Hey there! I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who's stuck with this fic or got to read it for the first time. Part of me expected everyone to drop it - and it is a rather different beast, so I wouldn't have been surprised, but I'm fortunate enough that it hasn't been the case. Special thanks to the people who went all the way back and took it from the top, and to everyone who's given the rest of this series a chance! It's no coincidence that some of the other fics in this series are doing numbers since I pulled the trigger on the upgrade.
Please check the notes at the end - I have a question for y'all! In the meantime, enjoy the chapter!
Kara finally gets a good look at her brand new scar, changing into the clothes Alex brought her. It's pretty impossible to miss – a gnarled, diagonal line of hastily reknit tissue, some two or three inches long, just above and to the right of her belly button. There's a smaller but matching scar on her back, where the tip of the blade broke through. She briefly considers getting a tattoo to make something beautiful out of her injury, like Alex did with her old gunshot scar, but she's pretty sure no needle on Earth can pierce her skin.
Just the one sword, of course.
She sighs, and finishes dressing up. Someone's left her cape on her bed, entirely unharmed, neatly folded and washed clean of her blood and other such detritus from the battle. A quick query with JARVIS confirms that the rest of her suit, minus the synth-vibranium symbol of the House of El, is a total loss. As sad as she'll be to see it go, she asks that the new iteration forego the skirt – all it really does is get ripped up or torn off, anyway, but beyond that, it almost feels a little too...innocent. Cute, no doubt, but maybe more appropriate for the Supergirl who hadn't yet tasted bitter defeat. She hopes Pepper will forgive her.
The mood in the Tower is tense; S.H.I.E.L.D. has more or less invaded, occupying three or four floors under the top section dedicated to the Avengers and their support staff and facilities. It's not just field agents, either; scientists, engineers, analysts, and even administrative personnel emblazoned with the ever-present eagle logo have also set up shop throughout Avengers Tower. She even recognizes some agents from the Index program, but they all avoid her gaze – in fact, everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. garb seems to be avoiding her.
She wonders just how widespread the whole 'Fury had a weapon made to kill Supergirl' idea might be, a week after the fact.
"Over here!" –Alex calls out, waving her over at the elevator.
Kara was too groggy earlier to realize just how weird her sister looks out of her service uniform; it's been so long since they just...hung out and talked, between Alex's dedication to her duties in the agency, and Kara's half-hearted attempt at clawing her way into the journalism world, that the image of Alex in her head has almost morphed to that of an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. first, and her older sister second. She shudders to think that she could've died thinking of her this way – but if there's a silver lining to her brush with death, it's that she has a chance to rectify this, and any other things about her life that she's taken for granted.
Alex hugs her tightly, unprompted – rather uncharacteristically, which tells Kara that her sister might be on the same page. Kara holds her hands afterward. "What did Doctor Cho say?" –Alex asks.
Kara glances around, eyes narrowed with distrust. "I got a clean bill of health." –she says, vaguely.
Her sister seems to get the idea. "Come on, then. Your friends will be happy to see you."
The elevator doors close. The digital panel scans them both, and grants them passage to the upper levels – which makes Kara raise an eyebrow, as Alex's name and picture pops up filed under the Avengers' logo, same as hers. "Did you...sign onto the team?" –Kara wonders.
Alex snorts. "Not the way you did." –she says. "I'm no superhero, Kara. I'm...'support staff', I think Stark called it? I'm here for you. I know your body healed right back to normal, but what you went through? Speaking from experience, that's not so easy to shrug off."
Kara purses her lips. "I'm okay, Alex. I promise." –she says, though she doesn't really buy it herself. Neither does Alex, from the looks of it. "You got the Kryptonite back, right?"
"Yeah, we're keeping it here for the time being." –she says, then realizes that might not be what Kara wants to hear. "Don't worry; it's locked inside a lead-lined steel box and monitored by JARVIS 24/7. It can't affect you at all. You ask me, it should've been destroyed already, but...I think the Avengers wanted to ask you what should be done about it."
The Kryptonian's first instinct is to toss the thing into the sun; simply knowing there's a rock out there that's deadly to her – and only her – is almost too disturbing to consider, especially considering how easy it apparently was for Victor to steal it from S.H.I.E.L.D. However, logic wins out over her instinctive fear – Kryptonite is exactly what the Avengers would need to stop her, should she ever go rogue or become compromised. She definitely doesn't think anyone needs a whole dang sword made out of the stuff, but having enough to give them a fighting chance might be ideal.
She can only imagine Bruce would kill for something that could stop the Hulk's rampages as quickly and easily as Kryptonite stopped her.
"I think I have an idea." –she says. "But that can wait. I want you to catch me up on everything that happened while I was out."
Alex exhales, mildly overwhelmed. "What didn't?" –she asks, rhetorically. "No joke, I think taking on the the all-American institution that is OsCorp might've gotten the Avengers more headlines than the actual alien invasion you guys stopped."
"That bad, huh?" –Kara winces.
"Some, yeah, but it's not all bad." –Alex reassures her. "There was a purge at OsCorp, but most of the jobs not related to the underground facilities were kept intact after the Stark Industries takeover."
"Oh, I heard something about that when I woke up." –Kara remembers. "How did that happen?"
Alex hums. "Well, after the news broke and Wall Street reacted to the whole illegal human experimentation business accordingly, the OsCorp board couldn't get rid of their shares quickly enough. It was Pepper's idea to snatch them up and fold OsCorp's NYC branch into Stark Industries, turning it into a new biochemistry division and a headquarters for the company on the East Coast, all at the same time. S.H.I.E.L.D. pulled some strings so the FTC would let the merger happen without a hitch – they figure it'd be a lot easier to investigate just what the hell Centipede was up to under the SI banner than if Norman Osborn was involved."
Kara frowns. "And what, Osborn just let Stark Industries gobble up half his company? That's not really like him, even if he is on his death bed."
Alex shrugs, though she does look somewhat concerned. "His legal reps put out a statement for him in support of a full investigation into the company's wrongdoings. But he's claiming complete ignorance, and he's obviously not taking this takeover lying down – he still owns half of the company's shares, and all of OsCorp's remaining facilities and operations around the globe, and they made sure to note that in the statement."
"I feel like that'll come back to bite us in the ass, somehow." –Kara says, sarcastic.
"That's a safe bet." –Alex agrees. "But we'll be ready. I know it's only been a week, but everyone's been hard at work trying to make sure that the Avengers won't be caught unprepared like that again. A lot has changed while you were sleeping."
Almost on cue, a gust of frigid air and a bright blue glow burst out of Tony's workshop. Kara raises an eyebrow, her interest piqued. "What's going on in there?" –she wonders.
"Don't look at me, I'm a bio-engineer. Whatever shenanigans Stark gets up to, they're bound to be outside my field." –she says, then tilts her head. "Then again, that didn't stop Lena."
Kara enters the workshop; she doesn't have to wonder for long about what Alex means by 'shenanigans', as it seems Tony, Lena, Winn, and Peter are in the middle of an experiment – lab coats, safety glasses, and all. Stark is wearing a new gauntlet, from the looks of it – a sleeker, more life-like design, more reminiscent of a normal human arm than bulky armor to be worn. The other three seem to be monitoring the data collected from the experiment on a nearby holotable.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Sunshine and Rainbows herself!" –Stark grins, lowering his gauntlet. "How're you feeling, Goldilocks?"
"Great, actually." –she smiles. "Those ancient Kryptonian gene-smiths really knew what they were doing, I guess. I healed right back to normal."
Winn snorts. "'Ancient Kryptonian gene-smiths', she says. I swear, I can't believe we were arguing over pizza toppings just a month ago. What have our lives become, even?"
"Nothing but exciting opportunities to put ourselves at risk of grievous bodily harm." –Lena notes, sarcastically.
Kara frowns. 'Ourselves'?, she thinks to herself. "At least the tech is cool." –Peter shrugs.
"Speaking of which, watch this." –Tony says. His gauntlet whines with power, and four panels just behind the wrist slide back. He makes a fist, and points it at the target – the head and torso of a broken down HAMMER drone, probably from the battle above OsCorp. The gauntlet fires four identical lasers at the drone's dented chest; nothing happens for a second, but then the panels start gyrating around the wrist, and the lasers coalesce into a beam that instantly freezes the target. The freeze ray turns off after a second or two, leaving behind a faint trail of hoarfrost, almost like an afterimage, that swiftly evaporates.
Kara only realizes her jaw is wide open after the demonstration ends. "And that, sisters Danvers, is my brand-spanking-new Freon Beam." –he boasts, grinning like a madman.
"I keep telling him that calling it that will land him in legal hot water." –Lena says, sneering at him. "'Freon' is a trademark, and even if it wasn't, it's a greenhouse gas that's been prohibited worldwide for ages. Greenpeace will have your head, Stark."
"I voted for Frost Bolt." –Winn pipes up.
Stark narrows his eyes at the contrarian pair. "I told you, it's not a bolt. It's a series of projected laser beams that supercool whatever's in their path by blasting particles with photons and reducing their energy state, and thus their temperature, to near-absolute zero."
"...and so you should call it a Bose-Einstein Condenser, after the physics concept you're putting into practice." –Lena drawls, long-suffering. "You should be giving proper credit, anyway."
"Technically it'd be the 'Cornell-Wieman Condenser', since they're the first ones who successfully created a Bose-Einstein condensate using the technique Mr. Stark is using in 1995." –Peter helpfully supplies, then blushes, once he notices everyone looking at him. "But 'Freon Beam' definitely sounds a lot cooler!"
Tony points an armored finger at Peter. "See? Pete knows his stuff. Rule of Cool wins."
Kara chuckles. "What's this...scientific brotherhood you guys have got going on? I wasn't down that long, was I?"
"Lena was mad that I made a glorified gimp suit to help you absorb sunlight better." –Tony rolls his eyes. "Nevermind the fact that no one but Doctor Cho and maybe your sister would've seen you in it, or the significant efficiency boost it would've given you. So we dared each other to come up with something better – side note, still working on that – which spiraled off into multiple different collaborative projects, and that expanded to include everyone here plus Bruce."
"He's doing his morning yoga routine." –Peter adds.
Winn rubs his hands with glee. "We've since donated all but eight or so hours of sleep to the noble cause of scientific advancement." –he jokes. "And we've come up with a few fun toys for the Avengers to play with."
Alex shakes her head. "I'll go wrangle everyone else for a meeting. You guys have fun in the meantime." –she says, giving Kara a meaningful look.
Tony shakes his head after Alex leaves. "Your sister turned down Science Bro membership, by the way. I know she's technically unrelated to Maria Hill, but you couldn't tell on account of how identically the two manage to suck all the fun out of a room."
"You watch what you say about my sister, Iron Man." –Kara jokingly warns. "Besides, I'm sure you'd say that about most sensible people."
"This is known." –Stark bows his head, sagely. "So, on to the subject of toys."
The genius engineer presents her with several holographic blueprints. Among them, Kara spots a new Quinjet design, a new Iron Man suit following the sleeker design philosophy of the gauntlet he just tested, an updated version of Titanium Man's armor, her new suit (already sans the skirt, as requested), and what looks like an Iron Man suit on copious amounts of anabolic steroids. "Again, I was only down for a week." –Kara says, baffled. "How did you guys manage to do so much?"
"The power of teamwork and caffeine, I guess." –Winn says. "Seriously, though, ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. took over Avengers Tower, we kind of holed up in here and avoided them as best we could."
"Fury's pissed off about almost everything that happened before, during, and after our little tussle with Centipede." –Tony says. "Because we acted unilaterally, because we're consorting with vigilantes, because we won't surrender the Kryptonite to S.H.I.E.L.D., etcetera."
Lena snorts. "It's something of a useless gesture, anyway. The Avengers have been co-opted by S.H.I.E.L.D., have they not?"
Kara frowns. "What do you mean?"
Tony sheds the gauntlet, which retracts into itself, forming a vaguely cylindrical object the size of a closed fist. He looks entirely fed up with the situation Lena's mentioned. "You know that bit of operational freedom Fury gave us to start with? Well, that particular leash has gotten considerably shorter." –he says, bitterly. "He's created a new S.H.I.E.L.D. division named S.T.R.I.K.E. – Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies, because we have to have stupid acronyms – and folded the Avengers into it."
"It's supposed to be a 'command and support' structure built around the team so you guys don't go around clobbering Fortune 500 companies." –Winn explains, sardonic. "...but in practice, it really sounds like they're trying to turn you into Fury's personal hit squad."
"Rhodey's in the Middle East right now, on a joint S.T.R.I.K.E.-Air Force op." –Stark says, thoroughly annoyed. "Trying to take down some kind of new terrorist cell under this fancy new jackass calling himself the Mandarin."
"Captain America just got back from a black market bust in Brazil yesterday." –Peter adds. "He...didn't look very happy about it."
"…and Barton's just shipped out to Russia. Something about a few loose ends Romanoff left behind when she was summoned for the Tesseract debacle." –Stark sums up. "Even if we give Fury the benefit of the doubt about his 'command and support' bullshit, it kinda feels like he just doesn't want us all to stick together."
Kara scoffs. "What is he thinking? What if there's a huge emergency, and half the team is on the other side of the planet?" –she pinches the bridge of her nose. "And just after Doctor freakin' Doom proved that there's people out there who can take us on, even as a team? What if he randomly decides to pop by the Tower and snuff a couple of us out, huh?"
The assembled science siblings all look at each other, and then back at her. "Well, uh...worry not, he can't – our new wizard pal placed a bunch of wards that prevent him from doing just that – but, more importantly…you wanna talk about it?" –Stark wonders, a worried frown twisting his features.
The blonde plops down on a nearby rotating stool. "What's there to say? He came in and kicked our collective butts – mine, worst of all. I guess I drank my own Kool-Aid, after all." –she mutters. "I…I really thought I was invincible for a while, there." –she admits.
"I think that was the point, Kara." –Tony muses. "Think about it; if he really wanted you dead, he could've just decapitated you, or stabbed through your heart, or any number of surefire ways to kill a person. Hell, he could've killed all of us before the cavalry arrived."
Lena rolls her eyes. "What Stark is blundering his way through saying is that everything he did was non-lethal, in a manner of speaking." –she clarifies.
"But why do it in the first place? So he could, what, prove a point?" –Kara balks.
"He said he'd judged us and found us wanting." –Stark recalls. "That we weren't worthy of our powers and weapons – that we didn't fight as 'one force of justice', whatever that means, and that when all else failed, we turned to you."
Kara sighs. "'Unaware of just how fragile she really is'." –she glumly mutters. "I remember."
"Frankly, he's in no position to judge. He wants to talk about being worthy, he should take a good, long look at himself – no one wielding the kind of power he does, the way he does, is worthy of anything but scorn." –Lena sneers.
"Still made his point, didn't he?" –Kara sighs.
"Maybe." –Tony shrugs. "But honestly, so what? Like Luthor here said, if Victor von Doom truly cared about making sure Earth has the best defenders available, he'd be here, helping us – not beating the shit out of us and putting our heaviest hitter in the ICU. Whatever his intentions are, whatever priorities he claims to have? They're overshadowed by his burning desire to be a massive dick."
Lena gives her a tired smile. "If you think this horrible ordeal has taught you anything of value, then by all means, learn from the experience." –she says. "But don't let it be on his terms. Don't let his ghost hang over you. No one that cruel and sadistic gets to define what a hero should be like."
Kara hums. It's not that easy, of course – even if her thoughts didn't stray every so often to the image of Victor's soulless eyes staring carelessly at her as he plunged the Kryptonite blade into her abdomen, the fact that he's out there, free to strike again at his whim, will probably keep her up at night for a very long time. But knowing he's out there is its own silver lining – she knows the kind of threat he poses, now, and she can strive to prepare as best she can for the next time they come face to face.
And there will be a next time; even if Victor decided to retire from being a supervillain to a cozy little cabin in the Latverian wilderness while she was out, they now have a score to settle. Her mother would doubtless urge her to forgive and forget, as was the way of the House of El, but in this particular instance, she's willing to be a bit more like Astra – that is to say, to hold a grudge, and wish for revenge.
But that'll be then, and this is now, so she settles for a brave face and a reassuring smile. Lena holds her hands, and at least for the moment, her thoughts settle on the present – on the precious warmth between her palms, and the soft, emerald gaze searching her own azure orbs.
The men in the room all stare at each other, knowingly. Thankfully, they know better than to break the spell.
Unfortunately, Bruce Banner doesn't; he comes bursting into the workshop, looking more excited and energized than Kara's ever seen him. "Tony, I've got it! Nerve agents! We can put dispensers in Veronica's wrists!" –he rambles, then stops in his tracks. He looks back and forth between Lena and Kara, and blushes, rubbing the back of his head. "…oh dear. I, uh…interrupted something, didn't I?"
The pair laugh nervously. They separate a bit, all too conscious of their closeness now, but Kara gently insists on holding one of Lena's hands. She clears her throat. "Hey Bruce." –she greets. "So, um…'Veronica', huh? Who's the lucky girl?"
So, next chapter will be a big debrief with the whole team (minus Rhodey and Hawkeye). Immediately following that, however, there'll be a crossover event - the first crossover between crossovers! Changing of the Guard (a Ben 10 x Tales of Arcadia x MCU crossover you should check out in the series page!) is about to enter its final arc, which involves a major alien invasion - the kind of event the Avengers couldn't possibly miss. My question for you, then, is:
a) Do I add a Supergirl POV chapter to this fic of the events she'll participate in?
b) Do I skip the event altogether here, and just point you in Changing of the Guard's direction?
c) Do I create a separate short story with the Avengers' POV of the events in question, and point you towards it?
Do note that there will be a few references to the events of Changing of the Guard moving forward, regardless of what option I end up choosing!
As always, thank you for your attention! Make sure to comment or message me if you have any questions about this story. Look me up on Twitter as Darthkvzn or Tumblr as darthkvznblogs if you'd like - and on Ko-fi, as Darthkvzn, if you like what I do and have a buck to spare.
Until next time!