Well, here it is the second chapter. I think you guys are going to love this one. This is pretty much an adaptation of Amazing Spider Man Vol. 2 #37. One of my personal favorite single issues from JMS's run. I forgot to mention this earlier but the Power Girl in this story is inspired by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor's run of the book. Though I guess it pretty obvious since, let's face it, a lot of us here who are fans of the character are fans because of that run. For those who haven't read it I highly recommend doing that. It's not long either. Only twelve issues with a four issue prologue in the beginning. Don't let the fact that it's "Pre-New 52" scare you either. While it does reference Infinite Crisis a little bit the book, for the most part, is kinda in it's own world. Think of it like DC 's answer to Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. Disclaimer: Spider Man and Power Girl are both owned by Marvel and DC comics respectively.
Chapter 2
Midtown High School, Queens NY
"Our circadian sleep-wake cycles are as much a part of us as our fingerprints. Some people are born with a natural inclination towards being morning people. They wake up bright and early and cheerful and instantly alert and nobody likes them and that's just the way it should be. On the flip side are people who work all night and don't sleep until dawn. We're talking here about writers, artists and other people the rest of us would just as well not deal with anyway. As you can see, attempting to alter your circadian rhythms by, say, staying up late when you're not a night person produces results that are rarely satisfactory. Sleeping in class for instance. This is bad as a survival mechanism because it leaves us vulnerable to changes in our environment."
Peter, wearing his white long sleeve dress shirt along a red tie with blue stripes on it, black dress pants and dress shoes, is giving a science lecture on circadian rhythms to his class. If there was one thing he really wanted to do in his life it was to take an occupation that would require the use of his scientific mind. While taking pictures for a newspaper was always nice, it doesn't really pay the bills all that much especially if it's a newspaper run by a guy who does nothing but slander your alter ego in the press and pay you a lot less than he should. Peter always wanted a job that would let him be able to help people and do good when he's not wearing a red and blue spandex suit.
He had this conversation plenty of times before with other costumed heroes. His good friend, Barry Allen, wanted to become a forensic scientist to find the real perpetrator behind the murder of his mother when he was a child and clear his wrongly accused father's name. After he became the Flash, his occupation gave him an opportunity to get closer to the action whenever the situation requires him to put on the tights. Then there's Clark Kent. He only became a reporter for the Daily Planet so he can be in the know of everything that's happening in the world, so whenever it was a job for Superman he would be there. Then there's people like Oliver Queen, Bruce Wayne and, of course, his girlfriend Karen. All three of them are CEOs of big corporations that put all their money and resources to find scientific discoveries that would help better mankind.
The reason why Peter decided to take this job as a high school science teacher was so that he could help kids make something of themselves while at the same time help them deal with some issues he had to deal with when he was their age such as bullying or just being an outcast. While he was lecturing, he notices a teenage girl wearing a baggy turtle neck sweater, baggy pants and laced-up leather boots with dark hair and fair tanned skin dozing off at her desk. He walks up to her and gives the pencil she's holding a light tap letting it fall on the desk. The thud from the pencil wakes the girl and she slowly opens her hazel eyes.
"Morning," Peter says to her with a bright smile.
The girl, startled by her teacher's close proximity, shrieks a bit and the rest of the class starts laughing.
"Thank you for the demonstration Jennifer" Peter says to the girl, now named Jennifer, as he walks back to his desk. "Now, for the rest of you, read the chapter on sleep deprivation and vitamin loss so we can discuss it tomorrow."
"Awww, come on. A whole chapter?" asks a boy with short blond hair and glasses.
"The chapter is only eight pages long. If it's a burden, borrow the attention span of the student next to you," Peter replies.
Suddenly the bell rings which meant class was over. "See you on Thursday," Peter says to the class dismissing them.
"Busted," the blond kid says to Jennifer.
"You are SO gonna get it you little-," Jennifer says to the boy before being called upon by her teacher.
"Jennifer, a moment of your time please."
"Busted, busted, busssss-ted" the boy keeps teasing.
"Creep," Jennifer says back with a scowl on her face and proceeds to walk over to her teacher.
"You okay, Jennifer?" Peter begins to ask.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jennifer replies to him.
"It's just that you've been falling asleep in class a lot lately."
"I've just got a lot on my mind."
"You walk to talk about it?" Peter asks.
"No," the teen sighs.
She then looks up at his desk and notices a small framed picture of an attractive blonde woman with sparkling crystal blue eyes, wearing a green sweater, a pair of sunglasses on her head with her hair all tied up. She's also sporting a genuinely bright smile that truly captures just how happy she was at the time the photo was taken.
Desperate for a need to change the subject, Jennifer starts to speak, "So who's the woman? Is she your wife or something?"
Peter looks over at what Jennifer was looking at and gives out a warm smile. "Close, but we haven't really gotten that far yet. But yeah, she's my whole world."
Jennifer looks at the photo more closely, "Is that a…snow globe she's holding?"
Peter chuckles at her question, "Yeah, she's a huge sucker for those things. You should see her collection. She had to move some of them to her office where she works because they were taking so much space in the house. Heck, there's barely any space in her office. This one I gave to her as a Christmas present."
The snow globe in the photo had a simple gold base. However inside it was a big red heart with the words "My beautiful angel" written in bold white letters.
"How long have you two been together?" Jennifer asks.
"About three years," Peter answers.
Jennifer nods, "Well, I really need to get going. I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Parker."
"Sure thing Jennifer, and if you ever change your mind and want to talk…."
"I won't. It's just…Never mind, I'll be fine Mr. Parker." Jennifer cuts Peter off and walks out of the class room. Peter leaves the room shortly after, locking the door on his way out.
As he walks to his office to pack up his things and head home, a chubby man in a dark suit with dark hair receding at the back and a thick mustache walks up to him.
"Peter."
"Dominic."
"How's it going?" the man named Dominic now asks.
"Okay….I guess," answers Peter.
"Ah. Jennifer." Dominic begins to guess. "Yeah, I caught the last part of that. Sad case."
"Sad how?" Peter questions.
"I had her in my class last year. Troubled kid. I figured it was drugs. Close, but not correct. She's clean, as far as I know." Dominic explains.
"So what's the problem then? I mean, you said she was a sad case," Peter now asks.
"She is, but not for the usual reasons," the mustached man tells him. "Her brother's a user. He's been suspended twice in the last year for being high. He gets her to do his homework, help him take care of things. Cover for him. Shame really. She has a lot of potential. Left to her own devices, she could go far. Too bad she'll never get the chance. The bad ones always drag the good ones down with them. They always do Peter. Always." With that, Dominic leaves.
The Parker/Starr residence Brooklyn NY
Peter is sitting at the kitchen table looking over Jennifer's student record, thinking whether or not he should call her parents and discuss the situation. However, a part of him feels reluctant to do that seeing as he doesn't want to cause any problems with her folks. Suddenly, a pair of well-toned arms wrap around his neck and he's pulled into a backwards hug. Seeing as his spider sense didn't warn him of any danger (and the fact that the back of his head is pressed against something VERY soft. Something he had grown accustomed to in the last three years), he knew exactly who it was and starts to smile.
"Excuse me Mr. Parker, I noticed you gave me a terrible grade on my homework. Is there anything I can do to bump up my grade?" Karen asks in a rather flirtatious tone with her pink lips close to his left ear.
Karen is wearing her usual business attire which consists of a black blazer which hugs her figure perfectly with a white shirt underneath it and black dress pants with her blond hair being tied up. She's currently barefoot since she took off her high heels as soon as she walked in the door.
"Hmm, give me a kiss and I'll give you some extra credit," Peter answers with a flirtatious tone of his own. Karen then takes Peter's chin with her right hand and presses her soft beautiful lips against his.
"Well?" the blond Kryptonian asks as they break apart.
"Hmm…I say you just brought your grade up to a B." the arachnid hero replies.
"Just a B? What I have to do to get an A+?"
"I'll go more into detail on THAT part later tonight."
"Ooh, well I'm looking for it." Karen says giving him a suggestive wink.
"So boss lady, how was your day running a big corporation?" Peter begins to ask.
"Oh, it was just business as usual nothing out of ordinary really. How about you Mr. High School Science Teacher?" Karen now asks.
"Oh, you know, same old same old. Caught one of my students sleeping in class today."
Karen's face fell, "Again? Wait are we talking about another student or is this the same girl that's been doing it for the past week? What was her name again? Janet? Jasmine? Jezebelle? Ah, Jennifer."
"Bingo," Peter confirms.
Peter then begins to tell her what Dominic told him about Jennifer, and then he explains his current dilemma before she walked in, "If this was a supervillain I was dealing with then it would be easy. Electro? Just find a way to short circuit him. Rhino? Just outthink him since he's dumber than a box of rocks and use his own strength against him. This is one situation I can't just punch my way out of."
"Oh man, been there, done that, got the t-shirt," Karen says as she lets out a small chuckle. "I can't tell you how many times I've been in a situation like that. Whether it's in or out of costume. Usually I would just let someone else find the solution for me and just leave me to do all the punching. That's her record right? With all her contact info? Can I see it?"
"Sure, knock yourself out," Peter says and hands his girlfriend the records.
Karen takes a good look at her name, school picture, and her contact information, "So this is Jennifer? She's adorable. Let's see. Name: Jennifer Hardesty. Family contact: John and Serena Hardesty. Address: 4171 Rosedell Ave. I know where that is." Karen puts the records back on the table, puts on her high heels, grabs her jacket and picks up a large bag.
"Well? You coming?" she starts to ask her web slinging boyfriend who is still sitting down.
"Wait, we're going right now?" Peter asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Peter, that poor girl needs our help. You said it yourself. She's a bright kid, and we can't sit here while she's throwing her life away because her idiot junkie of a brother refuses to go to rehab."
Peter looks down in brief thought, nods his head in understanding then looks up at Karen with a confident smirk, "You're right. Besides, we're supposed to be super heroes right? Who says we can't do our super heroing without the flashy costumes?"
"Alright, then it's settled. We're going to Rosedell to have a little chat with her folks." Karen says with determination in her voice. Peter gets up from his chair, grabs his jacket and follows Karen out the door.
Rosedell Ave
"I appreciate you coming along for the ride babe. Though you didn't really have to," Peter says to Karen.
"Well, in our line of work, you tend to pick up on some bad habits," Karen responds with a smile. "But seriously though. I can tell you really care about this kid a lot along with your other students and if you care, I care."
The two heroes finally made it to the address however…
"Huh," Peter says.
"I don't get it. This is clearly the right address, but it looks like nobody has been living here for at least a year," says Karen.
Peter looks up to find an elderly African American lady looking out the window. Thinking she might know something, he spoke out, "Excuse me ma'am….."
The lady immediately cuts him off, "It's not ma'am it's Missus."
"We didn't…." Karen now speaks but was also cut off by the woman.
"Ma'am means madam. I ain't French and I ain't running an escort service, unlike certain OTHER people I could name across the street, I don't like to talk but there it is."
"We just want to know….." Peter speaks again but, once again, the woman cuts him off,
"I'm a Missus which is Mrs. which is married and I'm proud of it. I don't care what my sister says. She doesn't know what I have to deal with every day. The noise, the people…."
"HEY," Karen shouts trying to get the woman's attention.
"The shouting," The woman continues. "You don't have to shout Ms. "I'm in such a big hurry I have to be rude to people," I'm just trying to be polite, we're having a conversation, a little back and forth, like this was a real neighborhood and you were a real person and now your shouting. Fine, let's be shouting. I'm all IMPRESSED. So, what's your question Mr. and Mrs. "Hey look at us, we actually dressed ourselves this morning?"
"I can take on Bane in an arm wrestling contest. I can break concrete walls with my bare hands. I'm reasonably sure I can take her," Peter thought.
"I'm faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and I can leap tall buildings at a single bound. You REALLY don't want to test me lady," Karen thought.
"Look, can you just tell us what happened to 4171 Rosedell and we'll be out of your hair," Karen says clearly losing her patience.
"Oh, that. You want to know about that. It's condemned. You see that sign, the one with the word "condemned" on it? Used to be a family living there. Dad was a creep. Ran out. The mother wasn't much better. Took off about the same time as the building was condemned. Not very nice people. Rude. Liked to shout a lot. But you two wouldn't know anything about that would you?" the woman replied.
"What about the kids?" Peter asks.
"Problems. Both of them. Well, the girl less than the boy, but they're both trouble. Moved out on their own. Down that way," the lady responds again pointing at a building across from them. Peter notices a set of stairs that leads to an entrance underneath the building,
"They live in there?"
"Yeah. I suppose. If you can call that living. It won't end well you know. Never does," the woman says.
"Thanks," Karen says and she and Peter walk in the direction she was pointing. Meanwhile a dark skinned mailman walks up to the lady at the window,
"Excuse me Ma'am….." "It's not Ma'am, it missus…."
Peter and Karen go down the stairs and opens the door to the entrance down below.
"Hello?" Peter asks wondering if there are people there, and indeed there were. It was a rather large room full of tents. The room was also full of young kids wearing old baggy clothing.
"Mr. Parker? What are you doing here?" Jennifer asks surprised to see her teacher here. She looks over to Karen and immediately recognizes her. Seeing her teacher's girlfriend in person, the teenager was utterly surprised at just how tall she was. She looks like she trumps Peter by about an inch even without the high heels. "She looks like she can go a few rounds with Gina Carano," she thought.
Peter starts to speak, "I was concerned. I was across the street and I heard….."
"Yeah…If you spoke to MISSUS James, I'll bet you heard a lot." Jennifer says. "Can we, like, talk about this?"
"Sure. You got somewhere private?" Peter asks.
"Yeah. My room," replies Jennifer. The three made it to Jennifer's room.
Peter starts to speak up, "Oh, right, before we get started, Jennifer, I'd like you to meet Karen Starr. Karen, this is Jennifer Hardesty." Jennifer and Karen shake hands and Jennifer notices that Karen has quite a grip.
"Mr. Parker has a photo of you on his desk."
"Was it the Christmas photo where I was holding the snow globe he gave me?" Karen asks.
Jennifer nodded.
"Of course it was," the Kryptonian says as she looks over to her blushing boyfriend with a smirk.
"He spoke very highly of you. Says you're his whole world," says Jennifer who now has a smug grin.
Karen looks over to her flustered boyfriend again and she gives him a look of admiration, "That's so sweet. Peter spoke very highly of you too. Says you're a very bright kid." Jennifer smiles.
Karen looks around Jennifer's room. There's really not much stuff in it. Just a simple bed, a pile of old clothes and some posters. What really caught her attention was some newspaper articles plastered all over the walls. All of them have photographs of her alter ego.
"So, you're a fan of Power Girl?" Karen asks looking back over to the teen with a wide grin.
Jennifer looks away with an embarrassed look on her face, "Y-yeah…..She's kind of my role model. People like to talk about the way she dresses, but she seems like the kind of person that doesn't give a crap about what people think and just does what she thinks is the right thing to do. I find that to be very inspiring."
Karen gives out a warm smile, "I'm sure she would appreciate what you just said."
Peter starts to speak, "So this is your room then?"
"Yeah, what do you think?" Jennifer asks.
"It's….um….well, it's very….it's…"
"A sty." Jennifer finishes for him.
"Pretty much the word I was searching for," Peter says and Karen smacks him in the back of his head.
"Ow, what?"
The Kryptonian gives the web head a look that says, "Be nice."
"Yeah, it's not what we'd want to," the teenager begins to say. "I mean, we didn't ALWAYS live like this. We used to have a real place to stay. I mean, it wasn't great, but it wasn't…..this, y'know?"
"So what happened?" asks Karen.
"Same thing as happened to the other kids out there. We got kicked out. What, you think every kid in the street ran away, or is on drugs or stuff? We got the boot Ms. Starr," The young girl replies. "We went to live with our aunt for a while, but she didn't want us any more than she did. You know what it's like, to have to go find relatives to live with because your folks aren't around anymore?"
"You may not believe it but yeah, I do." Peter replies.
"We both do," Karen also replies as she and her boyfriend look at each other in sympathy.
"I lost my parents when I was a kid. My aunt got me through…..well, everything, I guess. Took care of me, raised me like her own," the wall crawler says.
"I don't even know who MY parents were. I lost them when I was an infant. My aunt and uncle also took me in and raised me like their own. Unfortunately, they…..died not too long ago. However, when I started dating your teacher here, his aunt became sort of like a second mother to me," the blond heroine also says.
"Do they love you?" Jennifer asks them.
"Yeah, she/they does/did" the couple both say with sad smiles.
"Then you two are lucky," the teenager says.
"I guess we were," Peter sighs.
"We weren't. Finally, Steve and I just had to get out." Jennifer continues.
"Steve's your brother?" asks Karen.
"Yeah, I kinda look after him. Help him with his homework and stuff." Jennifer replies.
"I'm surprised you stayed in school," says Peter.
"We're not all weak, either, Mr. Parker. More kids than you want to know about are living in the streets or in cars, going to school as much as they can. We don't tell anybody because…well, we just can't, that's all. They'd kick us out, or we'd have to go to a foster home, and the other kids….it's better this way," says the teen. "We hit the streets a lot, asking for change and stuff. We get a few bucks here and there. It's not so bad. We can even eat at McDonald's once in a while. It's just….it's just the way things are you know."
As Karen is hearing all of this there was one emotion she was starting to feel at the moment. Guilt. Here she was, a woman that can see and hear things that no regular human being could, and yet she couldn't see this. Why didn't she notice this before? Worst of all, when did she stop noticing it? She looks over to Peter and she can tell by the look on his face that he's asking himself those exact same questions. Karen knows this is the kind of dilemma super heroes have to deal with every day. Whenever they go off and fight a big global threat, whether it's Brainiac, the Sinestro Corps, Darkseid or even the freaking Anti-Monitor, they barely have time to deal with the smaller problems like a person getting mugged or worse. She's well aware that Power Girl can't be everywhere at once, but it's always disheartening when she hears stories like this. Then there's someone like Jennifer who idolizes her. Karen can't help but feel like she really let the poor kid down.
"Mr. Parker, Ms. Starr, please don't tell on us," Jennifer spoke up.
"I…." Peter begins to say but Jennifer cuts him off,
"Please, there's nothing you guys can do unless you want to adopt me and Steve and half the kids out here right now. If you tell anybody, we'll end up in a foster home or worse. We're six months from graduating, six months from being legal. Can you two give us that? We've come this far on our own. We can make it the rest of the way. Just….let us."
Peter looks over to Karen and motions her over to the other side of the room so they could discuss the situation.
"My God, how could we miss something like this?" Karen speaks first. Her voice starting to crack and her eyes tearing up.
"I don't know, but we have to do something. We can't just leave these kids here." Peter says.
Karen nods in agreement, "We'll think of something. I refuse to let this girl down again." The web head nods in understanding.
They turn back to Jennifer. "We….we'll have to think about it Jennifer" Peter says to his student. "We don't….This isn't the sort of thing we have to decide every day."
"I bet," says the teen.
"So where is your brother?" asks the Kryptonian.
"He's usually back by now. I've been trying to keep him straight for a while now, and he's been clean for a week but…." Jennifer begins to say.
"But what?" Peter presses on.
"But when he disappears like this, I worry. He's all I got Mr. Parker," his student told him. "He's everything to me."
Meanwhile outside in an alley four shady young men are sitting there with one of them with dark hair and hazel eyes looking a little under the weather. Suddenly, the kid starts to convulse.
"He's o ding man," says one of the shady men.
"Dump him outside," says another. "Toss him out with the rest of the garbage."
Peter, Karen and Jennifer are now outside, with the former two ready to head back to their apartment.
"…..So anyway, if you guys could just, like, forget you saw this, I'd really appreciate it," says the young teen.
"I…." Peter begins to speak but was interrupted by a little girl with shoulder-length blond hair running towards the trio.
"JENNY," exclaimed the girl.
"Lisa? What's the…" Jennifer begins to ask but was cut off by the girl now named Lisa,
"It's Steve. You have to come quick." The now quartet ran towards a nearby alley and finds Steve on the ground and stationary.
"STEVE, OHMYGOD STEVE," Jennifer exclaimed.
Peter went to look for a pulse while Karen uses her X-ray vision to check his vitals. Her microscopic vision notices unknown concoctions in his bloodstream. He clearly took some drugs and now he's having an overdose.
"Is he…?" Jennifer begins to ask.
"He's alive, but barely. We need to get him to a hospital, fast. Dial 911." Peter tells Jennifer urgently.
"They don't like to come here, too dangerous, it'll take forever…." Jennifer says.
"JUST DO IT. It's the only chance he's got." Peter shouted
"Okay, okay" the teen says and runs off to a find a phone.
"Lisa, right? See if you can flag a car," Karen tells Lisa urgently.
"You're kidding," Lisa says.
"HE'S DYING," Karen shouts and Lisa nods her head and runs off as well. "
He's going to die before the ambulance even gets here," Peter says to his girlfriend.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Karen asks.
Peter rips open his dress shirt revealing his Spider Man costume, "Got to risk it."
Karen opens up her large bag revealing a pair of blue gloves and boots, "Good thing I brought these."
Shortly after Spider Man and Power Girl are seen making a beeline to a nearby hospital via web swinging, and flying. Power Girl has Steve in her arms and is being very careful while flying him.
"We got a drug overdose here," Spider Man calls out to one of the doctors as he and his Kryptonian girlfriend arrive at the hospital.
"Emergency room's that way," says one of the doctors.
"He's going to need immediate help," says Power Girl.
"I'll do what I can," the doctor replies. "But he's not the only one to check in with that problem tonight."
Upon arriving in the emergency room, the two heroes saw, to their horror, a lot of people on stretchers being treated.
"God…." Spider Man says quietly.
Suddenly a man with grey hair walks by looking into some files and Power Girl tries to get his attention,
"Doctor?"
"Sorry I've got to….." the doctor begins to say.
"He's DYING," Spider Man stresses to him.
"I said…." the doctor begins to say again but stopped when Power Girl grabs the man by the collar of his dress shirt and lifts him into the air with one arm. Suddenly the whole emergency room goes quiet.
"And WE said that he's dying. Take care of him. Right. Now," she growls as she grits her teeth. Her eyes start to glow red as if she's ready to melt the guy's face off with her heat vision.
"Unless you're looking for a good tan, it would probably be wise to do as the lady says," Spider Man says politely, playing good cop in this situation.
The doctor with a look of terror in his eyes says, "Okay, okay, right, um…..Orderly, I need an orderly over here."
"Good move," Power Girl says as she puts the doctor down.
As the doctor leaves, Spider Man sighs, rubs the back of his neck and looks over to his girlfriend, "Right, I completely forgot how terrifying you can be when you're pissed off, and don't even get me started with how you get when you don't have your coffee in the morning." Karen rolls her eyes, shakes her head and chuckles admiring her boyfriend's tendency to lighten the mood.
The two heroes leave the hospital.
Parker/Starr residence, Brooklyn NY
"You're sure he'll be okay Mr. Parker?" Jennifer asks her teacher over the phone.
"It's too early to say for certain, but he's got a fighting chance," Peter answers her.
Peter and Karen are now in their sleep attire and they're both sitting on the bed while Peter talks over the phone.
"Thank God…I still don't understand how they got there. I didn't think Spider Man or Power Girl got into this part of town really often, y'know? Too busy fighting big bad guys in big bad costumes right?" the teenager responds.
"Right," says the spider hero. "But I saw them go by. Power Girl must've heard me with that super hearing of hers."
"Well, I'm just glad they were there. I still can't believe I missed my chance at meeting Power Girl. If only it was in different circumstances….." Jennifer chuckles.
Peter chuckles as well, "Well, I'm sure you'll get another shot at meeting her someday. Listen Jennifer, I just….I want you to know that Karen and I won't turn you in." "Thank you, I…" Jennifer begins to say but Peter interrupts her,
"On one condition."
Jennifer's face begins to fall, "Okay, right, here comes the hustle. You've got something to hold over me and now you want…."
"No…..no, that's not it at all, Jennifer. It's just…..if you get into trouble, I want you to know you can call either me or Karen. Karen even says she'll give you her cell number," Peter says reassuring her that he wasn't going to blackmail her in any way. "If there's any way we can help, just….let us know. No strings. Honest and true. Deal?"
"Yeah, um, I'll….I'll think about, ok?" the young girl says as tears start to stream down her eyes.
"Okay" replies Peter.
"And I….Thanks Mr. Parker, and tell Ms. Starr it was nice meeting her," and with that, Jennifer hangs up the phone.
Peter puts the phone back on the hook on top of the table by his and Karen's bed. Peter looks over to his Kryptonian girlfriend,
"Some night huh?"
"Hell of a night," Karen says back to her boyfriend.
"Funny, the only thing she's really bummed about at this point is that she didn't get to meet her idol." Peter says jokingly. Karen lightly laughs at that and then, suddenly, an idea pops into her head.
Midtown High School, Queens NY
"Okay class be sure to read the chapter on Metabolism for Friday," Peter says to his students as the bell rings.
Jennifer was about to leave when Peter calls out to her, "Jennifer, a moment of your time please."
"Ooooh you're in trouble again," the same blond kid from the other day teases.
Jennifer scowls at him and head straight to Peter's desk. "Look Mr. Parker, about last night….."
"Don't worry about it. I want you to follow me to the rooftop." Peter says to her.
Jennifer raises an eyebrow, "The rooftop?"
"Yeah, I want to show you something," her teacher says.
"O..kay," Jennifer says with a confused look on her face.
As they're walking, Jennifer speaks first, "Your girlfriend is really nice. I can see why you love her so much."
"Well, the snow globe was right about her being an angel," Peter says with a smile.
At the rooftop Jennifer start to ask, "Okay, what did you want to show me?"
"Jennifer Hardesty?" a strong feminine voice calls out from behind her.
Jennifer turns around "Yeah? Who's the…..HOLY SHIT!"
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" a chuckling Power Girl asks as she's hovers in the air with her arms folded and her cape and hair blowing in the wind.
Jennifer is now in full-on fangirl mode, "Power Girl is here and she's talking to me. Power Girl is ACTUALLY here and she's talking to me."
"I think she's happy to see you," Peter chuckles in amusement.
Power Girl chuckles as well and looks back over to her biggest fan as she lands in front of her, "After Spider Man and I got your brother to the hospital, your teacher here mentioned you. Says something about you being my biggest fan. Is that true?"
Jennifer nods with her mouth agape.
"Well, I want to say that it's very noble of you to be looking out for your brother. I know you're trying real hard to keep him out of trouble…..also….I would like to apologize to you."
"Apologize? For what?" Jennifer asks.
"Your teacher told me about you're current predicament. If I had known what you kids were going through earlier I would've done something about it immediately. I….feel like I let you down. I'm very sorry," Power Girl says in a solemn tone and lowers her head in shame.
Peter quietly looks at his girlfriend in sympathy. Suddenly, Power Girl feels something wrapped around her torso. She opens her eyes and sees Jennifer hugging her.
"It's okay, I know you would've done something to help us. You're only one person and you can't be everywhere at once. I'm sure even The Flash has the same kind of problem."
Power Girl hugs the girl back and a tear falls from her eye. When they pull apart she immediately wipes the tear away, "Still, it's rare that I have fans. Well….that's not true. Most of my fans are usually guys, but that's only for…obvious reasons," She motions her hands to herself.
Jennifer lightly laughs, "I seriously don't get the hate you get from people with the way you dress. Have they even seen Wonder Woman's costume, or Supergirl's?"
"EXACTLY," Power Girl exclaims. "Finally, someone who understands."
Jennifer smiles, "I want to thank you for saving my brother. I don't think he would even be alive today if it wasn't for you. If you see Spider Man, tell him I said thank you as well."
"I'll be sure to give him the message," the Kryptonian replies with a bright smile.
"Well, I better head back to my patrol, it was nice meeting you Jennifer."
"Aren't you going to give me the ol' "stay in school, eat your veggies and don't do drugs" speech that every superhero does?" Jennifer asks.
Power Girl lightly laughs at that, "I may have all of Superman's powers, but I don't have his shtick." Jennifer bursts into laughter at her hero's remark.
Power Girl looks over to Peter and gives him a flirtatious smile, "So handsome, you doing anything later?"
"Okay, ew," says the teen.
Peter smirks, "Sorry, you're pretty and all but I already have a girlfriend."
"Well shoot, she must be one lucky lady. See you around Jen." And with that Power Girl shoots up into the air, creating a sonic boom as she flies off into the distance.
Jennifer and Peter wave their goodbyes and goes back inside the school.
One month later, news broke about Starrware using some of its funds to renovate an abandoned building on Rosedell Ave turning it into a shelter for homeless children. The kids were given better clothes to wear as well as better food to eat and a better place to sleep. The kids who are still going to school are still able to go and finish their high school education. As for Jennifer and her brother Steve. Jennifer finally convinces her brother to stop taking drugs and he's currently in rehab. Now whenever Peter sees Jennifer in class she always has a smile on his face, which in turn, he would smile too.
Well, another chapter done. A little longer than the last one I might add. Anyway, I had a blast writing this one, because I'm a sucker for seeing superheroes dealing with the smaller problems as well as the big ones. The whole ending was completely original since Jennifer and the rest of the homeless kids still live in that dump of a shelter by the end of the original story. While I haven't read the rest of JMS's run (for obvious reasons) I don't know whether or not she gets a proper send off. I highly doubt it, so I decided to give her a happy ending of my own. Be sure to leave a review so I can see what you think of the story so far.
