Chapter 6 - "My Name Is Izzy"
Mon-El's leg has been trembling incessantly since he and Kara boarded the plane bound for Central City. Overwhelmed by nervous energy, he's aware that a long-awaited reunion with Barry is inevitable. This particular weekend is Barry's birthday, and Joe West has generously extended an invitation to Kara to join in the celebration at his home. This year, circumstances are slightly different; Iris and Barry's friend Caitlin are studying abroad in Italy. Joe, cognizant of the potential loneliness of a party with just himself, Cisco, and Barry, found it somewhat incomplete. He explained this sentiment to Kara, and she had a brilliant idea to bring Mon-El along to surprise Barry.
Sitting beside Mon-El on the plane, Kara senses his unease. His leg trembles uncontrollably, anxiously. Mon-El has somehow convinced himself that Barry despises him.
"Mon-El," she says softly, her hand gently resting on his quaking leg. She attempts to capture his attention, but his gaze remains locked on the passing landscape outside the window. His leg quaking even more when the city skyline comes into view.
"Mon-El," Kara repeats, her tone firmer this time, giving his knee a reassuring squeeze. "You're worrying over nothing." She offers him a warm smile as he finally turns to her, his eyes wide with trepidation. His 20-year-old face almost resembles that of his 13-year-old self. Kara takes his hand, previously resting on his leg, and places it in her own lap. Her fingers trace the veins and then follow the lifelines in a calming motion.
"Barry will be so happy to see you," she reassures him, her eyes meeting his.
Mon-El swallows hard, turning his gaze back to the window. His mind races with countless scenarios of how this reunion could go terribly wrong. The last time he saw Barry was when he "white fanged" Kara in favor of a Danvers adoption, which shattered Barry's trust in him. By the time Joe West had arrived to pick up Barry several months later, they hadn't exchanged a single word. Mon-El had been left alone.
The panic begins to surge within Mon-El as the plane turns in the direction of the airport. He props his elbow against the window, resting his head on his hand. He glances down at Kara's hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze.
Kara smiles and runs her fingers through his hair, her hand gently stroking his cheek. She remains steadfast in her belief that this reunion will be a positive one, having talked to Barry about Mon-El extensively since their reconciliation. Barry has often expressed excitement about seeing his friend again after so many years.
Lost in Kara's comforting gestures, Mon-El is jolted back to reality as the plane's wheels make contact with the runway with a thud. Kara tries to stifle a laugh at his reaction and gives his hand one final squeeze before reaching for her phone to check her messages.
In the taxi to their destination, Mon-El leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees, and buries his face in his hands, his anxiety palpable. Kara provides solace by rubbing his back once more as she uses her other hand to text Barry to let him know she's on her way.
As they arrive, Mon-El seems to erupt from the cab like a jack-in-the-box in a nervous fit, darting off to collect their luggage. Meanwhile, Kara dials Barry's number and informs him that she's downstairs.
Mon-El swiftly settles the taxi fare. However, just as the cab makes its grand exit, he experiences an unexpected, thunderous exclamation, "NO FREAKING WAY!" Without warning, he's unceremoniously body-slammed to the ground, an absurd moment that sends Kara into fits of laughter. Mon-El gazes up at Barry, a comically perplexed expression on his face. Barry, for his part, appears more jubilant than an overenthusiastic golden.
"Hey, man!" Barry exclaims, his face beaming with uncontainable delight. He extends a hand to help Mon-El up, his grin as wide as a Cheshire cat's. Mon-El smiles back, though a perplexed expression lingers in his eyes. While he savors the warmth of Barry's embrace, he can't help but wonder about Barry's unexpected reaction, a question that had nagged at him throughout a sleepless night.
"Uh, hey, Allen," Mon-El replies with an amused chuckle, the knots of tension in his stomach finally starting to loosen. He steals a quick glance at Kara, whose face radiates pride, and a faint blush creeps onto his cheeks. The weekend ahead suddenly feels much more inviting and less daunting.
"Come on!" Barry interrupts his thoughts. "I have so much to show you before we go to Joe's!" Barry grabs their luggage and leads them to his dorm room. "So, my roommate isn't here right now, but you'll meet him later at Star Labs! His name is Cisco, and he's pretty cool!" Barry starts chatting away, not allowing them to get a word in edgewise, even as they queue up for food. Mon-El chuckles, reminded of how similar Barry and Kara are, especially when they both get excited over the same thing and start to talk over each other, finishing each other's...
"Sandwiches are also very good here!" Barry continues talking as he leads them to the table he often occupies. The only time Barry stops talking is when he takes a bite of his Chicken chipotle grilled cheese sandwich. Mon-El uses this brief respite to survey the cafeteria, noticing that it's surprisingly empty.
"Where's everyone?" Mon-El asks as he takes a sip of his soda. Barry, with a mouthful of food, wipes crumbs from his mouth.
"Today is actually a pretty special day at Star Labs," Barry explains, his excitement evident. "Dr. Wells is allowing people to see the particle accelerator before it turns on tomorrow!" Barry practically vibrates with anticipation.
"I'm sorry, what's a par-partible parti...what you said." Mon-El asks, genuinely confused, while Kara can't help but burst into giggles.
"You are opening the floodgates, my friend," she mutters into her sandwich, her words tinged with playful exasperation. Kara knows this well, having been on the receiving end of Barry's uninterrupted scientific enthusiasm many times before.
"Dude! The particle accelerator is the best invention in the world!" Barry exclaims. "Think of it as taking two particles..." He demonstrates by pulling his two hands apart. "And smash!" He yells as he claps his hands together. "At the speed of light." Mon-El looks at Kara, even more puzzled, but she just shrugs and starts on her vanilla soft serve.
"Just by doing that, we can learn so much about their quantum mechanics," Barry continues, his energy undiminished. "And much about the world!" He grabs a couple of napkins and places them in front of Mon-El.
"Now!" Barry continues, drawing diagrams on the napkin, "Imagine this dot is everything the human race has ever learned until this very moment." Barry looks at his friends before drawing an even larger circle around the dot. "Now, that is everything we can learn from the particle accelerator. It's a whole new way of looking at physics." He takes a quick breath, "It will change the way we think about...everything. From a single atom, to an entire galaxy, even to our universe," Barry exclaims, clearly thrilled to be researching alongside Harrison Wells.
"I can give you guys a tour later!" Barry announces, taking another bite of his sandwich. Mon-El looks at Kara again, hoping she could explain it a bit more, but she honestly doesn't understand much more than he does.
As lunch continues, Barry comes back down to earth and catches Mon-El up on everything he's missed in the last 7 years. When the West took him in, they had to move to Central City so that Iris could grow up with her younger brother Wally. However, Joe and Eliza consistently organized trips during some holidays to allow Barry to visit his father and, in turn, Kara.
Having skipped a year of school, Barry had considered attending National City University with Kara, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity Dr. Wells offered him to work in his lab. Mon-El gives Barry a sympathetic smile, recalling their conversations about the murders one half of their parents.
An idea suddenly strikes Mon-El as he remembers a story Barry had shared about the night Nora died. It's a poignant memory that reminds Mon-El how much he missed his friend and the bond they once shared. This reunion, despite Mon-El's initial anxiety, starts to feel more and more like a homecoming.
"What. do. you. mean. you. lost. Kara?" Alex's voice practically booms through the phone as she unleashes her anger on Winn. "How could you lose a whole person, Winslow?" Her frustration is palpable, and she's utterly appalled by what she considers Winn's idiotic and reckless behavior. For someone as smart as he is, this seems incredibly stupid.
Meanwhile, Winn is well aware that if he were in the same room as Alex, she might strangle him. He stammers, "K-Kara w-was supposed to check back with us for dinner t-to tell us w-what she found, b-but s-she didn't..." he gulps as he attempts to explain himself. But Alex's fury cuts him off, "No, I heard that part, Winslow! My confusion is why this happened in the first place! How could you entertain her delusion in this way?" She raises her voice even more, somehow linking this to Mon-El's death, even though that's not what Kara was investigating when she disappeared.
"A-Actually, th-this ha-has nothing to do with Mon-El..." Winn's words falter as he can practically hear the sound of angry steam whistling from Alex's ears. "Is that so?" Alex responds through gritted teeth.
"Y-Yeah," Winn clears his throat, realizing that Kara had raised doubts about Alex with the whole Mon-El situation, but this isn't related to that. So maybe it's okay to get her involved? He wonders this along with Barry, who just shrugs.
"Kara was investigating the disappearance of Izzy Williams, and she got a lead that a clinic was involved," Barry finally interjects, much to Winn's relief. Although he'd rather not admit it, he had Winn call Alex because he himself is terrified of her. Hopefully, Alex will remember that he's like her little brother when the inevitable scolding in person occurs.
"Kara didn't want me to go with her, sure that she wouldn't need it," Barry continues. "But as Winn said, she never called us back, and we can't find the people involved." He gulps, knowing that Kara often refuses to admit when she needs help. "The clinic is virtually empty, abandoned even," Barry adds, nervously listening to the silence on the other end of the line.
"Where are you?" Alex demands to know as she pinches the bridge of her nose. Winn and Barry exchange hesitant glances. If they tell Alex where they are, she's going to realize they weren't just investigating Izzy's disappearance.
"Where are you?!" Alex's anger resurfaces in her voice. Barry tries to signal Winn to 'Get rid of the Mon-El files,' but Winn doesn't catch it and asks, 'What?'
Barry bites his lower lip, clears his throat, and divulges the information because he knows Alex can't be kept waiting any longer. "Uh... we're on the abandoned CatCo floor. Tell us when you get here; we'll let you in," Barry says, then abruptly hangs up the phone.
"We need to get rid of everything Mon-El," he says hurriedly. "She at NC FBI Field Office so she'll probably be here in 10 minutes." Barry jumps up from his seat and rushes to his workstation, desperately trying to erase any trace of their activities. After all, he's way too young to die.
Kara awakens abruptly, a gasp escaping her lips as her heart races, its frenetic beats seemingly audible in the stillness of the room. The air feels thin, a laborious effort to draw into her lungs. Panic washes over her as she frantically scans her unfamiliar surroundings, darkness pressing in on all sides. Her anxiety surges like an incoming tidal wave, rendering her body tense and trembling.
As a shadowy figure materializes in the corner of the room, dread coils within her like a tightening vice. Panic intensifies, clawing at her insides as she instinctively tries to retreat from this ominous presence. However, her back presses firmly against an unyielding wall, leaving her with nowhere to escape.
Hyperventilation sets in, her gasps for air ragged and rapid. Tear-filled eyes lock onto the approaching figure, a plea for them to vanish from her view. "No," she cries out, the word trembling on her lips, desperation evident in her voice. She pleads with the phantom image, "Go away, please."
The figure pauses in its advance, and a semblance of relief washes over Kara. She closes her eyes tightly, attempting to banish the nightmarish apparition from her mind. But her panic, like a relentless storm, continues to surge.
"I'm sorry, I'm not going to hurt you!" The voice cuts through the turmoil in her head, and Kara cautiously opens her eyes. She focuses on the form before her, still somewhat blurred by the dim light. A girl stands there, her features gradually coming into focus.
Her breathing remains erratic, but as the girl's voice resonates with genuine concern, the grip of panic begins to loosen. Kara accepts the cup of water offered to her, taking slow sips. She listens more intently now, aware of distant sounds—clanging, murmuring, doors closing—that hint at the strange environment surrounding her.
Placing the cup down, Kara finally looks at the girl sitting nearby. "I'm sorry," she says, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "That hasn't happened to me in a long time." The words escape her lips, her surprise at the sudden attack of panic evident.
Kara studies Izzy for a moment, a furrow forming on her brow. "You look familiar," she observes, her gaze penetrating.
"Oh, uh..." Izzy stammers, taken aback. "My name is Izzy," she finally offers.
Kara's eyes widen in realization, and she can't help but smile in spite of their dire situation. "Izzy!" she exclaims, causing the girl to startle. "Oh, I'm sorry," Kara amends with a softer tone. "My name is Kara Danvers. I'm a reporter! Your mom told me about you." The connection dawns on her, and she feels a glimmer of hope despite their predicament.
"You know my mother?" Izzy questions, her emotions mixed. The rift between her and her mother before her abduction has constantly haunted her thoughts.
Kara edges closer to Izzy, hoping to glean more information. Perhaps they can collaborate on an escape plan; it's been several long months in captivity, after all. The serendipity of their meeting isn't lost on her.
However, before Kara can extract further details from Izzy, the room's door slams open, admitting two imposing figures who advance purposefully toward her. Panic surges anew as she tries to retreat but is thwarted by the unyielding wall behind her.
"N-no!" Kara screams as they close in, her struggle futile as they overpower her. The world around her blurs as they forcibly remove her from the room, leaving Izzy's frightened cries echoing in her ears.
"Mon-El, I don't know about doing this anymore..." Kara reveals as she watches Mon-El try and pick the lock of a foreclosed house. The idea had seemed brilliant the 1.5 years ago at a random party: sneaking into Barry's childhood home to unearth the truth about that fateful night involving Barry's mother. However, this afternoon, in the sobering light of the day, Kara's doubts began to overshadow her enthusiasm. After all, what could a college senior and a rising sophomore, neither pursuing degrees remotely related to criminal justice, hope to uncover that had eluded the police for so long?
Kara fidgets with her fingers, her apprehension palpable. Her eyes dart around the dimly lit surroundings, taking in the dust-covered furniture and the eerie silence that hangs in the air. She feels a shiver crawl down her spine, as if the very walls of this abandoned house are whispering secrets she's not ready to uncover.
"Kara, come on! You told me you would help me!" Mon-El sighs, feigning that he's exasperated with her, but he can't conceal the twinkle of excitement in his eyes as he succeeds in opening the door with a soft click. "Thank you, Brian!" Mon-El throws the door open and looks at Kara with a mischievous grin while wiggling his eyebrows.
Kara's stern expression softens for a moment as she chuckles, despite her unease. "Mon-El, we could go to jail for breaking and entering!" She crosses her arms, refusing to step inside.
"Kara, please...no one lives here." Mon-El reassures her as he ventures inside first, his confidence contrasting starkly with Kara's jitteriness. He knows her well enough to predict that her sense of justice would eventually override her doubts, drawing her into this adventure.
Kara groans out his name but he doesn't respond, and, as expected, she follows him inside the dusty home, her steps hesitant but determined. She catches up to him, and her expression shifts from irritation to reluctant amusement when she notices his playful demeanor.
"Shenanigans," he teases her, and she rolls her eyes, playfully shoving him. "Shut up." But her laughter mingles with his when he turns on his flashlight and places it under his chin, his eyes gleaming with mischief as he laughs like a maniac.
"Come on! This is exciting!" Mon-El points the flashlight in some direction, the beam of light cutting through the darkness as he continues, "We're gonna solve a cold case! I know you're curious." He moves the flashlight towards her face, the fervor in his voice infectiously persuasive.
Kara sighs, her anxiety still simmering beneath the surface. "Ok."
Mon-El can't contain his excitement and does an obnoxious celebratory dance before pulling some documents out of his satchel, their crinkling sound echoing in the eerie silence. Kara's eyes widen as she notices the unmistakable NCPD logo on the manila folder, her curiosity momentarily overpowering her apprehension.
"Wh-where did you get those?!" She exclaims, her gaze fixed on the folder, the secrets it might hold tugging at her investigative instincts.
A smirk tugs at the corner of Mon-El's lips in response to her question, and Kara lets out a groan, muttering, "Nevermind."
"Let's just get this over with." Dropping the subject and pointing to his flashlight, insinuating that he should illuminate the contents of the folder. She walks over to where the body was found.
Mon-El obliges and starts to read the documents on hand, beginning with the police's assessment of what happened. Kara listens attentively, her mind racing to follow the logic around the room before asking Mon-El to continue reading.
Next, Mon-El reads Barry's statement, the words on the page reduced by the cops to mere mumblings of an 11-year-old, rendering it almost meaningless. But Mon-El firmly believes that the reason the cops haven't cracked this case, opting to steamroll Henry, hinges on that very dismissal. Barry might be onto something with his account of a "disappearing man in yellow." As Mon-El reads Barry's words, Kara mentally reconstructs the scene, the mystery unraveling before her.
"Hey, Mon-El," Kara suddenly interjects, her voice tinged with doubt, "Do you think Barry remembers it wrong?" Her skepticism grows as her eyes dart around the room.
Mon-El furrows his eyebrows, puzzled by her concern but willing to entertain it. He does as she asks, reading Barry's statement again, trying to see what she's noticed. He watches as Kara turns around and looks back at the spot where Nora was murdered, her thoughts clearly racing.
"Mon-El!" Kara suddenly exclaims after a few minutes, her voice tinged with a mix of excitement and revelation. "Come here!" She waves him over, her urgency evident as she practically drags him to where Nora would have been. She explains her theory passionately, recreating Barry's words with Mon-El, who gradually begins to see what she's getting at.
As Kara reveals her thoughts, she reveals a new blood spatter, Mon-El's eyebrows rise as he starts to grasp the magnitude of what they might have stumbled upon. He marvels at Kara's deductive skills, her ability to piece together a puzzle that has stumped even the police.
"Are we sure they didn't take a sample already?" Mon-El asks and Kara shakes her head, her conviction unwavering. "After they arrested Henry, they cleaned up all the blood spatters. They wanted to resell the house to the city, but no one would buy it."
Mon-El is thoroughly impressed, his admiration for Kara's intellect shining through. "See...I told you you should go into investigative journalism...but did you listen...noooo." He teases her, playfully rolling his eyes at her modesty.
Kara, despite her reluctance, can't help but smile, her doubts slowly giving way to a growing sense of pride. "I didn't do much, just took Barry at his word." She retrieves a pair of latex gloves from her pockets, and deftly collects a sample of the dried blood, carefully placing it into a plastic baggie.
"Oh, come on, Kara! You're so good at this!" He persists, still trying to convince her as she hands him the baggie. When she ignores him, he just rolls his eyes at her stubbornness and walks over to pick up the manila folder, then follows her out of the house. It's evident that marketing was never her true calling, but with graduation looming, it's perhaps too late to change her mind.
Mon-El stands in quiet awe behind Luke, the young intern FBI tech who has been brought in by John. He watches intently as Luke effortlessly takes control of Jack's work computer, narrating each step of his actions to feed Mon-El's curiosity.
John has chosen Luke, a fresh recruit from Gotham, for two crucial reasons: his relative FBI inexperience means he has neither the access nor the resources to jeopardize the operation, and an iron-clad NDA seals his lips. Yet, what really captures Mon-El's attention is the tech skill displayed by this novice.
Luke confidently describes his efforts to extract any personal information from Jack's computer, with a special focus on hacking his personal laptop. Given Jack's sentimental nature, especially when it comes to his work computer, this task should be relatively simple. As it turns out, Luke is right. Within a matter of minutes, he unravels the digital labyrinth and succeeds.
Mon-El can't help but voice his amazement, an audible hint of surprise escaping his lips. "Are you really a newbie?" he asks Luke, who chuckles and casually mentions that hacking the FBI is how he landed this job.
As Luke continues to sift through Jack's digital life, Mon-El's interest piques when they stumble upon something intriguing. A memory clicks in his brain, and he urges Luke to bring up a particular file. They examine the digital version of Jack's yearbook, with Mon-El explaining, "Jack mentioned that he and Lena were friends with a girl named Veronica. I don't know her last name, but they must be in at least one picture together, right?"
Mon-El glances at Luke, who gives an uncertain shrug. Together, they flip through the digital pages until Mon-El abruptly halts the scrolling. "There!" he exclaims, pointing at the screen. "Can you enhance the picture?" he asks, his curiosity burning bright.
Just as Luke begins to enhance the image, John returns to their side, having completed a work call. His voice, though monotone, carries an air of authority as he inquires, "What did you find?"
Mon-El hesitates for a moment, trying to balance the need for information with the desire to avoid implicating innocent parties. Finally, he takes a deep breath and turns to John. "I know her," he begins, his words measured. "I mean, I-I've heard of her. My... uh, my coworker had encountered her...before" He gulps and glances at John, his expression resolute. "She went by Roulette."
"You two are the dumbest smartest people I've ever met!" Alex's voice booms, her finger menacingly pointing at Barry and Winn, who wear expressions of guilt. "How could you let her go alone—no," she interrupts herself, "how could you play into her delusion!" She throws her hands up in the air in exasperation, recalling her earlier rant.
Barry and Winn had tried their best to hide Mon-El's investigation from Alex, but she surprised them in the abandoned office. She made it to CatCo in less than 6 minutes. They re-attempted to explain that Kara's disappearance had nothing to do with Mon-El, but she remained unconvinced.
"It's not a delusion," Winn mumbles, not intending for Alex to hear, but she most definitely does. "Excuse me?" Her face snaps towards Winn, who widens his eyes in alarm as she approaches. He instinctively puts his hands up in defense. "Wh-what...I..." He stutters, afraid to get a word in.
Just as Alex is about to pull him up from his seat, possibly to pin him against the wall and frighten the truth out of him, Barry comes to the rescue. He quickly gets up from his seat, rushes to one of the computers, and pulls up a video.
"It's not a delusion," Barry states firmly, masking his fear of the protective-older-sister side of Alex, as he plays the video. Alex glares at him, but her attention shifts to the computer screen when she sees it's displaying CCTV footage. She removes her hands from Winn's dress shirt and walks over to Barry, leaning forward and placing both her hands on the table to get a closer look.
"What am I looking at?" She watches the video for a moment before turning her head toward Barry.
"That's a video of three large black government-issued vehicles dropping off Mon-El at the hospital," Barry reveals. They would have gone out to search for Kara earlier if it weren't for what they discovered during her absence. Barry had wanted to check if one of the ambulances at the crash scene had brought Mon-El to the hospital, but to his surprise, it was something entirely different.
Alex's eyebrows furrow even further. "What are you telling me?" She places her right hand on the mouse and rewinds the video several frames to replay the black vehicles entering the scene. Winn takes a deep breath and approaches them, sitting down in his rolling chair.
He pulls up another piece of information. "We were investigating why Mon-El's motorcycle was impounded and disassembled, and we found this." Winn retraces his earlier steps and shows Alex that tracing the order leads to an FBI firewall. "Mon-El's death is connected to the FBI," Winn clarifies their point succinctly.
"What?" Alex's eyes widen, her jaw slightly drops, and she stares at Barry, who nods earnestly, and then at Winn, who offers a small, apologetic smile, raising his shoulders in a helpless shrug. Alex reacts by impulsively shoving Winn's rolling chair aside, resulting in a comical scene as it careens away, ultimately bumping into a nearby wall. Following her dramatic gesture, she takes a seat in Barry's chair and slides over to Winn's computer, her expression a mix of shock and disbelief.
She tries to bypass the firewall with her FBI credentials, but it repeatedly denies her access. She tries again to ensure she didn't just mistype her password, but the access denied warning reappears. This can't be, she thinks. There's no reason why Mon-El's death should be in the hands of the FBI if it were a simple drunk driving accident. She frowns and looks up at Winn as he rolls back toward her.
"I can hack it," Winn reveals. Alex briefly glances at him before returning her attention to the computer, contemplating the best course of action. After a few awkward moments for the boys, Alex gets up from her seat and heads for the exit.
"Don't touch anything until I say so," Alex orders them before storming out of the CatCo floor and back to the Field Office.