Several blocks away from the fire
Barbara surreptitiously took her cell phone out of the pocket of her cardigan as it vibrated a news alert. Breaking News came the text from the local station, new Hero on scene of downtown fire - more powerful than Superman? Click here for live stream.
She sidled into an alcove and touched the link, the stream playing quietly. It was late at night and the Gotham Library was almost empty; she could get away with watching it for a bit.
A different several blocks away
Oliver nursed the drink on the bar in front of him, relishing the rare opportunity he'd afforded himself to take the night off. More importantly, he was relishing the aroma and the faint tingling sensation on his tongue from the chilli fries he'd treated himself to. They weren't as good as Big Belly Burger chilli fries - loathed as he was to admit it; their burgers might be inferior to O'Shaughnessy's, as was their everything else, but Big Belly Fries were divine - but they were good enough; and they complimented the double of whiskey surprisingly well. Or maybe they didn't, and Oliver had just lost the part of his mind that cared about whether flavours matched or not. After five years on an island, pretty much any food that you didn't have to kill or forage for yourself tasted pretty damn good.
A weird hush descended across the bar; Oliver's attention was drawn to the clunky old TV sat on a shelf in the corner as someone cranked up the volume. Programming being interrupted for breaking news in Gotham wasn't exactly a new occurrence; there was always some sort of high speed Batmobile car chase, some act of villainous terrorism, some major heist by one of the gangs that needed to be reported. This was different though. Gotham Heroes Intervene In Building Fire. Oliver's heart sank as he watched the distant shaking footage as green light enveloped part of a high-rise and tore it free; sank further still when he caught a glimpse of Green Lantern, explaining himself to the emergency services, Supergirl loitering in the background.
He fought the urge to put his head in his hands. Okay so sure, saving lives and putting out a fire was nothing to be sniffed at. But the two of them were just so new. The Flash would have spun his arms and made some sort of vortex that would've starved the fire of oxygen in seconds, and then sped everyone out of the building in the blink of an eye. Superman would have zoomed everyone out, and then scavenged steel girders from somewhere, using his heat vision to weld them in place as structural supports until the building could be reinforced properly Batman, if he'd even involved himself with a mere fire at all, would have used some sort of bat gizmo to buy enough time for the emergency services to do their job. This though? This was Booster Gold grade heroics. Worse, even. This was the kind of thing that made people feel uneasy about superheroes: because sure, they saved the day, but they made a mess doing it - and because they were anonymous, because there was no way to hold them accountable, it would fall on the insurance companies and the politicians and the building owners to clear up after them. They'd put out one fire, but they'd added fuel to another: more weight to arguments for vigilante registration, for government oversight, for outlawing secret identities.
Maybe Bruce was right. Maybe they really did need something more formal than just the occasional superhero team-up, to make sure everyone was on the same page, following the same rule. Damn if it didn't suck having to admit it though - Bruce was so much easier to put up with when you could just shrug him off as being a cranky old stuck in the mud who wasn't worth listening to.
With a sigh, Oliver downed the last of his drink, and gestured to the barman. "I'm going to need another," he muttered, as he dragged the chilli fries a little closer, and started dejectedly eating.
"If he hadn't, the entire street would be buried in rubble right now, and everybody in that building would be dead." Kara added, floating alongside him. She always seemed to get a bit more leeway with the people, it seemed. It was that 'S'. Everybody loved Superman. How could you not? He was Earth's greatest hero. Being related by association (or even fashion, in the case of the S) always helped. She thought Hal, as she know knew he was called, hadn't done a bad job with his first speech. Not quite perfect, not as charismatic as perhaps Kal would have been, but it did the job, and people seemed to love them, even with the damage.
"Now we fly away." She told Hal in a whisper, since there wasn't much left for them to do. The emergency services were here, and everybody was safe. Loitering was just for photo opportunities. "If you're concerned about the building, we'll come back later and see if we can move it." She added, because, well, she supposed leaving the top half a building there was inconvenient...
Fuzzy blobs of purple danced in Hal's vision from so many camera flashes that he could swear he was looking at a choir of Muppets. The questions came fast and hard, and he tried his best to answer another one, before he heard Supergirl's instruction. They could go, now? Oh, but Hal liked this girl so much better than the arrow guy, already!
Holding up a white-gloved hand to halt the questions, he forced a smile and said, "Looks like the emergency services have it from here. We'll leave you to it. G'night, everybody."
This had better work, Hal, you're on national television.
The plan was to float up a foot or two, hover, then soar into the night sky. Sounded simple enough, but so far nothing had been simple about the ring. Focusing, Hal took a step backward and imagined himself ascending a staircase in reverse. It worked! A foot off the ground he hovered, then turned to nod to Supergirl. Nods made it look like you had everything under control, right? Sure as hell worked in the Air Force. With that, Hal took off, soaring up, up and away into the night, his pace rapid, yet thankfully subsonic, this time, taking a course that would arc well away from the city.
"Well, that could have gone better," he admitted at last, touching down many miles outside of Gotham's city limits, no buildings in site.
"You saved hundreds of people and stopped a building collapsing, and you've pretty much mastered that ring. I'd say it didn't go badly." Kara shot back as she landed next to him, dusting off her costume a little, only now noticing the soot covering it. She stopped for a moment, taking him in, smiling. He was certainly handsome, older than her, that was for sure, and it was great seeing him do the 'full hero' thing. Plus unlike so many, he was a hero with powers almost comparable to her own. Or at least, she knew he could keep up with her...
"I told you you could do it." Kara said proudly.
Hal Jordan remained unconvinced. He stood there, staring at the ring as if expecting to find answers written upon its face. All there was to be seen was the same emblem which he bore on his chest. "I guess," he sighed. "I mean, I know I saved people, but... I kinda ruined that building, too. And left it in the road. Traffic tomorrow is going to be a nightmare. That Arrow guy is going to go off on me, next time we meet, too."
Slowly, his eyes lifted to the stars, though not many could be seen due to the light bleeding off of the city a few miles away. "Y'know, when Superman showed up, for the first time, none of us knew what to expect. The military was put on alert, Air Force got new weapons and strategies to deal with him, if he proved hostile. For all our sakes, I'm glad he's here to help. But we didn't know that, at first, and so people were afraid. What I did, tonight... that's going to make people afraid. They won't understand. Even I don't really understand, and I did it. Heaven knows what weaponry DARPA and the armed forces boys are going to try to whip up to use on me."
Silence as Hal shook his head, gaze falling back to Supergirl. She was strong, not only physically, but in character - a trait taught by Superman, no doubt. Prior that evening, they'd never met, yet now she trusted him in a way he'd seldom been trusted before. Finding a smile, Hal managed a bit of a laugh. "Wish I didn't have to go in to work, tomorrow," he chuckled. "Now that I've got flying down, I kinda want to do more of it. See how fast I can go." The smile faded into a pull of his cheek, wistful expression transforming into reluctance as he admitted, "You and Superman are lucky. You just get to be you, all the time, and he's got that Antarctic fortress thingy to live in. I've got a day job to work and an apartment to pay for. How the hell I'm going to balance work and this, I have no idea."
"What would you have preferred? We let the thing fall down?" Kara asked with a smile, trying to pick up his emotional state a little. Of course, Kara was a bit more careless when it came to saving the day than her cousin, being young and inexperienced herself, but as long as people were safe, she believed the end justified the means. "Hey, if it makes you feel better, I'll stop by tomorrow and see if I can help sort out the building." She suggested. She didn't want him feeling bad after all, not after his first genuine act of heroics.
"No offence when I say this, but if your people do that, it just shows humans can be idiots." Kara grumbled. Truthfully, Kryptonians could be idiots too, but now wasn't the time for that debate. "You saved people. Hundreds of people. They wouldn't be alive without you. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the families in that block? Or the people coming home from work to hear the story, realise how nearly their little kid or their lover might have been to dying if it wasn't for the man in green?" She asked. "The military out there can fear you if you like. Heck, I'm sure there's some out there who still fear us." She added, meaning her and Kal of course. "But the people who matter know you're here to help, and that's all that matters."
She laughed slightly when he mentioned that she just got to be herself all the time.
"Do you really believe that?" She asked with a giggle. "Me and K- Superman... We have real lives too, you know? Secret identities. I've got school tomorrow. And I haven't done my homework." She told him, which was actually true, but well, super speed came in handy for that, she supposed. If she knew the answers...
"You... have to go to school?" The expression of bewilderment upon Hal's face was so obvious that his domino mask hid none of it, stretching with his face in a manner which no material on Earth could. "And, Superman has a secret identity? He's like, the most recognizable person on the planet; who wouldn't spot him right off?"
The notion was incredulous, thinking that Superman could be trapped behind a desk for eight hours, or at the wheel of a truck, or working some sort of manufacturing, when he was capable of, well, doing whatever he wanted. Why would someone with so much power need a secret identity? It's not like anyone could harm him, and the various drone strikes on his antarctic igloo mansion thingy had yielded no weak spots (done as a precaution, clearly). Hal had seen the satellite photos, and everything the Air Force had on Superman, from his time as a military flyboy, and nothing indicated that big blue did anything but be Superman all the time.
Bewilderment melted into self-bemusement as Hal chuckled. "I always thought that superheroes were all independently wealthy, or magical or something. I mean, look at The Flash. He's always able to be anywhere, so clearly can't have a job. Batman, well, he is kind of limited by it needing to be night, and all, but still, he's got some flashy toys, from what I've seen. I even met a guy, last night, who does archery as his deal. You can't tell me the stuff he was using came off the shelf down at Academy or Big 5, and custom stuff costs some real cash. Me, I just got given the ring, and then got fired. Hell, I'm even lucky I got the job I have, now. If I try and bail in the middle of a shift, I'll be canned for sure. Kinda like you skipping out on a class, I'd imagine." He couldn't resist the smirking smile that turned up his mouth at the end.
It was in that moment that Hal realized he was talking a lot. Much more than he usually did. Was it because he didn't have anyone else to talk to, in Gotham? Or, was he simply trying to get a pretty girl to smile? Oh, sure, Supergirl was too young for him, but still, it didn't hurt.
Oh, that smile. Kara felt her heart flutter a little. He was handsome, superpowered, WAY too old for her, looked like a movie star. Kara had her first superhero crush, and it was taking all of her abilities to keep it repressed and keep up a normal conversation.
"You'd be surprised." Kara smiled back at Hal, not wanting to give too much away about Kal's secret identity, but at least putting it out there. "Hey, even Kryptonians need to pay the rent, y'know?" She joked. "Besides, life'd be pretty rough if you were a superhero all the time. No friends, no home, nothing you enjoy or want to do for yourself. Even Superman has his own life sometimes." She told him, even if she disagreed with his 'Clark Kent' personae. Being a young teenager with her chance to be popular for the first time in her life, Kara couldn't grasp Kal's choice to always present himself as a mild mannered loser.
"Hey, all I can tell you is, those of us who share the S, we aren't rich." She told him. "Well, not money-wise, anyway." She added, because she felt like saying that was a disservice to Jonathan and Martha, who even she called Ma and Pa and had a crazy level of respect for. Even if sometimes (like all teenagers) she fantasied about being rich. It just wasn't to be. "I can't really vouch for the others, though." She added. Except Wally, but she figured she'd better not mention him, of course.
"Hey, it's school. All you get is in trouble for skipping class. And to be honest, sometimes I like to anyway. I grew up on another planet. School here is weird. I mean, stuff you take for granted, I've never even heard of. It's no fun being the school ditz." She told him, surprised by the confession.
"Skipping class might seem like fun and games, but it's not a good practice," Hal lectured. "Proper attendance helps build character, and respect, not to mention it lets people know you're accountable."
He caught himself there, realizing he was talking to Supergirl. A gloved hand reached up to scratch the back of his neck as his tone lost its mature sensibility. "I mean, in your secret identity life, that is. Nobody doubts you as Supergirl, and all that. I mean..."
Hal trailed off, there, not wishing to dig even deeper into a hole he never meant to begin excavating in the first place. "What I meant was," he paused looking down at his ring. "I don't know if I'm up for this responsibility, yet. I didn't ask for any of this. I'm just..."
Closing his eyes, he decided to fully drop his guard. The suit faded away, leaving Hal Jordan in his civilian clothes - blue jeans, a tee shirt, and a Wayne Enterprises flight jacket with his name on an embroidered patch on the right breast pocket. "I'm just a guy, y'know?"
"Okay, now you sound like my cousin." Kara countered when Hal lectured on her going to school. She decided not to mention how 'saving lives' let people know you were accountable and helped people far more than sitting in some boring classroom learning about the ancient history of a planet you didn't even belong on. But still, it was at least a little amusing and gratifying to see him try and backtrack and compliment her as Supergirl, at least, and she couldn't hide a smile from that.
"And I was just a girl..." She countered. "Do you think I asked for any of this?" She asked, waving a hand around. "I was happy on Krypton! I had a life, friends, everything. Then suddenly my planet explodes and I'm rocketed here." She explained. "It's not about whether or not you asked for it. It's about what you do with it once you have it." She told him earnestly. "Besides, you might not have asked for it, but that ring chose you. My powers are just biology, but you? You were chosen because you were special by a very wise, very ancient power. You should take that to heart and believe in it. Because somebody up there clearly believes in you."
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