Supergirl: Reflections of Me
Chapter 2
"Alex!" yelled Hank as Alex went sailing through the air like a rocket, propelled by the force of the construct's metallic hand, which swept her aside as if she were a gnat. The rest of the team were uncertain, glancing back and forth between the constructs and their Director.
"Get back to the chopper," he said gruffly, readying his weapon again. "I'll meet up with you at Headquarters in a couple of hours." The team nodded, and started pulling back as ordered. They were sure he was going to search for Agent Danvers, and he wouldn't stop until he found her.
As the chopper took off, the Martian made his way through the empty cars, and debris the constructs had made in the process of cutting through the earth around the city. When he was sure he couldn't be seen, his body glowed red and orange, the outward appearance seeming to almost melt and reform into a much different shape. Revealed in his true state, the Martian Manhunter, tall, muscular, and determined leaped into the air, taking flight. His eyes scanned the landscape around him as he flew. He had to find Alex.
X
The two women continued to stare at each other for long seconds, and the muscular and apparently older version of Kara's words still rung in the air. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The more she looked at the woman, the more she knew that this woman was Kara, just not the Kara she knew. There was more experience on her face and in her voice, and a presence that demanded respect and attention. Her beauty hadn't diminished in the time it'd taken her to age from when she last saw her sister that morning, and whatever had happened to this woman standing before her now.
She doesn't just look like Kara, she is Kara. Is she from the future? I've heard Kara's friend Barry talk about time travel and such with her, and since Kara can move nearly as fast, if not exactly as fast, as Barry can, maybe this Kara came back for some reason? The question is what? And why wouldn't she remember me? Has something changed her past to where I died, or maybe she was taken in by a different family? Thousands of questions raced through Alex's mind as she tried to figure out the best way to answer.
Finally, she pushed her hair back from her face where it was blowing around in the wind and fixed the older woman's eyes with her own. "My name is Alex, Alex Danvers. I'm the daughter of Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers," she began, hoping some detail would get through to the reflection of her sister on the roof with her.
"The scientist husband and wife? The ones that helped your Kal El understand his powers when he was younger?" the imposing woman asked. The sharpness of her expression and voice were softer, but still anything a universe away from gentle.
She nodded, still pushing her hair away, and stopped dead in her tracks. "Yes, that's th—wait. You said, 'your Kal El?' What do you mean by that?" Her mind was once more racing, thoughts flying through her mind like Kara zipping across the country in a race against time. The odd statement had hit her like a steel bar.
"I meant your version of Kal El," the woman replied, strongly, but not tersely this time. "My cousin Kal L was much older than the one you know." She seemed to almost be looking into a far away place in her head than focused on the then and there.
The woman's very tone suggested that her cousin was dead, and her voice softened as she replied to the woman so much like, yet so different from, her sister. "Your cousin…he's…gone?" Alex had noticed to a very, very slight, but discernable difference between how she said "Kal El" and "Kal L." So slight that if she wasn't accustomed to hearing Kara refer to Clark by his Kryptonian name, she may never have caught the difference.
The older Kara nodded softly, and cast her eyes out over the city for a long moment, and then back to Alex. "Yes, several years ago. He died, beaten to death by a crazed, young Kryptonian madman, and drew his last breath in my arms. We didn't always agree on everything, but he was my family, my blood. Agreed or not, I always loved and respected him." Her voice was quiet, and all at once, her face changed as if dropping a mask over it.
"I'm so sorry…I didn't know," Alex fumbled, trying to find a way to express what she was feeling at that moment, the empathy she was feeling for this older version of Kara before her.
Before the older Kara could speak, a deep voice came from the side of the roof, "There you are, Alex. You're safe, thankfully. Thank you for saving her." Alex knew he was talking to the other woman, obviously, but he didn't seem familiar with her either, so maybe she wasn't going crazy after all. The Martian landed, and stepped closer to the pair.
"You're welcome, both of you. I realize I neglected to say so earlier. Alex rattled me by calling me 'sister.' But she's okay." Her eyes moved over the form of J'Onn J'Onzz a moment, and had a look of realization on her face. "You must be the Martian that Fate speaks of so often," she said finally.
The Martian nodded and bowed lightly, his gaze coming back up to her face again, glancing at Alex only a second. "My name is J'Onn J'Onzz," he said, letting a light breath pass his lips. "I'm well acquainted with Doctor Fate. I'm not acquainted with you, however. It's good to meet you in any case."
"And in case I didn't say it before, thank you," Alex breathed, wondering what was about to happen. She'd heard of a Doctor Fate, in passing, perhaps once or twice, but never heard him discussed, not even by J'Onn.
The buxom woman shakes her head in silent dismissal of the need for thanks. She looked at both of them and then said quietly, "My name is Kara Zor L, and I'm Kryptonian. I'm just not from your Krypton, and until a few years ago, I lived on another Earth. Humans have another name for me, though. They call me Power Girl. And its good to meet you. Now, while we've been chatting, Brainiac has been furthering his plans, and we have to stop him before National City, and later other cities, are beyond saving."
Alex, confused, looked between Power Girl and J'Onn. "Who or what is Brainiac?" she asked, already feeling a headache coming on, and she hadn't even asked any of the million or so more questions that popped into her head about all this.
Power Girl smiled grimly, and nodded towards the large ship drawing closer. Its bulbous shape closely resembled an alien skull, as it started preparations to move to a specific position. "The one who controls all these constructs, that controls that ship, that plans to rip the world to pieces and assimilate every scrap of information he can about us, and then destroy us. The one responsible for all this, a power hungry, mad Coluan named Vril Dox."
Alex's stomach sunk a bit more at the description, and shook her head softly. Well, that's a pretty good way to ruin a perfectly good day.
X
"…the panic in National City is continuing to mount as the strange robots, or whatever they may be, outside the city continue to work at whatever their goal is, chopping through the ground all the way around the city. We'll speak with our correspondent on the ground in National City after this break, and see what's happening up close," said the reporter on the TV that the President had just turned on.
At the mention of trouble, especially trouble in National City, Kara whirled her head towards the screen. "Oh, Rao," she breathed in shock before turning back to President Marsdin in a near panic. "I'm really sorry, but I have to go. I can't stand by and let this happen."
"You've done more than enough, Supergirl. Please, get back to National City and stop this before nationwide panic sets in," replied the President, shooing her out of the oval office rapidly.
"I'm really sorry, Ma'am, but thank you for understanding," Supergirl replied. The words had barely silenced in the air when she flew out of the open window faster than the eye could follow, and as she rose higher into the air, a loud boom sounded across the city.
X
Seconds later, Kara slowed down to a more reasonable speed as she approached the city limits of National City. She'd wasted no time flying back, and with good reason, she thought. Surrounding the city at regular intervals were large pods of some sort, with several silver constructs near them, looking as if they were ripping up the ground around the city like pulling up a rug.
There was the sound of alien weapons fire, and loud, reverberating clangs. A flash of green and blue registered in her peripheral vision, and she knew J'Onn was busily hammering away at one of those things, whatever they were. The robot, or whatever it was, was taking damage, but it didn't appear to be out of the fight just yet.
She immediately flew to where her friend was, and with a loud roar, punched the construct so hard, its head ripped off and flew out into the bay, making a large splash. J'Onn gave her a thumbs up, and she immediately turned her attention to the next of the lumbering artificial beings that were so busily trying to uproot her city.
She sighted the next closest one, and her eyes burned with powerful energy, making her eyes glow and twin rays of heat and light shot from them to start ravaging the surface of the robot's body. Its skin was incredibly strong, but it was slowly being pared down.
Out of nowhere, another twin lances of heat vision blasted into the same robot, giving it peril on both sides. Kara smiled excitedly, and breathed out, "Kal, you made it back!" She had hoped her cousin would have been done and made it back to Earth by now, but she hadn't been sure.
The robot's upper body was glowing a bright red, when suddenly there was a loud, wordless roar, and the sound of an invulnerable fist smashing into its head, crumpling it like paper, and the force pushed its head down to its hips, ripping the body in two along the way. The glow around the assailant's eyes faded, and instead of Kal El, there was a muscular blonde woman, dressed in a red cape, white body suit of some sort, with blue gloves and boots.
The mysterious figure flew straight at another, and another, the both of them destroying the things as quickly as they could get to them and beat them down until they were weak enough to die whatever death a robot might die.
The other woman, presumably Kryptonian or Daxamite, judging by her powers, seemed enraged, and fought with a deadly force and precision that, with her help, decimated the artificial beings' numbers, while J'Onn and Alex took out others behind them.
Suddenly, the remaining robots stopped what they were doing, re entered their capsules, and flew back into the sky towards the strange skull shaped ship moving towards the center of the city. "Alex, J'Onn!" called out Supergirl, turning in mid flight. "I'm going to that ship and try and end this before it goes any further!"
Their voices echoed in her ears from the com system she wore, acknowledging her plan. As she sped towards the ship, the other woman also seemed intent on reaching it. In mere heartbeats, both women reached the ship, just in time for a green hued shield to spring up around the ship, having waited until precisely the moment they'd strike it, and find themselves flying across the city, stunned and weakened.
As the pair spun off dazed into the city, the ship rose, gained altitude and flew out of sight, though Alex and J'Onn both suspected that the telepath in that ship's plans were far from over. They'd just gained a brief respite.
Kara spun, dazed, barely able to see anything, she felt so groggy and weak. The shield, or whatever it had been, must have been saturated with a very potent dose of Kryptonite radiation, that was the only explanation. She knew she was spinning out of control, but she couldn't focus and concentrate enough to regain her bearings.
Kara began to black out, the blackness was closing from around the edges of her vision, and she felt feverish, but just before she blacked out, she felt arms catch her, and stop her out of control spin. She managed to breathe out a soft, "Thank you" before she fell into darkness.
X
The robots had fled, leaving Alex and J'Onn standing in the wake of where they'd been. The wreckage of their fallen metallic brothers lay still smoldering around them. Alex's eyes had been glued to the sky, and saw when Supergirl and Power Girl had hit the shield and been thrown across the city. It hadn't looked like either of them had been in that great a shape.
"Kara!" yelled Alex, panic beginning to rise quickly, as she scrambled to get clear of the wreckage around them. "J'Onn, we've got to find Kara! That was a Kryptonite shield, I know it was. She could be dead, or dying, that thing looked strong. We have to find her!"
"Alex, I know its hard but please, calm down," J'Onn said, trying to soothe her even a tiny bit. He drew a long breath and let it out slowly, even as Alex nearly fell twice trying to get clear of the wreckage. "We'll find her, I promise. But you're not going to do her any good in a state of panic. We can't afford to get sloppy, not now. Who knows when this Brainiac, or Dox, or whatever he calls himself, will come back, or what he has in place as far as backup plans?"
Alex seemed to calm some, though she was obviously still anxious, and probably not a little panicked at the moment. Whether she was or not, and J'Onn knew she had to be, she nodded, only a little shaky, and waited for J'Onn to come up with an alternative.
X
Kara felt herself lowered to what felt like the ground, only it wasn't grassy, and it wasn't a street, but it was uneven, rocky, much like the area around where the DEO base had been in the desert, before it was moved into the skyscraper in the city. She could feel the breeze rushing past, and could hear the call of a hawk as it hunted for its prey. In a rush, she tried to sit up, but a firm hand held her to her position, lying on the ground.
"Easy, take your time," said a voice that sounded very much like her own, but it was heavier, seemingly weighted down by some pain, or something else, but whatever it was, it had hardened the voice over the years. "The Kryptonite particles in that shield were pretty damned strong, quite lethal. They were strong enough that they sent me flying, so that's saying something."
Kara's eyes opened, and blinked several times against the glare of the sun. The face of the blonde woman came into focus, and once it did, she gasped. She wasn't expecting what she saw, even if she wasn't sure of what she'd see. The eyes, the face, looking back at her was her own. There were extra years on the face, not enough to hide her beauty, only enough to make her seem more mature, more confident in what she must do. Even with that, she recognized her own face when she saw it.
"Who are…are you from the future?" she asked, still sounding dazed. Her head was pounding, a common enough reaction to Kryptonite. She leaned back against a rock and shifted slowly into a position that was more comfortable.
The older woman laughed quietly a moment and shook her head. "Not exactly, no. I'm from a parallel universe that doesn't exist anymore…or at least it doesn't exist the way it used to when it was my home. It was reformed several years ago, many things the same, but many different, as well. I'm the last survivor of the destruction of my universe, and I ended up here in yours, through more strange and unfortunate events than I can possibly describe.
"So, to answer the question you haven't asked, yes, I'm Kara Zor L, and you are Kara Zor El, and I'm you, in a way." She stopped, and just regarded Kara for a moment. Her voice, while not angry, had still been strong, hard edged, the voice of a woman not accustomed to having her word challenged.
Kara sat up straighter and held her forehead in her hand, wincing in pain for a moment. Her eyes searched the eyes of her reflection, more aged, more experienced, perhaps wiser, but definitely harder. The slight inflection difference between the speaking of their names wasn't lost on Kara either. Since she had spoken Kryptonian since she was old enough to talk, she could easily hear the nuances in the pronunciation of each.
She rubbed her temples a moment, and finally looked up at her doppelganger again, a bit of confusion on her face. "Parallel universe? Like Flashpoint, you mean?" she asked, trying to make sense of it all. She'd heard Barry and a few other friends talk about alternate timelines, parallel universes, parallel dimensions and such, and she understood basically what each represented, but the true meat of knowledge about them wasn't hers.
Power Girl's brow wrinkled, tilting her head to regard her younger self. "What the hell is Flashpoint?" she asked, the edge on her voice a bit sharp. She wasn't intending to sound harsh, but she knew it came out that way. She released a breath slowly, and tried to remind herself not to be so aggressive sounding. It was odd hearing a voice that was hers, but that wasn't strengthened by that harsh edge, that commanding sounding voice that she'd learned to speak in many years ago.
Kara's hand pushed back through her hair, and she frowned slightly. Power Girl got the impression, just from how the expression formed on her face, that she wasn't accustomed to moving her face muscles like that. Supergirl looked up at her, and seemed genuinely confused. "Flashpoint is an alternate timeline, things were a little different there. The Flash went back in time to try to prevent something horrible, and he did…only it didn't turn out the way he thought it would. Things that shouldn't have changed did change, and things that should have changed didn't turn out much differently. So subtle changes rippled across time, in both directions, and though he tried to set it right, it never was completely the way it'd been before."
"If changes rippled subtly in both directions from that…that event, it could explain several things that never made sense to me before," mused Power Girl, her mind racing over possibilities. "Time and space are two things that you should meddle with as little as possible. Bad, bad things happen when those two universal cosmic forces are tampered with."
"Oh, I don't disagree with you, not at all. In fact, I'm right there with you all the way…um, what should I call you? Obviously, I can't call you Power Girl if we have to move around out of our suits in the city, especially around people that know me, or you. When we came up with a human name for me to use while I'm here, I use my own name and Alex's last name. So I'm Kara Danvers, as far as any human is concerned," Kara spoke rather rapidly, as if her mind were in a dozen different places at once. "And I think it would confuse people terribly if we went around calling each other Kara, and we have to figure out how we'd know each other…"
As Kara trailed off, Power Girl genuinely smiled for all of about five seconds. "You're right, if we have to move around in our secret identities, you can't call me Power Girl any more than I can call you Supergirl. And us looking as much alike as we do, for obvious reasons, to us anyway, calling each other Kara would be suspicious at best. Mind you, I don't plan on staying in town long, but I may have to stay longer than I originally thought."
She thought about it a moment as Kara seemed poised on the edge of her seat, or at least that's the image that came to Power Girl's mind. "I have a human secret identity, too, after all. We could use that. As far as the average human knows, I'm Karen Starr, CEO of Starr Software, in New York. So call me Karen."
Kara smiled, and nodded, feeling better obviously. "Karen it is, then. Now, we just have to figure out how we know each other, just in case someone asks, and if we're around my boss, Cat Grant, you can bet she's going to ask."
It was at that moment that J'Onn landed on the mountain top, with Alex in his arms. He set her down on the ground, and shrugged, "We apologize for the interruption, but Supergirl, you know how Alex is when she's concerned."
Both Kryptonians waved it off, neither offended. Alex took the opportunity to look at them both, and shook her head. "My God, you two look so much alike, and you should, since…well, you get the idea," she began, folding her arms loosely over her chest.
"So, just for argument's sake," Alex continued, feeling much better knowing that Kara was okay, and not hurt somewhere, "let's put the cards down on the table, one at a time. First, everyone that knows Kara knows she was adopted, and that her parents died in a car accident, when she was thirteen. We made the story pretty simple so it's easy to remember. Second, nothing was ever said about siblings, one way or the other. So, conceivably, you guys could be sisters. And third, since you'd have been grown at the time that Kara's parents died, according to the cover story, Starr could have been Kara's birth name. It'd be easy to convince people that maybe you and 'your' parents had had a falling out shortly before they died, so you'd moved across the country to do your own thing, and didn't find out about Kara's parents until after she'd already been adopted."
Everyone was listening attentively, and even though she didn't have plans to stick around long, the more Power Girl thought about it, the more she thought getting to know Kara better might be a good idea, for many reasons. Kara, in particular, looked particularly excited about the prospect.
"You know, when you think about it, we are sisters, in a weird sort of way," said Kara finally, when Power Girl hadn't said anything at that point. "We have the same parents, well, two versions of the same parents, anyway. Our blood is the same, though I know our quantum signature thingies would be different, since we're from different universes. But nobody would think we were the same person, more or less, in two different stages and times of their lives. Us looking the same except for age would only make the sisters story more believable."
J'Onn was quiet, as he often was, but Alex moved a little closer, and put her arm around Kara. "And I know that as much as Kara loves me and my parents, and that she and I couldn't be more sisters if we shared the same blood and DNA, she still feels lonely with Kal being her only living blood relative. You're not exactly a blood relative, but you're closer than anyone else she's got."
Kara nodded in agreement, the excitement building up behind her eyes, with her trying to hold it in check, fearful that Power Girl might refuse the ruse. "Even though Aunt Astra had been a criminal, and Fort Rozz prisoner, she had always been close to me, and when she died…even though she was wrong in what she was wanting to do, it still hurt. And I never liked her husband, thank Rao he was only related to me by marriage."
Power Girl looked down at the rocky ground a moment, and then back up at the three of them. "My Aunt Astra was a bad seed too. The right idea, the wrong methods. In the end, there was no way to save her, no matter how badly I wanted to. And your Non is a first class interplanetary ass too? Its nice to know some things are more parallel than others."
She actually cracked a smile and laughed. Kara got the idea that she wasn't someone that laughed a lot, and she couldn't imagine herself becoming so serious and carrying around so much simmering anger. Power Girl looked at each of them once more, and then shrugged. "I guess you've just got yourself another sister."
Kara squealed in delight and hugged Power Girl tightly, spouting off rapid sentences about how wonderful it'll be, how much fun, a literal outpouring of sheer, powerful optimism. Power Girl wasn't sure whether she should hug back, wait, or what.
With a soft smile, Alex winked at her, and said, "In case you can't tell, she's really excited, happy, and grateful about this. Oh yeah, and she's a hugger, too. A big time hugger."
Power Girl's brows drew together, wrinkling her forehead, and she looked down at Kara hanging off her like a chimp in a tree, and then up at the human, and deadpanned, "Really? I would never have guessed. So that's what's going on, then."
Everybody stopped, and Kara released her and looked up at her, ready to apologize profusely, but Power Girl let a slow smile spread over her face, and she winked. "I'm just kidding. Now, let's head back to the city and see if we can't turn Brainiac around and send him running back to Colu with his tail between his legs."