Chapter 1: Stricken Within
"Hey." Kara looked into the warmth of Alex's brown eyes, seeing not just that unconditional love of a big sister, but a sister that was proud of her, probably the proudest she had ever been. With those arms wrapped around her, then feeling their Space Dad put his arms around them, she felt almost complete. It would take time, not from the transgressions of someone she finally stood up to, but of the aftermath of the Crisis, that she and the other Paragons had fought like crazy, the Anti-Monitor, then when defeated, the hope of bringing everyone back. But they were one hero short, the biggest one of all. Their dear friend and family as Kara was concerned, Oliver, hadn't made it. His last sacrifice was this new Earth, Earth-Prime.
"We're here kiddo." J'onn kissed the top of her head, giving her one more hug, then left in the best of spirits. Alex however, went to the door, shut it and locked it. When she turned around, her sister was giving her that oh so Kara Danvers confused face. She smiled, shaking her head and went for something she had been itching to give her sister lately, pulling out the little plate, wrapped carefully with a piece of foil that she now unwrapped, reaching into her pocket, pulling out a lighter Susan had given her for one of her birthdays.
"Ohhhhh sis.." Alex walked over, smiling as was Kara, when the plate came over, the cupcake on it, and one single candle lit. The blonde went to stand but she snapped her finger and pointed for her to sit back down. "We had been so busy lately, that even I had forgotten, but..J'onn baked this for you. He baked a few but this one is special." Alex took up her seat again, still holding the plate. "Happy 'Earth' Birthday Kar." Kara gave a million dollar smile, that could light up the whole world, doing her best not to cry. "I'm not holding this thing forever. Blow it out." She laughed and with eyes shut for a moment, reopened and smiling, the blonde did just that. "Make a wish?" Kara nodded like a kid with a birthday cake, itching for the sweets.
Instead of diving right in, she took it from her sister, setting it down on the table. Before Alex could take a deep breath, Kara had gathered her up into the biggest hug possible, without crushing her body with her powerful arms. She did the same, then rested her head on the top of her goof ball's one, who she realized was crying. "Kar? Kara?" Instantly, her sister let go and pulled back enough to look Alex in the eyes, smiling as she did so. She breathed a sigh of relief, at the same time grateful to be breathing, knowing Kara had done her best not to squeeze too tight.
"Thank you Lexy." She grabbed the plate, setting it in her lap for a moment, splitting her cupcake in two, after removing the candle. Alex took the half offered and they gently bumped them with a giggle from her and a chuckle from her big sister. Kara practically put the whole thing in her mouth, only to result in a chocolate ring of sorts around it. Alex nearly fell onto the floor with how hard she was laughing, being glared at by her getting up to grab a couple napkins.
"Ya know sis.." She watched Alex with a grumble from the kitchen, who had flopped down on the couch, then turned herself around so her feet were on the top of the backrest and her head was hanging over the edge, upside down. "..I'm gonna get you wet wipes travel packs or baby wipes. Both would work." If Kara did what her sister and mostly everyone else was accustomed to, raising that middle finger, she'd be doing so now. Instead, with a damp paper towel, she wiped off her face, noticing how much chocolate had been removed from it in the process. "Well?"
"Huff. Yeah, there was a um..a lot." She ignored the continuous humor, walking back over, only to notice a box on the table, close to where the empty cupcake plate was. She joined Alex on their infamous Sisters' Night chosen furniture, raising an eyebrow at her. Kara took a seat, with the box pushed closer to her, but smiled and just shook her head, taking said package.
"I figured that we were due some good ole competitive *cough cough* Danvers sisterly fun. Sooo.." Alex rolled her eyes at her sister's lack of patience, with the box now demolished, but grinning ear to ear, when all five games were set down. "So I take it you..Ooofff." She forgot to expect, the unexpected when it came to Kara's happiness, tackled in another hug that nearly sent them both falling off the couch together. "Gotta..breathe.." The excited bubbly ray of sunshine jumped back then flew to the closet, causing Alex's smile to get even bigger. "Grab the 'chuks too Sis!" She told her, hearing a whoosh after the small black plastic crate was set down with their controllers, spare ones, spare straps, the wheels and charging dock in it. The 'nunchuks were set down too, rolling her eyes again with Kara plugging everything in and flying back over to the couch. "So, which game do you wanna start with?"
"Hmmm. Not wanting to 'Poke-fight' tonight. Sports, or..Sports Resort? It has BOTH!" A squeal said it all. Obviously, she loved the gift.
"Ohhhh good. We can switch back and forth on the sets. They are on the same disk you know. Ya know which ones for you and I." Alex pointed to the gold Zelda remote that was handed to her, setting it down, watching Kara grab her sky blue one. "Okay, if we are gonna do this right, I'm grabbing my PJ pants and one of my shirts out of the drawer you still have designated for me. You snatch our chex mix and some hawaiian punch, with ice for me."
"Oh..they got ARCHERY Sis!" Kara shrieked with glee, checking out the case and booklet of everything you can play for both Sports games. "Wait for it. Waaaait for it." She whispered.
"Archery?! YES!" Sometimes, it was the simple things that got them just as excited as a couple of little kids on Christmas morning. "Jacking my Jack Skeleton socks back thief."
"I only wanted the one pair. Not my fault you left six in my hamper." Kara countered, hearing a three word set of colorful language opening the chex mix and dumping it into the bowl. She didn't need to open up their drinks yet, happy for them to have found the single bottles of their favorite Hawaiian Punch flavors.
"Yeah whatever. Do I still have a toothbrush here? Wait a min. Didn't I have an electric one here?" Alex raised her voice, just loud enough for her sister to hear, from inside the bathroom, with the door barely ajar. "Where is.."
"Three. Two.." Kara smirked and pointed to the ceiling.
"Dammit Kar! Lay off my expensive mouthwash! I'm gonna turn you into the authorities you damn 'smirking' bandit!"
"You loooove me!" A light growled response of that love back and Kara slipped their designated sleeves over the remotes, setting down the gold 'nunchuk for Alex and the sky blue one for herself. "We gotta charge these Lexy. Wanna Netflix while we wait?"
"Sounds like a plan. I'll be out shortly. Gotta pee." Alex told her, poking her head out for a moment and closed the door some after slipping back inside.
"Hmm. Where did I.." Where did she put the blasted remote? They had done some rearranging but neither of them would do so without setting those off to the side. "Hey Alex? Do you know where the TV remote is?"
"Really? Check under the couch genius." The abnormally over-annoyed voice of her sister filled her ears, a bit stronger for some reason, but she just shook it off as another easy opener for a bit more playful banter. She leaned over the side of the couch and sure enough, Alex had been right.
Kara scooted her body closer to that side and leaned down to retrieve it, unaware of something moving, as if crawling inside the back of the couch and towards her quickly. She pushed herself further over with one knee, when her ears started ringing a little more than usual after a long day of battles and rescues, but she chalked it up as overexertion from a long day of 'what-if' scenarios. Once more Kara shook her head to clear the strange behavior that had come on without any warning, causing a wave of dizziness to take over and for some reason she couldn't call out to her sister. "I wouldn't be surprised, if your senses are all screwy from that close encounter of the 'Bitchy' kind Kar." There it was. That irritated tone. Now, she was a tad grumbly too, feeling the spinning and ringing cease finally.
Before she could even fathom the hideous crawling entity moving with lightning speed, that went over her shoulder and along her chest, under her clothing, what she thought she had a grip on slipped further under the couch. Kara released a heavy sigh, then gasped with eyes widening, feeling like something was constricting her throat, cutting off all possible noises she had tried to make to get Alex's attention. A multitude of burning pin sized needles pierced their sizzling tips into her chest, over her heart, ripping the air right out of her lungs in the process. There was no way to escape the excruciating pain, with bloodied yellowish-orange tears pouring from her eyes, even with her once beautiful blues, now stained browns and greys like dirt, that had slipped back into her skull. Kara's head fell forward, already upside down partially, with her body slumped over, motionless. Oozing thick yellowish-orange fluids, the same as what had escaped her tear ducts, dripped onto the floor from both her nose and mouth.
"Okay Kar! Prepare to..KARA!" Alex noticed the way her sister's body was positioned and it wasn't normal whatsoever. She practically dove forward onto her knees, pulling Kara's body back onto the couch, feeling how high of a temp her baby sister's was, which was anything but normal. Kryptonians always ran warm, but this? Alex noticed the liquid, almost as thick as blood, wondering if that's what this was. Either way, SOMETHING had attacked her sister. "Kar?! Kara! Kara! Kara please! SIS..PLEASE!" Just as she watched what appeared to be blood tears, tainting in those same yellowish-orange colors, Alex checked one of her ears and sure enough it was there too. She threw her head back and screamed as loud as she could, uncaring if any of the neighbors heard her in the process. "J'ONN! J'ONN! HELP! J'ONN!"
The windows and glass door leading out to the balcony shattered into a thousand pieces when the Martian flew in. The minute he landed next to both of them, his eyes caught the horrific sight of who he saw as his younger daughter. He knew he had to get her back to the DEO, even though they didn't work there anymore. Anything that could possibly help a wounded kryptonian was there. Luthors be damned. He went to move her, but feared doing so, unsure if it could make it worse. However, not all of the agents knew who Supergirl was and they didn't want to risk exposing her identity. He cursed in a few languages of old that he knew, gathering Kara's limp frame into his arms and lifting her off the couch. Just the sight of the sickening stains of whatever had come out of her nostrils or throat, made his stomach churn violently. "Take her J'onn! Just TAKE HER THERE!" He nodded and flew out as fast as he could.
Alex couldn't hold it back, diving to the side and releasing every bit of what had been in her stomach, not yet digested. After the third time, she forced herself up off the floor and staggered unbalanced to the dining table. Using one hand, weakly leaning against it, holding herself up with the other one, she shakily dialed the HOJ line. Her sister had made sure to sync it with her phone, knowing she'd keep the League secret from everyone else, including her girlfriend for the time being. Two codes, snatching the com piece up to shove in her ear, Alex couldn't stop from vomiting again, losing her grip and dropping to the floor onto her knees, pushing back the bile so she'd be able to speak. She hoped.
"Must be my night, getting a call from a hot thing like you Danvers." The assassin and Captain purred, obviously on her way to that drunken state, but sobering up the little she needed to, the minute Alex puked some more. "Alex?"
"Kate here. Alex?"
"Barry? Speedy, if you can, blondie abode, in a flash." Alex fell onto her side, unable to stop her body from shaking hard from finding her sister like that, completely unresponsive. "Danvers. Alex, talk to us."
"Ka...ra...Dee...e..oh.." She needed to get her shit together and make it back to her sister. STAT! The front door to Kara's place was kicked in so hard it hit part of the ceiling by a brutally damaged wall and doorway of missing glass. "Ba..rry.."
"C'mon. Gonna speed it. Try not to...puke, ummm..anymore. On me. Okay. Yeah. Let's go." He didn't give her time to adjust, lifting her up and dashing right out of a doorway missing it's slab. Usually he didn't take passengers at this velocity. But tonight? For Alex? for Kara? YES, he would.
"They WHAT?! WHO? WHO DID THIS!" The minute J'onn's booming voice came over their station, curses and violent sounds were heard through their ears. "WHO?! ANSWER ME! WHO?!" It only amplified when another came on, cold but irate, leaving a silence in its place.
"Me." Icy. Vexed. Calculatingly terrifying in her tone.
Barry knew the others were throwing on their gear and booking it out the door. They would meet up at the establishment owned by a psychopath now, knowing it was the only way to help their 'Paragon of Hope.' Until then? Ponder the toxicity that attacked THEIR comrade..
A little teaser, for what's to come..
- ChEsHiRe