Kara is an angel, one in charge of fighting against demons walking amongst humans and causing evil to spread in both subtle and sometimes blatant ways. Her brother in arms, Kal-El had been fighting against the most notoriously influential demons known as the Luthors for years as they disguised themselves as a wealthy family on earth. Lex Luthor, in particular, hated him and made it his mission to cause as much chaos and havoc as possible. He had even gone out of his way to attack Kal-El in an attempt to kill him many times over. Things had been tense between the forces of Heaven and the demons of Hell for centuries, but more recently the contention and clashing caused even earth’s humans to notice something was wrong.
If that weren’t bad enough, Kara met Lionel Luthor’s hidden half demon daughter, Lena, at some point on her travels and hadn’t noticed her demon aura since she had been raised amongst humans with her human mother before her death. After her mother died, Lionel took her in and she didn’t even realize that she was a half demon until Kara came into her life but angels and demons aren’t really meant to live together and just what can Kara do when she finds herself drawn to the half demoness? No one in Heaven would ever understand her fascination with the half demon woman.
Amongst all of the classes of angels, Kara was a special case. Not only was she one of the strongest amongst the angels, she was able to interact with humans for the sole purpose of helping them find their soulmates. And no, she was not cupid. Not really. She was more like … a guiding force for people bound to each other by the red string of fate. The Chinese got that part right about their belief in the heavens and what happens in the after life when it comes to certain roles of angelic beings. Kara was sunshine, happiness, effervescence, and she was the very definition of light incarnate, she was effusively happy. Everyone who knew her, well every angel, who knew here thought of her as one of earth’s more adorable creatures: a puppy. The angel she was closest to was definitely Alex, her sister figure, and they were thick as thieves. Any time they had something important to do with any sign of danger, one could not be found without the other and they always had each other’s backs.
James, J’onn, Winn, Lucy, Eliza, and M’gann were also like her family amongst the angels she knew in heaven, but no one was as close to her as Alex was. They were each other’s sisters in arms when they had to fight against any demons causing too much chaos, destruction, or tried to rise up to fight them. Any time a demon insurrection was a possibility they were one of the many chosen to take care of it before it grew to the point of losing too many angels in the fight. It hadn’t happened very frequently, but one of the prominent figures in the demon world currently was the wealthy Luthors. They hid in plain sight amongst humans because they were such high-level, powerful demons they could control their less than human appearance. Not only were they strong demons, one of the strongest demons masquerading as powerful, influential humans, they were extremely wealthy. Currently, they were one of three known demons with CEO status over companies in National City. Their own angel, Cat Grant as her human name was, had CatCo Worldwide Media as a way to keep an eye on their activities without them knowing she was one of them, though her blonde hair shining a certain way in sunlight wasn’t exactly human but her brisk demeanor wasn’t much what most people would think of angels. No, her employees probably thought she was a she-devil with how mean she was. She was good enough to fool demons into thinking she wasn’t an angelic being. Cat Grant appeared as human as could be.
Right now, Maxwell Lord, Morgan Edge, and Lex Luthor were known for being the big players but Lena Luthor had stepped into the game in National City while her brother relocated to Metropolis instead, where Clark Kent, a renowned reporter had been planted to keep an eye on his movement. For now, neither Cat Grant nor Clark Kent had given away to the fact that they were actually angels amongst humans keeping an eye on the demons yet. It wasn’t hard to make identities for angels since they had agents of their own for that very purpose just as the demons did. The angels did everything by the book though to make sure they didn’t just come out of nowhere and were found out by the demons they were watching unlike the demons and their seemingly abrupt rise to power. No one really expected demons to do any better than these underhanded methods to get ahead after all. It was expected with their nature. But heaven had its own system and would never stoop that low. No, they played by the rules and made sure that every transition was seamless.
Kara was chatting with Alex about the state of things where they were up above the clouds where most angels went to relax when they didn’t have an assignment or special mission. Of course, there were patches of heaven they could say was their personal space like a home but it was whatever made them happiest. And time didn’t pass up here, not like it did in the human world. For an angelic being, an hour in heaven was a day on earth and so time moved slowly for them. A single day in heaven was nearly a month for humans and for them, thousands of years had passed and still they were no older than the day they came into existence. Time moved so slowly for them that mere seconds were hours on earth and sometimes that was a blessing and for Kara it was sometimes a curse instead.
“I’m so bored, Alex,” Kara whined, pouting at the other angel who laughed at her, amusement causing her lips to quirk up. Being that she was a warrior angel, Alex was more prone to brooding and sarcasm since the warrior angels were more along the stoic type of angels, Kara being an exception since she also handled cases of love. She tended to help guide people towards love so it wouldn’t make sense for her to be a dark stranger approaching someone about being brave and just going for it. Now that would have them running for the hills screaming in terror. Well, that was how Kara imagined things going if she approached humans with Alex’s special brand of broody badass warrior angel of freaking heaven. Alex had merely scowled at her and Kara had laughed.
“That sounds more like a you problem than an us problem, Kara. I don’t know what you expect me to do about you being bored when you could be making people fall in love with their soulmates instead on earth.” Alex even rolled her eyes at Kara. She rolled her eyes! That was such a human thing to do honestly!
“I think you’ve been hanging around humans too much, Alex! You even roll your eyes like human teenagers do to authority figures in their lives when they’re told to do something!” Kara said with far too much enthusiasm for Alex.
“And you are far too chipper even if you are an angel of love.” Kara pouted at her and Alex smirked in response at her pouting lower lip. “What? You know it’s true, Kara.”
Kara resisted the temptation to copy Alex and roll her eyes too. “Whatever.” And then Kara made a face, crinkle that everyone loved to tease her about appearing in between her furrowed brows, “oh! I feel a ping for help coming in! See you in a few seconds!” Every angel felt a different sensation for when they were being called upon by their charges for help. Kara called it a ping because she liked to think of it as a sort of pulling sensation. So, ping for short. Alex referred to her as more of a tug or demand for help because she was in charge of fighting off demons. Particularly, she dealt with lower level demons usually. There were certain areas on earth considered neutral territory that both angels and demons frequented when half demons and partial demons who wanted nothing to do with their other side went. Often, those demons were considered lower level demons anyways and the establishment was actually run by a half demon, half human and their half angel, half human partner. They didn’t allow disputes between any angels or demons who frequented regardless of how pure or impure their blood because it was neutral ground. Those who fought were kicked out for the night and made to pay for each other’s drinks as their penance. Kara would sometimes go there and drink things acceptable for angels that the half angel, Maggie Sawyer, would make. Alex also had a thing for her even if she wouldn’t admit it despite how many times she’d managed to make Maggie think she didn’t like her with her mysterious silence when Maggie tried talking to her when she came in with Kara or as a group with their friends. Samantha Arias was the other owner and had been friends with Maggie for a long time.
It made Kara a little curious that she was being directed to the bar. Of course, the place was made so that no purely human being could enter the establishment, but that didn’t mean that outliers could exist. Someone who had even a single drop of non-human blood should not be able to cross the threshold, however, there was the possibility of someone with just enough blood for it to consider them non-human enough to enter even if they had no idea that they weren’t anything but human. Things like that did happen on occasion and memories were erased more often than not in those cases and they were specifically specially marked as human afterwards for their own protection as a precaution. Kara had no power over those who had any blood that caused them to not be fully human, so her being pinged towards the bar was extremely odd. It made no sense. She could not guide non-humans into meeting soulmates. In fact, Kara wasn’t sure if all half demons had souls. Most did but rejected their souls and half humans sides in order to fully become a demon. Those who didn’t reject their half human side retained a soul from their human halves.
Walking into the establishment she saw both women hard at work and greeted them both warmly. “Hi Maggie, hello Sam! I see you’re both hard at work already even though it looks like it might be afternoon in the human world from how bright it is outside. Though, we all know I’m not the best judge of earth time since it’s so hard for me to keep track!” Kara gave them an almost conspiratorial look, even winking at them with some exaggeration.
“Yes, that we do know,” Maggie said with amusement showing clearly on her face.
Sam interjected with a friendly inquiry, “so, what brings you here today? Is something wrong or are you here for … cupid business,” and Kara pouted at being called cupid.
“No! I am not cupid because that little cherub, as cute as they are, is not the proper representation of someone with my profession! We do not carry heart shaped arrows for goodness’ sake and how painful would it be if I went around terrorizing poor humans who cannot see me unless I make myself corporeal for them? They’d wonder why someone was going around shooting those sharp arrows at their behinds!”
Outright laughing, Sam cleared her throat after a moment, completely immune to Kara’s pout. “And this is exactly why I call you a cupid on purpose and you never fail to deliver. Honestly, it never becomes less amusing,” and this time she elbowed Maggie who wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding her own amusement. They teamed up on her all of the time, only made worse when Alex was also around to join in with some smart quip that never failed to make Maggie give her a look. No matter how much Maggie flirted, Alex denied her possible interest with well placed comments about how she was half angel and was nice to everyone and possibly flirted with many people because she was also half human. And no, she wasn’t flirting with Alex even if Kara was convinced she was.
“Well, whatever. I don’t know why, but I was pinged and felt it from somewhere in here even though I can’t influence either demons or humans. Speaking of, we angels don’t even have red strings attached to us. How did I receive a ping here if I can’t influence any angels or demons of any sort? I’m not sure if someone who is a quarter can be effected by me or not because I’ve never had a call for them either.” Kara looked around, trying to spot the target.
“It could be because my very human father has brought my half sister around and she is very human. She’s actually sitting at that table over there because she’s been making some googly eyes at the one half demon that way since she came in to have a quick drink. They mostly came in to say hi but now she’s turned it into looking at him because he is definitely her type. She hasn’t had the courage to say a word to him yet.” Maggie smirked and Kara knew what was going to come out of her mouth before it even happened. “Go do your job cupid and shoot that dangerously sharp arrow, Kara.”
Scowling but taking the out given anyways, Kara made her way over and smiled as she made herself invisible to humans but other angels, even ones with slightly diluted blood, could still see her somewhat though demons, no matter how diluted their blood, wouldn’t be able to see her or sense her if she was trying to completely conceal herself. Mostly demons with strength near the level of high demons would be able to sense her presence in this state. Some angels had been killed for recon missions because of that fact.
Approaching the woman, Kara was sure she looked like a beam of bright light to Maggie because of her class of angel, Kara sent out waves of energy towards the woman, encouraging her to approach the tall half demon who seemed the quiet, strong type. Octavia seemed to bolster from Kara’s energy and nodded to herself before approaching the man and introducing herself. With her assignment completed, she walked back over to the two women. “Look at that, ladies! I got them talking and I think they’re going to be in love faster than you can say Kara is an awesome Angel of the Red String of Fate instead of that other, silly word, that doesn’t describe me … at all!”
They both burst out laughing, unable to contain themselves in the face of Kara being so freaking extra. “Yeah, okay,” Sam said sardonically, barely managing through her chuckling. “Making people fall in love or rather get on the path to falling in love isn’t your job. Nope, I must be thinking about someone else’s work like … a dating website!” Leave it to Sam to be just as extra when it came to her teasing Kara.
Even angels could be sarcastic, if Alex was anything to go by, “oh, look at you! Having a laugh at my expense,” Kara rolled her eyes. “If there are days I ever wonder if you’re a half demon, well, today’s one of those days I don’t need to wonder when you have that flair up for the dramatics and tease me.”
Sam laughed at that good naturedly, used to Kara’s gentle teasing back at her. “Well, I never need to wonder when the Angel of Love is going to be around!” Maggie high fived Sam for that one, both of them tag teaming her not an unusual thing much to her slight chagrin. However, she wouldn’t change her friendship with either woman for anything because not only did they amuse her endlessly, they were kind above all else and they didn’t let their other halves control their fates or outlook on life either.
Most with mixed blood were treated poorly in some way. Those with half angel blood weren’t necessarily shunned, but looked upon with pity by those who were fully angelic beings for not being able to join them up in heaven because they were still partially human. Humans needed to have their souls brought up to be part of the cycle of reincarnation. Being half human meant that they had to live their extensively longer lives before they were allowed into the fold as an angel or be part of the process of reincarnation based on the lives they lead before their deaths. As for half demons … there were not accepted by most demons. Some humans were ignorant of the world of angels and demons and wouldn’t even bat an eye at the half demons living amongst them. And there were some humans with the power of having a sixth sense to detect when they were in the presence of either evil or great good and could detect even half demons despite their human half’s presence. They were wary of those presences though not all rejected them entirely
It was a lonely and hard existence to not have the acceptance of the half of family that caused the disdain in the first place or only being accepted by very few members depending on whether they chose to shed their human half and become fully demon instead. Sam wanted to change that stigma. After having met Maggie because they were both wayward souls amongst their families in a way, they came up with the idea of the bar being a perfect safe haven for both of their common status as halflings. Thus, Halfway to Heaven and Hell was born. And as word spread about the neutral territory to mingle and find camaraderie in other wayward souls who experienced similar rejection and pain came to be. Now it was the hotspot for almost all of the halflings to gather to commiserate in their miseries and triumphs without having to hide who they were and to find solace in others just like them. The half angel, half humans started to join in after also catching wind of the place being run by one such as them and they found a harmony and understanding in the misunderstood half demons who gathered there. It became cathartic for both halves to interact. And now the bar was never short of customers and sometimes there was a need for a third bartender and a few waitresses extra to come in to help out on the busy weekends. Neither women could be prouder of what they had achieved with their safe haven for others like them. It was an amazing thing to see from the start until the expansion of now with slightly more floor space after a quick renovation with the bar made larger to accommodate the increase in business as well as a kitchen being added to add some food to the menu for those who were drinking too much. The menu was made with food that would soak up some of the effects of alcohol, lean meats as well as heavy in carbs as needed. Even the food was well liked by the patrons, including exotic items from the demon world.
Kara loved coming here to see the two women going on strong. She also enjoyed seeing Alex’s lame attempts at indifference towards her obvious attraction to Maggie and how flustered she’d get when those dangerous dimples were flashing at her. Yeah, Kara loved this bar and its two amazing owners so much. Even when they teased her relentlessly. “One of these days you’re going to get tired of teasing me. I swear. Being half angel, you’d think your angelic side would tell you not to be so mean to me,” Kara said over dramatically, looking at Sam with the worst attempt at affront Maggie had ever seen in her life.
“Yeah, yeah. Like I always tell you, if you really hated it so much you’d stop coming by when you don’t have some kind of mission going on. Just admit it, Kara. You love us and how much crap we give you and don’t deny it! I mean, you do choose to come back every time without fail.” And Maggie wasn’t wrong. Kara was a frequent flyer there even if she couldn’t really pay for drinks with actual currency since angels didn’t exactly have paying jobs. Maggie and Sam didn’t mind giving the angels who visited free non-alcoholic beverages though. More than anything, the angels came for the novelty since they didn’t actually need to eat or drink to survive. The angels who had missions in the human world were able to eat and drink for the sole purpose of appearances and not raising suspicion that they were anything other than human. It was a strange concept, but they at least didn’t eat or drink much and bought the bare minimum and only kept their fridge sparsely filled with food and drinks. No need to waste things and resources when there were hungry, homeless humans out there on the streets. In fact, most angels used the salaries that they earned while on their missions to feed the homeless or provide some kind of shelter or comfort for them. This was their nature. Healing, comfort, encouragement, and being pillars of strength to humans. It was what they were driven to do.
“Okay, okay, so maybe I do enjoy your gross abuse of your human halves right to abuse me out of love and the fondness you have for me in your golden hearts.” Sometimes Kara was a sarcastic angel. It was either Alex’s influence or the fact that she was indeed a warrior angel as well despite her entirely too cheerful demeanor being an angel of love as well. Either way, she had her moments of extreme sarcasm however unexpected it was every time she let it out like she did just now.
“Right, well it looks like you really got my sister’s love meter hyped up,” Maggie said, eyeing the way her sister was practically inhaling that guy’s breath with how close their faces were despite the incredible height difference between them. He was a giant. Nearly a foot taller than Octavia.
“Would you look at that? My encouragement for them is blossoming beautifully! Speaking of blossoming love, I feel another person seeking my presence but this one doesn’t seem to be a human related ping. It was nice seeing you two! You know I’ll be back for that delicious human drink you call ‘apple cider’ meant for fall weather!” Kara had a particular sweet tooth despite not having to consume any food or beverages as an angel. However, she had grown fond of the various drinks that Maggie metered out as safe for angelic consumption since alcohol was not only forbidden but harmful for angels to drink. Something about them were toxic for angels and caused them to feel severe weakness and pain. It could even kill them if they consumed a high enough dosage. That was a discovery by an undercover angel trying to gather information from some lower level demons while pretending to be human and had been severely affected by a glass not cleaned out properly for all traces of alcohol and had quickly gone to throw up in the bathroom and discovering this weakness amongst their kind. Some demons had gotten wind of that, though it wasn’t widely spread knowledge amongst the demon world, and it was now more dangerous for angels parading as humans. One sip was all it took for them to figure out which seemingly human beings were truly angels amongst them.
Kara gave a cheery wave goodbye and left with a flourish, red hearts appearing for several seconds in the wake of her movement where she was currently needed. Every angel had varying aftereffects of them moving where they were needed depending on their roles. Warrior angels were more of a flash of light when they showed themselves to trustworthy people. The angels in charge of individuals or whole family’s had more of a sunny, warm glow. Angels charged with children tended to have a rather bubbly type of entrance, showing effervescence and hope in how they moved around. The angels like Kara tended to have more of a range of pink to red hearts left in the wake of their departure and entrance but in Kara’s case it only happened when she was on a more amorous mission than if she was completing a mission as a warrior angel instead. During those types of mission, she crackled like thunder and flashed like lightning because of how strong and powerful she was even amongst other warrior angels. She had been likened to Gabriel in terms of her prowess before. Kara was very nearly indestructible even. The most powerful angel in a long time.
Upon arriving where she felt her ping, she was more than surprised to see Cat waiting for her in her human appearance as the Media Queen Cat Grant. “Ah, Kara. I know that you are quite busy as bees as humans would say, but I have been tasked with keeping an eye on Lena Luthor from my perch as a human media mogul, as you know, but she is … rather elusive.”
“Yes, of course, Cat. I do remember that Clark has been watching Lex and you have been watching Lena individually.” Kara nodded, confirming what she currently knew of the situation.
Cat nodded her head, “right, but I’ve been having trouble keeping an eye on her because she is … rather difficult to meet with. I want you to pose as a junior reporter or at the very least try to see if you can get a job as her assistant instead somehow. We can’t keep an eye on her if we can’t even get close to her to see what is going on in her office. So far, I haven’t managed to do much of anything with her. Lena is … rather problematic to get into touch with even with my army of reporters. Getting her to grant interviews has been harder than me being mean to my employees Kara.” Being angels did make it rather trying when attempting any type of unkind actions towards those who were considered their charges whether they were personally responsible for them or not.
Kara gave Cat a calculating look, “do you think she suspects you at all?”
Shaking her head, Cat replied, “no, I know it’s not that, Kara. Rather, it is just her nature to be camera shy, I believe. Even before her take over as the CEO of L-Corp for her branch she wasn’t one to be in the spotlight or interviewed for any reason. She doesn’t really use most social media accounts and only recently started using both Twitter and Instagram but only for promotions for her products and release dates for her products. Those social media accounts are as old as how long she has been in office so … just about two months now. In all of that time I haven’t been granted a single interview from her. And in all fairness, no one else has been able to snag an interview with her.” Cat looked calculating as she looked at Kara. “I’m thinking that if Clark and you posed as cousins and both request to interview her … or at least have Clark interview her since you won’t know what to do being new to the journalism world, she won’t be able to refuse a well-known reporter like him.”
“So … what you’re saying is you want me to work under you and try to get close to Lena?” Kara asked, putting the pieces of what Cat was asking of her.
Giving Kara a grave look, Cat nodded. “Yes, I have already asked the Creator for permission. It was granted and the choice is yours, so will you help me Kara?” Kara nodded her assent and not long after she found herself standing right in front of Lena Luthor with her supposed cousin, Clark Kent, as the human named Kara Danvers. And goodness gracious, she was not prepared for how absolutely stunning the woman was. Being an angel meant that Kara had seen many beautiful things in her life but Lena absolutely was the most beautiful person she’d ever seen in her existence and she had seen some of the most beautiful humans ever created. Lena was another level of gorgeous, so visually stunning Kara stuttered, became tongue-tied, when she was asked who she was by the ethereal woman.
“And who, exactly, are you?” she asked, moving around her desk to sit down in her chair elegantly. Even the way she moved flawlessly spoke of how graceful she was. Kara had never felt this way before in her entire existence and that had been quite a few centuries going towards a millennia now.
“Um, uh, I’m uh, Kara Danvers. I’m not exactly a reporter but I’m with CatCo Media,” she’d answered with as little grace as possible seeing as Lena possessed all of it, it seemed from this little interaction alone.
Clark gave her a strange look and Kara decisively ignored him as Lena responded to her. “CatCo Media? Aren’t they more of a … fashion outlet than a real news source these days?” she asked, looking slightly put-off by where Kara was currently employed.
“Well, I’m just really here to observe so … um, I’m not really going to write anything anyways,” Kara muttered.
“Anyways, isn’t it convenient that when the Venture was going down, you weren’t on that flight?” Clark asked, his question leading and unlike what a journalist would ask.
“Luckily, Superman was there to save the day,” Lena replied to him easily as Clark continued to give her a measuring look.
“Yes, quite lucky indeed,” he responded.
“Just ask me what you want to ask me because I’m quite busy with running my company, Mr. Kent,” Lena requested briskly, opening her notebook containing many notes.
“Were you involved in what happened, the part’s failure seeing as it came from one of your manufacturers?” he asked.
“Are you asking because of my last name or because it was one of my subsidiaries that made the part that failed?” she asked with a calculating look.
He rolled his eyes at her. “I’m a reporter and I’m just trying to do my job by asking you these questions.” Clark had really gotten into his role as a reporter. He had been doing this for quite some time after all, but still, he was quite efficient in his role. For a brief moment, Kara wondered if angels were in charge of aliens and metahumans on this planet as well. Obviously, some of her fellow angels helped guide other species in the galaxy far and wide, but aliens were a bit of a gray area in her opinion. Some species just didn’t seem to gel with angelic guidance. Daxamites and Kryptonians being two examples. With the Daxamites, they were resistant towards guidance. Kryptonians thought that their form of justice had been perfected because no one was killed nor would they suffer in Fort Rozz in the Phantom Zone where no time passed. It was impractical to try to influence or direct a species like that into certain decisions. Some angels still tried as was tasked of them in spite of the difficulty. It was in their nature to help others after all.
Lena gave them a sad smile, “even so, not all of us are the same just because of who our family is. I may be my brother’s sister and my father’s daughter, but I wasn’t always their family. My father didn’t even take me in, claim me as his child, until he adopted me when I was ten. He didn’t want to admit to what he did so now here I am, defending myself to reporters because of my brother’s behavior rather than my own merits.” She paused as she looked at them both, “I’m just a woman trying to make a name for herself, can you understand that,” she asked, looking almost vulnerably.
Kara answered her, looking at her with understanding, “yes, I can understand that,” Kara said, looking at her with compassion.
The look Clark gave her showed he didn’t share her sentiments on the matter. “Okay, well, I’ve got an article to write and you seem like a busy woman,” he said, giving her a tight smile. As soon as they left the office, he rounded on Kara, “you’re not supposed to sympathize with demons, half blood or not.”
Kara scoffed, “we’re also not supposed to judge them before they’ve even done anything to warrant suspicion either!”
“Okay, we have things to do and appearances to make. We’re supposed to be cousins on earth so let’s keep that charade going for now, Kara.” She was offended that he was supposed to be above judgment since that was the Creator’s role and not theirs as angels. They only guided and helped humans as well as other creatures of the universe. Both of the Kryptonians on this planet were forces of good and did so without prompt. They were doing just fine on their own. Kara sighed. She wasn’t sure how everything was going to turn out, but she had her mission already laid out for her.
So, first chapter here! Hope everyone is interested about where this is going after reading this new concept! The next chapter is available here as well as my other works at: https://ko-fi.com/post/How-Can-I-Be-With-You-V7V714FLW
