Cut to a week later

The past week ended up being rather hectic for Kara and I. Lois' article was published the day after she interviewed me, and while she didn't reveal where I was living in the article itself, several other reporters managed to put the pieces together and find out where Kara's apartment was for follow-up interviews. Thankfully the notes I had been practicing with paid off, and I managed to tell them more or less the same story that I had told her.

Tom on the other hand was much more persistent. He came over that evening and started grilling me about where I had been, why I didn't tell anyone what was going on or that I was alright, and whether I got Starfire's number or not. It felt bad having to lie to him about all of it, but in the end he was satisfied enough with what Kara and I told him about trying to lay low to avoid any follow-up attacks, which in a sense was technically true.

Speaking of Starfire, her breakup with Dick Grayson was both a blessing and a curse. It gave the reporters something bigger to focus on than my story and got them off my back, but a few were starting to question whether the breakup was a result of something that happened during the attack, which... yeah, that wasn't something I wanted people looking into.

The Tamaranean princess herself stopped by the night after the story broke, and she ended up riding me like a madwoman for multiple hours looking for release, all while Kara watched us like a hawk. The experience was hot, terrifying, and surreal all rolled into one, and I couldn't even really enjoy it because I felt like shit about making her break up with her boyfriend. I didn't really know Dick that well, but he didn't seem like a bad guy or a bad boyfriend. And, you know, he helped save my life, so fucking his likely brainwashed girlfriend made me feel like I was stabbing the poor guy in the back.

But of course there was my boss Judy. When I called her to tell her I was fine, she didn't even believe it was actually me at first. After I managed to get through to her that yes, I was still alive, she simply told me that I had been replaced already and that she would send me my last check in the mail. Knowing that the address she had for me was out of date, and cursing myself for not having direct deposit, I insisted on coming in to pick it up myself.

So that was why I ended up back at Metro Burger on a Friday afternoon, Kara hanging onto my arm like the overprotective girlfriend she was. We had been following Lois' advice and not flying around town anymore, but Kara still insisted on coming with me to keep me safe. I wasn't about to object after everything that happened, and to be honest I actually appreciated the company on the bus ride. The moment we entered, Tom waved as us, "Hey Charlie, hey Kara! Never thought I'd see you two around here again."

"And miss out on you and the smell of deep fryer oil? Never." I joked, before saying, "I'm just dropping by to pick up my last paycheck."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Judy's in the back," he said, "Just go on in."

"Thanks."

"Hey, I'm going to be off soon," Tom said, "If you guys aren't busy, maybe we can hang out a while."

I grinned, "I'm up for that."

"Yeah, sounds like fun!" Kara said, preparing to follow me to the back.

Catching this, Tom said, "Uh, sorry Kara. Employees, or I guess ex-employees only."

Kara frowned, clinging to my arm even tighter. Putting a hand on her shoulder, I softly said, "It's okay, I won't be long."

Hesitantly, Kara let go of my arm, allowing me to go around the counter and towards the back office. From behind me I heard Tom asking, "So Kara! You know Starfire? What's she like?"

"Oh, it's not her I know," Kara said, "I'm friends with her boyfriend. Or, well, ex-boyfriend now I suppose..."

Walking a bit quicker, I ducked into Judy's tiny office, leaving the conversation. The brown-haired woman that was my former boss was sitting at her desk doing... something on her computer. I rapped my knuckles on the doorframe to get her attention. "Hey Judy? I'm here to-"

"I know why you're here, Charlie," she said, not even bothering to look away from the monitor, "Give me a second to finish this form and I'll get your money for you."

I waited in silence for her to finish her work, then find my check amidst the veritable mess of files and print-outs cluttering her cramped office space. Not even five minutes back here and I was already glad this would be the last time I would ever have to step behind the counter of this place again.

"Alright... Simmons, Simmons... ah, found it," Judy said, pulling the slip of paper out of a stuffed file disturbingly marked 'Missing Person's Payroll', "Here you go."

"Thanks," I said, taking it from her and glancing at it briefly, "...Wait, this is only half of a week's pay. I swore I worked more hours than that since my last paycheck."

"Nope," the middle-aged woman said, already turning back to her computer in disinterest, "That's all you got logged. Guess time flies when you're hiding out from supervillains, huh?"

"I guess," I said, sorely tempted to tell my boss to go fuck herself for not even having the decency to pretend she gave half a shit about me. Then I remembered that I no longer worked for her.

"You know Judy, I've always wanted to say this, but go-"

I stopped myself just before dropping the f-bomb. Not because I thought better of myself, or suddenly decided that I didn't want to burn my bridge with her on the way out the grease-stained door. No, I stopped because I heard a booming that sounded like an actual bomb going off in the distance, followed by the faint sound of screaming.

"What was that?" I asked her.

"Probably another supervillain attack," she said in a bored monotone, not even looking away from her computer, "Doesn't sound too near here though. You live close by, right?"

"Not really..."

"Well good luck getting home then."

"Gee, thanks Judy," I grumbled. Nope, not going to miss working here at all.

Heading back out front, I saw that the few people that were inside the dining area were doing one of two things. The two customers who I presumed were either new in town or were visiting the area were cowering under their tables, frightened as to what was going to happen next and if whatever that was is going to come this way. Everyone else was huddled around the windows on one side of the restaurant, trying to get a glimpse of the show.

Heading over to the latter group, I managed to find Tom and ask him, "Hey, what's going on?"

"Not sure yet," he told me, "I think there might have been an explosion of some kind, but no one's seen smoke yet."

"Got it." I looked around the room for any sign of Kara. She was nowhere in sight, which made sense given who she was, but I had gotten so used to her constantly watching over me since the **** that her absence left me feeling particularly ****.

"Any sign of Superman?" I asked.

"Didn't you hear?" one guy said, glancing back at me briefly, "There's this huge Legion of Doom heist going on in Paris right now, and he's there with like half the League trying to stop them."

"I hadn't," I admitted, "Did it look like he was finishing up there, or...?"

The man shook his head, "Nah man, they're still fighting. I was watching it on my phone before-"

"There she is!" a girl shouted, pointing up at the sky, "It's Supergirl!"

Everyone (including myself) scrambled to get a look at Supergirl as she wrestled with a purple figure in the distance. Then a moment later, everyone (again, including myself) quickly backed away from the glass as those two distant figures rapidly started getting much closer.

I watched as Supergirl and the person she was fighting with crashed into the asphalt not even twenty feet down the road from where we were, creating an impact crater in the middle of the street and setting off a couple car alarms. The 'villain', who I now saw was a deformed man with slate grey skin and wearing a ragged purple version of Superman's iconic costume, pushed himself off the ground and flew down the street with a haphazard drunken swaying, nearly crashing into a car as he loudly sang, "Bizarro here to save the daaaaaaaay!"

"Dammit Bizzaro!" Supergirl shouted in frustration as she chased after him, "Get your pasty white butt back here!"

"No-Kay!" Bizarro shouted, before proceeding to fly up and away from her, sideswiping a building across the street from us and tearing open a huge gash into it with his shoulder as he ascended.

Kara looked about ready to blow a gasket, and took a brief moment to use her freeze breath as a quick fix to the damaged building before flying off after the caped menace.

"Whoo! Go Supergirl!" the girl from before cheered, fist pumped in the air. The rest of the crowd in the restaurant followed suit.

Supergirl looked in our direction... or more accurately my direction, though I doubt anyone else noticed the distinction. She winked and blew a kiss, which caused the crowd to go ballistic, then rocketed off towards Bizzaro and attempted to tackle him to the ground, only to miss as the opposite Superman suddenly dropped down towards the ground and snatched a hot dog from a passerby. He shoved the poor bewildered guy aside and stuffed the sausage into his misshapen mouth right before Supergirl drop-kicked him from above with enough **** to visibly shake the nearby cars, but didn't even cause the villain to flinch. Annoyed, Bizarro grabbed her leg and tossed her into the side of a nearby bus, and then licked his fingers one by one.

Suddenly, Bizarro looked in the direction of the Metro Burger, and the cheering died down. His eyes went wide, he licked his lips, and then started flying directly towards us. Panicked people started backing away at the purple monstrosity barreling towards us, and for a brief moment I was bracing myself for this thing to crash through the window. But at the last moment, he was jerked backwards as Supergirl, now visibly enraged, grabbed him by the cape, spun him around in a few high-speed circles, and hurled him into the air away from us, which she capitalized on by shooting straight up and delivering a brutal punch to his gut that made the sound of a thundercrack. Now safe once more, the people in he restaurant let out a cheer for their super-savior in a red skirt.

"Man, Kara's gonna miss the whole thing," Tom said as the cheering died down, looking over in the direction of the women's bathroom, "But I guess when you got to go, you've got to go."

"Yeah, I guess," I muttered, doing my best not to sound suspicious at all.

Apparently I didn't do well enough though, since Tom gave me a skeptical look and said in a low voice, "You know, it's kind of weird that you didn't seem at all worried that she wasn't here. Never even asked me where she went, which is weird since you two are practically joined at the hip nowadays. Has she done stuff like this before?"

"O-Oh, well..." I tried desperately to come up with some excuse or explanation for why I didn't ask where Kara was sooner. Just my luck, it turned out I wouldn't even get a chance to answer.

The side entrance to the restaurant swung open, and a tall brunette woman in a navy blue jumpsuit walked in. She scanned the room, and her gaze locked onto me. As she approached, she said, "Charlie Simmons?"

"Um, y-yes?" I responded, not quite sure what was going on.

The woman pulled out her wallet and flashed her I.D. card at me just long enough for me to see a badge on it before she tucked it away again, "I'm with J.L.A.P. I'm here to get you somewhere safe."

"Jay-lap?" I muttered.

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Of course they didn't tell you ahead of time... it's short for the Justice League Ally Protection Unit. It's my job to get you away from here so Supergirl can do her thing without worrying about your safety."

"Wait, what?" Tom said, "Why would Supergirl care about..."

His eyes widened, and he turned to me in shock, "No way... you weren't just roleplaying with her all this time?"

"Sssssh!" I hissed, glancing over at the crowd who were still more focused on trying to get another glimpse of what was going on outside than our conversation, "No, I wasn't, and I tried to tell you that!"

Tom's face broke out into a grin, "...Holy shit, that's awesome! Dude, you have got to tell me everything!"

"Not now," the woman said, "And the League would appreciate it if you kept quiet about what you may or may not know about Supergirl."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Tom said, "My lips are sealed."

"Very good," she said, turning on her heel and heading to the door she came in from, "I parked in the back. Hurry up before too many other people see us."

When I hesitated, she looked over her shoulder and asked, "Are you coming or not?"

I glanced back at the still distracted crowd, who let out another scream as a shockwave rattled the building slightly. Yeah, watching my girlfriend duking it out with a supervillain was cool and all, but it was probably for the best that I got out of here ASAP. I gave her a nod, then gave Tom a thumbs up before I followed the woman out the door.

She led me down the alley that lead to the side street where she had parked her car, a heavy looking black vehicle that straddled the line between durable and luxurious. She unlocked the car with her remote, then opened the passenger's door for me before going over to the driver's side. Sitting down in the plush leather seat, I buckled up just as she pulled out of the alley and started barreling down the road in the opposite direction of the fight.

Now given a moment to relax, I only just noticed how much my hands had been trembling. Fuck, that was closer than I'd have liked. Granted, living in Metropolis supervillain attacks kind of came with the territory, but I figured I'd at least have gotten through the rest of the month before having another close call like that.

"Are you okay?" the woman asked me.

"Y-Yeah, I think so..." I replied, "Thank you for getting me out of there. Where are we going?"

"To a secure bunker where we can wait this conflict out," she responded, "The Justice League have them scattered around all the high-activity cities for just such a purpose."

"They do?"

She nodded, "It's the best place to keep V.I.P.s like you safe while everything goes down."

"Yeah, yeah..." I said. I looked out the window and watched the buildings drift on by. I knew we were going pretty fast for a car, but after being regularly flown around by a superheroine capable of breaking the sound barrier if they wanted to, even this felt rather slow. Heck, even when I was flying with Starfire she was probably going three times this fast...

"Hold on," I said, looking over to the woman as I suddenly thought of something, "If the Justice League has a safe bunker in the city, how come I wasn't taken there after the Metallo incident?"

"You were not part of the program yet," the woman said, "No one was assigned to look after you, and by the time we realized what was happening, you had already been rescued..."

"Okay, but why bother with the 24/7 Justice League protection in a residential apartment if you guys just had a bunker I could've been holed up in for that time?"

"The bunker is for immediate threats only. With Metallo neutralized, the immediate threat was gone, and..."

I stopped listening to her, because I wasn't buying it. Something about this wasn't right. And what's more, now that I got a good look at her, this woman looked familiar. Didn't I see her on TV at some point? Yeah, she was standing next to...

"Wait a minute, I know you." I said, "Aren't you Lex Luthor's bodyguard? Miranda... Grove? No, that's the actress... was it Miranda Grant?"

"It's Mercy," she said, cooly pressing a button on the front of the steering wheel with her thumb, "Mercy Graves."

"Right, that's it," I said, "What does Luthor's bodyguard want with... with..."

The interior of the car began to get blurry, and Mercy's head swam in my vision, leaving a dragging tail of tan, brown, and blue swirls as her face morphed into a spiral. I tried to reach for the door, then my wrist, then my chest, which for some reason was three feet in front of me and upside down.

"Wha w'th..." I tried to say again, but my tongue felt like jello, and darkness was quickly starting to envelop everything around me.

Right before I blacked out, I heard a faint hissing sound, and very distant female voice saying, "Asset is sedated. En route to base."