Chapter 27
"Alex? Are you there?" The redhead almost hit the floor right there. The voice was not the one she hoped to hear though it was good to hear it. Alex left the two women she was standing with and went to the comms radio main receiver, next to the main radio where Ricky was working.
"J'onn? Where have you been?" She responded.
"It's a long story. We're coming in," he said.
"We're? We, who?" Alex wanted to know.
"Malefic and I," that answer made the entire room quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
"I'll have a team standing by on the balcony," she told him.
"A team won't be necessary. Malefic is coming in willingly," J'onn said, knowing he was missing Alex's raised eyebrows.
"Uh huh. Ok," was all she said. Turning to her agents, she could see Agent Smith with a similar disbelieving look. Alex nodded at him and he quickly assembled a team to meet the Martians at the balcony.
"How long until you get here?" Alex then asked.
"Twenty minutes," he said. The redhead only nodded – not verbally responding to him. She turned to Agent Smith. He had his team ready.
"I don't like this. We have no idea if that's really J'onn or not. Malefic has proven he's good at deception," Alex said.
"We could cuff both of them when they get here. Sort out who they are with the power inhibiting cuffs," Smith suggested.
"We may have to. I don't want to treat J'onn like a criminal but… we don't have any other way of doing it," the Director sighed. Given the fact that Malefic could invade J'onn's mind and gain the knowledge contained in the Manhunter's mind, there was no way to simply ask questions that only the real J'onn would know.
"Director, I'm still not getting any response from Brainy or Dreamer," Ricky interrupted.
"Keep trying until I say otherwise," Alex told him.
"Yes ma'am," Ricky nodded. Alex tried to take a deep breath, but her heart felt like it was going to explode – her heart rate jumped up. She was suddenly sweating and felt dizzy as she failed to suck in enough oxygen. Kelly could see something was medically wrong and she shouted for a medic just as Alex reached an open chair.
"Alex, what's happening?" Kelly asked.
"It feels like I'm having a heart attack," she said. Kelly knew that was highly unlikely given her age and relatively good health. Taking her pulse, Kelly knew that the elevated heart rate could be a sign of a panic attack. Given that Alex wasn't prone to having attacks since she'd known her, Kelly wondered if the disappearance of Supergirl, Brainy, and Dreamer had brought it on. That was definitely a major stressor which could bring something like that on. Still Alex was a very strong woman, so it was a little odd. Of course, she didn't know that Kara was Supergirl.
The medic quickly took over – getting her vitals and giving her some oxygen, which seemed to help calm her down. He wanted to have her hooked up to the machines in the medical lab but that wasn't about to happen. Ricky started whooping and hollering, causing everyone to give him a look. He cranked up the volume on the main radio.
"I say again headquarters – we have Supergirl! The nanites did their job!" It was Brainy. Now everyone else started whooping and hollering. Alex was suddenly able to breath better on her own. That was not missed by Kelly and Lena could see that maybe the psychologist was onto the redhead's little secret.
"We're about thirty minutes out. The ship sustained a little damage from the explosion and reentry. Give you all the details when we get in," Brainy said as Ricky turned the volume down.
"Can you land on the roof? We could get the mechanics on fixing the ship. Also, J'onn is bringing in Malefic and they'll probably beat you in," Ricky explained.
"Can do. You want to run that last one by me again?" Brainy asked.
"Yeah long story. Just do what you can and be safe," Ricky told him.
"Roger," Brainy said. He looked over his shoulder at Dreamer. Kara had not come out completely unscathed, but he wasn't about to announce that over the radio. Luckily, Nia had grabbed the medical kit out of the SUV. Slapping some yellow sun generating patches on the Kryptonian had made her feel better – and certainly helped her breathing. Kara had pushed the ship away from the planet and the moon but the trip through the atmosphere had not given her much time. It exploded just as Brainy brought J'onn's ship through the atmosphere. The concussion had messed up the ship's communication systems and knocked Kara into the side of the ship. Nia had pulled the blonde into the ship with her powers and the hatch had closed but Brainy was not sure if they reopened it, that it would reclose.
Kara absorbing the radiation from the explosion didn't seem to cause major damage since the nanites were trying to protect her but Brainy wanted to make sure they hadn't been permanently damaged. Diagnostics would need to be run. Of course, that would have to wait. Malefic was going to be at the DEO by the time they got there.
To Be Continued…