Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. It means a lot to me to know people are enjoying it.

Also, the Layuruses mentioned below are pronounced lay-oo-rus-es. I know the name is kind of a mouthful, but I didn't make it up. I actually named the aliens after a genus of scorpions known as Deathstalkers, which I came across in my research for this story.


As Kara lay on the ground wounded and surrounded by enemies a thought occurred to her. Alex is going to say 'I told you so.' Sure she wouldn't say in those exact words, instead, she'd give her little sister a lecture about plowing headfirst into danger with so little intel and that Kara should have listened to her advice to stay cautious, but the tone would be the same. Of course, that would only happen if she survived this experience, and once she assessed her current predicament, she admitted was that not a guarantee.

The glowing-light-aliens (whose name she could not remember) held her by the arms. When they'd touched her pain radiated through her body and drained her strength. Still the pain they caused her was manageable and nothing compared to the pain from the Layurus sting.

Back on Krypton, Layuruses, the shape-shifting aliens that had attacked her, had been known for having the third deadliest venom in the universe. It was the result of centuries of the aliens altering their own genes to make themselves all the more lethal.

She remembered that a single sting from a Layurus was supposed to have been able to stop a Kryptonian's heart in seconds. But that was on her home planet under the rays of their red sun. Kara didn't know how the venom would affect her under the yellow sun, but even with her enhanced healing, it was clear that it could still harm her.

"I'm on my way!" J'onn said of her comms system.

In the background, she could hear Alex telling J'onn to take her with him, but he must not have listened because the next thing she heard was Alex yelling at someone to get a helicopter ready.

"No." Kara moaned hoping her sister would listen. This was no place for a human, even one as highly skilled as Alex.

Lucy's voice came over the speaker, but from the way spoke it was clear she was talking to Alex. "You'll never even get there in time, J'onn has the best chance to save her and Kara needs you here. She needs to know how to fight these things."

While they were talking the Layuruses had reached Kara and were looking down at her.

"Shall I help you find your parents now?" The one that used to be the boy said.

Kara glared at him for a second, but then she regained control of her emotions. He was trying to upset her so she'd be off her game for a fight.

She tried to feign the same confidence she'd felt when she'd thought she was only dealing with a Lurmocronian. "What's the problem, you're afraid to fight me one-on-one so you had to invite your friends?"

Layuruses were known for priding themselves on being fierce, but if her words bothered him he didn't show it. He actually seemed amused.

"Hubris was your mother's downfall as well."

And it'll hopefully be yours. Kara thought. If she had met him one-on-one she knew she could defeat him, even with his potent venom, but she could not take on three of them by herself especially with the glow-men helping out.

Still, she knew she could get away if she used her super speed, even the ones that could teleport couldn't follow her if they didn't know where she was going. The only problem was if she did, she'd have no way to stop them from hurting innocent people. Even though her arms hurt and she felt weak, it wasn't as bad as she wanted them to believe. If she could keep them busy until J'onn and Fisher's team arrived she might have a shot.

"Alura had many enemies, who am I to deny them their vengeance." He continued.

"So I take it enjoying your freedom and moving on with your lives never crossed any of your minds."

"This is how we enjoy our freedom."

The Layurus moved to sting Kara in the heart, but while he took aim she used her freeze breath and sent him flying into a pile of trees. Before the others could strike she manage to pull her arms free from glowing aliens, once she was free of their touch she felt her strength return and used it punch the second Layurus and kick the third. Having a brief respite from the attacks Kara shot up in the air. In an instant, she'd added fifty feet between her and her enemies.

Once she was satisfied with the distance she stopped and shouted at them. "When you were discussing this idea to ambush me amongst yourselves, did you ever consider five of you might not be enough or was letting get away part of the plan?"

"Kara get out of there!" Alex ordered over the comms, but Kara didn't respond.

If she flew away she knew the Layuruses would just start hurting innocent people to lure her back.

She watched the Layuruses take off into the air while the glowing aliens disappeared. Kara braced herself for another attack. A second later the glowing aliens appeared by her side and touched her head. She cried out from the sudden pain and tried to strike one with a quick blast of heat vision which didn't seem to affect it. Then she tried to kick the other, only to have her leg riddled with pain as it when it effortlessly passed through the alien's form.

"Use your freeze breath." Alex's voice filled her ear again.

Kara did as she was instructed and to her relief, the two creatures shrunk back and floated in the air like the were paralyzed.

Unfortunately, Kara didn't have long to enjoy her small victory because by then the Layuruses had reached her. The first to reach her soared towards her its tail outstretched. She easily avoided it and sent it flying with a quick punch, but while she was busy with that one she nearly missed the second one whip its tail in her direction.

She caught sight of it in her peripheral vision and dodge the strike. Her quick action saved her from getting stabbed in the stomach, but still, she responded too late and the barb grazed her side as it sliced through the air. She grabbed its tail before it could try a second time and threw it into the third Layurus which had just caught up to its friends. Both went into a freefall but managed to get control of themselves before they crashed into the street.

Alex came over the comms again, her words were rushed and ran together as she struggled to give her sister all the information she had before Kara faced another attack. "The shape-shifting aliens are Layuruses their venom…"

"Can kill just about anything, I know." Kara said through gritted teeth as she held her side. "Tell me about the glowing things."

The venom already in her system was starting to take effect. Her vision blurred, her hands started to tremble, and every breath seemed harder to take.

The first Layurus relaunched itself at Kara, but she knocked him back with a well-placed kick

"They're Zarolots, they're made of pure energy and are basically intangible. Watch out!" But Kara had already seen the threat. While Alex had been talking one of the two Layuruses she'd sent into a freefall reached her and the other was closing in. She tried to punch it, but with her blurry vision she missed. It grabbed her neck with his pincer and prepared to strike, but she managed to grab the tail in its downward arc and hold it back. Kara then gave the Layurus a small blast of her heat vision. The tough exoskeleton of the alien was scorched. It cried out in pain and loosened it's grip enough for her to wiggle free. She then punched it and knocked it to the ground.

"How do I fight the Zarolots?" She asked. "Your freeze breath can incapacitate them, but only temporarily. You heat vision might can hurt them if you can reach temperatures—"

Before Alex could finish the third Layurus reached Kara. She charged it, but she was now getting so weak she wasn't able to hit as hard it as she intended. It took advantage of her mistake and tried to strike her in the heart. She flew up to avoid the sting, but the barb had found its way into her thigh.

Kara cried out in pain. Her body started to go limp. She punched the alien, but in her weakened state, there was little force behind the blow. The Layurus didn't seem phased and returned a punch of his own that sent her flying towards a news helicopter.

Kara nearly crashed into the cockpit of the Catcopter. At the last second, she managed to swerve enough that she avoided the cockpit, but not enough to keep her from hitting the main rotor. The rotor shattered when it made impact with Kara and a sharp pain fill her side where it struck her.

The Catcopter was knocked off course and she started falling. Kara felt herself rushing towards the ground, but she was in so much pain and too weak to make her body do anything about it until the sound of screaming broke into her consciousness and brought her mind back into her surroundings. She took a quick assessment of what was happening around her.

The broken helicopter was about to crash into the side of a skyscraper, while people in the building were scrambling to get out of the trajectory. Kara pushed the pain and weakness to the back of her mind and soared over to the Catcopter and caught it by the tail seconds before it would have hit the building.

While she was busy with the helicopter, one of the Layurus had seized the opportunity to take advantage of her distraction. It made a beeline towards her. Kara ripped off the tail rotor which was no longer doing the aircraft any good and threw it at her attacker. To her horror the projectile not only found its mark, it penetrated the hard exoskeleton of the creature and finally came to a stop after it struck his heart. The Layurus jerked back from the impact, then it dropped to the ground.

Before Kara could think about what she did, the Zarolots had recovered and teleported next to Kara. She used her freeze breath like before on one of them, but before she could blast the second it pushed its hand into her chest. Pain filled her lungs. She tried to take a breath, but the muscles surrounding her lungs couldn't obey her command. Her grip on the tail of the helicopter loosened and she felt the tail slip from her fingers.

Knowing she only had seconds before it crashed into the ground and unable to use her freeze breath, Kara focused all the strength she had into her heat vision and aimed for the Zarolot. At first, it didn't have any effect just like before and the beam when right through the creature into a nearby building; then a sharp mechanical-sounding screech erupted from the alien, followed by a blinding burst of light. When Kara regained her vision it was gone.

She dove for the helicopter and caught it a second time. This time, she was able to set it down gently on the roof of one of the smaller skyscrapers.

Now that its occupants were out of danger, the pain and weakness that she'd pushed to the back of her brain returned bringing with it a sense of horror as she realized what she'd done.

There was no sign of the Zarolot she'd hit with her heat vision and the implication of that dawned on Kara. About twenty feet below her the Layurus that she hit with the rotor lay motionless on the ground. Scanning it with her x-ray vision, she searched for any sign of life when Alex's voice pulled her back into focus.

"Kara, look out!"

For a brief second she'd been so focused on the enemies she's killed, she forgot about the ones that remained, but that short amount of time was all they needed to gain the advantage. Kara looked up to see the two remaining Layuruses closing in on her. She managed to knock one off course, but the other was too quick. He grabbed her arm with his pincer and plunged his stinger right into her heart.

Pain worse than anything she'd ever felt before flooded her heart and worked its way through her body until every part of her was in agony. It was all she could process. She did not even notice when the Layurus let her go and she started falling to the ground. By the time her body made impact with the concrete ten stories below everything had already gone black.

...

"No!" Alex screamed at the DEO monitor.

Next to her Lucy gasped and Vasques balled up her fist so tight her knuckles were turning white.

Even though it had been her sister who'd just been stabbed in the chest, Alex felt an aching form in her own heart. She watched helplessly as her sister fell to the ground below leaving a huge crater in the street.

The two Layuruses observed her for a second then dove down eager to finish her off. Alex couldn't breathe. Every muscle was tense as if her body was begging her to do something, to fight, to somehow save Kara, but there was nothing she could do, not while she was dozens of miles away stuck at the DEO. She was powerless to do anything but watch the aliens kill her little sister.

Right as they began their descent on her, something green streaked across the screen. It right went through one of the attacking Layurus causing the creature to lose control and fall to the ground. The streak came to a stop right in front of Kara. Once it stopped moving and slowed down everyone at the DEO could see who it was.

"J'onn." Lucy sighed.

The Martian positioned himself right in front of Kara and braced himself for the Layurus. He had a fierce look on his face that Alex had only seen once before when he'd faced a White Martian.

The Layurus was not intimidated and continued his downward flight, stinger ready. Alex felt herself tense up even more than she already was. If a Layurus' venom could hurt a Kryptonian, what would it do to a Martian?

The fight happened so quickly Alex didn't even register it until it was over. One second she was watching the Layurus crash into J'onn, then a flash of movement too swift for her eyes to distinguish what was happening, and finally she saw J'onn standing over the Layurus, the alien's own tail was sticking out of its abdomen.

The final Layurus sprang up from where it had fallen and flew at J'onn, who wasted no time picking up a piece of concrete the size of a boulder from the crater Kara had created and threw at the attacker. The concrete struck the alien right in the head and it fell to the ground.

Seeing as there were no more Layuruses to attack, J'onn turned his attention to remaining Zarolot. The creatures had been floating in the air since Kara had hit it a second time with her freeze breath. The light it cast still looking dull compared to how bright it had been when the alien had first appeared. Two bright pinpoints of light in the midst what passed for its head focused on the Martian and Supergirl for a moment. Then it disappeared.

J'onn surveyed the scene for a moment. Alex knew he must be using his advanced Martian senses to detect the alien. Then he turned back to Kara. He looked her over, before gently taking her in his arms.

"She's not breathing!" He said over the comms. "Get a trauma unit and a surgical team ready now!" Then he launched himself into the sky with the limp form of Supergirl cradled in his arms.


Author's Note: Sorry to end this on a cliffhanger, but at least you don't have to wait too long.