I remember being woken by my mother. She was frantic. Yelling at me to hurry there wasn't much time. The earthquakes had started and the lifts were shaking so much I thought we would fall but the doors opened to my uncle's lab. We got there in time to see one of his prototype life-pods fly off into space.
He yelled Kal was away and to get me in the next pod. I was so confused, but my mother wasn't answering any of my questions and she pushed my seven year old body down into the seat. My uncle asked me to take care of Kal when I got to Earth and then with one last goodbye I was sealed inside. The launch sequence was fast, twenty seconds. Then I was forced back into the seat as the pod accelerated away from the planet.
I couldn't see the shockwave, but I saw the effect of it as it overtook my ship. I was at the edge of the Phantom Zone entrance when it hit. It ripped the dimensional folded space open but at the edge it also caused a tear. My ship slipped between the two areas of space and that is when the ship's stasis field activated.
The trip to Earth should have taken three years through Void non jump travel. But my trip was interrupted. I crashed on a planetoid that shouldn't have been between Krypton and Earth, because it had been destroyed thousands of years ago.
I was abruptly yanked from stasis when the front panel of the ship was ripped off the front. The change in atmosphere made it difficult to breathe and the bright light of the yellow sun made me blind to the figures that stood before me.
I couldn't understand their speech. It was strange and rough sounding to my oversensitive ears. One of the outlines waved the other back and came forward and placed a hand on my forehead as if to check my body temperature as my mother would have. His cool hand was still shocking to feel as was the tickling sensation that leaked from his hand over my head and into my ears.
"There, she should understand us now." The man said softly. "Are you alright little one?" He asked.
I blinked trying to focus my eyes. "Where am I?" I asked breathlessly. "Where's Kal?"
The man was starting to come into focus. He was fair skinned, dark long hair. "Your ship is the only one to have landed here." He explained to her softly, his voice meant to be soothing.
"You are on Asgard." Boomed the voice of one of the largest men I had ever seen. He was standing behind the dark haired one with several others.
I was once again startled. "Asgard is a myth." I gasped. Asgard! It had been the shining jewel of the Nine Realms of old but was ripped to pieces by Ragnarok before Krypton was formed. In some of our oldest myths it is said Krypton was in part created from pieces of Asgard, and the other Realm Hearts. I can hardly remember those stories, they were nothing more than bedtime fairy tales, and much discouraged by the Elders.
"She must be from Midgard to think such things," laughed one of the other men.
The dark haired one in front of me shook his head. "Midgard does not have such technology." He said to the others. Looking over the ship he looked thoughtfully at her. "The ship is something I have not seen before, nor is the writings on the consol."
"Please," I begged, "I need to find my cousin, he's only a baby. His ship left only five minutes before mine. He can't be too far away." I grabbed the hand of the man who was by now no longer a fuzzy outline.
All the figures were in light armor, which was strange to see since on Krypton only soldiers wore armor. There were five men and one woman. All of them much taller than she was used to, and three of the men were very broad shouldered.
"I'm sorry Little One," The green eyed, dark hair stranger told her gently, "but your ship is the only thing that has come anywhere near Asgard. Heimdall, our gatekeeper, would have seen another ship if it had come even close to our Realm."
"I have to find him." I pleaded. "I promised my uncle I would care for him!"
"Let's take you back to the palace to be seen to by our healers." The man suggested. "Perhaps Heimdall would have seen something after we left."
I nodded shakily and tried to stand, but fell down. My legs and limbs were still asleep from the stasis. "Here," He said as he helped pull me to my feet and then picked me up to carry me over to a horse that was nearby.
Once I was on the horse he mounted behind me and held me upright in the seat. "What is your name Little One?" He asked.
"I'm Kara Zor El of the House of El from the Planet Krypton." I answered formally, something about the way the others spoke suggested formality was the way I should address at least this person.
"Welcome Kara Zor El to Asgard." He replied as he pointed out the city ahead with a large golden arch like building in the middle. "That is where we are heading." I nodded and quietly leaned back feeling safe for the moment and beginning to fall back to sleep. The excitement and adrenalin had been the only thing keeping me awake; I was still under heavy sedation from the stasis.
"Who are you?" I managed to slur out as I began to pass out.
"I am Loki Odinson, Prince of Asgard." His voice held a hint of laughter.
"Oh ok." I mumbled as I fell back into the darkness.
In the days that passed I was treated for the stasis sickness than I had suffered from. It took a few days to overcome. Had I come out of it naturally, I would have woken as if from a long sleep when the pod opened, fully refreshed. I hadn't. Crashing on Asgard had happened much later or too early, I'm not sure which. Their calendar didn't match to mine, and the recordings of the ship were interrupted by three beings that had touched the ship as I passed through the rift making the passage of time impossible to see. It has also shut down the timer to the stasis program, making it impossible to even guess how long I had been under.
While I was in the healing rooms the Queen herself had come and seen me. It had taken a few hours but I had been able to tell her what happened and she had seen a recording sent by my mother. It had asked that whoever found me to please help raise me and Cal El and that the ship had the repository of all Kryptonian knowledge that would unlock as I aged, teaching me what I needed to know, but it was locked to my DNA and no one would be able to access it but me.
Queen Frigga had told me that she had been asked by the Norms to oversee my upbringing and I would now be her daughter in the Norse traditions. There was a fostering ceremony and I was named Kara Zor El Friggadotter. As a royal ward I was treated and even called a princess, but I spent nearly all my time with Frigga in the first few years.
Thor and I had a dislike/hate/indifferent type of relationship. He was an arrogant braggart and I hated him and his taunting. He loved to belittle and torment me for being a weak little girl. His friends were no better. It was worse at the beginning when I was recovering from the sickness. It took several weeks before I began to feel strong enough to explore and attend dinners and other occasions. It was a year before I started weapons training. Mother started me on small arms, daggers and hand held crossbows.
Loki was much more indulgent in those early days. I had never seen magic and was fascinated by what he could do. He would laugh and do little things like make a small glass World Tree or other babbles for me when the others weren't looking.
I was thirteen when things began to change. I was suddenly gaining powers and my strength was gaining at an unnatural rate. The day I nearly killed Sif with a literal red hot glare for being rude to me was the day I was barred from the regular training grounds. My Heat Vision appearing unlocked a wealth of information that the computer had hidden thinking my powers wouldn't develop since I was not on Midgard. It was determined by Loki could now understand the math Krypton used verses what Asgard did to determine that their yellow sun was close enough that my powers would develop, but not come to full strength they would on Midgard.
Heat Vison was only the first such power. X-ray vision had scared me the first time and it had taken two days before I could control the sight to come when I willed it. Flight and invulnerability was coming along in bits and pieces. At first it was more of being able to jump huge distances than true flight. The invulnerability was evident in the strength of my bones and the toughness of my skin. Freezing breath caused a huge controversy since it was considered by many to be too close to a Frost Giant's ability. Many Asgardians began to shun me at that point.
Loki had begun to help me learn to control the abilities. I knew it was in part because it was interesting to him but also because he could now have access to the Krypton database. The last incentive was getting to learn the Kryptonian language, both written and spoken.
It was just after he began to work with Mother and I on my powers and control that a noble of the court had been rude to me during a feast. Mother had been about to call the man out for what he'd done but Loki beat her to it.
"That was my sister." He stated in a very cold and demanding voice. The entire hall quieted as the noble turned to face Loki. He didn't seem all that disturbed until he saw the fury in Loki's eyes and the anger on Mother's face. At that point he begged forgiveness and moved away quickly. After that you could say I saw Loki as my personal hero.
He had given me two very special gifts for my fourteenth and fifteenth birthdays. The first was a storage space like his where he kept his armor and weapons so he could call them to himself when he needed them. It allowed me to fade on armor or clothes like he did. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. The second was a pendent made with a very special stone.
The pendent came about because of an incident where a visiting diplomat had made an observation that I looked more like Thor's sibling than Loki did. The comment hadn't meant to be hurtful, but as I hated Thor, and it had hurt to be reminded that I was alone; the only Kryptonian, and possibly the only mortal on Asgard. Loki had made the pendent with one of his specuially created Lokistones.
Each stone was made in part from diamond dust, black opal, and his magic. The black flat stone was small, only about a caret in size, but it was beautiful. The stone was almost completely black with specks of rainbow light and green and gold sparkles making it look like a tiny galaxy. That wasn't all it did. It also gave me the ability to change my features by way of an illusion to become a near perfect female clone of Loki. We had the same hair, eyes and it made me seem a little taller.
In the next two years I used the pendant's ability almost all the time. I also took up Loki's hobby of trying to prank people who annoyed me. Thor and his friends most often were my targets. Mother was both appalled and amused at my antics, Odin, not so much.
It was because of one of those pranks played on a visiting diplomat's arse of a son that Odin decided it was time for me to move to Midgard as was the intent of my people. I think he was trying to see if being on Midgard would make me immortal like them. It had been hinted at in the database that it was possible that longevity could occur, and Odin was concerned for Frigga's sake. A hundred years wasn't a long time by their standards, but it was enough to cause irreparable damage. He could tell she loved me as much as she loved Loki or Thor. Losing me would be soul damaging to her. That was the only reason I agreed to move without a fight. I didn't want to cause my foster mother that kind of pain if it could be avoided.
In the first few months on Midgard Loki had travelled with me off and on, when his duties on Asgard allowed for it. I spent most of the time correcting the information I had about this Earth compared to the Earth I had come from and the information stored in Brainiac's database. He scolded me several times for my antics in saving the lives of humans when I could. I know it was because he was worried, but when I came out as Supergirl after saving a plane from crashing near New York City, he had laughed and defended my actions at court in Asgard. I was officially made the Ambassador to Midgard, but I wasn't to out that Asgard existed as of yet.
And that is how my story on Midgard began.