Uh, the two things that jump out at me aren't quality issues, but that it looks like you drew Addy missing the wrong hand (it's her right hand that's missing, IIRC) and that she's wearing glasses (the Kryptonian hybridization fixed her eyesight so she doesn't wear glasses).

I literally said "the hand is wrong" 🤣
 
It's still a very good picture, we all take creation at our own pace. I added it to the threadmarks.

You leave me no choice 😅 I'm gonna make it right then. It's really bad in my opinion and I didn't exactly manage to capture the creepy of her creepy smile. Also, my notebook is the size of smartphone, like two thirds of it, and I hate sketching on small papers, it fucks up any perspective there might've been.

So, she doesn't wear glasses, has a hand prosthetics in that scene and the hand is wrong. Hair length? Preferable clothing?
 
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Probably no chapter today. My power is on the fritz because the province is currently being steamrolled by a blizzard.

So, she doesn't wear glasses, has a hand prosthetics in that scene and the hand is wrong. Hair length? Preferable clothing?

No glasses, her right arm up to the elbow is replaced with a highly realistic prosthetic, her hair length is now about around her shoulders, and her preferable clothing is... I'd say a t-shirt? Jeans? Not many layers, and colours are only relevant when you're working outside of graphite. If you do, favourite colours of hers are yellow, purple, and wine-red.
 
Probably no chapter today. My power is on the fritz because the province is currently being steamrolled by a blizzard.



No glasses, her right arm up to the elbow is replaced with a highly realistic prosthetic, her hair length is now about around her shoulders, and her preferable clothing is... I'd say a t-shirt? Jeans? Not many layers, and colours are only relevant when you're working outside of graphite. If you do, favourite colours of hers are yellow, purple, and wine-red.
Addy hates jeans because of the coarser fabric. :P

Anyway, that sucks. Had some outages a few days ago here because of aging infrastructure not keeping up with demand.
 
FAN ART - RATMOR - CREEPY ADDY 2
As they say here in Russia, HOBA <=attention obscure memetic reference, search as Russian Hoba Cat 🤣 there are totally memes like that in English but I don't know them. I'm still inept but I'm no artist. What do you think? It's still wrong all over but man I like it myself at least.


 
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SEASON 2 - EPISODE 12
EPISODE 12

Kara was not, in fact, happy.

It was late evening, and she'd only fairly recently arrived back home from Lena's office. The television was set to a news program, turned low, talking about the Alien Amnesty Act signing that was going to be happening tomorrow. Their worries about the president risking too much in still making it a public venue - despite the very real attempt to kill her - were something Addy actually agreed with; a dead president would be quite the statement, and Cadmus seemed terribly invested in making them.

But, no. That wasn't really the focus of her attention right now.

Kara sat across from her, in her pyjamas, with her head in her hands. Blonde tangles fell down around her fingers, left loose and uncontained by a ponytail.

She'd been like that for the last five minutes.

"Lena knows you're an alien," Kara repeated, slowly, like she still couldn't believe it.

"Or at least has a reason to believe I may be one," she acknowledged, turning her gaze away from Kara and down to her feet. Goose socks stared back up at her, and she wiggled some of her toes just to see the way the pictures stretched along with the fabric.

The sigh that blossomed out of Kara's mouth was long, loud, and bordering on a groan. The sound of the couch creaking almost drew Addy's gaze up from the floor, but she managed to hold back the impulse.

"That's... not good," Kara said, at last, her voice no longer muffled by her hands.

She wiggled her toes again, if only to distract herself. "I do not believe she will do anything about it."

Across from her, Kara made a strangled noise, and Addy couldn't help but look up again. On the coffee table, Kara's laptop sat amongst piles of papers, with handwritten notes in the margins. A quick scan over the contents she'd avoided looking too deep into showed that they seemed to be related to statistics for what happens when minority groups are outed to those who are hostile to them.

She'd clearly been doing her homework, and a lot of it, by her estimate. What worried her now was that Kara might've taken her own understanding of the situation away from said research, and might not be terribly enthusiastic about letting it go.

"She's building that device, isn't she?" Kara cut back in, proving her very much right with how her tone was the slightest bit scathing. Not angry, not quite, but deeply frustrated.

Addy's eyes flicked back to the floor, a touch involuntarily. "I'm not sure if she'll be doing that either."

That statement was met with deafening silence, a silence bad enough that she found herself peeking back up at Kara, who was now staring a bit blankly at her, confusion writ over her brows as they scrunched together in thought.

"Well, did you check?" Kara asked after another few moments.

Which... no. She hadn't. In her haste to escape the awkward situation that she had, rather bluntly, put herself into, she really hadn't thought about it. Indicating as much with a shake of her head, Kara threw her arms up, looking exasperated.

"Then how do you know?!"

She paused, at that. Tilted her head to one side to just think about how to phrase this, if only because she wasn't sure how well Kara might take a full recounting of the conversation she had.

Finally, after a few more seconds to collect her thoughts, she decided. "I gave her a hypothetical of what those devices could be used for with very little effort," she began, relatively confident that this was the best way to probably put it. "By the end of it, she looked deeply horrified and I believe she didn't understand the ramifications of what she was building. She was very upset by the time I had completed the discussion."

That earned her another stare, Kara's face twitching as she visibly worked over her words. Addy could all but see the neurons firing in her brain, forming connections, opinions, thoughts.

"What did you say to her, exactly?"

Addy froze. That was not part of the plan.

Kara's eyes narrowed a little. "Addy," she pressed, voice firm.

"I told her how they could be used to systematically eradicate or at least identify every alien in the city."

Kara's face shifted from suspicion to outright horror. "You told her how to kill aliens with it." It wasn't a question, more of a statement.

Despite her better attempts to achieve the contrary, Kara was evidently not taking what she was supposed to away from this. "Lena is a very smart person," Addy pointed out, a touch stubbornly. "But those thoughts didn't even occur to her. I doubt she would do so in the first place, if that's the case."

Finally, the words made it through to Kara, who breathed out in a noisy huff and slumped backwards. Her back was arched oddly, neck behind her shoulders, as she stared up at the ceiling. Certainly, if not for the fact that she had superhuman abilities, that position would probably be deeply uncomfortable.

For a while, it was just silence, Kara wordlessly staring vacantly up at the ceiling as her hands flexed against the cushions on the couch. The only real sound that Addy could pick up on was her own breathing and the steady whirr of Kara's laptop, whose cooling system was evidently working overtime.

"...Are you sure?" Kara asked, at last. Her voice was timid, tentative.

Not that Addy knew why, exactly. "Sure of?"

Kara craned her neck back around, shrugging forward until she had rearranged her posture into something less painful to look at. "Lena not being—bad."

Personally, Addy wasn't sure if she was the greatest judge of character when it came to the arbitrary lines humans and other sentient creatures drew for what was or was not entirely acceptable. She wasn't terribly fond of said lines in the first place, but all of that said, she liked to think she was the greatest judge of character when it came to things that actually mattered. Still, she could probably work in the boundaries, at least this time around. "I do not think Lena understood the capacity that device had for harm," Addy explained, matter-of-factly. "She appears to have made it in large part because of unconscious bias which has led her to feel as though aliens are potential hostiles. I believe now that she understands what even a rudimentary copy of the device could do if put into the wrong hands, and will abstain from bringing it to the market."

Kara flopped again, looking a bit more relaxed. "I hope you're right," she admitted quietly. "She—she seemed so good, you know? Something genuine and honest to come out of the Luthor family after all the stuff they've done. Someone who, who got what it was like."

Her gaze shifted down to her, a little worried still, but less soul-crushingly miserable as it had been when Addy had informed her of the predicament in the first place.

"But Addy, the rules—they still apply," Kara stressed, leaning forward a bit. "We're going to have to tell Alex tomorrow that she probably has a good idea that you're an alien, and if that device still comes on the market..."

Addy breathed in, let the air struggle in her lungs for a few moments, before letting it out. She didn't like playing in absolutes, but she understood why people took comfort from them. "I will quit, if it does."

Rules were rules, after all, regardless of how much she may dislike them.



The D.E.O. was, predictably, heavily packed. Agents stood shoulder-to-shoulder, forming row after row in loose crescents around the raised platform at the head of the operation room.

Addy was in costume, of course, as this time she was actually here officially. Kara, next to her, was much the same, her costume fluttering slightly from the wind drifting in through the open drone landing at the far other end of the space.

J'onn stalked across the raised platform with long strides of his legs, face stern, orderly. His pace slowed, drew to a halt as he neared the center of the platform, and stopped entirely as he turned to focus his attention on everyone below.

"Against recommendations to the contrary, President Marsdin will still be going through with a public signing today," J'onn started, voice more than a little dry. It wasn't hard to tell that he was in something of a bad mood. "Which means we have to prepare for the worst. The signing will take place in nine hours, in a public, open space."

He turned, fishing a small remote out of his pocket and pointing it at the screens behind him. They lit up in unison, faces, text, locations, even equipment statistics blooming across them.

"We know several things about this case, after some investigation. First and foremost is that the culprit for the original attack was an Infernian wearing a suit capable of turning them nearly indetectable, and who we have reason to believe is being deployed either unwillingly or under threat of retaliation by Cadmus, due to a larger string of missing Infernians being noted within the last month."

The crowd around her grew a bit tumultuous at that, murmuring between one another. She could make out questions about what an Infernian was, about Cadmus, but the voices grew fainter and dimmed as J'onn kept his silence, until they guttered and died entirely, leaving the space silent once again.

"With the missing Infernians, and the fact that Fort Rozz is missing several very similar types of power armour, that leads me to the second thing: we must assume, going into this, that Cadmus is directly involved. As a consequence, Metallo is at high risk of making an appearance, as Cadmus would benefit tremendously in terms of public fear and terror by killing the president, and it is highly unlikely they will not take the chance, even if it means showing their hand.

"All of that in mind, we have certain countermeasures for the above. Kryptonite shielding will be distributed as it was during the president's arrival. We will be additionally deploying the promethium and kryptonite scanners, which we've had online and placed throughout the city over the last week. To account for the Infernian, fireproof gear will be handed out to everyone, as well as facial coverings that can protect against inhaling toxic fumes such as smoke, and we'll be placing heat sensors to see if the armour has also shielded itself from those.

"Moving away from defensive equipment, we have recently discovered Metallo is at least vulnerable to powerful electrical discharges, unlikely to be general, but is known to negatively affect him tangibly when directly applied to his exposed kryptonite core. Tasers will be required for this mission, and we will be looking into deploying some of the electrical weaponry we have stored on-base."

J'onn turned away from them, then, pacing back towards the screens. He levelled his remote at it again, tapping a button to cause four of the screens to bring up a single image of a map. On it were red dots, showing something of a wide spray pattern across it, though most of them were largely located in the downtown regions of National City.

"What we know of Cadmus' current operations is both limited in scope and yet general enough to extrapolate from. The most recent attack we know of - the warehouse incident - was unlikely to be an attack specifically on aliens, but rather an attempt to find and obtain tech from Maxwell Lord, who owned the warehouse, and who turned their offers down and was as a consequence nearly murdered in his office.

"Outside of strategic attacks on places where people may be storing technology, Cadmus has spent no small amount of time targeting and abducting aliens. It would appear they have insider knowledge into the communities, and know certain cultural habits, as they have been utilizing them to attack when they'd least be expected to. Cadmus may be rounding up aliens to make them attack during the signing, as if they succeed, it would make for a very good justification to institute their rule if a president just happens to die at the hands of aliens when she's trying to make peace with them.

"Altogether, this means that Cadmus is a wild card," J'onn said, with great emphasis on the last few words, turning his attention fully back to them. "The exact things they can bring to the table are an immediate unknown, and countermeasures must be flexible to account for that. Now, any questions or suggestions?"

Addy had a few. She raised her hand, just in time to see Kara do the same.

Kara stared at her hand for a moment, smiling sheepishly. "You go ahead first, Administrator."

Not one to reject the chance, she focused back on J'onn. "I have a colleague who happens to be very interested in electrical weaponry, and who will likely not be opposed to helping weaponize it to protect the president. I request we bring her on board for the operation."

J'onn's stare was scrutinizing, vaguely suspicious, like he had some idea of who she was talking about. "Will she be able to prepare something in the time we have left?"

Serling wasn't exactly normal. "I have no reason to believe otherwise."

J'onn, slowly, nodded. "I'll send Agent Danvers with you, Administrator. She will acquire the requisite forms to ensure your colleague's silence, in the meantime. Now, Supergirl?"

"Well," Kara started, sounding a bit nervous. "I was thinking there was also someone else who could possibly help us and who has electricity powers?"

J'onn just stared at her.

Kara stared back.

"You're recommending we bring Livewire on board for this operation," he said, slowly.

"I am suggesting that she can be very dangerous when the need suits her, yes."

J'onn shut his eyes, reaching up to brush a thumb over the bridge of his nose. "Fine," he said at last, eyes cracking open to glance somewhere into the throng of agents. "Agent Vasquez will go with you. I'm assuming you'll fly over to her last known location?"

When J'onn glanced back their way, Kara nodded.

"Anyone else?" J'onn asked, scanning across the crowd.

There was a bit of a murmur, and Addy turned her head around to peek over the rest of the agents. Off in the distance, a ways back by her estimate, a hand was peeking out above everyone else, fingers twitching.

"Agent Schott?"

Ah. Winn.

The hand fell back beneath the tides of people as Winn, presumably, moved through them. People parted, got out of the way, and let him arrive at the foot of the platform. Winn glanced up at J'onn, who merely motioned for him to come up, which he did with a few quick steps up the nearby ledge.

Turning to the crowd, he looked suddenly a whole lot more nervous than he normally did. Which was really saying something, as Winn was categorically the most nervous person Addy had ever met.

"I, uh, due to the, y'know, recent... problems we've had with fighting combatants dead set on destroying our democracy? I've made some stuff. For everyone. That I am hopefully getting permission to deploy..?"

She spared a quick look in J'onn's direction, who was nodding firmly at Winn.

Apparently regaining some of his confidence, Winn continued. "Which I have gotten permission to deploy. We'll uh, there won't be many, as I've spent most of my time designing the kryptonite suits for both Administrator and Supergirl down there—hi you two—but I've got things for everyone else as well. These include a long, rod-like device that I've mocked up which should, in theory, disrupt the energy found inside of the fire the Infernian makes to hopefully put it out. Thanks, by the way, whoever informed me that it wasn't real fire, it's helped a lot in designing that. I will also be working on rigging up tasers to be a bit more lethal in discharge. If you're interested in handling very prototype weapons, and get uh, Director J'onn's permission, come to me, and we can work something out."

A hand poked at her side as Winn continued on, his voice lapsing out of her focus as she turned to look. Alex was staring at her from amongst the crowd, which had dispersed out a bit with Winn breaking up the more neat rows. Now it was more of a loose crowd, with enough distance between people that you could reasonably squeeze through it, if significantly less professional in presentation.

"Is it who I think it's going to be?" Alex asked over the sound of Winn's rambling.

Addy just nodded.

"Oh, joy," Alex muttered, reaching up to comb fingers through her hair. "Did you know I read her file? Honestly, the people you work with worry me sometimes."

"If it's any consolation, I believe Serling has learned to channel her fervent desire for destruction and mayhem into underground robot fight clubs," Addy said, hoping that it did help her anxiety a little.

Alex's face cramped up even worse. "It... it isn't. Addy, why would that make me feel any better?"

"Because at least this time it's not being used on people."



Addy still couldn't quite get over the fact that Serling had chosen one of the most stereotypical suburbs to live in.

Not that she didn't understand her reasoning. No, she could see the value in having a nuclear bomb shelter beneath one's house, but it didn't change the fact that Serling as a whole was a person who did not fit in with the general population of the area.

If anything, Serling felt like she should be found in one of two places: a hermit's hut, outside of city limits, surrounded by a chainlink fence, or one of those massive apartment buildings you saw being developed in the especially high-density parts of the world, where the general consensus had been to ditch building wide and instead go for tall.

The car lurched a bit as it hopped from the street level to the incline of Serling's driveway, easing itself to a stop as it reached the bumper of an existing car.

Addy spared a glance at the front door of the house, watched it open and Serling's head pop out from the inside, staring suspiciously at them. She was fairly confident that Serling had cameras strategically located around the area, but she'd yet to find any evidence of such a thing other than how timely she could be when people were coming around.

Alex, in the driver's seat, made a low grunt of frustration as she twisted the keys from the ignition and popped the door, unbuckling as she went. Addy did the same, following her out into the open air.

Dry Californian heat met her as she passed out onto the pavement below - and she was again coming to learn that while it couldn't really bother her much, she much preferred cooler temperatures despite it - a bit choking and stale, without even a nip of wind. The coastal parts of California weren't so bad, with the sea there to offset the horrendous dryness of the region, but this was hardly beachfront property.

Turning her focus back to Serling, she watched as the woman's head swung between both herself and Alex, lingering mostly on her costume, her face mask.

"Look!" Serling called out, her voice managing to carry down the length of the driveway. "Whatever you think I did, I didn't!"

Shutting her door behind her, Addy glanced Alex's way. She was staring at Serling, eyes slightly narrowed, with a deeply reluctant expression on her face.

"Actually, Ms. Roquette," Alex hollered back, her voice steady and her face smoothing out into something more professional. "We're here to extend you an offer." With that, she started walking forward, steps carrying her up the tilt of the driveway, with Addy picking up her pace to match.

Serling merely edged behind the door just a little more, leaving just a sliver of her nose, some of her cheekbone, and a suspiciously-squinted eye visible. "I'll have you know, shadowy government agencies trying to sway me to their side is nothing new to me."

They drew to a halt just at the foot of the porch, leaving a few bodies width between themselves and Serling, not that the woman seemed to appreciate their closeness anyway, if the way the door was inching increasingly closed was any indication.

"It's a matter of national security, Ms. Roquette," Alex said, voice still composed. "The president's life is in danger, and we've been led to believe you may have exactly the right tools to ensure the people who may try to kill her don't make it that far."

Finally, that seemed to spur something in Serling. The door creaked open a little more, allowing her head to fully emerge from within once more. Her eyes remained narrowed in suspicion, but it was certainly an improvement from when she'd been mere seconds away from slamming the door in their faces. "Cut the shit. What's your angle?"

Alex's composure broke. She sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose and shoot Addy a bit of an unfair grimace, as it certainly wasn't her fault that people didn't know how to engage with Serling without inspiring her to become like that. You just had to know that she was raised in Gotham, and responded to potential threats as though they were real ones. A smart, if exhausting way to be safe, in her opinion.

"We want your electric buzz saw," Alex said at last, eyes flicking away from Addy. "As well as your expertise with electrically-infused weaponry."

The door creaked open just a bit more, showing a sliver of what Serling was wearing—pyjamas, if the skull-and-bones print was anything to go by. "...That's it? No demanding I make you another copy of The Fog, or like, fuck, what was the last one? Build us a robot which can replace someone's cells?"

"In fact," Alex interrupted, apparently sensing the oncoming rant. "We will pay you to do something that is literally the opposite of that. We don't care about your robots."

"Well, I do," Serling responded snidely, sounding unimpressed about the honour of her robots being impugned. Or, at least she did for the few seconds it took her to process what Alex had just said, by Addy's estimate. "Wait, pay?"

The door swung open entirely, revealing Serling outfitted in a set of skull-and-bones covered pyjamas, some fluffy looking slippers, and a gun clutched in the other hand, if pointed in the opposite direction of them.

That was one of Serling's major failings—avarice. Well, that and neuroticism when it suited her, anyway.

"Yes," Alex grit out. "Pay. Handsomely, might I add." Each word that left her lips sounded painful, like she was struggling to even get them out. Honestly, considering Alex apparently handled some of the D.E.O.'s budget management, it probably was.

"Aw shit," Serling said, something like a smile stretching over her face, the sort of smile Addy had come to associate with her being about ten seconds away from hauling out some new weapon of war she was going to graft to a robot in the near future. "You should've mentioned as much, muffin-top."

For whatever reason, that elicited a startled noise of honest-to-goodness anger out of Alex. "Excuse m—"

"I'll be right back with my shit, and a better pair of clothes," Serling interrupted, and promptly slammed the door in their faces.

Addy glanced towards Alex, searched deeply for any signs of muffins.

She found none.

"What does muffin-top mean?" She asked, at last, because unless some of the crumbs on Alex's sleeve were from a muffin, she was drawing a blank.

Alex opened her mouth, glanced at Addy, then shut it. After a moment, she grunted. "Nothing you have to worry about."

Turning her gaze down to her own body, she wasn't really sure what her flesh had to do with muffins. "Because I am an alien?" She asked, if only for clarification. She'd look it up later, anyway.

Alex pointedly didn't look in her direction. "Let's just go with that."

Silence stretched out after that point, lasting a truly uncomfortable amount of time. Serling, evidently, was taking her good time to get her things ready, and while Addy could agree and even encourage being careful and prepared, she wasn't so fond about standing around doing nothing for fifteen minutes.

But that's just what she did.

The door clattered, knob twisting before it was yanked open. Serling emerged with her buzzsaw under one arm and a toolbox under the other, with a larger backpack thrown over her back. She'd changed clothes too, into paint-stained sweatpants and a black, thin long-sleeved turtleneck that looked dreadfully hot, but matched well with her black boots, if it was any consolation.

Turning in one smooth movement, Serling fitted her key into the lock, made some odd body movements to wrench her wrist in the right direction without dropping anything, and then pocketed her keys once she was certain the door was locked. Turning back to the two of them, she grinned. "Speaking of, how much is handsomely paid? If possible, can it be a yacht?"

Alex turned away without answering, starting down the driveway. Addy kept behind her, keeping an ear on Serling by virtue of the fact that every move the woman made was accompanied by a chorus of metal clattering from her supplies.

"You may hash that out with my boss," Alex replied, arriving at the car and popping the driver's door open. Sweeping around to the other side, Addy pulled the passenger seat door open and slid in as well, grimacing as she came into contact with sticky, warm plastic. "Speaking of," Alex began, reaching down to pop open the little hatch beneath the driver's seat, retrieving a black sack of some kind with a drawstring. "I'm going to need to put a bag over your head so you don't know where we're located."

Serling, managing to get the backseat door open, just chortled. "Kinky."

"...Don't make this into a thing," Alex said, almost pleaded, as she turned around and leaned over the back of her chair to get within grabbing distance of Serling.

"Whatever you say, Agent Muffin-Top."

"It's Danvers, Agent Danvers. For the love of God, just call me Agent Danvers."

Serling merely grinned in response to that, Alex grumbling as she reached forward to rather rudely yank the black sack down over her self-satisfied face.

Addy didn't know why she kept rising to Serling's bait, but then she was already rather used to Serling as a whole. Maybe it just took longer for other people?



The D.E.O. was home to a rather large expanse of underground parking. As was to be expected, of course, when you owned a fleet of military-grade, armoured vehicles and didn't want to get them stolen and/or lost.

Still, she didn't really like the underground parking space. The air was stale and faintly smelled and almost tasted of metal and rubber, the entire thing was the same uniform blotchy gray colour that came with concrete, and none of the vehicles parked inside could be bothered to be any more imaginative than uniform black.

Addy turned, catching sight of Alex tugging the bag from Serling's head and stepping away to let her climb out of the vehicle on her own. The woman cast a pretty wide glance around the area, her footsteps echoing off of the walls as she paced forwards a few steps.

"Downtown National City?" Serling hedged, because of course she did.

A little off to the right, Alex shut the door to the van and glanced, pleadingly, in her direction, to where she had wandered off to after they'd parked the car.

Addy was of the opinion you should fight your own battles, if at all possible, and Serling wasn't exactly going to stop being the way she was if you called for aid every time she tried to annoy you. It was why Serling couldn't get very far in annoying her when they worked, because she merely responded honestly when she could.

That and she was currently under orders not to speak too much, out of concern her tone might give her identity away to Serling. She was surprised at how much a costume could do to blot out the perception of people you were in close proximity to frequently, but as far as she'd been able to tell, Serling was no wiser to her identity than your average onlooker might be.

Taking her refusal for what it was, Alex turned her attention back to Serling. "What did I tell you?"

Serling glanced her way, hefting her gear a bit higher up her body. "Not to guess the location of the D.E.O. base?"

"And what are you doing?"

"Guessing the location of your parking lot," Serling said, wisely.

Unfortunately, Alex wasn't up for it. "Right," she groused, turning in the direction of the stairwell and elevators. "Let's get going, before you say something that I actually have to detain you for."

Now, see? That's how you handled Serling. You either didn't let her annoy you in the first place, or you threatened her. Serling respected intimidation.

Following after both Alex and Serling as they approached the metal elevators, Addy swept her gaze across the amassed cars a few more times. She was really going to have to tell someone that undercover cars shouldn't look like that; they were more than a little conspicuous. At least get rid of the tinted glass, at the bare minimum.

Arriving at the elevators, Alex jabbed the button, one of two elevators pulling open immediately. Piling into the cramped space, she watched Alex press her thumb to a reader, wait a few seconds, then jab in a floor number, the doors sliding shut with a click.

The elevator lurched, then ascended.

"You know, this is probably the most boring secret black-ops site I've been to," Serling announced a mere few seconds later, disrupting the silence. "Where's the massive statues of like, Nixon or Reagan? Where are the test tubes full of incriminating evidence? Concrete and black vans, how unique."

Alex, over Serling's head, was shooting her a truly venomous look of betrayal, as though it was her fault Serling had come to see the value in colours after showing her how birds used them for intimidation tactics. If anything, she was merely spreading better ideas, and if people now had opinions about them, well, maybe they'd start painting things instead of leaving them the colour of oatmeal. It'd be a benefit for everyone.

"We're here on very serious matters," Alex said, turning her ire onto Serling. "You should act like it. The president's life is in danger."

Serling shot Alex a vacant look. "Whoever recommended me should've made it clear that's just how I operate."

Alex didn't twitch or look in her direction, but Addy had the feeling she was being silently judged. Alex had said she had read Serling's file, and going by the fact that Serling had mentioned it, it should probably include notes from the agents who did check-ups on her on the behest of the American government. She should know better.

The elevator doors peeled open just in time to save Serling - and possibly by extension, herself - a tremendous dressing-down. Alex was out of the elevator first, with Serling following after her and Addy keeping up the rear. She watched Serling scan over the area, at the closed doors and various "DO NOT ENTER" signs that littered this end of the main floor.

Addy kept pace with Alex as they marched down the long corridor, off towards the main research lab. There wasn't a whole lot else down in this part of the wing besides the lab, which had mostly been overtaken by Winn, if the chatter she'd picked up on was any indication. It was tucked away at the far end of the corridor, a door on the left wall which was already open and waiting as they arrived.

The lab itself was a mess. Scorch marks covered one particularly abused metal table, projects were strewn about in haphazard piles, most of which appeared to have been gutted. Raised up in the center of the room on a platform was a long rod that sparked near the top end, flickering with pearlescent light.

Winn, at least, looked like he belonged. He was a ways away from the sparking rod, hunched over a computer and pecking words into it with fast stabs of his fingers. The fringe of his hair - or what little of it there was - had been forced up and back, kept in place by a welder's helmet he had strapped to his head. It, too, didn't escape the scorch marks, as its surface had acquired one long smudged mark from the bottom left to the top right.

Alex cleared her throat, Winn jolting at the noise. He wheeled around to the three of them, blinking owlishly as he came back down to earth from whatever he'd been working on.

"Oh, hey Alex. What's up? You uh, need something?" His eyes, despite his words, were trained rather directly on Serling, who was staring back at him. His face was confused, whereas Serling's was calculating.

"Agent Schott, this is going to be your lab partner for the remainder of this operation, Serling Roquette."

Winn blinked, processing, before hopping off his stool, wiping his hands down on his pants, and approaching. He extended his hand out for her to take, which she did. "Good to meet you, I'm Winn Schott."

"No shit, Toyman?" Serling asked, shaking his arm up and down.

Winn's face cramped, went through a cycle of emotions, before landing on snide. That was a bad idea. "No shit, the fog?" He mimed back at her, trying to copy her voice and doing a surprisingly good rendition of it.

Unfortunately for Winn, this was not a battle he could win. His face cramped more as Serling visibly clenched his hand in a painful grip. After a few moments of Winn trying to escape it, she released it with a breezy smile.

Winn pulled his hand back to his chest, looking mildly terrified.

Serling, in turn, merely reached forward and clapped him on the shoulder with enough force to make the thwack audible. Twice. With Winn squeaking in pain with each wallop.

"I'm sure we'll get along just fine," Serling said, her voice implying the exact opposite. "Anyhow, where do you keep the outlets?"

Winn motioned in the vague direction of the top-right corner of the room, Serling mouthing a cheeky 'thanks' in his direction as she wandered off towards it. His gaze turned to the two of them next, looking a mix of betrayed and wounded, clutching at his battered shoulder with his equally battered hand.

"Good luck, Agent Schott, I'll be back around in two hours with files for her to sign," Alex said, displaying precisely zero mercy for her fellow man. "Administrator, with me."

Turning away from Winn and leaving him with Serling to deal with, Addy followed along after Alex, back down the long corridor and towards where the main mission area was. As they grew closer to it, the population of the building began to make an appearance. Agents lingered, milling about in small groups of 2 or 3, looking on edge, but ultimately prepared.

The corridor was a winding thing, but with Alex there to guide, they were leaving it under a minute later, passing through the threshold and out into the mission area.

She scanned over the crowd, from J'onn to Vasquez to, finally, Kara. She stood next to one of the tables, talking lightly with Vasquez, who was across from her. They were both, rather pointedly, alone.

Alex jogged forward, apparently seeing the same thing. "Supergirl!" She called out, Kara's head turning, face softening as she took the two of them in. "No luck?"

Kara shook her head, Addy picking up her own pace so she could get within hearing range. "No, Livewire told me, to quote, 'take a walk and hopefully get hit by a car', end quote."

From what few interactions she'd had with Leslie, that did seem rather in-character.

Slowing to a stop just next to Alex, Addy waved her fingers at Kara, who waved them back in turn. Vasquez glanced between the three of them, knowing, but not inclined to interrupt.

"We'll just have to make do without them, in that case," J'onn announced as he stepped away from his own gaggle of agents, nodding in her direction. "Supergirl, Administrator, Agent Danvers, with me."

Kara nodded, taking up Addy's right while Alex took up her left. J'onn, at the front, walked them through the throng of agents and up the few small steps to the raised platform, onto where he normally situated himself next to all of the tracking equipment and monitors. Motioning for them to get closer, he directed them all towards a single table, on which was a series of maps, notes, and other details.

"We've decided on who is being deployed where, with certain intentions in mind. Supergirl, you will be on the front lines, a way to direct attention to yourself. You'll be visible and prepared to handle an outright, frontal attack on the president, as you are our best bet in terms of turning away potential gunfire if they do go to those lengths."

Kara looked at J'onn, nodding minutely.

J'onn glanced back down at the pages. "I will be deployed among the secret service myself as a way to forestall any potential traitors among them, which there is a possibility of. I will be leaving the command of the engagement to Agent Danvers, as I will have to blend in among the other federal agents, and issuing orders would be more than a little out-of-character."

Alex didn't even so much as budge at the explanation. Evidently, she'd either prepared for such an outcome, or had already spoken with J'onn about it. Addy was certain she would do good in the role as a leader for this.

J'onn's eyes turned to her, then, drawing her attention back down.

"Administrator, you're intended to be deployed further back, out of sight, to act as both a final reserve and as a last line of defence. While you may not be as physically powerful as Supergirl, you are by far our best last resort, as far as I can tell there is very little you cannot overwhelm psychically. If all else fails, it's expected that you will go all out, understood?"

She did and nodded to indicate as much. She might not want to have to rely on using her coreself's resources again, but it wouldn't be too unacceptable to do so. There were limits, but very little on the planet could push her that far. So long as the shielding equipment Winn was developing was being put to use and she wasn't mentally incapacitated, it was unlikely she'd struggle to do as requested of her.

"In terms of fallback points, there are several." J'onn gestured towards the map, his finger skating between red dots that had been painted across its surface. "We have pre-set defensive equipment in each of these locations, as well as a reserve of agents that I've chosen among the ones I know are loyal. In the event of an attack, your number one goal is to take the president to these in order, and if they continue to follow you, move to the next.

"With that in mind, agents will be spread out among the surrounding area as countermeasures to potential snipers as well as to act as our own. If push comes to shove, we're allowed to go live with the ammunition to take down our opponents, and this applies to everyone here. The president is an incredibly important figure, and if it comes down to it, you have the government's blessing to work with lethal force. We cannot let her die."

J'onn looked back up to them, lips turned down. Addy felt the urge to reach out and push it upright, but managed to control herself. She didn't like J'onn looking so sad, but she had very little way to stop him from being so. "Superman will not be joining us for this one, unfortunately," he said, slowly, with genuine frustration. "It would appear someone took it upon themselves to go on a bomb-laying spree, leaving threats, and having Superman stop them. He doesn't have enough time to come back over here, and it would not surprise me if the number of bomb threats went significantly up during the president's signing ceremony."

"Do you think Cadmus is involved?" Kara asked, sounding a bit unsure.

"Could be them," J'onn conceded, but didn't sound entirely sure. "Or it could be any of the other groups which may wish to take advantage of the president's current predicament to sow chaos and arrive at their own ends. In the end, it doesn't matter, it's keeping him occupied. We have approximately eight hours until the signing event, enough time to prepare last-minute defences and to make some adjustments to our plans, but not much else. Whatever you need to do to be ready, do so, then report back."



The venue for the speech had been changed, if only to account for possible infiltrators knowing of the last. The new venue was an outdoor stage, connected to a larger building behind it, with a curtain backdrop and everything. The area in front of them was a pavilion, wide and made from concrete, with trees and green grass left in planters in chosen locations. A commons area, in other words.

Addy was tucked away, back behind the stage, staring at the ground.

"My fellow Americans," Marsdin's voice began, made loud and almost harsh on the ears by the pair of speakers next to her. "Over a century ago, this nation erected a monument in New York Harbour."

"No sign of hostiles," Kara's voice crackled over the line, broadcast from her vantage point floating up above. "Winn?"

"Nothing on any of the radars. Heat, kryptonite, promethium," Winn replied, nervous.

"A Statue of Liberty." Marsdin paused as applause rippled through the crowd, waiting. "That statue looked down upon Ellis Island, where thousands of immigrants came to seek refuge from a home country that didn't want them, that wouldn't have them."

"Team four has nothing either," a voice replied.

"Don't get comfortable," Alex interrupted, sharp. "We had nothing until the president nearly died last time, too. Keep your eyes and ears open."

"But America took them in," Marsdin continued, her voice growing in force, intensity. "That is our story. The American people stand as one with history."

It was evening, with dusky skies and a surprisingly calm air, despite the assassination attempts over the last couple of days. Through the small window in the space she was waiting, hidden out of sight, she watched the light filter down through the dust, cast her eyes towards where agents waited next to a closed door, just in case they had to rush Marsdin out quickly.

She was outfitted, as well. Winn had completed the kryptonite shields, to a certain extent, though hers were much higher in quantity than Kara's, who had merely had to get one slapped to her chest. Instead, her kryptonite shields were a pair of wrist bands, anklets, a belt, and a headband, as well as a round shield on her chest. Altogether, they linked up, projecting a slight shimmer across her body that indicated its active state, like a forcefield, projected from each piece and matching up with the rest. It would keep her safe enough from Kryptonite, within reason, though Winn had warned that they were more fragile than she probably expected.

The crowd's cheering picked up, drawing her back to the present. Applause rippled through it, growing louder and with a few hoots and hollers, before slowly fading back down into muted rumbling.

"No longer will our alien visitors be strangers, committed to the shadows, forced to the fringes of a hostile and unwelcoming world." Marsdin made a noise, a soft huff of laughter or joy, Addy couldn't be quite sure. "They will be granted the full rights and privileges of American citizens."

Applause erupted again.

Nevertheless, Marsdin continued through it. "The Statue of Liberty will stand for aliens, too." She breathed out again, loud enough that the mic captured the noise. "Now, uh, if someone could just hand me a pen..."

There was some laughter from the crowd. Addy listened as shoes scraped across the floor, on the other side of the curtain to herself, a soft 'thank you' spoken by Marsdin as someone, presumably, handed a pen off to her.

A few more steps, then.

"Here we go," Marsdin's voice called out, once again through the speakers. "History."

As if on cue, noise ripped into being. A loud, violent explosion of sound and force as the curtain was sent back into Addy's side from the wind force behind it. Screaming erupted among the crowd as chatter filled in her earpiece; sound-offs, location finding, moving the president to somewhere safe. The Infernian had attacked.

Addy swung forward, slipped out through the crack of the curtain, peeking through it and down into the crowd below.

The people down there were scattering, running in every which direction as flame roared up and across the ground, arriving just shy of the stage the president was on. Kara was in the air, swooping down towards where the fire originated from, lashing out with one hand at something nobody could see. It cracked against solid air, and the air itself almost appeared to shatter; flickering and buzzing as a figure was knocked into view and away a half-dozen steps.

Just like she remembered, the figure was clad in power armour, venting steam where Kara's fist had cracked a hole in it. The body toppled along the ground, skidding as metal sparked against the concrete, only to stop themselves by wrenching one arm out and catching the concrete. The person threw themselves to their feet, and ignited entirely in flame, reaching out with both hands to direct twin rivers of fire right at Kara, who took it on the chest and was sent flying back two dozen or so feet.

The Infernian turned in an instant, towards the president. The helmet on their face ignited in light, a magnesium-white so bright it almost hurt to look at, before twin red beams emerged from the little slats, sent directly towards the president. A secret service agent stepped out, his form shimmering as he went from human to Martian; J'onn. He hauled the president away, narrowly avoiding the heat lasers which, instead, bore straight into and then through the curtain, catching the back wall on fire.

A fire alarm started to blare, loud and noisy.

Right, she should probably handle this. Rising to her feet, Addy turned, lowered her center of mass, getting a better angle on the Infernian. It would be—

"We've got pings on promethium and kryptonite! Right near you, Administrator!"

She twisted around in a heartbeat, catching sight of the president as she was dragged back behind the curtain and towards the fire exit on the stage. An agent was holding the door open, his figure catching on the light as it shimmered.

She was moving forward without thinking about it, grabbing her new tool from her belt. The axe was weighty in her hand, and she dragged her thumb towards the power switch.

The agent's disguise fell entirely, light refracting and rippling as a 5'3'', squat looking man became Metallo in the flesh, his chest bared and rippling with an influx of energy. Green electricity arced from where the metal stuck out along his chest, where the core of pure kryptonite pulsed wildly with light.

Addy's feet lifted from the ground and she shot forward like a bullet, raising one of her wrist bands just in time to catch the outgoing surge of kryptonite energy, the green beam catching on the device but not breaking through it, instead being deflected off to the side, where it scoured into the boards below, shattering them in a flurry of dust and splinters. The horrified shriek of the president behind her was ignored; she could handle that woman's mental health later, she had someone to hurt.

After all, Metallo had hurt Kara. In fact, Metallo had been making the last several days a miserable slog of being unable to go to work, having to deal with friends in arguments, and worrying that Kara still might die because of him. No, if anything, Addy was very angry. Annoyed. It had been simmering at the back of her head, it was why she hadn't been talking much. She had to focus, had to be sure, that he couldn't hurt her again.

Her thumb pressed the switch and the buzz saw roared to life, sparking wildly with electricity.

Metallo stared at her, at the devices on her person, and at the axe in her hand. He didn't do anything for a few moments, possibly baffled by the fact that he was no longer at an immediate advantage to her.

Then, with little warning, he lunged, a snarl on his lips.

Addy met him half-way, reaching out to unspool her power and draw the radius wide. She felt him not as a psychic presence, not like she did the other people around her, but as a void, an absence. Apparently, Cadmus had been getting into anti-psychic technology as well; unpleasant, but not unable to be accounted for. She dragged her field in close, amped up the intensity, all in time to meet Metallo dead on.

He swung a fist at her sloppily, without much grace, and she slipped back with her flight to avoid it. She swung down at him from her position up above, hovering as she was, the whirr of the buzzsaw only slicing through thin air as he scrambled out of the way of her swing.

Still, that gave her the advantage.

She pushed his scramble, diving in close, swinging her axe down again, and again, each time met with a flurry of movement as Metallo scrambled out of the way. She couldn't tell if he was panicking, but his movements indicated as much. Or at least they did until he swung up with one leg, catching her dead in the stomach, and turned his chest towards the president, energy lighting up in a raw, near-blinding green light before lurching out in a wide cone.

Addy swung forward and caught it with her chest, the beam deflected back towards the far wall, where it met brick and scoured through it like a spoon through butter, raining fist-sized chunks down around Metallo as he ducked out of the way of his own power.

Enough was enough. She pressed harder on the power switch, felt the device warm to levels that would burn most people in her hand. The light around the whirling buzzsaw grew blinding, started jumping from where it was contained on the blade to the ground and to, really, anything even remotely metal. The entire thing began to rattle in her grip, an early warning sign that she was pushing the limits of its capabilities.

Ducking forward, she dove low, dropping nearly to the point where her stomach hit the ground. Metallo ignored her, pulling his chest back as he prepared to take another shot at the president, now that she was out of the way. But she rammed her speed forward, closed the distance, and emerged in front of him up from the ground just as he released.

She caught the beam with her own chest, and this time she really did feel it. It burned against her skin, like a raw sunburn, like being exposed to small amounts of acid. The pain was a lot, but it didn't phase her, and without any further hesitation, she drew her arm back, and then swung down.

The axe met his core, sliced right through it as every last bit of electricity promptly found its new home in his metallic body. He screamed, the beam flickering and dying entirely as Addy's feet met the floor, his cybernetics sparking wildly, core leaking an odd, blood-like fluid that stained the part of his shirt that wasn't already ripped away. He slumped, then, dropping to the ground, and she reached down, breaking through the shielding with a touch of her hand, just to double-check he was alive.

Which he was, thankfully. If a bit worse-for-wear, considering how much damage she'd just done to his nerves. Ah, well. He'd recover, eventually. She pulsed her own power into his brain to shove him into a coma for the time being, just so he wouldn't wake up at an inopportune time.

"Metallo down," she said into her mic, rising back up from her crouch and letting her buzzsaw slow down, the whine of electricity fading as it went inert, and then promptly began to fall apart in her grip. "I need a team to come and pick him up for medical evacuation."

A chorus of affirmatives came in response, and Addy turned away, catching sight of the president. They shared a look, the president looking a bit like she'd just nearly died, which was true. Still, her mental state could be seen to by professionals, or herself if it came down to it, and Addy marched ahead and passed her to check on the ongoing fight.

Outside, the world was quite literally on fire. The concrete burned, other buildings burned, and J'onn had retreated from the fire, not unexpectedly, considering his species. Kara came down on the Infernian, who was still visible, from above, driving her into the ground with both arms. They grappled with one another for a time, but between the dents and tears all along the Infernian's power armour, it wasn't able to hold up. Kara's fingers tore through the metal like tissue paper, ripping it aside as she reached out to do the same to her helmet.

Even from a distance, it was abundantly clear something awful had been done to the Infernian. The face was gaunt, quite literally tortured, with incision marks all along her cheekbones. One of her eyes had been replaced by a cybernetic one, which didn't seem to be entirely in her control, if the way it was spinning in its socket was any indication. Her skin was a sickly pallor, and old scars seemed to be prone to peeling open.

The Infernian thrashed, screaming loudly, audible over Kara's earpiece. At first, Addy was of the opinion that it was because she was losing, and didn't want to.

Then the cracks appeared. Across her skin, across her body, even across the power armour; like spiderwebs in the earth's mantle, cracks opened up to show blinding orange and yellow heat. The Infernian's eyes snapped to Kara for a moment as her struggles died out, wild and crazed.

"This is why I will never trust this government," the Infernian said, again picked up over Kara's earpiece. Her voice was hoarse, rough, like it had gone without use for months. Maybe it had.

The cracks grew wider, larger, and her mouth opened in a silent scream.

"Run!" Kara screamed, loud enough that Addy could pick it up even without the earpiece.

Addy turned, reaching out with her prosthetic to draw her cloak out and around, putting her body between the glowing Infernian and the president. Marsdin stared up at her, confused, before, from behind, the Infernian detonated.

Addy's feet caught on the ground, skid harshly as her body bumped unpleasantly into the president, who yelped and latched onto her like a limpet. She felt the heat shower across her back, as though someone had just pressed a massive light bulb to her skin, where you could feel it, but not quite be hurt by it, before it all died down.

Turning back around, Addy watched J'onn flicker back into being from a fuzzy red figure, and Kara pick herself out of a wall that she'd been thrown into. Red rained from up above, gore spattering onto concrete as the crater where the Infernian had once been hissed and bubbled with heat. Other shrapnel began to fall, then, glass and metal and other sharp bits clattering onto the ground in a scattering of rain.

"...The Infernian has been neutralized," J'onn's voice said, over the line, tired and weary. "Agents, reconvene. We have prisoners to move and a site to investigate."
 
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Got this one out! I still really struggle with fight scenes some times, but this had to be wrapped up and so I powered through it. I hope what's there works! Enjoy.
 
Got this one out! I still really struggle with fight scenes some times, but this had to be wrapped up and so I powered through it. I hope what's there works! Enjoy.
Writing a good fight scene is not unlike writing a good sex scene, if that helps.

Here's how you do it:
First, you plot out the action as a series of emotional points. an example would be:
1. Addy is surprised by Metallo and hurt.
2. Addy manages to recover from surprise due to her anti-kryptonite preparations.
3. Addy manages to surprise Metallo with her weapon.
4. Metallo and Addy exchange blows on equal footing.
5. Addy comes up with a cunning plan.
6. All looks lost for Addy.
7. Addy sees an opening and enacts her cunning plan.
8. Addy is victorious!
The outline is intended to act as emotional way points. Because a compelling fight isn't about the physical details, it's about the emotional connection the viewer has to the character.

With that outline in place you need to start expanding the outline into paragraphs. Make sure to keep in mind the emotional tone of each waypoint and use language to match it. So for example, point 3 (Addy manages to surprise Metallo with her weapon.) should be semi-triumphant, as well as surprising, and the language you use should match that. Words like "Suddenly" and "quickly" and fast action words. Whereas point 6 (All looks lost for Addy) (which can actually come before point 5 or wherever you want it to) shouldn't use exciting words, it should use language that instils a solemnness and dread. Words like "Loomed" and phrases like "Inches away from her face" can help there.

The action you fill in should match the tone you want, and the transitions should be swift, but not abrupt.

In addition, you should narrow the focus of the characters. Chekov's gun is very important here, if an extraneous detail to the two combatants is mentioned, it should have a purpose in the fight scene. So for example, if Metallo is standing beneath a street lamp, he should be thrown into it, or use it to brace himself when getting up, or use it as a baseball bat at some point in the fight.

This brings us to scenery porn. In a fight scene meant to emulate comic books, one way to show massive strength is to think of the area around them and think "can this stand up to the force being used?" so for example, on a wooden stage assembled for this specific event, would a punch from Metallo break it and send Addy through the "floor"?

Finally dialogue. Dialogue in fights should serve to up emotional stakes: Taunts, backstory, and motivations are all helpful here, but so are frantic cries for help, and civilians screaming in the background (because that indicates the presence of people who need to be protected from harm).

Obviously this isn't the only way to write a good fight scene, but it is one way, and it's one that works for me. I hope it helps you as well.
 
She felt him not as a psychic presence, not like she did the other people around her, but as a void, an absence. Apparently, Cadmus had been getting into anti-psychic technology as well; unpleasant, but not unable to be accounted for.
So is this just going to be a thing from now on? That QA's actual powerset is going to be worthless in any fight she gets involved in within this story? Because every fight she has been in so far has just been another brute on brute slugfest and that got old a while ago. Im also still annoyed that her power went from outright and unresistable body puppeting* to generic psyfuckery, but that ship has clearly sailed.

At least this time she didnt end up in the ER because among other things, kryptonians are suddenly impossibly resistant** to mind control even when mentally compromised.

*‐in canon, QA's deal appeared to be her directly interfacing with her victim's motor cortex/motor neurons for control using dimensional fuckery to pull it off. There were no WILL saves. There were no CON saves. There were no shonen mind control disruptions fueled by the Power of Friendship. If you were in her range and it was set to control your species, that was it. You. Were. Hers. Even if she had to manually keep your heart beating because you went into cardiac arrest due to the stress caused by the existential terror of being a prisoner in your own body. QA could also read minds if she actually felt like it. So the whole psychic power thing she has here? Its a direct downgrade from what she had in canon.

**-I get that they are supposed to be resistant to psychic attacks, but there is a big difference between resisting a normal sized if more complex brain and resisting a brain the size of North America that is complex enough to make a human brain look simple by comparrison. Especially one that is spec'd to bodyjack similarly complex creatures with casual ease like QA is.
 
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I like the downgrade only because puppet anyone at range is overpowered and unlike Kara and Kent you can't use morality as the thing holding her back.
 
Meh, she was working on overcoming the psychic resistance(call it a partial stasis field or something if you want, it is all nonsense anyway regardless of how psychic powers are supposed to work in one or another instance...) by contracting her range and boosting her power, it is just that she had a weapon specifically for this purpose, that was ready right away and didn't require fine-tuning and was massively cheaper in terms of energy expenditure. She has had fights where she pretty muchjust shut someone down too. More to the poin, Admnistrator really threw her power around in the initial fight against the infernian, so it makes sense that there would be countermeasures in place for the rematch. Cadmus, for all that they are regressive, is all about developing new tools. The D.E.O. is adapting to them, but the supers are somewhat limited in their ability to alter their powersets.
 
So is this just going to be a thing from now on? That QA's actual powerset is going to be worthless in any fight she gets involved in within this story? Because every fight she has been in so far has just been another brute on brute slugfest and that got old a while ago. Im also still annoyed that her power went from outright and unresistable body puppeting* to generic psyfuckery, but that ship has clearly sailed.

At least this time she didnt end up in the ER because among other things, kryptonians are suddenly impossibly resistant** to mind control even when mentally compromised.

*‐in canon, QA's deal appeared to be her directly interfacing with her victim's motor cortex/motor neurons for control using dimensional fuckery to pull it off. There were no WILL saves. There were no CON saves. There were no shonen mind control disruptions fueled by the Power of Friendship. If you were in her range and it was set to control your species, that was it. You. Were. Hers. Even if she had to manually keep your heart beating because you went into cardiac arrest due to the stress caused by the existential terror of being a prisoner in your own body. QA could also read minds if she actually felt like it. So the whole psychic power thing she has here? Its a direct downgrade from what she had in canon.

**-I get that they are supposed to be resistant to psychic attacks, but there is a big difference between resisting a normal sized if more complex brain and resisting a brain the size of North America that is complex enough to make a human brain look simple by comparrison. Especially one that is spec'd to bodyjack similarly complex creatures with casual ease like QA is.
Well, Doylist reason is that QA with full unrestricted Khepri powers is a person of mass destruction comparable to Superman. Or Doomsday.

The only thing that could possibly present a threat to her at that point is an army of robots running on kryptonite or some shit.

Now, Watsonian reasons are varied and numerous, you can take a pick:
1) DC universe is not governed by the same rules Worm has. There literally exists Power of Love, Friendship, Justice and the American Way. ( not even kidding on the last one, I think there was a superhero who was a manifestation of the American ideal of democracy, lol. ) There's also magic. Kryptonite doesn't make any sense from physical standpoint, too.
2) QA doesn't have the same powers Taylor/Khepri had. Those powers were lost when Contessa decided to perform neurosurgery with a pistol.
3) The purely "physical" powers of hijacking someone's nervous system can probably be circumvented if you build a powerful enough block preventing the signal from coming through, as long as your figure out what the actual fuck the signal is and what physical properties it has. It just nobody in Worm had a real chance to test it out.

I think it's the other way around: Addy is weaker than Supergirl and can't just assume direct control of anyone she wants, so that she has to be smart about the way she fights, not just punch everything out with her fists or brain. She has to use tactics, acquire additional weapons, if nothing else, combine both approaches.

Also, her powers were pleeenty useful during the first season, iirc. So now that her badass credentials are firmly established, the TV series has to introduce new curveballs to escalate in the next one.
 
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