Chapter 3
Leave it to mom to think the best way to handle everything is with an impromptu cookout. She and Laura pulled their supplies together and were inside getting things ready with May’s help. Phil proved to be a master at the grill, once I fired it up. The agent left his suit jacket and tie in his precious car, Lola, rolled up his sleeves and was grilling up hamburgers and hotdogs for everyone. Skye and I were entertaining the kids when a black unmarked SUV pulled down the driveway and parked right behind Lola.
The driver side door opened up and Clint came around fast, causing Lila and Cooper to scream with joy as they ran over and tackled their father to the ground. He hugged his kids and rolled around with them, stopping when Laura came out and broke up their fun, only to move in and kiss her husband senseless, earning more than a few ‘ewws’ from the kids.
The passenger side door opened next, letting Director Fury out. The man looked less menacing without his long leather coat, but only a little. The back doors opened revealing Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff or Romanov depending on what tabloid rag you’re reading. Personally I tended to ignore whatever rumors they spouted, especially after the first one after New York said she and Clint were secret lovers.
When I heard plates clanking together I quickly headed to my mom and relieved her of the food she was carrying, lest she spill it all over the place upon seeing Captain America making his way over to the picnic table I set up. Before I could tease her about crushing on the soldier, I turned and found myself going all girly eyed as I stared at Natasha. She was dressed in tight hip hugger jeans and wore an even tighter red silk blouse under a short denim jacket.
Mom pushed me forward to go talk to her, seeing as how everyone parted to give us a little space by the SUV. Heading over to her I stopped right in front of her, noticing we were about the same height, but not built the same. I mean I’m perky and firm while she is round and firm and pretty much gorgeous. Thinking she would want nothing to do with a farm girl like me made me instantly nervous as I just smiled and rubbed the back of my neck.
Even without the bond yet formed between us, she felt my anxiety and reached out to take hold of my hand. She squeezed it comfortingly and smiled warmly at me. I was instantly relaxed as I stared in to her eyes.
“I’m Kara.”
“Natasha.”
“It’s really nice to meet you. I just wish it had been under better circumstances.”
“I don’t,” she replied honestly.
“You don’t?” I asked confused.
“Not many people can say their soulmate came out of nowhere and saved them and it actually be the truth. Not just some romantic notion.”
“Never thought of it like that,” I laughed, bowing my head, “Have you met any other of our bond.”
“One and she’s literally fuming right now that she can’t drop what she’s doing and come join us. But I told her the three of us will find time. We just have to see how today goes.”
“Yeah, we will,” I sighed heavily.
“Hey,” Natasha began, gripping my chin and lifting my face up to look at her, “I get that whatever story you’re about to share is going to be pretty huge. But I want you to keep this in mind. No matter what, I want to be part of your life. We want you to be part of our lives. Okay?”
“Okay,” I replied softly, feeling warm and at ease inside.
Natasha nodded, still smiling and holding my hand as she walked us over to the others. She had to let go when the kids came over and wanted to hug their Aunt Nat. Knowing how they felt I went over and hugged my Uncle Clint, feeling him cup the back of my head and place a kiss to the side of it.
“Love you kid, no matter what. We’re family and I spent the entire ride over here explaining that to everyone.”
“Love you too,” I breathed before pulling back, giving him a curious look, “Wait a minute. You gave Captain America, Director Fury and the Black Widow the family talk?”
“He sure did. Reminded me that it was because of family that I hid Laura and the farm off SHIELD’s books,” Fury said with a smirk on his face as he looked over at Skye, “We do what we have to for family. And it’s clear to me you have more than enough connections to earn certain privileges not many agents get.”
“Well, now that we’re all here. Why don’t we dig in and Kara can get started telling all of you about herself,” mom suggested and soon we were all sitting down to a late lunch/early dinner.
The scene and company making me want to faint in in a mix of both joy and disbelief. But I steadied myself, waiting till everyone was better acquainted, or reacquainted in some cases, before beginning my story. A story that I myself only learned about a year and a half ago.
***
I am Kara-El the last survivor of the planet Krypton. The people of Krypton changed from the explorers they once were. Having exhausted their own natural resources they focused more on planetary concerns while mining the core of the planet. My birth parents, knowing that this would in turn lead to Krypton’s end, sent me away in a ship that my father, Jor-El, designed and programed to bring me here to earth. Believing by looking and appearing human, as well as carrying marks written in earth English, that I would be safe and hopefully accepted.
Mom and dad found my ship in the midst of the Smallville Meteor Shower and brought it and me home with them. They managed to forge some adoption documents with the city and became my parents. I was raised here by them and with their help learned to hone and gain control over my powers as they developed.
Growing up with powers, I was branded the weird kid not just by other kids, but by some of the adults in town as well. The fact that it is gossiped about that I have three soulmarks only added fuel to fire. This translated to me having no real friends growing up and being the victim of endless pranks and bullying.
That all changed though when Skye entered the picture. I gained my first real friend and in time a true sister in her. She became part of the family secret when I used my powers to save her and the rest of our class from drowning. Our bus crashed over in to a lake on the way home from school one day. As the water was rushing in I slipped out the back through the emergency exit and pushed it to shore. Skye was the only one who spotted me, realizing what I did she pulled me back in and made me act like I hit my head during the crash and passed out.
The whole town was convinced it was a miracle. Skye and I alone knew the truth. After we told her the whole story she swore she would take my secret to the grave. That she’d never betray her sister and she never has.
“Which begs the question, how did you two know about me?” I asked, taking a break from my story to get a drink as I looked over at Phil and May, sitting at Skye’s sides.
“Rumors started popping up after the Battle of New York about another capped hero fighting the Chitauri. How she single handedly held up an entire building whose struts were destroyed, before repairing them with white light from her eyes,” Phil explained wiping his mouth off before rummaging around in his pocket, “The reports varied but their description was pretty much the same. A young beautiful blonde haired woman in a blue suit and red cape.”
He scrolled through his phone before handing it to me. There on the screen was a composite sketch that sent my eyes wide for a second before rolling as I held it out for all to see. It was indeed a sketch of me in my suit. Though the face looked a little too angelic for my taste, plus they had my cape too short and my breasts too big.
“Is this supposed to be a comic book drawing of me? Because I look like a comic-con booth babe.”
“Any chance I can get a copy of that Coulson?” Natasha asked sweetly from beside me.
“No way. Nuh uh. Deleting it now,” I countered, quickly erasing the pic and handing the phone back to Phil, who laughed at the pout on Natasha’s face when I smiled triumphantly at her.
“It’s okay. I got it saved on my laptop along with a variety of other renderings that get more and more ambitious with her looks,” Skye declared, fizzling out my triumph and causing Nat to grin at her.
“I’m beginning to like your sister.”
“In all honesty those reports have been deemed only rumors. Considered nothing but shocked folks misinterpreting Thor’s looks,” Fury explained with a chuckle before looking at me, “But you were there, weren’t you?”
“Right at the minute Hulk knocked that whale serpent thing down with one punch before Iron Man blew it up,” I answered, “As you might have noticed I move pretty quick, whether on the ground or in the air. To the naked eye I’m just a blur.”
“Wait a minute, you’re The Blur?” Skye exclaimed to which I just smirked and nodded yes to, “Oh my god. I thought that was you.”
“The Blur?” Steve questioned.
“An urban legend of the country dating back a little under six or seven years ago…right around the time you would have gotten out of high school,” Skye began with a grin, “The Blur would appear, moving pedestrians out of the way of crazed drivers. Pulling kids and folks out of wild rivers, from hanging off buildings or the odd cliff. In fact there’s even a rumor the Blur was spotted in that oil rig off of Mexico that caught fire last year.”
“Wasn’t much blurring going on there. But I was on fire. I was practically in my underwear while keeping that tower from crushing the rescue chopper right before it exploded,” I told them.
The looks and snickers around the table made me glad the kids were inside watching cartoons while the adults discussed the important things.
“So you’re super-fast and strong. Able to fly and seem genuinely indestructible. Anything else you can do?” Clint asked.
“The flying I only learned about a year ago. All my senses are sharper. Hearing and vision off the chart. That’s how I knew Laura and the kids were in trouble on the road. I got near binocular, microscope like vision. As well as x-ray. I can see through just about anything…except led. I can’t see thru led. Heat vision is what that hot white light was people saw coming out of my eyes. Intense laser like beams that can cut through anything. Though it does sting a bit after using, it is getting better.”
“I can vouch for her being indestructible,” Skye griped, “Hitting her is like hitting a brick wall reinforced with steel. I remember one year we all came down with a bad case of the flu. Leaving Kara there to play nursemaid. She never gets sick. Perfect attendance queen.” I just smiled proudly at the title while she stuck her tongue out at me.
“Kara wasn’t always as strong and durable as she is now,” mom declared, “When she was a baby, her first week with us, every night I could hear her coughing and breathing heavy. Like she was fighting for every breath. We didn’t know what to do, just made sure she was comfortable and prayed she’d make it through the night. Worst week of my life, but she got through it in the end.”
Reaching over I gripped mom’s hand and squeezed it lovingly while smiling at her. Mom squeezed it back, accepting the napkin from Steve to dab at her watery eyes.
“You certainly live up to the name there, Supergirl,” Clint stated with a smirk as I looked wide eyed and confused.
“It’s what your sister called you after she saw the rescue,” mom explained with a warm laugh, “Lila and Cooper even started up a victory chant for Supergirl after your rescue of the plane.”
Looking to Skye for more information, I saw her blush and bow her head, her hair covering her face as she refused to look at me.
“All your powers plus the S on your suit…it just sort of came out.”
“It’s not an S,” I argued, “On my planet it means hope.”
“Well on this planet it’s an S. S for Supergirl,” Skye countered.
“It suits you,” Nat stated, smiling at me in a warm reassuring way that had me melting on the inside.
“Fine. Supergirl it is,” I huffed, earning a few laughs at the table.
“From what your mom says and what you’ve told us, it sounds like your people weren’t born with these powers. If anything something here on earth gave them to you,” Fury deduced.
“Krypton’s sun was older and red at the planet’s end. Its environment was harsher, with a heavier gravity. Earth’s sun is still young and yellow. The cells of my body have drunk in its radiation, strengthening my muscles. Gravity here is weaker and thus able for me to break free of at will. Though I didn’t know this at the time. Any of it.”
“So where did you get your history lesson from?” Steve asked with a kind smile, “Sounds like you had a better teacher then I did when I woke up. People have just been throwing things at me to try non-stop.”
“Remind me to set you up with an iTunes account before you leave. I got a feeling if we wean you in on music and movies based on the year you went in to the ice to the present day, things will make more sense to you,” Skye offered.
“Impressive idea. One I would greatly appreciate,” Steve replied, turning his smile to her.
“Least she can do for her patron saint,” I joked.
“What?” Steve choked out.
“Skye?” Phil breathed excitedly.
“Kara. I’m going to kill you,” Skye growled at me.
This took the topic of conversation off of me for a while so Skye could tell everyone that story. About how before coming here to Smallville, during her time at the orphanage, she went through confirmation and first communion. And was the only kid there to get Steve Rogers as their patron saint. Saint Steve, Patron Saint of the underdog and all of Brooklyn she said.
Natasha was rubbing my thigh under the table, clearly sensing sharing my story and everything was getting to me a little. This was her way of reaffirming what she said earlier, about no matter what she and our third would want me in their lives. She was being really calm about all of it to be honest, learning one of your bond is an alien. A powerful near invincible alien, but still an alien. To have her still beside me, feeling the bond between us beginning to take shape to the point I can feel her warm reassurance through it…it’s a wonderful feeling is all I can say.
I picked up my story. Explaining how while traveling the world in hopes of finding out more about where I come from, I managed to get put on a science team in Alaska that made a strange discovery in a nearby glacier. Turns out it was an ancient Kryptonian scout ship. One of many my people sent out before ceasing such activities. They lost track of it. Not surprising considering it’s been in the ice for over 30,000 years or so.
From there I slipped on board and using the small black crystal like key that came from my own pod like ship, which is still hidden under our barn, I was able to bring the ship on-line and fly it somewhere safe and off the radar before the team managed to deduce what it was they really found. It was in that ship I also learned my biological father imprinted his consciousness in to the key. He was able to use the ship’s systems to construct a holographic representation of himself to talk to me and explain everything to me.
Everyone ate in silence, once again quietly taking in everything I was saying and processing it as best they could.
“If you have all of this power and a desire to help people, why stay in the shadows? Why the disguise?” May finally asked the question I’m sure everyone’s been thinking about as a way to get things moving again.
“Kara is who I am. Supergirl is what I can do; who I can be for the people of this world. My father…Jor-El…he told me to hold on to the humanity I’ve gained being raised here in Smallville, the lessons I’ve learned from my parents. That if the world knew the truth about me I would lose all semblance of a normal life. That my help would be called upon for situations mankind can handle on their own. I mean you guys are the Avengers, but you don’t run around the world taking on every criminal that pops up. You get it right?”
“We do. Or at least I do anyway,” Steve nodded, a faraway look in his eyes, “After the procedure, I wasn’t put in to fighting right away. I was used as a tool to rally the troops, the Star Spangled Guy. Then I became Captain America, a symbol they could get behind. Someone they could believe in.”
Steve looked at me with understanding in his eyes as he held out his hand to me. I took it and he clasped it in his, looking long and hard at me.
“I never once thought of myself as any better than the rest of the soldiers fighting. Never once thought the way the Red Skull did, that we’re superior to everyone else. I’m just a poor kid from Brooklyn who wanted to serve his country and do the right thing. I still do. While it is hard for me to be Steve Rogers these days, I still try to be. But I get that the world also needs Captain America. You hold on to Kara Kent, never lose sight of her. I can tell your family and friends love her and need her more than they need Supergirl.”
“Though it doesn’t hurt to have a superhero in the family,” Skye butted in, causing me to laugh and roll my eyes at her for ruining the moment, but for also coming to my rescue. I’m on the brink of tears from his words of understanding, talking to me like a person and not some alien freak. Maybe he really does deserve his saint status after all.
“Thank you,” I nodded, smiling brightly at him.
“You’re welcome,” he replied, pulling back and smiling at my mother. “You raised a very fine young lady ma’am. You should be proud of her.”
“I am Captain.”
“Steve, please.”
“Only if you call me Martha.”
“I’ll try…Mrs. Kent,” Steve offered as a midway point for now. Mom’s laugh and smile showing she’d take it.
“I get wanting to hold on to who you are, not giving in to your power and staying true to yourself. I also understand wanting to help out, but not being used for problems people and other agencies can handle themselves,” Fury began, looking at me closely with his one good eye, “But I get the feeling there’s more to it than that. Something deeper you don’t want to tell us.”
Natasha tensed up and looked sharply down the table at him, feeling my mood change as I bowed my head and closed my eyes. I felt mom reach out and run her hand up and down my back soothingly while I continued to sit there silently before standing up. I turned my full attention on Fury, my face as neutral as my tone.
“I appreciate you granting me the freedom to choose what I want to do moving forward now that the world knows about me. But let’s be honest with each other. If I wasn’t the adoptive sister of your goddaughter. If Clint didn’t go to bat for me, claiming me as part of his family and entitled to the same secrecy as Laura and the kids. If Natasha wasn’t my soulmate…you never would have agreed to that. Would you?”
“No, I wouldn’t have,” Fury answered honestly, earning a few lethal glares from those at the table.
“And why is that?” I pressed.
“Because despite the fact that you are technically an alien and not a citizen of the world, you might also very well be the most powerful being on the planet right now. My guess is if you really put in the effort, you could bring down the Hulk.”
“That’s why I’ve kept my powers hidden for so long. Why I try to help out, but be invisible doing it. That’s why I let my father die,” I admitted, maintaining my calm neutral exterior while inside I was hurting. Mom reached out and placed her hand over one of my hands while Natasha took the other one. Looking over at Skye’s pained confusion, I took in a deep breath before letting it out.
“Johnathan Kent, my father, the only one I had until learning about Jor-El, he liked to tell me that I was here for a reason. He also told me that I needed to keep my powers hidden. That if the world new the truth about me that they’d reject me. They’d fear me. The day he died we were driving home on the highway when a tornado touched down. It was coming right at us and everyone was scrambling to get out of their cars and get to the overpass for cover. I got mom out and a few others. He stopped at this car when he saw a girl crying in her father’s arms because their dog was still trapped inside. Dad told them to go then he moved in to get the dog out, but in the process he ended up getting his leg broke when the door closed suddenly because of the wind. The tornado was almost right on top of him as he stood there holding on to the car for support, knowing he couldn’t make it.”
I closed my eyes as the memory played out in my head, not wanting to see the look on mom or Skye’s face as I finished.
“I could have gotten to him. I could have saved him. He knew I could…he knew I wanted to. But he also knew in saving him I’d expose the truth to everyone there. That in a day the whole town would know and by the next one reporters would be banging on our door. Or worse. So he told me not to. He held his hand out to stop me before I even took a step towards him. Then he smiled at us and then he was gone.”
Tears were falling down my cheeks as I opened up my eyes, looking only at Fury. I took in a breath when I saw the sympathy in in his eye as he kept his own mask of calm neutrality. I really wanted to break down then, but I had to finish this thought first before that. So I pulled my hands back and away from mom and Natasha, stood up straight and brushed myself off before I addressed him in my calmest tone.
“I let my father die because I trusted him. Because the world wasn’t ready to know the truth about me. It still isn’t. The Avengers are still taking heat from the press for what happened in New York, for not getting there sooner. For not saving everyone. People are still afraid of aliens, of things they don’t understand. And people have a tendency to hate what they fear. My father didn’t want that kind of life for me. But we don’t always get what we want, do we?”
“No we don’t,” he answered with a sad laugh, “But if you want some time to breathe after that, I think we’d all understand.”
I nodded, sparing Natasha a look. Seeing her sorrow and sympathy for me, feeling her desire to comfort me. But understanding I needed some time to myself. Without even thinking, after turning and placing a kiss on mom’s cheek, I turned back to her and placed a brief one on her lips before leaving the table and heading for the barn.