Hey kids!
This is a very long chapter so I'm not going to waste any space with introductions. On with the Kalex! Yay! :)
…...
I'd Carry a Plane for You
Part 9: Adventures in Babysitting
…...
"Kira. Cancel my plane tickets and hotel booking for Metropolis this weekend." Ms. Grant's voice was just a shade more shrill than usual, which for once Kara felt was completely justified—this trip to Metropolis wasn't for pleasure, it was to accept the prestigious Ginsburg Prize for Outstanding Women in Media. It was practically the Oscars for digital journalism.
"But Ms. Grant, you have to go! The Ginsburg Prize! It's the first year you've beaten Lois Lane!" Kara exclaimed, her blue eyes going wide with a combination of pride and excitement. Her boss may be a handful, but she was also an incredible mentor and role model, a progressive feminist leader, and a bigger asset to National City than anyone realized, in Kara's opinion.
"Yes, and don't think I wouldn't love to rub her little freckled nose in it," Ms. Grant sighed, taking a stack of pages fresh from the printer on her desk, stacking them neatly together, and handing them to Kara to be finalized. "But my babysitter just cancelled, some nonsense about food poisoning. And my mother has once again lived down to my expectations by prioritizing yet another South American cruise with the Nobel Prize winner of the month club over the chance to spent one single weekend with her grandson. So." The older woman glared up at Kara cooly, as if all of this misfortune were somehow her fault. "Bookings. Cancel. But first bring me my Lexipro and a Diet Coke. Cold."
"Of course, Ms. Grant, right away—but, you know, if it's not too presumptuous—this award is such a huge honor, and you deserve to be there on that stage to receive it—and, well, I'd be happy to watch Carter for the weekend." Kara babbled awkwardly, with the same bright smile she gave most people most of the time; but Ms. Grant still narrowed her eyes at her assistant suspiciously.
"What do you want, Kira?" The older woman asked in a calm, measured tone, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
"Nothing!" Kara shook her head in mild shock, trying not to roll her eyes at her boss's trademark cynicism. "You know that thing where people sometimes just want to help other people?"
"So I'll owe you a favor you can cash in on anytime in the future," Ms. Grant said thoughtfully, almost approvingly. Kara was about to protest again, but Ms. Grant's next words cut her off. "This is a side of you I haven't seen before, Kira. I like it. You have experience with children, I take it?"
"Oh, yes, tons," Kara nodded, weirdly pleased at Ms. Grant's reaction even though it wasn't for the right reasons. "I babysat practically half the kids in my town in high school. Seriously, you can call any family in Midvale who had kids under age 12 from 2005 to 2009..."
"All right, all right, I'm not vetting you for a seat on the Supreme Court," Ms. Grant rolled her eyes, which Kara had noticed she sometimes did when she simply didn't want to admit she was pleased about something. "What about CPR and First Aid Certifications?"
"Yes."
"Infant or adult?"
"Both," Kara smiled calmly, feeling pretty good about herself right now. She could see it in her boss's eyes; the approval, the realization that her assistant was in fact as ready-for-anything as she herself was.
"Well, all right then...don't cancel my travel arrangements," Ms. Grant said slowly, returning Kara's smile for about half a second. "Carter's school gets out at 3pm sharp, I'll call the office and have them put you on his pickup list. I'll text you the address and a list of his afternoon activities. There are to be absolutely no video games after 8pm or he'll never go to sleep. You can order takeout for dinner, Carter will tell you which places we like. Nothing fried of course. There's money in the cookie jar in the hall pantry..." Kara nodded along as Ms. Grant spoke, diligently writing all her notes down the same as she would if Ms. Grant were briefing her for a videochat with Tokyo. But strangely, Kara felt even more proud of herself right now than she did when she prepared Ms. Grant for global communications videoconferences or interviews with the White House Press Secretary. Those things were all incredibly important...but this was Ms. Grant's child, her only child. And she was entrusting him to Kara.
"Did you get all that?" Ms. Grant asked impatiently, already packing folders of documents into her briefcase to bring along on the plane.
"Yes Ms. Grant. Don't worry about Carter, I'll take good care of him. He wouldn't be safer with Supergirl." Cat Grant paused from rustling around her desk and looked up at her assistant with a wry expression, one eyebrow raised inscrutably.
"Calm down, Kira. Don't oversell it. And Kira..."
"Yes?"
"Carter is...well, he's a brilliant boy, but sensitive. He requires a calm environment and a gentle touch. He'll be a bit withdrawn, but you shouldn't take that personally. He's just...cautious with new people. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
"Of course," Kara nodded, with a little half-smile. "I can certainly relate to that...when I first came to—(don't say 'this planet,' dummy!),—to my foster parents, I was the same way. I understand." Ms. Grant looked up with one eyebrow raised.
"You have foster parents? That's mildly interesting," the older woman said calmly, as if she were debriefing her department heads on story pitches.
"Well, yes ma'am. Both my parents died in an...an explosion...when I was thirteen." Ms. Grant looked up at her, concern and even protectiveness rising up in her pale aqua-blue eyes. Kara was genuinely surprised at that.
"Oh...I'm so sorry," was all the other woman said, and continued packing up her desk for her trip to Metropolis.
"Well it was a long time ago, and I got adopted by a wonderful family. They're my parents too, you know? They gave me a great life. And if I'd never moved to Midvale, I'd never have met Alex...so everything worked out the way it was meant to, I think." Kara smiled wistfully. She still missed Krypton, but the pain of those memories had softened over time, until all that was left to remember was the love.
"Sometime, Kira...I'm going to take you out for a martini and you're going to tell me all about this Charles Dickens novel that is the life of Kira Danvers."
"Kara," the blonde girl gently corrected her boss for the millionth time. But Ms. Grant was already past her and blowing out the office door.
"3pm sharp, Kira! Tell Carter I love him!"
"Yes, Ms. Grant," Kara sighed quietly as the elevator doors closed and her boss was whisked from sight. With a little half-grin, Kara tapped her bluetooth earring.
"Well hello my little ball of sunshine," Alex's voice picked up, and Kara smiled, already hearing the matching smile in her girlfriend's voice. "What's up? Supergirl emergency, or you need five pounds of chocolate right now emergency?"
"No emergency. But if you should happen to pass five pounds of chocolate on your way home..." They both giggled a little. Chocolate was definitely happening now. "Um, actually, I was just calling to see if you think you'll be staying late at work tonight."
"Nope, I don't think so. Why?"
"Wellll..." Kara drew out the word, remembering all the times she'd asked Alex this question in high school, with a weird little twitch of goofy excitement and nostalgia in the pit of her stomach. "Wanna come babysit with me?"
…...
Kara was running late to pick Carter up from school. Of course. Between seeing Ms. Grant off to the airport, finishing all her CatCo duties, and picking Carter up, she also had to put in a Supergirl appearance at the DEO, where Lois Lane's father, General Sam Lane, showed up with his other daughter, Lucy, as military council (also ex-girlfriend of James; and now that Kara was seeing her live in person, she decided on the spot to knock some sense into her friend and get him the hell back together with this smart, hot, very much in-command and sexy-smelling lawyer chick).
With an Executive Order signed by the President herself, General Lane had ordered Kara to fight the Red Tornado, a prototype combat android that one of the Pentagon's top researchers had been developing to fight insurgents. Alex and Hank both immediately started arguing with the smug, self-satisfied General, questioning the constitutionality of an Executive Order being issued to a private citizen, not a military or government body; but Kara stopped them, agreeing to fight the thing, not worried in the slightest that it wouldn't go her way. She loved her boss and her girlfriend for wanting to protect her, but this was a no-brainer, it wasn't even worth the argument.
The red android actually took a lot more out of Kara than she wanted to admit; but it still took less than five minutes for her to rip one of its arms off, with the help of her freeze breath to make the metal brittle. As soon as the appendage in question went flying over their heads and landed in the back of the military truck behind them, General Lane called off the test. The blonde girl smiled in relief. But then the blank-eyed machine stood up again, ignoring its creator's command to power down. General Lane was yelling at Dr. Morrow, and Kara was backing up protectively in front of her DEO field team, ready to defend them should the android launch a new attack. But the thing just spun up into the air in a tornado of wind from its lower body, propelling it high into the sky and out of sight in seconds.
"What the hell just happened?" General Lane demanded pompously, looking at his scientist, Dr. Morrow, for answers.
"Supergirl's destruction of Red Tornado's molecular integrity must have triggered its self-defense response. I can't turn it off," the military scientist shook his head frantically, more distressed at the loss of his toy than the fact that a dangerous, malfunctioning military android had just been released on National City.
"This is your fault!" General Lane roared at Kara, pointing his big beefy finger at her like a gun. "You think this country needs aliens to defend it because you're so damn strong—but look what happens. You can't control your strength, and now because of you there's a dangerous military robot on the loose that could take innocent American lives!"
"My fault?" Kara exclaimed back at him, her blue eyes blazing so ferociously that Alex reached out a hand and gently held Kara back, just above the crook of her elbow. It wouldn't stop her if she didn't want to be stopped, of course; but it was enough to remind her that she had a whole team at her back, she had Alex at her side. She didn't need to justify herself to anyone. "You came here uninvited and ordered me to fight this thing. So I did, and now your toy is broken and you don't know how to stop it from going on a killing spree. Looks to me like the Armed Forces needs the DEO today, General." Kara crossed her arms over her chest and stood back a little smugly.
"That's my girl," Alex whispered, so quietly no one could possibly hear. Except Kara, who smiled. General Lane harrumphed and blustered for another minute, then impatiently agreed that the DEO "could help" apprehend the rogue android if Director Henshaw would report to him until the android was recovered. That was when Kara's watch alarm went off to remind her it was time to pick up Carter from school. She gave Alex an absolutely terrified look, more terrified than when she'd been fighting the rogue robot.
"Go, go. I'll meet up with you later," Alex assured her, and without uttering a single word, Kara shot off into the sky, cracking the glass in all the military Humvees when she broke the sound barrier. Alex tried not to smirk too obviously.
Kara zipped down into the bushes in front of Carter's school just as the bell rang; and about fifteen seconds later, she was walking out from behind the large shrubbery, back in her human clothes, sundress and cardigan and glasses all perfectly in place. She felt a bit flustered after the hasty exit she'd just made, with a rogue military android on the loose, regardless of whose "fault" it was; but she had to remind herself that she was just one person, Super or not. The military and the DEO were on the android case now. And she was on babysitting duty. She saw Ms. Grant's son walking slowly out the front doors to the fancy school and shuffling in her general direction, his head pointing straight down at his shoes. She wondered how he could even see where he was going.
"Carter, hey! I'm Kara. Do you remember me, from your mom's office?" She asked brightly, bending down a little to try and make eye contact. He just kept looking at his feet. He was skinny, like his mother, but with strong bone structure...also like his mother...and when he finally looked up, he had the same sharply intelligent blue eyes. But he still stayed nervously silent.
"This is a pretty good school, huh?" Kara remarked casually, looking around the ornate marble entrance hall and the well manicured grounds of the fancy prep school. "I'm surprised they haven't taught you how to speak out loud yet." That finally got a smile out of the kid, and he looked up at Kara and made eye contact. Once he did, the warmth and friendliness he saw in her eyes was undeniable, and the boy seemed to relax a little in his perfectly pressed Chinos.
"You're funny," he said shyly.
"Well thank you, I was working on that one all afternoon," Kara joked with a smile, giving him a little wink. He smiled back. "So I know you have all these activities you're supposed to do, but I kind of have to get back to your mom's office for a little while..." Because I spent half the afternoon ignoring my own work so I could go fight a rogue military robot, she thought but didn't say.
"Yeah, that's totally okay, I don't mind skipping soccer and band for one day." Carter's smile got even bigger, and Kara had the distinct impression that his mother was deliberately over-scheduling him in a desperate attempt to make him more social with his peers; but all it was really accomplishing was making him dread it all the more.
"Just don't tell your mom, okay?"
"Deal," he nodded, still with a smile on his face. "Can we stop for ice cream on the way back to the office?"
"You're lucky I am physically incapable of saying no to ice cream," the blonde girl teased, and Carter actually laughed. At least something in Kara's day was going right.
…...
Once they got back to the office with their ice cream, Kara was again unsure of what to do with Carter while she worked. It was Friday, so it seemed cruel to ask him to do his homework right away; but she wasn't sure what else to suggest. Then she looked over at Winn's desk, covered with toy comic book heroes and dinosaurs, and remembered something.
"Hey! Winn. Buddy," she smiled her most charming, bright-eyed smile. Winn looked at her like she had three heads.
"Okay, whatever you're doing right now, stop, because you're creeping me out," Winn said, raising an eyebrow at his friend in confusion. "What do you want, Kara?"
"I know you're busy but I'm babysitting Ms. Grant's son and I have no idea what to do with him and I have at least two more hours of work to do tonight because I spent the afternoon fighting a stupid military android," Kara rambled out in a rush. Someone else might not have been able to follow her freakishly fast-paced train of thought, but Winn was used to it. "So can you please do that thing in Ms. Grant's office that you do when she's not here and make all the screens behind her desk link up into one giant screen, and play some video games with Carter until I'm ready to take him home?" She smiled at him again, but it was a real smile this time, not an attempt to be charming.
"Aww, Kara, I don't know...I'm not any good with kids," Winn groaned, looking over Kara's shoulder at the timid looking ten-year-old standing by the coffee table in Ms. Grant's office.
"You have toys all over your desk and you eat cereal for dinner," Kara said dryly, with a little smirk.
"They're not toys, they're collectible figurines," the young IT director grumbled.
"Winn, please. I'm begging you."
"Ahh, Kara Danvers begging...my kryptonite," Winn sighed, shaking his head. Kara beamed at him. "Hey, Carter!" Winn called, getting up from his desk and heading into Ms. Grant's spacious office. "C'mere, let me show you something cool..."
It was over an hour later before Kara looked up from her work again, happy to see Winn and Carter cheerfully blowing things up on the enormous video screen in Ms. Grant's office. She used her super-hearing for a moment to listen to their conversation; Carter sounded happy as he told Winn, I never knew my mom's office could be so cool!
She was still smiling to herself when Carter called out to her, "Kara! Hey, come play Minecraft with us! I bet you can't beat me, I'm kicking Winn's butt!" The no was already on the tip of her tongue when she looked up at the two of them through the glass wall; Carter was smiling and looking completely at ease, and Winn was all puffed up with his I am the master of all that can be programmed look, which Kara had a big soft spot for.
"One round," she said with a sigh, getting up and coming into the office. "Then we have to get home and get some dinner, okay Carter?"
"Why don't we just order food here? This is way cooler than the TV at my house," Carter begged excitedly.
"Okay...how about this. If I win this round, we go home. If you beat me, we'll order in and stay here till bedtime." Carter raised an eyebrow and glanced at Winn thoughtfully.
"Dude, it's cool," Winn said quietly to the boy with a wink. "She doesn't even play video games. We got this in the bag."
"Okay!" Carter agreed happily.
Less than ten minutes later, Kara was smirking her biggest, most childishly triumphant smirk at the two boys as she tossed her controller back on the coffee table. "No fair!" Carter cried. "I thought you said she didn't play video games!"
"I don't," Kara shrugged. "I just have really good reflexes." She smiled innocently.
"She, yeah, she does," Winn nodded petulantly, pointing at Kara like a zoo exhibit. "Freakishly, freakishly good reflexes." Carter crossed his arms and looked the blonde girl up and down.
"Are you messing with me?"
"Nope. Sorry," Kara shrugged, still smirking in a way that looked not at all sorry. "Naturally gifted, I guess. C'mon, get your backpack, time to head home." But just then, a breaking news bulletin appeared across every screen in the CatCo office, breaking through the video game interface that Winn had set up, along with every other screen in the outer office. It was the Red Tornado, rampaging through downtown National City, crashing telephone poles over and sweeping cars around the street with its intense wind power. Kara looked at Winn, who just nodded. Go.
"Change of plans. Carter, you get to stay and play more video games with Winn. I'll be back soon, okay?"
"No, I wanna go see the robot thing!" Carter said excitedly. "Maybe Supergirl will show up to fight it! That would be so awesome!"
"Carter, stay with Winn. I'll be back as soon as I can," she promised; and before waiting for a response, the blonde superhero was out the door in a flash. The second she was in the empty stairwell, she whisked out of her office clothes and streaked out of the building in her Supergirl uniform, already tapping her bluetooth earpiece before she was even out the window.
"Alex! Where is it, are you tracking it?" She asked, not bothering to explain what she was talking about because she knew Alex already knew.
"Corner of 14th and Hancock," Alex said clearly in her ear, "heading west. Be careful Kara, I've been studying that arm-souvenir you left us and I don't think General Lane was telling us the truth. The android wasn't designed to fight insurgents—it was made to kill Kryptonians."
"What?" Kara gasped, completely unprepared for this new piece of information. She knew that General Lane didn't like her, or her cousin—he'd made that perfectly clear—but had he actually come to National City with the intent to kill her?
"Its outer polymer is lined with lead, so you won't be able to see what's going on inside it. There could be kryptonite bombs waiting to go off in its chest the next time you get too close...we just don't know," Alex sighed worriedly. "Just stay on your toes, Kar. I've got your back."
"Thanks, Lexie. I'm on it," Kara said determinedly, streaking off through the sky in the direction of Hancock Street. It didn't take long to catch up with the android; it responded to her more like a sentient being than a robot, even though its eyes were flat and yellow and dead-looking. It picked up a whole car from the street with its one remaining arm and threw it at her; and it seemed to notice and understand when she prioritized the safety of innocent civilians over her own, blocking the flying car-missile from hitting pedestrians by shielding them with her own body. They fought back and forth across the sky for several minutes; then, just when Kara was getting the upper hand, the thing began to spin so fast, it created an actual, full-on tornado, that began to make its way down the busy city street, trashing everything in its wake. The streets were filled with screams as pedestrians fled and people abandoned their cars to run away from the advancing twister. The android looked at Kara—at least, it pointed its dead yellow eyes in her direction—and then deliberately flew off the opposite way, away from the twister. Kara wanted to chase after it, to end it once and for all; but she couldn't just let a tornado destroy National City.
With a huff of frustration, Kara zipped over to the twister, flying around it as fast as she could in the opposite direction to create friction and inertia. After about thirty seconds of zipping against the current of wind as fast as she could, it slowed down and then dissipated into the air. Kara drooped slightly under her cape, relieved but completely exhausted. The sound of cheering and applause from below lifted her spirits somewhat, as it always did; it was good to be appreciated by the people she was protecting. She smiled down and waved at the people of National City, then zipped away, back toward CatCo, entering the same side window where she'd left her office clothes in the stairwell. As she landed lightly, she tapped her earring again.
"Hi baby, are you okay?" Alex asked anxiously through the tiny receiver. "I saw the fight on the news just now, it looked like a tough one."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. I'd feel better if I could punch General Lane in the face, though. Just once." Kara half-smiled as she pulled her work clothes back on.
"I'll see what I can do about that," Alex joked, and Kara could hear the smile in her voice, just relieved that her favorite blonde alien was okay. "In the meantime, how about I meet you and Carter at Ms. Grant's place and we'll order some pizzas? Even Supergirl needs her down time."
"That sounds like heaven," Kara smiled. "You're my favorite girlfriend, you know."
"Gee, thanks," Alex chuckled. "See you soon, bluebird. I love you."
"Love you too, Lexie." Kara ended the call and whisked back into the office, trying to look as casual as possible and smoothing down her windblown hair before greeting the boys.
…...
Kara and Carter had been home for about half an hour and were deep in a game of Settlers of Catan when the doorbell rang, and Kara hopped up happily, not even needing her x-ray vision to know who it was. "Are you a sight for sore eyes," the blonde girl sighed with a weary smile as she dropped her head on Alex's shoulder and hugged her, in a limp, boneless sort of way.
"Aww, bluebird. That Red Tornado thing really wiped you out, huh?" Alex cooed sympathetically, tilting the blonde girl's chin up so she could get to her girlfriend's lips, and kissing her very, very sweetly.
"Mmm. Yeah. And who knows where he'll turn up next...or who he'll kill..." Kara sighed again, sounding a little burned out and discouraged.
"Oh! I just remembered. Here." Alex thrust a shopping bag at Kara, who opened it quizzically.
"Oh my God, shut up," Kara groaned in sheer delight. "You really got me five pounds of chocolate? After everything that happened today, you still remembered?!"
"Duh. That's why I'm your favorite girlfriend," Alex teased gently, delighted with the armful of blonde alien she got in response to her excellent present-giving skills.
"'C'mon inside and meet Carter," Kara grinned, giving Alex one last very naughty kiss in the doorway before leading her into the house by her hand, where Carter was waiting in the living room, doing something on his phone now while he waited for Kara to come back to their board game. "Hey, Carter, this is my girlfriend Alex. She's gonna hang with us this weekend." Carter looked up and his jaw dropped, almost as entranced-looking as he had been when rhapsodizing about Supergirl.
"Wow...you're in the FBI?" the young boy exclaimed in awe, looking at her field jacket. "That is so cool. Do you have a badge? Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Here," Alex smiled gently, flipping open her FBI badge (which turned back into a DEO badge at the tap of her fingerprint in the top left corner whenever needed) and handing it to Carter to look at. "The rest is classified. Sorry dude." She winked. The boy still looked thrilled as he held a real FBI badge in his hand, inspecting it closely. Kara was already breaking into the chocolate.
"So, pizza?" The dark-haired girl asked, dropping down on the couch next to Kara and playing absently with a lock of her hair.
"Yes!" Carter exclaimed so enthusiastically, that the blonde girl looked up from her chocolate with an inscrutable expression, one eyebrow raised.
"Your mom doesn't let you have pizza, does she?"
"Only because she read an article about stupid gluten and how it's gonna turn us all into obese diabetics with Irritable Bowel Syndrome who need to ride electric scooters cuz we'll be too fat to walk," the boy rolled his eyes. Kara snorted with laughter, though she tried to hold it in. That sounded like her boss all right.
"Well...I don't think the three of us are in danger of needing electric scooters anytime soon," the blonde girl smiled, and Carter actually jumped up and hugged her.
"Thank you Kara! I want pineapple and hot peppers!"
Three pizzas later (one that Carter and Alex shared, and two that Kara ate all by herself), the three of them were on the couch in their pajamas watching Cosmos on Netflix—Carter's choice. He was thrilled all over again when he discovered how much Kara and Alex both knew about astrophysics, as they watched the iconic documentary along with him and commented on the content. Though he seemed to like a lot of the same things any ten-year-old boy would, like pizza and video games and pretty blonde superheroes, he was also turning out to be a bit of a science geek, and he was clearly excited to be around adults who shared these interests and could speak intelligently about them. His mother was also brilliant, of course, but she kept her brainpower focused very sharply on her media empire, and generally said no more than that's nice, sweetheart when her son tried to talk to her about theoretical physics or the newest advancement at Lord Technologies.
"Hey, can we go see the new Supertrain tomorrow?" Carter asked eagerly, when talk of Lord Tech came around to Maxwell Lord's newest invention, the 500mph hovertrain that was scheduled to be unveiled the very next day. "We could be on the very first ride of the very first hovertrain. How sweet would that be?"
"Pretty sweet," Alex nodded, looking at Kara, who shrugged agreeably. She herself had flown faster than that, of course, but she knew it was a big deal for everybody else.
"Sure, why not?" Kara smiled, seeing how excited Carter was about it.
"Yes!" Carter jumped up and pumped the air. "You guys are so cool! Will you babysit me again?"
"Well, that all depends..." Kara said, in a mock-serious voice as she raised her eyebrows in deliberation.
"Depends on what?" Carter asked anxiously.
"On how much you argue when I tell you that it's bedtime now."
"Goodnight!" The grinning boy chirped eagerly, hugging them both in turn and scampering off to his room, probably already fantasizing about what it would feel like to travel at 500 miles per hour.
"Don't forget to brush your teeth!" Kara called after him, turning back to Alex with a big fat smile on her face. "I forgot how much fun this is," she murmured, leaning in and kissing her girlfriend thoroughly, nibbling playfully on her bottom lip.
"Mmm...I don't remember this part from high school," Alex sighed softly, her fingers playing through Kara's long hair again. "Otherwise I would definitely have helped you babysit more..."
"We were dumb," Kara agreed, kissing her again. "But...we probably shouldn't...not here on the couch..." the blonde girl murmured against her girlfriend's warm lips. "What if Carter gets up for a drink of water or something?"
"Yeah..." Alex sighed. Then she smiled evilly. "Do you wanna go have sex in Ms. Grant's bed?" Kara just grinned fiendishly, and grabbed her girlfriend by the hips, throwing Alex over her shoulder and heading for the master bedroom. Both of them were giggling hysterically like teenagers.
…...
The next morning, all Carter could talk about from the moment he sat down to eat his cereal was the Supertrain. How Maxwell Lord had developed the anti-polar magnetization field that allowed the hovercraft tech to work, how long it had taken to develop and test, how fast it could go, how much it would reduce National City's carbon footprint if it replaced all other forms of public transit. By the time they actually got to the new train station for the ribbon cutting ceremony, the boy rambling excitedly next to Kara bore virtually no resemblance to the shy, silent child she'd picked up from school the day before. She smiled at him, then up at Alex, who winked at her playfully. They were both enjoying playing house like this, though neither of them was quite ready to admit it yet; playing at being parents. Together.
After a few lofty speeches about the future of National City and renewable energy, Maxwell Lord cut the red ribbon that officially opened the train for business, and Kara, Carter and Alex got in line to board the sleek and shiny new train. Carter was very opinionated about which part of the train would have the best views, and he lead them straight to the very front car, where there were windows pointing directly ahead as well as to the side. Since the train ran on autopilot, there was no need for a conductor's compartment at the front of the train to block the spectacular views.
As the train pulled out of the station and began to gain speed, Kara did a quick sweep of the area with her x-ray vision, more out of habit than anything else. She wasn't looking for anything specific, or expecting to find anything; it was just a perimeter sweep, something she did many times a day without even really thinking about it, the way other people might double-check that their doors are locked before turning off the lights and going to bed at night.
But she did see something. Something she was not expecting in the slightest. Through the door to the small bathroom at the back end of the front car, Kara's x-ray eyes saw a man with a bomb strapped to his chest, breathing hard, staring at himself in the little mirror over the sink as if he were summoning all his strength. The blonde girl's heart dropped into her stomach, and she gasped. She had to get Carter and Alex out of here. She had a fleeting, momentary twinge of guilt for thinking of her people's safety before everyone else's; but it wasn't a contest. She was going to save them all. Just, Carter and Alex first.
"Alex," she whispered very low, nodding for her girlfriend to follow her to the far corner of the train car, away from where Carter had his nose pressed to the window. "There's a man with a bomb strapped to his chest in the bathroom."
"What?" Alex whispered back harshly, eyes wide. "Okay, go find somewhere to disappear so Supergirl can come to the rescue. I'll call Hank."
"And don't let Carter out of your sight," Kara added, her voice very quiet but very intense.
"Of course," Alex nodded, squeezing her girlfriend's hand reassuringly. Kara slipped away, and Alex whipped out her cell phone, speaking with Hank in low voices so as not to cause a panic.
"Hey, where's Kara?" Carter asked, coming up to Alex with an innocently confused look on his face.
"Oh...she went to find a bathroom," Alex told him, hoping she sounded calmer than she felt.
"But there's a bathroom right there," Carter said, pointing to where the bomber was.
"Yeah, but there's someone in there, see?" Alex pointed to the red occupied sign above the door handle.
"Oh," Carter shrugged, perfectly satisfied with this explanation as he turned his attention back to the stunning view out the window. That was when they all heard a loud clang on the train roof above their heads; the emergency hatch popped open, and Supergirl flew in.
"No way," Carter gasped, his eyes going round as saucers as he gazed at his crush-worthy idol. The entire train car had more or less the same reaction, except that the adults had the sense to look worried as well as impressed by Supergirl's entrance through the roof hatch—if a superhero flies into your midst on a moving train, it's not a social call.
"Everyone please stay calm," Kara said in her most authoritative Supergirl voice. "Nobody's getting hurt today." She looked down at Carter, who was staring up at her like he was under hypnosis. She needed to snap him out of it. "You look strong and brave," she said to him gently, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Can you help me save these people?" Carter just nodded wordlessly. "I need you and Agent Grey to take all these people as far back to the end of the train as you can get. Everyone. No yelling, no running. Calm and cool, just like a fire drill. Can you do that?"
"Yes," Carter nodded, his chest puffing up with importance now. He had no idea what the threat was, but he obviously wasn't scared at all. He had no doubt that Supergirl would save them.
"You stay with Agent Grey no matter what, understood?" She asked again sternly.
"Yes," Carter nodded again eagerly, looking up at Alex with a newfound awe now that he saw her working together with Supergirl.
"Come on," Alex put a hand on Carter's back, giving Kara a nod over her shoulder as she turned and addressed the train car, holding up her badge. "Everyone, follow us to the back of the car, we're going to take all the other passengers along with us as we fall back to the rear of the train. Walking only, no running. Let's go." The alarmed passengers automatically followed Alex's calm command, the authority in her voice combined with her badge (and the fact that she was standing next to Supergirl) wiping away any hesitations from the crowd. Kara waited a minute after the car was cleared; she used her x-ray vision to track the progress of the crowd all the way back to the third car before she was satisfied that it was safe to confront the bomber. She ripped the bathroom door off its hinges.
"Hi there," she said gently to the desperate, wild-eyed man inside. "I want to help you. You don't have to do this."
"You want to help me..." the man laughed, but it was a hollow, heartbroken laugh. Kara felt a stab of sympathy for the man, even though he was planning to bomb a train and kill hundreds of people. He was still a person. She didn't want to hurt him if she didn't have to. "If you really wanted to help me, you could've showed up a month ago...or six months ago...and paid my daughter's hospital bills. But it's too late for that now, isn't it? My nine-year-old daughter is in the ground because Maxwell Lord fired me and took away my insurance. Fifteen years I worked for him, I gave my heart and soul to Lord Tech. And he just—he just fires me? My daughter was sick, and no one would help me!" He screamed, tears running down his cheeks. Kara felt matching tears welling up in her own eyes, feeling a shadow of his grief as if it were her own. Her powers of empathy were almost as strong as her x-ray vision and her freeze breath.
"I'm so sorry about your daughter..." the blonde girl said gently, reaching out and trying to put a hand on the man's shoulder, but he flinched away, wild-eyed. Kara put her hands up in the air in the universal symbol of submission. "But you have to know...she wouldn't want you to do this."
"What do you know about it? Do you have kids?" the man demanded, crying now, not even trying to wipe his tears away. He was beyond caring. "Do you know what it's like to lose your child?"
"No," Kara said quietly, looking him dead in the eye. "But I do know what it's like to be a child and lose your parents. My parents...they wanted me to go on, have the best life I could have. Your daughter would want that for you, too. You know that." The man half-sobbed, half-screamed, shaking his head as he began to pace back and forth across the empty train car. "Please, I'm begging you...it's not too late, you don't have to do this. You can still make your daughter proud." The grief-stricken man looked up at her desperately, tears still running down his face.
"Can you separate this car from the rest of the train?" he asked her quietly. Kara looked at him sadly; she didn't have to answer.
"Do it," he said stonily.
"But"—Kara kept trying to argue, to save the bomber's life as well as everyone else's. He was no supervillain, just a grieving father. She could save him.
"Do it now, or everyone dies!" He yelled, holding up the switch in his hand, his thumb hovering over the button. "It doesn't matter how far back on the train you sent the rest of the passengers, the radius of the bomb is beyond the length of the train. I did work for Lord Tech for fifteen years. I'm not a total idiot." Kara didn't say anything; she just looked at him sadly. "Do it!" He roared.
Wiping a stray tear from her cheek, Kara opened the door that separated the front car from the one behind it; and she looked down at the thick metal beams connecting them, her laser vision lighting up and burning through the metal like butter. Within seconds, the front car was freed, and went whizzing off ahead of the rest of the train at a much faster velocity now that its mass was so much less than a moment ago. Kara looked around inside the second car for some kind of emergency-brake handle to pull; but there weren't any. She used her x-ray eyes to search the entire rest of the train, but there were no emergency brakes anywhere. She knew the thing was run on autopilot, but who was really stupid and cocky enough to design a 500mph train with no emergency brake?
Maxwell Lord, that's who, Kara thought angrily, shaking her head at the bullheaded overconfidence of the famous technology mogul who had been one of her most outspoken critics in the media since she'd come out as Supergirl. With a deep breath of determination, Kara stepped out into the open air at the severed front end of the train, and used herself as a living emergency brake, bracing her feet against the tracks and her shoulder against the train, pushing back against the forward velocity as hard as she possibly could, screaming with the effort. For a minute, she started to get scared that she couldn't do it, the hover-powered velocity was so strong; but then she started to feel the train's massive weight losing momentum, slowly but surely. Sparks were flying all around her feet, up her knee-high boots as she continued to brace herself against the train tracks.
At her back, she felt the warmth and rumbling of the bomb exploding in the distance far ahead of them, and her heart gave a little squeeze of sadness for the man she hadn't saved. But she forced her attention back to the hundreds of people she could still save. After another minute, the train finally slowed, and came to a stop. Kara was looking down at her feet, panting; then the sound of wild applause close by made her look up, seeing the train's passengers crowding back into the open-ended front of the car to cheer for her. She smiled weakly, exhausted but relieved. Before she even had a chance to search the crowd for Alex and Carter, something red and very hard came whizzing out of nowhere and smashed into her sideways, blasting away with her into the mountains. Red Tornado.
…...
Before Kara even had a chance to think or catch her breath, the android threw her into the side of a mountain so hard, it caused a small avalanche. She was too winded to move for a moment; so when the thing circled back around at her again, she did the only thing she could think of, which was to give it a blast of her laser vision. It blew the android back a bit, but didn't do much damage. She remembered how effective her freeze-breath had been before, making the android's metallic frame brittle enough for her to smash off its arm; but she was too winded to use her freeze-breath now. Panting, she began to panic a little. She was so exhausted already. She'd just stopped a 500mph train with her body.
Her tiny bluetooth earring went off, and she tapped it hastily before giving the red robot another short blast of her laser vision, unable to do anything more than hold it off at the moment. "Kara! What happened?" Alex asked in her ear. "We got to the front of the train and you were gone."
"Red Tornado," Kara grunted, finally freeing herself from the deep gouge in the mountainside, and flying down to land heavily on her feet, stumbling for a moment before standing up straight again. "Timing of the freaking year award, this guy," she joked breathlessly.
"Hang on baby, I'm sending a field team to back you up...they'll be there in a few minutes..."
I don't have a few minutes, Kara thought but didn't say. She was too weak to punch her attacker. She was too winded to use her freeze-breath. But she was too mad to just give up. Even after she had just saved literally hundreds of lives from a tragic, violent death, the creation born of General Lane's anti-alien bigotry was back to try to kill her again. She was not going to give him the satisfaction. She was not going to be defeated by a mindless machine, no matter how strong it was. She was going to go home to Alex and tuck Carter into bed, and then someday they'd be tucking their own kids into bed, safe and sound in a city under Supergirl's protection. With a broken, raspy scream of pure fury, Kara blasted her laser vision into the android, not just once in a burst, but continuously. It tried to continue advancing toward her; but she just kept blasting it with her red-hot lasers, making the whole thing start to glow as the metal heated up beyond the point of stability. Kara was still screaming, her whole consciousness whittled down to the power shooting from her eyes, all other awareness falling away.
Finally, with a blast that sent a shockwave straight through her body and rattled the mountainside, the android exploded. Kara collapsed on the ground, her chest heaving for air. "Alex..." she croaked, coughing as she slowly got her breath back.
"I'm here, bluebird," Alex said lovingly in her earpiece, the worry clear in her voice.
"You can...cancel the backup team. It's over...Red Tornado is toast."
…...
By the time the chaos of the ruined train had begun to be sorted out, and passengers had begun to be transported off into emergency search and rescue vehicles to be taken back to the city, Kara had plenty of time to fly back and discreetly slip into the back window where she'd stashed her human clothes; and since everyone was now at the front end of the train, where all the action was, there was no one to see her as she changed a little bit slower than usual. Even for Supergirl, this had been a long day. She found her way to the front of the train where Alex and Carter were waiting.
"Kara!" Carter's eyes lit up and he ran to her, hugging her tight around her waist. "We got separated from you, you missed the whole thing! Supergirl was here! She talked to me! And she knows Alex!" He looked up admiringly at the dark-haired agent again.
"What makes you say that?" Alex asked cautiously, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Because she called you by your name, duh," Carter rolled his eyes. "Does Supergirl help the FBI a lot? Have you gotten to talk to her lots of times?" He smiled hugely. Alex grinned back at him, then up at Kara, her expression conveying everything she couldn't say out loud in front of Carter.
"A few," the young DEO agent nodded casually, with a little smirk. "Come on, I think we've had enough adventure for one day, haven't we gang?"
"Yes. Enough. Home now," Kara agreed weakly, cuddling up to Alex's side and dropping her head on her girlfriend's shoulder. Alex wrapped an arm protectively around her and kissed the top of her head.
"Movie and ice cream night?" Carter asked hopefully, having picked up on the fact that his babysitters were way more relaxed about junk food than his mom, and hoping to squeeze every last moment out of this rare opportunity.
"Sure," Alex nodded with a smile, sensing that Kara was completely tapped out and done adulting for the day. "C'mon now. Off we go." She herded them into the next open emergency rescue vehicle that pulled up to the front of the train, making their way back to National City much more slowly than they had left it on the high-powered, now destroyed hovertrain.
When they got back to Ms. Grant's house, Kara curled up in a corner of the couch and immediately fell asleep while Carter and Alex ate dinner and watched movies next to her. Carter seemed a little worried at first, and even asked Alex if they should go watch in his room so they wouldn't disturb her; but Alex assured the kind-hearted little boy that Kara was a very deep sleeper and wouldn't be disturbed unless they punched her in the face, and maybe not even then. Carter laughed and went back to his ice cream. But Alex did keep one wary eye on her sleeping girlfriend. Today had been a lot, even for Supergirl. She wondered if maybe their first stop tomorrow after they were relieved of babysitting duty should be to the DEO, to give her a few hours under the solar panels, get a little recharge.
But Kara did wake up eventually, ate a little (not a lot; not even as much as on a normal, non-action day), and went back to sleep with Alex in Ms. Grant's enormous master bedroom. There was no question of naughty sex in the boss's bed tonight; Kara was passed out cold with her head on Alex's chest the moment she laid down. Alex held onto her girlfriend protectively, stroking her hair long after she was asleep.
When Ms. Grant arrived home the next morning, Carter immediately launched into an animated recounting of the previous day's exciting events, moving around the room and gesticulating wildly as he painted his tale of heroics and meeting Supergirl. Ms. Grant raised an eyebrow, noting how much her son seemed to have come out of his shell in the past two days, how much he was talking, how bright his smile was. When she asked him if he'd been scared at all, he just rolled his eyes and said "Of course not, Mom—I told you, Supergirl was there!" Cat Grant actually smiled, and ruffled her son's hair.
"Well I'm sorry I missed all the excitement. Say goodbye to Kara and Alex, sweetheart, and then it's time to get ready for your karate class." Carter nodded, launching himself unexpectedly into Kara's arms.
"Bye Kara," he said happily, beaming up at her. Then he hugged Alex with equal enthusiasm. "Bye Alex. Can you guys babysit me again? Even without Supergirl, we had so much fun."
"We did, didn't we?" Kara smiled at him. "We'll see what your mom thinks."
"Mom thinks it would be great," Ms. Grant said unexpectedly, squeezing her assistant's arm with a fierce twinkle in her eye. "Thank you Kira...you were right. He couldn't have been safer with anyone."
…...
They had only just gotten home to their own apartment and dumped their overnight bags on the floor when Kara's bluetooth earring rang, and she tapped it with a soft yawn. "What's up, Hank?"
"I know you had a lot of action yesterday, Danvers, but if you're up for it, there's a Coast Guard ship in distress about five miles out from shore. They're not going down, but they're without power and adrift, and all the rest of their ships are tied up in a drug bust. I told them they might have to hang tight and rely on their own people this time..."
"No, no, I'll go," Kara shook her head, even though Hank wasn't there to see it. "Nobody trying to blow me up, this'll be no problem," she joked weakly.
"Roger that. Keep up the good work, Danvers." Hank clicked off the call, and Kara tapped her earring to end the transmission.
"Where does he want you to go now?" Alex demanded, crossing her arms over her chest in her protective, you-have-to-go-through-me pose, which Kara found incredibly adorable. "Haven't you done enough for National City for one weekend? You're exhausted, baby. Even you have your limits. Supergirl needs a nap."
"It's just a Coast Guard ship that lost power. They just need a tow," Kara waved her arm dismissively. "I'll be back in half an hour, tops." Alex sighed reluctantly.
"Okay...but after that, nothing but chillaxing for the rest of the day," the dark-haired girl said sternly, stroking her hand through Kara's long hair and kissing her forehead.
"No arguing here," Kara smiled back wearily. "Why don't you pick a movie and order some takeout. I'll be back before it gets here, 'kay?"
"Okay bluebird," Alex smiled, kissing her. "Fly safe." Kara nodded, leaping out of her clothes half a second before she was out the window, and streaking away across the sky. She was slower than normal; it took her five whole minutes to get to the drifting ship, which normally would be enough time for her to fly across several states. But she didn't need to rush right now, no one was dying; so she gave herself a little break in the speed department. She saw the ship as she drew near, and she was just about to start her descent...when all of a sudden, the weightless, floaty feeling she had when she was flying drained out of her, like someone had just unscrewed a tap in the bottom of her foot, and suddenly she wasn't flying; she was falling. She fell straight down from the sky into the ocean, and came up gasping in shock.
"What the hell?" she panted, blinking sea water out of her eyes. She tried to lift off again, but she couldn't. She looked over at the ship—it wasn't far away now, about fifty yards—and tried to look through it with her x-ray vision, but that wasn't working either. She began to shiver, realizing how very, very cold the water was this far out from shore. Kara didn't shiver. At least, she never had before. She tapped her bluetooth earring anxiously. "Alex?"
"Hey sweetness. Did you find the ship?"
"Yeah, but...something happened..."
"What do you mean, Kara? What happened? Is someone hurt?"
"No, I just...I fell."
"What do you mean, you fell?" Alex asked uncomprehendingly.
"Out of the sky...I fell out of the sky," Kara clarified clumsily, still confused and disoriented. "I can't fly, Alex. It just...stopped. I can't use my x-ray eyes either. Something...something happened to my powers."
"Shit," Alex cursed angrily. "It was that fucking Red Tornado, I know it. General Lane had it in for you from the beginning. But don't worry Kara, we'll get you under the solar panels and your batteries will be all recharged in no time."
"Oh-k-kay," Kara stuttered, her teeth beginning to chatter from the freezing, deep ocean water. "Get here f-fast, 'kay?"
"Kara, where are you?" Alex asked anxiously.
"The ocean," Kara answered meekly. "But I can s-s-see the...the Coast Guard ship...it's n-not far. I'll swim over and m-m-meet you there, 'kay?"
"Okay baby," Alex agreed gently, trying not to let the extent of her worry show in her voice. "Hang tight. We're coming to get you."
…...
...To Be Continued...! (Yes it's a cliffhanger bitches! Just like the end of ep 6—OMGZ Kara lost her powers! So YEAHHH cliffhanger!)
