The next morning, Karen sat at her office desk drumming her fingers and staring blankly at some folders she was leaving behind for the running of Starr Industries. She had done her best to prepare for going home and it seemed surreal that it was really only going to be a few more hours until she would power on the Caduceus Driver and return to her own proper universe. As much as she was nervously anticipating her end goal, she couldn't help but continue thinking about yesterday evening. She still wasn't sure whether or not it worked out for the best. She had been ready to give in and say goodbye to Clark by getting intimate with him, but he had been called away by a call for help from the Kara of this world. It was hard to imagine that an alternate version of herself might have been in peril somewhere else and yet here she was, ready to be free of the responsibility of dealing with a threat from Brainiac. She hadn't heard from Clark and she wondered if it that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Nearby, Karen's friend Helena Wayne was busy filling a few more travel bags with stacks of money that could be used when they returned to their alternate Earth. Helena had flown in from the Caribbean last night and scratched her chin as she packed, "You think these will still be good back home?"

"Probably," Karen shrugged, "Do you really have to take that much money?"

"Remember, you probably won't have a Fortune 500 company and a humongous bank account when we get back," she winked, "I don't intend to be completely penniless and… hey, are you okay? You look a little out of it."

"Yeah… sorry, I'm just tired," Karen said evasively, "I guess I have a lot on my mind."

Helena raised an eyebrow and studied her closest friend, "I may have been gone globetrotting for a while, but I know you well enough to see you're holding out on something. Come on, what's wrong?"

Karen gave a warning frown to Helena and the two women stared each other down before Karen finally relented. Maybe she just felt like it wouldn't matter at this point and maybe she felt comforted by the presence of her best friend so she gave a quick summary of everything that had happened recently, especially with Clark and with the danger of Brainiac.

"Hmm… that is quite a story," Helena said pacing the room thoughtfully, "Plus I think I learned a little something new about you too. You've got some pretty weird kinks after all. You've got the hots for your cousin?"

"Helena! Be serious!" Karen scowled.

She raised her hands in a placating manner and stifled her teasing laughter, "Okay… sorry. This is still what you wanted though, right? To finally go home?"

"Sure it is… it's just that, I kinda feel like I'm leaving some things behind here. I didn't expect I'd still feel responsible and that there might be things here I'd kinda miss."

"Like Clark?" Helena asked, "About feeling safe and loved by someone unconditionally again?"

Karen shrugged and remained silent before Helena spoke again, "This earth has been a nice place for us. In some ways we've made new homes and lives here. I could understand if you'd have second thoughts about returning to an uncertain future on our own world. I am too."

"At the time, I didn't really believe Clark when he told me I still had a lot of good left to do here in this world. Now I feel like I'm just running away and I'm not so sure."

Before she could speak again, her phone rang and she picked it up when she saw it was Clark. "Clark, is everything okay?"

"I still don't know where Kara is," he answered with a nervous edge in his voice, "I've been up all night waiting and looking for her. She's not answering any calls, texts, emails… anything. I'm getting concerned and I wondered if by chance you've heard or seen anything."

"No," Karen admitted. Despite the alarming news, it was nice to know that he was calling her and that she'd get to speak to him one last time.

"I know this isn't the best time and that you'll be leaving soon," he said, "It's just…"

"It's okay Clark," she said gently, waving a nosy Helena off, "It's nice to hear from you too. Is there anything I can do?"

Before he could reply, several loud explosions were heard and sirens went off. Karen and Helena immediately got up and looked out the windows of the office to see a wave of alien attack drones descending from the skies. They had similar features to the other Brainiac drones she had fought in the past and Karen feared this was it. He must have been here and the major assault was going down. "I think you'd better get to New York really fast. We have trouble here. Brainiac trouble."

They ended the call and Karen watched as chaos and panic began to erupt in sections of the city. She turned to Helena, "You'd almost think Brainiac timed it this way to mock us. Are you up for tackling one last battle before we go?"

Helena cracked her knuckles and gave an easy smile, "Why not? I think I could definitely use the exercise."


As soon as they had been teleported in, the team of Justice League responders split off to deal with groups in the invaders who had landed in New York. Diana led one group going south while Bruce and a few other members moved east. Clark paused and waited so that he could listen for other sounds of trouble. Batman turned and called out, "Superman? Are you coming?"

Clark shook his head, "No. You guys go ahead. I'll head west. I hear some people in danger."

Bruce paused and narrowed his eyes as if reading his comrade's mind, "Stay focused and keep in close contact."

Clark gave a nod and bolted off at lightning speed while following his superhuman hearing. As he cruised low weaving through the narrow airspace of New York's buildings, he came across some drones who were rounding up civilians for capture. Before he could attack, several crossbow bolts flew out of nowhere destroying a pair of the invaders. Clark glanced toward a nearby rooftop and saw a mysterious heroine in purple garb slightly reminiscent of Batman swinging down while sniping at the drones. He ignored her and swooped in to bash aside the other sentries who were grabbing some of the helpless women and children on the street. He made short work of them, tearing the last one's arms off and smashing them over the drone's head to finish it when he saw a stray enemy shot cut the cable his ally was swinging on.

She began to fall but Clark soared over and caught her before angling down to set her safely on the street.

"Wow, lucky me," she grinned, "Thanks for the save Superman."

"Uh… you're welcome. Do I know you?" he asked as he placed her on the sidewalk.

"Just call me Huntress," Helena said with a wink, "I think we have a friend in common."

Moments later, heat ray beams shot down from the skies and destroyed the last remaining drones on the street. They looked up and saw Power Girl quickly descend onto the scene.

"Karen!" Clark called out, "Are you okay?"

"Aside from the hordes of space invaders running around my city, I'm just fine," Karen said grimly, "You just got here?"

He nodded, "I brought along some help from the Justice League. Given the circumstances, I hope you don't mind."

Karen grimaced but nodded in understanding. She turned to her other friend and waved her toward the frightened civilians who were cowering by a ruined storefront, "Helena, get these people to someplace safe. Clark and I will cover you from the air and clean up any stragglers."

Helena gave a nod and began to lead the civilians away to a safer zone while Clark and Karen split out in midair looking for trouble. When it seemed things had begun to calm down, Clark radioed Batman, "Bruce, what's your status?"

Amid the sounds of a battle raging, he heard the reply, "We're still a little tied down in our sector but we should have everything under control soon."

"Understood. I'll be there soon to help," Clark said as he started to angle away and change direction. He was about to tell Karen what was going on when a blurred shape of a person flew down from the skies and ambushed them. Whoever the attacker was had been carrying a car and hurled it down on Karen. Karen gave a surprised gasp as the flying car plowed into her and she smashed into the side of a nearby building.

Clark whirled around to see who his attacker was and stopped in shock when he saw who it was. "Kara? You're here? What the hell is going on?"

Hovering in front of him was the younger blonde teenage Supergirl still in her civilian clothes. "What does it look like? I'm here to take you in Clark."

"To where?" he asked in confusion while he studied her face. Something was definitely wrong. There was a blank faraway look in her eyes and she spoke in a cold semi-robotic way.

She regarded him with a grim look, "Who else? Brainiac of course."

"Come on Kara, quit messing around here," Clark said with a growing dread in his heart.

Before he knew it, she had raced forward and sent him hurtling backward with a hard right cross to his chin. "Do I look like I'm messing around? Last chance Superman."

Clark shook off the warning blow and continued to keep his distance as they hovered in midair, "Stop this right now Kara. I'm not your enemy. Brainiac must have done something to you. Don't you see he's using you?"

She flew forward again and the two locked hands in midair, grappling against each other; his strength against her speed. As they struggled, Clark gained a momentary advantage and restrained one of her arms, "We shouldn't do this Kara. We're family!"

She grunted and slipped free before hurling him off and driving him back with her shoulder, "I never said I trusted you."

"You called me because you were scared."

"Stop lying!" she said as she drove them both through a small building and crashed them into the pavement below. She attacked again but Clark blocked her aggressive blows and tried to restrain her, "Enough Kara! I don't want to hurt you!"

"Well that's your problem," she said while kicking him aside and taking advantage of his unwillingness to hit her back. Clark got up again and tried to raise his hands defensively to urge her to surrender. As she reared back in midair and dove down for another attack, she was swatted aside by a broken lamp post carried by Karen. Karen rejoined the fight and swooped in to attack and grapple with the brainwashed Supergirl. The two women crashed back and forth against several buildings before Karen blew her aside with a cyclonic spin. Before Kara could reorient herself, Karen punched her back again with her own right cross.

"Have you had enough?"

The younger heroine scowled and prepared to attack again when a cyborg-like figure hovered down from a small aircraft. One of Brainiac's body drones made its appearance and spoke, "That's enough Kara. Return to the ship."

Kara hovered for a moment before breaking off the attack and flying back upward toward Brainiac's ship which was now in low orbit over the Earth. From Karen's vantage point, she saw that the battles across New York had already simmered down. This had been a probing attack and one to get her attention as well as that of the Justice League. For now, it was certainly working. Karen clenched her fists, "You! You're Brainiac? What have you done to Kara?"

The cyborg regarded her with a blank stare, "You will have your answers soon Kryptonian. My terms will be simple. Surrender yourself and the one they call Superman and I will spare the better part of your world along with the life of the young girl."

"I think I'd like to renegotiate some terms," Karen growled as she soared up to attack her new enemy. Brainiac calmly powered a blaster cannon attached to its arm and fired a green glowing cloud of Kryptonite energy at her. Karen gasped and recoiled in pain from the beam as she felt her own strength and powers fade. She began to fall but was relieved when Clark soared up and was there to catch and steady her.

"Karen, are you okay?"

She nodded weakly and looked up to see Brainiac regard them both and turn its aircraft around to retreat, "I will be awaiting your surrender. You have twelve hours."

Once Brainiac left the battlefield, Clark drifted down to a rooftop and set Karen down, "What was all that about? What was he talking about?"

Karen grimaced, "This is not looking good Clark. Brainiac just laid out the terms of surrender to save Kara and the rest of the planet. He wants us. You and me."

Before he could process that new fact, he heard his other Justice League teammates radio him starting with Diana, "Clark? What's going on over there? Are you all right?"

He shook his head grimly and then looked to Karen, "I'm okay... but it looks like a new situation has just come up. I think we'd all get back to the Watchtower and have a little talk."


Some time later, Karen found herself up in the Watchtower standing before the leaders of the Justice League. It wasn't often she'd be standing in front of some other person's boardroom and feeling intimidated, but with all the legendary heroes looking at her here, she couldn't help but feel a little small and less confident. She had done everything in her power to avoid getting involved with these people and through some bizarre twist of fate, here she was on the very day she was set to depart this world and leave it all behind. She took some small comfort in the fact that Clark was there beside her helping to explain everything and reassuring them that she could be trusted.

"I still can't believe this is possible," Diana finally said after listening to Superman and Power Girl give a condensed summary of Karen's presence here as well as the Braniac issue, "An alternate universe? Three Kryptonians here at the same time?"

"I agree," Clark admitted, "It's still a little hard for me to wrap my own head around it. But right now, Kara is in danger. We have to help her and stop that alien collector."

"And we will but that might be difficult," Aquaman said carefully, "From what we're tracking of that giant ship, it might be hard for us to launch ann attack against it, much less bring it down. We don't have a special space fleet or resources to knock it down and extract Kara."

Clark frowned, "What if I go, then try to stop Brainiac from within his own ship?"

"No doubt this is still a trap," Bruce pointed out, "Brainiac will be counting on you do resist and will likely have countermeasures in place. You said he's already used some Kryptonite to neutralize Power Girl in the prior battle."

"It's a chance I'd have to take," Clark said stubbornly, "I know it might not be the best option, but we have to try something."

Green Lantern began to interject, "I know how you feel Clark but..."

"But nothing! Kara is still my family. She's all I have from my original world and I'm not going to give up on her," he insisted, "I'll go it alone if I have to."

The table fell silent before Karen spoke up having been moved by his conviction, "You're not going to get very far by yourself. You're going to need someone to watch your back and you're going to need something to blow up that carrier ship."

"And you have the means?" Batman asked skeptically.

"I do," Karen said with a level frown, "We can pull the old Trojan Horse play. We'll carry aboard my new portable Caduceus Driver and use that to blow the mothership up."

Clark balked, "Karen, are you insane? You want to come with? And you're willing to sacrifice your own power generator? I can't ask you to do that for me."

"What if I'm volunteering?" Karen said resolutely which surprised the rest of the League members at the table.

"You're giving up your means to go home," Diana pointed out, "Even if you rebuild another generator, finding the rare minerals to power the reactor might be costly and take a long time."

"If I don't do anything to stop this threat, there won't be an Earth here left anyway," Karen countered, "I already failed to protect my own Earth. I never got the chance, but now I've got an opportunity to save another Earth."

She looked to Clark, "It may not be mine, but it's become like another home and I've learned that there are things here worth fighting for and preserving."

Clark smiled and nodded in silent gratitude, touched by the gesture, "You're really sure about this? You're making a major sacrifice here."

"The Superman of my world made the ultimate sacrifice in defending it," Karen said as she steeled her own resolve, "The least I could do is honor his memory by doing something good like you had talked about. I can't ask you to sacrifice your own true family here either."

The other League members sat quietly and exchanged hesitant looks with each other before Clark to turned to address the table, "All right... then it's decided. We don't have a whole lot of time to waste. Let's get Kara back and stop Brainiac once and for all."