The Construct
Notes: Find me on Tumblr at spoopercorp and on AO3 as Local_Asshole.
Summary: In light of unexplainable events circling around the D.E.O., J'onn suspects a traitor, so General Lane is sent forth. But his arrival is not taken well by Supergirl, whom he suspects to be a mole, putting the young hero in a precarious position. Meanwhile, it is up to Alex and Lucy to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.
TRIGGER WARNING: TORTURE.
The form was blurry, but she could make out male features in front of the bright green glow. He was wearing a surgical mask and dressed in a white lab coat, and his assistant was dressed in turquoise medical attire.
"Specimen K-004 is awake; we can proceed with the operation, sir," a thick, accented voice sounded, "Dr. Markov, it seems the alien is losing consciousness."
The doctor appeared in front of Kara and sighed, pulling his arm back and swinging at her cheek.
She was startled awake and felt blood trickle from the corner of her mouth.
Damn Kryptonite emitters.
"Welcome! Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Dr. Ulysses Markov, and he's my assistant, Dr. Siegfried Dziedzic," he gestured.
She spat at the man, eliciting a frown from him, and this time he punched her face and spoke with his vile Russian accent, "Don't provoke me, filth!"
Kara heard her jaw crack, probably a fracture, but she ignored the pain and glared at the doctors. She realized she was unable to move her body as her arms and legs were strapped to a cold, metal table. Her fists clenched in frustration.
"Aha! Not so super now are you?"
"What the hell do you want from me?"
"Well, since you've been convicted and have no rights on this planet, the generous General Lane decided to hand you over to us. So we came to visit from Cadmus as you're the first live Kryptonian specimen we've ever had," he flashed a toothy grin and rubbed his hands together, putting on his latex gloves, "Don't worry, you're still at the D.E.O. and we'll take very good care of you."
Dziedzic added, "We're going to keep you alive for our experiments as long as we can, we're quite fascinated with your anatomy."
Kara struggled against her binds again and noticed a draft. She was clothed in a light medical gown.
"Shall we start with the tap?" Markov suggested, pulling his tray of surgical tools beside him, "Don't worry K-004, we're just going to take a bit of spinal fluid from you, then proceed with a bone marrow extraction."
They strapped her onto her side and began to prepare for the procedure. Dziedzic flicked the large syringe and he spoke in a rush, "By the way, we decided not to waste our iodine and anesthesia on an outsider like you, so this is going to hurt. A lot."
Kara did not have time to register what the doctor said as he immediately pierced through her skin and into her spine, withdrawing the fluid. She clenched her fists and bit down on her lip, refusing to scream.
By the time they were finished with the excruciating five minutes, she was sweating and panting, hoping the soreness would disappear.
The blonde gritted her teeth as they appeared in front of her line of sight.
They were shocked and Markov's voice rang in her ears, "Your pain tolerance is absolutely phenomenal. Not a lot of our patients could withstand that without passing out, or screaming for that matter. I like you already."
Kara grunted, "Damn you."
"Mind your language, cunt!" Dziedzic warned, flipping her over onto her back, the vibrations causing her spine an immense amount of pain, "It's unfortunate that your girlfriend can't save you this time."
She whimpered.
"Lucy Lane was it? Maybe I can get my hands on her once we're finished with you. I wonder if there are any reproductive changes a Kryptonian has on a human."
"Don't you dare!" Kara shouted, lunging at the man in a futile attempt.
"Pathetic whore," he said, "Let's drill her bones already and extract the marrow."
"On your right thigh perhaps?" Markov snickered, "The femur is the worst part to drill into I've heard. My specimens tend to be very...vocal."
"Those sadistic bastards," Lucy growled from the outside of the observing glass. She attempted to call for Kara multiple times in vain as people inside of the room were unable to see outside of the clear wall, and on top of that, it was also impervious to external sounds.
"We have to get her out of there..." Alex sighed, her back turned the entire time.
"And how the hell are we supposed to do that?"
"We have to find evidence that shows Kara is innocent, or that at least provides reasonable doubt. Come on, Lucy, we're going to save your girlfriend."
As the brunette was about to follow, a bloodcurdling scream reached her eardrums. She could not look back. A tear fell, "Those sons of bitches..." Then she moved to follow Agent Danvers out of the observation room.
The machine spun, and the large needle corkscrewed its way into Kara's femur, slowly extracting her bone marrow.
Markov laughed, "You won't be able to walk for a while, darling. And this is only the beginning; you're going to be spending a few days with us."
At this point the young blonde was crying, begging for them to stop.
It was only a few more minutes before they threw her into the Kryptonite cell as the wardens stretched her arms apart from each other and chained them up to the ceiling, her legs dangling a foot off of the ground. She could feel the strain of the metal as it dug into her skin.
Kara hung there for four more days, in and out of the psychotic doctors' experiments, each one of them different from the last. They suffocated her, extracted tissue, tested her bone tension, tested her dehydration resistance, tested her starvation resistance, among others.
"Good morning, K-004!" Markov greeted jovially, "Our fifth day together already!"
She flinched away from his malicious voice, her fear prevalent.
"Oh, don't be afraid, darling. We're just going to do another experiment," he sighed lightly, "What do you think of Kryptonite gas?"
Her eyes widened at the memory and flinched away.
"Don't worry, less concentrated than the last one you were exposed to from what I see in your medical records," Dziedzic assured, "Its toxicity is still potent to your kind, you will feel as if your innards are melting. I pity your fragile nature to it, if only you weren't an endangered species."
They released her chains and she plopped onto the cold, hard ground. Her nostrils flared, eyes burning up and glowing a neon blue, indicative of her heat vision.
"Increase the concentration," Markov ordered.
Kara suddenly winced and groaned, collapsing onto the floor, too weak to get up. The wardens dragged her onto a metal platform and strapped her down.
Dziedzic made a gesture with his hand, "Open the vents. Release the gas."
A hiss surrounded the room as the contaminated air made its way into the Kryptonian's lungs.
She coughed, gagged, hacked, retched, anything to attempt to dispel the foul gas in vain. She could feel her insides burning and noticed after a half an hour that bruises were forming.
"Several contusions have developed," Markov noted, "Internal hemorrhaging most likely the cause."
Her nose bled and the vessels in the whites of her eyes ruptured due to the poisonous exposure.
"Sir, she's losing consciousness again. I recommend continuing with the next Kryptonite experiment, if she suffers a brain hemorrhage, she'll be useless to us."
Markov sighed in disappointment, "Fine."
He watched as his assistant inserted IV tubes into her arteries, connected to bags of liquid Kryptonite.
"Commence," Dziedzic ordered.
Kara's brain rushed into panic mode and primal fear took over her as she saw the green liquid snake its way into her veins. Her body was attacked by millions of foreign cells, making her arteries glow a hazy green as they conquered every inch of her body, which shook violently.
When she was hung back up into her cell she continued to tremble, her voice hoarse and raspy. She was unsure if her battered and abused body would survive another torturous experimentation, as was Lucy and Alex.
"I'm going to kill those bastards when I get my hands on them."
"Calm down, Director Lane," J'onn said.
"No! We've been sitting in this office re-watching the same footage and re-reading the same reports over and over again for six days! I can't concentrate when I'm hearing Kara's screams next door, this is a waste of time!"
Lucy stormed out of the room and stomped straight towards where her girlfriend's chambers were located.
"Director?" Dziedzic's mouth was agape, "You're not supposed to be here."
"I'm the head of the D.E.O. I'll do whatever I wish, and I wish to speak to Supergirl alone," she glared daggers at the two doctors, "My dad may be in charge, but if you disobey me, I swear my punishments are much worse than he has to offer."
They quickly made their way out.
Lucy hastened to Kara, caressing her bloodied face, "I'm going to get you out of here. I promise."
The blonde leaned into her touch, inhaled deep her scent of floral vanilla, and croaked out, "I missed you."
They both let their tears fall and shared an intimate kiss.
"We're figuring out what to do, we'll show my dad that you're innocent."
Alex gasped, "What the hell is that?"
"What is it?" J'onn asked.
"Do you see that line of orange in the live camera footage, just outside of the entrance?"
"They're getting closer..."
"It looks like a group of different life-forms. A very large group."
Agent Danvers paced back and forth in deep thought, "No outsider should have any information on this location. This is madness. What if the captured agents said something? Now we have to deal with intruders and those Cadmus assholes gassing Kara to death?"
J'onn reeled back, "What'd you just say about your sister?"
"That the last time I checked up on her she was being gassed? Apparently they were 'inspired' by the battle between Kara and the three fugitive aliens."
"That was a classified incident. It should be confidential. Only agents with the top security clearance level would be able to access those files: me, you, Majo – I mean Director Lane, and Dr. Hamilton."
"What do you mean?"
"Who the hell gave those doctors the files?" J'onn grumbled, "Rewind the footage to the day General Lane arrived."
The CCTV exhibited panoramic footage of the main H.Q. of the facility.
"Alex, pause right there."
The security camera showed in a dark corner a young man conversing with the doctors and handing them a packet of papers. He was tall and lanky, adorned with an outfit that was similar to a postman, then he turned around and winked at the camera.
Lex Luthor.
"He was right under our noses! Alert the facility! We have to defend it! Sound the alarm!"
A blaring siren screeched throughout the building and grabbed the attention of all of the agents, then as suddenly as it started, it faltered, as did the rest of the electricity.
The emergency reserves kicked in to supply temporary energy, dimly lighting each room with its fluorescent red glow.
The Kryptonite emitters lowered to the point Kara could finally release herself from the chains, she collapsed against Lucy.
"You're okay, I've got you," the brunette wrapped Kara's arm around her shoulder to support the near-dead weight, "Come on, we've got to go, get outside and into the sun. It looks like we're being infiltrated."
The intercom gave a static sound, and a familiar voice sounded through the speakers, "Hello, D.E.O.! It is I, Lex Luthor." He gave a small chuckle before continuing, "I have sole custody of the Orange Lantern, there's an army approaching the facility in about...oh...let's say...a minute. And I have a message for Supergirl. You're going to end up just like your cousin soon; Metropolis's hero is gone, and now I'm going to do the same to National City's. Entertain me with a glorious battle. This is war after all now. Or you can amuse me by attempting to evacuate, everyone in here is going to die regardless. The building will be reduced to rubble within thirty minutes to an hour, so put your thinking caps on. Ta-ta..."
His message buzzed out and was followed by a loud explosion.
"We've been breached!"
Notes: Constructive criticism appreciated.