to be that she's been in a coma for several months. What you see in this pic is as the title implies...two versions...what she was...and what she will ultimately become. And as you make the comparison, even her expressions are as night and day. What was once bitterness and confusion has now been replaced with confidence and purpose. Such are the changes she'll experience once these stories get written. But like most metamorphoses, her journey to that summit will NOT be an easy one.

My original plan was to have this story be a one-shot, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that one story would be insufficient, as having her do a full-tilt 180 after one story seemed unrealistic. So I decided to split the idea into two stories, instead. The first story, entitled, "Emergence" sees with Galatea coming out of her coma. And when she finally wakes up, she finds herself in a world she no longer has any place in. Faced with the reality of being a living weapon for a war that never came, Galatea's already-fragile self worth shatters completely. And as she begins to run wild, it ultimately falls to Superman to stop her rampage.

The second story is going to be entitled, "Ascension" and will be set several months after "Emergence", with Superman still trying to help Galatea carve out her own identity (as task proving to be quite the challenge, as Galatea's rebellious side continues to rear its head). But things only get more complicated as Supergirl returns from the 31st century to stop an escaped villain from changing a point in history...an incident that Galatea, herself, is personally involved in. The story ultimately ends with Galatea finally mending fences with Supergirl, as well as completing her evolution into Power Girl by deciding what she truly wants from her own existence. But acquiring this new lease on life may cost her more than she EVER thought she would have to pay...

All-in-all, I'm quite pleased with this pic. It turned out exactly the way I envisioned it. And despite being a little behind schedule, I remain no less proud of it. It may be a day or two late, but it CERTAINLY isn't a dollar short. Of course, feel free to tell me what you think. As always, I look forward to any thoughts.

UPDATE: As promised, the first of this pair of stories is up and ready to go Justice League Unlimited: EmergenceAuthor’s Notes: Hello all. Well, what do you know? My third fanfic in just over a year. Slow, perhaps, but sure, nonetheless. Hey, at least it’s been a faster output than the last few years have been.That being said, this still isn’t one of my Danny Phantom or Kim Possible stories, but it IS one of what will be a pair of one-shots that, honestly, I’ve been keeping on the back burner for FAR too long. Recent events have gotten my creative juices flowing and allowed me to, at long last, fill in some lingering blanks that prevented me from getting this tale off the ground. It’s even allowed me to add some things I hadn’t thought of initially, which will hopefully make it an even deeper and more enjoyable read. But I’ll leave that to you. In the meantime, for anyone who hasn’t read one of my earlier DCAU stories, feel free to check out this small, but substantial list…“Resolve”“Point of View”Anyway, as usual, that’s all you should have to hear from me. Time to get on with the show…Justice League UnlimitedEmergenceBy AaronAt night, even to long-time residents of Metropolis, the lights of the downtown area can put on a breathtaking display. However, on that particular night, instead of inspiring gasps of awe, only screams of terror could be heard as ribbons of electricity snaked through the air, causing late-night partygoers to flee in all directions.And in the middle of the panicked mob, cackling with childish glee, was Live Wire, firing off random bolts of raw voltage from her hands and seeming to grow increasingly delighted, the more destruction she was causing. Of course, two people who weren’t amused were Batman and Wonder Woman, who were both taking shelter behind an overturned car.“I know this goes without saying, but when you promised me a taste of the Metropolis night life, this WASN’T what I had in mind!” Wonder Woman shouted at Batman over the explosions roaring around them. “When is Clark due back?!”“Mr. Terrific said that the crisis on Rann is stable, so he’s on his way now!” Batman replied, “He should be planet-side by the afternoon!”“Can’t be soon enough for me!” Wonder Woman remarked. “I swear, this city becomes a zoo whenever he’s off-world! It’s like they can SMELL it when he’s not around!”“You’ve gotta be kidding! THIS is who I’ve got for the Big Blue’s stand-ins? I already know I can take out ol’ Bat-boy! ‘Course, what do you expect from a guy with two lightning rods on his head!” Live Wire gloated as she kept blasting away. “And what, you brought yourself a cheerleader? Cuz I don’t know who calls her an Amazon, but I ain’t seeing nothing A-MAZ-IN about her!”“Uh oh…,” Batman muttered as Wonder Woman’s eyes etched into a steely determined glare.Knowing all-too well how personally Diana took her Amazon heritage, Batman could only accept the fact that there was no way to stop what was coming next. Slowly rising to her feet and pushing the overturned car aside with one hand, Wonder Woman stepped onto the battlefield, much to Live Wire’s anticipation.“You know, after today, they’re gonna have to start calling you ‘Blunder Woman’,” Live Wire continued to taunt as electricity crackled from her hands. “Ol’ Supes never let himself get wound up THIS easy.”“Are you going to talk or are you going to fight?” Wonder Woman challenged sternly.“Eh…your funeral, Babe,” Live Wire replied with a shrug before unleashing a bolt of lightning in Wonder Woman’s direction.Instantly throwing up her bracelets to defend herself, Wonder Woman dug her heels in and braced for the impact. But the force of Live Wire’s attack was still enough to gradually force her back. Seeming to have the advantage, Live Wire poured on the power as Wonder Woman appeared to be struggling. But suddenly, Wonder Woman’s eyes snapped open, pushing back against the relentless assault. And with a yell of a true warrior, she heaved her arms apart, actually tearing the lightning bolt in two and sending the two halves exploding into the street on either side of her.Live Wire’s confident smirk was swallowed up by a gaze of wide-eyed astonishment. And the momentary distraction was an advantage Wonder Woman was more than happy to press as she charged in and dove into a forward roll at Live Wire’s feet. Bracing herself on her hands and shoulders, Wonder Woman’s feet shot up, slamming into Live Wire’s jaw, and sending her flying off the ground. And as Wonder Woman flipped to her feet, she lassoed Live Wire while she was still in mid-air and pulled down hard, sending her body smashing into the pavement.“Uuunnnhh…,” Live Wire murmured in a daze, trying to shake out the cobwebs and noticing that she was caught in Wonder Woman’s lasso. “Hey, what gives? Ain’t you ever heard of the Laws of Physics?”“If you knew anything about how I was born, you wouldn’t ask that question,” Wonder Woman replied confidently as something caught Live Wire’s eye. “Let’s just say it’ll take more than you’ve got to shock me.”“Do tell,” Live Wire responded with a curious smirk, before reaching down and grabbing an underground power main that had been exposed from her crashing into the street.The eruption of raw power was enough to send Wonder Woman flying back into a pile of debris, several feet away. And the blinding flash lit up the entire downtown as if it were day, while simultaneously blacking out the entire city for miles in all directions.… … … …Across town, in the coma ward of Metropolis General Hospital, two armed guards in dark suits stood on either side on one specific room, both stoic and silent. That is, until one of the on-duty nurses walked by, tossing the first guard a flirty wink, to which he could only respond with an interested grin. However, everyone soon had other things to pay attention to as power in the entire building went out, followed by the emergency lights coming on a moment later.“Huh…now there’s something you don’t see every day,” the nurse remarked, curiously.… … … …Laid out on the ground, Wonder Woman could only let out a weak groan as she tried to regain her bearings. Not that Live Wire was about to grant her that opportunity, as she’d escaped Wonder Woman’s lasso by converting her body to energy and was now standing over her with a triumphant grin.“Well, well…can’t shock you, huh?” Live Wire gloated as her fist coursed with electricity. “With the amount of juice I’ve sucked up, I’m bettin’ I can get even your heart racing, Honey?”“Trust me…you’re not her type!” Batman’s voice suddenly called out, causing Live Wire to look over and see him standing just a few feet away, with what appeared to be a black sphere in his hand.“You’ve gotta be kidding. What…you think a grenade scares me? Come on, Bats, I thought you were supposed to be smart!” Live Wire declared, stepping away from Wonder woman, as Batman now had her undivided attention. “Do you need to review the memo? You can’t blow me up! I’m living lightning!”Without a word, Batman simply pitched the sphere in Live Wire’s direction. And Live Wire naturally responded by firing a blast of energy, causing the sphere to explode, before it even hit her. But Live Wire couldn’t have predicted what would happen next. Instead of a concussive blast, a large glob of black fluid burst from the sphere, flowing over Live Wire and enveloping her upper body, pinning her arms across her chest.“What you are, is a one-trick pony,” Batman replied simply.“Hey, what’s the big idea?!” Live Wire protested, as she struggled to free herself. “What is this gunk?!”“It’s a rubberized bonding agent,” Batman explained directly. “I normally use it in Gotham, as a restraint against super criminals who rely on enhanced strength. But it’ll hold you just as well…”“…Diana…if you’d care to do the honors?”Whirling around at Batman’s words, Live Wire could only gasp in shock as she saw Wonder Woman back on her feet again, angrily charging forward and winding up a tightly balled fist, before sending it flying straight at Live Wire’s head. Once again, another explosion of electricity filled the Metropolis skyline, the bolts of lightning being seen for blocks in all directions. But when the light show subsided, all that was left was Live Wire crumpling to her knees with a groan and collapsing at Wonder Woman’s feet, while Batman walked up to also stand over her unconscious form.… … … …It wasn’t long before the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit was on the scene, preparing to haul Live Wire away. But Batman and Wonder Woman remained on hand, just in case anything went wrong.“So…anything else you’d like to do while we’re still in town?” Wonder Woman asked as power slowly began returning to the downtown area. “After all, the night is still young.”“A few hundred megawatts of raw power aren’t stimulating enough for you?” Batman asked straightforwardly.“My idea of stimulation is a lot more fun,” Wonder Woman replied, her voice lowering to a whisper as she leaned over with a sly grin, reaching out and just barely entwining her little finger around Batman’s. “But then…you already KNOW that.”… … … …Back at Metropolis General, the staff was doing their best, in light of the blackout. Suddenly, all the lights came back on, as power came flowing back.“Okay, back to business,” the nurse stated as the two guards prepared to return to their posts, until a brief flash of the ceiling lights caught everyone’s attention.“What was that?” the first guard asked.“Probably just a small power surge, while the backup generators are shutting down,” the nurse answered. “It’s rare, but it’s not unheard of.”Meanwhile, inside the guarded room, a lone figure lay in bed, still and quiet, with the only sounds being the droning of the hospital ventilation and the steady, rhythmic beeps of the heart monitor. But as the power surged, a tiny spark of electricity arced to the bedframe, resulting in only the tiniest of shocks to the patient’s arm, which was leaning against the railing. But no sooner did the jolt occur, than the patient’s heart rate suddenly jumped to three times its normal rate, as the shrill, rapid beeps of the monitor echoed through the room. A few seconds later, with a terrified gasp, the patient’s eyes snapped open.“So…is anyone ever going to tell us who’s so important that she needs two armed guards outside her room, around the clock?” the nurse asked the first guard, who was conversing with her over by the Nurse’s Station. “You know that no one in this room can even MOVE, much less threaten anyone, right? So, what’s the deal?”“I’ll tell you what. When does your shift end?” the first guard asked suggestively. “Because I’m off in the morning. Maybe we could grab some breakfast and…”Just then, the heart monitor at the Nurse’s Station came to life with a series of rapid beeps, getting the nurse’s attention. But seconds later, the anguished screams of a woman could be heard coming from within the room the two guards were supposed to be monitoring.“What the…?” the nurse blurted out, trying to make sense of the intense surge.“Oh, God…,” the first guard whispered in terror before drawing his weapon and dashing down the hall. “Wait there!”“But I…!”“I said, ‘Wait there’!” the first guard shouted, silencing the nurse’s protest.Within moments, the first guard arrived to join his partner, as a series of crashes and thuds sounded off from inside the room. Without a word, the second guard began to motion a three-second countdown with his fingers, until what seemed like an explosion could be heard from behind the door. Not standing on ceremony, the two guards burst into the room, only to be stunned at the sight that greeted them. Even the nurse who’d run up behind them could only gasp in shock.“So…who’s gonna call Waller?” the first guard asked, as the pair exchanged a nervous glance.“I’ll flip you for it,” the second guard replied worriedly.… … … …The darkened room of Amanda Waller’s apartment was pierced with the shrill ring of her phone. Jolted awake, but still half asleep, Waller clumsily pawed at her night table before finally reaching the receiver.“What?” she answered, sleepy but sternly.“Sorry, Ma’am. I know what time it is,” the second guard’s anxious voice could be heard on the other end of the line.Then you know how good this had better be,” Waller replied in annoyance, still not even bothering to sit up.“I hate to disappoint you, Ma’am. But I’m afraid it isn’t good at all…,” the second guard stated as he stood with his partner in the now-empty hospital room, staring at the enormous hole smashed out of the wall.“…In fact…it’s about as bad as gets.”… … … …It was nearly dawn at a hidden Cadmus base in Central City, disguised as an old, abandoned auto body shop. Underground, two Cadmus guards were casually patrolling on a hallway near the entrance on their regular patrol. But suddenly, a commotion of yelling and gunfire could be heard from outside. Acting quickly, the two guards primed their weapons as the heavy steel entrance door was bashed off its hinges, slamming to the floor with a thundering crash. But with a haze of smoke and dust blanketing the entrance way, it was impossible for either of them to make out a target.“Back off, boys,” a woman’s voice called out as the dust began to settle, revealing a pair of glowing red eyes and an unconscious Cadmus guard being clutched by the throat. “I just came for a change of clothes.”“Oh…no, it’s YOU!” one of the guards shouted as they could finally make out the figure coming towards them.But before either of them could react, the figure streaked between them and across the hall with blinding speed. A split-second later, the force wave from her movement sent both guards flying into the opposing walls. One guard was instantly knocked out. But the other was rendered helpless, unable to do anything as the intruder bashed her way into an adjacent room. All he could hear were the sounds of screams and more gunfire as he slowly lost consciousness.… … … …Local police and the press were on the scene, outside Metropolis General, all wanting to know just what had happened the night before. Unfortunately, Cadmus agents had already cordoned off the area and weren’t allowing anyone to investigate the scene. Even Snapper Carr and his cameraman were being led out of the hospital, by the scruff of the neck, by two Cadmus guards.“We’re not going to say it again,” one of the guards announced harshly as they pushed Snapper and his cameraman to the bottom of the hospital steps. “Get behind the line!”“Hey, what gives?!” Snapper shouted as a gaggle of reporters protested from behind the Cadmus barricade, “Haven’t you ever heard of Freedom of the Press?!”“Sorry pal. But the lady from the Daily Planet already got our ‘No comment’,” the second guard replied directly. “And her legs were a lot nicer than yours.”With that, the guards turned away from the crowd and walked back to their post at the hospital’s main entrance. Unbeknownst to anyone, however, Batman and Wonder Woman were on the roof of the hospital, watching over the commotion below.“Maybe they’ll be more willing to answer questions from us,” Wonder Woman suggested.“No point. Those uniforms are telling us all we need to know,” Batman replied as Wonder Woman gently glided them both down through the hole in the wall. “If Cadmus is circling the wagons, it means SOMETHING was going on here they didn’t want anyone to know about.”“But what could they have been up to that would involve a local hospital?” Wonder Woman asked as Batman surveyed the damaged room and the overturned equipment. “And what could they have been keeping in here that could tear through a concrete wall?”“Not ‘what’. Who?” Batman answered as he continued his investigation. “The medical chart had the patient in this room listed as a ‘Jane Doe’. But I’m pretty sure she was anything but,”Clearly, Batman had already figured out something. But before Wonder Woman could inquire what he was talking about, the signal on her Justice League earpiece began to sound.“Yes?” Diana answered. “Agent Faraday.”“Hey Diana. Mr. Terrific told me you and Batman were in Metropolis,” King Faraday replied from the wreckage of Central City’s Cadmus facility. “Are you looking into that hospital business?”“We are. Batman’s here with me now,” Wonder Woman answered, as Batman activated his earpiece to patch into the conversation.“Let me guess,” Batman remarked plainly. “A Cadmus facility was just attacked.”“How could you possibly know that?” Faraday asked, clearly caught off-guard.“Because I’m pretty sure I know who did it,” Batman replied, plucking two strands of blonde hair from the edge of the hole in the wall and displaying them to Wonder Woman. “Belong to anyone we know?”“Hera…,” Wonder Woman gasped, her eyes widening in alarm.… … … …Over in Coast City, a plain, nondescript office was calmly going about its business. Suddenly, a racket could be heard from outside as shouts and gunfire began to sound off. A moment later, two civilian guards came crashing through the front doors, much to the shock of everyone in their cubicles. But that paled to the gasps and murmurs of panic from the office staff as they saw Galatea, Cadmus’ clone of Supergirl, standing in the office doorway.“I’m sorry. Is the Information Desk on this floor?” Galatea announced with her usual smirk and swagger of confidence.“You!” the Office Manager shouted, running to the far end of the room to raise the alarm.Of course, Galatea would have none of that, blasting a stream of heat vision to blow up the alarm terminal, right as the Office Manager reached it. A second later, Galatea was across the room like a blink, grabbing the Manager by the collar of his shirt and lifting him over her head with one hand, her eyes meeting his with a stern glare.“Do you have ANY idea how tired I am of people calling me that?”… … … …Back in Central City, Faraday was still touring the scene of Galatea’s first attack, alongside Amanda Waller. While they were trying to assess just how much damage had been done, Waller’s cell phone suddenly began to chime. Taking a moment to look at the caller ID, Waller could only wince in discomfort as she muted the phone.“Is that who I think it was?” Faraday asked.Waller simply stared off and gave no answer, causing Faraday to chuckle nervously.“You will live dangerously,” he commented.“This is a dangerous situation. Besides, no reason even starting that conversation until there’s something to actually say,” Waller replied before she and Faraday walked over to one of the guards. “How goes the day, soldier?”“As well as can be expected, Ma’am,” the guard replied, wincing as he nursed his injured ribs.“Casualties?” Waller inquired.“Just anyone who tried to fight back,” the guard answered. “Funny thing…near as we can tell, they’re all just minor injuries. Broken bones, lacerations, a few mild burns, but…no fatalities. Offhand, I’d say we got lucky.”“Luck had nothing to do with it, son,” Waller stated grimly, looking the guard straight in the eye. “If she’d wanted ANY of you dead, trust me…you’d be DEAD.”“Then what DOES she want?” Batman’s voice sounded behind her as Waller and Faraday turned to see him and Wonder Woman walking into the room.“Galatea has been in a coma, ever since that incident with Supergirl on the Watchtower,” Waller explained. “After she was taken out of action, a handful of Ultimen that were still functioning managed to locate her and get her off the station before anyone knew what was happening. It was part of a secondary layer of programming we installed, in case her connection to them was severed, to assume that she was in distress and have her extracted.”“Leave it to you to never throw away a good weapon,” Batman commented.“You would have just left her to die?” Waller asked cynically.“I wouldn’t have tried to sweep her under the rug,” Batman argued. “If you’d told us what was going on from the start, we WOULD’VE been better prepared.”“Any plans we had for Galatea couldn’t involve the Justice League,” Waller replied. “At least, not initially. And the longer she was under, the slower we knew the transition process would have to be when she came out of it. But with our resources so depleted, there was no place we could adequately secure her, or see to her care. And at the same time, we couldn’t risk her condition becoming public knowledge. It’s why we’ve been transferring her to a different hospital every few months. The last thing we needed was the whole world knowing that there was free Kryptonian DNA out there, ripe for the taking.”“Sure,” Wonder Woman remarked. “Hera forbid anyone should start growing their own super-powered killing machines. That is, anyone but YOU.”“Excuse me,” one of Faraday’s agents announced, breaking up a heated stare-down between Diana and Waller, and preventing any old wounds from reopening too far. “They have the security footage cued up.”“I’m still not getting a read on this, though,” Wonder Woman mused as she walked into the security room with Batman, Waller, and Faraday. “Galatea was created BY Cadmus, right? So why would she attack them?”“She didn’t,” Batman answered as the footage began to play back, revealing that the guards outside the facility had fired on Galatea first. “They attacked HER.”“The guards are under strict orders to fend off any unauthorized access. And they obey their orders,” Waller explained. “Say what you will, they’re very well-trained.”“Just not to deal with THIS,” Batman observed dismissively. “So, she wakes up after more than a year. She’s panicked, she’s disoriented, she doesn’t know where she is…”“Which means, her first instinct would be to get her bearings and retreat to safe ground,” Wonder Woman continued, as Waller’s attention was diverted by a signal on her phone.“Only to show up here and find out that it’s not so safe anymore,” Faraday concluded, while the footage continued to run of Galatea tearing through the Cadmus guards.“If she was scared and confused before, she must be going absolutely out of her mind now,” Wonder Woman noted.“Meaning her next objective will be information,” Batman deduced. “She’ll want to find out what’s going on.”“She just did,” Waller interrupted, getting the others’ attention. “A silent alarm has been activated from our Data Office in Coast City. Guess who showed up.”… … … …“We barely knew what hit us,” the Office Manager recalled, his voice still shaky as he nursed the back of his neck with an ice pack. “Security was down and out before anyone could even think to raise an alarm. Everyone else was just…too scared to try anything.”Waller was standing off to the side as Batman, Wonder Woman and Faraday were getting the Office Manager’s statement. But suddenly, a familiar ring tone caught her attention. Sighing in resignation, Waller found her way to an empty office and answered the call.“Yes, Sir,” she responded.“Ignoring a call from the White House is never a good idea, Amanda,” an all-too familiar voice announced sternly from the other end.“My sincerest apologies, Mister President,” Amanda explained. “But at the time, I didn’t know anything more than you did. The most I would have been able to offer you was empty platitudes, and we both know it. I wasn’t about to give you any assurances until I was certain we had the situation under control.”“Tell that to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He’s having Aspirin shipped to him in CRATES. Stands to reason the Secretary of State and my Press Secretary are going to be making the same order by the end of the day. A ROGUE KRYPTONIAN?” the President argued. “I’m tired of cleaning up after you, Amanda. And so is half of the West Wing. This whole Cadmus thing was bungled from Day One. That mess with Luthor and Brainiac, then Eiling…and those are just the most RECENT incidents. You wouldn’t BELIEVE the calls I get from the World Assembly every time another skeleton comes crawling out of your closet. Not to mention how many dozen news cycles where we’re getting crucified in the press.”“With all due respect, Mister President, there’s more than enough blame for Cadmus’ failings to go around,” Waller pointed out. “Eiling was NEVER my first choice for a Military Liaison. I made it perfectly clear, again and again, that I didn’t want a war hawk in the room, who had to be constantly kept in check, because he was focusing on his own agenda. It’s why I ordered Hardcastle phased out after we absorbed ‘Project: Achilles’. But for all the repeated assurances that I got from The Pentagon, who did they stick me with?”“My point, Amanda, is that we don’t need the whole world waking up in the middle of the night again because of another Cadmus fiasco,” The President shot back. “Rein her in or put her down, whatever it takes. But GET-YOUR-HOUSE-IN-ORDER.”“I understand. Thank you, Mister President,” Amanda conceded before hanging up the phone and unhappily joining the others.“Everything okay?” Faraday asked.“Just a reminder that I need to get my blood pressure medication refilled,” Amanda replied dryly. “Where are we here?”“Batman wants to see if he can narrow down what she might have been looking for,” Faraday answered, motioning over to Batman and Wonder Woman who were both looking more than a little impatient. “But naturally, there are some issues with allowing him access.”“Right. Give me a minute,” Waller responded, before walking over to the Office Manager and guiding him over to a secluded corner of the room. “What…did…she…get?”“I don’t know,” the Office Manager whispered back in frustration. “I tried to look in on what she was accessing, but she was reading dozens of files in literally, SECONDS. There was no way to keep up.”“What about the keystroke loggers we installed six months ago?” Waller asked.“We’re sorting it out now. But that’s still a lot of data to crunch for a room full of mere mortals,” the Manager replied, seating at a nearby terminal and scrolling through all the information on the screen. “Even with everyone in the office working around the clock, I’m not sure we could get through it all in less than a day. She did it in TEN MINUTES. And it still doesn’t guarantee that we can figure out what she’s going to do next.”“Hold on,” Waller interrupted, as something in the data entries caught her eye by chance. “There…scroll up for a second,”“Why? Did you see something?” the manager asked, as Waller’s eyes widened in dread.… … … …“The problem is, we’re not only racing against someone who’s faster than a speeding bullet, but who’s had half a day’s head start on us, besides,” Batman remarked, conversing with Wonder Woman and Faraday.“Then maybe we should divide and conquer,” Waller suggested, walking up to the others and handing a flash drive to Batman. “It’s a temporary password, which will allow you to view all the information Galatea accessed. Maybe you can narrow down what she was looking for.”“And what are YOU planning to do?” Faraday asked.“I’m going to coordinate with our other facilities, find out if she’s hit any of them. Who knows? We might even figure out a way to track her,” Waller answered as she walked out of the office, leaving Wonder Woman to say what Batman and Faraday were already thinking.“Okay, no one here ACTUALLY believes she just granted us access to their systems.”“A stall tactic? What would be the point of keeping us out of the loop?” Faraday wondered. “Unless she already suspects something.”“I know one way we can find out,” Batman responded as he tapped his earpiece. “Did you get all that?”Meanwhile, Waller was making her way down the back stairs of the building. Waiting until she was a few floors down, she pulled out her phone and quickly dialed a number.“It’s me. Listen, there isn’t much time. She’s awake. And she knows what’s happened,” Waller stated. “What’s more, your name come up in the list of searches she ran when she raided one of our Data Offices. I think she’s coming for you, and I don’t know what she’s going to do when she gets there.”“Now calm down. As near as I can tell, she wasn’t able to ascertain your exact location, which still gives us a small window to get out in front of this,” Waller continued as her call reached out to a secluded cabin in a clearing, with dense forest on all sides. “Our nearest facility is 20 minutes away. I’m sending a team to extract you. Get packed and be ready to leave the second they arrive.”Shuddering in fear as Waller hung up the phone, Emil Hamilton’s entire body broke out into a clammy sweat. He was so lost in panic that as he ran into the bedroom to grab his belongings, he barely knew what he was throwing into his bag, let alone whether it would actually fit. In fact, it was something of a minor miracle that he actually remembered the one thing he absolutely knew he couldn’t leave without. Hurrying back out to the living room, Hamilton opened a medium-sized panel in the wall beside the fireplace, revealing that not only was the log cabin a façade, reinforced with heavy steel doors, but there was also a digital safe concealed inside.However, before Hamilton could enter the combination into the keypad, a thunderous blow bashed in from outside, causing the thick metal walls to buckle. A second impact followed, then a third, causing Hamilton to trip backward in fear, and even dislodging the safe from the wall, causing it to fall on the floor. Scrambling to the safe, Hamilton desperately tried to steady his trembling fingers and input the combination, but suddenly, the damaged steel began to be sheared open, as if being pulled apart from the outside. Lost in his terror and unable to think, as sunlight flooded the darkened room, Hamilton could only huddle on the floor, curled in a ball, in a desperate, futile bid to protect himself. But as a shadow loomed towards him, Hamilton suddenly heard nothing but silence, eventually prompting him to open his eyes and look up at his would-be attacker.“You?!” he exclaimed in surprise, as he saw the chiseled form of Superman standing inside the hole he’d torn into the wall.“I get the sense you were expecting someone else,” Superman commented, his arms crossed sternly. “I’m back on earth not five minutes and THIS is what I find out has been going on.”“H…how did you find me?” Hamilton asked, trying desperately to keep his voice from trembling as he rose to his feet.“You say that as if we ever lost you in the first place. We’ve known where you’ve been hiding for months. We figured out where Cadmus Headquarters was. You didn’t think we’d figure out where YOU scurried off to?” Superman explained. “Batman suspected that Waller knew more than she was telling…not that she tried to cover her tracks very well. So, he asked me to keep tabs on her. And just who turned out to be the first person I heard her call, telling you that one of your chickens was coming home to roost?”“So…you’ve come to kill me now, is that it?” Hamilton remarked, his voice laced with contempt. “Just so she doesn’t have the satisfaction?”“You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?” Superman replied in disappointment, walking over to pick up a glass by the fireplace Hamilton had been drinking from, while Hamilton’s eyes darted back and forth toward the safe on the floor. “I’ll tell you what I’d LIKE to do. I’d like to run a DNA test on this to see if you really are who you SAY you are. The Emil Hamilton I knew was a rational man.”“Thrust into irrational times, Superman,” Hamilton argued. “Who do I have to thank for that?”“Oh, so we’re going back to this again, are we?” Superman responded, rolling his eyes in frustration. “It’s all my fault. It’s always everyone else’s fault. You’re the ONLY one who NEVER did anything wrong.”“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?” Hamilton shot back.“I can bear the weight of MY sins, at the end of the day. Can YOU say the same?” Superman argued. “You want to blame me because I made you save Supergirl’s life. But seriously, how would YOU have reacted in the same situation? You were the first person I ever REALLY let in, Emil. To the Fortress, to my lineage, everything. And don’t act like you got nothing out of it. All that Kryptonian technology you got to play with? You single-handedly put S.T.A.R. Labs on the map with that alone.”“Are you going somewhere with this?” Hamilton responded coldly.“My point is, you were my friend and my ally for years, or so I thought,” Superman lamented bitterly, “until you were actually willing to stand there and let Supergirl die.”“You were asking me…to aid…a fugitive,” Hamilton grumbled through gritted teeth.“A fugitive from WHAT, Emil?! The only thing she was guilty of was showing up to HELP!” Superman exclaimed before gazing into the fireplace with a pained sigh. “If you only knew HALF of what she’s had to endure…You know, in a twisted way, I was lucky. I never knew my birth parents or my home planet before they were destroyed. I never had to know what that felt like. But Kara? She had to watch her whole world slowly die. She had to wake up one day to find out that all her family and friends were gone. Did it break her? No. Instead, she comes here, she tries to be a good person, she shows nothing but kindness to anyone, trying her best to help them…”“…And all anyone wanted to do was PUNISH her for it. And why?” Superman went on, as Hamilton seemed to be growing more unhinged with every word. “I could understand it if it was directed at me. I know I’ve made mistakes…mistakes that have cost a lot. But what did SHE ever do to you? Why did SHE have to violated? Why did anyone think SHE deserved to die?! For crying out loud, she was a CHILD…!”“SHE WAS A MENACE! JUST LIKE YOU…JUST LIKE ALL THE REST OF YOUR…!!!” Hamilton bellowed in a frenzy, just managing to catch himself from finishing his tirade.“‘Just like the rest of our’…WHAT, Emil?” Superman asked with a stunned expression. “Our SPECIES…? Are you talking about KRYPTONIANS?”Hamilton could only look away angrily, either unable or unwilling to answer. Superman, meanwhile, could only stand in silence as the full, horrifying picture came into view, before finally letting out an exasperated sigh.“That’s what you really meant, wasn’t it? That night at Cadmus…when you said, ‘your kind’,” Superman deduced, his voice slightly shuddering in disbelief. “You were never talking about the Justice League. It was only US you wanted gone. And all because I got angry at you one time?”“You think THAT’S what started this? Even when you try to be humble and talk like one of us, your ego astounds me,” Hamilton responded with a hollow chuckle. “You said I was the first person you really let in. But did you forget that the primary reason you did that was so I could help you correct another mistake you’d made?”“Mala…,” Superman uttered.“It was she who first opened my eyes to the threat your people truly posed…quite painfully, I might add,” Hamilton explained. “And when she freed Jax-Ur…it took the TWO of them less than a day to bring this world to its knees, Superman. LESS-THAN-A-DAY.”“I was there,” Superman replied sternly.“Thanks to who?” Hamilton countered. “I wanted so much to believe that you were different…that you could be our ultimate protector, not just against the likes of them, but against all manner of threats we couldn’t even fathom. And for a time, it really did seem like you were. It took less than two years for me to realize what a fool I’d been.”“That’s why you cloned her…isn’t it?” Superman uttered as the light dawned in his head. “It took me a minute to figure it out…why you would go to all that trouble if you were REALLY so scared. It certainly couldn’t have been just to neutralize US. I can think of at least half a dozen ways off the top of my head that would have been far more effective. Far easier, too. No…you did it because you wanted someone like me around that you thought would be more reliable…or more malleable.”“Hardcastle may have had his prejudices and his discriminations. But he was right about one thing.” Hamilton replied. “In the end, we needed someone we could CONTROL. It was the only one we could ever really trust to defend us.”“Just when I think you can’t POSSIBLY sound more pathetic!” Superman remarked in disbelief. “Is that all she ever WAS to you? Just a SHIELD for you to COWER behind?”“Who are YOU to make that judgement?! Like you could ever know what it’s like to feel helpless!” Hamilton ranted. “You, who walks on the clouds, lording your pseudo-godhood over the rest of us! What could you POSSIBLY know about what it means to be truly HUMAN…!?”“I KNOW SHE CALLED YOU ‘DADDY’!!!” Superman yelled in Hamilton’s face.At that moment, Hamilton’s eyes went wide in alarm. He’d played this argument in his head dozens of times, in preparation if it ever came up. He was certain he had a perfect counter for any possible debate Superman could rally against him. Yet, as soon as those words echoed in his ears, he found himself rendered utterly silent, unable to speak a word as Superman shook his head with a sigh of frustration.“My father…my HUMAN father…he never ONCE relied on MY protection for ANYTHING. He knew it was HIS responsibility to protect ME,” Superman stated, looming over Hamilton with a sneer of utter disdain. “And you know why? Because he’s TEN TIMES the man you could ever hope to be.”“What…are YOU doing here?” an instantly familiar voice sounded off menacingly, causing Superman and Hamilton to whirl around in surprise to see Galatea standing inside the hole Superman had torn into the cabin wall, glaring in anger.“Look, I…” Superman was about to explain, until Galatea burst into the room at top speed, smashing her fist against his cheek and sending him flying through the bedroom wall.Hamilton was sent sprawling to the floor from the sheer force of Galatea’s blow. Shuddering in panic at once again seeing Kryptonian power firsthand, he found himself unable to move as Galatea’s furious eyes turned towards him. At that moment, Hamilton’s mind immediately transported him back to the night he was assaulted by Mala, seeing her reach down at him, much the same way Galatea was reaching down to him at that moment. And he could only whimper in fear as he put up his arms in a futile effort to protect himself.“That’s enough,” Superman interrupted, zipping out of the bedroom and firmly grabbing Galatea’s wrist.With an incensed scowl, Galatea lashed out again with her free hand, only to be caught completely by surprise as Superman sidestepped her punch, grabbed her arm, and tossed her over his shoulder. So powerful was Superman’s throw that Galatea was sent hurtling through the reinforced steel wall of the cabin like a cannonball through paper. In fact, she had to dig her feet and fingers into the ground just to finally halt her momentum.“Huh,” Galatea remarked, seemingly in amusement, as Superman walked up to the newly ripped hole in the cabin. “Now, am I crazy? Or did the big, dumb beat-stick actually do something that DIDN’T involve punching things really hard?”“Batman thought I should expand my comfort zone a little bit,” Superman replied with a shrug.Looking unimpressed with a hollow chuckle, Galatea floated off the ground and once again blasted towards Superman at full speed. But when Superman grabbed her arm a second time, Galatea curled her legs up, redirecting his throw and slamming her feet into the cabin floor in front of him.“Not bad…for a BEGINNER,” she commented with a smirk, before reversing Superman’s shoulder throw and sending him crashing through the cabin ceiling. “Too bad for you, I’m a PROFESSIONAL!”With that, Galatea rocketed into the sky, after Superman’s floundering body. Before Superman could straighten himself out, Galatea slammed another high-speed punch across his face. And while Superman uncomfortably nursed his battered jaw, it gave Galatea yet another opening as she streaked back down, planting her feet hard into the back of Superman’s neck and driving him into the ground right beside the cabin.While Galatea and Superman were outside, though, Hamilton seized his opportunity. Clambering to the wall safe on the floor, he frantically rattled on the buttons to punch in the combination. And as the safe unlocked, he flung open the door, grabbing what appeared to be a pistol emitting an eerie green glow. Desperately clutching his weapon, Hamilton raced out the cabin door and ran as fast as he could, desperate hoping to make it to the treeline.However, Hamilton’s getaway didn’t go unnoticed, as Galatea was able to see him running off, courtesy of her X-Ray vision. With Superman apparently dealt with, she began to float off in Hamilton’s direction.“Wait,” Superman’s voice stopped her in her tracks as he stepped out of the cloud of dust kicked up from where his body had landed. “You don’t have to do this. Trust me…he’s not worth it.”“‘Not worth it’? Are you crazy? He’s worth EVERYTHING!” Galatea argued. “What makes you think I wouldn’t do ANYTHING for him?!”“Wait a minute,” Superman uttered in confusion. “Are you saying you didn’t come here to…?”“What I’m SAYING, I’m only going to say ONCE!” Galatea replied harshly, glaring at Superman with glowing red eyes. “Stay…away…from MY…FATHER!”Before Superman could react, Galatea fired a blast of her heat vision, rupturing the propane tank right behind him. A split-second later, Superman’s entire body was engulfed in a searing explosion of flame.Hamilton, meanwhile, had just reached the edge of the clearing, as the roar of the propane explosion echoed in his ears and the wave of heat from the flames passed through his body. Whirling around in response, Hamilton could only look on in shock as he saw the entire cabin blanketed in flames, which was frightening enough. But all that paled in comparison to the horror Hamilton felt as he saw the silhouette of Galatea slowly walking through the fire, her eyes still glowing red from her heat vision. Letting out a ragged gasp of terror, Hamilton turned on his heels and bolted headlong into the woods.Blinded by his own panic, Hamilton had lost all sense of rational thinking as he charged through the heavy foliage, the twigs and branches of the trees and bushes whipping and scraping at his face and arms. After what felt like an eternity, he finally burst from the treeline. But he barely made it more than a few yards before he found his escape blocked by a sheer cliff, revealing nothing but more forest and a small river, a hundred feet below.“No!” Hamilton exclaimed, frantically searching for any kind of way down. But he barely had more than a few seconds before Galatea landed just a few feet behind him.“Wait!” she called out, causing Hamilton to lose all semblance of reason as he whirled around, drawing his glowing pistol.“Don’t come any closer!” he warned, his voice trembling uncontrollably.“What, are you kidding?” Galatea responded with a shrug and a bewildered chuckle.“I mean it!” Hamilton shouted. “All of you just stay away from me!”“Okay, I don’t know what’s going on, but we don’t have time for this,” Galatea replied, still puzzled by Hamilton’s behavior as she slowly stepped forward. “That explosion isn’t going to keep him preoccupied for very long. We’ve got to get out of here…”“I SAID STAY BACK!” Hamilton snapped as he fired a Kryptonite beam from his weapon, causing Galatea to scream in agony and drop to one knee as the beam grazed her arm.“W…why…?” Galatea uttered, her voice a mixture of pain and confusion.“Don’t you come near me!” Hamilton shuddered as he kept the gun trained on her, his terror drowning out any sound judgment he may have had left. “I swear, by the name of all that’s Holy, if I have to…!”“…Daddy…?” Galatea whimpered sadly.The sight of the tears rolling down Galatea’s cheeks, or her trembling lips, did nothing to bring Hamilton back to his senses. He’d become a complete slave to his fear at that point, seeing only the potential danger instead of the rescue she truly offered. And all Galatea could see as Superman landed behind her, still smoldering from the explosion, was the last possible connection she had to a real life fading before her eyes.“Galatea? Are you okay?” Superman asked softly as her face warped into a fierce scowl, her helpless sorrow slowly giving way to white hot fury.“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!” Galatea cried out in despair, whirling around with another crushing blow across Superman’s jaw, sending him bouncing along the ground before he managed to flip to his feet and skid to a stop.“The only reason they even CREATED me was because of YOU!” Galatea ranted on, tearing a massive tree out by the roots, and swinging it like a club.Despite its enormous girth, the trunk of the tree effortlessly shattered against Superman’s frame, holding up only one arm to protect himself. But that wouldn’t stop Galatea as she chose to use what was left as a battering ram, bursting towards him at top speed. Crossing his arms and bracing for the impact, the remains of the trunk were reduced to a shower of splinters as Superman’s body tore through it. But it turned out to be just a distraction as Galatea burst through the haze of wooden shards, flashing a kick to his jaw that Superman was just barely able to roll with, landing on his back, just before the treeline.“All they wanted was a weapon for their precious war!” Galatea shouted, her eyes blazing red, as Superman rose to his feet. “A war that never even HAPPENED, thanks to you! So, what am I HERE for now?!”Superman already knew what was coming next. Performing a rapid scan with his X-Ray vision, he plunged his hands into the ground, tearing an enormous boulder out of the earth and shielding himself as Galatea’s heat vision slammed into it.“WHY COULDN’T YOU ALL JUST DIE!!!” Galatea screamed in rage.“You accessed the Cadmus files! You know what happened!” Superman called out, bracing against Galatea’s stream of heat vision as it bored into the immense sphere of rock. “It’s not that simple! It never was!”“IT WAS ALL I HAD!!!” Galatea shrieked, blasting forward while still firing her heat vision and reducing what was left of the boulder to pebbles with a single punch, knocking Superman backward.“Galatea, stop this!” Superman shouted, covering up as Galatea rained blows upon him. “I don’t want to hurt you!”“What makes you even think you CAN?!” Galatea mocked with a half-crazed smile, pressing her advantage.Just then, Superman reached up with blinding speed and caught Galatea’s fist with as much effort as catching a tennis ball. Before Galatea even knew what was happening, Superman brought her to her knees with a single firm shove. And as he stood over her, looking into her eyes with a determined glare, he reached back with his free hand, curling into a tightly balled fist, and sent it streaking at her head, faster than she could blink.Superman’s punch stopped just millimeters from Galatea’s eyes, but the sheer force of the blow blew past her, carving a huge crater into the ground behind her. Galatea, meanwhile, could only stay on her knees in wide-eyed disbelief.“Because if I’d REALLY wanted to,” Superman answered sternly, as Galatea hung her head at the stark reality, “this fight would have been over 10 seconds before it STARTED.”“Why not? Why not just finish me off?” Galatea uttered, having been drained of all hope. “Why didn’t they even save me in the first place? What difference would it make? I don’t have anything now. But I never did, did I? All this time, I wanted to believe that I could have SOME kind of a life. But I was just kidding myself. It wasn’t real. None of it was.”“Seriously, what’s the point in even keeping me around?” Galatea carried on, shutting her eyes angrily as her voice got louder. “Who would even miss me? The whole reason I even exist is gone; don’t you get it? So, somebody tell me, what’s the point?! Why am I even HERE anymore?!”“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO BE NOW?! SOMEBODY TELL ME! PLEASE!!!”Just then, Galatea was broken out of her rant, as she suddenly felt Superman’s hand on her head. Her eyes opening in surprise, she noticed that he was actually kneeling on the ground in front of her.“You know what I think you are?” Superman replied. “I think you’re someone who didn’t ask for any of this…and who deserved a lot better than what she got.”Such a deceptively simple act of compassion…the most harmless touch…a handful of kind words. And yet, at that moment, Galatea found herself completely overwhelmed as the tears began streaming down her face once again. Her hands trembling as she reached up to clutch Superman’s cape, she pulled herself closer and completely broke down, bawling uncontrollably. Superman, meanwhile, could only put his arms around her gently, hoping to provide some measure of comfort, no matter how fleeting.“It’s not fair…” she sobbed, burying her face Superman’s shoulder.“I know,” Superman sighed solemnly.With the danger passed, Hamilton, who had been paralyzed with fear throughout the entire fight, found himself gradually restored to some measure of sanity. It was only then that Galatea’s anguish finally managed to reach him as he reached out towards her. But just then, he noticed the sensation of the Kryptonite pistol, still tightly clutched in his other hand. Even at that moment, he was still so afraid that he couldn’t bring himself to drop it. And it was at that moment that Superman’s final words to him hit home, as Hamilton could only drop his hands to his sides and hang his head in shame. Superman, meanwhile, simply glanced over at him and shook his head in disappointment.Just then, Batman and Wonder Woman arrived on the scene, landing just a few yards away. Acting instinctively, Wonder Woman was prepared to go charging in, but was stopped when she felt Batman grab her wrist. Turning back towards him, Diana couldn’t help but notice an all-too familiar green glow, coming from an open compartment on Batman’s utility belt. Batman, meanwhile, took his time, surveying the scene, intently. But a moment later, with a simple flick of his thumb, he snapped the compartment closed and glanced over in Wonder Woman’s direction, which told her all she needed to know.“Agent Faraday? Contact Waller. Tell her…the situation’s under control,” Wonder Woman reported somberly through her earpiece as she took Batman’s hand and held it tightly, both quietly watching the moment play out.… … … …“Whoa…,” Galatea remarked, as she looked around, her wide-eyed glance admitting that even she had to be impressed by the sheer majesty of the Fortress of Solitude, when viewed up close for the first time. “So…what am I doing here, again?”“You said you didn’t know who you were any more. Seems to me this is as good a place as any where you can start figuring that out,” Superman replied. “I know it’s helped me out a few times.”“Right,” Galatea responded with a cynical look. “Inside a massive ice fortress that just happens to be located, LITERALLY, in the middle of nowhere. A little hard to not read into that, don’t you think?”“You’re hardly a prisoner, Galatea. You can leave anytime you want. I won’t try to stop you,” Superman stated plainly. “I just thought that having some insight on where you ACTUALLY came from might offer a little perspective.”“Huh…” Galatea mused thoughtfully, glancing upward at the towering statues of Jor-El and Lara holding up the planet Krypton, until she noticed something else at its base. “Well, I doubt I’m going to get much insight out of THIS. I mean, come on. These aren’t exactly Kryptonian, are they?”“No…no they’re not. But I’d ask that you be careful with them, all the same. They’re probably the most valuable things I keep in here,” Superman noted. “Well…that and this…”With that, Superman pulled a small object from behind his back and placed it in Galatea’s hands. Galatea, meanwhile, could only respond with a pair of blinks before looking back up at Superman with an expression of total bewilderment.“Ma said I never went anywhere without it for the first two years,” Superman explained. “Apparently, it was the only thing I brought from Krypton except the ship that carried me. I guess it always gave me comfort when I needed it.”“You CAN’T be serious,” Galatea remarked in disbelief, to which Superman could only offer an earnest shrug.“Every little bit helps,” he replied simply.It was then that they both turned to see Batman and Wonder Woman standing just outside the entrance to the hall. Galatea wasn’t sure what to think at first. But Superman merely placed his hand on her shoulder and offered her an encouraging grin before flying over to them, leaving her alone in the room.“Checking up on me, already?” Superman inquired, looking squarely in Batman’s direction. “That’s got to be a record, even for you.”“Just wondering if bringing her here, right out of the gate, was the best call,” Batman answered. “You have to admit, this IS a little close to home for you. You’re not worried that it’s leaving you just the slightest bit vulnerable?”“Was that a question that ever crossed YOUR mind, anytime you took in another wounded bird?” Superman responded, drawing a stern glance from Batman before he abruptly turned to leave.“Suit yourself,” Batman replied as he walked off. “Just keep an eye on her, is all I’m saying.” “That was a little below the belt, don’t you think?” Wonder Woman noted under her breath. “Sometimes, I find it's the only way to capture his focus,” Superman pointed out, before tossing her an amused smirk. “You might want to remember that if he ever starts getting inattentive.” “Don't you start,” Wonder Woman jokingly warned, lightly slapping Superman across the arm before glancing back over at Galatea, with a hint of worry. “He's not wrong to be concerned, you know. What, exactly, IS going to happen with her now?” “That's going to be up to her,” Superman answered. “Her entire existence was LITERALLY built around making her into what OTHER people wanted her to be. But that’s all gone now, which means she's finally got a chance to start making HER OWN choices.” “And if she makes the WRONG ones?” Wonder Woman asked with a slightly grim tone, drawing Superman to meet her gaze for the briefest of moments before he turned back in Galatea's direction. “That's what WE'RE here for,” he replied simply.Meanwhile, Galatea remained rooted to the spot, at the foot of Jor-El and Lara’s statues, oddly transfixed by the display at their base. To anyone entering in the room for the first time, they’d be so easily fooled into thinking that the statues were intended as a monument to the long-dead glory of the planet Krypton. But if they’d even bothered to look more closely, they’d realize that the statues were meant to enshrine something else entirely…specifically, a collection of framed photos, all placed with care and reverence.Each image represented a different milestone in Clark Kent’s life. The first time he rode a tractor…his first day at school…a family photo from when he was 12 years old…another family photo at his high school graduation…his prom photo with Lana Lang…even a photo of him and Lois Lane at the Daily Planet. And there were others.Gazing over each photo intently, Galatea found herself oddly moved as she looked down at the object Superman had placed in her hands…a small, red baby blanket…and found herself holding it tighter, in spite of herself. It was then that the smell of the blanket filled her nostrils. Just the average scent of an everyday laundry detergent that could be purchased anywhere. Yet, at that moment, it represented something so much deeper…a tangible symbol of a life well-lived…of home and family.Again…something so ridiculously simple. And yet, for Galatea, it couldn’t possibly have held more meaning. Perhaps feeling for the first time, a true spark of hope, she shut her eyes tightly and held the blanket even tighter, burying her face into the fabric, as if desperately clinging to the potential promise of a life that might yet still be hers to have.The End. So by all means, feel free to enjoy it at your leisure. ^_^

Description
Hello all. You're probably wondering if you'd see a pic from me this week. Well, I was planning to put this out a couple days ago, but for several reasons (some of them my own, others thrust upon me), I didn't get to it until now. Still, to see an image like this can sure be worth waiting for, right?

This pic was something that came into my head recently, as I began some serious brainstorming for a Justice League Unlimited fanfic idea that I've had in the works for quite some time...namely, the return of the Supergirl Clone, Galatea (aka. the DCAU incarnation of Power Girl). While the argument could be easily made that she was killed by Supergirl in the episode, "Fire in the Sky", my take on it is going to be that she's been in a coma for several months. What you see in this pic is as the title implies...two versions...what she was...and what she will ultimately become. And as you make the comparison, even her expressions are as night and day. What was once bitterness and confusion has now been replaced with confidence and purpose. Such are the changes she'll experience once these stories get written. But like most metamorphoses, her journey to that summit will NOT be an easy one.

My original plan was to have this story be a one-shot, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that one story would be insufficient, as having her do a full-tilt 180 after one story seemed unrealistic. So I decided to split the idea into two stories, instead. The first story, entitled, "Emergence" sees with Galatea coming out of her coma. And when she finally wakes up, she finds herself in a world she no longer has any place in. Faced with the reality of being a living weapon for a war that never came, Galatea's already-fragile self worth shatters completely. And as she begins to run wild, it ultimately falls to Superman to stop her rampage.

The second story is going to be entitled, "Ascension" and will be set several months after "Emergence", with Superman still trying to help Galatea carve out her own identity (as task proving to be quite the challenge, as Galatea's rebellious side continues to rear its head). But things only get more complicated as Supergirl returns from the 31st century to stop an escaped villain from changing a point in history...an incident that Galatea, herself, is personally involved in. The story ultimately ends with Galatea finally mending fences with Supergirl, as well as completing her evolution into Power Girl by deciding what she truly wants from her own existence. But acquiring this new lease on life may cost her more than she EVER thought she would have to pay...

All-in-all, I'm quite pleased with this pic. It turned out exactly the way I envisioned it. And despite being a little behind schedule, I remain no less proud of it. It may be a day or two late, but it CERTAINLY isn't a dollar short. Of course, feel free to tell me what you think. As always, I look forward to any thoughts.

UPDATE: As promised, the first of this pair of stories is up and ready to go Justice League Unlimited: EmergenceAuthor’s Notes: Hello all. Well, what do you know? My third fanfic in just over a year. Slow, perhaps, but sure, nonetheless. Hey, at least it’s been a faster output than the last few years have been.That being said, this still isn’t one of my Danny Phantom or Kim Possible stories, but it IS one of what will be a pair of one-shots that, honestly, I’ve been keeping on the back burner for FAR too long. Recent events have gotten my creative juices flowing and allowed me to, at long last, fill in some lingering blanks that prevented me from getting this tale off the ground. It’s even allowed me to add some things I hadn’t thought of initially, which will hopefully make it an even deeper and more enjoyable read. But I’ll leave that to you. In the meantime, for anyone who hasn’t read one of my earlier DCAU stories, feel free to check out this small, but substantial list…“Resolve”“Point of View”Anyway, as usual, that’s all you should have to hear from me. Time to get on with the show…Justice League UnlimitedEmergenceBy AaronAt night, even to long-time residents of Metropolis, the lights of the downtown area can put on a breathtaking display. However, on that particular night, instead of inspiring gasps of awe, only screams of terror could be heard as ribbons of electricity snaked through the air, causing late-night partygoers to flee in all directions.And in the middle of the panicked mob, cackling with childish glee, was Live Wire, firing off random bolts of raw voltage from her hands and seeming to grow increasingly delighted, the more destruction she was causing. Of course, two people who weren’t amused were Batman and Wonder Woman, who were both taking shelter behind an overturned car.“I know this goes without saying, but when you promised me a taste of the Metropolis night life, this WASN’T what I had in mind!” Wonder Woman shouted at Batman over the explosions roaring around them. “When is Clark due back?!”“Mr. Terrific said that the crisis on Rann is stable, so he’s on his way now!” Batman replied, “He should be planet-side by the afternoon!”“Can’t be soon enough for me!” Wonder Woman remarked. “I swear, this city becomes a zoo whenever he’s off-world! It’s like they can SMELL it when he’s not around!”“You’ve gotta be kidding! THIS is who I’ve got for the Big Blue’s stand-ins? I already know I can take out ol’ Bat-boy! ‘Course, what do you expect from a guy with two lightning rods on his head!” Live Wire gloated as she kept blasting away. “And what, you brought yourself a cheerleader? Cuz I don’t know who calls her an Amazon, but I ain’t seeing nothing A-MAZ-IN about her!”“Uh oh…,” Batman muttered as Wonder Woman’s eyes etched into a steely determined glare.Knowing all-too well how personally Diana took her Amazon heritage, Batman could only accept the fact that there was no way to stop what was coming next. Slowly rising to her feet and pushing the overturned car aside with one hand, Wonder Woman stepped onto the battlefield, much to Live Wire’s anticipation.“You know, after today, they’re gonna have to start calling you ‘Blunder Woman’,” Live Wire continued to taunt as electricity crackled from her hands. “Ol’ Supes never let himself get wound up THIS easy.”“Are you going to talk or are you going to fight?” Wonder Woman challenged sternly.“Eh…your funeral, Babe,” Live Wire replied with a shrug before unleashing a bolt of lightning in Wonder Woman’s direction.Instantly throwing up her bracelets to defend herself, Wonder Woman dug her heels in and braced for the impact. But the force of Live Wire’s attack was still enough to gradually force her back. Seeming to have the advantage, Live Wire poured on the power as Wonder Woman appeared to be struggling. But suddenly, Wonder Woman’s eyes snapped open, pushing back against the relentless assault. And with a yell of a true warrior, she heaved her arms apart, actually tearing the lightning bolt in two and sending the two halves exploding into the street on either side of her.Live Wire’s confident smirk was swallowed up by a gaze of wide-eyed astonishment. And the momentary distraction was an advantage Wonder Woman was more than happy to press as she charged in and dove into a forward roll at Live Wire’s feet. Bracing herself on her hands and shoulders, Wonder Woman’s feet shot up, slamming into Live Wire’s jaw, and sending her flying off the ground. And as Wonder Woman flipped to her feet, she lassoed Live Wire while she was still in mid-air and pulled down hard, sending her body smashing into the pavement.“Uuunnnhh…,” Live Wire murmured in a daze, trying to shake out the cobwebs and noticing that she was caught in Wonder Woman’s lasso. “Hey, what gives? Ain’t you ever heard of the Laws of Physics?”“If you knew anything about how I was born, you wouldn’t ask that question,” Wonder Woman replied confidently as something caught Live Wire’s eye. “Let’s just say it’ll take more than you’ve got to shock me.”“Do tell,” Live Wire responded with a curious smirk, before reaching down and grabbing an underground power main that had been exposed from her crashing into the street.The eruption of raw power was enough to send Wonder Woman flying back into a pile of debris, several feet away. And the blinding flash lit up the entire downtown as if it were day, while simultaneously blacking out the entire city for miles in all directions.… … … …Across town, in the coma ward of Metropolis General Hospital, two armed guards in dark suits stood on either side on one specific room, both stoic and silent. That is, until one of the on-duty nurses walked by, tossing the first guard a flirty wink, to which he could only respond with an interested grin. However, everyone soon had other things to pay attention to as power in the entire building went out, followed by the emergency lights coming on a moment later.“Huh…now there’s something you don’t see every day,” the nurse remarked, curiously.… … … …Laid out on the ground, Wonder Woman could only let out a weak groan as she tried to regain her bearings. Not that Live Wire was about to grant her that opportunity, as she’d escaped Wonder Woman’s lasso by converting her body to energy and was now standing over her with a triumphant grin.“Well, well…can’t shock you, huh?” Live Wire gloated as her fist coursed with electricity. “With the amount of juice I’ve sucked up, I’m bettin’ I can get even your heart racing, Honey?”“Trust me…you’re not her type!” Batman’s voice suddenly called out, causing Live Wire to look over and see him standing just a few feet away, with what appeared to be a black sphere in his hand.“You’ve gotta be kidding. What…you think a grenade scares me? Come on, Bats, I thought you were supposed to be smart!” Live Wire declared, stepping away from Wonder woman, as Batman now had her undivided attention. “Do you need to review the memo? You can’t blow me up! I’m living lightning!”Without a word, Batman simply pitched the sphere in Live Wire’s direction. And Live Wire naturally responded by firing a blast of energy, causing the sphere to explode, before it even hit her. But Live Wire couldn’t have predicted what would happen next. Instead of a concussive blast, a large glob of black fluid burst from the sphere, flowing over Live Wire and enveloping her upper body, pinning her arms across her chest.“What you are, is a one-trick pony,” Batman replied simply.“Hey, what’s the big idea?!” Live Wire protested, as she struggled to free herself. “What is this gunk?!”“It’s a rubberized bonding agent,” Batman explained directly. “I normally use it in Gotham, as a restraint against super criminals who rely on enhanced strength. But it’ll hold you just as well…”“…Diana…if you’d care to do the honors?”Whirling around at Batman’s words, Live Wire could only gasp in shock as she saw Wonder Woman back on her feet again, angrily charging forward and winding up a tightly balled fist, before sending it flying straight at Live Wire’s head. Once again, another explosion of electricity filled the Metropolis skyline, the bolts of lightning being seen for blocks in all directions. But when the light show subsided, all that was left was Live Wire crumpling to her knees with a groan and collapsing at Wonder Woman’s feet, while Batman walked up to also stand over her unconscious form.… … … …It wasn’t long before the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit was on the scene, preparing to haul Live Wire away. But Batman and Wonder Woman remained on hand, just in case anything went wrong.“So…anything else you’d like to do while we’re still in town?” Wonder Woman asked as power slowly began returning to the downtown area. “After all, the night is still young.”“A few hundred megawatts of raw power aren’t stimulating enough for you?” Batman asked straightforwardly.“My idea of stimulation is a lot more fun,” Wonder Woman replied, her voice lowering to a whisper as she leaned over with a sly grin, reaching out and just barely entwining her little finger around Batman’s. “But then…you already KNOW that.”… … … …Back at Metropolis General, the staff was doing their best, in light of the blackout. Suddenly, all the lights came back on, as power came flowing back.“Okay, back to business,” the nurse stated as the two guards prepared to return to their posts, until a brief flash of the ceiling lights caught everyone’s attention.“What was that?” the first guard asked.“Probably just a small power surge, while the backup generators are shutting down,” the nurse answered. “It’s rare, but it’s not unheard of.”Meanwhile, inside the guarded room, a lone figure lay in bed, still and quiet, with the only sounds being the droning of the hospital ventilation and the steady, rhythmic beeps of the heart monitor. But as the power surged, a tiny spark of electricity arced to the bedframe, resulting in only the tiniest of shocks to the patient’s arm, which was leaning against the railing. But no sooner did the jolt occur, than the patient’s heart rate suddenly jumped to three times its normal rate, as the shrill, rapid beeps of the monitor echoed through the room. A few seconds later, with a terrified gasp, the patient’s eyes snapped open.“So…is anyone ever going to tell us who’s so important that she needs two armed guards outside her room, around the clock?” the nurse asked the first guard, who was conversing with her over by the Nurse’s Station. “You know that no one in this room can even MOVE, much less threaten anyone, right? So, what’s the deal?”“I’ll tell you what. When does your shift end?” the first guard asked suggestively. “Because I’m off in the morning. Maybe we could grab some breakfast and…”Just then, the heart monitor at the Nurse’s Station came to life with a series of rapid beeps, getting the nurse’s attention. But seconds later, the anguished screams of a woman could be heard coming from within the room the two guards were supposed to be monitoring.“What the…?” the nurse blurted out, trying to make sense of the intense surge.“Oh, God…,” the first guard whispered in terror before drawing his weapon and dashing down the hall. “Wait there!”“But I…!”“I said, ‘Wait there’!” the first guard shouted, silencing the nurse’s protest.Within moments, the first guard arrived to join his partner, as a series of crashes and thuds sounded off from inside the room. Without a word, the second guard began to motion a three-second countdown with his fingers, until what seemed like an explosion could be heard from behind the door. Not standing on ceremony, the two guards burst into the room, only to be stunned at the sight that greeted them. Even the nurse who’d run up behind them could only gasp in shock.“So…who’s gonna call Waller?” the first guard asked, as the pair exchanged a nervous glance.“I’ll flip you for it,” the second guard replied worriedly.… … … …The darkened room of Amanda Waller’s apartment was pierced with the shrill ring of her phone. Jolted awake, but still half asleep, Waller clumsily pawed at her night table before finally reaching the receiver.“What?” she answered, sleepy but sternly.“Sorry, Ma’am. I know what time it is,” the second guard’s anxious voice could be heard on the other end of the line.Then you know how good this had better be,” Waller replied in annoyance, still not even bothering to sit up.“I hate to disappoint you, Ma’am. But I’m afraid it isn’t good at all…,” the second guard stated as he stood with his partner in the now-empty hospital room, staring at the enormous hole smashed out of the wall.“…In fact…it’s about as bad as gets.”… … … …It was nearly dawn at a hidden Cadmus base in Central City, disguised as an old, abandoned auto body shop. Underground, two Cadmus guards were casually patrolling on a hallway near the entrance on their regular patrol. But suddenly, a commotion of yelling and gunfire could be heard from outside. Acting quickly, the two guards primed their weapons as the heavy steel entrance door was bashed off its hinges, slamming to the floor with a thundering crash. But with a haze of smoke and dust blanketing the entrance way, it was impossible for either of them to make out a target.“Back off, boys,” a woman’s voice called out as the dust began to settle, revealing a pair of glowing red eyes and an unconscious Cadmus guard being clutched by the throat. “I just came for a change of clothes.”“Oh…no, it’s YOU!” one of the guards shouted as they could finally make out the figure coming towards them.But before either of them could react, the figure streaked between them and across the hall with blinding speed. A split-second later, the force wave from her movement sent both guards flying into the opposing walls. One guard was instantly knocked out. But the other was rendered helpless, unable to do anything as the intruder bashed her way into an adjacent room. All he could hear were the sounds of screams and more gunfire as he slowly lost consciousness.… … … …Local police and the press were on the scene, outside Metropolis General, all wanting to know just what had happened the night before. Unfortunately, Cadmus agents had already cordoned off the area and weren’t allowing anyone to investigate the scene. Even Snapper Carr and his cameraman were being led out of the hospital, by the scruff of the neck, by two Cadmus guards.“We’re not going to say it again,” one of the guards announced harshly as they pushed Snapper and his cameraman to the bottom of the hospital steps. “Get behind the line!”“Hey, what gives?!” Snapper shouted as a gaggle of reporters protested from behind the Cadmus barricade, “Haven’t you ever heard of Freedom of the Press?!”“Sorry pal. But the lady from the Daily Planet already got our ‘No comment’,” the second guard replied directly. “And her legs were a lot nicer than yours.”With that, the guards turned away from the crowd and walked back to their post at the hospital’s main entrance. Unbeknownst to anyone, however, Batman and Wonder Woman were on the roof of the hospital, watching over the commotion below.“Maybe they’ll be more willing to answer questions from us,” Wonder Woman suggested.“No point. Those uniforms are telling us all we need to know,” Batman replied as Wonder Woman gently glided them both down through the hole in the wall. “If Cadmus is circling the wagons, it means SOMETHING was going on here they didn’t want anyone to know about.”“But what could they have been up to that would involve a local hospital?” Wonder Woman asked as Batman surveyed the damaged room and the overturned equipment. “And what could they have been keeping in here that could tear through a concrete wall?”“Not ‘what’. Who?” Batman answered as he continued his investigation. “The medical chart had the patient in this room listed as a ‘Jane Doe’. But I’m pretty sure she was anything but,”Clearly, Batman had already figured out something. But before Wonder Woman could inquire what he was talking about, the signal on her Justice League earpiece began to sound.“Yes?” Diana answered. “Agent Faraday.”“Hey Diana. Mr. Terrific told me you and Batman were in Metropolis,” King Faraday replied from the wreckage of Central City’s Cadmus facility. “Are you looking into that hospital business?”“We are. Batman’s here with me now,” Wonder Woman answered, as Batman activated his earpiece to patch into the conversation.“Let me guess,” Batman remarked plainly. “A Cadmus facility was just attacked.”“How could you possibly know that?” Faraday asked, clearly caught off-guard.“Because I’m pretty sure I know who did it,” Batman replied, plucking two strands of blonde hair from the edge of the hole in the wall and displaying them to Wonder Woman. “Belong to anyone we know?”“Hera…,” Wonder Woman gasped, her eyes widening in alarm.… … … …Over in Coast City, a plain, nondescript office was calmly going about its business. Suddenly, a racket could be heard from outside as shouts and gunfire began to sound off. A moment later, two civilian guards came crashing through the front doors, much to the shock of everyone in their cubicles. But that paled to the gasps and murmurs of panic from the office staff as they saw Galatea, Cadmus’ clone of Supergirl, standing in the office doorway.“I’m sorry. Is the Information Desk on this floor?” Galatea announced with her usual smirk and swagger of confidence.“You!” the Office Manager shouted, running to the far end of the room to raise the alarm.Of course, Galatea would have none of that, blasting a stream of heat vision to blow up the alarm terminal, right as the Office Manager reached it. A second later, Galatea was across the room like a blink, grabbing the Manager by the collar of his shirt and lifting him over her head with one hand, her eyes meeting his with a stern glare.“Do you have ANY idea how tired I am of people calling me that?”… … … …Back in Central City, Faraday was still touring the scene of Galatea’s first attack, alongside Amanda Waller. While they were trying to assess just how much damage had been done, Waller’s cell phone suddenly began to chime. Taking a moment to look at the caller ID, Waller could only wince in discomfort as she muted the phone.“Is that who I think it was?” Faraday asked.Waller simply stared off and gave no answer, causing Faraday to chuckle nervously.“You will live dangerously,” he commented.“This is a dangerous situation. Besides, no reason even starting that conversation until there’s something to actually say,” Waller replied before she and Faraday walked over to one of the guards. “How goes the day, soldier?”“As well as can be expected, Ma’am,” the guard replied, wincing as he nursed his injured ribs.“Casualties?” Waller inquired.“Just anyone who tried to fight back,” the guard answered. “Funny thing…near as we can tell, they’re all just minor injuries. Broken bones, lacerations, a few mild burns, but…no fatalities. Offhand, I’d say we got lucky.”“Luck had nothing to do with it, son,” Waller stated grimly, looking the guard straight in the eye. “If she’d wanted ANY of you dead, trust me…you’d be DEAD.”“Then what DOES she want?” Batman’s voice sounded behind her as Waller and Faraday turned to see him and Wonder Woman walking into the room.“Galatea has been in a coma, ever since that incident with Supergirl on the Watchtower,” Waller explained. “After she was taken out of action, a handful of Ultimen that were still functioning managed to locate her and get her off the station before anyone knew what was happening. It was part of a secondary layer of programming we installed, in case her connection to them was severed, to assume that she was in distress and have her extracted.”“Leave it to you to never throw away a good weapon,” Batman commented.“You would have just left her to die?” Waller asked cynically.“I wouldn’t have tried to sweep her under the rug,” Batman argued. “If you’d told us what was going on from the start, we WOULD’VE been better prepared.”“Any plans we had for Galatea couldn’t involve the Justice League,” Waller replied. “At least, not initially. And the longer she was under, the slower we knew the transition process would have to be when she came out of it. But with our resources so depleted, there was no place we could adequately secure her, or see to her care. And at the same time, we couldn’t risk her condition becoming public knowledge. It’s why we’ve been transferring her to a different hospital every few months. The last thing we needed was the whole world knowing that there was free Kryptonian DNA out there, ripe for the taking.”“Sure,” Wonder Woman remarked. “Hera forbid anyone should start growing their own super-powered killing machines. That is, anyone but YOU.”“Excuse me,” one of Faraday’s agents announced, breaking up a heated stare-down between Diana and Waller, and preventing any old wounds from reopening too far. “They have the security footage cued up.”“I’m still not getting a read on this, though,” Wonder Woman mused as she walked into the security room with Batman, Waller, and Faraday. “Galatea was created BY Cadmus, right? So why would she attack them?”“She didn’t,” Batman answered as the footage began to play back, revealing that the guards outside the facility had fired on Galatea first. “They attacked HER.”“The guards are under strict orders to fend off any unauthorized access. And they obey their orders,” Waller explained. “Say what you will, they’re very well-trained.”“Just not to deal with THIS,” Batman observed dismissively. “So, she wakes up after more than a year. She’s panicked, she’s disoriented, she doesn’t know where she is…”“Which means, her first instinct would be to get her bearings and retreat to safe ground,” Wonder Woman continued, as Waller’s attention was diverted by a signal on her phone.“Only to show up here and find out that it’s not so safe anymore,” Faraday concluded, while the footage continued to run of Galatea tearing through the Cadmus guards.“If she was scared and confused before, she must be going absolutely out of her mind now,” Wonder Woman noted.“Meaning her next objective will be information,” Batman deduced. “She’ll want to find out what’s going on.”“She just did,” Waller interrupted, getting the others’ attention. “A silent alarm has been activated from our Data Office in Coast City. Guess who showed up.”… … … …“We barely knew what hit us,” the Office Manager recalled, his voice still shaky as he nursed the back of his neck with an ice pack. “Security was down and out before anyone could even think to raise an alarm. Everyone else was just…too scared to try anything.”Waller was standing off to the side as Batman, Wonder Woman and Faraday were getting the Office Manager’s statement. But suddenly, a familiar ring tone caught her attention. Sighing in resignation, Waller found her way to an empty office and answered the call.“Yes, Sir,” she responded.“Ignoring a call from the White House is never a good idea, Amanda,” an all-too familiar voice announced sternly from the other end.“My sincerest apologies, Mister President,” Amanda explained. “But at the time, I didn’t know anything more than you did. The most I would have been able to offer you was empty platitudes, and we both know it. I wasn’t about to give you any assurances until I was certain we had the situation under control.”“Tell that to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He’s having Aspirin shipped to him in CRATES. Stands to reason the Secretary of State and my Press Secretary are going to be making the same order by the end of the day. A ROGUE KRYPTONIAN?” the President argued. “I’m tired of cleaning up after you, Amanda. And so is half of the West Wing. This whole Cadmus thing was bungled from Day One. That mess with Luthor and Brainiac, then Eiling…and those are just the most RECENT incidents. You wouldn’t BELIEVE the calls I get from the World Assembly every time another skeleton comes crawling out of your closet. Not to mention how many dozen news cycles where we’re getting crucified in the press.”“With all due respect, Mister President, there’s more than enough blame for Cadmus’ failings to go around,” Waller pointed out. “Eiling was NEVER my first choice for a Military Liaison. I made it perfectly clear, again and again, that I didn’t want a war hawk in the room, who had to be constantly kept in check, because he was focusing on his own agenda. It’s why I ordered Hardcastle phased out after we absorbed ‘Project: Achilles’. But for all the repeated assurances that I got from The Pentagon, who did they stick me with?”“My point, Amanda, is that we don’t need the whole world waking up in the middle of the night again because of another Cadmus fiasco,” The President shot back. “Rein her in or put her down, whatever it takes. But GET-YOUR-HOUSE-IN-ORDER.”“I understand. Thank you, Mister President,” Amanda conceded before hanging up the phone and unhappily joining the others.“Everything okay?” Faraday asked.“Just a reminder that I need to get my blood pressure medication refilled,” Amanda replied dryly. “Where are we here?”“Batman wants to see if he can narrow down what she might have been looking for,” Faraday answered, motioning over to Batman and Wonder Woman who were both looking more than a little impatient. “But naturally, there are some issues with allowing him access.”“Right. Give me a minute,” Waller responded, before walking over to the Office Manager and guiding him over to a secluded corner of the room. “What…did…she…get?”“I don’t know,” the Office Manager whispered back in frustration. “I tried to look in on what she was accessing, but she was reading dozens of files in literally, SECONDS. There was no way to keep up.”“What about the keystroke loggers we installed six months ago?” Waller asked.“We’re sorting it out now. But that’s still a lot of data to crunch for a room full of mere mortals,” the Manager replied, seating at a nearby terminal and scrolling through all the information on the screen. “Even with everyone in the office working around the clock, I’m not sure we could get through it all in less than a day. She did it in TEN MINUTES. And it still doesn’t guarantee that we can figure out what she’s going to do next.”“Hold on,” Waller interrupted, as something in the data entries caught her eye by chance. “There…scroll up for a second,”“Why? Did you see something?” the manager asked, as Waller’s eyes widened in dread.… … … …“The problem is, we’re not only racing against someone who’s faster than a speeding bullet, but who’s had half a day’s head start on us, besides,” Batman remarked, conversing with Wonder Woman and Faraday.“Then maybe we should divide and conquer,” Waller suggested, walking up to the others and handing a flash drive to Batman. “It’s a temporary password, which will allow you to view all the information Galatea accessed. Maybe you can narrow down what she was looking for.”“And what are YOU planning to do?” Faraday asked.“I’m going to coordinate with our other facilities, find out if she’s hit any of them. Who knows? We might even figure out a way to track her,” Waller answered as she walked out of the office, leaving Wonder Woman to say what Batman and Faraday were already thinking.“Okay, no one here ACTUALLY believes she just granted us access to their systems.”“A stall tactic? What would be the point of keeping us out of the loop?” Faraday wondered. “Unless she already suspects something.”“I know one way we can find out,” Batman responded as he tapped his earpiece. “Did you get all that?”Meanwhile, Waller was making her way down the back stairs of the building. Waiting until she was a few floors down, she pulled out her phone and quickly dialed a number.“It’s me. Listen, there isn’t much time. She’s awake. And she knows what’s happened,” Waller stated. “What’s more, your name come up in the list of searches she ran when she raided one of our Data Offices. I think she’s coming for you, and I don’t know what she’s going to do when she gets there.”“Now calm down. As near as I can tell, she wasn’t able to ascertain your exact location, which still gives us a small window to get out in front of this,” Waller continued as her call reached out to a secluded cabin in a clearing, with dense forest on all sides. “Our nearest facility is 20 minutes away. I’m sending a team to extract you. Get packed and be ready to leave the second they arrive.”Shuddering in fear as Waller hung up the phone, Emil Hamilton’s entire body broke out into a clammy sweat. He was so lost in panic that as he ran into the bedroom to grab his belongings, he barely knew what he was throwing into his bag, let alone whether it would actually fit. In fact, it was something of a minor miracle that he actually remembered the one thing he absolutely knew he couldn’t leave without. Hurrying back out to the living room, Hamilton opened a medium-sized panel in the wall beside the fireplace, revealing that not only was the log cabin a façade, reinforced with heavy steel doors, but there was also a digital safe concealed inside.However, before Hamilton could enter the combination into the keypad, a thunderous blow bashed in from outside, causing the thick metal walls to buckle. A second impact followed, then a third, causing Hamilton to trip backward in fear, and even dislodging the safe from the wall, causing it to fall on the floor. Scrambling to the safe, Hamilton desperately tried to steady his trembling fingers and input the combination, but suddenly, the damaged steel began to be sheared open, as if being pulled apart from the outside. Lost in his terror and unable to think, as sunlight flooded the darkened room, Hamilton could only huddle on the floor, curled in a ball, in a desperate, futile bid to protect himself. But as a shadow loomed towards him, Hamilton suddenly heard nothing but silence, eventually prompting him to open his eyes and look up at his would-be attacker.“You?!” he exclaimed in surprise, as he saw the chiseled form of Superman standing inside the hole he’d torn into the wall.“I get the sense you were expecting someone else,” Superman commented, his arms crossed sternly. “I’m back on earth not five minutes and THIS is what I find out has been going on.”“H…how did you find me?” Hamilton asked, trying desperately to keep his voice from trembling as he rose to his feet.“You say that as if we ever lost you in the first place. We’ve known where you’ve been hiding for months. We figured out where Cadmus Headquarters was. You didn’t think we’d figure out where YOU scurried off to?” Superman explained. “Batman suspected that Waller knew more than she was telling…not that she tried to cover her tracks very well. So, he asked me to keep tabs on her. And just who turned out to be the first person I heard her call, telling you that one of your chickens was coming home to roost?”“So…you’ve come to kill me now, is that it?” Hamilton remarked, his voice laced with contempt. “Just so she doesn’t have the satisfaction?”“You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?” Superman replied in disappointment, walking over to pick up a glass by the fireplace Hamilton had been drinking from, while Hamilton’s eyes darted back and forth toward the safe on the floor. “I’ll tell you what I’d LIKE to do. I’d like to run a DNA test on this to see if you really are who you SAY you are. The Emil Hamilton I knew was a rational man.”“Thrust into irrational times, Superman,” Hamilton argued. “Who do I have to thank for that?”“Oh, so we’re going back to this again, are we?” Superman responded, rolling his eyes in frustration. “It’s all my fault. It’s always everyone else’s fault. You’re the ONLY one who NEVER did anything wrong.”“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?” Hamilton shot back.“I can bear the weight of MY sins, at the end of the day. Can YOU say the same?” Superman argued. “You want to blame me because I made you save Supergirl’s life. But seriously, how would YOU have reacted in the same situation? You were the first person I ever REALLY let in, Emil. To the Fortress, to my lineage, everything. And don’t act like you got nothing out of it. All that Kryptonian technology you got to play with? You single-handedly put S.T.A.R. Labs on the map with that alone.”“Are you going somewhere with this?” Hamilton responded coldly.“My point is, you were my friend and my ally for years, or so I thought,” Superman lamented bitterly, “until you were actually willing to stand there and let Supergirl die.”“You were asking me…to aid…a fugitive,” Hamilton grumbled through gritted teeth.“A fugitive from WHAT, Emil?! The only thing she was guilty of was showing up to HELP!” Superman exclaimed before gazing into the fireplace with a pained sigh. “If you only knew HALF of what she’s had to endure…You know, in a twisted way, I was lucky. I never knew my birth parents or my home planet before they were destroyed. I never had to know what that felt like. But Kara? She had to watch her whole world slowly die. She had to wake up one day to find out that all her family and friends were gone. Did it break her? No. Instead, she comes here, she tries to be a good person, she shows nothing but kindness to anyone, trying her best to help them…”“…And all anyone wanted to do was PUNISH her for it. And why?” Superman went on, as Hamilton seemed to be growing more unhinged with every word. “I could understand it if it was directed at me. I know I’ve made mistakes…mistakes that have cost a lot. But what did SHE ever do to you? Why did SHE have to violated? Why did anyone think SHE deserved to die?! For crying out loud, she was a CHILD…!”“SHE WAS A MENACE! JUST LIKE YOU…JUST LIKE ALL THE REST OF YOUR…!!!” Hamilton bellowed in a frenzy, just managing to catch himself from finishing his tirade.“‘Just like the rest of our’…WHAT, Emil?” Superman asked with a stunned expression. “Our SPECIES…? Are you talking about KRYPTONIANS?”Hamilton could only look away angrily, either unable or unwilling to answer. Superman, meanwhile, could only stand in silence as the full, horrifying picture came into view, before finally letting out an exasperated sigh.“That’s what you really meant, wasn’t it? That night at Cadmus…when you said, ‘your kind’,” Superman deduced, his voice slightly shuddering in disbelief. “You were never talking about the Justice League. It was only US you wanted gone. And all because I got angry at you one time?”“You think THAT’S what started this? Even when you try to be humble and talk like one of us, your ego astounds me,” Hamilton responded with a hollow chuckle. “You said I was the first person you really let in. But did you forget that the primary reason you did that was so I could help you correct another mistake you’d made?”“Mala…,” Superman uttered.“It was she who first opened my eyes to the threat your people truly posed…quite painfully, I might add,” Hamilton explained. “And when she freed Jax-Ur…it took the TWO of them less than a day to bring this world to its knees, Superman. LESS-THAN-A-DAY.”“I was there,” Superman replied sternly.“Thanks to who?” Hamilton countered. “I wanted so much to believe that you were different…that you could be our ultimate protector, not just against the likes of them, but against all manner of threats we couldn’t even fathom. And for a time, it really did seem like you were. It took less than two years for me to realize what a fool I’d been.”“That’s why you cloned her…isn’t it?” Superman uttered as the light dawned in his head. “It took me a minute to figure it out…why you would go to all that trouble if you were REALLY so scared. It certainly couldn’t have been just to neutralize US. I can think of at least half a dozen ways off the top of my head that would have been far more effective. Far easier, too. No…you did it because you wanted someone like me around that you thought would be more reliable…or more malleable.”“Hardcastle may have had his prejudices and his discriminations. But he was right about one thing.” Hamilton replied. “In the end, we needed someone we could CONTROL. It was the only one we could ever really trust to defend us.”“Just when I think you can’t POSSIBLY sound more pathetic!” Superman remarked in disbelief. “Is that all she ever WAS to you? Just a SHIELD for you to COWER behind?”“Who are YOU to make that judgement?! Like you could ever know what it’s like to feel helpless!” Hamilton ranted. “You, who walks on the clouds, lording your pseudo-godhood over the rest of us! What could you POSSIBLY know about what it means to be truly HUMAN…!?”“I KNOW SHE CALLED YOU ‘DADDY’!!!” Superman yelled in Hamilton’s face.At that moment, Hamilton’s eyes went wide in alarm. He’d played this argument in his head dozens of times, in preparation if it ever came up. He was certain he had a perfect counter for any possible debate Superman could rally against him. Yet, as soon as those words echoed in his ears, he found himself rendered utterly silent, unable to speak a word as Superman shook his head with a sigh of frustration.“My father…my HUMAN father…he never ONCE relied on MY protection for ANYTHING. He knew it was HIS responsibility to protect ME,” Superman stated, looming over Hamilton with a sneer of utter disdain. “And you know why? Because he’s TEN TIMES the man you could ever hope to be.”“What…are YOU doing here?” an instantly familiar voice sounded off menacingly, causing Superman and Hamilton to whirl around in surprise to see Galatea standing inside the hole Superman had torn into the cabin wall, glaring in anger.“Look, I…” Superman was about to explain, until Galatea burst into the room at top speed, smashing her fist against his cheek and sending him flying through the bedroom wall.Hamilton was sent sprawling to the floor from the sheer force of Galatea’s blow. Shuddering in panic at once again seeing Kryptonian power firsthand, he found himself unable to move as Galatea’s furious eyes turned towards him. At that moment, Hamilton’s mind immediately transported him back to the night he was assaulted by Mala, seeing her reach down at him, much the same way Galatea was reaching down to him at that moment. And he could only whimper in fear as he put up his arms in a futile effort to protect himself.“That’s enough,” Superman interrupted, zipping out of the bedroom and firmly grabbing Galatea’s wrist.With an incensed scowl, Galatea lashed out again with her free hand, only to be caught completely by surprise as Superman sidestepped her punch, grabbed her arm, and tossed her over his shoulder. So powerful was Superman’s throw that Galatea was sent hurtling through the reinforced steel wall of the cabin like a cannonball through paper. In fact, she had to dig her feet and fingers into the ground just to finally halt her momentum.“Huh,” Galatea remarked, seemingly in amusement, as Superman walked up to the newly ripped hole in the cabin. “Now, am I crazy? Or did the big, dumb beat-stick actually do something that DIDN’T involve punching things really hard?”“Batman thought I should expand my comfort zone a little bit,” Superman replied with a shrug.Looking unimpressed with a hollow chuckle, Galatea floated off the ground and once again blasted towards Superman at full speed. But when Superman grabbed her arm a second time, Galatea curled her legs up, redirecting his throw and slamming her feet into the cabin floor in front of him.“Not bad…for a BEGINNER,” she commented with a smirk, before reversing Superman’s shoulder throw and sending him crashing through the cabin ceiling. “Too bad for you, I’m a PROFESSIONAL!”With that, Galatea rocketed into the sky, after Superman’s floundering body. Before Superman could straighten himself out, Galatea slammed another high-speed punch across his face. And while Superman uncomfortably nursed his battered jaw, it gave Galatea yet another opening as she streaked back down, planting her feet hard into the back of Superman’s neck and driving him into the ground right beside the cabin.While Galatea and Superman were outside, though, Hamilton seized his opportunity. Clambering to the wall safe on the floor, he frantically rattled on the buttons to punch in the combination. And as the safe unlocked, he flung open the door, grabbing what appeared to be a pistol emitting an eerie green glow. Desperately clutching his weapon, Hamilton raced out the cabin door and ran as fast as he could, desperate hoping to make it to the treeline.However, Hamilton’s getaway didn’t go unnoticed, as Galatea was able to see him running off, courtesy of her X-Ray vision. With Superman apparently dealt with, she began to float off in Hamilton’s direction.“Wait,” Superman’s voice stopped her in her tracks as he stepped out of the cloud of dust kicked up from where his body had landed. “You don’t have to do this. Trust me…he’s not worth it.”“‘Not worth it’? Are you crazy? He’s worth EVERYTHING!” Galatea argued. “What makes you think I wouldn’t do ANYTHING for him?!”“Wait a minute,” Superman uttered in confusion. “Are you saying you didn’t come here to…?”“What I’m SAYING, I’m only going to say ONCE!” Galatea replied harshly, glaring at Superman with glowing red eyes. “Stay…away…from MY…FATHER!”Before Superman could react, Galatea fired a blast of her heat vision, rupturing the propane tank right behind him. A split-second later, Superman’s entire body was engulfed in a searing explosion of flame.Hamilton, meanwhile, had just reached the edge of the clearing, as the roar of the propane explosion echoed in his ears and the wave of heat from the flames passed through his body. Whirling around in response, Hamilton could only look on in shock as he saw the entire cabin blanketed in flames, which was frightening enough. But all that paled in comparison to the horror Hamilton felt as he saw the silhouette of Galatea slowly walking through the fire, her eyes still glowing red from her heat vision. Letting out a ragged gasp of terror, Hamilton turned on his heels and bolted headlong into the woods.Blinded by his own panic, Hamilton had lost all sense of rational thinking as he charged through the heavy foliage, the twigs and branches of the trees and bushes whipping and scraping at his face and arms. After what felt like an eternity, he finally burst from the treeline. But he barely made it more than a few yards before he found his escape blocked by a sheer cliff, revealing nothing but more forest and a small river, a hundred feet below.“No!” Hamilton exclaimed, frantically searching for any kind of way down. But he barely had more than a few seconds before Galatea landed just a few feet behind him.“Wait!” she called out, causing Hamilton to lose all semblance of reason as he whirled around, drawing his glowing pistol.“Don’t come any closer!” he warned, his voice trembling uncontrollably.“What, are you kidding?” Galatea responded with a shrug and a bewildered chuckle.“I mean it!” Hamilton shouted. “All of you just stay away from me!”“Okay, I don’t know what’s going on, but we don’t have time for this,” Galatea replied, still puzzled by Hamilton’s behavior as she slowly stepped forward. “That explosion isn’t going to keep him preoccupied for very long. We’ve got to get out of here…”“I SAID STAY BACK!” Hamilton snapped as he fired a Kryptonite beam from his weapon, causing Galatea to scream in agony and drop to one knee as the beam grazed her arm.“W…why…?” Galatea uttered, her voice a mixture of pain and confusion.“Don’t you come near me!” Hamilton shuddered as he kept the gun trained on her, his terror drowning out any sound judgment he may have had left. “I swear, by the name of all that’s Holy, if I have to…!”“…Daddy…?” Galatea whimpered sadly.The sight of the tears rolling down Galatea’s cheeks, or her trembling lips, did nothing to bring Hamilton back to his senses. He’d become a complete slave to his fear at that point, seeing only the potential danger instead of the rescue she truly offered. And all Galatea could see as Superman landed behind her, still smoldering from the explosion, was the last possible connection she had to a real life fading before her eyes.“Galatea? Are you okay?” Superman asked softly as her face warped into a fierce scowl, her helpless sorrow slowly giving way to white hot fury.“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!” Galatea cried out in despair, whirling around with another crushing blow across Superman’s jaw, sending him bouncing along the ground before he managed to flip to his feet and skid to a stop.“The only reason they even CREATED me was because of YOU!” Galatea ranted on, tearing a massive tree out by the roots, and swinging it like a club.Despite its enormous girth, the trunk of the tree effortlessly shattered against Superman’s frame, holding up only one arm to protect himself. But that wouldn’t stop Galatea as she chose to use what was left as a battering ram, bursting towards him at top speed. Crossing his arms and bracing for the impact, the remains of the trunk were reduced to a shower of splinters as Superman’s body tore through it. But it turned out to be just a distraction as Galatea burst through the haze of wooden shards, flashing a kick to his jaw that Superman was just barely able to roll with, landing on his back, just before the treeline.“All they wanted was a weapon for their precious war!” Galatea shouted, her eyes blazing red, as Superman rose to his feet. “A war that never even HAPPENED, thanks to you! So, what am I HERE for now?!”Superman already knew what was coming next. Performing a rapid scan with his X-Ray vision, he plunged his hands into the ground, tearing an enormous boulder out of the earth and shielding himself as Galatea’s heat vision slammed into it.“WHY COULDN’T YOU ALL JUST DIE!!!” Galatea screamed in rage.“You accessed the Cadmus files! You know what happened!” Superman called out, bracing against Galatea’s stream of heat vision as it bored into the immense sphere of rock. “It’s not that simple! It never was!”“IT WAS ALL I HAD!!!” Galatea shrieked, blasting forward while still firing her heat vision and reducing what was left of the boulder to pebbles with a single punch, knocking Superman backward.“Galatea, stop this!” Superman shouted, covering up as Galatea rained blows upon him. “I don’t want to hurt you!”“What makes you even think you CAN?!” Galatea mocked with a half-crazed smile, pressing her advantage.Just then, Superman reached up with blinding speed and caught Galatea’s fist with as much effort as catching a tennis ball. Before Galatea even knew what was happening, Superman brought her to her knees with a single firm shove. And as he stood over her, looking into her eyes with a determined glare, he reached back with his free hand, curling into a tightly balled fist, and sent it streaking at her head, faster than she could blink.Superman’s punch stopped just millimeters from Galatea’s eyes, but the sheer force of the blow blew past her, carving a huge crater into the ground behind her. Galatea, meanwhile, could only stay on her knees in wide-eyed disbelief.“Because if I’d REALLY wanted to,” Superman answered sternly, as Galatea hung her head at the stark reality, “this fight would have been over 10 seconds before it STARTED.”“Why not? Why not just finish me off?” Galatea uttered, having been drained of all hope. “Why didn’t they even save me in the first place? What difference would it make? I don’t have anything now. But I never did, did I? All this time, I wanted to believe that I could have SOME kind of a life. But I was just kidding myself. It wasn’t real. None of it was.”“Seriously, what’s the point in even keeping me around?” Galatea carried on, shutting her eyes angrily as her voice got louder. “Who would even miss me? The whole reason I even exist is gone; don’t you get it? So, somebody tell me, what’s the point?! Why am I even HERE anymore?!”“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO BE NOW?! SOMEBODY TELL ME! PLEASE!!!”Just then, Galatea was broken out of her rant, as she suddenly felt Superman’s hand on her head. Her eyes opening in surprise, she noticed that he was actually kneeling on the ground in front of her.“You know what I think you are?” Superman replied. “I think you’re someone who didn’t ask for any of this…and who deserved a lot better than what she got.”Such a deceptively simple act of compassion…the most harmless touch…a handful of kind words. And yet, at that moment, Galatea found herself completely overwhelmed as the tears began streaming down her face once again. Her hands trembling as she reached up to clutch Superman’s cape, she pulled herself closer and completely broke down, bawling uncontrollably. Superman, meanwhile, could only put his arms around her gently, hoping to provide some measure of comfort, no matter how fleeting.“It’s not fair…” she sobbed, burying her face Superman’s shoulder.“I know,” Superman sighed solemnly.With the danger passed, Hamilton, who had been paralyzed with fear throughout the entire fight, found himself gradually restored to some measure of sanity. It was only then that Galatea’s anguish finally managed to reach him as he reached out towards her. But just then, he noticed the sensation of the Kryptonite pistol, still tightly clutched in his other hand. Even at that moment, he was still so afraid that he couldn’t bring himself to drop it. And it was at that moment that Superman’s final words to him hit home, as Hamilton could only drop his hands to his sides and hang his head in shame. Superman, meanwhile, simply glanced over at him and shook his head in disappointment.Just then, Batman and Wonder Woman arrived on the scene, landing just a few yards away. Acting instinctively, Wonder Woman was prepared to go charging in, but was stopped when she felt Batman grab her wrist. Turning back towards him, Diana couldn’t help but notice an all-too familiar green glow, coming from an open compartment on Batman’s utility belt. Batman, meanwhile, took his time, surveying the scene, intently. But a moment later, with a simple flick of his thumb, he snapped the compartment closed and glanced over in Wonder Woman’s direction, which told her all she needed to know.“Agent Faraday? Contact Waller. Tell her…the situation’s under control,” Wonder Woman reported somberly through her earpiece as she took Batman’s hand and held it tightly, both quietly watching the moment play out.… … … …“Whoa…,” Galatea remarked, as she looked around, her wide-eyed glance admitting that even she had to be impressed by the sheer majesty of the Fortress of Solitude, when viewed up close for the first time. “So…what am I doing here, again?”“You said you didn’t know who you were any more. Seems to me this is as good a place as any where you can start figuring that out,” Superman replied. “I know it’s helped me out a few times.”“Right,” Galatea responded with a cynical look. “Inside a massive ice fortress that just happens to be located, LITERALLY, in the middle of nowhere. A little hard to not read into that, don’t you think?”“You’re hardly a prisoner, Galatea. You can leave anytime you want. I won’t try to stop you,” Superman stated plainly. “I just thought that having some insight on where you ACTUALLY came from might offer a little perspective.”“Huh…” Galatea mused thoughtfully, glancing upward at the towering statues of Jor-El and Lara holding up the planet Krypton, until she noticed something else at its base. “Well, I doubt I’m going to get much insight out of THIS. I mean, come on. These aren’t exactly Kryptonian, are they?”“No…no they’re not. But I’d ask that you be careful with them, all the same. They’re probably the most valuable things I keep in here,” Superman noted. “Well…that and this…”With that, Superman pulled a small object from behind his back and placed it in Galatea’s hands. Galatea, meanwhile, could only respond with a pair of blinks before looking back up at Superman with an expression of total bewilderment.“Ma said I never went anywhere without it for the first two years,” Superman explained. “Apparently, it was the only thing I brought from Krypton except the ship that carried me. I guess it always gave me comfort when I needed it.”“You CAN’T be serious,” Galatea remarked in disbelief, to which Superman could only offer an earnest shrug.“Every little bit helps,” he replied simply.It was then that they both turned to see Batman and Wonder Woman standing just outside the entrance to the hall. Galatea wasn’t sure what to think at first. But Superman merely placed his hand on her shoulder and offered her an encouraging grin before flying over to them, leaving her alone in the room.“Checking up on me, already?” Superman inquired, looking squarely in Batman’s direction. “That’s got to be a record, even for you.”“Just wondering if bringing her here, right out of the gate, was the best call,” Batman answered. “You have to admit, this IS a little close to home for you. You’re not worried that it’s leaving you just the slightest bit vulnerable?”“Was that a question that ever crossed YOUR mind, anytime you took in another wounded bird?” Superman responded, drawing a stern glance from Batman before he abruptly turned to leave.“Suit yourself,” Batman replied as he walked off. “Just keep an eye on her, is all I’m saying.” “That was a little below the belt, don’t you think?” Wonder Woman noted under her breath. “Sometimes, I find it's the only way to capture his focus,” Superman pointed out, before tossing her an amused smirk. “You might want to remember that if he ever starts getting inattentive.” “Don't you start,” Wonder Woman jokingly warned, lightly slapping Superman across the arm before glancing back over at Galatea, with a hint of worry. “He's not wrong to be concerned, you know. What, exactly, IS going to happen with her now?” “That's going to be up to her,” Superman answered. “Her entire existence was LITERALLY built around making her into what OTHER people wanted her to be. But that’s all gone now, which means she's finally got a chance to start making HER OWN choices.” “And if she makes the WRONG ones?” Wonder Woman asked with a slightly grim tone, drawing Superman to meet her gaze for the briefest of moments before he turned back in Galatea's direction. “That's what WE'RE here for,” he replied simply.Meanwhile, Galatea remained rooted to the spot, at the foot of Jor-El and Lara’s statues, oddly transfixed by the display at their base. To anyone entering in the room for the first time, they’d be so easily fooled into thinking that the statues were intended as a monument to the long-dead glory of the planet Krypton. But if they’d even bothered to look more closely, they’d realize that the statues were meant to enshrine something else entirely…specifically, a collection of framed photos, all placed with care and reverence.Each image represented a different milestone in Clark Kent’s life. The first time he rode a tractor…his first day at school…a family photo from when he was 12 years old…another family photo at his high school graduation…his prom photo with Lana Lang…even a photo of him and Lois Lane at the Daily Planet. And there were others.Gazing over each photo intently, Galatea found herself oddly moved as she looked down at the object Superman had placed in her hands…a small, red baby blanket…and found herself holding it tighter, in spite of herself. It was then that the smell of the blanket filled her nostrils. Just the average scent of an everyday laundry detergent that could be purchased anywhere. Yet, at that moment, it represented something so much deeper…a tangible symbol of a life well-lived…of home and family.Again…something so ridiculously simple. And yet, for Galatea, it couldn’t possibly have held more meaning. Perhaps feeling for the first time, a true spark of hope, she shut her eyes tightly and held the blanket even tighter, burying her face into the fabric, as if desperately clinging to the potential promise of a life that might yet still be hers to have.The End. So by all means, feel free to enjoy it at your leisure. ^_^