Daniel returned home in the evening. As for Caitlin, they'd decided to keep her in the Pipeline for the time being.
He wasn't thrilled about adding another problem to the growing list of things happening around him, but at least she was contained and nobody else was in danger.
He was about to open the front door when he noticed the gates were still open.
He looked back.
Clark was walking up the driveway, breathing heavily. Not injured, but exhausted, moving with an effort Daniel had never seen from him before.
"Clark?" He stared at him. When did the Man of Steel start looking like he just ran across the country?
Clark stopped a few feet away, catching his breath. "Daniel... finally found you." Another breath. "And why is your house all the way out here? I couldn't even get a taxi to come this far."
Daniel frowned. "Clark, are you all right?"
"Something's wrong."
"What happened?"
"My powers." Clark looked down at his hands. "They're gone."
Daniel's mouth twitched as he raised a hand and scanned him head to toe. "Your powers are gone? As in completely gone?"
"Yes."
He lowered his hand, studying him more carefully. "Strength?"
"Nothing."
"Heat vision?"
"Nothing."
"Super hearing?"
"Normal."
"How long?"
"I noticed it earlier today. Thought it'd come back. It hasn't."
Daniel glanced toward the house. "All right. Come inside. We need to figure out what happened."
Clark explained everything from the start — waking up powerless, then seeing another man wearing the Superman suit on the news.
Daniel watched the footage as he listened. "What the hell?"
The news showed the other Superman lifting a truck and flying off before the camera lost him.
Clark looked at Daniel. "Can you make sense of any of this?"
"No. You're standing right here, but there's another guy using your symbol and apparently doing the same job. I don't know how that's possible."
"Could someone copy my powers?"
"Maybe, but I don't know anyone who could just copy everything you can do. And if this were some kind of shapeshifter, that still wouldn't explain your powers disappearing."
Clark looked back at the television. "That's what worries me."
Before Daniel could respond, footsteps came from upstairs.
Kara walked in, rubbing her forehead, tired, and stopped when she noticed the two men by the television.
Her eyes settled on Clark. "Who's he?"
Daniel and Clark both looked at her. "What?"
She pointed at Clark. "Your friend?"
He stood slowly. "Kara, it's me."
She frowned. "Do I know you?"
"I'm Clark. Clark Kent."
She studied his face, clearly trying to place him. "I'm sorry. I don't think we've met."
Daniel stared at her. "Kara, this is your cousin."
"My cousin?"
"Yes. Clark Kent. Kal-El. The guy you've been calling your cousin since you came to Earth."
Her expression only grew more confused. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Clark looked at Daniel, then back at her. "Kara, you seriously don't remember me?"
She shook her head. "No."
Daniel went quiet. First Clark had lost his powers. Then someone else showed up on television as Superman. Now Kara couldn't even remember him.
He rubbed his forehead. "Okay. Something is seriously wrong."
Kara looked between Daniel and the stranger still insisting he was her cousin, saw the confusion on Daniel's face, and immediately assumed something was wrong with him instead.
"Daniel, are you all right?" she asked, stepping closer and taking his arm. "Did something happen earlier? You look exhausted."
He looked at her hand, then back at her face. No recognition there. Not even the slightest hesitation that would suggest she remembered Clark.
"No. Something is wrong with you," Daniel said quietly. "You don't even recognize your own cousin."
Kara frowned, unable to understand why he was saying that.
Before she could respond, footsteps came quickly down the staircase.
"You little steel bitch."
Harleen came down and spotted Daniel immediately, crossing the room and grabbing his other arm without sparing a glance at Clark or Kara.
Daniel looked from one woman to the other. Both had a grip on him, and neither seemed inclined to let go. The situation was already too much on top of everything else that had happened over the last few days.
His patience snapped.
"Shut up. All of you."
The force behind his voice shook the room. Several windows rattled violently before the glass shattered outward, fragments scattering across the floor.
Everyone went silent.
Daniel stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard, looking around at the broken windows.
He'd been dealing with the strange energy, Caitlin's transformation, the appearance of the other Superman, Clark losing his powers, and now Kara forgetting her own cousin.
He rubbed his forehead, trying to hold himself together. "Someone get me a new piece of mind. I'm already dealing with enough problems. I don't need this on top of everything else."
Clark stayed quiet, watching him carefully. Even he could tell Daniel wasn't joking or angry for the sake of it — he was genuinely exhausted by everything happening around him.
Daniel finally looked at Clark. "All right. Start again from the beginning. We're going to figure out what's happening to you, why there's another Superman, and why Kara doesn't remember you."
He glanced at Kara, then at Harleen. "And nobody touches me while we're doing it."
*****
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