Alex's instincts were honed into protecting her little sister. It didn't matter that her sister was Kryptonian and therefore bulletproof on the planet Earth, it was just instinct that made Alex react when she saw the gun pointed at Kara.

Besides this was no ordinary gun.

They were in the middle of a fight with a group of Fort Rozz aliens who had banded together. The DEO had tracked them to some warehouses at the port. Alex had led her strike team in and things immediately took a hostile turn. Kara had reacted after hearing the shooting on the coms – heading to their location, her concern first and foremost for her sister.

Kara and the leader of the aliens had battled inside, but now they were going to toe-to-toe outside where rain was pouring down in sheets. Thunderstorms had been battering the city for the last 40 minutes with only a short reprieve before another round came through.

The alien punched Kara and she slid back against one of the metal pylons on the dock. Alex, who had followed them out, saw the alien pull out a gun and she went running for her sister while firing her own weapon at it. Kara was in the process of getting to her feet, using the pylon to steady herself, when three things happened nearly simultaneously.

Alex reached her putting herself between Kara and the alien. The alien had already fired its weapon and some sort of energy blast hit Alex, knocking her back against Kara just as lightning struck the metal pylon right where Kara was touching it. The lightning passed through Kara and into Alex and both women were blasted apart from each other.

The alien saw both women on the ground as the other DEO team members came out with their weapons raised so he ran.

Agent Collins was the first to reach Alex and saw that a hole had burned through her protective suit that was covering her chest. He tried to rouse her, but she didn't wake even as another agent called in a medavac. Supergirl was also down on the ground but she was already coming awake.

"Alex," she said, opening her eyes and panicking as she saw the other agents but not Alex. She rolled over, her body aching but her mind only partially recognizing it, as she got to her knees and saw Alex on the ground surrounded by her fellow DEO operatives. She got to her feet with someone's help, even as she felt dizzy, but she made it over to Alex determined to pick her up and fly her to the DEO.

But as she bent over to pick her up, she found she couldn't. She started breathing more heavily as she realized she felt normal – human normal. Her powers must have burnt out – a solar flare – but she hadn't overexerted herself so she didn't understand why this was happening now.

"My powers, they're gone," she said, knowing the command team back at the DEO were listening. "Alex is still unconscious. I can't fly her."

She heard J'onn's voice telling her that it would be ok and a medavac was closing in on their location. Kara saw the hole in Alex's suit, and the skin underneath it was red like she had a bad sunburn. She kneeled next to Alex, needing to be close to her, needing to see the rise and fall of her chest since she couldn't hear Alex's heartbeat any longer. "Come on Alex, wake up," she said. But her sister remained unconscious even when the medical team arrived and got her onto a gurney for transport. Kara wanted to ride with them but there was no room so she had to get a ride back with the DEO team.

Kara went straight to the medbay, more concerned about Alex than her own powers right now. J'onn met her there and asked her what had happened. After she debriefed him, all they could do was wait until one of the doctors came out to tell them how she was.

"I need to call Maggie," she said.

"She's already been contacted and is on her way," J'onn said. "Sit down. How are you feeling?"

She took a seat as instructed and shrugged a little. "I feel human," she said. "My body aches from whatever it was that happened out there. I'm tired, I'm hungry and none of that matters right now, Alex does."

"Alex is the toughest agent I have ever trained," he said. "She'll pull through this and I'm sure the first thing she is going to do is ask how you are."

Kara knew he was right – that Alex would worry more about her than herself. But Kara couldn't help but feel like this was her fault. Alex was always trying to make sure she was ok and that was why she was lying in the medbay now. She knew Alex would tell her that she was just doing her job, but Kara was worried about how much Alex could take.

The door to the medbay opened and one of the doctors came out. "Director, you might want to come in here," he said.

Kara was on her feet following J'onn in regardless of the fact she wasn't invited. Powers or not, she wasn't going to be stopped.

She could see that Alex was still unconscious on the bed, but they had removed her armor and she was down to her tank top. Every one seemed to be standing around the bed but not actually doing anything.

"What is it?" J'onn said.

"This," the doctor said and he nodded to the nurse standing closest to Alex. She had a syringe in her hand and when she tried to inject it into Alex's arm the needle snapped. A nurse on the other side of her tried that arm with the same results.

J'onn immediately turned and looked at Kara who had no explanation for what she was seeing, except for the one that J'onn was also thinking – somehow Alex had her invulnerability. And if she had her invulnerability what else did she have?
…

Maggie was pacing back and forth, trying to understand what it was that J'onn had just told her. She had rushed to the DEO after Winn called her to say Alex was hurt. She had been at home, watching TV, knowing that Alex was working that night and she wouldn't be seeing her. Getting this kind of call was something she had been dreading because she knew what Alex did for a living was just as dangerous if not more so than what she did for a living.

Now she felt like she was getting a little taste of what several of her past girlfriends had complained about. When they knew she was working late and it got to be even later, she would invariably have to hear how worried they were for her and how she should have called them sooner to let them know she was safe. She had pretty much blown such comments off. After all, the women knew what her job was so the way she saw it, these things should be expected.

But now that she was with Alex her attitude had changed. She wanted to hear from Alex as soon as a mission was over, even if it was just a text to say she was ok.

Whatever had happened in this mission it was clear Alex was not ok.

"So, you are saying that Alex has Kara's powers," she said.

"We don't know for sure," J'onn said. "But she does appear to be as invulnerable as Supergirl. We won't know more until she wakes."

"And Kara, your powers are gone?"

Kara merely nodded in response. She knew about the solar flares that sapped Kara's powers away in the past, but this was something different all together. She couldn't imagine what that was like for Kara. Already, the young woman looked more beleaguered than Maggie had ever seen her before.

Maggie looked over at Alex who was still unconscious on the bed. They had also told her that they believed if Alex did indeed have Supergirl's invulnerability that it probably saved her life.

While Maggie was grateful that, she also planned on having a long talk with Alex about jumping in front of alien guns.

"If she does have Kara's powers, I assume you all are trying to find a way to put them back where they belong," Maggie said.

"Of course we will, but first we need Alex to wake to see if she has all the powers. And we also need to find out what that weapon was that hit her," J'onn said. "This isn't the first time we have had a situation where Supergirl was struck with lightning while in contact with something."

"Oh yeah, Livewire," Maggie said. "Alex told me about her. Well, let's hope my girlfriend doesn't wake up with a desire to be a criminal with bad hair."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Kara said.

"I was just joking. Trying to keep it together over here."

"I know," she said, her voice sounding tired. "It's just when I first came here to Earth. My powers started to kick in. The way I am here, that's not how I was back on Krypton. The sun here is different. When my powers began, it wasn't always easy for me. Like my hearing. I could hear everything and it was so loud it was overpowering until I learned how to concentrate on certain sounds. My strength, well, I broke a lot of things before I got the hang of how much force to use on something as simple as a fork."

"You think that it will be like that for Alex?" Maggie asked.

"I don't know. I hope not. I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without Alex."

"If it does happen, we will do whatever we can to help her," J'onn said, trying to reassure them both.