Kara was loving her new position, everyone at work was beginning to question how she wasn't completely floundering even her fellow interns with easier city assignments were looking completely run down. She was able to sway away any suspicion by reminding them all that she had been Cat Grants assistant and most people instantly backed off and understood how Kara had such a handle on everything. In the three weeks she had been a reporter Cat had been through six assistants according to Winn, two hadn't even made it through an hour.
Kara felt bad for Miss Grant but she had to move on at some stage but there really was no one else on the planet like Kara who could literally be Miss Grant's Supergirl. But hopefully she would settle on a replacement soon. An angry Miss Grant without her morning coffee sent ripples throughout every department.
Kara was heading into Central City today and not into Cat Co, she liked to split her time up structurally with one day at Cat Co researching and submitting her articles and the other heading into Central City to get the quotes and interviews she needed for those stories to work. Since feasibly there was no way as a human to be in Cat Co and Central City in the same day unless you were in Cat Co pulling all nighters which Kara could do but found them overly exhausting as the sunlight reflecting off the Moon wasn't exactly refreshing for her and it would look a little weird if she brought a solar lamp into work like she had over her desk at home.
Her flights to Central City we're getting shorter as she was getting faster with practise, prior to this her only flying time was mostly the short hop to Cat Co everyday and even then sometimes she only flew halfway and caught the high speed rail the rest of the way.
It was new and exhilarating. Today she was in Central City to follow up on an interesting crime spree of bank robberies, well it wasn't interesting it was terrible but mostly she was interested in how despite the increased security at all the banks in the city they were still being successfully targeted and robbed.
She had a sneaking suspicion it was alien involvement which would be a relatively new crime in Central City, mostly the alien crime activity was focused around the coastal areas of Metropolis and Gotham. Logically it would make sense to stay far away from the guys that were taking you down on a regular basis, ie Superman her estranged cousin and occasionally when it crossed into his territory Batman. The two had never been seen to work together sighting the reason was 'a disagreement about how to do things' which everyone called bull shit on. Something had gone down and a art of Kara wished she was close with her cousin so she could know what that was.
They had gotten to know each other a little better in their adult life. Clark had emailed once and that had started a chat backwards and forwards but never anything beyond that. It upset Kara so often Alex would tell her to forget about him if he made her this sad, but it wasn't the interactions that made her sad but the fact that it was just these interactions and nothing more that made her sad. Her only family on the planet and they barely emailed more than twice a month and exchanged e-cards at birthdays and christmas.
Landing in Central City she headed for some hot chocolate as a high caloric drink to keep her going until she had enough time to sit and eat properly, then drink in hand she went to take photos of the scenes. Since she had so far to travel she didn't get her own photographer and her column was small so it didn't often require fantastic images, just enough to paint a picture of what the article was about.
She visited the first bank location first. It no longer had a police cordon around the outside that Kara had seen before from the images she had researched and she could hear construction work going on inside. Hovering around the door she waited and was rewarded with one of the construction workers heading outside
"Oh excuse me sir?" Kara asked appearing at his shoulder as he was heading toward the coffee shop she had just come from herself. He did a double take at being addressed so formally
"Eer yes?" he replied uncertainly
"I am a reporter from Cat Co Worldwide media and I was hoping you could answer some questions?" she posed to him politely as he stopped in the street to pay more attention to her
"Err I guess so what about?" he asked taking off his yellow hard hat and rubbing his head as he did
"Just about what you are repairing in there, nothing about the robbery or anything" Kara said smiling
She then got a short interview from the worker who explained what him and his team had been hired to fix in the bank and how long it was going to take. She took his name and phone number and thanked him profusely for his time as he left. He seemed really flattered to have been asked and Kara was really glad because now she had a lot more information on how exactly the perpetrators had gotten inside this first bank and it would be pretty hard to have done so in the reported times the police and witnesses had given and be human.
Plus the damage described was pretty extensive. Kara moved onto the next scene that did still have police presence around it and decided to just photograph that one, The officer guarding the scene did not look like he was in the mood to speak to anyone. The third and latest which had been hit Sunday evening was still an active scene so Kara was one of the many reporters at the scene.
She noted down the police report the lead investigator gave to them all at the scene and decided that with that she definitely had enough to put a slight angle on their being an alien involvement, the fact that they had called in help from MPD (Metropolis Police Department) they hadn't officially said it but Kara recognized their badges from where they were milling around the scene.
Okay recognized and used a little x ray vision but it counted she could still see it and then google it on her phone quickly.
Eager to head back to Cat Co or at least home and start writing this up she was not paying attention opening her phone to stop the voice recording she had been doing of the press conference when she was crashed into.
Both her notebook and phone went flying as did whatever the person she had smashed into was holding as they went sprawling on the floor as she stayed on her feet. She felt instantly bad for whoever had walked into her, regardless of fault it must have felt like he had hit a brick wall.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry" Kara started and she bent down to grab her things and pack things back into the case the guy had been carrying
"Urggh " the guy started sitting up from the floor, "Honestly my fault I was running late and really not looking" he shook his head a little probably more than a little disorientated but not wanting to show it
"Are you okay" he asked Kara, suddenly realising she was who he had crashed into as he sat up enough to also help put all the crime scene gear back into the case
"I'm fine honestly" Kara said, "Is all this going to be okay?" she asked nervously as he shut the case having retrieved all the spilt equipment,
"It should be fine honestly, not the first case I've split everywhere" he laughed and stood up with Kara, "I'm... I'm Barry by the way, Barry Allen" he introduced
"Hi Barry" Kara smiled, "I'm Kara Danvers"
"That a nice name.." Barry started, "Well I'm sorry to have run into you but maybe -" Barry was cut off as a shout came from the crime scene behind him,
"Allen stop flirting and get to work!" Barry winced at Kara and then waved bye hastily before scrambling backwards having to dodge another reporter and he slipped under the yellow tape under the glare of one of the senior detectives and a wince from another.
Well that was… interesting thought Kara as she re unlocked her phone to cancel the recording and setup a reminder for her to grab the groceries on the way home.
She finished up everything she had on her checklist for central city, flew back to National city and slipped into Cat Co to write up some of her notes and make a late appearance. She had missed her boss who had left for the day so she sent him an email of her story and the alien connection before she headed out to quickly shop and get home before Alex did.
She didn't quite make it home before Alex who was sat at the kitchen Island as she sped in and put all the shopping away at speed and started to boil some pasta in the process.
"Hey Kara" Alex called when the whirl wind ceased and her sister appeared in the chair next to her, "How did today go?"
"Good" Kara replied her mouth around one of the doughnuts she had brought home as snacks, "Got tonnes of information I knows going to be exclusive, I know it's only my third week and I have a tiny column space but everything's going well!"
"That's great!" Alex replied happy for her sister, "Hey what happened to your phone?" Alex asked noticing it was scratched on the surface where Kara had placed it on the table.
"Oh" Kara made a face, "Some guy crashed into me after I was done recording the press conference, I think he was flirting with me but I'm not sure" she sighed and got up to stir the pasta.
"Are you not sure because you wanted him to have been flirting?" Alex asked eyebrows raised,
"What no, I don't know I'm not good with words!" Kara blurted out a little flustered,
"You really picked the best career" Alex spoke slowly and sarcastically and Kara made a face at her,
"Come on what did he say maybe I can help you figure it out?" Alex questioned pushing Kara a little,
"I don't really remember " Kara started before zipping next to Alex and grabbing her phone, "Actually" she started and then pressing a few buttons a voice rang through the phone of the police detective.
"You recorded it?" Alex questioned
"By accident I was turning it off when we collided" Kara explained as she fast forwarded through the conference to the end then played the interaction for Alex.
"Oh he was totally going to ask you out.. With the cheesiest line ever!" Alex laughed and grabbed a doughnut, pasta was taking too long.
"He was…" Kara asked a little unsure
"Yes" Replied Alex as she whipped out her phone
"Hey what are you doing?" Kara asked as Alex was silent for too long
"Oh Kara he looks nice" Alex suddenly commented looking at her phone and then turning it to Kara, "This is him right crime scene investigator at the CCPD, Barry Allen?"
Kara turned to look at Alex's phone, "Yes that's him, what did you do google him?!"
"Why not" Alex shrugged "I just wanted to see my future brother in law" she grinned as Kara blushed deeply, "Aha!"
"Okay so he wasn't that bad to crash into but I doubt I will ever see him again" Kara said moving to grab the pasta sauce to get it ready to put on the food.
"Mmn sure reporter meeting a crime scene investigator, never in the same places" Alex mumbled with a wicked grin.
Kara flushed but ignored her sister.
Her article was a hit with her boss and it ended up running on the third page as quite a large article. She was so excited it took her awhile to realise that everyone around her at work was not quite so enthusiastic. Eventually she overheard horrific rumors about herself everyone was passing around the newsroom none that were polite enough to repeat in any company and Kara was really down for awhile. Her sister could tell but Kara refused to open up about it.
Eventually her new boss pulled her aside and explained that with success came hate, I mean look at him everyone in the newsroom - yes even you Kara Danvers hates me and that's okay because I'm not here to make friends i'm here to do my job. Which is exactly what you should be doing and not moping at your lack of friends!
Kara was hurt a little by his words but also more inspired. I mean tonnes of people hated Cat Grant and she wasn't a bad person at all and some of the rumors about her before she created her business were quite horrific. All sued for every penny for every line of lies in the newspapers but still once it's out there it's out there.
Alex noticed when she came home that day her sister was a lot bouncier and almost back to normal and she smiled to herself and things were back to normal.
"Alex!" Called Kara zooming home from cat co after a pretty average day
"Kara!" Alex greeted from where she was sat in front of the TV a bowl of popcorn on her lap
"They've finally set a date for turning on the particle accelerator in central city!" Kara explained talking really fast, "Barry emailed me the announcement"
"Barry eh?" Alex commented but Kara was too excited and didn't hear her. Barry and her hadn't been out for coffee or anything but they had seen each other a lot at crime scenes and waved and a few short conversations in which Kara slipped Barry her card with her information on and they had been texting and emailing lot since
Alex found it adorable a relationship starting this way was exactly what Kara needed, friends first.
"Do you want to come with me when they turn it on?" Kara asked Alex, "I mean it's an evening and the weekend soooo?"
Alex grabbed a handful of popcorn as she considered, "I guess so" but then narrowed her eyes, "Wait why would you invite me"
Kara's eyes went a little wide, one of the sure signs she was about to lie, "Well I err, It's a scientific thing and you work in a lab" she tried
"Uh-huh" Alex said eyes narrowing, "Biology particle physics totally the same thing" she added watching Kara swear a little (well not literally but figuratively)
"Oh okay, Barry mentioned in his email he was bringing his sister along because she was also doing a report on it and I didn't want to be the third wheel"
"Honestly sounds like Barry is going to end up the third wheel here" Alex snorted,"But Barry has a sister?" she added raising an eyebrow
Kara made an anxious noise, "Fine" Alex agreed, "If nothing comes up at the lab" she added as a conditional.. "And you fly us there and back" she also added, "Otherwise getting there is a nightmare"