I had suspected from early on that you would not separate Emily, Caitlin, and Kara. I actually wondered if Kara would decide to stay since she mentioned very early on that she had virtually no friends back in Metropolis and here she made many very good friends and even a potential future boyfriend in Kevin...
Kara does seem to be adamant about going home. Lois and Clark could not stay with the kids and jobs back home and everyone knowing their identities in this environment. I await the way you wrap up this aspect of the situation.
I really liked Lois and Clark's comments about how messed this world is
“These people are in serious trouble,” said Mom. “How did this version of Earth get so screwed up?”
.
.
“There’s so many things going wrong it’s hard to know where to start,” agreed Dad.
“And that press conference,” fumed Mom. “Nothing but softball questions! What happened to the adversarial press here? I wanted to go out in the audience and ask President Hunter some tough questions myself. These people are stenographers, not reporters!”
“I noticed that myself the other day when I was reading the news on the web.”
“Perry would never stand for this kind of reporting in his newsroom. What this world needs is the Daily Planet. And the President is right, this world needs Superman, too.”
“That’s funny,” giggled Kara.
“What’s funny, sweetie?”
“In Kevin’s movie, that version of you wrote an editorial called ‘Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman.’”
“That version of me was an idiot. Every world needs Superman.” Mom hesitated. “That’s why the President asked us to stay.”
“What?” squeaked Kara.
“Of course we said no, sweetheart,” added Dad immediately. “Don’t worry, we’re going home.”
“He said this world desperately needs Superman, and he’s right. Just not this Superman. Or Supergirl.” Mom smiled at her.
And since this world is pretty carefully modeled after our world... I certainly agree with Debbie on the idea that our world needs a Superman and it is probably one of the reasons the character has resonated with the public for over 75 years.
Oh, in case you hadn't figured it out, I really, really liked this chapter.
Oh and nice kid cliffhanger
Mike
The saying “no good deed goes unpunished” comes to mind. Imagine what he’d be in for.