The next day, everyone around the world has learned that Superman and Supergirl are indeed related all because of Kara having a little slip up the other night during an interview with ms. Grant. Because she for some reason thought it was a good idea.
"Have you lost your mind?" Peter asks as Kara returns to the DEO. "What were you thinking giving an interview?"
"I wouldn't say it was an interview exactly." Kara states to him. "More of a private conversation that's being published."
"What is it with Kryptonians and want for attention? I'm like you and I don't do that." Peter asks her. "I mean, what were you thinking?" He questions before leaving her.
Alex and Kara get into a conversation about how she did it to try to help Supergirl's image when Gwen gets a alarm.
"Oh, looks like we have a Code Grey. Coming from the NCH." Gwen tells them and pulls up the footage from the bridge of an accident.
"Looks like a standard multiple car collision." Peter says looking over the footage.
"Highway patrol officers and medical personnel are en route." Alex tells them.
"And it looks like there's no sign of alien activity." Gwen adds on.
"Run a thermal scan to be sure." Hank asks of her. "And miss Danvers, next time your thinking of..." he was saying when he realizes that she and Peter are already gone.
"She's excited. It's her first pileup." Alex jokes.
-
Peter and Kara make their way to the pileup and sees people are worried.
"Supergirl, Spider-Man, the driver's still inside, she can't get out." One of the pedestrians tells them.
Kara and Peter make their way and Peter uses his scanners to show she is stuck in the driver seat as Kara stops a powercable from sparkling. Afterward, Kara goes in and was able to get the driver out fast when Peter's scanners pick up someone coming.
"Watch out!" Peter says and pushes Kara before getting blasted by a sunbeam and Kara looks at the source of the blast and sees someone wearing military grade armor flying down to ground level.
Kara looks back and sees Peter getting back up after the blast and sees the man.
"Oh, not this joker." Peter complained since this isn't his first encounter with this guy.
"Who are you?" Kara asks the man.
"I'm just a ghost." The man says.
"What do you want?" Kara questions.
"I want the Man of Steel to suffer. Along with him." He states pointing to Peter.
"Well, you've done a bang up job at that." Peter informs him while rubbing the part of his head that was just smashed into the underside of the bus.
"I want them to know what it feels like to lose everything." He continues on and sends a blast at Supergirl sending her flying into a car.
He tries shooting them again but they both dodge it and Peter uses his repulsers to blast him back as Kara goes in and tries fighting him hand to hand and sends him flying down the street.
Kara takes it as an opportunity to grab the door from the car to use as a shield and the door blocks the blasts. Peter them sees his opening to blast at the gauntlets thatnhe uses to blast and as soon as they stop working, he blasts off into the sky.
Peter tries flying after him, but he damaged his gauntlets and by that time, he's out of range for his web shooters.
-
They make their way back to the DEO that took them a while since Supergirl had to have Peter web to her to get back.
"Reactron." Hank says referring to the person who attacked them. "At least that's what the Daily Planet colorfully dubbed him when he showed up in Metropolis a few years back." He explains to Kara.
"Reactron? That's kind of a stupid name. Who named him that?" Kara asks him.
"Jimmy Olsen." Peter informs her.
"I liked the Daily Bugle's name better; Taskmaster." Gwen states and sees her opinion isn't wanted. "I'll go back to playing on my computer." She says awkwardly and turns away from them.
"So, who's this guy really?" Kara asks.
"Unknown." Peter informs her.
"He remains at large after a string of very public fights with your cousin." Hank tells Kara. "Neither of them ever came out on top. Then a while back, he tried to take down Spider-Man, but nobody knows why he's obsessed with killing them."
"Yeah, and he's number one on my enemy's list." Peter states.
"You have an enemy's list?" Alex asks him.
"Yeah, it's not a long list." Peter admits since it's only this guy and Jameson.
"So, what's the plan?" Kara asks them. "How do we stop him?"
"We don't." Hank tells her.
"So what are you saying? We just sit back and do nothing?" Kara questions.
"Reactron, whoever he is, is human. Which means this case falls outside the DEO's jurisdiction." Hank explains to her.
"This man files and shoots nuclear fireballs. How is that not extra normal?" Kara asks them.
"He's using stolen advanced biomedical technology. Human technology." Peter explains.
"And I can't risk exposing this organization every time some human criminal shows up at National City." Hank informs her.
"And I just can't let this man run wild." Kara states.
"Skirt, there's nothing they can do about it." Peter says. "Now, come on, we have training." He tells her and drags her off into the labs.
-
"What are we doing here?" Kara asks when Peter snaps his fingers and the computers come alive and reveal all the data Peter dug up on Taskmaster/Reactron.
"They can't do anything about it, but we can do something about it. But we can't do it here." Peter states to her and sees people approaching and shuts it all down and transferred everything into a usb disk. "They're already getting a little suspicious about what I'm hiding regarding the message I found."
"I know a place." Kara says.
-
Kara takes Peter to Catco and Winn shows them the office he inverted into a second base.
"So, I loaded this office up with some...state of the art, top of the line tech. But sadly not as advanced as that nano tech suit you wear." Winn says looking at container for Peter's suit.
"Give me that." Peter says not liking other people touching his fragile tech.
"Okay, back on subject." James tells Winn.
"Right, Okay, So for our first meeting, Supergirl and Spider-Man vs. Reactron." Winn says before getting to the computers.
"FYI, if my girlfriend asks, I never met you before." Peter tells Winn knowing Gwen is his go-to computer person and she doesn't like when he goes to others. She's strange, but he loves her for it.
"Okay, so his true identity remains a mystery, according to your data." Winn clarified at what he could find. "And according to what you found, he shoots these highly concentrated-"
"Bursts of nuclear energy." James interrupts.
"From his gauntlets." Winn finishes.
"Guys, this is my data, I know what it says. I also know how his chest plate is giving him super strength and hovering abilities, I came here to learn something new." Peter informs them not wanting to hear the same thing he already knows.
"Right, got it. Don't mess around with you." Winn states, seeing Peter is more serious than play. "Now I've written an algorithm that will sweep the city for any variable changes in radiation. And maybe we can use this to find him."
"Good. This way, I can fight him just like it was a normal street crime that I usually fight and Hank won't try and kill me for the constant rule bending I do." Peter states knowing he's starting to test Hank on his patience.
"Then what's the plan?" James asks them.
"And then we let the heroes do what they do on them." Winn replies.
"Maybe we should call in Superman on this one. I've seen what Reactron can do." James tells them.
"Buddy, calling out for help doesn't do anything except make bigger targets on our backs." Peter informs James.
"He's right, every villain will see National City as an easy target." Kara agrees with Peter.
"He nearly killed Clark and you." James informs Peter.
"Actually, about half a dozen times." Peter corrects him.
"Clark?" Winn asks not understanding when they realize that he doesn't know who Superman is. "Clark Kent is Superman?" He asks them.
"And there goes the thoughts you can keep my identity a secret." Peter tells James.
"I'm just looking out for you guys." James explains to them.
"We get it, and he in his own way, appreciates it. But we need to do this on our own." Kara says to him.
"Clark...Clark Kent's Superman." Winn repeats not getting over that any time soon. "Sorry, I'm trying to put it together."
"Look, we can handle this, and we can't keep expecting Superman to swoop in to save us. Besides, Peter's got my back." Kara says pointing to Peter,
"Someone has to, skirt." Peter says and walks away.
-
Meanwhile, at Lord technologies, Reactron makes a visit there and asks for someone with a background in nuclear fission.
"Everyone keep calm, it's gonna be alright." Lord tells them as Reactron threatens one of his employees. "You don't need to hurt anyone." He tells Reactron as he removes his mask.
Once his mask is removed, they all see how half of his face is half scarred. "I need this man." Reactron explains to him.
"From the looks of things, what you need is a mechanical genius. Compared to me, that guys a dope." Lord informs him. "Don't take him, take me."
Reactron thinks for a minute and sees it as a good idea.
"Once again, Lord Technologies has been the target of an attack by the criminal and I bet you that Spider-Man was the cause behind this attack." Jameson yells through the news screens and Kara runs out with Peter to learn what they can.
They make it there and see police everywhere and employees being asked questions.
"What happened here?" Peter asks getting to the point.
"Mr. Lord, he's been taken." One of the employees tell them.
-
It's been 24 hours since tech billionaire mr. Lord was abducted from his research facility by the Metropolis based criminal known as either Reactron or Taskmaster, depending on who you ask. Authorities still will not speculate whether mr. Lord is alive or dead." The news goes on as Kara is getting miss. Grant's party she wants about the article.
"This isn't on you, Kara." Winn tells her.
"I have to find this man. How am I supposed to do that?" Kara asks since Peter is doing what he can flying around the city when she sees said Peter and Alex approach them.
"With my help. Do you have someplace private we can talk?" Alex asks.
"Do we ever." Winn says happy.
"You might regret not doing this at the DEO." Peter informs her.
They go to their second base and Gwen does her thing.
"Okay, I used the DEO satellite to scan the highway where you both gought Taskmaster. Better than Reactron. And I was able to isolate the nuclear signature of his weapons systems. It's powered by Thorium 232. I have no plans to die today." Gwen says quoting Thor and sees the look on their faces. "No? Okay." She says and gets back to work.
"Where does one find someone like her?" Winn asks Peter regarding Gwen.
"That's classified." Peter informs him.
"The Thorium can only be found in one place. Bakerline Nuclear Power Station." Gwen finishes to them.
"I remember this." Peter says as it comes back to him. "Terrorists tried to start a full on meltdown like five years ago, but me and Superman stopped it."
"Yeah, you guys stoped the core from overloading and saved millions of lives." Alex agrees with them. "But two reactor engineers were killed when the facility was flooded with radiation. Ben and Alyssa Krull. They were married." She says and pulls up his image and the footage that was taken from Lord technologies.
"Ben Krull is Reactron." Kara realizes.
"I'm going with Taskmaster. Sounds more menacing." Peter states. "Seems like he somehow survived the radiation exposure. No wonder he hates me and Supes."
"But you guys managed to prevent an American Chernobyl." James adds on.
"Chernobyl. Maybe we can use that to find him." James says.
-
Ben brought Lord to his home so he could fix his suit Peter damaged so he could get back out there and go back after Kara and Peter.
"You're gonna repair my suit...or they're gonna start building memorials to you." Ben threatens him.
"Fine. I'll need Thorium, cesium-137, tributyl phosphate and a dr. Pepper." Lord lists down what he needs for what he wants. "The last one's for me. I'm thirsty." He explains.
-
Kara had a quick word with miss. Grant regarding Supergirl before James interrupts and pulls her out after Gwen was able to find Ben by tracking his signature.
"Just rescue Lord, you guys don't need to fight Krull." James tells her.
"He's not some crazy alien, he's a human being. Who's been hurt enough. That's why I'm gonna go talk to him, while Peter gets Lord out, the way I'd want someone to talk to me." Kara explains her plan to him.
"And if he doesn't want to talk?" James asks her
"Then I'll punch him until he falls over." Kara suggests as a backup plan.
-
Peter makes it to the location, and sees its a junkyard but sticks with the plan and hangs back as Kara comes flying in to draw Krull out,
"I'm not here to fight you. I know who you are." Kara calls out for him. "I know why you hate the heroes. I know what you've lost, too." She looks and waits to hear something back as Peter sneaks into the bunker and finds Lord tied up.
"You looked taller on the Daily Bugle's reports." Lord states seeing him.
"Where's Taskmaster?" Peter asks him looking around and scanning everything.
"You mean Reactron?" Lord asks him. "He forced me to repair his suit. I don't know where he is." He explains and Peter starts untying when his senses blare and he gets punched through the wall and close to Supergirl.
"I found Taskmaster." Peter says pointing to where he was blasted from and Kara sees him coming out of the hole.
"Ben, I don't think your wife would want you hurting anyone." Kara tries talking to him as Lord gets free and makes a run for it.
"Ben Krull is dead." He informs them both, "Superman and the pest made sure of that." He looks to Peter.
"At least he didn't say insect." Peter says happy for the small improvement.
"Now Superman is going to loose someone, too. And I'll pry that mask off of you and go after whoever you care for, Spider-Man." Krull tells them and Peter quickly gets back up ready to fight as he starts shooting nuclear blasts at them.
Peter webs the gauntlets so he can't use them and Kara goes in to stop him, but Krull still has his strength to fight them.
He takes Kara and throws her down and starts fighting Peter. Peter uses his repulsers and blasts him again and it seems to be keeping him down when a familiar face comes down and gives him a hand when Reactron takes off seeing the two of them together.
Peter looks and sees the big man himself, Superman.
"The Big S, my man!" Peter cheers happy to see Clark and pulls him into a hug and looses the mask.
"Hey, Spidey. How you been doing?" Clark asks Peter happy to see him as much as Peter is to see him.
"You know, same old, same old." Peter admits sadly and sees that Kara is unconscious. "How'd you know we were in trouble?" He asks Clark.
"James contacted me." Clark tells him and Peter doesn't understand why he would do that.
"Hey, listen, I've been meaning to talk to you about something huge. Think you can hang for an hour or two?" Peter asks of him.
"Anything for a friend." Clark says happy to help him. "But we should get Kara home safely first." He states and Peter agrees with that.
-
Once they had Kara dropped of back at her place with Alex and James, Peter and Clark ditched their suits and went to get some coffee.
Once there, Peter filled Clark in on everything from the past few days.
"Well...I wasn't expecting that." Clark admits to the whole Ho-Ren thing. "Prince of Krypton. Didn't know Krypton did the king and queen thing."
"Well, I was only a baby at the time before Krypton exploded, according to what Gwen could find on the spacecraft." Peter tells him and takes a drink from his coffee when he sees the Maxwell Lord report on the television.
"Reactron is a great danger to everyone in this city. Luckily, I wasn't harmed. In fact, I'm lucky to be alive. And I owe it all to the great hero of National City who rescued me Spider-Man." Lord says and Peter drops his head in his hands.
"That's gonna hurt her." Peter states since that was supposed to be Kara's victory, not his.
"Yeah, she's getting it worse than we did." Clark says agreeing with him.
"Hey, at least the Planet respects you. The Bugle makes more complaints about me saving the day than I have gone through suits. And trust me, Gwen is going all out on the suits." Peter states when Clark hears trouble on the other side of the world.
"Well, trouble calls me." Clark says and pulls out some cash for Peter and gets ready to leave. "But Maybe I should take a look at that message from your father, see if there's anything you missed. You know, when we're caught in the moment." He offers.
"Hey, stop by anytime. You know where the spare key is. I keep the package at the DEO for safekeeping but it's easily transportable." Peter tells him. "You know, if you have super strength." He also admits since someone with normal strength would break something trying to lift it.
-
Back at the DEO, Hank knows something is up and reaches Gwen's labs where she is working on decrypting the shuttle pod information that Peter gathered from his pod to find out more about it. She was taking a brain break after searching for Taskmaster, she's been searching for him forever.
"Director Henshaw." Gwen greets him nervously.
"What are you doing here, miss. Stacy?" Hank asks her.
"I'm helping...Peter and Kara stop Taskmaster." Gwen says, since it's partly true.
"It's been increasingly difficult for him to follow orders, but it feels like miss Danvers is helping him find reasons to bend the rules." Hank states to her.
"Well, you knew Peter isn't one to follow orders to the letter. Besides, Kara wasn't going to quit and this was more of a part time job for when he goes on patrol on his offtime." Gwen states trying to keep her cool.
"And what's that?" Hank asks looking at the package holding the message.
"It's...a new...flash drive?" Gwen tries not finding anything good and Hank pushes the button to activate the message.
"Ho-Ren. My son. If you're hearing this, it means you're searching for answers. Our world and way of life was dying, and we knew nothing could reverse it. So me and the El family found a world where you could grow in peace. But knowing it was a new environment and knowing how the people of earth will treat others who are different, we have found a way of engineering your DNA to be the same as the humans, but we know you will still be different. My name is Al-Ren, king of Krypton. Your Kryptonian name is Ho-Ren, prince of Krypton. You are one of the survivors of your home world. Even though you must have now been raised as a human being, you are not one of them. You will have great powers. We sent you here to live as one of them, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. But always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. This symbol, to humans is a spider, it truly means to help those in need of it, even when they don't ask for it. It's not about where you were born or the powers you have or what you wear in your chest; it's about what you do. I hope to one day see you, my son, but all I can give you now is a chance to live. I love you, my son, never forget that." All-Ren says on a repeat before the message freezes.
Hank looks at the message in shock and knows this is Peter's family he's been searching for over the years. "Who else knows about this?" Hank asks Gwen.
Gwen is taken back to how well he's taking this and rolls with it. "Me, you, and Kara." She lists everyone who has seen this message.
"Good. The less people who know he's a Kryptonian the better, now we better find a way for him to defeat this Reactron." Hank says and Gwen sees he's actually offering his help.
-
Meanwhile, Peter makes it to CatCo's party, pretending to work for the Bugle and sees Kara and Winn dancing and quickly walks up to them.
"Mind if I cut in?" Peter asks Winn.
"It's fine, Winn." Kara assures him and Winn leaves.
"Just to be clear, if Gwen asks, this is a conversation regarding Taskmaster. Which it is." Peter informs Kara.
"Wouldn't expect anything else from you." Kara states to him knowing he wouldn't be trying to cheat on someone like Gwen, who he's low key afraid of.
"Well, I don't know what you remember, but I was talking to Clark regarding everything." Peter informs her.
"Yeah, I remember before passing out, you and my cousin taking on Reactron." Kara tells him what she knows.
"I also saw the report on you. Sorry I sorta stepped on your shoes." Peter apologizes regarding the news report.
"Hey, it's not like I was getting much appreciation before that." Kara states.
"Well, I've got Gwen looking into a way we can stop Taskmaster. So we can find a way on stopping him for good this time." Peter promises when his senses blare and looks to see Reactron/Taskmaster comes crashing through the ceiling.
"That's easier than expected." Kara says since he seems to have come to them.
"Where...is...Supergirl and Spider-Man?!" Krull asks as both Peter and Kara sneak off to get into their outfits.
Krull walks towards Maxwell Lord for information. "I don't suppose my fixing your nuke suit earns me a hall pass?" He asks Krull as he starts powering his suit up when Peter webs him and yanks him where Kara was waiting and she punches him back across the room.
"Twice in two days. I should put you in the payroll as a bodyguard." Lord tells Peter.
"Just get the hell out of here." Peter replies to him as he does just that as Krull starts standing up.
"I'm sorry for what you lost. But you're going to jail." Kara informs Krull.
"I'm sure one day I will." Krull agree with her. "But neither of you will be alive to see it." He threatens and blasts her with a nuclear blast.
Peter sees that she needs some distance to get him out of the suit and for Gwen to tell them how to stop him. And then he gets an idea to kill two birds with one stone.
"Hey, Krull!" Peter calls out for the man and he stops blasting Kara and she begins to regain her strength. "I'm the closest Superman has of a best friend. You want to hurt him, you want me." Peter says and uses his repulsers to blast off into the sky with Krull behind him.
Kara doesn't understand his plan when Gwen's voice comes into her comms. "Kara, hey, we might've found a way to stop Taskmaster." Gwen informs her.
"Krull's chest unit is powered by a Demon Core, a subcritical mass of plutonium." Hank adds on which surprised Kara.
"If you can remove it from the suit, it should shut down his entire weaponry." Alex informs her.
"But the core will melt down the very moment it's freed from its containment matrix." Gwen finishes their train of thought.
"There has to be some way to stop him without nuking the city." Kara replies to the bad information she's receiving.
"You need to encase the core with lead before you rip it free." Gwen suggests and Kara gets the idea.
She uses her powers to find something in the room her powers can't see through and finds a small statue and lasers lets it dips onto her hand into it and encases her hand with it.
-
As for Peter, he's flying as fast as he can, but not fast enough to loose Krull. He's been trying to blast Peter out of the sky for the past few minutes when Kara comes flying in and smashes him into the ground.
Krull looses his mask in the process but kicks Kara into the wall of an abandoned building. Kara gets up and Krull tries blasting her, but Kara now pushes through the blast and takes out the core and his suit shuts down.
Seeing that it didn't go nuclear, Kara sees that the lead worked. Peter then comes flying down and lands near her.
"You could've been killed." Kara states to him.
"No, I knew Supergirl would save the day." Peter states and Kara is happy with that she was able to help.
-
They got Krull to the authorities and returned to the DEO where they were met up with everyone.
"Thank you for your help. All of you." Kara thanks them all.
"Something tells me this isn't the last non-alien threat you two will be taking on, I guess in the future we'll just have to help Spider-Man and Supergirl." Hank says before leaving and Alex is close to follow and Kara sees the recent news report playing.
"Spider-Man running away scared as Supergirl does what a hero should be doing and saved the day!" Jameson reports happy when Kara looks and Peter is smiling.
"I see what you did there." Kara informs Peter and he looks to her.
"If I want to make you look good, and make sure I look bad, make sure there's a Daily Bugle reporter nearby." Peter explains to her. "I've had enough days in the spotlight. I can jump back from a quick running away, but you needed a leg up." He says and leaves her.
-
Gwen walks into Hanks office and sees he's not busy. "Miss. Stacy, what can I do for you?" He asks her.
"I just need to know, when you gave me this mission, did you know he wasn't human?" Gwen questions him.
"If you're asking when I asked you to keep an eye on Parker, it was because he was a alien prince. No, this was a surprise." Hank informs to her. "Just like I didn't expect you and him to start dating." He states.
"Yeah...I know that." Gwen says. She was given a mission when Peter first started working with them to make sure he was able to become a DEO Agent and asset with his abilities. Over that time, Gwen fell in love with Peter and she believed he would become a great agent and over the years he has proven his worthiness.
But she never informs him about the reason she got interested in him, worried to how he would respond to it.