"You said the effects weren't steady?" Max asked after hours of staring at data.
"Yeah. After she was brought in the Kryptonite controlled it and she was okay, then suddenly she wasn't until we increased the levels again. It seemed to be step changes rather than a power law or exponential growth." Alex said wearily, running a hand through her hair.
"Maybe not. Could it have been more like a dam breaking?" Max asked. The question causing Alex to pause before answering.
"Maybe. Why? What are you thinking?"
"Uncontrollable production of cAMP molecules." Max stated.
"Keep talking." Alex said as her brain started to process the idea.
"Her powers go crazy and you subject her to Kryptonite which seems to stop the problem?" Max asked.
"Yes."
"What if it didn't stop, just slowed down the production of the cAMP molecules to a level that could be controlled by the normal enzymes? You are the expert on this, but my guess would be Kryptonite inhibits the production of cAMP molecules. Only, for some reason her cells have gone into overdrive and the Kryptonite wasn't inhibiting the production enough. At some point enough cAMP molecules were produced to turn on her powers."
"Which means either her cell receptors have gone into overdrive or she is not producing enough of the phosphodiesterase enzyme to counteract the molecule production?" Alex said, starting to feel awake and hopeful.
"Yes." Max said.
"But which one?" Jeremiah asked.
"My money would be on the later because only her passive powers were effected." Alex said.
"So we need to look at her cells and see what her levels of cAMP molecules is and was as well as enzyme levels." Max said before casually adding. "Having a sample of her cousin's cells as a comparison would be helpful."
"We have plenty of samples from Kara." Alex said not trusting his motives. "I'll go grab some from the med lab."
"I'll come with you." Jeremiah offered. When they were out of the lab he asked. "You doing okay? All things considered."
"I'm okay." Alex said. "Apart from being worried, frustrated and angry."
"We'll figure this out." Jeremiah said.
"I hope so." Alex said almost sounding defeated, causing Jeremiah to put a hand on her shoulder forcing her to come to a stop.
"Alex, from what I can see you are an amazing scientist. Have some faith in yourself. If you want I can give you the same pep talk I gave you before your 5th Grade science fair. I mean you did ace that competition so I must have said something right." The comment earned a small smile from Alex who said.
"Thank you for having faith in me."
"It's not just me. It's obvious everyone here does. Never forget how proud I am of you. And I know your mother may be a little hard on you, but she is also so proud of you." He smiled. "Let's get those samples."
-00-
"How's it going?" Lucy asked as she entered the lab the following day, surprised that the four sleep deprived occupants were so active.
"Good." Alex said staring through a microscope.
"You've found something?"
"Possibly." J'onn said. "But we could use your help a minute."
"Sure, what do you need?"
"We need to bounce an idea off you."
"What type of an idea?" Lucy asked curious.
"About Kara." Alex said.
"You want to bounce your theory off me?" Lucy questioned.
"Yeah."
"But I'm not a scientist." Lucy said.
"Trust me, we know." Lord said. "Your complete lack of knowledge makes you ideal."
"What Max is trying to say," Alex said. "Is we have been staring at this non-stop for hours and think we have something, but we need someone independent and not sleep deprived to make sure there are no holes in the logic."
"We've all checked the science." J'onn added. "And we are convinced it makes sense, but if we are right, synthesising a compound will take hours to days. We don't want to do that and then find out we missed something and our theory was wrong. So we could really do with a fresh pair of eyes, preferably a pair that has managed to sleep in the last couple of days."
"Okay." Lucy agreed, not entirely sure what she was bringing to the party.
"Alex." J'onn said prompting her to start.
"Kara's cells react to stimuli like everyone else. However, with Kara, exposure to radiation from our sun causes certain proteins to initiate a physiological response." Alex said.
"And that gives her powers?" Lucy asked.
"For her passive powers, like hearing, vision and strength, yes. For her active powers, flying, freeze breath and heat vision it is only the first step. For those ones when Kara wants to use the powers the brain sends a signal to the cells that triggers a second protein, which launches biochemical reactions." She paused to make sure Lucy was following her before adding. "For both the passive and active powers once the response has been initiated the cells syntheses small molecules, or secondary messengers, these start a cascade of signals within the cell, that generates a magnified signal that gives her powers. Depending on the super power in question it can take longer or more energy to generate a strong enough signal in all the cells to have a noticeable effect."
"So, assuming her cells are charged, her passive powers are always on and there is a constant generation of a signal in her cells, but for her active ones her brain sends a signal that is magnified in each cell? But regardless of active or passive it is the strong signal in the cells that gives her powers?" Lucy asked.
"Highly simplistically, yes." Max agreed.
"So how does the signal stop?" Lucy asked.
"By the brain sending another signal that causes the generation of an enzyme that degrades the first signal."
"And you believe her brain isn't sending that signal?" Lucy guessed.
"No we believe the signal is being sent but her cells aren't producing the enzyme so the first signal is always stuck on." Alex said.
"Because?" Lucy asked.
"Firstly, all the brain scans appeared normal. Secondly, when Kara first stared presenting we could stop the effects, temporarily, with Kryptonite. Kryptonite inhibits the production of the molecules, but doesn't stop it completely, especially at the levels she was exposed to. But soon the Kryptonite didn't stop her powers, implying that the molecules had been produced and had multiplied to such a level they gave her powers again. But only certain powers were effected. Hearing and vision are powers that are always on. Normally a signal is sent from the brain that produces the enzyme that then degrades the molecules and cuts down the strength to the required level, whereas, heat vision, freeze breath, flying, are active powers. She needs to send a signal to activate them and another to deactivate them."
"So because she didn't lose control of the heat vision, freeze breath and flying you think she wasn't randomly sending uncontrollable signals trying to activate the powers? Whereas, the passive powers always have the molecules produced and are countered by the production of the enzyme. And because her passive powers were the ones spiralling out of control she wasn't producing the enzyme? So either the cell receptors are broken or the cells can't produce the enzyme."
"That's the theory." Alex said, waiting for Lucy to pick apart the logic.
"Assuming you are right, do you have a solution?" Lucy asked. "Don't we need to find what she was exposed to in order to reverse it?"
"Maybe not." Alex said. "It is possible she was not exposed to anything and her cells have mutated. Either from Kryptonite exposure or exposure to the Earth. But in a way it doesn't matter all we need to do is get her cells to produce the enzyme through the introduction of the correct protein phosphatases, then at least we can control the situation."
"And you have a way of doing this?"
"Not exactly, not yet, but if you can't find a hole in any of what I just said we can synthase a solution."
"Most of what you said went over my head, but it sounded plausible." Lucy said. "But isn't there a simpler solution?"
"Such as?"
"Can't you drain her cells? Can't you force her to undergo, what does her cousin call it? Solar Flare?"
"That is only a temporary effect." Alex said. "And we still don't fully understand how the cells become so drained. I mean during Myriad she pushed herself harder than ever before, but was fine. Whereas after fighting Red Tornado she lost her powers."
"Ma'ams, Sirs. I have something." Vasquez said entering the lab.
"What is it?" J'onn asked.
"I may have discovered proof that Supergirl was exposed to something." She paused and let everyone stand round her as she started a video playing on her tablet. "This video shows thermal imagery of Supergirl a week ago."
"Okay." J'onn said not noticing anything out of the ordinary.
"This one is from six days ago."
"Looks pretty identical." Alex commented.
"Yes Ma'am." Vasquez agreed. "Until we get to this imagery from five days ago."
Noticing Supergirl's thermal signature was much stronger Max asked. "Couldn't that just be due to a difference in sensor calibration?"
"No." Vasquez said firmly before turning back to J'onn and explaining, as she loaded up more videos. "All subsequent images have the same increased thermal profile."
"That makes sense." Lucy said causing Max to scoff and ask.
"Why?"
"Well, if you are right and her cells are constantly transmitting an increasing signal, that isn't being dampened by the whatever enzyme, that should increase her body energy." She said before looking at Alex and asking. "Right?"
"Right." Alex smiled.
"Good work Vasquez." J'onn commented.
"I'm not done yet." She went on. "The first time Supergirl showed a difference in thermal signature was when she was attending a traffic collision. Having helped clear up a dropped cargo her signature showed a subtle change. It is not as strong as later, but it is increased."
"What was the cargo?"
"I don't know, yet. The truck is registered to FleetFast Holdings. They seem legitimate, but I am still checking."
"Does this have anything to do with you?" Alex asked rounding on Max.
"This is getting tiresome." Max stated, sounding annoyed.
"That's not a no." Lucy pointed out.
"When I accidentally exposed Supergirl to Red Kryptonite I handed myself in and helped find a solution." Max said. "I even confessed to creating Bizzaro. So why do you think, if I was behind it, I wouldn't have confessed to what is happening now?"
"Because a confession wouldn't suit your plan." Alex said.
"And what plan is that?"
"I haven't figured it out yet, but I will." Alex said.
"YA lyublyu, kogda ty mne ugrozhat." Max said smiling as Alex glared at him.
"idti prygat." Alex countered.
"This isn't getting us anywhere." Jeremiah said moving to Alex's side. "Perhaps we should focus on repairing Kara's cells first and who is responsible later."
"I'm going to investigate FleetFast Holdings." J'onn said. "Lucy, I'd appreciate your company."
"Of course."
"Alex, in case this doesn't lead to anything tangible, do you have enough to generate a compound that will lead to the cells generating the enzyme?"
"I hope so." Alex said.
"Good. If Lord gets in the way feel free to remove him." J'onn said before leaving the lab.
-TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing.