Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters portrayed here and the following scenes are not in the comics.

Chapter 8

Landing near the warehouse, I used my super hearing to check if anything was in there. I sifted through the sounds of waves at the Metropolis shoreline, ignored the stalker who had followed me in his car, and finally heard a faint popping noise coming from inside the warehouse on my left.

Whoever it was had been coming in the warehouse at intervals: a few minutes in-between the first and the second pop.

I shunted in and quickly moved to a nearby stack of safes, which were five times as big as I was.

I peered through a crack in one of the piles and saw a silhouette of someone- definitely female, by the looks of it – wearing a trench coat.

She lowered a safe, balanced it crookedly on another massive pile, and disappeared in a blue haze.

I used my x-ray vision on one of the closest safes near me and found out that it was made of lead, not to mention I just noticed the Lexcorp insignia on the lower left.

So much for that ability.

I used my flame vision and made a little opening in one of the safes.

There were blue crystals in it.

Now, why would Lex need safes full of blue crystals?

I heard the floating woman come back and I leaned against the piles of safes once more. She almost dropped a safe, but she caught it quickly- too quickly- and placed it down on a short stack of safes.

I widened the opening of the nearby safe with a few fingers, and pulled out a small blue crystal.

I sensed that she was looking towards my direction so I held the crystal near me.

She didn't see me, thankfully.

Strangely enough, it began to glow once I pointed it in her direction.

I glanced near the crack in the piles of safes and saw her look in my direction again, her eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration.

She popped into view, only a few feet away from me.

Now's my chance.

I shunted through a bunch of safes and grabbed her by the collar of her trench coat.

The only thing I'll remember were those eyes: they were pale blue that I've seen before.

I saw those eyes go from sock to anger in a split second.

She grasped my hand, wrenched it from her trench coat, and shoved me through the back wall, sending me all the way down to Reeve's Dam.

I managed to pull off a back flip in mid-air, skimming the glittery blue dam and flew back to the ware house- blue crystal in hand.

By the time I had reached her, she hovered in mid-air, eyes burning with blue flames.

I super sped up to her, brandishing the blue crystal like a stake to a vampire.

"You no Supergirl. Me am Supergirl." I heard her say gruffly, eyes lowered, mouth twisted into a horrendous-looking half grin.

She can talk?

My mouth hung open as she shunted in a blue haze.

What in El was that about?

I sighed, putting the crystal into my belt loop.

Looking around, I saw the stalker near his sleek car, writing something down in his notepad, a few miles down the road.

Don't want to deal with explaining this to him.

I flew towards the Bat cave: something tells me that I'm going to need Oracle's expertise.

I shunted through the Bat cave's entrance and heard Barbara say, "I knew you'd come sooner or later."

I smirked.

"You know me all too well."

"So, what's up?" she said wheeling her chair near me.

"Lex is planning something, and I just want to see what I'm up against." I said pulling up a chair.

I showed her the pink goo that was in the capsule and told her to be careful with it.

"I will." She said, as she tied her fiery red hair back into a ponytail.

She slid her desktop drawer open and put some latex-free gloves on.

She pressed a button under the desk drawer.

A shelf full of slides, a mini-microscope, and a few q-tips were soon in view.

She took a q-tip and swabbed the inside of the capsule, then she carefully took it and put it on a slide.

"What other gifts did you get me?" she asked, peering through the microscope.

"Well, I got a nifty blue crystal." I said and told her about the fight at the warehouse.

"Yeah, it looks like you took a beating down there." She stated calmly as I looked around the Batcave, seeing what I've been missing after all these years.

Wait a minute…

I turned around and narrowed my eyes at her, "How did you know I was even down there?"

She looked up from the microscope, and said with a drip of sarcasm, "Hello? Oracle, remember?"

"Oh,right. I forgot." I said.

She wheeled back to the microscope and looked at the pink goo.

I explained my side of the battle and told her about the attacker.

There was a lengthy pause.

"So, this thing knocked you all the way down to Smallville. Jeez."

She put the slide into a tight canister.

I nodded adding softly, "It's as even the thing knew I'd come-,"my voice faltered a bit, '-Rao, It's even as strong as me."

Now, Barbara would give me some note of reassurance: saying that everything would be fine, but I looked at her freckled face, now pale with worry, and I knew for the first time- that she didn't have anything good to say.

We stood in silence for a while.

She was the first to clear her throat and say, "So, uhm. How's Malverne? You still have that crush on him?"

I snorted, "First of all, Linda has the crush, but it's turning into a little more than that. Then again-"

My voice trailed off as I remembered the kiss we had.

She chuckled, intrigued.

"So, you mean to tell me that the Maid of Might is having doubts."

"Hey! I didn't mean it in that sense." I retorted, playfully punching her shoulder.

"Didn't say, but it sounded that way." she stated, with a smirk.

I checked my phone for a minute.

"Gonna call him?" she said.

I smirked, then frowned, realizing that I didn't have service.

"The Bat-phone's in the back." she said, taking off her gloves then pausing, putting them back on.

"Thanks." I deadpanned, shutting the phone and walking to the back of the cave.

I dialed his number, but only got his familiar southern drawl on the message machine.

Hey, you've reached Richard Malverne. You know what to do after the-

"Hey, Richard. Just wondering how you're doing. If you can, please call my cell." I said as Linda, hanging up the Bat-phone.

"Busy?" Barbara asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, he usually answers his phone, even if he's in the E.R."

"That's odd."

I smirked, "You're telling me. I'm the one who's dating him."

She chuckled, taking out the pink goo and examining it under the microscope, again.

After a long pause she said, "This is interesting."

"What is?" I said, peering over her shoulder.

"The protoplasmic life form has remnants of DNA which die under the radioactive emissions of the crystal."

"Subtitles?" I asked her with a quizzical look on my face.

She sighed in annoyance, "The pink goo is part meta-human. Which is weird: considering the fact that it's already a part of you."

"So, what you're saying is that this thing is a clone?" I said slowly.

She nodded.

"It could have come from the Leesburg Sewer System. Maybe Luthor got a hold of it and-", she stopped in midsentence.

I saw her eyes light up.

"You know what, Kara? I'll get back to you on this." she said quickly, typing up a storm. She murmured something about triangulating some points in Metropolis.

I shrugged.

"All right, see you later."

I shunted to the sparse trees near Leesburg Hospital, quickly changed in to Linda, and walked inside. As I walked in through the automatic doors, I used my x-ray vision. My eyes, lingered towards the room where Richard was staying. I felt a sense of longing for him, which was a feat to itself.

"Can I help you?" A nurse at the desk asked me, waking me from my daydream I turned my x-ray vision off and said , "Yeah, I'm wondering if Richard Malverne is awake. I'm a friend of his."

"I see." she said, uninterested, as she typed his name onto the computer. I looked around and saw the nurse I had seen back in the x-ray room. She had a clipboard in her hands, and was talking to a male nurse. I waved and got her attention.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there." She said smiling, as she walked up to me.

"It's ok." I said smirking, "-Is Richie still awake? I need to tell him something.

"Richie-", she said quizzically, then her eyes lit up, "-oh, your boyfriend, right?"

I nodded, blushing a little.

"Well, dear, you just missed him"

I hung my head.

"So, he's not here?"

"Here? No, but don't worry he gave me something for you Just wait right here."

She ran into a storage room and took a folded piece of paper from a drawer and handed it to me.

I smirked, instantly recognizing Richard's chicken scratch as I opened up the paper.

Dear Linda, It began.Ever since I first laid my eyes on you in High school, I knew that you were my personal Supergirl.

I chuckled, If only he knew how true that was.

You were different: Your blue eyes filled with secrets. You saved me from the bustling city cars that sped through the streets, and landed near a quiet park bench where we had our first kiss. I remember it well. I, ultimately and bravely, ended my two year relationship with a popular girl senior year, so I could take you to senior prom. I remember your wonderful blue eyes stinging with tears as I told you that I had to go to Missouri to take over the family business. And sadly, I have to leave a second time, but not to Missouri. I'll still be in Leesburg. I just needed to be alone for tonight. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. I hope you'll bring that witty sarcasm with you.

He ended it with a little smiley face.

I smiled, folding it into the back pocket of my jeans.

"Everything alright?" the nurse asked.

I nodded, "Yeah. It's more than all right."

I winked at her and walked down to my house where I saw a clear DVD case on my doorstep.

I narrowed my eyes, turning serious.

Who would leave a DVD case on someone's doorstep?

I turned it over and saw no label on it.

Strange.

I looked around and saw no cars parked suspiciously nearby.

I opened the door a little bit. Using my super-hearing, I heard a few little whirs coming from inside.

Someone bugged my house?!!

I used my x-ray vision and saw the walls fade into a dark blue. The cameras instantly appeared white as ghosts,against a dark blue backdrop. I plucked every one of them out: of the walls; cupboards, clay figurines and anywhere else they would have been. I crushed them and threw them into a nearby trash can.

Who would do something like this?

I sighed.

My eyes trailed back to the DVD case. I popped the DVD and slumped onto the couch.