FLOATING in between two skyscrapers, a tall, black-haired female was facing off against a man who went by the name General Zod.
"Tell me... What has always questioned you Kalura? Is it the feeling you will never fit in? Never being loved. Feeling like a freak?" Zod asked as Jessica clenched her hands into tight fists.
The general noticed, taking pleasure at the anger he was causing. "Join me Kalura, we can rule over this world together, make a new Krypton." He suggested, holding his hand out for her to take if she made the decision. Oh, she knew better, no matter what the people of earth put her and her brother through... No way in hell was she going to cause innocent people pain.
"No wonder why they locked you away... you're unstable." She scoffed.
Zod's chest puffed out. "Well... I thought you would cooperate better than your brother, but I guess I was wrong." He snapped as Jessica narrowed her eyes at him. Zod flew at Jessica with sound-breaking speed, tackling her through glass buildings and down to the street. "You'll never know true power until you wake up." Zod snarled, holding Jessica's throat tighter. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Wake up, you're going to be late for work."
"What?"
"Jessica! Wake your ass up!" Perry shouted causing Jessica to bolt straight up in her chair.
"I'm up! I wasn't asleep!" She blurted with the letters K, W, and M embedded on her skin.
"Good God, Kent, were you here all night?" He asked, crossing his arms. Jessica rubbed her eyes, trying to rid herself of her exhaustion. Piles of papers clouded her desk showing how much Perry put on her or rather, how much she tends to put on herself.
"No... I just closed my eyes for a few minutes." She mumbled as Perry rolled his eyes.
"Yes, a few minutes, that explains why you're wearing the same clothes from yesterday, your hair's a mess, and the small puddle of drool that's on the keyboard." He explained with his arms crossed.
Jessica adjusted her glasses in embarrassment, she would never be caught dead in the same clothes and Perry knew that. It was something that showed unprofessionalism in Jessica's mind. She sighed, running her hand through her hair. "Perry look, yes I was here, I was trying to push in some more articles, and I fell asleep." She lied while wiping the drool off her cheek.
Perry pursed his chapped lips. "Go home Kent."
"No." She declined. "Clark was supposed to wake me up."
"Your gender-bend isn't here."
Jess paused. "What do you mean Clark isn't here?" She whipped her head around to see her beanstalk of a twin brother was nowhere in sight. "Did Lois come back?"
"She did."
"Wait..." Jess paused. "She was in, uh, Africa. She wasn't supposed to come back until next week."
Perry held up a photo taken by one of the photographers of Superman holding a quite shaken Lois Lane. Jess grabbed a hold of the photo with pursed lips. "Superman dropped her off while you were asleep." Perry leaned against the cubical wall. "I gave her the next few days off."
"Of course, he did." She grumbled, handing the photo back to face Perry.
Jenny rounded the corner with two coffee cups in her hands. "It seems Superman is favoring both you and Lois." She placed a paper cup on the desk with a playful smirk. "Competition maybe?"
Jess rolled her eyes. "First off, he's not my type, second off that's gross."
"He is not gross. Jesus Jess, you act like you two are related." Jenny snorted.
'If only you knew' Jess thought to herself. She grabbed the coffee cup with a rub of her forehead. "Listen, he's a close... whatever he is to me. He gives Lois and me a hand whenever we desperately need it. I didn't need him before he came into the world, I still don't need him now." She looked up at Perry. "And I'm not going home. I have work to do. Now that Lois isn't coming back to work, I have to pick up the slack."
"Other people work here to you know." Jenny said.
"Do you really?"
"Oh, you get snippy when you're tired." Jenny teased.
With a heavy sigh, Perry knew what would make Jess tick even further. It had been the buzz all morning, upsetting the people of Metropolis at this newly released fact.
"Well, if you're working today, I'm sure you're going to love to hear this." Perry said, turning on the tv as the morning news came on.
A woman with a deep accent broke through to Jessica's ears. "The women in the village heard a noise..." The voice paused. "like the sky cracked open. They came down, so many dead, even worse came after. The government attacked, no mercy in the villages." She sucked in a deep breath. "My parents tried to run..." Her voice cracked at the end of her story. She turned her head away, holding her hand to her lips to further show how devastated she was.
Senator Finch, of Kentucky, gave her a sorrowful look, her heart feeling the sadness that was radiating off the black woman. Jessica suddenly realized who they were talking about, her brother. She closed her eyes, now knowing why Clark flew Lois to the Planet this morning.
With a clear of her throat, Finch leaned forward to the mic. "The world has been so caught up with what Superman and Superwoman can do, that... no one has asked what they should do." She spoke, trying to speak as cautiously as she could. "Let the record show that this committee holds them responsible."
"He'll never answer to you." She spat. "They answer no one. Not even I think to god." The woman disagreed, sniffling a bit.
"Oh great." Jessica scoffed. "Another mess." She grumbled. She couldn't comprehend what she was talking about. Jess wasn't even out with her brother at the time, it was more than likely her brother. She was livid at the fact that the woman was spewing lies. Now, she was being lumped together with a horrific crime scene that most likely held a darker truth. It always did.
She knew Clark would never harm any innocent human lives. He was always anal when it came to Jess even punching a criminal too hard. He doesn't have blood on his hands as she does. It wasn't a complete shock how different they are in their views of stopping crime. Clark wanted to reach people through their humanity while Jess saw kicking ass was discipline enough.
Even though she still saw humanity as the most precious thing in all of the stars, she also knew they needed a swift kick in the ass sometimes. That's where she and her brother clashed immensely at times.
"Damn shame." Perry sighed, "I expected better from them." Jessica crossed her arms, leaning back in her office chair.
"She's lying, they would never do that." Jessica defended. "Has Lois given an eyewitness account?"
Chris, one of the workers in the office, was walking past. "No..." Perry and Jess stared at him. "Should I have done that?"
"Yes." Jess growled.
"I'll get on that." Chris nodded, walking off with fear in his step.
Perry and Jenny looked at Jess with a deadpan look. "Good Lord, Kent."
Jess waved Perry off with a sigh. "I'll say sorry for what I do when I'm tired tomorrow."
To add more fire to her already tire, and annoyed, attitude, Doug Sherbet, the most annoying man in the whole office, walked right into their conversation. "You never know someone's true colors." Doug spoke with his gaze glued to his tablet screen. He was a tall lanky blonde man with an attitude galore. He was always trying to steal Jessica's ideas and could not stand the Super Twins.
Jessica glared at him, not ready to debate with him at the moment. "Does bullshit always fall out of your mouth?" She sassed, leaning out of her cubicle to look at him.
"Just to annoy you."
She opened her mouth to retaliate but decided not to. Instead, she grabbed her purse with a sigh. "Fine, I'll go home." She grumbled, grabbing her stuff, and strode out towards the elevator. Once she clicked the button, she turned around to see Doug smirking at her. "Wipe that smirk off your face, you haven't won yet." She declared, her eyes narrowed behind her glasses as the elevator doors opened for her.
She pressed the lobby button and made her descend, yawning and rubbing her eyes at the same time. "Clark Joseph Kent, I swear to God, whatever the hell you did, your head is going to be on a spike when I'm through with you." She growled to herself, adjusting her bag so it wasn't hanging off her shoulder.
Jess looked into the mirror that was hanged up by Lois, so when people came rushing in to work late, they can make sure they looked presentable. As her face came into view, she jumped at her sudden appearance. Her mascara was smeared, her hair frizzy, lipstick going in the direction of the trail of drool that was on her cheek moments ago.
"Oh god!" She gasped and rummaged through her purse to find her emergency make-up wipes for situations like these. She then began to forcefully rub her face to take off the horror painting on her face. Once finished she combed her hair with her fingers and cleaned her glasses off. "There, somewhat, decent." She stated with a shrug of her shoulders.
She blew a breath of air and almost gagged at how bad her breath was. Morning breath was always her mortal enemy, if that were one of her powers, half of the world's population would have dropped dead in disgust. Popping a piece of mango and orange gum in her mouth to at least tame her breath, she rubbed her eyes again. "God, I need coffee."
The doors opened to the lobby of The Daily Planet, people rushing around everywhere like they normally did. "God, Jessica, did you get into a fight with a raccoon?" Matt chuckled at her, his cheery personality always affecting her.
"It looks like it right?" She chuckled with a wave of her hand and out the rotating doors of the building. She wiggled her toes in her shoes, trying to get some type of circulation to go through again.
Taking in a breath of fresh air, she made her way to her apartment. She knew having a cozy date with her mattress for a few hours would get rid of the dark circles under her eyes. Her bed wouldn't judge her, and it can't leave her. She, for sure, was never staying at the office unless it was necessary.
She glanced at all the people walking alongside her. Of course, not having the ability to have a sense of heart today, she kept a straight face and walked faster, trying to avoid people to get to her apartment.
It is not like she was a mean person, she was probably the sweetest person you could meet, but sleep changes everyone. In all honesty, she wasn't the woman she used to be. Kindness was hard to give to people, especially in the world she lived in.
One act of kindness was an automatic snarky response in return. When she and Clark are out to do normal people things, Clark would accidentally bump into someone. He would leave a string of apologies but that person, who would probably have a stick up his ass, is always rude. This would leave his little twin sister to put the man into his place quite aggressively. It was the same strategic move for Lois as well.
With Clark bumping into females, it was always a sorry followed by continuous flirting, from the female side of course. Her twin brother was always oblivious to female affection unless it was Lois.
As soon as she made it into her apartment, she discarded her shoes into the trash, realizing she made a poor choice in buying those cheap black leather pumps.
Then, not even bothering to take off her clothes, she plopped down onto her bed and started to drift off, until her phone rang. "Are you kidding me!" She yelled into her pillow. She reached down into her pocket and yanked her phone out. "What?" She asked annoyed.
Clark's voice rang through. "You are not sleeping, it's 9:30." He said.
Jess rubbed her eyes. "Perry sent me home... said I looked like hell." She explains, yawning yet again.
"I need a favor." He spoke quickly, making Jess scoff.
"You always need a favor."
"Please, I need your help." Jessica blinked and sighed, too tired to argue with him.
"Fine, what is it?" She asked, covering her eyes with her arm.
"Remember that interview I told you about?"
"Oh god, Clark, I am not doing your interview." She snickered warningly. "I just spent the whole night editing your column to find out you weren't even at work this morning to give Lois a ride. I'm pretty sure Perry is going to realize that it's my writing because you never put enough detail in your work."
"Jessica." He warned. Something he did to try and scare her.
She growled, about ready to rip his throat out. "Don't 'Jessica' me, you have a ton of explaining to do. I'll do this interview for you, but this is the last time!" She hissed. "But from now on, you risk your own behind. I'm rescheduling for tomorrow!" Before Clark could answer back, she hung up the phone, throwing it across the bed. "Ugh!" She yelled at nothing while she, yet again, tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She kicked her legs over the edge of the bed, stood up, and dragged her feet to the shower.
Lately, Clark has been shoving his work onto Jessica's load so he can go out and be Superman; not to mention save Lois from robbers when she can, clearly, handle herself. The last time she checked, they were both from the same planet and shared the same powers. She just, couldn't for the life of her, say no to her brother.
It was like a giant IOU since he took the fall for killing General Zod. In thinking that Jess would be punished, he took it upon himself to save his sister when in reality; Clark was only praised. It was grim awareness to her that she killed her own kind to save humanity and her brother was getting praised. Although it was too late to say anything, Jess just ignores it. Clark and she kept it a secret, even from Lois.
Jess wiped the fog from the window with a hard look at herself. She hardly recognized the woman in front of her and all honesty to herself, she doesn't care. Jessica Kent wore many faces, even she didn't recognize the woman staring before her. Instead, she took better care of her false face, brushing her teeth, taking off yesterday's makeup, put on a new batch to make herself presentable, and put on deodorant.
She put on her comfortable pair of black heels and off she was. She walked the streets of Metropolis with the same attitude she left The Daily Planet with, tired and grouchy. What made matters worse was the fact that she had no food in the house and was on her way to her brother's interview while hangry.
Walking the sidewalk, she came across a group of people with shirts that said: GET THE ALIENS OUT OF HERE LIKE THE MINORITIES. GO BACK TO YOUR PLANET AND COUNTRY. AMERICA IS FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WORKED HARD TO KEEP IT GREAT. Plastered all over the front.
Jessica stopped in her tracks at the sight of the derogatory words on their clothing. One of them noticed her staring and crossed his arms. "What are you looking at?"
"Just your politically incorrect choice in clothing." She shrugged. "Those, "minorities" deserve to be here just as much as you."
The man, scoffed, pointing his pale finger to his shirt. "Whatever lady, go make me a sandwich or something." The group of his friends all laughed.
Jessica chuckled, scratching the side of her face. "That's a good one, that really is." She gave a contented sigh, about to destroy this boy's reputation. Factually.
"May I remind you that the way you speak to women, or any person of society is how you talk to your mother, is that how you talk to your mother?" She asked with a tilt of her head.
The boy shrugged his shoulders. "What's it to you?"
"What's it to me? Well, I wouldn't want your mother to know that you walk around spewing hate just to look cool in front of your friends. I also wouldn't want your mother to know that sagging your pants halfway down your ankles is a calling card for guys to have sexual intercourse with other male inmates in prison." The other boys the white boy was with looked down at their pants, one picking them up all the way to cover his belly button.
"Another thing, if you're telling people to go back to their country, don't bother to buy things if you're talking about China, American's get their goods from there, don't watch sports like football or basketball, because they're culturally diverse. If you're talking about Hispanics, don't listen to their music, don't learn their language, and don't eat their food, don't expect the Super twins to come to save you when you want them to leave this planet, and for sure don't listen to African American music, don't wear their clothing, and don't try and act like you are them when you discriminate against them."
The boys looked at each other in stubborn embarrassment, the tips of their ears showing color. "There's nothing I hate more than a racist who likes to leech off of other cultures for fun then treat them like garbage."
Jessica dusted her hands like she was washing the memory from her head. "And one last thing." She said before walking away. "The American's you claim who 'worked hard' to keep it great are liars. They used the backs and bones of Blacks, Native Americans, and Hispanics to build this country by force. So how about you open a book for once? Become educated on something you know nothing about." With that, Jessica continued her journey even more annoyed.
In her mind, it was a giant slap to the face. The Supertwins were immigrants, foreigners in a distant galaxy. They save people like those boys all the time and yet they're discriminated against like anyone who isn't of white, human, descent. Now, not to say all whites are bad, only the ones that chose to openly hate someone for something they can't control, is where the problem lies.
When Jess has tried to speak about her feelings towards the racism she endures as Superwoman, Clark doesn't know how to respond. Clark hasn't faced the discrimination yet, not as much as she gets. Lois says it's because he's the man. He isn't as oppressed as a male hero as Jess is. "It's still bullshit," Lois would say, "but it's how society functions. Be the symbol for the ones who don't have any direction of what to do. Become stronger with them and soon, the oppressor will have to listen to you."
____________________
IN a dark cave, underneath the house of a wealthy billionaire.
Bruce Wayne descended in an elevator to what was named the Batcave. He passes by his butler Alfred Pennyworth who was currently doing electrical repairs on a Bat-helmet and its microphone. "You're still working?" Bruce questioned with a raised brow. "You're getting slow in your old age, Alfred."
"Comes to us all, Master Wayne." Alfred spoke. "Even you got too old to die young, and not for lack of trying." He said sarcastically. Bruce rolled his eyes while he drops his jacket on the side of his computer chair. Alfred grabs the in-helmet microphone. "Funnel-ferry butter bar. Funnel-ferry butter bar. Funnel-ferry... There's nothing wrong with the microphone." Alfred stated exasperatedly. "It's this new layer of armor I'll just have to rewire." He sighed at having to rewire more armor. "So, last night was productive?"
"No," Bruce breathed. "He's too low-level. He knew nothing. This is the man who knows things." Bruce pulled up a picture of a man on the screen of the computer. "Anatoli Knyazev. He's Russian. Contracts all over the globe, but he's based out of the port of Gotham. Weapons and human trafficking."
"So, the White Portuguese is a Russian." Alfred looked at Bruce with a raised brow. "That's the theory?"
"The theory is that the Russian will lead me to the man himself."
"If he is, indeed, a "him." You don't even know if he exists." Alfred said. "Could be a phantasm."
"One that wants to bring a dirty bomb to Gotham?" Bruce asked with his head tilted up to look at Alfred from his chair.
"High-stakes round. New rules." Alfred shrugged.
Bruce shook his head slightly. "We're criminals, Alfred. We've always been criminals. Nothing's changed."
"Oh, yes, it has, sir. Everything's changed." Alfred pulled up images of the super twins flying in the air. "Men fall from the sky. The gods hurl thunderbolts. Innocents die. That's how it starts, sir. The fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness. It turns good men cruel."