Chapter 17

"We work well together." Kara admitted when she and Clark returned to the DEO. They had just put out a fire at an apartment building and following that stopped a robbery together.

"I've seen you and Leo together before though. I don't think we have anything on that. Speaking of which where is your husband and Aunt?" Clark asked.

"Astra is dealing with a Kigori in Riverside Park. Leo went to investigate some alien biker gang." Winn helpfully answered. Kara staggered for a moment when she felt Leo's annoyance though their bond.

"Leo are you okay? Your annoyance is palpable love." Kara said over their private channel. Her only answer was a grunt followed by shots that Kara could clearly identify as coming from the Nebulasteam gun in its rifle mode.

"Why is it that they always choose to run when I come to ask questions." Leo commented dryly as he watched the bodies of the gang he was investigating drop all around him.

"It's probably because you look quite menacing when you step out of the shadows dear." Kara replied.

"I was asking a rhetorical question." Leo muttered, calling for a cleanup team from the DEO before he headed back. When he returned, Astra had also just returned from her task of apprehending the Kigori. Leo was just making his way over to Kara when the electricity at the DEO seemed to get cut off for a few moments before it went back online.

"Agent Schott, what was that?" Hank questioned.

"Tracing it now sir. It appears that the source of the power surge is our comatose Daxamite." Winn said. The group quickly rushed over to where the Daxamite was resting. Winn was working furiously on his tablet trying to figure out what was happening.

"It would seem that based on the readings, our Daxamite is making use of the electrical energy to heal himself. I would explain it as being similar to kryptonians absorbing yellow sun radiation." Winn explained.

"Does that mean he's going to wake up soon?" Kara asked.

"Maybe." Hank replied.

"You should run some more tests. His levels are rising." Clark suggested.

"I'll have one called as soon as that stops happening." Hank said, referring to the power surges.

"I'd better get going. It's my first day as a reporter at CatCo." Kara said.

"Don't forget about our outing tonight!" Alex reminded.

"I won't! You're the one who needs to remember not to get caught up in work." Kara countered before flying off.

"You clearly had a good time with Alex." Leo commented when Kara entered the loft. He and Clark had gone to grab some take out after he dropped Kara and Alex for their outing. After that the two men had discussed several matters ranging from working with the government to their relationships with the women they loved.

"I did. Hey Clark, what were you and Leo up to?" Kara asked, placing her bag on the table and grabbing a drink from the fridge.

"We were just enjoying a quiet night, discussing the important things in life." Clark replied.

"Speaking of which, you were pretty annoyed earlier today. Your first day as a reporter not what you expected it to be?" Leo teased, coming up behind Kara and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"It's just my new boss is an ass. If there was a mold for being a polite mean person, I think Snapper Carr would be it. But I won't let him deter me. I'll just make sure to show him that I'm worth taking seriously." Kara said, her face alight with determination.

"That's the spirit love." Leo praised, giving Kara a peck on her cheek.

"CatCo won't be the same anymore soon though. Ms. Grant says she's taking a break from the company. I feel like a lot of things are changing so fast." Kara said, her fear at the uncertain future of CatCo affecting her.

"Don't worry, whatever happens, I'll be with you all the way." Leo said, giving her his full support through the times that she would weather.

"As much as I enjoy seeing the two of you so happy with each other, I think it's about time I return back to Metropolis." Clark said, moving to say goodbye. They were interrupted though when the TV showed a bridge jumper. The three shared a look before changing and rushing towards the bridge.

"Corben?" Clark remarked in shock when he approached the jumper and saw who it was.

"Not Corben anymore. It's Metallo now." Corben said, introducing his new alias before he blasted Superman with a green beam, revealing a piece of kryptonite lodged in his chest.

"Superman!" Kara shouted in worry.

Metallo tried to shoot Kara with a similar burst of energy but the kryptonite shield installed in her suit held as she took the blasts although it was quickly hitting max capacity. Kara hit Metallo with a straight jab, sending him back a little before she used her heat vision on him. It didn't work however as her heat vision simply revealed that Metallo was now a cyborg. Kara felt her knees give when her shield reached max capacity and gave out, causing her to feel the effects of the kryptonite. Leo got in front of her, blocking Metallo's attempt at striking her.

"Crocodile! Funky Break!" the Nebulasteam gun announced. Metallo looked down and saw it pointed straight at his chest, as purple energy built up at the barrel. Leo pulled the triggered and fired at Metallo, the shot sending him off the bridge.

"Are you both okay?" Leo asked to Clark and Kara who were recovering from the effects of the kryptonite. Both of them nodded to him and Leo went to see where Metallo had landed. He let out an angry grunt when he saw no sign of Metallo below them. The three heroes headed for the DEO to see if they could figure out what was going on.

"What was that thing?" Clark asked.

"It was some sort of Kryptonite powered android. Winn went to check the records. Turns out that Corben was turned over to the government as punishment for his crimes. I'm sure one can guess where he ended up." Alex said, bringing up the information they had worked out from the fight.

"But how would they get kryptonite? I thought all the kryptonite was disposed of? We both saw to it right Leo?" Clark asked, turning to Leo.

"Cadmus. We disposed of all the kryptonite the DEO was aware of when we learnt how to synthesize it. Only three people in this facility know how to do so and they're standing here right now. I wouldn't be surprised if Cadmus somehow has its own store of kryptonite or somehow has figured out how to synthesize it." Leo brought up.

"So, Cadmus rears its ugly head again huh. Why am I not surprised that something like Metallo would come from the people there? Someone should really do something about that organization." Clark remarked.

"Working on it. With the upcoming singing of the Alien Amnesty act, Cadmus will be considered a terrorist organization. Which means if found, they can be destroyed. Unfortunately, whoever is running Cadmus now isn't like Waller. Say what you will about the woman but she at least had some moral guide. If it weren't for J'onn taking over the DEO, they'd still be taking samples from us." Leo said, bringing up the DEO's involvement with project Cadmus in the past.

"For now, we should probably focus on tracking Metallo. Thankfully, Agent Titus' attack should have left enough trace amounts of Nebula Energy to feed us a trail." Hank said. Leo nodded and walked over to his lab to get to work on tracking the signal.

"You know I think this is the first time I've ever been in your lab. It's quite different to what I expected." Clark commented as he, Kara, Astra, Alex and Winn entered his lab.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Make yourselves comfortable. This may take awhile depending on how many things Metallo came into contact with and the escape route he took." Leo said, working away at his computer to get the algorithm's running. Once they were up and running, he turned to speak to the others.

"Since we're dealing with kryptonite, I think we need to come up with a better way to keep the three of you in the fight. While the shielding system I integrated into Kara's and Astra's suits work, they don't have enough capacity for a long drawn out fight. The kind you'd expect when dealing with a kryptonite powered android." Leo said, brining up the designs for the shield.

"The shields have up to a 10-minute running time followed by a 10-minute charge time or the equivalent output of taking in that amount of kryptonite in total. Against someone like Metallo, it'll hold for around 3 minutes or so if you take two hits from his beam." Leo explained.

"Based on the designs, why not have them on an external object? Like a bracelet or something. Then have three of them running in sequence. Or maybe even four. That way you can cover for the recharge delay by cycling through the generators." Winn suggested. Leo pondered it for a moment, scribbling some calculations down on a piece of paper.

"Feasible but flawed, the recharge time would be almost doubled because of the reduced surface area for the energy collectors." Leo said.

"What about something external? Something that might be bulkier but will give them the protection they need for dealing with something like Metallo? It might be good to add into the arsenal for the future if project Cadmus is really gunning for them. That way the shields in the suit can act as secondary back-up too." Alex suggested. Leo was about to reply only to be interrupted by the algorithm returning a positive result for Metallo's location.

"I guess that means that I need to do some scouting. Winn, I'll leave the designs of the shields to you." Leo said, putting the information on a flash drive and handing it to Winn.

"We should go together." Kara suggested.

"This isn't to take down Metallo. I'm just going there to scout the place out. See if we can find out who sent him and what their planning. Unfortunately love, stealth and espionage aren't exactly your strong suit. Also, we can't risk letting them know that we're onto them. It might cause them to change tactics or go into hiding." Leo said, not liking the feeling of helplessness he was getting from Kara through their bond.

"This is a simple mission. I promise I'll be back before you know it." Leo said, giving his wife a kiss before he transformed and pulled out a yellow Fullbottle.

"Ninja. Discharge Bottle. Discharge Crash." The Sclash driver announced as Leo cranked the activation wrench. His whole body glowed yellow before disappearing before their eyes, leaving the DEO silently for Metallo's location.

Kara and the rest were ambling around the DEO while waiting for Leo's return. They had been testing the various designs Winn had come up with for the strengthened Kryptonite shielding and helping him refine it with their comments. They were surprised when Leo appeared in the center of the room. He pulled off the Sclash Driver and let his armor dissipate.

"We might have a little problem. They just made another Metallo. And the kryptonite their using? It's synthesized Kryptonite. A different and more unstable formula than what we use here at the DEO." Leo said, walking over to the screen and using his tablet that Kara brought him to replay what he had seen.

"We have to stop them. Did you manage to find out what's their plan of attack?" Clark asked.

"They plan on deploying Metallo Corben in National City hoping to draw you out. Then they're going to send the other Metallo to metropolis in the hopes that it'll force you to separate and become easier targets." Leo answered.

"Then I say we give it to them. They won't expect it we preemptively split. Clark can go back to Metropolis with Aunt Astra and wait for the other Metallo to show up." Kara suggested.

"Agreed. They'll be expecting us to show up together. After all it wouldn't be unexpected for me to return to Metropolis." Clark pointed out.

"Then all we can do now is wait. Did Winn manage to complete the kryptonite shielding?" Leo asked.

"I was able to finish it actually. We even managed to refine the design. It's a simple chest piece that they strap on and will provide continuous shielding for 30 minutes of exposure. Combined with the secondary shield, it should provide complete shielding from kryptonite." Winn said, showing Leo the chest piece. Leo examined his work and praised him before he and Kara decided to head home to get some rest.

"You're shielding your emotions from me. You have been ever since you went to spy on Cadmus. What did you find?" Kara asked, rolling herself on the bed so she was now directly over Leo.

"It's nothing important, yet." Leo muttered.

"You're either lying to me or you're telling me part of the truth." Kara said, cupping his face with her hands.

"Can't hide anything from you, can I?" Leo remarked.

"I managed to get into one of Cadmus' terminals and steal information from them. Bits and pieces of their plan. All I know is it involves you and something inside the fortress of solitude." Leo admitted.

"You're worried I might get hurt?" Kara asked, touched by his concern.

"I'm not. Well I am but you know, not enough to keep you out of the fight. I'm worried about how far they will go Kara. People like them, they don't care what lines they need to cross to achieve their goals. How many innocents will end up getting caught up in the crossfire? There's something else too…Jeremiah Danvers and the original Hank Henshaw might still be alive." Leo said.

"We can only do our best to take them down when the opportunity arises. Also, isn't Jeremiah being alive a good thing? We should tell Alex!" Kara said.

"Not yet. I don't have anything concrete on them yet. When I can confirm that Jeremiah is still alive, I'll tell her." Leo said.

"You'll probably end up sneaking around Cadmus again, won't you? While I don't like you going around in a hostile environment without me, the more information we have, the better poised we will be to take them down. Just promise me one thing Leo, discuss whatever you find with me please. No matter how bad you think it is or how much you think we might disagree on how to react. We're partners, stronger together." Kara said, giving Leo one last kiss in affirmation and feeling him open up in their bond once more.

"How did I end up with the most amazing woman in all the known galaxies?" Leo muttered.

"Because I managed to find the greatest man in all the known galaxies." Kara returned, turning around in the bed and letting Leo spoon her from behind, his arm wrapping around her waist to pull her close as they drifted off to sleep.

"We have a lock on Corben Metallo. Transmitting the location information now." Winn said over the comms. Kara flew off to greet Metallo on her own.

"Metallo! This ends here." Kara said, attracting his attention.

"It definitely will. I'll make sure to burn you till there's nothing left!" Metallo taunted firing a continuous beam of energy at Kara who stood there and took it, the kryptonite shield holding strong.

"We have sighting on the second Metallo. It's in Metropolis." Winn said. Clark acknowledged and confronted the second Metallo.

"Stop right there Metallo." Clark said. The cyborg said nothing, instead responding with a blast of kryptonite directed at Clark.

"Leo, while I do like being impervious to kryptonite, I would prefer if I didn't have to keep getting blasted by it." Kara commented dryly.

"On it." Leo responded, leaping out of his hiding spot and delivering a right hook that disrupted Metallo's attack.

He followed up with a series of jabs, each causing the cyborg to stagger as purple energy was discharged with each attack. Leo blocked and uppercut and kick from Metallo before turning around and delivering a kick of his own to the cyborg. He cranked the wrench and purple energy flooded his right fist. He delivered a straight jab aimed at Metallo's kryptonite core, the attack connecting and turning Metallo's core to pieces. With his kryptonite core destroyed, the cyborg fell to the ground lifelessly.

Clark meanwhile held strong against the blast of kryptonite. Astra took the opportunity to dive at the cyborg, delivering a strong punch that caused his head to tilt to the side. This had the added effect of stopping the kryptonite blast directed at Clark. She then spun behind the cyborg, trapping him in an armlock that she struggled to maintain. Clark quickly used the opportunity to get in front of the cyborg and ripped out the kryptonite core before crushing it into dust. Astra breathed a sigh of relief as she let the android topple lifelessly to the ground.

"Great job everyone. I'll have the authorities detain the two Metallos." Hank said.

"No. There's a chance Cadmus might try to use them again. I'm burning the bodies. Astra bring the other Metallo here." Leo said. Astra picked up the other Metallo and dropped him off where Leo and Kara were. Leo loaded the phoenix bottle into the Nebulasteam gun before firing it at the bodies of the two Metallos, leaving nothing left. The four heroes then reconvened at the DEO.

"I should be heading back to Metropolis. I've stayed away for too long now. Might lose my job if I'm not careful." Clark joked.

"I'll miss you Clark. Stay safe and say hi to Lois for me." Kara said, giving her cousin a hug.

"I'll miss you too. Stay safe Kara and be careful with Camus. Something tells me this isn't going to be the last you see of them. Astra, it was a pleasure meeting you." Clark said, exchanging a handshake with her.

"It was nice to meet you as well Kal-El and I am happy to know that the good parts of Krypton have survived and are working to change this world for the better. Your parents would be proud." Astra said with a smile.

"Take care Alex and look out for Kara too. Oh, and make sure Leo remembers to get out of the lab to see the sun sometime besides just spending time with my cousin." Clark said, giving Alex a hug.

"That was mean. But I'll miss having another guy friend to speak to. Don't be a stranger Clark." Leo said, giving Clark a pat on the back before Clark left the DEO to head back to Metropolis.

"Oh, I need to go I almost forgot. Ms. Grant's leaving soon. I also need to go turn in an article to Snapper Carr." Kara said, giving Leo a kiss before she rushed out of the DEO.

"Hey, how was work?" Leo greeted Kara when she returned to the DEO. Kara gave him a kiss before Kara followed Leo through the facility.

"It was good. I think I finally made an impression on Snapper Carr. I submitted an article on Metallo's attack and he asked me to return tomorrow. I don't think he really liked it but it's a start." Kara said happily.

"That's great. And how's Cat?" Leo asked.

"She's fine. I managed to see her before she left and got her to promise to come back eventually. She left James in charge while she was gone." Kara said.

"Well, while you've been gone, our alien sleeping beauty has started showing increased brain activity. Meaning, he is close to waking up. Anytime now actually." Leo said, leading Kara to the room where the unconscious alien was.

Kara walked over to the side of the bed, studying the screens that were giving readouts from the monitoring devices. Out of the blue, the comatose alien's eyes opened and he panicked at his surroundings. Kara tried to get him to stay calm but he lashed out and grabbed her neck squeezing on it as Kara struggled to breath. Leo acted quickly, taking the Crocodile Crack Fullbottle in his hand and giving a swift uppercut to the alien that knocked him out and caused him to let Kara go. Kara dropped to her knees and sputtered as she regained her breath.

"Are you both alright?" Alex asked rushing in with a fully armed team and Astra.

"I'm fine. Leo knocked him out. He wasn't hostile he was just confused and in a panic. We should probably get him moved to somewhere secure before he wakes up again. Then we can work on bringing him up to speed. That was some punch Leo. The guy was strong. I could actually feel his grip choking me." Kara said.

"Thankfully, I had this handy." Leo responded, opening his hand to reveal the Crocodile Crack Fullbottle.

"We'll have him moved to a cell before he wakes up again. Any of you want to be the ones to tell our Daxamite where he is?" Hank asked.

"Me and Kara can speak with him when he wakes up. If it's alright with you, I'd like to go grab some food. I'm feeling Italian tonight. Anyone want to join us?" Leo offered. Kara let out a cheer and started floating a little at the thought of food.

"I think we should all take a little break. By the way, the president will be making her way here for the finalizing of the alien amnesty act. There will be many parties who will not want this act to go through and we should be prepared. But that can wait. I think we can all agree that food would be nice right now." Hank said, all 6 of them walking together to get a bite to eat.

And there's the second chapter of season 2. Hope all of you enjoyed it. I've fleshed out the story more and this is really the biggest sticker point that's still preventing me from getting ot the finish line with this story:

I'm not likely to include season 4 (might do a series of one shots instead for that)

As such, I'm still deciding between the final climax villain for this story.

Evolt

vs

Blood

Reviews and inputs on which path readers would like me to take will help a lot.