"Absolutely not," Cat answers. "You are not to confirm or deny any aspect of this story, Lucas."
"You can't protect her from this," Snapper grumbles.
"I am protecting my company. There is more to this than what is currently being reported, I will not have CATCO join the cacophony and report half-truths and innuendo," Cat snaps at him.
"Half-truths? This is cut and dry, Grant. Danvers has a blog and she everything that she posted on it belongs to CATCO. All of which has been verified. She's fired." he points out.
"Verified by whom?" Cat asks winding up for the take down blow. "IT and Security have verified that Kara Danvers left CATCO yesterday and her laptop has not been on-line since she left the office. They have also been able to determine that the email server was hacked through the employee VPN connection early this morning and that Kara's email account was accessed to issue that press release. In fact, while everything posted on her website belongs to CATCO, there is no proof yet that she posted it."
Snapper groans. "Of course, she posted it. Who else would have done it? And why are you just now telling me about a hack?" He asks angrily.
"IT has recently confirmed the hack, but they have not yet tracked down the source or determined how many accounts were accessed. I will be issuing a statement this afternoon, until then I expect you to keep this information to yourself. Oh and Tom will bring you the investigation file, perhaps you would consider writing an expose on how easy it is to manipulate the media with fake news," Cat quips before ending the call.
"Thank you," Kara says when Cat turns back around.
"Don't thank me yet, your reputation as a reporter is still damaged by this. Now what did you find out from your sister?" Cat questions as she sits beside Kara on the couch.
"Lumos was at CATCO this morning, but no one has seen her in the past hour. The police are looking for her to bring her in for questioning, but they don't have enough to arrest her for Waller's murder and they haven't connected her to the hack," Kara explains. "Uh, are you sure that a press conference isn't premature?" She asks with concern.
"This situation isn't just damaging your reputation Kara, it's also damaging CATCO's. The press conference is the best way to interrupt the news cycle and refocus the media on something other than you. It will be enough that we can prove that our server was hacked. You saw how quickly the media jumped on that press release, believe me they will be so busy speculating on the identity of the hacker that they'll forget all about you. This could save both you and CATCO, if we're lucky," Cat points out, resting a hand on her shoulder.
Lumos narrowly avoided the two detectives at CATCO, escaping down the stairwell ahead of them. Once in the alley, she was able to zip past the two waiting officers before they even saw her. Now landing softly on the roof of CATCO Towers she takes a deep breath. Killing Waller was never part of the plan and now everything has escalated. Pacing in the little garden area to the side of the helipad, Lumos sighs. She just needs a little time to figure out her next move.
Suddenly she smiles as she focuses on Cat Grant speaking below her. The smile fades a moment later as she takes in what is being said and to whom. Why the hell is Kara Danvers still there, she fumes as confusion and frustration all flood into her head, overloading her senses. A moment later she screams and launches herself off the roof.
Kara hears the scream and reacts immediately, by rushing outside.
"Kara?" Cat questions, but her voice is drowned out by the sound of glass breaking as Kara comes flying back through the wall of windows.
Cat jumps over the couch to protect herself from the shards of glass flying everywhere and Kara lands against it with a thud moving it back several feet as Cat scrambles out of the way.
"Kara, what the hell is happening?" Cat inquires worriedly.
"Just stay down," Kara whispers quickly, as another woman steps through the broken window.
"I have no intention of harming my Queen, but you Kara Danvers, you are in the way and must be removed. I'll give you two choices... leave now on your own, or stay and I'll throw you off the balcony," Lynai offers smugly as Cat stares daggers at her and Kara scrambles to her feet.
"I think you're overlooking one more choice," Kara remarks before spinning into her suit.
"Supergirl?" Lynai blurts out in shock, stumbling backwards over the debris.
"Who's throwing who off the balcony now?" Kara quips as she advances on the smaller woman.
Lynai reacts immediately turning around and diving over the balcony wall.
Kara stops and looks back at Cat to make sure that she's alright.
"I'm fine. Just go! Get that girl!" Cat yells encouraging her to get moving.
Kara dives off the balcony and immediately begins looking to see where Lumos went, when Alex's voice fills her ear.
"Lumos is.." she begins to blurt out.
"Here. I know, she just knocked me across the balcony and through Cat's windows. Can you send a team over there?" Kara asks. "And please make sure Cat's alright."
"Yeah, of course," Alex replies as Winn points to the screen showing Lumos on the street below Supergirl.
"How did you know that she was here?" Kara asks.
"Winn thinks that he has figured out her biometric markers, so we're tracking her. If he's right, then she is on the street right below you," Alex informs her.
Supergirl dives down towards the street to fly low enough to look for the woman. Unfortunately, people start pointing at her and people stop their cars to gawk at the sight of her. Worried that she'll cause an accident, Kara lands softly and waves at them for a moment, before focusing her sight ahead and looking for Lumos.
From the excited voices around her Lynai can guess that Supergirl is getting closer, so she ducks into a cafe and hides in the back near the bathroom. A moment later Supergirl walks slowly past the diner, Lynai looks around quickly before noticing the back door leads out into an alley.
"She's right there somewhere," Winn says looking at his screen, unfortunately the tracking system isn't able to pinpoint the metahuman's location.
"Winn, I don't see her anywhere," Supergirl replies.
"She must be hiding. Wait! There! She's in the alley to the east of you," Winn blurts out pointing at the screen. Kara hears him and shoots up and over the building, landing in the empty alley seconds later.
"Damn, she's not here," the hero cries out in frustration. "Winn are you sure that she hasn't doubled back to Cat's?"
"She's moving east... wait, I lost her. She's gone," he says with surprise.
"Hank is there now," Alex replies quickly. "Hank we've lost her, are you with Cat?"
"I'm here and she is uncooperative but unhurt," Hank says over the coms link.
"Tell her that I want her to go with you," Kara suggests.
A moment later Hank responds. "I believe her response would best be summarized as Hell No."
Collins is on the phone, so Maggie is driving and wishing that she had Alex on speaker phone right now. She knows that the DEO can track Lumos and it would be easier to help them, than driving around trying to find her like they are now. Maybe she should ask Alex for one of the ear pieces. Instead, she reaches over to turn up the police radio just in time to hear a report that Supergirl has been spotted a few blocks away. Flipping on her lights and sirens, she waits for traffic to respond, then takes a sharp right turn. Collins shoots her a questioning look, before ending his call.
"Sawyer, what the hell?" He blurts out impatiently.
"Supergirl was just spotted in this area looking for someone," Maggie explains as she throws the vehicle in park and looks back at him. "Coming?" She asks.
"No, see what you can find out here, I have to make another call," Collins replies.
Lumos hides in the sea of people downtown near the pier. She walks rapidly through the crowd trying to think. She is shocked to discover that Kara Danvers is Supergirl, but it does explain why Cat Grant would keep her around. Lynai tears up as she remembers the angry fierceness leveled at her by Cat Grant, the look matched, of course, by Supergirl herself. And as strong as she is, she is no match for Supergirl. She might have deluded herself where Cat Grant was concerned, but there is no point in going forward with her plan to capture the Queen of all Media's heart with her abilities, not when she has her own Superhero at her beck and call. As Lumos walks through the crowd, she unconsciously begins toying with the charm on her necklace in which the asteroid particles are embedded. Touching it sends small tingles whicg spread through her body and calm her.
A moment later she smiles. She may not be able to win Cat's heart, but she can at least destroy Kara Danvers and Supergirl.
"That's not her either. That's an andromedan," Kara groans as she and Alex look over the tourists on the wharf. Kara is dressed like Alex in DEO black, not wanting to draw attention as either Kara Danvers or Supergirl.
"Winn, make a note, that profile belongs to an andromedan," Alex instructs over the coms link. "Well, we've identified the biometric signature of at least twelve different alien species, so it hasn't been a total loss."
Kara sighs heavily.
"We should get back though, the press conference starts in fifteen minutes," Alex reminds her.
"I don't like this. If you're going to let Cat use herself as bait, then I should be there to protect her," Kara grumbles.
"Kara, it's not so much that we are letting her do it, she's doing it and she insists that you not be there, so J'onn is posing as her personal bodyguard. You know that she is as safe with him as she would be with you. At least she agreed to move the press conference outside of CATCO Plaza to give us more room to monitor the crowd." Alex reminds her as they approach her DEO vehicle.
"I still should be there," Kara pouts as they both climb into the SUV.
In the DEO control room, Kara is pacing nervously waiting for the press conference to begin and Alex is trying to remain still and focused. She knows how difficult it is for her sister to sit this one out, but with Kara Danvers in the news, Supergirl needs to lay low.
On screen, they finally see Cat step up to the podium, J'onn by her side and flanked by chief of security and director of IT.
"We were hacked," Cat announces dramatically, sending a buzz through the crowd of reporters. "Overnight an unidentified individual gained access to one of the CATCO servers. This time, I was not the target," she pauses for effect. "Now our internal investigation is being led by Tom Clarkson, Chief of Security and , but as of right now we have confirmed that the message sent from Kara Danvers' CATCO email early this morning was sent by someone accessing our system remotely and not by the reporter herself."
"Why would they target Kara Danvers?" A reporter calls out.
"Until the hacker is identified, I don't think we'll be able to answer that," Cat points out.
"Was it professional jealousy? Did another reporter do this to get her fired?" Another reporter asks.
"Again, until we know who, we can't possibly know why," Cat quips, subtly reminding the reporter of reporting 101.
"How can you be positive that she didn't do this herself and just make it look like a hack?" a woman's voice asks from the back of the group.
A buzz of conversation and speculation takes hold of the group as they collectively process the suggestion.
"That's her!" Kara blurts out, before spinning back into her suit and taking off abruptly.
Alex taps her ear. "Hank that was Lumos who asked the last question, get Ms Grant out of there," she informs him quickly. "Supergirl, take over protection duty. Hank will secure Ms Grant and assist the police with locating and detaining Lumos."
Winn texts the same message to Maggie, who is in the crowd.
"I assure you that we are investigating this fully and there is nothing to indicate that Ms Danvers is behind the hack," Cat replies firmly.
On screen, Alex watches him lean over and whisper into Cat's ear after she answers the question. Cat looks over at her subordinates and gestures for them to take over as J'onn escorts her away from the podium.
Another buzz goes through the crowd when Cat leaves, "What's happening?" Someone asks loudly.
"Ms Grant is needed elsewhere, now are there any more questions?" Tom asks the crowd.
"Where did Ms Grant go? This is her press conference," Another reporter points out.
Concern ripples through the crowd as police begin filtering through them.
"Ms Grant is secure, let the police know that I'm coming to assist," J'onn says a moment later.
"I can see Lumos," Kara calls out over the coms link.
"Supergirl you're on protection duty," Alex responds, reminding her sister of the plan and hoping that she isn't going after Lumos. Nervously, she runs her hand through her hair. The meta already knows that Kara is Supergirl, it's too risky for Supergirl to be involved in taking her in.
"I'm not letting her get away," Kara replies firmly.
"Hank, stand by. We may need to implement Operation Kiera," Alex warns.
Lumos smiles as she slips away behind a group of women speculating that Kara Danvers must be a head case to hack herself just to get her blog noticed.
Smugly, Lynai makes her way down the street, not realizing that she's being followed.
"Winn I need to see the street, get those traffic cams up," Alex grumbles to him as she paces the command center.
"There, it looks like Maggie has stopped her," Winn points to the third screen.
"Hey, you in the black hoodie. How do you know that Danvers faked the hack?" Maggie asks loudly, hoping the question will catch her off guard.
The girl stops walking and turns around. "Who's asking?" Lynai asks.
"NCPD, I need to ask you a few questions," Maggie answers hoping to buy some time until J'onn can get there to help contain the meta.
In the DEO Command Center, Alex, still watching the scene unfold, yells, "Where is Supergirl?"
"She's there," Winn remarks pointing at the Supergirl locator hovering overhead as they watch Maggie talking to Lumos on the screen. All of the sudden Maggie flashes her badge and Lumos takes off.
A moment later, Supergirl lands carefully with Lumos in her grip. Maggie moves in quickly with the special cuffs designed for metahumans as a small crowd gathers around them.
"Nothing to see here people, move along," Maggie shouts as she looks around for the patrol car that should have followed her pursuit.
Supergirl smiles at the crowd and spreads her arms out to her sides gesturing for the crowd to move back, the patrol car pulls up and the two officers take over with crowd control.
"You sure those will hold her?" Supergirl asks nodding at the handcuffs.
"Yeah, Winn tweaked them earlier," Maggie replies before trying to march the girl towards the police car.
Lynai struggles to take off again, but is surprised when she can't. "What have you done to me?" She blurts out angrily.
"Special cuffs that suppress your powers," Maggie informs her as she reaches out to open the door of the vehicle.
"Is she an alien? Why are you arresting her?" A voice from the crowd yells out.
"I am not at liberty to answer your questions, please move back and let us secure this area," Maggie yells out to the crowd.
"Supergirl, is this who you were looking for earlier today? Did you know that she could fly?" Another reporter calls out.
"Technically she wasn't flying," Supergirl can't resist pointing out. "And I have been working with NCPD to locate her today," she adds.
The metahuman notices that people are capturing everything on video, so she twists away from the detective just long enough to yell, "Supergirl is really Kara Danvers!"