章 36: Chapter 36
Yo, sorry for the delay, shit happened in RL and I couldn't write as much, should be back to normal now, chapter 37 coming the end of the week.
Not gonna explain since I don't want to take too much space from the chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it!
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Danette fidgeted on her seat, her face going through a myriad of expressions as the taxi inexorably drove towards Jay Garrick's home. Her body language grew more anxious the closer they came to their destination.
For a while now, Kara, who sat next to the human-shaped ball of nerves, had wanted to help the woman, she just… didn't know how.
Really, being raised on Krypton hadn't exactly prepared her to deal with her own emotions, much less those of someone else, and her previous life's memories, distant as they were, didn't really help in this particular situation.
Rao, how she wished Kori was here with them. Feeling really uncomfortable, Kara thought about what the princess would do and hesitantly put a hand on top of the gynoid's, squeezing it to give comfort.
It seems to have worked because Danette squeezed back. Kara released a breath of relief.
"Thanks," the brunette said with an amused smile. "Gosh, you're really bad at this aren't you?"
"I… don't exactly have much experience acting as emotional support, no," Kara actually thought about it and sighed. "It's usually the other way around, really."
"What do you think he's gonna do?" Danette asked, trying to get over her nervousness.
"Probably invite us in and try to figure things out," Kara shrugged. "Don't worry. Coming back from the dead isn't as surprising as it used to be."
Taking a second to check her phone, Kara commemorated with a discrete fist pump at her side when the scouting drone she'd sent ahead registered Garrick inside his house at the moment.
The truth was, even without getting involved with superhero work, with The Light, or anything to do with her company, Kara had kept herself so busy with work that she had forgotten about her promise to Danette until an hour before their meeting.
As a result, she hadn't actually asked anyone about Garrick's address, finding it on the internet via her search bots crawling the dark web instead, which meant she wasn't sure he'd even be home.
Still, retired or not, he was still a Flash, it wasn't like he couldn't get home in a few minutes from anywhere in the city, or the state for that matter, and Kara had already seen that his wife was home.
Finally, the taxi stopped in front of a modest-as-they-come house with an honest to goodness white picket fence. Kara paid the cabbie before stepping out into the suburban street with Danette.
The woman stared at the house for a second and then seemed to shake herself, regaining her confidence.
Together, they walked up to the house and Kara let Danette press the doorbell, giving her hand one last squeeze before the door opened, revealing an older man. He still had mostly brown hair and was remarkably well built. "Hello, can I help you two?"
"Hello Jay, long time no see," Danette said, smiling at the man.
"I'm sorry, I…" Garrick started to say, then leaned forward and looked at Danette closer. Kara saw his muscles tensing, his arms getting ready to punch out and his legs getting ready to run inside as he recognized her, but didn't act. "Miss Reilly, I… well, long time no see," using super-speed, he quickly glanced inside the house before stepping further out of the door. "You'll understand if I don't invite you in immediately."
"I- yes, I guess it is suspicious to just… show up like this," Danette tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with one hand while the other squeezed tightly into a fist, small flames forming around it for a second before she dispersed it. "I'm told this kind of thing isn't odd nowadays, but I can hardly believe it."
"Joan! I'll be out in the yard for a few minutes, can you prepare some tea?" Jay yelled inside the house before stepping out, closing the door behind him and turning back to them. "Yes, in our generation, death tended to stick, but nowadays, kids keep coming back for some reason. I mean, I'm glad for it, but it's still very odd."
"Sorry for coming without calling ahead, I didn't think Danette wanted to reveal herself yet," Kara said, with her increased hearing, she couldn't help hearing Joan calling the Flash from inside the house and flinched. Guess she should have expected that after just showing up out of the blue. "Ah, can you… not call the Flash yet?"
Jay narrowed his eyes at her, his body still tense. "And how do you know that, Miss?"
"Nevermind, it's kind of too late now. Anyway, my cousin should have talked about me, but I guess you wouldn't recognize me. Kara Zor-El, nice to meet you," Kara extended a hand, which Jay didn't take, but he did relax a little.
"Hmm, sorry for being rude, but I prefer not to be literally in someone's grasp until I know for sure what's happening," Shaking his head, the older man motioned for a bench on the porch. "I mean, God, am I glad to meet you Firebrand, but it IS a little hard to believe out of the blue."
"I understand," Danette gave a bitter smile and sat down. "You're looking good Jay."
The man snorted, lifting an eyebrow as he leaned against a support beam. "Me? I'm an old man now, you on the other hand... What's going on Reilly? Time travel? Alternate version?"
"Good grief, it's so odd that those are common enough now that they're the first thing you think about," Danette shook her head, but had to concede that the truth was just as odd. "I guess you can say it's a case of robot infiltrator."
"Ah, those. Always a classic," Jay nodded in understanding. "So, do you have all her memories or…"
"Jay, I have always been a robot," Danette sighed at his misunderstanding. "I guess you could technically call me Red Inferno, Red Tornado is my younger brother."
Suddenly, Kara saw the red blur running up the street towards them, the current Flash was far faster than her, but the speed he was moving wasn't completely beyond her.
Moving fast, Kara got up from her sitting position and stood in front of Danette, just in case The Flash decided to act in haste. She couldn't help but smile when she saw both generations widen their eyes at her speed and immediately become wary, even if they were still faster than her.
Sliding to a stop in front of the house, The Flash looked towards the three of them and lifted an eyebrow. "Everything alright here old man?"
"It seems so, thanks for the backup," Jay said and motioned for the red costumed man to approach them. "Come on, let me introduce you. This is Danette Reilly, she took a bullet for me back in '45."
Flash's eyes took the both of them in as he approached. "Well, nice to meet you. I have to say, you're looking incredibly good for a 70 year old, are you aging in reverse?"
"Flash, do I have to remind you, you have a wife?" Jay joked, causing the Flash to lift his hands in denial.
"What? No, it's a genuine question! Come on, I knew a guy who did that for a while!" He complained, causing Danette to actually laugh and relax a little.
Shaking his head, Jay refocused. "So, how exactly did this happen?"
"I was investigating Professor Morrow for reasons I won't go into for now, but ultimately I got suspicious about her," Kara lied, but the story was close enough to the truth it wouldn't really matter all that much. "Her grave wasn't exactly a secret, so I just flew over it and, when I saw the body hadn't deteriorated at all I had a pretty good guess as to what was going on. Basically, I retrieved and reactivated her. It's been weeks now, but I didn't want to mention her to anybody until she could decide things herself."
Jay and Flash traded a glance and Kara saw The Flash give the older man a small nod. "Well, sorry for being so careful before. I'm really glad to see you again Danny," Extending a hand, Jay pulled Danette into a hug causing the woman to blush and, slowly, squeeze him back. "Come on inside, Joan had always wanted to meet you."
Running to the porch, The Flash stopped at Kara's side and smiled. "So, you're Big Blue's cousin huh? Nice to meet you… Say, any embarrassing stories about the big guy?"
Kara thought about it, she did have some baby photos the Fortress had been able to recover from her ship's computers, and there were the naughty librarian hologram photos she had managed to get from his disguise device. She smiled, "I may have some."
Entering the house, Kara saw an older woman hugging Danette tightly. "Thank you, thank you for saving my Jay."
Not knowing what to do, Danette gave Kara a pleading look and the Kryptonian decided to interfere before the woman's programming crashed from embarrassment. One would think that, having been a hero, Danette would have gotten used to people thanking her.
"Ah, didn't you say there was coffee?" She asked, looking around the modest home.
"Ah, yes, sorry about that," Joan finally released the younger woman and smiled. "I wasn't really sure there wouldn't be a fight in the yard, so I didn't prepare the table, but I did make some coffee and tea if you want?"
Walking ahead of them, Flash quickly squeezed the woman's shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry about that, I got it."
Kara almost offered to help too but, really, being a second or two faster wouldn't make that much of a difference.
A blue of red later and Flash was in the kitchen and, before everyone had even made it into the living room, the table was set and Flash was on the phone. "Sorry, just making sure nobody raised the alarm on the League," releasing his phone on the table, here sat down and smiled.
Pouring herself some coffee, Kara grabbed a tea biscuit while Jay helped his wife sit down. Usually, she wouldn't be eating but, since her eye had started healing, Kara had gotten a better appetite.
"So, what's this about you being Tornado's sister?" Jay finally asked and they started talking.
The rest of the morning was spent comfortably. With Jay there, Danette quickly started getting out of her shell, showing that she was actually a very headstrong woman, and a little short tempered.
Kara enjoyed hearing about the All Stars Squadron and the JSA as Jay told the gynoid about her former teammates, speaking about their adventurers and their current situation.
Flash didn't stay with them for long but Kara noticed a bug left under the table just in case after he had said goodbye to continue patrolling his city. She could have disabled the device, but they weren't really talking about anything dangerous, at least not for her.
The only secrets discussed were those of the JSA and, since it was the Flash hearing them, Kara didn't see the problem.
Eventually, the coffee grew cold, but Kara just blasted it with a controlled ray of heat vision and continued drinking.
As Danette and Jay retreated to the sofa and started going over old pictures of the JSA, Joan got up to take the plates off the table.
"Here, let me," Kara pushed herself up and gathered everything before taking it to the kitchen. "I'm not as effective as a Flash since I can't ignore air resistance, but I can wash a few plates."
Since the Flashes and her speed worked fundamentally different, Kara had to move much slower to avoid sending things flying around her, but she still managed to finish things in less than a minute.
"Thank you Miss Zor-El, and thank you for being here," the older woman said and it was Kara's turn to be embarrassed. "You don't know how much this means to us."
"It's nothing. In truth, I kinda felt responsible for Danette," driving her hands on a napkin, Kara looked towards the two old friends. "Hopefully, she'll start getting back to normal. Finding out she was a robot wasn't something she was ready for, not to mention being dead for half a century."
"You know, I always trusted him, but I was a little jealous of their time together in the JSA," Joan sighed and finished adjusting the cover on the table. "Made me feel terrible when she died saving him, especially since the first thing I could think about was 'thank God she did it.'"
They shared a short moment of quiet until Kara finally asked. "How did you do it? How did you keep loving him even when he risked his life every day like that for decades?"
"It wasn't easy I'll tell you," Joan looked at Jay in the other room with a fond smile. "Really, I'm a selfish woman. There wasn't a single time he was risking his life that I didn't wish he was home with me, but I love him and that's who he is. How could I not do it?"
Kara looked at the smiling older woman and thought about Kal, Kon… Kori. "That easy huh? You just couldn't not do it?"
"Oh, God no," the old woman gave her an amused smirk while shaking her head. "Staying with Jay was probably the hardest thing I ever experienced in my life, and we fought, we fought like cats and dogs sometimes but, in the end, I always thought it was worth it."
From the other room, Danette and Jay burst into laughter as they looked at a picture of Wildcat tied up and hanging from the top of a building by the Lasso of Truth. Wonder Woman watching him with her arms on her waist.
"Anyways, is there anything we can do to thank you?"
"No, I..." suddenly, Kara paused and thought about the offer, getting a wicked smirk on her face.
Kori loved to talk about the Titans whenever they were together, from how they were training to how much they were improving every day, but there was one problem she still hasn't been able to solve, and it pissed Kara right off when he did it to her… girlfriend.
So, it seems like it was time to play dirty, to use the nuclear option, Kara was going to tattle. "Say, have you heard what Kid Flash has been calling M'gann and Koriand'r?"
After another hour of chatting, both Danette and Kara left the Garrick house satisfied. Danette was acting far happier than before and had even dropped the hesitation in her steps.
"So, you used to have a crush on him, huh."
Danette stumbled, her face flushing as she glared at Kara. "Jay was a friend, a dear friend and nothing more."
"Riiight," Kara smirked at her companion with a knowing look. "Don't worry. I can see he used to be very handsome, there's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Fuck you," Danette pouted, cursing for the first time since they had met, but also having the first genuine smile of happiness.
"I'm glad you're finally getting your life in order."
"Yeah, Jay promised to get the old group together later this month," she confessed. "I think I'm gonna be meeting Red Tornado after that. It should give me enough time to think about your invitation."
"Don't worry about it. I would love to have you on the team, but I don't want to pressure you Danette."
"Call me Danny," the gynoid gave Kara a hug as another taxi approached to drive her away. "I'm glad you came with me, Kara."
"I see," Kara eyed her and decided to try. "So… would you be opposed to letting me install a second Morrow elemental core as thanks?"
"What?"
"Well, I wasn't gonna ask with you feeling down, but you seem to be better, and I think I figured out how to make a copy of Mister Twister's wind generator. It not as strong as Red Tornado's but, with some training, you could definitely improve your flames if you can feed them oxygen."
"Kara…"
"What? Even if you don't want to be a hero, it can only make you safer," Kara lifted both eyebrows at her friend. "Come on, more firepower is always the right choice! Get it? You'd even be able to fly."
"… That was terrible, it was terrible and you should be ashamed, but fine, I guess I'm not doing anything tomorrow," Danny sighed, but that didn't fool Kara, she had gotten her with the flight offer.
"Great," checking the clock on her phone, Kara waved Danny goodbye and left for her own compromise.
Using the nearest Zeta-Tube, Kara appeared inside Mount Justice. Her own security took a second to make sure she was allowed here before deactivating, finally showing her the real room and causing the turrets to retreat back into the walls.
With a hiss, the lock she had installed on the Zeta-Tube opened and let her into the cavernous 'foyer' of the base. A second of concentration and Kara heard the Titans training in the main room.
"Muahahahahahahaahah! I laugh at your pain! Ending your existence is most amusing!" Kori yelled as she blasted at Robin with a starbolt from her eyes while squeezing the life out of Kon with a sleeper hold. Suddenly, she caught sight of Kara entering the room and briefly paused. "Oh, hello Supergirl!"
Robin took advantage of her distraction to throw a batrang at her eye, but Kori was fast enough to catch it. The device still exploded in her face, sending her flying back and allowing Kon to escape the grapple she had on him.
Before Kori could recover, Kon fell to the ground, rolled and grabbed a cardboard bomb, throwing it towards Robin. That done, the both of them ran away in separate directions, moving further into the mountain and disappearing around the corners.
Shaking her head, Kori floated away from the floor where she had fallen, cheerfully waved at Kara and then took in the room. Only Captain Marvel was still here, eagerly eating from a snack pack as he enjoyed the show.
Quickly checking her drones, Kori nodded when they were still able to track him. Taking a deep breath, she hummed twice and then ignited her hands and eyes, causing them to shine with green light as she flew down the hallway after the pipsqueak yelling with a villainous voice. "ROOOOOOOOOOOBIIIIIIIIIN! You can not escape me! I will chase you until the ends of the GALAXY!"
"What the? I thought they were supposed to be training?" Kara lifted an eyebrow at the Captain.
"Well, yeah, but Flash kept complaining that things were too serious, and Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and I kind of agree with him. There was no reason they couldn't have a little fun, at least sometimes," Marvel shrugged and offered her the snack pack, Kara gracefully accepted. "So they get one fun exercise in the middle of the day before lunch and after their morning trainer leaves."
"I see… I take it Kori is playing the villain today?"
"Yep, she's kind of the strongest anyway, and she gets all the tech equipment you provided to use against the team," pulling his arm back, Marvel checked to see Kara had stolen almost all his snacks and pouted. "She gets really into it sometimes, and she's a good villain. Now that I think about it, she probably copies the laugh from you."
Avoiding Kara's withering glare, Marvel turned back to the wall and caused it to turn into a monitor. Together they watched Kori follow after Robin. She caught up to him and lifted him by his clothes before trying to get her cardboard bomb back. Unfortunately, it didn't come off his hand.
Kara focused on the image and frowned. Wait, did Robin have breasts? They were really small, but she was sure there was a little bulge on his chest.
Immediately after, Kori threw Robin away as hard as she could and shot a starbolt after him, but the Boy Wonder actually floated in the air and dodged the shot.
Standing in the air, the two of them faced off, Robin quickly growing several arms and getting them all into fighting positions. For a few seconds, nothing happened, then several shields materialized all around him and locked him in place before starting to squeeze.
Ignoring the captured hero as Miss Martian lost control and returned to her actual form squeezed between the drones, Kori rushed back, but Captain Marvel pressed a button. "Robin has had enough uninterrupted time, the bomb has been disarmed. Good job Titans."
Stepping out from a side-room on the same hallway he had run through, Robin threw the cardboard bomb up and down in his hand and strutted into the room, quickly followed by Kid Flash.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Kid Flash shouted and the both of them high-fived.
Soon after, the rest of the Titans started converging on the room. Aqualad seemed a little worse for wear, but they all were tired and sweating.
"Good job, you guys overcame a stronger, more skilled and better prepared opponent," Marvel complimented. "Aqualad's sacrifice was so cool and, according to the exercise, both he and Kid Flash even survived their encounter so, it's actually great!"
"I… huff… I did not realize how much you held back… huff… in our spars," Aqualad complimented, collapsing to the floor. "But, did you have to keep the death trap active the whole time?"
"It was indeed necessary for my villainous plot, Friend Kaldur," Kori nodded with a disarming smile on her face. "It should have pressured the Titans and diverted their attention from the main objective. I did not think the Titans would delay your rescue as they did. Alas, my machinations were defeated, most impressive stratagem, Friend Robin, when did you change places?"
"Hey, we trusted Kaldur to hang on!" Robin protested. "Anyway, I traded places with Megan as soon as I ran out of the room, while you were still recovering from the explosion."
"Congratulations, Friend M'gann! Your transformation is getting much better; I did not realize the ruse until the very end!" Kori complimented, getting out from her armor and shaking her hair free from the ponytail.
"Ah, thanks Kori, doing boys is still hard, but Uncle is training me to overcome that."
"Man, I did not realize how hot girl villains could be." Kid Flash just had to say, causing Kara to narrow her eyes dangerously. "The majority of the rogues are men, but boy is she…"
"Hello Titans, Kid Flash," Kara interrupted, causing them all to turn towards her. "Say, are you, perhaps, wearing the suit I made?"
"Ah, hi Supergirl," Kid Flash gulped and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, thanks a lot by the way, the material is great, and it's very comfortable to run with, plus, it doesn't even get dirty. I really love it… why?"
"Oh, nothing, don't worry about it," Kara answered with her most innocent smile.
From his side, Robin discretely hit his friend with an elbow and whispered. "Self-destruction, man, self-destruction sequences everywhere."
Kara's smile only got wider when she heard it, making sure to keep staring at the boy for an uncomfortable amount of time.
"Stop teasing him already," Kon finally interrupted, walking closer and attempting to hug her, Kara put a hand on his chest.
"What do you think you're doing?" she lifted an eyebrow.
"What, you're the one always insisting on hugs," Kon glanced aside; a little embarrassed to talk about it.
"Not without a shower I don't," Kara shook her head. "Come on, you were probably fighting Kori for the last 10 minutes, you're soaked."
Kon pulled on his Superman shirt, seeing it absolutely soaked with his sweat, even if he wasn't feeling all that tired. With a devious smile, he looked back at Kara. "Well, now I really want a hug, no, actually, I insist."
"Get away from me!" Kara dodged back and used a hand to push Kon away from her, but he only took a single step before turning back and opening his arms. "Ugh, if this was how it was gonna turn out. I'd prefer it if you kept being angry."
"Come on cousin, where's my hug?"
Kara dodged another lunge and quickly hid behind an amused Captain Marvel, she could have easily floated away, but she was actually really happy Kon was being playful, and flying would be unfair.
She was just getting ready to dodge another lunge when Kori grabbed her from behind almost causing her to stumble. Kara actually smiled as she felt Kori's soaked shirt, the Tamaranean's breast pressed tightly against her back in a most tantalizing manner.
Kon's own sweaty chest on the other hand… not so much. Kori's glomp had delayed her movement enough for Kon to grab her and squeeze tightly. "Eww, ewwww! Bath! Bath right now!"
Laughing, all the Titans went to wash themselves, Kara included since she now had to change her shirt. Together with Captain Marvel, they ate lunch at the mountain and waited until John Stewart showed up for their evening training.
Seeing Kara talking with the rest of the Titans, the man nodded her way and Kara approached him. "Supergirl, good to meet you. Good job upgrading the Mountain's security."
"Thanks, I'm not finished yet, but it will do for now," Kara shook his offered hand, getting a strange feeling as her arm came into contact with the green light surrounding him. "Anyways, I take it the League approved of the treatment?"
"Yes, Superboy's parents signed the release, and the League has looked over the data," GL frowned for a second, but didn't seem to recognize the feeling and dismissed it from his mind. "Thankfully, he's quite advanced in his lessons, so he'll not miss much."
"What're you teaching them today?"
"Recently it's been how to locate and disarm bombs. Today we're going over mines, including those of alien origin," The man answered while glancing at his ring. Looking up, he gave Kara an amused smile. "Usually, Batman would be the one teaching them, but he's been busy this last week, and the ring allows me to replicate several working devices without the risk of them going off."
"Hmmm, I know Robin wouldn't really need this class, but Kon is advanced in it?" Kara asked, returning his smile.
"He's really talented with any mechanical device."
"I see," feeling some pride in her chest, Kara waved Kon over.
"What?" The boy asked, approaching them and giving a respectful nod to the GL.
"Hey, remember the treatment we talked about yesterday? The League gave the green-light," Kara explained, smiling at him.
"Is that really necessary?"
"Necessary? Probably not," She answered truthfully. "Your Kryptonian DNA allows you to wait without much risk until we've developed a better treatment, or even a permanent solution, but it could unlock more of your powers."
Kon glanced back at the rest of the Titans, at Kara and then at his own hand. Slowly, he closed it into a fist. "Alright, when do we leave?"
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