The classic strains of
Peggy Sue eked quietly out of the jukebox, a mocking modern facsimile of the original. The décor was supposed to invoke the halcyon days of the Fifties but the gleaming newness and the waitresses in poodle skirts trying to hide their tattoos gave testament that this place, unlike Pop’s in Smallville, was all for show. At least the food was halfway decent and a good place to hide out in.
“All I’m saying is that I don’t have a problem with you learning informal language from the TV but learning it from late night cable and not realizing that some of those words shouldn’t be used in public is important.” Linda said with a smile over their hamburgers. Kara blushed heavily and tried to sink down into the gaudy vinyl seat in their booth.
“Hey, they just won’t be using the audio. You’ll still make the news… and the tabloid shows” Linda grinned, enjoying ribbing Kara. “I still can’t believe you called that bank robber a…”
“Enough, Linda! I was mad. He ruined my new blouse!” Kara wailed, her skin going redder. She dropped her head to the table, food forgotten.
“Yeah. It’s a good thing you were wearing your new costume underneath or they couldn’t have used the video either! Look, seriously, I think that we need to just get out of town for awhile. You’ve been so busy between your job, trying to fix your ship and fighting the villain of the week that you’re neglecting yourself. I mean you need to become a person rather than a living comic book character.”
“You think so?” Kara said, relieved that the subject was being changed.
“Yep. We could go camping” Linda smiled. “It’ll just be us and miles and miles of nothing but trees. Nothing at all weird to distract you.”
Ultimate Supergirl[/i]
Special #1 “Roughing It”
Written by James Stubbs
Cover manipulation by James Stubbs
Edited by James Steel[/center]
Brainiac hadn’t been too happy with her decision to leave him at home with Streaky and had been full of dire warnings about being caught without his expertise Kara reflected but, then again, the idea was to get away from distractions. Linda’s jeep lurched as it dipped into a hole and sprayed up mud in the rough path that passed for a road and Kara laughed in delight. It wasn’t a Kryptonian spaceship but she could appreciate the power under the hood. Elegant science be damned. Her people could learn a thing or two from Earth – sometimes the experience of doing something is better than accomplishing it in the most efficient and expedient way.
Linda smiled and glanced back to make sure their gear was alright. This was what she had in mind and it seemed to be working. They were headed back to some of the most remote wilderness that she knew of and, coming from a park ranger, that was pretty wild country. “Having fun?” she shouted over the engine.
“Oh yeah!” Kara yelled back, her hair whipping about her face. “Where’re we going?”
“Nowhere!” she yelled back as the jeep bounced over a half-buried log and Kara shrieked again.
***
"Nowhere" turned out to be an apt description but one that Kara found herself liking. They had driven until Linda decided that they had gone far enough. They found a clearing with a creek babbling nearby and Kara gathered up some stones for a fire pit while Linda busied herself with getting their pup tent set up. The sun was just beginning to set on the horizon and she stopped to admire the view. The sky was a brilliant shade of reddish-orange and the soft light filtered through the stately redwoods giving everything a gentle feel. Argo had its own set of wonders but somehow Earth's just seemed simpler and more beautiful. She still wanted to go home but here was becoming less of a prison and more of a pleasant diversion. Linda was helping a lot with that.
"Hey! Hurry up with those. We need to start a fire!" Linda yelled at her.
Well, almost helping Kara corrected herself with a smile.
Her eyes flared and a small flame erupted in the pit.
"No
cheating!" Linda admonished and tossed dirt on the fledgling blaze. "We're two
normal girls. Remember? You have to do it the old fashioned way. Here. Use the lighter."
Kara stuck out her tongue and clicked the trigger. Soon they had a nice fire going and Linda had a can of beans and franks heating. For common legumes and animal-based byproduct, it smelled delicious. She wasn't a fan of the coffee that Linda had boiling. It was blacker than space and too bitter but Linda couldn't seem to live without it but, then again, she always claimed to be jealous of Kara's "natural high" whatever that meant.
***
Dinner finished and night setting in, Kara and Linda scrubbed out their frying pan and cups by firelight in the creek. “So now what?” Kara asked.
"I brought some books" Linda said helpfully fishing out a few paperbacks from her backpack.
Kara looked at the lurid cover of the book on top, a half-dressed blond woman in Old West garb held in the arms of a muscular semi-nude Native American man. "Slave to a Savage" was prominently emblazoned across the top. She tried to politely decline but the look on her face probably told Linda her opinion of her reading material.
"Radio?" Linda suggested, patting her pack.
"Only if I get to pick the station," Kara said quickly.
“Or we talk about girl stuff,” Linda said, trying for a fast topic change.
“Girl stuff?” Kara asked in confusion.
“You know. Boys… or more importantly… Dick.”
Kara looked mortified.
“Grayson! Dick Grayson! Honestly, girl! You’re the one who’s been obsessed… not that I wouldn’t mind some of that…”
“Oh yeah but you haven’t seen Nightwing,” Kara smirked, getting into the spirit of the conversation. “Let’s just say that he really fills out a black bodysuit.”
Linda sighed playfully, “I guess the only way to get men like that is to wear a cape and a short skirt, huh?”
“Linda!” Kara giggled. “There’s someone out there for you still… although the skirt does help.”
"Oh no! The days of miniskirts and catting it up are over for me. I'm a flannel and jeans girl now."
"So you're the old lady now?" Kara teased. "I've seen guys look at you. You should try y'know? You deserve to be happy."
"I am happy," Linda insisted a bit too quickly and uneasily.
Kara realized that she had crossed a line. "Sure, Linda."
Is that why his clothes are still hanging in your closet?"Let's talk about something else." Linda said and Kara nodded, thankful for the escape. The last thing she wanted was to hurt her feelings.
They retired to the tent and spent the next hour talking about random meaningless things: the weather, where Kara thought Argo was in the night sky, clothes, food and the latest celebrity gossip. Kara was several minutes into discussing the extremely formal courtship rituals of her people when she heard Linda's deep breathing next to her.
I felt the same way when mother was explaining them to me Kara smiled to herself and let the soothing nighttime sounds of the forest insects and birds lull her to sleep.
***
His eyes opened slowly, body protesting the sudden movement as dust and bird droppings cascaded from his shoulders. His semi-petrified body had betrayed him into slumber once again. Perhaps one day he would go to sleep and remain immobile, much like the tree form that had saved him from those damned despoilers from Rome. It only seemed fitting that he, Blackbriar Thorn, High Priest of the former Druids of Cymru, would befall such a fate.
Still, something was wrong. Only one thing would have roused him from his slumber so quickly and it had been a long time since he had fled the champions of this time and their world of metal and noise to this wilderness. Something or someone had invaded his sanctuary. His legendary anger sparked in his breast despite the serene moonlight that bathed his form. Why couldn't he be left in peace? Someone was going to pay a heavy price for their intrusion upon his solitude! But he would not be rash! He would not fall into the trap of his own devising that had been his downfall in the past. Thorn idly reached skyward and mentally took control of a passing owl out hunting. Perhaps a higher perspective was in order.
The owl spiraled skyward, keen eyes penetrating the darkness, ignoring the scurrying field mice that fled for cover in hollow logs and beneath piles of leaves. It did not take very long for the powerful bird of prey to locate signs of the clumsy humans. Thorn allowed more of his senses to flow into the bird as he alighted upon a branch on the outside of the camp. There was a strange brightly colored structure which must be some form of tent, judging from the soft sounds of snoring coming from within and there was one of the accursed horseless wagons that belched smoke and sound. He hated them with all of the deep anger that he harbored in his heart.
Thorn ruthlessly crushed the owl's natural reluctance to get any closer and he fluttered to the ground and made his bobbling way to the tent opening. He craned his beaked head and peeked inside with unblinking eyes. Flowing masses of blond and brown hair and pale and tanned skin intertwined with bright cloth covers that encased their lower bodies filled his vision. If he had been capable of loudly drawing a breath, he would have. They were beautiful.
Well, things just got more interesting.***
Kara awoke to find Linda missing from the tent, as she slowly stretched and stifled a yawn in the light of mid-morning filtering through the plastic sides of the tent. Linda really needed to learn the pleasures of sleeping in. She crawled out of her rumpled sleeping bag and out of the tent, rubbing her eyes against the glare of the rising sun. Her attention was drawn to the creek by a soft curse hitting her highly sensitive ears. Linda was gleaming wetly in the light, wrestling a clean shirt over her head and trying to untangle her soaking wet hair from the collar. "Morning," she paused to say beneath the fabric. "Bath?"
Kara pointed skyward at the sun. "I just need a few minutes of sunbathing and I'll be fine. But it looks like you had a audience." She spotted the owl staring at them from a tree.
"Weird to see an owl out so late," Linda said offhand as her head finally popped through the opening and she pulled her shirt down. "How do you feel about some breakfast? We've got pig candy in the cooler. I'm sure that I can toss us together a breakfast sandwich."
They were soon so involved in the making of food and the delicious aroma of bacon sizzling in the pan that they didn't notice the voyeuristic owl take flight.
***
The midday sun filtered down through the trees as Kara and Linda tramped alongside the creek. Linda led the way, testing the way ahead for snakes with a stout stick. Kara walked behind, carrying Linda's pack on her back.
"Isn't this pretty?" Linda mused as she took a moment to gaze about.
Kara nodded quickly. "I can see why you enjoy your job so much."
"It keeps me from sitting around the house," Linda said.
Her friend didn't miss the slight slump that came into her shoulders and a troubled look came into her eyes. It was too beautiful a day to venture into such dark territory but it seemed that Linda was unable to save herself from herself.
It didn't take a Brainiac to figure out the source of her pain. Kara had been at Linda's for a few months now and, in that time, nothing of her former mate had been packed away or disposed of. She had even seen Linda gently dusting these curios of a life passed on and her super-hearing could still hear those occasional nights of quiet sobbing no matter how hard she tried to block it out.
It wasn't her business to interfere in her friend's life but it hurt her to see the person who had accepted her so readily in such pain. So Kara had thrown herself into Linda's life, trying to be playful and carefree. Anything to distract her, but a laugh or a smile was momentary, heartache ran deep and long. Kara stepped to her side and took her hand, with a false cheerfulness.
"I think we've gone down this path far enough," she said. "Let's head back to camp."
***
Blackbriar Thorn stroked his chin, ignoring the flakes of bark that chipped off. He didn't have to destroy them didn't he? Damn them for being beautiful. He sighed in irritation at the conflicting thoughts that rolled through his mind. If he let this stand, more would come and soon he would have nowhere left to go for his solitude.
It was a shame. It had been a long time and the brunette had stirred something in him he had long thought dead. His earthy robes creaked as he took his first step in years and vines erupted from the ground at his gesture, encircling his legs, chest and arms like a supple suit of green. With a nod of satisfaction, he reached a decided on a course of action. He would try to drive them away first. If they just left, he wouldn't have to kill them and then run the risk of others coming to find them.
Thorn slowly raised his hands above his head and called upon the powers of nature to aid him. The sky swiftly darkened and a cold gust of wind swept down from the heavens and moaned like a forlorn banshee through the trees. He grinned, pleased that he still had the control at his fingertips and that he had been clever enough to try something indirect instead of charging in consumed with anger like he had been known for. The strong wind sighed mournfully as if in agreement.
***
The frigid jet of cold air ripped through their campsite sending the still wet Linda running for their tent with a shriek, arms across her chest. Kara just looked around confused, unaffected by the wind and staring skyward at the laden gray clouds. "Where'd that come from?" she asked.
"I don't know!" Linda yelled back from inside the tent, "But I'm freezing!"
Kara looked around as the gusts continued and the temperature continued to drop. She wasn't overly familiar with the normal climate of mountainous California but she was pretty certain that rapid drops like this were not normal. Her feet left the ground as she willed gravity to loosen its hold on her. "Stay inside!" she shouted to Linda. "I'll check this out!"
Something wet hit her face and then another and another. Supergirl gazed in wonder at the white flakes falling gently but insistently from the heavens. Snow? In June?! This was crazy! An especially hard gust of wind sent her spinning in place and her temper was starting to grow short. This had to be the work of a villain.
Someone who is not going to snow out my camping trip!Her eyes swept the forest treetops before she pushed her vision harder. Eyestrain and more treetops. Something was wrong. Why wasn’t her “x-ray” vision working? She’d figure that out later. Right now…
With a sudden yell of surprise and panic she was falling earthward, arms and legs flailing wildly in an attempt to gain altitude. Kara hit the forest canopy with a resounding series of loud cracks as her body bounced like a pinball, shattering branches and scattering boughs on the way down. She hit the ground face first in a shower of dead leaves, her body aching from the punishment. She tasted blood.
That isn’t good. She loudly let out a word that would also certainly not make it onto the evening news as she slowly brought herself up on her elbows and blew her tangled hair out of her eyes.
“As uncouth as I expected,” a deep sonorous voice rang out disapprovingly. “You ‘super heroes’ are like vermin, I can’t overturn a rock without running into one or more of you.”
Kara looked over to see a bearded man wrapped in vines standing some distance away. He leaned heavily on an old oaken walking stick and she wasn’t sure which one had more years. “You the one making the snow?” she snapped.
“Uncouth and disrespectful,” he continued, hands tightening visibly on the staff. “Yes, stripling,
I made it. And I will continue to make it until you leave. You have violated the sanctity of my home. Begone and trouble me no more!”
“That’s all I needed to hear, Greenie!” Kara growled and launched herself at the strange old man only to find herself moving agonizingly slow. She was undeterred. “I’m gonna shove that stick…”
***
Linda saw Kara fall out of the sky from the tent flap. She cried out in alarm, quickly wrapped her sleeping bag about her and rushed out into the cold and rapidly deepening snow. Her instincts as a ranger made her pause and grab the emergency kit from the jeep despite the goosebumps erupting across her bare legs and the wetness seeping into her tennis shoes.
Several awful scenarios raced through her mind as she crashed through the underbrush in the direction of her downed friend. Something bad had happened. She had never seen Kara's incredible abilities fail her before. And here she was, rushing headlong into the same danger!
***
The vines exploded outward from the old man's body and wrapped around Supergirl's body. "You've got to be kiddi..." she laughed and flexed her arms. Thorn gestured with a grimace and the vegetation tightened against her. Kara's eyes widened in shock and then screamed in pain as she felt her ribs protest the pressure and she found it hard to breathe.
Great Rao! What was happening to her?The vice-like squeezing ended as she was unceremoniously dumped to the ground, breathing hard, as the tendrils of plant retreated back to his body. "Do not move," his voice rang out.
Kara came to her knees slowly. The scrapes and bruises that she was accustomed to seeing healing almost instantly still covering her body. "Y... you gon... gonna stop... me?" she gasped. She got to her feet unsteadily.
Blackbriar Thorn raised his hands. "I warne... urk!"
A large branch broke against the side of his head as Linda charged in with a cry from the tree line, her sleeping bag gone in the rush and trying to ignore the cold.
"Linda! No!" Kara cried in desperation and staggered forward.
The old man, unfazed by the wood shattering against his toughened body, threw his hand out and the vines shot out and enveloped Linda, who fell over with a cry.
Kara was on top of him at this point, pounding against his hardened body with her fists and really doing little other than to annoy him and bloody up her knuckles. He backhanded her and she went sprawling in the rapidly deepening snow.
His eyes smoldered. “I tried to warn you,” he growled, “I just wanted to be left alone to my quiet but you defy my will. You hound me!” His voice grew louder as his anger grew. “For that you will pay and pay most dearly.”
“You done talking yet?” Kara said, wiping her lip and regaining her feet.
“Quite done,” he said and the vines shot away from Linda and towards Kara again.
***
Kara dropped down and the green missile arched over her back. She ran forward and tackled the tree-man around the middle sending him off balance and onto his back. She could hear the vines rustle away amongst the trees as he lost control.
The old man sneered up at her as she straddled him. “Girl, in my younger days I would enjo-“
“Shut. Up!” Kara battered her already tortured hands against him.
“But you grow tiresome,” he picked up as if he had never stopped speaking. “Perhaps your friend will be more accommodating?” His hand grabbed her around the throat and began to squeeze as Kara felt herself unable to breathe.
She grabbed at the gnarled fingers, trying to pry them away but she wasn’t strong enough. The pressure was growing and she coughed and gagged as her vision began to grow blurry. She didn’t want her last sight to be his cruel face.
I’m sorry, Linda.And suddenly his hands were gone as he screamed in agony. Kara gasped for air as he twitched away from her, his back glowing and aflame.
Linda was quickly loading another flare into the gun from the emergency kit. “You get away from her!” she yelled.
Blackbriar Thorn roared in both pain and anger as he stumbled towards the brown-haired girl. Another magnesium flare burrowed into his body and instantly ignited the old wood.
“KILL YOU!” He screamed.
Another gust of wind ripped through he trees, feeding the fire that was rapidly consuming his body as Kara and Linda drew back from both the flailing figure and the rising heat.
The screaming stopped after a few moments as did the snow and wind. Linda and Kara could only watch as the druid burned himself out into a blackened husk.
“Are you alright?” They both asked as they quickly embraced each other.
Kara laughed hoarsely but she could feel her strength slowly returning. Whatever had happened to her, I had been the old man’s doing. “Linda…” she began.
“You would have done the same for me,” Linda cut her off. “I’m just happy you’re okay.”
“I guess this ruins our camping trip though, huh?” Kara said.
“Look, girl, I’m not driving us all the way out into the middle of nowhere to pack up and go home just because of some creepy old guy who tries to kill us.” Linda smiled and hugged her tighter.
“Really?”
“Yeah and, besides, I need to find out if Brave Stag and Anna make a baby.” Linda grinned and began walking back to their camp.
Kara pelted her in the back of the head with a snowball. “God, your taste in books is terrible.”
Linda hurled one back and hit Kara in the chest. “So’s your ‘taste’ in music.”
They ran back to camp in a running battle of flung snow, laughing.
The End.
