The Shape of Things to Come

10

"Of course, leave it to the media magnate Cat Grant to put a name to a face. Miss Grant dubbed National City's new female hero 'Supergirl'. And if twitter is any indication, the name appears to be catching on".

Kara stormed into Cat's office, happy that her acting skills had improved over the years, because it was hard not to laugh herself silly when she yelled, with all the indignity she could muster, "Supergirl?" She dropped her files on Cat's coffee table, then practically slammed down the tray with Cat's coffee. "We can't name her that". 

"We didn't," Cat said, with her usual flair for theatrics. 

Kara had to bite her lip for a moment, before she could play through the moment again. "Right," she said. "I'm sorry . It's just... I don't want to diminish the importance of this. Shouldn't we call a female superhero 'Superwoman'?"

Cat sighed. "I'm sorry, darling, I can't hear you over the loud color of your cheap pants". 

"But if we call her 'Supergirl' isn't that reductive? Isn't that labeling her as something less than she is? Doesn't that make us guilty of robbing her of her adulthood, just because she's female? You said it yourself. She's a hero."

"I'm the hero," Cat said. "I stuck a label on the side of this girl, I branded her. And she'll forever be linked to Catco. To me."

"And what is so wrong with 'girl'? Hmmm? I'm a girl, your boss, and powerful, and rich, and hot, and smart. So, if you perceive 'Supergirl' as anything less than excellent, isn't the real problem you?"

"Now, Keira, you've been an excellent assistant, so good at finding me everything I need. So please, find me one reason I shouldn't fire you?"

"I printed it," James said. 

Both Kara and Cat turned to look at him as he came into the room.

"James," Cat said, "you are interrupting a very craftily-worded termination".

"Kara wanted to surprise you, but she has a teller friend that works at West National City Bank," James said.

"No I don't," Kara said.

James looked at her for a minute. "Yes, you do. The friend you had send me the picture from the branch that got robbed". James held up the picture of Supergirl before Kara could say anything else. 

Cat looked back and forth between Kara and James. "Keira, you got a clean picture of Supergirl?" There was challenge in her voice. She was practically daring Kara to lie and take credit for the image.

Kara sighed and reached into her pocket, pulling out a thumb drive. "Yes," she said. "Just not that one. That one is James thinking he needs to save my job, because he doesn't know I get pouty and start feeling neglected if you don't fire me at least once a week". 

"My, my," Cat said. "Someone's feeling brave toda. Let's see what you've got, Keira. If it's better than Mr. Olsen's picture, I might even let you keep your job".

Kara held up the thumb drive. "Almost fifty high rez images of Supergirl, all in uncompressed Raw format, plus about two hours of video, including footage from police dash and body cams, a couple of security tapes, and even two 3D images. Oh, and signed photo releases for all of it, except the police footage. We'll probably have to have legal look over it before we can publish, because it wasn't officially released, and my source wants to remain anonymous". 

Cat took the flash drive from Kara, looking suitably impressed. "Well done, Keira," she said, before turning to James. "Mr. Olsen, I'm not sure how things are done at the Daily Planet, but lie to me like that again, and Perry White can have his photographer back. Now run along, both of you".