Jimmy, Part Three

by Shadar

Metropolis in the late 1950’s

Chapter 5

Metropolis…

Kara flew the return leg back to her apartment using a simple suborbital ballistic arc while listening to Watchtower. It was a slower way to get halfway around the planet – thirty minutes instead of eight – but thankfully Watchtower had nothing on their threat board.

By the time something hit the wire services or radio or TV, or a call came in from a panicky police department, the emergencies were usually past the point where she or Kal could save lives. But given the way TV News was heading, with some stations putting camera teams out in the field, along with some pundits talking about a future people could dial a single number for emergencies, Kara thought that was going to change for the better.

Exhaling the remaining air in her lungs as she left the atmosphere behind, she endured the usual moment of panicky breathlessness as her lungs collapsed in the hard vacuum. She’d grown up breathing air, and likely she’d never get over that. But as usual, her metabolism quickly shifted from extracting oxygen from air to consuming the solar-activated energy that suffused every cell in her body.

That energizing shift in energy amplified the fading echoes of the surprise orgasm she and Jimmy had shared. Usually she immediately pushed such feelings away – that wasn’t how Supergirl worked – but this time she let them grow. Lost in those pleasant feelings, she reached her perigee and headed back down to the atmosphere, smiling as she turned just the right way when re-entering the atmosphere to focus the intense heat and shockwaves between her legs.

No matter how many people looked up at the bright streak that flashed across the night sky, no matter how many recognized the intensely bright spot without a smoke trail as a Kryptonian and not a meteor burning up, it was unlikely that a single one of them guessed they were watching a teenage girl riding a white-hot hypersonic shockwave for pure pleasure. A girl from a distant planet who was remembering the way she’d once been spontaneous and fun-loving.

It wasn’t until she was almost over Metropolis that Kara started acting like Supergirl again, and focused on making an invisible entrance to her apartment. She dropped to subsonic at ten miles altitude, and then dove like an Olympic diver for a particular skylight on a particularly forgettable roof, holding herself just below the Mach until she was only a few hundred feet away. Then, flipping herself around in a flash, she descended feet first, her long hair and cape streaming behind her, still moving at nearly 700 mph – more than a 1000 feet per second and essentially invisible at close range. She didn’t start slowing until her feet were entering the skylight, at which point she braked furiously to a stop, her feet coming to a stop inches from her living room floor in a dazzling demonstration of superhuman reflexes and raw flight power.

Power that unfortunately followed her into the apartment as a blast of compressed air that knocked Jimmy backward and off his feet. He landed on his back to skid head-first almost to the front door, all the while staring up with wide-open eyes to take in the gorgeous view of Kara in her red and blues, floating in mid-air, her blonde hair billowing around her head. She floated across the room while gently descending the last inches to straddle him as he remained on his back. Staring upward, her incredibly long legs were a sexy vision, her tight hot pants stretched over a perfectly rounded backside and a pronounced pubic mound. He couldn’t resist reaching up to hold her strong calves to guide her feet the last inch down to the floor, discovering as he did that her muscles were sculpted from warm steel.

Smiling, she kneeled over him, her long blonde hair spilling silkily over his face as the famous rune on her chest filled his entire view.

“Nice S,” Jimmy quipped, his lands leaving her calves to slowly trace up the back of her strong, silky legs until his fingers wrapped around her ass to hold her tightly. There he found more sculpted steel, so pert and so perfect. He used all his strength to hold her, but his fingers barely dimpled her skin. “Well, well… hello to the Girl of Steel.”

Her eyes sparkled as she crossed her arms to quickly pull off her blue tunic, her breasts not jiggling in the least as they sat high and nearly perfectly round, defying gravity. She leaned further down to bury his face in her cleavage, her red cape, tied to her choker, falling over both of them.

“Is that a little better?” she giggled.

“Maybe a little," Jimmy gasped as he lost himself between her impossibly firm boobs. “A softer kind of steel anyway.”

“Oh, so I have to take absolutely everything off before you’re happy?”

“I’m happy any time I’m around you, but your muscle tone is kind of over the top. Even your boobs. I mean, boobs aren’t muscles. How does that work?”

“Skin tone. But that can be easily fixed.” She stood back up as he shifted shifted his hands to her hips as she lifted both feet to unlace the ribbons of her dance slippers, kicking them off before she landed barefooted on either side of his head. Staring upward as she teased him further, Jimmy was grinning wildly as she wiggled her red hot pants down over her hips, and then let them slide down those long legs to cover his face. Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes as he lost himself in her intimate scent, like warm honey and wildflowers with just the faintest hint of musk. A surge of growing strength began to fill him, going straight to his groin.

She flicked her red shorts away with her toe, and then began sliding her feet slowly outward, opening her legs into a deepening split that ended with her sex hovering just above his nose. Grabbing her thighs to pull himself upward to pleasure her, he was starting to go to work when he realized the way the hard swell of her quads overfilled his hands, that thick steel covered with the softest disguise. He remembered her earlier “from behind only” caution, which this position most certainly wasn’t. The muscles he was holding were even stronger than Superman’s.

Instead of doing what every fiber of his body wanted him to, he scooted forward between her legs to leverage himself off the floor, using her immovable body to anchor himself as he started to get his legs under him. She put her strength to work to rise effortlessly from her deep split, lifting him with her.

She was grinning as he faced her, noses touching. “So, you actually remembered my little lecture on safe sex. I’m going to add “self-preservation” to your list of skills.”

“Was that another test?” Jimmy asked, a little miffed if she was just teasing him.

“Not really. I was actually hoping you’d go for it. But then I’d have to pull away from you just when it got interesting. Better not to start.”

“That sounds like SG talking, not impetuous Kara.”

“I’m kind of in between right now,” she sighed as she floated toward her bedroom door. Pausing there to settle onto the floor, she turned back to say: “But if that had been a test, you passed it.”

And then she disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her just like last time.

Jimmy stared eagerly at the closed door, overwhelmed by her incredible physicality, every curve so perfect, accented by the way she floated around, not to mention her extreme strength. He was starting to really like this thing with her disappearing behind her bedroom door, wondering who was going to appear next.

His wondering was answered when she returned wearing just a white silk gown, the bottom as short as her tiny skirts. She looked more relaxed now, her dramatic muscle tone fading into softer, smoother curves, her arms thin but still supple and graceful, blue eyes sparkling behind all that blonde hair, her legs so slender and lithe. She’d put Supergirl away for the moment and had returned to herself – Kara Zor El of Krypton.

Yet her eyes flashed Supergirl blue as she glanced toward the front door.

“Amazing,” she said. “The Chinese is still out there, getting cold. Surprised no one’s dog or cat found it.”

“Or one of Metropolis’ infamous rats,” Jimmy shrugged. “But I couldn’t exactly unlock the door to get it.”

Floating across the room, she casually bent the thick steel truck spring – briefly revealing dramatic muscles again – and reached out to grab the large paper bag. Closing the door, she bent the big spring again to effortlessly latch it, revealing another flash of muscle.

“What I find interesting, Kara, is that your muscle tone as SG is way, way tighter than now. Even your boobs look different then – higher and rounder, everything about you having a steely edge. What’s that about?”

“Remember what I said about inhabiting a role?” she asked as she floated toward the kitchen. “SG is famous for her strength, so I need to look the part. Lots of visible muscle, ramrod-straight posture, my body language all amped up to broadcast an overwhelming message of raw strength and power.”

“I think you’ve got that nailed,” Jimmy smiled.

“I adopted that exaggerated approach after I realized Clark’s subdued body language was radically different than Superman’s, who looks like a super-bodybuilder. That really helps sell his alter-ego thing. People tune in to body language far more than they consciously realize. So I wanted to separate Linda from SG as much as possible.”

“Is it a conscious thing? Don’t you ever forget?”

“Never, because it’s subconscious. Kal constructed this hypnosis machine from plans in Jor El’s crystals, back when he was really starting to develop physically. His mother had already spent years studying scientific literature, everything from psychology to spy-craft, helping Clark learn to control his body language and posture to appear weak. Meek and mild. Stiff and awkward.”

“Which he does very well.”

“She also taught him to be the opposite as Superman, how to “turn himself to steel” as he calls it, with every muscle in his body slightly tensed, which of course makes him look amazing, not to mention to feel like steel to the touch. Yet even with all that physical tension, he moves far more fluidly and flexibly than any human. Sensuously. His goal is to make sure that every nuance of his incredible musculature is on display, even when just standing and seemingly relaxed. And as you know, he unconsciously flexes this muscle or that when hanging around talking, which gets pretty eye-popping. All part of being Superman.”

“His mother taught him all that?”

“Not all of it. But they developed the body languages together, and then Clark took it further. Not only acting weak and afraid, but never taking any risks. Afraid of conflict. He projects a serious lack of self-confidence while acting like a mildly intelligent Kansas farm boy who is also a bit of a bumpkin. That ensures he always comes across as the slightly embarrassing hick in any gathering of Metropolis city-folk. His mom was absolutely brilliant in creating his two personas, and then using that hypnosis machine to make them instinctive.”

“Instinctive? I thought he was acting. Pretending.”

“Not so much. That’s really who he is when he’s Clark. That’s how he instinctively thinks and reacts to things. Superman is the opposite, always working to project power and mastery of any situation. Superman is bigger-than-life, and that’s exactly how his mother taught him to be.”

“Which explains why some people insist he’s a god,” Jimmy added as he sorted through the boxes of Chinese food. “If they only knew his inner self is more on the Clark side of things than the Superman side. He’ll always have a lot of Kansas farm boy in him.”

Kara paused, reaching out to hold his hand tightly. “You really do understand my cousin, don’t you? That’s so amazing. I thought I was the only one who saw Kal that clearly.”

Jimmy shrugged. “Maybe I’ve just known him longer than you. Both as Supes and as Clark.”

“We are likely the only ones who truly know him now that his adoptive parents are both gone. Lois, for all her deep insights into Superman, sees only one side of him.”

“I think he’s got some deep insights into her too, so to speak,” Jimmy quipped.

“Well, he is a super man,” she laughed. “Comes with the territory. A lot of territory.”

“So, did his mom help you the same way?” Jimmy asked, quickly changing that subject.

She nodded. “Yeah. Except he’s way better at this than I am. Lots more practice. Martha worked up ideas for my Linda and SG personas, which I tweaked and then asked Kal to post-hypnotically tweak into my personality with that machine of his. That makes it instinctual for me to keep Linda and SG far apart, my trigger being my red and blues on one end and that brown wig on the other. But neither of them knew how to deal with the fact that I’m Kryptonian by upbringing while Clark was raised as a human. As Kara, I’m just an ordinary girl.”

“Ordinary, huh? Yet still stronger than Superman. But that’s part of what I find so fascinating about you, Kara. I mean, beyond your other obvious charms. You truly are a girl from a distant planet. An ET.”

“Obvious charms, huh?”

“Well, you did use your boobs to safely blunt a whole lot of bullets today. Never had a girlfriend do that before.”

“Girlfriend, huh? Don’t get ahead of yourself. Technically, we’re still on our first date, Jimmy.”

“Sure doesn’t feel that way,” he said, shaking his head. “I mean, there’s this thing between us, something so comfy when we’re together. Like old souls who knew each other in another life.”

“It’s probably just the kitchen sex,” she winked. “That’s not first date stuff. Certainly not for Linda, anyway. Never for SG.”

“Nor me. My history with girlfriends pretty much sucked until now.”

“I’m just happy as hell to be able to be myself with you, and not my “alternate personality layers” as Kal calls them. I switch between Linda and SG so naturally that I don’t notice the change, what with my body language and instincts changing so effortlessly. But I never change deep inside. I’m fully aware of having two different personas, with that hypnotic suggestion subconsciously doing the surface tweaking. Filtering everything.”

“That’s pretty heavy. I mean, to understand that and just let it happen. To go with it, using post-hypnotic suggestion as a tool to live two lives. Is that why you’re studying Psych?”

She nodded, tossing her long, blonde hair over her shoulder to keep it out of her food. “Yup. I want to understand how my mind can do this. How the hypnosis works. Then maybe I can do it better or do other things with that. Which is why I’m studying humans who can adopt different personas and personalities, and maybe help them to manage that. Our minds are very much alike in most ways.”

“We call multiple personalities a disorder. A kind of schizophrenia that is usually destructive.”

“Exactly. But what if it’s not an illness? What if it’s actually a talent? Except maybe we Kryptonians can control it better. My mom had a friend who had two personas back on Argo City, and each persona was married to a different man. Sounds awkward as hell, but it worked for her.”

“Two husbands? Did they know about the other?”

“Nope. That was the cool part.”

So you got to know both personas?”

“No, only one, but my mom, Alura, knew both of her. What I remember most about her friend was that she loved to laugh more than anyone else I knew. Mom used to say she was getting twice the bang out of life as everyone else. I figured she was just having twice the sex, as much as I knew about that then. But living two complete and different lives for sure.”

“That’s wild.”

“And then I crash here on Earth and discover that my cousin is doing it as well.”

“Yet you really just want to be Kara – a girl from Krypton.”

She shook her head. “No. Not at first. Kara was the last person I wanted to be. Too many bad memories. Losing myself in SG and Linda was terrific therapy for me. Adopting a new world, with new customs and now with all these abilities to help people. That really helped me forget Krypton and all the people I’d lost. It was like I was born into a new life as a new person. Two new persons, actually. And the huge differences between my two lives kept me occupied. I was always learning and experiencing new things, but different ones with each persona.”

“But not now.”

“It’s weird, but no, I want to just be me around you. A me I’m trying to rediscover. I’m not sure where this is going, however. Three lives is a lot to stuff into one body.”

“Given your body, I think you can do anything.”

“Well, right now this body needs food. Glad you ordered enough for an army as I’m starving. Flew halfway around the world, in space no less, saved a bus full of kids, flew back, and now all this talking. Do you mind?” She carried the bag into the clean and organized kitchen, where she whistled softly. “Wow, you’ve been busy.”

“Least I could do given I was the cause of the wreckage.”

She laughed. “I think it took two of us. Cracking the stone floor was definitely me. Sex kind of does away with my usual self control, and I’ve gotta send that power somewhere other than into you. Like shaking a building.”

“Hmmm… and here I thought it was my manly skills driving you crazy.”

She smiled. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but that was the biggest surprise. You aren’t very physical normally, but the way you could draw power from me and turn it into strength and virility and give it back to me during sex. Wow! Never had that happen with a guy before, but then, I’ve only had boyfriends as Linda. Linda has no power.”

She picked up the mangled stainless towel rack and twisted it roughly back into shape, the steel screaming in protest. She then gripped it between her thighs to draw it through that smooth skin, squeezing it like some kind of industrial hydraulic press while she rotated it to smooth out the small bends and twists.

The towel rack looked essentially new when she snapped it back into its holder.

“She’s not just a knife sharpener, but she fixes towel racks too.”

“Ha ha,” Kara said as she started dumping each container of Chinese into a different ceramic bowl. Floating off the floor far enough for her head to bump the ceiling, she pulled her hair to the side and aimed a controlled burst of heat vision at each bowl, working her around them several times in rotation. Less than a minute later they were all piping hot.

Jimmie was grinning as he picked up a pair of chop sticks. “And she heats food with but a glance. Maybe those people who say a woman’s place is in the kitchen are right,” he quipped.

She made a fist to shake it at him, flexing her arm. “Say that again, and you might get to learn to fly the hard way. Like out the window.”

Jimmy stepped closer to lift her loose sleeve as he wrapped his fingers around the most spectacular biceps he’d ever seen on a woman, so warm and soft on the surface. The twin head of it was easily the size of a baseball, the long and short head separated and defined, and absolutely steel hard. Leaning down, he couldn’t help but kiss those hard curves, which caused Kara to smile.

“Has anyone told you, Kara, that Kryptonian muscles are incredibly sexy?”

She chuckled as she relaxed her arm. “So… that’s why you like Kal?”

Jimmy blushed brightly. “Ah, no. I was talking about you.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of. Kal is so incredibly physical and so ridiculously muscular that he affects men and women. Bodybuilders think he’s a god since he’s like their ultimate ideal. I’ve seen plenty of men react uncomfortably around him, getting seriously aroused when they didn’t want to. Doesn’t make you queer for having a reaction to him.”

“That’s not what I was talking about,” Jimmy said, blushing more.

She winked at him as she walked off with her bowl, headed for the living room couch. “Ok, then why did you react that way when I mentioned Kal’s muscles?”

“How did this discussion suddenly become about Kal?”

“Lois calls you Superman’s Pal in her articles. We both know he likes to confide things to you that he can’t tell anyone else. Even me. Who knows what you talk about? Maybe you’re a groupie, Jimmy?”

“You mean like those girls who hang around musicians?” he asked while following her toward the couch with his food. “Trading sex for access so they can enjoy the wildest parties.”

“Not exactly, but in a way, maybe?”

He shook his head. “No way. I mean, sure, I think you guys are both amazing, but Kal and I are just pals. Sometimes he needs to talk without any expectations or demands.”

“He’s also saved your life a few times, Jimmy. Between you and Lois, you act as if he’s your personal protector. Taking risks, like today, that neither of you should have. Did you think Kal was coming to save you?”

Jimmy shook his head as he sat down beside her, trying not to stare at her amazing legs. “That wasn’t really on my mind, but maybe in the back of it. Mostly I just don’t want to give up anything to those TV assholes. Give TV time and enough room, and they’ll destroy the greatest newspapers in the world. Replace hard News with bloody pictures of accidents and crimes. I needed a great picture that told the story on the front page of a Special Edition before the TV guys could get up there and record a tape to run back to their studio and broadcast it. And I got it.”

“And Lois is alive thanks to me. Likely you too.”

“That too. Thankfully that’s kind of your thing. Did Kal ask you to keep an eye on us?”

She shrugged. “He just said you two were fearless. I figured out the rest.”

“So you were keeping an eye?”

“Can’t let the best reporter at the Planet, Superman’s girlfriend no less, nor the future top photo-journalist for the Planet, James Olsen, get killed.”

“James? Nobody calls me that.”

“They might someday.”

“So that’s all it was? Saving our asses.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Right up until I realized you like to have sex on kitchen counters. And that you’re a bit of a super man yourself once you get going, powered by my arousal. That was the really big surprise.”

He paused as she said that, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth to stare at her, making her laugh.

“You do know that I’ve never had much luck with other girls?” he said.

“I know more than you think, Jimmy. And I’m not ‘other girls’. Plus, given you’re into muscles of steel and boobs that can blunt bullets, they don’t stand a chance. Except maybe Diana, who can also make that claim, even if she prefers using her bracelets, and obviously Maxima, Ms. Marvel too and Shulkie for sure, but nobody else I can think of. But with the exception of Maxima, not one of the others could come close to beating me in arm wrestling, and Maxima uses TK to augment her strength. So yeah, my muscles are kind of special.”

He placed his hand on the tight, warmth of her thigh, her quads feeling so dense. “Kind of? So it’s Ok if I find your superstrength like wickedly sexy?”

“With other guys, it kind of weirds me out. But given you have some kind of special connection to it, channeling a bit of that power yourself, then no, it’s totally cool. After all, it’s kind of my thing.”

“You don’t say,” he laughed as she tensed her leg, enjoying the swell of soft skin stretching over steel-hard quads.

She leaned gently against him, turning her head to kiss him with soft lips that tasted like the Fragrance Prawns in her bowl. “After we eat,” she whispered, “I want to experiment a bit. To see if we can handle that power surge differently. Try to have sex without putting so much strain on you at first. Maybe I can get you powered up better with some better foreplay, turning you closer to steel before we start. That and practicing making it in mid-air. Don’t want to break the building any further.”

Jimmy’s jaw dropped as a surge of pure arousal shot through him. “Do you realize how absolutely unlikely it is that any two lovers have ever shared those exact words in all the history of Earth?”

“We’re in uncharted territory, and I love it. And think of all the new things that you can’t share with anyone. You, a photog and reporter from the mighty Daily Planet, whose job is to tell it all, and now you know even more secrets.”

Jimmy set his container of Chinese on the end table and crossed his chop sticks over it. “You know, Kara, we can always heat this up again. How about we try to figure this out like… right now?”

She snuggled closer. “Only if we start with something I’ve always wanted to…”

She froze, her eyes growing distant for a few moments, and then she sighed defeatedly.

“Damn it Talk about awkward timing. We got a problem with someone who calls himself Decay. Transformed by radiation and some kind of really lethal chemical pollution into a freak. He’s dangerous as hell and he’s currently trying to tear his way into a nuclear reactor in France.”

Jimmy looked up as she quickly handed him her bowl while floating from the couch, her white silk robe falling softly to the floor. Naked now, she moved so fast she was a blur, digging through the pile of clothing behind the couch to find a red and blue leotard that had her cape already attached. She quickly pulled it on, and then a pair of high-heeled boots. Floating in the middle of the room, she was instantly SG again, her muscle tone so tightly on display.

“Gotta fly, Jimmy my boy,” she said in a voice that was a little deeper than Kara’s.

He pointed his chopsticks at her waist. “That outfit would look way cuter with a skirt. Makes your legs look amazing.”

She blurred again before reappearing waring the skirt she’d worn earlier today, her fingers buckling the yellow belt that secured it. “Almost forgot. It’s not strictly necessary with this leotard.”

“Except that those tiny skirts and your amazing legs are a fashion style all of their…”

Before he could finish his sentence, she was gone, sucking loose bits of clothing and himself slightly upward as she disappeared through the skylight. Everything fell back to the floor to leave Jimmy suddenly feeling more alone than he’d ever felt before.

Just when things were starting to get really interesting again.

Chapter 6

Kara twisted and turned through the skyscrapers of Metropolis for a few seconds before launching herself nearly vertically upward, hoping to throw anyone off who was trying to backtrack her flight path. She stayed under Mach 5 at first, not wanted to leave a visible light trail behind her in the growing dark, but once she was high enough above Metropolis she tensed every muscle in her body to instantly leave the atmosphere behind. Accelerating at hundreds of G’s in hard vacuum, she wanted to get to central France as quickly as she could. The situation sounded very serious.

She crossed the Atlantic in two minutes flat, crossing a time zone every half minute. She was crossing the coast of France as they first rays of morning began appeared at orbital altitude, the ground below still dark except for clusters of lights. Diving into the atmosphere again, she came in so fast that the corona of superheated air around her body lit the sky, briefly dazzling anyone who looked up, coming down as fast as an interplanetary meteor, her glow lighting the ground for a hundred miles in every direction. It wasn’t until she was down to the stratosphere that she slowed enough to see through the corona that surrounded her, her blue eyes searching for the experimental breeder reactor.

Watchtower had briefed her in flight about the design – it used plutonium and liquid sodium. A reactor that made more fuel than it used. Nobody but the French had the guts to try to build a breeder given the plutonium it produced was the perfect stuff for bombs. Something the Brits and the Americans were very unhappy about.

A circle of flashing blue lights surrounded the reactor, and a number of army tanks were inside that perimeter – or what used to be tanks. They were now rusted hulks that were disintegrating into dust. That was Decay’s doing. Anything he touched underwent fantastically accelerated aging. Those tanks were essentially a thousand years old now. She feared for their crews, given they would have decayed to rotten flesh in seconds if he’d touched them.

Last year, Kal and she had captured Decay inside a mesh of Kryptonian metal that Kal had drawn from the hull of the ship he’d arrived in as a baby. They’d suspended him inside that alien metal at a special prison complex, never letting him touch anything else. But obviously their unique containment had failed.

She was still slowing when she saw a woman with long red hair firing bolts of pure energy at Decay. That would be Jeanne d'Arc, a French superheroine who had supposedly been burned at the stake in the 1400’s, but had in fact only fallen into a deep sleep inside the fire. The pagans had covered the ashes of the fire in dirt and rocks to form a tomb, and the Catholics later made her a Saint for her sacrifice, never realizing she was an Eternal.

She was an even more beautiful woman when she awoke nearly 700 years later, at which time the church decided she was some kind of Demon and excommunicated her, not the least because she could only manifest her unique powers while unclothed.

She was hitting Decay with blast after blast, but he was still slogging his way toward her, looking like some kind of swamp creature. The stench of burning putrid flesh nauseated anyone who was unfortunate enough to get downwind of him.

Kara aimed herself at Decay, flying just above the Mach as she raced silently downward, knowing from the battle she and Kal had fought earlier that she could land blows and then escape before his decay power could hurt her. In that fight, after Kal had softened him up with his mighty blows, she’d ended the fight by flying supersonically into his mid-section to put him down hard. Thankfully he’d stayed down long enough for them to get him suspended in Kal’s web of special metal, after which they’d both spent the next hour retching uncontrollably from the rotted stench of touching him.

Whatever Decay was made from, or protected by, it was clear that Jeanne’s mighty blasts were slowing but not stopping him. Yet Kara knew that a single one of her blasts would have blown a truck into tiny bits. And several blasts would have melted a tank.

Realizing that she still had a few moments before Decay could close the distance to Jeanne, Kara slowed under the Mach so she could communicate through her earpiece. “I need Kal here with that mesh he made last time we fought Decay. Anybody got an ETA?”

“Standby,” the calm voice in her earpiece replied.

“Time we don’t have, guys. Jeanne d'Arc is trying to slow him down, but I’m going to have to engage pretty quickly to save her.”

“Do not engage. We don’t know the limits of his power now.”

“I can hit him hard and fast. Done it before. Not going to let her die.”

“It’s not safe until you get help, Kara. You have no backup. Kal is still off-planet.”

“Find Diana and have her bring it.”

“Working on that,” the voice said. “Try to find a way to keep him away from the reactor until then, but without contact. That’s the highest priority.”

“And if I don’t?”

“The containment vessel around the plutonium will decay away and release the sodium coolant. The plutonium will then melt and concentrate.”

“As in, a big boom?”

“Very big. The yield might even be weapon-grade, Kara. Even worse, Plutonium particles are deadly when breathed, and even a sub-nuclear explosion would spread them on the winds. Thousands, maybe even millions could die.”

“Ok. I’m going to lose Comm with you again. Got to hit this swamp bastard hard and fast.”

“Good luck…” The voice in her ear faded as she went supersonic again, a circle of mist surrounding her. Beneath her, people heard a very rapid triple sonic boom from the shockwaves trailing from her shoulders, her breasts and her hips.

Jeanne’s blasts had greatly weakened by the time Kara flew so close to her that her supersonic shock wave tossed Jeanne out of harm’s way. Kara hit the monster dead-center, her mighty blow driving Decay backwards for hundreds of yards, plowing up the earth to bury him beneath a grove of trees, her impact sending bits and pieces of rotted flesh flying in all directions. Kara flew up to circle overhead, gagging from the stench, only to see the huge trees wilting and then turning into dust as Decay rose from the ground to begin lumbering toward the reactor building, moving faster than seemed possible.

She hit him again, flying at nearly Mach 2 this time, her kinetic energy driving Decay further from the reactor, and unfortunately into a five-story building that was the Admin center for the reactor complex. She prayed it had been evacuated as the ferro-concrete aged at fantastic speed, the steel rebar turning to rust as the concrete cracked and pulverized before the building fell in on itself, pancaking to the ground to bury Decay. The pile of wreckage continued to age before her eyes until there was nothing left but dust. Moments later, Decay rose from the pile, his body glowing as his powers reached their apex.

He launched himself toward the last unit of brave French military who stood between him and the reactor. Kara flew to intercept him, knocking him away from the heavily armed men who had opened fire, tank rounds exploding to blast more bits and pieces of the creature away. She flew directly into that lethal firepower to deliver yet another blow, only to get hit in the middle of the back by a 120mm round from a tank. The exploding HEAT round blasted her forward to crash into a concrete barrier, shattering it with her face. Leaping upward, she saw with horror that Decay had gotten to the soldiers. Protuberances that looked vaguely like hands grabbed the men to instantly turn them into piles of rotted flesh that slumped to the ground as he walked through them, leaving rotting corpses and exposed skeletons behind until he placed his hand on the front of a tank.

Racing after him, Kara saw the tank rust and then fall apart before her eyes, turning into a pile of ancient wreckage in seconds. She cried out for the men in the tank, knowing they’d just suffered the same horrific fate as the soldiers he’d touched. Decay’s power was astounding. Far greater than when she and Kal had fought him before.

Giving little thought to herself, she crashed into the monster yet again, this time determined to carry him far away from the remaining soldiers and the reactor they were protecting. “I’m not going to let you keep killing!” she screamed. “I am going to end this!”

The monster grabbed her face in return, trying to smother her. “You are free to try!” Decay said in a voice that rattled like death’s last breath.

Kara was instantly frozen in place, her entire body buzzing like a thousand bees as his power shocked her. “MMMPHFFF” was all she managed to say as he smothered her, the buzzing turning into unspeakable pain. Then into a horrible agony that felt as if she was being pulled apart from inside. Nothing else had truly hurt her since arriving on Earth.

“R-Rao! Decay’s power… incredible!? H-hurting me…?!” she thought, starting to panic as pink mist rose from her face as she felt herself starting to melt.

And then, just as she was about to become undone, she was miraculously freed by a mighty blow. Kara landed in a crumpled heap against the outer wall of the reactor building, still in horrible pain as she turned to see that Diana had arrived and was trying to surround Decay with a net of glowing metal strands.

The monster swatted it away as a half dozen protuberances suddenly emerged to wrap around Diana. Her iconic red and gold costume and boots immediately began to smoke and turn black before they turned to dust, leaving her wearing just her tiara and the golden girdle about her waist. Diana just stood there, frozen in place as Decay’s rotted flesh enveloped her, making no attempt to save herself as he pulled her in until she disappeared completely.

Horrified, Kara tried to get to her feet, only to have her legs collapse weakly. Had Decay stolen her powers? Crawling toward him, barely able to get to her knees, she knew she had to do something to help Diana. If her own vaunted invulnerability had failed, then Diana stood no chance.

Decay started to glow brighter, his body expanding, pink vapors rising from where he’d wrapped himself around Diana, and a high-pitched screaming sound forcing Kara to cover her ears. Crawling as fast as she could now, determined to do something, anything, she was shocked when the monster suddenly exploded in a blast of pink light, sending bits of rotted flesh flying hundreds of feet in all directions, including into her face. Retching violently as she wiped the gore away, she looked up through vomit soaked hair to see Diana standing there alone, her eyes glowing like blue diamonds, looking unharmed and naked except for her tiara and girdle, her golden lasso hanging in one hand. Somehow she looked taller, more powerful, more goddess-like.

All around her, bits and pieces of what had been Decay were spread across a soccer field-sized area.

“Are you… are you Ok?” Kara gasped.

Diana slowly looked down at herself, moving and talking in slow motion. “Minus my costume, apparently yes. But that’s the end of Decay. Call it suicide.”

“I thought for sure… given his power, what he’d done to this entire army force, what he’d done to me, that you’d be gone for sure. He nearly got me. Would have without you. He can accelerate the aging and decay of anything, living or inanimate! So how did you…?”

“Didn’t you know I’m immortal, Kara? Daughter of Zeus. Unchanging until the breaking of the world. That idiot poured every ounce of his power into aging me, only to discover it made no difference to an immortal. In the end, his vain attempt to kill me destroyed him.”

Kara tried to grin while still retching from the stench, leaving her face twisted comically. “And here I thought I was the indestructible one. Obviously, immortality is an even greater power.”

“In this case, yes, but I’m still not going to spar with you again, Kara. You left behind some nasty bruises last time.”

Looking around what looked like a carrion field, Kara saw men emerging from their hiding places. Vehicles started to head their way. “Can you get us out of here, Diana? I can’t even walk. Definitely can’t fly. That monster sucked the stuffing out of me. And you’re not exactly dressed for company.”

Diana walked forward to wrap her strong arm around Kara, lifting her to her feet.

“You do know, Kara dear, that clothing is optional on Paradise Island. I care little.”

“Last I checked… this was France,” Kara said softly, finding it hard to talk. “Although… given what I just saw… that was definitely goddess stuff.”

Holding her tightly, Diana floated into the sky, heading toward a lake in the distance, the horrors of battle now behind the two women. “Try demigod. My mother was Amazon.”

“Close enough to save the day,” Kara said, trying to smile.

“By the way, Watchtower said Jimmy Olson was hanging out at your place. Didn’t think he was your type, Kara.”

“I don’t have a type. And it’s none of Watchtower’s business.”

Diana shrugged. “Then none of my business either. I understand.”

“Lets just say that Jimmy surprised me. I’ll tell you about it once I figure it out myself.”

Diana laughed. “That kind of relationship, huh?”

“Not even sure it’s that yet.” Kara retched again, leaning to the side to decorate the countryside below. “Just get me into that damn lake so I can wash off.”

They crashed into the water seconds later, sending a huge splash of water hundreds of feet into the air. The water along one side of the lake began to boil as they scrubbed each other clean.

---

Two very old friends sat on a well-worn bench on the shoreline, their eyes wide, their faces wrinkled. They’d watched the two flying women splash into their little lake, one of them nude. They’d seen the water boil, and then they’d seen the women erupt from the surface to flight straight up toward the stars.

The ripples in the water had mostly died away by the time they turned to look at each other, both amazed to not only have lived long enough to see those tiny dots crossing the sky, the two Sputniks and now the American Explorer I, but now superheroines.

With their own eyes!

Supergirl for sure, along with a much taller woman that one of them was certain was Wonder Woman, despite not wearing her usual garb.

“<That’s two bucket list items checked off,>” one of them said, his French that of a man born in the last century. Back when they worked the fields together with oxen to draw their plows.

“<What a wonderful time to be alive.>” his ancient friend replied. “<So what’ja think the Amazon would be like in bed?>”

“<Great if you’re Superman,>” the other laughed. “<Which we hardly are.>”

“<Makes me young just thinking about it. Remember that girl from Lyons, Nancy her name was? Back in 1891 or so. She was pretty super.>”

“<Never knew. You glommed onto her and didn’t let go. Married her. For fifty-two years.>”

“<Can’t remember what I had for breakfast, but I remember everything about her.>” his friend sighed.

His friend just nodded. “<At least we remember the good things.>”

Part Three epilogue…

Jimmy was shocked when Diana dropped naked through the skylight, hugging a drowsy Kara at her side. As soon as her bare feet hit the floor, she carried Kara to her bedroom where she fell face first into the bed – and was instantly deeply asleep.

Diana arranged Kara’s red cape to keep her decent, and then turned back to see Jimmy standing in the doorway.

“What happened? Is she going to be Ok?” he asked anxiously.

“She just needs some sleep. When you can, get her into the sunshine. I’ve informed Watchtower that she’s out of commission for at least a day.”

Jimmy barely heard her words as he found himself staring levelly at the Amazon’s boobs. She looked taller now – nearly a foot taller than him – standing there seemingly unconscious of her nudity. Like every other young man on Earth, he’d long fantasized what Wonder Woman might look like beneath her costume, and his imagination was both expansive and creative. But she exceeded even his wildest dreams. She was a completely flawless being. A goddess born.

He shook his head, realizing that Diana was just a little too much of everything. Too tall, too fierce and demanding, too powerful. Clearly not human.

Turning back, he saw Kara looking so helpless passed out on her bed, and his heart went out to her.

“She’s really going to be fine? I mean, this isn’t her usual…”

“Don’t worry, Jimmy. Just make sure she eats when she wakes up. A lot And keeps eating until she’s recovered. It won’t exactly go to her waist line.”

“I can’t even get out of her apartment. Other than maybe climbing on the roof. She’s got a super lock on the door.”

Diana turned to walk to the front door. “What in the universe is this?”

“A truck spring. She bends it to unlatch the door. It’s her guarantee that nobody can get in here even when she’s gone.”

Diana grabbed the leaf spring and started to bend it, her nude back and shoulders exploding into a maze of muscle that rivaled Kara’s, her biceps bulging with even greater definition, hands and wrists sinewy as she easily bent the wide bar of spring steel. She bent it further and further until the metal yielded, leaving it permanently bent.

Turning back to face him, Jimmy saw that it wasn’t just her muscles that had flexed so dramatically. Her nipples were huge and hard now.

“So, using superstrength does that to you too!” he blurted out without thinking.

“That… is none of your business, Jimmy Olson,” she said, an angry and slightly amused look on her face. Yet she still made no effort to cover herself.

“Say hello to Kal for me when you see him. Might want to let him know about Kara.”

Diana blushed slightly. “I didn’t say I was going to see him.”

“Not with words you didn’t. Just don’t let Lois know, Ok? She’d be hurt.”

Diana laughed. “Now I know what Kal likes about you. You are very perceptive. Seemingly sensing one’s thoughts.”

“It’s not so hard to see with you.”

She walked closer to give him a hug that emptied his lungs, her nipples boring into him like bullets. The sense of power and the aura of divinity surrounding her stunned him, his body racing upward in desire, passion filling every corner of him. Yet the strong hug from a naked Wonder Woman, standing so tall, so powerful, was nothing like being hugged by Kara. No rush of shared power. Just a one-sided sense of overwhelming power.

Releasing him, Diana stepped over to stand beneath the skylight. “But I have to admit, I’m still working on what the Girl of Steel sees in you,” she said with her characteristic frankness.

And with that, Diana leaped upward and disappeared through the skylight.

To be continued…