"Kara!"
"Kal?"
"If you want, for a few minutes, we can practice with your heat vision."
"I'd like that. Be right down!" She gathered her note book and pen and went to the edge of the platform. Looked down. Jumping up here was NOT the best idea, she thought.
Kal floated up and stopped. "Scared?"
"Yeah...can I land without hurting anything?"
"Shouldn't be a problem. If you fell three stories and survived, your invulnerabilty should do fine here. Besides, our bone and muscle structure is denser & stronger than the steel here. Worst case, I have Kelex fix the floor." He paused, studying her. "I can carry you down, if you want."
"N-no...just containing my nerves." She took a deep breath. Kal moved out of the way. Jumped. WHAM! She lost balance and fell on her rear. Got up. Looked at the two foot-shaped impressions left in the floor. Kara shook her head and muttered, "Amazing. Didn't feel a thing." Cassie looked at her, and then at the floor, goggle-eyed.
"You can modulate the strength of you heat vision fairly easily. It's one of the most effective powers in your arsenal when you are fully charged. You can do anything from warming up hot cocoa and pies on the low setting..." Kal paused, aiming at the row of cocoa-filled mugs on a nearby table. His eyes went red as he focused on each cup. Seconds later, all but one were piping hot. He pointed at the untouched mug. "Try to warm that mug up from there."
Kara concentrated, focused on the cup, turned it on. Two red hot beams stabbed from her eyes, she smelled the cocoa burning... followed by the cup shattering from thermal shock, spilling its' contents all over the table and the floor underneath. "Damn..." she whispered.
"Remind me to not let you cook my TV dinners!" said Cassie, mischeiveously.
Kara rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Kal. I didn't mean..."
"Kara, that's what we're here for. The robots will clean up the mess." Kal handed out two of the intact mugs to the Diana and Cassie... and got another one. Filled it with water. "Okay, Kara, one more time...but GENTLY! Don't try so hard. Relax and picture yourself warming it up in your mind's eye as you kick it on."
Kara closed her eyes and took five deep breaths. Smooth 'n easy, she thought. Opened her eyes. Focused on the mug. Relaxed again. Turned it on again. She didn't see anything, but then saw the water beginning to boil. Yes! Got it!
Red beams stabbed from her eyes
NO! Deep breath...RELAX!
The red beams disappeared, and the water continued to boil. Kal smiled. "Okay, that's great, Kara! You're now ready to experience the fruit of your labors." He dropped four spoonfuls of a brown powder into the hot water and stirred at super-speed until the powder dissolved into suspension and foamed. He reached over to a small box on the table and opened it. He withdrew out four white, foamlike cylinders, went over to Cassie and Diana, dropping one in each of their cups, and then into his and Kara's.
"Kal, what are they?"
"They didn't have marshmallows on Krypton?" Cassie looked at her with a questioning look on her face.
"Cassie, we didn't even have FOOD, as you know it...We had supplement pills."
Kal handed Kara the hot mug. "What did you say this was? A marsh-melon?"
Diana chuckled. "MarshMALLOW."
"Oh." she fished it out of her cocoa, popped it into her mouth and tried it. Sweet...Spongy. A little funny tasting, but not bad.
"Well?" Kal prodded. "I rather like it." She closed her eyes and took a sip of her 'cocoa'. It EXPLODED in her mouth. Then cascaded sweetly down her throat. WOW. Sweet...smooth...creamy...soothing (Rao knows why!) She licked the froth off her lips. Great Krypton, I love this! Kara thought with a blissful smile and took another sip. She opened her eyes to all three of them looking at her with amusement and curiosity on their faces.
"What do you think?" Diana asked, sipping from her mug with a knowing grin on her face.
Kara, red-faced, smiled and took another sip. "I wish they had this on Krypton! This is probably the best tasting food I've had yet!"
Kal nodded. "One of the many forms of a concoction that we call chocolate."
Diana smiled and said, "Oh, Kara, the surface hasn't even been SCRATCHED! Give us some time and you'll experience culinary delights that will exceed that in the days to come."
"In the meantime..." Kal interjected with a grin, and put down his empty mug. Kara giggled and pointed at his upper lip. He smiled, licked off his foamy mustache and flew out of the room.
He returned a minute later with a segment of a very heavy-looking steel I-beam. Kara blissfully finished her mug and walked over to Kal. "This is going to help you work the high level of your heat vision." Stepping back a few feet, Kal wrinkled his brow in concentration, focusing near the end of the beam. Two blinding, pulsating streams of red power started cutting through the steel, seemingly effortlessly. He stopped at the midway mark, looked at Kara, and gestured for her to try.
She focused on the cut beam, and then triggered her vision. FWWISSH! A pair of bright red beams slammed into the metal. They moved downward in a somewhat crooked fashion, and stopped at the floor. Kara willed it off, and then cracked a wry smile. "It's easier when you practice it on ceramics first."
Kal smiled in return. "Try it again. This time, cut off a piece on your own." She focused and fired. A minute later, another piece (cut much straighter) was standing on its' own. She then crouched, and then triggered her heat vision once more. The two hot beams slowly bored a hole through the thick horizontal upper part of the I-beam. A minute and a half later, she stopped as her beams punched through.
"Okay, while we're at it, I'll give you some tips on super-breath, if you want..."
"Super-breath, Kal? Breathing as a weapon? It can knock a person backwards, but can it be that much of a protection or deterrent?" His response was to look in Kara's direction and take a deep breath. He blew out through pursed lips. Kara skidded backwards a few feet.
He stopped and spoke. "Try to walk into it...you'll see how much of a deterrent it is."
She planted herself as he took another breath, and then exhaled. She struggled a bit, but managed to gain ground slowly. Great Krypton! she thought. I never thought one could use breathing as a defense!
He stopped and continued. "Very few beings can stay planted in gusts like that. On a related note, we can also pressurize the air in our lungs to such a degree that exhaling produces artic-temperature air." Kal focused on the I-beam, took a deep breath, and then blew. An icy cage formed around the steel.
Kara's eyes widened. It kinda makes sense, she thought, but also seems rather anti-intuitive. A warm body producing artic blasts? Hmmm... "How do you do the ice trick, Kal?"
It took ten minutes, but she eventually started to get it down. Not well, but she promised she would practice in the days to come. They left the Fortress after that, saying goodbye to Krypto first. They got into the Invisible Jet for the trip back to Themyscira. Kara was out like a light within five minutes.
Kara stayed at Themyscira for two more weeks, continuing her routine. About halfway through the second week, she noticed two new additions to her growing list of superpowers: Her hearing was becoming much more acute, and she was able to look through things. The hearing surprised her, but her X-Ray vision was the most disturbing. She couldn't figure out how to shut it off for about an hour, and got a rather disturbing crash course in Amazon anatomy in the meantime. Eventually, Diana managed to get through to Clark via his pager and he then relayed his tips to switching it on & off. The hearing required a bit more focus and effort, but four hours later, Kara was able to ratchet her sensitivity down to normal and back up to enhanced. Just as well, she thought. If I had to keep it on full all the time, I'd go nuts!
It also took a bit of coaxing and encouraging by Cassie and Diana, but Kara decided to try and switch to the normal clothes that the Kents had sent with her.
"I feel strange." Kara adjusted the short sleeved white blouse, nervously, and looking at the VERY pale skin on her forearms. "This chest supporter itches, too."
"Kara, that's a bra, and you'll get used to it." Cassie said. "The jeans fit really well, though."
Kara held her arms out and slowly spun in front of the mirror in the room, looking at herself. She sighed. "I'm very much of two minds about this..." Kara said nervously. "It doesn't feel BAD, but, by the same token, I want SO desperately to rip these off and get back into the suit right now that it's NOT funny..."
Diana smiled gently. "The only way you are going to get used to earth clothes is to keep wearing them. What we need to do is to take your mind off of your clothes. I think it's time, Kara, that you experienced the movies!"
An hour later, the trio was at the Gateway Multiplex. Twenty minutes later, they were enraptured watching the movie musical "Detroit".
They were getting out of the movie theater and heading back to the jet, when Kara swore she heard a muffled scream from the side of the building. She froze like a tiger and ratcheted up her hearing...
"...and I said to let her go, man!" She heard.
"You shut up, you dinkwad, or I'll put you in the morgue!"
She found the source. Against the side of the building, one gangly, serious-looking man and a grungy, portly man, both with guns, were demanding the wallets and purses from two young couples. The portly one was holding one lady around the neck.
"...Maybe I'll take my payment out of sweets, here...OWWW! AAAHHH!"
This last response from Portly was due to the barrel of his gun suddenly glowing red hot and partially melting onto his hand. The other thief looked puzzled and then let out a wail of his own, dropping HIS piece, which was now ALSO cherry red. The hostage took the opportunity to slam her foot down on Portly's instep.
"AHHH! You Bch! You called in Superman somehow! I'm gonna smack..."
"You are 'gonna' smack WHAT?" came an ominously quiet female voice from behind him.
Portly turned and saw the LAST person he wanted to see...
Wonder Woman, lasso and all, floating about two feet off the ground. Her arms were folded and there was anger sparking dangerously behind her blue eyes. The captive had the good sense to move around to behind the angry Amazon.
Gangly realized that this was a lost cause, and took off running to his left. Until he saw Wonder Girl drop in front of him.
Sheee-ooot! he thought, in panic. He turned and ran to the right...
Headfirst into a focused wind gust that sent him sprawling backwards... and into Wonder Girl's fist.
Ten minutes later, the police arrived. Gangly and Portly were bound hand and foot against the side of the movie theater. Portly was still moaning after an unidentified person kicked him in the yabos, minutes before the cops arrived. The couples pressed charges, and were grateful when Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl gave their versions of what happened. The officer, with the nametag reading BINDER, looked at the half-slagged weapons, which were being picked up by the other, rubber-gloved officer, with the nametag of DAVID. Binder looked at Wonder Woman. "What happened to their guns?"
Cassie looked at Diana, and then looked back at the officer with a smile. "We had some help from our secret weapon..."
Minutes later, Cassie was ebulliently punching Kara on the arm, as the Invisible Jet winged its' way home to the islands. "Yeah! Supergirl is HERE! Kara, VERY cool! Your first 'bust' as a superheroine."
Kara smiled. "I just got angry at how he was treating her. My X-ray vision told me he was holding a primitive weapon that looked to be vulnerable to heat."
Cassie nodded, rubbing her now-sore knuckles. "A gun."
"I didn't burn him too badly?"
"Kara, if I was in YOUR place, and I saw what WE saw, I'd be hard pressed to keep myself from heat-visioning that scumbag's gun into a molten mitten. He deserves whatever he got. Any way you look at it, it HAS to be a lot better than what he had planned for those ladies..."
Diana interjected. "Kara, it looks like he had, at most, second degree burns. It may well leave some scars...which will hopefully remind him of what happened today. Perhaps it will also be an incentive to him to NOT do it again." She paused, and then continued with a smile. "On another note, you haven't said anything about your clothes. I guess that little adventure did the trick."
Kara nodded. "They still feel strange, but not as much as they did two hours ago. I still feel strange about exposing my arms."
"You'll get over it."
"Diana?"
"Yes, Kara?"
"Don't you ever get cold in that outfit?"
"Since I'm almost nude?" Diana replied, with a smile.
"Diana, you're not nude in that." Cassie said. "Why would you..."
Kara responded, red-faced. "That was my...bad, as you say. When the JLA intercepted my ship and I awoke from the sleep, that was my first question to Diana after she introduced herself. I can't believe I said that now."
Diana quickly looked over at Kara. "Don't worry. It's culture shock. You got over it. With any luck, in a few months, we'll get you to the beach, and into a bikini...and THEN we'll see who feels naked!" Diana looked back in front and Cassie chuckled at the thought. "...And, no, I DON'T get cold or hot in this. To this day, I'm not sure why. Whether It's due to me being initially made from clay or magic protectants in the armor itself?"
Kara raised her eyebrow, baffled. "Diana...you said you are made from...clay? My X-Ray vision shows you as human as can be. Your muscle fibers are unusually dense, like mine, but..."
Diana sighed. "It's a long story. I started out as a baby made of clay, created by my now-deceased mother, Hippolyta, the former queen of Themiscyira. She long had had the desire for a child on an island where none had existed for three thousand years..."
The story continued until they arrived at the islands.
As they clambered out of the Jet, Kara asked,
"Diana, you've said you've met the gods...and lived among them for a time...Tell me, did you ever meet Rao or his wife Nara?"
Diana shook her head. "I...sensed the presence of some other gods when I was on Olympus, but I never met them. Kal has spoken to Zeus at one point and was told to NEVER mention Rao's name again...so, at LEAST Rao has to be up there...and apparently doing SOMETHING that Zeus dislikes."
Diana thought for a second. "Would you talk to Rao if you could, face to face?"
Kara went wide-eyed, and shivered. "I...don't know. Our ancient readings stated that those who looked upon His face would be sent to a thousand years in Sheol...hell. If one spoke to his wife first she would protect your soul and intercede on your behalf...but later scriptures also depicted him as a loving father watching over his children."
Cassie spoke. "Sounds an awful lot like what a lot of the earth religions here say, in varying degrees. Just change the name of the god or goddesses. Your people and ours might well be more alike than different."
Diana gently rested a hand on Kara's forearm. "You might want to pass the stories you can remember to Harbinger. You and Kal together should have all the important history of your homeworld...It might be wise to save it for future reference. I'm quite sure that there would be numerous earth historians who would be fascinated with learning the history and the rituals of the Kryptonian people."
Kara nodded. "Maybe you're right, Diana. The ancient Egyptians believed that as long as their names were kept alive in tales, so would their souls...My people believed that, to a certain extent, too. That was part of the reasons why the various houses...El, Em, Zee...were founded...to honor and to keep alive the spirits of our ancestors."