by Doc Quantum, partially adapted from Action Comics #255 by Otto Binder and Jim Mooney
A few minutes later, Power Girl stood at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in a remote area of Maine. Instead of traveling through leaps and bounds as per usual, she decided to emulate the Flash and run all the way there. But actually running over water was a feat she’d never tried before, and although she knew she was invulnerable and probably wouldn’t drown in the ocean if she sank — at least for a while — she still had a psychological barrier thanks to a lifetime of being a non-powered Kryptonian in a virtual world.
“Oh, well,” said Kara Zor-L to herself. “No time like the present.” She’d begun picking up human phrases after watching so much American television over the months since she’d arrived on Earth, and she used them whenever she could. After much practice, her Kryptonian accent was almost completely gone when she spoke, and she could pass for an ordinary American woman without too much effort.
Power Girl decided to make a running start before heading directly into the ocean. It wasn’t because she was scared, she assured herself, but because it seemed more sensible to pick up speed before hitting the water. So she sped inland for about three miles, then rocketed off back toward the beach. Upon reaching the water’s edge, she just kept going.
“Whooo-hooo!” she cried aloud, thrilled at the sensation of skipping across the ocean, mist spraying across her body occasionally. She then looked around, hoping that there were no boats nearby that might have seen her. Kal always used his X-ray vision and telescopic-vision to watch her from afar whenever she was on a mission. She wondered how he got any work done, given that he still put in a full day’s work as the editor of the Daily Star in Metropolis. She supposed that Lois must cover for him sometimes; or maybe he was just that good at doing two things at once. In any case, if she flubbed her training mission, Kal would know; he always knew.
Power Girl already knew the trick to making herself invisible to others. It wasn’t just a matter of speed, though great speed was very effective; it had to do with knowing how to vibrate your body on the spot in just the right way that light would pass through, cloaking yourself from all eyes, whether human, animal, or electronic.
But she’d never used super-speed and super-vibrations at the same time, and she was nervous about trying to do so now. It was important that she not vibrate herself in the wrong way, or it could cause her to vibrate below the surface of the water itself. And that could happen in an instant. Of course, Power Girl could always swim the rest of the way, but that would defeat the purpose of her training.
Concentrating, she kept up her speed while trying to vibrate just her head for a little while. But she made a misstep and lost her footing, causing her body to skip at super-speed across the water.
“Whooo-aaahhh!”
She kept skipping uncontrollably along the water for a few moments until she was somehow able to right herself, and then kept on running, if a bit unsteadily at first.
“Whew!” she said aloud. But Power Girl wasn’t ready to give up yet. With more determination, she concentrated on two things at once: keeping up her speed and balance, and vibrating her upper body. After a few moments, she managed to do both with ease, and it was then a relatively simple matter to vibrate the rest of her body except her feet. Instead of shouting in elation, she kept quiet and simply wore a huge grin on her face at her latest accomplishment.
It was just in time, too, because she soon passed a huge cruise ship traveling from Europe to America. As she turned to look, she saw a few passengers staring at the water, and she realized too late that, although they couldn’t see her, they could most definitely see the churning water left in her wake.
Damn it all, she thought to herself. I’m going to be lectured about that by Kal later on. Let’s just hope he’s having a coffee break or something right now.
From that moment on, Kara determined to avoid coming close to any ships or islands for the rest of the trip, because it was impossible to hide the effects of her super-speed on the water, even though she could effectively make herself invisible.
Finally, Power Girl came in view of the mainland, and she decided to take a nosedive into the water to slow her speed, careful to keep from creating a huge wave. Before diving into the water below her, she could see a beach up ahead that appeared to be populated, despite it being well into fall. That was fine; with a slight adjustment to her costume, it could pass for a bathing suit.
Still underwater, Power Girl took off her gloves, boots, belt, and cape, leaving only her white costume over her torso. Quickly compressing these items of clothing, she placed them in a concealed pocket in her cape, then wrapped up her red cape into a bundle that looked like a bag. Pulling her costume up, she put her head through the cleavage window, then slipped off her sleeves and tied them to the bundle on her back like a knapsack. Looking at herself, she now looked like she was wearing a one-piece bathing suit. Not bad, if I do say so myself, thought Kara.
Reducing her speed, she swam underwater until she stopped at a point by the beach that she judged could reasonably be reached by a normal human swimmer, then cautiously bobbed her head above the surface, her short blonde hair clinging closely to her head, and began swimming painfully slowly back toward the shore at a normal (but tediously slow) human speed. As she got to her feet at the beach and walked the rest of the way onto the dry sand, she looked around.
A slight tinge of pink fell across her face as she began to blush. Of all places to make land when she reached Europe, she’d swum ashore at a topless beach. Kara turned away from the few topless swimmers, then quickly went into a changing room with a mirror.
There, she used a little-known Kryptonian power that Kal had taught her how to use recently. After she was sure that no one could see her, she brought her hands up to her face and delicately pushed at her skin, cheekbones, and facial muscles, then concentrated on them, flexing those muscles slightly until she was able to change the overall look of her face. As she looked in the mirror, gone were the pretty, baby-faced features of young Kara Zor-L. They had been replaced by a face that was longer and more angular, and generally looked older. As long as she concentrated, she was able to keep up this disguise for as long as she needed to. Kal rarely used this power, since he almost never needed to, but it could be useful sometimes. For now, it helped Kara to hide her embarrassment behind a “mask” of another person’s face.
Next, Kara took off the bundle knapsack and put her boots and gloves back on, then pulled out a carefully compressed, folded, long-sleeved blue dress from a pocket in her cape. She put the dress on over her costume and looked at herself in the mirror. With the right walk, she figured she could fit in as an aficionado of high fashion, even with her gloves and boots on. A pair of sunglasses and a hat she would purchase later would complete the look.
***
As she sat an an outdoor cafe on the beach, Kara soon learned that she was in the nation of France in an area known as Côte d’Argent, or the Silver Coast, not far from Bordeaux. It was a beautiful part of this beautiful country, made even more so by the fact that the tourist season was over, and the streets were not crowded. It reminded Kara greatly of her trip to Urrika in the Old World hemisphere of Krypton when she was twelve. She remembered how much Uncle Jor had teased her that summer about a classmate she’d had a crush on, and how Cousin Kal been so fascinated by an old petrified tree that he’d found nearby, that he completely missed seeing how far Kara had swum across the water to the dock.
She caught herself smiling at the memory, then winced as she realized, for the thousandth time, that none of those memories had been real. Kal hadn’t grown up to become a scientist as in her dream. He had lived in disguise as an Earth man named Clark Kent and worked as a newspaper reporter, as well as living a double life as the world’s greatest hero, Superman. But she was determined not to let the tears flow any longer for her beloved Krypton; she’d already cried enough over her lost planet, and no one — not even Kal — could ever understand how it felt to lose your whole world.
Oh, Kal did his best to understand, but he’d reached his thirties before he finally learned where he’d come from. (*) It took a few more years before he could even begin filling in the blanks about Krypton’s history and language. And it wasn’t until Kara arrived that he truly learned what Krypton was like. For Kal, finding out he was from the planet Krypton was akin to an American man raised by American parents finding out that he was an orphan from Ireland. Kal was an American at heart, not a Kryptonian, and John and Mary Kent were his parents. He didn’t remember his real parents, Jor-L and Lora, since he only learned of them as an adult, and their loss could not be comprehended at the same emotional level that Kara felt for the loss of her family and her world. Because of that, he could never really understand her. Kara truly was the last daughter of Krypton.
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Superman Returns to Krypton,” Superman #61 (November-December, 1949).]
Looking up wistfully, Kara wondered whether she would be able to see Krypton once she gained Kal’s amazing vision powers. Would she see the world as it had been many decades before, prior to its explosion, or would there be only the remains of a lost planet left to see?
Kara frowned as her exceptional vision saw something very small in the sky. Taking off her sunglasses and removing her hat, she peered into the sky, squinting as Kal often did, and tried to see it better. It looked like a meteor, because it was definitely moving, and as it came closer and closer, she could see that it was streaking toward some place in the countryside.
All thoughts of lost Krypton were swept out of her mind as Kara quickly dropped a few bills for her light lunch, then rushed off at super-speed, quickly changing out of her clothes and into her Power Girl costume before she zoomed off into the countryside herself on the trail of the meteor.
Speeding along country trails while vibrating her body to become effectively invisible, she watched as the meteor slowly — from her perception — descended to earth. That’s no meteor! she finally realized as she came closer. It’s that falling satellite the news was warning about this morning! I recognize it perfectly. And it’s heading for that building!
Perfectly timing her actions, Power Girl leaped into the sky and struck the satellite, which glanced off of her and missed the main wing of the building below, which she saw was a school for children from many nations. But since she knew that the satellite could contain radioactive material, she applied limited force and tried to make it rebound into the nearby woods. Unfortunately, she miscalculated, and the satellite instead rebounded up into the sky, then began descending in an arc into the schoolyard. Kara was unable to do anything about it until she could hit the ground and leap into the air again, but by that time it would be too late.
Aw, no, no, no! Kara thought frantically as she twisted in midair in a futile attempt to make herself reach the ground faster so she could move into action once more. The satellite will strike that playground where all those kids are playing! Someone could be hurt or killed!
But as Power Girl looked toward the field, which was filled with youngsters playing ball and various games, she saw one schoolboy around twelve years old or so stand and reach his arm up into the sky as the satellite — at much slower speed now — came hurtling toward him.
“Relax, everybody!” cried the boy. “I’ll use my compressed air gun to repel that falling object!”
And to Kara’s astonishment, the boy fearlessly aimed what looked like nothing more than a toy and shot it at the satellite. There was a huge whooshing sound, and the satellite was deflected away from the schoolyard. As the children around him cheered, Power Girl leaped toward the satellite and grabbed it as it began to fall toward the ground once more.
But when she landed on the ground, satellite in hand, it smashed and broke open. Luckily there was no one around, since Kara knew from the morning news that it might contain something radioactive. She shook her head and said to herself, “Well, that could’ve gone much, much worse! But how in the world did that kid deflect this…? Ohhh-hhh…”
Power Girl swooned, suddenly feeling very weak for the first time she could remember. “What’s… what’s going on? Feel so… so weak…”
She looked at the ruined satellite and could see the telltale signs of a green glow in the midst of the debris. “Is that kryptonite? Kal warned me about it, but I never thought I’d see it for myself, since it’s so rare.” Kara sank to her feet as weakness enveloped her. She tried feebly to get away from the radiation and managed to retreat a few feet into the bushes, but her strength left her before she could get out of range. I — I’m trapped, she realized. This feels so unbelievably horrible. I don’t know if Kal is still watching me, or if he stopped monitoring me at some point. I never thought I’d be glad that he keeps a close eye on my actions during a training mission! But can he even seen me now? Am I going to die here? Is this how my career as Power Girl ends — before it even begins?