Chapter 2
Kara stood across from her future counterpart in the desert outside the DEO base as they prepared to spar. If she had been asked just a day ago whether all the training her sister, Hank, and El were planning on putting her through was necessary, she'd have scoffed. She and her cousin were among the most powerful beings on the planet. Sure, she had been a little messy with her heroics over the last week, but she had just started, and what mattered was that she was helping people.
Now, though, after having seen the massive scar on El's throat that, even with their regenerative abilities, had permanently altered her voice, her confidence was shaken. The news that they only had a few years before being attacked by what was essentially evil incarnate as well made her determined to improve as quickly as she could.
"Why did we have to come out here?" Alex asked. "We have a training room specifically designed to help Kara train."
El smiled softly at Alex. "The kryptonite emitters can help her learn the basics, and to fight without powers," she explained before turning back to Kara. "But fighting with powers - especially flight - is different. The physics of it alone requires a paradigm shift that can only really be learned through experience. Not to mention you need to learn how to use your other powers more efficiently while avoiding collateral damage."
Kara flushed at the frank assessment of her skills. She didn't know if it was because El was from the future, or just the fact that her tone painfully reminded Kara of her mother, but it stung worse than any of the criticism that had been levied against her since she had put on the cape.
El must have noticed her mood, because she stepped forward and put her fingers underneath Kara's chin and lifted her head to look into familiar blue eyes while a wave of homesickness swept through her. "It's okay, you'll learn. When I first started, I nearly caused a natural disaster every time I saved someone, and regularly got my ass kicked or survived by the skin of my teeth."
Kara giggled. "Wow, you sound like a train wreck."
El smiled and ruffled her hair. "Laugh it up, Bluebird, but I know every embarrassing moment that you never shared with anyone. I think Alex would love to hear about the time we broke into Father's lab and tried to hack the Matricomp, don't you?"
Kara's eyes widened in mortification. "You wouldn't!" She gasped
Beside them, Alex was cackling. "You know, I thought having a second you would be a pain, but this is great."
Kara glared at her sister, and huffed as El squeezed her shoulder with one hand while the other reached up and tapped her chest right in the middle of her family crest.
"Stronger Together, remember?"
Kara brightened at the reminder of her family's motto, and nodded. "So, what are we starting with?"
Rather than answer, El simply nodded and Kara suddenly felt something bounce off her head. A second later, there was a loud bang and she ducked, only to find the crumpled remains of a bullet on the ground.
"Sniper!" Alex shouted. She pulled her gun from its holster only for Henshaw to reach out and stop her.
"Stand down!" He barked. "This is part of her training."
"Your training involves shooting me with sniper rifles?!" Kara squawked.
"A better question," El asked. "Is why didn't you avoid it?"
"Because it's a sniper?" Kara answered. "What, am I supposed to know ahead of time that there's someone hiding like three kilometers away?"
"Yes," El replied. "Everyone sees Kal-El catch a plane out of the sky and thinks that our strength is our greatest power, but it's not."
"What do you mean?" Kara asked.
"We can see a match light on the other side of the city in broad daylight and hear it just as well. We are faster than anything on the planet without a connection to the Speed Force and our brains are just as fast. You should never be entering a situation without having assessed everything beforehand. Now, I've asked Hank to set up agents at various distances and locations, all of them with a high caliber rifle and all of them ready to fire at you. You and I are going to spar, and they will fire on us randomly. If we were alone, I'd have you dodging them, but in the interest of keeping our very much not bulletproof friends safe you are going to catch each one then identify where tall of the shooters are and how many fingers they're holding up."
"Why do I have to catch them?" Kara pressed. "Isn't enough for them to just bounce off me?"
"Letting bullets hit you is how you end up with a chest full of Kryptonite," El replied. "Blocking them to protect someone is one thing, but putting yourself at risk - no matter how little - when it can be avoided is reckless and builds habits that can be exploited. Now, get ready."
For the next two hours, the two of them sparred and, if Kara thought she needed to improve before, fighting El drilled that into her head. Not only was she weaker and slower than El, but sniper rounds kept bouncing off her head like beer cans. Before she knew it, the desert was littered with trenches from where El had smacked her into the ground as well as the crumpled remains of several full metal jackets.
"Ow," she groaned, forcing herself back to her feet. Yet another bang shook the air, and Kara growled as a bullet pancaked against her shoulder.
"Why don't we take a break?" El suggested. "Neither of us have eaten, and you need to keep your strength up."
Kara perked up at the mention of food, and the two of them walked over to Alex, who had managed to procure an entire table full of burritos for them.
"Best sister ever!" Kara cheered as she zoomed forward and wrapped her arms around her.
"Isn't she?" El added, already drooling over the stack of food.
"Good lord, there really are two of them," Hank muttered.
"Can't. Breathe," Alex gasped.
Kara dropped her with a sheepish grin on her face, and turned towards the food.
"Well, I think we can do away with any more doubts about her being Kara," Alex joked as the two of them dug in. "Oh, God, El, are you... crying?"
Kara looked up from the burrito she was currently trying to inhale and found that her counterpart was, indeed, tearing up as she bit into her food far slower than Kara normally did.
"Sorry," El mumbled, swallowing quickly and wiping her eyes. "It's just... it's been a long time since I've had anything that wasn't nutrient paste. I - I had forgotten..."
They all stood around her, not quite knowing what to say, before Hank, of all people, stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "You've been through a lot," he said.
"Yeah," El grunted. "I have."
Kara swallowed past the lump in her throat and was about to say something when her comm chimed in her ear.
"Supergirl! There's a fire at the National City Port!"
"On my way, Winn," Kara replied. She looked back at the others and smiled sheepishly. "I guess duty calls."
"Fire at the port?" El asked.
"Yeah, how did you -" Kara cut herself off. "Right, super hearing." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Well, thanks for the training."
“Be careful,” Alex said. “You’ve been pushing yourself for the last two hours. Even you have limits.”
Kara’s first instinct was to retort, but she happened to glance at El, who was still quietly eating as Agent Vasquez spoke to her, and nodded.
(OoO)
Kara returned home that night, waterlogged and annoyed with herself. She tried to ask how she could help, keeping in mind El's lesson on controlling her powers, but when she went to plug the oil spill - bending fractured hull closed to at least reduce the amount of crude spilling into the bay - she came back to several people yelling at her about how she had ruined the ship and what was the point if she didn't even stop the oil completely.
Alex was there already, nursing a beer as she flicked through her TV.
“Nice save with the boat,” she offered as Kara landed through the window.
“You might be the only one who thinks so,” Kara groaned, making her way towards her room to change. “Have you seen the news? They’re crucifying me.”
“If it’s any consolation,” Alex called back. “According to El, you did way better than she did when she went through it.”
“That does make me feel a little better,” Kara admitted. She returned from her room wearing her favourite comfy sweater and pajama pants. “What did she do for the rest of the day while I was gone anyway?”
“Not much,” Alex said. “She mostly seems to keep to herself.” She took a long swig of her beer, avoiding Kara’s eyes. “I gotta say, Kar, it’s weird to see someone who looks like you but acts so… different.”
“Different how?”
“For one thing, she’s actually, y’know, calm.” Kara pouted and glared at her sister who merely shrugged. “Hey, I’m just saying. I thought at the very least splitting your time between flying around saving people, and running around fetching coffee for the real life Miranda Priestly would burn off some more of that energy you have.”
“She must save it all for when she’s dragging me through the dirt,” Kara grunted. “Seriously, she’s not that much older than me, how in Rao’s name is she so much stronger?”
“I’ve actually been thinking about that too,” Alex said, taking another swig of beer. “We haven’t tested her or anything - it’s kinda hard to measure your strength when you can bench press a building on a bad day - but we were under the impression that you and your cousin were kept in peak condition because of your powers. So, if El is stronger, how did she improve?”
“Maybe I do need to start bench pressing buildings,’ Kara suggested. Standing up, she made her way to the kitchen where she pulled out two tubs of ice cream. “Hey… do you think she ever got together with that girl she mentioned the other day?”
“To be honest,” Alex admitted. “I’m a little caught up on the girl part of the question.”
“Come on, Alex,” Kara said, rolling her eyes as she handed her sister her own tub. “You know Kryptonians don’t see attraction the same way humans do.”
“Well, yeah, I guess,” Alex muttered, shoving a spoonful of frozen peanut butter fudge into her mouth. “But I never really thought that would mean, y’know, girls.”
“It’s not… a problem, is it?” Kara asked carefully.
“No!” Alex exclaimed, her eyes widened. “Oh, God, no, Kara. As long as they made you happy and took care of you, they could have… be a giant lobster for all I care.”
“Well, that’s good,” Kara mumbled, taking a bite of her own triple chocolate. “So, what do you think? Should I go out to Girl Bar and try to find my future Mrs. Right?”
“I dunno,” Alex said slowly. “I mean, maybe talk to El about it first? I mean, whatever happened was enough for her to cut her hair. You love your hair. Maybe, instead of using your future self to find a date, we start by avoiding the bad ones?”
“Yeah,” Kara agreed. “I guess you’re right. Maybe she knows who your Mr or Mrs Right is?”
“Mr Right,” Alex said quickly. “And don’t bring me into your time travel rom com nonsense. Now are we gonna watch Homeland, or what?”
Kara laughed and grabbed the remote, happy to set everything aside for a few hours.