Claire Kent, Alias Super-Sister:
The Return of Superboy
(c) 2006
Note: This story is a sequel to CLAIRE KENT, ALIAS SUPER-SISTER: THE BEGINNING.
All characters herein are the property of DC Comics.
Prologue
Three billion miles out from the Sun, the light and heat that made it as far as Neptune and Pluto were pale and feeble things. Life as we know it could not exist on those icy worlds. Yet in the cold, dark space between our star's most distant children, life of a sort stirred.
To anyone capable of observing the gigantic craft it would have looked like an entirely mechanical construct, but it was not. Built by clouds of hyper-intelligent nanoclusters in bioforges floating within the photosphere of its home star, the ship was semi-sentient. Expelled out into the void to explore and to gather knowledge for the Great Intelligence that ruled its kind, the ship had used its warpbleed engines to fold itself from its own universe into ours, its receptors now grazing on the datastreams flowing through this new solar system it found itself in. It had a name, a very long and precise name that completely defined it, but no concept of individual identity. An infinitesimally small part of that name, if it could be expressed in a form we could comprehend, would be Qlwrnt57.67a, so that is what we shall call it.
The unimaginable vastness of space makes the odds of an accidental collision many trillions to one. Despite this, they still sometimes happen. One was about to happen to Qlwrnt57.67a.
Sweeping into the solar system from deep space on a long, parabolic arc, the blue and red rocket capsule carrying the survivor of a now dead world was much smaller than Qlwrnt57.67a. Its glancing impact caused neither craft the slightest damage. But the blow did surprise Qlwrnt57.67a, and that surprise caused the secretion of an enzyme, which in turn triggered the reflex activation of one the many exotic devices that studded its outer surface.
The ray that struck the small rocket capsule momentarily engulfed it in an impossibly bright ball of light. When the light faded there was no longer a solitary blue and red rocket racing towards the inner planets of our solar system but *two* of them, totally identical in every respect, and each carrying what appeared to be identical living cargo. Qlwrnt57.67a recorded this accidental duplication, watched the twin craft for a while, then turned its attention back to its mission. No longer of any interest to it, the twin craft were on the home stretch of their journey, vectoring in on the third planet from this system's sun, a world teeming with life and known to its inhabitants as... Earth.
Chapter 1: Supergirl
The frigid wastes of Antarctica with their sub-zero temperatures and howling winds were one of the world's most inhospitable environments, and the last place most people would choose to have fun. If you had super-powers that made you immune to the conditions, however, and if you wanted to be sure no one was watching you, there were few better places to be. Such was the case for the two flying figures busily erecting a gigantic structure out on the snowfields.
"This is great fun, Superwoman," laughed Supergirl, putting the midsection of the colossal snowman in place while, flying overhead, her cousin added the head. Then she noticed the expression clouding that beautiful face.
"Why aren't you smiling?" she asked, concern in her voice. "Is something wrong?"
"I was just recalling something unhappy about my childhood," said Superwoman. "Many years ago, when I lived in Smallville as Superboy, I could never play full-on with kids my own age for fear of giving away my identity. How I longed for a human playmate who was super, like myself."
"I know how you feel," said Supergirl. "I, too, daren't play with anyone my own age."
"It was worst when I first got turned into a girl and became Super-Sister. That was a really difficult time. I put a brave face on things for Ma and Pa, but I think I came closer to losing it then than I ever have in my life. I think I'd have given anything to have had another super-powered girl as a friend, someone like you, Kara," said Superman, using Supergirl's Kryptonian name.
"I can only imagine, Kal," replied Supergirl, gently laying a hand on her cousin's shoulder.
It was strange to think this beautiful, confident woman who was her hero and role-model had started life as a boy. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, Super-Sister had replaced her brother as a teenager and Superboy had then left for deep space, never to be seen again. It had been a real shock to Kara when Superwoman had revealed the true story of her past, but if anything it had only increased her admiration for her cousin. It was something that could have destroyed a weaker person, but Kal had learned to live with it and grown into the confident, vibrant woman she was today.
"Well, enough of this moping," said Superwoman, managing a smile. "It's time I was getting back to Metropolis, and you need to return to Midvale orphanage. We can't have anyone thinking Linda Lee has gone missing. Want to get together same time next week?"
"You have to ask?" said Kara. "I live for our times together. They're the highlight of my week."
"Good, because there's someone I think it's time you finally met," she said, mysteriously.
Superwoman gave her cousin a hug, smiled, then launched herself into the skies. Supergirl followed suit, falling into formation alongside her, speeding north back to the USA, and loving the feeling of the shockwave on her body as the two of them hit mach-1.
"See you next week," yelled Supergirl, as she peeled away from her cousin somewhere over West Virginia. But she was not heading back to Midvale. Instead, she flew out over the Atlantic and up towards the outer atmosphere.
"I'm not just going to feel sorry for Super-Sister and myself," she thought, "I'm going to do something about it. First, I'll speed faster than light....then Super-Sister here I come!"
Circling the globe beyond the atmosphere, the way she had been taught by Superwoman, her incredible super-speed enabled Supergirl to crash the time-barrier, to power her way through it by sheer brute force alone. Travelling in the same direction as a planet's rotation while in its gravity well took you forward in time; travelling in the opposite direction took you into the past. Seeing night and day flicker past her at a fantastic rate, Supergirl counted their number until she had reached the period she was aiming for. Rapidly decelerating brought her frame of reference back into sync with the rest of the world, causing her to reappear in normal time, fifteen years in the past. This should be a Saturday, which would give her time with her cousin she could not have on a school day. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she then sped off in the direction of Smallville, keeping high enough that no-one would see her from the ground.
In the few minutes it took her to reach Kansas and Smallville, Supergirl wondered how best to approach her teenage cousin. Should she just drop down in front of her and say "Hi, I'm your cousin Kara, from the future", or should she be more cautious, maybe get the lay of the land before announcing herself?
Arriving in the skies over the Kent home, she hovered in place while scanning the building with her super-vision. There were Jonathan and Martha Kent at the kitchen table, eating lunch with... Clark Kent?
"I must have overshot," she said to herself, "arrived back before Clark got turned into a girl, but I *can't* have."
Puzzled, she used her super-hearing to listen in on their conversation.
"So," said Martha Kent, "it looks like Claire won't be joining us for lunch again today."
"She's probably with that boyfriend of hers," smirked Clark.
"Johnny Brandon is bad news," said Jonathan Kent, grimly, "and he's too old for her."
"Yes," said Martha Kent, "but she doesn't listen to us anymore. I tried having it out with her but she just lost her temper with me and stormed off. And her language! I've never been spoken to like that before in my life!"
"What are we going to do about her?" sighed Jonathan Kent. "Thank the good Lord you've never given us any trouble, son."
"I do my best, Dad."
There was that smirk again. It was not an expression she recalled ever seeing on her cousin's face, and seemed out of character to Kara. But... Claire and Clark together at the same time? How was that even possible? Had she perhaps inadvertently stumbled into a parallel universe where they were separate people, she wondered? But, no; Superwoman had warned about that and shown her how to avoid it. As impossible as it seemed, this was the past of her own timeline. So what was going on?
Knowing the situation required serious investigation, Kara turned and headed off. The first thing she was going to need would be some regular clothes....
So it was that sometime later, clad in newly purchased jeans, denim jacket, T-shirt and sneakers (she had entered the store room of the department store at super-speed, selected a few outfits, and left behind one of several gold doubloons retrieved from a sunken Spanish galleon by way of payment), she approached the coffee shop where Lana Lang, taking a break from her own shopping, was enjoying a latte.
"Hi," she said, "you're Lana Lang, right?"
"Do I know you?" said Lana, in a puzzled but not unfriendly tone.
"No, I only just got into town. Name's Linda... Olsen. I'm a friend of Claire Kent's from back east. She told me to look her up if I was ever out this way, and I recognized you from the photo she included with her last letter."
It was fascinating to meet Lana, her adult cousin's best friend, as a young teenager, but the pretty redhead frowned at Claire's name.
"Did I say something wrong?" asked Kara.
"No, no, it's just... Claire and I had become really close since she came to Smallville last month, but this past week...."
Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head.
"What happened?"
"It's like she's a different person," sighed Lana. "She doesn't bother going to school any more, shuns her classmates, and spends most of her time hanging out with that no-good boyfriend of hers, Johnny Brandon."
"Any idea where I might find them this time of day?"
"Probably at Murphy's Garage, where Johnny works," said Lana. "Are you planning on trying to talk some sense into her, Linda?"
"I just might at that," said Supergirl, thoughtfully.
"Good, because I'd really like my friend back."
"One last thing before I go," said Kara. "I hear you have a super-powered girl in town."
"Oh yes, Super-Sister," said Lana, her face brightening. "No-one's seen her in a while. We figure she's probably off on a mission, or maybe out in space, visiting her brother, Superboy."
On the walk to Murphy's Garage, Kara pondered Lana's words. When Superboy became Super-Sister, she let people believe Superboy was her brother and had relocated to another planet, just as Claire was supposed to be staying with the Kents while Clark was with her parents back east. Since Lana still believed Superboy was off in space, this meant Clark had not been operating as Superboy. If in fact he was capable of doing so, of course. If that wasn't the real Clark lunching with the Kents he might not even possess super-powers. On the other hand, since Super-Sister had not been seen since Claire had gone off the rails, perhaps she no longer had any powers of her own either. It was something Kara knew she needed to test.
Murphy's Garage was a seedy structure on the edge of town. Its cinder-block walls and rusting corrugated steel roof had both seen better days. Standing to one side of it, on top of a very spindly-looking steelwork tower, was an old lead water tank, while the twin gas pumps out front were ancient. Snoring away on a chair near the pumps was a balding, overweight, and middle-aged man in greasy overalls.
"Mr Murphy, I presume," muttered Kara.
Behind the garage, next to a refrigerator noisily humming away, were two cars. One of these had its hood up and was being worked on by a guy who looked to be around 17 years old and had to be Johnny Brandon, while learning against the other car, noisily chewing gum, swigging from a bottle of beer, and watching him adoringly, was a slender girl of around 14 or 15. It was Claire Kent. Kara gasped at the sight of her cousin. Claire was wearing thick dark lipstick, eyeshadow, mascara and nail polish; her hair was bleached blonde, heavily lacquered, and teased into a wild, spiky shape; she was clad in a tube top, tiny skirt, fishnets, three-inch spike-heels, and a leather jacket, all in black; and her wrists were festooned with bracelets, large gold hoop earrings hanging from her ears, and garish rings on every finger though, mercifully, there was no jewellery on her bare midriff. The whole effect was cheap and tacky, something her cousin had never been.
Johnny Brandon finished what he was doing, lowered the hood of the car, and wiped the grease from his hands with a rag. Smiling, Claire took the gum from her mouth, stuck it to the wall for later retrieval, and sashayed over to him. Throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed him long and hard, pressing her nubile young body against his, and wriggling with pleasure.
"*Ahem*!" said Kara.
"Who the hell are you?" snarled Claire, disengaging from Johnny and glaring at this unwelcome new arrival. "Are you another one of Johnny's loser ex-girlfriends? Because if you are, I've seen them off and I'll you see off you, too."
"Hey, I ain't never seen blondie before, babe," said Johnny, holding his hands up and grinning. "She is kinda cute, though."
"Not after I teach her not to stick her nose in where it doesn't belong, she won't be," said Claire, jealously.
"Hey, chick fight!" said Johnny happily, taking a beer from the fridge and flipping the cap off. "Go get her, babe!"
"Are you always this belligerent?" asked Kara, as she and the other girl circled each other.
"You'll see," said Claire, suddenly throwing a punch.
Kara easily blocked this with the palm of her own hand. It was a harder punch than might be expected from a teenage girl like Claire, but it was not Kryptonian-level.
"Whooeee!" whooped Johnny. "Ain't seen another chick who could block my girl like that.
Furious, Claire rained down more blows, and as Kara blocked each one so they doubled in intensity and power. Now *this* was evidence she still had her super-strength, but what about her other powers?
In a quick burst of super-speed, Kara got behind Claire, grabbed her tightly, and launched herself into the sky. Claire stopped struggling, looking fearful as Kara poured on the speed, eventually landing them at a small area of woodland, fifty miles away from Smallville.
"How did you do that?" said Claire, pulling away from Kara and glaring at her. "Are you Super-Sister in disguise?"
"No, I'm not Super-Sister," said Kara, " but you are."
"What? Are you drunk, or on something?"
"The more I blocked your blows the more you ratcheted up the force behind them until you were throwing punches at me stronger than any ordinary person is capable of. Then there was the way you neither blacked out nor froze when I flew us here, despite the speed and altitude and your lack of protective clothing. No, you're Super-Sister alright, but someone or something has made you forget it."
"You're nuts!" said Claire.
Before she could react, Kara threw a punch that caught Claire square on the jaw and sent her flying backwards, slamming into a tree and toppling it. Getting to her feet, Claire looked down at the tree in amazement.
"That hurt!" she said.
"Actually, it didn't. You just think it did because you expect it to. You survived hitting a tree with enough force to bring it down. No ordinary human being could do that."
"If you're not Super-Sister, then who the heck *are* you?"
"I'm your cousin, Kara. Like you, I'm a Kryptonian. You don't remember this, but you were sent to this planet as a baby by your parents, Jor-El and Lara, when our homeworld Krypton was destroyed in an explosion. You probably thought you were the only one to escape alive, but you weren't. By sheer luck, a large chunk of the planet was hurled away intact, one that held the domed Argo City. The dome preserved the atmosphere within it, and there were machines to recycle the air and synthesise enough food to meet the needs of the survivors. Unfortunately for them, the nuclear reactions that destroyed Krypton continued in the rock beneath their feet and the ground slowly transformed into kryptonite, the substance whose radiation is lethal to Kryptonians. Fortunately my father, the scientist Zor-El, had enough lead sheeting in his lab to cover the ground and so block the harmful rays. Life then settled down for the Kryptonian refugees, and some years later Zor-El took a wife. I'm their daughter.
A couple of years ago, a meteor shower got through the energy dome and shredded the lead sheeting protecting us from the kryptonite beneath our feet, dooming Argo City. Determined his daughter at least should survive, and knowing that we had little more than a month left to live, my father raced against time to construct a rocket to carry me to safety. Meanwhile, my mother searched the heavens for a world where I could live. And she found it."
"Earth," said Claire, entranced by the story.
"Yes, Earth," confirmed Kara. "My mother found this world through the radio and TV traffic it's continually beaming out into space. Our technology allowed us to swiftly translate and learn Earth's languages. We were all particularly intrigued by news reports about Earth's most famous champion, Superwoman. Imagine our surprise when we learned she was from Krypton and that the effect of this world's sun on Kryptonian physiology was to grant us powers beyond those of mortal men. My mother made me a uniform pattered after Superwoman's, one whose Kryptonian materials would become indestructible under Earth's sun, and I was put into my father's rocket and sent here. There was only enough material to build one rocket, so I was the only one to escape. My parents, my friends, everyone I'd ever known was left behind to die."
Claire touched her shoulder sympathetically, and only then did Kara realize she had stopped telling her story and was staring into space, tears welling. Damn, but it still hurt.
"Anyway," she said, shaking herself and clearing her throat, "when my rocket landed on Earth it was found by Superwoman, who'd seen it enter the atmosphere. Being bathed in the rays of Earth's sun as my rocket vectored in on this world had given me super-powers, and she was stunned to see a girl flying out of the rocket, one wearing a version of her own uniform. We compared notes, and that's when we discovered our fathers were brothers."
"So...who is this Superwoman?" asked Claire, puzzled. "I've never heard of her."
"She's Super-Sister grown up," said Kara. "She's you fifteen years from now. I'm from the future and I travelled back in time a decade and a half to meet you."
Kara decided not to tell Claire she had once been a boy just yet. Learning she had super-powers and had been born on another planet was more than enough for her to handle right now.
"So I'm really her? I'm really Super-Sister?"
"Yes, you really are."
"But she's such a goody two-shoes!"
Kara laughed at the expression of distaste on her cousin's face. Then she grew serious.
"That's not the real you speaking," she said. "Whoever messed with your mind didn't just make you forget who you really are."
"So...this isn't the real me?"
"No, it's not. If you let me, though, I think I can restore your memories and bring back the real you."
Claire looked at Kara a long time, weighing up what she had said, then her shoulders sagged and she let out a long sigh.
"I like being me," she said, "but if this isn't real, if someone did this to me then, yeah, let's do it."
"OK," said Kara. "I'm assuming what was done to you is a form of hypnosis. I can't hypnotize you against your will, but if you open yourself to me, if you don't resist, there's a good chance I can undo this."
Claire nodded, staring into the other girl's eyes unflinchingly as Kara stared back, her voice soothing, lulling Claire into a receptive state. This was a great act of faith on Claire's part. They had only just met, and not under the best of circumstances, yet despite her obvious doubts she was trusting Kara to put things right. It was a trust Kara prayed would be justified. Soon, as hoped, Claire was under hypnosis.
"OK, Claire," said Kara, "I'm going to count to three and snap my fingers. When I do, all your memories will come flooding back. You'll remember who you really are, who did this to you, and you will be yourself again. One, two, three...."
Kara snapped her fingers, and Claire's whole expression changed.
"I remember!" she said, voice excited but eyes grim. "I remember everything that happened, and who was responsible...."
Chapter 2: Super-Sister
As well as the entrance to the tunnel that enabled Super-Sister to come and go from the Kent home without being seen, their basement held another secret. Concealed behind hidden doors was the room that served as her workshop, laboratory, and trophy room. It was here that she kept samples of the various types of kryptonite (all carefully contained in lead boxes so as to block the harmful rays they gave off) and devices such as her Phantom Zone projector, and here that she had constructed her robots. Standing at her workbench, clad in her Super-Sister costume, she was currently wrestling with the problem of what to do with an unexpected gift.
"So, have you come to a decision yet?" asked Ma Kent, entering the room.
"No, not yet," said Claire, holding the small glass vial up to the light. Even if its faint green glow had not been an obvious kryptonite tell-tale, the tingling in her fingers would have confirmed the presence of the poison.
"I don't think it's a decision I can make without a lot more thought."
"I'm sure your friends meant well," said Ma Kent, regarding the vial with disapproval, "but I think it's cruel."
"Yes, they did mean well," said Claire, sliding the vial back into the lead tube it had come in and screwing the cap on, "and one day, when the time is right, I *will* use it."
"If you say so," sighed Ma Kent. "I see you're still making that test flight.
"Yes," said Claire, glancing down at the lines of color on the back of her hand that had caught her mother's attention. "If things go to plan, these should all evaporate when I fly fast enough. I've got to admit, when I set up this workshop and laboratory, I never imagined there would come a day when I used it to work on formulations for make-up."
"Yes, but get this right and it gives you the sorts of options a woman will need."
"Hey, you've already sold me on the idea," laughed her daughter, "there's no need to keep on trying to sell it, Mom."
Exiting through the basement tunnel and emerging in a secluded area several miles outside Smallville, Claire poured on the juice and flew west towards Colorado and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It was still not long after dawn, a part of the day she had always loved. She was heading for a particular mountain lake, one she had returned to several times since being turned into a girl. Capable of speeds and acceleration beyond those of the fastest jet-fighter, she covered the distance in minutes, gently alighting beside the lake. Glancing at the back of her hand, she was pleased to see that all but one of the lines of make-up there had evaporated during her flight, just as she had hoped they would.
Kneeling down beside the lake, Claire gazed into the still, cold waters and studied her reflection wistfully. That pretty face with its full lips and beautiful blue eyes; that long, lustrous hair; that slim young body with its pert little breasts and shapely bottom were all things that most girls would love to possess. But then Claire was hardly 'most girls'. She was trying her best to adapt to this, to fit in and become the girl everyone saw when they looked at her, but inside that female form there still lived the mind of a boy, of Clark Kent, formerly Superboy, and he was finding this very hard.
This lake had been the place where Claire had first seen her altered body reflected, where she had first had to face up to the reality of her new gender. Sighing, she brushed her hand lightly over the surface of the water, dispersing her reflection. If only it was as easy to wipe away what had been done to her, But, no. This is who she was now and who she knew she would be for the rest of her life. That female face was the one she would always see reflecting back at her.
As the waters settled so her reflection came back into focus... as did that of the person standing behind her, of Superboy.
Startled, Claire spun around and started to rise, but before she could he had grabbed her hair and hurled her backwards with tremendous force. Claire slammed into a nearby mountain, causing a small avalanche that momentarily buried her. Throwing the rocks aside, she barely had time to catch her breath before he was on her, pinning her down. She tried to struggle free, but the glowing green rock he held in his hand sapped all her strength.
"Hi," he grinned, and for the first time Claire noticed the small, black eyemask he was wearing.
"Who...," gasped Claire, "...how?"
"How come I look just like you and have all your powers but without the weakness to kryptonite?" he said. "Truthfully, I have no idea. My folks, 'Wolf' and Bonnie Derek, found me as a baby, in a rocket that crashed near their house. Pa Derek calls me Super-Bully."
"What...what do you want?" croaked Claire.
"Well, Clarkie-girl, there's the thing," he laughed. "Pa Derek wants me to keep my existence secret from the world until he's ready to reveal it, until we can pull off the biggest score of all time. I'm not happy about that, but he is my Pa. Things are different for you. I've been secretly observing you and hating you for years. About the only thing I like about you is your costume, so I copied it using material from the blankets in the rocket that carried me to Earth. I happened to be spying on you a few weeks back when you got yourself turned into a girl. I don't think I've ever laughed so much. I followed you home - which was the first time I'd ever realized Clark Kent and Superboy were the same person, by the way - and so got to hear those dumb explanations you came up with for where Clark and Superboy had gone. Of course, the nice thing about those explanations is they allow for Clark and Superboy to return."
"Oh no," said Claire, realization dawning, "you can't."
"Oh yes," he said, returning the green kryptonite to the pouch in his cape and retrieving a large, strange red petal, "I can. On the planet Albo, in the Xurolu galaxy, there's a certain mountain on which grow giant red flowers that give off a fragrance with unique properties. I'm immune to the effects, of course, but it can make even Kryptonians susceptible to suggestion, can make it easy for someone else to impose their will on you and have you do things you wouldn't usually dream of doing."
With that, he crushed the petal directly under Claire's nose and, try as she might, in her weakened state she was unable to hold her breath long enough not to breathe in the fragrance.
"Relax now, Clarkie," he said, his voice soothing and hypnotic, working its way into her mind and impossible to resist. "You're a pretty girl and I think it's time you lost all your inhibitions and fully embraced your femininity. Now listen carefully, because I'm going to describe exactly what sort of girl you're going to be...."
Claire felt herself falling, falling... until, with a start, she lurched forward and sat bolt upright in bed. She looked around her in some confusion, shaking her head. She had the feeling she had been dreaming, that there was something she ought to remember, but whatever it was the memory escaped her. Oh well, if she couldn't remember then it probably wasn't that important anyway. Getting out of bed, she examined her naked body in the full-length mirror, adopting various poses of the sort she had seen in cheesecake shots, and pouting seductively at her reflection.
"You're one hot chick, Claire baby!" she chuckled to herself.
Wandering over to her closet, she examined the clothes hanging there and sighed in disappointment. They were all so staid, so... safe. None of them were sexy enough. On the floor, near her dressing table, were a number of shopping bags. Had she been shopping, Claire wondered? Was that what she couldn't remember? She emptied the bags on her bed, laughing in delight as the contents spilled out. She cast her eyes approvingly over the tiny skirts, the tube tops, spike heeled shoes, fishnets, studded leather choker, and that fine black leather jacket. Now *this* was more like it! There was a bunch of dark make-up in there, too, hair dye and gel, and lots of bangles and earrings. Yes, this was definitely more like it.
Throwing on her bathrobe, Claire grabbed her purse and opened her bedroom window. Sticking her head out of it, she lit a cigarette, careful to blow the smoke so that none found its way back into her room. Her Aunt Martha and Uncle Jonathan would not approve if they found her smoking, and the last thing she needed to hear was another moralistic lecture. When she had finished the cigarette, she ground it out carefully on the window sill then tossed the butt away. Her Aunt and Uncle would have been up doing chores since dawn - a crazy time for anyone to get up in Claire's view - which meant she would have the bathroom all to herself, and she wanted to take a long, luxurious bath before getting to work with that hair dye.
An hour or so later, sitting at her dressing table, Claire admired the finished effect. The thick dark lipstick, eye-shadow, and thick mascara definitely worked with spiky blonde hair, and these clothes were great. Her Aunt and Uncle would plotz when they saw her, which was half the fun of dressing like this. She moved to put on her glasses, then stopped. Why did she wear these things, anyway? She had perfect eyesight, and the lenses were plain glass. It made no sense, so she tossed them aside.
Exiting her room, she bumped into someone making his way to the bathroom. It was her boring cousin.
"'Morning, Clark," she said, unenthusiastically.
"Good morning, Claire," he grinned. "My, that's an...ah.. eye-catching look."
"Just what I need," she grumbled, pushing past him, "fashion commentary from my geeky cuz."
Clark had returned from back east only last night, she remembered, where he had been visiting with her parents these past few weeks. It never occurred to her to wonder why she did not recall just where back east it was she allegedly hailed from, or why she had no memory of the entirely fictional parents who supposedly lived there.
"Claire!!" said Ma Kent as soon as Claire arrived at the breakfast table. "What have you done to yourself?"
"I just felt like a change," she shrugged, sitting down at the table. "I was totally bored with my old look."
Her Uncle Jonathan was also sitting at the table, reading his newspaper. Pointedly, he did not look up.
"Well, you can't go to school looking like that."
"Why not, Aunt Martha?" said Claire. "There are other girls at school who dress like this."
"Yes, but none of them are good girls," said Martha Kent, firmly, frowning her disapproval.
"Well maybe I'm fed up with being a good girl, too."
"Jonathan, talk some sense into her!" said Ma Kent.
"Well, Martha," he said, uncomfortably, "it's not like it was when we were her age. Young girls these days wear all manner of things we'd have considered scandalous. And we're not her parents. It has to be Claire's choice how she dresses."
"Thank you, Uncle Jonathan," grinned Claire.
Martha Kent gave her husband the sort of look that promised they would be having a serious discussion about this later, but she said no more on the matter. Clark joined them soon after, and the four ate breakfast in relative silence. Afterwards, Clark and Claire set off for school, being joined on the way by their classmate and neighbour, Lana Lang.
"Clark!" said Lana in delight, throwing her arms around him and giving him a hug. "I didn't know you were back!"
"I got in last night," he grinned.
Then Lana caught sight of Claire.
"Claire!" she gasped. "What have you done to yourself?"
"I felt like a change," she said. "You should try it, Lana. Your clothes are just as dull and boring as the ones I got fed up with."
"Wh...what?" said Lana, stung by her comment. "That wasn't a very nice thing to say."
"Not really, no," chuckled Claire. "True, though. Look, I'm sure there's no way I can avoid seeing you two later anyway, but I'm skipping school. I've got better things to do with my life than listening to teachers droning on about stuff I have no interest in."
With that, she turned and left them, leaving Lana shocked and hurt.
"What's happened to her?" she asked Clark.
"It's probably just a phase she's going through," he said.
Watching the departure of her friend, Lana did not see Clark's smirk, or the look of triumph in his eyes.
Claire headed for the Good Chow Diner, a cheap eaterie where passing truckers, bikers, and the poorer blue-collar residents of Smallville usually breakfasted. Once inside, she positioned herself at the pinball machine in the corner, which gave her a good view of the door. After fifteen minutes or so of playing on a single quarter - she was impressed by her reflexes - she saw the person she was waiting for, Johnny Brandon, swagger up to the door. A high school dropout, Johnny had several convictions for petty theft, and the tightest little butt Claire had ever seen. He had his arm around the waist of Janice Coolidge, a brunette Claire recognized from school. Janice was in the year ahead of Claire's - on the rare occasions she actually showed up at school, that is. Claire moved quickly, getting to the door before them, then stepping through and blocking their way.
"Sorry," she said, putting her hand on Janice's chest, "no dogs allowed inside anymore."
"What?" said Janice, knocking aside her hand. "Who do you think you are?"
"I'm Johnny's new girlfriend," she said. With that she gave Janice a shove that knocked her off her feet.
"Are you just going to stand there, Johnny?" said Janice,glaring at him.
"Hey, two hot chicks fighting over me," said Johnny, leaning against wall of the diner and lighting a cigarette. "That's every guy's dream."
With a snarl, Janice scrambled to her feet and launched herself at Claire. Despite her extra height and reach she could not seem to land a blow on the other girl, but Claire had no trouble hitting Janice and kept knocking her to the ground.
"Who *are* you?" she cried, tears of anger and frustration in her eyes.
Smiling, Claire sidled up to Johnny and he slid an arm around her bare midriff.
"She already told you who she is," he grinned. "She's my new girlfriend."
As Janice slunk away, sobbing, Claire turned to face Johnny and pressed her body against his.
"Mmmm, nice muscles!" she purred. Taking the cigarette from his fingers, she took a long drag, then dropped it to floor and crushed it under the pointed toe of her spike heeled shoe. Before Johnny could say a word, she ground her body even harder against his and kissed him long and deep. He was a hunk and had that sexy bad boy thing, too... everything she wanted in a boyfriend!
**********
"Wow," said Kara, as Claire finished her tale. "That's all so unlike you. Did you and Johnny....?"
"No!" said Claire quickly, "I mean, I wanted to, and Johnny *really* wanted to, but there was always something that held me back, that stopped me from taking that final step. It drove Johnny wild. He thought I was being a tease, and I suppose I was but... I can't believe I acted like that with any boy, that I felt like that about Johnny! I mean, since becoming a girl I've wondered what it might be like to kiss a boy, but I'm nowhere near ready to try it yet, if I ever am!"
"Super-Bully took that choice away from you," said Kara, grimly. "He played with your mind, made you act in ways you never normally would. That's one of the worst ways one person can violate another."
"Omigod!" said Claire, her hands going to her mouth. "I've just remembered some of the things I've said to Ma and Pa over the past few days, and to Lana. How are they ever going to forgive me?"
"They will because they love you," said Kara, resting a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "What concerns me is your parents saw nothing wrong in having both Clark and Claire living under their roof at the same time."
"He must have hypnotized them, too."
"Looks like it," said Kara. "So how are we going to take him down and put things right?"
"I think I might have a few ideas on that score," said Claire, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. She explained her plan to Kara. When she had finished, Kara nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes, I think that'll work," she said.
"Good," said Claire, "because it's fifteen minutes since you grabbed me from outside Murphy's Garage and I need to get back there. I'm sure Super-Bully's been watching me with his telescopic vision, and enjoying seeing me degrade myself. Revelling in what he did to me is probably what's kept him from creating mischief as Superboy over the past week. He's almost certainly not watching me as closely now as at the start of the week, but he's bound to check in on me soon and we daren't let him find out about you before we're ready if my plan's going to work, or take a chance that he's watching me when I do my part. Are you ready to create the diversion I need?"
"Yes," said Kara. "I just need a half hour or so to get the materials I need."
"Good. Then I'll return to Johnny and make like nothing's wrong."
With that, they flew off, heading to their assigned tasks, both knowing this had to work first time out if they were to stand any chance against an evil version of Superboy who was stronger than either of them.
Smallville's old movie house, the Smallville Saturn Theatre, had been a thriving picture palace in the 1920s and 1930s, but its time had long since passed and now it was boarded-up and scheduled for demolition. However, that demolition came much earlier than expected when a flying girl dressed in a strange costume of purple and black appeared and, before the eyes of astonished onlookers, started demolishing it, punching great holes in the structure with her gloved fists. One final blow brought the whole thing crashing down then, standing atop the rubble the stranger shouted:
"Bring Superboy to me! I challenge him to face the might of Satan Girl!"
Sitting in the coffee shop, where he had joined Lana after her shopping, the imposter Clark Kent heard this challenge with his super-hearing.
"Excuse me, Lana," he said, getting to his feet, "I need to step out for a few minutes to make a phone call."
Once outside, he found a secluded spot to change, then Superboy took to the skies over Smallville once more. He flew straight to the site where the Saturn Theatre had stood, alighting a few yards away from the girl who had destroyed it and quickly taking in the details of her costume. It was black and skintight and covered her entire body. Only the eyeholes and the cutout around her nose, mouth, and chin revealed any skin at all. She also wore a cape, boots, and a belt over this, all in purple.
"It's you, isn't it?" he said. "Somehow, you've shaken off the effects of the Albo plant. But what's with the costume and that mask?"
Puzzled, he turned his X-ray vision on the mask.
"Lined with lead foil," he said, "and when I looked in on you only a few minutes ago you were with that troglodyte boyfriend of yours, and...."
Suddenly suspicious, he turned his telescopic vision in the direction of Murphy's Garage. Claire was nowhere to be seen. Of course she wasn't. He was being paranoid; there couldn't be two girls in town with her powers, after all.
"If you want to know why, you're going to have to catch me," said Satan Girl, and with that she took to the air, shooting off at super-speed. A moment later, and the imposter Superboy was speeding after her.
Back at Murphy's Garage, where she had been listening to this exchange with her own super-hearing, Claire emerged from her hiding place behind the water tank and flew off at high-speed for the Kent home, thankful that Super-Bully could no more see through lead than she or Supergirl. She had a few minutes at most to do what she had to do, so every second counted.
As he had no reason to suspect its existence, and since it had not come up in conversation with Ma and Pa, the imposter did not know about Claire's workshop/laboratory in the secret room off the basement of the Kent home. Once inside, Claire retrieved the device she was looking for, speedily cobbled together another gadget to work in tandem with it, found her costume hidden away in Clark's room, switched her clothes, and flew out again - all in under a minute. She poured on the speed, knowing that everything depended on her getting to their agreed rendezvous point ahead of Satan Girl.
For Super-Bully, puzzlement at the whole Satan Girl charade and being led on this merry chase had turned to anger and, as he steadily gained on his quarry his thoughts turned ugly. If Clarkie-girl thought what he had done to her the first time was degrading, just wait 'til she got a taste of what he intended for her when he got her back under the influence of the Albo plant. They were heading back towards Smallville when Satan Girl suddenly dived into a culvert under the road.
It was Super-Sister who emerged on the other side.
Landing in a field a mile or so further on, she turned and stood, hands on hips to face him. He landed ten feet in front of her, glaring at his nemesis.
"What was that whole Satan Girl bit and the quick-change in the culvert about, Clarkie? You obviously don't want the townsfolk to see Superboy and Super-Sister together and... heck. You know what? I don't *care* why. You've got some lumps coming, then slutty Claire's coming back."
He took a step towards her, then stopped as Claire reached behind her and pulled out a small lead tube that had been tucked inside her belt.
"What is that?" said Super-Bully, uncertainly.
"A present from some friends of mine in the 30th century," said Claire. "When humanity moved out into space, they encountered all manner of strange new viruses and diseases. One of these is something they call Grandin Gender Reversal Disease. As the name suggests, it switches the gender of anyone exposed to it for the duration of the infection. Ordinarily, I'd be as immune to its effects as I am to every other disease, but a very clever friend of mine named Brainiac 5 has managed to incorporate a trace amount of green kryptonite into the genome of the sample of the bacteria in this tube, enough to make me as vulnerable to the gender switch as everyone else. If I swallow it, I'll be Superboy again. For the next 24 hours, anyway. And it's very fast-acting."
She smiled, then tossed the tube aside.
"Why?" said Super-Bully, suspiciously. "What are you playing at?"
"You're bigger than me, and stronger," said Claire. "And, as you're so delighted to keep rubbing in, I'm a girl now. Yet you needed green kryptonite to overpower me last time. That tells me I don't need to be a boy again to defeat you. Your father knew what he was doing when he called you Super-Bully. Bullies pick on those who are weaker than them because they're cowards. Well, I may be weaker than you, and a girl now, but I'm still more of a man than you'll ever be."
Stung by her words, he lunged for Claire, but she had already moved aside, slamming her elbow into the back of his neck as he flew past her. This enraged Super-Bully even more and what followed, at speeds faster than most human eyes could follow, was a furious flurry of fists and feet amid a whirling blur of red and blue. Yet when the dust settled, it was Super-Bully who lay defeated on the ground and Claire who stood over him, one foot on his chest.
"H...how?" he said.
"You may be stronger than me but I have more experience in combatting actual menaces, and I don't let myself get mad and careless like you did," said Claire. "You rely on brute force but it's skill that wins most fights, and I'm far more skilled at this than you are. You took me by surprise before, but you didn't have that advantage this time."
"You think you're really something, don't you?" he sneered. "But I've taken over your old life, and I'm not giving it up. And there's not a thing you can do to stop me."
With that, he lurched upwards, throwing Claire off him, and flew off at high speed towards Smallville. This was it; the final act that Claire had expected. She only hoped Kara had been watching closely and was prepared for what came next.
"That took longer than I expected," said Clark Kent to Lana Lang as he rejoined her in the coffee shop, "are you ready to leave?"
"Sure," said the pretty young teen, gathering up her shopping, "lets's go."
When they stepped out into the street, a familiar blue and red figure dropped from the sky and landed in the road a few yards in front of them.
"Super-Sister!" said Lana, genuinely delighted. "We've missed you!"
Claire swiftly sized up the situation, noting the way the imposter was gripping Lana's arm and seeing the warning in his eyes. He might be determined to remain Clark Kent, but he clearly had no qualms about hurting Lana if he needed to.
"Yes, hello Super-Sister," he said, voice carefully neutral, "what brings you here?"
"I'm pursuing a super-powered criminal who calls herself Satan Girl," said Claire. "She just demolished the Saturn Theatre and issued a challenge to my brother. Have either of you seen her?"
The ersatz Clark Kent's top lip curled into a sneer. He was about to make a dismissive comment, when a new factor entered the situation.
"Hey, girl!" came a voice from above them. "If your brother's too chicken to face me then you'll have to take his place."
Hovering in the sky overhead was Satan Girl. She was holding a strange-looking gun. The fake Clark stared at her in amazement, momentarily nonplussed, and in that moment Claire pounced, using the distraction to tear Lana from his grasp and leap away from him. In that same instant, Satan Girl fired her gun at him, engulfing him in purple flame.
And when the flame faded, all that was left of him was a small pile of ash, his glasses, and the charred remains of his clothes.
"Clark!" screamed Lana, breaking free of Super-Sister and falling to her knees amid the remains. "She killed Clark!"
Chapter 3: Supergirl
Since Linda Olsen was neither family nor a close friend of the deceased, Kara had not been in the graveside front row at the funeral of Clark Kent. Now, looking at those who had - Claire, his parents, Lana, and Superboy - as they filed out of the cemetery, she was glad. This might be an act for Superboy and the Kents, but Lana did not know her real friend had not been killed and so was genuinely distressed. It was at times like these Kara had the most doubts about the cost of maintaining a secret identity.
The press had maintained a respectful distance out of consideration for family grief, but they were massed outside the cemetery gate for what everyone knew would be a big news story: Superboy was saying farewell to his adopted planet and leaving it forever.
Watching as Superboy climbed the steps of the small podium that had been set up, then looked out at the expectant faces of the crowd from behind a small forest of microphones, Kara's heart went out to him. Only she and the Kents knew what this meant to her cousin and what he must be going through.
"Ladies and Gentleman," he began, "I'll keep this brief because today is not about me but about my friend, Clark Kent. I'm here representing both my sister and myself while she's out in space pursuing his killer. I'm grateful for the chance to say a proper goodbye to this world, though saddened by the circumstances that brought me back here. I love the world of yours, this wonderful Earth that provided a home and a haven to an orphan refugee from a dead planet when he needed it most. I grew up here, and I will always be grateful for that. For reasons I cannot go into, this will be the last time you'll ever see me. When I depart this time, I will never be able to return. I leave you in the capable hands of my twin sibling, Super-Sister, and I hope you will take her to your hearts as you did me. And now, I must go. Thank you all."
With that, and before the assembled press had time to ask any questions, Superboy launched himself into the air, a blue-and-red streak that shot straight up from the podium, cameras desperately tracking his path until he was out of sight.
Kara turned her attention back to the mourners and went over to the Kents. Seeing her approach, Claire turned to Ma Kent.
"I think I need to go back to the house, with Linda," she said. "I'll see everyone back there later."
Martha Kent nodded, and Kara led Claire to one of the waiting cars, instructing the driver to take them to the Kent home. Once back there, she led Claire upstairs to her room.
"I was wondering when you'd get back," said Superboy as they entered the room. "I don't think I have long left now."
He turned to Claire.
"Robot C-3," he said, "take your clothes off and place them on the bed."
"Yes, master," said 'Claire Kent', and began disrobing.
"They're fine for substituting for you in some circumstances," said Superboy, "but their limited ability to emulate human emotion makes it risky to use the robots for an extended masquerade. Now help me get this thing off my head."
Walking up behind him, Kara got her nails under the artificial skin at the base of his neck, then peeled off the whole head piece with the short hair of Superboy woven into it. It had been taken from a Superboy robot. Underneath, his own hair was held tight to his head by a nylon skull cap. Whipping this off, he shook out the long locks he had had since becoming Super Sister.
"The weird ring that made me a girl also gave me long hair," he said, "but Grandin Gender Reversal Disease has no effect on hair, which isn't any sort of gender-dependent physical characteristic, after all. I didn't want to cut it, knowing Claire and Super-Sister would then both have the same short style when I reverted."
"Is it happening yet?" asked Kara.
"Yes," he replied. "I can feel my body already starting to change. Looks like Brainy called it about right - it's just over 24 hours since I infected myself with the sample."
Looking closely at her cousin, Kara could see it beginning. It was subtle at first - an almost imperceptible softening of the jaw-line, a slight narrowing of the back and shoulders, a gradual widening of the hips - but it quickly gathered pace, as the form of Superboy morphed into that of Super-Sister, into the more familiar form of the cousin she knew and loved. He, now she, held a slender-fingered hand up to her pretty face and sighed.
"And that's it," she said, sadly, "the last ever appearance of Superboy."
So saying, she burst into tears. Alarmed, Kara rushed over and wrapped her arms around her cousin.
"I knew this would happen," sniffled Claire. "To begin to come to terms with what was done to me, then to be offered a one-time only chance to reverse it... I knew it would be hard."
"That's why you were determined to use it sooner rather than later," said Kara, realization dawning, "why you didn't want to keep it back until some time when you might need male strength in a fight."
"Keeping it back, always knowing it was there, would've been unbearable," said Claire, "I needed it over and done with."
"And so you used it to say a proper farewell."
"A proper farewell, yes," agreed Claire. "Now both Clark and Superboy are gone for good."
"That was a stroke of genius, realizing you could use the defeat of Super-Bully to stage Clark's death," said Kara.
"Thank you," said Claire, gently disengaging from the other girl's arms. "I need to change my clothes before anyone else returns to the house."
Kara watched Claire dry her eyes then climb out of her costume and don the outfit the robot had lain on the bed. She smiled as Claire rolled the black panty-hose up her legs like someone who had been doing this for years. She might not be happy about her transformation yet, but she was adapting to it and gradually learning how to be the girl everyone saw when they looked at her. Not that she didn't still have a few male traits that were less than helpful.
"I wasn't too happy at first that you wanted to go mano-a-mano with Super-Bully," said Kara. "I know you thought you had something to prove, but it was dangerously macho of you. We had the means to put him away and I thought we should have used it immediately. Yet you fought him, you beat him, and somehow you knew he'd retreat back into Clark's life, where Clark Kent could then be killed in front of witnesses."
"When you helped me remember the real me, I still had all my memories of the past week, still recalled every detail of living at home with him masquerading as Clark," said Claire, standing in front of a mirror and carefully applying lipstick. "I'd seen how much he enjoyed being Clark, how much he revelled in it, so I didn't think he'd give that up easily."
"Why do you think that was?" asked Kara, frowning.
"We may never know his true origin, but on some fundamental level he was a copy of me. That must mean we started out as pretty much the same person, but where I was found by the Kents he was was unlucky enough to be raised by Wolf and Bonnie Derek, a notorious gangster couple. He saw what I had, and he envied me and hated me for it. Having tasted life with Ma and Pa, having seen what it could be like, he no more wanted to give it up than I would."
"And so we trapped him in the Phantom Zone," said Kara. "When you passed me the Phantom Zone projector in that road culvert, the only one of the old lead ones still to be found near Smallville, I knew what I had to do and I did it without hesitation. The heat ray you'd cobbled onto it, and rigged to operate ahead of the projector itself, burned off his outer clothes a fraction of a second before the beam from the projector sent him into the Phantom Zone."
"To normal human eyes, Clark had simply been disintegrated," said Claire. "Only we two know otherwise. It's ironic my father Jor-El discovered the Phantom Zone and proposed it as a place of imprisonment for Krypton's worst criminals, yet now it holds a doppelganger of his own son."
"Yes, but I wonder if we did the right thing banishing him to it," said Kara, worriedly.
"What do you mean?" asked Claire.
"You said it yourself: he's a version of you. He was corrupted, yes, but if at his core he's the same person, could he have been redeemed? Was there some better way of handling this than trapping him as an intangible, invisible phantom, able to see but not communicate with or touch the real world, one whose hatred will only fester and grow? I worry at the possibility of him getting out one day, an evil Superboy freed from his extra-dimensional prison and bent on wreaking bloody vengeance on us all."
"You can't think that way," said Claire, gripping Kara's shoulder. "All any of us can do is whatever is our best at the time. It's impossible to foresee every eventuality and allow for everything that *could* happen. It can't be done. Now help me zip up the back of my dress. It sounds like people have started arriving downstairs."
They heard someone coming up the stairs, then there was a knock on the door.
"Claire?" said a female voice.
"Come in, Lana," said Claire.
She did, and the two girls hugged.
"How are you holding up?" asked Claire. "He was my cousin, but you were closer to Clark and knew him better than I did."
"I still can't believe I'll never see him again," she sobbed. "I know we were in the line of fire, and Super-Sister probably didn't have time to save both of us, but I feel so guilty I survived and Clark didn't."
Kara put a sympathetic hand on Lana's shoulder, and a pained look passed between her and Claire. Yes, when it hurt a friend like this, the cost of maintaining a secret identity was definitely too high.
"I have one bit of good news, at least," said Claire, gently.
"What do you mean?" said Lana.
"There have been... problems between me and my parents," said Claire, "which is the reason I came to Smallville. I was seeking legal emancipation from them. Well, it's just come through, and Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Martha are going to adopt me. I'm staying in Smallville, and they're going to be my Ma and Pa."
"Oh, Claire, that's wonderful news!" said Lana. "You being here will really help the Kents and we'll get to hang out together more...if you want to, that is."
"Yes, I really, really want to," said Claire. "I'm sorry I've been such a jerk this past. Can you forgive me?"
"Of course," said Lana, giving her another hug, "I'm just glad to have the real Claire back."
"Me, too," said Claire with feeling, "me, too."
"And Johnny Brandon?"
"He's history," said Claire. "I broke up with him two days ago. He didn't seem very cut up about it."
"Boys like Johnny can always attract new girls," said Kara.
"Yes, and most of them will be idiots," said Claire.
The following day, Super-Sister and Supergirl got to frolic together out in space, playing hide-and-go-seek among the asteroids, leap frog with a meteor, and a whole slew of other games of the sort that only a pair of teenagers with their incredible abilities could. They were able to go all out and let rip with their powers in a way they seldom got the chance to. It was the most fun either of them could ever recall having.
"To be able to do that was my reason for coming here in the first place," said Kara when they were back on Earth. "I'm glad we finally got the chance to play together before I leave."
"Me, too," laughed Claire. "It's really taken my mind off things."
"I can imagine," said Kara, seriously. "So how was it for you right after you were turned into a girl? It must've been very difficult."
"It was a confusing time, that's for sure," said Claire, "but with all that was going, it all prevented me from having to face up to what was done to me. "First there was my encounter with a magical imp from the fifth dimension. He had an unpronounceable name and reality was putty in his hands. I *really* hope I never meet him again. Then exposure to red kryptonite caused me to lose my memory for a week while I was far from Smallville. I also visited the past to check out something in the history of the Kent family. This was in addition to dealing with the usual crooks and aliens, of course."
"We sure live complicated lives, don't we?" chuckled Kara.
"We do at that," admitted Claire.
"And now?"
"Now? Well now I'm taking it one day at a time and handling it as best as I can, but it's still really hard."
"You'll get there eventually," smiled Kara. "In my time you're a happy, confident women, totally at ease with who and what she is. She...you...are my hero and my role model."
"It's a real shame you had to leave, and that you wouldn't let me reveal to Ma and Pa who you really are. I think they'd be delighted a relative of mine had also survived the destruction of Krypton."
"In the same way you used me as your secret weapon, Superman keeps me in reserve as his," said Claire. "No-one else knows Supergirl exists yet, and I have to keep it that way. The Satan Girl disguise may have prevented Super-Bully from realizing I wasn't you, but it also preserved my secret. In fact, I can't take a chance on you remembering I was here, either. Knowledge of your own future could potentially be catastrophic."
"I suppose you're right," sighed Claire. "How do you want to do this?"
"Well you could self-hypnotize with a spinning hypno-wheel," said Kara, "but I think it would be safer if we used something stronger than that."
So saying, she reached into the pouch in her cape and pulled out a sealed bag of transparent plastic containing a single large red petal.
"From the stuff Super-Bully left behind," she said. "Another petal from the Albo plant. Are you ready?"
Claire nodded.
"Right, then when I crush this under your nose, and you breathe in the fragrance, you will forget me and anything you've learned from me about your own future."
She opened the bag and crushed the petal in front of Claire, holding her own breath as the other girl breathed in deeply.
While Claire was still dazed and disoriented, Kara flew off, heading up into space for the trip back to her own time. She had been in Smallville the better part of a week, but she would arrive back mere minutes after she had left. It was one of the things you could do with time travel she really appreciated.
A week later, her regular get together with her cousin was not the usual meeting of Superwoman and Supergirl in some remote part of the globe to have fun, but between Claire Kent and Linda Lee in one of the classiest restaurants in Metropolis. Having now met her as a teenager, Kara found herself studying her cousin closely as they were shown to their table.
Clark Kent had been timid and something of a klutz to make him the opposite of Superboy. Superwoman was a powerful, no-nonsense woman who took villains out with her fists, so for contrast her cousin had made Claire Kent very feminine. She was always immaculately made up and coiffed, never a hair out of place. Her clothes were always elegantly fashionable, and her shapely legs always clad in stockings and high heels - she never wore trousers. The way she spoke and carried herself, every gesture and inflection, and that sexy purr in her voice, meant she usually had men falling over themselves to do things for her. Of course, this meant she had ended up covering fashion, showbiz, and high society on The Daily Planet rather than doing the hard-hitting investigative reporting of her colleague, Lois Lane, but as she had explained to Kara, not only was there crime aplenty in those areas but just being in the Planet newsroom meant she heard about the big stories as they were happening. Still, Kara suspected the crime beat was the one Claire would have preferred to cover.
"So," said Claire when the waiter had taken their order, "how did you enjoy Smallville?"
"You Knew?!" said Kara.
"Of course I did," chuckled Claire, "but before I say anything else, tell me everything that happened as you remember it."
Kara did as Claire asked, then said:
"I wish I could remember something about the villain I pretended to be, though, even just her name. When I used the Albo plant on you I held my breath, but I still managed to get a very small whiff, just enough to remove that particular memory."
"Interesting," said Claire, sipping her merlot.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"No," said Claire. "With all the flying back and forth through time we do it would be quite easy for us to mess things up. All I'll say is that you losing that particular little bit of memory loss is actually a good thing."
"So how did you know I'd gone back to your teenage period in Smallville?" said Kara. "The Albo plant was supposed to make you forget me."
"Oh, it did," said Claire. "I remembered *someone* had helped me by masquerading as...that supervillain...but I had no idea who she was, what she looked like, or where she had come from. I remembered Linda Olsen, but not that she was you. I suspected time-travel might be involved and that my memory had been altered for my own good, so I let the matter lie. Saturn Girl had suggested such a precaution might become necessary if my visits to the 30th century became more frequent, since I could certainly learn things about my own future then. In fact, she later used the basic hypnotic command you'd put in place and extended it to cover my visits to her time."
"But the memory of me visiting Smallville came back?"
"Eventually, yes. That's why I never showed you any of the footage of Superboy apparently leaving Earth forever. Linda Olsen is clearly visible in the background of a few shots, and I knew you'd recognize yourself. The command was that I should forget anything I learned about my own future, and I did, but when those events were no longer in my future the command no longer applied. Since your rocket landed on Earth, I've gradually been recovering those memories."
As Claire paused to take another sip of her wine, Kara marvelled again that the happy confident person opposite her, so at ease with being a woman, could have been born male. She tried to imagine what the adult Clark Kent would look like, but could not. Soon after Kara's visit, Claire had gone blonde, started wearing make-up and, eventually, given up wearing glasses. The make-up, and the very different hairstyle and color, provided a better disguise anyway. Claire had formulated these so that both her hair dye and make-up would evaporate in flight allowing for a speedy switch to Superwoman when required. A special brush with a dye-reservoir in its handle allowed her to brush in new color as required when switching back, while super-speed and skill enabled her to reapply her make-up in seconds. Still, it struck her as a bit unfair that Claire Kent got to be blonde while she, a natural blonde, had to wear a brown wig to help conceal her true identity.
"Thank you for what you did," said Claire, reaching across the table placing her hands over Kara's. If you hadn't freed me and my folks from Super-Bully's influence who knows what might have happened? And even though I might not consciously have remembered our playing together out in space until recently, I know it helped me cope at a difficult time in my transition. There was still a long way to go on my path to where I am now, but there were important milestones along the way. As it happens, one of them was only a few weeks after your visit. I'll tell you about it some day."
"I'm so glad I was able to help," smiled Kara. "So, when do I finally get to meet that gorgeous boyfriend of yours?"
"He's running a bit late," said Claire, "but he should be here soon. The reason I was eager for you to meet now is that he's not just my boyfriend anymore. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes."
"Oh Claire, that's wonderful!" squealed Kara.
"And right on cue," laughed Claire, looking over Kara's shoulder, "here he comes."
Kara rose from her seat and turned to meet her cousin's fiance. She had seen Claire at a low ebb, when the thought of ever fully accepting what had been done to her had looked remote to her, but this proved she had not only finally made peace with the change but embraced it.
The teenage girl she had met still had challenges ahead of her and obstacles to overcome, but here was the proof that her cousin would eventually succeed.
And Kara could not have been happier for her.
The End
The story that inspired this series, "Claire Kent, Alias Super-Sister!", was written by Otto Binder and drawn by John Sikela. It first appeared in SUPERBOY #78 (Jan 1960), and was later reprinted in the 80 Page Giant, SUPERMAN ANNUAL #1 (1964). It can be read online here, and plays a small but significant role in my story "Carnival of Mirrors: Generations", available on Fictionmania.
Looking through online chronologies of Superboy appearances when writing my adaptation of the original Super-Sister story from Jan 1960, I was intrigued to see that SUPERMAN #137 was dated May 1960 and that the Superboy segment of that issue was generally regarded as being contemporaneous with the Superboy stories appearing in SUPERBOY and in ADVENTURE COMICS at that time. As it happens, that complete issue of SUPERMAN was also reprinted in 80 Page Giant, SUPERMAN ANNUAL #1, a publication I own a very battered old copy of. In that story we learn the rocket that carried baby Kal-El to Earth was accidentally duplicated in the collision I based the prologue of this tale on, and how all through his life the duplicate shadows Supes until their confrontation as adults. How would Clark's transformation have altered the dynamic between them, I wondered? Might their fateful confrontation have occurred as teenagers instead?
I also noticed that SUPERBOY #80 (Apr 1960) features the story "Superboy Meets Supergirl" in which Supergirl travels back in time to meet her cousin when he was a teenager. The idea of her meeting Super-Sister instead intrigued me. I did not recall ever having read this story but, to my surprise, a search of my (actually quite small) collection of Silver Age DC comics turned up a reprint, and I was able to adapt the opening scene in Antarctica, the frolics in space (which I reduced to a single paragraph, but was most of the original tale), and the bit about the Albo plant.
The Superboy segment of SUPERMAN #137 is listed as occurring immediately after the events of SUPERBOY #80, but I figured that in this altered timeline Supergirl could have arrived in the past a few days later and so encountered Super-Bully herself.
As for Satan Girl, this was a villainous duplicate of Supergirl created by exposure to red kryptonite in the Legion of Super-Heroes adventure in ADVENTURE COMICS #313 (Oct 1963). Since the character of Satan Girl had to have come from Kara's subconscious, I decided to give her an earlier outing in this tale. Having a whiff of the Albo plant remove her conscious memory of Satan Girl means that in this timeline the LSH story can still happen exactly as written, of course.
Grandin Gender Reversal Disease appeared twice in Legion tales that I know of, first in LEGION OF SUBSTITUTE-HEROES SPECIAL #1 (and only - 1985), and again in LEGIONNAIRES #13 (Apr 1994) The suitably TG cover of the latter can be seen here.
Some of you may be wondering exactly when these tales are set. In the story "Superboy Meets Supergirl", Supergirl travels back in time from 1960 to 1938, some twenty-two years, which would make Superman about 35 or 36. This is older than he's portrayed these days, hence my cutting this to fifteen years. My Super-Sister stories are not set in 1938, but fifteen years ago. In various series, tales of Superboy ran from the late 1940s to the early 1980s, but though these were all about the same character the contemporary background details progressed with the years, a 'sliding timeline' that applies to lots of long-lived characters. I haven't put in too many details that are period-specific, but those that are will be from the early 1990s. This means, of course, that while the Superwoman in these tales is a TG version of the Silver Age Superman, her adventures take place in the present day. Doing this while making a nod towards a Silver Age tone, at least in terms of language and staying G-rated is, ah, challenging.
One final note about this tale: yes, I'm familiar enough with Einstein to know that ordinary matter cannot achieve light-speed in normal space. However, that's how Supergirl and Co. did it back in the Silver Age, so I've stuck with it here.