The strength of two Kryptonians clashing wasn't a small thing, no. Years ago she'd fought her aunt and the other Kryptonians who had escaped the phantom zone, and the city had suffered for it. A couple of years ago she'd brawled with her cousin as well, while he was being mind controlled and she could still remember those punches. The weight behind them, the force. Reign had been another powerful opponent, and once she'd absorbed powers from the other two worldkillers she'd even been stronger than Kara. Those punches too had been body crushing. Still, it was her cousin's blows that came to her mind first whenever she thought of a Kryptonian's strength. There was something different about him, it was odd. It wasn't that he was stronger, in fact the D.E.O had been theorizing that she was actually stronger than him. Something about her cells absorbing radiation differently, or more, or... Well, it didn't matter. The bottom line was that she was apparently stronger, maybe physically, but her cousin had something she didn't. Kara always thought it came from how he'd been raised here with the Kents. The ideals behind the crest on his chest... It made his blows stronger than any villains could ever be.

Truth.

Justice.

The American way.

Up, up and away.

It's a bird, it's a plane...

It's superman.

Kal always prevailed, he represented the best of humanity, and what Krypton should have aspired to be. He was always working for others, pushing himself for the sake of mankind. There was no job too big, nor too small. He'd saved kittens from trees, put out fires and spoken at schools about bullying. On the other end of the spectrum he had also stopped satellites from crashing into Earth, pushed back alien invasions single handedly, and saved billions upon billions of people time and time again. Growing up it was hard to not admire him, but not just admire, feel intimidated too. That was what Kara had wanted to do, who she wanted to be. She still couldn't believe it had taken Alex's plane crash for her to come out to the world as Supergirl. It just felt right, what she was doing. One thing that she had remained sure of though was that Clark would never be defeated. Not seriously, not for real, not for anyone.

That was why James had come running to her, telling her she needed to join every ASAP she'd never expected what she would find. The news story was a little messy, and details were actually scarce but Kara listened intently and began to put it together. Mon-El came rushing to her side too, a hand on her shoulder. "Kara, I've been calling..." he started, but she simply readjusted her glasses, and pushed a hand up. She wasn't trying to be rude, but this was important.

From what she'd put together it seemed a battle had begun early this morning between Superman and some unknown assailant. No one had any idea where it had come from, or if it was even sentient. It had made no effort to communicate and had started killing indiscriminately from the moment it had landed. It crashed, not in a pod, not in anything. It literally fell from space, crashed into the Earth and got up without a scratch if reports were to be believed. That wasn't the most concerning part though.

What was more concerning was the fight had been raging for hours. Hours, and the creature showed no signs of getting tired, it showed no signs of the stopping. The fighting had begun somewhere in Texas but had continued across the United States. It seemed to be heading East, right towards Metropolis which had surprised no one, apparently, because of course it was heading there. Clark had been trying to push it back, fight only in unpopulated areas but it was proving more difficult. They were moving so quickly through the states news crews were having trouble getting actual footage of the fight, but they'd caught a lot of images of Clark flying from brutal punches. The creature had killed several people upon his first landing but Clark had kept any more casualties from piling up once he'd joined the fight.

Finally they showed an image of the monster. It was a little grainy, not a very good image at all but still, it had Kara bring a hand up to her chest in fear. It even looked fearsome, and in the picture it was hulking over Clark. It was much bigger than Superman, all grey with only a green pair of... Shorts? He was huge, white spikes protruding from different parts of his body. Kara briefly wondered if they were bones, then realized it did not matter. The real question was why was she still standing here.

When she came back to her senses, pulling herself from staring at the screen she found Mon-El was still staring at her, the poor boy so concerned for the Kryptonian. Once upon a time a Kryptonian and a Daxomite would have done nothing but fight to the death, but the two had brought their people together, even if it was just the two of them. It was something special, and Rao, she loved this boy. But if Clark was already having trouble, and Mon-El didn't quite possess the same physical strength as she...

"Stay here." she said, it was the first thing she'd said since learning her cousin was engaged in a life or death battle with some horrific creature, and Mon-El looked like he was going to argue so kara furrowed her brows and gave him a dark glare. "Stay. Here." and with that she was off, running out of the office and towards the stairs. Everyone was so focused on the television, everyone was trying to learn what was going on. Never had Clark been engaged in such a fierce battle, not that anyone could remember anyway. It was a big deal.

It left the hallways empty though and once she reached the stairwell she was able to just leap up in the little hole between the flights of stairs. She wasted no time, choosing to kick the door leading outside right off of it's hinges, not even caring as it flew off the edge of the roof and, hopefully, clattering harmlessly into the street below. Kara threw her glasses to the ground and tore her shirt open to reveal the crest of the house of El, and was already off the ground when she tore her pants off to reveal the skirt hidden underneath. Her cape unfurled too and just like that she was off, and hopefully not too late.

She reached the outskirts of Metropolis within minutes and already the monster was quickly approaching. Their hands were held together, the monsters' and Clark's as he tried pushing him back to no avail. Clark was the one being pushed back, even with his feet firmly planted into the ground the monster was pushing forward, roaring mightily as Clark's boots left deep trails in the ground as he struggled to hold onto the beast. Kara didn't even think about it, she became nothing but a red and blue blur before crashing with full force into the beast and knocking the two of them into the ground. She made no additional moves, rushing to Clark's side.

"Kal!" she screamed, glaring. "You should have called me." she'd started almost angrily, but her words quickly grew quieter as she saw the state of her cousin. She'd never seen him look so weary before. He was actually bruised, and battered. One arm hung limply at his side and Kara winced internally. He was holding onto that creature with that. She thought to herself. The thing was absolutely shattered, a quick use of her X-ray vision revealed. His suit was torn and tattered and there was a huge gash along his chest which had bled quite a bit already. One eye was practically swollen shut and he was drenched in sweat, something Kara didn't even know they were capable of doing while under the light of a yellow sun. "Clark..." she whispered, and he shook his head.

"Later, Kara. We have to- Watch out!" he cried out, but it was too late. The gray monstrosity bashed into Kara with it's full force and she imagined if a human were hit by a train it would be a similar feeling. She went flying and by the time she was able to steady herself she was several kilometers, yes, kilometers, away. She had to use her micro vision to scan exactly how far she'd gone and she cursed, before rushing back towards the two who were already back at it, Clark assaulting him, hammering with powerful one armed blows and grunting from the effort it took just to stun the beast for a moment.

What proceeded were several more hours of absolutely brutal brawling. The worst Kara had ever been in, and as the hours dragged on she wasn't sure how Clark was still standing. She was ready to give up, to collapse. The fight had taken them right to the middle of downtown Metropolis. All around her the screams were deafening, people were panicked, terrified and with good reason. Kara was holding the creature in place with her heat vision, blasting the beast with the scorching blue heat. It was still advancing, she didn't have to keep him forever just long enough for Clark to get most people out of harm's way. Rao, she couldn't be certain but she thought the beast was finally beginning to slow down somewhat. Its punches weren't as bone breaking, and it seemed to be tiring. Rao she hoped so, she was just praying. She was nothing but pain, her entire body felt like it was one huge break, she didn't want to get hit anymore, but these people needed her and...

Another deafening roar as the beast reached her. It hit her in someway, she wasn't sure how but she felt herself go through several buildings, collapsing to the ground several blocks away. She coughed, and her throat burned. The taste of metal filled her mouth as she tasted blood. Her fingers clenched into the sidewalk, turning it to dust under her strength. "That's it..." she whispered with far more confidence and strength than she actually felt like she had, but a shadow caught her attention. She looked up towards it, the beast was unrelenting this time. He was going to crash into her, he was going for the killing blow...

The cracking like sound a whip echoed through the streets and the flash of color blinded Kara for a moment. The creature was tugged out of its path, crashing harmlessly beside her giving Kara just enough time to dart out of the way. She knew who it was without even needing to check. "Mon-El! I told you to-"

Both Daxamite and Kryptonian were grabbed by their respective heads and tossed together in the same direction. More buildings fell as their strong, steel bodies crashed through them and they landed together, rubble collapsing on top of them. It was easy enough to push it off of them, but loud thuds confirmed what Kara feared. The bastard was already running towards them. Mon-El jumped forward, and damn it, he had no idea how strong this thing actually was. If Kara could overpower him, this thing would...

The sound Mon-El's neck made when it broke would haunt Kara for the rest of her life, which if she didn't get ahold of herself wouldn't be much longer. Mon-El's lifeless body flew back and crashed. The monster's fist had been nearly as big as Mon-El's entire head, and his head had nearly been torn off from the blow. Clark had seen the whole thing, and neither Kryptonian had been able to utter a sound. Mon-El's life ended. Just like that, in the blink of an eye and despite all her power Kara had been powerless to stop it. The beast roared again and Kara wondered if it was celebrating it's small victory. She collapsed to her knees and screamed, up into the sky. The sound of true terror, and pain and...

The ground exploded in front of her. Clark had brought the Daily Planet's globe down onto the beast and seeing Clark keep fighting made Kara realize she had to keep going too. "I'm going to kill you!" she shrieked, and flew forward as fast as she could, just as the beast dug itself out of the rubble. She was taking too easy a path, she was going straight, it was easy to predict. She heard Kal somewhere above call out to her. She tried stopping, tried backing away but it caught her with one of those damned spiked. It tore through her belly, and luckily it wasn't too deep, but she went flying back, a trail of blood showing exactly where she'd landed. She coughed more blood, and her vision blurred. Everything went fuzzy, and she was sure she'd passed out several times. How much time had passed, she couldn't be sure.

The next time she was conscious enough to have another thought there was a shockwave of such violent proportions she wasn't sure what had caused it. She wouldn't find out until she woke up weeks later. She wasn't conscious to see the death of her cousin, the death of a Superman. That shockwave had come from Clark putting everything he had into one final punch, just as the beast did the same. The beast had died too, and that wasn't something easy for Kal to do. He'd always believed there was a different way, but this time... He'd done what he needed. He'd paid the price too, and Kara hadn't seen this either, but he'd died in Lois' arms. She'd clutched him to her chest as she wept, and still, the Man of Steel managed to smile.

The world had lost its mightiest hero.

And Kara had lost everything.