★彡[ a cat-astrophic beginning ]彡★

Alina Agreste always hated her life.

Not in a dramatic, existential-crisis kind of way. More in the sense that no matter what she did, she always felt like a piece on someone else's chessboard, moving around without a say in the game. Being the daughter of Alexander Agreste meant expectations, pressure, and an overwhelming sense of duty to a life she never asked for.

She wasn't just Alina Agreste, though. She was also Chat Noir, the city's most elusive vigilante, a title that carried its own burdens. There was something cathartic about slipping into the sleek black suit, leaving behind the suffocating weight of her father's legacy, and embracing the freedom that came with anonymity. Chat Noir was everything Alina couldn't be in her normal life—bold, reckless, untamed.

Tonight, though, she wasn't tangled in her father's affairs or scaling rooftops as Chat Noir. She was simply Alina, sitting in Jitters with two of the only people who truly understood her—Barry Allen and Kara Danvers.

"You're telling me," Barry said between bites of his burger, "that your dad wants you to model again? After you literally told him you have zero interest in the fashion world?"

Alina sighed, stirring her iced chai drink absentmindedly. "Correction: I've told him a hundred times. He just doesn't listen."

Kara frowned. "Does he ever suspect that you're hiding something? I mean, you disappearing at odd hours has to raise some questions."

Alina scoffed. "Please. As if he'd even care enough about me to notice my disappearances."

Barry and Kara shared a glance but didn't push this conversation further. Before Kara could change the topic, Barry's phone buzzed. He frowned, glancing at the caller ID before answering. "Hey, Cisco? What's up?"

Cisco's voice came through, laced with urgency. "Barry, I just picked up some seriously weird energy signals. Unknown radiation spikes emitting from an abandoned science lab facility. No records of any active experiments there, at least as far as I know."

Barry sat up straighter. "That sounds... not good. Location?"

Cisco sent them an address. Barry looked between Kara and Alina. "Wanna check it out with me?"

Kara nodded while Alina sighed, already knowing she wouldn't be finishing her drink. "Let's go."

In an instant, Barry grabbed Alina, and the world blurred around her as they sped off. Kara took to the skies, following above. Their suits materialised on their bodies mid-movement, nano-tech activating from the silver rings they wore. By the time they arrived at the facility, they were fully suited in their alter egos—Flash, Supergirl, and Chat Noir.

The facility was eerily silent, its interior bathed in dim emergency lighting. The air was thick with the sterile scent of metal and something faintly burnt.

"This place sure looks abandoned," Kara said, trying to scan the area with her x-ray vision but couldn't. "The place is lined with lead. And I can't pick up any movement."

Barry frowned. "Cisco definitely picked up something though. Let's go deeper."

They moved cautiously through the hallways, eventually reaching what appeared to be an experiment chamber. The doors hissed open, revealing a stark white room with overturned chairs and scattered papers. Two scientists lay motionless near the tech panels, their bodies unmoving.

Kara knelt beside them, checking for any sign of life. "They're gone." Her expression darkened. "No wounds. No burns. It's like they just... stopped."

Alina's gaze drifted forward, locking onto the centrepiece of the room—a display glass case. Inside, a crystal pulsed with an eerie blue light, its jagged edges looking like frozen lightning. The energy it radiated made her feel a weird sense of eeriness.

Kara stepped closer next to Alina, her eyes narrowing. "That thing is not from Earth."

Barry moved to the nearest control panel, typing rapidly. "Let's see if we can pull up any data on this."

As the screens flickered to life, Alina found herself unable to look away from the crystal. It was oddly mesmerising, the way it pulsed and shimmered. She took a step forward. Then another.

"Alina?" Kara's voice was distant to the teenager's ears, almost muffled.

Alina barely heard the kryptonian. The crystal seemed to call to her, pulling her in. She wasn't sure why, but every fibre of her being urged her closer. Her fingers hovered near the glass. Suddenly, the monitors behind Barry and Kara blared with warning signals. The energy levels spiked, numbers flashing erratically.

"Uh, guys?" Barry's voice was laced with alarm. "Something's happening."

In the blink of an eye, the crystal exploded.

A wave of energy erupted outward, engulfing the room in blinding blue light. Instinct kicked in—Barry tried to speed away with Alina, Kara reached for them both, but the force was too strong. The energy dragged them in, tendrils of crackling power ensnaring them like a vortex.

At the last moment, Kara managed to wrap herself protectively around Alina, shielding her just before the explosion swallowed them whole. Alina tried to open her eyes and see her surroundings, but couldn't. The only sound she could hear was her heart beating rapidly and the blood pulsing through her ears. She couldn't even feel Kara's presence beside her, or even Barry's.

There was only darkness. Awareness slipped from her grasp, the world fading into an empty void.

And as Alina Agreste lost consciousness, she had no way of knowing that this was only the beginning—that the course of their lives were about to change forever, dragging all three of them into the kind of trouble they might not escape from.