Girl of Steel – Ch. 3
Kara walked through the newsroom floor and over to Lois Lane's office. Cat Grant dropped her coffee mug as Supergirl passed her by. Lois was busily watching the latest stories on the Daily Planet Internet scroll across her computer screen. Kara opened the office door and slipped in.
"Hey Lois!" Supergirl announced as he ace reporter glanced up at her. Lois spit out her coffee. "Oh my gawd!" She nearly shrieked. "Now Lois, don't freak out!" Kara warned, as she tried to keep her calm and focused. "Don't freak out, she says!" Lois parroted. "Don't take this the wrong way, but why aren't you dead?" She added as Supergirl slowly approached the desk.
Kara sat down across from her. "Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated." She quipped, trying to lighten the mood. "No! No way!" Lois's voice rose. "Clark and I were at your funeral. It's been four years! Did you reawaken after a coma? I know that Kryptonians are strong, but immortal?"
Supergirl placed her hands on the edge of Lois's desk. "I have lived for one hundred and fifty years here on Earth!" Kara dropped the bombshell. "As for being immortal, I highly doubt that." She related the story of Darkseid's Dark Fleet invasion and her alleged death, adding the fact that Earth had been nearly destroyed, and its people enslaved or killed. She informed Lois that Clark had nearly died as well.
"Wow! You look good for your age!" Lois joked, as her nerves started to settle. "This happens just when I think that things can't get any weirder." Kara nodded. "Tell me about it." Lois shook her head. "Unbelievable! You two created this crazy plan all by yourselves?" The frustrated reporter asked. "Pretty much!" Kara confirmed. "At the time we had some help. Apparently everyone underestimated Earth's importance to the universe." Lois nervously tapped her pen on the edge of her desk.
"Did you tell Clark that you've come back from the dead?" Lois grilled the alien beauty. "Actually, I haven't seen him yet." Kara admitted. "You mean I finally scooped him?" Lois quipped. "My uncle and aunt haven't seen Kal in over a month." Kara commented. "Have you seen him recently, Lois?"
Supergirl put her on the spot. "Oh sure! I just saw him yesterday." Lois lied. Kara sensed that something was off. Lois suddenly refused to make eye contact, her heart raced, and her eyes fluttered. Those were all 'tells' that Kara had learned to watch for to determine when a human was lying.
"Maybe it was the day before?" Lois backpedalled. "To be honest, the last several days have been sort of a blur, if you'll pardon the pun. The whole world seems to be going to hell." She spoke more rapidly. "Lois!" Kara said as her eyes narrowed. "Where is Clark?" Supergirl pressed.
"Oh, you know him, he gets in these moods." Lois said as her heartbeat nearly doubled. "He's probably off brooding about one thing or another. The man has that whole ice cave to himself." Kara rolled her eyes. "Lois! Out with it!" she threatened. The frazzled reporter sighed.
"What are you, a living lie detector?" Lois grumbled. "I have no idea where Clark is." Her heartbeat slowed back down to normal. "Did you two have a fight?" Kara prodded.
"No, not a fight per se." Lois hedged. "More like a heated discussion." Kara sighed. "He went away to sulk?" She asked hopefully. "Yeah, I guess so." Lois finally admitted. "He loves you, Lois." Kara softened her tone. "When was the last time, you know, when he was with you?" She pried delicately.
"Oh. Uh about a week ago, I suppose." Lois reddened. "There's nothing wrong with Clark physically. I can vouch for that!" She smirked lustily. "Okay. Too much information." Kara grumbled. "What was the fight, I mean discussion, about?" Lois shrugged. "I don't even remember. He was just moody, giving me attitude." Lois recalled that night as best that she could.
"That doesn't sound like Clark." Kara scowled, she didn't like where this was going. By now, the rest of the newspaper workers had been casually strolling past Lois's office. Only Jimmy and Cat Grant stood near the windowed doorway and stared in at them.
"We're attracting too much attention here." Kara observed. "I should've stopped by in my Linda Lee Danvers disguise." Lois put her head in her hands. "Ever since that damned Apokalips planet appeared and ruined our wedding, it seems that Clark and I have had problems." She whined.
"Lois, don't worry!" Kara said cheerfully. "We just have to find out what's bugging my cousin. Are you ready for a quick vacation? You'd better get your winter parka." Lois sniffed a tear away. "Do you mean that we're going to invade Clark's ice cube man cave?" She grinned thinly. "Exactly." Kara confirmed.
Shortly thereafter, Lois had left Perry an E mail saying that she felt ill, and would be working from home the rest of the day. Kara followed Lois out of the office, as the employees scattered. They waved to Jimmy and Cat, and took the elevator down to the first floor lobby.
The girls walked right out the front doors, and only about half of the passersby recognized the blonde superhero. A handful of people on the sidewalk actually cheered as Kara and Lois edged towards the street corner. Kara waved appreciatively at those denizens of Metropolis that noted them.
Supergirl made a big show of Lois climbing onto her back, and then they flew off towards Smallville. Kara had purposely been keeping her flight speed to a minimum, and they landed just outside the all too familiar Kent barn. Lois grabbed her parka from storage and they resumed their flight. Barely a number of minutes had passed before Kara spotted the ice fortress outcropping.
They landed at its heavily concealed entrance. Kara touched a green translucent crystal that protruded from the outcropping's edge. Lois shivered slightly, as they warily entered the fortress, descending down a flight of hastily cut stairs. Supergirl noted their dozen or so cubes disguised as ice formations. "Lois, these cubes are actually Kryptonian data storage units. Each library cube contained a different volume of information. The subjects varied accordingly." Kara explained.
Kara pulled on a specific icy stalagmite, and a box with multicolored crystals within it appeared. She examined them and confirmed that every crystal was accounted for. Supergirl pulled a red pentagonal crystal about five inches long out of the assortment. "This should do it." She announced as Lois looked on curiously. "It should do what, exactly?" The eager reporter wondered aloud.
"This specific crystal accesses a historical Kryptonian data set." Kara said as they once again ascended the icy crescent shaped staircase. Suddenly a pair of bright red eyes appeared out of a dark corner within the ice fortress. "Get out!" A gruff male voice yelled. Before Kara could react, the man had pinned Supergirl against a fortress wall, the impact shaking the delicate fortress substantially.
"Clark! What the hell are you doing?" Lois snapped as Superman grasped Kara by the throat and lifted her high off the ice fortress floor. "Let go of her, you big lug!" She ordered, simultaneously smacking Clark as hard as she could across the back, and kicking him as much as she dared in the shin without breaking her leg. Kara regained her senses, and kneed Clark in the stomach.
He arched his back in pain, as Kara delivered a huge uppercut to Clark's jaw, sending him sailing across the width of the fortress, where he crushed a series of ice outcroppings, landing clumsily at the base of the stairwell. "Stop it! Both of you!" Lois shouted. Kara instantly struck an attack pose, in case Clark wouldn't listen. She continued to crouch at the ready. "That's your cousin!" Lois yelled.
"Kara is dead!" Superman growled as he flew back towards them. "This is just another of Darkseid's tricks!" Supergirl executed a picture perfect shoulder roll, as she evaded Clark's angry charge. Superman would have to fly in a circular formation to get back into the fray. Lois jumped out in front of him. Clark barely stopped his flight inches from Lois's blocking stance.
"Pay attention you big lug!" She directed. Kara warily got back up on her feet. Thankfully, the reddish crystal remained undamaged. "Obviously, Kara is not dead." Lois stated in a much calmer tone. "Think about it, Smallville! How many people have already come back from the dead?"
"But how?" Clark shuddered as he forced himself to power down, landing softly on the ice fortress floor. "I saw Darkseid kill you!" Superman insisted as he glanced at a very angry young Kara. "I don't know what you saw Kal, but no body, no death, got it?" Kara hissed. Lois let go a breath she'd been holding.
"Maybe you'd better explain just what we saw." Lois stated as Kara edged towards them. "Okay, I recall it clearly…" Clark began. "Darkseid's force had just popped out of a boom tube at the farm."
Flashback sequence: A tall stocky ugly black and purple alien stood defiantly before them. Clark was wearing his black t-shirt. Kara was wearing her current getup, a white t-shirt and a blue denim skirt. Several smaller ugly blue and green creatures hovered beside the boom tube as it contracted.
Darkseid shot twin beams of concentrated yellowish orange energy from his eyes. Both impacted Kara before she reacted, and the alien beauty flew several hundred yards in the opposite direction, landing in a muddy bog near the edge of the Kent property. Supergirl was knocked out cold.
Superman charged Darkseid as a dozen of the evil alien's minions buzzed him on flying platforms similar to a surfboard. Clark swatted the minions away like annoying flies. He balled his fists and hit Darkseid square in his paunchy alien stomach. The evil dictator flew in an arc across the west wheat field and impacted near a gravel access road, causing a huge crater to appear. Clark turned to check on Kara, but Darkseid's remaining minions distracted him. It took a few minutes for Superman to blast through them.
Meanwhile, Darkseid had quickly recovered, and somehow flew back towards Clark. Before Superman could reach her, Darkseid grabbed the still unconscious Kara, and snapped the alien beauty's back across his knee. A sickening crack was heard. Darkseid had appeared to kill the lovely young Supergirl.
He tossed the girl's limp body to the side. Superman screamed "No!" Just that quickly, another boom tube appeared and Darkseid and his minions disappeared within it. Clark fell to his knees. "No!" He shouted in anguish. Superman rushed to Kara's side. Blood poured from his cousin's ears, mouth, and nose. She wasn't breathing. Kara's bright blue eyes rolled back into her head. Supergirl was gone.
Lois cried as she listened to Clark's retelling of the nightmare. "That's not what happened." Kara stated in confusion. "I don't remember that ever happening. In fact, I don't remember Darkseid making it to Earth at all." She insisted. Kara then informed Superman about their bizarre plan to go back in time with the Eye of Rao, and change all of human history, ensuring that Darkseid would be defeated.
"So another me has already gone back in time and changed everything?" Clark sounded skeptical. "It makes perfect sense, Smallville." Lois interjected. "I know you. If there was even a remote chance of this cockamamie plan working, you'd take it." She added. "So would I." She affirmed.
Clark made his way over to his young cousin. He hugged her. "I'm sorry!" Superman apologized. "I'm sorry that you all had to go through that. I promise not to die anytime soon." Kara smirked as she spoke. "Now why were you being such a jerk?" Supergirl asked playfully.
"I guess that I blamed myself for your death." Superman confessed. "You took it out on everyone else, including Lois?" Kara finished for him. "I thought that I should've done more to save you." Clark added. "That attack makes no sense." Lois scowled. "Why would Darkseid just cut and run like that? Why come all the way here to Earth and allegedly knock off Kara and just leave?"
"It could have been some sort of a transportability test, and taking out Kara was just a bonus." Superman reasoned. "Thanks a lot, Kal." Supergirl feigned offense. "That makes sense. Sorry Kara." Lois agreed. "In any event, Darkseid will be coming here to Earth at some point, and we'd better be ready for him, and his minions." Lois summed it all up.
Next: The Red Crystal