When Super Met Marvel
by: Sam Lincoln
Disclaimer: All the characters contained in this story are the propery of DC Comics and Warner Brothers. No infringement is intended.
Summary: Kara makes friends with a new hire at CatCo named Mary Bromfield. She's just a normal girl from Fawcett City, right?
Spoilers: This story takes place in between season three and four of Supergirl.
Mary Bromfield stood outside the headquarters of CatCo Worldwide Media, drew in deep breath, and adjusted the cuffs of her new suit. "Okay Mary, time to put that college education to good use and prove to Billy that I can make it outside of Fawcett City." She felt in her blazer pocket for the folded up email confirming her interview that morning.
She strode into the building and after what felt to her like a tense interaction with the receptionist she was directed onto an elevator up to the building's top floor. Mary walked past a cluster of low-walled cubicles until she came to a large, glass-walled office that currently stood empty. Mary looked around the office floor for some sign of what to do when a woman with blonde hair and dressed in a sensible button down shirt and dress pants approached her.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked Mary.
"I'm here to interview for the executive assistant position?" Mary said. "Is Ms. Luthor or Mr. Olson around? I'll be honest, the ad was a little fuzzy about who I'd actually be working for."
"Why don't we step into the office and sort this all out," the woman said. She motioned for Mary to sit down on one of the two sofas in the office. "I'm sorry about all the confusion. Lena's been busy with a new project at L-Corp, which is why you're here, the person you're interviewing to replace transferred over there to help Lena out with whatever it is she's working on. And James is still on his leave of absence following his admission that he's the vigilante Guardian. We're a little rudderless right now, but not to worry, we can steer ourselves pretty well at this point. I'm Kara by the way, Kara Danvers." She held out her hand to Mary who shook it.
"Mary Bromfield, and not to be rude, but what about my interview?"
Kara nodded her head. "You wait right here. I'll call Lena and let her know you're here." Kara pulled out her phone and stepped out onto the office balcony.
The sound of her phone ringing caused Lena to look up from the experiment she was running in her lab deep in the bowels of L-Corp. "Ms. Tessmacher!" She yelled. "Where's my phone?"
"Here it is Ms. Luthor," Eve Tessmacher said as she rushed over to Lena's side holding the phone. "It's Kara."
The scowl on Lena's face cleared at the mention of Kara's name. "Kara, hi, what's up?"
"I'm standing in your office at CatCo with your ten am appointment," Kara said.
Lena winced. "Eve's replacement, I completely forgot that was today."
"Do you want me to tell her to wait, or come back another time?"
Lena looked over at her lab bench then sighed. "You should have her reschedule, I can't possibly get away from this experiment today." Lena paused. "That's not fair to Ms. Bromfield though, why don't you do the interview."
"Me?" Kara asked.
"Sure, is there anyone who better knows what the job takes than you?" Lena said. "Please Kara, this would be a huge help to me. Interview her, and if you think she's right for the job I'll hire her."
"Are you sure?" Kara asked. She glanced back at the young woman sitting in the office.
"There's no one whose opinion I trust more," Lena said.
Kara chewed on her lip. "Well, okay if you say so."
"Great, there's a packet on my desk with all her personal information and CV in it. Call me with your recommendation. Gotta go, and thanks again." Lena hung up the phone. "Ms. Tessmacher!"
Kara put away her phone and walked back into the office. She smiled at Mary. "Change of plan, Lena, Ms. Luthor is unexpectedly held up so I'll be conducting your interview." Kara walked behind the office desk and sat down. Just as Lena promised there was a folder sitting on the desk labelled M. Bromfield.
"Is this normally how things operate here? Random people doing interviews?" Mary asked as she stood up from the sofa.
Kara's ears turned pink. "That's totally fair, but you're interviewing to replace my replacement so Lena, Ms. Luthor, thought I would be the best person to interview you since I know what the job requires."
Mary sat down in one of the chairs opposite the desk. "That makes a lot of sense actually, sorry about questioning your qualifications."
"Oh it's fine," Kara said with a wave of her hand. She opened up the folder. "Things are still pretty unsettled here after the whole Worldkiller fiasco, but we're slowly getting back to normal." Kara drew in a deep breath. "Let's talk about you, why do you want to work for CatCo?" Kara folded her hands together and leaned against the desk.
Mary squirmed in her seat. "I've wanted a job in the media for years, my brother works in radio, and CatCo seems like the best place to get my foot in the door and start making connections."
Kara nodded her head. "But why?"
"We live in a world where people do amazing things to help people, and I want to do my part."
Kara smiled. "That's a very good answer, but this job is more getting coffee than saving the world, are you okay with that?"
"Of course, I'd be helping the people who are making the difference so I'd be doing my part."
Kara's smiled widened. "That's an even better answer." She looked down at the papers in front of her. "So you're from Fawcett City?"
"That's right, the best little city in the country."
"And you said you have a brother?"
"I do, his name is Billy, Billy Batson. We were separated after our parents were murdered, and I was adopted by the Bromfield family, but we managed to reconnect several years ago, it's a very long story."
"I'm so sorry to hear that," Kara said.
"Does that have anything to do with me getting the job?"
Kara shook her head. "No, no, I just wanted to get to know you better is all."
"It's not a topic I like to discuss with strangers."
"I totally get that," Kara said. "I'm an orphan too, so I understand where you're coming from and I'm sorry I brought it up." Kara shuffled the papers on the desk.
Before Kara could ask her next question her super hearing picked up the sound of sirens in the distance. Kara swiveled around in her seat and scanned the TV monitors behind the desk until she saw one carrying a news report of a bank robbery in progress. She spun back around to face Mary.
"I'm really hate to do this, but I'm going to have to pause this conversation. There's a bank robbery in progress that I need to cover The news never sleeps you know."
Mary looked up and saw the news report that had caught Kara's attention. "Right, of course, I totally get it. What do you want me to do in the meantime? Should I come back later?"
"Just stay right here. I won't be gone that long, I need to call a few contacts." Kara stood up and ran out of the room, and stepped onto the executive elevator. As the elevator's doors closed she pulled open her shirt to reveal her Supergirl costume.
In the office Mary sat in her chair and watched the news coverage. She gasped when she saw Supergirl land in front of the bank and confer with the police outside of the range of the news cameras' microphones. Mary looked around the office to make sure no one was paying attention to her. She sighed then stood up and walked not othe balcony. She looked up to the sky then closed her eyes. A lone peal of thunder caused the workers on the floor to jump in their seats
At the bank Kara assessed the scene. "What do we have here?" She asked the lead detective.
"We have five heavily armed men holding twenty bank employees and customers hostage," the detective said.
Kara nodded her head. "Five men, I can handle that." She looked over at the bank "I'll be right back detective."
Kara flew through the doors of the bank and landed in the center of the lobby. The robbers turned and faced Kara. "Stand down Supergirl, unless you want to see these nice people killed," the lead robber said.
Kara surveyed the room. "Put the guns down and you won't get hurt." She held out her hands in an attempt to deescalate the situation.
"It won't work Supergirl. We studied you, we know all your tricks. You might be able to stop four of us before we can kill the hostages, but you won't be able to stop the fifth." All five men lifted their guns and aimed them at the hostages. "Now step back and let us leave."
Kara shook her head. "I can't let you do that."
"Then somebody is about to die."
"I won't let that happen either," Kara said. She used her heat vision to melt one of the robber's guns and her cold breath to freeze another. She grabbed the closest robber and threw him into into one of his accomplices sending both men crashing into a wall. She turned and saw the lead robber was still standing with his gun pointed at the head of a bank teller.
"Sorry Supergirl, you lose," the robber said.
Before he could pull the trigger a hand clamped down over the muzzle of the gun. The robber fired the gun reflexively and was shocked when nothing happened. Kara watched in amazement as a young woman dressed in red tunic and skirt with a yellow thunderbolt emblazoned on her chest crushed the barrel of the gun with her bare hand.
"Your plan accounted for Supergirl, too bad you didn't have a plan for me," the woman said. She lightly punched the robber, knocking him out.
"That was amazing, thank-you so much for the help," Kara said as she flew over to the woman. "Who are you?" She took a closer look and saw that the woman's costume was completed by matching yellow boots and a white, hooded half-cape.
"Just an admirer passing through looking to lend a hand," the woman said. She turned and took a step towards the door.
"Wait, stop, I want to talk to you," Kara said. She reached a hand out towards the woman.
"Sorry, I can't stay to chat, but I really am a big fan of yours Supergirl, so this was a huge honor for me," the woman said before she flew out of the bank at such a rate of speed Kara wasn't sure she could match it.
As the police streamed into the bank Kara continued to stare off in the direction the woman had flown to. "This wasn't the last you've seen of me lady," Kara said to herself.
-To Be Continued-
Author's Notes: Okay, let me explain. I was casting around for ideas o what I should write next when it hit me, have two of Otto Binder's most famous creations meet. I'm not sure Binder gets enough credit for his contributions to the Gold and Silver Ages of superhero comics, his name isn't even in the credits of Supergirl and he created the character! So hooray Otto Binder. Now, just as a warning, I agree with Jerry Ordway that Mary Marvel is a dumb superhero name, and therefore won't be using it, likewise I'm going with Mary Bromfield instead of Mary Batson because whatever. So after much thought I changed it to something better fitting the character, and meta appropriate considering the legal history of the name Captain Marvel. Also, not that Billy Batson will make an appearance in this story, but I'm sticking with the classic Captain Marvel name. Lastly I'm mostly drawing on the Ordway Powers of Shazam series for my inspiration, but obviously there's some New 52 in there as well. In any event enjoy and happy Supergirl Season Four premiere day everyone!
-sam, 2018-10-14
