"I'm on leave from S.H.I.E.L.D." -Alex announced as she cracked another egg for the monstrous bacon omelette she was making for Kara. "Still haven't decided if I'll be returning to the fold once it ends."

Kara's eyes widened, and she nearly spit the freezing cold milk she was drinking. "Wait, what?" -she asked, a white mustache on her upper lip. "Alex, are you serious?"

The brunette's lips thinned, poking at the omelette with a fancy spatula. "Unfortunately. For some reason, it's not easy to imagine myself working under the people who came up with a way to kill my sister."

Kara frowned. "...ok, that sounds incredibly messed up when you put it that way, yeah." -she said, wiping her mouth. "But still, the agency's been your life for years."

"You're not wrong." -Alex admitted. "But that's part of the problem, too. I've been so focused on working towards the greater good that I turned a blind eye to all the shady crap that happened around me. It's not healthy for me, and it sure as hell doesn't seem to have been healthy for you."

The younger sister hummed. "I don't think that's really on you, though. S.H.I.E.L.D. has no business being shady to begin with."

"No kidding." - Alex chuckled, bitter. "Somehow, I doubt Peggy Carter would be proud of what her agency has become. After all, one of its priorities is apparently figuring out how to kill Captain America."

Kara leaned back on her chair. "For what it's worth, I think you should go back. Maybe not right away, but...eventually, y'know? I'd feel better knowing you're inside, working to make S.H.I.E.L.D. better."

Alex handed her a plate with the tastiest eldritch horror she'd ever seen. "I guess that's a good point. No promises, though. I'm still angry as hell. Chewed out Fury and everything." -she said, a little proud. Kara spared a small, fond smile for her.

Both sisters sat in silence - Alex doing her best not to stare in Kara's general, disgusting direction, Kara doing her level best to clean out her plate."I can't believe you ran off." -Alex amusedly said, after a while. "I knew you were bad at the whole romance thing, but you didn't even let Lena get a word in."

Kara blushed to her roots. "That's mean, Alex." -she said, wounded. "I just didn't have a clue what to say, alright? I don't exactly know where we stand."

"No, I get it." -Alex said. "You two are very different but equally disastrous messes; a hyper-progressive pansexual alien who's a social butterfly in every situation except a romantic one, and a repressed lesbian who grew up around assholes who hated queer people and drank just enough kool-aid to fuck up the one good prospective relationship she had."

Kara giggled a little, mortified. "That is a scarily accurate read on us."

"I am Maria Hill's protegé, y'know."

"You're also pretty blasé about Lena. Suspiciously so, actually." -Kara noted. "I thought you hated her guts."

"Well, she did break your heart." -she acknowledged. "And I don't know that I'll ever forgive her for that...but I don't think she'll ever forgive herself, either. You weren't awake to see it, but Jesus, she's a mess where you're concerned. She's got it bad."

Kara groaned. "This is too confusing."

Alex shrugged. "So, make it simple. Talk to her, figure out if she's worth a second chance. If she isn't, you'll know for sure you were right to stay away from her. But, if she is...well, you can start making up for lost time, sis." -she winked, then left the kitchen.

She must've brushed past Doctor Banner on the way out, because he entered not long afterwards.

"Oh, Kara. I'm glad to see you up." -Bruce said, shuffling into the kitchen. He seemed skittish, and Kara could easily guess why - she'd passed a dozen agents on the way to breakfast. They really seemed to have taken over Avengers Tower; JARVIS had even deigned to mark the 'safe' rooms for her, where she could talk freely, without the concern of being overheard.

Kara smiled, looking up from the remains of her omelette. "Thanks."

"How are you feeling? Any discomfort?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Just a couple of scars and some more trauma to add to the pile, hah." -she said, joking.

Bruce winced a little. "...right. Maybe we should really start looking into that therapist for the team, huh? I believe Pepper was looking into a Doctor Sofen, but…"

Kara smirked. "Really, I'm fine. It was a shock, for sure, but now I know what to expect, the next time we find the guy."

Banner raised an eyebrow, looking around. Needlessly, since the team's kitchen was off-limits to active agents. "I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken over the Centipede investigation."

"They did." -Kara admitted. "But that doesn't mean we're gonna stand by and wait for bureaucracy to catch up. We made some good progress by taking down OsCorp, but I have a feeling that there's a lot left to do."

The scientist sighed. "I figured as much." -he said, rubbing his arm. "I wish I could've helped out, but...well, let's be honest, the Hulk would've been disastrous in that situation."

Kara shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. I think you were right to stay back with Sue, Johnny, and Ben. Seeing how the rest of us were ambushed, I was kinda surprised to find out that this place wasn't attacked, them being former minions and all. I'm sure your presence was a heck of a deterrent."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, for sure."

"Hmm. Maybe." -he conceded. "They wanted to say goodbye, by the way. Sue and the others, they tried to wait for you to wake up, but they got a lead on Reed Richards, so they went to try and track him down before the trail went cold."

Kara cocked her head. "Oh. Well, I'm glad they have an idea of where to find him. Did they leave a way for us to contact or help them?"

Bruce shook his head. "No, but they took the gear Tony made for them. I'm sure there's some way to track them." -he said, then winced a little. "Besides...they're not exactly subtle, are they?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, I guess not."

Bruce sat across from her, grabbing a piece of toast. They ate in silence, for a few minutes. "So...Tony left." -Kara said, absently.

"I heard." -he replied. "Honestly, I think this hasty exit of his is less about recruitment, and more about not dealing with everything that's going on here." -he said. "He hadn't even taken off the damaged armor after the ambush that night and he was already designing upgrades for...well, all of us, everything he could think of. I think he took your injury harder than anyone else. Even your sister."

Kara pursed her lips. "Yeah, I...caught him in the middle of testing his Mark 42 armor earlier."

"Forty-two? Yikes. He was working on Mark 33 yesterday. Like, I get they're mostly modular redesigns that are supposed to go on top of the same frame, but still. All of that work is on top of making Cap a stealth suit, repairing Miss Luthor's suit, and creating a new Quinjet prototype for the team."

She gasped. "Rao, did he sleep at all?"

Banner shook his head. "If he did, it wasn't much." -he said.

"Maybe I should've offered to go with him to Los Angeles."

"Well, he didn't go alone. Pepper's with him, and, aside from Colonel Rhodes, I don't know that anyone on Earth knows how to handle him better." -he reasoned. "I'm sure he'll be back to normal in no time."

Kara was far from reassured, and it showed, so Bruce cleared his throat. "Have you talked with Ms. Luthor yet?"

The blonde blushed a bit. "Um...no, not yet. I'm not sure what I should say to her, so I kinda bolted after seeing her again."

Bruce offered a kind smile. "I wouldn't wait too long, if I were you. The first thing she did after getting cleared by S.H.I.E.L.D. was sit by your bed."

Kara smiled warmly. "Did she?"

"Yeah. You know I'm, uh, far from an expert on these things, but I feel like there's something there that you probably shouldn't let pass you by."

She toyed with a stray piece of bacon on her plate. "Part of me knows that. The chemistry's still there, and she's only gotten more obnoxiously gorgeous since the last time we talked." -she admitted. "But I can't ignore the fact that there are still some major issues we haven't even gotten to talk about. Heck, half our interactions since meeting back up last week were hostile because of our past."

Bruce nodded. "I get that. Still, though...you're never going to figure out if you guys can move past that without actually talking to her."

Kara smirked. "I guess I'll have to work up the courage, huh? Maybe after we chat with the consultants."

"Yeah." -he said, leaning back on his chair. "What's up with that, by the way? Tony he, uh...didn't say much."

The blonde shrugged. "He only told me to 'give them a chance', whatever that means."

"Knowing Tony - for a couple of weeks, anyway - they're bound to be...interesting."

By the time noon rolled around, JARVIS had directed the two Avengers to the underground garage, where a sleek town car awaited them. Bruce and Kara looked at each other, then entered, only to find one of Tony's new armors - one that wasn't hollow, interestingly enough - was at the wheel.

"JARVIS?" -Kara asked, tentatively.

"Indeed, Miss Danvers." -the suit said. "Mister Stark wished for me to tell you that he's with you in spirit."

Kara snorted. "I bet. What's up with the chauffeur routine?"

"Considering the protests outside, I thought it best to draw as little attention as possible. Flying out of the Tower would defeat that purpose."

The blonde frowned. "Protests? What the heck?"

Bruce winced slightly. "Oh...no one told you, huh? There's a, uh, small but significant group of people protesting our takedown of OsCorp. A couple of people who lost their jobs, but mostly folks who think we've got too much power and no idea how to use it responsibly." -he said. "I...don't entirely disagree with them, to be honest."

"What do you mean?"

He sighed. "OsCorp was doing some shady stuff, no doubt. And I agree that something needed to be done as soon as possible, hence the mission. Still, the vast majority of their employees were completely unrelated to the Centipede plot, and they still lost their jobs overnight. Even without the ongoing investigation into the specifics of Centipede's involvement, OsCorp would've had to close its doors due to the sheer damage caused by the fighting." -he said. "Not to mention losing their CEO to Stark Industries."

Kara looked down. "I see." -she said. "I...could we have done something to prevent that?"

"The way most of us see it, this is Norman Osborn's fault, not yours. He signed OsCorp's death warrant as soon as he tangled with Centipede." -he said. "But this might not be the case the next time; I don't think you guys understand yet just what the collateral damage of fighting with superpowers can be."

Kara scowled as JARVIS silently began to move the car. "S.H.I.E.L.D. certainly tried its best to drill it into my head."

"Did they show you Harlem after the Hulk?" -he asked, pointedly. Banner then sighed. "I've made a lot of mistakes, Kara - most of which I couldn't afford to make. I know you're better than me in every way that matters to this crazy idea that is the Avengers, but I also know that you're young. You're gonna have a long time to make those same mistakes, and I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure you don't."

The car came out to the street beside the Tower, none the wiser to the fact that it contained two Avengers thanks to Tony's deceptively simple escape route. Kara saw the small group of protesters waving their signs at the Tower's lobby, being watched like hawks by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in riot gear. There couldn't be more than three dozen people in total.

Kara narrowed her eyes, resolute. "Jay, stop the car."

The car stopped, heedless of the sudden burst of honking this caused. "What are you doing?" -Bruce wondered.

The blonde opened the door. "I can't just ignore these people. I need to talk to them, get them to understand what was at stake."

Bruce blanched. "That's, uh...I don't think that's a good idea."

"Maybe not, but...I've gotta learn somehow, right?" -she said, then stepped out of the car. No one seemed to recognize her, which wasn't surprising - her usual, dorky, glasses-and-ponytail style was a far cry from the nearly amazonian look her Supergirl suit provided.

Kara was about to raise her voice when a hand gripped her forearm, making her pause. She turned, and saw a beautiful woman, slightly older than her, dark skinned and curly haired. She seemed the bookish type, but her features betrayed a much different story; faded scars where there should be smooth skin, and a stiffness that belonged in a veteran soldier.

"...what?" -Kara managed to ask.

"Sorry about this." -the woman said. She had a heavy british accent, and a commanding tone. She also did not sound particularly sorry. "But you can't afford to make this particular mistake."

Kara couldn't do much more than wonder what that meant before the woman pulled a wooden stick out of her jacket, waved it around, and, with a resounding crack, enveloped them both in a sort of skin-tight, invisible field, surrounded by an immutable, lightless void. The strange field seemed to suck the air out of her lungs, like being in the vacuum of space, but the discomfort soon passed, and they tumbled back into reality.

Kara found herself on an old, wooden floor, her captor standing over her. "Who are you?" -Kara asked, getting her bearings.

"Stark didn't feel the need to inform you?" -the woman wondered.

"...you're the consultant?"

She snorted. "Bit of a stupid title, honestly. I'll let the Doctor clear things up while I fetch your rather dashing companion."

The woman waved her wooden stick again, and vanished in a puff of smoke and the loud snap of instantaneous vacuum.

Kara got up, but the next thing she knew - literally, within the same second - she was seated on a plush sofa, in an entirely different room, across from an older gentleman in what seemed like designer magician's robes.

"Disapparation is so aggravating, wouldn't you agree?" -he asked. He sounded a bit like he was tired of existence, as a concept, and a lot like he thought himself smarter than just about anyone else. "I much prefer sling rings, myself."

"What? How did you…?"

He gestured at her hands, which were now holding a cup of coffee that hadn't previously existed. "What can I get you? Coffee? Ginger ale? Something stronger, perhaps?"

Kara frowned. "I'm good, thanks. Now, explain."

The man sighed, and her hands were emptied. "Very well. I am Doctor Stephen Strange. An old friend of Tony Stark's, if only in the sense that we are both rich and had previously mingled in the same circles. He sought me out because he believes I can help you understand and defeat Victor Von Doom."