Reincarnated as Supergirl (YJ / DC)

 

Some devices needed more than just sunstone to be viable, sometimes, she needed to use small amounts of Kryptium for its increased resistance and toughness, others, she needed materials with better flexibility or even less solar conductivity.

Studying physics and the properties of the materials she used took most of her free time and, very often, her devices required such precise calculations that she needed to spend weeks on them to achieve results.

Still, when she was twelve, her father ordered her to meet him in his study. Kara walked inside and saw him wearing his formal clothes, as well as his house El official crest.

Knowing that he was not acting as her father, but as the second in command of the El house, Kara bowed deeply to show her respect.

“Daughter, you’re now entering puberty, it's time for you to start learning your place in our house,” Zor-El said. With a command from his neural link, he caused a crystalline chair to rise out of the floor and ordered Kara to sit. “As my daughter, you have been chosen to inherit my position in the house, your job will be to help teach your cousin once he’s born, guide him as he grows into his position and support him once he inherits my brother’s position.”

“My cousin?” Kara couldn’t help but ask.

Zor-El simply nodded, activating a display of another man, one slightly older than him. “This is my brother, Jor-El, the current head of our house. From today on, you’ll be following me to work with him, watch, pay attention and learn.”

“Yes father,” Kara bowed again, accepting her new place, but her heart was beating fast on her chest.

She couldn’t wait to help out, to follow her father and learn from him. Until now, she had only been playing with his tools, but never really seeing his true projects. Yes, she had created many devices, but most of them had been focused on destroying things, and everything she had created could be replicated by the military guild either more effectively or cheaper.

The next day, Kara put on her own armor, completely sealed with a helmet that fully protected her from the harsh atmosphere of Krypton itself. The equipment wouldn’t be necessary in Argo City, but she’d be traveling with her father to Kandor.

Following her father, Kara walked with her arms crossed behind her back, her posture straight as she stepped on the teleportation device, appearing on Kandor a second later.

With large steps, she did her best to not fall behind as his subordinates bowed towards him, showing the respect deserved for the second in command of the El house. Kara’s chest swelled with pride until they arrived at the main laboratory.

Jor-El looked just like her father, only slightly older. Her uncle’s face opened into a smile at their presence and he stepped away from the computers. “Brother, so you have finally decided to present me my niece?”

“Patriarch, this is my daughter, Kara Zor-El.”

Following her father’s example, Kara took off her helmet and bowed towards her uncle. “Patriarch. It is an honor to meet you.”

Jor-El looked at his brother with an amused smile on his face, but Zor-El's look didn’t change, leaving the older brother feeling awkward for a second before shaking his head. “Well, it’s nice to have you here Kara. I hope you enjoy the work.”

“I will,” Kara nodded, her face impassive.

From that day on Kara started following after her father, learning everything he did and how best to help him. As Jor-El’s second in command, Zor-El spent a good part of his time trouble shooting some of his brother’s more exotic projects while also helping guide the direction of the Science guild as a whole.

When Kara finally reached thirteen, she started getting some projects of her own. While she didn’t have the necessary knowledge to develop new technologies, she had a talent for finding faults on prototypes.

Standing behind a guard railing, Kara increased the parameters for the newest dimensional projector, simulating a last minute addition of a second target to the device. Unable to calculate the destination in time, the device tried to increase the energy to compensate for it, overloading the delicate sunstone structure.

A suction force caused Kara’s feet to slide towards the guard railings, but the magnetic locks on her armor activated, securing her in place, then the security glass snapped shut just before the device exploded, sending a shockwave that would have probably sent her flying had it not been for the glass.

Carefully watching the place where the device had been, Kara made sure that nothing had come through the dimensional breach. Seeing no warnings on her monitor, she left some annotations on the prototype’s page and turned away, a huge smile on her face.

Kara knew that she shouldn’t be so happy to find yet more faults on some of the science guild’s projects, but it was always so satisfying when she managed to cause a catastrophic failure.

And really, if the scientists didn’t want their devices exploding, they shouldn’t propose faulty prototypes. With years of study over her, they really should have known better.

“Ah, was that really necessary Kara?” Jor-El said from behind her, almost causing Kara to jump out of her skin.

Turning around, Kara looked at her uncle without knowing what to say for a full five seconds. “Ah, I-I… no patriarch,” she finally said, her face flushing with shame. “I-I only wanted to demonstrate how dangerous a faulty project could be.”

“I see. Well, at least there was no damage, this time,” Jor-El commented, a mental command caused the testing chamber to be isolated and her own terminal to be locked as her uncle motioned for her to follow him. “Come Kara, I wish to speak with you.”

Still feeling embarrassed, Kara followed behind her uncle without another word until they teleported back to his own house. Finally, Kara managed to lift her eyes towards her uncle, just as she was about to ask him what this was about, a giant beast ran out from inside the house.

It was large, white and walked on all fours, rushing at them with intimidating speed and making a lot of noise. Kara almost screamed, but she managed to resist the urge using the discipline taught to her by her father.

Instead, she only cursed the fact that she didn’t have her own neural interface while pulling out her personal computer, commanding her private drone to activate a protection shield. With dread, she realized too late that her uncle hadn’t done the same. “Watch out!”

In disbelief, Kara watched the beast release a mighty noise and pounce on her uncle, aiming straight for his unprotected face in a show of canny, predatory guile.

“Hello, Krypto.” Her uncle said while, under Kara’s disbelieving eyes, the beast started to… lick him?

Jor-El didn't tolerate the licking for long, quickly showing displeasure at the creature's actions and causing its ears to drop.

Somehow, the scene caused her to feel a bout of nostalgia. Slowly getting back to her feet, Kara deactivated her shield and, pretending that nothing had happened, asked. “Patriarch, what IS that?”

“This is called a dog,” using a hand, Jor-El pushed the dog away from his chest, the creature fell back on all fours and finally noticed Kara, sniffing at her and slowly circling her. “I decided to recreate one after I saw the way our family interacted.”

“I see,” Kara said, her hand slowly touching the creature’s head with an odd feeling of longing on her chest. “Can I ask, why?”

“Kara, do you know what the house El crest stands for?”

“Hope patriarch,” Kara answered immediately, the meaning having been cemented on her mind long ago.

“Yes, hope, an optimistic view or state of mind based on an expectation of a positive outcome,” Jor-El explained, leading her inside his home. “We used to have hope in our fellow Kryptonians. Hope in the future of our planet. Hope that things will be better, brighter. Yet our family has been losing that ability for generations now, we grow distant, we grow… aloof. We have let confidence substitute for hope, never attempting anything greater or new so that we may never fail, and that confidence has grown into arrogance, blind arrogance.”

“And the dog helps… how?” Kara asked while doing her best to avoid getting a tongue bath from the dog, the creature was actually larger than her, and about just as strong.

“Krypto, you, Lara, I’m choosing to hope Kara, to hope in our future,” Standing in a balcony on his house overlooking the city of Kandor, her uncle snapped his fingers, causing the dog to finally leave her alone. With a serious look on his face, he shook his head, his hands squeezed into fists, but he had a confident glint on his eye. “We need hope, now more than ever…”

At his side, Kara watched as her uncle trailed off, his eyes looking over Kandor. She would have liked to say his eyes were filled with hope, but she couldn’t help thinking it looked exactly like the arrogance he so disliked. As if he still had everything under his control.

"No matter, come, Lara is very eager to finally meet you."

That day, Kara spent quite a few hours meeting her uncle's family, and even learned to play fetch with Krypto, laughing out loud for the first time as the dog chased the ball.

From then on Kara had a new routine, spending time with her uncle at least once a month, and even wasting hours playing and socializing with Krypto.

Unfortunately, her father didn't seem to approve of it, although he never says anything about it.

It was when she was a little over fourteen that her family had its first fight, her classes had been canceled that day, and Zor-El had even kept her from following him to Kandor for a week.

Kara was trying to find a weakness on a new drone model when she heard them.

"Zor-El, stop!" Alura actually shouted, but Kara's father didn't hear her, actually causing an explosion inside their home, and destroying the outer wall. "What are you doing!?"

"What am I doing? What's he doing?! Dru-Zod is our friend; our houses have been allied for generations!" Zor-El screamed, his voice filled with frustration and anger like Kara had never heard before.

"Zor-El!" Alura shouted, trying to calm her husband down, only for Zor-El to release another blast from his weapon, destroying another piece of the courtyard.

"All our preparations, all our research and all our history… thrown away like dirt!" Finally managing to calm down, Zor-El took a few deep breaths and turned off the weapon on his personal drone. Gritting his teeth, Kara's father almost spit out with disgust. "Jor-El threw away our best chance and all he can tell me is to have hope!"

"What are you going to do?" Alura asked, finally approaching her husband and holding on to his arm in an almost gentle manner. "You have to stop him. It's our only chance."

Watching from a hidden camera on the ceiling, Kara held her breath as her father stared at the hand holding his arm, then towards her mother with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.

Yanking his arm away from her, he threw his own communicator into the wall and shouted again, releasing his frustration before calming down.

Combing his hair back in place with a hand, Zor-El righted himself. "I will do nothing. Irrational as he may be, Jor-El is our patriarch and I. Am. Not. A. Traitor."

"So you'll just… watch?" Her mother asked, her voice filled with disbelief.

"Yes! What do you-" Suddenly, Zor-El's neural transmitter gave him a warning, causing him to look up and directly into Kara's hidden drone.

With a startle, Kara disconnected with it immediately and ordered it to self-destruct. Too late, she gasped as she realized how that gave her presence away.

Most Kryptonians didn't even see the need for a self-destruction in a drone, those who did -mostly members of the science guild- did so quietly, just frying the drone's circuitry.

Unfortunately, Kara enjoyed causing things to explode in new and interesting ways.

Running to her bedroom, she pretended to be sleeping. Kara didn’t think her father believed it, but he didn’t say anything when he came to check up on her.