"You okay?" The teenage Alex asked her mother later that day.
"I'm fine."
"You suck at lying." The teen said sitting next to her mother before asking. "You want to be out there helping?"
"Yes."
"So why aren't you?"
"Your aunt won't let me."
"You don't normally listen to her."
"That's not true." Kara said before adding. "Kind of. Besides, this time she might have been right. I may have been pushing myself too hard. So this time I am going to focus on what matters." Seeing her daughter starer blankly at her she added. "You, you dope." Before hugging her. When she released her she asked. "Why aren't you playing games with MJ and Kara."
"MJ needed time to rebuild his confidence."
"You should go easy on him." Kara said.
"Alex and Kara said he needed to learn humility." The teenage Alex shrugged. She then looked at her mother and asked.
"When you are out there as Supergirl, how do you decide who to save?"
"I don't, I help whoever needs help." Kara explained.
"So you'd help Holtz or Chris, even after everything they've done?"
"Having powers doesn't give you the right to play god." Kara said. "Besides maybe by being saved, someone like Holtz or Chris will reform."
"You really believe that?" The teenager asked not bothering to hide her cynicism.
"I do." Kara said. "But seeing we had a rule about you not being a hero until after college, why are you asking?"
"Just curious."
"Hmm, well I've got something I want to talk to you about too."
"What?"
"When you were sick, you were getting sicker than Ruby and no one knew why. One of the theories was that the other half of your DNA might be more susceptible to the virus. I know I said it was your choice, but you were so sick, so I asked Lena to try and find out what planet your father was from. As it turns out Eliza found the cure and I forgot I even asked Lena to look. But then the other day Lena got a hit."
"And?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. I haven't seen the results. And we still don't know if the planet it found was where your father was from. But if you want to see the results Lena has them. But if you want she can lock them away."
"Not throw them away?" The teenager asked.
"If you don't want to know that's fine. But just in case you ever get ill like that I need to know the information is somewhere I can get it."
"Okay." The teen said. "I'll think about it."
"While you are thinking, you have something really important to think about." Kara said.
"More important than deciding if I want to figure out the other half of my genetic make up?" The teenager asked.
"Yes." Kara said with no doubt in her voice.
"What?" The teen asked getting worried.
"It's your birthday coming up. So what do you want to do?"
-00-
"We have a break through." Vasquez said walking towards Alex.
"What?"
"A way to track the contact lenses. When they are being worn they have to connect to a network. But the way they interface, well exchange packets, seems unique. We think we can track it. Obviously it won't help us find the ones not in use, but we should be able to find everyone who is wearing them."
"Where are we on deactivating them?" Alex asked.
"We have prototyped several devices, spanning different powers and ranges. Obviously they have never been tested and the docs don't want them being used without medical presence." Vasquez said.
"Well we may not have a choice on that." Alex said as Vasquez's tablet started bleeping.
"Got them." Vasquez said. "They are all in one place." She then looked at Alex and asked. "Are we going to have Supergirl for this mission?"
"I hope not. But I will ask her." Alex said. "Get the team ready for a briefing in one hour."
-00-
"Alex, is everything okay?" Kara asked when her sister entered Lena's apartment.
"Yeah." she said before looking at her niece. "Can you give us minute?"
"Sure." The teenager said going off to join her cousins in one of the spare rooms.
"What's wrong?" Kara asked.
"When you were under the influence of Red-K you said I was keeping you at a distance and not telling you things. That wasn't deliberate, I guess I just got used to doing things by myself, especially after Kelly died." Alex explained before adding. "That's not meant to be an excuse." She paused and said. "I didn't realise how much that hurt you and I'm sorry. Which is why I am going to tell you this, but I'm not telling you because I want you to join in, I'm telling you so you know."
"Know what?" Kara asked.
"We know how to track the contact lenses. We have a location and will be doing a raid."
"I'll go." Kara immediately said.
"Wait." Lena said entering the room. "This is probably a trap, possibly involving Red-K."
"She's right." Alex said.
"But." Lena said. "I was assuming you'd want to get back out there, so I may have made some modifications to your suit to protect you."
"The only way to protect me from gas is to be enclosed." Kara said.
"And I know you don't want that." Lena acknowledged. "So I came up with a compromise. If gas containing any form of Kryptonite is detected the suit will turn into the full armour. You should be protected. As soon as it is safe the helmet disappears. Also there is a failsafe. The Red-K antidote can be released inside the suit."
"So we have a plan." Kara said. "I'll just say goodbye to Alex."
"It's alright we heard." The teen said appearing in the room with her two cousins.
"I'll be back soon. I promise." Kara said approaching her. But as the teen continued to frown Kara hugged her and whispered to her in an alien language.
-00-
"Where are we?" Alex asked as she and Supergirl entered the briefing room where Aptil was also waiting.
"All the signals are coming from an abandoned car factory on the east side." Harris said. "There are over fifty signals coming from in there."
"We have just got IR footage from an overhead and there seem to be several figures at strategic points, we are assuming guards." Rose added showing some images.
"As you'll recall the longer the kids have been wearing the lenses the less likely our mitigation will work. We can blast the factory with a pulse that will deactivate the lenses." Vasquez said. "But it could be fatal to some of the wearers. Without having a medical team in there it is risky and against the advice of Russell."
"If you don't though they will become active and attack us, ultimately resulting in them being shot during the raid." Aptil said.
"Either way some kids will die." Alex said.
"That isn't good enough." Supergirl said.
"No it's not." Alex agreed. "But we don't have a choice."
"There's always a choice." Supergirl said.
"Even if we gas the building, someone could activate the self destruct in the lenses and kill all of them." Aptil pointed out.
"So jam comms." Supergirl said.
"May not work if they are inside the building." Alex said.
"Even if it did. We may not be fast enough." Vasquez added.
"So we need speed?" Supergirl said.
"And a medical team in there." Alex said.
"And luck and skill." Aptil added as Supergirl left the room.
"Where's she going?" Aptil asked.
"I think to get some speed." Alex said. "While she does, let's focus on making this mission as safe as possible."
-00-
"Hi Kara." Barry said looking up from his work.
"Hi. I really hate to do this. It feels like I only see you when I need something, but I need you, well your speed, so that we can rescue fifty children."
-00-
"Okay, we can put up an em barrier stopping any external over the air transmissions getting through." Vasquez said once the two heroes had returned.
"What about within the building?" The Flash asked.
"There is nothing we can do to stop those." Vasquez said. "If we sent a pulse capable of destroying electronics, even if we assume they weren't hardened against it, although it could knock out their comms it could also fry the contacts and as a result fry the wearer's brains. We can cut hard connections into the building, but the risk is someone in there can activate a signal."
"So we need to take out all the guards." Supergirl said to Barry.
"There are at least sixteen people not in the main area." Alex said.
"That doesn't sound so bad." Barry said.
"Only we don't know where the security room is." Alex said.
"So we just need to go in and take them out as quickly as possible?" Barry asked.
"Yes, but there is one other issue." Supergirl said.
"What?"
"They could have rigged a trap to send a signal if there is an intruder. And we have no idea how that trap would be rigged. So we have no choice apart from to send the pulse to deactivate the lenses at the start. Our job is to safely get the doctors into the room where the kids are as soon as possible, or the kids to the doctors."
"It would be best to get the doctors to the kids." Russell said. "That way they can triage. Any emergencies can then be transferred to here."
"Okay, so do you want me to take the med team and you handle the guards?" The Flash asked Supergirl.
"Actually, Supergirl I want you with the kids." One of the DEO doctors said.
"Why?"
"If something goes wrong we may need you to freeze them."
"Is that safe?"
"You've done it before with Lena." Alex reminded her.
"And it nearly didn't work." Supergirl countered. "And these are kids."
"You are right, it could be fatal, but if they react to the lenses being deactivated, without freezing them they will die." The doctor countered.