Fic: World's Finest (Kara/Steph)
Title: World's Finest
Fandom: DC Universe
Characters: Kara Zor-El, Stephanie Brown (light Kara/Steph), Barbara Gordon, Charlie Gage-Radcliffe
Rating: PG-13
Words: 2141
Summary: The fifth dimension usually messed with Batman and Superman. Not today...
Author's Notes: Written for mithen for help_haiti. As the #1 bidder, she gets the first longfic. :D If you're one of my other two recipients, rest assured your fic is in the process. I apologize that it's a little late, but I wound up getting a LOT of bids. @_@
The first thing Steph noticed when she woke up was that her bedroom looked really nice. She might have still been dreaming, but she was pretty sure she didn't sleep in a penthouse overlooking Metropolis harbor. She definitely didn't sleep under silk sheets. (Although after a few seconds cozying up to them, she really wished she did. It had been a crazy night right now, but she didn't think it had been that crazy to wake up in another city in some strange girl's bedroom. Unless that strange girl was Cass, but that was a story for a different day.
She rubbed her eyes and got out of bed, looking around the penthouse and catching a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror.
"Whoa."
No, she was pretty sure she didn't sleep in a Metropolis Penthouse under silk sheets, and she was definitely sure she hadn't gained six inches and lost 10 pounds overnight. In her shock, she tripped backwards. Her hand reached out to steady herself against the wall - and punched right through it into the next apartment. She tentatively pulled her hand back. Not a scratch on it.
Why did this kind of thing always seem to happen on days she had school to get to?
-----
"Stephanie!"
Kara stirred under the covers as the woman in the next room yelled someone named Stephanie's name repeatedly. Was there someone in her apartment? She threw off the covers -
and this was not her apartment. This was definitely not her apartment.
"Finally! You're up." An older woman stuck her head into the room. "Don't forget, you've got an early class today. I've got a double shift tonight, so you're on your own for dinner. There's some leftovers in the fridge, or I left some money on the counter if you want to order in."
"Um...okay?" Kara had been in some strange situations before, and she didn't want to aggravate things right off the bat, so she didn't express any of the three hundred questions that were running through her mind at the moment. She could pick up most things based on context. This woman apparently thought she was her daughter, most likely.
"You look like this is the first time you've gotten up for school." The woman laughed. "Hurry up! You don't want to miss the bus."
As the woman left the room, Kara stepped out of bed - directly onto a hard piece of plastic on the floor. A sharp pain shot up her foot, and she cursed under her breath. This definitely wasn't her body. It was human, and vulnerable. Come to think of it, now that she was paying attention, her whole body was aching, as if it had gone five rounds with Doomsday the night before. Was the person whose body she was inhabiting an athlete, or something?
Kara stepped up to the mirror. The girl whose body she was in was pretty, if not exactly glamorous. She seemed very fit for someone without powers. Her face seemed familiar for some reason, but Kara couldn't place it. She just hoped that if this girl was in her body right now, she knew what to do with it.
She opened the closet, hoping for some clues as to this girl's identity. As she looked at the array of kevlar-reinforced costumes, she got them. In spades.
"Wow."
-----
Barbara Gordon rubbed her temples. Talking to one panicked teenage girl was stressful enough. Two at the same time, both screaming into the phone? That was just asking for a migrane.
" - and then I nearly burned a hole in the wall when I saw a spider! These powers are - "
" - gone! My powers are completely gone, Oracle! This isn't even my body! What am I- "
"Okay!" Oracle spoke into the phone, loudly enough to make the girls quiet down for a minute. "This has happened before. Not to you, but to Batman and Superman, as well as other heroes. It usually reverses itself on its own after a while. The best thing we can do right now is check the two of you out in the Batcave, see if we can figure out any clues to what's causing this. Kara - you know how to use the Gotham subway?"
Kara nodded. "Yeah. I've been without my powers before, just not for any length of time. I'll be fine."
"And Steph, do you think your control of Kara's powers is good enough to fly over to Gotham?"
"Sure! It's just like riding a bike, right? You just go - " There was a loud crashing sound heard in Kara's apartment through the phone. "Whoops."
Barbara put her head in her hands. It was early, but she could already tell it was going to be a very long day.
-----
"Just like I thought. I can't find any traces of known magic on either of you." Barbara said as she looked over the scans. "No natural cause that I can see either. The last time this happened to Superman and Batman, it was the fault of these beings from the 5th dimension playing games with them. When that happens, it's usually just a matter of waiting it out."
"Easy for you to say!" Steph said, careful not to move too quickly around the Bat-cave. She had already nearly crashed into the computer when she ran into the cave. "I've got a class in an hour, and I only get three absences per semester."
"It's not like this is a picnic for me, either." Kara pouted. "Superman's trusting me to look after Metropolis while he's in space, and I can't exactly do it with no powers."
"And Batman's in Europe right now, following up on a lead." Barbara said as she looked over her maps. "This was pretty much the worst time for this to happen - which I'm sure whoever's behind this was completely aware of. Right now, I'm not sure either of you really know how to use the other's body effectively, so it's best that you don't try to do anything too serious in the field. At least it seems like a quiet - "
Before Barbara could finish the sentence, several alarms started blaring as flashing dots appeared on the map of Gotham.
" - Morning. Perfect." Barbara pulled up the news report. "It looks like the Atomic Skull's decided to pay a visit to Gotham."
"I can fly over there and - "
"Batman trained me in non-powered combat, so - "
"No." Barbara put up her hands. "It's too risky. Neither of you are familiar with these bodies, and one mistake could mean the end for both of you. I've got other agents I can call in for this. I want both of you to head home and lay low until this wears off."
Both girls nodded, and headed for the exit as Barbara contacted her agents. As soon as they were out of reach, Kara whispered in Steph's ear.
"You're totally not listening, are you?"
"Of course not. I've got to try out these powers of yours!"
"Yeah, I thought so." Kara grinned. "I trained with Batman. I can take care of myself!"
"Just take care of my body, okay? I've gotten kind of attached to it."
"Of course. It is a nice one."
"Right back at you." Steph laughed as they ran out the door.
-----
"DARRRRRRRRRRK VENGEA - Oof!"
Charlie ported out of the way as the Atomic Skull blasted her. This was not going well. She was glad Miss Gordon trusted her enough to put her in the field, but she was getting her butt kicked. If she couldn't heal, she would have been dead five times already.
"It's over, little girl!" the Atomic Skull cackled. "You'll never keep me from my true love Zelda!"
"Um, hello! Your true love Zelda is a movie character, and - "
"Lies!"
Charlie dodged under another blast. The Atomic Skull was supposed to be a third-rate villain, but he had obviously gotten a power upgrade. Suddenly, the Skull caught her unaware and blasted her out of the air. Grabbing her by the neck, he hoisted her up. Charlie struggled to get free. She could port away, but that would take him with her, and that was NOT an option.
"Now, little girl, you will - "
Suddenly, the Atomic Skull was pulled off Misfit and thrown across the pier. Charlie looked up to see Supergirl flying over her head.
"Whoa. Awesome."
Steph marveled at just how easy it had been to hurl the Atomic Skull half a mile away. And she hadn't even been trying. It was kind of terrifying to wield this much power. As Batgirl, even the lowest-rung supervillain could get in a lucky shot. Here, it was so easy to get cocky. And what scared her most was that while it would be very hard to get hurt like this, it would be very easy to hurt someone else.
Kara followed closely behind, using Steph's grappling hooks to keep pace with her. Steph seemed to have things well in hand, but she had faced the Atomic Skull before, and she didn't seem to remember his energy beams being green....
"Watch out!"
Kara swung down from the rooftops, throwing herself into Steph and knocking them both to the ground just as the Skull fired a massive green energy blast over both their heads.
"Kryptonite?" Kara groaned as she picked herself up. "Why is it that every two-bit criminal in Metropolis seems to have Kryptonite these days?"
"I'm pretty sure I saw a store selling it alongside Batman mugs the other day. Thanks for the assist. Let's finish this guy off."
Misfit ported next to them. "Oh, yeah! Official team-up!"
As the Atomic Skull charged at them, screaming incoherently about his lost love, the three girls assumed fighting stances. This guy was going down.
-----
"When Misfit is the only one among you who can follow directions, there's something very wrong." Barbara sighed.
"Oh, come on! We got the job done, didn't we?" Steph grinned. "And we escaped with no injuries and minimum property damage."
"I'm chalking that more up to luck than anything else. But well done. STAR Labs should be along to collect the Skull shortly, so you're done there. Try not to get into any more situations until this wears off? You were both very lucky. Charlie, I'll see you back at base."
Charlie teleported away, and Kara and Steph exchanged high-fives.
"This actually went better than our last team-up, wrong bodies or not!" Kara grinned.
"Yeah, and I could get used to these powers. They're really cool. It must be awesome to be able to fly around all the time."
"Yeah, it's pretty cool. But I don't know how you do it, Steph. My body's been killing me since I woke up. I can't believe you do this every day."
"You learn to tune it out after a while. But I can imagine it's got to feel pretty rough right now."
Kara sat down, and Steph flew down beside her. Carefully, she began kneading Kara's shoulders, being careful not to use too much strength, just enough to make sure she got through the kevlar.
Kara sighed with relief. "Thanks. That feels a lot better. Crazy as this whole thing was, I'm really glad we got to hang out again."
"Me too, K." Steph blushed. "You're pretty awesome, and I'm hoping we can team up again soon."
Kara stood up. Steph was quite a bit taller than her at the moment, but the Batgirl boots evened that up a bit. "If I'm being honest, I kind of had a crush on you after we met."
"Whoa. On me? Really?"
"Well, yeah. Why did you think I was ready to throw Damian off a rooftop for calling you fat?" Kara grinned. She ran a hand over her own hip. "Besides, this body looks pretty perfect from where I'm standing."
Kara leaned in, hoping she wasn't reading things completely wrong, and tentatively gave Steph a soft kiss.
-----
"What are you two brats doing?"
Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-mite stormed into the room where their little sisters were playing with the remote.
"Yeah! That remote is only for tormenting Superman and Batman!" Bat-mite said with his arms crossed.
"It's not fair!" The two girls yelled in unison as Mxy snatched the remote away.
-----
As Kara opened her eyes, she gasped to see Steph's face looking back at her instead of her own.
"Whoa. I guess everything's back to normal. It is normal, right? I'm not Wonder Girl now, am I?"
"No, it's definitely you." Steph grinned. She leaned in and reciprocated Kara's kiss. The two girls embraced under the Gotham sun, thinking that whoever was responsible for this crazy day, they would have to send them a card.
Fandom: DC Universe
Characters: Kara Zor-El, Stephanie Brown (light Kara/Steph), Barbara Gordon, Charlie Gage-Radcliffe
Rating: PG-13
Words: 2141
Summary: The fifth dimension usually messed with Batman and Superman. Not today...
Author's Notes: Written for mithen for help_haiti. As the #1 bidder, she gets the first longfic. :D If you're one of my other two recipients, rest assured your fic is in the process. I apologize that it's a little late, but I wound up getting a LOT of bids. @_@
The first thing Steph noticed when she woke up was that her bedroom looked really nice. She might have still been dreaming, but she was pretty sure she didn't sleep in a penthouse overlooking Metropolis harbor. She definitely didn't sleep under silk sheets. (Although after a few seconds cozying up to them, she really wished she did. It had been a crazy night right now, but she didn't think it had been that crazy to wake up in another city in some strange girl's bedroom. Unless that strange girl was Cass, but that was a story for a different day.
She rubbed her eyes and got out of bed, looking around the penthouse and catching a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror.
"Whoa."
No, she was pretty sure she didn't sleep in a Metropolis Penthouse under silk sheets, and she was definitely sure she hadn't gained six inches and lost 10 pounds overnight. In her shock, she tripped backwards. Her hand reached out to steady herself against the wall - and punched right through it into the next apartment. She tentatively pulled her hand back. Not a scratch on it.
Why did this kind of thing always seem to happen on days she had school to get to?
-----
"Stephanie!"
Kara stirred under the covers as the woman in the next room yelled someone named Stephanie's name repeatedly. Was there someone in her apartment? She threw off the covers -
and this was not her apartment. This was definitely not her apartment.
"Finally! You're up." An older woman stuck her head into the room. "Don't forget, you've got an early class today. I've got a double shift tonight, so you're on your own for dinner. There's some leftovers in the fridge, or I left some money on the counter if you want to order in."
"Um...okay?" Kara had been in some strange situations before, and she didn't want to aggravate things right off the bat, so she didn't express any of the three hundred questions that were running through her mind at the moment. She could pick up most things based on context. This woman apparently thought she was her daughter, most likely.
"You look like this is the first time you've gotten up for school." The woman laughed. "Hurry up! You don't want to miss the bus."
As the woman left the room, Kara stepped out of bed - directly onto a hard piece of plastic on the floor. A sharp pain shot up her foot, and she cursed under her breath. This definitely wasn't her body. It was human, and vulnerable. Come to think of it, now that she was paying attention, her whole body was aching, as if it had gone five rounds with Doomsday the night before. Was the person whose body she was inhabiting an athlete, or something?
Kara stepped up to the mirror. The girl whose body she was in was pretty, if not exactly glamorous. She seemed very fit for someone without powers. Her face seemed familiar for some reason, but Kara couldn't place it. She just hoped that if this girl was in her body right now, she knew what to do with it.
She opened the closet, hoping for some clues as to this girl's identity. As she looked at the array of kevlar-reinforced costumes, she got them. In spades.
"Wow."
-----
Barbara Gordon rubbed her temples. Talking to one panicked teenage girl was stressful enough. Two at the same time, both screaming into the phone? That was just asking for a migrane.
" - and then I nearly burned a hole in the wall when I saw a spider! These powers are - "
" - gone! My powers are completely gone, Oracle! This isn't even my body! What am I- "
"Okay!" Oracle spoke into the phone, loudly enough to make the girls quiet down for a minute. "This has happened before. Not to you, but to Batman and Superman, as well as other heroes. It usually reverses itself on its own after a while. The best thing we can do right now is check the two of you out in the Batcave, see if we can figure out any clues to what's causing this. Kara - you know how to use the Gotham subway?"
Kara nodded. "Yeah. I've been without my powers before, just not for any length of time. I'll be fine."
"And Steph, do you think your control of Kara's powers is good enough to fly over to Gotham?"
"Sure! It's just like riding a bike, right? You just go - " There was a loud crashing sound heard in Kara's apartment through the phone. "Whoops."
Barbara put her head in her hands. It was early, but she could already tell it was going to be a very long day.
-----
"Just like I thought. I can't find any traces of known magic on either of you." Barbara said as she looked over the scans. "No natural cause that I can see either. The last time this happened to Superman and Batman, it was the fault of these beings from the 5th dimension playing games with them. When that happens, it's usually just a matter of waiting it out."
"Easy for you to say!" Steph said, careful not to move too quickly around the Bat-cave. She had already nearly crashed into the computer when she ran into the cave. "I've got a class in an hour, and I only get three absences per semester."
"It's not like this is a picnic for me, either." Kara pouted. "Superman's trusting me to look after Metropolis while he's in space, and I can't exactly do it with no powers."
"And Batman's in Europe right now, following up on a lead." Barbara said as she looked over her maps. "This was pretty much the worst time for this to happen - which I'm sure whoever's behind this was completely aware of. Right now, I'm not sure either of you really know how to use the other's body effectively, so it's best that you don't try to do anything too serious in the field. At least it seems like a quiet - "
Before Barbara could finish the sentence, several alarms started blaring as flashing dots appeared on the map of Gotham.
" - Morning. Perfect." Barbara pulled up the news report. "It looks like the Atomic Skull's decided to pay a visit to Gotham."
"I can fly over there and - "
"Batman trained me in non-powered combat, so - "
"No." Barbara put up her hands. "It's too risky. Neither of you are familiar with these bodies, and one mistake could mean the end for both of you. I've got other agents I can call in for this. I want both of you to head home and lay low until this wears off."
Both girls nodded, and headed for the exit as Barbara contacted her agents. As soon as they were out of reach, Kara whispered in Steph's ear.
"You're totally not listening, are you?"
"Of course not. I've got to try out these powers of yours!"
"Yeah, I thought so." Kara grinned. "I trained with Batman. I can take care of myself!"
"Just take care of my body, okay? I've gotten kind of attached to it."
"Of course. It is a nice one."
"Right back at you." Steph laughed as they ran out the door.
-----
"DARRRRRRRRRRK VENGEA - Oof!"
Charlie ported out of the way as the Atomic Skull blasted her. This was not going well. She was glad Miss Gordon trusted her enough to put her in the field, but she was getting her butt kicked. If she couldn't heal, she would have been dead five times already.
"It's over, little girl!" the Atomic Skull cackled. "You'll never keep me from my true love Zelda!"
"Um, hello! Your true love Zelda is a movie character, and - "
"Lies!"
Charlie dodged under another blast. The Atomic Skull was supposed to be a third-rate villain, but he had obviously gotten a power upgrade. Suddenly, the Skull caught her unaware and blasted her out of the air. Grabbing her by the neck, he hoisted her up. Charlie struggled to get free. She could port away, but that would take him with her, and that was NOT an option.
"Now, little girl, you will - "
Suddenly, the Atomic Skull was pulled off Misfit and thrown across the pier. Charlie looked up to see Supergirl flying over her head.
"Whoa. Awesome."
Steph marveled at just how easy it had been to hurl the Atomic Skull half a mile away. And she hadn't even been trying. It was kind of terrifying to wield this much power. As Batgirl, even the lowest-rung supervillain could get in a lucky shot. Here, it was so easy to get cocky. And what scared her most was that while it would be very hard to get hurt like this, it would be very easy to hurt someone else.
Kara followed closely behind, using Steph's grappling hooks to keep pace with her. Steph seemed to have things well in hand, but she had faced the Atomic Skull before, and she didn't seem to remember his energy beams being green....
"Watch out!"
Kara swung down from the rooftops, throwing herself into Steph and knocking them both to the ground just as the Skull fired a massive green energy blast over both their heads.
"Kryptonite?" Kara groaned as she picked herself up. "Why is it that every two-bit criminal in Metropolis seems to have Kryptonite these days?"
"I'm pretty sure I saw a store selling it alongside Batman mugs the other day. Thanks for the assist. Let's finish this guy off."
Misfit ported next to them. "Oh, yeah! Official team-up!"
As the Atomic Skull charged at them, screaming incoherently about his lost love, the three girls assumed fighting stances. This guy was going down.
-----
"When Misfit is the only one among you who can follow directions, there's something very wrong." Barbara sighed.
"Oh, come on! We got the job done, didn't we?" Steph grinned. "And we escaped with no injuries and minimum property damage."
"I'm chalking that more up to luck than anything else. But well done. STAR Labs should be along to collect the Skull shortly, so you're done there. Try not to get into any more situations until this wears off? You were both very lucky. Charlie, I'll see you back at base."
Charlie teleported away, and Kara and Steph exchanged high-fives.
"This actually went better than our last team-up, wrong bodies or not!" Kara grinned.
"Yeah, and I could get used to these powers. They're really cool. It must be awesome to be able to fly around all the time."
"Yeah, it's pretty cool. But I don't know how you do it, Steph. My body's been killing me since I woke up. I can't believe you do this every day."
"You learn to tune it out after a while. But I can imagine it's got to feel pretty rough right now."
Kara sat down, and Steph flew down beside her. Carefully, she began kneading Kara's shoulders, being careful not to use too much strength, just enough to make sure she got through the kevlar.
Kara sighed with relief. "Thanks. That feels a lot better. Crazy as this whole thing was, I'm really glad we got to hang out again."
"Me too, K." Steph blushed. "You're pretty awesome, and I'm hoping we can team up again soon."
Kara stood up. Steph was quite a bit taller than her at the moment, but the Batgirl boots evened that up a bit. "If I'm being honest, I kind of had a crush on you after we met."
"Whoa. On me? Really?"
"Well, yeah. Why did you think I was ready to throw Damian off a rooftop for calling you fat?" Kara grinned. She ran a hand over her own hip. "Besides, this body looks pretty perfect from where I'm standing."
Kara leaned in, hoping she wasn't reading things completely wrong, and tentatively gave Steph a soft kiss.
-----
"What are you two brats doing?"
Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-mite stormed into the room where their little sisters were playing with the remote.
"Yeah! That remote is only for tormenting Superman and Batman!" Bat-mite said with his arms crossed.
"It's not fair!" The two girls yelled in unison as Mxy snatched the remote away.
-----
As Kara opened her eyes, she gasped to see Steph's face looking back at her instead of her own.
"Whoa. I guess everything's back to normal. It is normal, right? I'm not Wonder Girl now, am I?"
"No, it's definitely you." Steph grinned. She leaned in and reciprocated Kara's kiss. The two girls embraced under the Gotham sun, thinking that whoever was responsible for this crazy day, they would have to send them a card.