"What the hell was that?!" Oliver yelled raising his arms to make things more dramatic while he walked over to his kryptonian friend.
Hal created a hand with his ring and shook Kara to wake her up as the blonde was still in the floor and asked to no one in particular "What do we do?"
"She breathed a lot of kryptonite" Babs said standing up despite Barry's quiet protest and looked at Karen "Shall we call Zee?"
"I don't think that she can cure Kara" The bee said worriedly and making a sorrowful face. She was wondering if there was a way to fix this.
"Why not? She can do magic!" Barry said hopefully, he may not know Kara well but she was one of them.
"Yes, she can do magic but she is still learning, it's not like she can resurrect someone!" The little girl said a pained voice and a crestfallen face, then she muttered "I don't think that Mr. Zatara can either"
"Kara is not dead" Oliver snapped while trying to feel the blonde's pulse.
Babs sighed and said "We could call her parents"
That made Hal snort "It's not like the Danvers would know what to do... they are just college professors...I think"
"We are losing time, I'll call Clark" The archer said interrupting the Quarterback and searching for his phone but he had left it in his hideout.
"Her cousin?" The bee asked in disbelief and added "It's not like he would care" It wasn't like he cared when she supposedly died after being attacked by Livewire. Also he seemed to buy her lie about Power Girl coming from Earth Two. What kind of idiot believed such thing?
Babs doubted that Clark would care much but she took Kara's phone and copied the number to her own to call Clark, after a few rings the journalist finally took the call with a sleepy voice "Who' this?"
"I'm...Batgirl, one of Kara's friends...something happened to her"
She heard some moving sounds and he asked sharply "Where's she?"
The redhead sighed and told him how to get to their headquarters, with that more people knew about their secret place than there should be. Anyway it was for a good cause.
(Well, it was actually her fault for not keeping her things in safer places but she pushed that thought away)
The older kryptonian appeared faster than they expected so they couldn't put their masks on, though they were almost sure he knew who each of them was, and basically shoved Oliver and Karen to the side before lifting Kara in his arms and asking in a half-angered half-worried voice "What happened to my cousin?"
"She...well..." Babs started to explain.
"Kara was affected by kryptonite" Karen said quickly and swallowing down any fear she may have at seeing an angered Superman "Then she fell out"
Superman nodded and got out of the headquarters as quickly as he came in without saying a word.
The teenage heroes fell in a deep silence and the Karen, surprisingly, was the one who broke it "Why there is kryptonite in the headquarters?"
"I...was developing a weapon in case a kryptonian treat appeared and Kara couldn't handle it" Babs explained trying to sound calm despite she was about to cry. Hal noticed that and put an arm around her as to give her support despite that he was put off by her explanation and she gave him a weak smile, which he returned after considering it for a second, it wasn't time for the "blaming game"...yet.
Barry decided to cheer her up by making her the "Candy Cake Triple Ripple Tower" to cheer her up, though there was no rainbow sprinkles as they had run out of them during the day, he took three seconds before handing it to her and saying softly "I'm sure Kara will understand...you only wanted to have a contingency plan"
Babs took it and took a spoon quietly while holding back the tears and theen mouthed a thanks. She was going to ask something when Oliver interrupted her.
"Hmmm" The archer hummed and said "Maybe she should have had a contingency plan for this"
"Come on, Ollie" Hal snapped "It's not like you don't have a kryptonite arrow in that quiver"
The archer raised his chin "I do have a kryptonite arrow, but I don't have it now"
"But you have one" Babs said walking towards him and putting a finger on his chest "What were you planning to do with that arrow?"
"Same as you little bat" He responded looking down to her and shoving her finger away with his hand "I only have it in case that the "Kneel guy" comes back or another kryptonian"
Then the two started a glaring contest which was interrupted by Barry's cough and when he got their attention he said "It's getting late...we should head home"
Karen put her hands on her cheeks and shrieked "My parents will ground me till I graduate!" Then she went up the stairs and tripped a few times before getting out.
"I'll ran the rest of you to your houses" Barry said awkwardly while rubbing his neck and looked at Oliver "Or will you call your driver?"
"I was supposed to be home by eleven, I'm running late by twenty minutes" The blonde boy said.
"So..."
"Superspeed Barry, I don't have it" The archer said with a smirk.
The speedster seemed to take the cue and grabbed his friend and ran him to the Queen's penthouse, then he returned and grabbed Hal, then he returned again and looked at Babs while asking "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine...I think"
"Are you sure?" He asked softly.
Babs sighed and said "Just take me home Barry, please" she made a pause and breathed deeply before adding "I'm not in mood for talking"
"Babs..."
"I need time, please"
The blonde tried to say something but his friend was right, all of them needed time to talk. He wondered for a second how the others would react to this, he didn't know the girls very well but as for his friends he was sure that Carter would be worried for Kara as they went to some concerts at the Lazarus Pit together after the "Kneel guy" thing, Garth was surely going to cry as he was a very sensible guy and Steve...well if they didn't tell him that would be wrong,right? He didn't need to know.
He realized that he was overthinking it and grabbed Babs by the arm and in a split of a second they were in her doorstep, luckily for Babs her parents weren't home yet. He was about to leave when Babs hugged him and so he decided to hug her back.
"Why did I had to leave that thing there?" She said in a hoarse voice as she was trying to hold back the tears.
"It...It's not your fault" He said rubbing her back and thinking about what to say next to comfort her, still he knew that it partly was her fault for being careless, not that he would held it against her.
"We both know it is" She whispered and released him "I...need to think, thanks for bringing me home"
"No problem Babs, I'm here for you if you need to talk"
The redhead smiled at him weakly before turning to the door and she took out her keys, then she waited for a second before opening the door and then turned to Barry to say "Good night Barry"
"Good night Babs" He said back before running to his own home trying not to think about Kara and refusing to answer his mother's questions.
Also he hadn't taken a second look to the letter that had been left by his mother on his night table.
***The next day***
Babs woke up very early, she knew that it was still dark outside and so she stayed in her bed looking at the roof. She tried to clear up her mind before checking her phone to see if the other girls, meaning Zee, Jessica and Diana knew about Kara.
Though she knew that if they knew Zee would have appeared in her room before she could notice. And Jessica would have called.
But she wasn't sure about Diana, surely she would understand that they needed to be prepared in case Zod returned, or any other kryptonian treat.
The Amazon would be more than understanding when she heard her explanation, though she wasn't sure how the others would react. She didn't know Carter that well and they had never talked before as he was always silent around them,and she had gotten to know Garth a bit when they were paired up for the "Egg thing" as they had decided to call it.
She tried to get asleep again to ease her thoughts but after trying to for several minutes, she decided that she wouldn't get anywhere if she stayed in bed moping. Then she decided to get up and make up some excuse to her absence on a Sunday morning, especially so early.
Also she knew that her father would be really disappointed, he liked to spend time together and since m... Aunt Barbara left* he had been a bit overprotective. But who could blame him, especially after their retreat and those giant moths, and of course Harley Quinn shooting him.
Sometimes she wondered if he knew that she was Batgirl, but that was a ridiculous notion as he was completely oblivious for a police officer.
Then she got off her bed and went to her desk to take a sheet of her notepad to write a note for her father saying that she would be going to Gotham with Harleen. That seemed a good excuse so if her friends came, he would tell them that she was away and they wouldn't bother her, also no one had seen Harleen in a while so they wouldn't run into her and sink her excuse.
She bit her lip as she scribbled the note and then she got dressed before she went to have her breakfast, after washing the dishes she decided that it would be for the best to leave the note on the dinner table and then she walked towards the bus stop.
"I really need to fix my scooter" She muttered under her breath, it was far too early for anyone to be really up, it was six in the morning on Sunday.
The bat sat in the bench that was in the bus stop and waited for the next bus that would take her near Sweet Justice, of course she knew that the café wasn't open at that hour, they opened at eight thirty during the week. So she was going t take the other entrance to the headquarters. She just hoped that her friends wouldn't have the same idea.
When the bus finally arrived she was getting asleep, she would get more hours to sleep when Kara was fine.
She needed to fix it. She needed to fix this.
Though she didn't know if she could, but she needed to be distracted for a while and there was some lingering kryptonite in the headquarters that needed to be cleaned.
Then her side hurt, something told her that she shouldn't have got off bed.
***In another place***
Superman was fighting a giant sea monster with his friend Aquaman when he received a signal from Kelex. At first he hadn't really paid attention to it, it was far too early in the morning for him to be truly awake but he had to answer to his friend call and now he was on there in the Atlantic.
The second time the call from Kelex was even louder.
It either meant that Kara had woken up or...
He decided that he would have known if she was already gone and so continued fighting the monster.
"I could use a little help here" Aquaman said through gritted teeth.
"Oh,sure" He said and punched the monster down to the sea.
Then both heroes defeated the sea monster, the blonde hero turned to his friend and asked "What's on your mind?"
"I...have some family issues"
"Oh"
"So, I have to go" He said trying to sound normal and added "Call any time if you need help"
"Sure, have a good day Superman"
After that he took flight to the Fortress of Solitude where he had taken Kara after the accident that happened the previous night.
When he entered the Fortress he scanned the place and saw Kara already up and trying to get out of the lab, she looked a lot better than the day before but she was...weaker.
Almost human.
Then Kelex said "The robots ran some tests on her while you were away Kal-El, she will be healthy again"
"Why does she seems human to me?"
"She has temporarily lost her powers, I am not certain when but she will"
"Thanks Kelex"
He walked in fast pace to the lab and Kara looked at him half-angered and half-relieved, the cousins looked at each other in an uncomfortable silence. The moment was so tense that it could have been cut by a knife, literally.
"Why am I here?" Kara asked looking at the side and crossing her arms.
"You tell me" He said shrugging and trying to look indiferent.
The blonde girl huffed and said in a half-bored tone "I fell out, I only remember that"
"Yeah, that's why one of your friends called me to help" He responded looking down at her "I didn't know you gave them my number" Then he tilted his head "Do they know that I am Clark Kent?"
"Yeah, duh " She said rolling her eyes and then added "I didn't give them your number, surely one of them got it from my phone"
"Hmmm"
Again, both sunk in an uncomfortable silence.
"Do you want to have breakfast?" The man said rubbing his neck "I have a little food here"
"..."
"I promise it's good"
"'Kay then" She muttered and then rubbed her arm "Thank you for...whatever"
"Welcome" He muttered back.
They walked to the "Living Area" and he took a pair of bowls, two spoons and then a silver box, after that he opened it and released its contents in both bowls which was a kind of cream.
"What's this?"
"Food"
She rolled her eyes and took a spoon, she closed her eyes and said "It could be worse"
Her cousin rolled his eyes too and waited a minute before he said "We have to talk about...the accident"
"What's with it?"
"Do you remember what happened? I mean do you know what caused the accident?"
Kara paused for a moment and tried to remember but her memory was foggy. She tried to order the memories that were floating in her head while she listened Ka...Clark washed the dishes.
She knew that she had talked with Eli...Mom about a meeting with someone, then she knew that she had an important conversation with Oliver she didn't remember the topic, she had called Diana about another thing, then she went for ice-cream with Kal to ask him about...kryptonite? and then she went to Zee's show with her friends and Hal...
She wasn't sure about the memory that came next and so she asked her cousin "Was there a break in Metropolis Museum last night?"
Clark seemed to think for a moment and said "I guess, I heard that the Super Hero Teens were there"
Kara rolled her eyes at the team name for the inexistent team and shrugged, she kept trying to remember what happened. Then she remembered fighting Catwoman and her friends, had she fought Giganta?
After that she rubbed her temples and finally a memory snapped, Babs had been hurt by Harley Quinn?, had she been taken to their headquarters to treat her?...She supposed that she was right on that, but why did she fell out?
"Did they tell you what happened?"
He seemed to consider it and said "The short girl said that you breathed kryptonite"
"All of my friends are short" Kara muttered in a bored tone and then the words clicked in and she asked almost in a cry "Kryptonite?!"
"Yep"
"I...gotta go" Kara said standing up abruptly and Clark stopped her trying to be gentle.
The younger kryptonian got angry and said "Let me go"
"There's something I have to tell you"
"You can tell me that thing by text later, I need to go home and get some real food, I'm sure E...Mom will make me some eggs and steak if I ask..."
Clark sighed and simply said "The accident left you without powers"
Kara blinked a few times and swallowed her saliva, then she sat again and asked "What?"
"You breathed kryptonite and it had blocked your powers..." He said trying not to sound insensitive but he kind of knew that he was doing a pretty awful job at it "They will come back but...for now you are...human-like"
"Oh..." She said blinking a few times more and she can't really grasp on what he is telling her, how could she have lost her powers? It wasn't the first time that she was exposed to kryptonite but...it's the first time the kryptonite entered in contact with her... physiology. She rubbed her temples and sighed. Then she said "Can you take me home?"
The older kryptonian didn't know what to say and decided just to nod.
***The Danvers House***
Eliza Danvers was worried sick about Kara. She had not returned from the theater, at first she had assumed that Kara had been with her friends but she had called Zee to confirm that but the girl said that she had left in the middle of the show with their group.
"Where could she had gone at?" She muttered while playing with her car keys. At first she had thought about about going around the town and find her but then dismissed it as a silly notion, her adoptive daughter could fly.
Also it was the first time she had spent the night outside, maybe she was just off with some of her friends and forgot to text her.
She had tried to call Jeremiah but it wasn't really an option since he was away "on duty" by Director Chase. She wondered if the "call" had something to do with the new appearances of the Super Hero Girls as Director Chase had requested Kara to be there.
It would be the first time that Kara meet the Director of the D.E.O in person, she knew that Cameron saw potential in Kara but she didn't trust her and so she had accepted that she and her husband were the new kryptonian's handlers/legal guardians/adoptive parents at Superman's request.
She was pondering about that when she heard someone ringing the bell and she went to open the door quickly and she was surprised to see Clark Kent basically carrying Kara on his back
"Hi mom" Kara said weakly and trying to smile.
"Hi Eliza" Clark said with en equally weak smile.
Eliza blinked and motioned them to enter, well motioning Clark to enter as he had Kara on his back. Then Kara hopped off and said "Sorry for not calling...there were some issues"
"Supergirl-related issues?" She asked curiously. If the truth be told, she had not thought about that, still usually when that stuff happened they were all in the news.
"Kinda"
"Oh" Eliza managed to say, if she pressed too much Kara would shut down and refuse to talk about it and so she kept silent.
"I need to get a little bit of sleep" The blonde said tiredly and yawning, then she looked at her cousin and smiled a bit "See you next weekend Kal"
"See ya'" He said waving awkwardly while she climbed up the stairs, when he was sure that she had entered her bedroom he turned to Eliza and said "She had an...accident last night, with kryptonite"
Eliza was surprised, she didn't expect that and she asked "How?"
"I don't know the details...maybe you can ask her later"
"Maybe we should ask her friends..."
"I don't really know them" Clark said sheepishly " Though I think I have the number of one of the Green Lanterns and her archer friend...somewhere"
The woman facepalmed and said "Tell me if they know about it"
"Sure" He said while thinking about how to fix Kara's lack of powers.
After Clark left, she decided to go up and try to at least be there for her daughter. When she entered the room, Kara was asleep and so she decided to sit at the end of the bed, then she looked around and saw all the disaster that the room was.
She sighed while looking at the rock bands posters that were hung up on the walls and the electric guitar that they had gotten for Kara on her last birthday at her own request, Eliza remembered that they had wanted to get her a piano but that Kara had rolled her eyes at the suggestion.
It was something that Kara did when something was suggested at her, especially during the first year when she and Jeremiah had tried to make her feel more comfortable by making their Smallville house look more kryptonian or tried to teach her more Earth customs by taking her to some festivals or even when they suggested that Kara should go to school as a way to improve her english.
"Why does parenting have to be so complicated?" Eliza muttered while rubbing her nose, then she realized that she had truly come to love her as her own daughter.
****A few hours later****
Hal was ecstatic when Superman had called him. Also he was a bit shaken as the older hero had asked about last night and Hal felt compelled to spill the beans.
He was sure that Babs and the girls would have his head...Jessica always forgot her pacifist stance when it came to him.
Hell, Superman may have his head too just for being there but as the older man had asked him to inform the rest of their group that Kara was kind of okay, he may as well be spared...for now.
Babs had texted him to say that their tutoring was canceled for the day and that he would have to study alone for the upcoming text so he was free that afternoon...and he was getting quite bored.
Anyway, he was relieved that Kara wasn't dead but the tone in which Superman talked told him that something was off... he wasn't as stupid as people believed him to be, he knew that kryptonite could be lethal to kryptonians and that Kara had breathed a lot of it the previous night, he had been pondering on how Babs could have pulverized it as he wasn't sure if someone could do it without alien technology...like a ring construct but that wasn't a possibility as Jessica would never help to create a weapon.
The brown haired boy shook his head and decided that he was thinking far too much, so he decided to pick up his varsity jacket,which he never used much, and went downstairs trying not to make a sound as his mom was having a word with his uncle in the kitchen.
When he was closing the door her heard someone behind him in the street.
"Hal!"
It was Jessica, and she didn't look happy. She was with Zee and Diana, who looked a bit angry.
This wasn't good.
Why did he have to be alone with three super-powered angry-ish girls.
Then he decided to se the oblivious guy approach and said while trying to sound completely relaxed "Hey!, I was about to go to Sweet Justice, wanna come?"
"Great, we were going there too" Zee said "There you can explain why Karen is having a nervous breakdown after the fight at the museum"
"How?"
"That was all over the news this morning" The magician said "At least you had a good reason to leave in the middle of my show"
"Your father's" Hal muttered while receiving a glare from the purple haired girl.
"Anyway Babs is missing and Kara isn't answering her phone" Jessica said looking at him pointedly "We know that you, Oliver and Barry were with them last night, so you have to give us answers"
"So speak now" Diana said "Don't make me use the lasso of truth"
Great, so the other girls didn't actually know about Kara, that was a serious lack of communication.
Why did they have to choose to interrogate him instead of Barry?
He looked back at his house and then to the sides, his neighbors were looking at him over their fences. Didn't they have others things to do instead of looking to him and his friends?.
Then he said raising up his hands in defence as Diana was looking at him quite menacing "Look, we can go over to Sweet Justice and we can explain everything"
"'Kay then" Zee said "You invite"
"Your limit is three dollars" He said rolling his eyes and putting his hands on his pockets and he said "Let's take the bus"
The four of them sat in the bus in an uncomfortable silence, he was sat next to Jessica and she refused to talk with him, though he convinced himself that it was better that way as he needed to find the correct words to tell them and don't end up...too hurt.
Whenthey arrived at Sweet Justice, Barry was talking to some customers and only nodded at them as a way of greeting.
The four of them sat on the girl's usual place, then Diana was the one say while putting fist on the table "Now, tell us what happened last night"
"Do you want the long or the short version?"
"Whichever suits you Harold" Zee said rolling her eyes "We have been curious all morning"
"'Kay then" He said sighing and rubbing his neck "Where do I start?"
*Babs in the New Earth aka Silver and Bronze Age version is Commissioner Gordon's niece and his adoptive daughter, Barbara Eileen Gordon aka Commissioner Gordon's wife is her aunt and left before he adopted her. In this fic she left after the adoption and their move to Metropolis, you can make your own theories of where she left for.
**I haven't read Aquaman comics in a while but since he appeared in this story, you can be sure that he will be appearing again that may hint the future creation of a certain team.
***I know that Kara says that the Danvers never have something bad to say about anyone in #HousePest, but then their air their their grievances against her LOL. Also they are field agents in the Supergirl Rebirth comics, they are Kara's handlers but they act like real parents until their deaths.
****The last part of this story will be a talk between Kara and Babs. It will add some hints about their choices career wise, if you have any suggestion about it feel free to leave your suggestions, especially for Kara,Jessica, Garth and Karen since I can't remember if they had "actual jobs" in the comics like Diana/Diplomat,Hal/Test Pilot,Babs/Librarian or Barry/Forensic Scientist.
*****Also, sorry if this one feels a bit short but college stuff takes time and I was stupid enough to take eight credits this year instead of seven :P