Super Reporter

by Mikey Freedom

"Danvers!!! You finished that story on the string of armed robberies yet?" a gruff voice yelled over the general noise of the busy newsroom. "Almost finished, give me a few more minutes, Chief" came the feminine reply. Crack reporter Linda Danvers glanced around, making sure no one was watching her intently, while gradually speeding up her typing. Her hands began to fly over the keyboard at an almost eye-blurring speed. Instead of what should have taken half an hour, she was done in the space of a few seconds. Smiling, she sped-read her work and ran off a copy. She thought to herself as she hurried over to the editor's desk "Always handy to have super-powers when you've got a deadline."

She dropped the story onto the editor's desk, before being quickly snapped up by the newsroom chief. He glanced over the piece. "Still no leads over who's pulling these robberies?"

Linda sighed "No luck. Whoever it is, they're good. From what I hear, even Supergirl is having trouble finding these guys.." Linda was sure of that one, as she'd been patrolling night after night looking for these armed robbers. There was always something getting in the way, and the robbers worked so fast, by the time she had got there they were long gone. Six robberies in two weeks, and not once had she made it. Not only were these guys getting away with a fortune, but they were harming her reputation as a heroine.

The chief's voice brought her out from her own thoughts "Okay then, good work Linda. If you get

any news before this gets sent up to copy, get it to me."

Linda nodded "No problem, if I hear anything I'll let you …" Her voice trailed off, as her keen super-hearing picked up a far-off cry for help. Quickly glancing in the direction of the cry, she switched to her x-ray vision, looking through the newsroom wall, down to street level. A woman was running from the Metropolis Central Bank, screaming for help. Linda looked deeper, looking inside the bank. Inside, she spotted four men threatening the customers.

"This is it" she thought. "This is a job for Supergirl!"

"Linda, are you okay?" The chief dragged Linda out of her concentration, her vision returning to normal. "You looked a little out of it there" the chief told her.

Linda assured the chief she was fine "Just a little light-headed, an aspirin will set me straight …" Linda quickly headed back towards her desk, as she made sure no one was paying attention to her. When she was satisfied she wasn't being watched, she darted towards the bathroom. Her fingers began to play with the buttons of her blouse, in anticipation of ripping it open and revealing the dazzling costume hidden beneath. She began to lightly tug at her blouse as she … walked headlong into the locked door. Linda looked down confused, and saw what she in her pre-transformation state had failed to notice. A sign that said CLOSED DUE TO MAITENENCE. Frustrated, Linda checked nothing was knocked out of place by the collision, before returning to her desk. Once again using her x-ray vision, she could see that the robbers had forced their way down to the vault. She didn't have much time.

Frantically she looked around for an answer. Somewhere she could change without being noticed. Her eyes fell on the open window on the opposite side of the room. Linda thought quickly, and then picked up a pen, and dropped it onto the floor. "Whoops" Linda said, before diving underneath her desk, hands ripping at her blouse in anticipation. With her desk against the newsroom wall, no one will see her changing into the uniform of the Maid of Might. A quick super-speed flight out of the newsroom, and no one would be any the wiser!!

What could possibly go wrong? She grabbed the two sides of her blouse, and ripping it open, revealed the blue leotard and stylized S shield. Removing her drab gray skirt, she revealed her costume's red skirt. She shrugged her blouse off her shoulders, her cape becoming visible underneath. Taking off her shoes and socks, she replaced them with her signature red boots, completing her outfit. She began to pull off her brown wig to reveal her blonde tresses and complete the transformation from hot-shot reporter to superheroine.

"Linda, are you okay?" The chief said from in front of Linda's desk. "I saw you down on the floor and though you might have fainted"

Behind the desk, Linda thought quickly. "What am I going to do? If he comes around the desk, my secret will be exposed!!" Spying the pen that she had dropped on the floor, she came up with an idea. Picking it up, she spun a story. "It's okay, I just dropped my pen on the floor. She poked her head up over the edge of the desk, still wearing her wig.

"Are you sure you're okay? replied the chief.

"Yeah, yeah, no problem. I took an aspirin, and I'm feeling a lot better. Just getting my pen, that's all." Linda said, with more than a note of frustration in her voice. She needed to get out of here and stop that robbery.

The chief smiled and said "Okay then" before turning and walking off.

Linda sighed a huge sigh of relief before dropping out of view again. One quick tug, and her wig was removed. Before she had let her blonde locks fall down about her shoulders, she took off at incredible speed, out of the open window. Outside, she stretched out into her flying stance, arms out in front of her and sped off.

At the Metropolis Central Bank, four masked men ran outside. "Oh well, looks like Supergirl couldn't be bothered again this time. That's seven out of seven!" one of them shouted. Throwing their haul into the back, the four men piled into a waiting car, and sped off … for all of five feet. The tires squealed as the car strained to find some sort of traction. "What the hell is going on?" shouted one of the masked men.

"We're not moving, that's what" the driver shouted back. The four men argued between each other, until a female voice cut through the noise. "Excuse me, gentleman, but you have something I want." With trepidation, the four men looked back to see none other than Supergirl lifting the back of the car off the ground. Grabbing their weapons the four men jumped out of the car, aiming their guns at the superheroine.

"Oh come on now, aren't you forgetting who I am?" Supergirl laughed, taking up her trademark power stance.

"Let her have it" one of the men said. At once, they all began unloading their machine gun clips at the Maid of Might. One by one the bullets all deflected off the body of the unmoving heroine.

Linda almost felt sorry for them, resorting to such futile attempts to attack her. One by one, the clips emptied. "Now are you going to give up?", she asked. The four men looked at each other, dropped their weapons, and ran. Supergirl sighed, and moved at superspeed. In the space of three seconds, she rounded up the robbers. Without slowing down, she spied some rope in an alleyway. Flying over to pick it up, she returned and tied up the criminals. As she finished her crash course in knot-tying, a police car pulled up, and two police jumped out.

"Officers, take these four away." Supergirl ordered.

"Thanks, Supergirl. We should have known you'd get these guys eventually." replied one of the police officers. Supergirl smiled, before gracefully taking off. With a wave, she stretched her arms out and flew away at high speed.

Seeing a back window, Supergirl sped up and flew through it at eye-blurring speed. Diving behind the desk of Linda Danvers, Supergirl quickly replaced the clothes of the reporter on top of the dazzling costume of her superheroine persona. Making sure her brown wig was on securely, she sat back up at her desk. No one took a second look, no one questioned where she had been just then. No one asked her why her clothes had been sitting in a pile on the floor under her desk. She waited a few minutes, and then picked up her phone. She started writing down what had happened, as if she was being told over the phone, not from her own memory. She put down the phone and ran to the chief's office. "Chief, she got them. I just got a call from my source at the police, they said that Supergirl just caught the armed robbers!! Looks like I'm going to have to rewrite that article." Linda exclaimed. "Do you want me to wait until we've got some more details, or just write an article of what I've got?."

The Chief smiled "Just write it now, shouldn't take you long …" Linda smiled and turned to leave. "Oh Linda, one other thing," The chief continued. "I always knew you'd turn out to be a super reporter. Next time, make sure your wig's on straight when you're trying to get me to go away."

A shell-shocked Linda stared at her boss, who had just figured out her secret identity. "Oh don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Always good to have someone who can make the news in this line of work" the chief said with a smile.