Her feet aren't particularly accepting of the rough stone floors as she gets to the ground floor of the building. At that point, she's forced to put her heels back on because of the pain from the constant jabbing of the sharp edges of the rocks. It means that her sneakiness levels just plummeted but there's nothing she can do about that, she can't run if the soles of her feet are bleeding.
She starts off running but has to give up on that pretty fast because the second she's out of the building, the streets are really quite bustling and it would only serve to draw a lot of unwanted attention to herself.
Now that she is in public though and she's being immersed back into the culture that's so far into her past that she barely knows how to absorb it all, she's very aware of every glance in her direction and it makes her a little self-conscious of her make-up, afraid that it's obvious that she's not well-practised the way she should be as a woman of her age.
There's music playing, a jaunty tune that makes her want to forget what she's doing and just stop and dance along to it, her body conducting her into moves that her mind has long since forgotten but her soul has not.
Kara keeps her head moving, her eyes darting in every which direction to keep tabs on anyone following her, getting so distracted that she barely stops to think that she needs to look at her notebook for the map of the city so she can figure out which way she needs to go to get to the labs.
With a good glance around her, she spots a shady corner beneath some stairs leading up to the second floor of a building and ducks beneath them so she can open up her notebook with sweaty palms. The adrenaline is making her shake slightly, the fear that her parents are going to come after her and stop her before she can get the blueprints for the team.
Of all the people she's been expecting to have to go up against, her parents are the last on that list. She's known for quite a while now that they aren't the amazing people she was led to believe they were when she was younger, actually learning more and more dark secrets about them as the years have gone by, but this takes the cake, well, not in terms of terrible things they've done, but in terms of the thing they have done that has caused her the most pain.
It's a pain that she can genuinely feel in her chest. It's one she can feel sitting there heavily and with each motivational speech she gives herself to get her moving to complete the mission and leave them behind, she's chiselling away at the weight but it's far too large, it helps but barely, a band-aid on a stab wound.
It's hard for her to decipher the map when her mind is moving so fast and her hands aren't steady. She had marked very clearly where the lab is before they left on the mission so she knows where she needs to get to but she never marked anything other than the major monuments and buildings directly around it and leading from the part of the forest she assumed they would have been travelling from, nowhere near where she is now.
She knows she's on the North side of the city. That's something. She just has to head south-west and she'll be able to spot some of the buildings she has marked on the map. That shouldn't be too hard to figure out since Kandor has a special feature in its architecture. The city is built with The Great Temple of Rao in the centre of it and every building faces the temple so that everyone can pray towards it should they so wish to and that means that Kara knows where the centre of the city is. She can get to the temple, which is on her map, and from there she can get to another monument closer to the labs and from there, the labs themselves.
"Come on, Kara. You can do this. Do it for your family." She hypes herself up, glancing out of the shadows out into the street she was walking through just a minute ago.
She's about to step back out but stops when a small collection of guards start making their way through the streets, their heads turning left and right as they walk, clearly looking for someone. She can't help but wonder if they are really after her because she can't imagine that she's all that important enough for so many people to be looking for her but when her mother and her father walk out and join the guards, worry and barely subdued anger written across their faces, she knows.
Her back presses against the wall further beneath the stairs. She has to get out of here. The streets are the best place to stay hidden, even with the guards everywhere. The alleys are wide and there's nowhere to hide. No obstructions are allowed there so it's just an empty road space for people to walk through, nothing to duck behind and even fewer people to mix in with than the streets.
Her mother hadn't lied about her looking the part when they were getting ready at the accommodation, there are plenty of people dressed up as nicely as her but they do stand out and her beautiful blue dress might as well be a big neon sign calling for the guards to look at her.
There's a window on the second floor, she can see it when she peers up the gap between the stairs and the building. She could get into whatever place this is and go out the back way. She would have to find a way to get up there without being spotted though and even then she could be mistaken for a thief and draw more attention to herself.
She could just wait for a group of similarly dressed people to walk by and try to blend in with them. That's her best choice but it somehow feels like the riskiest of them all. She's wearing the crest of her house; she can't hide that. Unless she can.
There's a store just down the street selling wraps, shawls, overcoats, jackets and robes. She doesn't have money but she has one thing on her she can trade and pray they won't hand her over because she'll be giving them much more than they'll be giving her, not including their silence. Bingo.
"Ok, Kara. Just act casual." She waits for a group of well-dressed young individuals to walk in the general vicinity of her, which doesn't take long because the street she's on is getting busier by the minute. Bells are ringing out, the universal sign on Krypton that prayer will begin soon at the nearest temple and so everyone is heading there, and if they can't, they are opening their windows and gathering on balconies, joining the community in their prayers in the best way they can.
She keeps close to these people, standing to the back of the group and keeping her head as level as she can, fighting the urge to duck her head, something that could be spotted and seen as a sign of deception.
The voices of hundreds of people gather into one collective drone she can't makes sense of, making it impossible to decipher whether or not there are guards surrounding her or whether or not she's been spotted by anyone.
Finally, she gets to the store, ducking inside as smoothly as she can and breathing out a sigh of relief for having reached her first checkpoint.
She's celebrating too soon though because guards follow her in and she just barely manages to duck behind a stand holding many long, blue robes, thankfully a similar enough colour that her flowy dress moulds right on in with the display.
Kara peeks between the robes, watching the guards move to the counter and the older gentleman standing behind it, most likely the owner of the store. They question him in low tones, glancing around the store between sentences. A fresh wave of panic washes over her as she hears them give the man a brief description of her, specifically her blue dress and her golden hair.
She isn't sure whether or not he saw her come in but he doesn't seem to be giving away her location, just shaking his head to everything he's being asked.
The guards ask to take a look around and her eyes grow wide, she can't move from behind this display without walking into the open, she's trapped and there's nowhere she can really go unless she makes a break for it but she probably won't go far.
The man behind the counter shakes his head. "Khuhp skilor zha shed fis ukep."
He has an accent, one quite distinguished from the usual Kandor or Argo accents, he must have moved here from somewhere else, somewhere that the matrix gives Kryptonians shiny spines. Kara has to mouth the words to figure out what he's saying. "I see no people here."
The guards lean a little closer to him, their words so quiet Kara can't pick them up at all but the man leans in just as far, their heads close together as hushed words are exchanged. It doesn't last long though because, she supposes, the guards are more inclined to keep looking elsewhere than fight with a ballsy store owner.
Once they leave, she's hesitant to step out but upon peeking between the robes, she can see him looking right over at her, one bushy eyebrow raised. The jig is up.
She steps out hesitantly. "Thank you."
"You welcome." He replies, now frowning because it's not often anyone speaks English around here, or any kind of Earth language. "I speak Earth not good." He makes out in broken English.
Kara holds her hands up. "Zhalish khuhp, khuhp ehwor kryptahniuo." Forgive me, I speak Kryptonese.
He simply smiles at her. "Khuhp ehwor Rth." I speak Earth.
Kara shakes her head. "Zha, rrup ehwor ehngiuo." No, you speak English.
He nods slowly. "Thank you. Still learning."
Kara smiles at him. "Thank you for protecting me."
His gaze darkens slightly and Kara knows that the help wasn't free. "You owe."
"I know. I need to change my clothes, if you can help me with that, I'll give you this." She pulls her necklace out from under the neckline of her dress. It's one that has always meant the world to her, one that has gotten her through a lot of dark times when she had nothing else to remind her of the people of her past.
She unclasps it and holds it up for him to see and he holds his hand out for her to pass it to him. She does. She doesn't have a whole lot of room for negotiation here. He looks it over closely, his face giving nothing away but Kara knows he's impressed. That piece of jewellery wasn't just her mother's but it was her great grandmother's originally and as much as she doesn't want to part with it, it's all she's got and Earth is kind of in danger here so she's got to do what she's got to do. That and she's pissed at her mom.
He keeps staring at it, flipping it over in his hands several times before looking up at her and nodding once. "I help. You leave."
Kara can't argue with that. "Good. Clothes?"
"Come, come." He beckons her to follow him through the store and into what appears to be a back storage room. There's a little stool in there, usually used for reaching rails of clothes high up but he pushes her down to sit on it with gentle yet insistent hands. "Stay. I go get."
He goes back out into the front of the store and for all Kara knows, he's going to go and get the guards. He pocketed the necklace before bringing her back here so he has what he wants, he's got no real ties to her and no reason to uphold his end of the deal other than his word but the word of a stranger doesn't mean much to Kara and nor should it, that's how you get killed.
He comes back in just a minute later. That minute was enough to keep her on edge but he does his part, carrying in a bundle of clothes.
"Dress. There." He points to a little curtained-off area and she takes the clothes, heading right in.
Upon closing the curtain after her and hearing the door to the storeroom close after he leaves, she takes a look at what she's been given. The clothes aren't particularly inspiring but she supposes that's the point. He can probably guess that she doesn't want to stand out and he probably doesn't want to just hand over his best clothes when he can sell them later on.
There's a pair of pants, a soft cream colour that she wouldn't choose for herself but every other person outside is wearing, and a shirt, loose fitting and a darker grey. There's a small diamond shape embedded into the breast of it but it's empty other than a few faint lines. At first glance, it looks like a real family crest but if anyone looks too closely, and she very much doubts they will, they'll see that it's not real or just assume that her family isn't high up enough socially to have a proper family crest and she is merely trying to show herself to be of a higher social standing than she is.
There's a jacket too. It's a deep blue that's dark enough to pass for black when in dimmer areas and Kara falls in love with it the second she sees it. It has a lighter blue trim that is just beautiful and a hood that is going to be very useful when she gets back outside in a minute. She can't afford to dawdle and lose the crowd for the temple.
She slips them all on and tucks her notebook into the inside pocket of the jacket and folds the dress up to the best of her ability. She might as well give it to the man, maybe he can take the crest off of it and sell it.
She comes out and then peeks her head out of the door, checking the coast is clear. There's nobody in the store except for the man so she heads right for him and drops the dress on the counter. "Here, maybe you can do something with it."
He slides the dress closer to himself. "Shoes." He points at her heels. She very much needs them but if giving up her shoes gets her to the lab, that's what she needs to do. She takes them off and hands them over, placing them delicately into his waiting hands.
She's about to turn to the door but he hits her with a stern look. "Wait."
He marches back off into the store room and is back before the door even has the chance to swing closed behind him, a different pair of shoes in his grip, much more sensible. Plain brown leather and durable. He passes them to her and inside the left shoe, there's even a pair of socks. Perfect, no blisters today. "Thank you."
"Rao helps us all to help each other." He replies back simply.
"Bless Rao and bless us all." She replies back.
He smiles his approval of her answer.
She makes quick work of the shoes, tying them up tightly. She's not losing a shoe in this mess, not when she's just traded away a family heirloom for them.
"Thank you."
"Thank you." He retorts and with that, Kara flips her hood up and steps out into the crowds, thinner than they were but still enough to provide her adequate cover. It's definitely a good idea to up her pace and try to catch up to the bulk of the crowd though.
She follows the flow of the streets, her feet tapping rhythmically against the stone in her new shoes that she's totally taking back to Earth with her because they are incredible. She almost wishes that she asked the man's name but that wouldn't have gone over well, he would probably have turned her out the second she asked that, afraid of being turned in for helping what he must presume to be a fugitive.
That's not completely the case. The guards are those under the employ of prestigious families. They patrol the streets in combination with Krypton's peace enforcement teams. It means that while she's not being labelled as a criminal, there are still a lot of powerful people out there looking for her because her parents said so and if they find her, she'll probably be taken right to them and won't get the chance to get the blueprints back to the team before it's too late.
There's still music playing, the beat only urging her along. The hood threatens to fall down with the wind but a sold tug to pull it down as far as it will go does the trick to get it to stay in place enough that it won't fall off on its own.
Kara's breathing is increasing. The crowds are getting thicker and she's darting between people now. Her arms are brushing other people's and she hates it, everyone is far too close to her but she can't risk moving away. She tucks her hands in the pockets of the jacket and her heart stutters. There's something in there.
She knows what it is without pulling it out but she does so anyway, clutching it in a tight fist. The necklace.
That gentleman was the best of Krypton. He's the person she misses, the good, kind, true kind of person she believed her parents to be. They aren't good but there's still good here. She wishes she could do something to protect Krypton from the fate it's sealed in but she can't. For Earth, she can't even try, even if it does make her want to curl up into a ball and cry until she can't anymore.
She can deal with that when she's not actively in the thick of the mission. Now is not the time for another mental break. She's had enough of those and this would be the most inconvenient place for it to happen.
With the brutal speed-walking pace she's set, it doesn't take her all that long to get to the temple. That or she's just so caught up in her own head that she can't tell but since nobody around her looks too annoyed at the time it's taking to walk across the city, she's certain that it's not been that long.
The temple is just as grand as she remembers it being and no less impressive than she was expecting. She is faced with a challenge she hadn't thought about before though. With everyone piling into the temple, she would make obvious waves by walking in the opposite direction while everyone is entering and getting ready to pray. In theory, she could find an alley or a smaller path out of the way of the temple but she can't risk being questioned and all strange behaviour will be spotted by the guards, which are in sight again now, although their thorough searching has turned into more of a lazy meander through the crowd with the occasional head-turn.
There's a clock outside of the temple counting down to prayer time. She hasn't prayed properly since she was a child, not since when she first arrived on Earth and attempted to pray to Rao whilst under Sol. Nothing had ever felt so wrong and that was her last attempt at strict prayer, the way she was raised to do it.
There are only a few more minutes until prayer starts. Once it starts, she can just sit through it and use the crowds once more to cover herself as everyone heads back home or to work.
Kara takes a deep breath and she strolls into the temple and a sense of pure serenity overtakes her. All she can do is wait and while she's waiting, she can pray and find peace she hasn't felt in a long time. She can scarcely remember how to do it properly but with a little practice, she'll be up and running again in no time.
She finds a spot. There are circular cushions laid out on the floor across the entire temple but there are no worries about running out of space. The place is so large, Kara's certain it could house everyone in Kandor and Argo should it be the last temple standing between the two cities.
Crossing her legs as she sits, Kara ducks her head and closes her eyes, resting until a bell rings to mark the official start of the prayer. Candles are distributed along the rows of people, a basket passed from person to person and each person takes one and lights it with a special lighter, also from the basket.
Kara takes a couple of attempts at using the lighter, her nerves still present despite her newfound calmness. The person beside her pays no mind though, patiently waiting for their turn and minding their own business.
With the candles lit, the temple falls into silence and then everyone begins to pray. The initial prayer is simple, it's whatever that individual person needs. It's a prayer in which Kara can ask for whatever it is she needs and in this case, she asks for mental fortitude and the blessings of her god to give her the ability to save Earth. There's a kind of disgust that bubbles deep in her gut for wishing for the ability to save Earth rather than Krypton when she's in a Kryptonian temple, praying to a Kryptonian god. Her god. The god she abandoned long ago when the world felt too different.
The second part of the prayer is a group prayer led by a priest who reads out the scripture of Rao. Kara's attention never strays from the words spoken until the prayer is dismissed and actually finds herself disappointed when it's over but the feeling of safety and accomplishment she leaves the temple with makes everything worth it, the entire mission, the pain of facing her Kryptonian demons head on. All of it.
She steps to the side of the main entrance so she can pull out her notebook and find her way, spotting her path very quickly and making it look easy the way she figures out where she's going next.
With the crowd surrounding her, she feels safe where she only felt suffocated before and she pays them no mind, just walking with her purpose in mind.
Kara stops up the street from the lab. She's got to be careful now. There's every chance that there are guards everywhere inside, along with her parents too, so she's got to get inside without anyone noticing. That's easier said than done.
Just because it's difficult doesn't mean there aren't options though. She's got the Alex option which is by using stealth. She's got the Lena option which is using smarts and she's got the Supergirl option which is what she would say is using both stealth and smarts but everyone else would just call winging it and punching a couple of people.
She's going to decide which option she's going with when she gets closer to the labs.
The building isn't discreet in the slightest. It's a massive silver structure with a gigantic sign out front detailing exactly what it is. Kandor's Science Guild Laboratories. Helpful.
Alright, they are probably expecting her to try to sneak in through the back door so she should just walk through the front and see what happens. If push comes to shove, she's got to play along with her parents until she can get what she wants.
Kara makes a point of pushing away any tension in her body and lowering her shoulders. Time to be brave. Time to be like Lena. Lena could do this so how hard can it be?
She strolls right in the front door and is greeted by a guard wishing her a good afternoon. She can roll with that. She raises a hand in a wave and greets him back cheerfully, smiling at him happily. He doesn't bat an eyelid. Score.
This is a building she remembers and she knows exactly how to get to her father's lab here. It's right across the other side of the building. She's not going all the way across to the other side of the building the usual way though. She got by one guard, that's luck. She's going for the Alex approach. She would be so proud.
She ducks into the bathrooms, grateful for the floor-to-ceiling separate stalls for the toilets that are apparently illegal in the US because clearly, someone likes perving too much. She walks along the space, seeing that all of them are empty and choosing the one in just the right place.
Not too fast though. She's taking a real bathroom break.
Real bathroom break complete and hands washed, she goes back into her chosen stall and relocks the door before climbing atop the toilet and pressing her hands against the ceiling tiles. They are much sturdier than any she's seen on Earth. She purposefully chose this one because it's hinged, the perfect placement for a serviceman to enter the ceiling to check on the wires or the pipes or whatever else it is they need to check. Kara's not checking anything now, she's just taking a detour through the building.
She heaves herself up and closes the hatch after herself. It's a good job she traded the dress for pants, if she had someone with her, they would have just gotten an eyeful. She wouldn't have minded if it were Lena with her. Anyone else and it would have been weird though.
Kara smiles, starting on her way. She has to duck because the space isn't very large but she doesn't mind, she's totally going to prove that she can be at being a secret agent and spy as Alex is.
"Ok, Kara. Sneaky mode activated." She whispers.