Fanfic / Echoes of Yesterday

Welcome to a new world, a world where the line between hero and villain is thin and unknown. A world unknowingly besieged by a force far greater than imagination, where hope has died. In these trying times, new heroes will rise, old villains will fall, and the world will change, for better and worse.

— FF.net summary

Echoes of Yesterday is a Worm/Supergirl crossover fanfiction. It can be read in Fanfiction.net, Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity.

Taylor Hebert gets locked in her own locker by her three bullies. At the same while, a girl from another world wakes up in a nearby dumpster, with no memory of how or why she got dumped in Earth-Bet. Kara Zor-El is still trying to figure out what kind of universe she has just gotten stranded in, when she hears Taylor's pleas for help.

Both girls start an unlikely friendship after Kara rescues Taylor, and Danny lets her stay at his home in gratitude for standing up for his daughter. Meanwhile, Taylor feels confused about meeting someone who is simultaneously a real hero and a comic-book character, and Kara decides she needs to do what she can to help Earth-Bet while she looks for a way back to her home dimension.

As of October 16, 2020, after a fan vote, the author decided to eventually rewrite the story. The rewrite is called Dreams of Tomorrow and can be read on fanfiction.net and Spacebattles.

For other Worm/Superman crossovers see The Last Daughter, and for other team-ups between Supergirl and a non-comicbook badass action girl see The Vampire of Steel.

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This work contains the next tropes:

• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Rapidfyrez has stated that since DC Universe canon is infamously convoluted and ever-changing, he's cherrypicking what he thinks serves his story better.
• Action Fashionista: Following her canon characterization, Kara's the local clotheshorse hero. She goes through at least two hero costumes in the two first story arcs, and she's very fussy regarding what kind of clothes she will and will not wear.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: Defied. Although she endeavours to not aggravate the situation in Earth-Bet by acting impulsively, Kara would never forgive herself if she didn't at least try to help the Crapsack World she has been dragged into.
• Apathetic Citizens: Kara tracks down cries for help in Winslow High School and finds Taylor imprisoned into her locker as everyone minus her bullies is passing by and ignoring her shouting. Later on, when Principal Blackwell asks why a super-hero would get involved in a case of bullying, Kara retorts "[She] was needed, because no one was bothering to help her, even the staff."
  I won't lie, my blood boiled at the sight. They could obviously hear her begging for someone, anyone to help, and all they did was either watch or ignore her. Several had already broken off with bored looks on their faces. I shoved through a trio of girls a little harder than necessary, and ran up to the locker.
• Badass Boast: Kara delivers one unintentionally when Taylor asks what universe she's from.
  Taylor: "Are you from Earth Aleph?"
  Kara: "No, if our worlds had made contact, the Endbringers and Slaughterhouse 9 would've been wiped out years ago."
• Beware the Nice Ones: Taylor thinks Kara is the nicest person whom she has met, with "not a mean bone in her body". Nonetheless, Kara's also hot-tempered, impulsive, super-strong and can't stand bullies, as a Nazi super-villain learned when she hurled a truck at him.
• Big Brother Mentor: After meeting Glory Girl, Kara realizes Vicky's a well-meaning but reckless and hot-headed girl -not unlike Kara herself when she was a teenager- whose worst traits are being enabled by her family; hence, she decides to mentor the younger girl so she becomes a proper hero instead of ending up as a cautionary tale.
• Bizarre Alien Senses: Kara's vision allows her to see thousands of colors invisible to the human eye. She is also able to control precisely the cones and rods in her eyes in order to see through solid objects or examine something on a microscopic scale.
  Apparently, that was all the signal those two needed. The larger man released their victim and tackled me into the opposite alley wall while his buddy went to drive both knives into my stomach and collarbone respectively. The only reason they pulled this off, was because I was distracted by the fact that they'd both morphed into skeletal monsters.
  Wait, that wasn't right.
  I blinked as the knives shattered harmlessly against my skin, and grabbed both 'skeletons' by their wrists, and carefully pulled them off me until they were both yelping in surprise and pain. When I saw my own hands, that confirmed it; my x-ray vision had finally started working again. I spared a glance up, ignoring their cries of pain, and watched as the blue sky shifted through a thousand new colors. Beautiful auroras trailed across the city skyline, forming webs that even in a city as small as Brockton, were beautiful to look at in their complexity.
  It wasn't just the x-ray vision that had returned, the entirety of my visual spectrum was fully operational!
  Which, as nice and pretty as it was, it wasn't really necessary for dealing with the crooks I was still holding. I closed my eyes for what good it did, and focused; controlling my vision wasn't quite the same as controlling my hearing. The muscles in my ears weren't as complex as those in my eyes, and so I had been forced to develop psychological methods to deal with the constant backwash of noise. True silence was something I hadn't experienced in over three years.
  But, the advantage of living under a yellow sun was the precise neurological control it gave me, including the rods and cones in my eyes. To put it simply, I could essentially 'shut off' the parts of my eye responsible for my x-ray and electromagnetic vision at will to prevent visual feedback. I had gotten so adept at this, that after a moment, my vision returned to normal and the world faded back to its original shades and shapes.
• Brutal Honesty: Taylor finds herself at the receiving end of Kara's blunt honesty when the latter questions if Emma was truly Taylor's friend given how suddenly and completely Emma turned against her so-called bestie.
  I wanted to throw my glass on the ground. I wanted to scream at her, how could she possibly know that? How could she know how it felt to have your closest friend turn around and stab you in the back!? I didn't, I just tightened my grip on my glass and closed my eyes tight, because I knew on some level she was right. It hurt so much to think about, but I knew she was right. Maybe Emma had been genuine at some point, but if a single summer was all it took to turn her into my worst enemy, then our friendship clearly meant more to me than it did her.
• Bully Hunter: Kara can't stand bullies, which is because she scares Sophia and her cronies away when she correctly identifies her as the person who shoved Taylor into the locker, and later she's more than eager to pounce on Hookwolf.
  Earth Bet may have been in a different dimension, but it was still Earth. And just like on my Earth, I wasn't afraid of a so-called monster like this. This man, whoever he was, was a bully. More than likely he stood high in an organization that preached hatred and intolerance based on a person's skin color. What's more, it was clear he abused his power and position to force animals to kill each other for the entertainment of himself and others. A bully that happened to be made of knives, but a bully still.
  And if there was one thing I couldn't stand, it was bullies. Which is probably why he was surprised when I charged at him, and leapt at his face, more than ready to rumble.
• Bullying a Dragon: Hookwolf engages Supergirl, despite knowing she had run into Lung -the most dangerous parahuman in the city- and survived. Now, he might have believed her super-strength wouldn't protect her from his razor metallic body-shell, but as soon as his blades shattered upon impact with her body, revealing she's not only stronger than him but also invulnerable to his attacks, he should have backed off. He did not, and he was crushed.
• Bystander Syndrome: The schoolgirls gathered around the locker were standing still while listening to Taylor's cries and pleas for help.
• Car Fu: During the fight against Hookwolf, Supergirl throws a truck at him.
  I braced myself and caught the truck by its grille with both my arms spread wide. Compared to the weight lifting I had been doing earlier that day, that truck weighed nothing to me.
  "You ruined my favorite costume, Hookwolf!" I shouted. "Let me return the favor!"
  I threw the car back at him, but he was already moving, which was exactly what I had wanted.
• Chest Insignia: Since "Supergirl" is a previously existing character in Earth Bet, and she refuses to remove her "S"-shield, Kara was worried about having to go to court for, of all things, the right to wear her family crest. Fortunately she's reassured that the property is now in the public domain.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Brockton Bay's newest hero's debut deed is to rescue a girl shoved by bullies into her own locker. When Winslow High's Principal questions why a cape would get involved in a case of high-school bullying, Kara replies she heard someone needed help, so she helped out. Period.
  Principal Blackwell: What would bring a cape here in the first place? While what happened was certainly unacceptable, it wouldn't require the assistance of a powered individual.
  Kara: Firstly, I have enhanced senses. I could hear her screaming for help three blocks away. And secondly, ma'am, it appears I was needed, because no one was bothering to help her, even the staff.
• Clothes Make the Legend: Kara's distinctive blue-and-red costume makes the folks of Brockton Bay believe she's stolen her cape identity from some old comic-book super-hero.
• Comic Books Are Real: In Earth-Bet, DC and Marvel's heroes are considered fictional characters who fell out of fashion in The '80s, which is because Taylor is so shocked when she meets Supergirl.
  Kara: My proper name, Taylor Hebert, is Kara Zor-El. I am the last Daughter of Krypton from Prime Earth. Your world knows of me and my friends and family through old comic books printed by Detective Comics Incorporated, but where I'm from, we and our conflicts are very real.
  Taylor: S-so you're not just a cape. You're a fictional character brought to life?
  Kara: Yes and no. I am fictional to your world, but my world is very real. There are many possibilities in the multiverse, Taylor. Fiction and reality blur the lines when you travel between worlds. Yours is not the first world I've encountered where we existed as stories, and I guarantee there are worlds where the lives of your people are recorded and told as stories of their own.
• Dem Bones: Supergirl's X-Ray Vision activating accidentally as she's fighting two thugs makes Kara believe for one second they have transformed into living skeletons.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Since she can easily stomp over anything in the Wormverse short of an Endbringer or an Entity, Supergirl gets nerfed in the beginning of the story.
• Dynamic Akimbo: Kara puts her hands on her hips when PRT's fashion designer tries to argue against her wearing a cape.
• Expendable Alternate Universe: Subverted. Kara misses and wants to go back home badly, but after finding out via a bit of fact-checking what kind of Crapsack World she has been dragged into, she decides she must do everything in her power to help Earth Bet.
• Expy:
  • Arnold Adams designs costumes for super-heroes and deeply dislikes capes, kind of a gender-swapped Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
  • The similarities between Supergirl and Glory Girl have NOT gone unnoticed.
• Facepalm: Battery from covers her face with her hands when Assault of all people decides to lecture Supergirl on proper hero etiquette.
  Assault took that moment to rejoin the conversation and promptly put himself between me and Battery, "Hey now, you better not be sneaking any peaks on Puppy with those see-through eyes of yours."
  I paused, trying to figure out what he meant while Battery covered her face and sighed.
• For Want Of A Nail: Supergirl gets stranded in Earth-Bet and rescues Taylor from the locker, ensuring Taylor triggers later with different powers.
• Freudian Slip: When Taylor elaborates how high school has been Hell to her, Kara agrees that human schools tend to be terrible. Taylor right away notices that's a very unusual choice of words.
  Stupid tears welled up in my eyes. I took my glasses off and wiped at my eyes. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. It's stupid and petty."
  "I found most of human high school to be like that, yes." Supergirl replied.
  Whoa, wait, what?
  I replaced my glasses and stared at her. She raised a brow, before her word choice registered. I swear I could see the f-bomb detonating behind her eyes. Perfect, now I had my own ammunition I could use against her.
  "'Human' high school, huh? You look pretty human to me."
  "T-that's because I am!" Supergirl said quickly. She hopped off the table. "Just a poor choice of words, you know! Long day, not thinking straight!"
  "Uh huh."
• The Gadfly: If she can't openly beat a jerkass or a bully up, Kara resorts to troll them. After seeing Kara troll Emma in the mall until the redhead leaves out of embarassment, Taylor calls her a "menace".
  "What the hell was that all about?!"
  Kara blinked, then smiled, "Ever heard of the phrase 'kill your enemy with kindness'?"
  I rubbed my temples and paced back and forth, "You're a menace, Linda Danvers. I thought I was going to die of secondhand embarrassment. If you have to do that, please don't do it when I'm around."
  "No promises." Kara practically sang, still staring at her shirt.
• Gentle Giant: Kara is over six foot tall, superhumanly strong, and the nicest and most empathetic person in the setting. Even someone as jaded and cynical as Taylor Hebert is astonished at how "she didn't seem to have a mean bone in her body".
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Sophia tries to push around the woman who rescued Taylor only to be lifted up in the air and glared by two angry, red-glowing eyes. It's more than enough to frighten her into silence.
  This came from one of the trio, a short slender girl with dark skin and brown eyes. She wore a track and field uniform, and her look told me all I needed to know. I was in no mood to play nice.
  I grabbed the girl by the shirt and lifted her into the air with one hand. There were a few shouts of surprise, and the other two girls hastily backed away, wide eyed. It was weak, but I felt that familiar heat building at the base of my eyes, and I had a good idea of what this girl was seeing.
• Good Is Not Soft: Kara is extraordinarily kind-hearted and empathetic... but bullies set her off. And Sophia found out the hard way when Kara rescued Taylor from the filthy locker where Sophia had shoved her into: Sophia decided to push the older woman and found herself neck-lifted and glared by two angry glowing eyes.
  I buried my anger, and turned to the assembled students, keeping one protective arm around the girl, "Where's the nurse's office?" I demanded.
  The response I got, was, "Who the fuck are you?"
  This came from one of the trio, a short slender girl with dark skin and brown eyes. She wore a track and field uniform, and her look told me all I needed to know. I was in no mood to play nice.
  I grabbed the girl by the shirt and lifted her into the air with one hand. There were a few shouts of surprise, and the other two girls hastily backed away, wide eyed. It was weak, but I felt that familiar heat building at the base of my eyes, and I had a good idea of what this girl was seeing.
  "Nurse's office. Where is it?"
• Good Morning, Crono: The story starts out with Kara awakening and noticing she's lying on a dumpster instead of in sleeping in her bed.
• Groin Attack: Kara rams her shoulder into Lung's groin. This causes him to go Instant Soprano, but he just gets pissed off and starts attacking harder.
• Hero's First Rescue: Subverted. As soon as she arrives in Earth-Beth, Kara pulls Taylor out of the locker where she had been shoved into by her bullies. Most of people think of it as a new hero's debut, unaware that she's been heroing for three years in her own universe.
• Hope Is Scary: Taylor had become extremely wary and reluctant to open up to people again after being betrayed and bullied by her former best friend. Hence, when she's rescued and befriended by Kara, Taylor has trouble coping with the idea that she has met someone genuinely nice and honest who wants to be her friend.
  Why were all of her actions so nice? I had no issue with people who were naturally nice, but Kara took it to an extreme, she didn't seem to have a mean bone in her body. The Trio had turned most of the school against me; any act of kindness or attempt at befriending me had to be watched and analyzed closely or else I'd leave myself open for another hit. I had just met Kara and already she was pushing them aside. After being alone for so long, this sudden shift practically gave me whiplash. How was I supposed to deal with this?
• Human Aliens: Brought up when Kara accidentally gives away she isn't human, and Taylor quickly points out she looks pretty human to her eyes.
• Interspecies Friendship: Taylor Hebert (human) becomes friends with Kara Zor-El (Kryptonian) after the latter rescues the former of a trio of bullies. Back in her dimension, Kara was good friends with Barbara Gordon (human), having fond memories of their joint patrols and slumber parties.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Taylor is feeling disturbed after learning that Supergirl is a real character in another universe, and even more disturbed after being told she's probably a fictional character in a different universe, because who would want to read about her extraordinarily depressing life?
  "S-so you're not just a cape. You're a fictional character brought to life?"
  "Yes and no." Kara said. "I am fictional to your world, but my world is very real. There are many possibilities in the multiverse, Taylor. Fiction and reality blur the lines when you travel between worlds. Yours is not the first world I've encountered where we existed as stories, and I guarantee there are worlds where the lives of your people are recorded and told as stories of their own."
  Dear god, what sick twisted person would want to read something that dark and depressing?
• Leeroy Jenkins: Kara rapidly gains a reputation of being an impulsive and reckless hero who gets into fights which she should stay away from.
  Colin Wallis, or as most of the world knew him, Armsmaster, had had a long day. Though he was no stranger to the chaotic nature that was the norm for the city, that day in particular had tested his patience. Several brief eruptions of gang violence, a fire that had threatened to burn down a good chunk of the downtown district, and a new cape that seemed to employ 'leap before you look' as a personal philosophy.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: When his blades fail to even put a scratch on Supergirl, Hookwolf resorts to grab her and slam her into the pavement. Needless to say, it also fails to hurt her (but succeeds in annoying her)
  And then he started to shake me like a ragdoll, just to add insult to injury...
  My world spun and I snarled with frustration; I was getting really tired of villains manhandling me. He started slamming repeatedly against the ground in some sort of attempt to break me in two. I was jarred back and forth with each slam, but unharmed; at least, unharmed enough to focus on raising both my hands over my head and slamming them down on his face right as he smashed me against the ground again.
• Mugging the Monster: Sophia Hess isn't amused when all of sudden a stranger shows up and breaks Taylor Hebert out of the locker where Sophia had shoved her into, so she tries to harass the newcomer. One Neck Lift combined with glowing red eyes later, Sophia and her bully squad consider the virtues of keeping quiet and staying away from the blonde, scary woman.
• The Multiverse: Parallel dimensions are known to both Earth-Bet and Prime Earth. Taylor herself is aware that someone made contact with an alternate Earth called Earth Aleph a few years ago.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Glory Girl freaks out and gets extremely upset when she's said that the "drug dealer" whom she has just crippled is an undercover cop.
  Glory Girl looked from them, to the injured cop and then to me. The expression on her face was very familiar; the look of a kid in way over their head and realizing just how badly they managed to mess up in such a short period of time. I felt an eerie sense of deja vu and shook it off.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Kara has used as alias "Linda Danvers" -her Pre-Crisis Earth name- and "Kara Danvers" -her Post-Flashpoint one-.
  • Taylor says her new friend doesn't have a mean bone in her. Cosmic Boy used that same sentence to describe Kara in Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes.
• Name From Another Species: Kara Zor-El (Kryptonian) goes by Linda Danvers in order to blend in with Earth-Bet humans.
• Neck Lift: Kara grabs Sophia's collar and lifts her one-handed after deducing Sophia was the bully who pushed Taylor into her locker.
• Nice Guy: Kara's so kind-hearted and selfless that Taylor doesn't know what to make of her. After spending one year and half being bullied by assholes, Taylor is confused by someone who "doesn't have a single mean bone in her body" and saved her just because it was the right thing.
  Why were all of her actions so nice? I had no issue with people who were naturally nice, but Kara took it to an extreme, she didn't seem to have a mean bone in her body.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Kara saves Taylor from being locked inside a biohazard container and then scares her bullies away... which unfortunately means she might be charged with assaulting a teenager, so Kara gets forced to lie low for a while.
• No Social Skills: Armsmaster feels very uncomfortable in social situations. He would rather tinker with his gadgets because, unlike people, he can understand their workings and predict their behavior.
  Armsmaster: You want me to try and convince her? Me?
  Dragon: You are the leader of the PRT, it comes with the job.
  Armsmaster: (grumbling) I don't handle people well. You remember what happened with Kid Win, I nearly drove him out of the Wards.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Subverted. Director Piggot tries to play hardball with Supergirl and throw the book at her in order to get her join the Protectorate, but when Piggot puts forward a Protectorate contract, Supergirl takes five seconds to read and memorize the entire document, and then makes Piggot listen to and clear all of her concerns on the spot.
• Oh, Crap!: When Kara realizes she's accidentally let slip she's not human, Taylor swears "[she] could see the f-bomb detonating behind [Kara's]] eyes."
  I laid this all out on the table, dropping each inconsistency. With each one, Kara grew quieter, and her protests weaker. By the time I was done, she was leaning against the kitchen counter, wide eyed, a look of 'oh shit' plastered on her face.
• Older Than They Look: Kara looks younger than twenty due to suspended animation shenanigans but she's technically forty-eight.
  Taylor: Are you sure you're eighteen?
  Kara: Technically I'm forty eight. I just aged gracefully.
• Power Perversion Potential: When Supergirl mentions she has X-Ray Vision, Assault reacts by stepping between Kara and Battery and demanding the former doesn't use her power to see through his partner's clothes (much to the embarassment of both women).
  Supergirl: I can see basically every part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and I have x-ray vision now that lets me see through pretty much anything.
  Assault: Hey now, you better not be sneaking any peaks on Puppy with those see-through eyes of yours.
  Supergirl: Nnonono! I would never- I mean it's not like-! Oh jeez!
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Taylor doesn't want to go shopping for clothes, but Kara literally puppy-stares her into a trip to the local mall.
  "Oh come on Taylor, please?" I kid you not, this girl who was at least three years older than me, clasped her hands together and gave me the puppy dog eyes, quivering lip included.
  I stared at her, wide eyed, "You… you're being serious right now?"
  No response.
  I folded my arms, "It'll take more than puppy eyes to change my mind Kara."
  Again, no response.
  I made an effort to avoid her stare, "I said no, not gonna happen!"
  More silence.
  I made one daring look over my shoulder, and threw my hands up in surrender, "Gah! Fine! Just stop with the look, you're embarrassing both of us!"
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Right after rescuing Taylor, Kara delivers one aimed at Winslow High Administration when Principal Blackwell asks why a super-hero would get involved in a case of high-school bullying.
  Kara: Ma'am, clearly Miss Hebert needs time to gather her thoughts. What she went through would have been very traumatic, and interrogating her certainly won't help with that.
  Principal Blackwell: What would bring a cape here in the first place? While what happened was certainly unacceptable, it wouldn't require the assistance of a powered individual.
  Kara: Firstly. I have enhanced senses. I could hear her screaming for help three blocks away. And secondly, ma'am, it appears I was needed, because no one was bothering to help her, even the staff.
• Reconstruction: Superheroes Wear Capes gets reconstructed. When Supergirl joins the Protectorate, PRT's fashion designer Arnold Adams wants to dissuade her from wearing a cape, arguing "they're impractical and can represent a danger to the wearer", but Kara will not be talked out: she don't care about "practicality", she can't be killed by "cape-snagging" thanks to her invulnerability, and most importantly, her cape represents a tangible link to her deceased family.
• Required Secondary Powers:
  • It comes up when Kara explains to the Heberts that she has some sort of "body aura", which is because she can lift massive objects without them collapsing.
    "Actually, getting there shouldn't be an issue. I'm not as fast as I could be, but I could easily carry Taylor to the mountains; it would only take a few minutes for me to run there. And there's no wild animal that could possibly hurt either of us while I'm there."
    Taylor paused and gawked at me, "I'm sorry. Can you run that by me again?"
    "Is that safe?" Danny added.
    I nodded, "Perfectly. I… well it's complicated. But if I'm touching something, it becomes more durable; it's why I'm able to lift things that would otherwise collapse under their own weight if I did, and why the ground doesn't give way under my feet when I do. As long as Taylor holds on tight, she won’t have to worry about a thing."
  • Later in that chapter Taylor asks how Kara can see anything while she runs at super-speed. Kara's answer? Super Reflexes.
    Taylor: H-holy shit! How do you see or do anything when you're moving that fast?
    Kara: Enhanced reflexes.
• Roofhopping: As accompanying Assault and Battery in their night patrol in "Orientation", Kara remembers how she and Barbara Gordon used to go roof-hopping across Gotham City.
  Ah, roof-hopping, one of the most common methods of transport I'd seen back home for heroes on a budget. Given that normally I could fly, I usually didn't do a lot of parkour myself, but I did have fond memories of rooftop races with Barbara Gordon in Gotham. Those nights often started serious, and ended in a sleepover with lots of sugar and popcorn and the resulting sugar hangover the next day.
• Seen It All: Upon ascertaining she has been dumped into an alternate universe where her family, friends and even herself are comic-book characters, Supergirl's reaction is a sarcastic, deadpan: "Those are always fun".
  "I kept flipping through the internet, and my suspicions were confirmed. I was in the United States, but I wasn't on Earth. Specifically, I wasn't on my Earth. I was no stranger to the multiverse, and it looked like someone or something had dragged me into another alternate Earth. One where the all the people I knew and cared about were just fictional characters. Those universes were always so much fun."
• Sensory Overload: It happens to Kara when her super-senses return right amidst of a fight. All of a sudden, she sees animated skeletons instead of people, the night sky is multi-colored, and she can hear every noise in the city. It's only thanks to long experience and training she can avoid to be overwhelmed.
• Small Steps Hero: Kara saves Taylor from her bullies to the surprise and bafflement of the staff and other people who don't get why a cape would bother with a case of high-school bullying. Some people even dismiss her as probably being "pretty low tier stuff if she's breaking into high schools to save kids from bullying", instead of considering Kara has world-breaking powers but she feels naturally inclined to help whoever needs her.
  Principal Blackwell: What would bring a cape here in the first place? While what happened was certainly unacceptable, it wouldn't require the assistance of a powered individual.
  Supergirl: Firstly, I have enhanced senses. I could hear her screaming for help three blocks away. And secondly, ma'am, it appears I was needed, because no one was bothering to help her, even the staff.
• The Stations of the Canon: Averted, which is uncommon for a Worm fic. Taylor is rescued from the locker before her trigger event, which changes the course of events.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Rapidfyrez nerfed Kara at the beginning of the story so she doesn't curbstomp all opposition at once, clarifying her power levels will increase quickly and gradually as she battles stronger enemies.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: PRT's fashion designer Arnold Adams intends to dissuade Supergirl from wearing a cape when she joins the Protectorate, but Kara replies she will wear a cape, and that's non-negotiable. After a thirty-minute-long argument, Arnold gives up.
  Supergirl: They look good Arnold, but where's the cape?
  Arnold Unofficial policy for the Brockton Bay ENE dress code; no capes.
  Supergirl: Okay, but I want— no, I need a cape with my costume.
  Arnold: They're impractical and can represent a danger to the wearer.
  Supergirl: Okay, but I want one, and I have super strength. If the cape doesn't break before I do, then I would agree. Also, I want a cape.
  Arnold: You already said that.
  Supergirl: Only because it's true.
  Arnold: You don't need a cape.[...]
  Supergirl: I won't budge on this; if you want to play this game Arnold, go for it, but I'm not walking out of this room without a cape.
• Superpower Lottery: Taylor Hebert very innocently asks Kara what are her powers, and gawks when the Kryptonian powerset is described to her.
  Taylor: I said… what're your classifications?
  Kara: That's a hard one. I haven't thought much about it, but… well, its an extensive list.
  Taylor: How extensive?
  Kara: Hmm. Well, lets see: Super-strength, super-speed, enhanced senses including microscoping, telescopic, electromagnetic, x-ray, infrared, and heat vision. I can fly, am invulnerable to most forms of damage, can process things far faster than any human thanks to my super-speed, can regulate my internal body temperature and raise it in excess of 2700 degrees fahrenheit, use super breath to create hurricane force winds or ice, and these all grow stronger the longer I am in sunlight. I draw my strength from the sun you see. Oh, and I can modulate the pitch and frequency of my voice to sound like anyone or speak at frequencies the human ear can't hear.
• Super-Senses: Supergirl's alien senses return all of sudden in the midst of a battle. All of sudden she's seeing through the clothes and skin of two crooks she's beating up, as thousands of colors flash through the formerly pitch-black night sky, and her ears are picking every sound in the city. And thanks to her super-hearing, Kara is able to find and rescue Taylor after hearing her pleas for help.
  No sooner had I started out of the alley, did I hear a distinct bang. Let me clarify, I heard many noises with my super-hearing. At its peak, it was possible for me to hear and process every sound on the planet, with time to concentrate of course. I had a very limited version of that at the moment, maybe a few blocks or miles at most, I wasn't sure. Even my ability to process information, I could tell was far slower than what I was used to.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Taylor is saved from her bullies right when she's reaching her breaking point. Although her psychological issues obviously aren't gone, and she doesn't get her new friend's cheerful disposition, she has been befriended by someone who fits with her idea of a hero, her father is now doing something about the bullying, and she's spending time away from her school and her tormentors. Because of all this, Taylor is feeling happier than she's been in a long, long time.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Victoria Dallon sees what she believes is a dealer peddling drugs and she attacks him right away rather than wait and assess the situation. It's only after crippling the man she finds out he's an undercover cop and she's just busted an operation of the local anti-narcotics brigade.
• Twitchy Eye:
  • PRT's fashion designer Arnold Adams develops an eye twitch when Supergirl states her costume must include a cape, and that's non-negotiable:
    "They look good Arnold, but… where's the cape?"
    Arnold's eye twitched and he readjusted his glasses, "Unofficial policy for the Brockton Bay ENE dress code; no capes."
  • Supergirl's eye twitches when her costume gets shredded by Hookwolf.
    I looked down at myself and my eye twitched. My shirt had been completely destroyed from the lower chest down; A few rags hung loosely in front of my stomach, but otherwise the shirt was completely ruined.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: Kara wakes up in a dumpster in the back of an alley. She doesn't remember how or why she ended up there, and her only clue are blurred recollections of cities burning and a massive battle.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: After being told her life's history is probably a fictional tale in another universe, Taylor wonders: "Dear god, what sick twisted person would want to read something that dark and depressing?"
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Kara is eighteen, but she talks like an experienced adult, and her advice is usually wiser and more insightful than what you expect from someone who has barely reached adulthood. Of course, losing your planet and almost everyone who you've cared for at the age of fifteen before being dumped into an alien world forces you to mature fast.
  Taylor: (whispering) "God that hurts."
  Kara: "Life isn't fair. But I've also found that if you have the will and keep pushing forward… it has a habit of coming back around. No one's problems fix themselves, but no problem is unsolvable. Just takes a little work."
  Taylor: "Are you sure you're eighteen?"
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Kara decides to mentor Victoria Dallon after the latter gets an undercover cop, whom she had mistaken for a regular drug dealer, badly hurt. When Victoria's mother tries to object, Kara retorts superhuman power must be used responsibly, and Vicky has obviously not been taught that.
  Kara: "At her heart, I think Glory Girl is a good person. She wants to help others however she can, which is absolutely the most important part of being a superhero. But what she did today was also inexcusable; the power we are burdened with is a tool, and just like any tool, it has to be wielded responsibly. Brockton Bay already has plenty of metahumans that don't. You might get angry at me for saying that about your daughter, but would you honestly be able to look her in the eye if she'd crippled or killed that man? Justice might be blind ma'am, but common sense isn't."
• Worf Had the Flu: When Kara arrives in Earth Bet, her solar energy reserves are depleted and she estimates it will take her several days in the sun to fully recharge. During this time, she exhausts herself saving the inhabitants of a burning building and immediately gets into a fight with Lung. Though she gets several good hits in, she runs out of energy and gets beaten up and knocked out cold.
• The World as Myth: Taylor is surprised to learn comic-book characters may be real after all. She's even more surprised when Kara explains that, since the Multiverse is infinite and the possibilities endless, Taylor herself is guaranteed to be a fictional character in other universes.
  Supergirl: "I am fictional to your world, but my world is very real. There are many possibilities in the multiverse, Taylor. Fiction and reality blur the lines when you travel between worlds. Yours is not the first world I've encountered where we existed as stories, and I guarantee there are worlds where the lives of your people are recorded and told as stories of their own."
• X-Ray Vision: Supergirl's power to see through solid objects accidentally activates as she's fighting two crooks. She's so surprised she believes momentarily they have suddenly transformed into two walking skeletons.
  The only reason they pulled this off, was because I was distracted by the fact that they'd both morphed into skeletal monsters.
  Wait, that wasn't right.
  I blinked as the knives shattered harmlessly against my skin, and grabbed both 'skeletons' by their wrists, and carefully pulled them off me until they were both yelping in surprise and pain. When I saw my own hands, that confirmed it; my x-ray vision had finally started working again.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Kara's as strong as hot-headed, she can't stand bullies at all, and has been known to hurl trucks at Nazis. She may be the most kind-hearted person in the setting, but get her pissed off and she'll curbstomp you.

The remake contains the following tropes:

• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Kara is stunned to see the nihilism and depression that grips Earth Bet.
• Curbstomp Battle: Kara not only puts Lung down hard, but she also manages to shut down ABB pretty much overnight.
• Experienced Protagonist: Kara is already a well-established superhero, with the skill and power that entails when she ends up on Earth Bet. This causes a bit of confusion for many others since despite having clearly lots of experience, she is only very recently (from the perspective of Brockton Bay) making her debut.
• Malicious Slander: Coil knows he can't win a physical confrontation with Supergirl. He uses his media connections to slander her as a troublemaking outsider.
• Outside-Context Problem: The people of Brockton Bay, both heroes, and criminals have never encountered someone with Kara's vast power set before. Coil angrily muses that Supergirl could easily upend everything he's worked toward.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Kaiser angrily notes Brad has the mental faculties of an immature child and whose only contribution is physical might.
• Underestimating Badassery: Quite a few villains dismiss Kara as a naive and lucky child who is in over her head.
• Unstoppable Rage: Kara goes into a violent rage when she sees the victims of Lung's human trafficking operation. Some of them children.

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