"Did you get any sleep last night?" The adult Kara asked noticing how tired Eliza, MJ and the teenage Kara looked.
"No. Mom kept us up." The teenage Kara said.
"Your mom?" Kara asked suspiciously.
"Ask Grandma." MJ said.
"I don't know who was ultimately to blame, but Alex was involved." Eliza said.
"What did I do?" The teenage Alex asked entering the kitchen.
"Nothing Sweetie, I was talking about your aunt."
"Is this about my phone?" The teenager asked.
"What phone?" Her mother asked confused.
"That's a no then." The teenager guessed.
"What phone?" Kara asked before guessing. "Wait, did Alex try to make you give her your phone?"
"We're going to be late for school, even with Ruby driving us." The teenager said avoiding the question. "See you later." She added hugging her mother and heading to the front door, followed by her cousins.
"What?" Kara asked when she noticed Eliza smiling.
"Alex has the exact same expression you do when you are covering for your sister."
-00-
"You ready?" Supergirl asked.
"Almost. It'll just take a few minutes to do a few safety checks." Lena said. "Why do you look so frustrated?"
"The raids haven't given us anything we can use on Sloane Syndicate."
"But you kind of took out Kai." Lena reminded her.
"But if Sloane Syndicate are behind Kai, they will just rebuild."
"Maybe the question you need to ask yourself is who runs Sloane syndicate?"
"Joiner."
"No. He is the public face of Sloane Syndicate. But he doesn't run it." Lena said.
"How do you know?"
"Because he spends his life going to press conferences, charity events and other meetings. He barely has time to sleep on top of that, let alone do anything else. He is just a puppet. The more I look at Sloane Syndicate the more it has Lex written all over it. But I can't see any link between him and Sloane Syndicate. And I have looked under every rock I can think of." Lena said as something bleeped.
"Bad sign?" Kara asked.
"No. Safety checks are complete. We can start testing." Lena said. "You ready?"
"I am."
"Here we go." Lena said putting the gemstone in the suit. "Not going to lie, I was expecting more." Lena said when nothing happened.
"Does some one need to be wearing the suit?" Supergirl asked.
"Maybe. Or it could be the suit is drained." Lena said removing the gemstone. "I'm going to figure that out. I'll let you know when I have something."
-00-
"What are you doing?" Kara asked when she saw her sister walking round upstairs.
"Proving I can make it downstairs." Alex said
"By collapsing six feet from your bedroom?" Kara asked.
"I'm not collapsing." Alex said, breathing hard.
"Or is it you want to fall down the stairs and collect another broken bone?" Kara went on. "I mean they are getting really bored in the DEO infirmary."
"Funny." Alex said breathlessly.
"Why are you pushing yourself?"
"MJ has a game tonight. I want to go."
"I get that, but that's not a good idea. And if you collapse, MJ is going to feel really guilty." Kara pointed out. "He won't be alone. I'll go. So will Eliza."
"I know. But it's not the same." Alex said.
"MJ understands. And he'd prefer you to miss this one but make all the ones after, rather than make this one and not be able to go to any future games."
"You don't understand, I keep letting him down."
"You haven't let him down." Kara said.
"He was kidnapped because of me. He is having nightmares because of me."
"He is safe because of you." Kara countered.
-00-
As the group walked through the school towards the gym, Kara noticed her niece was slowing down. Changing her speed to match her niece she allowed Eliza and the teenage Alex to go on ahead before asking.
"You okay?"
"Is mom okay?" The teenage Kara asked.
"It will take time to heal." The adult Kara said.
"I didn't mean her physical wounds." The teenager countered.
"She is going to feel guilty for awhile."
"Why does she feel guilty?"
"She thinks she let you and MJ down."
"That's bull."
"I know." The adult Kara said. "But your mom is going to take a bit of convincing."
"My not sleeping probably isn't helping." The teenage said.
"Hiding things from your mom will make things much worse for her."
"But telling her will stress her out." The teenager argued.
"She is going to stress anyway. If you hide things form her she'll make up reasons about why you are doing it and make it much worse."
"Didn't you hide things when you came back to Earth?"
"Yes. I thought I was protecting your mom. Turned out I made things worse. So trust me when I say it is better to be honest. More importantly, for your sake you need to talk about what you are feeling. Bottling everything up isn't good for you." Kara said as they reached the gym. It was then she heard a strange noise in the distance. "Go join the others, I'll be back in a minute."
-00-
"I really don't like bullies." Supergirl said landing behind a large kid who was beating a smaller one.
"So?" The bully said turning, only to look a lot less brave when he saw Supergirl.
"So I think you should stop." Supergirl said.
"You can't do anything to me." The bully said.
"I can take you to the principal or your parents." Supergirl said."Ah, I see you are not keen on the parent option. Let's start with them."
"You don't know where I live."
"15 Orchard Avenue." Supergirl said confusing him. "Let's go." She said flying him away.
-00-
"Are you okay?" Kara, as Kara, said approaching the bullied kid, who was sitting at the base of the football post, a few minutes later.
Silently he nodded and got to his feet.
"Do you need to see a doctor?" Kara asked subtly trying to look for broken bones. This time the question got a shake of the head.
"Are you here for the game?" Kara asked, once again getting a shake of the head.
"What are you doing here?" Kara pressed.
"I was waiting for my ride. But he got stuck at work."
"Well, why don't you come watch the game, and afterwards I'll take you home?" Kara suggested.
"I don't like football."
"That's okay. It's basketball." Kara pointed out.
"You shouldn't be nice to me." The boy said.
"Why?"
"You're Alex's mom right?"
"Yes."
"It's my fault she nearly drowned."
"Well I am pretty sure you aren't Holtz." Kara said. "Wait was it Holtz who did this?"
This time the boy nodded.
"And you're Martin?" Kara asked. Again he nodded.
"When will your dad finish work?" Kara asked.
"He's not ... A couple of hours." He replied still avoiding eye contact.
"In that case, we'll watch the game. When it is over he should be home."
"I can just go."
"It's dark." Kara said. "Besides I don't think it is a good idea for you to be alone."
"Don't you blame me?" He asked.
"For what?"
"Alex getting picked on."
"Holtz is the bad guy here. Not you." Kara said as she led him towards the gym. "You sure you don't need to see a doctor or nurse?"
"I'm fine."
"Well let me know if you change your mind." Kara said.
"I'll just go home." He said stopping.
"You aren't going to go alone, so either you watch the game with us or I'll miss the game and take you home."
"Ok, I'll stay." Martin said as he started walking again.
"You never know you might like it."
"Randomly bouncing a ball?" He asked.
"Randomly bouncing a ball with skill." Kara corrected. "Besides we brought food." She said as they entered the gym.
As the pair reached the seating area with Martin, Eliza and the two teenage girls gave her an inquisitive look, but didn't say anything.
"Have we missed anything yet?" Kara asked.
"Just the warm ups."
-00-
"J'onn? What are you doing here?" Alex asked when she saw her friend and mentor standing in her bedroom doorway. "Did mom send you?"
"No." J'onn said. "How are you feeling?"
"Frustrated. I want to be out there. But instead I am stuck here."
"You need to rest." J'onn reminded her. "The sooner you do the sooner you will be out there watching MJ's games."
"I know. But it is still frustrating." Alex complained before asking. "If mom didn't send you, why are you here?"
"Conway's brother in law's death was definitely not an accident." J'onn said. "The GNSS chip had been hacked."
"How? They are meant to be unhackable, And I know nothing is unhackable but the skill required should make the suspect pool very small."
"That's why they stopped investigating Conway's sister. Although she is a programmer, her skill set is not good enough to access the chip. Whoever did this was extremely skilled or knew of backdoor. Currently there is no way to link the accident to Sloane Syndicate or Kai." J'onn said. "But we are still looking."
-00-
"Martin? Where have you been?" The man asked when he answered the door. On seeing Kara he asked. "Who are you?"
"I'm Kara Danvers. My daughter is in Martin's class. Martin watched the game with us tonight so we gave him a ride home."
"Right. Thank you." He said. "Wait, Danvers. It was your kid who was being bullied right?"
"One of many." Kara said looking at Martin who shook his head.
"Well thanks for bringing him home."
"Of course." Kara smiled. "But if you ever want me to drop him off, give me a call." Kara said handing him her number.
-00-
"Want to explain how we ended up with an extra kid?" Eliza asked when Kara returned to the car.
"He was being bullied by Holtz."
"What did you do?" The teenage Kara asked.
"Supergirl intervened." The older Kara said.
"Where's Holtz now?"
"Last I saw getting yelled at by his father. I may have interrupted some big party his parents were having and when I explained why I had to bring Holtz back Holtz senior was not happy with Holtz junior." The older Kara said before asking. "What's the deal with Martin?"
"Don't know. He never talks to anyone." Her daughter said before looking out of the window.
-00-
"What's wrong?" Kara asked when she entered her apartment with her daughter.
"Nothing."
"You were very quiet on the journey back."
"I didn't make any difference." The teenage Alex said miserably.
"What do you mean?"
"Martin is still being bullied by Holtz."
"No one changes overnight. But the more people who stand up to him, the weaker he becomes." Kara said. "But I am more worried about Martin."
"Why?"
"I don't think he has told his family he is being bullied."
"Like I said he doesn't talk to anyone." The teenage shrugged.