Chapter Text
Lena rubbed her eyes as she tore her gaze from the microscope and leaned back in her chair. It didn’t make any sense. She’d been studying the properties of their mystery rock for three days now, and while she’d discovered a highly unstable chemical composition that could explain the malfunction during the spectrometer’s ionization process, she didn’t see any possible way it could have imbued Kara with the abilities she’d begun manifesting. As far as she could tell, all Kara should have walked away from that accident with was series of painful injuries, and yet Lena couldn’t argue with the proof to the contrary when it was standing right in front of her.
Any hope that Kara’s strange new powers would fade on their own had gradually receded over the course of the past few days. If anything, her abilities only seemed to be growing stronger. There was also the added factor of the massive increase in Kara’s appetite, which Lena had first witnessed the night before when she’d watched the relatively slim blonde devour five deli sandwiches in the span of twenty minutes. She suspected it had to do with the increased metabolic needs required by Kara’s abilities, but further study was needed in that regard as well.
Kara still wasn’t willing to leave LuthorCorp, keeping herself completely confined to the basement laboratories. Alex had been by to drop off her sister’s personal effects and the two had been texting, but other than that it seemed like Kara had completely closed herself off from the outside world. Truthfully, Lena was beginning to worry about her.
Rising from her chair, she stretched and then wandered out of the room in search of the woman in question. She found Kara seated on her cot in the small room she’d claimed for her own over the past few days, seemingly in a meditative state. She opened her eyes as Lena approached and gave her a small smile. The hole in the wall had been hastily patched up with a thick tarp for the time being, if only to keep any visitors to the lab from asking questions.
“I think we should test your limits,” Lena said as she approached. It was something she’d been considering for the past day or two, once she’d realized they weren’t getting anywhere with the available laboratory testing. Maybe if they had a better grasp on Kara’s abilities, they could pinpoint where they came from.
“What do you mean?” Kara asked, uncrossing her legs to assume a more relaxed position.
“We don’t really know the scope of what you’re capable of. We know that you’re strong, your senses are enhanced, and that you’re resistant to injury, but not to what extent. It might be helpful to my research if we had a better understanding of what you can do.”
Kara did not seem at all thrilled by the prospect. Still, she chewed her bottom lip in thought for a moment and then asked, “What did you have in mind?”
Twenty minutes later, the two stood facing each other at the back of an abandoned parking garage in one of LuthorCorp’s sub-basements. It was assigned for Lena’s personal use, but she rarely drove herself to work and so she rarely had need of it. It was the perfect place to test the limits of Kara’s superhuman abilities in relative privacy.
“Okay, let’s start small,” Lena said, rifling through a box of supplies they'd brought with them. She pulled out a heavy iron crowbar and held it out for Kara to take. “Try to bend this.”
Kara complied, reaching out to take the bar from Lena. She studied it for a few seconds, then twisted it effortlessly into a knot as though it were made of rubber.
“Okaay,” Lena said slowly, accepting the twisted piece of metal as Kara dropped it back into her arms and listing forward slightly from the weight. “Let’s try something a bit more challenging then.”
“Are you sure about this?” Kara asked five minutes later, fidgeting as Lena pulled up in front of her in the spare Porsche she kept perpetually parked in one of her private spaces.
“We’ll start slow,” Lena promised, revving the engine as she inched the car forward. “Just tell me when to stop.”
Kara swallowed nervously as she placed her hands flat on the hood of the car. “Okay, go ahead,” she said with a reluctant sigh.
Lena started by simply taking her foot off the brake. When the car didn’t budge, she pressed down gently on the gas pedal, but it still stayed rooted in place under Kara’s palms.
“I’m going to give it a bit more gas, just yell if it gets to be too much,” Lena shouted through the open window. She leaned on the gas pedal with increasing pressure, ignoring the screeching of the tires as they skidded uselessly against the pavement. She’d nearly flattened the pedal to the floor when her stomach swooped with a sudden feeling of weightlessness as the entire car lifted into the air. Lena let out a panicked shriek and took her foot off the gas, clutching her heart. She chanced a glance out of the driver’s side window, only to find Kara holding the Porsche effortlessly over her head.
“I’m sorry!” Kara said quickly, lowering the car gently back to the tarmac. “I started to make a dent in the hood and I panicked!”
Sure enough, Lena got out to examine the front of the car, only to find a pair of obvious handprints stamped into the metal.
“This is going to be an interesting one to explain to my mechanic,” she grumbled, still slightly dazed from her unexpected trip airborne. Kara was standing a few feet away looking abashed and unassuming in her pastel-colored sweater and not at all like she’d just lifted a two-ton vehicle over her head without breaking a sweat.
“Okay, so I think we’re going to have to take a break on quantifying your strength for now. I don’t have anything heavier than a car readily available,” Lena said. She wasn’t sure if she was mentally prepared to learn the extent of Kara’s capability in that particular department anyway. “Why don’t we try the invulnerability next?”
She picked up the bent and twisted crowbar from earlier and held it out to Kara again. “Can you straighten this out for me?” she asked, as though it were a completely normal request. Kara complied to the best of her ability, handing back the lumpy bar of metal seconds later.
“Okay, I’m going to hit you over the head with this now,” Lena said, raising the bar above her head to strike.
“Wait, what?” Kara protested, holding her hands up in front of her defensively.
“Don’t worry, I’ll do it gently the first time,” she promised. “Now hold still.”
Kara lowered her arms, still looking skeptical, and then closed her eyes and tensed as Lena brought the bar down on her head with a moderate amount of force. Kara didn’t even flinch in response.
“Anything?” Lena asked, poised to strike a second time.
“No,” Kara admitted, rubbing the top of her head as though expecting to find a bump.
“All right,” Lena said, and then she swung for the side of Kara’s head with as much strength as she could muster.
The force of her swing carried her stumbling forward as the bar met empty air. Kara reappeared several feet to Lena’s right, and Lena caught herself just in time to keep from falling on her face.
“How did you do that?” she asked, blinking in confusion.
“I-I don’t know,” Kara stammered. “I saw the bar coming towards me and then it was like the entire world slowed down. I just…stepped out of the way.”
Lena lowered the heavy bar to her side with a pensive look. “Can you do it again?”
Kara’s face screwed up in concentration, there was a burst of wind that blew Lena’s hair back from her face, and then Kara was standing directly in front of her.
“Super speed,” Lena said, noting proudly that there was only a slight note of shock in her voice this time. Perhaps she was getting used to the absolute insanity that her life had become. “That’s a new one. Now can you hold still so I can hit you with the crowbar?”
Kara seemed to be in shock from the discovery of yet another ability. She was staring down at her hands, but she still nodded her assent to Lena’s request.
Reeling back again, Lena took another full body swing with the crowbar. This time, it struck Kara’s right temple with enough force that Lena felt the vibrations down her arms all the way to her chest, but Kara didn’t so much as budge as the blow connected.
“All right,” Lena panted, rubbing her strained right shoulder. “I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon on increasingly wild stunts, ramping up from knives, to drills, to a nail gun, stopping just short of trying the chainsaw, and they were still no closer to finding the limits of Kara’s abilities (if there were any). The blonde was so far completely impervious to any form of injury, and Lena was too nervous to try anything more extreme in case there was a possibility of harming her, though she was beginning to seriously doubt it.
“This is insane, right?” Kara asked nervously, turning a bent nail over in the palm of her hand. “Have you ever heard of anyone with abilities like these?”
“I haven’t,” Lena admitted, packing up the remainder of the supplies as they began the walk back to the lab. “I must admit that I feel a little bit out of my depth with all of this, but I promise I’ll keep working on it.”
They spent the rest of the walk back in silence. Kara was clearly still processing everything that had taken place in the garage, and Lena found she couldn’t quite get her mind off it either. She would never admit it to Kara, but Lena was beginning to grow a bit concerned about the seemingly limitless power the other woman possessed. It was one thing when Kara had just been a bit thick-skinned and stronger than average, but everything Lena had just witnessed was in another league entirely.
Kara had lifted an entire car above her head effortlessly, she had moved faster than Lena’s eyes could track, and she seemed impervious to any type of bodily harm. Kara was under a self-imposed exile right now, hiding herself away out of fear, but what if she decided that she no longer wanted to be contained? It was quickly becoming apparent that no weapon at Lena’s disposal would be capable of stopping her, and the thought was an alarming one.
Was Lena being irresponsible by keeping what was happening to Kara a secret? She wanted to keep her friend safe, and she was still holding out hope that whatever had caused this was reversible, but maybe she was playing around with forces beyond her comprehension. What if Kara only continued to grow more powerful, beyond what any human forces could contend with? Would Lena regret not involving the proper authorities before things escalated to that point?
But this was Kara, Lena reminded herself. She was Lena’s closest friend. They’d known each other for years. Kara had never been capable of hurting a fly. She’d once stopped an experiment in its tracks to shepherd a spider out of harm’s way until she could release it onto the sidewalk hours later. She brought cupcakes to the office for staff birthdays and wore socks with puppies on them and was one of the only people in Lena’s life who seemed to truly care for her wellbeing. Lena couldn’t even entertain the risk of such a person ending up contained in some government lab, being poked and prodded in the hopes of revealing her secrets.
No, Lena had already made up her mind. She was going to protect Kara no matter what, even if it inevitably turned out that Kara wasn’t the one in need of protection.
They stepped through the doors of the lab and Kara set down the heavy box of bent and mangled equipment to be discreetly discarded at a later time. It was getting late, so late that even Lena was entertaining the thought of heading home soon, but she still stopped Kara as the other woman made to head back to her room.
“Kara, one last thing, if you don’t mind,” she said. Kara turned back around to face her, curiosity winning over her current sense of trepidation. “I know you’ve been working on your hearing, but have you had any luck with your vision?”
“Uh, yeah a little bit,” Kara responded, rubbing the back of her neck. “I can get it to work most of the time now, but I have trouble turning it off again. It tends to go in and out.”
“Mind if I test a theory?” Lena asked.
“Sure,” Kara responded, watching with interest as Lena retrieved a thick blue apron from a nearby table and wrapped it around herself, securing it on either side with Velcro straps.
“Can you see through this?” Lena asked, turning back to face Kara.
There was no obvious sign that Kara had done anything, but then her eyes widened in surprise a moment later. “No, I can’t. I can see everything around it, but the vest is like a solid, white wall.”
Lena nodded, humming to herself as she removed the apron and set it aside. “It’s as I suspected then. Your eyes have some sort of x-ray capability, so you have difficulty seeing through lead. That’s why you can’t see past the lead apron.”
Kara considered this, brow furrowing with concern. “Wait, so am I giving off a bunch of radiation or something?”
“Well, that’s something I’d like to find out,” Lena said. She reached into the neckline of her shirt and revealed a small badge that she’d clipped to the inside of the collar. “I’ve been wearing a radiation badge for the past few days. I’ll keep it on around you for a couple of weeks, and then we can see if I’ve had any abnormal levels of exposure.”
Kara did not seem thrilled by the prospect. “Wait, and what if it does come back high? I can’t just walk around irradiating people,” she said indignantly.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Lena said flippantly, replacing the badge inside her collar. “In the meantime, there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve mentioned that my studies have been coming up short on explanations for what’s been happening to you. I think it might be helpful if I get Lex involved, see if he has any ideas or approaches that I might be missing.”
“Oh, um, I don’t know,” Kara said, fidgeting with hem of her sweater. “I haven’t even told my sister what’s going on yet. And your brother, he’s…I’m just not sure I’d be completely comfortable telling him about all of this.”
Lena felt herself bristle reflexively in the face Kara’s mistrust. She knew how the other woman felt about Lex. It had been one of the few sore spots of their friendship. Lena was well aware of the way the rest of the world perceived her brother: power hungry, a little reckless, a bit too much hubris. It was hard to avoid such perceptions when you were rich and powerful and on the cutting edge of technological advancement. Yet Lena knew the other side of her brother as well – the side that had protected her through their less than happy childhood, the side that had always encouraged her to be the best she could be. Surely Kara had to know that Lena wouldn’t suggest telling her brother such an important secret if she didn’t trust him implicitly.
“I know how you feel about Lex,” Lena said carefully, trying to keep the hurt from her voice, “but I really do think he’s our best option if we want answers. I’m only one person, Kara. Even with my considerable knowledge in medicine and bioengineering, there are still gaps. Lex might be able to pick up on something I’m missing.”
Kara squared her shoulders as Lena finished entreating her. She looked less timid and more sure of herself than she had in days as she stood up straight and said, “I’m sorry, Lena, but my answer is no. If you think it would be helpful to bring someone else in though, maybe I could talk to Alex. She may not be a genius, but she is a doctor. Maybe her expertise could be helpful too.”
Lena tried not to scoff at Kara’s proposal. “I mean absolutely no offense to your sister, Kara, but I hardly see how a common physician is equipped to deal with this sort of problem.”
Despite Lena’s efforts, it was clear that Kara did take offense to this, her hands balling into fists at her side. “And I don’t see how putting supernatural abilities in the hands of a- a warmonger is any more helpful,” she bit back.
Deeply offended by the implication, Lena was unable to keep the venom out of her voice any longer. “You’re the one who asked for my help with this,” she said, her tone accusatory. “If you want my assistance, maybe you should be a little more open to my recommendations.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t even be in this situation if it hadn’t been for you in the first place,” Kara snarled back, and with that, the air in the room took on a sudden change.
All vestiges of the fight Lena had been gearing up for went out of her in an instant as Kara’s eyes began to glow an ominous, burning red. Lena could feel a primal fear swelling in her gut as the air between them heated by several degrees. She barely had time to drop to the ground, body moving instinctively, before a beam of searing heat shot from Kara’s eyes towards the space Lena had occupied only moments before. It was so close that Lena could feel the heat of it on the back of her neck as the beam hit the wall behind her in a shower of sparks and a scream of rending metal.
The room went deathly quiet in the immediate aftermath as Kara reeled back, hands flying up to cover her eyes. When she opened them again, they’d returned to their normal blue, staring wide and fearful at the angry, molten hole in the wall across from her.
Kara stumbled backwards, all anger clearly forgotten as a hand flew up to cover her mouth. She looked as though she was about to be sick. “Oh my god,” she breathed, voice thick with terror. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.”
Lena tried desperately to regain her wits in the aftermath of her near-death experience. She couldn’t quite manage it, her heart still pounding erratically in her chest, but her own fear evaporated somewhat as she realized that Kara was on the verge of a panic attack.
Lena took a careful step forward, but Kara twisted away, scrambling out of reach. “Don’t touch me!” she shouted frantically, screwing her eyes shut with a pained expression.
“Kara-” Lena said softly, reaching out her hand, but Kara cut her off.
“I almost killed you,” she gasped in between erratic breaths. “I could have killed you. I didn’t mean to!”
“Kara, I know. I know that,” Lena said, swallowing her own panic as she took another step forward. “Just breathe, okay? Focus on taking nice, deep breaths.”
Kara kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut, but she did manage to take a deep, shuddering breath. Lena stood frozen in place, afraid to move any closer, but she tried taking her own deep, intentional breaths in tandem with Kara’s. The method seemed effective, and Kara relaxed slightly after a few minutes. She cracked one eye open first and then, when nothing happened, she blinked them both open with a choked gasp, previously unshed tears already spilling down her cheeks.
“I keep thinking that this can’t get worse,” she choked through a sob. “I’m already afraid to touch anyone, afraid I’ll break my sister in half if I so much as try to hug her. Now I can kill someone just by looking at them wrong? I’m a weapon of mass destruction. I need to be locked up where I can’t hurt anyone.”
Lena gave her a rueful look. Without really thinking, she said, “I’m not even sure that’s possible, to be honest.”
She regretted the words almost immediately as Kara’s face screwed up with anguish and she dropped her face into her hands, back shaking with sobs.
Cursing under her breath, Lena shuffled forward. Her hand hovered above Kara’s shoulder for a moment, before she placed it down gently. Kara flinched almost imperceptibly under her touch, but she didn’t pull away.
“I’m sorry, Kara. I really am. I realize how hard this has been for you, and I should have been more understanding. We’ll leave Lex out of it, I promise. We can figure it out on our own.”
Kara made no move to respond, but her sobs quieted somewhat, which Lena took as a positive sign. She hesitated briefly, then leaned forward and wrapped Kara in a tight hug. She knew Kara wouldn’t return it, but it had to be enough for now.