Okay, this was originally published as "Secrets At Metropolis High," but I had no plot for that, so I just turned it into a series of slightly related oneshots. And yes, I know that Power Girl is older than Supergirl. It's just really, really AU and makes no little sense with any kind of continuity. That whole posing-as-twins thing just randomly popped into my head for no reason.

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The wind whistled through Metropolis's skyscrapers, building into fierce howling gusts. The clouds hung low, a pearly gray that, along with the humidity in the cool air, promised rain later. It was late afternoon. A gust of wind swept across the rooftop basketball court that crowned Metropolis High.

Karen Lee-Danvers gasped as the wind reached beneath her short brown wig and nearly lifted it off her head. She clapped her hands to her skull, keeping the wig firmly in place and promising herself that tomorrow she would pin it in place more tightly. The cheerleading team practicing down on the basketball court would certainly be very surprised if shy, geeky Karrie Danvers suddenly transformed into a bespectacled Powergirl right then and there.

She adjusted her thick-framed glasses and peered down at the fifteen girls dancing around in the silver and blue Met High cheerleading uniforms. Well, she mused, fourteen of them would be surprised. Her "twin", Linda Lee-Danvers, would probably just roll her eyes. Typical Linda.

And speaking of Linda, Karen would have to ask her how she managed to keep her longer brunette wig secure. She seemed to be having no trouble at all, and she was doing backflips down there! Karen sighed as she watched her "sister" leap off the top of a precariously stacked pyramid. Any normal girl wouldn't have been able to pull it off. Any normal girl would have fallen to the blacktop and shattered her spine. But Linda flipped gracefully- and certainly too slowly for her fall to be entirely natural- down into the waiting arms of two other members of the squad.

Some time later, Karen glanced up from the chemistry textbook she was reading at superspeed, and noticed that Linda and the other girls seemed to have wrapped things up. A large pack of blue-clad teenagers was making its way to the door to the stairwell off the roof. The only two who remained were Linda and a petit blonde named Courtney Whitmore.

Linda bounded up the bleachers to where Karen was stuffing her books into an overloaded backpack. "God, how are you ever going to carry that?" she asked, tossing her false brunette hair back over her shoulders. Karen raised her eyebrows. "I think you know how," she said softly, crushing two links in the chain-link fence behind her with one finger.

"I meant metaphorically. Duh I know how, but c'mon! You could do all that work in thirty seconds tomorrow morning. Why drag it home?" Linda said with a silvery laugh.

"I'm taking my homework home because that's what normal people do!" Karen protested. She couldn't help but grin at her sister's logic.

For two people who were supposed to be the same person (albeit from different universes), the Karas- as they were affectionately known to most of the superhero community- were remarkably different. Linda was every bit as brash and overconfident in her secret identity as she was as Supergirl. On the other hand, Karen, though she put on an excellent show of courage and bravado as Power Girl, never tried to fool herself that it was anything but an act. In reality, she was as mild-mannered as their "cousin" Clark.

"Whatever. You wanna get out of here?" Linda asked. Karen nodded and turned toward the stairs. "Uh... Karrie? I didn't mean that way." When Karen turned back to her, Linda jerked her head off the edge of the roof.

Karen grinned. She loved flying. Except... "Uh, Linda, we've still got company, in case you hadn't noticed. Your friend Courtney's still down there." She gestured at the blonde girl who was standing there with her arms crossed as if she were waiting for them to leave or something.

Linda glanced once at Courtney, then back at Karen. "I don't know what it is about Courtney and hanging out on rooftops. She needs to get over it. One of these days she's gonna get struck by lightning," she muttered. They sat down to wait her out.

Finally, it seemed, the cheerleader got tired of waiting for them to leave, and quit the roof, giving them death glares the whole way. Linda grinned at her and stuck out her tongue at the door to the stairwell as it swung shut behind her.

In a flash, Karen was on her feet. Less than a second later, she spun in a dizzying circle, visible only as a blur of rapidly-changing colors. Within moments, Karen Lee-Danvers was gone. In her place stood Power Girl. Linda crossed her arms and cocked her hip. "Show-off," she muttered.

Karen grinned at her. "It's your own fault you can't figure out how Kal does it. Maybe if you'd watch him a little more carefully, you wouldn't be stuck changing clothes in phone booths!"

Linda glared at her. "Oh come on. The phone booth trick is so '70s Green Lantern! I mean, Hal Jordan was such a loser back then."

Karen raised an eyebrow. "And he's not now?" Linda laughed and slipped behind the bleachers. A moment later, she ducked back out again, now dressed in the short skirt, belly top, and bright red cape of Supergirl. "Alright, ready to go?" Karen asked. Linda nodded.

Pausing only to pick up her backpack and sling it over her shoulder, Power Girl took a running leap across the bleachers, over the chain link fence, and straight off the building. Supergirl was right behind her. The two teenagers launched themselves into the sky, becoming little more than a pair of blurs streaking through the maze of the Metropolis skyline.

Supergirl shot past a big corporate office owned by LexCorp, ensuring that her sonic boom shattered a row of windows. Power Girl raised her eyebrow as she glanced back at her sister. "Luthor's going to be pissed, you know," she called. Supergirl shrugged. "Like I care!"

Power Girl shook her head. Linda insisted on antagonizing Lex. Lex tended to have access to kryptonite. Linda was going to get herself killed over one of her stupid stunts one of these days. Violence and destruction of public property were so not the answer here.

She angled up into the clouds, streaking higher and higher above the city, straight as an arrow, while Supergirl flitted in circles around her. After a few seconds in the thick woolly clouds, she broke through, trailing a stream of clouds behind her until her momentum propelled her beyond the residual moisture.

An instant later, Supergirl had also burst through the blanket of clouds. Together they spiralled higher, glorying in the feel of the sun on their skin. After a moment, Power Girl slowed, allowing herself to transform from a white blur to a clearly defined shape. She drifted above the clouds, leaning back so that she floated, hands crossed behind her head. Supergirl joined her, mimicking her pose.

The sisters glanced at each other. It was times like this when they could forget about losing Krypton, when Karen could forget about the destruction of her whole universe. They could just revel in the joy of being Kara, of just existing, up here where only a lucky few ever soared.

The sun beat down on them, and they were alone. Kal had his Fortress of Solitude. They had this place above the clouds. Sol might not be Rao, but it was every bit as deserving of worship. It gave them life, gave them the power to be here, to experience this.

Eventually, the sun sank below the clouds on the western horizon, and the Karas stood up in midair. Power Girl shrugged. "Well, I suppose we've got to go. Fred and Edna will be waiting. You know how pissed they get when we don't even bother to come home."

Supergirl gave her a cocky grin. "Yeah. They gave me hell when I spent a week in Japan last year. Didn't even bother to call to let them know where I was."

"Hang on... wasn't that the time a real-life Godzilla was trashing Tokyo?" Power Girl asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"You were in a head-to-head battle with only Red Arrow for backup for six days. You didn't exactly have time to phone home."

"Ha ha. Nice E.T. reference. I hate irony," Supergirl groaned.

"Then again, I guess you could've actually bothered to let Kal or the League know you needed backup. At the very least, you could've yelled or something. I'd have come to give you a hand."

"Oh please. If I can't handle one overgrown lizard by myself, what good am I?"

"Um... as good as most of the League? I mean, I'd love to see Black Canary take down that Godzilla impersonator by herself," Power Girl pointed out.

"Whatever," Supergirl muttered. "Hey, race you to Midvale!" And without a second thought, she flipped over in midair and streaked west, down through the thick layer of clouds.

"Oh no you don't!" Power Girl shrieked, chasing after her sister and giggling in delight. Linda might be reckless, she supposed, but she sure as hell knew how to have a good time.

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Chapter Two Featuring: Stargirl!