“Superman to Supergirl,” her earpiece intones.

She clicks it, “What's up, Kal?”

“I need you to scout ahead and assist Batman and Robin; I’m caught up with something on my end.”

She nods, “Need some help?”

“Hopefully,” he says, “It’s just a tiny mess, not too many injuries or anything.”

Her brow quirks, “Then why’d you say ‘hopefully’?” She passes by some powerlines and sees a raven watching her. Silence on her cousin’s end. She’s almost tempted to call it over to have someone for gossip at her cousin’s reluctance. To her astonishment, the raven lifts off the powerlines, its wings a soft, iridescent shade of blue, and trails behind her.

“Okay,” a grin spreads, “now, I’m curious.”

“Kara,” he uses her name, hesitating, “what I say next is not something you might want to hear.”

Her smile starts shaking like an old sign, and then it falls off entirely when he says:

“Marlo is here; I’m going to talk to him.”

And like an old sign, she can visualize her cousin cringing as though the crashing caused an entire heel-turn. Kara stopped flying for a second; then, she changed her course. She’s frowning now, looking down at the streets of Jump City below. Kara sees the raven still flying with her.

“Good luck to you,” she says.

The comm hadn’t switched off yet.

“He’s putting out fires, and he helped Batman earlier.” He says, too implicitly to be conversational.

“Good for him,” she says, her speed increasing.

“Kara–”

“Kal,” she cuts him off, “I know what you want me to do; I know what you’re going to say, but–”

“Before you say anything else,” he cuts off her cut-off, “does what I have to say involve keeping an eye out for Joker’s State Tour blimp?”

Her head tilts, “...No…?”

“Yeah,” he says, “It does.”

“Oh,” she says, her speed decreasing, “I honestly, I mean, I thought–”

“I know how you feel, Kara,” he says firmly, “believe me, I’m not completely sold either.”

“But,” she continues, “you’re still going to give him a chance…”

She can imagine her nodding in that resolute way, saying, “Hardly anyone takes the chance to turn over a new leaf.” His tone softens, “But I won’t force anything from you.”

She smiles, “Thanks, Kal.”

“No problem.”

“And Kal…” She says before she can catch herself.

“Yes?”

Well, now what? she thinks, suddenly put on the spot. Now, she couldn’t very well say ‘Nothing’. There had to be a follow-up.

“Could you…” she began, “Could you tell him…”

A pause.

“No.” She states, “You know what? I’ll tell him myself.”

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she smiles lopsidedly, “why not?”

“Well, if you're sure, then see you here! Superman out.”

“Supergirl out,” she says before smacking her face. “I’ll tell him myself? I don't even know or…”

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She grunts loudly and brings herself to land on a roof, deciding to lay on a gable roof over standing. Supergirl is unaware, however, that ambitious eyes have seen her as she contemplates this latest development.

Kara Zor-El, or Kara Danvers, the cousin of Kal El, the last daughter of Krypton and blonde heroine to wear the crest of hope on her chest, was frustrated. She puts her hands over her eyes, massaging her temples with her fingers, and breathes deeply. The raven lands on the ridge of the gabled roof.

Kara looks up, “Oh, hey! Here to keep me company?” She shifts her body to touch the raven, which doesn’t fly from her touch. “Just to be sure: you’re not some shapeshifter trying to hurt me or anything, right?”

The raven looks at her.

Kara rolls her eyes, “Don’t look at me like that. Do you know how many times the world almost ends?”

The raven looks at her.

“I have to be sure you’re not a robot(I can see you’re not, X-Ray vision, ya’ know), and you’re not an alien or a magician out to break my heart.”

Kara slaps her mouth, but the raven only tilts its head. She sighs.

“Well,” she says, “I guess if you’re just here to listen,” A pause, “Okay, so…” She resists hugging herself, “A few years back, when I was still getting used to this planet and,” She points to her chest, “being its protector, I met a guy. And,” she resists a smile, “well, first, look at it from my point of view: I was stuck in dullsville” She whispers, “That's Kansas, but no one is supposed to know that,” to which, the raven bobs its head. Kara bobs her head.

“Anyways, I was cooped up with a new family, and they’re sweet; I don’t wanna give the wrong impression, but I could fly around like you! I mean, how would you like it if you knew you could outrun a falcon but got put in a cage every day.” The raven ruffles, “There, exactly!” She huffs, laying her back on the gabled roof, “Sometime after that, I met a guy. The one I started telling you about. And he,” This time, she did smile, “was something. I mean, he was funny, witty, and…persistent. Cause, you know, I was in a state where I knew my friends were right, and I had to obey, but he just wanted to cut loose…and so did I.

“I can’t say I got into his taste in music, but I really like a song called Waiting On The World to Change. You ever heard that song?” The raven was so still, it couldn’t have possibly not been an unspoken ‘seriously?’, “Didn’t think so. He tried serenading me with a song called, what was it, Uptown Girl.” She chuckled, “He told me I put Disney princesses to shame and that I was a…” She quiets down after realizing she’s veering off, “Even though I wasn’t using my powers for the first part, I felt alive. And it only got better after I...told him who I was.”

Kara closes her fist, pressing it against her forehead. “That was the dumbest thing I ever did.” She sighs, "My cousin, Kal, tells me our mistakes teach us to pick ourselves up but don't make us whole, and I know he's right. But still...it's not a good feeling to know I almost..."

The raven hops closer to her face.

“I mean, I know I’m being dumb,” she says quietly, “I can move past this. We're all here, and we saved the day." Then, frowning, "They say he’s changed and improving, so I should give him a chance.”

She inhales, listening to the sounds of Jump City. Jump seemed a tad more unexpected compared to Metropolis and not as dreary as Gotham. She could hear the lingering voices of people all around her: trick-or-treaters not realizing the night was over, pranksters that she might have to deal with before meeting up with her cousin, a police siren, the voices following it. The conversation she heard interested her:

“...told you, Mom, I'm fine! I’m pretty sure the guy I was dancing with saved me, which is honestly so cool.”

“What guy?”

“Oh, well, uh, he was my age, blonde hair, green eyes, a wicked smile–”

“You danced with some ghetto kid??”

“Oh, come on, Mom! He wasn't bad! I mean, yeah, all he had was torn-up clothes and a rabbit mask, but–”

Kara smacks her face, dragging it harshly. After that, she thinks about smacking her face again because she even did it in the first place or for reacting over nothing. Instead, Kara decides she doesn’t need any abuse right now. She breathes in, feeling better for restraint. She looks at her side, the raven sits patiently.

“I know, I’m getting a grip,” She says softly, wary for whoever could hear her, “I have a boyfriend now.” She smirks, “Way better than that jerk.” Then frowns, “Everyone keeps talking about how he’s changed…” She shakes her head, “Well, so have I. I’m not going down there looking like a ragged beast wanting to squash his face like a grape; if he can do it, so have I.” Kara nods resolutely, then pets the raven, “Thanks for listening.”

She looks out across the night city, where her cousin waits for her. She starts walking, ready to show how unaffected she is with such clenched fists. Kara sighs, and decides to take in the cool air and beautiful view from the edge of the building for a few more minutes. She realizes, however, that these fists are clenched, and she forces them to relax by shaking them. Then, she pauses, her super-powered hearing picking up the sound of an overgrown pair of wings propelling someone upward.

A second later, a shadow appears before her, and a flash of light follows. Kara crashes through the gabled roof and hurls out from the other side.

Before her body reaches the ground, she flips in the air, catching herself and levitating. She grunts, her hand rubbing the crest on her chest, the crest belonging to the House of El from the late Krypton, the symbol everyone on Earth mistakes for an S on her chest. Kara glares at her attacker through the hole her figure has caused. Levitating upward, she sees her attacker climbing onto the edge, now pluralized. They were stocky, reptilian, armored warriors with M-shaped head crests and red eyes. Most of their bodies were adorned in bronze armor, including their wings, with bits of their long green tails, heels, wrists, bellies, and ape-like faces uncovered. One floated down to where Kara had been standing, his silver staff smoking at the tip, informing Kara what had hit her.

Immediately, her attacker, the one whose name is Weezak, and his companions began speaking to each other in gruff, gritted growls that made their language.

“This is not the prize,” one pointed out.

Kara’s attacker smirked, “No, but Trogar will reward us when we bring something just as enticing.”

Kara’s eyes widened when she saw that he held the weapon, the Photon Blaster, in one hand and the small squirming raven in the other.

“She did not fall to a blast,” said another.

“Indeed, so this will be a challenge worthy of–”

Weezak screams as a white hand adds pressure to his wrist, and the bird flies away. A fist slams into his face next, and Supergirl stands again where she had been contemplating how to work her aggression out of her system. Now, she knew how. She saw the raven flying above them now and smiled.

Another Gordannian swings his staff at her; she ducks and throws a fist into his chest, sending him flying into the road. The last Gordanian tries to stab her with the staff surging with light. She catches the staff before it meets her cheek, pushes it back, and then unleashes heat vision onto his chest. The Gordanian roars in pain, his hand touching his smoking chest before a fist slams into his face.

Supergirl looks down at the alien as he collides with his buddy, who is picking himself up. She smirks, crossing her hands over her chest. Then, Supergirl notices more of them flying over the buildings, heading towards her. Supergirl stretches her fingers, shaping them into fists.

----------------------------------------

The raven flies, its wings bruised, but otherwise, its flight instinct completely overrides any notion of a fight instinct. The sun would rise soon, and she had to go where she may roost with others of her flock. Now, she senses it. It almost breaks her flight path, and the raven understands that she must find her flock before they take off without her.

But just as abruptly, she senses something else. And the raven is beckoned toward the ground. The shadows conceal most when the sky goes dark, the nests of man concealing most, and most was more than enough for a predator to strike. But the raven did not sense a predator. Perhaps it would, once it was close enough, for it moved closer to the dark ground with any sense of caution cast aside. She felt warm, this stranger, unlike other humans or the others that fly with the raven or uproot trees with their bare hands.

The raven landed in the stranger's hands, the spell broken. Perhaps it was her imagination, but the human looked like her. They shared the same colors. And the raven felt sadness off of her, almost surpassing those she felt when she found her nest had been ransacked. And like her flock, her sadness carried over, and they mourned together. Ravens experience what humans have dubbed as an emotional contagion.

“Tell me, little one,” the girl said, “what did you see?”

The raven understood what this girl wanted, and perhaps it was relief that their days would be saved that compelled her to know that these tremors within the light and the silent, horrid screams calling out to the sun would not evoke its wrath. The emotional contagion that had once carried sadness and fear now carried relief and hope, which the girl could feel.

“You place too much faith in me, little one,” she said with an eerie rasp, “I can’t do this…not alone.”

The raven looks up.

“I must bring them together,” the girl says, “I must bring them to Supergirl, and together, we may be enough to head down to Carrione Bridge.”