"Hello everyone. I was wondering if you could tell me where some friends of mine are. Ghost and Miracle? Those authors who keep having to tell you that they don't own any copyrighted franchises? Perhaps you've seen them, or heard from them? Me and my friends are searching the Multiverse, but haven't been able to find them. Send me a review if you have any information that could help us…"

"Regards, Bruce Wayne of Earth -22."

Chapter Four: Supergirl

October 20th, 2007; The Fridge – Building 013, Metropolis University

The Fridge was the tallest building in Metropolis University, named thus due to its shape – a giant, white rectangular building that towered over the rest of the campus. From the roof of that building, a person could look out over two neighbourhoods of Metropolis. To the east was Little Bohemia, to the west, the crime-riddled community of Suicide Slum. It was here in the dead of night, atop the Fridge, the University's physics and astronomy hub, that Kara Zor El stood, looking out over the world. Her world.

Was it even her world?

"Kara… your D.N.A… at best guess, I'd say it's not human."

Lex, Lena, Alex… all the data they'd collected said the same thing. She wasn't human.

She had thought maybe her powers were magic – she had seen magic after all, seen it transform people on her travels. But Lex and Lena had found the answers in science, so that eliminated a curse or blessing.

"It's not human…" If not Human, then what? Was she an alien as Lex seemed to think? Some Lovecraftian monster? The comic-books disagreed on Superman's origin, it changed depending on what era you talked about. Some said he was an alien, others a demigod like Hercules. Kara had never paid much attention to comic-books or fictional works; the real world was quite crazy enough in her opinion. But Barbara read them, and she would often go on tangents about superheroes, of which Batman was her favourite.

Would Superman be proud of her? She had saved lives like he did; thousands, perhaps millions altogether, and she loved helping people. It was the only thing she was really good at. Lex and Lena had their science, Babs her computers, Alex her fighting and deduction skills. Kara… she had been the muscle of their team. She had only learned how to talk in her early teens! It was part of why she'd left. She wasn't a genius. She accepted that. But that meant she hadn't really fit in with her family any more, and that realisation had terrified her, driving her away. She'd seen more of the world on her journey than she could ever properly explain, even to her family. She'd refined her powers, learned to speak five languages… yet she still had no idea where she came from. If she had been sent here from some other world, why? What of her parents, wherever they were? Had they loved her? Had they cared? If they had, why send her away alone? Was there some connection between her mysterious and unknown origin, and her horrible reoccurring nightmare of being trapped in the bitter cold?

She had a choice. Become Supergirl – the hero of Earth. Or hide, turn her back on everything, and disappear.

The trap door to the roof creaked open, and two voices echoed out into the night.

"Winn! We shouldn't be doing this!"

"Oh, come on Nia, who's going to catch… us…" They had obviously noticed her sitting there.

"Oh, sorry, we didn't mean to interrupt…"

"It's fine," she said, "I'm not going to tell on you." Kara grabbed the bottle of whiskey sitting beside her and took a long pull from the bottle. The alcohol did nothing to her – she had learnt long ago that she couldn't get drunk – but she could still appreciate the burn and taste.

"Wow," the woman, Nia, whispered.

"Want some?" she asked, gesturing to them with the bottle.

"Is that… wait am I reading the date on that right?"

"Single-Malt Scotch Whisky, 1969," she said. Hesitantly, a hand reached out and grabbed the bottle, and Kara finally looked at the two individuals. Both brown-haired, with the exact same nose. The girl was taller than the boy – both university students by their backpacks and clothes. She supposed they could be boyfriend and girlfriend, but judging by their similar appearances, she had a feeling siblings was more accurate.

"So, what brings you up here on this fine evening?"

"Astronomy project," Nia said, sitting down and pulling out a collapsible telescope from her backpack, "What about you?"

"Having an existential crisis," Kara replied with a soft chuckle.

"Where on Earth did you get this?" Winn breathed, still looking at the bottle.

"From someone who owed me a favour." He took a sip of the bottle and hummed softly.

"That's good stuff," he said, before passing the bottle to Nia, who took a sip as well. She grimaced instantly.

"Never been a fan of scotch. More a wine girl myself."

"Fair enough," Kara said, taking back the bottle, "I picked up quite the collection of Spanish wines from shipwrecks while I was in the Caribbean. The 1820's vintages are quite good."

The two kids laughed, obviously thinking she was joking, before getting to work on their telescope. Eventually, after they talked to themselves for a while and began making notes in their workbooks, Kara spoke up again.

"What are you researching?"

The pair paused for a few seconds before Nia finally spoke.

"We're looking into cosmic radiation, solar winds, that sort of thing."

"Why?" Again, the hesitation.

"I'm not a student, I'm not going to steal your project," she noted, and she could imagine the girl blushing in embarrassment.

"We want to investigate just how solar winds affect our environment. Earth is protected from the harmful energies by its Magnetic Field. A paper came out earlier this year speculating that Mars used to have a magnetic field, but that it stopped working when the planet's core solidified. It got us wondering, if our magnetic field didn't protect us like it does, would Earth become like Mars? Barren and lifeless."

"Interesting," she said, taking another pull.

"Um, I hope you aren't driving home," Winn said anxiously. She had gone through about half the bottle now.

"Flying," Kara said, frowning, "So you think Mars might have been like Earth then?" She looked up to the sky, scanning it for the spec of red that usually belayed the presence of Mars. Sure enough, there it was high above the horizon. She squinted, forcing her vision to zoom further in. She had gotten much better at this. Her periphery warped, and the city vanished, replaced by an infinite sky of black with twinkling white stars. But it appeared her telescopic vision couldn't do a whole lot to make the image clearer. The planet increased in size from a speck of sand to about her pinkie finger, but there was little detail to it, and she was getting a splitting headache.

She let the image fade and blinked her eyes rapidly to force away the tears created by the strain.

"Maybe, a couple of million years ago. If evolution happened faster there, maybe they even had sentient humanoid life. There's no way to know."

"What do you think you'd do if, say, one of these aliens came to Earth?"

"Like sci-fi?" Winn asked.

"In real life. What do you think would happen if an alien crashed on Earth, and the world found out about it?"

The pair were silent for a few minutes, until Nia finally spoke up.

"I think that a lot of people would be terrified."

"Me too," Kara said, staring down at the bottle dejectedly.

"But I also think," Nia continued, "that more people would be thrilled. Proof of alien life! Imagine all the discoveries we could uncover! It would catapult us into a new age of technology. Maybe we'd start racing to the stars again. The current trajectory of the Earth doesn't look too good. Global Warming, Climate Change, extremism on the rise. If there was proof of alien life, I think, at the very least, there might be a reason to hope for a brighter tomorrow."

Kara sat, digesting that for a while. Maybe Nia was right. Maybe, whatever she was, she could be a symbol for hope like Superman. It was a responsibility. A massive one. But she had been building to this her whole life, hadn't she?

"What if the alien didn't know what she was? What if she was terrified of what she could do, of what her existence meant? What if her only wish was to not be different anymore?"

"I think that would be incredibly selfish," Winn said, "Everyone is different in one way or another. Sometimes it's more noticeable, true, but that doesn't change the truth. It's our responsibility to use our differences – our strengths – to make the world a better place. Be it a social outcast using her creativity to write a novel that reaches thousands of people; or the billionaire C.E.O. who uses his wealth to provide clean water to a stricken village. We use what we have, to do what we can. And that's enough. If this alien girl wanted to hide from the world, I could understand that. The world is a pretty shitty place. But respect her? Knowing that she could have helped people, and didn't? Never."

Hiding in the shadows had made things easy. Allowed her to move from place to place when she became too noticeable. But she hadn't been able to live up to her full potential. She was the most powerful person on the face of the Earth. Maybe now was the time to make the hard choice. Putting aside the bottle, she stood up slowly and took a deep breath.

"Thank you," she said.

"For what?"

"For telling me what I needed to hear. Oh, and keep the bottle."

She braced her knees, then shot into the sky, leaving the stunned figures of Nia and Winn behind her.

October 23rd, 2007; LCorp Tower, Metropolis

Alex made sure to stand beside Kara – that was, directly behind Lex and Lena – as the group of five LCorp Shareholders were escorted by their security detail through the lobby towards the limousines waiting outside.

LCorp was not a publicly-traded company. Its ownership was contained entirely by Lex, Lena, Kara, Babs and Alex – with each of them holding an equal 20% stake in the company. Lex had set the company up that way for several reasons. The first was to protect against corporate fraud or personal attack. If one of the five were to die or have their reputation discredited, the other four would be in a strong financial position to protect the company and its thousands of employees.

Second, because each person had an equal share, they all had a say in how the business was run. Lex had done this at Lena's suggestion, as she'd pointed out that Lex had a tendency to become absorbed in his personal projects and forget that there were other people in the world. Lex had, to his credit, admitted this was true, and so he'd chosen the four people he trusted as his insurance policy. This had turned out to be a brilliant idea, as it allowed Lex to focus on the technological side of LCorp while allowing Lena, Barbara and Alex to branch outwards and expand the company's horizons. Lena had developed a new method of therapeutic injection three years previously that eliminated the need for exposed hypodermic needles or sharps. But the greatest part was that she'd also managed to remove the pain associated with most basic injections. She called it the Vokai Infusion Apparatus, (more commonly referred to simply as the V-Pen, with the original name taken from Kara's word for 'to help/to heal'). Lena had also spent a great deal of time with the Luthor Foundation, working to make Suicide Slum a better place.

Barbara… well, there wasn't a hacker on Earth that didn't know her name – some even had posters of her on their bedroom walls. The Oracle Virus was legendary, its programming code and operating system kept in only two places in the entire world: Barbara's phone, and on a secure, independent, hidden backup server whose location only Barbara knew. But that wasn't all Babs did. After graduating the SHIELD Academy and signing on as an Agent, she'd also founded LCorp's cybersecurity division – propelling it to one of the most advanced in the world. They had contracts with SHIELD, Microsoft, N.A.S.A., Boeing and the New York Stock Exchange to protect sensitive data, and Barbara herself often went out on recruitment missions to snatch up enterprising programmers and hackers with promise.

Alex… honestly, she hadn't done a whole lot with her share. She was technically the Director of Security, but she left most (read all) the operations to her deputy director. Instead, she spent almost all her time with the F.B.I. She loved her job, and she was really good at it too. Her friends didn't know most of what she did – the majority of it being Classified – but she'd earned quite the reputation at Headquarters. And it had gotten out. A month ago, she'd received a visit from Agent Hank Henshaw, Director of the SHIELD Department of Extranormal Operations – SHIELD's first contact division for superhuman and alien threats. The Director of the D.E.O., visiting her personally. It was unthinkable. And thrilling. She'd wanted to get Kara's permission before accepting – her being one of those superhuman people the Department was designed to combat – and she'd been nothing if not supportive. She'd also spoken to Babs, who had more experience with SHIELD than anyone. She'd said to join up, if only so that Alex could have a greater understanding of the world she lived in. But she'd also warned her. SHIELD was full of people both altruistic and ambitious, and walking the two was a fine line many failed. Still, Alex had decided that she would accept the position when she called Director Henshaw tomorrow.

For now, she guarded her adopted family against a potential threat willing to cause mass casualties to get what they wanted. They were under no impression that the plane sabotage hadn't been intended to kill the two Luthors. Alex's first suspect had been Tony Stark but had ruled him out. There would have been far easier ways to get rid of the brother and sister if Stark had been the perpetrator. Unfortunately, that left the suspect pool very small. It could be anyone. Corporate sabotage, an old enemy from their time in Suicide, a disgruntled employee. Regardless, she'd spoken with Kara shortly after the Luthors had returned safely from the plane crash, and both had agreed to be extra suspicious until the current conflict was resolved. Alex had also called her boss at the F.B.I., requesting reactivation (she was supposed to be on leave) and jurisdiction to arrest any potential attackers. She'd gotten it within minutes. The Luthors were very important and high-profile people.

"Yes," Lena was saying into her phone, "I want all the faulty V-Pen's destroyed, and a new order sent immediately, Malcolm." Malcolm Summers was the company's C.F.O. Lena looked quite stunning in Alex's opinion, her sleek black knee-length dress accentuating her curves. And she owned those heels. Alex always fell over when she tried to walk in heels.

"No. We're not charging them, they will be entirely free, and we will pay for shipping as recompense for our screwup. I don't care that it's only going to regional Africa, or how much it costs. I will not have potentially harmful technology sent to anyone, regardless of country, and that's final."

The group strode through the revolving doors and made their way towards the limousines. A crowd of reporters immediately began shouting after them, camera shutters singing in the busy Metropolis street. Alex scanned the surrounding road, but couldn't spot anything that looked out of place. That didn't mean there weren't snipers in the adjacent buildings though. She'd only be happy once they were securely back inside LCorp, where her handpicked security defences could keep them…

Kara tensed, eyes widening. Alex didn't hesitate, lunging forward and grabbing Lena around the waist. The pair hit the ground, Lena screaming in shock, behind the car as the sound of bullets ricocheting off the hood thundered in their ears. Alex rolled off Lena, pushing her up against the car door. Lena, panic in her eyes, immediately began heavy breathing as she tried to open her purse with trembling hands.

Kara had done the same with Lex and Barbara, as both were sitting with stunned expressions against the car in similar positions. Reporters were running in all directions, and the guards had all drawn their weapons and sought cover behind the cars or the walls of the buildings.

Kara did not remain out of view. Instead, she stood directly to full height, in direct view of the shooters, and stared at the building directly opposite them.

"Fifth floor, the ninth window on the right!" She shouted as two bullets ricocheted off her black and white Oxford University pullover. She ran towards the building despite the guards yelling at her to flee when a kickback thudded through the street. A sound Alex recognised immediately.

"Rocket!" She screamed. Kara didn't listen. She broke into a run, then launched into the air and caught the rocket, redirecting it into the sky. It soared upwards for a few seconds before detonating with a 'BOOM!'. Then Kara's eyes glowed a brilliant blue, and twin beams of heat vision leapt toward the building. A window shattered, then the superpowered blonde dropped back to the street. Lena finally found her Ventolin and took several puffs. Alex rose steadily to her feet, pistol drawn. The reporters and other civilians, who'd retreated mostly into the lobby, were standing with awed expressions on their faces, and the cameras were still rolling. Crap. Well, that could be dealt with later.

"Did you get them?" She called. Kara nodded.

"We're not out of this yet," she said. Then, proving her point, five black sedans came screeching around the corner at the end of the street.

"Get everyone inside!" Kara shouted, "I'll deal with them." Alex jumped to life, grabbing Lena and pulling her to her feet. Babs, her SHIELD training kicking into gear, pulled Lex up as well, and the guards formed a perimeter around them as they were ushered back towards LCorp. Lex and Lena were pushed inside, and Alex turned to the head of the guards.

"Take them to the crash bunker, now!"

"What about you two?" Alex glanced to Barbara, who'd appropriated a Glock from one of the guards, and nodded.

"We're federal agents." Checking to make sure most of the reporters were inside, the two women moved back towards the street, advancing quickly to the bullet peppered limo for cover. Glancing back at the doors made her groan, as behind the three guards that remained to secure the entrance stood a reporter with shoulder-length curly blonde hair and a crappy camera fixed on Kara. Dismissing the woman, whom she didn't recognise, Alex turned her attention back to the cars. They'd formed a ring around the LCorp entrance, Kara in the middle, hands-on-hips. In the distance, Alex could hear police sirens.

A car door opened, and out stepped a man Alex had thought was dead. Tall, bald, thickly built, wearing a finely tailored suit and leaning heavily on a wooden cane. Carmine Falcone.

"I thought I killed you?" Kara said, seeming non-pulsed. The doors on the other cars all flung open and out poured a veritable army of men, all armed to the teeth with assault rifles and even a few machine guns. Holy crap. What does he want?

"Kevlar," Falcone stated, hobbling forward a few steps so that he was face to face with Kara, "Turns out it deflects not only bullets but laser beams as well."

"I'll make sure to go for the head this time then," Kara stated, eyes narrowed. "I liked this jumper."

Falcone chuckled. "I doubt you'll be needing it once you're dead."

"Did you not learn from our last tumble Falcone? You shot a rocket at me, and I walked away without a bruise."

"Yes, quite the impressive feat that," Falcone said, moving back to sit on the car bonnet, "You have no idea how long I spent trying to figure out how you did it. Trying to figure out who you were, what you were."

Alex gestured to Babs, and the two women slowly made their way to either side of the limo.

"But eventually, eventually, I tracked down the money you stole from me, hunted you through Suicide only to find you gone. Flying across the globe, stopping disasters and saving millions. I had whole teams dedicated to bringing me any report of a blonde flying woman of incredible strength I could. And eventually, I learned your name. Kara Zor El."

Alex dropped to her stomach and began to slowly crawl beneath the car. Police cars pulled up on both sides of the road, officers drawing their weapons and calling for the men to lay down their arms. None did.

"You know they tell stories about you, back in Suicide. They tell rumours about the Girl of Steel, who was impervious to bullets, who was strong enough to lift cars with her bare hands. For so many years, I've wanted to find you and kill you." The police tried to advance, but Falcone's goons fired warning shots towards them, causing a quick retreat and calls for backup to resonate through the eerie street. Alex reached a point where she could sight Falcone and trained her gun on him. She could just see Barbara's feet on the other side of the car. She was in position.

"But to do that, I needed to bring you back to Metropolis. I needed something big. Like downing a plane carrying your adopted family…"Quick as lightning, Falcone drew some sort of modified pistol from his jacket and fired it at Kara. Alex and Barbara both took shots of their own at the same time. Kara caught the bullet between her index finger and thumb, Barbara's shot hit Falcone in the shoulder but glanced off what was no doubt a bulletproof vest beneath his suit. Alex's shot got him in the neck.

The bullet between Kara's fingers exploded, and she gasped in pain, her hand spasming. Falcone grunted, then fell to the side of his car grabbing his neck, beyond Alex's field of vision. Alex, keeping her breathing and her instincts steady, watched as Kara shook her head and hand repeatedly a few times. Then, faster than the eye could follow, she shot forward, grabbing the car Falcone hid behind and throwing it backwards, crushing the men behind. The others all opened fire on her at once, and Alex took in a sharp breath. Could she survive that much? Grenades and hundreds of bullets hurtled towards Kara, the sound so deafening it made even Alex cringe as she tried to cover her ears. Screams from the lobby, and more sirens – this time from SWAT cars – joined the cacophony. Both were utterly absorbed by the sheer magnitude of the noise coming from all those weapons being discharged at once. Alex couldn't even see Kara because of the smoke from the grenades.

Heart thumping, mind conjuring images of Kara's bloodied and mutilated corpse, she risked edging further forward.

The smoke cleared, revealing Kara, arms folded, clothes literally torn to ribbons, but without a blemish on her.

"I really liked this jumper," She muttered.

All the goons lowered their weapons in a mixture of shock, awe, and horror, and watched as Kara lifted Falcone's body, bleeding from Alex's neck wound and his suit ripped from shrapnel, into the air. He was still alive – amazingly. Her shot must only have grazed him.

"How dare you come after my family?" Kara hissed. "You put hundreds of lives at risk, for what? Pride? Petty vengeance? And look where it got you." Then, without a single attempt to stop her, she carried Falcone – a man twice as tall and twice as large as she was – with one hand past the sedans and over to the nearest squad car. The officer swallowed thickly as she approached. She rounded the car, opened the trunk, and unceremoniously shoved him inside.

"Carmine Falcone, officer. Drug kingpin and crime lord, with multiple deaths to his name I imagine. If there aren't there should be." She smiled softly at the man, who still hadn't moved a muscle, before turning and walking back towards Falcone's men. She floated up into the air, eyes glowing, then spoke to the street.

"Drop your weapons and surrender now, or face the same thing that happened to your boss." Almost instantly, the men dropped their weapons. The cops finally broke free of their reverie, moving to cuff the goons on Kara's instruction. Alex crawled out from under the car, and Barbara helped her to her feet. Kara dropped back down to the bitumen – though her hair continued to float softly – and pulled them into hugs.

"You guys, okay?"

"We're fine, thanks to you," Babs said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"We really need to get you some bulletproof clothes," Alex noted with a laugh.

"Miss?" A soft, nervous voice asked. Standing a few meters away from them, holding a camera limply in one hand and an audio recording device in the other, was the blonde reporter. She was young, probably Barbara's age, with grey eyes. The woman took a deep breath, then stepped forward, face hardened by resolve.

"I'm Cat Grant, a… a reporter for N.B.C. news. I was wondering if you'd mind answering a couple of questions?"

Kara tensed, and Alex grabbed her hand.

"You don't have to do this," she whispered so the reporter couldn't hear.

"No, I do," Kara said, "My time-saving people from the shadows is over. I have to come out into the light, be a hero the world can look up too. I may not be able to…" She paused, taking a deep breath, "I may not be normal, but I can use what I have to protect those that are." Kara slipped free of Alex's grip, stepping forward, that cheery smile brightening her face.

"What would you like to know, Miss Grant?"

Cat Grant grinned as wide as her name-sake.

"Who are you? Where do you come from? How can you do what you do?"

Kara put fists to hips, squared her feet, and looked straight into Miss Grant's eyes.

"My name is Kara Zor El, and I don't know where I came from, or how I can do what I can do. I grew up in Suicide Slum, a scavenger, homeless and abandoned for reasons lost to time, until I met Lena and Lex Luthor and they gave me a home…" Kara continued, answering the woman's questions to the best of her ability. Alex and Barbara stood there watching, silently cheering her on, until Barbara's phone rang. She pulled it out and stared at the screen. 'Blocked Number'. The red-head winced.

"That, will be Director Fury. I should probably take this." Barbara stepped away, face pale. Alex laughed at her, before turning around and seeking out the Police Detective, the SWAT Captain and her boss standing beside the blackened piece of road that marked the place Kara had taken the bullets and grenades.

"Alex Danvers, F.B.I.," she said with a sly smile, raising her badge, "I've got some explaining to do."

Announcement

Hey everybody! So sorry this chapter is late, but, we've been really busy over the last month, and we haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to any of our Fanfictions. I mean, there's been Hamilton to sing, Covid to avoid, lockdown to depress, surprise Taylor Swift albums to binge, emergency surgeries to prep for, and hangovers to struggle through.

Oh, and one other thing;

WE HAVE A PUBLISHER!

*fireworks explode! *trumpets proclaim our awesomeness! *sirens call out in praise! *fans screaming our names!

*cough, cough. Uhhh sorry. 😐 But seriously, we have secured a publisher for our first original novel for a pretty decent advance as well. So go us! Now, the final draft of our first book - which we're working on closely with our editor, because we have an editor now (*eeeeek!) - is due in September and after that we're going to be busy organising other related things, as well as University starting back up once more and Ghost's mother going into surgery. So we've decided to go on a temporary hiatus of sorts until everything calms down a bit. We'll still update, but posts will be irregular, and will occur more when we have the time or a brief bit of un-restrainable imagination to leak out. Lost Daughter still has about three chapters in the tank, so we'll post those bi-weekly, and Blessing has two chapters to go before we hit the end of act one and go on a planned break anyway (as we did between Acts with Gemini Curse). We've only got first draft versions of the rest of the Okaran Civil War, and a couple of scattered sections written for Crisis, so that will take longer to get back up and running.

Thanks so much guys, and sorry for the inconvenience,

Love, Ghost and Miracle.