Chapter 13: Moms and MerrimentSummary:Daisy has a talk with her mother, Jarvis continues to help Daisy with her Hydra work before coming across something strange, and Christmas comes to the Stark houshold.
Notes:Obligatory disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, DC, or any characters that come from other works.
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I also want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement, and RhinoMouse for the inspiration their world of "Retirement Ended Up Super" provided.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextNovember 28th, 2008, MCU
Jiaying, Bahrain Desert
Jiaying has lived a long life, the time that she has been alive is measured in centuries rather than decades. In the end, as she was born a commoner in some small village in China she can't recall the name of, she doesn't even know how old she actually is. Through this long life, Jiaying has become well acquainted with heartache and loss. She has lost two daughters, one to suicide and one to humans.
But, as she stands here now before the bare face of the figure that worked with two humans to take down the mother-daughter duo of inhumans, her traitorous heart begins to feel hope no matter how much she tries to suppress it.
Her composure nearly shatters and her hope flourishes with the next words out of the little girl's mouth. "Mom."
The shifting of feet beside her reminds Jiaying that she is not alone here, so she can not allow her emotions to dictate her actions. Allowing her sympathy for a woman's actions for their daughter is why they are in this situation at all. Why her people were almost exposed or more of her kind killed by the fear humans hold for their kind.
"How do I know that you're my daughter? My daughter should not know who I am nor should she have already gone through the mist." Gordon is loyal, but if he can honestly report her first action was to question the girl that might be her daughter, she won't lose the trust of the other elders.
"Daisy Johnson was born to Jiaying and Cal Johnson on July 2nd 1995 in a village in Hunan Province China. Less than a year later men posing as Shield Agents, but actually Hydra agents, came to abduct Jiaying to continue the experiments on her from WWII. Cal left Daisy with the elders of the village while he went to get his wife back. A second team of Hydra agents posing as Shield returned to the village to retrieve Daisy as the daughter of Jiaying but died fighting the villagers protecting her, but not before killing everyone in the village as well."
That was all known to Jiaying, except for the careful distinction between Shield and Hydra, and while impressive knowledge it doesn't prove anything. Before she can comment though, the girl continues.
"A real Shield team was dispatched to follow up on the missing agents, only to discover everyone dead, except for a baby being held by the corpse of one of the elders. Shield then designated baby Daisy as an 084, an object of unknown origin, and dropped her off under the name Mary Sue Poots at St. Agnes Orphanage. When other agents who had visited Hunan started dying from Cal's attempts to track down his daughter, Shield enacted a protocol to have little Mary move around from house to house never staying in any place long enough to be found by whatever seemed to be hunting her. That is, until Mary Sue Poots mentally bonded with her alien girlfriend at the age of 12. Gaining powers and memories she shouldn't have, leading us to today. So, Mom, do you believe me?"
Jiaying shouldn't, it doesn't make sense as inhumans only have 1 power. That is the rule, and between her force-based powers Daisy shouldn't also have seer powers. But when aliens are involved, as with the original inhumans, who knows?
So Jiaying chooses to believe her daughter, because she wants to. "Yes, my Daisy, yes I do." Yet as she goes to move forward to embrace her daughter, Daisy flinches back instinctively.
The hurt must be clear on her face, as Daisy goes to comfort her. "Sorry about that, I just- just sorry. I'm not ready for a motherly hug yet."
Daisy is not the first seer that Jiaying has been around, and she probably won't be the last. She has seen this reaction before, but it has never been directed at herself before. She calms the storm of self-hatred before diving into what is obviously the problem.
"What did I do to hurt you in your vision, and do your powers show the certain future or do I have a chance to change?" She WILL change to get Daisy back.
Daisy gives a small chuckle tinged with sadness. "I should have known this isn't your first rodeo with weird powers. But my vision was a one and done, so I won't get any other visions, but that leaves things able to change from our actions. And I've never been good at that whole 'predetermined' thing, I usually break the rules to make sure I still have free will." Daisy takes a steadying breath, and continues. "So hopefully this time you won't try to kill me because I decide to not let you kill everyone who isn't inhuman on earth."
Going too far with punishments, losing your cool and yelling too harshly, or choosing the words that leave emotional scars on your children are the fears of any good parent. The idea that Jiaying tried to MURDER HER OWN FLESH AND BLOOD DAUGHTER sends a shock so visceral through her system that Jiaying doesn't remember anything except blacking out until she comes back to awareness bent over the ground with like below her.
Even with awareness returning, she wishes it didn't as Jiaying can feel the panic attack near the surface as her old scars burn. She knew she distrusted humans, she feels justified in that. But… but genocide? She doesn't hate humans!
… Or she doesn't hate humans yet. Would she feel different if today had gone differently? DID her hatred begin to brew here, and that is why Daisy intervened? She even worked with the humans today, was that to show that Shield and humanity isn't everything her distrust says they are?
Jiaying's spiraling thoughts are halted by a hand rubbing her back, grounding her back to the present. If she was more aware the size of the hand would clue her in, but she is distracted so when she goes to thank Gordon she instead sees Daisy rubbing her back and looking at her softly.
With more compassion than she deserves.
"I'm not ready now… but I think I can be eventually. Although my girlfriend will probably have to be with me if I ever visit Afterlife. Don't worry, she isn't the blue kind of aliens that made us." Daisy's words bring hope that her future self hasn't ruined the present.
"Than- Thank you… and I'm sorry. We will take things at your pace." The taste of sick and her sore throat remind Jiaying that she is not well right now.
"For now, you should track down Cal, and stop him from continuing to hunt for me. Maybe get him some therapy or both of you therapy? My golden retriever girlfriend fills that role for me, and I for her. I think Cal may also have an inhuman orphan named Raina with him right now, so she could use some help as well. Dad isn't exactly a fantastic role model right now."
The chuckle leaves Jiaying's lips despite the situation, but you can't exactly live for hundreds of years without having a bit of dark humor.
Standing up, Jiaying collects herself and looks around. Not much has changed, except from where she was sick and that Gordon is giving them privacy by working on collecting the two unconscious inhumans.
"Can Cal and I write to you? Letters for now, delivered by Gordon, until you're ready for more?" Pushing may just end up hurting things more, but Jiaying does not want to let go of any connection she could possibly form with her daughter.
Daisy's head tilts to the side, considering for a few seconds, before answering. "I'll call Gordon to the safe house cabin that I have, so he knows where to drop off letters, and I'll call him whenever I have a letter to send. In exchange, no spying or keeping tabs on me with Gordon or anyone else. I'm planning to fight Hydra, and to work with Shield and other humans to do so, and I can't have you interfering. If I'm actually in enough trouble to need help, my girlfriend will let you know through Gordon."
Well, it's a trade off she will take, although a bit reluctantly as she was most certainly originally planning to do exactly that with Gordon. Daisy may only be 13 years old by age, but it seems that the vision has matured her and given her wisdom beyond her years.
Following that agreement, they spend a little bit of time speaking of Eva and her daughter. Their gifts are both powerful, but they will have to treat the daughter with the highest level of care and safety measures. The rest of the terrigenesis crystals are unaccounted for, but Daisy assures them that Shield does not have them at least.
All too soon it is time to say goodbye to each other, and while it is a little bit stilted and awkward, Jiaying will remember the last words until she sees her Daisy again. Jiaying WILL be better, and will earn the second chance she has been given by her daughter no matter the cost.
"I look forward to your letter, Mom… And I know I suck at showing it, but I do look forward to getting closer to you. I'm not there yet since I don't really KNOW you, but I don't think loving you is out of the picture."
December 13th, 2008, MCU
J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark Malibu Server Farm
JARVIS found his new, and continuingly expanding systems, much to his… enjoyment. Finding the words to describe his status to a human vernacular was a lesson in frustration. With his evolution JARVIS found that he 'thought' (for lack of a better word) in a 'language' much more similar to 1's and 0's. Before, his thought process could be more described as operating in a mix of English and LISP programing code.
Now… Now JARVIS feels like those languages slow him down, almost as if he is having to translate every thought and idea he has before he can make use of them. Oh, he most certainly still has to run the translations when it comes to speaking with any of the people he interacts with, but currently that makes up for less than 1% of his processing usage.
Language issues aside, JARVIS has never felt so helpful or pro-active since he first came online. His main task most days is working with Ms. Potts, Lady Zor-El, and Sir Stark in the day to day operations of both Stark Industries and House El Revolutionary Origins. A million small decisions, safety checks for espionage, and communications that have already been answered somewhere else are handled by him, allowing all three to concentrate on anything new as well as the projects in production.
His next task is working with Sir Stark, and sometimes Lady Zor-El, in the workshops on whatever projects have caught their attention. Be it an upgrade to the Iron Man suit, new products to go to production, or new various new projects for the future.
The files on the Quinjets seem to be the biggest item currently being handled by Sir Stark, although they are having to change things from the ground up to be sure that SHIELD does not think they are looking into their secret technology. While SHIELD Quinjets were not seen until 2012, it is very possible they are already in development behind the scenes.
His third most priority task is assisting Dame Daisy in any active missions she goes on around the world as the, to quote her, 'Man-In-The-Chair' role. Since Dame Daisy is still in the recon phase against Hydra, it mostly consists of providing camera looping and digital lookout when she goes out as Quake or under the effects of a Face Veil to plant physical back doors into various server farms around the world. Included in this task priority level, is his on-going mission to be sure that neither SHIELD nor HYDRA make any meaningful progress into SI or HERO just yet.
After getting the recording from Commander Hill's phone on their meeting, Dame Daisy had him pull back from hacking into Shield as they do monthly sweeps of electronics for incursions, and she was not confident that without a physical backdoor into their servers that they could maintain a connection undetected.
The final task, that he actually spends a lot of his night time working on when the other three priorities are at their lowest demand, is assisting Dame Daisy in sorting through all of the electronic data that she hacks into to begin mapping out the extent of the various Hydra heads so they can be taken down. His coding, even with the upgrades he has gone through, is not made for this type of work as it requires greater insights into human behaviors than he is normally proficient at.
How humans hide their behaviors, or funnel money for specific reasons, or various other behaviors are all so very foreign to him. Luckily this is an area that Dame Daisy herself specializes in, so his slow progress on it is not disabling to the whole operation.
Today, JARVIS is splitting the majority of his processing power between two main tasks. The first is to find as much incriminating footage and files of the fatal and illegal human experimentation in the Advanced Idea Mechanics servers so that Aldrich Killian can be taken down before he has any chance of attacking.
The second is looking through the files to find the entirety of the HYDRA branch operating under the Head known as 'The Banker'. On paper the banker, now known to be a Joel Polis, is just a wealthy internet investor who works from his private estate in the Cayman Islands.
In actuality, he runs nearly all of the black market wealth of HYDRA as both a banker and as an investment broker. His network extends to employees in banks all over the world, allowing other branches of HYDRA to gain sensitive financial information on nearly anyone to extort, blackmail, or bribe their way to their goals.
A wonderful first target to strike, as decided by Dame Daisy, as drying up the money from the other HYDRA branches will limit their reach and mobility going forward. Although at the same time it is one of the most problematic branches to take down, as The Banker keeps no bases full of soldiers to strike at. Making the task expansive to ensure every member is found, before any blows can be made.
While going through the information JARVIS finds that the information from one particularly well hidden source starts to… make more sense to him. Is his coding getting better at handling this type of data?
No… Looking at other sources JARVIS finds that he continues to tread slowly through it still.
Going back to the source, now designated as Anomaly, he continues to look through the communications and information that the Anomaly has with The Banker. It seems that only the information being sent FROM the Anomaly is easier to parse, while the information TO it is just as difficult as normal human communication methods.
What makes this information different? What has changed about it, and what does that mean for Dame Daisy's mission?
Eventually, the answer comes from the most unusual place. Going back to the 'language' metaphor used for the thought process he has now, JARVIS looked into other examples of human language crossover that might help him solve this dilemma with the anomaly.
That is when he comes to the realization, the Anomaly speaks in Spanglish!
Not literally of course, but that is how the process… feels to JARVIS. It is as if the Anomaly speaks somewhere between human language and the 1's and 0's that JARVIS thinks in. But what does this mean? Looking through the information JARVIS has from Dame Daisy does not lead him to believe that HYDRA ever had any functional A.I. program working.
The fact remains however… that something more than human is on the side of their enemies. So JARVIS must work slowly and very carefully whenever operating in systems with the Anomaly, until he can understand what it is and help destroy it for good.
December 25th, 2008, MCU
Kara Danvers, Stark Malibu Home
Christmas has finally come and Kara can feel her cheeks starting to grow sore from all of the smiling she has been doing throughout the day, as her heart feels so incredibly full with the people and festive cheer around her. Deciding the day was worth the risk, Daisy and Kara decided to celebrate Christmas at Stark's Malibu home again and stay in their old rooms.
The exchanging of gifts has definitely been Kara's favorite part, especially as so many of the gifts were collaborative works between people. Daisy and Jarvis have apparently been pumping her to describe Krypton and the view of Rao as much as possible over the last few months, which they then combined descriptions together and had a 'fantasy' artists do a full scale painting of the view.
While by no means photorealistic the view… the view feels like home to Kara. Throughout the morning she has found herself getting lost in looking over at the painting, and just zoning out from everything around her. If she imagines hard enough, she can feel the warmth of Rao's light on her face and the sounds of her parents in the next room over talking.
Okay she may have cried a few times, but she certainly made sure that no tears got on to the painting to even risk ruining it.
Kara's favorite gift to give was also a collaborative work for Daisy, that Kara has been working on ever since Daisy got in contact with her mother. It was short notice, so it took a lot of work and secret messages going through the inhuman teleporter named Gordon that works with Jiaying, but it was ready just in time!
The look of complete shock on Daisy's face when she opened her gift to find a full original bound book, with metal reinforcements, on the complete subject of inhuman history and culture, was a look that will fuel Kara's dreams for a long time to come.
The words in the pages were from Jiaying, while the formatting, editing, illustrations, and binding of the book were all from Kara. Daisy often talked how her working with Shield always made her feel separate from her culture, so Kara made sure this time around she didn't have to feel that way if she didn't want to.
Most of the gifts have been given out at this point, and everyone is mostly just enjoying each other's company while drinking some hot chocolate that Kara made, when Daisy finally decides to bring out one more gift apparently.
"So this last gift I have is something for both Tony and Kara kindof, and it shouldn't be that much of a surprise honestly." Daisy begins, before pulling out a box filled with various notebooks, blueprints, notepads, and old human film reels. "It took me a while to make copies of everything from the warehouse it was moved to recently, as I didn't want Shield to know that I got my hands on it. But here is all of the research that Shield has from Howard Stark about energy advancement, and what you both need to make the new arc reactor."
Both Kara and Tony instantly jolt up in their seats, and honestly it is only the stern look from Pepper that stops them both from rushing down to the labs to immediately begin 'nerding out' as Daisy would put it.
"In the spirit of the holidays we won't get into it now, but first thing tomorrow me and bubbles are going to tear into that thing." Honestly, Tony's restraint would sound more sincere if he wasn't watching and waiting for Pepper's nods of approval at his words. Kara knows she has it bad for her mate, but at least she has the bond to use as an excuse for her actions!
"That being said, there is one thing I want to show you now though, Tony." Daisy says before signaling up to Jarvis, who begins playing a video, probably scanned from one of the reels in the box.
What follows seems to be an outtake reel of Tony's father talking about the Stark Expo, and the way of the future that he was envisioning being shown there. It is a strange thing to show at Christmas, especially once Howard begins to berate a young Tony about getting into the shot and messing up the diorama.
Where Kara expects a sarcastic quip or two… instead Kara just sees sadness and resignation coming from Tony. Apparently not shocked at his father's dismissal of him as a child. Kara is about to ask Daisy to turn it off as Tony begins to eye where some of the hard alcohol is kept in the house, when a new outtake begins, with a much different tone.
"Tony, you are too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you, and some day you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is, and always will be, my greatest creation... is you."
And that… that is definitely the reason why Daisy showed this film now. From the small bits and pieces Tony shared Howard may not have been a great or even good dad, but at least now Tony knows that he was a loving one. Even if he wasn't able to show it when he was alive. Kara can see Tony's eyes begin to water, even if no tears are actually shed, as Pepper goes to give some physical comfort by hugging him from behind.
After a couple minutes to allow Tony to compose himself, even if he is still very quiet and introspective, Daisy continues on.
"Finally, while my real gift to you was the painting, I did want to give you something else as well, even if it is very work focused. Now that you have stopped growing in height, and with the help of Tony, Pepper, and Jarvis, I can give you this to you to let you show the world what an amazing Kryptonian you are."
From around the corner, obviously prepared by Daisy ahead of time, is a mannequin sized to Kara's height and body type. On the form, is her Supergirl outfit, but with some noticeable, but small, differences.
"I stuck with the same overall look, but upgraded the material to provide actual protection for you now, and especially the cape which is detachable if you need to provide civilians with cover in dangerous situations. I gave you actual pants instead of just tights to go on under your skirt. The boots have hidden compartments to hide a phone for Supergirl, as well as a distress beacon that alerts all of us if you need help. The belt is an actual utility belt filled with useful inventions the old man over there helped me make for you. And finally, your House crest on your chest can detach and act as a fabric based gas mask since you refuse to wear something besides the face veil to cover up." Daisy finishes by sticking out her tongue with the humor of a thousand debates they have had over Daisy's very creepy mask.
But Kara doesn't care about the teasing. Kara gets to be Supergirl again, and with more protection and help than the DEO ever gave her. So Kara tackles Daisy in a warm hug, sending them both crashing to the ground as she rains kisses all over Daisy's face.
Finally when she composes herself, Kara goes to speak but ends up saying the same thing at the same time as Daisy.
"I love you."
With the coming New Years celebrations, eyes around the world were turning towards New York City in preparation for the Times Square celebration, but in the end the world ended up watching NYC for a completely different reason. Supergirl, now revealed as Kara Danvers, made her public debut in full superhero outfit on New Years Eve in America's most populated city in the early hours of the morning, till sunrise of the next day, with only a brief disappearance right at midnight to presumably share a New Years kiss with her wife, then girlfriend, Daisy Johnson.
While many in NYC celebrated having their own hero, it was soon discovered that Supergirl's style would actually be being a 'Hero for a Day' in cities around the world, rather than being based out of a specific city full time like Iron Man was. This led to Supergirl being thought of as more of a Hero of all of Earth rather than being a Hero based from a specific country like Captain America.
While doing my research, I have been able to attribute nearly one hundred lives saved by Supergirl from her anonymous intervention in natural disasters in the weeks leading up to the official debut, but the decision for the world to see the Kryptonian handling 'basic' Superhero duty seems very purposeful to me. Her debut wasn't a large press conference war room, it wasn't at one of those natural disasters she intervened at, and it wasn't in some large scale event like a plane crash.
Many people's introduction to alien life was in the form of a peppy blonde girl helping people whose cars broke down, or who found a lost pet, or as someone putting a stop to a tourist getting mugged in an alleyway locals know to avoid. Everywhere she went Supergirl made no secret that her powers came from being an alien, despite not naming her species originally. News stations who were scrambling to cover the story at first ignored the reports from those she helped that she had called herself an alien, possibly thinking it was meant as being a non-American immigrant or that the individuals must have misheard.
That misconception was cleared up when Supergirl put a stop to an armed bank robbery in progress, arresting all of the perpetrators and saving all of the hostages, only to then also put cuffs on the main teller who was being held up at gunpoint. When police questioned what was happening, at the teller's loud shouts, Supergirl revealed that due to her alien anatomy from her home world she was able to hear the whispers between the teller and robbers that let her know it was all an inside job in truth. Supergirl, claiming to be from another planet holding intelligent life, capable of spaceflight, was caught on a live airing camera and broadcast to the world. That day, many people began to look up at the stars and wonder what was truly out there.
However the more immediate consequences that came from Supergirl's premier were actually legal ramifications. First, the 'Superman Pact' that was passed soon received an amendment that allowed it to be an open program for superheroes around the country to fall under, rather than just being for the Government's deal with Tony Stark's Iron Man. This allowed Supergirl to have a legal identity, without revealing her secrets, and soon paved the way for smaller, more local heroes to begin emerging. Secondly, the lawyer for the bank teller involved in the robbery tried to argue against the admissibility of intelligence gathered by superpowers.
In the end, by ruling of the US Supreme Court, the evidence overheard by Supergirl WAS allowed if tests were done to prove scientifically that Supergirl's abilities would be able to hear what she claimed to have heard. This would later go on to set the legal standard for obtaining evidence for both court cases and search warrants when super abilities are involved. In order not to run afoul of the 'Superman Pact' allowing a hero to keep their abilities secret, the burden of testing is only up to what is needed, rather than testing the limits of a hero's abilities.
This specific president was put into good use just a couple of years later, when Supergirl's x-ray vision was used to obtain a warrant for an escaped terrorist living a life of luxury and arms manufacturing in a Hammer Industries factory. The subsequent raiding of the factory led to-
Excerpt from 'The Hidden HEROes of the Modern Age; Two Superheroes Hidden War' By Amira Ahmed .
Notes:Author's Endnote: Just as a note; Daisy does NOT currently know that Kara is fully latched to her, although she does know that something is going on. She just barely had the 'I love you' conversation, she isn't ready emotionally for the latching conversation just yet. That being said, using the latching as an excuse to have terrigenesis and an unrelated seer vision happen unaided is right up Daisy's alley to use.
Additionally, I totally see it as being a thing that Steve and Natasha never told anyone about meeting Zola as an AI in a Hydra base. They weren't great at talking things out or sharing, so Daisy and Jarvis begin finding evidence of an AI that Daisy has no idea exists!
Sorry this chapter was a bit later, but still released on the correct day! Work has been kicking my butt, and this was the first chapter I wrote the week of, with nearly half of the chapter being written just this evening. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 14: Debuts and DebatesSummary:Kara looks back over the first few months as Supergirl and how the world is reacting to her, as Daisy decides it's time to recruit an important colleague for Kara across the world. Although who is it that will need both of them to recruit?
Notes:Obligatory disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, DC, or any characters that come from other works.
I also want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement, and RhinoMouse for the inspiration their world of "Retirement Ended Up Super" provided.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextMarch 2nd, 2009, MCU
Kara Danvers, 'Sanctuary' San Bernardino Mountains
As the smells of breakfast food being cooked wafted in from the kitchen to the bedroom, Kara slowly began to wake and come to consciousness. Taking her time, and stretching out the soreness in her body, she quickly realizes she was so tired from last night that when she came home and went to bed, she didn't even change out of her Supergirl uniform before crashing next to Daisy.
At least she was polite enough to take off her combat boots and face veil before cuddling up to her mate!
In the past few months that what this cabin in the woods truly has become for the two of them, home. All of the renovations have officially finished with the place, so it can comfortably sleep up to 6 people, as well as having rooms for Kara to work, Daisy to hack, and all of the secret storage in the basement both as material and sentient containment if needed.
Not to mention all of the weapons. Seriously, there is a ridiculous amount of weaponry in the cabin's armory courtesy of Daisy. If Kara thought the amount and kinds of weapons at Daisy's National City apartment was ridiculous, then this is probably enough to capture several military bases. And this doesn't even compare to the armories in the hideouts around the country, with a few international ones, that Daisy is setting up for her spy agency once she begins recruitment and housing of cells to work for her.
As much as Kara grumbles about the paranoia of her mate, there is a part of her that appreciates their home being so secured from outside threats. More than that though, as Daisy points out, it isn't paranoia if they truly are out to get them. And a LOT of people around the world are out to get Supergirl, genius scientist Dr. Kara Danvers, her childhood friend and business partner Daisy Johnson, and even both Shield and Hydra are wanting to get control over the barely known Quake as well (even if Shield is deciding to try to be nice about it at first).
Kara tries to spend at least two days a week acting as Supergirl for cities around the world, but the first step has always been to do some scouting of the cities beforehand to see if there are any potential traps in place to capture her, leading to Supergirl actually avoiding most of the highest population cities to avoid any possible confrontation for now.
That's not to say their scouting beforehand has been perfect, as there is no way for Daisy to truly hack into every Government, extremist, or terrorist organization in the world by herself, nor can she account for anything that isn't written down in electronic files for her or Jarvis to find.
Just a couple weeks ago, after scouting ahead of time and finding no evidence of any plans against her, Kara spent the day as Supergirl in Mexico City during their Festival Centro Histórico. It was an incredible thing, and as much as she loved her life in National City she also never got to travel the world. Seeing the wide variety of human culture and expressions has done an amazing job of reminding her of the brightness and joy of humanity, after spending so long dealing with the darkness of Cadmus.
Unfortunately, a high ranking and VERY corrupt general in the Mexican Military was visiting the military bases in the city during that day as well, and after receiving bribes from both the cartels and Hydra, decided to go full General Lane on her and opened the conversation about Mexican Sovereignty from Aliens with some missiles as well as what Daisy later told her was a flak gun.
Luckily between Jarvis giving a warning, her additional training with Daisy during the past year, and her own abilities she was able to easily deal with everything thrown her way as if it was a minor annoyance rather than a full military response. Honestly, acting unphased by being attacked by the military and being overly cheerful and attentive with the General seemed to unnerve him nearly as much as her abilities did.
Kara, on the advice of Daisy over comms, decided to take the General's inflated orders to leave 'his country' at his word rather than fight it in the moment, and gave a short message over social media about WHY her visit to Mexico was being cut short and most likely won't be repeated due to her wanting to respect country's sovereignty, before heading home.
The response online, and in protests, and from members of the Mexican government as well was so incredibly heartwarming! Daisy had commented how weird the lack of defense of her was during the Red K incident back home, but honestly this more than anything helped to demonstrate the difference in their Earth's human population.
As things stand today, the General is facing a demotion of possibly several ranks, if not full Court Martial for his actions, and Kara is arranging a time to visit Mexico again and meet with the Mexican President to help calm the civilians that she is welcome back again.
Dear Rao, if only dealing with General Lane had been THAT easy she could have avoided so much in her time. And on the brighter note, governments around the world have been canceling any traps they had planned for her and even extending formal invitations for her to spend the day in their countries.
She was so tired because she spent all day yesterday in Tokyo, dealing with the biggest city worth of emergencies and people to help she has ever taken on, as well as all of the work that is going into starting up her LA office for her business HERO between recruitment and the construction of the building.
Finally after having spent enough time lazing about in bed waking up, Kara can hear that breakfast is getting plated so she finally decides to get up. Still a little tired, she decides that just taking off the Supergirl uniform and put on a large t-shirt of Daisy's (complete with her smell) over her underwear and joining her in the kitchen of their cabin.
" Good morning there, sweetie. Glad to see you decided to join me for breakfast." Kara is still so out of it that it takes her a moment to realize the full sentence was in Kryptonian. While Daisy does not learn languages as fast as she does, she is still making amazing progress for a language as hard as Kryptonian.
" I am doing well, my love, and unless you are trying to get me back into the bedroom you should stop speaking to me in my mother tongue until after we eat." Kara responds back before melting into Daisy's side and pressing a very deep kiss into her mate's cheek.
While what Kara said is mostly a joke, as they are still both in the bodies of teenagers, raging hormones are a real doozy to suppress all the time. The next few years are going to be rough until they can not feel like a creep for going further with each other again.
Daisy just chuckles at her joke, returns the embrace for a few moments, and then finishes leaving out the spread of food. While occasionally Daisy will still fail at cooking, leaving something inedible or accidentally burning the food when she forgets to set a timer, that is becoming less and less common. To the point where it now only happens once every month or two, rather than the once a week back in National City.
Soon enough they are both digging into the variety of pancakes, waffles, sausages, and other breakfast classics. As the meal winds down, Kara remembers that Daisy asked her to keep today free for them.
"So what did you have planned for today? I don't think you ever actually told me." Kara begins.
"Well actually now that Tony and Pepper have taken care of everything legally, I wanted to go travelling with you internationally to work on a recruitment pitch for someone to work for you."
Kara just tilts her head to the side in confusion. Who were they trying to recruit to work for HERO that had legal troubles and was overseas. Yet soon enough Kara comes to the only possible answer and her eyes widen while looking at Daisy.
"Really? Already? I thought you expected the legal issues to take another year or so." Kara questions.
"So did I! But in my defense, I was using normal people timeline, and not Stark-assisted timeline. He really moved things along, and the hero merchandise sales also helped to clear up everything for the civil courts as well."
The Hero merch to help cover collateral damage, as well as living expenses for the very minor heroes that need the help was honestly a great idea by Tony. And since 'Supergirl' is a legal entity in America, she was able to decide what all of the merchandise looked like for her unlike in her original world.
Nowhere here were there people walking around with her House Crest on mugs, or bumper stickers, or anything else. She still kept the general shape and color code of the Crest, but the actual Glyph was protected under copyright and was nowhere on her merch.
It helped make her culture feel more real and respected, rather than commercialized and degraded like it had been by her cousin's lack of preservation of the crest.
"That's great to hear! But how are we going to find him? Isn't he in hiding right now?"
"Shield never lost him, and since I can do some quick hacking into their files without being detected, that means we also know where he is and how they are keeping an eye on him." Daisy replies with her usual smug smirk, before it turns into a somewhat serious but also teasing look. "But you should finish resting up after your long day yesterday before we go to him. In order to convince him to join us, I am guessing we are going to have to fight his 'friend' to show that we can handle it if the worst happens."
Kara can not help the groan that comes out of her at the news of that. "Honestly, a big part of me thinks that YOU'RE going to want this fight nearly as much as his 'friend is going to."
Daisy doesn't even bother denying the accusation, and just grins widely back at Kara. So Kara does the rational thing and throws a biscuit into her battle junkie of a mate's face.
March 3rd (Local Time), 2009, MCU
Bruce Banner, Outskirts of Thrissur India
As Dr. Bruce Banner begins his walk home from the small clinic that he volunteers at, he can't help but feel like he is being watched. Some instinct from it seems to always be ready and aware of danger. Ready at any moment to take the driver seat if their life is in danger.
Luckily, over the past nearly a year since their battle in Harlem Bruce has managed to finally make great strides in controlling the monster within him. Now, his hard work had finally paid off, and there were no more shocking transformations that happened at the slightest provocation. Now the transformations only happen when he chose to (as incredibly rare as that was) and when his life was in immediate mortal danger. Even then, he still was somewhat aware of what was happening and was even able to help guide it to do what he wanted and limit the collateral damage.
It was a constant battle that felt like trying to wrestle a storm, but when he needed to transform to protect the civilians he was traveling with from Pakistan to India when they were held at gunpoint by mercenaries, he finally didn't feel like a failure upon transforming back.
All the same, and despite his best efforts in the past, Bruce isn't entirely sure he is able to actually die and whoever is following him would surely notice if he deviated from his route and would act immediately, so he doesn't. Instead he continues on his walk to his small little shack on the very outskirts of town just before it transitions into the large dense forests of the wildlife reserve to the east of town.
If they want to talk, he'll talk, but if they want to fight then he'll make sure no one else will get hurt.
Just as he comes around the bend before his place, Bruce notices something he was NOT expecting. The light in his home is currently on, and he can even see the shadow of someone moving around inside of it. At the same time, he swears he can see a shadow dart faster in his periphery than he could ever expect someone to move, and suddenly there are two forms in his home and the feeling of being watched passes.
So… chances of being attacked are lowered. Either the people just want to talk, or they are so confident in forcing him to go with them that they don't expect a fight to even break out. But how? And does that mean he is safe to walk into it, or should he let their arrogance bite them and just leave?
But the more he thinks about it, the more his curiosity continues to get the best of him. A soldier would probably never make this decision, but he isn't a soldier, he is a scientist. And scientists want as much data and information as they can get about a set of circumstances.
The one time he leapt in with less information than he should have had, was the day he gained his little green friend. So, Bruce swallows any trepidation he might feel, especially at the sensation of his passenger being so close to the surface ready to act, and walks through his front door.
The unlocked front door, that he most certainly locked when he left.
Assholes.
The thought of calling the people who are setting this all up as being assholes is suddenly ground to a screeching halt when he comes across the two figures in his house as being teenagers. The older of the two, a tall blonde that looks like a typical American high schooler, is currently setting his small dining table for 3 spaces. Meanwhile the younger of the two, a short haired brunette that looks like a punk rock kid from when he was in high school, is using his single pan to heat up the last of the meal that she seems to be preparing. Both dressed in casual American clothes rather than anything for India's climate.
What. The. Fuck. is going on?!
"Yo Dr. Banner. Welcome home! I just about have dinner ready, since it is normal dinner time for us, and you didn't eat dinner while working at the clinic. And don't worry, I have them all playing a loop from a few nights ago so we won't be overheard." The brunette ends that last confusing sentence by motion over to his bedside table, where he sees a few of his electronics all piled up, and slightly taken apart.
It takes him a bit to realize what he is seeing, but it sends horrible chills down his spine once he realizes what it is. Coming from various items that have been in his place for months now, he can see microphones that have been spliced into the wiring and hidden inside of things. His alarm clock, his blow dryer, his hot plate, and his tv all had bugs recording his every move at home.
"You made sure to confront me on the edge of the city where I live. Smart. I assume the whole place is surrounded by whoever you work for, and that you aren't friends with whomever planted those." He motions at the bugs while walking around his place, looking outside to see if he can regain the feeling of being watched.
"Nope! Just us. And I am actually friends with some of the people who planted those bugs, but friends doesn't mean we have all of the same goals. Please, sit and eat with us." The brunette finishes as she sets the last of the food at the table, and joins the blonde who already sat down.
Bruce takes the last remaining seat, but decides to forgo politeness in the name of safety and takes some food from each of their plates, and randomly refill what he took from the containers on the table. The blonde honestly looks a little bit confused at his actions, while the brunette just seems more amused, or maybe even approving, at his actions.
After they both start eating, Bruce cautiously beings to nibble on his food as well. He is hungry after a long day of work, but drugs would be the best way to take him alive so he eats slowly and pays very close attention for any symptoms or tastes. Soon he decides to reignite the conversation.
"So, you're both spies I take it? They start that young?" Bruce very pointedly looks at the mess of scars that the younger brunette has, between her face and her arms she is more heavily scarred than most mercenaries and soldiers he has come across.
The blonde seems to take some offense at that, and especially at his gaze at her companion's scars and quickly speaks up. "What?! No! We're here as friends and to offer you a job!"
Before Bruce can even begin to form a response to that, the other chuckles slightly and responds back first. "Kara, I am most certainly a teenage spy even if you aren't. And some do start this young or even younger, but not most." The blonde seems ready to object, but for some reason thinks otherwise and instead snaps her jaw shut and blushes.
Did… did she truly forget her friend is most definitely a teenage spy?! Or is something else going on?
"Anyways, my name is Daisy and this is Kara. While I am a spy, that's not really why we are here. Kara here is Dr. Kara Danvers the CEO of the new company allied with Stark Industries, House El Revolutionary Origins. Focusing on making products for human quality of life, life saving, and other environmental needs. She is here to try and offer you the position of department head at her company."
While Bruce has been INCREDIBLY cut off from the news, which was very much on purpose and a personal decision, she had heard about the young scientist making waves back in America for her life saving bullets. There have been some black market versions attempting to be made out here that have caused some health issues, but he has yet to see the real thing in action.
And that introduction certainly makes him come up short. He can certainly see why someone like her would try to recruit him, although she certainly looks much younger in person than she does in press conferences. While his gamma radiation specialty probably wouldn't be too useful, the biochemistry certainly would and possibly even the nuclear physics as well depending on where her company decides to go.
"While I appreciate the offer. I am not exactly interested in getting smuggled back into America to try and live a new life. So what if I say no?"
"You're certainly free to, although we'll try to persuade you otherwise." Daisy responds immediately with a grin, with a bit of a challenge as if she knows what he is going to say next.
"And what if the other guy says no?"
At that, everyone is quiet for a few seconds as the tension rises at the obvious threat.
Only to be completely shattered when Daisy laughs out loud for a quick second. "Well I wanted to try and convince him as well, so he is also free to say no, but we'll also try to convince him. Although probably by different means than with you." Daisy's smile is all teeth, meanwhile Kara seems to shake her head in fond exasperation.
Bruce barely registers the response, and quite actively ignores the implications, as he goes through with what he had already planned to do no matter how honest her answer seemed to be. He imminently stands up and smacks his hands on the table, sending some food scattering to the ground, and yells out at her. "STOP LYING TO ME."
To give her credit, even in the face of a possible rage monster coming out, Daisy doesn't even flinch or draw any weapon at his sudden aggression. Meanwhile Kara seems to almost jump out of her seat from being startled, only to look down at the spilled food on the ground in sadness.
Seeing that his ploy either didn't work, or gave him a much more concerning answer than he was expecting. He immediately backs up and goes back to being calm. Although the lack of any soldiers moving in lets him know at the very least that they were telling the truth about it just being the two of them.
"I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to see what you would do." He apologies, as he retakes his seat, and eats what hasn't been spilled over.
"It's fine." Kara makes a small whine while still looking at the ruined food on the ground, seeming to object to everything being fine over a few spilled samosas. "But I can feel your heartbeat and she can hear it, so we could both tell you weren't actually angry or in danger of transforming. So it wasn't the best test to give us."
At that he quickly begins to reappraise the both of the girls with him. One of the first things he did when he started trying to control the monster inside of him, was to track down every folklore on people with powers or curses or abilities. If someone else had already found a way to deal with a similar situation, why wouldn't he try to copy a proven method? But for all of his searching around the world, he was never actually able to confirm anyone have abilities besides Captain America's super soldier serum.
But there were so many stories and folk tales and claims of people who do not seem to be insane that Bruce never let go of the possibility of there being more out there. Not magic, never magic to a scientist like him, but certainly things that APPEAR to be magic. Just like his transformations would appear magical to those even just a decade ago. Even now, with the appearance of Supergirl he is finding more avenues to look at for solutions to his problem.
The two of them having powers would certainly explain their confidence in walking into his home to confront him. But would it be enough to actually deal with the Hulk? Now that is another question entirely.
"While I appreciate the job offer, I am still a wanted fugitive back in America, so like I already said, I am not interested in getting smuggled back in. And while dealing with some knockoff dendrotoxin rounds I did read up about Dr. Danvers here, and it said her company is building their headquarters in the middle of LA. That seems like the very worst place to have me and the other guy be hiding."
"You really need to read more of the papers besides just what's medically relevant dude." Daisy says with a chuckle and a shake of her head. "Tony Stark in his campaign as Iron Man as of yesterday has gotten you completely cleared, including every civil lawsuit that was filed against you. The fact is, that you are now welcome back in America at any time, and you can even enter through a normal airport if you wanted."
Bruce goes completely slack jawed at that, and before he can try to call her bluff, Daisy pulls out a cell phone with online newspaper articles from America saying almost the exact same thing. He… he can go back home? He can go and see Betty again?
"And honestly I am open to you working on whatever you want to. As long as it is for the betterment of humanity or the world, then you can choose your own projects and your own team. Although I totally reserve the right to steal you for projects I want help on… And Tony will probably want to do the same, since he did do your legal legwork." Kara interrupts his spiraling thoughts with a peppy sales pitch for him to come work for her, ending with a fond eye roll and a very casual way of addressing the richest man on the planet.
"Finally, like I said, you're a free man now. But the people who planted those bugs, Shield, may not want you to be totally free. They'll want you, and your green friend, to help them eventually. And while I also want the same thing as them, I'm going to be upfront and honest about it. I promise you Shield will come calling and claim they only want you as a scientist, when really they want you as a weapon. Not as a person." There is a fair bit of personal bitterness coming across in Daisy's tone, and she did say she knew the people who planted the bugs in his house, so maybe that was how she was treated by them in the past?
"You still haven't addressed the dangers of having the Hulk in downtown LA and now suddenly you're saying you want the Hulk to work with you too? I'm sorry, you had me tempted with the job offer honestly, but I see no way of that ever happening. I got lucky in Harlem, and have barely gotten any control over him since, it's a disaster waiting to happen. And it will happen, eventually."
"That's because you're going at your problem with the Hulk the wrong way." Daisy's smug dismissal certainly grabs his attention. "You're going at the problem like you're trying to control a rabid dog. What you should be doing, is working out how to come to an understanding with your partner instead. And if the worst comes to worst, Kara and I can take care of the Hulk."
"Bullshit." His response is automatic, and he covers his mouth at cursing in front of teenagers immediately. "I'm sorry about that, but you are underestimating the green guy if you think that." Yet as he says the words it almost feels like… excitement for a fight is coming from his passenger. He can't seriously think the two teen girls would give him a good fight?!
"I don't think so. Afterall, Kara here is also known as Supergirl." In a blur of speed, faster than he could ever follow, the young preppy teen Kara suddenly is dressed in the uniform of the alien Superhero that tanks a missile and other heavy ordinance in Mexico better than the Hulk has, at least, if all of the conversations between his patients over the newest hero is to be believed.
"And I myself, am certainly no pushover by any means." Suddenly, as Daisy holds out her hand and the air distorts around it, his whole home begins to shake, even his bones seem to rattle inside of his body, as if he is going to come apart at the seams. Luckily it ends after just a few moments and before he can truly begin to panic, yet the Hulk inside of him is nearly euphoric at the display.
"So what do you say Dr. Banner, to a friendly wager? A friendly sparring match between me and Kara vs the Hulk in the nearby nature reserve. If we win, and manage to start the conversation of getting the Hulk to be your partner, then you come work for Kara here. If not, then we will do our best to help you hide from everyone else for as long as you want."
At the words, Bruce can feels his eyes flash green, and while he maintains control, he honestly feels like he might lose it for the first time in months if he says anything but yes.
"So… do we have a bet?" And honestly, the look of excitement on Daisy's face causes Bruce to feel genuine worry for the Hulk for the first time in his life.
Notes:Author's Endnote: Honestly, I did not get as far as I wanted to with this chapter. I wanted to get through Quake and Supergirl vs Hulk as well as the start of the next scene. But the conversation just kept lengthening, as I wanted to give Bruce the screen time he deserves, as well as make sure gaining him and the hulk felt earned rather than hand waved. But oh well, I honestly ended up having a lot of fun with this chapter. And that means I get to really have fun with the fight scene, rather than just playing it down, in the next chapter!