"I have some good news and some bad news." Brainy spins on his chair away from the computer in order to face the rest of the team.
"What's the good?"
"Well, J'onn, the good news is that I know what Lex's plan is and how to stop it." That brings a smile to the faces of all of the superfriends.
"That's great Brainy, and what's the bad news?" Nia moves to stand next to her partner and places her hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly.
"The bad news is that it is virtually impossible to get the supplies necessary to stop him and the most likely outcome is mass extinction." He swivels back towards his computer.
"Wait! What?" Lena steps forward. "How can it be possible that Lex has so much power behind him that we can't get what we need to stop him? What kind of technology could he possibly have that we can't stop?"
Everyone looks at Brainy expectantly, simultaneously dreading and craving the answers to their questions.
"He has Kryptonian technology."
Suddenly, Kara is the centre of attention. Everyone craning their necks to see her reaction, guiding their own emotions based on the look on Kara's face. The look can only be described as pure anguish and thus everyone else's expressions turn to pity.
"How did he get Kryptonian technology, and what's he going to do with it?"
"I am unsure of how he got hold of it but based on my estimations he is repurposing an old Kryptonian defence measure that will effectively cause every alien ship on the planet to self-destruct."
They all bask in the harsh silence following the explanation. Alex is the first to break it, "It doesn't really make sense though. Lex hates aliens so why would he destroy their ships and leave them stranded on Earth? Wouldn't he be better off making them all fly away to some distant planet or something? What gives?"
Brainy takes a deep breath, steadying himself. "The vast majority of aliens that arrive on Earth are refugees, all they have comes with them on their ships and so most simply live on their ships, repurpose them for living stationary. There is also a growing number of alien communities of which those who don't live in their ships live very close by and so his plan isn't to send aliens away. His plan is to extinct as many aliens from this planet as possible."
Lena is more aware than anybody of Lex's vile views towards aliens, his xenophobia is easily his most recognisable trait to anyone who looks close enough, however, this is taking it to a whole new level. "And I suppose that any aliens that survive will be hunted down fairly quickly."
"What do you mean?" Kelly furrows her brow, her mind racing.
"The explosions would cause major damage to every major city and could potentially even cause major economical disasters. Humans have always found it easier to blame the victim than admit wrongdoings, we've seen it happen time and time again. The victors write history how they want it to be remembered, in a couple of years' time, the entire event would be nothing but a distant memory of a time when humanity was invaded, and humans won a war against the invaders. Injustice has a way of falling through the cracks."
"That's awful." Nia stumbles out as she processes the situation. "There has to be a way we can stop this from happening."
"By my calculations, the chance of us finding the schematic for his device and having the materials to build a counter-device is at less than 1%, I'm sorry everyone, but it is in the best interest of everyone if we start evacuating all aliens from the planet."
"No."
Kara speaks for the first time, startling the group.
"Kara, I know this hits close to home, but we have to work in the best interest of every alien on this planet." Alex moves closer so she can take hold of Kara's hand. She can't even imagine the pain that he little sister is feeling right now, knowing that the thing that could cause so much destruction is the work of your own people.
"I'm not saying that out of emotion, I might have an idea."
"I don't understand how you could have an idea when brainy said that the chances are less than 1%, isn't he basically the smartest person on the planet?" Kelly tilts her head.
"Brainy can calculate the outcomes for every possible scenario that he can think of, but I may have just come up with one that is so far out of the box that even he didn't think of it."
"Well then Supersmart, tell us your plan." Lena quirks her eyebrow.
"Ok, but first I need to know how long we can keep all alien ships out of the atmosphere, idling until we can bring them back in. Just as a precaution, we should still evacuate everyone."
"If all ships fly as a fleet and share resources then realistically, they could stay there indefinitely." It doesn't take a mind reader to see how J'onn is already planning on leading the fleet, already solving problems that haven't arisen yet.
"Once we have all of the aliens to safety, we need to get the schematic to the device and the best way to do that is to take them from the asshole that invented it. Luckily enough, I have a pretty good guess of who that was, a Kryptonian scientist by the name of Lo-Di." Kara can still see the questioning glances being thrown at her and knows she needs to explain herself quickly or be spoken over. "I want to use the legion ship to go back in time to Krypton."
Silence.
"Absolutely not."
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Kara- "
"I don't want to listen to you tell me that I'm just saying this because this situation is difficult or that I'm being irrational, I want you all to think about it objectively. So Brainy, will it work?"
"There will be more obstacles. Even if we do use the ship to get to Krypton, the whole planet has a shield that will prevent us from navigating or landing."
"My father was a moliom, also known as a member of the science council. He had the override codes and I used to spend every spare minute I had with him in his lab. He used to keep all of his restricted access data in a folder and nothing makes a kid want to open a folder more than when it has big letters across the front telling you not to."
"And you're telling us that you can remember what you read in this folder when you were a kid?" Alex is impressed.
"Thank Rao for adrenaline. I was so scared I would get caught reading from that folder that it pretty much seared into my brain."
"You wouldn't be able to input the codes until we are already in the atmosphere so we would still have to free fall, the chances of us falling into view and getting taken into custody immediately are high."
Brainy is already recalculating the odds of the plan working, happy to see the success rate getting higher.
"I may not be great at your weird Earth science but if there is one thing, I can do it's figure out how to get us through the atmosphere undetected with Kryptonian science. I can do this, I know I can."
The group look around at each other, all looking for something. Maybe they want reassurance that this will work, or for someone to come up with another plan, but another plan doesn't come. Lena speaks up first. "Well, I'm in. I'll help Kara with the atmosphere issue and you guys start planning the evacuation strategy."
The group scuttles away leaving Kara and Lena alone in the tower. "I know this is a tough situation that requires you to be objective but just remember that objective doesn't mean emotionless. This is going to hurt like a bitch so don't forget to reach out if you need help. I'm on your side. We are all on your side."
Kara begins to walk away and Lena's heart stops for a second, oblivious to her intentions. She turns back. "Are you coming or not? Boring calculations won't do themselves, although it would be awesome if they did."
Lena smiles at Kara fondly, following her. "Dork."
"I heard that."
"You were meant to."
"This would be so much easier if we didn't have to constantly translate between Kryptonian and English," Lena complains as she waits on Kara's extraordinarily slow translation skills.
"If you don't like it then maybe you should just learn Kryptonian and then Kryptonian science," Kara smirks at Lena over her shoulder, before letting it turn into a grin when the pen she is using squeaks against the whiteboard, making Lena wince.
"Or maybe you could have just learned a bit more Earth science. You learned our language and know basic science here but never learned any of the terminology, why?"
"Your science is a hell of a lot more simplified which makes it really very boring. I haven't got time for that."
"I'll agree to disagree if you buy lunch." Lena puts on her best boardroom negotiation face.
"I'll agree to disagree if you buy lunch with extra potstickers." Kara counters, staring Lena out.
Lena, being whipped, agrees almost immediately when Kara busts out her heart-breaking pout. "Fine, I'll get lunch. You play dirty Danvers."
"You wish you could play dirty with me." Kara shocks even herself with what she said, coving her mouth quickly.
"Oh, so the girl of steel does let her mind wander into the gutter every once in a while. Somehow I don't think it's a coincidence that it came out after I agreed to buy you lunch. The quickest way to your heart really is through your stomach after all."
Kara's shock has fallen away and instead, she just laughs at Lena's logic. "Ok, ok. I concede. I will buy lunch if you never mention this again and definitely never tell Alex."
"Nope, I'm ordering now, and I will happily agree to never mention what you said to anyone as long as you don't tell everyone that I'm seducing you with food." This brings another round of laughter from the pair of them.
Lena follows through with her promise and orders the food, which Kara flies across the city to pick up. They unpack it onto the table, easily passing each other their preferred items without hesitation. "Thank you, Lena."
"You know you don't have to thank me every time I get you food, you'd spend your life showing me your gratitude otherwise." Lena watches as Kara tears into the potstickers, shoving one into her mouth using her fingers before she even begins to look for the chopsticks.
"That's true but I was talking about being here, with me. I know this can't be easy for you either, having Lex going all supervillain again and yet you've put it all aside for me today, not letting me wallow in my misery, making boring equations slightly less boring and not letting me feel alone. You're definitely my favourite."
"You're my favourite too. I have to admit though, my being with you today wasn't purely selfless."
"What do you mean?" Kara has gotten almost halfway through the container of potstickers before she offers Lena one, looking aghast when she has the nerve to take one, despite the fact that she offered it in the first place.
"Don't look offended when I take the food you offer." Lena laughs. "Usually when Lex goes crazy, I feel like I have to be responsible for picking up the pieces, but you beat me to it and it feels surprisingly good, letting someone else take the lead. I know it's a weight on your shoulders, but it is also a weight off of mine."
"The food offer was for show, you're not supposed to actually take any." Kara smiles at Lena before her face turns serious. "You shouldn't feel guilty for not fixing other people's mistakes Lena. I can see that clearly, even when I am guilty of the exact same thing, but the difference is, the weight on my shoulders is always bearable because I have you on my team, all of you. Even Brainy when he's being annoying. It's why I know that even though this plan is a long shot, we'll manage it, as always."
By the time Kara has finished speaking, Lena is sniffling as a couple of tears work their way free. "You're really good with words, you should be a reporter or something."
"Someone told me that a few years ago, I don't remember who, but they were wearing a power suit and offending Clark Kent. Any ideas?"
"Not a clue." Lena follows along with her charade. "Whoever it was must be very smart though."
"Oh, I totally agree, although they haven't figured out our current problem yet so maybe we should re-evaluate, after all, how hard is it to work out how to land a ship massive with no navigation without being seen?" Unless…" Kara stands suddenly, the breakthrough they've been working on getting to all day is right in front of her, she knows it.
"Unless what?" Lena follows her, unsure of what's happening.
"What if we go in blind into a blind spot."
Lena tries to comprehend what Kara is telling her, eyeing her with a confused expression. "I thought you said there were no blind spots."
"Well, there are no blind spots anywhere we want to be but there are blind spots on the planet." Kara pulls up a 3D hologram of Krypton using an information cube from the fortress.
"And why didn't you think of this before, like in the five hours we've been working on this?"
"Because there is a reason the council wasn't concerned about there being blind spots." Lena suddenly understands what Kara is talking about. Kara begins to map out some potential areas for them to assess.
"So, our issue is no longer how to get there but how to survive once we are there."
"Yeah and if we wait until the last second to use the override codes for landing only so we don't crash it will look like nothing but a blip on the system to the analytics team. I remember my father used to go mad about random blips showing up on the system, so they stopped investigating them after a while. It just means we'll have to be more accurate about the time that we get there. We'll have to make sure we plan for after they stop investigating but leave us enough time to travel through the terrain." Kara gets more and more excited as she explains her theories to Lena.
"And they call me a genius." She nudges her shoulder into Kara's.
"That's a praise you should reserve for when I figure out how to get us across approximately 3000 miles of dangerous ground, and that's if we can make my first choice of landing point work." Kara's stress crinkle is out at full force no matter how many times she rubs at her forehead, it's still there, mocking her.
"We got this."
"Probably."
"We should tell the others and find out how they're doing with the alien evacuation." Lena pokes her in her crinkle. "Put that away, we've just figured out the basics of step one, it might be slow progress, but it is still progress. "
Kara mock salutes, "Yes boss."
"So, you have got the word out to as many aliens as you can to ready their ships and evacuate at even the smallest whiff of trouble?" Lena clarifies with Alex as she and the others return to the tower at their request.
"Yes, and they know to look for J'onn's ship for guidance should that occur. Did you guys figure out how to land us on Krypton?" Alex glances over at Kara, who has her head buried in maps of Kryptonian landscapes. Trying to find the safest route for them to take.
"It was mostly Kara, she has really taken the reigns on this one, I trust her too, she really knows what she's doing." Alex's eyebrows practically join with her hairline with how quickly they rose.
"Kara did this? She's more of a 'jump right in, we'll find a plan along the way' kind of gal."
"Believe me, I know. We both know that this is different though. We are usually there to guide and support her where she needs but we all know that once we are actually there, there won't be a lot we can do, it will be on her. We'll be the aliens on her planet instead."
"We won't be able to help her the way we usually do but we can still help. Let's go let her boss us around for a bit and take some pressure off."
"That sounds both good and terrifying."
"It does, doesn't it." Alex snickers as they make their way over to Kara but before she can open her mouth to offer their assistance Kara speaks.
"I was wondering when you would finish talking about me." She glances up at them with a devilish gleam in her eyes.
"What have I told you about listening to private conversations with your super hearing, it's totally invasive." Alex's face has turned red ad she has become defensive at being called out, despite the innocence of her conversation with Lena.
"Woah, woah, woah. I didn't use my powers, I promise. I was just joking but I guess that now I know you really were talking about me. And to think that you're a trained secret agent with methods to resist interrogations."
Alex sticks her tongue out at Kara. "I was going to offer my help but you're being mean now."
"You started it." Kara sticks her tongue out at Alex in return.
"Alright, ladies, how about we end this here whilst we all have our dignity, yes?" The sisters both make non-committal noises of agreement. "That was a question. Are you two finished?"
"Yes, Lena." Kara is the first to swallow her pride. Lena simply turns to Alex, expecting her to follow Kara's lead. Instead, she finds the older Danvers smirking as she mimes wrapping something around her little finger at Kara.
"Alex, you have ten seconds to apologize to Kara."
"No way Little Luthor, I'm not whipped for you like this one and the eyebrow thing may work for intimidating rich old farts in the boardroom, but it doesn't fly with me." Alex folds her arms and glares, unwilling to do as asked.
Lena steps closer and lowers her voice. "What happened to our conversation about being here to support Kara?"
"All bets are off, this is a sibling argument, apologies can't be forced." Alex doesn't look even the tiniest bit guilty for derailing their plan to help Kara.
"Is that right?"
Alex nods her head. She isn't going to back down first.
"Kelly, can you come here a second?" Lena calls across the room and Alex turns a shade paler.
"Hey! I meant to say congrats on the breakthrough. What can I do for you?" Lena smiles wryly at Alex before giving Kelly her full attention as Kara watches the scene unfold in front of her gleefully.
"Alex and Kara had a little sibling argument, nothing serious but Alex has decided that apologies are above her, despite Kara admitting fault. I was hoping that we could all support each other but your wife appears to have other plans. Do you think you can find a way to rectify this problem?"
In lieu of an answer, Kelly takes Alex by the arm and directs her into the next room.
Both Lena and Kara laugh as soon as they are out of earshot. "I can't believe you invoked the wrath of the wife on her. She's going to get an earful now."
"That's what she gets for messing with my best friend."
"Thanks, Lena."
"Anything for you."