Disclaimer: as always…
I do NOT OWN Superman, Supergirl and other related characters. Superman is created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Supergirl is created by Otto Binder. The "Earth Angel" aspect of Supergirl is created by Peter David. Superman and other related characters are property of DC comics.
Finally continued!!!!!
The following scenes DO NOT HAPPEN IN THE COMIC BOOK!
Chapter 6
Before I came home that night, I decided to call up Oracle to see if she had any info on Cat Grant.
"Well, she recently got fired from her old job as a gossip columnist at 'The Daily Star' after her boss found out what she did." She stated after a few minutes of searching her files.
I heard her searching for some more info when she paused and asked me what happened to my computer.
"Let's just say I got angry with it, one day, and friend it with my heat vision."
"Oh, sorry I asked." She said.
"If anything else comes up, try to call me when I'm off duty." I said as I put on some pajamas and hopped into bed.
"Gotcha, Oracle out."
The phone line went dead and I hung up.
I didn't sleep well that night.
Not only did I have a nightmare involving my secret identity being revealed; it somehow morphed into something surreal.
It involved me floating in a submersion tank.
My heart rate was steady until I saw where I was.
I was in some kind of lab with people bustling around with clipboards and white coats, tracking me.
"Don't worry my precious doll-" , I heard a familiar baritone say as he walked through the shadows in the doorway.
"You're in a safe place." He sneered. His gray eyes lit and the shadows made his skin look rough, like, he didn't put any skin lotion on for a few weeks.
He snapped his fingers and a woman in a white lab coat, clipboard in hand, came to him like a dog looking for a treat.
"Give this thing a mirror. She's been in here long enough not to know what her own reflection looks like."
She ran to a nearby desk and pressed the mirror up to the glass. I turned around. Staring straight back at me was a face. An almost dead looking face, pale with fully healed scars.
"No!" I screamed, waking up with a start. I smelled something burning near the bed and realized that I had just burned two baseball sized holes. Straight through the bathroom door, curtains, and the building across from my room.
The phone rang and I jumped.
I grabbed the phone, hands shaking.
"Hello?" I said trying to calm myself down.
"Linda? You ok? You sound like you've had a nightmare, or something." Mattie said.
"Yeah, I'm ok. " I said as I got up from bed and examined the, now smoldering, holes in the wall.
I cursed under my breath.
"That's gonna take a while to fix." I muttered to myself.
"You said something?" Mattie asked.
"No. Just wondering what you're up to." I said as I opened the door to see if anything else was burned.
Nothing was, thankfully. But I accidentally popped the door off it's hinges.
"Well I'm about to start my shift-" She started to say. "Oh, crap."
"What?" I asked as I put the door back into its place with my heat vision.
"That red-haired she-devil is here." She said quickly.
"Don't tell her anything about my day job."
"I won't.-" She chuckled, "You're secret's safe."
"Keep it that way. " I said smirking, as I hung up.
I grabbed a towel and took a shower.
When I was done drying myself I grabbed my clothes and put them on.
Then I went to the sink, brushed my teeth, and put on a mud mask to clear my pores.
As soon as I put the toothpaste back into the medicine closet and closed it.
I had the fright of my life.
Wally was standing there, calm as hell.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, frowning .
"Watching you." He said smiling.
"Not funny." I said.
He started to say something when I told him to talk to me when I get out.
"But-"
"OUT!" , I said pointing to the door.
"Nice face mask." He said smirking.
I washed my face and patted it dry with a towel.
"You want to know what's happening to you, Linda? You're an Angel." he said walking at a steady pace.
I narrowed my eyes at him and laughed.
"That's flattering. Coming from a kid who thinks he's God." I said as I grabbed a bowl, a spoon and a box of Cheerios.
"I'm serious, Linda." he said, following me to the dining table.
I eyed him carefully, studying his face, to see if he was lying.
He wasn't.
He grabbed a chair and pulled it near the table.
As soon as he was comfortable he grabbed the spoon I was using and waved it over the table.
"You're one of three Angels." He stated as a hologram of me, an African –American woman, and a Fabio look-alike with long white hair appeared out of thin air and onto the table.
He pointed to the hologram of me which was set ablaze.
"You're the Earth Angel of Fire. You've gone by many names throughout the years but Ember is the true name."
I chuckled, "You can't be serious."
"I am." He glared at me continuing down the line, pointing to the African-American woman.
"This is Blithe, the Earth Angel of Light."
"And who's the stud muffin next to her?" I said gazing at the white-haired guy.
"Oh, him? He's the Angel of Love." He looked at me and smiled. "I have a feeling you'll meet him sometime today."
He put the spoon down and the hologram disappeared.
"Oh really?" I said with a perked eyebrow. "How are you so sure about that?"
"You'll find out soon enough." He said as he snapped his fingers and vanished.
I ate my cereal quickly and glanced at the time on my phone.
It was one o'clock.
I stuffed the phone onto my pocket and sighed.
Might as well take a bus into Leesburg and see how my folks are doing.
Delicious smells of freshly baked bread, muffins and other delicacies filled my nostrils as I walked outside to the bus stop.
As soon as I went across the crosswalk , I stopped near a building and closed my eyes.
Funneling out the chatter of business people and other sort of folks talking onto their cell phones, I heard a familiar voice barking into her phone.
"…No! I'm looking for an Alexander Luthor. He told me that I could stay at the Lexcorp Estate for a few days."
I smiled, opened my eyes, and crossed onto another street where I saw a flash of red hair bobbing around the nape of Cat's neck.
I leaned against a wall as she groaned in frustration, snapping the phone shut.
"Just to tell you: Luthor, buildings, and money go hand in hand. You won't get in even if your great-grand daddy was part of the 'Luthor Discount Club'."
I saw her flinch, muttering a curse under her breath, and drop her phone.
I saw it fall and caught it just in time.
"Um. Thanks." She said giving me an awkward look after I handed the phone back to her.
She turned it off and asked, "How did you know I was talking about Lex?"
"Hmm. Let's see. One, everyone could hear you screaming onto your phone within a one mile radius. And two: Lex's full name is Alexander AND he has had more girlfriends than Hefner can count." I said, folding my arms.
"So, where are you headed off to?" Cat pried, putting her phone back into her purse.
"Leesburg. Going to visit my folks."
"Ah. I see…" She said while rummaging through her purse.
"What are you doing?" I asked as I saw something metal being pulled out.
"A little experiment." She replied, pulling out a lug wrench.
I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Why do you have a wrench in your purse?"
"I told you already." She said, holding it between both of her hands.
"Look I don't know what you're talking ab-" I said as she chucked the wrench at my face.
I watched it fly past me, nail through some guy's flip phone ripping it out of his hands, and lodge itself right into a tree.
"HEY!" He said whipping his head around. His eyes landed on Cat, who was trying to avoid his gaze to look at me.
"WHAT the HELL were you trying to prove just now?!" I whispered fiercely into her ear as she ignored me for a second.
"That I thought you were someone else." She stated, trying to act conspicuous as she ran past the guy in the suit and got the wrench back, the guy stared at her, furious.
"YOU owe me a freakin' phone, lady!" He yelled at her.
"Oh keep your tie on." She muttered at him, annoyed as she walked back to me.
"Let's try this again." She stated, still holding the wrench in between her hands, like the last time.
"Try to melt this." She continued, as I glared at her.
"With what, My mind? Look Cat, I don't have 'Super powers'" I said, grabbing the wrench out of her hands.
"Then prove it." She said, folding her arms, "Try to bend it."
"Are you serious?" I said.
I was on the verge of laughing. Sure Supergirl could crush it like Play-Doh. But Linda? Not a chance.
"What are you waiting for, an invitation?" Cat said, perking an eyebrow at me.
I sighed.
"Fine."
I grasped the wrench in both hands and grunted, acting as if I was a weakling.
"I think you have the wrong person, Cat." I said, huffing, as I handed it back to her.
She frowned as she put the wrench back into her purse.
The bus came to a halt in front of us.
I stepped onto the bus, paid the fare, and took a seat nearest to me with a window.
"Why so interested in me all of a sudden?" I asked Cat as she sat down next to me.
She didn't reply.
We were 20 minutes from midtown Leesburg when I looked out of the window and saw some apartment lights flicker.
"What in El?" I murmured under my breath as I saw some more lights flicker. It looked like there was a blackout.
"You said something?" Cat said, turning to me.
I quickly stated no, as I heard some screaming from a few miles ahead.
Okay, time to go.
I pressed the yellow tape to signal to the driver that I wanted to stop.
As we slid to a stop, I got off the bus.
Something didn't feel right.
"We're not even there yet!" Cat exclaimed, following me.
I ignored her.
We were a few feet away from the bus stop when I saw something fly past me, almost ramming into the bus, and kept going up.
"What in the world?!" Cat exclaimed, again, as I looked up seeing a hint of metallic purple vanish into the baby blue sky.
Whatever it was, was in a hurry.
Some people came off the bus, visibly shocked. I x-rayed them to see if they were injured in some way.
They weren't.
They were fine, but in shock.
I heard a gust of wind coming from a few blocks away and turned back to the bus, which got turned onto its side by a TK blast.
I frowned.
It certainly wasn't the purple thing.
I looked up and groaned.
It was one of the lamest looking Supervillians in Leesburg.
Great.
Just when I'm trying to get a little down time, some villain has to ruin my day.
The Super-villain had black wings and was holding a little boy hostage.
"I've been waiting for Supergirl to show up for three hours already." I heard him sneer into the boy's ear, "If she doesn't come in seventeen seconds, you're dead."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
If he wants Supergirl, he'll get her.
I walked past Cat with a sickened look on my face.
"You ok?" She said, concerned.
"Just need to use the b-"
I covered my mouth and ran across the block to a nearby alleyway.
Flying to a nearby fire escape, I shedded my outer clothing onto a rooftop and teleported, As Supergirl, to the opposite side of Feather Boy.
"Hey, Bird Brain!" I said drawing his attention, as I folded my arms across my chest.
"The Blue Angel." He stated as he turned around, his smile turning sinister.
"So we meet for the first time, Blue Angel." He continued, as he loosened his grip on the boy.
"Whatever. Let's just get this over with." I said.
He did a TK blast, which pushed me a few feet back.
I used my heat vision on him and he vaporized into thin air.
The boy fell, but I caught him and set him onto solid ground.
"Did you see that?!-" I heard Cat say to the surrounding crowd, " She incinerated that guy!"
The whole crowed ignored her.
They've seen me use my powers before, but this time my heat vision felt more powerful. It was more like flame vision.
I floated to the ground and asked the boy if he was ok.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" he exclaimed.
I chuckled.
"Nice to know I got another fan." I said as I ruffled his hair up a bit.
"I'll try to get captured more often." He grinned.
"Don't." I said, sternly.
I walked to the bus and asked if everyone was alright.
"They're fine." The bus driver said,"-I just got a bruise from stopping so quickly."
He rubbed his lower arm.
I x-rayed everyone just to make sure and nodded.
"Well, I gotta go." I said as I turned to the passengers,"- By the way, carpooling is a good way to reduce harmful gas emissions into the environment."
I waved goodbye as I flew back to the rooftop, where my clothes were, changed back to Linda and stepped down from the fire escape.
Cat wasn't there when I got back. I figured she was probably scoping out witnesses of the attack.
I walked a block or two when my phone rang.
"Hello? Linda speaking." I said into the phone as I was looking around.
"Linda. There's something weird going o-" Richard Grayson started.
I stopped short and saw Richard Malverne across the street.
"Dick, I gotta go." I said quickly as I snapped the phone shut.
He stopped by a nearby hotdog stand, took off his sunglasses, and mouthed "Linda?" in a surprised voice.
"Richard?" I said as I waved, grinning that he noticed me.
He filled out quite nicely. His liquid green eyes sparkled, making his salmon colored T-shirt and blue jeans obsolete.
He waved back after he got his hotdog and began to cross the street.
I saw a darkened shadow pas in the corner of his eye. I looked into the shadow direction and noticed that a truck was going to hit him in a matter of seconds.
"RICHARD!" I screamed.
"What?" he asked quizzically.
I ran at super-speed, tackling him to the ground, missing the truck by a fraction of an inch, popping his arm out of his socket in the process.
"Holy-" he managed to wheeze after he regained the air he had lost.
"You ok?" I said, helping him up.
"My arm popped out but-" he started to say as I scanned him with my x-ray vision to see if there were any fractions or floating bones.
His good hand was in front of my face. The bluish-white skeleton frightened me for a second.
I turned it off.
"Now I should ask if you're ok." He said chuckling as he cradled his arm.
"I'm fine, but we need to pop that arm back into place before it gets inflamed or something." I said, smiling back at him.
"Here's what I'm going to let you do. You take me to a hos-"
"Not enough time, It's going to get swollen by then. Besides, you don't want it to heal that way, do you?" I said as I gingerly grabbed his arm and firmly set it back into its socket.
He yelped in pain.
"Sorry. We'll get an ice pack when we get there." I said, as I ripped a long piece of his shirt off and made it into a makeshift sling.
"Thanks." He said sheepishly, as we walked out of earshot.
"No problem." I said.
"Hey, Linda?" Richard asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Yeah?"
"Why is there a red head with a camera following us?"
A red head?
I glanced backwards for a second and saw her.
Damn, that Cat Grant.
I silently cursed under my breath and told him to walk a little faster.
"We won't make it to the hospital in time unless you could somehow fly." He whispered to me as he picked up the pace.
I slapped my forehead.
Why didn't I think of that before?
"Richard? Have you ever did something that you would regret later?" I asked him.
"I dunno. Like what in particular?"
"This." I clocked him with the palm of my hand.
He went out like a light. I scooped him up and made a sharp right, into an alleyway where I shunted us both to a sparsely wooded area near the hospital.
I looked around making sure no one saw us appear out of thin air.
No one did, thank God.
I carried him into the hospital.
"He needs medical attention." I stated to a nurse nearby with short hair.
She looked at him in shock, grabbing a gurney as I put him onto it.
"How are you two related?" she asked after he was hooked up to the machinery.
"We're close friends." I said looking at him, "He just got back from Missouri"
"His name?"
"Richard Malverne. His dad owns a boat company around here." I stated, jerking my thumb south.
"Age?"
"24." I responded as he stirred awake.
"Wh- where am I? " he said, his eyes darting to the nurse and back towards me, getting up.
"In a hospital." I stated as I firmly pushed him back onto the gurney.
He fell with a soft thud.
"Someone's been eating their Wheaties." He remarked.
I gave him a don't-make-me-break-the-rest-of-your-bones-in-your-body sort of look.
He fell silent.
"How exactly did this happen?" the nurse asked me.
"She tackled me, head first, onto the ground." Richard said, interrupting my thoughts.
"Is that true?"
"Yeah. If it weren't for me, he would've been road kill." I stated, glaring at him.
"How long will the x-ray take?" Richard asked the nurse while trying to avoid the murderous glare I gave him.
"A few minutes" she said as She opened the doors to the X- ray room.
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Continuing where I left off.
The nurse strapped a lead vest over his shoulders. After that was done, I went with the nurse to the operating room. There a electrician flicked on a few switches and I saw the extent of the damage.
"You're lucky that you came at the right moment." The nurse said as I scanned the rest of his body with my x-ray vision, "-he would have ended up having a sling on his arm for almost a year."
I didn't talk for a few minutes.
"Y'know, you remind me of someone who's been popping up here often."
"And who would that be?"
She leaned close to me and whispered, "Supergirl."
"Oh?" I said quizzically, raising my eyebrow.
"There are rumors that go around here saying that when she drops by it's like she saves more people than she brings in."
"I guess I'll have to look into that." I said, smiling.
"My son called me a few minutes ago saying that he was just saved by her." The nurse said, gratefully.
"That's awesome. She saved me a bunch of times." I said to her, honestly.
I turned to the glass screen separating me from Richard.
"You love him don't you?" She said softly as she walked up and grasped my shoulder.
I nodded, "I just hope he's ok."
"He'll be alright, he's in good company." she said smiling at me as I opened the door and got Richard.
We went to a hospital room that the staff assigned us to.
"You're an angel, Linda. My Blue Angel."
"You're not the only one who said that today." I said, chuckling.
"Really? Who else said that?" he asked, excitedly as I pulled up a chair to his bedside.
"Let's just say it's not someone you want to meet in person early in the morning." I said leaning over his bed to fix a strap that was dangling.
"Let me guess... It's a bad guy, right?" he said, smirking a bit.
"Right." I said smiling.
He touched my hand and used his good side to reel me in for a kiss.
He stopped for a moment because I was feeling giddy.
"After everything I've searched for in this world, this is what I've missed." I said.
"Wow." he said breathlessly.
"I know." I said to him, beaming.
We were about to kiss again when I heard a knock at the door.
"I'll get it." I said as I got up and turned to fix my jacket and hair.
I opened the door as Cutter was standing right in front of me.
"You're here?!" He said in a surprised whisper.
I was about to respond when he yanked me to start to move somewhere.
I glared at him, I wasn't going to move one inch.
"What are you doing? I gotta show you someone." he said, quickly.
I sighed, "Fine, just let me tell him-"
"Can't. Andrea's about to wake up any minute now." He said shutting the door and dragged me to another room filled with My Little Ponies.
"Who the heck is Andrea-?!" I started to say as he closed the door.
"See for yourself." he said pointing to a woman in the bed.
It's scary how fragile people look in hospital beds.
I looked at room. It was a different color than most hospital rooms. It was an almost light violet.
A young woman with short, dark, hair was in the middle of the bed wearing a lavender colored hospital gown.
"You seem to have a fetish with ponies." I said, smiling at the overstuffed bed.
"You should see what's in my closet. This isn't even half of it." she said, beaming at me.
I looked at her and chuckled.
"Hey, you do have a funny bone. And here I thought you were always the sarcastic one." Cutter said nudging me to get a little closer to her.
"By the way, it's Andy. Not Andrea. Your buddy here got it wrong." she said, giving me a firm handshake.
A cold chill went down my spine.
It felt as if I was in a horrible blizzard.
I quickly let go.
"You're one of them." she said in awe.
"One of what?" Cutter asked me.
"I-I gotta go." I stammered, as I ran for the door and closed it behind me.
What had she done to me?
I lifted my hand up to check it.
It was still mind-numbing cold.
It felt like she had forced my hand into a cooler filled with liquid nitrogen.
I turned my hand over and saw tiny ice crystals embedded in my palm.
Still holding my palm up, I heated it, seeing the crystals melt into water and roll off.
I heard a small thud coming from in front of where I stood.
I looked up and saw an old lady in an electric wheelchair gaping back at me, with no top teeth.
The dentures had fallen into a brown mess that some would instantly recognize as mashed potatoes with gravy.
That's not good.
I quickly shoved my hand into the pocket of my jeans and walked back to Richard's door.
When I got there I walked through it and closed the door behind me.
"You're a mystery to me, Linda." I heard Richard say in a hushed tone, waking me up from the nightmare I was having at the moment.
"Uhm..How's so?" I said sitting in the chair next to him.
"Explain how you managed to tackle me like a linebacker." he stated his green eyes lowered.
I smiled sweetly and leaned closer to him.
"I'm stronger than I look, Richard." I whispered into his ear.
"I'll say.-" he said, smiling, "Now where were we?"
He used his good hand and combed it through my hair, caressing my cheek.
I leaned closer and kissed him.
He was about to kiss back when I stopped him.
"Did I do some-" he began.
"No, It's just that I-" My voice faltered.
I couldn't bring myself to say that I was Supergirl.
"I know." he said, "We're from different worlds."
"Aww. That's sw-" , I looked at him alarmed, "Wait, what?!!!"
"Linda, you of all people should know that you don't need to hide that you love me. I know you do." He said, grasping my hand.
I turned away.
"Linda. Look at me-" I looked, "You're brave, smart, sarcastic, not to mention strong and funny. I'm alive thanks to you. "
For the first time in my life, I couldn't say a word back to him.
What I wanted to say was said in my eyes, looking back at him in awe.
"T-Thanks." I stammered out.
"I mean it, Linda. I knew you were checking me out in high school." He said smiling.
I looked downwards and blushed.
I used my X-ray vision to check his ribcage for anything funny.
It instantly turned light blue.
Everything was fine until I saw what was below his ribcage: a small lump about the size of a quarter.
My fingers traced the lump and he winced.
"Sorry." I said, quickly and turned it off.
Maybe it was a sign from Wally.
A sign that told me: 'that's what you get when you check him out through the boys locker room at high school'.
I snorted.
"What's so funny? Are you remembering what happed with that Bunsen burner in high school?"
"Something like that." I said, chuckling.
I remember it all too well.
My heat vision accidentally kicked in during chemistry class.
Richard was walking to the teacher, complaining that his Bunsen burner wasn't working.
Oh, but he was working, all right, in those tight jeans of his.
That's when my heat vision ignited his Bunsen burner, the one in front of him, and the last one in front of that.
Before I left class, the teacher had an odd look in his face, like he knew it was me.
I laughed.
If I had missed, his jacket wouldn't be the only thing up in flames.
He laughed too.
"So-" he said in-between peals of laughter, "- how much can you bench press?"
The phone rang and I snorted.
"I guess you'll have to wait for that answer." I said to him as I picked up the phone and flipped it on.
"Linda Danvers. Who's this?" I said as I got up.
"Linda, how many times do I have to call you?!" Grayson's voice sounded static-y, like he was using his glider to go somewhere out of range.
"Well, sorry. I was busy." I said sternly.
"I don't want to hear it. Look, something's going down at Lexcorp. Some thing broke out of it and managed to rob a lot of banks in the last few hours. It managed to crack open a big safe like a sardine can, and stole some big boxes. I've tracked it down to that warehouse you and Lex were fighting in a while back."
"Are there any survivors?" I said, my voice turning serious.
There was a long pause.
"No. No one survived, unless you count Lex, his goons and his secretaries."
I silently cursed under my breath.
"I'll be over in a few minutes." I said snapping the phone shut.
I looked at Richard with a frown, "Sorry about that I gotta-"
"I know." He said smiling.
He didn't sound annoyed or frustrated, which was a good sign. I kissed him and told him that he should check out the lump under his ribcage.
"What lump?" he started to say as I walked out the door, to the exit.
I sprinted to the sparse trees that lined the hospital and looked around; making sure no one followed me.
Seeing no one look back at me, I transformed into Supergirl and shunted to Lexcorp.
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