Alex Danvers' eyes nearly watered at the brightness of her phone, practically blinding her as she flipped it to face her.
The clock on her home screen told her it was a little past three, but the flashing incoming call labeled WORK sobered her slightly, as she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Danvers."
A loud groan came from the other side of the bed, and Alex glanced sideways to see that the figure next to her was waking up. She cursed herself momentarily for not answering the call sooner in an attempt to avoid waking up her wife.
"Alex, DC greenlit the prisoner transfer five minutes ago. I need you to come in."
She immediately straightened her spine, finally waking up properly upon hearing J'onn's words. "I'm on my way."
"Bring Maggie. We're going to need all the help we can get."
Alex frowned at that, but disconnected the call, putting her phone back down onto the nightstand and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Another mumbled groan from the other side of the bed. "Work?"
Alex turned her head again, seeing that Maggie was now looking at her from under the covers.
"Yeah."
"What time is it?"
"Five past three." Alex replied. "J'onn wants you to come too."
"Alright." Came Maggie's slurred response, after a deep breath. "Just… gimme a sec."
Alex smiled, knowing that the best way to get Maggie up and running as fast as possible was to make coffee. She swung her legs off the bed and padded the few steps down into the open space of the living room.
Behind her, she heard the shuffling of covers, indicating that Maggie herself was pulling herself out of the bed too, as the woman disappeared into the bathroom holding a set of clothes.
Honestly, Alex was surprised. Knowing the speed of the DC bureaucratic system when it came to operations and greenlighting decisions and plans, she genuinely hadn't expected the transfer to be okayed so soon.
J'onn and her had even had a friendly bet on the side – which she now officially lost. Guess his faith in bureaucracy did win this battle. She owed him five bucks.
The second she put the two cups of freshly made coffee down on the kitchen island, the door to the bathroom opened and Maggie appeared, fully clothed. Her eyes widened with lust as she zeroed in on the cup that Alex was now nudging in her direction.
Alex moved from behind the island, and leaned forward to kiss Maggie's lips before walking over to her wardrobe to get her tactical gear, coffee cup still in her hand.
One or both of them being called in for work in the middle of the night was nothing new – it basically happened once a week. And the routine of getting dressed and making coffee without all too many conversations had been perfected at this point.
The rule was that whoever got called in and woke up the other one had to make coffee and drive. So Alex had drawn the short straw tonight, not that she minded. She was far too occupied with the mission ahead to even think about sleeping at this point.
When she emerged from the bathroom, clothed and ready to go, Maggie had finished her cup of coffee and looked awake enough to perform her duties.
As much as she loved her, Maggie without coffee honestly wasn't the cop she'd ever want to work with. Her wife was a caffeine addict – as she joked herself so many times – but Alex was glad that coffee existed, because Maggie was a mess without it.
Alex herself preferred tea, but even she couldn't deny the strong attraction to a cup of hot coffee in the night when she was on duty.
"So, what are we doing?" Maggie asked, passing Alex to make her way to the gun safe in the cupboard in the corner and punching in the combination. She pulled out both of their service weapons and badges, and pulled her head out to watch Alex in anticipation of her reply.
"Yesterday, we received a distress signal from a planet thousands of lightyears away. They said that their planet was being overrun by militant forces, some sort of coup. We couldn't find any information on the planet, but in their emergency broadcast they called it Nahrenia."
Maggie silently handed Alex's gun over, and watched as the agent tucked it into her holster and continued. "We tried to contact them back, but our technology wasn't advanced enough. At least, that's what we thought. They never responded. But a few hours after we messaged them back, a portal appeared. An alien jumped out, he told us he was Nahrenian. That everyone on his planet was evacuating, and that they needed planets to harbor refugees."
Maggie frowned at that. "If their technology is so advanced that they can send signals thousands of lightyears away, then they'd have found many deserted planets where they could settle instead of coming here, right?"
"Yeah, that's what we said too." Alex nodded. "But they need water to survive, like us, and many of those don't have that."
"Okay, so… Where do we come in?" Maggie asked, clipping her badge to her belt. Alex grabbed her keys and walked towards the door, locking the apartment behind them and following her wife towards the stairs.
"J'onn called the president to ask for her opinion on the refugee matter. She said that she wanted to see the messenger, and possibly negotiate an agreement between our planets. But she had to get the UN involved, and the Nahrenian needs to be transported to DC first."
Maggie nodded. She knew what the rest of the story entailed – the DEO had strict codes and guidelines when it came to transporting alien visitors. As friendly as they possibly were, none of them were left alone for a second while here, because they couldn't risk anything. The alien could attempt to seize control or, on the other hand, something about the Earth's atmosphere could hurt or possibly kill them.
It was just better if there was always someone present. Which is why they needed to transport the prisoner to the private airfield in the desert, to put him on a jet to DC.
"Why did J'onn ask me to be there?" She asked, that being the only thing left unanswered. "… I mean, those transports happen all the time, usually you guys are fine."
"High profile case." Alex replied, as they reached the underground garage. "The President asked for as many hands as possible, she's worried that whoever performed the coup will follow him here and assassinate him, maybe take down a few of ours while they're at it."
Maggie didn't like the sound of that at all.
The two of them got inside their car, as Alex jumped behind the wheel and drove into the National City streets. At this time of night, traffic was a breeze, and it took them less than ten minutes to arrive at the DEO headquarters.
"Alex. Maggie." J'onn greeted them, turning his head from watching the monitors in the command center.
Alex nodded at him, before glancing up to the screens herself.
There were numbers running across most of them. Another one had a live feed of the Nahrenian messager in a prison cell.
A tired-looking Winn was sat at his desk, staring at his own screen that had numbers flowing by so fast, it almost looked like a scene from the Matrix.
Maggie stayed back, letting Alex take the lead. This was their operation. She was just along to help wherever she could, so she settled on waiting for instructions.
"Any luck on tracing the coordinates?" Alex asked, hands on her hips as she walked up to stand next to J'onn.
"Nothing yet." Winn responded. "But that beacon came from over tenthousand lightyears away, it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack the size of one hundred suns."
Alex nodded slowly, turning to J'onn. "What's the status?"
"The jet is being prepped. Should take us a few hours to reach DC, the headquarters over there will handle the rest. We just need to get him to the airfield. The convoy leaves in fifteen minutes – go gear up. You're in charge."
Eyeing the nearly deserted command center – which usually had agents and analysts present 24/7 – Alex turned back to J'onn. "Of whom, exactly?"
"Well, I didn't say I liked their timing." J'onn growled. "DC expects the guy by morning, but Bravo and Charlie are in Alaska for wilderness endurance training. Desert HQ will rendezvous with more men on the airfield, but the ride over there will be all hands on deck."
"Right." Alex nodded, as she ran out of the command center and towards the armory, Maggie hot on her heels.
J'onn hadn't lied.
Their convoy only existed of three black humvees. The first and last one each had three agents, the middle one had the Nahrenian, Alex and Maggie, and a driver.
As much as she had to focus on the task at hand, it was hard to ignore how absolutely sexy Maggie looked in full tactical gear with an assault rifle clutched between her hands. She wondered whether Maggie felt the same way, but based on the looks her wife was giving her, Alex was pretty convinced that the question had been answered.
"Thank you." The Nahrenian told them, as Alex guided him into the back of the humvee, where Maggie was already waiting. She patted the roof of the car to indicate to the driver that they were ready to go, as she hopped into the last available seat.
The humvees were modified for prisoner transport – there was a separation between the front seats and the back, and the exteriors were completely modified to ensure that the vehicles could take quite a few hits before knocking the passengers around.
It was state of the art technology, and Alex wasn't about to take it for granted. She tapped her comms while glancing up at the screen that separated them from their driver. "All units, this is Trap Leader, cargo is on board, let's get this show on the road."
In front of them, the first car was driving out of the garage. Maggie could see that Alex was painfully vigilant, her eyes darting all around the car and through the windows, trying to catch any sight of potential danger.
But through all of the dramatics of barely having enough agents to assure the messenger's life, Maggie had to ask herself.
Where was Kara?
Neither J'onn nor Alex had mentioned the superhero, and while it would make sense that Kara was unavailable, or perhaps even injured and unable to help, she had to ask.
"So…" She began, eyeing her wife who was sitting opposite her, their knees touching. "… Any chance we'll see our friend in red and blue tonight?"
Alex smirked. She'd obviously waited for the question. "She's on her way. She was up north, trying to get some of her inside information about the situation."
Maggie nodded. It was clear that Alex was being cryptic on purpose to keep their companion from picking up too much of the conversation, but she immediately felt better knowing that Kara was on her way.
She just hoped that the Fortress of Solitude would give them more information on the Nahrenians, because if the UN was about to let a few of them live on Earth – they'd have to know much more about them than just their planet's location.
A long silence settled over them.
"Are you okay?" Alex's question was directed at the alien, who was hunched forward and appearing nervous. His anatomy seemed largely similar to theirs, but much frailer and smaller. It was almost like he had no muscles at all. His skin was also much lighter, almost pearly white. It gave him a sick and weak look – although it could be completely deceiving.
"Yes, thank you." The Nahrenian replied. "My language processor is enabling me to have conversation, for which I am grateful."
"Can you tell us a bit more about the situation on your planet?" Maggie asked.
She kept one eye trained on the window behind him, but she was interested to hear what he had to say. Alex seemed completely tuned out of the conversation, though, as she was talking into her earpiece, communicating with the other vehicles and asking for updates.
"My planet is one of peace and technology." The alien said. "Similar to yours, in terms of architecture. Our great capital city is famous galaxy-wide for its great economic and scientific wealth."
Maggie nodded, watching the man's face turn to sadness. "Our monarchy has reigned over our planet for many generations, ensuring that there was never any violence or unrest. But a few days ago, a ship landed, filled with soldiers. They marched into the capital, and killed anyone they saw. Men, women, even the children. They demanded our Queen to surrender, but she refused. Before they took her, she managed to order everyone to evacuate. They sent me to your planet as soon as they received the response on the distress signal. Thank you for that."
"Yeah, you're welcome." Maggie responded. "We just want you to be safe."
"We're here." Alex said, interrupting their conversation. Maggie looked up to see the barbwired gates of the airfield. "Get ready. This is the weak spot."
As Maggie nodded, Alex tapped her earpiece again. "Trap One, Trap Two, be advised, transport time from car to jet should take less than ten seconds. Repeat – ten seconds."
"Copy." Maggie heard two voices repeat in her earpiece. But Alex wasn't done.
"Trap One – go go go. Trap Two – hold position until Banshee is airborne and await further orders."
Maggie watched as the humvee in front of them opened its doors and the three agents poured out, heading for the jet with raised guns.
Alex took a deep breath and turned to their passenger. "As soon as the door opens, you head straight for the plane, okay? We can only take you up the steps, but there are agents waiting for you."
"Okay." The man nodded. "I am ready."
Alex reached for her earpiece and the door handle, and Maggie braced herself for the controlled chaos that was about to unleash.
"Cargo moving!" Alex yelled, as she yanked the door open. Maggie was right behind her, keeping the Nahrenian between their two bodies as they made their way over to the jet. Maggie held her rifle up, looking around for any type of threat.
Her heart pounded painfully in her chest, but everything seemed under control, as Alex led the way up the airstair and practically pushed the man inside.
"Thank you-!" The alien could only say, before another agent inside slammed the plane door shut. Alex jumped down the airstair three steps at a time to clear the way, as the jet roared to life.
"Cargo is inside!" She yelled into her earpiece over the loud sound of the engines. "Banshee is cleared for takeoff, confirm?!"
"Trap two confirms."
"Trap one confirms."
Alex sighed in relief as she watched the jet pick up speed before lifting off the runway and into the sky.
Their job was done.
She turned back to where Maggie was standing between her and the car, smiling. "Mission completed, Agent Danvers."
Alex made sure her earpiece was muted, before returning the smile. "Let's get back to bed."
As Maggie headed back for the humvee, Alex reached for her earpiece again. "Trap Two, mission complete. Drive b-…"
Before she could finish the order, a loud bang followed by a huge shockwave sent her toppling down onto the ground.
She scrambled to regain her footing, glancing around quickly to see that Maggie was in the same position.
"What the hell was that?!" A voice filled her ears, but she wasn't sure which agent it belonged to.
She responded shakily. "Everyone stay inside! We can't-…"
"Alex!"
Maggie's scream made her heart stop, as she turned her head in her wife's direction. But Maggie's gaze was locked onto something behind her.
As Alex turned around, rifle raised and ready to start firing, her stomach dropped.
A ball of fire was falling out of the sky, making flaming debris rain over National City.
Footsteps made it clear that Maggie was now beside her. She clenched her jaw as she watched the wreckage of the jet dropping down.
Fuck.
She involuntarily took a step forward, as if she could try and stop what was happening. But she knew that it was impossible.
"It looks like it's headed here..." Maggie's shaky voice filled her ears.
Alex glanced up again and squinted, realizing that Maggie was right. Though physically impossible, it did seem like the ball of fire was coming closer and closer.
Flying straight towards them.
Alex's eyes widened, as she grabbed Maggie's arm and yanked her back, pulling her back towards the cars as fast as she could. They only had seconds before the jet would crash into the tarmac and kill them on impact, if they didn't get to cover soon.
Her heart was beating wildly, but Alex refused to slow down. The whistling of the jet falling out of the sky made the hairs at the back of her neck stand up, but she couldn't think about it.
"BRACE!" She yelled in her comms, realizing that they were out of time.
In a last-ditched attempt, she pushed Maggie forward as hard as she could, hoping that those few feet would make the difference between life or death, and clenched her eyes shut, bracing herself for the impact.
But instead of a loud, thunderous crash and possibly the pain of her limbs being crushed slowly, the only thing she was aware of was a bright blue light, enveloping her.
Was this death?
She closed her eyes against the brightness, and prayed it would be over soon.
It was only when her back hit something solid, knocking the wind out of her completely, and she opened one eye to see a bright blue sky above her, that she realized something had gone very wrong.