The Supergirl Legacy

A black luxury SUV pulled into the driveway of a modest house on the outskirts of São Paulo. Inside the house, Isabella and her father, Bruno, were in the family room. The conversation for the last hour had been trivial - mostly office gossip from Isabella's job at the Environment Ministry and Bruno's at the university. They knew weightier matters would have to wait until the whole family was gathered.

"Good, your mother's here," said Bruno when he heard the SUV. He looked at his watch and tsked. "It's not like her to be late. I hope nothing's wrong."

Isabella laughed. "Somehow, I think she could handle it."

Isabella's mother swept through the front door like a hurricane. She was unreasonably beautiful, with an athletic yet busty build, and very tall - 6 foot 3 even without heels. Her long hair flowed down her back in waves of inky black. Even for a simple family meal, she had dressed to impress in a form fitting black pencil dress with silver pinstripes. She was fifty years old, but didn't look a day over twenty-five. She removed her dark sunglasses with a dramatic flourish.

"Hello Bruno, hello my sweet Isabella! I'm so sorry I'm late. There was a bit of an emergency. Rachel and Martha got into a big fight and Rachel isn't taking it very well. Fiona and I had to stop her from doing something very stupid."

The rest of the world knew this striking woman as Supergirl Adrianna, a member of the League of Supergirls, the group of thirty-four mighty super-powered women who dominated the world, ruling it and using the people as their playthings. But to Isabella, she was her mother above all..

Adrianna had been the ninth woman to become a Supergirl. Like all the others, the process had begun on her 25th birthday. One of the League's most closely guarded secrets was that Adrianna had been three months pregnant at the time. Six months later, she reached the culmination of her transformation into a Supergirl, and also gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She was the only member of the League to have a child.

Although six inches shorter and lacking the transcendent beauty of a Supergirl, Isabella looked a lot like her mother. Something that had not gone unnoticed over the years, given how infamous Supergirl Adrianna was in Brazil. Her friends teased her about the resemblance, never suspecting the truth for a moment. The idea that someone as irredeemably evil as a Supergirl could also be a mother was inconceivable..

Adrianna took her usual seat at the head of the dining table while Bruno went to fetch lunch from the kitchen.

"What are we having?" asked Adrianna. "It smells so good."

"Pork, rice, and beans," said Bruno. "I'm worried the pork may be dry. You should have called."

If any man other than Bruno dared to issue even as gentle an admonishment as that to Adrianna, the remainder of his lifespan would be measured in seconds. But Bruno was the father of her beloved daughter and the man who had raised Isabella from birth into the wonderful young woman she was today. The harsh rules of the outside world, as laid down by the edicts and actions of the League of Supergirls, did not apply in this house.

"I'm sorry, Bruno. It all happened so fast."

The only humans who would ever hear an apology from Adrianna were Bruno or Isabella.

"You could have flown straight here. Exceptions can be made," he said.

As a precaution, when Adrianna came to the house, she drove the last twenty miles instead of flying. She always wore civilian clothing, never her distinctive black and silver Supergirl costume. Nobody could know that she had a daughter. Isabella's safety was paramount above all.

"I couldn't risk being seen. Especially today.'

Isabella sighed. She wasn't ready to confront the big issue of the day, just yet. She leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with interest. "Are Rachel and Martha going to break up?"

Supergirls Rachel and Martha were the most famous romantic pairing in the world, but unlike other celebrity couples, insider gossip about them was almost impossible to come by. It gave Isabella an illicit thrill to be in the know via her mother's regular visits. Despite the moral disgust she felt for the actions of the League of Supergirls, they were famous friends of the family, and she was eager to hear about their exciting lives. It made her feel like a teenager again.

Adrianna shrugged. "I don't know, sweetie. They've had fights before but this is the worst one yet. If they break up, I don't know what Rachel will do, especially if she starts drinking. Fiona and I were able to talk her down this time, but who knows when she might fly off the handle again."

"What were they fighting about?" asked Isabella.

"The same thing they always fight about: being in a long-distance relationship. Rachel has her palace in San Francisco and Martha has hers in London. Both of them love their cities and don't want to leave. I don't see why it's such a big problem when either of them can fly to the other in under half an hour. Your father and I lived a forty minute drive from each other when we started dating and we made it work."

"Until you became a Supergirl," said Isabella. There was unmistakable resentment in her voice.

Adrianna hadn't completely abandoned her daughter. Although Bruno had done the bulk of the parenting, she visited frequently. Their family Sunday lunches had been an appointment Adrianna never missed. She had even taken Isabella to meet some of the other Supergirls, who were always on their best behavior during her visits. However, Adrianna hadn't been a reliable maternal figure. Having to deflect questions about the identity of her mother had not helped. Isabella knew that if anyone discovered she was the daughter of a Supergirl, her "normal" life would be over. Few were foolish enough to voice such opinions out loud, but the Supergirls were universally despised across the globe. Although it was impossible to harm a Supergirl, anyone identified as a friend or family member was not so lucky.

Isabella both loved and hated her mother. As much love and kindness as Adrianna showed her, it was impossible for Isabella to ignore what being a Supergirl really meant. The things Adrianna did in the world were awful and very public.

Isabella knew more than any other human that Adrianna wasn't the worst of the Supergirls, by far. But Adrianna still abused her unlimited power and terrorized the people she ruled. After building her palace in Rio De Janeiro, she had torn down the world-famous Cristo Redentor and replaced it with a statue of herself twice as large. She tracked down and publicly executed anyone in South America who dared to speak ill of the Supergirls. She would take over restaurants and demand they impress her with a unique tasting menu, and tear the place down if they failed. She expected her slightest whims to be catered to on pain of death.

The Supergirls ruled and tormented the world. It was impossible to escape them. They were a constant reminder that her mother's ascension into their ranks was the reason Isabella hadn't been able to have a normal upbringing. Adrianna was vain, egotistical, tempestuous, and cruel, but she was also her mother, and despite her wicked nature, Isabella loved her. In a way it would have been easier if Adrianna had mistreated her, then she could have just hated her mother. But they shared a mother-daughter bond that had somehow survived the evils that Adrianna perpetrated.

Family was complicated. It was possible to love a terrible person with all your heart, just as one could hate a good person, all because of family dynamics.

For her part, Adrianna was devoted to Isabella and would do anything within her considerable power to protect her daughter. Nobody had ever noticed that the safest place on the planet was within a hundred mile radius of Isabella. That area was off-limits to any depredations by Supergirls and at least one member of the League was always on standby in case of disasters or accidents that might threaten Isabella's safety. The crime rate was non-existent and anyone who tried to change that was swiftly snatched off the street and summarily dispatched by a Supergirl.

As the only child ever born to one of them, what few maternal instincts the mighty women of the League had were focused entirely on her. Isabella would have been horrified to discover even half of what had been done by the overprotective superwomen to ensure her safety.

Bruno brought out the food. "The pork is fine. I was worried about nothing."

They served themselves and tucked in. They ate mostly in silence, as if each of them were waiting for one of the others to address the elephant in the room.

Eventually, it was Isabella, who had the most at stake, who spoke. "So, tomorrow's the big day. My 25th birthday. " She paused and swallowed nervously. "Did Chao-Xing find anything new in the blood samples or from the MRI?"

"I'm sorry, sweetie. We still don't know if anything is going to happen. She's tried, but there's simply no way to predict it. Every test she's run indicates that you're an ordinary human woman. There's no reason to think that because you are my daughter you have a greater chance than anyone else of-"

Isabella interrupted Adrianna, an act that carried the death penalty for anyone but her and Bruno. "-of becoming a Supergirl. Damn it. This has been hanging over me my entire life. I just want it over with."

Adrianna took Isabella's hands in hers. Her touch was surprisingly gentle for a woman who could tunnel through solid rock at supersonic speed. "Have you changed your mind? Are you sure you don't want to be a Supergirl?

"I'm very sure. I've been dreading this day since I was old enough to understand what a Supergirl is. But it doesn't matter what I want; if it's going to happen, it will happen regardless. I like who I am and I don't want to change. I don't want to be evil like you!"

"Isabella!" Said Bruno in a sharp tone of voice. "Don't speak about your mother like that."

Adrianna shook her head. "It's okay, Bruno. Isabella can only judge me by human standards, by which I am evil." She turned to Isabella. "Sweetie, for your sake, I hope you aren't chosen. But whatever happens, I'll always be here for you. I love you."

"I love you too, mom. You make it so damn hard sometimes, but I still love you."

"When will we know?" asked Bruno.

"After twenty-four hours, the energy signature of a new Supergirl is strong enough for Chao-Xing's equipment to detect it anywhere on the globe. Isabella was born at 5 PM on the Spire, which is 8 AM here."

"I remember," said Bruno. "That was a long day and your colleagues were not terribly welcoming."

"You're the only man to have ever set foot on the Spire and lived, Bruno. And I was the first and only Supergirl to have a baby. Everyone was out of their comfort zone."

Adrianna had given birth in Chao-Xing's lab on the Spire, with the brilliant Chinese Supergirl as her midwife. Bruno had been there, under no illusions that his presence was anything more than grudgingly tolerated. He had been excited for the birth of his daughter, but also terrified that if he said or did the wrong thing, one of the eight other volatile Supergirls would end his life in an instant. It was incredible to think that there were now thirty-four of these unstoppable women. He was glad he would never have any reason to make a return visit to the Spire.

Adrianna picked up where she had left off. "There will be signs before twenty-four hours have passed. Increased strength and durability, faster reflexes, enhanced hearing and vision. It's different every time, but the transformation usually starts slowly, so it may not be obvious for a while. By the end of the day, you wouldn't be bulletproof, but you would already be superhuman. If you feel at all different in any way, if you start hearing conversations from far away, or you start breaking things unexpectedly, tell your father and I at once."

"Are you going to stay? I need you to be here with me for this, not on the other side of the continent doing Supergirl stuff."

"Supergirl stuff" was the expression Isabella used to refer to the things her mother did in her role as one of the cruel dictators of the world, without having to fully address how terrible most of these actions were. Being a Supergirl's daughter required a high degree of cognitive dissonance to keep from collapsing under the moral weight of her mother's true nature. Isabella wasn't sure her own moral compass was reliable: she had to make so many excuses for her mother in order to stomach being around her. Sometimes, she almost believed them.

Adrianna nodded. "I will be here. I'm going to stay the night and celebrate your birthday with you. I won't leave until we know one way or the other."

"That's the most time you've ever spent with us. Won't you get bored? What do you want to do?"

"Oh, there's plenty to keep me busy here. We could play a game."

"Which you would win, because you're a Supergirl."

"I could read a book from your father's library."

"You could read all the books in his library in an hour."

Adrianna tilted her head. "Ten minutes, actually, but I prefer to use my super-speed sparingly. Life gets dull if everything is over too quickly."

"Well I'm going to watch that new documentary about the recovery of the rainforest," said Bruno. "You're welcome to join me in the family room if you like."

"Ooh, I'm in that one," said Adrianna.

"Of course you are," said Bruno.

"They interviewed me about all the loggers and clearcutters I killed when I first became a Supergirl. Apparently, I played a big part in saving the rainforest. It felt really strange to be given credit for something positive for a change."

"Did you let this interviewer live?" Asked Bruno, in a scolding tone.

Adrianna blushed. "No. He kept pronouncing my name wrong. Adri-err-nna. So, zap!"

"Mom, that's horrible," said Isabella, shocked at her mother's casual disregard for human life. "You're awful!"

"I'm also invincible and beautiful. There are some perks to being a Supergirl."

"Thank you for being here, though. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie."

*****

After a quiet day, they turned in for the night. Bruno and Adrianna shared a bed, as was their habit when she stayed overnight.

"She's crying," said Adrianna.

"Give her some privacy, please."

"I can't just turn super-hearing off." Her expression was serious. "Bruno, what will you do if she transforms? It could be difficult for you. She'd be a public figure. If people find out that your daughter is a Supergirl, you might get hurt. It's happened before."

"I will do what I have done every day for the last twenty-five years. Love both my daughter and the woman who brought her into this world. If anyone has a problem with that, I will tell them to take it up with you."

Adrianna kissed him softly. "My offer still stands. Any time you want to move into the palace, you're more than welcome."

Bruno laughed. "Hah! Move to Rio? Fat chance. What would I even do in your palace? I'm fifty-two. That's a little old to be one of your boy toys. Besides, I'm happy teaching at the university."

"You wouldn't be just a boy toy. They're disposable, you're not. You'd be my consort."

"What kind of consort could I be for you? I'm a middle-aged man with a bad hip and you're an eternally youthful super-goddess. The last time we made love, it took me most of a week to recover."

"Does that mean you don't want to…?"

"I never said that. I may not be as spry as I once was, but I'm still human and you're still irresistible. Just go a little easy on my pelvis."

"No promises." She leaned in and kissed him. "I'm in charge."

"You always are, my sweet."

*****

In her room, Isabella wept and tried to block out the sounds of her parents having sex, which didn't require super-hearing to listen in. The two of them were unrestrained in expressing their passion for one another.

She hated that her mother was a Supergirl. If it weren't for that, her parents would have been together her whole life, instead of during small windows of time when Adrianna stayed for more than just Sunday lunch. They obviously loved each other. Why couldn't they have tried harder to be a real family? She knew that Adrianna had a constant stream of lovers to pleasure her at her palace and she hated it. Bruno had been faithful to her all these years, why couldn't Adrianna return his loyalty?

She sat her favorite stuffed animal from childhood - a strange-looking penguin with a big yellow nose that her mother had found for her in Norway - on the end of the bed. It was a symbol of her strange upbringing that she had never quite left behind. She wondered how differently she would have turned out if her mother hadn't been a Supergirl. She wasn't as confident or as independent as other women her age, perhaps because Adrianna had coddled her, treating her as fragile simply because she wasn't a goddess.

"Ivarr, what am I going to do? What's to become of me?"

The penguin had no answer for her.

She tried to sleep, but tossed and turned relentlessly, unable to think of anything but the countdown to the 25th anniversary of the hour of her birth. This could be her last night as an ordinary woman, or it could be the prelude to disappointing her mother once and for all. Isabella knew that despite what she might say, her mother wanted more than anything for her daughter to transform and become as powerful and eternally youthful as she was. If Isabella remained human, her mother would try not to show it, but she would be crushed.

*****

Isabella made her way to the kitchen, still groggy from her sleepless night, to find they had a visitor. A very tall, transcendentally beautiful Chinese woman leaned against the counter, drinking coffee. She wore a short black silk minidress decorated with flowers.

"Auntie Chao-Xing!" exclaimed Isabella. "Mama never said you were coming. I haven't seen you for so long. Did you fly here?"

"I drove the last twenty miles as per your mother's instructions. I think I may have scared the other people on the road. I never learned to drive before I became a Supergirl and I never needed to after. I had to improvise."

Isabella laughed. "Are you going to stay for lunch? Dad baked a cake."

Chao-Xing shook her head. "I'm sorry, Isabella, I cannot stay long, as much as I love your father's baking. The Rachel situation has escalated and we need as many level-headed Supergirls as possible to deal with it. I just came by with some equipment for your mother."

"What kind of equipment?"

"Devices to measure strength, reflexes, and eyesight."

"So we'll know if I'm becoming a Supergirl…" She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Fifteen minutes to go."

"You poor thing, you must be so nervous," said Chao-Xing. "However this turns out, the League will always protect you. You are precious to us."

"I'm not nervous, I'm terrified," said Isabella. "I don't want to be a Supergirl. I want a normal life."

Chao-Xing frowned. "Even if you do not become a Supergirl, you will never have an entirely normal life. Do you think any other human being calls the legendary Supergirl Chao-Xing 'Auntie'?"

Chao-Xing was more than legendary, she was infamous. She dominated China with an iron fist, being the only Supergirl from that country. She was renowned for her sexual debauchery and there were rumors of horrific experiments she carried out in the basement of her Shanghai palace. She had been the 4th woman to become a Supergirl and her cruel genius had made her a leading member of the League. As an ordinary human, Isabella should have been terrified.

As with her mother, Isabella had to separate the kind Auntie Chao-Xing she knew from the terrifying Supergirl Chao-Xing who was one of the most feared Supergirls. Rationally, she knew they were the same person, but emotionally they were distinct.

"I know. I have eight godmothers and they're all Supergirls. I guess I've gotten used to a certain amount of weirdness."

Chao-Xing patted Isabella on the shoulder. A gentle gesture from a woman who held all of China in her thrall.

"You are a fine young woman and I'm sure you would be a Supergirl to be reckoned with. I must go now. Perhaps I will see you on the Spire soon."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I really hope not."

The Chinese Supergirl nodded and took her leave.

Ten minutes later, Isabella's parents finally emerged from their room.

"Did Chao-Xing leave already?" asked her mother. "I wanted to get an update on the Rachel situation."

"She said it had escalated, but didn't elaborate."

"Oh dear." Adrianna sighed. "It's not fair. For the first time in so long, I don't have to worry about Victoria, but now Rachel is causing problems."

"She's not going to do anything like Victoria or Eden did, is she?"

Victoria and Eden, the two Supergirls who comprised the extremist faction of the League had dropped out of public view a few months prior. Isabella and Bruno were the only humans who knew that their disappearance was a mystery not only to the world at large, but to all of the Supergirls, except for Kara.

Adrianna refused to tell Isabella in detail what Victoria and Eden had done to cause Kara to finally confront them, she would only say that they had gone too far; but what Isabella had been able to read between the lines of heavily redacted reports from Central America and New Zealand had been enough to give her nightmares. For years, the League had held the extremists and their genocidal agendas at bay, but the dam had broken and there was no telling how many had paid the price before Kara had put a stop to them.

In a way, Isabella was relieved to know that there were crimes even the League of Supergirls would not accept. Their rule might be capricious and violent at times, but only the extremists had been genocidal, and Kara had not been able to accept that level of killing..

Adrianna was as in the dark as everyone else about what had transpired when Kara had confronted Victoria and Eden, but the extremists had not been seen on the Spire or anywhere else since.

Kara had always been something of an enigma to the Supergirls who came after her. They respected her as the first Supergirl, even if they ignored most of her patchwork philosophy, but now they were also afraid of her, more so because she wouldn't tell them exactly what she had done with the extremists. She had simply said that they would no longer be a problem. The last League meeting had been unusually subdued, without the usual demands for a new crackdown on male rights from the radical faction of female supremacists.

"I don't think Rachel will go nearly that far," said Adrianna. "Not if we can get her to think clearly."

"Will Kara make her disappear as well?"

A hint of fear crossed Adrianna's face. "We're going to make sure it doesn't come to that."

"If Rachel does something big, will it be on the news or will you cover it up?" asked Isabella.

The everyday activities of the Supergirls rarely made the news unless it was a slow day. Somewhat bigger events - in terms of loss of life or destruction - would be reported on. The League was happy for information like that to spread, since it underlined how powerless humanity was to oppose their Supergirl rulers. Truly awful acts such as Victoria and Eden's recent outbursts of mass killing were kept under wraps as much as possible. There was no telling what idiocy the human race would get up to if they thought they had nothing left to lose.

"I don't want to look at the news," said Isabella. "Today is all about you. Let the others look after Rachel. I'm sure they can handle it."

Isabella hugged her mother. "Thank you, mom. I'm glad you're here."

"We both are," said Bruno. He was holding his side and limping more than usual.

"Dad, are you all right?" asked Isabella.

"Your mother may have broken one of my ribs. Nothing to worry about."

Adrianna stared at Bruno's torso for a moment, examining his ribs with her x-ray vision. "It's not broken, just bruised. Don't be such a baby. Isabella, do I smell coffee?"

Isabella poured two cups of coffee for her parents. The three of them watched nervously as the clock slowly ticked its way to eight o'clock.

"I think I'm going to throw up," said Isabella.

She ran to the sink and emptied the scant contents of her stomach.

"Is that a sign?" asked Bruno.

Adrianna shook her head. "Isabella, come here, sweetie. I want to test your strength and reflexes now so we have a baseline to compare against."

Chao-Xing's custom grip meter showed that she had normal human strength and reflexes at 8:01 AM. The measurements were unchanged at 10:03 AM and Isabella dared to allow herself the hope that she had escaped the destiny she feared, and another twenty-five year-old woman, somewhere in the world, was beginning her transformation into a superpowered goddess.

The strength measurement remained close to her baseline at 12:02. Isabella was still tense. She knew she wasn't out of the woods yet. They ate lunch and joked with each other. Afterwards, they had cake and she received her birthday presents: a history book from her father, and a necklace from her mother.

"It's lovely," gushed Isabella. "Are those real diamonds and rubies?"

"Of course, and they look better on you than they did in the Tower of London. Martha helped me pick out the stones and Chao-Xing made the necklace. It's virtually indestructible, so you can still wear it if…"

"Speaking of which," said Isabella. "It's past two o'clock. Time for another strength test."

The grip meter showed that her strength had increased by 10%.

"Fuck," said Isabella.

"Language!" scolded her father.

"It could just be an adrenaline spike," said Adrianna. "You're all keyed up."

By 4pm, her strength was 30% more than it had been at 8 AM, well past the margin of error or the possibility of another explanation. Isabella's heart raced as the horrible truth sank in. She was going to be the next Supergirl. She was going to be like her mother.

"Look into the vision tester," said Adrianna. The device resembled a stubby pair of binoculars. She rotated a dial on the side and passed it to Isabella. "Can you read the row of letters?"

"O F L C T B," said Isabella. "That wasn't hard."

"Eight hours ago it would have been impossible. Let me check your reflexes."

Her reflexes were 50% faster than the baseline. Isabella slumped in her chair and began howling in anguish. Tears gushed and ran down her cheeks as huge sobs wracked her chest.

"This can't be happening! Please make it stop. Make it go away."

Adrianna stood behind Isabella and put her arms around her daughter. She was ecstatic to know that Isabella would soon be a Supergirl like her, but heartbroken to see her daughter in such distress.

"It's okay, sweetie. It's okay. I'm here for you. Your father, too. We'll get through this together."

"What happens now?" asked Isabella, her words punctuated by sobs.

"Tomorrow I will take you to the Spire where you will begin your training."

"I don't want to go to the Spire! I want to stay here."

"That's not possible. It wouldn't be safe for you and it wouldn't be safe for your father. You need to learn how to control your powers or you could hurt yourself and those around you."

"Kara didn't train at the Spire, neither did Katerina or Morowa. That turned out fine."

"Kara learned to use her powers on a farm in the middle of nowhere and broke both of her legs while doing so. Katerina burned down her family's dacha the first time her heat vision went off. Morowa accidentally demolished a building in Accra while showing off to some friends - those friends were crushed by falling rubble. Chao-Xing was the first Supergirl to be trained on the Spire before the League knew what it was doing, and it went so badly she still hasn't forgiven the others."

"I didn't know any of that," said Isabella quietly.

"Make the most of today. You'll be able to visit your father again when you have completed your training and transformation."

"But by then I'll be an evil Supergirl! Will I even still love him?"

"I do and you will, I'm sure of it."

After dark, when they were certain the neighbors were asleep, Adrianna and Isabella went out to the driveway, where Isabella gingerly lifted Adrianna's SUV over her head.

"I can only just lift it," she said "I'm not sure how much longer I can hold it."

"Then put it down, you silly girl. How did that feel?"

Isabella lost control of the SUV and dropped it the last couple of feet while putting it down.

"It felt good. Great, actually. I have so much energy, I don't think I'll need to sleep tonight."

"We can watch movies after your father goes to bed." Adrianna smiled, devilishly. "I don't think he's in any shape to go another round with me tonight."

Isabella leaned against her mother. "In the morning, you'll fly me to the Spire and my old life will be over."

"Your new life will begin. I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but this is a gift. You are becoming a goddess, Isabella."

"I was happy to be mortal, but I guess that's not an option any longer."

"Let's go inside and maybe your father will make his special hot chocolate."

*****

Isabella's arrival on the Spire was different to the experience of other new Supergirls. She already knew most of the women of the League, either in person or through her mother's stories, so meeting them wasn't as awe-inspiring and fearful as it would have been for someone who'd never known the Supergirls as anything but a distant group of untouchable goddesses. Eight of them were her godmothers, and the rest had always had a maternal sense of protectiveness towards her.

The one she knew least about was Martha, who had joined the League the year before. She met the English Supergirl a week after arriving and they greeted each other and hugged as if they'd been close their entire lives.

"So I finally get to meet the famous Isabella," said Martha. "You look so much like your mother! You're going to be such a beautiful Supergirl."

"Thank you, Martha. How is London? Is Rachel with you?"

Martha blushed. The rumor Isabella had heard was that shockwaves from the make-up sex between the two Supergirls had damaged the foundations of dozens of buildings in both London and San Francisco.

"She had some business in Seattle, but you'll see her soon. Everyone is so excited to train you! You're the League's only child and now you're going to be one of us."

Isabella smiled, but inside she was in a state of confusion and despair. She was still opposed to the actions of the League, as much as she had affection for the individual Supergirls. She understood that her outlook would change as she grew into her powers, but at that moment, she didn't see how she would ever be able to join such a despicable group.

Despite their fondness for her, none of the Supergirls went easy on Isabella during her training. Chao-Xing was strict and unforgiving of mistakes while teaching her the meditations and exercises required for her to control her flight ability. The Chinese Supergirl gave her grudging praise when she mastered them much faster than any of her previous students.

Even with her moral qualms about the League, Isabella had a blast learning to master her growing powers. The afternoon she'd spent on the gun range where Aisling had peppered her bulletproof skin with everything from a 9mm semi-automatic to a 50-caliber rifle designed to kill buildings had been incredible. The sensation of a supersonic slug liquefying itself against her body was astounding and indescribable to anyone who didn't share her invulnerability.

Like it or not, the Supergirls were her peers now. They were the only ones who understood what it was like to have been raised so far above mundane humanity. She wondered when she would start to lose touch with her old sense of morality. How long would it take for the incredible power that was building within her to overwhelm and extinguish any sense of right or wrong?

After three months of training, Aiko took her to go clubbing in New York. It was the first time Isabella had been off the Spire since she'd arrived. It had been a strange night. Aiko had subtly and then not-so-subtly pushed Isabella to be more aggressive in using her Supergirl status and powers to get special treatment. But Isabella was just happy to be out with the fun-loving Japanese Supergirl, dancing and having a good time.

The next night, Kara had visited her quarters for a very odd discussion during which the senior Supergirl had tried to persuade her that the existence of the League was a positive thing for humanity. When Isabella had raised the recent actions of the extremists as a counterpoint, Kara had gone silent for several minutes while she drank three glasses of bourbon. When their conversation resumed, Kara made it clear that the matter was dropped.

The fates of Victoria and Eden was a topic of lively discussion among the Supergirls, although never when Kara was on the Spire. The extremists had been unpopular within the League, since their actions threatened to upset the comfortable empire the Supergirls had built, but their shocking disappearance cast a long and sobering shadow. For the first time since they had become Supergirls, the goddesses of the League felt the cold touch of mortality. If Kara had killed Victoria and Eden, she could do the same to any of them.

Isabella tossed and turned in bed that night, restless from the liquor Kara had insisted she drink, and from obsessing about their conversation. It was clear Kara had wanted to convince her she was right. At times, it seemed like she was almost desperate for Isabella to come around to her way of thinking. Was it wrong that after three months, she still thought the Supergirls were irredeemably evil? Martha had reassured her she'd had many of the same thoughts when she'd been at the same point in her transformation, but Isabella remained nervous.

Was there something wrong with her?

*****

Adrianna waited impatiently in the sunlit throne room of her palace in Rio de Janeiro. She was early for the meeting.

In the three months since Isabella had begun her transformation into a Supergirl, Adrianna felt nervous whenever she was away from the Spire, where she could keep an eye on her daughter becoming a goddess. She'd neglected her domain. There was a pile of edicts to issue and budgets to approve. Her absence had not gone unnoticed and people had become far too bold about criticizing or insulting her. There were dozens of executions she would have to take care of before returning to the Spire.

Kara arrived at the exact moment she had said she would.

Adrianna stood up from her throne to greet the elder Supergirl. "What is this about, Kara? Why are we meeting here rather than on the Spire?"

"I want to be sure we are not overheard. We need to talk about Isabella. I'm very worried about her."

Adrianna was confused. "Her training is going well from everything I've seen and heard. She's learned how to control her powers faster than any other Supergirl before her. It's almost as if she was primed for them."

Kara frowned. "That's what I'm afraid of. I think that because of her heritage as your daughter her body and mind were prepared for the transformation in a way a normal human would not have been. It's affecting her differently than it did the rest of us. It's not her abilities I'm concerned about: it's her attitude. She's not like us. By now, she should have started to lose her empathy for humans, to see herself as above morality, to enjoy using her powers for her own selfish ends. None of these have happened. Her moral outlook is still as mortal as when she arrived on the Spire. Aiko put her through the nightclub scenario the other night and she wouldn't even accept a free drink. Tell me, has Isabella ever acted selfish, vain or petty?"

Adrianna shook her head. "Never, she's always been very kind and considerate. The worst she's ever done is to love me despite my actions."

Kara looked like she wanted to let out one of her rare curse words. "We had a close call with Martha, but she came around. Isabella is something else entirely. We may have a superheroine on our hands."

"Oh no! Surely it won't be that bad," said Adrianna. "There's still time."

Kara shook her head. "As things stand, she will never join the League. The execution ritual would be unacceptable to her."

The final step a new Supergirl had to take before assuming her place in the League required them to use their powers to kill five men in different ways. It showed that the newly-minted goddess had an appropriate sense of superiority over mere mortals, a suitable lack of remorse, and control over her powers. If Isabella clung to her old morality, the idea of such cold-blooded murder would appall her.

Adrianna's heart sank. There had always been a rift of misunderstanding between her and Isabella: a distance wider than should exist between mother and daughter. Adrianna was a Supergirl - a vain, capricious, selfish goddess. Isabella had been an ordinary human, raised by a good man to be a good woman. Adrianna had been overjoyed when Isabella had begun her transformation. Finally they would be able to connect with one another, to share a common outlook on the world, and to bond as equals. But if what Kara was saying was true, then the gulf between them would remain and might even widen. If Isabella retained her human morality, Adrianna would still be trapped on the outside of her daughter's life, looking in. If Isabella wasn't part of the League, could they even become enemies?

"I blame myself," said Adrianna. "I should have been more involved in raising her. Bruno is too gentle a man to raise the daughter of a Supergirl."

"What was the alternative?" asked Kara. "Raise her on the Spire or in your palace? Those are not suitable places for children."

"At least then she would have normalized our behavior instead of seeing it through a purely human lens. Now you say she might turn into a superheroine. What if she actively opposes the League? What would you do?"

Adrianna looked into Kara's eyes with an expression of pure venom. "I don't know what you did to Victoria and Eden, nor do I care, but if you try to hurt so much as a hair on my little girl, you will regret it."

Kara nodded. "I understand. Look, Victoria and Eden were a very different kind of problem. They were too far gone in their madness to be fixed, but Isabella is still undergoing her transformation. Chao-Xing has always had a contingency plan in case something like this happened."

Adrianna had no illusions about the lengths Chao-Xing would go to in order to maintain the League's power. The Chinese Supergirl was as ruthless as she was brilliant.

"It's called Project Psyche," said Kara. "Chao-Xing and I could have gone ahead without telling you anything, but Isabella has meant so much to all of us for so long… She's like a daughter to many of us. We won't do this to her if you don't want us to."

"What is Project Psyche?"

Kara drew a deep breath. "It's a combination of different techniques to… Okay, that's science bullshit. To be blunt, we're talking about brainwashing your daughter to adjust her morality to be more appropriate for a goddess. "

Adrianna was stunned. "Brainwashing? Is that even possible? She's a Supergirl."

"Not quite she isn't. We would need to start immediately, but her mental defenses haven't fully matured. She is still susceptible to the treatment. It's something that would be done while she was sleeping, so she wouldn't know it was happening."

"What kind of mother would I be if I allowed this? If she ever found out, she would never forgive me."

"Parents sometimes have to make hard decisions in the best interests of their children."

Adrianna put her head in her hands. "She has never forgiven me for being a Supergirl in the first place. What difference would one more unforgivable sin make? At least this way, we have a chance for a relationship. If she became a superheroine, it could tear us apart forever. Do what you must."

"I'll let Chao-Xing know she can begin. This stays between the three of us. The others don't need to know."

"How long will it take?" asked Adrianna.

"We'll know in a couple of months if the treatment is having the desired effect. She should start to show indifference towards human suffering by then. When it's time for her to join the League, she should be willing to complete the execution ritual."

"But she will still be Isabella?"

"Of course. She will be Isabella unleashed, freed of the shackles of humanity."

"Tell Chao-Xing to be careful with my baby girl. I don't want her ending up like Victoria or Eden."

"None of us want a repeat of that unpleasantness," said Kara. "Least of all me."

Adrianna wailed. "I can't believe I'm going to let you do this to my precious Isabella."

Kara put a hand on her shoulder. "This is kindness, Adrianna. To be a goddess with the ethics of a mortal would be no way for someone to live. It would drive her mad to have all that power and be expected to use it for the good of others. She would never be allowed to rest, always running from one human calamity to another."

"When did everything get so complicated, Kara?"

"It always was complicated, but you had Isabella and Bruno to hide behind. You had a facsimile of a normal family you could run away to when you needed it. The rest of us didn't have that luxury. The League may appear as a solid wall to the outside world, but I know it's a fragile edifice. Every new Supergirl makes it more likely to come tumbling down, but they keep coming, year after year. For what it's worth, I really am sorry we have to do this. Isabella is the best thing to come out of the League and it kills me that we have to taint that. We'll talk again, but not on the Spire."

After Kara left, Adrianna sat slumped on her ebony throne with her head in her hands. She had betrayed her daughter's trust. She wasn't sure if she would ever be able to forgive herself. What kind of mother was she? The only kind a Supergirl could be: a cruel one.

*****

Isabella and Adrianna flew side by side over the Himalayas. Isabella couldn't fly as fast as her mother, but she had impressive control of her powers after five months of training. She swooped, flew in high-g loops, and buzzed the slopes of the mountains. The shockwave from her passage close to one of them started an avalanche.

Adrianna smiled when she saw the destructive curtain of falling snow and rock smashing everything in its path. It wasn't like Isabella to use her powers so recklessly. Perhaps it was a sign that Chao-Xing's treatments were working.

Adrianna wore her Supergirl costume, but Isabella had not yet been initiated into the League, so she didn't have one. She wore a black sports bra and leggings that Chao-Xing had given her. The clothes were not as durable as the official costume, but they were still bulletproof.

"Come on, sweetie," said Isabella. "Follow me.'

Adrianna turned and flew north at a leisurely Mach 5. Isabella took position alongside her mother.

"Where are we going, mama?"

"When we're away from the Spire, call me Adrianna. No-one must ever know that you are my daughter."

"I'm sorry… Adrianna, but won't people figure it out eventually? We look so alike now."

Isabella's body and features had changed significantly in the five months since she'd become a Supergirl. She was taller, bustier, and more athletic. The trademark six-pack abs that all Supergirls sported were almost fully-formed. Her features had grown into the divine beauty of a Supergirl and she looked more like her mother than ever.

"They can speculate, but they must never have confirmation. We're going to Siberia. There's a pre-League military bunker that's been repurposed to host darknet servers. We're going to clear out the bunker and take the servers back to Ziana so she can analyze the data."

Isabella frowned. "I thought Ziana created the darknet as a honeypot to catch people talking smack about the Supergirls. Why are we shutting it down?"

"These particular servers host sites that are more than the usual petty human bitching and moaning. They are trying to organize a widespread campaign of civil disobedience."

"Civil disobedience? That doesn't sound like such a big deal."

Adrianna frowned. "Historically, it's the only strategy the powerless have used successfully against overwhelming power. The League is right to take the threat seriously."

"If the servers are in Russia, why isn't Katerina doing this?"

"We thought this would be a good introductory mission for you. I'll get to see you in action. I want to know how much control you have over your powers."

The unspoken reason, the one that Isabella could not know, was that the League also wanted to see how ruthless Isabella could be. They wouldn't know for sure if Chao-Xing's treatments were having the desired effect until Isabella had blood on her hands.

If Isabella was still on the path to being a superheroine, she would never kill. If Chao-Xing's treatment had worked, then ending a human life would be the most natural thing in the world to her, of no more consequence than squashing a bug.

The bunker was buried under a bleak, featureless Siberian tundra. Adrianna spotted the concealed entrance easily and gestured for Isabella to follow. They landed without making a sound and used their x-ray vision to look through the heavy steel doors.

"Only two guards," whispered Isabella, so quietly that only her mother's super-hearing could pick it up.

Adrianna shrugged. "They could have a hundred guards or a thousand and it would make no difference, but we need to do this quickly and quietly. If they know we're coming, they may have time to delete data from the servers. Do you want to tear open the door or dispatch the guards?"

Adrianna waited with anticipation for Isabella's answer. A true Supergirl would never turn down an opportunity to commit violence against those weaker than her.

"I'll handle the door," said Isabella. "I don't want to mess up and let them raise the alarm."

Adrianna tried to hide her disappointment. She didn't believe Isabella's excuse: a Supergirl could react to events at such inhuman speed that there was zero risk of one of the guards having time to alert his comrades.

Isabella stood in front of the armored doors. On her mother's count of three, she punched into the steel, took a firm grip, and pulled the doors off their hinges in one smooth motion. The guards had no time to react before Adrianna sliced each of them cleanly in two by running a focused beam of heat vision across their waists. Their bisected corpses collapsed into a pile, steaming in the cold Siberian air.

Adrianna pointed at the dead men. "You see how my heat vision cauterized the wounds as it cut through their flesh and bone? That's why it's always the first choice when you don't want to make a bloody mess."

Isabella nodded, but Adrianna noticed that she kept her eyes averted from the bodies.

They floated silently into the bunker. They used their x-ray vision to check for guards before entering each new room or corridor. As they neared the room with the servers, Adrianna noticed a guard hiding around a tight corner and realized that Isabella had not spotted him. She pretended not to see him either and hung back so that Isabella would be the one to encounter him.

Isabella turned the corner and gasped in surprise. Adrianna watched with a hard knot in her stomach as her daughter skillfully and rapidly disarmed the man and rendered him unconscious with a non-lethal blow.

There were three technicians in the server room. Adrianna gestured for Isabella to take the two on the right, while she took the one on the left. The Supergirls burst into the room in a blur of motion. Adrianna closed on her target in a millisecond. She punched through his neck in a furious splash of blood and shattered bone, leaving his head lolling at an unnatural angle, barely connected to the rest of his body.

She turned to see how Isabella had done with her two targets. She was confused at first. Both men were unconscious rather than dead and they had scorch marks along the top of their heads where Isabella's heat vision had grazed their scalps without seriously harming them. She followed the path the heat vision beams would have taken and saw that Isabella had melted the servers to useless slag.

"I'm sorry, mom," said Isabella. "I missed."

Adrianna closed her eyes for a few seconds and sighed very deeply. "Don't lie to your mother, Isabella! I won't stand for it and you're not very good at it. Supergirls don't miss. Even new ones like you."

"I…" Isabella struggled to find an excuse for what she had done. Unable to find one, she slumped to the floor and started to cry. "I couldn't let you take the servers. Ziana would have tracked down the people using those sites and you or one of the others would have executed them."

Adrianna sat on the cold concrete floor next to Isabella. The bunker room smelled of burned electronics and fresh blood. She put an arm around her daughter's shoulder.

"You didn't kill anyone, but you didn't try to stop me from killing. How do you feel about that?"

"I'm not sure," said Isabella. "I couldn't bring myself to kill, but I didn't want to make you angry, so I didn't try to stop you. I'm a mess. I'm so sorry. I fucked everything up. Kara is going to be so mad."

"You didn't fuck anything up," said Adrianna. "Ziana hacked into these servers a week ago. Zoe and Fiona executed the last of the activists who were using them yesterday."

Isabella stared at her mother in horror and disbelief. "Then what are we doing here?"

"This was a test to see if you would be ready to join the League in a month." Adrianna laughed and stroked Isabella's hair. "You failed quite spectacularly."

"But I'm a Supergirl," said Isabella. "I have to join the League, don't I?"

"Are you willing to kill five defenseless men in cold blood? If it helps, they wouldn't be very nice men. That is the final step you would have to take before joining."

Isabella shook her head. "I couldn't do that. Even if they were criminals, I couldn't be the one to end their lives. I'm sorry. Why am I different from the other Supergirls?"

"It's my fault. I think it's because you're my daughter. The transformation has affected you in a different way to the rest of us."

Adrianna pulled Isabella closer and they leaned against each other in silence for a few minutes.

"What's going to happen to me?" asked Isabella, eventually.

"I don't know that, either," said Adrianna. "A Supergirl has never failed to join the League before."

"Will they hurt me?"

"If they try, they will have to go through me."

Adrianna was under no illusion that she and Isabella could stand against the combined might of the League of Supergirls if it came to a fight. Two against thirty-one were not very good odds. Her friends, like Rachel and Fiona, might hold back from attacking. Perhaps Martha as well. But she was sure they wouldn't be willing to join Adrianna in a losing battle against most of the League. Even if they were, a fight between Supergirls on that scale could cause devastation worse than anything the extremists had done.

"Should I run?" asked Isabella. "I could hide."

"Hiding from one Supergirl is hard enough, hiding from all of them would be impossible." Adrianna got to her feet and pulled Isabella up. "Come on, my baby girl, let's go back to the Spire and see what Kara has planned for us."

*****

Kara and Chao-Xing were waiting for them on the far edge of the Spire, inches from the four mile drop straight down. Kara's expression was furious and Chao-Xing's was unreadable.

Isabella and Adrianna hovered in mid-air above the chasm, a few meters away, respecting the invisible boundary that Kara had drawn around the Spire.

"Your training is complete, Isabella. You have an impressive mastery over your powers," said Kara. "Are you willing to join the League of Supergirls and accept your place as a goddess and ruler of Earth?"

Isabella shook her head. "I'm sorry, Auntie Kara. I won't be a part of such evil."

"Don't call me 'Auntie'!" yelled Kara. "You're an embarrassment to all Supergirls. You're an abomination. I should kill you here and now."

Kara's eyes began to glow bright red. In an instant, Adrianna flew in front of Isabella to shield her from Kara's wrath. Twin beams of livid red heat vision erupted from Kara's eyes and struck Adrianna straight in the chest, burning a pair of holes through her black crop top.

Adrianna grunted in pain as her invulnerable skin resisted the energy of Kara's attack. "I told you before," she said, spitting her words angrily, "If you want to hurt my daughter, you'll have to go through me."

Kara sneered, but stopped firing her heat vision. "Do you think I won't? Protecting the League is more important than the life of any one member."

Chao-Xing put a hand on Kara's shoulder. "I think you should calm down. Adrianna is your friend and Isabella is your goddaughter."

Kara laughed. "You always say there's no God, only goddesses. Us. We decide who lives and who dies, nobody else. Isabella is a threat and she must be dealt with."

"I've spoken to the others," said Chao-Xing, "and many of them won't stand by and allow you to hurt Isabella. That includes me."

"Are you mad?" Screamed Kara. "You'd split the League to protect a woman who hates us?"

"I don't hate any of you," said Isabella. "I love you all. But I can't be one of you. I don't want to use my powers to hurt people or control them."

"You're an idiot," said Kara. "You think you're still human, but you're so much more. You're a danger to yourself and the League until you accept that."

"Are you willing to risk a Supergirl civil war to get your way, Kara?" Asked Adrianna. "You know how that would go. The world would burn to ash while we fought in the ruins."

Kara glowered at Adrianna and Chao-Xing. "I'm holding you two personally responsible for Isabella's behavior. If she stumbles, you will both fall with her." She turned to Isabella. "You are not one of us. Never return to the Spire. Do not get in our way. This is your only warning."

With those words, she turned and flew back to her quarters in the Spire.

"Is that it?" asked Isabella. "She's going to let me live?"

Chao-Xing flew up and hugged her tight. It was an unusual display of affection for the normally reserved Supergirl.

Isabella returned the hug. She put her head in Chao-Xing's hair and cried. "I'm sorry, Auntie. I never wanted this. I wish I'd never been chosen to be a Supergirl. Is Kara really just going to let me go?"

Chao-Xing broke the hug and put her hands on Isabella's shoulders. "I once told you that the League would always protect you and I meant it. I stand by it. I will do everything in my power to ensure that Kara does as well. It breaks my heart that you will not join our ranks, but I will not let us be enemies."

"How can we avoid it? I'm not like you. I can't condone the things the League does."

"You're a smart woman, Isabella. You know that you can't oppose the will of the Supergirls by yourself. Stay out of our business and don't give Kara a reason to go after you. Not all of the bad things that happen in the world are the fault of the League. There are still plenty of good deeds you can do without interfering with our activities."

"She's right," said Adrianna. "You need to be realistic. You can't stop the League but there's a lot of good you can do in the world regardless"

Isabella nodded. "And I need to protect you as well, mom. I know you'd die before you let anyone hurt me and I couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to you."

"I have a gift for you," said Chao-Xing. She flew to her lab at super-speed and returned in a few seconds with a bundle wrapped in blue silk, secured with a red ribbon. She handed it to Isabella. "Call it a belated birthday present."

Isabella was confused and a little nervous as she untied the ribbon and opened the bundle. Inside was a Supergirl costume, but instead of the traditional black and silver colors of the League, this costume was blue, red, and gold.

"I had a feeling things would turn out this way," said Chao-Xing. "It's a real Supergirl costume. Just as indestructible as the others. I hope you like the colors. They seemed right for some reason."

"Thank you, Auntie Chao-Xing. This means so much to me."

"Good luck, Isabella."

"You too."

Chao-Xing returned to her lab. Adrianna and Isabella looked at one another, not sure what they could say. Somehow, they had threaded the needle between catastrophes, but a chasm between supervillainess and superheroine now separated them. Still, they were bound by blood.

"Are you okay, mom?" Asked Isabella. "You took a blast of heat vision for me."

"I'm not going to lie to you. That was the first time I've felt pain since becoming a Supergirl. But I'd do it a hundred times to keep you safe."

The two women hugged one another in mid-air.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be what you wanted me to be," said Isabella.

"All I ever wanted for you was for you to be happy. Having you wear the black and silver would have been a bonus, but I'm sure you'll look wonderful in blue and red."

"I should get back to dad," said Isabella. "He's probably been worried sick about me."

"I've stopped by a few times and distracted him," said Adrianna with a knowing smirk, "but he misses you terribly."

Isabella took a deep breath. "Will I see you at lunch on Sunday?" She asked, nervously. How would their relationship change going forward?

"Of course," said Adrianna. "You know how important my family is to me."

*****

Fire Chief Perez's heart sank when he reached the scene of the collapsed apartment building. Two dozen people were trapped in the rubble and his men didn't have the equipment to dig them out. A specialist team was on its way from Santiago, but they were still a couple of hours away and time was quickly running out. One corner of the building was still standing, but only just. If that section collapsed as well, the ruins would shift and crush some of the people already trapped.

He cursed the culture of corruption that had flourished under the negligent rule of the League of Supergirls. When one's life could be arbitrarily snatched away on the petulant whim of a goddess, many people adopted a selfish, nihilistic attitude that nothing they did mattered. No doubt the inspectors responsible for ensuring the quality of the construction had been paid off to look the other way while the contractors cut every corner they could. He'd seen it half a dozen times over the past few years. Even when they didn't do it directly, the Supergirls were always hurting people.

There was a gust of wind accompanied by a blur of red and blue. A Supergirl stood before him with a concerned expression on her face. He didn't recognize which one she was, although she bore some resemblance to Supergirl Adrianna, including piercing green eyes. However, her hair was shorter and her costume was blue, red, and gold instead of silver and black. The bright colors didn't evoke the instinctive fear the traditional Supergirl ones did.

"What's the situation, Chief?" she asked. "How can I help?"

Perez was beyond confused. A Supergirl who wanted to help was unheard of. Surely it was some cruel trick and she would turn around and murder the victims of the collapse after giving them hope by pulling them out of the rubble. But there was something about her demeanor that made him want to trust her. What did he have to lose?

"I've got people trapped in the rubble. I don't have what we need to dig them out, but I guess that won't be a problem for you. You have to be careful as you work your way down, or the debris might shift and crush someone. Also, the southwest corner is close to collapse."

The Supergirl nodded. She ran her eyes over the rubble, presumably using her x-ray vision to find the trapped people.

"They're all alive," she said. "I see twenty-three people and I hear the same number of heartbeats."

She moved fast, but not so fast that he couldn't follow, as she carefully and systematically cleared the rubble, lifting massive chunks of concrete and metal as if they weighed nothing. As each victim was unearthed, she examined them with her x-ray vision, then carefully carried them to one of the waiting ambulances. If she was playing a vicious trick on all of them, the punchline wasn't obvious.

When she had rescued the first ten victims, the southwest corner began its long-awaited collapse. Perez began to shout a warning to the mysterious Supergirl, but she had already seen the threat. She blasted the falling debris with her heat vision, reducing heavy pieces of rubble to fine scattering of sand.

She returned to the task of excavating the rubble and all of the victims of the collapse were soon on their way to hospital.

"Thank you," said Perez, "Um, Supergirl… I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. Which one are you?"

"Just Supergirl will do," she said. "I'm new and I'm here to help."

"What about the other Supergirls? Are they going to start helping people as well?"

An expression of annoyance crossed her face and Perez braced himself for a burst of heat vision or a super-powered punch through his chest. "The other Supergirls haven't changed, but I'm not like them. Let people know. Red and blue means she's here to help."

With those words, she soared into the sky and into the distance.

Perez shook his head in disbelief. "A Supergirl who saves people? Will wonders never cease?"

*****

Two months later, a battered blue hatchback with faded paint pulled into the driveway of a modest house on the outskirts of São Paulo and parked next to a black luxury SUV.

In the family room, Bruno and Adrianna were making the most of their time alone with a steamy make out session on the couch. They stopped when they heard the car and adjusted their clothes to be more respectable.

Isabella swept through the front door like a hurricane, dressed in a pair of skintight jeans, a red crop top, and red ankle boots. At 6'3" with the build and looks of a Supergirl, she would have been the spitting image of her mother were it not for her short hair.

"Hello, parents!" She exclaimed. "I saw what you were doing on the couch and I'm not going to sit on it until somebody deep cleans it."

"You're late, Isabella," scolded her father.

"I'm sorry, dad. There was…" She trailed off and blushed red with embarrassment.

"What was it?" Asked Adrianna. "I promise I won't tell anyone in the League."

Isabella blurted out, "It was a cat stuck in a tree!"

Adrianna and Bruno both laughed.

"A challenge fit for a Supergirl!" Said Adrianna.

"It was a lot harder than you'd think. This cat was a furry monster! So much scratching and biting. I've never been so grateful to be invulnerable. I had to bribe him with fancy tuna before he'd let me pick him up."

Bruno went to the kitchen to check on lunch, which had been neglected while he and Adrianna had been exploring each other's bodies with their hands and mouths.

He returned with a solemn expression. "The rice is burnt, the beans are dry, and the chicken is like shoe leather."

"Give me your phone," said Adrianna. "I'll order pizzas."

Bruno sighed and handed over his phone. "Why do you never use your phone?"

"Chao-Xing doesn't like it when we use our special Supergirl phone for mundane things and I can't be bothered to carry two phones."

"What's so special about your Supergirl phone?"

Isabella chimed in. "Chao-Xing and Ziana designed it. It's almost indestructible and super-encrypted."

"You have one?" asked Bruno, surprised.

"Yeah," said Isabella. "Chao-Xing just gave me the latest model."

"You have spoken to Chao-Xing?" Bruno asked, surprised. "I thought that was forbidden."

"I'm not allowed on the Spire," said Isabella, "but if two Supergirls happen to run into one another out in the world, there's nothing Kara can do about it. We had dinner in Hong Kong after I cleaned up that oil spill in Indonesia. It was a little awkward at first - I've saved some lives she would have preferred I hadn't - but she's still my Auntie Chao-Xing. We're good."

"Pizza is on its way," said Adrianna after hanging up the phone. She smiled at Isabella. "So what has my good little Supergirl been up to this week?"

"Oh, the usual stuff. I've been helping with reconstruction and relief supplies in Central America - the damage Victoria did is going to take years to fix. I flew a climber with a broken leg off a mountain. I cleaned garbage out of Baltimore harbor and I rescued a bunch of people from a burning building in Lima."

Adrianna looked away. "Lima? When was this?"

"Wednesday. Please tell me you didn't start that fire, mom."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. There was a… thing with some, er, disobedient people that needed to be dealt with. The fire was collateral damage."

Isabella shook her head. "And you didn't bother to clean up the mess you made."

"You know that's not what I do. Perhaps we shouldn't talk so much about Supergirl Stuff." She looked out the window at Isabella's car. "I can't believe you're still driving that awful thing. Please let me get you something better."

Isabella frowned. "Are you going to pay for my new car with money you earned from an honest job, or are you going to just take it?"

"You know Supergirls don't pay for anything, dear."

"This Supergirl does," said Isabella.

"I understand," said Adrianna. "No, that's a lie. I don't think I will ever understand how that virtuous brain of yours works, but I respect it."

"Thank you, mom. That means a lot to me."

"But don't get me started on that awful apartment of yours in São Paulo. I can't believe you moved out of this house to be in a tiny place like that. It's a hovel!"

Isabella slapped her mother's hand, playfully. "I had to move out so I could be Supergirl without putting dad in danger. You've never even been to my apartment. How do you know it's awful? Have you been spying on me with your x-ray vision?"

"A mother worries", said Adrianna. She leaned in, conspiratorially. "So, I can share one tidbit about the League without Kara getting mad at me," said Adrianna. "Chao-Xing decided that we needed a little morale boost after all that's happened lately, so she made a second costume for us. It won't replace the other one, but it gives us a bit more variety. Do you want to see?"

"Of course! Dad, did you know about this?"

Bruno nodded. "I've seen it. It covers more, yet does not leave much to the imagination."

They closed the curtains so nobody would spy Adrianna in her new costume. In a blur of super-speed, she flew upstairs, changed, and returned. She stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Isabella whistled. "Oh my god, it's so tight! How do you even get in and out of that thing?"

The new costume was a skintight, glossy black full bodysuit with the classic silver 'S' symbol emblazoned across the chest. The thin, latex-like material clung to Adrianna's curves like a second skin, concealing nothing about the shape of her incredible body. A pair of black boots completed the outfit.

"It's a new fabric that Chao-Xing invented. A Supergirl can stretch it, which is how we put it on, but if a human tried to wear it, the inward pressure of the suit would crush them."

"No cape?" asked Isabella.

"No cape!" exclaimed Adrianna.

"I'm jealous," said Isabella. "Do you think Chao-Xing would make a blue and red one for me?"

Adrianna frowned. "I don't know if skintight latex is on-brand for a superheroine."

Isabella laughed. "Maybe not. But if I looked half as good wearing one of those as you, I'd be a fool not to try it. I may be a superheroine, but I still like to turn heads."

"Thank you, sweetie." She spun around, showing off how the material clung to and accentuated the roundness of her perfect ass. "This old lady has still got it!"

"No wonder papa was all over you this evening. If you keep wearing that outfit around him, he's going to burn every lunch from now on."

When the pizza arrived, Adrianna did another super-speed change back into her civilian clothes before Bruno answered the door. They ate hungrily. Bruno was always astonished at how much food Supergirls could put away, and the speed at which they did so was disconcerting.

"I should get going," said Isabella, when they were done. "I need to do all my work for the next week so I have time for my kind of Supergirl stuff."

Adrianna gave her a long hug on the way out. "Remember, anytime you need me, just shout and I'll be there."

"Same goes for you, mom."

Bruno and Adrianna watched their daughter drive away. Adrianna winced at the sounds the little car was making. She wondered how long it would take to earn enough money at an honest job to buy Isabella a new car, and whether she'd be able to stomach it. What was she even qualified for? She'd been in medical school before she became a Supergirl, but nobody would want an evil Supergirl dictator as their doctor. She laughed at the idea. She'd figure something out that didn't involve having to do an honest day's work.

"Are you staying the night?" asked Bruno, hopefully. Their earlier activities had left him aroused and frustrated.

"I'm sorry," said Adrianna. "I have a prior engagement. Maybe next time."

*****

A day later, Adrianna and Chao-Xing were in Chao-Xing's palace in Shanghai. Both of the Supergirls were naked, each straddling a handsome, muscular man with a rock hard cock buried deep in their super-strong pussies. Their hips moved in a blur as they energetically fucked the men beneath them. The men were so exhausted that the superwomen had to slap them to keep them from losing consciousness.

The floor of the ornate chamber was scattered with the slumbering forms of another ten equally attractive and well-endowed men. After almost a full day of energetically pleasuring the two Supergirls, they were completely spent. The twelve men were one of two teams of dedicated male fuck toys that Chao-Xing housed in her palace. When she was in the mood for female lovers, she preferred to prowl the bars of Shanghai for a more intimate experience, but when it came to cock, she liked it to be delivered in quantity, so she kept a generous supply close to hand. The men were used to only having one Supergirl to service, and having to pleasure two of them had pushed them well past their limits.

The two Supergirls orgasmed within seconds of one another, with loud screams of ecstasy that would leave the mens' ears ringing for a week. After riding their mounts to a few pleasant aftershocks, they used their super-strong vaginas to squeeze the men's cocks to flaccidity without allowing them to cum. They dismounted and lounged on piles of silk cushions. The men fell into a deep sleep and didn't notice when they were thrown halfway across the room with a casual swipe of the women's arms.

Adrianna took a swig from a ninety-year-old bottle of French wine and passed it to Chao-Xing.

"We must be getting soft in our middle age," she said. "I don't think we broke any of your toys."

Chao-Xing looked over the sleeping men with her x-ray vision and laughed. "Just a few broken ribs and some spectacular bruises. Clearly I need to up my game before I lose my fearsome reputation."

She fired a blast of heat vision and disintegrated one of the sleeping men. "There you go: reputation restored."

Adrianna laughed. The casual ease with which a Supergirl could end a human life never ceased to bring her a frisson of pleasure. That was one of the many thoughts she could never share with her daughter and it saddened her a little. She and Isabella were both goddesses in a world of mortals, but they interacted with that world in diametrically opposing ways.

Chao-Xing turned on her side, displaying her incredible body in all its glory. Adrianna was straight, but she was tempted by the perfection of the other Supergirls on occasion. She knew Chao-Xing would enthusiastically return any advance Adrianna made and that the results would be mind blowing. She'd heard enough stories from Rachel to know that two Supergirls could bring each other to levels of ecstasy that no human lover could hope to match.

Adrianna dismissed the thought. That wasn't why she was in Shanghai. The orgy had been a pleasant diversion, but it was time to broach what could be a sensitive topic with Chao-Xing.

She tried to choose her words carefully to avoid hurting Chao-Xing's legendary pride. "So, Project Psyche was not quite what we hoped for."

Chao-Xing wrinkled her nose and ran her eyes over Adrianna's body with a greedy look. She appeared to be enjoying the view very much. "Actually, it did exactly what I expected, well within the margin of error."

"What are you talking about? It had no effect on Isabella. She still became a superheroine."

"It changed her enough. I didn't tell Kara this, but Isabella was always too pure for Project Psyche to be able to bring her around to our way of thinking. It was designed for far less severe cases. I knew from the start that Isabella was never going to join the League."

Adrianna grew angry. "Then what was the point of it all? Why did you put me through that? I let you violate my daughter's mind for nothing!"

"Kara was the one who wanted to bring you into it. Without telling either of you, I started using Project Psyche on Isabella as soon as she arrived on the Spire. And it was not for nothing; it was to save her life. Yours too, since you would have died to protect her. Before I intervened, Isabella wasn't just on the path to becoming a superheroine, she would have been an absolute paragon. When we gained our powers, they pushed us to the darker side of morality. Isabella's powers were pushing her in the other direction. Her soul would have burned with righteous virtue and she would have fought tooth and nail against the League with everything she had until her inevitable dying breath. I introduced enough moral ambiguity into her mind to allow her to accept coexistence with us. She is still sickeningly virtuous, but it's tempered with sufficient realism to stop her from launching a doomed crusade against the League."

Adrianna was stunned. "You knew all along what was going to happen and then you went behind our backs to fix it. You and your fucking secrets! You're as bad as Kara. Why are you telling me this now?"

"We're friends and I wanted you to know that I meant what I said about protecting Isabella."

"Fuck, Chao-Xing. I can't even be mad at you: you saved my family. I honestly don't know how I can ever repay you."

Chao-Xing tsked. "You owe me nothing. Isabella is my goddaughter. I wasn't going to let anyone hurt her, not even herself."

"You know she wants one of those new skintight bodysuits."

Chao-Xing laughed. "She may be a heroine, but she is still your daughter. Perhaps for her next birthday."

Adrianna arched her back, stroked her clit a few times, and moaned. "Nngh. Why am I still horny after all that fucking? I must have come a hundred times."

"A hundred and three," said Chao-Xing. "Should I rouse the second team and we can see if they have more stamina than the first?"

Adrianna leaned forward and stroked Chao-Xing's short, black hair. "I had something else in mind, if you're up for it."

"Oh," said Chao-Xing, leaning in for a kiss. "Suddenly the night takes a turn!"

*****

A month later, Isabella flew through the open window of her bedroom and changed out of her Supergirl costume into a pair of sweatpants and an old tee-shirt that was now too small for her transformed body and stretched tight across her now ample chest. She was behind on laundry and running out of clean clothes.

She'd spent the day helping rebuild a water treatment plant in Venezuela that had been destroyed during Victoria's rampage. Hundreds of thousands would now have access to clean water for the first time in months. She was satisfied with a job well done, but also tired and ready to hit the couch to binge some stupid TV.

She opened the door to her small living area and was startled to see Kara sitting in the good chair. The elder Supergirl was dressed casually in jeans, boots, and a black sweater.

Kara sniffed and shook her head. "This place is disgusting. You have mold and mice in the walls."

"I'll get a cat," said Isabella.

"A Supergirl should live in a palace."

"Eden was living in a yurt on a mountainside," said Isabella.

"Eden was a lunatic."

"Would you like something to drink," asked Isabella. "I don't have any bourbon, but I have a bottle of half-decent Malbec. Unless you want to skip the formalities and go straight to killing me. I assume that's why you're here."

"I'll take a glass of wine," said Kara.

Isabella opened the wine and poured two glasses. She passed one to Kara and took a generous swig from her own glass. Her heart was beating like crazy. Despite her bravado, she was terrified, something Kara's super-senses would not miss.

"I didn't kill Eden and Victoria, you know," said Kara. "I couldn't bring myself to. They were deranged, but they were just doing what I've always preached. I said that Supergirls are beyond morality, that they should be free to do whatever they want, to indulge their every whim. They made a liar out of me."

"If you didn't kill them, then what did you do to them?"

"I sent them away," said Kara. "They won't be back."

Kara's expression told Isabella that she wouldn't be forthcoming about what that entailed, but Isabella had a feeling it was more than just stern words. If the Supergirls were a pantheon, then Kara was their godhead. She had been the first goddess. Did she possess abilities beyond the other Supergirls, or was she simply more cunning?

"So, you couldn't bring yourself to kill two genocidal maniacs, but you tried to murder me the second I defied you?"

"I understand Victoria and Eden. Their desires are amplified versions of the darkness inside every Supergirl. I started down the same path when I first became a Supergirl. I killed more people in my first year than those two ever did. But you're different. You're just… wrong."

Isabella took another sip of wine. "That's the kind of thing a girl loves to hear."

"But I'm not here to kill you," said Kara.

"Are you going to 'send me away' as well?"

"I've considered it, but the others wouldn't believe that I hadn't killed you. Things could get messy."

"So why the hell are you here?" Screamed Isabella. "Are you trying to torment me or talk me into joining the League? It will never happen."

"I'm here to say I'm sorry," said Kara. "I lost my temper. I shouldn't have attacked you or your mother. You've kept your end of the bargain - you haven't interfered - and I appreciate that."

"Thank you."

"I also thought you should know the truth about what Chao-Xing, your mother, and I tried to do to you while you were on the Spire…"