"Hey. What are you doing here?" The adult Kara asked entering her sister's house and seeing her niece sprawled on the couch.
"I live here." The teenager reminded her.
"I meant, why aren't you with the others?"
"At MJ's party?"
"Yeah."
"Not really my thing."
"Birthday parties?"
"MJ's friends."
"What's wrong with his friends?"
"Do you remember high school?"
"Yes."
"And high school boys?"
"Yes."
"There you go." The teenager said.
"Should I have let Alex go?" The older Kara asked.
"She'll be fine. MJ's best friend has a huge crush on Alex."
"He does? Does Alex know?"
"Smart money would be on no. I mean she's your daughter."
"What does that mean?"
"Mom has told us all about it."
"About what?"
"Your history."
"What history?"
"Exactly." The teenager said as her aunt's phone rang.
"Hey Vasquez." Kara answered. "I'll be right there. Yeah, no. Don't tell Alex."
"We will continue this later." Kara said to her niece before flying out of the house.
-00-
"Could they have cloaking technology?" Supergirl asked as she once again arrived at a completely empty area.
"Maybe, but I don't see why it is so intermittent." Vasquez said. "And no cloak is perfect. Our clean up team should have found something. But they got nothing from the last site."
"And I am seeing nothing here." Supergirl said. "I'm not sure anyone has been here in years. Even the trash is caked in dust. And despite all the dust there are no footprints."
"We are getting nothing from IR and GPR scans either." Vasquez said. "The team will be with you in two minutes. Once they are there, head back to base."
"Is that it?" Supergirl asked sounding a little disappointed.
"Well if you are bored there is a … a ….. pile up on the freeway. Or a bank robbery on 3rd." Vasquez suggested.
"I thought we weren't meant to coordinate civil rescues from the DEO." Rose said to Vasquez.
"We're not. I was just passing on the headlines." Vasquez said. "Besides the Director is already, umm-"
"Angsty?" Rose suggested.
"Sure, you want to add a restless Supergirl to the list of things we need to deal with?"
"No. I'll make sure we have the latest newsfeeds." Rose said.
-00-
"Where's Alex?" Lena asked she entered the briefing room and saw the lack of DEO Director.
"Chaperoning MJ's birthday." Supergirl explained.
"Is she going to be okay with us doing this without her."
"I'm keeping her in the loop." Supergirl assured her.
"Your crinkle says different." Lena countered. "So what do you need?"
"For the last few days we have had sensor alerts indicating that a gem has been detected. But when I get there, there is nothing. The signal then disappears. But the DEO have sent teams and they see nothing."
"What if they are trying to make new gems? Maybe what we are detecting is chemical waste." Lena suggested. "It could be the waste is in the ground water. If it was deep underground it would explain why you saw nothing and as it was washed away it might explain the signal disappearing."
"We thought about that and we have used GPR to look for water. One of the sites had none for over one hundred feet. The others had streams closer to the surface, but none of those streams cross with any of the other alerts." Vasquez said displaying a variety of maps on the screen. "Another theory was they could also be testing our capability." Vasquez said. "They may want to see how sensitive our detectors are. But there is no sign anyone is watching our response."
"Could the trace come from anything else?" Supergirl asked.
"Don't see what, it is a unique signature." Lena replied.
"Then why can't we find anything?"
"What if there is nothing to find?" Lena asked. "What if the signatures aren't real?"
"What?"
"What if the sensors were hacked?"
"It's possible." Vasquez said.
"But what's the point?" Supergirl questioned.
"Keep us busy while they do something else. I mean that is kind of their MO." Lena said.
"So what haven't we been doing while we have been chasing the alerts?" Supergirl asked.
"That's the thing, there is nothing obvious. I mean you have been chasing them down so we haven't been getting distracted. Plus since the invasion attempt the normal number of alien attacks have decreased so we actually have less to do than normal." Vasquez said.
"Could it be related to the game?" Supergirl asked.
"That all seems to have gone quiet." Vasquez said. "No more servers have gone up and there is still no link between the Kai gang and Mongul."
"What if the alerts aren't for us?" Supergirl tried. "What if there is a hidden message?"
"That's not something we have thought of." Vasquez said. "I'll start running the signals through and ANN and see if comes up with anything."
-00-
"Everything go okay?" Kara asked entering Alex's house where her sister was clearing up pizza boxes.
"So far. They are all upstairs gaming. What happened with the signal?"
"How did you know?" Kara asked confused.
"I know everything. So what happened?"
"Another dead end." Kara said before asking after her daughter. "Is Alex okay?"
"She looked like she was having fun. I mean you could just listen."
"I'm not doing that." Kara said looking shocked at the suggestion.
"Your over the top outrage indicates you do it all the time." Her sister countered.
"I do not."
"And there is the crinkle."
"So should have had that fixed when I had no powers." Kara complained rubbing the offending characteristic.
"Alex is fine. She was even laughing."
"With the boy?" Kara asked frowning.
"Tom?" Alex guessed.
"You know?"
"Everyone knows. Apart from Alex. How do you know?" The adult Alex asked.
"Kara."
"Don't worry, Alex is oblivious and it all innocent fun. And in about twenty minutes twelve monosyllabic teens will come downstairs and leave."
"What happens in twenty minutes?"
"The internet goes off."
"That's evil." Kara commented before asking. "You doing okay?"
"Sure why?"
"You seem a little, not fine." Kara said as the front door opened and the teenage Kara returned.
"Where have you been?" The adult Alex asked unaware that her daughter had not been in the house.
"Out."
"Where?"
"With my friends."
"It's after nine." Alex said.
"And I'm sixteen not six."
"It's not safe out there."
"You said things were normal." The teenager said.
"I also said you needed to be careful. Sneaking out isn't careful."
"I didn't sneak I walked out of the front door." The teenager argued.
"You are meant to tell me where you are going." Alex pressed.
"I did. I sent you a message. It's not my fault if you ignore them."
"Guys. Why don't we have a time out." The adult Kara suggested. "Do you want an argument to ruin MJ's birthday?"
"No." The teenager said just as they heard thumping from upstairs moments before a gaggle of teenagers thumped downstairs, grunting briefly at the older Alex before leaving.
"If only invading aliens were so addicted to the internet." The adult Kara commented before walking over to her daughter and asking.
"Did you have fun today?"
"Yes." The teenager said hugging her mother.
"Good." Kara smiled "Let's get you home."
"You can't." MJ said.
"Why?" Kara asked.
"Because we need you for the party."
"Didn't that just end?" Kara asked confused.
"That was the friends' party. Now it is the family party." MJ said. "We have cake."
"Cake?" Kara asked.
"It is a birthday." Her sister reminded her.