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Superwoman
A Bad Day
November 1985
Two Denver omelets and a pitcher of orange juice," the waitress said, setting the food down in front of Clark Kent and Kristen Wells. The two of them had been meeting regularly for breakfast since Kristen had chosen to stay in the 20th century. She knew few people in this time and it was good to have someone to talk to. For Clark, it was good to have someone to talk to in Metropolis who knew his secret and that he could be completely open and honest with.
"Are you sure you want to stay?" Clark Kent asked her once. "Now that the Crisis is over with, I mean. After everything that's happened, I've come to really appreciate the value of friends and family. It's got to be hard for you here, separated from everyone you know and love."
"It was at first," Kristen said. "But I've had you to help me adjust. And I'm starting to make some friends. Besides, according to my time, I've already done it. So it's not like I've got a choice."
"Where time travel is concerned, I'd like to think we've always got a choice," Clark said. "And that we're simply incapable of making the wrong ones. You haven't been at this as long as I have, Kristen. It hasn't consumed you yet. You still have a chance to go back to a normal life."
"How can you say that, Clark? Look at what all we've just been though," Kristen exclaimed.
"Rao willing, there will only be one Crisis," Clark said. "But you haven't experienced the worst you can go through. You haven't faced the worst this business has to offer."
"I'm a historian, Clark. I've studied the cases of all the heroes."
"Studying history and experiencing it first hand are two different things", Clark said, taking a sip of his coffee. "There's no way of knowing what it's truly like but to experience it for yourself."
"Hey, I thought you were trying to talk me OUT of this," Kristen said with a grin.
Clark couldn't help but smile. He remembered being this eager when he first started his career as Superboy.
After Kristen and Clark said their good-byes, Kristen ducked behind the café and donned her Superwoman. As she took to the sky, the usual sense of elation came over her. She had flown plenty of times in her home time, but there was something about flying under her own power that no scientific device could duplicate. It was true freedom.
Her reverie was broken as she looked down and saw two small boys, one white, one black, on a street in Suicide Slums fighting. She swooped down to break it up. "What's all this about," she asked, landing between the two.
"He's supposed to be my best friend!" the white boy said.
"But Lamar took a swing at me!"
"Cause he's defending that new Supergirl who stole the old one's ID after she died," Lamar said. "And she's just a no good faker!"
"She's just as good a hero," the other boy said. "She saved my cousins when that tornado went through his town and started knocking over all the trailers."
"There he goes again! You'd better take it back, Tim," the angry boy said, trying to dodge around her so he could get a shot in. "I bet she made the tornado herself!"
"She wouldn't do that," Superwoman said. "She's one of the good guys."
"You would say that!" the boy snapped. "You're just as bad as she is! Calling yourself Superwoman. Supergirl should've gotten to call herself that some day but she died! It's not fair!"
Superwoman was alarmed at the amount of hurt in his eyes. He wasn't just some kid talking about a childish infatuation of his favorite hero on TV. To him it was more. Would she ever have that sort of impact on people?
"You're right. It's not fair," Kristen said. "It's not fair at all. She died much too soon. She made about the biggest sacrifice a hero can make. She sacrificed herself so that her cousin, Superman, could live."
"I know that," he said sadly. "I heard about it on TV."
"As for the new Supergirl, she didn't steal the name. It was just her name, too," Superwoman said.
"Yeah, right," Lamar said. "Her momma didn't name her Supergirl."
"No," Superwoman said, sitting down on the steps to their apartment building and patting on either side of her for them to sit down. "It's a long story, but she and I both come from the future. In her time, she was the only Supergirl. She's a descendant."
"What's that?" Tim asked.
"It means she's like her granddaughter or something."
"Her great, great granddaughter," Tim said
"More than that," Superwoman said. "She's from the wa-a-ay into the future. Even further than me."
"Wow," Lamar said. "Her great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great.." he paused to get his breath, "great, great, great, great granddaughter."
"Something like that," Superwoman laughed.
"But why do you and her live here now?" Tim asked.
"Well, I have to," Superwoman said. "In my time, Superwoman is already a part of history. So if I didn't stay, I'd change everything and then who knows what would happen!" She put her hands around their shoulders and hugged them to her and said, "Plus, I wouldn't meet people like you!" This raised a giggle from both of them."
"Okay, you have to stay, but why does she," Lamar said, not sure if he was ready to accept the new person with his hero's name.
"Well, in her time, the cities floated above seas of lava. When the Crisis hit her century, all the cities fell into the lava seas and were destroyed. So there was nothing left for her there."
"That's sad," Tim said.
"Yeah," Lamar agreed.
"And it's a good thing she was here," Superwoman said. "If not, we might not have been able to help Superman when he was sick and dying."
Lamar and Tim were suddenly at full, wide-eyed attention. "What happened?" they asked simultaneously.
"Well, remember when Mzxyktplk dropped Argo city on Metropolis and there was Kryptonite everywhere?…." She proceeded to tell them the story of how Superman had been fatally poisoned by the Kryptonite and had retired to the Fortress of Solitude to spend his final days in sickness and grief. And of how she and the new Supergirl had gone of a quest for the fabled Sword of Superman to cure him, fighting off the villainous King Kosmos in the process and keeping him from using the sword for his own evil purposes.
"Wow," Tim said. "That was cool!"
"Even when you didn't have no weapons you kept on trying to fight," Lamar said. "You coulda run away and didn't."
"That's what friends do," Superwoman said. "Superman was my friend. So was Supergirl. I had to do what I could. I couldn't let anything happen to either one of them."
"Hold on a minute," Lamar said. He ran to the door and said, "Don't go nowhere!" He then ran inside and through the crack of the door she could see him run upstairs.
"Do you know what he's doing?" Superwoman asked Tim.
"I think so," Tim said.
"Lamar ran back downstairs, completely out of breath, held up a Polaroid camera and said, "..pictures … please.."
"Sure, Superwoman said with a delighted smile. She flagged down a passing stranger and had him snap two pictures of her with the boys. She borrowed a pin and signed them, "To my new friends, Lamar and Tim."
From a nearby window, she heard a radio announce a monsoon hitting an island in the Caribbean, so she had to leave. Lamar and Tim waved as she disappeared into the sky.
***
It was one disaster after the next, after that: an earthquake in Japan, a tidal wave in the Pacific Islands, a broken dam in the Netherlands, and a guerilla raid in Africa. Superwoman wondered how Superman managed to juggle a personal life, a career, and his time as a hero. Physically, she knew she wasn't tired, but she felt weary nonetheless. She had had to witness far too much suffering in one day. And it had started out so pleasantly.
As she flew back into Metropolis, she saw the glare of police lights and flew towards the spot where they appeared to becoming from. As she approached, a sick feeling grew in the pit of her stomach as she realized she had been there before. As she slowly descended towards the gathered crowd, she saw Tim. His eyes were red-rimmed, as if he had done a great deal of crying and didn't have it him to shed any more tears. He was holding the hand of a woman who had to be his mother. Like everyone else, he was watching as a stretcher bearing a small, covered form was being loaded onto an ambulance.
"Drive-by," a police officer told her.
"Drive-by?' she said in confusion.
"Drive-by shooting. You know… gang initiation. They have to kill somebody to get in so they just drive by and shoot somebody. Usually a rival gang member... Or a white guy."
She scanned the sheet with her X-ray vision and confirmed what she already knew. "But Lamar was black…."
"Where were you!" a voice suddenly called out. Kristen turned and saw a black woman not much older than her looking at her with tear filled, accusing eyes. "Where were you? Why weren't you hear to keep this from happening! Why didn't you keep them from killing my baby?"
"I would have… if I'd known," Superwoman said, tears starting to come to her own eyes. "There was a monsoon in the Caribbean…"
"Well, while you were making the world safe for tourism, there was a kid here who could've used your help," the cop said. Others in the crowd picked up on the policeman's chiding and began booing her as well, as if they had needed somewhere to focus on their rage. Tim's tear stained face, the accusing eyes of Lamar's mother, and the booing of the crowd were all too much for her to bear, and she retreated to the skies.
He was just a child. What kind of world had she made her home? What kind of world?
***
After a quick scan of his x-ray vision to see who was on the other side, Clark Kent opened his door and gestured for her to come in. "Hello, Kristen," he said, shutting the door behind her. "What brings you…" He stopped short as tears filled her eyes and her lower lip began to quiver. "Come here," he said, opening his arms.
Kristen threw herself into his strong arms and began to sob. "Oh God, Clark." Her sobs became long, heart wrenching wails of grief that filled the room. Her body shook as she cried. As Clark stroked her hair comfortingly, he remembered when a young Superboy cried similarly into the shoulder of Martha Kent. He wanted to be able to tell Kristen that it would be all right, but it never did get any easier. The hardest lesson of all was that the good guys don't always win.
Later that night, Lamar's mother opened the door to her apartment and let out a startled gasp as she saw a very tired looking Superwoman standing in her doorway. "Mrs. Hallen, may I come in?"
"Um… sure," she said, stepping back from the door.
Mrs. Hallen led Superwoman into her apartment and showed her to her kitchen table. "I was just about to have some coffee. Join me for a cup? You look like you could use some." Mrs. Hallen placed a cup in front of Superwoman. "So what's on your mind?"
"I… I'm so sorry for what happened," Superwoman said miserably. "If only I'd gotten back sooner. I've been over and over it in my mind…" She brought her hand up to her head and slid back her cowl. "I was just fooling myself. I have no business wearing this costume. This symbol. I'm no hero."
Mrs. Hallen let out a gasp at the sight of the freckled face revealed before her, looking for all the world like an ordinary girl; one who was normally probably the cute and perky type when she wasn't carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"I'm the one who should be sorry," the grieving mother said.. "I had no right to blame you for what had happened. It wasn't your fault in any way, shape, or form. You were in another part of the world when it happened. If anything, you brought Lamar some happiness on his last day."
"Superman would've found a way to be here," Kristen said.
"Well, he wasn't here neither, was he?" Lamar's mother said. "I guess even he can't be two places at once. Follow me. I want to show you something." She took Kristen by the arm and led her to another room of the apartment. It was Lamar's room.
She pointed to one wall decorated with pictures of the first Supergirl that he had cut out of magazines. "A lot of his school friends wondered why he was so nuts over a girl super hero. It all started with this." She pointed to a picture of a slightly younger Lamar standing with her. "The dog she's holding was Lamar's. It had run out in front of a bus. She managed to swoop down and save him before it was hit. Since that time, she was his favorite hero. He'd write letters to her via the Daily Planet while all his classmates were writing Superman. And when she'd actually write back, it thrilled him more than even a letter from Santa could since he'd actually met her. He cried all night when he found out she'd died."
She turned and pointed to a different wall. "Now look over here." On the wall was the picture she had made with Lamar and Tim. There were already a few pictures from Newstime and other magazines of her on the wall next to it. "You were his new hero."
"Me?" Superwoman asked.
"Yes, you. Do you know exactly how Lamar died?" his mother asked.
"A drive-by. Part of a ...gang initiation," Superwoman said, quoting the police officer who had arrived on the scene."
"Lamar wasn't the target. Wrong color. It was his friend, Tim. But Lamar pushed him out of the way and got shot because he was trying to save him. I can't blame you for not being here because you were saving other people anymore than I could blame Lamar for dying because he was trying to do the right thing and save a friend. That's what he was like. I think he might have been inspired by Supergirl's sacrifice for her cousin. Maybe even the sacrifice you and that new Supergirl were prepared to make for him."
A single tear rolled down Kristen's cheek as she pictured the brave little boy trying to save his best friend. The same best friend he had fought with only a few hours earlier.
Lamar's mother reached over and pulled Kristen's mask back into place. "So you see, this talk of you quitting just won't do. You meant a lot to my boy. I doubt very seriously he could be at rest if he thought he had made you give up. You keep going, you hear?"
"I will," Superwoman said hoarsely.
"Promise?"
"I promise."
The two women said their good-byes on the stairway of the apartment building and hugged. As Superwoman took to the sky, she knew that good or bad, she was in this for the long run. She wasn't just doing it for herself anymore. She just hoped young Tim Drake proved to be worthy of the sacrifice Lamar had made for him.
Epilogue
November 2034
"Hey, kid, you believe in ghosts?" the old cemetery worker said to the young man working beside him.
"If I did, would I be working here?' the young man said to the old groundskeeper as he pulled up a patch of weeds. "What is this? Harass the new guy? Of course I don't believe in ghosts!"
"That's too bad, kid, because your whole world is gonna get thrown outta whack today," the old man laughed. "See that grave ahead of us?" he said, pointing to an ornate gravestone. Something's going to happen in just one minute."
"Yeah, right," the young man laughed. You're just trying to freak me out."
Suddenly, there was a gust of wind that stirred up a patch of leaves in front of them. When it settled, a large bouquet of flowers was resting in front of the grave.
"What the…?" the young man exclaimed. "You were telling the truth!!"
"Told you," the old man chuckled. "That's been going on as long as I can remember. Exact same date. Exact same time. It's been going on since I started working here when I was your age. And every year, flowers have appeared there. All different kinds: roses, carnations, and orchids. You name it. Beautiful arrangements. A gust of wind and then flowers appear."
"Who is it in that grave?" the young man said.
"Nobody special," the old man said. "No one famous, anyway. Just some kid. Wish I knew what the story was with him. Obviously, he meant a lot to somebody."