"Mom got hurt?" The worry makes Kathy's facial features tremble.
Checkmate sighs. "Katherine...Your mother is alive. And, once you heal her with your abilities, she'll be just fine. But I won't hide this from you - she did, in fact, get hurt."
"But..." the little girl seems to be struggling with difficult concepts. "I don't get it. Why would anyone hurt mom? Why did those people do all that to me? Why did they hurt the Science Watch?"
"That would be the Zenith Watch. But to answer your questions..." Checkmate takes some time to think his answers through. Quite unlike the times you've talked to him. You get the feeling he's not used to talking to kids. "The world, to put it plainly, isn't safe. There are good people in it, such as your mother or the superheroes here with us. There are also, however, individuals more than willing to break every rule, and every person, that dare stand in their way. Shadow, the organization that abducted you, is full of such people. They wanted your powers, and they were willing to go to any length to get them."
"So everything that happened - everyone who git hurt - was because they wanted my powers?" Her voice is shaking a little.
"Don't blame yourself. It is hardly your fault that Shadow acts like that."