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Boston BridgeIt was hard to say whether or not she was actually embarrassed. Of course, the moment Kara Connors arrived to work in the morning...that got a lot easier to say. Especially when it was Carl Lundgrum, a fifty-something that had always seemed as ignorant to Kara as he was rude and short, that appeared at the desk in her small little office to throw the paper down upon her desk calendar--as if the man were throwing down a gauntlet. He looked irritated, though somehow remained that smug, secure, attitude that seemed everpresent about the man.
"Did you two talk terms later in the evening? Or was your mouth...too busy?"
There were times that working with the type of human being that populated the higher management tiers of Lex Luthor's Presidential campaign was painful. Almost as painful as watching your home, family, and friends being liquidated in a spectacle of fire and blood. Most of the time they were fine; but they had their issues with women. Especially strong, intelligent, silent women like Kara. She'd already had more than her fair share of standoffs with political dick-swingers; and every time she stood toe to toe with them and never blinked in the face of whatever hack argument they were making, she felt as if they grew a little more resentful towards the pretty young blonde girl who went from college sophmore to chief political pollster for their campaign.
Briefly, as she hung up her coat and set down the leather red backpack that had been slung over her shoulder, Kara peered down at the newspaper thrown down upon her desk. The photo was of Lex walking with, hugging, and then dining with a blonde girl in heels and gown. The way Lex had hugged on her, then stayed so close to her...the man wasn't dumb. It wasn't an accident. He'd WANTED the two of them seen together. He wanted himself to end up both in the gossip column, and front page of the Politics section.
"Thanks for the early morning sexual harassment, Carl. Terms for what?"
The man huffed. "My job."
Kara paused as she sat in her desk chair, and let her blue eyes go icy in the rude Republican American human's direction. "Ew, Carl. I don't want your job. I don't want a West Wing office."
"Guess if he married you, you wouldn't have to ever work again?"
"...again, ew. Don't confuse your fantasies with mine, Carl."
"And what are YOUR fantasies, blondie?"
Without looking up from the collection of missed call notifications left upon her desk in post-it note fashion, Kara almost smiled. "Kicking your ass is pretty high on that list right now, Carl. Although I'd settle for your eyes staying off me next time I wear a pencil skirt to work, since we're talking fantasies." After that, Kara did look up at him.
And she did smile. Big.
"You're the man's pollster. You know how woman view him."
Kara pretended to sigh. "They're not comfortable with a playboy bachelor for a President, but I don't think Lex dating a young twenty-something college student turned political staffer is really going to help that."
"...too Brad and Angelina for women?"
What the hell does that even mean? Kara ignored the man who was many times over her boss on the campaign. Not that it mattered. After last night, it was all over. Sanctuary reported the boys had been successful, even if they had to improvise towards the end. They'd been more than worth the stolen human currency that it had cost her to get Sanctuary a real look at Lex's private servers. A criminal act to investigate a criminal...was surely a virtuous act. All those Batman stories had taught Kara that.
"He worried about Queen?"
"We didn't talk about it, Carl." She said, again without looking up to him, her eyes trained on the screen of the laptop that had been assigned her by the campaign's IT department. "But if you're worried: he didn't seem concerned about anything. At all. That was a little concerning, for me."
"You're the pollster; you know he's the odds on favorite right now."
"Is it over?"
Carl Lundgrun, all near three hundred pounds of him, shrugged his massive shoulders in a half-roll. "Not yet."
"Then maybe he's got something to worry about...unless there's something I don't know?"
That time, Kara did look up at Carl. The smug man only stayed smug, and quiet. Did Carl know Lex had the game rigged?...Kara doubted it. Carl was too unimportant for that. Too much of a bystander. A victim. But Sanctuary was convinced; somehow, Lex had the election rigged. Sanctuary was still working on exactly how, but Kara hoped that to be no more than a matter of time.
"Hey Carl, is Gemma outside?"
The big man struggled to turn his body, lean back, and look. "...the dark haired girl with the ass? Yeah, she's out there."
"Fantastic." A quick strike of the 'Enter' button, and Kara logged off the laptop, then stood, collecting her bag and coat. "Carl, you're an asshole, and I quit. Good luck spinning this one."
Kara left with a quick pat on the big man's shoulder, and immediately walked out to the endless rows of desks. There, at the desk nearest her former tiny office's door, Kara found Gemma. The Wisconsin born girl's eyes got big at the sight of Kara, but the Kryptonian shushed her immediately, motioning for her friend to follow her. "I'm quitting."
Gemma stared. "...because of the pictures?"
"Oh, yeah. I'm horribly embarrassed about those." It was a most convenient lie, but there was no denying that part of her was, in fact, a little humiliated by Luthor. Maybe Lex would understand, when he learned the girl he used in some trivial little plot simply walked out on he and his campaign--successful as it was sure to be. "It's okay, you stay, work. I'll talk to you tonight?"
The girl frowned, but Kara smiled right at her, inspiring Gemma's own attempt at a smile. "Yeah, absolutely, if you're sure you're alright?"
"Oh, I'm perfect. I gotta head out, but we'll talk to tonight."
Gemma yelled after Kara to call her later, and Kara yelled back a promise. The Kryptonian girl filed it away in her mind for later, and kept her attention glued to the smartphone that Sanctuary had made for her. It appeared a rather normal, if gold and glitzy, iPhone. It was anything but; feeding Kara information and speaking to her in a manner of 1's and 0's, simple langauges Kara learned when she was a child playing at science and computing. For a superhuman, a taxi ride home was painfully long, and it helped to keep her mind busy.
The moment the taxi stopped, Kara paid and slipped out and up the stairs to her apartment. There it was a few micro-seconds for changing and Kara was gone out the sunroof, fast enough to ensure she wouldn't be tracked using visible light, at least. It took about the same time for Supergirl to make it Gotham City as it did for the taxi to take Kara home, but once Supergirl lowered out of the clouds...she stopped, and stared.
Gotham City, in the day, looked almost like any other city. Like D.C., it had it's obvious "bad" areas. Unlike D.C., it had a Batman. "Sanctuary, I'm here."
"Initiating the tracking program, Kara. I will need you lower in the sky, and closer to a centralized point."
"You want me low enough for cameras to spot me in the sky?"
"Only if you want the tracking program to succeed, Kara."
"...this sucks, Sanc. If some crazy vigilante comes at me, I'm totally blaming you."
"Gotham City vigilantes operate in night time over 65% of the time, Kara."
"Oh, that's comforting to a girl in bright blue and red floating over a city..."
But there was no other way. Kara descended to merely a few hundred feet above what Sanctuary was labeling "Old Gotham", and a clocktower. She floated, she waited...and she listened...for some damn Bruce Lee ninja in a cape to come throw ninja stars at her. It took only about twenty minutes of waiting for Sanctuary to complete the track, but of course, by then, Gotham's Channel 9 News chopper was already in the sky, pointing a camera right at her. When it got close enough, Supergirl smiled, saluted the helicopter...and disappeared in a blur of blue and red. The blur went skyward. But Supergirl doubled back towards the city.
And back to the clocktower. This time, breaking in through a mid-floor window. The inside of the clock tower was quiet, dark, spooky. For a few moments, Kara thought Sanctuary had simply screwed up, until her red booted feet climbed a final set of stairs in the building, her X-Ray vision finding a secret door, and yet more stairs. Stairs that led her the space behind the clock face on the exterior of the building.
Stairs that led her to a private hacking den.
"Sanc...is this it?"
"This is where the signal came from, Kara."
"Good. I'll just....uh, wait. I mean, Who doesn't like unwelcomed visitors into their super secret hacker home?"
"Did you two talk terms later in the evening? Or was your mouth...too busy?"
There were times that working with the type of human being that populated the higher management tiers of Lex Luthor's Presidential campaign was painful. Almost as painful as watching your home, family, and friends being liquidated in a spectacle of fire and blood. Most of the time they were fine; but they had their issues with women. Especially strong, intelligent, silent women like Kara. She'd already had more than her fair share of standoffs with political dick-swingers; and every time she stood toe to toe with them and never blinked in the face of whatever hack argument they were making, she felt as if they grew a little more resentful towards the pretty young blonde girl who went from college sophmore to chief political pollster for their campaign.
Briefly, as she hung up her coat and set down the leather red backpack that had been slung over her shoulder, Kara peered down at the newspaper thrown down upon her desk. The photo was of Lex walking with, hugging, and then dining with a blonde girl in heels and gown. The way Lex had hugged on her, then stayed so close to her...the man wasn't dumb. It wasn't an accident. He'd WANTED the two of them seen together. He wanted himself to end up both in the gossip column, and front page of the Politics section.
"Thanks for the early morning sexual harassment, Carl. Terms for what?"
The man huffed. "My job."
Kara paused as she sat in her desk chair, and let her blue eyes go icy in the rude Republican American human's direction. "Ew, Carl. I don't want your job. I don't want a West Wing office."
"Guess if he married you, you wouldn't have to ever work again?"
"...again, ew. Don't confuse your fantasies with mine, Carl."
"And what are YOUR fantasies, blondie?"
Without looking up from the collection of missed call notifications left upon her desk in post-it note fashion, Kara almost smiled. "Kicking your ass is pretty high on that list right now, Carl. Although I'd settle for your eyes staying off me next time I wear a pencil skirt to work, since we're talking fantasies." After that, Kara did look up at him.
And she did smile. Big.
"You're the man's pollster. You know how woman view him."
Kara pretended to sigh. "They're not comfortable with a playboy bachelor for a President, but I don't think Lex dating a young twenty-something college student turned political staffer is really going to help that."
"...too Brad and Angelina for women?"
What the hell does that even mean? Kara ignored the man who was many times over her boss on the campaign. Not that it mattered. After last night, it was all over. Sanctuary reported the boys had been successful, even if they had to improvise towards the end. They'd been more than worth the stolen human currency that it had cost her to get Sanctuary a real look at Lex's private servers. A criminal act to investigate a criminal...was surely a virtuous act. All those Batman stories had taught Kara that.
"He worried about Queen?"
"We didn't talk about it, Carl." She said, again without looking up to him, her eyes trained on the screen of the laptop that had been assigned her by the campaign's IT department. "But if you're worried: he didn't seem concerned about anything. At all. That was a little concerning, for me."
"You're the pollster; you know he's the odds on favorite right now."
"Is it over?"
Carl Lundgrun, all near three hundred pounds of him, shrugged his massive shoulders in a half-roll. "Not yet."
"Then maybe he's got something to worry about...unless there's something I don't know?"
That time, Kara did look up at Carl. The smug man only stayed smug, and quiet. Did Carl know Lex had the game rigged?...Kara doubted it. Carl was too unimportant for that. Too much of a bystander. A victim. But Sanctuary was convinced; somehow, Lex had the election rigged. Sanctuary was still working on exactly how, but Kara hoped that to be no more than a matter of time.
"Hey Carl, is Gemma outside?"
The big man struggled to turn his body, lean back, and look. "...the dark haired girl with the ass? Yeah, she's out there."
"Fantastic." A quick strike of the 'Enter' button, and Kara logged off the laptop, then stood, collecting her bag and coat. "Carl, you're an asshole, and I quit. Good luck spinning this one."
Kara left with a quick pat on the big man's shoulder, and immediately walked out to the endless rows of desks. There, at the desk nearest her former tiny office's door, Kara found Gemma. The Wisconsin born girl's eyes got big at the sight of Kara, but the Kryptonian shushed her immediately, motioning for her friend to follow her. "I'm quitting."
Gemma stared. "...because of the pictures?"
"Oh, yeah. I'm horribly embarrassed about those." It was a most convenient lie, but there was no denying that part of her was, in fact, a little humiliated by Luthor. Maybe Lex would understand, when he learned the girl he used in some trivial little plot simply walked out on he and his campaign--successful as it was sure to be. "It's okay, you stay, work. I'll talk to you tonight?"
The girl frowned, but Kara smiled right at her, inspiring Gemma's own attempt at a smile. "Yeah, absolutely, if you're sure you're alright?"
"Oh, I'm perfect. I gotta head out, but we'll talk to tonight."
Gemma yelled after Kara to call her later, and Kara yelled back a promise. The Kryptonian girl filed it away in her mind for later, and kept her attention glued to the smartphone that Sanctuary had made for her. It appeared a rather normal, if gold and glitzy, iPhone. It was anything but; feeding Kara information and speaking to her in a manner of 1's and 0's, simple langauges Kara learned when she was a child playing at science and computing. For a superhuman, a taxi ride home was painfully long, and it helped to keep her mind busy.
The moment the taxi stopped, Kara paid and slipped out and up the stairs to her apartment. There it was a few micro-seconds for changing and Kara was gone out the sunroof, fast enough to ensure she wouldn't be tracked using visible light, at least. It took about the same time for Supergirl to make it Gotham City as it did for the taxi to take Kara home, but once Supergirl lowered out of the clouds...she stopped, and stared.
Gotham City, in the day, looked almost like any other city. Like D.C., it had it's obvious "bad" areas. Unlike D.C., it had a Batman. "Sanctuary, I'm here."
"Initiating the tracking program, Kara. I will need you lower in the sky, and closer to a centralized point."
"You want me low enough for cameras to spot me in the sky?"
"Only if you want the tracking program to succeed, Kara."
"...this sucks, Sanc. If some crazy vigilante comes at me, I'm totally blaming you."
"Gotham City vigilantes operate in night time over 65% of the time, Kara."
"Oh, that's comforting to a girl in bright blue and red floating over a city..."
But there was no other way. Kara descended to merely a few hundred feet above what Sanctuary was labeling "Old Gotham", and a clocktower. She floated, she waited...and she listened...for some damn Bruce Lee ninja in a cape to come throw ninja stars at her. It took only about twenty minutes of waiting for Sanctuary to complete the track, but of course, by then, Gotham's Channel 9 News chopper was already in the sky, pointing a camera right at her. When it got close enough, Supergirl smiled, saluted the helicopter...and disappeared in a blur of blue and red. The blur went skyward. But Supergirl doubled back towards the city.
And back to the clocktower. This time, breaking in through a mid-floor window. The inside of the clock tower was quiet, dark, spooky. For a few moments, Kara thought Sanctuary had simply screwed up, until her red booted feet climbed a final set of stairs in the building, her X-Ray vision finding a secret door, and yet more stairs. Stairs that led her the space behind the clock face on the exterior of the building.
Stairs that led her to a private hacking den.
"Sanc...is this it?"
"This is where the signal came from, Kara."
"Good. I'll just....uh, wait. I mean, Who doesn't like unwelcomed visitors into their super secret hacker home?"
nice