Part XI: Maggie Got Her Gun
Maggie made a split decision and roughly made a U-turn to see the mysterious flying woman descend in the general direction of downtown, Catco, L-Corp and several other notable sites including Maxwell Lord's building and both Danvers' respective apartments. Fuck this. That weird flying chica may not be an angel, but perhaps she's a sign all the same. So, unaided by GPS, she made her way towards Alex's apartment.
The alarm on her phone went off: alien activity downtown. The same alert she blackmailed that DEO nerd into setting up on her mobile.
Shit. I guess that detour will have to wait. She altered course to head towards where her comrades in the Science Division were indicating an altercation was taking place. She was off duty, the lads had pitched in to cover her shift. They all agreed she needed a couple day's off in a row since she was so morose after her first real break up in years.
By the time she got there, the street was already a ruin. Supergirl was nowhere in sight. The belligerent wasn't as large as the last few deadlies had been, but it had no issue painting the cement with blue bloods. He was grey skinned, with fingers like talons. His legs were morphed into something resembling hooves, granting him terrifying agility. As the last of her unit fell, she stopped her car, and got out, guns in hand. She held her fire though, the creature was only six and a half feet tall, as far as aliens went, not too shabby, but far from unmanageable.
She fired then, unloading her pistol while slowly advancing on the alien that had just murdered her team; her men and women. And more than three of them just had their brains dashed across the asphalt. Maggie didn't cry. She did not shout. She let her bullets carry her emotions…right into that alien's big bright yellow eyes. The following roar reverberated upon the glass of the buildings framing the street. The rest of the bullets struck him with little thuds but with no real effect. She heard the sound of tires screeching to a halt.
The alien charged, and unfortunately Maggie was not prepared for his speed. Before she could do much more than hoist her shotgun, he was upon her. Still howling from his recent blindness, he swept his right hand at her, aiming for a decapitation. Maggie ducked and extended her arm, mounting her shotgun at his throat, which shimmered, even in the limited light.
Two things happened at once: Maggie pulled the trigger, and the alien successfully tagged Maggie.
The hollow roar of the shotgun silenced the alien's screams, as his head was blasted ten feet backward, body still firmly rooted to the ground. Maggie flew through the air, and slammed into a nearby car, dousing the distance between her stand and the car in red.
Maggie's vision began to fail then, blood was trickling into her eyes, but as she lost consciousness, she perceived two things: a female voice shouting her name, Alex? And her shotgun lying on the ground several paces away, with her arm cradling the gun, and finger still on the trigger.
"Alex, you need to slow down, what happened!?" Winn yelled back into his earpiece. He looked at his boss, J'onn standing with bot hands splayed on the centre table; a tenser look than usual on his face. He made a swift gesture with his chin, and Winn obeyed just as swiftly. He tapped a button and suddenly Alex's voice was on in J'onn's earpiece as well, in a frantic tone that none of them had heard since Kara had been thrown into the sea after losing a staring match with a bomb.
"INCOMING EMERGENCY MEDICAL, FEMALE, 27,…" Alex's heaving breaths were the only intelligence that was available to the DEO HQ for a few moments. This was new though. Even when Kara was badly injured, Alex had kept her composure. Her ragged breaths told them everything they needed to know.
"Prep Surgery!" J'onn bellowed.
Alex was back, "I'M LOSING HER J'ONN! WE'RE NOT MAKING IT BACK TO HQ, PLEASE ADVISE NEAREST AID. It's Maggie," Alex's voice cracked on the last bit before she broke off.
J'onn nodded to agent Vasquez and she had just as quickly pulled up a route for Alex. "Alex, what is the nature of her injury?" Vasquez asked calmly, but ever so efficiently.
"Massive head and chest trauma, and she," As Alex gulped, Winn, J'onn, and Vasquez exchanged a fleeting glance. "Her right arm has been severed." Alex got through, with new steel in her voice.
Vasquez and Winn both were typing with renewed fervour. Seconds later, Winn said, "National General is closest, but The Lovegood Clinic has the best trauma surgeon and team on staff." Winn said quickly.
It took Alex less than a second to decide, "Lovegood!"
Winn nodded to Vasquez, who took over, "Alright. I'm alerting their OR now, and paging Dr. Shirai now. Good luck Alex." Vasquez said as her hands flew over her keyboard, before suddenly stopping, having accomplished both of those things.
Alex hung up as the quarterback crew all looked at each other. "Who's gonna tell Kara?" Winn asked quietly.
J'onn considered for a moment before saying, "We'll tell her tomorrow. Depending on whether or not Maggie Sawyer makes it through the night." And with that, he walked over to the elevator and disappeared behind its closing doors.
The mysterious flying woman who probably should've been wearing a mask in the first place, Lena, woke up when her phone's constant vibrating coincided with a particularly visceral nightmare from her childhood. Her pounding hear steadied briefly as she took in her situation. A sleeping Kara was on top of her. Both of them were lying down on the couch, and Kara was curled into her, her arms linking at the base of Lena's spine. Lena's pulse began to speed up as she properly took into account that Kara's blissful and adorably drooling face was situated on Lena's barely covered left breast. Lena's sleeping wear wasn't the firmest of garments, and certainly showed little to no resistance when faced with the unconsciously burrowing face of Kara Danvers. Lena' own hands had err, wandered oh so gloriously a bit in her sleep. And it took a few seconds, but upon realising this, Lena's face assumed a shade of crimson that nobody alive had ever witnessed.
It took some time, longer than Lena would ever confess to, but the raven-haired woman's heartbeat eventually returned to only slightly elevated levels. She gingerly extricated her right hand from where Kara had a uh, firm hold on it, and found her phone which was lying on the coffee table adjacent to them. It was 3:00am and her news app's headline instantly garnered her attention, even in her half-awake state.
'ROGUE ALIEN CLASHES WITH NCPD PERSONEL. AT LEAST 6 DEAD. SUPERGIRL NOWWHERE TO BE SEEN.' It was then that Lena noticed a persistent flickering light coming from Kara's baggy pocket. Lena set her phone down and not without a new blush, fished it out of Kara's pocket. Lena's eyes widened as she read the latest few of many, many texts that had flooded the blonde's phone in the last couple hours. Lena began to shake Kara awake, but for all the good it did, she may as well have been tickling a rock. Softly, Lena leaned down and whispered in Kara's ear, "I'm so sorry my sweet Kara, something bad has happened and your sister needs you right now." Lena had barely finished before Kara jerked awake eyes bright with uncomprehending worry.
Lena had her delicate spindly fingers around each of Kara's shoulders, anchoring the girl. "Are you awake?" Lena asked calmly. Kara vigorously nodded, shaking off the last vestiges of sleep. "Ok." Taking a deep breath, Lena gently handed Kara her phone. "I only saw the top three… your sister's friend Maggie got hurt, bad. She needs you at Lovegood Clinic"
Kara nodded again as she made to untangle herself from Lena. "I'm sorry, she stammered as she hopped around getting her socks and shoes on."
Lena swiftly rose from the couch and disabused her of that notion. "No. There is nothing whatsoever to be sorry about. This is not your fault." Lena paused to take a breath. "Are you gonna fly there?" Kara nodded as she was now fumbling around for her keys.
Lena spotted them first and plucked them up and deposited them in Kara's shaking palm. "Kara, I.." Lena didn't truly know where she was going with that, but Kara made that decision for her.
"You're coming with me." Kara said firmly, in what Lena would come to recognize as her Supergirl persona bleeding through. "I want you with me, and Alex will not be in a good shape. I'll need someone to lean on too, and Alex is going to be totally focused on Maggie." The blonde sprinted to her room with powers untethered, and quickly wrapped Lena in beautiful navy blue duster. She also gave her a beanie and white particle mask. Lena was floored at Kara's instant understanding of Lena's hesitation, and warmed that Kara would be so accommodating of her social status. Kara herself was wearing a similar long coat and beanie, to account for the sudden chill they could both feel outside. Lena's surprise and moment of unadulterated warmth didn't last long as she quickly put on the disguise Kara gave her and they were both out the door not a second later.