I don't own Supergirl. DC Comics owns the character, and the TV series is owned by Warner Bros and the CW. Superman and related works were created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Go away lawyers.
Everyone else, welcome back!
So like I said in the end Author's Notes of Blood Ties, I had various plans for a continuation, less ongoing story and more short vignettes. Some quick housekeeping before we begin.
1: THIS STORY HAS NO SET UPDATE SCHEDULE! The chapters are posted when they're posted, and I have them when I have them. This project doesn't have the same priority as, say, Key and Wraith (a Kingdom Hearts story I've been pecking at for a long time and am finally knuckling down on), so I'm not dedicating as much time to it. Don't go asking about it, posted reviews that are simply whines for me to hurry up will be fed to Tempest the Gyarados.
2: Flames will also be fed to Tempest. Let's exercise some civility. Constructive criticism is okay, insults are not.
3: This has no planned overarching story. Maybe I'll have one or two multi-part episodes, or callbacks, but this is not the same kind of story as Blood Ties. Also, don't expect too many retellings of Season 3 like Blood Ties was with 2. I've already laid out my reasonings at the end of Blood Ties, but to sum it up, there are elements in my story that are different from canon or would otherwise cause other differences, such as Mon-el's absence kneecapping any Legion plotlines. I DO have something in mind for Reign, but that's for later.
Now that all that is out of the way, this particular piece. I wanted to expand a few details for Supergirl's new suit that I didn't get to before. Design wise, I wanted to make a few changes to reflect her embracing her vampire side more, hence the addition of black into the color scheme. The cape is something I picked up while reading Peter David's Supergirl stories. There were two costumes that were worn during that run, but the first is what I want to discuss. Often times, her cape is drawn with a lot of volume, so it looks like it's shrouding her some. Google some images or look up the run on Comixology, you can see what I mean. In fact, look up the run anyway, it's amazing. Anyway, the cape often drapes over her shoulders instead of flowing down her back, which is the kind of look I wanted my Kara to have. Sort of evoking the stereotypical vampire cape or cloak, while still being a Supergirl thing.
Now with that out of the way, let's see it in action!
Light in the Dark
Chapter 1
Aegis
The two robbers ran out of the building and toward the car, firing into the air to discourage pursuit. They paused in their fire for a moment to toss the bag of jewels into the backseat.
And then they heard something…
"Sun is shinin' in the sky,
There ain't a cloud in sight,
It's stopped rainin', everybody's in a play…"
A blur of red came down from the heavens, and Supergirl hit the ground in front of them with a smile.
"And don't you know?" she sang, "It's a beautiful new day, hey-ey!"
The robbers cursed and opened fire, but Supergirl caught every bullet. When they ran out of ammo, she let the captured metal fall from her hands. The smile was still on her face, but it was just a bit more smug, and they could see a little fang showing.
And still she sang:
"Runnin' down the avenue,
See how the sun shines brightly in the city,
On the streets where once was pity,
Mister Blue Sky is living here today, hey-ey!"
She surged forward, grabbing one gun and bending it in half.
"Mister Blue Sky please tell us why,
You had to hide away for so long (so long)?"
The other gunman wielded his gun like a club, but Supergirl caught it, a slightly disappointed look on her face.
"Where did we go wrong?"
A shock of electricity shot down the gun and into the man, sending him down to the ground, twitching.
Supergirl then turned to the other man.
"I give," he said, raising his hands.
Supergirl pointed down, and he got on his knees, his hands behind his head. She then danced in place a bit, singing the next verse.
"Mister Blue Sky please tell us why,
You had to hide away for so long (so long)?
Where did we go wrong?"
"You know, you're actually pretty good," the robber admitted.
She laughed a bit.
"I've been told," she said, humming a bit.
Just then, a cop car pulled up, the two officers getting out. The older one took a look at the situation and smiled.
"Usual day, Supergirl?" he asked, a smile on his face, "Well, we got it from here."
She smiled back and practically danced back into the air, picking her song back up.
"Hey you with the pretty face,
Welcome to the human race!
A celebration, Mister Blue Sky's up there waitin'
And today is the day we've waited for!"
"Well she certainly seems in a good mood," the officer said.
"Maybe she got lucky last night," his younger partner said with a salacious grin.
"You're a pig, Joe."
Up above, Kara suppressed a grin of her own. Joe wasn't entirely far off.
Really though, she was just in a good mood. The new editor at Cat Co had taken her aside and apologized for his predecessor's actions, and swore that she had nothing to fear from him. Her latest article about the buy-out of several Lord Tech facilities had been received well, and she took some glee in the knowledge that Maxwell Lord would look bad. It was game night tonight, which Shanoa had finally agreed to attend. And she got to wake up next to the woman she loved.
Life was good.
"Mister Blue Sky please tell us why,
You had to hide away for so long (so long)?
Where did we go wrong?
"Hey there Mister Blue,
We're so pleased to be with you!
Look around see what you do,
Everybody smiles at you!
"Hey there Mister Blue,
We're so pleased to be with you!
Look around see what you do,
Everybody smiles at you!"
oOo
"So what's so important, Alex?" Kara asked as her sister all but dragged her to one of the labs.
"New toy for you," was all Alex would say.
When they got there, Kara saw Winn, Shanoa, and Lena crowded around a dummy. The dummy was wearing something familiar.
"Isn't that my suit?" Kara asked.
"Sort of," Winn said, "The new one I made you has been fine for the past two weeks, but there are all sorts of upgrades I wanted to do, and it's taken awhile to get them ready."
"Upgrades?"
Lena walked over and pulled Kara closer.
"You're going to love it, mo chroí," Lena said.
Kara observed the suit. It was the same as she'd been wearing since her big return. The top was blue, with the El crest in red on a field of black. A black belt with a red stone in the center split the top from the almost-knee-length skirt and the blue tights beneath it. The boots were the same as her original suit, but the cape had more volume, and was draped about the shoulders like a cloak instead of running solely down her back.
"Okay, so first on the list, I redid the torso area in a different material," Winn said, "It's much more tear resistant. Considering the last suit was broken by a knife, that seemed appropriate. You can't block silver anymore, so there's no sense waiting for a prepared bad guy to try and stab you. I wanted to see if I could weave some Kevlar in there for bullets-"
"But I reminded him that silver makes a terrible bullet," Lena interjected, "Only an idiot would try to use silver bullets, they'd be stupid inaccurate and not very penetrating. And either way, your reaction time is good enough that you'd be able to avoid it."
"Which left your other big weakness," Winn continued, "Granted, it's more and more unlikely these days that you'll run into Kryptonite, but Lena and I got a radiation blocker as small as we could and put it in the belt."
"I used rune engraving to increase the power to compensate for the size," Shanoa said, "Which brings me to my contribution. I wove some runic protections on the interior of the suit, which should help protect you from magic. But more importantly, I set it up so you can do a mist change."
"A what?"
Shanoa turned into mist. The cloud churned a bit before she reformed. When she did, she was wearing her armor.
"Adrian and I both store our combat attire in a special space," Shanoa said, waving a tattooed arm over her body, "It is accessed and donned via our mist form, thus allowing for nigh instantaneous changes. You are skilled enough in your mist form that you will be able to use the same spellcraft, provided some prior set-up."
Kara's jaw dropped. While she could change a super-speed, it was still a hassle wearing parts of her suit under her clothes, and stowing said clothes in a hiding place before she dashed off as Supergirl. And she couldn't count how many shirts she'd lost buttons on thanks to a hurried change.
"Finally, we redid the cape in some Kryptonian fabric. Clark found a special sewing machine in the depths of the Fortress, as well as a 'recipe' in the databanks," Lena said, "He's already replaced his cape with it. The new cape is stronger than the old, just as good at managing your aerodynamics, and Shanoa put a few runes in the edges that'll ensure it won't get in the way."
"It's how I can fight in a dress, slits up the sides be damned," Shanoa added, "I used red thread so it isn't noticeable."
"I wondered about the dress thing," Alex said.
"You guys," Kara laughed, "You didn't have to-"
"None of that," Lena said, "If it helps, we're glad to do it. So, want to test out the quick change?"
Kara grinned.
Then the ladies shoved Winn out of the room. According to Shanoa, the first few times she tried the trick, she ended up naked, and she expected Kara might have a similar accident until she had it down cold.
Kara had sputtered indignantly. Her face turned completely red when Lena blew off any concerns as "nothing I haven't seen before."
"Hey!" Alex had shouted, "That's my sister!"
oOo
It had taken most of the afternoon before Kara had the trick down, and she gleefully demonstrated it during game night.
"No more looking for a place to hide my shirt," she crowed, "Even my glasses mist with me now."
"How'd you manage that?" James asked.
"I used my fingernail to engrave the appropriate runes in the inside of the arms, under Shanoa's direction."
"It's not that hard a runic scheme," Shanoa said, taking a casual sip of her actually-Bloody Mary, "The real trick is not coming out of a mist starkers instead of battle-ready."
"I'd make a comment, but that's my girlfriend's sister," Maggie said, "I don't want to end up on the couch."
"Smart woman," Alex grunted.
Later, after everyone had left, Lena had one more gift for Kara.
"It took some time to find the right one," Lena said, handing Kara a small box.
Inside was a small locket. It was pewter, with a tiny sapphire in the center, a perfect match for Kara's eyes. She pried it open, and inside were small pictures. One was of Kara, and the other of Lena.
"A little piece of our love, to carry with you always," Lena said.
Kara suddenly started to cry.
"Kara? I'm sorry, I—"
"It's not your fault, it's just…"
Kara fished down her shirt, pulling up a small necklace with a blue-green gem.
"My mother gave this to me. And she said something similar when she did. It's…one of the only things I have of Krypton."
Lena gently hugged Kara, mentally kicking herself for hitting the old wound. But Kara assured her that there were no hard feelings.
To emphasize this, she threaded the locket through the same chain as her mother's necklace.
"Now both loves can stay right near my heart."
oOo
Kara was working with another reporter in the bullpen when the television blared a news flash.
Siobhan Smythe, AKA Silver Banshee, had escaped prison was wreaking havoc, screaming about getting revenge.
As the other reporters crowded around the TV, Kara slipped toward the stairwell.
"This looks like a job for Supergirl."
She entered the stairwell and turned to mist, the cloud churning and slipping out the door to the roof, where it reformed into a combat-ready Supergirl. She briefly checked herself over, slightly paranoid, then flew off.
Finding Silver Banshee wasn't hard. She just had to follow the noise. But the sight of her took Supergirl aback a bit. Her hair was longer, and seemed to twist in an unseen breeze. A strange aura flickered around her. Her face was frightfully lean, her eyes and cheeks sunken.
Stretching out with her senses, Supergirl could sense a buzz of powerful magic. Clearly, the supernatural force that had given Siobhan her powers had evolved, increasing in strength.
Thankfully, Kara had studied certain mystical creatures, in case she ever needed to fight them. And she had just the tools to aid her.
"Time to see if these mystic protections work."
She hit the ground, making sure to catch her opponent's attention.
"One chance," she said, "Surrender now."
Silver Banshee simply screamed. Supergirl was in motion the second she saw an inhalation, and was out of the path of the scream before it was halfway to her.
As she flew up and backward, she cast several lightning bolts. The bolts hit Banshee's limbs, but the supernatural menace stood strong.
Supergirl made a circuit around a building, building up speed and hoping to catch Banshee on the side. As she flew, she touched her ears and muttered a spell, temporarily blocking her hearing. Another spell conjured a shadowy shield on her arm.
Supergirl flew at Silver Banshee, shield first. Anticipating her, Banshee screamed. The full force of the scream was blocked by the shield, the rest of the damage that managed to leak through being blocked by her suit's protections and her sound-blocker spell. The scream still had enough force to slow her, but she continued to power through.
Banshee turned up the volume, but Supergirl kept coming. The battle of wills continued until Supergirl finally rammed home, the shield striking Banshee in the face.
A lightning punch was next, and Banshee fell.
Supergirl took a minute to breathe before dispelling the shield and the sound-blocker. As her hearing returned, she heard applause, people who hadn't been able to escape so quickly and had witnessed the fight.
Supergirl smiled. After the fear she had been treated with, it was nice to hear joy again.
oOo
Supergirl helped escort Banshee back to prison, mostly to ask how the escape happened.
The warden helped her look over things, finding the inhibitors that had kept her scream in check had been burned out somehow.
Wondering if her suspicions were correct, Supergirl called Shanoa, who swiftly arrived and examined Silver Banshee.
"You were right to contact me. Her power has indeed evolved. I have seen similar curses before, and they get nastier the longer they remain. Especially bloodline curses."
"Bloodline curses?" Supergirl asked.
"I imagine that the power of the Banshee has been following her family for a long time. It is so deeply rooted that I am unsure if I can extricate it from her without killing her."
"Can you help contain it?"
"That's why I brought the bag."
Shanoa opened up a large bag, revealing a multitude of jars filled with all manner of exotic ingredients. She mixed several into a paste, softly chanting as she did, before painting a series of runes on Banshee's throat and wrists. With a shouted word of power, the runes flared, and then faded, leaving no trace of the paste.
"That's the best sealing work I can do. I'll be surprised if she'll be able to speak above a whisper for a long time."
"How long will this last?" asked the warden, finally speaking up.
"I'll come back to check in a month. I'll have a better idea how it's doing then."
"Thank you for the consultation."
"It is no trouble," Shanoa replied, "In matters of science, like the powers given to Livewire, I am sure that you are competent. However, Siobhan Smythe's abilities have one foot in the supernatural. That is something much harder to prepare for if you have not studied that world."
"Stop freaking the man out, Shanoa, he gets it," Supergirl said.
Supergirl and Shanoa looked on as Smythe was taken back to her cell, then left with the certainty that the job was done.
"I take it the protections worked out?" Shanoa asked.
"Like a charm, pun intended," Supergirl smiled, "You did excellent work."
"I try," Shanoa laughed back.
I had just listened to some Electric Light Orchestra when I wrote the beginning. You can tell, can't you?
See you all next time…whenever that will be…