Chapter Fifty-One: Hidden Away.


Claire Kent leaned over the window sill in the Daily Planet main offices in Metropolis, a dreamy look fluttering over her eyes. She had a lot on her mind over the past few weeks. The new heroine on the scene in Metropolis occupied the prime space in her thoughts. Claire deduced who the woman was and she haunted her thoughts for a decent amount of time.

Years ago, she left, just before Claire underwent her final trials to become Superwoman. The training which she underwent tested her resolve. Despite all of the obstacles, all of the problems, and all of the drama, Claire reckoned she had been a better person for it. She escaped on the other side, turning from an awkward farm girl to the Woman of Steel. Many people regarded Superwoman as a symbol.

Many cracked underneath the pressure. Claire hoped to be the best she could be. Sometimes, as Harry pointed out to her gently, and Lois did less so, she neglected the important things. She put together a list of excuses of why she couldn't do this, that, or the other thing. The latest level of excuses had to do with the return of Kara, the older Kara.

The bridge had been mended with her younger cousin, now Claire struggled to mend the bridge of the older version of Kara. She hung out of the window, deep in a daydream.

Claire lifted a hand up to her head and sighed.

"Just call her," Claire muttered. "How hard can it be to pick up the phone book and call her?"

A quick stolen glance over her shoulder verified no one was in the office. The last thing Claire wanted would be people seeing her talking to herself. She played the awkward act to throw people off of the scent for Superwoman. She maintained the mask so much it even fooled her at times.

Mostly because she identified as Claire Kent more so as Superwoman. She found a greater balance, where she accepted her Kryptonian heritage without sacrificing her human upbringing.

Claire held the phone in the palm of her hand. She thought about calling up Starrwave and getting an interview with Karen Starr. She would not have to work too hard at breaking the ice from there. Starrwave advertised the number all over Metropolis. Billboards, radio advertisements, television advertisements, a great viral marketing campaign made sure everyone knew what Starrwave was all about. They led the charge for new technological achievement.

Nothing stopped Claire from dialing the number.

A ringing in Claire's head stopped her from finally taking the plunge. Claire slipped the phone back into her bag. The alarm continued to ring.

'It sounds like Star Labs.'

Claire knew better than anyone else the type of things in Star Labs and how they could prove to be a problem. She moved back to the window and looked over her shoulder to ensure no one could see what she did. Claire perched herself on the railing, spread her arms, and fell back into the street below.

She popped up in the trademark uniform of the Woman of Steel. The blur blasted down the streets of Metropolis towards Star Labs. The bell rang in her ears. Claire tore up and reached the front entrance of the premier research facility in Metropolis.

'It stopped.'

Claire straightened her posture and looked around. Her alarm didn't stop just because of the alarm around the activity. Superwoman put one ear out and heard a loud scream from one of the main labs.

The Last Daughter of Krypton kicked up and flew towards the windows. She hoped to get the jump on them.

A bolt of energy struck Claire in the chest. The Woman of Steel slammed down onto the pavement from the impact.

The attacker made a secondary impact to come down from high above. Claire dodged out of the way of the attacker before he could slam down onto the ground. Her attacker's fist slammed into the pavement. A sonic backlash from his hand slamming into the pavement almost rocked Claire.

The dust settled for Claire to get a better look at her attacker. Greasy brown hair matted against his forehead. He wore a look of permanent disdain and looked quite cross-eyed in the process. Scars came down his face and he missed n ear. His muscles bulged out from the other side of a tight black shirt, and armored leggings.

"You!" the man bellowed.

A ripple of light slammed towards Claire. Claire evaded the attack with swift precision. The enemy flew towards her with hands outstretched. Claire stopped him from grabbing her throat. The two of them struggled with each other for a moment before the Woman of Steel nailed her.

A figure dashed towards Claire off to one side. Two silver knifes came towards her just as quickly as the figure move. Claire bobbed her head and blasted the knives with heat vision.

The knife thrower stopped. Her silver hair stuck out wildly like someone who stuck their finger in a light socket. Her face contorted into a deadly expression, and a crooked snarl followed. She dressed in a leather uniform. The knife throwers deceptively muscular body built itself more for skill or show.

"Kryptonian must die!" she yelled.

Claire blocked the knife between two fingers. She turned around and fired the knife back at her adversary.

"Not today!" Claire yelled.

The knife thrower tried for a more physical attack. Claire caught her arm and twisted it behind the attacker. She hoisted up the attacker and flung her to the down.

A third figure hurled Claire up into the air and forced her to crash down with one swift shot. Claire saw about three of the same blue haired, red skinned man. The man held up a metal box in his clawed hands.

"We have what we've come for!" the clawed man yelled. "Let's go!"

Claire's ears rang. She put her hands on the sidewalk and performed a half push up. They disappeared into a flash of light and left Claire on her hands and knees.

The Kryptonian could not bother to watch the people who crowded around. She hooked the pavement and pushed herself up to a standing position. She almost collapsed in agony from being blasted so hard. Claire shrugged off the energy and tried to go after them even after the distinct head start they had.


Claire flew around Metropolis for the next couple of hours, mostly to clear her head. The fact Kara's return distracted her could not help and haunt Claire. Claire figured if she hadn't allowed herself to get so easily distracted, she might have been able to defeat those rogue aliens and stop them from walking away whatever they stole. Whatever it was they stole.

'That's the problem, I'm not sure what they stole, 'Claire thought.

One more circle around the city of Metropolis brought Claire to her appointment. She felt a little sluggish for some reason. One of those aliens caught her really good, point blank even. The Woman of Steel circled around the block and decided to return to the apartment her and Lois shared.

Claire touched down. She hoped to regroup and take this with a fresh head. Maybe, take a closer look at Star Labs, and try and figure what happened. Cops swarmed the lab the last time she flew around.

'I might have a better relationship with the police these days. But, I wouldn't want to get in their way when they're trying to do their jobs.'

The Last Daughter of Krypton spotted a very familiar face outside her apartment. The beautiful dark haired girl clad in a skin tight black jumpsuit waited over. Claire stepped closer and allowed the enticing form of one of her cousin's adoptive sisters coming in there. Alex Danvers came face to face with Clair Kent.

"I hoped you'd come back here," Alex said. "You look terrible."

Claire closed her eyes and tried to shake off the uneasy feeling clutching her body.

"I look it and I feel it."

"You haven't looked at a mirror lately?" Alex asked.

Claire shrugged off the question. "I'm not one for vanity."

Alex expected and respected Claire being distracted. She just learned of the other Kara returning, and it put Alex in a really weird spot. The multi-verse could be a very diverse and often strange place. Providing this girl claiming to be Kara Zor-El was from an alternate universe. Alex had her share of suspicions.

"Your face is pretty cut up," Alex said.

Claire cupped her cheeks in response to feel the cuts on it. Blood coated her fingers when she pulled them away. She did not see her own blood for a very long time. Claire shuddered when staring at the foreign fluids coating her fingers.

"The sun should have healed me by now, "Claire said.

"One of them must have hit you harder than you thought," Alex said.

Claire nodded. "I guess so. And I take it you know about the rogue aliens."

"Yes, the DEO makes it their job to know about the aliens," Alex said. "And we have a problem."

Alex tried to maintain a façade of being professional. A look of great dread flashed over Alex's face despite her professionalism. Claire placed a hand on the shoulder of the DEO agent.

"If you think we have a problem, we have a problem. You wouldn't have come here if there wasn't a problem."

"Yes," Alex said. "We know all about the problems you've had with Zod and his army of Kandorians all of those years ago."

Claire closed her eyes. It would have been a long time before she forgot about that particular mess.

"Other rogue elements have come to light," Alex said.

Claire didn't miss a beat. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the rift that opened when Kara's pod dropped to Earth five years ago, would it?"

Alex took a moment to reconcile her thoughts. She didn't want to be the one to tell Claire another pocket of Kryptonian survivors were on Earth, and their attentions skewed towards less than grand. The warm hand squeezing around hers told Alex how much Claire could take.

"I've been down this road before," Claire said. "Just spit it out and tell me. Trust me, I can take it."

"They're here, and they're lead by her," Alex said. "And they've been training their powers for secret for five years."

A grimace flashed across Claire's face. She didn't know what to make over this. She withdrew from Alex's shoulder and pulled herself away from her.

"Thanks for telling me," Claire said.

"Shouldn't you get a look at those cuts?" Alex asked. "Some of them are nasty."

"I'll be fine," Claire said.

Alex wasn't sure they were. Claire regarded this as her personal responsible just like Henshaw warned Alex she might. Claire didn't join up with the DEO on principle, although they worked together in the past.

Claire kicked up. She needed to pick up the hunt no matter how sluggish she felt. Claire summoned her reserves and flew a bit better.

Was it just her imagination or did the sun have a bit more of a red tinge to it today?


The doors of a stylish sport's car swung open. Lucy Lane swung her legs out of the passenger's seat. She dressed in her usual professional female business attire. The last time she came around these parts, it was due to her superiors. They demanded results and demanded Harry Potter get on board with the program. Lucy was to convince him.

Lucy found out one simple fact. Harry Potter worked on his own clock and did things his own way. The fierce streak of independence Harry built made Lucy expect him. It proved there was still some small part of the rebellious young woman who spent the past several years working in the system.

"I'll say this," Lucy said. "You do know how to ride in style."

Harry Potter closed up the driver's side of the door.

"We're working together," Harry said. "And if all goes well, we're going to be working together."

'I'd laugh if Lucy managed to get figured in before Lois,' Chloe said.

Felicity could barely keep the mirth out of her tone. 'You wouldn't go rub it in her face, would you?'

'No…of course not!' Chloe yelled in her usual animated voice.

Lana scoffed. 'Really?'

'Okay, maybe a little bit,' Chloe amended.

Harry offered his arm to Lucy. Lucy normally wouldn't take it as she was a fiercely independent woman. Still, it would be rude to decline such a polite gesture especially when it was in good faith. She interlocked arms with Harry and the two of them made their way past the front entrance of Horizon.

Both passed the standard security checks on their way inside. Lucy thought the procedure was rather painless and efficient at the same time. She liked the combination and hoped more people would adopt this way of security control.

"Indigo is finally going to be back online," Harry said.

"So, you invited me here as an act of good faith," Lucy said.

She wondered why it took so long. Not, Lucy had any room to judge. Harry knew more about these sorts of things than she did. Lucy figured with Chloe helping spearheading the project, along with Daisy and Felicity, Harry knew what was doing. Her bosses put a lot of pressure on her to make sure Harry told her about the project.

Harry invited her and only her as an act of good faith.

"Yes," Harry said. "I know you won't try and confiscate the project."

Lucy agreed with him. She doubted she could get away with him due to the building security.

"Harry, Alex Danvers is also here to see you," Rose said. "She said it is urgent…and Indigo is almost online. She won't be a problem."

"Alex?" Harry asked. "Send Daisy to collect her, and bring her upstairs to the lab."

'I'm on it,' Daisy thought.

"It's better to be safe than sorry," Harry said. "We found out someone tampered with Indigo's protocols and made her more willing to commit acts of terrorism. That wasn't what she was designed for. She didn't know her programming was tampered with until it was too late."

Lucy smiled. "I'll take your word for it. I mean, you're the expert here, and I'm really not."

Lucy stopped short. The elevator opened up just as her phone rang. Lucy took out the phone and turned to Harry with an apologetic look in her eyes.

"I better take this," Lucy said.

Harry waved her off. "Don't worry, I understand."

Lucy walked over and made sure to get as far out of earshot as she could. She knew if Harry really wanted to hear what was on the other end of the conversation, no real stopping him. It gave her peace of mind to be far away from him when talking on the phone.

"Yes?" Lucy asked. "Oh, as a matter of fact, I'm with him right now."

Harry spotted Lucy's facial expressions and figured the conversation was not going as well as she wanted it to.

'So, any luck on getting any leads on these vampires?' Harry thought.

Buffy sighed. 'So far, nothing. Other than the vampires we ran into the other night. The ones who talked about what would happen when the son goes red.'

'You have any idea what they're talking about?' Faith asked.

'Nothing good,' Harry responded. 'We're all going to have to keep our eyes open.'

'Just running around in circles again,' Faith thought. 'The sun's looking pretty weird today now come to think about it.'

Alex turned up with Daisy a moment later. Claire joined them, dressed in costume. Harry looked at the scratch down her face which covered one side. He frowned when looking at them.

"What happened to you?" Harry asked.

"I encountered some thugs who beat me up," Claire said. "My face got cut up pretty bad."

"Well, I suppose I don't have to tell you about the fact there's a situation with Superwoman," Lucy said. "Because she's already here."

Lucy took one look at the facial injuries which did not seem to heal. Superwoman not healing put Lucy in a pretty negative state of mind.


Harry figured he would get to the bottom of Claire's injury situation soon enough. He had a small group with him when they walked down the wide corridor down to the final hallway towards the lab. Claire followed behind her, and it was just as well she was here. Lucy made her way briskly down the hallway. Alex followed, and Harry figured it would be good to have a DEO agent in on this given it mattered involving aliens.

'My sister really wanted an excuse to come and see you,' Carol said.

'You realize she doesn't need an excuse,' Harry thought.

Carol laughed in response. 'Yeah, we both know she doesn't really need an excuse. She's going to want to have one to be there, though. She thinks her relationship with you is professional.'

'She'll soon be singing your praises,' Daisy thought. 'Or screaming them.'

Daisy slipped in the rear behind them and moved towards the group. Felicity waited at the entrance of the lab. She chewed her lip when waiting, one of her more interesting quality. Then again, the girls knew all about Felicity's oral fixation.

"Well, we're ninety-nine point nine percent sure Indigo won't turn on us," Felicity said.

Harry took a moment to raise his fingers and pinch the bridge of his nose. He would have preferred one hundred percent all things considered. Experience taught him about how that point one percent of odds could come back and bite a person very heavily later on.

"Well, let's go see what we have."

The lab doors swung open at Harry's presence, or rather, Rose opened them.

"We're pretty sure she's fine, we just had to spend some extra time double checking," Rose said. "I think you'll find her loyalties have shifted somewhere closer to where they should be, and where they belong."

"Meaning she knows who her master is and who she should kneel before," Daisy said.

The group stepped into the lab. The walls glowed with an interesting blue energy. Several discs carved within the walls which drew more energy. The tiled floor didn't have a speck of dust on it. The only furniture in the room was a trio of chairs, for the girls who had worked on the project.

The large thick black console with crystals jutting out from the top laid at the central most fixed point of the room. Claire looked at the crystals with a raised eyebrow and a very impressed smile.

"They look almost like the Kryptonian crystals at the Fortress," Claire said.

Harry answered with a shrug. "My grandmother built them. She may have sought inspiration from the Kryptonians. I wouldn't have been surprised if she visited your world. Given how long-lived she is."

"Krypton wasn't fond of outside travelers," Claire said. "Which ended up dooming us because we were so isolated that we couldn't see the problems in our own planet until it's too late."

Claire often wondered what might have happened if Krypton survived. All thoughts brushed to the side when Claire figured there was nothing which beat the time spent on Earth.

Harry pressed the button and fired up the console. An energy array shot into light. The hard light holographic form of Indigo appeared. The tall, beautiful construct appeared in front of them. Her blue skin shined brightly in an almost blinding force. Her red hair danced next to her face. The woman built herself like an idealized form of a woman.

"Master," Indigo said. She extended a hand.

"Who are you and what is your purpose?" Harry asked.

"I am designated Indigo Prime, I was lead to believe I was the BrainInteractive Construct 8.0," Indigo said. A scowl spread across her face in response to this statement.

Daisy caught Felicity's eye who smiled. So far, so good, but they did not want to jinx it.

"Brainiac was just a cheap knockoff of my programming," Indigo said. "I live now to serve the interests of Harry Potter and his collective in any way he wishes."

"Tell me how you came to Earth?" Harry asked.

Indigo closed her eyes for a moment. She spoke as calm and frank as possible.

"I'm responsible for bringing an invading force of Kryptonians into this world. I used Kara Zor-El's ship as a means to breach the Phantom Zone and escaped from it. Astra In-Ze lives on Krypton with a small group of Phantom Zone escapees, not just Kryptonians. Anyone who was close enough to the breach took the chance of going through. The uncertain was more ideal than the Phantom Zone."

"Not again," Claire groaned.

"Who is Astra In-Ze?" Harry asked.

"Kara's aunt," Indigo said. "She started with the best of intentions, but the Council disagreed with her when she claimed Krypton was dying."

"They have a bad habit of doing that," Claire said.

"And she had been sent to the Phantom Zone, with the Council forcing her sister, Alura, to sign the order, under threat of her daughter being imprisoned for being a natural birth," Indigo said. "You may need to understand the Kryptonian Council judges those who are born under natural circumstances to be a mistake of nature. All Kryptonians are supposed to be engineered with a specific purpose. Kara, and you, Clara, would have been considered to be mistaken."

Claire learned all of this through her training with Jor-El and Lara. She appreciated the reminder about how messed up this situation was.

"Astra is here, though," Claire said.

"Yes, and after she and Zod engaged in that civil war, she already had been damaged. Time in the Phantom Zone skewed her perspective. She may intend to build a New Krypton on Earth."

Alex and Lucy both soaked that all in. Daisy nodded as well. She was going to have to inform Peggy of this new development. The Dracula situation demanded attention, but so did an army of rogue Kryptonians.

"We're going to have to prepare for the worst then, "Alex said.

"Agreed," Daisy and Lucy said in unison.

"Indigo, tell me everything you know about Astra and her methods," Harry said.

It would be useless to squander a very valuable resource.


The red skinned alien stepped forward. The man intimidated many of the people around him, and yet when walking through those doors, he was the one who felt a lot of intimidation.

"Did you get it?"

A dark haired woman walked through the shadows. A scowl compromised her normally beautiful face and her eyes narrowed. The Kryptonian military uniform she wore flattered her body without showing it off. Powers or no powers, she had been built to destroy them.

"We did, but we couldn't get the other component because of Superwoman."

"Remember, I told you my niece is off limits," she said. "That courtesy does not extend to Superwoman. As much as I loath to spill any Kryptonian blood, she's meddled in my plans far too often."

Astra thought Superwoman could be a useful addition to her forces if she had even a sliver of the intelligence her parents had. Still, she took to Earth way too much and was not a proper Kryptonian.

"General, begging your forgiveness, but I have more bad news."

Astra raised her eyebrows and motioned for the subordinate to come for.

"We've discovered evidence of a third Kryptonian who has not joined our cause," the subordinate said. "The humans are calling her Power Girl."

Astra took the image and it looked faint, almost like a blur of the person flying, though. She squinted and looked at the picture, catching a glimpse of the girl's face, just barely, but just enough. The picture dropped to the ground.

Never show weakness in front of those who you lead. Astra lived by that motto.

"We better prepare for the next phase of the plan," Astra said.

"What do we….."

The General cut off their words before they could get going.

"Remember who sheltered you," Astra said. "If I didn't, you'd be in a laboratory somewhere, with humans experimenting on you."

Astra picked up the photo once they were gone and stared at it for a long time. She put the photo now right next to a news clipping which detailed Harry Potter's trip to Metropolis. She took one look at the smiling young man. Astra's eyes lingered on his picture for a long time.


To Be Continued on April 6th, 2017.


Something is going really wrong here and things are only going to get worse. Not only vampires but also rogue aliens from the Phantom Zone.

Lois will never hear the end of it if Lucy beats her to the Collective.

And Astra is intrigued by a couple of things.

Until next Thursday.