"Be a thunderstorm ... Be dangerous and unpredictable and make a lot of noise."
-Quote from the movie My Girl

The phone rings beside Lena's bed, waking her from a pleasant dream.

Like many nights, Lena was dreaming about her days in Lex's orphanage, but, for a change, this dream was not a nightmare. In fact, it was quite pleasant, as the lens in her mind's eye focused on her budding friendship with the little girl Max, and everything else was a blur.

Those were the early days in the orphanage. Lena felt so lonely back then, desperate for a friend. She barely knew Eric at all, and Max was inseparable from Chloe and was not even on Lena's radar. Max still looked like a child back then, while Lena had just hit puberty, and that had felt like a huge gulf between them. Then Max and Chloe had a fight, some minor thing about a minor insult, and Lena was there to comfort her. When Lena offered Max a hug, she swears it was only to show friendship, but Lena felt a stirring inside that she never expected.

If Max felt the same way, she never let on, and Lena's telepathy was so immature then, she couldn't discern her own thoughts from other people's. She never had time to explore her feelings, because a few weeks later, Max was adopted.

But now that Max is back in her life, she dominates Lena's dreams. Lena can't let Max get away again, and she feels like she would do anything to become even closer to Max. She never realized she could be so obsessed with a girl who might only barely remember her. She dreams of dropping by the hotel in the middle of the night, of ordering crappy hotel porn in the room, of giggling in bed as they exchange stories of the past few years they were apart.

That's when the phone rings, waking Lena from her sleep. She feels sure it is Max who is calling her. She is so sure that she doesn't check caller ID. She just answers, "Hi Max."

"Uh, hi Lena, this is Alex," the voice on the other line whispers reluctantly.

"Oh," Lena says softly, shaking her head, trying to wake up. She hears two people breathing, and she imagines that Kara and Alex are holding the phone between them. "Sorry, what's up Alex? Jeez, what time is it?"

"Around 4. Sorry we woke you, but Max just called us, and we're trying to understand what we should do."

"Huh? Why did she call you?" Lena asks, feeling both curious and jealous that Max would wake the Danvers sisters up late at night, rather than Lena herself.

"She talked with Kara. She sounded a little crazy, not making sense, but then she said that calling us was a mistake, and she told us to go back to sleep, and just do whatever we would have done if she didn't call."

Lena is wide awake, now. "Really? That's all she said? What did she mean? What was she asking you to do?"

"Yeah, that's what we asked her. I mean, she made it sound really important that we not change anything we might do today, like the future depends on it, but how could we know what we would have done? She said that we should just be ourselves, dress any way we want, and not care what anyone else thinks. Then we're, like, what should we do EXACTLY, because we don't want to screw this up. She must have had some idea, right? She can see stuff before it happens, right? But Max just said that she already said too much, that she shouldn't have called at all. She wouldn't say anything else. She just said goodbye. So, we've been lying here for like ten minutes, freaking out, and Kara thought we should call you. I mean, you know Max… What do you think she was trying to tell us?"

Lena thinks for a moment. Telepathy usually gives Lena great insight to people, but Lena can't read Max's mind. Before yesterday, she hadn't heard from Max in years. She is certainly no expert on what makes Max tick, but the younger girl has captured Lena's fancy, and she doesn't want to end the conversation by admitting that.

All Max had said was that the girls should dress and act like they usually do, and Lena is confident that she knows the Danvers girls very well. So, Lena asks Alex and Kara to stop and imagine that Max never called. Imagine that the alarm clock just rang. What is the first thing that comes to their minds?

The question seems straightforward, but quickly Lena learns that the girls barely even know themselves, or more accurately, they are not honest with themselves.

Alex says that they've been arguing since Max's call about what they would do – about what they liked doing. Alex insists that she wants to get over her inhibitions and dress sexy and maybe show more skin. Kara, on the other hand, insists that she doesn't like how people look at her anymore, and that Alex's attention is enough for her. Alex insists that Kara was right all along, and that Alex now wants to break free and stop being such a prude. Contrarily, Kara insists that she is over her exhibitionist phase.

Lena jumps in, laughing, "you two are adorable, pretending to be like each other, just to prove your love. Alex, did you forget that I can read your mind? You only put on that show in the mall to support Kara, trying to prove you weren't jealous and that you can break the rules, too. And Kara, it's obvious to everyone that you like when people look at you. You don't need to pretend to be something you're not just to make each other happy. A better proof of love is being yourself and believing the other person will still love you anyway."

Alex is stunned by what Lena says, and after a moment she says, "Wow, Lena, you are scary good at this."

"Right?" Kara says, excited to be honest for a change. "You are so happy in black clothes and long pants and dark makeup, Alex, and I think that's so sexy!"

Alex laughs. "And you are happy wearing as little clothes and makeup as possible, and I love that about you. I know you guys were all like nudists back on Krypton and there is nothing sexual about it."

"What do you mean?" Kara asks, confused.

"Well, I read some stuff on nudist groups online, and it said that when people walk around in the nude all of the time, they don't even notice it anymore. It's like not sexy at all," Alex explains. "And I read that they have these rules like 'no staring' and 'no sexy clothes' and guys have to hide … it … if they get, you know, turned on."

"That's not what people did on Krypton," Kara explains with a laugh, as if the idea was crazy. "Most guilds didn't have any rules at all, not even for kids. Everyone was very flirty."

"What?" Alex replies, shocked.

"Nobody hid anything from us," Kara explains casually. "I remember sometimes girls were walking around town, and these random guys would watch them and jerk off. It seems weird now, but it was normal back then"

"Oh my God!" Alex gasps. "You flirted with those guys?"

"Oh, no! Everyone thought they were rude, like when a guy on Earth whistles at a pretty girl walking by. But they usually just watched and did their thing, so we ignored them."

Lena laughs uncontrollably. "Krypton sounds just like walking around the mall here, except that on Earth, sex-starved voyeurs see through clothes with their mind's eyes and jerk off in their heads."

"Ugh! Is everyone sick in the head?!" Alex says, disgusted, then suddenly ashamed. "What about me? I mean, what I did in the mall… am I a …?"

"Maybe everybody is a little sick," Lena agrees, but adds, "but everyone is complicated, too. It's not fair to say that boys are creeps, and it's not fair to say that girls are sluts. We are animals, and we punish ourselves for it rather than deal with it. Everyone flirts and salivates and then wants to jump off a cliff to get away from that weak loser inside of us who can't control themselves. It sounds sick the way it plays out on Krypton, but maybe it was better there, with all of that bullshit out in the open. Maybe people really got to know each other, there. I feel like I'm the only person who knows how people really feel around here."

"Well, I'm not ashamed of my body, and I'm not ashamed about how I feel about you," Alex says to Kara, "but I don't know how you could just shrug off a bunch of people looking at you and jerking off. How did you do it?"

"Oh, I never had to do that myself," Kara says. "They never jerked off when looking at me."

"Why not? Are you saying that they didn't have pedophiles there?" Lena asks optimistically.

"No, they had creeps there, too, but my family was in the Science Guild, so we never walked around naked," Kara says casually.

"What?" Alex exclaims in surprise, then pauses for a moment. "You told us that people walked around naked on Krypton."

"They did. Everyone except those of us in the Science Guild. Our group taught that sex and anything exciting got in the way of our science."

"But you told me that you never wore panties or bras," Alex says, trying to understand. "And when you walked around naked at home, you said it was normal on Krypton."

"It was normal," Kara insists. "Just not for us in the Science Guild. We never wore underwear, but we wore clothes most of the time. I was jealous of the other guilds. I was supposed to choose my own guild when I was of age, but I never had a chance."

The phone is then silent for so long that Lena thinks she might be disconnected.

But then Alex states. "You never told me that before. You always told mom and dad that you walked around in the nude in lots of places on Krypton."

"No, I said that people walked around like that," Kara corrects, parsing words. "I didn't myself, but I always wanted to."

Lena can't help but laugh. "You had us both fooled! No wonder you are so passionately against a dress code; you've been forced into one your whole life, while everyone around you were totally free. I can't believe I never caught on before."

"I never meant to fool you," Kara says sadly.

"Sure you did!" Lena calls her out. It's obvious to her that Kara had kept this a secret, a lie by omission, and she's now trying to sneak the confession in below the radar. But Lena loves seeing Kara's sly side. "Don't pretend and don't apologize. You're a fucking rebel! You always were. You felt trapped on Krypton and your mom even knew it. Now, her letter to you makes more sense."

"You think so?" Kara asks.

"Absolutely! She wrote in the letter over and over about how you aren't beholden to anyone and how you should always be yourself and make your own choices. She knew you felt trapped back on Krypton, and she wanted you to feel free here."

"I can't believe you never told me all that stuff about Krypton," Alex complains. "I get it that you didn't want mom to know that, but why not tell me?"

"You never asked me about my life there," Kara defends herself meekly. "Are you angry?"

Kara's defense was weak, so Lena expects at least a brief argument to ensue. Instead, all she hears on the phone are the clear sounds of smooching and heavy breathing, as the girls are kissing with the phone still between them. Obviously, the revelation is the not a problem to Alex.

"So, what should I wear to school today?" Kara finally asks, bringing the conversation back to the original topic.

Lena isn't sure if Kara is asking Alex or herself, but she decides to answer, anyway. "Come on, stop pretending like it doesn't matter to you! There are no shy rebels! You love the attention, so take the bad with the good. Be dangerous and unpredictable and make a lot of noise. Isn't that what this whole thing is about? - not letting people tell us what we should do? Make the world what you want it to be!"

"That's great advice," Alex says reluctantly, with an oddly sad voice.

Lena wonders if she's pushing too hard. But what do they expect, calling a confirmed hedonist like her for advice, anyway? "Well, you know me, I don't know the meaning of the word 'restraint'. Your friends are behind you no matter what you do."

"That's true," Alex says to reassure Kara, but her voice cracks, leaking jealousy. Whenever Kara talks to Lena too long, Alex feels jealous, even though she doesn't admit it, even to herself.

Then the kissing and heavy breathing take over the phone again. Suddenly Alex giggles. Did Kara tickle her?

"Lena, thank you so much," Kara says over sounds of tumbling on Kara's bed.

"Yes, sorry we woke you up. We'll let you go back to sleep," Alex adds before a new round of giggles.

"No problem," Lena says, then suddenly the phone is disconnected. "Just call me any time of night, I don't mind," she adds sarcastically, as if someone was still listening.

She wonders what just happened.

She couldn't read Alex's thoughts through the phone, but there is no mistaking the shadow of jealousy in Alex's voice. No doubt calling Lena was Kara's idea, not Alex's. She can be a good friend, but Alex will always feel jealous of Lena and Eric and Bobby and anyone else that Kara shares herself with, and then Kara will always have to reassure Alex that she is the only one.

Suddenly, Lena understands something quirky about the Danvers sisters' relationship: Kara's urge to flash and flirt strengthens their relationship in an odd way. Showing off turns Kara on, yet Alex's touch is the only thing that satisfies. When Alex feels jealous, Kara will immediately shower her with attention, making them both feel sorry, and then everything is fixed with a passionate make up session.

Do they even realize what they are doing? Probably not, but after discovering Kara's sneaky side a few minutes ago, Lena is not sure. Now, the cycle of push and pull makes more sense to Lena. It's a pattern of behavior: First, the girls have some kind of struggle, then Kara does something provocative, then they go through an intense make up period when they are crazy in love, then there is another struggle, then maybe Alex does something provocative, and it starts all over again. When the game gets too intense, they come back to Lena to be assured that nothing is wrong with them.

Was that why Kara chose now to reveal her secret about Krypton? - to make Alex feel jealous? Did Kara even know what she was doing?

Lena feels disappointed to learn that the Danvers are just as dysfunctional as every other relationship out there. It's a reminder of how fucked up relationships always end up being.

But the truth is that Lena longs for a fucked-up relationship like theirs. Whenever she sees how much they love each other, Lena feels all the more lonely.

It's strange that reading minds, always knowing the truth, really kills intimacy. Love needs a little mystery. Lovers unveil secrets seductively. Telepaths steal secrets without asking, betraying the whole game of love.

But Kara is a mystery Lena cannot penetrate. Kara's emotions are easy to read, but her alien secrets are unfathomable, and Lena arrogantly pretends that she understands completely.

If Alex knew how much Lena envied her relationship with Kara, she would keep Kara as far away from Lena as possible. Until recently, nobody could spark Lena's imagination like the enigmatic Kryptonian could.

But now there is another mystery girl: a sweet caterpillar from Lena's past that had disappeared and then came back as a butterfly.

Lena rests her head down on the pillow and tries to remember the dream those insecure Danvers sisters had so rudely interrupted fifteen minutes ago.

The dream where Lena and Max were together, far away from school, and far away from friends.

But one question keeps Lena awake: Why did Max call the Danvers sisters instead of her?

X X X

Lena wakes up again at 6 AM, shortly before her usual rise-and-shine time, due to a chirp from her cellphone. She hopes it's a text from Max, so she grabs the phone quickly. Instead, she finds three texts from Eric.

Mrs Clifford is letting Cookie drive to school

She invited me to go along

You want to come?

Lena knows she should smile and go along happily, but now she feels a little jealous of Eric and Cookie. Everyone has someone special except her, she thinks.

Then she laughs sadly, thinking of how much jealousy there is in her little group of friends.

On impulse, she decides to do something about it.

Lena types:

That's great, but Max and I are going in together

Even if Max doesn't know it yet.

Cool. See you there

You too

Lena doesn't pause for an instant. She finds Max on her phone and presses the call button.

If she gets Max to agree to join her on the bus right away, then she won't feel like she just lied.

"Hello," Lena hears Max's sleep laden voice answering.

"Hey, baby girl. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but I should be awake already, so thanks for the wake-up call. So … what's up?"

"Do you want to take the bus in today?" Lena asks hopefully. "We could meet at the bus stop."

"A taxi is already scheduled to pick me up. Maybe you want to take a taxi to school instead?"

A half-hour later, Lena arrives at the hotel and finds Max waiting just outside of the lobby, wearing a coat over her new butterfly shirt, and jeans that look naturally faded. The outfit is topped off with a red beanie on her pretty head.

"You made it," Max says with a smile.

"Of course," Lena replies, then nods at Max's clothes. "Why are you hiding your cute bod under all of this stuff? It's like 70 out. Don't you feel hot?"

"Yeah, but I gotta hunch that we're in for a chill," Max says mysteriously.

Lena nods. "Is that part of your prediction last night?"

Max stares at Lena, surprised.

"The Danvers called me last night," Lena explains. "They told me you called them first and were acting all weird."

"Oh shit!" Max says with a grimace. "I really hope I didn't screw it all up. I knew I should have kept it to myself, but it was so hard to just wait in bed and do nothing."

"What is going on?" Lena asked. "Is this like in those time travel movies where everyone is afraid to mess with the past?"

Max nods. "What did you tell them?"

Lena shrugs. "Well, you told them to forget that you called and do what they'd normally do. Well, guess what: you screwed with their heads so much, their brains freezed up, so that kind of backfired. They asked me to tell them what I thought they would do, as if I'm an expert on all things Kara and Alex. I don't even know what I'll do from day to day. So, we talked for a while and, well, you know I always have advice for everyone, even if it's not the right advice…"

Max looks concerned. "Did you tell them what you think they would do? Or did you tell them what you think they should do?"

"Uh," Lena hesitates, as she realizes she made a mistake. "I guess I told them to do everything people tell them they shouldn't do."

"Why am I not surprised," Max says, more teasing than angry.

Lena grins mischievously. "When I was really small, I asked my mom for a puppy, and you know what she told me?"

"What?"

"She said, 'Lena, you don't have the heart to train a puppy. If he shits on the floor, you'd give him a treat,'" Lena laughs, thinking of a time when her mom was much happier.

Max laughs, too. "That's you in a nutshell! Well, maybe this is for the best. What Kara actually did on her own didn't work out so well, and what I wanted for her to do turned out much worse. I guess this path is worth a try."

Lena stares at Max. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Just then, the taxi arrives, and Max says, "Let's talk about it after the ride."

But Max's story of time travel and scandal and destruction and tragedy is too big to wait for long.

They get in the cab, and the driver is apparently the only taxi driver in town who doesn't like to chat. They are stuck sitting quietly in the back, and they have enough discipline to wait for about one minute, but then the car gets stuck in traffic, and the silence becomes too much to bear. Lena demands some answers, and Max unloads all of the pertinent facts in frantic whispers. The driver looks at them wide-eyed through the mirror, so he must have heard some of it. Finally, the taxi arrives after driving 20 minutes. They could have almost walked it in that time and had more privacy. By the time they arrive at school, Max has completely reviewed her two previous trips through today and has totally convinced Lena that she isn't crazy at all.

Despite the bad traffic, they arrive at school before any of the buses. They hang around by the curb, anxiously waiting for whatever comes next.

"So, what happens to me when you go back in time?" Lena wonders. She's seen enough scifi flicks to know how messed up this situation is. "I mean, I know you just wake up, remembering everything. What is it like for people like me? Is it like dying? Am I reincarnated into the past somehow? Or do you just jump into another universe that has a different version of me, and that another me continues in the other timeline?"

Max throws up her hands. "You're asking me?"

"Who else can I ask? It's kind of a scary thought that I might be whooshed out of existence the next time you look at a photo," Lena says.

Max stares at Lena sadly. "Yeah, every time I think of it, this power seems like an even bigger deal. It's really scary."

"Yeah," Lena agrees. "So … what happens now?"

Max shakes her head. "I'm not sure. I might have changed everything with that phone call last night. I never realized how big of an impact little things can have. I think the first thing we can expect is Kara's bus will arrive, but the Danvers won't be in there. Then maybe the news van will pull up the road behind the bus."

Events transpire exactly as Max predicted, which is strangely reassuring. Although both times Max had gone through this day before did not end well, the girls find it comforting that some things were predictable.

"What next?" Lena asks.

"Some more buses, then maybe Cookie and Eric arrive… I'm not sure. That only happened once."

But Max was right again.

They greet Cookie and Eric at the curb. They have no time to explain any of their concerns to their friends before Max's biggest prediction begins to come true: The clouds gather and a cold wind blows.

The odd weather causes a commotion among the large gathering of students. Many underdressed girls sneak inside, while the warmer dressed students hang around outside, amused by the meteorological anomaly.

Finally, Kara and Alex appear from the tree-line in the distance. They are barely visible under the increasingly overcast sky. At first glance, they almost look like a bride and groom walking side-by-side. Alex is dressed all in the black, and Kara is dressed all in white.

As they approach, the idyllic illusion quickly shatters.

Alex is wearing a long-sleeve blouse and long silken slacks over shiny, black high heels. She looks elegant and totally decent, apart from a slight jiggle of her bosom as she walks.

Kara is a whole other story, and even Lena gasps at her audacity. She's wearing a large white t-shirt with the Kryptonian S drawn in rainbow-colored markers in the center of her chest. And she wears nothing else, not even shoes. In calm weather, her excuse for a dress might not seem so scandalous, because the shirt would fall a few inches below her butt, and her girly figure would completely disappear on the bulk of the garment. But the weather is not calm at all, and Kara clearly welcomes the scandal that the winds direct. She protects her well-groomed hair with both hands from the strong breezes, yet she shamelessly lets the wind have its way with her shirt below.

To Lena, the school grounds feels like an auditorium that has just gone silent, as everyone stops whatever they were doing, and they gaze at Kara.

"Wowser!" Max says and looks at Lena accusingly. "Is this what you thought she'd do?"

"Not exactly," Lena says, laughing, wondering how much credit or blame she should take for Kara's actions. She thought Kara might just dress without underwear, as she often did, and maybe tease people a little. Lena thought there was a balance between Kara's inner exhibitionist and her shyness, but Kara is letting the shy girl go completely. She wants everything exposed, at last, and that includes a lot more than just exposing her body.

Kara's shirt billows and flutters like a flag, leaving nothing at all to the imagination, while the sisters promenade towards their friends.

As they approach, Alex crosses her arms against her chest, protecting herself from the suddenly cold weather. The temperature doesn't bother Kara at all. She lowers her arms when the group is finally together, trapping her shirt close to her body. She does this for comfort rather than any sense of decorum, and she doesn't even try to keep the bottom of her shirt from flapping around in the wind and continuing to tease a hundred eyes with rapid flashes of her flesh.

It's a wonder that Lena senses no backlash from the many students Kara walks past.

Somehow Kara's blasé attitude towards her unclothed form appears innocent, like a nude figure in mythology that doesn't understand her own eroticism. But Lena knows that Kara understands that power very well. Unlike her other powers, this one is shared by girls and women all over the world, and was shared all over Krypton as well, but Kara only recently has begun to use it. She had envied the sexual freedom of other guilds on Krypton, and she had allowed Earth authorities to limit her further, until Lena had urged her on a few months ago, and now, finally, she is claiming that freedom for herself without reservation. Now she is transformed completely from that shy, uncertain girl to a beacon of confidence and sensuality.

Alex doesn't share Kara's confidence, but neither is she jealous of all the attention Kara is getting. She has encouraged this, and she is sharing in Kara's moment. This is a big step forward for Alex.

Eric is plainly feeling turned on by the spectacle. He pulls Cookie in close to reassure his girlfriend that he's in love with her.

Cookie leans into him, but she's not jealous either. She knows Kara's effect on her boyfriend. She knew it from the start. Eric can lie to Cookie about anything, except his feelings. But that certainty cleanses her of any jealousy. Eric's attraction to Kara always seems to energize his love for Cookie as well, just as it energizes everyone around him, and always has. In fact, Lena knows for a fact that Cookie would like a three way with Kara and Eric, if Alex were out of the picture.

Even other girlfriends of other wide-eyed boys don't resent Kara, as long as Eric is around. Resentment and jealousy just can't survive when Eric's heart is expanding, affecting everyone's heart around him. That passion Eric had felt towards Kara in the school lab turned Kara into a sexual sweetheart. His passion for Cookie had softened Lex's heart and had transformed her reputation at school. And now Lena can feel it transform the crowd's reaction when seeing a nearly naked teenaged girl walking around out in the open.

But there was something else at work here as well. Something more pure and admirable. Kara was nearly naked, but she was clothed in strength. Despite her small stature and child-like face, Kara holds her head high. Her posture is perfect. Her gait is sublime. She watches people watching her with a smile. She loves the attention and admiration, be it sexual or otherwise. She never looked so self-possessed before now.

The combination of Eric's irresistible aura, Kara's adolescent beauty, her carriage and maybe even her pheromones, come together like a perfect storm, grabbing everyone's attention, so much so that they don't see the literal storm that is heading their way, until it is too late.

The tornado arrives as fast and furiously as Max had predicted, and even with all that warning, Lena is stunned by its power. It rips through the tree line, tossing branches like twigs into the air that never seem to fall back to the ground. It spits out rain, sleet and snow as it bears down on the school.

Max grabs at Lena's arm, trying to pull her towards safety, but Lena won't budge.

She's captivated by Kara, who leaps into the tornado as though she were fully clothed in a superhero costume. Nobody standing on the football field escapes as the wind tunnel pounces after them, but Kara snags every one of them out of the monster's grasp, placing them gently on the ground before saving the next. Lena counts 6 rescues, before Kara flies back into the swirling winds and tames the storm with a single breath. A blast of wind radiates in every direction, when suddenly the tornado is gone, leaving everyone and everything in sight unharmed. A few moments later, the sun peaks back through the clouds.

Kara floats back down like a feather with her friends, who have barely moved, like nothing just happened. She had acted without thinking, and the crisis was over before the crowd had time to panic.

Maybe students hadn't even moved, and they look at Kara with the same amazed expression they had before, only their jaws have dropped further. The wind no longer blows up her shirt, but the blast of rain has left the shirt nearly transparent, and she looks just as naked as before. The sense of strength she exhibited only a minute before is now magnified many times.

It is an awe-inspiring moment that leaves everyone speechless.

Everyone except for Alex, anyway. "Are you alright?" Alex asks almost in a panic, even though Kara doesn't look troubled in the least.

"I think so," Kara says, then she sees the many witnessing eyes looking back at her. Of course, she had come here today expecting a lot of attention, but as a regular rebel girl standing up for self-expression. The magnitude of what she just did is only hitting her now, and she goes from calm to almost giddily excited in just a few seconds. "Oh Rao, I did it!"

"Are you ready for this?" Lena asks.

"I think so," Kara replies.

"People are going to talk about you, and it won't always be pretty," Cookie warns knowingly. "This is big time, now."

Kara nods now more soberly, as several students she just saved approach to thank her.

But before they have a chance, a reporter nudges an opening and steps up to Kara and sticks a microphone in her face.

"Cat Grant, WCBS," she introduces herself. "That was quite heroic what you just did. Can we ask you a few questions?

"Sure!" Kara says eagerly, disregarding all of the warnings Eliza had instilled in her over the past 2 years.

Cat Grant smiles and clears a little space for the news camera.

"We can't record her like this!" her cameraman whispers to Cat. "It's illegal."

Cat waves her hand dismissively and whispers back. "We'll edit it in the van."

Then she turns back to the girl she wants to introduce to the world. "That was an amazing show of heroics, young lady! What is your name?"

"Kara Danvers," Kara replies.

"Well, considering you are wearing one of those S's on your chest, I'm thinking that you have another name as well," Cat prompts.

"Kara Zor-El," Kara admits.

"So tell me, Kara Zor-El, is that how they dressed on Krypton, or are you taking this school dress code revolt a little too far?"

Kara doesn't know how to answer.

"Would you like to put something on before we talk any further?" Cat encourages while handing over her jacket.

Kara shakes her head, declining.

"You don't want any of us to get into trouble, do you?" Cat asks, offering the jacket again. "You could be charged with indecent exposure, and we could be charged with child pornography if any footage got out."

"Why?" Kara replies indignantly, still refusing the jacket. "This is just my body. Nobody is being hurt. Nobody is looking away. Everyone sees more than this every day on the internet. What difference does my age make?"

"Because there are sex offenders out there," Cat explains. "You might not need protection from them, but other girls do."

Kara is stumped by this argument.

So Lena takes over the debate, saying loudly, "Do you ban people from driving Ferraris, because crooks are tempted to steal them? Do you ban black men from walking the streets at night because racist cops might fuck them over? But sure, go ahead, ban the girl from being proud, all because some guy can't control himself. What if a pervert gets turned on by normal clothes? Would you then insist that girls wear a burkas? When do we stop excusing the criminals?"

Cat is undeterred. "Ask me again in a few years, when you try to explain to your son why everyone has seen their mother naked, flirting in public. Ask me again when your seven-year-old sister is abused by the sick groundskeeper at school."

"How do clothes stop sick men from abusing children?" Kara asks, confused. "And why would someone's son feel bad if people thought his mom was hot?"

Lena feels Cat's gears moving, preparing to engage, but arguments elude her. Lena wondered if she and Kara were really so persuasive, or maybe Eric was rigging the contest for them covertly.

Cat smiles at the rebellious teens. "You are both bright girls, but let me ask you this, Kara: You are clearly the most powerful girl in the world. You have so much to offer. Why would you want to distract people from everything you are with gratuitous displays of your pretty but ordinary assets?"

Kara thinks for a moment. "Because these ordinary assets make me feel human."

X X X

Kara's last line about feeling human quickly becomes the most memorable line from Cat's interview.

While the television networks are understandably less eager than Kara about showing her body, a few blurry cell phone photos make it around the internet within hours, and, soon after that, creative geeks fill Google searches with creative enhancements of Kara's naked form. Kara isn't offended. In fact, she finds most of them quite funny, especially one where her AA cup boobs are magnified to DD size.

Unfortunately, Eric's mediating power only has local impact, so Kara's uncensored expression and philosophy become highly controversial, distracting from her status as a hero, just as Cat predicted. Only a few months ago, Kara was crippled by worries about her reputation, but now she easily shrugs off millions of attacks on her character, perhaps because a million other voices are on her side.

Still, Kara's drive to show off her body wavers now that the whole world sees her as human and definitely a girl. She doesn't feel ashamed about anything, but her exhibitionism was driven more by a need to assert her identity than any sexual compulsion, and now that her humanity and sexuality are confirmed to the whole world, another part of her identity demands recognition. She wants to be a hero.

She always wanted to be a hero, but also believed it was out of her reach. First her foster parents warned her that it was too dangerous. Then the FBI tried to bribe her to keep hiding behind her Danvers last name, but never explained why. Well, no more. She's got a taste for it now, and she believes she can handle anything.

She allows Cat a follow-up interview where she explains to the world that being a hero is more important to her than her attitudes about clothes, and it is a public-relations triumph. Only one day after this interview airs, a famous costume designer from Hollywood delivers a gorgeous outfit, complete with a cape. It screams out hero, and it is sexy yet culturally acceptable for a 15-year-old girl. For some people, her reputation was shot the moment those photos leaked on the internet, but other people, who were unsure, now accept her as Supergirl.

The biggest challenge for Kara is that now she has no secret identity. She can't go back home to the Danvers house.

This is not only a problem for Kara, but also for her friends. Almost immediately after Kara revealed herself to the world, reporters scoured the landscape to learn anything and everything about her, and Lena's, Eric's and Max's past came under scrutiny. They were quickly identified as three teens who were kidnapped by Lex and experimented on in his "orphanage" as children. The former hostages know it's only a matter of days before their own abilities are uncovered. They cannot go home, either.

Fortunately, all four of them, along with Alex and Cookie, hide from the paparazzi in the Super 8 hotel with Max. Their whereabouts is almost immediately discovered, but the hotel likes the attention the teens are bringing in, so they offer them two free rooms for a week and promise privacy.

That promise proves impossible to keep, and the hotel immediately regrets their offer, because the cost in security is formidable. But they are true to their word, giving the teens a week to come up with an exit strategy.

X X X

The hotel offers their special guests three adjacent rooms, connected by doors, so they never need to walk through the hallways. Each room is among the most expensive lodgings the hotel offers, and each comes with a king-sized bed.

Max's original room in the hotel paled in comparison. The new rooms are furnished with giant plasma televisions. One has a full kitchen, and another has a jacuzzi. Alex and Kara take one room. Cookie and Eric take another. Max and Lena take the middle room, and they don't mind sharing the bed.

The one luxury the hotel lacks is Wi-Fi, but the friends keep up with the outside world through news reports on television. That is all the contact they want for the moment. Their sudden celebrity status overwhelms them. They realize they will need to live in a secure space like the hotel after their stay ends, to maintain their privacy. Maybe they could move to Hollywood, where residents might be more accustomed to such problems.

Kara never really appreciated how important Kal-El's identity as Clark is until she loses her identity as an ordinary schoolgirl. Although she feels like she is a hero by calling, she would be lost without her identity of Kara Danvers and without her friends.

After the dramatic events with the tornado and a swarm of interviews and paparazzi, Kara gives up on being a hero for a few days, until she can stabilize her life.

For the first two days in the hotel, the teens open their doors, making the hotel space feel like a three-bedroom suite. Then they close the doors at night for privacy – or at least as much privacy as is possible when one room has a telepath and another has super-ears and a third radiates emotion.

Most of the time, they pull a few comforters into Max's room and they all sit together on the floor or bed and listen to old records or watch television. On the third day, they discover that porn channels are unlocked on their televisions. Of course, they are going to watch it.

They sit down around the screen, some on the bed, some on the floor, gobbling popcorn like they are in a cinema. The porno starts with a fancy intro, promising good production values. Then it cuts to a rather ordinary home. The doorbell rings. A pretty woman answers, and a large man shows up delivering a new mattress. He installs the mattress and then shows her how to use it.

It's shockingly stupid and fun, but it's also awkward to watch in a group, so Lena turns the sound down, and they talk over the programming while never quite looking away.

They crack a few jokes, but quickly their worries about the future surface.

"Eric and I decided to stay at my parent's house," Cookie reluctantly says. "We'll come back here every day, of course, but my mom wants me back home and going to school. She thinks we can handle the media. We had to go through this before when Lex was convicted."

Eric nods, but everyone feels a wave of regret rolling off of him. "We have to move on from here eventually."

"What about your power? Reporters will be all over you, harassing you about what you can do," Alex says, transferring her worries for Kara onto Eric.

Eric shrugs. "You guys are the only people who really even know what I can do. It feels more like a condition than a power. I think they'll ignore me."

"They'll probably ignore me, too," Max adds.

"You should probably go back to be with your mom, Max," Lena suggests regretfully. "Kara and I are the only people those jackals are really interested in. Too many people know about my ability, and besides, they know Lex is my brother, now, so they'll never leave me alone."

"I'm not going anywhere!" Max insists, leaning into Lena. "Remember my mom has already packed up our home in Oregon, so where would I go, anyway?"

"My mom already told me not to go home," Alex adds. "She told me that reporters are pretty much camping out around the house. She's trying to rent a room here until everything blows over."

"I'm sorry I got you all into this," Kara takes all of the blame. "I was being selfish, wanting attention. Careful what you wish for, right?"

Max shakes her head vigorously. "It was much worse when you weren't being yourself! Don't forget you just saved dozens of people."

"I only saved six people," Kara corrects.

"No, if you hadn't snuffed out of that tornado, it would have killed a lot more," Max insists. "Besides, saving even one person is a big deal. Really, everything that has happened could be good news. We just don't know it yet."

Kara smiles, feeling a little better about herself.

"What do you mean?" Alex asks.

"We can do a lot more to help people than when people thought we were just kids in school."

Lena jumps in, "Yeah, we could be like a super-team or something."

Cookie laughs. "Don't forget about us muggles when you form your league of super-teens."

Lena doesn't laugh back. "You guys didn't need any special powers when you saved me from my brother, did you? Alex, you are the one who got everyone to that military base."

Alex points at Cookie, "And Eric couldn't have used his power without you."

Eric blushes at that.

Everyone laughs.

"We really would make a good team," Kara says enthusiastically.

"It's a good thing that we have a straight couple in our team," Max says half-jokingly. "I wonder if people would accept us if we were all lesbians."

It does not get by Lena that Max includes herself among the "lesbians". She had been really coy about that even when they were sharing the same bed together. They had stayed respectfully on their own sides of the bed. Lena never really knew if Max felt the same way she does. Lena loved the mystery, but she loves seeing the mystery solved even more, and this was one hell of a clue.

The room goes quiet, because everyone notices the clue at the same time. Everyone had been wondering.

The two girls who are already sitting side-by-side lock eyes for a moment.

The moment goes on.

Their faces get warm.

Then their faces move closer together until their lips touch.

They wrap their arms around each other, suddenly laughing between kisses, while the other girls cheer them on, and the faint music of the porno in the background sets a very warm mood.

Everyone looks up when the door to the hotel room shakes.

Nobody is prepared for what happens next.

X X X

Kara is the first to sense that something is wrong, but it is already too late to stop it.

The teens are given only one second of warning when the doorknob to the room jiggles. Then they hear wood cracking and a loud thud as the door is completely ripped away.

Kara is on her feet in an instant, on guard, as three large men enter the room. They each look like they would make good bouncers. Very fit. Very tough looking.

The largest of the men carries an axe.

"What do you want?" Kara asks firmly, trying to look impressive as she hovers in the air.

"Who are you?" The man asks back.

"Kara Danvers," she replies obediently.

Then, before Kara can respond, he reaches out and grabs her by the throat.

"No!" he yells. His voice shakes the walls. "You are Kara Zor-El!"

Kara tries to fly out of his grip, but his giant fingers hold firm like a vice, pressing in her windpipe. Kara tries to pull his hand away, but his fingers barely budge. She realizes in horror that he could crush her windpipe with just that one hand. She scratches his hand and he winces, giving her a small hope, but then he raises his other hand, holding a strange glowing axe and touches her face. He lightly rubs the blade against her face, and Kara can feel it cutting into her skin. She stops resisting.

He loosens his grip a little, letting her breathe. Kara coughs. Tears well in her eyes, as much from fear as from the pain he is inflicting on her.

Eric stands up, wanting to help Kara, but one of the other men points at him, and Eric is thrown to the ground without anyone touching him.

"I am Vartox," says the man holding Kara by the throat. "You might not remember me, but your mother surely would. I promised revenge for what she did to us back on Krypton, but I never thought I'd get the opportunity. Not until you showed up."

Kara's fear turns to determination, as she punches the axe out of Vortox's hand, sending it crashing through the wall. Then she kicks him with incredible force in the balls, causing him to groan, but not crippling him.

He grabs her throat with his other hand and squeezes until Kara's eyes bulge in fear.

"You little bitch!" he growls. "Try that again, and I'll take it out on your friends while you watch."

Kara stops struggling and shakes her head. "No, please," she rasps.

"That's better," he says, then grabs her by the arms, spins her around and bends her over the bureau, knocking everything off onto the floor. He tears off her clothes like they are tissue paper, then releases her while he undoes his belt buckle, daring her to make a move. When she remains still, his voice lowers while he considers his prey. "If you please us, maybe we'll let you live."

Kara's eyes fill with tears, though she doesn't cry out or fight. She swallows when he pushes her legs apart and presses her head into the wood, which cracks under the force. She looks at her friends, who are also crying helplessly on the floor, watching as these monsters prepare to rape her.

Alex seems to be struggling against an invisible force, trying to get to Kara, but Kara hopes she stops. Kara is willing to put up with anything, if it keeps Alex and her friends safe.

She sees Max slowly reaching for a Polaroid photo that had fallen off the bureau. Kara nods to her. It feels like their only chance.

Then she closes her eyes hard as fingers explore between her legs. One of the other brutes walks in front of her and grabs her hair. She doesn't want to see what he has in mind.

"Oh, yeah, you want it, don't you? Do you think you can handle my Valorian cock?" Vartox says.

Kara feels his dick rub up against her privates, and she steels herself, preparing for his entry. The Earth seems to shake beneath her, and she feels like she is passing out.

X X X

Kara sits up in bed in a cold sweat, yelling, "No!"

"What?" Alex says, suddenly awake herself. "Are you okay."

"No," Kara says, tears in her eyes. "I … I had a nightmare. It was horrible."

"What were you dreaming about?"

"I – I," Kara starts, but her memory of the nightmare quickly disintegrates like a sandcastle when hit by an ocean wave. "I don't know."

"It's okay," Alex whispers, cooing, and holding Kara gently.

Kara shivers at her touch for a moment, then she sinks into her embrace.

She looks at the clock beside the bed. It reads 4:04 AM.