Books / Comics Supergirl - The Heist Trap (1 Viewer)

[Asuka Kazama Ryona]

Kara Danvers trudged into her apartment, sliding her bag on the grey countertop before plopping herself down on her couch. Her blonde hair fanned out on the mint cushions as she sank into the sofa with a heavy sigh. After a long day of interviews, articles, and petty crime between all reporter-slash-editor duties, she was ready to relax and wind down for the night.

Just as her tired eyes began to shut, a shrill, incessant noise from far away in the city woke her up. The distress beacon—Kara thought— the exact device that she had given to trusted people all over the city so that they could call her in times of need.

Kara took a moment, relishing in her break just a moment longer. I guess my day isn’t quite over yet.

She pulled herself up with a heavy exhale and ran to her balcony. Kara unbuttoned her blouse to reveal a red and gold S on her chest, and took to the skies in full costume as Supergirl.

___________

Supergirl landed on the steps of the West National City Bank, a large, white building fronted by a Greek facade. She ran up to the tall bronze door and took a quick scan of the interior using her X-ray vision. It revealed the inside of the bank where a small group of armed men were standing around. One of them was pointing a heavy assault rifle at a figure lying on the ground—likely the source of the distress signal.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

She forced the door open with her shoulder and burst inside the bank. Before any of the thugs even realized that she was there, her hand was already around the barrel, easily crushing the gun being pointed at the person on the floor.

“Ahhh!” The thug holding the now-useless gun immediately let go of it and backed away from Supergirl. His gorilla mask did nothing to hide his fear as the Girl of Steel stood before him with a severe expression on her face. "Didn't you read the sign outside? Bank hours are only until 4:30!"

Supergirl threw the gun off to the side and faced the group, all of whom wore different animal masks. She shot a glance towards the lanky, grey-haired guard on the floor, careful to keep the robbers away from him. “It’s been a long day for me, and I want to get some sleep. So I’m going to give you all two seconds to put your hands up and surrender, or else I’m going to have to be a little rough with you all.”

All of them, except for the one Supergirl disarmed, wordlessly raised their weapons at her.

Or at least, they tried.

Supergirl gave a shrug that seemed to say Well, you asked for it! The heroine lunged forward, and the air seemed to have thickened around her. The masked crew looked like beasts frozen in time, as if suspended in a clear cast that only Supergirl was immune to. A burly thug in a wolf mask stared blankly at nothing while Supergirl ripped his half-raised rifle out of his hands, tossed it aside, and flicked him on his forehead. His pig mask-wearing companion met the same fate as Supergirl darted between them. The last two thugs got close to pulling the triggers on their guns, but it was moot. Their once-target had disarmed them before they could fire and gave each their heads a sparing knock. Gorilla Mask, who looked on, saw none of this. his human senses only registering a blur of red and blue as guns were tossed onto the floor. And then—as if returning to their plane of time— Supergirl stood by and looked on as her hits finally landed. As if on cue, the masked robbers groaned and clutched at their heads, falling over each other like bowling pins.

“I warned you guys! Why do you crooks ever think it’s a good idea to go against a woman who can move faster than a speeding bullet?” The tiredness she had begun with was gone now, washed away by the thrill of saving her city.

At the sound of panicked footsteps behind her, she turned around to see Gorilla Mask diving for one of the discarded guns. His hand was inches away from grabbing one before Supergirl kicked it away.

“At this point, you have to know that you’re better off giving up,” said Supergirl as she looked down on the thug at her feet.

Gorilla Mask only responded by clambering up, rearing back his arm, and throwing the strongest punch he could at Supergirl’s face.

“AAAHHHH!!!”

And he wound up a yelling, crying mess on the floor, cradling his sprained wrist with his other hand.

Supergirl left him there and ran over to the guard tied up on the floor. He had been silent the entire time. When Supergirl got to him, she saw his wrinkled face pale and drenched with sweat. She crouched in front of him and took a cursory glance over him to see if he was bleeding anywhere. She failed to notice that the signal device was nowhere to be found. “Perry! Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

Perry’s mouth opened, but the sound that came from his throat was not right. A delayed groan from Pig Mask took Supergirl’s attention instead. It was a moment before Perry finally stammered out a response. “N-no, I’m okay. But- but the vault… some of the goons got in there, you can’t let them get away!”

The superheroine stood up and turned away to look past the counters and into the vault of the bank. Using her X-ray vision, she saw one man taking out two big briefcases that she couldn’t see into. “There’s only one guy... But I can’t see what he’s stealing. His cases must be lined with lead—why? What’s in the vault?“

With her attention focused on the case contents, Supergirl was blind to the guard slowly standing up. The ropes that had bound him melted into his body. His arms grew to the size of enormous anacondas. Reddish-brown clay replaced the appearance of flesh. “Perry” grinned as he shapeshifted his enlarged fists into hammer heads and slammed them both on either side of Supergirl’s head from behind.

“Aghh!!”

Supergirl dropped to her knees and held her ringing head in her hands. She looked up at him in shock but she had no time to recover as Clayface put a hand on her shoulder and flung her to the far end of the bank with inhuman strength.

“Uggh!!”

She cried out as she slammed into a marble wall with enough force to crack it before bouncing off and falling face-down on the floor. “Ow...”

Supergirl pushed herself to her elbows and looked up to see a hulking, humanoid made of clay lumbering toward her. On its shoulders rested a misshapen, apelike head, with solid yellow eyes and a lopsided, gaping mouth that formed a menacing sneer. It raised its hands close to its hideous face and they shapeshifted into large spiked balls. Supergirl raced to identify this beast, still reeling from the whiplash of being snuck up on. Soon her mind latched to a recent story that Superman shared in passing about an encounter with a villain made of clay in Gotham City.

“Clayface!”

But there was no more time to think as Clayface’s earthen maces came crashing down on her. She got up to one knee, kicked off the marble, and flew out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed. Supergirl zipped behind Clayface and hovered high in the air, nearly reaching the tall ceiling of the bank. The confused villain looked around to see where Supergirl went, giving her time to get the lay of the land again in the bank. The thugs were still out cold, their weapons strewn across the floor near them. The man inside the vault was still there, taking out a few more briefcases from safety deposit boxes. But there was no sign of the tied-up guard.

“Are you looking for your friend? Why, he’s right here!”

She turned her attention back at Clayface who was looking up at her with bared teeth. Supergirl watched in horror as his skin shifted, his head receding between his shoulders as he shrunk into himself. His clay body sculpted itself to take the shape of a familiar, lanky man in a security guard’s uniform. Then the clay melted in places, forming clothes and human features, and it changed colors to complete Clayface’s transformation into a shivering, pale-faced guard.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” repeated Perry as he dropped to his knees, touching his face all over as if trying to see if it was truly his own.

Clayface's deception did the trick. Provoked, she zipped back down to the floor, grabbed the imitation Perry by the collar of his shirt, and lifted him up. He yelped as his feet left the ground, and his hands reflexively grabbed Supergirl’s clenched fists on his uniform. “You’re not fooling me, Clayface. Tell me where the real Perry is, now!”

“No! Please! Please don’t hurt me, it’s really me!” The panic in the man’s voice made Supergirl hesitate. Was it really a trick? Or was the man in her hands telling the truth? Could Perry and Clayface be split personalities in one shapeshifting body?

The moment of hesitation opened Supergirl up to a sucker punch to her nose.

“Gah!” Supergirl let go of Perry—no, Clayface— as she staggered and had her head whipped back by the impact. The disguised villain capitalized by following up with a big haymaker that slammed into her face.

“Ugh!” The blow spun her around and dropped her to hands and knees. He’s still strong even when he’s in human form!

“My acting skills need work, but I’ve got potential, right? You were sold just now on my helpless old man act! Not so hopeless eh, Supergirl?” The imitation Perry bent down to grab Supergirl’s hair and pull her up, but she whipped around and caught his thin wrist first. She stood up with a piercing glare from her blue eyes and said her next words clearly.

“I’m going to ask you again. Where’s Perry?”

“I’d be more concerned about yourself than him, if I were you.” Clayface’s free hand morphed from a frail, wrinkled fist into a hammer head as he swung at Supergirl again. But this time, she beat him to the punch with a powerful blow to his chest. Only Clayface didn’t fly backwards like she expected, nor did he flinch or react whatsoever as her fist burst through his soft clay body like a pencil through paper.

“What— UNGH!”

Clayface’s hammer fist collided with Supergirl’s face, whipping her head back one more time. He sneered as the impact knocked her into a sitting position on the cool, hard marble. Below her chest was covered in shadow, and Clayface saw the dazed look on her features as beams of moonlight illuminated her face from overhead. The villain only raised his leg to kick the confused heroine down.

The outline of a boot bearing down on her quickly snapped Supergirl out of her daze. Clayface’s sole stopped inches away from her nose as she caught his ankle with a hand. She tightened her grip and swept his other foot from underneath him with a grunt, making him tumble and fall to the floor with a surprised cry.

Supergirl got back up on steady feet, looking almost no worse for wear even though she’d taken a few hits. More than anything, she was over his cheap parodies and geared for a proper fight. Meanwhile, Clayface seemed unfazed as he climbed back up to a stand while the hole in his chest filled itself up with clay,

He can regenerate his body and he didn’t even flinch when I hit him, so physical attacks are probably off the table with this guy. In that case…

Clayface opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a powerful gust of ice-cold wind from Supergirl that locked his jaw in place. He couldn’t make a sound, and soon found out that he also couldn’t move his body at all as the freeze breath worked its magic almost instantly.

Supergirl paused to breathe. Then she looked right at Clayface’s eyes as she took off for the vault where the last robber stood. “I’m going to deal with your friend, then you’re going to tell me where Perry is!”

____________________________________________

Supergirl flew into the bank vault to see a tall, brawny man with a brown overcoat and bandages wrapped around his head. He was seated behind a metal table, too composed for the heroine’s liking. The walls were lined with rows of safety deposit boxes, arranged like sterile lockers. Behind the man, two sat open. A set of four briefcases sat atop the table in front of the man—the same ones she saw from her fight with Clayface.

“Supergirl! I thought you might come. Your fellow capes call me Hush. We haven’t met.”

Hush? The name didn’t ring any bells.

“Clayface wasn’t going to hold you off long enough for me to get away, so I thought I might sit here and try to talk instead.” His voice was raspy and fake sweet. “You’re a reasonable woman, so I’m sure you’ll listen to what I have to say.”

Supergirl studied him from across the table. This bandaged man was clearly no ordinary bank robber. He had Clayface in his employ, and he was eerily calm in the face of an immensely powerful Kryptonian who took out his entire squad. This guy has something up his sleeve— Supergirl figured.

In the face of uncertainty, she let Hush speak. "Thirty seconds. That's all you have before I fly you and all your buddies to prison."

"Lex Luthor." Hush put his hands on the mouths of two briefcases. "What I'm… freeing from this vault are things that belong to Lex Luthor, who I understand is number one on your list of enemies. And inside these cases are things that you don't want him to have."

He paused for a moment, looking at Supergirl's eyes and discreetly tracing her gaze to his chest. "So why don't I do you this favor, and you let me and my boys get out of your city?” His gloved fingers tapped the smooth metal of the briefcases absentmindedly. The sound mechanically echoed in the small alcove of the dark vault. “We never even hurt anyone while we were here—that guard you were asking for? Why, he’s going to wake up refreshed after a good night’s sleep in the break room.”

"Really now?" Supergirl’s reply dripped with sarcasm as she walked to the table. She had good reason not to believe his words; her X-ray vision saw right through him. She was watching as Hush's heart sped up while he made his case. And since the lead-lined briefcases concealed their contents, his defense was as good as a parceled up lie. “If that’s true, you wouldn’t mind opening these cases for me to look inside, would you?”

Supergirl watched him with her chin raised. Soft, airy chuckling came out through his bandages. “As a matter of fact, it’d be my pleasure.”

The tapping of his fingers ceased. He opened the two cases he had his hands on, revealing clusters of glowing green rocks. Supergirl’s eyes went wide.

Kryptonite!

The radiation’s effects acted quickly; just looking at the Kryptonite made her feel lightheaded, and she stumbled as the floor beneath her seemed to wobble left and right. It was as if a stopper had been pulled from inside her, Supergirl felt her strength drain from her legs. She turned in the direction of the door, realizing I’ve got to get out of here, there’s too much Kryptonite in those cases!

She was able to take only one step before the stun gun hit her.

“AAAAAAGGGHHH!!!”

An excruciating shock to her nape forced her to her knees screaming, her back arching sharply as her muscles were wracked with terrible spasms. Normally, the metal probes of the stun gun would have bounced off her skin harmlessly. But with the Kryptonite around, this was no longer the case. The marble vault floor dug up into the points of contact. She felt every bit of the blast that paralyzed her, raising goosebumps on her bare skin. The shock wore off quickly, but the pain that remained made her drop to all fours.

“You...aren’t very discreet are you?” Hush chuckled as he walked past the stunned Supergirl. “Seeing my heart race—I bet you thought you had me!” Supergirl winced and attempted to lunge at Hush. He sidestepped and leaned against the wall of metal boxes. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Supergirl. But I am merely very excited to be here.”

Supergirl blinked and shook her head. The pain in her neck had reduced to a pulsing ache, but she was trying to keep the radiation-induced nausea at bay.

“Take a look around you. I bet you didn’t expect a supply of Kryptonite to be sitting inside the vaults of the West National City bank.” He looked down at her with a sneer. “That’s the beauty of it. Why would you, or Superman, or any of your greatest enemies think to look for Kryptonite from a regular bank of all places?”

Her breathing grew heavy as her addled mind struggled to comprehend Hush’s words. From her spot on the floor, Supergirl helplessly watched as Hush walked to the vault door. She belatedly reached out to stop him, but her movements were too slow. Shoving the door with a thud, Hush closed off the only escape she had from this room. Supergirl had been locked in with Hush in this dark, tight poison chamber.

Hush continued, “And Luthor wouldn’t need to worry about bank robbers or even some B-list freak with powers breaking in here and getting his precious Kryptonite—because they could never pull off a heist with Supergirl in town, right?” He walked faster now, back to Supergirl’s kneeling frame.

A grin crept up his mouth as he circled the heroine like a shark. Supergirl slowly climbed to her feet, weak from the radiation and keeping her center of gravity low.

“Baldy didn’t count on someone like me looking for his secrets in plain sight, and coming for them with a plan to take care of the security! Now, I’ve got his treasure, and...” She raised her fists in a fighting stance keeping her shoulders tight and her elbows close to her body as she tracked him. Then, as if changing his mind, Hush did an about turn and made his way across the silent vault to the metal table.

He paused in his tirade, grasping the handle of a closed briefcase. Then Hush suddenly whipped around to throw it at Supergirl’s head. “You’re not getting out of here, Supergirl!”

“Hagh!” Supergirl grunted as she ducked out of harm’s way. The briefcase struck the wall of lockers behind her with a ringing crash. At the same moment, Hush strode towards her, his large frame quickly filling her field of vision.

And as Hush came dangerously close, Supergirl swung a haymaker at his head. But it had little power behind it. Hush’s arm easily caught hers and he twisted her wrist, making her body arch forward and drawing a small cry.

“You know, this is my favorite part of the plan.” With his other arm, Hush slugged Supergirl’s abs with a heavy uppercut. “UUGHH!!”

“Cause it’s. So. Easy!” He followed up with a second uppercut, this time to her chin.

“AUGH!”

The punch rocked Supergirl and left her staring at the ceiling. He let go of her arm as her head lolled forward after getting whipped back, and Hush saw the pained expression on her pretty face.

“Of course you’re not coming without a fight…” Hush rumbled as he laid into her with a right hook across her jaw.

“GAAUGGH!!” Supergirl spun around from the blow and staggered away drunkenly from Hush. He followed her, grabbed her by her shoulder, and turned her back around to face him.

“But you never learned how to fight without your powers, did you?!” A brutal punch from his left hand slammed Supergirl’s face. Hush’s direct assault ragdolled her, the impact his fist made to her jaw whirled her around and dropped her like a ton of bricks. She managed to break her fall with her hands just before her head hit the floor.

“So when your powers are taken away, you’re weak! You’re nothing!”

With the Kryptonite negating her invulnerability, she could feel every blow she took from this mummified assailant. Hush was a slow, lumbering combatant by her normal standards, but the radiation made her too sluggish to dodge his hits. It certainly did not help that her nausea had grown worse; her breaths came out in short gasps and she shut her eyes tight as she tried to fight the growing urge to puke. She felt as though any movement was going to make her sick, but she knew she could not stay down.

“Agghhh…” Supergirl groaned as she pushed herself off the floor gingerly. Her guts hurt from the uppercut she took before to her unprepared core. She turned back to face Hush again who towered over her easily, looking healthy and untouched in contrast to her ailing self. I don’t know how I’m going to win this… he’s going to put my lights out if I don’t pull something off, fast!

Her eyes flitted across the metal room, the rows of silver lockers turning into blurs as she looked high and low for anything she could use to help her. She rose to her full height and backed away from Hush, her search growing more frantic as Hush closed in on her. The only notable things she saw were the opened Kryptonite briefcases.

“You talk big for someone fighting against a girl who can’t stand straight from radiation poisoning. Why don’t you put some of those rocks away, and we can fight on even ground?”

“Nice try, Supergirl. But I’d rather fight dirty and win!” Hush trailed off as he lunged, and Supergirl was too slow to dodge as his hands caught her by her shoulders. She frantically brought a fist up and swung at him, landing a blow on his cheek that did not faze him in the slightest. And before Supergirl could attack again, he pulled her close and pulverized her with a heavy knee up to her stomach.

“OOOUUGGHH!!!”

Supergirl’s eyes shut tight as her body bucked from the blow, inadvertently pushing her rear out and briefly lifting her feet off the floor. She would have sagged to the floor thanks to the deep ache in her failing abs if it weren’t for Hush keeping her up. Supergirl was trapped in his hands, unable to defend herself as he gave her one more crushing knee straight to her solar plexus.

“HAUUUGH!!!”

The air in Supergirl’s lungs whooshed out of her in a loud, forceful exhale that echoed off the silver rows of lockers on the walls. Her vision blurred; her hand clutched the tip of the S on her chest tight as Hush released her and let her sink to her knees. She sat there gasping weakly, too stunned by the pain to move or even think.

“This has been fun, but I’m afraid our time together is up. Now, you go to sleep…”

Hush walked behind Supergirl and bunched up the end of her red cape into one of his large hands. Then he bent over to wrap it around Supergirl’s neck and used it to haul her up to her feet, choking the weakened heroine with her own cape.

“Ghhk- nghhk-”

Supergirl was broken out of her daze and her hands flew up to her neck, trying to pry her cape off. But her efforts were in vain, as she could muster no energy to free herself from the choke. The fear she felt was showing as clear as day through the wide-eyed look on her face.

Hush— the briefcases—need to—Damn it! Damn it! I can’t breathe!

Tears started to well up in Supergirl’s eyes in her desperation. Her cheeks were puffed out and flushed as she spluttered in Hush’s grip. Her hands weakly swatted at places they couldn’t reach. Everything about her seemed to tremble as her own cape tightened around her throat, compressing flesh to the sound of fabric tearing. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t beg him for mercy. Her mind only raced.

The bandages on Hush’s mouth stretched as he smiled. His scheme had gone off without a hitch, and he was going to walk out of there with exactly what he came for. He stood behind Supergirl watching her panicked struggles fade, before they finally ceased as she wilted in his chokehold, her arms dropping to her sides.

“Out so soon? Pathetic.”

Hush sighed and let go of Supergirl. Her cape hung loosely over her body, and she slumped to her knees before falling to the floor limply like a discarded toy. He walked in front of her unconscious body as she lay on her side, then he gave her a weak kick to roll her onto her back.

Supergirl’s delicate features had a guarded, furrowed look to them even as they remained inert in her slumber. Hush pushed away her torn cape which had blanketed her torso, letting him see the rhythmic rise and fall of the S on her chest as he breathed. As he looked down at the defeated Supergirl, a thought formed in his head.

“Why don’t I take you with me too?” Hush wondered aloud as his eyes ran over Supergirl’s figure. “The Kryptonite was a huge score, but you… a superheroine like you is worth a king’s ransom.”

He bent over and grabbed the S on Supergirl’s costume to pull her up; her hair hung loosely and her head drooped back as he brought her limp body up close to his. With her face pointed to the ceiling, he didn’t see her eyes shoot open.

Without warning, Supergirl dug her fingers into Hush’s nape and threw her knee as hard as she could into his crotch. She was done playing possum.

“Really? A cheap shot?” She heard him say.

Her heart sank as her attack only hit the tough surface of a protective cup. Hush grabbed her jaw in one hand and brought her face to his level. The look of shock and dismay on her features gave way to fear as she saw his angry, bloodshot eyes up close.

“GUUUUGGGHHH!!!”

Supergirl’s jaw dropped and her eyes bulged from their sockets as Hush retaliated with a hard belly punch that sent shockwaves through her. She lurched over from the blow, but Hush took a fistful of her blonde curls, yanked her hair back, and bent her the other way. Then he walked to a side of the room, dragging her by her hair as he slammed her back into a wall of safety deposit boxes with a loud BANG! He let go of her hair, leaving her to lean against the wall for support.

Supergirl was in a sorry state. Her eyes were half-closed and her mouth hung agape as she breathed heavily. Her attempt at a comeback had compounded her nausea and left her muscles weak from the exertion. Her arms were limp at her sides. She no longer had the strength to throw up her guard or put up any kind of resistance. Her knees looked like they were about to buckle at any moment, her calves and ankles shaking involuntarily.

“You should’ve just stayed down, Supergirl,” Hush said while shaking his head. “Would’ve made it so much easier for you.

He cracked his knuckles as he looked down at the beaten-up Supergirl stuck to the wall of boxes. The once-invincible heroine was a small, pitiful mess in his eyes. Sweat dripped down her pained and helpless face, highlighting her pulsating throat. He could see how much she struggled just to stay upright—a pathetic front for her own dignity. He knew for a fact that she could not fight anymore, giving him a golden opportunity to finish her off.

He started off by drilling a heavy blow into the center of Supergirl’s vulnerable stomach, right over her navel.

“AUUUUGGHHH!!”

Oh god, I can’t take any more of this… I give up, please, just have mercy…

Supergirl was overwhelmed with pain; her stomach had already taken too much punishment, and the gut punch she had just received only served to worsen her situation. She wanted nothing more than to fall to the ground and curl up in a ball, but Hush kept her pinned to the wall of deposit boxes. He crushed her stomach against the deposit boxes with his fist, making it harder for Supergirl to breathe.

She laid a hand on his forearm to push it away from her, but she didn’t have the strength to make him budge at all. She didn’t have to—Hush pulled his arm back by himself, though he only did it to slug her in the stomach once more.

“GUUUUHHH!!!”

The second gut punch folded Supergirl over his fist instantly. She remained doubled over, groaning and gasping for air, finally unable to stand straight on her own power anymore. So Hush put his free hand on her head and pushed it back to the wall, straightening her out himself to look at her face.

WHAM!

“UNGH!” A punch to the face turned Supergirl to her right, her eyes squeezed tight as her features scrunched up in pain. Her breaths came in fast, shallow pants from panic that bubbled out of her. An overwhelming wave of nausea threatened to keel her over, and her mouth filled with saliva as she fought the urge to heave. Hush cupped her chin in one of his hands to make her face him again, and unloaded another haymaker on her opposite cheek.

“To think that you’re still awake after all of this… you’re a big sink for punishment, aren’t you?!”

BAM!

“OOGHH!!” This time Supergirl was whipped around to her left, a line of spit dripped out of the corner of her dark pink lips. Again, Hush grabbed her by the chin to bring her back. She was a ragdoll in his hands; every last bit of defiance had long been beaten out of her.

“But I’m a thorough man, and I’m not leaving here until you’re truly out cold.”

And Hush made a complete punching bag out of Supergirl, bodying her against the wall with blow after blow to keep her from falling down as she became limp. The sound of skin hitting skin bounced around the dark vault, making the room feel smaller than it was. Supergirl could barely even distinguish the blows as Hush thudded his fists across her face over and over again, rocking it in every direction and keeping her eyes squeezed shut.

“AUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!”

Hush drove his fist deep into her gut, drawing out a long cry that echoed throughout the bank vault. Then he watched with satisfaction as Supergirl’s blue eyes rolled up in her head and her body wilted and fell forward. And she wasn’t faking it this time. Supergirl, beaten within an inch of her life, was finally knocked out.

He swallowed, lowering his body to catch her over his shoulder, and put his hands on her back to keep her steady as he stood back up. Supergirl’s limbs dangled limply in the air as Hush slung her listless figure on his shoulder, carrying her like a sack of flour. He put a finger to his earpiece and spoke in between heavy breaths.

“We’re ready for pickup. I have the package, and a nice little bonus to boot. You’ll see.”

He went to the table to collect the cases of Kryptonite before finally making his way out of the vault. As Hush hauled the unconscious Supergirl out, her sleeping face bounced lightly against his back with every stride. In this position, the arms of the broken heroine hung straight down—almost as if she were flying away in a dream.