Chapter Thirteen
The Caves – Part Two
Kara waited at the bottom of the stairs with her foot tapping impatiently while her arms were crossed over her chest and a somewhat annoyed look on her face. It was twenty minutes until they needed to meet up with their friends, and Clark wasn't even downstairs ready yet. He's faster than a speeding bullet, stays almost even with The Flash when racing, and yet here we are on the verge of being late for a movie. "Clark, come on! We're going to be late!" Kara called up while her arms uncrossed themselves and hung now at her sides.
"Punctuality has never been his strong point." Martha stated while coming up from behind Kara with a basket of freshly folded laundry in hand. A smile was on her face as she passed her niece up and stopped on the other side of the staircase. "You might need to go up there and physically drag him down and out of the house Kara." She laughed lightly as she teased the blonde teen that looked as though she were verge of doing just that.
Giving a small smile in return to her aunt's teasing, Kara looked up at the stairs as heavy footfalls signaled the decent of her cousin at last. "Finally!" Kara stated while giving her cousin a rather annoyed glare as he stopped on the last step.
"Sorry." He gave his cousin a small smile as he spoke.
Martha laughed and shook her head while turning back to her intended path that she paused from. "You two have fun and don't stay out too late." She called back over her shoulder before disappearing off into another part of the house.
Clark stepped off the last stair and headed for the kitchen door, Kara following after him. They were going to be late, and taking the truck was something they had to do rather than just zip into town, as they normally would have. But then again… "Why don't we just run?" Kara asked after the screen door snapped close behind her. "We'll get there faster, we won't have to worry about Chloe and the others being mad for our tardiness, and most importantly we won't miss the previews!" Kara rattled off her list before getting ahead of Clark and stopping to face him.
Shaking his head at this, Clark dismissed the idea. "We can't. They'll wonder how we got there without the truck being in sight." He pointed out while reaching out and tussling her platinum colored hair. "Besides, we'll get there in time even driving the truck."
Kara ran a hand through her hair to straighten out the mess that Clark had created and then gave him an unamused look in return. "Oh come on Clark! It's not that hard to make up an excuse about the whole no truck thing!" she stated as he stepped around her and continued walking towards the pick up parked just on the other side of the picket fence. "Clark! Hey! I was talking to you!" Kara called after him while then having to run a bit to catch up.
Clark grinned to himself while opening the drive side door. Kara reached the passenger side and narrowed her eyes at him over the roof. "Just get in." Clark laughed. Making a face, Kara followed his instructions and got in, buckling up in the process and then crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to pout while staring out the windshield. "Being stubborn like that gets you no where Kara." Clark stated as the truck rumbled to life and started to back up to turn around and head down the long driveway. Kara muttered something under her breath before looking out the passenger window. "I heard that!" Clark looked over at his blonde cousin with an accusing look on his face.
"Well I would hope so!" She shot back while looking over at him and lost whatever steam she had been building after seeing the teasing grin on his face. "You're evil." She stated, which in turn earned a laugh from him in response.
Just as Kara had predicted, they ended up being five minutes late and found Chloe, Lana, and Pete waiting for with outside with tickets bought for the 8:15 showing of the movie they had agreed upon earlier. Chloe shook her head in disappointment and then threw her hands up in the air. "I knew I was right in thinking to buy the tickets for the 8:15 showing."
Lana giggled behind her hand while Pete grinned while walking up next to Chloe and put a hand on her shoulder. "Chloe's just trying to say that we're glad you guys made it." He stated as if he were her personal interpreter. Pete grinned at his best friend and his best friend's cousin.
Kara grinned back and then nodded her head over at her cousin's direction. "It's all Clark's fault, I blame him." She stated bluntly while shrugging her shoulders at the same time.
For ratting out her cousin, Kara received a slight shove to the shoulder from him and then in response gave him a narrowed eyed glare for a brief few seconds. Lana laughed aloud finally and then stepped in to break them all up and get them moving towards the theater before they missed the movie. "Come on guys, let's get inside before we miss our movie." She grinned and then started herding them towards the double-doors.
Inside the theater, the group of friends made a quick stop at the concession stands to grab a few snacks before heading into the theater itself. Pete went ahead to grab some seats while Clark, Kara, Chloe, and Lana rounded up what snacks they wanted. Chloe and Kara had moved over to the condiment part of the counter with two buckets of popcorn. Chloe pumped butter on to hers and then added a small dash of salt while Kara added melted caramel syrup on hers. The two girls shared a smartass comment to each other about the inevitability of Clark's lack of being on time for anything, but it was Chloe who's laughter ceased first as she caught sight of the last person they needed to have around.
"Kara, no matter what I say, do not look around." Chloe suddenly stated in a hushed voice to her friend and received an odd look in response for this. "That woman from earlier today who was ready to claw your eyes out over Lex, she's here in the theater."
Kara had the sudden urge to suddenly start looking around to spot this woman, but Chloe had warned her not to and so Kara somehow managed to keep attention on her friend. "Where?" was all she asked while grabbing some napkins and then started to walk herself and Chloe back to where Clark and Lana were grabbing straws for the drinks.
"She's by the bathrooms, and it looks like she's alone." Chloe glanced back over her shoulder for a brief moment to see what the woman was doing and then returned attention forward. Apparently the woman was unaware of their presence for the moment. "She doesn't seem to know we're here let alone looking for you specifically like some crazed stalker." She assured her. "But let's keep this to ourselves. Don't need to freak Clark out and have him go into over-protective mode."
Kara lightly laughed at this and nodded a bit. "I guess you're right." She stated quickly as they were coming up to Clark and Lana, and then grinned broadly at them in an odd manner as if she wanted to cover something up. "Hey guys!"
Lana grinned back at Kara. "Well let's get in before the movie starts." She said while nodding her head towards their designated theater showing the movie they had picked out.
As they headed over to the theater, Lana and Chloe leading the way while Clark and pulled Kara to the back and raised a brow at her in a questioning look. Kara tried to keep her gaze forward as if she were interested in what Lana and Chloe had started talking about instead of giving in to her cousin's accusing looks. "What?" Kara finally hissed while stopping and looked over at Clark with a narrowed gaze.
"You're hiding something aren't you?" he accused in while using it in question form. Kara's eyes shifted away from him to elsewhere and then back as if she were thinking about this. "Kara." His voice became a bit more reprimanding, as he wanted her to tell him what was going on.
"Don't worry about it Clark." Kara replied while looking over as Chloe called out their names. "You know I'd tell you if it was." She added in while giving him a smile in a show of reassurance.
Seeing as how this was all he was going to get out of his cousin for the moment, Clark reluctantly accepted it for now and then followed Kara towards the theater. Inside, the lights had already gone down, but they managed to find where Pete had saved them all seats and sat down just as the first preview began. As soon as Kara sat down, she was handed a soda from Clark and passed it down so that way it reached Pete while Lana handed Chloe one at the same time. Clark handed Kara the other soda he had in his hand aside from his own and everyone was settled in and passing the popcorn buckets back and forth between each other as the movie started. Almost as soon as the movie started, Kara's hearing started pickup something outside the sounds of the movie, sounds of raised voices more than likely out in the lobby. Kara tuned her super-hearing in further and listened passed the movie and isolated what was going on in the lobby.
"Look ma'am you can't go in there without the ticket for that movie. I'm sorry."
"Not yet you're not."
A man and a woman were arguing, and the woman sounded way too calm to be in a heated argument.
"Please, ma'am, don't make me call security."
"Don't worry,"
A pause, and then a huge crash followed after it that had every muscle in Kara's body tensing.
"You won't be able to."
Kara handed Chloe her bucket of popcorn and set her drink in the armrest before getting up and stepping out into the aisle. Clark gave her a questioning look that Kara answered by mouthing she needed to use the restroom and then headed off towards the lobby. At the doors, Kara looked back at the other moviegoers and noticed they were all to focused on the movie rather than a teen at the doors, and after opening the door a crack, Kara vanished from sight in a blur.
Out in the lobby, the same woman who had given Kara a hard time at The Talon was staring down at the usher she had tossed aside. The young man had landed rather uncomfortably on his back after a few potted planets and display cutouts had broken his fall, other than that he was alright save for the fact that he had been knocked unconscious. Just as the woman turned around to head towards the theater, she jerked backwards as she came face to face with a rather intense pair of blue eyes that were glaring at her. The woman's upper lip curled. "Well, well, look who we have here. Shouldn't you be out saving the day from out of control trucks and burning houses?" she sneered with a malicious grin.
Not finding anything funny with this at all, Supergirl glared at the woman. "Look, I don't know who you are or why you're here, but you obviously have some anger management issues that need to be dealt with." Supergirl retorted.
The woman merely gave a small grunt in response to this in response while raising her right arm up to her chest so that crossed over it. Underneath the skin, her blood veins started to glow an eerie green hue that showed through as if her skin were transparent. Supergirl stared at the woman's arm with a confused gaze for a moment and then would have gaped at the realization of what was going on had it not been for her own self control. This woman had powers apparently and the way her arm was looking reminded her of what happened earlier that day when she and Clark were walking down the street from The Talon. Focusing her gaze solely on the woman's raised arm, Supergirl used her x-ray vision to see through the flesh and muscle and right to the bone that was burning a bright green. Before Supergirl could disable her use of x-ray vision she felt herself start to grow slightly dizzy, an on setting sign of Kryptonite exposure. Supergirl shook her head slightly hoping to at least fight the small amount of the radiation that could kill her if left in its presence for far too long.
The woman only grinned more broadly at this. "You're not the only one with powers here hero." She snarled before lunging at the Girl of Steel, right arm extended out towards her.
Supergirl was quicker than her of course, but this small amount of exposure to Kryptonite had in fact slowed her reflexes down just enough that the woman actually got a swipe in on her and broke the exposed skin on her arm. After landing off to the side on her feet, Supergirl looked down at the scratch on her arm that was actually stinging as blood started to appear. A Kryptonite induced injury was no joke for a Kryptonian, and even this small a wound could prove fatal for Supergirl if she wasn't careful for here on out, and looked like this woman was ready for a smack down. Again she lunged at Supergirl, but this time the blonde Kryptonian was ready for her and turned her body sideways while reaching out with a hand. Grabbing the woman by the forearm Supergirl felt a surge of pain run through her but bit her lip and used he alien strength just enough to take the woman forward in her own advance and threw her a few feet.
Landing face first into the lobby carpet, the woman was back on her feet rather quickly and snarled like some sort of animal at Supergirl before lifting up her left arm to show that it wasn't just one arm that held Kryptonite powers, but both. Supergirl's eyes showed her alarmed state at this situation and the woman noticed. "During the meteor shower that hit here, I was at home with my mom out in our family's barn. A meteor crashed through the roof and hit us both. My mom was crippled from the waist down after a piece of heavy machinery fell on her and my arms were actually crushed under the space rock. But in the hospital my arms healed and the bone from the elbow down to my fingernails were irradiated and strengthened beyond normal human capacity." The veins glowed brightly through the skin. "Unlike others that have been affected by the meteor rocks, I find my new abilities as a gift. I have super-human strength, quicker reflexes, and can turn these two arms into deadly weapons."
As she spoke, the woman's nails grew longer and turned a dark sinister color of green. In all they had to have grown a good four or five inches into razor sharp claws, and each one had a deadly dose of Kryptonite within the enamel. Supergirl could feel her body growing weak and heavy at the same time as her stomach started to turn. It had gone from a small exposure and the possibility of a few bad scratches to an all out threat on her life now. Doesn't matter, she has to be stopped and placed under police custody before someone is seriously hurt with that personality of hers and those arms. Supergirl used her alien speed to zip forward at the woman and appeared before her so quickly it caught the woman off guard and gave Supergirl an open opportunity to land a punch that connected with her jaw and sent her flying across the lobby. The woman hit the hall with her back and bounced off. She collapsed to her knees at first and stayed there a moment as the punch nearly shattered her.
It was during this brief period that a few ushers had appeared, noticed their fallen friend and then Supergirl staring down a woman on the other side of the lobby who was starting to stand to her feet. Supergirl heard their cries of shock and surprise and looked over her shoulder at them. "Get him out of here and call the police!" she ordered, and they obeyed immediately allowing Supergirl to return her attention to the woman who was now standing in a bit of a wobbly state.
"Not bad hero. I've never had that happen to me at all. Felt like I got hit with a truck, and that was just a punch. What else you got kiddo?"
