Author's note: So, I've literally just finished watching ep 1x17 and holy hell, what an episode! Such a great one. Backstory, action and fugitives on the run... Wonderful! Can't wait until next week! Anyway, finished watching and decided Maxwell Lord would be poking his nose around soon enough so I.. wrote this? It wrote itself? I don't even know right now. It's late here, the fic is a bit rough and things happened fast. Enjoy, give me prompts and have a fantastic Easter break!
Max was, once again, escorted into the DEO. Spreading his arms wide, he smirked.
"I should start charging by the hour."
"This is another one of your messes," Supergirl pointed out as she came to stand beside Lucy. Max ignored her and focused on the woman in military uniform.
"I don't think we've had the pleasure," Max said with the usual twist of his lips. He walked forward confidently and held out his hand. "Maxwell Lord."
Lucy met his gaze squarely and took his hand. "Major Lane," she introduced herself. "I understand you've been helpful to the DEO in the past."
"I do my share for the city," Max replied smoothly.
"Yeah, your share in trying to destroy it," Kara said under her breath. Max rolled his eyes.
"Once again, this is not my fault."
"If you'd stop experimenting with ways to kill me and other aliens, this wouldn't happen!"
"And if aliens would stop trying to kill us I wouldn't have to make these things, would I?" Max rebutted.
"Enough you two. Tell us how to fix this," Major Lane ordered. Max raised his eyebrows.
"Well, I would, but you see I need another person versed in scientific theory or it just won't work."
"You can work with anyone here."
"Well then, I'll take Agent Danvers."
Silence dropped. People within hearing froze. Kara sucked in a quiet breath. Major Lane adopted a poker face. Looking around him, Max noted the tension permeating the air.
"Well, isn't that interesting," he said quietly, sharp eyes noting the surreptitious glances in their direction. "I take it Agent Danvers is unavailable?"
"Agent Alex Danvers is currently a fugitive on the run from the law."
Max couldn't stop the surprised shock that spread across his face or the instinctive glance at the alien in red and blue, who wouldn't look him quite in the eye and shifted on her feet ever so subtly.
"I see," he said slowly. His senses told him something was not right. Supergirl might be able to work for an organisation that had turned on one of it's agents but he knew damn well that Kara, as the sister of said agent, would not.
Something was not adding up.
"In that case, take me to your leader," he joked, easing the tension and diverting attention away from the massive elephant in the room.
Two hours later, Supergirl was flying toward the city, antidote to the latest alien crisis in hand and Maxwell Lord was escorted out of the DEO
Three hours later, he made an excuse to drop by CatCo, ostensibly to speak to Cat, in reality to corner Kara Danvers and find out what was going on. Predictably, she rolled her eyes, got angry at him and eventually told him what happened. He was positive she'd left out some details but he got the gist.
"And so she, and the alien posing as Hank Henshaw, are off on a road trip to find her father, who is being held in a secret facility, that no one knows the location of, all while being chase by the good guys?"
"That pretty much sums it up," Kara admitted. Max chuckled.
"She never does anything by half, does she?" Max asked, respect colouring his tone of voice.
"If it was your father, wouldn't you do whatever you could?"
Max's smile froze and settled into something far more sinister.
"Yes, I would."
Kara watched with eyes narrowed in suspicion as he walked out, past the pink cats and into the foyer.
It took him two days.
Two days to complete the challenge of finding people who did not want to be found, but he had resources the government didn't. Using resources both hi- and lo-tech – and people in low places – he tracked a large, black man and a slim, white woman riding motorbikes to a small town in Colorado. He hacked into the public CCTV and found Alex as she exited a tech store.
He pulled over another computer screen and set up another hack into the store's payment system. His attention bounced between the CCTV feed as he followed her down the street and the second screen. Eventually, a digital receipt popped up on the second screen and he smiled in triumph as he saw her purchases.
A cell phone. A single cell phone that had its number printed in black and white on the receipt on the screen for the world to see.
He congratulated himself and looked back at the CCTV screen.
Alex had disappeared. Max debated scanning the feeds. He grabbed his phone instead and sent a quick, two word message.
Alex's new phone beeped the instant it was connected to the network. She was sitting in a park just off the main road, hidden from view by a large tree. No one saw the frown she gave the phone as it sat in her lap, nor did anyone see the suspicious way she poked at it, letting the message show on the screen.
It was simple, direct and so unexpected Alex wasn't sure what to make of it. Eventually, she made her way back to the street and smiled widely, nodding once.
Hundreds of miles away, Maxwell Lord sat at his desk, the image frozen on the quick flash of Alex as she had smiled into one of the cameras before disappearing again. He savoured the image before deleting it and erasing the footage from the entire CCTV system. For good measure he deleted the digital receipt from the store system as well.
He looked at his phone and the message that still lay open.
Good luck. –M
Message received.
