Clara Kent Superwoman

Chapter 22: Travellers

It wasn't travelling out of Kansas for the first time since she fell into it that worried Clara. It wasn't leaving her parents, spending time with her estranged Grandfather, or even meeting new people in a strange place. It was flying there. All of her life she'd had an aversion to heights, no matter how irrational it was seeing as she was virtually indestructible. The passport her parents had applied for when she turned sixteen had laid gathering dust in her parents safe, now it was getting its first airing. She just couldn't get over the fear of falling, maybe she had subconscious memories of her trip to earth, crashing in a spacecraft had to be traumatic for a toddler.

It was funny, she could pull a billionaire out of a submerged car, run into fire for a friend, and now apparently had super-breath, (she didn't really know what else to call it), but she was terrified to walk up those plane steps. Her Grandfather had paid for First Class to Gotham, her parents had driven her to Metropolis International Airport, meeting William Clark there. She had one small suitcase checked in, and her Grandfather had guided her to the first class lounge, she was the youngest person there, she'd self consciously smoothed her three quarter length sleeve blouse and was thankful her mother had taken her out to get some business clothes. She wasn't entirely comfortable in the dark blue business trousers and pinstriped blue and white blouse, but she liked how adult she looked in them. There'd be no jeans and plaid sighted this weekend, she supposed once she became a journalist she'd be dressing like this a lot. She'd kept the comfort of the kryptonian necklace, she'd found herself wearing the symbol of the house of El almost every day now. Quite a few of the business women she saw on the plane had chunky or flashy jewellery on, so her silver symbol was rather understated in comparison.

When she had sat in the seat she'd taken time to enjoy the opulence of the space, she wondered if Lex owned a plane, he probably did. It would probably be a jet of some kind, and most likely far more sumptuous.

Clara was fine until they were preparing for takeoff, she'd absorbed herself in the different buttons, and watching the flight attendants give the safety messages, then it had hit home they were going into the air. Her mother must have had a few words with her Grandfather, because he wordlessly took her hand and held it until they were level in the air. Then, he'd given her a guidebook of Gotham and taken out some of his law papers. William Clark, despite his profession, often made his greatest gestures with silence. It was irrational, but knowing he was there with her gave her the courage to look out the window, and then she had a revelation. They were just over the level of the clouds, which were sparse, and the sun was reflecting off the buildings causing them to shine. Suddenly, flying wasn't as scary, it was almost, beautiful.

Clara read through some of the Guidebook, it seemed that Wayne Enterprises owned most of Gotham, just like Luthorcorp did Metropolis. Gotham was older than Metropolis, and like its counterpart had both good and bad areas, but unlike Metropolis, Gotham had been gone through hard economic times. The guidebook was putting a positive spin on things. She'd become interested in Gotham when they'd gotten a Dark Knight, it seemed that the city was split economically, the poor and the large majority of the criminal element lived in the peninsula of the Narrows, which included Arkham Asylum and the prison. The main city was separated by a river and retractable bridges. Gotham had suffered major economic depression in the last 40 years, it had reached all walks of life, even the Wayne family had suffered, she had Chloe had read an article about how Bruce Wayne's parents had been shot by a criminal for their money and jewellery behind a theatre. It was now known as "Crime Alley".

It seemed that even billionaire's suffered tragedy, Lex's mother Lillian had died untimely too, but that was from illness. Clara couldn't imagine what it would be like to watch your family die in front of you; she hoped she would never have to.