Kara and Cat stood near the door of the empty conference room, watching as it filled with light from the transmat beams depositing J'onn, Astra, Alex, Maggie, Lucy, Kal, President Marsdin and her Secret Service detail into the room. The light had barely died away when Kara stepped in and wrapped her arms around Astra.
"Easy, Little One," Astra said.
"It's good to see you," Kara said as she let go, and turned to Alex and Maggie, pulling them both into a hug. "Are you two okay?"
"We're fine," Alex said.
Kara let go and stepped back, giving them both a once over with her X-Ray vision. Maggie gave her a look.
"We might need to have a talk about asking permission though," Maggie said.
Kara shrugged. "You're alive. Yell all you want."
"Yeah," Alex said, "I'm gonna go with Supergirl on this one."
Maggie glared at Alex. "Fine. Maybe Zatanna will want to go see Lorde next month."
Kara snorted at the hurt look on Alex's face, but before she could comment, someone cleared their through, and Kara turned to see a very annoyed looking Olivia Marsdin staring at her.
"We need to talk when this is over," Marsdin said.
"Okay," Kara said. "That sounds ominous, but okay."
"Good," Marsdin said. "I was going for terrifying, but I'll take ominous."
"Oh, Olivia, quit being such a drama queen," Cat said as she stepped forward. "The girl has been working miracles for a day and a half. Give her a moment to catch her breath."
"Cat, you know I adore you, but you have no idea how much trouble this girl has caused me in the last week."
"Hey," Kara said, "I didn't *cause* any of the trouble."
Marsdin glared at her for a moment, before letting out a long-suffering sigh. "Let's get on with this," she said.
Cat took her seat in the front row just a moment before White House Press Secretary Danita Wright stepped into the room and walked over to the half podium that was situated on one end of the table.
"Thank you all for coming today. President Marsdin will be here shortly. She will be making a few brief comments, and then she will proceed with the signing of the Alien Amnesty Act, as well as two executive orders, and a number of pardons. She will then take a few questions before departing." She glanced over at the door and got a small nod from one of the secret service agents, then turned back to the crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States," Wright said before backing away from the podium.
Everyone in the room stood as President Marsdin entered, but Cat had eyes only for Kara. She watched as Kara, along with her cop friend, her sister, Superman, a muscular black man that Cat had seen at the Gala, and Kara's aunt all filed in and took up places behind the table. Marsdin herself stepped up to the podium, and Cat finally forced herself to look away from Kara and focus on her old college roommate.
"Please, be seated," Marsdin said.
Cat lowered herself into her chair as the rest of the press corps did likewise.
"I want to thank you all for coming today. I know the last two weeks have seen a lot of interesting events, several of them centering around one of our guests here today. I'm sure you are all curious as to why Supergirl's name has been turning up so much, and to that, I will say this.
"With no disrespect to Superman and his accomplishments, Supergirl is a different kind of Superhero than we are used to. She has chosen not simply to step up in moments of crisis, to catch falling planes, to dig survivors out of fallen buildings, to blow out fires and raise sinking ships, though she has done all of those things, but to use her name and her voice to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. She chooses not simply to stand between our cities and those who would harm them, but also between us, and those whom we would harm through inaction, negligence, or through prejudice. She has chosen to speak for those to whom we refuse to listen because we are afraid of them and their differences. She has chosen to demand of us that we do better by others than we did by her when she came here. She has told us the words she will live by; Hope, help and compassion for all, and she has demanded that we live up to those same standards.
"That is why you have seen her name in the media these past weeks. Because any time someone stands up to demand justice, to demand a better world for themselves and those like them, there are always those when will seek to silence them. People who look at the world and see existence as a struggle for limited resources, and fear that allowing anyone else to have more means they will have less. People who look at those with less and see only things to be exploited. And worst of all, people who look at anything different with fear and hatred. Those are the people who will seek to destroy anyone who stands up and dares to demand that we as a society do better, that be provide everyone a seat at the table, and a share of our society's bounty.
"When this girl stood up and bared her soul to us, those people saw only a threat, a thing to hate. They did not care what she lost or how she'd been hurt. They cared only that she might change the status quo. They did not care for the truth of her words. They feared that they might bring change. They cared not why the aliens whose cases she plead so eloquently might have broken our laws, only that they had.
"In her interview with Cat Grant, Supergirl posed the question 'How many of the beings Superman has had to fight were only hostile because they knew there was no place here for them?'. When I read those words, I was reminded of another struggle for justice, and of words spoken by one of that struggle's champions in an interview with Mike Wallace. In that interview, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'the riot is the language of the unheard.' Powerful words. Important words. Words which forced me to ask, how many of our problems we have brought down on ourselves by our own fear and intolerance? How many times have we simply attacked something because it is different than us, when we could have welcomed it in peace and friendship?
"I will also admit that the example Supergirl has set has made me ashamed. I have long thought of myself an advocate for the rights of the aliens who live among us. I have counted myself an ally. But two weeks ago, in a ballroom just a couple of miles from where I stand, it became clear to me that I had failed, and I was again reminded of the words of Dr. King, this time ones written in a cell in Birmingham. In that letter, he wrote that he had nearly come to the conclusion that the white moderate was the greatest stumbling block the black community faced with their constant urging to wait for a 'more convenient season'. I realized that I had fallen into that very trap. I had promised to work towards helping aliens living among us, but I kept waiting for the right moment to take action.
"This young woman reminded me that the right time for justice is always now. That however well-intentioned, waiting to give someone the freedom to simply exist is always wrong. That we cannot wait to extend mercy, compassion and hope to those who need it without being willing participants in the very oppression we wish to end. I had lost sight of that along the way.
"But there are those out there who looked at her, and they saw what she represented. A reminder to us of the fundamental principles on which this nation was founded. That all of us are created equal. We haven't always lived up to those ideals. In fact, most of our long history has been a struggle towards those ideals, and there are those among us who will fight tooth and nail to keep us from ever achieving that dream. Because of fear, because of greed, because of hatred.
"Those are the people who have been throwing out accusations. Those are the people who have been trying to tarnish Supergirl's name. Those are the people who have been trying to make us fear her. To them, I say no. To them, I say we will not be afraid, we will not let you fill us with hate, and we will not believe your lies.
"This woman is a hero. This woman saves lives. This woman has stood up before the world and said, 'let me help'. She has given us her time, her strength, and even her most private pain, and asked for nothing but the right for her and those like her to simply exist.
"And today, we will give her no less. Today, we will say to her, we will say to everyone like her, 'you are welcome, you are safe, you are wanted.' Today, we will say to her and everyone like her, 'let us help.'
"Today, I will sign the Alien Amnesty Act, and provide legal status to all aliens currently residing within US borders, as well as a path to citizenship. That same act will establish a process by which aliens living in other countries can apply for asylum. Today, I will sign an executive order bringing the Department of Extranormal Operations out of the shadow of secrecy under which it has operated since it was founded over ten years ago, giving it full law enforcement authority in cases of alien misconduct, as well as in cases of crime committed against our alien residents and eventual citizens. Today, I will sign an executive order terminating the long, shameful practices of our government, and banning experimentation on aliens. Today, I will sign pardons for dozens of alien prisoners who have been held without trial for no crime other than being born on another planet, and put others on a path to justice that will include trials, and sentences in accordance with the law.
"Today is the day that we as a nation, and as a species, do better.
"And as a first step in that process, I would like to make a couple of introductions. When Supergirl arrived here twelve years ago, she was not alone. As many of you may be aware, her ship was knocked off course, and set adrift for twenty-four years. What Supergirl did not reveal in her interview is that the reason her ship finally completed its journey is that it drifted within communications of a Kryptonian prison ship called Fort Rozz. One of the prisoners managed to hack into her guidance system and link control of the prison ship to her pod's guidance system. When she arrived here, the prison arrived with her."
Olivia turned and gestured towards Supergirl's aunt. "This is General Astra In-Ze, of the House of Ze, formerly one of the leaders of the Kryptonian Military Guild. The General was a prisoner on Fort Rozz, imprisoned because she led a rebellion in an attempt to save her world from the disaster that would ultimately befall it. Today, the thirty-seven year prison sentence she and twenty-eight of her followers have served will end with a conditional pardon. She and her followers, along with a large number of other prisoners from Fort Rozz, will be granted their freedom in exchange for community service. They will serve as first responders and disaster relief in much the same way Supergirl and Superman do. While the Kryptonians will be able to respond nationwide within a matter of minutes, other aliens will be assigned duties which reflect their capabilities. Furthermore, any prisoner on Fort Rozz who has completed their original sentence and has committed no further crime will be released without obligation and allowed full participation in the Alien Amnesty program."
"Thank you, General Astra," Olivia said. Astra simply gave a small nod.
"When Fort Rozz arrived, the Department of Extranormal Operations was created to deal with the threat of alien prisons let loose on Earth. At that time, a man named Hank Henshaw was placed in charge of it. Two years later, Director Henshaw led a twelve-man team on a mission to capture an alien. The person you see before you was the only one to return from that mission. At the time, it was believed that he was Director Henshaw, however, we discovered later that was not the case."
The man stepped forward as red lightning began to course over his skin, and he changed, growing, turning green, until he stood there in black armor with a stylized red X on the front and a cape draping down from his shoulders.
"This is J'onn J'onzz," Olivia said. "He is, to the best of our knowledge, the last of his people. A race known most commonly as the Green Martians. He has served as Director of the DEO for the last ten years, and after today, he will remain in that role. Beside him is Field Commander Alex Danvers. Major Lucy Lane has agreed to resign her Army Commission and will be joining the DEO as of today as Assistant Director, while former National City Police Detective Maggie Sawyer will be joining the DEO as the Local Law Enforcement Liaison. In addition to dealing with law enforcement among our alien residence, the DEO's role will expand to include serving as a SWAT team for metahuman criminals, and persons who have attained superhuman abilities through the use of technology, such as the recently apprehended criminal known as Reactron.
"Now, some here may ask why we have chosen to reveal Director J'onzz's identity here today. The answer is simple. The attack perpetrated against Leslie Willis was, in fact, carried out by the real Hank Henshaw. I want to emphasize, Hank Henshaw is responsible for the deaths of ten DEO agents, and one civilian contractor during the mission to Peru. In addition, he is wanted in connection with the suspicious deaths of some eighty-seven aliens. He is also in possession of metahuman abilities, possibly gained through cybernetic augmentation. All intelligence indicates that he possesses nearly Kryptonian levels of strength and endurance, is capable of flight, and has heat vision.
"We are compromising the secrecy of Director J'onzz's shape-shifting abilities because we believe it to be in the public interest to make them aware of the dangers the real Hank Henshaw represents. Every law enforcement agency in the country will shortly be receiving all available details on Hank Henshaw, and as of now, he is at the very top of all Most Wanted lists.
"Now that the introductions and explanations are out of the way, we come to the main event. The signing of the Alien Amnesty Act. Questions will be taken after the signing."
Cat could feel the room ready to explode. Every reporter there was dying to ask some inane question, but Cat knew Olivia. She had known her for thirty years. So, she sat and watched as Olivia signed the Alien Amnesty Act, and the executive orders, and a stack of pardons. Olivia did the usual mugging for the camera as she signed the Act, the two executive orders, and the first pardon, but after that, it was all business. Sign, sign, sign, until she handed Lucy Lane the last one, then stood up and returned to the Podium.
"Questions," she said, and when a dozen reporters jumped up, she picked one at random and pointed.
"You," she said.
"Julie Madison, Gotham Gazette. President Marsdin, what do you think of Senator Crane's accusations that Supergirl used some form of mind control device on Leslie Willis to keep herself from being implicated in the attack."
"I think you have no future in journalism if you have the chance to ask the President of the United States a question and waste it on something so ridiculous. When Agent Sawyer made her public statement this morning, she noted that we have both eye-witness testimony, and time-stamped video footage placing Supergirl at a private holiday celebration at the time of the attack on Leslie Willis. Next question."
Cat listened at to the reporters begging for Olivia's attention, and just as before, Olivia pointed at a reporter and said, "You."
"George Tailor, Star City Daily. President Marsdin, how do you respond to allegations that the charges against Maxwell Lord are trumped up by the government because he criticized Supergirl?'
"I don't, because that's only slightly less stupid than Senator Crane's mind control theory. Any questions that aren't a complete waste of time?"
Cat raised her hand.
"Cat, you have a question?" Marsdin asked.
"Well, not one as inventive as my colleagues, but one I think is relevant to current events, and not the ravings of bigots and rich boys with punctured egos."
"By all means," Olivia said.
"You've spoken a great deal today on Amnesty, residence and paths to citizenship, along with compassion for the aliens who find themselves here on Earth, but we haven't heard anything about any sort of assistance programs for aliens to help them adjust and establish themselves. Is that a topic you can address at this time, and if not, when might we hear word?"
"Ladies and Gentlemen take note, that is how a reporter asks questions," Olivia said. "To answer your question, Cat, at the moment aliens covered under the Amnesty program will have access to the same assistance programs any other asylum seeker or permanent resident would have. Once I get back to Washington, we will begin work on developing any specialized programs we feel are necessary to help acclimate our new neighbors, but realistically, it will take time and a lot of feedback from the DEO to help determine what sorts of programs are needed."
"And that is all the time I have," Olivia said. "Any further questions can be directed to the White House Press Office. Good day."
The rest of the reporters in the room continued to shout questions, but the people on stage walked out without another word.
"How are you doing?" Kal asked as they stepped out onto the roof of the CatCo building.
"I'm good," Kara said. "I just wish you and Bruce had made more progress on the Cadmus situation. Maybe Leslie wouldn't have been attacked."
"I'm sorry," Kal said. "Bruce checked all the locations you gave us, but nothing was active. He'd planned to follow up, but he and his crew have been busy trying to run down the last of the Parliament of Owls, Diana has been dealing with some little godling trying to start a human sacrifice cult using trafficking victims as sacrifices, and I've been-"
"I know," Kara said. "I do read Lois's articles. Not the rest of the Planet, because it's trash, but Lois' stuff is good."
Kal glared at her and gave her a small shove. "Jerk," she said.
"Race you to the DEO," Kal said.
"Loser," Kara said as she shot into the air, shivering slightly as she passed through the Kryptonian defense field that currently surrounded the building. She glanced back to watch Kal take off, but instead, she saw an expression of horror on his face and then, nothing.