XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Day One on Earth ? (Continued)

Kara stared at Harrison Wells blankly, trying to get her brain to restart, but there was no progress on that front. Help conceive a child? Why on earth would she want to have a baby with someone that she had just met?

Fortunately, it seemed that Bartholomew was just as surprised as her, but he handled it a little differently. "Wha-? No! Damnit, Wells, that's not what we're here for! Why on Earth…?" He spluttered. Part of Kara was amused seeing the previously unflappable man act just like her Barry, but the rest of her was still wrapped up in processing Wells' words.

The scientist's brow furrowed as he stared at the vial that Kara had dropped. "You're not here for that?" He muttered, seemingly to himself. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large tablet that was far too big for the pocket it had come from, picking away at the keys while ignoring Kara and Bartholomew.

"Uh…is this normal?" Kara's mouth said.

"The ignoring us, yes. The unwanted medical advice…decidedly not." Bartholomew responded, not meeting her eyes. Kara's eyes drifted down to the vial that she had dropped and bent down to pick it up. The container wasn't damaged, and the viscous liquid within was still bubbling in a disturbing manner. She wondered what was within it.

"No, that's not right…" Wells muttered aloud, glaring at the screen. "Something must be wrong…" Nodding decisively, he tucked his tablet into his too-small-pockets and strode off into the workshop, quickly taking a turn and disappearing from sight.

Kara, remembering the headache she had gotten from the insane architecture of the place earlier, didn't reactivate her x-ray vision to track him, but she still followed the man, tucking the vial into the pocket of her stolen clothing. This man was going to help her find Barry, and then she would get out of this weird dimension.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh…." Barry's mouth let out. His hand was still clenched within Kara El's grasp, and he didn't make any effort to move it. Kara El's strength far outweighed his own, after all. "What?"

Kara El's eyes were averted from Barry's face, and her face was slowly turning a very fine shade of pink. Despite that, she spoke clearly. "I'm asking if you'd be alright with marrying me."

Barry licked his lips as he thought over his words. "Well…no offense, but we've just met today." He said, trying to be delicate. "Why would you want for us to get married?"

Kara El squeezed his hand gently, gentle enough that none of the delicate bones in his hand shattered. Barry appreciated it. Not enough to marry her, but still.

"Well, I don't recognize your House in the least, and your name pretty much indicates that your family is either very young, or very modern. Either way, you probably don't have much influence. However, the House of El has quite a bit of influence, even if you only marry into it by way of their defect daughter."

Kara El's voice was light and didn't waver, but she didn't attempt to disguise the pang of bitterness as she referred to herself as a defect.

"Kara, you're not…" Barry protested.

"Bar, there's no point in pretending otherwise. But that's actually part of why I bring this up; if I were to marry into the House of Zar as my mother wants, it would be clear that House Zar would be doing it as a favor. It would lower our standing, admitting that we need a favor from them. However, if you and I get married, everyone will know it's because of our shared…quirk. That wouldn't be judged nearly as much as us 'accepting charity' from the House of Zar."

Wow. All of this talk of political marriages was really giving Barry some Game of Thrones vibes. And from her perspective, he could see why it would work. His House (nonexistent though it may be) would gain influence, while the House of El would, at the very least, not lose out too much, and apparently trying to get Kara El married was a losing battle.

This was a bad situation. Barry couldn't accept of course. Both because he didn't love her, and because he wasn't even from this universe, so his 'House' wouldn't gain anything from the situation. But how to go about declining without offending her….

"Ah, I'm sorry, Kara…" Barry said finally. "You're right, my House is pretty new, and I tend to have some…human idea about marriage. I'd rather marry for love."

"No, that's the genius of it!" Kara El said, her eyes darting to his, a smile coming to her face. "Most couples that grow to love each other tend to have something important in common, and we definitely have that. Besides…"

The woman cleared her throat and looked away. Her flush had spread from her face and made its way down her neck. "I…I think that I could grow to love you fairly easily."

Heat flooded to Barry's face at the rather blunt proclamation. "Ah, well, thank you." He said, his voice formal. "But, I kind of…have somebody."

Technically not untrue, although his words made it seem like his situation was more concrete than it actually was. Kara Danvers was 'somebody' to him, but calling them anything more than roommates/partners/friends was something that he needed to discuss with her.

"Oh." Kara El's hand untangled from his. She cleared her throat. "I, uh, wish you'd have mentioned that earlier."

Barry didn't know if there were stop lights in this dimension, but if there were, then Kara El would have borne quite a resemblance to one.

"To be honest, it was fairly recent." Barry admitted, trying to disperse some of the embarrassment. "In fact-" He was getting ready to tell an amusing story when Kelex floated back into the room, unprompted by Kara El's commands.

"Ma'am, an emergency signal has been sent out by some members of the Science Guild." The Kelex said politely. "A mysterious energy signal appeared and disappeared two hours ago. It was recorded and sent to my scanners."

Barry tensed, and got ready to phase. He had a feeling what that energy signal had been.

"So?" Kara El asked, her face regaining its normal pallor. "If there's any of the signature here, just take care of it."

"I would, but, as your mother often tells me, it is polite to tell your guests if they're leaking large amounts of radiation before calling the authorities. Especially considering that, while the radiation does not appear harmful to Kryptonians in the short term, they were unable to determine what the long-term effects would be on a human."

Barry watched as the words impacted Kara El's ears, entered her brain, and she truly registered them. She turned away from her robotic servant and towards Barry. "You're…human?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Even having glimpsed the lab's exterior, Kara quickly got lost within the sprawling underground(?) structure. She was mostly sure that she had already passed the giant monkey robot at least twice, despite having only gone in a straight line. She had lost track of both Bartholomew and Wells a while ago, and didn't have any way to find them.

Sighing, Kara let the mental blocks that inhibited her senses go. The subtle sounds of electricity and metallic ticking within each and every one of Well's inventions crested into a large wave, but Kara pushed through them. Wells may have rendered himself immune to her smell and augmented sight, but he still had to interact with the physical world around him.

Clickclackclikityclackclackclack

A grin grew on Kara's face as she reoriented her footsteps towards the sound of the keys being pressed and, as time progressed, quiet curses. Despite the fact that there was no way that she could've moved in a straight line given all the right angles and twisting corridors, the moment that Kara had homed in on the sounds of Well's activity she stopped seeing signs of walking in circles.

Clickclackclikityclackclackclack

"Goddamnit, why isn't this….? I know that all of the local variables are accurate…maybe some of my information was wrong? No, that would've thrown the whole model off. Come on Wells, you knew that. The issue has to be internal…."

Harrison Wells seemed completely oblivious to Kara's presence as she walked into a new room, hunched over a large, sleek pedestal, staring at a screen with information blitzing across the screen in some sort of elaborate code.

The room was much different than the others that Kara had walked through in her journey through Well's lab. Despite the clear genius of everything that she had seen so far, what had characterized the working space of Harrison Wells so far had been chaos. Inventions were strewn about the room, either completed and gathering dust, or salvaged for parts and spilling its guts all onto the floor. Kara had nearly resorted to flying in her effort to not crush the various machines underfoot, despite the ease that Wells seemed to have walking around.

This room was different. The harsh luminescence around the work tables had been replaced with a soft green glow coming from hundreds of computers monitors that made up the walls, and she could hear the soft humming of air conditioners in the walls working overtime to keep the machines cool. Kara squinted at the lines of code running across one of the screens, swirling and clicking into different sequences almost like waves.

"Wells? What is all of this?" Kara asked, her voice low. She wasn't sure why, but this room had an almost…holy air about it. A temple devoted to science, engineered by the most brilliant mind of its age.

The man twitched, and he aimed one eye at Kara, the other staying fixed on the screen, his fingers still flying across the keyboard. "Great, she followed me…" He muttered to himself. He turned his eye back to his work and continued to ignore her.

Kara smiled tightly. "You know, I'm well aware of how one can be consumed by their work." She said, raising her voice despite the oddly foreboding feeling it gave her. "Many of my friends sometimes go several days without sleeping when something catches their interest."

She walked over to one of the monitor covered walls, admiring the high-tech computers. Even at a glance, she could tell they were far more advanced than anything the DEO had, and they didn't appear to be mass-productions either, despite baring similar appearances. "A lot of times, their work important. You know, lives in the balance and all that, so I have quite a measure of respect for what they do, and I only interrupt to make sure they don't endanger themselves."

Even though he appeared to be ignoring her, Kara could see out of the corner of her eye that his mouth was forming a thin, irritated line, and he was hitting the keys a bit harder than necessary. She had a feeling he wasn't a man used to being interrupted, and he wasn't all that happy about being disturbed now.

Good.

"The difference here is that I don't know you, Harrison Wells. I don't know what whether or not you're doing is important to the world. In fact, I only know three things about you. First, that you're very intelligent. Second, that you don't like being disturbed. Third, you don't like being disturbed so much that you rigged the entrance to your lab with deadly traps that people could easily stumble upon. That's not the sort of thing that I prize in my friends. So, I would feel significantly less guilt over, say, destroying a bit of your lab to get you to pay attention?"

Kara maintained a pleasant, neutral tone throughout her little speech, but by the end her eyes were filled with light and were leaking destructive energy.

Wells finally took his gaze off of his monitor of choice and glared at her. It was a lopsided staring contest considering that she could literally fire lasers out of her eyes, but he gave it a valiant effort before sighing and breaking eye contact.

"Fine," He muttered. "I get it, you want something, and you need my help to do it. Something that apparently isn't," He aimed a glare at the pedestal he had been typing on, "help with having children. So spit it out so I can get back to work."

Kara smiled sweetly and let the power recede from her eyes. "There we go, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Wells drummed his fingers on the pedestal, looking unimpressed. "Are you going to ask me a question or are you going to try and be cute?"

Her smile faded, and she nodded. She did need to get this done as quickly as possible, after all. Staying here too long and she risked coming into contact with another Kryptonian. "I need your help finding someone…" She started.

Wells made a nose at the back of his throat that sounded like he was going to hack up a hairball. "You tracked me down to play detective for you?" He asked disgustedly. The scientist rolled his eyes and turned back to his pedestal. For a moment Kara thought she would have to threaten his precious tech again. Then…

"Fine. Easy enough. What's this person's name?" Wells grumbled. He made a few keystrokes and several of the monitors became dominated by a slowly spinning picture of the globe, each continent glowing with what Kara could see were thousands of pinpricks of light.

"I assume you're looking for a human? If you were looking for a Kryptonian you could've just stayed on your Sota." With a few more keys, several centers of bright lights died down on the map.

Kara took a moment to stare at the map, realizing what it was. Given how the man was behaving, those lights weren't just towns or cities. Each one was a person, and he could somehow track them from his lab with nothing but a name. The DEO would kill to have something like this.

"Oh, that's the thing. His name is Bartholomew Allen." Kara said finally, pushing down her misgivings about the morality of such a device. She could deal with that, along with his explosive traps, before she left.

The man's erratic movements stilled. "I'm going to hazard a guess and say that it's not the same Bartholomew Allen who brought you here." Wells said slowly.

"No, it's not. The one that I'm looking for probably isn't on your computer. Not unless it knows to account for people popping in from another dimension."

The man spun around, and Kara got to see something that few ever got to in any dimension: Harrison Wells shocked. "You…you're from another dimension?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was quite amazing how quickly one could go from speechless to shouting when they didn't have superspeed. Wait, Kara El did have superspeed. Never mind, in that case it was completely understandable.

Kara El shouted something gutturally in Kryptonian and threw something that was probably a vase at Barry, who ducked the projectile easily. The vase shattered against the glass window looking out over the city, it's remains joining the multitude of broken objects at Barry's feet.

He probably should've started running the moment that Kelex had said 'human'. But he still wasn't exactly sure how to get to the ground, and the fact that Kelex hadn't contacted any sort of police gave him an opportunity to convince Kara El not to call them, so he had stayed.

Barry wasn't yet sure whether or not this was a stupid decision. On the upside, she still hadn't ordered Kelex to call the authorities (he thought, she had lapsed completely into Kryptonese several minutes ago). On the downside, her aim was getting better.

"Look, if you just stop throwing things, I'll explain everything. I promise, it'll all make sense." Barry pleaded. He moved his head a few inches to the right, and a plate whizzed past his ear at about a hundred miles per hour.

Kara El was once again flushed, but for a much different reason this time. She stood several feet away from the table, and her hands groped for something else to throw at him. There wasn't anything else, and Barry felt a thrill of victory. He opened his mouth.

"Augh!" He choked out. The Speed Force buzzed through him as he dashed away form the window, where Kelex's metallic form crashed into the Kryptonian glass. Luckily, the robot was more durable, and he began to float again with nary a dent.

"You threw your robot at me?" Barry got out, gaping at the woman in disbelief.

"I do believe that is an accurate summary of what occurred." Kelex agreed. His voice was as emotionless as normal, and yet Barry thought the robot seemed a bit miffed. "You have displayed a bizarre and possibly harmful method of hypermobility. Do you wish for me to call the Kryptonian House of your employers for consultation on this?"

Barry kept one eye on Kara El as he answered. "No, don't do that. Everything is under control." He ordered.

"Nevertheless, I must advise you contact your House about this development, especially as it might relate to the odd energy signal on you, otherwise I must report it directly to the heads of the Science Guild." Kelex stated blandly.

Kara El let out a low noise from the back of her throat, and electricity flickered across Barry's form in case she decided to start throwing things.

"Kelex, Execute Order 78-B-4." The Kryptonian finally ground out, her words burred with Kryptonese as well as anger.

The lights on the robot's 'head' blinked twice, and Barry heard an audible whir from the normally silently efficient machine. "Order understood. Purge in progress."

Purge was not a word that meant good things for Barry's help, but before he began to pull on more speed the robot suddenly swayed drunkenly and then perked up. "Hello, Madam Kara. Hello, guest." The robot greeted. "Would either of you like some food?"

"Food would be lovely." Kara said, her voice forcefully calm. "Please leave my guest and I alone until the food is prepared."

Kelex dipped his head and floated silently out of the room. Barry and Kara El watched the metallic servant leave before the Kryptonian crossed the room and pressed her thumb to a pattern inscribed on the doorway. Without a sound, a metal covering slid down over all the doors, as well as over the window.

Soft yellow light welled up in the room, even though Barry couldn't see where it was coming from. Kara El calmly walked over to the table and re-took her place at the table. She looked over at him, and her eyes were calm and cold.

"Ah….I guess this means that you'll listen to me?" Barry asked, a nervous smile on his face.

"Yes, I'll listen to you. As for whether or not I'll contact the Heads afterwards depends entirely on what you say." Kara El said stoically. It was hard to believe that this same woman had been proposing to him just a few minutes ago.

Barry eyed the shattered paraphernalia piled around his feet, and within seconds it was cleared away and Barry was sitting in his chair once again. There was no hand-holding this time.

"So, is Bar even your real name?" Kara El immediately asked, appearing unsurprised by his spontaneous cleaning and superspeed.

Barry struggled not to smile. He had a feeling she wouldn't find this as funny as he would. "Actually, when I told you my name I was telling the truth. 'Barry', one word. Barry Allen." He got the urge to stick out his hand to go with the introduction but held back. He was rather fond of his hand.

"Barry Allen…" Kara El tried out the word. Her nose wrinkled. "Well, that's definitely a human name."

The speedster resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Great. His Kara was racist against Daxamites, and Kara El was racist against humans.

….On the upside, that would be great blackmail material. The corner of his mouth turned upwards as he imagined Kara spluttering and defending herself like she did whenever he managed to get a rise out of her.

Unfortunately, Kara El caught it, and her expression turned frosty. "Is there something amusing to you, Barry Allen?" Her tone indicated that if the answer was 'yes' that he would be receiving heat vision to the face.

Barry got his face under control and shook his head. "Sorry, I was just recalling something." He winced even as he said it, and Kara El looked thoroughly unimpressed. She crossed her arms and glared across the table at him.

"You have five minutes to explain. If you don't, I will tell Kelex to call the heads, and you won't be able to escape." She smiled at him. "And trust me; no human has ever managed to escape Mal Sota."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harrison Wells was surprisingly fast for a human without powers or any apparent athletic ability. In the space of a second, he was out of the room. "Follow me if you want to find your friend!" He called over his shoulder.

Kara followed, curious. This was…an odd reaction. What was he up to?

Wells was full out sprinting when Kara exited into the hallway, and Kara followed behind as he took multiple left and right turns. Her curiosity grew as the minutes ticked on, but with it grew a faint tickle of suspicion. This man clearly had considered what to do if a Kryptonian came to his lab given his protection against her super senses. What if he was taking her to a room that was filled to the brim with Kryptonite?

But Kara pressed on anyway. If Wells wanted to turn on her, he would have. She was in his lair, there were probably more traps than computers in here.

…Still, a little reassurance wouldn't hurt. "Hey, Wells!" She called. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to the White Room." The man barked, turning another corner.

"That doesn't explain anything." Kara said, making sure Wells could hear her as she rounded the same corner. Oddly, they hadn't come across any other rooms since they had run out, despite the fact that such a thing should've been impossible.

Wells grunted, and he actually turned around to throw a glare over his shoulder at her. "People from different dimensions have different… 'frequencies', so to speak. I've theorized about the effects it could have on nearby technology, and the worst-case scenario is total disruption of surrounding machinery, depending on how out of sync your frequency is with this dimension. Nothing has happened yet, but I'd rather not test Murphy's Law right now, which is why we're also taking a roundabout way to avoid your presence tampering with anything too sensitive. Happy?"

….Huh. Wait a minute…Snapper Carr had been constantly updating the populace on a myriad of explanations for all of the cellular dead zones that had been appearing around the city, and Winn had occasionally complained that things would short out around the DEO. Those must have been caused by Barry! And now she could cause similar, if not worse things to happen here.

"That makes sense." She said slowly. "So, your 'White Room' doesn't have any technology for me to disrupt?"

"Not exactly." Wells admitted. "It's a room that I use to run physical tests on organic matter, for the most part. However, it is also one of the few rooms in my lab that isn't being spacially warped."

Spacial warping? "Wait, so the reason that this lab is so confusing is that you're folding space in on itself? Like a pocket dimension?" Asked Kara, feeling a shot of terror as she realized what he was saying. If her presence interfered with whatever was maintaining this pocket dimension, it could collapse in on itself with them inside. She was genuinely unsure whether or not she could survive such a thing.

Wells scoffed. "Nothing so pedestrian. Creating a pocket dimension is as simple as flying a kite if you know what you're doing." He paused for a moment. "Which, unfortunately, means that if my lab is forcefully re-aligned with normal space-time, we will definitely die, given how much more mass will suddenly occupy a much smaller space."

Both of them sped up, and within seconds Kara was at the man's side as they continued running throughout the facility.

"Seems like you should've planned for something like this." Kara noted. "Given how paranoid you seem to be." She probably should've been politer, but she wasn't in the mood.

Wells let out a wet, thick cough that Kara realized was probably a laugh. "Girl, you cannot fathom the depths of my paranoia."

Kara was unimpressed. "I know a woman that, within two weeks of a new kind of human appearing on her earth, was able to combat and defeat it within ten seconds."

Wells grunted. He seemed to really like doing that. "…Fine. I calculated the odds of someone being able to access the multiverse and coming to this universe specifically. It was 0.00367%. Even when I presumed over two hundred years of technological advancement starting with how advanced Kryptonians are now, it only rose to 0.00523%...Well, unless they were willing to create a black hole to tear open a hole between dimensions, but such a thing would be catastrophically stupid."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Really? But you have metahumans here. Isn't there one that can breach?"

"I assume by 'breach' you mean open a hole to another dimension. If so, then no." Kara could see the man's face twist in distaste and wondered if Wells had something against metahumans. No, that couldn't be the case, he was on good terms with Bartholomew. Well, as on good a term as one could be with someone like Wells.

Speaking of which…

"Actually, you do have a meta that can open breaches. Bartholomew can technically do it." She said. "And my version of him actually breached the first time completely by accident, so…" She trailed off as Wells came to a complete halt. "Wells? Are we out of the danger zone?"

Wells turned towards her, and his eyes were as sharp. "Have you told anyone else about you being from another dimension? Or that someone with Allen's abilities can do so?"

"No, I haven't. And you didn't answer my question. Are we out of the danger zone?" She asked again, getting the feeling the answer was no. But if he was asking her this instead of moving, he clearly considered it more important than getting pulped by collapsing dimensional pockets.

"No, we're not." He answered bluntly. "Promise me that you won't tell anyone."

Even knowing that promising would be the quickest way to get them moving, Kara felt her suspicion of the man go up. This was, after all, a man who was monitoring all life on this Earth. What if he just wanted to have that information to himself?

Before she could ask another question, Wells interrupted. "The promise I'm asking you to make is to ensure that millions if not billions of people won't die. I will explain after you swear."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think I won't just promise and then break it if I think it convenient?"

Wells snorted. "I know you hero types. Authored a book on how to spot heroes in everyday situations, actually. To put it simply; I'm cynical, not blind. Do you promise to not tell anyone, at least until you understand the full scope of what it means?"

…That was reasonable. Kara nodded, and they began walking swiftly again. "So, are you going to tell me why it would be bad?" She prompted.

"Well, there are two groups of people who you wouldn't want to know about the multiverse being accessible or who it's accessible through. And, of course, it's the two most powerful groups on Earth." Wells snorted. "Well, the difference between the two is considerable, but the Human Alliance still technically comes in second to the Kryptonians."

Kara paused, weighing her words. "It seems like you don't care for the Human Alliance." She said carefully.

"I would like to say that I trust the Human Alliance as much as I trust a monkey with a machine gun, but that would be offensive to monkeys. A monkey might be able to figure out how to use such a dangerous weapon, but if it did it probably wouldn't try to use it to find a way to use it burn down it's banana supply and shoot all of it's fellow monkeys in the face."

Well's explanation was…disconcerting. Both because of the odd mental image, and due to him comparing other humans to monkeys. That sounded almost like something Maxwell Lord would say, or anyone else who considered themselves above normal humanity.

"And would you consider yourself able to handle this power if you had it?" She probed.

Wells waved a hand. "It's only a matter of time before I crack dimensional travel, which in and of itself is much less dangerous than most of the things I have in my lab."

Kara's eyebrows shot up as questions popped into her head. "Wow. So…several things. First, I thought you said that it was only a fraction of a percent that someone could learn how to breach even if they're smarter than Kryptonians. Second, if it's not that dangerous why don't you want anyone to know it?"

Wells gave a long, weary sigh, like a tired uncle watching his infant niece pretending to do taxes. "I won't pretend to be humble, that's not among my many virtues, but I am very aware of how intelligent I am. I was smarter at the age of twelve than most Kryptonians will be in their entire lives. Multiverse travel simply doesn't interest me."

He turned and eyed her seriously. "And even if I did, I would never reveal it to the Human Alliance. Their whole goal is 'betterment of the human race'." His face twisted into a sneer underneath his scraggly beard. "Which they've done by conquering whatever pockets of humanity remained after the Kryptonians came. If they found out that Allen could breach to other Earths, they would order him to bring their armies there. They would raid other worlds for their resources and then disappear, leaving it in disarray."

Kara frowned. "And he would do it." She muttered. "He would breach them there anyway, wouldn't he?"

Wells dipped his head in a nod. "He would. Bartholomew Allen is a good man, but he tends to not think about the consequences of his actions."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So…you're telling me that you're from another Earth?" Kara El asked. Her tone was carefully controlled, but hints of incredulity leaked through.

Barry arched an eyebrow. "That's pretty much the first thing I told you, yes." He had given the woman a brief run down of his situation, from being given his powers to travelling to National City and finally coming into whatever this dimension is. He hadn't gone into much detail about his adventures as the Flash, or what he had gotten into, just going over things in broad strokes. He excluded any mention of time travel, as dimension travel was already messy enough. He also declined to mention that his partner Supergirl was in fact the doppelganger of Kara El because…well, he was already on thin ice and that didn't seem like it would help.

Kara El frowned and swirled around the dark liquid in her crystalline cup without drinking anything. At some point she had made Kelex go get it for her, though Barry had noticed that she didn't ask if he wanted anything. "I suppose it would explain why you're bleeding that odd energy signal that Kelex was given…" She muttered, mostly to herself. Then her eyes sharpened. "So, from what you've said I'm guessing that there aren't any Kryptonians on your Earth or your partners'?"

"What makes you think that?" Barry asked, trying to keep any hesitancy or discomfort out of his voice. He had avoided that topic, because finding out that you were dead in two other universes was probably not a comforting thought.

The Kryptonian woman scoffed and took a sip from her goblet. "Please, Barry, I'm not an idiot. The event that gave you your powers and the one that opened the breach that sent you here are the exact reasons that we don't experiment with dark matter. That sort of stupidity could easily lead to the destruction of the entire planet."

Before Barry could roll his eyes over the irony of a Kryptonian calling out someone else on unsafe scientific procedures, the full weight of her words slammed into him. "Oh no…" He breathed.

Kara El gave him an odd look that quickly became concerned. "What?" She demanded. "What's wrong?"

"The breaches and dark matter…" Barry cursed, his hands curling into fists. "I didn't even think that it might've been a particle accelerator explosion. I had just assumed…" He trailed off, shaking his head. Normally he just saved people and they figured out what exactly went wrong later, but he had been too busy to think about it.

He could see it now. Metahumans back on Earth 1 had stayed in hiding for various reasons, both to get a handle on their abilities and because they were frightened, not knowing what they were. Those were some of the only reasons metahumans weren't ruling the world when Barry had woken up from his coma.

However, Earth 38 had been inoculated to supernatural events thanks to all of the aliens running about. Any metahumans that resulted from the Explosion on Earth 38 would know that there were others with powers. However, they would also know that Supergirl and the Flash would stop them.

Except Supergirl and the Flash were gone. Hell, if Barry's math was correct, only a few minutes had passed on Earth 1 in all the months he had spent on Earth 38. If the time dilation between this place and Earth 38 was anything like that, years could've already passed with only the DEO to stand between National City and the upcoming tide of metas.

"Calm down, Barry. Calm down." He told himself, not caring if Kara El heard him. He and Kara were gone, sure, but Clark and J'onn were still there, not to mention Artemis and Alex…and Winn, he supposed. They could take care of things, and there was no reason to assume that the time dilation was as dramatic as the one between Earths 1 and 38. After all, time ran on a 1:1 basis between Earths 1 and 2, perhaps this was the same.

…Still, there was no reason to take that gamble. He needed to find Kara as soon as possible and open a breach back home.

Huh. When had he started thinking of Earth 38 as home?

"You want to tell me what that was all about?" Kara El asked, clearly not amused by his silence.

"Hm?" Reality came back to him, and Barry remembered that he was currently trying to convince this woman to not call the Kryptonian version of the cops on him. Suddenly panicking and then going silent was not a good way to do it. "Oh, sorry. I just realized that, if it was another Particle Accelerator Explosion, National City is going to have a bunch of new problems to deal with, and I'd like to be there to deal with them."

"And you need to find your partner to do that." Kara El drummed her fingers against her glass, making the same expression that his Kara did when she was deep in thought. "This…Supergirl."

"I don't suppose you could help me find her, could you?" Barry asked hesitantly.

Cold blue eyes turned to him, fixing him in place. "The only reason that you haven't been found and brought to the Heads of the Science Guild is because I mistook you for a Kryptonian." She calmly. "It is highly unlikely that the same would happen to your friend."

That's what you think… Barry thought. But he kept his mouth closed. Kara El did not seem very happy at the moment.

"Of course, if she landed on one of the other Sotas, her presence would've been reported, and Kelex likely would've announced it. However, if the breaches have equal chance of appearing anywhere on Earth, it is incredibly unlikely that she would land here. It is far more likely that she would be dropped over an ocean somewhere. Could she survive that and make her way to shore?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she could handle it." Bad Barry, he chastised himself. No sarcasm.

Kara El hummed in contemplation, narrowing her eyes. "Supposing that she is at some unspecified, randomized point on Earth, the only way I could think to find her would be to scan for someplace with the same sort of energy you have."

Barry jolted up. "Could we do that?"

A sneer twisted Kara El's face. "Yes, Barry Allen, let me just invent a machine on the fly that can scan the entire Earth to find the companion of someone who is currently being searched for by the Science Guild who, by the way, would have the authority to exile me if I were found harboring you when it is unclear whether or not you pose a threat to Kryptonian society."

Lightning filled Barry's veins as he prepared himself to move. Kara El sighed and drained the rest of her glass, setting it on the table with a sharp clink. "Luckily," She continued. "My father already invented such a machine. Kelex!"

The egg-headed robot floated into the room. "Yes, Ma'am?"

"We're going to my father's lab. Sent a copy of the energy signature to his computer." She rose and sauntered over to the door, shooting a look over at Barry and arching an eyebrow. "Coming?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The White Room was well named. The walls were white, the floor and ceiling were white, and all of the various machinery was white as well.

"So are all of your rooms named like this? Is the place we entered the Mess Room or something?" Kara asked, looking at one of the pieces of equipment and trying to figure out what it was. Her finger inched towards it…

"Don't touch that." Wells snapped. "Rule Number One: don't mess with scientific equipment if you don't know what it does."

"I really don't think I have to worry about being hurt by anything in here." Kara pointed out. "I'm pretty much invulnerable."

Wells rolled his eyes as he strolled about the lab, snatching various implements and going over to a larger machine that looked like a large white chair. "I'm more worried about what you'll do to them. I don't want to have to rebuild anything after having visitors."

Kara hummed, crossing her arms and getting down to business. "So, are you going to help me find my friend? Your machine didn't seem to do much."

Wells waved a hand dismissively. "I already punched in the orders to search for him. We'll have his location by the end of the day." His words weren't confident, but simply matter of fact.

Kara raised an eyebrow. "And is that gong to happen? You don't strike me as the kind of guy who has many allies in the Human Alliance, and what if he's on one of the Sotas?"

The scientist tapped something into his machine and she heard a gentle whir as it came to life. "Then it's a good thing I don't have to rely on people, isn't it?" He asked. "All I had to do is send out an order to all of the computers, cameras and such to scan for someone with a 90% similarity to Allen and then compare them to my previously established database. It'll take longer than I'd like, but it'll work."

It was how casually he said it that really hit Kara. The ability to find someone that quickly anywhere on Earth and say it so calmly…

"What if he wasn't dropped somewhere near other people? Places where there are computers?" She asked, suddenly worried. Barry could run on water, yes, but he needed to build up speed to do it, and if he was dropped somewhere over the Atlantic would he be able to get to dry land?

"Not an issue. Kryptonians have extensive monitoring in most oceans to make sure that the Atlanteans aren't up to anything, and places like volcanoes are always kept an eye on. If your version of Allen has any sense and isn't killed on arrival he'll find his way to civilization and then we'll have him." He said.

Had she been drinking anything at the moment, Kara was sure it would've come spewing out of her nose. "Wait, Atlanteans? You have those here?"

He grunted. "You probably have them on your Earth too and just haven't found each other." He said. "And yes, there are. They say they don't care whether Kryptonians or humans rule the surface, but the Kryptonians are nothing if not thorough." He gestured to the white chair. "Take a seat."

Kara eyed the contraption, and even if she was in a place without dimensional folding, she didn't want to risk using x-ray vision to divine its internal workings. "What will it do?"

"It will…how to put this…scan you." He said sardonically, wiggling his fingers menacingly. "Just do it. I'm tracking down your friend and I made you that medicine. All I want to do is see how you differ from your counterpart on this Earth."

"The medicine didn't count, I don't need that." Kara countered, not moving towards the chair. She still had it tucked away in her pocket, but that was more so that no one would trip on it than so that she could use it.

Wells sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just indulge me, you won't feel a thing. Besides, if your friend is your universe's version of Allen, you'll probably end up using it anyway."

Kara glared at the man, but he seemed unaffected. Well, it wouldn't hurt, and she wondered if there really was a difference between her and the average Kryptonian. Normally she would question whether or not his machine could even do so considering the DEO's inability to do the same, but she wouldn't be surprised at all.

She moved over to sit down on the chair, which was pleasantly warm to the touch, and Wells went to work clicking on a computer attached to it, eying the results. "Why did you think that Bartholomew needed that?"

"What?" Wells asked distractedly, his eyes still fixed on the screen.

"Why did you have this medicine prepared when we got here?" Kara's hand dipped into her pocket and pulled out the vial…which was still bubbling. "And what would it even do? Specifically, I mean. I know the…desired result."

"From my data, there was a 54.7333% chance that Allen would meet, fall in love with, and attempt to have children with a Kryptonian within the span of the next three years. They would find out that metahumans and Kryptonians couldn't have children and would come to me to find a solution, so I figured I'd go ahead and whip it up ahead of time."

Shifting uncomfortably on the chair, Kara eyed the scientist. "And why exactly were you running calculations on your friend's love life?" That was legitimately creepy.

"Not my friend." Wells mumbled. "And I didn't look into it specifically. At all times I'm running a simulation of what will happen in the near future, which is fairly accurate at this point. My computers alert me to anything that will occur that requires my direct intervention."

"You can predict the future?" Kara blurt out, sitting up from the chair and only lowering herself back down after Wells glared at her.

"I can't 'predict the future'. However, because of my monitoring system, I can build a simulation nearly identical to reality populated with close approximations of various people to see how they'll react. It's one of my few longstanding projects that still is imperfect, which isn't helped by you and your friend being completely unaccountable variables."

"Yeah, so sorry about that." Kara rolled her eyes and absently returned the vial to her pocket. She'd give it to Bartholomew later, because apparently, he'd need it.

"Hm…." Wells grumbled, poking at the screen with a frown. "You, girl, are quite the fascinating specimen."

"You're really not doing anything to counteract the creepy scientist vibe you put off, are you?" Kara snarked.

"To do so would be a pointless effort. Tell me, do you engage in any sort of strenuous exercise?" Wells probed suddenly.

"Ah, yes. Lots of punching bad girls. And guys. And occasionally aliens who are both." Kara recalled. There were actually lots of alien species who were primarily hermaphrodites or who could switch sexes as the situation required. According to some DEO agents, learning that had been one of their least favorite lessons on aliens. "Oh, and I do quite a bit of martial arts."

The scientist grunted in what was probably dissatisfaction (though it could've also been hunger). "Well, that alone doesn't account for your increased muscle density and the strength of your gravity field."

"The strength of my what now?" Kara asked. "I get muscle density; doesn't that just happen as you get stronger?"

Wells turned his gaze from the computer to squint at her. "Don't you understand how your powers work?"

Kara resisted the urge to squirm under the scientist's gaze. She was the Girl of Steel, damnit! "Well, we don't exactly know how it works." She hedged. "We know that my power comes from yellow sunlight and that it gives me all of my powers. It makes me strong, fast. I can fly and heal quickly. My team is less concerned with why my powers happen than how to effectively use them."

"Okay, quick Kryptonian biology 101: your cells metabolize yellow sunlight and produce a variety of effects, the two most important of which are your healing factor and your gravitational field. Your healing factor keeps you in perfect shape and pushes your senses into the superhuman category, but without your gravity field you would only be as fast and strong as…perhaps an Olympic athlete doped to the gills with steroids."

Frowning, Kara tried to feel what Wells was talking about. With almost effortless ease, she rose into the air, maintaining the same position. She didn't feel like she was interfering with gravity. She was just…flying. Was this the same ability that made her so strong?

"Both your healing factor and your field are incredibly stronger than the average Kryptonian…in fact, they're much stronger than all of the Kryptonians in the Military Guild that regularly exercise their abilities." Wells mused, seemingly not noticing her floating in the air. "You don't seem to be taking in more sunlight than any other of your species…"

Kara floated over and looked at the screen, trying to make out the results from her scan on the screen. There was an outline of her body that was glowing a blinding cerulean. As she tried to make it out, Wells clicked through various other results, the words and images practically gibberish to her eyes. They weren't English or Kryptonian, in fact it didn't look like any language that she knew.

Then Well's eyes narrowed as he lingered over a screen that was dedicated to a detailed breakdown of what looked like her cells. "Hello," he murmured. "That can't be good."

She wasn't sure what the scientist was seeing, even as he poured over the results. "Is something wrong?"

"Almost definitely." Wells said pitilessly. "Tell me, have you come into contact with a radioactive substance lately? No wait, this damage is cumulative, it couldn't be from a one time exposure. But what sort of substance could affect you despite your healing factor?"

The man actually seemed baffled, and Kara felt a sudden sinking in her gut as she realized what the most likely candidate for what he was talking about. "Kryptonite." She breathed.

Wells blinked up at her, seemingly only now noticing her flying above him. "What? What was that you said?"

She let out a low sigh. "Kryptonite. It's basically poison to Kryptonians." She explained. "Strips us of our powers when we're near it and causes us pain." Apparently they didn't have that here, good news for the Kryptonians in this dimension.

Returning his eyes back to the screen, Wells hummed as he hunched closer, as if to swallow the information with his eyes. "Kryptonite, eh? Well, Jor El theorizes that bits of your original planet would have some sort of effect on Kryptonians, but neither he nor any humans seem to have found any…good thing too, if it's as bad as you say..."

Hearing Jor El's name was like a punch to the gut. He was alive here. She had known it intellectually, but hearing his name in the present tense was something else. Were her parents alive here?

Fingers dancing on the screen, Wells let out a pleased grunt. Or it could've been an upset one. It was hard to distinguish. "I would recommend avoiding any of this 'Kryptonite' in the future. The damage to your cells isn't extensive, but it looks like your healing factor isn't up to handling it, and if what I'm seeing is correct, the more you're exposed to it, the harsher the effects will be the next time."

"Shit." Kara swore, bringing herself back to the ground. "Shit shit shit!" While she didn't swear often, she felt that the situation was appropriate. "This is not good."

"I gathered that from the extensive cursing." Wells said, not looking over at her. "I'm guessing that avoiding it will be less than easy?"

"Using it is the only way that I can train without holding back." Kara admitted, still internally cursing. The Kryptonite training room had been poisoning her. Alex had assured her that it couldn't do any more than take away her powers at its normal level, but clearly that wasn't true.

Her internal chastisement was interrupted when Wells let out a short, barking laugh. "Good Lord I had forgotten that even Kryptonians can be idiots too." He let out another laugh and pulled out his handheld computer, tapping on it absently.

Gritting her teeth but trying to hold her composure, Kara refused to let lose another flurry of curses. She was a superhero, not a pirate. "It was the only way that I could train." She explained. As she said it, her determination firmed. The skills that Alex had taught her allowed her to save herself and others on multiple occasions. If she had to be subjected to slow, gradual Kryptonite poisoning to do it, so be it.

"Sure it was." Wells agreed sardonically. "I don't suppose it would've been easier to develop red sunlight emitters so that your cells would stop metabolizing sunlight, would it?"

…

….

….

Kara wanted to punch something. Instead she had to settle for pacing wildly, gesticulating in the air violently as she let out a long string of increasingly improbable anatomical configurations, both in English and in Kryptonese when the English language failed to encompass all of what she needed to convey.

To make things worse, she knew that. Red sunlight had been the way that Artemis had been able to take her down while she was in Gotham, but she had continued training in the Kryptonite room anyway. It hadn't even occurred to her to do otherwise. Even the Human Alliance here had figured it out. Would she even have remembered that if she hadn't just learned about her Kryptonite poisoning?

"Heh. That was almost impressive. I'm just glad you didn't break anything." Wells remarked offhandedly, still pouring over the results of her scan, his brow furrowed. "Maybe the strength of your field is genetic….?"

A sudden beeping cut through the room just as Kara was taking a deep breath to go on another rant, and a little machine slid into the room. It was about waist high and was flashing with various lights. Various metallic limbs jutted out of the top, one of which was holding a silver band.

"Thank you, J.E.S.S.E." Wells said. "Please give our guest her new toy."

J.E.S.S.E chirped happily and scooted over to Kara, waving the circular band in her face. Reflexively she reached out to grab it, and the robot let go of it. "Ah…thank you." She said. Was J.E.S.S.E controlled by an AI or something?

The lights on the machine flashed though a variety of hues and let out another happy-sounding beep, then scooted out the door, leaving Kara to look down at the thin metal device it had given her. It was made of unblemished metal and was probably big enough to go over her head. "So…why did you give this to me?"

Instead of answering, Wells said, "Try putting it on your wrist."

"I'd rather not do that until I know what it is. So, wanna tell me what this thing is?" She held up the large metal hula-hoop and waved it about.

Wells let out a huff. "It's Kryptonian technology, mimics the rays of the red sun, powerful enough to completely shut out your powers. They were invented to help restrain criminals. I figured out how it worked years ago so it's been doing nothing but cluttering up my store room." He turned back to his work, seemingly dismissing her entirely.

If he had wanted to hurt her, he would have already. Still…. "Why exactly would I put on something that is meant to be put on criminals? I still need my powers." She reminded him. "How did you even get this, anyway?"

"God, and here I was forgetting why I isolated myself. All the god damn questions…" Wells muttered. "While I was looking over your scan I keyed you in, it will allow you to take it off whenever you need to. As for how I got it: whenever I get bored with tinkering around here I go steal things from one of the Sotas and reverse engineer it."

She eyed the man with disbelief, then, feeling a little ridiculous, maneuvered the band so that her wrist sat at the center. It was far to big to stay there on its own and she wondered if this was another scanning device.

Then she heard a whiiirrr and the band lit up, red circuitry glowing through the surface of the metal and suddenly it was gone, the band constricting itself until it was perfectly situated on her wrist, the metal warm against her skin.

Kara immediately dug her fingers underneath the newly formed bracelet and pulled. She half expected it to break (it didn't look too tough), but instead it stayed put for all of a second before slipping off effortlessly. She eyed it and saw that it was once again larger, just enough that it could pass over her wrist.

Then, she slid it back into position and tried to fly. Her feet stayed firmly on the ground. Her focus turned inwards, and she let go of the mental blocks that kept her senses in check. Involuntarily she winced, but there was no flood of information.

"So I can just…keep this?" Kara asked.

Wells snorted. "Sure. Hell, you're the first person to come to me without asking me to invent something for them. Besides, like I said, it was just collecting dust."

Bartholomew walked in on Kara crushing the scientist in a hug. He blinked, looking entirely nonplussed. "What's going on?"

"This girl seems to be under the impression that I gave her a piece of junk and am helping her out of some sort of goodness." Wells spat, his face turning slightly purple.

"And she's…crushing you to do it?" Bartholomew clarified.

"She is right here." Kara reminded him. "He's right, by the way. I've met worse people who turned out to be good. The 'choking' part of the hug is because I remembered halfway through that you have all those explosives in your yard."

A gasping wheeze came from Well's mouth, even as he tried to look unaffected. "Fine, I'll disarm the traps, Jesus, just let go of me!"

Kara did just that, stepping away and beaming. It was good to know that she was still strong even without her powers. Oh, and that no innocent person would wander onto his property and die. That too.

Trying to regain some of his composure, Wells stumbled back over to his computer, sending a pointed look over at Bartholomew. "Did you want something? The girl's problem will be solved within a few hours. I expect you to be gone after that."

Something occurred to her, and she frowned at Wells. "You do know my name, right? You keep calling me 'girl'."

Bartholomew dipped his head in thanks, and both men seemed to agree to ignore her comment. "Thank you, Wells. I knew I could count on you. But actually I'm not here for you right now." He turned to Kara. "I'm here for you. I'll admit, I had more than one reason to help bring you here."

Kara didn't know why, but she was suddenly afraid that he was going to propose. "Want to expound on that?"

The speedster grinned ferally, and suddenly he didn't look very much like her Barry at all. "I want to fight you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Barry had heard Cisco once claim that the more disordered one's lab was, the more genius the owner. If that was so, then Kara El's father was the dumbest person on Earth.

Every surface gleamed as if expertly polished, and everything was labelled and methodically placed in an aesthetically appealing way. Some of the instruments bore a passing resemblance to ones Barry recognized, but there was an unholy union between practically every scientific discipline he could think of. There was a large tube that had what looked like a purple monkey fetus floating in green liquid right next to what Barry could see was a robotics station.

"Woooooow." Barry slowly spun in place as Kara El lead him through the lab, just trying to take everything in. He wanted to run around to see everything quicker, but that seemed rude.

"I'm guessing they don't have labs like this in your dimension?" Kara El asked, briskly walking over to one of the work stations where a large monitor dominated most of the table.

"No. Not even close." Barry breathed. Even at a glance it would be easy to tell that this place was decades ahead of STAR Labs. He guessed that if he brought Cisco or Winn here they would disappear into the depths of this place and never return.

Kara El let out a huff of amusement as she brought the computer to life. Symbols that Barry recognized as the written script of Kryptonese. "Well, that's good to know. It would grate on me if humans in your dimension managed to get one up on us."

Barry leaned up against one of the counters as he watched Kara El's fingers dart across the Kryptonian equivalent of a keyboard. He shouldn't push. His position here was tenuous at best, and he wasn't exactly sure why Kara El had decided to help him. But he couldn't stop himself from finally saying, "Do you hate humans?"

Kara El looked over at him, one hand going to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear even as her other hand continued typing. "No! Why would you think that?" Her expression seemed both genuinely puzzled and offended.

"Well, you just don't seem to think very highly of them is all." Barry explained, trying to not sound confrontational. "Or their traditions."

He didn't really expect Kara El's response to that to be a smile as she turned back to the computer. "Barry, you can be so adorable." She chuckled. "Feeling the impulse to speak well of other humans is very noble I admit, but unnecessary. Humans are just…well, it's hard to take most of them seriously given what we know about them. You should have seen how freaked out they were when we came here."

"I can imagine." Barry said dryly. Humans both on Earth 1 and Earth 38 were obsessed with aliens. If some of them had actually landed there, there would've been a mass freak out.

Kara El hummed, and her smile faded. "Things are better now." She said firmly, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. "For humans, I mean. We saved them from themselves. If we left things as they were…" Her fingers stilled for a moment and then went back to work. "No, Barry, I don't hate humans. But you have to acknowledge that there are many more bad ideas humans have come up with than good."

He wanted to protest that, but he got a little niggling sensation at the back of his mind. "When did Kryptonians land here?" He asked.

"Two hundred and two years ago." Kara El answered immediately. "Why?"

"Just trying to figure something out. And how old are you?"

Barry half anticipated that Kara El would get offended by the question, but instead she calmly answered. "I'll be two hundred and thirty-two years old next month. Why?"

His mind was churning with half formed theories that were slowly solidifying. Kryptonians living as long as Kara El did made a horrible amount of sense; Lar had speculated, and Clark had practically confirmed that Kryptonians could live pretty much indefinitely under the yellow sun. That was something that Barry would have to eventually take up with his Kara.

That was not a conversation he looked forward to having.

But if this world was anywhere close to the same year that Earths 1, 2, and 38, that meant that the Kryptonians would have touched down on Earth in the 1800s, likely the early 1800s at that. No matter what period of humanity you looked at, there were terrible things, but Barry had a bad feeling that the Kryptonians had seen some dark things.

Things like slavery and mass murder. And if all of those Kryptonians who had seen that were still alive today, there would be a healthy disgust of humanity going around in the echelons of Kryptonian society. Kara El would've been in her twenties when she saw all of that.

The computer Kara was working on let out a long beep, and a model of the Earth came on screen, slowly rotating. There was a single blinking light on one side centered over what appeared to be Canada. "Okay, so that's you," Kara El pointed out. "And if Father's satellite is worth a damn, we should get a lock on your partner soon enough."

Shaking himself out of his inner thoughts, Barry studied the readout. "That's incredible. His satellite can scan the entire Earth?"

Kara El grinned proudly. "Damn right it can. It communicate with all of the other Sotas' systems and can command them to help out too. Actually…well, I probably don't need to tell you since you'll be leaving soon, but I should tell you to not mention it to anyone. He kind of didn't get permission to build it."

Barry turned to gape at the woman. "Your dad made a satellite that can scan the entire Earth…secretly?"

Seemingly ignoring him, Kara El buffed her nails on her shirt and admired them haughtily, only looking up to aim a sly grin at Barry. "He may have had some help."

An answering grin grew on Barry's face. "It wouldn't happen to be you now, would it?"

Kara El looked like he perfect picture of innocence despite the wicked grin on her face. "Mayyyyybe."

There was a hiss of air as one of the doors opened, and Barry spun around to see a very familiar woman walk into the room. She looked quite different as flesh and blood as opposed to being a hologram, but there was no mistaking the regal features of Alura Zor-El…or rather, Alura El by the naming conventions of this dimension.

She also did not look very happy. Her eyes swept over the room, barely glancing at Barry before coming to a halt on Kara El. The frown on her face became more pronounced.

Barry shouldn't have said anything. It was a miracle that Kara El had decided not to turn him in, and it was likely that her mother would have no such compunctions. But when he looked over at her, Kara El's eyes were wide, and there were a myriad of complex emotions playing in her eyes.

So Barry took charge. He waved at Alura El and smiled awkwardly. "Hiiiiii."

Alura El's eyes moved to him. "Who are you, and what are you and my daughter doing in here?"

"How did you know that we were in here?" Kara El asked, recapturing her mother's attention. Her face had settled onto a carefully neutral façade.

Alura El scoffed. "Please. Your father may have promised to spend less time up here but I'm not idiot. Kelex monitors whenever someone is in here and sends it to me."

"That's ridiculous!" Kara El protested. "If Father is up here doing something it's because it's important!"

The frown on Alura El's face got deeper, and Barry was suddenly struck by the realization that she didn't look much older than Kara El herself. "Your father needs his sleep. We both know that he overworks himself far too much. A strong body and strong mind does not make one invincible."

Kara El snorted, and crossed her arms, subtly moving herself in front of the monitor showing his Kara's location. "Maybe Father would have less reason to overwork if you came home more often."

Barry tensed the moment those words left Kara El's mouth, and he could feel the quiet tension in the room crystalize, becoming a sudden and unmistakable presence.

Kara El's mother didn't so much as flinch, and she crossed her arms as well. "Maintaining the laws and peace on the Sotas takes much time, as you well know. And even more of my time is spent trying to find an appropriate match for you." Her eyes flickered to Barry. "Something not helped by you cancelling dinners and keeping…undistinguished company." Then she snorted. "And that you insist on keeping that ridiculous haircut."

For such an advanced society, Kryptonians sure could seem….medieval. Barry had seen this movie before, and did not like his role in it considering that he wasn't actually a ruffian with a heart of gold winning the hand of a princess. Plus…seriously, insulting your daughter's hair?

He had seen Kara El flush many times over the course of the day, but now her entire face was turning red, and not in a good way. "Get out." Kara El commanded, her voice hard.

Alura El's eyes glinted dangerously. "Don't act like a child, Kara. You refuse to marry, refuse to join a Guild, refuse to do anything with your life. It can't continue forever."

The air was so thick with anger that Barry was afraid that the two might actually come to blows. Kara El's face was so red that he was almost concerned she would blow a blood vessel, and her hands were clenched at her sides. "I don't suppose you would be so desperate for me to leave home if I weren't a defect?" Her voice was tight, and despite the upturn at the end of the sentence, it was clear it wasn't a question.

Kara El might as well have gone up and slapped her mother. Alura El set her jaw in a way that Barry recognized as something that his Kara did when she was trying not to scream at someone. "I can't believe you would…" She hissed.

"Can't believe what? That I won't marry someone just so that you don't have to pretend like you don't have a daughter? That I won't 'use my skills' in the Science or Arts Guilds? Because we both know that in one I would never come out of Father's shadow, and I seem to recall someone saying that the Arts Guild is nothing more than 'a bunch of Kryptonians who never learned to color inside the lines'."

Barry might as well have been invisible to the two women. It was clear that this had been building for a while, and Barry had no desire to be caught in the middle of it. "You could always follow me into the Religious Guild. Or we could put in a good word and you could run analytics in the Military Guild." Alura El protested, a flush of her own slowly appearing.

Wow, the lawyers here were part of the Religious Guild? Barry wondered what political pundits back on Earth 1 would say about that. In response, Kara El sneered at her mother. "Everyone who transfers into the Military Guild needs to serve time as a soldier, which is a little bit difficult for me because I can't fly, and we both know that being your daughter wouldn't exactly help with a career in the Religious Guild."

Alura El's mouth thinned. "Internal tensions between the Rao and Sol factions are getting better, Kara. We're slowly reasserting the Word of Rao. No one will hold that against you."

"And I don't suppose that the people who believe the Word of Sol have any points whatsoever?" Kara asked, crossing her arms. "I did my reading, Mother. Rao called us to obey his word as long as we were shrouded in his light. I don't know if you recall, but we're a couple hundred lightyears away from it now."

If Kara El's earlier words had been a slap to the face, these were a punch directly to the face, and open shock spread across her face. Her mouth opened and closed several times without any words coming out. Then, she turned around and walked out the door.

The only sound for several seconds was of Kara El taking deep breaths, her color slowly returning to normal. "Well….that got rid of her." She gave Barry a sickly smile. Her hands were trembling.

Not knowing whether it was taboo or not in Kryptonian society but willing to take a risk, Barry but a hand on Kara El's shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it?" He offered.

Kara El leaned into his hand for a moment and then shook it off. "No. It's a Kryptonian thing."

Just as Barry opened his mouth to try and convince her otherwise, the computer with the model of the Earth let out a beep, and Barry saw another dot appear on the model, only about a hundred miles from where his dot sat.

"Looks like we have a read on your partner." Kara El looked over at the computer and tapped on the keys. "I'll upload it to my ship and we'll go see her."

"Ah, you can just drop me on the ground and I'll run on over. If it's easier for you." Barry said quickly.

Kara El rolled her eyes at him. "I've come this far, Barry, I'm going to meet this 'Supergirl'." Without saying anything more to him, she marched out of the lab, leaving the door open for him to trail behind her, silently wondering how a meeting between the two Karas would go.

If it was like anything else in his life, he was betting on 'not well'.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It really shouldn't have surprised Kara that Wells for some reason had a battleground the size of a football stadium in his lab, but it did, especially since it didn't utilize any of his space-folding technology to make smaller to make room for more labs. The walls were solid concrete with miniscule grooves in them that rose to create an uneven terrain. Scorch marks and cracks littered the walls where Wells apparently tested his more destructive weapons.

Bartholomew, or 'the Blur' as he insisted upon being called, was standing a good thirty feet from her, helmet once again donned. That actually helped settle her guilty feelings, not being able to see his face. Artemis's training often involved pitting her two superheroes against each other, which Kara won as often as not, but she knew the Blur's speed was a pittance compared to what she and Barry could manage.

And yet, the Blur had insisted on this fight. In fact, his eagerness had been almost off putting, and he was fidgeting restlessly as Kara scanned the room, taking stock of her surroundings. She had a feeling Alex and Artemis would've been proud of her for that.

Seeing the Blur's impatience, Kara tapped the bracelet that Wells had given her, deactivating the miniature red sunlight generator within as he had shown her. Then, she rose effortlessly into the air. The battlefield's roof was quite high up, and soon the Blur was the size of an action figure.

As she stared down as him, she mused about how her would reach her. Barry had developed a few strategies to do so, but a lot of them required speed that the Blur just didn't have. As she wondered, her hand idly twisted the fabric of the cape behind her. At this point she wasn't surprised at all that Wells had a machine that could generate clothing to her exact specifications. She didn't want to change all of her clothing, instead just having a cape made to help with her flying, though it was a darker color to match the military drags she was dressed in. The cape wasn't Kryptonian like her real one, but it was a comforting presence, nonetheless.

She was so distracted with her thoughts that it took her a precious few milliseconds to register the bolt of lightning headed right for her.

Few things were faster than a lightning bolt, but Kara Danvers was one of them. Reflexes took over, and she dodged to the side, feeling more than seeing the bolt pass by her, the sharp tang of ozone hanging hot in the air.

Unfortunately, that dodge carried her directly into the path of the next bolt sent right on the heels of the last one, and unless her eyes were deceiving her, a veritable thunderstorm's worth of follow up bolts behind it.

Dazzling flashes of light nearly blinded her even as she dodged and weaved through the electrical projectiles, hearing them slam and fizzle into the ceiling behind her. How on Earth was he managing to make this many lightning bolts? Barry had never managed to do that.

Then, one slammed into her. The distinctive nerve pain of electricity searing through her body held her still in the air as the charge raced through her body. Hearing a familiar voice in her head, Kara let herself plummet to the ground.

Almost the moment she made contact, the electricity seemed to flow out of her, the charge becoming grounded by the concrete beneath her. She panted as she looked over at the Blur, who was…right in front of her.

She jerked out of the way of his first punch, then his second. What she didn't expect was the high, sweeping kick, which hit her midsection. Despite being taken off guard, the hit barely registered, more of a tap than anything else.

Come to think of it, even that lightning bolt she had tanked wasn't that powerful. It had hurt, sure, but it had nothing on Livewire's blasts. She didn't want to take any more of them, but it already seemed like there was little the Blur could do to hurt her, especially if she stayed on the ground to give the electricity somewhere to go.

And, although she couldn't see his eyes, Kara bet that Bartholomew probably knew it too. In a blur (ha), he had dashed to the other side of the battlefield, and then was back, and in the second before he made contact he could see how he was braced, one foot on the ground, turning his body to lean into the punch with all his momentum.

Yeah, she had no intention of taking a supersonic punch anytime soon. Almost casually she leaned to the left, letting the punch fly over her shoulder. Internally she sighed. Time to finish this, she supposed.

She punched him, and he flew across the battlefield, slamming into one of the pillars sporadically raised around the battlefield. She quickly used her x-ray vision just to reassure herself that, while his bones were indeed broken, there wasn't a chance of him dying. It was a skill she had gotten very good at, much to Barry's joy considering she was frequently his sparring partner when Lar wasn't available.

"So…we done here?" Kara yelled over to him.

From the broken heap of bones that was this universe's version of Barry Allen, the Blur said something so slurred and nonsensical that Kara couldn't make it out. "I'm taking that as a 'yes'." Kara decided, flying over to grab him.

However, as she neared closer, she saw the man vibrating. Narrowing her eyes, she took a look at his bones and saw them being restored to fighting condition in seconds as the man struggled to his feet.

The Blur ripped off his helmet, his hair slick against his skull with sweat. A wild grin was on his face, and his green eyes were narrowed with anticipation. "Not on your life."

The sound of Kara clapping filled the battlefield. "Very dramatic. Do you get stronger now or something?" She asked, genuinely curious. Had he been holding back or something for dramatic effect?

Eh, whatever. She should probably end this before he started throwing lightning again. She sped down and aimed a right cross for his midsection, the same section she had hit before.

But she hit nothing but air. The Blur's body was only scant centimeters from her fist, but she had missed. Touching down to properly manage her footwork, Kara began lashing out with her fists in attacks that most people would be hard pressed to dodge.

Most people in this situation apparently did not include the Blur. Though the smell of his sweat was heavy in the air, his face was calm, almost bored, as he sidestepped every attack at superspeed. Kara frowned and upped the speed of her attacks to the same level she did when sparring with her Barry, magnitudes faster than what the Blur could manage.

The distance between her fists and her targets shrunk to almost imperceptible levels, but her attacks still didn't land.

That apparently was the signal for the Blur to begin his counterattack. Carried by the momentum of his own dodging, he spun around with his foot aimed for her head. It wouldn't hurt, but months of training with Alex had instilled all of the proper instincts in her, and she ducked underneath, feeling a small thrill of amusement seeing that it would send his foot crashing into one of the many pillars littered about.

That small thrill disappeared when the pillar seemed to disintegrate the moment the Blur's foot came into contact with it, and he spun it back to the ground as he swung a haymaker at her.

Time slowed down as she took note of his fist, blurry in a way that she recognized as him phasing. She knew it was that technique that allowed speedsters to pass through solid matter as if was nothing, and she also knew that, technically, it was possible that it could also allow someone to bypass any and all defenses that were normally presented by extra durable materials such as steel, concrete, or Kryptonian skin.

Kara flung herself into the air, out of the way of his fist, but as she did so his knuckles brushed up against her leg. Her nerves screamed as they were scrambled, rearranged or flat out removed from existence. It wasn't the most painful thing she had ever felt (digging Kryptonite bullets out of her own body kind of gave one a new perspective on pain), it was up there.

She floated in the air, staring down at the speedster as his whole body vibrated and lightning began to dance around his body. "Oh no you don't." She muttered to herself. She took a deep breath, pursed her lips, and an artic gale left her lips headed right for the Blur.

Preoccupied with generating lightning bolts, her ice breath swept over him, coating him and a circle thirty feet around in several inches of ice.

It only lasted a few seconds. Almost as soon as the ice had settled, the ice that was supposed to be his prison was empty, a perfectly hollow ice statue, and the Blur was racing around on the ground, and then there were more lightning bolts for Kara to dodge.

She could see his plan now. Lightning bolts to bring her down, use phasing to inflict damage, and dodge or heal if she began to counterattack. It was an effective strategy to take down a Kryptonian.

Unfortunately for the Blur, he wasn't fighting any normal Kryptonian. She was preoccupied with lightning, yes, but her hands were still free.

A deafening crack filled the battlefield as her hands slammed together, and a ripple of pure force rippled through the air. The ice on the ground cracked, as did some sections of the concrete walls close to her. By the time it had reached the Blur, it was just enough to knock him over, slamming him into the ground. He began struggling to his feet quickly, but Kara was already there.

Two quick jabs, and both of his femurs were cleanly broken, and then she had him in a hold so that he couldn't strike at her with his arms.

"Didn't…" Bartholomew gasped, "Know Kryptonians could do that. No footage of it."

Kara smiled sweetly down at him. "I'm a bit unique. Now, want to tell me why you were aiming potentially lethal blows at me?"

Bartholomew could've refused to answer, but she and he knew that the slightest pressure from her could easily brake his neck, and his legs were broken. "I knew you would dodge it." He got out.

She could feel him vibrate slightly, not to phase but to heal. He probably thought she couldn't detect it, but at the moment she was more interested in answers than anything else. "Even if you guessed it, I still could've decided not to dodge it. Is this why you wanted to spar? You keep killing your sparing partners?"

"No!" Bartholomew protested. He struggled for a moment, but after Kara tightened her grip he just pointed at his head. "Look, my power makes me fast, but its like…an energy source. I can channel it to certain parts of my body, like my fist to make it vibrate, but I normally channel it into my brain. I can run calculations like a supercomputer, make predictive models. It was literally a guarantee that you would dodge. And I wanted to fight you because..."

Huh, that was an interesting skill. She could sort of do the same thing, but it had hard limits. It was more like she could perceive things superhumanly fast, but her thoughts didn't speed up to the same degree. She'd have to recommend that skill to Barry, especially if it allowed him to dodge like that. He still had a bad habit of tanking blows far too powerful for him, because he could always heal later.

"And why did you want to fight me so much?" Kara asked curiously. "It's not a sexism thing, is it?"

Bartholomew shook his head as much as his position allowed. "No, no. I just...fighting other metas is too boring. They're either too slow, or not strong enough. I've wanted to fight a Kryptonian for a long time, but that might reflect badly on the Human Alliance. But if you're leaving soon, then I can at least get in one good match, right?"

Kara could sort of understand what Bartholomew was saying, much to her own surprise. Over the past few months, she had been experiencing a...well, not bloodlust, but whenever she got into a fight with a strong alien, or raced with Barry, or sparred with Alex in the Kryptonite room, she felt a sense of deep, visceral satisfaction at testing her abilities. She couldn't imagine only ever fighting people weaker than her, constantly having to hold back or not fight at all. Interesting...

In the time it took for Bartholomew to explain and for Kara to mull them over, Bartholomew's 'subtle' healing completed, and suddenly Kara's grip was empty.

Kara immediately took to the air. She was confident in her ability to dodge lightning bolts, less so the Blur's phasing attacks. She noticed that he was running around the very edge of the battlefield, where her clap would affect him to the minimum.

So. How to beat someone who could 'run calculations like a supercomputer'? Well, even the best supercomputer couldn't predict everything, as Well's experiment had shown. Throw enough random variables and any predictions could be thrown off.

The Blur veered off course when a flash of blue light cut through the air, drilling a hole in the spot just where his torso had been a moment before. Kara blew out a storm of cold air towards him as she touched down on the ground and grasped a pillar, wrenching it from the ground and throwing it viciously at her opponent, followed closely by another blast of heat vision.

The man was clearly tripped up as he ran around Kara's attacks, dodging the pillars, icy blasts and especially the heat vision, his eyes calculating and narrowed. Then he dodged to the right…but there was nothing there. His head spun around, and Kara was there behind him.

His eyes widened, and Kara barely registered that there was a wild smile on her face as her fist shot forward.

And straight through his chest.

Kara's heart almost stopped in her chest as she saw her fist protruding from the back of the Blur's body. No. No, she hadn't put that much strength into her punch, not even close!

Then she noticed the hazy, indistinct, line of her opponent, and that there was no blood all over. In fact, her arm just felt like it was hanging there in the air. Her eyes moved up, and she saw the Blur grinning as well, victory swelling in his eyes. His vibrating hand moved forward…

Beep! Beep! Beep!

His hand stopped, and the noise made Kara jerk away her hand, out of the Blur's indistinct form. He solidified nearly instantly, and he looked down at the source of the blinking, his wrist computer that was flashing bright red. He looked at it, confused, and then all of the color drained from his face.

"What's wrong?" Kara asked immediately. No one made that face at good news.

His eyes snapped to her. "One of the logicians who observe the Sotas just sent out a APB. He said-"

Bartholomew's words were cut off by a hiss of air as none other than Wells sprinted through the door, his face focused. He spotted them and pointed towards the door, his other hand playing with his computer. Something indistinct hummed in the air, and then the space within the doorway twisted in a way that made her head hurt.

"Get out there!" He shouted, his voice carrying the same whip of authority that Alex and J'onn's voices often carried. Bartholomew immediately moved, darting out the door, and Kara, after a moment's hesitation, followed. If this was something both Wells and Bartholomew considered an emergency, it must be important.

Whatever Wells had done to the door made it deposit her just outside the same house that she had entered earlier that day, and Bartholomew was gone. A moment later, Wells was beside her, closing the door behind them.

"What is happening?" Kara demanded.

"Somehow, almost all of the machines maintaining the gravity fields around Mal Sota failed, as did the backup machines." He handed her a small machine that she recognized as an earpiece. "It's falling, and Mal Sota has a sizeable human population both living on the Sota and on settlements underneath it. If it crashes, they will all die."

Kara's mouth went dry. An entire city was falling out of the sky. "How do I get there?" She demanded. Wells tapped the device in her hand impatiently and she understood, rocketing up in the air even as she slipped the device into her ear.

"Go east, as fast as you can manage." Wells demanded in her ear. She was off, and with Wells barking orders in her ear, the city known as Mal Sota soon came into her view. It was indescribably massive, a behemoth of a city. It was even bigger than Fort Rozz, bigger by a lot. Each second was a heart-pounding eternity as it grew bigger and bigger, but instead of flying into the city, she flew underneath it, engulfing herself in the massive shadow underneath Mal Sota.

The underside of the city was a smooth half sphere of metal that she was sure somehow contained the machinery that allowed the city to float, the same ones that no longer functioned. It took a precious few seconds to locate the exact center of the gargantuan underside, seconds where she keenly felt the massive weight over her head, before her fingers made contact with the smooth, cool metal.

"Girl…if you do this, the damage to your musculature and skeletal structure will be extensive. It might be beyond your healing factor's ability to repair."

Kara let out a huff of both amusement and exertion as she slowly let the overwhelming weight of Mal Sota settle onto her hands and shoulders. It would've been intensely painful just to hold, but the city was still falling, and she needed to stop that first. Pressing up, she began to force the city back into the sky. "Says…you."

"Yes says me, the man who ran your medical scans." Wells said sardonically.

"Not…helping…." Kara grunted. The ground was getting closer, and she could see that there was indeed a sprawling human city underneath the massive Kryptonian one. She was intimately aware of how fast it was falling, but the rate at which it was falling was decreasing…slowly…so slowly….

Every part of her body was screaming at her, and her arms were forced down as they began to shake, and her shoulders began to spasm. She felt like she couldn't get air into her lungs fast enough, but grit her teeth and kept pushing.

Seconds stretched off into infinity as the city's descent slowly…ever so slowly….came to a halt.

Kara's eyes were screwed shut with exertion, but she cracked one open to see that the peak of the highest building on the human city below, a pitiful five story building, was mere feet from her…well, feet.

The hard part was over, in a manner of speaking. Now all she needed to do was move the Sota to an unpopulated area and set it down…without squishing herself underneath. Her muscles twisted and burned, but she began flying sluggishly to the east, away from the human settlement below.

"Hey there! Need some help?"

A faintly familiar voice tickled her ears, and she craned her head to the side to see a muscular man with an insignia like a twisted sword on his chest, floating in the air. He blinked in surprise and squinted at her, as if trying to place her. "Yeah, that would be welcome." Kara got out through grit teeth.

The man nodded affably and let out a high series of whistles, then took up a position close to her, pressing up against it with a grunt. His eyes widened, and he sent an amazed look at Kara, but she was too focused on her flying. The difference his helping made was negligible, but it still helped.

Then, in a flurry of various colors, the glossy metallic bottom of the flying city was covered with Kryptonians. Kara nearly gasped in relief as hundreds of her species helped shouldering the burden, faces twisting with pain.

With their help, soon Mal Sota was clear of its position over the human settlement and was rapidly losing altitude, both because Kara allowed it to and because she could see various Kryptonians bailing out of lifting.

Then, almost between one blink and the next, her feet were planted firmly on the ground, the weight of the entire city boring down on her and the hundreds of other Kryptonians.

"Alright!" She heard someone roar, his words in an almost unfamiliar dialect of Kryptonian. "Everyone move in three…two….one!"

Then, all of the Kryptonians helping her relinquished their hold, and flew out from underneath the city, clearly eager to get out from the almost six-foot-high space between the ground and the massive city. Unfortunately, Kara hadn't known what the man was talking about, and she nearly screamed in pain as the whole weight came back down on her.

God…damnit…She thought, gritting her teeth. There wasn't any other option. Setting her feet, she narrowed her eyes at the spot where the shadow of the enormous city suddenly turned to light. The Sota was several miles across. She would need to cover that distance in a handful of seconds, going from zero to hundreds of miles an hour in a heartbeat.

Despite her gritted teeth, her mouth jerked up in a grim approximation of a smile. She had been trained for this.

Releasing the weight above her felt almost blissful, and in comparison, her body felt light as a feather. But she didn't have time to enjoy the feeling, she was already moving.

Wind whistled by her face, and blood thundered in her ears as she pushed herself to go faster, faster, and some part of her mind irreverently noted that this must be what Barry was already trying to do. She told that portion of her mind to shut up and focus on getting the hell out of there.

The sound of the Kryptonian city slamming into the ground behind her, all the louder by the blinding light that she emerged into. The moment she made the frantic energy that animated her body seemed to vanish, and she barely felt it as she slammed into the ground, burying her in almost a foot of nice, warm dirt.

"This is fine…" She muttered to herself, soil filling her mouth as she mumbled. "The ground is fine…"

The promise of sleep beckoned her, but a grip like iron settled on her shoulder and yanked her out of her dirt nap and to her feet.

The light was nearly blinding, but she squinted through it, and made out a tall, thin man with a large black beard and an insignia that looked like a closed fist. He looked down on her with an unidentifiable mixture of emotions in his eyes.

"You are the one who stopped the descent of the city, yes?" He asked stiffly, awkwardly brushing some dirt off of the shoulder of his cape. She recognized his voice as the one that had shouted orders earlier. He looked…maddeningly familiar.

All around her, Kryptonians were touching down and coming to attention in ordered lines that Kara recognized as the formations of those in the Kryptonian Military Guild. Near the front was the man who had initially helped her, his expression drawn but posture perfect.

"Ah, yes. I am." Kara got out, bringing her attention back to the grim man standing in front of her. He stepped back and put his fist, bowing low enough that his head was level with his waist. There was a shuffling of cloth as the lines of Kryptonians behind him did the same.

The man rose and offered her his hand, shaking it warmly. "You have our thanks, ma'am. I am General Zod, Head of the Military Guild. What is your name?"

It went a long way to communicate just how crazy her day had been that the realization that this man was this universe's version of her cousin's mortal enemy just provoked a long blink as she processed it. Fine…just…whatever.

The man who had helped her stepped forward smartly. "Sir, I have met this woman before and she has shown an urge to join the Military Guild. I put forward a motion to have her actions labeled as her

Kara dimly realized that this man was Zon In, the man that she'd met in the desert. Neat

…Was the world spinning?

Her knees hit the ground, and then she was on her back, laid down gently on the ground by Weird General Zod, whose worried expression blocked out the sun. "Zon In!" He barked. "You say you know this woman. What House do we need to take her to?"

"The House of El, sir. Her name is Karazor El." Zon In immediately said.

Weird General Zod's expression pinched. "The House of El…" He muttered. His face cleared. "I know a place with better healing quarters. The savior of our city deserves nothing less. Contact her House and tell them that she will be recovering in New Kandor."

That was the last thing that Kara Zor-El heard before her brain gave up on being conscious and darkness overtook her vision.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hey hey hey, everyone, time for more adventures in whichever unspecified Earth this is! Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter, especially considering how long it took to get out. Sorry about that, I both had a long college semester and started working on a new fanfic project, Bright Orange. If you're a fan of Naruto, go check it out.

Been going through some stuff over the past few months, and I have been in what some might charitably call a 'spiral'. But I'm getting better thanks to my family, my few friends, and of course my readers.

So yeah, I'm going to try updating more now that I'm getting back on my feet, though I've had more drive to update my Naruto story because it immediately got a bunch of reviews (already got to 200 there! Whooooo!). That said, I had forgotten how much fun this story is and I'm glad to get back into it, especially since I've had this section perkilating in my brain since...damn, the first chapter probably. Next chapter will bring even more fun, looking forward to that.

Anyway, thanks for reading and always remember to FOLLOW, FAVORITE, and REVIEW!