It didn't take any of Kara's genius to understand Lucy's meaning. Reporter. Planet. Metropolis. Lane. They all added up to one big, pain in the ass Clark Kent. "Thanks," she said, taking the tissue with barely enough time to cover her mouth and nose for the next powerful sneeze.
Suddenly aware of a myriad of new body aches and pains, she inched her way around Snapper. It put an entire desk between her and Clark's friend.
Ignoring Lucy's wry smile at the maneuver, Kara blew her nose and focused on the images spread across Cat's desk. "These are really good." Holy Rao. What was happening to her voice? It rasped from her throat until she sounded like the old lady who'd run the small grocery store in Midvale.
Snapper grunted his agreement. "I'm saving everything above the fold in tomorrow's edition, plus extra space on page three." He glanced at Cat. "This is bigger than Ollie North or Lewinsky. Rumors of government black ops groups tied with anti-alien terrorists."
"Like Cadmus?" Kara nearly bit off her tongue when the question spewed from her mouth in time with a rattling cough.
"What would you," Cat's emphasis placed Kara on the same level with employees at McDonald's, "know about that?"
A sneezing fit gave Kara a little more time to fabricate an explanation. Her words came out blunted and thick from the pressure in her sinuses. "It's my job to chase Supergirl around the city. I hear things hanging out at the docks or in disgusting alleys waiting for her to zoom in and save the day." She didn't back down, even when Cat's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm the one who took this story to Snapper."
Lucy interrupted the silent standoff. "If we're about to blow a hole in some secret government agency, we need safeguards. The Patriot Act gives a lot more latitude for seizing records or any documents they want, as long as the government says they suspect it may lead to a terrorist act."
Cat leaned back in her chair. "This could easily lead to a black site prison or police state tactics." She glanced at each of them. "If you want out, there will be no repercussions. I will not ask you to put yourself on the line, and I won't threaten you. This is the real deal, people."
No one moved; although, Kara wondered if staying was really the right choice for her. She'd begun this fiasco by coming out as Supergirl and then by approaching Snapper. It had all been her choice. A choice which could impact many other people: Diana, Bruce, Lucius. The entire Justice League.
Alex.
She felt Cat's gaze. For once, not ready to sear flesh from bone. Considering. Even patient. "Kara?"
"I…" Kara would always remember the Danvers' fear that she would be discovered as an alien, and Alex's panic the night she'd saved the plane. They'd told her, over and over again, that being non-human was dangerous.
This was her chance to do something about that. "I'm in," she said firmly. She'd warn Diana and the others later. Kara had been sent to Earth to help Kal. She couldn't do that, for a variety of valid reasons. She could help the other species who'd fled to Earth in search of asylum and a new place to call home. Diana and the others would surely understand that.
"Then let's get down to business." Cat flicked her fingers over the photographs. "Snapper, get your reporter to a safe house. Take care of it personally. I also want hardcopies of his articles buried in the Vaults." The Vaults were the warren of filing cabinets and rows upon rows of shelving units crammed with boxes filled with every edition of every CatCo Worldwide magazine or newspaper since its inception.
"You want me to personally memorize every word, too? Give the kid a room in my apartment?" Snapper heaved himself from his chair, and a cigar appeared from his rumpled sport coat pocket. "We're too old for all this." He gnawed on the unlit cigar as he stomped away.
Cat turned back to Kara and Lucy. "Kara, you're the one who found the story. I want a handwritten account of what or who tipped you off. No names! Refer to them as sources. CatCo has never given up its sources, and I have no intention of letting you do it now. Make copies of your statement. One for me, Lane, and Snapper. Hide three or four more in places only you know about. Lane, the Patriot Act makes this riskier than any story CatCo's published. What are we looking at?"
Compelled by the urgency of Cat's orders, Kara had already grabbed one of the dozen legal pads littering Cat's desk. She wrote an abridged version of the night she'd been attacked by Alex and the others from the DEO as Cat and Lucy hashed out details of which sections of the Patriot Act might apply and whether they could count on support from the ACLU.
When Kara finished her statement, she stood – and the world wavered. She'd been so intent on writing an account that didn't allude to her identity as Supergirl or her knowledge of the DEO that she hadn't realized how hot it had grown in Cat's office. Or of how badly her head and throat hurt.
Of course, Cat noticed. She hunted through the piles of photos, layouts, and reports on her desk before discovering one of the three pairs of glasses resting on her head. Her eyes glinted through the lenses. "Did I, or did I not, tell you to leave if you were sick?"
Pinned in place by the glare (surely worthy of even Queen Hippolyta), Kara managed to nod on the tail end of another sneeze.
"Then why are you still here?"
Kara held up her statement. "You wanted…"
"Go. Now." A bony finger pointed to the door. "Make your copies on the way out; I'll have Edith," Kara thought Cat's assistant's name was actually Eden, "scrub the copy room and everything you might have touched with bleach."
Eden did follow Kara to the copy room. Armed with two containers of bleach wipes, she hovered in the doorway to the claustrophobic room jammed with two massive machines and shelves of paper and supplies. It took minutes for Kara to make copies of her three handwritten pages. As she gathered them up, Eden moved in, wipes at the ready.
Maybe Eden should have wiped Kara down. Her nose wouldn't stop dripping and she coughed or sneezed every few seconds.
"Make it stop, i aderfí mou." Pulling the heavy blanket up to her nose, Kara shivered again. It was so cold in her room, despite the roaring fire and the pile of blankets on the bed. "It hurts!" Kara had not experienced pain since leaving Krypton, and sickness? That had been nearly extinct on her home planet.
Diana smoothed back Kara's lank, sweaty hair. "I know, mikrós ílios. I know. You must be strong, like the warrior you are." Her smile was comforting and stern at the same time. "Remember this when you are once again tempted to use your eyes," Diana tapped Kara's right temple, "to find the perfect gems for your o kátochos tis psychís sas."
Kara pouted. The boulder opals would match Alex's eyes. She hadn't known there were limits to the powers granted by Sol's rays. "Will my powers come back?" Although Kara had not enjoyed her extra abilities for long, she didn't want to be returned to human-like normalcy.
A little of her misery faded under the sound of Diana's laugh. "Epione is certain they shall. Rest, sun, and plenty of food – which I am sure you will enjoy." She stood, smoothing the blankets, and kissed Kara's forehead. "Sleep. I shall visit again when you wake."
If only Diana and her forehead kisses were back in National City. Copies folded and shoved into the pocket of her cardigan, Kara stumbled out into the bright morning sunshine. She glowered up at Sol. "Hurry up and do your thing."
Kara glanced up and down the street. There were a few cabs, but each of the roof lights showed they had passengers. She didn't want to wait outside. She didn't want to walk, either. Head down, Kara plodded along the sidewalk.
It was freezing in the shadows created by the skyscrapers comprising the downtown area. Kara pulled her cardigan tight around her. Noonan's beckoned up the block. She couldn't smell the dark, bitter aroma of their signature coffee or the sharp scent of sugar from her favorite cheese or fruit filled Danish. However, it was a haven. A place where Kara always felt welcomed and safe.
Coffee would warm her and soothe her throat. Kara's steps quickened now that she had a destination in mind.
Sirens wailed and then moved closer. The ear-piercing shrieks echoed off the nearby buildings. The other pedestrians turned to watch the string of police cars, lights flashing, whiz by. Loud blasts detonated seconds later. The gawkers scattered, many ducked low to the ground.
More police cars flew by, followed closely by a CatCo news van.
Kara stared after it. Police cars and gunfire downtown. It was a situation for Supergirl. Except Supergirl was missing in action and suffering from the ignominy of the common cold. Giving up her plans for a comfortable seat in the back of Noonan's, nursing a white chocolate mocha with extra whipped cream, Kara pushed her body into a jarring (and painfully slow) jog in the direction the police cars had gone.
Her chest ached, and Kara was sucking wind before she'd gone more than half a block. Antiope would not be pleased. She had hounded Kara to keep up her fitness rather than rely on the gifts from Sol. She persevered, however, and tracked the flashing lights and sirens to a convenience store crammed between an Italian restaurant and an apartment building.
Glass littered the uneven paving in front of the store. A dozen black and white police cruisers blocked the street access. Cops in NCPD-stenciled flak jackets crouched behind the cars, armed with shotguns, rifles, or handguns.
She couldn't see inside thanks to the crowd of onlookers and news crews. She carefully made her way through the throng until she found the CatCo crew. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Kara?" Elenor Porter, CatCo's most popular field reporter, frowned. "Is something wrong? Are we not taking the story on-air?"
"Oh, no! I mean, I was just passing by." Kara coughed. "Miss Grant was afraid I'd 'infect the entire office.'"
Elenor rolled her eyes. "I bet. Looks like we've got a hostage situation. We're about to go live."
"I won't keep you then. You don't need me getting in the way." Kara melted back into the crowd – and then grimly headed to a nearby alley. Nerves threatened to empty her stomach and her legs trembled. Hidden from view in the shadow-darkened alley, Kara removed and folded her "human" clothes before activating her boots, cowl, and cape.
Even properly suited up, an heroic entrance was out of the question. Kara crept around the corner, hoping that no one noticed her walking onto the scene. She got a few steps closer to the store before the first shout rang out.
"Supergirl!"
More followed, and her skin crawled at the realization that she was now the focus of all the cops and news crews – without her powers.
Keeping her shoulders back and her pace stately, Kara made her way to the entrance of the convenience store. It was dark inside; she couldn't make out individuals, only two vague shapes near the cash register.
Eyes trained there, she stepped inside.
"Don't come any closer!" One of the shapes solidified into a man, one arm wrapped around the throat of a woman. The other hand held a gun to the hostage's head.
Kara froze for an instant before she caught the hopeful expression on the woman's face. People believed in Supergirl. In her. They didn't know she couldn't lift anything heavier than a bag of groceries at the moment. Planting her hands on her hips, she said, "You know that gun won't do anything to me. Put it down."
She held her pose even when the man didn't move. "Put it down," Kara repeated. "Let your hostage go. We'll talk. This won't help whatever situation you're trying to solve."
The gun wavered.
Maybe if Kara had been less concerned about the gun, the hostage, or her own less than bulletproof state, she would have seen the two other men hidden in the aisles of snack foods and automotive supplies.
Only her years as Antiope's practice dummy saved her. Although, as she blocked the baseball bat aimed at her head, Kara wasn't sure she would actually survive. Her right arm rose and met the bat with a sharp crack.
A crack that was not the bat breaking from the impact. Kara had never, not on Krypton or on Themyscira during the first loss of her superpowers, felt anything close to the burning agony as a result from protecting her head. She bit back a scream. It was imperative no one in the store realize she was at less than one hundred percent of her usual "super" self.
Kara let her right arm drop and lashed out with a booted foot. Her kick took the wind from Bat Man. She followed up with a picture-perfect left uppercut – and she was down to two assailants. One still held a gun, but it had dropped to his side while his hostage now huddled behind the counter.
Spinning as best she could to face the final assailant, Kara narrowed her eyes. "I can do this all day," she lied. "Or we can walk out of here together, and I'll tell the officers that you surrendered peacefully." Kara slid a step forward. "Your choice."
The man's hands shot up.
Good. Good. Kara prayed to Rao none of them noticed the tears of pain in her eyes or how her right arm hung uselessly at her side. "Thanks for letting her go. I know you didn't want to hurt anyone." She reached out with her left hand. "Give me the gun and then we'll go outside."
The metal was cool against her fingers, the weapon surprisingly heavy in her hand.
Kara and the store employee led the parade into the glaring sun and freedom represented by an army of NCPD officers. She stayed quiet as the two men next to her were taken to their knees and handcuffed. In the maelstrom of blue-clad aggression and the roar of the police radios and shouted questions and epithets, Kara slipped away and to the safety of the alley.
Once her suit retracted, she painfully climbed back into her normal clothes. Every movement turned the bright day into a snowstorm of gray and black flecks edging her vision. Kara needed to get home, where she could soak up sunlight on her balcony after doing what she could to immobilize her arm.
She wasn't going to waste time with walking or stopping at Noonan's. Uber was next to Rao on Kara's personal pantheon of deities.
The car would be a few minutes getting through the slowly dispersing crowd. Kara made her way to the curb, shoulders hunched to protect her arm from accidental battering. She leaned against a police car at the edge of the crime scene perimeter. The sun soaked into her bones. Without waking her powers, unfortunately.
Brakes screeched loudly, and Kara jumped. The CatCo van idled in front of her. "Get in," Elenor shouted through the open passenger-side window. "We just got a call that the Feds and the Army stormed into Cat's office."
Her words galvanized Kara into action. The pain in her arm faded beneath a rush of adrenaline worse than the one that had pushed her into the convenience store. She clambered into the van, one foot propped against the dash as a counterbalance to Elenor's NASCAR-worthy driving.
They joined a horde of other news vans and CatCo-branded vehicles returning to the building like worker bees to a hive. Unlike the rest of the reporters and cameramen running toward the main entrance, Kara led Elenor to her new Supergirl, out of the way, service entrance. The lock was perpetually unlocked thanks to the duct tape someone (probably a smoker, from the pile of butts on the ground) had slapped over the deadbolt.
The bonus? A rarely used service elevator sat only a few steps inside the door. Kara hit the button for Cat's floor. She should have left Alex and her gun-toting friends alone. If anything happened to Cat or Snapper or even Lucy.
Eliza cupped Kara's chin. "We want you to be happy here, Kara. This is your home now." She eyed Alex, standing staunchly at Kara's shoulder. "You should know how dangerous it is for Kara to use her powers like that, Alexandra. What if someone had seen you flying?"
Alex stiffened even more, until Kara was afraid her human form might shatter from the tension. "No one saw us!"
"You don't know that for sure." While her hand on Kara's chin remained gentle, her voice, when she addressed Alex, was clipped and hard. "They could take Kara away. Or they could arrest me or your father. You know the government has been after us for helping Superman. Actions have consequences, Alexandra."
Actions had consequences.
Kara had left the Danvers' home only a week after she and Alex had gone flying. She hadn't seen any adverse reaction to her decision to take her zhor to see the stars up close (as close as Kara could get them).
She wasn't so lucky now. Her choices had already placed her coworkers at risk. If the government followed up on Kara's background, Diana and the rest of the Justice League were in danger. And, as Eliza had predicted so long ago, the Danvers as well.
They burst from the elevator the second it stopped. Kara fumbled one-handed with her phone, turning on the voice recorder and stashing it in her bra rather than her purse. Her cardigan hid the rectangular bulge.
Elenor had her microphone out and the mobile battery pack clipped to her belt.
The bullpen was on its collective feet. No one even glanced at Kara and Elenor as they dashed through the aisle to Cat's office.
Kara zeroed in on a tall man in uniform standing toe to toe with Lucy Lane. Stars gleamed on his shoulders and thick stripes lined the sleeves of his jacket. "You'll turn everything you have over to me, Major, or I'll bring you up on charges of treason and insubordination."
His threat froze Kara in place. Rao, she was a complete idiot. Every single copy of information Cat had asked her to write was all together in her purse. She couldn't let the people hounding Cat and Lucy get them. Reaching into her pocket, Kara gripped the folded sheets. Frantically looking for anyplace to hide them, she resumed her dash to Cat's office.
There! The IT guy's desk. There was an open lunch bag on his desk. Having a reputation as a klutz (it wasn't an act), Kara pretended to stumble. Her cry of pain was real as her right arm banged into the sturdy metal desk. It was the perfect, if agonizing, cover as she transferred the papers into the soft-sided bag.
Her cry had alerted the crowd of uniforms and black-suited men and women to Kara's existence. One of them touched the man talking to Lucy, and he turned to face Kara. "You! You're the one who started this mess! Arrest her."
"No, General. You won't." For all the commotion in her office, Cat was completely calm. Even a little amused, by the slight smile she wore. "You have no grounds, not even your precious Patriot Act, to be here. Let alone to threaten my Counsel, me, or my staff. Now, unless you want to be personally named when my lawyers start filing motions about this little visit, I suggest you take your Men in Black and get out!"
The general didn't move. He stared intently at Kara who fought a shudder. There was something hungry in his gaze. Something that screamed for her to run.
She stood her ground with all the arrogance and grace of Queen Hippolyta.
He didn't like that at all. "Search her!"
Two of the black-clad people crammed against the wall hurried toward Kara. One of them grabbed her purse, and the other patted her down. She bit her lip until she drew blood but couldn't restrain a whimper when Goon Two patted down her right arm.
"Are you hurt, Miss Zor-El?" Oily pleasure slicked the general's question.
"Banged my funny bone on a desk," Kara lied while trying not to yank her arm away from the agent frisking her.
It was clear from the frightening light in his eyes that the general didn't believe her. "Danvers! You're a doctor. Make sure it's not more serious than a bruise."
Danvers?
The name echoed and echoed on a loop in Kara's ears as Alex, dressed in a sharp black pantsuit and starched white blouse, stepped from among the rest of the similarly clad agents. A badge with FBI credentials hung from her jacket lapel, and the bulge of a gun sat at her hip.
This wasn't a federal raid based on the Patriot Act. This was the DEO using the Army as muscle to hide their existence.
Alex, her Alex, stopped and glanced at Kara without touching her. "Miss Zor-El?"
Caught between hiding her arm behind her back like a child and letting Alex know that she was vulnerable and truly injured, Kara reluctantly nodded her consent.
Alex's hands were incredibly gentle as she pressed her fingers to Kara's arm over the cardigan.
"It's so cute!" Kara wiggled, wanting to touch the furry animal, the puppy, in Alex's arms.
Alex rolled her eyes, but her smile was as wide as Kara's. "You have to be gentle, though." She shifted the puppy to the cradle of a single arm and took Kara's hand in hers. "Like this." At first Kara thought Alex was teasing her. She didn't feel anything.
Then she looked at their joined hands as the puppy's fur lightly tickled her fingers. They were stroking the fur so softly that it barely ruffled it.
A sharp bark and a thrashing tail said the puppy approved.
Kara's heart melted. "Oh, Alex!"
"I know. I've always wanted a puppy." A little of Alex's joy dimmed. "Mom says I'm not responsible enough yet, and, well, pets are expensive." She looked away from Kara as she whispered the last.
"I'm sorry." The Danvers never blamed her, but Kara wasn't stupid. Jeremiah was away from home more often since she'd arrived, taking on additional consulting jobs. The family also had to make multiple shopping trips to keep Kara fed. Eliza often went to cities or towns several hours away to keep anyone in Midvale from questioning the sudden, drastic increase in their grocery needs.
"Don't worry, Kar. Mr. Russel said we could visit Champ as often as we want." Alex raised the puppy to Kara's face, letting the excitable dog lick all over Kara's cheeks.
Kara swore she disguised her flinch when Alex pressed on the place the bat landed, but Alex froze. She pushed up Kara's cardigan until the bruised, swollen area was on display. "It looks like Miss Zor-El might want this x-rayed, General." Alex's voice was so different from the one in her memory that Kara couldn't make sense of the dissonance.
"That must have been some desk, Miss Zor-El." The general waved Alex back into position, and Kara wanted to grab her and hold on. She needed Alex and the unwavering protection she remembered from her short time with the Danvers as he smiled. A shark's smile filled with teeth and paired with the chilling lack of humanity in his gaze. "I'll have one of my people drive you to National City General."
"No, thank you. Agent Danvers was mistaken. It's nothing more than a bump and a bruise." Kara yanked the cardigan down and took a position at the corner of Cat's desk.
Lucy stepped between them. "If you have nothing more, General, we're done here. Security will escort you from the building." Her voice was confident; however, Kara's vantage point showed the sweat dampening the fine wisps of hair at the back of Lucy's neck. Her shirt collar, too, bore a dark strip.
The general's face darkened, and the officer at his side scowled. "General, we can still arrest them. The Act gives us…"
"Try. It." Cat stood, and her sheer presence blanketed the room. Even in her stilettos, the general topped her by at least an inch, yet his authority crumbled. "I know where all the bodies on the Hill are buried, General. I'll have every member of Congress, from Moscow Mitch to your buddies on the Armed Services Committee, willing to scuttle your career with one phone call." She brandished her cellphone and raised a single finger. "One. Two."
"We'll be back," the general snarled. "That story will never see the light of day." He stalked from the room with his team hard on his heels.
Kara sucked in a harsh breath and saw Lucy's shoulders slump wearily.
"Damn. I was hoping your father would try to call my bluff." Cat actually laughed. "Good job, Lane. You validated my decision to hire you with that family reunion." Settling behind her desk like Queen Hippolyta on her throne, Cat steepled her fingers. "Snapper, break the story early. Start with Asia. It will lessen the full impact, but Lane and his boys won't be able to order a retraction in China. Put it in every bulldog edition we can get to here in the States. I don't care how small the circulation."
He was moving before she finished rapping out orders.
"You!" Kara thought Cat was addressing Lucy again until a hand caught the hem of her cardigan. "I don't remember asking you or my best field reporter to my office. You are sick, and CatCo employees do not come to the office spewing germs. Out!" She eyed Elenor. "Make sure Zor-El doesn't get lost on the way to the Emergency Room. Have that scratch checked out before she tries to sue me for having dangerous equipment in the bullpen."
"Sure thing, boss." Elenor didn't appear phased by anything that had happened. "I wish like hell I had video of that standoff. They didn't bother to search me," she lamented. "Can you imagine if that leaked to the news channels? I'd be up for a Peabody."
Kara followed her out, stopping to retrieve the pages she'd stuffed into the lunch bag. "How about an audio recording?" She managed a weak grin at Elenor's wide eyed expression. "Uh…you'll have to fish it out of my bra. I don't think I can get it out, what with this scratch and everything."
"I hope Ken the Security Guard gets his jollies from seeing this on the monitors." Elenor backed them into a corner near the elevator they'd ridden on the way to Cat's office. In seconds, she held Kara's phone and started the recording from the beginning.
"You'll turn everything you have over to me, Major…"
"Gotcha!" Elenor did a little dance. "I want to kiss you right now, you know that?" Then she turned and waved at the security camera. "Ken's already had as much of a show as I plan to give him. Come on. The boss said to take you to the ER, and that's where we're going. I'll come back and start on winning that Peabody afterward."
Cradling her arm against her side, Kara followed Elenor into the service elevator. "It's all about you, isn't it, Porter? You'd leave me bleeding and near death if it meant getting the story."
"I didn't get to be the boss' favorite field reporter by playing nice." The doors slid open and Elenor led Kara back outside through the security door. "I'm going to dump you at the ER doors, and…"
A sharp crack cut the air, and Elenor toppled to the ground in slow motion.
Kara glimpsed blood pooling beneath Elenor's body right before a dart lodged into her shoulder. Another pierced her thigh. The world spun in a dizzying kaleidoscope of dark and light.
Dark won.
