"What happened?" Kara demanded, landing at the DEO and walking to the main desk.
"Supergirl, hey," Alex said as she saw her sister walking up, looking up from her tablet. "A bombing downtown," she swiped the screen of the tablet, and images of a destroyed overpass were beamed up onto the screens.
"How did this happen?" Kara asked.
"We're not sure. A bomb was attached to the bottom of the overpass, presumably last night. It was detonated twenty minutes ago."
"Any casualties?"
"No. Three people were injured, one seriously, but they're all in stable condition at the hospital."
"Why are we involved with this then? Shouldn't this be in the NCPD's purview?"
"They found this spray-painted on the side of the overpass," Brainy answered, tapping his computer. An image of the overpass popped onto the screen. A capital letter 'a' was written on the bridge, and Kara immediately recognized the font as being the same from the note that they found in the warehouse with the killed doctors.
"The Agenda?" She asked.
"That's what seems to be the case," Alex replied gravely. "That's not all that they found, either." She picked up a Ziplock bag and handed it to Kara. Inside was a letter, the edges of the paper singed but it was still readable. The same swooping red font danced across the page.
'To the DEO,' it read. 'We haven't had the pleasure of meeting in person yet, but we would like to formally introduce ourselves. We are The Agenda, pioneers in genetic research. We understand that you may have come into contact with one of our former experimental sites, and a valuable resource of ours has gone missing, her genetic makeup was the focus of our research. If you have any information as to her whereabouts, it would be much appreciated by us. Until she is returned to us safely, we will continue to provide incentive for you to work as fast as you can. Cordially yours, Director Alpha."
"So they're going to keep blowing up things unless we send Selah back there?" Kara demanded. Brainy and Alex nodded solemnly. "Well that's not happening, so we'd better find them before they can do anything else."
"There's more," Alex said. "There's a watermark on the note, it's subtle but readable. It's just six repeating letters, A, T, C, G, X, and L."
"Is that some kind of code?"
"That's what I thought at first too," Brainy said. "But I ran it through six thousand and forty seven different decoders, and there were no results. Then I showed it to Director Danvers."
"Human DNA is sequenced in four base pairs, Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine," Alex began. "It's written out as A, T, C, and G when genomes are sequenced. It's a DNA sequence but it's not human. Kryptonians also have genetic DNA, but their DNA is made up of six base pairs."
"This is a sample of Kryptonian DNA?" Kara demanded.
"Not quite." Alex replied. "The extra Kryptonian base pairs are Xylemine and Yeltranine, according to the data crystals in the Fortress. They would be sequenced as X and Y, but the letter clearly has X and M. Andromedans also have six base pairs, they have Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine, Maltisine and Lithosine. Biologically, it's likely that if a Kryptonian-Andromedan child was born, and the two types of DNA merged, Xylemine would pair with Lithosine to create a complete set of DNA."
"Making an A-T-C-G-X-L genome." Kara finished. Alex nodded. "So this definitively says that her father is Kryptonian?"
"Not quite. Daxamites also have X and Y, as well as Valerians and Infernians, but her powers pretty much rule those two out."
"Have we told Selah about the note?" Kara asked.
"Not yet. She went to Noonan's to meet with her aunt for coffee."
"Did we find all the Kryptonians we have on file?"
"Yes," Brainy replied. "There are only fourteen." He tapped his tablet, and the main screen lit up. As he named each Kryptonian, their face appeared on the screen. "The three world-killers, and the three witches of Juru, none of whom are strong contenders for being Selah's birth father, Astra, Non, and four soldiers who arrived with them on Fort Rozz, and, of course, you and your cousin. Now, I have been running some simulations, and they have confirmed that for a Kryptonian-Andromedan child to be conceived outside of a birthing matrix, the second parent would have to be male, so that rules out most of our suspects."
"And Fort Rozz didn't land on Earth until four years after Selah was born," Alex said.
"So whoever Selah's father was isn't in our records."
"That seems to be the case," Brainy admitted.
"Do you still have the inter-space communications system that you set up with Argo?" Kara asked.
"Affirmative," he answered, raising one eyebrow.
"I need to borrow it. I'm going to call my mother."
"Kara," Alura said warmly, her hologram flickering slightly in an empty DEO training room. "It's so good to see you."
"Hi, Mom," Kara replied, smiling. "It's good to see you too."
"What did you need that was so urgent?"
"Were there any other pods that left Krypton before its destruction?" Kara asked. "Besides Kal-El's and mine?"
"None on file," Alura replied. "We have a record of all the pods that entered or exited our ports, and the only ones recorded from that day were the two of you. However, it's possible that there were others that were not logged. We weren't aware of Reign's pod, after all. Why do you ask?"
"We're trying to identify a Kryptonian male who was here about 20 years ago, and don't have any matches in the system. No one left Argo to come to Earth, did they?" Alura shook her head.
"20 years ago, we were nowhere near being stable enough to support extra-planetary travel," she said.
"So how could another Kryptonian have made it to Earth?"
"There were probably a few Kryptonians off-world at the time of the explosion. Perhaps they found their way to Earth somehow."
"I hadn't thought of that," Kara said, frowning. "Maybe I'll call Kal-El. He was on Earth then."
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."
"Thanks anyways. I love you."
"I love you too, Kara." The hologram disappeared, and Kara sighed, beginning to head back to the atrium. Selah would be getting back from Noonan's soon, and Kara and Alex had agreed to tell her about the message from the Agenda together. The girl had alluded to the existence of her father before, but she had said that she didn't know who he was and that she had never met him. Kara wasn't expecting her to be able to solve that mystery for them, but she and Alex had decided that the girl deserved to know what was going on, as it did directly impact her.
"Kara, hey," Alex said as she walked into the atrium. "Any leads?"
"Nope." Kara replied flatly. Alex sighed.
"Selah just got back, she's in the lab. Should we head over?" The hero nodded, and together, they went over to the lab that Selah was staying in. She still had seizures occasionally, usually at night. Because of this, Alex insisted that she stay at the DEO for the time being, mostly because they knew she had nowhere else to go. The girl grumbled about it, but Kara was fairly certain that she didn't mind it as much as she pretended to. Coming up to the door to Selah's room, Alex knocked gently.
"Hey," Selah said, shutting her book. Kara recognized it as being a part of Winn's old collection about the space-time continuum.
"Hi," Kara replied, glancing over at her sister. "We have to talk to you about something."
"The Agenda did something, right?" Selah asked. "Alex and Brainy tried to shield it from me, but they're not very good at that."
"Rude," Alex muttered. "Yes. They bombed an overpass."
"Why?"
"They're trying to manipulate us into sending you back to them. Which is never going to happen, by the way." Selah looked at the floor and was quiet for a moment, before asking,
"Did anyone get hurt?"
"Three people were injured, but they're going to be okay," Kara replied. Sensing the girl's uncertainty, she sat down on the bed next to her, placing a hand on her knee. "Hey. This is not your fault," she said.
"There's something else, isn't there?" Selah asked, still not looking up.
"Yes," Alex said, exchanging a look with Kara. "Do you have any other information about who your father might be? The Agenda sent us a message saying that your 'unique genetic makeup and parenthood' was part of the reason they were doing tests on you, and we're a little worried that they might try and target your father to get to you." Selah shook her head slowly.
"From what my aunt told me, my parents only met once. They lived near Metropolis then, in Metrodale. Once my mom found out that she was pregnant with me, she and my aunt left to come to National City."
"Would your aunt know anything more about him?"
"Probably not. She never met him either, and my mother was very secretive." She tilted her head slightly. "You think he's from Krypton?"
"Yes." Alex said. "And don't read my mind."
"Sorry," she said, biting back a smile. "Do you need to do a blood test or something? Would that help to find him?"
"We already know that whoever he is, he's not in our system." Kara replied. "So it wouldn't get any matches."
"Okay." Selah hesitated before adding, "let me know if you find anything, okay?"
"Of course, love."
Kara sat at her desk at CatCo, fidgeting with pens and paperclips, and playing Minesweeper on her computer, avoiding work at all costs. It's not that she didn't have work to do, or even that she was uninterested in the articles that she was writing- a piece on a potential cure for a rare form of brain cancer being one of them- she just couldn't seem to focus on anything other than Selah, and the question of who her father was.
Pulling out her phone, Kara excused herself from her desk and decided to call Kal-El.
"Hey, Kara," he said upon picking up. "What's going on?"
"I was just wondering if you could help me with something we're working on at the DEO, she said, walking out onto the balcony. "We're trying to ID an unknown Kryptonian male who was alive in the Metropolis area around 20 years ago."
"Can't say anyone comes to mind," Kal-El replied. "They don't match anyone in the DEO database?"
"No, we ruled out everyone we have on file."
"Has J'onn done a psychic scan of the Earth for Kryptonian life forms?"
"Yeah," Kara said, pushing up her glasses. "The only ones who showed up were me and you. Whoever it is must not be on Earth anymore."
"Weird." Kal-El said. "What do you need this guy for? I'm always down for a team-up." Kara bit her lip, thinking about how to reply.
"It's a long story," she said. "Basically, we found an illegal lab recently, they call themselves The Agenda. We raided one of their bases and found a girl who was their test subject. She's half Kryptonian, and we're trying to find out who her father is."
"And she's twenty years old?"
"Nineteen."
"Kara, what race was her mother? Is this girl half human?" Kal-El demanded, his voice urgent.
"Um, no," Kara replied. "Her mother was from Andromeda." The line was silent for several moments. "Kal? What's wrong?"
"I think I should go to National City. I'll be at the DEO at three." Before Kara could reply, the line went dead, and she stared at her phone in surprise.
Ten minutes later, she was flying through the doors of the DEO.
"Where's Alex?" She asked the first agent she saw, a young, gangly, blond man. He turned very red at the sight of her, and pointed towards the lab Selah was in. "Thanks." She strode over to the medical bay and opened Selah's door.
"Alex?" She asked.
"She just went on break," Selah said. She was sitting on the counter reading a book and eating a sticky bun. "What's going on? Why is Superman coming?"
"Don't read my mind," Kara said on reflex. "I'm not sure. I need to talk to Alex."
"Okay," Selah said, going back to her book. Kara left the lab to go to the break room, but she bumped into Alex in the hallway on the way there.
"Hey," Kara said, relieved. "I need to talk to you, something weird is going on."
"What's up?" Alex asked, instantly on guard. Kara relayed her phone call with Kal-El to her sister, including his cryptic goodbye.
"I don't know what's going on, or why he got so weird about it."
"It sound's like he knows something about Selah's birth father," Alex said, frowning slightly.
"Ma'ams?" The awkward blond agent was back, looking redder than the last time Kara saw him. "Um, Superman is here to see you?"
"Thanks, O'Neil," Alex said. "Can you tell Hamilton that I need her to be on call in block A until I relieve her?"
"Yes, Ma'am." He scurried away, and the sisters walked to the foyer of the DEO.
"Kal," Kara said, seeing her cousin standing by the desk. "What's going on? Why did you come here?"
"I need to talk to you both," he said, walking to an empty conference room. The three sat down at the table, and Kal-El closed the door.
"You're staring to scare me, Kal," Kara said. "What's going on?"
"You have her in custody right now, right?" Nineteen years old, half Kryptonian, half Andromedan?"
"Yeah," Alex said. "She's been here since the sixteenth. Clark, do you know anything about her father?"
"I'm the father," Kal-El said, wincing. "At least, I think so."
"What?" Kara sputtered.
"How is that possible?" Alex demanded.
"I had just gotten my first promotion at the Planet, and I went out for drinks to celebrate." He said. "I met a girl, an Andromedan. Her name was Lyla, we bumped into each other at the bar, and we started talking. Lois and I were on a break, and Lyla was so beautiful." He trailed off, getting lost in his thoughts. "It was just the one night. She disappeared after that. I tried finding her, but she must have left the city."
"So you think that Lyla..." Alex began
"She's the mother," Kal-El said. "She must be." The room was silent for a long moment, the only noise the steady ticking of Alex's watch.
"We have to tell Selah," Kara said. "She deserves to know."
"I know," Kal-El said, looking slightly overwhelmed. "Is she here right now?"
"Yeah," Kara hesitated. "Do you want to meet her?" He nodded slowly.
"I do. Nineteen years is already too long." They stood and walked to the lab in silence, all still digesting the information.
"Do you want to go in alone?" Kara asked her cousin as they approached the door. He turned to her, his face pale.
"Come with me?" he asked.
"Of course." Alex opened the door, and together the three adults entered the room.
"Hey, Alex," Selah said as they walked in. "I sneezed really hard and I think I broke your stethoscope." She looked up to see Kara and Kal-El standing in the doorway with Alex. "Oh. Hi."
"Hi," Kal-El said. The girl tilted her head slightly as she absorbed the thoughts of the three adults.
"You're my..." she trailed off.
"Your father." He finished, his voice quiet. "At least, I think so. Your mother?"
"Lyla Lerrol." Selah bit her lip. "This makes a lot of sense, honestly."
"What do you mean?" Kara asked.
"One of the first things they did when they got me was to try and..." she paused, weighing her words. "Inseminate me? They tried to get me pregnant hundreds of times, with different races and species. None of them worked, so they eventually declared me 'medically infertile' and moved on to other experiments." She cleared her throat. "It just never made sense to me why they tried so hard, and why they chose me for that, over any other alien. But with me, if they could make an army out of Superman's grandchildren-" She stopped abruptly, clearing her throat again. Kara moved to the bed and sat down next to Selah, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"I think she needs some space, Clark," Alex murmured, going to Kal-El. They quietly left the room, leaving Kara and Selah alone.
"My mother knew who he was," Selah said, not looking at Kara. "That he was Superman. She must have. That's why she sold me to them."
"Your mother?" Kara asked gently.
"That's how I got there," she said, her voice small. "My mother took me from my aunt and signed custody over to the Directors, knowing what they wanted me for."
"Selah," Kara breathed, pulling her into a hug. "I'm so sorry."
"I was fourteen," Selah whimpered. Kara didn't know how long they sat like that for, with her arms wrapped around the girl as she cried into her shoulder, but her heart broke for Selah, for all the ways that she had been hurt.
.
.
.
