The First Time

"Winn's working on tracking him," Alex assured Kara. "In the meantime, let's gather whatever evidence we can find," she said, waving her hand to encompass the nearby area. She glanced around at the crime scene, scanning over it and stopped as her eyes landed on a crouching woman, who was clearly examining another part of the crime scene maybe 30 feet away.

'Who in the hell is that?' Alex thought to herself, angrily.

With purpose, she strode away from Kara and Carl, who was collecting evidence near where she and Kara had been speaking, and towards the unfamiliar figure.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing to my crime scene?" she demanded as she walked up to her.

The woman, a strikingly lovely Latina, with dark, flowing hair, straightened, a smile of sorts on her face.

"Anyone ever tell you all you Feds are the same?" she replied, snarkily, putting her hands on her hips. "It's like you all watch the same bad movies together at Quantico."

Alex had no patience for this interloper. "Who are you?" she asked, directly.

The mysterious woman held her gaze for a beat before relenting and answering her. "Detective Maggie Sawyer, NCPD, Science Division," she said, reaching for her badge. "We handle all cases involving aliens and things that go bump in the night." She held her identification out for a brief inspection. "Showed you mine. Show me yours."

'Attitude,' Alex thought. She reached behind her back for her own badge and thumbed the switch that would display a Secret Service badge, rather than the regular DEO one. "Alex Danvers, Secret Service," she said, flashing the identification at the other woman, easily slipping into the familiar, authoritative persona. "I'm sure you mean well, Detective, but this is a federal crime scene," she said, just a little condescendingly. "You're contaminating my evidence," she added, just to drive home the point that the detective wasn't welcome.

The Latina wasn't having any of it. "I'm contaminating it? Your lackey, over there," she said, indicating Carl, "is bagging charred carpet and crispy limo into the same ziplock." She paused. "I thought the Secret Service would pay closer attention to detail." She seemed pleased with her jab.

That was it. Alex was not going to let some municipal police officer, who probably had no idea what an actual alien looked like, tell her what was what, much less critique her team's work. She took a couple of steps forward, stopping just at the edge of the detective's personal space, knowing that her height as compared to the detective's, would naturally work to intimidate the other woman. "We have technology that makes your city PD lab look like an Easy-Bake oven," she threw back.

The smaller woman wasn't backing off. She took a couple of steps forward, herself. "And us dumb local cops would never deduce that the President's assailant was either Kryptonian or Infernian." She paused, smirking, keeping Alex's gaze. "Both species have heat vision."

Alex was surprised that the stranger knew that much. Clearly, the other woman was showing off. 'Enough,' she thought, forcing herself to remain calm in front of the stranger. "Thank you," she said, snidely, "we'll take it from here."

But the detective was not so easily dismissed. "The airport's within my jurisdiction," she said, calmly informing Alex of the fact. As if Alex didn't know.

"Your jurisdiction," Alex retorted, "ends," she paused for emphasis, "where I say it does." She crossed her arms, trying not to show her infuriation with this woman. She had to project her authority, not her annoyance.

At that, Detective Sawyer smirked, looked down at the evidence she'd been examining, then smiled and looked back up at Alex. "See ya 'round, Danvers," she said, as she turned and walked away.

Alex kept watching, making sure the troublesome detective actually left the area. Satisfied she was leaving, Alex turned back around and walked towards Carl.

"Make sure you're bagging that up properly," she snapped as she walked past him, obviously agitated.

She was unnerved and rattled. Not only had the cop questioned her team, questioned their competence and, most boldly of all, challenged Alex directly, but she seemed to know what she was talking about. Alex hadn't expected that. She turned back to see Detective Sawyer get into her police car and drive away, the other woman's final words to her still echoing in her ears.