***Edited***

A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter written and out. Writing from Kara's perspective proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated for me. Alas, here it is, and it is a fairly good sized chapter. If you look at the previous chapters, Adam and RRS have an establishing chapter, along with 'the date' chapter. You could consider this Kara's establishing chapter, and she is clearly the main protagonist to this story, so there will be plenty more to follow. Also, when I started this story and picked a name for my OC (Adam), the show hadn't introduced Cat Grant's son, Adam Foster (I think that is his name). Obviously, the Adam Walker in this story doesn't have anything to do with the Adam character from the show. I guess it was a good first name that I picked, since the show ended up using the same name for one of it's peripheral characters.

I hope you all are doing well, please enjoy!

Kara Zor-El hung in the complete silence, the cold and thin air of the stratosphere floated in her hair. Motionless, with one of her knees slightly bent, she stood suspended in the sky. The red fabric that was fastened to her shoulders flowed down around her body, almost wrapping around her like a blanket. The large symbol of the house of El emblazoned across her chest. Up this high above the earth, she could be completely alone with her thoughts, her burdens. She could see most of the western United States from this height above the Earth.

She had made the choice to reveal herself to the world, to her city, weeks ago. To start down the hero's journey that her birth parents believed she was destined for. She was still figuring out what her role was going to be in this era, whether people would accept her. She had all these powers that humans could only dream of, amazing abilities. Her body absorbed the energy from the yellow sun and it seemed that every day she could fly higher and faster than before, lift more weight on her back, fire hotter and more intense energy from her azure eyes. But she was still new to this, still unsure of herself; she had hidden these abilities for so many years. Her boss, media mogul Cat Grant, had given her the name that ended up sticking. Supergirl. Kara hadn't been thrilled with the title, but it really wasn't up to her. From the second it hit social media, it caught on like wildfire. It's like nicknames, you usually aren't the one who picks your own nickname, it's those that are around you. And there is usually very little you can do to change the name once it has been anointed by the group. She wasn't surprised, given what Metropolis had named her cousin. His shadow was hard to escape, and she found herself being constantly compared to him. She hoped she could measure up, but she wanted to be her own person. Her own hero. Was she strong enough to do this? She was still unsure. But she was compelled to do this, to live for a higher purpose and use her abilities to help people that she has never met before.

As she developed her identity as Supergirl, she kept her real identity a secret. Mostly to protect those that were closest to her. Those wishing to cause her harm, could achieve that by attacking those that she cared for, either directly or indirectly. She knew that if everyone knew her real identity, it put those around her in danger, for no other reason than being associated with her. When her pod had burned through the atmosphere and slammed into earth, she had emerged ready to continue with her given mission of looking after her baby cousin. But, the explosion from her dying home world had flung her pod into an area of Space that the Kryptonians had called the Phantom Zone. Through an aberration of physics, time does not pass in this expanse of the universe. When Kara had landed, years had passed; her cousin had grown into a man, without her help or shepherding. Kal-El, or Clark Kent, as he was known on Earth, had been the one to help her. He took her to a family, whom he trusted, the Danvers. The Danvers adopted Kara as one of their own and gave her their surname. She no longer had a mission, no longer had a commission to distract her from the pain of the total annihilation of her homeworld. Though the destruction of Krypton had been decades ago, she awoke as if not a minute had passed. The pain of losing her homeworld was still fresh. On top of that, she was feeling sensations that she had never felt before on Earth from the activation of her cells in proximity to a yellow star; strength and abilities that she had no experience with. It was scary for someone that young to face. However, she quickly had a constant force to help her after arriving with the Danvers, and that was her new older sister, Alexandra. Alex took Kara under her wing, and the two grew practically inseparable. Alex and Kara loved each other, and Alex became very protective of Kara. She felt it was her job to look after her younger sister; her younger sister who had lost her real family and whole planet.

As Kara grew up, the Danvers all agreed that she should keep who she really was a secret. On this planet, she was Kara Danvers who lived in National City and worked at Catco Worldwide Media as an executive assistant. Not a refugee Kryptonian who had abilities beyond anyone's imagination and no longer had a home world. For more than decade, she had perfected her charade. However, all that changed when she was faced with losing Alex. She wasn't sure what to do after she had saved the plane that night, weeks ago. Alex had been on the plane traveling to Geneva for work. There was no way she could have let her die, she loved her sister too much and she had lost so much already prior to arriving on this planet. Alex had been so upset, Kara had exposed herself to the world for her. Regardless, it felt good. It felt good to help people, to do good. To be more than an executive assistant, hiding who she really was.. She didn't tell her sister, but when she was standing on the wing of the downed airliner, she felt like she was living up to her birth parents' expectations more than ever before. Despite Alex's stern warnings, she had pushed forward, trying to achieve the great things that she was destined for. She developed a hero's persona, while keeping her real identity a secret.

When she had her first misstep involving an oil tanker in the harbor, Kara had watched as the city that she watched over turn on her in an instant. She had applied a little too much force to the front of the ship while trying to move it away from a fire, and the hull had breached, causing torrents of oil to spill into the bay. The backlash had been swift in the media, with some people calling for her arrest and others for her banishment. It was her first real taste of the xenophobia that many people are quick to jump to when faced with somebody different. There were people who didn't trust her because she was from another world; she was an alien. There were others who saw her as a threat because of the powers she possessed. She wished that she could somehow prove to all those people that Earth was her home now. She would do her best to serve and protect the planet from-

"Kara…" A voice transmitted from the earpiece hidden behind her golden hair.

Kara was shook from her thoughts, "Yes- Yes, I'm here."

"The police are getting ready to raid a warehouse at Connelly and Knox Avenue on the east side. A drug cartel is holding people for ransom. Could get ugly," the voice said.

"Ok, I'll head that way and check it out." She said as she squinted her eyes and could see the area of the city that she needed to head towards, even from miles above the Earth. People were in need of her help, and she became very focused when her self-appointed duty called. Kara clinched her fists and shoulders as the energy surged in her body and released as she bolted forward through the the night sky. She accelerated rapidly as she powered towards the sound barrier, a vapor cone forming around her waist as she transitioned above the speed of sound. She pointed herself towards the lower part of California and headed back to National City.

The commercial district had long since closed for the day, shipping containers and delivery trucks all stacked in a row. In a far corner of the district, an abandoned paper factory sat behind a chainlink fence with a single sodium lamp suspended from a pole. The light illuminated an old metal door leading into the factory. Years ago, during the recession, the facility had closed and been abandoned. A man stood just outside of the sphere of light cast by the lamp and smoked a cigarette, the glow from the long drag he took, glowed around his lips. He shifted his shoulders and adjusted a strap that ran down to an assault rifle hanging low off his right hip. He stood vigil for a sinister purpose.

Drug cartels had diversified in the last decade, moving away from solely smuggling drugs into the United States. Human trafficking has become a huge revenue source for these criminal organizations to profit from. It is a ruthless and abhorrent business run by 'coyotes', or the cartel members that specialize in human smuggling. These coyotes no longer acknowledge the people they are responsible for illicitly moving into the country, as even human beings. To them, the people are nothing but product; product that needs to be moved from one location to another in order to generate revenue. Many times, there is a price agreed upon before the journey starts, and typically involves money up front and more to be paid upon delivery. These criminals have little tolerance of delays or impedances. If while moving through the southwest desert of the United States, an older, sick, or younger member of the smuggled group is too slow and lags behind, they are promptly left behind. Lost and alone in an inhospitable desert, with little to no supplies, those that are left often die a terrible and agonizing death from the elements. The coyotes have no remorse or apprehension about leaving someone behind, and guaranteeing their demise. However, it doesn't stop there. Once the coyotes have moved the load to a metropolitan area, they are typically kept in a 'drop house', where they await movement to the rest of the country. The coyotes quickly figured out that they can refuse to release these people, until further payment is made to them, well above what was previously agreed upon before the journey, from their families already living in the states. It boils down to a classic kidnap and ransom scenario.

The cruel twist to the coyotes scheme is that the people being held ransom are in the country illegally. There are huge levels of distrust between the immigrant populations across the country and the authorities from years of abuse and vilification in politics and the media. Victim's families rarely report the ransoms to the local authorities for fear of deportation or legal retribution. This allows the cartels to run their ransom plans unchallenged; they have little fear of the police intervening. The coyotes will force their victims to call their families and demand more money for their release, often while beating or sexually assaulting them during the calls. If the family paid, they were sometimes released, but with horrendous threats of retaliation if they spoke to anyone about their ordeal. If they refused or were unable to pay, the loved one is never heard from again. On the rare occasions that the police are notified and attempt a rescue, the coyotes have a reaction plan in place. They will kill every one of their victims in the drop house in a truly barbaric fashion and flee. Dead people can't be witnesses.

The cartel guard continued puffing his cigarette, watching over the front of the property and the quiet street that was on the other side of the chain link fence. Inside the dank building, five people were chained to the wall. Two men and three women. The chains ran from the ceiling and clasped to their wrists, rubbing bloody abrasions into their skin. All had been stripped to their undergarments and they shivered from the cold, damp air. The man on the far end was unconscious and hung by his arms in the air, having sustained a severe beating during the last ransom call. One of the women hung her head in despair, she had been in this nightmare for several days. The coyotes had forced her to make several phone calls to her father and sister, who were living on the east coast, demanding and begging for money to gain her release. Her beatings had been brutal and vicious. The men had assaulted her in the most egregious and intimate manner during one of the phone calls, and she wished so badly that her father had been spared from listening to that. Her name was Christina, and she was in hell. After listening to his daughter be violated by the animals holding her, the father knew that there was no way he could get enough money to buy her freedom, and that she was doomed. He resorted to the only other thing he could think of doing, even with the risk involved. He contacted the National City Police and described what had happened over the last several days. An entire unit of detectives had been tasked with working the case and they wasted little time. The brazen kidnappers hadn't even encrypted or blocked their cell phone calls to the father; they were that confident in the terror they instilled. Within hours, the police had tracked the signal of the phone to the abandoned warehouse.

A small office across the floor from where the victims were hanging had a small TV mounted to the wall, the images of a soccer game flashed on the screen. Three men sat in the office drinking beer and eating food while chatting aimlessly. An assortment of weapons lay around the office. One of the men, the most senior of them, barked at one of the younger men in spanish. The young man stood from his chair and walked to the door of the office to check on their captives. None of the coyotes heard the footsteps of the men moving outside of the building down the wall towards the entrance.

Adam moved silently in the darkness down the long wall of the warehouse towards the entrance, walking in a heel to toe manner. The green hue from the night vision goggles mounted to his helmet glowed around his eyes. Nico walked off of Adam's left side, remaining completely mute. As far as the dog was concerned, he was hunting with his pack. Doing what predators do. Adam was the fourth man back in the row of operators moving along the building to their entry point, their rifles with long suppressors hanging on the barrels shouldered at the ready. Mark was leading the train of men and stopped several feet short of the corner of the building. All the men cautiously took a knee and watched as Mark stepped gingerly forward to peer around the corner. Adam could see the infrared laser on Mark's rifle illuminate as he spotted the sentry guarding the door smoking a cigarette. The coyote's back was to the team and the laser on the middle of his back could only been seen through night vision equipment; the sentry had no idea that Mark was there. Mark signaled with his left hand, and the second man moved up and gently lowered his rifle so he wouldn't make noise, letting it hang from his vest. He unsheathed a taser from the front of his vest and glanced back at the third man, who nodded. Things would move very quickly when these men made their move.

A pop sounded from the taser and the barbs flew forward in an instant and impacted the back of the sentry, imbedding in his skin. His whole body tensed and contracted as he released a muffled groan and fell forward to the ground. The team immediately stepped forward and rounded the corner. Mark moved to the metal entry door and the third man in the stack unclipped a football shaped explosive charge covered in black duct tape from his vest and began to affix it to the center of the metal door. Adam held up at the corner and watched as two other team members moved up to the man on ground, incapacitated by electricity, and grabbed him by his legs. They drug him backwards to the corner of the building as the taser completed it's cycle. The coyote was still dazed as an operator wrapped plastic flex cuffs around his wrists and ankles, he quickly applied duct tape around his mouth to prevent any yelling or warning from the man. Mark and the other operator, who was carrying a small detonator in his hand, moved back to the corner of the building and lined back up.

"Oye, lo qué está pasando?" a voice called from inside of the warehouse. "Daniel?"

The operator clicked the plunger on the initiator and a flash and pop from the shock tube preceded a deafening explosion at the front door. The men all lurched forward around the corner towards the entry door. The blast had completely collapsed the door and pushed it several feet inside of the building. The team filed in through the opening and moved rapidly into the warehouse floor. Adam was in the middle of team, Nico following dutifully on his left side. Three men came bursting out of an office on the far side of the dark floor and two of them immediately began firing their rifles blindly into the darkness. The senior coyote ran to the right and disappeared out of view into a row of large, cylindrical tanks. Adam watched through his night vision goggles as the lead operators trained the infrared lasers from their rifles onto the chests of the men firing. While still moving, the operators each fired a volley of shots from their rifles. He could hear the bullets slamming into the gunmen and they both slumped to the ground, dead before their bodies came to rest on the floor. Mark whispered into the team radio, "Lead two, push forward and clear the office. Walker on me to push towards the runner." Adam moved over to Mark's side as they moved to the right towards the tanks lined in a long row down the length of the warehouse. He glanced back over to the other side of the office and saw a wall with several people hanging by their arms from chains, the two teammates were closing in on them.

The victims, he thought. Mark moved over to one side of the tanks and Adam stayed on the far end. Adam looked over and Mark gestured to start moving forward. What little ambient light was coming from the office rapidly dissipated to almost complete darkness. Adam saw through the darkness in the warehouse, and looked at the rows of tanks through the green hue of his goggles. Nico stepped along with Adam in the blackness, his nose taking in the situation. Adam froze when he heard Nico snort and growl. He smelt something. He slowly lowered to a knee and kept his rifle shouldered and pointed in at the ready. He scanned forward through his goggles methodically, looking for any movement or sign of the man they were hunting. He could see Nico staring forward along the row of tanks and flicked on the infrared laser attached to his rifle. He hoped that Mark could see his laser through his night vision goggles as he moved up on the other side of the tanks.

A blinding light flicked on from a spotlight atop one of the tanks and pierced the darkness, pointed directly at Adam and Nico. Adam's goggles were immediately washed out from the illumination and Nico instinctively lunged forward to protect his master. Time seemed to slow down for Adam as he became acutely aware of the peril he was in. His vision was completely blinded and he leaned to his right, trying to escape the spotlight. Even through the blinding light, he could see the muzzle flashes from behind a storage tank. He started to point his rifle towards the flashes, but he felt like he was moving in slow motion; he waited for the incoming bullets to impact his body. Nico was several feet in front of Adam, and was now at a dead run forward. A shadow flashed across Adam's vision in an instant, and the glare from the spotlight was blocked by the figure of a person. Adam could hear the rounds impact the front of the figure and begin to rechocet all over the place. Nico immediately slammed backwards onto his paws, skidding across the concrete, trying to stop. The muzzle flashes continued and the rounds impacted the tanks and ground in front of the figure, whose back was to Adam. One of the deflected bullets flew into the spotlight and shattered it. The beam of light faded as the area plunged back into darkness. Adam could see again, through the glow in his goggles, the figure of a woman standing about 20 feet in front of him. He could recognize the fabric of a cape originating from her shoulders and flowing down around her body, and he could clearly make out the back of her hair flowing onto the cape. She leaned forward, and two beams of light surged from her eyes and slammed into an area next to one of the tanks. The rifle that the senior coyote was holding exploded, sending pieces of metal into the man's hands. He squealed in pain and stumbled forward into view. The woman swept forward and closed the distance with the assailant in an instant and struck him in the face. The man fell unconscious in a heap on the ground. She turned around and looked at Adam. He still knelt with his rifle and instinctively pointed in on the woman, the laser flickering around on her chest. Nico didn't move a muscle and stared at the woman. She peered back at them and her lips parted as she spoke, "Are you alright?"

Adam said nothing in reply, his mind trying to catch up to what he had just seen. Through the night vision, he could see her face and the dark contrast of her garb with a large symbol on her chest. He has seen this woman all over the television; he just stared at her. She began taking a couple of steps forward towards him, and he slowly lowered his rifle from his shoulder.

"Adam!" Mark shouted from the other side of a tank. Mark came running up, having heard the commotion and fearing the worst. "What the-"

"I-I'm ok…" Adam sputtered, still looking at the woman. He stood back to his feet and she continued slowly stepping forward towards them. He looked down at Nico, "We're ok…"

"Thank goodness," She said.

"Super...gi-" Mark trailed off.

"Yes, that's me. Good job rescuing those people, guys." Kara looked down at Nico, whom she was only a few steps away from. "Cute dog, what's its name?"

"Uh, Nico," Adam said. "His name is Nico."

"Nico, cool name," she said. Nico tilted his head at Kara when she said his name. Kara smiled and looked back up at Adam, "He's the last one, and he's all yours." She gestured back to the unconscious man on the ground. "Be safe guys. See you later, Nico…" Kara sprung into the air and flew off into the blackness, leaving the trio standing in bewilderment.

Adam scanned around with his goggles, but the woman was gone. Mark gestured towards the last suspect sprawled on the ground in front of them. Adam followed Mark forward and flipped the man onto his stomach and flex cuffed his wrists behind his back. "I've got this," Mark said. "Go check on the victims."

Adam nodded and turned back towards the open area of the warehouse, Nico trotted behind him. He could see two operators were standing near the wall where the victims were bound. He walked over, and downed Nico a few feet away. He swung the sling of his rifle around his torso, so it fell on his back and was out of the way. Adam moved towards the last woman chained to the wall and he could see through his goggles that she was terrified in the darkness. He reached up to the side of his helmet and flicked on a small flashlight and rotated his night vision goggles upward out of his face. The woman had a startled and scared look in her eyes, as tears welled up and glistened in the light. She cowered as he reached up to start releasing her chains. "Shhhhh shhhhh, está bien. ¿Como te llamas?" Adam said.

"Christina…" the woman moaned.

"Christina. Te vas a casa, ok? You're going home…" Adam said as the chain let go. She fell forward, her body and legs completely weak as Adam caught her before she hit the ground. He pulled her arm around his neck and lifted her up. The operators had already moved the others out of the building. Adam called to Nico, who ran to his left side and they walked out of the building, and into the night air. Christina had begun to sob as they moved through the damp air. A convoy of marked patrol cars and ambulances pushed through the gate and roared onto the property. Adam moved towards the closest ambulance and the paramedics leapt out of the vehicle. He delicately transferred the woman to the stretcher they were pulling out of the back of the vehicle. The paramedics quickly threw a blanket over her and rifled through equipment bags.

Adam and Nico walked away from the fray of vehicles and moved towards the corner of the property. Adam exhaled a deep breath and reached down to scratch Nico behind the ears. The adrenaline was beginning to subside in his body, and felt as the fatigue creeped through his bones. He reached up and released the chin strap fastening his helmet, and pulled the weight off of his head. He collapsed and sat onto a large piece of concrete that had been part of a loading dock when the building was new. Nico jumped up on the concrete and sat next to his master. Adam closed his eyes for a moment and recounted what had just happened in that dingy warehouse. Her voice… something so familiar about her voice, he thought.

"Whoa… ok… Did Supergirl just save your life?" Mark's familiar voice said as he walked over to Adam.

"Yeah… she did…" Adam sighed. He straightened up, "The guys will never let me live that one down, huh?"

"Nope, pretty sure you'll be hearing about that one for awhile."

"I'd be dead if she hadn't shown up"

"We'd probably both be dead…" Mark retorted.

"Yeah… probably," Adam said, shaking his head.

"That was a close one, buddy," Mark said, looking over at Adam.

"Yes," Adam said as he stared up into the night sky. "Yes, it was."

Kara was floating above the warehouse in the sky just out of view of anyone on the ground, and she watched as the officers carried out several battered and bruised people from inside the building. She saw a line of patrol cars and ambulances pull into the front of the warehouse, the red and blue lights dancing across the ground. Kara tilted her head slightly when an operator emerged from the doorway supporting a woman by the arm, a medium sized dog trotted next to them. She had a nagging suspicion when she was inside of the warehouse and heard him speak earlier, but it was just confirmed when he walked out of the building. She was able to clearly see his face, with his night vision goggles flipped up and out of the way on his helmet.

Adam Walker.

The man that she had been on a short and interrupted dinner with the night her life on this planet changed. Kara sighed as she remembered him lying about his occupation during their first conversation. The situation that unfolded tonight was what he didn't want her to know about. She watched as Adam helped the woman onto a stretcher at the back of an ambulance and the paramedics went to work on her. She glided through the air, still upright and followed above Adam as he walked to the other end of the property with his dog. He slumped onto a large slab of concrete and pulled his helmet off of his head. She could hear the conversation between him and another man who walked up. Adam acknowledged that she had saved his life. A slight grin tugged at her mouth when she heard that. Adam looked up into the night sky, and unbeknownst to him, he was looking directly at Kara floating above him. With the darkness, there was no way that Adam could see her, but she looked back at him. Billions of people on the planet and millions of people in the city, how could their paths have crossed again like this? Kara wasn't sure, but she was glad that she was able to fly fast enough tonight to make it to the warehouse in time. She hoped that this wouldn't be the last time their paths crossed.

Kara ascended up and away from the warehouse, she was tired and wanted to get home. It had been a long night.

A/N: Well, there that is. Thanks for reading. The next chapter will more than likely establish the antagonist for the story-arc. As before, I am always open to critiques and constructive criticism. Like most everyone here, I am here to improve my writing and story-telling. Take care!