Issue#3: Tough Day at CatCo

Kara's alarm woke her up much earlier than she would have liked. Grudgingly she got up and in the shower. There was a lot of dust and dirt in her hair from the fight with the Sterregoi. Then she dressed for another day as Cat Grants personal assistant at CatCo Worldwide Media. On the living room table she found a half eaten slice of pepperoni pizza from yesterday evening. When she threw it in the trash she thought she might have been a little more upset about the lost bit of pizza if she hadn't been too tired to be feeling any kind of emotion right now. So she continued to get ready for work.

S

Kara arrived on time but only moments before Cat's private elevator made 'ding' and opened the door for Miss Cat Grant, CEO of the most successful print and online news company of the city: CatCo Worldwide Media.

Kara hadn't had time to secretly use her heat vision to reheat Cat's Latte yet but she had to almost run from the coffee shop to arrive at work on time so the coffee was still reasonably hot as she offered it Cat along with a: "Good morning Miss Grant".

Cat took it and went straight to her office. 'She didn't complain to me about anything, she must be in one of her better moods', Kara thought. 'Or she's just so focused on other things that she didn't even noticed that I'm here. Wouldn't be the first time.'

Kara looked over to Winn. He was sitting at his desk, staring very focused on his computer screen. Apparently he was writing something that took all his concentration to get it right. He was quietly muttering words and numbers to himself.

'If everyone here is so productive today, it'll make me look bad. I can barely read through the email today for how tired I am...' Kara didn't want to interrupt Winn on his important computer-thing so she waited until he looked more relaxed and said: "Hello Winn."

Winn startled up a bit and looked over to Kara. "Oh, hi Kara. I hadn't noticed that you were here."

"Yes, you looked pretty focused on your work."

"I'm writing a computer program for Miss Grant. It uses data from satellites and weather statistics to create an algorithm that will help predicting the dangers of thunderstorms in National City. It's supposed to prevent accidents like when Leslie Willis got hit by lightning and became Livewire. But how are you, Kara? You look like you're sick if you, you know, could get sick."

"I'm fine. Just haven't slept much last night. I was out on my ...other job."

Winn rolled on his chair over to Kara's desk. "You were fighting an alien? What happened?"

She told him all about last nights escapade with the escaped prisoner.

"Oh that is so cool! I mean, too bad that it got away but the fight sounds pretty awesome."

Kara smiled at him. He had always been able to appreciate the crazy part of her live as an exiting and thrilling adventure. Others, as well as herself, had grown more used to fighting monsters over time but Winn had always been able to keep his sense of excitement whenever her heard a new story about The Girl of Steel.

"Yeah, but there was something that I have been thinking about since then. Something that Hank and I talked about. See, he told me about their first encounter with the alien. That they found it and immediately attacked it. They brought it down with electric shocks that knocked it out and threw it in a cell. It hadn't done anything! Didn't attack any humans, hadn't destroyed buildings they just took it down because it was an alien. I started to wonder what they would have done with me or with Clark if they had found our Pods when we had landed on earth."

"Huh, I get your point. When an alien comes to earth we can't tell weather or not it's looking for trouble. I know you like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt first but the DEO might have been right with this alien. It killed some of their agents after all."

"Well, they were shooting at it. They had just tried to imprison it. Now it mistrusts humans after this catastrophic first impression. If they had only tried to communicate with it before shooting electric charges. Things might have become so much simpler."

"The DEO was just trying to keep everyone here safe. Even if it wasn't the right call."

"Then maybe they need to learn to make the right call", Kara said, looking cross.

"How about you talk to this Director Henshaw about this."

In this moment they got interrupted by a yell from Cat's office.

"Kiera!"

Kara jumped up from her chair.

"I'll go back to the programming", Winn announced and rolled on his chair back to his desk.

In the door to Cats office Kara asked: "Yes, Miss Grant?"

Without looking up from her computer Cat said: "You know that I don't like distractions when I'm at work."

"Yes, Miss Grant." Kara knew that very well. She had and employer a couple desks far from her moved because his red hair was distracting her when she wrote that article about Supergirl.

"Then why is it that my office smells like a laboratory for experimental chemical weapons?"

Now that she payed attention to the smell Kara noticed it too. There was a slight chemical note in the air, barely recognizable.

"It must come from the cleaning tour last night", Kara explained.

"Have them change their cleanser to something more subtle."

"I'll take care of it." Kara turned back towards her desk.

"And open my windows while you're here", Cat added, fully focused on the screen again.

Kara did as she was told, then got back to her desk. She did some research on cleaning agents and their smells and sent an email to the office-maintenance company that cleaned Cat's office.

She continued work like that until lunch break. Unhappy with the under-average amount of work she had done so far, but looking forward to eat, she and Winn checked on James weather he'd like to join them at lunch.

"Ah, I'm sorry but this isn't a good time. I'm behind schedule and have to get this done today."

So they had lunch on their own. There's a small diner around the corner where they ordered sandwiches.

While they were eating they talked about everyday topics, Winn explained his weather-warning program further and made fun of some obscure meetings and appointments in Cat's schedule that Kara told him about.

Then, Alex called.

"Hi Kara, hope this isn't a bad time?"

"No it's fine, I'm on lunch break right now."

"Good. We have an alien troublemaker at the corner of 2nd and Market Street. Can you handle that?"

"Sure. I'll be right there."

"Thanks. First we need to find out it's weaknesses so you can bring it down. So listen, we know a few things about the species and..."

Kara interrupted: "I'm gonna go to find these weaknesses you talked about."

"Now wait!" Alex tried but Kara was hanging up already.

Winn looked both excited and disappointed. "Then go do your Superhero thing. I'll keep your sandwich safe."

That made Kara smile. "I promise I'll come back for it. But this looks like a job for Supergirl!"

And off she went.

S

The corner of 2nd and Market was a mess. The ice cram shop on one side had all its chairs and tables thrown over and distributed all over the intersection. Abandoned cars were left on the road. And in the middle of it all was a muscle packed alien. She looked angrily at a little boy who had fallen down and was now too scared to move.

"Where am I?" Muscle-Alien demanded to know while she was walking towards the scared boy. When there was no response the alien added: "I will crush your bones little creature if you don't tell me where I am right now."

"That's enough!" Supergirl had flown right into Muscle-Alien, knocking her off her feet. It got back up and turned angrily towards Supergirl.

"I will not be assaulted by a filthy creature like you!"

"And I will not allow you to run around and threaten people", Supergirl countered. "But how come you don't know where you are? You landed with Fort Rozz on this planet years ago, right? Somehow you even speak English."

"I don't speak the native tongue of this place. I have a translation device that lets us understand each other. I was asleep in the Phantom Zone and I woke up here."

"Wow, you are a real sleepyhead, huh? Not waking up for a decade..."

"Don't mock me, little one!"

"Right right, you are a tough girl. I get it. You still have to come with me, though. That's some serious property damage you caused here. And the people you injured..."

"I will not come with you! Nobody will imprison me again!"

"Listen to me.."

But Muscle-Alien didn't listen. Muscle-Alien attacked. Trading punches and kicks and occasional headbutts they learned their opponents strength. Both quickly found out that Supergirl was stronger and Muscle-Alien retreated for a new strategy. She flew up in the sky, closely followed by Supergirl. 'She flies fast', Supergirl thought right when an alien foot connected with her face. Dizzy for a moment, Supergirl tried to order her thoughts again but Muscle-Alien didn't let her. She punched Supergirl again and again. Loosing concentration she sacked down towards the ground but caught herself a few meters above the street. Muscle-Alien flew right into her though and kicked her right into the sidewalk.

'Now THAT hurt!' Supergirl felt a throbbing in the back of her head. It was had to see clearly.

But now there was a specific thought in her head. A memory. Something her father had told her many years ago on Krypton. They were talking about different alien species and how their fighting styles differed. He had said to her that day: "Actually, no matter which alien you'd fight, the one thing you need to know about combat, Kara: Get knocked down? Get back up."

So that's what she did. Remembering her fathers words, she stood up. Muscle-Alien was just lifting up a car she had found. Supergirl quickly x-rayed it. Good, no people inside. Then, before Muscle-Alien could throw the vehicle she used her heat vision to throw the woman backwards. The car fell to the ground.

"You are stubborn and foolish, girl", Muscle-Alien said. "But it would be wise for you to run now."

"I'm really not into this macho-talk", Supergirl responded. "If you're not coming with me voluntarily, I'd like to at least skip the whole 'I will destroy you!' talking part."

Muscle-Alien seemed to understand her point of view because she quit talking and ran towards Supergirl. Supergirl ran towards Muscle-Alien. Right before they hit each other though, Supergirl ducked down and kicked the aliens legs out from under her. She fell heavily to the ground just as Supergirl heard the engines of a couple of cars. Now it was Supergirl's turn to deliver hits and kicks. The DEO vans arrived at the scene and Kara saw Alex getting out of one of them. Muscle-Alien stopped fighting back after another hit on the head and Supergirl shouted to Alex: "I need a pair of handcuffs here. Strong ones!"

Alex came over with the handcuffs and they shackled the alien.

"Are you alright?" Alex asked.

"A few hits and kicks, nothing I can't handle. I'll go freshen up a bit and head back to work, my lunch break is almost over."

"And it wasn't a very reviving break, I guess. Maybe you want to take the rest of the day off?" Alex asked, feeling a bit guilty because she had called Supergirl during her lunch although she knew that she hadn't slept much last night.

"I really can't. There are a couple of things I needed to get done before lunch that I still have to finish. I can't risk getting fired over this." Kara knew that on a normal day she would have been able to work faster but she was too tired today.

"OK. I'll talk to you later then."

"Bye." With that, Supergirl disappeared into the sky.

S

End of Issue # 3