The rest of the week finished up relatively uneventfully, and it was time for Kara to head back to the Kents for a while. The Chancellor emphasized that Kara would be more than welcome back at any time in the future. Diana promised that they would meet and see how much her wrestling and sparring had improved. Cassie told her that when her full powers manifested, and Superman agreed, she had a hero group which Kara would work well in, if she wanted.
They were flying back toward Smallville when Kara asked, "Kal, how did you think up the design for your costume? Why did you choose bright colors?
He smiled. "In order: It was a cooperative effort between Me, Ma & Pa. My emblem and colors were inspired by an old American Indian, an Iroquis, snake symbol that was said to have healing powers. Pa was inspired by the colorful mystery heroes of the 40's, and the costume was Ma's design."
He paused a beat and raised an eyebrow. "Why...You already planning the costume for your first appearance as Supergirl?"
Kara blushed. "Uh...yeah, eventually. Was I THAT obvious?"
"Yeah...with all these abilities, I can't say I blame you. I WOULD make one recommendation, though." "Go ahead, Kal." He chuckled. "For one thing, it probably would be best to leave out the cape. Though it looks cool, our aura doesn't extend to it. It tends to get shredded in battle fairly easily, so unless you want to continuously sew new ones, you might want to think of leaving it out."
"Why do you keep it, and then?" She snuggled in tighter as the Man of Tomorrow piled on the speed.
"Nostalgia, mostly. People expect to see me with it after all these years, too. Plus, I don't think I look right without it."
"When I put mine together, can I do a variation on the logo and the design? I just don't want to copy yours."
"Kara, that's entirely up to you. I want you to come up with something that is as distinctive as Batman's, mine, or Diana's, something you can be PROUD of. You could ask Ma for ideas and work with her from there." He slowed up and landed in the back yard of the Kent house.
They were on the porch when Ma & Pa came to the door. "Oh, my, Kara, is that you? You look wonderful! No more suit! How does it feel?" Martha opened the back door and shooed them inside.
"Feels a bit strange, Ma, but I'm getting used to it. Do you have colored pens or such? I have some ideas for my journal that need color..."
"Sure, dear, we have them at the store. I can bring home a package tomorrow. What are you coloring?"
"I was inspired by the costume designs I've seen so far. I just want to start planning what my Supergirl costume will look like, since most of my powers seem to be kicking on."
That night Kara stayed up for two hours, on Clark's old bed, sketching ideas.
She woke about 9 the next morning. She basked in the warmth of the sun for ten minutes, put her new clothes on, and then headed downstairs. As she reached the first floor, three voices reached her ears. Kal, Pa... and another male? Caution arising, she slowly peeked around the corner. She could make out a young man with black hair, well-built, wearing a blue, short sleeved T-shirt. She saw Kal's ears move slightly and he looked at her sideways. Nodded slightly. She nervously took a deep breath, composed herself, and entered the kitchen. "Morning, Pa. Morning...Clark."
Both Kent men responded almost in unison. "Morning, Kara." The young man spun around at hearing this, looking at her with utter surprise. Clark stood, and then gestured toward Kara. "Kon-El, this is my cousin, Kara Zor-El, from..."
"Argo City, right, Kal?" Kon stood up and extended his hand, quickly covering his astonishment. "It's nice to meet you." Oh, Great Krypton, he is CUTE! she thought, wide-eyed. Just like Kal from the old photos!
"I-It's good to meet you, as well, Kon. Actually, I'm from Kryptonopolis, but a few of my ancestors lived in Argo. How did you know about Argo? You look to be from earth?"
"Err...a lucky guess?" Kon stammered.
Clark sighed. "Tell her."
Kon nervously paused for a minute, trying to gather the words. "I...already met a Kara Zor-El. 'Bout two months ago. She arrived in a dark blue and green rocket, and was dressed in a Supergirl costume. She looked and sounded JUST like you too. About the same age, also. She was found by the previous Supergirl...
"Tell me more. I want to get breakfast…Anyone for eggs?" Kon and Kal nodded. So Kon continued the story, as best as he knew. Kara moved around the kitchen, finding the eggs, getting the water in the pot. Modulated her heat vision into the water to speed up the cooking process. Three minutes later, the eggs were finished. Kon's story continued.
"…She actually fought with us a month back when Kal, Linda, me, Krypto and the Eradicator went to Apokolips."
Kara's eyes widened. "Eradicator?! What is it doing here?"
Clark held up his hands. "Kara, calm down. He's not what you are remembering... not entirely, at least. It has evolved, has taken on human form, and understands humanity a bit better..."
Her face hardened. "It's just too bad he didn't find his humanity BEFORE he doomed all of our people to death with the genetic burst! Were it not for that, Mother and Father might be here now! That malfunctioning machine KILLED EVERYONE I knew!" Kara turned, carrying her dish and utensils to the garbage, cleaned the remnants of breakfast from her plate in the garbage, and then started washing them in the sink. She stared out the window, looking into the backyard, trying to rein in her anger. A pair of warm hands landed on her shoulders and gently turned her around. She looked into Pa's blue eyes.
"I think he's in the same boat as you."
" Pa…what do you…?"
"Learning about humanity. From what Clark says, he started out as a machine, right?" Kara nodded.
"Did your machines have free will or emotions, or did they just do what they were programmed to do?"
Kara frowned. "They acted according to their programming."
"Could they deny their programming?"
"No..."
"Seems to me, the true guilty party was not this 'Eradicator', but the person who programmed it."
"Our ancestor, Kem-L." Clark interjected. Kon raised his hand, jokingly. "'Scuse, me...genetic burst? What'd I miss here?" Kon looked from Clark to Kara.
Kara took a deep breath, and calmed herself a bit more. "During the Clone Wars, Kem-L, our ancestor, Kraayn burn his soul, got a hold of a navigational tool from a visiting alien's ship. He reprogrammed it so it would have the capability to cleanse Krypton of all alien influences. During the beginning of a major battle, one of our nervous soldiers activated it. It sent out a shockwave that destroyed about seven square miles from the detonation point, destroying everything in its' path, like one of your 'nukes'. It also sent out a very specific electro-biological pulse at the same time, that blanketed all of Krypton, via our extensive network of satellites. This pulse re-arranged a part of every Kryptonian's genetic structure. From then onwards, we COULD NOT leave Krypton's environs...Our bodies would die otherwise...painfully so." She tightened her left hand. She heard the tell-tale 'PIISSSH', as the drinking glass shattered under the pressure, but otherwise felt nothing. She continued. "THAT'S why my people couldn't leave, ultimately. Because of that fool and his damned machine..."
Pa moved off, back to the table. Kon looked at her. "Then how are you and Clark..."
"Jor-El and my father modified our genetics to improve us and remove the fault when we were first conceived and were still each a small cluster of cells."
Kara found the rest of the glass fragments in the sink with her x-ray vision, put them on the palm of her hand. Bright red beams stabbed from her eyes, turning the glass red, than white and molten. She formed it into a golf ball-sized sphere, and then set it on the counter to cool. She composed herself, and then looked with a lopsided grin at Pa. He answered back with a chuckle and a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about it, Kara...Martha and I don't tend to use a lot of glassware now."
Kara looked at Kon and continued. "All right, changing the subject, what else happened with this 'Kara'?"
Kara listened, stunned as Kon related the impossible tale. "How could she be ME? She must have been a fake."
"Nope, Kara. True Kryptonian. Just like you, just like Kal. She had heat vision, flight, telescopic vision...super strength, yadayadayada. The only physical difference that I can see between the two of you is eye color. She had baby blues, just like Kal's. You have baby grays." Kon paused, and then chuckled.
She looked at him. "What's so funny?"
"Linda found her doing what looked like, but WASN'T a handstand, She was trying to fly the earth out of the path of a meteor in space."
Kara chuckled. "Hey, I'm strong...but not THAT strong! Anyone tell her that moving the planet, even if she could do it, would nearly destroy it, and everything else on it?"
Kon nodded. "Actually, Linda did. That Kara seemed to believe that Kal has done it in the past."
Clark spoke up, after swallowing a mouthful of egg. "I HAVE…I've done it with planet-sized bodies, twice. Barely. Each time, I wanted to sleep for a month straight afterwards."
Kara's eyes went wide and looked like she was going to pass out. "You're...kidding me, Kal, right?"
He shook his head. "Kara, It is possible, but it puts us at the ABSOLUTE ragged edge of our capabilities...I was able to move a basically solid metal planet, Warworld, in a recent war, only because I basically supercharged my body in the core of our sun." He saw her incredulous look. "After a number of years, our physiology adapts enough where we CAN go into the sun...It IS uncomfortable, but..."
"Wh-what was the other body?"
"Krypton. In the Phantom Zone. Wasn't easy, even with Jor-El's help."
"I...was under the impression that we lost our abilities under a red sun."
"We do, but slowly. We are living solar batteries, so we use up the rest of our yellow sun 'charge' when under a red."
"But...a planet the size of our motherworld?! Kal, c'mon, is that really possible?! You have to be pulling my arm…"
Kon broke in with a grin. "I'll do it if you pull my finger…"
Kara looked at Kon, puzzled, "What does pulling your finger have to do with this?"
They both heard Clark sigh, and looked over to see him massaging his eyes with his fingertips.
"Number one, Kara, the expression is, 'pulling my leg', not 'pulling my arm'. Not to be confused with 'pull my finger'…which is something you'll understand in time. You had the right idea, but the wrong appendage. Number two…Kon, please go easy on her until she gets a better hang of the language.
Number three, Kara, I WASN'T kidding. I DID move the world...but it drained me almost totally. If I had pushed any more, I would have been COMPLETELY powerless, unconcious, in the vacuum of space. That would've been it for me."
"Kara? Yoo hoo?" Kon waved his hands in front of her shell-shocked face.
"I'm...all right, Kon...just nearly frightened out of my mind. THAT much power...even at the limits of our endurance..."
"Overwhelming, huh?"
She nodded. "I'm going to take a walk outside. I...need to think."
"Can you stand company?"
"Yeah, Kon...Let's go, and then."
They stepped out into the back yard and started walking towards the fields. Kara lifted up her face to the sun and basked in its' warmth. "You'll do okay, Kara, don't worry so much. Kal does that because he trusts himself and knows his limits." He paused. "Though I think I'd be as intimidated as you in your place."
She was silent for a full minute as they walked. "When Kal was first showing me around the planet when I first got here, he showed me how powerful I was when he had me lift a boulder...easily a ton. I didn't think I could do it, but when I tried...and I succeeded... it frightened me. I remember thinking that I shouldn't be able to do that..."
Kon stuck his hands in his pockets, then spoke. "It wasn't that way for me. The Newsboys broke me out of my growth tube in Cadmus, but it took me a LONG time before I really started getting an idea of what I'm capable of..."
She looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Kon, what in the name of Chaldeth are you talking about? Cadmus? Growth Tubes?"
Kon hesitated, and a flush crept over his cheeks. "I'm not really human. I was 'born in a test tube'.
He saw her looking at him, and he looked intently down at the trail, hoping she didn't yet see his embarrassment. "A couple years back, Clark was killed battling Doomsday, a monster that we later found was created on Krypton. Cadmus, a government-sponsored, genetic research lab, tried to clone Kal...They felt that this world STILL needed a Superman. But his DNA sequences couldn't be fully understood. They tried using his cells to create a successor, but all the clones failed. Finally, out of desperation, they decided to clone a human, and make tweaks to make him look like Kal and have similar powers. I was their thirteenth try...and the only one that worked. They were planning on growing me in a growth tube to full adulthood, subliminally teaching me english and all sorts of other knowledge...
That never happened. One minute I was...in my own world...I heard a crash, felt a jolt, and then these five young kids were handing me a towel and some clothes. It took me a while to get my head together, but I realized I HAD to get to Metropolis...Superman was needed. And I…was him. I reacted...badly...when a couple people had the balls to call me 'Superboy'.
But the name stuck. And when Kal fought his way back from death and became Superman again, I had to become something else...
The world needed a Superboy, so that's who I became.
I thought I was a clone of Kal at the time, so it was a bit of consolation... if the man dies, I'll become the next Superman. By then all my powers would be on, and I'd continue his legacy.
Until I found out I was cloned from the biggest slimeball in Cadmus, their Director, Paul Westfield.
I was devastated. Not only was I a clone, but I was a clone of a human, not a real replacement for The Man of Steel, and to top it all off, I was a clone of a major scumbag, at that. I wouldn't have the same powers as Kal. I was a nobody."
Kon cleared his throat and continued.
"Kal helped me again. He gave me a real name, Kon-El, named after one of his ancestors, and reminded me that its' the person…the soul… that makes the difference, more than the powers, but." Kon kicked a rock to the side of the forest trail and continued. "I thought he had it easy until some...magical thing happened about a year ago. It made us switch ages...and I got the first taste of what its' like to be him. Totally overwhelming. You didn't have a lot of room for mistakes. HE learned how hard it was to live up to his own legend.
After we were swapped back to our proper ages, I promised him that I would make the name 'Superboy' mean as much as 'Superman'.