Goddamn, this chapter. I wish I could've made this one simpler, but too many things needed to be explained or set up. Three years into this writing biz and this is the one that gave me the most trouble, geez.
An important announcement: as you may or may not know from my previous works, I love writing multi-fandom crossovers. I have done my best to keep this story strictly Supergirl X Avengers while hinting at the future crossovers I wanna include, and I think I've done a pretty good job of it so far. This is, however, the last chapter where this is the case. This story was always intended to be the jumping off point for the larger universe, and I'm about to take the leap.
Now, the responsible thing to do would probably be to end this story here and keep going in another. However, Kara's story is far from over, and there are still many plot threads in this fic that are yet to be resolved. What I'll do instead is just put a warning on the first chapter and the description. I really am sorry if you dislike multi-fandom crossovers, and I hope what you got up to this point was to your liking!
Kara awoke to blinding sunlight, open blue skies above her head. She looked to her right and frowned, seeing the Empire State Building, along with the rest of New York's skyline.
Someone had put her on a roof.
She sat up, slowly, feeling for any pain that might surge from her wound. Kara was relatively unsurprised not to feel anything out of the ordinary; if not for the brand new lumpy scar she could feel on her abdomen through the strange, skin-tight black jumpsuit she was wearing, she might've thought that everything about OsCorp and Project Centipede had been only a terrible nightmare.
"Good morning, and welcome back, Miss Danvers." -JARVIS said, his voice - tinny but unmistakable - coming through an Iron Man-themed baby monitor on the cheap, IKEA-sourced table beside her bed. "I am pleased to see you rise once more."
"Hey, Jay." -she said, stretching. "Why, uh...why am I on the roof?"
"Your injury drained most of your solar energy reserves, which pushed Mr. Stark to hastily establish this 'triage unit'."
"I...huh. I guess that makes sense. What about the suit?"
"The bodysuit you are wearing has been designed, using cutting-edge Stark Solar Panel technology, to boost your energy absorption rate by at least twenty-three percent."
Kara raised an eyebrow, looking the garment over with newfound appreciation. "Wow. I knew Tony was a genius, but making this in a single night is kind of incredible."
"That'd be because I didn't, Kara." -Tony interjected. "Come down to the workshop, will you? We've got a lot to talk about."
The kryptonian winced, but rose nonetheless. Briefly experimenting with her various powers, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary, even when she blasted the sky a bit with her heat vision. Just then, the roof access opened, and Alex walked through.
"Kara." -she said, a little breathless. She didn't quite look surprised to see her up and walking around, but Kara could tell it was still a relief. Alex wore a pair of old S.H.I.E.L.D. fatigues, and held a glass pitcher filled with ice-cold water, and a large glass, already full, which she quickly offered. Kara took it pretty quickly - her mouth and throat felt coarse and dry from lack of use.
After a couple of gulps, sat back on the bed. "Thanks, Alex."
The brunette refilled the glass. "I've been where you were, so I knew you'd be feeling a little dehydrated."
Kara frowned. "You were? When?"
"A couple of years back." -she said, sitting beside her. "Remember that Thanksgiving I missed? I got shot in the clavicle." -she said, then showed her a small, faded scar. "Nothing dangerous, but the bone shattered, so I had to stay in bed for three weeks. Almost didn't make the holidays, actually."
"Oh, yeah. Eliza was so mad." -the blonde reminisced. "You said you'd gone on vacation with that Sawyer girl you used to date - she couldn't believe you'd rather go to Cancún with your girlfriend than spend some quality time with your family."
Alex snorted. "I did go to Cancún, just not on vacation. And you know Maggie and I were never really a thing. I wish we had been, but...y'know, different priorities."
Kara hummed. "Did the others make it out of OsCorp ok?"
The elder sister sighed. "Yeah. The Centipede mercs are in custody for debriefing, and Lena's got some new, permanent scars from the armor she wore, but your friends made it out surprisingly unscathed. The same can't quite be said about you, though."
"...this is the part where you say 'I told you so', isn't it?"
"Clearly, I don't need to." -she said, bitter. "And even if I did...honestly, I'm just glad you're alive."
Kara nodded. "Me too. I...it's stupid, but I guess I thought I'd never meet anyone who'd really be able to harm me. Even when I was fighting Titanium Man, all I felt was...annoyed." -she confessed. "And then I felt that thing go through me. I felt like a kid again, running from the soldiers. I felt afraid."
Alex hugged her. "See, how do you expect me to gloat when you say something like that? I just couldn't do it." -she said, trying to cheer Kara up. "Besides, what you guys did...you took down OsCorp, you exposed Centipede to the public - you won. S.H.I.E.L.D. might not agree with your methods, but even Hill can't argue with your results."
Kara spared a forlorn smile for her closest friend. "Somehow, I feel like we lost."
A little while later - and after a few very necessary tears were shed - Kara went through the roof access, and then down a half dozen floors towards Tony's workshop.
The Tower was crawling with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. On the way to Stark, she spotted some familiar faces; Jasper Sitwell overseeing a bank of monitors, Maria Hill exasperatedly arguing with Pepper Potts...she even thought she caught a glimpse of Fury's signature coat going into the meeting room. No one paid Kara any mind, thankfully.
Once inside the workshop, Kara looked around; to her right stood a damaged, headless Iron Man suit, and to her left danced a bunch of holograms depicting the various pieces of tech employed by the Avengers. Stark himself seemed to be hard at work testing out a brand new suit in the center of the room - a matte gold and cherry red variant, currently in collapsed pieces strewn around the messy room. Stark extended one hand, striking an odd pose, and one of the pieces stirred, but didn't move. He cursed under his breath, hit his forearm a few times, then tried again.
This time, the armor piece bolted towards him, slowing down just in time to envelop his hand without breaking it, then extending to cover his entire forearm.
"That's pretty cool." -Kara noted, sitting on a nearby stool. "New suit?"
Tony shrugged. "Just a prototype." -he said, then repeated the summoning motion with his uncovered hand. Another piece flew towards him and assembled as before. "I'm testing out a big update for the new prehensile tech. Seems to be working so far. Alright, JARVIS, send 'em all."
One by one, the armor's components flew at him - a little chaotically, too forcefully, in Kara's opinion, given how he was getting pushed around by them. Clearly, the system needed some fine-tuning still.
"How do they fly without being connected to the arc reactor?" -Kara wondered, after she ducked under the helmet and faceplate.
Stark had to make use of some clever repulsor tricks so the faceplate wouldn't miss, but the final piece snapped into place and he rose, triumphant. The suit seemed sleeker than before, shaped more like a man than a worn set of armor, if that made any sense. "I'm the best." -he boasted over the speakers.
She scoffed, amused. "At what, bragging?"
"Designing nearly impervious exoskeletons and extremely efficient flight systems, obviously. But sure, that, too." -he said. "The Mark 42 pieces come with hyper-efficient batteries, previously topped off by the reactor." -he explained. "They can fly autonomously for roughly six hours, enough time to reach me anywhere in the world."
Kara thought that was awesome, but something caught her unaware. "Wait, what? Mark forty-two? The last time I checked, you were on your eighth suit."
Stark sighed, garbled through the helmet's speakers. "Yeah...it's been a long week."
Kara's stomach dropped. "A week!? I thought I slept for a night, two tops!"
He shook his head. "Nope. It's friday morning, a whole week since the whole OsCorp fiasco." -he said, then pointed at a broken Iron Man helmet on the desk behind him - the one matching the headless suit by the entrance. He tossed it at her, and she easily caught it.
Her eyes widened; half of the faceplate and part of the side appeared to have been sheared off. "What the heck happened, Tony?"
The suit opened up, and he stepped out. He seemed so much...smaller without it. Stark nodded at her. "How do you like the the suit?"
Kara didn't like the avoidance in his tone. "Oh. It's...a little tight. Doesn't leave much to the imagination." -she admitted.
"Yeah, well. It needed to be skin-tight, or there would've been a heck of a lot of energy loss in the transfer. I'm told it was a little difficult to stuff you in there."
Kara hummed. "Doctor Cho?" -she guessed.
Stark nodded. "Your sister helped."
"How long has she been here?" -Kara asked. Her sister rarely managed to slip away from her job, and the last she'd known, Alex was in England on assignment. She'd tried to ask, but Alex was surprisingly cagey about anything unrelated to Kara and her injuries.
"Ever since you went down, pretty much. S.H.I.E.L.D. was already on the way by the time you got stabbed - Romanoff tattled on you, but they'd sent people as soon as Peter's tweets went live. After that, they brought you guys here and set up shop, trying to deal with the fallout, or so they claim."
Kara winced. "Rao. What a mess."
He chuckled, humorless. "Hell of an understatement. If it helps, you weren't in a comma or anything. You really were just asleep - you healed in mere seconds, after Miss Luthor pulled the broken sword out of you. The last week was just your body restoring homeostasis, recovering your energy reserves after the whole ordeal. I don't think melanoma's a problem for you, so I threw you up in the roof."
"Still, a whole week seems excessive. I barely sleep as is."
He raised an eyebrow. "You were this close to dying, Kara." -he said. "According to the telemetry I recovered from Lena's suit, the blade disrupted your metabolism so harshly that you went into cardiac arrest within a minute. I've been there, and it's not great."
Kara sighed. "I know. I'm sorry." -she said.
"What the hell are you apologizing for?" -he asked, bewildered. "I'm not angry at you; I'm furious at Von Doom, Centipede, Osborn...hell, I'm pissed at S.H.I.E.L.D., too. If they were better at their jobs, you wouldn't have gotten stabbed with kryptonite at all."
Kara cocked her head. "Kryptonite?"
He shrugged. "S.H.I.E.L.D. came up with the name. It's what the sword was made of; some kind of mineral with the same chemical composition as the igneous material in Krypton's mantle. Kind of like obsidian, only radioactive, green, and apparently, lethal to kryptonians."
"Wait, so...the sword came from S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Stark nodded, scowling. "Von Doom grabbed it from the Fridge before your encounter. In and out, no alarms. Almost like magic."
Kara shook her head, confused. "Why would they have that kind of weapon? How the heck did they even get a piece of my planet to make it with?"
"Well, now that Fury gave up the whole file on you, I can tell you: it was 'shrapnel' from the planetary explosion. A small shard was encrusted on the hull of your pod before it made the jump into hyperspace. Or the Phantom Zone, whatever you call it."
She pursed her lips. "Okay, but...how did I survive the trip here, if that thing came with me?"
Stark waved the hologram away. "Kryptonite is apparently inert unless it's exposed to a powerful electric current, in which case it rapidly decays, emitting a strange, alien variant of gamma radiation. The hilt on the sword emitted one such current, as did...well, your insides, when converting stored solar power into fuel for your powers."
Kara winced at this, staying quiet until the realization hit her a few moments later. "Fury had the sword made, didn't he?"
Stark nodded, stiff. "Hence, me being pissed off - well, that and the fact that they've invaded my Tower. Probably why your sister didn't want to say much, either. Turns out, Fury's always had a way to kill you. He's always had a way to kill all of us."
"A contingency plan, in case we went rogue." -Kara surmised. "I can't say I'm surprised; it feels pretty on-brand for him. If he can't have us, no one else can."
"Not that he'd word it like that, but yeah. Pretty much." -he said.
"How'd the others take it?"
Stark scoffed. "Not very well. Especially considering our new arrangements."
She grabbed the broken helmet. "What new arrangements?"
"Like I said, a lot happened in the past seven days." -he said, then brought up a hologram of several news articles.
"Welcome to the 'Age of Heroes'." -Kara read, out loud. The article featured short profiles on all the Avengers, but mentioned nothing of what happened at OsCorp. "Sounds a little pretentious." -she said.
"True, but they're not exactly wrong, are they? We're at eight Avengers and climbing, just a couple of weeks after the invasion, after all."
"How are they?" -she asked.
Tony scoffed. "You mean your girlfriend, and the couple of walking reminders of the worst parts of my life?"
Kara winced. "Sorry."
He waved her off. "I've expressed my feelings at the shooting range already. Suffice it to say, they're all fine. Pepper says they should be cleared by Hill's goons soon."
"Do you think they'll join the team?"
"Oh, I thought you'd decided that already." -he said, sarcastic.
She crossed her arms. "In my defense, I meant it more as an honorary, temporary thing."
"In any case, it's up to them, so I have no idea. Still, it seems likely, hence the 'Age of Heroes' spiel. And that's not even considering the vigilantes we met that night, or the other Enhanced who've popped up everywhere since then. It's kind of like the Mutant Boom of the sixties again, except we don't have X-Genes in common, so it's kind of a free-for-all right now."
Kara hummed, worried. If she recalled human history correctly, the vast majority of mutants had been all but banished to Genosha, back then. She'd heard rumors that this was still in practice. "I'm guessing that's where the 'new arrangements' come in?" -Kara asked, crossing her arms. "Aren't we supposed to be independent?"
"You said it; we're supposed to be." -he said, sour. "Since we apparently can't be trusted not to destroy multinational companies, while simultaneously causing thousands of dollars in property damage while fighting ninjas in Harlem, though, Fury has decided to yank back our chain."
Kara blinked a couple of times. "Ninjas?"
He nodded at the damaged helmet. "Yeah, you neglected to mention that little detail. Our new vigilante pals? Heavily into Eastern culture, some of them. Apparently, that translates into fighting undead assassins armed with bows and katanas on the regular. One of their leaders did that." -he said, gesturing at the broken helmet.
"I had no idea. I thought they just beat criminals up with no concern for the rule of law." -Kara said, trying to wrap her head around the idea of ninjas in New York.
"Might not have made the right questions, then."
"Clearly."
He leaned against the new armor, which didn't budge, even though it was empty. "In any case, the ambush actually helped our case. Fury and Hill may have thrown a hissy fit, but Rogers and I were actually the least destructive of the bunch. Those vigilantes have a lot of potential, but they're shit at teamwork and they know it."
"We could offer to help them with that." -Kara suggested.
"Way ahead of you, Kara." -he said. "They may not be convinced to join the Avengers just yet, but we'll be making damn well sure that they superhero right in the meantime. I'll equip them, and Barton and Romanoff will train them between missions."
Kara frowned. "What do you mean, 'between missions'?"
Tony huffed, annoyed. "Well, as part of our punishment for taking down OsCorp without asking for Fury's permission, he's co-opting our teammates. He's already assigned Rogers to lead a shady covert-ops unit, and sent Rhodey to play hide-and-seek with some cheesy warlord in the Middle East on behalf of the Air Force. The only reason the rest of us have survived this little tantrum of his is because of you."
Kara cocked her head. "How so?"
"Bruce and I have been monitoring you." -he said, simply. "Not that I'll capitulate to whatever the hell Fury wants me to do next, but your recovery has been a good excuse to blow him and his goons off so far."
She groaned. "I don't get it. Why is he breaking us up? Sure, we probably should've handled things better, but the last thing we need is to pull the team apart right now! We just showed Centipede we're a force to be reckoned with."
"See, your mistake is thinking we're still allowed to go after Centipede." -Stark said, sardonically. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken over that investigation. Don't even know who's the agent in charge."
Kara gaped. "What? Tony, we can't let that happen! Alex is about the only agent I trust anymore!"
He crossed his arms. "Don't worry. S.H.I.E.L.D. can throw their weight around as much as they want; I'm still stupidly rich, and you're still an indestructible alien. We're still the Avengers, and this sure as hell won't stop us."
The blonde gave him a determined nod. "Right. What's our next step, then?"
Stark gestured towards the holograms. "We have something both Centipede and the agency don't: public good-will. We're riding a wave of public support right now, and we're gonna take advantage of that." -he explained, then summoned another set of holograms.
"As I said, gifted individuals are coming out of the woodwork right now. Superheroes aren't exactly a new thing, obviously; ever since Rogers started punching Nazis, Enhanced people have thwarted bank heists and stopped runaway trains here and there over the years. And sure, they even work for the government in, like, Japan, but that's not what we are. What makes the Avengers special is the whole team-up mechanic."
A series of very familiar names and associated data lists scrolled by. "That's...that's the Index." -Kara gaped. "The entire Index. How the heck did you get that?"
Stark gave her a shit-eating grin. "Fury messed with JARVIS. Once."
"So you stole one of their most valuable data caches?" -she asked, incredulous.
"No, no; I backed up their entire digital library. A few hundred petabytes of Fury's dirty little secrets, available for our perusal. JARVIS has been trudging through it all."
Kara whistled. "I can't imagine Steve approved of this. Or Romanoff, for that matter."
"You'd be surprised." -Stark said. "Sure, Romanoff called the Quinjets on you guys, but that was more of an 'oh-shit-Kara's-dying' type thing. She grabbed your blood for Doctor Cho and everything."
"That's...disturbing."
He rolled his eyes. "You're missing the point; she kept it from S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury himself having the doomsday plans for us is one thing, but something is seriously wrong with an agency that can't keep track of the most dangerous tech they own. Take Vanko's rig, for example; barring his brief soiree with Justin Hammer, the guy acted solo the whole time. Fury's goons grabbed the tech after the whole shitfest at the Expo. So, how did the teen you guys met yesterday get herself some plasma whips?"
"I guess they could've replicated the tech, but Centipede seems to be focused more on biochemistry and genetics, not advanced weaponry." -she surmised.
"Just take Occam's Razor to this one, Kara."
Kara scowled. "S.H.I.E.L.D. must have a leak."
He nodded gravely. "Romanoff figured it out. Rogers was a little slower on the uptake, but he's on board. Since Fury is so keen on taking Avengers away, I guess we'll just have to grab some more. Y'know, just in case more aliens decide to show up. Who knows? They might take us places where certain leads are."
Kara smirked. "...alright, I like where this is going."
"Good, because I'm leaving tomorrow." -Stark said. "I want to get the hell out of New York ASAP."
The blonde raised an eyebrow. "...ok. Where are you going?"
"Los Angeles." -he said. "Well, Malibu, then LA. Possibly San Francisco as well - JARVIS caught some strangely familiar energy readings a few miles off the coast."
"Alright." -she said. "Just you?
"Pepper's coming too. Don't worry; your sister, your nerdy friend, and Bruce will stay behind and man the fort, check out a couple leads of your own." -he said knowingly, looking at the door behind her. Kara turned around and looked at it, but...nothing seemed to happen. "Plus, you'll get to spend some quality time with the newly minted Director of Stark Industries' Biochemistry division."
Stark groaned. "Goddamnit. Luthor, that was your cue!"
The door opened to a very embarrassed looking Lena, standing beside a smug looking Alex. Kara turned beet red, if only because she could only imagine what kind of horrible black ops torture her sister had probably just threatened Lena with.
Kara laughed nervously to herself. "Oh, geez."
Next up, Kara, Lena, and Bruce meet a british consultant to talk about the villainous Doctor Doom!
EDIT: I uploaded an older file by accident. Fixed now.