Chapter 3: How to Vacation in a New World?
With Devon's help understanding this world's money system, Mew would guess she had about four months worth to survive on. Devon argued that it was about two years, but he didn't understand the finer things in life, like apples.
So, with no need to steal for a while, she wanted to find something to do in her spare time. Her first thought was to try out a Gym, but turns out their gyms are way different then her Gyms. Last thing she wanted was to be in a room with dozens of sweaty humans for hours at a time. She wouldn't have been able to stomach the smell.
She couldn't do her usual people watching till she could find out how Superman had found her despite being invisible. Ironic that turning invisible might make it easier to find her.
So, after pestering Devon for a bit, he suggested that she did whatever normal girls her age would do; Clubbing. And after he explained to her that, no, clubbing wasn't about fighting people with clubs, she decided to give it a try. From what she understood, clubbing was just a party that you paid to be a part of, which sounded pretty fun.
After Hypnotising several groups of teens, she got her directions to what was the best club in town. Oddly enough, it was simply called The Club, but Mew supposed that the owners decided simplicity was the best. Looking over the building, she could see why teenagers would enjoy the place.
The neon lights that wrapped around the building in mellow purple and pinks, the soft thrumming of the music that could be heard from the outside, and a rather unfortunately long line for entrance.
With a sigh, and knowing she had nothing better to do, she got to the back of the line. Since it seemed like she was going to be standing out there for a while, Mew decided it would be best to strike up a conversation with her line partner.
"Hey, been waiting long?" Mew began, but the person she was standing next to seemed distracted. With how she was looking around, she might have guessed she was waiting for someone to show up. "Waiting for a friend?" She said a bit louder this time, and actually got the girl's attention this time.
"Huh?" The girl looked over at her before looking a bit sheepish at realizing someone was trying to talk to her. "Oh, sorry. I'm not really looking for a friend, just someone I was told about, but they might not just be here yet."
"Maybe they're inside?" Mew offered with a shrug before changing the topic. "You've been to one of these before? I have, but never one this big." She gazed up at the building, it still astonished her how big these humans would build in this world.
The girl hesitated before answering.
"I'm… not really from around here, from out of the city," The girl explained, turning to look at the wall with an oddly intense look in her eyes. "Don't really have too many reasons to come by, most of my family lives elsewhere, only my cousin lives in the city."
"Not much of a local myself. Only recently moved here, like about a month ago," Mew shifted in place as she stood up on her tiptoes to look over the line to see if it was still moving. "Metropolis is like a whole new world compared to my old home." She couldn't help but smirk at her own hidden joke, and surprisingly enough, the other girl snorted in amusement as well.
"I know all about that feeling," The girl seemed to release some hidden tension Mew didn't know she was hiding. She now turned to fully face Mew as she talked, her posture taking a much more relaxed stance and her eyes weren't as intense. The girl extended her hand out in greeting to her. "The name's Kara by the way."
"The name's Mew," Mew saw no reason why not to give out that name for her Kanto form, not like it meant anything to the people of this world. The two shook hands before she gave the girl a tired grin. "And how about I give you a reason to come to the city more?"
"Oh?" Kara raised her brow at that. "And what reason is that?"
"A friend you can visit," Mew smiled at the girl. "I know I need to get more friends, right now the closest thing I got is an overweight guy I know from my part-time job, and you are a much better conversationalist than him, by far."
"That's some steep competition," Kara dryly stated as a smile tugged at her lips. "And, I think I'll like making a new friend as well." She gave a sideways glance back to the front of the line and frowned. "But doesn't look like we'll be getting inside anytime soon."
Frowning, Mew couldn't help but agree. The line had barely moved since she had gotten there, and there were still so many people in front of them. At this rate, they would be lucky to be in the club in the next hour.
Before, she wouldn't have minded standing in line, as she had nothing to do. But now, she had someone that she wanted to have some fun with, so perhaps it was time to work some of her magic to speed this along.
"Come on, I think I can get us inside," Mew grabbed Kara's arm and pulled them both out of line.
"What, are you sure?" Kara was a bit startled by her sudden actions, and could only look back as their old spot in line was taken up by the people behind them. "Well, I hope this works or I might reconsider the friendship thing."
"You'll have to learn to trust me Kara," Mew called from behind her shoulder. "When I say I can do something, you best believe I can do it." She turned her head away from Kara and stared intently at the club's bouncer who was already leveling a glare at them as they approached. Sadly for the human, trying to stare her down only worked in her favor as she used Hypnosis the moment they saw each other.
Much to Kara's surprise and the complaints of the others in line, the bouncer let them go by without a second glance. Once inside, Mew let go of her friend's arm and swept her hand across the room like a performer.
"Tada! We are inside," She had to practically yell her words to be heard over the loud music playing in the club.
"How did you do that?" Kara asked as her gaze flickered around the room, trying her best to ignore the flashing lights and the artificial fog rolling across the floor.
"Remember what I said about my overweight coworker?" Mew purposely asked the misleading question as she nodded to the door they just came from. From Kara's head nod, she knew that the girl had connected the wrong dots. "So you see that special someone you were looking for?"
"Huh, oh yeah," It took Kara a moment to remember that she had told Mew that before shaking her head. "No, I don't see her. I might just wander around for a bit, and hope I might be able to bump into them." She said and offered her an apologetic smile as she moved away.
"When you're done, come find me," Mew shouted over the music and the crowd. "I need to party, and so do you!" And with that, she pushed her way into the party crowd and decided to have some simple human fun.
Kara waved her arm in farewell before her new friend disappeared on the dance floor. With Mew completely gone from view, Kara's eyes became focused again as she purposely moved through the club. She hadn't been entirely truthful to her when she answered Mew's questions, while she didn't know exactly who she was looking for, she had a vague idea.
'Brown-hair and blue eyes,' Kara repeated in her mind as she approached the first person she was going to question tonight. She could only hope that she found this person before her cousin found out that she snuck away from the farm. 'Clark would be so mad.'
xXx
Kara could only groan in disappointment as she slumped against the table she was at. She was only now realizing how poorly she had planned this all out. Sneaking into Metropolis was rather easy, since Clark couldn't be everywhere at once to find her. And since Clark had told her that the criminal was a teenage girl, she had asked around town for where she would find a lot of teeneagers
That ended up leading her to The Club, where she hoped to be able to find this person, but it was only now that she realized how stupid that was with how little information she had to go on. Brown hair and blue eyes, while not common, wasn't exactly rare either. Approaching the girls who fit that description hadn't been easy either, as humans tended to move in packs and they were rather prickly about strangers walking up and asking about them.
So her attempts to find this 'Unova' had been a bust.
Batgirl, she was not.
"What's got you so glum, chum?" Kara looked up to find the girl she had talked to outside at her table. From the disheveled look of her hair and clothes, with the glow stick around her neck, it wasn't hard to tell that the girl was enjoying this place far more than her.
What was her name again?
...Mew, that was it.
"Yeah, sorry," Kara knew she had no reason to apologize, but still felt the need to do so. "Just haven't been able to find that girl yet. She might not even be here, the more I think about it." After all, why would a criminal that would have Superman after them show up in a very public location?
"So what if you didn't find them," Mew shrugged, not seeing the issue, placing two drinks onto the table. "This is a place to have fun and relax, not stress out." She reasoned as she took a seat adjacent to her.
"Sometimes I wish it was that easy," Kara dejectedly stated as she took the offered drink, just to almost spit it out at the horrible taste. "What in the world was that?" She gasped after forcing the drink down, causing Mew to laugh.
"I asked the bar for something special, and they gave me these," Mew couldn't help but find the girl's reaction funny and giggled. "This is a tequila sunrise. No clue what tequila is, but this is quite fruity." She stated as she took a sip from her own drink.
"How is this something people are willing to drink?" Kara asked as she gazed into her glass, looking at the mixture of light and dark orange in it.
"It's an acquired taste," Mew gave her a teasing smirk. "But I guess you are a bit too young for this."
Kara frowned at that, it sounded like a challenge. She was Kara In-Ze, cousin of Superman, and one of the strongest women on this planet. She wasn't going to lose to some bad tasting drink and a random human girl.
So, Kara took the glass in her hand and drained the entire thing in a single go. While the light orange part didn't taste all that good, she did find the darker orange part to be a lot sweeter that she expected.
Putting the glass back on the table, she sent Mew a smirk.
"Now that's more like it," She cheered as she held up her own glass in a one person toast. "I got you smiling again." She then mirrored Kara's earlier actions and downed her own glass before putting it on the table. "Now, how about you forget about that problem earlier and have fun."
"I'm not sure," Kara began to frown again at the offer. She really should be searching for that Unova person, but then again, she still had no solid lead and could end up wasting the whole night on nothing. "Well… maybe?" She hesitantly offered.
But it was an offer nonetheless, and Mew grabbed onto it. And by it, she meant her.
The rest of the night became nothing but a blur in her memory, of flashing lights, dancing, and those awful drinks that slowly became a bit better over time. For the first time in a long time, she was able to have some real fun and just be Kara and not Supergirl.
It was hours later that they were both forced to leave by the staff, as the club was closing up for the night. Leaving the two of them out on the streets of Metropolis, neither exactly in the best state of mind.
"You're just great," Kara was leaning against Mew as they hobbled down the sidewalk, her words coming across rather slurred. "It's just so...so much fun being here." She wasn't quite sure what was going on with her now, but she just couldn't find it in herself to care. "A good friend, you're a good friend."
And as it would turn out, Mew wasn't exactly in a much better state then her.
"You're fun. Fun, fun, fun." Kara wasn't quite sure why, but it didn't sound like Mew's voice was slurring like her's, but almost fading in and out as she spoke. "Where's your home, I'll take you. Keep you safe."
"I can keep self safe, I keep you safe too," Kara argued as she looked around the darkened city block, trying to figure out where she was and where the Farm might be. But everything looked different, all wavy and long. Even the ground didn't seem like it wanted to stand still under her feet. "Need to get home, before Clark gets worried."
"Look in my eyes," Mew suddenly stated, and Kara looked over in confusion at her words. When the two looked at each other, Kara's brain suddenly felt like it was being shaken by something. Leaning over the sidewalk, Kara got to taste her tequila sunrise again. "Ok, got it."
Before she could ask what Mew meant, the two of them vanished.
xXx
'I'm dying,' Was Kara's first thought when she woke up in the morning. All she could feel was pain with each beat of her heart, her eyes burning from the light coming from her bedroom window, her mouth nearly unresponsive as she tried to make words.
Forcing herself to sit up, she felt something roll off of her. Looking to her right, she could only stare at confusion at the fully dressed girl laying next to her. Her mind was moving so incredibly slowly at the moment and couldn't understand what was going on.
Getting up, out of bed, she stumbled out of her room and into the bathroom. She just had to drink something. After guzzling down water from the sink and splashing some water in her face, she stared at her own reflection in the mirror, she didn't look too good. Her blonde hair was a mess, her eyes were bloodshot and… was that dry vomit?
Washing that off, she took a breath to try and collect herself, thinking back all of the events that lead up to this. She remembered The Club, the girl who she now remembered as Mew, some drinking and dancing and then… nothing. She had no memory of leaving The Club, yet alone coming back to Smallville, yet here she was.
'Must have been those drinks,' Kara guessed as she drank some more water. 'Humans must be insane if drinking that stuff is considered fun.' Turning off the bathroom lights, she turned around to go wake up Mew before she paused in the hallway as she just realized something.
Last night, they were in Metropolis, and now they were in Smallville. That was nearly a hundred mile trip, and there was no way they would have been able to cover such a distance normally by human means in such a small time frame.
So, she came to the dreaded realization that she must have flown home. While that was a normal thing that she had done plenty of times, this time she had brought someone with her.
How was she going to explain that to the human girl without revealing something.
'Maybe I can fly her back before she wakes up?' Kara thought hopefully, but those were dashed the moment she came to her room and saw Mew already up and looking around her room. And by the looks of it, she wasn't suffering from the same sickness she got from those drinks. 'Now that's unfair.'
"Uh, hey Mew," Kara started speaking normally, before cringing at the sound of her own voice. It sounded way too loud in her head. "I'm sure you have some questions." Mew turned around to look at her with an amused look, but that quickly dropped into a frown as looked at her. "I can exp-"
'Who are you, and how do you know my name?" Kara had to blink as Mew regarded her cautiously. From what she could tell from her body language, she seemed ready to fight her.
"It's me, Kara," Kara said in confusion at the line of questioning. Did the human drink cause memory loss as well? Would explain why she didn't remember a chunk of last night. At her words, Mew looked at her skeptically.
"I remember Kara having darker hair." Mew stated with a raised eyebrow, looking over her with a sharp glaze.
Kara blinked at her words before her eyes darted back to her bed and saw her brown haired wig was laying on it. She couldn't help but internally curse her luck right now, as it seemed to be one thing after the next right now.
"I am Kara," She held up her hand in a cautious manner as she moved across the room and to the bed, Mew watching her the whole way. Reaching down onto the bed, she grabbed the wig and, rather clumsily, put it on. It wasn't a perfect fit, with her blonde hair being in the way at the moment, but from how Mew relaxed, she accepted what she saw.
"Man, that was a close one Kara," Mew's attitude now quickly changed from being ready to fight, being at ease. "Waking up in a stranger's home, and they start calling you your name, it's like the beginning of a bad horror movie." She joked as she returned to cursorily looking around her room.
"Never been one for those kinds of movies," Kara commented before mentally kicking herself, reminding her that she still had a serious problem right now. She had to be careful with her next words. "How much of last night do you remember, things kinda go blurry for me."
"Yeah, that tends to happen," Mew chuckled at her words before taking a seat on the bed. "Well, we drank a bit, danced a bit, you vomited a bit." Kara's face went red at that. "And that's about as much as I remember." Looking around a bit, she then asked. "Where are we anyway? I can see a farm outside, but not much else."
Kara couldn't help but cringe at that question. While it was good that Mew couldn't remember anything about her using her powers, she still needed to explain how they were now hours away from Metropolis.
But thankfully, or un-thankfully, she could hear someone else now moving in the house.
"Hide," Kara said in a harsh whisper motioning Mew to move quickly. Not expecting the sudden demand, the girl quickly looked around the room before simply falling to the ground and hiding behind the bed.
Holding her breath, Kara could hear the creaking of footsteps as they moved around. She followed the sound as they moved across the floor followed by the click of a door opening and closing before the continued and another door opened and closed. After another moment of near silence, the sound of water could be heard.
"Good," Kara gave a sigh of relief as whichever of the Kents she heard was currently in the bathroom and not likely to bother them for another few minutes. "Ok, it's good now. But please be quiet," Whispered over to Mew, who popped up from the other side of the bed.
"What was that all about?" Mew asked in confusion as she stood back up.
"My aunt and uncle, they are a bit… protective of me," Kara tried to explain the best she could without giving much information. "My cousin does some dangerous stuff that might put us in danger, so that's why I wear a wig out in public."
"So you guys are in hiding?" Mew's brow furrowed at that, she had enough hiding back in her own world. She knew exactly how constricting it could be when people would hunt you down for simply existing. "Is he a criminal?" If he was, then she could hunt him down and help Kara get her freedom back.
"What, no?" Kara said in surprise, before realizing she had said it a bit too loud for her liking. "He is a really good guy, but it has just put him at odds against some really powerful people who might try and hurt us." She tried to explain.
"I see," Mew's measured response left Kara no clue if she actually understood or was just going along with what she was saying. "I think it would be best if I head back to Metropolis anyway, work might start getting worried if I don't show up." She went to open the window, but Kara crossed the distance faster than Mew thought she could and took a hold of her arm.
"About that… you're kinda in Smallville," Kara gave her a sheepish smile, trying to hide how nervous she was over her next response
"Where is that compared to Metropolis?" Mew asked with a raised eyebrow, inwardly cringing herself. She had honestly blacked out last night as well, and had no clue if she had accidentally teleported them a truly great distance. She didn't want to erase Kara's mind.
"About a hundred miles," Kara ripped the metaphorical bandaid off.
The two of them paused, each one expecting the other one to connect the dots to a secret they wanted to keep secret. Fortunately for them both, Mew thought of a logical answer for them both.
"I didn't know taxis came out this far," Mew's smile was a fragile thing as she hoped Kara would buy the lie. And thankfully, she was willing to grab on to the lie with both hands and accept it as well.
"Oh, I don't want to think about how much that might have cost," Kara gave out a silted laugh, inwardly thankful that Mew had created an out.
"Yeah, shouldn't have been too bad," Mew opened the window to the bedroom and opened it up and began to climb out. "Cross your fingers I can sucker another one to come pick me up, or I'll be stuck with the bus." She joked as she fell to the ground, and rolled.
Giving each other a wave goodbye, Mew snuck her way across the farmland and teleported away the moment she felt she was out of sight. Meanwhile Kara was busy cleaning up her room, and changing her clothes to ones that didn't smell as… vomity.
'Never again,' She vowed to herself tossed away her shirt before pausing. "At least the drinking part."
xXx
Mew reappeared in the storage room of the Pawn Shop, but instead of going to the door that led to the front, she went up the side stairs to where Devon lived on the upper floor. Opening the door at the top of the stairs, she startled the store's owner as he was eating his breakfast.
"Wh-" He coughed a bit as some sausage went down the wrong pipe. "What are you doing here so early?" He demanded, not looking too happy at being interrupted.
"Devon, how does one be free in this world?" Mew asked, ignoring the man's question.
"What, are you high or something?" Devon asked in confusion, shaking his head. "I don't deal with junkies… Well I buy from them, I just don't work with them."
"Last night, I made a friend at The Club, and we had a really fun night," Mew began to explain as she took one of the empty chairs around the table. "After a bit of a mishap, we ended up at her place where I learned something that bothered me."
"Usually you do that of stuff in college," Devon's smirk told her it was a joke, but one that she didn't understand.
"Turns out that her and her family are being hunted down because of something her cousin did," She continued, dismissing the joke as something for this world. "Her cousin had crossed some really powerful people and now she can only go out in disguise. And her aunt and uncle are super protective, I had to sneak out of her window to avoid being seen."
"And what does this all have to do about being free?" Devon asked, bringing up her question from earlier.
"When we met at The Club, she was a bundle of tension and nerves," Mew leaned back in the chair, looking at the ceiling as she continued. "After spending some time, I managed to bring her out of her shell and she had some real fun. But when she was back home, she was acting like she was walking on eggshells. You shouldn't have to live like you will break the world by stepping too hard."
Switching her gaze down from the ceiling and to Devon, he could see an odd surge of power behind her eyes.
"What I want to know, is what I have to do to make sure my friend can walk the streets without having to hide who she is."
The silence between the two of them lasted for several long minutes as Devon sat and digested all of what Mew had just demanded of him.
"That would have to depend on who her cousin had crossed," Devon hesitantly answered as he put down his fork, his appetite now lost. "If it is someone like a small crime family, you'll simply have to get them arrested. But if it is someone big, like really big, then there would be no jail that could hold them for long before being able to pay their way out or paying someone else to finish their job."
Mew furrowed her brow at that answer, it wasn't one that she liked, but she had to accept it as the best one that Devon could give her. Thankfully Devon was smart enough to lift his plate and silverware when Mew's knuckles became white, because the table soon broke under her fist as she slammed it in frustration.
Getting up from her chair, Mew stormed out of the room and teleported before she reached the bottom of the stairs.
xXx
Kara was quite thankful when the day ended. While she no longer felt gross from that morning, the Kents did keep pestering her about her appearance, worried that she might have been coming down with something.
After dinner, she had simply gone up in her room and enjoyed the silence for a bit. She decided against sneaking out again to Metropolis on a wild goose chase for the elusive Unova, at least till she got some more information about them. Going out every night might end up tipping one of the Kents or Clark about what she was up to, and that was a big nope in her book.
'A pity,' Kara thought to herself as she gave a sad sigh. While her work as a superhero was a bust, she was able to enjoy herself as just Kara for at least a little while. Maybe she could talk to Barbara on the phone for a bit, she might have some interesting stories since they last spoke.
Getting up, she was just about to head downstairs, when she heard a tapping. Turning around to locate the noise she saw a familiar face outside her window.
"Mew?" Kara asked in shock as she moved across the room and opened up the window. "What are you still doing here? I thought you went back to Metropolis." She lowered her voice down the whisper after her initial shock.
"I did, and now I'm back," Mew said with a grin as she held onto the window sill. "Come meet me in the barn." She then dropped back down to the ground and made her way quickly to the Kent's barn.
Kara hestinantly looked back at her bedroom door, before jumping out the window and going to the barn herself. She reasoned that she would still be at the farm, just not at the farmhouse, so they wouldn't get too mad at her.
By the time she reached the barn, Mew had already slightly opened up one of the doors and disappeared into the darkness. Slipping through the door as well, she found Mew sitting next to a pile of miscellaneous things and a lantern that illuminated the area around her.
"What is all this?" Kara asked as she slowly stepped into the light as Mew rummaged through some bags she had. Before she got a reply, Mew had tossed something out of the bag and at her. Quickly catching it, she found it to be a… muffin?
Well, a partly crushed muffin after she caught it.
"Contraband," Kara had to blink at Mew's choice of words. "The freshest Metropolis baked goods, sweets plucked from the best candy stores, make-up that… I'll be honest, I don't know much about make-up." She waved her hands across the bags she had. "All brought in under Warden Kent's nose."
Kara couldn't help but snort at that, now understanding she was joking.
"Not funny," She said, but couldn't hide her amusement. "But, why did you bring all this stuff?" She asked, taking a seat near the lantern as well now.
"Well, you were telling me about how dangerous it was for you to come to Metropolis," Mew shrugged as she pulled one of the bags closer to the light. "So I decided "That if Kara can't come to Metropolis, then Metropolis will come to Kara"."
"I can go to Metropolis," Kara looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Kara can, yes." Mew said before she reached over and surprised her by grabbing the wig and pulling it off, letting her blonde hair come free. She dropped the wig in her lap. "But Kara can't."
Kara was stunned speechless at that, blinking in surprise at Mew.
"We're friends Kara, and last night, I got to see two sides of you," Mew continued as she pulled out her own muffin from one of the bags. "One side that was tense and nervous, like she didn't belong out there." Her words caused Kara to cringe at how true they rang, but not for the reasons Mew believed. "And the other side that could smile and laugh, a side that felt free. Now, which side are you now?"
Kara fidgeted under her gaze, a bundle of conflicting emotions tugged in her chest. She found that there was truth in Mew's words, truths that she had been ignoring for a long while. She was happy to be here on earth, living with the Kents and sometimes helping Clark out as Supergirl. But sometimes, she could feel a divide between her and the rest of the world around her.
Like she was alone.
And in many ways, she was. The last Argoan, with the closest person she could relate to was Clark. But despite how similar they were, they were still so very different.
Closing her eyes, Kara took in a breath, and made her choice. She took a bite out of the muffin.
Even if it is only for a little while, she wanted someone to actually see her.