Chapter 27
“So what’s Superman like?” Winn asked after he had calmed down and stopped hyperventilating. He decided to ignore that Kara said that Cat Grant was her adoptive mother, and focus on something that didn’t hurt his brain as much. Kara had gone out while he was coming out of his stupor and retrieved a few more bags of food, focusing more on protein and vegetables for her and less on carbs that would burn out faster.
Kara shrugged and continued shoveling food into her mouth with the chopsticks. “I’m not sure,” she murmured around her potsticker. “I’ve never really spent any time with him except for when he found me and dropped me off at Cat’s house. Haven’t really seen or spoken to him since. I tried, for a while, since he’s the last of my family you know, but eventually I gave up and decided that chosen families are so much better. That’s one of my favorite things about Earth, being able to choose who you are or who your family is.”
Winn studied her for a moment before shaking his head. “You really are an alien aren’t you? I don’t know why I didn’t see it before, you don’t even try to hide it much.”
“Other than a difference in culture and, you know, superpowers, we are pretty much the same,” Kara pointed out. “It’s like talking to someone who grew up in a different country, different but the same.”
“I guess you do have a point,” Winn mused, finishing his own food before clapping his hands. “Alright, let’s do this, how are we going to create Kara’s totally awesome super suit?”
Lena held her hand up in a halt motion, “If you think you’re going to get Kara to try on a bunch of different versions of the suit you have in mind just to please the male gaze, think again. You’re going to use the computer software on this laptop,” she pushed the laptop over to the frightened looking man, “And you’re going to design the suit, with veto power from Kara and I before you even have the opportunity to touch the fabric.”
“I get it, I get it, bossy,” Winn grumbled, taking the laptop and opening the program. He marveled at the speed and power the program used, as well as the detail accessible for the suit. “This has a mask already equipped in the program,” he commented, glancing up at Kara. “You're going to wear a mask?”
“It's better than having to disguise myself in my normal life, which should never be the disguise,” Kara replied.
“And the mask I've created alters the appearance of her bone structure just slightly so even advanced facial recognition programs won't be able to tell it's her,” Lena supplied, “It was quite ingenious of me really, the material creates a vacuum seal to her face, and is both impenetrable to x-rays and impervious to damage, as well as being heat and cold resistant.”
“Because of the cold breath and the…” Winn gestured to his eyes and made a ‘pew pew’ sound.
“Laser vision, yeah, that,” Kara smirked.
Winn nodded, “Cool, cool, I can respect that, better than your cousin that just flies around with his face totally visible.” He returned to the computer and fiddled with his current design for a few minutes before flipping around to show the two women.
“I’m not wearing a crop top Winn,” the blonde replied, rolling her eyes. “And booty shorts?”
“The shorts do show off some of your best assets,” Lena pointed out, still picking at her food.
Kara glared at her friend, “You’re not helping Lena.”
“Alright, alright, no shorts or crop top,” Winn rushed out, taking back the laptop. He changed the suit around, lengthening the shirt and changing the shorts to a skirt and tights before showing it to the women.
“What about a cape?” Lena asked.
“Capes are lame.”
“For regular vigilantes maybe, not for someone who would spend a lot time flying through the air at high speeds. The cape helps with aerodynamics and being able to control turns and banking,” the brunette told him. “Add a cape.”
Winn grumbled a little bit but a glare from both of the women quickly silenced him and he added a cape to his design. He tacked on a pair of boots, and cleaned up the lines of the suit, adding a slight glove on the sleeves to hook over the thumbs before turning the laptop back around.
Kara grabbed it and studied the design. “I like it,” she said, giving Winn a large smile.
“You really want to fly around in a skirt?” Lena questioned.
“I like skirts, skirts are comfy,” Kara smoothed her hand down over her. “Though Mom may never forgive me for the primary color scheme.”
Lena snorted and took the computer out of Winn’s hands, “She’ll get over it, but I do think the suit needs one thing.” She added the crest of the House of El onto the chest area and showed it to Kara.
“Are you sure?” The blonde asked. “It won’t be too much like my cousin?”
“There’s no yellow in the symbol and the entire suit, the cape, boots, shirt, everything is outlined in gold, so not completely the same, and you’re technically the Head of House aren’t you? Don’t you have more right to wear your coat of arms than he does? You’re actually more Kryptonian than he is, so I think you should take back your House, your name and show the world what it really means.”
Tears clouded Kara’s eyes and she hugged her friend. “Thanks Lena,” she murmured, “It means a lot to me.”
“Um, hate to break up the touching moment, but are we good with this design?” Winn asked, drawing the two women’s attention. “Because if we are, then I would love to get my hands on some fabric to start getting this thing worked out.”
“We can head down to my private lab if you’re both finished,” Lena said, standing to grab her keycard. “And Kara I can show you the mask and boots I made for you while Winn is working on the rest of it. So long as Winn signs the NDA’s first.” She set a stack of papers in front of the man, causing him to sigh as he looked at the stack.
“Fuuuunnnn.”
Kara froze as she stared at the television screen on her way into the office, News 37 KQBC proudly proclaiming that Cat Grant had dubbed National City’s new heroine as Supergirl with the hashtag trending all over social media. A slight murmur of frustration grumbled in her throat as she took in the name, Supergirl? Is that really what her mother thought of her or was this a Cat Grant, CEO of CatCo worldwide media thing? Winn had just finished her suit a few days ago, and she finally worked up the nerve to go out in it yesterday afternoon, stopping a few minor criminals that were giving the police problems around the city. She tried not to interfere too much since she knew that the police could handle a lot of the crimes without any problem, but the speeding cars were putting people in danger.
It took her a little while to become reacquainted with saving people again, especially in broad daylight. The last time she personally saved people as a hero was with Kate, but hanging around with anyone in Gotham meant that heroics were best done in darkness while villains ran rampant in the streets.
She turned around and let out a huff of air before striding into Cat’s office. “‘Supergirl?’ We can’t name her that!”
Cat pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment before spinning around to look at the younger blonde. “‘We’ didn’t.”
“Ms. Grant, I don’t want to minimize the importance of this, a female superhero, another female superhero. Batwoman, Wonder Woman, shouldn’t she be called Superwoman? If we call her ‘Supergirl,’ something less than what she is, doesn’t that run the risk of making us anti-feminist?”
“What do you think is so bad about ‘girl?’” Cat asked, standing up. “I’m a girl, and your boss, and your… and powerful and rich and hot and smart. So if you perceive ‘Supergirl’ as anything less than excellent, isn’t the real problem you?”
“But won’t this make her appear less than, less than Superman?” Kara continued, “She has the same powers as him, and nobody would dare call him Superboy, so doesn’t us calling her Supergirl make her seem less?”
Cat stared at Kara for a minute before tilting her head towards the balcony, and the two of them walked out into the open air. “What’s really going on Kara?” Cat asked, allowing the CEO persona to slip away, even if only for a moment.
“I don’t, I don’t want to seem less that my cousin, less than Superman,” Kara sighed. “I feel like people will compare me to him, and I want to be my own person, my own hero.”
“You will Kara, you will. People will connect you to him, but only because of your suit, not because of who you are. They’ll see that you’re better than him, stronger, kinder, that’s the most important part Kara, they will see that.” Cat smiled slightly and set her hand on Kara’s arm, “And I’m afraid I let my motherly instincts come into play a bit when I named your hero persona. You might be a young woman now, but you’ll always be my little girl, the beautiful, little girl that spoke algonquian to me the first time we met.”
“Thanks Mom,” Kara murmured, glancing down shyly, “I guess the name isn’t so bad, I mean Batgirl can deal with it, and it does have a ring to it.”
Cat smiled and patted her shoulder before striding back into her office. “And really,” she started, slipping back into CEO role, “I’m the hero here. I name her, gave this girl a label. She will forever be linked to CatCo and that’s because of me.” She gave Kara another look before sitting down at her desk again, “Now, I’ve hired a new art director, this is his file. He should be coming in soon, please show him into my office.”
Kara glanced down at the file before looking up at Cat in alarm. “James Olsen? Isn’t he Superman’s best friend?”
“And the Daily Planet’s ace photojournalist, well, used to be. He works for CatCo now.” Cat didn’t even look up as she answered, focusing instead on the papers on her desk.
“Aren’t you concerned though that the only reason he decided to apply for a job here was because of…” The younger blonde’s voice trailed off as she gestured towards the screens behind Cat as they were still showing pictures of her saving the plane and shots from her heroic deeds the other day.
“Of course that’s why he’s here, he always was a bit of a cape chaser,” Cat scoffed, “But I would be a fool if I didn’t take advantage of it.” She glanced up and gave Kara a significant look, “And it’s not like he knows where to find our new resident hero, does he?”
With a wave of her hand, Kara was dismissed and the younger blonde mulled over Cat’s words as she took the elevator down to the lobby to wait for the man. Kara wouldn’t put it passed her cousin to tell his best friend all about her so that he would know exactly who she was when she saved her mother’s plane. Except she hadn’t spoken to her cousin in years, he only knows that she was adopted by Cat, and was known as Kara Grant, she had been using Danvers as a last name for the past few years. Would this James Olsen connect National City’s newest superhero, aka Supergirl, aka Kara Grant, with Cat Grant’s assistant Kara Danvers?
The elevator doors opened and Kara’s eyes landed on a tall, lanky black man talking with the secretary sitting at the lobby desk. She was blushing and gushing while the man was flashing her a wide, charming smile. “Mr. Olsen?” She asked, gaining his attention. “Hi, I’m Kara Danvers, Ms. Grant’s assistant, she asked me to show you to her office.”
“All right, I’ll catch you later Stacey,” James said to the secretary. He grabbed his stack of boxes and followed Kara into the elevator. “Oh, you can call me James if you want, you don’t have to call me ‘Mr. Olsen.’ Doesn’t sound right.”
“Didn’t you used to go by Jimmy at the Daily Planet?”
James laughed, “Yeah, but new location and everything, I think it’s time that I leave that name behind me, for the new job you know.”
Kara just hummed and the elevator continued to rise to the top floor. “So what brings you to the west coast? Metropolis get too boring for you?” James didn’t answer as they stepped out onto the top floor, his eyes instantly finding a television screen with a running loop on Supergirl. “You interested in her?” Kara asked, “Supergirl?”
A frown crossed his face as a picture of the heroine in her suit flashed across the screen. “I’m wondering about why she’s wearing a mask,” he said, not really replying to Kara’s question. “You know, the big guy always told me that it was considered shameful in his culture to wear a mask, hides your true intentions. She’s probably nothing like him.”
He walked off to Cat’s office, leaving Kara to stare after him with an uncertain expression on her face. She was nothing like her cousin, and didn’t want to be since he continued to dishonor their house and family crest with his behavior. ‘Stronger together’ does not apply to one hero working alone, but family and friends working together.
“Isn’t that James Olsen?” Winn asked when Kara returned to her desk. He gestured with his thumb towards the man meeting with Cat in her office, a neutral but curious expression on his face.
“Yeah, Ms. Grant just hired him as her new art director,” she responded, glancing into the glass office for a moment before looking at her friend.
“Wonder how that’s going to work with, you know,” Winn made a flying motion with his hands and Kara just shrugged.
“I’m not going to tell him, are you going to tell him?” Kara whispered out. The man shook his head and Kara nodded, “Good, so nothing is going to happen then.”
The art director’s office was on the top floor as well, though on the opposite side of the building. It was convenient because the layouts for each issue had to pass through the art director before going to Cat for final approval, but Kara knew that she would have to be careful when she snuck away for emergencies.
Throughout the day, Kara kept her ear tuned to the sounds of the city as she completed her work, monitoring different problems to see if any needed a little extra intervention. Close to the end of the day after Kara made sure Cat left at a respectable time to get home to Carter, she changed into her suit and took flight across the city. She took out the com that Lena had developed for her and stuck it in her ear, instantly connecting to the receiver in Lena’s phone. It worked as a bluetooth but with a closed connection that people couldn’t hack into, only working between Lena, Cat, and Carter’s phones. She could send and receive text messages through voice activated software on her part in case none of them could use their phones.
Kara heard a click in her ear, signaling that someone was calling in. “Should I go on a second date with that doctor?” Lena’s voice came through the com.
“Did you really call me while I’m out on superhero duty to ask me about your date?”
“You’re not busy right now, oh there’s a bad fire in the warehouse district, might want to go see if they need a little super breath.”
“Got it,” Kara directed herself where Lena said and found a huge warehouse ablaze with the firefighters coating the nearby buildings in water in hopes to prevent the fire from spreading. Sucking in a deep breath, she blasted cold air at the fire, snuffing it out at the base before catching it in the rafters.
She waved at the firefighters as they called out thanks before flying away. “Now that that’s done, can we focus back on my problem please?”
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to go on another date with her because she was boring?” Kara asked, still flying lazily over the city.
“Well yes, but she was also extremely attractive and I haven’t had sex since I moved to National City. That was months ago Kara, months! I don’t know how you do it to be honest.”
“It’s not like there’s a line up of people wanting to sleep with my Lena.”
“Please, I bet half of the people at CatCo want to sleep with you, and the other half are in denial about it.”
Kara was about to reply when her senses told her something was coming, that someone was watching her, so she spun out of the way, ascending higher into the clouds. She could barely make out the tiny darts that were aimed straight at her, and the glowing green substance inside the canisters. She grabbed one of the darts out of the air, careful of the needle, and wavered in the air as the nausea hit her immediately. Glancing down, her supervision locked onto a few figures dressed in black with rifles and night vision scopes trained on her.
Her mind instantly flashed to the anti-alien groups that had cropped up in recent years, more in the past few months as President Marsh introduced her idea for the alien amnesty act, granting aliens citizenship and refuge in the country. The uniforms and weapons looked more official than rogue groups so she changed her thinking to a government sponsored organization. Kara watched as the group continued to aim their rifles at her, but refrained from firing anymore. It made her suspicious, why would they continue to have their weapons trained on her if they knew they couldn’t reach her from their position.
She heard a slight sound on the top of one of the nearby skyscrapers and allowed her instincts to take over, and flipped out of the way, ascending higher past the cloud line. Kara glanced back down and saw a figure cloaked in black glaring up in her direction, the darts fired from her gun falling uselessly back down to the ground. With her x-ray vision, she looked through the helmet on the agent’s head to know who was trying to attack her and nearly dropped out of the sky in shock.
It was Lexie.
Kara touched down on Lena’s balcony at her penthouse and pressed her hand into the biometric lock next to the door. One good thing the brunette learned from her adoptive parents was her paranoia. All of the doors to the penthouse had biometric locks or scanners to identify whoever was trying to access Lena’s private space. Kara was the only other person keyed into the system to bypass the scanner security.
“Are you okay?” Lena asked as soon as Kara trooped into the penthouse, peeling her mask and boots off as she went.
“Yeah, just a little rattled is all,” Kara murmured, shakily handing the dart to her friend. “Can you check and see what's in this? I feel like I know what it is, but I need to make sure.”
Lena looked at the glowing green substance and her face paled. “Is this kryptonite?” She asked, glancing up at Kara in horror.
Kara nodded. Lena was still on the phone with her when she encountered the agents and stayed on with her while they continued to shoot at her. Kara stayed out of range, flying up above the clouds. She monitored the agents as they continued to observe her, banking away from them but returning in secret to track their movements. They were using evasive maneuvers so she lost track of them, but she did note they split up into two groups, one staying in the city and another heading out to the desert.
“I think it's kryptonite. Other than the red sun lamps, it's the only thing that can weaken me and the red sun lamps don't make me nauseous.”
“Well it is radioactive,” Lena replied. She took the dart into her bedroom and opened her wall safe, setting it back behind the papers and items she kept in it. “I had the safe re-installed with lead, just in case.”
“In case you ever needed to stash kryptonite somewhere or in case nosey superheroes with x-ray vision decided to come poking around?”
Lena narrowed her eyes at her friend, “Both, I needed somewhere to stash your birthday or Christmas presents after all, and it does also serve the purpose of storing kryptonite or kryptonite like substances.”
They walked back into the living room and Kara collapsed on the couch, setting her head in Lena’s lap when the brunette sat down. “Why do you need a safe to analyze kryptonite here? Can’t you do that at your lab?”
“Too many of the employees are still loyal to Lex or my mother, I can’t trust them with kryptonite. I’m already convinced that they managed to create a synthetic version that I’ll have to track down and analyze, but I haven’t had any luck yet with finding the formula or any evidence of it.”
“How do you know it exists then?”
“Something that Lex said years ago,” Lena hummed, running her fingers through blonde hair. “I’ll figure it out, oh and I’ll need some blood while I’m studying the kryptonite.” Kara sat up with a sigh and Lena pulled out the special lamp, clicking it on to collect a few vials of blood for her experiments.
“You’re lucky I trust you to do these things or I might find all of this suspicious,” Kara grumbled, setting her head back in Lena’s lamp after the brunette returned from putting the blood in the fridge.
“Oh yeah, I’ve been secretly plotting all of these years to bring you down and wipe your alien-ness from the Earth.”
Kara poked Lena’s harshly in the stomach, “Remember I still have pictures of you that one time you decided you wanted to go through a ‘punk’ phase. I’m sure someone who love to see the CEO of Luthor Corp, future L-Corp with part of her hair and eyebrows shaved off.”
Lena narrowed her eyes, “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
The brunette just hummed and leaned back against the couch. “I’m so glad you were raised by Cat, I feel like you would be a boring goody-two-shoes if you hadn’t. You still kind of are, but you definitely picked up the snark and vinegar Cat is full of.” Kara just hummed absentmindedly, her thoughts still fixated on the agents who attacked her, one agent in particular. “Kara?” Lena asked, noticing that her friend was far away, “Where did you go?”
“Hmm, I was thinking about the people that attacked me,” Kara murmured, sitting up next to Lena. “They were agents from a government organization… One of them was Lexie.”
“What? Are you sure?”
Kara nodded, “Her hair was different, and she was a few years older, but her face, it was her.”
“What happened?”
“Mhm, I flew up out of range of the agents on the ground, but she snuck up one of the skyscrapers to shoot these darts at me.”
“So she’s smart, that’s a plus, though doesn’t counteract the whole part of a secret agency that deals with hunting aliens thing.”
“Do you know what agency that was?” Kara asked.
“If they have kryptonite and were tracking you specifically, then most likely the department of extranormal operations,” Lena mused. “The DEO, Lex had records of it, formed shortly after your cousin outed himself as an alien.”
“What do they want?”
“I don’t know, but it does explain how this Lexie person managed to disappear so efficiently online. If you work for a government agency, they erase your records online, you become a ghost basically.”
“What do I do now, what if she’s one of those people that hates aliens?”
“You can’t really make assumptions about her if you don’t talk to her,” Lena pointed out. “I might not like her much right now because she was shooting at you, but she’s your wife, you really should talk to her at some point. You know she lives here, you sort of know what she does for a living, I think you should track her down, talk to her, tell her what happened.”
Kara exhaled and scrubbed at her face, “Okay, I see your point, I’ll think about it. I need to go home, take Krypto out, and call Mom to tell her what happened.”
“Think about what I said,” Lena called after her as Kara launched herself off the balcony.
The blonde nodded absently as she streaked across the sky, circling around the city a few times before touching down on her own balcony. It was time she find Lexie and talk to her, see if there was a possibility of a relationship for them or if she was just wasting her time waiting on a fantasy. When she entered her apartment, Krypto pounced on her, frantically licking her face like he hadn’t seen her in days. “I’m okay Krypto,” Kara said, scratching the dog behind his ears. “I’m okay, just a little tired.” She laid down on her couch and Krypto followed after her, laying his head on her chest and snuggling into her. “Hopefully Lexie is a dog person…”
Kara couldn’t really sleep with her mind whirling around, so she was awake sitting on the balcony with her legs propped up on the railing and a mug of hot cocoa in her hands as the sun started creeping up over the horizon. She bathed in the sunlight for a few minutes before deciding to start her day early after showering and taking Krypto out for his walk. Rather than making breakfast at her apartment, Kara decided to get breakfast and her morning snack at Noonan’s, and eat there instead of at her desk.
“Hi Brie,” Kara greeted the redhead waitress that stopped at her table.
“Hey Kar, you here for breakfast? It’s been a few months since you were able to actually have breakfast here. Boss lady working you too hard?”
“You know it, can I have my usual please?” The blonde asked, her blue eyes sparkling in excitement as she pulled her hair back away from her face.
“So much food, okay girl, I’ll put it in for you and bring your juice and hot chocolate out for you,” Brie responded, tucking the pad back in her apron as she turned to scurry off into the kitchen. She dropped off her drinks a few minutes later when she passed by the table and Kara happily sipped at her cocoa while perusing puppy photos and news articles on her phone.
Brie came out with her food a bit later, a large fiesta omelet, a pile of bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and two large, steaming cinnamon buns. Kara leisurely dug into her food, still reading through different articles from around the world. She was reading something interesting from one of the news stations in Norway when a familiar voice interrupted her meal.
“Kara?”
The blonde glanced up and her eyes met familiar brown paired with a wide smile and a set of dimples. “Maggie?” She stood up and embraced the shorter woman, squeezing her tightly since Kara hadn’t seen her since she and Kate broke off their engagement. “How are you? What are you doing here in National City?”
“I moved here a few months ago, transfered to the NCPD Science division,” Maggie replied. Kara gestured for the woman to sit down and Maggie accepted, leaning on the table a bit as Kara continued to eat her breakfast.
“What made you decide to move to National City?”
Maggie sighed, “I needed to get away from… from Gotham, memories. I thought that Metropolis was far enough, but I kept seeing… Anyway, it was too much, so I put in for a transfer here and it finally went through so here I am.” She studied Kara for a moment as the younger woman continued to slowly devour her dinner. “So you’ve decided to take after her, your big sister.”
“Yeah, it was unexpected timing, but it was something that I decided to pursue with my family and friends’ support. I’m a little scared I’m going to mess up or not be as good as the people that taught me, that I’m going to let them down, but I’m going to try this, see if I can do it.”
“You’ll be a good hero Kara, you have the right heart for it,” Maggie said, patting the girl’s arm.
“Thanks Maggie,” Kara smiled at the older woman gratefully. “Oh, would you like to have breakfast with me? Brie will be back around soon I’m sure.”
“No it’s alright, I’m supposed to be meeting my uh, my girlfriend here,” the cop replied softly.
The shy tone in Maggie’s voice had Kara cocking her head to look at the woman curiously before understanding flooded through her. “Maggie, you don’t have to explain yourself to me. Yes I love Kate, she’s my older sister, but you don’t have to apologize for loving someone else. You have been broken up for a few years now.”
“It’s still a casual thing, no love involved yet,” the older woman said quickly. “Especially since I still might…” Her voice trailed off for a moment and Kara glanced up at her but found she was staring off in the distance until her eyes snapped to the front door. “Oh, she’s here, Alex! Alex over here.” Maggie stood up from the table to greet the woman and Kara followed her moves, nearly choking on the cinnamon bun in her mouth as she caught sight of Maggie’s girlfriend. The short bob of brunette hair was different, but she definitely recognized the woman, just as she told Lena last night when the same woman had a rifle trained on her.
“Hey Sawyer, who’s this?” The woman asked and Kara nearly snapped the fork in her hand in half. She even sounded the same.
“An old friend, my ex-girlfriend’s little sister. Alex, this is Kara,” Maggie introduced, gesturing between the two women. “Kara, this is my girlfriend Alex Danvers.”
Shit.