Chapter Two

Secret Government Facility Ruins

Outskirts of Keystone & Central City

United States

12:56 – Central Standard Time

March 07, 2007

The white light faded and Kara, known in the future as Argo, found herself stood in what looked like a war zone. There were injured all around her with bits of metal and concrete sticking up out of the smoking rubble. Whatever building had been here, it appeared to have been pulverised by something. Some of it had even been reduced to little more than dust.

She was feeling somewhat woozy and dizzy. She put it down to an after effect of time travel. Whatever it was, she hoped it cleared up soon as she had a feeling she was about to see combat.

Kara noticed a shadow streak across her periphery. Kara looked up to see Superman get clobbered by a familiar and most unwelcome sight. It was her rather unpleasant clone, someone she hoped she would never see again. Luckily the fake hadn't spotted her yet. That suited the Argoan original just fine.

She kicked off the ground and flew as fast as she could, becoming a midnight-blue blur. She struck the clone hard in the face, sending her hurtling into the trees, uprooting several and digging a long trench. Without wasting a moment, Argo followed her in, landing on top of the doppelgänger, restraining her arms in a tight grip.

"Look who it is!" Galatea spat. She then frowned, as she looked closer at her face, then down to her uniform. "You look different," she commented.

"I got older and got a change of attire."

"What does the 'A' stand for?" the clone asked. "Asshole?"

"Argo," she replied. "The place I was born. If you did the same, then you'd call yourself 'Test-tube'."

The clones face contorted with rage. She kneed Kara in the stomach, causing her to loosen her grip. Taking the advantage, she struck her hard in the mouth, splitting Argo's top lip.

Argo managed to get hold of Galatea's arms once more, pinning them to the ground. It didn't last long, as Kara noticed the clone's eyes begin to glow red. Kara turned her head to the side and braced for what was to follow. Galatea unleashed her heat vision. The twin lasers struck her on the side of the face. The sheer force of the blast, caused Kara to be knocked away. A cry escaped her lips, as she hit the dirt by her nemesis' feet.

Not letting the opportunity pass her by, Galatea lunged forward and began to pound her face, continuing on well after the Argoan original was knocked unconscious. She would have happily continued until the woman's head came off, but stopped when she heard a familiar voice calling over to her.

"Galatea, stop!" She turned to see her father, Emil Hamilton running over to her.

"Daddy?"

"When I set off the EMP, I was hoping you'd flee, not turn the place into a rubble pile and attack those that came to investigate."

"They tried to kill me," she snapped. "What was I supposed to do?"

He stopped a look of shock on his face. "Listen, Galatea. Destroying the place and attacking the league only validates their fears."

"They don't know what fear is," she rebuked, releasing her hold on the former Supergirl, letting her fall into the dirt.

"Come on, I have a car waiting," Emil told her, urgency in his voice. "I'll drive us away before anyone else comes."

"I'm not running," Galatea told him firmly.

"Tea, please," Emil said, almost pleading. "We need to get out of here."

Galatea looked down at the woman she had been cloned from, as she lay there in the dirt. "Pathetic," she mumbled to herself, before walking over to her father. "Fine, let's go."

They jumped into the Jeep, and Emil calmly drove off, leaving the scene of destruction behind.

Metro Tower

Metropolis

United States

18:54 – Eastern Standard Time

March 07, 2007

Superman stood and stared down at the unconscious woman who looked remarkably like Kara. Then again Galatea the clone also looked a lot like Kara and that only added to the suspicion that this might be another attempt at cloning her.

Above them, in the small single bed medical bay room was a red sun lamp, which would neutralize all of the Argoan's powers and abilities. Unfortunately, that included her ability to heal. But that couldn't be helped. He had no idea if she was dangerous or not.

While Superman had almost completely recovered from the beating he'd received earlier, the woman who looked like Kara had a dark bruised and swollen face. He glanced at the sunlamp for a moment, knowing that if he spent too long in here, he too would start to feel its effect.

At the sound of the door, he looked around, as Doctor Pauline Lester, the Metro Tower's new resident physician, entered. "So, is it another clone?" the Man of Steel asked her.

"According to my tests, it seems that this is the real Supergirl," the doctor responded.

"But how can that be? She went to the future."

"If she can go there, then she can certainly come back, can she not?" Pauline said, in half a question, half a statement.

"Yeah, but this woman looks thirty."

"Time travel," the doctor said with a shrug. "It explains everything if you think about it."

"But why would she come back?" he asked. "And why was she wearing that other uniform?"

"When she wakes up, you'll have to ask her," Pauline suggested

"And when will that be, doc?"

"When she regains consciousness, which shouldn't be too much longer."

Superman continued to stare at the unconscious woman in the hospital bed. "If it is her, then I can't believe that she came back just to be pounded into the ground by her own clone."

"As I heard it, both you and Wonder Woman were also knocked around."

"And the Flash," Superman added.

"I know. I saw to him earlier. Also, Wonder Woman told me it's not often she gets a concussion."

"The clone had some new moves," Superman told her. "It's like she'd had martial arts training or something."

"The superhuman strength and martial arts isn't a good mix," the doctor commented.

"It was good for her," he mused. "If I'd managed to hit her with a good strong punch then I'd have knocked-her-for-six. But she was just too fast."

"Too much brawn, not enough skill."

He pulled a face. "Yeah, the clone said something similar."

"Have you ever thought about advanced fight training?"

"No," he said. "I've never really needed it. At least not in the past."

"Because you rarely come up against someone who comes close to matching you, in terms of strength, speed and durability."

Their attention was drawn to the Argoan, as she began to groan. She clutched her face, before rubbing her eyes.

"Okay, what hit me?" she mumbled. "It feels like it was a star cruiser."

"Are you okay?" Superman asked, walking over to her.

"Clark?" she said, her voice barely audible, sounding confused.

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked her, hoping the doctor didn't catch his civilian name being spoken aloud.

She tried to clear her throat but failed. "Can I have some water, please?"

Pauline nodded. "I'll go fetch you some." She left and returned moments later. "Here you go."

Kara took the glass, and slowly sipped the water until the glass was empty. She then gave it back to the doctor.

"How are you feeling, Supergirl?" Pauline asked her.

Kara smiled. "I haven't used that name in three years," she told them.

"No?" Superman said in surprise. "What do you call yourself. We noticed the 'A' on your uniform."

Kara looked down at the hospital garb she was wearing. "Wait, what happened to it?"

Superman pointed to the cabinet on her left. "It's in there."

"Why was it removed?"

The doctor answered, "We had to do some tests. Firstly to check there was no internal damage, and also we needed to ascertain who you were, by taking some samples. The red sunlamp was invaluable. Without it, we'd have broken all our needles."

"Oh, okay," Kara accepted, though with reservation. "And the 'A' stands for Argo. It's my hero name now."

"The name of your home planet," he said in understanding. "Sister world of Krypton."

"I wanted to honour the memories of everyone that died there. I also wanted my own identity. Using the Supergirl moniker felt like I was still living under your shadow. I wanted to do my own thing."

"I can understand that," he accepted. "But why did you come back? I thought history said you stayed in the future?"

"Supergirl stayed in the future," Kara explained. "It was discovered that Argo had a place here in history. To protect the future, I had to come back."

Superman smiled warmly. "Well, I'm glad you did and so will mom and pop."

Kara smiled. "It'll be good to see them again. Though, I guess I'll have to figure out a new secret identity. Karen Kent having aged a decade in a few months will be suspicious."

"We'll figure that out later. For now, you should rest. Your clone beat you pretty badly."

Kara felt her face. "Yeah, I remember. What happened to her?"

"Vanished. After speaking to one of the scientists, it looks like they were going to terminate her as a failed project. That's why she razed the place to the ground."

"He freely told you that?" Kara asked.

"I think the guy just wanted to go home. He'd had a pretty rough day."

"No doubt. Was anyone killed?"

"Some people are in critical condition, some will be disabled, maybe for the rest of their lives, but no one's died yet. They were lucky. There were only around thirty people there."

"I'll be honest. I didn't think the first thing I'd be doing here, was getting beaten up by her."

Superman smiled. "I guess you'd have preferred it if you'd arrived to do the beating up."

Kara agreed, "Yeah, that would've been nice."

Doctor Lester rested her hand on Superman's shoulder. "I think we should leave it here for now," she said. "Kara still needs rest."

"Nah, I'm okay," she replied. "I don't really fancy being under twenty-first-century medicine longer than I have to be. No offence."

"I still recommend rest," Lester said, ignoring the rather insulting comment.

"Okay, that's fair," Kara agreed.

"I'll see you later," Superman said. "Get some rest."

"I will," she replied with a smile. "But that would be easier to heal without the red sun lamp."

"I'd love to," Superman told her sincerely. "Unfortunately, there's still some question as to who you are, so until we're sure, we can't take the chance."

"That makes sense," Kara accepted reluctantly.

Superman and Pauline left her to recuperate. Outside in the hallway, he turned to her. Keeping his voice low, he said, "It seems to be her."

"I've told you, it is her. She isn't a clone, I'm absolutely sure of that. I've sent the samples up to the Watchtower to be tested for chroniton radiation. If she did come through time, then there'll be some traces in her system."

"And if she doesn't have any traces of the chroniton radiation?"

Pauline shrugged. "Then she might not be Kara In-Ze."

"I really hope she is, Doc. I really do."

Old Disused Sewer Network

Beneath Blüdhaven

United States

00:14 – Eastern Standard Time

March 07, 2007

It had just turned midnight which meant that technically it was the start of a new day. But the night was far from over for Nightwing and tomorrow would have to wait.

Cautiously and silently he moved up behind the hooded man dressed in a dark hooded robe and with a single strike knocked him unconscious.

From what he had overheard, he knew that some big shot would be coming into town sometime within the next month. It was his plan to make sure that when he arrived, he, she or they had nothing to arrive to.

He really hoped that this was just a basic cult that had no real connection to whatever demonic plane they were trying to connect to, or demon they were trying to summon. Just a few years ago he would have laughed it off, considered anything supernatural to be just some fairytale. But he had seen things, knew things that the common person had no concept of or clue existed. It was pretty scary stuff, it even unsettled him.

Climbing up high, Nightwing found himself in a large room. Below were a circle of men and women all dressed in the dark robes all surrounding a chained woman dressed in a hooded cape that was wrapped around her covering most of her features including the majority of her face. The woman's eyes were closed and she appeared to be unconscious. Nightwing moved along an old iron beam and crouched, preparing to descend.

That's when the woman's eyes opened and they peered up, looking right at him. For a moment he thought she would call out to him but she didn't. Instead, she closed her eyes once more as though descending back into sleep.

After going through several different scenarios of how the fight would go in his head, Nightwing jumped down, landing on two of the hooded figures, knocking both to the ground. He struck the third before diving low, taking out the fourth at the knees. They hit the ground hard while the fifth and final robed figure moved swiftly towards him.

Both seemed to move a lot faster than he had expected, almost inhumanly fast. Nightwing managed to parry until he was struck in the chest, sending him backwards, crashing hard into some old wooden crates.

"Who are these guys," he mumbled as he ran forwards back into the fight. This time, he used his enemies against each other. He managed to dodge a strike, then used his assailants own strength, speed and momentum, driving their fist right into the chains that bound the woman's feet. Nightwing was expecting a broken fist from the hooded figure and while he did get that the chain also snapped much to his surprise.

He didn't let the shock slow him down, though. He moved forward, striking the guy in the chest with both feet sending him sprawling into the wall with a nasty crack. He fell down unconscious while the other turned and fled.

At first, he was confident it was because they didn't want to fight him, right until he saw that the chained woman was gone.

"What the," he said as he moved over to the raised platform she had been lain on. "Where did she go?" he asked no one.

He crouched down and with a small flashlight checked the floor. There were no signs of any footmarks other than those from the hooded figures and no indication of direction she could have gone.

With frustration, he followed the one that had fled to an old rusty ladder that led to the surface. He climbed up it and out of the open drain cover into the empty street. He pushed it closed and looked around, seeing no sign of the last robed figure or the girl.

He needed a better vantage point.

Using his grapple, Nightwing soared up to the top of a twenty-storey building. From there, he cast his eyes down onto the city below looking for a sign of either. After several minutes, he felt a familiar presence behind him.

Nightwing gritted his teeth. "Spying on me?" he asked not bothering to turn around.

"No," the voice of Batman came, as he stepped up beside the younger man.

"You're getting sloppy," the Bluebird commented. "Normally, I'd have never known you were there." He turned to face the Dark Knight. "What do you want?" Nightwing demanded, vitriol oozing out of him. "I'm busy."

"I came to make you an offer, Dick."

"We don't use real names out on patrol, Bruce."

"Who said I was calling you by your real name," Batman replied smoothly.

Nightwing ignored the implied insult. "You've already offered for me to join your happy group of heroes, Batman. I told you, I work alone now."

"A lot of Leaguers are solo players," Batman informed him. "I'm not asking you to become a full member, just reserve."

"Still not interested. I haven't forgiven you for what you did to Robin."

"That was the Joker."

"Okay, what about Batgirl then?" he said angrily. "After what happened with Robin and the Joker, you not only abandoned him when he needed you the most, but her too."

As expected, Batman dismissed his comment. "Batgirl was the one that decided that she no longer wanted to wear the cowl."

"I suppose it was her choice that she wasn't invited to be part of the Justice League as well?"

"I needed her here in Gotham. She had shown she was capable and she was."

"She accepted your reasons y'know," Nightwing said, casting his gaze down towards the streets. "When you joined the league, she accepted why and even hoped that one day, she'd even be invited into the club. After Darkseid's latest invasion part of her dream came true, at least for a while. You showed her you could still be human, and showed her you cared for her too. But after what happened to the Joker, you changed. You put up a wall between you, her and Tim. It was just too much for her. You practically vanished and put all of your time into the league and that space station you have lording over us!"

"We're not 'lording' over you, Nightwing," Batman said, once again being dismissive.

"Why build your space station with a death cannon, if you're not lording over us?" he demanded.

"We were recovering from an invasion," Batman tried to explain referring to the Thanagarians. "At the time, we thought the gun was a good idea. We were wrong."

"When did you figure that out? Before or after you blew up a city?"

"We didn't blow up a city, Dick. The beam was localised on Cadmus headquarters. Which was abandoned at the time."

"And the shock-wave practically tore every building apart within a five-mile radius."

"That's an exaggeration. There was collateral damage, but we weren't to blame."

"People almost died!" he shouted at him. "People lost their homes, their places of work, everything. And you just dismiss it as collateral, like what they went through doesn't matter."

"Of course what they went through matters," Batman said, starting to lose his cool. "It was Luthor that overrode the firing protocol. We had nothing to do with it."

"It was still your weapon, Bruce. You're the one who paid for it. You're the one who had it built. You're just as guilty as Luthor."

"So, you won't even consider my offer?"

"What do you think!?" Nightwing snapped.

Batman nodded. "I'm sorry to have bothered you," he said.

"Admit it. You made a mistake coming to me," Nightwing mocked. "You knew I'd never join. Not with you there."

"No, because it was me asking. I should have sent someone else to make the offer."

"Yeah, the old Batman I knew when I first started as Robin wouldn't have made such a stupid mistake." He gestured to the sky. "And by mistake I'm talking about that up there. Back when I knew you, you would have never allowed the gun to be built. You would've stopped it. Back then, you were still human. You were a good man, who was only Batman when the cowl was on. Somewhere along the line, that stopped. Today, you without the mask is dressing up. You've become the cowl, even when it's off." He chuckled humourlessly. "Perhaps you always were the cowl. Maybe I was just too stupid and naïve to see it."

Batman turned away. "Take care of yourself, Nightwing," he said without emotion. With that, he was gone, leaving Dick Grayson feeling angry and confused.

He didn't let it last, though. He had someone to find.

Not wasting any more time, he descended down back to street level and began the futile search.

Metro Tower

Metropolis

United States

11:09 – Eastern Standard Time

March 08, 2007

Kara opened her eyes, before letting out a yawn. She felt a lot better than she had the last time she had awoken. For one thing, her face didn't feel like it was imploding, though it still hurt. What she did feel, however, was both hunger and thirst, but that would have to wait as she also needed the toilet.

She slowly got out of the bed and discarded her robe, before retrieving her uniform from the small bedside cupboard. After putting it on, she made her way to the door, only to find that it was locked.

Feeling slightly irritated that they didn't trust her, she knocked loudly on the door. "Hello?" she asked. "I need to go to the bathroom."

She knocked again, shortly before the door opened, revealing Doctor Lester.

"Feeling better?"

"Much, thanks. I was wondering where the bathroom was."

Pauline smiled. "Right this way."

"You're letting me out of this room?"

"Yes I am," she replied.

Kara followed her as she led her to the restroom. After relieving herself, she was led to the medical bay's cafeteria, where she got some hot food down her neck. Being under the red lamp for such a long time had left her feeling rather drained.

She was half-way through a baked potato when she saw the Flash hobble in.

"What happened to you?" she asked amused by the sight.

Despite only his mouth being visible, his smile seemed warm and genuine. "I heard you were back."

He made his way over and sat down. "Oh, and the limp is a gift from your clone. Her laser vision burned my knee pretty bad. I'll be out of commission for about a week while the burns are treated. Though my healing tends to be faster, as with everything else, so I might be fine this time tomorrow. Doctor says otherwise, though."

"Sounds rough."

"Yeah. A certain joke a fellow founder made once comes to mind."

"Fastest man with a limp," Kara commented.

He chuckled. "Anyway, look at you all grown up. How long's it been for you?"

"Eleven years."

"And only a year for us."

"Weird, huh?"

"I'll say. Time travel hurts my head."

"Then maybe we should talk about something else," she suggested.

"You know, Supes was pretty bummed out when you didn't return with the others. He put on a brave face, but those of us who knew him, we could tell he missed you."

"I missed him too," she admitted. "I also missed Lantern shouting at me for the times I messed up. I missed Oliver and Dinah. I missed Batgirl and also a few other people, too. I missed you all."

"We missed you too."

"So, anything happen while I was gone?" she asked. "Anything I missed?"

Flash looked at her in amazement. "Wait, you're telling me you didn't look up what happened to us while you were in the future?"

"No, I didn't," she admitted. "I didn't want to find out that any one of you died in some horrible, painful, or tragic way, so I never looked. I just put it all behind me, and focused on the future."

"So, I take it you don't know what next week's lottery numbers are?"

Kara laughed out loud. "You know, I've missed you more than most, Flash."

"I've missed you too, kid."

"Heh," she chuckled. "I'm far older than you now, boy."

He chuckled. "That you are, ma'am."

"Watch it, or you'll have a matching limp in your other leg."

The Flash made a zip motion across his lips. "I'll say no more." He looked down at her uniform. "So, Argo?"

"Yep. I guess Superman told you?"

"Yeah. He was pretty happy, especially since they found you had chroniton residue on you."

"So, they believe me then?"

The Flash nodded. "Yes, they do. He wants to have J'onn take a look at you, just to make sure you aren't lying or something. Then they'll re-initiate you into the league."

"Excellent," she commented. "And I'm glad they think I'm ready to jump right back in."

Flash stood up. "Well, I'll leave you to finish your dinner. I have some treatment for my knee I have to endure."

"Hold up for a second," she said, stopping him.

"Yeah?"

"Where am I?"

"The Metro Tower, in Metropolis."

"Ah, okay then," she accepted. "I'll let you get on with your day."

He bent over and gave her a quick hug. "I'll see you later, Kara."

She smirked as he hobbled off.

Watchtower II

Earth Orbit

15:02 – Station Time (EST)

March 08, 2007

"So, is it true?" Shayera Hol, the former Hawkgirl asked Superman, as she met up with him in the hallway just outside the cafeteria.

"About Kara?" he asked, as the two went in, and got in line.

"Yeah, the news is all over. John's pretty miffed that it got out so quickly. Though, it was actually his fault. He told Mari, and she told everyone else."

Mari, also known as Vixen, was the current love of Earth's resident Green Lantern. This was much to the chagrin of Shayera, who also had a deep love for him. The two women were friendly enough towards each other, and when together, often teased John if he was in earshot. The fact that he loved another woman though, still upset Shayera. The worst part was, she knew she'd had her chance, and had blown it in the worst way imaginable.

"What else did he tell her?" Superman asked.

"Just that Kara was back. I also heard that you, Flash and Diana got your asses kicked by the Cadmus clone."

"Unfortunately. Seems like she's been given training."

"Just admit it. She's better than you." She chuckled. "The almighty Superman, beaten."

He cringed. "I'm not denying that she's a better fighter. I just have a harder punch."

"When you can land it."

"Yeah."

"So, when do we get to see your cousin?"

"You know, she's not really my cousin."

"No, but she's sorta your adopted cousin," Shayera pointed out.

Superman arrived at the front of the cue and made his dinner selection, followed shortly by the former Hawkgirl. They both made their way over to a table and sat down.

"You know what the strangest part is," Superman said.

"What?"

"That she's been gone a year, but spent eleven years in the future."

Shayera's mouth fell open. "Wow, eleven years? You know why she's back?"

"According to her, Argo's arrival was in the history books."

"Argo?"

"Her hero name. She decided to ditch Supergirl."

"So, she got her own identity."

"Yeah. I'm proud of her. But seeing her look so much older. It was, well-" he broke off.

"Strange?"

"Yeah. She's definitely not a kid anymore."

They both looked around as Green Arrow, known also as Oliver Queen, sat down at their table. His usual pointed blonde goatee beard nowhere in sight, showing off his rather butt-shaped dimple chin. "I just heard," he said. "Is it true that the kid's back?"

Shayera nodded. "Though apparently, she's thirty now." she then pointed. "What happened to your face?"

He scowled as he rubbed his chin. "Dinah suggested I'd look better without it. Now, she laughs every-time she sees me."

"You look better with it," Superman told him.

"She thinks so too. I honestly think she told me to shave it, just to see if I would." He pointed to Superman. "Anyway, we were talking about Kara."

"Yeah, she's back."

"And she's thirty?"

Superman raised his hands. "Listen, all the information will be revealed officially later on." He pointed to his dinner. "This is getting cold."

Green Arrow stood up. "Say no more. I look forward to seeing the kid again, as do a lot of other people."

"Go tell Canary off for suggesting you shave your face," Shayera told him playfully.

He grinned. "When she can shatter my bones just by screaming at me, I tend to let things like this slide."

"Smart man," Shayera said. "But you should still tell her off."

"Enjoy your dinner you two."

"I will," Shayera replied.

Superman, who had a mouth full of beans, simply nodded.

Leawood Motel

Central City

United States

15:40 – Central Standard Time

March 08, 2007

Emil Hamilton, who was dressed in a long grey coat and wide-brimmed hat as a disguise, stepped into the motel room, holding a bag with some clothes and other items in it. He stood there for a few moments by the door, till he heard the toilet flush and saw Galatea stepped out of the bathroom.

"I bought you something less obvious to wear," he told her, as he put his glasses back on, which he had purposefully taken off, to help hide his identity.

She folded her arms. "I like my outfit," she protested.

"I know, but we need to lay low."

"So, we're hiding?"

"People are looking for us."

"I don't care. Let them come, I'll kill them all."

"No," he said firmly. "Killing is something to be done only as a last resort."

"I was made to kill," she said, glaring at him.

His face fell. "No," he disagreed wholeheartedly. "You were made to protect humanity if the heroes got out of control. Or, if they turned against us."

"They are out of control," she replied. "I see that, even if others don't."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You should look at what you've done, before accusing others of being out of control. You hurt a lot of people yesterday. And before that, you disobeyed an order to cease your attack on the Justice League's Watchtower."

Her whole body seemed to deflate as she stared down at the floor. "I'm sorry, daddy. I just want to make you proud."

"I am proud of you. You just have to understand that you're very powerful and that you have to be careful. If you aren't, then you could injure, or even kill someone without meaning to."

"Okay, if that's what you think."

"Here," he said as he passed her the bag of clothes. "There's also some hair dye in there."

She looked up at him, with the bag in hand. "What colour?"

"It's black. I also got some sunglasses for you."

"What about you? Won't they be looking for you too?"

"Yes, I have a hat and don't wear my glasses out in public. I'm also going to shave."

"Okay, I'll go change my look too," she said, going back into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she came back out in the blue jeans and a black t-shirt. She held up the bottle of dye. "How do I even use this?"

He smiled. "I actually have no idea. But I'm sure between the two of us, we'll figure it out."

Emil held out his hand and she passed it to him. He looked at the back of the box and scratched his head.

He looked up at her. "Maybe I should have bought you a hat instead," he mused.

Updated Dec 2017