In Any Reality

Still, even with the evidence of their own eyes, there would always be those who refused to believe at least some of the story that had been repeated so often as to have become part of the popular lore. Foremost among those was the claim that she was the last survivor of a lost alien world.

Visitors from other worlds, the general public had been conditioned to believe by almost a half century of science fiction novels and films, were supposed to be equally alien in appearance. Depending on which author or screenwriter you favored, they could range from totally monstrous to almost cute and cuddly. But only in the most unimaginative of those forums would they have been depicted as looking like the all-American girl next door.

When she considered the continued disbelief in her abilities and her origins, Supergirl sometimes wondered if they still would've been the same had she been born a man, or at least had some distinguishable difference like pointed ears. Think what they might, however, the young woman in question had no doubt as to who she was and where she had come from. Thanks to the foresight of her natural father, she knew a great deal more about the world of her birth than might have been imagined, especially given the circumstances under which she had left it.

The telepathic scan that had judged Jonathan Kent as a suitable guardian for the last child of Krypton had, at the same time, implanted an incredible storehouse of knowledge in his mind. At first, he was hardly aware of it, but in the days and weeks that followed he began to realize that he possessed memories not his own. One of the first that became clear to him was that the babe in his wife's arms was the daughter of Jor-El and Lara, who had perished along with their world light years away. It was that first realization that had led them to christen the child Laura Kent.

Also as those transplanted memories came into focus came the awareness that eventually they would fade over time, given certain differences between Kryptonian and human minds. To preserve them as best he could, Jonathan resurrected a long abandoned hobby of science fiction writing, putting down on paper what eventually amounted to a rather concise history. By the time Laura could herself read and understand the stories he'd filled several notebooks with for herself, they formed what could've been a manuscript for a national bestseller, had it not been intended for a readership of one.

Finally excusing herself from the crowd, Supergirl returned to the center of the rail bridge and, now that she had the luxury of time, easily deactivated the deadly devices. It was just a matter of her using her super-breath to freeze the sensitive triggers long enough to physically disable them. While doing so, she also spotted a number of quite readable fingerprints on both units that would be of great interest to the FBI. Evidently, their creators hadn't been as intelligent as they fancied themselves, or they simply assumed there would be little left of the explosives to prove incriminating.

A glance sunward told her the time far more accurately than any timepiece she might have worn. The appointment she had come to Metropolis for some two weeks before was now only a half hour away. Plenty of time for her to stop along the way and deliver the now harmless explosives at the local FBI office.

-=-=-=-

With a good fifteen minutes to spare before her appointment, Supergirl silently landed in the alley behind the Daily Planet building that led to the loading dock. A few hours from now, when the first evening edition hit the streets, this area would be a beehive of activity, but at the moment it was deserted as a ghost town. Still, it didn't hurt for her to do a quick three hundred and sixty degree x-ray scan just to be sure.

Satisfied that she was indeed alone, Supergirl opened a small bundle she had retrieved from where she had left it atop one of the taller buildings in the area. In a blur of motion, the familiar blue and red costume vanished, to be replaced by a simple, nondescript tan and white business suit. Laura often wondered what other costumed adventurers did with their civilian clothes when they changed but had been too shy to ask the few that she'd actually met. If she were a man, she also sometimes thought, she could probably get away with wearing practically the same suit every day, copies of which she could leave in different places. Unfortunately, women's style, even in the business world, called for more variety. Since coming to Metropolis, she had taken to carefully folding up her outfits into a special protective bag and leaving it in places only she could easily retrieve it. What else could she do, hide them in some secret pocket in her cape?

In addition to the change of clothing, her short, pixie hairstyle was now covered by a longer haired wig of similar hue. The change was completed with the donning of a pair of rectangular, gold framed glasses which, along with the wig, changed the shape of her face. Eyeglasses seemed out of place on someone who could read newsprint from a quarter mile away, but it was all necessary to achieve the desired effect.

From the time she'd first appeared in public, at least since she'd first appeared in costume, the Girl of Steel had never given any indication that she was anyone other than Supergirl. Since she made no attempt to hide her face, people seemed more willing to go along with that small piece of fiction.

The truth was, long before that first costumed appearance, a great deal of thought had gone into the decision of what to do about preserving her privacy. Adding a mask or even an all-covering cowl had been considered and then rejected. It had been Martha Kent's suggestion that the best place to hide would be in plain sight. People see what they want to see, she'd said, and they definitely would see what they weren't looking for in the first place.

So with a few simple changes, a longer hair style, a pair of glasses, and a small change in her voice so that when she spoke as Laura her mid- western accent was always noticeable, the illusion was complete. If anyone did happen to notice any resemblance, it was superficial enough to be easily dismissed. Especially since, as Laura, she always let her natural exuberance shine through, hardly the act of someone trying not to attract attention to herself, and it was in the Supergirl guise that she presented a much quieter persona. After all, Laura was who she was; Supergirl was just the name of the person wearing the costume.

An elevator ride to the twenty-second floor brought her to the editorial offices of the Daily Planet and her appointment with the managing editor, Perry White. A year before, Mr. White had delivered a lecture at Metropolis University where Laura had been taking journalism classes. Afterwards, he had been gracious enough to read some samples of a few of the top students' writing, which included the girl who was always careful to make sure she placed in the top percentile of her class, but not too close to the top. White had given her some encouraging words and suggested that she give him a call when she graduated.

Laura was smart enough to realize that he probably said that to a number of students in a year, but confident enough in her writing talents to try and hold him to it. So, two weeks ago, after having completed the requirement for her degree a year early, she gave him a call. The Editor had truthfully told her that he didn't remember the invitation but had no doubt in his mind that he had made it, confirming Laura's initial conclusion that he made those offers as a matter of form. Unwilling to go back on a promise, even if he didn't remember it, he had his secretary set up an appointment with her.

The bulk of the twenty-second floor was a large open bullpen, filled with desks occupied by various reporters, columnists and associate editors. At the forefront of it all sat a receptionist's desk which Laura approached, to state the nature of her business. She fully expected to be waiting out here in the reception area for some time, until Mr. White was free, which based on the level of activity she could observe wasn't going to be any time soon.

"Oh yes, Mr. White is expecting you," the middle aged receptionist said as she consulted a clipboarded notepad on her desk. "If you just follow Jimmy here," she added, indicating the redheaded young man sitting in one of the chairs against the wall, "he'll show you the way to his office."

Thanking the woman, Laura followed the young man, who she concluded was a high school intern, based on his age. Thinking about it as she passed the long rows of computer topped desks; she decided that it made more sense for the managing editor to get her interview out of the way as quickly as possible so he could get on with the business of getting the first edition out. At best, she thought, she had about ten or fifteen minutes to make an impression on him.

True to his reputation, Perry White wasted no time in getting to the point once the interview started, and the substance of his words was pretty much what Laura had expected. While not discouraging her ambitions or what he assumed was obvious talent, since he must've seen something in her work to have made the offer in the first place, good reporters, he said, needed more than talent; they needed real life experience, and that just wasn't something a person just coming out of college had a great deal of.

Oh, there were sometimes exceptions, he added, there was an excellent young woman he'd hired right out of college two years before. But Lois Lane was an exception rather than the rule. Like Olsen, the young man who had guided her to his office, Lois had been both a high school and college intern at the paper.

Laura nodded her head in understanding. Lois Lane had been a byline she'd seen in the paper many times, and she had been greatly impressed by both the writing style and personal fire that the woman brought to her stories.

White began to conclude his speech, which by Laura's reckoning had run exactly fourteen minutes, with the suggestion that she might be better off trying her luck at one of the smaller papers, which might be more able to give her the time to develop the kind of instincts and contacts a good reporter needed.

"Thank you very much for your time and advice, Mister White," Laura said as she got began to rise from the chair in front of his desk.

"You're very welcome," Perry said as he offered his hand. "You just spend some time developing those skills I mentioned and I'm sure you'll..."

"Would it be too imposing of me to ask you to read something for me?" Laura interrupted, taking a few pages of type out of her attaché case before he could say otherwise. "I wrote this up before coming over here to show how my work had improved since the last time you read any of it, and I'd really like your opinion."

It was obvious from the look on Perry's face and the glance at his watch that he had other things waiting for him, but good manners won out and he reached out for the papers planning to only give it a minute or two's attention.

"Great Caesar's Ghost!" he exclaimed after reading the opening paragraphs. "Where did you get this? It only came over the wire a couple of minutes before you got here, and then only the bare facts."

The pages contained the complete details of Supergirl's rescue of the Gotham - Metropolis Express, written up on a typewriter she had borrowed for a few minutes at the FBI office.

"A friend of mine happened to be on location," Laura smiled, sure that Perry would assume she was talking about a passenger. "She thought I might be interested in the details."

She waited a few moments to let him finish reading the story, then asked if he thought it was good enough for her to submit to one of those local papers he was talking about.

Perry looked up at her for a second, then opened the door to his office and called for a copy boy. Olsen, who had been waiting not far away to walk Laura back out of the office, jumped up at the summons.

"Olsen, take this right over to Johnson at the city desk," he said in a tone that conveyed an order, not a request. "Tell him I want it on page one of the early edition; I'll leave it up to him what story to push back to page two. Once it's in the system tell him to shoot it over to Ryan to update the Planet's online edition."

Jimmy stood there for a second, looking at the papers the Editor had thrust into his hand. In all the time he'd worked here, he couldn't remember anyone actually submitting a story on paper.

"I meant now, not five minutes from now," White said, his tone causing the young man to practically jump.

"Does that mean that I don't have to worry about applying to one of those smaller papers you were talking about?" Laura asked, hoping she wasn't sounding too presumptuous.

"What that means is that you have two weeks to dazzle me," the older man said. "In this business you're only as good as your last byline."

Before Laura could make a comment, the door to White's office opened and an attractive long haired brunette in a white blouse and brown skirt walked in unannounced. She started talking almost as soon as the door opened, stopping only when she realized that the editor wasn't alone.

"Oh sorry, Perry, I didn't realize you..." she started to say.

"Lois Lane, meet Laura Kent," Perry said in way of introduction as he cut the brunette short. "She's starting at the Planet as of today."

The announcement caught Lois by surprise; usually she knew everything that happened in the office before it happened. She took in the younger girl before her, amazed by the deer in the headlights look on her face. Perry was always hiring college interns to give them a taste of the real world. From the look of this one, she didn't give her two weeks.

"Nice to meet you, Laura," Lois said as she extended her own hand. "If you need help with anything at all, don't hesitate to ask."

Laura seemed to hesitate, then took Lois's hand in her own, holding it tightly for a few seconds as she thanked Lois and said she was happy to meet her as well, having read many of her stories while she was in school, and that she hoped she did as well at the Planet as Lois had done.

Lois immediately picked up on the accent in the younger woman's voice and tagged her with the nickname "farm girl."

"You bring me a few more Supergirl exclusives like the one you just did and you'll do just fine," Perry remarked, his tone more supportive than before. He'd been the grizzly bear already, so now he could be the teddy, if only for the moment.

"Supergirl exclusive?" Lois asked, her own tone abruptly changing in the opposite direction as she realized that Laura was being hired as a reporter, and not part of the support staff as she had assumed. She took a longer, more intense look at the other woman, wondering how much competition she might turn out to be.

"Yeah, farm girl," Lois thought again as she decided that she wasn't going to be any competition at all. Especially not with that silly grin on her face.

-=-=-=-

In the weeks that followed, Laura Kent did indeed manage to dazzle Perry. So much so, that even Lois had to admit, if only to herself, that she had been wrong in her initial assessment of the farm girl from Kansas. And if there was one thing Lois hated above all else, it was to be proven wrong.

With an almost frustrating regularity, Laura managed to bring in more page one stories than anyone else on staff, with the exception of Lois. The difference between them both, however, was too slim for the senior reporter to be happy about it.

At first, it seemed like the neophyte newswoman intended to make a career out of reporting on the Girl of Steel. Her first three headliners had been all about the super-heroine, causing Lois to remark that people were beginning to wonder if perhaps Laura had Supergirl's private cell phone number on speed dial, or that perhaps she'd worked out some sort of personal arrangement with the Kryptonian to be some sort of press agent for her.

The regularity of Supergirl stories seemed to subside after that, with Laura branching out into other areas, some of which had previously been Lois's preserve. Such an encroachment once would've brought all of the veteran reporter's fury down on the poacher, but it had come at the same time as Lois Lane began to emerge as the one who might just have some sort of special connection with Metropolis's newest marvel.

More and more stories about the Maid of Steel began to appear under the Lane byline, including a personal interview that had won the Metropolis Journalism Award for that year. Now it seemed it was Lois who had that personal number, or at least it was the other way around. People would spot her headed up to the roof of the Planet building at odd hours, knowing that she'd come back down with another exclusive.

Her position again secure, Lois even began to get along better with Laura who eventually graduated from "farm girl" to simply "Kent"; in Lois's book this was a remarkable concession. She didn't even mind it too much when, after Laura had been with the Planet a few months, Perry suggested they team up on a few stories, just to see how it worked out.

"As long as she remembers it's Lane and Kent," turned out to be Lois's only comment on the collaboration, which tuned out to be all that Perry could've hoped for. Somehow, each of them brought out the best in the other. Over the following six months, there had been almost as many shared bylines as there had been singular.

In addition to her improved relations with Lois, Laura also made some good friendships among the other Planet staffers. One exception, however, had to be Steve Lombard, the former star quarterback of the Metropolis Meteors who wrote a weekly column for the paper. Or more accurately, had the column ghost written for him. Never had Laura met a more arrogant, self-centered neanderthal, one that made the football jocks back in Smallville seem like Rhodes Scholars. They hadn't been introduced two minutes when he'd started hitting on her.

"Laura, I don't think you've had the chance to meet Steve Lombard," Jerry Walsh, the senior sports editor said as he introduced the six foot two former athlete.

"No, I don't think I have," Laura said, "are you part of the sports writing staff?"

"You're kidding, right?" the broad shouldered, brown haired man said as he stepped past Jerry and towered over Laura. "You're actually going to tell me that you've never heard of Steve 'the slinger' Lombard?"

"Should I have?" Laura asked, as she saw out of the corner of her eye that Jerry was actually enjoying this.

The "sports columnist" was stunned for a moment. The last time he'd met any girl that didn't automatically know who he was had been his freshman year of college. And that had only been in the few days before the start of football season.

"Oh, I remember now," Laura said with a smile, "you were some kind of ball player, right?"

"Yes, football," Steve said, reminding himself that losing his temper would ruin any chance at the objective he had in mind when he asked Jerry to introduce him to the cute reporter. "If you don't have any plans, I'd love to take you out to dinner and tell you all about my days with the Metropolis Meteors."

As tempting as that sounds, I think I'll have to pass," Laura replied, putting as much disinterest in her voice as possible.

"Are you sure," Steve said, a measure of disbelief in his own voice. He wasn't used to being turned down.

Laura nodded her head that she was, now finding the former athlete more of an annoyance than anything else.

"Babe, you don't know what you're passing up," Lombard insisted, his disappointment bringing forth his natural crudity. "You're giving up the chance to find out why all the ladies call me Big Steve."