AN: Okay I don't know why I need to say this but can people please stop leaving reviews in other languages. I've only ever written in English, so I don't understand why people who read an English story, with a person that only writes in English are leaving reviews in languages I don't understand.
Peter and Karen
Chapter 5: Coffee with a Friend
Peter yawned as he was bent over his lab table as he was working on a new upgrade to the spider stealth suit, mainly this was to replace the one that Kaine took. He still had no idea where his cloned 'brother' went off to. Last reports was Houston of all places but that guy had a long list of issues and Peter was in no position to hunt him down and, well he wasn't sure what to do.
Their relationship was a complicated one that's for sure.
Peter yawned again, "Damn it, should have gotten some coffee or at least get home at a decent time."
Then again was it his vault that Vulture had been causing issues last night? Seriously wasn't he too old to be going around with the whole super villain thing? Peter never said it but beating up on a man in his retirement age never felt good, even if said person had it coming.
Peter should look into getting or even making a coffee maker for his lab, Grady over in Lab 3 had one. Maybe the mysterious researcher in Lab 6 had one, not that he could get in. As far as he knew only Max knew who was in that lab, everyone else seemed to be in the dark. The fact there was a betting pool on who was in there seemed to be growing wilder. Last time he checked it was 40-1 it was Doctor Doom and 5-1 odds it was some kind of alien.
Well at least he managed to avoid Sajani today, he really didn't know why that woman seemed to be set to angry 24/7, or maybe just angry at him? He never had a good working, professional or private relationship with the woman. Maybe she just had a chip on her shoulder, honestly, he kept trying to think what he could have done to just make her pissed off at him but he kept coming up blank for the level of hostility she had.
Oh well, she was literally the only person he had a bad relationship with here. He figured he could just avoid her to limit interactions and maybe things wouldn't be so bad?
At any rate while he appreciated the ability to work on all his spider gear here with the resources that he wished he had since starting out, he still had to come up with ideas for Horizon to justify their trust in him. He already lost his teaching job and while he liked most of the people at the Bugle, going back to taking pictures of himself didn't exactly pay well.
He had a few ideas floating around, he just needed something to galvanize the concepts. One idea was personal shielding devices that people could get, given the things that happened in New York with all the villains causing trouble and regular crime it could be used to help keep people safe. The downside would be they were too expensive, wouldn't last long and whose to say a criminal couldn't just buy them to use again the cops?
So that was out and placed in the 'ideas to come back to later' pile.
One project were medical ninites to help heal injuries, he was running into software issues with those. They kept trying to over correct injuries and basically become a type of mechanical cancer. So, until he got them fixed that was a no go.
The most promising was the exo-skeletons to help with injuries or those unable to walk. Sure, they had cybernetics but they were very expensive and needed a lot of maintenance which only added to the expense. People like Misty Moon with a virbranium arm or The Winter Soldier got their cybernetics given to them. Well forced in Bucky's case but still, not every person could afford cutting edge technology like that.
This was to be the cheaper alternative to that.
He stretched out looking at some of said designs sitting on a few tables, he was trying to get the bulk and expenses down on the prototypes. If there was one thing he knew, it was how to turn junk into tech, his web shooters were proof of that.
"The problem is the weight to strength ratio," he muttered to himself. The stronger it was the heavier it had to be which meant more power and increased more weight.
That's when his phone buzzed. He had left it on the table and picked it up and was surprised to see who it was.
PG: Hey you busy? It's me Power Girl
He was surprised by the text as he wasn't how she got his number; it was using his Spider-Man account so only a handful of people had that. He didn't even know she had a phone.
Web-Crawler: Not really, how did you get my number?
PG: Got it from Johnny
Ah that explained where she got it, she was rooming with the FF while Reed was working on getting her home.
Web-Crawler: So something up?
PG: Nothing wrong, just bored. Want to get a coffee?
Web-Crawler: Sure, just sent me a location, and I'll Swing by
She sent an eye roll and laugh emoji.
That was something he liked about her, she got his humor most people didn't or at least tried to pass it off, but he was sure secretly some liked it. Maybe a break could get his mind off things plus he was interested to see how thing were going. He last saw her a week ago when she had to get all the paperwork done.
Peter took off his lab coat and opened the hidden wall he had. He placed any spider gear inside of it and took out his costume for a quick change. One of the reasons he liked Lab 7 was that it has an easy (for him) to reach skylight that allowed him to come and go unnoticed.
Making his way through New York it was easy to see why he never bothered getting a driver's license. With all the traffic he made it across town much faster. Plus, it's not like he could afford a car, he did have that spider car for a bit but honestly it just wasn't him.
"Huh, now that I think about it, whatever did they do with that thing?" Peter mused to himself.
It wasn't long until he saw a familiar blonde in white with a little red cape sitting on the top of a building looking at a phone. She looked up while he was blocks away and waved, Peter waved back in mid swing before getting closer. When he landed, he had to admit there was no bad angle with this woman.
He wasn't blind, she was devastating with her looks.
Granted he didn't try anything because she was going home at some point, didn't need that kind of long-distance relationship, even if he was lucky enough to get one with her. He still remembered that emotionally vulnerable woman he found not too long ago. Plus, he was getting use to being single again and he just wanted to focus on himself for a bit.
"So where did you get a phone?" He asked her.
"Apparently it comes with the Alien Refuge package and yes that's what it's called." Power Girl placed the small device in a small compartment on her new gloves. The other glove contained a card that the FF gave her so she could charge things to it.
"It's only got a few contact numbers," she explained. "My case worker, Sue, and Johnny because he wouldn't give me yours without putting his in there."
"Of course, he would," He rolled his eyes behind his mask. "So, what do I owe the honor of this coffee call?"
"I can literally count the number of people I could call friends on this world with one hand," she held up her left hand for visual reference. "Plus, I needed to get out and you came to mind."
Peter shrugged, "Hey I'm up for it, I was just spinning my wheels on a project at work anyway."
She smirked, "Skipping out on the job?"
"Great thing about my job is they leave us to our own devices and no set work hours."
"Wow, where can I apply? If I stay here any longer, I may have to start to earn a living."
"Got any kind of tech experience?"
Power Girl gave him a look with an arched eyebrow. "I come from an advance alien civilization and back home I own an run a software company."
Peter felt like slapping his forehead. "Right, forgot about that. Well, you never know, if you really need a job I could look into any openings?"
"Thanks, but I'm hoping I can get home before that, Reed says it shouldn't be too long before he's able to figure it out. He's been building something that can take me home in the meantime."
"Yeah, I'm not surprised, he show you the gateway he made to the Negative Zone?"
"Yep," She nodded. "He used that to explain what he was making a variation on that. Honestly from what he explained made it sound like this pocket dimension my people found called the Phantom Zone."
"Oh, is it full of ghosts?"
Power Girl bit her lip, "Kind of…it's where we put our criminals and they exist in a ghost like state."
"That's…yeah okay that sounds kind of brutal," Peter couldn't even imagine what that had to be like.
"Hey, Krypton did away with things like the death penalty," Kara defended her culture. "We did that to avoid the kind of prisons I've seen on this planet alone. It may not be perfect, but it got results, the crime on Krypton was very low compared to Earth."
Peter knew he might have stepped in it a bit, he really didn't know anything about her people, their culture or anything. Maybe it was more humane or maybe it was so horrible that people didn't do crimes out of fear. He didn't know because he had no real information to go on other than what she said.
"Okay-okay, sorry I'm just reacting to what little context I got," He held up his hands.
Kara took a breath, "Sorry, I can get a little defensive sometimes. I know my people weren't perfect, but they're all gone now and I feel like my memories are the only record left."
Well, her memories were mainly from the virtual world she had grown up in, in her ship being sent to Earth but it had been real for her. Plus, she really didn't want to think about yet more false memories, she had enough of that with the two world's she now remembered. Some days she wasn't sure if it would all drive her crazy at some point. Grant there was also Kal's Fortress of Solitude and its vast collection of knowledge, but she didn't exactly access any of that any time she wanted.
The Kal of the Earth she had come from wasn't her Kal of her original universe after all. So the relationship between them was complicated.
"I get it," He sat down next to her. "Memories are important because they're what keeps those important to us alive. As long as we remember them they're not totally gone."
He could name so many people, Gwen, her father Captain Stacey, Uncle Ben, what little he had of his parents, Jean DeWolff, it was depressing at times the amount of people he could think up.
"All I have are memories," Power Girl sighed.
There was a moment of silence between the two of them before Peter decided enough was enough. "Well now that the mood is all dark and depressing you were asking about coffee?"
"Oh right!" She had totally forgotten. "This little place across the street is something Sue told me about so I wanted to try it out and she's busy, so I thought to ask my only other friend in this world."
"Oh…so why am I here?" He joked unfortunately she was too fast as his spider-sense gave a little warning as she gave him a love tap to the shoulder, which still hurt. "Ow."
"Oh, come on I didn't hit you that hard."
"I don't know, maybe I should sue, get x-rays."
"Yeah, you'll sue me and get all that I have, which is nothing."
"Oh right, huh. It's odd to see someone more broke than I am for a change."
"I'm broke because all my assets are stuck in another reality, what's your excuse?" She smiled.
Peter shrugged. "A collection of extenuating circumstances, bad luck and having issues holding down a job given I tend to disappear at times for painfully obvious reasons."
"Well then let me buy you a coffee then."
"Oh, do they got any crawlers? I've been wanting to have one for a while now."
Power Girl stopped and looked back at him. "Was that a pun?"
Peter paused as he thought about what he just said. "Oh! Crawlers, heh, I didn't even think about that one. Now I got to remember it for next time the Avengers are making a donut run or something."
The place turned out to be a nice old school design of a coffee shop, wood paneling, soft music playing, the uniforms looked a bit old school like from the 40s but with a slightly modern look to them. There was and outdoor seats and small tables or larger booths along the walls. The placed smelled of coffee beans of various flavors.
And of course, everyone noticed when two costumed people walked in and got in line. Some pulled out smartphones.
"This is why I kind of prefer to the street vendors," Peter said as they waited. Which was odd given the number of pictures he had taken over the years of himself to sell you'd think he would be used to being the center of attention. Well maybe only part of the attention. It was rare to see heroes just walk into place, but Peter had been a hero for years and Power Girl was the new flavor of the week.
It also didn't hurt she was drop dead gorgeous.
Power Girl shrugged, "I kind of like it, it let's people know that we're not so different from them." She got a smile on her face as she remembered something. "There was this cute little girl came up to me and asked if I could sign her doll."
"You had a doll of yourself?"
"It was a modified one with a handmade costume on it, still it was sweat of her and of course I did it."
"Yeah, things like that do help make this all worth it at times," Peter could remember the smiles on faces of some kids he met over the years. He wondered whatever happened to some of them.
AS they got the counter there was a woman there, young, piercings with some dyed spiky hair pulled back as she looked them over.
"Capes or Cosplay?"
"Huh?" Power Girl blinked.
"You're either real heroes or cosplayers, in this city it's hard to tell and I don't know you so it's a coin flip." She said in a bored tone, they got the feeling this woman had a long day and wasn't usually up for anyone's crap. Or she just hated her job and was doing this to pay the bills until she could find a better one.
"Hero then," Power Girl replied.
The woman at the counter squinted. "I don't remember seeing you."
"She's new," Peter shrugged.
"Okay then, well can I get your orders?"
They both made their drink orders and something else to eat on it. When she got to the cups she already wrote 'Spider-Man' on his, to no one surprise. You had to be either living under a rock or never heard of New York if you didn't know about Spider-man. Being someone that had been active for a decade in the city and one of the more famous heroes who still looked after the little guy, well he was well known as a true New York hero.
Sure, there were others like Iron Man, Captain America and others that had their Avengers HQs in the city but you never saw them patrolling the streets.
No, it was guys like Spider-Man or Daredevil that people of the city thought of as the New York heroes.
When she got to Power Girl however, she paused. "So, what do I put on this?"
"Power Girl."
He got to the P before she stopped. "Wait serious, that's the name you go by?"
"What's wrong with that?" She crossed her arms. She was powerful and she was female. Okay so she was more woman than girl, but she picked that name when she was younger and it just rolled off the tongue better than Power Woman.
"Just seemed a little generic for me," She shrugged and finished the name as the two heroes waited.
"Generic?" Karen whispered under her breath.
"Personally, I like it, I mean there's a guy named Luke Cage and he went by Power Man for a while." Peter offered to help.
"Well at least someone in this reality likes that kind of name, by the past tense I take it he dropped it?"
Peter nodded. "Oh yeah his identity is well known so he figured he didn't need it anymore."
Power Girl was pretty sure that would never happen with her, while she was open to other heroes knowing her name, she liked her privacy. She could only imagine all the villains trying to sue her to damages if they found out that Power Girl was also Karen Starr a rich businesswoman.
There had also been that little incident of that boy that caught her changing out of her uniform in her apartment. The little brat blackmailed her with it, granted it was just to show off to his other nerd friends and he kept his word after she was his 'arm candy' for an afternoon to delete all the photos and keep her secret.
Of course why he was looking into other people's apartments with a camera was another thing his parents would deal with. It was also the reason she installed new reflective windows so you can see out but not in. She had learned her lesson that time. She could only imagine the type of people that would start trying to get pictures of her in her home if they found out where Power Girl lived.
They got their order and sat down as Peter pulled up the bottom part of his mask to take his first sip. "Hmmm, not bad."
Karen took her own sip and nodded. "Oh yeah I needed this. They don't have a Coffee Max in this universe."
"A what?"
"It's a small coffee chain in New York in my world, they make pretty good coffee." She took another sip. "There are a few things I've been noticing, like some companies still exist here."
"Oh, like what?" Peter was curious about this.
"Main things like T&T, Pizza Hut, Bell, Disney, several movies seem to be the same, but I have seen a lot movies and TV that don't exist either. Although you do have McDonalds I'm surprised that there isn't any Big Belly Burgers."
"Oh, that sounds very greasy and unhealthy but tasty at the same time."
"Oh yeah," Power Girl was grateful that as far as she knew she could eat whatever and not gain weight from how her powers worked.
"Damn…hey you think when Reed sends you home, we can take a tour? I'm really curious how different it is." Spider-Man was interested in seeing another universe with totally different heroes. Sure, there is a multiverse but the few things he could remember was mainly alternates of his world. Her world sounded like it was nearly completely different.
Kara smiled, "Deal. There is a lot I could show you and I know Atlee will love meeting you."
"Oh yeah I think you mentioned a little about her before," Peter thought back. "Some kind of person from an underground civilization, right?"
"Yep, also I guess you could say she's forced herself into being my teen sidekick," Power Girl rolled her eyes. "But she was already doing hero work before at least I can help mentor her a bit, plus she's more of a young friend to me. Honestly, it's been really nice having her around."
"I don't get the whole teen sidekick thing," Peter shrugged. "I mean sure I started out as a teenager, but I had to learn everything on my own and I sure as hell don't want to put some young kid into a costume having gone through it myself. I'll help out if they got powers and are already trying to be heroes, but I refuse to be the one to put them out into the world to face something that could get them killed."
"It's a thin line I know but one I don't want to cross."
Power Girl made a mental note that maybe keep him away from Batman if they ever met. Also, on the account she was pretty sure Batman would get annoyed with how much Spider-Man talked. She didn't mind personally, it was nice to have someone at least willing to have a conversation.
"I can see the point although it does seem like a lot of young people get into being heroes, it's our job to help guide them."
"Yeah," Peter sighed wishing it wasn't so but it happened all too often. He would prefer them trying to have a normal life but that's not always an option. "That's one of the reasons that Xavier started up his school for mutants. To give them a place to guide them and teach them. Also, the reasons the Avengers recently made that Avengers Academy on the West Coast."
"We don't really have something like that in my world," Power Girl looked thoughtful at that. "It might be a good idea for younger heroes to have a place to live and learn about their abilities. The only place I know is the group the Teen Titans."
"Now there's a name," Peter smirked.
Power Girl smiled, "Well originally it was a team of sidekicks. They got a few of the original members who are now grown up teaching the younger heroes. Oddly enough it's on the West Coast as well."
Peter was interested in the similarities of their worlds. "Well Avengers Academy is the old West Coast Avengers complex."
Power Girl just shrugged, "Teen Titans live in a giant T shaped tower."
"Wait like the whole thing is the letter T kind of shape?"
"Yep."
"Wait how does the top hold up? I mean that vertical line would put a lot of stress on top."
Karen paused to think, she hadn't thought about that. "I'm not sure, I never seen the blueprints but now that you mention it there had to be a lot of engineering that went into it."
"So, I got to ask…did they ever make a decent Terminator film after the second one in your world?"
"What's Terminator?" Karen asked him.
"Wait seriously? You guys didn't have James Cameron make the Terminator films?"
"Who?"
Peter stared at her for a moment, "You're messing with me, aren't you?"
Karen couldn't hold it in any longer and laughed. "Oh, that was too good, I had you going there."
Peter couldn't help but smile, he had to admit she got him good. "Yeah, you got me alright, with alternate worlds you can never tell."
"Well to answer your question no they haven't, guess that goes the same over here?"
"Pretty much yeah," Peter shrugged. "I do wonder what different movies and TV shows exist between our worlds. It would be like Rick and Morty's interdimensional television episodes."
Power Girl paused her drink to look at him silently questioning him.
"You being serious this time or trying to pull my leg?"
"No, this time I'm being serious," she answered. "Either I never heard of it or it doesn't exist on my world."
"Huh, well there's one, not sure I can do the show justice but there's an eccentric genius with his grandson going on wacky adventures through the multiverse."
"Okay that sounds like something I would have heard about," she said as she could list a few people she worked with that were into shows like that. She had to admit it was interesting when you got down to all the little changes. She was starting to wonder what else might be different between her worlds.
-Later that Day-
Peter was on his laptop just looking through ransom stuff, there wasn't much on TV and it was late and his costume was in the wash. So, he was just killing time on the internet when he saw Johnny tagged him on social media. It was either a cat video or someone had recorded something embarrassing about the hero community. Peter was pretty sure he hadn't done anything lately that someone could have captured on film. At least he hoped so.
He got to a social blog with an image of him in costume with Power Girl they were talking and smiling looking like they are having a good time. Then he read the caption.
NEW POWER COUPLE IN NY! SPIDEY GOT HIMSELF A DATE WITH NEW HERO
"Uh oh…" Peter looked at Johnny's message to him.
Flame On: Dude, I thought we were friends, and you're already dating her?!
Peter face palmed, he started to read the comments and then stopped, that had been a mistake. Peter sighed, couldn't just two people hang out and not be friends? He barely knew the woman and she might not even be here for much longer.
"Oh god it's already got a hashtag," Peter saw that PowerSpider was already trending. "This, this right here is why I don't normally go into public shops like this."
Sighing he could already see him getting a bunch of questions from a few Avengers. His phone buzzed as he got another text. "Speak of the devil."
IamTonyStark: So I see someone has been keeping secrets from me
Well Tony looked like he saw the image and now knew about Karen. Well, he would find out sooner or later but now it would be all over the Avengers and there was no telling what he was going to say to embellish the story.
"Maybe I can just hide out in Hell's Kitchen for a few weeks, I'm sure Daredevil won't mind. No one else wants to go down into that area."
In her room with the Fantastic Four, Karen was relaxing after a nice long shower and changed into some more comfortable clothes as she continued to read up on this world. That's when her phone buzzed and apparently Johnny was asking about her trending.
Karen wasn't sure what he meant until she clicked the link he sent.
"Are you kidding me?" She stared at the article. "We were just having a friendly cup of coffee, seriously?"
Other than being a hero with a PR problem, being a very nice guy with a sense of humor, she didn't know the man well enough to date him. She was very selective about the men in her life, well okay she was mostly selective. She did have moments of weakness like that one time she slept with Hal Jordon but that was years ago in a stressful moment.
"This is why I hate tabloid crap like this," She got enough of it back home. Even her civilian identity of Karen Starr she had to deal with stuff like this now and then. God forbid that a businesswoman in charge of her own company is entitled to a private life. She often wondered how Bruce dealt with this kind of stuff a lot more than she had to, then again, he had years to craft his playboy persona and used it to his advantage to throw off anyone that might think Bruce Wayne and Batman were the same person.
"Well this will be over in a week, or maybe Reed can get me home soon." She sighed wondering if maybe she should just look through the streaming services for anything that might be unique to this world for something to take her mind off this.
TBC…