Dark blue eyes opened suddenly, scanning the room for any threats. Finding none, the owner sighed to herself before shaking her long shaggy blonde hair out of her face. She took stock of herself before moving on to her surroundings. First off, she was taller than when she had left Krypton. Her hair was longer, reaching almost down to her knees and she had grown up physically, having more to her chest than before. Not a whole lot more, but enough to be noticeable. Her arms were bound in shackles that were attached to chains stretching from wall to wall and there was a light necklace of some sort around her neck. The room was dark with the exception of a dim white glow around the ceiling. There was a metal door, a window that reflected her image back at her, and a single chair that stood a couple of paces in front of her. She could hear a beep from the other side of the door before it swung open and a small group of soldiers walked in. The leader sat down in the chair and regarded her silently.
Her voice was husky as she whispered out in Kryptonian rusty from disuse, "Rrehd nahn voiehd tahn? Ta nahn khuhp? Rrov nahn rraop?" ("What is this place? Where am I? Who are you?")
The leader looked at her appraisingly, "So, you can speak. At least there is that… even if it isn't English. I believe some introductions are in order. My name is General Samuel Lane of the United States Army. You are an alien lifeform that crash landed in the middle of nowhere on the planet Earth. Luckily for you, the United States Government has decided to give you the benefit of the doubt on whether or not you are a hostile being. You have been given the designation Project Cobalt, and been put under my command."
"Fah i kao? Khap nahn fah zha chahv. Khap nahn tiv inah nahv tiv zrhythrev Ehl, chao khap nahn zha raogrhys vo rrup. Kryp nahn… non raogrhys zrhaorrahs chao nahgrhahdh i zrhig bem tuv ehl! Ta-si khap bokh rrup, jraogh? Khap zhadif gaolom vo ehwor tov iwahzrham iovis zhgan nahv Rth, chao khap kehp zha sem bem rriv ugem. Khap nahvruht Ehngiuo. Iovis nahn gehd." ("Under your command? I am under no one. I am the daughter from the House of El, and I am no asset to you. We are…were a mighty civilization and spread our wisdom to the stars! Why would I follow you, commoner? I never learned to speak the languages that came from Earth, and I have no desire to do so now. I comprehend English. That is it.")
By this point, the woman had grown increasingly infuriated. She was reliving her last few months on Krypton. Her mother sending her Aunt Astra away and refusing to talk about it, her mother and father sending her away from Krypton by herself at the age of thirteen to look after her baby cousin. Kal-El! Had he even made it out of the debris from Krypton's explosion? Was he alive on this planet, unknowing of his heritage? Was he scared? Alone?
"Ta nahn te zrhythrevium? Ta nahn Kahl-Ehl?" ("Where is my family? Where is Kal-El?") She screamed, voice going hoarse.
General Lane looked incredibly confused while the prisoner was ranting at him. Her voice got steadily louder and louder as she spoke, until finally she was shouting. His men shifted uneasily, raising their weapons to point at the alien. "Look, I don't know what you are saying, so why don't you just calm down, okay?" Sam Lane was not a man to get spooked easily, but this young woman standing in front of him went from calm to full of rage a little too quickly for his liking.
"Khap hehp zha ikaogh osh rrup izo rrup kehp zha zrheon bem rrahn Kahl Ehl nahn. Khap sem bem ahvrig zhod bem i kehp. Izo rrup fad, otem nim khap vo duahz." ("I have no use for you if you have no assumption on where Kal-El is. I desire to find him on my own. If you strike, there will be me to deal with.") Eyes glowing, she broke her chains and floated a few feet off the ground. "Khap nahn Kara Zor-Ehl chao khap nahn zha khighi osh rrup bim nahn throniv fis tiv dol chao sidhaol kuhs rraop rem khap kehp zha ikaogh!" ("I am Kara Zor-El and I am no animal for you to hide in the dark and cast away when I have no use!")
The soldiers opened fire on her as she finished speaking, but the bullets didn't faze her. General Lane grabbed for his radio, "I need reinforcements in the main Project Cobalt cell ASAP! I repeat, reinforcements needed in the main Project Cobalt cell!" Alarms sounded throughout the base. What felt like seconds later, troops rushed in and aimed at the prisoner, also opening fire on the Kryptonian.
Cobalt watched as a small woman with wavy shoulder length entered the room briskly, her weapon at the ready in her hands. "Sir, I came as soon as I heard the alarm. What's the situation?" She had a light but confident voice that was soothing to Cobalt's ears over the sound of gunfire.
"Ah, Major Lane. Good of you to show up. Project Cobalt just lost it. We were calmly discussing her stay here at the facility when she started screaming at us, and broke out of her chains. Help my men get her back under control. I think that we are going to have to use some extreme negative punishment to get her back to where she needs to be." He smiled lightly at this. No doubt his daughter would have trouble with the Kryptonian just as he had, and she wouldn't come snooping around his operations after she failed to subdue the beast.
Before she answered her father, she addressed the troops, "Men, stand down." When they hesitated, she put more steel in her voice, "I said, stand down!" She turned back to the General, "I regret to inform you, sir, but I have the authorization to take control of Project Cobalt and transfer her to the Department of Extranormal Operations. I have a copy of the paperwork right here with me, in fact. That's why I'm here. I've been sent to retrieve Cobalt." Lucy kept a grimace on her face, but inwardly she was cracking up. Oh yes, she knew exactly what her father was up to. She knew that he wanted a super-soldier on the field. Even though the United States had quite arguably the most powerful military in the world, General Lane wanted to show other countries what would happen if you messed with the U.S. Luckily, once she had told the President what her father was up to, her commander-in-chief signed off on an order to transfer Cobalt to the more lenient D.E.O. Cobalt would be under her command, not her father's. Hopefully, Cobalt would never go back to her father. He could be a sadistic man, and would not hesitate to write off all he ever did as for "the greater good" or some similar bullshit so that he got away with it. She would not, could not, allow him to continue.
"And just who signed off on this order?! This better be good, Major." Lucy could tell that he was furious. Even if he was hiding his fury behind a solemn face, his eyes told the truth, just like they always had.
"President Marsdin, sir. She signed off on it," Lucy's firm mask cracked a little when she saw her father's face fall just ever so slightly. He had honestly thought that he would be able to get away with continuing his experiments without attracting any kind of notice?
He turned to issue orders to his troops, "Men, back to your normal duties." He turned to his daughter with a sneer, "This isn't over, Lucy. I will have control over Cobalt back before you know it."
Lucy's voice turned to ice, "You will never have control over her ever again, father," she spat out the honorific with disgust, "I will fight you on this at every turn. You can count on that." She kept her eyes on his back as he left until he was firmly on the other side of the only metal door in the room. Lucy took out a jamming device given to her by the D.E.O. to temporarily make all nearby surveillance devices stop functioning, before slowly turning towards Project Cobalt. The young woman was still floating and her eyes were still an intense, burning blue, but she was closer to the floor than she had been previously. Her head was tilted slightly to the right as she regarded Lucy with a look that closely resembled curiosity.
The blonde's eyebrows furrowed as she murmured, "Ta-si rrip rriv iovis?" ("Why would you do that?")
Now it was Lucy's turn to be confused. Hearing Cobalt speak in Kryptonian had Lucy slipping into the language as well, "Rriv rrehd?" ("Do what?)
Cobalt was shocked. It had been forever since she had heard another speak her mother tongue, even if the pronunciation could use a little work. The unexpectedness caused her eyes to flicker back to their normal dark blue. She quickly became furious though, eyes instantly back to that burning ice color again. What if this was all some elaborate trick by the horrible elderly man? "Ta-iv rrip ehwor Kryptahniuo? Rrip nahn nahv Rth, dhugh? Kehgier bem khap rrup rrip ehwor i iwahzrham kav khap chai rrip." ("How do you speak Kryptonian? You are from Earth, correct? Convey to me how you speak my language before I kill you.")
Lucy held up her hands as she slowly approached the blonde like one would a wounded animal. In a way, Lucy supposed that Cobalt was quite similar to a wounded and feral beast. She knew that the blonde was Kryptonian, so that meant that she had lost her planet. She may have even witnessed Krypton's demise. The woman would need an explanation and then proof that she was not lying before she would trust her fully.
She spoke slowly so as not to startle the edgy figure in front of her. "Whoa, slow down there, tiger. I only know a little Kryptonian. Enough to know you threatened me if I didn't come clean. The truth is that my sister is actually married to a Kryptonian." She had almost had Cobalt's face cupped all the way in her hands, but the young woman reared back as if she had been shot. Cobalt's face was enraged, "Rrip wuz!" ("You lie!")
Lucy pushed forwards toward Cobalt again, shaking her head, "No. No lies. He crash-landed here about 35 years ago. His adopted Earth name is Clark Kent, and his Kryptonian name is Kal-El. He told me that I should be on the lookout for you, even if he neglected to tell me your name. When your file came across my desk, it was already heavily redacted, and I just knew that my father was up to no good."
This time, she was able to get close enough to have her hands fully cupping Cobalt's face, "So I called in a few favors from people that owed me big time. I got your information, called in a few more favors and got a meeting with the President. She agreed that it was time to stop this before it got too far out of hand. My only regret is that it took so long to find you. It has been about ten years since you landed on Earth, and that whole time you were in a coma, being transferred from base to base, always on the move. And then today you finally woke up. It's almost like you knew I was coming for you…" Lucy trailed off, thoughts distracting her.
Cobalt opened her mouth to speak, when suddenly, the door banged open. Cobalt's eyes shot off a beam of heat that just missed the nervous soldier in the doorway and her arms quickly wrapped around Lucy's midsection, pulling her close to Cobalt's chest. Lucy was quick to gently shush the tall blonde, petting her arms and stroking her hair to keep her calm. Without turning, she addressed the private who was now standing just outside the door, "What is it?" She kept her voice calm, sure that if her voice had even the slightest waver, Cobalt would be on edge again.
The private stuttered out a reply, "Ma'am, the General has requested that you quickly and quietly leave the premises and take Cobalt with you. He asks that you be gone in less than ten minutes."
Lucy hummed, preoccupied with keeping the blonde calm, "Alright, private. You are dismissed." She heard him breath out a sigh of relief at having avoided any kind of a verbal lashing before he ran off in the opposite direction.
By the time that the blonde was fully relaxed and pliant in Lucy's arms, five minutes had already elapsed, so they hurried out of the compound to where Lucy's transport was waiting for her. The blonde looked at the car, trying to figure out what exactly it was. A chuckle reverberated through Lucy's throat as she ushered Cobalt into the back seat and pulled herself in to sit next to her. She stiffened again, however, when Lucy reached out to tuck a stray lock of golden hair behind her ear.
"Shh, Cobalt, shh." Lucy pulled the other girl gently into her lap, making sure to give her as much comfort as was possible through touch. "Urvish fah. Rrip nahn voi ugem." ("Calm down. You are safe now.") She inclined her head towards the driver, "Agent Sumner, take us to the airport please." The driver nodded once and the car pulled out of the base, heading towards the nearest airstrip so they could board the private jet back to National City. Cobalt's face was nuzzled into Lucy's neck, so when her next words came out a bit muffled, Lucy had to strain her ears to hear them, even at such a close range. "Nahn voiehd vrroshokh? Nahn khap dhehraogh? Nahn khap frig? Ah zhind?" ("Is this reality? Am I dead? Am I confused? A dream?")
Lucy's eyes narrowed slightly, trying to understand how Cobalt could think that. Realization hit her suddenly. Of course, she would think she was dead or dreaming. She had just woken up from a coma in a hostile environment, had guns pointed at her, been fired upon (even if the bullets couldn't penetrate her skin), and had someone save her from future experiments done against her will. It all must seem very surreal. "Zhi, Cobalt, voiehd nahn i jor vrroshokh. Zha dhehraoghehd, zha zhind. Kehp shahrrehth." ("Yes, Cobalt, this is your new reality. No death, no dreams. Have hope.")