Hi Supergang!
Sorry you had to wait a couple of weeks for your update; I had a bunch of obligatory family travel that ate up my weekends. This chapter is actually the first part of a two-parter, because it's already so long and it's nowhere near done, so I just stopped at what seemed like a good cliffhanger/intermission. Obviously based on episode 1x16, "Falling," but placed in my Kalex canon world, yay. Part 2 will be forthcoming! :)
PS—does everyone know that The Talk is a real daytime talk show? I thought it was very cool that they got the entire cast of The Talk to cameo as themselves on Supergirl! It's like a crossover episode between fiction and reality, ooohhhhh. And speaking of crossovers, I stuck in one itty-bitty lil bit of crossover fun in this chap, too. If you don't like it, you are dead to me (kidding/not totally kidding).
…...
I'd Carry a Plane for You
Chapter 14: Falling from Grace, Part 1
…...
The live studio audience cheered wildly as Cat Grant was introduced as the day's guest on The Talk, the most popular daytime talk show in National City and most of America. After Cat and Sharon Osbourne exchanged slightly-too-polite pleasantries about how young the other looked, Sara Gilbert stepped in and asked the question everyone in America was waiting for: what it was like to have a personal relationship with Supergirl.
"Supergirl is everything you think she is," Cat smiled, with an unmistakable tone of pride and admiration, that conveyed more emotion than anything she'd ever write on paper and send to print. "She's strong, she's brave...but Supergirl's most remarkable quality, honestly, is that she's the kindest person I've ever known."
While Cat was in the recording studio at The Talk, Kara was soaring through the air above National City, doing a routine morning sweep. She had her eyes closed, as she often did when focusing on extending her hearing into a wide radius around her; and though there were no screams or explosions or gunfire at the moment, she did hear the sound of some schoolyard bullies shoving and taunting a classmate, hurling homophobic slurs and laughing that they were going to take him out with the trash.
"See that, faggot? That's where you belong," Dave Karovsky laughed cruelly as two of his beefcake football goon sidekicks picked Kurt Hummel up between them and prepared to throw him up and over the edge of the dumpster. "With the rest of the garbage. See all those people?" He waved his hand to gesture to the many students and teachers milling around within eyeshot on their way into school, all of them acting as if they couldn't see the physical assault happening in their midst. "Nobody wants to come help you, cream puff, do they? Nobody cares."
"I wouldn't necessarily say that." Kara landed beside the boys so swiftly and silently, the two football players who were holding Kurt just dropped him right onto the grass, while Karovsky stepped back so quickly he lost his footing and fell on his ass.
"No way...Supergirl? Man, you're even hotter up close than you are on the news," Karovsky gaped, not even trying to regain his footing as he looked up in stunned awe at the blonde superhero standing over him.
"Gee, you can imagine how much that means to me, coming from someone who thinks it's fun to throw people in the garbage," Kara said lightly, folding her arms over her chest and staring at him in silence for a moment. Karovsky gulped and stared down at his shoes, unable to look back at her. Kara looked at the other boy, the intended victim, who luckily had not been tossed into the huge, smelly dumpster before she got there. She used her x-ray eyes to look through his bag to the pages of his homework inside, so she could read his name.
"Kurt, are you okay?" She asked him warmly as she offered the well-dressed young man her hand to help him stand up. Kurt was so flabbergasted, he took her hand without a word, staring wide-eyed at the larger-than-life young hero who somehow knew his name.
"Yo, man...you friends with Supergirl?" Azimio asked incredulously, looking back and forth between them with the same nervous expression as Karovsky.
"Well sure. I'm friends with all the fabulous kids," Kara shrugged, with a wink for the wide-eyed blonde boy. The football goons hastily gave him back his jacket and brushed the dirt off his back. "So the next time you think it might be cool to pick on someone because they're different from you...don't. Or I'll hear about it." The football goons all nodded wordlessly, looking completely dumb-struck. "See you later, Kurt," Kara winked, and streaked away. Kurt stood smiling up at the sky in silence for a moment. Rachel and Mercedes were never going to believe this.
…...
The Talk was on the air by the time Kara finished her morning sweep, changed into her work clothes and came into the office; she was on her way to bring Ms. Grant her latte when she stopped short in the wide-open office space filled with TV screens, all of them currently showing Ms. Grant's interview. She smiled shyly as she watched Ms. Grant talk about her. Of course, she didn't do the things she did for the sake of getting praised for it, she never had; but it was nice, so nice, to hear someone she respected so much talking about her with such pride and admiration.
"Supergirl inspires us to be our best selves," Ms. Grant said on the many TVs mounted all around the executive lobby. "We can learn a lot from her. I have learned a lot from her." Kara's attention was so focused on the Ms. Grant on the TV screen, she didn't notice the real Ms. Grant walking up behind her.
"Enraptured, are we?" Ms. Grant said to her in a slightly teasing way; but it wasn't the mean kind of teasing. Kara looked at her and blushed, and Ms. Grant gave her a little wink.
"I'm so sorry, Ms. Grant, I was just coming to bring you your latte," Kara exclaimed anxiously, holding out the cup.
"It's all right, Kara, don't wet yourself," Ms. Grant rolled her eyes. "I did give a brilliant interview, didn't I? One can hardly blame you for being distracted from your duties." Kara smiled, sensing the shift in Ms. Grant's tone, even though the things she said were basically the same as always; but now, now that Ms. Grant knew everything, now that they were working together so closely, the tone of Ms. Grant's constant teasing had gone from acerbic stone-cold ice queen to something else, something strangely warm and gentle. Kara was finally getting to see the parts of Ms. Grant that were kept hidden from the rest of the world while she maintained her public persona as "the most powerful person in National City." The human parts, the caring and motherly and mentor-ish parts.
"Did you really mean all those things you said, Ms. Grant? It wasn't just about marketing your brand?" The blonde girl asked cautiously, looking from her boss to the TV and back.
"I have never been more sincere," Ms. Grant said simply, her expression impassive except for her aqua-colored eyes, which sparkled approvingly. Kara beamed. "All right now, even I tire of watching myself talk eventually. Come Kara, chop chop. Let's get back to work."
…...
During her lunch hour, Kara zipped over to the DEO; not for any emergency, but because Alex had called and asked her if she was free for a lunch date. They strapped into their new tandem flying harness and shot off into the blue, Alex insisting she couldn't tell Kara where they were going until they were in the air, because it was a surprise. Kara had always liked surprises—especially when they came from Alex—so she happily followed her girlfriend's navigational instructions...but it didn't take long for the blonde girl to figure out roughly where they were headed.
"Lex, are we going all the way to Midvale? For lunch?"
"Kind of," Alex smiled. "Anyway, you flew from National City to Midvale in four minutes flat on Christmas Eve, remember? What, have you gotten out of shape or something?" The dark-haired girl teased affectionately.
"Oh, it's like that, huh?" Kara laughed. "You like when I go fast. Just admit it."
"I love when you go fast," Alex corrected, taking her hands—which were completely free thanks to the flying harness keeping her strapped securely to Kara's back—and running them teasingly down the front of her girlfriend's body beneath her. Kara shuddered.
"Shutting up now. Flying fast," the blonde girl groaned, shooting through the air faster than a bullet, all the way back to their childhood hometown.
Kara knew where they were right away when they landed, even though it was just a random bit of grass and trees overlooking a gully, a few miles from Alex's parents' house. She'd know this spot anywhere; she knew it in her sleep. She still dreamed about it sometimes.
"You brought us all the way home to Midvale so we could have lunch on the spot where we met?" Kara asked in confusion, but she still had a smile on her face. There was a picnic basket laid out on a blanket next to the tree where Alex used to study.
"Kinda," Alex grinned shyly. "There may be a surprise waiting, too...it's not in the picnic basket, but no peeking anyway. No x-ray eyes, got it missy?"
"You're so mean," Kara fake-pouted, sticking out her lower lip and looking up at Alex with her biggest Bambi eyes. "You'll tell me you have a surprise for me but you won't even let me look at it?"
"You've managed to keep a secret identity for twelve years. I think you can exercise fifteen minutes' worth of restraint," Alex grinned, sitting down on the picnic blanket and opening the lid of the basket, and holding up a plate of cookies for Kara's inspection.
"Are those your mom's oatmeal cookies?" Kara's face lit up with her happy-food smile, which Alex had always found very endearing.
"Come have one and see," the dark-haired girl teased, grinning happily as she picked up a cookie and held it out to her favorite blonde alien. Kara crossed the short space to the picnic basket so fast, she was a momentary blur, and then she was sitting next to Alex on the blanket, eating the cookie out of her hand in one bite. She made the happy little humming sound that she unconsciously made every time she ate something she really liked. And she really liked Mrs. Grey's oatmeal cookies.
"Yay," Kara beamed brightly when the cookie was gone. "Can I have more?"
"No, they're all for me," Alex said sarcastically, with a big goofy grin.
"You're such a brat," Kara laughed, leaning forward on her hands and knees and kissing Alex a little teasingly before sitting back with another cookie.
The picnic basket was stocked with a wide variety of Kara's favorite foods, and for a few minutes they ate in relative quiet, until Kara sighed and laid back against the blanket, looking up at the clear blue sky above her. "This is the first view I ever had of earth's blue sky...right here," the blonde girl remarked musingly, her eyes following the progress of a flock of seagulls over the rolling hills that lead to the ocean. "It was so intense, so overwhelming, all that blue...but then I saw you looking down at me, and I felt okay. Just looking at you, I felt okay. I still do." Kara turned her gaze from the sky to the dark eyes looking down at her, and smiled, crooking one finger at Alex expectantly. The blonde Kryptonian could hear both of their heartbeats getting faster, the blood rushing through their bodies with arousal.
Alex crawled across the blanket and knelt over Kara's body, leaning down and kissing her slowly and thoroughly, taking her time, holding herself up on her hands and knees so Kara couldn't gain the upper hand and go too fast. Before they got totally lost in each other, there was one more thing Alex had to do.
"Lexiiiie," Kara whined when Alex sat up, offering the blonde girl her hand. "Why are you torturing me like this? You know you can't just wind me up and then leave me all hot and bothered. I swear to Rao, I will fly back to National City and leave you here," Kara pouted, crossing her arms over her chest in refusal of taking Alex's hand to stand up. The dark-haired girl smiled indulgently.
"Relax, baby, funtime's just getting started," Alex shook her head, still offering Kara her hand. "There's just one teensy little thing I have to do first...you're gonna like it, I promise. Well, I think so. I hope so." Alex's pale skin blushed pink, and Kara finally gave in and levitated herself into a standing position, more out of curiosity now that anything else.
"My surprise?" Kara asked eagerly.
"Mm-hmm," Alex nodded, leading the blonde girl over to her old studying tree that was shading their picnic blanket...she reached inside a hollow knot in the tree, where the two main branches of the trunk split off, and pulled out a small velvet box. Kara's heart skipped a beat. It was so hard not to use her x-ray eyes to look inside...but she'd promised Alex no peeking, she promised. Alex wanted to surprise her. And Kara wanted to let her.
"I know we're already technically engaged, but...it didn't feel real until I gave you this." Alex opened the box, and there, in front of Kara's disbelieving eyes, was a Kryptonian engagement ring, the same kind they'd been wearing in her fantasy under the black mercy. Kara was stunned, speechless. She felt like she'd just been hit in the face with something heavy, and she was too dazed to even form a reaction.
"This...you...how did you...?" Kara stumbled over her words, unable to commit to a complete sentence. Alex smiled shyly.
"I saw the rings we were wearing in your fantasy...not me, but the other me, I mean...and then when you asked me to marry you that night...it was the first thing I thought of. I wanted you to have the engagement ring of your dreams, literally. I know there's so much you'll be missing out on, from your own planet's traditions...but this is something I can give you." Alex smiled gently as she took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto Kara's finger. "My zrhueiao...now you're mine forever," the dark-haired girl murmured, leaning down and kissing the blonde girl's hand. Kara was still too stunned to speak as she looked down at the ring on her finger, shining silver with an undulating pattern across the top, just like in her fantasy. "And I'm yours," Alex finished, taking a matching ring from her pocket and holding it out flat in the palm of her hand. Kara's eyes blurred with tears.
"Lexie...I don't understand how you did this," Kara shook her head, a few tears slipping down her cheeks as she took the ring from Alex's hand and slid it into her girlfriend's finger, just as Alex had done to her a moment ago. Alex raised her hand to Kara's, and the two rings clicked together with a strong magnetic force. How had Alex known they were magnetized, even if she had seen them in Kara's fantasy? Kara ran her free hand lightly over their interlocking rings, dumbfounded. She knew it was silly, but her first impulse was to run and show Aunt Astra, to see the pride in her aunt's eyes that she had found a true Kri-zhao. That part, she knew, really was a fantasy.
"After we got back from fantasyland, I went into the archives and looked through the Kryptonian culture and history database that your mom sent in the pod with you, the one we keep at the DEO for research," Alex explained, shy and proud and relieved all at the same time. "I found the rings from your fantasy in the digital archive...I know what they stand for." They smiled shyly at each other. "Even on Krypton, we would never have been a normal couple, would we?" Alex was referring to the special rings they wore, special even on Krypton—love matches were rare, the vast majority of marriages were arranged to combine noble houses. These rings would show any Kryptonian citizen that theirs was a soul bond, Kri-zhao. Alex had even gotten the Kryptonese writing right along the side of the band. Kara just shook her head, speechless. "So, I called in a few favors with the DEO R&D team...and here we are."
"You made me a Kryptonian engagement ring," Kara whispered, her heart almost bursting.
"I did," Alex nodded shyly, wiping a few tears from Kara's cheek with her thumb. "Now you're really stuck with me, huh?"
"Forever and ever," the blonde girl agreed, beaming, as she gently pushed Alex back down on the soft picnic blanket and began peeling off her clothes, worshipping every inch of her fiancee's skin with kisses as she went. Kara's Supergirl bluetooth phone went off in her ear, signaling a call from the DEO; but for the first time ever, she ignored it. She didn't even consciously hear it. Then Alex's work phone rang, then Kara's earring went off again...finally, with a whine of disappointment, they pulled apart, Kara laying down panting on top of Alex's chest while the dark-haired girl reached for her phone impatiently.
"What part of no phone calls while I'm giving Kara her engagement ring was I unclear about?" The young agent growled, her body trembling slightly under Kara's with pent-up desire. Kara rubbed her stomach soothingly, running her thumb over Alex's bellybutton. It was easy for the blonde girl to hear both ends of the conversation, without even extending her super-hearing; she heard Hank telling Alex he was sorry, but that Senator Crane had showed up unannounced and wanted to give them a big chunk of government money to fund the hunt for Non and the Kryptonian terrorist cell. No government official had ever offered to increase the DEO's budget before, and considering the level of threat they were facing—a possible extinction-level event—they just couldn't afford to blow off the senator, and the senator wanted to see Supergirl. Immediately.
Alex promised Hank they'd be there in five minutes, hanging up with a groan of frustration. "I'm going to spend the entire rest of the day thinking about taking off your underwear with my teeth. Just so you know," the dark-haired girl sighed, pouting.
"I'm gonna flip you over and go down on you on the ceiling tonight until you black out. Just so you know," Kara replied, giving Alex one more long, slow kiss, before pulling herself away regretfully and zooming back into her clothes in the same amount of time it took Alex just to reach for her shirt.
…...
"Supergirl, it's so nice to see you again," Senator Crane said sincerely when Kara and Alex walked in. The blonde girl raised her eyebrows in surprise. Apparently saving the congresswoman's life really had changed her position on the alien rights issue, after all.
"It's nice to see you too, Senator," Kara said with a cautious smile. "My super-hearing hasn't gone on the fritz, right? You really just said you want to help increase the DEO's federal budget?"
"Indeed." The senator nodded respectfully. "I misjudged you, Supergirl, and I'm not too proud to admit it. Our goals are the same. If I can use my political position to help you secure the resources you need to take out what is quite possibly the most dangerous terrorist cell on earth...well, then, I can sleep a little better at night."
"Ma'am, I'm sorry to interrupt," Agent Vasquez interjected, standing at her communications post in front of an array of screens. "But we're picking up a distress call from a skyscraper fire downtown. There's a firefighter trapped on the roof."
"Supergirl, can you get there in time?" Senator Crane asked as she turned away from the screens to look back at the blonde caped crusader; but she was already gone.
"Yes," Alex smiled smugly. "She can."
…...
The fire on the skyscraper roof had been mostly put out by the time Kara got there; but there was a firefighter trapped under a heavy steel construction beam, and even with the combined strength of the entire rest of the squadron, they couldn't lift it off him. "Supergirl! Over here!" One of them yelled when she landed, and she immediately zipped over to the trapped man's side.
"You're gonna be okay," she said to him steadily as she lifted the impossibly heavy beam off the man's legs, and two other firefighters pulled him out. As soon as the man was free, she put the beam down and used her freeze-breath to put out the rest of the fire. Everyone on the roof cheered, and Kara smiled bashfully the way she always did in such moments. Because the truth was, she was never really sure how much she deserved it. She did good things, of course; but she still believed in her heart that most people, if given the same powers she had been given, would do the same. She still believed most people were good. So why should she get so much special recognition, just for doing what anyone else would do in the same situation? The fact was that Kara was the truest kind of humble that existed: she didn't even realize she was humble.
She gave the firefighters a sunny smile and a wave, and turned to walk away to the edge of the roof, to jump back into the sky. Hidden under some rubble that she stepped over, was a glowing red chunk of gemstone. As Kara walked past it, a stabbing pain ripped through her head, and she gasped, pressing one hand hard against her temple. She wobbled for a moment; but it was only a moment, then she shook her head and continued on her way, unaware of the glowing-neon veins of red rippling through her face, the same as the veins of bright green liquid Kryptonite that she'd seen running through her aunt's skin when General Lane was torturing her. The sharp pain in her head didn't last long, but it left behind a dull, throbbing ache behind her eyes and a hot, tight feeling in the center of her chest. Brushing it all impatiently aside, she shot off into the sky to get back to CatCo before her lunch break was over.
…...
When she got home that night, Kara found Alex waiting for her at the dining room table with a glass of red wine; there was a feast of Thai takeout on the table from Kara's favorite restaurant, candles lit, rose petals all over the freaking table. "Oh, Rao," the blonde girl groaned, rolling her eyes as she tossed her keys into the dish by the door. "Can we not, Alex? I'm not up for any more fancy romantic shit tonight." Alex's smile faded instantly.
"Okay..." the dark-haired girl agreed uncertainly, trying to keep the surprise and hurt out of her voice. Kara never wasn't up for the fancy romantic stuff. Especially with a brand-new engagement ring on her finger, the young DEO agent had assumed. But if she wasn't then she wasn't. Alex didn't want to feel like she was forcing it. Tonight was supposed to be special, Alex had it all planned out...but if Kara was in a bad mood, she could save it for another day. They'd already had one perfect moment today, no need to get greedy. "So...do you just wanna eat in the living room and watch some TV? It's fine, babe. It's okay to be cranky once in a while."
"I didn't say I was cranky," Kara huffed, putting one hand on her hip. She certainly looked cranky. She used her free hand to rub her temple again; it was still throbbing dully.
"Did you hit your head, bluebird? Does it hurt?" Alex asked gently, standing from the table and crossing the room to Kara's side, reaching out with gentle hands to touch the girl she loved; but Kara flinched away.
"I didn't hit my head, I'm not cranky, I'm just not in the mood, Alex! Jesus!" Kara snapped. Alex took her hand back, still staring at Kara with concern and confusion mixed together in her dark eyes.
"Sorry," Alex murmured, at a total loss, unsure of what she was even apologizing for. She grabbed a container of fried rice off the table and walked away, into the bedroom. She didn't know what was left to do at this point other than give Kara space. She wasn't used to being out of sync with Kara, especially on a day that had started out so epically romantic. But she tried not to take it personally. Maybe she'd had a bad afternoon at work.
After a few minutes, Kara walked into the bedroom—strutted, more like—and leaned against the doorframe, playing with a lock of her long blonde hair. Alex looked up and silently took in the blonde girl's form in the doorway; there was something off, but Alex couldn't express what it was. The way Kara was looking at her...like she was a piece of meat, and nothing more.
"I believe I was promised some help getting undressed tonight?" The blonde alien girl asked as she stalked slowly into the room, like a tiger about to pounce. Her tone was strangely cold; the usual feelings of emotional intimacy that Alex always felt in Kara's presence was gone. It was like she was just saying lines from a play. Alex felt her worry increase. "Or maybe we should skip straight ahead to the part where I fuck you until you pass out? Your call."
"Kara, please tell me what's wrong," Alex said gently, getting up and going to her fiancee's side, reaching out a hand to touch her hair. Kara flinched away and rolled her eyes.
"Who said anything was wrong? I feel great. Never better. Now shut up and take your clothes off before I have to get rough." Kara shoved Alex down on the bed; not so hard as to really hurt her, but hard enough to make the bedframe scrape a couple of inches across the floor. Kara had never shoved Alex like that.
"Kara! Take it easy, Jesus!" Alex exclaimed, rubbing the back of her head where it had hit the wooden headboard.
"Well pardon me for daring to have a sex drive," Kara rolled her eyes, not expressing an ounce of concern over the fact that she'd just pushed Alex hard enough to hit her head. "Do you know how much I have to hold back when I'm fucking you, just so I don't tear your delicate little human body in half? I never get to do it how I wanna do it. Does that seem fair to you, hmm Lexie?" Kara folded her arms across her chest and cocked her head to one side expectantly. There was something about the way Kara said her name that send a jolt of dread and worry through the pit of her stomach. Kara was the only one, the only one who had ever called her Lexie...and she always, always said it with love, like a prayer. Now it sounded like a taunt. And the way she was talking about their sex life...it was so crude and emotionless. There was something wrong with Kara, Alex just knew it.
"I...just remembered, I have samples that need to be tested tonight in my lab, or else they'll lose their molecular integrity. I'd better go back into the DEO before it't too late." Alex scrambled off the bed, trying to keep her face impassive.
"Whatever," Kara sighed like a bratty teenager, turning to walk back to the kitchen and pig out more. But the anger she felt at Alex rejecting her advances flared up intensely inside her; the hot, tight feeling in her chest made her want to scream and punch things, and as the furious feelings welled up inside her, the bright red chemical glow under her skin lit up her face like a demented Christmas tree. Her back was to Alex, so the dark-haired girl didn't see this; but she did see Kara bend over with a sharp yelp of pain, one hand pressing against the side of her head, just like when she first came home. Something was wrong with Kara, and Alex was worried. She crossed the room and put one hand protectively on the blonde girl's back.
"Honey, can't you please tell me what's wrong? I can see you're in pain," Alex hummed gently. "If you didn't get hurt, maybe you're sick? But you can't get sick unless you blew your powers; you still have your powers, right? Maybe you should come in to the DEO with me and get some scans, just to be safe..."
"Seriously, could you be a bigger buzzkill?" Kara snapped, jerking back from Alex's loving touch. "Go find someone else to work out your mommy issues on. I'm sick of playing your little orphan Annie." The hurt expression on Alex's face just made the irrational fury inside Kara intensify, and suddenly the blonde girl couldn't sit still; she felt antsy and stir-crazy, and without a word of explanation, she zipped out of her human clothes and out the window, streaking off into the night to blow off steam. Alex rubbed the tears from her eyes, trying to think rationally. So Kara was having a bad day. That wasn't against the law. Maybe...maybe seeing the Kryptonian engagement rings had triggered a bout of PTSD flashbacks of her dead planet; that had happened before. She'd never reacted to it like this, but that didn't automatically mean there was anything bigger going on. Kara had lost her entire world; she had a right to some bitterness. Maybe it was healthy if she was finally letting it out a little. With a dejected sigh, Alex turned off the light and crawled under the covers, hiding her head under a pillow. It was a long time before she fell asleep; but Kara still hadn't come back.
…...
The blonde girl did come back eventually, though; when the alarm went off in the morning, Kara reached out and hit it a little too hard, smashing it to bits. Alex sat up rubbing her eyes, drowsily taking in the smashed alarm as Kara walked away to the bathroom without even saying good morning. Cautiously, the dark-haired girl got up and followed after her; Kara was calmly brushing her teeth and looking through her clothes, in a bored, detached kind of way.
"Why do all my clothes suck?" She sighed to herself, still acting like she didn't see or hear Alex standing behind her. Not waiting for an answer, she picked out one of the few outfits she never wore, a very sexy sweater dress that clung to her curves in all the right places. She looked drop-dead-gorgeous in it, but she was normally too shy to wear it. Kara had never been comfortable being the center of attention.
But not today, it seemed. She finished brushing her teeth and slipped into the sexy dress, spent a moment perfecting her eye makeup, and breezed through the kitchen while Alex was drinking her coffee. "Bye Lex," she purred, tilting Alex's face up to hers with one hand and kissing her very, very thoroughly, licking her teeth teasingly before she let go. "Go kick some alien ass, babe. See you later." Kara gave her fiancee a saucy little wink, and waltzed out the door without a backwards glance. Alex was at a complete loss. But at least Kara didn't seem to be in pain anymore like she had last night. With a dejected sigh, Alex got up and dumped the rest of her coffee down the drain, and went to get dressed for work.
It wasn't long before Alex saw Kara again—Hank called in their resident superhero just a few hours later, when a viciously strong and ruthless alien called a K'hund had been caught on camera robbing an armored truck, matching the description of four similar incidents within the last two weeks. Hank had assembled both alpha and beta squads to mobilize on this, in addition to Supergirl; he wasn't taking any chances with this one. This alien had the power to cause a national panic, should the whim strike him. As he finished briefing the group on the creature's physiology and defenses, he noticed that Kara seemed not to be paying attention in the slightest. She had her boots propped up on the table, examining her manicure with a bored expression at the back of the group as Hank spoke.
"I'm sorry, Supergirl, am I boring you?" Hank asked loudly, interrupting the briefing.
"Kind of, yeah," Kara said indifferently, spinning herself around on the swivel chair like a bored kid. "Can we just skip ahead to the part where I beat the shit out of this giant fuckwad so we can all move on with our lives?" She was still looking indifferently at her fingernails. Hank looked at Alex; and without her having to say anything, he could see all the worry in her mind, everything strange that had happened with Kara since the previous day. When he got to the sex part, he winced and closed his eyes, immediately shutting down the telepathic connection with his top agent.
"Okay, I think we've all heard enough. Move out, soldiers." The entire field team rose as one and marched off to the munitions room, while Hank looked at Kara. She smirked unrepentantly.
"If you don't like what you see, maybe you shouldn't be poking around inside other people's minds like a peeping tom," The blonde girl said casually, seeming completely unembarrassed. Hank wanted to sit her down and have a long talk to figure out what was going on with the usually sweet-tempered young superhero; but now was not the time. Not with the field team already mobilizing and a dangerous predator on the loose.
"You understand the mission parameters, Supergirl?" He asked coolly.
"Find the bad guy and punch him real hard? Yeah, I think I can remember that for, what, at least ten or fifteen minutes," Kara said sarcastically. J'onn's worry only grew, and he was determined to have that talk with Kara the moment she got back. "Go," he nodded with a jerk of his head. Kara lifted off the ground and shot out of the DEO like a bullet.
As usual, she got to the crime scene before the DEO field team; it wasn't hard to pull the giant, intergalactic dumb jock off the armored car and throw him down the dark alleyway beside the bank, where he crashed hard into a large metal dumpster. Kara snickered. Finally, she was having some fun. When the K'hund got to his feet, he took in the sigil blazed across her chest; and his one organic eye (the one that wasn't glowing robotic red) narrowed viciously. "Your mother"—he snarled, but Kara cut him off before he could say any more.
"Sentenced you to Fort Rozz, ruined your life, blah blah blah," Kara sighed, cocking her head to one side with a bored expression. "I've heard it all before." With a roar, the huge beast lunged at her; and she easily side-stepped him, using his own weight against him as she took his momentum and added it to her own, throwing him into the side of the brick alley so hard he made a hole in one wall. She just laughed as he picked himself up from the wreckage. She spent a few minutes pounding the shit out of him, and it really helped blow off some of the inexplicable fury she felt swirling madly inside her like hot molten lava. But eventually, her super-hearing detected the sound of the DEO humvees in the distance; they'd be here soon, and Kara didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of all the paperwork involved with an actual bust. So, she picked the big lunk up one last time, and threw him down on the street.
"I could turn your face into raw meat, you big dumb space gorilla," the blonde girl said coolly, like it was just an observation, not even a threat. "But the truth is? You're just not worth my time. So go." The K'hund just stared at her uncomprehendingly. "Hurry hurry, before I change my mind," she sang in a cruel, teasing voice. The beast didn't need any more convincing, jumping to his enormous feet and taking off like a shot. Kara rolled her eyes, and started walking towards where she could hear the DEO vehicles screeching to a stop. Hank and Alex lead the charge with their guns drawn.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Alex asked, running protectively to Kara's side.
"I'm fine," Kara shrugged indifferently. "He got away." She kept walking past them as if everything were completely normal.
"He got away?" Hank repeated stonily. Kara turned and looked at him coolly, arms crossed, head cocked, like a bratty teenager.
"Yeah," she shrugged, looking at him like he was very slow.
"All right, that's it. The three of us," he looked meaningfully between the two young women he thought of as his own daughters, "are going to have a little talk. Now." He looked up at his troops and ordered them back to HQ to debrief with the senator; he and Agent Grey would stay behind with Supergirl to sweep the scene for forensic evidence. "Now," Hank said as the other agents had all driven off, leaving him alone with Kara and Alex. "Do you mind telling me what the hell is going on in your head right now, Danvers?"
"My name is not Danvers," the blonde girl spat at him venomously. "It's Kara Zor-El. I am heir to the great house of El, the last of my bloodline. Just because a couple of science geek do-gooders decided to dress me up like a human kid and send me off to their crappy town's school, doesn't make them my family. We don't share blood. And if you don't like how I fight aliens, why don't you just go do it yourself? You're just as capable as I am." Kara glared daggers at the DEO chief, her eyes flashing in challenge.
"Kara," Alex said gently, still reeling from the sting of hearing Kara say the Danvers' weren't her family. They were her family. Kara loved them; Alex knew she did. "You know Hank can't risk that. It's too dangerous..."
"And it's not dangerous for me?" Kara demanded, throwing her arms wide in exasperation. "I'm so fucking tired of this hypocrisy." She stared at him defiantly. He looked back at her unflinchingly, but Alex could see the pain and regret in his eyes.
"I can't be the head of the DEO if I'm an alien," he said calmly.
"Bullshit," Kara snarled; and her face began to glow again, the neon veins of red lighting up under her skin. She gritted her teeth with an involuntary hiss of pain, clapping a hand to the side of her head again, the same spot Alex had noticed her rubbing last night.
"Baby, what's hurting you?" Alex asked desperately, gravitating without conscious thought to Kara's side and reaching out to comfort her.
"I said I was fine!" Kara snapped, pushing Alex back so hard, the dark-haired girl smashed into the brick wall behind her. She wasn't hurt, but she got the wind knocked out of her pretty good, and she doubled over as her body screamed for air. Instead of seeing if Alex was okay, Kara punched right through the wall in frustration, then took off into the sky like a bullet. Hank helped Alex stand up straight and waited patiently while she regained her breath, one of his large hands steading her.
"You saw...what I saw?" Alex panted, her eyes frightened but determined.
"I saw," Hank nodded. "We need to figure out what happened that turned our resident superhero into a loose cannon. Not to mention, a living glowstick," he added, referring to the neon glow they'd just seen lighting up her face when she got angry.
"Let's go," Alex nodded.
"Whoa, whoa." Hank put a hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean you, Alex. You're too close to this. I'll go get started with the bioanalytics team, you track down that damn K'hund and get him bagged and tagged."
"But sir," Alex protested; but Hank cut her off before she could even get out a sentence.
"That's my final word, Agent Grey. Go. Get that maniac off the streets. I promise you, we'll put every resource at our disposal toward finding out what happened to Kara, and how to fix it."
…...
Too stir-crazy to go home and too bored to just fly around aimlessly, Kara decided she might as well go back to work at CatCo for the rest of the day. She changed out of her uniform into another brutally hot business chic outfit; and with a self-satisfied little smirk, she let herself in through Ms. Grant's personal elevator. When the doors opened onto the executive floor and Kara walked out, Winn was the first one to greet her. Of course. The boy was such a puppy, it was pathetic.
"Okay, you're impervious to bullets, and I am literally afraid for your safety right now," the IT director said in a low, urgent voice to his best friend. She chuckled.
"You know that I am never, ever going to fuck you, right? You are aware of that?" She said it so casually, for a moment Winn was completely unable to process her statement.
"W...what?" he asked in total bewilderment. But before Kara had a chance to taunt him any further, Ms. Grant appeared, glaring at her in a way that required absolutely no explanation.
"Walking to your office from the main elevators takes an additional ninety seconds, which means your latte is ninety seconds colder," Kara said simply, holding out the coffee to her boss. Ms. Grant gave her a measured look, and then, apparently, decided to accept her assistant's logic.
"Alright, let's hustle then. I need you in my office right now, Kara. Chop chop." Ms. Grant turned and walked purposefully back towards her office. Kara rolled her eyes behind her boss's back, in a very nasty way, Winn noticed; but she followed the older woman anyway, not because she was told to, but because she figured she had nothing better to do anyway.
"You do realize," Ms. Grant said as soon as they were alone in her office, "That you haven't sent in a single Supergirl tweet since yesterday? I thought I was very clear when we set out, social media campaigns aren't something you can do on a whim. I gave you your own hashtag, Kara, with the full force of CatCo's media empire behind it. The #AliensArePeople conversation is out there, it's your duty to remain at the center of it. If you're not committed to this project..."
"Yeah, okay, whatever, I get it," Kara waved her off, seating herself on Ms. Grant's comfortable office couch and putting her feet up on the coffee table, as if she didn't have a care in the world. "Write them yourself if you want, I don't care. Write whatever you think Supergirl should say. Not like you trust me to think for myself anyway, right? Otherwise you'd let me have the login to my own damn account." Kara was examining her manicure again. She was bored with the red she'd chosen that morning; now she wanted black.
"Excuse me?" Ms. Grant said sharply, her voice as shocked as Winn's had been a minute ago at the inexplicable things coming out of Kara's mouth. For a moment, Ms. Grant just stared at her young protege in shock; then her eyes fell on the glinting silver ring on Kara's left hand. "Oh my goodness, is that an engagement ring? Did Alex propose?! Kara, you could have told me if you needed the night off for that, I'm not completely heartless..."
"Oh yeah? That's news to me," Kara snorted, still deliberately not making eye contact with her boss. "And frankly, Cat, it's none of your business." Ms. Grant sat in stunned silence for a moment, while Kara continued to look bored.
"I think that will be all for today," the older woman said in a calm, measured tone that conveyed intense hostility kept closely in check. "You are dismissed. And Kara? I don't think I'll be needing you to babysit Carter this weekend, after all." She didn't give any reason, and Kara didn't ask for one.
"Whatever," Kara sighed indifferently, getting up from the couch with a lazy stretch, rolling her neck with a satisfying crack. "Your kid is boring anyway." Without a backwards glance, Kara strutted from the office; Cat saw her walk right by Winn's desk without even acknowledging his existence, even though he was clearly trying to talk to her. As soon as Kara was gone, Cat got straight on the phone to Alex. Something was wrong with Kara, something unnatural and maybe even dangerous. Cat Grant was afraid for her city...and she was afraid for her young protege. If Kara did anything rash in this state, she'd never forgive herself for it, Cat knew that. Never.
…...
Ms. Grant didn't reach Alex on her cell, though, because Alex was right smack in the middle of hauling the K'hund back to HQ in enormous heavy handcuffs. "Glad to see you had better luck than Supergirl," Hank nodded approvingly when he saw his top agent, two guards securing the prisoner behind her.
"I've had worse," Alex shrugged distractedly, her mind still on Kara and what was happening to her. The K'hund laughed. Alex and J'onn both turned to look at him quizzically.
"Do not flatter yourself, human. Supergirl let me go. She said I wasn't worth her time." The alien leered, looking pleased with himself.
"Get him out of my face," Alex said in a low, dangerous voice. The alien prisoner was dragged away; but the dark look on Alex's face wasn't going anywhere. "Hank? Tell me you've got something," the young agent begged, turning her attention away from the prisoner and back towards the most pressing matter at hand.
"Nothing yet," Hank shook his head; "but we don't give up that easy around here. We've got the whole bioanalytics team working on this, Alex."
"And now you've got me, too," Alex said; but before she could take a step toward her lab, her phone rang again at her belt. It had rung several times before, but she was too busy securing the prisoner to bother answering. Now, as she picked it up, she saw that it was Ms. Grant, and that she'd already called three times. Oh boy.
"Ms. Grant, what's happening? Is Kara all right?"
"Oh, she's just fine and dandy. For a fourteen year old who just got back from reform school," the older woman said hotly, a mixture of indigence and genuine concern in her voice. "Alex, she's not herself. I'm worried. Something is very wrong."
"I know, I know something's wrong," Alex sighed, pacing around the control room in agitation. "We're trying to figure it out. Kara's been acting horrible since yesterday, and now...well, it seems she let an alien criminal escape without a fight."
"What?" Ms. Grant gaped.
"It's not really Kara. We both know that," Alex said desperately, her stomach turning inside out to defend the girl she loved, even when she was doing things that were patently indefensible. "She's been brain-washed, or mind-controlled, or something."
"Yes, well, be that as it may, there is still the question of whether she is a threat to National City in this state, whether she's acting of her own free will or not," Ms. Grant pointed out. At the other end of the call, Alex's face flushed pink.
"Let us worry about the security of National City, all right? As far as CatCo is concerned, it's business as usual until you hear otherwise from me. Can you do that, Ms. Grant?"
"Of course I can. Haven't you heard, I'm the most powerful person in National City," the older woman sighed ironically. "I just hope, for all our sakes, that the title remains honorary. I may be able to hold my own with Kara...but I don't know about the rest of the city."
"We'll handle it. I promise. I'll call you when I know more, all right?" Alex sighed anxiously.
"Very well," Ms. Grant agreed, tapping off the call begrudgingly. It was terrible to feel so helpless. Kara...Supergirl...just let an alien fugitive go free? And there was nothing to be done about it? "Screw it," the queen of media muttered to herself, dashing off a very short text to Kara's cell: My office. Immediately. Or you're fired.
…...
Ms. Grant sat at her desk in quiet agitation for several long minutes, unsure whether Kara would respond to her summons. In her current state, maybe the threat of losing her job wouldn't mean anything. But she needn't have worried; a few minutes later, the blonde girl floated down onto the balcony adjoining the older woman's spacious office, her red cape flapping majestically in the breeze behind her, just like always. But the look on her face...that was new.
"What now, Cat?" Kara said sarcastically, when Ms. Grant went out to the balcony to join her. "I thought you said we were done for the day."
"Oh, I just wanted to see if you had Ashton Kutcher and his camera crew hidden under your cape," Ms. Grant replied, matching Kara's airy sarcasm perfectly. "Because there's no way the Supergirl I know would let a dangerous alien criminal go free. So I assume thatI am being punked."
"I wouldn't assume anything from now on," Kara said in a dangerous, low voice, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. "Why don't you just go back to your litterbox, kitty cat? Or somebody might scoop you up and send you to the pound."
"Excuse me?" Ms. Grant said defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"You branded me in the media as a Girl Scout," Kara said accusingly, leaning back on her elbows against the stone railing of the balcony with a cool, detached look in her clear blue eyes. "Supergirl is brave, kind and strong," the blonde girl recited sarcastically. "Isn't that kind of a stock characterization? Very two-dimensional. Everyone knows real people have a dark side."
"Kara, what is going on, what's happened to upset you so much?" Ms. Grant asked, her protective feelings for her young protege flaring up so strongly, she forgot for a minute that she was talking to someone who could literally melt her face off if the mood struck her. "Of course I know you have a dark side. You saw your entire world die in front of your eyes. But you've never let that darkness define you. That's not what makes you who you are, it's not what makes you Supergirl. Is this some kind of subconscious backlash to your engagement? You and Alex are getting married, so now you're thinking of home, your family, all the marriage rituals from your planet you'll never get to have? Don't they have a psych team down in that secret underground alien lab that I officially know nothing about? I'd be happy to refer you to my psychiatrist if they can figure out the appropriate Kryptonian dosage of Lexipro."
"Oh, so now you want to drug me to keep me on your leash, Mistress Kitty?" the blonde girl rolled her eyes.
"Kara!" Ms. Grant reprimanded sharply, shocked at the words coming out of her assistant's mouth.
"Well I'm sick of it. And you know what else I'm sick of?" She turned away from her boss, leaning on the balcony railing and staring out over the city skyline. "Enabling all of you in your victimhood. 'Oh no, my building's on fire, la la la. No problem, I'll just sit back and wait for Supergirl to come rescue me.' Well get used to flames, people, because I quit." Her face began to glow red again; but Cat couldn't see it, because Kara's back was to her. But she did see the younger girl grab the side of her head with a low gasp of pain.
"Kara. Sweetheart. I was starting to think you were having some kind of mental breakdown...it does happen to the best of us...but that's not it, is it? I'm not blind, I can see you're in pain. Something is hurting you. Now I'm no expert in extraterrestrial neuroanatomy—well, I'm no expert in human neuroanatomy, for that matter—but we both know someone who is. I'm calling Alex." Cat took out her phone, preparing to hit the redial button.
"Of course that's your answer, isn't it?" Kara sighed, turning back to her boss with a shake of her head. Her face wasn't glowing red anymore. "Gee, the girl who caters to my every selfish whim by day and saves my yoga-toned ass from messy, bloody death by night has become an inconvenience to me? Ship her off to someone who gives a shit."
"Kara, stop it," Ms. Grant said sharply.
"Why should I? I learned from the best," Kara smirked, a cruel, taunting smirk, as she folded her arms across her chest. "Cat Grant. You are, by far, the most arrogant, mean-spirited, self-serving person I have ever known." They stared at each other in silence for a moment.
"You listen to me, Supergirl," the older woman said in a low, dangerous voice. "I made you. And you are not going to let me down."
"Or what?" Kara taunted, an amused smirk on her face.
"Don't test me, Kara," Ms. Grant said quietly, a note of pleading in her voice. "It won't end well."
"You got that part right," Kara laughed nastily. "You are the most powerful person in National City, right? At least that's what I hear on TV." The blonde girl stared at her boss in silence for a moment, a cruel smile emerging at the corner of her mouth. For the first time, Cat Grant began to feel genuinely afraid. "Do you want to see what real power looks like?" Kara whispered, putting her face right up close to Cat's. Then, without warning, Kara picked up her boss and threw her over the ledge of the 40th floor balcony. Impassively, she watched the woman shrieking as she fell through the air for a good while; then, at the last minute, Kara swooped down and caught her before she could splatter on the pavement. It was such a close call, many alarmed pedestrians had stopped on the street, whispering and taking shocked photos. Kara dumped her boss unceremoniously on the sidewalk.
"True power," the blonde girl whispered with her cape billowing behind her, "is deciding who will live and who will die. Oh...and don't ever call me again." With that, Supergirl streaked off into the air, leaving her boss panting on the pavement, shaking and grateful to be alive.
…...
"There! The roof fire!" Alex exclaimed, pointing; and Vasquez paused the footage. "Right there, that's a weird thermodynamic signature...is that...Kryptonite?" She squinted and cocked her head to one side, trying to make the pieces fit together.
"Almost," Hank said, studying it alongside her. "This is synthetic. Someone made it. But they didn't get it quite right."
"Three guesses who would fund a project to make synthetic Kryptonite," Alex snarled angrily. "Son of a bitch probably used our tax dollars to make it. I swear to God, if I ever see that son of a bitch again..."
"Alex, we don't know that General Lane is behind this," Hank cut her off, laying a steadying hand on her back. "And frankly right now that's not what's most important. What's most important is finding a cure. I'm going to send these scans down to the med bay, okay? And then Dr. Schwartzman and her team will find an antidote, and Kara will be okay."
Alex just shook her head, pacing around the room like a caged animal, tears burning her eyes. She kicked a storage locker hard. "I just hope she doesn't remember," she mumbled, wiping her eyes with a sharp sniff. "Any of it. If she wakes up and she remembers...it's gonna kill her."
"One step at a time, soldier." Hank squeezed her shoulder. "We're going to find Kara, and we're going to help her."
"Yeah," Alex whispered; but the tears were starting to slide down her face, and Hank pulled her into a tight hug. Alex accepted the comfort, but only for a moment; she couldn't let herself fall apart right now, she had to be strong. She could cry later, when Kara was safe.
"Do you want to go down to the med lab and help Dr. Schwartzman crack this thing?" Hank asked gently when Alex pulled away.
"Yeah," she nodded, her voice slightly more steady now as she wiped the last of her tears away. That was when her phone rang, and she picked it up right away when she saw that it was Winn. "Hey, did something happen? Have you seen Kara?" She asked without preamble.
"Uh...yeah," Winn said. His voice sounded odd, Alex didn't know what to make of it. "She...she just threw Ms. Grant off the balcony."
"What?!" Alex gaped, wide-eyed.
"It's okay, she's alive and everything," Winn interjected hastily. "Ms. Grant, I mean. Not that—I didn't mean—Kara's alive too, and all. Everybody's alive," the young tech nerd rambled nervously, scared at seeing his best friend in this state, with no idea how to help her. "She threw Ms. Grant off the balcony, but then she caught her. Then she flew off. I don't know where she went, Alex."
"It's okay, Winn. We're going to find her," Alex said with conviction, looking up at Hank, who nodded. "We are going to find her and we are going to cure her."
"Cure her?" Winn sounded confused.
"She's been poisoned, Winn. She's not acting under her own power. This isn't Kara, it's some messed up chemical in her brain. It's not her fault, she can't control it," Alex explained, pacing again.
"Well I hope you find it fast...because Ms. Grant says she's going on the air to publicly denounce Supergirl as a menace to society."
...To Be Continued!
