Chapter 32: Future Girl (Out of Time – Part 5)

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


Kara was still cursing up a storm as they exited the boom tube. How dare this bastard stop her from saving her people? How dare he treat her like some kind of child that needed the greater good explained to her? Hadn't she already changed time? If she hadn't acted, Hippolyta would have died, Diana would never have been born, Earth would have been conquered by Steppenwolf. How was this different?

The logical part of her brain, which argued that the other events had already been part of her own personal future, was ruthlessly pushed aside.

"As impressive as your repertoire of curse words is, Kara-El," Metron said, "I suggest you take note of our new surroundings!"

She was almost tempted to simply close her eyes just to spite him, but doubted it would really accomplish much. So she looked around and couldn't help but gasp.

They were currently floating above a city. Not the kind of city Kara had ever seen before, though. It seemed to be almost endless, for starters, stretching away in all directions as far as the eye could see. The buildings looked like no architectural style Kara was familiar with, seemingly a curious mixture between Earth, Krypton, and half a dozen other alien influences. There were metal towers, crystal structures, buildings that seemed almost like giant trees, and many more.

Looking down, she saw that the citizens of the city were equally as diverse. The majority seemed to be human – or at least human-looking – but there were also a huge number of alien species, only some of them familiar to her. She had never seen so many different species together in one place.

"Where are we?" she asked, the strangeness of the surroundings managing to calm her anger at least a little bit.

"We are on Earth, actually," Metron said. "The city of Metropolis."

Kara stared at him, the disbelief clear on her face.

"Your second question should have been, WHEN are we?" Metron proposed. "And to answer it, we are almost a thousand years in the future from where you originally started. This is 30th century Earth, the capitol of the United Planets."

Kara gasped, not quite believing it. A thousand years into the future? Apart from the sheer ridiculousness of the notion, her mind immediately flashed to the most important question: how was she supposed to get back home from here? Relativistic flight would only allow her to travel forward, not back.

"Why?" she simply asked, staring at Metron with a mixture of anger and despair in her eyes. "Do you plan to strand me here?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Strand you? Oh, certainly not. You are far too integral to the time stream, as I already said. We are here to give you an impression on why the time stream cannot simply be changed at leisure, especially your personal one. And our destination is straight ahead."

Kara saw that they were moving towards a massive building that looked like a mixture between metallic and crystal construction. As they moved closer, Kara could see that a statue was standing in front of the main entrance. A statue of a woman. A woman with the shield of House El on her chest.

"What's that?" Kara whispered, her mind refusing the obvious answer.

"Why, that is a museum dedicated to the great hero who is credited with ushering in this golden age we are currently in. Use your super vision and read the inscription on the base of the statue, if you will."

She hesitated, but almost without conscious effort her eyes zoomed in and showed her the writing on the base. There were at least ten different languages present, one of them closely resembling Interlac, the interstellar trading language Kara had learned in school. Which made it easy to read.

Dedicated to Kara-El / Karen Kent / Superwoman

Protector of Earth

Architect of the Future

Seeder of Worlds

"This is some sort of trick," she whispered, refusing to believe what she was seeing.

"No trick, I assure you," Metron said. "We should not go into too much detail, but you are a figure of critical importance in the history of humanity and numerous other alien races. Events triggered by your actions will eventually lead to the formation of the United Planets, a peaceful coalition of races and cultures unprecedented in the history of this galaxy. Hundreds of worlds, trillions of sentients, peace and prosperity lasting centuries."

Metron looked directly at her now. "All because a girl from a doomed planet decided to do her utmost to build a better world. A decision that will not be made if the girl's planet were to live."

Kara shook her head. "No! No, no, no, no, no! You can't put something like that on me!"

"I do not put anything on you, Kara-El," Metron replied. "I am simply showing you what you will eventually accomplish if you stay on the course you have decided upon years ago. What will be lost, should you change your course and actually find a way to save Krypton and alter history. As you said, maybe you can find a way to save your people. But you should know the price. Nothing in this universe is ever without a price, Kara-El."

Kara felt frozen, completely at a loss as to what to do. The weight of a thousand years seemed to settle on her shoulders, pulling her down, seeking to force her onto a path already set by destiny. A path begun by the death of her world.

All this, everything she was seeing, might well be an elaborate hoax. She only had Metron's word that this really was the future, a future formed by her actions and plans. But her super vision swept the city, saw the representatives of so many different races walking peacefully side by side. Saw the beautiful melting pot of technologies, cultures, styles, and beings. It was everything she had dreamed of since she had first made her plans to build a better world. A world that made use of Krypton's accomplishments, but avoided its mistakes. A future where Clark would be happy and safe. Where everyone would be happy and safe.

Even as one part of her mind violently rejected the notion, another part oh so desperately wanted it to be true, even as she balked at the terrifying weight of responsibility.

"Why should I believe you?" she asked, not caring that there were tears in her eyes. "How do I know you aren't deceiving me?"

"Good question," Metron replied. "What would I gain from deceiving you, Kara-El? What would my endgame be to warrant such an elaborate ruse, such a masterful deception?"

"I don't know," she whispered, her eyes still sweeping across this wonderful city. She saw Xudarians swim inside a tower filled with water, tending to a hydroponic garden. A group of Barrions were spinning crystals into a new building. She watched in fascination as a man split into three identical duplicates of himself to help load crates onto a flying car. Green-skinned Coluans were busy programming a data terminal near a floating train station. Winged Thanagarians were performing some kind of aerial acrobatics to the cheers of a crowd composed of at least seven different races, most of them unfamiliar to Kara.

It was beautiful. It was glorious. And it might all be a lie to prevent her from saving her people from annihilation.

"I see you are not yet convinced," Metron said, sighing. "Thankfully there are others in this time who will incite greater trust in you than I. Farewell, Kara-El. I hope when next we meet it will be under happier circumstances."

"Farewell?" she repeated, turning around just in time to watch Metron and his flying chair vanish into another boom tube. Leaving her hovering alone above a city 1,000 years removed from her own time.

"You bastard," she screamed, flying past the spot where he had vanished. "You said you wouldn't strand me here!"

He was gone, though, no trace of him to be found. A moment later a horrible suspicion dawned on her and she looked down. The Mother Box that had been attached to her hip was still there, though. She sighed in relief, he hadn't taken that, at least. If she really was in the future, though, not the past, then she was still stuck. She had already queried the box on whether or not it could open boom tubes through time when she had been stuck in ancient Greece.

She fumed, fighting the irrational urge to find something big and sturdy to smash into powder. It didn't matter if this was really future Earth or simply some other place, it wouldn't do to make enemies of the inhabitants by scaring them. Not if she might be dependent upon their good will. Taking deep breaths, trying to get her fury back under control, she simply hovered in place.

"You utter bastard," she swore under her breath. "I can promise you that our next meeting will not be happier, at least not for you!" First the Flash, now this guy. What was it with people figuring they could simply strand her somewhere?

From the corner of her eye she saw something approaching her, a flying figure. Okay, it seemed she had finally attracted the attention of the natives. Metron had probably cloaked them before or something. Well, given that she was stranded here for now, she could use all the help she could get.

The flying figure stopped in front of her and looked at her with wide eyes.

"Kara? By the Rings, it's really you!"

Kara studied the flying blonde woman in front of her. She couldn't be older than 20 at the most, probably younger, and her style of dress seemed to hail directly from a 1970s R-rated Science Fiction movie. The outfit was little more than a pink bikini and a pair of thigh-high pink leggings, coupled with pink opera gloves. The fact that she was flying without any visible means of propulsion only underscored the sci-fi look.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we've met," Kara said, confused. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

The young woman looked taken aback by her reaction. "Kara, it's me, Imra! Saturn Girl!"

"Should that mean something to me?"

Suddenly a light bulb seemed to go on for the other woman. "Oh, how could I forget? Of course you can't remember a thing. Give me just a second here!"

For the briefest of seconds Kara felt pressure inside her head, a feeling familiar from those few times J'Onn made telepathic contact with her. A reprimand was already on her lips, meant to tell the other woman to keep her telepathic fingers to herself, but the words never made it out. With an almost audible click something unlocked inside her mind and memories she hadn't even known where there flooded into her awareness.

She knew this place. She had been here before. And she definitely recognized the woman floating in front of her.

"Imra? Rao, can this really be you?"

She quickly floated towards her old friend and the two women embraced heartily.

"I'm sorry, Kara, I had completely forgotten about that memory block you insisted on when you left."

They parted and Kara looked around, studying the city with a new perspective. "I remember now. This is really the 30th century! I've been here before!"

Imra smiled warmly at her. "It's so great to see you again, Kara! Come on, let's go see the others! They'll be so excited that Supergirl is back with the Legion of Superheroes!"

Kara followed her. "It'll be great to see the gang again. But it's SuperWOMAN now, Imra. It's been quite a few years for me."

Together they shot across the futuristic city and Kara's memory, now freed from the block she had asked her friend to place there, immediately flashed back to the first time she had been here over a decade ago. Well, a decade for her. Time travel was so confusing.


Smallville, eleven years ago (or a thousand years ago, depending on one's perspective)

Kara-El, now better known as Karen Kent, was all too aware of the many whispers and stares that followed her as she walked about town. Just half an hour ago she had collected Kal – no, Clark! His name was Clark now, she needed to remember that – from the church's kindergarten and brought him to Martha and Jonathan. All the other mothers present had unsuccessfully pretended not to notice that she was only 16 years old despite having a three-year-old son.

She still wasn't entirely down with the idea of leaving Clark in the hands of strangers. Even leaving him out of her sight for a few moments was difficult. Well, not that difficult, seeing as her vision powers allowed her to look in on him from just about everywhere in town, but still. She was aware, though, that she needed to get used to it.

She had tested out of high school and was currently taking college courses by correspondence, but when she was finally an adult in the eyes of the local law, she had big plans that would need a lot of her attention. Clark would always be her number one priority, but she couldn't hover around him all the time. No matter how much she would have liked to.

Martha had actually talked to her about this, her "aunt" being slightly worried about how much Kara seemed to fixate on Clark and his welfare. Kara knew she was right, that she was partially using Clark's dependency on her to keep herself going, to avoid dealing with the memories, but it had still led to something of a blow-up between the two of them. Some heated words had followed, ending with Kara leaving the farm to cool her temper. She knew she would have to apologize to Martha later on, but she needed some time to get her head on straight first.

She was not yet aware that 'some time' would end up being a whole lot of time.

She had hoped a walk through town would help her calm down, but the stares and whispers did little to soothe her temper. So she kept walking until she was a good deal outside the town, the endless fields of Kansas stretching all around her. The sun was shining brightly overhead and some part of Kara couldn't help but notice – not for the first time – that the colors around her seemed slightly wrong. Having grown up under a red sun, the brighter, more vibrant colors under a yellow sun still felt foreign to her. She was sure she would eventually get used to it, but she wasn't there yet.

Making sure that no one was around to watch, she floated up into the air and began to drift over the fields. If there was one thing about this planet and its yellow star she completely and utterly embraced, it was this. Flying really was the best thing ever.

"I could hardly agree more, Kara!"

She started, caught by surprise. A girl was floating beside her, having appeared from out of nowhere. She was blonde, about her own age, and wearing and outfit that reminded Kara of her own very poor first attempts at blending in with Earth fashions. Jacket and skirt were completely mismatched and the boots would be more at home in the 1960s.

"Who are you?" she asked, turning in mid-air to face the flying stranger. "How did you manage to sneak up on me?" She paused, thinking back. "And how did you know what I was thinking?"

"I am a telepath from Saturn's moon Titan," she replied cheerfully. "My name is Imra Ardeen."

Kara frowned. "No one lives on Saturn's moons," she insisted. "Try another one!"

Imra, if that was really her name, touched down on the ground, light as a feather. Kara landed a few steps away from her, body tensed in anticipation of a fight.

"Not yet," Imra said, still smiling. "It's a really long story and I promise to tell you all about it, Kara, but now we really need to leave! Like, right now!"

"Leave?" She took another step back. "Girl, you're even crazier than I thought if you think I'll just..."

She was interrupted by the arrival of two other people. One was a redhead, no older than Imra, and smelled like ozone and electricity. The other was dark-haired, also of the same age, and something about him gave Kara a headache. Magnetic fields seemed to bend around his body in an utterly unnatural way. They came flying out of the nearby forest – more flying people? – and looked like something very scary and dangerous was chasing them.

"We're out of time," the redhead shouted. "He's here!"

"Who is here?" Kara asked, even more confused now. "And who are you?"

"Garth, Rokk, this is Kara! Kara, these are Garth Ranzz and Rokk Krinn! Everything else will have to wait until later."

Imra touched something on her wrist and from out of nowhere a clear bubble suddenly appeared next to them. It was about twelve feet or so in diameter, slightly opaque, and inside it she could just make out an even floor and some kind of control panel. A door slid open on the bubble's surface and the two boys quickly made their way inside, the redhead immediately heading to the controls.

"Okay, short version," Imra said, grabbing her hand. "We're the Legion of Superheroes from the 30th century. We have recently discovered time travel. Someone stole a time sphere and travelled back here in order to kill you and change the future. We need to prevent that from happening, so we're taking you back with us!"

"Wait, what?"

Something exploded behind them, pelting them with pieces of rock and dirt. Kara turned around, seeing a giant of a man step out of a burning field. He was at least three times as big as a normal human being, wore a long white beard, and was dressed in flowing purple robes. What caught her attention the most, though, was ... was that really a winged hat?

"You will not stop me from creating a new future, Legionnaires," the giant thundered, energy crackling around his hands. "Mordru the Merciless will not be denied!"

"You gotta be kidding me," Kara muttered.


End Chapter 32

Author's Note: For the sake of continuity (something I only adhere to when the mood suits me, I admit) the scene with teen Kara in Smallville takes place roughly half a year or so before the final flashback from Chapter 23 (A Very Super Christmas). Kara is in the middle of her teenage tantrum phase and often fighting with Martha about how much (or how little) she fixates on Clark.

Legion of Superheroes fans may note that Superwoman here takes the place of Lar Gand / Valor (aka Mon-El in the pre-Crisis Legion), who seeded the worlds that became the United Planets in the so-called Glorith-continuity of the Legion (there are so many different Legion continuities, it boggles the mind). Mon-El may or may not appear in this story at some later date, haven't decided yet. And may I just say how much I love the Legion's 1970s bikini costumes? You can't go wrong with futuristic superheroes in bikini costumes fighting bearded magicians with winged helmets in outer space!