Supergirl: Orbital
Three
James Olsen picked up the phone, barking, "What?"
"Nice to hear from you too, Jimmy," Nia Nal noted, amused.
"Oh, Nia, hi," James replied much more mildly.
It never was a good idea to antagonize the personal assistant to one of the richest women in America. Plus she was willing to be an off the record source for stories, relating to both Lexcorp and space science.
(Mind you, James was pretty sure that any tips that Nia gave him were okayed by Lena, but that was okay. It was how things worked at this level of power.)
"What can I do for you, Nia?" James asked mildly.
"Actually, I'm following up on a reference," Nia admitted.
James realized almost immediately, "Karen Danvers?"
"Yeah," Nia agreed, "I guess she told you we'd be calling?"
"She did," James agreed as he said, "Karen is really on the ball. In fact, she was like that when she worked here too."
"According to her resume, she started out there as an intern, then went into research for stories," Nai noted.
"Yup. She was really good at it too," James agreed, "in addition to researching background info for stories, she could put together briefings on story topics that made our reporters sound like they knew their subject."
Which, James didn't point out, was a feat. There were a few TV personalities he knew that bluntly were dumb as bricks.
"So.. why did she get no on air jobs other than fill in weather girl?" Nia asked.
James groaned, "In my defense, it was higher ups. The general thought seemed to be she was TOO pretty for TV."
Nia sighed, "I see."
"And just between you and me," James admitted, "at least one of our tv hosts was threatened by her. Said she'd walk if we gave her major airtime."
"So, would you recommend Karen as our media rep?" Nia wrapped it up.
"Certainly," James said, "she's got good stage presence, she's confident and she'll do the research that's needed."
"Thank you," Nia said warmly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Karen had the news playing in the background as she made lunch.
"The Flash of Central City stopped a bank robbery and several accidents," the news reader noted, "police, however, still wish to interview him."
'Huh,' Karen sighed as she chopped a salad.
The Flash had appeared about a year ago, after an accident involving a particle accelerator in his city. How, exactly, he got his abilities was unknown, but he was almost impossibly fast. He had saved hundreds of lives AT LEAST, yet the police remained wary of him.
'At least officially anyway,' Karen mused. It was pretty likely SOME cops were cooperating with Flash and generally looking the other way.
"Police are still hunting the Arrow killer, but little progress is being made. And the Batwoman of Gotham..."
Karen noted the time and called out, "Alex! You need to eat before work!"
Alex Danvers, her adopted sister and roommate, came in from her office, yawning. "Sorry," she apologized, "it's been a long day."
Alex was a recent recruit with the National City Police force, and had moved to the city from their home town first. Karen had been chasing a media job elsewhere first, and had come to town when that fizzled out.
"Did you get enough sleep?" Karen asked gently.
"I'm FINE. Really," Alex reassured her. "I just got in late from my night shift."
"Still low person on the totem pole?" Karen asked as she dished up the baked chicken, rice and salad dishers.
"Thanks," Alex looked less than thrilled at the healthy meal, but dug in. "Actually, I requested the shifts," she said.
"Really?" Karen asked, surprised.
Alex crunched her food, then noted, "Yeah, on nights I get more opportunities to make busts and do police work."
"And get shot at more often," Karen noted, disapprovingly.
Alex shrugged as she said, "No more that any other shift, besides you know that I take all necessarily precautions."
Karen puffed out a breath and conceded, "Okay, okay."
"So... are you going to keep going out as Orbital?" Alex asked.
Karen winced. Alex, of course, had INSTANTLY figured out what she was doing. "I don't know," she admitted, "I never PLANNED on rescuing that chopper... I was just test piloting the suit."
"And the bank robbers?" Alex teased.
"I couldn't just IGNORE it!" Karen whimpered.
Alex just laughed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Lena Luthor would never actually admit it, but she was a fan of Cat Grant. It didn't help that she was gorgeous, smart AND had used her fame to leave WBS and found her own station, Cat Co. She was handling this interview both because Cat was a celebrity and they were hoping to get her to promote Lex Space eventually...
"Karen Danvers?" Yes, I remember her," Cat admitted, sitting her office while reviewing story ideas for her station.
"What did you think of her? She worked directly with you, as I understand," Lena asked.
"She was my assistant for a bit, after she was done as an intern," Cat agreed. "She gave GREAT shoulder rubs," she noted.
"What," Lena blinked.
"Well, my REGULAR assistant had gone on maternity leave," Cat explained, "so Karen ended up doing all that stuff for me. She kept my schedule, did coffee runs, and yes was REALLY good at massage. Frankly, if she had at all been interested, I would have kept her."
"She was THAT good?" Lena had to ask.
"Certainly," Cat agreed, "and the sweetest thing too. No one on my staff had any issues with her at all."
Which, Lena knew, was saying something as Cat had a large staff and it was very easy to rub someone the wrong way.
"Do you think she'd be a good media rep for us?" Lena asked as a final question.
"She's IDEAL for it," Cat said, "you'd be fools not to hire her. Why, I remember I had to interview a staffer at LexCorp, and a briefing from her saved my ass."
Lena fought back a chuckle, as Cat had interviewed HER. So Karen had made her sound smart, hmm? Interesting.
"Thank you for your time," Lena finished.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I think it's electromagnetism."
"Rockets? Thrusters?"
"No, there's be exhaust and temperature variations."
"Then HOW is it staying in the air?"
Karen Danvers was at Lex Space's offices on her first day. And was TRYING not to be terrified. And weirdly several staffers were gathered around a desk looking at footage of her as Orbital...
"Antigravity?" a third man offered.
"If someone had cracked antigravity, we'd know," Lena Luthor emerged from her office to note. She saw Karen and smiled, "Ms Danvers! Welcome to the madhouse."
Karen found herself smiling at the welcome. "Miss Luthor, thank you," she started.
"Lena, please," she smiled, "we're going to be working closely, handling the press is going to be a full time job."
"Okay, Lena," Karen smiled shyly.
"We've got a office set aside for you, new PC and all. Get set up, then we can sit down and discuss the job," Lena smiled.
"Right!" Karen said eagerly.
"Hey, welcome aboard," Nia Nal added as she hurried in with a tray of coffee cups. "Here," she handed one to Karen.
"Huh?" Karen took it.
"Cream, sugar and a vanilla shot," Nia noted with a smile, "I remembered from when we got Starbucks together."
Karen beamed, "Thank you."
"Get settled in," Nia smiled, "see you at the meeting."
To be continued...
Notes: James Olsen and Cat Grant are MOSTLY as in TV canon. Alex Danvers, I decided to make a 'beat cop.' Not sure I want DEO in this, we'll see. Superheroes are again as canon, tho I'm not sure who else will be in there other than Flash, Arrow and Batwoman.