AN: This story will be following the TV show continuity, primarily, but there will be little bits and pieces of the comics continuity mixed in as well. This is my first fic for this site, and I hope you enjoy.

Supergirl: Not As It Seems

Prologue

"Does National City have two heroes willing to go above and beyond? Supergirl is seen here taking a frontal assault on the fire at the Elkton apartment complex, National City's largest housing complex for low income families," said the voice of the reporter on the large TV in the outer offices of CatCo Media. The camera switched to a view of Supergirl using her super breath on the fire, blowing it out, even as firemen and other emergency rescue personnel work frantically to save the building's tenants.

However, that wasn't all. The camera switched views, and sliding down a thick power cable, hanging by a belt, was a man, holding a young pregnant woman, who was in turn holding what looked like a three year old little girl. They were both smeared with soot, and as soon as they hit the ground, dropping fifteen feet from the overhead cable onto the ground where the man took the entire brunt of the impact, the man, dark haired and apparently young, made sure the woman and her child were safe with a pair of EMTs, and disappeared into the crowd. The reporter continued, "But here we see an uncommon example of heroism, as this unidentified young man rescued several tenants from certain death, before saving this woman, her child, and then disappearing into the confusion. Who is this person, and what is their agenda? We'll be interviewing witnesses, and have more on the news at ten."

The debate about the unknown rescuer continued on the news, but Winn Schott, IT person for CatCo Media, had stopped listening. The elevator door had opened, and a young woman with dark blonde hair emerged, carrying a latte and a small bag. She had a rather frazzled look on her face as she negotiated her way around the many desks, heading for the glass doors of the boss' office, behind which Cat Grant, multimedia mogul, waited impatiently for her breakfast.

Winn matched her stride and spoke quietly near her ear, "Hey, great job with the fire, Kara. You're really getting the hang of this superhero stuff." Around them, the office bustled on, oblivious to their conversation. The young girl named Kara didn't slow a step as she moved closer to the office.

She did, however, offer a quick smile, and a whispered response, "Thanks, Winn. It feels good actually being able to do something like that and not cause a bigger problem in the process." She shook her head though, glancing back at the TV, where a sketch artist's drawing of the mystery rescuer had been composited from eyewitness accounts. It wasn't very good, very vague even, and the reporter said that none of those saved by the mystery man got a very good look at him.

"Besides, I wasn't alone. I had help, after all," she continued, nodding towards the TV. "Whoever he is, that was a very brave thing he did." She glanced up to see Cat Grant staring at her through the clear glass, hand on her hip, and a less than happy expression on her face.

This look wasn't lost on Kara, nor was it lost on Winn. Slowing down, he nervously stammered, "Well, um, I guess I better let you get in before Cat tries to rip your head off. She's in a particularly bad mood today." Their boss was notorious for being less than jovial at the best of times. Times like today, she was downright vicious.

Thanking Winn quickly, she immediately pushed through the glass doors, holding out the latte and bag with an apologetic expression on her face. "I'm really sorry this is late, Miss Grant. The fire had traffic backed up and several streets blocked off. I had to get creative to find a way through it all to get this for you," she said with a genuinely apologetic tone.

Not to mention I had a fire to put out and people to save, so the latte and croissant wasn't exactly a priority, she thought with a rueful smile. She could still feel the heat of the fire on her skin, and smell the acrid scent of burning insulation and wiring. She just hoped she'd managed to clean herself up enough that no one else could smell it on her.

Cat was already waving her hand in a dismissive gesture as she took the latte from Kara's outstretched hand. Her attention was focused mainly on the bank of monitors behind her desk, where footage of the fire was still being shown, and the identity of the mystery good Samaritan was still being debated.

"You said the fire impeded your ability to bring me a hot latte and a bakery fresh croissant?" she asked with not a little condescension in the tone. At Kara's affirmative noise, she nodded softly. "Did you by any chance happen to get a look at this reluctant hero they've been talking about for the past half hour?"

Kara Danvers swallowed slowly, thinking in rapid fire thoughts. She'd seen him, yes, even looked at him with her telescopic vision, trying to get a better look, but he'd managed to stay out of good direct line of sight. "Sort of," she replied, nervously glancing between her boss and the monitors behind the desk.

Cat turned towards her with a glare that could pop bolts out of an airplane fuselage, and put a hand on her hip, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. "Did you 'sort of' actually get a look at him, a good enough look to have an idea of what he looks like, or, I don't know, maybe who the hell he is?" She huffed impatiently and growled as she took a long drink of the latte. "Seriously, Kara," she continued, mangling the pronunciation of Kara's name as she always did. "Did you see anything that we could report that apparently nobody else saw? Something we can put over on those dime store deadbeats that call themselves news people?"

Kara's mind raced, as she searched for an answer that'd be vague enough to be believable, but that would satisfy Cat as well. Pushing her glasses back up her nose with the tip of her middle finger, she tilted her head to the left, lifting her left shoulder at the same time, and exhaled mildly. "I saw him well enough to know he's around my age or so, dark haired, tall, and he looked like he was fairly well built, but I didn't see his face for more than an instant, and it was blurred by the heat fumes and smoke," she answered truthfully, because she hadn't seen much more than that. She still had no idea who he was, and probably couldn't identify him if he were in front of her, but she got the feeling that he didn't stick around for thank you's for a reason.

Cat slowly walked towards her, absently sipping from her latte, her eyes seeming to bore into Kara's. She studied her assistant for a long moment in tense silence, as if sizing her up. Finally, she broke her silence, "That's at least a little better than what these clowns got out of people he was actually saving, so that's something. Good work on paying attention during stressful newsworthy events, Kara."

The young Kryptonian was about to say something in response, but Cat cut her off before she could form words, with a waving hand, as she went to sit back behind her desk. "Go give that little tidbit to the news director for the television news, then get back up here. I want you to comb every record you can find and see if our mystery man pops up. Why are you still standing here?"

Kara went to apologize, but Cat had already sat down, waving her off, and was busily searching for something on her computer. She wouldn't hear her anyway, and if she did, she'd probably just be irritated, so Kara left her office, going to do exactly what Cat told her to do.

An hour later, Kara had told the news director what she could, and he had thanked her. It was something they could use, at least. So, a short question and answer session later, and dealing with a sketch artist, and she was heading back up to her desk.

She stepped out of the elevator, and entered the outer office area, to see someone standing at her desk. Winn was watching the man there closely, even somewhat nervously. Considering the man was twice Winn's size, and was a formidable looking figure, it was no wonder, though she'd never tell Winn that. The man wasn't huge in a bulky sort of way, but athletic looking, well muscled, but lean.

"I tried to tell him to just come back in a while, but he wouldn't listen," Winn whispered as he got up to meet her halfway across the office floor. "He's barely said anything, and he's as stubborn as hell. Be careful, who knows what he wants."

Kara's eyes moved to the man even as Winn talked, and she noticed his ID badge, marking him as a CatCo employee. She smiled reassuringly at her friend, and whispered back, "I'm sure he's just here for whichever department head he works for, Winn. He does work here, you know. Its not like he's some total stranger off the street, right?"

Winn made a little noise, but didn't say anything beyond that. Instead, he opted to sit in his chair, and busy himself refining the network protocols. For that, Kara was thankful. Smiling, she walked up to the man at her desk and tilted her head slightly, "Hi there, I'm Kara Danvers, Miss Grant's executive assistant. Is there something I can help you with?" There was something familiar about this guy, though Kara was sure she'd never spoken with him before. She couldn't even seem to remember having seen him before. His ID badge said he was in the graphics department, so maybe he'd been in James' office or something at some point. Maybe that's why he seemed familiar. Her memory might not be as photographic as she thought.

The man smiled lightly and extended his hand towards her. "Hello," he answered in a pleasant enough voice, meeting her gaze evenly with his own. He seemed a little quiet, like he wasn't really used to this sort of thing. "I'm Joseph Swift...though most call me Joe, obviously. I, um, was told you had a packet that Miss Grant was sending us to clean up some photos and that sort of thing? And that it had a rush on it?"

The photos that someone had gotten from the car wreck the day before, where the same mysterious hero had pulled two children and a young woman to safety before anyone got there, and Cat had wanted a rush on cleaning them up and posting them on the website, being in the paper, and plastering them across the evening news! It all flooded back to Kara with a vengeance, and she smiled sheepishly, scrambling around on her desk and finally finding the packet. "It looks like this good Samaritan is a busy guy," she said, nodding towards the packet. "A car wreck yesterday, a fire today, it makes you wonder what's coming tomorrow? A spaceship crashing on top of a school?"

Her attempt at humor kind of fell flat, but Joe Swift decided he liked Kara at that point, though. She seemed nice, and like a good person. He laughed half heartedly, and gingerly rubbed his forearm, which was concealed to the wrist by his shirt sleeve, thankfully. He thought there'd be far too many questions if it wasn't concealed. "Let's hope not," he said in a friendly tone, smiling at Kara once again, and tapping the packet in his hand. "Miss Grant's going to have a heart attack if I don't get these done, pronto. So, that being said, I'll see you, Kara. Its been really great meeting you." Smiling at her once again, he called out to Winn, "And good to meet you too, Winn. You guys have a great day."

After Joe Swift's form disappeared behind the elevator doors closing, Kara released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Joe seemed like a nice enough guy, a little quiet, but that wasn't a bad thing necessarily. Winn sidled up to her and nodded towards the elevator, "Nice enough, I guess. A little too quiet for my taste, though. It makes him kind of creepy."

Kara's gaze followed his, and she furrowed her brows, shaking her head. "I don't think he's creepy, Winn. He's just quiet. Just because you work here doesn't mean you have to be loud and obnoxious. You're pretty quiet, after all. You're not creepy," she said with a smile, moving to sit down at her desk. She'd be happy if she made it through the rest of the day without something else happening.

Winn scoffed as he sat down as well, leaning towards her desk so others couldn't hear, "Of course you don't think he's creepy. Good looking guy, handsome, athletic, just happens to be the one they send to get the packet from you, why on Earth would you think he's creepy? I think he's creepy because he's a handsome, good looking guy and just happens to be who they sent."

Kara actually giggled and shook her head at her friend. "You've got a very vivid imagination, Winn," she said, laughing still, as she turned her monitor on and began searching for the appointment book shortcut. She had to admit, though, that Winn was right. He was a nice looking guy. But that's all. Lots of people were nice looking. Winn was nice looking. That didn't mean anything was going on, just because she thought they were nice.

The pair worked in relative silence for some time after that. Kara was surprised at how much work she got done, but her mind kept wandering back to the mysterious hero who was risking life and limb to help others, without any super powers, or armor, or anything to make him less likely to need help than the people he was helping. And why wasn't he sticking around? She was sure it was a good reason, she just couldn't figure out what that reason was.