The Multiverse of Superwomen (Ch.4)

Lena Luthor had spent the entire morning pouring over all of their files again, as well as re-evaluating their research and their experiments, yet could only come to the same conclusion as before: they had failed, utterly. Failed to come up with a way to reverse what Ursa had done. Failed in their attempts to send all the new superwomen back to their respective universes. Thus, the resulting chaos just continued around the world.

But, as is so often the case, the day was darkest before the dawn, and just as the CEO was losing hope, there was a sudden alert and she was asked to come downstairs. Lena put her fingers through her long, lush black hair, tried to calm herself, and made for the exterior, glass elevator. She had been told that a different type of superwoman had been found and she needed to see them right away.

As she approached the lab, she noticed them. It was a whole circle of the same person. Some looked different, others were identical in appearance, yet they were all a variant of one individual. Even the subject lying on the table. They were all Lana Lang.

"What's going on?" asked a confused Lena, "And why have you come here?"

"Your security wouldn't let us in...," one Lana with dark hair responded.

"...so we forced our way up!" said another, more muscular Lana, finishing the previous variant's sentence.

"She's in trouble," a red-haired Lana added, "And we heard that this particular lab might be able to help her."

"You better be careful, though," said a second super-powered Lana, "She's quite surly, personality-wise. We struggled to get her under control until-"

"Until what?" asked a curious Lena, leaning down towards the patient's face.

"Until she grew weak and started passing in and out of conciousness," said a pensive Lana, "We didn't know what to do with her so asked around and the name of your company came up."

As Lena leaned over, the stricken Lana Lang in question suddenly stirred and grabbed her by the throat, squeezing tightly. Lena panicked for a moment, worried that she might still be strong enough to snap her neck, but luckily the other Lana's came to her rescue. She was, indeed, weakening.

"Fix me!" is all she could mutter before falling fully back down on the table. Lena had seen a few of these kryptonian superwoman up close but none had exhibited this type of decline. She wondered what could possibly be different about her.

"She looked upwards at the sun when she first arrived," a more brooding Lana reluctantly informed her. "And whispered something about a red sun. Maybe in her universe, everything is different."

Lena's eyebrows darted upwards. "So the radiation required to empower you needs to be a yellow one? A red one would have no positive effect on your anatomy? Fascinating. That means she's a rare one that needs a red sun instead. Without it, she is depowered. She becomes like me."

"And me," said the original, in-universe Lana. "But can you help her?"

"I'll need to study her more first," said Lena, immediately turning on every available scanner and ordering her team to get back to work. She also subsequently asked the other Lanas to leave in order to give them some space again. Only the non-superpowered Lana remained.

"Why did you bring her here if she was so dangerous?" Lena asked her casually.

"I don't know. She's me, in a way. I felt it was my duty to help her out," she replied. "Maybe I'm just naive."

For three solid days they poked and prodded the unconscious Lana, and Lena was secretly thrilled as kryptonian bodies are usually so invincible that it makes it impossible to extract blood and tissue samples. She was developing a full working understanding of how they ticked now. But, just as the initial tests were complete, the weakened Lana inexplicably began to phase in and out of their reality.

"What's happening?!" asked a disturbed Lana while standing beside the bed.

"I don't know, but her vitals are OK. She isn't dying or anything. I think, I think she's just been fully de-charged. She's like a regular human now, no stronger than you or I."

As soon as she said this, the variant of SuperLana was gone, completely removed from their reality.

"I get it," said Lena. "Ursa called for superwomen to be drawn into our universe in order to challenge her, but when they lose their superpowers, when they're no longer a superwoman, they go back to their original universes. That's it! That's how we send them all back. If she was stripped by the power of a yellow sun, then we can strip the rest of their powers via the radiation of a red sun."

"Easier said than done," said the remaning Lana. "I mean, do you have a spare red sun laying around in mothballs?"

"No, but I think I can develop a weapon which will emit similar radiation in a highly condensed area that will, in turn, remove their powers individually long enough that they'll be sent back one by one."

"So, a sort of anti-kryptonian gun?" suggested Lana.

"Yes, something like that," said an excitable Lena. She and her team then worked tirelessly around the clock until they started really making progress on the project. Day and night they persevered until a functioning prototype was spat out by the crew. It had taken them a number of weeks, and the world outside had become even more dangerous in the meantime, with the superwomen threat still out of control, yet they eventually succeeded in their ambtions.

Lena presented a handheld device, similar to a gun, that, when fired, could bombard its target with a type of radiation that would negate their kryptonian powers causing them to, indeed, fade back to their own universe. The only problem was that it needed to be tested, and the only way to do that was to confront an actual superwoman and try to take them down. A lethal propostion.

Yet, armed with a gun each, the very much human and vulnerable Lena and Lana decided they were the ones who had to bear the burden. This was their universe after all so also felt it was their responsibility to attempt to save it. The main trick, though, was how to even get the attention of any of the aforementioned superwomen? The one thing that was in their favour, however, was that there certainly wasn't a lack of them going around these days. They scoured the city then, and, sure enough, one eventually caught their attention. Or they caught hers.

It was a Powergirl variant. Big and busty, as usual, she crashed down upon the street, causing the whole neighbourhood to quake. She herself took little notice, though, happy to make such an impact. She had a smirk on her face as she walked over to them, and when she reached the path, also enjoyed the feeling of standing over the two.

"Well, why did you randomly call me down here? What do you want?"

"We didn't think you could even hear us from up there," Lana nervously informed her.

Powergirl just rolled her eyes and reached over, grabbing the pair by the back of their jackets before lifting them off of the ground.

"I have super hearing, too, you fools. You'd think you'd know that considering this world, this universe, is increasingly being populated by people like me."

"Well, I did know," replied Lena. "I was just playing dumb in order to trick you."

"Trick me?" Powergirl laughed. "Clearly you don't quite understand what you're dealing with, little woman. We're like gods to you, and apparently there are more and more of us turning up with each passing moment, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Don't be so sure about that," Lana added.

They both pulled the fancy devices from their shoulders then and tried shooting Powergirl. In response, she merely laughed and flung them both away with ease. Neither had hit the target and so Powergirl remained unaffected. In contrast, both Lana and Lena were quite bruised by their fall. Dusting themselves off, however, they took aim again.

"You can't kill me," she said, standing firm and placing her hands dominantly on her hips. "I'm Powergirl!"

"But we're not trying to kill you," said Lena, turning her head and nodding to her partner. Both she and Lana pressed the trigger again, sending two red blasts at their jacked-up foe. She didn't budge at first, fully expecting herself to be immune to its power, only to then keel over when she was finally smothered by the radiation.

"W-what's h-happening to me?!" cried Powergirl, astonished at her weakening state. "I have never felt like this..."

As she fell to her knees, it was her turn to look up at her approaching adversaries.

"You'll be fine," said Lena. "We just need you out of our universe, but when you get back to yours, you'll be strong again. Don't worry."

They watched on as this variant of Powergirl faded away until she was no more."

"It worked!" declared Lana, "It actually worked."

Lena smiled. "Of course it did. I never had any doubts. Now, if we mass produce these things, we can track all of these superwomen down and put a serious dent into the problem. So, wanna hunt some more?"

Lana smiled this time, throwing her gun over a shoulder. "Sure thing. After all, busting makes me feel good!"

But their joy was short-lived, for as they walked down the street they noticed something pop up on the television screens in the window of a nearby store. Others gathered around, too, to have a look at what was occurring.

Things had taken a turn into the surreal as they witnessed an entire army of Ursa descending down upon a number of cities around the world, battling other, local superwomen for dominance. Nothing could seemingly stop them.

"My god, she came through, too. So many versions," said Lana. "I mean, of course she did. It's just, I never fully considered it. We can take on individual superwomen with these weapons but against a coordinated bunch like this? I'm not so sure."

"We need to get back to your lab even so," advised Lana, "We need to make more just to give ourselves at least a fighting chance before we're too late..."

However, there was a rumble coming from above. Both Lena and Lana dared then have a peak upwards. What they saw landing upon the buildings and streets wasn't just multiple superwoman clad in all types of different clothes and suits, but seemingly endless variants of Ursas. They were already here.

Triggered by this awesome sight, Lena and Lana sprinted back to LexCorp only to be suddenly attacked by one or two Ursas. The assault had begun.

While understandably terrified, they still took turns firing their weapons at them, and actually managed to depower and remove one or two from their universe.

"Hey, we're getting pretty good at this," joked Lana, following Lena again towards the skyscraper right in front of them. As they entered the building yet more Ursas appeared, but, together, the two brave humans managed to dispatch them too. The only problem was they needed to take the outside elevator which provided no cover from the piercing gaze of the various Ursas flying past. Of course, even if they had cover, Ursa's x-ray vision would easily penetrate it.

"I knew I should have lined the place with lead," quipped Lena, pressing the floor button again and again, hoping vainly that it would somehow speed up their ascent. As she did so, she failed to notice one particular Ursa smiling at her through the window.

She jumped back, but not far enough to avoid the grasp of Ursa as her arm smashed through the glass and grabbed her gun. She pulled it back out and snapped it in half. She smiled as she threw the pieces away and then reached in a second time. But Lana was prepared this time and blasted her through the resulting hole Ursa had just made, striking the villain. Shocked, the depowered Ursa fell from the sky and faded away back to her own universe before she even hit the ground.

At the same time, the lift itself hit the required floor, and both Lana and Lena ran forth towards the lab, hoping that the local chapter of Ursa's army had finally let them be.

However, as they made plans to pump out yet more of the weapons, another Ursa headed for their building and crashed through the huge windows in front of them. She was the classic version, right down her black kryptonian jumpsuit with low v-neck. As she landed, there was a noticable look of disdain upon her face, and she took great delight in how easily she could subdue them, grabbing Lana's arm and pulling the gun free.

"What an usual device this is," she said, studying it. "I saw it in action. You made a number of my sisters go away."

Without saying another word, she crushed Lana's weapon between her palms with little effort until it was completely destroyed. She then rubbed her hands together to remove any possible remaining debris before reaching down and grabbing both of their throats, lifting them off the ground again.

"So, let me return the favour and make you two go away!" she cried.

Lana and Lena were frightened beyond their wits. They couldn't escape. They knew this was it for them. The end of the road. They had gotten so close, though. A little more time and they might have stood a chance; but alas. Now, as Ursa slowly choked the life out of them, the last thing that they would likely see was the image of more of her 'sisters' flying past the smashed windows of the lab and over the skyline of Metropolis. Ursa's victory seemed assured.

But then something happened that they did not expect. There were a couple of red blasts that came from above that shot the offending Ursas straight from the sky. As a result, their Ursa became distracted and let them go. As they tried to catch their breath while lying on the floor, they saw her leave and fly back out through the window. She and her sisters were busy engaging another troop of mysterious superwomen who had suddenly arrived in Metropolis, and Metropolis only.

After a short battle in the sky, the Ursas actually found themselves outnumbered, so made a hasty retreat. As Lana and Lena approached the shattered window to check the scene out, they could hear cheers from the people below celebrating their saviors. But who were they?

Sure enough, it wasn't long before they flew and touched down upon the rooftops of the city, with a few of the band entering the lab and making themselves known to the others.

"Lois?!" cried Lana.

"Yes," the three instinctively replied at once, before looking at each other and laughing. One of them decided then to stand out in front of all the rest and try speak for the group. She had long brown hair, wore the red and blue suit, and was incredibly muscular.

"In fact, we all go by Superwoman in the various universes we hail from," she revealed.

"But what are you doing here like this?" asked Lena. "As a group?"

"We suspected that Ursa might try something like this," said another of the Superwomen, "So when we realized what was happening, we pooled our numbers together and waited for our moment."

"Yes," added the last one. "She might have an army of Ursa, but you guys now have an army of Lois."

Lena and Lana smiled then. There was a chance after all.

(To be concluded...)