Chapter 13Notes:And back to regularly updating time from now on =D
Also, in a comments a lot of speculation/desire about like civilian reactions or message board reactions SuperQuake. I don't have it planned, I might bang something out if I feel like it, but I wouldn't count on that. That said, if any of you guys want to write what you think people would be thinking/reacting, please feel free. I'd be happy to embed a link to something like that in this fic. Seriously, open permission if any of you feel like it.
Chapter TextCat Grant was going to develop a migraine that not even the strongest opioids on earth would be able to put a dent in. Not even having Kiera back at her desk and managing her emails with something approaching competence was going to help. Lexapro was not going to help. Caffeine and a Big Belly Burger were not going to help. No, nothing was going to make up for the fact that her Superhero's shiny image was being polluted by a two-bit, good-for-nothing, supervillain.
She was just short of grinding her teeth as she stared down at the photos laid out across her desk of the fight the night before. It was dynamic, James had done wonderful work with his camera, and the millennial instinct to record everything on their smartphones meant the entire thing was all over YouTube and every news site and a hundred other places.
The whole thing was dramatic, action-packed, and worse, public. It should have been yet another successful outing of her hero, Supergirl. Another step on the way to winning back the public's faith. And it was ruined, all of it, because standing there beside Supergirl, was Quake.
Once was a misfortune, twice was predictable but also an enemy action. And that enemy was Quake.
Quake was proving to be a villain that had a real threat to her. It was one thing to see a masked supervillain who could fly, disrupt lightning somehow, and was willing to shoot people down without blinking or hesitation. It was another to realize that as the videos could attest, clearly knew exactly what she was doing in a fight, had superstrength, and something like precognition or eyes in the back of her head or something or other. She hadn't broken a sweat reducing the awful-looking grey and multi-armed alien to a broken wreck. Hadn't even been taking the fight seriously. An opponent who had gotten in several solid hits against Supergirl.
That wasn't good. It wasn't good at all.
But what was worse, and the cause of Cat's impending migraine from hell, was the fact that Quake was flirting with Supergirl. And it was not, not working. Which was a problem.
There were two photos that stood out to Cat. Two photos that left her conflicted about sticking them on her site, in her papers, but had done so. Her hands were tied on the matter. Damn, James for being so good at his job.
The first one was a shot that could sell a narrative of what Quake so clearly was. There she was, her hands dropping a collapsing goliath she'd taken down, red blood that was not her own dripping down the front of her mask. She looked untouchable and terrifying. A monster with power in her hands. The way the light framed her, the motion and power of it striking.
If Cat had wished to sell a monster above all others for her hero to slay, a rival worthy to stand to be defeated by Supergirl, this singular photo would have done it. She would have plastered it across covers and sold the villain for Supergirl to overcome. But then there was the second photo, the one that haunted her. Cat viciously hoped it haunted James as much as it did her, even if it was for different reasons.
Because there in full color was Quake unmistakably flirting, stepping into Supergirl's space. And Supergirl, the golden hero and untouchable symbol Cat had made her, stepped back. But not just stepping back, oh no, doing so while looking horribly human. The flushed cheeks, her expression all 'woman off balance' and unsure of what to do.
The narrative of monster and hero couldn't be sold, because Supergirl apparently was blatantly confused by but not opposed to the monster flirting with her. There was no good narrative that kept Supergirl as the symbol she needed to be. Cat's jaw clenched. This could be survived. But she had a terrible feeling Supergirl would not do what needed to be done. Which left her with only one choice. Threaten Supergirl for tolerating a monster near her.
"Supergirl; Ally To Evil Or Fooled By It?"
Tough love it was, Supergirl needed to distance herself from Quake, and she needed to do it yesterday. There could be no waiting for Quake to cross that line that made her fall inevitable. Her existence could tarnish Supergirl's image worse than whatever nonsense had had the Hero acting like a monster for a day. Turning evil for a day had not punctured the mystic, the myth of the Super. Being tongue-tied, flustered and human would.
////
Kara was going to throw Daisy out of a window for this, she really, really was. It was a disaster, Ms. Grant was on a warpath, and every blog, news page, and website were losing their minds. If Daisy had wanted to explode every type of media in the city, she'd done it. It was chaos. Like a nightmare, also, sure Daisy was trying to come off as a villain for stupid reasons, but did she have to flirt while having actual blood on her stupid creepy mask?
"KIERA!" Ms. Grant yelled with more irritation/rage than usual.
She blanched and rushed at 'normal' non-super speed speeds into the office. The covert thumbs-up of misery from Winn was not helpful. She raised her notepad as a defense. "Yes, Ms. Grant?"
"Tell me Kiera, what is your job?" There was a dangerous tick to Ms. Grant's eye.
Kara pushed her glasses back up her nose. "To be useful to you and make your life easier, Ms. Grant."
"Then tell me, Kiara, why, while dealing with Supergirl having lost her mind, is my latte cold?" If Ms. Grant had laser vision Kara would be ash.
Kara hesitated faintly, "Lost her mind might be-" She cut herself off. "I'll get you a new latte, Ms. Grant."
"Too harsh? Is that what you were going to say? What else would you call that?" Ms. Grant's eyes really should have been able to catch on fire as she pointed dramatically at the screen currently showing footage of 'Quake' blatantly coming onto her while casually wiping the blood off of her mask. Kara could admit she hadn't known what to do. Knowing it was an act didn't make her any better at dealing with that sort of thing.
Kara winced, oh, this was so bad. "I mean, Quake didn't actually do anything wrong?"
"Tell me, do you think Quake hasn't killed people before?" Ms. Grant was staring her down.
It was the awful one that made it feel like she was seeing through your flesh to all the weak insecurities and ugliness inside. "I mean yes, but she hasn't-"
"And do you think she has benevolent intentions for Supergirl? Of course, she doesn't." Ms. Grant scoffed. "A day, and soon, she will cross the line and people will die because Supergirl's ego enjoyed being flirted with." She made a shooing motion with her hand. "Latte, chop chop."
Kara bit back her protests and scurried off to get a latte, it wasn't as if anyone else knew that Daisy was trying to make them think she was a bad guy. It wasn't comforting.
Kara slumped in a chair in the secret lair, if she was human she'd be a wreck from how much Ms. Grant had been running her around. A lot of layouts of possible horrible headlines and articles on the entire mess. The constant cutting remarks about how stupid Supergirl had to be for not seeing it were mean. Really mean. And unfair. She groaned.
"Is that a 'you need a fire' groan?" Winn asked, "Because unfortunately, the city is pretty quiet today."
Kara looked at her best friend, "Why is everyone panicking? Quake hasn't even done anything bad."
"You do have to admit it doesn't look good. She shot Siobhan and Leslie, and she beat the hell out of that alien last night, and she looks…really evil?" Winn winced, "Why are you so certain she's not a villain?"
Kara waved her hands in frustration. "She used tranquilizing bullets of some kind, which means she had those in her gun before she decided to help me. Leslie and Siobhan were barely even bruised from her stopping them. And if I hadn't told her no guns she wouldn't have beaten the Branx up so badly. It's not like I didn't knock out the one I was fighting, I just didn't headbutt anyone and break their nose with my forehead."
"I was there, she was intense and was enjoying making you uncomfortable." James' hands were on his hips.
She rolled the chair around to look at him, and she was just frustrated that no one would listen to her. "Just because she's very forward doesn't mean she's evil."
"Forward, she was sexually propositioning you in the middle of the street," James was all noble judgment and it was just…frustrating!
Kara glared, she was so done. "It might be terrible timing, but someone being interested in me isn't a sign of evil."
"She's not interested in you, she's making sexual innuendo at Supergirl," James said like that made his point.
She waved at herself, "I am Supergirl! She's me, we're the same person. And Quake hasn't done anything evil or bad. She just helped, maybe assuming she's evil because she dresses like a goth Terminator is silly?"
Winn snorted, biting back his humor at a look from James. He cleared his throat. "We just want you to be careful, Quake seems like bad news."
"Well, maybe you should trust me when I say I don't think she's as terrible as she seems?" Kara crossed her arms.
There was a beep from the computer, Winn's eyes going to the screen. "Um…guess we can find out if you're right or not, Quake is sitting on a billboard on Seventh and Washington?"
"Tell Ms. Grant I'm getting her kombucha if she asks!" Kara barely was out of her office clothing before she was out of the window at speed. Because something was wrong for Daisy just to be sitting in public as Quake. That sounded really weird, and weird meant a hero problem, hopefully.
Kara came to a swooping halt a few yards in front of a billboard for car insurance that Daisy was happily sitting on while wearing a new mask…it was worse than the last one somehow. She realized before she said something that, well…how was she supposed to interact with Daisy when she was Quake? "Is there an emergency?"
"Hello to you too," Daisy's voice wasn't altered, the smile audible in her voice. But oh, they were high enough up that no one could hear them.
Daisy lifted up a box of donuts that she'd had balancing on the metal frame the billboard was attached to. "I come in peace."
Kara dropped a few inches in the air, drifting forward slightly. "You got me donuts?"
"I saw the headlines, Cat really went for your jugular," Daisy wiggled the box.
She hesitated for a moment before swooping over and sitting next to her on the billboard, or with a couple of feet distance, she wasn't totally terrible at keeping a secret identity. "Did you know they were going to do that?"
"Eh, fifty/fifty shot." Daisy handed over the box. "And the local elementary school has a field trip planned to go see the history museum two blocks over in an hour. Their teacher told Facebook they were going to eat their lunch in the park down there first. Figured you could use the good press of a class of adorable third graders about to descend there in about fifteen minutes."
Kara couldn't help the way it felt like the weight of her entire morning just fell off her back. "How did you even find out about that?"
"I spent twenty minutes looking for an easy PR win for you," Daisy's head tilted. "Also, admittedly it helps my evil plans of humanizing you against the media's will. Which this is so weird, I avoided the limelight on my world for a reason. This is fun, but I can just tell it's going to get exhausting."
Kara stuffed a cream-filled donut into her mouth. She chewed gleefully, it was a relief. Finally, she swallowed and spoke up, her eyes squinting suspiciously. "Do I want to know what chaos your current public relations nightmare is going to be?"
"Do you?" Daisy asked, "Cause I can lay it out for you if you want? Also, watching Cat Grant suffering thinking her Superhero might get seduced by evil will amuse me. It's useful, even she can't suppress that story, but you know, it's personally hilarious too."
She buried her face in her hands. "She's going to be so upset."
"Think of it like putting toys in a zoo enclosure with the predators, it's enrichment for her rich big cat life." Daisy's voice was full of humor.
Kara rolled her eyes, pulling her face out of her hands. "You're going to give my boss an aneurysm. She's going to hunt you down, don't think she won't."
"Unfortunately for her, I'm not scared of her." Daisy was definitely smug about that. "What's she going to do, make me look like a villain?"
She blew out a long breath and started munching on another donut. "Where did you find a mask even clunkier and more evil robot-looking than the last one?" Kara was resigned to hearing something that was going to make her despair.
Daisy laughed, clearly hearing the resignation. "Did you know National City has more than one winter sports store? Which is wild, we're in southern California, yay rich people, I think?" She gave a half-hearted shrug. "Snowboarding masks are like a fashion thing. I got three of them, still working on modding them out to be actually useful, but since the eyeshield got cracked last night, didn't have much of a choice."
"You just had them already?" Kara stared at Daisy, donut half lowered from her mouth. "Do you know what taking it easy is?"
Daisy made a 'so-so' gesture. "Not particularly, and same-day delivery in city." Her body language perked up, "and, check this out!" She reached up, touching the mask, and it lit up. Or rather, some of it did.
Two half circles like cartoon eyes made out of purple LED lights. And the mouth cover had a matching lit-up smile. It was so much worse than the awful blank blackness with hard lines from the plastic. Kara was fairly sure it was worse than if she'd decided to actually wear a horror movie character's mask
"How is it worse?" Kara whined, "Do you know how evil you look?"
The smiling mask looked right back at her. "It's awesome right?"
Kara had been having a terrible day. She whacked Daisy off of the billboard.
Daisy made a yelping noise as she plummeted before catching herself a few feet above the sidewalk before letting her feet hit the pavement. Ignoring the terrified teenagers who'd been pretending not to be recording them, Daisy launched herself back up onto the billboard, landing in a crouch. "Mean."
"You're ridiculous, I hate your evil plans." Kara polished off another donut.
Daisy reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a neatly folded square of paper. It was like four or five sheers of paper folded over themselves until it was as compact as it was going to get. She held it out to Kara. "Give that to Director Lane, it'll help with the pressure from the DEO on the subject of 'Quake'."
"What is it?" Kara accepted it though, neatly folding it away and out of sight.
Daisy was facing her, focusing purely on Kara. "I found a lead on a Cadmus asset, spent all morning cleaning out his computer systems and setting them to wipe later today. But, since I agreed to no murder when not necessary, I thought feeding him to Lane was a nonlethal option. And, it'll give the DEO a motive to explain my actions. Enemy of the enemy is my friend and all that."
"Wait, so they'll think you're hunting Cadmus? Weren't we hiding that?" Kara could feel her brow crinkling, which was annoying, Alex would never let her live down being that easy to read.
Daisy made an 'eh?' sound. "Yes and no, the extent yes, but they'll need an explanation. So we give them one. Enjoy the donuts, hopefully the kids want your autograph or photos or something, and I'll have the data from our Cadmus asshole's computer broken down by the time you get home, hopefully. Depends on how much there is to sort."
"You could stay, you know?" Kara wasn't looking forward to her leaving.
Daisy shook her head slightly, "Not this time." She raised a hand in a casual wave, before shooting off into the air.
Kara sighed, somehow she just knew that the last few minutes were going to make her life so much harder. But at the same time, a real lead on Cadmus.
////
Lucy stared at the folded papers she'd been handed. "Quake gave these to you, for me?"
"She was very specific," Supergirl, or Kara replied, her posture and voice surprisingly serious. But then, she tended to be more naturally serious when she wore the cape. "She said 'Enemy of my enemy is my friend'."
That sounded incredibly dangerous. She unfolded the tightly compressed paper. It was a list of military files neatly typed and printed. If Lucy hadn't been military it'd have been meaningless gibberish. Whoever Quake was, she'd had access to an Army database, or had a contact who did. Neatly written out in clean, blocky letters that screamed not her actual handwriting was a name, 'Wilbur T Adams' and a military ID #. Lucy's jaw tightened, it was a neatly organized hay pile with the needle labeled and laid out on top.
"What is it?" Kara asked curiously from where she was now looming over Lucy's shoulder.
Lucy flipped to the second page, "A successful way to share intel between two parties that don't trust each other. These are the internal IDs of files to pull. She even gave us a name. So we know the who, when, and where."
Kara nudged her, "So Quake might not be evil?"
"She has an agenda." Lucy's eyes twitched as she saw the neatly blocky letters on the final page. 'Happy hunting'.
Lucy turned toward Kara, "Go, I'm sure your last break ended a while ago, and Ms. Grant is on a warpath."
"She's being so mean about Supergirl!" Kara was bleeding frustration.
Lucy was not trained in managing superheroes. "I'll call you if this intel leads to anything of value." She was positive it would. But in the DEO she had maybe five agents she trusted to not have conflicting loyalties, a couple dozen she was reasonably sure were dependable, and the rest she was still sorting. It didn't matter that she knew the majority were clean if she didn't know which ones weren't. Which left Kara as her only true ally here.
Kara nodded, "Ok, if you need me just call."
"That bad?" Lucy wasn't so tired as to miss the humor in Supergirl being trapped with Cat Grant on a warpath against Supergirl. "Go, or you won't have a day job much longer." Probably not actually true, Cat had a soft spot for Kara even if she insisted on torturing her to prove she didn't.
Lucy rubbed at her temples, the intelligence had been valid. Wilbur T Adams was a former army grunt, who got a degree in computer engineering after his time in the service and was then recruited into the DEO. And, had been serving directly under a Lieutenant under her father during his service. A Lieutenant who as of three weeks ago, she knew was Cadmus. The bank credentials had given her a look into Adams' accounts, and he was getting money from someone who wasn't the DEO.
She was good at putting pieces together, this would have been easy to a child. Lucy had just been handed a Cadmus mole in the DEO. If Quake was feeding her a Cadmus agent, that made a horrible amount of sense. Quake being on the hunt for Cadmus made the timing make perfect, morbid sense. She'd showed up just weeks after Cadmus made a big inter-departmental move in National City. And to anyone with eyes, indicated they were gunning for Supergirl.
It was such a neat trail for someone like Quake to follow. And if Cadmus was after Supergirl, by Supergirl's side was where Quake would want to be to likely kill any Cadmus agents she could get her hands on. Which made Quake dangerous in new, if more controlled ways. She probably wasn't an actual threat to the civilians of National City. Likely why she'd felt comfortable enough to announce her presence to Supergirl.
Hell, she probably assumed Supergirl would be sympathetic to a Cadmus murder quest. Lucy's jaw tightened, Quake might not be wrong about that.
Lucy hit the comm, she had action to take before she decided on the next move with Quake. "Agent Vasquez, to the Director's office." They had a mole to detain after all.
Chapter 14Notes:Yo! Hope you're all well!
Chapter TextDaisy was seated on her kitchen island, using cheap chopsticks to eat straight from the carton of takeout. The intell projected against the long white wall in her apartment. "So, Wibur doesn't matter, Lucy can have him, but his computer systems are interesting."
"You found a money trail?" Kara asked.
Daisy reached over to her laptop and pulled up the relevant information. "Not that fortunate, but I found a place to look, his main job for the DEO has been looking into the illegal alien technology trade. This is useful for us, and very useful if you're an amoral asshole wanting to turn alien weapons against aliens. The useful for our purposes part is here."
"Business expenses…he was charging the DEO for lunch meetings? You can do that?" Kara sounded slightly insulted at the very idea, but she was clearly more interested in the reports. "These are Cadmus agents?"
She hummed as she scrolled pulled up one in particular and pointed at the projection with her chopsticks. "Not all, but this name came up a lot, and the idiot used real names in his paperwork. Probably because the DEO and Cadmus are sister organizations."
"Colonel John Franklin," Daisy pulled up the man's personal file. "He's currently assigned to DC working on Capitol Hill. And he's the kind of political track officer who would be really useful in advocating for say, a horror-filled government program of evil."
Kara had a set to her jaw. "So we investigate John?"
"Yes, but also I have a list of people to look into for supporting Cadmus." Daisy set aside her carton of orange chicken and picked up her laptop pulling up what she had. "Cadmus coming for you was a big swing. So I looked into what I could of the Defense Department's spending. Which, limited access, I'll need more to know for sure, but I'm not seeing the kind of funding needed for Cadmus. Traces of black money for the DEO, a couple of dozen classified military projects, sure, my guess is Cadmus is one of those classified military projects. But not enough to be a program large enough to imagine it could contain or kill you or your cousin. There are big swings, and then there's stupidity."
And Kara looked grim. "They're getting funding from other sources than the government." Her eyes narrowed, "That's why you wanted to know about the richest people in the country."
She nodded, "And we have to admit there's a probable answer to who has the means, and motive to support Cadmus."
"Lex, but he's in jail?" Kara had gone very still.
Daisy looked at her friend, it was a crime the DEO had clearly been keeping her as far out of the intelligence-gathering aspect of their job as possible. "Do you really think that matters?"
"I want to say yes, but it wouldn't be true, would it?" Kara's shoulders rolled back. "He hasn't attacked my cousin or me since his arrest, it's at least slowing him down."
Daisy clicked into the Lex Luthor file she had started, it wasn't a lot. "I need more access to know, but if I had to guess, he's regrouping. Which means, how do you feel about a cross-country flight and some espionage?"
"We're breaking into LuthorCorp?" Kara's eyes widened as she realized.
She nodded, "Into their Metropolis server room. Quick in out, no combat suits." Daisy hesitated, "If what we find is what I think we are, I'm going to kill Lex."
"You're that convinced we'll find he's still ruining lives?" Kara didn't shrink from it.
Daisy'd agreed to be honest about it. "He's a psychopath who wants to commit genocide, if jail is containing him it's not an issue. But I doubt it."
"Ok," Kara held her eye, "But we make sure."
She reached out and squeezed Kara's arm. "So, want to do some spy shit tonight?"
"Wait, now?" Kara sat up straighter.
Daisy grinned, "No time like the present, and I think you're going to like the face veil. Also, I'd appreciate you doing the flying, jumping across the country sounds terrible."
"What's a face veil?"
////
Kara if she'd ever imagined it, would have expected spy stuff to be…cooler? Not that flying them both to Metropolis hadn't been fun, flying was always fun, and Daisy thought it was as awesome as she did. But now she was standing, in the middle of the night, staring at what Daisy had apparently ordered delivered to a crummy motel room. "Why fire extinguishers?"
"Because if anyone asks, it's a new safety policy that the server room has new ones and we're delivering them now because the order was marked urgent." Daisy tossed her a clipboard with actual paperwork neatly laid out with signatures that had to be fake.
Kara's brow crinkled as she set the clipboard aside, "What do we do if someone talks to us?"
"I do the talking." Daisy touched her arm, her face kind. "Lying in the way we'll need to is a skill, it's not one you're trained in. That's fine, just follow my lead. It's going to be fine. I promise this is going to be easier than figuring out Homedepot." She smiled slightly, "I got you."
She looked at the delivery worker uniforms. "Don't we need badges or something?"
"Nope, they'll let us in the door and if we need a badge I'll snag one." Daisy grabbed a thin, flat box from inside the duffle she'd grabbed on their way out the door. "This though, is why even if they realize what we did and check their cameras, it's not a big deal."
Kara wasn't sure what it was, it looked like thin clear plastic inside, only she could see the thousands of tiny electronic pieces, though she wasn't sure a human could. "What is that?"
"It's called a face veil, and you have the recognizable face, so you get it and I get makeup." Daisy glanced at the clock, "And we should probably be arriving at LuthorCorp in thirty minutes if we want to be in and out and have you back in National City in time to get your boss her latte."
Kara nodded, "What do I do?"
"Sit on the bed, let's get the veil on you. You can pick a face while I get into uniform since you have superspeed to avoid that delay."
She sat on the end of the bed and held still, as Daisy carefully laid the veil across her face. It molded against her face with a strange tickling sensation. Kara blinked as Daisy's hands dropped. "What now?"
"Magazine in the bag, find someone not too hot or distinct looking you won't mind sharing a face with for a half hour." Daisy grabbed her stack of delivery uniform clothing and ducked into the bathroom.
Kara pulled out the home decorating magazine. This was slightly more spy-like.
Kara took back any belief that Spycraft was actually dramatic or cool. She was standing there, in the lobby of LuthorCorp, holding the handle of a dolly loaded up with boxes of fire extinguishers, watching as Daisy happily talked about traffic and how terrible managers were with the security guard and front desk lady. Unease about walking into LuthorCorp had vanished into disbelief. It couldn't be this easy?
"Thanks for signing off, need us to take a service elevator?" Daisy made a gesture toward the elevators.
The security guard signed off on the clipboard. "You're good to go, just take the main elevator on up."
Daisy smiled at the man, "Thanks, can't keep the boss waiting, right?"
He chuckled handing back over the clipboard. "Don't I know it."
Daisy casually waved, before turning on her heel and heading to the elevator.
Kara adjusted the dolly and followed after, she mostly felt kind of awkward, and also…they'd just been let in? That easy?
Daisy hit the button for the elevator and flashed an amused look at her, winking, before looking away again.
The elevator ride to the third floor was awkward, Kara's skin crawled with the feeling of 'what if someone realized they shouldn't be here?' Nobody did, they just breezed past workers on their way. And Daisy clearly knew exactly where they were going. She took them straight through the halls before reaching a door, she slid a badge through the security pad on the door. When had she gotten a badge? It easily lit up, and into a room full of servers.
Daisy looked over at her. "Unload those over by the desk." She slid into the aisles between the servers.
Kara had two boxes of fire extinguishers unloaded by the time Daisy came back, she looked at her, "That was fast?"
"Yup, not a big deal." Daisy grabbed the last box of extinguishers and set them on the floor. "Let's get out of here, I could use some coffee."
And it really was, that simple. They just walked out. Daisy even waved at the receptionist and lobby security officer on their way out. As the fancy doors of the huge skyscraper closed behind them, Kara breathed out, a wild buzzing energy jittering inside of her. They'd gotten away with it!
"So, coffee?" Daisy grinned, the smug amusement was too genuine for Kara to even be mad.
She laughed, "I can do coffee."
Kara was extra careful as she peeled the veil off of her face. She opened and shut her mouth, stretching her face. "That feels so weird!"
"Yeah, but no one will ever know Supergirl walked right into LuthorCorp's server room." Daisy left the door open as she turned the water on, and started washing her face off. She'd done something to her face with makeup that hadn't looked like a lot of makeup, but it'd made the angle of her face look different.
She pulled off the work uniform jacket, "What did you do? It was so fast."
"Plugged in a physical backdoor I can use to get into their systems." Daisy grabbed a towel wiping her face off. "We both have work today though, so might be a day or two before I have answers for you."
Kara was kind of horrified by that, "It's as easy as just plugging something in?"
"No," Daisy laughed as she stepped out of the crappy motel room bathroom, "I had to make the programs that will do the work. But hacking is like 50% preparation beforehand. Do you know how long it takes to write even a simple program? Let alone a self-cloning virus? That's days of work. I'll break down more if you want, but want to get out of here?" She chucked the towel onto the unslept in bed.
Kara couldn't help smiling, "Flying home?"
"Up, up and away or whatever," But Daisy's smile matched her own.
Kara was poking at her third sticky bun in the tucked away corner in Noonans, she looked up at Daisy and couldn't help the question. "Why did you bring me?"
"What do you mean?" Daisy paused, fork halfway to her mouth.
She looked down at the swirly contents of her latte. "You could have done all of that without me, I didn't do anything to help. Any time it saved having me fly you, you lost having to explain things to me and helping with the veil."
"I mean, you're underestimating how much I have not used my jumping to really fly. I should probably figure that out more, but sure, I could have done it without you. But we're doing this together right?" There was something in Daisy's tone that made Kara look up.
And Kara could see it, the sudden hesitance like she was worried she'd done something wrong. She reached out grabbing Daisy's hand, maybe slightly faster than a human could move. "Thank you."
////
Winn had a realization as he watched Kara crush her computer mouse at the sight of another negative headline about Supergirl plastered across the screens. When was the last time they'd spent time together outside of the Super lair? It'd been…well before Alex left, before red kryptonite, he actually wasn't sure when the last time was. Before he and Siobhan had started dating?
He grabbed the mouse off Rita's desk, he'd replace it before she got back from maternity leave. Scurrying over to Kara's desk he dropped down and started unplugging the broken mouse. "So what do you think of game night?"
"Wait, what?" Kara looked at him in confusion, and she was wound tight, but it wasn't with anxiety, more frustration.
He wasn't sure what to think of that, it was usually anxiety? "We haven't had one in a while, we should do one. It'd be fun." He smiled, hoping it came off as excited and not concerned.
She swept the broken mouse into her waste paper basket. "That would be fun, we could do it after work on Friday?"
"Yeah, I'll let James know. We could invite Lucy, have even numbers for teams?" Winn wasn't sure if that was a good idea, what with the whole James, Kara, and Lucy awkwardness. He wasn't even sure exactly where any of them stood with each other. But if it was just James, him, and Kara it'd end up just being Super talk. Winn was pretty sure they needed a night off of Super talk.
Kara breathed out, the frustrated edge easing, the tension in her shoulders softening. But then her brow crinkled, "We should invite Lucy, but we'll have odd numbers not even?"
"No," Winn held up his hand, counting on his fingers. "You, me, James, Lucy, that's four, even number."
She blinked, "Oh if we're doing a game night, I'm inviting Daisy." Kara's posture was more Supergirl than Kara Danvers then.
He softened, "You've been spending a lot of time with Daisy, haven't you?"
"Yes?" Kara pulled back, a certain defensiveness in her posture.
Winn winced, he probably deserved that. "Guess we'll have to figure out a game that doesn't involve teams."
"We could play Clue?" Kara actually looked excited, and it'd been a while since he'd seen her excited.
Oh god, he was one of those terrible friends who ignored their friends for a new relationship. That was…he hadn't meant to do that. Winn stood up from where he'd been adjusting the new mouse. "You'd cheat."
"I would never," The guilty grin said otherwise.
He shook his head, "We'll figure something out. And hey, maybe try not to break another mouse?"
"I can't help it! Why does everyone have to talk about Supergirl like…like…some idiot floozy?" She waved sharply at the screen displaying the crummy iphone video footage of Supergirl and Quake on top of the billboard.
Winn would admit on pain of death, that the two of them did look kind of first datey up there. But the idea of Kara letting some evil villain seduce her was stupid. Sure, Quake might be intending to do that, but it was Kara. Just because she was too quick to give chances to people didn't mean she was stupid. And, he wasn't sure, but if Kara went for a girl, he had a strong feeling it would be someone a lot closer to home. Someone with a propensity to jump out of windows to save innocent PAs. "They'll get over it, hey have you seen the parkour videos that are starting to come out?"
"The what?" Kara asked.
He grinned, grabbing her mouse and clicking onto YouTube. "Oh yeah, apparently it's becoming a challenge to see if people can pull off the maneuver Daisy did when she saved you. Only like, closer to the ground and not forty stories up. It'll be a full trend by next week if this keeps up."
So maybe he'd been a bit of a crap friend, he could do better, and at least someone had been there for Kara when the rest of them probably should have. He didn't think he'd be able to dislike Daisy even if he wanted to for that. Not that he did.
////
Daisy was painting her nails a dark purple as she sat burled on one end of Kara's couch, it was a comfy couch, even if she was happy not to be sleeping on it anymore. She looked up as Kara walked in, the door shutting a bit too hard behind her. It rattled the apartment. Daisy raised a brow. "Ms. Grant that bad?"
"Did your plan have to involve everyone thinking Quake was seducing Supergirl?" Kara yanked her glasses off.
Her brow rose further up her face, "Oh, she's really not taking it well."
"She called it 'Canoodling with Evil'," Kara admitted, hands waving with angry frustration.
Daisy snorted, "That's too good!"
"It's terrible!" Kara grabbed a throw pillow and chucked it at her.
Her powers deflected it easily before it could hit her in the face instead of grabbing it, didn't want to mess up the nail polish. "Want me to make it go away, or want to bitch about terrible media trends?"
"I'd feel better if you repeated why you're creating this media nightmare again?" Kara dropped onto the other end of the couch, looking absolutely wrung out.
Daisy screwed the brush end of the nail polish back on. "Supergirl needs to be humanized because you're not going to be the perfect untouchable paragon they want you to be. And it's wild to have them think about you that way. Like, you should get a little mercy, even if you're a hero."
With a groan, Kara nodded, pulling the clip out of her hair, letting it spill down. "I hate it."
"I mean, I could stop flirting with you, put some distance between Supergirl and Quake? It'd be a little less effective, but we could make it work." Daisy offered, she'd need to play up the fact she was closer to human than alien by this world's standards sooner and harder, but it wouldn't be impossible.
Kara shook her head, "No, thank you for the offer though." She looked at her, "You do that, a lot."
"What?" Daisy tipped her head slightly.
"Listen, tell me what you're doing, involve me in deciding things, ask what I want." Kara offered, sounding tired.
Daisy leaned forward and touched Kara's knee, careful not to smudge polish on Kara's slacks. "I know how much it sucks to be out of the loop. And your world, yeah?"
Kara stared in faint disbelief. "You live here now too, it's not just my world."
"Guess it is," Daisy smiled softly, it didn't quite feel like home, not that she was entirely sure what that felt like. She'd never had it for long without it being ripped away. She was tired of chasing after the shreds of it long after she should have stopped. But maybe, for a while, this place could be a kind of home. "Which, want to help me put together some bookshelves after dinner? They got delivered while I was on my lunch today."
Kara beamed. "That sounds fun! Oh, we're doing game night on Friday?"
"Uh, guessing that involves more people than just us?" Daisy ran through the names she knew of in Kara's life, she could guess at who it meant.
Sure enough, Kara nodded, "Winn, James, Lucy, and us. It'll be fun!" She looked happy, "We haven't done one in over a month, so it'll be super great!"
And Daisy couldn't help softening at the just joy Kara felt at the idea of spending time with her friends. "So what kind of games are we going to play?"
Chapter 15Notes:Yo!
Chapter TextKara was comfortable, very cozy, and snuggly. She really didn't want to move, why did she have to wake up? The warm humming buzz just felt like a hug, so did the arm around her waist. Her eyes cracked open, wait…Kara froze as she realized exactly the position she was in because she was on the couch, or, on top of Daisy who was on the couch. Her face flushed, they'd fallen asleep watching movies Daisy's world hadn't had.
The last thing Kara remembered was the wheel fight in the second Pirates movie. She was pretty sure she'd been using Daisy's shoulder as a pillow at that point? It kind of explained how they'd ended up tangled up on the couch, though the blanket over her, said Daisy'd been somewhat awake for part of that process. She wasn't now. Kara barely kept from squeaking as she realized Daisy was purring. It was adorable, and Daisy looked younger when she was sleeping. Or maybe actually looked her age?
She untensed, it was fine, though she couldn't help the embarrassed flush at realizing she'd drooled on her friend's shoulder. Kara had fallen asleep on the couch enough times with Alex to know there was no way out without waking Daisy up. Especially considering Daisy had an arm wrapped protectively around Kara's waist. Floating up and off wasn't an option. She could see the clock, there was still time before the alarm would go off. It'd be weird to just go back to sleep on top of Daisy, wouldn't it? Even if it was comfy, and she didn't want to stop the barely audible purring sound. "Daisy."
Daisy went from asleep to awake in less than a beat of her too-fast heart. It was funny how different it was from how Alex woke up. Daisy didn't go tense, there wasn't alarm, she stayed loose, but her breathing barely changed, her eyes just snapped open. She stared at her for a second, and then yawned, "Morning."
"I didn't squish you?" Kara asked, she carefully climbed off of Daisy.
Daisy just stretched sitting up, "You're fine," She ran a hand through her mussed hair. She smiled, it was sleepy but fond, "I'm sturdier than your average bear."
Kara shook off the reference in Daisy's words that she didn't recognize. "I forget that sometimes." She didn't, not really. It was more, she felt afraid of harming the people around her. It was ingrained in her, to be careful.
"Oh, we're up before the coffee," Daisy yawned, walking over to the kitchen, easily getting it going with practiced motions.
Kara scanned the contents of her cupboards, "We have time for pancakes?"
"You're so perky in the morning." Daisy blinked slowly at her before looking over at the clock on the microwave. "Sure, pancakes, there's time for me to get through tai chi first though."
Kara smiled, it was a thing she knew about Daisy's morning routine. "Sorry for getting us up early."
Waving absently, Daisy silently padded over to the more open area by the window, smoothly falling into a stance, her eyes closing as she began the slow water-like movements of tai chi. It was really peaceful to watch her. A thing Kara'd done more than one morning.
This morning, however, she pulled out the pancake mix and started getting it ready. Pancakes were something she could do. Kara grabbed the eggs out of the fridge, it was early, but she didn't feel tired, maybe because she'd slept well, or maybe because the warm rays of a beautiful day were just beginning to pour through the windows. She hummed along to a song as she worked.
Kara had the first four pancakes on a plate and was pouring the batter for the next round when she felt more than heard Daisy sliding onto one of the stools at the kitchen island. It was funny, she was starting to expect how Daisy would do things. Kara grabbed the already-poured mug of coffee and passed it over. "More awake?"
"Hmmm." Daisy closed her eyes, breathing in the smell of her coffee. "You didn't have to do all the cooking."
Kara turned around going back to work before she burned anything, "You're always making dinner, it's only fair."
"No complaints from me," Daisy quietly drank her coffee before speaking. "It's probably going to mean more takeout, but I was thinking of trying some Chinese recipes this week. If you don't mind the risk?"
Kara glanced at her, "I love Chinese food, and I'll pick up the pizza if it takes you a few tries." She felt a pang at the expression on Daisy's face. "Have you cooked Chinese food before?"
"Uh, no." Daisy shifted slightly, "But my mom was from Hunan and it kinda feels like something I should at least try to learn?"
Oh.
Kara lifted the pan off of the burner and set it aside before walking straight to Daisy and hugging her friend. "I think that's a great idea."
Daisy made an amused huffing noise but hugged back. "Thanks. If I ruin more cookware, feel free to yell at me."
"Never," Kara tightened her hug because she could do that with Daisy, really hug her. She did have to pull away though, breakfast, and it was weird to just hug your friends for too long.
Daisy had a warm smile as she watched her before shaking her head slightly. "So, I'm not on shift today, I can dig through LuthorCorp files. Hopefully, make progress on tracking Cadmus's financials."
"And once you have the financials you can see who is getting that money because that would be leadership, yes?" Kara checked. It was really interesting how Daisy laid out the investigation. And Kara might not have done much of use, yet, but she'd be able to if she understood what was going on.
Daisy made a sound of agreement, "Money, leadership, and find the main hubs. From there we can gather evidence of them being evil assholes before figuring out how to rip it out."
"Rip out?" Kara flipped pancakes.
Daisy ran her fingers through her hair. "Organizations like Cadmus just burrow deeper underground if you let them. And with how weird this planet is about aliens, we need to drag the hate out into the public and let them deal with cleaning up their own mess. You or I are not going to just fix anti-alien sentiment. We can help, but that's so far beyond what any one person can do it's wild."
Kara wasn't sure if she found that statement a relief or frustrating, maybe both? "We can try."
"Yeah, we'll fight that fight even if it's not one we can win." Daisy's quiet resolve was confident and settled. There wasn't a question that she meant it.
It was warm and left Kara so very glad that Daisy was here with her. "Fighting for what's right, to protect people is always worth it."
"Yeah, it is." Daisy agreed.
Kara was ahead on her work for Ms. Grant, it helped superspeed made the endless errands less time-consuming. And as long as Ms. Grant had her Lexapro, a constant stream of lattes, and cheat lunches her temper was manageable. Mostly, not really, but manageable in that she was only getting yelled at a few times a day and the endless fetch jobs. For a human, it probably would be exhausting.
She clicked on the tab she had open about Hunan China. It wouldn't leave her, the thought that Daisy and Kal had it in common. Not much, but they'd both been raised away from their family, their culture, everything, and that it was sad. Kal had never wanted to know much about who he was, what his heritage was, what being a Kryptonian meant. And it was different, Daisy was still raised on the same planet as her heritage, and clearly understood the alien part of her. But it mattered that Daisy hesitantly wanted to know about what she hadn't had. And it was more attainable than what Kara and Kal had lost. It was something Kara could actually help with.
Or, well help in her own small way. And it was just constantly Daisy helping her. So, Kara was looking at cookbooks at the store down the road that was on the right kind of Chinese food. Because abstractly she'd been aware China was huge and different regions had different food and things, but it was kind of staggering now that she was looking into it. Apparently, Hunan cuisine was considered one of the Eight Great Traditions of Chinese cooking. Which at least was making finding cookbooks for it not as hard as expected, but still kinda ridiculous finding a store in National City that had them listed on their website.
"Did you get banned from the Chinese place?" James asked with a chuckle.
She startled slightly, she twisted to look up at him, "What, no? Oh! I was thinking Daisy might like one since she's learning how to cook and all." It felt wrong to say why Daisy might want a cookbook on the topic.
"Is she Chinese American then?" He asked curiously, leaning over her shoulder to see the list of cookbooks on her screen.
It prickled as not quite right, but Kara wanted her friends to like Daisy. "Yes, and I thought it might be nice to get her a cookbook from the part of China her mom was from. That's not too much, right?"
"No, that sounds very thoughtful," He sounded warm, he always did, like a big hug in voice form if that made any sense. "We could maybe see if any of Winn's martial arts films are something she'd like if you want." James frowned, "Do you know what dialect she speaks, or I suppose if she speaks one?"
Kara leaned back in her chair. Well, that was a question, "I'm not sure, what dialect do they speak in Hunan?"
"I have no idea," James admitted.
////
Daisy had left her programs pulling the documents she needed, and was swinging by the alien bar. Which was called Al's Dive Bar, apparently. She waved at Kevin who was doing something to the jukebox, as she walked towards the bar. "Hey, M'gann, do you have a minute?"
"Depends on what you need to ask." The woman turned away from the man she'd been talking to over a clipboard.
The man looked up, "New to Earth?"
"Sorta spent the last couple years off-world, but was born here actually." Daisy held out her hand, "Daisy Johnson."
"Al Crane, owner of this dump, and welcome back to Earth." He looked like any bald trucker in America, it was endearing really. "If you don't mind my asking, what system do your people hail from?"
Daisy hesitated, "I'm not just one species."
"That's rare, let me guess, you have some Daxamite in you?" He had a curious gleam.
She laughed, "No, how'd you get that?"
"Well shucks, and you pass as human, and Daxamites were famous for getting around with other species." He shrugged good-naturedly, "And from how M'gann is reacting she can't read you so you must be resistant to psychic abilities. Which is rare, she can read every one."
Daisy couldn't help tensing at that, her eyes flicking to M'gann. "You can read minds?"
"Not yours," M'gann admitted. "I can feel it's there, but you and your friend aren't readable."
She gave a faint nod, the crawling unease fading, "Must make your job easier?"
"Oh it does, she's the best at discrete service." Al clapped M'gann on the shoulder. "So, how far off was I?"
Daisy forced herself to ease, if she ever wanted to know what drinks would kill her and which wouldn't, she would need to mention her species anyway. "My dad was human, my mom's people you could say were from Hala and tend to look a bit blue."
M'gann's eyes widened slightly, while Al choked, "Kree, you're Kree?"
Daisy shrugged a half-shoulder, "They don't consider me one of them, and I have yet to meet one who isn't a dick."
"Well that's something," Al's face was kind. "Most of us are running from something, you're welcome here."
Daisy flicked a brief smile at him, "Thanks, but running from a fight isn't really my style." She reached into her jacket and pulled out the bar of gold and set it on the counter. "And you could say Nazis and I don't get along, know anyone I can pay a seller's fee for helping me get rid of some of this stuff?"
"I might, how hot is this?" Al had gone entirely serious, setting his clipboard aside.
She shook her head, "It's not hot, the issue is getting rid of a large amount of gold is attention-grabbing. I think you can get why I'd want to avoid that. And if I'm going to have to pay someone to help, I'd rather do it inside the community."
"It would have to be recast, they're identifiable," Al said as he stroked his chin, and he was def a middleman like she'd thought. Shitty bars didn't generate enough cash to keep something like this functioning. At least not long term.
Daisy picked up the bar, turning her hand over so that it was above her palm, and then she closed her eyes. Heating and reshaping metal was…difficult. Or, it took concentration, she hadn't done anything like it a lot. Knowing she could do it in theory and doing it in life were two different things. But well, she'd figured out all of her powers while on the spot. Breathing out, her eyes opened and she set a perfectly smooth golden plate on the counter. "What shape attracts the least attention?"
"That's not a Kree skill," Al whistled looking up at her from the plate. "But alright, I can work with that. Can you put them into one-ounce bars?"
She nodded, "I can do that, what kind of rate are we talking?"
Al's smile looked distinctly shark-like. "After my guy and I take our cut, one of those bars will get you a thousand."
"Funny, see I googled the value of high-quality gold before I came here, and that's a thousand for you, a thousand for me. Doesn't seem entirely fair, does it?" Daisy met his eyes and ignored it as M'gann went to go deal with backstock. Negotiations were always fun. She grinned.
Daisy was one gold bar lighter, a thousand dollars richer, and would be seven hundred more once Al'd found a buyer, if this worked out. "Nice doing business with you, Al."
"Same to you," He pointed at her, a certain levity to it, but also seriousness, "It better be as cold as you're saying."
She tipped her head, "I wouldn't lie about this. I gave you my actual name."
"I believe you, mostly." Al grabbed two beers from the fridge beneath the counter, popping their caps off passing her one, and holding his up. "To doing business?"
"To doing business." Daisy tapped the bottle against his. She took a swig, before saying anything else. "So what about you, which species are you?"
"I'm a Debstam, a plague wiped out our planet, there's not very many of us. Wouldn't blame you if you hadn't heard of us." He took a swig of his beer. "Not all of us are from infamous species."
Daisy reached out and pulled the clipboard over, it had a bottle order on it. She scrawled her cellphone number on the bottom of the sheet. She looked up at him, "Someone or something comes around trying to fuck with you or the people just minding their business, call me." She held his eyes.
He understood her meaning. If he was smart he wouldn't take her up on it. At least not for a while. He didn't know her after all, she wasn't established in the alien community. But it was important if he got desperate enough, he'd know she was offering. It was about stating her intentions, they'd believe it in time.
Al gave her the faintest nod, "I'll keep that in mind."
Daisy had a whiteboard she was sticking photos on and labeling names. The LutherCorp hack had been exactly on the money. It was pure gold intel-wise. Oh, it was all neatly obscured, but rooting through corporate shell companies for the ones talking to each other, the ones producing profit, and the ones producing the weapons was a skill, and it was one she'd been fantastic at at eighteen; now she was one of the best in the world at it. Hydra tactics weren't unique tactics after all.
Most of what she was finding wouldn't hold up in court, and if you weren't looking for it, would just look like sloppy disregard for the future of the company by a man losing his mind in his grudge match with Superman. Daisy could see the structure to it though, Cadmus was a cancer, and it was one LutherCorp and the Government had birthed together, and the scar tissue was where she knew to look for it. Given another year or two, the new CEO would have audited and cleaned up the mess. But right now? Lena Luthor was drowning in tanking stocks and had no idea what horrors to look for so she could prune them.
It was interesting though, Lena was killing programs left right, and center that were almost certainly Cadmus, but wildly missing others. Daisy wasn't a financial person exactly, though she'd been skimming corporate funds for SHIELD for years. But she was guessing the new Luthor was trying to staunch the loss of revenue like staunching blood and hadn't had two seconds to try and map out the internal face of the company. It was sloppy, either she was giving other forces time to get their ducks in a row before she severed the connections, or she wasn't aware of how deep the shit ran.
And there was a name on the directors' list of so many projects and shell companies that was ratcheting up Daisy's focus. Lillian Luthor, one or two Cadmus projects? Sure, almost all of them? Yeah, Daisy was flagging and noting down everything in the company with the bitch's name on it. The fact Lillian had spent the post-Lex trial time consolidating control of those areas instead of fighting with her daughter for the company itself was telling. Not that it wasn't possible, Lex, mommy, and sister were in on it; but she wasn't convinced. She was convinced Lillian was going to be an issue.
Daisy was getting a nice list of people and companies and shell companies and accounts to look into. With SHIELD resources and a few interns, she could have Cadmus neatly laid out in a week. Without that, it was going to take her closer to two and a half weeks to really have them measured out. It was slow but better to do it right and slow than miss something.
She was metaphorically elbow-deep in files when she felt Kara fly through the window. Her eyes didn't leave the screen, "Hey."
"Oh, wow, you found something?" Kara dropped her purse that hit the counter with a solid sounding thud.
Daisy hummed, "We were right, LutherCorp is involved with Cadmus, if I'm right they're the biggest backers of it." She passed the tablet she'd pre-loaded with financials, "Here, can you highlight every name listed on the financials for this shell company and then cross-reference it with the ones I've already done?"
"You think they're Cadmus?" Kara asked while accepting the tablet.
She nodded, "Part of maybe," Daisy looked up at Kara. "We map out who is connected, then we look into which ones of these are actually Cadmus. If we know which people and programs are linked, we know who to rule out, and who to take another look at."
"Like glitter, anyone who touched it gets it on them." Kara settled next to her on the new couch in Daisy's apartment.
Daisy leaned into the contact, it was weak of her. It wasn't like anything would ever happen there. She wasn't delusional, but also not above enjoying how touchy Kara was. "Exactly, And once we map out LutherCorp and its subsidiaries we can start mapping out who besides LutherCorp and the Army have their fingers in it."
"I'll order pizza," Kara started scrolling through the financials. "This is going to take a while, isn't it?"
"Probably, and sorry for not making dinner, I kind of forgot." Daisy actually kinda felt guilty about being reminded of it. "I kinda forget about food sometimes."
Kara handed her the tablet, "Hold that." She zipped off the couch and back, fast. As she settled back she neatly took the tablet back, setting it beside her on the couch. "No idea how you forget to eat, but I got you something."
Daisy smiled, focusing on Kara, setting her laptop aside. "You didn't have to do that."
"I wanted to," Kara pulled a book out of her purse pressing it into Daisy's hands.
She looked down at the cover, "Xiang Cuisine." Daisy slowly opened it, "You got me a Chinese cookbook?" She couldn't help the way she felt warm and fuzzy as she looked at it.
"Yes, or it's a cookbook of the food from Hunan." Kara nudged her gently, "I thought you might want to start there if you didn't already have one."
Daisy's throat felt tight as she looked up from the book that suddenly weighed so much more. "Thank you, this is…really great." So Kara was kinda awesome, and if she was anyone else, Daisy would have done something about it. But it wouldn't be fair. She was a lot of things, but forever wasn't one of them. "So, any chance potstickers are Xiang Cuisine?"