A/N: Thanks for the comments.
Guest -Thanks! I did not mean for the story to get so long.
"Mom? When did you get back?" The teenage Alex asked when she saw her mother the next morning.
"Just now." Kara said hugging her daughter. "Sorry I didn't make it back in time to see you last night."
"Are you okay?" The teen asked.
"I am." Kara said. "So did I miss anything last night?"
"A guy called Max came."
"Max? As in Maxwell Lord? Maxwell Lord was here?" Kara asked looking over to her sister who was on the couch, her leg resting on the coffee table.
"He was." The older Alex confirmed.
"Why?" Kara asked.
"He has some information." Alex said as the other two teens emerged. "We can discuss it later." She added.
"Hi Sweetie." Eliza greeted walking into the room.
"Hi."
"How did it go?"
"Okay I think. Kal didn't seem unhappy to see me."
"I'm glad." Eliza smiled before looking at MJ and asking. "Where's your bag, you are going to be late."
"Got at least three minutes." He pointed out.
"Not even your mother was this bad." Eliza complained as MJ went upstairs to get his bag, before she hugged both her granddaughters goodbye.
As MJ came back downstairs she pulled him in for a hug, which he escaped as fast as he could, before following the two teenage girls out of the house. Once the door had shut Alex commented.
"Remind me to not come downstairs tomorrow until after the school chaos has left."
'How did you get down anyway?" Kara asked.
"J'onn." Alex explained. "Despite all his powers though he didn't want to hang around for breakfast and deal with the kids."
"Well he had dealt with you, the guy can only take so much punishment." Kara said as Alex lobbed a cushion at her just as Eliza walked back in.
"Alex, what are you doing?" Eliza asked wearily.
"It was Kara." Alex protested as Kara put the cushion back before sitting next to her sister and asking.
"So what did Max say?"
"That someone has been accessing his files, trying to get dirt on Tycho." Alex said.
"Stagg?" Kara guessed.
"That's his guess. He knows who the mole is and is still digging a little deeper into them."
"Did he say who it was?"
"No. He didn't trust us not to accidentally tip them off." Alex said. "The good news is he is also convinced that no one can get access to his research."
"That could just be arrogance." Kara argued.
"I said that, he said it wasn't. He said he would keep us updated." Alex replied before asking. "What did Lois tell you?"
"Not much, although she has identified several missing metas. Like us they are linked to the insurance company and she will be running a story on that soon. But everything else has been a dead end. But I did meet up with Lucy. And after we explained the situation she said she would help. She is going to look at her old files and get back to me. She may have locations of facilities previously used by Stagg and Tycho."
"That's something I guess." Alex said shifting on the couch enough to cause pain to run through her leg.
"What's wrong?" Kara asked frowning.
"Nothing. I just moved too much." Alex said. Looking round and seeing both Eliza and Kara were starting at her. She repeated. "I'm okay." She then looked back at her mother and said. "Shouldn't you be grilling Kara on how it went with Clark?"
Before Eliza could answer the doorbell rang and Kara immediately went to answer, returning a moment later with Vasquez.
"How are you feeling?" Vasquez asked.
"I'm fine and really hating that question." Alex complained. "Have you found something?"
"Kind of. There is a lot of chatter about you on the dark web right now." Vasquez said.
"The kids?" Alex immediately asked.
"Nothing. But it is not a stretch to believe they will become a target."
"So we use me as bait." Alex said.
"There's more to it than that." Vasquez said, before turning to Kara. "If we assume that Supergirl is the real target then they are going to keep going until they get her or are convinced that she is dead. The fact that there has been nothing said about your death they are probably using as an indication that you are still alive. So they know it is only a matter of time before you come back." Vasquez said. "And we all know it is only a matter of time before you come back, so we have a plan to give us an advantage. Well not much of an advantage, but we figure something is better than nothing."
"What is it?" Alex asked.
"After the next attempt you are going to come back, but act as if you aren't right. So Tycho will believe you are still weakened." Vasquez said, again looking at Kara. "When he sees you like that we think he will just come after you. That's when we get him."
"That sounds risky." Eliza pointed out.
"It's the best option for keeping the kids safe." Kara pointed out.
"And she won't be alone. In fact we are thinking of switching J'onn in." Vasquez said noticing two pairs of disapproving eyes on her. "And there will be a whole group assigned to protect her. And I am going to make sure those plans are air tight so I am going to leave you and your army of DEO guards outside and I will see you later."
-00-
"What are you doing here?" Kara asked when her daughter entered the apartment that afternoon.
"You want me to go?"
"No of course not. I just thought you'd be with your cousins." Kara said.
"Kara is on a date with Diz and like twenty DEO guards, and MJ has practice." The teen said picking up Chewie. Seeing her mother had been on her laptop she guessed. "Are you working?"
"It's nothing that can't wait. Why don't we take Chewie for his walk?"
"You sure?" The teen asked.
"Absolutely. Besides I wanted to talk to you about something." Kara said standing.
"Are you about to do something stupid?" The teenage Alex asked her mother.
"Wasn't planning to."
"I sense a but." The teen said.
"I'm going to come back as Supergirl. But when I do I am going to act like something isn't right."
"Why?"
"So the bad guys think I'm an easy target."
"You are going to be bait?" The teen asked not liking the idea.
"I have a whole team behind me."
"Well they didn't do a great job protecting you last time."
"I'll be fine." Kara promised her daughter.
-00-
"I didn't think we'd be seeing you tonight." Eliza said as Kara and her daughter entered the lounge.
"Well I told Alex about the plan and she has a few concerns that she wanted to ask you about." Kara said as Chewie ran over to the couch and jumped up onto the older Alex.
"Like what?" The older Alex asked.
"Are your guys actually going to protect her this time?" The teen asked.
"Alex." Kara said, unimpressed by her bluntness.
"What? You said I could ask anything." The teen said.
"Not in that tone though."
"You didn't specify tone." The teen countered before looking back at her aunt and asking. "Well?"
"My team know the consequences of screwing up." The older Alex said as her phone rang, grateful for the distraction.
"Hi Vasquez, what's going on? … what? …. How big …Have you- ... You think this is Stagg? She's here… I'll get back to you." She said ending the call.
"What?" Kara asked.
"There's an incident downtown. The DEO can't handle it, I need to go in. They need help."
"I'll go." Kara said.
"No." Her sister said. "We have a plan that doesn't involve you."
"You are on bed rest. Besides I was going to reveal myself soon anyway."
"But you were going to pretend that you weren't alright. You may not be able to do that with this." Her sister argued.
"I know. But we can come up with a new plan. Right now that is the problem, everything else can wait." Kara said before looking down at her daughter and saying. "Except you."
"I'll stay here." The teen said.
"Love you." Kara said kissing her goodbye.
-00-
"What's going on?" Supergirl asked as she flew to the scene.
"There's a giant spider." Vasquez said.
"A what?"
"Giant spider." Vasquez repeated.
"How giant?"
"Bigger than you. It was seen by the old docks and is heading towards the arcade. We are evacuating as quickly as we can. Our teams tried to attack it, but all they did was upset it."
"I see it." Supergirl said flying towards it, only to fly straight into its web.
"Guys this spider seems to have superhuman powers, well Superspider powers." She called over the radio.
"What do you mean?" Vasquez asked.
"I can't break free from the web."
"Looking for weaknesses." Vasquez said.
"Don't want to rush you, but the spider has seen me." Supergirl said before adding quietly. "And it is so much more freaky when it is this size."
"Something with a high pH should weaken it." Harris said over the radio.
"I forgot to pack bleach." Supergirl said as she looked over at the hairy spider, whose eyes were all focused on her.
"The team is nearly with you." Vasquez said as Supergirl used her heat vision on the web. Finally managing to burn through a few strands. Breaking free she flew away from the spider.
"Don't suppose there is a giant bath tub round here?" Supergirl asked.
"No." Harris replied.
"Apart from bath tubs what don't spiders like?" Supergirl asked.
"Vinegar."
"Will I kill it if I freeze it?" Supergirl asked not sure what to do with the previous suggestion.
"If it is like an Earth spider it will slow down." One of the DEO experts said over the radio.
"Okay, trying that." Supergirl said exhaling as she did so not only did the spider slow, but the webs froze and she saw how many webs there were.
"Oh Rao."
"What?" Vasquez asked.
"Are we sure that there is just one of them?"
"Yes, why?"
"There are soooooo many webs." Supergirl said.
"And the spider?"
"Has slowed. Kinda looks like he, or she, is sleeping."
"Can you contain it?"
"How? I so don't want to touch it. Those hairs are kinda freaky."
"We'll send a box. Can you keep it on ice until we get there?" Vasquez asked.
"I think so." Supergirl said.
-00-
As the containment box, containing the giant spider, was wheeled into the DEO Vasquez commented.
"You weren't kidding. That is really freaky."
"Tell me about it." Supergirl said.
"Are you okay?" Vasquez asked.
"Yes."
"Good. Perhaps you can tell Alex, she is wasting a phone line."
"Sure, I'll meet you in the briefing room in a few minutes."
-00-
When Supergirl entered the briefing room ten minutes later several DEO agents were waiting, including Vasquez and a scientist.
"This is Dr Ortiz." Vasquez said. "He is our resident bug expert."
"You look kinda miserable." Supergirl said to Ortiz. "How bad is it?"
"Well I was hoping that out there somewhere there would be a planet of Super spiders." He said.
"Why?" Supergirl asked.
"We'd have so much to learn."
"I've never heard of such a planet." Supergirl said.
"Looks like our prisoner doesn't come from one either." Vasquez said.
"You've identified it so quickly?" Supergirl asked.
"It is an Orb Weaver spider." The scientist said. "Very common."
"Pretty sure it's not." Supergirl said. "I mean I am pretty sure I'd remember seeing one of those webs."
"For whatever reason it has mutated." Ortiz said.
"How do we unmutate it?" Vasquez asked.
"It may have been born like this. If that is the case there will be more."
"How many more?" Supergirl asked.
"Typically one hundred to three hundred." The scientist said.
"Three hundred? We could barely contain one." Supergirl pointed out.
"Fortunately cold seems to work." Vasquez said. "But if they did all hatch we are going to have a problem real soon." She then turned to Ortiz and said.
"Finish running your tests. I want to know how it happened and how to stop them."
"Yes ma'am." He said leaving.
When it was just Vasquez and Supergirl in the room Vasquez once again asked.
"You sure you are okay?"
"Yes. Well, I will probably have nightmares all night." Kara said. "I thought spiders were weird normally. But when they are that big they are so, so much worse."
"Good. I'm sorry we had to call you in. We may have just handed the advantage back to Tycho."
"It's okay. Do you think Stagg or Tycho was behind it?"
"Can't rule it out. But if it was we might want to think about getting J'onn and your cousin to put on that show and give Stagg and Tycho a reason to distrust each other."