Hey guys! Sorry about the wait. I was going to post this one on Wednesday but I got really sick that day. Then, on Thursday, I had some big assignments I had to work on for school. I might post another chapter this weekend since I'm trying to post bi-weekly.

Also, some of you are asking about Kal-El's role in this universe. Well, it will be revealed later on in this story, so I can't confirm or deny any theories as of yet.

...

Chapter 3: Loss & Healing

After a lot of planning, the team decided to try and take Galatea on the next night. They figured if they fought her during the day, there would be more of a risk of civilian casualties. Besides, Galatea may not realize that Kara is in Metropolis so sticking around in Central and stopping crime may be a good way to lure her there. Barry woke up early that day getting ready for work with his super speed when he suddenly heard a knock on his door.

"Who's there?" he shouted towards the door, toothpaste still in his mouth.

"It's Kara," he heard a familiar voice say. He spit out the toothpaste and sped to the door.

"Hey," Barry said with a big grin on his face as he opened the door. "What's up? Galatea show up already?"

"Oh! No, no," Kara chuckled. "I just came here to see if you wanted to go out for breakfast."

"Oh," Barry reacted, surprised by the very normal situation he had found himself in, despite being a metahuman talking to an alien. "Sure. I'm always up for food."

"Great," Kara rejoiced and smiled. "I'm starving. What do you think about Motorcar diner?"

"Love it! Just let me go get my jacket."

…

They ran to the diner at high speeds, both of them enjoying the thrill of it. When they arrived near the diner they stopped in an alleyway and walked the rest of the way there.

"Gosh, I just love that rush!" Kara exclaimed happily causing Barry laugh. "You know what I'm saying?" Barry nodded.

"You know, Kara, I figured you just made up that whole thing about your friend in Central, but you actually seem to know your way around here." Kara chuckled at this.

"Actually, it was half true. I do have a friend in Central City: She's an old friend that I've known my entire life actually. I did however lie about her texting me and wanting to meet with me. She's actually out of town on some kind of job, and I'm just staying at her place while I'm in the city."

"I see," Barry said, understanding. Once inside the diner, they sat down in one of the booths by the windows.

"So… what you gonna get, Barry?" Kara asked now looking at the menu.

"Probably a little bit of everything," he said. Kara was now giving him a look.

"Hold on, you have a super human metabolism too, don't you?" she asked, sounding surprised.

"Well, yeah," Barry confirmed, surprised that Kara hadn't caught on yet. "You burn quite a lot of calories running around like I do. I'm guessing flying does too." Kara facepalmed, feeling embarrassed.

"Gosh, I should have figured," Kara chuckled, as did Barry. "But that's awesome. Now I have someone I can binge eat with… without them looking at me like I'm a pig." They both laughed at this.

"Hey, I'm not judging," Barry assured her. Barry was quite amazed at all this. It was the first time he had met someone who knew what it was like to have powers like he had.

They both practically inhaled each plate the waitress handed to them. They ate everything from bacon, eggs, pancakes, and so on. After an hour of eating, both of them were finally full.

"Oh, man! I love this place." Kara said as she let out a burp and they both began laughing.

"I know," Barry agreed as he wiped his face with a napkin. "By the way, one of these days you and I should run and get some pizza from Bludhaven. Believe it or not but the pizza there is out of this world." Barry was smiling, but noticed that Kara's expression was suddenly changing.

"What's wrong? Everything alright?" Barry asked with concern.

"It's nothing," Kara replied, trying to smile. "It's just that when you said "out of this world"… well, that has a more literal meaning to me. It makes me miss my home planet." Barry started feeling curious.

"You really haven't said much about your home planet at all." Barry paused for a second, questioning whether he should let it go. "Look, I get that it might be tough to talk about it with your family being gone." Kara was looking at the table trying not to meet Barry's gaze. She clearly wasn't sure how to talk about this, especially with someone she had met only recently. He decided that if he wanted to get through to Kara, he might have to let her get through to him first.

"When I was 11, my mom was killed," Barry said solemnly. This made Kara look back up at Barry. "I woke up one night when I heard a lot of noise coming from the living room. I went to check it out. There, I saw my mom and dad... My mom was in the middle of the room surrounded by what looked like a ball of lightning. Within this lightning I saw a man in a yellow costume, and he was moving really fast… fast like me. I wanted to stop it, but then, without a seconds notice… I was several blocks away from my house. I still don't know why. When I came back, my dad was being taken into custody." Barry paused for a second. "The man in the yellow suit had stabbed my mom, killing her, and then just disappeared. No one believed my dad when he told them the truth. Only me. The rest of the world thought he was a murderer, and they still do today." Barry noticed that he was tearing up talking about all of this, and he quickly wiped the tears from his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I just… the thing is that after all this, Joe, my dad's good friend took me in. He raised me almost like a son, so even though I lost something great that night, I also found something great too." Barry tried smiling despite the emotional moment. Kara had a concerned but understanding look on her face.

"And with my new found powers, finding the man in yellow is looking very possible all of the sudden. That's the thing. When life takes something away from you, it usually replaces it with something new." Kara suddenly took Barry's hand. She was being gentle not to break it.

"That must have been really hard for you," Kara said gazing into Barry's eyes, "but for what it's worth, I believe you." Barry couldn't help but smile at this. "And you're right. I gained something too when I lost my family. When I arrived on Earth, I was taken in by this couple: the Danvers, and they have been the most wonderful foster parents to me. As much as I miss my family, I'm really glad that I have them now." Barry smiled at this, hoping that he had helped open her up a bit.

"It's just… I don't know how to talk about how they died. Not yet. It's nothing personal. I just don't know how to do it."

"It's okay," Barry reassured her. "I get it."

Suddenly Barry's phone went off, making them break hand contact. Both of them were blushing slightly, realizing what they had been doing.

"Joe, hi. What's up?" Barry said into his phone. "I'm just having breakfast with Kara… Did Cisco, Caitlin or Wells not tell you about her? … Alright, I'll be there in a bit."

"Gotta go?" Kara asked curiously as Barry put his phone away.

"Soon. It's not super urgent but… Wait. Hold on."

"What's wrong?"

"It's just… I think I just put the pieces together." Barry proceeded to stand up and put some money on the table.

"Come on, I gotta take you to a crime scene."

"Alright," Kara said, still confused, following Barry out of the diner.

…

Joe had told Barry that the police had found another body like the ones from the other day. This time it was a 21 year-old Hispanic male. At first, Barry didn't think much of it but then he realized something. A strange substance never before seen on Earth and an alien woman coming after Kara at the same time seemed like two common factors too similar to be a coincidence.

This time the body had been found in an apartment, and the neighbor had reported it after smelling something coming from the room of the deceased. Kara and Barry arrived about a minute after leaving the diner, heading upstairs to meet Joe. As both of them walked into the room, an unpleasant smell met them upon entering. Whoever had lived here didn't really take care of the place.

"Joe," Barry called out to his stepdad. "I think I figured out what's going on.

"Good to know," Joe answered Barry, while turning towards him, which is when he noticed Kara. "And this is…?"

"Oh, sorry," Kara interjected holding her hand out. "I'm Kara… Danvers. Barry mentioned you."

"Joe West. Barry mentioned you on the phone," Joe answered receiving Kara's hand. "Strong handshake, Kara."

"I get that a lot," Kara replied and laughed. Joe suddenly gave Barry a look.

"Hold on, I just called you… Wait… Does she know?" Barry realized now that he had a lot of explaining to do.

"It's okay," Barry said and begun gesturing towards Kara. "… because Kara is a superhero." He made sure to lower his voice so no one else would hear.

"Oh! Really?" Joe said, understanding. "I guess that explains the handshake. So you got affected by the particle accelerator too?"

"Oh! So that's where all of these metahumans are coming from," Kara said, now understanding. "But no. Actually, I'm an alien." The understanding look on Joe's face faded as quickly as it had come.

"It's a bit of a long story," Barry added, seeing Joe confused beyond belief.

"Alright," Joe said, needing to let all of this sink in. "Well, what have you figured out, Barr?"

"Well," Barry said, "You see, there's this other alien, named Galatea. She's coming after Kara, which is another long story, but she's doing so using some sort of rifle with bullets that can apparently penetrate Kara's skin…"

"Bullets normally can't," Kara added. "But she claims that they can. I actually haven't been hit by one yet so she might just be lying."

"So you think that this, I can't believe I'm saying this, alien woman is using the same kind of bullets used on these three victims?" Joe asked.

"I don't know for sure," Barry answered moving towards the dead body, taking out his equipment so that he could take a sample of the blood.

"But if she is," Kara said, "then that means that she knows I'm in Central City." Kara was starting to look a bit worried. "I thought she was still in Metropolis, but she may have found out where I am already. We're definitely taking her on tonight."

"I gotta take another sample here and then we can know for sure that all three bodies were killed the same way. Once we have defeated Galatea, we'll be able to prove whether or not she's the killer." Kara was now smiling at Barry.

"What?" Barry asked curiously.

"Nothing," Kara replied. "I'm just glad you're confident that we can beat her."

"It's two against one," Barry reasoned. Kara seemed convinced, but suddenly turned her head slightly.

"You hear something, Kara?" Barry asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Car crash. Ten blocks away. I can take this one." Barry nodded.

"Thanks. I gotta take this back to the crime lab," Barry said holding up a small flask with the blood sample. "Catch ya later?"

"Definitely," Kara agreed with a smile.

She paced out of the room, and soon she was gone. Joe was now looking even more confused.

"Hear? She could hear a car crash from ten blocks away?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, she also has super strength, super speed, she can fly…"

"She can fly?" Barry was laughing at Joe's reaction.

"I'll explain the rest later, Joe. I gotta go," he said as he headed out the same door Kara left through.

…

The car crash didn't seem too bad at first. Two cars had crashed on a 4-way street, causing a minor traffic jam. A man was arguing with a couple right beside the cars, nothing all that unusual. Suddenly however, Kara heard a weird noise coming from one of the cars. Kara reacted immediately, grabbing the three people at super speed. Only a moment later, one of the cars set ablaze. It wasn't widespread, but the fire could have hurt anyone too close to it. She sped away quickly before being seen, a smile on her face, satisfied that no one was hurt.

After the car crash, Kara figured she'd head back to STAR Labs to see if she could help the others out at all. When she sped into the main room of the lab, she made sure she wasn't wearing her glasses as to avoid confusion.

"Hey guys," she proclaimed as she arrived, startling Cisco and Caitlin.

"Oh my god," Caitlin shouted. "I'm sorry. I'm still not used to having someone else here that can run as fast as Barry."

Kara had an amused look on her face. "Good thing I'm not a villain, huh?"

"Yeah," Cisco agreed. "We got enough powerful bad guys. One with your powers would be a nightmare. By the way, Kara, have you put any thought into a codename?" Kara was a bit surprised at the question.

"Not really. Maiden of Might is a bit of a mouthful though."

"Good, because I came up with a perfect name for you."

"I don't know," Kara dismissed. "It's really not that important."

"Powergirl," Cisco blurted out, barely listening to what Kara had said. She wasn't so sure about it.

"I'll get back to you on that, Cisco," she said.

"Hey, a maybe is not a no is it?" Cisco reasoned as he walked towards the entrance to the hallway. "Anyway, I gotta go put some pockets on Barry's suit. I'll be in the next room." Kara then noticed that Wells wasn't in the lab.

"So where is Dr. Wells?" Kara said as she walked around the room, observing the sleek design of the lab.

"I don't know. He's probably at home still. Said he was coming in late," Caitlin replied as she typed away on one of the STAR Labs computers.

"So, Caitlin… what's your story?" Kara asked suddenly. Caitlin was clearly a bit unprepared for the question by the look on her face.

"Oh, my story isn't anything special," she replied. "I've worked for STAR Labs for a couple years now: before and after the explosion. Father died of multiple sclerosis. Never had a great relationship with my mom."

"Sorry to hear that," Kara said, trying to be comforting.

"It's alright," Caitlin said. "I did eventually meet someone. My former fiancė, Ronnie. Though, he died when the particle accelerator exploded."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Cait," Kara said, trying to still be comforting.

"Thanks again for being nice, but it's alright. I gotta learn to move on. We all do sometimes."

A look of concern came over Kara, as she knew she still had things in her past to face. She quickly put on a smile though as to not reveal anything to Caitlin.

"So, onto a less depressing topic," Caitlin interjected, followed by laughter, "I heard you had breakfast with Barry." Kara couldn't help but blush at this.

"Yeah! So? What about it?" she said, looking away

"Nothing that I know of," Caitlin said smirking. "Is there something about it?"

Kara wasn't sure how to approach this. Barry was cute, and she definitely had a good time with him at the diner, despite the more depressing topic of her family being brought up. And even with that, Barry had been really comforting and kind. She wasn't sure how far things would go with him, if she was willing to let anything happen at all.

"Not really," Kara lied. "Though, I have to ask: Is Barry seeing anyone?" Caitlin chuckled.

"No, no one at the moment."

"Good," Kara blurted out. "No! I mean bad, since… you know… Barry's such a great guy, and he deserves someone great. Right?" Kara was feeling like a complete doofus.

"Right," Caitlin said still smirking. "Although… should I say…?"

"Should you say what?" Kara asked with concern in her voice.

"Well, he's been kind of enamored with his best friend Iris his entire life." Kara figured she was talking about the same Iris who wrote the articles on the Flash. She wondered if Iris knew he was the Flash. Nonetheless, Kara wasn't sure how to take this revelation. She could definitely sympathize with Barry's situation, as she had been enamored with one guy for much of her life here on Earth: Her ex, who was now living in National City. She wasn't quite over him, and while she liked Barry a lot, she needed to resolve things in her past first.

"Oh, I see," Kara finally said. "Well, I hope he doesn't wait too long to make his move, because eventually, it'll be too late."

"Yeah," Caitlin agreed. "By the way, you and I should get coffee sometime. I'm surrounded by guys all the time and having a girl friend around would be a nice change of pace."

"Agreed," Kara said and they both laughed.

…

I hope you guys enjoyed this one. I feel like this is when the story starts to really get good. Some Karry moments, Caitlin and Kara being friends and Joe's reaction to Kara. Next chapter is the first one with some action in it.