Chapter 7
With Kara occupied with the party and potential Reactron rematch, El decided to go for a leisurely flight. She kept an ear out, in case anything truly cataclysmic needed her, but her goal for the evening was to get out of National City and get her head back on straight. She had barely been here a week, and she couldn’t afford to be losing her cool lest she lose the trust of those she needed on her side. Seeing both Lena and her cousin within a day of each other had stirred up more memories than she had anticipated, and a nice flight along the western coast was just what she needed to recenter herself. She briefly thought about going to Central City to visit Barry and his team, but, like everyone else she had come across in this time, it wouldn’t be the same. For one thing, El had no idea what was going on at this point in Barry’s history now that they shared a world. It was entirely possible that he was still occupied with his own time traveling menace, and allowing someone as petty as Thawne to know of her existence was something El was keen to avoid, as she wouldn’t put it past him to invite Darkseid to invade that much earlier just to spite Barry. Besides, the history wouldn’t be there. This version of Barry wasn’t the one who had gone through so much at her side. He hadn’t suffered as Darkseid’s living battery for two years, only to immediately console her upon learning that Alex had died. This wasn’t the Barry who had gathered the last of the Speed Force to turn himself into a living wormhole to send her back in time. The young man running around Central City might have been the Flash, but he wasn’t her best friend - not anymore - and it was next to impossible to rebuild a friendship when one side knew so much more about the other.
She had been flying leisurely for nearly an hour and a half when she came across another city on the coast. Unfortunately, that also meant the end of her personal time as the sound of gunshots drew her attention. Angling herself towards the warehouse district further up the coast, El wondered where she even was as she increased her speed. Coming to a halt above the warehouses, she headed towards where she had heard the gunshots, hopefully there would be someone there who needed her help. It didn’t take her long to spot the night guard lying dead at his post, his neck clearly broken. Taking into account how long ago she had heard the gunshots, El turned to the nearest warehouses, scanning them with her x-ray vision. To her surprise, while she could clearly see through the walls of all the warehouses, there was one, in particular, that was filled with lead-lined boxes. At best, that meant something radioactive was likely being stored, but, in a world filled with people who hated Superman, odds were good that they contained something the owner of the warehouse did not want being discovered without a warrant.
There were at least twelve heartbeats in and around that warehouse, hammering home just how important its contents were, and the fact that they hadn’t left their posts to investigate the sound of shots being fired implied they were more likely private security, more concerned with protecting whatever they had been assigned to than helping their fellow man.
Predictably, that much security meant that particular building was the target for an additional five heartbeats El heard sneaking through the grounds. Strangely, only four of the intruders were regular humans. The breathing pattern and heartbeat of the fifth being were similar to the other four, but significantly stronger, despite the fact that the weight of the accompanying footsteps were roughly similar to the other four.
Keeping caution in mind, El chose to listen in on the thieves for a while longer before rushing in to stop them. Floating above the warehouse, she managed to get a good look at them, taking note of their black body armor and face masks they all wore. The first four carried military-grade rifles equipped with silencers, but the last - the one with the strange heartbeat - didn’t bother with any of that. He wore a sleeveless shirt, showing off his large, tattooed arms, jeans, and a thick chain around his neck and walked with the sort of arrogance of someone who clearly didn’t fear the consequences of his actions.
She watched as floodlights were turned on and the five thieves stopped just outside of their glare.
“Whoever’s out there!” One of the guards shouted. “This is your only warning. We are licensed to use lethal force. Leave now!”
The thieves looked amongst themselves for a moment before all turning to the man in the shirt. “Alright,” one of them, likely the leader. “Time to make yourself useful.”
The large man scoffed and shoved his way past them, stepping into the light. El watched as he approached the guards, completely unconcerned as they cocked their rifles at him, while the other four snuck around in the dark. She prepared herself to intervene on the slim chance this man was just crazy, but watched as one of the guards pulled his trigger. There was the bark of gunfire, and El watched as the bullet flew through the air and hit the man's chess, only to crumple against his chest and fall to the ground with a quiet ping.
“Open fire!” One of the guards screamed. Gunfire rained down on the man who only smirked and took off at a rumbling jog towards the guards.
Deciding now was as good a time as any to intervene, El shot through the air and intercepted the rest of the thieves, quickly snagging their guns and snapping them in half before knocking them out. She gathered the four men and placed them against the wall of a nearby warehouse to interrogate later before turning back to the obvious meta human laughing stupidly as he ran into the first guard and lifted him off the ground, still ignoring the hail of bullets the other guards were pelting him with.
With a burst of speed, El appeared behind the man and grabbed his arm by the wrist. A firm squeeze was enough to force him to release the guard he was holding by the throat. Pulling him away, she delivered a swift punch to the side of his head and sent him tumbling across the ground.
“Freeze!” One of the other guards shouted, pointing his gun at her. Ignoring him, El watched as the man stood up and readied himself for a fight. She heard the sound of rifles cocking once more, alongside yet another heartbeat approaching- only this one was coming from the sky - but didn’t let that distract her as the large man charged towards her once more. With the knowledge that she might have to fight yet another meta, El dashed forward, getting out of the way of the newcomer as they crashed into the ground with a thump while the guards opened fire. The man she was fighting clearly didn’t have super speed to go with his seeming invulnerability and increased strength, so she took advantage of that. He reared back during his charge, revealing a lack of true combat experience and roared while she stopped running and instead flew close to the ground..
Ducking underneath his punch, El slithered through the air and wrapped an arm around the man’s neck while dragging him to the ground. Between her position between his shoulder blades, his larger size, and her greater strength, it didn’t take much to knock him out while listening to the sound of grunts from overzealous security guards being dispatched while their bullets ricocheted off some kind of armor.
Eventually, the man on top of her stopped struggling and she shrugged him off before rising to her feet, prepared to defend herself against whoever the newcomer was. Standing tall at well over six feet tall, dressed in glistening crimson armor with gold accents and a navy pleated skirt, Diana of Themyscira was the image of a Greek warrior goddess. Her blue eyes looked El over inquisitively, her expression equally guarded in case El turned out to be an enemy.
“Well met, sister,” Diana called out. “Are you friend or foe?”
Sighing, El lowered her guard and ran a hand through her hair as she gestured towards the lasso secured at Diana’s waist. “May I?” She asked.
Diana raised an eyebrow, but didn’t refuse as she stepped forward and unwound her lasso, holding it out for El to grab.
El grabbed the rope and waited for it to begin glowing before explaining herself. “My name is Kara Zor-El. I’m a future version of Superman’s cousin, Supergirl, who came back in time to help stop the end of the world at the hands of Darkseid. To avoid confusion, though, I’m going by El, or Flamebird.”
“I see,” Diana said, returning the Lasso of Truth to its place at her hip. “I had heard about Supergirl making her debut in National City.”
Nodding, El turned her attention back to the various unconscious bodies littering the ground around them. “You wouldn’t happen to have any idea what these guys were after, would you?”
“I’m not sure,” Diana admitted. “There have been a number of robberies across the country. All of them have targeted tech companies. I got a tip that this would be their next target, though it seems you beat me to the punch.”
“Do you have any idea what they were taking?” El asked.
“That’s the strange part,” Diana said. “Each robbery was of warehouses containing decommissioned projects. Last generation tech that has already been surpassed by whatever is currently on the market. And yet, each theft seems to have been committed by a well-trained four man team.”
“I caught four other thieves before the shooting started,” El revealed. “They were outfitted with high quality gear. They moved like a unit, with the exception of the big one I took down over there.”
“His name is Jeremy Braig,” Diana told her. “Otherwise known as the Human Tank. He’s a local Metahuman thug for hire.”
“So the thieves felt they needed extra muscle for this job,” El deduced, looking around at the slumbering guards who had been stupid enough to attack Wonder Woman. “Judging by the security guarding this place, I can see why. Do you know who owns this warehouse?”
“It’s largely used as storage for Lord Technologies,” Diana answered.
Groaning, El tilted her head back. “Of course.”
“I take it you’re familiar with him?” Diana asked, amused.
“You could say that,” El replied. “He was a constant pain, even when circumstances forced us to work together, he always made sure to remind us all how lucky we were to have him, and how lost we’d be without him.”
Diana chuckled, her voice deep and rich. “Yes, that sounds very much like Max.”
The sound of sirens a few kilometers out drew El’s attention. “The authorities are on their way,” she relayed. “If we want a chance to get any answers, we should question one of the thieves before they get arrested.”
“A wise suggestion,” Diana agreed. El led her towards where she had left the other thieves. Diana wrapped the four of them up in her lasso, while El glanced at the nearest one, and, using the lightest application of heatvision, singed the side of his leg just enough to wake him up with a yelp.
“Who hired you?” Diana asked as the Lasso glowed brightly.
“David Cheng,” the man grunted. “He’s our fence.”
“What were you hired to steal?”
“Some kinda gene… thing,” he growled, clearly straining against the influence of the Lasso.
“Where were you supposed to deliver it when the job was done?” El asked, listening as the sirens got ever closer.
The man struggled not to answer, but El had yet to see anyone beat Wonder Woman’s Lasso. “At the pier, in a week once the heat died down.”
El frowned. “That’s enough time for him to learn the job didn’t go as planned.”
Diana sighed with frustration. “Perhaps. I will investigate the pier, see if I can find any leads.”
“I’ll look into David Cheng,” El offered. “See what I can dig up about him. If he’s a fence, we might be able to figure out who hired him if we can track him down.”
“Are you sure?” Diana asked. “If disaster is coming, I would hate to distract you from whatever preparations are needed.”
El shrugged. “Maybe helping you is part of my preparations,” she said teasingly.
Diana raised an eyebrow. “Is it?”
“Who knows,” El mused. The sound of sirens had gotten close enough for Diana to hear them as well, and she lifted herself off the ground. “I should probably get back to National City. It was a pleasure to meet you, Princess Diana. Feel free to drop by if you need any help.”
“I may just take you up on that… Flamebird,” Diana replied.
Smiling, El took off, zooming back towards National City. In her own timeline, she didn’t even meet Wonder Woman until after Darkseid’s first attack on Earth. The two of them didn’t interact much, but she was a constant inspiration and reminder that compassion could exist in spite of the hardships they all faced. She had no idea if these robberies happened the first time around, but the opportunity to build a partnership with her now, so long before Darkseid’s first appearance, was one El had no intention of squandering.
And if, along the way, she could save Diana like so many others from their fate at Darkseid’s hands, all the better.
*(OoO)*
Alex was confused, annoyed, and proud. It made for a rather strange mixture of emotions as she watched the smug police detective cart Reactron off while her sister watched. In spite of Director Henshaw’s orders, she had every intention of helping, using the DEO database to try and learn anything she could about Reactron. There was a brief moment when Hank caught her that she had been sure she was about to be fired, only for him to turn a blind eye and mutter something about refitting one of their holding cells. To both of their surprise, though, Kara hadn’t needed their help at all. They had detected the radiation signature unique to his suit moments before he crashed the CatCo party. He had planned to kidnap Cat Grant under the assumption that the one who managed to get an interview with Supergirl must have a way to contact her, but Kara had intercepted him before he could even lay a finger on her boss.
What followed could hardly even be considered a battle. Kara had apparently come to the same conclusion they had regarding using lead to counter Reactron’s attacks, and had somehow acquired a pair of gloves made of the stuff, complete with deployable shields, allowing Kara to protect the innocent civilians while keeping the collateral damage to a minimum.
Clearly, Reactron hadn’t anticipated her to come equipped with the one thing that could stop him, and he tried to flee once more, but a rather impressive burst of heat vision fried the jets on one of his boots and sent him spiraling through the air and providing an opening that Kara was quick to take advantage of. Supergirl had then pursued him into the air, where she destroyed his other boot before hurling him to the ground outside. Moments later, Kara had removed the thorium core from the suit, pressing another button on her glove that caused it to unfold around the core and prevent any leaking.
Clearly, Kara’s training with El was paying off, and Alex couldn’t have been more proud as several DEO agents rolled up, ready to take Reactron into custody. Unfortunately, the NCPD beat them to the punch and she had watched the news footage as her sister spoke with a small, dark haired woman bearing a detective’s badge on her hip.
“I guess you really could handle it on your own,” Alex admitted later that night when they were relaxing in Kara’s apartment.
“Only because El introduced me to some people ahead of time that were able to help me,” Kara said, shoving a potsticker in her mouth.
“So that detective you were all buddy-buddy with?” Alex asked. “That’s someone we would have met in the future?”
Kara shrugged. “I guess. El didn’t really explain anything, she just brought me to this secret alien hideout where we met Detective Sawyer -”
“Hold on. Alien hideout?” Alex repeated. “What do you mean alien hideout?”
“I guess there are more aliens living in the city than we thought,” Kara replied. “There’s this whole underground community of them.”
“Kara!” Alex exclaimed. “How could you not tell us? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
“Come on, Alex,” Kara said dismissively. “If it were that dangerous, do you really think El would bring me there?”
“I guess not,” Alex conceded, though she was going to have Vasquez look into that matter later. “Where is she, anyway?”
“Dunno,” Kara mumbled around another mouthful of food. “She told me she was going out. I thought she would be back by now, though.”
“Future you is kind of a pain,” Alex said grumpily. “The woman never sleeps! She completely took over one of my labs, stole, like, five different computers, and has hacked into at least three different government databases, not counting whatever she did to get access to the DEO’s as well.”
“Wow!” Kara exclaimed. “That’s pretty impressive.”
“Especially considering your computer skills don’t extend beyond making spreadsheets,” Alex added only to yelp when she got hit in the face with a pillow.
“I was doing differential calculus by the time I was five,” Kara reminded her sourly. “Build me a halfway decent quantum computer with a programming UI that makes sense and I’ll show you my computer skills.”
“You’re right,” Alex said. “I’m sorry.”
“Just for that, I’m taking the last potsticker,” Kara declared, grabbing the dumpling with her chopsticks and shoving it in her mouth.
“What? Oh, Kara, come on, I’ve only had, like, four of them!”
They had just finished their first episode of Homeland when El floated through Kara’s open window, her hair ruffled and her posture relaxed.
“Hey, El!” Kara chirped. “How was your night?”
“Not bad,” El replied, gliding towards Kara’s kitchen where she helped herself to a tub of ice cream. “Congratulations on taking down Krull, by the way. I heard he’s been successfully moved to police custody without any injuries and minimal damage.”
Kara grinned, her cheeks flushing slightly. “Thanks!”
“Where were you?” Alex asked, moving aside as her sister from the future joined them on the couch.
“Just flying along the coastline,” El replied. “Ended up helping Wonder Woman stop a robbery in Gateway City, so that was fun.”
Alex choked on her own ice cream while Kara practically started to vibrate next to her.
“You met Wonder Woman?!” Kara screeched.
“I did,” El replied.
“That’s so cool!” Alex gushed.
“She’s a role model to pretty much every woman in the world,” Kara said.
“Not to mention a total badass!” Alex added. “Half the reason I learned how to use a sword was because I saw footage of her fighting that weird robot bird lady last year.”
“Oh, I’m so jealous,” Kara grumbled.
“You’ll probably get your chance to meet her too,” El said indulgently. “I offered to help her with her investigation, so we’ll probably be seeing more of each other.”
“Do you need any help?” Alex asked excitedly.
“Pretty sure looking up a very human criminal falls outside the DEO’s jurisdiction,” El teased.
“We… might be thinking about bending the rules when it comes to Supergirl matters,” Alex admitted.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” El said. “Astra still needs time to get her plans in order, so we can afford to focus on other things while Kara keeps the city safe.”
“What?” Kara squawked. “But I wanna work with Wonder Woman too!”
El chuckled and shook her head. “You will,” she reassured. “After all, I’m sure she’d be happy to train with you in return for my help.”
Kara deflated and whined.
“Ha!” Alex crowed. “Wonder Woman’s going to kick your ass. Oh, I can’t wait to see it.”
“I can melt your face,” Kara said flatly, glaring at her. Alex stuck out her tongue and pressed herself against El.
“Let her have this, Kara,” El said. “You can rat her out when Eliza gets here in a few days.”
Alex froze as she suddenly realised the date. Thanksgiving was next weekend, meaning her mother was coming to visit. Her mother, who would not only be ready to scold her for letting Kara put on the cape, but who they still hadn’t told that an older, post-apocalyptic Kara had also come back in time.
“I think I’d rather the face melting, please.”