Chapter 69: A Day in the Life: Kara
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman, Green Lantern, and Flash belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
Kara began her day as she always did when she was home. Carefully checking that no observers were nearby, she flew to the top of the Kent family barn and simply sat there, watching the sun come up over the endless plains. The warm rays washed over her, filling up her cells, chasing away the remnants of sleep. As a fully-powered Kryptonian she needed nowhere near as much sleep as a human, but two or three hours a night were necessary regardless, if for no other reason than allowing her brain some downtime.
About half an hour later, she came back down, once again checking that no one was watching. She had long since removed the old water tank with its lead-paint, but one could never be too careful. She then walked into the kitchen of the main house, where Martha was already busily at work preparing breakfast for the family.
"Slept well, honey?" Martha asked, handing her a cup of coffee without having to be prompted.
"Reasonably," she replied, sipping the life-giving substance. "There was a fire in Kansas City, the noise woke me up, but the fire fighters had it well in hand, no need to fly over."
It was one of the downsides of having super hearing, she mused. She had gotten pretty good at tuning out most of the noise of the world, but cries for help and the sound of sirens always managed to penetrate her consciousness.
"What are your plans for the day?" Martha asked.
"I'll have to head into the Metropolis office for a few hours, paperwork," she sighed. "Then I'll head up to the Watch Tower. The Green Lanterns are back and I am hoping to have a chat with Sinestro before they head out into deep space again. Should be a light day, emergencies permitting."
Clark entered the kitchen, still looking half-asleep. "Morning," he mumbled.
"Morning, Clark," she gave him a brief hug. "I'll be out for most of the day, so I trust you to..."
"Yeah, I know," he interrupted her. "Straight home after school, no leaving the house unless there is an emergency. Still grounded, I get it."
"You do the crime, you do the time," she reminded him, ruffling his sleep-tussled hair.
"As long as it's not time travel," Kona chirped, coming into the kitchen as well. Kara could only assume that Lex Luthor was a morning person, because her daughter certainly had not gotten that trait from her.
"You're just jealous," Clark shot back, smirking.
"Behave, children," Kara reminded them both as they all sat down at the breakfast table. "You still planning on that visit, Kona?"
"Yeah," her girl replied, looking a bit forlorn. "Not really sure why I bother, but..."
"It's okay. You do what you need to do, baby girl!"
Jonathan came in as well, bringing fresh eggs from the barn, and the Kent family settled down for breakfast.
An hour later Karen Kent, CEO of K-Solutions, sat in her office in Metropolis and booted up her computer. She usually did most of her work remotely, but personal appearances now and then were a necessity. Thankfully, being mostly a research and development company, there were not that many customer meetings and such. Also, the two major shareholders of the company, herself and Bruce Wayne, understood that their time was better spent on other things than shareholder events.
Checking her emails, Kara quickly went through the stuff that required some kind of personal decision or signature from her. These days the company mostly ran itself anyway. She kept an eye on things to ensure that no one got greedy or corrupt, but she was hardly involved in the day-to-day operations anymore unless it was time to introduce a new technological concept adapted from Krypton. Come to think of it, it was about time for K-Solutions to have another brilliant new idea, wasn't it?
She also checked the mailbox that she used in her Superwoman persona and saw a new message from Mary West. Smiling, her mind went back to the day she had first met Mary.
Two weeks ago
"Mrs. Mary West?"
The woman who opened the door of the suburban home at the outskirts of Keystone City was probably in her early to mid-forties, dressed conservatively, but had a friendly and welcoming smile on her face.
"Yes. Can I help you?" she asked.
Kara was dressed in civilian garb, though not in the same way she usually did as Karen Kent, CEO or Karen Kent, Smallville resident. In fact, she still looked very much like Superwoman, just without the famous suit. Instead, she was dressed in black Jeans and wore a black jacket over a red blouse. Her blonde hair fell loosely around her shoulders and her glasses were left behind in Smallville.
"Yes, I am sorry to bother you, but I would like to have a chat with your son Wally."
Mrs. West frowned, clearly finding her familiar, but not knowing from where. "And... you are?"
"Well, most people know me as Superwoman."
Mary blinked, clearly not prepared for this introduction.
"Excuse me?" she finally said, shaking her head. "Did you just say...?"
Deciding to avoid a long back and forth, Kara pointed at her feet, which were actually hovering a short distance over the floor. Mary gasped, taking a step back.
"You... you're... Superwoman?"
"Yes, I am. May I come in?"
Mary actually gathered herself back together pretty quickly and motioned for her to enter, wringing her hands in obvious excitement.
"Oh dear Lord," she muttered. "Superwoman! In my home!"
"I am sorry to drop in unannounced," Kara said, "but I really need to have some words with Wally. I'm afraid he and my son did something rather stupid on their recent outing."
Mary just looked at her, utterly baffled. "Your son? Recent outing? I... what are you talking about?"
Kara needed a moment, and then she finally understood. "Oh Rao, he hasn't told you, has he?"
"Told me what?" Mary asked. "Why is my son on... outings... with Superboy?"
Kara sighed. This was not how she had planned for this to go, but in for a penny, in for a pound. Even as she motioned for Mary to sit down on the couch, sitting down next to her, she went over her memories of the Flash. Well, she had only really met him once (twice, counting the meeting that was still in his future) and it really had not occurred to her to ask him whether he had told his parents about his powers. That he would keep it from them was not something she had even considered, to be honest.
"I am terribly sorry; I assumed he had told you. Your son, Wally, is the superhero known as the Flash!"
Mary just stared at her. "No, he isn't," she finally said.
"I am afraid he is, Mrs. West," Kara repeated.
"No, he isn't!"
"Mom, who was at the...?"
Both women turned to look at the red-haired teenager who had just strolled into the living room, only to freeze in the doorway. Wally West's eyes were glued to the form of Superwoman sitting on his couch, talking to his mom.
"Uh...," he began, clearly at a loss.
"Hello, Wally," Kara said, the sympathetic smile she had given Mary slipping off her face, to be replaced by a very stern, mildly pissed off one. "I hear you have been taking my son on unsupervised visits to the far future."
"Uh...," Wally was evidently not capable of saying anything else right now.
Looking back and forth between them, Kara could see the exact moment that Mary West recognized the very guilty look on her son's face and realized that her visitor was telling the truth. She jumped to her feet and approached Wally with a thunderous expression on her face.
"WALLACE RUDOLPH WEST," she thundered. "You have a lot of explaining to do, young man!"
Kara chuckled at the memory of the chewing out Wally had gotten from his mother. Really, what had he been thinking, keeping something like this from his parents? Anyway, Kara had offered Mary a secure way to contact her, seeing as there were not really all that many mothers with super-powered children one could talk to for parental advice. Over the course of the last two weeks, they had exchanged quite a few emails and Kara could easily see herself becoming good friends with the woman.
Wally's father had taken the news a bit better than his wife had, she remembered from the emails, but apparently he was more the fun parent while Mary was the disciplinarian. Sometimes Kara wondered what it would have been like, had she had someone to share the parenting duties with. Apart from Martha and Jonathan, of course, who had done more than their share of the heavy lifting, especially in the beginning.
Focusing back on the paperwork on her desk, Kara managed to finish most of it before lunch. It was only twice that she had to step out, once to prevent an oil spill in the Persian Gulf, once to put out a forest fire in Australia. All in all, it was shaping up to be a rather light day.
"Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, Sinestro," Kara greeted her visitor.
The purple-skinned Green Lantern was sitting in a chair on the Watch Tower's observation deck, poised and elegant as always. Even so, he did seem somewhat tired, assuming dark circles under the eyes meant the same thing for Korrugarians as for Kryptonians. He gratefully accepted the cup of tea she handed him before she sat down opposite him, another cup of coffee in hand.
"It is no trouble, Kara-El," he replied. "After spending the last six months in deep space, Lantern Gardner was most insistent that I give him some time off to spend with his family... or anyone who is not me, I assume."
Kara chuckled. "I am somewhat amazed that you managed to spend six months with Guy Gardner without killing him."
"The temptation was strong," Sinestro deadpanned. "But a true Green Lantern must always rise above his emotional urges."
"You must be one of the strongest-willed people in the entire galaxy then," Kara complimented him. "A two-day mission with Gardner was enough for me to nearly kill him."
"He is... improving," Sinestro merely said. "Slowly. Very slowly. But I assume you did not ask to meet me merely to talk about Guy Gardner."
Kara nodded. "That is true. Have you learned about the recent attack on Earth by Brainac?"
"Only that there has been one, not the specifics. The Kryptonian AI has escalated its attempts to turn Earth into a New Krypton?"
Kara proceeded to tell Sinestro about the recent events, only excluding the more private details. The Green Lantern merely listened, nodding in the appropriate places.
"I am sorry that we were too far away to help," Sinestro said after she was finished. "It seems Brainiac was very proficient at jamming all signals you sent out."
"Brainiac is sadly very proficient at a lot of things. Which brings me to the reason I wanted to speak with you. Not for the first time Brainiac has used Kryptonite against me and my family, radioactive debris from my homeworld's destruction, which is highly toxic to Kryptonians. I assume he is mining it directly at the source."
Sinestro needed but a moment to understand. "You wish for me and Gardner to ensure that there is no more Kryptonite left to mine then?"
"Exactly. I know this will not be a small undertaking, even for a Green Lantern or two, but it would go a long way towards ensuring my family's safety from Brainiac's machinations."
Sinestro nodded. "It will be a good exercise for Lantern Gardner, using his ring on such a large-scale project."
"Thank you, Sinestro. I will owe you one."
"Think nothing of it, Kara-El. The Guardians have called you a friend and ally of the Corps, which is more than sufficient reason to aid you."
"Still," she said. "If there is any way I can aid you in return, please let me know."
Sinestro fell silent at that, appearing deep in thought.
"Sinestro?" Kara asked.
He looked at her, his face inscrutable, before he seemed to come to a decision.
"Last year," he began, "when we entered the time-lost city of Kandor, we all experienced brief flashes of the future."
"I certainly remember," Kara said. "You said that the glimpse you experienced held no relevance to the rest of us and Earth."
"That may... not have been entirely accurate."
She waited for him to continue, sensing that this was very difficult for him.
"The power of the Green Lanterns is rooted in the emotional spectrum," he started to explain, quickly falling into what sounded like lecture mode. "Green is the center of the spectrum, representing the power of will, the ability to control one's emotions. There are those who have tried to harness other parts of the spectrum for power, such as the yellow light. The power of fear."
"That does sound very dangerous," Kara remarked. "Fear makes people do very stupid things."
"All too true," Sinestro agreed.
"I assume this has something to do with what you saw?"
"During that flash," Sinestro said, his voice showing little sign of the emotional turmoil Kara was sure he was experiencing, "I saw myself. Only I was no longer a Green Lantern. I was... I wore a yellow ring. I was wielding the power of Fear."
Kara studied his face, even as she remembered the words of the Guardians of Oa, who had warned her that Sinestro was on a dangerous path. It seemed they had been right. While she knew nothing about the emotional spectrum or how the power rings of the Green Lanterns worked, she could not really imagine a fear-based power as something positive.
"Is this something you have considered?" she asked, carefully neutral.
"Not specifically, but... there have been times where I wondered whether the green power was enough to truly ensure peace and order in my sector. It is actually something I talked about with your friend J'Onn J'Onnz not too long ago."
J'Onn had mentioned that he'd had a talk with Sinestro, she remembered, though he had not gone into detail what they had talked about.
"Would a yellow ring truly make you more powerful? Or would it simply be a different kind of power?"
"I have no idea," he admitted. "It's... merely a theory at this point."
Kara nodded. "I can only speak from personal experience, Sinestro. I am possibly the most powerful individual on Earth and I have met only a handful of sentients in the entire galaxy who are stronger than me. Nevertheless, I have often been in situations where I felt that my power was not enough, that I needed more, in order to protect those I love. Brainiac has basically offered to give me that power, to help me achieve absolute control over Earth. Leaving aside my lack of trust in a machine that let my people perish in ignorance, I will admit that the idea has been... tempting."
"And yet you have denied the AI. You have actively worked to limit your power and influence over Earth and its people."
"That is true," she agreed. "I have access to the histories of many different worlds, Sinestro. None of them has any example of absolute power being wielded benevolently for any length of time. It is sad, but true. Power corrupts. Which is why there must always be checks and balances. No one can be trusted to always know better than everyone else."
"You do not believe that there are individuals with the necessary will to wield such power for the greater good of all?" Sinestro asked.
"The greater good as determined by a single individual or small group will never be that," Kara replied.
Pausing for a moment, she decided to add a personal experience. "The Science Council of Krypton," she told Sinestro, "were the final arbiters of what was true on my world. They knew best and they decided what the people needed to know and what not. Brainiac may not have acted to prevent the doom of my world, but neither did it cause it. It was caused by centuries of people who thought they knew best, who would not listen to any dissenting opinion, not even in the face of Armageddon."
Sinestro mused this over, resting his chin on his interlaced fingers, and she left him to his thoughts. Eventually he looked up and gave her a nod.
"Thank you for your words, Kara-El. I do believe you have given me valuable insight."
She rose as he did and they shook hands.
"As soon as Lantern Gardner returns from his shore leave," Sinestro promised her, "we shall deal with the matter of the Krypton debris field."
"Thank you, Sinestro. And I meant what I said, if you ever need help, or just someone to listen, I will be there."
With another nod, they parted.
Stopping a runaway robot in Japan and ending an armed conflict in the Congo caused Kara to take longer than usual to make it back to Smallville from the Watch Tower. She was not headed home, though, but rather to the Smallville High School, having gotten a call from one of the teachers there. She felt a bit guilty that she had expected it to be about Clark, but it turned out to be about Kona instead.
Mrs. Henderson had been a teacher at the school for as long as Kara had lived in Smallville. She at one time or another had taught most of the adults in Smallville, at least those born in the last fifty years or so. It gave the woman a very strong air of authority, despite the fact that Kara was one of the few non-senior Smallville residents who had never sat in her class.
"Thank you for coming, Ms. Kent," she greeted her.
Dressed in her Smallville-wear, as she liked to think of it, Kara walked into the teacher's office and sat down. If she had her way, she would be wearing Jeans and sneakers all the time, actually, but it was not really fitting clothing for Superwoman or a high-powered CEO. Keeping her three identities separate, including the different styles of clothing, mannerisms, and speech patterns, was not always easy.
"No problem at all," she replied. "What kind of trouble is Cornelia in?" She only just caught herself from calling her Kona. It probably would not have mattered; Kona could easily be explained as a nickname, but still. Best to keep the names straight as much as possible.
"Oh, she is not in trouble as such," Mrs. Henderson chuckled. "Cornelia has been an exemplary student in the short time she has been with us. Which is remarkable, considering the tragedy she has gone through."
As far as the rest of Smallville knew, of course, Kona was recently orphaned and had been given into Kara's care as her closest living relative.
"Then what's the problem?" Kara asked, confused as to the purpose of this meeting.
"The problem is that Cornelia is much, much smarter than her peers," Mrs. Henderson said. "From what I have seen of her work in the last few months, she could easily skip a grade, possibly two, and she would probably still be bored out of her mind."
Kara began to see the problem.
"I believe you got your GED at 14, Ms. Kent, is that correct?" Mrs. Henderson asked. When Kara nodded, she continued. "Well, with a few more months of schooling under her belt, I believe Cornelia would be able to achieve the same. She is certainly smart enough."
Kara had realized that Kona was smart, of course, but apparently she had failed to see how much that would set her apart from her peers. Kara had enjoyed teaching her about her Kryptonian heritage and had found Kona a far more enthusiastic sparring partner when it came to scientific discussion than Clark. Not that Clark was in any way stupid, far from it, he was just not as scientifically inclined as she was.
"I can see what you are getting it," Kara said after musing it over for a bit. "Still, I would very much like for Cornelia to remain in school, at least for now. She has had little enough opportunity to spend time with people her own age."
"I understand that," Mrs. Henderson assured her. "I am not saying you need to take Cornelia out of school. I would just advise that you arrange for more... challenging education for her in addition to what she receives here in school. We don't want her to become so bored here in school that she begins to act out in some way or other."
The two women talked a bit longer about what the school could offer in terms of additional education and exchanged a few more pleasantries before Kara took her leave. She was deep in thought. Kona was already receiving extracurricular lessons, after all, but was that enough? She would have to talk to Kona about that, as well as Martha and Jonathan. She was adamant about Kona remaining in school, though. While Kara herself was in a pretty good place now, her own teenage years had been very, very difficult. She had not really managed to make any friends until she was already in her twenties, always being the weird teenage mom. She did not want any of that for Kona.
Maybe Clark would have some insights, too, she mused. Of the three super-powered aliens (or half-aliens) living in Smallville, he had managed to have the most normal childhood so far, after all. Something to think about, at least.
Two minor super villains, a sinking ship, a brief stop-over in Washington to meet with a Senator about a new solar energy plant, and taking the time to actually rescue a kitten out of a tree in Metropolis later, Kara was finally on her way home. That was when a call was routed to her com.
"Karen, honey?" Martha's stressed voice came from her earpiece. "You need to come home, immediately!"
"Mom, what's wrong?" she asked, even as she accelerated.
"I... I'm not really sure," Martha simply said. "Please just hurry!"
A loud sonic boom rattled windows below as Kara sped towards her home.
End Chapter 69
Author's Note: Wally West's parents in the comics are a strange lot, borderline abusive, his dad secretly a Manhunter (not sure if that was retconned yet or not) and his mom more interested in looking good than dealing with him. They eventually divorced and Mary lived with Wally for a time when he was rich from winning the lottery. Seeing as I'm going more with cartoon Wally than comic Wally, though, I'm not going to incorporate any of that and simply have them be "normal" parents. Mary might actually have some shades of Spider-Man's Aunt May.
Not much action in this chapter, but important groundwork for two upcoming story arcs, plus it's kind of fun to imagine how the average day of a super-powered alien with three different identities might go.
Up next: Clark's day.