Sorry this is a tad late, it's been a rough couple weeks.
Okay, so before you read this I just have to say that when Supergirl (the TV show) first came out, a fellow writer joked they had stolen my Supergirl. I noticed the similarities in terms of age and personality but that was it. But we've already learned that Supergirl is adding Maggie (probably Sawyer) and even Katherine Kane will be popping by every so often.
What. The. Heck.
Who is reading my fan fictions?!
Cat let out another loud sigh as she waited for Coach Walt and his Metropolis University players. The man had been a legend at Smallville High School and found his way to Metropolis University as head coach. The news wasn't something on Cat's radar or even near it. Lois's cousin, a tech wiz from Smallville, said there was something amiss about most of MetU's first-string passing their midterms with flying colors. She also mentioned something about repeating history, but Cat thought nothing of it.
Cat was trying to move out of the gossip business and that information sounded a lot like gossip. Two days later, a player approached Cat with a story about the exams after being pointed in her direction. When Perry White caught wind of this, he assigned her the story. She published one article based on the player's testimony and began research for the follow-up once she got more proof. Perry said this was a good way to rustle the university's jimmies, as he put it., and he would handle the possible libel suit. Jimmy convinced her to be the on-the-scene photographer for the investigation and she obliged, only because it would tick-off Lois Lane. As a twisted form of revenge, Lois convinced Perry to assign a rookie to tag along with Cat. She couldn't suppress the groan when she realized it was Clark Kent's younger cousin.
Cat, Jimmy, and Linda stood outside the football stadium with several other reporters. Each itched with excitement or sighed in bored indifference in the humid heat. As soon as the gait to the locker rooms creaked, cameras flashed like strobe lights the minute he and his team stepped out of the stadium and onto the stage. Cat pulled out her sound recorder and adjusted the settings for the outdoors as this was happening; she noticed Linda had one too.
"Look," he began "I don't wanna hear any rumors going around, any false accusations…" She rolled her eyes as Walt explained his plans to investigate the "rumor."
"Any idea how they got those midterms, Miss Grant?" Cat barely paid attention to the lanky brunette who had as bad a fashion sense as her cousin and just as clumsy in her movements.
"Still a mystery, but I'm working on it." She had a sneaking suspicion who handed those midterms to the jock-heads, as she affectionately called them. But if she wanted Perry to view her as more than a catalyst for the rumor mill then she needed more than her "sneaking suspicion."
As the couch and players walked off the stage at the end of the Q-n-A, most of the press moved ahead of them and continued to hound him for details, leaving Cat, Jimmy, and Linda in the rear. She didn't notice a player whose hands had been kneading a football during the press conference, which meant she didn't see him wind his arm back and let it loose either.
Cat flinched away from the football three inches from her face. She gasped and blinked up at the person whose hand flexed around the ball.
"Ooh, nice catch." Cat tore her eyes away from Linda and growled at Jimmy.
"James Olsen, one of those Neanderthals you adore tried to assassinate me and all you can say is, 'Nice catch'?"
"I thought you wanted to strike a nerve, Cat," he said as he recalled to a conversation in the news van that morning. Jimmy clicked away and followed the line of boys in blue and white. Cat searched for Linda when she failed to hear shuffling and mumbling behind her. She watched Linda throw the football at the jock who caught it but let out a pained "oomph" when it hit his stomach.
"Nice throw." Linda gave her a lopsided grin and adjusted her glasses.
"Thanks. Pilates." Cat narrowed her eyes at the deceptively strong brunette then deemed she had better things to do than waste her brain power on Clark Kent's cousin.
Metropolis…
Cat frowned at the script being writing for the next Supergirl special. PGN agreed to do an ode to Supergirl on the behest of Cat. It was a slow development going from the early years to her final moments. The most recent episode centered around her downward spiral post-Apokolips, which contained its own particular hitches. She stared at the blinking cursor for five minutes, trying to think of the best words for this final episode, when she heard a knock on the door.
"Come in." Jimmy opened the door holding two bags of M&Ms and a four-pack of chai cola.
"I come bearing a peace offering."
"I didn't realize we were at war."
"In my mind we were."
"I see. Could you tell me why?"
Jimmy set the bags and bottles on Cat's desk and folded his arms. "I was angry. I was angry at you because you were dragging Supergirl's quarter-horsed reputation through the dirt. The last memories of her shouldn't be how inept she was at the beginning or how horrifying her actions were after Apokolips. They should center around her heroics, how she bounced back, how that light inside of her never completely faded."
Cat slid her reading glasses to the top of her head and leaned back in her chair. "James, have you even been-" Cat stopped herself. "What even entered your mind to make you think such a thing? That I've been railroading Supergirl's reputation?"
"It's more than that. You walked into Perry's office smug and demanded the Planet hold off on printing that image of Superwoman until you did your piece. To top it off, you've been strutting around like a diva."
"James, I am a diva. I have always been a diva. But I'm one who lives up to her reputation. So there's something else going on."
Jimmy's left eye twitched. "Like what?"
Cat laced her fingers together and set her forearms against her desk. "I knew you had a thing for Supergirl but I always thought it was base attraction or a crush. I was, however, off-base. You were in-love with her." The anger in Jimmy's eyes melted into sadness. "People handle grief in unique ways. You may have accepted Supergirl's death, but that doesn't mean the anger inside you has dissipated. Contrary to Wikipedia, grief doesn't always move so smoothly through those five stages and not always in their perfect order either. I am curious as to what that anger is centered on."
Jimmy's shoulders dropped. He shuffled across Cat's office and plopped onto her leather couch "We might need something stronger than that," he said, pointing at the soda. Cat smiled and grabbed the soda and M&Ms off her desk.
"These will do fine." The bottle clinked against her glass coffee table as she set it and one of the bags in front of him. "Alright, so you're angry." Jimmy grabbed the soda and twisted it open. "You're not angry at me."
"No, I am angry at you."
Cat waved her unopen bottle in front of his nose. "Uh-uh. There is an anger within the anger. And you let it boil under your skin after the slightest frustration lit a fire inside you. Which I understand. I don't doubt my ability to strike a nerve. The ultimate question is, again, what are you angry about?"
Jimmy shifted in his seat and took a swig of his soda. "Where's a punching bag when you need one?"
"Keep going."
"I feel…" Jimmy let out a huff. "Like I should've been better prepared for her death. I should've seen it coming."
"How could you?"
"We were close. She put herself in danger often. Risked her life for others. It was more than a job for her, it was a lifestyle. How can you stop someone from being who they are? Unless who they are isn't good, but she is good. She was good. To me, to everyone. Even with the crap she had gone through, she still kept that light."
"That's our girl, for you."
"I miss her, Cat. I really do. Why'd she have to die?"
Cat took a breath in through her mouth and released it quietly through her nose. "I'm afraid, even with all my worldly experience, I can't answer that for you."
"I know." Jimmy turned his phone on and typed in the passcode. The background image showed him and Linda on their first date. Cat noticed the picture but said nothing.
"You were right. We're going to need something stronger."
Washington, DC…
Red Hood stayed crouched on the roof of the apartment building as the rain washed the city. He kept his eyes glued to a three-story building across the street. The grey clouds darkened the city further by blocking the stars and moon. The city streets glowed from the afternoon downpour, which retreated to only a drizzle by evening. A thought flickered in Hood's mind on how Kara would comment on its unconventional beauty.
His fingers twitched as he pressed harder into the ventilation system. The curtains on the leftmost, top-floor apartment parted an inch or two then fell close again. They were heavy brown curtains that created a barrier between the apartment and the outside world. The first and last time Hood caught a glimpse inside the apartment, there was a linoleum-covered table shoved against the wall beneath the window. He hoped it was still there.
The hallways of the apartment building were thin as were the walls. Sound traveled effortlessly against the cheap plaster and brick. The trash shoot was wide enough to crawl up, but it gave its own list of difficulties. That left the window. After casing the joint for a month, Hood identified who belonged in that room and who didn't. There were three men in the apartment that night. He tensed as he watched two of them leave the building and greet a guy in the side alley leaning against a Gino's Pizza van. This was it. It was time.
He fired off his grappling gun and watched the special grade hook embed itself in the old brick. With a tug of assurance, he slid down the wire and into the window with a crash. The men the men in alley wouldn't miss that. He rolled over the table and came to a stop in the middle of the main living space. In the breath between landing and standing up, he registered the locked front door, the open bedroom door, and a closed door on his right. The closed door swung open directly before a Glock's muzzled fired off at his head. Red Hood ducked away.
The man with the gun swung his arm with Hood's movements. Another shot grazed the air by Hood's ribs before it 'clicked' at the third pull of the trigger. Not willing to waste a good opportunity, Hood threw a knife into the man's hand, forcing the jammed gun to drop to the carpet. A second knife penetrated the left hand and pinned it to the bathroom door.
"Long-long time no see, Red Hood." The man straightened his back and lifted his chin with a scowl on his face. But he kept gritting his teeth with every movement of his body. Red Hood slammed his hands on the knives and twisted them. A gargled cry echoed off the walls. He slumped against the wall and slid to the floor when Hood yanked out the knives.
"Listen here, Mahone." The blades went from red to silver as a kitchen towel wiped the blades clean. "Let your men know, as I let you know in Gotham, that as long as I'm in this city, you don't deal to kids. Got it?" He shoved the man to the ground and marched to the window.
"…gone soft, Red Hood." He stopped in his tracks and turned on the heels of his boots. "You heard me. You've gone soft. Last time we tangled, I was left for dead." Red Hood approached Mahone with long strides; he recognized what he was doing. While in mid-stride a goon broke in the front door. Hood shot him in the left shoulder.
He bent down and grabbed the front of Mahone's shirt, stained with the blood pouring from his hands, and jerked him to an inch from his face. "Never ever mistake my restraint for weakness." Another man entered through the front door. Red Hood shot this one in the leg and arm. "Keep in mind it's my restraint that's allowing you to live." A third one busted in from the bedroom somehow. He scarcely turned his head and shot this one in both knees. "Remember what I said." With a final growl to Mahone, he shoved him over and left.
It's only going to get darker for Jason.
Again, comments are the currency of fan fiction writers. It inspires us and sometimes gets our creative juices flowing.
I won't be updating this for another week or so, instead I'll be updating my other fic Five Dollars, She's Supergirl. Check it out.
Oh, and Supergirl will be running on a marathon of sorts on Mondays on the CW. So if you want to catch up on season one before season two airs in early October, then get to it.