Suanne: Birth of a Supergirl, By Moxie

Chapter 3: Suanne at 9

Time passed, and Suanne continued to grow up. She became noticeably more beautiful as time went on, with silky blond hair and a beautiful face that melted any man's heart. The combination of her darkly tanned skin, her translucent blue eyes, and her dazzling smile made heads turn wherever she went.

As she grew, Suanne did all the things that a little girls do, only she did them better. Much better. You see, this little girl was made of sugar and spice, everything nice, plus some hellacious, big bulging muscles. Oh, there were a few unfortunate accidents, like the time she mangled the doorknob, there were a few forks and knives too bent to be put back in the drawer, and of course, there were a lots of "accidental" bruises on her brothers. But for the most part, Suanne appeared to just be a little girl growing up. A beautiful little girl whose superhuman capabilities were not understood.

She went to school, and played with her friends. In many ways, her relationships with her friends didn't change very much at all. Of course, there was a silent understanding among her friends that in a disagreement, Suanne would always get her way and win. After all, who could push her around? But even though Suanne had pretty much kept her strength under wraps - except for that one time when she got into an argument with her next-door-neighbor Beth and crushed her Barbie doll to splinters with her bare hands - her friends seemed to have an appreciation on some subconscious level that there was something different about Suanne, and it was becoming more and more apparent.

The changes taking place in Suanne's young body were remarkable, to say the least. As a result of her workouts, her strength continued to increase at a phenomenal rate, as her muscles began to challenge and surpass the capabilities of mankind's most powerful machinery. By the time she was 9 years old, she was easily 1,500 times as strong as the average human male. Although unknown to her family, she could lift well over 100 tons. Her enhanced genetics responded incredibly to the stimulus the weight training provided, and her body continued its muscular development. By this time, her biceps swelled to over 15 inches around when fully flexed.

Just as amazing were the changes to her outlook. At a minimum, this all was an epiphany to her. But more accurately, she and her brothers had the sense that a brand new person, a supergirl, was emerging and developing right before their eyes - not unlike the metamorphosis that a caterpillar undergoes to become a butterfly. A new person that at times had difficulty reconciling the schism between being human and superhuman; between what she had been, and what she obviously was going to be. She was still the same...yet different. She was normal ... and yet somehow also aware of her awesome might and developing capabilities. She was knowing ... and yet somehow still not knowing and innocent, just as a 9-year old should be.

And it certainly wasn't easy on the family to have a goddess growing up under their roof. Her strong young body had a devastating effect on her brothers, an effect that she was oblivious to... and yet not oblivious. Suanne created a tension in the house that at times was undeniable - the proverbial white elephant in the living room that nobody would talk about. She pranced around the house in a bikini top and those blue jean cut-offs, knowing full-well the effect her muscular display was having, yet not really caring. She knew how they looked at her, how they watched her every move. And, let's be honest: they honestly couldn't help themselves. She seemed to relish it, and yet ignore it at the same time. She was still their little sister, after all ... and yet she also seemed somehow unrelated to them, and at times seemed distant and aloof. Oh, how she sometimes loved to tease her brothers with her strength and muscles - like the way even casual movements would cause her muscles to flex and jump with tantalizing sexiness. Yet other times, she didn't seem to care whether they even looked her way. For their part, her brothers tried to deny the effect she was having on them, but their teenage hormones betrayed them as, right before their eyes, she became the supergirl they had only dreamed about: a girl with unrivaled beauty and power that nothing in the universe could possibly resist. And now, that very fantasy had stepped right out of their comic books and dreams and into their house, or more specifically, the bedroom at the end of the hallway.

Her brothers were struggling to maintain some degree of normality in the household, despite their secret feelings about her muscles and her strength. But some days, the differences between them were very apparent. One day, Joe (18) was in a hurry and came rushing around a corner not knowing his 9-year old little sister was coming from the opposite direction. All of his 230 pounds hit her square in the chest and rebounded backward, landing on the floor. It felt like he'd hit a brick wall or a granite statue or something. In fact, she had the feeling of unyielding solidity and substantialness that one would expect from the ramming plate of an M-1 tank. She hadn't moved a bit when he ran into her, and Joe only bounced helplessly off her powerful frame. He quickly realized that his little sister was immovable - unless SHE chose to move! It reminded him of when he'd walked next to that aircraft carrier in Port Everglades. You could see the waves lapping against the side, but the hull didn't rock or yaw at all - almost as if the hull were resting on the bottom. That kind of solidity.

Joe, sprawled on the floor, looked upward at his muscular little sister, who loomed over him with her hands on her hips, smiling down at him. She looked absolutely gorgeous to him, and she knew it. He was slightly dazed from the impact, but he immediately noticed how powerful and erotic some of the angles of her muscles looked from down on the ground, especially her thick thighs, and the way her lats and shoulders flared outward. She was a tower of power.

"Oh, sorry, Joe," she said, "here, let me help you." She reached down and grabbed his belt, then casually lifting him up with one hand until his feet were several inches off the ground. She held him off the ground as if he was weightless to her, which he practically was. Joe was speechless, and incredibly turned on. The faint smile on her face hinted at how much she enjoyed such little demonstrations, as well, that only served to underscore the widening gap between her strength level and theirs. Then, she curled her other arm to flex her beefy, rounded bicep, clearly beginning to show the definition of two heads that were developing. "Kinda amazing what these can do, isn't it," she teased him.

She set him down and turned to walk off down the hallway, while Joe secretly admired the way the muscles in her thick thighs and hamstrings, meaty calves, and butt flexed and bunched when she walked.

Suanne continued to lift the enormous weights that her father had gotten for her, but at times almost seemed to toy with them. Every once in a while her brothers would show her a new exercise, or a new way to work out a particular muscle group. Suanne digested this information with gusto. Her brothers would demonstrate the exercise on dumbbells with 10s or 100s of pounds, and then she would go do it on her special barbell with 10s of tons, while they watched longingly. Suanne loved it when her brothers watched her lift weights; the exhibitionist in her loved to exert her strength for an audience. She reveled in how easily her powerful body could move weights that would be immovable to anyone else; she relished in the feeling of power and wellness that her strength gave her.

But other days, she appeared unchallenged and only lifted the weights as if out of some unspoken obligation. In truth, on those days, she worked out with the weights merely to help ensure that her body achieved its maximum strength and muscular development. Nothing more. Every day she would go to the weight room next to their pool and put on her bikini. Then, for the next hour, she would lift more pounds than a bulldozer could move in a day. Her amazing genetics responded to the weight training in a remarkable fashion. In just a few months, she had clearly outgrown the enormous weights that her father had acquired for her, becoming so strong that even this colossal mountain of iron was but a toy to her. For her brothers, it was a turn-on, and a little bit frightening, all at the same time.

One day, Ted (12), was watching her press the bar with all 30 of the disks on it, which in total was around 65,000 pounds, or over 30 tons of iron. She seemed positively bored. Ted's eyes were wide, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, as his little sister so easily tossed around such massive weights.

"Oh Ted," she sighed in a ho-hum kind of way as the 30-ton barbell was pressed for the 35th time, "this isn't any fun, it just isn't very heavy to me any more. I don't know why I even bother. I need so much more than this."

Ted gulped - his mouth was so dry - as he watched this supergirl, his little sister, demonstrate her superhuman strength. He remembered how, just last night, she had effortlessly twisted one of their 1-inch barbells into a bow. And then, for added emphasis, she had squeezed one end of the bar with her tiny hand. The way it had been so effortlessly deformed by her tiny hand, it reminded him of a stick of butter the way the hard steel had been squished out from around her powerful fingers.

She looked so powerful, so perfect, as his eyes traced the rounded muscular contours of her legs, torso, and arms. She also looked so desirable. He looked at his 9-year old little sister holding such an enormous amount of iron overhead like it was no more than a stuffed toy animal. She finally looked at him with a quizzical smirk and asked, "Well, what're you looking at?"

"Well Supes," he answered after a few moments, smiling, finally snapped out of his lustful trance, "why don't you just work out with one arm at a time."

"Hey, that's a great idea! I can't believe I never thought about that before!" she exclaimed. She dropped the heavy load onto the floor, which made the ground all around the neighborhood rumble and shake. Then, finding the balance point, she gripped the bar and began to curl it with one arm while her other arm rested on her waist. Ted watched her in awe. "Oh yeah, that's much better Ted, thanks! Why didn't I think of that!"

She did 8 one-handed curls with the 30-ton load, her free hand resting on her hip. She handled the enormous weight so easily, it moved up and down so smoothly, it was obvious she wasn't straining or shaking at all. Because there were 15 disks on each side of the bar, and each disk was a foot thick by three feet tall, it looked like the weight on each end of the bar was larger than a station wagon. But he knew each side was far heavier than just a station wagon, since it was solid iron with no open spaces for people, cargo, etc.

He looked at her large, rounded bicep bunch and thrust from her upper arm as the 30-ton barbell smoothly glided up and down. He wanted so much to touch that bicep, to surround it with his hand - in fact, it would probably take both hands - and to feel its hardness, to feel the inhuman power coursing through it.

"Mmmm, now that's more like it... You wanna feel my arm, Ted? Its big, isn't it? Pretty cool, huh?" she asked somewhat innocently, smiling, but with just a hint of seductiveness. Ted inched closer to her, and she held the weight stationary about waist high. He was awed by the twin station wagons of iron hanging suspended from each end of the huge barbell, the barbell his baby sister, the supergirl, was casually holding with just one hand. She was holding the huge weight so easily that it didn't look real. It looked as if it was made of paper mache, or being supported by invisible wires. It looked like a joke, and that's in fact what it was, a cruel joke: that this sexy muscular goddess was his little sister. He reached out with his hand and tried to cover the bulging muscle, but found he did need to use both hands as he placed one on each side.

His head began to spin as he felt the rounded bicep of the supergirl from the comics, only now it belonged to his little sister! He wondered how much brute strength was channeled through that outrageous muscle while she casually held the 30-ton barbell steady. He tried to squeeze it, bit it felt like granite. "Geez, Supes, this is incredible!" He noticed how her skin had stretched so tightly that he could see a fair degree of muscular striation.

She smiled at him and whispered, "Now watch this!" She began to curl the enormous weight further up towards her chest. As she did so, her bicep expanded further, and pushed his hands apart.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Then, she set the weight down. She flexed both of her biceps for him and said, "Ummm, I love it when they get all pumped up, don't you?" Ted didn't know what to say, he was turned on and a little scared by his little sister's demonstration of raw brute strength. He glanced down at the bar and saw indentations from where her tiny hand had held it so powerfully, the steel deforming like soft clay in her hands. Ted wondered to himself just how heavy the barbell REALLY felt to her, and began to doubt whether it posed any challenge to her whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Larry Collins had been researching what had happened to Suanne Laney. He had injected her with a retro-virus when she was a baby - unknown to her mother - to test a serum for improving the immunology of the subject through gene therapy. However, it was obvious that his serum had created some unexpected results in Suanne, some truly remarkable results. As a result, he'd been studying the homo supremi race by reading all he could find on the Internet. His primary source of information was the Aurora Universe website. The non-scientific writings of the AU were supposedly fictional, but Larry had begun to wonder if they had some factual basis. After all, the retro virus hypothesized by the AU was very similar to the one Collins had used on Suanne. And just look at the similarity of the outcomes!

Larry Collins suspected that the retro virus he had created, although vastly less sophisticated than the one depicted in the fictional stories, had somehow succeeded in activating what he called "the supremi genome effect." Apparently, it was true that supremis weren't born, they were created. What was unknown to Collins, however, was that the DNA from every human in existence contained in it the latent sequences, switches and genetic material to enable the homo sapien to be transformed into a homo supremi. This potential was hidden deep inside the double helix of the DNA molecule. All that was required to trigger the transformation was the proper retro virus, which acted as a catalyst for the desired effect. Once the retro virus was introduced into the homo sapien's body, it triggered an irreversible sequence of genetic changes, much like turning the key in a lock cylinder rotates the tumblers, aligns the pins, unlocks the locking mechanism, and opens the latch, thereby, opening the door.

This transformation process was pre-programmed by the Ancient Ones into the genetic material of every homo sapien, since it was far easier to manipulate physical capabilities, than mental or spiritual. Purely for convenience, the Ancient Ones had embedded this programming into our DNA lock, only waiting to be released by their retro virus key, so that suitable sex toys could be located. Once they located a subject with truly extraordinary mental or spiritual capabilities - qualities that were more difficult to engineer - their physical capabilities would simply be altered by using the retro virus, and the Ancient One had a demi-god for a plaything.

Although he didn't fully understand the transformation process, Collins suspected this was, in fact, what his crude retro virus had unexpectedly done to Suanne. He simply HAD to get closer to her to test his theory! He HAD to see what he had created. If he only could be allowed to examine her, or get a tissue sample. The wheels in his scheming mind began to turn.

Margaret and Suanne were in downtown Miami on their way to meet Bill for lunch. They had been shopping for some new clothes for Suanne, since some of her old clothes were getting too tight to contain her growing muscles. Suanne insisted on always wearing her cutoffs and a bikini top, which showed off her developing physique. Suanne was becoming quite a show-off, and a flirt, as well. She was turning the heads of men and women alike as they walked down the street. And because of her phenomenal genes, she was much younger than she looked. Although she was just 9 years old, she looked more like 14, and acted more like 16.

As they walked down Brickell Avenue holding hands, her mom said, "Suanne, honey, you know, all these changes that are happening to you are ... hard to believe. And, they're all happening so fast. I think it's important for you to try to maintain a normal lifestyle. Even Supergirl had a secret identity, ya' know. I know you don't want to hide your strength any more, but you don't have to go out of your way to show it off, do you? And, let's try to keep your name a secret. OK?"

Just then, they noticed a commotion in the next block. Things were falling onto the sidewalk from somewhere up in the air. It looked like a bucket, a squeegee and some other things had fallen. People were gathering and looking skyward, pointing at something high in the air. Women were screaming.

Suanne and her mother looked skyward, and saw a window washing platform near the top of the skyscraper that was obviously in trouble. One end of the support ropes had come undone, and the platform was dangling nearly vertically. At the low end, two window washers hung by their hands, their lives just moments from ending unless something happened fast.

"Oh my God," Margaret said, looking around frantically for any way to help the man, "we've got to do something." Then she paused and looked down at her daughter, wondering. "Suanne, honey, can you help them?"

"Yes, momma. I think I can save them." she said.

Suanne had a confident look on her face and said, "Stay here Mom, I'll take care of it." She took two steps forward and looked upward. Then, she raised both her hands over head, and began to float off the ground, her sandals dropping to the ground. Then, a moment later, she began to fly upward - just like Supergirl! Margaret raised her hand to her mouth and gasped in shock.

Suanne shot upward like a rocket towards the dangling men. In a move reminiscent of a ballerina's arabesque, she swept her arms backward in obvious jubilation, as if her super body was rejoicing at the realization that it had finally broken the earthly bounds of gravity.

As she approached the 30-foot long window washing rig, one of the men could hold on no longer, and he began to plummet to his death. He had fallen halfway to the ground when he landed safely in Suanne's arms. "Here mister, let me help you," she said, as she cradled him in her strong, muscular arms.

The man looked around in shock and down at the ground, which was getting farther away. He looked around frantically. The ground was moving away ... they were actually going up! "How'd you do that?" he asked.

"Don't worry, I've got you," Suanne answered.

"Yeah, I can see that...but who's got YOU?" he asked. Suanne just smiled back at him. He had always had fantasies about being carried by a strong women, and he was getting very turned on. But this girl was so young. Nevertheless, her muscles were very real, and he began to get very turned on by this muscular young goddess.

She reached the window washing platform, grabbed the other man by the back of his pants, and lifted both men above the platform's guardrail. Then, she rested both men inside the frame of the platform. "Hold on to it for just a second until I get this thing straightened out," she said as the men clutched and hugged whatever part of the frame they could get a hold of. She placed her right hand underneath the low side of the platform and began to lift it upward. In moments, it was level again. Then, she grabbed another part of the frame with her other hand, and began to slowly fly the entire platform straight up the outside of the building, saying, "OK, here we go." Support ropes began to loop and dangle as the rig went higher and they weren't needed to support the rig's weight.

They reached the top of the roof holding the platform and the men, and Suanne landed lightly on her toes. "You'll be OK now, guys," she said smiling. She gingerly set the platform on the roof and rested both hands on her hips. She stood there for a moment as the men looked at her in shock, not knowing what to say. She was obviously very young, but what a body! She was so beautiful, so powerful, and yet so young. The men became uncomfortable with the feelings they had for such a young girl. After all, they had daughters of their own. They knew it was wrong to want a girl so young, but their bodies were betraying them. But this girl, was different somehow, and the men were getting very aroused, despite what their consciences told them.

"Well, see you later," she said as she raised her arms over her head, as if she was getting ready to fly away.

"Wait...who ... who ARE you?" one of the men asked.

"I'm Su..." she said and then paused, remembering her mother's comment about Supergirl having a secret identity.

"...Supergirl?" one of the men finished her sentence.

"Uh...yeah, I guess you can call me...Supergirl," she replied with a beautiful smile.

"Thanks...Supergirl," the other man said with emphasis.

"Don't mention it," she said. She smiled a dazzling smile that practically melted the two men's hearts, and began to fly upward. She flew up into the blue, South Florida sky out of sight of the men and the crowd, and ducked behind a cloud, hovering there for a moment. Then, she swooped downward in a wide arc over Biscayne Bay and landed on a side street near where her mother stood.

She peeked around a corner and called to her mother, who was still looking up at the top of the building, and whispered, "Mom, over here."

Her mother looked with disbelief at her and walked from the crowd to where Suanne was hiding.

Suanne was gushing with excitement. "Mom, did you SEE that? Did you SEE what I just did? I FLEW! I flew up there and saved those two guys, and it was easy! And that thingy wasn't heavy for me at all! You know what Mom, they called me Supergirl! Did you SEE that? Maybe I AM Supergirl! Maybe I AM!"

Her mother rushed to her and knelt down on her knees. She put a hand on each of Suanne's strong shoulders, noting how her strong rounded shoulders filled her hands. Margaret looked into her eyes, "Sue, how on Earth did you DO that?" she asked earnestly.

"I'm not sure. I just saw the men hanging there, and I knew I had to do something. Then suddenly, I just knew I could fly, and before I knew it, I was up in the air. I'm not sure how, but I somehow just knew I could do it. I SAVED THOSE MEN'S LIVES!! Isn't that awesome, Mom! Maybe I really AM Supergirl. I CAN fly, just like her." Margaret Laney just hugged her daughter and looked nervously into the distance, unsure what this new development would mean.

That night the local newscasts all reported an amazing, albeit unsubstantiated, event in downtown Miami. The reporter interviewed several people that worked inside the building who described watching through their office windows how a beautiful young girl with a muscular physique flew the work crew to safety. The reporter claimed they were sent for a psychiatric evaluation.

Halloween in the trendy suburb of Coconut Grove was a surreal experience. Children were as likely to masquerade as Bill Gates, Margaret Thatcher, or Warren Buffet, as they were to go as a Spice Girl, a witch, or a ghost. Suanne, for obvious reasons, decided to dress up as Supergirl, using the costume her mother had previously obtained for her.

As had become custom in previous years, some of Suanne's friends planned to gather at her house to go Trick or Treating throughout the neighborhood. In the past week, her friends had become excited about getting all the candy, Suanne noticed that she was much less excited, in fact, practically complacent, about going from door to door. She knew it would be fun to go out with her friends. But Suanne also knew that if she could use all her special abilities, she could visit a hundred times the number of houses each hour than her friends could. If she tried, she could collect far more candy than any of her friends. But ... who cared? For some reason, candy didn't hold the lure for her anymore. She was actually thinking more about flying around South Florida as Supergirl, and seeing what she could see.

Suanne's parents had gone out to a Halloween masquerade ball, so it was up to the kids to get the house ready for the evening's festivities. Her brothers were upstairs watching some football game, so Suanne went out on the front door step to put the Jack-O-Lantern in place. Suanne hadn't dressed in her Supergirl costume yet, but she had to get the pumpkin in place. So she set it down on the front step and walked out into the front yard to see how it looked. Suddenly, she heard something in the tree above her. It was a faint murmur that sounded like a heartbeat. Then, she heard someone just barely whispering, "...just a little further..." The sounds were extremely faint, but she could still hear them loud and clear. She paused a moment, and avoided looking upward while she tried to figure out what was going on.

It was as if she suddenly could hear things she never heard before. She raised her hand and curled the golden hair around her ear so she could hear better. Suddenly, she realized she could hear a conversation inside her next door neighbor's house, and just as easily could pick up another and another from house down the street. She strained her ears for another conversation, and picked up a faint one involving voices she didn't recognize. It wasn't hard for her to sort out all the background noise from the source she was trying to hear, as if she had the use of sophisticated sound filters. The voices were speaking in Spanish, and she didn't know if they were way across town or in Cuba. What was really amazing was that she could intuitively understand what they were saying - she had somehow acquired an expert usage of the Spanish language!

Meanwhile, Collins watched her standing there from up in the tree, and didn't know what she was doing. He hardly breathed as he watched her.

She tried to listen for something a little further away, and suddenly realized she was listening to a conversation on a fishing boat out in Biscayne Bay. Although probably miles away, it sounded as clear as if the people were standing right next to her.

She tried straining to see how far she could hear, and suddenly "tuned in" to a large noise...it was ...it was a crowd of people, a very large crowd... Suddenly, she clearly heard a voice from a loudspeaker, "...well that's the opening kick-off from here at Joe Robbie Stadium. Tonight's attendance is 89,245 people, and it's a beautiful clear night - 72 degrees. The Dolphins take over at the 37."

"WOW," she thought to herself and smiled, "I guess Supergirl is supposed to have super hearing. COOL!"

She adjusted her hearing slightly. "...Okay, listen up. Powerup 47, z-fly, on two. Bobbie, dammit, you keep Vernon out of my backfield, you know my knees can't take it. [A different voice replied, "you got it Dan, I'll bury him"] Good. Alright now...BREAK!"

"Hey, that's Dan Marino's voice," she thought to herself, "WAY COOL, I'm tuned into the Dolphin's huddle."

Then, it occurred to her that perhaps her eyesight had improved, too. So, she looked up the block and squinted her eyes. As she did so, her eyesight suddenly rushed in on her as images zoomed into focus. "WHOA!" Suanne suddenly realized that she was focusing on a car that was probably over a mile up the street, and the image was a clear as if it was at arm's length. She adjusted her eyes slightly, and found she could see through the vehicle, to the one that was parallel parked in front of it, and then through the one in front of it, and then through the one in front of it. Things that normally would block her vision just seemed to melt or peel away as she looked behind them. She realized that she was looking at the odometer on that fifth car, and she could easily see that it had 32,617 miles on it.

A drop of sweat ran down Collins' cheek and landed on the limb he was clinging to. Suanne, who had been distracted by her newfound super-hearing and vision, clearly heard the droplet impact on the branch, and was suddenly reminded of his presence. She could clearly hear his heartbeat more loudly than if she had a stethoscope. She avoided looking up in the tree and alerting the assailant that she knew he was there, and began walking down the front sidewalk.

Collins' plan was to jump out of the tree onto Suanne and either grab a strand of Suanne's hair or scrape some skin cells on which he could perform a DNA analysis. As she walked underneath the tree limb where Collins was laying, he rolled off it and began to fall dive face-first onto his prey. Little did he know, Suanne had heard the miniscule sounds of him rolling off the limb, and could now hear the imperceptible sounds of air whooshing around his falling body. Collins was just inches from landing on Suanne, when she quickly took two steps and got out of his way. As a result, Collins fell face first onto the brick sidewalk, and was knocked unconscious.

Suanne glanced at him, and recognized him for the hapless bungler that had been stalking her for years. "What is his deal? Who is he?" she wondered.

She looked inside his wallet with her newfound x-ray vision and saw his name, Larry Collins. He saw his ID card for the university and the hospital. "That's odd, what does he want with me?" she thought. She also saw a sheet of paper with key numbers on it, and saw Collins' license plate number. Then, she looked at the cars up the street and in moments had located his car. "Well, that's pretty easy for a supergirl," she said proudly to herself.

She walked up the sidestreet to Collins' car. After a quick look up and down the street to confirm that no one was watching, she reached under the side board and tilted the car onto its roof.

Then, just for good measure, she put her tiny hand on one of the tires and grabbed a handful of tread with her powerful grip. She smiled at how soft and pliant the steel-belted radials felt in her hand. The tire was easily punctured, and she did the same to the other three tires. "That ought to take care of him for a while."

At this point, Suanne was definitely getting into using her super strength and newfound hearing and vision. She was much more interested in being Supergirl than in getting a bunch of candy. So she ran back inside the house to get dressed in her Supergirl costume.

Within a half hour it was getting dark, and twelve of Suanne's friends from the neighborhood had arrived at Suanne's for Trick-or-Treating.

"Hey Sue, who's the waste case lying out on your sidewalk?" asked Miranda.

"Oh, just some guy," Suanne tried to cover, "we, uh, already called the cops."

"Cool," Miranda decided.

The girls congregated in the living room. As they chattered excitedly about their costumes, they created quite a din.

"Hey, cool outfit, Miranda," Bethany said.

"Thanks Beth. Hey, check out Suanne's costume. That's pretty cool, too."

Beth, who always was a little snide to Suanne, said, "Well, it's okay. But if you ask me, she's got a lot of nerve thinking she's Supergirl."

"But Beth, I AM Supergirl. See?" Suanne said as she flexed her rather large bicep, the other hand resting on her hip. Suanne bit her lip (with a few tons of force) to keep from laughing at her friends' reaction. Their mouths fell wide open as they saw her magnificent bicep. It was practically comical, and Suanne couldn't help adding, "Hey, you wanna see me lift my Dad's car with one hand?"

After a few hushed moments, Beth broke the silence and said, "Yeah, right," very sarcastically, as all the girls broke out in nervous laughter, as if they couldn't believe that they actually believed her. Suanne laughed, too, confident they still didn't know her little secret.

The group of squealing girls ran outside to begin the assault on the neighborhood. Suanne, the last one out, shut the door and turned towards the street. She really didn't want to go, and stood on the step as her friends ran on. For a moment or two, Suanne looked down at herself in the Supergirl costume. She looked down at her arms, her shoulders, her abs, her legs, and admired how she good looked in it. She savored the knowledge that she really could call herself a supergirl, THE Supergirl.

"Hey Suanne, you coming?" Beth shouted.

"Go ahead, I'll meet you. I gotta get the phone," Suanne called back, and went back inside.

She went out into the back yard and looked around the neighborhood to be sure she wouldn't be seen, and then, convinced the coast was clear, put her hands above her head and shot into the night sky.

There was a beautiful full moon on this crisp Halloween night, and she flew a few hundred feet up in the air. She looked down at bunches of ghost and goblins combing the surrounding streets. It was so fun to fly and see the neighborhoods from this airborne perspective.

She flew around above Coconut Grove for about a half hour, and decided to see how fast she could fly. So, she flew a mile or so out over the ocean, and then headed north up the coast, increasing her speed up to a comfortable pace. Suanne intuitively knew she could fly much faster, but this seemed like a comfortable pace that she felt like she could sustain all day, and the coastline still seemed to go by pretty quickly. She was content to fly however fast this was.

One or two minutes had passed, and she decided to slow down and see how far she had gotten. To her surprise, Suanne found herself in Ft. Lauderdale. She wasn't sure how fast she was flying, but she thought it usually took about 45 minutes to drive that far. She landed on the old Pier 66 building, and enjoyed the view of the intra-coastal waterway. A cool breeze made her cape billow playfully, as she looked down on the lovely moonlit canals of Ft. Lauderdale.

She noticed a lot of noise coming from a large party boat just north of her position. A banner hanging on the side of the ship announced the "Make A Wish Foundation's Give Kids the World Cruise." It was a couple of hundred feet long with 5 decks above water, and was covered with translucent smoked glass windows. Suanne could see that the ship was filled with kids on crutches and in wheelchairs. A few were laying on gurneys and had IV bottles attached to them. Those children would never know the joy of flying that Suanne had just felt - some of them would never even walk. They could never understand the incredible feeling of wellness that her body gave her. Tears started to well up in her eyes as she thought about how lucky she was to have her strong body and all her capabilities, when other kids her age were afflicted. Using her vision, she zoomed in on one little girl laying on a gurney in a walnut-paneled private stateroom that looked like she was in pain. It was a poignant moment for her, and Suanne felt so guilty, she began to sob. She wished she could give just 1/100th of her body's strength to the little girl.

As she was wiping the tears from her cheeks, Suanne noticed that the party boat was heading towards the opened Las Olas drawbridge, but the drawbridge was closing and heading DOWN! The ship was moving at a pretty fast clip, much faster than a ship of its size should have been going in this confined waterway. Using her vision, she looked into the bridge master's control room, and saw the old man was slumped over the controls and not moving.

She looked back at the spans of the bridge, which were a few feet from returning to level by this time, and realized that in the next moments it would close. There was no way the ship could pass with the bridge down, and it might shear off the upper decks of the boat. It would certainly damage the ship, and might even sink it. Those kids would be hurt. Some might drown. Even the cars waiting up on the bridge would be in danger. She HAD to do something.

The boat continued to approach the closing bridge, and there was obviously no way it could stop in time. Suanne rocketed off the roof top and streaked towards the drawbridge. She flew in front of the boat and floated underneath the descending drawbridge halves. She reached up and placed each hand on one span, and began to push upward against it. It took most of her strength, and she didn't know whether she'd be strong enough to save the boat.

Suanne's arms were supporting the weight of the bridge spans, as well as opposing the force of the motor and gears that controlled the bridge spans. The force against her hands increased, and the boat was just a few yards away from colliding with the bridge, so she increased the pressure she was applying. She was easily strong enough to hold the spans in place, but she needed to push them upward in order to clear room for the ship to pass, so she pressed as hard as she could. Suanne used every ounce of her strength, as her muscles flexed larger and harder than ever before. She enjoyed how warm her body felt when she exerted herself like this. Just then, the machinery sound from the bridge increased, and a deep rumbling sound could be heard from the gear house. The huge gears underneath the bridge creaked as they strained against the young supergirl's powerful arms. The spans of the bridge weren't going downward, but they weren't going upward, either.

Some of the children on deck heard the noises and looked up to see Suanne trying to hold the bridge open for their boat. One pointed and shouted, "LOOK, ITS SUPERGIRL! SHE'S OPENING THE BRIDGE FOR US! SHE'S GONNA SAVE THE BOAT!" Suanne looked down at the kids, but couldn't react because she had to keep concentrating on her flying and her strength. If she didn't apply enough strength, the bridge would crash downward and destroy the ship. If she used too much strength, it might break up and cause debris to rain down on the ship and the children. This also could cause injuries.

The ship had nearly reached the bridge, when one of the cables linking the bridge mechanism to the motor snapped, unable to withstand the enormous pressure Suanne was exerting. Suanne was finally able to push both spans of the bridge upward. As she did so, the young supergirl easily overpowered the bridge machinery. She pushed open one bridge span, and then quickly opened the other. As she did so, she stripped the teeth on the huge iron gears - jagged metal fragments began to explode outward from the gear house - as she literally tore the huge iron gears apart with her powerful arms. A warning claxon sounded, finally awaking the snoozing bridge attendant.

Suanne raised the second half of the bridge just in time for the ship to pass, and then gently flew downward to the party boat. The deck was filled with children who cheered for their new heroine. She floated downward onto the deck and they encircled her.

"Hey, you're just a kid," said one.

"Yeah, but she's still really strong," said another boy who looked at her with fawning eyes. "Supergirl, can I feel your muscle?"

"Sure," she said proudly, and flexed a large rounded bicep, that drew lots of oohs and aaahs from the crowd. The kid put his hand on it, and said, "WOW, its BIG...and hard as a rock!" Suanne smiled proudly.

The children started to hurl questions at Suanne from all directions, like "How strong are you?" "How do you fly?" "Where do you live?" "Are you REALLY from Krypton?"

Before she could answer any of them the captain of the ship pushed through the crowd and said, "Hold on children, let her breathe. Supergirl, I didn't even know you existed, but I'm sure glad you do. I didn't see the bridge lowering until it was too late. I don't know how to thank you."

"I'm just glad I could help," Suanne answered, smiling.

"Supergirl, could you do one more thing?, he asked. Suanne nodded. "There's a little girl downstairs," he continued, "well, she's in a lot of pain and..."

"Yeah, I saw her with my x-ray vision. Is she going to be alright?"

"Well, probably not. But it'd sure mean a lot to her for you to come see her. I saw her reading a Supergirl comic book earlier, and..."

"But that's just a comic book, its not about me," Suanne said.

"Look," said the captain impatiently, "judging from how you just flew up and mangled that bridge, I'd say it WAS about you!"

Without another word, Suanne was downstairs at her bedside. The little girl was obviously in a lot of pain, and she was crying. Suanne wiped her tears away with her hand and smiled at her. The young girl smiled weakly, clutched Suanne's hand, and closed her eyes.

"Is she alright?" Suanne asked worriedly.

A nurse checked her pulse and said, "She's VERY alright. She's asleep. We can't block her pain no matter what we try. She hasn't slept in over a week. It's taken quite a toll on her. And I haven't seen her smile in the eight months I've been caring for her, but look at that. She's...well, she looks up to you a lot, Supergirl. She's a big fan, of your stories, and she told me she wished she had your body so she could make the pain go away."

Suanne was deeply touched that she had helped the young girl that much, that her just being there would mean so much. Suanne looked up at the nurse as a lone tear ran down her cheek, "Ma'am, right now, I wish I could give it to her." She stayed by the girl's side for over an hour as she slept peacefully. Eventually, she took back her hand, and went to the top deck. The kids all cheered as she flew away. Suanne made a mental note to check on the young girl from time to time.

As she flew away, Suanne realized for the first time how much capacity she had to do good as Supergirl, as well as how much she really enjoyed helping people. So she flew slowly back to Miami looking for more people in need.

She'd flown over Ft. Lauderdale for a few minutes when she heard a siren somewhere in the distance. Her eyes scanned the horizon and finally found an ambulance about ten miles away. It was inland going at a high rate of speed near Opa Locka. She squinted her eyes and saw a pregnant mother in labor inside. The attendant was holding her hand, and telling her to do her breathing exercises. Just then, a pick-up truck cut in front of the ambulance. To evade a collision, the ambulance drove into a ditch. Suanne streaked to the accident scene.

The ambulance was laying at a 45 degree angle in the culvert that ran parallel to the road. Suanne landed next to the ambulance and banged on the rear door, "Is everyone alright in there?"

The door swung open and the paramedic leaned out the door, obviously dazed. He had blood dripping down his forehead. "Yeah, I think we're OK...SUPERGIRL?"

"Yeah, its me," Suanne said smiling. "How's the mother?"

"Shaken up, but stable," he said as he jumped out and inspected underneath the ambulance, "...which is more than I can say for the ambulance. It's got a broken axle. And I've got to get to the hospital as soon as possible or we'll lose the baby."

"Which hospital?"

"She's got a rare condition. I need to get her to Jackson Memorial."

"I know where that is, it's right next to I-95, right?

"Right, but what're you gonna do?"

"Just get in, and hold on."

Suanne shut the door and then knelt down. She reached under the ambulance and grabbed something that felt solid. In a few moments, she had hoisted the ambulance and crew overhead, and was skyward. She flew at the same fast comfortable pace she used earlier. The driver grabbed the microphone and told the dispatcher that they'd had an accident and had a broken axle.

"Hold your position," the speaker said, "we'll send a chopper out to get you."

He looked out the window at the ground flashing past underneath him. He'd never flown that fast before. "Don't bother, we're already airborne and, from the look of things, we'll be at Jackson in another minute or two."

"Uuh...214, I didn't copy, could you repeat that..."

Normally, the ambulance would've taken nearly a half hour from that far out, but Suanne set the ambulance gently down right outside the ER in less than a minute.

Once the ER staff was aware the ambulance had arrived, Suanne bolted back into the sky. She was bursting with pride for how she had helped all those people tonight, and didn't need to hang around for the thank-you's. Surely, this was why she had been given the gift of being Supergirl, this is what she was meant to do.

As she was flying home to Coconut Grove, she saw a pick-up truck reverse into the front of an ATM. The driver and passenger got out and pulled some thick chains from bed of the truck. Suanne watched as they attached the chains to the sides of the ATM. She realized they were trying to rob the ATM machine. She swooped down as they were getting back into the truck.

He floored the gas pedal and the truck bucked. The tires screeched and smoked, but the truck didn't move at all. They looked out the back window and saw Suanne holding the chain midway to the ATM with both her hands. Her muscles flexed impressively, as she casually held the F-150 in place.

"What dee hell, bitch," the driver shouted, "what dee fuck d'ya tink ya do-in?" Suanne continued to hold the revving truck at a standstill, and combed the stray hair from her face with her free hand as she smiled coyly.

He put the truck into park and they jumped out. "Irie...Out dee way, little girlie...how'd ya do dat?" one said. Before she could answer, the other raised a pistol and said, "We got no time foe dat, brudda."

He pulled off a round. Suanne's senses sped up as the whiff of smoke left the barrel of the 45. She watched the slug coming, and could easily have stepped out of the way. However, she somehow instinctively knew that the bullet couldn't hurt her. She raised her hand and caught the bullet with her bare hand.

Once she realized that the bullet did not break the skin in the palm of her hand, and it didn't even hurt, she smiled and held up the bullet between her fingers for them to see. "Irie!" He pulled off shot after shot until the chamber was empty and the trigger just clicked hollowly. The bullets hit her in the abdomen and chest and dimpled into her skin, but when they hit the steely hardness of her unflexed underlying muscles, they just bounced off and fell to the ground around her feet. Suanne looked so unconcerned as the shots impacted her strong body and helplessly bounced off.

She smiled at him as she squished the bullet slug she held between her forefinger and thumb until it was as flat as a dime.

"IRIE!"

The bigger of the two rasta men grabbed a large crow bar from the bed of the pick-up and swung it at Suanne. She knew she could easily handle this assault, so she stood calmly still as he swung with all his might at her shoulder. The iron hit the unflexed muscles in her shoulder with a THUD, but she didn't move an inch. In fact, she smile on her face hadn't changed a bit, so he got angry and swung it at her head. This time the iron impacted the side of her head, and made a CLANG sound. The rasta man's hands were vibrating as if he'd just hit a concrete pillar.

Suanne grabbed the crow bar and held it at arm's length in front of her. Then she smoothly bent it in half, as the two men gawked. "Now, have I gotten your attention?" she asked.

Officer Thomas was walking a beat just a block away. "One mistake. Just one lousy mistake," he thought to himself, "and they take my patrol car away and put me on foot. Dammit! I just need one good bust, just one, to justify getting' outta Sarge's damn doghouse."

Moments later, Officer Thomas heard a noise behind him, "Uhh, excuse me, Mr. Policeman?"

He turned around to see a young girl in a supergirl costume floating a few feet off the ground. She was holding two large rastafarians with one hand, and a large pick-up truck in the other. He spit out the coffee he was sipping.

"Uhh, I'm sorry to bother you, but these two guys were trying to steal the ATM over at that NationsBank. Can you take care of them?" she said as she floated the last few feet to the ground, and shoved the men to the ground in front of the cop. "Oh, and this is their truck," she added after a few more moments as she set it gently on the ground next to the officer.

Thomas couldn't believe what he was seeing. This little girl was dressed like Supergirl, and was holding a real pick-up truck with one hand. And those guys fit the description of the perps that had been ripping out ATMs all over South Florida. If true, this would be just the kind of bust that he needed to get his career back on track, but this had to be a trick. He looked around to see if his buddies were watching from a hiding place.

Then, Supergirl set the car on the ground and stood there with her hands on her hips. "Damn," he thought to himself, "whatta bod! Kinda young, but what a bod!" Suanne smiled as it looked like the good officer had a spare nightstick tucked into his blues.

"Thank you," she said as she waved and flew into the sky. Suanne thought to herself as she flew away, "Wow, I really AM bulletproof, just like Supergirl's supposed to be. I AM SUPERGIRL!"

Suanne was so proud of the things she'd done that night, that she felt like her chest was going to pop. She flew the last few miles home, her head swimming with the possibilities of what she could do. She was practically intoxicated with the events of that night, and had a hard time falling asleep.

The next morning, Suanne woke with the sun and went downstairs. She was aching to tell her brothers all about what she'd done last night, but she was a little afraid she might get into trouble. Her parents had been out late, and probably didn't even know she hadn't gone trick or treating.

She considered the possibility that her parents could be mad, and part of her thought that was nonsense. After all, she couldn't get hurt, she was Supergirl. However, her parents had encouraged her to not publicize her strength and other capabilities, and part of her knew she should abide by their wishes. But Suanne just felt like that was a waste, especially after all the good she had done last night. Being Supergirl was her birthright, and she only wanted to help people.

She felt so much nervous energy that she had to figure out a way to burn it off. No one else was awake yet, and she decided to go for a jog. So, she put on some tennis shoes and headed out the front door. Little did she know, a shadowy figure was lurking in a rental car down the street, watching her every move.

As Suanne ran out of her neighborhood at what she considered a slow pace, a little more than 30 miles per hour, the rental car started up, and began to follow her. She turned onto Loquat Avenue and headed out of the Grove. When she reached Le Jeune Blvd., she turned right. There were hardly any cars on the road, so she picked up the pace. In the car that followed her, Collins was jotting notes on a pad, "33 mpg down Loquat for several minutes, doesn't look winded at all."

Suanne smiled inwardly and thought, "this is SO cool, I must be going over 40 miles per hour, and I don't even feel like my heartbeat is any faster. I bet I can go really fast if I wanted to."

She had gone a couple of miles and turned left onto the Tamiami Trail, one of the longest stretches of straight roadway in Florida. As she cleared the last remnants of civilization and began to enter borderland of the Everglades, she began to pick up the pace. She lengthened her stride, causing her speed to climb to over 80 mph. Even at this speed, she felt very comfortable, as if barely more than a leisurely stroll.

A half mile behind her, Collins was still pacing her speed, and watching her through binoculars. As the terrain transformed into a desolate slough, Collins decided to make his move. He floored the accelerator and the Taurus closed the gap between Suanne and himself.

He approached her and moved into the passing lane. Collins was amazed at how easily she moved at such a high rate of speed, her head and face showing no strain at all. Her arms and legs were a blur, but she looked like she was just having a casual jog in the country.

Suanne became aware of the car flanking her, and turned her head to look inside it. She smiled a gorgeous smile, until she saw it was Collins. "Him?...AGAIN?!?...," she thought in amazement, "this is getting ridiculous." She increased her speed and started to pull away, but Collins mashed the accelerator and matched her speed.

They were going over 120 mph when his foot met the floor. He cursed when he realized the car would go no faster, but it appeared that she easily could. When Suanne saw the car's speed had maxed out, she stopped accelerating away from it because she realized she was sort of having fun with this.

Collins took out a video camera and began to film Suanne running. He periodically panned the lens to his speedometer and the blurred countryside to validate their high rate of speed. When Suanne saw the camera, she decided she needed to eliminate his evidence. So she focused her eyes on the camera and somehow flipped an invisible switch in her mind. Her eyes felt warm as she felt energy coursing through them. She blinked and saw smoke coming from inside the car. The video camera had been destroyed, melted to be precise. And Collins was trying to put out the fire on the upholstery where the camera had dropped.

She snickered to herself at the sight of Collins swerving down the road with interior of his car on fire. This guy just couldn't get a break. He sped up again and caught up to her, racing along right next to her. Suanne looked over and smiled, and blew him a kiss.

Then, almost as if out of some coyote and roadrunner cartoon, the road took a sudden turn to the right that Collins hadn't seen coming. Suanne turned on a dime and sped up the road in the new direction. Collins was so shocked that he hadn't seen the curve coming, he overran the curve. The rental car launched into the gully that ran alongside the road, landing in a muddy pool with a tremendous splash. Collins, who had mud splashed all over his face, started to climb out of the window of the car.

Suanne, who had stopped about 30 yards up the road, couldn't stop laughing once she saw that Collins was uninjured. "Hey, I guess you better call AAA," she shouted, before she turned and continued up the road. Collins wiped some dripping mud off his brow, and spit some out of his mouth, as he watched her race away. It looked like she was going much faster than before as she disappeared into a dot on the horizon within a few seconds.

In a short time, Suanne finished her morning run across the state of Florida, guessing that her speed reached several hundred miles per hour, and flew back home.

Whether her parents approved or not, the things Suanne had done the past couple of days had definitely made a statement - Supergirl quickly became the talk of the town. Rumors started to fly all around South Florida about the beautiful and muscular young girl that had superhuman strength and could fly. The skepticism and cynicism of the '90s being what it is, those who claimed to have actually seen her were treated like those people who claimed to have seen Nessie or to have been abducted by aliens. However, most South Floridians secretly wanted to believe that it truly was Supergirl, right in their hometown. Their hometown girl, a supergirl. A legend was beginning to form. Meanwhile, Toby McGill, the famous investigative reporter for the Miami Herald, had heard the rumors and smelled a story.