Hmpfhmmm....
Adbssss....
Iuhm....
Muffled voices raged on around me, swirling uncontrollably as my senses tried to focus and come back into place.
"She deliberately..."
"....no one's fault..."
"Please..."
I achingly managed to open my eyes and the whole world was out of focus. All I could vividly make out were the colors red and blue. Which really means it could belong to any hero on planet earth beside any member of the Bat family...
I let out a slow groan and a ringing erupted within my head as all the voices around me fell silent.
Talk about a horror movie moment, I painfully think to myself.
"A..argh...l-light..." I weakly mumble as I tried to lift my hand to block the piercing rays of light that was a minor source for my headache.
Instantly something huge, dark and warm covered my eyes and I let my hands fall to my sides as I sigh in relief. I was about to be lulled back to sleep when I heard-
"You can't honestly expect to put all the blame on her, right?" The voice sounded like it belonged to Nightwing but my headache screamed otherwise.
"And who would you say is responsible for all this?" Batman-I think-answered darkly.
"It was a team effort-" I heard M'gann try to argue but got cut off by Nightwing saying,
"I was responsible." He stated ever so confidently. "I was the leader, I was incharge. Whatever accidents occur is therefore my own fault."
"Nightwing, please..." M'gann tried to reason.
"M'gann." I hear a voice like Superman's gently call. "Can you please try to read Kara's mind to see if she's fully awake?"
"I'm sorry, Superman" M'gann replied soft and sweetly. "But any type of mental link I try to establish with her now could seriously damage her mind at this point," She calmly explained.
"Besides," she continued. "I even think she's even waking up..."
As if on cue I move to give some validity to her statement. I reach up to take hold of the object that had been placed on my face, which I'd assumed was a towel, but turned out to be a hand. A very muscular one.
I tried to sit up but the world danced around me.
"Feeling better?" I hear Dick's voice say, as the first thing to come into focus for me was his gentle smile.
I reach up my other hand and hold onto my forehead as a sharp pain went through it and I grunt in retaliation.
"Easy now," Clark said as he raced forward to give me a surface to rest my aching head on, that surface being his chest. Hey! I'm not complaining, it's sturdy and at the moment isn't spinning into a black hole.
"You suffered a direct hit of powered kryptonite disguised as a tank bullet. Once you inhaled it, it attacked your nervous system and tried to cause some serious damage" Clark explained.
"But luckily your sacrifice saved the bioship and allowed us to escape!" M'gann interjected excitedly. Such a pure sweet soul, too bad I'd already heard what Batman had said earlier.
I peek to my side and catch a glimpse of the man in questions unreadable expression. I quickly avert my gaze and glanced down at my hand...which had evidently been holding onto Nightwing's this entire time!?
I try not to let my head explode as I realize that it was Nightwing who had used his hand to cover my eyes when I complained about the light, and I had accidentally been holding on to his hand since I moved to remove it from covering my eyes.
Nightwing noticed that I had caught sight of out joint hands and with a soft smile he gently squeezed my hand reassuringly. Unbeknownst to him he just sent my heart into overdrive.
"Hm? Kara?" Clark questioned as he slightly leaned away from me. "Why is your heart rate accelerating and increasing blood flow through your body?"
AAAAAAGHHHGHKKKKK!!!
In my desperate attempt not to panic as a result of Superman ratting me out, I calmly say, "To t-try and flush out as much powered kryptonite that remains inside me!"
Miraculously, everyone seemed to buy it.
"I still feel some residual grogginess in my head, so I think the last remaining bulk is hidden somewhere up there" I also add. Which IS true, by the way.
"Hmmm, yes. I do hear and see excessive pounding in that area..." Clark said upon closer inspection to my head, which I then assumed he used supervision/X-ray vision on.
You could've STARTED with stating the pounding headache to save me the mini heart attack by almost trying to expose me, you dult! I internally scream.
"No better way to get gunk out of your head then with fresh air, right?" Nightwing offered.
"Great idea!" Superman praised. "We can even get some much need sun ray into your system!"
Nightwing sounded a little too eager to get me out of the room, but hey, I wasn't going to question it. I wanted to get as far away from Batman as I possibly could right now.
"All right then. You guys go do that while I finish up our debriefing with Batman," Nightwing said. "Why don't you go with them as well M'gann?" He also offered.
M'gann look incredibly uneasy from the entire situation and circumstances but she ultimately caved in and followed me and Superman out the door.
Clark had his arm wrapped around me, basically carrying my entire weight as we made our way out the door with M'gann right behind us. Before we could even make it down the corridor I could already hear muffled voices arguing. I stopped myself from using my super hearing to listen in on what they were saying.
I hate it when people fight, it always made me uneasy. Ever since I was a small Kryptonian child, I could never stand the sight of two people arguing. It always sickened me and always ended up making me sad, plus depending on the intensity of the argument I could end up crying.
"Oh God, no..." I reach up a hand and cover my face.
"What?! What's wrong!?" Clark said in a panic. "Are you hurt? Did I hurt you!?"
"Oh what!? No!" I say hastily, "No no, I just had a very embarrassing memory from back when I was on krypton," I shyly explain.
"Really!? Tell me!!!" Clark said very enthusiastically, quiet nearly almost dropping me. I'd forgotten just how much he loved hearing stories from home. When I first landed on Earth he made me tell him stories about Krypton non-stop for two whole weeks!
"It was just this random memory that hit me back when I was 4 years old," I lift my freehand up and cover my face in embarrassment. "Mom and Dad were arguing about whether to use blue or red plates on the dining room table, and here I was sitting on the kitchen floor bawling my eyes out."
"Why were you crying?" M'gann asked with a hint of humor in her voice.
"Because I was a dumb kid who could not understand the concept of grown-ups having misunderstandings," I answer her with such shame seeping from my voice. "I just simply hate people arguing. Always have, always will."
A look of concern quickly took over M'gann's face.
"You don't have to worry about Batman and Nightwing," she tried to reassure me. "They always have argueme-discussions like this," she quickly tried to correct yourself. "I'm sure everything will be fine!" She finally says with a hint of cheerfulness in her voice.
"I hope so," I mumble under my breath.
I looked over and glanced at Superman, who had actually not been paying attention this entire time.
"I wish I could have seen it," I heard him mumble under his breath.
He was obviously talking about Krypton. He always talks about how he wished he at least grew up there or had a childhood there so he could remember the people and culture he never got to experience. He says that all that he has left of his home world is me which is why he treasures me very dearly. It was a little awkward and sappy to hear at first, but he is my cousin and I do love him and he's the only person I have left in this world.
I can only imagine how he must have felt all these years believing he was the last of his kind and all alone in the universe. Which is why I sometimes don't blame him from his overprotective tendencies.
I give him a warm smile and gently try to hug him with as little energy as I had.
"I love you Kal-El" I say to him softly.
His head quickly whips around and turns to me in mild shock, but then the features and expressions on his face softened as well, as he smiled down to me and says, "I love you to Kara, so much."
M'gann has expertly allowed herself to fall behind us a few feet as she allowed us have this intimate moment between ourselves. I looked over and saw the huge vast expansion of space through several giant windows, which indicated to me that I must be up in space on the Watchtower.
I managed to tear my gaze away from the wondrous site of space as I walked/allowed Clark to carry me down the hallway.