The Washington monument really isn't supposed to have a face on it. Particularly one that is laughing maniacally and spitting purple laser beams at a flying man in red and blue tights. And yet.

This little alley seems somewhat sheltered, though. Nothing is imminently on fire, and the screaming civilians have largely fled past this point already.

"Oh sweet mother of fuckery."

At least she has more of her stuff than she would have expected to have in normal circumstances.

"What the hell am I supposed to do about a Superman villain?

"Fucking hell...

"Priorities.  Priorities.  Step one: Don't die."  Hello, there, new, uh, whatever you are, if you are indeed a you - you got anything that's good for, well, Not Dying?  And/or understanding how you work (in order to better optimize for Not Dying but mostly because she really wants to know how this works?)

She gets the impression of a greeting. And also the impression that she could have peak human ability to resist injury. Or intuition for what the source of these impressions is, if she wants that?

She could also refuse; there's the sense that if she pushes this sensation away, it will leave her alone. Nothing bad will happen to her directly as a result of accepting or refusing.

She's sorry, little buddy, but there's definitely indirect harm she would be in for if she didn't accept the general idea of you giving her powers.  She doesn't feel like this was the design intent, but, well, shit happens.  And she's not Batman, she's not gonna be able to keep up with this shit otherwise.  (Oh s- f- g- -- bleep, if she's its first introduction to language she probably shouldn't be swearing all the time!)   Peak human intuition for understanding power mechanics (in general?), please.  But now that she's actually thinking about Not Dying the best way to Not Die is to not be hit by anything that could kill you, so, not peak human injury resistance.  It probably wouldn't help much with the lasers.  Also um peak human memory recall maybe?  She knows there's a lot of stuff a telepath could - oh hell - peak human ability to resist mental intrusion please.

That's a lot of things! It can only do four things at once.

There's the impression of something trying hard to figure out what order things should happen in, despite this not being a task to which it is particularly equipped.

Does she want the peak human ability to resist mental intrusion first?

Oh, sorry!  She's not very good at time either.  But, uh, power intuition, and then anti- mental intrusion, and then peak recall afterwards, please.

It can do fewer than four things in a well-defined order! It's good at that.

Three sparks bloom sequentially, in some abstract space inside her. They are dim and red, but full of potential. The first one brings with it a vague understanding of the various universal forces and structures that powers can tap into, and some understanding of how they relate — it is, as requested, a general sort of intuition for how powers-in-general interact with each other.

The second spark brings habits of thought that resist mental intrusion of various kinds. They aren't things that she has to do, but they are things that she can do, as easily as breathing.

The third spark sharpens her memory, letting her recall anything she knows or has seen with as much effort as it would take someone with an obsessively organized and practiced mnemonic technique — that is to say, nearly none, although complex verbatim recitations still take a moment.

The second and third sparks seem to like each other, dancing in tight whorls while the first spark takes up a slower, distant orbit.

Let's smoosh them together and see if she gets a memory palace --

--Focus!  We are currently in the middle of an alley while a Superman villain is doing something far too close!  Let's have some damn self-preservation!  But yes, power friend, please do that.

She points the powers intuition at the lasers and cues powers friend to prepare to hand her either a) a power that can alter the refractive index of a (small, she expects) volume of air, in case this is a science beam, and b) a power that can cut magical connections, because it's much more likely that a face sticking out of the Washington monument is magical nonsense.  Which Supes is more vulnerable to.  Augh.

...Hey, can we do Emotional Spectrum things?  Lanterns can keep up with Kryptonians.  It'd make sense that we could do something useful against this supervillain if we could do Lantern sss-stuff.  Lantern stuff.  Mind the impressionable baby space whale cuttlefish(?), herselves.  Good grief.

The stress is real, but so is their Determination, she really bleeping hopes.

Sure, it can merge those two powers!

The sparks click together, almost like magnets, and brighten into a single spark that makes it easier for her to access her own mind (and particularly memories) in a way that also makes it more difficult for other people to access her mind.

It can do alterations to refractive indexes of nearby bits of air! But asking for "Lantern Stuff" produces an impression that this is ... underspecified, maybe? It can make her discharge electromagnetic energy, if that would help?

It gives the impression of being ... narrow, in some sense. It can suggest powers and then make them, but it isn't following exactly what she needs here very well.

Up above, Superman blocks a laser with crossed arms, but from the way he's wincing and visibly pushed back magic seems definitely possible. He swoops toward the monument, fist raised to punch it, only to be thwarted by a twisting purple barrier.

Right.  Okay.  She has a plan.  Or she will have a plan by the time she's finished having a plan.

1.) Sparky, a power for focusing/imbuing Will, and then the same for Hope, please, which she will merge with the one for Will.  They're going to be the easiest to pick up and while [REDACTED] has a lot of Anxiety to burn, that has destructive interference with both green and blue (- at least, if Parallax is in the Green Central Power Battery...  Wait, would that matter for her?  Check that later -) so, keep it simple for now.

2.) She drops the power intuition.

3.) ...Actually she probably could have kept it and stuck it to the 'perceive magic' effect she's asking for now -

4.) - but at the moment it's best merged with the short-range 'disrupt targeted magic effect' power she's asking for.

5.) Situation (and, much more importantly, Sparky) permitting, she will follow up by requesting enhanced ~awareness (in the sense of more accurately putting existing data together) and coordination, then, hopefully, sticking those together to back her up in surviving a fight she has very little business meddling in, honestly.

6.) But either way, whether she can or can't do any of those last three, she intends to Charge!! at the face and antimagic-stab it somewhere vital.  She knows she must, if Superman can't solve this on his own.  She believes she can.  And so, she hopes, she will.

6a.) ...If there's an easily clobbered magician in evidence, she will just tackle them instead.  She doesn't actually want to be dealing with the evil face lasers!  She has a healthy self-preservation instinct!  (...Right?)

That's a lot of things! It creates powers to help her focus her will and her hope — that's straightforward enough. Pushing a power away when she's done with it is a straightforward mental motion as well.

It spins for a moment before managing to generate a power for visually perceiving the presence of magic, and a touch-range power for disrupting targeted magic effects ...

And then it's full. The magic-disruption spark and the magic-perception spark don't like each other, although there's a feeling that they almost do. The gift also sends an impression of tiredness; this was a lot of things very fast.

She's sorry, it's just - this is probably important to do both correctly and fast, and they're rapidly oscillating between flavors of panic response.

Do you think you could - nudge, whichever power would be easier to nudge, to synergy?  ...Actually, no.  Do you think that what she has, is enough for what she needs to do, to [disrupt this], first off.  Because if it is, she shouldn't ask for more right now.  Not with you being worn out.  But if it wouldn't be too much she would like to nudge the magic-perception and magic-breaking into a synergy.  The additional strength might matter.

Um.

The 'lasers' are definitely magical, as is the face and the barrier protecting it. The lasers seem like they are targeted, but the face and the barrier don't seem like the kinds of things that have a target. So the power that disrupts targeted magical effects should work on the lasers!

This impression is conveyed with the smugness of someone who has worked through a difficult logical syllogism.

If she doesn't need the magic disruption right now, it could get rid of it and remake it in a form that might fit better? She seemed to need it pretty urgently, so it went fast and didn't spend the full allotment of time on finding the exactly right shape.

It also gives the faint impression that being tired isn't an unpleasant thing — it means that it expended effort helping, which is good — it's just information about how much it can do in one go. It's tired like a sprint, not like a marathon.

Aww.  You are very clever.

Diana meant "targeted" as in "not every magical effect all at once, just the one she's pointing it at".  Can you do that instead, please?

Oh! It can do that, sure.

The existing magic-disrupting power floats out and away, and is replaced by another that allows selectively disrupting a particular magic effect, although it's still touch-range. This one is friendly with the magic-perception power.

And merge those.  Now, she would like peak human coordination...

And then it is likely time for someone to cast themselves unto the breach.  How's Kal-El holding up?

Done!

He's holding up pretty well, actually. He hasn't done any particular damage to the monument, but he has ... stolen ... an orange and black striped cat?

Presumably that's relevant to fighting the monument for some reason.

Cat + magic -> plot relevance -> Klarion's familiar -> kill it kill it kill it!!!!!

...Or disrupt the familiar bond -- wait shit would that mean he'd get a new one and she wouldn't know what it is -- disrupt specifically the anchoring effect?  Is there even that?  Fuck!

Alright.

If this is the timeline she thinks it might be this may be one of the most important things she could do short of punching out Darkseid.

You would think that this charge would be Diana's.  But this is not a hopeful moment.  This is a desperate one.

She focuses on her goals, as she starts running down the street.  She knows that she will need to reach the cat.  She knows that Lanterns can fly.  She knows that she can fly because she is a (budget) Lantern.  She just needs to get there.  She just needs to pull this power into herself and lift.  Even a ballistic arc will do, this is Superman she's dealing with, he can surely catch one girl.  They are going to hopefully permanently inconvenience Klarion the Witch Boy, by striking against his anchor to this world.  And anything in the way will bend before their Will, so help her!