AN: Just wanted to get this out before I left for vacation.
Peter and Karen
Chapter 2: Thread of Hope
"Okay so let me get this straight, they're basically a family of super heroes?" Power Girl asked Spider-Man was they were on their way to the Baxter Building.
"Yeah, Sue married Reed awhile back they got two kids, who are great by the way you'll love them, and then there is her brother Johnny Storm-he might hit on you by the way."
Karen rolled her eyes, "Wouldn't be the first time, go on."
"Then there is Ben who is basically like family since he's known Reed since like, forever."
"Was Ben the rock one or the fire one?"
"Ben's the rock one and the Matchstick is Johnny."
"And we can just walk right in?" She asked.
They arrived at the front doors to the Baxter Building ground entrance Kara thought it didn't seem much different than a normal building.
"Hey Stan," Peter waved to the old man that was sitting behind the desk wearing a security guard uniform.
"Hey there Spider-Man, who's the young lady?"
"Trying to help out a new friend, is Reed in?"
The man checked the computer next to him. "No one's signed out or left from what this computer is telling me but that's not saying much."
"Yeah that's true," Peter knew first hand that any member could have flown out in a vehicle or maybe Reed was working on teleportation technology, hell they could have gone for a trip in the Negative Zone for all he knew. You could never tell with the Fantastic Four what was going to happen, it made his own life tame by comparison.
He led Power Girl into the elevator, this was actually the only elevator he took as it was the private elevator used by the Fantastic Four and their friends as it lead straight to their part of the building.
Kara waiting for the elevator only half listening to the random music playing.
"Got to love those awkward elevator silences," Peter quipped.
That got a smirk out of the blonde, "At least they don't put musac in it."
"Reminds me of a prank I pulled on Johnny once when I hacked his phone and changed all his alerts, plus they kept changing back every time he changed them. He had to take it to Reed to figure out why, boy was he pissed," Peter grinned largely under his mask.
Power Girl gave him a glance with a grin about to ask him what he changed the sounds to when the door opened.
"And here we are," Peter waved his arms as he exited.
Power Girl looked out and blinked, the place was a lot larger than the thought. The hallways were larger and the ceiling taller than you would need, the place also looked very futuristic and reinforced. It was a stark contrast to the mostly normal outside of the building.
"Uncle Spider-Man!" a twin pair of voices called out as she saw two young children running towards them. One was an older boy with a younger girl next to him. Spider-Man knelt down hugging the two of them.
"So how are my junior mad scientists today? Make any dark matter or something?" He joked.
"No, daddy says we're not allowed to try and make dark matter anymore," the girl stated.
Kara did a double take, was the kid being serious?
"I see you brought a friend," Sue Storm said walking around the corner in her usual blue outfit. "As soon as they heard you were coming up the elevator they wanted to show you something they've been working on."
"We're trying to make this device that will be like a portable pocket dimension you can wear, but things keep coming out wrong." Franklin admitted.
"Yeah they're all burnt and stuff," Valeria nodded.
"Huh, well I'll take a look later, first my friend here needs to see your dad for some help." Peter stood up. "Everyone this is Power Girl. PG, this is Sue and her two scarily genius kids Franklin and Valeria."
"Hello there." Kara nodded seeing the family. The woman was older than her but still looked great for a mother of two. The kids looked adorable although she was starting to wonder just how smart the kids were by this interaction.
Valeria looked up at the blonde Kryptonian. "You're really pretty, are you Spider-Man's new girlfriend?"
Both adults were surprised by that.
"Whoa whoa, I just met her today," Peter waved his hands out. "Why would you think that?"
"Cause Uncle Johnny said you got dumped." Franklin shrugged.
Peter sighed under his mask, "Why do I tell that guy anything? I mean seriously?"
Power Girl smirked he was right, she did like the kids. "I take it there is a lot of history between Spider-Man and him?" She looked to Sue.
Sue rolled her eyes, "I swear those two act more like children than my own do at times. Them an their prank wars they keep pulling on each other."
"Uncle Johnny let's us help him," Valeria grinned.
"Shhhh, we weren't supposed to say that," her brother shushed her as the girl quickly covered her mouth.
"Seriously!?" Peter should have known, some of the stuff that Johnny pulled on him required a lot of brain power to come up with and make. Then he looked at the kids," What did he bribe you two with?"
"Snacks," Franklin looked guilty saying it.
"I'm going to have to have a talk with that brother of mine," Sue said clearly a little irritated. "Come on kids, you have your lessons."
"Okay, bye Spider-Man and Power Girl," Valeria waved.
The two heroes watched the family go off.
"They seem really nice," Kara stated.
"Oh they are," Peter nodded leading the way to Reed's lab. It didn't take long for them to run into another member of the Fantastic Four.
"Hey there Spidey I heard that you were in and -whoa…" Johnny came around the corner in that moment and halted at the sight of Power Girl. "God damn who is this?"
Karen resisted the urge to roll her eyes she was used to this kind of reaction. It's not her fault she grew up with her figure and face. She didn't really have to work that hard to keep it but the downside was the she turned heads whether she wanted to or not. She could feel his eyes going over her body and stopping a little too long at her chest for comfort.
Again, she knew she drew the eye but she had a personal rule, three seconds to stare but after that she'd get mad.
"Power Girl," she crossed her arms and tilted her head towards Spider-Man. "Spider-man said that Reed can help me get home."
"Oh and where's home? Cause I can take you there in style if you want?" Johnny figured a ride in the Fantastic-Car would be a ride to remember.
"Another Earth."
Johnny paused at that. "Like alternate realty or is Counter-Earth suddenly back?"
Power Girl quickly looked to Spider-Man as he had roughly the same reaction when she told him that. "Does this happen a lot on this Earth?"
"Eh," Both Peter and Johnny said at the same time as they made a so-so gesture with their hands.
"But Web-Head is right," Johnny nodded. "If anyone can figure out a way home I'm sure Reed can. But I can at last show you the sights before you go, how about it?"
"I'll have to pass," Power Girl smirked as she linked arms with a surprised Peter. "I already got myself a tour guide and he's been very helpful."
Johnny looked on surprised as the two of them strolled ahead and if they could see under his mask so would Peter. Okay sure he was still nursing the pain of his breakup but…damn. He could feel how solid build she was, although the expression on Johnny's face was all he needed it did give him a little ego boost to have such a lovely woman on his arm.
"Seriously dude?" Johnny asked walking after them.
"Hey what can I say Matchstick, you got to be a gentlemen and offer to help the nice lady home in a respectable manner to get anywhere."
"He's not wrong," Power Girl nodded as Spider-Man was a godsent to her. It was also a surprise he didn't sneak a look at her cleavage, especially when it was so close. Even Jimmy Olsen one of the kindest guys she knew had succumbed to the urge.
What she didn't know was that Peter did feel the urge, oh god in heaven did he, it took all his mental strength not to try and sneak a glance. He just kept his eyes straight and tried to focus on ahead. No matter how nice she smelled next to him like this.
-Later-
So here she was laying in what looked like part CAT scan and some kind of weird sci-fi bio-bed like device. She saw the device above her attached to a rail moving over her with a green light she assumed was some kind of scanning device.
"So do I have to stay still for this or something?" She asked.
"Well not exactly but I would prefer you not to move if you can," Reed said looking at the results from the computer attached to the device on the large monitor. She couldn't see much from her angle and just stared the ceiling.
"Fascinating," He muttered at the results.
"What cha got Reed?" Spider-Man asked literally perked up on a wall.
"Her molecular density is quite something, I'd say greater than even Jen's."
"It's a good thing I know you're not calling me fat," Kara smirked. "Also, whose 'Jen'?"
"Friend of ours," Reed stated looking at more results coming in.
Peter decided to fill in the rest as when Reed got into science mode he tended to get blinders on. "She's another hero, she was the fourth member of this team filling in for Ben for a while. She's normally on the Avengers at times and I would say one of the top physically strongest people on the planet."
"She's also kind of a bit of a party girl at times," Johnny shrugged.
"Said the guy she never invited to said parties," Peter joked.
"You set fire to one house party and people never let you forget it," He shrugged back at him.
Kara only smirked, she got the feeling this was the usual banter between the two of them.
"Oh," Reed's head tilted back before looking at Power Girl. "Forgive me for asking but are you not human?"
"Is being an alien a problem?" She suddenly realized that while she looked human she was Kryptonian. She just assumed with all the alien heroes on her Earth that it wasn't such a big deal here. In fact she had no idea if alien life actually came in contact with this planet, or if this was like her Earth had been invaded a few times and people didn't look kindly on aliens because of it. She hadn't exactly done a deep dive in the library for alien invasion.
"Oh no just a surprised," Reed told her going through the data on her DNA.
"Yeah my ex-wife was an alien shapeshifter," Johnny told her honestly. Although a part of him deeply regretting the loss of Lyja, he would always consider her one of the great loves of his life and it hurt how at one time he thought they could have had a future and family together.
"You were married?" Kara was surprised to hear that since his kind of childish attitude she hadn't know he had the mental maturity for it.
"Long story," he told her.
Peter stayed silent given that his own recent breakup was still fresh and honestly, he knew how bad it was to lose something that important in your life.
With the mood starting to take on a bit of a dark gloomy feel Reed decided to change the subject. "So what can you tell me about your species?"
Kara glad to the change thought back. "Well Krypton orbited around a red sun, we're an older race. We used to explore the galaxy in the past but…well…we kind of became isolationist. I don't remember if I ever learned why, I was still a teenager when I…left."
"Left?" Reed asked.
"Krypton…exploded." Kara sighed even after all these years it was still a hard thing to talk about. "Only myself and my cousin Kal were able to get off the planet."
She didn't count all those souls trapped in the Phantom Zone.
"I'm so sorry," Reed said honestly with Johnny and Peter nodding their heads.
"Thanks," she thought of other things to talk about to get off that memory. "We were an advance scientifically focused people, I mean we still had a religion with a few gods, Rao being the biggest. We lived in Houses such as my House, the House of El."
"We had five main guilds, the Military, Science, Artists, Religious and Labor Guild. I was studying to join the Science Guild like my father and uncle were a part of but well…you know. Anyways I'm not much of a historian, most of Krypton's knowledge is in my cousin's Fortress of Solitude."
"Well that kind of sounds bad ass," Peter commented. "Wait did he build it or where you sent in a fortress?"
"He had a crystal that build it for him in his shuttle," She clarified. "Anyways that's on yet another Earth so it's not like I can reference anything."
Peter blinked at the 'crystal built it for him' part, she really did must come from an advanced civilization.
"Yes that would be problematic," Reed looked more closely at something. "Tell me is this energy absorption I'm seeing part of your natural alien physiology?"
"Good catch," Kara nodded her head. "See with a red sun I'm just like a normal human but apparently with Kryptonians our bodies can actually take in the solar radiation of a yellow sun and gain powers from it."
"Wait, you're saying you're all literally solar powered?" Spider-Man asked. "What happens at night then?"
"We still have plenty of power but if I use a lot of my abilities I will get weaker over time but we're talking using it to extremes."
"How extreme is extreme?" Johnny asked curious.
"I once lifted Manhattan that was pretty much me giving it my all," She smirked.
There was a pause as everyone in the room looked at her as Reed went back to the computer. "I may have to shift my calculations a bit here."
"Yeah, no kidding Reed, jeez pretty sure you got to be in Hulk league to pull that off," Peter shook his head, this women was only a little taller than he was and while she certainly had an athletic form to her she didn't look like the type to be that strong. Then again, he thought to himself, you could say the same about himself just because of his slim form people tended to forget just how strong he was.
"Okay then I believe I found your quantum signature…that's odd…" Reed blinked and adjusted the calibrations as what he was seeing wasn't what he was expecting.
"What's wrong?" Karen asked turning her head.
"All matter for lack of a better term, 'vibrates' at certain frequencies. It's how I can tell the difference between matter from one universe to another." Reed started to explain. "What I'm seeing here are multiple vibrations."
Peter walked over to the screen to take a look. "Whoa, it's like her matter is in a sate of constant flux but it's a lot more stable than it should be. Maybe more like we're seeing 'echoes' at the quantum level?"
Reed got into a thinking pose as his brain worked out the problem, what Spider-Man said did seem to line up with what he was seeing. At first he thought it was his equipment malfunctioning but everything seemed to be working, so that was out. Then she could be unstable and might fall apart at the atomic level but he didn't see any signs of that either.
A thought suddenly hit him and he looked to Power Girl. "Had something like this happened before?"
Karen was shocked he figured it out as she got to sit up. The scan looked to be over and she wanted to say this sitting up if she was going to open that old wound. "Actually yes. You see there was this Crisis event where several if not all versions of my Earth were being destroyed by this entity the Anti-Monitor."
She took a breath. "A lot of things happened and while I guess he was beaten there was a cost to it all."
"I'm sensing this price wasn't a low one," Spider-Man knew a lot about paying the price for something and the way she looked and spoke told him a lot more than her actual words did.
Karan nodded sadly. "Yeah see, the Anti-Monitor killed me, I was full on dead."
"Well to be fair so was I not too long ago," Johnny shrugged. "In fact like half the hero community seems to have died at least once."
"So that happens here too huh?" Power Girl smirked before going back to it. "Anyways from what I pieced together. Basically he was stopped but it merged many of the Earths together into one universe. My original home reality doesn't exist anymore, at least I don't think it does. I for some reason woke up on the new Earth created with a full set of new memories. I didn't even remember my life on that other Earth until recently."
"Wow that's one hell of a backstory, not sure if anyone can compete with that." Spider-Man shrugged.
"Man we just went into space and got hit by cosmic rays," Johnny rubbed the back of his head.
"At any rate is this going to be a problem?" Karen asked.
Reed thought about it. "I won't lie it does complicate matters as it will take me time to analyze your quantum signature. If I try and sent you to a reality that doesn't exist…I'm not actually sure what will happen."
"Nothing good I bet," Peter stated.
Reed nodded his head, "Correct you could literally enter into a void of entropy or something else just as bad."
Visions of the Phantom Zone entered Power Girl's mind and she got a shiver down her spine, she didn't want to spent an eternity like that because of an accident in getting home. Then she felt her stomach drop about if she couldn't get home after all. "So…I'm stuck here?"
"For a time at least," Reed stretched out an arm to her shoulder. "I promise that I will continue to work on this. I believe over time your quantum signature will slowly adapt to our universe. As that happens I will require scans over a period of time to get more data. With this data I can then see the interaction of your fluctuations. In theory I believe the reality that doesn't exist will slowly become more faded as it doesn't exist anymore."
"So then you'll know which quantum frequency is the one I came from because it's the stronger of the two." He finished.
"Exactly, how long it will be that is another question as this could take weeks to months…" he left it that he hoped it didn't take a year or two. Honestly this kind of thing was still the kind of science that only he and a few others would actually research and he doubted Doctor Doom would be willing to help in the matter. He might throw what he had to Tony at least for him to double check the math.
"Okay so…now what?" Karen asked looking around. "I mean I'm thankful for this but I'm still stuck in another reality with literally just my costume."
"You can stay here," Johnny perked up. "I mean it's not like we don't got the room and unless you want to crash at bug boy's small apartment."
"Hey! It's a reasonable size for New York apartment…at least what I can afford." He muttered the last bit. "Plus, I can pull some help with the Avengers with setting you up with an identity."
"I think you mentioned them once before but I didn't ask." She asked with a blank look, she thought the name came across some of her research in the library but she was too focused on finding anything that was similar to her home to really take much notice.
Peter smacked his head. "Oh right we never got to that, it's a super hero team I'm a part of. See there are always aliens, time travelers and even the occasional dimensional traveler that pops up and the Avengers use their government connections to help set up identities for these people. I mean you will have to be vetted but since I'm a member vouching for you, that should help."
Karen felt a bit better about that.
"Plus I'm sure Sue will help with the clothing," Reed nodded his head. "We have a large budget here after all."
"Yeah that's something I've always wondered, just how much is that?" Peter looked around. "Cause I can tell you the stuff you play around with isn't cheap."
"I honestly have no idea," Johnny shrugged. "I just buy what I need from the FF card we have."
"By selling off or selling patents I have made over the years you can rest assured our family doesn't have much to worry about," Reed told them.
"Wait…didn't you all go broke a few years back?" Peter thought back to when the FF moved out of the tower and he thought it was Ben winning a bunch of money that helped get them back on their feet. At least that's what he remembered, he was kind of busy with his own problems during that time and didn't get to talking with them during that period, not like there was anything he could have done he was pretty broke back then too.
Reed at least had the decency to look embarrassed, "That's why we have accountants on hand now, so something like that doesn't happen again."
Karen rolled her eyes. "Never underestimate accountants they can save or sink a business."
"Speaking from experience?" Peter asked.
"I run my own software company, oh god they're going to freak out when I don't show up for work. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of cover story of why I suddenly fell off the face of the planet," she signed gently face palming at the incoming headache that would make.
"Ah the problems with a secret identity, I know this pain well," Peter nodded his head trying to act all sage like.
"And that's why I'm glad we don't bother with that," Johnny shrugged.
"Well at least I got time to think it over…" Karen looked up at the ceiling it would depend on how long she was stuck here. Maybe a surprise vacation and didn't tell anyone? That might work for a few days but nothing longer than that? Maybe she could pretend to have been kidnapped and have someone from the JSA or something show up saying they 'rescued' her? Maybe save that for a last resort, they would insist on her having a security detail after and that would get problematic.
Oh well, she'll think of something.
TBC…