Adventures of a Super Family

Chapter 1: Arrival

Disclaimer: All things Superman/Supergirl belong to DC Comics. No copyright infringement is intended.

The world around her slowly came into focus, though her mind remained fuzzy. What had happened? Where was she? Her eyes took note of her surroundings, taking in metal walls all around her, the monotony broken up only by the rather soft padding she was lying on. Something small and warm rested in the crook of her arm. Something that was starting to move.

She looked down, seeing the infant clutched against her chest, and suddenly she remembered.

We're out of time, Jor! We need to launch now!

The second craft isn't ready, Zor! We'll have to put them both in Kara's ship.

Kara, love! There is no other way!

No, please don't send me away! I can't do this without you!

You need to take care of your little cousin Kal, Kara! You must protect him!

Come with me, please!

We're out of time, Alura! Lara, give Kal to Kara!

Good-bye, my son! Kara, please take care of him! Take care of each other!

I promise I will protect him! I promise! I promise!

Launch! Now!

Noooooooo!

The sound of baby Kal in her arm waking up and crying managed to snap her out of the memories. For a moment the despair was overwhelming. Krypton was gone. Her parents were dead, just like her aunt and uncle, Kal's parents. Everyone was dead. Kal and she were all that was left. They were all alone.

Tears staining her eyes, she forced the despair away. There would be time for mourning later. The dead could wait. For now she needed to make sure that Kal and she didn't join them. The last thing she remembered was climbing into the pod and the stasis kicking in. She had remained awake just long enough to see the flash of light that signaled Krypton's final doom, the planet tearing itself apart, before she fell asleep, not knowing if she would ever wake up again.

The craft around her looked intact, so it seemed everything had worked, or so she hoped. There had been so little time. Her father and uncle had had but minutes to tell her everything she needed to know. The craft was supposed to land on a distant planet called Earth, inhabited by a race called humans. They outwardly resembled Kryptonians, so Kara and Kal should be able to blend in and the yellow star of the system was supposed to have an enhancing effect on them.

Kara was actually amazed that she remembered that much, given that she had been crying and screaming in denial for most of that lecture. She hadn't wanted to go and leave her parents and family behind. She was only a teenager, for Rao's sake, still a child herself. Now she was supposed to take care of an infant on an alien world? She barely knew how to take care of herself.

The despair rose up from within her, threatening to drown her in thick black waves of sorrow, but she pushed it down again. Later! Much later! First thing first.

"It's going to be okay, Kal," she tried to soothe the crying baby in her arms. "I'll protect you, I promise! No matter what, we'll stay together!"

It seemed to work, for Kal's blue eyes fixated on her and he stopped crying. For a brief moment she envied him. Kal was still so young, less than half a solar cycle old. He would not remember anything about their lost home. Would not remember seeing his entire world disappear, swept away like dust by some unseen god's cruel hand.

"I guess we should take a look at our new home then," she said, hoping her voice sounded somewhat steady. She was scared, so very scared. Out there was an entirely alien world and it was just the two of them. She had no idea what to do, only that she needed to protect the baby in her arms. Finding her resolve, she touched the controls next to her and the small craft opened up.

Sitting up, Kal securely in her arms, she looked around. The first thing she thought was "so much green!". Her father had told her that this world was far younger than Krypton with a very extensive fauna and flora, but it hadn't prepared her the sight of so much untamed nature. The craft had apparently landed in the middle of a field of some kind. A shallow crater showed that the craft's touchdown hadn't been entirely smooth, but the hull looked undamaged.

She blinked, noticing the bright yellow sun shining down on them. She felt it tingling across her skin, almost like a weak current. She drew in a breath and the oxygen-rich atmosphere almost made her feel giddy. Was this what her father and uncle had meant by enhancing effect?

She carefully climbed out of the craft. Or at least that was what she attempted to do. As she pushed off, though, her body practically catapulted out of the pod, arcing through the air as if she weighed nothing. She gave a surprised yell, instinctively clutched Kal closer to her chest, and turned them around so her body was between him and the ground. Hitting the ground drove the air out of her lungs, but surprisingly there was no pain. Kal was actually laughing in delight.

Slowly Kara got back to her feet, disoriented. The tingling on her skin was getting worse, now feeling more like an itch. The light seemed brighter than just a moment ago and as she moved, the rustling of her bodysuit seemed unnaturally loud.

"What's going on here?" she whispered, and even those words sounded extremely loud.

Suddenly there was a new sound, hitting her ears like a battering ram. She flinched, her free hand clasping her aching head, and looked around. There! Something was approaching. A vehicle of some sort. It was loud, so very loud! And... Rao, the stink! Some kind of exhaust cloud was trailing behind the vehicle and the odor was threatening to suffocate her.

She tried to get up, but didn't make it any farther than her knees. It was just too much. The light too bright, the sounds too loud, and her skin felt like it was on fire. A small part of her mind registered that two shapes had detached from the approaching vehicle. Humans, had to be. They really looked like Kryptonians. But it hurt to think. Everything hurt.

One of the humans, a female, came closer and said something to her. She recognized it as one of the Earth languages her father had logged into the craft's computer. During her long sleep the learning program had fed them into her brain. She understood the words, a question about needing help, but her mind was incapable of actually processing it. There was just too much.

She opened her mouth, trying to speak the human's language, hoping that the sounds coming out somehow made sense, that the humans understood she was pleading for help. Then everything went black as her overtaxed mind finally gave up and sent her into blissful unconsciousness.

When she regained consciousness an undetermined amount of time later, she found herself in a new location. She was lying on a bed and the roof above her seemed to be made from some kind of organic material. She looked around. She was in some kind of living quarter. Apart from the bed, there was a desk, two chairs, and some kind of storage closet. A window was beside her, but thick fabric hung in front of it, dampening the light coming in from the outside.

She realized that the room was quite dark, but for some reason she could still see everything clearly. Such as the fact that she was alone. A jolt of fear swept the last remnants of sleep from her mind.

"Kal?" she cried out, sitting up quickly. Too quickly, as it turned out, as she immediately became dizzy and also launched herself off the bed, hitting the ceiling, and falling back to the floor. While she still tried to orient herself, the extremely loud click of the door signified someone entering.

"Take it easy," a female voice said in English. "Everything is okay!"

She looked up, seeing the female human from before. And there, safely in her arms, was Kal, happily giggling as he saw her.

"Kal! Oh thank Rao, you're safe!"

She scrambled to her feet, managing to do so without launching into the air again, and quickly approached the human, who readily handed over her cousin to her. Kara enclosed him in her arms, tears of relief in her eyes. Kal simply giggled, seemingly without a care in the world.

"Why don't you sit down," the human said, gently guiding her over to one of the chairs. Kara didn't resist, she was far too relieved to have Kal back in her arms to care about anything else for the moment. Rao, she didn't know what she'd have done had something happened to him while she was out.

She needed a minute to compose herself, something the human seemed to realize, as she left her to it. When she finally looked up again, she studied the woman who had sat down beside her. Humans really did look like Kryptonians, even up close. The woman was clearly older than Kara, fully adult, and her skin was somewhat darker, probably due to constant exposure to the sun. Brown hair with a bit of reddish tint to it framed a gentle face and the other woman smiled at her.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" she asked. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? Does anything hurt?"

Kara blinked, somewhat taken aback by the kindness she was experiencing. "I... I am unhurt, thank you. And... thank you for taking care of Kal while I was out."

"That was no problem at all," the woman said, her hand reaching out to brush across the few wisps of dark hair on Kal's tiny little head. Kara tensed for a moment as the woman reached for her cousin, but then relaxed. If they had wanted to hurt them, they would have had every opportunity to do so while she was unconscious.

"This little guy is quite the charmer. What's his name? And yours, while I'm asking."

"I am Kara. Kara..." she stopped, thinking. Her full name was Kara Zor-El, as it was tradition back home on Krypton for children to carry the full name of their father until they reached adulthood. But her father was gone, everything was gone. Despite not being adult, she was now the oldest living member of the house of El and thus the head of the family.

"Kara-El," she finally said. "And this is my cousin, Kal Jor-El."

"Pleased to meet you, Kara," the woman said. "And you, too, Kal. My name is Martha. Martha Kent. And you might remember my husband Jonathan, he was with me when we found you."

Kara dimly remembered the second human, but it had been but a few seconds. Reading her face, Martha just patted her hand. "Don't worry, sweetheart, you'll meet him soon. He is downstairs cooking up some food for us. I am sure you must be hungry?"

Kara thought about that for a moment. Was she hungry? She should be, she realized. She had been in stasis sleep for Rao alone knew how long and she knew that people awakening from stasis were usually ravenous. But she didn't feel hungry. In fact she felt quite energetic. Still, the idea of eating something was appealing, if for no other reason that she really had no idea what to do next.

"I... yes, I could eat something."

Martha nodded and stood up, clearly intending for Kara to follow her. Kara moved slowly and carefully, remembering her previous attempts at moving fast. She felt too light, almost as if she might float away if she wasn't careful about planting her feet on the ground. Adjusting her hold on Kal in her arms, she carefully walked after Martha. Outside the room was a corridor and a set of steps leading downwards. The light increased as they walked, the downstairs rooms not shielded from the sun. Kara squinted, the intense light was still hurting her eyes.

"Are you all right, dear?" Martha asked, clearly noticing her distress.

"It's... sorry, the light is so bright, it makes my eyes hurt."

Martha moved away from her and a moment later the light level decreased. Kara looked up and saw that Martha had drawn fabric across the biggest window of the downstairs area. The light was still bright, but it helped. Also, Kara seemed to be adjusting, at least somewhat. She noticed that the sounds, while still very loud, didn't hurt as much as before.

A large table stood in the center of the room, surrounded by chairs, and things that Kara assumed were food items were on top of it. Martha gestured towards one of the chairs and Kara carefully sat down. Kal seemed to be happy and immediately his tiny hands reached for one of the food items. Kara was uncertain of what to do, she had no idea if this alien food was good for a toddler.

"Don't worry," Martha said, once again seeming to read her mind. "We already gave him some milk earlier and a cookie, too. He seems to like them."

Kara nodded, watching as her baby cousin chewed on something that she assumed was called a cookie. He didn't have teeth yet, so it would probably take some time for him to finish this job.

"Ah, I see our strange visitor is awake," someone said, causing Kara's head to snap up. She had been so focused on Kal that she had completely missed the sounds of someone approaching.

"Jonathan, this is Kara. Kara, this is my husband, Jonathan Kent."

Kara studied the male human, once again amazed at much like Kryptonians the humans looked. He was tall, a good deal taller than Martha, and had the same sun-kissed skin tone. His hair was as blonde as Kara's own. He wore clothing that seemed quite worn and it left his arms bare, showing that he had an ample amount of body hair. Somehow that amazed Kara more than anything else. A good portion of Kryptonians considered it risqué to even have hair on top of their head. Body hair was almost completely unheard of.

"Nice to meet you, Kara. You made quite the explosive entrance."

She needed a moment to understand his meaning. The ship. They had obviously seen the ship coming down. Which immediately caused another moment of panic in her.

"Oh Rao, my ship! I need to get back to it!" Everything that had survived of Krypton was on that ship. The computer contained the sum total of Kryptonian knowledge, as well as materials to construct Kryptonian machines and dwellings. She needed that ship, without it…

"Don't worry," Jonathan said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We figured that leaving it out in the open like that was not the best idea. I towed it back to the farm, it's outside in the barn."

Kara had no idea what a barn was, but the knowledge that her ship was close helped to relax her some.

"Now if you don't mind, Kara, we have some questions of our own," Jonathan said, sitting down beside her. "We... ah... well, we couldn't help but notice that this ship you arrived in... it's not exactly from around here, is it?"

Kara looked at him, feeling as if the human man's eyes were gazing right through her skin and down to her soul. Of course they would have questions. She knew that Earth was a primitive world with no contact with other planets or civilizations. Aliens were probably the stuff of fiction for them.

She briefly considered what to tell them. Some kind of lie? Just enough to keep them off her back until she could get away? But get away to where? Where could she possibly go? She knew little of this world. Some basic information, yes, but certainly not enough not to stand out. It started with the clothes she wore, the Kryptonian bodysuit looking very, very different from the clothes Martha and Jonathan wore. Kara might look human, but she had no idea how to behave like a human. Never mind the fact that she was still a child herself. Running around by herself was sure to draw attention from adults, even more so because she had a baby with her.

Also, there was the fact that her own body seemed to be changing. Her skin still tingled, though it didn't hurt as much as before. She wasn't hungry, though she should be. Her eyes and ears were still hyper-sensitized, she doubted she could step outside into the bright sunlight without fainting. Amazingly Kal didn't seem bothered, but that might simply be because he was still so very young.

These people had already been incredibly helpful. And right now it seemed Kara had little choice but to trust that they would remain so.

"You are right," she finally said. "My ship... we... are not from Earth. Our home was called Krypton."

"Was?" Martha asked.

Kara nodded, even as the despair welled up inside of her again. She tried to push it down once more, tried to keep a calm head, but for some reason it wasn't working this time. Her eyes filled with tears and she felt as if a great weight was pressing down on her.

"They're gone," she whispered, barely managing to formulate the words in the still-unfamiliar alien language. Sobs were building in her throat. She could not breathe. "They're all gone, our entire world. My... my father and uncle, they... they knew it would happen, but no one believed them. They built ships in order for us to escape, but there was not enough time. Only one ship was finished, and they… they told me to get inside, to take Kal, and… and then…"

She could not finish, she could not put it into words. They were all gone. It was just Kal and she, alone on an alien world. The last of their kind. All alone. It was up to her to keep Kal safe and she had no idea how. No idea what to do, where to go, how to handle all this. She was still a child herself. Kal, sensing her distress, was starting to cry, too.

Suddenly there were arms around her and she felt herself pulled against Martha's chest. The human woman was careful not to crush Kal between herself and Kara and the three of them ended up huddled together, Kara's cheek resting against the soft fabric of Martha's shirt. She couldn't stop crying. All the grief she had suppressed just came pouring out and the kindness shown by the alien couple into whose lap she had fallen broke down whatever barriers remained. Kara cried for her lost world, her lost family, and for Kal and herself, who were all alone in the universe now.

"You're not alone," Martha said, holding her. "It's terrible what happened to you, but you're not alone. We will help you, I promise!"

Somehow, without any logical reason, hearing these words helped. It did not lessen the sorrow, it did not dampen the pain, but maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't all be up to her. Maybe she did not have to do all this all alone. Maybe she did indeed have help.

"Thank you," she whispered, relaxing in the embrace of a stranger.

Six years later

Kara was sitting on top of the Kent farm's barn, eyes closed, just relaxing in the early morning sunlight. It had become sort of a ritual for her during these last few years. She did not really need much sleep, so she always got up at the crack of dawn and let the morning sun wash over her, focusing on the feeling of her cells soaking up that wonderful warmth.

As they often did, her thoughts inevitably travelled back to that fateful day when she and her baby cousin Kal had landed here, the sole survivors of a doomed world. So much could have gone wrong. They could have drifted endlessly in space until their life support gave out. They could have crashed into a sun or on a hostile world. They could have encountered people intending to harm them. Instead, though, they had met the Kents. And everything had worked out from there.

She smiled, thinking of how confusing those first few months had been for all of them. The Kents had been determined to help them. Mostly because they were just that good a people, but also because Martha and Jonathan had instantly fallen in love with Kal. With her, too, probably, but mostly Kal. Kara now knew that Martha and Jonathan had tried for a long time to have children of their own, but it had never worked. So two alien children just dropping out of the sky and right into their laps had been a godsend as far as they had been concerned.

Thinking back, it might have been easier if they had both been toddlers, at least as far as constructing a backstory here on Earth was concerned. With Kara being roughly 13 Earth years old or so at the time, though, they had to be a bit more imaginative. Martha and Jonathan had gone through many possible scenarios with her, all of them focused on making sure that no one had any reason to question Kara and Kal being related and staying together, no matter what. Thankfully the Kryptonian technology from Kara's ship had made it easy to hack into the primitive Earth computers and lay a convincing data trail.

Which was how they had ended up with their current identities. Kara was now called Karen Kent, the 19-year-old daughter of Jonathan Kent's older brother Samuel Kent, who had died in Vietnam without ever knowing that he had fathered a child. Kara was extremely thankful to "Uncle Jonathan" for allowing her to use his deceased brother's name for her deception. According to the documents, Karen had been born to a woman called Alya Jones (who was entirely fictional), who had died in a car accident when Karen was 12. After a brief (and also fictional) stay in the foster care system, Karen had been given to her only living relatives, her uncle Jonathan and his wife Martha.

How to incorporate Kal into this story had been harder. The Kents could have passed him off as their own child, thus making Kara his cousin on Earth as well, but people in Smallville would have wondered how Martha managed to carry a child to term without ever appearing to be pregnant. Plus the fact that, while Kara had at least a minor resemblance to Jonathan, Kal looked nothing like either Kent. Passing him off as a parentless child from the foster system had also been a possibility, but it would have meant that, in the eyes of the law, Kara and Kal were unrelated, which Kara simply didn't want.

In the end they had decided on a somewhat riskier version of events. During her fictional stay in the foster system, Karen had fallen pregnant from an unknown father. Given that she had been 12 at the time, it was pushing things a bit, but sadly it was not that uncommon on Earth for barely pubescent girls to be impregnated and giving birth, even in developed countries. So as far as everyone except Jonathan, Martha, and Kara was concerned, Karen Kent had a son. A son called Clark.

And speaking of Clark: "Moooooom!"

She opened her eyes, having long since heard the hyperactive 7-year-old boy storming out of the house. He knew that she enjoyed watching the sunrise. Quickly sliding down from the roof, she let herself fall to the ground and a moment later Clark was there, embracing her.

"Hey, little guy? Sleep well?"

"Like a log, mom!"

Even after six years, it was still strange for her to hear him call her mother. She had had long debates with Martha and Jonathan about how much they should tell Kal. There was no question that he would be told the entire story sooner or later, but expecting a little boy to keep up their cover story all the time was just asking for trouble.

So for the moment Clark thought that he was just a normal human boy and that she was his normal human mother. Well, not quite normal. He knew that his mother was special, possessing abilities beyond those of most people, and that he was not supposed to tell anyone. She had also hinted at the possibility of him also gaining powers once he was older, something he was terribly excited about. So far, though, Clark might as well be a human boy. The miraculous powers that Earth's sun and atmosphere had gifted to Kara had not shown up in him yet. She was sure, though, that it was just a matter of time.

"Are Uncle Jon and Aunt Martha up yet?" she asked, despite clearly seeing the two of them moving around in the kitchen.

"Aunt Martha told me to get you for breakfast," he said, jumping up and down.

Smiling, she followed him into the kitchen of their home. And it was their home by now. She felt safe here. She would never be able to repay Martha and Jonathan for all that they had done for them, not if she lived to be a thousand years old. She loved the two of them and she knew that they loved her and Clark as well.

Martha and Jonathan had basically raised Clark as if he were their own child. Of course Kara had been there the whole time, too, but she had already been a teenager and struggling with her own problems. She had needed the better part of a year just to get a consistent grip on her powers, so she was more than thankful that Martha and Jon had taken over most of the parenting duties. And afterwards she had needed time to settle into Earth culture, too.

Unlike Clark, who was in school now, Kara had not partaken of the American education system. Given the advanced level of schooling she had already gone through on Krypton, she had easily tested out of all classes and gotten her GED at 14. She was taking numerous college courses by correspondence, too, and planned to have several degrees before she hit 20. Once, a long time ago, she had fully intended to follow her father and uncle into a life of science. She planned to do the same here on Earth, but that was more of a side project.

Looking on as Clark ran over to Martha and Jon, her plans for the future and her adult life on Earth were affirmed once more. She had arrived here on Earth as a refugee, helpless, alone, with no idea of how to take care of the precious life entrusted to her care. She had found help here, more help than she could ever have reasonably expected. She could never repay the Kents, but that didn't mean she couldn't do her own part to help others.

She had powers far above those of the humans. Given everything she could do, she was easily on a par with Earth's mythical gods. And she would use those powers. Not to set herself up as a goddess, but to provide others with the same help she had received. Krypton was gone. Earth was home to Kal and her now. And she would use every single bit of power her new home had given her to protect it from harm.

"Coffee, Karen?" Martha asked, looking at her.

Walking over to the woman who she had no problem calling her aunt, Kara hugged her gratefully and took the coffee cup.

"Thank you," she said, sitting down with her family.

End Chapter 1.

Author's Note: having watched and read numerous iterations of the Superman / Supergirl story, I became very partial to the version where Supergirl is actually older than Superman and was supposed to arrive on Earth together with him as his caretaker. And I wondered how it would have worked out, had that actually happened. So here we are. I will borrow freely from any and all versions of Superman / Supergirl and the other DC properties. There will be elements from Man of Steel, the Animated DC series, the comics, the Supergirl TV series, and everything in between (probably not Smallville, though).

As for the story itself, it will be pretty much episodic in nature, showing different events in the lives and times of Karen, Clark, and their eventually expanding families. I used to love the old "Superman Family" comics from DC way back in the day, and I'm hoping to recapture some of that feeling, too. Let me know what you think.