Supergirl and all related characters and indicia are owned by DC Comics/Warner Bros. This work of fan fiction is written for pleasure, not profit.
Susan Ross' eyes flickered open. The stink of ammonia filled her nose. A familiar face loomed above her. "Susan? Can you hear me?" Martha Kent asked. The elderly farm wife waited, her face etched with concern, for Susan to answer. For her part, Susan was trying to collect her thoughts. She was in the living room of the Kent's farmhouse, lying on the couch. The smell of ammonia was coming from the small bottle in Martha's hand. 'Smelling salts,' Susan nodded to herself. More than one member of Smallville High's track team had had to be revived by the acrid compound, including Susan herself. She stretched, wincing as various aches and pains announced themselves.
"I hear you, Mrs. Kent," she said aloud. Mrs. Kent relaxed noticeably. "But, uh, how did I get here?" Susan's question was sincere, and her brow furrowed as she pondered the matter. She replayed the morning's events in her mind. She remembered the strange truck coming up Lark Road. She remembered turning onto Ridge Road to get out of its way. After that, things got...fuzzy. Or maybe jumbled. She could recall images, just flashes really, but couldn't put them in any meaningful order. The was a memory of falling, of being about to be devoured by a monster, and of Kara...
Susan shook her head. "Is Kara all right?" she demanded. Mrs. Kent smiled. "Kara's fine, dear. She's the one who brought you here." That didn't make much sense to Susan. There's no way Kara could have gotten her from Marlow Ridge to the Kent farm by herself, not on a mountain bike. And if Kara had flagged down a passing car, Susan would have awoken in the Smallville Medical Center, instead of in a farmhouse on the opposite side of town. More images popped into Susan's head: Kara confronting the beast, then turning to Susan, her shirt hanging in shreds that revealed...
Susan shook her head again. "That truck must have knocked me silly," she mused wryly. She looked at Martha. "I've had the strangest dream," she confided.
"That was no truck," a new, yet familiar voice chipped in.
"Pete!" Susan exclaimed, as her oldest brother knelt by the couch and enfolded her in his arms. He was home visiting for a week, she remembered, and when Susan had left her house in the morning, Pete had followed her out the door, on his way to have breakfast with his old classmate, Clark Kent, at the Kent's farm north of town. 'Is that why Kara brought me here?' Susan wondered, 'Because she knew Pete was here?' "How're you doing Kiddo?" he asked. She knew he wasn't too worried about her, otherwise he wouldn't have used the nickname he knew she hated.
"Don't call me 'Kiddo'," she said, glowering at him. Then Susan grinned. "I'm ok, I just - What do you mean it wasn't a truck!" she said, her tone of voice switching from reassuring to demanding in mid sentence. Pete sat back on his heels, his expression worried. "I mean it wasn't a truck," he said quietly.
"Then what was it?" Susan asked, a little annoyed that her brother wasn't being more forthcoming.
"It was a forty ton, turbine powered, jet propelled, armored, unmanned hovercraft," Pete explained, his eyes never leaving Susan's, "and from what Kara told us it was after you specifically."
"But why?" Susan wondered.
"We don't know," Pete said simply. "Some of C - Kara's friends are looking into it, but they've barely gotten started. It may take a while for them to find anything." He sighed. "If Kara hadn't been with you..." Susan stared at her brother. The look on her face must have said, 'What the Hell did Kara have to do with anything?' because Pete began to speak again. "That dream you mentioned to Martha?" Susan nodded. "Was it about Kara jumping in front of the machine and stopping it cold with her bare hands?"
"How did you know?"
"Because it wasn't a dream," Pete replied. He gestured at someone standing outside Susan's field of vision. Kara stepped into view, her expression a mix of relief, concern, and worry - mostly for Susan, but a little for herself. And with good reason, Susan thought numbly. Kara was dressed up like Supergirl, which was ridiculous. I mean, seriously. Kara Kent, the 110 pound weakling, really a girl able to move mountains? It was so silly that Susan almost laughed. She shook her head. "Good joke," she opined, "but there's no way..."
Kara closed her eyes, and an almost prayerful expression crossed her face. When she opened her eyes again, she looked straight at Susan. And her eyes began to glow. Susan's eyes flew wide open. She could feel the heat radiating from Kara's eyes. Susan drew back in shock and horror.
"No fuckin' way," she stammered. "You can't be...you aren't...you ARE!" Susan slumped back on her pillow, still staring at Kara. "You're Supergirl. You're really Supergirl."
Kara shook her head slightly. "No," she clarified. "I'm really Kara In-ze, of the planet Argo." Kara smiled sadly. "You can call me Kara Kent, though. As for Supergirl," she went on, gesturing at the big red 'S' on her chest, "She's something I do in my spare time."
Susan's mind roiled, emotions and thoughts turning over faster than she could sort them out. "That thing..." she said quietly. She began to tremble.
Kara folded her arms across her chest. "Green Lantern took it up to the Watchtower so Batman and the Atom can examine it," she said. "If anyone can find out who sent it after you, they can," she added, reassuringly. "And, I ..." Kara paused. Susan's shaking had intensified. Her head was bent back, and her arms were bent up. "Susan? Pete?"
Peter Ross swore. "Damn, she's having a seizure!" Kara looked at him blankly. "She's epileptic," he explained. "She must not have taken her medication, stupid kid."
"What do we do?"
"Nothing," Pete said calmly. "We'll let the seizure run its course, and she should be fine. You might want to call my folks though, and tell them to bring her pills."
Susan looked at her brother. "How bad was it?"
Pete shrugged. "Three minutes, forty-two seconds," he said.
Susan said nothing, just stared at the ceiling.
"What's your full name?" Pete asked.
"Susan Elizabeth Ross," Susan replied.
"What's your address?"
"Eleven twenty-three Roosevelt Avenue."
"I guess you're completely over it then," Pete said, smiling with relief. "Mom and Dad are on their way, with your pills, which, Mom told me to remind you, you are supposed to take EVERY day, young lady!" He said the last sternly, wagging his finger at her, and Susan laughed. Her mother would no doubt use those exact same words, and nearly the same tone of voice, when she chewed Susan out (after she got the fretting out of her system). Susan sighed. "I'm not having a very good day, Pete," she said quietly.
Pete smiled gently, laying a hand on his sister's forehead. "Look on the bright side. At least you aren't dead."
"That is something," Susan conceded. She fixed her brother with a questioning gaze. "Did I imagine it, or is Kara really Supergirl?" Before Pete could answer, Kara returned, clad in sneakers, blue jeans, and a white baby-doll shirt, her glasses perched on her nose.
"Yes, I really am Supergirl...Betsy," Kara said, finishing with a wicked grin.
Susan sighed again. Why her parents had given her the name Elizabeth was a mystery, and Susan had taken pains over the years to never tell people what the initial 'E' in her name stood for. Now the secret was out. She glared at Kara.
"You even think about calling me 'Betsy Ross', or asking me to sew a flag, and I'll snap your head off and hand it to you in a bucket." Kara laughed.
"Well, she's back to normal," she observed, and Pete chuckled. Kara gave Susan a serious look. "Why didn't you ever tell me you had epilepsy?"
"Why didn't you ever tell me you were Supergirl?" Susan shot back.
Kara gave an embarrassed shrug. "How do you bring up the fact that you aren't human in casual conversation?"
Susan regarded her friend thoughtfully. Friend? Was Kara still a friend? Part of Susan was furious at Kara for not sharing her secret, but then, it wasn't as if Susan had shared all of her own secrets. "So all those stories about your family and growing up in Boston were...lies?"
Kara looked away. "The stories were true," she said. "I just changed the names and locations."
"Well, I can understand that, I guess," Susan said, "but when we have time, I want to hear the REAL story of your life."
Kara stared at her for a moment, then smiled. "I can do better than that," she said, "I can show you."
Susan gave her a questioning look, and Kara pulled out her cell phone. At least, Susan would say later, it looked like a cell phone. Even functioned as one. But...
"Watchtower, this is Supergirl."
"Reading you five by five, Supergirl, Captain Atom here."
"Have those reinforcements I asked for left yet?"
"Negative, ETD...seventeen minutes."
"Tell them I need a vacuum rated environment suit." Kara paused and looked thoughtfully at Susan. "Medium size," she added.
"Roger that," Captain Atom's voice said, "One medium sized, vacuum rated suit, coming up."
Susan's expression of surprise quickly changed to curiosity. "What do I need a spacesuit for?"
Kara gave her a nonchalant look. "Well, I suppose it's possible that you DON'T want to go to the Fortress of Solitude, but if you do..."
Susan sat up. "The Fortress of Solitude! Like you have to even ask?" She paused, then frowned. "But won't Superman object?" she asked. Clark Kent, her brother's lifelong friend and Kara's make-believe cousin, appeared in the living room door and leaned against the jamb. He smiled knowingly at Susan, then took off his glasses, looked at Pete, then Kara, back at Susan and said, "No, I won't object."
Susan fainted again.
