I spent months training with Cassie; it was well into May by the time I could finally hold my own against her in a fight without hurting her on accident. The only way we could get past my fear of heights was by reminding myself that I was in control, and I wouldn't fall if it didn't want to.

"You've got to remember it, Kara," Cassie drilled, "When you fly, you're in control—nothing can stop you."

And if anything, I was getting stronger. My eyes still turned green when I used my powers, something Cassie thought was awesome when it came to my secret identity.

"Just think about it! With those eyes, no one is gonna mistake you for a human—they'll all think you're more Kryptonian than your cousin!"

I found that, generally, my eyes remained green for about fifteen minutes after I put my powers to rest, before they turned blue again. Something about the shade of green bugged me though—it was wrong, and I knew that it shouldn't be happening. Clark's eyes didn't change when he was Superman, this was only me.

But, with those doubts aside, Cassie had decided one clear May night that it was time to apply the practice.

"Ok, we are done with this warehouse!" She said, after I had repositioned the last piece of broken concrete into its once proper place.

"What?" I asked, stepping back to survey my work.

"It's time for us to start taking down criminals," she said, "We are superheroes, after all—crime fighting is what we do."

I felt a knot form in my stomach, "But isn't Gotham the Bat's territory?"

Cassie snorted and crossed her arms, "Oh please, like he and Robin can cover all of the crime in the city. We'll just go where they don't,"

For some reason, that didn't feel like a particularly smart idea, but at the same time, part of me wanted to go. I needed to test myself before I went back to Metropolis; if I was going to prove to Clark that I could help him, I had to prove it to Gotham first.

"Ok," I relented, "Where to?"

Five minutes later, we were on the top of the tallest building in Gotham—Wayne Enterprises. I already knew that if I even thought about looking down, I would start to lose my head so I kept my eyes out, checking the entire city.

"So what are we waiting for?"

"Don't worry," Cassie said, "You'll know it when you see it."

"Right now," a deep voice drifted in from behind us, "All I see are two girls who managed to get to the top of a secure building."

Cassie and I whipped around and found ourselves standing face to face with the Bat himself. Previously, I wondered why people found him so intimidating—now I could see clearly. Dressed head to toe in charcoal gray armor and surrounded by an inky black cape that appeared to be made up of actual shadows, and not to mention the fact that one could only see his strong jaw and deep set scowl would make anyone want to wet themselves. In that moment, I would have felt happier looking down.

And yet, beneath his mask, his eyes seemed to grow, like he was surprised by something.

"Cassie?" His deep voice disappeared, replaced by a stunned, fatherly tone, "What on earth do you think you're doing?"

"What I came here to do—you can't stop me, just like Di wouldn't let you stop-"

"Enough," he warned, and Cassie, although clearly frustrated, bit back her comment. "I agreed to act as your guardian while in Gotham, but you have no training in crime-fighting; you'll only get hurt."

That pissed Cassie off.

"I've told you a thousand times, I can handle myself just fine, thank you! As if that's not enough, tonight, I have Supergirl as back up!"

Oh god, I thought, why on Earth did you pull me into this?

I tried to smile weakly as I felt the eyes behind the mask land on me.

"Supergirl?" He asked, "I was not aware there was a Supergirl."

His words stuck me a bit; I didn't realize how much they would sting.

"I'm a bit of a new feature," I explained, my voice still weak, "I haven't been around very long."

"How long have you been around?" He was digging, and clearly expected an answer. But Cassie jumped in for me.

"We met when I first moved here. She was training in secret, and I helped her out with some pointers. She's a tried and true Kryptonian, why else would she be wearing it?"

"I've met more than a few copycats in my time," Batman grumbled, "It would do you well to think that fact through before you go introducing yourself to anyone who can throw around a block of concrete."

"Wait a second," I finally had something else to focus on, "How did you know that?"

"Excuse me?"

"You said, 'anyone who can throw around a block of concrete'. I take special care every time I leave my warehouse to clean myself up—every inch—to make sure that my own parents don't ask questions. I've become an expert in removing concrete dust and residue from me; any trace I currently have on me wouldn't be visible from where you're standing." I started walking forward, and to my surprise, he took a bit of a step back, "I think you know more than you're letting on. I think you've been tracking Cassie since she got here, which, given your obvious relationship, wouldn't be that surprising of an idea. Which means that you've known exactly how long I've been training, with Cassie anyway; you already have an estimate of how long I've been around."

I stopped face to face with the Bat, "Don't pretend I'm not right,"

"You know," yet another voice appeared, and a moment later, a boy about my age, although slightly shorter, landed next to the Batman, "You've got to give her credit, B."

"Not now, Robin,"

"No," he said, "Now." He turned to me and extended his hand, "You were right on; I would know—I'm the one who's been collecting the intel. It's nice to finally meet you."

He sounded so familiar; I knew I had heard his voice before. I took his hand cautiously, for both the attempt at friendship and his familiarity put me off.

"It's ok," he said, sensing my discomfort, "One day we'll look back at this and laugh."

"Robin," Batman warned, "that's enough. Now, you two," he focused back on me and Cassie, "are to go home immediately. This city is too dangerous for two untrained teenagers to fly around doing what they please,"

"How about a wager then," I couldn't believe I was actually talking.

"I don't make wagers," He said.

"You'll make this one; if you win I'll give up my crime-fighting ways, but if I win, you'll let me be a superhero."

He was silent for a moment, taking it in.

"What is your wager?" he said finally.

"You're a detective, right? You like to have all the proof in front of you, just like Barbara's dad." If I had paid attention then, I would have noticed the way both he and the Boy Wonder stiffened ever so slightly at the mention of Babs, but I was far too preoccupied, "So that's all I'm offering."

"What is that exactly?"

"You don't think I can be a superhero, but I do: let me prove it."

It was one of the abandoned tenements on the lower east side; only squatters bothered with these husks, and even then, they didn't stay for long. Tonight, however, it appeared to have become the base of operations for some guy in a green jacket spinning a staff with a question mark on it. And Cassie and I were floating above it.

"Remember," a voice whispered in our ear, "This is only a reconnaissance mission; do not act unless absolutely necessary." Bruce had insisted on the two-way communicators, even though I was sure he and Robin were watching from nearby.

"I've met their alter-egos, haven't I?" I asked Cassie at one point. She just gave a half shrug.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," was the only actual answer I got out of her. She had managed to give up my name without thinking, and yet she was keeping her mouth firmly shut on the two she didn't like. That was one strange sense of loyalty.

Slowly, Cassie and I lowered ourselves through an upstairs window, quietly hovering across the floor rather than risk giving our location away with an unaccounted noise. The door took a bit of encouragement to manipulate quietly, but we finally got it open enough to hear the goings on.

"Hurry up, will you?" a nasally voice demanded, "I need to get my computers back online as fast as possible!" All of the activity appeared to be taking place below us, so after a moment, I hovered out into the hallway and peered down the staircase. Of the five floors, it appeared that most of the activity was taking place on the third floor. I turned back to Cassie and motioned for her to follow me.

"Kara," she hissed, "What are you doing?"

"Getting information! C'mon!" I whispered back. She frowned pulled me back in the room.

"Kara, that's not how recon works."

"Cass," I held her shoulders, "Recon means getting information. I can tell you right now that all of the activity is happening two floors below us. We still have three flights of stairs before anyone can see us! Now c'mon—let's prove our worth."

I floated back out into the hall and down the stairs as carefully as I could. I knew the activity was still one more floor below us, but I couldn't be too careful. Once I was in a position where I could hear everything, I pulled out the recorder that the Bat had given us and clicked the button to play.

"Finally!" Something thumped heavily on the floor to punctuate the word, "I can get back to work!" Something creaked and I could hear fingers on a keyboard. "How many pawns does it take to kill the Batman? Clearly it will take a multitude of enemies to overcome him—but that won't be enough to end him."

He was typing quickly now, and mumbling all the while; we had no clue what he was looking at though.

It wouldn't be enough.

I turned to Cassie, and she quickly read my thoughts through my expression.

"No," she breathed, "we can't."

"I'll go first," I replied; I kept low against the wall as I hovered down the next flight and carefully turned the corner. I could see several goonies now, and they were all positioned neatly around the entrance to another room; I could see the light from the computer filtering through, but the actual computer was still out of reach.

That wasn't enough.

"Kara," It was Bats in my ear now, "This is a reconnaissance mission—we don't need them to flee."

I frowned and looked up; there was still the floor above. Suddenly, it clicked. I floated back up the stairs to the fourth floor, and quickly located the room directly above the Riddler.

"Kara, do you have X-Ray vision?" Batman asked.

"What?" I asked back, "Why would I have X-Ray vision?"

I heard a heavy sigh through the comm. link, "Nevermind, do you have heat vision?"

"Where are you getting these ideas?" I had never even heard of heat vision before. Another loud sigh followed my question.

"What superpowers are you aware of?" He asked, only slightly sarcastic.

"I can lift almost two tons; I can fly when I'm not focusing on heights…" I really did only have a small list.

"Kara," Cassie put her hand on my shoulder, "imagine heat building in your eyes." I closed my eyes and focused my energy towards my eyes. "Let it build," she whispered, and I did as she suggested, letting the new found heat build. "Now," she said, as if this was brain surgery, "Open your eyes, but keep the heat in your eyes." I opened my eyelids slowly, unable to see anything, concentrating on holding back the immense heat that had built up. "Now, very slowly let the heat out, bit by bit, focusing on the wood in front of you."

I could feel it, almost like a tiny stream of water, trickling from my eyes and into the air in front of me. It was painful, like fiery tears, but I didn't want to stop—I kept trying to push it out as slowly as I could.

"Something's wrong," Cassie said suddenly, "Cool the heat, Kara."

I closed my eyes, and just like that, the heat was gone. I opened them again to look at Cassie. "What happened?"

"I'll explain later," she whispered, "I left my recorder down the stairs, let's get it and go. This is a bust," she said the last sentence to both me and Batman.

"Agreed," Bats grumbled, "You two get out of there."

I felt my heart sink; my chance to prove myself had just flown out the window. Cassie went to get her recorder, but I stayed still for a moment, taking in my failure. Strength, flight, and speed weren't enough—I needed more.

Cassie and I met back up with Bats and Boy Wonder on a rooftop a little ways away. We handed back our useless recorders, and I waited silently for Bats to bring up my lost bet.

"What happened?" He asked instead, looking at Cassie instead of me.

"Her eyes didn't turn red, just really bright green," she answered, "Then it started to flow out a bit—like tears. When it hit the ground, it just dissipated, but where it touched Kara's skin, it…"

"It what?" I put my fingers up to my eyes, where the tears had fallen.

"It looked like it was burning you, or something. I saw the way you cringed when it touched you, and I knew something was wrong." She looked almost embarrassed, like she had done something wrong.

Batman's scowl deepened a little bit, but he didn't actually move for a few minutes. I was still waiting to hear that I had lost, and therefore had to put away my short-lived dream forever.

"You need to go see Superman."

His words caught me off guard. "What?"

"Something is wrong, and only another Kryptonian will be able to tell for sure. You need to go see him, Kara. That's the only way you'll be able to fully become Supergirl."

I felt like dropping to my knees.

"But, the bet…"

"You didn't fail, our position failed; there was no way for you to get the information without showing yourself. I don't believe in setting people up to fail."

His scowl lessened ever so slightly, and I suddenly believed that that was the closest I would ever get to seeing him smile. He extended his hand, and when I took it, I felt him press a paper inside my palm.

"However, if you do not receive proper training from him, I will not let you 'save' the city. I need to know that the people protecting Gotham know what they're doing."

"Yes sir,"

"Same goes for you, Cassie,"

"What?" She was outraged, "But I know what I'm doing!"

"You think you do, but I'll be the judge. You will continue training with me until which time as I find you fit for duty."

"I am not wearing a bat suit—I'm not taking her place."

It was Robin's turn to get angry.

"No one," his whisper was deadly in its sobriety, "No one can ever take her place."

Clearly I had missed a major detail, but I had a very strong feeling that I wouldn't figure it out anytime soon, nor would they tell me. Batman, Robin and Cassie disappeared into the night, and I got my first look at the paper he pressed into my hand.

If you don't tell Clark within the week, I will.

I felt my blood freeze in my veins.