Glowing Green

Kara Danvers wasn't afraid of anything. Not as long as she was on planet Earth and being powered by the yellow sun. Thanks to that yellow sun, she was practically immortal! A goddess among men! No harm could come to her, and she possessed superhuman abilities beyond anyone's wildest dreams. She had heightened physical and mental capabilities as well as an array of sweet new powers like flight, ice breath and heat vision. It was more than enough to make her one of the most powerful beings on the planet, and she knew it. It was why she wasn't afraid of anything! Or, at least, almost anything...

Superhuman though she was, Kara was not entirely a goddess and there was still enough "human" within her to balance out the "super". She did have a few basic fears, like spiders, creepy clowns, masked serial killers and, as embarrassing as it was, her family's popcorn machine. But aside from that, when it really came down to it, Kara wasn't afraid of anything! When it really counted, there was nothing that scared her!

Except, there was. It was something so rare, however, that she sometimes forgot about it. Kryptonite. That glowing green substance, highly toxic to a Kryptonian like herself. That glowing green. It was the one and only thing she ever really feared. Although only an element, a clump of rock, to her, it was her biggest, greatest and most terrifying foe of all, even more than all the other criminals she'd ever fought combined. It was worse than any spider or popcorn machine. Kryptonite, that evil, glowing green, was the one and only thing Kara really, truly feared.

It was only by sheer luck alone that Kryptonite was not a naturally occurring substance on Earth and was next to impossible to create. This was the only thing that kept Kara from being stuck in a constant state of terror and paranoia. The rarity of the element made it so that Kara could live freely, fearlessly. But if anything, that just went to show just how deep Kara's fear for Kryptonite really ran. How afraid did she have to be that knowing that it did not occur naturally on Earth was enough to reassure her that she was safe? How afraid was Kara that the mere thought of Kryptonite sent chills down her spine that were only alleviated by the knowledge that no one on Earth possessed that deadly element, or the knowledge on how to make it? It would be an understatement to say Kara feared Kryptonite. She was utterly terrified of the glowing green.

And the years rolled on, a select few foes of hers were able to get their hands on some Kryptonite and, more than once, it had been used against the Girl of Steel. Her fear for the glowing green went from what she'd heard whispered about what it could do to someone like her, to a fear based in personal experience. There came a time, and several other after, where Kara got to finally understand just how powerful and painful the glowing green really was. Every single time, she managed to survive the agonizing effects of the glowing green, but not without a very high cost. Even if the physical damage was not permeant, the mental and emotional was, and she could still feel the burning torture long after it was over.

After that first real battle against the glowing green, Kara had been paranoid of anything glowing or green for almost an entire month. Kara would jump whenever something around her would begun to glow with a pulse, and she would shy away whenever she saw something in that exact shade of green. Then, whenever something in her life just happened to be glowing green (a stoplight, a medical monitor, a flashlight, the light from a pen or a phone or a button, a computer, anything!) Kara would back away as fast as she could. It humiliated her to be like this, but that first experience with Kryptonite had done more damage to her than anyone could've ever known.

For years, this intense level of fear of the glowing green continued. Although Kara did calm back down and she would no longer flinch at stoplights or cringe away from a monitor or a button that suddenly blinked emerald, she still regarded Kryptonite as one of the most taboo things anyone could possess or talk about. Any trace of that shade of green, even if it did not frighten her, acted as a trigger for her. It humiliated her to think about it, let alone tell anyone, but it was the truth. Even when she was successfully able to conceal her fears about the glowing green to the public, the mere mention or sight of it would still sicken her somewhere deep within.