Chapter 17

The next day she woke up late, taking a few minutes, she stretched her limbs and took a quick shower before looking for Kori, but the girl had already left the house, her training keeping her busy almost every day.

She decided to start her day by visiting her cousin while he was at work and finally get her documentation in order before she started recruiting again.

And maybe get his permission to look at the Fortress military tech too while she was at it.

Also, she wanted an excuse to see the famous Daily Planet and meet Lois Lane.

She also had to get her power armor ready, even if it was only the civilian version.

She had thought she could get by as a normal human, but Detective Chimp had guessed her powers with barely a glance so she didn't want to risk meeting anyone else without hiding her identity.

As she stepped out of the Zeta-tube in Metropolis she made a note to see if she couldn't crack the teleportation network and make her own version. It was just too convenient.

She'd probably get rich enough to be able to buy the entire LexCorp if she made teleportation affordable to the common people. That, or get assassinated by the transport industry.

She smiled as she saw the enormous skyscraper with the globe rotating on top of it marking the headquarters of the Daily Planet.

Kara walked through the doors and paused to look at the building's interior.

The entrance was an enormous open floor with panels showing prize winning reports written by the journal's own reporters, dozens of workers walking purposefully to and from the stairs and elevators.

From behind her, a young man came running inside the building. Kara heard him approach and stepped to the side, but the guy still managed to hit her back and bounce off, falling on his ass.

"Hey." She scolded, turning around to see a young redhead with a photograph camera around his neck.

"Sorry, I didn't notice you…" he sheepishly apologized as he looked at her face and flushed.

Kara smirked, she hadn't been bad looking in her last life, but she did enjoy her new and improved looks too.

Extending a hand, she helped pull the young man to his feet.

"Thanks. Jimmy Olsen, photographer," he introduced himself as his flush faded. Checking his camera to see if it was still okay, the man looked back at her. "Sorry for running into you."

"Don't worry about it." So, this was her cousin's famous friend, he was surprisingly cute. "You know, maybe you could help me find my cousin?"

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" He asked in confusion.

"I'm Kara Danvers, Clark's cousin." She introduced herself as the two of them walked further into the building and stopped blocking the doors.

"What? I didn't know Clark had any more family!" He exclaimed in surprise, clearly confused by the way things were turning out. "You're talking about Clark Kent right?"

"Yep, you know Clark's adopted right? I'm his biological cousin." Usually she wouldn't be so open, but she was in a great mood and felt like she knew the man from the comics. "We reconnected a few weeks ago."

"Huh, you know what, sure. Come on." He pressed the button to call for an elevator and turned towards her with a smile. "So, are you his only family, or is there a whole Clark clan out there?"

Kara thought about the question, and about both Kon and Match, then avoided his eyes and shrugged. "It's… complicated, I guess it'd be better to ask Clark about that."

"Yeah, I get that; don't wanna step on his toes or something right?" He nodded and dropped the subject.

"Hey, what kind of photos do you take? Is it just people for the Planet?"

"Yeah, I mostly take photos to go with the articles, but I love to take art photos and nature shots."

"No nudes?" She teased, causing the young man to swallow wrong and start to cough away from her, his face becoming red.

Heh, teasing people was surprisingly fun.

When the doors finally opened, a flustered Jimmy practically ran away from the enclosed space, buying himself time for his embarrassment to fade.

Using her vision Kara looked through the walls until she found her cousin bent over a table, discussing an article with Lois and an older male inside a private room.

Kara smiled, she just knew he'd be with Lois.

"You alright Jimmy?" She asked as she patted his back.

As soon as she spoke, Kal's head twitched, then he briefly turned towards her, even through the walls she saw him giving her a small smile and motion for her to wait before turning back to Lois to finish their talk.

"I'm fine." He said and glared at her, but there was no heat to it. "Come on, Clark should be at his desk right now."

She followed him inside the building, entering a wide open space filled with individual desks; Jimmy frowned when he didn't see Kal anywhere in sight.

"Come on, which desk is his?" Jimmy looked at her eyes for a second, but shook his head.

"Sorry, could you just… wait over there." He pointed to a comfortable waiting chair close to the wall. He was still in a hurry, but didn't want to just leave her alone at Clark's desk without supervision.

"Sure, I sent a message right before I arrived so he should be here soon anyway." She lied, glancing back towards Kal, she saw he was almost done with the discussion and decided to wait on her feet.

Jimmy seemed conflicted, looking between her and a room further inside the building. "I'm really sorry to just ditch you like that without Clark, but I really am late."

"Don't worry about it." Kara waved his concern away with a smile and watched him dash away towards his employer.

Not even a minute later Kal left the room, followed by Lois Lane. Miss Lane seemed completely distracted by something she was reading, but Kal motioned for her to come over as they walked towards their desks.

"Kara, good to see you!" he gave her a hug and turned towards Lois as the reporter raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously. "Lois, this is Kara Danvers, the cousin I told you about. Kara, this is Lois Lane, one of the Planet's star reporters."

"So you're the famous cousin?" She took a moment to look Kara from top to bottom with a critical eye. "Yeah, I can see the resemblance. Weren't you in the hospital?"

Lois seemed to be really suspicious of Kara, her gaze never leaving Kara's face, as if searching for any signs of guilt.

Kara couldn't blame the woman, a new relative turning up out of nowhere with a medical emergency was suspicious even on her previous world, much less this one that was filled with supervillains and other ridiculous plots.

"I got better, still have to get treatment, but I don't have to stay in the hospital anymore."

"Expensive treatment, I take it?" The reporter squinted her eyes, her feet tapping against the ground as she thought Kara was taking advantage of her… wait, were they already married?

Kara remembered they had a son together but, since the focus was never on Superman, she didn't remember in which season they'd gotten together.

"Lois! Don't be like that." Clark begged while covering his eyes with a hand.

"It's fine Clark, I can see why your girlfriend would be worried." Kara patted Clark's back causing him to trip, almost dropping the papers on his hand. "And I guess you could say it's expensive, but I have the money."

"Oh, tell me more." Lois tried to shoulder Kal away and get to her, but her cousin grabbed her by the shoulders and gently guided her away.

"Lois, she's not here for an interview." Lois frowned at him, but still let him guide her towards her desk.

"Fine, I'll drop it." Rolling up one of the papers in her hand, she used it to hit him in the forehead to show her displeasure before walking away. "But don't you dare do that again or there will be consequences, Smallville."

Kal had a small smile on his face as he watched her go, then he turned towards Kara's smirking face. "Not that I'm complaining but, what're you doing here Kara?"

"Getting my documents back, mostly. I'm just starting to get my life in order and I kinda need them to even get started." She told him as she continued to look around the place with interest. "By the way, you and Lois? I tentatively approve."

Kara still hadn't had time to properly get to know Lois Lane, but what little she had seen was promising. The woman did seem to care about Kal and was very protective of someone she thought was taking advantage of him.

"Things with Lois are… complicated." He told her as he guided her towards his table, "I actually brought everything here since I was thinking of finding you later today."

Pulling one of the drawers, Kal handed her a thick folder, Kara took only a few seconds to check everything, but she trusted him and Batman to have things in order.

It seems that things would be even easier than she had first thought; her new identity already had an established tech company in her name, one that was seeing at least moderate success in the communication field.

"And Bruce's just giving me this? The factory alone must be at least twelve million and, from what I can see, there's quite a lot of cash available to my name."

The amount of money here was spare change compared with something like WayneTech, but Kara hadn't expected Batman to just give away millions.

"The… factory only exists on paper, or well… there's a building but it's really in need of repairs." Kal explained and looked around to be absolutely sure nobody was listening. "Bruce said the money in the accounts could be paid off some of the metals you already mined. Batman sometimes needs that kind of procurement done off the books."

She just nodded, Batman could have afforded to just give her the money anyway, but she didn't mind paying him back with the material she had already harvested. He probably didn't need it, but it would make her feel better not to owe him more than necessary.

"Right, thanks anyway. And about the access?" She probed.

"Kara… Krypton was very advanced, their military tech was dangerous." He said as he sat down, Kara bristled at his tone.

"Does that mean you won't give permission?"

"Look, I have yet to go through everything on the database, but I know there are some things in there that are just better forgotten or destroyed… or at least sealed away." He sighed and adjusted his glasses. "How about this, I'll give you access to anything defensive and, later this weekend, we can go over everything else together, then you get access to anything you can convince me you can safely use?"

Kara frowned; she hated how patronizing he sounded despite trying his best to be diplomatic.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to think about things from his point of view. Krypton was an advanced civilization, its military probably had access to planet bursting weapons and she was only 17.

More than that, she hadn't been on Earth for even half a year, he barely knew her really. It was still incredibly annoying, but she too wouldn't give a seventeen year old she barely knew access to military gear, even if they were family.

"Fine." She huffed in exasperation and glared at him. "I was already planning on working on my armor first anyway."

Kal stared at her with a strange look on his eyes as she said that. He started to say something, then closed his mouth as he thought better of it.

Shaking his head, he got back up and gave her a hug, holding her tightly against his chest. Kara was confused, but she did hug him back.

"I know it wasn't exactly what you wanted to hear, thanks for understanding." He finally said as he released her and sat back down.

"So, how's Kon taking living with your parents?"

"Surprisingly well." Kal told her, his face going back to the happy smile he usually had. "Bruce is helping with the adoption papers and he seems to enjoy helping out on the farm."

"What human name did he settle on anyway?" Kara asked with mild curiosity, with the way things were going he'd probably end up with the same name after all.

"Connor Kent. It's close enough he isn't likely to get confused." Kal glanced at a calendar on his table and tapped his finger against the table for a few seconds. "Say, do you have anything on the twenty first?"

"Not really, why?"

"I'll have to cover something with Lois so I thought you could take Connor to his meeting at Mount Justice." He told her with a sheepish smile.

"You couldn't make it?" Kara lifted an eyebrow in annoyance.

"I mean, it would be a little tight, but I could do it." Scratching the back of his neck he avoided her eyes, but continued to speak anyway. "I just thought, maybe you'd like to spend more time with him and meet the entire team together?"

"...You know what? Sure, I'll bring him there." Kori would be there too, and she could take the chance to find out what kind of changes Batman was making.

"Great, I'll update your Fortress access as soon as I'm done with work then."

"Right, thanks Kal, guess I'll leave you to your work now." She said her goodbyes, took her documents, then kissed him on the cheek and turned around.

While she was leaving the floor she caught sight of Jimmy getting yelled at by a fat guy and happily waved him goodbye.

As soon as she was out of sight she properly read all her new documentation, then decided to check her new property personally.

Her new headquarters was in a small rural town in Pennsylvania. The building itself was one of the biggest in the city, but it was currently almost empty, with only a couple of office workers dealing with some documents inside.

Kara would have to take some time to find out what really happened, but apparently, without any oversight, the CEO had stolen as much money as he could and fled, leaving management of the company, and the fallout, for someone else to deal with.

Without access to the money left from the owner's accounts, whoever was left was just doing their best to delay declaring bankruptcy.

Bruce probably didn't have the time to manage such a relatively small business and may have even forgotten he had acquired such a fake identity until Kara had asked for it; he probably had hundreds of covers he could use. It wasn't the end of the world if one was burned.

After checking on things Kara made sure she had access to the computers still within the building before she went towards the second building she now owned.

Her new factory was really just a huge abandoned building, most of its heavy equipment had been sold off or stolen and the remaining machines were just gathering dust while locked inside the expansive, mostly empty building.

It would take a bit of effort, but the location was good and Kara could already see the bare bones of her future technological empire here.

Kara had been thinking about her future a lot, as a Kryptonian she had access to incredibly advanced technology, but just giving it out didn't sit well with her. Just the thought of freely distributing crumbs of her knowledge like a benevolent overlord left a bad taste on her mouth.

It'd also probably cause damage to human society, making it dependent on alien knowledge and materials they couldn't even produce.

No, she wouldn't just give away her technology; instead she'd focus on getting a great team and have them reverse engineer various 'safe' items until they could be easily replicated.

Breaking things down until even the average human not only could understand and use her products, but also replicate them without her exotic equipment, materials or even her input.

She refused to follow the 'Reed Richards is useless' trope. Any improvements she made wouldn't just stay with her and die out if she was gone.

It would take far more time to get everything in order, but it would also allow her to make long lasting changes without causing damage.

And maybe, if she made some of her tech accessible to the common man, other advanced scientists would be forced to adapt in a positive way unless they wanted to go bankrupt.

For Rao's sake, Cadmus had been able to clone people and even create entire new species. But no, instead of working on making it cheaper so the average person could have access to the obvious medical uses, they just spent their time trying to clone Superman. What a waste!

In fact, it was the first order she had given as the new controller of Cadmus. Her own experiences and situation made transplants something of particular interest to her, so she had gotten most of Cadmus working on adapting its clone technology into developing affordable to produce transplant organs that wouldn't have a chance of rejection.

Strangely enough, even with cloning, transplanting a limb was still harder than an organ.

Limb transplanting wouldn't really save lives like producing a heart would, but it was the second priority for Cadmus anyway.

Using her vision Kara started surveilling the land surrounding her factory, making sure it had solid bedrock foundation; she was surprised to find there wasn't any water or mineral deposits anywhere close to her property.

With her technology, the entire thing would make for a great underground facility, just like Cadmus. Now that was an interesting thought.

Eventually, the Light would find out about her takeover of Cadmus and it would be good if she already had an alternative place for the Genomorphs by then. This small town was almost ideal.

A safe place to stay, a safe job at her factory so they could start their new lives and trustworthy employees she could use in her secret base… Who knows, depending on the people of the town they may even be able to integrate without much trouble down the line when Bruce's Lawyer got the Genomorphs' legal situation in order.

Until then, Dubbilex and the other G-gnomes could hide with illusions or she could give them holographic disguises.

With a smile, she made the call.

Dubbilex seemed eager for the chance, some of his more active Genomorphs were just begging to leave the facility and start exploring the outside world, even some of the G-trolls which would make things… complicated.

Most Genomorphs wouldn't have much trouble if they had a holographic disguise, but G-Trolls couldn't even leave Cadmus, the upper floors were just too small.

Kara promised that she'd have a teleportation device ready to bring them out of Cadmus without having to destroy the upper floors as she was sure she could get temporary access to the Zeta-tube network in a few days.

Damn, she had so much work to do.

Looking around herself, she dropped a handful of her drones on the property and ordered them to act as sentries. It wasn't really necessary yet, but the little devices were easy and cheap to make so it wasn't a loss and she thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

Finally, she found the phone of the one currently in charge of the company, a Mr Derrick Blackwell, and left him a message to set up a meeting.

She thought about getting a head start on getting things in order by using her superspeed to clean the place up a little, but… fuck it, she hated cleaning things up and she had more important things to do.

Like… eating lunch.

Finding a small restaurant in town, Kara sat at an empty table and started working on the future of her company. After thinking about it a lot she had decided to start with something that Krypton had been particularly good at, solar energy.

Kara was pretty sure she could improve a contemporary Earth solar panel by at least 200% using only human technology and without making it too expensive to produce, creating clean and cheap energy while making a killing and dominating the market.

The only question was, did she start slow… use only the money she had available to build up her resources with the panels before branching out, or did she start with a bang? She could probably get a loan from Bruce or at least a huge contract with advanced pay to supply some of his companies.

Who was she kidding? Of course she'd get Bruce's help, it would make everything from capital acquisition to recruiting to distribution so much easier and she wouldn't even feel like she was taking advantage since she'd make sure her tech was worth it.

In fact, she'd make it so it was Bruce who got the better deal. Her pride as a member of the El family wouldn't let her do anything less.

She laid back on the chair and started composing her proposal. She had to do things by the book if she wanted her company to work within the law, and so anybody looking wouldn't find it strange.

She didn't want to build a secret base and get it found out because she cut corners.

Jumping through the hoops necessary to get a meeting with Bruce and secure his support was annoying, but it would also put a certain distance between them in case anybody discovered her identity, or Batman's.

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A shout to Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Icewing, Comics, DERMONIAN, Davvy chappie and Phillip Nguyen for supporting my work!

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