Of All Alien Great and Small
xavacid
Chapter 7 : It's a success, people!
"How is it?" Supergirl hovered over her agent's shoulder to look at what she was doing.
After the first successful trial - the tiny Kryptonian liked to think so, nothing got blown up and no one died, she'd call that a success- they came back to Alex's office so that the agent could take care of her other duties, which she did while also running more calculation on one of the numerous screens on her desk.
The Kryptonian never really thought about what Alex was doing day to day at the D.E.O. Oh, she knew Alex had a lot of responsibilities, but to actually see it… And all the paperworks, her desk was covered in stacks of it, but in the most organized way. She'd heard the older Danvers complained about it a couple of times now, about how suddenly more paperworks were piled up on her desk with no explanation from J'onn.
They all knew that in the event that he was not available for whatever reason, she was the agent in charge, and she was his second in command; but now it seemed he was giving her the paperwork to go along with the status.
Alex certainly wasn't happy about that.
"I think I can improve a few things, so that it won't burn any component out like the first one. The team did a good job, though."
"Dr. Wells seems like she knows what she's doing."
"Yes, she's a valuable asset, I'm glad she decided to join us instead of going elsewhere."
The tiny Kryptonian pouted a little when her agent continued to look at the tablet in front of her, muttering about how they should switch over to all digital already, it would certainly save her desk from being the disaster zone. Supergirl didn't see how, her desk was very organized and clean, just with the stacks of papers. She wouldn't call that a disaster zone.
She'd seen more chaos on Winn's desk on his good day. Alex's was nothing like that.
With a huff, she floated over to where they set her futon - she didn't sleep on it last night - so she could entertain herself while the older Danvers worked.
Alex signed another paperwork, now she wished she could delegate some of this paperwork over to someone else, but that was not possible. J'onn was very firm about her going through all of these, but she had so many other things she needed to be taking care of. At least she could just let some calculation and simulation run without her input for now.
Glancing over to one of her monitors, the simulation was almost complete. Hopefully, they would get a good result for the second trial, so they could get their Supergirl back.
She just wanted things to go back to normal already.
She just wanted to go on a date with her. Maybe to that restaurant her little Kryptonian wanted to try. They still had that prize from that little photo contest at the Art Museum that Kara entered their photo for, after all.
It actually came as a kind of surprise when Kara got that phone call two week after that fateful trip to the museum. Alex just sort of forget about the contest, especially with what happened between them later that day. She didn't think they were going to win anything let alone the first prize.
And when Kara excitedly told her about winning the first prize she was a little surprised, there were other cute couples on there, after all. And after her initial surprise, they were going to decide when they were going, but like a lot of other things, their plan got put on hold for a later date. It'd been weeks already, and they still didn't get the chance to make that reservation yet. Good thing there weren't any expiration date on it.
Maybe after this ordeal was over would be a good time.
The restaurant was getting a very good review, so she was really looking forward to it.
Now if they could get the shrink-ray gun to work perfectly on the second trial, they could get Kara back and they could …
"Kara, are you starting a new show without me!?"
"Hey, how's it going?"
Dr. Well looked up to see a familiar face popping in from the doorway. "Agent Bering." She greeted with a smile, mindful that there were other people in the room. They'd decided to keep everything completely professional at the D.E.O, they were brand new here, after all. They were both still settling into their roles here, none of the other agents knew which branch of the government agency they hailed from, well, no one besides maybe the agent in charge of personnel and the Director.
"Should you not be wherever you were supposed to be?"
Bering grinned, "I'm early." She replied cheekily. "And you pulled another all nighter."
"What?"
Myka was used to this, HG sometimes got a little lost in her project and forgot about the time, although for her, time might be a little different than the rest of them.
"I thought I'd drop by to see the progress, you know, with the unshrink gun?"
"It's still going." Dr. Well narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Did Agent Danvers send you?"
"No, not really. I just wanted to know, and I'm sure Agent Vasquez and the others will ask later."
"Yes, of course." An eye roll. "In that case, I can't tell you anymore about it. I don't want Agent Danvers to rip my head off." Oh yes, she'd heard a lot of stories, and she didn't need to prove it if any of it were true or not.
"I just wanna know if we're gonna get Supergirl back anytime soon?" Catching the bad aliens were easier with her to back them up. Especially now that she finally got rotated to the first shift, Bering had been looking forward to finally get to work with Supergirl, which meant that she'd get to work with Agent Danvers as well. Which would not happen if their resident super was still adorably mini size as she currently was.
But maybe they could have her as a backup still, the bad guy wouldn't know what hit them with her being that small. Oh, Myka liked the idea, she wondered if someone else thought of it yet.
"You will know when everyone else does." H.G. said with a certain finality that the agent knew the time to wheedle the details was over, well, she needed to get to work anyway.
"Mean," she couldn't help but leaving with the last word. "I will see you later, don't forget to eat and take a nap. I don't think falling asleep and blow something up while you nodding off will go over well with the boss." Then she popped out of the door.
Dr. Well frowned, and considered going after her, but decided the display to be rather juvenile and there were other people around, she didn't want a reputation yet, being new and all. Looking down at the new prototype and the first one side by side in the nest of wires she got to more soldering.
Now, if Dr. Danvers could get in sometime soon they might get to testing this one soon. And they could perhaps discuss the new set of calculations that she sent, and how she came to it. It was fascinating, HG would love to observe her work and how she worked first hand. That would've been something to see she was sure.
"Are we ready for the second trial?" Agent Danvers strode through the hallway down to the lap, her eyes on the tablet in her hand. Her steps were quick and sure even though she barely look at where she was going.
Supergirl perched on her shoulder little little blue bird.
"Yes Dr. Danvers." One of the lab assistants tried to keep up with her speed while trying very hard not to gawk at their resident superhero in her miniature form. "We are ready for you in the lab now. Dr. Well said that this might be it." He was more excited now than nervous.
The initial trial of the second prototype went very well, except that a few small components were too fragile to take the amount of energy being forced through it, and they burned out. Once those components were replaced they were ready, and they all were so optimistic that this could be their final trial and they would get their resident Super back.
Dr. Jumba was also very helpful in that as well. Dr. Hamster on the other hand; they most likely weren't going to let him go anytime soon. He was a megalomaniac and all he could talk about was to rule the galaxy. Maybe they could leave him with Sam the giant lab rat. He wasn't much help in the building process, Dr. Jumba commented about how he liked to steal other people's work to claim as his own. That led them to conclude that the shrink-ray as the science team came to call it - might be someone else's design that he took as well.
That little tidbit was also brought to Agent Danvers' attention. Now she was going to have to have a 'talk' with the Dr. Hamster, she made the mental note to let J'onn know, in the meantime she was going to leave him in his cell. And now she got some new punishment for the recruits, cleaning the rat cage.
At least it wasn't like one of those horror movies she watched as a kid with aggressive rats, because that would be such a pain, Supergirl definitely wasn't going to be any help with that. Sam was such a sweet rat, regardless of his size; which was more of a size of a child and not the Kaiju, but his poop, though, she shuddered at the size of it and the smell.
They could probably keep him at that size for observation.
Alex pulled her thoughts back to the task at hand as they came closer to the designated lab for this experiment. Supergirl was oddly quiet, and she was starting to worry about that. Kara was never really still or quiet, she had too much energy for that. She could count on one hand the time that her little Kryptonian was quiet ever since the first week she came to live with them.
She was going to have to check with her in a little bit.
"Alright," Alex announced her present to the room as the doors swoosh opened. "Are we ready." It really was not a question, but the rest of the room's attention was on her and the miniature Supergirl immediately upon her entrance so they gave her a collective yes.
With adrenaline running high in the lab, the second trial went on the way. More than a few of the personels that were on lab duty stopped everything that they were doing to observe. The one front and centers were Agent Danvers and Supergirl, along side them was a very alert Dr. Well, despite looking like she had not slept a wink in days.
A small white mouse was placed in the middle of the platform. Without any delay, Dr. Well handed over the controller for the unshrink-ray where it was set up in front of the platform containing the white mouse. Agent Danvers gave a quick once over and just pressed the button.
A bright light enveloped the little white creature and the entire room held their breath.
Seconds late the tiny little white mouse was gone, in its place was a large white mouse.
The mouse didn't display any ill effect of being enlarged at all, only stunned for a little while at the sudden change in perspective. Its red eyes were looking around placidly, as if the fact that these human all around were smaller than before did not register.
Several lab tech went ahead and herded the mouse off of the platform. They needed to check it out next to make sure that there was nothing wrong. They were quite optimistic about its condition, since the first subject was fine and happily in his cell for almost a day now.
Mini-Supergirl turned to look at her agent, and Dr. Well, the confident she could see on the scientist, who had worked very hard on this project, and the approval of Alex's assured that little part of herself that was not very hopeful.
She was going to get back to normal.
She'd reviewed all data generated from the first test, Agent Danvers was sure that this one would not be any different in its effectiveness, the only reason they had to rebuild was because the components got fried after the first use. And since it was built according to Dr. Hamster, and he also fried his own shrink-ray, it answered the question why he did not try anything else afterward.
This second trial was an improvement in many ways, and after they had a thorough examination of the giant mouse they could prep for Supergirl to get unshrink.
"So, what's gonna happen to the mice after this?" Supergirl was back at her regular perch, she really was going to miss being on Alex's shoulder. "You're not gonna get rid of them, are you?"
"They need to be under observation for a while, and they make a good punishment." Alex whispered back. "But right now we're gonna run some tests to make sure nothing is wrong, then we can get setup for you."
"Yay."
The room was a storm of activities, but a few of them still discreetly watched their esteem commander interacted with their resident Kryptonian. Most of them were just in awe, they had never really worked with Supergirl in person before. And now they could almost pat themselves in the back for job well done, only a few hours more, they could breathe easier now.
As soon as the bright light clear and revealed a giant white mouse Dr. Well felt the weight she didn't know was there fell away. She also felt the exhaustion pressing on at the very edge of her eyes. Well, the finish line was within reach now.
Looking over to where Dr. Danvers was looking through the results of everything with Supergirl hovered over her shoulder. Hopefully, they would get to corroborate on something after this without the time restrain and the urgency. From what she saw of her corrections and notes, and calculation independent from the activity in the lab, she knew she'd met someone of a like mind.
And she was so happy she decided to join the D.E.O. and with the bonus of working in the same facility with Myka. Too bad that Pete didn't come with them, but he had other things that he wanted to do, apparently another secret organization didn't appeal to him. Or maybe they just had to drag him in without asking.
"Dr. Well, Dr. Harriet is gonna be ready for the mouse in a moment." One of the lab tech came up to tell her.
"Of course," she gave a distracted nod.
Agent Danvers and Supergirl was still conversing, and she'd love to talk to them, but duty called and she needed everything to go well so that they could complete the last phrase, which was returning their resident Superhero to her original size.
Kara wanted to see to the mice, she had not seen the first one, which named Sam by someone in the lab, only heard that he was fine, someone needed to name this one as well. Maybe they could name this one Frodo, she mused while one of the engineers came up to talk to her agent.
Alex looked so serious and the tiny Kryptonian could not help but admired her, Alex really was a badass, on and off the field.
And before she knew it, the examination of the newly named Frodo the lab mouse was finished and things were ready for Supergirl.
Agent Danvers supervise every single thing, checked and double checked every single steps. Kara had never seen her this intense, but then she had never really seen her working in the lab, either. They were always out in the field together, that or Alex would take care of her while she was here.
And she also got to see how attentive everyone around her was, and quick to respond to her commands.
They were pretty nervous around her, but she would be, too, if she wasn't the one growing up with her and saw her when she woke up first thing, hair sticking up all over the place with pillow creases on her face and sometime small drool at the corner of her mouth.
She wished she took the pictures while she had the chance, but she didn't understand human contraption that was camera back then. They had something else on Krypton that would create crystal that contained 3d hologram, but now after over a decade on Earth she found 2D photograph charming, and they were much easier to put on the wall for display.
"Supergirl."
"Yeah?" She was a little startled, now half the room was looking at her.
Supergirl blushed and she quickly flew closer to her agent, practically landed right on her shoulder and half hidden by her dark hair.
"Let's get you change, before we start." Alex gestured at the hoodie that her little Kryptonian was wearing.
"Into the suit?"
"Yes," Alex titled her head a little, then she turned to give another order to the room before leading the tiny Super out so she could get change into the mini suit that Winn made her.
"Shouldn't I change into the sweats I wore when I got shrunk?" The tiny Kryptonian asked. "I mean, so they could get unshrunk with me." That was her most comfiest sweats, it took her a while to steal them from Alex after waiting for her to worn them down to the softness that she liked. She wanted them back!
What Kara asked did make sense, but they tried their best to keep her Kara Danvers' identity a secret, and that included keeping her image at the D.E.O and when she was out as Supergirl, in Supergirl persona, which meant the suit, even if it was a hurried - so Winn said - made one, which would be very clear when she was normal size with the suit, that or it might not get enlarged with the girl who was wearing it.
Damn, that was the possibility she didn't think about before, she'd need to grab her normal suit as well, just in case.
Alex walked up to the platform where a lone examination bed sat, Kara, in her mini Supersuit sat still on her shoulder, almost too still. She could tell that her tiny Kryptonian was nervous. To be honest, she was, too. All the worse case scenarios ran through her mind at the speed of light, things could still go horribly wrong, even though they did everything possible, ran all sorts of tests, there were always the possibilities. She wished that they could be hundred percent sure.
But delaying this wasn't going to make her anymore certain.
She was going to be worried no matter if they did this today, tomorrow, or a year from now. So, Alex had to bite the bullet, and focused everything on what was in front of her, or rather the person on her shoulder.
"Ok," she took a fortifying breath. "Ok."
"It's gonna be fine, Alex."
"Yes," she had many many things to say, but most of them were for the privacy of their own space and not for the consumption of the rest of the lab, as she could hear the activities behind them. "I love you." Was all she could whisper, knowing that Kara would hear it loud and clear.
"I love you." Sentiment returned.
Kara hugged her agent's neck and kissed her cheek, from their position, no one could see what they were doing, so they could be relatively private. She knew Alex was worried, but she had every confidence in everyone that was working on this, that it was going to go well, and she would be back in her normal size. So, she kissed Alex's soft cheek again and flew over to the examination bed, and lay down.
Tiny Supergirl held eye contact until her agent stepped away and back.
She took several deep breaths and closed her eyes.
"It worked!" Supergirl - now her proper size - leaped forward off of the platform and engulped her agent in one move, then she floated up and spun her around in the air. Clattering of some soft of equipment dropped to the floor but no one paid any attention to it.
"Ka- Supergirl!" Agent Danvers yelped. "Put me down!"
They had put her back in her tiny super-suit before they shot her with unshrunk-ray. Even though it did not look as good as her actual suit, but Winn did a great job with the size of it. So now she was back in her full size glory, and was too happy to care about her image to the rest of the D.E.O.
Agent Danvers, however felt differently.
The entire lab, which included many personels that worked under her, were treated to the sight of their commander blushing and yelping to be let down.
"This is embarrassing." She muttered after Supergirl settled her down on the ground, the blush still staining her cheeks attractively.
Her little Kryptonian, who was no longer the size of a doll, did not pay any mind to the complaint, she simply bounced on the balls of her foot and went around the lab to thank everyone, and hug whomever she could.
"Thanks for all your hard work guys!" She chirped happily.
For a moment she was afraid that it wasn't going to work, as the flash of very very bright light covered her. She thought of Alex, of Eliza, of J'onn, and what was she going to do if she had to remain the size of a doll. She'd tried to look on the bright side the entire time, at least she could remain with Alex all day, riding on her shoulder was probably the only reason why she could be calmed about it all.
And she could eat however much she liked. Their food budget would definitely be smaller. But she would've missed being Supergirl, and CatCo, she would miss working with Ms. Grant, her boss would say otherwise, but Kara knew that the woman would miss her, too.
And Alex…
She couldn't even begin to imagine how her beloved human would cope, she had been an absolute rock through the ordeal, but if it was permanent… No, she steered herself away from thinking about it the entire time. Well, now she didn't have to worry about it anymore, the person responsible was locked up and could not go around doing this to anyone else.
Imagine him trying this on Kal, she was pretty sure things would be different, seeing how Kal did not work with the D.E.O, no one would know what happened to him, except Louis, and then Lucy might… and she had to stress that word here, Lucy might get a wind of it. But she knew that the D.E.O was under no obligation to offer the help if he did not ask for it.
"Alright you, settle down so I can run some scans." She tugged at the bright red cape and pulled her over to the examining table.
"But I feel fine," Supergirl nearly whine as Alex dragged her backward by the cape, she floated up a little, and let the heels of her shoes dragged along the floor. She gave the perfect impression of a golden retriever being pulled back from a fun romp in the yard.
The engineers and the scientists in the lab was gawking at the puppy in the form of their resident Super got pulled into one of the smaller rooms, and their voices trailed away as the door close. It wasn't like there was any privacy because all of the windows and glasses.
Dr. Hamilton cleared her throat to get everyone's attention and tilted her head away from the occupied lab. Everyone suddenly found things to do, and they all got very busy, some of the agents fled the room to wherever they suddenly needed to be.
Dr. Jamba was allowed to observe because he had been helping to the best of his ability. He felt a little smug now that he thought about his old colleague, finally, after setting him up and tried to take his work, his ex-friend was in a cage. He had not been to see him, and didn't think he was going to. He heard a few agents talked about leaving him there for the foreseeable future.
Now he was not allowed to call home, yet, and he knew that the children would be worried, but he had a talk with one of the agents already. And he was sure he would be allowed to go back home. He certainly miss the sea, sand, and sun. Well, not so much the sun, they were in the desert, and he was allowed to go outside for more sun than he wanted to handle, and there was enough sand to fill a bag every time he came inside. So, it really was just the sea.
He was in awe of the Superhero in front of him, he caught a few glimpses of her while small. She was so adorable, but now after she returned to her original size she was so beautiful. And bright, her smile nearly blind him. He was hoping that she would come his way so he could ask for her autograph for the children and maybe a photo or two.
But to his disappointment she was pulled away.
Then he was in awe of the agent that pulled her away instead. Wow!
"Dr. Jumba," low rumbly voice startled him away from staring at the spectacle.
"Um… yes?" He turned three of his eyes toward a tall, dark man who was wearing uniform a little different from every other agent in this place.
"I"m Director Henshaw, I believe we have a few things to discuss."
Oh, he didn't realize who he was.
"Yes, of course, Director." Now all of his four eyes came to the man who gestured for him to follow.
Man, he hoped he wasn't going to be kept here indefinitely, the desert sun was not good for his complexion.
Dr. Jumba entered the office with more than a little apprehension. So far he had yet to actually discuss anything about his release, or he hoped that he would be released and go back to the children. He didn't know if this talk with the director himself was any indication that he would be going home.
If he was going to be imprisoned here they would've done that already, wouldn't they. He didn't think the director of the D.E.O was going to waste anytime talking to him.
He jumped a little when the door close behind him, was he claustrophobic without himself knowing?
"Dr. Jumba."
"Yes, Director." He politely nodded and sat down when the seat was offered to him.
"You've been a very big help, so on behalf of the D.E.O I'd like to thank you."
"Of course, I'm glad I could help with Supergirl."
J'onn had been busy with his own day job as well as appearances as Supergirl. Supergirl could not just suddenly disappeared, he didn't want to think about what would happen, like others, he was sure that all kinds of criminal, aliens or otherwise would come out of the woodwork after a day of no Supergirl on scene.
They would definitely think they could get away with whatever they were planning.
But boy did he hate to have to smile at the crowd after the rescue. He didn't know what to do with his face when that happened. And his second in command did tell him that he had to keep on smiling, because that was what their resident Kryptonian did. And to have that on top of his never ending regular paperwork involved with running the D.E.O, his time was filled and he could not keep as close an eye on the Danvers as he would've liked.
His second in command had mentioned that Dr. Jumba had family, and he was harmless. J'onn didn't know if he agree with that assessment. But he also could recall the professor that Supergirl decided to let go, and how he was being a productive member of the society right now. Oh, he kept tab on him, not that he need to mention that to Kara.
Now, he had to decide what to do with Dr. Jumba, and if he was going to let the four eyes alien go back to his human family in Hawaii.
How in the world did he get away out in the public looking like he did, J'onn didn't know. Surely trenchcoat and fedora could not work in a tropical place like Hawaii.
"So, can I please go home?" Dr. Jumba decided that he would start with as much politeness as he had learned. He wasn't in the position to be demanding anything and he knew that.
"Yes, we are going to have to talk about that."
He felt his heart sank, although working here like this didn't seem so bad. But the children were going to wonder where he went and if he abandoned them.
"We need to set down a few rules before we could let you go back to your family."
"Yes, yes, anything!" He said quickly, eagerly. He knew he'd agree to anything. Well, he'd have to ask if he could get a photo with Supergirl for the children as well. He hoped that the director would let him have that.
Alex watched her little alien, now back to her sunshine and rainbow self with a smile. She'd wanted to just take her and run home, but everyone insisted on congratulate their effort and success. She hadn't realized how worried they all were about Supergirl. As soon as they finished running all the scans she could think of on her little Kryptonian, they exited the lab only to run into various other engineers and lab techs came up to them looking relief and tried to shake Supergirl's hand.
Kara, being her super sweet-self shook all their hands and thanked them for their concerns but directed all their congratulate toward Alex and Dr. Well and the team that helped. Thank God most were too intimidated by her to do much more than a handshake.
So here they were, made a last stop at the command center so everyone could, almost discreetly, come up to Supergirl and tell her how happy they were she was back. And Alex just stayed on the side to watch her happy alien bounced around like big golden retriever frolicking in the sun.
The hell..
Someone produced large pizzas and potstickers.
Shit, they are not going anywhere for a while.
a/n : Kara is back! Is everyone happy? Alex sure is! Any sympathy for the guy who has to clean the cage? I got 1 more left to go. I hope you aren't bored with this yet. I'm toying with a couple of ideas for the next part of their adventure. I kinda wanna do kid!Alex. I know.. I know age reversing thing's been done before, it might be fun?
Thank you everyone that's still reading this silly tale this far. Thank you so much. Comments makes me happy and favs are good, too.