As the sun sets over the waters west of Bermuda, a solitary figure in a fantastic red and blue costume can be seen flying northward at a little better than Mach 1 - about 800 miles and hour. Suprema, named after the stylistic "S" emblazoned on her chest and cape and her genetic heritage, is a young Velorian girl named Cai Trin, recently designated a "Planetary Protector" for Earth who accidentally slipped sideways through time and space to an alternate universe.

Suprema had flown to Haiti a few days ago to help victims of a volcano.  Instead, she was captured by a voodoo priest and barely survived becoming a zombie. Frere Patrice, the priest, turned out to be sympathetic to her situation and used arcane magicks to re-energize the woman. In addition to re-energizing Suprema, his magicks also increased her size and apparent age from that of a 5' 6" fifteen year old to that of a 5' 9" twenty year old with a to-die-for 38D-26-36 figure.

Unfortunately, Arions pursued the Protector to Haiti and almost defeated her there. As she fled the island, the Arions' ship did some damage to the girl's body, then lost consciousness when it exploded beside her. She awoke on a mystical island, Themyscira, where she was at first helped by Warrior Maidens on the island. When the Arions, led by Mar-vel, a sadistic leader of the Arion invasion force, arrived on the island, they forced the Warrior Maidens to surrender the Protector. As the exhausted heroine was taken from the island on an old human airplane, it exploded and she sank into the icy
waters off Bermuda. After surfacing, she saw that the Arions were no longer in the vicinity. She also saw, sadly, no sign of the magical gateway back to Themyscira. She searched for the gateway for a few minutes, then reluctantly turned back toward the north and began flying *home*.

"I remember something in a class . . . Humans have something called, uh, radar? Yeah, that's it," she says to herself as she roars northward, maybe 30 feet above the wave tops. "Maybe that's how the Arions found me. I don't see any of their ships overhead, so that MUST be it! If I go slower and
lower," she decides, slowing to about 750 mph and dropping down to 20 feet above the wave tops, "maybe that radar thing won't spot me!" Suprema scans both sides, modulating her vision, looking for signs of *radar*. Her super vision eventually detects some waves that might be radar - since they're
passing well overhead, she concludes, she will stay at this height and speed. "The Arions can't chase what they can't see," she says to herself proudly.

As the young woman, the young super heroine, soars northward toward New York City, called New Danzig by the Nazis ruling the eastern half of the U.S. on this world, she decides to recharge some of her energy. Suprema arches her back until the upper half of her body is bent upward almost vertically. As she races through the air, hair and cape streaming behind her, Suprema pulls down the blue leotard-like top of her costume, until the neckline is below her breasts. As air molecules batter her tanned flesh, friction begins to spread heat through her breasts, adding energy to these unique energy storage units common to all Protectors. "MMnnnn!" she sighs as her breasts tingle and begin to glow from the heat and energy, "I REALLY need this!"

"You've got the Protector in sight!" roars Du-kem, leader of the Arion forces in the Sol system. Striding across the bridge of the colony ship hovering on the far side of the moon, Du-kem quickly reaches the Beta technician who has been so successful at using Terran satellites to track the Velorian.
 
"Very slight signature, Lord," the trembling Beta says over her shoulder.  "The Protector is moving fairly slowly and if flying just above the water, making her hard to spot. Something on her is heating up, though, something we can't identify with spectrum analysis. Maybe her costume?"

"Are you going to bore me with technical details?"

"Oh, no, Lord! I merely point out she is hard to track. But I am tracking her. At her current speed, it should take her two hours to get to New Danzig. She seems to be heading directly toward that city."

"Any word on Mar-vel?" Du-kem asks the Watch Commander beside him.

"First Officer Mar-vel should reach Kingston, Jamaica in about an hour, Du-kem. We have a shuttle waiting for her. What would you like me to do about the Velorian? Shall I contact Kar-lem? He should still be in his office in New Danzig, Lord."

"No, I think we'll leave the Gauleitier of New Danzig alone for a while.  ENGINEER!" Du-kem screams at one of the bridge officers, "how is work coming on the interceptors?"

With the sudden appearance of a Protector, Du-kem knew his forces were woefully unprepared for a super being no one had seen for 300 years. He contacted Aria for reinforcements and launched his technicians on a quest for weapons and vehicles to help defeat the Protector. Buried in the holds
of the three colony ships were a dozen *interceptors* - old ships designed to fight with missiles and tachyon beams in the darkness of space.

"Lord Du-kem," the Beta Engineer replies meekly, "we've gotten one Hawk interceptor almost ready on CS-1130." (another of the colony ships) "We don't have the skills or . . . "

"Enough whining, I realize you're working at a disadvantage here, Engineer.  Launch the ship when it's finished. From now on, I want it in orbit over the northern pole of Terra, ready to pursue the woman when she flies next.  As more are made ready, you can rotate the duty.

"Watch Commander, inform Kar-lem and that Beta *cop* of his that their prey is returning. Inform Mar-vel she is ordered to return here before going after the Protector." Finished, Du-kem turns and strides off the ship as his subordinates fall to their taskings.

Several hours after the cold winter sun has set, Suprema slows on final approach to New Danzig, her super vision scanning the air around and above for Arions or Nazis. She covers her breasts with her costume and slows to under a 100 mph as she passes a wide flat island with a flat-topped building on it and signs that some large object had been removed. As she flies over the main island, her speed drops considerably and she begins searching for the apartment of two humans who befriended her. A smile
crosses the tired woman's face when she spots the apartment building with her super vision. In a moment, her shiny red boots sink into the two inches of new snow on the building's roof.

After carefully scanning the building, Suprema enters and moves down rickety old stairs to the temporary apartment of Kevin and Moira Conroy, two members of the underground rebel force calling itself the American Republican Army. Just as Suprema is about to open the door, she recalls a previous trap sprung on her by the Nazi Gestapo and pauses. A quick look through the wooden door with her super vision shows her friends, plus two adults and three children sitting around the living room.  Suprema pulls her cape tighter around her shoulders, as if trying to mask her super costume, then taps lightly on the door. Suprema breathes a sigh of relief when she sees Moira rise to answer the door.

"Cai -CAI? Is that you, darlin'? What's happened to you!?" the thin, forty-something woman with mousy brown hair says after opening the door about two inches. When she last saw Cai Trin, the Protector was smaller, thinner and younger looking. On this paranoid planet, Moira acts like a good host and her body blocks the door partially so no one inside or outside the room can see to the other side. No one but a Velorian with super vision, that is.

"I'm all right, Moira," Suprema says, unaware that her exhaustion is readily apparent in her face and eyes. "Can I come in for a while?"

"You wait here, darlin'," Moira says, "I don't want EVERYONE to see you and your pretty costume. Back in a moment, lass!" A minute later, Moira again opens the door a crack and hands a large brown blanket out to the Protector. After Suprema covers herself with the blanket, hiding her most of her Protector costume, Moira lets the girl into the apartment.

"Cai!" Kevin shouts a warm greeting as the blond-haired woman enters the apartment. Moira quickly puts her arm around Suprema's shoulder, holding the blanket close to the girl's body.

"Hush, now, Kevin!" Moira scolds her husband, "the poor girl is drenched from the snow. Let me get some dry things on her and I'll properly introduce you to her! Come into the bedroom in a bit, Kevin, and lend a hand?"

A few minutes later, Kevin walks into the bedroom and comes to a shattering halt, gasping. Suprema stands at the foot of the bed and has removed her red skirt, blue leotard-like top, and red cape. The young Protector, wearing only her shiny red boots and a ragged smile, is calmly running a towel through her hair. Her elbows are raised and out to the sides of her body and her small, taut breasts are aimed right at the man.

"Close your mouth, now, Kevin!" Moira says sternly, "even if you don't embarrass Cai with your staring, you're making me feel uncomfortable!  Perhaps I should leave the room for you two to get reacquainted?" Moira says, teasing her husband.

"Ohh!" Cai gasps, "d-don't do that! I'll put something on! I just don't usually think anything about other people seeing my body."

"Well, there's a mint to be made there . . ."

"Kevin!"

Suprema partially covers her breasts and most of her stomach with the towel and looks at Moira for guidance. On Velor, a naked and beautiful body is something to be shared, not hidden away. She still has a lot to learn about life and culture on this strange planet.

Moira moves toward the young girl and again puts an arm around her shoulders to comfort her and make her feel welcome. "Don't concern yourself, macushla," Moira says. "You're not coming between us - we always have our little fights. Now, Kevin, Cai, if we are to introduce you to our other guests, I think we should have a more *American* name for you. What do you think? Kevin, do you have any ideas?"

"Well, in fact, I do!" he says, puffing out his chest. "Her name - Cai Trin. If you say it fast enough, it sounds like Kaitrin or Kathryn!"

"Yes, you're right!" Moira says, "and it's a lovely name for her. Now what about a family name?"

"Well, *Smith* and *Jones* would just attract the attention of the Gestapo," Kevin observes. Moira helps Caitrin/Kathryn pull on an old green woolen skirt - on Kathryn it reaches down below her knees and is tight around her waist. Then Kathryn drops the damp towel and s-l-o-w-l-y dons one of Kevin's red plaid work shirts. Holding one side with her left hand, her right arm reaches behind her back and stretches to slide into the right sleeve. Her breasts, much smaller than normal, seem to be made of some other-worldly substance - no sag, no jiggle, just - there! Next she repeats the stretching and twisting, moving her left arm backward and into the other sleeve. Finally, to Kevin's disappointment, she buttons the shirt and ties the long end together around and above the skirt's waistline. The shirt is too tight across her shoulders and WAY too loose in the waist. She picks up her costume and folds it several times, then compresses the Velorian fabric, again and again, until the costume is the size of a men's handkerchief. She slips her uniform into one of the shirt's pockets.

"Mmm, I don't mean to seem rude," Kevin says tentatively, "but are your breasts getting smaller . . ."

"KEVIN GILHOOLY CONROY!"

"No, it's all right, Moira," Cai says, raising a palm toward the older woman, "he's right. I'll tell both of you about it later. Let's get back out to your guests, before they get suspicious."

"Well, if your mind is back on business, MISTER CONROY!" Moira says, playfully poking her husband's ribs, "we need a last name for Cai - Kathryn. And I agree, we shouldn't name her after the patron saints of hotels and love trysts. We also can't give her our name, more's the pity . . ."

"Ohh, THANK you!" Kathryn says, leaping over the bed to hug Moira, "I'd love to share your name!"

"But you can't, darlin'" Kevin says, "Moira's right - you don't look Irish.  We need a neutral, American or Scandinavian name - Wilson or Fairley or something."

"Mmm, how about *Fair-child*?" Kathryn says, recalling the name of the woman who would have been her tutor if she had landed on the right planet.

"That's lovely! Kathryn Fairchild it is!" Moira beams, happy to at last see a smile on the girl's face - she looked really ragged, standing in the dark hallway, snow on her hair and shoulders, her blond hair hanging down in clotted wet strips.

"Now, what's your background going to be?" Kevin asks. "With that tan, you're not a native New Yorker - New Danziger. At least, not in December!"

"Let's just say she came here from the south," Moira suggests. Her Catholic upbringing has left the woman with a strong inhibition against lying, and in her mind, she's not lying. Suprema just DID fly up from the Caribbean!

"That'll do fine!" Kevin pronounces.

"Let's get back to the others!" Moira says. "And Kathryn, let us do most of the talking. We'll give you enough information in time, but tonight, just look pretty and say as little as possible, *Kathryn*."

"Okay, but who ARE those people?"

"Ohh, but they're refugees, too!"

After the Germans occupied the eastern half of the U.S. in the '40s and renamed it Westland, and the Japanese conquered the western part, renaming it Lotus Blossom Land, each began their own policy for administering their conquests. The Germans replaced the state and local governments with their
own system of nine *states*, including the so-called free cities of New Danzig and Heimstadt (formerly, Chicago), each headed by a Gauleiter. Eight of these officials are humans, the last is an Arion Prime named Kar-lem who calls himself Karl Messner. Almost everyone in authority in Westland is German, but there are about 100 Arions, both Primes and Betas, in a few key command or advisory positions around Westland - in government, the secret police (Gestapo), the military, and commerce. A handful of Italians also serve in key positions, on loan to the Third Reich.

Messner/Kar-lem is the chief administrative officer for New Danzig, a new German city-state covering New York City, Long Island, and neighboring suburbs. As Messner he's subordinate to Germany's Reich's Ministry for Occupied Territories, while as Kar-lem he's responsible to Du-kem, the Arion Commander.

Germany has not been merciful in all of the conquered territories. Vast stretches of land were given to military and Nazi Party elites as their *rewards* after the war. Other tracts were consolidated under large commercial firms as agro businesses. People in the German-occupied areas soon learned about Nazi theories of *racial superiority*. Most of the Slavic peoples of Poland, eastern Europe, and European Russia were killed in the decades after the war, as were almost all Jews in Europe and most in America. Asians and Hispanics were deported to the west or south. The remaining populations were divided into two classes - most Blacks were moved to southern states and assigned to work on the huge agro-businesses, while a small number were given menial jobs in the north (and placed in
ghettos). To the Germans, Blacks were Untermensch - less than human. Most of the whites were generally ground down over the years by identity cards, taxes, travel restrictions, restrictions on what kinds of work they could do and of course, what religions could be observed. After fifty years, now
most Americans (except for a few who cooperated willingly with the Nazis) are a vast lower-income class, eking out a marginal existence performing work assigned to them by the Germans.

The Arions more or less ignored the Germans' treatment of others as irrelevant to immediate Arion needs and good for their long term goals of dominating the planet. As long as the German military and secret police keep the Americans submissive, the Arions allow the Nazis to rule as they wish. In a few instances, such as mining for minerals needed by the Arion colony on the moon, or scientific research, Arions either make the decisions or influence the decision makers.

"Arbeit Macht Frei! - Work Is Freedom!" the Ministry of Propaganda told people in the occupied lands. "Do the job we assign to you, obey the German soldiers and administrators and police, or else!" is what they meant. As more people *disappeared* each year, for one infraction or another, others
buckled under the Nazi's jackboots. And each year, a few people would disappear and try to make their way out of German-occupied territory, to Central or South America, or even to Lotus Blossom Land. Refugees. People without papers and identity cards, or with the wrong ones, or who had been
troublesome for the authorities.

And now, Cai Trin, Suprema, mighty Velorian Protector for Earth, who has no identity cards, travel permits, or a job that supports Greater Germany, must find a way to survive on this planet. She can't ALWAYS be Suprema.  Even a Protector needs some down time, some time to recharge and recover
from battle. She needs a secret identity. As Kathryn Fairchild, the young heroine needs to establish such an identity in case she's asked to show her papers by a cop or soldier or (God forbid) a Gestapo officer.

"Cai, meet Jerry and Pat King from Colbergstadt <Boston>, and their children John and Libby. And this young man," Moira says, pointing to a teenager off by himself, "is Peter Barlow, from outside Neuhafen <New Haven, CT>. Folks, this is Kathryn Fairchild. She's been with us a few days. Came here from the south. I wish I had her tan!"

As Kathryn finds and sits in a clear space on the floor, between the children and the adults, she scans the adults' bodies. You're not paranoid when *they* really ARE out to get you, on this planet! Satisfied that the Kings are human, Kathryn turns toward Peter. "Where are your parents?" she asks, smiling at the lad. He looks like he's older than fifteen, but still in his teens, has dark brown hair, and is just now starting to get chin stubble.

Peter looks at his lap and as a frown quickly passes across his face, he says, "I don't know. When I got back from school, I saw a really big German car pulling away from the curb. My parents were not in the house when I went in. Mr. Henry, our neighbor, told me to get in touch with someone in Neuhafen and they sent me here."

"I've been running from those Nazis since I . . . uh, had a fight with some," Kathryn says, stretching her left leg before putting it under her butt.

"You gots red boots!" says Libby, a precocious six year old, pointing at Kathryn's boots. When she put on the Conroys' clothes, she forgot to remove her Suprema costume's boots. "Are you one of Santa's helpers?"

"Who?"

"Ah, Kathryn, don't tease the girl," Moira says, trying to cover up Kathryn's mistake. "Kathryn doesn't work for Santa Claus, but she WAS a cowgirl! Those are her cowgirl boots!"

For the next hour or so, the people talk about politics, about travel conditions, and the usual odds and ends topics that arise when strangers are thrown together. Most of the time, Kathryn just smiles and nods, offering very little information. She has fun playing with John and Libby while the adults talk to each other.

However, Libby asks many questions that Kathryn doesn't understand or can't easily answer because she doesn't understand the child's cultural references. What in the nine moons is a *cattle drive*? Finally, Moira moves over, sits beside Kathryn and joins *the kids*, quickly taking all of Libby's attention away from the Velorian. Throughout Libby's questions, Peter quietly casts furtive glances at Kathryn, as if he's studying the attractive young blonde. Or experiencing a BAD case of puppy love. He asks a few questions about her schooling and so forth, but her answers are evasive and eventually he grows silent. Soon he just sits and listens to the adults' conversation. Around ten p.m., Kevin calls a halt to the evening to organize the sleeping arrangements in the one-bedroom flat.

Moira slips into the bedroom for a few moments to get sleeping clothes for her, Kevin and Kathryn. Then the Kings take the room - John and Libby have been sleeping there for two hours. The Conyers pile blankets in heaps on the floor of the living room, carefully putting Peter as far from Kathryn
as possible.

Some time after everyone has crawled under covers, Kathryn goes into the bathroom. After closing the door, she pulls her costume from her shirt pocket, uncompresses it, and puts it on under her *civvies*. She doesn't really need to sleep and she has to find a way to get some energy - maybe she can find the power facility the rebels mentioned a few days earlier!  After donning her costume, she puts the shirt and skirt on over the red and blue outfit and tiptoes out of the bathroom toward the front door.

The Velorian slips quietly out of the flat, closing the door silently behind her. She quickly rushes up the steps to the roof. There's still a light snow falling over the city and everything is deathly quiet. In the
distance, she can hear tires crunching on packed snow.

"Doesn't this place EVER see the sun?" she asks herself, looking upward. "Maybe I can find that *power plant* thing the old man talked about. He said it had lots of electricity - maybe enough to help me," she continues, looking down at her breasts. Combat and gold poisoning on Themyscira drained the energy stored in her breasts, reducing their size from 38D to 36B - still impressive, but an indication that she's much weaker than she should be.

"If I have to fight a Prime now," she realizes, "I'd better finish it quickly - at least until I can get back to full strength!" Moving away from the edge of the roof to the lee of the small structure housing the
staircase, she slowly removes her skirt and shirt, once again revealing her red and blue Suprema costume. After carefully folding the clothes and stashing them inside the stairway structure, Suprema takes a few steps toward the edge of the roof and leaps into the cold night sky, slowly rising away from the roof.

A few minutes later, after finding and scanning the area around a large centrally-located parkland, Suprema decides that the new complex on the north side must be the *power plant*. The complex has several tall metal towers, laced with massive cables snaking off toward different sections of the city. The complex is surrounded by a tall metal fence and is subdivided into several sections, separated from each other by more fences. A few lonely guards patrol the grounds inside each segment, hunched over against the cold.

Suprema slowly and carefully lands atop one of the tall metal towers, her boots briefly slipping on the icy metal crosspieces. "I hope this works like the teachers said it would!" she muses as she aims her heat vision at one of the massive power cables. Two quick bursts melt away the shielding around the underside of one cable where the cable, just over her head, connects with the tower. Suprema reaches upward and places one hand on each of the exposed metal sections.

"nnnnnGGGGGHHHH!! AAAAAAIIIIIIEEEE!!" she suddenly screams as thousands of volts of electricity short circuit from the cable into her body. Her blond hair billows out from her head and feet lift off the tower as her body bucks and bounces, her hands tightly gripping the cable. As more and more energy flows into Suprema's left hand, courses through her body, and exits through her right hand, she has trouble maintaining consciousness. Her body shakes like a rag doll in a dog's mouth and sparks shoot from the cable and her body, lighting up the night sky. Bits of the cable melt and ooze down her arms.

As her alien body accommodates the influx of energy and stores some of it in her breasts, the initial pain and shock fades and her eyes clear a bit. "YYEESSSS!" she hisses through clenched teeth, "this feels soooo goooood!"

Gefreiter Horst Kerber, patrolling inside the plant grounds, half asleep and bitterly cold from his tour of duty, snaps totally awake when he hears an explosive *POP*, a sizzling sound, and unearthly screams above his head.  Looking up, peering intently through the light snowfall, Kerber can barely discern . . . "Himmel! There is a WOMAN hanging off the power line!" he gasps. The private pulls his Mauser rifle off his shoulder and chambers a round. (German Army SOP: if you don't understand something, kill it immediately)

"Was ist?" the duty officer says, still donning his coat as he rushes up to Kerber. "What's going on out here, Private?" he asks, pulling out his pistol.

"Th-there," the man says, pointing upward, "a - a woman! Hanging off one of the power lines!"

"If you've been drinking schnapps on duty . . ." the leutnant says, looking upward. "Mein Gott! You're right!" As half a dozen other soldiers rush from the guard room, struggling to close their grey overcoats or put on gloves, the lieutenant orders his men, "Hans, go get some rope from the Engineer station. Kerber, call the Gestapo and the police, then get a medical team out here! Schnell! The rest of you - spread out, get your weapons ready.  Unteroffizier, take two men and secure the perimeter in case this is just some clever diversion of the terrorists."

As two men rush off, Leutnant Schmidt sends two men scrambling up the skeletal framework of the utility tower. "See if you can knock her off the wires! BE CAREFUL! Do not touch her, scheisskopf! Use your rifle. DON'T HOLD THE RIFLE BY THE METAL BARREL, dumkopf!" he yells as one soldier, just below Suprema, stretches the butt end of his Mauser toward the woman while holding on to the metal barrel. "Get closer you fool, and hold your weapon by the wooden stock! Idiot!"

One of the soldiers reaches a part of the tower just a few feet from Suprema and pauses, admiring the woman's finely shaped legs and her magnificent bust. As she flops and bucks, he occasionally gets a look up her short red skirt. The girl's eyes are half-closed and she's moaning steadily now. How can she DO this, the man wonders. "She's ALIVE, leutnant!  How can this be?" he yells to his officer.

Suddenly, a convulsion causes one of Suprema's legs to snap out and connects the side of her boot with the soldier's chest. There is a brief and spectacular explosion of sparks and the man's body flies backward, falling off the tower. Soldiers rush to his body when it hits the ground a few yards from the tower, then recoil in shock. There's a large burn area on the man's chest - his greatcoat has a large black circle on the front where the coat is burning and wisps of smoke rise from his chest. They
quickly confirm that the man is dead.

"SHOOT HER!" the lieutenant orders, hoping to spare his men from harm. As one, the half dozen soldiers fire their rifles and one machine pistol at Suprema, hammering her body with small arms fire. Absolutely no effect.  Suprema still bucks and bounces as she dangles from the cable, oblivious to
their fire. "I know we hit her!" the confused officer says, lowering his pistol.

Hans returns with a thick manila hemp rope. One end of the rope is quickly tied into a bowser or large knot. He scrambles up the tower and, as another man holds his waist, Hans swings the rope and hits the middle of Suprema's back with the clump of rope. No effect, she just swings in a new direction
now. Changing his swing, Hans brings the rope around in a mighty sweeping circle and on its downward stroke, the knotted end of the rope hammers Suprema's right shoulder with a loud  *THUD*. This time, the impact knocks her hands away from the cable and her body falls toward the men below, landing in a crumpled heap in the snow.

As the Wehrmacht soldiers cluster around the woman, weapons ready, they marvel at the sight of a busty young girl, lying on her side, skirt baring one butt cheek. Smoke tendrils drift upward from her hands and breast and crotch. Her eyes are half-closed and she moans lightly, shuddering occasionally, as if she's dreaming about sex. Oddly, a few men note the faint scent of . . . of wild flowers and honey in the air!

"Leutnant, how is this possible?" one young soldier asks. "We shot her, she electrocuted herself, but she still lives! And she killed Fritz with one touch!"

"I don't know, gefreiter," the officer replies, watching the woman for any signs that she might attack them. "Must be some new experiment . . ."

"Leutnant!" one man says, "maybe this is that terrorist - the one who stole our scientific breakthroughs - it was in the news a few days ago!"

"Ja! Richtig!" the officer says, slapping a palm against one thigh, "you're exactly right - red and blue costume, blond hair, this is the terrorist leader the Gestapo wants! You two, tie her up!" he says, pointing at the rope and the Velorian. Quickly but CAREFULLY, the two men use their rifles
to prod the woman, first one way, then another, so they can pass the rope under her body. Then one man accidentally touches her elbow. When he survives, the others become bolder and suddenly everyone pitches in to tie up the attractive *terrorist leader*.

As Suprema recovers from the powerful shock of absorbing so much energy so quickly, she slowly becomes aware of her situation. She can feel hands pawing her body, pushing in her breasts, feeling her legs, her crotch.  Suddenly she feels herself being hoisted off the ground. Opening her eyes,
Suprema sees that she is hanging suspended between four soldiers, the half-inch rope wrapped several times around her body, pinning her legs and arms.

"Nnngh," she grunts, "t-time to leave." To the amazement of the soldiers, Suprema casually snaps her arms away from her body, breaking the rope into several segments. She falls to the ground, her feet still held by two of the soldaten. Even as they drop the rope and grab their rifles, letting her legs fall to the ground, Suprema spreads her legs and effortlessly snaps the rope segments around them.

"Halt! Don't move, or we shoot!" the lieutenant says in gutteral English.  Instantly, half a dozen weapons aim at the Velorian as she struggles to rise to a sitting position in the snow. "The Gestapo has a few questions for you, Fraulein" he says, smirking and waving his Luger at the girl.  "Men, if she gets up, shoot her!"

Suprema smiles at the men, then slowly rises to her feet. Her head still swims from the energy charging, but she's confident that these men can't stop her. As she gets on one knee, she's suddenly knocked over by a fusillade of bullets. The bullets dimple her stomach and breasts as she lies on her side, feeling like a child's fingers playing a drum solo on her body. Again, Suprema smiles at the soldiers and begins to rise, even as over half a dozen weapons continue to pour a murderous fire at her, now hitting her face as well as her torso. Two men drop and scream as ricochets carom off her invulnerable body and hit their legs.

Scared, the men begin to back away from Suprema as she slowly stands and dusts snow off her legs and costume, oblivious to the lead rain pounding her body. Noting that her breasts have swollen out remarkably, Suprema smiles at the soldiers, then casually leaps into the air and flies upward, carefully avoiding the power lines.

The gunfire fades quickly as the mysterious woman leaps upward - and doesn't fall! The men gaze in amazement, wondering if this has been a dream or hallucination. Then they notice their dead friend and realize this was all too real. Sirens wail as security forces reach the compound, enter, and approach the guard force.

As Suprema flies back toward the tenement, she looks back at the power station with her super vision. The soldiers huddle around four men in long black leather trench coats, waving their arms and making firing motions, obviously describing what happened. Suprema gasps when she sees the soldiers suddenly gunned down by the men in black. "Those guys in black!" she says, circling back toward the plant. "I wonder . . .?"

As Suprema flies silently over the power plant, she notes that the entire force of men who had been around the base of the tower are dead. Scanning the men in black with her super vision, she quickly discerns that they are Arion Betas, and one Prime. Suddenly she notices that the Prime is the same
one she battled in the Reichsbank almost a week ago! When the man looks upward and suddenly focuses his own super vision on her, Suprema feels her body warming slightly. "He's trying to burn me with his heat vision!" she says, lauging. She smiles at the man, amused that he would think something
like that would bring down a Protector.

"I know who he is, he knows who I am, and we both know he can't touch me from the ground," she gloats. She blows him a kiss, then flexes her legs and shoots off into the night, flying westward toward open country. "I don't want his super vision following me back to the Conyers!" she thinks, and accelerates to several hundred miles an hour.

Several minutes later, somewhere over the Pocono Mountains, Suprema drops to the ground. "I'll wait here a few minutes," she decides, "let him get bored, then I'll go home." An hour later, Suprema leaps into the air, circles around the city, and returns to it from the east, flying close to the ground. When she reaches the small four-story building on the north side of the city she drops quietly onto the roof, feeling refreshed and energized by her little brush with danger.

As she walks toward the door leading into the building, the wooden door suddenly flies open, startling the girl. Standing in the doorway, holding her skirt and shirt, Peter Barlow smiles and asks, "Did you forget these?"

Suprema mumbles a quick reply, "Ah, hmm, y-yes, those are my clothes, Peter. May I have them back?" She approaches the teen, smiling at him, then suddenly decides to scan his body. A quick look with her super vision reveals that his cell structure is that of a normal human boy, so she slowly unclenches her fist.

"Did you follow me up to the roof, Peter?" she asks, stopping within a foot of the boy. He's still blocking the doorway, and Suprema notices that he stands at least an inch taller than her. When she and Peter had talked earlier in the evening, she had learned that he was on his high school wrestling team. He's just wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans now. Suprema suddenly notices the muscles on his young body and a warm glow washes over her.

"Yeah," he says, "I saw you leave the flat. I got up and opened the front door and saw you heading upstairs instead of down. Thought maybe you just wanted some fresh air. By the time I got my clothes and shoes on and got up here, you had vanished. I almost thought that maybe you went back downstairs and I missed you. THAT," he says, pointing at footsteps in the snow, "made me stay up here." Suprema suddenly notices there are a few of her widely-spaced fresh footprints in the snow, marching across the roof as if she ran toward the edge of the roof, then . . . nothing - no footsteps
coming back from the edge.

"Weren't you concerned that I might have just jumped over the edge?" she asks, reaching a hand toward her clothes. When he puts them behind his back, she suddenly gets a little angry at the boy. "May I PLEASE have my clothes, Peter?"

"Not till you tell me who you are," he replies, buoyed by the dumb confidence of youth. "I had the door opened just enough to see, Kathryn - you can FLY! I saw you land - RIGHT THERE!" he says, pointing. "Do the Conyers know about you? What else can you do? Are you a witch or something?"

"If you give me my clothes," she says insistently, not willing to hurt the boy but anxious to get her clothes on and get off the roof, "we can go inside where it's warmer and we can talk. Okay?"

Slowly, Peter's hand comes around to his front and he hands the old clothes to Suprema. In a second, she's back in the clothes, only her red boots showing below the skirt's mid-calf high hem. Tentatively placing her hand on Barlow's elbow, Kathryn turns him and together they walk down the short flight of stairs to the top floor of the tenement. Suprema stops and pulls Peter down to sit beside her on one of the bottom steps. For the next thirty minutes, through a barrage of questions from the youth, Suprema explains to him about Velorians, Arions, and her arrival here. She also briefly describes her super powers to him.

"Wow," he says at the end, turning to look at this super girl beside him, "whodah thought! Uh, can - can you do anything to help my parents?" His voice trails off and chokes on *parents*.

Kathryn looks sadly at the boy. "I don't know, Peter," she says, putting one hand on his thigh, "but if we can find out where they're being held, maybe . . ."

"I just want my parents back," he says, starting to cry, "I don't know what to do anymore, where to go . . . Just one <sob> adult after another telling me - go here, <snif> do this, don't do that . . . I wanna go back to the <sob> way it was!"

"I know what you mean," Suprema says, leaning forward and wrapping one arm around the boy's shoulders. Her touch suddenly releases a torrent of emotions within him and he leans into her shoulder, putting one hand on her thigh, the other around her waist. He cries uncontrollably onto her
shoulder, quickly soaking her shirt with his tears.

Several minutes later, after the boy has *cried himself out*, Suprema places one finger under his chin and lifts his face off her shoulder.  Looking into his puffy eyes, she vows, "in the morning, we'll see what we can do about finding your mom and pop, okay?"

Then next day, after a spartan breakfast, Kevin and the Kings head off to find some credentials so they can travel west to Lotus Blossom Land. As Kathryn and Moira linger over a cup of weak hazelnut coffee, Peter walks into the kitchen and sits beside them. He looks at Kathryn, smiles
slightly, and asks, "Did you talk with them?"

"About what, lad?" Moira asks.

"Uh, well, he knows about me - ALL about me. He saw me fly last night," Kathryn says sheepishly. Moira glares at the heroine for a moment, worried about telling something that important to this stranger. After a short pause, Kathryn goes on to explain Peter's request for help in finding his
parents. "Is there anything you can think of that might help get his parents back?"

When Moira recovers from her shock, she puts one hand on Kathryn's and one on Peter's. "Perhaps we can, darlin'!" she replies enthusiastically. "We can get in touch with the Neuhafen people and see if they know where they're being held. Maybe then you can fly in to help them escape."

"Help them escape?" she asks. "Hmm, will I have to kill any humans?"

"Well, honey, I can't say. The German police will try to stop you, especially the Gestapo. There may be some Betas among them. Then too, you'll have to protect Peter's parents until you can get them safely away from the authorities, and if I know the Germans, his parents might not be in the best shape to run, or even walk, for that matter." Moira hates to say that and can see the pain and fear on the boy's face, but she wants to be honest with both of them.

"Well, I met some of their police or whatever last night and they couldn't stop me!" she says, raising her head proudly. When Moira presses her for details, Kathryn proudly tells the older woman about the *raid* on the power station. She becomes somber when she describes how the Arions killed
the men in gray overcoats.

"Dear lord," Moira gasps, hand covering her mouth. "And all the soldiers were killed? I thought you said the Betas were working with the Germans?"

"Well, the Germans are working with Betas and Primes both, Moira. I guess the soldiers were killed either because they saw me using my powers and the Arions don't want people to know about me, or maybe because the soldiers were unable to stop me. The Arions are VERY efficient and don't normally tolerate anything unusual - like me. They also don't like failure. So they might just have been angry at the soldiers not holding me until they arrived," Kathryn says, shrugging her shoulders. "One of the men in black was the Prime who fought me after you guys left the bank."

"The one who hurt you and briefly captured you?" the older woman says, raising a hand to cover her mouth. "I'm glad you didn't go back to fight him!

"Well, those Arions are real bastards then, aren't they," Moira says. Turning toward Peter, who's fighting back tears, Moira pats his hand and says, "Don't you worry now, Peter. When Kevin gets home tonight, we'll talk with him about rescuing your parents, all right? Meanwhile, Cai - oops, I
mean, Kathryn . . ."

"I know, I'm starting to get confused now, too," Kathryn says, smiling. "How about if you call me Suprema when I'm in my uniform, and Kathryn or Cai when I'm not. You too, Peter."

"Done!" Moira says, slapping the back of Kathryn's hand. "Now, I think that you and I should go out and get you some proper clothes of your own!" she says, smiling at Kathryn. "You're welcome to join us, Peter, but I should warn you that two women shopping for clothes is the tenth level of hell to
a real man like you!"

Laughing at her Irish bullshit, Peter smiles and says, "I guess I can go for a walk or something. Maybe I can meet you someplace for lunch?"

As the trio prepares to leave the apartment a short while later, they make plans to meet at the neighborhood pub for lunch. They might even run into Kevin there, with any luck!

Two days later, aboard the CS-1120, the Command Ship for the Arion force in the Sol system.

Over a dozen Primes and Betas are jammed into a large conference room, either at the conference table or in chairs lining the walls. A very animated Du-kem strides back and forth at the front of the room, haranguing the Primes and Betas in the room. The section chiefs and several people brought up from the planet surface stare directly ahead, trying to avoid drawing his wrath down upon their heads.

Du-kem expresses his extreme anger and utter contempt at their ability to track down and capture one young Protector. His First Officer (and sometime bed mate), Mar-vel, reddens under his scathing criticism of her hasty and poorly executed pursuit of Suprema, one that resulted in the death or
disappearance of two Primes and three Betas, plus a valuable assault landing craft.

His staff is chewed out for not developing weapons and sensors to help find Suprema. After hearing dismal reports from the engineers and technicians about obsolete equipment or missing components, or other excuses, he silences the staff with a withering glare. "You will solve these problems," he tells his staff, sending chills of terror through the Betas and several of the Primes.

Finally, Du-kem turns to his guests from the planet, Kar-lem (the Prime running New Danzig, Ja-ber (the Beta in charge of the Gestapo or secret police in New Danzig), and Vad-em, a Prime sent to Earth to help Kar-lem hunt down the Protector. "What will you contribute to this sorry excuse for a meeting?" Du-kem asks Kar-lem.

"Well," the tall Prime begins, "I have four of the five Primes in the city looking for the girl. I put one atop each of four tall buildings downtown and told them to scan with their super vision - look in the air, on the ground, in the dirty little hovels those people live in, even underground.  Len-dak and Kel-kem, your nephew, have already complained to me about getting eye strain and headaches. We haven't seen the girl since her visit to the power plant. That arrogant little bitch TAUNTED me, flying just out of reach! The last I saw was her juicy little ass flying west. Maybe she's gone over to the Japanese."

"No," Du-kem replies, "one of the more useful Betas up here has been fairly successful at spotting the girl, using the satellites to track her when she's airborne. I've had her broaden her search patterns and train others to help her, but they've seen no traces of her, either. You!" he says, pointing at Ja-ber, "do you have anything useful to add?"

Throughout the long tirade by his chief, Ja-ber kept his mouth closed and anxiously awaited his chance to drop his bombshell. "Yes, my Lord, I do," he begins. "Based on reports from spies I've sent into many of the resistance groups in the city, I think I have found her, or at least the group of rebels who are hiding her. She apparently calls herself Suprema (several Arions in the room laugh nervously, then quit when Du-kem scowls at them) and has adopted the identity of a human, hiding her costume under
their clothes, as she did at the train station."

"WHAT! WHY WAS I NOT TOLD!" Kar-lem bellows, rising from his seat and raising one hand to strike the Beta beside him. "My Primes might have already found and taken the bitch, instead of spending two days wasting their time spying on the humans!"

"SIT DOWN!" Du-kem commands. After an infinite silence, Kar-lem slides back into his seat and glowers at Ja-ber. "Why didn't you tell Kar-lem this information?" the Commander asks in soft, even tones.

Ja-ber realizes that Du-kem's tightly controlled voice means he's almost ready to explode. "Maybe I played the *politics* too close this time," he thinks, "I'd better be careful how I explain this if I want to stay alive and in my job." To Du-kem he says, glancing from time to time at Kar-lem, "with respect, Lord, Kar-lem, I wanted to make sure that when we finally do move against the Protector, we have enough men and the right equipment to decisively defeat her and any humans with her. So I've had my people, both other Betas and humans, slowly moving into the neighborhood. There are a lot of refugees down there so all these new faces will not alarm the locals.

"My men have seen her twice now, we think, shopping and walking around the neighborhood. One of the first reports was that she always pauses a second or two before talking with anyone, and is always looking at the people around her, sometimes even turning around to look behind her. In my humble
opinion, I believe that now she is scanning anyone who gets near her, in an attempt to prevent any of us from getting close to her. So when we move, I will let my humans attack first, immobilizing her, then our people will move in to complete the capture."

Again, the room is silent for a moment, then Du-kem smiles broadly at Ja-ber. "I agree with your analysis and your plan of operation," he says. "Kar-lem, do NOT prevent this one from doing his job. He is acting as I would - careful, intelligent, organized. "Mar-vel," he says, turning to the First Officer, "I will give you a chance to redeem your honor. You and, oh, let's see - Vad-em here, will go with this Beta to help him - HELP him, not give him orders! Brains are more useful here than brawn, if we are to remove her from the planet without alerting the humans of our, or her existence!"

As Mar-vel and Vad-em squirm and seethe at being assigned to work UNDER a lousy Beta, and Kar-lem lays dark plots for Ja-ber's disposal after this Protector thing fades away, Du-kem continues talking. Looking again at Ja-ber, Du-kem says, "the engineer has prepared some special surprises for
our little Velorian. Take them with you when you return to the planet and put them to good use.

"We will meet again in three days," Du-kem says, rising to his feet. I expect to see that arrogant little bitch in chains, laying on this conference table, when we get together. Do not disappoint me."