2015-11-30 - The Right Stuff

"Yep. That's right. Dance for my amusement," Leah says as she watches the chopper go nuts on her salad fixings. Twirling her fingers, she conducts the tiny orchestra of death which is the dinner she's preparing, having some nice chicken strips grilling and a nice side of pepperoni pizza to offset the healthy. Got to have balance in life.

Leah slaps the off switch and turns, snagging her phone as she checks the timer on the stove, hitting Kara's speed dial. "Now, if she's just not in a volcano again..." she murmurs as she makes sure the chicken isn't burning. Poke poke.

Kara's phone rings. Kalibak roars, "Once this device is set up, your primitive planet will no longer be a thorn in the side of mighty Darkseid, and he will finally see my worth as his-" He's cut off as KAra slams fist into Kalibak's face, sending him through a building in Naples. She takes her phone out of the dimensional pocket, and says. "'yello? Oh crap... is this about dinner? I'm.... just doing something but I'll be done really soon! I'm almost done and-"

An energy whip lashes around Kara's throat, painfully for Supergirl. The bigger view of the area is a lot of unconscious parademons or ashes where parademons were, Bloody Mary's down, Gilotina's down. Kara grabs the whip around her neck and yanks it, sending Lashina flying at her so that she can punch the Female Fury in the face.

Then with a little gasp (that did hurt!) she continues on the phone, "Give me like... *gasp* ... a couple of minutes. I'll bring some of that soda from Italy that you like."

Putting the phone under her cheek so she can use her hands, Leah says, "I take it you're busy," with a smile. "Get something that goes with ...well, I can toss some olives on the salad and call it Greek, if it works. Greek chicken salad." She shakes her head, almost dropping her phone as she flips the chicken, then pulls it off of the heat.

"It's okay, hon. Nothing here won't keep an extra few minutes. Do what you need to do, I'll keep the warm stuff warm for you. Ciao." No fear that Kara might be in real trouble, but she lets Kara be the one to hang up first. Just in case.

Of course, this does give her time to pull out the laptop and do some searching. Important stuff.

Kara Zor-El says on the phone, "Just a little - " Kara's hand goes up to stop Stompa from kicking her face in. Then she flies around, grabbing Stompa's food and swinging her into both Mad Harriet and the device, which is destroyed from the impact, opening a Boom Tube when the motherbox powering it exploded.

Lashina gets up from the ground groggily. "Kalibak's mission was a failure. Back to Apokalips!"

Mad Harriet asks, "What about Kalibak?"

Stompa grumbles, "Oh screw Kalibak." And they jump in through the boom tube. Kalibak pushes himself out of the rubble, and yells, rushing at Supergirl with fists ready to punch "WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU STUPID WHORE OF A WHELP!" at Kara. "I'LL REND YOUR FLESH FROM YOUR BONES AND CRUSH YOUR-"

At which point he gets a kryptonian teenager's fist again smashed into his face, breaking his nose and sending him flying backwards through the boom tube, which then closes.

She probably wouldn't be seeing Kalibak for a while - Darkseid hates and punishes failure. The remaining parademons self-incinerate, and Kara says on the phone, "Actually I JUST got done. I'll bring the raspberry flavored soda." Then flies off to do some quick shopping in the marketplace, then a quick flight around the world back to Metropolis.

A few minutes later, Kara lands on the balcony and comes into her penthouse apartment. "I'm back! TWO Bottles of raspberry soda. And I even got biscotti from this great little cafe." She sniffs. "Smells good, Leah!"

Leah is holding a warm damp towel as Kara comes through the door, but not actually looking. She's slightly distracted by a webpage on her laptop, something about NASA. Glancing up from her laptop, she closes the lid and smiles, then kisses Kara on the cheek. "I heard punchy noises, so I assumed you were obviously at the library. Here."

Leah hands Kara the warm towel, then takes the bottles and biscotti to put at the table. "When you're ready, I mangled dinner into a form that you can eat while I whine about calories. It might be edible this time, but no promises." With a wink, she gives Kara a quick hug and asks, "Who were you fighting this time? I'm afraid I don't know your enemies' names very well."

Is it a wonder why Leah's family is convinced she's in a romantic relationship with the Girl of Steel?

Kara smiles as she hugs back. "Oh um... Kalibak and some of the Female Furies. Kalibak was trying to destroy the Earth or portal it into another dimension or something. I'm going to go change." She heads into her room, then comes out two seconds later in normal clothes, the warm towel still around her neck. She walks over to the laptop, curiously. "NASA civilian applications?"

Leah was about to walk away from the laptop, but simply hadn't had time to do so! She smiles a touch less, shrugging, and re-opens the computer to let Kara have a look. "I sometimes forget how good eyes you've got. Yeah, it's a pretty big list of stuff to get done before they even consider me an applicant, let alone ready to fly. Might take a while. You hungry?"

Not one to ignore food, she's the type to continue conversations over dinner so it's not really a change of subject for Leah. She just wants to change locations, to the yummy food she's got ready. Pepperoni pizza, on Kara's side, and chicken salad with olives and feta cheese for both. Which is a bit of an experiment, but Leah slips into her seat without fear!

Kara Zor-El sits down at the table and grabs a slice of pizza. "Would you really like to go into space? I mean.... like an astronaut? Or just like... be on a space station. I mean I might be able to talk to Batman to get you on the Watchtower or something. But that's just a zeta beam transport." She takes a bite of the pizza. "Actually I probably would ask J'onn. Batman would probably be all grumpy about it with 'Kara, the Watchtower is not for friend field trips." Kara says that in a mock deep voice, trying to intentionally poorly imitate Batman.

Leah shrugs, chewing a mouthful of yummy goodness. Some of it actually being the salad, since she's firmly of the opinion that anything that goes in her mouth is food. "I'm going to become an astronaut, with everything that goes with it. Shuttle from earth, work to do on the space station, some kind of space-suit walk. Ooh, maybe I'll get to fly to the moon! That'd be cool." She takes another bite, nodding firmly. She'll go to the moon too, because that's what's going to happen.

Waggling her fork at Kara, laden with a piece of celery, she says, "Not the same, not the same thing. There's a big difference between being one of the ones who actually launches from earth and someone who teleports to a space station. We still do launches, I saw one last week on tv."

Kara Zor-El is so lucky she has an alien DNA and metabolism which prevents her from EVER getting fat, because with the junk food she eats regularly, she needs that advantage. "Doesn't that usually take a long time?" she asks her friend, though she's already thinking of ways to help out her friend. The Director of NASA did tell her if she ever needed anything to just ask, after she rescued the ISS and the two spacewalking astronauts when the station's power core got punctured by the micro-meteors. She even patched it up for them, saving them millions of dollars.

Kara nods a bit. "Yeah... I've been in spaceships before. Krypton remember? I just don't have as good a memory of the last time I was in one."

Leah nods absently, mind ranging to the list. She specifically got Kara the pizza because she knows Kara's metabolism. Figures she'll get a slice and maybe one for breakfast; the rest will go to Kara. "It can take a while. I put in my application this afternoon, they'll contact me when they get around to it and look at my qualifications."

She goes on, smiling dreamily. "Then I get accepted and start training on planes, simulators, learning about the experiments that I'd be getting sent up to help with, learning how to handle zero gravity and how to use the equipment...I really want to try on a space suit. That's half the fun, is going out into space knowing that there's nothing between you and death but a centimeter of nylon."

She visibly shivers, hugging herself and giggling. "God, I feel alive again! I am all over this shit, it shall be mine."

For once, she's not really noticing Kara's reaction so much, bound up in how the adventure makes her feel.

Kara Zor-El was concerned about Leah wanting to be an astronaut a little. Mainly because she knew how space travel was dangerous even for planets that had advanced spaceflight technology. But Leah seemed to really want to do this, and didn't want to do a Zeta Beam to the Watchtower, which she was pretty sure she could have convinced either her cousin or J'onn of allowing. So she would help Leah with her dream more directly, via NASA. It would be a great surprise. Maybe she'd be able to even show Leah a view of the Earth from her favorite spot in space on one of the satellites.

Kara Zor-El listens to Leah talk excitedly about the spacesuits. "Yeah... fun...." she says a bit concerned again. She makes a smile though. If it was important to Leah to do this, it was important to her.

Leah hath decided, thus it shall be. Occasionally this girl is a force of nature, and smiling around her fork she gives that little look in her eye that Kara knows isn't something that can be stopped. "So. Tell me about your day," she says, already trying to see if she can work the necessary courses into her schedule in her head. Got that convention next week in Paris, can't miss that, and the webinar on photography she has to attend.

Kara Zor-El finishes a slice and is already on her second one. "Oh... you know. Some new stuff, some old... Saving planes, stopping bank robbers, some terrorist cell in Germany, that Kalibak thing in Italy..." She looks over at the couch. "Replaced the couch..." She looks back at Leah. "You know... normal stuff."

Leah isn't blushing. Much.

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Leah can't see. Not because she's been kidnapped, even though Kara DID say that she was kidnapping her when this trip started a minute ago, but the blindfold that she's wearing only heightens the suspense and excitement. "You realize, if we keep doing this kind of thing, nobody reading our adventures will ever believe that we're not dating. Wheeeere are we going?"

Giggling a little, Leah clings to Kara as she flies, having no idea where the two are going. It's Kara's surprise, and Leah is all about suprises. Happy ones, like Disneyland, anyway. Not surprises like finding your pet fish in the cat. Which did not happen again after the first time and it was her own fault anyway. She should have known Streaky could unlock doors.

Kara Zor-El keeps the blindfold on Leah and grins as she flies to Houston. "Yeah well... let them think whatever they want. You're going to be SO happy about this." She lands where the Space Shuttle Endeavor is displayed on top of a 787. "Okay... take your blindfold off." She stands there giddily, waiting to see Leah's reaction.

Leah stands up, grinning now that she's certain she won't get bugs in her teeth. She lifts her hands and pulls off the blindfold with a flip of her hair, looking amazing as she does so, and opens her eyes to look around. Her mouth opens, and she lets it hang there for a moment as she takes in the Shuttle, eyes wide. "Kara!" There's no mistaking the happiness in her eyes, or in her voice.

She actually does a little happy dance, not even aware that she's doing it. "It's beautiful! This is Endeavor, isn't it? This has actually been into space!" Leah turns to Kara, eyes absolutely shining. "It's beautiful!" No smart-ass comments, she must be serious.

Kara Zor-El beams when she sees how happy Leah is to be at NASA. She nods. "And there's more! Cmon, I have someone REALLY special to introduce you to!"

She leads Leah into the Space Center, where they're met by NASA security and a woman in a dress-suit. "Hello Supergirl..." She pauses to look at her smartphone. "And Leah Callahan. I'd like to introduce you both to Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last NASA astronaut to walk on the moon." Cernan says, "It's an honor to meet you. Director Boldenand NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver are waiting in the Flight Projects Building for you. We're sorry that they couldn't meet you here but after your call it was really short notice, but just follow us to the tram and you can start your private tour of NASA by the director and deputy themselves, and me, if you'd like that?"

Leah puts her hands on the sides of her face and slaps herself, then presses her palms over her eyes. Just for a moment, to get control of herself. After her small panic attack, she looks to see if Eugene Cernan is real. Since he hasn't vanished, she mostly suppresses her squeal and says, "I am, a big fan. Huge. Your photo is my wallpaper on my computer right now."

Technically true, it's in the slideshow along with the One Piece pics and the shots of Thor with his shirt off. It's all inspirational, just to different parts of her brain at different times. "Kara, you are awesome. I don't deserve this though, the director is a busy person!"

Kara Zor-El beams, smiling nonstop. And this wasnt even the BIG surprise. She gives Leah a hug and they get in the tram to go see the director of NASA after a brief tour of parts of NASA that the tour groups don't get to see, like the REAL mission control and the environmental sim. They meet up with the Director and Deputy in the ISS mock-up, by the space suit testing area.

Deputy Lori Garver walks over to shake Supergirl's hand, then Leah. "It's wonderful that you both could come. When Director Bolden got the visit from Supergirl..."

Kara says, "You can just call me Kara... it's fine."

Garver continues, "Oh. Thank you. Anyway when we got the call from Kara... she told us how you were wanting to get into the civilian training program that NASA's been setting up. We hope to make civilian spaceflight a reality within the next twenty years and... well.. I'll let the Director tell you.

Director Bolden walks over. "Well... a few months ago, Supergirl.... sorry... Kara.... helped NASA out immeasurably when she saved the International Space Station, like the mock-up behind us ... from suffering catastrophic damage. And I told her if she ever needed anything from NASA, to just ask. And she called me a few days ago, and well... normally the selection process for the civilian astronaut program can take upwards of 10 years, but we'd like to invite you into the training. Kara has told us so much about you, and how you're a trained medical professional, and cool under pressure and dangerous situations, and I have to say, your references are pretty spectacular, obviously." He is of course referring to Kara being a 'reference.'" He holds out his hand to shake Leah's. "So what do you say, Miss Callahan. Do you think you have the 'right stuff' to be the first civilian astronaut for our new program?"

Kara's practically hopping in place giddily, holding her hands over her mouth so she doesn't squee.

And Leah's face goes from giddy with wonder at all this, to slowly realizing what's going on. And the blood drains out of her face, as she goes white with all the signs of being in a teensy bit of shock at having her dream handed to her on a platter. She thinks with what's left of her brain about the work and training, about all that was in the way of getting into space, and watches it all vanish in one wave of Kara's beautiful hand.

Finding her own hand being held by the Director of NASA, Leah is very, very quiet. She hasn't been this quiet in her entire life; ask her mother, it's true. As the director glances from Leah to Kara and back, wondering if his new recruit is alright, Leah grabs ahold of her brain with both hands and says something.

"NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Snatching her hand away from Director Bolden, Leah turns to Kara, her face absolutely livid. Trying to make words come out, she grabs Kara's shirt, lets go just as quickly, then puts her hands on her skull and digs her fingers in til the nails are almost penetrating the skin.

Leah raises her eyes to Kara, then to Director Bolden and Eugene Cernan, then back to Kara, and says, "God...damnit, I can't...I can't FIX this! Kara, what did you....what..." She's not even entirely coherent.

Kara Zor-El got a little startled that Leah wasn't giving her a BIG hug over this. She pauses, then looks at the NASA people, then Leah again, then says to the NASA people. "Um... need to talk to my friend for just a little bit if that's okay?"

The Director seems likewise confused. From how Kara had described it, Leah wanted VERY MUCH to be an astronaut. "Er... yes. Of course Supergirl. Use the Deputy's office."

Kara takes Leah's hand cautiously. "Um... Leah c'mon.... lets talk in private okay?" She pauses to look over at the Deputy and Director and astronaut as she attempts to lead Leah to the office. "I'm sure she's just speechless! I don't do surprises that much like this!" she says to them before heading into the office and closing the door.

Kara looks at Leah with concern. "Leah, what's wrong.... I thought you wanted this. I thought you'd be doing backflips or something."

Leah comes in, fuming. She wasn't this mad when she found that email from the RPGeniuses, and it was about as misogynistic as men GET. "What's wrong? Backflips? Seriously?" Leah paces back and forth, her voice loud enough to easily be heard in the other room. For that matter, she's probably audible on Pluto.

Taking a moment to get a level of control over her hands so she doesn't try to strangle her best friend, Leah says, "I...KNOW that you did this as a good thing, but, NGH! I love you Kara, but sometimes you do not understand humans. I will NOT have this given to me! I will EARN it, or I will NOT! FUCKING! DO IT! AT! ALL! Being an astronaut isn't just flying into space! I could get onto a zeta or beta or whatever the fuck it is transporter and be in space in ten goddamn minutes! Astronaut is a title you earn, when you've fought your way to the right to wear it. It's not...it's not..."

She sighs, winding down, and says more softly as she looks at a picture of the moon landing on the wall. "It's not given to you like a tour around your back yard. That makes it...nothing."

And she turns to look at Kara, saying much more gently, "I don't know how to fix this, Kara. I can't...earn my way in, now. I can't do it right." She's crying, now that the anger is gone.

Kara Zor-El cringes a bit when Leah's shouting at her. And realize, this is a girl who has taken a nuclear bomb to the face and beaten Abomination on seven different, horribly lopsided occasions, the Hulk on one, and just stopped an attempt to destroy the Earth two weeks ago. But LEAH made her cringe.. "But.. but I didn't ... I mean you still need to go through the training. I just um... you know... I told the Director about what you wanted and he offered, and I thought you'd be happy. I mean... ten years is a long time for you to have to wait. I mean.... you still have to go through all the same training I just um... you know... Got... your foot in the door? Sorta?" she asks a bit timidly.

Kara Zor-El bites her lip. "You know like... skipping to the front of the line at a club or something?"

Leah walks to Kara, then puts her hands on Kara's shoulders. Then she puts her forehead against Kara's shoulder, and says, "It's actually a lot less time, now that you supers have upgraded the tech," almost as an aside. Because she can't think of anything better to say. "The thing is, I'll know the difference. And they'll know." She points at the roster, the list on the plaque on the wall. The few Astronauts who represent all of Humanity's dreams for space. "I wanted to be part of it, something more than myself."

At that moment, there's a knock on the door from outside. Polite, but insistent.

Kara Zor-El pauses, looking at Leah. 'You supers.' Oh Rao, what if someone tells her that she asked the Director to make sure she was safe on the mission when she got to go into space! She sort of manages a response. "I just... well... I just wanted to help you out. You don't think I did everything on my own without getting help right? I mean... Wonder Woman, Batman, Kal... the Titans. It's not bad to get help from your friends. It doesnt mean you don't accomplish stuff on your own merits..." Then Kara tentatively puts her hand on Leah's back, trying to be comforting. "Do you... um... do you want me to tell them you changed your mind?" she asks unsuredly when the knock on the door happens.

Leah smiles at Kara, leaning against her easily now that the tide of her temper has mostly passed. "Nobody gets to space alone, Kara. That's part of being more than yourself. Hell, it takes literally hundreds of thousands of people working together to launch a shuttle. The pilots are just the ones who get to ride. I'm sorry I snapped at you. But this is something that I could do, and I know it. Now I just gotta figure out what to do next." She shakes her head a little, then motions to the door. Opens it, looking out.

Director Bolden, head of NASA is at the door. Outside, the gathered people are politely not paying attention but they're doing it so hard that it would be difficult to seem more attentive if they'd tried. No question that everyone out there heard that entire thing. "May I come in? I think I may have something that you need to hear. Both of you."

Kara Zor-El nods a little. "Um... okay." Crap. She messed up Leah's dream for her by... helping make sure her dream happened? Kara seems a lot more unsure of herself than she did about 10 minutes earlier when she was giddy.

Leah gets out of the way, letting the director into the office. Not sure if it's his office or not, but she's pretty sure that she's ruined her chances to do anything anyway. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout about your work, sir."

Raising his hand to wave it off, he says, "You meant every word, there's no doubt about that. I dont know if you're aware, but I personally review every file that passes the initial review board for astronaut training, young lady. The hardest part of this job isn't actually choosing people, it's later on."

Pausing, Director Holden raises his jaw, and says, "We eliminate people on a regular basis once we get to know them better. The primary reason for that is because people fail to grasp exactly what they're doing here. Five out of six applicants get sent home because they don't project the image we want to give to the world. Because they don't UNDERSTAND."

Looking at Kara, Director Holden says, "Leah is right on at least one count. If we'd flown her to space, she would not be one of our Astronauts. Not one of the ones who we use to teach the world that space is the future." Looking at Leah, he says, "You have to earn that."

"When we take in applicants, we ask for an essay before they are granted level one access, basic training. An essay on what being an Astronaut means to you. I am willing to accept your shouting down Supergirl as your essay, if you'd like to begin training. With NO preferential treatment at all, period."

Kara Zor-El says absolutely nothing, not wanting to mess up stuff for Leah, or ...well... help Leah? further. She just looks over at Leah to see what she's going to say, or if she's going to be upset some more about what Kara did.

Outside, every face is turned to the door. Then, when Leah's face lights up and she starts crying as she's shaking the director's hand, Lori Garver and Eugene Cernan share a knowing smile. Certain that they'll be seeing this girl in a space suit, added to the pictures on the wall. Probably be crying in that shot too.

Or hugging Supergirl, because she's suddenly doing that too. And somehow it doesn't seem out of place.