Chapter 2.2 – rewrite
Two hot girls flying down in space suits was not something one saw every day, it would certainly draw a lot of attention, but it was already dark. Kara just made sure they weren't caught in any cameras and dropped right in front of a lone teen with glasses.
She looked him over and dismissed him from her mind, but Kori hurriedly floated over.
"Greetings Earthling! Please, what is your name? Where are we? What are you wearing in your face? Do you want to be my friend?" She bombarded the poor guy with her questions while his eyes were glued to her breasts.
"Ahem." Kara had to intervene, making the guy snap out of his daze.
"Ahh… I guess we're in the United States, Fawcett City, I'm-I'm Ed Baker!" He swallowed hard at Kara’s unamused face, forcing his eyes away from Kori's exposed skin. "I guess we can be friends?"
"Joy! You were right, Friend Kara, Earthlings are very receptive!"
"I bet he wants to be 'receptive'." She answered, narrowing her single eye at the teenager before releasing a sight and dropping to her feet on the ground. "I suppose you'll do."
"Ahhhh… I have to tell you, I'm too thin, very sickly, not at all a good probing candidate!" he took a few steps back.
"Do not worry friend Ed, I have been told probing is not a traditional alien greeting, no matter how many times it is portrayed in your history." Kori nodded in understanding.
"Those were fiction Kori, make believe." Kara sighed while pinching the bridge of her nose. "There will be no probing for you boy, do you have any money?"
"You're robbing me?" he asked, incredulously. This was DC. Kara didn't know why he was so surprised.
"No, but we need some normal human clothes." Kara took off her backpack and opened it showing him the metal bars inside. "We can pay you. We just don't have any of the local currency."
As he saw the amount of gold on her backpack, the boy lost all color, retreating a few steps and then falling on his ass. "I-I don't want anything to do with sto-stolen goods!"
"There. Was. No. Stealing! By Rao, we're aliens, we come from space! Why would we steal when we can just go to the asteroid belt and mine some gold?" Kara was starting to regret ever talking with the boy.
Ed looked from the two girls to the bag filled with precious metals twice, his face growing relaxed, and then turning into a smile as greed overcame his caution. "Look, I don't have any money, but you both are just about my cousin's size. I can get some of her clothes for one of those bars."
"Ha! I'll give you half a bar of gold."
"Three bars!"
"Half a bar! And we get to choose the clothes." Kara countered and laid an arm over his shoulders, whispering. "Next offer will only be a quarter."
"Fine! But, if you guys want to choose, you're gonna have to talk to Amber."
"That is acceptable, Friend Ed." Kori nodded, far too eager to meet another Earthling. "Please, do you think she will be my friend too?"
Seeing the boy's suspicious return, Kara gave him a break. "Don't worry. While we don't want to draw too much attention, we aren't really hiding. Going to a full mall and paying with gold bars is too much, but meeting a few people inside a house isn't a problem."
"Curiosity abounds! Please, what is this mall you speak of?"
"A shopping mall is a big building, usually filled with smaller shops, where people gather to purchase things, eat or simply to have fun." Kara explained towards her companion.
Ed took off his hoodie and handed it to Kori, it was a little too small, but still helped them to not stand out as much. As they walked, they alternated answering Kori’s constant questions while the boy led them towards his cousin's house. They still got quite a few looks from some of the people on the streets, especially the males, but were easily dismissed from their minds.
They did look more or less human, the hoodie covered most of Kori’s more exotic details and they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary.
Reaching a medium sized traditional house, Ed opened the small gate and led them inside before pressing the bell, when his cousin took too long to answer, he pressed it again.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" The girl shouted from inside the house.
Amber Joyce was a young girl of about 18, her hair was held up in a towel and she was already wearing plain white pajamas. She took one look at her cousin and the two girls hanging around him and frowned. "Nope, you're not doing this." Then she slammed the door on their face.
"Amber! Come on Amber!" Ed started banging on the door and pressing the bell for a full minute, leaving two very amused aliens smirking at his desperation until Amber opened the door again.
"Look Ed, just because my parents are out of the city, it doesn't mean you can just bring your cosplay girlfriends to fool around… Hey! What are you doing!?" She shrieked as Ed pushed his way inside the house. Kara decided to make the conversation easier, floating after him and smiling when Kori did the same. "Just… what?"
"Edward Jonathan Backer, what's going on here!?" She shouted and dragged her cousin away from the two floating women in her living room.
Kara just let herself fall down on the sofa and started searching for something to watch on the TV, but Kori floated around the room, looking at everything just like a curious cat.
"What the hell have you gotten yourself into?" Amber whispered in his ear after they finally got to the kitchen.
"Look Amber, don't ruin this for me, please?"
"Ruin what!?" Her whispering got louder. "Are you some kind of… henchman now?"
"What? No! I mean, technically…" The boy shook his head. "Alright, look, they just arrived on earth and don't want to stand out too much, so I thought they could borrow some of your clothes."
"Are they aliens now? I thought they were just metas. What the hell are you doing with aliens?" Then she registered what else he was saying. "And who the hell are you to lend my clothes to strangers!"
"Have I told you they have two bags full of gold and are totally willing to share?" The boy poured himself a cup of water. "Look, they just dropped down from the sky right in front of me, what was I supposed to do?"
"Call the police?"
"But… Come on!" Ed pouted at her and Amber sighed, stealing his cup of water, she drained it and massaged her temples.
"Haaa… but they were two hot girls, so you didn't want to. Fine, how much did they promise you?"
"Half a bar of gold."
"Where the hell did they find gold anyways?"
"They said it was the asteroid belt." He replied, now with some hope in his voice.
"Fine, fine, but I get 80%. They are my clothes after all."
"What! No way, 50/50!"
"80%, and I don't tell your parents what you have been doing after school" She told him and Kara smiled. Yeah, it would work out.
"Fine." He whined. Suddenly, his phone started ringing. "Shit, it's mom. Hi mom! Ah… I kind of forgot, at Amber's place, no! I mean, I can just walk, it's not too late, alright."
Ed was forced to hand the phone over to Amber, she smirked at him, not moving for a second and making him think she wasn't gonna say anything, then she took up the phone. "Hi, aunty, yeah he's here, don't worry he's not that annoying, love you too, bye."
"Look, can you stay with them?" He asked her, giving a few glances where Kori was floating up at the ceiling and poking the lamp.
"Yeah, I can deal with them." Seeing her cousin's reluctance, she punched him in the shoulder. "What were you gonna do anyway, flail your arms at the flying aliens like you did Carlos? Don't worry; anything happens I’m running away while screaming for Captain Marvel."
"Thanks Amber." He kissed her on the cheek and gathered his own backpack.
When they reached the living room again, Kara turned off the TV. "Hey, in the interest of being honest, I kind of heard everything you guys said." They both swallowed, but Kara waved their fear away. "So, this is Captain Marvel's city huh, cool."
"Ah, I'm just gonna… go then." Ed said, making his way towards the door. Kori managed to intercept him, giving him a back crushing hug which left the teenage boy equal parts happy and in pain.
"Good bye Friend Ed, we must meet again!" Kori released the boy, he was left breathing hard and cradling his back in pain, but still had a huge smile when he left for the door. Amber just stopped at the kitchen’s door with a hand on her hips and looked at her two guests.
"Aren't you awfully comfortable here?" She asked, raising an eyebrow as she saw Kara's laid back posture.
"Comes with no one trying to kill or experiment on me." Kara answered, just to see her reaction, a smug smile on her face while Kori nodded beside her, equally happy.
"Yes, Earthlings seem much better than Psions, I am glad we came here!"
"Alright, I'm gonna pretend I didn't just hear that." Amber shook her head, not knowing how to deal with them. "So… you want some clothes then?"
"I did hear you saying your parents aren't home, right?"
"Riiight…" Amber answered warily.
"So, how about another deal, you lent us some clothes now, let us sleep here today, then help us for a day or two and I'll pay you a full gold bar?" Kara opened her backpack and pulled out a small and rough bar of gold from inside. "I didn't really weigh the thing when I made it, but it had about 10 kilos of pure gold, should make for a quarter million at least."
"Holy shit!" Amber stumbled away, staring at the gold bar with huge eyes, then at Kara's backpack. "Holy shit, that's a lot of money! Why the hell are you paying me so much money?"
"Convenience… mostly, we got a lot more in the bags, and it isn't exactly hard to mine some more if we need it." She confessed and Kori nodded by her side. Without knowing a lot about Earth's culture, the Tamaranean was letting Kara make most of the decisions, at least for now. "We're from another planet Amber, we don't have to value gold the same way Earth does."
Amber's eyes kept glancing towards the gold, but she seemed to steel herself, lifting her eyes, she asked. "And why have you come to Earth?"
"We're an advanced scouting party. We’re here to study your heroes so our army will have it easier when they arrive." Kori gave her a mean look, but Kara let silence fill the room for a few seconds before laughing. "Just kidding, we're refugees. Kori's people were subjugated by assholes and she couldn't go back while my planet exploded."
It still hurt to talk about Krypton like that, the wound still felt fresh despite the time that had passed. Kara’s new memories of another life made it easier, but not by much.
In a way, it was just something else she had lost.
With a sigh, Kara let herself fall back on the sofa and covered her eye with an arm, just waiting for an answer.
"Fine, you guys can stay, but only for today."
"Great." Kara smiled, adjusting herself on the sofa, she couldn't help but appreciate Kori's new clothes.
Amber had been smaller than her, so the clothes were very tight and showed her every curve. It most definitely didn't help that the princes chose clothes which left a lot of her skin exposed to the sun.
Contrary to Kara, the Tamaranean princess had healed and recovered very well, her body filling out in all the right places. Even her finger had been easily reattached.
Kara herself chose some baggy clothes which hid her features.
No longer looking like a supervillain, or an alien, Kara asked for Amber's phone in order to do something she had been eager for since recovering her memories.
She ordered pizza.