Discussions and Tomatoes

"Hey, Arrow, how's it going?" I exclaimed loudly, hovering quietly right behind him. He was perched on a high roof ledge, spying on some people below.

"Jesus Christ!" He shouted in shock, almost falling off the building. Luckily, I grabbed him and pulled him back just in time. After regaining his composure, he turned around and gave me a stern glare.

"The name's Green Arrow now," he said proudly, but then his expression turned into a frown. "And don't sneak up on another hero like that! I'm doing an important stakeout here and can't be distracted," the self-proclaimed hero scolded. Well, at least I managed to steer him away from being a total edgelord towards something better. Much faster than he would have on his own too. I also know that he feels extremely guilty about the people he killed and has been anonymously donating to their families for support. It's a start, but he still has a long way to go for redemption.

Green Arrow just looked annoyed that I interrupted his stakeout. "Is there a particular reason you came to bother me?" He asked.

"Not really. I was just checking in. I also wanted to let you know that I won't be as active during the day from now on, at least on weekdays," I replied. He gave me a puzzled look. "Did you get a day job or something?- Wait, how would you even get a job? Aren't you the most recognizable face on Earth right now? They still show you on TV almost every night, and I've seen people of all ages wearing t-shirts with your symbol and face on it," he remarked. I simply nodded in agreement. Honestly, I'm still amazed that I can go to school with my hair tied up and wearing glasses without anyone recognizing me.

"No, I don't need a job. I have inherited a fair bit of wealth," I responded. I left out that that inherited wealth came from a drug lord and he was most certainly not aware I had inherited it…

"Haha, whatever you say. So what's the problem, then?" Green Arrow asked, taking a quick look at the people he was spying on before turning his attention back to me.

I looked down and mumbled, "I'm being forced to go to school." It was embarrassing to admit, especially to someone who is now considered a hero, or at least to me. I'm pretty sure most of the city still thinks he's a deranged killer, but his reputation should improve over time, hopefully.

"Hahaha, oh my gosh, are you for real? The famous Supergirl is being forced to go to school. That's hilarious!" He responded. "Wait!?…You're not secretly underage, are you? Because I've heard some pretty vulgar things being said by some of your male fans… and it would make them big-time creeps if you are," he chuckled.

"No, no, I'm 18," I assured him. I also grimaced a bit at his information. "And yeah, I've heard a bit about that, thanks to the internet." And there are now more than a few illicit websites already that have plenty of women wearing blonde wigs and imitations of my costume. I guess it comes with the territory. I'm sure the same thing will happen to every other superhero in the future when they make their debut.

"There's actually something I wanted to talk to you about, and I want to keep it on the down-low for now. It's definitely not something I want to get out to the general public, as it could cause mass panic," I said with a serious expression.

"Hold on, table that thought for a second," Green Arrow interrupted, perking up as he looked down below. "I've been tracking these pieces of shit for days. They're human traffickers, and a shipment of girls from overseas is being brought in. See that large cargo truck approaching the warehouse? It's going to be full of the abducted girls. I'm going to put a stop to their operation tonight, and you're free to join me," he said. Green Arrow readied a special arrow on his bow, fired it across the rooftops, and created a zipline between the two buildings. He hopped on it and zipped across, landing feet first on one of the traffickers' faces, breaking a couple of teeth and knocking him out.

I shrugged to myself and decided to join him. It would be faster this way anyway. Plus I'm always down for beating up some slaving scum.

I flew down to the warehouse quickly after Green Arrow to join him. "Shit! It's that murdering bow and arrow freak who's been rampaging all over the city the past couple of weeks! Everybody, be careful!" One of the thugs yelled, causing a flurry of weapon sounds, with guns being cocked back and ready to fire.

Green Arrow was now engaged in hand-to-hand combat with one of the bigger thugs who he had managed to disengage from his shotgun. They traded blows left and right. Arrow ducked under a particularly heavy sideswipe from the thug and delivered a powerful body blow, sending the man reeling. He was skilled in fighting, and it occurred to me that I should probably work on my own combat abilities. I had relied on my super speed and super strength so far, but I knew from the comics that it could backfire against equally strong opponents who had more fighting experience. I didn't want to end up in the same situation. Maybe I could ask him for combat lessons sometime…

"He's fighting Marcus, and he's got him on the ropes! What do we do?" One of the thugs aiming his assault rifle between Green Arrow and the other thug yelled. He was hesitating to shoot because his comrade was also in the line of fire.

"Light him up!" Another guy shouted. "I don't care if we hit Marcus too, tonight that Arrow asshole dies!" Another one screamed. These guys clearly weren't playing around. Sometimes the life of a criminal could be sad when people would just sacrifice you like that.

The first guy just shrugged before leveling his rifle right towards Green Arrow and Marcus. Both of them paused their fist fight in shock as their eyes widened. The guy pulled the trigger and unleashed his rifle at full auto. I swooped down faster than the bullets, right in between their trajectory and their target.

Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping.

The bullets all bounced harmlessly off of me. The thug who was firing froze in shock and released the trigger. Noticing who I was immediately, I could see the panic on his face.

"Oh shit, Supergirl is here too!" He screamed out.

"The bullets just bounced off her like nothing, man. I heard the rumors, but I didn't think it was true! What are we going to do?" Another guy said. They were all starting to panic. Being completely bulletproof is pretty awesome!

"So what if she's bulletproof?" A man walking out from the warehouse office yelled. "Maybe she can resist those puny balls of lead, but how about this?" In his hand, he was holding an actual rocket launcher! It was actually my first time ever seeing one of those things in real life. He aimed it right at me and pulled the trigger. The rocket was released and fired towards me, gaining speed rapidly!

All the thugs cheered at what they suspected was my imminent demise. I heard Green Arrow yell something out, maybe he said to get down or something, but I just shrugged it off and waited until the rocket got near me. When it did, I reached out my hand and caught it in midair. All cheering from the thugs froze at that. In my hand, I was holding a rocket with its projectile fire behind it fizzling out. A little-known thing about RPGs is that they only explode if the front of them makes an impact, but since I caught it on its tail end, nothing happened. I gently set the explosive down, not wanting it to go off, before turning to the guy who just fired at me.

His mouth was wide open in shock, and if he wasn't freaked out before, now he was absolutely shaking. "Now, now, Supergirl, I was just playing around," he said. "I knew that wouldn't hurt you. How about we talk about this, you know? We've got plenty of cash around here, and I would be more than happy to make a donation to you and that Arrow freak over there if you just look the other way and let us carry on with our business."

I just gave him a small smirk, he was actually attempting to bribe me. This was actually a first for me to be honest. Most of the time the criminals just try to run away. I also found it funny that Green Arrow's real identity as Oliver Queen technically made him a billionaire, and that dude was probably offering him a couple of grand to leave him alone. "That's not going to happen," I said as I zipped towards him.

"Ah, damn it!" Was all the man could get out before I was right in front of him, and my fist made contact with the side of his head, sending him flying a couple of feet to the side, unconscious. When he woke up in jail, he was going to be in for quite the concussion. I was a bit more heavy handed with this guy than usual, but he was the one who tried to literally blow me up first!

Seeing their leader immediately taken out, the remaining thugs in the room just threw down their guns and raised their hands in surrender. I reached into the unconscious leader's pocket and pulled out his cell phone before dialing 911.

"Hello there, dispatcher. This is Supergirl," I said over the line. "No…yes it's really me… what!? What are you talking about? No, this isn't a prank!" I said, annoyed. "This is the real Supergirl, and I'm over at a warehouse on 34th Street, and I just busted a human trafficking ring in progress. Please send some people over to round up the rescued girls and all the slavers." With that, I hung up the phone before turning to Green Arrow, who was just smirking at me.

"They didn't believe that was you on the phone at first," he said with a laughing smile.

I just snorted. "Apparently, they're getting prank calls from Supergirl all over the city lately. Maybe I'll have to put a PSA on Twitter or something and ask people to stop doing that because it's interfering with my real calls."

"Supergirl has a Twitter?" Arrow asked me.

"Oh wait, I never actually made one, did I?" It was another thing I had to add to the list. It would probably be a lot easier to spread information during emergencies with that as well. You never know when you need a city to evacuate immediately in the event of a supervillain attack, after all.

I walked over to the truck that had all the kidnapped women inside and ripped the locks right off the back of it, opening the doors. Green Arrow was right behind me. Inside, there were about a dozen women who looked terrified initially, but as soon as the doors opened, they saw my face, and I could physically see the relief wash over them. I didn't know if it was because they recognized me or because I was also a woman. I suppose it didn't matter anyway.

"It's okay, everybody. I'm so sorry that this has happened to you, but just know that you're safe now, and these pieces of shit are all going to go away for a long time," I gestured to the thugs who were tied up behind me. Those thugs just gave me a defeated glare.

One of the women came forward. "We no speak English good, but thank you." She started crying. "Thank you!" I just walked over and gave her a hug as she sobbed in my shoulder. This was my first ever slave bust and even though I saved them it still left a bitter taste in my mouth at what these girls had probably been through so far. Eventually she broke the hug and went back towards the other rescued women.

In the distance, I could hear a bunch of squad car sirens going off and coming closer to our location. I turned to Arrow and told him it was time for us to leave. Well, I could have stayed because I'm a damn icon in this city at this point. Green Arrow's reputation isn't exactly stellar though at the moment, and it's going to take a while for the police to warm up to him.

But then we headed back to the rooftop we were on initially to watch the roundup of the thugs and the safety of the girls from a distance.

—---------------------

"That was some damn fine work you did there, Supergirl! And man, that guy's face when you caught his rocket out of the air, that was priceless," Green Arrow said with a smirk.

"Yeah it was my first time seeing a rocket launcher in real life. So I just improvised." I said.

"So, before I interrupted you earlier, what was it you wanted to tell me?" He asked.

"Oh, right. That was the whole reason I came here in the first place. Well, this is going to be a weird conversation, for sure. So, let's start off. Do you believe in vampires?" I asked.

He gave me a deadpan stare before chuckling. "Vampires? Seriously? Everyone knows those aren't real," he said confidently.

"Hate to break it to you, my man, but not only are they very real, but they're probably the main cause for most of the unexplained disappearances in the world," I explained with absolute seriousness. "They're incredibly good at hiding their tracks with their super senses and speed, making them difficult to catch, track, or even hurt in any way. In my town, vampires are a real threat." Green Arrow looked shocked as I revealed that the majority of disappearances were actually due to supernatural causes, not just people being horrible to each other.

"Wait," he sputtered out, "if that's the case, how have they never been found out? I mean, hell, we've got satellites in space with cameras aiming down." I simply shrugged in response. I explained to him that it's possible that the government did know about the vampires but didn't have an effective way to combat them. I went on to describe their abilities, starting with their aversion to direct sunlight, which causes their skin to shine like diamonds and give them away. I also explained their incredible durability, rendering bullets ineffective, and their superhuman speed, surpassing the average person's ability to track. Their super strength allows them to lift cars, making them seriously dangerous. The easiest way to spot them, I told him, was through their abnormal eyes.

"What do you mean their eyes won't look normal?" He asked.

"Vampires who feed on human blood always have blood-red eyes. Due to the corrosive venom that replaces all the fluids in their bodies, they can't wear contacts to hide it either. So, if you ever see someone with red eyes, looking super pale and unnaturally handsome, that's not some albino model—that's a vampire," I explained, and he nodded along. "On the other hand," I continued, "if you see the same thing but with golden eyes, that's a vampire who exclusively feeds on animals. Well, those vampires aren't harmless per se; they're just trying to live as normal a life as they can. So, I wouldn't bother picking a fight with them."

Arrow asked me why all vampires don't want to feed on animals, and I told him that apparently, it tastes awful to them. He was rightfully disgusted that the majority of vampires would stoop so low as to murder people just for the taste of human blood being better than animal blood. I couldn't argue against that either since there are people in the world with extremely sensitive palates who have to eat bland diets their whole lives, and they don't resort to murdering others in retaliation.

As a regular human, Arrow asked me the best way for him to combat these monsters, and I told him that a flaming arrow directly into their eye socket or mouth would make contact with the venom in those locations and immediately set their heads on fire. If their heads completely burn up, there's no coming back for them.

"So, how did you find out all this information about them in the first place?" He asked.

I smirked and told him that there were yellow-eyed vampires currently attending the school I was going to. He obviously balked at that outrageous statement I just made. Honestly, I couldn't blame him.

"Wait, so you have actual vampires in your school right now?" He asked in disbelief, to which I simply nodded. "Wow, that's crazy. So, what are they like? Are any of them in your classes?" He inquired.

I smirked again. "Oh yeah, I sit right next to one of them in my biology class. Let me tell you about the interaction we had on my first day of school..."

—--------------------

-Biology The Previous Day-

"It's nice to meet you, Kara. Welcome to this class. I'm Mr. Banner," the teacher introduced himself as I stood at the front of the class, with all the students' eyes gawking at me. He looked around the classroom before pointing at the only available seat, right next to Edward Cullen. "Well, it appears the only open seat right now is next to Edward over there, so hop to it," he said.

I walked through the aisles of desks, nodding and saying hello to everyone I passed, before finally sitting down next to Edward Cullen himself. I turned to him to say hello, but I noticed he was looking the other way, completely disinterested. "Oh, that's just rude," I thought to myself.

"Okay, class, Mr. Banner came around with a tray filled with a certain fruit. Today, you are all going to be dissecting these tomatoes!" He exclaimed in feigned excitement. However, the entire classroom looked disinterested.

"Lame!" I heard Mike yell out behind me. "Can't we just watch a Bill Nye video instead?" He said, and a bunch of other students voiced their agreement.

"Oh, how I wish I could just play those videos everyday instead of this shit…" Mr. Banner muttered under his breath. I let out a giggle at that. From the corner of my eye, I saw Edward smirking to himself. Obviously, his own super hearing had picked up on that comment too.

"Alright, just take your tomatoes and start dissecting them already. I'm not going to ask again," the teacher said before going back to his desk to sit down, probably contemplating why he ever thought teaching high school biology would be an exciting career…

Before I could casually reach for the knife, Edward was quicker than me as he snatched it off the tray. I gave him an annoyed glare. He turned to me with a somewhat fake sheepish smile. "Sorry about that. The scalpels can be kind of sharp, and I didn't want you cutting yourself," he said, giving me the typical smile that I figured would impress the average girls at this small-town school. I'm sure it had nothing to do with him thinking I was an ordinary human, and that if I cut myself right next to him, he'd probably go into a blood frenzy and kill everyone in the room. No, I'm sure it had nothing to do with that, I thought sarcastically.

"Fine," I said aloud. "Go ahead and cut the tomato." Edward went to do exactly that before a teasing grin formed on my face. "Wait!" I yelled out, startling him and everyone else around me.

His knife was less than an inch away from the fruit he was about to cut into before he sighed and turned to me, giving me an annoyed glare. "What?" he said, clearly annoyed.

I smirked at him and put on the most serious expression I could. "Before you cut into it, we have to give a prayer and thanks," I said.

"Why?" Edward said in exasperation.

I could hear Mike behind me snickering, listening in on our conversation. I turned to him, giving him a smile and a mischievous wink. Then, I turned back to Edward and gasped dramatically. "It's obviously not right to waste food," I said. "That's why we have to be thankful that this tomato will be used for science and not for sustenance. You know, there are millions of people starving all over the planet who would love to eat that tomato right there, and we're basically going to destroy it. I mean, just think about those school lunches we had earlier and think about all the students who didn't finish their lunches or even eat them at all. They just wasted the food and threw it away. That food could have been donated to people in need."

Edward formed a contemplative look on his face, probably trying to process the absolute bullshit I was spewing at him. Maybe he felt bad that he and his siblings essentially wasted their meals every single day by not eating them…

"I suppose we can," he sighed, and then he actually bowed his head. I assumed he started praying for the tomatoes... Wow, I don't think this guy has ever been trolled by what he assumes to be a human before. I could hear Mike snickering behind me, as he had caught on to my trolling immediately. I sent him a thumbs up!

Mr. Banner came over and looked at Edward's weird, slumped posture with his head down. "And what exactly is he doing?" Banner asked, to which Edward perked up in embarrassment.

"Oh, he was praying for the tomatoes or something, sir. I didn't really understand it myself," I lied right to the teacher's face. From the corner of my eye, I could see the look of betrayal that Edward had just shot me. Meanwhile, Banner gave Edward a weird look, as if he was truly seeing him for the first time.

Banner just looked at him with an exasperated expression, as if he thought Edward was an idiot. "And I thought you were the smart one in this class," Banner said out loud, which caused snickers from everyone else in the room. Meanwhile, Mike behind me was laughing his ass off at Cullen's expense. I knew from the stories that he was always super jealous of him, so seeing him be knocked down a peg in front of the whole class was probably glorious for him.

Once the snickering died down and Banner walked back to his desk, shaking his head, Edward shot me one final glare before turning to ignore me and focusing back on his tomato. He started cutting into it with the precision of an experienced surgeon, and I supposed that since he had been to med school in the past, he was one.

"You know," I said aloud to no one in particular, "sometimes tomato juice reminds me of blood, you know." It was subtle, but I could see his shoulder stiffen when I said the word 'blood'.

"I suppose it does," he said slowly, like he was doing his best not to think about the 'B' word.

I continued nonchalantly, "You know, in a lot of stories I've read, vampires can drink tomato juice as a substitute for blood. It never seems to bother them at all. I wonder if vampires were actually real, would they drink tomato juice?" I questioned.

Edward tensed once again when I said the 'V' word before he scoffed at my statement about vampires being able to drink tomato juice. "There's no way vampires would ever be able to drink tomato juice," he spat out quickly and with a mildly offended tone in his voice.

"How would you know?" I said mischievously. "It's not like you're a vampire. I mean, they can't know until they actually try it, right?" His offended face went to a mildly contemplative one at my comment. No way! Was he actually thinking about it?

With that, I turned around to face Mike and temporarily gave Edward some space for his thoughts. "So, Mike, how's it going in tomato dissection land?"

He just gave me a look of complete boredom. "I have no idea what we're doing right now. Why are we cutting into a tomato anyway? How is this even a lab?"

I just shrugged, if the school lunches are anything to go by, they might just be too broke to afford rats to dissect. We continued our small talk about basically nothing for the next minute or so when we were interrupted by a super loud gagging sound from my partner next to me.

I turned around in absolute shock and glee! Edward Cullen had taken a bite of the tomato and was now gagging and spitting it out all over the table. I wished I had a camera so much right now!

"What the hell is going on over here?" Mr. Banner stood up from his desk angrily and walked over. "Cullen!" He spat out. "What the hell are you doing? Why are you eating your tomato? You're supposed to be dissecting it!"

Edward, still gagging from the horrific taste, shot me another glare before he tried to justify himself to the teacher. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what came over me," he started doing his best to make an excuse. "I just didn't eat much at lunch, you know, and I was kind of getting hungry-"

"Those tomatoes were expired, for your information, and that's why we were using them for dissection. We weren't going to waste food if we could help it. I've had enough of you acting like a clown today." Banner interrupted him. "Detention with me after school. You're usually a good kid, you know, but today you've decided to be a complete clown, trying to impress the new girl or something." He finished, and everyone in the class gave me curious looks. Me and Edward? Absolutely not, ever! I didn't have any current romantic interests, but that ship was never sailing.

Putting those gross thoughts away, I continued watching as Banner lectured Edward for a few minutes straight. In my head, I was cackling with amusement, and I stuck my fist back, feeling Mike give me a fist bump from behind. First day of school, and I had already managed to get one of the vampires stuck in detention. Maybe being stuck here for the next year wouldn't be so bad after all...

—-------------------------

-present time rooftop-

"Wait, wait," Green Arrow said, laughing his ass off at my story. "You went to school for one day and got a vampire who was how many years old..." he questioned. I told him he was over 100 years old, causing him to laugh again. "...You got a vampire who was over 100 years old to be stuck in detention by convincing him that eating a tomato would be the same as drinking blood." He slapped his knee and continued to cackle, and I joined in.

After finishing up my story with Green Arrow about my first day of school, I decided to take to the skies and go on patrol myself. I had warned Arrow about vampires and advised him to be wary of them, but honestly, I didn't think he would encounter too many of them in sunny California. From what I could remember, they mostly preferred to stick to cloudier climates. However, with my super senses, there was no way I would never run into one of them. Not that they were a particular threat to me. They could run a hundred miles an hour, while I could move multiple times faster than the speed of sound. They were lifting cars at their max, and I had just deadlifted a 747 the other day. The only thing I had to watch out for would be any offensive gifts they had that might count as magical attacks on me.

As I soared over the city, I heard the telltale sound of glass shattering before hearing a voice mutter about needing to hurry up and rob the store as quickly as possible before Supergirl shows up. Well, unfortunately for them, "she" was about to ruin their day, I giggled to myself as I zipped over towards the would-be thieves.

—----------------

-Previous Day Cullen House-

The Cullen family gathered in their spacious living room, enjoying a rare moment of relaxation. Edward, usually composed and reserved, sat among them, his face displaying a mixture of frustration and resignation. Esme, Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett couldn't contain their laughter, finding Edward's recent misfortune incredibly entertaining.

Esme, a gentle smile on her face, couldn't resist teasing her vampire son.

"So, Edward, tell us again how this new girl, Kara, managed to trick you into getting detention," she said, her voice filled with playful curiosity.

The room erupted in laughter, the sound of their amusement filling the air. Edward, though slightly irritated, couldn't help but crack a smile at the infectious joy surrounding him.

"I didn't want detention, you know," Edward defended himself, a hint of defensiveness in his voice. "She caught me off guard with her weird theory is all..."

Alice, unable to contain her laughter, chimed in, "Oh, Edward, we all know how much you love biology class. And tomatoes, especially," she said with a mischievous grin. Of course she had told the entire family that he actually bit into a tomato to see if it would taste like blood.

Laughter once again filled the room, even Carlisle joining in on the lighthearted teasing. Edward scowled, feeling the weight of his family's amusement, but couldn't help but admit the humor in the situation.

"It wasn't that funny, okay?" Edward retorted over everyones laughs, his irritation evident. "She manipulated the situation. She deliberately made it seem like the tomato was something else."

Emmett, roaring with laughter, couldn't resist adding his own commentary. "And you fell for it, bro! The great Edward Cullen, outsmarted by a tomato!" He exclaimed, barely able to catch his breath.

Edward rolled his eyes, feeling Emmett's jest dig under his skin. Rosalie playfully nudged Emmett, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Come on, Edward. You have to admit, it's a bit hilarious," she said, her voice laced with teasing. "Even for someone as perpetually brooding as you."

Realizing he was outnumbered, Edward let out a heavy sigh, resigning himself to their teasing.

"Fine, fine. Laugh all you want," Edward admitted, his voice tinged with amusement. "But mark my words, Kara won't get away with this. I'll find a way to get her back."

Alice, her clairvoyant abilities piqued, couldn't hide her curiosity and smirked mischievously.

"Oh, Edward, revenge? That sounds like an interesting plan," she said slyly. "I can't wait to see what you come up with."

Jasper, always the voice of reason, placed a reassuring hand on Edward's shoulder.

"Don't let it get to you, Edward. It's all in good fun," Jasper said, chuckling. "Besides, This new student Kara seems to have found a way to ruffle your feathers. That's a rare feat."

Edward begrudgingly cracked a smile, realizing that his family's teasing came from a place of love and camaraderie.

"Fine, fine," Edward conceded, slightly amused. He wasn't a total stuck up prude; he could take a joke! "You win this round, new girl! But just wait, the tables will turn. Kara won't know what'll hit her."

"Whatever you say son." Carlisle teased.

"Oh there was one more thing about the new girl you should all know." Edward said.

What's that dear?" His mother asked.

"I couldn't read her mind at all!"

-end chapter-

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