Reincarnated as Supergirl (YJ / DC)

 

Danette closed her eyes, enjoying the taste of the dessert in her mouth. It was a red berry cheesecake this time and, quite possibly, the best thing she had ever tasted. She actually released a moan as she pulled the spoon out of her mouth, leaving Diana coughing at her side.

“Too much?” She asked, flushing slightly.

“Just a little,” her friend answered, motioning with her thumb and forefinger.

“I just… never understood what I was missing,” she said, sighing as she stared at her friends. “You know, I remember loving seafood, it was part of my programming, but I discovered that I actually hate the taste. It’s very… disconcerting.”

“I can imagine. Still, I’m glad you’re here Danette, your ‘death’ hit all of us hard.”

After their meeting, Jay had joked that she had childish tastes but Danette supposed he wasn’t far from the truth. While she had been built in ’42, she had only been active for about three years. She was a child.

She had memories, experiences, a life, but it was all fake and, far more often than expected, wrong. She didn’t love going for walks in the evening, she didn’t like shopping, despite remembering going into hours long experiences when she was younger and she most definitely didn’t like eating healthy, taking great pleasure in sweets and fried food.

She did dislike putting on makeup, but it wasn’t because she thought such vanity stupid, it was because she didn’t need it, her synthetic skin was always at its best and most makeup didn’t sit well with it. At least she did prefer wearing pants to skirts.

Really, there were hundreds of little things like that, Danette suspected she would spend years just… finding things she thought she knew that were actually wrong. Sometimes, she wanted to wring her father’s neck, the utter bastard.

Still, it was nice to be among friends again, the three years she had spent with the Justice Society weren’t entirely a lie at least. Taking another spoonful of the cake, she managed to keep from moaning and looked at her brother talking with Alan.

Red Tornado had seemed to take her existence well, if you thought of him as a normal human that is. Now that she was aware of what she was and had been given some access to her own coding, she could actually read him much better.

“I take it your first sibling reunion didn’t go well?”

“He doesn’t know how to react,” Danette sighed, leaning back on her chair. “He’s out of balance and hating every second of it. It doesn’t help that we don’t know how to act around each other. I’m technically the older sister, but he’s been active for much longer.”

“I am confident Red Tornado will adjust but, how are ‘you’?” the princess asked, focusing fully on. “I understand how difficult it is to find yourself in a completely different world.”

“I suppose you would,” Danette sighed, giving the princess a small smile. “I’m… adapting, Kara is helping out a lot and the internet doesn’t hurt. It’s so much easier to learn about things now than during the war.”

“I’m glad,” Diana smiled back, stretching in her seat and adjusting her posture. “I must confess I have been missing this. With Batman’s reforms, the Green Lanterns busy and some of the recent revelations, The Justice League has not felt the same.”

“Is everything fine?”

“We are facing a trial, but the League was born of trust, I believe we will emerge stronger for it.”

“Ladies? Are you ready for lunch?” Ted Grant yelled from inside the house causing the both of them to refocus.

Looking over, they saw Alan helping carry a plate of food while Red Tornado set the plates and cutlery, Wildcat was chatting animatedly with Doctor Mid-Nite, but many of their former friends were missing.

Seeing Joan and Jay walking side by side, the two superheroines got up, glancing guiltily at the dessert they had stolen from the fridge. Or, well, that Danette had stolen.

“That better not be my cheesecake!”

“Sorry!” Danette yelled back, hurrying to put it back into the fridge, she hadn’t resisted a quick snack before lunch, and it wasn’t like it would make a difference to her, there were some advantages to being an android after all.

“You know, ever since Jay told me you’re back, I have been looking forward to this little get-together,” Alan told her, drawing Danette into a quick hug. “It’s hard getting some of the guys out nowadays.”

“Come on Alan, you guys act like we’re old farts,” Ted complained, despite his age, he was still looking good as he sat at the table beside Jay. Not having lost too much muscle mass since his time active as Wildcat. “Invite me for something fun and maybe I’ll come.”

“My friend, I’m sorry to say but most of us are old farts,” Charles, formerly Doctor Mid-Nite, laughed and bowed in thanks as Jay helped him get a serving. As a blind man he had trouble with it when he wasn’t using his power. “At this point, I’m more than happy just playing chess at a park.”

Staring at the gathering, Danette couldn’t help feeling something squeezing her chest. They WERE old, she could see her old friends on their faces, but she had missed so much.

Sitting down, she forced a smile on her face and, eventually, started laughing for real, forgetting her problems for the next few hours.

“So, what excuse did Rex give this time?” Ted finally asked after they had finished putting everything into place and washing the plates. “The bastard has been dodging me every time I call. I thought he’d show up for our feisty tomboy there, if not to meet her, then because she’d burn his buns for missing it.”

“Fuck you Ted,” Danette threw a napkin at the old fighter, drawing a laugh from him. “That happened one time, one,” Danette had been missing Hourman too. She hadn’t really been friends with him, but she did want to meet after so long.

“He had a consultation, it was important so he couldn’t reschedule,” Jay sighed, handing everyone a cup of coffee and sitting beside his wife. “I also couldn’t get a hold of Kent and, well…”

Everyone just shrugged, they were old and superhero life hadn’t given them the longest life expectancy. Worse, like professional fighters, their lifestyle eventually caught up, giving them a lot of health problems.

“I too have been unable to contact Kent Nelson,” Red Tornado spoke, his voice having a hint of worry. “He has been missing for several weeks now.”

That information stopped all conversation. Danette had already heard that Kent had been spending more and more time at his tower after his wife’s death, but she had hoped to see him here.

“Have you talked with Zatara?” Charles said, his voice tired as he adjusted his sunglasses back in place and gripped his cane. “He was the old man’s apprentice for a time wasn’t he?”

“Giovanni Zatara has been occupied with a new apprentice, but he too hasn’t been able to contact him.”

Another quiet moment passed between them. At their age, not being in contact with someone didn’t look good.

“Do you still have the key to the tower?” Alan finally asked with a somber voice. “I can check on him when I leave.”

“I can go with you,” Jay said, putting a hand over his friend’s shoulder. “It’s been a long time since I last stretched my legs.”

“I’m afraid I have to go,” Charles sighed, leaning forward in his chair and pushing himself to his feet with a groan. “My granddaughter is arriving to pick me up soon and I’m not nearly as fit as Ted. It has been nice seeing you all once again, but I’m tired.”

Getting up, Danette gave Doctor Mid-Nite a long hug, letting him touch her face to see her once more. “It was a pleasure to see you again little girl. Try not to leave us so soon this time, will you?”

“Don’t worry, I don’t intend to.”

Watching the former superhero leave, Danette noted her brother stopping at her side and the rest of her friends giving him some space. Still, she kept quiet, letting him gather his thoughts.

In a way, Red Tornado was worse than her older brother, he hadn’t been built with the intent of passing as human. He didn’t have memories of an entire false life to burden him, but he also didn’t have the knowledge of how to interact, how to feel and relate to people.

To be truthful, Danette kind of envied him, at least he knew that everything he experienced was his own and not influenced by his false memories.

“I apologize, it seems like I have not handled the information well,” the android told her, his voice without any inflection as he finally turned her way. “I truly do not know how to react to your existence.”

“That makes two of us little brother, that makes two of us,” Danette whispered, letting some of her true feelings out, she still felt lost in the modern world, isolated even when she was surrounded by people. “Have you spoken with Jim? He seems to be handling this whole thing much better than the both of us.”

“I have not. I was not certain brother would want to interact with me.”

“He’s… surly, he’ll probably act annoyed if you show up, but he’ll actually be happy,” Danette said with a small smile on her face. “Our older brother likes to complain about everything, even when it’s something he enjoys.”

“I see. I will have to meet him,” he nodded. “And Father?”

“He’s not awake. Brother takes care of his life support system, but he hasn’t reacted even when I spent an hour yelling at him,” she confessed, feeling a little ashamed. “We can visit him together if you want.”

“I… would like that, yes. Despite everything, he is my father.”

They would have spoken more but, like Doctor Mid-Night, Wildcat had to leave to deal with personal things. It was already three in the afternoon and Danette had to remind herself that not everyone was as free as she was at the moment.

Staring at Alan and Jay sharing one last beer, she had to ask. “You think Kent will mind if I go with you guys? I was looking forward to meeting him.”

“Why don’t we all go?” Diana interjected. “I have taken the day off from any of my duties; it would be nice to see Kent.”

And that’s how the five of them found themselves in Salem, Massachusetts standing on a seemingly empty plot of land. Stepping forward, Jay looked around the area in anticipation of some sort of reaction, but it seemed like Kent hadn’t noticed their presence yet. Danette couldn’t help herself, using her new sensors to try and look for the tower.

She was actually surprised when they caught something. It wasn’t able to fully locate the tower, but her sensors did warn her of an exotic energy source all around the empty location. Was Kara trying to incorporate magic in her tech?

Also stepping forward, Red Tornado pulled out a large key, inserting it into empty air. The key disappeared and, soon after, they all heard a ‘click’. With the proverbial turning of the key, a large medieval tower simply appeared midair.

Made from massive, perfectly smooth sandstone bricks and as wide as a modern skyscraper, it had a square shape and at least thirty floors. The top looked like a typical castle watchtower, with crenellations where a man could look down on the city. With only a small noise, the wooden door opened inward, allowing them entry into the Tower of Fate.