Chapter 2
"Lena"
Before "The Crisis;" before the multiverse imploded and was reconstructed with memories and beings and places revived, yet different, there was one constant Earth knew. That was Lex Luthor was ruthless and powerful and a contained antagonist to humanity that Superman had helped bring under control. Central City existed again, albeit, with subtle changes that anyone with pre-crisis knowledge found sometimes annoying. Sometimes the changes were outright dangerous.
Not a problem for the millions who walked the streets of Earth's fourth-largest city with memories of a universe that was consistent and familiar. To Kara Danvers, and her friends and family, the changes took away that bedrock upon which they stood. Lex Luthor was now a Nobel Prize laureate and "humble servant of the people." The DEO – the quasi-government department, which Kara (aka "Supergirl") assisted, was taking orders and direction from the very Lex Luthor Kara had once worked to defeat.
Supergirl, herself, had been transformed into a public-relations liaison -complete with commercials and public appearances – that looked almost like fascist propaganda. A happy, smiling Lex and his adopted sister Lena – next to a blue, red, and gold Supergirl touting their "tireless efforts to secure Earth and preserve liberty."
Kara had been biding her time since the Crisis. Kara's sister, Alex, had already broken ties with the DEO. Kara stayed out of a sense of obligation. Obligation to keep an eye on Lex and discover his motives. Obligation to stay close to her friends at the DEO – especially "Brainy" and "Dreamer" – who both knew her secrets and needed her support. An obligation to do what was right despite her public persona.
Krypton had no television, or Internet, or elections and democracy for that matter. Krypton resembled more of an ideal than a real place that existed now only in Kara's memory. Krypton, also, had no seasons as Earth does. Thanks to an accident during formation, some four and a half billion years ago, Earth is tilted with respect to her yellow star by twenty-three and a half degrees. Just right for four seasons.
This season on Earth – Autumn – while not experienced by Kara when she was a child on Krypton – strangely made her feel as many Earthlings do when the leaves turn color and the shadows grow longer. Nostalgic, reflective … almost a longing for something that seems out of reach. For Kara, it wasn't only Krypton and a childhood that ended too early. It was Mon-El, and the feeling that whenever she was just about to find happiness; it slipped away like her youth on Krypton.
The one thing we all look for is some consistency and a secure place. On this October morning in Central City, Kara found herself looking for her old and secure coffee shop where she'd meet her sister for coffee. On this morning, she was reminded that the "Crisis" even took from her this one comfort. "Their" coffee shop had changed location by six blocks and now, instead of looking towards Central City Park; had a view of the docks and a "cross-fit" gym where humans paid some of their hard-earned money for the strange privilege of lifting heavy objects … repeatedly … and placing them down again while staring at themselves in large mirrors. Sometimes, there was even another human yelling at them while they did this. Strange species indeed.
"And you weren't wearing your comms WHY?" asked Alex while the barista tried to listed through a cloud of latte' steam.
"Alex … c'mon! I just woke up and I can't sleep with that thing in my ear and I just figured it'd be a quick in-n-out. I didn't expect this." Said Kara, while thanking the young man who made her latte', who was desperately hoping she'd make eye contact, but had no idea he's just served a Kryptonian a steamed milk and double shot of espresso.
Incidentally, there was no coffee on Krypton either. No seasons, no coffee. The thing that made Earth a bit more bearable for extraterrestrial visitors and adoptees was coffee and chocolate. Kara had developed a taste for both.
"So, where's mom?" asked Kara.
"Couldn't make it. Now, back to this morning. Did you call it in? Did you call the DEO?"
"No!"
"No?'"
"Nooooo!"
"Look, Alex. No cameras saw it and I don't want to answer to Lex about this. 'Kara Danvers' can solve this one. I'm a journalist. I investigate and solve things. 'Supergirl' doesn't have to be involved. Those guys probably have no clue that whatever hey stole had some kryptonite in it. This look like a job for …."
"Supergirl." Said Alex, with a wry grin.
"Super-KARA" replied Kara, laughing with her sister.
"Play some racquetball later?" asked Alex.
"In the 'Green Room'?" asked Kara.
"Of course." Grinned Alex. "How else am I going to be on an even-footing with my Kryptonian sister if she's not in the makes it fair?"
The "Green Room" was first developed in the DEO: pre-crisis. A room with just the right amount of simulated kryptonite radiation, at just the right frequency, to negate Kara's advantage. Krypton had more gravitational acceleration than Earth. And Kara's denser molecular structure made Earth feel like a kid's jumpy house at a backyard birthday party. When Kara first donned her red cape, Alex brought her to the DEO's green room to train. Now that Alex was no longer an agent, she brought a bit of the green room emitter technology with her so her, and her sister, could do what all siblings do: compete for bragging rights.
Kara may have been an adopted daughter from Krypton; but her and Alex were more sisters than many siblings who shared the same parents on Earth.
Along the waterfront in Central City, south of the tourist attractions and wine bars, in one of the piers assumed, by most, to be abandoned and ready to fall in to the bay, three confused "Prols" silently unloaded a van with their trove of uncategorized antiques from the morning.
"Prols" was what they called themselves. Both on social media and when they had to remind themselves why they joined this cause. "Proletariate," would be the proper word.
"What the hell just happened?" asked Jazz as she took off her completely unstylish scarf that was meant to hid her face, but really just accentuated her green eyes and red hair.
"Jazz: wasn't her real name but none of the Prols used their real name, not even with each other. At least when they were "working." Working, in this case, meant doing their version of traipsing through Sherwood Forest stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Well, to give to someone else anyway.
"I don't know;" began Tech. "Maybe she had another call, or partied too hard last night, or had Kryptonian pms for all I know. Who cares? We got away."
Tech was twenty-five and he's met Jazz and Yose, the third in their museum heist group, on-line at first. They all took the leap to meet in person, along with some others, not only because they felt the world was overdue for some social justice. They had no way of knowing but their shared feeling of a vague uneasiness about the world began just after the Crisis. Just after beings had caused reality to be rearranged and put back together not quite the same.
One of those less than minor changes was Lex Luthor's transformation into a philanthropic industrialist technology icon. Kind of a mix of all the high tech CEO's from the "Earth" with some CIA, KGB, and maybe a little game show host, all thrown together to create this "new" Lex.
Jazz, Tech and Yose couldn't have possibly known they were feeling the quantum after-effects of the rearrangement of time and space. Most people who had these vague feeling chalked them up to too many triple mochas from "Pequads" (The new Starbucks. Long story - and not really worth a side trip. Suffice to say, some changes in Earth Prime were for the better, and many were, decidedly, for the worst.) Humans, it turns out, can be very good at ignoring little annoying voices in their heads like; "How did I get here?" "Did I leave the stove on?" and "Was time and space completely rearranged while I was busy binge-watching that prison show on 'WebFlix?'"
While Jazz and Yose finished unloading the van Tech gaped at his screens. You can imagine that with a handle like "Tech" he had a certain skill set that was more than valuable to a group trying to redistribute the wealth from people like the Luthors.
Tech had set a program running when they'd departed for the museum. His algorithms helped them pick their targets. Where will cameras be off? Least chances of getting caught. Rewards vs. risk. Probability of being about to grab a quick pint afterwards.
His hacker program hummed silently away while they were gone. Looking for vulnerabilities in the Luthor firewalls and AI interfaces.
It found one.
Three faces were illuminated by the glow of flat screens in an old warehouse while they listened to a recorded feed from the office of Lena Luthor herself. The program worked! An unsecured router in an obscure subsystem gave them three cameras and audio and what they saw in Lena's office / lab had them not wanting to blink because they might miss something … On screen they saw Lena testing ….. something.
'''
"Hope!" said Lena. "Hope" was he name Lena had given to her AI interface. Her AI had become Lena's helper, confidant, and a surrogate friend ever since her feeling of being betrayed by Kara. Lena, one of the few that retained the memories the Prols only felt in their dreams, was working on a means of controlling the extra terrestrials that had so-recently come knocking on Earth's door.
"Hope; set up a test of the 'Supergirl on ice' protocol."
"Are you sure Miss Lu-thor?" Came a pleasant, but undoubtedly electronic, voice.
"Yes, I'm sure. If I'm going to trust these restraints to work to hold Supergirl or whomever else might be a threat, I must try them myself. I must know for sure."
"Yes Miss Luthor."
"But, Miss Luthor, are you sure you want disengage the safety protocols?" continued the measured voice of Hope.
"Yes, Hope. If I can't escape this then no one should be able to." Then, speaking more to the air and as if releasing her own pent up thoughts; "No human … no alien … no Kryptonian …."
"Hope: do you remember the suit we made for Supergirl. The suit, which expanded automatically using carbon nanotubes and a modular, compact design?"
"Yes, Miss Luthor."
"Your job, Hope, is to monitor the stress levels and Newtons of force. If I've designed this correctly, it should exactly counter any for applied. It had the minimum force for holding a prisoner who isn't resisting, but increases fore in direct proportion to the strain applied."
"Yes Miss Luthor."
Above the bay, in an almost forgotten warehouse, Jazz, Yose, and Tech watched in rapt attention. Yose was still feeling the weight of a museum box pulling his arms down, forgetting completely to set on the concrete floor as he eavesdropped on Lena Luthor.
"Ok, Hope. Let's begin."
Lena heels clicked across the lab floor as she reached for, what looked like, an oversized fitness watch. The watch itself was silver and the band was black with no discernabe clasps.
Lena took a breath. She's already removed her lab coat and business jacket and now stood in the center of her gleaming lab with Hope, her AI assistant, glowing and humming and no other contact that could help if this didn't work.
"Here we go." Whispered Lena, to herself.
Lena felt the device. It was warm despite it appearing to be cold and metal. Carbon fibers have several times the strength of steel and nanotubes – microscopic cylindrical structures build up a few layers of covalently bonded Carbon at a time – were stronger still.
As she brought it near her left wrist she simply said; "Activate restraint."
In a tenth of a second if found her wrist and the free ends joined to make, what looked like, a large watch.
For a moment, nothing more. Then Lena started t walk.
"Please stay exactly where you are." Said an almost too-polite voice with a hint of an English accent (or, was it Australian.) The voice came from the device on her wrist, programmed as the first and most gentle restraint.
Lena began to walk, playing the part of an uncooperative detainee.
With a series of clicks and the quickness of a snake extending for prey, Lena felt her now restrained wrist pulled behind her.
"Please stop." The restraint reminded her.
Lena continued to walk. When amoeba move the extend part of their body. It's called a "pseudo pod" which means "false foot." The pseudo pod reaches out until the entire protist had reached to the extent where the original pod extended. That's that the black, carbon nanotube structure did next. It extended from her secured wrist, which was now behind her at the base of her back just above her skirt, and wrapped itself around her free wrist. Securing it and bringing it closer to her left wrist. Wrapping, clicking, holding fast. Not metal. Not fabric. A hybrid that was exactly as secure as it needed to be. And now it had Lena's wrists "cuffed" behind her.
Lena tried to pull her wrists apart without so much as a hint of give from the restraints.
"Shall I stop the test, Miss Luthor?" came Hope's always-calm voice.
"Not yet."
Lena began to walk yet again, and again the restraints – politely – asked her to stop.
When she did not, the carbon extended yet again, this time towards the ground and her high heels. Wrapping so quickly around each ankle that Lena froze in her steps.
Lena let out a little smile because it worked so well.
"Now, Miss Luthor?"
"Not, yet, Hope."
"OK …" came another whisper from Lena to herself, "Let's se what you got?'"
Lena continued moving with little scoots of her heels along the polished floor of the lab.
"Please stay in place. You are being detained." Came the very polite voice from the "Smart Cuffs."
"Not on your Life." Replied Lena as her competitive side emerged.
Lena tried some more scoots ….
"Final warning…" said the cuffs "…. Please do not resist."
Lena's continued progress forward was answer with the length of malleable carbon fiber restraints that were now, effectively, holding her wrists and ankles shortening! This brought Lena to her knees. And, yet, Lena still fought the bonds.
This time, without warning, the cuffs and ankle restraints yet again decreased their length until Lena's wrists were almost touching her secured ankles. Lena was effectively hogtied ad wriggling on the floor of her own lab!
Lena pulled, strained, arched her back and rolled from side to side. The cuffs held firm and she was working up a sweat as her blouse and skirt pulled tight against Lena's body and her toned and trained body made no progress against her own invention.
As five, then ten minutes passed Lena was just about to ask, "Hope" for release; when Hope spoke.
"Miss Luthor, it appears I've been compromised. There is a hacking attempt in subsystem fourteen, internal surveillance."
"Hope. Release restraints!" said Lena as she looked up from her hogtie.
Nothing.
"Hope!"
"One moment Miss Luthor."
"Hope, now!"
Lena now began a frantic rolling and pulling. Her muscles were growing tired and the buttons on her blouse had come undone as she fought valiantly against a carbon polymer far stronger than any rope.
A full four minutes passed and Hope's electronic voice broke the sounds of struggling and heavy breathing that were coming from Lena.
"I have sealed the electronic breach Miss Luthor. Shall I release the 'Smart Cuffs.'?"
"Yes!" came an exasperated reply from Lena, 'release the cuffs."
A sound similar to an umbrella being folded up and a few "clinks" and Lena lay free on the floor next to the restraints that had folded themselves back into what resembled an oversized smart watch.
"I'd call that a successful test." Said Lena to herself, as she stood, rebuttoned her blouse, donned her lab coat, and tried to compose herself after being hogtied by one of her own inventions.