Chapter 6: Under Pressure

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.

Metropolis, Year 3 ASW

"Officer Sawyer? Can you hear me? Please say something!"

Maggie Sawyer of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit blinked awake. A second later she realized that her entire body was hurting. It felt like something big and brutal had used her as a chew toy and then spit her out again. Also, she was lying on something very hard and could feel sharp, hard things dig into her back in multiple places, too. Where was she?

Opening her eyes, she could barely see anything in the near total darkness she found herself in. Something was directly in front of her face, too. Something... red and blue?

"Officer Sawyer… Maggie... can I call you Maggie? Please say something!"

Maggie needed another few seconds to realize what exactly she was seeing. There was another person above her, their chest just a few centimeters above her face. It took her no time at all, though, to recognize that person. How many people were there who wore a skin-tight blue suit and had the famous S-symbol displayed prominently on their chests?

"Su... Superwoman?" Maggie asked, her throat completely dry and scratchy. "Wh...what is... where are we?"

She tried to get up a bit but found that she couldn't move much at all. For some reason she could not quite figure out yet, Superwoman was lying across her, though the other woman kept most of her weight on her hands and knees, it seemed. Some of Superwoman's blonde tresses were brushing Maggie's arm and she could feel something touching her leg, too. Had to be one of Superwoman's legs, she guessed.

"Short-term memory on the fritz, eh?" Superwoman asked. "Do not worry, I am sure it will come back. The short version, we are currently underneath about, oh, I would say about fifteen stories worth of collapsed building. Probably about 40,000 tons of concrete and steel, give or take. It is kind of hard to judge from down here, to be honest."

Maggie was not certain she was hearing right. "What... you mean... a building collapsed on top of us?"

She felt movement above her, probably Superwoman nodding her head. "Yes, that is what happened. There was a super villain called Decay. Long story. He caused the foundations of the building to rot away."

Suddenly Maggie started to remember.

"We... we had just entered the building," she rambled, her memory returning in quick bursts. "Someone had called us about a super villain. Vasquez was leading the residents outside; I was heading to the second floor. Third floor? I'm not sure, really."

She tried to shake her head, but found that she could barely move, pinned in place as she was.

"I fell through the floor," she suddenly recalled. "I only remember falling and then... nothing."

"That was when I came in," Superwoman told her. "I was busy evacuating the residents from the upper floors at super speed when the whole building came apart. I spotted you falling down into the basement. Sadly I was not quite fast enough to get you out as well; it was all I could do to reach you before the entire building came down on top of you."

Maggie looked around as best as she could in the near total darkness. There was nothing but debris wherever she looked.

"I... thank you. I guess you saved my life."

"Do not thank me quite yet, Maggie," Superwoman said. "I fear you and I are not quite out of the woods yet."

Superwoman moved a little and everything around them started to shift and groan.

"That does not sound good," Maggie remarked.

"No, it does not," Superwoman agreed. "Best as I can tell we are almost dead center in the middle of all this debris. A good deal of it is currently resting right on my back. I cannot move without everything shifting and coming down. Also, the building's gas main broke and there are pockets of gas all around us."

She moved her head a little and Maggie was just able to look into her eyes if she strained her neck to the limit.

"Bottom line, Maggie? I fear the moment I move, things will go to hell. I could probably lift up all the debris using my power of flight and carry you up with me, but I cannot be certain I can protect you when everything starts sliding at us from all directions at once, never mind that the gas could ignite when some metal parts start to spark."

Maggie's breath hitched. "I... isn't there... what about your heat vision?"

Superwoman shook her head slightly. "No chance. Even if I manage to avoid the gas pockets, were I to crank it up far enough to burn us a way out, the excess heat in this confined space will cook you long before I'm done."

She shifted a bit again, turning her head to the side. "Now, there is some good news as well, though. Rescue operators are already out there and working to clear away the debris. I tapped my fingers against a steel pipe rhythmically and they heard. I can hear them out there and they are looking for us. We just need to hold out until they find us and dig us out."

Maggie nodded, though her mind was working overtime. There was one thing Superwoman had not mentioned so far. Something that she was rather curious about given the way her lungs were burning from the dust all around her.

"What... what about air?"

Superwoman said nothing for a very long-seeming moment. "We will make it, Maggie. I promise!"

Hour 1

"If not for me, you could be out of here in a flash, right?" Maggie said.

They had remained silent for a while to preserve air, but Maggie found that the silence, disturbed only by the sound of shifting debris, was really driving her crazy. The near total darkness wasn't helping, either. She had never considered herself claustrophobic until today, but then again, she had never been trapped underneath a collapsed building before.

"What do you mean?" Superwoman asked.

"I mean... you're invulnerable, right? You could bust out of here, even if some of the gas ignites, and at worst you'd need to clean some soot off your costume, right?"

"Your point being?"

"I... you're stuck here because of me. And... what if you're needed elsewhere?"

Superwoman sighed. "Maggie, I am just one person. I have a lot of powers, sure, but being able to be in several places at the same time is not one of them. So yes, I might well be needed elsewhere right now. I am always needed elsewhere. But I have long accepted that I can only be in one place at a time, save one life at a time. Right now, that time and place is here."

Maggie swallowed hard. "I... I don't want other people to die just because you're here protecting me. I'm a cop! I should be the one doing the protecting."

Superwoman chuckled. "Well, good thing it is not up to you then, right? You are outside your jurisdiction right now, cop lady."

This managed to make Maggie laugh a bit.

"Aren't you something like a cop lady yourself, though?" she asked. "You know, apprehending criminals, protecting the innocent, all that."

"Hm," Superwoman mused. "To be honest, I have never seen myself as law enforcement. More like... a fire fighter, I guess."

"A fire fighter? Okay, that does make sense, I admit. Though I can't quite picture you wearing one of those red fire fighter helmets."

"I will have you know I would look fabulous in a fire fighter helmet."

For a moment Maggie imagined Superwoman wearing a red helmet ... and nothing else except her red boots. Damnit, down girl! At least she was somewhat distracted from her dire circumstances.

Hour 2

"Do you have a real name?"

"Of course I have a real name, Maggie. Do you think my parents named me Superwoman? That was the Daily Planet. Perry White, to be precise. Still glad he did not go with Supergirl instead."

Maggie managed to chuckle. "I meant, what is your real name? Or … what can I call you? I feel kind of awkward calling you Superwoman all the time, considering how... well, how close we've gotten."

Superwoman chuckled as well. "Yeah, we have gotten kind of close, have we not?"

She went quiet for a minute, making Maggie believe that she was not comfortable sharing her actual name with anyone else. She was already feeling stupid for having asked. Not like they were really close or anything. She opened her mouth to tell her to forget about it, when...

"You can call me Kara, Maggie."

Maggie exhaled, as somehow the immense pressure around her seemed to lessen a bit.

"Thank you… Kara."

Hour 3

"Don't you get tired?" Maggie asked.

Superwoman... Kara shrugged, causing the debris above her to shift slightly. "Eventually, probably. Not for quite a while yet, though."

"This can't be comfortable," Maggie gestured as well as she could. "I mean, lying across me, keeping all the weight on your hands and knees…"

"It helps that I can fly," Kara told her. "I am actually doing my best to hover a millimeter or so above the floor. It requires a bit of concentration, but I am afraid that my elbows and knees would sink in if all that weight were distributed on just four points and... well, I doubt being crushed underneath my invulnerable body is something you are looking forward to."

Maggie frowned, even as she felt herself blushing a bit, thinking about times she would not mind being underneath said invulnerable body. "Speaking of, is there maybe a way to escape downward? Don't you have... X-Ray vision or something?"

Kara chuckled again. Maggie loved that sound. "I do, actually. Sadly there is nothing directly underneath us except bedrock. The nearest sewer tunnel is about ten meters to our left."

"Well, worth a try."

"Maggie?" Kara said after a minute.

"Yes?"

"Um, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"Could you... I mean..."

"What?"

"Could you... scratch underneath my left arm?"

Maggie burst out laughing.

"What?" Kara asked. "I have been itching there for the last hour. It is distracting!"

Still laughing, Maggie proceeded to scratch the invulnerable woman's arm pit.

Hour 4

"Was this something you planned on doing?" Maggie asked.

"Being buried under a building? No, that was not on my agenda for today."

Maggie chuckled. "No, I meant... being Superwoman. The flying hero, loved by everyone. Was that planned?"

Kara gave her a look. "You sound like you spent some thought on that. What do you think?"

Maggie managed to give a bit of a shrug. "I was just thinking... on that day you caught the airplane, you didn't wear your famous suit. You were in civilian clothing."

"I am not dressed like this all the time, Maggie," Kara told her. "I know it looks great, but it is not made for lounging on the couch."

"I figured, but if you'd already had the suit back then, you would have changed into it. At your speed, it would have taken you just a few seconds at best."

Kara laughed. "You are looking to make detective soon, are you not?"

"It's kind of automatic for me, thinking about what makes people do things. And... well, the day you caught that plane, a lot of things changed. For me, personally, too, so I spent a lot of time thinking about it."

"What changed for you on that day?" Kara asked. "I mean, if it is not too personal."

Maggie considered that for a while, well aware that Kara was steering the conversation away from her initial question.

"I … well, seeing you on TV that day helped me realize what I wanted to do with my life. That I wanted to help people. That led me to the police academy."

It had also, Maggie added internally, helped her realize something about herself, but this was definitely not something she wanted to talk about right now. Not with the most beautiful woman she had ever seen lying on top of her, never mind the entirely unromantic environment.

"It was not planned," Kara told her, wrenching her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"Superwoman. Superwoman was not planned. You had that right, Maggie."

"Oh... okay, I wasn't sure."

Kara smiled. "You know I came here from another world, a refugee escaping an apocalypse. When I realized that this world which had taken me in had also gifted me with tremendous powers, I knew that great Rao would want me to use these powers responsibly and help other people with them. So I did that but wanted to stay out of the public eye. I was afraid that people would be scared of me, of the things I can do."

Maggie nodded, having figured something like that.

"But the plane was coming down, hundreds of people were in danger... there was no way to do anything and remain unseen. And my secret was not worth all those innocent lives."

Maggie remained silent for a while, adding this information to the mental file she kept on Superwoman… Kara. If... when she got out of here, she would take some time to look at incident files preceding Superwoman's debut. Maybe she could figure out where and when the alien guardian angel had intervened in secret.

"Well, I can only say, thank you," Maggie said. "This is the second time that Superwoman has saved my life, so I'm kind of glad that she exists."

"Well, both times were because of your work in the Special Crimes Unit, which was only created after I debuted. So those specific situations might not even have come up."

There was a certain undertone in her voice. Maggie needed a moment to figure out what she was thinking.

"Are you blaming yourself for the incidents involving super villains and such?"

Kara hesitated for a moment. "Maybe a bit? I mean, how many mad killer robots and walking personifications of decay were around before I made my debut? I have heard quite a few voices wondering whether I am somehow triggering these things."

Maggie shook her head as much as she was able to. "No way, you are not to blame for any of that, Kara! You save people!"

"From things that might not occur if not for me. I have heard several of your fellow cops, among others, say something along that line, Maggie."

Maggie knew this was true, of course. There were some idiots on the force who resented the alien flying woman who effortlessly handled menaces they were ill-equipped for. Maybe it was hurt macho pride or something, Maggie didn't know. She also didn't much care.

"And what if you weren't here and these threats still came along? Then where would we be? Our world is a better place with you in it. Never doubt that, please!"

She couldn't really see it in the darkness, but somehow Maggie knew that Kara was smiling down at her.

"Thank you, Maggie."

What do you know, Maggie mused. It seemed even the great and powerful Superwoman sometimes needed a bit of a pep talk. Somehow that made her all the more human. And oh, so, so, so much more attractive, too. She was in so much trouble.

Hour 5

"Is it... is it just me or is it... getting harder to ... breathe in here?"

One thing Maggie had noticed was that Kara was not breathing. Or she was, rather, but only when she spoke. Did she even need air? Was she holding her breath somehow to preserve the oxygen for her?

"The air is getting stale," Kara agreed.

"How... how close are the rescue guys?"

Kara turned her head a bit and Maggie imagined how it must feel like to be able to see right through solid objects as if they weren't there. Was it literally X-Rays? Did she see skeletons moving around outside? Or was it something more exotic than that. Something that actually allowed her to see as if whatever was in front of her simply wasn't there?

"They are getting closer, but it will still take a bit. You must hold on, Maggie. I swear by great Rao, I will get you out of here."

Maggie nodded. "You... you mentioned Rao before. Was that... a god on your world?"

She felt Kara nodding. "Rao is the great sun, the source of all life. We are all his children."

"Do... did your people believe in an afterlife?"

"You are not going to die, Maggie," Kara assured her.

"Just... just curious."

Kara stayed silent for a minute, but then she continued. "Kryptonians believed in the eternal balance of day and night. When our day ends and the light fades, we pass into the darkness of night. And when the sun rises again on the next morning, so do we enter the light again."

"So... you believe in... resurrection, then? A cycle of death and rebirth?"

"I believe that nothing is ever really gone in this universe of ours, Maggie."

"Not... not even your home?"

Maggie didn't know why she was asking that, really. Was it terribly insensitive? Well, reassurances to the contrary, Maggie was currently entertaining the notion that she would die very soon, so she might as well get a fresh perspective on the entire thing, if only as a distraction.

"Krypton lives on in me, Maggie," Kara told her. "The legacy of my people endures. And when I use the gifts Rao has given me to help others, then all these others also carry a little piece of Krypton with them. And when these people go on to do great things, well, the cycle continues. Truth, Justice, and Compassion, Rao's three cardinal virtues. As long as these concepts endure, so does a little piece of my home. And Krypton will not be forgotten even when there are no more sunrises where my home used to be."

Maggie felt a tear running down her face.

"That's a beautiful way to look at the world, Kara."

"It is a beautiful world, Maggie," Kara told her. "And it is up to us, all of us, to ensure that it stays that way."

Hour 6

"Maggie? Maggie?!"

Maggie snapped awake, not even having noticed that she had fallen asleep. Her head felt fuzzy, and the darkness seemed even darker than before.

"Eh, what?" she said, her voice slurred.

"The rescue operators are close, Maggie, but I fear we have a problem. We are almost out of air for you to breathe."

Ah, so that was the problem, she mused. Dizziness, darkness creeping in on her vision, hard to think straight, all classic signs of oxygen deprivation. Or was it carbon-dioxide poisoning? She had some difficulty making up her mind about that.

"Okay, Maggie, here is what we are going to do," Kara told her. "The gas pockets to our left have mostly aired out, so we will try and make a break for it that way. No people climbing the debris in that direction, either, so it should be safe for everyone on the outside."

But not for those on the inside, Maggie added mentally. Meaning her.

"The moment I lift up, Maggie," Kara told her, "I need you to bundle up as much as you can! Tug in your arms and legs, cover your head! I will do my best, but it will still be a rough ride!"

Maggie wasn't certain she could find enough air to speak, so she simply nodded.

"Okay, here goes. One, two... three!"

The world around became a nightmare of screeching sounds. Everything moved, everything shifted, and the world seemed to shake itself apart. Maggie rolled up as much as she could by sheer instinct, hoping against hope to protect herself from the crushing weight shifting all around her.

Arms and legs as hard as steel, but yet somehow also soft were around her. She felt the brush of fabric around her body. Hard things were on all sides, something sharp scratched along her back. She cried out in pain for a second, but the sound was muffled by the chest she was pressed into.

She had no idea how much time had passed but suddenly the noise ceased. And... was that... was that sunlight she could feel on her face?

"Maggie? Are you alright?"

The crushing yet gentle embrace she had been in this entire time was slowly easing up and Maggie opened her eyes, blinking against the brightness. They were outside. They were standing under a clear sky, and she was still alive.

Twenty minutes later she was about to be loaded into the back of an ambulance after a group of paramedics had fallen upon her like a pack of starving wolves. She was scratched all to hell, would sport a truly spectacular number of bruises in all colors of the rainbow by tomorrow, and would be observed for signs of a concussion for a day or two, too. Considering that an entire building had fallen down upon her, though, she was in remarkably good shape.

"Okay, everything is safe for now," she heard someone say off to her right, an unknown male voice.

"Good to hear," another voice answered. This one belonged to Kara; she would recognize it anywhere by now. "I would like to stay and help you more, but I am afraid there is a thing happening in the Congo right now..."

"You did your part, Superwoman," the man assured her. Maggie turned her head and saw that Kara was talking to one of the fire fighters. "We can handle things from here."

"Thank you," Kara said, shaking his hand. "Oh, before I go, could I ask you a favor?"

The man nodded and Kara leaned closer, whispering into his ear. Maggie tried to suppress the sudden surge of jealousy she felt.

"Ready to go, Officer Sawyer?" the paramedic suddenly asked, causing her to look away from Superwoman.

"Uh, yes. I... I guess..."

"A second please?" That was Kara's voice again, much closer now.

Maggie turned back around, looked up, and then started laughing.

"What?" Kara asked, grinning, as she repositioned the red helmet on her head. "Does it not look good on me?"

Maggie kept laughing all the way to the hospital.

End Chapter 6

Author's Note: Told you we'd see Maggie again. And she's getting up close with Superwoman, too. The idea for this chapter came about when I tried to figure out a good way for Kara and Maggie to spend time together. Now Kara might well have been able to lift that entire building's worth of debris off of the two of them without Maggie getting hurt in the process, but with the added complication of broken gas pipes she couldn't be sure she could do it and didn't want to risk Maggie's life on a maybe unless there was no other way. Also, I have a special place on my heart for fire fighters, as my grandfather was one. There are quite a few pictures of me as a child wearing a fire fighter helmet.

Decay aka Howard Pendergast was a one-off villain from "The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl" from 1982. We'll see him again (or for the first time, rather) in another chapter, promise. The trope of super villains appearing in the wake of a superhero making their debut is quite common, of course, and seldom questioned apart from the occasional "let's ban the heroes to get rid of the villains" storyline. I briefly skimmed it before in chapter 12 of Adventures of a Super Family, where Kara discussed this very issue with Wonder Woman and Batman.