Chapter Twelve

The Caves – Part One

"Kara can you give me a hand with this?" Lana asked, while gesturing over at the same time to a tray laden with several large mugs of coffee sitting on the counter. She already had a full tray in hand and picking up another tray half its load wasn't going to be happening without some sort disastrous event occurring with it.

Setting aside what was left of her White Chocolate Latte, Kara left the counter where she had been standing around at with her cousin Clark and their friend Chloe for almost an hour and a half after the whole angry stranger episode in which Kara had been slapped and then received a threat to stay away from Lex Luthor by an unknown woman. Coming to Lana's aid, Kara picked up the tray and then followed Lana out on to the floor to serve out the coffee to the patrons who had ordered. While Kara was away for the moment, Chloe turned to Clark and held a rather concerned look upon her face that was of course directed to one specific thing. Scooting closer to him so as to keep the conversation quiet and between them for the moment, Chloe started in on her own interpretation of why what had happened, happened.

"Does Lex have a new girlfriend with jealousy issues or something that no one else knows about?" Chloe asked, knowing that Clark and Lex were practically best friends.

For a moment Clark was quiet as he tried to recall any point in time of which in Lex mentioned having a new girlfriend around the mansion, but nothing popped out at him. Shaking his head, Clark glanced over his shoulder at his cousin who was still following Lana around at the moment, and then looked to Chloe. "I don't remember Lex ever mentioning he had company around the mansion as of late."

Chloe's brown eyes became rather wide for a moment as a thought quickly hit her. "Maybe she's some sort of crazed stalker or something, and she just some how happened to see Lex talking with Kara at one point and jumped to a radical conclusion to which now she's taking it out on Kara finally." Chlo suggested, more like hinted to for the moment as the excitement of her own theory got the better of her so suddenly.

Giving his friend a somewhat doubtful look, Clark only sighed in response before speaking up. "Chloe, that seems a little out there." He stated while then taking a drink from what was left inside his coffee cup.

"Even if it seems a little out there Clark, it could be possible. I mean, we've seen and heard stranger things before involving Lex and love sick female stalkers and or fans." She pointed out while then also raising her brows in emphasis to this theory of hers. "Maybe we should find out from Lex himself what's going on if he has any idea at all about it." Chloe pointed out while taking the last and finally drink from her coffee and then set aside the empty container upon the counter. "Because if we don't, then we're just going to be left in the dark as to why Kara is now being harassed by some psycho."

"I'd say more of a psychopath than just psycho, when describing her." Lana put in as she came back around the other side of the counter with an empty tray in hand and Kara in tow as well. "What if you don't find anything out from Lex, what's Kara going to do then? Go to the police?" Lana asked as she was trying to also add in the more logical side of this whole thing as well. "We didn't even get the woman's name."

Kara set the empty tray she was holding off on the back counter and then came to stand near Lana and leaned forward on the counter with her arms crossed a top its smooth surface. "We don't need her name, we have a description. Even still, I doubt I really need to worry about her Lana." Kara stated while giving the brunette a sideways glance. While she portrayed a cool and calm demeanor slightly tinted with a faint acted sense of worry, Kara on the inside was holding no real thought to what this lady wanted from her or demanded. If this lady keeps up with just threats, fine, I can handle threats. But if she starts taking some sort of violent action against me and the others, then Supergirl is just going to have to get involved with this situation. And I really don't want to have to resort to something like that for the moment. Sighing to herself, Kara noticed that Clark was giving her a somewhat strange look and briefly flashed him an assuring smile that caused the corner of his mouth to tug a bit in an attempt at as smile of his own.

Lana could see the look on Clark's face that Kara tried to ease and managed to somewhat dwindle, but most of the look remained still, and Lana decided it would be best to try and get everyone's mind off the whole thing. "So, does anyone have plans for the night?" Lana asked while absentmindedly picking at the thin line of clear caulking that cemented the glass counter top to the wooden framing of the counter itself.

Chloe shrugged her shoulders at this. "I don't think so, at least as long as I get over to The Torch and finish up a few things there." At this, Chloe brightened and looked over at Kara and Clark, "Hey I have a great idea, if you don't mind Lana?" she then looked over at her brunette friend who seemed to be grinning ear to ear now for a reason known only to herself.

"No, go ahead Chloe, I was just trying to see if anyone had plans. If we were all free I was going to suggest we try and do something, but you apparently have had a spark of genius so go ahead." Lana grinned while her tone of voice held a laugh to it.

"Okay, well since we're all open with our social calendars tonight, I was thinking we grab Pete and spring for a movie." Chloe suggested while looking between her three friends with a hopeful look on her face at the fact that they'd agree since it was the only thing she could think of at the moment.

Lana looked at Clark with an agreeing look on her face, and then Clark looked over at Kara who nodded her head with a huge grin on her face. Kara couldn't really recall the last time she had gone out the movies, I think the last time was when I went with Babs in Gotham a year ago. What movie did we see anyways? Shaking her head mentally, Kara grinned over at Chloe, "That sounds like a good idea Chloe!" she declared while jumping up from her leaning position against the counter. "What movie are we going to see?" she then asked while taking on a rather thoughtful look as she glanced between her friends.

Lana gave a laugh at Kara's sudden look of almost child-like innocence before saying anything. "How about we all just meet up at the movie theater at around eight-thirty and then we'll decide what movie then." She suggested.

"That sounds good." Chloe stated while gathering up her purse from the top of the counter. "Well, I'm going to head over to The Torch and while I'm there I'll call Pete and get him in on this little get together." She grinned while slinging her purse strap across her shoulder. "I'll see you guys at eight-thirty." Chloe called out as she started off towards the front door of the Talon.

Clark, Lana, and Kara all called out good-byes to their blonde friend as she stepped outside. After Chloe left, Kara glanced over at Lana with a curious look on her face. "I thought the Talon closed at nine on the weekdays?" she asked now realizing that Lana had set up a time that seemed a bit odd.

"Don't worry Kara, I already thought about that. I'm going to have Michelle close for me tonight." Lana explained with a smile playing upon her lips.

"Oh." Kara commented while nodding her head in understanding to this now and had Clark giving a small laugh before grinning broadly.

Clark finished off the last of his now cold drink and gave his cousin a rather thoughtful look. "I guess we better be heading off as well." He stated while smiling over at Lana as well. "We'll see you later Lana." He stated while handing the empty mug over to Lana who nodded at what he said.

Kara came out from behind the counter and joined her cousin on the floor before heading off towards the front doors, but of course not before calling a quick 'bye' to Lana. Outside, the two cousins started off down the sidewalk at an easy pace, but it was Clark first who started to stumble a bit in his walk before stopping completely and near doubled over as an extremely sick feeling came over him. The sudden absence of her cousin caused Kara to stop as well and back track to him. "Hey, Clark what's…" before Kara could finish the same sick feeling hit her as well. Kara had felt effects like this before, when she was exposed to…kryptonite. Groaning quietly, Kara shook her head and then took notice something upon the top of her hand. Her veins were showing through her skin in a green tint. Oh god, we need to get out of here now. "Clark, come on, we need to keep moving." She stated while setting a hand upon her cousin's shoulder as he was still a bit doubled over on his feet.

Clark nodded almost meekly before standing up right, the look of sick pain contorting his face a bit. "I know, let's just duck off somewhere and hope it's far enough away from whatever or whoever has kryptonite on them." He murmured quietly so that only Kara would hear him.

Nodding to this in complete agreement, Kara tried her best to guide both herself and her cousin off into the nearest alleyway without way too much attention upon them. After ducking into the alley, Kara could already feel herself starting to recover from the distant but close enough exposure to kryptonite. Making sure that Clark was okay, which he too was starting to already recover as well, Kara started to think that there was something rather suspicious about the sudden kryptonite exposure. Whether that was because she was starting to come into her own as a superhero after the years of training under her cousin's shadow as his 'sidekick', or maybe the effects of being around someone like Batman all the time in the JLA was starting to make itself present now. As much as I'd want to act afraid of that fact, I'm actually glad I've picked up so much from Bruce and his near paranoid ways. Kara smirked a bit at this before turning her attention to the walls separating her and Clark from the rest of the street in the alley.

The brick, steel, and lumber was peeled back as the x-ray vision of the Kryptonian youth used her alien abilities to look upon the street beyond to see if there was anything outstanding. The walking skeletal frames of the people about the streets of downtown Smallville were nothing that odd to see, well unless you weren't from the planet of Krypton, but the sudden flash of something green caught Kara's eye. Her head snapped over to the far left, her eyes boring through the interior of the building she was staring through and passed, and narrowed upon a skeleton that held a green glow down the arms starting from the shoulders and ending at the finger tips. "What the…?"

"Kara?"

The call of her name caused Kara to loose focus on her x-ray vision and turn her head about to look over at her cousin. Clark held a look on his face that showed he was rather curious as to what she was doing.

"What?" she asked, a slender brow rising at her cousin's facial expression.

Clark stepped over toward Kara and looked about quickly to make sure no one was coming down the alley or passing by. "Let's just get back home." He stated with a gesture of his head in a sideways nod. To this, Kara nodded her head and before the blink of an eye could begin or pass, the two were gone leaving a sudden gust of wind in their wake.