Chapter 15

Kara approached the door at a slow pace, she could hear Krypto barking inside the house and Kal-El talking with his mother, her steps faltered as she thought of that, would they like her?

She still found it hard to conciliate Superman, THE hero, with her little cousin, the same baby she had held in her arms and swung around before getting scolded by her uncle.

Quickly, she stopped paying attention to her increased hearing so as to give them at least some privacy, it wasn't an active power so she couldn't just turn it off, but she had learned to shift her attention towards something unimportant and whatever she didn't want to hear just faded into the background.

Finally, she turned to her companion.

Kon-El looked great, she hadn't managed to get him wearing formal clothes, but his wardrobe already included more than just superman t-shirts and she had managed to make him wear an elegant black shirt and jeans.

Kara took a moment to adjust his collar, then she combed his hair with her fingers, weaving them through his hair causing him to grumble, she just smiled.

"Did you have to do that?" He asked in an annoyed voice, an improvement from his constantly angry one, and tried to wave her hand away.

"Yes, yes I did." She laughed as she pulled the boy closer, "Come on, they're waiting for us."

Finally, she knocked at the door and felt some butterflies on her stomach.

"Don't worry, I'll get it." Said a male voice from inside, A few seconds later the door opened to an older man appeared, he looked at both of them smiled. "God, you really do look just like Clark, come on in."

"Excuse-me." Kara said and started walking inside when Krypto's white body flew right into her chest, the kryptonian dog actually made her take a few steps back as it licked her face causing her to burst out laughing.

Putting the dog down, Kara cleaned her face and stepped inside, Krypto having smashed through all the tension on her body.

"Thanks for having me." She told him as she walked inside.

"Nonsense, you're family." Martha called in from the kitchen. "Come in dear, I heard you liked my pie?"

"I did." She nodded.

Kon-El followed her inside, his head waving from one side to the other as if he couldn't believe where he was.

"Kara, Good to see you here." Kal-El appeared causing Krypto to immediately dash to his side; he scratched behind the dog behind his ear. "You know, I always dreamed of something like this happening."

Kara looked at him, there was a smile on his face and the usual tension was gone from his shoulders, his posture completely relaxed even as he briefly glanced at Kon-El, he really was at home here. Good.

"Kal-El." She greeted him with her own smile. "Hope we aren't late?"

"You know you can just call me Clark right, or Kal if you prefer." He said as he walked closer, taking a second to see she was feeling fine.

"I… Krypton wasn't exactly an informal place." She confessed sheepishly. "I have no problem with human names but, it just feels odd to use only first names for Kryptonians, I don't think I did that even for father."

"I see... well, you can take as much time as you want." Kal-El hugged her with a wide smile on his face, she managed to hug him back but soon pushed him away and glared at him causing him to tense, finally, he turned to the clone.

"Kon-El right? I…" taking a deep breath, he released a long, slow breath of air and laid a hand on Kon-El's shoulder. "I'm sorry for how I reacted on our first meeting; I hope you know you're welcome here."

"I… I am?"

Kal-El just starred, his eyes shifting away from the boy's with embarrassment, then, as he looked at Kon-El's face, filled with both hope and fear, he drew another breath and finally managed to smile, it was a true smile. "Of course you are, as Kara told you, you're family, now come on, help me put on the table."

Warping an arm around the boy, Kal-El pulled him further inside the house.

Kara just smiled as she saw the both of them walking together, then she looked to the side to see Jonathan smiling too, his face full of pride. "I'm glad to see the kid managed to get over it."

"You raised him right." She told him, then took both of his hands in hers and bowed her head. "Thank you, thank you so much."

For a second, the old man didn't seem to know how to react, then Martha poked her head out of the kitchen and scowled. "Jonathan Kent, what do you think you're doing treating the poor girl like that?"

"Ma, I just…"

"Come here girl, have you been eating well? You look a little thin."

With a smile Kara let herself be swept in the moment. Kon-El seemed almost completely lost as Kal-El and Jonathan started getting the table ready, a small, confused smile on his face while Kara started helping Martha prepare lunch by cutting vegetables.

Later, after she helped wash the dishes, they all sat on the porch and just talked, one of the cows on the farm was eating nearby and Jonathan pointed it out to them.

"They're used to it now, but you should have seen how confused the cattle were the first time the Kid lifted it up in the air as if it didn't weight anything." He joked, as he balanced himself on the chair. "His strength was still spotty back then and it slipped, dropped right on top of him and almost scared me to death."

"Was he hurt?" Kara couldn't help but ask.

"Only his pride, he wanted to show off so much and fell face first in the mud, I think we still have the picture I took." The old man laughed out loud. "I think he glared at that cow for a week later."

"Oh, pictures, can I see them?" She tried to disguise her eagerness but, by the looks on the old couple's face, she wasn't having much success.

"Of course, I'm gonna go get them." Martha said with unusual cheer and walked inside the house.

"Alright, I think that's my cue." Kal-El pushed himself up and looked at the farm. "Say Pa, you still wants that old tree gone?"

"Yeah, the new farmhand we hired killed the poor thing." Jonathan sighed with regret.

"Pa, you know you can always call for help, it wouldn't take me more than an afternoon to help."

"Ah, you're busy boy, plus it helps the local folk to hire from here." He waved... Kal off, Kal just shook his head and stretched his back.

Kara took a second to adjust her thinking, calling him Kal had felt so strange, to be so informal with another kryptonian. She still loved Krypton but she could admit it, the planet had been very cold.

"Come on Kon, help me out here." Kal called out causing Kon to almost jump out of his skin.

Kal was still a little uncomfortable with the boy, but he was trying, he really was.

Kon turned to her and Kara nodded with a smile causing him to jump to his feet and follow Kal, waving around the cows and further into the farm.

Jonathan waited until his wife was back before turning to her. "You know, we talked about it, but we wanted to hear your opinion first before we made it official."

"What?" Kara asked with curiosity.

"When Clark told us somebody made a clone of him we were surprised." Martha said as she handed her the picture album and sat besides her while looking around for the boys. "But we talked about it and are considering adopting the poor boy."

"If you agree of course?" The old man continued with a hurry.

Kara didn't know what to say, she had plans to get things ready for Kon, get him into school, find him a therapist to help develop his feelings and everything else, but she couldn't deny it felt… overwhelming.

Being sent to take care of Kal had also been overwhelming, but, at the time, the imminent destruction of her home world had left her numb, to the point she couldn't even think about it.

Could she let the Kent's raise another member of her family? What would her parents think of letting a human raise a member of the El house, again?

But… the Kent's had done such good job with Kal, could she be even half as good with Kon?

"Honey?" Martha called out as she laid a hand over her own causing Kara to turn towards her. "Honey, we know you just arrived on the planed, you're just getting your life in order. I know you want to take care of him, but we're here."

"And you don't have to stay out of his life you know." Jonathan said with a kind voice. "We can provide him with a human identity and a place to stay while you teach him about your planet."

Could that work? It was not like she couldn't fly here in less than an hour, from anywhere in the planet really.

In the end she nodded, Kon had the chance to have parents, real parents; she couldn't take that away from him. "If he agrees."

"Of curse Honey,"

Whoosh!

Attracted by the sudden noise, Kara turned her head to see a large tree flying up in the air and towards the horizon, a few seconds later, Krypto almost broke the sound barrier as he flew after it barking like mad.

"There they go again." Was all Jonathan said before completely ignoring the wooden missile.

"Boy's right?" Martha commented with a sigh.

Concentrating, Kara looked thought the cows to see Kal patting his hands with a satisfied smile while Kon was starring after the dog.

Then Krypto came flying back with the tree on his mouth, the enormous missile was so large he couldn't even see where he was going and smashed into the ground causing both Kal and Kon to wince.

The dog dropped the entire thing at their feet before flying around the both of them barking again, his tail wagging so fast it caused a small wind to blow on the grass.

With a laugh Kal pushed Kon towards the tree and nodded, Kon looked between the tree and the dog a few times, then his fingers found purchase on the wood, he lifted in up on his shoulders but Kal Stopped him.

"No, throw it point first to avoid air resistance, like this." The older man adjusted the tree on Kon's grip and nodded.

Whoosh! The remaining of the tree flew again, a little slower but still flying out into the sky for quite a few kilometers.

With an eager bark, Krypto flew after it.

Kara turned back to the older woman and nodded. "Boys."

"Now, let me show that time Clark decide he was the second coming of the Flash."

From the corner of her eyes Kara caught the sight of Kal stumbling on the empty field.

.

.

.

.

Kon decided to stay with the Kent's, they still had Kal's bedroom ready to receive the boy and, since he still wasn't certain what to do, Kara convinced him to try and stay with them instead of being alone on the mountain.

Together, she and Kal flew away from the farm and up towards space, they flew close together, so close that Kara managed to smile at him and speak.

"You may have redeemed yourself, but you know I'll still have to punish you for neglecting the kid, right?"

"What?"

"Yep, it's my prerogative as the older one." She nodded with a smile. "I get to punish you went you do something stupid."

"You're serious, but I…" Kal looked at her with amusement, then it became worry. "Wait, what kind of punishment?"

"I guess you'll find out."

"Kara…" he said in a warning tone but she ignored him. "Seriously, what kind of punishment?"

She just ignored him and accelerated quickly breaking through the clouds and further still, until their presence couldn't possible bother any planes, a second later Kal stopped beside her.

"Wanna make a stop at the fortress?" he invited, "I gotta leave something there first, but them we can stop on Metropolis for your documents, Batman left them with me."

"About that, did Batman talk with you about it?" She asked him with an uncertain voice, her face changing from amusement to a far more serious look.

"About what?" he asked back.

"I went to Cadmus after discovering Kon's existence." She scratched at her neck and decided to just say it. "There was a second clone Kal."

"What?" he just said with a stunned face, his body dropping a few centimeters in the air before his flight stabilized. "No, I searched the place."

"They made sure you and the Flash couldn't find it easily."

"What… what happened to it?" he asked, almost afraid to know.

"It was… a prototype, they couldn't get kryptonian, I left him on a healing chamber in the fortress, but it doesn't have the information needed to heal him."

They floated there in the air, Kal almost frozen between fury and horror, finally, he gathered himself and asked. "Is there anything we can do?"

"I'm looking into it, if you know a genius geneticist you can ask him." She said and took the chance to embrace him, he let her. "I can already thing of several people that could help, he's gonna be okay."

"I… I'll see if anybody can help." He said after a few minutes. "Will you be coming to the fortress with me?"

"You're still going?" Kara said surprised.

"Yeah," his voice had a newfound conviction as he starred down towards his home, and towards Kon, "I'm not running away from this anymore."

"Good," Kara released him and looked him in the eye. "You really make your parents proud, the two sets of them."

"Thank you, are you still coming with me?"

"No, I have a different meeting waiting for me in another hour."

"See you tomorrow then?" he asked and she nodded.

"I'll drop by your house to get my documents."

With that, they said their goodbyes and Kara watched Kal flying towards the fortress, his acceleration almost immediately breaking the sound barrier with barely an effort until he was beyond even her sight.

Kara sighed, if he continued to make her this proud she'd have to rethink her prank.

Putting on her mask, she followed his example, exploding into action, going from zero to a hundred in barely a second as she made her way towards New York.

It wasn't that she was in a hurry, or showing off. Even wounded she was just that strong, the only thing keeping her from flying faster was the atmosphere of the planet, the heat generated by the air resistance wouldn't actually hurt her, but it could hurt things around her.

Eventually, she lowered herself gently in front of a cemetery, a large, old house just beside it; it was at least four floors high, made of wood and looked almost like a castle.

Looking at the old monstrosity Kara thought it wouldn't be out of place in a Scooby Doo cartoon.

Approaching the front door she saw the sign that read, 'House of Mystery'.

Kara wasn't familiar with the name but she briefly wondered if it had anything to do with the 'House of Secrets' from DC. She didn't remember it correctly but there was an episode on the… first season? Where it had showed up.

Making sure nobody was watching her she took off her blank mask and made her way towards the house, then she climbed the wooden steps and knocked.

"Come in Miss Kara, your companion is already waiting for you inside."

Kara immediately activated her X-ray vision, her hackles were immediately raised when she couldn't actually see through the walls, they weren't coated with lead but, even with her vision activated, she could only see the wooden door in front of her.

With a tap of her finger, her radiation shielding went up and input a communication signal towards the device on her bedroom, it sent a pulse towards the device every two minutes revealing her location and, if it stopped transmitting for more than half an hour, it would alert the entire League with her last known location.

Finally, she took a breath and entered the house.

The man who received her was short, he had brown hair combed up as if to make two horns on each side of his head, he had a pair of small glasses and held an Oil Lamp on his hand.

"I'm sorry Miss Kara but I'm afraid the house current lacks electricity." The man smiled and waved her inside. "Still, I think we make do."

From inside the place was enormous, it's lavish wooden floors shone with care and there were large candles on the wall giving everything an orange light.

In the middle of the entrance there was a large set of stairs going up the first floor and, at both of its sides were three sets of doors leading inside the house.

Kara caught a glance from one of the open doors and saw an old woman carrying a tray of food towards someone in a bed, then she looked again.

The old woman's face had cracks in it from which she could see a dark shadow almost leaking, her skin seemed as grey as granite and Kara swore something moved under her wrinkles.

Kara gulped and started preparing herself.

"Please don't, dear Alice is terminally ill, I'd hate to bother her with your fight."

"But that's…" She said and shivered.

"Her housekeeper, her only desire is to heal." The man said and led her up the stairs, "A very interesting story that one, but we're here."

For some reason Kara believed the man, still, she dropped a couple of surveillance drones while he wasn't looking and sent them towards the room.

He opened the door to a huge room; there was a fireplace lit and a single occupant sitting on a comfortable seat, a large cigar in his mouth and half a bottle of alcohol resting at his side.

"Come in, it's good you've arrived early." He said and glanced towards the bottle. "I was trying to think of twelve good reasons not to finish the bottle, but could only come up with seven."

Kara walked inside the place and couldn't help but stare at the figure before her; he was large, much larger than she expected to tell the truth, he was also a chimpanzee, a talking chimpanzee wearing an old detective costume, cap and all.

"Go ahead, stare all you want, not like it hasn't happened before." The chimpanzee mumbled and took another eager glance towards the bottle.

"Sorry, I know it shouldn't really surprise me but…" Kara shrugged and took a seat beside the chimp.

It really shouldn't surprise her, she had seen stranger things since arriving on Earth.

"Story of my life." The chimp shrugged and dragged on his cigarette, then he spilled it out. "So, what did the furry send you here for?"

Even as he asked, the chimpanzee's eyes were taking everything in, paying very close attention to her body posture and reaction.

"Furry?" she tilted her head in confusion.

"Tall, dark, likes to pretend he's a bat." He said with a tired voice. "Should leave being an animal to those born into it if you ask me."

Kara snorted and relaxed back against the chair.

"Alright, I'm Kara Zor-El pleased to meet you." Kara said. "I'm in need of a team; I guess Batman thought you could help me with that?"

"Well, I'm not much of a hero mind you, but, if you have someone in mind, I can definitely find them for you." He said and finished his cigar before straightening his back, "Bobo T. Chimpanzee, but you can call me Detective Chimp. The Bat may be the best Human detective in the world, but I'm better, it's just fact."

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Big thanks to Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, Carlos Barba, Comics, Icewing and Eric Faust for supporting my work!

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