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Night 4

Barry knew immediately that the object hurtling across the sky was no ordinary meteor. Granted, he did not have a lot of experience with meteors, asteroids or even comets, but regular space rocks did not manage to fly under their own power, defying gravity simply to narrowly avoid crashing into buildings, sporadically jumping upwards as if directed by a drunken pilot.

Kara and J'onn were off in a flash, quickly transforming into their superhero alter egos, flying up into the sky to chase the meteor down, leaving everyone else who had been in the apartment to silently panic and hope that the duo could handle the problem.

Barry wasn't sure what to do. This wasn't a problem that could be solved by speed, it wasn't something that could be solved by fighting, and it wasn't something forensic abilities could solve. It wasn't something that either Barry Allen or the Flash could do anything to help with.

But he couldn't just stand there and do nothing. In the blink of an eye, Barry was running underneath Supergirl and Martian Manhunter as they closed in on the meteor, narrowly avoiding civilians just as the meteor was narrowly avoiding buildings. His suit had gotten shredded when he had 'helped' Kara defeat Non, and he could already feel the drag his civilian clothes were creating, slowing him down considerably.

He grit his teeth and let the Speed Force flood his body to compensate for the drag, becoming a darkly colored blur to the populace.

What the flyers couldn't spot from their positions above, Barry could from below; the object hadn't burned up as it entered the atmosphere as it should have, probably making it something both metallic and manmade. That didn't seem to mean that it was built to take all of the pressure of re-entering the atmosphere, and chips had fallen off of the meteor, hurtling down towards earth.

And if there was one thing Barry knew, it was that small metallic objects plus high velocities was not a good thing for anyone hit with one.

Barry felt his clothes began to heat up as he caught multiple burning chips of metal that narrowly avoided becoming lodged in several unaware civilian's skulls. Fortunately, he had adequately recovered from his imprisonment and drainage, so his only fear was that his clothes might catch fire before he managed to get back to the apartment.

Those thoughts took a back seat when Barry noticed Martian Manhunter take a dive to catch someone falling off a building, the mysterious meteor miming his actions and taking a turn towards the Earth. Barry knew that a large, likely metallic and very dense object plowing into the ground would not end well for anyone within a few square blocks.

But it wasn't like a bullet, he couldn't just catch it, and he had seen Supergirl's attempt at grabbing it be repulsed by some sort of field surrounding it, meaning that he couldn't directly touch it either, even if he managed to somehow get in the air.

Barry didn't have the familiar voices in his ear of STAR Labs to rely on. He didn't have Cisco to run calculations or Caitlin to explain the dangers. He just had to act, and fast. As he wracked him brain his first real fight with his powers came back to him, how he had been able to make his own tornado.

As the meteor hurtled toward the ground in near slow motion, Barry did a rough estimate of where it would land, which was thankfully not a populated area, rather an abandoned lot. Still, such an impact could send other chunks of debris out, and even had a chance of destabilizing a building or two nearby. Barry began to run in a tight circle, quickly wearing a path in the ground as wind began to whip around him, forming into a miniature tornado, just in time to catch in the in-coming projectile.

The tornado didn't stop the meteor, not really, but it did slow it down and managed to put out the fire thanks to a sudden lack of oxygen. As Barry slowed, the comet drifted closer to the ground, until the large metal object settled onto the soft dirt, the tornado dissipating as Barry skidded to a halt several feet away.

Supergirl and Martian Manhunter both landed nearby not a moment later, staring in wonder at the metallic object. Barry could now see that it looked almost like a giant metal fish with glowing blue veins. It was very similar to the only other alien spacecraft he had had the pleasure of viewing.

"That pod looks almost identical to mine…" Supergirl breathed, her eyes wide, focused entirely on the machine. That was, until something out of the corner of her eye re-directed her attention, that something being Barry.

Even from several feet away, Barry could tell that the Girl of Steel had suddenly turned as red as a traffic light, and Martian Manhunter was making a point of not looking at him, making Barry look down in confusion at his clothes.

Or rather, his lack of them. That's the moment that Barry realized his clothes had burst into flames and disintegrated at some point while he was making the tornado, having been so focused he hadn't realized their absence, leaving him in a smoking pair of boxers that threatened to disintegrate too.

"I, uh, I'm….there's no words that can help this situation, are there?" Barry muttered, doing his best to cover himself with his hands. Before he could make things any worse, Barry disappeared in a flicker of yellow lightning, feeling that he could truly live up to the mantle Scarlet Speedster in that moment.

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Kara flew back into her apartment via her perpetually opened window, her mind continually playing over the past few minutes. The Kryptonian pod held a passenger in it, just as hers had, but rather than a child, it was a full grown man. She had tried to shake him awake, but the man simply would not awaken, his head lolling back and forth until J'onn forced her to step away from her kinsman.

There was another Kryptonian on Earth. Scratch that, it was huge that there was another Kryptonian at all. How had she and her parents not managed to hear about him before she left? Had he been lost in the Phantom Zone as well or had he been trapped in space for decades in a slowly weakening stasis field?

Kara had so many questions, but not nearly enough answers. J'onn had called in the DEO to move both the man and the pod back to headquarters, to make sure that the man was okay and that the ship wasn't in danger of exploding, which Kara hadn't even considered a possibility. Everything would have to wait until tomorrow.

A floorboard squeaked, and Kara immediately brought her fists up, ready to beat whoever it was had intruded in her home. Alex and Eliza had been called in to help J'onn, and James and Winn had both headed back home, after James had texted her that they would meet up tomorrow to discuss this properly, which would have been much more exciting at any other point in time.

So there should have been no one in her home.

"Reveal yourself, or I won't go easy on you." Kara ordered firmly, slipping into her Supergirl voice as she held her fists at the ready.

Barry Allen peeked his head out of her bathroom, toothbrush in mouth. "Hey, Kara." He greeted through a mouthful of toothpaste. Kara lowered her fists in confusion as the man ducked back into the bathroom to swish and spit.

"Barry, what are you doing here? I thought Winn had let you stay at his place?" Kara asked. She had felt an odd mixture of disappointment and relief when she had heard that, though she had put it aside to hopefully deal with later, when things settled down a bit.

Barry walked out of the bathroom and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, holding a plastic bag of toiletries casually in one hand. Kara noticed that he had managed to get his hands on a new set of clothing, hopefully not from her neighbor Linda's ex-husband's collection again.

"Well, it turns out that Winn's landlord doesn't like mostly naked men appearing in the apartment of another man while she's performing a surprise inspection. She's very…let's say, traditional." Barry looked like he was trying to force himself not to blush, and failing badly. Kara had to do the same as she recalled Barry's running off not long ago, but firmly put the image of a mostly naked Barry Allen out of her mind.

"I can't imagine that any woman would be comfortable with a naked man suddenly jumping out at her on her property." Kara couldn't help a grin coming to her face as she teased her fellow hero. "Maybe Ms. Grant was right about the Flash."

"Mostly naked." Barry stressed, his eyes fixed on anything that wasn't Kara. "Mostly naked is still faintly clothed. And I meant more along the lines of her not liking the thought of two men living together in an apartment with only one proper bed."

Kara's brain stalled for a moment as she processed that. Krypton didn't really make any big issues about homosexuality, or sexuality in general, and sometimes it still struck Kara as odd how obsessed some humans were about it. "So…why are you in my bathroom again? I don't know how it works on your Earth, but we generally don't sleep in the tub."

Barry snorted and finally made eye-contact with her again. "No, Winn loaned me some money, so I went out and bought some necessities, like, you know, pants. After that I could only afford a really cheap hotel room that doesn't have running water. So I thought I'd pop over to brush my teeth and grab what remains of my suit, is that okay?" He asked, a touch of anxiety in his voice.

"Yeah, yeah, of course." Kara immediately went to get the shredded remains of the suit. It had several major tears from Barry's time imprisoned, but apparently moving at high speeds tore them open further, essentially reducing the whole thing to the chest plate and lots of red leather.

Barry gratefully accepted what remained of his suit, putting the leather in his toiletries bag but keeping the chest plate out. He sunk down to the couch and stared at it, an odd smile on his face. "Cisco would kill me if he found out what happened to our suit." He muttered.

Kara sat down across from her friend, who seemed for a moment to be off in his own world, just holding the chest plate. She reached to put her hand on his supportively, but jerked it back at the last second. "Who's Cisco?" She asked instead. Barry blinked as if a mist had been lifted from his eyes and looked up at her.

"He's a friend from back on Earth 1. He's…well, he's kind of like Winn to be honest, nerdy but smart." Barry admitted, a fond smile growing on his face. "He's really possessive of the suit, and any of his other creations."

"You make him sound like a mad scientist." Kara pictured Winn with crazy hair and a lab coat, cackling madly. It was more amusing than scary, something she would never tell Winn.

"I think 'worryingly enthusiastic' scientist might be a better term." Barry corrected, tracing a thumb over the surface of the lightning emblem. "With a little bit of sci-fi geek and boundless confidence thrown in for flavor."

"Wow. Normally nerds don't have tons of self-confidence in this world." Kara admitted. Back in school, the nerds were the only people who seemed to want to blend in more than her, though it was out of fear of others doing harm to them rather than fear of doing damage to others.

Barry shook his head. "Nope, same in mine, Cisco's a bit unique. He was trying to give me a pep-talk about talking to women so he walked right up to a barista he'd never met and asked her out." Barry reminisced.

"You normally don't think of superheroes as having to get tips on talking to women." Kara pointed out. "How did it go?"

"Oh, she shot him down immediately. Well, at first. After that they started going out but it turns out that she was a magical bird-woman whose soul is bonded to her reincarnated lover from Ancient Egypt."

Kara laughed for a moment before seeing that Barry was serious. "Your dimension sounds like a lot of fun." Kara confessed honestly. Barry met her eyes and Kara could almost see a lifetime of experience flash through his eyes.

"It can be."

The two sat in silence, both thinking of different things, content just to enjoy the other's company for a moment, happily ignoring a small knot of tension that both ample experience pushing down.

"So, what's your home planet like?" Barry asked suddenly. Kara blinked in surprise at the sudden shift in topic.

"You mean Krypton?"

Barry raised an eyebrow. "Is there another alien planet that you're from?"

Kara rolled her eyes, but couldn't help a smile growing on her face. "Smartass."

Barry grinned back at her. "Yeah, I know you left Krypton, but it seems really advanced from what I've heard. I'd love to visit at some point." He said earnestly.

Kara's heart sunk as she saw how excited he was. "That's right…" she muttered. "You don't know."

Everyone on Earth knew about Krypton's fate thanks to Clark's interview years upon years ago, but Barry hadn't done any research on her Earth's history beyond looking for familiar faces. So he wouldn't know that her whole world had exploded, vaporizing millions of people and sending Kara hurtling through a vast expanse of darkness to a distant planet with her cousin.

The atmosphere changed in a scant moment, and the pleasant smile on Barry's face faded at the clear emotion on Kara's. He set aside his emblem and shifted so he was sitting next to her. "What happened?" He asked in concern.

Kara shook her head and scooted away from him slightly, taking a deep breath. "No, it's okay, you don't have to be worried." Kara said firmly. For years the mention of Krypton from the Danvers family would make her break down and hide in her room, but she was stronger now. She was Supergirl now.

"Krypton was far more technologically advanced than Earth is; even with the recent advancements you wouldn't reach Kryptonian level for a few hundred years. But one of the primary reasons for that was that a genius scientist, kind of comparable to Earth's Albert Einstein, found out a way to harness Krypton's core and use it to power any and everything. We had no shortage of fuel for anything we wished, and had no reason to spend time developing new methods of producing energy."

As Kara thought on it, images floated to the surface of her mind. Her memories of Krypton had taken on a slightly dreamlike quality in recent years, as everything that was bathed in Rao's light had soft tones of red and copper rather than the illuminating and harsh light of Sol.

"The woman's name was Orna, who had no House, not properly. Once she had found her method of harnessing the core, she found friends who shared her ideals and organized the entire planet into guilds so that everyone could pursue their passions; the Science Guild, the Artists Guild, the Military Guild, the Religious Guild and the Labor Guild. We were no longer separate countries, or separate people, we were Kryptonians, and that's all that mattered."

Barry got an odd look on his face. "So…she found a source of incredible power and used it to conquer the globe." Had Kara been paying more attention to his voice rather than her memories, she would have noticed a tone of disapproval in his voice. But as it was, she just shook her head and gazed off, remembering.

"No, not conquering. People saw their power and learned that Orna knew best. But after she passed people began drawing on the core's power more and more to fuel their advancements. They got greedy, and ignored the signs of imminent destruction. Only my family, the House of El, saw the inevitable. They sent me and my cousin to Earth, to protect us and preserve Krypton's legacy. As I left, Krypton exploded behind me, the victim of my planet's hubris."

Barry reached out and he took Kara's hand, which didn't tremble. Kara didn't take any shuddering breaths, didn't get misty eyed. But the images of her home world wouldn't fade from her mind, now combined with the thought that there might be another Kryptonian to share their legacy with.

The two sat in a vastly different silence than had been present a few minutes ago, both thinking heavy thoughts. Barry made no move to remove his hand from Kara's, and she didn't do anything to shake it off.

"Hey, Barry?"

"Yeah?"

"You know you don't have to stay in a crappy hotel. I don't mind having you here for a few days."

"…Even if I keep making you pancakes?" A hint of a teasing tone snuck into Barry's voice. Apparently Winn had told Barry Kara's excuse for her anger earlier, and she resolved to punch him.

Kara took her hand out from Barry's and stuck a finger in his face. "If you're going to stay in my home, we're getting one thing straight, mister. I'm the one who makes the pancakes around here."

Barry put up his hands in surrender and laughed. Kara's heart did a small dance number at the sound, but she smiled back, forcing her heart to slow down. She had James, there was no room for anything other than friendship here.

"Alright then, Miss Zor-El. I accept your terms." Barry stuck out his hand, and Kara was reminded of just a few days ago, when she had first gotten him to agree with her, in that dusty abandoned office. She grasped his hand and shook, the two of them grinning at each other.

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Barry mushed his pillow over his head and seriously considered just running back to his shoddy little hotel room. Sure the bed probably had termites, there had been a couple next door having vicious make-up sex, and the roof threatened to collapse at any moment, but at least there wasn't a chainsaw blaring five feet away from him at all times.

Kara snored again and rolled over, face-down, slightly muffling the sound that was keeping Barry from the blissful lands of sleep. He briefly considered cutting his ears off and hoping they would regenerate by morning.

Barry buried his head into the sofa cushions, where he gained some relief from the sound and breathed a sigh of relief. But as soon as he did, his mind inevitably drifted towards the events of the day, and his guts hardened into a ball in his stomach.

He had been useless. All his speed, all his experience, and yet he could barely do anything when the ship barreled into National City airspace. Sure, he had saved several lives from death by high speed metal, but if the ship had crashed into one of the buildings, there was nothing he could have done. Sure, he could have run people out if he did that, but he was used to Cisco and Caitlin telling him the layout of buildings, where to safely deposit people, and specifically what to do in case of an emergency.

Barry was well acquainted with feeling useless. He couldn't stop bullies from bullying as a kid, couldn't convince people his father wasn't a murderer as a teen, and feeling helpless was basically the whole point of being in his twenties. But ever since he had gotten his powers, there had always been something he could do. Every metahuman had a weakness, every criminal left something behind.

But this world was different. When Myriad had struck he had managed to save one person when millions of lives were at stake, and that save had put him under the thumb of two insane genocidal maniacs. It was only thanks to his regenerative powers that he had been able to get close to the battlefield, just to distract someone.

And then Supergirl had launched a million-ton prison into space. She was so strong that it seemed to defy the rules of the natural universe. That strength was what allowed her to take down enormously powerful aliens, easily on par with, and many surpassing, Tony Woodward, whom Barry had barely defeated with a supersonic punch.

He had honestly considered taking her back with him to Earth-1 and then to Earth-2 to defeat Zoom. What was the power of a speedster to someone who had god-like strength, could fly, and was nearly as fast as Barry to boot?

"…train with it, and become faster than Thawne and Zoom combined…."

Bob's words echoed in Barry's head. Thawne and Zoom were both above Barry, but Kara was above both of them. Even if Barry could become more powerful than both of them combined, Supergirl would easily trump that with her array of powers.

But if Barry could become faster than two people who had once seemed like insurmountable barriers to him…who's to say he would have to stop there? Alex had been right, the Speed Force was all about making Barry faster, and he had the will, equipment and time to go faster than ever. He would become faster; truly earn the title of Fastest Man Alive.

The Flash would one day be the equal to Supergirl. Then he could protect his Earth, and even Earth-2 and Earth-38 if need be.

Barry finally drifted off to sleep with a grin on his face, his hand clutching the tachyon enhancer that sat at the bottom of his toiletries bag.

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Day 5

Kara woke up at her normal time, 6:00, with a spring in her step, a smile on her face, and a growing pit of despair in her stomach. James had texted her at some point after she had fallen asleep, and the message should have elated her, but instead it suddenly made her feel like her powers were failing.

Hey, I figured we could do dinner tonight, finally have a proper date. –James

Kara kept glancing at the message as she went through her morning routine and wondering if James was wondering why she hadn't responded yet. Alex had once tried to explain the Rules of Human Dating to her, but they had always sounded odd, overly manipulative, and possibly violent, so she had ignored her sister.

She really wished she had listened to her sister.

"What're you looking at?" Barry asked, setting down what had to be his fifteenth pancake to ask the question. Kara had anticipated his appetite and made pancakes roughly the size of a manhole covers, with enough to cover the entire table (though she hadn't managed to replicate Barry's trick at cooking at high speeds). Barry had eaten one in about the span of five seconds, even with a knife and fork, the bane of speed eaters everywhere.

"Er, nothing." Kara hid her phone under the table, and then realized that this was her house and she didn't have to hide anything from anyone, especially her guest. "Just James, we're making plans for later tonight. Around 6:00, so you might not want to be here by then." Kara decided.

Barry nodded amiably and inhaled another blueberry-chocolate chip-banana pancake with an odd ferocity, shaving a whole second off his previous record while Kara texted her newly found plan to James.

"I guess I'll go look for an abandoned airfield to practice in, and then go patrol the city for a while." Barry said casually, his attention solely on his food.

Kara cut a jagged edge out of her pancake and chewed it slowly, looking back across the table at Barry coolly. "That seems like something that a superhero would do, and last I checked you were content to train alone."

Barry shrugged and ate another pancake, eyes fixed on the table. "Well, Supergirl is around to do the big things: stopping Myriad, beating Non, removing Fort Rozz. Someone should still be around to take care of the little things."

Kara's eyes drifted to the chest-plate that Barry had perpetually at his side that morning. "What're you doing to do about a suit? Unless you're more comfortable with being naked on camera than I thought, you probably shouldn't run in your new clothes."

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Oh, absolutely not."

Barry snorted and pointed his fork menacingly at her, a small bit of pancake hanging off the end. "You, Kara Danvers, are sexist." He tucked back in to his pancake, leaving Kara gaping in outrage.

"I am not sexist!" Kara defended. "There wasn't even sexism back on Krypton, so I'm pretty sure I'm genetically immune to it… I voted for Olivia Marsdin!"

"I have no idea who Olivia Marsdin is."

"She's the first female president and the best one ever."

"Really? That's pretty cool. Still doesn't stop you from being sexist."

"Name one thing I've ever done that's sexist."

"What you just said. If a male superhero gets his clothes burned off and is photographed, it's funny. I don't think you'd find it funny if you found yourself suddenly naked after using your powers."

"I bet you'd find it funny."

The two stared at each other, neither backing down, and suddenly realized that they were having a conversation about being naked in front of the other. They quickly turned back to their food and dug in with gusto, polishing off the piles in record time.

Kara's phone pinged, and the screen showed a message from J'onn, saying to meet him on the roof, and to bring Barry, provided he was fully clothed. Kara sighed. Why did J'onn choose now to grow a sense of humor?

The duo cleaned up and went out the door, intent on going for the stairs to avoid people, when Kara's neighbor stepped out of her apartment, pulling up short when she saw the two.

"Barry, what're you doing here?" Linda asked in surprise. Then a faint smirk came to her face. "You're not here to peruse through Warren's clothes again, are you?"

Barry waved her off, a slight smile on his face, like most men who met Linda. Kara's brown-haired neighbor was certainly a knockout, and easily could match the confidence of Cat Grant herself, while somehow managing to avoid becoming like Siobhan. Kara felt her smile become a bit fixed on her face.

"I think I'm good for a little while, thanks. Did you donate his Armani suit to Goodwill yet?"

Linda crossed her arms proudly. "Went out and gave it to a homeless guy near his new apartment. There's no way he won't see them on his way to work."

"Yeah! Dad's an asshole!" A squeakier voice declared. Kara looked down to find a small blonde girl with her arms crossed and a resolute expression. Linda chided her daughter half-heartedly while Barry and Kara tried not to laugh.

"Annabel Lee, we do not use that sort of language…even when people deserve it." Linda tried. The little girl looked at her mother with confusion.

"But Mommy, last week you called him an ugly pig fuc-" Linda clapped a hand over her daughter's mouth, reducing her last syllable to mumbles. Kara barely managed to cover up a snort, but Barry laughed openly, immediately looking guilty afterwards.

"Sorry about that." Linda apologized. Annabel mumbled something and Linda gave her daughter a stern look. "Licking my hand will not make me let go. I changed your diapers, remember?" Still, she let go of her daughter, wiping her hands on her jeans, while Annabel crossed her arms and pouted sulkily.

"Oh, right, Barry this is my neighbor Kara. Kara, this is Barry, he took some of Warren's old clothes off my hands the other day. Granted, he didn't fill it out as well as Warren did…"

Barry threw up his hands, a stricken look on his face. "Seriously, I never got this kind of thing in Central City…" He grumbled, crossing his arms and doing an accurate impression of the grumpy five year old across from him.

"We actually know each other. He's spending a few nights with me." Kara explained, the corner of her mouth twitching upwards.

Linda's eyes sparkled with a sudden pleasure, and she poked an elbow into Kara's rib playfully. "Nice going, Danvers. Didn't think you had it in you."

Kara was getting very tired of blushing where Barry was concerned, but that didn't stop it from happening again. Barry suddenly turned away and was overcome by a coughing fit. "Nonono, not like that." Kara said hastily. "He's just a friend."

"Staying in your one bed apartment."

"He sleeps on the couch!"

"Ouch, cold blooded. In college I at least waited until morning before kicking them out of the bed."

"We're not sleeping together." Kara hissed. Linda chuckled and took her daughter by the hand.

"Fine, fine. See you later, Kara. Good luck with….whatever this is." She said teasingly, walking towards the elevators. Annabel twisted around to wave energetically at them.

"Bye, Kara! Bye, grumpy man!"

Barry sighed and rubbed his face with one hand. "This is going to be a long day." He groaned.

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There are new things you learn every day, prompted by the millions of visual and auditory stimuli you access every day. Barry was accessing a couple hundred at the moment, and he had discovered that he really really did not like flying.

J'onn had provided little explanation; just that he wanted them to come to the DEO for some reason. He had then shifted into Martian Manhunter, grabbed Barry under the armpits and lifted him into the goddamn air.

Barry screamed, but it was swallowed and tossed aside by the windstorm of howling wind surrounding him. His eyes watered profusely, somehow unprotected just because he wasn't traveling under his own power. He just wanted this to be over as quickly as possible.

Finally, after an eternity in the air, Barry felt the sweet kiss of concrete under the soles of his shoes, and he resisted the urge to throw himself on the ground just to reassure himself it was still there.

That's when Barry noticed something slightly off. Namely, that this wasn't a bunker hidden deep underground, but rather a towering building in the middle of National City, with an oddly convenient landing place just outside what appeared to be a high-tech government office.

"Where are we?" Kara asked in confusion.

"The Department of Extra-Normal Operations." J'onn answered blandly, shifting back into his Hank Henshaw disguise.

"Wait, you're telling me all this has been here the whole time? With the glass, and the views and...and you made me fly to that cave every day!" Kara demanded, following J'onn as he nonchalantly disregarded the two of them.

"The DEO has several government facilities, Kara. Just like every government office ever."

"A bat bit me in the last one." Kara complained sullenly.

Barry snorted, still trying to re-adjust his clothing from looking like he had gotten in a fight with a tornado. "I think the bat was more injured than you."

"He's right. That bat was a vital part of our department, a spy we could send all around the globe. He had to take three weeks leave just to recover from the damage." J'onn said solemnly.

Kara shot him a look of astonishment. "You train bats to be spies?"

"Of course not Kara, that would be ridiculous, now stop whining." J'onn ordered, never once breaking stride.

Alex walked up to the trio, not looking happy, but not looking angry either, which Barry gathered was the norm for her. "Hey, sis. Hey, streaker."

Barry looked accusingly at J'onn. "You had to tell her?"

"Technically it was a government mission and I had to submit an official report. Don't worry, only the DEO, CIA, FBI, the Pentagon and the DMV have access to those records." J'onn reassured Barry.

Barry did not feel reassured.

"Where's the man who fell to Earth?" Kara asked, tapping her boot and glancing around the new headquarters warily, just in case any bats were to fly at her. Alex led everyone upstairs, where they found the mysterious man in a lab.

He was doing push-ups. One handed. With Winn sitting on his back.

Kara cleared her throat and Winn quickly scrambled off of the mysterious alien, who bounced to his feet and gave the group a charming smile. He was a handsome man, nearly as tall as Barry, with a physique that many female (and a few male) DEO agents were stopping to admire, something he helped by being completely shirtless.

"Hello there! May I leave without being hit with the shocking sticks now?" The man asked politely in slightly mispronounced English.

Kara blinked in surprise, clearly taken aback. "Um…..F'uh alah singah." Kara suddenly switched to a foreign language, clearly hopeful. The man seemed to brighten.

"Uta allouh." He responded, twisting his hand over his stomach and bowing. Kara reciprocated, eyes bright with enthusiasm.

Winn leaned in to Barry's ear. "They're greeting each other in Kryptonian." He hissed. Barry nodded, not really surprised, but J'onn turned to Winn with clear disbelief on his face.

"You speak Kryptonian?" J'onn questioned as Kara and the apparent Kryptonian exchanged pleasantries.

Winn nodded a bit nervously. He had seemed off put by J'onn at the party, and at first Barry had thought it was some sort of alien racism. Then he realized that J'onn's biceps were the size of Winn's head and realized he was a bit scared of J'onn too.

"I got bored, so I thought I'd learn a new language. And since Vulcans don't seem to be real, Krytonese is where it's at." Winn explained without a touch of pride in his voice.

Barry was paying closer attention to Kara's conversation than Winn's, even if he couldn't understand hers, so he noticed when her face suddenly fell and she seemed to lose most of her enthusiasm.

"What's up?" Barry asked. The mysterious man seemed a bit nervous as well, but he seemed to be wary of the armed guards and didn't move.

"He's not from Krypton." Kara announced sadly. "He's…Mon-El. Of Daxam."

It was fairly clear that no one in the room understood what that meant except for Kara and Mon-El.

"Daxam is the greatest planet in the universe, and sister planet to Krypton." Mon-El explained proudly. "When Krypton exploded, the debris fell to Daxam, my prince sent me to this planet to avoid death by flaming chunks of rock."

"Your prince? The frat boy of the universe saved you rather than save himself?" Kara said, disbelief thick in her voice. Mon-El's smile became a touch less charming and his fists clenched involuntarily, making several DEO agents raise their guns.

"Yes." Mon-El got out. "My prince saved me."

The palace was crumbling. The structural integrity had been sound mere minutes before, but then a deafening roar shook the ground and the stone palace began to fold in on itself. Mon-El watched in horror as his fellow guards that he had known all his life were pulped by the falling rocks. There was nothing that he could do for them…but he could still protect his prince.

Mon-El seized his charge by the hand and dragged the shocked young man behind him, narrowly avoiding being crushed by an ornate statue shattering on the ground. The prince's gaze was empty and hollow as he followed his guard out, to the only available exit, through which they could see shattered stone and leaping flames. The air burned his eyes and throat as he breathed in the thick smoke, barely managing to not double over coughing.

Mon-El threw his arms over his prince as an explosion pushed them back from the exit, feeling the shockwave ripple through him, just far enough away to not take enough permanent damage.

He pulled on his charge, but the prince stared off into the palace, hearing the sounds of screaming and pleading echoing from the inner chambers over the explosions outside.

"My prince, we can't stay here." Mon-El said forcefully. The prince favored him with dead eyes that only showed a flicker of life in them, submitting to his guard. "Come on!" Mon-El pulled him along, out of the palace and into the light of Rao.

Mon-El had never seen so much devastation, never could have imagined so much agony and helplessness, surely not even in their world's extensive history of war had Daxamites suffered so much. There wasn't a second that passed where someone wasn't taken down by a hunk of stone or metal. He quickly became acquainted with the sickly sweet smell of burned flesh, could almost taste it in the wafts of smoke that drifted off each corpse, making bile rise up in his throat.

He blocked out as much of it as he could. Nothing mattered beyond getting the prince to safety. No one was more important than the prince, right?

Another explosion from a hunk of eerily glowing material wretched the prince to the ground with a cry of pain. Mon-El pulled him up and searched the prince desperately for injury, but other than one spot that the prince clutched on his torso, he seemed unharmed.

"Are you alright?"

The prince nodded, his gaze fixed on the body of a nearby Daxamite, impaled through the stomach by a metal rod. Mon-El recalled that man had taught the prince his letters years ago. But then the prince's eyes caught on something else, and his sunken eyes took on some semblance of life. The prince pulled Mon-El jerkily in the direction of a nearby building, one of the bases for royal guests.

The prince halted before a familiar vessel. It was a Kryptonian transport ship, dented and bruised, but still functional and unmanned.

"This is a Kryptonian ship. The emissaries?" Mon-El wondered. Was there some Kryptonian diplomat racing across the desolate capital, hoping to reclaim his vehicle? His thoughts clearly showed on his face, because his prince shook his head, a hard set to his mouth.

"Dead. And so is their planet." Another chunk exploded nearby, and Mon-El's gaze finally found its way upward. The far off orb that was Krypton was now a mass of pure fire and stone, raining down destruction and fury on Daxam. Was this some last-ditch revenge on Daxam by the Kryptonians?

"All of this is Krypton's doing." The prince growled. Mon-El shook his head. Now was not a time to focus on hostility for a dead race. If no Kryptonian was going to be able to make use of this ship, then the prince could escape in it.

"We need to get out of here." Mon-El guided the prince toward the vessel, but the prince jerked back, looking up at his guard with a hint of desperation.

"I can't fly one of these. Can you program the destination?" He asked fearfully. Mon-El nodded curtly and hopped into the ship, the controls coming alive under his fingers. The nearest inhabited, neutral planet would do, away from Daxam's enemies. The only one near enough was a planet orbiting the yellow sun Sol, a planet categorized as Earth.

"Launch countdown started." Mon-El reported, checking the diagnostics to see if anything would malfunction during the flight. A bit dinged up, but everything looked fine so far…

Energy began to hum through the Kryptonian vessel as the ship encased him fully, locking him inside the cockpit. Mon-El looked up to find his prince with his hands on the outside controls, clearly having been the one to lock his guard in, a resolute expression on his normally carefree face.

Mon-El began to pound on the glass, but it didn't budge. "No. No! You can't…"

"You have to save yourself." The prince ordered. A sheen of sweat began to work its way onto the prince's forehead and his face was tight with pain. Mon-El began trying to unlock the ship from the inside, but nothing was responding, all energy being directed to the upcoming launch.

"For one in your life, obey me." A touch of wistfulness entered his prince's voice. "Those are my people out there." The prince moved his hand from his torso, revealing a bloody gaping wound he had hidden. "Let me share in their fate."

The prince backed away, and Mon-El could see all of the life in his eyes fade to a faint spark. "Beyalat Daxam!" The prince shouted. For the valor of Daxam. The ship began to whir as it lifted off, and the stasis field engaged, swaddling Mon-El in an energy field that tugged his eyes close, despite his fervent attempts to keep them open.

The last image Mon-El had of Daxam was glowing green rocks ripping his prince in half, his entire world dying around him. Mon-El's consciousness began to fade, and he finally succumbed to sleep.

Beyalat Daxam.

The entire room was silent as they digested the story Mon-El had weaved for them. Mon-El had been remarkably relaxed through the whole account, sounding at peace with what happened, but his entire body was tight with tension, and his eyes were nearly manic as he described the destruction of his planet.

"So you were a palace guard?" Alex asked, her hands still ready to grip her weapon. Barry could see a touch of sympathy in her expression, but it was overshadowed by her professional duty.

"For the great royal family of Daxam." Mon-El declared proudly.

Kara snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Ugh, they were the worst. Their son was rumored to be even worse, partying all over the world and refusing to take responsibility for anything."

Mon-El winced, but didn't deny what she said. "He…had his good moments too." He defended. His story had made it clear that he and the prince were close, and Barry felt a surge of sympathy that was offset by a scoff from Kara.

Barry tapped Kara on the shoulder and gave her a friendly smile. "Kara, could I speak to you for a moment?" Kara gave him a confused look and the two of them stepped away from the group. Barry spent a few moments looking for an abandoned room and guided Kara in, locking the door behind them.

Kara raised an eyebrow. "What's up, Barry?" she asked innocently.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Barry asked bluntly. He couldn't restrain the disappointment in his voice, and anger as well.

The words seemed to strike Kara like a physical blow, and it took her a few moments to process it. "Excuse me, what did you just say?"

Barry took a step closer to her, a tingle of electricity running over his skin. "I'm asking what the fuck is wrong with you, Kara Zor-El." He clarified. "I know you heard his story, same as me. You sat there and heard how his prince sacrificed himself for Mon-El, and then you stood there and insulted him, right in front of the man who he died to save. How would you feel if someone insulted your parents right in front of you?"

As opposed to a look of shame, a look of outrage grew on Kara's face. "People have insulted my parents. All year countless aliens have said terrible things about both of my parents, but I didn't let it get to me! If I can do it, so can he."

"Except you've had over a decade to come to term with your planet dying, surrounded by a loving family." Barry bit out. "It may have been over thirty years since Daxam died, but for him it only happened yesterday. He watched it happen, Kara. He watched his friends die right in front of him."

Kara scoffed. "Well he seems to be taking it remarkably well." She said, her voice heavy with disapproval. Now it was Barry's turn to gape at her.

"Can you not see it?" He asked in disbelief, a bit of the anger going out of his voice.

"See what?"

"He's in shock, Kara. I've seen it before, working with the police. Some people just shut down and revert to old behavior because they can't handle what they've seen." That's what people had thought happened to Barry, and he had done a lot of research to prove them wrong.

"Or maybe that's just how Daxamites are. They're not bothered by doing or seeing horrible things." Kara defended.

"Kara, I'm going to say this without the least bit of joking: You are being incredibly racist right now."

"It's not racist if it's true."

Barry threw up his hands and wanted to scream in frustration, but heard a knock on the door. He turned and saw J'onn leaning in, face blank as usual.

"If you two aren't busy ruining every conversation in the building, I have something to show you, Mr. Allen."

Barry took a deep breath and looked over to find Kara doing the same, doing his best to calm down. The lightning that was playing over his skin began to flicker out and he nodded back at J'onn.

"Yeah, we're finished."

The 'for now' remained unsaid, but everyone in the room could hear it clearly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mon-El resisted the urge to fidget as he did his best to sit still on the uncomfortable chair that the 'scientists' ran multiple scans on his, monitoring him, scanning to see if he was healthy or if he carried some sort of alien virus.

Or at least, they were trying to. Mon-El had to learn multiple languages back on Daxam so that he could appropriately impress and seduce foreign visitors, and English was much easier than most others, so he could easily tell the scientists were frustrated that none of their toys were working.

The attractive red-head Alex Danvers growled out an unlikely anatomical configuration as yet another needle snapped against the skin of his inner arm. To Mon-El it felt as if someone had merely poked him. In fact it was sort of ticklish.

"I'm confused. Why do you keep doing that if it failed the first, second and third times?" Mon-El asked curiously.

Alex snorted as another crease appeared on her forehead and she picked up syringe number thirty two. "Well, it's fairly clear that, given your similar powers to Kara's, that you gain them by exposure to yellow sunlight. But for both Kara and Sup-….her cousin, it took a while to soak up enough sunlight for their full powers to activate, and you didn't get a lot while in the pod. So while your skin is tough, it's not invincible yet, so there has to be something that can penetrate you."

"You know, I'm a lot more used to being the one that does the penetrating." Mon-El said, leaning in slightly and turning up the charm.

Even with his new invulnerability, that didn't keep it from hurting when Alex Danvers punched him in the nose, hard. Mon-El cursed in his native language and his hand rose to rub his aching nose.

Alex gave him a sweet smile that was more a bearing of teeth than anything else. "See? Now you're going to be quiet unless you want me to try and find what other parts of your body are still…sensitive."

"Yes ma'am." Mon-El said fearfully. Even for a former prince of Daxam who had pissed off a lot of people by sleeping with their mates, Alex Danvers was one scary person.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kara resisted the urge to stomp as she followed J'onn and Barry downstairs to the basement level of the DEO headquarters. Supergirl did not stomp. She especially did not stomp when someone insulted her in a way that no one had ever dared to.

She could let the easy bickering from the morning go, as it was clearly meant in jest, and with their former argument tied up quite nicely by Barry deciding to help the people once again, she had hoped that the two of them wouldn't find anything else to argue about.

But then to insult her, say she was insensitive to the suffering of having one's planet blown up, was the very height of disrespect. Even as she followed the two, she was crafting arguments in her head to make Barry understand that Daxamites just didn't understand the suffering of others; Father had even said that they were biologically pre-disposed to it…

Kara pulled up short, and a sickening nausea filled her stomach. Everything she had just thought sounded more like the ravings of a KKK member, not one of the last survivors of Krypton. Kara had been a child when Krypton had exploded, and she hadn't seen any of the suffering, so she had dealt with it like a child should, by crying and grieving.

Mon-El had been an adult who witnessed enormous suffering in a short period of time, and he dealt with it like an adult would: by shutting down emotionally and putting up a façade.

She took a deep breath and let it out, letting Barry and J'onn go on without her. Okay, maybe she had been a bit harsh. Theirs were different situations, and Mon-El was clearly a different sort of person than her. But he was still a person that she had unintentionally insulted.

Kara turned on her heel and began to march back to the lab. She would apologize to Mon-El for what she had said, even if 'apologizing to a Daxamite' seemed to be an oxymoron. Kara stopped marching up and began to rub her temples, groaning lowly to herself.

Damnit, this was going to be tougher than she thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Barry looked around the area J'onn had led him into with confusion. It was remarkably like the underground headquarters, but completely empty, and had panels of one way glass high on one wall.

"Uh…what is this place?" He asked J'onn.

"When we designed this space, we wanted a safe place to test the powers of friendly aliens to see how powerful they were. Unfortunately we couldn't use it when Supergirl came on board, as she is naturally far too destructive, but it seems we have now found a use for it. Welcome to your testing grounds, Mr. Allen." J'onn said formally. He pulled out a small remote and clicked a button.

The room seemed to transform. Whole sections of steel folded up and began re-arranging themselves, quickly morphing the room into a mix between a gym and a torture dungeon. Barry counted five flamethrowers, two jungle gyms, a pit of something he hoped weren't acid, and a table full of Rubix cubes of various sizes.

"We are going to test your speed by putting you through every test in this room. Normally there's a max of two per day due to the likelihood of injury or mental breakdown, but I've been assured you heal just as quickly as you run."

"Why do I have to do this?" Barry asked cautiously. "I mean, I'm obviously as fast as Supergirl, you can tell how fast I am from that."

J'onn nodded. "We know that when running in a straight line, you're almost as fast as Supergirl, but Agent Danvers had been studying the traces of this Speed Force in your system and believes that it extends to your mind and senses as well."

Barry relaxed. "Oh, good. I thought it was to see how much of a threat I was."

"Oh, we already know that you're a threat, but given that Supergirl can stop you at any point she wants and your obvious reluctance to kill, you're a threat roughly on par with Mr. Schott armed with a ballpoint pen."

Well, that was a blow to the already battered ego. But his bringing up Supergirl reminded him of something rather important.

"I, un, don't have my suit anymore. So I can't run as fast as I'm able to without my clothes bursting into flames." And he'd rather not be naked while a team of scientists were monitoring and presumably recording him.

"Not to worry, we already have something in mind." J'onn snapped his fingers and a DEO agent jogged behind them to hand over to Barry what appeared to be folded blue fabric. Barry unfolded the cloth away from his body, letting it unfold, to find a suit.

"This used to belong to Superman, back when he was based more in Kansas than Metropolis and had less control of his powers, so it's fairly durable. Mrs. Danvers was kind enough to retrieve it, and Mr. Schott made alterations so that it would fit you reasonably well."

It was a one piece suit, like Barry's original, but it was of much thinner, dark blue fabric, and lacked his distinctive cowl. The DEO agent also handed him a pair of red boots, belt and gloves to go with it.

"We assumed that you would not need the cape, as you're more ground based and don't need to take aerodynamics into account. Mr. Schott also took the liberty of removing the coat of arms from the suit, unless you plan on going by Superboy." J'onn explained.

Barry nodded idly as he felt the material between his fingers. It was obviously synthetic, and Cisco would probably have a field day analyzing it. Still, it wasn't his suit, not really. Maybe he could talk to Winn about dying it red later…

But J'onn was looking at him expectantly, so Barry disappeared for a moment in a blur of wind and electricity before returning to the same spot, dressed in the uniform they had provided, with two additions. One was the Flash emblem proudly displayed on his chest, and also a red mask that covered his eyes, salvaged from his original uniform.

"These boots pinch." Barry grumbled slightly, pulling uncomfortably on the tight material of his suit, only to find J'onn walking away and letting the metal door slid shut behind him.

"Alright Mr. Allen, begin with the obstacle course on your left. We begin in five…four….three…two…" Before the man had even finished speaking, Barry had made his way through the fore mentioned course, all without a scratch, hearing the whirr of chain saws slice through air behind him.

"Is that all you got?" Barry asked cockily.

"Not even close Mr. Allen. Prepare for Round Two."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kara walked in on Mon-El having a seizure on the phone. The EKG he was hooked up to was going nuts, and he was even frothing at the mouth. The scientists were dashing about in a panic while Winn was wringing his hands in the corner, looking helpless.

"What happened?" Kara hissed to Winn. Winn didn't even turn to her, his eyes fixed on his new friend that was still seizing on the ground.

"One of the DEO agents gave a piece of hard candy to Mon-El to make him stop hitting on the scientists, but then he got really sick and started doing this!"

"Adams, what was in that candy?" One of the scientists barked at a guilty looking DEO agent. The man held up his hands in surrender.

"I don't know! I don't research the candy I eat, man." He defended.

"We're losing him." Alex warned. "His symptoms are similar to a severe allergic reaction; his organs will begin shutting down soon."

Winn ran a hand through his hair, eyes bouncing off of everything that might be of use as Kara watched in distress. "The pod!" Winn suddenly shouted. "The pod puts the person inside in a form of stasis, right? Like freezing them in time."

Kara shook her head and used her x-ray vision to see that Mon-El's organs actually seemed to be hardening bit by bit. "No, I was only frozen in time because I went through the Phantom Zone. The pod does something similar, but it's far less effective."

"But it still might work, right? That's better than anything they're doing now." Winn insisted. Kara had to agree, they tried to inject him with various solutions but none of the needles could penetrate his skin, and having him swallow the chemicals could just make things worse without knowing exactly what was causing this..

"Move aside." Kara ordered the scientists. Everyone scrambled away from the blonde and Kara threw the shirtless Daxamite over her shoulder. "Where's his pod?"

"It's downstairs, near the armory. I'll lead." Alex offered, immediately pulling off her gloves and running out into the halls, Kara and Winn on her heels. The room had multiple machines hooked up to Mon-El's pod, obviously analyzing it for something, but the machine was rather banged up from its entry to Earth. Kara dropped Mon-El in the cockpit as softly as she could and began punching in orders to the outside controls, closing the lid over him.

Mon-El's seizing slowly stopped, and his breathing evened out. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"This won't hold for too long." Winn warned. His eyes ran over the ship with proficiency and zeal that Kara hadn't seen in him since the man had designed her suit. "The battery must be low from its flight, and damaged from re-entry. It'll only be able to keep him alive for a few days max."

"Then we need to use that time to figure out what was in that food he reacted so negatively to." Alex decided. To Kara's surprise, Alex immediately turned to her. "Do you have any idea what that might be, do Daxamites have any major weaknesses?"

"Uh, no. Not that I know of." Kara said immediately. If Daxamites had such a huge weakness Krypton probably would have exploited it generations ago.

Alex clicked her tongue in disappointment but didn't seem surprised. "Looks like we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way."

"What's going on here?" Martian Manhunter fazed through the floor, looking ready to fight if need be. "I heard an alert go off, is anyone in danger?"

Winn leaped back in shock at seeing Martian Manhunter phase. "What the hell? Can you just…do that whenever you want?" He yelpedd in surprise. Winn's questioning was cut off when suddenly there was a flash of blue and another man was standing with them.

"Hey, J'onn, are we done with tests now, because apparently I'm doing really well." Barry said with a grin on his face. The man was dressed in tight blue fabric eerily reminiscent of her cousin's, a red mask, red boots, red gloves and his Flash emblem on the chest.

"Where did you get that?" Kara burst out. There was no way that Winn would have had time to make Barry a custom suit, especially after Myriad and later Mon-El falling to Earth.

"This used to be your cousin's old suit, but I Winn-ed it. Won? Winn-ified?" Winn wondered out loud. He looked far more proud of himself for that than he had for having self-taught himself an alien language. "I just had to take out some in the shoulders and arms, because apparently Superman was way more buff than Barry. No offense."

Barry rolled his eyes, obviously amused. "None taken." He looked over at Kara and she suddenly realized that she hadn't been looking at his face since he arrived. She forced herself to not look guilty under his curious gaze, and steadfastly ignored the smirk on Alex's face.

"So if there's no emergency, then why did the alarm go off, and why are we standing in the Pod Chamber?" J'onn asked testily, shifting back into his human form.

"One of the newer recruits gave Mon-El a candy, and he immediately began to go into convulsions." Alex explained. "We think there might be something in it that he's allergic to, but we don't know if it's just him, or a Daxamite problem as a whole."

Barry frowned. "Are you sure that it's an allergic reaction to the candy? This pod was lost in space for three decades and wasn't in great shape to begin with from what he said. Maybe he tracked something in and is having a delayed reaction thanks to his powers." He proposed.

Alex snorted. "It's amazing he was able to even move around at all given his landing. If you hadn't caught him he probably would have suffered much more internal damage. He might even have gone into a coma." Alex told Barry. He seemed surprised for a brief moment, and then gave her a smile that seemed half sincere and half scared.

"I could try to figure out the pod's telemetry while you guys look at the allergy angle. Maybe he went through some contaminants as he was travelling that we can't detect now because the machines don't work on him." Winn offered excitedly. He had tried to analyze Kara's pod multiple times at the old DEO but hadn't ever had permission, so this must be like a dream come true…minus the part about the dying Daxamite in the cockpit.

J'onn raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I've had highly trained alien experts working for the past twelve hours to figure out where this pod has been with no results. You think you can do what they can't?"

Winn met J'onn's gaze steadily and a hint of a smirk played across his face. "I know I can."

"I'll begin working on analyzing what Mon-El may have been reacting to." Alex decided, immediately heading for the door, Kara trailing behind her awkwardly, guiltily taking a peek back at Barry in his new suit then rushing out, forcing the blood not to rush to her face.

Kara watched in amusement as Alex forcefully deprived the sheepish DEO agent of the rest of his snacks and fiddling with her machines. Kara could only provide moral support at this stage. Science had never really been her strong suit.

"So, are you watching the Venture launch tonight?" Alex asked idly as she ran her eyes over some piece of vital information. Alex always did have a gift for tackling serious matters while talking casually.

"Ah, no. Actually, James and I are going on our first date." In all the excitement about Mon-El's appearance, and her own possible racism, and then Mon-El almost dying, she had forgotten her previous anxiety. Whelp, now it was back.

Kara pinned an enthusiastic smile on her face to cover up for the re-emerging pit of despair. "It's going to be great, we are both finally free and clear to be together. No aliens trying to destroy the Earth, just him and me, together like normal people, doing what people do on dates."

"Mhm. Okay." Alex's tone was almost a verbal eye roll, and Kara felt like she wasn't being let in on some sort of joke. Kara poked her sister in the ribs and narrowed her eyes.

"What aren't you telling me?" Kara asked suspiciously.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Kara." Alex said innocently, her eyes focused on her work, immediately making Kara that much more suspicious.

"You're doing that thing where you say 'okay', but you're not actually okay." Kara accused.

"Because you're doing that thing where you're super overeager, which means you really aren't, but you're trying to convince yourself that you are." Alex said wisely, still not taking her eyes off of her work.

"I'm not doing that!" Kara denied immediately. "That's…I'm excited. This is me excited."

Alex scoffed. "Sorry, there's a tickle in my throat." She lied politely.

Before they could continue with this pertinent discussion, Kara's phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and found a text from Ms. Grant, demanding her presence immediately.

"And here I thought you weren't Cat Grant's assistant anymore." Alex said, taking a peek at the screen.

"I'm not; she probably just wants to see me about…something. I don't know. But she is still my boss." Kara huffed. She gave her sister an apologetic look and was promptly waved off, Alex's focus returning to her work.

"Go get 'em, Kara." She said absently. Kara rolled her eyes and left with a slight grin on her face, marching through the halls of the DEO.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Barry skidded to a halt after completing another half-dozen of the tests, a headache forming at his temples. The physical challenges were pretty easy, he could just avoid all the dangers before they reached him, but the mental challenges were staggeringly hard. He still solved them in record time, but his brain was not happy about it.

He was allowed to take a break every few tests so that the scientists could gather actual data. Apparently they had much underestimated his speed, and without a bio monitor in his new suit, they couldn't get results in real time, requiring multiple playbacks to examine.

"That's good for now Mr. Allen. Get something to eat and return here in one hour." One of the scientists ordered from the speakers. Barry nodded, knowing they could see him, and took off at a leisurely run, which still made him a blur to the cameras.

Barry didn't know the outline of this new headquarters very well and there was less space to move around without bumping into somebody, so he needed to ask for directions. He raced up to the top level and found Alex waiting on results with an irritated look on her face, one Barry knew well.

He knocked on the glass pane outside the lab, and Alex turned to him. Her scowl of disappointment lightened into her regular frown when she saw him.

"Well, if it isn't the Fastest Man Alive, as you so humbly call yourself. You escaped from J'onn's tests?" Alex asked.

"Nah, I have to go back in a bit, but I've been given a lunch break. Is there some sort of cafeteria here?"

Alex shook her head, her gaze drifting over to her lab again. "Nope. There's places for you to eat your food, but we're apparently too top-secret to get lunch ladies. Either that or all our budget went into developing new ways to hunt aliens."

"Yeah, that second one sounds a bit more likely." Barry joked, settling down in an empty chair. "Have you found anything yet?"

"No." Alex said, frustration seeping into her tone. "I already ran one test but nothing unusual came up, so I'm running a more in-depth scan now." She gestured to her computer with disgust, the results of the first test displayed in perfect detail.

Something caught Barry's eye and he pulled the computer over to him, reading over the information carefully. "Hey Alex, did you see this part?" He pointed to the part that concerned him, Alex leaning over to read curiously.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Alex, that's lead."

"Is lead…not normally in candy?"

Barry stared at the woman in disbelief. "No, Alex." He said slowly. "It's not. Haven't you eaten candy before?"

Alex crossed her arms defensively. "I'm sorry I can't be like you and Kara and eat everything I can get in my mouth. Some of us want to live into our forties."

Barry rolled his eyes and turned back to the computer. "It looks like it's a really small amount, just a trace really, but it's the only thing that really sticks out… Do we know anything that might relate Daxamites to lead?"

Alex shook her head, but turned her attention fully to Barry and away from the other test. "No, we know very little about Daxam in general." Alex hesitated for a moment. "But I know someone who does."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kara adjusted her glasses as she one again walked up to Ms. Grant's personal elevator, waiting for her boss to arrive. It had been hard to overcome the habit to arrive with Ms. Grant's latte in hand, and even now she felt oddly like she might get in trouble for not bringing it.

The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and Ms. Grant breezed right past Kara, barely seeing her at all.

"Ms. Grant you wanted to see me?" Kara asked hesitantly.

In return, Ms. Grant scoffed, her mind obviously elsewhere. "They offered me a seat on the Venture, but I turned them down. What would I possibly have in common with a bunch of people with too much money seeking existential answers for their meaningless lives?" She ranted as she walked to her office, Kara trailing behind her.

"Speaking of which," Kara could almost feel the weight of Ms. Grant's full attention shifting onto her, "what's your answer?"

Kara hadn't been recalled being asked anything. Ms. Grant didn't ask, she ordered. "Wha…what's the question?"

"Your vocation. What is it?" Ms. Grant took a seat in her high backed chair and gave Kara an expectant look.

Kara's mind flickered back to her previous conversation with her employer and a smile came to her face as she realized what Ms. Grant was talking about. "Oh, you mean what job do I want." Kara fiddled idly with one of the trinkets on Ms. Grant's desk. "I don't know, I haven't really decided yet."

"Why not?"

"Well, it's only been twelve hours since you asked me to choose my new position, and most of those hours I was asleep." With some time set aside for having a party, saving a space ship, confirming her relationship with James, reminiscing about Krypton and finding a Daxamite guard on her planet. She had had very little time to think about anything else.

"Really?" Ms. Grant asked flatly, her eyes fixing Kara with an accusing stare. "I give you the keys to the kingdom, and you just go to sleep?"

"It was nighttime."

"How many hours do you think I slept last night, Ker-rah?" Great, she had been demoted to Ker-rah status again.

"Five?" She guessed wildly. There was no way she had slept that little, but it was worth a shot.

"Two." Ms. Grant bit out. "Because I care about making the most of my life. I squeeze every drop out of every single day. Sleeping is for slackers."

Kara stared at her boss in horror. No wonder she needed her latte at such regular intervals, the woman was practically living off of caffeine. "Right…" Kara responded dubiously. "Well, I did do this online quiz where you put in all your skills and then it uses an algorithm to calculate your ideal career and mine was marketing." She finished excitedly.

Ms. Grant gave her a forced smile as Kara sat and pulled out the papers she had printed out. "And according to the CatCo website, marketing ranks high in potential salary, future growth and…" Kara paused for dramatic effect. "…work-life balance, which is pretty important right now."

Kara waited for her boss to respond. "What do you think?"

Ms. Grant stared at her with pity. "I think it's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard." Ms. Grant stood up and turned her back to Kara, walking primly to her in-office bar, retrieving her salad.

"Oh….okay?" Kara said hesitantly. It didn't hurt as much as it might have a few months ago, but it was still like a punch to the stomach.

"You can't internet search a career, Ker-rah. A calling is something within you." Ms. Grant said passionately. "Do you think that Supergirl is a hero because flying is one of her skills? No."

Well, it was a big part of it, Kara thought privately. Just like Barry with super speed.

"No, she's a hero because she has a need." Ms. Grant continued. "To help people, to protect the planet. Like how your friend Mr. Allen is a police officer when he's not zipping around displaying his leather fetishism, because being a hero is what he is, not what he does."

"What?" Kara asked in confusion. Barry wasn't a cop; he had said he was CSI. Why was he even a part of this conversation?

Ms. Grant snorted. "You don't think I wouldn't do my research on a new superhero? Granted, now that he's back in Central City we won't see him again, but I plan to market the hell out of the Blur, because that's who I am. So you need to look deep inside yourself and find out what Kara Danvers wants to do with her life."

Kara nodded, a slight frown of confusion on her face, but still digesting her boss's advice.

"I am giving you two more days, that's 48 hours, and whatever you do, don't come back with the results of a Rorschach test." Ms. Grant ordered. Then she took a deep breath and glared at something over Kara's shoulder. "Miss TeSSMACHER!" She bellowed.

A pretty blonde woman rushed into the office from behind what used to be Kara's desk, a terrified expression on her face that was quickly covered up by a hasty mask of neutrality. It was an admirable attempt, but ultimately in vain.

"Yes, Ms. Grant?" Eve Tessmacher asked nervously.

"Does this dressing look drizzled on?" Ms. Grant asked, her posture perfect, her eyes sharp as daggers.

"Yes?" Eve replied hesitantly, clearly confused and somewhat afraid.

"No. No, this lettuce is drowning. It's floating on a sea of ranch like little Kate Winslets in Titanic. Get it out of my sight." Ms. Grant ground out. Eve took the offending salad and ran from the room quickly. Kara thought the other woman didn't know how lucky she was to not have the food thrown at her. That must mean that Ms. Grant actually liked her.

"This is the best replacement for you that you could find?" Ms. Grant asked disappointedly.

"Just give her a chance, please." Kara pleaded. "She is so smart and sweet. She went to Yale."

Ms. Grant shrugged. "So did George Bush."

"You could always re-hire Siobhan." Kara said peevishly.

Ms. Grant's lips twitched slightly. "It seems you've learned to make quips, how cute. Now get out and dig deep." She ordered.

Kara nodded, wondering where that sudden fit of negativity had come from, then rose and left the office, giving a distraught Eve a sympathetic look on the way out.

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"This is really weird." Barry said flatly.

"Shut up, Barry."

"If it has all her memories, isn't she essentially the same person?"

"Except she's not a person, Barry, she's an AI, it's different."

"It seems like you and your sister have problems with race."

"It's a machine, machines don't have races. They don't have feelings to offend. And if you say 'that's racist' again I'm going to shoot you and say you tried to attack me."

"Fine, fine…" Barry grumbled.

They were in the old DEO headquarters, which was mostly abandoned. Too much damage had been done to it from Kara's fight with the escaped prisoners, and under Myriad's influence a lot of DEO agents had intentionally sabotaged much of the equipment that was more of a threat than an asset to Non. It was kind of eerie actually, being in a dark cave with only the light of Alex's glow stick to guide them. They had come to a thick metal door with a bio matrix scanner on it.

"Normally this would only open to Kara, but I think she'd be alright with this, and there's no power in the system anyway. If you wouldn't mind…" Alex had said. Barry phased his hand through the hinges and simply removed the door itself, walking into a smaller room with an odd metal canister in the middle.

That's around when the ghost had showed up. With a buzz of electricity, a transparent woman had appeared, dressed in a dignified blue outfit. Her features vaguely resembled Kara's, and Alex had explained this was a hologram with all of Alura's memories, thus leading to their now settled argument, the hologram watching patiently all the while.

"Hello, Alex Danvers. I see you have brought company." The hologram said blandly. Barry suppressed a shiver. Even Gideon, the AI he would apparently build in the future, had talked with more emotion than Alura.

"This is Barry Allen, a speedster from another reality." Alex introduced. Barry waved to the hologram, which got no response.

"I am unable to help him with returning to his home reality. Kryptonians have long searched for a way to cross realities, but were unable."

"No, we're actually here for something else. What can you tell us about Daxamites."

"Daxamites are a foul race of hedonists, barely better than cattle. They live solely to oppress and enslave-" "Actually, just if they have some sort of special relationship with lead." Alex cut off Alura's speech, looking uncomfortable, while ignoring the significant look Barry shot her.

"Daxamites have no lead on their planet. During Jor-El's study of the effects of the yellow sun might have on Kryptonians, he theorized that Daxamites might react negatively to such a foreign intrusion on their system. Unfortunately, they did not have this weakness under Rao's light, otherwise they would have been cleansed from the system years ago."

"Does it not bother you that she just advocated for genocide?" Barry whispered to Alex.

"Doesn't matter, we got from we came for. You can deactivate now." Alex ordered Alura. The hologram bowed and blinked out of existence. Alex hefted the device that the hologram came from and turned to the door.

"So Daxamites are allergic to lead…" Barry mused. "That only makes them vulnerable to the most commonly used weapon on the planet. I'd hate to have to explain that to Mon-El."

"Yeah, well we have to save him first. Come on, we need to get back to headquarters."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The setting sun leaked in through the windows as Kara rushed out of the shower wrapped in towels. She had gotten back to her apartment much later than she had wanted after attempting to do some soul searching, only to find that James would be at her apartment for dinner in just a few minutes.

Moving faster than she would normally dare in her apartment, she changed into a frilly white dress and stepped in front of the mirror.

No, that wouldn't do.

Another blur of motion, and she was in a tight sleeveless dress that her Red-Kryptonite self had picked out. It looked good, but it didn't really say First Date, so no.

Another blur of motion, and she was in a pink dress that she had bought just a few days ago. It also looked good, but…

There was no time to change. She heard a knock on the door, and her heart made a successful jump into her throat. She didn't need x-ray to determine who it was; she had heard him walking up the stairs the whole time. She rushed to the door and opened it, making sure not to rip the door off its hinges.

"Hi." Kara flashed a grin at James, who was wearing jeans and a casual jacket. Either he was way under-dressed for this date, or she was way overdressed.

"That dress is amazing." James complimented, running his eyes over the outfit.

"OH, this dress? I, uh, I had this on all day." Lying was just a sub-category of using words well, and she was no better at that than she was at speaking in general, but James didn't call her on it.

The two stood in Kara's doorway, neither wanting to say anything first, both caught off guard on the first move.

"So, do you want to…" Kara started.

"I didn't know if you wanted to stay in or go out so I brought options." James interrupted hesitantly. He leaned down and picked up two familiar take out containers. "Pizza and pot stickers." He offered.

Kara and her stomach made the exact same noise at the exact same time as she grabbed the food from his hands, dragging them inside. "Pizza and pot stickers is my most favorite meal."

"Which I know about you." James joked, a slight edge to his voice that Kara didn't notice, following her inside and shutting the door as Kara broke into the food. "I'm surprised you don't have the Venture on, I happen to know how into the space program you are."

Out of the corner of her eye she could see how his gaze lingered on the couch, still made up like a bed from Barry's staying over last night. She couldn't tell if he was relieved or not.

"Oh, that's not a big deal." Kara lied.

"Kara, you can put it on, it's fine." James said knowingly, though a there was a tinge of disappointment in his tone. Still, he wouldn't back down, and she really wanted to see the Venture launch…

"Alright, well maybe I'll put it on without the sound." Kara gave in, picking up the remote and clicking on the TV, the necessary channel already onscreen. As she watched, breathless with anticipation, the engine kicked in and the spacecraft began to rise from the ground, spearing up towards the evening sky and breaking out of orbit.

As the cameras lost sight of the spacecraft Kara could feel her heart rate decrease and she became aware that she had gripped the table with so much excitement that the wood had splintered. She removed her hands with a sheepish grin and wiped them on her dress, turning to James.

"Shall we get started?" She asked.

James nodded and both smiled at each other, and both hoped the other wouldn't notice the touch of dishonesty in the others' expression.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bob stirred his coffee idly as he sat before the fire, heat licking at his legs. He was probably too close to it, but that was fine. It wasn't as if they could hurt him. He swallowed the bitter brew in his cup in one gulp, noting that it still tasted like ashes. He could never understand how the original had liked this stuff...

Jeeves poured him another cup to the brim with the oily liquid. "You have been requested, Exalted One." He reported in a dignified manner.

Bob snorted, and the flames reached out to grab Spike the cat, disintegrating the beast on the spot. Spike popped right back into existence, right where he had been killed, still sleeping. The flames flickered from red to green to blue then back to red again.

"What do the Lords of Nothing want now?" He asked, irritation thick in his voice. Jeeves's mustache was irritating him. The hair bloomed into a thick, full beard and Bob added a few dozen lice just for fun. It didn't bother Jeeves in the slightest.

"They request your presence, as always. They are unworthy of your attention, oh, Exalted-" Jeeves was cut off short as a gaping hole grew in his throat and blood poured out of the wound, dropping him on the floor. Bob watched with dull eyes as his faithful servant squirmed in agony, not making a sound. Sure, he had basically conditioned Jeeves to say things like that ages ago, but it got boring after a while.

"Did they at least say what it was for this time?"

"For..." Huff. "Tampering with…" Wheeze. "The Flash and…" Another splash of blood on the carpet. "Supergirl..." Squirming, followed by silence. Well, that was boring. Bob restored Jeeves's body to its previous condition and tore out the soul, letting the poor imprisoned human life return to the universe he had stolen it from. He'd get a new soul to put in Jeeves's body later, hopefully one that was more entertaining.

Bob returned to staring at the fire, letting it flash between colors and levels of intensity as a faint smile played across his lips. "So, they finally caught on, did they?"

Ah, Fifth-Dimensional Beings were so dumb, but they could be fun. Looks like Bob would have to prepare for a trial once again.

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Whelp, that's all folks. At least for now.

Sorry for the (comparatively) short chapter. I wanted to right more, but then realized I had written 10,000+ words and hadn't even gotten ten minutes into the Adventures of Supergirl, so if I'd continued this chapter would have been probably 30,000+ words, and several people have wanted an update so…here it is.

Mon-El is awake a bit early, and I do have my reasons for that. I think a lot of the damage done to him that his coma had to heal was done by his crash to Earth, because being encased in metal doesn't mean that your squishy insides aren't affected by blunt force trauma. Because Barry slowed down the crash, he's up and active earlier. Well, sort of.

A few people have brought up that Barry seem use-impaired so far, and that's intentional. It's well established that Barry is the most powerful being in his universe, but Supergirl is just stupidly OP for any universe, period. So that'll be something he'll have to work through. Plus, Barry can very easily become stupidly OP too, and I don't want that to happen too soon.

His new suit will not be permanent, don't worry. I just like the idea that superheroes go through a lot of suits because of all the danger they go through, and he doesn't have Cisco to make him another one. Hence, the Superboy suit.

Did it really throw anyone else off that Kara tore into 'the prince' right after Mon-El's story? Because it really did for me, so more than just Mon-El is going to take issue with Kara's racism in this story.

Review Replies!

Hadi276: Yeah, Barry was pretty much the comic relief last chapter. Don't worry, he's going to get better, but he'll still have hints of being comic relief.

Gideon224: Thank you! I would really recommend Call Me Kara by Speedforce 1229 for another great Flash x Supergirl crossover and romance.

Himallthat: You know, the original first draft of this story had Kara and Barry kissing in Chapter 1, but I thought it would be way more fun to do a slower build, with lots of tension of course.

CallMeMiles: Thanks, I wanted to do something kind of unique rather than merging the worlds together, and having Barry be confused about the new world is fun to write.

WiseGirl127(Guest): I don't have a really consistent schedule, I try to write for a few hours every day but it depends heavily on motivation (which reviews help with hinthint) and a lot of re-writing. But thanks, and good luck with your writing.

Sbuko2002: If you start going through withdrawals, cocaine is a great way to cope with waiting for an update. It's certainly helped me.

Chevalier Lecteur: Thanks so much, that means a lot (and I don't mind the puns). I'm always a bit leery about the comedic parts, so your review helped with that a lot.

TheOperator(Guest): I have no idea. I have a lot of plans that I want to do for this story(it's already my largest on the site) so it's more a matter of words than chapters.

Thanks so much for reading and always remember to FOLLOW, FAVORITE and REVIEW.