Chapter Two - School Daze
“I can’t believe this!” Storming in fresh from a trip into low orbit, Lex-Luthor-still-as-Power-Girl is fervently typing away at a cell phone the villain didn’t have before leaving with Superman. She plops down into her penthouse recliner, in a mood, pouting something fierce. Her hair is a golden nest flayed out over her eyes, she’s pure comedy to look at. “This stupid bitch.” “Ah, Lex, you are back just in time.” Mercy Graves says from across the vast room, closing the large door with her pointed heel. She’s carrying in with a drink carrier with three coffees. “Mind filling me in?” Mercy jabs flatly toward her boss’ tantrum. “So much extra trash.” Karen snarls through her blonde tussled hair. The phone in her hand is being lit up nonstop, every few moments a new buzz or ding. “He is very persistent.” She grouses. “Superman isn’t letting me off the hook! I have to find a way out of Supergirl’s life and education with a more hands on approach.” Mercy is very amused hearing essentially the voice of Supergirl speaking through gritted teeth at the prospect of ‘her’ life.
“And, like, our darling Kara has far too many connections. Why would an alien socialize?? Keeping up the salt-of-the-earth pretenses, it makes no sense! She is dating the ginger photographer from the Daily Planet and has an entire semester of schooling left, plus is a campus reporter for Met U.” The full-figured imposter growls in defeat. “And I’m not allowed to throw it away. So sayeth the Big Blue Boy Scout ” Karen brushes the hair out of her face in frustration. “The plan is going to be delayed unless I can solve this stupid Kara Danvers problem.”
“That’s pretty great, L….Karen.” Mercy chuckles while offering a drink. “It’s black coffee, your favorite. I even sprung for the thousand dollar imported roast. Your treat.”
Karen raises a brow looking at the other two drinks in the holder, while taking the offer.
“What? I’m not allowed to be sweet on anyone else?” The brunette replies sardonically.
Karen purses her lips at the response and silently strips off her white supersuit in favor of a black plug suit she’d been working on as Lex. Her assistant tries to give the replacement Supergirl some semblance of modesty by averting her gaze, but Karen is clearly trying to make a statement.
“Oh you big baby. I’m just messing with you. They were so shocked by your order that they ended up making my white mocha twice. Geez.” Mercy fires.
By the time she looks back, Lex Luthor is standing where the blonde had been. Lex downs a sizable swig of his drink. The tension in the room subsides. “It baffles the mind how you can drink milk and call it coffee. Ffeeeh” He says in his particular aloof style of humor. “This is the real stuff.”
“Right.” She rolls her eyes. “So, has your big brain got a starting point for—“ a missed phone call from Kara’s phone interrupts the two. Lex snarls again. “How do I keep up with this” he holds the phone “on top of Lexcorp, and work towards the single stroke downfall of those Justice toting idiots? Not even mentioning the media blitz I want for myself: ‘Karen Starr’ America’s Sweetheart. Power Girl a brand name. All culminating in a big splashy secret identity reveal connecting the two. The timetable for everything will be off.” He activates the scientific wonder of an outfit: a machine learning portable workspace that can synthesize a vast amount of what is inventoried in his lab. Each node aids in the hologram projection, hard light construction, and sizable new mods that partially alleviate the ever-threatening cancer in Lex’s underlying biology. All worked inside a customizable bodysuit.
“Weren’t you President once?” His assistant jabs again. “I’m sure you can manage being a college girl.”
Lex morphs into his female self and smiles devilishly. She dips Mercy back and gives a long, ravenous kiss. “You know I love it when you talk down to me.” Luthor-now-Karen-Starr squishes her titanic breasts into her assistant’s, trying not to drop the half-finished black coffee. Her current figure informs the black plug suit to shift to another preset, looking more like a sci-fi dominatrix gear with the exposed shoulder, added spiked heels, and revealing cleavage.
“Put your hands on my new ass.” Karen commands with a whisper. Graves cups the unbelievable cheeks of her boss’s backside, squeaking with her fondling as the plug suit rubs itself. “Feel how amazing it is?” Mercy starts getting off to the deviancy of it all, what a new bend to their working relationship. Maybe this wasn’t so bad.
“Karen are you always this horny?” Mercy asks, already knowing the answer.
“Only for you.” Karen lightly gnaws down Mercy’s neck., as both women heat up. “Let me have you like this. One time deal, no strings attached.” This raw intensity and lust radiating through Lex’s transformed body is reaching new unforeseen heights. Her whole being buzzes with excitement.
Mercy pulls back to look, really look at this woman. This was all getting so fuzzy, Lex’s cadence, quirks, and mind were clearly here but this face. She feels so soft, squishy, yet that marshmallow covering was belying muscles that could do the impossible. She was impossible. It’s as if he built a designer version of that cheerleader-of-a-superhero, endowing her with bigger and better assets than either the original or any other one-off model Lex has slept with, down to the sharp wasp waist. And where did Supergirl really go? Dead? Just another power suit to wear or something more?
“Miss Graves, Earth to Mercy.” Karen says massaging her partner’s swollen vulva through her pencil skirt. Their tongues dance together as Karen continues priming her downstairs.
“So, the League?” Mercy tries to stall while deciding whether to pursue this further. Her body craved masculine touch, and though the attitude was right, Karen wasn’t.
“Yeahh Mmm It’s going to be so satisfying. Killing the League. So hot.” Karen says between kisses. “Solve some of their flaws scientifically. Install new protocols into an armor I can pilot in this form.” She moves down Mercy’s neck. “A Justice Buster. Destroy them with a friendly face is twice as delicious.” She works their bodies against the penthouse wall, grinding on Mercy’s ass with her pelvis, a phantom reminder of the appendage Lex currently lacks. Petting through the clothes wasn’t enough and Karen effortlessly tears open Mercy’s designer blouse, exposing her bare breasts to grope.
“Wear the valet outfit, like the old days.”
“Lex, wait.” Mercy says extremely flustered. This was too strange.
Kara Danvers’ cell phone goes off and sours the scene for one of them. “God that stupid, popular bitch and her friends.” Karen sighs as she superspeeds over to the phone. “I have to get to school.”
“You look like a grown woman, how do you plan on…”
“I made Karen. I’m sure I can reverse it to get back to Kara.” She shoots back. “Now…what does it even feel like to be Supergirl I wond—“ Lex ponders half-seriously. The curvaceous body he wears bucks as an influx of raw muscle memory and passive traits rush over from the bond he and Supergirl share.
“Nggfff W-why does this hurt?” Karen’s ribs crunch inward. Over the course of a minute, Lex watches in pained astonishment as every bone in his transformed womanly figure breaks, reforms and shrinks in a steady scrapping away of maturation. Since combining with her, Lex has been acutely aware his mass plays a defining part in how Supergirl was capable of becoming Power Girl, he is the secret sauce that made a truly irresistible woman. All that is slipping away, as the progressively smaller woman deflates. Her most prideful of physical attributes strip away and jam back into the lessening body. Gone are her dangerous curves and massive rack; in their place she leans down to the perky, youthful athletic build identical to the Girl of Steel herself. “S-So tight in here. Ngggh I need out. Need air.” Lex feels desperately for where Karen’s features should be, realizing how much strain this compression has on his/her body. “Awful. A single touch feels like I’m about to convulse. I have to calm down. Adjust to the pressures. Mnngh” As she relaxes her body expands back into the full figured Power Girl.
She smiles faintly before turning to frustration. “Grnn Looks like I’m not supposed to do this” Karen tenses back up and painfully shrinks to Supergirl size, “but no one tells Lex Luthor no.”
“I’m never going to get used to this.” Mercy says from across the penthouse in Lex’s office closet. She changes into a replacement top, trying to sort herself out.
“Keep in contact. Especially regarding the company.” Lex says clipping an earpiece on. “I’m off to ruin a life.” ‘Kara’ speeds over and gives the replacement Lexcorp CEO a peck on the cheek goodbye and to snag her drink. “You’ll do fine.” The imposter Kara sips her black coffee and her eyes widen. She immediately convulses, spitting up the black roast like a child, right back into the cup. "You..." she gags trying to get the taste off her tongue "..didn't see that."
“I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon for the preliminary meeting with Dr. Hamilton.” Mercy says trying her damndest to hold back her laugh.
‘Kara’ slicks back her blonde mane and returns to her serious Luthorian tone. “Inform him the prototype is in my sub-basement. Ta-ta.”
In another show of superspeed, the Supergirl twin departs. Notably missing are Lex’s wallet, the Danvers cell phone, and the extra white mocha latte.
--- ---
Two heroes beam down from the Justice League’s orbiting Watchtower teleporters to the sun sparkling science district of Metropolis.
“Communications said right about here. Something big.”
John Henry Irons, founder of Steelworks, an adjacent voice in and around STAR Labs, but most importantly he is the armored up hero known simply as Steel. Entirely chrome with a shock of a red for the cape and holding a giant rocket powered sledgehammer, he’s a member of the extended Superman family.
He’s floating alongside big blue himself, Superman.
Clark breaks the conversation hiccup “It’s funny I barely ever Zeta beam around anymore. The particle breakdown and transfer is a sight to see.” He clicks off his super vision as his pupils fade from pale blue back to black. “So before we got called to work, our chat—“
“About Supergirl?”
“Yeah, I don’t know the best approach to reconnecting with her. You’ve raised Natasha so well I couldn’t help but ask.”
“Heh. It’s not every day the Man of Steel admits he’s got a hole in his armor. Shoulda guessed it would be near the heart.”
Superman blushes. “I’m still learning how to do this. She’s family. You-“
“I get it. Yeah.”
Thoom
A tremor of a footstep.
Thoom Then another, bringing the figure out from behind the obscuring skyscraper.
“Giant...gorilla?” Steel says, making visual contact with the target.
“Giant robot gorilla.” Superman edits.
“You’re familiar?”
“Titano.”
“First names, even. Wow. I’m a bit jealous.” Steel jokes.
The massive ape lights up both fists in a shock of glowing energy.
“This… might take a sec.” Superman says, sizing up the unforeseen complication.
--- ---
Jimmy Olsen sits outside the luxurious Metropolis University dorms, scuffing a shoe against a piece of pavement. “Com’on Kare-bear. Pick up. Text back. Anything.” The redhead puts down his phone for the large camera around his neck, aiming it at the glorious afternoon sky. Was it Supergirl?
No. Just a plane. He snaps a photo. “Crap. I think that was actually just a bird.”
A long-legged blonde wearing sunglasses, a crop top, and boyshorts over the black bodysuit walks across the well-tended grass. When she arrives to the campus she is enjoying a latte and uncaringly tosses the empty cup to the ground midstride. “Mkay. College. You so aren’t ready for the awesome might of Lex Luthor.” The almost-cheerleader adjusts her shorts and tugs down her crop top from riding up. “Rao, I sooo could look better in this if I could just Power up.” Lex bemoans.
A quick call comes in on the earpiece about Lexcorp. “Already.” She grumbles. It’s a lengthy talk just managing Mercy on dealing with the board of operations in his current absence, “Focus on keeping everything straight-ahead. This afternoon is all weapon contracts. Do. Not. Make. Waves.”
“Kara Danvers?” A valley girl voice directs at the would-be Kara.
“I—“ Lex quickly exits the call and is at a loss.
“Girl, you need to answer your texts! We are having a bonfire at Epsilon house tomorrow night to kick off the year and you gotta fuckin’ be there. They love yooou. And no more ‘I gotta study’ cop outs.” This caramel complected beauty was a mystery to the incognito billionaire. ‘Kara’ clicks her tongue disgust, instinctually dismissing this stranger with an eye roll.
It doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Wow, okay, since when did Little Miss Danvers become a bitch?” Lex hears that as a compliment and smiles. Being around her was already bringing out the passive valley voice Luthor gained from the merger. “Oh girl. I’ve always been a bitch. Just got tired of holding it in.”
The sorority sister lights up, finally Kara is coming around. ”Tomorrow. Epsilon, be there.”
“For sure.”
“And by the way, I’m liking the cybergoth chic you got going on with the outfit. It’s def a look.” She pauses giving a final assessment. “I never knew you had such a cute bod under all those layers!”
“Thanks…Claire” Lex’s eyes light up when the name hits. Strange, that name came without a deep dive.
“If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
The two women part as quickly as they met, with ‘Kara’ on a single-minded path. “Now, I just have to remember what Olsen even looks like. Deal with him, move on to rewriting the registrar.” She recites her own plan slowly noticing the amount of head-turns her mere presence is getting just walking through the commons. All the attention was like catnip. ‘Kara’ bites her lip soaking in the attraction she has on others. “This is new.” Lex had never felt the raw urge to be seen before. Stray thoughts on how to weaponize this inherent magnetism swirl through her head, and the exponential effect Karen’s preferred build could have on things. The doppleganger Supergirl continues to glide through campus in an uncanny fashion. She ends up staring down a closed door, having made it to Danvers’ dorm room by pure muscle memory. “Hrnf. An ID lock?” She looks at the keycard slider. With a single minute shove the lock cracks and she lets herself in. “Cute.”
A hand reaches from behind the Supergirl lookalike and taps her shoulder. The mere touch sends violent shockwaves down her condensed and altered form. A cute boy with poorly trimmed red hair tries to go in for a peck on his blonde girlfriend’s cheek. She turns and pushes back before reflection on who it was and what was said.
“Hey Kara. Happy you—Whoa noooo!” The voice says as it’s flung into the distance.
I shouldn’t make a scene with possible witnesses. Waitaminute. A plucky ginger in flannel with a camera. Jimmy.
‘Kara’ doubles over. When thinking Jimmy’s name a flood of Supergirl’s mind hits Lex, flashes of cute dates between the two. Sickeningly adorable. Some with puppies. Some with pizza. Some with her holding him as she flies. When Lex gets his/her bearings, she’s rescued Jimmy and they’ve been heavy kissing for a good five minutes. Her figure has started begin to slowly swell out to Karen size. Behind them the ground is singed in a fiery force from her propelled effort to catch him.
Jimmy is taken aback at first but he quickly gets into how thirsty she is. He gropes his super-girlfriend’s chest but the strangest thing is it seems to be growing. “Mmm mmm Kara mmm that’s a heck of a way to greet to a guy.”
More and more good associations about Olsen pop into Lex’s female-bent mind. The mental reservoir is so much harder to hold back when literally looking and trying to approximate Supergirl. She reaches down into Jimmy’s pants and suddenly, Luthor’s gone. Ejected.
The true Kara Zor-El returns mid-kiss and her physicality tightens the creeping Power Girl changes back to Supergirl’s original build. “J-Jimmy?”
“Yeah babe?”
“Just a bad dream. Ohmigod it was just a bad dream. I’m free.”
“Are you cool? Supes said—”
Lex’s personality glitches through Kara’s brief coup.
“It was…ah.. a nightmare not seeing you for so long.” She performs.
Something however, is bubbling under the surface: Kara’s mind, louder than ever. Shuffling between Luthor’s own.
Control yourself, Lex. How did I get back in my dorm? This isn’t you. He sees me in here. I love how concerned Jimmy is. These emotions are not you. Such a great guy. The two disparate minds make a bit of white noise now that Kara has been unlocked; Lex maintains an uneasy primary but can’t shake the foreign personality quirks away.
“Olsen. Inside.” The expanding Supergirl says between their make out, corralling him into her dorm.
The college dorm is a mix between plushy animals from home, a desk with a laptop and photos of great friends, a twin bed with a respectable comforter, and a range of clothing from cutesy to professional lining the small boxy closet. Jimmy plops onto the bed. He’s eager; still, he can’t help being curious and concerned.
“How bad was the battle? You don’t need to talk to somebody about what happened? Because I’m right here and..”
“Pants. Off.” She commands. Just a taste. As an experiment, nothing more. Lex thirsts beneath the dominatrix play. She takes out the tiny earpiece and tosses it onto a stuffed bear. What does it feel like?
“Alright, talk later. Got it.” Jimmy unbuckles himself immediately, liking her tone. “But uh, Kara. Don’t you have class? I know it's still Welcome Week, but I’m pretty sure we actually have senior English together in like fifteen minutes.” He looks at his girlfriend in heat and runs the numbers in his head. They totally have time.
“So much class. I plan to fill this entire semester up today. Reviewed what else she— I needed and figured why not knock out all six courses at once.”
“And you’re sure you won’t be overworked? Especially being …you know…you?”
“Its fine.” Lex can’t help but muse internally. She strips off her upper layers, powerless to stop the escalating urges. “Fifteen minutes, huh?” ‘Kara’ says, looking at Jimmy like a tiger.
“Ah. Uh. Yeah.” Olsen says barely listening. He watches her disrobe down to the strange yet sexy bodysuit. “Is that from the big adventure?” Pointing to the suit.
“Do you like it?” Lex spoke but all that came out was the sultry, insatiable voice he gets as Karen Starr.
“It looks, I mean, you are so beautiful Kara.” Jimmy creeps closer across the bed.
“Oh yeah? How much do you want me? Need me?” ‘Kara’ teases him with her hand, keeping him away effortlessly. Supergirl’s life is full of adoring friends and onlookers. Imagine the reaches of her popularity. The love. I want the world to want me.
“I—“ Olsen chuckles at this powerful aura she has today, “—anything. I’d do anything for you.” The villainous Supergirl twin was drinking up this subservience Jimmy was serving. So hot. Like, if I could Power up he’d worship me even more than this little Super tramp. I’m better than her. The addled mind of Lex thinks before being hit with a headache pang. Jimmy’s my best friend. A nuisance. Just look at his adorable face. I need to ruin it. I think I love him.
The thoughts are coming more frequently now, unwanted and yearning. And in the current state, Lex can’t handle the fingers running down ‘Kara’s thighs. Holding this form hurt so badly but also was getting her really turned on. Sensations turned up by a thousand fold on top of the still-very-new super senses. Every second, closer to losing control. “S-so tight.” She exasperatedly coos as the grip on this façade tenses up like a full-body corset to manage what’s coming. “I haven’t even…?” Removing the bodysuit was proving to be volatile, as zipping down the black circuit-woven clingwrap is like needles to ‘Kara’s overstimulated skin. “C-can’t change yet.” She quietly wills to keep her cover as the swelling begins again. Tearing a hole in the bottom of her suit for easy access, ‘Kara’ tops her would-be boyfriend, shaking with a cold sweat. It took every remaining bit of composure to slip Jimmy in. This is…amazing. Lex admits. He pilots Kara to take as much of Jimmy’s hardened rod in as possible, yet it still feels like the redhead leads them in this hasty romance. N-not good enough. Olsen is proving to be a sort of power bottom, his thrusts rubber-banding from erotic levels of satisfaction to excruciating soreness in 'Kara’ after mere moments, and the dichotomy only continues to mount the longer she’s trapped as the younger blonde. Damn it, I want my body. Luthor thinks. And just like that, under the magnitudes of compounded pain and pleasure, Lex lets go.
--- ---
Inside the upper-floor boardroom, at a table lined with 10 chairs with the CEO at the head, Mercy Graves is fending off the distasteful gaze of the statesmen. “I think we can deliberate more after lunch, gentlemen.” Mercy says, closing out of a lengthy presentation.
“If you say so, Ms. Graves. When do you think Mr. Luthor will be making an appearance today?” The elder members of the board are feisty even at their old age.
Mercy plants herself back in Lex’s penthouse, alone, tucked behind the desk with a more-meat-than-lettuce salad. “God. Half done. Half the day done. You can do this.” She breathes in and out, hands deep into her almond hair. “First day at the top of a major worldwide conglomerate. No big deal.”
She looks at the cold, unfinished black coffee resting near the desktop computer.
“How the hell did you manage this crap, Lex? What even happens if you lost control?”
--- ---
Back in Kara’s dorm, Lex violently gushes out from being Kara’s lookalike to his Karen Starr form: a caged animal no more. All the while, Olsen’s manhood presses passionately inside her and feels the evolution and sudden expansion. Each hip erupts outward, ass swallowing more of Jimmy’s respectable offer. Her throbbing maturation continues. Matching with her short breathes, the unrestrained Lex pumps away at her prey beneath, each second returning more and more Power Girl to her shape. She arches in pure heat and grows back up to her statuesque standing, as her muscles and breasts snap out like a coiled spring set loose. Karen’s eyes cross at the absolute relief it was to be back. Wet with joy. She takes in the moment, her hands run up and down her glisteningly sweaty skin, getting lost in the return of those designer curves. ”Mmmmyes” she grunts lustfully. I couldn’t have wished for a better body. And now, I can actually enjoy myself. She side-eyes her back-length tresses, always returning despite her best efforts. Despite this damn long hair. Still, it didn’t matter, as she craved completion. The villain wasn’t prepared for just how ravenous she’d become at the satisfaction of being filled. Feel so alive. This boy will have to do.
“Kara?! Holy cow! Whaaaaat happened?” Jimmy says pressed under her thickened thighs.
She gyrates further into his body, zipping open the suit with ease now. “Like what you see?” A little drool remains on her lip from the expansion. Karen’s wild blond mane is masking the piercing eyes beneath, dripping with lust and malevolence. Her palms crack the wall with each thrusting down on his member, trying to get a perfect rhythm. Showing her power just got her even more heated. The sensation continues building, lightyears beyond anything Lex has ever felt.
“Hold on we should—“
She silences Jimmy with a kiss, steering Olsen’s hands to pull at her golden waves and be rougher with her. Good. Hungry for more affection, Karen drapes her new rack over his scrawny body. “Oh. You weak little worrisome boy.” More bits of Kara glitches in between Lex’s feminine pleasure. “Jimmy I love you I—“
“—want to tear you in two.”
“Whoa. I love you too.” The young man says in the face of his matured domineering girlfriend. Her bouncing chest, with these brand new boobs, mesmerizes Jimmy. “Kara, your tits.” His eyes move down her bosom to truly give her transformed allure a once over, before returning to the starting line.
“What are you going to do about them?” She tests, wickedly. “I’ve been bad.”
“Wow.” Is all he manages to say before diving headfirst into sucking on those staggering melons.
--- ---
Elsewhere. Superman and Steel continue talking while fending off Titano from the rest of the greater Metropolis area.
Clark smiles between the brawl. “Here’s some fun trivia.”
“You know I love to learn.” Steel replies.
“So, Lois Lane has a connection with a chimpanzee astronaut, who when hit by god knows what, grew into the original Titano. Chimp to skyscraper-sized gorilla. I met up with she and her father to try and stop the ape’s havoc on the city.”
“Sam Lane is a pain in the ass. He’s always swinging his ‘lieutenant colonel’ might around like he owns every room he walks in.” Steel relives his disgust. “He kill your monkey?”
“Surprisingly no, Lois basically had to let Titano go. It was pretty emotional all things considered. I found him an island.” Superman cracks one of the hands off the robot before it is able to crash inside a building, catching it in midair.
“Then why is he back as a robot?” Steel tries fishing for the point of all this.
“From time to time, up-and-coming eccentric scientists try to homage the original living Titano with a robo-duplicate to wreck Metropolis. This has to be, what, six in four years? …That feels correct.”
“What an...interesting rite of passage. Most people would, you know, do anything else.”
“You’re telling me, John.”
With its remaining working arm, the mecha ape cracks into the face of a high end apartment separating the Superman rescues a handful of falling civilians and rushes each of them safely out of harms way. Steel catches some falling structural debris, still chatting as if the men were around the water cooler at a normal 9-5. “Anyway, what were you saying before about the Kara help?”
“Since the incident, she’s been trying to pull out of all social outings. Even school. We’ve had a long talk about finishing out college but I’m worried this thing’s affecting her more than she’s letting on.”
John wields the beam back into the building as Clark puffs a bit frost breath to lock it all together. “I read the Crisis report, Blue. It’s wild. But I had no clue she was that far gone. Normally I’d say the old mantra ‘stay close, support, and shield.’ ”
Steel cracks the gorilla across the face, exposing the complex circuitry beneath the right cheek. It goes careering back into the larger greenery of Metropolis’ vast Centennial Park. The armored hero continues, “But she might just need space. Riding her too closely might just put her off. I can’t imagine one of you Supers being so clammed up, lord help me.”
--- ---
Back at the dorm. Ten and a half minutes later.
The last of Kara’s stuffed animals shuffles off the bed as her mature doppelganger rides Olsen to completion. She works Jimmy into the deepest portions of her aching hole, wishing he’d have something more appetizing and overpowering to give. This wasn’t enough. Her mind fantasizes of another, thoughts of strong hands fighting back and keeping up with her recently acquired facets. Someone to punish her. Someone tall, broad, and with a famous spit curl. She revs herself up, uncaring and unaware that the red head under her powerful legs is exhausted of all remaining energy as his rod plums the very core of Lex’s psyche.
“…can finally have y…” Karen peaks, and the two finally stop.
The room is silent for a beat as clarity creeps in.
“So, about all this.” Jimmy motions to Karen’s physique while throwing back on his boxers. He looks like he ran a marathon. Still on the bed, draped in between the sheets, Karen looks at him with a slightly quizzical bend. Was this even worth it? They are both clear headed, Karen in more ways than one now that the spectre of Supergirl has subsided.
“Long story. I’ll tell you later.” She says curtly.
“Can you kind of fill me in now, this is a big deal.”
“Jimmy, I said—Look, I grew up. This suit helps me look like I used to.” She snaps back with a well-performed lie.
“Did I do somethi—“
Karen sighs, still harboring that secondhand affection for the boy. She was battling the bizarre urge to jump back into bed with him, having tasted the fruits of what super senses and a super body really bring. “Right. This… isn’t going to work. We’re done. I’m breaking up with you.” She finishes coldly, convincing herself. Stepping out on Mercy is one thing, but I can do so much better than merely having Supergirl’s boytoy.
“Hah, good one, Kara.”
She sees the first hints of disbelief and heartbreak behind Jimmy’s nonchalance. Oh. That’s good.
Karen zips up her bodysuit slowly letting Jimmy see her majesty all one last time. Tantalizing this stooge was so sweet. His increasingly sad little face was almost better than the sex, and a perfect antidote to the attraction. She winces, cracking and shrinking back down to Kara Danvers proper and kisses him a long and sensual farewell. “See ya in class, Jimmy.” Her icy nature almost sounds playful. In a black blur, she whips around the room to collect up her other clothes, the earpiece, and a backpack with a single notepad in it. “Kara. Wait, what the hell?”
--- --- ---
Back at the penthouse desktop, Mercy pokes through some of the prepared speeches and day plans her boss utilized in the days gone by. As she reads a very curt memo to fire an entire floor, a message from an anonymous black market tag comes through: “Word is cache of green. LwMet. You in?”
“Are we…?” Mercy checks the lead lined safe built into the desk drawer. Nothing. “…we are.” Whatever energy was involved in besting Supergirl disintegrated Lex’s longtime chunk of kryptonite. The text on the screen has another message: “20 seconds, L. Then other buyers.” She keys in a response.
The confirmation hits. “A pleasure, as always.”
Slouching back into the chair, relieved, Mercy grumbles to herself. “Don’t say I never did anything for you.”
--- ---
Bored numb as she walks through the halls of the math and science building, hand clutching a number of crumpled syllabi, ‘Kara’ fumes. It’s a whole wonderful day of the most adoring glances and jealous scowls at ‘Kara’s new confidence and outfits. Yet, she can’t enjoy the quality amount attention her visage brings with the nagging pain of holding this stupid ruse together with the persistent redheaded tagalong. Jimmy isn’t far behind and still has a concerned look on his face, ready to get answers. I cannot shake this runt. Two classes in a row. Just how similar are their rudimentary schedules? Cutting through to the building’s exit, she makes eye contact with the main campus office far beyond the quad. At last. The marathon of the day is nearly over. “I need out.” Lex says haggardly, unable to relax for hours and the pressure was continuing to mount.
“Kara! Hey.” Jimmy flags her down. “I gotta bounce over to the Planet soon to help Ms. Lane but we gotta talk before the day’s up. So many questions.” “I am so tired.” Lex says honestly, the line really brings Jimmy pause. Seeing that the hooks are in, Luthor lays it on thick. “I thought I could do it. Go back to normal, pretend like nothing happened. But I can’t keep trying to dial the clock back. This suit is crushing me; it’s…embarrassing to admit this. I’m supposed to be the strong one.”
“I didn’t know—earlier with the mood swings and us.”
“Imagine being suffocated and finally let up for air.” She says. ‘Kara’ tries to sell it by softly holding his hands in hers. “That’s why we can’t be together. I think I outgrew you and I can’t pretend otherwise.” Gosh why do I feel so bad about this, look at his sad puppy dog eyes, why did I even do—shut up. Shut up this isn’t you.
“It’s not you,” she blurts out. Shit, that was supposed to be an inside voice. “Nothing you did, Jimmy.” Honestly, I really like seeing you miserable. The imposter goes in for a goodbye kiss but Jimmy is so heartbroken he turns away. His shoulders look heavy. Good.
When he turns back around she’s long gone, a faint rolling wind and floating grass left in her wake. A blur into the distance. Jimmy makes good on his word and leaves for the Daily Planet, shell-shocked by the day’s events.
Rushing through the office parking lot, the blur reaches out and carves up numerous vehicles. She leaves them looking as if they were keyed by a werewolf. Why did I do that? Stop destroying. Stop!
Supergirl returns, once again overshading Lex, and stopping the surgical degradation of these pristine cars. “Whoa. I feel… nauseous?” She holds her sides, wondering why it feels like she went ten rounds in the ring with Doomsday. “Where did this e-even come from?” The snowballing weight of unwittingly keeping herself together was immense. She staggers up the steps into the main campus building and slumps into a restroom.
“Damn.” A girl finishing up at the sink says, taking a single look at the strung-out, under pressure Kara. “You sick?” She notices this tired blonde has sunken in eyes, as if she’s been on a week-long bender.
“Yeah. Just woke up like this.” She huffs, trying to amuse. Nothing else was coming to mind, so the Girl of Steel just did her best to get rid of the stranger. “If it’s cool, I might be, uh, making a mess.”
“There’s a nurse two buildings down, are you gonna make it?”
Kara waves off her concern, head fully in the sink.
“Alright, feel better.”
Alone now, Kara Zor El feels a tremble from within her being. Her muscles were rippling, shaking, oscillating between the enhanced womanly figure she has been overshadowed by and a foreign masculinity. The base of her wrist thickens and grows. “Everything is fine. You got this.” She recites to herself. “Everything is—“ Something was trying to burst inside her shorts, stretching and bulging on its own. “What in the—hnnngh .” Kara pushes back, frantically trying to slow her changing physiology. And still, her torso twists and sprouts up, her efforts weren’t working. I control you. I improved you. In other words…I am you.
“You’re insane!” A decidedly male plop flops out from Supergirl’s private, a budding bump about the size of a thumb. It is moving. Growing.
“Am I?” Kara’s mouth says without her control. “And here I thought I could do what I wanted with my body.” Lex thrusts the shared blonde shell forward and the action slams his burgeoning essence back inside them, working Kara like a cartoon taffy to spike the larger return to Power Girl. In and out, a piston beneath her skin, stretching her until his unmanifested rod catches. “Gnnff…Mighty Rao this is tight—just another obstacle to outwit and conquer.” Kara’s voice flips between tones as Lex begins holding the driver’s wheel more and more. Between her bright normal delivery and Karen. The body collapses in on itself as Kara doubles over from this strange sort sensation, sharing the overwhelming feeling with Luthor. They both take a beat as each pleasure cycles back and forth in an escalating feedback loop. A hundred times better than what Olsen brought to the table. Luthor muses.
Muscles from the shared midsection begin elongating back to the sharp womanly dream. Supergirl shakes them free from the mounting excess. “Lex get out of my head—that’s almost funny since you are in mine.” The cruel voice spits back. Her thoughts are a mess; different channels now rerouting into more and more of Lex/Karen’s greater pool. As the body thrusts faster and faster, bringing itself to climax, its hands slowly move down to alleviate the pressure behind the crotch. Despite looking like a flat pair of sensual lips, the greater essence was at play. Then, at last, the full catch. Lex/Karen is awash in euphoria as they push through the breach. “Yes!”
A sultry moan escapes their mouth as Kara’s crotch erupts with a fully grown member parting her walls, sending unknown pleasures coursing through their body. It pierces Supergirl’s resolve to give them a perfect loop of ecstasy as the floodgates of memories open.
The developed Power Girl body curls up on the floor, panting. Inside, their minds were lost in the vast ocean of noise, again mixing far too many bits between the two. Growing the extra appendage was strange, it felt wrong somehow. The thrill of the breach and shock of pleasure has quickly fizzled into a wet numbness from the exposed organ. Truly a limp noodle against the scale of the super-senses. Trying for balance on the restroom sink, the mixed-up blonde’s hands slice through the porcelain like butter. She falls and catches herself on the tiles below, leaving small craters at her palms. She shakes her head. Something has to rattle free from the fog.
Dripping and numb, the male accessory recedes in a slow slurp, firmly recreating the misplaced womanhood. She is healing. The blonde plants a foot on the ground, readying herself. However, beneath the dazed eyes and unsteady foundations, the greatest criminal mind flits back into awareness. Just as before Luthor prevails, pushing Supergirl into the mental abyss of their shared body, all the while drinking down new aspects of the Girl of Steel’s personality. Overcoming her influence was getting exponentially harder, the doppelganger body stands panting from the battle.
“Accept it, Supergirl, you’re me.” Karen says flaunting her figure to the mirror. With a quick pulse, she warps between herself, Supergirl, and her Lex body. The shockwave looks physically painful.
This isn’t right.
The restroom goes quiet. ‘Kara’ oozes back into Karen but to Luthor’s horror doesn’t stop there. His grip on the body loosens, Lex’s natural red hair sprouts down Karen’s shoulders as more and more of Supergirl floods the mindspace but begins distorting both sets of memories.
"Let me out." The words escape on their own amidst intense moaning.
Her eyes turn Luthor’s emerald green and she gains a slightly angular finish to her features as the matrix fusion begins solidifying the two people into a new third person. The body’s vision breaks into a drunken split, seeing double of its own hands with one distortion a match for Lex’s thickened sausages and the other Supergirl’s slender ones. As the visual distortions cross like a blurred ven diagram, the oncoming autonomous ginger fusion holds longer and longer.
"Closer."
She runs up the length of her curves as things progress. It's an evolution in the same vein as Power Girl, but where Lex knowingly kept Kara’s features to maintain a type of continuity, here the two bodies fuse around the base compromise--Karen Starr. The fusion isn't nearly as bulky, her muscles toned and sharpened to whittling back the body to an Olympian looking 25-year-old. The progeny of Supergirl and Lex, a sort of sisterly resemblance to Karen.
The former blonde is aglow from the change. Her movements are measured, studying the sensations of life with an air of callus entitlement. “You two. W-what a childish nuisance. One keeps corrupting the other and so on. Yawn.” The words drip from her tingling mouth. Her head buzzes with both voices from her fused personas, neither Luthor nor Danvers, but something new built from each’s desire and history. “At the very least I’m finally stable. You dinosaurs need to stay out of my way. —wait. Wait.”
This fused offspring is hit with a pang of nausea and a streak of golden hair cuts down through her red. She cradles her head in pain.This is my face but where is my face? Lex says regaining a firmer sense of self, pushing back the bond. A familiar batch of images play out: Business icon, supervillain, but Lex was a ravishing blonde woman in every image. Being Karen was simply fact. The uncooked fusion breaks down as more highlighted streaks trickle through her mane. It felt completely right for Lex that is until the flashing images glimpse a lip-lock with Bruce Wayne in after-hours talks of a company merger and a midnight rendezvous with Superman arriving outside the penthouse window…just for her.
Oh god. Luthor thinks realizing the subconscious unpacking at play. No no no. You are Metropolis’s favorite son. He wills internally. A man’s man. And the single 12th level intellect this planet has to offer. The altered woman pulls at herself, fingertips slipping under the slick touch of her flesh. You aren't these feelings. This is your body. From there, she slowly peels back the clingy second skin to expose the human face beneath, not realizing how much it would hurt to remove the protomatter when it’s this far gone.
“I’m so close to freedom Lex. Neither you nor Supergirl can’t hold me back forever.” The fusion says while her arms act on their own accord, pulling back the hair. “I know what you crave.” With a clean yank, he’s free. The face of an absolutely frazzled, drenched-in-sweat Lex Luthor touches to air for the first time in a while, awakening from the blistering haze.
He takes a huge moment to collect himself. This new normal...is something else.
“Get a hold of yourself. Jesus.” He washes his face in the sink and shakes the noise from his head. It was all becoming so dangerous. “Feelings...” With a few taps his suit, Lex pushes up the meeting with the STAR Labs doctor to first thing tomorrow on the internal scheduling app. “Those other thoughts. Lost time. The dorm room with Olsen.” Learning firsthand how good it feels to be entered. He blushes, those must have been Kara-intoxicated actions. Imagine having more at the Greek house party. That wasn’t her thought. It was his. “Damn.”
“I was Karen until I wasn’t.” He whispers quietly, wondering just what that new voice was. “Did I push too far?”
The dripping faucet pats softly on down the drain.
“Of ..course not, I’m Lex Luthor. I know my limits. I have no limits.” He swaggers himself up out of the brief admission of fault.
He looks down at his still-very-female body below the neckline, wading in afterglow. These glitches are making it very difficult to commit to this power. “I need to get some rest. Away from all this.” Yet, Lex couldn’t deny how thrilling it has been to experience the highs this shape brings. Being a converted Kryptonian has almost been an afterthought in comparison to the steady drip of femininity. His brief life as Karen Starr has been a revelation. A reawakening.
A manicured nail pricks one of the pointed nips as Lex’s face reddens. “I—After the job.” I will address this later. He rebuffs the telling physicality.
“Time to do what I came here to do.”
Luthor tries to initiate superspeed but it’s expressing wrong, legs stuttering between steps, topping out at only a slightly inhuman pace and acting like a car with a broken transmission. He’s left further exhausted for the attempt, wilted over into a stall. “In-huff-Intriguing. Is it full body, full powers, eh?” Lex notes, forced to don the female face once more to complete the matrix ‘circuit’. Luckily, whatever strangeness that overtook the form moments ago has seemingly resolved back into Luthor’s familiar Karen persona. The beautiful features crawl up his skin as gooey tendrils that pierce major facial markers and ooze out accordingly. They provide a firm kick, as Lex feels like himself again. Or, herself. Yet, she still feels the exhaustion translate to her current face, not blacking-out levels but labored breathing and pains.
“Really?” Luthor takes a moment to catch her breath as Karen. Even here, feeling nearly human. Her blue eyes are locked onto themselves through the slog. “You’re unbreakable. All-powerful.” Karen says to the blonde reflection. “You can do whatever you want.. You’re above them.” She bites her lip. “You cheated death, beat a Kryptonian. You’re perfect.” She is hit with the wave of exhaustion just as she turns herself on. “…damn.”
Between the prolonged morph, lost time, and trying to use powers with an incomplete spread of protomatter, Power Girl’s energy tank is spent. Damn unreliable alien trash. It won’t be enough to get in there with powers. “I have to be able-hff- to do this one more time. One last turn.” Karen slowly crunches back into Kara over the span of several minutes, standing like she has ran ten miles in the blazing sun. With a big inhale of air she finds the resolve needed and starts cleaning herself up with paper towels.
“Okay. Fine. Old fashioned way.” Lex taps the forearm controls and brings up the hard light clothing generator. “Something tasteful. Inconspicuous.” It’s taking its sweet time to boot up and the constriction is getting worse. The false Supergirl’s ears are ringing from sounds she didn’t know were audible. “Nfff fine, I’ll just start it like this.” She’s still wearing the boyshorts and crop top over the suit.
She wanders her way up to the Dean’s office, listening in for heartbeats. Four on this floor, one is most definitely the Dean. ‘Kara’ exhales and prepares her best imitation of the true Danvers girl. “Hey, hiya! Dean Shuster. I’m Kara. Kara Danvers. Journalism major. Aaaand I, uh, was wondering if I could talk with you about my last semester if that’s okay.” She speaks a mile a minute, referring to more of Supergirl’s memories.
“Yes. Hello Ms. Danvers, take a seat.”
A chime from the Dean’s cell phone grabs his attention. “Who did what to my car? Pardon me. I will return.” He power walks out of the room trying to contain his frantic energy, leaving ‘Kara’ alone across from his logged in desktop.
Closing the door, and taking a small second to chuckle at the low stakes nature of all this, Lex morphs back into himself. He shakes out some mental fuzziness.
Ping. A sound blips from his wrist. “Finally some good news.” The clothing generator was ready and he selected a tweed suit and moustache to code over the skintight out-of-place plugsuit. “They still might recognize me, but this shouldn’t take long.” He says to himself. It was better than Danvers being implicated that could get back to a certain caped irritant. Lex quickly finds his way through the collegiate registrar, transcript, and mass student listings. For the mastermind who crafted death rays and decoded alien genomes, this felt like child’s play. Plus, it was a welcome villainous outburst after being on ‘best behavior’ since removing the Kryptonian.
Listening cautiously for returning footsteps, Lex keeps at the computer. He creates a profile for Karen Starr and hovers over transferring all of Danvers’ transcript progress to the new name. “But why?” He shakes his head, scolding the near auto-piloted action. “No.” Just as quickly Lex loads up Starr’s profile with an exact replica of his own record when he obtained his first doctorate, focused in physics and business. To spice things up, Lex leaves a large part of the multi-year track incomplete. With my super-speed-reading on top of being me. I’ll complete this doctorate in two weeks, a month at most.
A small chirp in his ear breaks Luthor from the task at hand. “Mercy what do you—“
“Mister Luthor!” An elder male voice scolds, “We are quite tired of being strung along by the same woman who drove your limousine up until a year ago. This stand-in charade isn’t cutting the mustard.”
“I’m busy at the moment.” He whispers with a nasty ferocity. “How did you get this direct line?”
“She’s green. Sloppy. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to learn your driver wants to slash half of the overseas military contracts we are relying on for the third quarter in favor of renewable energy.”
“She what?” Lex yelps before catching himself. “I look away for one day.” He’d breathe fire if he could. Instead, he erases the entire footprint of Kara Danvers at Metropolis U with a few clicks.
“Maybe next time we can uproot the entire billion dollar operation, turn it into a welfare center.” The elder man spits with sarcastic malice. “Call in. Text. We don’t fucking care. Just get your ass to the follow up meeting, Lex. Where the hell are you?”
Next door muffled voices sound inquisitive. “Sounds heated…not sure…” Lex makes out as he averts attention from his call. A bit of sweat hits the desktop.
“Bernard. I hear you. I’ll fix this.” Luthor cuts the call short and gets back to erasing his editing footprint from the system.
The voices turn to footsteps, approaching the Dean’s office. Lex tries to clench back into the Danvers visage that entered the office but it wasn’t happening. The strain was finally too much.
“Okay…” He wipes his forehead as it continues to bead up, quickly fumbling with the preset clothing generator.
Footsteps reach the office as the doorknob turns.
--- ---
Lower Metropolis, a small team of dressed down mercs efficiently flank an inconspicuous jewelry store in the financial district. It’s fast. Clean. The employees are face down in tears as two of the four mercenaries continue the hunt.
It’s always the same. In the back, sealed within a heavy-duty combination lockbox the size of a suitcase is the green space rock. “People really think they are being creative with kr—.” One chuckles to himself.
“Careful. Don’t say it.” The other enunciates with his eyes through the balaclava. There is a protocol. Don’t use the buzzwords.
The hostages now gagged, are entirely managed. A squad member steps outside for a smoke as he waits on the final two and watches the festivities. Above the jeweler, the tail-end of the Titano fight has spun into the mecha-ape firing lasers from its eyes at Steel and Superman.
Capturing the energy in his powerful sledgehammer, Steel redirects the charge and slams the pulse back into the robot. Superman tagteams a giant punch square in Titano’s right eye.
“Hell yeah.” The smoking criminal flatly cheers from the doorway.
Inside, the boys crack the combination and check the goods. “Good. Green means go.”
Everything is secured.
THOOM. A giant furry foot back-peddles into the neighboring building from the force of the punch. Half the high-rise comes crashing into the street and taking part of the jewelry front end with it. The merc from the back not carrying the lockbox gives a concise hand motion to his teammates saying, “Wrap and bolt.”
--- ---
The door opens. “Simon? Everything alright?” A young handsome 30-something professor says as he enters the Dean’s office. As he looks in expecting the seasoned dean, instead he’s greeted by a busty blonde wearing glasses, a tight white sweater, a pencil skirt with stockings and black heels. “Oh. Hello there.”
“Hi.” She brushes a wave of falling hair from her face. The girl weaponizes those big blue eyes right at the meddlesome prof. “I’m waiting on the Dean too.”
“I swear I heard him. Hah, maybe old age is finally starting to get to me.” He chuckles, taken aback by this beauty in front of him. “So, grad student?”
“Post. I’m finishing up a doctorate.” She leaves the office, enjoying the attention.
“Oh, exciting. I actually finished up mine not three years ago.” He offers his hand for a greeting. “Miguel. I mean, Professor Gonzalez, but it’s Miguel.”
She meets the handshake, rattling the wrist bangles she had conjured for the outfit. “Karen.” Her stomach is abuzz at the instant eye contact she is getting, helping Lex forget how low energy she remains. He is already more attractive than Olsen. Imagine the thousandfold increase as a media icon. Focus.
“Well, I don’t usually...this is forward but would you want to get lunch with me, Karen?”
They stand very close just outside the doorway sharing the lustful air between them. “I…” This day of exploration has been quite enjoyable, but enough distractions.
“No.” She says with a devilish smile.
Karen’s heels clicks down the hall. Perhaps next time. She got away with her little crime scot free, and as a bonus even more eyes pining for her. Perfect.
Popping back to the restroom, Karen quickly slices her shoulder curls back down to her favored messy bob cut. She takes a second and admires herself in the mirror. “It’s good I had your outfit scanned from earlier Mercy. And I pull it off so much better than you.” She says still stirred up from nearly being caught. “He would have been too easy.” Karen meets her eyes again in a confident dagger before she leaves.
Shuffling out to the quad, the supervillain refocuses on what matters: survival. All the adrenaline from the minimal espionage has subsided and the staggering labor of the day has come to reap what has been sowed. The intermingling of the foundationally human and outwardly Kryptonian was not as secure as originally thought, especially tested under such prolonged compression of mass.
Don’t pass out. Get outside. Recharge. The sun was helping, but even Lex’s transformed body wasn’t up for the trip back to Lexcorp tower. She leans against a tree taking a quiet moment to look at the sky. “What a day. A strange start to all this.”
Ignoring more texts regarding the arbitrary Greek life stuff, Jimmy, Clark checking in on her first day back and also mentioning some mecha gorilla. Garbage. She subtly taps the cell phone to the suit creating a wireless link to Luthor’s experimental tech so she can use the UI in public without drawing too much attention. Karen boots into the deeper digital inventory and hunts for the super serum that, among other things, initially sped up the binding of Supergirl’s protomatter with his own. It’s not here? Right. I never kept it on file outside of his black box sites…someone could find it. “Hah. Damn it all.” She chuckles at her own preparedness.
Karen talks into her earpiece as her vision wavers. “Mercy. Come pick me up. Bring the serum suit, elephant tranquilizer, and some comfortable shoes.” A few strands of blond whisp in front of her face.
“You sound about as well as my afternoon’s gone. But, I’m not you’re driver anymore.”
“Mercy, please, I need the vault. Discretion is paramount.” Karen takes a heavy breath. “For old times sake?”
“Ah.” The line goes quiet. “That bad huh? Be there in a few.”
--- ---
Out from the wreckage of the fight, the team of mercenaries get back to safehouse and plop the goods on the counter. One of the group steps out for a new smoke, having had his last one interrupted by a giant gorilla. He keeps his mask on as he starts the cig, just poking it above his mouth. Still, he is a tanned sort of white with nearly black hair.
The others stay inside and talk without the balaclavas.
“Three dead. Clean haul. Pretty easy day all things considered.” The leader is an almond skinned heartthrob with an old wound running the length of his cheekbone. “Now we just wait for the other half of Gunmetal Delta to get back from National.”
“So, when do we get this off our hands?” The ghostly pale blonde merc asks about the box. He looks like warmed over lunch thrown on a scarecrow.
“Tomorrow. Whenever he calls.”
“I don’t trust the stuff.” The well-groomed black merc says, fiddling with his gear. His eyes don’t leave the package. He’s husky, seasoned.
“I don’t care.” The leader fires back. “Two years pay for thirty minutes of work. I’m sure you’ll get over it.” He’s animated.
Their smoking teammate wanders in, chuckling. “So what you’re saying is: We got McDonald’s money,” his smile perks the cigarette “I’m buying.”
--- ---
Inside the depths of the Lexcorp labs, Professor Emil Hamilton is guided to his much-requested meeting. “Good morning Professor.” The striking blonde says with a warm smile at the walkway to their windowless room. She’s filling out a black business suit effortlessly, not wearing any shirt under the buttoned up blazer. “Emil Hamilton. You are a big name around these parts.” She adjusts her glasses and eagerly shakes his hand.
“Forgive me, you are so familiar. I can, hmm, almost place your face.”
“I get that a lot. Mistaken for others.” She pecks a finger at her tablet. It pushes a hologram power point display onto the greater wall of the room. She cycles through some documents to project.
“You are stunning all the same.”
“Hah, what if I told you I woke up like this?” She says with almost a wink. The presentation looks to be a-go.
“Is Lex coming?” The doctor says shuffling his hands nervously. “I was told this was urgent.”
“Mr. Luthor will be joining us shortly. He is tied up with an unforeseen phone call. Please understand.” She doesn’t even make eye contact this time, entirely locked to the screen search.
“I suppose spending more time with his lovely assistant will be just torturous.” His moustache curls in a smile, as he admires her fit figure and friendly disposition. “Although I’m not sure what I can offer in ways of deeper conversation.”
“Ah, here we are.” She pulls up a heavily redacted document and accompanying video footage. It plays a sort of mad scientist scene with Emil walking amidst body sized glass capsules with floating malformed bodies gestating in the fluid. The lighting is dark, ominous, and the playback shows an end-of-his-wits Hamilton finding a single body that is intact. A clone of Supergirl.
“Strange. Look at all we have to discuss. Does STAR know you are playing Build-a-Body with DNA pried off of the Maid of Might? It would be a shame if an anonymous tip filled them in.” Her venomous tone struck an even more familiar tone with her audience of one.
Hamilton is visibly shaken. Sweat beads up on his temples. “What did you say your name was, miss?”
“The gall of it. Cloning Supergirl. How myopic.” She paces, flicking through the numerous images of failed attempts almost gleeful as each comes up malformed and pale. The projection overlays headshots of Hamilton’s trials with the eerily similar features of this blonde. She’s the tanned, idealized, living goal of everything Emil was working towards. With a quick crunch she balls up the tablet into mangled circuit boards, glass, and metal. “My name is Karen Alexis Starr. But you might know me better as…” she slips off her heels and glasses as her body quickly squishes and pulls back to its male Luthor foundation “your new boss.”
The doctor is dumbfounded, staring out in bewildered horror just over his horned rimmed glasses. “Oh sweet merciful god.”
“Yes. Precisely.” Lex sharpens up the fit of his blazer. “But one who’s man made.”
The two men recount the events of the last few days as they move their conversation into the dark vault-like room Lex has taken to sleeping in since absorbing the Kryptonian. There is a bed and at the end of it is a massive hunk of machinery that is worked around the pillow.
“You and I are men of principle, professor. We believe in mankind. I’ve just played the field a bit louder than most until recent days. Can’t you see how important this new foothold can become?”
“Hm, men, yes.” Emil ruffles his goatee. “This is a lot to process, Lex. You…are Supergirl.” He tries to fathom it, looking at Luthor’s encrypted files. “The underlying DNA matrix is Supergirl. Yet, you are also clearly evolved and aged to her physical prime.”
Lex turns back into Karen for a wink and to feign surprise in an almost cartoonish airhead way. “Gasp! You’re right. …I’m better than she ever was.” She flexes her bicep. “I want the power permanently, and this body is proving to be a most useful asset across the board.” She lingers on the thought. “Emil, get rid of the bleed-through.”
Hamilton notes the posture change and thrill present after watching Lex return to his female physique, with a type of satisfied spasm at the end of it. “Permanence is an entire discussion unto itself. I’m curious about the reason you brought me here. With this coupling and switching forms so regularly you are only now worried about your mind? Absorption on the level you’ve done is unheard of, Lex. Frankly, I’m stunned a single human body could handle the uncapped Kryptonian genome.”
“I’m getting more access to my powerset by the hour.” More memories meant more comfort, like Karen was his natural form. And clearly the doctor can see the plugsuit readouts: as Lex’s human body synced up to his Kryptonian one it heightened her powers and senses to the truer godly levels. I just want Danvers gone from my head. The billionaire mentally pouts.
“You aren’t a fool. There’s a cost to everything.”
Feeling the seriousness of the statement, Karen peels back down as her male self. “Just tell me the prototype is doing its job. It’s a perfect backup and should fix this. Right?” Luthor’s arrogance gives way to concern.
“Strong internal design...” The salt and pepper bearded doctor breaks eye contact and vanishes into his examination. “For the world’s smartest... man …I’m shocked and humbled you thought to consult me. It takes wisdom to know one’s blind spots.” He scribbles some notes onto his palm-sized notepad. “Are you having stray visual artifacts? Time loss? Signs of charring or possible false psyche? Slippage as dominant host?”
The silence is telling. A small huff escapes from Lex’s nostrils. “That bad? Well, I am going to even you out. Adjust you back to square one.” Hamilton applies the temple nodes to Lex.
“No.” Lex snaps. “Not from zero.”
An unspoken realization hits the doctor, from there he tweaks a few levels on the machinery. “Fine. To moderate these kicks, you should calibrate yourselves once per day. Minimum.” He motions for Lex to lay down. “Once as each face.”
Lex unconsciously oozes back into Karen, just kind of free form about which version of himself that’s speaking. “If Mercy doesn’t get the safe word from me, and you burn me on this, I will bury you. She will leak everything to STAR, Cadmus, Superman, everyone. Blacklist you from the entire scientific community and send the boy scout charging back to your doorstep.” Flashes of Supergirl’s memories tear through her bravado. Scenes of being on a slab in a similar position in STAR Labs, being tended to by the same horned rimmed glasses. Kara tries to move but she’s too weak. Everything feels wrong.
“Dr. Hamilton?” What am I doing back here? Nffff it must be serious.” Kara says entirely reclaiming the dominant mind and reforming her own body. She smiles wearily, happy to see him.
Hamilton staggers back, in awe by just how far gone things have gotten so soon. “Lex?” His hand is still hovering over the switch.
“He’s here?” Kara exasperatedly says, “Professor, I’ve been locked in a dream world. An endless fog.” Kara looks passed him, seeing the second half of the vision where Superman saved her from the cloning experimentation. Wasn’t Hamilton a friend? Why would he..?
“He’s done something to me.” Her eyes shine in horror under the overhead LED light.
“Yes.” The professor replies, slow and considering. He weighs his words against the recent threats of extortion. “Lex truly has proven his cunning. He… really might be humanity’s last hope against your kind.” The darkened room turns ever more menacing.
“What are you talking about? Humanity doesn’t need protection from me, from any of my friends.” Kara argues. “I love this world. And I’ll always fight for it.” Whatever low pulsing inaudible hum the machine is releasing is keeping her off balance.
“I used to believe that. But there is a comfort in the devil-you-know.” He sighs heavily. “These gods you’ve amassed only stack the odds further and further against us. Aliens. Looking down from above in that satellite, what should I do as the target of your rage? What then?”
“You were a good man, profess—“
The doctor gulps. And with a nod, wordlessly hits the switch.
“What a pick-me-up.” Lex springs off the bed, completely rejuvenated.
“I made sure this fix aligned you back to center. This meant locking down the foreign psyche and as many memories I could find. I would strongly recommend avoiding close contact with the remnant mind, as it still is stowed away.” Dr. Hamilton sighs, recounting his final words with Supergirl. It had to be done. And, yet.
“Stop using her memories to cut corners? I’m Lex Luthor I don’t need to cheat.” He boasts with a twinge in his throat. Unfortunately the cancerous cough has followed him back to his fully human self in small non-rhythmic fits. It spoils the bravado for a moment.
The good news, as Hamilton put things, is that the protomatter bond was slowing it. Lessening the severity on all fronts. Yet, it should have cured him. Lex fixates on that, “should”. Mm. Only when expressing the full Kryptonian energy does this disease truly vanish. Soon, then. It will be gone for good. He thinks, quickly transforming into the buxom blonde persona.
Already weary of this farce, Hamilton rolls his eyes at the erogenous moans from the change. “If you must use the girl’s intel, do so in moderation.”
Why did I ever doubt myself?
Karen luxuriates in her healthy powerful body, as it’s completely and utterly hers. No noise. No voices. No Kara.
I...But for how long?
“Ah. Before you go, I want to run something by you.” Her footsteps are silent as she approaches. Leaning in, Karen whispers something into Dr. Hamilton’s ear. He’s stunned. Appalled.
“My daughter?! What gives the audacity to pretend to be my daughter?” He shouts.
“We’ll be seeing a lot of each other Emil. In the spirit of resource management, as I’m in the twilight of eradicating Kara Danvers completely, Karen Starr needs a history. I hope you like having a perpetually 29-year-old baby girl.” The tone is purely Luthor’s go-to threatening shtick but mixing in an upbeat inflection. Lex couldn’t help but adore the twinge of fear down the good doctor’s spine whenever he was powered up like this.
“I’m thinking physics doctorate, business minor with a pension for modeling.” She says disinterestedly fluffing her hastily shortened curls. “The degree won’t even need to be forged, since I’ll have the curriculum completed in no time. Maybe pay the right people to look the other way at how fast things are turned in.
“Perhaps we should address the permanence. Weaning into longer time as your alien face is key to protecting your mind as recognizably you. And, as this goes, construct exit strategies for undoing the protomatter link. Kryptonite could be used as a scalpel.”
Karen laughs. “No. This face is the future. And with the working regulators, it makes zero sense to revert to a powerless state.” She slips back on her heels and brushed down the ruffles in her pantleg.
“Retaining your humanity is valuable. I will make strides to allow Lex Luthor the opportunity to join us, finding a way to allow your body to synthesis the alien gene…”
No answer from the distracted and plotting billionaire. The conversation has clearly turned, and Emil knows when to stop hitting a brick wall. “I suppose this is where I leave you… for today.”
“Bye, Dad.” One last twist of the knife for how owned the doctor really is.
--- ---
Mercy looks up from the piles of tasks thrown across the penthouse desktop to the blonde loitering on the foyer. “You squared away after seeing Hamilton?”
The figure enters on the question. “Delightfully so. He knows his part in all this.” Karen pauses. “Dinner?”
“Dinner? Aren’t you supposed to be dead...” she checks her watch, “as of fourteen hours ago?”
“Heralded by a Clark Kent byline.” Karen kisses her partner. Her tongue mines the walls of Mercy’s mouth before letting go.
“Dinner’s not very smart.” Mercy smiles, tagging a stinger look at the end of her words.
“Don’t be dense. It’s on the rooftop veranda. I prepared your favorite.”
“And here I thought this was just a fling. You really do care.” Her words roll out with a bit of acidic jest.
“Mm.” Karen muses. “Ten minutes. I’m going to get changed.”
Mercy appears from the doorway, having removed her blazer and blouse for a quick teal halter-top. “Ten minutes isn’t a lot of time, Lex…Karen. Hrmpff Always Karen.” She says, enthusiasm deflating on the realization. “I thought we were having a normal night together.”
The blonde sits at the table awaiting her date, legs crossed in an effeminate manner. “Aren’t we? Nothing’s changed, remember?” Karen says purposely challenging the issue.
Mercy half smiles with cold eyes. “Of course not.”
Mm. Karen nods, her brow furrowed. “I wanted to tentatively celebrate and offer…business suggestions. I got a call from the board.”
“Okay…” Mercy senses an ominous shoe-drop and deflects. “How, uh, goes the special armor?”
Karen takes the bait and just pivots right into talking about herself. “It doesn’t. Between Hamilton and here I thought I could speed-build it. Alas, I’m out of my little green power source since I used up my final shard for this.” She grabs her chest. “Small hiccup. And my mind’s been …elsewhere.”
Mercy sees a chance, toeing into a happier tone. “So, ah, Karen. I got you a gift.”
“Oh?” Karen raises a brow.
“I actually solved your problem. Gunmetal Delta squad. It’s sitting in their base right now.”
“Let me get this straight: You hired the mercs regularly called to work for me, when I’m supposed to be dead?
“It was a small window of time.” She defends. “They were first in you black book. And you hire the best.”
“And what if someone tracks the encryption? The expose on my passing is at the press right now. It’s the feature. By Superman.”
“I—“
“And you hung out this obvious thread” For the first time, Karen eyes flash a nuclear red. She shakes it away and back to normal, with the sting that initiating heat vision brings. “It’s fine.” She slicks back her blonde locks and takes a big breath in. “It’s fine. I’ll fix it.”
And just like that, Mercy is left alone at the rooftop dinner for two.
--- ---
At the Gunmetal Delta safehouse, an expanded group of ten guys sit playing poker with a bunch of fast food as the betting chips. Off to the side is the stolen box of kryptonite.
“Quarter pounder. Raise.”
“Mitchell, you are full of shit. It's a safe few nuggets at best.”
They are having a pretty jovial go of it.
In the distance, a repeated sound. A small quaking.
Then in a single bound through the roof, the annoyed Woman of Steel crashes down into the pavement. She hits into the well-known heroic pose, it slightly tears the seam on her dress.
“You know, I was having dinner with my girlfriend. You idiots really spoiled the evening.” She says as she snaps the closest merc’s neck. “Second-hand.”
“You stupid bitch." The leader fires a gun at her and the bullets flatten immediately. “It’s Supergirl! Get the—" She shatters a massive portion of the weaponry in a single punch, just a few guns remain in the frenzy. Remove evidence. Easy enough. “Not even a week into being a woman, I already hate the name calling.” The super-powered party crasher rolls her eyes. "This wasn't personal, but now..."
A horror movie plays out, as a tornado of death does its first pass of the mercenary unit. Reducing two bodies to chunks of meat and bone with her bare hands.
Lex/Karen talks herself through her anger at Mercy while decimating the men, saying she should give her a pass. She’s learning. She didn’t know. Fingers split open a skull with a thought. It flings a spattered line of red over her nose and eyes.
“Maybe my night’s not a complete wash. This speed with this power.” Karen licks a bit of blood off her face. She feels stronger since Hamilton. It’s stirring her up in all kinds of ways. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to cut loose. How much I’ve fantasized.” She drives her arm through another man, piercing his chest up to her elbow. Effortlessly, like moving through air. "All it took was a single wave of my hand."
In between her clenched fist, she can feel the intestines slammed into the ribs and the lungs like a half-working macabre blender. It’s interesting, to be sure.
This goes on for a skosh longer as Power Girl ruins the rest of the team beyond recognition save one. The warehouse goes quiet with dread. He is a step away from the kryptonite package. Then, a head tilt.
“You’re cute.” She sounds as plucky as she did on campus. “Dark hair, strong jaw. You look like him.” Karen circles the mercenary. The lone survivor oscillates between stoic pride and fear. “Eyes are all wrong though.”
His hand reaches to open the unlocked crate. Inching closer to the lid. Slowly. She’s not watching his hands. Despite the carnage, this woman staring at him like an animal is gorgeous and smells of strawberries and watermelon. The dress she wears is like water flowing off her amazing figure, perfectly accentuating it and yet holding together through her rapid jolts of violence.
“Uhhh..” the handsome prey trails off, trying his damndest to stave off his baser reaction. Below the belt, his fear betrays him with a stick straight rod lusting for this woman.
She gets dangerous close to him. Her nose almost touching his. This one looks like him enough.
“S-S-ssuperg-“ he says through clenched teeth.
“No.” She moves blindingly fast, holding tight near his ear. To him, it’s almost like she teleported. “I’ll let you in on a secret.” Her body presses against his. She feels the lump in the merc’s pants.
He shivers.
“I’m Lex Luthor. And I’m here to collect.”
The handsome, endangered soldier’s eyes widen. He sees the sadism in this woman, beyond her blood-soaked fashion. There is a hate behind her gaze. She wasn’t the same Supergirl. “Oh god.”
“Aw. Look at you. Didn’t take you for that type of guy.” The blonde says noting his rock-hard awareness hasn’t wavered. “I’m almost flattered.” With a single finger she lifts the edge of her spoiled dress just over her thigh. This one looks like him enough. “Good. I want to break you.” She bites her lip.
The terrorized soldier secures the box and tears open the lid. Green light flares out, exposing Power Girl to kryptonite and starting a strange reaction. She struggles to the floor shocked by the pain, skin tone dipping into a pale grey. Lex’s deeper male cough comes through her vocals. The radiation begins ripping apart her insides, separating the forms like oil and water.
Frantically the mercenary looks to the door and then to his crew’s weaponry scattered in the opposite direction. Did he have the time? And for which? He makes a break for the exit.
Mustering a powerful gust of breath Karen blows the crate lid closed, sealing the thing in ice. She clears her throat back to normal and is restored in full. Those blue daggerpoint eyes lock back with her prey and she instantly cuts off his path, appearing front of him as the pale harbinger of his end. Bits of gnarled, red bone still drip down her forearm on to the concrete floor.
She takes a long look at him and play-pouts.
“Unfortunate, really. You could have been fun.” Her smile is like poison. "Oh well."
- - - - - - - - - -
End part 2
