by Lisa Yee
Lois closed her reporter’s notebook and put down her pen. “Sure, it’s okay, Supergirl. I know I ask a lot of questions. It’s my job—but more than that, I’m just curious about everything. We can do the interview whenever you’re ready. In the meantime, will you let me buy you a smoothie?”
Supergirl exhaled with relief. “Yes, please!” she said. “I’d love that.”
Lois waved to someone across the room. “Steve! We’re ready to order!” She explained to Supergirl, “Steve Trevor works here—his dad owns this place. We’ve known each other since we were little. He’s a good guy.”
A thin boy with a mess of blond hair made his way toward them, expertly weaving through the crowded café. He had a pencil tucked behind his ear, and when he smiled his braces glistened. While he chatted with Lois about a math test, Supergirl glanced around. A couple of girls were playing Oh, No! Orbit Zone, the new retro board game, with fierce determination. Over by the window a girl with a guitar was strumming the new interstellar hit “My, My, Oh My Milky Way.” And nearby, a round of comet checkers had gotten out of hand when a boy wearing a CAD Academy jacket lit several checkers on fire and hurled them at his opponent.
Supergirl studied the CAD Academy kids. She had heard rumors about that school. According to Katana, it had a disproportionate number of bad eggs and would-be super-villains. Its real name was Carmine Anderson Day School, but most people thought CAD stood for Criminals and Delinquents.
Still, Supergirl felt at home at Capes & Cowls Café. Packed with teens from the local high schools, the restaurant somehow managed to be cozy and hip at the same time. Waller had always insisted that her students get out into the real world as much as possible to meet and mingle with others. “To save the world, you must be a part of it,” she’d remind them.
Just then, Wonder Woman rushed in. “Hi!” she said brightly. “How’s the interview going?” Her head turned from Supergirl to Lois Lane and then back to Supergirl. “You guys look like you have a secret.”
“Not a secret,” Lois clarified. “Just nothing to go public with quite yet.”
“Oh! Well, snakes and smoothies and strawberry pajama tops,” Wonder Woman said, turning all shades of red.
“Are you okay?” Supergirl asked, reaching out to her friend.
Lois tried to stifle a laugh. Steve Trevor was standing at the table, matching Wonder Woman’s red coloring as the two stared at each other.
“Shake, rattle, and roller coasters?” he said, not taking his eyes off Wonder Woman.
“I see,” Supergirl said, giving Lois a knowing look. On Krypton, kids had crushes on each other all the time. She had even had her share. “They’re both just tongue-tied,” she observed.
Lois nodded. “You got that right.”
They laughed while Wonder Woman and Steve looked at each other as if no one else was in the room. It was like they had put each other in a trance.
“Order up!” the cook called from behind the counter. “Steve, order up!” he shouted again.
Steve didn’t seem to hear him, but Supergirl did. She nudged him, albeit a little too hard, and sent Steve flying toward a trio of CAD Academy kids, knocking over their table and spilling food everywhere. As the angry students closed in around him, Wonder Woman stepped in and broke up the fight before it started. “It was an accident,” she said, standing tall, her hand on her Lasso of Truth. Everyone grumbled, but the incident wasn’t worth taking on an Amazon.
As everyone in Capes & Cowls talked about what had just happened, Supergirl, turning her own shade of red, made a hasty exit. Flying over Metropolis, she bemoaned the mess she had made of the afternoon.
That night as she passed Hawkgirl’s room, Supergirl could see her sending her nightly email to her grandmother, Abuela Muñoz, in Venezuela. They were extremely close. Supergirl wished she had someone like that in her life.
Sure, she had Aunt Martha and Uncle Jonathan, but whenever she thought about them, she also thought about the circumstances that had brought them all together. Supergirl wished she could reciprocate the love they showed her, but something stopped her. Instead, she sent cheerful, chatty emails telling them about school. Whenever Aunt Martha called her and asked, “How are you doing, Kara?” she’d answer, “Good, just fine,” thinking that was what they wanted to hear.
Bumblebee was at her Junior Detective Society meeting when Supergirl sat at her desk and picked up a sketch she’d been working on. She wrinkled her nose. It wasn’t great, she thought. Her mother had loved the arts, and the two of them had always enjoyed drawing together. Sometimes, her mom would start a sketch, then pass it to Supergirl, who’d add to it, then pass it back. The drawing would go back and forth until it was done—a piece of art that the two of them had created together, side by side. Many of the sketches had covered the coolbox door in their kitchen on Krypton, alongside numerous candid family photos.
As Supergirl thought about this, a wave of panic washed over her. Her parents! No photos of them remained, she realized. Nothing was left when the planet exploded. What if she forgot what they looked like?
Frantically, Supergirl began to draw. Her mother, her father, the two of them together. Alura and Zor-El. Mom and Dad. More and more sketches, but to her, none of them captured what they truly looked like. Soon her room was littered with paper.
“Hello? I’m not disturbing anything, am I?” Barbara asked. Her eyes dropped to the piles of sketches on the floor.
“Oh…um, no…,” Supergirl said, gathering up the drawings at super-speed. “I was just—”
Barbara held up her hand. “You don’t have to tell me anything,” she said. “I’m just here to run the bimonthly anti-evil security checks on everyone’s computer.” She picked up a wayward sketch. “This looks nice,” she said before handing it over. It was a sketch of Supergirl’s mother and father, with Kara between them.
“It’s not!” Supergirl yelled, tearing the drawing into several small pieces. “It doesn’t look like them.”
Babs stepped back. “Whoa…I’m sorry if I’ve upset you.”
Supergirl pretended she had something in her eye so Barbara wouldn’t see her crying.
“Hey,” Barbara said, putting her arm around Supergirl. “Is there something you want to talk about, maybe? Not only am I a tech wizard, but I’m a pretty good listener, too.”
Supergirl looked around the room. “I’m scared I won’t remember them,” she admitted. “My parents. Every day I’m here is a day I’ve been away from my mom and dad.” Her eyes were moist. “Babs, I miss them so much.”
Kara held on to the crystal necklace around her neck. It glowed green at her touch.
Barbara nodded and sat down in front of Supergirl’s computer, not saying anything. Maybe she hadn’t been listening, Supergirl thought. Maybe she was embarrassed by her outburst and ignoring her. It looked like Barbara was getting right back to work installing the anti-evil software. But Supergirl was wrong.
Babs gathered up the sketches and scanned them using a device on her watch. Then she wirelessly uploaded them to the computer. With a couple of keystrokes, she accessed B.A.T.: Super Sketch Artist Pro.
“I created this program for my father’s work at the police station,” she explained. “It helps the police identify criminals and missing persons.” Barbara stopped when she saw the look of shock on Supergirl’s face.
“Oh, wow. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that your parents are either of those, but…”
Supergirl tried to speak, but nothing came out. Instead, she stared at the screen in awe. A perfect likeness of her parents was looking back at her. Both were smiling and waving to her.
“It’s them,” she finally managed to say. Her heart was racing. “It’s them.”
“We need to get to a super-deluxe 7-D printer,” Babs said. “Then you can have your own copy to keep.”
“There’s a printer in the library!” Supergirl said gleefully.
Barbara leapt up and chased her out of the dorms. �
��Supergirl, wait for me!” she called out.
As they raced to the library, the girls passed Beast Boy, who was sitting on top of Amethyst Tower.
“Hello!” he shouted down to them. He was hanging by his tail, having turned into a sloth.
Supergirl tapped into her super-hearing. “I’m practicing being nocturnal,” he explained, quite pleased with himself. Within seconds Beast Boy went from a sloth to a porcupine to a cougar to an eastern woolly lemur. Then, as a finale, he turned into a hippo and balanced on one foot on top of the tower.
“Watch out!” Supergirl called, ready to catch him if he fell.
A second before he was about to squash Barbara, Beast Boy turned into a bat and disappeared into the night, laughing.
“Bats,” Barbara said to Supergirl. “You gotta love them!” But Supergirl was already hurrying inside the building.
The massive halls were empty as the girls made their way past the Boom Tubes door. In the library, Granny was nowhere to be seen. Babs used her master key to start up the 7-D printer. Soon the mega machine was chugging and whirling. Supergirl stood silently waiting…and waiting…until finally something rolled out. Gingerly, she picked it up. She was trembling. Then she gasped. In the palm of her hand was a small dimensional hologram of her mother and father smiling at her.
“It’s another one of my B.A.T.—Barbara-Assisted Tech—inventions,” Barbara said modestly. Then she added, “It’s patented.”
“Whatever it is, it’s beautiful,” Supergirl said, choked up. “Thank you, Babs. Thank you soooooo much!”
Barbara hugged her back. “All part of my job,” she quipped, adding, “And all part of being your friend. Okay! Look at the time. Supergirl, I need to get back to work if I’m going to get all the anti-evil security checks done by lights-out. See you later!”
Supergirl waved goodbye, her eyes still on the B.A.T. hologram.
“Hi, Mom,” she whispered. “Hi, Dad.”
“Your parents?” someone asked.
Supergirl whipped around to find Granny Goodness standing behind her.
“Yes,” she said proudly.
“I’m sure you miss them terribly,” Granny said, offering Supergirl a sugar cookie. “You probably talked to your mom a lot, didn’t you?”
Supergirl didn’t feel quite right talking about her mother to a stranger. The dark, book-lined room held ominous shadows, and Supergirl’s instincts told her that something was wrong. But as she bit into the buttery cookie, she found it harder and harder to resist the charms of the little old librarian. With each bite, Supergirl’s reservations began to melt away.
Before going to sleep that night, Supergirl put the B.A.T. hologram on the nightstand next to her bed. With her head on her pillow, she stared at her mom and dad. They smiled back at her.
In the dark her crystal cast a soft green light on Kara. Finally, her eyelids fluttered shut and she drifted off into the first solid sleep she’d had since arriving on Earth.
“Security breaches are everywhere on campus!” Bumblebee announced. Though she tried to look worried, her eyes shone with excitement.
“Yes, and encrypted messages are being sent off-Earth,” Poison Ivy added as she absentmindedly nibbled on two mini-muffins, one in each hand. “But no one knows what planet they’re from!”
Supergirl had just taken a big bite of oatmeal. She wanted to try all the dining hall breakfast foods before deciding which ones were her favorites. So far she hadn’t found one. “What’s happening?” she asked through a mouthful of mush. She crossed oatmeal off her list.
The Flash pulled up a chair but was too nervous to sit down, so he kept holding it. “Someone or something has been trying to infiltrate Super Hero High!”
“How do you know?” Supergirl said. Would it be wasteful not to finish the oatmeal? It was like eating a bowl of gooey lumps.
“How do you not know?” The Flash shot back.
Supergirl’s face heated up. It was true that she had been spending a lot of time knitting and working with Barbara on her powers. Plus, she had been reading oodles of books on super heroes. So many that she could recite the history of the greatest Supers in the universe. But what Supergirl hadn’t realized was that with all the studying she’d been doing, she’d been ignoring the super heroes all around her. The ones in training who were alert to the goings-on at Super Hero High.
“Sorry, Supergirl,” The Flash said. He finally sat down, folded a slice of toast in two, and shoved it into his mouth. “It’s just that the Society has been monitoring this for so long and I’m kinda obsessed with it. I forget that not everyone is as clued in as we are.”
“There have been several suspicious attempts to break into the Boom Tubes, and Waller has asked us to monitor them,” Bumblebee explained.
“Boom Tubes?” Supergirl said, so startled that she accidentally flung a spoonful of oatmeal across the room. She was mortified when it hit Star Sapphire.
Supergirl had often stopped to look at the steel door, wondering what it would be like if she could travel through the Boom Tubes just once—maybe to check out Korugar Academy. The tests at Super Hero High were so hard. She wasn’t book smart like Hawkgirl, or a scientist like Poison Ivy, or as creative as Katana (though Supergirl excelled in phys ed). The idea of a school without tests continued to appeal to her—though not as much as when she’d first arrived.
“Hey!” Star Sapphire cried, marching up to Supergirl and getting in her face. “Excuse me, Supergirl, but gee, I wonder who’s responsible for this.” With no lack of drama, Star revealed an unattractive gray lump of oatmeal on her purple top. In a split second Supergirl began to wipe off the offending breakfast food.
“Drop it, Supergirl,” Star Sapphire hissed, grabbing her napkin from her. “You’ve made a big enough mess as it is.”
Harley caught it all on video, then turned the camera on herself. “Fashion! Conflict! Cafeteria food!” she reported. “One never knows what they’ll encounter at Super Hero High!”
When Supergirl returned to the table, Hawkgirl and Katana had joined the others. All the Supers had their heads together, exchanging rumors and theories about the Boom Tubes and the security breaches.
Supergirl sat back and listened. Topics ranged from a disgruntled ex-student stirring up mischief to an evil warlord from another planet trying to take over the world. Or it could be an elaborate CAD Academy prank—their pride still hadn’t recovered from coming in second to Super Hero High in the Super Triathlon. The speculation continued as the group walked out of the dining hall.
As Supergirl headed to Intro to Super Suits with Katana, a warning sounded in the distance. “Boom Tubes access denied! Boom Tubes access denied!”
Just then, someone—or something—sped past them in a blur. It was The Flash! “Let’s follow him!” Supergirl cried out.
The Flash stopped at the Boom Tubes door. Hawkgirl and Poison Ivy were already there, talking nonstop. They were examining a cluster of small scratches at the bottom of the door. Supergirl thought she caught a glimpse of something rounding the corner.
“Uh…uh…”
“What is it?” Katana asked.
Supergirl rubbed her eyes. “I thought I saw a little monster,” she said, unsure.
Cheetah strolled past carrying a foam board with a diagram of the major food groups on it. “She’ll do anything for attention, won’t she?” Cheetah sniped.
“No, really, I saw something,” Supergirl insisted. “At least, I think I did. It was little and scary, but also cute and— Oh, I don’t know! I didn’t get a good look at it, it was going so fast.”
Poison Ivy turned back to the Boom Tubes door. “Well, be sure to let us know if you see it again,” she said kindly.
Supergirl promised. Then she bent down and picked up something off the floor. “Here,” she said, handing the red cloth to Poison Ivy. “You dropped this.”
“It’s not mine,” Poison Ivy said, looking it over. “Flash, is this yours?”
“Not mi
ne,” he said, handing it to Hawkgirl.
“Not mine, either,” Hawkgirl said, examining the tiny initials sewn into the piece of cloth. “I don’t use a handkerchief, and my initials aren’t…GG.”
As the week wore on, the security breaches sputtered to a stop. Everyone, except for the Junior Detective Society members, chalked the whole thing up to internal malfunctions.
“I think they just want it to be some big spectacle,” Cheetah said, looking straight at Harley’s video camera as she stood on the stairs. Frost and Star Sapphire stood behind her nodding as Green Lantern and Beast Boy repeatedly photo-bombed the interview.
Supergirl snuck past the commotion and sped toward Waller’s office. “Barbara!” she yelled, waving and dodging in and out of the mass of students in the hallway. “Hi, Babs!”
Barbara looked guilty. “Supergirl! Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t been around to help you train, but I’ve been swamped.” She lowered her voice. “I’ve just finished testing the school’s breakers, electrical conductors, switches, and power distribution blocks. All are in working order, so that blows the internal malfunction theory.”
“Then what is it?” Supergirl asked.
Barbara shook her head. “It’s a total mystery. Hey, we should resume your training soon. That is, if you want to.”
“Yes, yes, I do!” Supergirl shouted happily. She cleared her throat and dialed down her enthusiasm, not wanting to seem too dorky. “Um, sure. Yes, I’d love for you to help me.”
As the two headed outside, Babs adjusted her Utility Belt. There were all sorts of technical-looking tools on it. “We’ve intercepted a series of cryptic messages from outer space, but so far no one can tell what they say. Could just be a miscalculation in our data gathering, but we need to be safe.” She slowed her pace. “It’s so odd. I was getting close to determining the origin of the messages, but then they just stopped. I want to keep sleuthing, though.”
“I understand,” Supergirl said, forcing a smile. “You’re busy. Anyone can see that. I don’t want to bother you.”
