Chapter 31
“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Kara murmured, trailing after Lena as she walked to the square outside of L-Corp where she was having her renaming ceremony and press conference.
“It’ll be alright Kara, relax,” Lena reassured her friend.
Kara snorted, “Relax, she said, her psycho brother just tried to kill her yesterday, she said, are you nuts? Couldn’t you have had this somewhere less… public?”
“Can’t let them think I’m afraid, that they’ve beaten me,” Lena told her. “Besides, I’ve already arranged everything to be out here, where else would I move it, inside? Can’t exactly display the building’s new name from the inside.”
“I guess, but this makes me nervous.”
“It’ll be fine, besides, I’ll be the safest person here,” she leaned closer to her friend. “I know Supergirl personally.”
“Don’t get yourself killed, who is going to go scuba diving with me?”
“You could ask your wifey, whenever you actually decide to tell her she is in fact your wif-”
Kara bumped into Lena harshly, cutting off the rest of her sentence. “Stop talking about it,” she hissed before disappearing into the crowd around the stage. She weaved through the people, her senses alert for any possible danger before taking a position at the back of the crowd. Her hearing and focus were stretched to their limits by the crowd and the noise of the city around them, but her eyes never strayed from Lena on the stage.
“Kara?”
The blonde nearly jumped out of her skin when someone appeared next to her and said her name. She controlled her desire to shoot straight up into the air and glanced to her right, instantly questioning her decision not to fly away at the sight of Alex standing next to her. “Um, hi Alex, what are you doing here?”
Alex reached into her leather jacket and pulled out her wallet, flipping it open to show her FBI badge, which Kara knew was fake, and replaced it back in its hiding place before glancing around. “Security really,” the woman replied. “Someone sabotaged the Venture launch. Either that person was Miss Luthor out to create havoc…” Kara gave the woman a dirty look for that statement, “Or someone is trying to kill her. Either way, I’m here to observe.”
“You don’t really think that Lena was trying to bring down that shuttle do you?” Kara asked. “That ship was marked for discovery and learning, two things Lena very much supports.”
“I know she’s your friend Kara, but I have to investigate everything. Her family-”
“She’s not her family Alex, we’re more than who our families were, we’re more than our last names.”
“That’s rich coming from you since I don’t even know your last name,” the brunette bit back. She had always been defensive when attacked, physically or verbally, even as a child. Normally the desire to fight back wouldn’t rear when dealing with strangers, but something about the blonde seemed familiar. She got under Alex’s skin like no other she’s ever met and it frightened and irritated her.
“Well lucky for you my last name is super easy to remember,” Kara spat out, “It’s Danvers.” She walked away from the agent without waiting for a response, disappearing into the crowd again to emerge on the other side of the plaza. She studiously ignored anything from the older woman and glanced back on the stage. Lena had just been introduced on the platform and was speaking to the press about the direction she wanted her company to go in, hence the new name. It was an attempt to distance herself from the legacy of those that came before her, from Luthor Corp and Lex Corp, to L-Corp.
A strange smell tickled her nose and the back of her airways, causing Kara to inhale deeply. The scent of sulfur filled her lungs and she coughed, her eyes widening at the implication of that scent. “Shit,” Kara muttered, slipping away from the crowd to duck in an alleyway across the street. Before she could spin around and change into her uniform, she felt a tap on her shoulder. “Wha,” she shrieked, whirling around and pressing the figure hard into the brick wall behind them. “Kyle!”
“Sorry,” he muttered out around the hand pressing against his throat. “I just wanted to check what’s going on, I heard Lena Luthor was supposed to be on that ship yesterday and she’s your best friend so…”
“Okay, I don’t have time for this, she’s in trouble, someone’s trying to kill her and I need your help,” Kara said. She did a quick change into her suit and stared at her friend expectantly.
Kyle revealed his lantern ring on his finger and powered up, summoning his suit and mask to cover his body. “What’s the plan?” He asked, his eyes glowing green.
Explosions rocked the plaza and gunfire rang out. “Shit,” Kara muttered again, whirling around to search for Lena. “Catch the bad guys, save the day,” she told him before shooting off into the air. The Green Lantern cursed and flew after Supergirl, finding chaos as people ran from the burning plaza and the drones firing down on them from above.
Kara’s eyes quickly searched for Lena after she struck down a few of the nearby drones and found her aiming a gun at a man that was about to kill Alex. The shot echoed through her ears and she saw the bullet moving in slow motion as it left the chamber and flew towards the man, lodging itself in his lung. She landed next to her best friend just as the man crumpled to the ground. “Supergirl,” Lena breathed out, only just stopping herself from calling her friend by name or hugging the blonde.
“Are you alright Ms. Luthor?” Kara asked before turning her attention to the downed agent. She found the woman staring at her curiously, almost scrutinizing as dark eyes studied her. The Kryptonian resisted the urge to squirm, but another explosion rang out before the agent could speak.
“Supergirl, the building,” Lena breathed, grasping the hero’s arm as she pointed to the office tower. Kara looked up at the fractured, falling building and her eyes narrowed as she scanned it with her x-ray vision, frowning as she encountered large amounts of lead that interfered with her vision. It wasn’t completely blocked since it wasn’t pure lead, but it was blurry due to the fragments.
“The main support pillar in the basement has been destroyed,” Kara said finally. “I’ll need to stabilize it. The Green Lantern, and I’m sure whatever agency she works for,” she nodded at Alex, “Will be able to round up the rest of the criminals and stop those drones, wait here Ms. Luthor.” Kara took off and wound down into the basement of L-Corp, finding the main support beam broken and shattered. “One pillar to support an entire building, how stupid is that?” She grumbled as she set about fixing the pillar. Her original idea was to use the steel posts to prop it up but that would leave an even bigger mess for Lena to fix. Kara took several of the steel bars and cut them to the correct size and melted the excess metal into a patch that stabilized the entire building. She heard the crumbling and cracking of the building lessen before eventually subsiding, leaving only the normal groans of a settling building and the screams of the people outside.
“Supergirl, going to need some help,” Kara heard Kyle call and she sped out of the basement.
“What the-” she cried as a large metallic arm swung at her, nearly knocking her out of the sky but she dodged just in time. She felt the brush of metal against her leg, and spun out of the way of another attack. “A robot? Really?”
“I think this was their last resort,” Kyle yelled at her as he tried to restrain the other arm of the machine. “Whoever they are anyway, aimed at destroying as much as they could as a distraction to allow them to escape.”
“Well it’s working,” Kara growled, slamming into the head of the robot in hopes to throw it off balance. “Where’s Superman?”
“Chasing the last of the drones as far as I can tell, they spread throughout the city,” he answered.
Kara sighed and rubbed at her forehead. “You can make anything with that ring right? Can’t you make like a big axe or sword and chop the robot in half?”
“I could if he stopped moving,” Kyle replied, dodging another swipe.
“I’ve got it.” Kara grabbed one of the arms as it swung at her and dug her hands into the metal. She flew behind the machine and grabbed the other arm as it came at her. “Hurry up!” She yelled as she felt the robot struggling against her grip. Kyle summoned a large sword with his ring, swinging it at the struggling machine and pushed it through metal and wires. The robot crackled with electricity as wires split apart, and it fell to the ground with a loud bang.
“Have they all gotten away?” Kyle asked, floating next to his friend.
Kara glanced around, her eyes scanning the nearly empty streets. “Unfortunately I think so,” she murmured. Her eyes stopped at where she left Lena and Alex, and found that both of them have disappeared, along with the man that Lena shot. “Where did Lena go?”
“I think she was whisked away by that hot agent chick and her men in black,” Kyle commented. “I can’t be sure though, there was a lot going on.”
Kara rolled her eyes and focused for Lena’s heartbeat, locating it in the cracked L-Corp building. She flashed into the lobby and found her friend standing in the lobby on her cell phone with several DEO agents around her, Alex among them. Lena was on her phone with her contractor, arranging for the workers to return and fix the damage caused to her building by the explosion and the destruction of the main support beam. She was also having choice words with him for not fixing the one weak spot that would bring down the entire structure. Kara winced at the curse words spewing out of Lena’s mouth in gaelic, many of them creative threats that Kara logged away for future reference.
“Supergirl,” Lena breathed out when she saw her after ending her call.
“Are you alright Ms. Luthor?” She asked, landing lightly on the ground, mindful of the agents around them.
“Yes, thank you Supergirl, the building probably would’ve sustained more damage if you didn’t manage to stabilize the support beam,” the brunette replied. “Though I was wondering, since you’re here, if you could do something for me?”
“If it’s within my power and ability.”
“My best friend, Kara Danvers, she was at the ceremony today.” Kara could see Alex stiffen slightly at the mention of her name, but she ignored the brunette for now. “I’ve tried calling her,” Lena continued, “But she hasn’t picked up.” Lena was an excellent liar, Kara knew this but seeing it first hand was always fascinating. “I was wondering if you would be able to find her for me? Blonde hair, blue eyes, slight build, a few inches shorter than you.”
“I will do my best Ms. Luthor, do you want me to bring her here?”
Lena shook her head, “No, just tell her I’ll see her later, but make sure she calls me! Can’t just disappear like that during a fight, she missed all the fun…”
Kara coughed a bit, “Of course Ms. Luthor, I’ll pass on the message.” Her ears alerted her to a conversation between Kyle and her cousin taking place high above the city out of sight of anyone on the ground. That’s never good, Kara though, taking off out of the building and up into the sky. “Kal,” she greeted her cousin, “Thank you for your help. More people would’ve gotten injured, or worse, if you hadn’t of helped.”
“Of course,” the man nodded before a hesitant look crossed his face. “Kara… I’m sorry.”
The blonde glanced over at her friend in shock before looking at her cousin, “What?”
“I’m sorry for not being there for you when you were growing up,” he said, his eyes downcast. “I was afraid that if I was around that my enemies would get to you. At least, that’s what I told myself when I thought about leaving you with a different family, or when I agreed to let Ms. Grant take you. Looking back now, I didn’t want a kid in my life, a teenager. I was just 25, I just became Superman, finally embracing who I was for the first time in my life, and finding out that I still have family living, someone like me, it was all too much.”
Kara rolled her eyes, “Too much for you, I was trapped in the Phantom Zone for 24 years, and the one mission that my parents gave me was to look after you. When I arrived, you didn’t need me or seem to want me around, what if I had done that if you and I had arrived at the same time? What if I had decided that I couldn’t take care of a baby and just shipped you off with someone else, how would you have felt?”
Superman winced, “I get it, I do, I messed up. I only hope that maybe, sometime in the future, you will consider me an actual member of your family. I know you speak with Lois on occasion, so…”
“Lois is a good woman Kal,” Kara said, “You don’t deserve her, not really.” She was silent for a moment as she took in the crushed expression on her younger cousin’s face. “Maybe,” she said, “Maybe one day we’ll be family, but not anytime soon. I think it’s time for you to go back to Metropolis Kal.”
Sighing, Kal nodded, “You’re probably right. National City already has one Kryptonian protecting it.” He grinned at her, bowing his head, “Lucky for them they got the better one.” Metropolis’s hero nodded and then took off into the sky, disappearing somewhere else over the city, no doubt to change back into his Clark Kent persona.
“He was an interesting guy,” Kyle said, interrupting the quiet that had overtaken them after Kal left. “Not quite as pretentious or self-righteous as when he first introduced himself, but that might have something to do with your presence.”
Kara’s eyes narrowed and she turned to face her friend, crossing her arms over her chest. “That reminds me, you got away from me yesterday after the Venture crash, but don’t think that I’ve forgotten that you owe me an explanation about how you became a member of the Green Lantern Corps, and why you didn’t tell me, especially since I told you my secret years ago.”
“Um…” Kyle started, “Would you believe I forgot?”
“Kyle!”
Alex shuffled into the alien dive bar that night, both her body and mind equally exhausted. It had been a long day with the attack on Lena Luthor and Lu- L-Corp, the intervention by Supergirl and Green Lantern, and all of the cleaning up and paperwork that went with an assassination attempt and possible citywide destruction. The paperwork was mentally irritating, but for the most part, everything else was just physically draining; the event that left her mentally and emotionally drained was the conversation with Kara. She knew that Lena was the blonde’s best friend, but she couldn’t help but feel jealous by their closeness and decided to pick on the one weakness she knew the CEO had, her family name. It was a low blow and she regrets. Alex always hated when people compared her to her parents, wondering why she wasn’t as successful in the scientific community as they are, and all it did was cause her anxiety and anger to rise.
She never did pay attention to why she was feeling jealous of Kara and Lena’s relationship in the first place. There was a brief moment of questioning, but she had pushed it down and ignored it. Alex was always known to push away and ignore problems when she didn’t want to deal with them.
Shuffling over to her regular booth, Alex slumped down in the seat, and rested her head against the table, ignoring the possible bacteria that had built up on the table. “Rough day huh,” Maggie murmured, sliding across the booth from Alex. She set a glass of whiskey in front of the other woman while she sipped at her beer, her arms folded on the table.
“You have no idea,” Alex groaned, sipping at her own drink. Maggie had introduced her to the bar shortly after they met, and they quickly made it their go-to hangout. The short haired woman wondered why she had never found the bar during her bar trolling days in college, but she wasn’t on the lookout for aliens then, not until she was recruited for the DEO.
“Some of my buddies had to deal with the mess too Danvers, there were more than just DEO agents and superheroes there too you know? The NCPD had quite a few officers around as protection and crowd control.”
“I know, I know, but they didn’t have to deal with Lena Luthor and Supergirl directly,” Alex groaned, rubbing at her head. “I mean, Supergirl seems fine, rightfully wary of us of course since we are a secret agency that hunts down aliens, but Luthor is…”
“Is…?”
“She’s… I don’t know what to make of her. She’s intelligent, stone-faced, mysterious, terrifying, the picture perfect CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. She’s from a notorious family, and that might have something to do with how she is but… well, she’s just a bit unnerving.”
“Does the newly dubbed L-Corp CEO scare you?” Maggie teased, amusement in her eyes and tone.
“The fact that she is a series of walking contradictions scares me. Are you sure she’s best friends with Kara? I mean Lena is so… and Kara is-”
“Kara is the walking personification of sunshine,” Maggie finished, “They do make an odd pair as friends, but they basically grew up together so it makes sense. I haven’t spent much time around Little Luthor though, so I can’t really say what kind of person she really is.”
Alex just hummed and downed her drink before flagging down the waitress to bring her a beer. The red-haired alien was an ex of Maggie’s, the one immediately following her split from her fiancée. Like all rebound relationships, it started and ended badly, but Alex was there to comfort her friend. A few months after, they decided to give dating a try. They both found each other attractive, and they fell into a routine quickly. It was comfortable and safe, something that both of them needed with the jobs that they held, but Alex couldn’t help but wish for something more… “Hey, you didn’t tell me that Kara’s last name was Danvers too,” Alex said, halting that train of thought.
Maggie froze for a moment, her bottle raised to her lips as she looked at her girlfriend with wide eyes, “What?”
“Yeah she told me today, right after we got into an argument really,” Alex said, sipping at her own beer when the waitress dropped it off. “I mean, Danvers isn’t exactly a unique last name, but you’d think that was something you might have mentioned.”
“Just slipped my mind is all,” the brunette replied, the beer tasting bitter in her mouth as she swallowed the dark amber liquid. Internally her mind was racing, since when was Kara’s last name Danvers?
Kara froze at the sight that greeted her when she walked into Cat’s office. It had been a few days since the chaos at the L-Corp renaming ceremony, and following on the heels of the dramatic rescue by Supergirl, Cat had published the article she had been working on since their interview. The cover photo had been one taken just after she and Kyle had defeated the robot, floating strong and steady above the ground, ready to fight another threat as needed.
It was that very image that Kara was staring at, a life-size, cutout version propped up facing Cat’s desk. “Um…” She started, her mind trying to catch up to what she was seeing. “What is that?”
Cat swiveled around in her chair to see to what the younger blonde was referring and she smirked at the wide-eyed look on her face. “That, Kiera, is a picture of our very own hero Supergirl, a hero for us all. Surely you would recognize the image that graced the cover of CatCo’s latest issue, one that is about to reach one million in sales, and generating more reprint profits as we speak.”
“I- well yes- one million really?” Kara stuttered before shaking her head, “What I meant was, what is with the large cutout?”
“Supergirl is my creation, shouldn’t I have a tribute to that in my office along with all of my other awards and accolades? Probably my greatest accomplishment,” Cat murmured, her eyes returning to the large print. The words were hidden behind the statement but Kara could still hear them, it was the pride a parent showed for their child. “Now, enough of that, you have last minute preparations for the gala,” the woman said, grabbing a few sheets of paper off her desk. “This is the final guest list that RSVPed for the event. Go over it, and make sure that the highlighted names are to be given the VIP treatment and the names with the asterisk next to them were invited to be polite but are supposed to be watched.”
Kara flipped through the list, her eyes widening as she saw more and more names with a mark next to them. “You invited Maxwell Lord? He’s one of Supergirl’s biggest critics!”
“Best way to grow is to face our critics,” Cat replied, sitting down. “I’ve never run from them in my entire life, just crushed them on my way up. Supergirl will rise above his petty, xenophobic squabbling, and we at CatCo will show more courtesy and class than he ever will.” She leaned back in her seat and folded her hands, “Besides, if I didn’t invite him, he would make a nuisance of himself, especially since I invited all of the other key people in National City, including Lena Luthor. A Luthor at a gala celebrating a Super, times are definitely changing.”
“Will she even be able to attend? I mean, her office building was nearly leveled the other day, will she have time?”
“You tell me Kiera,” Cat stated, her brow raised.
Kara stared back at her mother before glancing down. “I’ll go make sure all of the preparations are set for tomorrow night Ms. Grant,” she said, backing out of the office to return to her desk. She called the caterer, florist, and entertainment for the gala, confirming the time of delivery and set up for the next day, clearing up any last minute trouble that cropped up.
“Kara!” Winn hissed at her from his desk, “Kara!” She glanced up and narrowed her eyes at his friend, and jerked his head towards the hallway. Curious, she followed her friend to the elevator, and down to an empty office a few floors down from the executive floor, still empty because many of the employees believed it to be haunted. They had made this their base at CatCo, repurposing an old office computer that Lena helped Winn put back together. Truthfully though, her mother knew that they had claimed the space and kept it open for them to use and diverted other people away from it.
“What?” The blonde asked once they reached the room.
Her friend was literally bouncing on his feet as he looked at her. “Okay, so I’ve been waiting for days, buuuuttttt,” Winn started, drawing out his word. “Tell me about the Green Lantern! Tell me all about it, is he as cool as he seems?”
“Winn…”
“Nope, I’ve held it in, resisted the urge since you had a lot going on, but I want to know everything.”
“I- it’s a long story, we’ve been friends for a while. I didn’t know he was the Green Lantern until he turned up. I got the full explanation from him, but I can’t tell you who he is, not my secret.”
Winn just waved her off, “No, that’s cool, I get that, I just want to know if he is as cool as he seems in person and if you can get me his autograph?”
“Maybe, I’ll ask him next time I see him,” Kara told him. “Was that all you had to tell me?”
“What? Oh, no, there was a report of a break in at Lord Industries last night,” the man told her. “There wasn’t much stolen, so it wasn’t breaking news, not with Ms. Grant’s article on Supergirl still the hottest thing in National City news. But there were some suspicious things taken, like items to contain and funnel nuclear power.”
“Who would need something like that?” Kara asked, her face scrunched in confusion. “And why would they go to Maxwell Lord’s company? Everyone knows that L-Corp is on the cutting edge of any kind of technological development, almost on par with Wayne Industries.”
“There’s less security at Lord Industries,” Winn explained, pointing to the computer. “I mean, I can’t even crack into Luth- I mean, L-Corp’s mainframe without sending up a red flag somewhere for Lena’s cyber security team to find, I know, I’ve tried a few time.” At the glare Kara was giving him, Winn rushed to explain, “She asked, Lena asked, I didn’t, she asked.” The glare eased down, and the nervous man breathed a sigh of relief, “Anyway, with the recent attack on L-Corp, everything has been in chaos, so Maxwell Lord’s company was the safer choice.”
Kara hummed and glanced at the list that Winn had pulled up on the computer. “Is this… Did you hack the NCPD database?” She questioned, looking at her friend incredulously.
“They really need to work on their security, I mean, it would probably be a good idea,” he stated, not looking at the disapproving heroine.
Shaking her head, Kara sighed, “Whatever, so we have to figure out who needed these parts, that would help us figure out who took them, especially if they’re the same person, and why. Stealing parts that helps to regulate nuclear energy doesn’t sound like something someone on the up and up would do.”
“There have been some crazy heat spikes around the city too, in mostly abandoned warehouses and factories on the outskirts of the city.”
Kara stared at the screen, noticing the heat spots that Winn mentioned when he pulled up thermal maps of the city, hot red dots where there shouldn’t be any sources of heat. “Is that…” she murmured, zeroing in on one of the dots, “Is that a person?” The heat source was a slightly humanoid shape, though slightly larger with a hulking mass.
“Looks like one,” Winn murmured. He searched through the images and while the source moved, the overall shape remained the same. “Who do you think it is?”
“Trouble.”