Supergirl and the Robin Hoods - Chapter One - sierrahiker Summary:
Supergirl flies in to stop a "simple" robbery from the National City Museum. But, both the thieves and Supergirl are stunned when she loses her strength and they get away. The first chapter of a multi-chapter adventure.
Work Text:
Chapter One – Home –
When she woke her arm flopped over to the other side of the bed, still neat and not slept upon, where once she would have woken Mon El. She always had the sun meet her just a minute before him, from this side of the bed in her Central City loft. The yellow star that both gave her strength on Earth and reminded her that she was a guest who had no home waiting. Krypton was gone and the red sun and crystal spires of her childhood lived only in her memories now.
Maybe that's why she was so drawn to Mon El. There's nothing quite so comforting as someone who knew where you learned to walk. Beneath the warm radiation of Sol, and in the gentle gravity of Earth, walking would be the slowest way for her to travel. But, today, it would be walking, as she wasn't Kara Zor El, on this Saturday, she was Kara Danvers; journalist and adopted sister and daughter to a new family that would be waiting for her at the coffee shop.
The "Crisis" had changed so much. Sometimes-subtle changes to a location or friend's address. Sometimes changes so beyond belief that she seriously considered that she was still dreaming for weeks after surviving. Discovering Lex Luthor was considered a hero, savior, and the de-facto leader of the government department where she protected this Earth from enemies foreign, domestic, and extra-terrestrial.
Lex, who once tried to kill her cousin Kal El – better known as "Superman," of course, on her new home. Lex, who – in another iteration of reality – had almost destroyed the last vestige of her home world, And, Lex, who emerged from the multiverse crisis with new standing and knowledge of her true, dual-identity.
On this Saturday she swung her legs out from under the covers and was reaching for her Kara Danvers glasses when vibrations reached her Krypotian ears that were discordant from the usual cacophony of cars and busses two stories below.
She'd learned from her mother – mothers really – both on Krypton and Earth – to focus. Something she thought she'd teach her cousin Kal. But Kal reached Earth before her while she languished in relativistic slumber. Arriving years after Kal, yet not being aware of the travel time. Such was the strangeness of our universe that was known to every Kryptonian child, yet was just dawning on this planet beneath her golden sun.
There it was again. Kara closed her eyes and focused on sounds that ran counter to the river of vibrations she'd expect. It was the groaning of metal being cut. Of glass breaking. Of construction sounds on a Saturday, when everyone should be slowly waking to bagels and coffee.
Turning her head, slowly, Kara could hone in on the direction and guess the distance from the intensity. The Central City Natural History Museum. Not, yet, open but not the sounds that should be coming from the new exhibits.
Before meeting her sister, Alex, and her mother; there was a stop she'd make as her persona here in this new, post-crisis reality. Supergirl.
The blue and red of her Kryptonian attire was a blur to human eyes as Kara moved above the usual weekend activities of morning jogging groups, people kayaking on the waterfront, and a city slowly waking to a blue sky and a warm Autumn day.
Atoms and molecules are always moving randomly, no matter their state – solid, liquid, gas, plasma – it makes no difference. A byproduct of drinking in solar radiation, for a Kryptonian on this small and rocky world, is the ability to influence the random movement of their own molecules to have a net force in one direction. It took both Kal and Kara considerable concentration at first. But the seeming ability to fly had Kara above the museum in seconds. It wasn't "fight" in the true sense of the term. No wings or buoyancy was involved. But Kara hovered above using her eyes – which were sensitive to electromagnetism far beyond the visible – to see through the building. See through to the vault below the main floor, where three figures were carrying boxes heavy enough for them to need two people, and loading them onto a vehicle.
"I don't think that belongs to you…" said Kara, as she stood at the black van and waited for the two men and one woman – who were busy filling boxes from the vault – to notice her.
This was the fun part. This was kids-play. Kara had to steal herself from enjoying it a bit too much. They'd be shocked. Surprised. Exclaim; "It's Supergirl!" …. She's seen this before and this time went right to script. The largest of the three dropped his box and didn't even try to run. The other man and lady simply stood and watched while Supergirl approached to apprehend them
That's when it happened. That's when everything went off script and this was the part that Kara would recount, in detail, to her mother and Alex later that morning.
Kara walked towards the man closest to the black van. He had just dropped a load and as they both thought they knew what was coming next, Kara felt her knees buckle.
For a moment, the three thieves - in grey jumpsuits - thought she was about to do something dramatic. But, no, it was her proximity to the box, that was in back of the van, that did it. A box containing gemstones, relics, and museum artifacts not, yet, ready to exhibit.
The other two retrieved their bounty and threw them in the van.
"What's wrong with her?"
"What happened?"
"Who cares? Let's get out of here!"
The screech of tires. The feeling of dizziness and nausea slowly passing. Kara had felt this before. Kara knew that the box must have contained some kind of Kryptonite.
By the time Kara had regained her strength and stood straight, the van was gone. Lost in the city and lost to her.
She'd check the cameras and use her rational, journalist training to track down the thieves. But, for now, Kara was happy enough to feel the dizzying effects of being too close to concentrated Kryptonite wear off. She'd meet them again. But, not this morning.