This is non-canon to the extreme for many reasons. Don't freak, it's gonna be okay.
"Maybe the laws of this city won't protect her, but I will!"
The last words she'd spoken, and the sound of her fists colliding (with deliberately controlled restraint) with the skin and bones of the man standing before her still echoed in her mind.
But right now Supergirl was sitting on a hard metal bench in a far room of the DEO, being lectured to like a child.
Hank Henshaw was pacing the floor, slowly, each footfall echoing; a tactic that Kara knew was simply meant to draw out the time and hammer in how wrong she was, to make her feel bad, guilty, remorseful of what she'd done. It was a tactic every parent, even her own, used. But neither Kara Danvers, Kara Zor-El, nor Supergirl felt any guilt. Because what she did wasn't wrong.
Hank finally stopped pacing, hand to his head and turned back to face Kara, his face grim. "What were you thinking?!"
It had been a while since she'd seen Hank this angry. The dark black of his DEO uniform and the silver gray wall behind him cut his image into a sharp silhouette. Every muscle in his neck was working as if trying and failing to swallow his anger.
He inhaled,again, trying to contain his anger, but it didn't work very well. "You cannot, you can not go out there and be some sort of... vigilante!" He finished, his dark brown eyes meeting Kara's gray eyes with urgency.
Kara clenched the edge of the bench with both hands, bending the metal while leaning towards him, not convinced. Her blond hair flew forward in front of her face as if she were swinging from a swing.
"That's what we do every day!" She protested. "We protect the people of this city from harm-"
"From alien harm," his voice pierced through her own.
"From harm!" She raised both her hands. She was furious, even more furious than she'd been at the monster she'd just stopped. A human monster was one thing, but her friends and her own sister thinking that she was wrong to stop him? It made her blood boil with fury. "What does it matter who it's from?"
Kara saw Alex watching her from the corner of the room, shoulders pressed against the wall, one leg bent and foot to the wall, propping herself up. She knew Alex had called in Maggie to "carefully explain the law to her", she didn't need super hearing to catch that either.
In her mind she saw the man again, with balled fists the size of Christmas hams, coming at a woman half the size of Alex, pieces of a restraining order still falling down through the air around them.
"This city, this country," Kara pushed herself up to standing, her red cape falling and draping around her at the movement, " this entire planet is in much more danger from abusive boys and men than it is from an entire planet of aliens!" Her voice cut through the silence in the room like the crack of a whip. But that was probably because she was screaming so hard the room was vibrating.
Henshaw shook his head and simply walked to the furthest side of the room.
In the momentary silence of the two aliens, footsteps could be heard walking down the hall towards them.
Maggie, Kara realized. Her steps were a confident but easy stride. The confidence in her abilities allowed her gait to be relaxed and easy. Or maybe it was just because she knew she wasn't walking into danger. She had to give the woman credit, Maggie Sawyer defended the city in skin that wasn't at all bulletproof.
It probably wasn't difficult to figure out which room they were in, as neither Hank nor Kara were restricting themselves to "an inside voice".
In moments Maggie was on the threshold of the room, leaning with her shoulder and side of her head against the doorframe, as if she did this every day. As if she were bored with it.
"Many women would say that men are an alien race," she added to Kara's comment. She pushed her brown hair back with one hand, glancing around the room with a gaze that missed nothing. "Throughout history the most horrific crimes were committed by men. Sickening torture techniques? Men. Wars? Started by men. Raping and pilaging villages? Men. Guns? Created by a man."
"And this is helpful how?" Hank turned his anger on Maggie, and stared at her.
Sawyer completely ignored him.
"Most of the women in prison right now are there because they were defending themselves against a man." She'd straightened up off the door frame and now stood erect, her chin tilted back in defiance and defense, as if expecting someone to say she was lying.
"You see?" Kara pounced on this. "You see?" She felt relieved and finally not alone. Even Alex hadn't supported her.
Righteously she stood tall and announced with authority of a woman who'd lived her entire life on Earth, exposed daily to the societal conditioning of the female gender, the entitlement of men, as well as the expectation that part of her job as a girl and woman is to prop men and boys up and make them feel good about themselves, whatever they'd done. Not to mention taking blame for their ill choices.
"This world is in far more danger from its own male population than anything else."
"Kara," Alex's usual voice of concern and condescension came from the side wall, "you're creeping me out right now. You kind of sound like your Aunt Astra...and that is frightening."
Appalled that her sister seemed to think all this was okay, she gave Alex a withering glare.
Maggie corrected Alex almost immediately. "It's more frightening that she's right," Maggie's voice was one of weary experience. "And disturbing that you don't support doing whatever it takes to stop violent men."
"And that you're not immediately taking my side," Kara was visibly hurt by this fact, but kept her distance from her sister as if she could now no longer trust her. As if she'd be unpredictable in her apathy to protect innocent people.
Maggie slid down the nearest wall till she was crouching on the floor.
"Did you know there are schools now that have mandated a policy where if a girl is asked out by a boy on a date or to the prom she cannot say no to him?" She waited for that to sink in before continuing.
"Know why they implement this policy? To keep boys from having a reason to shoot up the school. The latest school shooting this year all you heard was, "If the girls had been nicer to him, instead of rejecting him, this wouldn't have happened."
The look on Alex's face turned from confident, to looking as if she might vomit.
Kara picked up Maggie's train of thought and continued, looking directly at her adopted sister. "You've lived your whole life on this planet, in this country. You're so used to men and boys behaving this way that you don't see it for the wrong that it is. Because it is that normal to you." her voice trailed off as she remembered,
"But I'm not from here. I wasn't raised in an environment where women had reason to fear men."
" When I first came here, and for years, I didn't want anything to do with the males of your species. They were frightening, dangerous. They took joy in hurting and humiliating the girls at school at every opportunity- and no one said a word against it."
She took a breath, remembering the pain she'd felt in her heart those first experiences, then the rage, then helplessness because no one would let her stop it. With a shake of her head, fanning her hair out from her face, she continued,
"But, when the girls would get upset about it, they were immediately told to calm down, or worse told that boys abuse them because they like them. Abusive behavior being encouraged and equated with love and caring for someone else? That behavior would be inexcusable on Krypton!"
Alex's gaze was downward now, and she'd allowed her angled hair to cover her face. Was she ashamed? Guilty? Or just didn't like hearing the truth, Kara was unsure. But one thing was certain, the conversation was making her sister uncomfortable. Good.
Sawyer pushed herself up from the floor then, took a few steps forward and looked at Kara with genuine curiosity. "Your home planet wasn't like this? The men there didn't beat and rape women and children?"
Supergirl's blue gray eyes widened, she was horrified by the very thought. As if to protect herself from even the idea, she body instantly moved itself backward from Maggie. "Of course not!"
"On this planet," Kara spoke again, "women are conditioned to accept abuse, conditioned to remain oppressed by men, or risk their lives, or the lives of their children."
Alex finally seemed to realize just what Kara was talking about, and she didn't like it.
"I am not conditioned to accept abuse!" Alex's head shot up, her red-brown hair falling backward from her face. She stared aghast and furious that anyone, let alone her own sister who had seen her in action, putting her life in danger daily, could think that.
Maggie stepped in then. Gently, she strode across the metal floor towards Alex. Lovingly, but perplexed, she lifted Alex's chin, held it between her thumb and forefinger.
"The oldest hate crime on this planet isn't against homosexuals, or male minorities, it is against women."
"I can't believe a woman as strong as you are," she began, her voice soft, "isn't aware of the brainwashing all us girls go through. You can see it in the last election. Why do you think women would choose to vote for a man who has stated point blank that he abuses women?"
She released Alex's face and let out a frustrated sigh. "I can see I need to direct you to some websites and take you to the nearest women's rally. You can be as strong as you want, physically, but that doesn't take away from the detrimental mental conditioning you grew up with in this society."
"I don't have any mental conditioning." Alex's tone was softer now, and she spoke as if she didn't want to believe it. "I wasn't conditioned to accept abuse." Her tone was almost pouting.
Maggie backed away from her with a smile. "Every girl and woman on most of the planet has been. You have been, I have been. Misogyny and violence against women and girls is in the fairy tales read to us as children, the movies children see, the music children listen to, and the words and actions of politicians and judges who say they want to protect women, but let most women's rapists, stalkers and abusers go free."
Kara stared at them all. Maggie and Alex now in the center of the room, Hank standing somewhat apart, hands on hips, simply watching. This life lesson for Alex was great, but Supergirl needed to get back out there, now. She didn't need her super friends group to find her crimes now. The crimes she was looking for wouldn't be on police radar, not until it was too late, anyway. It would be up to her ears alone to listen and hear these crimes in action.
"I was not raised to accept abuse," Alex insisted again. "My parents taught me to be strong!"
"Really?" Maggie smirked, enjoying this. Her tone got Kara's attention back to the room. It seemed as if her sister were about to be proven wrong. Kara decided she'd stay and watch, it might be worth it.
"When you were a girl what did you say when a boy says "I'm sorry" to you?"
Agent Danvers shrugged. "It's okay," the answer was automatic.
"And what does that tell him? Think! Words have a lot of power, Alex." Maggie was still locking eyes with Alex as if willing her to finally see what she and Kara were both well aware of.
"That... it's... okay." She spoke the words slowly, knowing even as she spoke them that they indicated that both Kara and Maggie realized something she hadn't.
"That they can do it again," Maggie tone was calculated dark, and honest. "And whatever your parents taught you wasn't enough to override the avalanche of information you were getting from all other sources without even knowing it.
It was possible it might be worthwhile to stay for this. But only a short while.
Already knowing the answer Kara asked Maggie,
"And what would happen if she or any woman didn't say "it's okay" in response to a man's apology?"
Officer Sawyer made a single laughing cough of a noise, and smiled as if Kara had cracked a joke. "Or... why does she have to look apologetic when a man asks for a date or a dance and she's going to turn them down?" She shrugged. "It's all the same. Why can't she or any woman just say no and leave it at that?"
"Because by the time she'd hit middle school, she'd learned from experience and the media, that making a boy or man upset is dangerous. You have to protect a boy's feelings constantly, to protect yourself from harm."
Alex drew in a breath and suddenly looked defeated.
"Because if she was lucky, he'd just scream at her about what a bitch she was. If she wasn't lucky, he'd hit, beat, rape or even kill her. It happens every day."
Maggie sighed and shook her head sadly, her formerly bright eyes looking at the metal floor, "If I had a dollar for every time we got a call from a hospital, or a woman and heard it was because she'd provoked him by saying no to him, or turning him down for a date? I could be living on a tropical island now enjoying my retirement."
Head cocked to the side and looking ready for a fight Sawyer looked at both Alex and Hank. "Are you gonna tell me it's not true? Or, "all men aren't like that?"
Hank spoke first, but slowly and with surprising respect. "I don't think I have a place in this conversation."
Alex's voice was almost a whisper when she spoke. "No, I know it's true. I'd like to pretend it isn't though."
Maggie sighed wistfully, but her jaw hardened as if she were trying very hard to get a rein on her emotions. Softly, as if only speaking to herself she added, "I can't count the times I've thought of what a better world this would be if women were the ones in power, and men were the ones humored and 'allowed' to contribute in office. If the police were all or mostly women, the judges were women, the people in Congress, the Senate, the White House were all women..."
"If a group of women were allowed to police and dictate the health and reproductive rights of men," Alex smirked.
Kara for one didn't need this lesson. She wasn't human. And she hadn't been conditioned in any way to accept abuse from boys or men- because on Krypton men and boys didn't commit crimes against the opposite sex.
"Okay that's enough of this!" Tired of all this talk, when she could be out there helping more people Kara strode forward. "This Earth Feminism 101 for Alex's sole benefit isn't getting us anywhere! The people of this planet need my help! Yet I'm standing here! I have to stop these people!"
"How?" Alex asked.
The martian director of the DEO laughed. "Didn't you see the footage? By taking matters that should be handled by police into her own hands."
"You disagree with this?" Alex asked him. "With what she did?"
"Don't you?"
"Not...entirely."
"This is not our job, Agent Danvers."
"No, but it is mine," Supergirl answered. "If I can't fight for the safety of innocent people, who will?"
"But how are you going to help them?"
It frustrated her that she didn't know. "I don't know! But I will! I just will! I'll figure something out!"
"Killing them is out of the question," Hank reminded her, semi-helpfully.
Maggie held her chin in her hand and shook her head, doubtfully she replied. "I don't know... my father used to say, there's only one way to stop a pedophile..."
"Lemme guess," Hank looked sidelong at her, "the answer is not going to be compassionate psycho-therapy." His voice rumbled through the air reverberating against the walls.
"You dig a six foot hole, put the pedophile in it, then fill the hole back in."
Hank rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Lovely."
Kara sighed, frustrated.
"Okay, so I can't kill them, I won't kill them. But... it's not a crime to hit them, to make them think twice before putting their hands on a woman or child again." She nodded to herself, happy with her lawful compromise.
Alex looked at her, wincing, her dark eyebrows balancing in the middle of a scrunched up forehead. "Actually... it is."
Kara stared at her, baffled. "Nobody's pressed charges against me-"
"Yet," both Maggie and Alex answered.
Maggie nodded. "It's assault."
"But these men do it!" She cried. "And they get away with it! All the time!"
"Even when a girl or woman is covered in bruises , when the evidence is right there-"
"Nothing happens," Maggie's voice was a low growl of internalized rage. "I could mention the dark side of the Me Too movement," she offered, "but I think I'll save that for another time."
"Again, not helping the situation Officer Sawyer." Hank/ J'onn's voice rumbled. " We cannot have Supergirl metting out justice to everyone she thinks has wronged someone! We have laws for a reason, courts of justice for a reason."
"A completely inadequate justice system created to favor males over females, and ensure that unequal balance is maintained," Maggie was ignoring Hank again and clearly rattling a laundry list of societal wrongs,
" overworked social workers who would normally be removing endangered children from their homes, and a government, a whole planet, run by men who benefit by keeping women oppressed. And benefit even more by convincing the women to believe they aren't oppressed, that in this century they are equal to men, when all the evidence points otherwise."
"I wouldn't kill them," Kara interupted, too impatient to let this debate continue. "I can't hit them, so what can I do?" She looked at Maggie.
"Legally, you can do next to nothing. You cannot do anything unless you suspect or better yet see actual proof that someone is being harmed. You call and report it to social services, who will take maybe a month or so to look into it or send police..."
"By that time the person could be dead." Alex was staring straight at her.
"Help me," she appealed to her sister, grabbing both Alex's hands in her own, "help me help the people in this city that need it the most!"
"I"... her mouth stayed open but no sound came out, "I wouldn't even know where to start."
Frustrated and frankly disgusted by her sister's lack of action or ideas, Kara dropped her sister's hands like they were kryptonite, and began pacing angrily around the room like a caged animal.
"Don't forget." Maggie called out, more for Kara's benefit than Alex's, "educating women, helping them realize the myriad of ways they've been conditioned since birth to accept a lesser role in society, a role that serves men, and keeps women vulnerable, accepting blame when they are blameless; is one of the best things we can do."
She looked to Alex. "Just keep thinking of all the women who truly believe that you can't get pregnant from rape. Or the women who make excuses for their sons when they find out they've raped their daughters."
Supergirl kept pacing and rolled her eyes, answering back with contempt, "It's the very least thing we can do! And meaningless when people's lives are in danger!" The last sentence came out like a roar as she continued to pace the room, only stopping once, to punch her fist against the metal wall.
Alex had been watching her sister, finally able to put words to a vague idea she'd had. She looked at Maggie and hissed,
"Can you imagine having the physical powers that she does and not being able to use them to protect vulnerable people?"
Maggie raised both eyebrows. "Maybe you grew up in Happyland USA," she paused and winked at her because she knew Alex hadn't...exactly. "But I've thought quite often about what women would do if they were able to physically overpower the men in their lives."
"But, if you were her?" She looked pointedly at her sister, whose chest and shoulders were heaving with rage and unused adrenaline, and as she'd finally had it with all of them, stormed past Maggie and Alex to the door and began running down the hall to the nearest exit.
Once Kara was out of sight, Maggie made a face and answered Alex. "I'd kill a loooot of people."
Alex lowered her gaze to the floor, "Me too," she whispered.
If you have gotten this far, congratulate yourself! I know this chapter was intense and full of a lot of info. The next chapters won't be nearly as long, don't worry. Like many writers I post new chapters only after I know that a good portion have finished the latest chapter. That means yes, I go by reviews. They are by far the most accurate way to gauge how many people are reading. Not to mention they give great ideas for continued writing.