AN: Happy Holidays to you all!
My gift to you on this blessed day is... this mess!
Like a bolt of lightning (or a sliding glass door) this hit me out of nowhere and now its a thing. I will make it a thing.
This is a work in progress (much like May We Meet Again, HAHA I'm so funny) (OMFG I can't stop procrastinating from finishing that) and is un-betaed. This is the most word-vomit work I have ever done.
This is also inspired by me watching Superman & Batman: Apocalypse, Gal Gadot being the hottie she is and one particular line in the Supergirl 2x01 episode from Clark/Superman. Oh and of course, WONDER WOMAN.
The Phantom Zone was an endless void. Oblivion itself.
Time did not flow in a single path. It ebbed and weaved, waned and faded. Sometimes it just stopped.
There were no rules in The Phantom Zone—no laws.
It was pure chaos; insurmountable; uncontrollable; unfathomable.
Two ships launch. A planet explodes.
One arrived after in a field, found and saved.
Another was lost; alone. Drifting in the now, then and nevermore.
Freedom. It was free. She was free.
She landed. Crashed. Light glared at her. A different light in a different sky.
She looked outside and saw scorched earth and fire. Not a soul to be seen… and she could see far.
She opened her pod and took her first breath of this different air. It was tainted with smoke and burning.
She took her first step on this different ground. Earth.
Her name was Kara Zor-El. She was the Last Daughter of Krypton.
And she arrived before. Many, many years before.
Metropolis
"Impressive."
The Man of Steel whirled around, his cape fanning out in his wake.
He was hundreds of feet in the air having just intercepted and destroyed several missiles launched at him by the latest big bad on the ground. So how come he heard a woman's voice right behind him?
A whistle drew his gaze upwards and… he saw her.
A woman wearing a hooded cloak, a glistening metal helmet covering her head and most of her face sans her eyes and mouth. Lead-lined judging by its resistance to his X-ray vision, he thought.
What he did manage to see was that under the cloak the woman wore some kind of armour, sleek and light; versatile, seemingly made with interwoven pieces of metal over a navy long sleeved shirt with more layered armour on the left shoulder that went down to her bicep.
On her arms were steel gauntlets with gold edging that covered most of her forearm but left her hands free. Under the gold belt was a dark red armoured skirt stopping at mid-thigh.
Superman took all of this in within a tenth of a second but one thing made him stop and stare far longer.
While the rest of the woman's armour was tinted a dark blue, there were slivers of metal on her front that were a dark red instead.
When he took a figurative step back he saw the whole picture. It was an angular shield with a large 'S' proudly at its centre.
He flew level with the woman, watching warily as her eyes—twinkling with amusement—tracked his movement. He couldn't help but notice they were almost an incandescent blue behind the strange helmet she wore. Her exposed mouth was curled upwards, pearly whites on show in a wide grin.
The confusion he felt must have been visible on his face because the woman's smile only grew as she raised both hands—empty—in a placating manner.
"Perhaps we could forestall the Q&A for a later date? Possibly after you take care of rocket man down there?" The woman's smile did not dim for one moment as she flicked a wrist down towards the ground.
Like a dead tractor coming back to life, the farm boy turned superhero finally managed to formulate a semi-coherent sentence. "Uh- ah, Bloodsport?"
"What does hurting animals have to do with this?" The helmet glinted as the head it was on tilted slightly to the side, the woman almost sounded horrified.
"What? No! I mean he's not Rocket Man- he's Bloodsp—"
"Rocket."
"No, Bloods—"
"No, rocket. As in 'there's a rocket incoming'." The woman pointed down again and lo and behold there was a rocket coming at them.
Superman flew right at the missile, shrugging off the impact and subsequent explosion as he continued his rapid descent towards the ground.
He blurred out of sight for a moment, moving fast before stopping on a dime, going low inside his guard to shoulder-barge Bloodsport in the torso, launching the trigger happy man into the side of an abandoned truck. He followed up with a swift blow to the head, finally ending the fight.
He quickly stripped him of all his weaponry and gear, signalling the nearby law enforcement that had taken cover to deal with the man. There was someone he had to meet.
The Kryptonian looked back up, almost frantically searching the skies when the woman wasn't where he last saw her.
"A little to your left, junior." His incredible hearing picked up the amused tone and found the woman much higher in the air than she was before and getting further and further away.
Superman rose into the air, rising faster when he heard the woman speak again.
"Think you can keep up, Man of Steel?" The man in question scowled slightly at the mocking tone he seemed to hear and he could have sworn the woman's teeth actually sparkled for a beat as she turned and flew off, leaving only laughter and the flap of her cloak in her wake, though not for long as the Kansas farm boy was in hot pursuit.
"Just you watch you… weird- lady… person?" More laughter reached his ears. This strange woman, seemingly right out of a history book and wearing the symbol of his House, was laughing at him. Alarmingly she also appeared to be able to fly much faster than him. I can catch her, I'm—
—in hindsight he thought of three things:
1. He should have been watching where he was going.
2. He should not have let someone goad him into following them to a random abandoned place outside of city limits blindly… ever.
3. He should reeeaaally have been watching where he was going.
Because now he found himself lying in a newly made crater on the ground with a really sore face… and head… and whole body in general.
He looked dazedly upwards, squinting at the sun as two silhouettes—two? Yes, definitely two; he surely wasn't hit that hard on the head, right?—hovered over him high in the air.
Superman's ears were ringing, he had smacked into something metal, or rather, it had smacked him right in the face and he fell like a fly swatted right out of the air.
When the incessant noise died down in his ears he finally managed to make sense of what was being said.
"… that really wasn't necessary, Diana."
"I think it was, my dear Kara. It looked like the boy was about to try to smash your head into the ground."
"So you smash his head with your very, very hard shield while also sending him to the ground?"
"Pre-emptive action is far better than a delayed reaction in situations like this. Besides, he should have been watching where he was flying."
The two touched down a ways away from him, still arguing—bantering?—so he tuned out for a moment to gather his bearings.
Exiting the crater, Superman faced the two women who looked like they had either come straight from a movie screen or were two very lost cosplayers.
One was a tall brunette wearing similar attire to the woman before sans the cloak and the inversed colouring of the armoured top and skirt. Also different was that the brunette's armour was strapless and her skirt didn't even reach mid-thigh… and there wasn't much else going on in terms of the clothing department. Most alarming was the fact that she was armed with a sword and shield although the sword remained sheathed on her back.
Two pairs of red plated boots came to a rest in silence as what is probably the three most powerful beings in the universe came to a stand-off.
The stare-down was finally broken when the shorter woman slowly removed her hood and touched the side of her helm so that it receded into a bronze headpiece revealing that the woman was blonde with beautiful blue eyes and had a small smile gracing her face expressing some emotion he couldn't understand. Sadness? Longing? Pride?
She shifted her dark red cloak that went just past her knees so that it rested behind her shoulders to bare the symbol of the House of El proudly on her armour.
Superman found himself speechless once again as the woman spoke. "I've waited a long time for you Kal-El."
"H- how do you know my name? Who are you?" He managed to let out, his eyes wide and maybe his mouth was open just a little bit.
"Your little cousin does quite the impression of a buffoon, doesn't he?" The brunette muttered at the blonde to which she rolled her eyes and hissed a quiet reprimand even as a smile tugged wider at her lips knowing full well the buffoon in question could hear them without trouble.
"Wait! What? Little cousin?" The Man of Steel spluttered.
"He's not helping himself at all." The shield-lady nodded sagely.
"Diana, please stop." The shorter woman complained as she tried in vain to keep a serious face but couldn't stop the quakes of laughter that escaped her.
Finally, she got herself under control and she took a small step towards Superman, her hands raised in a universal sign of peace. "I'm sorry, I- we are being rude. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kara Zor-El, daughter of Zor-El and Alura."
"Zor-El? As in…"
"As in the younger brother of your father, Jor-El? Yes, Kal. I am your cousin."
The woman approached Kal and hesitantly reached up and placed her hands on either side of his face. "You have your Father's jaw but your eyes are your Mother's, and so is the rest of your face. My Father always kidded to me that he thanked Rao you took after Aunt Lara rather than Jor-El." She laughed wetly, sincerity and sadness in her eyes as she backed away and Kal found himself missing the contact.
He reached out a hand towards her and she smiled again, grasping his forearm for a moment before sliding down until they simply held hands; the grip strong but also gentle at the same time.
"How do you know so much about… my parents? Our world?"
"I was thirteen years of age when Krypton exploded. The last few years leading up to your birth, there were these waves of terrific quakes, volcanic eruptions; towers of fire would sprout out the ground like geysers… and then you were born and our fathers were always busy so I would care for you. Now I know it was because they were working on our pods..." Kara's voice fell away, lost in thought.
The crunch of dirt brought both Kryptonians' attention back down to Earth and a smile once again made its way to Kara's face.
"Kal-El, my name is Diana Prince. It's a pleasure to finally put a face to the name. Kara has anticipated meeting you for a long time." Diana held out a hand which Kal reached out to meet but was surprised when the woman clasped his forearm instead. Very firmly.
"Are you from Krypton as well?" He asked, surprised at her strength and the fact that she hit him right out of the air. His face hasn't quite forgotten that just yet.
Diana merely laughed. "I assure you I am of this Earth. I am an Amazon from the hidden island Themyscira."
"Never heard of any island by that name."
"Hence the hidden part." Diana raised a brow at him as if silently challenging him. He promptly shut his mouth, much to Kara's amusement.
"Perhaps," Diana continued, "we should have this conversation someplace else? Preferably when and where we aren't as exposed and out in the open?" Kara nodded in agreement, looking and listening around for any potential onlookers or eavesdroppers even though they were miles away from the nearest city. It never hurts to be cautious in the world of man as Diana has said many times in the past.
The women began to rise but Kal panicked for a beat, illogically worried that this would be the last he would see of his newly found cousin, grabbed Kara's boot, halting her ascent.
"Wait! I have a place!" He called to her, hurriedly releasing his hold at Diana's look.
The warriors looked to each other, a brief glance communicating a thousand words, a sort of telepathy without it being actual telepathy born from centuries of shared experience, friendship and sisterhood. They were warriors, tried and tested battle and shield sisters.
They nodded minutely before Kara looked back at Kal and she smiled. "After you, little cousin."
He couldn't stop the grin that tore at his face.
Superman flew back to Metropolis, an Amazon and a Kryptonian flanking him.
Now… how do I explain this to Lois…
-0-0-0-0-0- -0-0-0-0-0- -0-0-0-0-0-
"Clark, sweetie…"
"Yeah, Lois?"
"Why is there two gladiator cosplayers in the living room?"
"Well… they're not gladiators; gladiators are Roman. They're actually Amazons which are Greek… and they're not cosplayers, they're the real deal…"
"… and why are they in the living room?"
"Uhhhm…"
"As Kal-El so eloquently put it, we are Amazons of Themyscira and as to why we are here: we had hoped to continue a discussion we were having earlier in a more private setting. Kara and Kal have much to get through."
Lois blinked at the tall Amazon—more like Glamazon, you go girlfriend! Wow is that a lasso?—before making an 'OK then' face and, ever the reporter, she smiled and held out her hand. "Lois Lane, reporter for the Daily Planet."
Diana smiled at the reporter, liking her spunk. "Diana Prince." She said simply, shaking Lois' hand before turning and gesturing to the other Amazon. "This is Kara Zor-El, my Amazon sister and Kal-El's Kryptonian cousin."
Lois blinked again, looking at the blonde, Kara, who grinned and waved sheepishly at her. Her sharp eyes noting down the S-shield on her chest. After another moment of processing and ignoring the huge implications that everything she knew about the world and the universe is wrong, she nodded.
"Right," she said with a clap of her hands.
"You," Clark, to this day, will deny he flinched "deal with this." Lois gestured to the Amazons and the very real weapons. "I'm going to grab a beer. You ladies want anything?"
"Some water for the both of would be greatly appreciated, thank you Ms. Lane."
"Just Lois is fine Diana. Can I call you Diana?"
The Princess smiled and nodded at the reporter which she returned in kind, flicking the Man of Steel in the ear as she passed to kick him back into gear. "We have guests, Clark. Be a dear and play host, please?" It wasn't a request.
Diana set her sword and shield to the side of the long couch while Kara gathered her cloak to one side of her as they seated themselves, Clark doing the same on the single seater. Lois returned with the drinks promised—none for Clark, this isn't a costume party Smallville—and the armoured Amazons, the reporter and the boy scout in blue settled down.
"So," Lois started, a mischievous grin lighting up her face as she stared keenly at the warriors.
"What's your story?"
AN: If you made it this far then great! Thanks for bearing with me!
So to clear up any confusion; A brief summary of points:
1. Kara is a Kryptonian, she was sent away from Krypton when she was 13 but her pod was caught in the blast and she veered off into the Phantom Zone A place where not even the most brilliant minds of Krypton could understand because there are no rules (they just thought it would be a great idea to zap people there because they are naughty).
2. I took some liberties with the lawlessness of the Phantom Zone (this is Fanfiction, we do what we want amirite?) so instead of Kara just being stuck there for 24 years while Clark grew up and became Superman, KARA ended up being sent BACK in time so she arrived waaaaaaaaaay before Clark did (centuries? Yeah I'm going with that)
3. There's that line in Supergirl 2x01 where Winn asks Superman why he doesn't look 12 years older than Kara and he says "Kryptonians age at a much slower rate here on Earth." I took this and RAN with it.
4. The Amazons have been around since 1200 BC and Diana Prince is at least 5000 years old. A superpowered alien girl in an alien world would have made a big splash somewhere along the line, big enough to catch the Amazons' attention and need to intervene. (More liberties were taken here)
5. Basically, now in present day Diana and Kara are best bros (sises? sisses?) after years and years of being general bad-asses together.
Any and all constructive criticism/comments/concerns will be much appreciated.
Can I say, I am actually very proud of my story/series title for once? Like, I patted myself on the back for that.
I WILL be adding more to this, you've seen a bit with Lois and a bit with Clark, we'll see about the other characters and the Danvers and ESPECIALLY Alex (Kara & Alex will forever be the light of my life) but obviously things will be different now. Very different.
Word splurge over. Thank you again and Happy Holidays.