Chapter 13: Something Wicked This Way Comes
"I see you finally made it!"
Lillian, the eldest of the Luthor family, looked down at them ominously as though a hunter smiling at her captured preys. Oddly Lena was nowhere to be seen.
Kara clearly felt Alex stiffening next to her and getting into a ready stance as her right hand went to her handgun hidden inside the vest she was wearing. Kara decided to make a conversation in hopes of preventing anything that was coming their way with reason. It was a long shot yet she had to try.
"What do you want from us Lillian? Isn't this already enough? Your Park is in ruins. What does it matter if we know about these secret labs? It's not like we can prove any of it anyway!" Kara spoke loud and clear for her to hear.
"You think I care about the Park? You liar! I knew it from the moment I heard your name, that you are colluding with Lord! That's all your family ever do! Kara Danvers, or should I say Kara Elmar? Daughter of Alura and Zachariah Elmar?"
Kara gasped and stumbled backward. "How- how do you know that?!"
"You think I'd forget the names of the people responsible for putting my genius son behind bars for life?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You ignorant stupid girl! You call yourself a reporter, yet you haven't even got the clue!" Lillian insulted Kara in disdain and added, "You don't even know that your mother, Alura, was the judge who condemned my patriot son to life imprisonment!"
Kara's eyes grew wide. "What? That's not true!" She had had read all the reports on Lex Luthor's trials. The judge's name was never mentioned. Doubt filled her mind.
Alex put her hand on Kara's shoulder in order to calm her and snapped at Lillian. "Shut up Lillian!"
Lillian laughed drily. "Why do you keep the truth from her Alexandra? Why don't you tell her why her parents died? You know what I'm talking about. I've seen your name so often on the request list to check out the file case."
Kara stared at Alex appalled, completely blown away, wordlessly asking her to say Lillian was saying rubbish to throw them off. But Alex did no such thing and instead looked away with sad eyes and a trembling lower lip.
"Alex…" Kara's voice cracked.
"Kara," Alex looked back directly at Kara with tears in her eyes, making Kara stop breathing altogether. "I… I should have told you when I found out, but- but I didn't want to hurt you by forcing you to go through the pain all over again."
"Alex, please, what are you talking about?" Kara whimpered.
"Your parents didn't die in a random accident. They… the car crash was all a setup. Their car was bombed and the man who drove you off-road, he was suspected to be working for Lex Luthor."
If it weren't for Alex's arms on hers, Kara was sure she would have fallen hard to the ground. Having no power left in her body to stand, Kara slid to her knees as Alex tried to hold her upright.
"Kara? Kara listen to me! I've been trying to reopen the case and I was hoping to break it to you when I actually had a solid lead, but the Luthors, they've taken care of everything. The driver is dead and I hit walls everywhere I went."
"My parents…they were killed…" She hadn't registered a word beyond what Alex had said about the car being bombed.
"YOU BITCH!" Alex roared at the nefarious woman who was watching them over in delight as if watching her favorite soap opera.
"Since you're already at it, Alexandra, why don't you go ahead and tell her why she was adopted by your family and forced to change her last name?"
Kara blankly gazed at Alex, too stunted to shed even a single tear and waited for another reveal to blow the bubble of oblivion she had been living in for the past thirteen years. Her whole reality. Strangely, this time even Alex looked all shocked and taken aback.
"STOP WITH YOUR BULLSHIT NOW!" Alex snatched her gun out of the holster and aimed it at Lillian with her face contorted with sheer hatred and rage.
The older woman didn't even flinch at the sight of the gun. Completely unaffected, she laughed in mockery and said, "I expected more from you Danvers. I thought you gave up a medical carrier to become a cop and find out why Jeremiah never came home, but obviously that plan hasn't really worked out for you, has it?"
All Kara could do was stay on the ground and be struck by each word.
"I was sent to my room that night, but I heard everything! You forced my father to work for you! He worked for you and you wouldn't lay a hand on Kara! That was the deal!"
"And did you ever wonder why your scientist father so desperately wanted to protect a girl who wasn't even his own?"
"Our fathers were close friends!"
No they weren't… Kara thought. She had no recollection of her father ever mentioning Jeremiah Danvers. He would have told her if they were close, wouldn't he? He told her everything. But then what did she know, all her life had been a big lie.
"Correct. They both worked at Star Labs and they found something they shouldn't have, much like you two. They didn't even stop to think the consequences of their actions as they dragged Lex into the mess which ended with the cost of their own lives."
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FATHER?!" Alex cocked her gun and aimed with both her hands which were now shaking, making it impossible to shoot accurately.
Lillian made a long meaningful pause, just to take pleasure in adding to their suffering by keeping them in suspense.
"I didn't do anything. I just sent him on a journey, he took off and never returned. He must have really hated you and your mother to get lost so fast."
"UGGHHHH!" Alex let out a shout that held all the pain she had been keeping inside for years, and started emptying half of her magazine on Lillian, but to her surprise the bullets hit a bulletproof glass instead, making merely small dents on it. The glass had been so clear and smooth that they had been able to spot it.
Lillian shook her head in disappointment and leaned back, becoming grossed out by the show. "I think I've had enough of this. If you have any last words, I suggest you hurry up and tell it to each other because I don't have all day watching you imbeciles."
Kara and Alex exchanged an alarming look before returning their attention back to the ruthless woman. In her hand, Lillian was holding a small pad. With one last lopsided devilish smile, she touched the screen which instantly caused a loud sound emit, like rusty hinges starting to turn and metal creaking and screeching.
Right underneath where Lillian had been standing over, the wall facing the Danvers sisters, a vertical dark gap appeared in the wall as the two doors rolled back and retreating into the corners of the wall. With a frantically beating heart and shaking from head to toe, Kara stood up and stared blankly. Her mind screamed for her to flee
at this unknown danger, but her legs wouldn't listen.
For a long moment, nothing happened. No sound was heard and no movement seen. Time itself seemingly frozen still. Then as if on cue, a deep growling sound followed by heavy sounds of multiple footsteps reached their ears as three dinosaurs walked into the light with sharp bright eyes. Kara could hear their every inhales and exhales, unlike her own which seemingly had stopped long ago.
The one in the middle and the largest, covered in pitch black thorny scales, started studying them with its burning red eyes.
The deep navy blue one on the right with a smaller body build and two dorsal sails on its head in the shape of V, had white eerie eyes and long hooked claws. It was the same dinosaur which had attacked Kara and Eve last night.
And last but not least, the smallest of the three, had yellow streaks on its long figure, matching its golden eyes.
None of the three hybrids were even nearly as big as Rexy, but they looked far more diabolical and as though a reminder, Kara's shoulder injury stung harder than it had ever. Suddenly Rexy didn't even sound that vicious anymore.
"Meet Reign, Pestilence and Purity." Lillian chose that moment to introduce her made up dinosaurs. "The Worldkillers!"
The two sisters would have rolled their eyes at the overdramatic names Lillian had chosen for her bio-engineered monsters, if they weren't paralyzed by the sight of them.
"Oh, the irony! Your fathers gave their lives, trying to stop Lex from creating these magnificent beasts with the science they had a part in developing, now you get a glance of them right before you die by them!"
Without taking her eyes off the three dinosaurs, Alex took two very slow steps backward and came to stand right next to Kara.
Kara wished Mike was there. He always knew how to get around with these flesh eating animals. But he wasn't and Kara regretted her decision to ever sneak into the labs deeply.
Surprisingly none of the hybrids jumped forward to finish them. They kept sizing them up curiously as they sniffed the air and swung their tails. There was no escape. The only option that crossed Kara's mind was if they somehow could outrun the three powerful monsters and go back into that burning lab. Either way, death awaited them at both ends. The question was which kind of death they preferred.
Alex tried to stand between her and their dooms, but Kara griped her arm tightly and tried to stop her without having the courage to speak out loud, not to trigger the Worldkillers.
"Reign, kill them!" Lillian suddenly shouted and the biggest hideous dinosaur roared loudly and revealed two rows of razor sharp teeth, each capable of puncturing and tearing off a limb with ease.
Hundreds of kilograms of muscles coiled into a hunting pose and Kara braced herself for her end because her feet were glued to the ground and unresponsive by intense fear.
Yet instead pain, she felt herself being thrown off her feet and shoved to a side jeeringly. Reign's jaws missed her by a hair's width and for a millisecond, as Kara fell, she locked eyes with the huge blood colored orb that radiated nothing but cold animalistic instinct to kill. It lacked something she had seen in Rufio's eyes. The glimmer called the soul.
The momentum of the push caused Kara to slide for a short length on the smooth mosaic flooring on her backside before coming to a halt. She watched in horror the other two smaller dinosaurs becoming interested in this game as well and made sounds as though communicating and joined Reign. They reminded her of how Mike's Raptors worked together. Maybe they shared the same genes. There was no time to waste thinking of that as Reign got ready to charge again, this time looking impatient.
Before Kara could do anything, Alex shouted something to distract the dinosaurs from hunting Kara, not even an ounce of fear visible in her eyes. The brave agent raised her tranquilizer rifle and aimed at Reign as she walked away to drag the monsters away from Kara. There was no way she could sedate them all in time.
"Kara, run!"
"NO!" Kara punched at the floor, refusing to let Alex die for her.
Kara's window of escaping came to a close when the dinosaurs didn't take the bait and refused to pursue Alex. They seemed unusually focused on Kara. As Kara rose to her feet, she watched Alex using her last few neurotoxin capsules smartly by shooting at the monsters' necks. It suddenly dawned on her what role her torn blue top was playing here.
"You think those can stop these creatures?" Lillian taunted them with a snarl. They had forgotten she was still there.
Her words proved to be true when the sedatives did nothing but slowing them down for just a tiny bit. Alex then brought out her handgun and started shooting as she backed away towards where Kara was standing this time. However, to their surprise, even those bullets only gave those monsters shallow cuts instead of fetal wounds. Resulting in only irritating them further. Very shortly Alex ran out of bullets. Lillian burst into laughter and mocked their misery.
Kara desperately looked around and her eyes landed on a panel on the nearest wall holding a few long rods with forked heads. Very much like the ones Kara had seen the rangers carrying around with them the first day she had stepped inside the park. They were taser spears.
Without thinking twice, Kara sprinted to their direction. She had barely time to even grab one before Alex and the dinosaurs on her heels reached them. Holding the spear uselessly in her hands, Kara realized very late that she had absolutely no idea how to turn it on. Thankfully Alex seemed to be thinking more clearly because she snatched the spear and turned it on just in time to shove it into Reign's face and unlike the bullets, the electricity penetrated its thick skin much deeper. Next one to receive a taste of the electric shock, was Pestilence.
Alex jabbed the spear expertly into Pestilence's neck and the dinosaur whined in pain as she threw her long nails towards Alex' head. Kara instantly grabbed Alex from behind and yanked her down to save her from the poisonous talons. They both had heard what the Luthors were talking about in the basement. This hybrid was supposed to have venom in her claws, yet Kara was still standing. Nevertheless, Kara wasn't willing to stand back and test that theory again.
Unlike her other two sisters - the third and smallest of the bunch of Wordkillers called Purity - had not taken part in attacking the humans head on. Instead, she was standing back and opted to hiss at them. Smart move.
Before they could even start to come up with their next step, however, the two hybrids overcame their electrocution instantly. The taser hadn't knocked any of the dinosaurs out like it was supposed to. Apparently, these hybrids were far more resilient than normal dinosaurs.
Kara was sure they were goners this time. She abandoned all hope, thinking soon she would see her parents on the other side.
Pestilence took the lead with her milky eyes sparkling in victory and came very close to tear off Alex' head and the spear with one sweep of her claw, when the most unexpected thing happened. Reign suddenly jumped on Pestilence with an angry growl and pummeled her down as though she had rudely taken her thunder.
Kara was so bewildered at the sudden turn of events that for a moment she completely forgot that they needed to run away and instead watched the two dinosaurs screaming and scratching at each other like jealous sisters would over a shiny tiara.
The interruption gave Alex – who had remained unfazed by all that was going on – the chance to look for a possible escape plan.
"There!" Alex dragged Kara with herself and pointed at a metal ladder on the wall near them, connecting the ground level to the upper one.
Without any objections, Kara nodded and the two broke into a run, only to be stopped by Purity who jumped in and blocked their way. The only Raptor sized dinosaur tried to intimidate them by spreading the yellow cowl that had been folded and tucked against its neck this whole time and made herself look bigger. She then let out the loudest shrill Kara had ever heard. The sound was so sharp and pitch that Kara felt it piercing her eardrums. Both sisters screamed against the pain and covered their ears.
Alex who had been holding the taser spear this whole time, threw the charged rod towards its head and poked Purity in the side of the neck. The animal shrieked even louder as the electricity continued to fry her nerves and Kara was sure she was going to become deaf permanently. After what felt a very long minute which was actually a few seconds, Purity grew limp and fell to a side with her hands and legs twitching with aftershocks. She wasn't as strong as her sisters.
Alex sprang over the fainted beast, not caring if it would jump back up any second. She turned to Kara yelled, "COME ON!" Which Kara only understood from the movement of her lips while her ears were still ringing like crazy.
She didn't hesitate any longer and put her feet over Purity's neck, just as Alex had done, to get herself to the other side and tried hard to ignore how the texture of the dinosaur's skin squished disgustingly under her shoe. It was no time to think of such things. Their survival was the priority, nothing else mattered.
Alex prompted Kara to climb the fixed ladder first before following her. Unfortunately, the other two raging dinosaurs saw their preys escaping and put their differences aside, having the same goal once again.
They weren't high enough to be out of reach and Kara feared Alex would soon get to be the first lucky candidate to feel exactly how sharp Reign's teeth were with how fast they were approaching. The two dinosaurs weren't slowing down. In their rivalry, Reign and Pestilence clashed their shoulders to each other, trying to push the other out of their way to be the one who gets to them first. They were going to get squashed against the wall like bugs. Kara froze on the ladder, not knowing if she should jump left or right or just continue upwards in the little time left and what would happen to Alex.
Going mad with indecisiveness, Kara sensed Alex tugging her leg forcefully and pulled her down to left with herself as two heads made of steel, collided powerfully with the wall and ladder, right where the two sisters had been merely a second before, breaking through the hard material with a loud rumbling sound and sending clouds of dust into the air.
Kara only felt her body hitting something hard before everything went dark.