Chapter 27: Teen Sidekicks

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and Batman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.


"Batgirl?" Kara asked, raising a blonde eyebrow in question.

"Yes," Batman replied grimly, almost growling.

"Batgirl?" she asked again, barely able to conceal her smile.

"YES," he replied again.

"Batg...?"

"Do I need to bring up SuperBOY?" he cut her off.

Kara finally surrendered and chuckled, the whole situation being too funny for words. Not only was she experiencing a hilarious déjà vu to her own first encounter with Batman, she also remembered all the times Batman had drily inquired about the joys of riding herd on a teenage superhero. Karma really had a sense of humor, it seemed.

Bruce and her were standing on top of a skyscraper in Gotham and observing a shadowy figure sprinting across the rooftops below. Kara's supervision easily penetrated the darkness and she saw that said figure was a young woman wearing a surprisingly good replica of Bruce's Batman suit. The only difference (apart from the gender) was the red hair that escaped from the back of the cowl.

"Have you figured out who she is yet?" Kara asked. She had already taken a peek through the mask – not lead-lined in this case – but the face wasn't familiar to her.

"It wasn't hard to find out," he replied. "I followed her two nights ago and she led me directly to her home. Her name is Barbara Gordon."

"Gordon? As in Captain James Gordon? Your personal go-to cop?"

"She is his daughter, yes. He and his wife divorced some time ago. She grew up mostly with her mother, but spends a lot of her time with her father these days. She is studying library science and information technology at Gotham University and works at the Gotham City library."

Kara frowned. "She can't be more than 17 and is already at University?"

"18 actually, and she skipped a grade. Eidetic memory and smart, too. She is expected to start on her doctorate by the time she turns 20."

"You almost sound impressed, Bruce," she smirked, causing him to look even grimmer. "So why is a very smart university student and daughter of a cop running around Gotham as a vigilante?"

Batman sighed. "I was actually hoping for your input on that. While this... Batgirl," he clenched his teeth saying the name, "clearly somewhat emulates me, you have a better track record of approaching people in our... business... than I do."

"Aaaw, are you telling me the big bad Bat has trouble chatting up a girl hero?" Kara smirked at him. "Maybe you should take the mask off and approach her as Bruce Wayne, give her the old playboy charm..."

Batman groaned. "My point is, I would like nothing better than to convince her to cease this... life style. Unfortunately, I am rather certain that, were I to approach her, it would probably only encourage her. She might be 18, but she is still a teenager."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Do you honestly expect ME to convince a young woman to leave the heroics to the men, Bruce? Me?"

"This isn't about gender roles," he said heatedly. "Surely you know me better than that!"

Kara nodded. "I do, Bruce, but that's how it might come across. Very well, I will talk to her, but under one condition."

He sighed. "Which would be?"

"If she intends to stay on this course, then I want you to train her. Work with her."

He shook his head. "Under no circumstances. I am not in the market for a teen sidekick!"

"You'd rather have someone wearing your costume running around Gotham, half-cocked, and encountering some of your less scrupulous enemies in the process? You said yourself that it wasn't that hard to follow her home and discover her identity. What if someone like R'As al Ghul or Black Mask were to find out?"

He just growled under his breath and she knew she had him. Giving him one last smile, she took off from the roof and floated across the city, following Batgirl until she dropped into a secluded alley. Looking around, Batgirl was poised to take off her mask, supposedly to slip into her civilian identity. Kara circumvented her by dropping into the alley as well, landing in front of her.

"Hi, Batgirl," she greeted the surprised woman. "Fancy a team-up?"

Batgirl just stared at her, open-mouthed. Then she started grinning and sqweeing uncontrollably.


To the surprise of absolutely no one, Barbara Gordon ("call me Babs!") was not interested in giving up the nocturnal lifestyle. If anything, meeting Superwoman in the flesh seemed to have galvanized her resolve. Kara was actually impressed by her, seeing as she was doing it not because of a personal tragedy or some twist of fate, but simply because she believed it to be the right thing. And having James Gordon as a father, she was well aware that the police, especially the Gotham police, could (or would) only do so much.

So after a lot of grumbling, growling, and muttering, Batman finally agreed to train her. Though he did have a condition of his own.

"This really isn't hurting you?" Batgirl asked, even as she kicked Kara in the face.

"No, don't worry," she said, deciding not to mention that she had to turn her head with the blow to make sure that Batgirl didn't break her foot.

They were standing in a sparring ring in one of Batman's secondary bases in Gotham, utterly unconnected to anything that might belong to Bruce Wayne or Wayne Enterprises. Batman was not keen to reveal his identity to another person until and unless he was sure they could be trusted, which was why he remained in full costume, including mask. Batgirl also wore her mask, but had replaced the full suit with exercise clothing for now.

"With the increasing number of meta-humans out there," Batman explained from outside the sparring ring, "the odds of encountering someone with enhanced strength, speed, and endurance grow every day. You must be prepared for that!"

"Shouldn't Superwoman fight back then?" Batgirl asked, slamming her elbow into Kara's belly. Kara exhaled, otherwise Batgirl's elbow might well have shattered.

"You really want me to fight back?" Kara asked, smiling, and letting her eyes glow with heat vision.

"Uh, no! Definitely not!"

"Smart!"

Batgirl whirled around and kicked her in the kneecap. "Did you and Batman ever fight? For real, I mean?"

"Not as such," Kara said, not even flinching. "I once tried to arrest him, when he was dangling a ninja assassin over the edge of a roof. Batman here actually did the smart thing!"

Batgirl paused, looking at her. "He ran? The Batman ran?"

"I was faced with a vastly superior opponent," Batman explained, "and I knew I did not have the tools necessary to even the odds even slightly."

"Did it work? Running away, I mean?"

Batman glared at her, even as Kara raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

"For about twenty seconds," he finally said.

"More like ten," Kara corrected him. "Anyone else, though, I'd have caught them in five seconds or less, so it was actually quite impressive."

"And then?" Batgirl asked, grabbing Kara by the arm and throwing her through the air with a Judo throw. Kara rightened herself in mid-air and landed on her feet, soft as a feather.

"He tried brutal honesty next," Kara said, "convinced me that putting him in a Gotham City jail cell would be signing his death warrant."

"You use the tools you have available," Batman simply said.

"YES!" Kara suddenly shouted, pumping her fist.

"What?" Batgirl asked, surprised. The fist-pump had just barely missed her as she was launching another attack.

"Oh, sorry. I was... well, I was keeping an eye on Superboy. He flew out solo to rescue a damaged cruise ship off the coast. He successfully brought it into the harbor just now."

Batgirl seemed a bit miffed that her sparring opponent was not only barely reacting to her attacks, but was also watching something happening miles away at the same time. Kara gave her an apologetic smile.

"You trust him to operate solo by now?" Batman asked, stepping into the ring and motioning for Batgirl to start attacking him now.

"Occasionally," she said. "It's... hard, I admit, but he needs to start working on his own, too. He'll be a man all too soon and can't have his mom hovering around him all the time, no matter how much I worry."

"He is really your son?" Batgirl asked, throwing several jabs at Batman, which he easily blocked. "I've read lots of wild theories about that. One tabloid even wrote that he is a clone made from you and Lex Luthor."

"Ew, no!" Kara said. "He really is my son," She had left the ring and was now leaning against the wall, watching the two fighters. She made a mental note to head out for another sparring session with Diana soon. While being a living punching bag for Batgirl was fun and a good exercise in terms of not crippling a merely human opponent who was stupid enough to fight against her, it wasn't really in any way challenging. She had sparred with Batman a few times, too, but again: there was no challenge, as Bruce couldn't really hurt her unless he dug out the Kryptonite ring she had given him.

"You'll get to meet him a minute or so," Kara added. "He is headed here to meet me before we fly home."

She could see that Batgirl was dying to ask where 'home' was, but she restrained herself, instead throwing some more attacks at Batman. From what Kara could see, Batgirl was a capable fighter, but her techniques were pretty much textbook and more at home in a work-out ring than on the street. Bruce would need some time to turn her into the same sort of lethal street fighter he was, though she had little doubt that Batgirl would be a quick study.

A soft gust of wind from the access tunnel heralded Superboy's arrival. The Teen of Steel, as some papers had begun calling him, touched down beside Kara and looked at her expectantly.

"Well?" he asked, all too aware that his mother would have kept an eye on him.

"Good work," she said. "Couldn't have done it better myself."

"It wasn't easy," he admitted. "At one point I could almost feel the ship break apart in my hands."

"You stabilized it expertly," she told him, patting his shoulder. "I was never worried."

Batman looked at her between blocking punches. She could practically see him raise his eyebrow underneath the cowl. She just mouthed 'shut up' at him.

"Batgirl," she said instead, guiding Clark towards the sparring ring. "This is my son, Superboy. Superboy, this is Batgirl, Gotham City's newest superhero."

"Still in training," Batgirl said, leaning over the ropes of the sparring ring and extending her hand to Clark. "Great to meet you."

"Uh… great to meet you, too," Clark said, staring up at the gorgeous young woman in skimpy exercise clothing that was leaning forward above him. He shook her hand gingerly.

"We have more training to do," Batman reminded her, lashing out with a kick that Batgirl barely evaded. "You can get acquainted on your own time!"

"Okay, we will leave you Bats to it then. Let's go, Clark!" Kara turned towards the exit of the underground base. A few steps later, she realized that Clark wasn't with her.

"Clark?" She turned around, then smiled. Her son was still standing where he she had left him, looking at the sparring ring. Or rather, looking at the young masked woman in tight exercise clothing that was currently doing her best to land a punch on the Batman. His hand was still half-extended. She had to resist the urge to go "aaaw".

"Claa-aark," she whispered, grinning broadly.

"Hu?" he asked, his eyes never moving.

"Time to go, son," she continued.

"Uh-hu," he replied, still not moving.

"Or should I ask Batgirl to drive you home later?" she whispered in his ear.

"Uh-hu... wait, what?" He turned around, looking at her.

"You are aware who you are staring at, right?"

He shook his head. "I have not been staring," he insisted, though his face turned beet-red in the process.

"Of course not, son," she replied, ruffling his hair.

"Mo-om!"


"You okay, sweetheart?"

Martha had seen Karen stand on the patio for quite a while now, staring off into the distance. It was something she often did when there were too many thoughts running through her head. She would simply gaze across the vast fields, probably looking at things miles away, and get her thoughts back in order. Occasionally, though, she also needed a sounding board.

"Just thinking," she replied, half-turning to look at Martha.

"Anything specific?"

Karen smiled fondly, the smile that told Martha that it was something related to Clark.

"Clark has his first serious crush," Karen said.

"Ah, it was about time. Anyone I know?"

"It's not Lana, if that's what you're thinking."

Martha laughed, shaking her head. "Of course not. Those two are practically siblings. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but I'd have been surprised had they turned out to be each other's first crush."

Karen nodded, agreeing. "It's a girl in Gotham City. I told you about Batman now having a sidekick, right? She calls herself Batgirl. Clark was blushing so hard when he saw her, I almost feared he had used his vision powers to... you know."

Martha laughed. "And you are telling me that you never used your super vision to take a peek, ever?"

Karen raised her head and sniffed with a mock air of superiority. "Of course not! Am I not the great and valiant Superwoman, pure-hearted defender of all things good and proper? Only a fiend would ever suspect me of doing such a vile thing!"

A moment later the two women descended into giggles.

"So Clark is going through his first crush," Martha resumed after recovering. "How soon to the first heart break, you think?"

"Not sure. I heard Batgirl say that she thinks he's cute, at least, but she is three years older than him. We'll see."

The contemplative look on her face returned. Martha leaned against the railing next to her.

"He's quickly becoming a man," Martha said knowingly.

"Far too quickly," Kara remarked, sighing. "How is it that he's already 15? Wasn't he just three or so last month?"

Martha put her arm around her daughter's shoulder. "It seems that way, doesn't it? Some days I think it's been but a few weeks since a very headstrong alien teenager dropped out of the sky and landed in our field, and here she is: 27 years old and complaining about time going too fast."

"You make me sound old," Kara complained good-naturedly.

"Didn't you tell me that Kryptonians can easily live 100 years and more? You're still barely more than a headstrong teen by that count."

"We can probably grow older still," Kara said wistfully. "With the yellow sunlight rejuvenating our cells, I think Clark and I can probably plan our bicentennial." She sighed. "But I'll only see him become a man once."

Martha nodded, hearing the unspoken words quite well. Clark was the last son of Krypton. There would never be another Kryptonian child. Humans and Kryptonians looked very much alike, but DNA-wise they had less in common than humans and chimps. Clark and Kara were the last of their kind.

"But you can always remind him about his first teenage crush," Martha told her, trying to cheer her up. "Even when you're both well into your second century."

Kara chuckled. "There is that, yes."

"Come to think of it," Martha mused, "considering your history with Batman, should Batgirl and Superboy ever hook up for real..."

"Oh, I can picture it now," Kara laughed. "Double dates! Superwoman and Batman, along with Batgirl and Superboy! Bruce is going to just love that!"

More laughter chased away the heavy thoughts, at least for the moment.


End Chapter 27

Author's Note: I was never a big fan of Robin, so in this world of mine we shall assume that Batman successfully managed to prevent the death of the Graysons and Dick will remain with the circus. As for Barbara, in the pre-Crisis comics she was depicted as being a good deal older than Dick Grayson, roughly the same age as Bruce Wayne (she was already a doctor of library science at her debut and was a Congresswoman later on. Meaning she was at least 25 at that point, while Robin was still in short pants. So with Bruce being in his late twenties at this point, I feel comfortable to have Barbara at 18.

Admittedly, this chapter is a bit of a filler before we launch into our next multi-part story. But I wanted to introduce Batgirl as Superboy's first crush in a somewhat humorous way before diving into far more serious matters starting next chapter.