“Blast it!"
Dr. Hank McCoy (A.K.A. The Beast) glanced up from the text book he was studying and, looking over the top of his reading glasses, watched as Logan stomped into the meeting room / lounge used by the X teams.
“What seems to be bothering you today, my friend?” He inquired, though he had a notion he knew the answer already.
“That.... that.... that blonde headed...one woman wreaking crew!” Logan (A.K.A. Wolverine) snarled. “She’s totally wrecked the Danger Room.... again.”
“Oh my.” Hank removed the glasses from his blue furred face and cast an amused glance towards Scott Summers (A.K.A. Cyclops) “That’s the third time this week, is it not?”
“Fourth!” Logan corrected with a grumble.
“Well, not to worry, my friend.” Hand pointedly put his glasses back on and stuck his snout back in his book, saying, “She will no doubt have it back in working order in a matter of minutes. I believe it took her no more than five minutes last time.”
“True,” Scott interjected. “Man, that lady can move.”
Logan looked first at hank and then at Scott, his eyes narrowing.
“Well, I think the Prof. Should say something to her. And if he won’t, I will. Do you know that she has been teaching Rogue, Jenny Walters, and Jubilee some nonsense called Ko....ko.....”
“Koh-Re.” Scott helped him out. “From what I understand, it is a Kryptonian equivalent of Kung-Fu.” He stood and stretched. “Jean was wishing the other day that she had the time to take the classes.”
Logan again looked hard at Scott and then, with a final “Bah” spun on his heel and out the door.
An instant later, Jubilee entered, looking back over her shoulder. She looked in at Scott and Hank, a puzzled look on her face.
“What’s got Logan’s panties all in a wad?” She asked. Both Scott and hank gave her pained looks.
“Jubilee, that was one visualization I could have lived with out.” Hank finally spoke up, his voice dripping with distaste. “Logan and panties. Ugh!”
“Hank, if you please.” Scott moaned. Jubilee looked on as they both collapsed in fits of laughter. Shaking her head she left the lounge, wondering if she would ever understand men.
At that moment, the particular one woman wrecking crew was just putting the finishing touches on her repairs of the Danger Room.
“Girlfriend, you never cease to amaze me.” Rogue shook her head as Kara zipped around the room, moving at speeds so great that, at times, she appeared to be several places at once. The first time she had seen that it had been a bit disconcerting. Kara would be moving and talking and it would seem that her voice came from a different direction with each word.
“I’m just glad that Prof. Xavier has allowed me to use the Danger Room when I’m not in one of his orientation classes. She grimaced. “I can not begin to tell you how boring those can be.” She stopped moving and appeared, standing directly in front of Rogue, a hand held up to forestall her reply. “Yes, I know. Necessary.” She paused and looked down at her clothes and sighed. “And another set of clothes bites the dust.”
“I take it that is something that you’re not used to?” the voice was not Rogue’s and both women looked up as Prof. Xavier himself floated in on his air chair.
“Not really.” Kara answered, shaking her head. “I ruined an occasional pair when I didn’t have time to switch clothes before I had to take action, but even then I usually wore my suit underneath my regular clothes.”
“And the suit itself was never ruined?”
“No. It was made from material from Krypton. That made it as invulnerable as me under the yellow sun of Earth.”
“What has the sun got to do with it?” Rogue asked, somewhat bewildered. Kara shrugged.
“I believe that it was the differences in radiation wavelengths between various types of stars. Under a Red sun, I would loose many of my powers. On a heavy gravity world, I would be no different than any human. Under a Blue sun, my invulnerability and many of my other powers would be decreased and my vision powers would not work at all.” She shrugged again. “An orange sun would cut everything in half. etc. Only under a Yellow sun and then only on a light world, such as Earth, are my powers at their peak.”
“Interesting.” Prof. Xavier nodded. “You should, perhaps, give this information to Reed Richards. I am sure he would find it an interesting puzzle. For a few moments, at least.”
The women laughed at that, both well aware of Richards and his mannerisms. Over the past few months since her resurrection (see Part One - The Resurrection) they had both gotten to know the members of the Fantastic Four and Dr. Strange very well.
Another person they had gotten to know was Jennifer Walters, known to the world at large as the She-Hulk. Sue Richards had contacted Jenny in her capacity as a lawyer and she, once Kara’s story had been told to her, had jumped at the chance to represent her. Since then, the three had become almost inseparable companions.
“So, it seems that we must either be sure that you have plenty of suits or find a way to create one that is as invulnerable as you are.” Prof. Xavier steered the conversation back to the topic at hand. “Have you given any thought to the suit you wish?”
Again both women laughed.
“Prof. X, you just asked a woman if she had given thought to clothes?” All three turned as Scott Summers entered the room. He was holding hands with one of the most gorgeous red heads Kara had ever seen. She had been introduced to her as Jean Grey when she had gotten here and, though they had exchanged a few words here and there over the past couple of months, Jean was kept extremely busy.
“You better watch it, buster.” The red head looked over at her husband, “Or I’ll just release the blonde wrecking crew on you.” She glanced over at Kara, smiling.
“What?”
“Oh, Logan just being his own charming self.” Scott waved it aside..
“I think I intimidate him.” Kara said, somewhat apologetically.
“I’ll say you do.” Scott chuckled. “And that is not something our dear Wolverine deals well with.” Kara shook her head looked back over at Prof. Xavier.
“Anyway, I have given it some thought,” She answered his question. Though she appeared not to move, there was a slight breeze and suddenly she stood there, decked out in a blue, red, and yellow suit. She wore red boots, the tops trimmed in yellow, and a short red skirt with a wide yellow belt. The long sleeved top, which seemed to cling to every single curve, was blue with the exception of a large yellow and red S symbol that spread out in a triangular shape from just below the center of her breasts to her shoulders, where it seemingly connected to a short red cape that still fluttered from the wind of her super-speed passage through the school to her room and back.
“This is what I was wearing when I d...when I fought the Anti-Monitor.” She told them. “Or rather, a duplicate of what I was wearing.” She looked over at Rogue and frowned as her friend shook her head.
“Girlfriend, We have to do something with your fashion sense.” She was saying.
“Her fashion sense, “ Prof. Xavier reminded her, “is about fifteen years behind yours, Rogue. Remember, when she fought the Anti-Monitor, the year was 1985.” Rogue looked at him and then looked back at Kara.
“Like I said, we are going to have to do something about your sense of fashion, girlfriend.” She repeated herself.
“Well, do so quickly.” Prof. Xavier told them. “I mentioned the problem to Dr. Strange and he in turn mentioned it to Reed Richards. I do believe your weekly checkup is scheduled for this evening so Reed might just bring the matter up.”
The Rebirth
“How long are you going to have to go for these checkups?” Rogue asked as the two climbed into the evening air. Rogue knew that Kara relished flying and that it chaffed her to be grounded during the daylight hours. At least for the present.
“Until Dr. Strange and Mr. Richards are convinced that there is absolutely no chance of problems with the union of my spirit to this clone body.” Kara answered. “Though they both insinuated last time that it wouldn’t be much longer.” She looked over as Rogue spread her arms wide, her head thrown back, her hair trailing behind her. As they always did, her eyes settled on the gloved hands.
“Rogue, how closely do your Super teams and heroes work together?”
“Not real close at all.” Was the reply after a moment of hesitation. “Though there is more cooperation, it seems between the non-mutant heroes.”
“They tend not to be as cooperative with the mutants? Such as yourself?” Kara frowned.
“Actually, that is more of our doing.” Rogue admitted. “There has been so much anti-mutant feeling that we have become somewhat reclusive. Keeping ourselves apart.”
“And have you ever approached any of the other teams about your problem?” Kara pressed, eyeing the gloves again.
“Problem? Oh, you mean the absorption. No. There is nothing that can be done about that. It’s in the genes.” Rogue sighed. “Believe me, girlfriend, I wish that I could do something about it. To be able to touch again....”
Kara let the subject drop.... for now.
The Rebirth
As usual, Dr. Strange had left the windows and shutters open into his study for them. As they flew in, touching lightly to the floor, they saw that, as usual, Strange and Reed Richards were deep in conversation. What was out of the ordinary was the presence of two others. They knew one, her green skin and hair a familiar and welcome sight. She was the first to notice the arrivals and had jumped up to embrace them both.
“It’s about time you two got here. I was just about to give up hope and was figuring I was going to have to entertain these fine gentlemen all by myself.”
“Jenny, you are full of it.” Rogue laughed as she returned the hug. Kara smiled at the She-Hulk and nodded.
“What’s going on?” She gestured with her eyes towards the men. They had risen and were standing patiently, waiting.
“Well, I’ll let them explain themselves.” Jenny said, standing back. “Afterwards I need to have you sign I few papers and make a suggestion.” Kara nodded and turned to the men.
“Kara, I would like you to meet some one.” Dr. Strange stepped forward. “Kara, this is Tony Stark of Stark Industries. Tony, Kara Zor-El.”
“My pleasure.” Stark took her hand and smiled. Kara started to smile and then frowned. Her hearing had picked up a slight whirling sound, coming from the vicinity of Stark’s chest. Narrowing her eyes, she focused her x-ray vision.
“Sorry for prying, Mr. Stark.” She said. “You have heart problems?”
For a moment Stark appeared speechless, then he smiled and turned to Strange and Richards.
“It appears that you gentlemen were correct. She is a wonder.” He turned back to Kara. “As a matter of fact I do. Would you mind telling me how you knew?”
“I picked up a sound coming from your chest with my super-hearing. I then checked it out with my x-ray vision to make sure you weren’t carrying a bomb.” Kara shrugged. “As I said, I don’t mean to pry, but I would rather appear impolite than have to scrape up my friends after a blast.”
“Perfectly understandable.” Stark agreed. “Simple a mechanism of my own design to keep me alive, I am afraid.” Kara did not press it, but could tell, simply from the manner of attachment places on the mechanism that Stark was not telling the whole truth.
“In any case,” Strange broke in. “We, Reed and I, approached Mr. Stark on your behalf. I hope you do not mind.”
“We let him know your situation and....” Reed broke off as Kara turned her eyes to him.
“Basically, Kara,” Stark jumped in. “These two approached me for advice. They did not reveal everything they could have, but they did feel that you might need some financial aid or guidance.” Kara looked back at him, frowning.
“My pride rebels against it, Mr. Stark.” She said, finally. “However, if there is one thing my cousin impressed upon me it is to think things through. Dr. Strange and Mr. Richards are quite correct. Here and now I seem to be living on the charity of others.”
“In that case, if that is a situation you would like to change.” Stark drew her over the round table that Strange had sit up. “I might be able to help you out. Not charity. Basically, Stark Industries would like to fund you.”
“I don’t understand.” Kara looked from Stark to Jenny.
“He talked it over with me first.” Jenny nodded. “Basically, Stark Industries funds several heroes. What they wish to do, in your case, is give you what you need.”
“And what does Stark Industries want in return?” Kara eyed Stark.
“Stark Industries ask only that we be allowed to acknowledge publicly that we are funding you and to use your likeness in some of our ads.” Stark replied. “Nothing extravagant. Something along the lines of ‘Stark Industries - proud sponsors of Supergirl!’ That’s all.”
Kara thought for a moment and looked over at Rogue. She smiled a bit and turned back to the men.
“Okay.” She nodded “On one condition. I would like Dr. Strange and Mr. Richards to do something for me.” Rogue looked on, flabbergasted as Kara revealed her condition.