Karry Universe

Disclaimer: Same old, as usual.

Note: once again I want to remind guest reviewer that if you ask questions I cannot answer them since you do not have an account. Please make an account if you want answers to questions.

Knowledge and Power

Carter Grant was sitting in his science class staring at his textbook. He didn't have many friends, possibly due to his mother's power in the city, and since there were an odd number of people in his class, no one sat next to him either. It was a couple minutes into the class though, that a blond girl with short hair and glasses nervously walked in and handed a note to the teacher.

"Seems we have a new student," the teacher announced, handing the note back to the girl. "Everyone this is Karen Starr. You can take a seat next to Carter." The teacher indicated the empty seat next to him.

Carter eyed the girl as she came and sat next to him, she smiled at him but looked up at the board as the teacher was explaining the experiment they were about to do. The equipment they needed was handed out and then they were left to work with their partner. This was a new experience for Carter. He had never had a science partner before.

"Hi," Carter said. "Karen right?" Karen nodded. "I'm Carter." There was silence for a moment. "I guess we should start." Karen once again nodded and Carter realized he hadn't heard her say a word since she arrived. The two worked in silence and Carter noticed she seemed a bit unsure at times. "Science not your thing?" Karen shrugged. "Can you talk?"

"Yes," Karen said. "Sorry. Haven't had much contact with people outside my family." Carter raised an eyebrow. "My mom traveled for work until recently. I was home-schooled my entire life." Karen used the lie Alex had made up when the DEO had made the records for her.

Carter nodded. "Oh, that's interesting," he said as his cellphone binged, causing people to look at him. Carter went to put it on silent apologizing to the teacher and Karen saw the word 'Supergirl' on the screen.

"Supergirl?' Karen asked with a smirk.

"Yeah," Carter said. "I'm a big fan. I'd love to meet her one day."

"She's good," Karen said. "I hear." She added. "She does a lot of good."

"Yeah, she does" Carter said as they finished the experiment earlier than anyone else. "I think she's better than her cousin. Not so sure about this Flash yet, but if Supergirl trusts him he must be good as well."

"I'm sure he is," Karen said. "You're pretty good at this. The science stuff." She side-tracked the conversation.

Carter nodded. "I guess." The two continued talking until the class was over. The teacher called Karen over at the end.

"We're taking a field trip at the end of the week," the teacher explained. "To Mercury labs in Central. Normally the permission slips have to have been in last week but since you're new if you can get this signed and have a check to me tomorrow you can go."

Karen nodded her understanding as she took the paper and walked out, looking at another piece of paper, seeming confused. "Having trouble?" She heard a voice and noticed Carter. Karen nodded. "Let me see your schedule." Karen handed the paper over. "We're in the same class. Follow me."

"Thank you," Karen said.

"You're welcome," Carter smiled. Karen was nice. He liked her and thought maybe he had just made a friend. "You coming to Mercury Labs?" Karen shrugged. "It would be nice if you did. I don't have many friends in the class. It'd be nice to have someone to hang out with."

"Yeah," Karen said as they walked.

-Superflash-

Later that afternoon Karen was sitting with Kara at her desk in CatCo. Kara had picked her up from her first day since Astra and Alex had got stuck at the DEO. "Aunt Astra said she should be here in a few hours. I can call Barry and ask him to come get you. You can hang out at STAR with him, Caitlin, and Cisco."

"Wells freaks me out," Karen said, and Kara laughed.

"Join the club, sister," Kara said with a laugh, looking at Karen. It was weird seeing a younger version of herself with short hair but Karen seemed to like it so Kara didn't comment. They had made sure to make Karen a version of Kara's glasses, which the girl made sure to wear constantly at the moment.

"Kara do you think it would be possible to get mom to let me go on a field trip?" Karen asked. "To Mercury Labs."

"You spend a lot of time at STAR," Kara pointed out. "Why do you want to go to Mercury Labs?"

Karen shrugged. "Everyone going. I just want to feel normal," Karen said.

"Okay I'll talk to Aunt Astra," Kara said. "You…"

"Karen," Kara heard a voice and turned to see Carter Grant had come to the office today accompanied by his mom. "What are you doing here?"

"My cousin works here," Karen said. 'What about you?"

"My mom owns here," Carter said, somewhat moodily. "Kara is your cousin?"

Karen nodded. "You two know each other?" Kara asked surprised.

"He's in a couple of my classes," Karen said.

"That's nice," Kara said.

"Karen, why don't you come into my mom's office and do homework with me?" Carter asked and Karen smiled. She looked at Kara for permission.

"As long as Ms. Grant doesn't mind," Kara said, and Ms. Grant nodded her permission so the two kids went into the office. "Ms. Grant hope you don't mind I brought my cousin here. My aunt will be by to pick her up in a couple of hours."

"Not a problem Kiera," Cat said looking at her assistant. "Was unaware you had a cousin that was not Clark Kent."

"Well I do, yeah" Kara said. "My aunt's daughter. The one I just reconnected with."

Cat nodded. "Well back to work," Cat walked back into her office and saw the two teenagers sitting on the floor working on some assignment. Carter seemed to be helping Karen a lot with it and Cat smiled to herself. It was nice seeing her son with a friend.

-Superflash-

Karen smiled as she sat on the bus next to Carter. The bus ride was slow to the labs and Karen found it annoying considering she could have been there already by flying. Carter was talking non-stop about all the experiments done at the labs. "You're really excited," Karen pointed out.

"Our school has been doing trips to Central for years. Last year was cancelled since it was normally STAR labs we went to. I was afraid we wouldn't go this year either but then they got Mercury Labs," Carter said.

"What's wrong with STAR labs?" Karen asked quickly, and suddenly a lot of faces turned to her. While she knew the basic of how Barry got his powers – being struck by lightning – no one had actually explained the Particle Accelerator explosion to her. Or STAR labs involvement in said explosion. "I mean Wells is a bit odd, but Cisco and Caitlin are nice," she continued, ignoring the stares and new muttering.

"Who?" Carter asked.

"Cisco and Caitlin. They work at STAR," Karen said realizing she was saying too much. "They are friends with my cousin."

"I didn't know anyone still worked at STAR labs," Carter said. "It's been shut down since the explosion I thought. Of course a field trip wouldn't go there."

Carter could see the confusion in Karen's eyes but Karen didn't say anything. Just nodded and smiled. "Of course," Karen added, staring out the window, the other children already talking about other things. Carter though looked at his new friend, wondering what Karen had meant about STAR Labs.

When they got to Mercury labs one of the doctors met them and started showing them around. Telling them about different experiments. "What's this lab?" a girl in their class asked pointing, at the lab they were passing.

"Oh, this was the lab of Professor Kate Thomson," their tour director said. "She disappeared during the explosion of STAR labs but her work in cloning is being continued by her colleague Dr. Malcolm."

Carter noticed how uncomfortable Karen got the minute the professor's name was mentioned. She looked down at the ground and seemed to try to make herself look small, as though if she were seen someone would realize something about her. It seemed weird for a cloning experiment to cause this reaction.

Carter didn't comment as they were brought into another lab and the experiment inside was explained to the group. That was when they were supposed to go to lunch when suddenly the building shook. "Earthquake?!" Someone asked, trying to remain calm, as the building shook again and then there was the sound of an explosion.

The whole building remained shaking and Carter was thrown off his feet. A machine on a table fell down and hit his arm. Carter heard the crack of his bone and the pain as he screamed as there was another explosion. "Carter, you okay?" Carter heard Karen's voice and then felt the machine lifted off him. "Carter?" Karen was over him and her glasses were off in her hand. "Your arm's broken! We need to get out."

Karen practically lifted him to his feet and Carter looked around. There was fire everywhere and most of his classmates were on the floor. He could swear one person was dead. That was when the Flash ran in and looked at the two. Carter was suddenly going so fast and was out on the street before he knew what had happened. He looked and saw the Flash still had Karen with him and seemed to be whispering to her really fast.

"It was an adrenal rush if anyone asked. Got it?" Barry whispered to Karen, knowing that Karen had saved the boy she was with. Karen quickly nodded and then Barry was off back inside to save people.

"Hey Barry you probably know this already but Kara's on her way," Cisco said in Barry's ear. "She'll be there soon."

"Good there are too many people here for me to get on my own before the building comes down," Barry said, having known Kara was on her way anyway.

"We also need to put out this fire before it spreads," Caitlin added.

Outside Karen sat with Carter as she saw Kara show up. A smile crossed her face that Carter saw and looked up. He was finally so close to Supergirl but all he could think of was the weirdness of his friend as Supergirl ran into the building. That, and the pain in his broken arm.

"Hey kids, go with the ambulance," a firefighter who arrived said, and that was it. The two were taken away from the building under a varying array of sirens, along with their classmates.

-Superflash-

Later that night and Carter was at home. His arm now in a cast but he was still thinking of Karen. She had claimed an adrenal rush had gotten her to lift the machine off him but it seemed off, too automatic. There was only one person who he could talk to about this.

He knocked on his mom's office door and waited until she told him to come in. "You should be asleep," Cat said not looking up from her computer. "Sleep helps the body heal, you know."

"I can't sleep. I need to ask you something," Carter said and Cat looked up at him and took off her glasses. She nodded and Carter started telling her everything about Karen and what happened. "Do you think I'm being silly? Her adrenal rush excuse just doesn't feel right to me."

Cat walked over to Carter and then brought him into a hug. "You have my gift," Cat said. "The ability to see the extraordinary trying to act ordinary." Carter was confused for a moment. "Come." Cat basically ordered and lead Carter into another room. It used to be a storage room but a couple of months ago Cat had changed it around and told Carter not to go in.

When Carter walked in he saw lines of red and blue string on the wall, pictures, newspaper articles hanging up everywhere. "Whoa, mom, what is this?"

"Timelines," Cat said. "Had to see if I was being silly myself. After this I was convinced. The blue line is Supergirl's timeline. The red is Kara's timeline." Carter looked at Cat.

"What?" Carter asked. "You think Kara is Supergirl?'

"I know she is Supergirl," Cat said simply. "Listen. Supergirl in an interview said she grew up on Krypton until she was 12. She was then sent to Earth. At around the same time when Kara was 12 her whole family and all her records were destroyed in a fire. She was lost in the system until her cousin Clark Kent found her and gave her to friends to raise."

"That doesn't prove anything," Carter said reasonably.

"True, but what's the best way to tell a lie?" Cat asked her son.

"Keep it simple. Don't go overboard. Don't make too much up," Carter answered and Cat smiled.

"Exactly. Saying her records were destroyed makes it that Kara doesn't have to remember 12 false years. It's the prefect cover up," Cat said. "Until Supergirl appears, Kara's timeline seems ordinary. Only things out of the ordinary being when her and her fiancée, then boyfriend, saved Superman's life." Cat pointed at the article that said 'Hero Teens Save Superman' on it and Carter saw Kara with a boy in the picture. "And about a year later when the same two ran into a burning building to save trapped people inside." Cat pointed out another article from Lois Lane entitle 'Heroes Teens, or Brave Kids?'. "These events show nothing more than two very brave people, truthfully. Now we go back to Supergirl's timeline. When she first appeared. You remember the day right?"

"Yeah," Carter said. "The day after the Particle Accelerator exploded. All the news went from that to Superman's little cousin." Cat smiled as Carter saw her own article posted on the wall 'Supergirl: A New Hero'.

"Why do you believe that day Supergirl came out? She spent so long on Earth without lifting a finger," Cat asked, wondering what her son's answer could be.

"The disaster," Carter said. "She must have wanted to help people after that."

"True… but look at Supergirl's timeline," Cat said. "Before her appearance I marked off all disasters that were just as big, if not bigger. Yes, the Particle Accelerator was bad, but Supergirl didn't come out for any of these others. Why that disaster?" Carter seemed stumped, never having thought about it, always having personally linked it to the explosion. "The answer was it was personal. The Particle Accelerator did something to her personally, so I went to Kara's timeline and then remembered something. Kara was supposed to be on vacation. I looked into her plans. She was supposed to leave the day after the explosion from Central City Airport, but she never showed. Not for the flight and never to the hotel. I was stumped and then I remembered something, her fiancée, Billy…."

"Barry," Carter corrected, knowing the name from Karen and Adam before he left.

Cat smiled. "Fine. Barry," Cat said. She might use the fake names in person with them but sometimes at home she used their real names. "I remembered what he said when he proposed. Kara waited by his side while he was in a coma. I looked into it. He got struck by lightning the night of the Particle Accelerator explosion! The way they love each other, that's more than enough to make someone step up."

"Still does not prove anything," Carter said. "A lot of people were hurt by the explosion."

"True," Cat said. "But then Supergirl gets Superdog." Cat pointed at the picture of Supergirl with her dog. One of the first ever taken. "Kara gets a white dog she calls Krypto around the same time." Cat pointed out a picture taken from the distance of Kara with a white dog.

"Krypto? Like Krypton?" Carter asked.

"Yeah, you'd think she could think of a less suspicious name," Cat said thoughtfully. "Supergirl is seen fighting a women with the same powers as her." Cat pointed out the article with a picture taken of the women flying over a building. "Not that long later, Kara has an aunt who looks a lot like the woman Supergirl fought." Cat pointed to another picture of Kara with a dark-haired, tall, woman. "The most telling thing is that nine months after being struck by lightning Barry wakes up. Not long later Supergirl has a new side… partner." Cat made sure to call the Flash a partner instead of a sidekick after a visit from Supergirl she had. "The Flash." Cat pointed out a picture of the Flash.

"So?" Carter asked, although doubt was leaving his voice now. He trusted his mum and could see her logic.

"So Billy – I mean, Barry was struck by lightning, made from the Particle Accelerator. The Accelerator that is known to make people meta humans! Also, the Flash wears a lightning bolt on his costume. Just like the one that struck Barry."

Carter took everything in. "Kara is Supergirl," Carter said. "Barry is the Flash?" Cat nodded. "And you said Clark Kent was Kara's cousin, right?"

"Yes, Clark Kent is Kara's cousin, her biological cousin. It makes sense too, on why Lois Lane gets all of the Superman's interviews," Cat said.

"What about Karen?" Carter asked. "Where did she come from?"

"Not sure. She could just be what Kara says she is. Her cousin. The aunt's daughter…" Cat pondered, now looking once more at the image of Kara and her aunt. "There is a family resemblance."

Carter was looking at the wall and then noticed another picture. He took it from its pin. "What's this?" Carter asked holding it up.

"One of the earliest pictures of Kara I can find. Taken from her school," Cat said.

Carter took out his cellphone and opened it to a picture of Karen he took earlier that week. "That's more than just a family resemblance." Carter showed the two pictures to Cat who took the phone and looked. "If Kara wasn't so much older they could be…." Carter stopped. "Clone. Karen is a clone!" Carter than explained Karen's reaction to the cloning experiment at Mercury labs.

"You are my son," Cat said, nodding proudly at him, feeling a great pride toward Carter.

"What do we do with this information?" Carter asked, slightly worriedly now.

"Nothing," Cat said, confusing Carter. "We don't tell anyone. Not even Kara or Karen. It's pointless. They will deny it and will feel they have to hide. This is one secret the world does not have to know." Carter smiled. People assumed if Cat Grant knew who Supergirl was she'd spill it to the world, but that was not Cat Grant's style. Besides, Carter knew Cat cared for Kara. She wouldn't do anything to hurt her.

"My job is pretending to believe whatever lie Kara tells to run out of work. Yours is being a good friend to Karen. Helping her grow into the hero she can be," Cat said.

"Supergirl Junior?" Carter asked and laughed.

"We're going to have to work on that. I think we have time though," Cat said with a laugh.

"Maybe Power Girl?" Carter said making Cat hug him again.

"That's my son," Cat said as they walked out of the room. "But remember, clone or Kryptonian, she is still just a girl. Be her friend, be there for her. Don't make her feel more of an outcast than she probably already does."

"I promise, mom" Carter grinned.

-Superflash-

Kara and Barry sat in STAR labs. "So, what exploded?" Barry asked but Cisco, and Caitlin shrugged.

"They're not saying," Cisco said. "But all the people you two saved… Good job today."

"Reminded me of junior year," Kara said and Barry smiled, confusing the others in the room.

"Only this time we both had super powers to protect us," Barry said, and Kara laughed.

"I believed I yelled at you to get out that year," Kara said.

"And I told you 'never without you'," Barry said. "Wasn't long after that you told me about your powers."

"Oh yeah, Iris mentioned something about you running into a burning building once," Caitlin interrupted them.

Kara smiled and laughed. "Speaking of Iris, we are supposed to be meeting her and Eddie for a late dinner and movie. Nothing double-date-y, or anything, so do you two want to come?"

"Yeah," Cisco said without thinking, and Caitlin agreed as the group left STAR labs.

Post Chapter note: I know this chapter had very little Karry in it. Actually it had very little Kara and Barry in it, but it's just one of those chapter. It happens. It was also very important to reveal that Cat knows the truth for future chapters. A lot of the next few chapters will be build up to something bigger though, so watch this space and review. Karry Master out.