The squad lined up at the door, while Clark slowly regained consciousness. He was dizzy, but able to walk. As long as they would stay back and avoided the crossfire, Kara thought they would be fine. "Switching to platoon frequency. This is Master Sergeant Davis. I'm assuming command after Captain Ryker died. Listen carefully because I'll only say this once. On my mark starts the countdown, we'll have ten minutes before Big Boy blows this place to kingdom come. So what I need out of you is a quick and ordered retreat to earth. Last man out, lock the door with a few grenades. Get ready."
"This is strike three, we are still holding. Even the SHIV is still up. If you make it to us, we're going home."
"Good. We'll bring the party to you three. Fireworks go off in three... two... one. MOVE IT OR LOSE IT, TEAM!"
The door opened again and while two rifles lay down covering fire, everyone else made a run for it.

Kara was in good shape, but she tried to help Clark and without her powers she was nowhere near the physical level the best soldiers of earth were. It only took a few seconds before she was left in the dust. Supergirl had to hurry, but in the wake of destruction XCOM left behind them, she and Clark were able to slip by the other kryptonians. Being caught in the crossfire between strike one and two, Argos' security force had no choice but to retreat into cover and let XCOM pass. They had been running for about a kilometer when Kara was feeling the fatigue. She swore to herself to exercise more until she realized, there was no such thing for a kryptonian on earth. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, her survival instinct took over. She wanted to scream and shout a warning about what the XCOM squad had done, but her lungs were too busy pumping fresh oxygen so her legs could keep moving. Still carrying her cousin, she ran after the soldiers. She only stopped moving when she was about to reach the portal to earth. A small vehicle was standing there, armed and laying down suppressive fire. Davis and Bose were the last ones at the gate and gestured her to follow them. She mobilized everything she had left and went through.

On the other side, J'onn was already waiting for her. He embraced Kara and Clark, then they took a look around. XCOM had been heavily decimated, of the twenty soldiers who departed, only eight returned. The survivors looked like they took a heavy beating too, Davis must have taken a glancing hit to his arm and Bose was limping. She was amazed they were still on their feet.
"Okay, now that this is done we need to contact Argo and negotiate..." J'onn started, but was cut off by Davis.
"Don't bother. Big Boy just went off and we destroyed their portal on the way out. One way or another, we won't be hearing from them again."
"What do you mean? What is Big Boy?"
"A thermonuclear warhead they planted in the main power plant." Kara replied before anyone else could.
Clark was mortified. "You NUKED the city? What on earth were you thinking? Who authorized that?"
"What I was thinking? I'll tell you. I was thinking 'that piece of space junk does not make it to earth on my watch. Whatever it takes.' And who do you THINK authorized that?"
"Van Doorn." Clark growled. "Kara, we need to go to New York. This man has now crossed a line." He already wanted to leave, when the news feed Henderson was watching caught his eye. "What's that?"
"That?" the soldier answered, before he adjusted his display so Superman had a better view. "That used to be New York, now I'd call it a pile of rubble. Initial casualties are estimated to be hundreds of thousands. Your people, this Selena woman, did that."
"When? Where are they now?"
"While we were in Argo I'd guess. And now, they are all dead. The other teams must have dealt with them. The general just went on a press conference and stated that they got all of them. Other teams confirmed five kills. Plus our two at the portal makes seven. We took heavy losses, here and on Argo. But I'd say for our first trial by fire, that was not bad."
"Henderson, you are right. Not bad at all. Skyranger is on the way, you all earned some R&R."
Superman put a heavy hand on Davis' shoulder. "Not so fast. You aren't going anywhere. Not before we know Argos' fate and you answered for it."
"Really?" He put his own hand on, but Supermans' grip was hard.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." the kryptonian said. Davis reached into his belt and brought up a box that looked like a spare clip for his rifle.
"Would you hold this for me please?" As he snapped off the cover, Supermans' grip immediately loosened due to the effect the kryptonite had on him. Kara saw what looked like a set of green needles. The soldier punched her cousin, who stumbled back. "Look." he said "I have no quarrel with you and I am grateful for the things you have done for our planet. But: These men and women are war heroes. They stepped up when nobody else was ready. They did what was needed. They never gave up the fight. They earned a break. Now, are you just going to let us walk away or do we have to fight another kryptonian?" As he said that, everyone tensed up. Especially the XCOM soldiers reached for their weapons and readied them.

"DEO personnel, stand down. There will be consequences to what you just did, Master Sergeant." J'onn said.
"Of course. There always are." He picked up his magazine as Superman got to his feet. "And when the time comes to answer questions about what happened today, the general and I will answer. But not to you."

The next days were spent quiet in Karas' apartment. She was devastated. J'onn had given her and Alex time off their DEO duties while Winn confirmed Argos' fate. Even Clark showed up to her place and offered his comfort, but needed hers just as much.
"Alright, J'onn, data is coming in – now." He had readjusted his instruments and now got a clear look at Argo, or rather the crater where it used to be. "Oh my god. These madmen actually did it. I thought Kara over exaggerated when she talked about this warhead."
J'onn looked at the screen, his face a mask of horror. "Any survivors?"
"Unlikely. I can't see any energy readings, or even the remotest hint of technology being available to them. Unless they can breathe vacuum, nobody who was in this city survived. Argo is gone. The last city of Krypton is now dead and XCOM killed it."
J'onn sighed. "Kara and Kal won't be happy about this."
"What do you think they will do?"
"Try and drag Van Doorn through every court on this planet? If that doesn't help, I have no idea. I hope they won't do anything stupid."
"I don't know. Just let me say this: I have never seen any of them truly lose someone they care about. Did it come close a few times? Yes. Did it – somehow – always end up working out? Definitely. Do I really want to know how Kara will deal with losing Alex or – now – her mother? Absolutely not. But it seems like we'll all know soon, for better or worse."
"Are you the one who'll break the news to them?" J'onn checked the computer screen again, before he replied.
"Probably. Unless you volunteer."
"Ahhhh, no. I'll pass."

Winn kept reading news feeds from all over the world, when he said "oh-oh".
"What?" J'onn asked. Instead of replying, Winn showed him the article on his screen.
"Peter Van Doorn to be knighted by Dutch royalty." J'onn murmured. "For their outstanding performance during the New York attack, quickly neutralizing the attackers and saving thousands of lives, the president of the United States has announced her intention to also award the Silver Star to any American soldiers who are part of the strike teams that ended the New York attack" he kept reading on. "Well, Kara and Kal are not going to like this one a bit."
"No, they probably won't. How are you going to tell them? By the way, it looks like many other countries have announced their intentions to honor their XCOM soldiers."
"Well it isn't getting better from just letting it sit. I'll head to Karas' apartment and get this over with."
"Good luck J'onn."
"Thank you, call me if anything new comes up."

When J'onn arrived at Karas' apartment, he was surprised to not just find Kara and Alex, but Clark and James Olson as well. If not for the huge bucket of ice cream Kara had standing next to her, he would not have guessed anything was wrong. She was either coping better than he had given her credit, or still in heavy denial. Alex opened the door for him and asked him to come in.
"How is she?" he whispered quietly.
"Not well. Losing her home once was bad enough, losing it again? You better bring good news."
"How does Van Doorn getting knighted sound? And the other soldiers receiving their countries military honors?"
"Not exactly the kind of news that I'm looking for."
At this moment, J'onns' phone rang. It was Winn. "Hey, sorry to bother you but I think I have something. It looks like they were keeping the lid on the Argo incident. Not on New York, but their counterattack."
"Interesting, but why?"
"Because deploying a nuclear weapon is still a PR issue?"
"Possible. Could also be because they want to avoid unpleasant questions on the whereabouts of our own kryptonian heroes. It looks like this has also been kept rather quiet. Speaking of which" he asked Alex "have they talked about what happened? XCOM has been keeping their mouths rather shut, so nothing on the news about Argo."
"Not really. Well, Kara said that almost immediately after stepping a few meters away from the portal, they had guns pointed at them. Because of the way their powers work, they were regular people on Argo. The technicians escorting the supplies were pretty much murdered on the spot, Kara and Kal were brought into a makeshift police station near the portal.
That very same station was later stormed by XCOM soldiers mounting their counterattack. At this point, their descriptions start to get vague. Kal said he took a rifle butt to the face and doesn't remember much."
"Hmm. So they haven't really said anything that wasn't on the news?"
"No, except for the part where Argo got nuked. That was not on any news broadcast. But a lot of people seem to buy Selenas' story on how they worked for her all along and prepared the planet for takeover."
"Hey, what are you two so whispering on about?" Kara only just noticed J'onn. She went up to him and dragged him towards the couch, where Clark was already sitting. Alex followed silently. When they sat down, an eerie silence governed the room. Nobody seemed to want to say somethin, when Alex ended up breaking the silence.
"So, what do you guys want to do now?"
"Well" Kal said "what CAN we do? I think we go public with our story. These people are mass murderers and we need to tell the world what happened. So Kara and I will start writing. The pen is mightier than the sword after all."
"And if it isn't? I cant forget the look on their faces when the squad found out about New York. And Kal – you have seen it yourself. If New York was hit half as bad as the news said it was, we might encounter little sympathy with our story."
"Since New York is gone, where is Van Doorn?" Kal asked.
"If I had to guess, in their underwater base. But Washington DC sounds plausible too."
"Underwater base?" She told him what she knew about Poseidon.
"That's probably where they stash their kryptonite too." He said when she was done. I want this place gone more than anything, but I don't see it happening right now."

Dutch embassy, Washington DC, at the same time
Moving into a temporary office, general Van Doorn got a lot more visitors than when he was in New York. He was, however, surprised, when the ambassador himself entered.
"Excellency! What can I do for you?" he greeted the other man.
"General, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. I just got a call from Amsterdam. They want to open a formal investigation, on a UN request. It seems not everyone was on board with the decision you made about Argo."
"I was afraid this might happen. Well it looks like I'm catching the next plane back. Would you do me a favor?"
"What do you have in mind?"
"Keep the press, especially the American, off me for as long as you can. Lead them on a wild goose chase so I can settle this with peace and quiet. The last thing I want is public opinion interfering with this."