Chapter 3

Leo was preparing supper for both himself and Kara when he heard the door of the loft slam closed as his fiancée stormed angrily inside. He took a deep breath and guessed that the interview had gone badly for her. Quickly finishing up, he placed the potstickers on a plate and walking up to Kara, waving one playfully in front of her. Kara couldn't help but smile and let her feed him the potsticker, moaning in delight at the taste of his cooking. He kept feeding her as she finished them while steering her towards the dining table. He set the plate in front of her while she playfully picked up her own set of chopsticks and fed him some food as well. It didn't take long for the plate which had originally been piled high with potstickers to be cleaned off.

"Rough interview?" Leo asked, giving Kara's shoulders a massage.

"I played right into her hands. It was going good for most of the interview then it started getting a little more personal before it escalated and I ended up revealing my relation to superman. I have no doubt it's going to become public news tomorrow." Kara groaned, leaning back into the chair and letting herself relax with Leo's magical hands.

"I know you think that you're living in your cousin's shadow Kara, but you've done a great deal of good for this City despite being a hero for only such a short while. Believe in yourself. Believe in this path you've chosen. It's all that we can do sometimes." Leo comforted, Kara smiled up at him.

"I have a great teacher to thank and an even better partner who takes such good care of me." Kara said, getting up from the chair to give Leo a kiss before the two decided to get some sleep.

As Kara had predicted, Cat Grant had decided that she was going to run an exclusive article on Supergirl in the next edition of their monthly magazine. The article would cover a myriad of topics including Supergirl's relation to Superman. Kara tried her best to dissuade Cat from publishing such an article however, was unsuccessful and was quickly sent away to get some bulletproof coffee as well as get Dave moved as his hair was distracting. The final piece was that the magazine would be released at a huge event with an estimated turnout of 1000 people.

Kara wasn't pleased as she was given a dressing down by Hank for the interview. Her sister though managed to read her mood and was gentler in the approach. Kara informed her that she wanted to do the interview not only to protect James but also for herself. She had wanted to give Cat a perspective on what it felt like to be Supergirl and although it did go as intended, she hadn't meant to bring up her familial relation to superman. Alex simply gave her a comforting pat and some words of encouragement before telling her that Leo was holed up in his lab. She wasn't really surprised when Leo seemed oblivious to her presence. He usually got this way when he was close to finishing his work or working on something of great personal interest.

"Leo! You there?" Kara shouted to get his attention. Leo jumped a little in shock before walking up to Kara to give her a kiss and leading her to a chair. He sat down and pulled her to sit on his lap, Kara curling herself up comfortably on his lap.

"Rough day?" Leo asked. Kara simply nodded, Leo choosing to comfort her with his presence. They were interrupted however when the screen on Leo's computer showed that there was a multiple car collision on the highway.

"We should handle it." Kara suggested, getting off Leo's lap and changing into her costume.

"Um, about that, I kind of benched myself for the day. I'm running some tests on the build driver right now and to unplug it now would set my work back a good long while." Leo said sheepishly. Kara could only shake her head at this before heading off to assist.

Kara had arrived at the scene and was informed by an injured passenger that the bus driver was stuck inside. She flew over to the bus and freed the bus driver, placing the woman on a nearby gurney so that the paramedics could attend to her. The woman thanked her right before Kara was blasted away by a burst of orange energy. She quickly recovered to find an armored man standing in front of her.

"Who are you?" Kara asked, taking up a ready stance.

"I am a ghost. And I will make Superman suffer." The man said, his arms glowing orange before he fired off more blasts at Kara. Realizing that there were still injured people around, Kara opted to block the shots instead of dodge them, leveraging her suit's restructuring capability to deflect them harmlessly into the sky.

"Kara, aim for the cables linking the chest piece to his arms! It's his weak spot." Leo said over the comms, having taken notice of the new enemy that Kara was facing from his computer. Kara followed his instructions and used her heat vision to sever the cabling. The man growling angrily at her before flying away from the scene.

"Who was that?" Kara asked as she walked into the DEO, noticing the pictures of the enemy she had fought earlier showing up on the various screens.

"His name is Reactron. He's done battle with your cousin quite a few times. Unfortunately, he isn't an alien so the DEO can't help you much more than that." Hank said. Kara was about to protest but Leo put her hand on her shoulder telling her not to.

"This is ridiculous! Reactron is a huge threat. How could the DEO just ignore him?" Kara growled in annoyance.

"Precisely because they are the DEO that's why. Have you ever wondered why Build isn't considered part of the DEO and neither is Supergirl? It's because the DEO has responsibilities and rules that they have to follow. Build and Supergirl though don't have such restrictions. I've been in touch with Winn and wanted to show you something. I know that I said it would be your place to tell your secret but I hope you'll see that this is to help you out." Leo said, driving them to CatCo Tower before meeting Winn at one of the floors.

"I was pretty shocked when Leo told me about this and asked me to help set it up." Winn said opening the room and revealing various monitors and monitoring devices.

"This place will act as your base of operations. It doesn't make sense that you would have to keep going to the DEO all the time. Also helps when situations like the one we currently face beyond the jurisdiction of the DEO come up. Word of apology in advance though, I'll be quite useless for the next few days. There was a snag in my testing and the build driver won't be useable for a while." Leo said nervously.

"This is great. And I'm all for Winn helping us out. But why didn't you just use like your own personal lab or something?" Kara asked.

"Well for one my personal lab is a little dangerous. Lots of nebula energy around. That's not considering the fact that it doesn't have the room to accommodate all the things we'll need. Besides, my lab's a little far compared here and we need this place to be accessible too." Leo explained.

"Okay now that we've done all the explaining, I did some digging on Reactron and I've created an algorithm that will trac any changes in radiation and hopefully lead us to him." Winn said, bringing up a screen with the map of National City.

"Dealing with him is another matter though. He uses a fission reactor to power his suit and his attacks. The energy source is in the center of his chest plate. Removing it will mean that he goes from super powered villain to normal man. But the core will destabilize once you pull it out." Leo said, bringing up a diagram of Reactron and his suit.

"How did you come up with all this so quickly?" Both Kara and Winn asked in surprise.

"I make it a point to study anyone I have to fight. Their strengths, weaknesses which form works best against them and so on. I like to be prepared." Leo said with a shrug.

"You could just cover it in lead. That should solve the problem." Winn suggested.

"That is true but how do you prep the lead for the core?" Leo raised. They thought about it for a moment before Leo came up with an idea, jumping from his seat and proclaiming that he had found the winning formula.

"Kara can encase her hand in lead. The lead won't hurt her and she can use it to grab Reactron's core. By my estimates from readings earlier, Reactron's core should be hot enough to cause the lead to liquify again and it'll wrap around the core. Problem solved!" Leo said excitedly.

"Alright we've got a game plan now we just need the players. Well the other player anyway since I'm already waiting for him. Given that I damaged his suit, I think he'll be working on repairing it so we should have some time before he shows his face again." Kara said.

"Just one last snag, where are you going to get the lead?" Winn asked.

"Well that's easy. I've got a lead block back at my lab that should do the job nicely. I'll leave it with Kara so anytime Rectron pops up she can deal with him. Hopefully he doesn't show his face before my driver is back up and running." Leo said.

"What exactly are you working on Leo? Why is the driver being tied up for so long?" Kara asked out of curiosity.

"I'm developing a new power up item for Build. Given that your aunt and her army are still out there, I want to be prepared. One kryptonian I can deal with but they might not come at me one at a time." Leo explained, plugging in his personal drive and bringing up images of the Hazard Trigger.

"Hazard Trigger? That's a cool name. What's it do? Make you more Hazardous?" Winn joked.

"It's meant to bolster my hazard level using a special derivative called Progress Vapor. It's made using the particles that contain Nebula Energy. It should in theory help me achieve a power output of at least two times greater than what the system is currently capable of." Leo explained.

"That is way cool." Winn said.

"Okay now that you two are done geeking out, why don't we all go and grab a bite to eat? I'm hungry." Kara asked. Leo simply chucked at this knowing that she needed a high calories intake every day. Leo pulled her along and Winn followed as they headed over to the Noonan's to grab some food.

"Did you hear the news on Max Lord's kidnapping?" Leo asked over the comms.

"I did. Where are you now?" Kara asked as she and Winn were trying to locate the man.

"I'm on my way to CatCo now." Leo said.

"You think this has anything to do with Reactron?" Kara asked.

"I have my suspicions. He might have kidnapped Max Lord to help repair his armor and even throw in some upgrades. I'd suggest you get ready. I still can't pull the build driver yet. Doing so could cause irreparable damage to it." Leo said as he turned into the parking lot of CatCo tower. Supergirl cut the connection and quickly changed, pacing around the room as she waited for Reactron to show himself.

"Any luck in finding Reactron?" Leo aske as he walked into the room, Winn working away at the computer.

"Got it! This should be his hideout. A massive spike in radiation was just released there." Winn exclaimed, indicating to a map of the place where Reactron might be. Kara melted down the lead and let it wrap around her left arm before leaving to face the criminal.

She arrived at the location and stumbled upon a bound Maxwell Lord. She asked him to quickly flee the area, just as Reactron tackled her out of the room. She quickly recovered and tried to reason with him. Trying to appeal to who he was before and how his actions wouldn't solve anything. Reactron didn't listen and proceeded to open fire, forcing Kara to dodge the blasts, carefully making her way towards him before the two traded blows. Kara managed to force Reactron to over extend himself, allowing her to rip out his suit's energy core with her lead lined hand, the lead moving to encase the core before Kara cooled it down with her super breath. She then knocked Reactron with a swift blow to the head. She was just about to deliver Reactron to the police when her cousin arrived.

"Clark? What brings you here?" Kara asked.

"I received a distress signal and thought that you need help. But I see that you had the situation handled. I'll be going now. Good job Kara." Clark said before flying back to metropolis.

"Distress signal? Did any of you call my cousin?" Kara asked angrily.

"None of this Kara. Though I have a feeling I know who did. Drop off Reactron at the local authorities and we can see about dealing with someone who clearly doesn't understand the meaning of having faith in someone else's abilities." Leo said. Kara acknowledged, picking up Reactron's body and taking to the skies.

"So, who was it that called my cousin?" Kara asked, still peeved that Superman had nearly intervened. Only Leo was in the room.

"I think we need to have some words with a certain art director who is a lot closer to your cousin than we originally thought." Leo said. The door opened and Winn walked in together with James.

"James? You were the one who called my cousin?" Kara questioned, she was originally about to lash out but Leo had placed a calming hand on her shoulder and shook his head to tell her to keep her cool.

"It was you wasn't it James? Aside from me and Kara, the only other person in National City with a connection to him is you." Leo pointed out calmly.

"I did. I was worried okay. Reactron nearly managed to kill Superman. I have this watch. It lets him know that I'm in trouble." James said, flipping open his watch to reveal the crest of House El.

"Why would you call him? I had the situation handled!" Kara said a little bit of her anger seeping out.

"Reactron nearly killed Superman before. I didn't want to risk that chance with you. I made a promise to him when I was moving to National City that I would help keep an eye on his cousin. I couldn't let him down." James responded.

"I get where you're coming from James. But let's square it off. I'm Kara's backup and she's my backup. Only if the two of us end up in dire straits can you call big blue." Leo said.

"I get it. I want to help too." James said resolutely.

"Welcome aboard then. To team SuperBuild." Leo said, extending a hand to him.

"Wait, you're Build? This is a shocker. Never expected both of National City's heroes to be engaged to each other. You've done a great job protecting the city." James replied, giving Leo a firm handshake.

"Okay that's enough bro time. Come on Leo. I'm want more of those potstickers you made yesterday. This Reactron business was one thing but Cat's driving me up the wall with her article writing and preparing for the party." Kara said, changing back into regular clothes before pulling Leo along towards the exit.

"This is certainly a nice function. And I need to tell you again, you really look good in that dress. Although I think having it in blue would be much more complimentary." Leo said lowly to her. She was dressed in a simple green and black evening dress. Leo was dressed in a black shirt and pants complete with a green tie. He was guiding Kara with a hand on the curve of her back.

"Down boy. I still need to work as Cat's assistant for part of the night. Now let's go greet my boss." Kara said, giving him a playful swat before walking over to Cat who had just rejected all of Maxwell Lord's attempts at her attention.

"Keira, there you are. I see you brought along your future spouse as well. Leo Titus. It has been some time since we spoke beyond passing conversation." Cat said, giving a nod of acknowledgement to Leo.

"Yes, well I haven't been up to much lately aside from giving a few lectures at the University. Of course, my research job takes up a great deal of time and as with all research, not everything pans out into something noteworthy." Leo said.

"Yes, that is true. If you wouldn't mind me borrowing Keira for a moment, I would like to go over things one last time with her to make sure everything is in order." Cat said, walking away from them. Kara sighed and peeled herself away from Leo, walking after Cat.

"Well this is nice. We should go slow dancing more often." Leo commented. The magazine had been formally launched and everything was going smoothly. Around them there were other couples dancing to the slow music as well, swaying softly with their partners.

"Hmm. This is nice. Say Leo, we haven't really discussed much about our wedding, have we?" Kara asked, placing her head against Leo's shoulder.

"We can have whatever kind of wedding you want Kara. If you feel like eloping in Las Vegas then we can be on a plane as early as tomorrow. If you want to have a big wedding with 1000 guests then we can do that too. We can even research and plan to have a small private one that incorporates kryptonian practices." Leo said softly to her. The two shared a soft kiss together, swaying gently to the music and becoming the center of attention at the event.

Down to votes again!

The voting for Build Genius vs Evol Black Hole is on hold till we see the new form in action.

1) To Feature Cross Z Magma.

This form will serve as a bridge before Leo gets the Evol Driver. I'm leaning to feature it in but it will depend on the next vote.

2) To move Crisis on Earth X to post Reign Arc.

I want reader's opinions on whether or not I should move the Earth X to post Reign. Still debating on that. If it stays as per canon timeline, it's unlikely that I will add an enemy for Leo to square off again (I might fit in Mad Rogue and an Utsumi esque character if I feel I can make it work.) Moving it to post reign will probably mean I will add an Evolt type enemy for Leo to fight. So, let's hear some opinions.

3) Mid Story Baby

Any opinions on Kara and Leo having a kid within the story? Somewhere in early season three? Or maybe even end of season 2? Let me know your thoughts.

Till next update!