Flashback: Several years ago

[heavy_arms_fire]

Vera Lynn Black has been left all alone.

As a child, she lost her arms. Only one man would hug her. Only one man still seemed to love her: her brother, Manchester.

And now Manchester is dead.

He tried to make a difference in this world. He tried to make the world a better place. And now he's dead.

She stands on the sidewalks of Metropolis, looking up at the sky, waiting for the subject of her wrath. The Man of Steel. The Man of Tomorrow. Last Son of Krypton.

Superman.

Murderer of her brother.

The rest of the people around her pass by. Manchester talked about people like sheep, and maybe he was right. Her world has ended. Her brother is dead... and people around her keep walking, talking, joking, kissing, yelling... don't they know? Don't they understand?

There. The big blue boyscout overhead.

"There you are," she smirks.

She flips open her coat, and her arms unfold into two massive cannons. People around her begin to scream and run away, but she pays the sheep no mind. She takes aim.

"Tosser..."

And she opens fire at the blue form patrolling overhead.

Comments

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

He only hears the fire about half a mile before the weaponry gets to him...and then it hits, sending him flying high up into the sky.

He looks down and finds the target, then flies down towards her. A quick check of the telescopic vision shows that he has no clue who she is.

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

And she's opening fire again.

"Come on!" she spits. "Come on!"

Another blast, giving it everything she's got. "Come on, you great blue asshole... splatter."

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

No doubt, this is starting to sting.

Worse yet, it's starting to spill over to the bystanders. So he gets creative. She's standing on a slab of concrete that makes up part of the sidewalk. A quick heat vision burst seperates the chunk out, making it loose...then a deeper one breaks a water main underneath it, sending the chunk...and her...straight up.

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

She rockets into the air from the water pressure, but she keeps flying up... even further than she should. She's flying, too... meeting him on his level.

"Damn you!" she swears at him. "Die, will you?"

She fires with both arms again, but the blast knocks her halfway down the block.

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

Superman starts to assess the situation. There's a...drivenness...to her anger that's somewhat unnatural given that he's never seen her before.

That doesn't mean he's about to stand there and be target practice. Using his flight speed, he moves around the arms fire and flies right towards her at full velocity...looking to both impact and carry them out into the countryside.

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

He impacts solidly. Some sort of energy field surrounds her, protecting her from the impact of a Kryptonian flying faster than a speeding bullet.

She grunts as he impacts, though... she appears to have felt it. But she also lets him direct the fight... it's leading them away from where the others might get hurt. And she'd rather not hurt others... this is just between her and Superman.

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

Once they're clear of the population...he stops cold, letting the momentum take her further until she lands.

He's then right over her. "Do I know you?" he says simply.

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

"No," she replies, taking a moment to catch her breath, looking up at him.

Then her arms open up further, creating four cannons each larger than her limb... on each arm.

"But you killed my brother."

And she opens fire again.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_man_of_steel_/]

Ow.

Owowowowowowow.

He pushes through, and then lets loose with a heat vision burst designed to both blind and clog up the guns aside from her arms. "I don't kill. You must be mistaken, Ms..."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

The heat vision does the trick, and she moves an arm in front of her eyes to protect them.

"Vera Lynn Black," she spits out. The damaged guns refold into a set of claws, and she swings wildly, trying to blink through the pain.

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

That got Superman's attention. The blades coming at him don't cut his skin, but he can feel the force of the blows. A quick check with his x-ray vision shows the arms are cybernetic. He blocks the blows with his arms. "You're Manchester's sister?"

A pause. "I can understand where your pain is coming from, but I didn't kill him."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

"You don't have any idea," she spits, hitting him again and again. "You broke him! You destroyed him!"

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

"He destroyed himself." Superman said. "He wanted to prove to me that any ideal can be broken. He assaulted my family and my friends. All I did was prove him wrong." Superman said. "He committed suicide as a result. But I did nothing other than defend myself and the people I love."

He then stares her down. "You need to stop this. This won't bring him back."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

Her hits continue, but they're losing steam. "You drove him to it," she snarls. But her hits are becoming less serious strikes and more tired anger.... until she stops. She's not crying, but she seems to be taking a moment to compose herself.

Finally, she looks up at him, his "S" reflected in her red glasses.

"Why? Why do you do it?" she asks.

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

"Because the world needs someone willing to defend their world, their dreams, their ideals, without having to sink into the gutter to do it." Superman said. "Peace through fear and destruction isn't peace, it's subjugation."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

She stares at him for a long time, as if searching for any sign of deceit.

"You... really believe it, don't you?" She shakes her head and returns her right arm to being a normal arm, although with obvious seams and creases where the joints split apart. She pinches the bridge of her nose under her glasses -- she's not pinching back tears, dammit.

"No wonder Man didn't believe you."

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

"Manchester Black has incredible power to do what he wished without a second thought." Superman said. "Even the best of men can be enticed into the easy way when everything's easy."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

"He was a tosser," she replied. "He was a grade-A asshole."

She turns away from Superman. "But he was my brother."

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

Superman couldn't argue with the personality assessment. Manchester Black made his life a living hell.

But he didn't leave it that way. Luthor KNEW. And Black took that knowledge away from everyone before he passed on. It was his sense of "honor".

"Which is why I don't think, his feelings about me aside, he would want you to do this."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

She shakes her head. "You'd be surprised." She takes off the glasses for a moment, and looks at him.

"He loved to punish people who crossed us. You should see what he did to the factory where I lost my arms." She gives a little smirk. "Or maybe it's better that you don't."

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

"And what do you feel like?" Superman said. "Do you want to continue his work...or surpass it?"

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

She gives him a small smile. "I'm not him," she replies. "I'll do my own work."

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

Superman looks at her evenly. "I hope not." A pause, then a look. "Is this where we resume fighting and I bring you to justice, or are we not going to have this fight again. Since you're not your brother."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

She takes a deep sigh. "Yeah. Fighting you wasn't my swiftest move." She shrugs, and replaces her glasses, then finally returns her left arm to normal. She offers Superman a hand.

"Look, I'm sorry."

[look-upinthesky.livejournal.com]

Without missing a beat, he accepts the handshake. "I've...had to work through some grief myself in recent months, so I understand. Let's...chalk this up to a bad day." He smiles. "When you figure out whatever you want to do is, let me know if I can help facilitate it."

[heavy-armsfire.livejournal.com]

She gives him a smile.

"We'll see."