xxxXXXxxx
Two months before Brainiac's invasion
xxxXXXxxx
Supergirl always forgave. It was one of her core principles: if there was even the smallest, most infinitesimal possibility that one of her enemies could be redeemed, she had to take it. With her near-infinite power and extensive—and, unfortunately, brutal—training, she was able to ensure that as few people died as possible, taking casualties pretty much out of the equation.
All that was left was a villain's willingness to atone, and Kara Zor-El had to have faith that anyone could, or else never accept that she herself has changed for the better.
She still remembered those first few months on Earth, having just come off of an escape from Brainiac's drones on her home planet of Krypton, only to immediately learn that Krypton had been destroyed despite her parents' best efforts to stop the rogue AI. Soon after, she'd been kidnapped by Darkseid and trained as his most powerful Fury, even coming to blows with the only people that cared about her in her new life before regaining her sanity. From there...it was all a blur.
How much time did she waste trying to figure out that doing right because it is right was the only justification she needed? How much time did she waste constantly running away from her responsibilities, friends, and family? How long was it until she could finally look at herself in the mirror and think, "this is a life worth living?"
Because there was a disturbingly large stretch of her recent memory where Kara had wanted nothing more than to die. Her parents had died, so why not her? Her planet had died, so why not her? Her soul had died, so why not her?
Kara landed on the balcony of her apartment and stretched her back. The sliding door opened and red hair entered her vision. "Babs!" Kara immediately took off again, this time flying to her wonderful girlfriend. She took her in her arms and spun them around in the air, giving her a shower of loving kisses until Barbara had to force her off.
"Alright, alright! I missed you too, but it's only been a few hours!" she claimed as she landed.
"Longest few hours of my life!" Kara returned. "How was school today?"
"Boring, as usual," Barbara said, gesturing to their small dining table which was covered from end to end with books, notes, and paperwork. "I'm about halfway through this week's work, so I should finish on time for once."
"For once," Kara agreed.
"And how did your day go, sunshine?" Barara returned, pretending to be annoyed when Kara latched onto her waist as they moved to the kitchen.
"You know, the usual. An article here, a beaten-up bank robber there," she said, shrugging and nuzzling into the crook of Barbara's back. "Mm, you smell nice."
"Thanks, I showered."
"How do I smell?"
"Huh?" she craned her neck to look at Kara, who was still buried in her back. "And how am I supposed to tell when you're pretending to be my siamese twin?"
Giggling, Kara let go. Barbara turned around and embraced her girlfriend, which the question had been an excuse for. Kara hugged her back. "...You smell like spandex," Barbara answered flatly.
"Thank you. I try."
"You know, I at least always shower after I go out in costume. Do your coworkers not question why you constantly smell like that?"
Kara shrugged. "I have perfume in the car. I usually put some of that on before I fly to work."
"Right...and when were you going to tell me about you stashing things in my car?"
Kara turned away, smirking. "When I felt like it?"
"Oh, really?" Kara detected the playfulness in her voice, but pretended not to.
"Really. I mean, it's half mine anyway, right? We share everything else already, so why not some beat up old junker like that?"
"Someone's got an attitude all of a sudden," Barbara said. Kara could hear the smile on her lips. "Let's fix that!" suddenly, her nails dug playfully into Kara's sides as she started tickling her.
Kara involuntarily rose into the air as she laughed against her will.
"You're not getting away that easy!" Barbara quickly leapt up and locked her legs around Kara's waist and continued tickling her, avoiding any attempts for the Kryptonian to stop her. They flew over to the couch.
"A-hal-right! Alright, alright! I give, I give!" Kara conceded, and finally Barbara stopped tickling her. Instead, she hung over her shoulders as they floated there. Kara let out a deep breath. "...Movie tonight? It is a Wednesday. You promised, since you took Thursday for that geeky DnD show."
"I know, movie tonight," Barbara agreed. "But do you mind if we do it in the cave again? I've got to do blood analysis on last week's supervillain."
"Of course. Fly you?"
"So long as we can get takeout on the way."
About twenty minutes later, the two women were in an old elevator shaft in an abandoned warehouse which led down into Batman's National City Batcave, which Barbara, ah...occupied, once she moved here. "Authorization required."
"Authorization: Gordon, Barbara. Passcode: sunshine," she said to the speaker, and the elevator started going down to the cave.
"Aw, that's cute," Kara said, popping a fry into her mouth.
"It changes every week or so, this was just a coincidence," the redhead claimed, though refused to look at Kara as she gave a knowing smile.
"Uh-huh, whatever you say, Babs…" she snickered, taking another fry.
"Hey, did you take from my order?" Barbara snatched the fast-food bag from Kara. "You did! You little-!"
"What? You never finish yours!"
"I get distracted!"
"And this ensures that they don't get wasted," Kara said, only to be poked in the stomach.
"No, you're just a big foodie," Barbara corrected, and Kara couldn't dispute that. The elevator opened and the two women made their way down to the massive screens of the Bat-computer. Before they could start their cheesy rom-com, Barbara started the blood analysis. They found that it would take almost exactly the length of the movie, and so they both settled in to eat and relax.
They'd had plenty of movie nights in these conditions, so much so that they even set up a little bed for them. It wasn't so much a 'bed' as it was a 'lounge chair', but it was big enough for Kara to be able to snuggle up into Barbara's arms for a while. Two hours a week really wasn't enough time for a date night, but it was the best they could do with their busy lives.
Kara had her job at CATCO and her life as Supergirl, while Barbara was swamped in online schoolwork and her life as Batgirl. With all of it, they were lucky they even had this time. They rarely even slept at the same time anymore, let alone in the same bed, though...Kara hadn't had the courage to bring up that possibility anyway.
How many months have they been together now? Honestly, it felt like they just sealed the deal with a kiss a week ago, but part of that must've been because they saw each other so infrequently outside of crime fighting. Kara wanted to spend more time with her girlfriend, but...duty called.
And even with a few bumps in the road, living together and being girlfriends has been really fun. So what if Barbara was a total mess and Kara was a neat-freak? So what if Kara had a bottomless stomach and Barbara was stuck cooking most of the time since she was always the one at the apartment? So what if Kara had to inject a special serum which dampened her powers so she didn't accidentally kill Barbara when they had sex? All of that was transient; passing urges and annoyances. What she felt for Barbara was so much more than any of that, and no amount of small annoyances could ever change one simple fact.
She wanted to spend every minute of every day with Barbara. If she could, Kara would gladly give up the superhero life if it meant she could stay with her, and given that the superhero life literally saved Kara from herself, that was a big deal.
Kara brought Barbara's hand up to her lips and kissed it, which the redhead barely noticed as she was actually paying attention to the movie. The Kryptonian smiled, imagining the passionate critique her girlfriend would rail off about the movie as they left to be superheroes later. She was always hyper-critical of movies, which Kara didn't really understand. Sure, people couldn't fly in them—which made it slightly unrealistic—but she was always able to think that the love depicted in them was genuine. Barbara could only see them as actors, like she was when she was Batgirl.
Batgirl cared about the city, and about stopping the bad guys. Batgirl would do anything to save the day. Barbara Gordon...could probably go either way. Barbara Gordon had college to worry about, and friends to keep up with, and a girlfriend to care for. Barbara Gordon had responsibilities, and they could very easily distract someone from what was right and wrong.
Finally, the movie ended, but Kara held them there in that position for a little while longer. "Blood's done."
"Mm," Kara snuggled further into her girlfriend's bosom. "Five more minutes…?"
With a chuckle, Barbara wrapped her arms around Kara. "Five more minutes."
xxxXXXxxx
"I'm just saying that the ending was absolutely terrible," Barbara said as she slipped into her Batgirl outfit.
"I don't think so," Kara returned as she slipped on her own Supergirl top. "He made her a garden, like she wanted him to."
"Yeah, when she was a ghost haunting him, and when she didn't remember anything when she woke up from her coma," Barbara argued. "Do you really think anything will happen between them after the credits roll, or do you think she'd just tell him to get the hell off her roof?"
"I'd like to think it was a happy ending where the two got together at the end, even with all of their fighting and the weird circumstances," Kara said, pulling up her skirt over her boy shorts and tapping a little drum beat on her exposed belly as she waited for Barbara to finishing pulling on the boots and gloves. "I think you're thinking about it too much, like usual."
Barbara smirked. "And I think-"
"I think I should ask you two why you're here," a voice came from the entrance. Kara turned calmly to the new group, knowing at least one of its members from his whisperings of secrecy that she heard as they came down.
"Nightwing?" Barbara questioned. It'd become second-nature to call him that when he was in full uniform, Kara noticed. Thankfully, both of them had gotten fully dressed by the time the new group entered. "Don't you guys operate out of Happy Harbor or something?"
One of the boys, an African-American-looking guy with lighter hair, cast a hard stare at Dick. "You told her?"
"No!" he claimed, though his teammates remained unconvinced as they came down the steps to meet the two girls there.
"Yeah, he didn't. I figured it out," Barbara put a hand on her hip, obviously feeling satisfied.
"But Connor told me," Kara pointed out. "Mount Justice was pretty obvious, though."
"H-hey, blabber-mouth, you wanna say it a little louder?" the boy avoided his team's annoyed stares.
"Obvious if anybody knew about us, anyway," Dick said. His little Team scattered throughout the area, and Kara counted seven heartbeats in total, and would come to learn their names quickly from overhearing them in their conversations; Nightwing, Aqualad, Superboy, Miss Martian, Artemis, Kid Flash, and Wonder Girl.
The latter was the only one Kara really knew, and the young half-Amazonian bounded up to her excitedly. Fourteen years old, has a promising future, protege to one of the most powerful people on the planet; Kara saw a lot of herself in the girl. At least, the 'Kara' that was from Krypton. "Hey, Kara!"
"Hey, Cassie!" the two interlocked fingers and floated up into the air with each other. "It's been too long, squirt!"
"I know! I was just so busy on Themyscira training, and then, get this, the Justice League recruited me for their covert team!"
"Congratulations!" Kara said to her, before looking down at Nightwing. "How many missions has she exposed?"
"Seven and counting," Dick said.
"H-hey! That last one was a fluke and you know it!" the blond superheroine claimed. Kara giggled at her childish outburst, and gently lowered them both to the floor, where Dick and his friend Aqualad were talking with Barbara.
"Hey, don't blame me because Batman didn't tell you I was here," she said stubbornly. "I told him before I left that I was going to use this place, so he had no excuse!"
"I did call, you know," Dick returned. "You could've told me then."
"Strange, she always seems distracted whenever a big hunk like you calls," Kara said as she landed, posing demurely. "I wonder who could be responsible for that?"
"Very funny, Supergirl," Dick rolled his eyes under his mask.
"So, what's up? Why are you guys here all of a sudden? I'm guessing this is a mission, covert ops?"
"Tracking a rogue group of supervillains who we believe might be trafficking some illegal arms," Dick said.
"Let's not share too much," Aqualad warned.
"Don't worry, these are two of the most trustworthy people I know," Dick assured. "Well, one is, and the other comes as a bundle pack."
Kara giggled at that, accepting the good-natured teasing. "Well, we're tracking a new bad guy ourselves, so maybe we can help each other out."
"Maybe."
"If we have time," Aqualad said. "We're on a timetable, remember."
Kara blew a raspberry, slouching. "You must be fun at parties…" she said, before going over to their bag of food and fishing out what was left of the fries that Barbara didn't eat. They were cold, but Kara was in a munching mood.
Dick moved over to the Bat-computer and typed a few things in. "We're looking for a team calling themselves The Elite. For a while, they acted as heroes over in Britain, before it was revealed that they'd been juicing themselves up on an illegal drug to enhance their powers, and then selling their excess to other supervillains for the sake of giving the people a show. They disappeared after that, but there's recently been sightings of individuals that fit their profile well enough that it's suspicious, and we've found some of their calling cards when busting some illegal arms deals on our own missions," he said, bringing up a picture of The Elite in action against Superman.
"Mm!" Kara quickly swallowed her fried potato. "Recognize the center guy! I fought him last week."
"You did? Was he with anyone else?"
"All on his lonesome," Kara relayed. "We just did bloodwork on him, though."
"Yeah," Barbara not-so-subtly shoved Dick out of the way and brought up their results. "No match in National City police records or on any watch lists, but Kara mentioned he had an accent, so I went ahead and did a check for Britain and sure enough, we've got a match. Nathan Jones. To anyone else, Nightwing, the trail would've ended there. But thanks to yours truly, I found out that the guy had a criminal record a mile long, was recruited by the British government for unknown reasons, and a few months later, bam. He's a member of The Elite as Coldcast. Whatever happened to him in those few months must've given him powers."
"Yeah, no kidding. I still have burns from his lightning blasts," Kara said, rolling her shoulder. "I'm pretty interested in going for round two, though. I was gonna go patrol, and Batgirl was going to try and work out a way to dampen his powers so we can contain him."
"And the rest of his team?" Aqualad asked.
"Nowhere to be found," Barbara said. "I've been checking the news and police reports, but no other new metas have been spotted in National City."
"Which poses a unique problem for us. We have one match, but striking at him now will only make finding the others harder," Dick said, crossing his arms and thinking about the situation.
"Does that mean I can't fight him?" Kara questioned, feeling a bit disappointed considering how badly she let him think he beat her last time.
"Not necessarily," Dick and Barbara said at the same time. Chuckling, Barbara let Dick have the floor. "If we can track him down while you're on patrol, you and Batgirl can engage him. Make him tired, and make him reconsider the fight so that he runs away. When he retreats, Batgirl can hit him with a tracker, and from there, we're in. If he's in league with the other members of The Elite, we'll know about it."
"Solid, then I'm gonna head out," Kara said, quickly grabbing an earpiece and putting it in. "Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," Barbara said, hand going to her own ear. "And no, Nightwing, you can't have our frequency."
"I wasn't gonna ask that."
"Yeah, sure you weren't," Barbara playfully punched him. "As if a dog like you wouldn't want to listen in on our flirting."
"Oh, I don't know," Cassie said, jutting into the conversation. "I think he gets enough of that from the mind link flirting we have to hear from those four," she pointed to the pairs of Superboy and Miss Martian, and well as Kid Flash and Artemis.
"Thank you!"
"I think we should start focusing on the mission," Aqualad interrupted the banter. Kara nodded and took off flying.
Within a few seconds, she was soaring between the skyscrapers of National City. Compared to Metropolis, the buildings weren't quite as tall or packed together, but it was plenty dense for Kara. "Comms check number two," she heard in her ear.
"Check successful, honey," Kara said in an overly sweet voice, doing a quick loop to redirect herself down the next street upon hearing a mugging happen several blocks away.
"Very funny. Dick's Team is going to be doing their own investigation from the cave, but I've got eyes on from my wrist computer. If either of us spots this creep, you'll know."
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Kara said with a smile. "So...out of curiosity, how long have you and Dick known each other?"
"Hm? God, it must be around...six years ago now? He was Robin, and I was a school friend. That we both ended up as Batman's proteges was a stroke of weird cosmic luck."
"I see...any feelings?"
"Nope," she said flatly. "Besides, I think he's with...Zatanna now? I know he was with Rocket and Starfire at some point when he was with the Titans. Don't know how long it'll last now that she's in the League, though. From how many times he's called me in the middle of the night for girl advice, he does not handle long-distance well."
"Oh...so, he called you late at night? Often?"
"Why, sunshine, do I detect jealousy in your voice?"
"No," Supergirl claimed, quickly picking up a cop she spotted on patrol and setting him at the site of the mugging, simultaneously using her heat vision to burn the knife from the thug's hand. She left after confirming that the woman was alright and collected all of the groceries she'd been carrying from the ground. "It's just weird, is all. If people looked at you two, they'd always assume you were a thing."
"Um, ew, no."
"What? He's...attractive?"
"As it happens, I prefer blondes," Barbara said.
"So, Cassie? Artemis? I hear Martians can be whatever you want!"
"I think the oldest of those three is sixteen, which makes them like four years too young for me. Unless you're asking me to break up with you, because if that's the case I have Black Canary on speed-dial."
"Oh please; you would give up a Kryptonian for a girl that can scream bloody murder at a thousand decibels?" Kara questioned.
"I wouldn't give you up for the world, sunshine," Barbara returned, forcing Kara to stop at the combination of forwardness and absolute sincerity. "...Kara?"
"..." Kara felt her heart rate pick up.
"Uh, hello? Earth to Supergirl, do you read me?"
"Um, y-yeah," she started flying again. "You just...almost made me fall out of the sky just now."
"Really? That's all it took?"
"You know I'm a romantic," Kara said.
"Well, what if I said the A/C wasn't working in the Batmobile and I'm thinking about ditching the spandex?"
"I would be there in about twenty seconds to sneak a peak," Kara said with a smirk.
"You'd have to chuck Wonder Girl out before you could. She's giving me the weirdest look right now. Your comments didn't help with that, by the way."
"Oh god! Cassie, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to corrupt you like we are!" Kara exclaimed, hoping she could hear her. Barbara just laughed, while Kara now thought she could hear some mutterings from the younger girl. "Wait, why is she even there with you?"
"She wanted to come," Barbara said, likely with a shrug. "Pretty sure she's regretting it by now."
"No, I'm not!" Kara heard quietly over her comm, along with some unintelligible words soon after.
"Okay, scratch that, she says she's happy to not feel like a seventh wheel for a while. Well, sorry to say, but you're still a third...and now she wants out of the car."
"What's your location? I'll pick her up," Kara said, trying to pinpoint the Batmobile's motor out of the thousands of cars in the city. There was a pause before Barbara responded.
"Uh...negative, we've got a match on Coldcast. And it looks like...oh god…"
"What? Babs?" Kara questioned. She was met with a brief scream from Cassie, the screeching of wheels, and then static.
At that instant, the sound of an explosion entered Kara's ears. She lurched to a halt and burst toward the source, pushed on by the thought of Barbara facing that monster alone.
When she got closer, she saw the fire, and soon found out the situation.
Coldcast had attacked Barbara and Cassie in the Batmobile, causing it to explode and set the nearby apartment building on fire as well. "Babs!" Kara lurched down to the wreckage, not hearing a heartbeat from within it.
"I've got her!" Kara had been so tunnel-visioned that she didn't notice Cassie on the other side of the road. Barbara lay unconscious in her lap. She let out a sigh of relief, and then glared at their attacker, who was cracking his knuckles.
"I thought attacking the Bat-Bitch would draw you out again. Looking forward to frying that pretty brain of yours."
"Not likely, gas-for-brains," Kara returned, clenching her fists. "Wonder Girl, fly in there and get everyone out that you can. The big guy is mine."
"R-right!" she set Barbara down and flew up to the top floor, where she would be needed the most. Supergirl saw Coldcast aim a bolt toward her with his hand, and she dashed forward, appearing in front of him in a millisecond, and pushing his arm up so his shot coursed harmlessly into the sky. However, he then grabbed her by the arms and released a powerful shock through her.
Supergirl cried out, feeling her skin burn where he touched, and she shot a low-powered headbutt his way, sending him flying back and into the wall. "You don't have to do this, Nathan," Supergirl said as he recovered from the hit. "I can punch you all the way to France, but I don't want to do it. Just come quietly and we can figure things out."
"Not likely," he said, mimicking her earlier confidence. He shot several bolts of lightning at her, which she dodged and let hit the walls around them. When she got close, she reared back a fist and threw it forward, only to have him hold up his palm. Upon impacting his skin, she was blasted backwards from a point-blank impact. She landed roughly on the ground, but was overall uninjured.
Kara levelled a cold glare at the man, growing more impatient by the minute. "Is that the best you've got?" she questioned.
"Best not to ask that, love," a distinctly British voice sounded behind her. Suddenly, she was lifted off the ground. Now, Supergirl could obviously fly, but she'd never been floated off the ground by someone else before, and she didn't much enjoy the feeling. Whoever had psychically grabbed her soon shot her forward with an incredible force and up into the burning building, shooting her clean through several floors and flying out the top.
Kara caught herself in midair, shrugging off the ache in her muscles from the strange experience, only to hear several tiny heartbeats approaching from above. She looked up, seeing a strange lizard-bat lady and an army of strange grubs shooting toward her. The grubs had mouths with razor sharp teeth, and though they felt like pinpricks to the Kryptonian, she still had dozens of the biting her all over. "Gah!" Supergirl cried, quickly using her heat vision to burn them all off, before being rushed by the woman that had secreted them. The two got into a brief tussle in the sky, before Kara bashed her away, leaving her with a cut on her cheek. "Consider that a warning," Kara said, voice low.
"Then consider me warned, darling," the woman said, raising a hand to her cut cheek and then flicking the blood off of it and toward Supergirl. Immediately, her skin burned, though mildly; acid. Kara looked at the acid on her skin sizzling off, and then looked back up at the bat lady. Realizing that Supergirl caught on, the woman pointedly let more of her blood fall, right into the burning building.
Not knowing how strong or deadly the acid was, Supergirl had no choice but to dive down and take the droplets herself, the stinging from them only growing more acute with each one.
She flew straight up into the woman. Using the pain she felt from the acid as fuel, Kara headbutted the woman just lightly enough to keep her conscious, locked her arms around her body, and then flew them both down to the ground where she let go and let the woman crash down onto the ground. Almost as soon as Kara landed, she felt that psychic from before try and enter her thoughts. "I don't think so!" with more of her power, Kara swiped at the air, creating a burst of wind in its arc, blowing the man backwards and breaking his concentration. "Sorry, but my mind's got a lot of barriers to that mind-controlling crap."
"Ooh, bad experience, love?" the man returned, sporting obviously-dyed purple hair. "Then how about-"
"Me first!" Supergirl quickly used her super-breath to blow both him and the bat woman away and into the wall, hoping that they would have the decency to stay down for a while. Coldcast then reappeared with a hard right hook into the back of Kara's head. Her vision flashed red in anger, and she planted her foot to catch herself. Supergirl whirled around to catch the follow-up hit, only to be once again attacked by the little grubs from the woman.
Supergirl's strength waned for the briefest of moments as they snapped into her skin, which was enough time for Coldcast to land another hit to her head, charged with even more juice.
She was shot away and to the feet of the psychic, and before she could even get up, he had lifted her into the air. "I think that body's a bit too spry for my taste," he said. Kara felt him try to bend her and break her limbs, but Kryptonians were made of much stronger stuff than what he was used to. It was visibly frustrating him that Supergirl's body didn't break. "Fine then, we'll try a bit less subtle means."
A particularly strong pull came to Supergirl's back. She cried out, feeling even her bones start to give way. In desperation, she shot out a weak blast of heat vision at the telepath. The zap put a nasty burn on his arm, which was enough to make him drop her.
She landed ungracefully, collapsing onto her hands and knees and trying to shake the soreness from her body. Before she knew it, Coldcast was on her again. Supergirl faced him on shaky legs, but he went straight for her head. He grasped it from both ends, and her mind went absolutely blank as he let loose all of his power.
She remembered screaming, and she remembered blinding blue light engulfing them, but the next time Kara was fully conscious was after the fact, as she slumped down to the ground unable to move, body twitching from the excess electricity still coursing through it.
"My, you are one tough bird," the telepath lifted her up again. "Almost as tough as Supes was, but not quite. That blast took you out of commission, love. It's over, so say goodnight."
Kara was hardly paying attention. Her ears picked up distant running that was far too fast for a human; Kid Flash was approaching, but was still a ways away.
Her eyes saw shadowed movement behind the telepath, as well as a calm heartbeat; Barbara had awoken in the fighting. Don't do it, Kara begged in her mind. He'll crush you…
Suddenly, a Batarang launched from the shadows and became embedded in the nearby wall, before exploding into a flashbang. The telepath dropped Supergirl in surprise, while the other members of The Elite were temporarily blinded.
Barbara leapt from the shadows and attacked the telepath, who seemed wholly unprepared for this scenario. She landed several good hits, knowing to go for his head to keep him disoriented. But he eventually blocked a strike, and from there it was over. He grinned, and Barbara stopped mid-punch.
She was wrenched up into the air so suddenly that it drew the breath from her, and her body immediately started twisting. "Fighting hard for your little girlfriend, eh? Well, just goes to show how idiotic it is to date a coworker," the telepath quipped.
"D...don't...touch her…" Kara struggled with all of her might to get to her hands and knees. She was helpless. She couldn't stand, and she could barely think. All she knew was that Barbara was in danger and she could do nothing about it. Tears welled up in Kara's eyes.
"Or what? You're finished, love."
"Batgirl!" Kara looked above them, seeing Cassie flying almost directly overhead, finished with saving people from the fire. She launched herself downward, and Kara heard Kid Flash drawing near. Just...a few more seconds.
The telepath grinned. "Let's just make her pop right...here," he twitched his hand, and Barbara's spine snapped at the waist, twisted so her torso was about forty-five degrees off from her legs. She immediately fell into shock, unable to even scream in pain.
"No!" Kara yelled, tears cascading down her face. A heartbeat later, Kid Flash rammed into the telepath, blasting him away and making him drop Barbara, whom Cassie caught. With adrenaline coursing through her, Kara scrambled over to Barbara. "No, no, no, no, no, no…" she took her face in her hands, but couldn't calm herself enough to listen for a heartbeat.
Kid Flash held off the other members of The Elite, but his revealing himself seemed to make them hesitant about attacking further, like they knew that he wasn't the only extra hero they had access to. In the end, they retreated.
The other members of the Team arrived shortly after, seeing Kara cradling Barbara in her arms. Nightwing was the quickest to take everything in. "Kara, we need to get her to a hospital, now!"
"B-but-"
"We'll worry about her secret identity later! Hospital! Kid Flash, you're the fastest one here, coordinates in two seconds," he said, already bringing up the map on his wrist computer. Nodding, the man suddenly had Barbara in his arms, and then he was off before Kara could even object.
"Babs...Babs…" Kara reached after them, but lacked the strength to do anything. She couldn't stand, she couldn't fly, she couldn't think about anything other than her girlfriend. Tonight wasn't supposed to go this way. It wasn't supposed to…
More tears fell, and more still when they made it to the hospital and were told of the damages. Kara didn't understand most of it, but she understood that Barbara would never be able to walk again. She understood that in a single instant, half of Barbara's life had ended. Supergirl sat by her side, unable to take her eyes off her. It was only when Barbara finally awoke that she was able to think about something else.
Supergirl always forgave. It was one of her core principles. Yet, the only thoughts in her mind after that night were all of the ways that she could make that telepath suffer. And then, Kara was going to kill him.