Eventually Kurt needed to come up for air, pulling back from Blaine but not letting go of his grip on Blaine’s suit.

“Wow...”

Blaine smiled widely, his eyes crinkling. “Yeah.”

Now that they were separated and could think clearly again, Blaine’s smile began to drop. He took a step back from Kurt, gently pulling his arms away.

“No, wait, Kurt... I can’t... I...”

Kurt took a step towards him, eyes narrowing.

“Dammit, Blaine, if you’re about to do something stupid in the name of being noble, I will give you a swift kick in your super pants!”

“Kurt, this is serious. You saw that file, you know that this whole... epidemic thing is my fault.”

“Blaine, that’s insane! Where did you even get this information? It’s not from Star Labs.”

Blaine scoffed. “More insane than a flying alien? And no, it’s not Star. It’s from SebCorp.”

Blaine could see Kurt’s hackles raise. “SebCorp? Sebastian Smythe is an egotistical narcissistic ass! I tried interviewing him once at a Wayne Industries dinner and he told me I had a ‘gay face.’ You can’t believe anything that smirking meerkat says.”

Blaine sighed. “Kurt, Sebastian may not be a nice guy, but those files aren’t forged. People are getting sick in the areas I use my powers the most. There’s something new and alien hurting people, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s causing it.”

Kurt shook his head. “Nope, I refuse to believe it.”

“Kurt, c’mon, you can’t just... cover your ears and sing and ignore all of this!” Blaine was starting to get worked up, but Kurt was already clearly upset.

“I’m not ignoring anything, Westerville. Look, your naivete and your penchant to believe what people tell you can be charming, but this is nuts. Why aren’t you fighting this? Shit, when a doctor gives you a bad diagnosis you always try to get a second opinion. But Smythe hands over some barely conclusive pseudoscience and you roll over and give up? Bullshit, Blaine! Why, okay? Why give in so easily?”
 
“Because I was waiting for something like this!” Blaine yelled back.

For a moment both men stood in silence, Kurt breathing heavily from his rant and staring at Blaine.

“You... what?”

“I...” Blaine deflated.

Kurt reached out and grabbed Blaine’s hands.

“Kurt. I’m sorry. I’ve just spent so long trying to hide, afraid that I’ll hurt someone accidentally or I’ll lose control. And since I came to Metropolis and started being this,” he gestured to his suit, “I’ve finally been able to be myself and not be so scared of what I can do. It’s just... it’s really really easy for me to be... afraid. Afraid of what I can do and who I am and... it’s a lot to deal with, Kurt.”

“I know, Blaine. But you have to trust me, okay? I’ve met a lot of people in my life, and many of them were the kind of guys who like to think they’re heroes. Some of them were. But believe me when I say that you are a hero. And not just because you go out and save people every day, but because you’re... you. You bring coffee to interns, you help old ladies cross the street, you give a shit about everyone. I’m a reporter, I believe in what I can see, and what I see when I look at you is someone who is here to help. That’s what you do Blaine, you help people. And there is not a single part of you, even some weirdo bit of alien anatomy, that could ever hurt anyone, even unintentionally. You’re Superman. And Smythe is an asshole.”

Blaine laughed. “Kurt...”

“Look, I can prove it. We’ll go prove that Smythe’s lying.”

“Kurt, why would he lie? You think he just took advantage of some plague to mess with me?”

“No, I think... he...” Kurt’s eyes widened. “Duh! Blaine, this whole thing is his fault. Smythe is behind all of this just to get rid of you, since he knows he can’t physically hurt you.”

“But... why?”

“Westerville, do you know anything about this city? Sebastian Smythe was Metropolis’s wonderboy before you showed up and stole his thunder. He’s got the shady past, dubious connections, and shitty attitude, plus the resources to pull something like this off.”

Blaine closed his eyes and sighed.

“You know, when I decided to do this superhero thing, I did not sign up for crazy arch-nemeses.”

Kurt laughed and pulled Blaine into a hug.

“I promise, Blaine, we’re gonna fix this. Nobody messes with Hummel and Anderson.”

Blaine smiled into Kurt’s shoulder. “You got it. We’re the dynamic duo. And actually...” Blaine pulled back and grinned at Kurt. “I have an idea of where we need to go first...”

***************************************************************************************************

“Santana told me all about you guys. I didn’t know Hobbits could fly.”

Kurt and Blaine shared a confused look.

“Um, Dr. Pierce...” Blaine began.

“It’s Brittany.”

“Right. Brittany. Santana told us that you’re a scientist?”

“Yep. I have degrees in molecular biology, theoretical astrophysics, and astrobiology.”

Kurt’s eyes widened as Blaine’s smile grew.

“Perfect, so you can help us.”

Kurt found the use of his voice again. “Um, right. We need to prove that... Superman here has nothing to do with this weird plague, and we need to find out who is behind it. Do you know who would have the resources to pull off something like this?”

Kurt was fishing for an answer, just hoping that Smythe made the list.

Brittany thought for a moment. “Well... I could do it, if I had the equipment and the funding. There are some people back at Star Labs, but none of them are creative enough. The only place that has the money is the lab at SebCorp.”

Blaine took a gasping breath as Kurt squeezed his hand. Brittney continued talking.

“I almost worked there, but the lab smelled funny. Plus SebCorp had all these animals in cages. I took one with me when I interviewed and they asked me not to come back. His name is Lord Tubbington, he’s my lab assistant now.” She pointed to a cat carrier in the corner, a large fluffy tail peeking out signifying that it was occupied. “They never let him help me when I worked at Star, but here I get to be the boss. Which is good, because when I had to leave him at home I’m pretty sure he was reading my diary.”

Kurt could see that Blaine was enamored of the eccentric scientist, his hazel eyes twinkling as he held in a laugh. But time was of the essence, so Kurt turned on his “investigative mode.”

“Right. Dr.... um, Brittany, we need to help prove that Superman isn’t the cause of whatever is making the city sick.” He handed her the file from Sebastian. “Someone over at SebCorp gave this to us, and it seems to point to Superman as the origin.”

Brittany flipped through the papers casually before dumping them on her desk.

“I can totally do this.” She grabbed Blaine’s wrist and started to pull him over to her equipment. “Come here, put your hand under this microscope. I’d ask for a skin sample, but I don’t have any tools that work on aliens. I lost the Ebay bid for those, and a ray gun.” As she got a smiling Blaine settled, she made a motion to Kurt. “Your unicorn can wait over there.”

Blaine looked confused. “My what?”

“Your unicorn. You know, he’s magical and special and even though other people told you he wasn’t real, they were wrong, and then you found him.”

Blaine grinned. “Yeah... yeah, you’re right.” He looked over at Kurt, who gave him a questioning look. Blaine shook his head and mouthed “later.”

“I know he’s not a real unicorn,” Brittany continued as she started looking through her equipment at Blaine’s cellular structure. “Everyone knows that unicorns are aliens. I’m still waiting for the funding on my next project to track their history of landing on Earth and their planet of origin.”

Blaine realized he had nothing to say to that. Who was he, a strange visitor from another planet who could fly and had heat vision, to correct her?

Brittany flitted around the room doing various tests. Apparently as soon as she’d heard about the epidemic, she’d convinced Santana to get her a sample to study. While she worked Kurt stood with Blaine, holding his hand and massaging it with his thumb, periodically looking over to send him encouraging smiles.

Finally, Brittany stood up and shouted, “GOT IT!” with a grin.

Kurt and Blaine both started.

“You... you do?” Blaine asked nervously. Kurt gave his hand a squeeze.
“Yep. It was obvious, but I just needed to make sure.”

“Okay, so... Superman had nothing to do with this, right?” Kurt prodded.

Brittany nodded. “Of course he didn’t. He’s a good guy, Kurt. Getting people sick is something a bad guy does.”

“Right, but how do we prove that?” Blaine was getting anxious.

“Well, this file says that you hurt everybody because of radiation, but your cells don’t give off any. You’re like a giant plant that gets energy from the sun. But you get rid of the extra energy with your heat vision. Hey, are you able to heat up microwave dinners?”

“Focus, Brittany,” Kurt reprimanded.

“Anyway, the virus looks alien, but it’s just really, really mutated. It does have some radiation signatures, but it’s probably not naturally. Basically, I know alien, and this virus isn’t alien. Superman couldn’t do this.”

Blaine hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath until he exhaled deeply. He turned to Kurt with his old hundred-watt grin back before grabbing him in a bear hug.

“I didn’t do it,” he whispered into Kurt’s ear, smiling into his cheek.

“Told you so.”

Kurt pulled back.

“Okay, so now that you’ve seen reason and know that you’re just as heroic as always, and we can be pretty sure that Smythe is behind all of this, it’s time to take that criminal chipmunk down.”