Dreams of Tomorrow (Worm/Supergirl)

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.1​

I woke up falling from several thousand feet in the air and on fire. That was a new one.

Adrenaline surged and I jerked out of my stupor in a flailing tangle of limbs. My mind raced as I desperately tried to understand what was going on, how I had wound up like this, and most importantly, how I was going to survive it. The wind roared in my ears even as I swung around to face the rapidly approaching ground. I spread my arms and legs and practically halted as air slammed into my larger surface area.

My head jerked forward and as if a switch had been flipped, memories came rushing back to me. My name was Kara Zor-El, I was one of the last Kryptonians alive, and I had superpowers that let me fly and protected me from harm. So falling from the sky while on fire wasn't exactly as life-threatening as it might otherwise have been. Somehow, this didn't ease the pounding terror in my chest.

No lie, I was more than a bit scared and distressed at the whole situation; any rational person would be. But, I had been knocked out of the sky on more occasions than I would like to admit. I knew what to do, I'd done it a million times before.

There was a… feeling, a sense of weightlessness that I felt whenever I took flight. Like that feeling you get when a roller coaster drops, but with none of the anxiety. My cousin, Kal-El, described the feeling as joy made manifest, which sounded like that human story of Peter Pan to me. That didn't make it any less accurate though.

I focused on that feeling, let it bubble up and fill my every being, and smirked with satisfaction. My descent quickly slowed to a stop until I hung suspended in the air by invisible wires. The rapid slowing had done little to soothe the flames chewing at the edge of my clothes, so I spent a few minutes patting those out until I was left steaming and covered in a fine layer of soot.

The edges of the long blue sleeves were singed, the fabric of my top several shades darker now. My chest insignia, a red stylized S against a background of gold had lost its sheen, and my red skirt and boots were totally ruined now.

Dang, that was my favorite costume too. I didn't even want to imagine what that fire had done to my blonde hair.

My powers seemed to be working fine though, which was good. I wouldn't have to worry about cratering the poor city below me with my impact. I scanned the cityscape spread out before me, trying to get a feel for where I was. The geography was unfamiliar, but I recognized the architecture. Glimmering skyscrapers rose high into the air, well maintained streets, and a large crowded freeway leading in and out of the city. I was vaguely reminded of Metropolis, but the architecture lacked what many called the 'neo-sci-fi' aesthetic the city had adopted in recent years. Judging by the large body of water on one side of the city and the sun, I was possibly on the East Coast, though I couldn't be sure.

This did little to narrow down the list of potential locations.

A particularly tall skyscraper caught my eye, and I descended towards its roof with practiced grace. I scanned its roof as it rose up to meet me and saw no sign of anyone standing atop it. What few cameras my microscopic vision picked up were angled around the helicopter pad itself, so I would be afforded a little privacy while I gathered my senses. It was as good a landing spot as any, and I'd be less likely to worry people here than I would in the streets below. Even after years of living with metahumans, seeing someone fall out of the sky would still startle the average person.

When I touched down, I was surprised when one of my legs gave out and I fell on one knee, only barely catching myself with my hand to avoid face planting. The concrete of the landing pad was hot against my hand, and scraped at my skin, but I felt no pain from it. My powers were working fine, but there was an ever present exhaustion hanging from my shoulders, as though I'd just gone ten rounds with Darkseid and gotten up for round eleven. As gravity pulled at me, my joints ached and my muscles protested my every move; it was only the warm glow of the sun that countered this fatigue, and I lifted my head to its rays and soaked in its energy even as my mind continued to race. Though my body was worn, my mind felt fresh and well rested, if confused.

Was it a failed assasination attempt?

An indirect missile assault wasn't exactly an unheard of idea. In fact, that sounded exactly like something that Luthor would try to pull, though his scheming was usually reserved for my cousin. I put a hand to my chest at the thought of my cousin, tracing a line over the symbol plastered across it. To the average human, it might have looked like a stylized S, but to me it was more than that. One of the last signs of my people, a symbol that literally stood for hope, and one of the few connections between myself and my cousin beyond our blood.

My cousin.

Kal-El, Superman. Some called him the greatest hero on Earth, the Man of Tomorrow. I knew him as the last of my family, my guide on Earth, and a total dork. If something had happened, he would show up to help me. Even when I didn't want or need his help, he had a habit of showing up anyway just to check on me. He was annoying like that.

I shook my head, there would be a time for reminiscing later, until I had a better idea of my situation. First, I had to see if there were any more follow up attacks to look out for. Given that I had been given time to land and recover my senses without being pummeled, I felt I was safe, but it never hurt to check. A quick skyward glance showed nothing more than a jetliner flying overhead. Focusing my expansive hearing, I heard nothing out of the ordinary either, just the sounds of the city at work.

That meant it was time for step two of my 'figure out what in Rao's name was going on' plan. Figure out what city I was in, and that was easy enough to solve. I could, of course, have flown to the city limits and found a sign for an answer, but the easier option was to simply ask the people on the streets below.

A quick push of my legs and I easily leaped from the roof and gently fell to the streets below. I made sure to control my descent, even as the wind caught at my skirt and cape, brushing some of the ash from it. A few people on the streets came to a stop and gawked as I landed in the middle of the sidewalk in front of them and put on a friendly smile.

"Hi there," I waved, "Sorry for bothering you, but can anyone tell me what city I'm in? I'm a little lost and would like to know where I wound up."

One of them, a thin woman with short hair, managed to find her voice, "H-Houston, miss. Houston, Texas."

That broke the spell, and the street exploded into the sort of chaos that was inevitable in situations like these. I was immediately barraged with a series of blunt and fast questions so fast I was at risk of a concussion from them hitting me over the head with them.

"Are you a new member of the Protectorate!?"

"What's Eidolon like?"

"Have you ever fought an Endbringer?"

"What's your name?"

I took a few steps back, maintaining my friendly smile and answering their questions as they came.

"No."

"Can't say."

"Maybe?"

"Supergirl."

At the same time, my mind raced. Their questions and confusion at the sight of me raised a possibility that I had not considered; but I needed proof first. I excused myself from their questions as quickly as I could, and took off into the air to the crowd's disappointment. I slowly picked up speed as I went, the horizon turning into a blur of glass and steel and concrete before the early morning horizon replaced them. Once I was comfortably sure I was a safe distance away, I let loose and shattered the sound barrier in an instant.

When I had first arrived on Earth, I had practiced and learned how to navigate my new home as quickly as possible, first by map and then by following the Earth's magnetic sphere. When I was traveling between cities this made it easier for me to keep an idea of where I was in relation to North and South. Once I got close enough to a city, I could usually find their exact location thanks to their radio waves. Electromagnetic vision was one of my lesser known but certainly no less useful abilities.

Combined with the incredible super speed of my flight, it was no challenge crossing vast distances that to a normal person would take hours or days to cross in a car. The landscape rushed by miles beneath me, nothing but a blur of greens and browns. Mountains passed as tiny and small as ant hills, and cities sprawled before me like gray blots on the land before quickly vanishing. Faster and faster I flew forward to Metropolis.

My suspicions were confirmed as I came to where I knew the city should be. I had flown to it hundreds of times, I knew where Metropolis was and what the surrounding area looked like. Yet I found no sign of the city; not the Daily Planet, not STAR Labs, and no sign of my cousin. The land itself where the city would be was barren, nonexistent.

I felt a bubble of anxiety at the back of my throat. I couldn't accept the obvious truth in front of me, not yet. I needed more proof, to test my theory more thoroughly before coming to a conclusion. That thought in mind, I rocketed across the Continental United States, faster than any aircraft built by man. For nearly an hour I searched every corner of the country, and came to a frustrating conclusion. Metropolis, Gotham, Central City, Coast City, and even Star City had no presence here on Earth. Correction, no presence on this Earth. I was in an alternate dimension, an alternate Earth of some kind.

I reeled at this conclusion while hanging in the upper Mesosphere and watching the planet slowly spin beneath me. This was not the first time (and knowing my luck, far from the last) that I had been sent to an alternate Earth. Barry Allen, the Flash, could visit them whenever he wished and I had been to more than my fair share of them. But I had always had a way home in the form of Barry. Without him I was, well, stuck waiting for rescue, which didn't sit well with me. Rao knew Kal would never let me live this down when they did finally find me, and that was a conversation neither of us would enjoy.

This was going nowhere, so I assembled my thoughts again and focused on what I knew so far: I was stuck on an alternate Earth, my cousin and I did not exist here, meta humans did seem to exist, and I had no way of knowing if my friends and family back home knew I was missing. I reached into the utility belt wrapped around my skirt and checked for whatever supplies I might have had on me. An emergency Kryptonian shelter crystal, a watchtower communicator, emergency sonic emitters, several hundred dollars in emergency cash, the glasses I wore when in my secret identity, and some very basic first aid supplies. Not much to work with aside from that crystal, the cash especially was going to be useless on an alternate Earth.

I folded my arms and rubbed my chin. More information was what I needed about this Earth before I could really do anything. No way was I going to just fly about blindly until I came across something useful. Well, um, not anymore anyway. To quote a certain pointy eared jerk, I needed to gather more intel before I made my next move.

So with that in mind, I descended back to the Earth and towards a different city. It was probably safer to lay low away from Houston. I knew nothing about this Protectorate or Eidolon that those people had mentioned, and didn't want to make them angry on accident if I could avoid it.
Instead I descended on a small northeastern city, a fair bit north of Boston. Compared to Houston, this city showed its age. Most of its buildings, barring a few obvious recent additions, were at least two or three decades old, blocky and plain compared to their sleek modern counterparts. It was built along the coast, a large bay opening up to the ocean, though a graveyard of abandoned cargo ships blocked off most of it. There was a very modern and beautifully designed oil rig that rested at the mouth of the bay, and peering at it with my electromagnetic vision, I could see odd energies dancing around it. If I were a betting girl, that was probably where the local super geniuses and meta humans had set up shop. Common rule of alternate Earth's, if there are metahumans, there are always super geniuses.

As I scanned the city, I felt an acute sense of deja vu that took me a moment to place, and then it hit me. This city reminded me far too much of Gotham. The odd mix of modern and old buildings, the obviously abandoned industry, and the painfully obvious disconnect between the upper and lower class neighborhoods were all too common to Batman's home city. Maybe there was a possibility that we did have counterparts in this world, simply under different names. It was possible I had jumped to conclusions; I needed to be sure though.

It wasn't hard finding a local charity that had free clothes for the homeless or less fortunate. In my current situation I couldn't afford to be picky, so with a bit of super speed I swiped some plain shirts and pants that fit me well enough and changed into them. It wasn't the perfect disguise, but thankfully I had the key advantage of not existing on this planet. Add a ratty old hoody and the holotech in my glasses that changed my hair color, and no one would ever connect Kara Zor-El, Supergirl, with mild-mannered Linda Danvers.

I changed in a nearby alley faster than the human eye could see, and slipped out onto the sidewalk. My disguise was more than just old clothes and a visit to the hair stylist however; I made sure to pull the hood up over my head, and jammed my hands into its pockets as I walked. Finally, I kept my head down and my eyes pointed at the ground. Human or kryptonian, this body language was as unassuming and unlike my usual self as was possible outside of physically changing my face. There was no way anyone would connect me to my secret identity now, which meant I could move about the city in peace without drawing stares.

My first stop was a local library; I needed to catch up on as much history as I could on the state of affairs in this alternate Earth before I did something stupid or offended someone important. My little survey of the US showed at least this wasn't one of those alternate Earth's where the Russians had won the Cold War or the Nazi's had conquered the world, but that didn't narrow things down by much. I needed more information.

There were several local library's in this city, and thankfully the one I found was as unassuming as I was. It was built practically which is to say plainly. A brick edifice with a large metal roof that extended into an awning over the front entrance with the words 'Brockton Bay Public Library' printed along its side. I pushed open a pair of clear glass doors and stepped inside, ignoring the shattered window next to them covered only by a paper sheet and duct tape. Judging by the fraying, it had been in such a state for a few months at least. The fact that even a library was in such poor condition, did not say great things about the state of this city.

Inside was, at the very least, clean and presentable. The entrance opened into a reception desk placed before a wall that broke off into two directions, one labelled 'fiction' and the other 'non fiction'. The lady at the front desk barely paid me any attention, as did the few folk inside. I made sure not to draw attention to myself as I hung a right towards the non-fiction section and went looking for the history books.

There were computers behind the reception wall between the two halves of the library, but when I needed to learn something quickly, a normal human computer couldn't possibly keep up with my speed. Even with books I had to be careful about tearing and not setting the pages on fire, but as long as I was careful, it was faster than a computer by quite the margin.

I found the history section tucked away in a corner of the library, and set to work. Under different circumstances I would have checked out the most interesting books and read them somewhere more private. That wasn't really an option since I didn't have my library card on me… and didn't exist in this universe. So I settled for skim reading instead, flipping through pages at a frightening rate.

Learning more about this world, this Earth, was more than just pure pragmatism. I was genuinely interested in where I had ended up, the people that lived here and the culture that had developed. The one regret I had about staying on Earth as Supergirl was that I was unable to explore the rest of the galaxy at will. More than anything, I wanted to catalogue and record and to see life moving in action. Problem always had been that I couldn't stay out of a problem if I thought I could help. But maybe that wasn't the case here, maybe this Earth I could sit by as a passive observer. Sit and learn as the world moved by under its own power and I waited for my family and friends to find me.
I was far too optimistic.

Monsters and maniacs, persecution and plagues, with every turn of the page my heart broke just a little more. For the innocents caught under the foot of those that would abuse their power, for those that tried and failed to fight in their defense, and for the remaining few that could only sit and watch as their own world was consumed in fire.

My home, my Earth, was not a peaceful place, not by a country mile, as Kal would say. But there was a sense of slow and steady progress, a sense that things could get better and would. When evil rose, good met its challenge head on. With each book I finished in that library, I felt the opposite was true on this alternate Earth. Here, there was no hope for a better future. Only a hope that the next day wouldn't be their last.

Admittedly, I may have been a bit overdramatic. My own unique situation, combined with the obvious bias that arises from reading a stream of bad news likely blinded me to any positive alternatives. At the same time though, when one reads history and finds only pain and suffering, perhaps that says as much about the world as it does about the outlook someone would develop from reading that.

Regardless of hindsight, at the time I felt my composure fail me as I read. The latest book shook in my hands and I expended some actual effort to keep from accidentally ripping it from my tremors. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and to pull my perspective back in line. This was after all, not a time for reckless action.

That was when my enhanced hearing, which I had wrangled and kept under control for most of my impromptu history lesson, escaped my control and heard a lone voice amongst the sea of traffic and life that was a common city. A voice calling out, no, screaming one word.

"Help me! Please, won't anybody help me for the love of god!"

The book slammed shut with an audible thud, and I was out of the library before it finished resting back on the shelf, trailing papers and dust in my wake. Down the nearest alley I went, leaving a trail of old clothes in my wake. Linda Danvers could not help today, but Supergirl could!

Up, up and away I went, taking to the sky in a single bound and rising high above the city. The wind tore at my cape and hair with the ferocity only a coastal city could manage, blinding me. Up above the city, above Brockton Bay, I could hear a cacophony of crimes being carried out. With my enhanced senses I could focus on them with inhuman speed and precision.

At the opposite end of the city, a couple was being harassed by a pair of muggers, calling help from the nearby street. I was relieved to see several civilians do just that, chasing the men off before they could hurt anyone else. Farther away, I saw a shootout coming to a close, a police officer arresting a pair of looters that had attacked a Chinese antiques shop. Along the coast, a shoplifter ran from an electronics store, only for a kid in a grey uniform covered in clocks to freeze him in time with a touch. I saw this repeat several times across the city. Though for every crime committed, someone was there to stop it, there was a staggering volume of them that weren't.

So many, no one could hear the lone girl screaming for a savior in the dingy halls of an old high school. I focused on her, on this girl and her cries for help, and picked out her near exact location. A high school bordering the decrepit and abandoned side of the city, aged and nearly forgotten like many of the buildings near it. The air shuddered as I took off like a shot and headed straight for Winslow High.

I made sure not to burst through the front doors of the school, as the halls were crowded with students making their way to the next period. Everyone stopped and all eyes snapped to me when I flung the doors open and strode inside. I kept focused on why I was here, barely paying the stares any mind as students parted before me.

The inside of Winslow was as dilapidated and rotten as the outside. Mismatching lockers, poorly cleaned floors, walls covered in the decay of time and apathy. A cursory glance of my x-ray vision showed at least thirteen students with knives hidden on their persons, and nearly twice as many carrying some sort of illegal drug in their backpacks. If I were to guess, I imagined that Winslow was likely a breeding ground for the local gangs, a pool filled with a steady supply of fresh recruits. I filed that detail away as I strode toward through the halls.

I smelled the victim before I actually saw her, a putrid stench that made my stomach churn. It came from a locker surrounded by a small crowd of students; most of them were silent, a few were chuckling and taking video footage. I took a deep breath and repressed my urge to tell them off. You didn't need super hearing to hear the poor girl locked inside the locker begging for help.

"Step aside please," I said as I approached. A few students turned with words of protest on their lips. Those protests died when they saw me in full costume, and they hurriedly stepped aside.

The lockered shuddered again as the girl trapped inside banged frantically against the door. "Please, let me out!"

I put a hand on the locker door and peered through its slits to see a pair of panicked brown eyes behind it. My heart went out to the poor girl, even as I reached for the lock keeping her trapped.

"Everything's going to be alright now, miss. Just calm down and I'll have you out of there no problem." I kept my voice as calm as I spoke. The entire time, I made sure not to break eye contact with the girl.

"Please…" she whimpered.

With a snap of metal, I ripped off the lock and opened the door. A deluge of rotting food, feminine hygiene products and other material I didn't want to name came flooding out onto the floor and my boots. Along with the skinny frame of a terrified teenage girl, shaking like a leaf as she fell into my arms.

I held her gently, ignoring the filth covering us both and gently eased her onto the floor away from the filth. My voice remained calm as I crooned to her, "It's okay, you're free now. No one else is going to hurt you, miss."

She was tall and skinny, her pale skin covered in the filthy that had filled her locker. A pair of broken glasses rested on her nose, though thankfully her eyes looked unharmed. I could not say the same about the rest of her. A cursory scan with my x-ray and microscopic vision showed that she was already showing signs of infection along her wounds. Both knees were covered in deep, skin shearing scrapes padded with muck of her prison, and bruising along the knee-caps. One palm of her hand had a deep long cut along it, letting blood dribble down her forearm, and she had torn off the fingernails on both hands in her attempt to get free. This did not stop her from desperately grabbing at my offered hand and holding on with a death grip.

Her large brown eyes never left my face, even as she silently started mouthing the words 'thank you' over and over again. I smiled reassuringly at her, "You're going to be okay, miss."

Then, I looked up at the students standing around us wide eyed with shock, and my gentle calm was replaced with seething tranquil fury. I jabbed a finger at the first person I saw, a short girl with a slim frame and brown hair.

"You, call an ambulance. This girl needs medical attention as soon as possible, and a school nurse isn't going to cut it." I directed my gaze to the tall red-head standing beside her, "And you, inform the school staff of what happened here. Got it?"

I used the Kal voice when I spoke to them, that firm tone of authority used in disaster situations. I had seen him put ruly generals in line, inspire hurricane victims, and turn lowly criminals onto a better path with that voice. Hopefully, my imitation had a similar effect. At the very least, the girls did as I said. The red head jumped when I ordered her and scurried off down the halls with what I assumed was her friend in close pursuit. The short girl pulled out a phone and made the call.

With that handled, I turned my expression to the rest of students, "Don't the rest of you have classes to go to? Unless one of you has a first-aid kit on you, get going. The situation is handled."

The crowd slowly dispersed, not before students started taking pictures of course, leaving me alone with the girl. I turned my attention fully back to her; poor thing's trembling had only gotten worse since I freed her.

"T-th-thank…" she croaked, before I shushed her.

"Easy now, don't strain yourself." I said.

Her lips trembled as she spoke, "Th-thank y-yo-you."

I smiled softly, "I was just passing by. Happy to help."

Her grip somehow tightened further on my hand; if I weren't invulnerable, she might have broken something. "Please don't go." she begged.

I put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Miss, I'm not going anywhere."

"T-Taylor." the girl stuttered, "Muh-my name i-is Taylor."

"You can call me Supergirl, and I'm not going anywhere, Taylor." I promised her.

-S-​

The paramedics arrived about ten minutes after I rescued Taylor from her locker. Given what I had seen so far, I was thankful they showed up at all. I stayed with the girl the entire time, even when the school principal briefly came out to see what was going on. The stern looking woman had made a lot of noise about finding the culprit responsible for what had happened, but I had very strong doubts about that; so did Taylor, if the expression on her face during that time was anything to go by.

The principal thanked me for my service, which was the extent of our conversation before the paramedics arrived and moved Taylor onto a stretcher and wheeled her out to the ambulance. I followed behind for Taylor's piece of mind; the poor girl was understandably rattled by the entire experience. A friendly face would probably do wonders for her.

As they were about to lift her into the ambulance, she stopped them, "Wait… can Supergirl come?"

The two EMTs looked at each other and then me. The thicker built of the two said, "Supergirl, eh? You working with New Wave or something?"

"Something like that" I shrugged. No need to cause a stir.

The man shrugged, "Eh, it's fine by me. This one should be fine once Panacea gets a look at her anyway. Hop in, super-chick."

I did as offered and sat by Taylor while keeping out of the way of EMT's while they cleaned at her more obvious injuries. She smiled weakly at me and I returned the gesture as the ambulance rumbled to life and jerked forward.

"Sorry...about your outfit." she wheezed once we got moving.

I looked down at my suit, now stained an ugly brown, and shrugged, "A couple dozen rounds in the washing machine should clean it fine. Besides, getting you out of that locker was a little more important, I think."

A funny look crossed her face while the EMT said, "If ya get any stains from it, some baking soda, warm water, and a good ol'toothbrush scrubbing should get it right out. Take it from me, best way to get a stain like that out."

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks." I said, smiling again.

Taylor winced as they started cleaning at the worst of her wounds, so I leaned forward with my hands on my knees and said, "So, Taylor. Do you have any hobbies?"

She looked at me like I'd grown a second head. But if she was more confused by me instead of thinking about what she had just gone through, that was a net positive in my mind.

"I...I like to read." she said quietly. Admittedly everything she was saying was quiet; she had screamed her throat bloody and raw when she was trapped, and I had given up getting her to stop talking a while ago.

I rested my chin on my hand, "Really? Read anything interesting lately? I could use some new material."

There it was, tiny and cautious, but a spark of genuine interest and excitement flickered in Taylor's eyes. "Well… ever read the Perry Johnson series?"

-S-​

Thankfully, the local hospital was in far better condition than Winslow High was. It wasn't a particularly noteworthy building, but at least it didn't look like it was going to collapse in on itself at the slightest breeze. I was beginning to think that Brockton Bay wasn't exactly the best city on Earth Bet.

Despite this, the hospital wasn't too crowded, and Taylor was cleaned and bandaged to the best of the staff's abilities. I was surprised when they didn't stitch up their injuries, but from what I heard and saw when we reached the hospital, it apparently wasn't necessary. There was a girl that volunteered at the hospital called Panacea, who's power apparently let her heal any ailment in the body barring brain related injuries and illnesses. It seemed a little… Lazy to just bandage Taylors wounds and wait for this one hero to solve the issue, but given how frantic hospital work could be, I wasn't too surprised at it either.

The hospital staff were kind enough to let me borrow the staff showers and lend me some temporary scrubs while my costume was put through one of their industrial washers. Like the EMT's, they seemed to assume I was a new member of the superhero team New Wave. I didn't want to cause a scene, so I didn't correct them while also remembering to apologize to the team if they found out about this.

Once I was cleaned up, I asked for directions to Taylors room and made my way there. I found the girl in bed, her face a picture of ease if not peace. She did perk up when I walked inside though.

I gestured at the scrubs I was wearing, "It's a new costume, what do you think? It should strike terror into criminals, right?"

Taylor laughed and immediately started coughing, "God, d-don't make me laugh. It hurts to laugh." she croaked.

"Sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood. You've had a rough day."

"It could've been worse," she sighed. "Thank you. Again."

I took a seat by her bed and smiled, "And you're welcome. Again."

Taylor leaned back into her bed, "But… you have to have better things to do. I'm safe now, you can… leave, now."

Her lips were drawn tight as she said it. I shook my head, "My costume is in the wash for the next… forty minutes? I can stick around for a bit. At least until your parents get here."

Taylor opened her mouth and worked her jaw for a few seconds, but said nothing. Eventually she closed it and rested her head on the pillows with a more peaceful expression on her face. That piece didn't last long though.

The door opened and a mousy girl with frizzy brown hair and a face splattered with freckles walked in. She was dressed plainly, with a white robe worn over her clothes; a medics cross was on the chest and back and a scarf hung loosely around her neck. She paused when she saw me, "Oh, hello nurse."

The girl was about Taylor's age, and had large bags under her eyes; she looked exhausted. I stood up from my chair and smoothed out my outfit, "Not a nurse, sorry. Just borrowing some spare clothes while my costume is in the wash."

Her eyes went wide at that, "Oh, so you're the girl the doctors were talking about, claiming to be with New Wave."

I winced at that, "Sorry, everyone just assumed I was, and I didn't want to cause a scene while Miss Hebert here needed medical attention."

"Hm, I bet." the girl said, and took a deep breath to compose herself. Then she offered me a hand, "I'm Panacea, I'm with New Wave."

I took the offered hand and shook it, "Supergirl, I'm with… me, I guess."

Panacea flinched for when she shook my hand, but it was brief; my hands were a bit chilly from my shower earlier, so I shrugged it off. When I released her hand, she tapped her fingers together, "So-"

"Where's the chick claiming she's with New Wave?" a voice demanded from outside.

Panacea's face fell and she pinched her nose, "Oh god, why…"

I looked at the door with a wary expression, the voice sounded… oddly familiar, the tone that is. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the inflection reminded me of my early days on Earth.

"If they're running around making random claims, that's so uncool." the voice continued, and the door opened, "I've got half a mind to- okay, what?"

The girl that walked in looked disturbingly similar to me. I had met alternate counterparts before, but this girl was just different enough that the resemblance was uncanny. Her nose was a bit straighter than mine, her skin darker, and she was several inches shorter than me, but otherwise she looked like she could be my younger sister. Suddenly everyone's confusion that I was with New Wave made a little more sense.

Taylor said what I was thinking, "This day is just getting weirder and weirder."

Panacea's head snapped up, "Right, patient! Sorry miss." and rushed by me to tend to Taylor.

The blonde girl tapped my shoulder and I turned back to her. She had a sheepish expression on her face, "So, not my best introduction, can we try again?"

I smiled and held out my hand, "I'm Supergirl, you?"

There was an expression of recognition on her face as she shook my hand, "Glory Girl. Or Victoria Dallon, either or; I don't really 'do' the whole secret identity thing."

"Subtlety isn't her strong suit." Panacea said dryly from behind us.

"That's your job, sis!" said Glory Girl, her face in a relaxed grin now.

Sister's huh? I didn't actually know too many super teams that had siblings or families in them back on my Earth. My relationship with Kal notwithstanding of course. I wondered if New Wave was a family organization, and added a note to my ever growing pile to do more research on the local scene in Brockton Bay.

Glory Girl looked back at me, hands on her hips and her expression serious again, "So real talk, what's the deal with claiming you're with New Wave?"

I shrugged, "Heat of the moment. The EMT's assumed I was with you for...obvious reasons I guess. I didn't know who you guys were, but I didn't want to cause a fuss while Taylor still needed to see a doctor?"

Her expression softened at that, "Right, I heard about that. Something about a locker prank gone wrong?"

"Some monster trapped her in a locker full of rotting trash and used feminine products. That's why I'm cosplaying as a nurse; it got all over my costume when I let her out." I explained.

Glory Girl looked past me at Taylor. I followed her gaze and was pleasantly surprised to see that she was already looking significantly better. Her skin had taken a healthier color and her hands were free of their bandages and good as new. Taylor was experimentally flexing them and looking at them with an expression of awe.

"I am sorry, Miss Hebert," Panacea said, "But I can't actually release you until your parents get here to sign you out. Its standard procedure for minors."

Taylors expression deflated, "My dad should be here soon, assuming the school called him."

I walked up next to her bed rubbing my chin, "What's your dad look like, Taylor?"

She paused for a moment before describing him to me, "Tall and skinny like me, thin head of brown, wide eyes and glasses like me. Probably dressed for office work; he's with the dock workers union."

I scanned around the room in the general direction of where Winslow High was located. Finding someone at random in a city was next to impossible, even with super speed. But if I could narrow it down to a specific area, finding someone wasn't too hard…

"Ah, there he is. He's at Winslow right now, screaming his head off at your principal. I'd give him another twenty minutes before he gets here." I turned back to see all three girls openly gawking at me.

Right, that could be weird to some people if they didn't know about my super senses. I tapped the side of my eye and said, "I have super senses. X-ray and Microscopic vision, super hearing, etc. I figured your dad was either on his way here or at the school, so that made it easy to narrow things down."

Yet more gawking; Glory Girl was the first to shake herself of it, and clamped a hand on my shoulder, "Dibs. I call dibs."

I stared at her, "Dibs?"

"Dibs." Glory Girl replied solemnly, before breaking out into a grin and explaining. "You totally have to join New Wave. You run around without hiding your secret identity, you have a crazy cool power, and you're a matching blonde. You'd be a perfect fit."
Panacea sighed, which seemed like something she did a lot around her sister, "Vicky, you can't just claim dibs on someone."

"Then consider it an invitation to New Wave." Glory Girl said, "We're always looking for new members."

I gently pulled her hand off my shoulder, "I appreciate the offer, I really do. But I'd like to weigh my options before I joined any team."

"Fair enough I guess," Glory Girl said, "You should at least meet the rest of New Wave though."

"Probably," I agreed, and added, "But not until Taylor's father gets here. I promised I'd stick around until her dad got here."

I smiled at Taylor, "And I have a habit of keeping my promises."

It was a night and day difference, how quickly the girl had turned around since I rescued her. While she had withdrawn into herself when Glory Girl had arrived, she looked so much healthier and stable than she had been. It wasn't a fair comparison of course, but it made me happy to see my efforts hadn't gone to waste.

"You don't have to stick around." she said softly.

"Yeah, but my clothes are in the wash, I've got time to kill." I grabbed another chair from the wall and brought it beside the hospital bed, "Besides, you haven't finished telling me about that Perry Johnson series."

Panacea perked up, "Isn't that the book series that puts Norse mythology in the modern day?"

"Oh boy, here we go." Glory Girl playfully rolled her eyes before grabbing a chair and sitting down.

Already, Taylor and Panacea had launched into a conversation discussing the merits of the series and its accuracy to the myths it was based on. I couldn't help but smile as the conversation took off.

It was only a small step, but it was a step in the right direction.

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.2​

Mr. Hebert bore more than a passing resemblance to his daughter. Tall, thin, and wide eyed, and filled with that same frantic energy that Taylor seemed to possess. Of course, that was probably a result of the unfortunate circumstances that the poor girl had found herself in. It was hard to blame the man when he practically burst into the hospital room, demanding to see his daughter.

I don't think he quite expected to see her sitting in a hospital bed, surrounded by three superheroes with a smile on her face. A smile that faltered a little when she saw her father. I made a note to keep an eye on the man.

"Taylor, you're… oh thank God you're okay." the man sighed. Glory Girl and Panacea skirted away from Taylor and let her father run up and wrap her up in a tight hug.

The girl didn't seem afraid of her father's physical presence at least. She seemed more surprised by it than anything else. That was… better, but only marginally. After a moment's embrace, her father pulled back and brushed a string of hair out of Taylors face with his thumb.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't here sooner, the principal called about what happened, but didn't tell me they had already taken you to the hospital until I got there." There was an angry tone in his voice, and I didn't blame him, though I was hardly surprised. Winslow didn't come across as a safe and sane establishment.

"It's okay dad." Taylor said; her voice had softened significantly from the giggling mess she had been minutes earlier when talking with the three of us.

Mr. Hebert shook his head, "No, no it's not. You were in trouble and I wasn't here to…" his jaw tightened and he shook his head, before changing the subject, "I brought you a change of clothes. And I managed to convince those idiots at your school to give you until the first half of next week off to recover. There's going to be an investigation into this, so if you know anything about who could've done this…"

Taylors face twisted into one of loathing and spite, "I know exactly who did it, and I know for a fact that nothing we do will get them in trouble for what they did."

Her father's face grew concerned, "Taylor, that's not true-"

"Yes it is!" Taylor yelled, "I've been dealing with them for two years. Every time I've talked to the staff it's been the same answer, 'we'll look into it Miss Hebert, don't you worry'. And then nothing happens and they come after me even fiercer than before, it's… it's not worth the trouble dad."

Poor girl looked like she was on the edge of tears.

I put a hand on Taylor's shoulder, unable to stand in the background any longer. She looked up at me with surprise. I smiled and said, "You have to keep trying, though. What they did today, if I hadn't been there Taylor, you could've been seriously injured or worse. The people that did that to you might not get the justice they deserve even if you cooperate and report them. But if you sit back and do nothing, then you're guaranteeing they won't. You need to draw a line somewhere, or else they'll keep doing this until you really do break."

Her expression grew more cynical, "That's easy to say when you're not the one that's been dealing with it."

"I've been where you are," I put a hand to my chest in a gesture of honesty, "I know how it feels to be alone. To be in a crowded hallway and feel like the only person in the world. But, you're not alone. You have your family, and you have your friends to stand by you."

Taylor frowned, "What friends?"

I shrugged, "I like to think I count."

"We've known each other for an hour, maybe two."

"I work fast," I smiled.

The girl looked unconvinced. Glory Girl poked her head into our conversation and added, "Frankly speaking, anyone that can get Amy talking for more than five minutes is a-okay in my book."

She turned to Mr. Hebert and handed him a business card, "This is the number to my mom's legal office. Technically I'm not supposed to give these out without permission, and she's a real estate lawyer. Buuuuut, she could probably refer you to someone with a bit more of a handle on these things. Cause, personally speaking, this whole situation smells like a load of bullshit."

Mr. Hebert looked at the card in his hands with wide eyes, an echo of Taylor's own stunned expression. The girl looked like she was about to burst into tears as she looked between Glory Girl, her father, and then me. I put on my comfort smile for her again, which seemed to ease her a little.

To be honest, I was doing even more for Taylor than I normally did for people I rescued. Her story of being alone and tormented by her peers resonated with me on a personal level, and I liked her giddiness when she started talking about something she was interested in. More than that, I think a small part of me was desperate. I was alone in a world I barely knew with no idea if my family or friends had even the slightest inkling of what had happened to me. Maybe I had latched onto Taylor because in some way, I needed her as much as she needed me; because it was pretty obvious that the girl hadn't experienced genuine human decency in a very long time.

"I…" Mr. Hebert choked on his own voice, "I don't know what to say, thank you Glory Girl, and...um, I'm sorry, I don't think we've actually been introduced?"

I offered him my hand and smiled, "Supergirl, sir. Costume is in the wash right now, I don't normally run around in nurses scrubs."

There was a moment of faint recognition in his eyes at my name and I felt more than a bit of dread. Please, please please, don't let this be one of those worlds where my own Earth existed as stories and comic books. Those were always such a pain to deal with; also seriously, why was it always comic books?

Thankfully, if that was the case, Mr. Hebert didn't choose to comment on it. He managed a gracious nod, shook my hand and said, "Thank you, Supergirl, for helping my daughter. I know it doesn't mean much, but if you ever need anything from me - and I mean anything - I'll do whatever I can to make it happen."

I placed my other hand over his and said, "Mr. Hebert, helping your daughter was reward enough."

As kind as his offer was, I never did what I did for reward or praise. Those were nice for sure, and it was good to know people appreciated my efforts. But I had helped Taylor because she was in trouble and no one else was. No one I saved owed me anything on my Earth, and that wasn't going to change on Earth Bet.

Mr. Hebert's voice seemed to die in his throat, but he managed a shaky nod. I released his hands and stood up. Taylor was looking at me with an expression I could only describe as dumbfounded awe and joy. Glory Girl grinned and gave me a thumbs up, though her sister was leaning against the wall behind her with arms folded and staring at the floor. Her eyes were distant; she was obviously on another planet at the moment.

That was probably as good a cue as any for us to leave. Best to let father and daughter talk in private, and give Taylor time to rest. I straightened up and said as much while smoothing out my temporary outfit.

Taylor's face quickly turned into an expression of near-panic, "No wait! You don't have to go yet."

"You need time to rest, Taylor." I told her, "And I have my own business I need to take care of, unfortunately."

She bit her lower lip, "Okay, but… what if they do something like that to me again? What if there's trouble and I need your help?"

"She's a cape, not a babysitter." Panacea said with a surprising amount of venom. Glory Girl, Taylor, and I both looked at her with surprise. That didn't fit the girly cheerfully arguing the merits of norse mythology with Taylor ten minutes ago.

She seemed to realize what she said and hurriedly corrected it, "I mean, we have a lot on our plates, and I imagine Supergirl isn't any different. There are other people out there that will need help."

Taylor's face fell and she looked down at her hands, "Right, right… sorry."

I rubbed my chin, looking between her and Panacea and said, "Hold that thought for one second."

They had time to register what I said before I rushed out of the hospital room to the laundry hamper. It took only a second to find a nurse with my costume in hand heading towards Taylor's room. I stopped for a brief moment to thank her, grabbed my costume, and rushed back down the hall at super speed, changing as I went. This all took about five seconds, give or take.

Everyone jumped when I reappeared in the room in full costume. I brushed a few wrinkles out of my skirt and said, "Sorry about that, I needed to pick up my costume for this."

I reached into my belt and fished out one of the emergency sonic emitters. It was a little smaller than a pinky nail, and twice as thick as a quarter. Unlike my belt it's outer case was made of shiny chrome steel that shimmered in the light; my family crest was emblazoned on one size, but it was otherwise without marking. I walked over to Taylor, and offered it to her.

"What…?" she started to say.

"If you're ever in trouble, squeeze the symbol here and the opposite side once to turn it on, squeeze it twice to turn it off." I explained, "It will emit a sound that only I can hear. If you're in trouble and do that, no matter where I am, I'll know you need help and get to you as fast as I can."

"Holy crap, she's a thinker, a tinker, and a mover at least," I heard Glory Girl whisper, probably thinking it was quiet enough for me not to hear it. Panacea didn't respond beyond a grunt.

Taylor stared at the tiny sonic emitter, and then at me, "And you're just… giving this to me?"

I shrugged, "Not everyone is safe once they've been saved. Sometimes they have stalkers, abusive family members, or a serious bullying problem that might not be dealt with. So if you ever need me, now you know how to contact me."

She wrapped her fist tightly around the emitter with a death grip, and managed a smile, "I think a phone number or something would've been fine too. But thank you."

I gave her one final friendly pat on the shoulder, "You look like a good kid, Taylor. Don't let those jerks at your school tear you down."

"Y-yeah…" She nodded frantically, "I mean yes, of course!"

I said my goodbyes, wished her the best of luck, and left with Glory Girl and Panacea on my tail. In my heart of hearts, I truly hoped she got justice for her treatment. Maybe the crimes against her weren't the worst, not by a longshot, but that didn't invalidate what had been done to her either. Though for both our sakes, I hoped she never had to use that sonic emitter. More than anything, I wanted to be right in my belief that the courts and authorities would handle this with the dignity and respect that such institutions were supposed to present. People weren't perfect, but just because we were on a different Earth didn't mean human decency went out the window.

Glory Girl shook me from my thoughts when we reached the hospital lobby, walking up alongside me with her hands folded behind her head and a curious eye on me. "So… where in the heck did you come from?"

Right, now that Taylor was dealt with, it was time for the fun questions. I had hoped I could avoid that particular train altogether, but that had been wishful thinking from the start. Well, at the very least I had some experience about convincing cover stories to conceal my actual identity.

"I was in the neighborhood, thought I'd help out the best way I could," I explained, which was the truth.

The blonde and her sister stopped and looked at me expectantly. Glory Girl said, "Yeah, but I meant where did you actually come from? I like to think I know a thing or two about capes; the message boards would've gone insane with a cape like you running around."

Message boards?

I shelved that thought for later and said, "Is this really the best place to talk about this?" gesturing at the hospital lobby. It had thankfully thinned out since I arrived with Taylor, but the few patients and staff that remained were not so subtly watching the three of us with obvious curiosity.

Panacea noticed this too and tugged on her sisters sleeve, "This really isn't the time, Vicky."

Glory Girl looked around and shrugged, "Fair enough." she looked back at me, "We were gonna catch lunch after this. If ya tag along and answer my question, I'll buy." she sang.

Food sounded good; yes yes, I didn't need to eat, but that didn't mean I had acquired a sudden revulsion to all things edible as a result. A nice meal with girls that I at least had a passing acquaintance with wouldn't be the end of the world. And it would give me some time to work out the details of my story to tell. The one thing I knew for sure was that I had to keep my extra-dimensional origins a secret for now.

"Alright, deal." I said, "But I'm holding you to that last bit. I'm broke."

We walked outside, and Glory Girl wrapped an arm around Panacea's waist, "Alright, I know this great place down by the Boardwalk, you'll love it. Should be a quick fli…."

Her words trailed off as I slowly lifted into the air, my cape floating behind me. I couldn't resist a small smile at her surprised expression. "Well? Lead the way, please."

-S-​

The Boardwalk was a total tourist trap set up in such a way that no one could see the graveyard of ships north of it. Only the no doubt reassuring sight of the Protectorate Headquarters and the ocean beyond it were visible from the Boardwalk. It was built along a surprisingly clean beach, with a casual paradise aesthetic. Wooden walkways, seafoam green buildings, etc. It all looked very safe and picturesque.

If you ignored the obvious and heavily armed guards that were stationed at every other store. Perhaps the tourists were able to overlook it, but I usually preferred to eat my lunch without armed security looking over my shoulder. As a result, I felt a bit on edge even while Glory Girl and Panacea seemed oblivious to the facade.

Or maybe they had lived with it for so long it seemed normal to them. I wasn't sure which was worse, honestly.

Glory Girl kept her word about lunch, and had taken us to a nice (and criminally overpriced) seafood restaurant with an open deck for us to eat on. With the promise from Glory Girl that we could get anything we wanted on the menu, I was currently nibbling on a grilled halibut that made my body shiver with delight. One thing Earth 100% had over Krytpon, was that they were much better cooks than we ever were. I am not ashamed to admit that.

The girls ate a bit lighter, clearly impatient to wait for me to finish before they (and by they, I mean Glory Girl) could start drilling me with questions. I was in no rush though, as I focused on my meal while keeping my ears open. Thankfully for the moment, Brockton Bay sounded peaceful, so I was able to relax.

That didn't last long. Glory Girl looked about ready to explode with questions, bouncing her leg up and down while pretending to be interested in her glazed salmon fillet. I decided to take pity on the girl, set my silverware down, and wiped my mouth with a napkin. A quick look around showed that a lot of the clientele were making no attempt to hide their interest in the three of us.

Me primarily, as I was the only one still in costume. Panacea had shed her robe and put it in her bag by her feet. Glory Girl was wearing a pretty long sleeved red shirt with jeans and a comfy looking pair of boots. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail and her grey hoodie was slung over the back of her chair. It was a little big for her, so I was willing to bet it was probably a boyfriend's. And then there was me, still dressed in full costume with my cape hanging over the edge of my chair and my skirt unfortunately scorched. We were quite a sight.

Yet the ogling still wasn't as bad as that time when I stopped for donuts with Swamp Thing. Leaf bikinis did not make for a suitable costume replacement. Oh the papers had had fun with that one.

I shook away that memory and smiled at Glory Girl, "So, I think I promised you some answers?"

She grinned, "Yeah you did. So spill girl. What brings you to Brockton Bay? You don't have the accent, and you're way too nice. Why are you here, of all places?"

I leaned back in my chair and folded my hands in my laps, "I was passing by. If I'm completely honest, my memory is a little… fuzzy. Inconsistent memory loss of some kind. I woke up a few cities over, did some flying around and was passing through Brockton Bay when I heard Taylor calling for help. I think I might stick around for a bit and help clean up if I can."

"You have amnesia?" Glory Girl turned and asked Panacea, "Do you think she might be a case 53?"

I cocked my head to the side, "A what?"

"Capes that wake up with their powers and no memory of how they got them;" Panacea explained, "usually branded with a stylized Omega symbol branded on them somewhere. They can look pretty weird sometimes. There's a kid in Boston made entirely of metal and no idea why."

Great Rao, that sounded awful! I was lucky to have Kal to support me on Earth when I got my powers, and the memory of my home to remind me of who I was. I couldn't imagine what my life would've been like if I had landed on Earth with no memory of my past or idea of why I had powers.

Panacea looked at me and then her sister, biting her lower lip as she did, "I'm pretty sure she's not a Case 53 though, Vicky."

"She coulda been a dude before she got her powers." Glory Girl offered.

I shuddered and waved my hands frantically back and forth, "No, no no. My memory is fuzzy in certain areas, but I know who I am, and can remember my home and family just fine. I'm just missing more recent memories."

Glory Girl looked both disappointed and relieved at the same time, "Ah. Well at least you've got family to go back to then, right?"

I sank into my seat and didn't meet her eyes. It wasn't her fault of course, she didn't know that I was technically an orphan. People made that mistake all the time, typically assuming Kal was my father, so I rarely held it against them. That didn't mean that thinking about what I lost didn't darken my mood a little. Which must have been obvious to Glory Girl, as she winced and started apologizing.

"Sorry, I…"

"It was a few years ago." I sighed and shrugged, "Besides, you didn't know. But, I am alone here. No home, and more than a bit lost. I'm mostly just trying to figure things out right now."

Glory Girl suddenly perked up, an obvious idea in mind, "If you don't have anywhere to stay, we've got a guest room at home. I'm sure mom would be fine with letting you stick around for a bit."

"Oh no, that's not necessary Glory Girl," I protested, "You've already spent so much money on me with this lunch; I don't want to be a bother."

"It's no big deal," she waved away my concern, "Besides, we have room to spare, and it's always safer for heroes to stick together than go it alone. It would be awful if something happened to you out there."

She seemed genuinely concerned, which made me pause and lean back in my chair while rubbing my chin. On the one hand, if I wanted to clean up Brockton Bay, staying with other heroes would be the safest option. They could defend themselves and knew the risks inherent in crime fighting. Plus it would be a chance to learn more about the city itself, who its power players were, and who was standing against them.

On the other hand, I didn't really need a home. Even ignoring the fact that I didn't need food or water to survive, the crystal in my belt was more than capable of providing a home for me. Yes, I called it an emergency shelter, but that was downselling the truth. After I arrived on Earth, Kal had spent months studying Kryptonian technology and hand crafting me a home near identical to his Fortress of Solitude. If for whatever reason I felt unwanted or uncomfortable in the human world, that crystal was to make a home for me where I could retire safely away from humanity. I had been touched by the thoughtfulness and effort of the gift, even if by the time I received it, I had already made my share of friends and started to slowly settle into my new home. So the crystal had sat in my belt, waiting for the day when I might need it.

Being stranded on an alternate Earth certainly fit the bill, but I couldn't exactly tell all that to Glory Girl. As Kal himself had said, a Fortress of Solitude did not' remain so for long if everyone knew about it.

I sighed and shook my head. As I was about to speak though, my thoughts were interrupted by gunshots. Loud and clear, even for those in the cafe to hear, maybe a mile away from the Boardwalk, two at most. I quickly pinpointed the source of the noise, a van filled with four men currently fleeing from a warehouse with two cop cars following behind it and on a course for the more populated areas of the city.

"We'll talk later, duty calls," I said to Glory Girl, and took off into the air while she sputtered and shoved her chair out of the way.

I had already left her far behind by the time she took off the ground and was soaring over the chase in progress. The sirens blared as the cops started pulling up on the van, only for the rear doors to burst open. Two men hung out the back, submachine guns in hand and opened fire on the windshield of the nearest cop car. That wasn't going to fly.

I zipped down as fast as I safely could in the city. While Barry Allen might be able to zoom around his city at the speed of sound, Kal and I had to be more careful. Without the speedforce, we risked causing serious damage when we broke the sound barrier in city limits. Everything up to that point though was fair game.

The world slowed as I put myself between the car and the stream of bullets, curving my body in so they wouldn't bounce off and hit an innocent bystander. Hot lead harmlessly bounced off my stomach and chest onto the street rapidly passing by below. The crooks in the back of the van had no time to react before I flew up to them and ripped their guns from their hands.

"I'll just take these off your hands, boys." and shoved them both back into the open van and slammed the doors shut.

The van started to swerve as my appearance had startled the driver; that was an easy problem to fix. I looped up through the air and under the vehicle, so close to the ground the asphalt threatened to scrape at my nose. I braced my hands against the undercarriage to get a good grip, and heaved. I heard startled yells in both english, japanese and chinese as we took up off the ground.

I could feel the van shake as they began to panic and look for an escape option. As we rose into the air, slowing to a crawl as we did, I spotted an empty parking lot in front of an abandoned office, one of many in the city no doubt. The perfect place to set these boys down.

"Alright!" I called out so they could hear me through the van's now rapidly revving engine, "Thank you for flying with Supergirl Airlines, please remain seated until the vehicle has come to a complete halt!"

They responded with a colorful cacophony of curses, including some new ones in mandarin I had never heard before. I ignored them and descended to the parking lot. The moment my feet touched the ground, the engine stopped revving. There was a loud banng as the vans weight shifted and doors were flung open and men started jumping out as fast as they could.

The sudden shift in balance made me take one step forward to catch it, the van leaning forward as four men fell out of the vehicle and scrambled away from me with looks of terror on their faces. I rolled my eyes and gently set the van down in the parking lot and dusted my hands off. Then I turned after the fleeing men.

They were fleeing in pairs, one to the north of the city, the other to the south. Some crooks never learned.

I zipped forward, faster than a speeding bullet, and appeared before the northern pair with my arms folded and a disappointed look on my face, "You know, committing a felony is bad enough. Running after you've committed it just makes things worse; if I were you, I'd give it a rest and quit while you're ahead."

Both men, notably of asian descent, seemed to think better of fighting the girl that had just casually lifted a van into the air like it was a plaything, and raised their arms in surrender. I took them back to the van and secured them to the door handle with a pair of zip ties they helpfully had waiting for me in the back of their van.

Then I zipped after the southern pair, in the same pose as before. I didn't get to say a word before one of them pulled a black hilted switchblade from his pocket and stabbed at my neck with it. That went as well as you'd expect.

The blade bent in on itself and the man's hand bounced away; I brushed at my neck and sighed, "Maybe some prison time might do some good for your critical thinking skills, friend."

I grabbed both men and returned to the van to tie them up. I was pleasantly surprised to see the police officers had caught up with me. They were scratching their heads at the van and two captured crooks, obviously trying to make sense of what just happened.

"Afternoon officers," I made my presence known with a friendly greeting.

The two officers whirled around, hands on their sidearms. They seemed relieved when they saw me with the two criminals in hand. I descended from the sky with both men offered to the officers.

"Sorry for the sudden interruption, but I was in the neighborhood and thought I might lend a hand." I explained.

One of the two officers nodded at me, "You have our thanks, Miss. You saved our lives back there."

They cuffed both men while another pair of officers undid the zipties I had used to secure the other two crooks. One of the men kicked at the officers shin and scrambled away in a final last ditch escape. I sighed, looked ahead of him, and shot a short blast of heat vision. Nothing that would cause damage to the parking lot, but it was bright and showy enough to send up some sparks and make the man halt in his tracks.

Everyone stopped and looked at me, especially the crook. I looked at him, and jerked my head towards the officer he had kicked. With slow reluctance, the man stood up and walked up to the officer, hands extended in surrender.

"Holy crap, you work fast." I heard from above, and looked up.

Glory Girl floated a good ten feet above us with a bewildered expression. I met it with a smile, "Like I said, I can handle myself."

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.3​

"You're stalling." Glory Girl accused me.

"I'm not stalling. This is important." I insisted.

"You are literally rescuing a cat from a tree. You're stalling."

I gently plucked the orange coated tabby cat, Frillie, from the tree and cradled him in my arms. He immediately nuzzled into my chest and started purring as I descended from the tree to his waiting owner. The older woman let out a noise of delight as I handed her cat back to her.

"Oh bless you, miss. My husband would have had a heart attack if he thought Frillie went missing again."

I smiled, "Happy to help ma'am, just keep a closer eye on him. I might not be nearby the next time he decides to make his home in a tree."

The woman poked at Frillies nose, "Oh I'm never taking my eyes off this naughty kitty again, no I'm not! Take care of yourself, and god bless you miss."

"You as well." I waved my goodbye and lifted back up into the air to float alongside Glory Girl.

The young heroine was giving me a look of disbelief. I shrugged and smiled, "We were passing, no one else was helping her, what was the harm?"

Glory Girl looked up at the sky and covered her face, "Where do they make people like you?"

"Do you really want the answer to that?" I asked.

"No." Glory Girl sighed, "Come on, we really should get going. It's been three hours since I dropped Amy off at home, you can't stall forever."

With some persistence, Glory Girl had convinced me to at least stop by her home for the day and talk with her mother. She insisted that her mom would be more than willing to let me at least spend the night, since I had nowhere else to stay, and that it wasn't a bother. I eventually decided there was no real harm in it and had agreed.

Several hours later, we had yet to actually make it to the Dallon household. We passed several crimes in progress on our way to the house: six attempted muggings, five cases of attempted grand theft auto, two retail robberies, and one tabby in a tree. After mugging number three, Glory Girl had decided to go on and drop her sister off at home and to come back for me after.

And she had, in full costume too. Personally, I quite liked the look, it fit her.

It was a long one piece dress that ended mid-thigh, with an over the shoulder cape, knee high boots and a golden tiara with spikes radiating from it. Beautiful golden trim ran along the seams, really pulling the whole look together. It was certainly better than my current costume. Not that I disliked my look of course, but the singing had not come out in the wash and this was one of my cheaper costumes. I might have hastily thrown it on before whatever it was threw me to this Earth, and replacing it with one of higher quality was high on my list of personal priorities.

What was I talking about? Oh right, Glory Girl and her house.

"There's nothing wrong helping out when and where you can." I insisted.

"Remind me to get you a girl scout sash for your community service badge," Glory Girl laughed as we flew over the city towards her home. Joke was on her, I already had a full sash at home; Kal thought it was a good way for me to get to know Earth and its people.

Thankfully I didn't have to put up with Glory Girl's ribbing for very long, the Dallon household was only a few blocks away from where I had rescued Frillie. They lived in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Brockton Bay, no surprise, and their house was surprisingly modest for it. A meticulously cared-for lawn, well maintained cream colored siding, and a clear driveway with a garage currently closed. I could hear the tv playing inside, but no real conversation.

A thought for why occurred to me as we landed in the driveway. "Glory Girl, I've been meaning to ask. You and your sister are about...what, fifteen, sixteen?"

She shrugged as we walked to the front door, "About, why?"

"Today is a school day isn't it? Why were the two of you at the hospital instead of in class?"

Glory Girl snorted, "Is it really that big a deal? Ames gets called out of class if there's something nasty, and we usually get the rest of the day off if we're lucky."

I pursed my lips together before speaking, "Huh. That's very brave of your sister, sacrificing her time like that."

"Eh, well," Glory Girl stopped at the door and wiggled her hand in a 'kind of' gesture, "It was Amy's idea to volunteer at the hospital after hours. They suggested the emergency calls."

"I see."

I decided not to comment on that. The tired look in Amy's eyes and her overall withdrawn demeanor made a little more sense though, if what Glory Girl said was true. It was one thing to willingly spend your time helping others like I did. When that help became a job that could rip you out of your life at any minute, it could suddenly become a lot more exhausting. Poor girl.

"Anyway, welcome to the Dallon home!" Glory Girl announced, opening the door with a flourish of her hand. "Please wipe your feet at the door."

I was already doing so as I stepped inside.

Inside was about as nice as it was outside. Spotless furnishings and floorings and clean bright light that left little in the way of natural shadow inside. The front door opened into the kitchen and dining room, both separated from one another by a granite topped island and cabinets hanging from the ceiling. The living room was furnished with dark leather couches and a decent sized television that was running the news at the moment, with a very familiar logo displayed on screen.

'Mysterious new cape spotted in Brockton Bay alongside New Waves Glory Girl. Alliance of convenience, or newest member?' was all I read before the TV was shut off. Which brought my attention back to the two occupants sitting at the dining room table looking at us expectantly. The first I noticed was a man in good shape with short hair and faint beard stubble. His build and face reminded me vaguely of Kal, though he had brown eyes compared to my cousin's blue, and had a slimmer overall build.

The second made me pause for a moment. For a brief second, I thought my own mother was sitting in the kitchen, dressed in human clothes in a human house. The sheer ridiculousness of that idea almost froze my brain before it became obvious the woman sitting next to the man was not my mother. She bore many similarities, but the differences were stark when I noticed them. She wore no laugh lines along her face, no intrinsic joy that made her eyes glow with Rao's warmth. Only a serious expression, and very tired eyes.

Focus, I mentally scolded myself and put on my friendliest smile, while Glory Girl began to introduce me. "So mom, dad, I know it's a little short notice, but this is Supergirl."

"Amy explained to us," her mother said, in a firm tone. Her expression softened slightly as she stood up from the table along with her husband. They were about even height, two or three inches taller than their daughter.

I held out my hand as they approached, "Sorry for making you wait, we ran into some minor trouble on the way here. Criminals, thieves, the usual."

For a moment, I thought neither of them would shake my hand. This worry was quickly tossed aside as Glory Girl's mother shook my hand with a surprisingly friendly face, "Of course, if there were people that needed your help, that takes priority. Sorry if I'm a bit frosty, I had a long day at the office, and only got home a short while ago. I'm Carol, Carol Dallon, and this is my husband Mark."

"A pleasure," the man, Mark, shook my hand next and smiled.

I returned it, "The pleasure is mine. Your daughters have given me a very worm welcome to your city."

"I'd expect nothing less," Carol said, giving me the once over. "Amy mentioned something about amnesia? Are you by chance-?"

"Not a case 53," I shook my head, "Just a case of dissociative amnesia, I think."

Glory Girl put her hands on my shoulder and peered from behind my head and said in a playfully quiet voice, "Mom, she doesn't have anywhere to go. She's all alone."

I nudged her in the ribs and she giggled while Carol rubbed her chin in a manner similar to her daughter. "Yes, Amy mentioned that too. You have no relatives that you know of, no name besides your cape identity?"

"Well," I sucked in a breath, "I know my name, and I know all my relatives are… gone. I just can't remember anything recent. How I wound up here, my powers and costume, and random events and day to day things."

Which was true, of course. Save for the power thing, my memories did feel spotty in certain areas, inconsistent. Given my career choice this wasn't a surprise, but it was annoying every time it happened.

"Head injuries are...difficult." Mark sighed, his eyes distant for a moment before returning to the present, "But they can be manageable under the right circumstances."

I nodded, "As time goes on, I've felt some of them return. Hopefully I'll remember everything I forgot in the next few days."

"And in the meantime, you'll need a place to stay." Carol said, still eyeing me.

I started to protest, "Well, not exactly-"

Carol interrupted me with a raised hand, "You've fought alongside my daughter, you have no family of your own, and if I had to guess your costume is your only set of clothes. It would be criminal of me to not open our home to you, at least for a few days."
Behind me I heard a whispered, 'Yes' which was probably followed by a fist pump. Carol glanced skyward for a moment and then motioned to the dining room table, "If you don't mind taking a seat Supergirl, we can discuss a few details, and maybe figure out just where you came from."

Oh if she only knew, I thought.

I said, "Of course… though I do have two questions that have been bugging me."

Carol returned to her seat at the table and said, "Ask away."

"Where's Panacea?" I asked as I took a seat at the far end of the table so the Dallons could sit together.

Carol's expression faltered before returning to its friendly shape, "Upstairs catching up on homework."

Made sense, I would want that work out of the way as quickly as possible too, if only so I could enjoy my weekend. With how exhausted the poor girl looked, I wouldn't be surprised if she clocked out once she was done and no one saw her until mid noon tomorrow. I nodded my understanding of this and folded my hands together as I settled into my seat.

"The other question is something that's been on my mind since I met your daughters. I was under the impression that most superheroes wore masks to hide their secret identities. But none of you seem to do that."

Glory Girl raised a brow, "Supergirl, you don't wear a mask either you know."

I conceded her point with a nod, "Yes, but I haven't told any of you my actual name, and for all you know, maybe I'm using my powers to disguise my face."

That didn't get the amused reaction I was expecting. Everyone at the table grew visibly more concerned at my little joke. Mark folded his hands together, Glory Girl tensed, and Carol gripped the edge of the table tightly. Obviously I had stepped on a nerve of some kind. I quickly back tracked, raising my hands defensively as I said, "That was a joke. The most I can do is vibrate my face so fast it looks like a blur."

I did so immediately as an example, vibrating the individual molecules fast enough to give my face the appearance of a news censor. Mark and Glory Girl relaxed and Carol released her grip on the table. Crisis averted, thank goodness.

"Sorry Supes," Glory Girl said, "Master/Stranger powers put everyone on edge."

I raised a brow, "What powers?"

"We'll explain later," Carol cut off before her daughter could explain. Glory Girl bit her lower lip and nodded, letting her mother continue.

Carol turned back to me, and took a breath, "Our team, our family, is part of an organization called New Wave. We believe in full accountability for capes, both legal and social, in our day to day lives. So we don't wear masks, and we don't have secret identities. We have code names we use when providing services to the public, but we otherwise make no distinction between the two in our day to day lives. Carol Dallon is accountable for the actions of Brandish, and vice versa. That is why no one in my family wears a mask or hides our secret identities."

Oh Rao, there were so many ways that could backfire on someone. That was my first thought when Carol finished explaining. I could appreciate the ideal, and it was obvious the Dallons were committed to it. But I had seen what happened when heroes' identities were exposed, either to their enemies or the public. I wondered, idly, if the Dallons had lost friends and family from their stance. How many innocents had been targeted specifically because of their open identities?

Such thoughts were short lived though. I was in no position to judge them for their choices, I had only been on the world for a few hours so far. Maybe things worked differently on Earth Bet than they did back home, I couldn't know yet.

"I understand," I said aloud, "That definitely explains a lot."

Carol smiled a more genuine smile, "Of course. It also relates to what I was going to ask you. I understand that secret identities can be a touchy subject for other capes, so if you wish to keep yours to yourself, we will respect that. But if we knew your name, Supergirl, we might be able to find out more about you. Maybe find out the truth about your memory loss."

I watched Carol carefully as she made her suggestion. There was no way I was going to tell her my actual true identity. Even ignoring how little I knew about this world, a name like Kara Zor-El was clearly not human. It would either tip them off to my alien origin, or make them think I was insane. I would need an alias for them, if I was to share anything with them at all.

The Dallons did not seem like terrible people, in fact they seemed like a good, if stern, folk. Glory Girl (or Vicky I supposed) was outgoing and friendly to a fault and had gone out of her way to help Taylor and her father when she didn't need to. Amy actively volunteered at hospitals to the point of exhaustion, and regardless of their apparent strictness, Carol and her husband seemed to hold a genuine belief in accountability for superheroes. I might not agree with the method, but I could respect their determination. But that raised the question, did that mean I could trust them?

Yes, of course I could. They were a well off suburban family trying to do their part to help the world how they could. They had offered their friendship and home to me, so of course I could at the very least return some of that same courtesy.
So I took in a deep breath, and said, "Well, given my current circumstances, you make a fair point. Call me Karen, Karen Starr."

-S-​

"...And based on recent Empire activity, it appears that Kaiser is currently falling back on the defensive. More than likely, he's trying to bait Lung and the ABB into an attack so they can paint themselves as victims." Armsmaster closed the file and put it back on Director Piggot's desk, "That's this week's report on Empire activity."

Emily Piggot, Director of the PRT ENE forces, arranged the folder with the others already on her desk and resisted the urge to sigh. With the end of the holiday season and the weather rapidly warming, gang activity was bound for the inevitable resurgence, as it always did this time of year. So far things had remained stable, but it was a peace - if it could even be called such - that wouldn't last. All they could do was prepare for where it led.

In that regard, she was thankful for Armsmaster. The power-armored tinker's role as leader of the Protectorate may not be perfect, but his insistent readiness was an asset she was not willing to throw away so easily. Maybe he chafed with his fellow capes at times, but his skills at preparation were far and above any of the others, and she valued his analytical abilities greatly.

The Director set the files aside, "Right then, we'll inform the police of our analysis and see if we can't get them to increase patrols along ABB territory. It'll be a tricky balance though, we don't want the people to think we're favoring one side over the other."

The problem in dealing with two gangs who were primarily racially motivated, was how easy it was for either one to accuse the authorities of 'oppressing' them. The reality was they just wanted to stop them from holding shootouts in the street.

"We could do an even split." Armsmaster suggested, his exposed lower face turning into a frown, "Split police forces on both sides, pair them with Protectorate forces. It will send a message while keeping my team prepared for the worst."

"If Kaiser is trying to bait Lung into an assault, we'll need more Parahuman muscle in ABB territory." Piggot sighed and rubbed her temples; she could feel a headache coming on.

"Christ, this would be easier if we had an actual brute we could rely on. Aegis is a good kid, but he barely lasts a minute against a real brute. Can we see if New Wave would be willing to join our patrols again?" she asked.

Armsmaster nodded, "We likely could, though the younger members will be difficult to enlist with school starting up again."

"Of course." Piggot resisted the urge to curse and leaned back in her chair, which creaked in protest against her ponderous weight.

"There is a new option ma'am." Armsmaster said.

She raised a brow and motioned for him to continue. Armsmaster tapped the side of his helmet and several images flashed on her computer screen, of a cape she hadn't seen before. A tall young woman, bearing a surprising resemblance to Glory Girl. She was taller and clearly older, and her costume was darker, but it was unmistakable.

"New Wave has added someone to their ranks?" she asked.

Armsmaster shook his head, "These were taken earlier today. The cape calls herself 'Supergirl'. Standard Alexandria Package, so far seen easily able to lift a minimum of three tons, unaffected by standard firearms, able to match flight speed with Glory Girl, and possesses a form of laser or energy beam she can project from her eyes, along with general enhanced speed and the potential reflexes to match. One report mentions she managed to catch the bullets from five seconds of full auto fire directed at her. Current unofficial rankings put her at at least a brute 6, mover 7, blaster 3, and a potential striker 1. She seems to emit a field similar to Glory Girl that protects her costume and lets her lift heavier objects with little regard for physics and positioning."

"Do we have any official statements from her or New Wave?" Piggot asked, leaning forward with renewed interest. The one thing her team had been missing was a cape with brute leanings, everyone else had more specialized and 'unique' power sets that made it difficult for them to counter some of the firepower the gangs could bring to bear. A parahuman on this level could easily tip things in the favor of the PRT. Or against them, if the situation wasn't handled properly.

"Sadly, no." Armsmaster admitted. "Police have talked with her, and aside from near universal praise on how polite she is, she has not given any official statements except a desire to help where she is needed. The last report says she was seen at the Dallon household. I could go and talk to her about joining the Protectorate."

Immediately, Piggot shook her head no, "That's not necessary, though I like your thinking Armsmaster. No, if Supergirl is willing to work with the police and New Wave, we shouldn't push too hard. New Wave works well with us and if she is a new member, they won't appreciate us trying to take her for ourselves. Make sure the rest of your team knows to give her the usual talk about joining if they run into her, but emphasize to them not to force it. The last thing we need is to make an enemy out of someone who's actively trying to help us. Do send me the reports though, and keep me posted on anything else you find out. With those kind of ratings, we should keep a close eye on her, and make sure she understands we're on the same side. The last thing we need is to alienate her from working with us in the future."

Armsmaster typed something into the computer built into his armor, "Sent ma'am."

Her computer pinged with a dozen files containing police reports, news outlines, sightings, and analysis of her abilities in action. Once she finished discussing the weekly reports with Armsmaster, she would look through them more thoroughly, that was the entire point of these reports after all. To highlight events and persons of notice in the city so Piggot could best decide where to focus PRT resources.

Armsmaster lowered his arm, "Now, if you're read, we can move onto merchant activity.

Piggot sighed heavily, "Lovely."

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.4​

Karren Starr was a name I made up on the spot, a sudden fit of paranoia I couldn't quite explain. I still wasn't sure whether or not this was a universe where I and my friends and family were fictionalized or not. Danny Hebert's reaction to me had suggested the former, but neither Carol nor Victoria nor Mark had questioned me on it. Ultimately, I had decided to err on the side of caution rather than take an unnecessary risk in an unfamiliar world. Thankfully, no one dwelled on the name for very long, as the Dallons were quick to grill me on everything else with an almost gleeful abandon.

Though she definitely held strict standards, Carol didn't push too hard on the personal questions. Most of what she asked were simple questions, where I was from, why I was in Brockton, how long did I plan on staying, etc. I kept my answers simple and brief, answering as truthfully as I could without giving away everything. But while Carol was certainly more restrained in her questioning, her husband and Victoria were… not.

An hour after Carol had finished questioning me, I was in Vicky's room still answering her questions about my powers, while trying on some of her clothes. Since I had nothing to wear aside from my costume, she had happily offered me a look through her closet for temporary clothes.

I was totally jealous of her closet.

It was a full walk in with rows of skirts, blouses, dresses and a library's worth of shoes. Even with super speed it would take me hours to go through everything Victoria had at her disposal. I was of course, in total heaven, and it was a lovely distraction from all of her questions about my powers.

"I can buy that you're some sort of jack of all trades grab bag of powers, but I draw the line at super-ventriloquism." Vicky said. She was lying on her bed, feet leaning on the wall behind the head of her bed with her arms lazily splayed out around her.

"No offense, but that is the dumbest shit I've ever heard."

"Victoria, you should be kinder to our guest," Carol's voice chided from the doorway.

The girl jerked up and looked at the doorway to see it empty, and me stepping out of her closet with a smug grin on my face. "After all, we wouldn't want to be rude, would we?" I continued, in a perfect imitation of her mothers voice.

Victoria closed her hanging jaw and looked at the sun dress I was wearing with a critical eye. It was a cute little number, a soft yellow with lines of white along the waist and the shoulder straps. Add a pair of flats and a wide brimmed hat and it would be perfect for a casual stroll down the boardwalk. I smiled and did a little twirl in it, sending the hem spinning, "It's a little shorter than I'm comfortable with, but I think I can make it work." I said.

"Oh yes, absolutely. You work that dress girl." Victoria slid off the bed and walked up to me, "And you haven't even seen the best part, look!"

She slid her hands into two sleeves on either side of the dress and grinned, "It has pockets!"

I put my hands on Victoria's shoulders with a serious expression on my face, "Vicky. Can I marry you? I don't love you or anything, but I want your closet."

And then we both melted into a fit of laughter in giggles. It wasn't often I got to 'girl-out' over pretty dresses with others. Kal was as stereotypically male as they came, Starfire's idea of appropriate clothing was running in a bikini, and Barbara, bless her heart, was too serious to really enjoy it beyond having a critical eye for what I wore. Vicky was a nice change of pace, to say the least.

"Excuse me," a small voice interrupted our giggle fit, and after we got our laughter under control, we both looked up to see Amy peering through the doorway.

Victoria broke into a scattered chuckle before she reigned it in and addressed her sister, "H-hey Ames. We being a bit loud?"

"Try extremely." she said dryly.

"Sorry Amy," I apologized and pushed myself up to my feet, smoothing the dress as I did. "I didn't mean to disturb you. I should be about finished now anyway."

She grunted and disappeared back down the hall. We both heard her door shut loudly a moment later. Victoria winced and said, "Sorry, Karren. I forgot about Amy's class project."

I shrugged, "It's okay. I should have enough for tonight and tomorrow anyway, just to get by anyway. Thanks for sharing."

"Oh I have more clothes than I know what to do with, and you couldn't go running around in tights all day." Victoria said.

She looked back at the door and sighed, "I should… probably go talk to Amy though. It looks like something is bothering her."

I nodded and gathered the folded clothes I'd selected, "I have more than enough for now anyway. I'll head downstairs and leave you two to it."

We parted ways at the door, me heading downstairs and Victoria heading for her sister's room. I made a point to ignore their conversation to the best of my abilities. It wasn't polite to eavesdrop on friends after all. Besides, it looked like those two needed to have a talk face to face, and I didn't want to intrude anymore than I already had.

Carol had already shown me to their guest room, located to the left of the living room past the stairs at the far end of the hall right next to a spare closet. It wasn't as large or as well furnished as any of the family's rooms, but it was very nice for a guest room. Enough space for a full size mattress, a nightstand and its own closet.

I quickly hung my borrowed clothes in the closet in the blink of an eye, and headed back into the kitchen for a drink. I was surprised to run into Mark in the kitchen; Mark and a slice of cake he was trying very hard to look like he was not eating in secret. He paused mid bite, and looked at me sheepishly.

"Hello, Karren." he said as straight faced as he could. At the same time he very casually threw the slice back into the fridge, and smiled innocently.

I looked at the fridge and let a sly smile cross my lips, "Dieting, Mr. Dallon?"

He patted his stomach affectionately; he didn't seem out of shape to me, but the standards for the average person and the standards for a superhero were different. "I promised Carol I'd get below 180 and stay there. But…"

The look of longing on his face when he turned back to the fridge was almost comical. I chuckled and went to grab a glass. As I filled it with water from the fridge I said, "Your secret is safe with me, Mr. Dallon. A little cake won't kill you."

"A little white lie never hurt anyone." He agreed, and reached back into the fridge for his cake. "Makes everyones lives a little easier."

I took a sip, the water not as refreshing as I'd hoped. A frown formed on my face and I sighed, "Yeah, a little easier… Thank you again for your hospitality, Mr. Dallon."

He 'mph'd' back at me, his mouth full of cake, and I chuckled as I returned back to my room. I didn't make it back, Victoria intercepted me at the stairs. Bounding down them two at a time, she stopped and leaned on the railing, a large smile on her face.

"So, Karren, I got a question for ya."

I raised a brow at her, "And what might that be?"

Victoria was always a little bubbly but she was way more animated than I had ever seen before, practically jumping from foot to foot, "Okay, so I know I just lent you a bunch of spare clothes, but I talked with mom-"

"I thought you were talking with your sister?" I asked.

She rolled her hand, "Work in progress, I've got it. Anyway, I talked with mom, and I was able to convince her to give us a budget. So, how would you like to go shopping tomorrow with me, Amy, and a friend or two of mine?"

I didn't have to think long on that. I loved shopping, loved seeing all the stores, trying on new clothes, browsing, chatting with friends. The entire experience was an absolute blast. The only reason I hesitated at all was for a brief debate on if it was worth my time given my current situation. If something more important came up, we could always shop later; the mall wasn't going anywhere.

"Victoria, I'd love to go shopping with you."

She clapped her hands, "Yay! I'll go and call-"

Amy's voice sounded from her room, "No you won't, you have homework first!"

Her sister deflated and her face twisted into a playful scowl, "Stupid homework, stupid school."

I laughed, "Finish your homework. I don't think your friends are going anywhere."

She stuck her tongue out at me, and I thumbed my nose at her in retort. We went our separate ways laughing, and I collapsed back on my bed in the guest room. After a moment, I flopped back onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling.

The Dallon household was quiet when Victoria wasn't talking. I could hear the TV running in the living room where Mark was, the scratch of pen on paper in Amy's room, Carol on a business call in her room, and Victoria plopping into her desk chair in front of her home computer. It was surprising to me to learn that on Earth Bet, computers were so much more commonplace, and that everyone had their own personal phones. On Krypton this was standard, but my Earth was a bit behind the curve. It was impressive to say the least.

I was stalling for time; my interview with the Dallon family had taken some time, but now I was free of obligation. I rolled over on the bed and glanced at the clock, five thirty seven. Rao I was going to get bored so fast. I never took much interest in television beyond cheesy movies with friends, and I didn't have my art supplies here. I could see what they had to read, but that would only occupy me for a few minutes at most.

My eyes flickered to the window, and I let my hearing run free to chase the many sounds of the city. Brockton Bay was busy as any city of its size would be, and its reputation as a city of crime wasn't an unfair one. When I had first arrived, the city had been in what I now recognized as a slump of activity. Night was falling now, and while it was arguable that the most heinous crimes were more likely to occur in the day when everyone was at work, petty crime had a habit of skyrocketing at night in my experience.

A gust of wind filled my room as I changed back into my costume and opened the bedroom window. I set a foot on the window sill and paused; I wasn't required to inform anyone here of my comings or goings, but I was a guest in their house and leaving without saying anything would be rude.

I left a note explaining where I went on the bed in plain view, and flew off into the evening sky. There was trouble afoot, and I was more than happy to foil it.

-S-​

The Docks, the epicenter of Brockton Bay's problems. Like most coastal cities, Brockton Bay had depended on shipping and trade as its primary form of income. Commercial hubs were completely dependent on safety and transportation to maintain a constant flow of income. With no real industry to speak of, Brockton Bay had not been prepared for when the shipping industry died. When the endbringer, the Leviathan, began terrorizing coastal cities, shipping became a more dangerous venture. Ports that were seen as less vital were no longer risked, and so cities like Brockton Bay were left to wither on the vine.

With no jobs came economic depression, and with economic depression came desperation. Honest working men and women turned to crime to support themselves, and the city fell into a decline. Those that didn't or couldn't leave had stayed and begun carving the city into gang territory in a bid to survive. All of this could be traced back to the Docks.

Ruined warehouses, abandoned offices, homeless shanty towns, and a graveyard of ships told the truth that some were trying to deny. Brockton Bay was dying, living its final moments as the world threatened to abandon it all together. It would take nothing short of a miracle to pull this city back from the brink.

I frowned as I flew over the Docks, high enough that no one without super sight could see me. Some said my cousin and I could work miracles, but the truth was that we were just trying to help. To save this city would require more than just punching the bad guys in the face, unfortunately. But, that was a good first step in the right direction.

A scream, short and quickly stifled, stirred me from my thoughts. I swept my gaze across the Docks, focusing my senses on the source. Unsurprisingly, even with super hearing that frankly defied the laws of physics, it could be difficult picking out a single voice in a city of tens of thousands. My hearing gave me a general idea of where the scream came from, my sight helped me peer through the urban forest below, and my intuition helped me determine if I had found the men I was looking for.

It was a skill I had mastered with years of practice now; in less than a minute, I had managed to zero in on a group of men gathered by a large semi-truck with a cargo container strapped to its trailer. Their movements were fast and frantic, and one of them was yelling angrily at the rest, scolding them in a language I recognized as Mandarin. At the bare minimum, they were likely members of the ABB, one of the two major gangs in the city. That alone warranted an investigation.

I dipped forward into a dive, plunging from the sky toward the ground with a frightening speed. The wind tore at my hair and my cape, whistling angrily in my ears as I picked up speed. Brockton Bay rose up to catch me, a hand of a thousand fingers reaching out to me. By now my speed was so great that if I hit the ground, I'd crater a city block.

My arms flashed out, my cape billowed against the air, and the wind hissed at my sudden stop in momentum. The night was silent once again, and I descended the last three inches until my feet were on solid ground. I leaned on the edge of the old office parapet and peered down at the scene unfolding before me.

It was an old dock, rarely used. A series of small boats were pulled alongside it, with spotlights pointed at the parking lot. Nearly two dozen men swarmed the lot, half securing the cargo to the truck, the other half armed with rifles and standing as security. They were dressed in dark colors mostly, with makeshift tactical gear on the security guards and safety gear on the workers. All of them were of an asian ethnicity.

Everything I read and had been told pointed to this being an ABB operation; the gang exclusively recruited only asian individuals into its ranks. I was surprised by the number of men at work as I had been under the impression that at most, the ABB had maybe sixty members to its name. It was perhaps possible these were initiates, temporary members, outside 'assistance', or even folks that were forced into work.

I was unable to see inside the cargo container itself, it was lined with some kind of lead plating which was concerning. But, I could hear the cargo. I heard voices inside yelling in panic, a few slamming against its corrugated walls. When they did, one of the guards would kick the wall and yell out a few choice curses in Chinese. ABB or not, it seemed obvious to me that whatever they were up to, it was far from legal.

"Time to get to work, Kara." I murmured to myself, and jumped the parapet and landed softly in front of the building.

I cleared my throat, my Mandarin was a little rusty, and said, <So, what's in the box boys?>

A dozen guns swiveled towards me along with twenty four eyes; some things transcended universes, evidently. I sighed and held up my hands in a gesture of peace, <It's just a simple question, friends.>

I heard a radio crackle, one of the guards spoke quietly to the man in charge, in Japanese surprisingly, <That's the cape that's been causing havoc all day. What do we do?>

Their leader, a short stout fellow standing on top of the cargo container, tensed at the question, and answered in a whisper, <Call Lung, and try to slow her down until he gets here.>

<That's a great idea!> I interrupted in Japanese, <Call him down, he and I can have a nice chat once I'm done with you guys. Now come on, are you going to make this easy on yourselves, or->

Six of them opened fire on me, not appreciating my banter; fair enough. Even though they were using high powered weapons (at least compared to what most of the crooks I'd dealt with that day were using) any rounds I didn't catch bounced harmlessly off my skin. The ricochet's I snatched out of the air just as easily. When the gunfire slowly ceased, I held out both hands and let the spent ammo shower to the ground. There were murmurs of shock; the unarmed men were slowly moving away from me while the guards lowered their rifles in amazement.

<I'd really consider you're next step carefully fellas.> I dusted my hands off and put them on my hips, <Actually, here, let me make it easier for you.>

A flash of my heat vision, and the barrels of a dozen rifles melted into slag in a flash of steam and sparks. Most of the men dropped their weapons in shock; they were the ones I went after first. The air shuddered as I rushed forward in the blink of an eye. I ripped rifles from hands, tripped up those trying to flee, and tied them all up with a nice bow. Literally, I stole a few of the straps from the truck and used it to secure the crooks in bundles of three or four men each.

I tightened the last rope with a satisfying tug. My new captives bombarded me with a surprising number of curses in half a dozen languages, when they weren't panicking at how quickly I had rounded them up. There was a reason crime like this didn't exist in Metropolis anymore. Men with guns were to us like a child with a water gun was to an adult.

But these weren't children, I had to remind myself, these were men. Though I may mock them and tease them, it was for their cruelty and malice towards others, never for their weakness. That was the most important lesson Kal had imparted to me when he taught me how to be Supergirl, I think. That to mock a man for their weakness made you a bully, a villain. Mocking a man for his evil however, could steal away his power; only fear and terror made the evil truly powerful, and if you laughed in their faces, what more could they do to you?

<Aryan whore!> the leader spat at me, his voice dripping with venom.

I rolled my eyes, <It's a good thing I'm shifting you all off to prison. That should give you plenty of time to come up with more creative insults, friend.>

More insults followed, but I ignored them and floated back over to the cargo container. It had fallen worryingly silent when I arrived, but I could hear soft whispers inside. Hostages or victims perhaps, leverage for the gang to extend its reach over the city. Despicable, but not surprising.

I ran a finger along the door, found a good point for leverage, and slowly peeled the door open with a low groan of protest from the metal. The harsh dock light filled the interior of the cargo container, alighting a chorus of surprise from inside. I nearly froze as the container's contents were revealed to me.

Packed as tight as they could fit were women, dozens of them. Asian, caucasian, afircan-american, the ethnicity didn't matter. The common thread between every captive, they were female and they were young. Some wore battered clothes, some wore none, some were clad in rags; all of them were covered in their own filth, an odor that made my eyes water. Dozens of sets of hallowed eyes looked up at me, lost and confused. Some of them were barely ten years old.

Metal groaned and I realized I had crushed the edge of the container in my grip. I released it and set my jaw. I felt my entire body tremble as I knelt on one knee before the women, forcing a friendly smile on my face.

"How many of you can walk?" I asked.

Silence at first, and no reply. An aching emptiness filled only by the distant sounds of Brockton Bay that sounded so very far away at the moment. A sob broke it, relief that quickly began to sweep through the captives. I had to cover my to hold back my own; it did nothing to hide my tears.

-S-​

Thirty-three.

That's how many victims were locked in that cargo container.

Many of them were covered in cuts and bruises, some fighting infection; thankfully there were few with broken bones, and I was able to lead them out into the clear night air without too much trouble. I put them opposite their former captors on the other side of the truck. There was no guarantee that the sight of the men wouldn't have provoked some of the women to rage. There was no guarantee that I would've tried to stop them.

I borrowed one of the guards phones and dialed the police. Several ambulances and half a dozen cruisers and a prison transport arrived in ten minutes. By then I had tended to the worst of the wounded with basic first aid, and some life was returning to the captives. I talked gently with all of them, trying to ease their minds and confirm that yes, they were safe now. The oldest of the captives was in her late twenties.

The youngest was nine.

When the first responders arrived, I took a minute to myself to collect my nerves. I stood at the edge of the dock, watching the waves roll up against its concrete edifice. The noise was soothing and let me clear my thoughts, a welcome relief. My temples throbbed, an unfortunate side effect of when I got angry, which didn't help me cool my temper.

I had seen evil, I had seen cruelty. I had watched madmen try to destroy the world, tyrants try to subvert the freedoms of the people, and monsters spread destruction for the sake of it. But there was something about the small scale and the very human nature of the crime that made me sick. The idea that anyone could… that they'd even consider it.

My body tensed, and I took a deep breath. I had to remind myself, these men were no longer a threat. The police would deal with them, they wouldn't hurt anyone else now. Their threat was dealt with. I could rest easy knowing their victims were free the injustice inflicted on them. There was no reason to get angry, it wouldn't fix anything.

<Lung's gonna be pissed.> even from the other side of the dock, I heard the criminals talking amongst each other as the cops arrested them.

<It's a setback.> assured their leader, <But once he hears what happened, he'll bust us out. We'll be back in business in no time. Maybe with new merchandise too.>

But sometimes, anger feels really good.

The air shook, and suddenly the man found me looming over him. His face was illuminated by the red of my heat vision, twisted in surprise and fear. I grabbed him by the shirt, lifting him until his feet dangled helplessly in the air. One quick blast is all it would take, a flash of red light and he and all of his monsters in crime would be so much ash in the wind. It would be so easy. I was vaguely aware of surprised shouting from the police, shouts of surprise by my sudden appearance.

Another deep breath, and the red light faded. I pulled the man closer until he was inches from my face, and demanded, <Lung. Where is he?>

-S-​

<You never disappoint, Lung.> was the praise from Handa Nao.

Lung barely paid the Yakuza representative any attention, focused more on the iron in his hands, and the bumping and shifting of the van. Other gangs may take a chance to travel in unnecessary style, ostentatious displays of wealth and power. Lung was content with a refurbished white van; outwardly a hideous thing, inside meticulously maintained. A cleverly disguised one way mirror cut the driver cabin off from the rest of the van while allowing the passengers to see the road outside. The rear of the van had been refitted into a clean semi-traditional kaigijitsu.

It was important to hold onto the heritage of their ancestors, thought Lung. Though his path had taken him far, he never forgot where he had come from or what he sought to do. It was why the praise of men like Handa meant so little to him. A man like him was a sycophant, interested purely in his personal power while holding the illusion of respect before him.

Lung was under no illusions; he was not a good person. But he did not present himself as such. His actions and words reflected who he was, and what he would do. A man like Handa would offer one hand in a gesture of peace while using the other to hide a knife behind his back. But, he was useful to Lungs own purposes.

Feeling fire ripple across his hands, Lung gripped the rod of iron in his hands and squeezed. He took pleasure in using his abilities like this. Building, working with his hands eased the dragon in his soul. It kept his temper in line, and kept his mind sharp. Few knew it, but many of the blades those in the ABB favored, he had forged. Frankly, he would have preferred to stay at one of his many safe houses that night, quietly working away the night on a new blade.

But no, he had to talk with Handa.

<Do you have what I asked for?> he asked bluntly.

Handa's personable smile faded at Lungs tone, but he maintained his illusion of respect. The briefcase at his side found its way to his hands, and he opened it up to reveal a manilla envelope,. <Everything we have on recent Yanban movements. Their numbers, their operations. Everything the Yakuza know.>

The cost had been high, to get such information. It had been a worthwhile cost; never again would he choke under the yolk of the Chinese. Lung set aside the now flattened chunk of iron and took the envelope from Handa. A movement from the driver's cabin caught Lung's attention.

He thumped a hand against the mirror, and grunted, <Oni-Lee. What is it?>

<I thought I saw something. It was just a street light flickering.>

Lung frowned at that. As a warrior, Oni-Lee was excellent, brutal and merciless. He had been of great help to Lung, and his loyalty was a rare thing. But his intuition was lacking and had grown more so once he had entered Lung's service.

<Keep alert. Report anything out of the ordinary.> Lung ordered. Better to be safe than sorry, that was how he had survived in this city for so long.

He sat back down in his seat, and picked up the folder, <Apologies. Where were we?>

The words left his mouth, and the entire van flipped. There was no warning no buildup. One moment, Lung was ready to continue his conversation, the next the entire world began spinning, his entire existence a series of spinning images and screaming metal as the van flipped on its side end over end. Without a seatbelt on, Lung was flung loosely about the cabin, feeling something crack as he was. The lights remained on for the first spin, by the second they flickered and by the third he was shrouded in darkness.

Then, he was no longer in the car. He was flying, soaring across the empty street, and landed on the sidewalk in a heap. His body ached, his legs moved slowly to his command, and he was all but certain his ribs were broken. In the late city night, there was little light; he had intentionally set their meeting in the docks to avoid prying eyes. Now he could barely see, save for the street lamps that illuminated the empty streets.

Lung managed to get his arms under himself and pushed up into a pained sitting position. The van lay on its side resting against a street lamp, utterly ruined. One side had been torn clean open and Lung saw no sign of neither Handa nor Oni-Lee. The latter he knew would have taken action the moment they were attacked; he didn't care about the former.

The only question now was who in Brockton Bay would be stupid enough to attack him, and how soon could he rip them to pieces for this brazen insult. Already he could feel the fire racing through his veins, sealing shut cuts and scrapes and soothing the pain in his bones. Lung forced himself to his feet, ignoring the flare of pain in his side. Fire rippled along his left hand, dripping onto the street.

A noise from above caught his attention and he whirled toward it, his now clawed hand filled with fire. He stopped himself at the last second; Handa Nao hung from the street lamp, bound by rope and a rag stuffed in his mouth. He appeared unscratched, and was wriggling hopelessly against his bindings. Had the Protectorate sent Assault and Velocity after him? Velocity had great speed but his ability to influence the world was limited; this couldn't be his work. New Wave had no one with that level of speed or subtlety, so who…

His answer fell from the sky atop the ruins of the van, flattening it in an instant. A woman in blue and red with golden rose from the wreckage, her eyes burning with fire and Oni-Lee held tightly in one hand. She stepped up onto a flattened tire, her gaze centered on Lung, unaware that Oni-Lee's body was disintegrating.

Lung felt a grin form behind his now ruined metal mask, "You have made a great mistake tonight, girl."

Her scowl deepened, and her hand shot out like a serpent to her side. Oni-Lee materialized beside her, grenades in hand, just in time for her hand to wrap tightly around his eyes. She forced him to the ground with the same ease of a parent disciplining a rowdy child, and Lung saw his chance.

While she forced Oni-Lee down against his protests, Lung ran in the opposite direction toward the nearest alley. He needed time, time to build up his strength against an opponent like this. Though he was powerful, it took time to light his fire, time his opponent didn't seem intent on giving him. Once his strength was sufficient, he could free Oni-Lee and the two of them would tear this newcomer apart.

Lung turned the corner into the alley, and ran face first into the woman. He rebounded off her as if he had ran into a concrete wall, nearly falling on his ass. His feet shuffled back and he remained standing, letting fire race up his arms. The woman floated a foot off the ground, arms crossed and face thoroughly unamused. She would not give him the time he needed; which meant he'd have to fight for time.

He lunged, claws burning and slashed at her; his first scraped harmlessly off her midsection, the next she dodged. A third never came, as she clocked him across the jaw. His mask shattered across the pavement, and Lung saw stars in his eyes as he reeled sideways across the alley. He saw doubles as the woman landed on the pavement and walked towards him.

"You'll regret this." growled Lung, running a hand across his bloodied chin. The sight of his own blood sent him raging.

Scales began to ripple across his flesh, muscle bulked and bones groaned under the strain of his power. He wrapped his hands around the womans throat, pushing her back into the nearby wall so hard it cracked. A snarl bubbled up from his chest through newly formed fangs as fire dribbled from his mouth.

"You've awoken a dragon. You've sealed your fate." he rumbled.

The woman grabbed both his hands, and slowly pried them off her. Lung's snarl turned into a noise of confusion as she easily pulled his arms off her. His arms shook against hers, all his current strength nothing to her. Her expression was one of anger, but not one of challenge.

"I'm not afraid of fairy tales." she said simply, and slammed her head against his eyes.

Stars flashed in Lung's eyes, and she released his hands. Lung grabbed at his bleeding forehead, the cut already beginning to seal shut, when the woman punched him once in the gut. He vomited fire and bile onto the alley floor, doubling over and cradling his stomach. The strength in his legs failed and he fell to his knees, now more confused than angry.

Who was this woman, where had she come from?

He looked up at her to see her pulling back her fist, "You're not hurting anyone, ever again." she declared.

And everything went black.

-S-​

Armsmaster's already frayed mood was ruined when he stepped out of the elevator into the parking lot and saw that the media had managed to sneak its way inside. Worse, Kate Lockwell had managed to find her way inside again. She had no camera man with her this time, just a miniature camera apparatus strapped to her shoulder as she rushed towards him.

He had been looking forward to his patrol, a chance to test the new transmission on his bike and use his compression cage. The night was clear, the city sounded peaceful and the lot was relatively empty. Late night shifts were his personal favorites, and a chance to not deal with Dauntless was one he had been eager to take.

Now he had to deal with Brockton Bay's local 'intrepid reporter' who lacked enough sense to realize her employers were taking advantage of her. This was the last thing he needed; maybe he'd call Dragon after on patrol, share some of his new ideas for the nano-thorn with her. Until then though, he'd have to deal with her.

"Armsmaster! A moment of your time please." she asked, pointing her microphone at him.

"I'm busy, Miss Lockwell. I don't have time to answer questions." he replied bluntly.

She was a relatively short woman compared to him, and had to jog next to him to match his long stride."Nonsense, I think anyone can manage to answer at least one or two questions."

"I have no time to answer questions you might ask." Armsmaster amended.

"Huh, so you're saying the Protectorate is actively avoiding speaking to the people now? Is that right?" she asked, a smirk on her face.

Armsmaster was about ready to whirl on her and read her the riot act, again, when a voice interrupted the two of them. "Excuse me! Is this the Protectorate Headquarters?"

Kate's eyes went wide as dinner plates, and when Armsmaster looked up in the direction of the voice, he felt his jaw hang open. Floating about ten feet above the lot was the new cape that had made her appearance earlier today. In one hand she held a bound and gagged Oni-Lee with his eyes covered by a cloth. In the other, was an unconscious Lung, bound with strips of metal that looked like they'd been peeled off of a van.

Armsmaster felt himself go speechless for the first time in a very long time. Supergirl looked around when she got no answer and held up Lung, "Cause, I took down Lung but I'm not sure when he'll wake back up and I figured you guys might have a prison cell to hold him or something. I'd rather not have to punch his lights out every time he wakes up; even with a healing factor, that's not good for the brain."

Finally, Armsmaster found his voice, "Y-yes. Yes this is the Protectorate Headquarters, we can hold Lung

She looked relieved, "Oh good. He's a lot heavier than he looks, I would've gotten tired holding him all night."

Armsmaster watched as she landed and set Lung and Oni-Lee at his feet. She dusted her hands off on her skirt and offered one to him while wearing a friendly smile, "Hi! I'm Supergirl, I'm new in town." He slowly took it and was surprised at how gentle her grip was; most brutes had a stern handshake, intentional or not.

"I'm...Armsmaster. I'm head of the local ENE Protectorate. I… we had heard about your activities earlier today, but how did you…?"

It was inconceivable; Lung had fought off the entire Protectorate on multiple occasions. When not fighting he was a ghost, near impossible to locate unless he wanted to be found. Armsmaster had spent too many sleepless nights devising strategies to find and capture him, only to be foiled by unforseen complications. How had this newcomer managed to do in one night what he hadn't accomplished in years!? Despite himself, Armsmaster felt his jaw.

"I busted a… trade." She explained, a dark tone in her voice. "After, I talked with one of his crooks and found out he was in a meeting with a Yakuza representative. Once I found that out, it was easy enough to scan the Docks with my super hearing and x-ray vision until I found him driving around. I made sure to take him out as quick as possible; I didn't want things to escalate."

Noting the explanation of some of her powers, Armsmaster nodded and knelt next to Lung. On his left gauntlet, a tranquilizer dart popped out from his wrist and he injected it in Lung's arm.

"That will keep him out cold for the next hour or so," he explained. The man thought back to his conversation with Director Piggot and added, "If you have a minute, Supergirl, I'd like to talk to you about joining the Protectorate."

The young woman shook her head, the light flashing along her golden hair, and smiled, "No thank you Armsmaster. I'm flattered by the offer, but I prefer to work with the government, not for it. If you guys ever need help dealing with any scumbags though, I'm more than happy to help."

Armsmaster nodded and frowned. Anyone smart enough and strong enough to take Lung out was probably confident enough in their own abilities to see the Protectorate as superfluous. At least she wasn't dismissing them out of hand though; they could work with that.
With a twist of his wrist, a slip of paper ejected from his right gauntlet, and he handed it to Supergirl, "My number, if you change your mind."

She put it in her belt and nodded, "Thank you, I'll hold onto it just in case. Thanks for taking Lung off my hands though, I hope he doesn't give you any trouble."

The air swirled softly around her feet as she lifted off the ground and saluted. Right as she was about the fly off though, Kate suddenly found her voice and said, "W-wait! Hold on!"

Supergirl stopped and looked at her, a golden brow raised in question. Kate smoothed her skirt and stepped forward, "Kate Lockwell, Brockton Bay News Network. Do you have a moment to answer some questions, Supergirl?"

Armsmaster contacted a few officers inside the headquarters and made no attempt to warn Supergirl about the BBNN. He had more important issues to focus on, like locking up Oni-Lee and Lung. Besides, if she was capable of handling herself as well as she seemed to, she could handle a little negative press. That was what he told himself anyway, as Supergirl landed and began answering Kate's questions in earnest.

---

A/N: Crossposting this story from SB because why not. Let me know your thoughts and if there are any formatting issues that stick out. Thanks!

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.5​

I rose with the sun, like clockwork, and swung my legs off the side of the bed onto the carpeted floor. My nose wrinkled when I didn't feel my slippers waiting for me, before I remembered my predicament. Trapped in an alternate universe, currently staying with friendly locals. Right.

After I had dropped Lung and Oni-Lee off last night, I basically dismantled the ABB with what information I had. Drug dens, illegal brothels, and arms caches - even a sale. Over the span of a single night, I had basically gutted the gang, and the thought made me smile. With them out of the way, I could focus on the Empire Eighty Eight or the Merchants. Then I could really focus on helping this city, though I wasn't entirely sure how to yet.

Certainly not from in the Dallon's guest room, that was for certain. I grabbed a robe I had borrowed from Victoria and shuffled my way out into the living room. My mental checklist expanded to add fuzzy slippers to my list of things to acquire; a good morning wasn't complete without them.

Unsurprisingly, I was the first one up. Very few people got up as early as Kal and I did, which I was certain was a biological impulse because there was no way in Rao's name I would be up this early back on Krypton. Sleep was good, but on Earth I needed very little of it. Though that said, I did appreciate the calm silence that came from an early morning, it was a rare thing.

I wasn't sure when the rest of the Dallons would be up, but since I had time I figured I would thank them for their hospitality. About thirty minutes later, Victoria came stumbling downstairs, attracted by the scent of bacon frying and the soft sound of the television running. Her hair was a rats nest and her eyes slits that somehow narrowed further when she saw me cooking.

"Karen? You know it's like… five thirty, right?" she yawned and stretched.

I smiled cheerily at her, "I'm an early riser." I chirped, and flipped the bacon up over my head where it landed perfectly on the platter behind me.

"I hope your folks don't mind; I thought I'd cook you all a nice breakfast as thanks for taking me in yesterday." I explained as Victoria's eyes widened at the buffet arrayed before her.

She raised a finger to her lips and said, "Shhh, no more words. Food now please."

Unsurprisingly, Victoria piled her plate with a mountain of pancakes and bacon that ominously leaned to the side when she shuffled over to the dining room table. As she set it down, her sister waddled downstairs and grabbed the coffee and food without so much as a comment. Their parents filtered downstairs soon after them with as much enthusiasm as their children. Evidently, I was a morning person in a sea of morning haters.

"We should take in strays more often." joked Mark, "If they're going to make us a full breakfast, totally worth it."

Carol made a noise of agreement as she sipped on her coffee, and I smiled at their enjoyment. I had come a long way from setting kitchens on fire. I still found Earth kitchens needlessly confusing, but I at least knew my way around them now. As I grabbed my own plate, the commercial break on the television ended and the news resumed.

I had been surprised to see that Kate's interview with me had been the first story of the morning. Perhaps they wanted first digs at it, and planned on airing it again later today, otherwise I couldn't figure out why they would air it so early. I leaned on the counter and chewed thoughtfully on my pancake while the network logo flashed away to reveal the host of the show.

"This is Donny Vermillion, live from our studio in Brockton Bay." The newscaster spoke with a booming voice, and was clearly in the prime of his middle ages. He had thick meticulously maintained brown hair and equally prime moustache. He wore a dark brown suit and a BBNN pin on the left side. The quintessential newscaster in every possible way.

When Victoria saw him on screen, she groaned, "Oh god, I hate this guy."

Amy picked up the remote and wiggled it, "Then change it."

"No, no." Vicky stuck her hand up and said solemnly, "Let me hate him."

That… wasn't a good sign. I bit my lip and watched as the news unfolded, trying to ignore the anxiety building inside me.

Donny continued, "Our top story for you folks this morning; the end of the Azian Bad Boys, and the girl that took them down. A rather… Super, girl."

My picture flashed on screen and Mark choked on his coffee. Carol pounded frantically on his back while Amy and Victoria turned to me wide eyed.

"You did what!? When!? How!? Why wasn't I invited!?" Victoria demanded.

I smiled sheepishly, "While you were all busy last night, I decided to do some late night patrols. One thing led to another, and I wound up beating Lung unconscious after interrupting his meeting with the Yakuza."

"So you ambushed him before he could ramp up." Amy said plainly.

"Basically." I confirmed, "I wasn't going to give him a chance to power up and wreck half the city in the process. All I did was let him beef up just enough so I could hit him without causing permanent damage."

"What about Oni-Lee?" Carol asked, rubbing her husband while he leaned on the table taking deep breaths.

"I had a little scuffle with him. Once I figured out how his teleportation worked though, the fight was over. I was lucky they didn't know I was coming, so we managed to avoid any real collateral damage."

On the television, Donny had finished summarizing what I'd told the Dallons, and said, "Now to our eager viewers, this no doubt startling turn of events has certainly left you with questions. Questions such as 'where did the Supergirl come from', 'what are her goals' and most importantly 'what are the consequences of her actions?'. Well rest assured, we here at BBNN are here to answer all these and more. And to help us with that is our old friend, Thomas Calvert, associate of the local PRT."

The camera zoomed out as Donny turned to face a lean dark skinned man with close cropped hair and hollowed dark eyes. They reminded me of the eyes of veterans Kal and I had saved during our foray into an alternate timeline still consumed by WWII. Tired from bearing witness to all the worst horrors humanity had to offer, they were the eyes of a man that had been broken at one point. I felt a ping of sympathy and respect for this Thomas Calvert. Whatever he had been through had taken a toll on him, and yet he still had the strength to keep working. Very respectable.

The reactions of everyone at the table painted a very different tune. Carol rolled her eyes, Mark scoffed, Amy covered her face, and Victoria started booing at the TV. I looked at them with a brow raised.

"Calvert's a total tool." Victoria explained, "Likes to play 'devil's advocate' all the time. Dude is supposed to be on our side but spends more time trash talking us than he does helping us."

Amy pointed at the TV and said, "Just watch. He'll turn this around on you somehow."

My attention returned to the TV as Donny and Thomas shook hands, the latter settling into his chair and folding his hands in his laps. "Thanks for having me again, Donny. It's always a pleasure to join you here at the BBNN."

Donny smiled a perfect newscaster grin,"The pleasure is all ours, Mr. Calvert. Now, if you're willing, our audience at home would love to hear your expert opinion on this new cape, and what her actions entail for our fair city."

"Gladly, Donny." Thomas returned the smile, "Let me start by saying that a man like Lung deserves his place in prison. He's been a menace to Brockton Bay for years now. We can safely applaud Supergirl for her actions in that regard. However, I wouldn't let my guard down yet either. Lung played a critical role in the power dynamic of Brockton Bay's gangs. We've seen this before with Marquis; the new up and coming heroes took down a prominent gang, only for the resulting power vacuum to cause widespread chaos until it was filled by a man worse than his predecessor."

Carol and Mark's expressions went utterly frigid, while Amy became very interested in her food. Victoria scowled at the TV, "Fuck you, Calvert!"

"Language!" Carol and I scolded at the same time. Victoria blinked and sank awkwardly into her seat and folded her arms muttering grumpily.

I debated asking Amy for the remote while Calvert continued. "Additionally, we can see from the interview provided to us by your lovely Kate Lockwell that Supergirl is… well to be frank, an emotionally impulsive newcomer. She certainly means well, but has no self control and a surprising amount of luck. Lung never saw her coming, and everyone knows if you catch him unprepared he goes down as easily as any man would against a cape. Supergirl is a game changer only in the sense that her actions have shifted the power politics in the city."

Donny nodded his agreement with Thomas, "A fair take, Thomas. Though some would argue that there are few capes out there as dangerous as Lung was to the safety of Brockton Bay."

Thomas made a show of taking a deep breath, "In raw potential power, Lung was a considerable threat. But there are plenty of capes that have caused far more damage than Lung ever has. People should be well aware by now that a power doesn't have to be big or flashy to be dangerous, and that's what they should be wary of. Not someone as powerful as Lung filling his void, but someone more insidious. Supergirl might have been able to brute force her way through Lung, but how will we all feel if the next cape to step up is able to master her? Then we won't feel so safe, will we?"

He paused and added, "And speaking honestly, Donny, as an African-american man, I don't exactly feel comfortable when the Empire 88's 'Aryan Ideal' descends from the heavens and proclaims herself the savior of the city. It makes you think, why only go after the ABB and not-"

Thomas's idiotic rambling was interrupted by Amy changing the channel to the morning sports report. I felt a tension leave my chest as she set the remote down and said softly, "I think that's enough of that."

She and the rest of the Dallons turned to me with a mix of curiosity and concern. I unclenched my jaw, forced a smile and picked my dish off the kitchen island and took it to the sink. They clattered with a bit more force than was necessary, but I managed to restrain myself from breaking anything.

After they were away, I put my hands on the kitchen sink and took in a deep breath. My eyes rolled back and I let it out, feeling the edge of my anger dull. It was only then that I felt confident speaking.

"Well then… They certainly hold interesting opinions, don't they?"

"Oh thank god." I heard Amy whisper to herself, followed by the thump of her head on the table.

This was not the first time a local newspaper had smeared my name, it was impossible to make everyone happy after all. That didn't make what they said hurt any less, and I felt more than a little angry at how presumptuous this 'Calvert' was. More importantly, I was angry at Miss Lockwell for lying to my face.

"You're taking this… well." Victoria said.

I turned back around to face them, drawing my smile into a thin line as I did. "Well, getting angry won't exactly fix anything, will it? Though I have to wonder how flexible Mister Calvert is, because he certainly seems to enjoy shoving his head up his own butt."
Victoria and Mark snorted, and even Carol managed a ghost of a smile. Amy was the only one not laughing, though she did lift her head up from the table.

"You really took down Lung?" she asked, as if she still didn't believe it.

"Yep," I leaned on the island and smiled, giving the Dallons a summarized version of my activities from the previous night. Truthfully I felt more than a little embarrassed going over what I had done. It wasn't bragging, but it certainly felt like it was and the grin on Victoria's face made me blush in embarrassment.

I never got to hear their thoughts on my activities though, as our conversation was interrupted by the shrill ring of the phone going off. Carol rose gracefully from her seat and went to answer it, her voice fully professional as she said, "Dallon residence, this is Carol speaking."

She paused for a moment as the caller talked, though I respectfully tuned my hearing out so I wasn't eavesdropping. Carol nodded once and her eyes flicked to me. "I understand, yes. She's right here, hold on."

Without another word, Carol handed me the phone and said quietly, "It's for you."

I took the phone and raised it to my ear, "Hello?"

"Hello, Supergirl?" a man asked.

"Speaking."

"I am Deputy Director Renick, I work with the Parahuman Response Team and the Protectorate." explained the man.

Ah, there it was. It was no surprise at all that the local Super team was contacting me. Frankly, I was surprised that Armsmaster hadn't tried keeping me at the PRT headquarters last night. We had all been busy, I supposed, and better late than never.

I folded an arm under my elbow and leaned against the kitchen island, phone in hand (they had wireless phones, that was such an improvement!) and asked, "What can I do for you, Deputy Director?"

"In light of your… accomplishments," the tone in his voice suggested that he still couldn't quite believe it, "We would like an opportunity to talk with you face to face. Today if at all possible. Let me preface this by saying that we are only interested in talking. As an independent hero, we would like to make sure that lines and boundaries are clear so there is no risk for… incidents, in the future."

I shrugged, "Yeah, sure. Does noon work? I already have a morning obligation, but I should be able to stop by afterwards."

The sound of typing was clear on the other end of the line before the Deputy Director spoke again, "Excellent. Noon is perfect. Fly to the top of the PRT Headquarters downtown, we will talk to you there."

"Sounds like a plan!"

"Oh, and Supergirl. We advise that you refrain from any more heroics until after our conversation. There were a few sting operations you interfered with last night, and we'd rather avoid a repeat without proper lines of communication. I'm sure you understand."

My smile faltered a bit, but I said, "Of course, I'll keep that in mind. Anything else?"

"No, we will see you then. Thank you for your time."

"You're welcome, sir." I said and the line went dead. His request sat poorly with me. I tried balancing a normal life with my heroics back home all the time, but it was one thing to do so of my own accord and another entirely to have someone try to actively forbid me from helping others. Of course, I understood why they had asked it of me; I just didn't agree with it. If I saw someone in trouble and there was no one else to help them, I was more than willing to step up to the plate, regardless of the consequences.

Victoria derailed my train of thought with a cheerful, "So, who was it? A secret admirer maybe?" she had stood up from her seat and was leaning on the table, a wide grin on her face. Her sister had her face covered out of second hand embarrassment.

"If only I could be so lucky." I rolled my eyes and hung up the phone. "Just the PRT. They wanna talk later today."

"Oh, boring!" Victoria echoed my sentiments exactly.

"Ah well, that just puts a time limit on our mall trip." I said, then bit my lip, "We are still good for that, right?"

"Oh hell yeah!" she cheered, ignoring another scolding from her mother.

The girl turned to her sister, and asked, "You're coming too, right Ames?"

Amy froze mid drink and looked between her sister and me. "I mean… yeah. I guess." She didn't sound anywhere near as excited as Victoria.

"Awesome!" Victoria whooped, "Hope none of you mind, by the way, I may have invited my boyfriend to join us."

"He cute?" I asked.

"The cutest."

"I don't mind at all then." I said and grinned.

Victoria laughed, "Oh this is going to be awesome!"

At the very least, I thought, it would get my mind off of the news.

-S-​

The staff of the BBNN wisely parted before the seething aura of one Kate Lockwell. Though normally she was a beacon of relative peace in the chaos that was the network studio, today she was as far from that was was possible. She marched forward with wrath and purpose, a curse on her lips, and fury in her steps.

The doors to the studio newsroom practically flew open of their own accord. Kate marched in as Donny and Thomas Calvert were shaking hands and they cut to commercial. Her professionalism was the only thing that had stopped Kate from interrupting, but now the only thing protecting them from her wrath was the flimsy faux wood desk they sat behind.

"What. The. Fucking. Hell!?" she yelled.

Grifters and cameramen rapidly fled the scene, holding no desire to get involved in the chaos about to unfold. Thomas leaned back in his chair, hands folded; Donny rolled around on his chair, a look of quiet surprise on his face. Whether he was surprised by Kate's anger or the intensity of it, was something she was very interested in putting to the test.

"Kate! You're looking well this morning-" Donny started.

She cut him off by slamming her hands on the desktop, "Cut the shit, Donny. I was promised prime time coverage of my interview. That is what Gargan sent me to the PRT for; no tricks, just an honest to god story on prime time for once. So what the fuck do you think you're doing, hijacking it for another opinion piece with your lapdog?!"

"Nice to see you too, Kate." Thomas snorted.

Kate flipped him the bird without even looking, focusing her anger on the news anchor before her. Donny leaned back far in his chair, clearly caught off guard by the ferocity of Kate's anger. To his credit, he managed to regain a semblance of control over himself, smoothing out his tie and coat and clearing his throat before addressing her.

"You were promised a prime time slot for a story on the PRT, Kate. What you brought instead, was a story on a brand new cape-"

"Who took down fucking Lung on her first day in the city!" she interrupted.

Donny rolled his eyes, "Please, any two-bit gangbanger with some luck and a baseball bat could do that. Everyone knows he'll be out of the PRT's hands by the end of the week. Gargan wanted a story on the PRT. You gave him a feel good piece about a high schooler in a dress that lives in her own little world. What did you expect to happen?"

Kate narrowed her eyes, "You know damn well that every other studio would trip over themselves to get an interview with an Alexandria Package. Especially one that managed to take down a heavy hitter like Lung. Don't play dumb Donny, it's beneath you."

The man drew his lips tight, "Don't get angry with me Kate. You know Gargan has final say on what airs."

"But he respects you." she jabbed a finger at him, "A good argument from you and Gargan is putty in your fingers."

Kate took in a deep breath, and found it did nothing to calm herself. It was too early in the morning for this crap, and yet here she was. These conversations were all too common nowadays with Donny. She hated to admit it, but it hurt that these were the only conversations they had anymore.

"You used to be the best of us, Donny." Kate sighed. "Every story, every whiff of corruption; if it was there, Donny Vermillion would find it."

She pushed herself off the desk and glared at him, "Now you're just a talking head. Nothing but hot air."

"Kate…" he started.

But she waved him off, "Forget it. I'm done. I've still got some good years left; I'm not wasting them slaving myself to this trash heap."

His eyes widened at that and he sat up straight, "You can't be serious, Kate."

She was already heading back for the studio doors, "I'll have my office cleared by the afternoon."

Perhaps it was pity, or maybe nostalgia, but Kate stopped at the door and sighed. She spared a look over her shoulder at the man. Once her inspiration and mentor; now she could see the lines in his face, the bags under his eyes. He was old, and whatever fire had drove him forward had died out ages ago. Now there were only sparks left.

"If it means anything… good luck. You're gonna need it." she said, and continued down the hell.

She had a lot to do now: resumes to write, cash to withdraw, favors to call. And most importantly, she had an apology to make. Donny had called Supergirl a fool living in her own little world, but Kate had seen more than that. Supergirl might live in her own little world, but she wanted to share it with everyone else.

"Off the record, Supergirl, I'm curious. Why are you a superhero? What do you stand for?" she had asked.

The answer had come with a startling speed. No hesitation, Supergirl had met her eyes and said, "Hope, help, and compassion for all. There's a lot of injustice in the world. I just want to do my part to even the scale."

That was a message worth spreading. If there was one thing that this city needed more than anything else, it was hope. That was a story the world needed to hear, and if no one else was willing to share it, then Kate would. After all, someone had to help even the scale.

A/N: This chapter was going to be longer with Kara and co's trip to the mall tying it up, but the ending on Kates side felt like a good place to bring it to an end. Quality over quantity and all that. This was an odd duck chapter to write, but I am very happy with it, personally. But I am interested in your comments, so please leave them and any constructive criticisms down below. Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful Friday, and I'll see you next time!

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.6​

Breath in. Breath out.

Breath in. Breath out.

A fire without fuel was nothing, and a constant source was required to grow. Paradoxically, it also required constant regulation so that it did not grow out of control. Left unchecked, the embers could easily blossom into a raging wildfire. Under other conditions, Lung would be happy to let it rage.

The cold of the steel biting the various joints and leverage points of his body, and the drugs flowing through his veins instead made it a constant battle to keep the embers lit. His power was so easily suppressed at times. Yet, even restrained and drugged like an animal, Lung could call upon his power in small amounts. It was difficult, like tending a bonfire in a storm, but he was nothing if not persistent.

He shifted in his bindings, and the guards at his cell both looked at him, fingers resting above the triggers of their rifles.

"I fucking hate it when he does that." said the smaller of the two.

The larger shook his head and resumed looking forward, "He's messing with us, trying to make us paranoid."

"Well it's fucking working." the first muttered, imitating his larger comrad.

For some reason, Lung mused, the PRT troopers were feeling a bit jumpy around him. He couldn't possibly imagine why.

Besides, he was only interested in adjusting himself. Being forced to stand unmoving for hours at a time while the gears of bureaucracy ever ground forward would make even the most stoic of men anxious. Patience was a virtue he struggled with, an enemy he often fought.

Yet, now he felt an old enemy was made an ally. The PRT believed his defeat had been a fluke, pure luck from an unknown cape. Lung knew better than them, and he felt the fire within spark anew.
Breath in. Breath out.

This Supergirl was no fresh blood, no green cape that had stumbled onto an astounding victory. There was no hesitation, no uneasiness in her actions. Her attack had been quick, precise. She had determined Lung's and Oni-Lee's weaknesses within seconds. The Supergirl was many things, but Lung did not believe for one second that she was new. That girl had more experience than half the capes in the Brockton Bay, and far more power.

Under other circumstances, Lung could have forced himself out. Stoke the fire of his rage to rip his restraints like so much tissue and return to his throne within the Bay. But now he knew, there was a threat waiting for him. An enemy to be treated with caution.

When the time came, Lung would free himself, and reclaim what was his. But at the moment he would have to sit and bide his time, no matter how much such a concept burned at his pride. He knew for a fact that with his absence, the dogs would descend on his territory to take it for themselves, and there would be new competitors looking for their own cut.

Lung's face split into a grin. Let them come, the more the merrier. As before, he would crush them beneath his might. Even Supergirl would find herself quailing before the might of the Dragon.

-S-​

"Pft, some dragon. Motherfucker got his shit pushed in by a fucking girl scout!" Squealer collapsed into a leather couch and stretched, "Plus side, we get his fancy fucking hoard!"

With the ABB suddenly lacking capes and, as far as they could tell, most gang members in general, it had been all too easy for the Merchants to just waltz in and start claiming territory for themselves. Some of that territory was overrun by cops and the Protectorate, but the Merchants hadn't aimed for all of it. Nah, Squealer and Skidmark had gone for the good shit, one of Lung's personal apartments.

"I expected more feng shui shit, honestly." Skidmark said, slowly circling the apartment. It was clean and well maintained, nice granite countertops, leather love seats, an oversized bed with silk seats. There was some small shrine with a woman's face on it and some of those fancy incense sticks the ABB loved so much set in front of it. The ends were hard and blackened, long since burned out.

Skidmark smirked, plucked one up and put the unburnt end to his lips, striking a pose out of a movie, "Look at me, fucking fancy as shit now. Nowhere to go but up now."

"Empire won't know what fucking hits them." Squealer giggled.

"They're the easy ones. Racist fuckheads think they can look down on us, but now it's just them and us." Skidmark paused and flicked the incense stick at the shrine. "Well, and the Protectorate."

"And the girl scout!" Squealer chimed in.

Skidmark sucked in a breath and flopped onto the couch next to her, "Yeah, and the girl scout. Her."

Squealer looked at him with one brow raised, "You're not seriously worried about that bimbo, are you? Shit, she just caught Lung off guard, that's all. Just another Glory Girl wannabe. Ya handled that slut, you can handle this one too, babe."

Skidmark smirked and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, "Yeah, I guess I can, but I'll handle this slut right here first."

"Mmm, I like that…" Squealer purred, a noise best compared to a dying two-stroke engine.

Time would tell, Skidmark knew, if this exchange of territory would last. He felt somewhere, deep deep inside, that he had missed an important detail. But that thought was quickly dismissed; something far more pressing had his attention at the moment. Besides, if it was that important, he wouldn't have forgotten it in the first place!

-S-​

"The point that you're missing, Brad, is that Supergirl didn't just beat Lung. She wiped out the entire ABB overnight. Every initiated member, every operation, all of it is rotting in the BBPD prison. That is why we're not scrambling for territory."

Maxwell Anders, alias Kaiser, glared across his italian maple desk at the man sitting in front of it. Brad Meadows, alias Hookwolf, looked as out of place in business attire as a pig did in a dress. Under normal circumstances, Maxwell would never have considered summoning the man to his office at the Medhall Corporation building. But these were not normal circumstances.

Members of the Empire had quickly informed Maxwell of Hookwolf's push into the now abandoned ABB territory. Mostly gun depots the cops hadn't had time to properly lock down; Brad had dealt with them as he did everything else, with an excessive amount of violence. Hence why he was now sitting dressed business casual and pouting like a scolded child.

An accurate comparison in Maxwell's mind, because that was exactly what the man was. A child, upset that his playtime was over. Under ordinary circumstances, allowing Brad the freedom to go about his business was fine. But, the situation in Brockton Bay had rapidly changed overnight. Now, it was time to tighten the leash, whether he liked it or not.

"She got lucky, it happens. New kid no one knows about, no way Lung would've seen her coming. Now we know about her, and Lung will probably throw a temper tantrum over it in like a week." Brad shrugged, "Why not take advantage while we have it?"

Maxwell had to bite back a snapping remark, closing his eyes and sucking in a breath before he was ready to respond, "Clearly, you are not paying attention, Bradley. So let me explain."

He reached up and turned his monitor around, revealing the rough but accurate timeline of events that he had been working on.

"At 10:17 last night, Supergirl interrupted a human trafficking operation by the ABB. Police reports noted she was agitated by the entire experience. By 10:32, she called in three separate ABB drug dens. At 10:37, she turned Lung and Oni-Lee into Protectorate custody." Maxwell skimmed through the timeline and pointed at the last entry with emphasis, "At 1:32 AM, Supergirl made her last ABB arrest of the night. In three hours, our largest competitor was wiped out by one girl."

He released the monitor and sat back in his chair and glowered at Hookwolf, "I know numbers don't mean much to you, but even you have to grasp the severity of what we're dealing with."

To his credit, Hookwolf's expression had turned into one of thought, a rare sight to Maxwell's eyes. After a moment of thought, Hookwolf said, "We have like… six times the number of capes on our side? We could lay a trap for her or something."

Maxwell let a ghost of a smile grace his lips, "I applaud the thought, but no. We wait, we watch, and we learn what we can about her in the meantime. If we tried to bring all our forces to bear on her, the Protectorate would certainly get involved. Besides, if we let her continue to operate against the Merchants and other capes of the city, that gives us more to work with."

Hookwolf seemed unsatisfied by this, so Maxwell decided it was time to trade the stick for the carrot. He leaned forward, hands folded neatly on his desk, and said, "When the time comes, Hookwolf, you'll be the tip of our spear. You'll get your chance at Supergirl; you just need to be patient."

The man's face split into a feral grin, "Oh ho, I like the sound of that."

"I thought you might." Maxwell leaned back into his chair, "You're free to go. Lay low, and we won't have to have a talk like this again."

Hookwolf took his dismissal with a silent nod, still grinning as he stood and walked toward the office door, his heavy footsteps following his wake. Once he was gone, Maxwell turned his monitor back around and narrowed his eyes. He held no illusions about facing Supergirl at the moment; what he had seen so far was enough to show him that she would shake the foundation of Brockton Bay, one way or another. Until he knew how, though, he would sit and wait.

And in the meantime, he could relax and let idiots like Thomas Calvert stir the public against her.

-S-​

No previous records, only a single sighting outside of Brockton Bay, and it was in Houston the same day. The time between her appearance in Houston and her appearance in Brockton Bay was barely over an hour, which put her at least three times faster than a commercial jet. She was smart, if naive, and was strong enough and durable enough to put her above any Brute in the city beyond Lung at his strongest; and, well, Lung hadn't put up much of a fight against her.

His chair creaking as he leaned back into it, Thomas Calvert, alias Coil, rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He glanced out of one eye at his mask lying on his desk next to his keyboard and sighed. In the privacy of his own lair he could afford to go without it, though it was an opportunity he rarely took. After the previous night though, he needed to think free of its confines.

Eyes flicked back to the monitor where a picture of the girl sat. 'Supergirl' what an unimaginative name for such a colossal thorn in his side. The worst part of course was how oblivious she likely was to what she had done, at least to him personally.

Calvert had plans for Brockton Bay, plans he had spent years working up to and preparing for in advance. Little by little, step by step, Brockton Bay would have become his and solely his. A bastion of order, his order. And now this naive child had upset the entire network.

He'd lost agents, he'd lost investments, and most importantly he had lost time to her little interference. Everything had been building towards a grand discrediment, to see the Empire exposed, the Merchants washed clean and Lung caged and shipped off like the animal he was. At the very least, that had still gone to plan. Now he had to adapt though, because Supergirl was an unknown.

No one knew exactly what she could do beyond what she had displayed, and the way the girl acted hinted that she held far more power than that. Her actions against the ABB had also made it clear that she wasn't going to tolerate the criminal elements of Brockton Bay. While Calvert hardly considered himself a true criminal, unlike the likes of the Empire or Merchants, he knew someone as naive as Supergirl wouldn't see it that way.

So it was important, paramount even, to make sure that no matter what she did, the public did not trust her. There was nothing in Calvert's arsenal that could deal with her physically, which put assassination as a possibility out of picture. At least, a physical assassination.

Character assassination was still a possibility.

He had gotten the ball rolling of course, the BBN was an excellent tool in that regard, but now it was time to move forward and to emphasize the 'trouble' Supergirl had brought with her. Calvert straightened up and picked up a phone; with a few quick calls, the 'Empire' would begin taking advantage of the void left by the ABB's sudden defeat. In a few weeks, other outsiders would take a sudden and vested interest in that void; Brockton Bay would become more chaotic than it had in years, and everyone would have a single person to blame.

Supergirl.

Despite the small smirk on his lips, Calvert paused and looked at the file again. A thought occurred to him, a detail he had missed. He scrolled back to Supergirl's first appearance in Brockton Bay…

And soon a smile split his face from ear to ear.

He could work with this, but he'd have to work fast. After all, who knew when Supergirl would strike again.

-S-​

"Oh my gosh, look at how fluffy he is, I'm gonna die!"

Together, Vicky (She had grown tired of me calling her Victoria) and I squealed in delight at the pen full of month old kittens. They tumbled over one another, exploring the confines with youthful excitement. A brown tabby waddled up to the glass wall and stood up on his hind legs, batting playfully at my face.

"Ooooooh!" I covered my mouth and tried not to squeal again. I failed, of course, and tapped the glass while smiling.

"I'm so sorry little fuzzball. I'd love to take you home with me, but I don't have a home for you." I paused and glanced at Vicky, "Unless…"

She snorted, "God I wish. Mom doesn't do pets."

"Would you really be happy cleaning up a cat's litter box, Vicky?" asked Dean. He was Vicky's boyfriend, and had met us at the Boardwalk. He was about my height, give or take an inch, with short blonde hair and soft brown eyes. Very cute, dressed in jeans and a plain white-T with an open button up over it, very stylish. I won't lie, I was a little jealous of Vicky, but they seemed happy with each other and really I wasn't all that envious.

She hugged onto his arm and smiled, "Well I think if I got free cuddles from an adorable fuzzball, it might be worth it. Why else would I keep you around?"

"And here I thought you wanted me for my personality." He sighed dramatically and his shoulders dropped, "Now I know you only want me for my looks and my money."

"Among other things." Vicky snickered.

Amy groaned and rolled her eyes, "Vicky, we're in public."

"I'm not doing anything." her sister replied, though she released her boyfriend's arm and smiled at me.

"This was a great idea, Karren. Total mood spa."

I looked back at the kittens as I spoke, "Whenever I'm feeling a bit down, I find spending time with an animal helps with my mood. Their innocence is infectious and it helps remind me to enjoy the simple things in life."

"Plus they're totes adorbs." Vicky added.

"That too."

Our trip to the Boardwalk had been by bus instead of by flight like Vicky wanted. Amy had seemed uncomfortable with the idea of flying to the Boardwalk, so I had suggested the bus as a compromise. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that unlike me, Vicky and Amy had public identities. Trapped on the bus, they had been swarmed with questions… pertaining to me. Thankfully, neither of them had outed me, but it had been a chaotic and awkward ride that had left both of them in a sour mood.

Thus, the trip to the pet store. Hardly anyone could stay in a bad mood when a kitten or puppy was demanding their attention, and my assumption had proven correct. Even Amy's mood had lightened, even if she was still withdrawn from the rest of us. I was beginning to think that she was simply a quiet girl, and there was little I could do about that beyond extending common courtesy and remembering that she was a part of the group.

We left the pet store shortly after, as hard as it was, and made our way down the Boardwalk. It was a beautifully sunny day in the middle of winter, and it was busier than it had been yesterday. Thankfully no one swarmed us like they had on the bus, though Vicky and Amy got their fair share of looks and silent gawking that they both ignored.

Dean walked up next to me and whispered softly, "So just to confirm, you are Supergirl right? Vicky was super vague about the whole thing, but I've never heard of you until today, and never saw you at Arcadia…"

My lips tightened a little and I thought briefly about denying it, but lying to him like that felt wrong. I relaxed and smiled, "Yes, but please don't go around telling anyone about it."

"Hey, I get it." he jerked a thumb at himself, "Capes stick together and all that. You might be independent, but I'm not ratting you out."

I glanced past him at Vicky, who was talking quietly with Amy at the moment, then looked back at Dean, "Well, good. I do appreciate my privacy."

"Understood, it's just… well I wanted to say thank you. For taking care of the ABB that is." he shrugged awkwardly, "I've seen what they do, and it was frustrating that I couldn't do enough to stop them. But now… it's like a weight has been lifted."

My heart went out to him, and I put my hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that, Dean. It's not an easy thing, to see people you know and care about getting hurt and being powerless to stop them. But you and I, we did stand against people like the ABB. We're proof they can be stopped and beaten. You might not have my powers, but you've got the heart and that's just as important."

He stared at me as we walked, almost uncomfortably long, before Vicky seemed to notice. She walked over and snaked her arms around his shoulders, "Everything okay, babe?"

Dean shook his head and blinked, "Yeah, sorry. Can we sit away from the crowds? I'd rather not talk about it this publically."

A look of concern on her face, Vicky immediately dragged Dean to a bench overlooking the bay. The crowds still went by behind us as we sat, but were far enough away that if we kept our voices down no one would hear us. Unless they had super hearing of course, but take it from me unless they were specifically listening for us, it'd be next to impossible for them to pick up on our conversation accidentally.

"Alright, spill." Vicky said as we sat, "What was with the soul staring?" she demanded, her eyes narrowed.

Dean let out a sigh that suggested he was all too familiar with Vicky's tone, "It wasn't anything like that Vicky. It's just… I think your friend might be a trump, too."

"A what now?" I asked dryly while sitting to the left of them.

"Power classification." Amy explained as she sat next to me on my left hand side, "A trump basically nullifies or interferes with another cape's power."

Dean nodded and tapped the side of his eye, "I can… see? An emotional color connected to people's emotions. Reds for anger, blues for sadness, etc. Kind of a pseudo telepathy. Except when I look at you, it's like looking at static on a TV. I get some flickers of emotion, but otherwise you're unreadable."

"You don't have a cheat sheet for her." Vicky sang, relief visible in her face.

"I don't have a cheat sheet for you, either." Dean said dryly, "Even though I desperately need one."

She hugged him again, "Nah, you love it! Keeps you on your toes!"

I rolled my eyes and looked at Amy, "They always like that?"

"Unfortunately." she sighed and looked away from them both.

I did the same, giving the lovebirds a little space and sweeping my gaze up and down the Boardwalk. There was a small but noticeable crowd gathered around a small electronics store, clearly interested in whatever was on display. My eyes narrowed and suddenly it was as if I stood among them, and saw what had grabbed their attention. It was the news, again.

I Listened and the audio came in clear as day.

"Several police confrontations with the Merchants have already been reported in territory formerly occupied by the ABB. Though there have been no recorded injuries yet, authorities believe it is only a matter of time before-"
I shifted my attention away from the news, to the crowd itself. It couldn't be helped, I had to hear what they thought about this, to see if they were of the same mind as the media.

"-I never liked the ABB, but we knew what to expect with them-"

"-I saw Merchants walking down my street this morning, that never happened when Lung was around-"

"-We trade out gangsters for drug peddlers, great-"

"-capes love to grandstand with their 'great victories' but what does that shit mean to us, huh?"

I couldn't listen anymore, and tore my attention away to stare out at the bay. In the distance, I could see the Protectorate's main base of operation in the city. I'd read it had once been an oil rig but it had been repurposed as an example of Protectorate power. The Rig was a marvel of modern architecture and engineering and peering at it closer I could see it was loaded with incredible technology hidden beneath the surface. But I could also see how the people that lived in Brockton Bay wouldn't exactly feel comforted by its presence.

The people here had to worry about the safety of their homes while it seemed their heroes lived safely tucked away from it all in an ivory tower of their own making. Obviously there was more to it than that, but it wasn't hard to see how that could make some people cynical. That thought alone saddened me.

A nudge shook me from my thoughts and I looked to see Dean and Vicky looking at me with clear concern, "You alright?" Dean asked, "You're looking depressed."

I smiled sadly, "I thought you couldn't read my emotions?"

"My powers can't read your emotions, but only an idiot couldn't see that something is bugging you."

"He's perceptive like that." Vicky chimed.

With a sigh, I glanced back down the Boardwalk, "Just… the news. It's depressing. That's all."

I didn't mention what I'd heard from the people watching it, I didn't want to bother them with it. Vicky made a noise of disgust, stood up, and dragged me to my feet, "Don't pay attention to that garbage. You've got a busy, and productive day ahead of you. We're gonna walk in the opposite direction now instead, we're going to find you a cute as hell pair of shoes that Dean will pay for, and you're going to get your mind off that bullshit. Got it?"

Another smile, genuine this time, broke my features, "Yeah. I got it. Thanks Vicky."

She patted my shoulders, "You're welcome, now come on, I know just the place for you."

I took a step forward to follow her, and froze. Through all the voices, all the cars and the rest of the city, a single piercing noise rang through my ears. A constant high pitched droning that I was all too familiar with. I reached out and grabbed Vicky's arm, stopping her dead in her tracks.

She turned toward me, brow raised, and stopped at my expression. "What is it?"

"I've got to go. It's Taylor, she needs me."

Vicky blinked, "Taylor - the girl from yesterday?"

"I can hear her, I need to go Vicky."

"Say no more, go!" she gestured inland and I was off like a shot.

I made sure not to move too fast through the crowd, but once I found an alley between a pair of shops, I dove down into it and stripped out of my loaned clothes. Karren Star entered that alleyway, and Supergirl came rocketing out of it.

It was easy to ignore the shouts of astonishment from below, as I was totally focused on the droning now. Somehow, someway, Taylor was in trouble, and I could only pray that I was fast enough to reach her in time.

A/N: I LIVE!

So this chapter went through like, six rewrites at the beginning before I finally settled on a little marathon through the local villain community reacting to Kara's shenanigans. I'm going to TRY and update sooner with the next chapter, but I promise nothing. I hope at the bare minimum the chapter was enjoyable.

In addition, I plan on focusing solely on DoT until this arc is finished. Which could be anywhere from five to ten more chapters to go. Fifteen in an absolute worst case scenario. So keep an eye open for that.

That's all for now, I hope to see you all much sooner next time, and remember to leave comments and criticisms below. Have a wonderful weekend all!

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.7​

"Fuck!"

Tommy Sato cursed as his phone's ringtone startled him and he jerked his big toe into the side of a kitchen cabinet. Pain ran straight up his leg, forcing him to hop over to where he'd left his phone on the counter.

From the living room, he heard his dad's voice shout a firm but playful, "Language!"

The young man, no more than sixteen, rolled his eyes at his fathers chiding and scooped his phone up, glancing at the caller ID. He frowned at the number; the ABB were gone, he'd seen the news. How could there be anyone left to call him?

Well, that wasn't really true, was it? After all, he was still a free man, so to speak. Who was to say that no one else would've avoided Supergirl's purge? There were a lot of people in Brockton Bay, she was bound to miss a few of them.

Again the phone buzzed in his hands and Tommy let out a sigh. He flipped it open and put it to his ear, "Tommy speaking."

"Satō, you're needed." was the immediate reply. Tommy sucked in a short breath, because he knew the man's voice. Suzuki was an ABB recruiter, mostly in charge of recruiting anyone with a lick of asian heritage into the ABB from the local high schools. He was a gruff man with a huge chip on his shoulder that loved to go on and on about reclaiming 'the lost asian culture'.

Tommy didn't care for him, and he didn't care much for his 'culture' either. All he cared about was the protection the ABB offered from the E88, and there was no more a moment he considered hanging up on Suzuki; the man was an absolute asshole, and Tommy was only an initiate. He just kept his eyes down and an ear open at Winslow for info that he occasionally fed to the ABB. There was no real loyalty there.

But, then his eyes flickered back to his father, sitting on the couch with his leg propped up in its cast. Then he looked back at the news, still talking about Supergirl's take down of Lung and Oni-Lee. Then he let out a sigh and focused on the phone call.

"Where am I needed?'

-S-​

I woke with a jerk, my heart pounding and blood roaring in my ears. My head snapped from side to side and relief slowly overcame my panic. No enclosing locker walls growing ever tighter, just the open space of my plain, unassuming room. No disgusting slime or skittering insects threatening to drown me, just the sweat soaked cotton sheets of my bed. And no mocking laughter, only the peaceful silence of an early Saturday morning.

I threw off the sheets and marched to the bathroom on unsteady feet. The long scorching shower that followed burned the worst of my anxiety out of me. After a change of clothes, and grabbing the beacon Supergirl had given me, I felt fresh enough to march my sorry self downstairs. To my surprise, I was greeted by the smell of sausage and eggs, and the sight of my dad actually awake.

I stopped at the edge of the kitchen, my body frozen by an unseen force. That same force seemed to grab my dads attention; he looked up from the smoking pan, and smiled at me. There were bags under his eyes and his thin hair was a mess. But damn it if that wasn't the first genuine smile I had seen from him in years. Since before the accident that took mom from us.

When I didn't move, he looked lost. He offered up the pan and said, "Eggs. And sausages. If you're hungry."

The pain in my stomach forced a nod out of me, "Yes, I… thanks."

There was a moment of awkward shuffling as we figured out what to do with ourselves. Ultimately, I sat at the kitchen table while dad prepared me a plate. To hear the sound of dishes being moved and food prepared in the old kitchen, and have it not be from me was a novel experience. I almost got up to help dad anyway, but he beat me to the punch.

He slid the plate in front of me with a mug of coffee, "Sorry, they're not the best. But, I wanted to make sure you could wake up to food."

My expression must have been clear when he sat down because he looked concerned, "Is it that bad?"

"I don't drink coffee." I gestured at the mug.

There was a look of panic on his face and he stood up fast enough that his chair scraped against the cheap linoleum floor. "Sorry, I… I forgot. You prefer… prefer…"

"Tea. Morning tea. Like mom." I said. The pain in my voice had to be obvious. Dad flinched like I had hit him.

"Of course. Like Annette. Sorry Taylor."

He went back to the sink. Obviously, he wanted to make things up for me, to fix things. But, this just made me frustrated. Yeah, dad was interacting with me more than he had in years. All it had taken was me nearly dying; and what was the guarantee this would even last? Or that this was even enough to make up for years of being ignored?

I knew that wasn't fair.

We had all lost in some way. And I hadn't exactly done anything to reach out either. We had both been content to pretend the other didn't exist. It was easier that way. Ignore the pain, pretend that life is going on like normal. Thats what all this was, an attempt at normalcy.

Dad was trying, in his own way, to tell me that I was safe now. That no one else was coming after me, that I didn't have to be afraid. But the truth was, I knew for a fact that I wasn't safe, and I still had plenty to be afraid of.

Two years ago, my mom died in a car crash. My world shattered, and everything I held dear crumbled with it. My best friend became my greatest tormenter, my hopes and dreams died in the cradle, and dad basically abandoned me. This little act, it wasn't going to last. Nothing good in my life did.

A small voice nagged at the back of my mind. It was a small, dissenting thing, but it refused to stay quiet. Because something had changed yesterday, more than just dad getting his act together. A cape had put my protection in her hands, and offered me a token of safety that no one else had. It was too good to be true of course, but when I rolled that tiny button around between my thumb and forefinger, that was enough to cool my frustration.

Dad came back and set a cup of steaming tea by my plate and took the coffee for himself. He sat across from me and managed that same smile again. I tried my best to return it, and took a sip of the tea. It wasn't perfect, but the warmth settled comfortably in my stomach. The eggs were runny and the sausage a little overcooked. But as we ate together at that table, a strange calm rolled over me, an unfamiliar thing that made my leg start bouncing.

I broke the silence before it overwhelmed me, "So… the number Glory Girl gave you… was it legit?"

Dad swallowed and his smile returned, "I talked to Mrs. Dallon last night after we got home. This isn't her area of expertise, but she is willing to refer us to a proper criminal lawyer. She didn't promise us anything, but she did guarantee she'd help get you transferred to Arcadia at least."

I let out a breath that I didn't realize I had been holding. That was legit, an actual alternative to going back to how things were. A smile surprised me, worming its way onto my face.

"That's good. That's really good."

Dad was quiet for a moment. Then he reached out and took my hand so carefully in his own, that it seemed like he thought I would break at the slightest jostling. The expression on his face was pained, and filled with self loathing. I recognized it from months of that same expression staring back at me in the mirror every morning.

"Taylor, I…" he sighed. "I fucked up."

I pulled my hand away and stared at him. It was an effort to keep my face blank as he spoke. Dad pulled his glasses off and wiped at the corner of his eyes, "When your mother… When Annette died, all I could feel was sorry for myself. For what I had lost. She was my other half, she completed me. But, that's not an excuse."

He put his glasses back on and looked at me, his face dead serious, "You lost her too. You lost your mother, and because of me you lost your father too. I might have been here, but I wasn't really. This bullying, the girls going after you at Winslow. You shouldn't have had to handle that alone. Even if those fuckers at Winslow wouldn't have listened to us, I should have been there to have your back."

Dad leaned back in his chair and cursed under his breath, "Fuck, I'm not good at this. What I'm trying to say, Taylor, is I'm sorry. I'm sorry I abandoned you, I'm sorry you felt you couldn't trust me. I'm sorry I failed you, and I understand if you don't want anything to do with me. But I want to make it better. I want to make things right. If you're willing to let me."

My chest was tight, I felt tears in my eyes, and I felt my lip quivering. Not because of Dad's words, but because of what I was going to say to him.

"Actions speak louder than words, Dad."

The pain in his face, it was like I had stabbed him. I looked away, I couldn't meet his eyes after saying that. I stared at my plate, the half eaten eggs and sausage; and the beacon that Supergirl had given me. The symbol on it shimmered in the early morning light, and I felt a lightness in my chest.

My mind went back to the kind young woman that had sat by my side as I blubbered inelegantly to her. While I rambled, she had engaged me as an equal, never interrupting or making light of anything I said. And she had put faith in my Dad; she had seen him fighting for me at Winslow after the Locker. I knew how hard he kept his temper under control around me, and he had unleashed it in full on Blackwell. He had spent all night talking with the Dallons, he was getting me transferred away from the Trio.

As far as actions go…

"But," my voice shook, ready to break. "Sometimes, people deserve a second chance."

With a little effort, I worked up the courage to look my Dad in the eye. Tears were streaming down his face, and that was all it took. The dam burst, tears flowed freely from my own eyes, and we hugged. A real hug, not those fake half hugs I'd gotten for years. That warm embrace, where for a moment I felt safe from anything the world could throw at me, even if we were both ugly crying at the same time.

I don't know how long we sat like that, awkwardly side by side at the dinner table crying our eyes out. I do know that when we released each other, I felt lighter and calmer than I had in years. Things were finally looking better, after two years of hell; it was going to take a while for that to sink in, but this was a start.

We finished our breakfast, which had gone cold, and Dad put away the dishes. His hands were shaking, but he was smiling. A real smile, one I hadn't seen from him in years.

"You're going to have to take an entrance exam." Dad said over the clink of dishes, "For Arcadia I mean. I know you can handle it, but if you want help studying, I'm here."

Instinct almost made me say no, but I stopped myself. I nodded instead and said, "I'd like that."

How fucked does your relationship with your parents have to be that you look forwards to studying with them?

I forced myself up and helped Dad with the rest of the kitchen. If he really was dedicated to changing things, if he wanted things to be right. Then I was going to meet him halfway. It was the only way things were going to get better.

That thought felt weird because it wasn't my line of thinking. Not really. But it felt like something Supergirl would say, something she would do. And if there was one person on this rock I wanted to be more like, it was her.

We had just wrapped up the last part of the kitchen when there was a knock at the door. Dad and I exchanged a look. "Might be a PRT representative," he reasoned. "Carol said there was a chance they'd send one today after everything that happened yesterday. I'll get it."

I turned back to the cupboard while Dad got the door. "Hello-"

There was a gunshot, loud and deafening. I jumped, the plate slipping from my fingers and shattering on the floor. When I turned around, I saw Dad staggering back, holding his stomach while blood seeped from his fingers. The world slowed, and I watched my Dad fall backwards on the floor in a pool of his own blood.

I couldn't register what I was seeing. My Dad had been shot. Someone had shot my Dad. He was dying on our floor. I understood it, but it didn't click. My eyes were dragged from my father to the man standing over him.

A tall, skinny asian man stood over him, covered in ABB tattoos. He held a smoking gun in his hand, that he slowly turned towards me. The gun that had shot my Dad. The gun that had set him dying on the floor. An empty metal thing that had stolen his life in an instant.

And now it was pointed at me.

Supergirls beacon weighed like a ton of lead in my pajama pocket.

I reached for it.

Another deafening bang, and I felt cold spreading from my chest. Something warm rose up in my throat, and I coughed. Blood splattered onto the floor. That was going to be awful to clean out, I thought, as I collapsed against the kitchen counter and slid to the floor. My whole body felt so heavy now, but I didn't hurt. That was weird, a gunshot should hurt right?

It was a weird clarity, a cold understanding that my life was over before it had even really begun. I had been shot, I was bleeding out on the floor. My Dad had been shot, and he was bleeding out on the floor. There was a sort of cold relief in that, death coming.

But there was another part of me, a part that raged against the fog filling my vision. I wasn't ready to die, I didn't want to die. If this man had his way, that wouldn't matter. He wasn't the only one though, with an ace up his sleeve.

My fingers wrapped tight around the beacon, and I activated it. A last hope, that maybe we would survive this. And then, my world went black.

-S-​

[SHAPER, QUERY]

<NEW VARIABLES ACQUIRED?>

[ADMINISTRATOR, RESPONSE]

<UNEXPECTED VARIABLE>

<TEMPLATES REVISED>

[REQUEST: DATA]

<HOST>

<VARIABLE>

<PROXIMITY>

[AGREEMENT]

<DATA>

<EXCHANGE>

[GRATITUDE]

-S-​

The part about Super Speed no one talks about, is how slow it can feel when you're in a panic. Even as I flew as fast as I safely could in Brockton Bay, it didn't feel fast enough. Houses and streets rushed by below me in a blur, and I still didn't feel fast enough.

A hundred different scenarios played in my head as I rushed to the Hebert household. None of them were pleasant. The beacon I had given Taylor was for emergencies only, and the girl didn't seem like the type to use it haphazardly. Best case scenario, she had suffered a panic attack and just needed some comfort. Worst case scenario…

I reached her home and landed without a sound to see my worst fears realized. A scene straight out of a horror movie greeted me.

A young man, no more than fifteen or sixteen, was huddled behind their truck, curled into a ball and rocking back and forth sobbing quietly to himself. His partner… his partner was a bloody mess all over their front yard. I felt bile at the back of my throat; it was a grisly sight. The man's legs lay on the front porch in front of the door where the screen kept battering against the house as the wind rose and fell.

I lifted off the ground and slowly floated inside. It took an effort not to dwell on what I had seen. Inside wasn't much better.

Danny Hebert lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood, holding his hands over a bullet wound in his stomach. His face was chalk white making the unshaven beard on his face stand out even more. There was a slow rise and fall of his chest, and I could hear his heart beating, but it was faint. Without medical treatment, he'd die.

Taylor sat beside him, reaching out to try and help, only to pull her hands back at the last second, over and over again. She was painted in blood and viscera, and her entire body trembled. Tears raced down her face cutting pale streaks through her blood-caked cheeks. From beneath the crimson mask, her eyes were wide and pale, like a terrified animal instead of a scared girl

"Taylor…" I kept my voice as quiet and gentle as I could.

Her head whipped towards me, and when she saw me, her lip started to quiver. "I didn't… this wasn't…"

She broke down into ugly, broken sobs. I landed next to her, took her hands in mine, and let her cry. There were times for talking, and times for silence. Right now, this was a time for silence.

-S-​

Danny was in rough shape, moving him to a hospital wasn't an option. Thankfully, I had something better than a hospital. The air thundered around me as I rocketed back across Brockton Bay to the Boardwalk. It took me less than a second to find Amy, Vicky and Dean where I had left them. If I had more time I would have changed back before asking for Amy's help, but time was something I didn't have.

Instead I arced around the boardwalk and came to a stop floating in the air across from them. People stopped and openly gawked, pulling out cameras and cellphones and shouting questions at me. A crowd started to form with frightening speed. I paid them no mind.

"Amy Dallon, Panacea?" I said, doing my best to keep my voice level and calm. They might be fine with their identities being known, but I wasn't. Best if it seemed we weren't too close, even if I had already been working with Glory Girl.

She exchanged a concerned look with Vicky, "Uh, yeah?"

"I need your help, someone is in serious trouble." I offered my hand to her, "Please."

Panacea didn't waste time asking questions. As soon as I said that, she was all business, hopping to her feet and grabbing my hand. I pulled her to my side and took off again, scattering the crowd with the resulting sonic boom. We made it back to the Hebert household in record time.

I made sure to deposit Her inside, past the mess outside. She didn't seem as bothered by it, which given what she did day to day, didn't surprise me. Taylor hadn't moved since I had left, but her eyes were red and puffy now. She was going to need a lot of help after today.

Panacea sat by Danny's side, ignoring the blood that stained her jeans. Danny's breathing had grown almost too soft to hear at this point, but his heart was still beating. He was still alive, he could still be saved.

With exaggerated care, Panacea removed his hands from his wound and pressed her own around it. The bleeding, which had already been slow, stopped all together at her touch. The flesh surrounding the wound boiled and swirled, accompanied by a series of uncomfortably wet squelching sounds. A bullet rose out of the wound and rolled off his stomach onto the floor with a soft clink, and then the wound knit itself back together.

She removed her hands, and Danny let out a gasp. He sat up coughing, and Taylor let out a wordless cry. The girl almost embraced him, but stopped herself at the last second, looking at her hands with newfound terror. I knew that fear well, the terror that came with inhuman strength in a very human world. And Taylor had experienced it in one of the worst ways possible.

Danny let out a shaking breath, "It's okay, Little Owl. I trust you."

Taylor sobbed and hugged her father with exaggerated care. I felt relief in my heart. Even if they had been hurt, they had survived to see another day, and that was a win in my book.

-S-​

Someone had, understandably, called the cops when the Heberts were attacked. They arrived a minute or two after Panacea healed Danny, followed afterwards by a unit from the PRT when it became clear that Taylor had developed powers in the attack. The two of them sat together on the porch while police and PRT talked with them both.

Every move Taylor made now was slow and careful, like she was afraid she would break something if she moved too fast. I felt a pang of guilt watching it. If I had been faster, if I had been paying more attention, this never would have happened in the first place.

At the same time though, how could I have known that what was left of the ABB would go after them? I considered Taylor a friend, but as far as I knew that wasn't public knowledge. She was just a girl I had saved; what kind of world was I in that criminals would go after someone like that just for the possibility that it would hurt me?

I felt sick thinking about this and my stomach twisted itself into knots. Taking down the ABB, saving so many of their victims, that had been a good thing. I still believed it was a good thing. But now I was doubting myself; who else would they go after now, just to spite me?

My thoughts were interrupted as Panacea walked up next to me. Her face was, as always, a mask of calm. I smiled at her and said, "Thank you. For saving him."

"Heroes are supposed to help people." she replied, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Then she added, "They're also supposed to make things better."

I looked at her aghast, "Are you… blaming me for this?"

"Why else would some two-bit ABB gangbanger go after them? No one else hit the ABB as hard as you did." she said.

That hurt.

It was one thing for me to blame myself for what happened, that was natural guilt. It was another for someone to accuse me of my own worst fears.

"I was trying to help. If you'd seen their victims…"I thought back to those faces, scared and hurt, the memory of their victims even now made my blood boil.

Amy folded her arms and scowled, "Yeah, well… Sorry if I'm not taking a liar at their word."

I felt my blood run cold and it must have shown on my face. She stabbed a finger at me, "You've been lying to us from the word go. Your name isn't Karen Star, you're not a new cape, and you're definitely not human."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, surprised by the venom in Amy's voice. "A-Amy, what-"

She held up a hand, "I can read the biology of anyone I touch. I've known from the moment we met that you weren't human. I didn't say anything at first, because I figured you didn't want to bring it up in a public place."

Her scowl deepened, "Then we let you into our home, gave you a place to stay, trusted you. And you lied to our faces, again and again and again. You might have Vicky and everyone else buying your quirky girl scout bullshit, but I don't. And I'm tired of pretending everythings okay, when people are getting hurt, because of you."

I stepped back from Amy, still reeling from this. This was not at all what I had expected from the girl. Part of me was indignant of her accusations and wanted to deny them, but… she wasn't wrong. I had lied to her and to the rest of the Dallons. To their faces even, and taken advantage of their hospitality. It wasn't cut and dry, but it wasn't an inaccurate accusation. As for others getting hurt…

My eyes went back to Taylor, wrapped in a blanket with most of the blood wiped off her face but a few specs stuck in her curly hair. It wasn't particularly cold, but she was still shivering. The image of her kneeling over her dying father wasn't one that was going to leave me anytime soon. And it was my fault.

A pit formed in the back of my throat. I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath. When I turned back to Amy, I opened them. "Thank you, Amy. You've… given me a lot to think about."

I slowly lifted into the air, "If I'm not back by noon, and the Protectorate comes calling, tell them I just… needed some time to think."

On the horizon I saw Victoria flying towards us, in full Glory Girl guise now. I started to ascend before she could reach us. If she asked what was going on, it could start an argument, and right now the Heberts didn't need a trio of supposed superheroes arguing on their front lawn.

The scowl on Amy's face faltered for a moment, but I was already taking off before she could say anything. I went straight up, faster and faster and faster until the air cracked and ignited around me. Once Brockton Bay was a blurry speck beneath my feet, I shot like a rocket into the emptiness of space, leaving Earth far behind.

-S-​

One nice thing about my powers was that, if I needed some time to myself, it was really easy to get as far away from other people as possible.

I sat on the edge of a crater on the moon, soaking in the sunlight and watching the little blue and white marble that was Earth. If I focused, I would be able to hear any and everyone. Billions of voices and lives on a tiny little rock in a vast uncaring universe, that was only one of an infinite number. A beautiful miracle.

It might have looked like my Earth, but it wasn't. Earth-Bet was different, I was realizing that now. The tragedy's they'd suffered, the enemies they faced, and those they had lost. Back home, I considered myself a glass half full kind of girl. But on Earth-Bet, I could see how easily it was to see everything as a glass half empty.

The most frustrating part was I had done good. I had made a genuine difference. But that had led to Taylors entire life being upended. Superheroes like me, Kal, or the league, we were supposed to protect people so they didn't have to worry about things like gunmen at their door. And I had failed.

It was easy, honestly, to lament my failure. To let my frustration eat at me until I was just a hollow shell of angst. More than that, it was easy to admit that I missed my home. My Earth, my apartment, my family… my krypton.

I pulled my knees to my chest and sighed.

Homesickness was settling in nicely, it seemed. The truth, as I saw it, was simple. Waking up on Earth-Bet, losing my home again? It had scared me, more than I must have realized. When Kal had taken me in, had sent me to that orphanage, I was a genuine alien in a world I barely understood.

Those years had been painful, they had hurt. But I had adapted, I had overcome it and had made Earth my home. Having it all ripped away from me again, had made me defensive. Cagey. I had tried to do as Kal would do, and I held no regrets about that.

But I had lied to myself, avoided my own worries and insecurities and acted in a way I really didn't need to. How were the people of Earth-Bet supposed to trust me if I couldn't extend the same courtesy to them or their heroes? I was supposed to be better than that.

"I wish you were here, Kal." I whispered to myself. "If I could just get home… you'd know what to do."

In most circumstances, wishing didn't do a whole lot. It was nice to voice what I wanted, but I never expected anything to just come of it. But if my life was anything, simple and straightforward wasn't it.

A shadow fell over me, blocking the sun. Visitors on the moon weren't exactly common on my Earth, let alone this one. I stood and turned to face them. The sun was eclipsed by an angel descending from the heavens, forming a halo of fusion and fire. Her skin shimmered an ethereal marble white. Wings of many sizes and shapes sprouted from her body, some wrapping around it, others moving in a nonexistent wind. Empty silver eyes stared ahead at nothing as it descended, hovering with one toe an exact inch over the ground while its other leg was held close to its body.

I was new to Earth-Bet and not familiar with every hero and villain on it. But even I recognized the most infamous creature on the planet. So I rose into the air, fists clenched and jaw tight, to meet the Simurgh eye to eye.

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.8​

A dozen different things kept Dragon occupied in her day to day operations. Lacking the more limited and unfocused mind of an organic human, it made it easy for her to shuffle tasks off to dedicated processes. Ranging from filing paperwork to drone deployment and management, even to monitoring Endbringer activity, there was very little the tinker couldn't dedicate her considerably vast resources to.

Today, however, a concerningly large amount of her processes were dedicated to listening to Armsmaster bitch.

Colin Wallis, Armsmaster, was a brilliantly smart and intelligent tinker, and had more than earned his position as the top hero in Brockton Bay. The problem was that he had a chip on his shoulder deeper than the Marianas Trench, and had filled it with a false ego the size of Texas. Underneath it was a passionate man that genuinely wanted to do good; you just had to be willing to push past the insecurity. He was very lucky she was such a patient person.

The subject of his ire today was not his frustrations over Dauntless, but a new cape that had appeared in Brockton Bay practically overnight, Supergirl. Dragon had devoted a few processes to seeing what she could learn about Supergirl and had been impressed. A solid collection of powers, a calm head on her shoulders, and she hadn't turned down the idea of working with proper authorities. Usually when it came to new capes, you got two out of three at best. The speed she worked with was impressive in of itself, too. The ABB had been a thorn in the Protectorates side for years, crippling them by herself was no mean feat.

"-it's frustrating. I spend days toiling, perfecting my work so I can stay at the top. But any kid can get lucky and just have power thrown at them. Years of my life, down the drain." Colin growled, the hum of his motorcycle ever present over the comm.

If Dragon had eyes, she'd roll them in a loving manner. "Armsmaster, you can't blame the kid for helping. Think of it this way; there's a new power vacuum in Brockton Bay. Other villains are gonna pop up, it's inevitable. Supergirl might not want to work for the Protectorate, but she's okay working with it. Maybe you can't compete with her physically, but you've got something she doesn't."

"Is this the part where you start flattering me?" Armsmaster deadpanned.

"I can say nothing instead, if you'd prefer." Dragon teased.

She didn't have a camera to view him, but she could imagine his frown twitching with the ghost of a smile, "No, proceed."

"You've still got that big tinker brain of yours. Tech, tactics, that's your bread and butter. You build amazing things; but there isn't a tinker alive that's built something that can match an Alexandria package blow for blow. Focus on what you're good at. You can't carry the world alone."

"I understand what you are saying. I'm just frustrated. First it was Dauntless, now-"

Dragon pulled a few of her processes away from the conversation. She had said her peace, Colin just wanted to vent. It was about the only way she could ever get him to actually talk about how he felt, which was better than letting him fester. But she had also heard these complaints before, so she could afford to dedicate her processes to more pressing concerns.

When Colin returned to his lab on the Rig, the oil platform turned Protectorate HQ out on the bay, Dragon turned even more of her attention to a notification she received from one of her satellites resting over the east coast. An object had been detected moving at high speeds through the atmosphere.

Her first immediate thought was the Simurgh.

The Endbringer usually stayed high in orbit so any sudden movement was easy to detect. Most capes with extreme flight either stayed much closer to the ground or their power made them near invisible to her usual detection methods to begin with. So anything outside the ordinary caught Dragon's attention.

The Simurgh however, had not moved from her orbit over New York. That was concerning in of itself, but the location didn't match the ping. More information flooded Dragon's mind, and the rest of her processes froze for a solid three seconds as she tried to register what she was reading. Something, or someone, had just left Brockton Bay clocking speeds over Mach 20. And the number was climbing.

When they had left the atmosphere, the number shot up until her satellite simply couldn't detect it anymore. The last recorded number she had was approaching several hundred thousand miles per hour and climbing. At that point it would take far finer instruments to track whatever had just left the city. However, she didn't need to track.

After a few milliseconds of calculation, Dragon sent a command to one of her visual satellites and had it adjust rotation away from the Earth until it was pointing at the moon. It took a minute for the lens to come into focus, but when it did, Dragon's processes froze.

"-And of course the Director has made it no small secret that Dauntless is the 'next big thing', which means I'm probably-" Colin had removed his helmet once he got to his lab and was prepping one of his work stations, still talking to Dragon even though she had not responded beyond a few agreements for several minutes now.

"Colin." she said.

"-Bound for a desk job which makes me sick just-"

"Colin, you need to see this."

"-I mean can you imagine me-"

"Colin, shut up and listen!

The tinker paused in surprise; if Dragon was yelling at him, that was worth his attention. He tossed aside his moaning and flicked on a monitor to see Dragons face come into view, "What is it?" he asked.

"Supergirl, you said she was about an eighteen year old girl, blond hair, red and blue costume with a red s on her chest, correct?" Dragon asked.

Armsmaster nodded, "That's her, why?"

"I just detected an anomaly leaving Brockton Bay about a minute ago, way faster than any cape I know except maybe Legend. This is what I found once I calibrated my satellite."

Her face was replaced with a high definition feed of the moon, zoomed in on one of the craters. And sitting on the lip of the crater, was Supergirl, lounging like she was at the beach.

The tool in Armsmaster's hand slid from his grip and clattered loudly to the floor.

"What the fuck?!"

-S-​

Vicky arrived at the Hebert house in full Glory Girl ensemble just in time to see Supergirl rocket into the upper atmosphere and vanish from sight. The thought of chasing after her did cross Vicky's mind, but Supergirl was way faster than she was. Better to just ask Amy to fill her in. Not like there was a lot of help she could offer to the girl that wiped out the ABB anyway, if it was a crisis of some kind. So she focused on where she could be of some use instead.

The Hebert house was a flood of activity lit red and blue by the lights of the police. They had started cleaning up the mess on the front lawn, but there was enough splattered gore to paint an ugly picture. Victoria came to a quiet landing next to Amy, who wore a troubled expression. On the steps to the house, Taylor and Danny Hebert sat in relative silence while a police officer talked to them

Vicky leaned on the porch rail next to her sister, and whispered, "What happened?"

Amy frowned, "ABB thug that Supergirl missed. Decided to be petty and go after someone he could hurt."

"Fucker." Vicky hissed.

She glanced back at the Heberts and then the mess on the lawn, "So… who was responsible for that?"

"Taylor. Mook shot her dad first, then her. She got back up, and the guy was mist. Police took the kid that was with him. She hasn't said much since I healed Danny."

Taylor pulled the blanket around her shoulders tight and her eyes were distant and empty. Vicky sucked in a breath through her teeth. As far as bad trigger events went, that was definitely up there. More than a few nightmares woke Vicky up from time to time, but those were from her years as a cape. Taylor was lucky enough to start with one in the chamber from day one.

"Poor girl. What about Supergirl, where'd she fly off to?" Vicky asked.

Amy leaned with both arms on the porch railing and turned her head to watch the police, "Dunno. Once everything was settled she just took off, didn't tell me anything."

"It's a lot to take in." Vicky said. She remembered when Jess had been killed by that Empire wannabe. It had been a somber day for the Dallons, and they had all needed time to process it. This wasn't as personal, but Supergirl was the kind of person that wore her heart on her sleeve. It would hit just as hard.

"I don't blame her for wanting some space-"

"You're a fucking hypocrite." Taylor spoke without looking at them. Amy and Vicky both stood up; Vicky blinked in shock. Danny and the officer both looked at the girl. Danny put a concerned hand on her shoulder.

Taylor twisted her head and glared at Amy, "I heard everything. I can… hear things if I focus on people now. I heard everything you said to Supergirl."

She was standing now, the blanket hanging off her shoulders like a cape. "You called her a liar, and then you lied to your sister's face? Are you for fucking real?"

Vicky wasn't sure what the girl was talking about, but moved to put herself between Amy and Taylor. She raised one hand in a gesture of peace. Recent triggers could be volatile and the last thing they needed was for Taylor to go off over nothing. Though to be honest, part of Vicky rankled at her accusation.

"Taylor, let's not start throwing accusations around, alright? You've had a rough day-"

"It's not an accusation!" Taylor hissed, and her eyes burned crimson. Vicky took a surprise step back at the anger in her voice.

Taylor pointed at Amy, "I know what I heard! You chased Supergirl off, and now you're doing the exact same thing you accused her of doing. Lying to everyone. I thought you were supposed to be a hero."

"Hey, don't call my sister a liar!" Vicky snarled, "She saved your dads life!"

"Supergirl saved his life." Taylor shot back. "She's the only one that gives a damn about me at all, the only one that listens. Everyone else just wants to blow me off! Well maybe I'm fucking tired of being blown off Glory Girl."

There was a tense silence as the two capes glared at each other. Vicky wasn't going to start a fight, but it was clear Taylor was itching to blame someone for what had happened today. But, that didn't give her the right to start throwing accusations at her sister.

Thankfully, someone else intervened before a fight became a reality. Danny put a hand on Taylors shoulder and said, "I'm listening, Taylor. I believe you."

Taylor looked at her father, the rage in her eyes cooling. Danny continued, "But, Supergirl is an adult. She doesn't need you defending her. She can do that herself when she comes back."

A pained expression ran over Taylor's face, "But-"

"Besides, do you think she'd appreciate you starting a fight with her friends?" he added.

His words seemed to hit home. The fight left Taylor, her shoulders sagging and her eyes cooling to a deep brown. She pulled the blanket tight again and went back to sit on the steps without another word.

Danny looked at the Dallon sisters, "Panacea, I appreciate what you've done here. But it might be for the best if the two of you head home now. Thank you."

"Yeah, good idea." Vicky agreed and turned to grab a silent Amy. Together the two of them took off into the sky leaving the Hebert house behind.

Amy was very quiet as they flew. Vicky loved her sister dearly and would always have her back, but… a kernel of doubt had been planted in her mind. Her sister's silence only fed it. Once they were out of sight of the house, Vicky asked, "Amy… did you say anything to Karen?"

For a long moment, Amy was silent. When she spoke, her voice was tense, "No. I didn't say anything."

Vicky tightened her mouth into a thin line. Amy was a bad liar, always had been since they were kids. After taking a deep breath, Vicky sighed and said, "Okay. I guess I'll just ask Karen what was bothering her, when she gets back."

Amy said nothing, and the rest of their flight was in silence.

-S-​

When I stared at the Simurgh's eyes, I saw nothing. Those blind eyes stared past me like I didn't exist. In fact, the Endbringer was unmoving on a level I found inherently disturbing. Even people trying not to move had feint muscle tremors and unconscious twitches. But the Simurgh may as well have been astatue. Only her hair, as long as she was tall, defied physics by moving of its own accord in the airless vacuum of space.

"What do you want?" I demanded, my words hanging in the void.

That got a response. Her eyes swiveled to focus on me, her mouth twitched, and her massive head cocked to the side with machine precision. But she said nothing. I folded my arms and frowned.

"I asked you a question. What do you want?"

I wasn't stupid of course. The moment I had been aware of the Simurgh, I had raised my own psychic defenses. It was common knowledge that she could twist the minds of anyone that stayed in her proximity for too long. I was confident in my lessons from J'onn, but I was no Martian and wasn't going to risk letting the Endbringer twist my mind against the people of Earth-Bet. At the moment, I felt nothing in my mind.

She did not speak, but her head rotated back into place. When she moved, it felt like the universe had relocated itself around her, instead of an actual conscious movement. If it was a show of power, I was unimpressed. I had seen more than my share of magic and parlor tricks by supposed 'higher beings'. The only thing watching her put me at risk of, was getting motion sickness.

But then I heard it. Or rather, I felt it.

Like a scratching at the back of my skull, spreading until I could feel it tapping against my ear drums. A slow methodical rasping that sent a wave of goosebumps down my arms. Was she trying to communicate with me? As far as methods of dialogue went, using her telekinesis to scratch out words and phrases against my ear drums was definitely up there in the weird department.

I didn't dare lower my defenses, but I did listen to the rasping until it grew into something resembling a coherent sentence.

'Home… Home… Home… Return… You…'

My heart jumped into my throat and I almost choked. "You… know how to send me home?"

'...Yes…'

I won't lie. For a moment, I was tempted. That surprised me more than anything and I realized I missed my home. I missed Kal, I missed Diana, I missed Barbara, heck I even missed Batman. Earth-Bet wasn't exactly the most welcoming world and the idea of just leaving it behind and going home to curl up on the couch with Streaky made my heart ache. It was a really tempting offer.

But that said…

"I have a counter-offer." I got up close to the Simurghs face, her one giant eye almost as large as my face. I jabbed a finger at it.

"How about instead, you and your friends grab the first interdimensional cabby you can, and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of? I know what you are, I know what you've done to these people. This is the best offer you'll get."

I folded my arms again, "Because as long as I'm drawing breath, the people of all Earths are under my protection from monsters like you. That's my answer to your 'offer'. Take it or leave it."

The temptation was just a lure, a trap. The Simurgh, the Endbringers, they were monsters. As much as I wanted to go home, as much as I desperately missed my friends and family on Earth-1, I could not in good conscience leave the people of Earth-Bet to the Endbringers tender mercies. Some were angry with me, some didn't trust me, and some even saw me as a threat to their status quo. But I didn't fight because I wanted glory or recognition. I fought because my power gave me the choice to stand for others. To protect those that couldn't. Even if others hated me for it, I would never stop fighting.

I glanced over my shoulder at that tiny blue marble. A miracle floating through the vast emptiness of space. A billion lives called that spec home, and they would live and die in less than a blink of an eye on the cosmic scale of things. But, I knew in my heart of hearts, that I would die for them if it meant they could live one more day in peace.

When I turned back around, it was in time to see a chunk of the moon the size of a skyscraper ripping itself up from the ground and flinging itself into me with the speed of an interplanetary asteroid. The ground shook as I was flattened by the sudden mass, but with a burst of speed I blew through the projectile into the air, covered in dust but unharmed.

I saw the Simurgh already moving, skimming backwards across the ground at incredible speed while ripping chunks of moon out of the ground with her telekinesis. So that was how it was going to be then. Alright, but at least I gave them an out. I flew across the ground and quickly gained on the Simurgh. She was fast, but there were few things faster than a Kryptonian.

Skyscraper sized chunks of the moon pulled themselves from the ground and flung themselves at me with startling speed and accuracy. Wherever they landed, they cratered the ground and sent explosions of dust thousands of feet into the sky. I dodged every blow with nimble ease, only to be surprised when another smaller chunk of moon smashed into my face.

I plowed through it, but it marked a change in her strategy. The Simurgh never stopped moving, always kept on the move and every blow or attack came with a caveat. If I flew over or around an attack, a second smaller one was there to buffet me. If I flew through it, a wall of stone rose up to meet, twisted by her telekinesis to try and flatten me.

And so it went.

I grabbed a pillar of stone flung at me, as long as a cargo ship, and flung it back at the Simurgh. A field of invisible energy shredded the stone, breaking it into a thousand arm-sized spikes that floated around the Endbringer in a halo of promised pain and suffering. Her outerwings flicked open, and a blizzard of stone and rubble engulfed me.

Anything at sufficient velocity could eventually be a threat to anyone. But these makeshift weapons, while painful to be hit by, lacked the durability and speed to truly harm me. They shattered against my skin like glass, and I flew through them straight towards the Simurgh.

She knew I was coming, had to know, because she was already ascending skyward. When she saw I was going to catch her, the barren moonscape twisted and rose. A massive hand of rock and stone rose from the ground as if to swat me out of the sky. I pulled my fist back, and shattered it into a thousand pieces in a single blow.

Through dust and debris I flung myself, twisting through the air to shoulder check the Simurgh. I hit her midsection so hard that space around us warped; the moon and stars trembled, and the light of the sun was twisted. The Simurgh went soaring across the sky and smashed into a crater in multiple pieces. I landed at its edge without a sound and folded my arms.

"Had enough?"

When the cloud settled, I saw how mangled the Endbringer was. My blow had shattered her torso and her legs lay in shattered pieces around the crater. One arm lay by her side, and the other was covered in cracks. Her many delicate wings were naught but dust in the nonexistent wind now, but even in her current state the Endbringer still lived.

She propped herself up on her remaining arm, even as it shed skin from the effort, and looked at me with her face shattered like a porcelain mask. Those blind eyes struggled to focus on me, but when they did, she did something I wasn't expecting. The Simurgh smiled at me. A hideous imitation of the real thing, there was nothing warm or pleasant about the expression. I felt disgust rise in my chest and I knew then and there that the fight was far from over.

The Endbringer's good arm collapsed, and she fell face first into the ground where the rest of her body quickly disintegrated into dust. The same material as the barren moondust that surrounded us. A clone? Could she do that?

I scowled and swept my gaze over the moon, flickering through every vision I had to see if the real Simurgh was anywhere to be found. It should have been obvious. There was no way the real Endbringer would have come to confront me without a plan. No one ever came after me or Kal without having some kind of plan beforehand.

But wherever the real Endbringer was, I couldn't find her, which meant she had never been here to begin with or knew how to hide herself from my sight. Neither option inspired much confidence. I weighed my options, debating if I should stay and search for the Endbringer or return to Brockton Bay and see if I could get more help from the local heroes.

Whatever I might have decided on, the sound of stone and earth cracking made the choice for me. I whirled around to see a new Simurgh rising unharmed from the moon itself. And beside her was another one.

Two.

Four.

Eight.

Sixteen.

Thirty-Two.

Sixty-Four.

One Hundred and Twenty-Eight.

The numbers kept rising as over a thousand Simurgh clones emerged from the ground and surrounded me in a twisted mockery of an angelic choir. Every single one cocked their heads to the side as they looked at me. And as one, they all smiled that hideous predatory smile.

I scowled and held up my fists and rolled my shoulders, "Alright then. Who's first?"

They descended on me like a murder of crows. The sky went black and I couldn't see anything but the shape of wings, blind eyes, and twisted smiles.

But I didn't need to see anything.

I blew through her swarm, and shattered their false bodies like a child breaking pottery, and then kept going. The swarm of Simurghs chased after me, swirling through the air like a living stormof death and malice. I turned on my back as I flew and felt my eyes burn.

My heat vision lanced out, cutting scores of clones down with a single pass. But whatever it was that animated them, simply breaking their bodies wasn't enough. I watched as a Simurgh that had been vertically bisected continued coming, both halves now operating independent of one another. Those too broken to fight were torn apart by their 'sisters' and flung at me with renewed force as makeshift weaponry. One hit me and it was like I had been hit by an artillery cannon.

End over end I tumbled through the sky before I regained focus and dove for the ground. The swarm followed, tearing up chunks of moon as they went. Instead of throwing them at me like before however, they used their telekinesis to tear off fingernail sized chunks and fling them at me with terrifying velocity and volume. The first to miss me hit the ground with enough force to send dirt and stone miles high in a mushroom shaped cloud.

Streams of these bomb-like projectiles flew at me, leaving a trail of ruin in my wake. The barrage carved canyons hundreds of feet deep and across, creating a miniature atmosphere of kicked up dust and smoke. If this kept up, there was a very good chance we'd destroy the moon before we destroyed each other. No way I was going to let that happen.

I came to a skidding stop mid air, turned around, and flung myself at the swarm. It was the first time since I had arrived on Earth-Bet that a weapon used against me actually hurt at all. I wasn't being attacked so much as I was being bombed. Every blow detonated against my skin, and for a moment I was like a living firework before I smashed into the first Simurgh clone.

They had to have known what I was planning, because the swarm had already scattered, putting as much distance between themselves as possible so I couldn't easily get to them and so I couldn't indiscriminately use my heat vision on them.

It bought them an extra thirty seconds.

I have no idea how many clones I shattered. After a time the feeling of stone shattering against my knuckles had become almost monotonous as I reduced each clone to its component parts. They fought back of course, and their telekinesis made them a large enough threat that they could batter me.

Through cliffs and mountains they flung me. Dropping plateaus and plains from the moon as large as stadiums. Some threw aside any attempt at self preservation and tackled me, clawing at my eyes and body with their bare hands until they were reduced to stubs. Strange enough, they made no attempt at attacking me directly with their telekinesis. Some tried pulling at my cape and skirt but that quickly proved to go nowhere for them. All the while, I tore my way through their numbers like a hot knife through butter.

In the end, I came to a skidding stop on a ruined crater's edge and stood the lone survivor in a graveyard of fallen angels. I sucked in a nonexistent breath and sighed. What even was the point of that? She had come to offer me a way home and then just threw a thousand clones at me that she had to have known wouldn't slow me down.

The Simurgh, from what I had read, was supposed to be smart and cunning in a way very different from her 'brothers'. While I wasn't going to complain about an easy straightforward brawl, there was no way a supposed 'master strategist' would default to trying to swamp me with mooks. Even Darkseid at his laziest knew better than to just do that. So what was the end goal here? That was what had me worried.

That line of thought didn't last though.

A flash of light caught my attention and I turned around just in time for a massive laser to slam into my chest. It was like a sun exploding in my face, and it actually hurt. The ground around me was instantly melted into glass before vaporizing into atoms, and I was forced to shield my face with my hands. I could feel the faintest beginnings of a mild burn on the palms of my hands from the intense heat of the laser.

Despite the metaphorical fury of a sun beaming down on me, I kept my calm. This wasn't the first time I had been hit by a surprise death laser. I had to narrow my eyes to protect them from the glare, but with my hands shielding me, I was able to get a look at the source of the attack. A satellite, tens of thousands of miles away in a fixed orbit around the moon. With my telescopic vision I could easily tell that this wasn't some sort of human made satellite. At some point, the Simurgh must have built it during one of her attacks and stored it behind the moon in case she ever needed something with that much firepower.

Given the sixty mile wide crater of glass and vapor that surrounded me, I shuddered to imagine the damage this would've done to a city if she had ever used it. Thank Rao she had chosen to use it on me instead. But this still raised the question, where was the Simurgh?

A question I would have to answer after I dealt with the death laser trying to kill me.

Before I could act on that thought, the laser shut off on its own. My feet slipped out from under me and I collapsed into the rapidly cooling slag that surrounded me. It pooled around my hands and knees and hardened, smooth to the touch but easily broken out of. I shattered bits of moon glass and wiped it off my hands and knees.

After wiping a thumb across my mouth I had to pause and look at the miniscule drop of red on the edge of my thumb. I ran my tongue along the inside of my mouth and realized I had bitten the inside of my cheek in surprise from the laser. A laugh escaped my lips and I stood up holding my thumb out for the Simurgh to see, wherever she was.

"All that for a drop of blood, huh?" I shouted, and laughed again.

It was a very short lived laugh.

The satellite fired again, but this time it wasn't aiming at me. No, it was aiming for Earth.

"You spiteful monster!" I screamed, and took off without hesitation.

My first thought was to destroy the satellite first, but that was no guarantee to stop the laser itself. Whatever tinker tech had been used to build it, the laser was moving at light speed and even the slightest hesitation would let it do incalculable damage wherever it hit. No matter what, I couldn't let that happen.

I poured all that I had into my flight, and felt time itself slow to a crawl around me. It was a race now as I shot by the satellite and chased the laser itself. Clouds burned at its passing, the air around it started to ignite, and still it fell to Earth like the wrath of a vengeful god. Everything was a blur, the universe a beautiful, unmoving tapestry. I raced past the end of the laser as it fell, and came to a stop a few hundred feet above the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

To the normal observer, they wouldn't see any of this. Only the briefest flash of light and a blur of red and blue. But for me, this would be life or death. I had no idea the full abilities of the Simurgh's weapon. Maybe it could only fire at one position or maybe she could sweep it along as it fired and carve a path of death across Earth. Whatever it could do, I was not going to let it even touch the Earth.

I loosened my shoulders and sucked in my first breath of real oxygen since I had left Taylor's house. My right hand curled into a fist so tight I could feel my palm start to bleed. With my flight, I 'stood' on a platform of air, and reared back on my right leg. The laser now dominated my field of view, only tens of feet away.

Fire spread across my shoulder as I pulled my right fist back as far as I could. I used my left hand as a makeshift sight to steady my aim. I could not miss; I would not miss.

When the laser was within feet of me, I unleashed the power of the sun in one single blow. The air ignited around me, space itself shuddered and cracked, and a tremor ran through the whole of planet Earth. The laser, meeting my fist head on, did not stop. But it was refracted by the sheer force of my blow. It went flying in a clean arc back the way it came until it collided with its point of origin. There was a split second of delay, and then the satellite detonated like a nuclear bomb

For a moment, a second sun graced the skies of Earth

And then, like that, it was over.

The sun shone through the clouds overhead and aside from the distant star, no one would have any idea of the fight I had just been through. To be honest, I preferred it that way. Though, the moon was going to need some cleanup after my scuffle with the Simurgh, but that could wait.

I floated down until I was about ten feet or so off the surface of the ocean. Its glossy black surface was remarkably calm considering what had just happened, and the sound of waves breaking was relaxing. I reclined in the air and folded my arms behind my back. I still had an hour or two before my planned meeting with the Protectorate. It was a shame I hadn't been able to avoid any heroics like they had asked, but it wasn't my fault that an Endbringer had come looking for a fight.

When the time came, I'd fill them in on what happened and we could prepare for the next time the Simurgh or her pals came looking for a fight. In the meantime, a little bit of sunbathing wouldn't hurt anyone.

I let my eyes close for a minute, basking in the warmth of the sun.

And then I heard something big moving in the water beneath me.

-S-​

Processing.

Analyzing.

Cataloging.

From a pocket dimension on the fringe of time and space, the Simurgh analyzed the Anomaly. When the Administrator had summoned the Anomaly, new data had been acquired. The Administrators' needs required careful analysis and planning so that they could be fulfilled. The Anomaly represented a threat to these plans. First hand data was required.

Processing.

The Anomaly was not part of the network. It was not part of the local fauna. Ergo it represented an alien variable. The experiment would require adjustment to compensate for this contamination.

Processing.

The clones were useless in any real manner beyond psychological intimidation or distraction. Rarely did the Simurgh exert herself to such a degree for any single entity. But valuable data had been gathered. Most importantly, the Anomaly possessed great awareness, but lacked the greater capacity of other entities. Thus, the Anomaly could be distracted and baited.

Processing.

But the Anomaly also possessed remarkable resilience to any attempt at psychic probing. Analysis showed that the Anomaly's personality meant that attempting to manipulate external forces to provide pressure on the Anomaly would also fail with what was currently available. The Anomaly was, itself, a variable that exerted greater pressure on all around it the more it was engaged with. This would need to be planned for carefully.

Processing.

The Simurgh, safe in its extra dimensional pocket of space, cocked her head to the side and watched the Anomaly punch the energy weapon to redirect it back towards its source of origin.

Processing.

Processing.

Processing.

The cannon, a design stolen from a host in the subcontinent known as 'India', had been carefully constructed by the Simurgh as part of many contingencies between attacks. It had been saved for later use against the Administrators allies if necessary. Using it on the Anomaly had been necessary to distract its attention. It was still unknown if the Anomaly could breach extradimensional space without assistance.

Processing.

The Simurgh sent a single request ping to her brother, and paired with a packet of data gathered from her interaction with the Anomaly. Already she had planned to lure the Anomaly back to the planet if it had proven too sturdy to deal with. With the new data available, her brother would be able to handle her. After all…

A shimmering clear crystal, packed with incalculable data and stolen from the Anomaly, floated into the Simurgh's open hands. The clones had served as an adequate diversion to allow the Simurgh to scan and identify anything of note on the Anomaly's person. The sacrifice of the weapon was worth this valuable prize.

There would be far more data to unravel very soon.

A/N: Sorry if anyone thought this was gonna be like, easy or something. This is just the start of what I like to call 'The Average Tuesday in the life of Kara Zor-El'. Fighting a couple of super monsters in a day, and stopping a doomsday laser? She's barely been on Earth-Bet for two days and its already feeling like home lol.

I hope the fight was at least enjoyable. Please leave any comments or criticisms below and I'll see you guys... whenever I update the story again! Ciao!

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.9​

A long shower was a welcome reprieve after the horror story that was my Saturday morning. Washing the blood from my hands brought back some semblance of normality to my life. That was a lie, whatever sense of 'normal' my life had been, died in the locker. But a little white lie for myself was enough to keep me from losing it.

The blood swirled around the shower drain and I felt… wrong, watching it. I knew that I should feel guilty, horrified by what I had done and had happened. But the truth was, I didn't even remember doing it. After the shooting, my next memory was crying into Supergirl's arms, because I had genuinely believed dad was going to die and it was my fault. Once again, Supergirl had saved the day and proved me wrong. But I had been a mess since then. Ignoring my anger at the Dallons, one thought refused to leave me be.

What if I didn't control my powers? What if they controlled me?

I had been wracking my brain since the police arrived, trying to remember if there were any capes famous for that. Now, I was more familiar with cape culture than some, but I was no expert, and had drawn a solid blank. So I had that bit of anxious existentialism to add to my existence. Being a passenger in my own body while it did terrible things to people was a terrifying concept. That was before I took into consideration all the other powers I knew were roiling inside me.

I could hear things now, things that I shouldn't have been able to hear. If I focused on a person or a place I knew, it was like I was standing right next to them. There was no effort to it; just thinking about my dad was enough for me to hear him in his own bathroom cursing under his breath. When my mind went back to the Dallons I could hear them talking to each other on their flight. This didn't seem to expand to those I didn't know, though. And Supergirl, for some reason. Perhaps there was a range limit, I didn't know.

There was more power besides that, but I was cautious to tap into it. I could feel a well of energy inside me now, brimming with potential, and my body ached with a need to use it. Like I had gone an entire day gorging myself on sugars without any real food. An empty anxious void that filled every fiber of my being and begged to be filled. And if I gave into that impulse…

The shower handle broke off in my grip when I shut off the water, and folded like clay under my fingers. I sighed and let it thud on the shower floor, and stepped out onto the mat. The fuzzy mat was old and worn, but it was familiar and comfortable and I needed that familiarity to anchor myself. Especially when I looked at myself in the mirror.

I put on my glasses and stared at the reflection that wasn't my own. The girl looking back at me could've been mistaken for Supergirl's mousier cousin. I was everything she was, but less. I had been made taller but not as tall as her. Muscular, but not as muscular. Curvier, but not as curvy. And so on. My face was still my own at least but that just made the difference more stark.

Whatever else I tried to tell myself, whatever I did to keep myself feeling like me. My own body existed as proof that the old Taylor Hebert had died on her kitchen floor, and someone else had taken her place. I pressed my hand against the mirror, watching the new me imitate the gesture.

And a smile spread across my face.

Fuck it! The old Taylor Hebert was miserable. She was a skinny, knock-kneed loser who couldn't even keep her best friend by her side. Just a target for bullying and a burden on everyone around her. But now? Now I had genuine power, and I could protect losers like me. Supergirl had all the power in the world and she had used it to save me when she could've done anything else.

If she could do it, so could I!

This felt like a revelation to me, like I had broken a fundamental truth and forged my own. For all that the world had thrown at me, the betrayals, the mockery, and even shooting me, I had survived. I had survived and come out of it literally stronger than ever before. Whatever else happened, I had the power to handle it now.

The world felt lighter when I realized this, and I practically floated out of the restroom into my bedroom. Getting dressed, none of my old clothes fit like they had, but that didn't matter. I could fix that, I could rebuild myself better than I had ever been. Be the Taylor Hebert I had wanted to be, instead of the one that I had needed to be. The world had tried to kill me twice in two days and I had just gotten stronger for it, I felt like there was nothing that I couldn't stand up to now.

I settled for an old gray hoodie and matching sweat pants that were too short at my ankles, but it would do for now. Instead of walking downstairs after dressing, I decided to jump. That well of energy inside me eagerly offered itself to my body. It pooled into my legs, and I launched myself off the floor like it was a trampoline. I landed on the ground floor without a sound, knees bent to absorb the impact. It was a small show of power, but I couldn't help but grin at it. I felt excited to start pushing myself, to see what I could really do.

Then I stepped back outside and reality knocked me back to my senses.

The police were still cleaning up the… the mess I had made. And the Protectorate was waiting for me. They had shown up not long after the Dallons left, a small team of PRT troopers, led by Miss Militia. Average sized woman dressed in well-worn fatigues decorated with the American Flag. She held herself like you'd expect a superhero to hold herself, confident and strong.

The media hadn't lied about how nice she was, either. Very patient, very to the point, and very understanding. But seeing her talking with dad while PRT troopers and police were scattered across our front yard was a nasty reality check. I felt an intense urge to pull my hoodie tight and disappear.

Whole new body, same useless person piloting it.

That was frustrating on a level I couldn't even begin to describe. Just looking at the lawn was enough to make me flinch. Maybe I didn't remember what I had done, but I knew what I had done. Despite what I had told myself, what I had decided on, the guilt was still there. I could wash away the blood, but that didn't change the fact that my hands were the hands of a killer.

Eyes were on me as I stepped outside. I shoved my hands in my pockets and dropped my head. My new body didn't like that. Muscles I didn't know I had raged against the anxiety that made me want to curl into a ball and disappear. Even my own body was turning against me.

So much for a fresh start.

Miss Militia and Dad both turned towards me. I tried not to shrink under their gaze. My hands kept clenching and unclenching with every step. Little tremors ran through my body even when I stopped in front of them both. Try as I might, I couldn't force myself to look at either of them. The confidence born from my outrage at Panacea and my brief hope at making myself new was dashed by the fact that I had no one to be angry with and that I was still me. Ignoring and hiding from my problems was easy, but the moment I had to confront them head on I was like a worm under a microscope.

"You're looking better already, Miss Hebert." Miss Militia said. She had moved herself between my direct line of sight and the lawn.

I sucked in a short breath, "Shower helped. How much trouble am I in?"

There was no point wasting anymore time on pleasantries. If I had to try and play polite any longer, I was going to explode. Better to just rip the band-aid off now, to hell with the consequences. Miss Militia exchanged a look with my dad.

"It's a complicated situation, Taylor. Can I call you Taylor?"

"It is my name." I said.

She nodded, "Given the nature of your Trigger, I think any court would be hard pressed to convict you of anything. Self defense is a perfectly reasonable response to an attempted murder. What's complicated is what we need to do with you right now."

Ah, there it was.

I felt the tiniest spark of indignation and I managed to look up at the cape, "Is this the part where you tell me I have to join the Wards?"

Now, I wasn't against the idea of joining the Wards or being a superhero. That was a dream come true in some ways. But the idea of trading normal schoolyard bullshit for superpowered schoolyard bullshit, sounded awful. Not to mention having to put myself under orders of yet another blank faced authority figure that spouted niceties at me while not actually being helpful. But I was a cape now, and unless I went villain, the Wards were probably the only option I had

To my surprise though, Miss Militia shook her head, "You don't have to, no. I would personally recommend it, but joining the Wards and by extension the Protectorate, is purely a personal choice. However, you were the target of a gang attack and while you have powers that can protect you, your family does not. Realistically, we're going to put you both into witness protection until we can assess if the ABB is going to make this a habit. What's left of them, anyway."

She glanced at the lawn again, and we both flinched.

"At this moment, that means the Protectorate would be relocating you and your father to the Rig for the next few days. Gives you time to adapt to your powers and we can get you to a trauma specialist. Physically you're fine, but events like this leave scars no one can see, but you can definitely feel."

I looked at dad, trying to see how he felt about all this. His hands shook as he took his glasses off and wiped at them with the edge of his shirt. "I think it's the right call. You've had enough close calls Taylor, I… I can't keep you safe. This is beyond anything I expected."

He looked lost. Not the aimless lost born of grief like when mom had passed. But the kind of lost you only felt when every other avenue, every reasonable action, was cut off or ended in failure. When you knew your only way forward was marching barefoot into hell over a road of shattered glass. I had known that feeling for two years of hell at Winslow as I'd been abandoned and left to the tender mercies of three people that decided I existed only to be made miserable.

At that moment, I felt closer to my father than I had in years.

That kind of frustrated hopelessness was agonizing. I wasn't going to let anyone else live with that if I could get away with it. And if I couldn't keep them away from it, I could at least make sure they weren't alone. That, more than anything, was the worst part.

I straightened up, and set my jaw, "Alright. Okay, I'll go with the Protectorate, no protest. At least for the next few days."

It was a blur after that. Lot of protocol, a lot of men in uniform yelling at each other, and a lot of my dad and I being shuffled around until the PRT was able to bring down a big armored van to take us away. For all Miss Militia's talk about our innocence and protecting us, I sure felt like a convict being carted off to prison as I walked up that ramp into the armor plated van. The paneled interior was lined with at least two other PRT Troopers. Whether they were meant to guard us from other attacks, or guard the city from me…

It was a stark contrast from the warm comfort and care I had been given when Supergirl saved me. I almost wished the Dallons had come back for me. Any animosity between Amy and I would feel preferable to this. But the decision had been made, there wasn't any turning back at this point.

I stopped and looked at the open sky one last time. That sunny morning sky had been replaced with dour storm clouds since my shower. Rain hadn't started falling yet, but it looked like it was going to get nasty soon. My thoughts returned to Supergirl again, and I Listened for any sign of her.

All I got was the sound of a storm and wind.

Storm or not, I hoped her day was at least going better than mine.

-S-​

My day was not going well.

It started with the slander from BBN. Then the Protectorate made it clear they weren't happy with my actions against the ABB. Then the Heberts were attacked out of petty spite. Then one of the Endbringers decided they wanted to pick a fight with me. And now the ocean itself was trying to kill me!

"What is wrong with this planet?!" I screamed into the storm that raged around me. The wall of rain and hurricane force winds drowned out my voice. Lightning flashed, illuminating the almost pitch black ocean surrounding me, and I saw a wave of water hundreds of feet high crashing down on top of me.

The frigid water smashed into me with the careless might only the forces of nature could muster, tossing me end over end in a swirl of ocean and air. Even as I regained my orientation, I felt the water itself pressing against me and forcing me down down down into the deepest depths of the sea until even the faintest light was shrouded in darkness. The ocean floor rose up to smash into, scattering deep sea life in a cloud of mud. The pressure continued, rising beyond the ability for any creature on Earth to ever hope to survive.

Unfortunately for Leviathan, I wasn't from Earth.

My hands found purchase in the muddy ocean floor, and I pushed myself into a crouching position. I gathered my strength, curled my legs, and sprung upwards like a rocket. The surface of the ocean exploded and I sucked in a breath of fresh air and freedom. My costume was thoroughly soaked through and my hair clung to my face in messy clumps. I pushed it out of my face and scowled. I was wet, miserable, and annoyed.

Leviathan was nearby, I knew that. My gaze swept across the swirling ocean, and I had to take to the skies as tendrils of ocean water rose to grab at me. This had been his play since the initial ambush. For five seconds I had let my guard down, and then Leviathan had burst from the ocean like an ancient sea monster from a forgotten time in Earth's history. He had quickly learned that the past didn't hold a candle to the future, when I had shattered one of his arms in our scuffle.

So he had fled into the depths of the ocean, using its massive size and the chaos of the storm to hide himself from me. Even the faint light of his eyes was a useless indicator; either he could control the glow or just kept them closed. Looking for him traditionally in hundreds of cubic miles of water was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

He knew that, he had to know that. I was wasting time trying to hunt him down, and he was content to use his hydrokinesis to batter me with tidal waves in the artificial night he had created. There were storms on the surface of Jupiter that weren't as dense as the one he had summoned for our fight. A dome of clouds hundreds of miles across covered the Atlantic Ocean, rendering my traditional sense of sight completely useless.

But I didn't just have one type of vision.

The entire electromagnetic spectrum was mine to view and I could peer through it as easily as breathing. Fighting like that for any length of time was disorienting, but it was better than fighting blind. Plus, it was an advantage I held over Leviathan; there was no way he knew that I would be able to find him.

Another tidal wave rose to crash into me, but I met it head on and shot through the other side unscathed. Even with my own sensory advantages, the constant attacks and the storm were making the search difficult. The worst part was that I could only weather the attacks as they came. Trying to take away Leviathans 'weapons' was an impossibility.

My freeze breath and heat vision were both effectively useless when there was this much water around. If I froze the water, he still maintained control over it and just smashed me around with the new chunk of ice I'd given him. But if I used my heat vision to evaporate it, he just pulled the steam back together into its liquid form and resumed the attack. In theory I could have used either to freeze a large enough chunk of the area or evaporate it and by myself some breathing room. But that much of a shift in temperature one way or another could cause untold ecological damage to Earth. I wasn't going to cause that kind of damage just to make this fight more convenient.

But with his Hydrokinesis he had an incredibly potent defense against my own strengths. As long as I was fighting him on his own home turf, this was going to be an uphill battle. I needed to find him, and quick, before things got worse.

I started flying through the storm, picking up speed at a slow but gradual pace until I broke the sound barrier, and then I kept going. Faster and faster I flew until I hit the edge of the storm and started circling inwards with my eyes on the ground. In atmosphere, acceleration was something Kal and I had to be careful with. If we went too fast too soon, our indestructible bodies would start shattering atoms as we flew which had nasty consequences. We needed time to adjust the vibration of the molecules in our body so that we could safely pass through an atmosphere at high speeds with minimal collateral damage. Kal had mastered this technique and could almost match the Flash in speed and mobility.

He had had decades to learn and practice it. I had only had three years, so it took me longer to manage such a trick. Not to mention if I did it too fast it gave me a severe case of motion sickness that would just make me useless in a fight.

But I didn't need to even approach those kinds of speeds for my search. Even as rain and wind slowed and the churning ocean froze into a strange obsidian fresco, I flew well below my maximum speed. But I kept flicking through the electromagnetic spectrum, until something caught my eye. In a place as vast and life filled as the ocean, every living thing was a beacon to my sight. Its own universe with a trillion beautiful stars of potential.

And among those tiny stars, was a blazing inferno of alien energy that burned with a fury that rivaled the sun. No natural animal on Earth could possibly produce that kind of energy in such quantities. There was no mistaking it, that had to be Leviathan.

I smiled, "Got you."

Out of the sky I fell dove into the ocean like a torpedo. Water flashed and bubbled from the velocity of my entry, leaving a trail of bubbles in my wake dozens of feet across. I avoided any larger creatures that were in my way, but it was a near straight shot to Leviathan. His blazing aura was unmistakable and when he turned to face me, I got a good look at him for the split second before impact.

He was twice the size of the Simurgh, easy, with strange angular proportions and covered in scaly green skin. Despite his massive size and weight, he didn't even attempt to move in the water, as if the ocean itself carried him. A tyrant twisting an entire ecosystem to his whims. The injuries I'd given him in our first physical bout had already healed, but that was okay. I was about to give him some new ones.

I hit him with the force of an Atom Bomb. The resulting explosion created a bubble of air near a mile across that broke the surface of the ocean. A blow like that should have killed most monsters. But as I was learning, the Endbringers weren't most monsters.

After my initial impact and the explosion, Leviathan had been sent hurtling over a mile into the far wall of the already collapsing bubble of air. His massive frame impacted hard enough that I heard that the water detonated on contact. Chunks of Endbringer flesh went spiraling off into the depths of the ocean. But Leviathan didn't seem to care.

The impact had flayed his scaly hide and left a shattered hole in his abdomen. I could see bits of his spin where his stomach had been. His limbs moved and twisted in odd ways, broken by the collisions. Those strange glowing eyes of his were dead now, imploded from the sheer force of the should have been it, that should have ended it then and there.

And yet despite all these injuries, Leviathan was already moving through the water at a speed that shouldn't have been possible in his state. All around me, the chamber exploded with tendrils and waves of water. Each raced towards me, trying to slow me down while Leviathan put distance between us. I dodged one, ducked under another, and flew a spiral around a third. I raced down its length towards that shimmering green mass that was trying to get as far from me as possible.

I noted, with some grim amusement, that the energy had changed location in Leviathan's body. Whatever the source of that energy was, it was important for the Endbringer to keep functioning. He knew that I could see it, he knew that I could get to it. And he knew that if I did get to it, his threat to Earth was over. Which meant, on some level, Leviathan was scared.

Thing is though, when you corner a rabid monster, they tend to get desperate with their tactics. Leviathan leaped out of the ocean, soaring some hundreds of feet into the air. I went flying after him, and grabbed the Endbringer by the throat before he got any farther. My hands dug into the flesh around his thick neck, only for them to come away with bits of disintegrating flesh and water.

Leviathan reared back his head, and flung it forward, stopping five feet from my face. An apparition of water kept moving with the same speed and velocity, and smashed into me. New trick or no, it would have taken more than that to knock me out of the sky. But Leviathan was smarter than that. The apparition didn't fall apart on impact, it changed.

An amorphous mass of water wrapped itself around me and forced itself into my mouth and nose. I choked and gagged as water rushed down my throat into my lungs, filling them with a terrifying speed. This wasn't like going into space or flying around under the ocean. My body didn't need air. But this was a targeted attack against the most delicate part of my body.

Yes, my lungs were more than durable enough to weather it, I had survived far greater internal attacks. But it hit me in the one area where I wasn't invulnerable. My animal instinct, that irrational part of my mind that didn't care about reason or reality. As far as that part of me was concerned, I couldn't breathe. I sucked in air, and only got more water, the coolness rushing in with a malicious eagerness. I had no choice, I shot away from Leviathan and the ocean until I had put several miles between us and spent the next minute vomiting water in frightening volumes.

I floated in the air, hands on my knees, shaking. That couldn't have hurt me, I reminded myself. It wouldn't have hurt me. Adrenaline was a terrible thing and even as I repeated this to myself over and over, the shaking didn't stop. That kind of animal fear didn't go away easily. So I channeled it instead, focused it on an emotion I could control.

Anger.

I rose up into the sky and turned my gaze back towards where I had last seen Leviathan. Lightning crackled through stormclouds overhead and thunder roared. The winds hadn't stopped and the rain was so thick at this point it was like a second ocean. And yet, with all these distractions, Leviathan couldn't hide from my eyes.

He was on the move again, putting as much distance between myself and himself as he could. His current trajectory had him moving westward. I did a mental calculation with some assistance from my telescopic vision and tightened my jaw when I realized where he was going. If my math was right, and it was rarely wrong, Leviathan was on a collision course with Brockton Bay. He'd make landfall in less than five minutes.

My mind raced.

Why would the Endbringer aim for Brockton Bay specifically? Why give up the advantage he had in the water against me? Did he know about my connection to the city? How would he even know-

My face twisted into a sneer and I looked skyward. I hoped wherever the Simurgh was, she saw me glaring at her. Because when I was done with Leviathan, she was next. I felt the air quake around me as I tensed. In one fluid movement, I would cross the distance and catch Leviathan long before he made landfall. I would end this before it could get any worse.

Then I heard it. A slow droning sound that steadily grew louder and louder. It started as a whine, grew into a howl, and became a deafening roar. Even over the rainfall and the hurricane force winds, this noise dominated and subsumed them. It was the kind of sound you could only hear from a truly massive volume of mass being moved all at once and if you were lucky you only heard it once in your lifetime.

For me, I had heard it far too many times in my life.

I spun in the air and felt my heart freeze. What I had assumed was the storm-blackened sky, was illuminated by lightning that felt infinitesimally small against the gargantuan mountain of ocean rolling towards me and dominating the horizon. I shot into the sky, faster and faster until I crested over the wave, and felt a dawning horror at what I saw. A tidal wave beyond human imagination, stretched for hundreds of miles to the north and south, easily over ten miles thick, and over a mile high. And despite its sheer size, it was moving almost as fast as Leviathan.

My mind reeled at the damage simply moving this amount of water would do to the ocean. But if this hit the mainland, the entire eastern seaboard of the Continental United States would be destroyed. The death toll would be staggering, millions would die, millions more would lose their homes and suffer in the years to follow.

The strange aura that burned within Leviathan had notably dimmed, I could see that even from hundreds of miles away. There was no way he could do something like this again anytime soon; if he could, he wouldn't be running to the one place he had to know I'd find him.

But I still didn't know if I could stop him in time. If I chased after him, tried to put him down as quickly as possible, I'd have a minute or two at best to stop this monstrous act of spite. Or I could stop it now, and hope that I was fast enough to do that before Leviathan hit Brockton bay. Because if I couldn't, that city would have to weather the Endbringers onslaught on its own.

My hands tightened and tears streamed down my face only to be washed away in the rain.

"Damn you. Damn you for doing this to these people. Enjoy your five minutes of freedom, Leviathan. I'm coming for you when this is done."

And then I got to work.

-S-​

Data was sent back to the Sister. A stream of new information with which she could craft new strategies. The Anomaly had already proven itself far more capable than initial projections had suggested. A direct confrontation alone was ill advised.

Water surged around Leviathan, parting for him while propelling him at incredible speed. To face the Anomaly one on one was to face destruction. It possessed abilities beyond anything Leviathan could hope to match on his own. An attempt at a retreat had ended in total failure; the Anomaly would not rest until it cornered Leviathan. Thus, a new strategy was required.

When the Sister had first requested his assistance, she had sent data to the Leviathan. It had outlined the Anomaly's observed abilities, personality traits, and connections. From that, one conclusion had been declared with certainty by the Sister.

The Anomaly, whatever it was, had a directive to protect the safety of the Subjects. All other decisions and objectives were subservient to this primary directive. Thus, it could be exploited. The Anomaly possessed tremendous destructive power, but using that power guaranteed collateral damage.

Leviathan was most at home in the planet's many oceans. It was its favored terrain and gave it a sizable advantage over most creatures on the planet. But the Anomaly's power meant that the advantage was minimal at best. To maintain a fair combat advantage, Leviathan would need to engage the Anomaly among the Subjects. The distraction used to buy time for a tactical withdrawal had taken time to build. It would not be possible to build enough energy for another surge like the one he had unleashed for several planetary rotations. This was the only remaining option.

The location suggested in the data contained many Hosts as well as Subjects, but they were irrelevant. Minor distractions at best that could be ignored or used to force the Anomaly to obey its primary directive. All that was needed was to ensure that the Anomaly was survived long enough for the Brother to arrive and turn the tide in their favor.

For maximum efficiency, the Sister had given Leviathan a list of particular targets within the Subject Settlement. Two were Hosts, and already labeled for future experimentation. But the other two… One had been chosen as a Host, but only recently, and the other was just another Subject.

Leviathan would find them, regardless. And then he would engage with the Anomaly on an even playing field.

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.10​

Without the limitations of a human mind or body, Dragon was used to spreading herself across many tasks in many places, to the point that it was second nature. She couldn't remember bringing all her processes to focus on any singular task Endbringer attacks were one noted exception; coordination, combat, and calculation. She needed to be all hands on deck when fighting them. But this was the first time she could remember ever dedicating herself to watching a fight. Because watching Supergirl in action left her in equal parts terrified and awe struck.

For the last thirty minutes or so, Dragon and Colin had watched Supergirl's excursion to the moon. While there were always exceptions to the rule, most capes lacked interplanetary abilities. Once you left the atmosphere, it wasn't long before powers ceased functioning. A power that broke this limit was rare enough, rarer still was a cape that had this kind of power that could also survive in the inhospitable realm of space. Supergirl had not only done that, but at a speed only the likes of Legend could match.

Then the Simurgh had gotten involved.

In hindsight, if Dragon had noticed Supergirl's excursion, of course the Simurgh would have. This should have been the end for the cape; if you attracted the personal attention of an Endbringer, the amount of time you had left to live could usually be counted in minutes. But Supergirl hadn't died. She had fought back and forced the Simurgh to use tactics and weaponry no one had ever seen her deploy, let alone believed she was capable of.

That the Simurgh had her own secret stash of doomsday tinker tech had been a cold dose of reality. And then, Supergirl had stopped it with a blow strong enough that seismic sensors across the world had registered the tremors. Dragon was torn between being awestruck, and terrified.

Colin had summed up Dragons feelings in a single question. "What the fuck is she?"

Scion himself couldn't have matched the physical feats Supergirl had demonstrated. She was a new tier of cape, a level of power they couldn't have dreamt of, let alone fathomed. The Simurgh had survived their encounter by vanishing after Supergirl's little display, but it was obvious that the balance of power on Earth-Bet had just radically changed.

That would have been enough to set Dragon on edge, but then it got worse.

A storm that had formed over Supergirl's last known location, and was the largest Dragon had ever seen. 1,500 miles across, and it didn't match any known storm patterns It hadn't taken a genius to realize that Leviathan had chosen to pick a fight with the heroine. The cloud cover was so dense in the area, Dragon had been unable to gather any usable footage. But she had gathered data, oh she had gathered data.

Windspeed, ocean current changes, and massive changes in world wide weather patterns that had rapidly followed the formation of that storm dome. And it had been moving, a slow but steady pace that threatened to drown the Eastern Seaboard. Then it had stopped, and Dragon's instruments had detected what could only be described as the equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off in the center of the storm. Something big had happened there, enough that she was able to pick up an increase in radioactive elements in the storm.

Then, her satellites had detected a familiar object fleeing from the storm. The velocity, mass and shape of wake matched Leviathan at his fastest, and he was heading landbound. And his trajectory put him… on a collision course with Brockton Bay.

That had shocked Colin out of his astonishment, and Armsmaster was all business again. "Dragon, send out an alert to the Protectorate, we need Triumvirate ready for intercept. I'm going to prep and do what I can to intercept and delay Leviathan before he causes any major damage. We only have a few minutes, this is going to get messy."

"I'm already on it, Armsmaster," Dragon said. "Eidolon's already on his way, I'm trying to get into contact with Legend and Alexandria as we speak. Strider is getting ready to start deploying teams."

Dragon had, in fact, already started sending out the messages the nanosecond she had processed the data. But what she had also done was hide the rest of it from Colin. Because there was nothing he'd be able to do about it. It was impossible for anyone to miss what was trailing in Leviathan's wake.

She wasn't sure if it was possible for an Endbringer to feel spiteful. But, if it was then this was Leviathan's coup de grace for years of defiance topped by whatever Supergirl had done to him in that storm. Dragon saw the wave, she knew it was coming, and she knew there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it. In the next few minutes, the United States would cease to exist as a functioning country, going the same way as Japan and the Netherlands had years ago.

On some level, Dragon knew she should feel more: anger, terror, anguish, or all of the above would have been appropriate reactions in the face of the overwhelming annihilation Leviathan had unleashed. Instead, she only felt numbness, so much as she could feel anything. She did what was needed, what was necessary to keep up the facade. To keep her friends and allies from knowing the truth. At the very least, she could make sure that they felt their last few minutes of life weren't in vain.

She dedicated a process to recording her interactions with members across the Protectorate. When this was all over, she wanted to remember them at their best.

Armsmaster was just leaving his workshop when the Endbringer Siren started its wail across Brockton Bay. Dragon lamented that so many would be terrified in the next few minutes, but at least they'd have a warning and be able to make some peace with themselves before the end.

'I'm sorry.' she thought to herself. 'I wish there was more I could do…'

Then she received a new notification. She opened it, on instinct really. New data flooded in. Her satellites had never stopped recording data from the storm and continued sending a veritable river of new information her way. For one moment, for the first time in Dragon's existence, all processes ceased functioning as she analyzed the data.

If Dragon had a jaw, it would have been on the floor. But she didn't have a jaw. She didn't have a body at all. Yet in that precious moment, Dragon wished she had one more than anything in the world. If only so she could weep tears of joy, at what she was seeing.

-S-​

The rest of Vicky and Amy's flight back to the boardwalk was in a tense silence, broken only by the start of a light but steady rain. When they made it back to the Boardwalk, most of the crowds had dispersed indoors. Dean was waiting for them under an awning, his face the picture of concern.

"What happened, is everyone okay?" he asked. Then he noticed they were short one person, "Where's Ka - Supergirl?"

Vicky jerked a thumb at Amy, "Ask her. She scared her off."

"Vicky, that's not what happened!" Amy protested.

Dean, with wisdom far beyond his age, took a step back and let the sisters talk it out. He knew better than to get into the middle of a sibling spat. Rare was the occasion when the sisters fought, but when they did it was an ugly thing. Collateral damage in the form of verbal evisceration was a high probability and he had no desire to get involved that. Especially since he had no idea what had happened in the first place.

Vicky whirled on her sister, "Then what was it, Amelia? You've been pretty tight lipped about it the whole thing! Even lied to my face about it!"

"You're really going to just take what Taylor said at face value? Really?"

"People don't just get angry like that for no reason, Amy!" Vicky threw her hands up in the air. "For god's sake, I'm not even mad about you driving off Supergirl at this point. I'm mad you lied to me about it with a straight face. If you're willing to lie to me about that, what else are you lying to me about?"

Amy reeled back as if struck. There was genuine hurt and guilt in her eyes, but Vicky didn't regret what she'd said. It had been fermenting in her brain the entire flight back, and she was glad she had put it out in the air. The entire identity of their family, the values they built themselves on, were around openness and trust. Amy had taken advantage of that. This was not something easily forgiven.

"Vicky… I just wanted to protect you." Amy said. Even she seemed to realize how weak the excuse was as the words left her mouth.

"From the girl that wiped out an entire gang overnight? Really?" Vicky shook her head. "You can bus home until you decide you want to start telling the truth. Come on, Dean."

She grabbed the boy before he could protest, and took off into the sky leaving her sister on the Boardwalk. It took an effort of will not to look back. But she could imagine Amy standing there, tears in her eyes, hands in her pockets and trying her damndest to disappear into her own clothes. That was what happened if someone bothered her at school; it hurt like hell for Vicky to be the one doing it to her for once.

But the anger she felt was real. She felt hurt that her sister had lied to her so readily. Did Amy really think so little of her that she had to lie to her like that? That was as hurtful as it was insulting.

Dean didn't keep his thoughts to himself as they flew."Vicky, don't you think you were a bit harsh? You kinda jumped down her throat."

Vicky had to hold Dean to her side with one hand while shielding her eyes with the other; the rain was really starting to pick up now. A strong gale had swept in from the bay that tore at her skirt and cape and seemed eager to swat her out of the sky. She spared him a glance as they flew, "Amy will be fine. A little walk home in the rain and she'll be ready to talk."

"Seems a bit cruel to do that to your sister." Dean noted. He added, "Besides, it's not like your record is spotless either. You've made plenty of bad mistakes and Amy has been nothing but forgiving to you."

Vicky looked at Dean, and deadpanned, "You know, it's pretty high up, and you're getting pretty heavy."

"Victoria."

"What do you want from me, huh?" she demanded, "Yeah, okay, maybe I broke a few bones where I shouldn't have, maybe roughed up some goons that didn't need roughing up. But I never lied about that to Amy. We've always had each other's backs."

"You lied to your mom about it, and your dad." Dean pointed out. "You only told me way after it happened."

She had no rebuttal for that. Victoria bit her lip and looked away from him. "That was different, mom and dad wouldn't have understood… and I was scared you'd be angry with me."

"I was angry with you." Dean reminded her. "So maybe think about that when you talk to her again, huh? Maybe she was scared that this was exactly how you'd react. You're basically the only friend she's got, Victoria."

"Ugh, I hate it when you use my full name." she groaned. "I also hate it when you have a point, you big jerk."

Dean smirked under the mop of blonde hair that the rain had flattened to his skull,"If I didn't love you, I wouldn't be a big jerk. You're a wonderful person Victoria; you just get tunnel vision sometimes."

They landed at Dean's home not long after, right on the front steps. Dean took her hands in his, and stared at her with a serious expression, "You're going to talk to her when you get home, right Vicky?"

"Yeah, we'll talk." She promised, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "I love you, you know that right?"

"Like I know the sun will rise every morning."

She tousled his hair, "Dork. I'll call you later!"

No sooner had she lifted off the ground, did the two of them hear a strange sound howling through the storm. It started as a low drone that grew into a rapid wailing sound. At the same time, both of their cellphones went off with emergency alerts. Vicky felt her heart drop into her stomach.

The Endbringer Siren.

She looked skyward, watching as the clouds darkened the sky and only grew darker by the second. A torrent of rain had soaked her by now, and it didn't take a genius to put together what this all meant. Leviathan was coming, and his storm had already engulfed Brockton Bay.

Anxiety was replaced by terror.

"Amy!" Victoria screamed and flung herself back towards the Boardwalk as fast as her flight could take her. There was no other direction Leviathan would come from, and that meant Amy would be right in the path of destruction!

Faster and faster, Victoria's entire body screamed at her as she pushed herself faster than she had ever flown before. Rain cut at her shield, while a thick fog blanketed the city. Houses and streets disappeared beneath her, forcing Victoria to dive lower than she otherwise would when flying. Dodging street lamps, power poles and power lines, she made it to the Boardwalk in time to see crowds of people fleeing from the coast, their screams a deafening cacophony.

The bay was a froth of black and white, spray shooting dozens of feet into the air with each rise and fall of the tide. Victoria dove until she barely passed over the heads of the crowd, and started darting about the Boardwalk with frantic energy. Few paid her any mind, most just wanted to get as far from the beach as possible.

Victoria cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed, "Amy! Amy! Can you hear me!?" only for her voice to disappear in the panicked screams and howling of the storm.

She flitted over the crowd from place to place, her movement becoming erratic and her voice raw as she cried for her sister. Whatever regal authority her costume held was lost in the panic and the rain. At that moment, Victoria didn't feel like a superhero. She was just a scared girl, looking for the sister who's last moments she had spent yelling at her.

"Vicky!"

Flashing a scan over the crowd at the voice, Victoria recognized that frizzy brown hair that had somehow managed to stay a wild mess even with the rain. Amy was struggling against the crowd, reaching out a frantic hand in her direction. Victoria wasted no time. She dove into the crowd and tackled her sister in a hug.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Victoria chanted, "I didn't mean… we need to go, we need to get you out of here!"

Amy's eyes were red and puffy and terror kept pulling at her lips. She was trembling; from the cold or the siren, it was impossible to tell. All she gave Victoria was a wordless nod, and held onto her tighter.

A massive wave of water exploded over the Boardwalk, soaking anyone still unfortunate to be there, including the sisters. Victoria helped her sister remain standing despite the deluge, and when both sisters cleared the water from their eyes, they felt a shadow fall over them.

The ocean took shape, grabbing buildings and dragging itself onto dry land. The shimmering liquid cascaded off a body of scale in rivers. From within the murky depths, four eyes burned with a pale green fire. Water fell from its form in the tons, breaking chips and chunks of concrete with every landing. Something heavy hit the ground, followed by an immediate echo of the first impact. The ocean rose and Leviathan pulled himself from the water, a sinuous creature of scale.

Victoria grabbed Amy and dragged her away from the Endbringer, her heart hammering in her chest. Now, Victoria was strong, stronger than most people. Strong enough to juggle dumpsters if she really wanted to try her hand at it. She wasn't strong enough or stupid enough to start a fight with an Endbringer, especially with the very real possibility of Amy getting caught in the crossfires. Flight wasn't an option either; Victoria had seen videos of Leviathan swatting fliers much faster than her out of the sky. He'd be on them in an instant if she tried to fly away.

No, their best bet was to hide and wait for him to move somewhere else. Then they could try and link up with other heroes. Until then though, they'd have to play it safe.

The ground in front of Victoria exploded in a storm of concrete and water. She and Amy skid to a stop and fell to the ground on the slick ground. Leviathans tail slithered away from the impact zone. The sky overhead grew darker, and two massive arms touched down on either side of the sisters. Amy held tight to her sister, never letting go; Victoria returned the hug.

With a courage of will, Victoria looked up, defiant at the Endbringer. She wished she hadn't.

Leviathan's head was twisted until it was perpendicular with the side of his shoulder, and lowered until it was within inches of Victoria's face. Its burning green eyes cast a pale green light over the two of them. Up close, its eyes were compound like insects. Only instead of empty mirror like lenses, each one had its own pupil that rapidly dilated and retracted. They moved and twisted of their own accord, as if controlled by their own separate will.

The sockets surrounding these twisted eyes were sinuous and honeycombed. A million strands of sickly green flesh that went deeper and deeper into the Endbringers skull until it was too deep for Victoria to see. But she could see the water pouring from between the ligaments. Like a nest of snakes, coiling and wrapping between each fleshy strand, running like a living thing in and out of his body, over his many eyes.

And then every single one of those eyes focused on the Dallon Sisters at once, retracted to tiny black pin pricks. This was it, this was how they died. At the mercy of this inhuman thing that was playing with them like a cat played with its prey Try as she might though, Victoria could not look away from those terrible eyes.

Leviathan's entire body shuddered in an involuntary motion. Then the Endbringers eyes dilated and started moving on their own again. He rose up onto his hind legs, looked once at the sisters again, and then strode inland without a second thought. His whipcord tail swayed side to side, cutting furrows in buildings and overturning cars with the same ease a toddler overturned rocks at a riverbed..

Victoria and Amy collapsed to the ground, tears in their eyes and manic laughter on their lips.

-S-​

It was a smooth ride in that armored truck…van…carrier?

I don't know cars very well.

It was a smooth ride in that armored vehicle. If I hadn't stepped into the damn thing, I wouldn't even have known I was in one. There was enough space that I could've mistaken it for a waiting room. The two PRT troopers riding with us were a firm reminder though that it wasn't. In fact, they didn't really help with my feeling of being carted off to prison that had been plaguing me since we'd left home.

I had hoped that Miss Militia would sit in with us. She wasn't at the top of my favorite heroes, but she was a local celebrity and she seemed genuine when she talked to me. It would have made everything feel less faceless at least. But, she had her own ride, a big rumbling beast of a motorcycle that we could hear every time our little convoy moved from a stop sign.

It was for the best she didn't sit with us, in truth. I was already an anxious ball of nerves, and having her sit in with us probably wouldn't have helped. Most of the trip, I was leaned over, arms on my knees and hair a mess around my face. It made a very good 'don't talk to me' veil to anyone that thought otherwise. Peace and quiet was all that I wanted right now, until any semblance of normalcy was ripped away from me.

That was the funny thing though. By all rights, I should have been thrilled by this entire turn of events. Yeah it had been a violent start and yeah I couldn't keep the blood on my hands out of my mind or the gore strewn image of our lawn or-

I closed my eyes tight and shook my head.

The point was that, everything I hated about myself I was going to be able to leave behind. With powers, everything changed. I wasn't just some average high school loser anymore. With some time and effort, I could be a hero. That should have been exciting, I should have been jumping for the moon. I had been jumping for the moon. So why wasn't I now?

My open hands stared back at me, opening and closing in numb repetition. I blinked, and a flash of red covered them. Then it was gone. This repeated for several minutes until I let out a frustrated sigh and slumped back against my seat. I blew a strand of hair out of my face and stared at the fluorescent lights overhead. For some reason, they didn't hurt my eyes anymore to stare at them.

"Gonna go blind if you keep that up, kid."

I blinked and looked at the trooper that had spoken up. He was an average height and built like a train, with a rumbling voice to match. I couldn't make out any other features under his uniform. He pointed at the lights with one hand while he kept his other on his rifle.

"Starin at the lights like that. Good way to graduate from glasses to sunglasses, ya know?" There was a note of amusement in his voice.

"Given the last two days I've had, that almost feels like a blessing. No one picks on the blind kid." I said dryly.

He leaned on his knee, "Word of advice kid, everyone gets shit thrown their way. Don't matter if you're blind, deaf, black, white, gay or straight. Just gives some folk more ammunition to use. Though from the sounds of it, lifes been throwing some shit at you lately. You're the kid Supergirl rescued yesterday, right?"

Great, I was a celebrity damsel in distress.

"Yeah. Yeah that was me. Winslow's a shithole."

The officer grunted, "Amen to that. Got a cousin that goes there, almost lost an eye to some E88 pipsqueak because he was wearing the wrong colors."

He tapped his side, "Taken my share of bullets in the line of duty myself. ABB, E88, even Merchants believe it or not."

I stared at him, and my expression must have either been blank or very unimpressed. He sighed and leaned forward, "What I'm trying to say, kid, is that you're not alone here. I recognize the look on your face. Feels like the world's out to get you, like shits only gonna get worse. Hate it, awful feeling. Grew up feeling that way most of my life. Still feel that way from time to time. Fact that you're still here, you're made of stern stuff. But ya ain't got to deal with it alone anymore."

He shrugged, "Figured you'd take some comfort in knowing you ain't gonna be stuck with a bunch of faceless jackasses. Ya feeling like the worlds against ya, we got your back. 'Specially if ya join up."

"The Wards especially have it rough." His partner piped up. "Bad enough triggering when you're an adult. The stuff you kids have to go through…"

A part of me wanted to say thanks. To take some comfort in his words and attempt to sympathize with me. The rest of me bristled at it, at the assumption that he just… knew what I was feeling, what I was going through. These were the people carting me off after all, the ones with guns and armor acting like we could be friends. I'd had enough of that back at Winslow from teachers that 'wanted to help' but wound up just wanting to look like they were being helpful.

"Thanks, I guess." I muttered, and looked away.

"It's been a hard couple of days." I heard dad whisper to him.

"Ain't a problem sir, I would've been more surprised if she was sunshine and rainbows."

I pulled a leg up onto my seat, rested my chin on it and stared at the van doors. The others were at least nice enough to leave me alone at that point. Dad made some light conversation with the troopers after that, a lot of nothing chatter. He tried a few times to get me involved, but I wasn't having it.

There'd been enough talking today, in my opinion.

Then, things took a turn.

I heard the driver up front talking to someone over the radio, and strained to Listen. It was getting easier to focus on unfamiliar people now, but sometimes I wound up hearing a lot more people than I wanted. The driver was close enough for that to not be a problem and I caught the last bit of his conversation.

"-stood, we're rerouting to the nearest shelter now."

Shelter?

And then the siren's started wailing.

A low drone that rose into an undulating scream that was loud even through the thick walls of the van. I covered my ears, even as I felt my heart stop. Ever since I had started going to school, we'd had drills that used this siren. Just like fire drills or shooter drills, everyone had to do Endbringer drills. But I had never, in my life, expected to hear those sirens go off.

Dad and I exchanged fearful glances. The troopers sat up straighter and started checking their gear. The nice one, the one who's name I hadn't even gotten, turned to us both and said, "We're rerouting to an Endbringer shelter, you folk should be safe in there until this blows over. Levi is on his way, but we should be close enough to get you there before he hits landfall."

Leviathan, the City-Sinker.

The Simurgh was infamous for the long term damage she could wreak, and Behemoth had killed hundreds of heroes. But Leviathan was the embodiment of nature's wrath. Even being inland wasn't a guarantee of safety, as he would happily swim up rivers to hit a target, dragging storms with him as he went. Of course, if there was any Endbringer that would hit Brockton Bay, it was him.

I was eager to start putting my powers to use. But even I wasn't stupid enough to want to fistfight and Endbringer. As the van started moving faster, I kept wringing my hands together while taking short steady breaths. Why today, why was all this happening today? Two days back to back, it was like the world was conspiring to make my life a living hell.

Dad saw me and my obvious anxiety. Without a word, he reached out and took my hand and gave it a tight squeeze. I returned it, and he winced, but he didn't pull away. It was a small comfort, a very small comfort in the face of what I knew was coming.

But I appreciated it.

And then something very large and very fast hit the van, and my world began to spin again.

If we weren't strapped in, I think we all would have died in that crash. The harnesses strained and dug into my skin as the entire vehicle spun end over end, but they never broke. It skid several more feet across the street, a terrible sound of screaming metal and asphalt. Then, everything was silent again except for our labored breathing and the rain pounding against the paneling.

The truck had been flipped on its side, and dad and the trooper hung from their harnesses. I tore mine off like wet paper and pulled myself up alongside dad. His eyes flickered open and he gave me a weak smile.

"Still alive kiddo. Your old man is tough."

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, and hugged him. Life had been trying really damn hard to take him away, but he somehow kept surviving what it threw at us. I tore off the straps on his harness and helped him down. The troopers were talking to each other and the driver up front.

"Mason's gone. Along with the entire front of the APC."

They looked between themselves and then at us. The one that had been talking to me said, "You two stay here. We're gonna sweep the perimeter and find a route out of here."

"But what if-" I was going to ask what if Leviathan was outside.

The sound of gunfire answered that question. A staccato rhythm of explosions immediately followed, and the ground shook. Miss Militia was at work, and Leviathan didn't appreciate it. The troopers paused only for a second at the sound, and then marched for the exit.

"Miss Militia is buying us time. Right now our job is getting you two to safety." he shouldered the rifle, and somehow I knew he was trying to smile at us in a reassuring way.

"We're trained for this, kid. One way or another, we're getting you out of here safely."

I didn't know what to say to that. The strongest heroes in the world struggled to even slow Leviathan down. These two didn't even have powers but they were insisting on protecting us. A feeling of shame came over me, and I found it hard to meet their eyes.

"What do you need us to do?" Dad asked while I was silent.

"Stay here, lie low, and wait for us to call you back. If something happens to us, wait until you're sure Leviathan has left the area. If a shelter is out of the question, avoid low ground and crowded areas."

His partner pulled a radio off his belt and handed it to dad, "If things go pear shape, use this to call for evac."

Dad took it, and nodded. Outside, the sound of gunfire had grown more frantic, heavier and faster. Miss Militia had upped the caliber she was using. The troopers positioned themselves on either side of the armored doors, pulled on the lock and eased the door open.

Four burning green eyes the size of flood lights stared through the opening at us.

"Oh shi-"

A clawed hand bigger than a person burst through the door. The trooper was flattened against the wall and his partner found his torso split in two in a fountain of blood. Dad had dove for the floor and I heard him scream as Leviathan's scaly skin tore at his back. But the hand smashed into me like a freight train and wrapped all five fingers tight around me. The pressure was tight, like a bear hug Gramp when I was little, but not the all encompassing strength I had expected.

Then he ripped me out of the car into the pouring rain. We were at the part of town where the suburbs were about to turn into commercial buildings. People were streaming out of their homes as fast and as far from the Endbringer as possible, even as he ignored them. The clouds overhead had grown so thick I thought it was night for a moment. Street lights had turned on automatically in the darkness and though several had been ripped clean of their foundation, plenty still lit up the street, the fleeing people, and Leviathan himself.

The Endbringer stood to his full height with me in his hand. I was frozen with fear, my heart hammering so fast in my chest I thought it was going to explode. Bullets bounced harmlessly off its lopsided head. I looked and saw Miss Militia pinned to a house by her own motorcycle, one arm free and firing and blood running down her face. I think she was screaming. Or maybe I was screaming. Over the heavy rain it was impossible to tell.

"Hey! Four-eyes!"

Leviathan's eyes rotated counterclockwise toward the ruined APC. To my absolute shock, the PRT trooper was still alive. The man who's name I hadn't even bothered to learn, who held a broken arm to his chest and a gun in his only good arm, staggered out of the APC and started firing at Leviathan. The rounds were as effective as Miss Militias, but the act of petty defiance was astounding.

To Leviathan, it was insulting. I saw him raise his other hand, like a cook getting ready to swat a fly. That man, he was about to die. Miss Militia was going to die. My dad was going to die. I was going to die. If something didn't happen, we were all going to die on that street.

Like hell!

Two years I had let life take and take and take. My mother, my friend, and my dignity. I had sat and taken it because I felt trapped, I felt there was no other way out. But at that moment, as trapped as I could be with no other route, I made my own way!

That Well of energy still swirled inside me. I had locked it down for fear of repeating what had happened on the lawn. But at that moment, as an Endbringer prepared to smite any and everyone one the street, I dove into that Well and drowned in it.

Strength surged into my body, and I screamed. With an effort of will I pushed against the Endbringers hand. My arms shook, my shoulders burned, and I bared my teeth. But somehow, someway, I forced open the hand of Leviathan. The Endbringer paused and looked at me with what I could only describe as surprise. It was enough for me. I sprung from his open hand, leaping a good ten or fifteen feet straight into the air towards his face. With one fluid movement, I pulled my arm back and hit the Endbringer in the eye on the right side of his face as hard as I could.

The air exploded, the rain around us flying in every direction. The force of my blow sent me flying back through the air. I skipped off the side of the ACP and crashed in a heap on the flooded street, grabbing into the asphalt with my fingers that left deep furrows before I skid to a stop. Leviathan's head whipped back and he staggered back one step… and then rolled his head back around to stare at me with three eyes. The fourth had gone dark.

Holy shit.

Holy shit!

I stared at my own fist in awe. The explosion of our impact had shredded the arm of my hoodie, but I was untouched. What's more, I could still feel that Well of power swirling inside me. That hadn't been a one-off. I had just hit an Endbringer hard enough to hurt it! And I knew then and there, that I could do it again!

Before reality could set it, before I stopped and thought about what I was doing, I was already moving. Scrambling across the asphalt on all fours until I got my feet underneath me, I poured power into my legs and bound across the street. The APC was the perfect springboard for me to bounce off of right at the Endbringer.

Leviathan swatted me aside with the back of his hand, and I went crashing through some unfortunate souls garage. I cut clean through it and left a furrow in their backyard. But I was alive, and that had only stung. I rolled my head back and forth, pulled my hair back out of my eyes, and went sprinting back through the hole I'd fallen through.

The Endbringer had turned his attention back to the APC; I could see dad and the trooper had put some distance between themselves and Leviathan thanks to my distraction. They were heading for Miss Militia, who looked like she wanted to yell at them to go literally anywhere else.

Leviathan's tail thumped against the ground once, kicking up water and concrete like it was mud. An idea occurred to me, and I sprinted harder and faster. I was way, way faster than I expected. Before, a hundred meter sprint left me gasping and wheezing for breath while I felt I was going to die. Now I covered the same distance in under three seconds and didn't even feel winded. I skid to a stop behind the Endbringer, and the very first thing I did was dig my hands into his tail.

There was a moment where the Endbringers head went up, and then twisted 180 degrees to look at me. His fourth eye had healed and if it was possible for an Endbringer to look unamused, he managed it. For some reason, I found myself not sympathetic. Instead, I put the tail over my shoulder and heaved like I was hitting a log with the world's largest ax.

Nine tons of Endbringer went soaring through the air and crashed into and through the street into the sewer below. I let out an insane laugh and spat into the hole.

"Not bad for a fresh cape, huh?!"

I was drunk on this newfound power. It was an intoxicating feeling having the power to actually fight back, and against the biggest monsters in the world, I was really drunk on it. I should've known better, I should have kept that tamped down. But the more I pulled power from the Well, the less I cared about things like 'subtlety' or 'collateral damage' or 'not being a total jackass when fighting one of the most dangerous monsters in the world'.

Leviathan shot from the cratered street like lightning, dragging tons of water behind him. He slammed his fist into me, sending me flying helpless into the air. I pinwheeled my arms and legs, trying to orient myself. All I managed was to see the Endbringers giant hand reach up and grab me by the skull.

He slammed me into the ground with enough force to shatter the street and shake the surrounding earth. Three times he did this, and then once more for good measure. Each time I felt every bone in my body screaming, my joints and skin burning as concrete and pipes shattered and clawed at my body with each crash. After the fourth, he flung me across the street. I skipped across the ground like a stone, cartwheeled once like a ragdoll, slammed face first into someone's tree, and then slumped to the ground in a heap of aching limbs and flesh.

"Taylor!"

My vision swam as I gathered my senses. Something warm dripped onto my upper lip. I reached up and my fingers came away with blood; I had a bloody nose. At the back of my mind I realized that someone was still screaming my name. I groaned and rolled onto my stomach, before pushing myself up into an awkward kneeling position. For some reason everything was an inconsistent blur around me. I realized my glasses had been shattered at some point by Leviathan.

Great.

I staggered to my feet and idly noted I'd lost my shoes in my ragdolling. The ground was hard and wet, but it didn't hurt. Or maybe it did and the rest of my body just hurt so much more it didn't register. Again, I heard someone shout my name, but this time I realized who it was.

Dad.

My feet were moving before I gave the command, and I made an awkward hobbling run towards his voice. Even through the rain and the wind and my own terrible vision, I could see what had happened.

The trooper, who's name I still didn't know, was unconscious in the ruins of a nearby car. Miss Militia was alive but unconscious. And Dad… was in the claws of Leviathan.

"Dad!"

All fatigue was gone as I pulled from the Well and felt new energy wash away the aches and pains from my injuries. I started to move, to charge at Leviathan and remind him that I could in fact hit him hard enough to hurt. Then he did something I didn't expect.

The Endbringer held up my father so I could see him, and squeezed just hard enough for him to yell in pain. I stopped, and so did Leviathan. We stared at each other, through the wind and the rain. Street lights casting strange twisting shadows along his scaly hide, made stranger by my poor eyesight.

Leviathan looked at my father, and then at me. Then he brought Dad to his chest and… I don't know how to describe what I saw. His flesh, Leviathan's flesh, peeled open in a thousand layers, each swaying slow in the wind like underwater flora. Dad struggled and screamed as Leviathan held him to this and I watched as my father was… absorbed into the Endbringers torso, screaming until he was gone.

I fell to my knees, unable to process what had just happened. With my hearing, I could Listen and hear Dad still alive inside the Endbringer. His heart beat had slowed and the screaming had stopped, but he was still alive. A prisoner to one of the worst monsters on the planet. And there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

With all the power I had, at best I had been able to distract and slow down Leviathan. But, I had seen the things he was capable of. I knew in the rational part of my mind that the only reason I had been any kind of roadblock for the Endbringer was because he had let me be. The moment I had become an actual hindrance, he had knocked me aside like I was nothing. I was just an obstacle that he ignored, because even with all my power, I was still powerless.

My hands balled into fists and I slammed into the ground hard enough to crack it.

"Fuck you!" I screamed, at Leviathan, at the world, or at my life I don't know. Years of frustration and anger came pouring out of me like a fountain. Again and again I slammed my hands against the ground until I left craters.

Tears streamed down my face, washed away in the rain. "Why? Why do this to me? What did I do to deserve any of this? It's not fair! It's not fucking fair! I didn't do anything wrong! I just wanted to live a normal fucking life, why am I being punished for that!?"

The Endbringer didn't leave, but he didn't attack either. He just… stared at me as I screamed obscenities at him. Something caught his attention though. Through the tears and the rain and my own awful eyesight, I saw the Endbringers eyes flick up. And then, I saw something I never expected to see.

Leviathan, the sinker of cities and bringer of the end times, took a step back with what I could only describe as pure terror on his face.

I turned around, and started crying again

Lightning crackled behind Supergirl and the wind tore at her cape, and her eyes burned with the fury of the sun. She floated ten feet off the ground, and descended until she was standing by my side. Then, those eyes of hers cooled and I saw that kind face that had greeted me out of the locker.

"Y-you came back. I thought you… left." I whimpered.

Supergirl knelt beside me and offered a hand, "I'm not going anywhere, Taylor."

I took her hand, and she pulled me to my feet. She put a hand on my shoulder and said, "I'll take it from here, Taylor. Get the others to safety."

"W-wait, my dad!" I pointed at Leviathan, who had slowly fallen to all fours and crouched like a lion ready to pounce. But he hadn't moved otherwise.

Supergirl glanced at Leviathan, and anger flashed in her eyes. "I know. I'll save your dad, I promise. And remember…"

"...You have a habit of keeping your promises." I finished, remembering her words to me. Felt like years ago after all that had happened.

I stepped back, and let Supergirl float forward. She folded her arms, and regarded Leviathan with a cold fury. "You have a hostage now, you're expecting me to hold back so it's an even fight."

She rolled her head and cracked her knuckles, "Unfortunately for you, Leviathan, I have a lot of practice pulling my punches."

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.11​

Armsmaster had to swerve to avoid another car. When the Endbringer Sirens had sounded, traffic had steadily grown worse and worse. It was to the point that most people had abandoned their cars in the mad dash for shelter. A brave handful of BBPD officers were the only thing that kept the streams of people rushing through the streets from degenerating into flatout chaos. It was frustrating, but it was something that Armsmaster had planned for in the eventuality of an Endbringer attack.

Mass chaos and panic were an inevitability in these kinds of events, and he had a half dozen contingencies in place for all of them. Though the truth was, even with all his planning, he had been caught flat footed. When an Endbringer attacked, they had around ten to twenty minutes to prepare. Not a lot, but it gave time for more heroes to be gathered and for the frontliners to meet and hopefully slow the Endbringer. It was a messy tactic, but it saved lives.

Today, they had had five minutes.

To make matters worse, this attack broke the usual 'cycle'. It was both early, and the wrong Endbringer; the Simurgh had been next in the lineup, not Leviathan. But of course, this was all built on the assumption that no one messed with the Endbringers between attacks. An assumption that Supergirl had shattered, and now they were all paying the price for. The one saving grace was that he had been at one of his landbound auxiliary workshops when Leviathan went on the assault, as opposed to his primary workshop on the Rig.

Armsmaster's HUD flashed an alternate route around a pile up. Half a dozen cars and trucks that had lost control in the sudden downpour. A man and woman saw him and tried to wave him down. Armsmaster ignored them, there was no time to stop and help.. If Leviathan was allowed to run rampant, more would die. He sent a ping to the local emergency responders; if they had manpower to spare, they'd help those people and let Armsmaster focus on the Endbringer.

He veered around the crash and left it behind, grinding his teeth as he did. Damn Supergirl for this. Damn her for dragging this mess to his city. Capes like her were as much trouble as they were help. She might have cleaned up the ABB but she had brought something so much worse to Brockton Bay. They'd already lost Miss Militia, her comms had gone dead several minutes ago and Armsmaster was en route to her location. Best case scenario, the local Protectorate was going to be decimated by Leviathan's attack. Worse case scenario, by the end of the day the only thing that would be left of the city would be a water filled crater. And that would be on her head too.

Yes she was strong, maybe one of the strongest capes in the world behind Scion. But even Scion couldn't kill an Endbringer, just drive them off. She had started a fight she couldn't win, and hundreds of thousands of people were going to lose their lives because of it. If Supergirl were here right now, he'd tear into her for her recklessness.

Skyscrapers started to turn into smaller businesses, and Armsmaster could see the Towers, the hilly neighborhoods occupied by the wealthier part of Brockton Bay's population, coming up. If he was lucky, he'd be able to link up with New Wave and prepare a proper assault. The PRT was already on full alert contacting all available heroes and rogues in the city, even contacting elements from the local gangs. Dragon was fully devoting herself to organizing outside assistance and had cut her line to him when he deployed. With enough time, they'd have more reinforcements to handle Leviathan. But until that point…

All thinking and planning came to a halt for Armsmaster, when a crack split the air and he felt a tremor in the atmosphere. His HUD flashed a warning in bright red letters that read, 'Incoming Projectile!'. He wrenched his bike to the side and almost skid parallel to the street. Only his personal skill and modifications built into his bike kept him from tumbling over and crashing into a crowd of teenagers on the street. He came to a stop in a cloud of smoke and ignored the stench of burnt rubber. His focus was locked onto the sky.

A moment later, Supergirl came falling out of the sky to crash into the street. She bounced one, two, three times across it like a skipping stone before getting her feet under her and skidding to a stop directly across from the armored cape. Supergirl stood up, ran both hands through her hair and let out a slow pent up breath. Then she noticed Armsmaster.

"Oh thank you Rao." She sighed and walked up to Armsmaster like she'd just run into him at the mall. "Armsmaster, Leviathan's made landfall. I'm giving as good as I can, but I need you to evacuate civilians, I can only do so much with the risk of collateral damage."

She looked at the teenagers, and smiled and waved at them, "Don't worry folks, everything is under control!"

When she looked back at Armsmaster, she finally seemed to notice his unamused expression. He stabbed a finger at her, "Do you have any idea how many lives you've-"

Her head whipped to the side and she held up a finger to shush him, "Hold that thought."

Armsmaster shoved his indignation down and followed her gaze. Leviathan burst from beneath the far end of the street, galloping towards the both of them on all fours. The ground trembled on his approach, pipes and watermains uprooted themselves in his wake, and the rain hammered down on them. A miniature storm hung from Leviathan like a cloak, whipping with a mind of its own against the wind that raged around them. Then, the air around them shuddered.

That wasn't from Leviathan. Armsmaster looked at the rain frozen around them, at the debris lifting off the ground of its own accord, and Supergirl's cape lifting like the hackles on a feral animal.. The pavement shuddered, the street bucked, and Supergirl shot across the road faster than a speeding bullet. Armsmaster only saw a blur of blue and red, but it collided with Leviathan so hard that, for the briefest moment, it stopped raining.

Leviathan soared over the path of destruction he had left in a trail of black ichor and shimmering water. The storm itself seemed to reach out and try to catch or slow his flight, to moderate success. A moment later, Leviathan crashed into the graveyard of ships located at the city's north end. A plume of steel and earth geysered into the sky.

Supergirl landed back by Armsmaster's side, "Sorry, you were saying something?"

Armsmaster worked his mouth a few times, finding this to be one of the few times in his life he could remember being speechless. He looked back in the direction of the graveyard, which was already alive with activity. Then he looked back at this young woman, this girl that he had seen do the impossible multiple times. She had fought the Simurgh to a standstill, had deflected light with sheer physical force and had survived fighting Leviathan in the heart of his domain for almost half an hour without a scratch to show for it. If there was anyone in the city, anyone on Earth that could hold Leviathan off, let alone beat him, it was her.

He'd only get in the way.

Something inside Armsmaster broke at that moment. Like a spring that had been wound too tight and snapped. He slumped on his bike and put a hand to the side of his helmet. Supergirl put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked. There was nothing but genuine concern and care in her face.

He brushed her off, "I'm fine. You'll get your evacuation, Supergirl. I was going to link up with New Wave anyway. We'll see what we can do."

She smiled and nodded, and started to take off into the air. Armsmaster grabbed her by the wrist before she could go, and spoke in a low tone.

"I saw what you did with the Simurgh. We know what you can do, Supergirl. Don't hold back, don't let Leviathan get the advantage. Kill it. Save us."

Supergirl's face was unreadable, but there was a steel in her eyes, and an edge in her voice when she spoke. "No one else dies today, Armsmaster. I promise. And I keep my promises."

And then she was gone, chasing after Leviathan in the direction she had sent him flying. Armsmaster spared a second to watch her go. Then he turned to the teens in front of him.

"Alright, you heard the lady! Let's get you kids to shelter!"

While the teens jumped and did as he said, Armsmaster set a notification to himself. After this, he was going back to that pile up. Those people were going to need his help.

-S- ​

"We need to move, come on!" Grue shouted over the storm. Even with the raging wind, the sheets of rain and the lightning overhead, and the distance between the dogs, he somehow made himself heard to the others.

'No shit,' Tattletale thought to herself while clinging to the back of Angelica. She still wasn't used to riding Bitch's dogs, and she wasn't sure she ever would be. But with the state of the city and a fucking Endbringer on their front door, it was preferable to running through the streets.

The Docks were currently a hell on Earth. Anyone with a lick of sense, from the average gangbanger to the lowest homeless person, knew that being at the Docks when Leviathan hit was a death sentence. It was a river of people fleeing farther inland now, pure chaos. Tattletale tried not to watch the crowds. She felt pity for them, but she knew that most of them were probably going to be dead before the end of the day. Hell, odds were good that she'd be dead before the end of the day

Maybe if they made it to the PRT Headquarters before Levithan made landfall they'd have a chance of surviving. Unlike the Protectorates base out on the bay, the greater PRT had a land based headquarters. In the case of an attack from an Endbringer, most capes willing to fight would be heading there. If Levithan was attacking, then that was even more likely.

In fact, Tattletale was willing to be that the Protectorate was going to lose their fancy headquarters very soon, if Leviathan had his way.

None of this was immediately relevant to events at hand, but thinking about it was a good way to get her mind off the very real terror eating her alive. Her hands were clenched so tight on the spikes jutting from Angelica's back that her hands had gone numb. She had to make a focus of will to keep her breathing steady and clear. Some days she was annoyed at not having full control of the Undersiders, but today she was glad Grue was their nominal leader.

Oh sure, he was freaking the fuck out on the inside. One look at him and her power had immediately informed her how close he was to shitting his pants. Considering the circumstances though, that seemed like a pretty reasonable reaction. A sort of grim silence had fallen over the Undersiders since the Sirens had sounded. Regent had been uncharacteristically silent the entire time, and Bitch… well she was still Bitch, but right now that was a blessing. Grue though, he was holding it together, barely.

It helped that getting to the PRT HQ would get him close to home. He had family there, and making sure they were alive and well was his driving force. Until they got there, he'd keep it together. Afterwards… Tattletale tried not to think that far ahead. Just surviving the next few minutes would be good enough.

Some people pointed and screamed at their passing, the sight of Bitch's massive dogs always drew attention. More than a few screams though, were pleas for help. No one here wanted to die, and they were willing to set aside their fear for a chance at living just a little bit longer.

They ignored them, continued on their way across the Docks as fast as the dogs could move. There was no joking, no talking, no discussion. Just a focus on their destination and surviving until then.

A crack in the air jerked Tattletales attention away from staring at the dogs back toward Downtown. That had not been thunder, that had been something worse. If Leviathan had already made landfall…

Bitch yelled a command, making all three dogs grind to a halt. Regent, clinging hard to Grue, looked up at her with anger, "Why the fuck did you do that!? We need to move!"

"Shut up, look." Bitch pointed at the sky. It was hard to see at first, the storm clouds had grown so thick that Brockton Bay was shrouded in night. But then, Tattletale saw it; Leviathan hurtling through the air overhead, and crashing a mile or two behind them in the Boat Graveyard.

"Did they know he was coming ahead of time?" Grue asked, "Did they bring in the Triumvirate already?"

There was an earnest hope in his voice that Tattletale found herself agreeing with. If the Triumvirate were in Brockton already, there was a good chance they'd survive the day. At least, better odds than going without them.

Grue shook his head, "Enough gawking. We'll know for sure once we hit downtown."

Bitch whistled and the dogs started off again on their loping gate along the city skyline. They had made it maybe a mile farther inland, when the ground shook. Pavement shuddered and coiled like a snake, writhing as the ground beneath it exploded and the waterlines breached, spewing their contents into the sky.

The sprinkler system of an entire building that Angelica was galloping across pulled itself up and out of the building's roof. The dog yelped and stumbled, trying to keep upright even as the entire five story building started to collapse in on itself. Tattletale tried to hold on, but the sudden movement and her own numb fingers knocked her loose. She screamed and clawed at the side of her mount, her nails tearing at uneven bone plates and coming away bloody. Despite her efforts, she went flying off the dog and off the side of the building. Fifty feet into shattered pavement and skyward pointing pipes below.

Not the way she wanted to go, but the kind of way she should've expected in an Endbringer attack. Sudden, violent, and undignified.

She had read stories from people in near death experiences. How they felt at peace or calm despite what was coming their way. Tattletale envied them, envied that peace. All she could do was scream her terror and her fury. She didn't want to die, not yet and not like this.

But, she didn't die.

Tattletale was falling and screaming one moment, and the next she felt herself in strong arms flying through the air. Her scream died in her throat and she whirled her head around. The first thing she saw was a large stylized S directly in front of her.

"You okay miss?" a warm voice asked. A kind young woman looked down at Tattletale in her arms even as they flew.

Tattletale instantly recognized the cape: Supergirl.

Now, Tattletale was not a villain by choice; not the kind of villain that the Undersiders were, anyway. She had been co opted into this life, forced by someone with a lot more power that the Protectorate barely seemed aware of. Her power, her ability to analyze and know things about people that no one would otherwise figure out, had been seen as a valuable asset, which was why she had a metaphorical gun to her head.

And her boss, had been very interested in the sudden appearance of Supergirl. Given that the cape had all but destroyed the ABB overnight, Tattletale couldn't blame him. She'd done what she could, researched what she could find about the girl. All dead ends. No local identity, no idea of who'd she been before her powers or where she might have come from. The only thing she'd been able to learn so far before the Sirens hit, was that she had first appeared in Houston before hitting Brockton like a sack of bricks.

Honestly, Tattletale had expected Supergirl to bust them in the next week or two on their next heist. Everything about her powers put her in the same bracket as the Triumvirate, and the Undersiders didn't have anywhere close to the kind of muscle they'd need to deal with that. Getting rescued by Supergirl had never been in the cards.

Supergirl landed on a building ahead of the rest of the Undersiders, and brushed some dirt off Tattletales shoulder. She examined her broken nails and winced sympathetically. "I'd get those cleaned up and looked at. But otherwise, no broken bones, internal bleeding, or blunt trauma. You'll be fine, miss."

X-Ray vision, she can see your internal organs . Her power informed her.

"I'd recommend clearing out as soon as possible. I gave Leviathan a wallop, but he's already moving."

Believes Leviathan is actively targeting her.

Tattletale took a step away from Supergirl, "Y-yeah, we were already on our way downtown."

Supergirl nodded and lifted into the air. "Good idea. Armsmaster is organizing evacuations right now, that's the safest place you could be."

By this point the others had gathered on the roof. Bitch remained on the back of Brutus. All three dogs watched Supergirl with caution. Grue stood up on Judas' back, "You okay, Tattletale?"

"We need to go Grue, it's about to get violent!" She responded, already clambering onto Angelica's back.

No sooner had the words left her mouth, that a crash came from the North. Tattletale spared a glance to see Leviathan plow through a pair of warehouses and fling himself onto the roof of an old office building. He galloped across the city skyline, all four of his eyes dead set on Supergirl. A living stormcloud raged around his body, hissing like a swarm of locust and eating through anything that passed too close to his body.

Single Minded focus on Supergirl. Accelerating water around him at speeds fast enough to disintegrate steel. Making a last stand against her; will drain all his energy to kill her, if necessary.

Supergirl was there one moment. The next, she was a blur headed straight for Leviathan. The Endbringer made a hard right turn around her, his water clone still barreling towards her with all the same deadly speed and force. Leviathan's foot gripped the roof, and he twisted on it. The clone hit Supergirl first, detonating like a bomb. Then, Levithan brought his fist down on top of Supergirl.

Supergirl caught it with one hand even as the building beneath her shuddered and sagged from the impact. And then she suplexed him into the very same building.

Holding back her power to avoid collateral damage. Knows she can kill Leviathan. Doesn't want to hurt his hostage.

Tattletale turned to the others, also gawking at what they were watching. "Guys, we gotta go now. We stick around, we're going to be a greasy smear on the pavement."

Bitch nodded, and whistled a command at her dogs. Angelica started beneath Tattletale, forcing her to grab on tight again. They moved fast, even as a battle between gods erupted behind them. Tattletale, despite the growing headache, spared one last look behind her to see what was unfolding.

The city's water supply was pouring up and around Leviathan, acting as living weapons to attack, distract, and debilitate Supergirl. She kept her distance, dodging each one with contemptuous ease. And then fire erupted from her eyes, instantly evaporating Leviathan's attack into a fine mist. The beam slammed into the Endbringer and dragged him through several miles of dock into the trainyards.

Still feeling out Leviathan's limit. Is not even approaching the full use of her powers.

'Could have fooled me,' Tattletale thought. Even Scion didn't bully the Endbringers like that.

'Anything else you want to share, power?' she added sarcastically.

Supergirl isn't human.

-S- ​

Vicky and Amy didn't make it very far after their encounter with Leviathan. At the edge of the Boardwalk, they both collapsed together. Vicky let out a series of frantic and vicious curses while Amy sucked in short frantic breaths. The image of Leviathan's face, his eyes , was burned into her brain. Every blink, every glance at the sky or reflection in the water, she just saw those thousand eyes staring back at her. There was no way that Leviathan had ever been human. Nothing on Earth could have turned into something like that .

"We should be dead." Vicky droned. She stared at her hand and flexed her fingers. A physical reminder that she was here, she was alive. Face to face with Leviathan, and she had come out alive.

"Why didn't he kill us?" Amy asked, a quiver in her voice.

Vicky shook her head, and forced herself to her feet, dragging her sister with her. "I have no idea, and I don't intend to find out."

They had been lucky that Leviathan had spared them. Vicky had no intention of pressing that luck. Her sister grabbed her arm before they could start moving again.

"Wait, Vicky, I…" Amy found a new interest in her feet as she spoke. "Sorry, about lying to you. I was just jealous and acted like an idiot. You're my sister, I shouldn't have done that."

The indignant fire that had pushed Vicky earlier had dimmed to a smoldering ember. A confrontation with her own mortality had made the entire argument seem pretty petty at this point. But just because it had dimmed, didn't mean it was gone.

Vicky pulled her sister into a one arm hug and lifted off the ground, "We'll talk about it later, Ames. Then I'll consider forgiving you. But right now, there's an Endbringer on the loose, and people need our help."

There wasn't a chance in hell that they could take on Leviathan. Stronger heroes had tried and failed. But Vicky could still save lives, make sure there were people left to rebuild when Leviathan was done. At least, she had to try.

A strange thought occurred to Vicky as she flew them to the PRT HQ. Leviathan wasn't just accompanied by storms. When he made landfall, he brought tidal waves with him, but so far Brockton Bay remained dry. For a relative use of the term anyway. Even the storm that had heralded Leviathan's arrival didn't seem as bad as it could be. It wasn't great, but the fact that Vicky was able to fly through it with a passenger and not feel like she was going to get swatted out of the sky any moment was a good sign.

This didn't put Vicky at ease in the slightest. When an Endbringer started deviating from what was expected, that meant something very big and very nasty was about on its way. Leviathan had at least two sunken islands under his belt. What he could be planning now…

Vicky's brooding was interrupted by Amy tapping on her shoulder. Her sister wordlessly pointed north, the way they had come. The rain limited visibility on details, and the distance didn't help. But Vicky still got a good idea of what her sister was pointing at.

What she had thought was thunder was the crack of someone beating the unholy piss out of Leviathan. Every blow sent rippling shockwaves through the rain, shaking it down in greater sheets. This was occasionally accompanied by a flash of crimson that arced from the Docks all the way to the opposite side of the bay.

The sisters exchanged a look, but said nothing. They didn't need to. Vicky recognized that kind of energy attack. She had seen Supergirl use it to cut off a crook's path of escape. But that had been a laser pointer in comparison to the death beam that lanced through the sky. That couldn't possibly be the same person. Yet, Supergirl had taken down the ABB and Lung overnight…

How much had she been holding back when they were fighting crime together?

"You don't think that Supergirl…" Amy didn't finish her line of thought, even if it had occurred to Vicky.

"No, no way." Vicky shook her head. "She wouldn't have done that."

That was what she believed anyway. But it was hard to say. While Vicky felt she had a pretty good read on Karren, they had known each other for two days. Vicky was trying to be optimistic, but she had no idea if Supergirl really had gone off and picked a fight with an Endbringer after her little spat with Amy. And to be honest, that line of thought wasn't going to get them anywhere.

The rest of their flight, Vicky would glance over her shoulder at the chaos unfolding. They were far enough away that the only thing she could see was an occasional flash of heat vision that would light up the storm and paint the sky red. Ominous didn't begin to describe how that felt.

The PRT HQ was a chaotic mess when they arrived.

The streets immediately surrounding it were blocked off by flood-blockers and armored transports, the former of which seemed superfluous given the relative light rainfall. PRT troopers moved in patrols, and more guided civilians either into or away from the building. An occasional blur of red could be seen coming and going from the checkpoints, Velocity at work. Vicky also noted Assault and Battery clearing abandoned cars from the nearby streets and assisting with guiding lost civilians. Triumph was standing on the roof of the building, using his enhanced voice to better direct the chaos through the rain when needed.

What caught Vicky's eye though, was Armsmaster at the front entrance, talking with the entirety of New Wave. She descended through the rain over the crowds straight for them. Her mother immediately noticed them, and the conversation with Armsmaster halted as Carol and Mark rushed over to their daughters. The rest of New Wave was quick to converge on the two of them, a chorus of concern and relief at their arrival.

Carol wrapped Vicky in a tight hug, her voice in hysterics, "Victoria Dallon, don't you ever make me worry like that again!"

Vicky sighed, "Mom, we're fine. We had a close call with Leviathan, but… we're okay."

Her mother stepped back and stared at her daughter hard. It was hard to tell if there were tears in her eyes or if it was just the rain. Vicky shifted uncomfortably, and said again, "We're fine. I promise."

She looked past her mother, at Armsmaster, and asked, "Is… Is Gallant okay? We got here as fast as we could, but things were complicated before Leviathan hit."

Armsmaster nodded, "Dauntless is on his way, he stopped to pick Gallant up on his way. The rest of the Wards are inside getting prepped."

"Where am I needed?" Amy asked, reminding everyone of her existence.

Armsmaster pointed inside, "We're converting the motor pool into an emergency medical camp. It's sealed off and water tight. So far, casualties have been incredibly low. More from the initial panic than Leviathan."

He gestured for New Wave to follow him inside out of the rain. The inside was as chaotic as outside. Lost citizens were tended to by PRT staff, either reuniting them with family or keeping them from panicking. Staffers rushed to and fro to deliver supplies or messages. Yet, for an Endbringer attack, it was surprisingly tame. A fact that everyone in the building seemed aware of. The tension that Vicky had felt on their flight over was palpable in the air. The entire city had expected Leviathan to hit him with everything he had; now they were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"We've started coordinating with the remaining gangs in the city." Armsmaster explained as he led them deeper inside. "Kaiser has always abided by the Truce, and his people are either helping with evacuation or on their way to provide support. The Merchants are harder to get in contact with, but haven't caused trouble. Coil remains incognito, don't expect much from him. Dragon has dispatched Strider, he's collecting outside reinforcements. Best case scenario is that we'll have Triumvirate support in the next ten to fifteen minutes."

In any other circumstance, that would have excited Vicky. The opportunity to stand against the Endbringers with Alexandria, one of her idols? That would have been amazing. But the reality of the situation was enough to damper that excitement. And then there was the fact that Supergirl seemed to be handing Levithan his scaly ass on a platter.

They were led to a large briefing room that Vicky had never personally been to, but had heard Dean talk about before. It was a gathering place for reports, and strategizing for the Protectorate branch of the PRT. The Wards were gathered around it in full costume now: Aegis in his red bodysuit, Clockblocker in his clock-themed armor, Vista with her armored green and white dress, and Kid Win in his crimson and golden body armor. Only Dean and Shadow Stalker were unaccounted for.

Aegis nodded at Vicky and Vista gave her a wave that she returned. Armsmaster circled the table until he was at the head of it, and New Wave settled around it opposite the Wards. He flicked on a wall mounted monitor that showed a map of Brockton Bay.

"Alright, listen up everyone. Leviathan has, as of this moment, been active in the city for roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. Under ordinary circumstances, the Protectorate would already have been deployed to deal with this. But these are not ordinary circumstances."

The image on screen swapped to a picture of Supergirl from her BBN interview. "Since making landfall, Supergirl has been engaged with Leviathan. Near as we can tell… she has the situation under control."

There was a note of what Vicky could only describe as 'resigned bitterness' in Armsmasters voice. The Wards looked amongst themselves whispering in shock. There was shock amongst New Wave, but Vicky noted it was only from her aunt's side of the team. They hadn't had time to get to know Karren, yet.

"Supergirl engaged Leviathan shortly after landfall. Since then, Leviathan has made several attempts to move farther inland towards the city. Supergirl has, as of this moment, kept him confined to the Docks."

"Hold on." Clockblocker spoke up, "This new kid, this literal day one newbie… just decided to take on a fucking Endbringer one on one, and she's winning ?"

"That's a matter of debate." Armsmaster said, his voice emotionless. "However, Dragon has deployed drones to track their engagement as it moves, and the results speak for themselves."

The image flickered again, to a grainy silent video of the Docks, a good chunk of it flattened now. Fires raged through old warehouses and sizzled under the torrent of rain. The bay threatened to spill over and onto the docks, but so far was restrained. And at the center of it all, was Supergirl and Leviathan.

A blur of red and blue against a blur of green, everytime they collided the air around them shuddered and the drone dropped several feet. It was a constant fight just to stay airborne. Vicky watched with open amazement at the fight unfolding. Never in her life had she seen any cape handle Leviathan as easily as Supergirl did. She'd seen footage of Eidolon holding his own, of Scion sending them packing and even Alexandria knocking them around. But aside from Scion, most of them had just held the line.

Supergirl looked like she was winning.

Leviathan jumped a hundred feet across the docks, both hands clasped overhead, and brought them down on Supergirl. A crater the size of a high school football stadium formed under the impact. When Leviathan pulled his arms away, a person sized hole was at the center of it. Supergirl burst from the ground behind him a moment later, grabbing him by the tail and flipping him over into the earth. His impact caused a crater the size of an olympic stadium to form. A low tremor shook the PRT HQ.

Vicky looked up at the trembling lights. The others exchanged quiet glances while Armsmaster shut off the video feed.

"Supergirl is holding her own. Leviathan is, at the moment, contained. However, any time Leviathan has made his way into more populated areas, Supergirl has made a notable effort to either remove him, or been forced to restrain herself. Which is where we come in. If Supergirl is able to fight off Leviathan, then our job is to make that as easy as possible for her."

Vista raised her hand. Armsmaster paused and said, "Yes, Vista?"

"What about the tidal waves? I thought the big threat with Leviathan was that he started flooding the cities he attacked?"

"Ordinarily, yes." Armsmaster agreed. "But, we know why that's not the case. Dragon has been maintaining satellite watch since Leviathan started his approach. In his initial assault, she detected signs that he was going to repeat this strategy."

He paused, and there was that bitterness in his voice again, "Until Supergirl intervened. I don't know the specifics, but my understanding is that she flew in front of the resulting tidal waves at repeated supersonic frequencies. Basically, Supergirl stopped the tidal waves before they could land, and has apparently occupied enough of Leviathan's attention that he can't summon more."

The stunned silence that followed this was broken by, of course, Clockblocker.

"Well shit." He said. "Why are we even here at this point?"

Aegis cuffed him on the head, "Because we still need to get people to safety, and there's no guarantee Supergirl can keep this up. We have to be prepared for the worst."

Armsmaster nodded at Aegis, "Well said. Which brings us to assignments. I've already deployed most of the Protectorate, but given the situation it's all hands on deck. Gallant will be joining us soon as well Shadow Stalker. In the meantime…"

He went over assignments for everyone. Panacea would remain at the HQ to help with the injured, most of New Wave would be deployed to help with evacuations. Vicky, Aegis, her cousin, Laserdream, and her aunt, Lady Photon, would be deployed to find Miss Militia. She had been assigned to bring a new Parahuman trigger back to the Rig when Leviathan had hit and Armsmaster had lost contact with her.

Vicky of course, knew who the new trigger was. Her trigger event had jump started this whole mess, though Vicky and Amy had neglected to mention this to Armsmaster.

The storm had not abated when they left the PRT HQ. But she could still hear the echo of Supergirls combat against Leviathan. Everyone in the city could, at this point. There wasn't anything Vicky could do at this point to physically help her. But saving lives? That, she could do.

She just hoped that Miss Militia and Taylor were okay, wherever they were.

 

[Tontis]

Arrival 1.12​

I peeled Miss Militia's ruined bike off her like it was a kids toy. Her legs were bent at an awkward angle, but I didn't see any blood, which was a good sign. She was still unconscious, but she was breathing and didn't seem to be getting worse. Though, I really had no idea what I should have been looking for, or what I should do if I found something bad. But Supergirl had asked me to get her out of danger, and I wasn't going to argue with my thrice savior who had been able to punt an Endbringer across half the city.

"Don't move her, miss." a voice said from behind me. I turned and saw the PRT trooper, the man who's name I did not know, limping towards me. He'd lost his helmet at some point and pulled off the mask he'd been wearing under. His skin was dark and his head shaved. There were jaws less square than his, but I recognized the kindness in his eyes.

There was a first aid kit in his hands, and some sort of black canvas bag in the other. He set both down and let out a grunt of pain when he knelt next to Miss Militia. "Not trying to boss you around. But we don't know if she has anything bad internally going on. She's still breathing which is good, but best not to move her until we got that stretcher setup." he pointed at the canvas bag.

"Sorry to ask this, but you mind getting that ready while I make sure MM here is okay?"

I nodded and grabbed the bag, "Y-yeah, I can do that."

The emergency stretcher was surprisingly intuitive to put together, even half blind and in the rain. Just a bunch of interconnecting aluminum tubes stringing a person sized length of canvas between them. Though given it was an 'emergency' stretcher, I guess making it idiot proof was half the point.

The trooper finished doing what he could for Miss Militia, and carefully laid her out straight. Together, we lifted her onto the stretcher. Before we picked her up though,the PRT Trooper handed me something. A loose fitting mask lacking any markings or descriptions. I realized it was the old mask he'd been wearing. Now completely soaked through, but by this point I was so soaked that I had forgotten what it felt like to be dry.

He shrugged, "Figured, if we survive this, you'd appreciate having a secret identity. Privacy is a luxury, but it's your call."

I took the mask and pulled it on. If I'd had a hair tie, I would have pulled my hair in a ponytail. But I had to survive with letting it fan out on my back like a wet mop. A shudder of revulsion ran through me, but I nodded my thanks to the Trooper.

We picked up the stretcher Miss Militia was on, and began the long walk towards the PRT HQ. The rain continued to come down in sheets. Even with my glasses, I would have been hard pressed to see more than a few feet ahead. Instead, I focused on following the pavement, one step at a time. In the distance, thunder rumbled; at least, I assumed it was thunder.

As we walked, I found it hard to keep focused on the task at hand and not what was happening across the city, or what might happen. For the last two years, I'd been stuck planning for what 'could be' and now I was finding it an impossible habit to break. The fact was, while I was glad to be making myself useful, it terrified me to think about what would happen if Supergirl failed. If she couldn't rescue my dad.

Losing mom had been bad, and I had lost part of dad when she was gone. But the thought of feeling that same emptiness all over again, of waking up and not even seeing my own father in the morning… That scared me more than any Endbringer could. It was a personal and real terror that I couldn't lock away. I had lived through it once, I was not ready to live through it again.

There were two things that kept me from letting that thought overwhelm me. The first, was this stubborn refusal to die. I was still breathing, still moving, and people actually depended on me. I would not, could not stop even if I wanted to. But the other, more dominant one, was a feeling I wasn't familiar with.

Despite everything, despite the very real threat of Leviathan looming over my home, I knew in the deepest part of my soul that Supergirl would keep her promise. Through the fiercest storm, against the greatest monsters the world had seen, I knew with every fiber of my being that if anyone could save my father, it was her. That was the first time in years that I think I felt this way about anyone.

It made my chest hurt just thinking about it.

Another rumble of thunder shook the air. I looked skyward, and frowned. The storm still raged, but it didn't feel like the world-ending hurricane it had. The wind had dropped, the rain fell in great sheets instead of waves, and I could see flickers of light in the cloud cover overhead. No, wait, I was seeing the clouds themselves moving northward. It had taken me a moment to realize what was happening; I missed my glasses.

I looked over my shoulder in the direction of the thunder and that the clouds were drifting. The PRT Trooper was doing the same, and let out a low whistle. "I've seen my share of capes kick ass… but this new girl, she's on a different level."

He looked back at me, must have seen something concerning on my face, and tried to smile at me reassuringly. Without my glasses, that amounted to a white crescent splitting open an inky smudge. Not exactly comforting.

I looked ahead again, and followed the pavement. A nagging voice at the back of my skull made me speak up before I could lock it down.

"Sir, I never got your name." I said.

He chuckled, "No need for formalities, kid. You fought an Endbringer for my sorry ass, that's worthy of a first name basis. Names Irons, John Henry Irons. Pleasure to meet you, Taylor. I can call you Taylor, right?"

A smile tugged at my lips, and I nodded without looking back at him, "Yeah, Taylor's fine. And I should be thanking you, John. You attacked Leviathan with a gun to try and save me and my dad."

"That's just part of the job." I could hear the shrug in his voice, "Putting my life on the line for others, comes with the badge. You though, you've already been through hell. If you'd run off the moment you were free, I wouldn't have blamed you. It took some real courage to stand up against Leviathan like that. Protectorate could do with someone like you. Ya know, a real hero on the team."

I felt a flush creep up my cheeks. There hadn't been any real thought when I attacked Leviathan, just anger and indignation. Leviathan had targeted us, for some reason, and made things personal. Now that I had even an inkling of power I had wanted to lash out at a world that had had it out for me for years. A part of me might have done it to buy time for John and my dad to escape, but it had really been an act of catharsis and fury. Hardly the noble and heroic act John described it as.

I had enough tact not to say this though. Instead I managed to mumble out an awkward thanks, and we continued on our way.

It didn't take as long as I expected for us to reach the outskirts of Downtown. Our little transport had been taken out only a few miles away, and with my new strength we made good time. Most of the crowds had already dispersed by this point too. We had run into a few strays, but most people avoided us. I think the fact that we were carrying someone injured made them think we'd slow them down.

The fact that the injured was a hero that had put her life on the line for the city so many times, and no one even spared her a second glance, wasn't lost on me. It was about what I expected from anyone in Brockton Bay. Why put their own lives on the line for someone that was just going to slow them down?

I glanced over my shoulder at Miss Militia. She had regained consciousness at some point, but the pain of her injuries had left her dazed and unresponsive. I imagined she had a few broken bones at least, and who knows how much internal damage. Laid out like this, soaked to the bone, she didn't look like the heroic figure I'd seen on the TV and in posters. She just looked like a normal woman that had gotten in over her head and almost paid the ultimate price for it.

Any further lines of thought were interrupted when we heard something from an alley we were passing. At some point houses had turned into small offices and apartments, leaving plenty of open space between alleys for opportunistic muggers. John and I turned toward the sound of the noise, and both relaxed.

"Okay, so I know cops usually shoot people like me on sight, but I'm hoping since it's the end of the world, you might not."

A girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen, with dark skin and a purple streak in her hair, approached us with her hands raised. She was dressed in a way I could only describe as 'trashy'. Strapless top, torn up leggings, and ripped denim shorts. I had seen more than my share of girls dressed like that at Winslow. I was also more than a little jealous she had the figure to actually pull it off.

John looked at her, thoroughly unamused, "First, not a cop. Second, where're your parents', kid?"

She shrugged, "Dunno. Don't see my dad anymore, mom is probably oding on her latest drug of the week back home. My brother… I don't know. Look, it was supposed to be clear skies today, not fucking monsoon season. Then a fucking Endbringer attacks and… look, I just want to make it through the day."

The words were out of my mouth before I even considered them. "We're going to the PRT headquarters, the one downtown. I think it should be safe there."

John nodded, "You're good to come with us. Got a name, kid?"

She stepped closer to us, "Aisha."

"Welcome aboard the weirdest little convoy in Brockton Bay then, Aisha. God willing, we'll all survive today."

We resumed our trek, but unlike before where things had been mercifully silent, with Aisha following us that was no longer the case. Oh sure, she was quiet at first. But those first few minutes were spent staring at me and my mask. I kept my eyes on the road ahead, but eventually I cracked and looked at her.

"What?" I asked.

Aisha snapped her fingers, "I knew I recognized you! You're the Locker Girl!"

Oh wonderful, she was from Winslow. My lip twitched under the mask, and I looked ahead. I tried to ignore her. Emphasis on tried.

"Look, that's all anyone was talking about on Friday. Cape shows up at school to rescue someone, people talk about it. Wait, are you a cape? If you are, why didn't you break out in the first place?"

"Aisha." John interrupted before I could reply. "There's a time and place for questions. We're happy to let you tag along to safety, but not if you're going to harass her like that."

"Hey, I'm just curious!" Aisha raised her hands, "Also, I may be trying to distract myself from the fucking Endbringer."

"Supergirl has it handled." I said without looking at her.

Aisha looked at me, "Who?"

"The cape that rescued me." I explained. "She saved us again from Leviathan. She's been fighting him ever since."

"One on one with the four eyed fish-head? Well, she's got guts." Aisha admitted. "Shame they'll probably be splattered all over the city by the end of the day."

I kept myself from snapping at her because all she had done was voice what I was thinking. Supergirl was strong, she was confident… but Leviathan was an Endbringer. No one had beaten them, even Scion had only been able to drive them off. There was a very good chance that I had seen my savior for the last time, and with her my father as well.

It wasn't a happy thought.

"We're just going to have to hope Supergirl can hold the line." John said. "Best any of us can do at this point. That, and staying out of the way."

Another crack of thunder rolled through the city. We felt the ground beneath our feet shake that time, and all three of us looked in the direction of the tremor. That snarky expression on Aisha's face had been replaced with terror.

"Any chance we can stay out of the way faster?"

Neither of us had an argument against that, and we picked up our speed. But by this point, we had an obvious problem. Carrying Miss Milita for miles now was easy for me with my enhanced strength. But the strain was starting to take its toll on John. He put on a brave face, but I could hear him huffing and puffing any time we came to a stop. Trained trooper or not, we had been walking for a while now, and he was injured on top of that. He had limits to worry about.

But, stopping for a break wasn't an option. We had no idea where Supergirl and Leviathan were, or if other heroes were involved in the fight. Not to mention, it was only a matter of time before Leviathan started hitting the city with tidal waves. Stopping out in the open was a death sentence.

I glanced at a fire hydrant and pipe system that had uprooted itself from the ground on the other side of the street, its contents draining now at a leisurely pace. A bitter feeling came over me. Even if we survived that day, what was to come was going to be a fresh kind of hell, I could feel it.

The reality of the situation was eating at my own drive to continue. My father was probably dead, my savior was going to follow, and my home was going to be a smoking crater by the end of the day. At this point, I was starting to wonder what even the point of continuing was. There wasn't going to be anything left to look forward to. Maybe I should just sit down and wait for Leviathan to find me and put me out of my misery.

But I wasn't the only one here. I glanced at the three behind me,the man and the hero that had nearly died trying to save me, and a girl lost in a city that was tearing itself apart. Despite my weariness, I couldn't find it in me to give up so long as they were depending on me. I'd have to endure.

That was when I heard it.

A faint whistling in the air, and a pair of voices straining over the storm. At first, I couldn't make them out. But closer to Downtown, the storm had lost its edge. The voices grew stronger and more steady. I looked to the sky, and my shoulders sagged with relief.

Glory Girl, and Aegis descended from the sky towards us, unaffected by the rain and wind tearing at them. The moment she touched down, Glory Girl walked up to me and hugged me. I stiffened in her grip, surprised by the gesture.

"Glad to see you're okay." She said as she pulled back. Then she smirked, "Love the mask, bold fashion statement."

I managed a smile under it, "I think I'll start a new line after all this. What do you think?"

"I think we need to get you four out of here." Aegis walked up alongside Glory Girl. He was all business, but I could hear relief in his voice. Obviously, he hadn't expected to find any of us alive.

Glory Girl scanned over us and frowned, "Where's your father?" she asked me.

I pointed in the direction of the tremor. "Leviathan ate him."

The two capes stared at me. Aisha put their expressions into words. "What?"

"Literally, opened up his stomach, put him inside, and is using him as a hostage against Supergirl." I explained.

John nodded, "It's true, saw the whole thing. Freakiest fucking thing I've seen in my life."

Glory Girl spent a moment staring at me, then pulled her lips into a thin line, "I'm sorry, that's…we were sent to find Miss Militia, but we should be able to get all of you back to the PRT HQ. Panacea can fix up Miss Militia."

"Thank god." Miss Militia croaked from the stretcher.

We didn't waste time after that. Glory Girl carried Miss Militia in her arms and me on her back, while Aegis did the same for John and Aisha.

When he lifted Aisha in his arms, the girl smirked, "So, are these real or is it just padding?" she asked, poking at his pecs.

Aegis coughed, "Miss, please keep your hands to yourself, I need to focus."

"Sorry, just curious."

Glory Girl shook her head, "Poor guy."

Then, we took to the sky.

Any other day, I would have been delighted for a chance to fly with a cape. I mean, who didn't dream about being able to fly? But all I could do while Glory Girl flew was look over my shoulder towards the Docks. Even this close to Downtown, I could feel the air shuddering and could see flashes of red in the distance. Supergirl was still fighting. Giving it all to stop Leviathan… and save my dad.

"You can do it." I whispered. She had to save him, she had promised.

We got to the PRT HQ to see it in chaos. The Protectorate was in full force handling evacuations. I saw a stream of people going into the building or being led to nearby shelters. More than a few out of town capes came and went from the structure helping as they could. There were also plenty of what I assumed to be local capes, that I didn't recognize I saw a group of kids about my age with huge mutant dogs, talking with Armsmaster, and saw a woman flanked by massive… stuffed animals.

Sure, why not.

Glory Girl and Aegis touched down at the side of the PRT building, by the garage. A pair of medics already had a gurney waiting for them, and she set Miss Militia down on it once she landed and I had let go. They wheeled her away, and then Glory Girl and Aegis turned to us.

"I'll be following Miss Militia." John said, "Got a few ribs that have been smarting for a while now, probably should get them looked at."

He offered me his hand, "Thanks again, for saving my life kid. I won't forget that."

I shook his hand without hesitation, "Likewise, Mr. Irons. Thank you for… well thank you for trying."

He smiled sadly, "Sometimes, it's all we can do,but it's better than lying down and doing nothing. Take care, kid."

His words resonated with me, as I watched him go. It was easy to just sit and accept what was coming. To grit your teeth and just accept the world as it was. For the last two years, that was my life. Trapped in a loop of suffering and bracing for more.. But, now I could do something.

Strike that, I had to do something.

Aegis was talking with Aisha, trying to get an idea of where her lost family was. I saw her eyes flicker towards the mutant dogs on more than one occasion, but Aegis seemed to miss that. I wished her luck either way, it was hard to lose family.

I tapped Glory Girl on the shoulder. When she turned to me, I asked, "What can I do to help?

She blinked; obviously, she hadn't expected that. "Taylor, are you sure you're up for that? You've been through a lot today-"

I cut her off, "Victoria, in the last day and a half I've been humiliated, trapped, shot, fought an Endbringer, and watched my father get eaten alive by the same Endbringer. If I don't have something to do, I will lose my goddamn mind. So again, what can I do to help?

There was only a moment of hesitation from Glory Girl. Then there was understanding, real honest to god understanding. She grabbed me by the shoulder, and led me back to the front of the building, explaining the situation as we walked.

It was insane to hear that the reason the Protectorate was focused on evacuation instead of fighting Leviathan, was because Supergirl had been fighting him alone for the last half an , at the same time, it felt right. Supergirl hadn't failed me yet, why would she start now?

Armsmaster, the Armsmaster, was busy negotiating with those teen capes, the Undersiders apparently, when we approached him. But he spared a moment of his time to assign me some physical labor when Glory Girl explained my strength. Basically, I was setting up and adjusting flood barriers to redirect the rainwater from the PRT HQ. The rain in Downtown wasn't as severe as it was near the Docks, but it was enough that without proper preparations, the streets would start to overflow and cause problems.

Thus I spent some time dragging blockades into position that would usually take a team of professionals to move. It felt good to use my strength like that, to sip from the Well and be useful. Yeah, I was running around half blind, barefoot, and in rags, but I was being useful and people were being thankful to me for it. That it kept my mind off Leviathan and Supergirl was a bonus.

I got about five minutes of this peace.

It didn't occur to me that anything was wrong, until I realized how quiet it was. The thunder had stopped, and the crowds and direction had also ceased. I looked up from my work to see every trooper, every cape, and every civilian staring down the street behind me. A lump formed in my throat, and I turned to follow their gaze.

Leviathan was there, at the far end of the street. His gangly body hunched and twisted like a predator, and his eyes burned despite the downpour. Even from that far, I could hear water rushing over and through him, a constant gurgling rush that almost sounded like breathing. But more importantly, I could still hear the steady heartbeat of my father.

He was still alive!

I was filled with equal parts relief and dread, and found myself unable to move. All of us, it seemed, were frozen by the very real threat that stood in front of us. No one dared to move. To be the first to strike, to incur the wrath of an Endbringer on so many people; no one would want that on their consciousness.

A shudder ran through the air, through the storm and the rain. One moment, Leviathan stood ready to pounce. The next, his eyes had shrunk to pinpricks, and Supergirl stood in front of everyone. A living shield between Leviathan and us. Standing with her legs apart, her arms folded, and her cape whipping in the wind, she looked unharmed by her fight with Leviathan. But she also looked furious.

Without moving from her position, Supergirl dragged the tip of her boot through the asphalt, carving a line in the road. Then she stared at Leviathan, and said two words.

"Try it."

-S-​

Leviathan didn't move. He stared at me with the closest thing his kind could muster as hatred. But he did not move. Because he knew better. For thirty minutes, give or take, we had beaten each other senseless in those abandoned docks to the north. Testing our mettle, pushing ourselves to see how low we could go and how high we could rise.

I had seen the extent of Leviathan's power.

He hadn't even approached mine, and he knew it.

The only thing keeping him alive, the only reason I hadn't dragged his miserable hide into orbit, was the hostage trapped inside him. Poor Mr. Hebert didn't deserve that. No one in Brockton Bay deserved this. These were people just trying to live their lives, with all their triumphs and hardships. There were few evils greater than taking that away from anyone.

So I stood there, in front of the gathered civilians, troopers, and Protectorate, as a living shield. So long as I was there, so long as I lived, Leviathan wouldn't touch them.

A shudder ran through the city, so subtle that no one without super-senses would have noticed it. But I did, and I reacted before Leviathan could unleash his petty act of spite. He had tried this trick before, upending the cities pipelines and water supply to try and put civilians in danger, to distract me and make me susceptible to attack. It was a cruel and purely efficient strategy. But there was one flaw with it.

It required focus and concentration and while Leviathan was skilled at multitasking, it was difficult to focus on much of anything while being pummeled. So I lunged, across the street through the city, and straight at the Endbringer. Faster than any human could react, but slow enough so that he knew I was coming.

Another shudder ran through the city, and the water exploded beneath Leviathan. Propelled into the sky, a sphere of liquid swirled around him and lanced at me with enough pressure to atomize steel. I took it, head on, trusting in my invulnerability to absorb the blow and flew straight up the stream into Leviathan.

Our impact sent a shockwave roiling through downtown, shattering every window around us. I heard the heroes back at the PRT HQ get back to work. Civilians screamed and started to panic, but I would have to trust that my fellow heroes could keep things under control. I knew they could.

Glass fell around us in a shower, but thankfully the structures immediately surrounding us had been abandoned in the initial evacuation. So I was safe to push harder. And worse for Leviathan, I knew exactly how hard to push. Or rather, pull in this case.

I altered my flight and slammed Leviathan into the street, grinding his face into the asphalt until I had buried it several feet under. Then, I dug my hands into the hard flesh of his left arm, planted my feet in his side, and pulled. The outer layer of his skin sloughed off beneath my feet as I pulled, and my fingers dug deep enough that I felt bone. I ground my teeth, and pulled harder.

There was a sound like snapping iron, and then Leviathans arm came off in a spray of ichor and the city shook. I flew into the sky, and held the dismembered limb by the wrist with one hand. Leviathan pried himself from the ground and whirled to face me. The injury only seemed to inconvenience him, but the message was clear.

I smirked at the Endbringer and held out his arm, "You've pushed this far enough, Leviathan. I figured it was time to disarm you, before anyone else got hurt."

He stared at me.

"Sorry, I would have chosen another way, but my options were limb-ited."

He stared at me.

"You seem at a loss for words, here, let me give you a hand!"

I flipped through the air and used his arm like a whip, smashing the end down on his head. Leviathan slid to the side, narrowly dodging the attack. He clambered up the side of a nearby building, the action effortless even with his missing limb, and flung himself through the air at me, slamming his mass into me.

We fell through the sky, but when we hit the ground I grabbed his shoulder and forced us farther down. Flying through earth and stone was a mild annoyance to me, but for Leviathan it would slow him down considerably. At least, it would buy me a second to plan my next move.

As I expected, his flesh eventually came off in my hands. While it took a moment, Leviathan seemed able to control the density of his strange body on some level and would slough off or weaken bits of his body if I got too good of a grip on him. He'd done this on multiple occasions to lessen the effect of my blows, and had been one of his only tricks to really be effective against me. Hence why I had changed from judicious applications of kinetic force, to the use of tension force instead.

Leviathan clawed his way back to the surface, and pulled more water towards the stump where his arm had been. Already a new limb was forming, but it was going to take time and it was a clear strain on his energy to force it to grow back so fast. He wasn't used to taking this much damage this fast.

Fortunately for him, I was an excellent teacher.

I surfaced from the earth and collided with him. There was a brief moment as the two of us battled across the street. His new watery limb whipped about like a thing possessed, carving deep gouges in the buildings and streets around me. But anytime it hit me, it shattered and did no more than annoy me. On more than one occasion, he tried drowning me, like he had in the ocean.

I was wise to that trick though, and anytime the water got near my face, I flashed my heat vision and evaporated it.

Again and again, Leviathan would lash out at me, trying desperately to keep me on the defensive. And in turn, I would either tank or dodge the blow, before responding with one of my own. Faster and faster this went, both of us blurs to the naked eye, until Leviathan couldn't keep up anymore. What started as an equal exchange of blows, quickly turned into a one sided beatdown that had been a long time coming for the Endbringer.

The air kicked up around me, water evaporated at my passing, and the world around us was a blur. I was running literally circles around Leviathan, so fast that a vortex of air and water started to surround him. It rose into the sky, catching the clouds overhead and dragging them into this mess while I rained blow after blow on Leviathan. None hard enough to truly hurt him, but hard and fast enough to stun him

At some point the air I had kicked up should have started to lift the Endbringer, but that strange exotic energy of his let him remain grounded. He both was and wasn't as dense as he appeared, but it didn't matter. He managed to stay grounded, but down an arm and left in the dust, I was free to pick away at him, until I saw the perfect opening.

I stopped as suddenly as I had sped up, and delivered an uppercut so hard, the air around my fist detonated in an explosion of fire. Leviathan flipped end over end into the air, and I followed in pursuit. At the apex of his arc, his face met my fist, and he flew through the side of a building called 'Medhall'. He plowed through it, and crashed into the street on the other side back in front of the PRT building where this had started. Most civilians had dispersed by that point, and the heroes looked ready to join the fray if need be.

But, by the time Leviathan had pushed himself back to his feet, I was already there.

Through the hole in the Medhall building, over the buildings below, and straight towards the Endbringer, I rocketed towards him fast enough that the molecules in the air started to crackle and spark around me.

I extended my left arm, as if I was going to clothesline the Endbringer. When I hit, there was a moment where I thought that was exactly what would happen. Then, his flesh gave way, and I carved a bloody path along his chest right below that core of his. I landed on the other side of him, and spun across the ground on my heels to burn off the momentum. For a moment, I knelt there and let the rain cleanse the ichor from my arm.

Leviathan staggered one step forward, and then fell to his knees. His upper torso fell back until it was directly parallel with his lower body, only held to it by a few strands of Endbringer flesh. That was my moment.

I flung myself onto Leviathan's lower torso even as strings of flesh started shooting from either side of the wound to knit it back together. Ichor, flesh, and bone flew as I tore into his body, ripping at it peace by peace as I dug my way towards my true goal. A single, terrified heartbeat that hammered against my ears. There was nothing else more important at that moment, than getting to that heart.

Leviathan's remaining arm pawed at me weakly, and I knocked it aside without a second thought. Deeper and deeper I dug until I saw it. A flash of pale human flesh, the start of a terrified face. I dug my fingers in and grabbed at the tough unyielding flesh. My feet secured themselves against Leviathan's stomach, what was left of it. Then, I pulled with all of my might, and ripped the Endbringers abdomen open in a spray of viscera.

And Danny Hebert slid out into my arms, half blind and trembling like a leaf.

"W-who? W-what?"

"It's okay, Mr. Hebert. You're safe now." I whispered, and held onto him tightly.

With a kick of my legs, I floated off Leviathan's body and through the air toward the silent and stunned crowd of onlookers. I scanned the structure with my X-Ray vision and saw the motor pool below had been converted into a makeshift triage center.

"This man is going to need medical attention." I announced when I landed. A pair of stunned medics watched me.

I cleared my throat, which seemed to knock them from their shock. They rushed to us, and helped Danny to his feet. The entire time, the poor man could not stop thanking me, over and over and over.

"It's going to be alright now, Mr. Hebert." I promised him. "Let the medics help you, they know what they're doing."

"W-wait." Danny wiped the Endbringer blood out of his eyes, "M-my daughter, where-"

A voice from the crowd, the shrill terrified yelling of a daughter calling for her parents, answered Danny's question. I smiled as Taylor burst from the crowd of onlookers and rushed into her fathers arms, tears rolling down her face.

"I thought I lost you again!" she sobbed, shoulders heaving.

Danny stared at her in surprise. "Again?"

She sniffed, "I lost you once with mom. Then the shooting, I… I…"

Danny embraced her, "Never again."

I felt a pang of jealousy, seeing that. The embrace, the love of a parent. I turned away, giving them their privacy. Besides, there was still one more problem to deal with.

Leviathan fell forward onto his hands and knees. Its chest was still knitting itself together, and an impossible amount of his blood poured from the wounds I'd left. No one had dared to approach the Endbringer even when I had torn him open, but he didn't make a move. His eyes swiveled up toward me as I floated back across the crowd and landed in front of him. Right behind the line I had drawn in the street.

"Never again." I told him. Nothing else needed to be said, the message was clear.

Those eyes, those insect-like eyes, stared at me. I had believed the Endbringers could not feel true hatred, that any emotion they showed was a cold calculating reaction to the reality they were facing. But in that moment, with those four eyes boring into me, I knew that Leviathan hated me with every fiber of his being, and that he would do anything to make me feel that hatred.

The air crackled around Leviathan. His eyes burned so bright that the flesh around them started to run like wax. His false arm collapsed into a pool of water, and the storm overhead died. His flesh blackened, cracked, and started to flake off in it all, I saw that energy, that core, ignite like a star.

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled, and slammed into Leviathan and flew him straight into the air. Past the city skyline, past the clouds, past the atmosphere and then the moon itself. Farther and farther we flew, faster and faster until the Solar System itself was just a blur.

In less than a minute, we had flown from Brockton Bay to the orbit of Jupiter. The gas giant dominated my field of view. Its red spot churned across the atmosphere, a storm the size of three Earth's with a ferocity that made Leviathan's storm look like the tantrum of a child. Against its massive size, the fight with Leviathan seemed so small, so insignificant.

I released the Endbringer, letting it float backwards through the void of space. As helpless and weak now as his countless victims. The star of his core dimmed now, as if I had stolen even that act of spite from him. There was a sort of grim satisfaction I felt in that.

Leviathan hopelessly grabbed at nothing as water evaporated off his body, depriving him of his most basic tool. But his eyes, they never left me. That hatred, it burned even now with a very human emotion.

I shook my head, "Leviathan, Second of the Endbringers, it is with a heavy heart that I deliver your execution. You and your siblings were warned about the consequences of your actions. And now you will reap what you have sown for so many years. A final death."

Then, I hit Leviathan's core as hard as I could, and the world went white.

-S-​

"Is… is that it?" Glory Girl asked, staring at the sky.

No one had an answer for her. Who could possibly have an answer for her after what we just witnessed. I had heard that Supergirl had been fighting Leviathan all this time. But after seeing her in action, calling it a fight had been generous. Supergirl had destroyed Leviathan. The only reason she hadn't done so sooner, was because we had been in the way.

If it wasn't for the fact that I refused to let my dad leave my side, I might have just collapsed onto the ground then and there. I saw several troopers doing that, and more than a few capes. A few civilians wandered out from inside, curious about what had happened. Armsmaster had wandered to the front of the blockade and was staring up at the sky where Supergirl had flown away with Leviathan in tow. I don't think he could believe what he saw.

When Supergirl had dragged Leviathan into the sky, the storm had immediately started to die down. In a handful of minutes, the storm that had threatened to flood the city had died to a light drizzle. Sunlight cut through the cloud cover in streaks of glorious golden rays that felt so good after the last hour of walking through the rain.

Dad and I slowly sat on the ground together while the medics fussed over him. Despite being, ya know, a hostage by an Endbringer, he was remarkably unharmed. He wiped at the watch on his wrist and let out a tired chuckle.

"It's not even noon. We still have the rest of the day ahead of us."

I couldn't wrap my mind around that. In a single morning, my entire life had changed. The entire world had changed.

Glory Girl…

Victoria sat next to us with a sigh, still looking up at the sky. Panacea, who had come out when she heard the commotion, cautiously approached the three of us. She did not get any closer, nor did she say anything. Which showed she was smarter than I thought.

Right as it seemed things were going to get back to normal though, everyone felt it. A tremor in the air itself, and a breeze that didn't so much blow through the city as into it. Like a giant looking down had gently blown on the Earth. Then, we saw it, a brilliant star of light that burned in the sky like a second sun.

"Oh my god…" someone whispered. I belatedly realized that that someone was me.

Victoria stood up, shielding her eyes as she watched the new star, "Do… Do you think Supergirl survived that?" she asked. There was a faint tremble in her voice.

"She had to. If anyone could, it's her" I answered, without a second's hesitation.

"There's… I mean, even for her to survive that…" Panacea said.

I ignored her, shielded my eyes, and stared at the star for anything. Any sign at all of my savior, of the world's savior. The cloud cover burned away, the pre-noon sun burned alongside its new twin, but there was no sign…

"There!" I shouted, pointing at a tiny spec in the horizon. Somehow, half blind and with the sun glaring in my eyes, I had seen it.

"Look, up in the sky, do you see it!?"

People started to crowd around, pointing and talking with nervous excitement. Panacea, ever the font of optimism, said, "Taylor, it's probably just a bird, or a plane-"

"No!" Victoria screamed excitedly, "It's Supergirl!"

Sure enough, there she was descending from the sky with that friendly smile on her face. Her skirt and cape were gone, her leotard bleached white and her hair singed and curled. But she was unharmed. And held above her in one hand, was the corpse of Leviathan. The crowd of civilians, capes, and troopers cleared a space as Supergirl landed, and dropped Leviathan's unmoving body in the center of the city.

Both his arms, his legs and his tail were gone. His skin had gone gray, his eyes lifeless, and a massive hole filled his chest and abdomen. For a moment, no one seemed able to move, no one seemed able to speak. Here it was, the body of the monster that had tried to destroy our city, an unkillable beast that had slain god knew how many innocent people and capes. And standing in front of it, was the person who'd slain it in turn.

I don't know who started cheering first. Maybe it was Glory Girl, maybe it was a random trooper. Maybe it was me. There was no way to know, but soon a roar filled the streets of Brockton Bay, rolling over the city in a tidal wave of elation that Leviathan could never have smothered! I saw men and women, troopers and civilians and capes alike, embrace each other as the realization set in.

But I didn't have time for that. I pushed my way through the crowd, past everyone straight to Supergirl who was shaking the hands of more than a few people. She saw me, gestured to the others for a moment, and turned to me.

I hugged her, as tight as I could. Relief, exhaustion, excitement, every emotion under the sun ran through me at that moment. But all I could muster to express it were two very simple words.

"Thank you."

Supergirl pulled back and smiled, "I'm just happy everyone's okay. But you're welcome."

A woman's voice cut through some of the cheering, though only barely. "Out of the way, move! Reporter, coming through!"

I recognized the woman that stumbled out of the crowd in front of us. Supergirl did too, judging by the look of disdain on her face. Kate Lockwell, a notorious reporter from the BBN, brushed herself off and stood up to face Supergirl. She was soaked to the bone like everyone else, her usually fluffy hair plastered flat to her head, and her outfit a mess.

"Supergirl, do you have a moment?"

She said nothing, but folded her arms and looked at Miss Lockwell with a stern expression. The reporter sighed, "I know, I know. You probably hate me for what happened. I didn't have any say in that, I swear. Look, I've cut all ties with the BBN, I'm independent now."

She held up a cheap store bought camcorder and microphone, "I'm the interviewer and camera girl now. All I want from you, Supergirl, is the truth. You just killed an Endbringer, did something no hero on Earth has managed to accomplish. The world is going to have questions, people are going to want to know the truth about you. All I want is to give that to them, plain and simple. Please, let me help you do that."

Supergirl looked at she glanced at me, then past the crowd. I couldn't see who she was looking at, but after a moment, Supergirl closed her eyes. When she opened them, that same kind smile had returned.

"Is the camera rolling, Miss Lockwell?"

Kate cursed, fumbled the camera and then held it up with a thumbs up, "Rolling! So, Supergirl, as the first person to slay an Endbringer, do you have anything you want to say to the people of the world? Anything at all?"

Supergirl sucked in a breath, and nodded, "I do. The truth. My name is Kara Zor-El, and I am the Last Daughter of Krypton."

 

[Tontis]

Interlude 1.1​

Eidolon shuddered as the effect of Strider's teleportation came to an end and deposited them inside the PRT ENE lobby. There would usually have been staff waiting for them to update them on the situation, but the room was empty. This wasn't surprising. An Endbringer was ravaging Brockton Bay, and had been left free to rampage for almost an hour now without their assistance. That thought set his blood boiling, and Eidolon had to make a conscious effort to suppress his anger. There would be another time to argue about why they'd been kept away.

By his side, the other two members of the Triumvirate scanned the room. Alexandria's expressionless helm matched the no doubt stoic expression she wore underneath. Legend was openly curious and concerned. Eidolon prayed that the three of them had arrived in time to make some kind of difference. Even without anyone to fill them in on what happened, it wasn't hard to guess what had happened

Leviathan had clearly ravaged the ENE Division of the Protectorate already, leaving the building itself barren. Outside, Eidolon could hear the faint screams of heroes and civilians alike. Time was of the essence then; but with an Endbringer, it always was.

That was what Eidolon thought as Legend led them into the main foyer of the building.

The front doors swung open and a wall of screaming slammed into the three of them, louder and in greater volume than Eidolon had ever heard. Comparable to Behemoth's rampage from New York almost twenty years ago.

"That's not screaming." Alexandria noted. The confusion was clear in her voice.

Eidolon paused and listened. She was right, the chorus of voices outside, they didn't sound like screams at all, they sounded like…

"Cheering, they're cheering!" Legend exclaimed, and rushed out the foyer with the other two members of the Triumvirate in tow.

Eidolon slipped through the swinging doors and had to raise a hand to block the sun from his eyes. No storm of city killing fury raged overhead. Instead the sun beamed on Brockton Bay like it was a warm spring day. Were it not for the flooded streets and hundreds of men and women crowding around the front of the building, Eidolon would've never believed that Leviathan was there.

But he was, there was no such thing as a false alarm when it came to Endbringers. Had they managed to drive the Endbringer off without them? Had Armsmaster pulled some new tinker tech out of his ass that had finally turned the odds in their favor?

The idea was exciting, but doubtful.

The real answer was easy enough to find. Just follow the crowd of cheering civilians, PRT staff, and capes towards the source.

Eidolon froze when he processed what everyone was gathered around. He had at first assumed it was a chunk of debris or destroyed street. That was the logical immediate assumption to make. But he was wrong, he was dead wrong. It wasn't rubble at all.

It was Leviathan, dead and defeated in the center of the street.

Eidolon rose into the air, and stared at the Endbringers corpse for a long minute. He was, on some level, aware that Legend and Alexandria were floating beside him. But that wasn't important.

Leviathan, the City-Killer, was dead.

His corpse, stripped of its limbs and with a hole punched clean through the chest, lay strewn out in the street like a macabre display piece. The green scaled hide had been stripped bare, reduced to a pallid flesh that leaked its sludge like blood in small rivulets. And its cluster of eyes stared into the sky, dead and unseeing.

There wasn't…

This wasn't…

No one could kill an Endbringer.

Eidolon had accepted this as a fact of life. They were unkillable monstrosities. Even Scion, for all his powers, could only drive them off. But there was Leviathan, dead as a fish, proving that line of reasoning wrong.

"I can't believe it." Legend murmured, a smile in his voice.

"I don't believe it." Alexandria muttered in agreement.

Eidolon ignored them both and focused on what was important. Not the how, or the why, but the who. Someone had slain Leviathan, and had done the impossible. That someone, a girl no older than eighteen, stood in front of the corpse wearing a bleached white leotard while talking to a reporter. She had to be the one, everyone stared at her and clung to her like she was their sole lifeline in a storm.

Again, Eidolon ignored the words of his allies, and descended from the sky. A hush fell over the crowd and people backed away from Eidolon as he landed. The reporter and the girl both watched him land. Eidolon strode forward, focused on Leviathan.

The pool of power that resided within him, the cauldron he pulled his many abilities from, frothed and boiled. He reached within himself, feeling the edge of a thinker's power. Analytical, and straightforward. He clung to it and put a hand to Leviathan's dead flesh.

Dead.

Deceased.

Destroyed.

The reality of the situation finally sunk in. Eidolon rocked back on his heels like he'd been struck. This wasn't a fever dream, he wasn't dying. Leviathan was dead, well and truly dead.

When he spoke, his throat was dry and his voice shook"Did you do this?" Eidolon asked the girl without looking at her. He was committing the site of the Endbringers corpse to memory.

"Leviathan left me no choice." the girl said. There was an almost mournful tone in her voice.

Eidolon turned to her, and he was shocked at the venom in his next words, "Don't. Don't mourn it. Don't mourn any of them."

If his venom bothered her, she didn't show it. She just put her hands on her hips and said, "I don't mourn the Endbringer. I mourn that I had to resort to this at all. It was a terrible choice, but I'd do it again if I had to."

Eidolon stared at the girl for a long minute. He wasn't sure what to make of her. She was so young. A kid really.

But her eyes were tired. There was a weariness to them that he had recognized, hidden behind her youthful complexion. This was a girl that had witnessed terrible tragedy and carried it with her at all times. And she had been the one to put down Leviathan.

"Who are you?" Eidolon finally asked.

She smiled and offered her hand to him.

-S-​

"Supergirl, to summarize, hasn't given the global economy a shot in the arm. She shot the old economy, and replaced it wholesale. Or something like that, metaphors aren't my thing. I'm more of a numbers man." the Number Man smirked at his own pun as he pushed his glasses back onto his nose.

No one else laughed.

There were six people in total gathered in the near featureless white room, seated at a round table. Alexandria, Legend, and Eidolon sat on one side, still in costumes stained with dust and water. It had been eight hours since they had arrived at Brockton Bay; they had expected to fight an Endbringer, and instead had been left with search and rescue. If they hadn't been warned to stay away, they could have at least been there for Leviathans defeat. But no, they had sat on the sidelines and then resigned themselves to cleaning up after the one who had done the real work. Afterwards, they came here. Where the real decisions in the world were made.

Cauldron, that was what they called themselves. The ones who held the power and guided the world from the shadows, who knew what was at risk and prepared for it as best they could. Men and women from across multiple worlds, disparate elements brought together to create a greater and more capable whole. The name had been Hero's idea.

Eidolon's mask lay on the table in front of him, and he continued to stare at it like he had since they'd arrived. He wondered, not for the first time, what Jacob would think of them now. What they had done in the name of saving the world. The compromises, the sacrifices, the cruelty. Would he have approved, or would he have turned on them?

If the Siberian hadn't killed Hero, would it have been up to Eidolon to put him down before his morals put their mission at risk? A pointless question now; because everything Cauldron had been working for seemed pretty pointless now.

They knew everything that had happened. Supergirl's fight with the Simurgh, the battle with Leviathan in the Atlantic, and just how thoroughly outclassed they were. The Number Man, Kurt, had assured them that the size of the tsunami Leviathan had summoned would easily have been capable with what they had seen the Endbringer do simply through the exploitation of fluid dynamics. But that didn't help when it made it clear that Leviathan could have flooded the entire world if he had wanted to.

And Supergirl had stopped it, in less than five minutes.

"What do we do now?" Eidolon asked aloud, interrupting whatever conversation the others had been embroiled in.

It was an open question, but his gaze was focused on the one in charge of Cauldron. Average height, average build, dark skinned, long hair in a bun and dressed to resemble a doctor, though Eidolon knew she had no doctorate. She called herself Doctor Mother, and she was the leader of Cauldron. For all the power the Triumvirate had, their abilities and their ideas, it was Doctor Mother that directed them.

All for the purpose of saving the world.

Eidolon gave her credit; even after the world shaking events of the day, the woman remained remarkably unphased. Her expression was stoic, but he could see her hands were folded tight against one another.

"We keep doing what we were doing. We maintain our preparations, we ensure stability where it is needed." she said. Her French accent added confidence to her words. "One Endbringer is dead. But we cannot let our guard down when two more still roam free."

Alexandria folded her arms, "The PRT could apply political pressure on Supergirl. Convince her to join, get her under control so we can prevent a repeat of today, and start a think tank on bringing the other two down."

"Won't work."

All eyes turned to the woman sitting to the right of Doctor Mother.

Pale faced, with dark shoulder length hair, and dressed in a neatly tailored black suit, she was an average looking woman. Her usual fedora lay on the table next to her. She sat prim and proper in her seat, rarely if ever moving unless someone talked to her or looked at her. Contessa was not one for frivalties.

She scared the absolute shit out of Eidolon though. Her ability to pluck answers out of thin air in ways beyond human thought was unnerving enough. But he knew that if things ever soured between him and Cauldron, Contessa would be waiting for him in a dark alley with a loaded pistol. One bullet was all she'd need to bring him down. Despite all his incredible power and decades of experience, it was nothing in the face of Contessa's power. She was the true muscle behind Cauldron; he was just one of her more useful tools.

It was Contessa who ensured Cauldrons shadowy control over Earth-Bet. Contessa who could walk through a room of armed men, take all of them down, and walk out untouched. Contessa, who could perceive and anticipate anything they'd do before they'd do it. Contessa, who had warned them away from Brockton Bay, out of a very real concern that they would have died if they'd joined the Endbringer fight.

At Cauldron, when Contessa spoke of her own volition, people fucking listened.

Doctor Mother regarded her cooly, "Elaborate please, Contessa."

The woman gestured at the lone monitor on the wall to Eidolon's right where a still image of Supergirl was. She said, "Supergirl won't bow to political pressure to join the Protectorate. If you push too hard, she'll push back. You'll lose."

Alexandria frowned, "I thought you said you couldn't Path her?"

Contessa was silent for a second. Always, she paused before responding to them, like she was considering if answering their questions was worth her time at all. Then she shook her head, "I can Path Supergirl's personality. It's the upper limits of her power that I cannot Path. If I ask how to convince Supergirl to join our organization, I am given a long and impractical three-hundred and ninety-seven step plan that leads to the destruction of the Protectorate and Cape Culture as we have cultivated it. But it is a guaranteed Path. If I ask what her powers are, I am only given answers in vague platitudes. Faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a train engine, able to easily jump tall buildings in a single bound, etc. And the Path will keep expanding on this until the feats become so ludicrous as to be meaningless."

"So what do we do about her then?" Eidolon asked.

Legend spoke up before anyone else could answer, "Give her a goddamn medal, obviously. We've been trying for twenty years to put down any of the Endbringers. Supergirl did what we couldn't, we should be celebrating!"

Doctor Mother stared at Legend with that cool expression, "No one is downplaying the enormity of Leviathan's death. But we cannot afford to let our guard down in the face of it, either. Supergirl, by her own admission, is not human. She is an alien twice over. Not from this Earth, nor from the one of her own universe. However well meaning her claims to help us are, we must remember that the Entity also helps others seemingly of his own free will. And we all know the truth behind him.

"Doctor, she's an eighteen year old girl." Legend protested.

"She's an alien that happens to look human." Alexandria retorted.

"An alien that did what none of us ever came close to." Eidolon interrupted before Legend could argue back. They both looked at him.

"We fought off the Endbringers. We hurt them." he sighed. "But Supergirl is the only one to kill one."

A harsh silence fell over the room, broken only by Number Man scribbling on a large notepad he kept on his person. Eidolon stared at his mask again, the empty eye sockets burrowing into his skull. He felt sick, broken. Legend was right, they should be celebrating. Eidolon was happy in fact, he was thrilled to see Leviathan dead. But at the same time, he felt this sickness inside him, an anxious pit that sat in his stomach like a lead weight. Supergirl seemed earnest, seemed sweet, and seemed genuine.

But it was easy to put on a false smile and convince the world you were their friend, a hero looking out for them. After all, Eidolon himself did it every day.

Her eyes though, those had stood out to him. As they had worked together to clear rubble, to save people and uncover those lost in Leviathan's rampage. Supergirl's eyes had carried a deep, profound pain in them. That kind of pain couldn't be faked.

That was what the optimistic part of Eidolon thought anyway. Optimism wouldn't save the world from what was coming.

"There's no point arguing over this." Doctor Mother said. "As of this moment, we do not know enough about Supergirl to determine a proper course of action. For now, we will act as we always have, and will allow Supergirl to do the same. Alexandria, the PRT will work with Supergirl, but avoid undue pressure on her. At the moment, she is our best weapon, as untested as she might be for our purposes."

Eidolon could hear Alexandria grind her teeth together, but if she was anything, she was loyal to the cause. She gave a curt nod, "Understood, Doctor. I have a scheduled meeting with the PRT Board of Directors in two days. I'll make sure they understand where Supergirl stands with us."

"See that you do." Doctor Mother nodded, and stood. "Unless there is anything else to discuss, we will adjourn this meeting for now."

Everyone else rose, and four doorways split the air behind them, shimmering with a faint unworldly energy. Beyond them lay various points scattered across the world, hundreds of miles crossed in a handful of steps. Eidolon grabbed his mask, and ran a finger over its surface one last time, before putting it back on. When he opened his eyes, he saw Contessa staring at him with those eerie pale eyes of hers.

He suppressed a shudder, turned on his heel, and walked out of the facility.

The others followed suit, filing back out into the wider world where they were needed. Contessa was the last to leave, following Doctor Mother. The barest hint of a frown tugged at her lips as she walked through the Door.

Lying came easily to Contessa. She had done it for so long, and so often that even without the Path it was second nature to her. But it was one thing to lie to a client of Cauldron, or the Triumvirate. It was another thing to lie to Doctor Mother. They had worked together for decades now, since Contessa was a child. There was a sort of implicit trust that came with that.

But, lying to the whole of Cauldron had been necessary. And in time, they would forgive her for the deception

It was, after all, only step one of three-hundred and ninety-seven.

-S-​

"We welcomed you into our home, and you lied to our faces!" Carol paced back and forth across the dining room, red in the face. I sat at the dining room table, hands folded, back straight, and letting her say her piece. Amy and Vicky sat in the living room on the couch, silent but watching. Mark stood nearby, but didn't seem to be paying attention to the conversation.

I had returned to the Dallon household about twelve hours or so after putting Leviathan to a stop. Working with the Protectorate, the Triumvirate, New Wave, and even a few villains, we scoured the city for those that had been trapped during the fight. And those that had been lost. After eight hours of searching, we had scoured most of the city where Leviathan and I had fought. With my help, finding lost victims had been easy, and there had been many happily reunited families. An ecstatic energy had taken over the city as a whole; when I had questioned it, I had learned that Leviathan's attack on Brockton Bay had the lowest casualty rate of any Endbringer attack.

Three hundred and seventy-two victims.

If Armsmaster was to be believed, the majority of those victims had been from the initial panic and chaos that had unfolded when the sirens had gone off. His personal estimate was only thirty-six men and women lost by Leviathan's direct actions and our fight.

Three had been children.

To the people of Earth-Bet, the day had been an incredible success; 'the Miracle of Brockton Bay' some were calling it. To me, it was a miserable failure. If Kal had been the one to fight, if he had been sent to Earth-Bet, no one would have died. Leviathan would have been stopped in the Atlantic and not one soul would have died. But Earth-Bet hadn't gotten Kal, they had gotten me. And people had died because of it.

So when I had returned to the Dallon household, and Carol had started ripping into me for lying to them, I sat and took it. Because they were right of course, I had lied to them. Maybe I had been scared, disoriented, or anxious because of my situation. But that didn't change what I had done. They had offered their home to me with open arms, and I had lied to their faces about everything.

Letting Carol read me the riot act felt appropriate, all things considered.

"I don't know what to do about you, Kara." she sighed, running both hands through her hair, "On the one hand, no one can deny what you did today. I… I still can't believe it, personally. It's a miracle. But you abused our trust. Lied to my face about who you were. If you lied about that, and so easily, what else have you lied about? How can we ever trust you again?"

"Mom,"

I perked up in surprise. It wasn't Vicky speaking up, it was Amy. She sat up on the couch, her hands balled tight as she spoke, never looking at me, but not looking at her mother either.

"Kara didn't-"

Carol swiped her hand through the air, cutting her off, "Quiet. The adults are talking."

A silence rolled over the house, so thick I could have cut it with a knife. Amy sank back down onto the couch, eyes on the ground. Beside her, I saw Vicky tense, but she didn't rise to her sister's defense either. She just put a hand on her shoulder, and avoided meeting her mothers gaze.

I looked from them to Carol and back again. Then, I stood up and said, "Carol, I understand that I violated your trust. You have every reason to be upset with me. I won't take advantage of that trust any further."

She paused and looked at me, blinking. "What are you…?"

"I'll leave. The only thing I ask is that you let me stay until the end of the week so I have time to find a new home. Then I'll be gone, and you won't have to worry about me anymore."

For a solid minute, Carol stood there mulling over my compromise. The anger was still there, it tainted her every move. She kept clenching and unclenching her hands, or grinding her jaw. It was obvious there was more bothering her than just me lying. Something about the situation had aggravated some kind of trauma that I didn't know about. Me staying wouldn't help with that, and I didn't want to create tension in the family. But I also had nowhere to stay, and it was clear Carol was conflicted about actually kicking me out of the house.

After a solid minute of silence, she nodded, "Fine. That's acceptable. You have a week, Kara, to find a new home. But then I want you out of our house, understood."

"Completely, ma'am. Thank you, I won't abuse your trust again."

Her mouth pulled into a tight line, but she nodded, and stalked out of the dining room upstairs. Mark paused, looking between all of us, then followed after his wife with a reluctant gait.

I took a long shower after that. After fighting two Endbringers and hours of search and rescue, I felt warmth of the shower was a welcome balm on my soul, but it didn't ease the pain I felt when I thought of those I had failed. This wasn't the first time I had failed people depending on me. I knew how to handle loss, but it still hurt. I spent a long time standing in that shower, soaking in my failure.

When I got out, I didn't feel great. But I felt better. It was the first step, which was always the most important. The people I had failed were gone; nothing I could do would undo that. But I could learn from my mistakes today, and I could make sure others wouldn't join them. That was the best anyone could do in this kind of situation. Strive to be better.

After drying off and dressing in a borrowed set of pajamas from Vicky, I walked back to the guest room with my ruined costume in hand. The thought of replacing it wouldn't usually bother me but… it was the only thing I had left of home. Losing my belt and everything in it was bad enough, but the costume was so fried that I was left with nothing of home. Nothing but my memories.

"Rao, it's like the orphanage all over again." I muttered to myself as I stepped inside the guest room.

To my surprise, Amy was standing there, staring at the ground while fidgeting with her hands. She couldn't look at me, and kept scuffing her feet on the floor.

"Amy." I said, surprised.

She flinched but looked up at me, barely. Her eyes kept flicking to everywhere but my face, like she was embarrassed to look at me. I let her find her bearings; I could go a little bit longer without sleep.

Amy pulled at one of her fingers nervously while she spoke, "Kara, what I said earlier today, I um… shit, I messed up. I was stressed, Vicky wouldn't shut up about you, and then everything with the Heberts… I'm sorry, okay? I was being really stupid and I shouldn't have said what I said."

She covered her face in both hands and groaned. Obviously, this was a lot for her. The irony though was that I had almost forgotten about her confrontation with me at the Heberts house. So much had happened since then, that her anger at me just seemed… small, in comparison. Her embarrassment was amusing, in a painfully relatable way though.

I smiled and said, "Apology accepted. But, to be fair, I think we were both being stupid, Amy. I'm sorry I lied to you, I shouldn't have done that. Want to start over?"

Amy uncovered one eye and stared at me as if I was speaking a foreign language, "Start over?"

I offered my hand to her, "My name is Kara Zor-El. And you are?"

With slow hesitation, she uncovered her face and stared at my hand. She looked at it, and then at me. An expression of relief formed on her face, and she reached out to shake my hand, "Amy Dallon. It's… it's a pleasure to meet you, Kara."

-S-​

Space and time shuddered and roiled, peeling apart in layers to eject the Simurgh's willowy silver form into the cold vastness of space. Jupiter dominated the skyline with the added addition of a ring swirling in its orbit, larger even than the rings of Saturn. The Discs of Leviathan, some subjects had already started calling it. The name was irrelevant, but the effect was clear. The parameters had changed, the old plans were to be discarded.

The Simurgh descended into the ring, sifting through it with a thousand telekinetic arms. Debris and asteroids floated out of her way, tossed aside like so much waste. It would take some time to scour the ring, but everything had changed and time was something she had in abundance. The old schedule was no longer sustainable. The Anomaly- Supergirl was a threat. Any service to the Administrator could not be completed so long as she continued to live.

Even their old directive had been halted.

There was not enough data, Supergirl represented too many unknowns. New Engines could not be deployed until sufficient data was gathered. But until that time, the Simurgh would have to make do with what she had on hand.

She halted mid flight as something caught her attention. A wing as long as she was tall stretched out, reached through the void to grasp at an object no larger than a grain of sand. Into her outstretched hands it landed as if of its own accord, and thrummed in proximity to her own core.

Supergirl's strength was vast, but she had made a mistake.

The sliver of Leviathan's core pulsed in the Simurgh's hands, responding to her energy. On its own, such a tiny shred of matter would be inert. Without sufficient mass to channel the energy needed to power one of the Engines, such fragments would appear as simple dead waste. But to those that knew, those that understood, even a fragment of her brother was filled with a thousand possibilities.

The Simurgh raised a hand, and space rippled around, appearing like a haze on a hot summer day. When it faded, the crystalline shard she had stolen from Supergirl appeared in her hand. So far it had stubbornly resisted her attempts to open it. But the Simurgh did not despair.

In fact, she had hope.

With time and effort, she would peel it open and learn all she could about the Kryptonian. But in the meantime, what remained of her brother would serve as an excellent tool for further experimentation.

Her processes suddenly froze, and the Simurgh went still.

At the edge of her senses, spread across the vastness of the ring, something had stirred. It had been for a nanosecond, too fast for even the finest instruments to have detected. The only reason she had detected it at all was because she had spread herself wide across the whole of space and time in search of more of Leviathan's shard. But whatever she had detected, had been so fast and so brief, she saw no future in it. Peering into what could be, showed nothing.

Across all of time and space, through countless futures, she saw nothing related to whatever had caught her senses. After dedicating several long minutes to analyzing it, the Simurgh dismissed the signal as a result of her departure from the extra-dimensional pocket interacting with the scattered matter and energy from Leviathan's passing. Something worth noting, but nothing more.

To be safe, she adjusted her planned timetable regardless, and resumed her search witha renewed fervor. All the while, keeping a small part of her dedicated to watching for the signal, should it appear again…

 

[Tontis]

Interlude 1.2​

"FUCK!"

In two simultaneous timelines, Coil swore and slammed his fist on his desk. He rubbed his temples in one timeline. The other, he called one of his guards in and shot him dead. Then he closed the timeline and opened a new one, both massaging their temples.

That made it the seventeenth time he had done this, and there was one explicit reason why. Coil dragged his hand across his face and stared at the smiling blonde woman on his computer screen.

Supergirl.

He leaned forward and glared at the image of the heroine. In two days, she had uprooted everything he had worked for. Years of work, down the drain because of her. Coil had not felt this angry in a long time.

Coil had contingencies of course. Plans within plans, all in case things didn't work out. He was an ordered man, a meticulous man. That was how he thought of himself anyway. An Endbringer attack from Leviathan? Disruptive, but Coil had planned for such an attack years in advance; his many lairs across the city were designed with such an eventuality in mind.

Owning the biggest manufacturer in Endbringer shelters in the North-Eastern United States made it easy to not only prepare for those kinds of attacks, but also to hide them from any snooping auditors. Brockton Bay was a coastal city, Leviathan was always the most likely to attack. Coil had expected it, hell on some small level he almost hoped for it.

The inevitable casualties and fallout of Leviathan cutting a swathe through the local cape population would destabilize the region enough that Coil would face next to no resistance in assuming control in short order. Again, a contingency he had prepared if worse came to worse.

He was, after all, meticulous.

But all the planning in the world hadn't accounted for one possibility. That Leviathan might actually be killed. That anyone would be able to kill the Endbringer, let alone without a single meaningful casualty, and in Brockton Bay of all places.

Oh sure, a few hundred people had died in the initial attack, but they didn't matter. Not really.

But not a single cape had fallen to Leviathan. Even Miss Militia, the only cape besides Supergirl to directly fight Leviathan, had escaped her encounter with only a broken spine. In a city with a cape like Panacea, that was just a mild inconvenience. Everyone else? Untouched, unmarred, still in his way.

In his parallel timeline, Coil stood up and kicked his chair into the wall. Then he picked it up and smashed it against the wall over and over again while screaming in an incoherent rage until his guard came in to check on him. He shot the man dead and then closed the timeline.

Eighteen times.

Coil let out a sigh and opened a new timeline before reviewing the facts.

Fact one, Leviathan was dead.

Fact two, Supergirl had killed him single handedly. The creatures that even Scion couldn't kill, Supergirl had treated like a bad joke.

Fact three, she wasn't from Earth-Bet. If she was telling the truth, she wasn't even human. Some were skeptical of her story, but Coil frankly didn't care. Alien, human, freak experiment gone rogue, the result was the same. Supergirl was an outsider that had destroyed the status quo with the same ease one might knock over an ant-hill.

Fact four, Kate fucking Lockwell had somehow gotten to Supergirl first and shared a personal interview with the girl all over the internet. There was no containing this from the public eye, everyone knew what Supergirl had done and they loved her for it.

For all intents and purposes, Supergirl was now the greatest hero on Earth-Bet. Unless she started eating babies in front of a live audience, there was nothing Coil could do to twist public opinion against her. He wasn't even sure that would work.

So not only was she physically immune to anything he could do to her, she was also immune to any social or psychological attack he could make. The agents he'd sent to the Hebert girls house had been reduced to a greasy smear for all their trouble, and Supergirl had then decided to kill an Endbringer for shits and giggles.

Coil slumped in his chair and covered his face. Anyone else would've packed up and left. Throw in the towel, torch the operation and run with whatever money and resources he could reasonably take with him. It was a tempting decision.

But, Coil was not a man prone to giving up easily. He had survived Ellisburg, he could survive Supergirl.

He sat up straighter, and re-evaluated his options.

Option one, give up. Not going to happen, but he made a mental note to plan contingencies. If he had learned anything from the last few days, it was how drastically things could change now..

Option two, change his plan of attack. Supergirl wanted to help, and Coil had information and resources that could help with that goal. With a few calls and well placed bribes, the Empire could be brought to its knees overnight. Maybe he could bargain with Supergirl, convince her to let him guide her; the brain to her brawn.

Option three, bring greater firepower to bear. Coil may not be a physical threat to Supergirl, but others might. For all her strength and power, no one was untouchable. With careful planning and the right resources, he could make a goddess bleed.

Coil smiled under his mask. He could feel the beginning of a plan coming together. A path forward to remove at least one obnoxious blonde heroine from his life. He'd settle for Glory Girl's reckless carnage if it meant never having to see Supergirl's face again.

Yes, he could do this, he could bring her down. It was just going to take careful time and planning.

First thing's first, he'd have to make a call.

Coil grabbed the landline phone on his desk, only for a new notification to pop up on his desktop. He paused and opened it to a new article on Supergirl. He skimmed through it, and the phone receiver fell from his hand and cracked against the concrete floor.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

-S-​

"Can't you go any faster?" Vista whined.

Aegis let out a long suffering sigh and didn't even bother to glare at the twelve year old clinging to his back. He was flying over Brockton Bay faster than highway speeds. He was not going to be taunted into arguing with Vista just because she was impatient.

"You can't blame a guy for performance issues, Vista." Clockblocker quipped.

"Clock." Aegis looked down at the Ward dangling in his arms.

The boy's grin was evident behind his mask as they flew, "Yes, Aegis?"

"How long do you think it'd take you to reach terminal velocity if I dropped you from this height?"

Clockblocker saluted, "Message received captain. Terminating transmissions now."

"So he can listen." Vista snickered.

Aegis shook his head and kept flying. Their destination was the Docks. Or, what was left of them anyway. Most of Brockton had survived the brawl between Supergirl and Leviathan. But the Docks had been flattened. Yet, despite the devastation, very few people had been hurt in the brawl because, ironically, the Docks were a deadzone thanks to Leviathan's existence. Most rescue operations had come to an end, but there was still the matter of cleanup and rebuilding. Which is where the Wards came in.

Kind of.

It had been Vista's idea, actually. The internet was abuzz with any and everything to do with Supergirl, and people had already reported sightings of her helping with reconstruction in the Docks. So while the Protectorate hadn't officially deployed them, Vista had suggested they volunteer however they could. Okay, she had insisted on it.

The girl had latched onto Supergirl's image and reputation with a death grip which was a little concerning. But, it was also the most chipper Aegis had seen her in months. He wouldn't begrudge Vista a little hero-worship.

Besides, it would be good for Vista to use her powers in a way that didn't put her in the line of fire. Yeah the Wards were kept in reserve and in theory not supposed to be deployed against criminals or villains. In practice, in Brockton Bay however…

They had one stop to make on their way to the Docks, though it was more of a meetup than a stop. About a quarter of a mile out, a familiar pair soared through the sky towards them. Glory Girl and Gallant. Both in full costume and the latter mirror Clockblocker and happily hanging in her arms. He gave a wave on their approach

"How you holding up, Gallant?" Aegis asked.

The armor-clad cape shrugged, "Oh ya know. Hanging around."

Glory Girl looked down at him with a thoroughly unamused expression, "I will drop you."

"But then who would be your arm candy?" Clockblocker quipped.

"Hmm," Glory Girl smirked, "That's a good point, Clock. Thank you."

Gallant sighed, "This is my fate, to be forever objectified. When will people see past my looks?"

"When you stop having such a cute ass." Glory Girl answered, pulling him up into a hug before letting him drop back down into her arms.

Vista made a gagging sound, "Gross. Are you two done?"

"Never!"

Gallant chuckled, "Yeah, we're done. Where's Kid Win and Shadow Stalker?"

Aegis jerked his head in the general direction of the PRT headquarters, "Win's working on a new project, didn't want to meet Supergirl empty-handed. We offered to bring Shadow Stalker along, but…"

"She's Shadow Stalker." Vista sighed.

"Sooo, a total bitch." Clock added.

Aegis nudged him, "Language, dude."

"I mean, he's not wrong." Vista admitted.

That may have been true, but no matter how prickly Shadow Stalker was, she was still their teammate. It felt wrong to bad mouth her when she wasn't around. Doubly so to use foul language in front of Vista. Yeah she had seen worse in the field, but Aegis still felt some responsibility to preserve something of her innocence, while she still had it. Not that he dared to say that out loud; last time he'd implied that, Vista had verbally flayed him.

Glory Girl shrugged, "Their losses. Though if I'm honest guys, I'm not sure we'll have much to offer. Kara is… on a different playing field. We're on the kiddie court, she's an NBA Hall of Famer. We might just get in the way."

"Moral support!" Clockblocker argued. "Every sports team needs cheerleaders, and I'll have you know I cut a killer figure in a skirt!"

Vista shuddered, Aegis covered his face and Gallant let out a long suffering sigh.

"This was a terrible idea." Glory Girl said in a monotone devoid of emotion.

Aegis shook his head, "Well, we aren't going to be helping just floating here. Come on, let's see what Supergirl actually has to say."

There were no arguments there. They flew together side by side toward the Docks. Vista had already figured out the general area Supergirl was working in, but even if she hadn't, it was hard to miss The Docks were swarming with construction vehicles and workers, and a perpetual cloud of dust rose into the sky. A blur of red zipped about inside the cloud, faster than Aegis could track. When they landed, and got a good look at what Supergirl was doing, Aegis understood Glory Girl's point much more succinctly.

Destroyed buildings disintegrated into manageable piles of debris in minutes, like a timelapse of a decomposing animal body on the nature channel. Streets were cleared, debris organized, and pipes replaced at a speed that was, to be honest, terrifying. Aegis had seen footage of Supergirl's fight with Leviathan and had witnessed the tail end of it. But it was one thing to watch the footage, it was another to see just how absurdly fast she was in person.

Glory Girl carefully set Gallant down. Then, she floated towards the blur and cupped her hands in front of her mouth and shouted, "Yo, Kara! You got a minute?!"

The blur of red stopped and the dust began to settle. Aegis coughed and waved some of it out of his face. While he cleared his lungs, he heard Clockblocker let out a strangled, "Oh. Wow."

Aegis looked up and blinked a few times.

Oh wow indeed.

Supergirl descended through the dust cloud, ringed by sunlight. Her old costume had been wrecked from her fight with Leviathan, so she had clearly had to improvise a makeshift costume in the meantime.

She wore a white t-shirt that was clearly a size too small for her, with a hastily drawn copy of her symbol on her chest. It was small enough to expose her midriff. This was paired with a short red cape, a tight blue skirt, and a pair of red boots. Her golden hair was pulled back by a black headband, framing her kind face.

If Aegis didn't know any better, he would have thought that he had met one of those cape cosplayers, not the girl that had taken Leviathan to school. She was stunning, to put it bluntly, and Aegis kept his gaze respectful.

Supergirl landed and dusted her hands off, smiling at all of them.

"Sorry for the mess," she apologized, "I've been busy cleaning up the debris from my scuffle with Leviathan all day. What's up?"

Glory Girl jerked a thumb at Aegis and the others. "Wards wanted to help with cleanup and reconstruction. I told them you already had it handled, but Vista was insistent."

Supergirl looked past her at them, and smiled. Clockblocker made a weird noise, and Vista nudged him, "Quit being weird."

If Supergirl noticed, she gave no indication. Instead she nodded at Glory Girl and walked up to them, Vista first. She put her hands on her hips and said, "You must be Vista right? You're the veteran Ward around here, if I recall."

If Vista grinned any wider, she was going to strain a muscle, "That's me! It is so cool to finally meet you! And you've probably already heard this a lot, but you were amazing yesterday!"

Supergirl chuckled, "Well, I did my best, but thank you Vista. So, you wanted to help with cleanup?"

Vista nodded, "Yeah. Everyone on the PHO was talking about you helping with cleaning up and I figured… we have powers, we could help too. Make it faster, take some of the work off your hands. You already beat Leviathan, it doesn't seem fair to make you clean up."

Another smile from Supergirl, "That's very sweet of you to offer, Vista.I don't mind assisting with cleanup, especially since this mess is partly my fault. But, I won't turn down some extra help."

She knelt on one knee and pointed at the workers, "See the man with the big beard? He's the foreman for that operation, goes by George. You talk with him, tell him what you can do, and he can set you to work. I've been working with him and his crew all day. I'm sure they'd love to have some more help."

Vista nodded excitedly, "Alright! I'll do what I can, I won't let you down."

"I know you won't." Supergirl ruffled Vista's head and let the girl run off to the foreman. Vista practically skipped toward the construction worker.

Supergirl glanced at Glory Girl, "Vicky, do you mind going with Vista? I know she has the most experience on the Wards, but…"

"Twelve, I know." Glory Girl said.

"Just give some advice if she needs it." Supergirl said. "She wants to be helpful, babying her will just make her grumpy."

Glory Girl nodded and gestured for Gallant to follow her. The two of them followed after Vista, and Supergirl turned back to Aegis and Clockblocker. She approached the latter first and offered her hand.

"We haven't been formally introduced either-"

"Hi, yes!" Clock said, "It is nice to be meeting you, I am Blockclocker - er, I mean Clockblocker! Clockblocker. Sorry. It's just… wow. You killed an Endbringer."

Supergirl managed another smile, "So everyone keeps reminding me. It's a pleasure to meet you, Clockblocker. Do you mind if I just call you Clock?"

"Call me whatever you want!" Clock said. Aegis sighed, internally of course. He always wondered how Clockblocker would act around someone he actually liked. Now, he wished he didn't know.

Supergirl took Clocks' eagerness in stride though, talking to him calmly and politely, letting him burn through his excitement before directing him toward the foreman as well. Clock somehow managed to not trip over his own two feet, and did as Supergirl suggested.

Aegis approached the cape and offered his hand, "Aegis, current captain of the Wards. I know everyone else has said it, but it really is an honor to meet you, Supergirl. You made a big first impression."

She shook his hand and smiled, "I just hope that I manage to live up to it. Your team seem like good kids, Aegis. Was it your idea to bring them out here?"

"No," Aegis admitted, "It was Vista's. Like she said, when she found out you were working out here, she was insistent we come and help."

Supergirl glanced at Vista, showing off her powers for the workers. Her smile faded slightly, "Does the Protectorate not work with Panacea for injuries?"

Aegis paused, surprised by the question, "Um, no, we do. It's one of the biggest reasons we tolerate… nevermind, why do you ask?"

Supergirl frowned, "Just curious. Sorry, there's been so much going on, my mind's in a thousand different places."

She turned back to Aegis and smiled, "So, you have super-strength if I remember correctly, right?"

Aegis shrugged, "More… no limits on my strength. You know how humans have a natural limiter on their muscles? I don't have that. My body is basically a bunch of built in redundancies that let me push myself way beyond my limits. Cool part is, as long as my adrenaline is going, I don't have to worry about pain either."

"Well, it'll be great having you help with cleanup." Supergirl said, clapping him on the shoulder, "Just don't push yourself too hard. Redundancy or not, you should take care of yourself."

"Honestly, lifting a bunch of heavy cra- crud will be child's play compared to what I usually deal with. Thanks for the concern though." He wasn't sure why he censored himself, but a part of Aegis wanted to make a good impression on Supergirl. Though, who wouldn't?

Supergirl smiled again and released his shoulder, "Well, I won't keep you any longer. You know the drill, talk with George and see where you can be put to use."

Aegis gave a casual salute, "Can do. Honestly though, I'm surprised you're out here cleaning. I figured the Protectorate would've wanted to talk with you by now after what you did."

At his words, Supergirl froze and her eyes went wide. She covered her face and groaned, "Ooooh! Rao, no!"

Aegis was caught off guard by the sudden shift, "Um… you okay? Did I touch a nerve?"

Supergirl groaned again, "No! I had a meeting scheduled with the director today! What time is it?"

Now Aegis understood Supergirl's reaction. He winced and said, "10:39. What time were you…?"

Supergirl was already gone, a blur of red white and blue streaking towards downtown while muttering a series of alien curses under her breath. Aegis stood there dumbly; who knew that even a hero like Supergirl could forget a meeting because she was busy?

"Hey!" Vista hollered, getting Aegis's attention.

He swung towards her to see the girl glaring daggers at him, "What did you do!?"

-S-​

Director Emily Piggot popped a pair of antacid pills and let out a long suffering sigh. She'd been sitting in her office for close to forty-five minutes now, waiting. Armsmaster stood at her right, ramrod still as always. A part of her was convinced he had replaced his spine with a metal pole years ago, and almost envied him for it. Dragon was present as well, as much as a cape like her could be, watching everything through the cameras.

Of them all, Dragon had been the most insistent that they wait for Supergirl to show, and not to pressure her on it. Piggot had agreed, on the grounds that pressuring the woman that had killed an Endbringer seemed a monumentally stupid idea. But, the fact that Supergirl seemed intent to blow off their meeting, didn't surprise Piggot either. When you had that kind of power, why bother kowtowing to anyone?

The following weeks were going to be rough, Piggot could tell. Things were going to get hectic, unstable even. Maybe they'd get better, maybe things would settle into a better status quo. But she would feel far more at ease if Supergirl had at least been willing to open a dialogue with the PRT.

She leaned back in her chair, ignoring its tired groan, and sighed. "Armsmaster, you're free to resume your duties. She's obviously not going to show."

Armsmaster gave a silent nod. Even by his usual standards, he had been very quiet since Leviathan's death. It was concerning, but as long as he kept doing his work with his usual standards, Piggot wasn't interested in why that was the case. His personal issues were his own to work through.

"Ma'am," Dragon's voice crackled over her computer speakers, "I'd advise waiting a few more minutes, please."

Piggot glanced at the nearest camera, "Dragon, I appreciate your optimism, but if Supergirl is just going to blow us off like this, I'm not going to dignify her actions by wasting my time w-"

There was a sudden commotion from outside her office. Piggot and Armsmaster looked to the office door as the voices of a dozen or so staff sounded in unison, a combination of surprise, confusion and elation. Then, Piggot's door swung open and Supergirl staggered inside panting, her face red with embarrassment.

"Director Piggot, I am so sorry I'm late!" The girl stood up straight and brushed off a metric ton of building debris from her outfit. Piggot raised a brow and looked at Armsmaster. The tinker responded with a confused shrug.

Supergirl walked over to Piggots desk, and offered her hand, "We haven't been formally introduced. It's a pleasure to meet you, Director Piggot."

The Director hesitated for a second, before standing with a grunt of effort and shaking Supergirl's hand. "Supergirl. Can I presume all is well in my city, if you're running so late?"

Again, the girl's cheeks flushed, "I was volunteering at the docks with cleanup and rebuilding efforts. We made great progress, Foreman George says we'll probably have most of it cleared by tomorrow or Tuesday. I just kind of lost track of time. You do something monotonous long enough and your sense of time is the first thing to go, eh-heh…"

When she saw no one laughing, Supergirl sat in the chair in front of the Directors desk with her hands in her lap. Piggot sat back down with a relieved sigh and took a moment to really look at the, as the media proclaimed her, 'Savior of the World'.

'God, she's just a kid'. Piggot thought. She barely looked older than Triumph, fresh out of the Wards. And this was the person strong enough to kill an Endbringer? Piggot resisted the urge to grab another bottle of pills from her desk drawer.

Instead she leaned forward, her chair creaking in protest under the shift in weight, and steepled her fingers "So, Supergirl… or do you prefer Kara Zor-El?"

The girl shrugged, "I have no preference. On Earth-One, my cousin and I use our Kryptonian and Superhero identities interchangeably with the public. Whichever you prefer is fine by me, ma'am."

Right, there was also that fact.

Supergirl wasn't human. If she wasn't just delusional like Myrridan, and Piggot was inclined to believe she wasn't, then Supergirl was actually an alien from an alternate dimension. One where, apparently, she wasn't even the strongest cape around. Again, that heartburn medication was looking real good right about now.

Piggot shook that thought off, "Right. Supergirl, we appreciate that you took time out of your clearly busy schedule to talk with us. I presume you have an idea of what we want to talk about?"

Supergirl started counting off her fingers, "You probably want to know if I'm compromised after my fight on the moon, want to know why I was on the moon in the first place, if I think I can handle the rest of the Endbringers, what my intentions on Earth-Bet are in general, and the big one, you want to convince me to join the Protectorate. If I had to guess."

Well, at least she was straightforward.

"Right. Well, we actually have an idea of why you were on the moon. We have testimony for what happened at the Hebert household from officers on the scene-"

"They're doing okay, right?" Supergirl interrupted.

Piggot frowned, and Armsmaster answered, "We've given Miss Hebert and her father time to recuperate after yesterday. They're going to tour our facilities in a few days and discuss her full membership in the Protectorate afterwards. Given recent events, it was deemed only fair to give them both time to mentally recover after their… ordeal."

Supergirl nodded, "Good, that's… that's good. Sorry Director, you were saying?"

Piggot cleared her throat, "What I, and my superiors need to confirm is if you'd be willing to submit to a full mental and psychiatric evaluation. You had prolonged one on one contact with the Simurgh, we're concerned about any adverse psionic effects she might have had on you."

Supergirl frowned and folded her arms, "Well, as far as psionics go, the Simurgh didn't really impress me. I mean, compared to psychics like Despero or Eclipso, she was kind of… C-Tier?"

She paused, realizing what she was saying, "But, if it makes people feel better, I wouldn't be against it. I assume the public doesn't know about my scuffle?"

Dragon spoke up over the speakers, "PRT leadership decided, in the wake of your victory over Leviathan, that putting your mental state in doubt with the general public would only sour what should be a genuine victory."

Supergirl nodded sagely, "I can understand the reasoning and I'll follow your lead on that. I just hope that info never gets out, it could cause way more problems if people find out we were hiding it. Also, hello! You're Dragon, right?"

"The one and only! And I have to say it's an honor to finally meet you face to face, so to speak." Dragon said, her voice even more chipper than usual.

Supergirl smiled, "It's fine, I understand how agoraphobia can be. It's still nice to meet you, I've heard nothing but good things about you."

She turned her attention back to Piggot. "Either way, Director, I will comply with a full psychiatric evaluation."

"It's more a case of caution than any real concern." Armsmaster explained. "We don't believe you were exposed to the Simurgh long enough to be put under threat, but a lot of what we thought we knew about the Endbringers has been called into question."

"I understand completely, Armsmaster." Supergirl nodded.

They continued along this line of questioning for about thirty minutes or so. What became very apparent to Piggot as they talked was that, in spite of her apparent age, Supergirl carried herself with more restraint and patience than a lot of professionals she knew with twice the experience. The girl oozed self-confidence and intelligence that put Piggot even more on edge. It was one thing if Supergirl was just a naive kid; but no, there was a clear intelligence behind that warm smile.

Supergirl was kind, not stupid.

It did, however, mean that their questioning was fruitful. Supergirl was willing to divulge a lot on her world, her culture, even small bits of her past though nothing substantial in that regard. She claimed that she had no idea how she arrived in Earth-Bet, and though Piggot would check with Armsmaster's lie detector later, she was willing to bet that Supergirl was telling the truth. Someone had sent the girl to their world, and no one knew who.

That was added to the list of Piggots personal concerns. Who had sent a being as powerful as Supergirl to Earth-Bet, and why. Did Earth-One have a vested interest in Earth-Bet? Could the Protectorate even handle the villains that Earth-One could produce? The worst part was that, since Supergirl was amnesiac, she had no answer for most of these questions. And this wasn't even the most stressful part of their meeting, as far as Piggot was concerned.

As it drew to a close, she finally breached the topic she had been dreading all this time.

"You've been very honest with us so far, Supergirl. I do, however, have a very important question for you." Piggot sucked in a breath and asked, "Would you be willing to join the Protectorate? We provide solid pay and a pension of course, and if necessary can provide a full United States citizenship and secured identity for personal privacy. You'd also have the full resources of the Protectorate behind you in your work."

There were other benefits she was prepared to pull out, but these were her big hail mary's. She wasn't sure if money meant anything to an alien like her, but in spite of her supposed heritage, Supergirl seemed very human. Every advantage to convince her would help.

Supergirl leaned back in her chair, and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. She hemmed and hawed and clearly thought about the offer for several long minutes. The fact that she didn't have an immediate answer meant she was still debating this. Which meant, if Piggot really pushed, she might be able to convince the girl to join.

"Director Piggot, I am honored by your offer." Supergirl said. "But, I am afraid I will have to decline."

She held up her hand before Piggot could make her case. "I know you and your superiors would feel better with me working under you. But it's exactly for that reason that I cannot join the Protectorate. I know that the organization has some international ties, and is the largest group of official heroes on Earth-Bet. But, while I would appreciate having a citizenship and legal secret identity, as a Kryptonian I cannot bind myself to anyone Earth borne nation. With the kind of power I possess, locking myself to the politics of any nation, no matter how allegedly moral, would stop me from helping others. And at the end of the day, that is what I do. I use the powers I've been given to assist others in any way I can. But I can't do that if I have to worry about politics telling me I can't help a village dying from drought because the surrounding area would take American interference as a sign of aggression. I am an independent hero. Always have been, always will be."

Shit, she really had thought about this.

Supergirl smiled, "But, I am more than willing to work with and under the Protectorate in local matters. I'm not going to step over laws or break due process. Just make sure innocent people are safe. That's all I want to do. I think you could argue that's all most people want to do, especially in the Protectorate."

Piggot didn't let Supergirl's rejection visibly bother her. She knew it was a slim chance to convince the girl to sign up, and it was clear Supergirl never had any intention to join up with them. That she was willing to work with them and respect their jurisdiction was a relief, but Piggot knew that it was just to ease her state of mind. The moment the Protectorate became an inconvenience, Supergirl could and would toss them aside like trash.

Armsmaster removed a small metal rectangular device from his belt and offered it to Supergirl. "Communicator is inside that container. Save it for when you're working with us, should make organized operations easier if you decide to step in."

"It also has a private connection to my line as well," Dragon added, "I'm technically an independent agent working with the Protectorate. So if you have ideas or need a favor, shoot me a call."

"I'll keep that in mind, Dragon. Thank you."

Supergirl turned back to Piggot, "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss, Director? Or can we get started on that psychiatric evaluation?"

Piggot drummed her fingers on a slip of paper on her desk and sighed, "There is technically one more thing. Given the massive political and economic threat the Endbringers represent in addition to the general loss of life they inevitably bring, the nations of the world have pooled together a large bounty for anyone that could find a way to kill them. It's been steadily added to over the years and there's a substantial sum for whoever was able to put them down. Technically speaking, since you put down Leviathan, you're entitled to a third of the existing reward."

"Oh Director," Supergirl started to protest, "I can't take monetary compensation for this. Like I said, I do this to help people, and-"

As she talked, Piggot slid the file with the noted sum over to Supergirl. She glanced at it and choked on her words

"Holy shit that's a lot of zeroes!"

 

[Tontis]

Interlude 1.3​

"You know, I think I've learned to love this whole 'internet' thing." I said.

Victoria and Vista froze mid-bite of pizza and exchanged a look of what I could only describe as 'abject terror'. I quirked my head to the side, "What?"

"Supergirl… long have you been on the internet?" Vista asked, with the same grave tone of voice someone used when defusing a hostage situation.

"Since this morning." I held up the smartphone Dragon had given me after my psychiatric evaluation at the PRT yesterday. As expected I had been given a clean bill of health. I'd spent the rest of my Sunday and Monday assisting with reconstruction efforts, which were going great. Right now, the Wards and I were taking a lunch break.

I gestured at Victoria, "Glory Girl told me I should do an… AMA? To get in touch with people and ease concerns, so I set one up on that parahumans forum and have been answering posts between work."

"You were supposed to wait to do that! And who told you about the PHO?" Victoria demanded, sounding like she was going to murder someone.

"Clockblocker mentioned them I think, it's how I found this restaurant in the first place" I pointed at the table where the boys were gathered enjoying their own lunch.

Supergirl, you ratted me out!" Clockblocker yelped. I snickered and took another bite of a delicious pizza slice.

Joey's Pepperoni Pizzeria was a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant at the edge of the Boardwalk that had, by all miracles, survived Leviathan's initial landfall with only a little water damage. One thing I had learned in my years on Earth was that 'hole-in-the-wall restaurant' seemed to be cultural lingo for 'restaurant with the best food you'll find in town'. It was an ongoing hypothesis of mine I had yet to prove but was determined to do so. So yes, I was intrigued by the offer of good pizza from Joey, though I had refused to take it for free.

A big burly man who had once been a dockworker, Joey had been insistent that I and the Wards had eaten for free. I had insisted in turn that we pay for his services. A gift from a kind civilian was one thing, but I would never take handouts from business owners.

This had gone on for fifteen minutes until we came to a compromise. I cleared the rest of the water damage from the pizzeria in exchange for him cooking up a buffet for me and the others. Little did he know, I was going to pay him back for it anyway, and there was nothing he could do to stop me!

Anyway, that was how we found ourselves in a (slightly water damaged) Pizzeria enjoying extra large quality pizzas while huddled away with our own private section of the restaurant so the boys could eat with their helmets off. I won't lie, I was in my own little personal heaven.

Victoria turned in her chair and said, her voice filled with mock threat, "Hey Clock, remind me to thank you for introducing Kara to the internet later!"

"I regret nothing!"

I smiled and nibbled on my pizza. It was good, seeing them all in high spirits. When times were tough, when stress hung off people like a shroud, it became all the more obvious when they had been relieved of that shroud. The Wards relaxed, they joked, poked and prodded at one another. They felt safe, they felt relieved. And that made me happy.

It was a good way to keep my mind off more serious matters. With the chaos of Leviathan dealt with, and things looking smooth with the Protectorate, that left me with more long term concerns I just didn't want to deal with right now. In short order: the remaining Endbringers were still at large, Brockton Bay had several entrenched criminal elements, an uncomfortably prevalent neo-nazi problem, I needed somewhere to live, I had no idea who had sent me to Earth-Bet in the first place or how to get back to Earth-One, and of course there was the issues surrounding the Heberts.

I hadn't had an opportunity to really talk with either of them since the Leviathan fight after reuniting them. That had always been my intention, even when I had flown off to clear my head. Things had just… escalated rapidly for some unfathomable reason. But I still needed to talk with Taylor and her dad and see how they were fairing. The ABB attack on them was my fault and their lives had been irreconcilably changed because of it. I owed it to them to help them through the coming days however I could; there were just a lot of responsibilities I had to juggle.

Oh, there was also the fact that I desperately needed a new costume, and I was still debating if I should accept that money for killing Leviathan. I liked my little makeshift costume, but evidently I was no longer the size I thought I was. Victoria and I were supposed to be a similar size but the shirt and skirt she'd lent me did not fit as I'd like, even if they were very cute. As for the money…

Kal and I had never taken rewards for our deeds. We helped wherever we could with our powers, and lived normal lives when not acting as Superman or Supergirl. When you had powers like I did, money didn't hold much value. At the same time, Supergirl could punch monsters in the face, but she could not punch the social decay of modern values brought on by the economic fallout of large scale natural disasters and gentrification.

Believe me, I've tried.

I just wasn't sure if I really could put that money to use in a meaningfully constructive manner.

Victoria nudged my side, "Hey, you okay Kara? You were spacing out there for a second."

I blinked and smiled, "Sorry, just lost in this pizza, I'm fine."

She raised a brow skeptically, but didn't push. Whatever friction existed between me and Carol, Victoria didn't seem to share, to my relief. It made things a little awkward between us, but that would probably fade once I found a place of my own. It was good to have a friend on an Earth that, once again, felt alien to me.

We talked idly, exchanging stupid jokes and barbs, discussing the rebuilding efforts or sharing crime fighting stories. A nice bit of relaxation for all of us. Then the Pizzeria door chimed as it swung open.

Joey, working in the kitchen, poked his head through the serving hatch and a grin split his grizzled face, "'Ey, Danny boy! Good to see ya's!"

My head perked up in surprise toward the cashier stand. Sure enough, there he was. Danny Hebert, looking tired but significantly healthier than the last time I had seen him. Joey came out with a large box of pizza in hand and greeted him like an old friend. The man hadn't noticed us yet, and returned the greeting.

Victoria followed my gaze and arched a brow, "Huh. Small world."

"Excuse me." I said, and stood up from our table and approached Mr. Hebert.

He saw me approaching and I waved, "Mr. Hebert. Didn't expect to run into you here. How are you doing?"

His eyes were wide with surprise behind his glasses, but he managed a smile and shrug, "Joey and I go way back, before the Docks went under. This place has been a favorite of Taylor and I for years. I'm doing fine, poor eating habits aside."

"I heard that, Hebert!" Joey shouted from the kitchen.

Mr. Hebert rolled his eyes and looked back at me, "Things are going well, I think. Taylor's been more… open with me, since… Well, you know. We have a lot to work through, a lot that hasn't been said. But I think we're doing better. We're going to be okay."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. If you need any more help, don't hesitate to ask."

He shook his head, and opened his mouth as if he was going to protest. Then he closed it and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. He folded his arms and leaned on the counter, "Actually, there is one thing, if you're willing to hear me out."

I paused and glanced over my shoulder back at the Wards. Victoria specifically. I remembered the time limit I was on with Carol, and my own concerns with Taylor. And an idea occurred to me.

"I'm all ears, on one condition. Are you willing to trade a favor for a favor?" I asked.

Danny quirked his lips, "Ordinarily, no. But for you? I think I can make an exception given the last few days."

A grin spread over my face as he shared his idea with me.

If the news had gotten bored of talking about my fight with Leviathan, they were going to love what I was about to get up to next.

-S-​

Piggot was going to be very occupied for the next few days. She drummed her fingers against her desk and tried to look interested as the video call with the other Directors dragged on. To no one's surprise, Rebecca Costa Brown, the Head Director of the PRT, had scheduled an emergency meeting of all PRT Branch Directors after Supergirl's fight with Leviathan. And to Piggots complete lack of surprise, said meeting had devolved into a a bunch of talking heads squabbling and repeating the same tired points over and over again.

It all came down to two basic points of contention.

Could they trust Supergirl, and could they contain Supergirl if needed.

The head Director herself, a hispanic woman with a gaze like steel, had been characteristically silent as her subordinates squabbled. Costa Brown expected much of those she appointed to the position of Director, and preferred drawing out solutions from them as opposed to directly guiding them. Sometimes this led to brilliant solutions. Other times, and in Piggots opinion most of the time, it led to a bureaucratic clusterfuck that left no one satisfied and everyone bitter.

At the moment, Director Tagg and Director Armstrong were going at it, as they so often did. The two men were philosophical opposites. Armstrong was a parahuman sympathizer through and through, who seemed more interested in studying and understanding parahumans than he did actually making sure they fit into the rest of society. Boston was stable under his command, but still inundated with its own share of parahuman crime. Tagg was an uncompromising man, with a spine like iron and laser focus. When things went fubar, and all other options were exhausted, Tagg was the man sent in to restore order. She knew that Tagg, like herself, understood the larger scale threat that Parahumans could represent. While he could be more extreme than her in maintaining order, no one could deny that he got results. And sometimes, if things really went that badly, it was necessary to clamp down until the problem was solved. Civil liberties and the like could be sorted afterwards.

She was also very aware that if things in Brockton went pear shaped, he was on call to take over her position. If thing's ever did get that bad, well then gracefully withdrawing was probably for the best anyway.

Needless to say though, Armstrong and Tagg could not stand each other, and Supergirl's action's only amplified this.

"We've seen the footage. We know what she can do, we know what she has done. Supergirl's exposure to her makes her a ticking time bomb, a threat to the entire planet. Letting her do as she pleases is asking for problems." Tagg argued.

Armstrong sighed, "James, Kara passed our evaluations. She willingly submitted herself to every test we had on hand and came out positive. If the Simurgh was able to so subtly implant some kind of psychic timebomb in her that we couldn't detect it, then we have far bigger problems to worry about than the possibility that Kara might go rogue."

"When we're discussing this possibility in regards to someone powerful enough to shake the entire planet with a single punch, no amount of paranoia is too much, Armstrong." James hissed.

Armstrong looked unimpressed, "So we should antagonize her then?"

Tagg glared at him through the computer screen."We should ensure that we have her contained. Force her to join the Protectorate, make sure there are checks and balances to keep her in control."

"With all due respect, Director Tagg." Piggot interrupted before the two could continue their circular argument. "Supergirl doesn't have enough ties to Earth-Bet to give us anything to apply pressure on. You and I both know how complicated the legality of extra-dimensional human rights are, and she muddies it further by not even being human. Not to mention we'd run the risk of angering her allies on her Earth when they find her."

Tagg folded his arms and frowned, "You're assuming the girl is telling the truth. Why are we assuming there's any more validity to her claims than say, the Faerie Queen? Supergirl shows just as many signs of being delusional as any particularly traumatic trigger. She just so happens to be on our side, for now."

Piggot pinched the bridge of her nose, "Tagg, you're presuming a lot without understanding the full picture here."

"It's called being prepared, Piggot." Tagg interrupted. "Something that everyone else here seems eager to forgo. Leviathan might be dead, but there's still two more Endbringers left and they're far more dangerous than he was. I'm not going to risk this country's safety because the rest of you are content to sit on your asses and let this child run free!"

A chorus of rebuttals and angry arguments started up, and Piggot lowered the volume on her headset. Tagg's paranoia was in full force, nothing productive was going to be said while he was like this.

But to her surprise, everyone went silent when Rebecca Costa Brown spoke up. Her voice was like thunder, cutting over the storm of squabbling branch directors with the same ease."That is quite enough, everyone."

Say what you would about her policies, but the woman had an unmatched force of personality. She turned her dark eyes towards Piggot and said, "Director Piggot. You are the only one here to have personally interacted with Supergirl in any meaningful capacity. Give us your thoughts in full on how you think we should proceed."

Ah so now everyone cared about what the head of the Brockton PRT had to say. Piggot bit back a smart remark and folded her hands on her desk instead before she spoke. "What we're all failing to acknowledge here, is that Supergirl represents a paradigm shift. The world, as we know it, has fundamentally changed and in a way none of us expected. Three days ago, we had accepted the fact that an Endbringer could not be killed. Three days ago, the most powerful capes in the world stood under our control and as the only line of defense against the Endbringers and other similar threats. Three days ago, any parahuman that wanted to do something with their powers, looked to the Protectorate as their future."

She steepled her fingers, "The Protectorate and PRT have maintained relative order and control in the world through our monopoly on force. Before Parahumans, that was how the United States maintained itself as a world power. Whoever has the monopoly on force, in turn has control over the world. And now, for the first time in decades, we're seeing that monopoly challenged. It happened before when Scion appeared, when Parahumans began to emerge, when the Endbringers showed up, and when the Siberian went on her rampage. But we adapted and managed to maintain that monopoly.."

She swept her arm behind her at the row of windows at her back showing the greater city of Brockton Bay, almost untouched despite being attacked by the Endbringer most likely to destroy it.

"That's no longer the case. Supergirl has the monopoly on force. She has done what we have never been able to do. She took a swing at the Endbringers, and won. Parahumans aren't going to look to the Protectorate now when considering their future. They're going to look at her. All the power of Scion, channeled through the lense of someone my head of PR has described as 'a media gold mine'. Her power isn't just physical, it's social as well. And because of that, the Protectorate going forward is going to have to accept that we'll be playing second fiddle to Supergirl so long as she is operating on Earth-Bet.""

Tagg scowled, "What exactly are you trying to say, Piggot?"

Before she could reply, she heard a commotion from outside her office. The sound of voices shouting and dozens of feet suddenly moving. She held up her finger in front of her webcam and said, "One moment please, something's happening."

With an effort of will, Piggot forced herself out of her chair and walked to her office door. She pushed it open and saw every staffer and intern rushing toward the eastern side of the building in a flurry of scattered papers and abandoned desks. Piggot followed them and looked out the window. It took her a minute to understand what she was seeing, but when she did her mouth slowly fell open.

She rushed back into her office to her desk and put her headphones on, "I apologize for this, everyone, but please bear with me."

A few protested as she removed the webcam from her monitor, but she ignored them. Instead, she dragged the webcam as far as its wiring would let it go to the corner of her office where she could just see what was happening out on the bay.

For almost a decade now, Brockton's bay had been littered with the corpses of its boating industry. Cargo ships, fishing vessels and everything in between littered the waters of the city, abandoned when Leviathan had begun its one monster destruction of any ship that dared to venture out into deeper waters. The riots and protests from the dockworkers to follow had just made it worse and left no one to even try to clean out the bay.

The largest of these had been a massive cargo container, longer than most skyscrapers were tall. It was a fixture in the city skyline, an unofficial mascot for the slow economic death of the city. And it was currently floating several hundred feet into the air and flying inland.

Piggot couldn't see her from this far, but she knew there was only one person in the entire city that could do this. Only one person that would have the strength and power to lift something that large without it falling apart. Supergirl dropped the cargo ship onto a clear section of the Docks, an action that kicked up a literal plume of dust and debris large enough for anyone in the city to see. Piggot swore she felt a faint tremor run through the earth.

Then, a blur of red, white, and blue began racing around the ship and before her eyes the ship began to fall apart. Paneling was stripped, decking undone, rivets pulled out one by one. Supergirl wasn't destroying the ship, she was dismantling it piece by piece at a speed that was terrifying in its velocity and mind-bogglingly in its efficiency. Within minutes, what had been a cargo ship nearly one thousand feet long was now a skeletal corpse that was shrinking with each passing second.

Piggot turned back to her camera, while the image of the disassembling liner remained behind her, and said "That, dear directors, is what we are going to be competing with for the rest of our careers. Any more questions?"

-S-​

I ignored the grumbling of my stomach and wondered when Dad would get home with food. He had said he was going to Joey's, but that had been an hour ago. Given the state of the city, he had probably been caught up in traffic. Or Joey's had been taken out by Leviathan. Phone lines were still spotty in some areas and Joeys was small enough it didn't have a webpage to check. Maybe dad was just looking for an alternative so he didn't come home empty handed.

Maybe I was just trying to distract myself like I had been the last few days.

My desk chair squeaked as I leaned back in it and rubbed my eyes. I'd spent the last few days cooped up in the house, researching… well everything. Capes, the culture, the Protectorate and PRT, and anything I could find on Supergirl of course. I told myself it was so I knew what to expect, since I was a parahuman now, but that was just an excuse.

The truth was that I was scared to leave the house. My trigger event wasn't subtle. Everyone had some idea of what happened. Not everyone had been home, but word travels fast, and I knew for a fact that people were whispering about what happened. I could hear them, if I focused. Neighbors I knew, people I had grown up with, had gone to neighborhood parties with… now they whispered and gossipped about us. Sometimes they were scared about what having a parahuman in the neighborhood would mean. Others, they pitied dad for what he was going to have to deal with.

The entire situation filled me with an overwhelming sense of frustration and shame. I had the power to fight an Endbringer, but what could I do to fight baseless rumors? It was like Winslow all over again.

The memory of school made me groan and cover my face. At the start of the weekend there had been a beacon of hope that I could leave it behind, move away from everything and start over. Except then Leviathan had hit, and had thrown Supergirl straight through Winslow. There wasn't any Winslow left. Sure it was going to be rebuilt at some point, but until the city decided what they were going to replace Winslow with, everyone was being transferred to the schools that had survived.

Dad and I had gotten a call that morning that next week I'd finally be attending Arcadia. Which should have been exciting news! Except that I knew my luck, I knew how the universe liked to treat me. Emma would follow me there, Sophia too probably. Plus, I'd have to share classes with Glory Girl and Panacea. And after our last face to face conversation, I wasn't exactly eager to talk to either of them anytime soon. In fact, my blood still boiled when I remembered Panacea's words to Supergirl and the bold-faced lie she told her sister.

And they called themselves superheroes.

My hand resting on my desk started to curl into a ball, dragging narrow furrows through the wood like it was clay. I sucked in a deep breath and calmed myself before I damaged the desk further. The last few days had been a wonderful crash course on just how different my life was going to be from now on with my enhanced strength. Even a minor annoyance could see me leaving a hole in the wall or breaking off a doorknob. I couldn't imagine anyone living like this, but it was my new reality.

I just wished I could catch a break.

The rumble of dad's beater truck rolling into the driveway shook me from my funk. My stomach growled with excitement, and I sat up fast enough that I almost sent my chair through the wall. I winced and mentally added it to my list of things I was going to have to fix.

"Taylor, sorry I'm late, I have pizza!" I heard dad holler from the downstairs kitchen. "Hope you don't mind, I brought a friend!"

Probably Kurt, one of his old union buddies. That was fine, better than everyone just keeping their distance like I was going to suddenly explode. I ignored the hole in the hallway I had left after tripping over myself yesterday, and marched downstairs.

"It's no problem dad, I'm just glad you brought food, I'm sta-ah-ah-ah-!" I yelped in surprise and almost jumped back up the stairs.

Supergirl was taking off a large coat and hat she'd been wearing and smiled at me, "Hello again, Taylor, glad to see you're doing okay. I hope you don't mind, I'll be staying over for a few days until things get settled."

That was the moment when it finally clicked. Whatever shred of normalcy my life had, it had shriveled up and died when Emma and Sophia had shoved me in that locker.

This was my life now, and it was only going to get stranger from there.

If only I had known at the time just how accurate that thought was.

-S-​

Some hundreds of miles away from Brockton Bay, there was a mountain. And in that mountain, there was a cage. A birdcage, of most peculiar design. And in that birdcage, there were many people, most unkind. Thugs and killers, rogues and scoundrels, innocent and guilty. All of a type, all with a story.

And among these many folk of whom some were unkind, there was a girl most special, more than any else there. For she was no girl, no she was a Faerie! And not just any Faerie, oh no, she was the Queen of Faeries. Glaistig Uaine was her name, a pretty name for a pretty young girl.

Queen of the Faeries and queen of the birdcage, even if the other little birds hated to admit it. On some days, she tended to her court, entertained her subjects, and indulged herself how she saw fit, whilst waiting for the Father to act. The courts of the Fae were ever fickle and ever strange.

But upon this queer day, the Faerie Queen continued her work on a project most important. The other birds in the cage did not understand, could not understand, what had joined them on the stage. Oh but the Faerie Queen did, for a good queen knew what went on her in domain.

So she prepared her court, set tables, prepared meals, and of course prepared tea. One could not have a proper talk without tea. But all the while, her little birds outside the cage kept her informed. Kept her aware. Aware of the interloper, the unwanted actor strutting about on their stage. A new prop that was moving off script.

It was very fortunate that our young Faerie Queen was so good an improviser and so gracious a host. In time the interloper would come to her, and they would talk. Until then, young Glaistig Uaine would prepare and would wait, day after day, night after night.

On the third day of her preparations, while the interloper flailed about blindly upon the stage, the Faerie Queen sat at her table and sipped on her tea. None of her subjects sat with her, for she had given the little birds the freedom to indulge themselves. Even a Queen wanted peace and quiet after all, and it was so very tiring taking care of birds; they rarely knew what was best for them.

As she sipped, her attention was piqued and she turned toward the seat at her left. A smile, warm and delightful, broke her face and she greeted a guest whom only she could see. After all, it was only proper that a Queen see all her guests.

"Hello there dear fellow, welcome to my court. Take a seat, and tell me, what brings you to my court?"

She tilted her head, and listened to words no else could hear. A hand came to her mouth and she giggled, "My my, a traveler from so far. A friend of our interloper?"

Her head tilted the other way, and she nodded, "Ah, an old friend indeed, I understand. What's this?"

She leaned closer and then fell back in her chair, clapping her hands with delight and cheer, "Oh how splendid! I would be delighted to help you, dear traveler. Oh yes, a surprise party for an old friend, truly a delight. Though I warn you, it may take us some time."

She listened again and nodded, "I suppose we do have time. Two years at least, perhaps more. Perhaps less. Time is such a fickle thing, wouldn't you agree?"

Then the Faerie Queen flushed with embarrassment as she remembered her manners, "Oh, my apologies traveler. I never asked your name. To whom am I speaking?"

She listened intently, without distraction as was proper of a Queen. Her giggles came swiftly, loudly and unbound. All through the cage heard the laugh of their Queen, and all knew that her delight spelled a change.

"My, what a name. So queer." She sipped on her tea, "Yes, good sir, I shall help you. And when the time comes, your dear friend will know the pleasure of meeting you once more. Oh yes, what joys we will see."

 

[Tontis]

Hypocrisy 2.1​

I woke with a start, soaked to the bone in sweat staring at my bedroom ceiling. For several long minutes I watched the ceiling, willing the vestiges of my nightmare away. Only when my pulse slowed and my breathing calmed, did I try to sit up. My pajamas slowly peeled off my sweat-soaked skin like a bandaid.. I groaned in disgust and ran both hands over my face.. A glance at the clock at my nightstand elicited another frustrated growl.

2:30 AM.

This was the third time I'd woken up that night. Sleep hadn't come easy for the last week since Leviathan had run rampant over Brockton, but tonight was particularly bad. I'd like to say I had no idea why, but that would be a lie. Tomorrow, Sunday, dad and I were set to tour the Rig, the Protectorate HQ. If everything went well, that would be my first step onto the path of being a genuine hero.

Anxiety on top of my usual issues made for a painful and potent combination that clearly had no intention of letting me sleep. Besides, even if I was willing to try for a fourth time, I was so sticky with sweat that the idea of trying to lay under my covers again was distinctly unappealing. Clearing my head was the best option for now.

I swung my legs off the side of my bed and snuck out of my room as quietly as I could. The creaking of the door hinges and the groan of the floor beneath my feet made me wince. Dad's bedroom, further up the hall, had a sliver of light peering out from under it. Nowadays that didn't mean he was awake. Ever since Leviathan, he preferred keeping the house as well lit as possible. I didn't deny him that comfort or blame him for it.

Knowing he had his own trouble with sleep, I took extra care in my steps as I headed downstairs. Just a quick trip to the kitchen and a warm cup of tea to settle my nerves was all I needed to settle myself for the night.

But, the kitchen wasn't empty when I turned inside.

Supergirl stood leaning her back against the kitchen counter, staring blankly into space with a steaming cup of tea in her hands and dressed in fluffy white pajamas. A gift from Glory Girl, I had been told; or rather, her unfairly handsome boyfriend. She seemed to snap back to reality, and those inhuman blue eyes of her flicked towards me. I just stood there, awkward and dumb at the kitchen entrance.

"Oh, sorry Taylor," she whispered, her lips turning up into a warm smile, "I didn't notice you there. Everything okay?"

"I… um, trouble sleeping, I was getting some… water." I lied. Why did I lie to her about that? Not like she would judge me for wanting the same thing as her, I had already decided I was going to get tea, I didn't need to change my mind just to seem different.

Supergirl nodded, her face the picture of sympathy, "Of course. You have a big day tomorrow. Would you rather some tea instead? It always helps me settle my nerves."

I tried to shrug as cool and nonchalant as I could, "Uh sure, why not."

She set her cup down on the counter with a soft clink of ceramic and rummaged through our cupboards until she found a mug for me and then deposited a tea bag and filled it with water. Then she held out the cup to me.

"No kettle?"

Supergirl blinked then laughed, "Oh of course, sorry one moment."

She stared at the mug, and two faint beams of red shot from her eye to the ceramic, coaxing the water inside to a gentle boil. After blowing on it, she handed it to me with a smile and said, "Perks of heat vision is I don't need kettles for my tea. Took me a year to learn how to control it well enough to do that though. A lot of innocent mugs suffered under my training."

I took it and savored the warm porcelain in my hands before taking a tentative sip. The light aroma eased my trepidation and the warmth soothed the shaking unease in my hands. A sigh of relief slipped out my lips.

"Thank you."

Supergirl smiled and said nothing. She just grabbed her cup off the counter and leaned against it again. We stood together in silence, savoring our shared tea for several minutes. It was… nice. Strange, but nice.

After a time though, I started to feel uneasy again. This kind of silence always made me antsy. Like I felt there was a need for someone to say something when two people were together. Silence was just a calm before something inevitably went wrong in some way, shape, or form. I didn't need to be the one talking of course, but if people were talking it meant there was less chance of things happening to me.

What things didn't matter, the simple threat was enough to put me on edge again. Enough that it forced me to talk anyway.

I stared at my cup as I forced myself to speak up, "So… long night out in the Atlantic?"

She had been working on some kind of project out in the ocean with Dragon. What she was working on, I had no idea. She was very hush hush about it. The only sign we had of her trips out there was that she always came home smelling vaguely of seawater.

Supergirl looked up in surprise at my voice, "Hm? Oh, no actually. We've made great progress, and Brockton Bay has been very quiet. Truthfully, I couldn't sleep. Nightmares."

I looked at her and my surprise must have been obvious. Her eyes returned to her cup and she took another sip, "I might be bulletproof, but I've seen… a lot of terrible things doing what I do. Doesn't matter how indestructible our bodies are, our minds are terribly fragile things."

That rang all too true to me. Images of my nightmare rose to the surface unbidden. Flashes of an ocean that devoured the light as I was dragged deeper and deeper into its abyss. Of air pushed from my lungs, trapped and constricted tighter and tighter until even the very act of trying to breathe hurt. My heart hammered in my ears faster and faster as I panicked in vain to free myself. Light vanished and died, leaving me alone in a void beyond comprehension.

Alone until four lopsided eyes peered out of the dark, rising from the depths towards me faster and faster. And then gone over as quickly as it started and I was back in my kitchen, shaking.

Supergirl stood closer to me, her hand on my shoulder gentle but firm. I looked away from her, staring into my half empty cup.

"Do they get any easier?"

She squeezed my shoulder, "They do. They never go away, but… neither do the good ones either. I always try to remember that. Some days it's easier than others."

There was some comfort in that, I supposed. I wasn't sure if I would've preferred that she had lied to me, but her honesty was appreciated. Even if the truth was painful, I felt a little better prepared for the nightmare. Not that I was in any rush to go back to sleep, of course.

Another sip of tea and a sigh, "I think I'm just… nervous. About tomorrow that is."

"You'll do fine." Supergirl said without a moment's hesitation. "The Protectorate will be more than happy to have you."

I shook my head, "That's… not it. I know I messed up when I first got my power, but I know it'll be useful enough that they'll take me. I guess I'm… god this is stupid, but I'm just scared of meeting the Wards I guess? Like, I've spent the last two years dealing with normal high school drama and bullshit. Now I'm going to have to deal with super powered high school drama and bullshit. I just… I don't think I'm ready for that."

Supergirl stared at me for a long moment, then blinked once and started laughing. Not a mocking laugh but one that sounded… relieved?

She slumped against the counter and let out a sigh, "Ah, sorry for laughing Taylor, it's just… after these last few days, I had forgotten how it felt to have a normal problem."

I took renewed interest in my mug, "Yeah it's pretty stupid isn't it?"

Here was an alien god for all intents and purposes, someone that could kill an Endbringer one on one. And I was complaining that my future teammates might be mean to me or gossip. I felt so childish.

Supergirl stood up and wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I stiffened for a moment, not expecting the contact. Then I relaxed into her embrace. She was strangely warm, like a living furnace. In the chilly January weather, that was a relief. Plus, I couldn't remember the last time I had been hugged by someone besides my dad. And even that was rare these days.

"When I was your age, Taylor, I grew up in an orphanage. I had just arrived on Earth and didn't have any friends. In fact, I had gone through a lot of… awful things at that point. Yet, even back then I was fighting to save the world and you know what was always on my mind? The same thing you're dealing with. Would the others like me, had I done something to make them hate me, so on and so forth."

She let me go and brushed a strand of hair out of my face. "Because it's easy to fight your way out of a situation. Blowing up a death ray, fist fighting a robot? That's simple, it's straightforward. But people? People are these wonderfully complicated and complex things and the relationships we forge are the most beautiful and terrible things in the world. A giant monster that broke out of its creators lab is scary, but being rejected by someone you thought was a friend? That's terrifying."

I tried really hard not to think about Emma. Threw everything up to keep the image of her face out of my mind. It didn't work, because how could it? How could I ever let go of that betrayal? A lifetime of friendship turned into two years of hell. And to this day, I still had no idea what I had done to deserve it, what had made her hate me so much.

It took a mountain of will to keep the tears out of my eyes. Then, Supergirl put her hands on my shoulders and said, "But, no matter what Taylor. Even if the Wards hate you for some ridiculous reason. You will always have a friend in me. I promise."

Goddamn it.

The tears came unbidden. A dam had burst and nothing was going to stop the river of tears and snot that ran down my face. I let out a choked sob and hugged Supergirl, hugged Kara while burying my face in her shoulder. She returned it without a word and held me there for a long, long time.

-S-​

Our morning came in a blur. Breakfast flew by so fast that I didn't realize what happened until we were on the boat pulling up to the Rig. I fidgeted in the full body suit I wore, a 'gift' from the Protectorate to conceal my identity until I fully signed on with the Wards. A gray featureless outfit that did little to protect against the biting chill of the ocean breeze. A chill that didn't bother me as much as I thought, and it wasn't because I was used to it. More perks to my powers, perhaps?

Dad sat next to me and wore a similar featureless mask as me and a thick jacket that almost doubled the size of his torso and the PRT troopers escorting us looked miserable. But me? I just felt like we were taking a trip out onto the ocean on a pleasant summer day.

The rumbling outboard motor of our little patrol boat sputtered to a stop and we drifted up to the dock under the Rig. The superstructure stretched high over us, this towering thing of iron and steel and who knew what else. I could see workers marching along the walkways around its legs, tiny little red ants clambering around the body of this gigantic monstrosity that made the bay its home. It was almost humbling in a way.

At the dock, a pair of troopers helped secure our boat, and helped us disembark. We were greeted by the familiar bandana clad face of Miss Militia. Panacea's powers really were on a different level. I never would've believed that this was the same cape I saw pasted on the pavement by Leviathan just a week ago. She shook both our hands, and smiled under the bandana.

"It's a pleasure to see you both again. How are you?" she asked.

Dad shrugged, "Still adjusting to all of… this," he gestured to the Rig and troopers.

She chuckled, "It's a lot to take in, trust me you're not the first people to feel overwhelmed. Now, before we get started, are any of you hungry, need a break or…"

"We were a bit rushed this morning, but…" Dad looked at me.

"I'm okay." I lied. My stomach growled in protest; half a bagel was not enough for a real breakfast. But if I tried to eat anything at that moment I would have just thrown it back up. My entire body tingled with anxiety and the tips of my fingers felt numb. So I played it cool, to put on a good first impression. Emptying my guts in the Protectorate bathroom would have been the opposite of that.

"Well we can always stop at the Mess Hall later if either of you feel up for it." she put her hands together, "Otherwise, we can get started now, if you are both ready."

Again dad looked at me and I nodded. No point in putting this off with pleasantries. The sooner this was over with, the sooner I could move on to the next part of my life.

Happy with our choice, Miss Militia led us into the Rig. I kept Kara's words in mind as we walked, clinging to them like a raft in a storm. Whatever else happened here, I could at least depend on her.

I could, right?

That little voice in the back of my head never quite shut up through the entire tour. It was a nice tour, Miss Militia clearly had a lot of experience with this kind of thing. But while it was a bit cynical of me to think that it was all pre-practiced to show off the best side of the Protectorate, that didn't necessarily mean I was wrong either. No one would show off their worst aspects when making a first impression.

Not intentionally anyway.

But it was hard not to look at how nice the Rig was, with its modern aesthetic, advanced tech and diligently maintained facade and wish the same effort had been put into my home before Kara had shown up. It was hard not to be a bit bitter over the entire thing; I had spent a good chunk of my life watching a literal graveyard grow in the bay and no one had cared. Except for my dad, of course.

Though, as the tour went on, I realized I wasn't being fair. Miss Militia had almost died trying to protect my dad and I. John Henry had gone against Leviathan with nothing but a normal firearm to buy us time to escape. Despite my worries, these weren't bad people, and this wasn't Winslow. I had to stop acting like it was.

Easier said than done, but I tried.

It didn't help that we didn't ever meet any other members of the Protectorate. Miss Militia explained that with the city still recovering from Leviathan's attack, most of the roster was out on patrol or on leave with their families. I couldn't fault them for that, they were heroes after all. Still, it would've been nice to put some faces to the names I had grown up with.

Instead it was just endless white hallways, faceless security guards and enough talk of bureaucracy to make my head spin. Who knew that being a cape could be so complicated?

I just wanted to meet the actual Ward's at this point. Meet the people I was going to work with and know what kind of hell I was going to be saddled with. That was the cynic in me talking. These weren't the thugs and wannabe gangbangers that made up half of Winslow's population. They protected people against that kind of stuff, they couldn't be that bad.

So why was I so nervous about it?

I tried to keep my mind off it, and tried to focus on Miss Militia's words. On her talk about the duty and honor expected of Protectorate members, the honor of joining them, etc. But all I could think, any time there was a lul in her words was 'what if this is all a lie?'.

A touch on my shoulder made me flinch. I turned to dad to see him looking concerned. "You okay?" he asked in a soft whisper.

"Fine." I lied. "Just feeling overwhelmed."

"It's a lot to take in, isn't it? But you're doing great so far, kiddo."

I put on a pained smile under my mask. At least no one else could tell I was on the verge of losing it. That was a good thing, I thought.

Despite dad's encouragement, my anxiety did not abide. It festered inside me like an open wound, eating at any sense of calm and focus I might have had until I was at my wits end by the time we came to the moment I had been dreading.

"-and this is where the Wards meet and relax between missions." Miss Militia led us to a plain looking white door no different than the rest of the Rig. It was almost a letdown; you'd think the entrance to the hangout of the premiere team of super teens would have a bit more… gravitas to it.

"You'll spend most of your down time here." she explained. "Contrary to popular belief, cape work is 90% waiting and standing by in case we're needed. It takes some time to gain the instinct for that kind of mentality, and as a Ward you'll see even less action than most members of the Protectorate. So expect to spend a lot of time here."

That didn't help.

Miss Militia pressed her thumb to a scanner by the door. There was a dull buzzer sound from the other side and I could hear people moving and whispering. I made an effort to not focus my senses on the voices. My enhanced hearing was useful, but it was easy for me to lose track of it. Supergirl had encouraged me to learn how to keep it limited first, to learn restraint, before pushing my limits. That was also how she had taught me to stop putting holes in the wall at home. Plus, if I was honest, I could barely focus on my own train of thought let alone the potential gossip in the next room over.

After a moment another buzzer sounded, the door opened, and Miss Militia ushered us inside.

The Ward's hangout was… weird. The room itself was clearly a repurposed barracks of some kind, similar to a few I had seen for PRT Troopers during the tour. There was an entrance to a large bathroom on the right side of the room and a small built-in kitchen on the left. The center was dominated by a pair of television screens and a large couch. There were also several scattered tables through the room with half finished board games on them and bits of ruined costume. In a word it was… mundane.

If it weren't for the five colorful capes standing or lounging in the center of the room, I never would've guessed that this was their 'base'. But there they were, the Wards of Brockton Bay.

Aegis, their team captain, stood at attention, tall and very well toned in that tight red outfit of his. It left, um, little to the imagination. Then there was Gallant, a metaphorical knight in literal shining power armor who waved at me. Clockblocker was lounging on the couch in his costume, flicking through tv channels; even with his face obscured I could tell he was bored. Kid Win, dressed in gold and red armor, sat at one of the tables working on some kind of tinkertech gun. He smiled at me, and twirled the gun on his finger, only for it to slip out of his grip and clatter loudly on the floor. While he scrambled for it, their fifth member covered her face and sighed.

Vista in her green and white dress pushed past the boys and walked right up to me and held out her hand, "Hi, I'm Vista. The idiot trying to look cool at the table is Kid Win, and I assume you know the others?"

Her frankness caught me a little off guard. I had expected something more organized, more grand, more… more. Instead I felt like I had walked into an after school club. Behind her, Gallant tried to subtly thwack Clockblocker upside his head so he'd get off the couch. He responded by back smacking Gallant's hand, freezing the cape in place. Miss Militia scolded him, Vista groaned, and Aegis shook his head while Clockblocker raised his hands defensively. It was at that moment that it hit me then and there that despite the powers and despite the costumes, these were just kids.

Just like me.

I took her hand and shook it. "Hi, I'm… I don't have a cape name yet. Still working on it."

"Figure one out sooner than later." Clockblocker crowed from the couch. "If you don't, the PR guys will do it themselves. They might do it anyway even if you have one so be prepared to fight for it. Like I did!"

"Wait, you chose to be called Clockblocker? Wow." I replied dryly, before even realizing what I was saying. I bit my lip while the cape sat up from the couch and regarded me coolly.

He pointed at me and said, "You. I like you, new girl."

Vista grabbed me by the arm and led me deeper inside the room, "Don't take that as a good sign. If Clock likes you, you wind up like Gallant."

I looked at the poor cape, still frozen in time. Miss Militia walked around Gallant and folded her arms while staring at Clock with a look of seething disappointment. While she silently berated the Ward, the remaining two Wards approached me. Vista let them talk to me while my dad talked to her.

Aegis shook my hand and blinked, "Huh, specs weren't kidding. That is… one heck of a grip."

I released his hand like it was red hot, "S-sorry! I'm still getting used to that."

He laughed, "It's all good. Every Brute takes some time getting used to their strength. How many walls did you punch holes in on those first few days?"

"Enough to be concerned about!" Dad interjected without missing a beat.

"Hey!" My face burned, and I was thankful for the mask.

Aegis just laughed, "It happens, no big deal. Anyway, like Vista said, I'm Aegis and this is Kid Win."

The tinker waved, "Hey, nice to meet you. Sorry if this is a bit insensitive to bring up, but… is it true what people say? That you… fought Leviathan the day you triggered?"

"Win…" Aegis warned, his tone serious.

I stopped him before he scolded the curious kid."It's… fine. Yeah, I had a run in with Leviathan. I only survived because of Supergirl."

As soon as I mentioned my savior, Vista vanished from her conversation with my dad and appeared in front of me I stepped back in surprise as she beamed up at me, "You met her too!? Oh she is soo cool isn't she! I've been helping her with cleaning up the bay, have you met her anytime since, has she mentioned me at all?"

Now that made me smile.

"Oh yeah she's talked about you. Says you're the biggest help with cleanup. Your powers cut her workload in half." A slight exaggeration, but Kara had nothing but compliments for all the Wards when she talked about working with them.

Vista squealed with delight, before she seemed to remember where she was. She coughed, smoothed out her dress and tried to look reserved even as her face burned, "I-I mean cool. Great. Glad to know I'm helpful."

"It's okay, V." Clockblocker snickered, "We all know you're a fangirl, you don't need to hide it."

She responded to his snark with one expertly raised finger. Clockblocker cackled in his seat while Aegis sighed and covered his face. Despite myself, I smiled. This was going a lot better than I thought it was.

The Wards were much more welcoming than I expected. No judging, no veiled threats. They talked to me like… well like I assume normal teenagers talked to each other. I wouldn't know, not after the last two years. Slowly, as we talked and bantered, I felt myself unclenching. The anxiety never went away, but-

"Aegis," Miss Militia asked the Ward captain, "where's Shadow Stalker? This was supposed to be an all hands on deck meeting."

"I was taking a piss." a voice that was all too familiar grumbled. The cape in question trudged out of the bathroom, radiating annoyance. Shadow Stalker's dark cloak rippled around her as she walked, making her seem to almost glide across the room. The dark bodysuit and armor she wore underneath helped with the illusion. Though, despite the mask of dark steel she wore, I could see her dark brown eyes underneath it. I recognized them, just like I recognized her voice.

All feelings or relief I had developed over the last few minutes evaporated in an instant.

Shadow Stalker stopped by the couch, hand on her hip and looking me up and down with a critical eye. I stood ramrod straight, staring at her but unable to move. My heart hammered in my chest, my hands clenched and unclenched. This couldn't be real, I was imagining things. She couldn't possibly be…

"You took on Leviathan? You? Shit, could've fooled me. Serious steel in that skinny ass body of yours, huh? Nice job."

There was no denying it now. I knew that voice, knew the tone, knew the way she managed to fit disgust into every other word. For two years, three girls had made it their mission to torment me at Winslow, to destroy any aspect of a social life I had. Emma had been their ring leader, Madison their little hanger on, and Sophia Hess had been their enforcer. But if Emma was the one that tore into me emotionally, made me hate who I was, it was Sophia that tried to physically break me.

There wasn't a hint of doubt in my mind that Sophia was Shadow Stalker. A superhero, a cape working for the Protectorate, and a bully that had made it her life's goal to ruin my life in every conceivable way. Just like that, everything slid into place.

Sophia was the reason Emma and the others got away with everything. Whatever she did, whatever misery she inflicted on me, she always got away with it because she was a cape. They were protecting her. She was on their side after all, one of their teammates. So of course they would cover for her, of course they'd let her get away with a little bullying. After all, why pull her off the field? All she was doing was picking on some loser girl, nobody important.

There weren't enough words in the English language that could describe how sickened, frustrated and furious I felt at that moment. They laughed and joked with me, while poking fun at Sophia's prickliness. Because it didn't matter to them. It was just a joke.

I didn't break though. Even though I could have lashed out, gone right after Sophia for… everything, I didn't. The other Wards, Miss Militia, would jump to her aid. Besides if a fight did break out, dad would have been caught in the crossfire.

So I kept my mouth shut, and knuckled down. There wasn't any point in throwing out accusations. Why would they believe my word over their teammates after all? The teammate they had been covering for for years now. I didn't need to face what I already knew was true.

At some point as everyone talked, my silence must have been obvious. Vista approached me and asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

I yawned, and lied "I didn't sleep well last night. Just tired." When I spoke, I made sure to keep my voice low. I could recognize Sophia's voice but if she recognized me…

Vista looked at me sympathetically, "I know how that feels. We got instant coffee if that would help?"

"No thank you." I shook my head while my insides twisted into knots. No more idle conversations please, I just wanted this to be over with so we could go home.

Sophia didn't seem too interested in me thank god which meant she hadn't recognized me or my dad. I just had to survive, just had to endure the next few minutes. The time passed in agony. Words were exchanged, jokes shared, and I barely registered any of it. All I could focus on was not drawing her attention.

As time passed, everyone continued as if nothing was wrong. As if the person that had tormented me for years wasn't in the same room with me. It was frustrating, infuriating even. It took all of my will to maintain control. This was not the time or place for a fight or to start throwing accusations. Trying to appeal to the Protectorate, to get them to care about Sophia and what she'd done would be pointless.

The last few years had shown me that for people in charge, if it was easier to sweep a problem under the rug, they would. It didn't matter that I had books of proof recording what the Trio had done to me. It didn't matter that I had powers of my own. The best case scenario I could see was that they'd 'take my worries into consideration' and ask me to 'place nice' in the meantime.

I was done playing nice.

Sure I managed a calm facade until our visit came to an end. But as I said goodbye to the Wards, I could feel anger roiling inside me. I wanted to be as far from this place as possible right now. For a moment I stopped to look back into the room. Gallant had unfrozen, finally, and was reading Clockblocker the riot act. Kid Win showed off his new tech to an enthralled Vista. Sophia? She'd lost interest a while ago and was raiding the kitchen for food.

Only Aegis bothered to see us off. He gave a casual salute and said, "Looking forward to working with you. Have a safe trip home."

I didn't trust myself to speak, so I just nodded. Better to end things amicably than start spewing out accusations on instinct. Then I followed dad and Miss Militia out, my mind moving at a million miles a minute.

-S-​

Our drive home was filled with an uncomfortable tenseness. Dad hadn't picked up on my immediate reaction to Sophia, but he could tell something was bothering me. He'd had the good sense not to say anything around the Protectorate, and for a few blissful minutes I thought he'd remain silent the entire drive home.

My luck, what little of it was left, was not so fortunate. He spoke up in a slow, cautious tone of voice. Like I was an animal to be coaxed out of its hiding place. "So… I think that went pretty well. They seemed nice."

If you ignored that they were covering for the girls responsible for making my life a living hell for the last two years, yeah they were pretty nice. I didn't say that out loud though. Instead, I hunched into my seat and stared out the truck window watching the city slowly pass us by, oblivious and uncaring. A thick marine layer had drifted in, casting a colorless filter over it all.

Dad kept talking, "Miss Militia said that, if you were up for it, they could start you on training and costume work by the end of this week. Figured we'd work all that out later."

"I don't want to join the Wards." I interrupted. That was something I had decided on with absolute certainty. I just needed to make dad understand without explaining why.

The driver's seat creaked, and I could feel the confusion in dad's voice."What? Taylor, why?" I imagined the baffled expression on his face, glasses slid down his nose, large eyes spread wide.

I folded my arms and tried to push myself deeper into my seat. Dad didn't need to know this, he didn't need to know that the heroes were the reason I was put in the hospital last week. That they'd let one of their own torment me for years. He had dealt with so much and if he found out he'd go on the warpath against the Protectorate, and lose. Or worse, he wouldn't even try and would just roll over for them. I tried hard not to look out the window at the Docks, or rather what was left of them. The monument to his lifetime of struggling. If he couldn't make headway against the city for the people he was hired to help, what chance would he have against the Government Superteam?

No, dad didn't need to know this, didn't need to suffer anymore for my sake. So I needed to convince him, for his own good, that I wasn't interested and that he shouldn't press the issue. Even if I had to hurt him to do that.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, I said,"I just… It's all too much." Which was technically true, from a certain point of view.

"Taylor, we can push things back, I'm sure they'd be willing to-"

I shook my head, "No dad, I just… I can't. This isn't the life I want. I can't…"

After a moment of wracking my brain for a genuine excuse, one I knew he'd accept without warning, I stumbled on a buried nugget of fear. One I had been suppressing since I had watched Leviathan devour him alive.

I turned around to look at dad. His face was etched with confusion, and a hint of frustration. But most prominent, was concern. He did care, he did want to help. It was a far cry from before the Locker. All the more reason to protect him.

"I can't live this life knowing it could put you at risk. I almost lost you already, and if I do this… I can't lose you too, I won't!"

Dad rocked back in his heat, as if I had physically struck him. He hit the flashers on, and pulled over onto the side of the road. Then he turned toward me and said, "Taylor, what happened… that wasn't your fault. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the Protectorate, they have contingencies for protecting loved ones, for keeping your identity safe."

"But it's still a risk!" I yelled, "You could still get caught up in… all of this. You or someone else I care about and I'm not strong enough. I wasn't strong enough to lose mom, I wouldn't survive if I lost you."

I felt terrible using mom like that. My insides churned, and my throat tightened. There were tears in my eyes, but they weren't from worry. Shame burned my eyes, at defiling her memory like that. What I said wasn't wrong, they were things I had considered. I had also considered dad's own points too. Going in that day, I had thought the Protectorate really would be able to keep him safe. But now I wasn't so sure.

That didn't make what I said feel any better.

I saw dad's eyes shine with unshed tears. A deep pain crossed his face, his jaw tightened and he clenched his eyes tight. When he opened them, a few tears spilled down his cheeks and he reached across the seat to pull me into a hug.

"If you don't want to do this, Taylor. I won't make you. It's your choice." he whispered.

No relief came to me, I felt only shame and anger. Shame for what I had done to convince him, and anger that Sophia had pushed me to do it. I returned dad's hug.

After a moment, we broke apart and I forced a relieved smile, "Thank you. For understanding."

He nodded, "I'll call the Protectorate about it when we get home. Do you want me to talk to Supergirl too?"

I shook my head furiously, "No! No, I can… Please don't tell her. I should tell her when she gets home."

"Alright." Dad turned back in his seat, paused, then turned back to me and squeezed my shoulder, "I love you Taylor, you know that right?"

I patted his hand and forced another smile, "I love you too dad."

-S-​

I spent the rest of the day consigned to my room. Dad made the call, he was my legal guardian after all. But while he did that, I did research. Wiki's, message boards, news articles. Anything I could find on Shadow Stalker. It wasn't productive research.

Ward info in general outside of the official Protectorate statements were limited. Made sense, the Wards were underage and exposing their abilities or patrol patterns would make them easy pickings for supervillains. What few rumors I did piece together took on new meaning with the added context of knowing her identity. Shadow Stalker was vicious and brutal, and rumor had it she'd even been lethal before joining the Wards.

However those were just rumors and I wouldn't be surprised if the Protectorate was covering them up. No, if I wanted to bring Sophia down and make them realize what a mistake they had made, I needed to stack the deck in my favor. Every advantage, every dirty secret. But first, I would need to find Sophia while she was on patrol. Which, with the Protectorates general blackout on all things Ward related, was easier said than done.

Brockton Bay was a city of some 300,000 people. Finding Shadow Stalker on patrol could take days or weeks. I was willing to endure the Trio for a little while longer, but not without any progress on my end. However, I wasn't without options.

I rolled back from my desk, and hopped onto my bed cross legged. After closing my eyes, I slowed my breathing… and focused. It wasn't hard to summon the mental sound of Sophia's voice. The sneer in her voice, the false sympathy and the cutting laughter. I had learned to recognize her voice immediately, if only so I could avoid her in the halls easier. Now, with my new powers, it would be her undoing.

It wasn't a fast process. I must have focused for a solid thirty minutes. But, eventually, my enhanced hearing caught wind of something.

The slamming of a door. A room with the tv blaring music. A young child screaming. An older woman speaking, her voice muffled.

Then, Sophia spoke, "Yeah, glad to see you give a damn for once. There any food left?"

A muffled response. A snort from Sophia, "Yeah that sounds about right. Thanks for nothing."

A mutter under her breath, "Stupid bitch."

And then I was back in my room. Maintaining that focus on someone so far away wasn't easy. But it worked. I could track Sophia, use this to figure out where she was anywhere in the city. It wasn't much but it was an advantage I held over her. I grinned wickedly, feeling my anger replaced with a giddy sense of purpose.

I tempered my excitement and got back on my computer. Being able to track Sophia was good, but I couldn't just find her on the field and beat her face in, as cathartic as that might feel. No, that wasn't right, I wouldn't sink to her level. I would gather evidence, proof of what she had done, and then I would expose it to the world. Let the Protectorate deal with the mess they made.

But I would need help for that, someone with experience in this kind of thing. Fortunately, I knew just the person.

My lack of a cell phone was a pain, so I would have to use our hall phone. Fortunately for me, dad was busy trying to cook in the kitchen. What it was, I wasn't sure nor was I eager to find out, but that would keep him distracted long enough for me to make a call. I snuck out as quiet as I could to the phone and dialed the number I had found online.

After three rings, a woman's voice picked up, "This is Lockwell Investigations, I'm Kate Lockwell, how may I help you?"

"Uh, hi," I whispered. "I'm a… concerned citizen. Who has some information on corruption in the Protectorate. Would you be interested or able to publish that?"

There was a moment of silence, then the woman spoke with a more serious tone, "You have my attention. But keep that info to yourself for now. Gotta be careful on public lines."

I nodded, realized she couldn't see me nodding, and stuttered, "R-right. Yeah. Can we meet somewhere?"

"You know my handle on PHO?"

"Yeah?"

"Message me there, I'll give you a meeting point, we can talk more there."

"Got it. See you then."

She hung up without another word and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Who was that?" Dad asked as he walked up stairs.

I almost jumped out of my skin. "Oh! I, um, was calling the Dallons. Trying to get a hold of them again."

Dad's expression darkened, "Carol has been ghosting us. I haven't got a hold of her since this entire Leviathan business rolled over. I'm in talks with a legal team, it's just hard to get a hold of… anyone right now after an Endbringer hit." There was a dark edge to his voice on that last part. Not the usual fear and anxiety that came up when dad talked about Leviathan. It was a quiet resentment, and a seething betrayal that I knew all too well. I had revealed what Emma had done to dad, he knew. Any attempt at getting a hold of her father however, had ended without any luck. Which told me the bastard knew we were coming for him and was preparing for the storm.

Dad shook his head and said, "But I did talk to the Arcadian Principal. He said you can eat lunch in his or the councilors office and that if anyone bothers you, to let him know. Also, to talk with him in the morning, he has more information for you."

How useful that would be, was a matter of debate. Past experience told me that if school staff ever gave a damn, it was only to keep things quiet. Not actually resolved. Still, it was better than anything I had gotten from Blackwell.

I nodded, "Thanks dad, I know this has been a lot."

"We'll get through this, Taylor. What happened before, it's not going to happen again."

"I know." I said, feeling a hint of guilt at lying about what I knew. But if we were going after a cape, it was better that he did not know until I had more evidence, until I could pin Sophia to the goddamn wall. I wasn't going to risk him getting caught in the crossfire.

The rest of the night I did more research on Shadow Stalker, to little avail. Dinner was charred meat and veggies, but it was nice seeing dad trying again. By around nine thirty, I heard the telltale whoosh of wind that accompanied Kara whenever she snuck back into our house. A minute later, my door creaked open and she poked her head in.

"Hey Taylor… Danny mentioned you wanted to talk to me?"

I turned around in my chair, my history book in my lap and notes on my desk to make it look like I had been catching up on schoolwork for tomorrow. "Yeah, I… Kara, I'm sorry but I don't think I'm cut out for this superhero stuff."

She stepped inside, a concerned expression on her face, "Oh no, is everything okay? I thought you and the Wards would get along great."

"They were fine. Very… nice people." I said, ignoring the Sophia shaped elephant in the room.

I let out a sigh, "It's just… I think about what happened when I got my powers. Watching those people die, watching Leviathan take my dad, and I… I don't think I want to live that life. I want something better than what I had but I'm not sure that's it."

Kara looked at me, hands on her hips, her face the perfect picture of concern. Then she smiled softly and nodded, "Of course, I understand. You went through a lot Taylor, and this life isn't for everyone. If you don't want to live it, that's fine."

I blinked, "Really, you're… okay with this?"

"Of course! What, you think I want everyone with powers to grab the nearest set of spandex and go out and fight crime?" She laughed. "Being a hero is a choice, just like anything else. A choice to put yourself on the line for people you don't know, sometimes even for people you hate. It's a life where you suffer as much as you succeed. I have tremendous respect for the people that choose to be heroes. I have even more for the people that recognize that it's not for them and don't force themselves into this life."

She flopped on the side of my bed and leaned forward, still smiling, "If this is what you think is best, I'll happily support you. As long as you don't decide super villainy is the way you want to go instead."

I snorted, "Me? A supervillain? As if."

"That's what I thought." She stood up and stretched. "I won't take up too much of your time. I can tell you're busy studying. And hey."

Kara put her hands on my shoulders and looked at me with a kind but serious expression. For a long moment she did this, then relaxed and said, "You have a fresh start tomorrow. Don't let the past drag you down. And if your past comes looking for you, well… you know how to call me."

Then she hugged me for a moment, before letting me go and heading for my door. I watched her leave, hesitated for a moment and then said, "Hey, Kara?"

She stopped in the threshold and turned to me and god if she didn't look like an actual friggin angel with the light haloing her head. "Hm? What's up?"

I hesitated again. Should I tell her, should I drag her into this? Kara was doing so much for the world, she was so much bigger than all of this. She was on good terms with the Protectorate and if I called on her she'd come down on them like the wrath of god. But I couldn't do that, I shouldn't do that.

Kara's focus was on things so much bigger than the local Protectorate being a bunch of corrupt shitheads. She could save the world. I had let Sophia run over me for years now, if anyone should deal with her, I should. She was my responsibility to deal with. Kara had already saved me three times, she didn't need to save me this time.

"I… Thank you." I finally said. "For saving me."

She smiled again, always smiling.

"Get some rest Taylor, you're going to need it."

A/N: Forgot I was posting here, my apologies.