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(fanfic) (DCU) Now Is The Time
Title: Now Is The Time
Author: SKJAM!
Fandom: DCU
Characters: Kara "Supergirl" Zor-El, Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon, some OCs
Prompt: (Silver/Bronze Ages), Barbara Gordon/Linda Danvers , Clark and Bruce aren't the only Super/Bat team in love and war.
Rating: G
Summary: Supergirl and Batgirl fight time-travelers.
Warnings: None.
Written for the "Heroines Fest" community.
NOW IS THE TIME
by Scott K. Jamison
(Disclaimer: Supergirl, Batgirl and related characters are the property and trademarks of DC Comics. No infringement is intended or should be inferred.)
Supergirl felt Breed's hand grasp her hair. He must have been bending down to examine her closer, because she could smell his fetid breath even without concentrating on her super-senses.
"Now that's the proper position for a woman," said Breed hoarsely. "On her knees. Perhaps when history is restored to its true line, I shall allow you to bear my sons. What do you say, Kryptonian?"
Supergirl didn't bother to reply just yet. She needed to have her eyes functioning again so that she wouldn't misjudge and accidentally kill Breed. Not that that would be any great loss, but "no killing" meant no killing.
*CHOOM*
"I could use a hand here, Supergirl," called Batgirl. From the sound of her voice, she was moving rapidly.
*CHOOM*
"Blast you, stand still!" screeched the True Man who called himself Artillery.
"If I did that," Batgirl replied, barely breathing hard, "you *would* blast me."
Supergirl gently placed her hands around Breed's wrist...just a moment more, to pass it she remembered how she'd gotten here.
-----
It was late June, and Linda Danvers was spending a sunny afternoon with her adoptive parents, helping out in the garden.
"It's good to have you back from college," said Mrs. Danvers. "Even if you do have to run off all the time."
"And how is that different from any other girls her age?" asked Mr. Danvers.
"When *our* daughter gets in the paper afterwards, it's for something we can be proud of."
Linda smiled, a little embarrassed. "I'm not that perfect--wait, hearing something."
It was on a frequency only a handful of other beings on the planet could have picked up. "Supergirl, this is Superman. Krypto and I are going off-world to investigate space pirate activity near Arcturus. This may take a few days, so please drop by the Fortress for the routine matters, then cover any emergencies as needed. Thanks, Kara."
Linda acknowledged the communication with a quick whistle. "Something's come up, folks. See you again soon."
"Stay safe, Linda."
-----
Supergirl unlocked the Fortress of Solitude's massive door with the airline direction marker her cousin used as a key. A quick sweep with x-ray vision showed that no intruders had been in the massive cavern hideaway. The small zoo's automatic feeder was working correctly, and none of the alien creatures within had damaged their cells.
Phantom Zone monitor? All prisoners accounted for. The bottled city of Kandor? All systems nominal, and Supergirl took the opportunity to exchange greetings with her birth parents. The various long-term experiments were coming along as expected.
Supergirl noted that her personal room at the Fortress was getting overcrowded with trophies. One day soon, she would have to make her own fortress, or an equivalent space.
Oh, here was something new--Kal-El had managed to get the Time Travel Detector working again. It was a notoriously fickle device, spending more time disassembled for repair than not. Supergirl decided she might as well check its logs.
A Legion time bubble had passed through "recently" (time travel played merry havoc with language) en route from the 30th Century to the 1800's. Someone in Japan had launched him or herself forward in time five years without bringing their time machine with them--that was a problem for another day, and Supergirl made a note on the perpetual calendar. Rip Hunter's time machine had departed for somewhere in Ancient Sumer, and an unidentified craft had landed near Gotham City about an hour ago, originating from the late 21st Century. Kara decided she'd better have a look at that last one.
-----
As she approached Gotham City, Supergirl realized that she didn't have any good way to get in contact with Batman, should she need to. She knew where the Batcave was, of course, but she'd never been formally invited there, and she wasn't sure if Batman had realized that she knew who he was. Well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. Kara began scanning the area with her telescopic vision, looking for signs of the timecraft.
Nothing that looked out of place yet--oh, someone in a scalloped cape riding a motorcycle with a bat emblem--could it be? As Kara flew closer and the angle changed, she saw that it wasn't Batman, but the new hero of Gotham...what was her name, oh right, Batgirl.
Kara flew down and matched speed with the motorcycle. Earth vehicles weren't a specialty of hers, but this one looked highly modified. "Hi! I'm Supergirl!"
The rider looked momentarily startled, then composed herself. "I'm Batgirl. Just visiting Gotham City, or is there something else going on?" The motorcycle had apparently been tricked out so that the engine noise didn't drown out conversation.
"It looks like there's time travelers in the vicinity."
Batgirl pulled her cycle over to the side of the road, parked, and put it in idle. "Say that again?"
Supergirl explained.
"Interesting. I was just going over to check on a report of an UFO over on the Old Gronigan Road. Might be related. I've never run into time travelers before."
"They can be tricky customers. You never know if you're just getting tourists, or conquerers or just jerks. You know this area, right? Where should we look?"
Batgirl revved up her bike and led the way.
Between the two of them, they quickly found the location described in the UFO report, and Supergirl was able to spot the time machine not far away. "There's four men, and they look human."
"Look...oh, right, you superfolks take on aliens all the time. Lots of new experiences today." Batgirl parked her motorcycle and the pair walked through the pine woods to the clearing where Kara had seen the machine.
The men were wearing what Kara had come to think of as "future clothes", even though she knew they'd come in and out of fashion several times in the next few centuries. They were setting up two tents and other camping equipment.
As the girls entered the clearing, Batgirl called out, "Hi! We'd like to talk to you for a moment."
The men looked very startled to see the newcomers, one dropping the wood he'd been carrying. "It's the female Kryptonian! And one of the Bat-women!"
"Batgirl, actually--"
"They must be here to stop us from correcting the timeline! How did they find us so soon?"
That didn't sound good at all. Supergirl saw one of them whip out something that looked like a small bomb, and toss it in the girls' direction. Instinctively, she moved in front of Batgirl to protect her from the explosion. But as it went off, she felt a sharp pain behind her eyes and everything went black.
"My eyes!" said Batgirl.
"Let's get them!" yelled one of the men.
"No, we have to save the power patches for our real target tomorrow," said another man, calmer sounding. "We must stop those women from screwing up the future without fail."
There was the sound of a metal door slamming, and the firing of rocket engines, quickly followed by the sound of a time machine disappearing.
Shortly, Supergirl's eyesight returned. "Are your eyes getting better, Batgirl?"
"Yes. Interesting, it must work directly on the optic nerves, rather than being a 'flash' in the usual sense."
"I'm sorry, Batgirl, but it's been too long, and I can't find their trail through the time barrier."
"That's okay, Supergirl, I'm pretty sure I know where they're going to be," said Batgirl. "And by a happy coincidence, I'm going to be there tomorrow in my other identity."
"Really? Where's that?"
"The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. It's being held in Gotham City this year, and I'm one of the delegates."
Supergirl nodded. "That makes sense. We should both be there...but how am I going to get in without being noticed?"
"I don't suppose you have an identity other than Supergirl?"
"Yes, I do." Supergirl paused. "And if Superman can trust Batman with his identity, I'm sure I can do the same with you." She went behind a tree and donned her civilian clothing and wig, moving so fast that it would seem to Batgirl as if she'd simply transformed in the second behind the tree. "I'm Linda Danvers, pleased to meet you."
Batgirl paused for a long moment, then lifted her cowl. "Barbara Gordon. Likewise. Tell you what, get back in costume, and we can finish up my routine patrol, then go back to my apartment and strategize." She pulled the cowl back down.
They did the patrol, encountering three muggers and a cat in a tree. Batgirl said that this was a fairly normal night. "Yes, Gotham's a pretty high-crime city, but it's not as bad as the television news makes it sound."
At Barbara Gordon's apartment, Linda was surprised to see how much older Barbara looked in her civilian identity, with her hair in side buns and granny glasses.
"I'm head librarian, well, acting head librarian because the previous head went loopy and calls himself Bookworm now, at the Gotham Library. I got promoted over people with much more experience and tenure than I have, so I make myself look older and a little dowdy to seem more like the kind of person who'd hold the position."
"And I'm a journalism major at Stanhope College," Linda replied.
"I see. Well, that makes things easier, I can get you a press pass if you'll write up a story for your school paper. It's not as though we'll be seeing a lot of reporters covering us."
"What's this commission about, anyway?"
Barbara sat down and massaged her neck a bit. "Equal rights for women, mainly. Equal pay for equal work, equal opportunity to get hired at any job we're qualified for, equal chances at promotions, that sort of thing. You probably already had that stuff on Krypton, right?"
Linda was silent for a long moment, remembering. "Krypton...was a great civilization, very advanced scientifically. But from what I learned of our history in Argo City, it wasn't much more progressive socially, in some ways, than Earth is now."
They talked well into the night. Linda was glad to have another superheroine to speak to besides her Legion pals.
-----
The next day, the pair arrived at the conference center in their civilian clothes, and Barbara checked in as a delegate, then got Linda her press pass. "Got your notebook and pencil ready?"
"Yes," replied Linda, "I think I'm...wait, there's an earthquake in Peru...oh, the Justice League is responding, they can handle it."
Barbara looked wistful. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to how much power you have."
"That's why I and my cousin have to be extra careful how we use it, because it would hurt people if we didn't."
"Uh...so, let me show you around and introduce you to a couple of the delegates."
Most of the people present were older than Barbara, and Linda recognized some of the names.
"Can you believe it?" one woman said. "We're not even going to be allowed to pass a resolution that the Civil Rights Act should be enforced! Talk about toothless."
The keynote address went off without any interruptions, and as the delegates were milling about for their separate morning panels, Barbara managed to bring Linda over to meet one of the more famous people there.
"Ms. Friedan, this is Linda Danvers, who's covering this for the Stanhope College paper. Linda, this is Betty Friedan."
"It's good to see some of the younger generation taking an interest. It's good to meet you, Miss Danvers."
"Thank you, ma'am. I read 'The Feminine Mystique' a few months ago, it was interesting but I don't think I agree with all your conclusions. I hope you don't mind, but I have a couple of questions about--"
At that moment, the sound of a time machine materializing caught everyone's attention. The four men who Supergirl and Batgirl had seen the day before stepped out onto the auditorium proscenium. Linda and Barbara immediately looked for good places to change.
Three of the men slapped some sort of patches on their arms, while the fourth pulled a large gun from seemingly nowhere and fired at the ceiling, leaving an impressively large hole. "Your attention, ladies and gentlemen!" he said over the screaming, his voice somehow amplified. "We are the True Men, and we have come here to save the future!"
That got the attention of at least a few people, though many were still screaming or running for the exits.
"I am Century," said the man with the gun, "and my companions are Blazer, Breed and Artillery. We are some of the very few freedom fighters left in our time, striving against the feminization of our society and the emasculation of our species. In hindsight, we now know that today is one of the blackest in history, one where a horrible mistake was made, and we're here to correct it. If we are successful, the True Men will proceed to other critical junctures, restoring the timeline that should have been, bringing back the patriarchy that is the natural state of mankind."
As Century spoke, his comrades changed. Breed became larger, hairier-looking and more muscular. Blazer started quivering, as though he couldn't stand still. And Artillery's hands began glowing an orange-yellow.
"Ah. I see my friends are fully powered-up now. It's time for as many of you as possible to die."
Fortunately, his speech had given Supergirl and Batgirl the time to change as well, and they made their entrances. "Okay, you male chauvinist pigs!" shouted Batgirl, "It's time for you to learn some manners!" She threw a Batarang at Century, only to have Blazer quickly snatch it out of the air. He grinned and zoomed towards her.
Batgirl threw another Batarang, which Blazer easily evaded. "Hahaha! I'mtoofastnowforstupidlittlegirls! Gonnacutyouu--uk!"
"You forgot that boomerangs come back, didn't you?" Batgirl kicked Blazer in the face, knocking him senseless.
Meanwhile, Supergirl swooped in on Century. "I'm pretty sure you don't have a license for that gun," she said, crumpling the barrel with her hand. "And I'd better make sure you don't have any other nasty gimmicks." She quickly turned him upside down and shook, dislodging a number of unpleasant looking gadgets. Then Supergirl flipped Century right side up again, and tapped his forehead in the exact right spot to make him faint.
But Century grinned as he lost consciousness. "Deadman...swit.." Supergirl felt the stabbing pain behind her eyes as darkness fell again.
Something coming up behind her, something big--What had to be Breed swatted her off her feet.
-----
Ah, there was some vision back, enough for her purposes, anyway. Supergirl tightened her grip on Breed's wrist, prompting a yelp of pain. "You know what I say, Breed? I say, go soak your head!" She tossed the large man into the path of Artillery's latest blast. Batgirl seized the opportunity to use Breed's body as a stepping stone in mid-air, kicking off it and performing a flip that brought her inside Artillery's arms, too close to fire at.
Batgirl grabbed Artillery's forearms and aimed them at his head. "Feeling lucky?" Before he could reply, she'd headbutted him into submission.
The heroines then made sure their prisoners were good and tied up.
"We make a pretty good team," said Batgirl.
"Yes, we do. I'll get these miscreants back to their home time, where they'll be better prepared to deal with them."
-----
Linda rejoined Barbara some time later, as the conference wound down. "I took our visitors home, and their cops seemed glad to see them. Turns out they stole that time machine."
"I'm not surprised. Didn't act like the sharpest knives in the drawer. What's the future like?"
"I try not to inquire too closely, but it didn't look nearly as bad as the 'True Men' were letting on." Linda focused on the speaker. "Something's going on."
"What we need," said one delegate, "is an organization, nationwide, that will fight for women's rights. One that isn't beholden to the government, so can't be muzzled like this commission was."
Betty Friedan was writing something on a napkin. "You mean a National Organization for Women? NOW?"
"Yes, now! Oh, I see what you did there. That's a splendid name!"
There was general agreement, and the delegates began discussing their options for the new organization.
Supergirl was pleased. June 30th, 1966 had turned out well indeed.
-----
EPILOGUE
"Yes, Miss Lane, the Justice League is happy to report that we managed not to have a single person killed in this earthquake, and the Justice League has already put together shelters for the..."
"Wonder Woman? Are you all right, you look a bit sad."
"Oh. It's just that I suddenly felt like something relevant to my interests just happened, and I wasn't there for it. But back to the shelters..."
THE END
Author's note: Thanks for reading!
The official first meeting of Batgirl and Supergirl was in World's Finest #169, September 1967, "The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot!" It...isn't all that good a story in many ways, and technically doesn't even pass the Bechdel Test. I cannot in good faith claim this story is better, but it's a bit more about Batgirl and Supergirl and subjects they might be interested in.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
Author: SKJAM!
Fandom: DCU
Characters: Kara "Supergirl" Zor-El, Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon, some OCs
Prompt: (Silver/Bronze Ages), Barbara Gordon/Linda Danvers , Clark and Bruce aren't the only Super/Bat team in love and war.
Rating: G
Summary: Supergirl and Batgirl fight time-travelers.
Warnings: None.
Written for the "Heroines Fest" community.
NOW IS THE TIME
by Scott K. Jamison
(Disclaimer: Supergirl, Batgirl and related characters are the property and trademarks of DC Comics. No infringement is intended or should be inferred.)
Supergirl felt Breed's hand grasp her hair. He must have been bending down to examine her closer, because she could smell his fetid breath even without concentrating on her super-senses.
"Now that's the proper position for a woman," said Breed hoarsely. "On her knees. Perhaps when history is restored to its true line, I shall allow you to bear my sons. What do you say, Kryptonian?"
Supergirl didn't bother to reply just yet. She needed to have her eyes functioning again so that she wouldn't misjudge and accidentally kill Breed. Not that that would be any great loss, but "no killing" meant no killing.
*CHOOM*
"I could use a hand here, Supergirl," called Batgirl. From the sound of her voice, she was moving rapidly.
*CHOOM*
"Blast you, stand still!" screeched the True Man who called himself Artillery.
"If I did that," Batgirl replied, barely breathing hard, "you *would* blast me."
Supergirl gently placed her hands around Breed's wrist...just a moment more, to pass it she remembered how she'd gotten here.
-----
It was late June, and Linda Danvers was spending a sunny afternoon with her adoptive parents, helping out in the garden.
"It's good to have you back from college," said Mrs. Danvers. "Even if you do have to run off all the time."
"And how is that different from any other girls her age?" asked Mr. Danvers.
"When *our* daughter gets in the paper afterwards, it's for something we can be proud of."
Linda smiled, a little embarrassed. "I'm not that perfect--wait, hearing something."
It was on a frequency only a handful of other beings on the planet could have picked up. "Supergirl, this is Superman. Krypto and I are going off-world to investigate space pirate activity near Arcturus. This may take a few days, so please drop by the Fortress for the routine matters, then cover any emergencies as needed. Thanks, Kara."
Linda acknowledged the communication with a quick whistle. "Something's come up, folks. See you again soon."
"Stay safe, Linda."
-----
Supergirl unlocked the Fortress of Solitude's massive door with the airline direction marker her cousin used as a key. A quick sweep with x-ray vision showed that no intruders had been in the massive cavern hideaway. The small zoo's automatic feeder was working correctly, and none of the alien creatures within had damaged their cells.
Phantom Zone monitor? All prisoners accounted for. The bottled city of Kandor? All systems nominal, and Supergirl took the opportunity to exchange greetings with her birth parents. The various long-term experiments were coming along as expected.
Supergirl noted that her personal room at the Fortress was getting overcrowded with trophies. One day soon, she would have to make her own fortress, or an equivalent space.
Oh, here was something new--Kal-El had managed to get the Time Travel Detector working again. It was a notoriously fickle device, spending more time disassembled for repair than not. Supergirl decided she might as well check its logs.
A Legion time bubble had passed through "recently" (time travel played merry havoc with language) en route from the 30th Century to the 1800's. Someone in Japan had launched him or herself forward in time five years without bringing their time machine with them--that was a problem for another day, and Supergirl made a note on the perpetual calendar. Rip Hunter's time machine had departed for somewhere in Ancient Sumer, and an unidentified craft had landed near Gotham City about an hour ago, originating from the late 21st Century. Kara decided she'd better have a look at that last one.
-----
As she approached Gotham City, Supergirl realized that she didn't have any good way to get in contact with Batman, should she need to. She knew where the Batcave was, of course, but she'd never been formally invited there, and she wasn't sure if Batman had realized that she knew who he was. Well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. Kara began scanning the area with her telescopic vision, looking for signs of the timecraft.
Nothing that looked out of place yet--oh, someone in a scalloped cape riding a motorcycle with a bat emblem--could it be? As Kara flew closer and the angle changed, she saw that it wasn't Batman, but the new hero of Gotham...what was her name, oh right, Batgirl.
Kara flew down and matched speed with the motorcycle. Earth vehicles weren't a specialty of hers, but this one looked highly modified. "Hi! I'm Supergirl!"
The rider looked momentarily startled, then composed herself. "I'm Batgirl. Just visiting Gotham City, or is there something else going on?" The motorcycle had apparently been tricked out so that the engine noise didn't drown out conversation.
"It looks like there's time travelers in the vicinity."
Batgirl pulled her cycle over to the side of the road, parked, and put it in idle. "Say that again?"
Supergirl explained.
"Interesting. I was just going over to check on a report of an UFO over on the Old Gronigan Road. Might be related. I've never run into time travelers before."
"They can be tricky customers. You never know if you're just getting tourists, or conquerers or just jerks. You know this area, right? Where should we look?"
Batgirl revved up her bike and led the way.
Between the two of them, they quickly found the location described in the UFO report, and Supergirl was able to spot the time machine not far away. "There's four men, and they look human."
"Look...oh, right, you superfolks take on aliens all the time. Lots of new experiences today." Batgirl parked her motorcycle and the pair walked through the pine woods to the clearing where Kara had seen the machine.
The men were wearing what Kara had come to think of as "future clothes", even though she knew they'd come in and out of fashion several times in the next few centuries. They were setting up two tents and other camping equipment.
As the girls entered the clearing, Batgirl called out, "Hi! We'd like to talk to you for a moment."
The men looked very startled to see the newcomers, one dropping the wood he'd been carrying. "It's the female Kryptonian! And one of the Bat-women!"
"Batgirl, actually--"
"They must be here to stop us from correcting the timeline! How did they find us so soon?"
That didn't sound good at all. Supergirl saw one of them whip out something that looked like a small bomb, and toss it in the girls' direction. Instinctively, she moved in front of Batgirl to protect her from the explosion. But as it went off, she felt a sharp pain behind her eyes and everything went black.
"My eyes!" said Batgirl.
"Let's get them!" yelled one of the men.
"No, we have to save the power patches for our real target tomorrow," said another man, calmer sounding. "We must stop those women from screwing up the future without fail."
There was the sound of a metal door slamming, and the firing of rocket engines, quickly followed by the sound of a time machine disappearing.
Shortly, Supergirl's eyesight returned. "Are your eyes getting better, Batgirl?"
"Yes. Interesting, it must work directly on the optic nerves, rather than being a 'flash' in the usual sense."
"I'm sorry, Batgirl, but it's been too long, and I can't find their trail through the time barrier."
"That's okay, Supergirl, I'm pretty sure I know where they're going to be," said Batgirl. "And by a happy coincidence, I'm going to be there tomorrow in my other identity."
"Really? Where's that?"
"The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. It's being held in Gotham City this year, and I'm one of the delegates."
Supergirl nodded. "That makes sense. We should both be there...but how am I going to get in without being noticed?"
"I don't suppose you have an identity other than Supergirl?"
"Yes, I do." Supergirl paused. "And if Superman can trust Batman with his identity, I'm sure I can do the same with you." She went behind a tree and donned her civilian clothing and wig, moving so fast that it would seem to Batgirl as if she'd simply transformed in the second behind the tree. "I'm Linda Danvers, pleased to meet you."
Batgirl paused for a long moment, then lifted her cowl. "Barbara Gordon. Likewise. Tell you what, get back in costume, and we can finish up my routine patrol, then go back to my apartment and strategize." She pulled the cowl back down.
They did the patrol, encountering three muggers and a cat in a tree. Batgirl said that this was a fairly normal night. "Yes, Gotham's a pretty high-crime city, but it's not as bad as the television news makes it sound."
At Barbara Gordon's apartment, Linda was surprised to see how much older Barbara looked in her civilian identity, with her hair in side buns and granny glasses.
"I'm head librarian, well, acting head librarian because the previous head went loopy and calls himself Bookworm now, at the Gotham Library. I got promoted over people with much more experience and tenure than I have, so I make myself look older and a little dowdy to seem more like the kind of person who'd hold the position."
"And I'm a journalism major at Stanhope College," Linda replied.
"I see. Well, that makes things easier, I can get you a press pass if you'll write up a story for your school paper. It's not as though we'll be seeing a lot of reporters covering us."
"What's this commission about, anyway?"
Barbara sat down and massaged her neck a bit. "Equal rights for women, mainly. Equal pay for equal work, equal opportunity to get hired at any job we're qualified for, equal chances at promotions, that sort of thing. You probably already had that stuff on Krypton, right?"
Linda was silent for a long moment, remembering. "Krypton...was a great civilization, very advanced scientifically. But from what I learned of our history in Argo City, it wasn't much more progressive socially, in some ways, than Earth is now."
They talked well into the night. Linda was glad to have another superheroine to speak to besides her Legion pals.
-----
The next day, the pair arrived at the conference center in their civilian clothes, and Barbara checked in as a delegate, then got Linda her press pass. "Got your notebook and pencil ready?"
"Yes," replied Linda, "I think I'm...wait, there's an earthquake in Peru...oh, the Justice League is responding, they can handle it."
Barbara looked wistful. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to how much power you have."
"That's why I and my cousin have to be extra careful how we use it, because it would hurt people if we didn't."
"Uh...so, let me show you around and introduce you to a couple of the delegates."
Most of the people present were older than Barbara, and Linda recognized some of the names.
"Can you believe it?" one woman said. "We're not even going to be allowed to pass a resolution that the Civil Rights Act should be enforced! Talk about toothless."
The keynote address went off without any interruptions, and as the delegates were milling about for their separate morning panels, Barbara managed to bring Linda over to meet one of the more famous people there.
"Ms. Friedan, this is Linda Danvers, who's covering this for the Stanhope College paper. Linda, this is Betty Friedan."
"It's good to see some of the younger generation taking an interest. It's good to meet you, Miss Danvers."
"Thank you, ma'am. I read 'The Feminine Mystique' a few months ago, it was interesting but I don't think I agree with all your conclusions. I hope you don't mind, but I have a couple of questions about--"
At that moment, the sound of a time machine materializing caught everyone's attention. The four men who Supergirl and Batgirl had seen the day before stepped out onto the auditorium proscenium. Linda and Barbara immediately looked for good places to change.
Three of the men slapped some sort of patches on their arms, while the fourth pulled a large gun from seemingly nowhere and fired at the ceiling, leaving an impressively large hole. "Your attention, ladies and gentlemen!" he said over the screaming, his voice somehow amplified. "We are the True Men, and we have come here to save the future!"
That got the attention of at least a few people, though many were still screaming or running for the exits.
"I am Century," said the man with the gun, "and my companions are Blazer, Breed and Artillery. We are some of the very few freedom fighters left in our time, striving against the feminization of our society and the emasculation of our species. In hindsight, we now know that today is one of the blackest in history, one where a horrible mistake was made, and we're here to correct it. If we are successful, the True Men will proceed to other critical junctures, restoring the timeline that should have been, bringing back the patriarchy that is the natural state of mankind."
As Century spoke, his comrades changed. Breed became larger, hairier-looking and more muscular. Blazer started quivering, as though he couldn't stand still. And Artillery's hands began glowing an orange-yellow.
"Ah. I see my friends are fully powered-up now. It's time for as many of you as possible to die."
Fortunately, his speech had given Supergirl and Batgirl the time to change as well, and they made their entrances. "Okay, you male chauvinist pigs!" shouted Batgirl, "It's time for you to learn some manners!" She threw a Batarang at Century, only to have Blazer quickly snatch it out of the air. He grinned and zoomed towards her.
Batgirl threw another Batarang, which Blazer easily evaded. "Hahaha! I'mtoofastnowforstupidlittlegirls! Gonnacutyouu--uk!"
"You forgot that boomerangs come back, didn't you?" Batgirl kicked Blazer in the face, knocking him senseless.
Meanwhile, Supergirl swooped in on Century. "I'm pretty sure you don't have a license for that gun," she said, crumpling the barrel with her hand. "And I'd better make sure you don't have any other nasty gimmicks." She quickly turned him upside down and shook, dislodging a number of unpleasant looking gadgets. Then Supergirl flipped Century right side up again, and tapped his forehead in the exact right spot to make him faint.
But Century grinned as he lost consciousness. "Deadman...swit.." Supergirl felt the stabbing pain behind her eyes as darkness fell again.
Something coming up behind her, something big--What had to be Breed swatted her off her feet.
-----
Ah, there was some vision back, enough for her purposes, anyway. Supergirl tightened her grip on Breed's wrist, prompting a yelp of pain. "You know what I say, Breed? I say, go soak your head!" She tossed the large man into the path of Artillery's latest blast. Batgirl seized the opportunity to use Breed's body as a stepping stone in mid-air, kicking off it and performing a flip that brought her inside Artillery's arms, too close to fire at.
Batgirl grabbed Artillery's forearms and aimed them at his head. "Feeling lucky?" Before he could reply, she'd headbutted him into submission.
The heroines then made sure their prisoners were good and tied up.
"We make a pretty good team," said Batgirl.
"Yes, we do. I'll get these miscreants back to their home time, where they'll be better prepared to deal with them."
-----
Linda rejoined Barbara some time later, as the conference wound down. "I took our visitors home, and their cops seemed glad to see them. Turns out they stole that time machine."
"I'm not surprised. Didn't act like the sharpest knives in the drawer. What's the future like?"
"I try not to inquire too closely, but it didn't look nearly as bad as the 'True Men' were letting on." Linda focused on the speaker. "Something's going on."
"What we need," said one delegate, "is an organization, nationwide, that will fight for women's rights. One that isn't beholden to the government, so can't be muzzled like this commission was."
Betty Friedan was writing something on a napkin. "You mean a National Organization for Women? NOW?"
"Yes, now! Oh, I see what you did there. That's a splendid name!"
There was general agreement, and the delegates began discussing their options for the new organization.
Supergirl was pleased. June 30th, 1966 had turned out well indeed.
-----
EPILOGUE
"Yes, Miss Lane, the Justice League is happy to report that we managed not to have a single person killed in this earthquake, and the Justice League has already put together shelters for the..."
"Wonder Woman? Are you all right, you look a bit sad."
"Oh. It's just that I suddenly felt like something relevant to my interests just happened, and I wasn't there for it. But back to the shelters..."
THE END
Author's note: Thanks for reading!
The official first meeting of Batgirl and Supergirl was in World's Finest #169, September 1967, "The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot!" It...isn't all that good a story in many ways, and technically doesn't even pass the Bechdel Test. I cannot in good faith claim this story is better, but it's a bit more about Batgirl and Supergirl and subjects they might be interested in.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!