2 Heroing in a Heroless World

Sam was nice enough to feed me and let me spend the night in his guest room. Soon morning came, and I wanted to truly get out there and start making a difference. Plus, I was also broke, and bad guys usually had cash lying around, right!?

I left the box with my spare outfits with Sam, who said I could come back and get them whenever I wanted. After taking a quick rinse myself, borrowing his shower, I once again donned my superhero costume. Flowing red cape and all, I took flight and launched myself into the skies... under the speed of sound, though. There was no need for me to break the sound barrier at 7 am and wake up the entire reservation. I wasn't a monster, after all!

I was bursting with enthusiasm and couldn't wait to get started officially on my new life with my superhero debut. Now I just had to decide which city I was going to fly to. I was in Washington, so I could go to Seattle, but when I honestly thought to myself about it, it didn't really seem appealing. No offense to anyone who lived in Seattle, but it was never really a city that popped into anyones mind when they think about Superheroes. Not that I wasn't going to end up visiting the city occasionally, since I knew I was in a DC-Twilight crossover universe. At the very minimum, I'd have to watch out for vampires. I remembered in the Twilight books, that redhead chick had created an entire vampire army from the innocent people in Seattle. I definitely wouldn't let that happen at least!

Feeling like I could use some decent sunshine anyway from the dreary Forks weather, I decided to fly south towards Northern California. I wanted to check out the famous Star City, home of the Green Arrow. Or well, it would be if superheroes were a thing here. I really needed to figure out what was going on with that. Did I just arrive in this world before the Justice League members made their individual debuts? I made a note that I should go and check on my "cousin" pretty soon to see what was going on with him. For all I know, I could be in this world a decade early.

After breaking the sound barrier a couple of times in a row, I really started hauling, and I was crossing hundreds of miles in mere seconds. Pretty soon, I arrived at my destination, Star City. I hovered over the entire city from about a mile in the air, inspecting it. Half the city actually looked pretty nice, and the other half was kind of a dump... I vaguely remembered something like that from the TV show Arrow, but it had honestly been so long since I'd watched it that I wasn't reliably going to trust any of my foreknowledge.

"Oh no," my super hearing picked up the sound of a little girl crying in distress. Locking onto the sound of the voice, I glanced down and saw a pink balloon floating towards the sky and a little girl who appeared to be on the verge of tears. I let out a sigh. Well, all heroes have to start somewhere, right? I flew downwards and intercepted the balloon before it could fly any higher. With it in hand, I gently flew down towards the little girl, who was looking at me with metaphorical stars in her eyes! I landed on the sidewalk next to the little girl.

"Here, sweetie, I think this is yours," I said as I handed the balloon to her. The entire time, her mouth never stopped gaping in shock at witnessing me flying for real.

Wow, that was amazing! My mother always told me that superheroes were just make believe, but I knew she was wrong! Can you actually fly for real!? I'm not dreaming, am I?" The little girl rambled out in absolute excitement. She let go of her balloon again in all her excitement and I just let out a sigh as I flew up a few feet to grab it for her again.

I re-handed it to her and just smiled. "No, you're not dreaming at all, and yes, I was flying," I said proudly. "It's nice to meet you. What's your name?" I held out my hand to shake. Kids liked when you treat them like 'grown ups' after all.

The little girl gently took my hand and shook it, with a look of awe on her face. Before she could answer, however, a woman's voice cut in.

"Mia, there you are! I've been looking all over for you, young lady. You know you're not supposed to run off like that." A woman, whom I presumed was the girl's mother, showed up and scolded her for presumably running off after her balloon. The woman turned to me and gave me a raised eyebrow at my choice of outfit.

"Is there a cosplay convention going on nearby or something?" She mumbled to herself but I could hear it obviously. She was not there to witness me flying beforehand apparently...

"Mama, Mama!" The little girl said excitedly. "You missed it! It was so amazing! I lost my balloon, and it flew away, and I chased after it, but then it flew too high, and there was no way I could get it. But then this nice lady here literally flew in and caught the balloon in the air. She's got real superpowers, Mom! She can fly for real!" The little girl kept babbling on, to which her mother just sighed.

"Kids just have the darndest imaginations, don't they?" The girl's mother turned to me. "Thank you for retrieving her balloon for her." She probably just figured it got caught in a tree or something, and I, being relatively tall, was able to reach it.

I placed my hands on my hips, with my elbows to the side, as I took on an iconic hero pose. "It was no problem at all! That's just what heroes do!" I exclaimed proudly. I felt elated at nailing that pose and speech on the first try! The little girl cheered and clapped for me excitedly. "It's nice to meet you. You can call me Supergirl, and I'll always be there to help people in need," I smiled proudly.

Meanwhile, the girl's mother just cringed a bit but covered it up quickly with a small smile. She probably thought i was a full on larper now. Thinking that I was really hardcore into cosplaying.

"Can I get a picture with you, Supergirl?" The little girl asked.

I gave her a smile. "Of course you can! You want to know a secret?" I asked, to which the little girl nodded fervently. "You're going to have the very first fan picture of me in the entire world!" I exclaimed. "Be sure to take extra good care of it. It'll be super valuable one day!"

The girl's mother reluctantly took a picture of her smiling daughter and... me.

"Okay then," I said. "I'm afraid I have to go." The little girl looked sad at that, "but you know how being a superhero is. There's always somebody in need that I have to go and save when I'm on the clock." With that, I gave the pair a wave, launched myself back into the sky, and flew into the air, looking for anyone else in need. The girl's mother just went into absolute shock at what she had just witnessed!

"Did Supergirl just fly? Did she just fly for real? That was a real superhero!" She exclaimed in shock!

"I told you she was a real superhero, Mom," the little girl explained happily!

—------------------------

While helping a little girl get her balloon back was a good deed that made me feel good inside, I was looking for something a little more substantial for my debut day as a superhero.

I decided to fly over the seedier side of the city. In movies and TV shows, there were always giant criminal warehouses full of drugs and money. Maybe I could find one of those? And as I put a stop to their tomfoolery… I could make a small donation to the hero industry(AKA: me), with some of the cash lying around. One might think that's just for TV and places like that don't exist in real life, but I was in a comic book universe, so maybe criminals were just that stupid here, leaving piles of cash sitting for anyone to take? I figure it shouldn't be that hard to find some criminals with my super senses.

—-----------------

Oh how wrong I was… After flying over the seedier section of Star City for a few HOURS now, I came to a sad realization that criminals were not out and about early in the morning... I could have totally slept in myself, and nothing would have changed! Well, that little girl would have lost her balloon.

I was about to dejectedly give up my search for crime when I spotted somebody on the ground, moving between alleys and holding a backpack to his chest while looking around shiftily. This was it! I had finally found a real criminal! I flew down and landed right in front of the man, whose eyes widened in absolute shock at the sight of me.

"Holy shit, girl! D-did... did you just fly down here?" he exclaimed in surprise. "There's some really weird stuff going on in this city lately, but I ain't never heard of no lady who can fly, especially dressed up like you were," he said.

"Um... I am Supergirl!" I paused for a second before saying proudly.

"I mean, you're the one who can fly here, so you can call yourself whatever you want," the man said, still somewhat in shock. I was going to have to get used to people seeing superpowers for the first time for a while I figured...Seriously though what was going on with this world!? Gotham, Metropolis, and Star City all exist. Where were all the heroes though? I'm going to have to sort that out pretty soon. It would be just my luck I ended up way early in the timeline and my cousin will still be in diapers pooping all over that farm of his.

"Well, anyway," I went back on topic, "what've you got there in the bag?" I said as I placed my hands on my hips, trying to seem somewhat intimidating.

The man snapped out of his shock before taking an aggressive stance towards me. "What's it to you? Are you working for the cops or something? What are you, some kind of super secret experiment agent or some shit? Going to turn me over to the pigs just 'cause I'm peddling a little bit of weed? Huh? Is that what you're doing?"

"Woah, woah, I'm sorry, alright?" I said, putting my hands up placatingly. I scratched my cheek. "Sorry, it's just my first day as an official superhero, and, you know, I'm just looking for crime... and stuff." I found myself comically explaining to a weed dealer. My new life was awesome but also weird…

"Well, no crime here," the man said as he not so slightly tucked his backpack behind him.

"Relax, dude," I said. "I'm not going to bust you for some weed. And why are you being all shady with that shit anyway? Isn't it legal in California?" I asked.

The weed dealer just scoffed. "It's supposed to be legal in California, and I was making a killing when it was. You see, I actually ran an official licensed store! Had my own supply and everything! Life was pretty good. But then the new corrupt freaking mayor came along and outlawed it throughout the whole city. I don't know how he got that to actually fly, because it's going against the state laws itself, but for some reason, the police are all backing him. They stormed my business, destroyed all my product, and then they froze my bank accounts on me…" he said dejectedly. "And here I am now, scurrying around back alleys, selling out of my backpack." He looked down depressed.

I frowned at that and felt really bad for the guy. To have some corrupt politician come and destroy everything he's built for himself. "Do you know why he did that?" I asked curiously.

The man nodded and leaned in, whispering to me. "Yeah, I do. A bunch of us dealers know, but it's supposed to be on the down low, you see. It's supposed to be a secret, otherwise they'll come after us."

"Well, I am a superhero," I said, so maybe I can help," I smiled at him proudly.

The man just took in my appearance for a few seconds before shaking his head sadly. "No way, I'm sorry, girly, but there's no way I can tell you. I don't want your death on my conscience," he said. "I know you can fly and all, but unless you're bulletproof too, I'd just be sending you to a meat grinder."

"I am bulletproof," I said confidently.

"Anyway, like I was saying... wait, really? You're bulletproof?" He exclaimed in shock, to which I just nodded. "Huh, alright then," he changed his tune. "Okay, where was I?" He leaned in to whisper to me again. I thought it was pretty silly because we were completely alone, but I just played along for the ambiance. I had found my first official case as a superhero, after all! "Right, like I was saying, you see, the mayor... the reason he outlawed weed is because he's working with these foreign drug importers! They're smuggling in this new super-addictive shit they call flakka. It's incredibly addicting, and it really messes people up!"

"And you think the mayor is taking a cut?" I exclaimed, shocked. "And so he outlawed weed to cut down on the competition?" The man just nodded in affirmation to my question.

"Do you know where I can find these foreign importers?" I asked him. Unfortunately, he shook his head no at that.

"I don't know," the man said. "No one does. But with the amount of shit they have hitting the streets, they have to be bringing it in heavily in bulk. And the only way to do that would be by ship. One thing that we have noticed, though, is that the sea traffic these past couple of months, especially at the port down on 20th street, has heavily picked up compared to before. Those ships always come in at night, though, so you'd have to wait half the day to find anything anyway," he said.

I just sighed at that statement. It seemed like all the criminals in this city really only came out at night...

"Well, I'll be sure to check it out. Um... what was your name again?" I asked him.

"Oh, I'm Mike, the friendly neighborhood weed dealer. Nice to meet you, Supergirl. And I really hope that you can stop these guys along with our new corrupt mayor so I can get my accounts unfrozen and my store back up and running. Plus, I'll get a nice payday once I sue that asshole mayor for corruption!" He giggled to himself at the end.

Before I took off to the air once more, for the second time in 2 days, my stomach let out a loud growl. Damn, I thought as a Kryptonian I didn't even need to eat and this is the second time I'm finding myself really hungry! I wonder if it's because my powers still aren't fully developed since I've only been on Earth for a little over a day. I hope so at least. Not that I don't love food, but having to stop in the middle of my patrols for snack time every couple hours is going to be really irritating and it's not like I can install a fanny pack on my costume as that would look ridiculous!

The weed dealer noticed my embarrassing stomach growl and just smiled at me. "Sounds like somebody's hungry and not to be rude or nothing but I can tell you're outfit there is kind of skin tight. And I'm guessing you're not really packing any money huh?" He asked and to my shame I just shook my head no.

I didn't want to mention that I was kind of searching for potential drug dealers in the first place. To turn them in, after potentially liberating some of their monetary assets that they will no longer be requiring from within prison… Although if what he said about those flakka dealers turns out to be true, then they have to absolutely be stacked with cash somewhere. It'd be a real shame if some of it went missing mysteriously after I put a stop to their dastardly plots…

The guy reached into his pocket and to my surprise he pulled out a $20 bill and handed it to me. "Here you're promising to investigate those guys for me and the corrupt mayor. This is the least I can do for our city's new superhero after all. Buying her a meal." I felt genuinely touched at that.

Here this guy was severely struggling, shifting through back alleys to do his business, which should be legal, and yet he still had the generosity to help me out. I made a promise to myself that I would look into busting those flakka dealers and the corrupt mayor as soon as possible to repay him. I thanked the man for his generosity as I took to the sky in search of some food.

It was lunchtime now, and as I flew over Star City, there were a lot more people out and about. Some of them were actually starting to spot me, especially whenever I'd stop for a few seconds to get my bearings, just hovering in the air. With my super hearing, I could pretty much listen in on every conversation nearby.

"Whoa, are they filming some kind of movie? Her outfit looks really nice, and her curves are in all the right places, man— all the right places!"

"I don't see any wires. That must be some really good CGI holding her up in the air."

"That's not how CGI works, dipshit!"

*grumble* With my stomach still rumbling, I decided to fly over towards what I assumed was Star City's main square. I saw a lone hot dog cart that didn't have a line at the moment, so I zipped over towards it. And that's when I might have underestimated just how big of an impact having superpowers in a world where people aren't used to them being commonplace is...

The busy main city square, full of hundreds of people going about their business, had so much background noise that a regular person wouldn't be able to hear anything clearly just a few feet away… It went dead silent at my arrival. As I landed in front of the hot dog vendor, who was halfway through assembling a hot dog that just fell to the floor from his shocked grasp, I could collectively feel the eyes of hundreds of people just staring at me. It brought a bit of a blush to my cheeks, so much attention all at once. But I knew I had to get used to it, because I was a superhero now. Well, I haven't exactly done anything super heroic yet, but I will soon!

"H-hello," the slightly overweight hot dog vendor stuttered out.

I just let out a small laugh, "Hi there, I'll take a dog with the works." At this point, dozens of people in the plaza pulled out their phones and started recording me. What are they planning to title it? 'Cosplay girl gets a hot dog?' Part of me wondered if I shouldn't fly out of here and just walk at a normal human pace to mess with them all, make hundreds of people think they were hallucinating about seeing me fly. But I suppose that would be kind of mean. Damn, if it wouldn't be funny, though...

"Who are you?" Someone shouted out.

"What are you!? Did you just fly?"

"This is nuts, man! What's even going on right now!?"

Luckily for me, the vendor managed to finish whipping up my hot dog and handed it to me before the crowd's collective shock turned into excitement. They all started rushing towards me, phones in hand, to try and snap a close-up picture or even just talk to me! Before the crowd could reach me, I threw my $20 at the guy and told him to keep the change before I hovered about 20 ft in the air, out of everyone's collective reach.

Once again, the crowd of onlookers rushing towards me stopped and gasped in shock as they saw me floating above them, my cape billowing majestically behind me. Damn, I felt really awesome right about now... "Hello, people of Star City and... the world at large, I guess," I added that last part. I personally had just come to Star City since it was the closest main DC city from Forks. But personally, I didn't even know if it was going to be my main city yet, or if I would even have one at all.

Once again, the crowd of spectators went completely silent, some people's mouths gaping open as they all seemed to be taking in every word I was saying. I continued, "I would just like to say, it's nice to meet all of you for the very first time. You all can call me Supergirl, and I am... A SUPERHERO!" With that, I struck a quick pose for everyone filming me, and then I shot off into the sky like a bullet to eat my hotdog. In the background all I could hear were the deafening cheers I was receiving. And, to be honest, why wouldn't they be cheering? They just saw a super gorgeous girl like myself literally flying in the sky, wearing a superhero costume. Of course, they'd lose their collective minds! All those people's entire worlds had just been flipped on their axis, after all! When they all calm down and start to think rationally again then I'll see what the public's true thoughts on me are.

I scarfed down my meal in the sky rapidly, some mustard may have spilled. Hopefully it doesn't land on anyones head. Soaring over the skyscrapers, my pondering was interrupted by the sound of sirens, followed by the screeching of tires. I rapidly spun and flew towards the sound of the disturbance—it was a car chase! Finally, some action!

From on high, I was able to see three squad cars rapidly chasing a single brown SUV through the busy streets of the city. Inside the brown car were three men, all wearing black ski masks. The SUV was going about 80 miles an hour on a road that was made for 30 max! It was no shock when the SUV tried to turn a corner at that speed and the tire slipped, causing it to veer off course and head right for a group of pedestrians on the sidewalk!

I immediately shot down as fast as I could go without shattering every single window in the vicinity, and slammed onto the concrete right in front of the group of terrified people about to be hit by the car. As the brown SUV approached me at 80 miles an hour, I spread my arms wide open to maximize the surface area as it collided right with me... and I didn't move an inch. The car's momentum immediately stopped, and the three criminals inside were lucky they were wearing seatbelts; otherwise, they would have definitely been going through some windows. I pried myself loose from some of the car metal that had wrapped around me in the collision. Once free, and to the shock of everyone watching, I casually walked over to the passenger door and grabbed its handle. With an easy yank, I ripped the entire door right from the frame!

"Holy Shit!"

"What is she? That was unbelievable!"

Even though they were wearing seatbelts, that was still an 80 mph collision, and all three of the ski mask-wearing criminals looked pretty banged up. I honestly felt kind of bad about it, and in hindsight, there were other ways I could have stopped that car. For example, I could have gotten behind it faster and gently slowed it down as I picked up the back wheels to prevent it from going anywhere. Well, it was my first day, after all, and hindsight is 20/20. I'll just remember to do better next time. Also, these guys totally need a hospital...

"I think I broke something," one of the criminals coughed out in pain.

"Not to be the bearer of bad news or anything, but I think you broke a lot of things. Also, you guys are under arrest," I said as three squad cars' worth of absolutely stupefied officers surrounded us, guns drawn.

"Get down on the ground! You are all under arrest! Get down!" One of the officers pointed his gun surprisingly at me. Instinctually, I knew I would be fine even if he fired, but still, it was the first time in my life I'd had a gun pointed at me, and I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't a bit nervous. I was doing everything in my power mentally, though, to not let it show on my face. I have an image to uphold, after all!

And, of course, at this point, instead of fleeing, the group of people that I saved all pulled out their phones and started filming my altercation with the police. What a shocker...

"Are you listening to me?" The officer still pointing the gun at me shouted. "I said, get down on the ground." Did he not see me stop an SUV going 80 miles an hour without a scratch? Seriously, some people just have no common sense. I was still debating whether to chastise him or not when suddenly I heard a scream coming from pretty far away. I tried my best to lock onto it with my ears, and it sounded like a woman was in the process of being assaulted!

"Sorry, boys," I said with a wave. "I've got to go and save someone. Keep up the good work." And before they could even register what my words were, I had already completely vanished from their sight, speeding too fast for them to follow as I rocketed towards the other side of the city.

"Please, no! Let me go!" A young woman said as three guys had her pressed up against the wall.

"No, I don't think so," one guy laughed, followed by the other two. "You see, when you come down our alley here, you've got to pay a toll, and since you ain't got no money, then you've got to pay with your bo—"

Enraged at this piece of shit, I had heard enough as I landed beside him and decked him across the face. I held back enough to not kill him, but I'm fairly certain I just shattered his jaw as I heard a sharp crack!

"Ah, Tony! What the fuck? Where did this bitch come from?" One of them shouted as he whipped out a knife and brandished it towards me. I just glanced down at his little pricker and let out a small laugh. "Yeah, that's not going to work against me, buddy. Let's just say now that I'm around, shit like this isn't going to fly anymore," I said as I walked towards the two of them confidently.

The one with the knife charged towards me, blade first, intending to stab me right in the stomach. I didn't even move, and I watched in slow motion as the blade made contact with my indestructible suit and diamond-hard abs, and it immediately snapped to the side, cutting the man's hand in the process.

"Aahhh, fuck! What the hell? That's not possible!" He screamed out in pain, now holding his bleeding fingers. The other guy, who looked like he was reeling back to punch me in the face, just stopped in fear as well.

"W-who... t-the hell are you?" he stuttered out.

I walked over to the guy with the bleeding fingers and gave him a quick chop to the back of the neck, immediately sending him to La La Land. The final remaining thug's eyes widened at my action. I approached him and said, "I'm Supergirl," as I slammed my fist right into his gut and knocked him out too!

-End Chapter-