++++++ Hello everyone, me again, MonsterSlut.
New fic here, so sue me.
I've co-written this Supergirl fic with the amazingly talented Stormrunner74 whose complex characters I utterly enjoy getting to know.
Pop on over and read Learning to Fly-it's brilliant. You can go to my favorites or Stormrunner's page or look it up via the Story ID which is 11824114.
So, bigger description that what is availablein the teeny, tiny space they provide:
What starts with a blogger, a hell of a lot of questions and an ex-Navy Seal with PTSD ends in something so much bigger than either of them could have ever expected. When conspiracy blogger Bekka James forces her way into his life, Luke Morrison finds his life unwillingly changed forever-and not in a good way. National City needs to be protected, the prisoners of Krypton's Fort Rozz are free and wreaking havoc, Supergirl may not be able to handle it alone.
Pairings:
OCxAlex Danvers
OCxAdam Foster
I hope you enjoy this as much as I loved writing it.
I do not own ++++++
Chapter One
What does a monster look like through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl?
Does it spew fire? Does it have horns? Does it live in the shadows of the closet in her room and only come out at night? Does it have eight legs? Eight hairy, scary legs to steal you away with in the middle of the night?
No.
That's not what a monster looks like through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl.
There was a time where monsters simply lived in the ages of books and in the minds of children, there, they spelled an imaginary danger that was quickly washed away with a tender hug, a loving kiss, or even a funny voice.
That's what she loved about them...her parents, that is. No matter how scared she was, no matter how afraid she became, Rebekah James always had her parents there to keep her safe from the frightful world.
Of course it doesn't help when the mind of said eight-year-old is constantly absorbed in pages containing certain horror and monsters within.
"Leroy Anthony James!" came the shrill shriek of her mother, Edith. "You're supposed to be reading her a bedtime story!"
Both Leroy and Bekka jumped where they sat. Grinning sheepishly, Leroy turned to his wife. "Oh fair, noble maiden-our beloved princess hummingbird picked this tale of dreadful fright this night."
Bekka collapsed in a fit of giggles; she adored it when her father spoke like that-something which he did more often than not just to see her smile.
Edith, a smirk on her face, rolled her eyes. "Drop the bullshit, Leroy. Put the girl to bed."
"I'm not a girl!" Bekka argued.
Edith walked into her room and took the book from her husband's hands, placing it back on the shelf. "If you're not a girl, what are you?" she asked, grinning.
"I'm a hummingbird!" she grinned.
Edith leant down and kissed her on the head. "Go to sleep, my darling angel. You've a big day tomorrow."
Bekka practically let her bed absorb her like a big, fluffy marshmallow. Sure she wished that she was at home in her own princess bed but being at grandma and grandpa's farm was just as good considering she had her own horse here and there were lots of hummingbirds in the orchids. "Do we have to go tomorrow?"
"Hummingbird," Leroy smiled, taking a seat on the bed beside her. "You're going to be fine. It's just an advancement and IQ test. We need to see how smart you really are."
"Alanna doesn't think I'm smart," she pouted. "She's always calling me dumb," Bekka complained, putting extra emphasis on the word always.
Edith got to her feet and pulled the covers up underneath her chin. "I wish you two would stop fighting. You're sisters, act like it."
Leroy kissed her on the head and winked. "Goodnight, fair maiden, princess of hummingbirds. I love you. Always and forever."
Bekka giggled. "Always and forever daddy."
He got to the door, closing it after he turned the light off.
-XXX-
An ear piercing scream tore through the crisp night air.
She flung herself out of her bed and scrambled underneath it, just like they'd taught her. Her small ears couldn't pinpoint where the sound had come from but the scream was all so familiar to her. She heard it several times on their last summer vacation to Disneyland.
But this was filled with far too much fear for Bekka to be able to contemplate. It wasn't the fear of the rush from a rollercoaster but raw, pure fear. The kind that came from being scared out of your mind.
Minutes past but to Bekka it seemed like hours before she crawled out from underneath the bed. She could hear the soft thud of feet outside the bedroom, no matter the surface Bekka could always recognise the footsteps of her sister. She waited for Alanna to come into her room but she never came. Bekka didn't know it than, but it would be the first in a long list of failures from someone who was supposed to love her.
Another scream tore through the air but instead of being simply nothing they formed a name. Two names.
"BEKKA! ALANNA! RUN!"
She scrambled out of the bedroom and ran through the house, tears forming in her eyes as strangled sobs were stuck in the back of her throat. "MUMMY!" Bekka screamed. She burst out through the back door by the kitchen, in the distance she could see two figures, one on the ground, unmoving, the other standing above her like a predator claiming its prize.
"Mummy?" Bekka gasped, dropping her stuffed rabbit in a puddle on the ground. "MUMMY!" she screamed. As fast as her little feet could carry her, Bekka ran towards her mother and fell beside her body. She shook her, that familiar warmth of Edith James wasn't there anymore-it felt wrong as Bekka's skin touched hers.
She gazed up to the figure standing above them, it was a woman but all Bekka could see were those eyes. Those harsh, cold, unforgiving eyes.
"Bekka what did you do?" Alanna gasped. "I called the police!"
Bekka spun around to see her sister standing there with a phone in her hands. "Alanna she won't wake up!" she sobbed. "Mummy! Mummy wake up!" she sobbed, trying to wake her mother up. "Alanna, she won't wake up!"
"And neither will you both."
"Don't you touch my daughters you bitch!" Leroy hissed suddenly.
The woman turned just in time for Leroy to swing a shovel at her face.
She glared at him, the metal of the shovel all bent out of shape. There was not even a bruise or a scratch on her perfect face.
"Daddy!" Alanna screamed, dropping the phone.
Their father stood there bloodied and bruised, he was clutching his side and wincing as if he was in pain. "Nobody touches my girls and gets away with it," Leroy hissed, seemingly not bothered by the fact there wasn't a scratch on her.
A smirk appeared on her face before she stepped forward and grabbed him. "Such fragile, fragile bodies," she answered, her voice laced with venom and ice. She put pressure on his shoulders and in one swift motion, she pulled him in both directions.
Bekka screamed bloody murder.
Thud!
Beside her, Alanna's body hit the dirt footpath, her chest rising and falling in a soft faint…
Bekka fell sideways on the ground beside the body of her mother, she took those cooling arms and wrapped them around her because mother's arms were the safest arms there were.
In the corner of her eyes she could see the woman stepped over the two halves of Leroy James and disappeared into the rolling fog.
-XXX-
Dorothy 'Dot' Carter pulled in the long driveway of the Carter Orchid Farm to be welcomed by a mass of emergency service vehicles. She slammed her foot on the break and immediately got out of the car to seek out the first person she could grab. "Where's my daughter?" she frantically asked a policeman.
The policeman opened his mouth with every intention of saying something to her only he was cut off by a man wearing a suit.
"Mrs Carter?" he questioned, looking in his notebook. "I'm Detective Elias Wood from National City PD."
Dot looked beyond the detective in front of her and gasped when she saw the white sheets covering two separate bodies. She gasped when she saw Bekka and Alanna with a woman in a sharp-looking suit. "Bekka!" Dot gasped. "Lani?"
"GRAMS!" Bekka screamed. She struggled out of the arms of the social services caseworker and ran towards her grams.
Dot was only coming home to rest whilst her husband recovered from a 16-hour long heart surgery but now...now she wasn't sure what was happening. She grabbed Bekka up and hugged her closely as she cried. "What happened, hummingbird?" Dot asked.
"I SAW HER" Bekka screamed, tears rolling down her face. "She did it! She killed them! She killed my mummy and daddy! Alanna tell them!" she all but begged. "Tell them!"
Dot hugged her granddaughter close, her eyes on Alanna as she sat in the back of an ambulance wrapped in a blanket clutching a cup of hot tea. "Lani?"
It took a moment but Alanna looked up at her grandmother. "Grams?"
"Lani, tell the detective what you saw," Dot whispered, trying to smile and seem strong but inside she was falling apart. Edith was her only child!
Alanna looked at Bekka whose blue eyes were red from crying so much and she gulped. "I-I didn't see anything. Bekka's lying. I didn't see anything."
"You're lying!" the girl sobbed. She buried her head in her grams shoulder and screamed as loud as she could, her shoulders heaving up and down. Bekka was sure, she was absolutely one hundred percent positive that a monster had killed her parents. A monster with a human face.
It wouldn't be until much later on that she realised that the monsters on the outside aren't the worst. The worst are the ones that live inside, because no matter where you run, they follow.
Somewhere in the deserts of Afghanistan…
Three men and a woman crouched behind a rusty truck, monitoring a warehouse. A black haired man was in front, followed by an African American man, then a blond guy, with the woman taking up the rear. All four were dressed in body armour and all four were carrying M4 assault rifles with P226 handguns strapped to their sides. The woman and the black haired man had AW-50 sniper rifles on their backs, the African American man had a M32 grenade launcher slung over his back, and the blond guy had a M72 rocket launcher on his back. The woman switched her M4 for her sniper rifle and peered through the scope at the warehouse. The man with trimmed black hair and a goatee pulled out a satellite phone and reported in.
"Tower, this Castellan. We located Amir. We have confirmation that he has the chemical agent from Lord Technologies. We clear to proceed? Over," he said quietly. After a second, a voice came back through.
"Castellan, your team is clear to engage. Over."
"Roger that, Tower," the man turned to rest of the team, "You heard him."
"Let's do this," the man with long blonde hair stated, grinning.
"You're nuts, man. You actually enjoy this mess?" the bald African American man questioned him with an arched eyebrow.
"Can it, ladies," the woman with brown hair in a tight bun said, grinning, "Time to go."
"You heard the woman, Matt," the blond guy said to the African American guy. Matt turned around and punched the blond guy's arm, hard.
"OW!" The blond guy yelled. Matt put a hand over his mouth.
"Shut up, Jacob. You talk too much," he grumbled at him. The black haired guy turned around.
"Are you two done?" he said, smirking.
"Luke, come on, he's blowing our cover, as we speak," Matt spoke up.
"He blew it. Two hostiles approaching," the woman spoke up, peering around the truck through her rifle scopes.
"Take the shot, Grace," Luke spoke up. Fhwip. Fhwip. Two silenced shots spat out of Grace's rifle. Two hostiles fell.
"Move," Luke ordered. The four team members walked around the truck and fell into formation as they approached the warehouse. As they approached, two more men stepped out of the building. Luke raised his M4 and let off a few shots. Both men slumped over. As they went, one pulled the trigger of his AK-47, and sent a spray of bullets into the dirt.
"If they didn't know we were here, they do now," Jacob remarked from the rear position.
"Shut up!" All three of his teammates hissed without looking back at him. From the warehouse, men started coming through the door, and all four raised their weapons in unison and fired. The first guy was blown back into the building and the second guy quickly followed.
The next three were more cautious and came out shooting. Matt shot the first in the chest and the shoulder and he collapsed. The second one managed to shoot Jacob through the arm, before Luke killed the second guy with a bullet through the heart. The third guy was finished off by a headshot from Grace.
Jacob shrugged off the scare of being shot and stood up.
"I'll be fine," he stated, glaring at Matt, daring him to speak up.
"What?"
"You know perfectly well what." The group continued towards the warehouse, which had fallen oddly silent.
As they stepped through the door, they covered all the angles, but nobody was in sight. All over the room were shipping containers not unlike semi-truck trailers. They formed a maze of sorts and there was only one way forward.
Through the inside of a container.
"Careful, watch your six," Luke warned as they approached. They entered single file, but as soon as Luke reached the front, the doors were slammed shut. He turned around to go out the other way, but those doors had been closed as well. A small hatch in the ceiling, about eight inches in diameter, was opened and a canister was tossed in. It landed at their feet and smoke started billowing out of it.
"Gas!" Luke yelled, "Cover your mouths!" All four covered their mouths but it was too late. The four of them started collapsing, one by one. The last thing Luke saw before his vision faded was the doors being opened and light pouring into the container.
-XXX-
Luke woke up in a cell next to a sitting Grace. Matt and Jacob were missing.
"Hey," he groaned.
Grace jumped. "Hey. You okay?" She asked.
"No," he answered honestly, "Where's Matt and Jacob?" She looked up wearily.
"Matt got killed when they interrogated him. He wouldn't budge an inch. Jacob's out there now. When you fell, you hit your head pretty hard. We weren't sure when you would wake up," she said grimly. After a second she looked directly at him, before unclasping a necklace around her neck and handing it to Luke. It was her cross necklace, the last memento she had of her mother. Luke stared at her, shocked.
"I can't take this," he said, surprised.
"Luke, I'm next in interrogation. If something happens to me, hang on to it for me. It was mine, now it's yours," she said, forcefully.
He took it hesitantly, before he put it around his neck. "You'll have it back real soon," he promised. Suddenly the door on the other side of the room was thrown open, and Amir walked in followed by two soldiers. Amir was legendary to the US military. He was a terrorist who specialized in biological and chemical threats. Nobody even knew his full name. He was an average sized man, and he had an average Middle Eastern haircut. However, his eyes told a different story. Where most terrorists' eyes were manic and almost crazy looking, his were cold and calculating. After a second of contemplating the two people in the cell, he stepped aside and two soldiers stepped through the door after him, carrying Jacob's body. They tossed it unceremoniously in the corner, and left the room.
"Your friends wouldn't talk. However, I have a different strategy," Amir said, pulling out a handgun. He grabbed Grace, who didn't resist, and lifted her up, aiming his pistol at her head.
"Did you know that the river outside feeds the entire valley? It's the only source of water for them. That well," he said, gesturing towards the well in the corner, "leads to the river." He pulled a vial out of his pocket and held it over the well.
"You make the choice. Tell me everything I want to know, and I will spare the valley and your friend."
"Never. The United States military doesn't negotiate with terrorists," Luke growled out at Amir.
"Fine. New choice. Your friend or the valley?" He stated grinning at Luke. At this point Grace made her move. She snapped her head back, and caught Amir in the nose. Then she stomped down on his foot, when he squeezed the trigger twice. Two bullets flew from his gun into the base of her skull. She was dead before she hit the ground. And Luke snapped.
"NOO!" he screamed, his voice cracking. Amir stepped back shakily, reeling from the blow to his nose.
"Your friend made her final wish. The valley it is, then." Amir held the vial up again, and then Luke rammed into him. The glass vial smashed between Luke and the ground, and the chemical covered the front of his shirt, before dissolving into his skin. Luke got onto his knees and crawled over to Amir, who was still on the ground trying to regain his breath.
"You're never hurting anyone again," Luke promised. Suddenly the two guards outside the cell came in. Luke snatched up Amir's pistol and shot them both, one in the neck and the other in the heart. They both collapsed. He then reversed his grip on the pistol and began to beat Amir's face in. Over and over he hit him, even long after he was dead. The blood covered his face and his shirt, dripped down his arms, and was coating his hands. He finally stopped, and got off of Amir's body. He went over and sat by Grace's body, which still was slightly warm.
For the longest time he just sat, and stared at her body. Then he started to cry, and the tears ran down his body, carrying blood with them and streaking his face, giving him a demonic appearance. He looked at her cross necklace around his neck, and his vision began to turn red. He stood up and left the cell and entered the hallway. As soon as he exited, he ran into another guard standing near a door at the end of the cell. He snapped the guard's neck and smashed him through the door, sending it flying off his hinges.
Luke Morrison killed over forty more people that night, but nobody left the warehouse alive. Not really, anyways. He learned an important lesson soon after. You can't outrun the past. Sooner or later the ghosts catch up, and you have to face them all. The people you failed, the things you did, the things you didn't do, the moments you wish you could have back, all of it, it all comes back to haunt you.