(A/N): Here we are with another update! This time, we're checking in on some happenings with the rebels around the districts, with our talented Ophelia Claire and Kara Danvers!

Thanks as always to our writers who have reviewed; we love seeing your enthusiasm! Thanks to our reviewers, too! Slim Summers2002, we always love hearing what you love. And Practically An Avenger, we have to agree wholeheartedly! America is always hilarious, and we can't wait for more Kate and Kurt either (that was so painful). Hail Hydra... you know Hydra are the bad guys in this fic, right?

From CC re: Logan - GCBC, you are the FIRST person to catch that without being told. YES. All of Logan's chapter quotes set exactly what HIS mindset is for the chapter, not necessarily the mood of the chapter and the first switch OFF of his samurai lumberjack mindset was waaaaay back in the first book after he won. If you re-read his stuff with that in mind, the quote will always be a great barometer for where my boy is mentally.


Chapter Four - In The Batcave

Kara Danvers, formerly of District Five

Written By Ophelia Claire


"Unity is strength … when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved."- Mattie Stephanek


Kara held her knees tighter to her chest, trying to make herself as small as possible in the tiny dark space. She held a hand over her mouth, muffling the sound of her breathing as much as possible. Running footsteps echoed close by, as well as the occasional shout. No footsteps had come close to her yet, but it was only a matter of time. She jumped when someone ran past the door of the room she was hidden in, then tensed as they stopped and reversed their course. Soft steps slowly made their way into the room, and Kara winced. There were only so many places to conceal herself in here, and she wished she'd had a chance to get to a better spot.

A couple steps, the sound of something being shifted and moved back into place. The person came closer and closer…

Kara looked up just as the round, smiling face of the young Elsie Dee poked over the back of the chair she was hidden behind.

"Found you!" Elsie crowed happily. "Now you hafta help me find everyone else!"

Kara clambered out from behind the chair to find Kitty, a girl from Nine that SHIELD had brought with them, and two of the kids from Seven's big group already following Elsie around.

"Well, at least I wasn't the first one found," Kara said, brushing a dust bunny off her thigh. "Where else have you checked? Because I know for a fact that Alex found a space behind a box in the pantry during our game three days ago, and Kamala didn't find her for twenty minutes."

Elsie shrieked with excitement and took off down the hall towards the stairs. The two kids ran after her, while Kara and Kitty followed at a more sedate pace.

"Behind a chair? I've seen you do way better that that," Kitty teased good-naturedly as they descended the staircase into the main foyer. Evening light shone through the windows and turned the hall gold and orange.

"She found you before me!" Kara retorted. "You're always one of the last ones found. And I know you switch hiding spots after you get passed by, and I still haven't figured out how. Anyway, I have a right to have my mind on something else."

"Yeah, I know. It'll be fine, though; it's not like you're going to have to fight your way through a literal swarm of HYDRA soldiers this time, and you'll have Scott and Babs and Tripp and Mac as backup."

"I know. But it's a little more than just beating back enemy forces this time; it's a rescue mission. We have actual rebels to find and extract."

Kitty placed a hand on Kara's shoulder. "You'll do great. Don't worry."

"Kara?" The girls turned to find Barbara standing in a nearby doorway. "It's time to suit up."


Alex fussed with the strap of the body armor that Kara was buckling over her torso. Kara swatted gently at her hand, but there was no malice behind it.

"Can't I fuss over my sister?" Alex said, swatting her right back.

Kara heaved a dramatic sigh but let Alex finish fastening the straps and brush imaginary dust off her collar.

As Alex finished, she glanced up, and it struck Kara that they were the same height. How long had that been the case? Had she been Alex's height before the Games, or had her new body been gifted an extra inch or two? Alex caught her gaze and gave her a slightly querying look.

"What?"

Kara shook her head. "It's nothing." She chuckled softly. "I'm finally as tall as you, that's all."

"You are such a little sister," Alex said. She fussed with some more nonexistent dust specks. "You doing okay?"

"In what sense?" Kara asked, scraping her hair back into a ponytail.

"Everything," Alex said. "Physically, emotionally, mentally... you've only been on your feet for a couple weeks, and you've had a lot of stress in that time. I just want to make sure you're dealing with everything okay."

Kara finished winding a hair elastic around her ponytail. "It's… been a ride," she said. "Less than a month ago, I was just hoping for an internship with Cat Grant, and now I'm in Bruce Wayne's mansion all the way in Seven, going on missions with my secret agent sister in the middle of a country-wide revolution."

Alex chuckled and stepped back a pace to perch on the footboard of her bed. "That's an entirely fair point."

Kara went and retrieved her scabbard from where it leaned against the wall next to her bed. "Any word on Clark?" She traced the leatherwork on the case. Clark had been sent on to the new SHIELD base to get proper treatment for whatever mental conditioning HYDRA had done to him.

"I haven't heard anything new for a day or so, but the last update was that he was awake. Disoriented, but responding non-aggressively to Charles. He's shaking off whatever HYDRA did pretty easily."

"Stubborn farm boy," Kara murmured as she strapped her scabbard to her waist.

As the sisters made final preparations, Scott and Barbara appeared in the doorway.

"You guys ready?" Scott asked.

"Yup. We heading out?" Alex asked.

"The jet's ready for takeoff," Barbara said. "It's a little bit of a walk to get to where it's hidden."

"Then we'd best be off," Kara said.


The hike through the backwoods of Seven took just under half an hour. There was very little conversation, both as an attempt to remain stealthy and as everyone settled into mission mode. Kara rubbed her thumb up and down the edge of her scabbard as she walked. The leather was smooth and firm under her fingertip. Alex noticed the nervous gesture and wrapped an arm around Kara's shoulders, squeezing gently. Kara pressed into Alex's side as they walked that last hundred yards to where the jet was camouflaged.

They lowered the ramp and began preflight checks. Alex was in the pilot's seat, running the startup sequence. Kara dropped into the copilot's chair and ran her fingers across the array of switches, knobs, and buttons.

"When this is all over, I'll start teaching you to fly. First thing," Alex promised. "But for now..." Alex tipped her head back towards the cabin. Tripp was standing at the cockpit threshold. He winked at Kara.

"I'm going to need that seat," he said with a grin. Kara vacated the chair and hurried to take her seat in the cabin with the others.

The flight to Eight was spent mostly in silence. Kara spent a good portion of the time thinking about Clark. She wished he had been able to stay at the mansion with them. She had wanted to be there for him when he had woken up.

Kara still had moments of panic when she woke up tangled in her sheets, her mind creating images of dirty white walls and pale faces looming over her and jagged smiles. Who was there for Clark when he woke up? Would they have even let him out of his restraints when he first came back to consciousness? Would they have even been there for him or would they have just let him thrash around and panic for a while? Clark didn't have a secret agent older sister to assuage his fears and still his panic.

Kara slipped into a half-doze as they flew. She caught bits of murmured conversations about Wayne Manor, about other districts, about the plan once they landed. She was roused from her snooze as the jet began to descend and her stomach dropped slightly.

"All right, folks," Alex said from the cockpit as the plane descended into a grove of trees. "We've picked up transmissions from a small rebel force here in Eight. They've been broadcasting a distress signal on several well-hidden frequencies for about a week now. We've been able to trace the signal to an area of about six square blocks, but it's still a fairly large area to search through. Hydra forces are still in the area, but we're not sure to what extent. Eight doesn't really have the warrior presence of Four, so they likely still have a hold on the district. Normally, we can hone in on Hydra's transmission frequencies, but recently, every time we start hearing things, we lose it within the day, and then it picks up again on another frequency. Hydra could be switching for some reason, or it could be an external issue. Either way, caution is obviously going to be necessary here."

Everyone voiced an affirmative. "Our goal today is not to clear out Hydra forces," Alex continued. "They show attention to anyone who rises up against them. Civilians have been… not spared, per se, but left alone enough to be okay. They keep their heads down, Hydra lets them get on with some semblance of their lives. Our goal is to find and extract these rebels quickly and quietly."

"Do we know who we're looking for?" Scott asked.

Mac shook his head. "Not really. We have heard a phrase repeated occasionally on the rebel transmissions we catch — something about spiders rising, usually as some kind of sign-off or salute."

"Who was the spider in the last Games?" Barbara asked. "Wasn't he from Eight?"

"Peter Parker was given the name Spiderman," Alex said. "It's very possible that the rebels are using his image as a message of hope or something." She checked a handheld computer. "We've got another transmission coming in. Let's move out and see if we can't find it while they broadcast."

Everyone collected whatever gear they had brought with them and followed Alex and Tripp off the plane into the nighttime air. They trekked quietly through the forest — single file, with Alex and Tripp at the front, Scott, Barbara, and Kara behind, and Mac at the end, keeping watch behind them.

The forest eventually gave way into a couple dozen yards of scrub before the buildings actually started. Two large manufacturing factories stood before them like Sentinels guarding the district. Tripp motioned to head to the right, around the side of the right-hand factory. The building itself was surrounded by a tall fence topped with curls of barbed wire. One by one, the party darted from shrub to shrub until they had made it around the perimeter of the factory and the outskirts of town lay before them.

Some lights were still on in houses, but at this point, most Eight residents appeared to have gone to bed. Alex and Tripp led them through alleyways and down side streets, creeping through the darkest parts of the streets.

More than once, they passed green-suited soldiers patrolling the streets. The Hydra soldiers didn't appear to be looking for anything in particular as they walked, just a standard watch. Kara saw a silent conversation between Alex, Mac, and Tripp that seemed to center on whether they should take out the soldiers they saw. Alex had a hand on her gun and seemed to be for it, but eventually, it was apparently decided against.

"We're getting close here," Alex murmured after the patrol had passed. "Probably going to be a little more populated with Hydra around here. Stay sharp. Weapons ready just in case."

Kara put a hand on the pommel of her sword but didn't draw it from its sheath just yet. The blade was reflective, and any light that glinted off it could reveal their position.

They were entering what appeared to be a warehouse district now. Some were in use, while others were clearly abandoned, complete with broken windows and busted-up doors and graffiti over the signs.

Kara let her gaze wander over some of the spray paint designs. There were several older tags, some newer ones denouncing Thanos and Hydra—

—and right there, painted above a tall metal roll-up door, the simple image of a spider with long, angular legs. It wasn't very big, maybe the size of her hand, but it was fresh, and the image was clear. Kara waved a hand, catching the attention of Tripp. She pointed at the spider and watched as he pointed it out to Alex and Mac in turn. Kara made sure Barbara and Scott saw it as well before Alex motioned for them to follow her around the corner of that warehouse. They crept along the wall until Alex found what she was looking for: a door that had been broken open at one point. It hung limply ajar from one hinge, and the wood around the doorknob was splintered. Alex eased it open until the gap was wide enough for everyone to slip through.

Inside the warehouse was darker than outside. Moonlight and starlight filtered through the dirty and broken windows, casting faintly illuminated puddles on the ground. Dust floated in thick patches inside the shafts of light, the nearby ones swirling gently in the air currents made by their entrances. Crates lay in haphazard piles across the floor. Many were splintered or shattered entirely, their contents looted.

Alex motioned for the group to spread out, raising two fingers. Kara followed Alex to take the left flank, Scott and Barbara went for the right, and Tripp and Mac took the center. Each group began working their way through the warehouse, moving slowly and silently.

As they moved through the main room, another room became visible through a half-open door in the corner, with a faint light glowing gently inside. Alex touched Kara's arm and pointed to it. Kara nodded, and the sisters padded silently to flank the doorway. Kara peeked in.

The room was small, possibly an old office. There was a desk, a filing cabinet with the drawers ripped out and strewn across the room, and a chair that lay on its side. On top of the desk was some kind of small electronic machine, its lights casting the gentle glow they'd seen. The room appeared empty from their position, but there were spots they couldn't see from the door.

Alex lifted her gun. I'll go first, she mouthed at Kara. Kara nodded, drawing her sword. Alex lifted three fingers.

3...2...1

The sisters burst into the room one after the other, spinning to check the corners of the room.

There was no one.

Alex didn't lower her gun, but she went over to the desk to inspect the device.

"It's a transmission device," she whispered. "Someone was broadcasting here."

"The rebels or Hydra?" Kara asked.

"Well, we're not Hydra," said a new voice from behind them. "Hopefully, you're not either."

Kara and Alex whirled around, weapons up. Two people stood in the doorway: a boy and a girl, both around Kara's age. The girl wore a white sweatshirt with the hood raised. Blonde hair tumbled out from inside the hood. The boy had dark skin and a black t-shirt. They raised their hands as Kara and Alex pointed their weapons at them.

The boy looked at Kara, and recognition dawned in his eyes. "Whoa," he said. "You're dead."

The girl elbowed him in the side. "Don't be rude," she muttered

"Well, it's true!" the boy insisted. "You saw it."

"I don't recommend it," Kara said. "It's not fun. Who are you?"

The newcomers looked at one another. The girl glanced back at Alex, her gaze flicking to the eagle crest on the collarbone of Alex's jumpsuit.

"We could ask you the same thing," she said. Neither of them made any move to identify themselves.

There were footsteps in the warehouse, and Kara saw the rest of the team approaching. The kids noticed too, and their posture got even more tense. Kara could tell they were getting ready for a fight or flight.

Kara decided to take a chance. She lowered the tip of her sword and stepped forward a pace. "We're here answering a call," she said. "Spiders rising."

The demeanor of the two strangers changed immediately. Their faces broke into wide grins.

"You got our distress signal!" the girl said excitedly. Behind them in the doorway, the rest of the party lowered their weapons.

"We were giving up hope that it had made it further than the district boundaries," said the boy. "Uh, how far away did you pick it up?"

Kara glanced at Alex. Her gun was lowered but still gripped tightly. Alex looked at Kara, then at the kids.

"District Seven," she said.

The boy's jaw dropped. "It went all the way to Seven?" he said incredulously, turning to the girl. "Seven!" he repeated excitedly. He grinned at Kara and stuck out his hand. "My name's Miles," he said. "This is Gwen. And you were dead, but apparently you're not, which is great, for you, I guess?"

Kara shook his hand, a little weirded out by Miles' sudden exuberance. "Did you make this?" She pointed behind her at the transmission device.

"Yeah, we did!" Miles said excitedly. "It's a transmission device, so we could send out our distress signals, but it also has a signal jammer, so we've been messing with Hydra's communications for weeks!"

"That's impressive," said Scott from behind Gwen.

"They're with you, right?" Gwen asked.

"They're with us," Alex confirmed. "I don't mean to compliment your machine and run, but we should get you guys out of here. That's what you wanted, right?"

"That's the best suggestion I've heard all week," said Gwen. "We've got bags packed in another room... Miles, let's grab our stuff and blow this district."

"Literally or figuratively?" Miles said as the group followed them to another room. "Because I could probably—"

"Please tell me we're going somewhere with no explosives readily available," Gwen said as the group made for the warehouse door.

"No explosives," Barbara said. "But you'll have to tell me more about that jamming device. We could so use that."

Miles' eyes lit up.

"I hope you weren't hoping to be sneaky on the way out of here," said Gwen. "Because now, you'll never get him to stop talking."