I wrote this as an assignment for my Creative Writing course. It's my first real attempt at educated story-tellin', so here's hopin' it holds up. I would greatly appreciate any and all criticisms; I need to learn.

P.S. Yes, I know, I ripped off the opening scene from the Spiderman film. Quit yer bitchin'.

P.S.S. This is an edited version, done according to my tutor's comments in the first version.

Power Girl created by Gerry Conway, Ric Estrada & Wally Wood
Power Girl & all related names, characters & images owned by DC Comics, Inc.

It was late in New York City. With the sun setting, the work day had ended and most of the streets were quiet.

However, this was not the case on one street in Brooklyn as a shop was being robbed. One man in a ski mask held the owners up at gun point while his partner looked out the door. The first man impatiently waited for the man and woman who owned the shop to fill his rucksack with money.

"Hurry up!" The lookout said, agitated.

"Shut up and watch the street!" His partner shouted. The lookout turned away from his angry partner and back to the street to watch for the police, or anyone else.

"Here," The male owner said as he handed over the filled rucksack, "take it and leave!"

The robber took the bag while his partner scuttled out of the door. As he left, the female owner shouted after him, "I hope the police gun you down!"

The robber stopped and dropped the bag. She had stepped on his last nerve. He turned around, raised his shotgun, pulled the trigger and-

- he ducked as the pellets richocheted in every direction. He heard the gasps of the owners before he looked up to see a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman. She wore a white leotard with a hole showing off her ample cleavage. A short red cape hung off her left shoulder by a golden pauldron. She wore a red, felt belt, blue boots and gloves on her hands which were currently on her hips as she looked down at the robber with a confident smirk.

The robber was frozen as the woman spoke, "You know, this city's got a bad enough rep as it is. Your not helping the cause, pal." The woman lined her hand up with the robber's forehead. The robber flew out the door and over the unconscious body of his partner as the woman flicked him away like a fly.

"You folks okay?" The woman asked the owners.

"Yes. Thank you so much, Power Girl!" The man said.

Power Girl smiled, "It was my pleasure," she said, "Better call the cops on these guys. Take care." With that she walked out the door and took off into the sky.

Several hours later she was flying through the sky with a content smile and said to herself, "Ya done good, Karen. Ya done good."

Karen approached a small apartment building overlooking Prospect Park and entered a window on the top floor.

"I'm home!" She called to her roommate, "Lazy day, today." She continued while undressing, "Robbers, high-speed chase, cat stuck in a tree. Ya know, the usual," she finished with a chuckle. After dropping her costume to the floor and putting on some clothes, she collapsed on the couch. "So, how was your day?" she asked the tubby orange cat that walked into her lap.

"Mroooww."

"Yeah, I thought so."

She scratched the cat's back as she turned on her television. "-ower Girl, seen here stopping a bank robbery in Queens two days ago."

This peaked Karen's interest. "Hey, Kitty, they're talking about me." She said, "Well, I hate to inflate my own ego, but..." Karen smirked and watched the report.

"While Power Girl has long been an outstanding public servant and often a role model," Karen's smirk turned into a toothy, arrogant smile, "several concerned citizens that stated their dissaproval of the superheroine's provocative costume." Karen's smile instantly dissolved into a confused, angry scowl.

"Though she is not the first heroine with questionable attire, many have been outraged by the trend. Several parents have expressed their concerns about the 'innapropriate' costumes of heroines such as Power Girl, Wonder Woman and Starfire. They say that these women set bad examples for their children and have demanded that they change their image to more appropri-" The screen exploded in a blast of glass and sparks as it was hit by duel red lasers. Karen's cat let out a loud screech as it bolted from the explosion.

"Ungrateful assholes!" Karen shouted, her angry eyes red with energy. "I save the goddamn day and all they think about is my freakin' costume!?"

She gritted her teeth and twitched as she suppressed the urge to scream. She became a blur as she sped into the sky. Arriving at the edge of space, she proceeded to scream every profanity know to man into the soundless void. Her rage vented, she allowed gravity to take her back to Earth.

After re-entering the atmosphere and the accompanying aura of red-hot plasma had dissipated, she stopped her decent several thousand feet in the air.

She took a deep breath and allowed her reason kick in. As this happened, something else returned: her awareness of temperature. It seemed a bit cold, even for 50,000 feet up.

She looked down at herself and instantly covered her chest and crotch as she saw that her clothes had disintegrated during atmospheric re-entry.

"Dammit!" She shouted, "How many times can this happen in one year!?" She created several sonic booms as she sped home.

After re-dressing, Karen picked up her costume and began pacing as she thought to herself, wondering how the people she had dedicated herself to helping can be so narrow-minded.

She sighed sullenly and looked at her costume. "Let's consider their point of view." She thought to herself. "They think their kids'll see me and start dressing weird and shouting cat calls."

She sat down and wondered about how valid their argument was. "Well my costume does kind of scream 'if you've got it, flaunt it.' I gues not everyone likes that." Karen's mind wandered to a certain figure, "Well, what would Kal say in a situation like this? Something like 'example-setting' and 'kids are the future', I guess." She sighed, exasperrated. "Always with the goody-two-shoes speeches, eh cuz?"

She realised that her cousin would have a point. If people looked up to a heroic figure like Superman, why could they not look up Power Girl?

Karen gave a solemn sigh and sat on the couch as she realised the harsh truth of her own thoughts and reluctantly accepted it. "Well... maybe it's time for a change."

Karen looked at her costume, somberly. "I think I'm gonna miss this one. We've had a great run. But if I'm gonna have kids looking up to me I'd better have a more appropri-"

Something clicked in Karen's mind. "Hold on. If people look up to me, know me, how I look and what I'm about, then what kind of message would I send by bending myself over the FCC's knee? 'Some prudes say dress like this so you'd better do it?' The hell with that! 'If you've got it, flaunt it?' Damn right! Show everyone who you are and never apologise for being yourself because you're not hurting anyone!"

Confidence washed over Karen as she felt assured that she could keep her identity and still be a positive role model.

"What do you think, roomy?" She asked her cat as it walked back into her lap.

"Mrooow."

"Damn right."

Cat by her side, Karen slept well that night. In the morning she would make it a point to show everyone, supporter and nay-sayer alike, who she was: "I'm Power Girl, dammit. Get used to it."

Thanks for readin', hope ya enjoyed it. Again, I would really like and appreciate criticism of any kind.