"Director, we've got drones on alert over Fort Rozz."
Susie looks over from where she's conversing with one of the xenobio-technicians. "Put it on the big screen." Dismissing the scientist, Susie walks over, frowning at what the drone is picking up. "What's happening?"
"A gathering, we think-"
The next thing Susie knows, she's receiving orders she can't comprehend, sitting at a computer, typing away beside Williams. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see the scientists in the experimental tech lab rushing about and she doesn't move when one tries to rouse her from her…hypnosis. Only when one attaches a blinking blue and silver device to her ear does she abruptly stop, pushing back from the computer.
"What the hell?" Breathing heavily, Susie looks to the agents around her – to her agents, who are all in a trance, with the exception of the experimental tech division. Hand going to her ear, she feels the device they've loosely strapped on, pulling in a deep breath before looking to the scientists. "Get some of these on Alpha Team."
"We don't have a lot, ma'am," the scientist says. "Only the ones we had on and three spare. You're wearing one."
"Okay…" Susie tries to think, looking back to where Fort Rozz was still on view, via drone. "It must be something going on in there. Get a device on the head of Alpha Team and have her check on the hostile aliens in containment and then on the detainees in Limbo." Susie pauses. "No. Actually, no, just get Agent Mandoll on the hostiles. Make him keep guard. Work on getting a boosted version of whatever is on my head right now – a giant one, so we can free the agents. How far does it go out?"
"All the way to the city – look, the drone above the city park," the scientist points to a screen nearby Williams, which shows civilians getting into orderly lines.
"Okay."
Susie thinks of her base, her people – she thinks of the DEO she's built since Hank Henshaw's death and how it's changed. Limbo is one of her best creations in the world, a halfway point for immigrant aliens that J'onn himself works in, using his Martian skin, going through immigration details and getting them ID's that have and do pass through government checks because of how Susie's worked them into the system.
"Where's my mother?" She questions the scientist, Eliza immediately making herself known.
"I'm okay, sweetie."
"Good," Susie nods sharply. "Get to work on the…whatever this is."
"Signal blocker."
"Signal blocker," Susie looks around. "I'm going to Limbo. Hopefully J'onn will have realised something's going on."
Leaving the main area, Susie rushes to Limbo, trying not to panic every time she sees one of her agents standing still. Too still, too still. When she finally gets to Limbo, it's to J'onn with his hands to the head of the only human guard in this part of the base.
"J'onn, is everyone here alright? There's some kind of- some kind of mind control going about."
"I'm aware," J'onn says, eyes still closed. "You should see to the detainees."
"Are they okay?" Susie questions, looking past through the glass to where the various groups sit on benches, only three looking distressed, a different alien's flipper wrapped gently around the elderly alien's head. Using her pass to get inside, she goes over. "Hey, what's going on?"
"Their hearing is sensitive to high frequencies," the alien with the flipper-hands says, voice rumbling at a decibel so low that Susie can barely hear them.
"Alright," Susie nods, before standing, looking around to all the aliens in the room looking for new starts on a new planet that's not even been really introduced to the idea that there are aliens in the first place. "Everyone, if you could listen to me now and translate for those who can't understand Earth English yet." She pauses, waiting and counting the impressively low number of five groups that ask for translation from their neighbours. "I am the Director of the DEO, Director Danvers. The DEO does not know what is going on. The DEO detected high activity outside Fort Rozz before the majority of us were taken control of, as humans, using mind control via a high frequency that a few of your number can hear. Very few of the DEO have control of themselves right now, courtesy of these devices-"
"And J'onn!" Comes the guard's voice, as he and J'onn stumble into the detainment room, Susie motioning to the silver and blue signal-blocker around her earlobe. "This is hella weird, Mr J'onzz. It's like having a-"
"Please do not continue that sentence," J'onn interrupts, "It is bad enough in your head, let alone out loud."
"Sorry sir."
Susie gives the agent an unimpressed look before looking back to the waiting aliens. "As I was saying, very few members of the DEO have control at the moment. For your own safety, I will be locking you in this room with Mr J'onzz, who has a keycard to get out. The human agent here," she motions to the man saved from mind-control by J'onn, "will be outside the door in plain view for you all to see, if you so wish, without his keycard. If anyone can offer help to these people who are having trouble," she points at the in-pain aliens, "that would be very much appreciated by both them and me. If it causes any negative effects that give you cause to complain, hopefully later those complaints will be addressed. Is there any questions?"
One orange man with an inverted chin raises his three-fingered hand. "Are we allowed to volunteer to help, outside of here, in case something goes wrong?"
"…providing you can adequately defend yourself from humans and aliens alike and are over-age on your home planet, then yes – but you need to sign out and then return here when all is said and done."
"Then I'd like to help," the orange man stands.
"And me," an androgynous bipedal with seven, spider-like eyes stands as well.
"Thank-you. If you'd follow me," Susie motions them over, looking to J'onn and the agent. "Agent, hand over your weapons and keycard to Mr J'onzz. I don't want you to be able to hurt yourself or anyone else in case something happens."
"Yes, Director," the agent salutes before beginning to transfer his belongings. Susie waits until he's finished before leading him outside, playing around with the lock mechanics so only she and J'onn can open the door. Nodding to the man who might eventually be her father-in-law, Susie directs the agent to stand outside the door, leading the two volunteers through the base after they sign their names on a nearby notepad.
"Director," one of the scientists calls out when she returns, "We're missing some components to make its range any larger than fifteen feet, but we've got it."
"Put it by the central console," Susie orders, "then get as many agents as you can inside its range without hurting them. Manhandling doesn't count. You two," she looks to the volunteers, "help them get more of my agents in the safe zone."
"Susie," Eliza comes up to her, hand going to her wrist, "We did what tests we could and we believe the range doesn't extend far past National City. I've called Jeremiah and he's fine in Midvale, but one of his friends on the outskirts of town isn't picking up the phone."
"Okay, got it." Then, Susie's gaze is drawn to the big screen. "What is that?"
Susie goes closer and what she sees makes her want to puke.
"Is Alpha Team leader here?" She questions, Mandoll coming forwards. "How many members on Alpha and Beta team combined?"
"Sixteen, ma'am."
"We've made twelve extra ear-pieces," Eliza informs her. Susie watches the battle for a few seconds before continuing.
"How many scientists can you spare to sit inside the boosted area while the others make more ear-pieces?"
"We can't," Eliza comes forwards. "Susie, you can't be asking us to-"
"I am and I will. I'm the Director of the DEO and I have to think of all the people under mind-control, not you, mom." Susie breathes in deeply. Again. "Sorry. We need people to go out there though. Twelve new earpieces plus two spare and…" she counts, "four more. Six, including Mandoll and me. Twenty earpieces and a giant booster with a fifteen feet radius. Okay. Okay. Agent Mandoll, get the spare earpieces spread about Alpha and Beta Team, if you can track them down. Get those fifteen other agents. When you find the fifteenth agent without an ear-piece, come back and take one from a volunteer who'll sit inside the radius of the booster, keeping the gathered agents from going outside the radius."
"Yes, ma'am," Mandoll goes to collect the earpieces and Susie is startled when Eliza goes to sit inside the radius, handing over her earpiece to Mandoll. "Thank-you, ma'am."
"We have to think of the people under mind-control and work to stop it," Eliza looks to Susie, nodding to her. I believe in you.
Susie swallows, nodding back. I don't believe in myself, so thank-you for doing it for me. "Mandoll, find Alpha and Beta teams. Take from Delta team if Alpha and Beta aren't all here."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Within twenty minutes, Susie is packing up to join the teams as squad commander, Mandoll and Beta's Frasier bending when asked. Driving four trucks out into the desert, towards Fort Rozz, Susie's surprised when a scientist radios them saying that the fighters are clearing up, the fight ended.
"They're disappearing through some kind of wormhole, well, most of them. They're taking bodies and prisoners. Only one casualty, being taken too. Only three of them left…two have gone inside Fort Rozz, I repeat, two have gone inside Fort Rozz."
"We see them," Susie radios back, eyes glued on the horizon, where she can see two small figures going inside. The last, the third, stands, holding a sword and shield up. Susie's mind immediately goes to Wonder Woman and she isn't disappointed – at least, until Wonder Woman jumps through the portal, satisfied she had been seen. "Director Danvers with Alpha One, to Alpha Two, Beta Three and Beta Four, Wonder Woman was fighting against the prisoners and two of her allies have entered Fort Rozz. I repeat, Wonder Woman was fighting against the prisoners and two of her allies have entered Fort Rozz."
"Alpha Two, copied."
"Beta Three, copied."
"Beta Four, copied and asking if we'll be following them in."
"Director Danvers with Alpha One, we will be following them in, I repeat, we will be following them in."
They pull up a little ways from the entrance, just before the ground starts to soak with odd-coloured blood and both detachable and not-supposed-to-be-detachable body parts. Ignoring the putrid smells, Susie orders the teams forwards, leaving Beta Four with the trucks.
Inside Fort Rozz, it is terribly dark. "Lights on," she orders, before sending Alpha Two and Beta Three left, going right with Alpha One. Holding her gun up, torch steady on top, Susie moves forwards with her team, eventually coming to a helpfully labelled crossroad corridor, the gravity stabilisers giving them the ability to go upwards as the labels direct them to.
"Alpha Two and Beta Three team leader, we've come across a corridor labelled command centre. Have you come across the same?"
"Yes, Director. Had to pass a prison corridor first, but we did. We're heading towards the centre of the ship now."
"Alright. We'll see you there, Director Danvers with Alpha One, over and out."
Keeping their guns up, Susie and Alpha One find their way to the centre of the ship, the noise alerting them to a fight already raging.
"Alpha One, are you seeing this? Our door is open and we have exactly one hostile in our scopes, fighting one of the two friendlies. Hostile is blue and has the ability to break apart and heal semi-instantly. A machine on the console being mucked about with by the other friendly."
"We're not seeing the hostile yet," Susie says into her radio, motioning the technician forwards to open the door. "But we will. Once our door opens, all fire on the hostile. Don't shoot the friendlies. I repeat. All fire on the hostile, don't shoot the friendlies or the machine."
"Copied."
The technician looks back to Susie and she nods, the door sliding open after a single click. Susie takes a second to find their hostile, a blue female being punched in the face by an angry blonde woman on a wall as a black man works on the centre console, where a machine sits like the speaker had said. Getting a clear shot, Susie fires alongside her teams, surprising the hostile but not the friendly, who does them a favour by leaning back while keeping the hostile in place, her face being completely obliterated before she slowly starts to reform.
"This is the DEO, we're here to help."
"We know, we heard you – can I get someone tech-savvy over here, please?" The black man questions, frantic. Three technicians go over at Susie's nod, before they begin firing at the blue woman again, keeping her head from reforming until she completely scatters, moving to the table on which the machine sits on. They fire again, causing her to fly off the table into the opposite wall.
"Susie!" Comes Eliza's voice through the comms, suddenly. "Susie, I told Jeremiah what was going on and he and Winn had an idea!"
"Now is not really the time for ideas, mom!" Susie yells into the mic.
"No, it might actually worked – that being is called Brainiac Eight. Winn hacked into the DEO and looked through the records you have from Fort Rozz. She's a living computer. Fort Rozz has already got a prison for her, but you have to get her there."
"Where and how?" Susie asks.
"A virus, get a virus into her. Winn is sending it to your phone, you have it in your pocket. Just play the recording that comes up and it should translate to her enough to make her weaker, or even infect her, somehow. We're unsure of the logistics of it working-"
"At this point, anything will do," Susie ducks behind a team-member, taking her phone from her belt as it pings. Pressing play, Susie holds it up, hoping to god her genius brother hasn't fucked up the one time he might actually be able to take down an alien.
It's a miracle, she thinks, when Brainiac 8 starts to scream, writhing and flashing red before finally falling to the ground, body glowing a dangerous red, her skin gaining black lines.
The blonde punches her once more in the face before looking to her companion. "Kal-El, what's happening?"
"It needs a code in some weird language you haven't taught me."
"Let me see," the blonde swoops over, leaving Susie's team to pick up Brainiac, Eliza speaking instructions into everyone's ears on how to get her into her cell and where that is, exactly. Susie briefly pays more attention to her teams dealing with the virused-up alien, ordering them about and only keeping Alpha Two with her as Alpha One and Beta Three rush off to imprison the prisoner in her special cell.
"Who are you, then?" Mandoll questions the two aliens left behind. "And how do you know about this?"
"It's called Myriad," the blonde woman says and- oh my god, is that Cat Grant's wife? "My family built it. I'm Kara, Kara Zor-El. This is my son, Kal-El – and Kal-El, have you seriously forgotten the symbolic form of Kryptonese? I know you're used to Universal Letters – they're strangely English, so I don't blame you – but seriously, this is Kryptonian."
"Oh, really? Well I'm sorry that in times of pressure, I forget how to write in a dead language!" Kal-El shouts, Kara looking up briefly to glare at him, eyes suspiciously – no, literally – red.
"Until you, I, Lara, Alura, my aunt and all the other Kryptonians that are left in the universe are dead, then Kryptonian is not a dead language. Don't you ever let me hear you say that again." Kara looks back to the device, Susie feeling rather annoyed on her behalf at Kal-El's behaviour. From Eliza's muttering over the comms, she agrees that Kal-El isn't being the most tactile at the moment.
"So, can you shut it down?" She questions, getting a short nod as Kara stares at the flickering device screen.
"Yes. I just need to guess Uncle Non's password. I have a funny feeling it's my aunt's name, but I only get one chance at this. It's unstable – Non isn't a genius, not like my aunt, or my father or Kal-El's father. Myriad was meant for Kryptonian minds. Adjusting that and testing it…" Kara's hands reach up slowly and then she's typing on the strange, circular keyboard, wrist moving side to side like it's the most natural thing in the world as her fingers curl and twist to reach the keys. When the white symbols are typed out, they flash three times, before turning purple.
The device powers down, releasing steam before the screen flashes off.
Kara drops to the floor, hands immediately going to her face as she sobs, shoulders shaking. Kal-El goes to her side in an instance, Susie giving them a moment before silently ordering the nearest technician to gather up the machine, Myriad.
"I'd like to invite you back to our base, if that's alright," she interrupts softly, Kal-El glancing up at her before nodding, picking up Kara easily. Walking out of Fort Rozz, Susie listens as Eliza tells her that the other agents are free of the mind-control that had plagued them, meeting up with Alpha One and Beta Three before leaving the space prison.
"Wait till we tell Alex and Astra about this," Susie says off-handedly to J'onn once they return to the DEO. "They'll wish they were here to help."
"And E'hlan?" J'onn raises his green brow as if he were still in human form – something he never does in the DEO because of his similarity to Hank Henshaw.
Susie doesn't get a chance to respond to that, though, as Kara attracts her attention.
"You know them? You know Alex and Astra?"
Susie blinks, glancing at Eliza, "Uh, well, Alex is my sister."
"And my daughter," Eliza adds.
"And my sister, too," Winn adds over the webcam, Jeremiah waving.
"And my daughter as well. Astra's her alien soulmate, a Kryptonian."
Kara stares at Jeremiah, slightly shocked. "I know. She's- she's my aunt. She was the one who helped build Myriad in the first place. My mother imprisoned her on Fort Rozz."
Susie's eyes widen. "Astra's twin is alive?"