AN:This one got away from me too.
Un-betaed as per usual so all mistakes are my own and I bet there will be a few since re-reading at 2:30AM isn't the best way to proof read.
A bit of fluff, a bit of angst, some humour, some action and oh look! Is that plot I see?
Minor Edits: 07/01/2017
I finally had the chance to sleep on this and re-visit it. You only really need to re-read the last few lines or so, nothing major at all changed but it just wouldn't stop bugging me until I tweaked it.
"Your mother is a very kind woman."
Kara flew in wide lazy barrel rolls around her cousin, her arms and fingers spread outwards as she enjoyed the fresh Kansas air flowing through her fingers and hair that was free from her helm and hood. She whistled a tune at a flock of birds flying beneath them and laughed when they seemed to whistle back.
Clark couldn't help but smile at the sight. Even though his face was still flushed red from blushing furiously after his cousin and mother finished their talk, he couldn't deny how happy he felt at the knowledge that he had a living blood-relative to add to his small Earth-family and that he wasn't so alone in the skies anymore.
"Yeah, she is. Did you really have to tell her you used to change my diapers?"
As he had expected, Kara and Martha had gotten along like a house on fire. In hindsight, he should have better prepared himself for when the two women had met.
"Yes. That was very necessary."
"Okay."
First it was Lois and Martha, then it was Lois and Kara and now it was Martha and Kara. Why were all the women in his life ganging up on him? God help him if all three of them are in the same room…
Clark sighed in defeat but the smile never left his face.
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Not too long later, the Kryptonians caught the faint scent of the sea and knew they were only a few minutes away from their destination at the speed they were flying.
"Hey Kara…"
The companionable silence broken, Kara was drawn from her quiet musings and she smiled invitingly to the younger man.
There was so much more he wanted to ask but he was already slowing down as he led the way through the skies of Midvale. He hoped Kara would be sticking around for a while; he wanted to know so much more about her, them, their planet, his birth parents. It would be so much better hearing from her; her stories were real—personal. That wasn't something any of the crystals in his Fortress could offer. He made a mental note to bring the elder Kryptonian there later but for now, he asked the question that was at the forefront of his mind.
"…where's the scary shield- I, uh- I mean, where's Diana?" Clark had a foreboding feeling that the elder Amazon didn't like him very much. His face could attest to that.
Kara laughed, not unkindly, at the apprehension in his tone. "Oh come on, she's not that scary…"
Clark gave her a disbelieving look.
"…once you get to know her." Kara finished, a sheepish grin on her face. "Anyways," Kara said with a loud exhale and another barrel roll and coming to a rest on Clark's left.
"Diana is off reconnecting with our old contacts and gathering our credentials, old or new I'm not too sure. It's been awhile since we've been back to Man's World for reasons that aren't mission or stop-the-world-from-ending related so we will need to see if any of our old friends and allies are still around…" Kara trailed off thoughtfully.
Clark could only stare again in amazement. It was shaping out to be a habit when he was around his cousin. With the way Kara acts with her lively gesticulations and smiles that can light up a dark room it was so easy to forget that this young woman who appeared to only be in her mid-twenties was in fact a centuries old warrior with a nigh-infinite amount of knowledge and experience.
"So you're staying…"
"For a while, yes." Kara smiled at Clark who brightened up considerably.
He looked at the land passing by quickly.
"We're here."
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For even the casual observer, the sight of one flying caped alien was enough to stop anyone in their tracks and just stare. It was advisable that this wasn't done while one was in the middle of a road or intersection.
But now there were two of said flying caped aliens and they came to a graceful landing in the spacious and neatly trimmed lawn of a quaint two-storied home by the seaside with a balcony, dark roof shingles and brick chimney stack.
A broad-shouldered dark haired man and a slimmer blonde haired woman emerged from inside the house and approached the pair.
Coming to a stop, Clark finally introduced the two. "Kara, this is Doctor Jeremiah Danvers and Doctor Eliza Danvers. They are the scientists that helped me better understand my powers."
Kara smiled kindly at them even as she subtly sized up the two as she had been trained to do and coming to the quick conclusion that they were good people. "My name is Kara Zor-El." She shook hands with the scientists who were looking at her armoured attire with great.
"That's the House of El crest, any relation to Clark?" Jeremiah asked.
Kara's smile grew. "Clark, or Kal-El as I knew him on Krypton, is my younger cousin."
The scientists' eyes widened and they looked to the man in question who merely beamed and shrugged his affirmation.
"How is that possible?" Eliza spoke. "Clark didn't say anything about another pod landing on Earth and he's been here for 24 years."
The elder Kryptonian nodded, her smile lessening slightly. "I was 13 years old when Krypton was destroyed. My pod was launched after Clark's and it was caught in the blast. There was a malfunction with my ship's Warp Drive that sent me into a region of space where time was distorted. I landed on Earth centuries before Clark and a lot has happened since then…" Kara stopped talking when she saw the scientists' mind-blown appearances.
After a moment Eliza finally shook her head with an amused expression as she poked her husband in the side and pushed his slightly ajar mouth closed. "Come on honey. Let's invite our guests in; we can pick the Kryptonians' brains later."
Jeremiah cleared his throat. "Um, yep good idea, dear."
As the scientist led the laughing trio back inside the house, Kara caught a silhouette watching them from the second floor window in the corner of her eye.
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"Hey Supes."
"Alex." Clark greeted the teenager coming down the stairs warmly and they slapped hands before clasping their fingers together and then finished off with a fist-bump.
"So who's your super-friend here? Your sidekick? Supergirl?" Clark went bug-eyed and frantically shook his head at the teenager over his cousin's shoulder but stopped immediately when the blonde turned her head to give him a quizzical look and instead smiled innocently at her.
Kara rolled her eyes in good-nature at the man and turned to address the teen and feeling like she's introduced herself for the nth time that day alone. "My name is Kara Zor-El, Elder of the House of El. Kara is just fine."
"Alex Danvers." The girl shook the woman's hand as firmly as she could even as she squinted at the very pretty blonde, analysing her and gathering all the facts she knew.
"How come you're the elder when Clark's been on Earth since he was a baby?" Alex challenged and Kara grinned at the girl's fire and inquisitive nature.
"I grew up on Krypton and though my appearance suggests otherwise, I am actually closer to three hundred than I am to thirty."
"What are you, immortal?" she pressed, mind working furiously with the new information.
"Kryptonians age at a much slower rate here on Earth and there is also the matter of my being an Amazon, so yes, I am immortal."
"Amazon? As in like the Amazons in Greek Mythology?"
"Exactly that… sort of. The stories didn't exactly get everything right."
Eliza quickly stepped in to interrupt the interrogation her daughter was starting with the Kryptonian.
"Relax sweetie, remember to breathe." Eliza jokingly massaged the teen's shoulders to staunch her coming protests.
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After a quick meal in which Kara insisted she help knowing full well just how much food one, let alone two Kryptonians can put away so Eliza was treated with the rare sight of a fully armoured Kryptonian-Amazon expertly wielding a knife and making quick work of the assortment of vegetables and proteins she had set out while the older blonde—Eliza was still trying to get her head around that—regaled tales of the many Feasts of the Five she had been honoured to partake in.
A lull in the conversations around the dining table proved to be all the opportunity Alex needed to launch her next wave of inquiries.
"So if you're invulnerable how come you need all that armour?" She asked, tapping the pauldron on Kara's left shoulder with a finger.
Even having only known the girl for a few short hours, Kara found that Alex Danvers had already endeared herself to the Kryptonian, sensing the utter brilliance and fire within the girl.
"I find that it never hurts to have another form of defence to rely on. While yes I am invulnerable to most conventional and… unconventional weapons and physical attacks, it is those of the more arcane and mystical kind that I need better protection against."
"Arcane and mystical meaning…"
"Magical, occult, supernatural."
"Magic." Clark said, looking sceptically at Kara. "We're vulnerable to magic."
Kara chuckled at the expressions around the table before she answered more seriously. "Yes, Clark. Magic exists and it can harm us. Never underestimate any sorcerer you may come across in the future should you meet one. I found out that lesson the hard way and would not wish that upon you when it can be avoided." The elder Kryptonian told him sternly with a raised brow in a very Diana-esque fashion and Clark found himself merely nodding without further question.
The scientists who had been listening with great interest thought that that had killed the mood but Alex proved to be unrelenting in her pursuit of knowledge barrelled on with her interrogation.
"One thing that's been bugging me… and you don't have to answer it if you don't want to…" Alex glanced hesitatingly at Clark and then Kara.
Sensing the more sombre nature of the question, the two shared a glance before nodding encouragingly at the teen.
"If you have been here centuries before Clark… how come you've only shown up now? Why not as soon as his pod landed?" Alex phrased it as carefully as she could but Kara still found herself wincing slightly as if in pain and smiling through it morosely.
Finally, Kara spoke again. "There is no real excuse. Diana and I were away from Themyscira when your pod landed..." the blonde glanced up towards her cousin who smiled at her reassuringly, no accusation in his eyes. He had had a good childhood, if a bit confusing and trying at times but he had his friends and family to guide him through.
"… it wasn't until weeks later when we returned that we were informed of… a ship, landing on Earth. I left immediately for where your pod last transmitted a signal before it cut-out but you and the pod were long gone along with any trails for me to track."
Kara paused for a moment, thankful that no one seemed to notice her brief hesitation even as she recalled those terrible weeks where she had searched tirelessly day and night for any sign of her baby cousin, fearing the worst; that he was found by unsavoury people who wished him harm; that he was at that very moment being dissected for study and experimentation as a few shady organisations and humans she had encountered in the past were all too keen to do to aliens; or even worse than that still, he was found by the…
Her spiralling trail of thought was interrupted when a warm hand covered hers. It was Kal's.
"Hey, I'm alright. I was found and raised by some of the best and kindest people in the universe. I'm right here; alive and kicking and totally bad-ass." Clark laughed and Kara playfully rolled her eyes and she flicked him in the arm.
"Anyways," she said, brightening up again. "Diana eventually came along a few weeks later to drag me back to Themyscira and I learned from a very good friend of mine who had it on good authority, Lyla Michaels the Harbinger, that you would be alright and that you would have rather… colourful times ahead; so, I chose to wait just a while longer to find you and reveal myself until Harbinger's vision came to fruition."
"And now here he is, the Boy Scout in blue. I swear when he started getting called Superman he was actually going to go for the 'strongman' look with the underwear on the outside. Thank God Lois was around. She's a gift to mankind." Alex muttered into her glass of juice, cocking an unimpressed brow at the now-sulking alien.
Jeremiah pinched the bridge of his nose while Eliza walked away with her dishes shaking her head with a fond smile and Kara just laughed.
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The Kryptonians left with a promise to return at another date. Kara giving her word to the youngest Danvers that she would teach her more about the stars and planets after the girl overheard her compliment Jeremiah on how his telescope was powerful enough that when paired with her microscopic vision, she could more easily distinguish the red sun Rao from the other twinkling lights in the sky and Alex had watched as the blonde taught Clark where he could always find their birth world's star.
They entered Lois and Clark's apartment in Metropolis and found the Amazon and the reporter chatting friendlily, drinking tea and coffee respectively on the kitchen island.
Diana raised her mug in greeting while Lois simply gleefully volleyed a question at the blonde Kryptonian.
"Is it true a giant Skolopendra nearly ate you every time you got close to it so you ended up just making a giant whirlpool around it and then froze it in a huge ball of ice and then threw away the ball of ice?"
Kara gaped at the grinning reporter for a second before she looked to the elder Amazon and found her to be smiling her unfailing Mona Lisa smile.
"Diana! That was just meant to be between us!" She complained and the Princess' smirk twitched around the corners.
"There is a lesson to be learned in that encounter," this time the Amazon looked directly at Clark who shifted slightly under the brunette's piercing gaze. "Brute force should not be the be-all end-all of any fight. If the same tactic does not work twice, and it rarely does, be more cunning and try the smarter approach."
"Besides," Diana turned and winked at the embarrassed Amazon, "the story never fails to amuse those it is regaled to."
Kara stared wide-eyed at her mentor, horrified. "How many people have you told that story to?"
Diana simply rose from her seat and placed her empty mug into the dishwasher. "Come. Our contacts have come through and we have accommodations prepared for us and business to attend to in the morning. Ms. Lane, thank you for your hospitality." She nodded to the reporter or smiled back.
"Anytime."
The Princess flew gracefully out the tall apartment window and the younger Amazon was quick to tail after her.
"Wait! Diana! How many people know that story? Diana!"
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Metropolis – The Next Day
"Okay, I don't get it." Clark said abruptly as they walked in Metropolis Park.
They were both dressed in civilian clothing, Clark in his typical plaid shirt, plain coat, tie and glasses while Kara wore beige slacks, a plain white button-up blouse and comfortable flat shoes with her hair in a neat pony tail. A far cry from her usual formidable armoured appearance but it did not take away from her powerful aura—if anything, it enhanced it.
The reporter also noticed that the woman wore a thin metal bracelet around each wrist and if it was anything like the helmet Kara wore with her armour that retracted into her headpiece, he had a feeling that these bracelets could also turn into her gauntlets.
"You don't get what?" She asked as they purchased two 'hotdogs' but only after Clark assuaged her fears that it was made of actual dogs.
"Diana." He said simply as he squeezed ketchup and mustard onto his and Kara's food and declaring it the 'American Staple'.
"She doesn't like me much, does she?"
Kara hummed thoughtfully as she chewed and formulated a response. "Well… it's not so much that she doesn't 'like' you but more so that she doesn't approve… of the way you do things."
"The way I do things? You mean as Superman?"
Kara nodded before explaining. "Clark, we do not mean to offend or insult you. Diana is not only the Princess of Themyscira but also the best and fiercest warrior, the Champion of the Amazons and she has been my mentor and shield-sister for centuries. If you truly wish to continue on your path as the protector of the Earth, then I want nothing more than to help you and that includes telling you where you can do better."
Clark sighed, not exactly expecting their walk during his break to turn into a lecture but he knew there was wisdom in his elder's words. She spoke from experience far beyond his two-year tenure as the Man of Steel and several more years of bumbling around with his powers during high-school.
"If I may elaborate further?" Kara asked, not wanting to push the younger man too soon, their relationship was still so new.
Clark nodded.
"Take your fight with Rocket Man, for example."
"Bloodsport" The reporter corrected automatically before smiling sheepishly. "Sorry. I work at a newspaper; I have to get these things right."
Kara rolled her eyes fondly before continuing. "Take your fight with Bloodsport, for example. I was watching from above the cloud cover for a while. Why did that battle have to last as long as it did?"
Now he was confused and Kara picked up on it.
"The man was calling you out. He chose a public place to challenge you, purely for the sake of the fight and to kill you. He was dangerous and yet you faced him head on. Why not utilise the element of surprise and end the fight before it began? You could have used your incredible speed and appeared right behind him and knocked him out with a well-placed blow to the back of the neck or his temple."
"Why did you wait until after I had revealed myself and he had launched numerous missiles before you decided to defeat him with two blows?"
He could not find an answer to that and Kara's point was made clear to him.
Clark's watch beeped, jolting him from his contemplation. He had five minutes to return to the Daily Planet and he smiled apologetically at his cousin who nodded understandingly.
He disposed of their napkins before hugging her tightly, for once he didn't need to worry about hurting someone with his strength and Kara returned it in kind. The reporter murmured his thanks in her ear; she had given him a lot to think about.
"Right," he backed away and checked that he had his ID and bag with him. "So, you've got mine and Lois' numbers on your phone?"
Kara removed the little rectangular device from her pocket. "Yes sir, I do." She wiggled the phone slightly.
"Okay, give us a call if you need anything, alright?"
"Likewise, now get going before you are late, little cousin." Kara laughed when the reporter jumped and checked his watch again.
"Right! Good point, I'm off. See you later?"
"Yes you will now go!"
"Yep going now."
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In fact, Kara saw his cousin much sooner than they both anticipated and not in the way the elder Kryptonian would have liked.
She and Diana were sitting in a café enjoying a quick snack and drink, watching the hustle and bustle of the city around them, having finished another round of re-establishing and reconnecting with their old contacts and making new ones.
Kara's keen hearing tuned out the ceaseless honking, chattering and pattering of Metropolis around her as she focused in on the mention of 'Superman' in the television inside the café. Diana having noticed the blonde's sharpened gaze look towards the screen herself and the two watched along with all those inside the café as the Man of Steel fell to the ground, an armoured man standing not too far away from him.
The man's chest piece seemed to flare before bolts of energy sizzled along his arm and fired from his gauntlet, striking Superman and launching him further away and he was slow to get up while his assailant steadily walked approached him.
Diana looked to the tense blonde beside her and she led her away from the crowd by the arm. "Go. Be smart." The Amazon told the woman and the Daughter of Krypton launched into the skies, the clouds splitting and a clap of thunder the only sign that she came that way.
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Superman was struggling. He had been taken by surprise as he was dealing with a multi-car pileup on the highways leading in and out of Metropolis when he was hit by what must have been pure energy.
It hurt and the blows kept coming leaving him dazed and unable to breath or gather his bearings.
He just managed to get his hands and feet beneath him when he was once again struck in the ribs, this time by his attacker's boot and damn did he feel that. He also felt when another bolt of energy hit him in the face, launching him into an overturned car that was thankfully empty.
The Man of Steel tried to get up, he really did, but his limbs were responding sluggishly as he watched the man's chest piece glow more violently, the air around him becoming more charged as it crackled with energy.
He braced himself for the blow… but it never came.
Before him stood his cousin in full battle regalia.
And she was angry.
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Kara Zor-El surveyed the scene below her.
She watched as her little cousin was thrown back again and again, feeling his pain as if it were her own but and the only thing that stopped her from recklessly charging in was the age old battle instincts ingrained into her very being and Diana's parting words. "Be smart."
So Kara watched and waited for a few heartbeats longer, studying the armoured man; and that was all he was, she realised. A man wearing a suit of armour granting him the enhanced strength required to throw her cousin around and what seemed to be the power source of the suit was ostentatiously on display at the very centre of the man's chest piece.
His primary attack came in the shape of the bolts of energy fired from his gauntlets, both of which derived their power from the glowing core on his chest piece. It all came back to that glowing core.
Now Kara had a plan. It was time to attack.
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Just as the man finished charging his gauntlets and fired, Kara landed in front of her downed cousin and counteracted the concentrated burst of energy with her own twin blasts from her glowing eyes.
The ensuing explosion blew the man back a good distance away while Kara held firm, her cloak fluttering behind her in the wake of the concussive blast as she blocked the worst of the force from her cousin with her own body.
Her eyes continued to glow angrily under her helmet, ready to fire should more blasts come their way.
The man recovered and launched himself at the Kryptonian with surprising speed, firing all the while—no doubt aided by his suit—but it was nothing that surprised the blonde and she met him readily mid-way, blocking the blasts with considerable ease with her own gauntlets.
He threw a right hook at her head which she easily countered with her gauntlet before she curled her arm around the offending appendage and locked it to her side and she launched her own quick counterattack, two of which connected with the man's unprotected stomach that left him hunched over, held up only by his arm locked firmly to the Kryptonian's side.
The warrior's knee connected with the man's chin, launching him away from her cousin and towards her target—an overturned truck. Kara flowed with the direction of her strike, launching herself into the air so that the sun was directly behind her, concealing her approach until she landed directly over her dazed opponent.
With one quick and precise movement, Kara's hand darted forward and ripped the glowing core out of the man's chest piece. Just as she suspected earlier from the nature of the energy bursts and how, the core was radioactive.
Kara quickly moved to the truck, keeping as much of the core covered with her hands as much as possible to lessen the amount of radiation that escaped. She could only thank Rao that it wasn't Uranium or Plutonium that she was holding since there was no lead readily available nearby. She would have to make do with what she had.
Reaching the truck, she tore the windshield off and heated it with her heat vision until it was malleable and she repeatedly wrapped and packed it around the glowing core before finally sealing the newly formed case with more heat and pressure.
The make-shift case of glass and plastic would hopefully be enough to block off the worst of the radioactive particles—the alpha and beta particles at the very least—until she could acquire a proper lead container.
Grabbing the truck's front bumper for good measure, brought it over to her downed opponent and bent it around the man's torso and left him for the proper authorities to deal with.
Finally, Kara gave a new meaning to speed-walking as she appeared the next second right next to the younger Kryptonian and slung his arm across her shoulders and murmuring words of encouragement so that he would rise to his own feet with her assistance.
Together, the Last Children of Krypton rose skyward and disappeared.
The whole affair was caught by a certain photographer, reporter and the news helicopter in the air.
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National City
Later that night, after sitting through an hour of Lois berating Clark and thanking her while Diana watched on vaguely amused, Kara sat, drinking alone in a seedy bar across the country waiting for one of her contacts to show up.
Her contact revealed their presence by depositing two glasses of alcohol next to her own empty one as he settled on the seat across from her.
"I have a present for you." The blonde placed a heavy metal box on the table, welded shut with extreme precision. "Spoiler alert: its radioactive."
The man nodded and moved the box aside. He leaned forward and steepled his fingers, just staring at her.
Kara met his gaze unflinchingly, not backing down. Eventually the man broke the silence.
"That was reckless." He said finally. "You have taken away our element of surprise and secret weapon. You."
The blonde nodded, knowing things will only get harder from now on. "My cousin was dying. What would you have me do, J'onn? Let the last of my blood family die?"
J'onn J'onzz—in the guise of a dark skinned man and former director of the D.E.O. Hank Henshaw—only sighed and shook his head. If he had been in her position, he would have saved his family too.
"Then get ready for war. Your family's enemies are now your own; and they know you're here now."
"We will be ready. It would not be the first time I have gone to war."
And J'onn believed her as he glimpsed the battle-hardened warrior, the survivor, beneath the sunny disposition as the blonde smiled determinedly at him as she stood to leave; dropping a few bills on the table.
AN:For the sake of not hurting my sleep deprived brain any further, I made it so that present day is 2015-16 (because on the show, Kara landed 24 years after Clark which would make it 2004-ish and she only became SG 12 years later which brings the show into the present)
I'm basically bending the timeline to my will - this is already AU enough as it is, surely I can be forgiven for the minor (HA LOL) changes I've made.
Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.