Chapter Text
As it turns out, tracking down Kara Danvers has been a difficult task.
In the early morning, he took a seat at the Starbucks right across the street of her loft. Supposedly, he should be able to see her going through the front door of that building. But no, nothing whatsoever. After wasting two hours on a cup of latte, he found a live broadcast of Supergirl rescuing a kitten from the tree in some park at downtown (Really? How the job description of being a hero has expanded these days), which reminds him that if Kara is Supergirl she would be able to fly from her balcony for work. Huh, superpower is alreading giving him a headache.
Oliver quickly changed his plan and went to CatCo, monitoring exit of the company. Sure, Supergirl might be able to go in and out via other pathways without notice, but a normal employee will need to check in and out as a record. This time his effort does pay off. Kara Danvers going out for lunch, accompanied by a familiar face that looks like her colleague, or friend, or maybe both, as it seems like the two are having an enjoyable chat. A brief review of his research reminded him that the man is James Olsen, used to be Superman’s official photographer and even won a prize for it, moved from Planet Daily in Metropolis to CatCo here at National City a year ago, right around the time of Supergirl’s first appearance. Seeing the way these two hung out together during lunch time, he doubts whether that could have been pure coincidence.
Following their trail into the cafeteria, Oliver found a seat next to their table and ordered himself a sandwich, observing the two from the corner of his eyes. Danvers has ordered a suspiciously large amount of food (a combo set meal plus a few cakes and else), with consideration to her size, reminding him of Barry, who once mentioned something about having to eat special-designed protein bars for extra calories to compensate for the energy loss of super speed. Their relaxed gestures, genuine smiles and the casual way they talk indicates that they are definitely friends. He couldn’t hear their talk clearly, but from the scattered words he’s collected, they are probably talking about Danvers’ struggles with her work as a reporter. So, unlike Oliver’s cover-up job as owner of Verdent or CEO of QC, she does take the job seriously. Now that is an interesting note.
Thirty minutes later, they have left the cafeteria, apparently going back to work. Oliver followed suit, and realized that Danvers was not exactly going back to CatCo. Right, reporters can hardly get a story if they stay inside the office all the time. A perfect opportunity for him. Going inside CatCo will require extra efforts but following her trail on the street would be much easier, ARGUS’ training happened to include some useful tricks as well, and the League did teach him something about how to stay a low profile. He kept a safe distance, and avoided sticking his eyes on her at all time, instead observing her directions from reflections on the windows. So far, she doesn’t seem to have noticed the fact that she’s being followed. Probably no hypersensitivity for Krytonians then.
A few moments later, she picked up a call, looking worried, and rushed her way to a nearby alley. Oliver alerted himself and quickly followed. However, by the time he has gotten into that alley, there is no sign of Danvers left anymore. Of course there aren’t, Oliver has used similar tricks to change his gear after all. He quickly scanned around the alley for any trace left, and surprisingly picked up Danvers’ purse alongside her clothes and her glasses in a paper bag, placed right behind the bunch of bricks placed at the corner of the wall. The whole discovery got him speechless for a few seconds. He has definitely expected her to be… how to put it, more discreet. Then again, considering his research on Barry in his first few months, this shouldn’t come as a total surprise.
He quickly went through the things in that purse, nothing out of ordinary for a reporter, no clue here then, and put things back the way they were. He contemplated for a few seconds, whether to leave now before Supergirl gets back – he has no idea how she actually operates, for all he knows Barry is capable of running a circle around the city and get back by now, Supergirl probably had some business to attend to but god knows how quick she’d be back, or not at all. Oliver rubbed his forehead and signed, deciding to go back to his temporary base and approach Danvers tomorrow. Things would become complicated if he was caught spying on Danvers, though he sincerely hopes that Danvers wouldn’t happen to be on her way back right now. Two minutes later, on his way picking up dinner from Big Belly Burger, a tumblr post regarding Supergirl helping with a conflagration pumps up his phone screen. So, that was the business.
Despite constantly losing trail of Danvers, today has been rather fruitful. He is now certain that Kara Danvers is Supergirl. However, the most challenging part has yet to come. He has to approach her, reveal what he knows about her without being too suspicious – people tend not to appreciate being observed or investigated unknowingly – and gain her trust when his origin is ridiculously unscientific and unrealistic.
The next day, he grabbed a seat at the cafeteria, patiently waited for Danvers’ appearance while doing some further research on the aliens. Aliens. John would totally freak out if he heard about this. He needs to be prepared, this information could really come in handy if one decides to show in Starling someday. Who knows. Although he genuinely hopes that the day will never come.
A while later, Danvers showed up. Even better, this time she is alone. She seems to be in a good mood, hopefully that will make their little talk that is going to happen easier. Kara Danvers might seem like an easy-going type of girl, but people in this line of work do not usually appreciate secret identity being called out by a stranger, even for Barry. Oliver ordered a cup of ice latte and casually walked towards her, as if he was on his way out. This will be his final test on Supergirl’s identity and a solid evidence for their later discussion – he could plant his suspicion on her super-reflex instead of revealing his not-so-legal personal investigation.
At the very moment the two passes by each other, Oliver deliberately dropped his cup of latte. Not surprisingly, being a friendly passer-by superhero, Danvers caught it in time without a tiny bit of spill, and handed the cup back to him. That was a great start, here goes the harder part.
He took back the latte and put on his most charming smile.
“Thank you so much, Miss Danvers. Nice reflex you’ve got there.”
Danvers startled a bit and quickly calmed herself down, apparently, she does not seem to appreciate his compliment. Understandable. “Uh, thanks? My friends say the same thing.” Someone should get her a few drama classes, the unnecessary elaboration on her super-reflex has worked the exact opposite way. “I’m sorry, do I know you…?”
“Oliver Queen, nice to meet you. We haven’t met, I’m a friend of Barry Allen.” Closely observing her reaction, Oliver dropped another bomb. It would be unwise to talk about Flash in public, and based on his knowledge about Barry, he would have been open enough to reveal his identity – not that the information means much to others on this reality. Danvers looks surprised, obviously taken aback by the mention of Flash’s real name via some stranger. “May I have five minutes with you in private?” He pushed, keeping his sincerest smile on.
Maybe it’s the mention of Barry’s name, or his smile. She quickly collected herself and agreed with a delightful gesture.
“Yes, of course. Kara Danvers, but you already know that. You can call me Kara.”
Well, that went better than he has anticipated. Before he could decide where to begin, Kara’s next question caught him off-guard.
“So, Oliver, as in, the vigilante Oliver in… hmm, Star City?”
A surge of surprise ran through his spine, Barry has talked to her about him. He could sense some unsureness in her last word, indicating that they did not talk much about him. Supposedly, he’s first instinct is to be annoyed for revealing his identity to someone else behind his back, even in a different reality. Yet, there is a part in him that’s grateful for that it happened, Barry has just made this whole thing so much easier.
“Starling City. Barry told you about me?” He blinked, didn’t attempt to hide his surprise.
“Barry said you’ve gone missing a year ago. He misses you a lot. How did you get here?”
“It is one year for them.” He explained, what she’s just said reminded him of Barry and his team back in Starling. Hell, if Barry’s been told about it as well, he couldn’t imagine how Felicity and others would feel for losing him the third time in less than one year. “Long story short, a few days ago I stumbled into a portal and the next thing I know, I am here at National City, in a different reality, and ten months has passed without a blink.”
“I came to you because I saw Barry’s activities on the news, and that you and Barry teamed up before he disappeared. Do you know how he got back or…?” He quickly added.
“Wait, you know I’m Supergirl?” Maybe it’s the anxious look on him that worked, Kara did not pressure question, but turned to explanation. “Oh, OK. According to Barry and Winn – oh, Winn’s my friend, really good at IT” for a moment she sounds just like Felicity and Barry, no wonder they got along. “You and Barry come from another earth…”
He couldn’t help but interrupted, “I’m sorry, another earth?”
“Yes. The multiverse theory!” The multi- what now? He knew that Barry could travel through timeline, but this sounds way more crazy. Considering how many crazy stuff he has seen in the past eight years, this is definitely saying something. Oliver kept his thoughts to himself, and listened to Kara as she continues her explanation. “So, basically, there are different version of earths that occupies the same place in space, vibrating at different frequency, and if you are fast enough, you could open a portal between these earths and travel between them.”
Oliver doesn’t exactly understand the frequency and space part, but he was able to extract the part he needs. “So, this reality is another earth, and it was Barry’s speed that got him back.”
“Yes, you could put it that way. But…” she hesitated a moment, that couldn’t be good. “I’m not sure we could be able to repeat that. It took the combination of Barry and me to provide sufficient energy for that portal.”
“And I don’t have Barry’s speed force.” Oliver followed.
“Yes.” She looked at him with concerned eyes. “Don’t worry, Oliver, I can ask Winn about it. He’ll come up with something. He always does.”
***
One month ago, National City
“That was nice! I’ve always wanted to try a team-up but Clark has been occupied with his off-space businesses in the past year, alien diplomacy.” Sitting in a donut shop – Kara’s favorite – are the scarlet speedster and Girl of Steel, celebrating their victory with sugars and calories.
“Clark?” Barry asked, and a second later he came to realization. “Wait, do you mean…”
“Yep, he’s my cousin. Oh right, you’re not from around here. I sorta had an interview months ago as Supergirl, and accidentally slipped that, so it’s like a common knowledge on our earth now.” Kara explained with an embarrassing smile. She should have been more careful with Miss Grant.
“Don’t worry. You’ll get a chance in the future. Team-ups are the best.” The discussion brought up some nice memory and Barry chuckled.
“Wait, you’ve had team-ups back on your earth? Is it with another…” It took Kara a moment to recall the right word. “uh, metahuman?”
“No, they are just human. Sort of like a vigilante group in Star City. I helped them out once before the lightening struck me, uh, you know, the one which got me my speed, so we teamed up a few times after I became the Flash.” Barry took a bite of his donut, chocolate frosted, tasted really nice.
“Oh, vigilante! We also have one in Gotham. Clark worked with him once. Wears weird mask and uses voice changers, oh, and carries tons of gadgets.” Kara made a face, recalling the time Clark complained to him about how the vigilante has been uttermost unfriendly and unwelcoming. Still, she decided not to voice out her dislike for that vigilante, as Barry seems to be friend with theirs.
“Gotham! So Batman is real! Oliver always dismisses it as some urban myths made by up GCPD. He owes me ten bucks.” All of a sudden, Barry seems to be drawn in a wave of sorrow. “If I could ever get the chance to tell that to his face…”
“Oliver…? What happened to him?” Kara asked, sensing the sadness in Barry’s voice. She was not sure if she should bring up the topic, but since Barry was the one to mention, she decided to go along.
“Oliver was the one who built the vigilante team in Star City, he helped to train me when I first got my speed. Back in the days I was less cautious, relying too much on my speed and sometimes get over my head, you know, like you punching your way out because it’s easier. He helped me through a lot. He was always there for me. We’ve had our disagreements, but he’s no doubt a true hero. Oh, his also has a mask, I made it for him as a Christmas gift when I first learnt who he was. But he went missing a year ago, and we have not heard from him ever since.” Barry explained, clearly trapped in past memory. “Remember the names I mentioned when we first met? Red Arrow? ATOM? Arsenal?”
Kara nodded, vaguely recalling her confusion when Barry mentioned all those names.
“They are in his team, we called it team Arrow because he uses archery and people used to refer to him as the Arrow. They’ve rebuilt the team but… it feels different, without Oliver.” Barry trailed into bitterness and ultimately, silence. Kara does not know much about this Oliver vigilante, but she could imagine what would feel like if Clark or Alex went missing.
“I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been hard.” She offered her condolence. “Hopefully one day he will come back to you.”
“Thank you, Kara. He’s cheated death before.” Barry smiled bitterly, clearly not holding up much hope. “At least this time he was only missing.”