Last Daughter of Krypton

Whirlwind

Kara Zor El Kent saw the late model red coupe ascend as the funnel sucked it up. "Great Rao! It's Lois!" Supergirl exclaimed as she flipped backwards in midair. She dashed through the competing whirlwinds, a second and a third twister were now visible near the first. Kara tore into the primary tornado's vortex about halfway up the spout, and fought the hundred miles per hour winds fiercely.

Supergirl arrived just as Lois's car flipped upside down within the relatively silent center of the funnel. She grabbed the edges of the car, careful not to crush it, or dent Lois's fenders. Kara yanked the vehicle out of the twister just before the tornado snaked into a nearby farmhouse, obliterating it. Debris pounded Kara's face and Lois's car from all sides. For a moment, Kara lost track of the other twisters.

Supergirl soared blindly towards Metropolis, nearly running into a cellphone tower along the way. She accidentally got her foot caught on a high voltage wire, and it snapped. Kara, Lois, the car, and the pieces of the tower all tumbled to the ground. Luckily, Supergirl had let the car fall wheels down along the two lane highway that led to Metropolis from Smallville.

Lois had hit her head on the dashboard and the car's ceiling, and had been knocked unconscious. The car slid harmlessly off the road and into a ditch. It would need some minor repairs. Kara crashed to the ground, digging her own ditch in a field alongside the highway. She was dazed, and lay motionless in the mud and muck. Four tornadoes were left hissing in unison, as they each chose a deadly path.

Clark had been tracking the storms, and happened to see Kara and Lois fall from the sky. The storm chasers from the scientific community had a convoy of cars, and trucks with specialized equipment within them and atop them. They immediately scattered when the funnels had multiplied. Superman had to make sure that the scientists were safe first, before checking on his cousin and fiancée.

In a few moments, Clark had set the storm chasers on a safe road away from the brunt of the cyclones. He doubled back to check on the girls. By now, Kara was sitting up, holding her chest, and Lois was still out cold. "Kara? Lois?" He shouted above the din, quickly pulling Lois's car out of the ditch. Supergirl stood groggily as the electricity from the fallen tower had finally stopped coursing through her body.

"Kal? Take Lois to the hospital, I'll take her car back to Smallville." Kara volunteered as she walked in a zigzag fashion towards him. "Are you sure that you're alright?" Clark asked with concern. He yanked Lois's car door open angrily, detached her seatbelt, and flipped her over his broad shoulders. "Yeah, I've been better, though." Kara said sheepishly. "Ironically, I just had the wind knocked out of me."

"Okay, but hurry it up. The twisters are gaining the upper hand." Clark scowled as he flew clumsily off with Lois in his arms. Kara grumbled as she tossed Lois's car on her back and flew off at a much lower altitude. "You're welcome Kal." She snarled angrily. After dropping off the car at the Kent Farm, Kara was back in action, fighting the edges of the nearest twister to Metropolis. She was able to knock it off course a few times, by flying around the spinning funnel in the opposite direction.

This only had a limited effect on the twisters. Clark returned from dropping Lois off at Metropolis General Hospital. Lois would be okay after receiving six stitches on her forehead, and she would be kept overnight for observation. She'd suffered a minor concussion. The problem was how to keep the tornado outbreak from entering Metropolis, where thousands of lives were at stake.

The city emergency sirens had gone off several times, giving the populace about a fifteen minute warning about the approaching storm front. Superman had flown along every street, road, and highway that led into or out of Metropolis. In short, the helpful aliens had done all that they could. Clark was much more comfortable with his flying ability now that he'd been practicing.

Superman joined Kara at the base of the largest twister, following her lead with the counterclockwise spin, which did affect the funnel's trajectory slightly. One of the cyclones had already weakened and dissipated. That left three current funnels edging towards Metropolis. They just had to stick with their plan until the tornadoes finally lost their shear and disappeared from view, saving any further damage.

Barely a week ago an unusual heatwave began within central Kansas. Flashback: Lois Lane was fanning herself with a current issue of the Daily Planet newspaper. She waited across the street from the Daily Planet building for Clark to return from stopping a sinking oil freighter in the middle of Metropolis Bay from dumping its oil into the pristine environment.

Lois had visited their favorite coffee house. The owners had brought out the café tables from winter storage, and set them up on the sidewalk just outside the coffee house's doors. The trouble was that it was mid-February. Kansas was usually under a foot of snow at this time of the year. "This is so odd." Lois mumbled aloud as she watched two scantily clad joggers running across the street and into Metropolis Central Park. The February sun beat down on Lois's face. "I should've brought my suntan lotion."

The temperature had suddenly soared into the 80's after a good sized snowstorm had hit Kansas, melting the snow and causing flooding problems throughout the state. None of the buildings within Metropolis's central business district had been prepared for the heatwave. All across the city and the state, engineers hustled to restart their business's air conditioners.

Lois checked her Raspberry Smart Phone for any messages, and flipped on the worldwide web to check on the global weather. Global warming had been largely debunked as a worldwide hoax driven by self interest groups, yet something within Meteorology was wrong. The climate was convulsing. The phenomenon wasn't restricted to the local area of the Midwest, but hot spots were appearing all over the globe where they had no logical right to be. Lois flipped to the Metropolis City Zoo page.

There was a story about polar bears frolicking in their paddocks, playing with ice blocks like they did during mid-summer. Birds were returning from the north, attracted by the faux spring warmup. There were torrential downpours of rain in the middle of the southwestern American desert areas.

There had been temperatures in the mid 60's in northern Alaska, and a hurricane off the coast of Florida. Moscow Russia, Denmark, and Sweden reported soaring temperatures as well. Lois also found a story about a driving snowstorm near Sydney Australia, where it was supposed to be summertime.

Lois continued to flip through the stories on the internet. She saw that the Nile River in Egypt had overflowed its banks, and flooded the desert plains beyond it. A tornado had just hit near the Great Pyramid in Giza, and the Amazon River was starting to recede, endangering the delicate ecology of the Great Rainforest. A drought had hit South America, and a freak snowstorm had hit South Korea.

A new hurricane warning had just gone up for southern California. Western Canada had just been hit by a heatwave, and central and eastern Canada basked in mid-summerlike warmth. "What the hell is going on?" Lois asked rhetorically, momentarily forgetting that she had no one to talk to.

Meanwhile, in Falcon Claw, Nebraska, young Laura Lake reclined in a hammock that she'd strung between two trees on the outskirts of her property, just above the walkway to the beach. The mansion that had recently been in foreclosure before she'd purchased it, shone brightly in the unusually warm sunlight of mid-February. Laura had used some of her parents' trust fund money, along with some financial help from Oliver Queen, who'd had to sign off on it, to begin to restore the old mansion.

The antique multistory building, known as Burntwood Manor, had been built before World War I, and updated prior to World War II. It was located at the center of Crater Lake, built high upon a rocky hillside, on a small undocumented island. The building and property also aligned with Comet Creek, where Laura had first discovered the alien mineral she'd playfully named Loracite.

Burntwood Manor was located minutes by ferry from the Falcon Claw Subdivisions. It had been abandoned for many years. The property as it turns out had also included a private beach, and private wooden frame dock that Laura had cleaned up. Now 21, Laura had accepted her role as a young superhero named Gold Wing. Oliver Queen had been considering assigning Laura to a specific city.

Laura could be known as the Guardian of Lakeside City. Today, though, she had made it a point to enjoy the bizarre warm weather. The young superhero wore her favorite denim cutoff shorts, allowing her long legs to tan in the bright sunshine. She also wore a canary yellow, midriff baring cropped t-shirt. As she swung lazily from side to side, Laura wondered why the lovely weather had appeared out of nowhere. Record setting warmth had occurred for the last three days in a row.

Certainly, weather anomalies happened all the time, but to her recollection, never at this scale. Metropolis, Lakeside City, and even Gotham, were enjoying record warmth, and you likely wouldn't hear many complaints, considering that today, February 15th, everything in the Midwest should be covered in snow. Laura had been following the anomalous weather for the better part of a week.

Something was gnawing at the back of her mind. This just isn't right. she gazed thoughtfully out over the mostly calm waters of Crater Lake. Just then, her SMART phone rang. It was her best friend, Tim Servo, one of the few people that she'd shared her secret with. "Hey Tim-ster, what's up?" She answered cheerfully. "I was wondering if you'd like to come over and use our community swimming pool?" Tim offered. The boy genius was a bit younger than Laura, and still lived at home with his parents.

The Falcon Claw subdivision, that Laura jokingly referred to as Brat Flats, had never opened its swimming pool this early before, which added to the overall climate mystery.

The weather right now was sunny and pleasant, with temperatures in the high 70's, and there were no indications of a storm system approaching the sleepy agricultural town of Falcon Claw. "That sounds great Tim, but how about a counter offer?" Laura teased. "You can come over to my private island and hang out on my private beach." She playfully gloated. "Nice, Laura!" Tim took the bait.

"How would I get there?" Tim pretended to be offended by Laura's boast. "Unless you've developed a new Super Wheaties ability to fly?" Laura grinned mischievously. "Did you want me to call up Kara Kent and have her pick you up and drop you off? I suppose that she could put off saving the world to pretend to be your Uber ride." Laura's voice dripped with playful sarcasm.

"Gee! Can you?" Tim faked excitement. "Hey! You never know! Can Supergirl save us all from this global warming?" Laura asked facetiously. "Now, Laura, you know that this global warming is a huge hoax, with no scientific basis in fact." Tim countered. "Yeah, you might just as well believe in space aliens, and super powered girls with extraordinary abilities." Laura's favorite mode of speech was sarcasm.

"Touche', my friend!" Tim retorted cheerfully. "I'll zip over and pick you up, Tim." Laura volunteered. "Are you just about ready?" Tim glanced around his parents' patio nervously. "Yep! My parents are at work, and all I have to do is lock up." He replied. "Okay, on my way!" Laura climbed out of the hammock, and flipped off her phone. The super powered metahuman ran down the beach until she reached hyper speed. Her visual acuity switched as she entered the speed force.

Seagulls appeared to stop in midair, fish, instead of jumping, seemed to freeze in place, and a few fishermen scratched their necks, feeling like something had just passed them by. Laura, while in hyper speed mode, ran atop the waters of Crater Lake, and was in Tim's yard within seconds. The college freshman was just locking the doors and setting the home's alarm system.

"Hey Tim!" Laura's cheerful voice startled the young man, who grabbed his chest. "Geez! Will I ever get used to that?" Laura playfully zipped back and forth across the yard just to annoy Tim. The teenager double checked the locks and alarm, as Laura continued to amuse herself by popping in and out of his vision. "Let's stop by the grocery store and pick up a six pack." Tim suggested, purposely teasing her.

"You? With a six pack?" She quipped. "Yep! While I'm heading over to your place, I might just as well create a few mixed drinks with the Loracite mineral. I'm referring to a six pack of orange juice!" Tim joked. "Aww! That's sweet!" Laura praised, as she held his arm.

Meanwhile, Kara was still fighting the last tornado. She and Clark had managed to alter the twisters' direction to completely miss the most populated areas. The final funnel cloud dissipated, and they were simply left with gusty winds, pouring rain, small pounding hail, and common thunderstorm lightning. There was still the disaster cleanup from the flooding, damaged trees, and injured citizens.

Fortunately, Lois was already back to perfect form. She was still required to spend the night at Metropolis Hospital, and had called Clark a few times to complain about missing the big story. She'd also been questioning him about the storm pictures for the Daily Planet. Clark assured her that he would still get the photos to Jimmy Olsen so he could get them into the newspaper.