Chapter 87: Resistance (Invasion – Part 2)

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.

The Arctic, Day 5 of the Dominion Annexation

Faster than any fish or torpedo, a small shape shot through the icy waters of the Arctic Sea. Several hundred meters short of its target, a scanning beam from a submerged alien outpost verified the identity of the intruder and opened a small door to let them in.

"Welcome, Kona Kara-El," the AI of the Fortress said as Kona climbed out of the near-freezing water.

"Hello to you, too," she replied absentmindedly, wringing the water from her long hair. The cold did not bother her, but she did not want to trail ice water all through the base. Shaking herself at superspeed, she got rid of most of it. Once again, she lamented her own lack of heat vision. A beam of heat, reflected off the crystal surfaces around her, would have worked much better.

Walking into the Fortress' command center, she quickly checked the status of the manufacturing plants and that all systems were running smoothly.

"Fortress, open a secure line to location: Bat Cave!"

"Line is open!"

"Batman, this is Supergirl! Can you read me?"

A holographic screen appeared in front of her and a moment later the grim face of Gotham's caped crusader was visible. Wonder Woman stepped into view behind him.

"We read you, Supergirl," Batman replied.

"How are you holding up, sister?" Diana asked, her face full of worry. "How are the Kents?"

"Worried," Kona replied. "All of us. Is there... is there any news from mom or Clark?"

Batman shook his head. "No news of Kara since she surrendered herself to the Dominators. J'Onn is certain that she is still alive, as he can vaguely sense her presence, but she is either too far away or too well shielded for him to establish any contact."

"And Clark?" Kona asked, clenching and unclenching her fists in a vain attempt to relax her shoulders.

"Nothing on that front, either," Diana told her, causing Kona to bite on her lip. "But that was to be expected. The Dominators are still jamming all signals and even if Clark has fulfilled his part of the plan, he will not be able to do anything while those ships are still hanging in our skies."

Kona nodded. Her mom had told her the plans for a scenario such as this in very broad terms only, but Diana and Batman had since given her all the details of 'Plan Sigma' and what it entailed. She was not sure she liked it, as a lot of things needed to go exactly right at the exact right time for it to work, but it was the best plan they had.

"The Fortress' manufacturing plants are on schedule," Kona told them. "Everything for phase one of Plan Sigma will be ready in two days."

"Very good," Diana smiled encouragingly at her. It did help, if only a bit. "The Swan is almost ready to fly, my sisters are just putting the finishing touches on it."

"Supergirl, can you give us the most current data on Dominator fleet positions?" Batman asked.

Kona nodded, instructing the Fortress AI to do just that. Even submerged, the Fortress still held contact with a number of satellites in orbit. Unlike the weapons platforms the Dominators had obliterated during their attack, these satellites were passive observers only and had, so far, not been discovered.

"Ninety-seven Dominator ships are still holding position in geostationary orbit above Earth's largest population centers," she reported. "The rest of the Dominion fleet, one hundred and sixty-three ships, have gathered at the L1 Lagrange point between Earth and the sun."

"Any signs that the Dominators are repairing any more of their disabled ships?"

Kona checked the records. "No. Apparently those five ships they repaired in the two days after the attack were the only ones salvageable. Or at least the only ones they cared to salvage."

The Dominators had lost a total of fifty-seven ships during their attack on Earth, though most of them had only been disabled, not destroyed. War or not, her mom had not wanted to shed any more blood than absolutely necessary.

"That still leaves us with the same problem as before," Diana said. "If we want to start any action against the Dominators, those ninety-seven ships will have to be disabled first, otherwise we are looking at millions of casualties."

Kona's fingers flew over the crystal controls in front of her, the lessons her mom had taught her about the computers echoing through her mind.

"Even if Plan Sigma's first phase works out perfectly," she said, "we will have a window of no more than fifteen minutes, maximum, for phase two."

Batman grunted. "Even if we scramble every Javelin and mobilize every flight-capable superhero, that will not be enough time."

Diana nodded. "The only way to make it work is if we can find and free Kara."

Kona nodded, doing her best to appear strong despite the turmoil of emotions inside of her. The last time she had been forcibly separated from her mom in a hostile situation had been in Vega. She was still a bit embarrassed how she had clung to Clark like a small child. This time it was different. Her mom was a prisoner. Clark was away on a mission of his own. She would have to stand on her own this time. And she would! She would make them proud!

"We need to find her first," she said firmly.

"We have a plan," Batman told her. Of course he had a plan, Kona thought. He was Batman.

Metropolis, Day 7 of the Dominion Annexation

Lois Lane stood in a long line of people, all of whom were hovering somewhere between scared and very, very scared. Lois would freely admit that she was quite scared herself, but she was doing her best to show a brave face to the outside world. It's what Superwoman would do, she reminded herself. Superwoman, who had surrendered herself to the aliens without a moment's hesitation in order to save millions of lives from orbital bombardment.

Seven days later, no one knew whether she was still alive or not.

For all that Earth had been under the control of an alien invasion force for a week now, very little had changed at first. The Dominators – as she had learned the aliens were called – showed little inclination of actually occupying the planet they had conquered. In fact, they had not even bothered to call for a general disarmament or anything, as far as she knew. Given how little damage Earth's various military forces had done during the short, quick invasion, that was not really surprising, though. Why go to the trouble of rounding up weapons if those weapons could not possibly hurt you?

Lois did not know what might be going on behind closed doors at the United Nations, naturally, but so far it seemed to her that the Dominators had been far more interested in Superwoman than the planet she was living on. Earth's annexation, as they called it, almost seemed like an afterthought, little more.

Biting her lip, she reminded herself that Superwoman was not the only one who had disappeared. Superman, Supergirl, and most members of the Justice League had also vanished from the face of the Earth. She was reasonably sure that they were simply laying low, biding their time, but she could not help but worry. Especially, she admitted to herself, about a certain dark-haired young man she had met just a few short weeks ago, who occupied her thoughts way more than was normal.

Her mind was wrenched back to the present as the line moved forward. While it was true that the Dominators showed very little interest in the planet in general, they were reports of the aliens landing in various cities, rounding up a few hundred humans, and putting them through some kind of scan. Lois was not sure what they were looking for. More Kryptonians hidden among the populace or something else entirely? Either way, today she found herself among one such group of people to be scanned.

She could probably have ducked out of the group, to be honest, but Perry White had always told her that one of the most important traits a good reporter needed was their instincts. Some instinct had told Lois that she needed to be here now, so here she was, ready to be scanned. It was little more than walking through an archway the Dominators had constructed. If not for the presence of heavily armed Dominator soldiers all around her, it might as well have been a check-in at the airport.

Lois passed through the archway without incident but turned around to look at the Dominator manning the controls, nonetheless. Which put her in the perfect position to see a tall, blonde man step out of the line just a few people short of the archway. A second later said man was no longer a blonde man, but rather a tall, yellow-skinned alien with huge teeth. Lois blinked. Had she really seen that?

"Move, ape," a Dominator told her in broken English, shoving her forward. Lois stumbled and lost the Dominator that had looked like a man a moment ago in the crowd. Then the archway beeped, drawing everyone's attention towards it.

"This one," the Dominator manning the controls pointed at the young woman who had just passed through the scanner. The tall redhead looked familiar; Lois was sure she had seen her somewhere before.

A small group of humans, no more than half a dozen, were kept at gunpoint by the Dominators to the side of the archway and the redhead was unceremoniously shoved towards them.

"Hey, watch it," she complained with a heavy Aussie accent. Hearing her voice, Lois finally remembered where she had seen her before. She had been at Metropolis University, the woman who had flirted with Clark.

There was some kind of commotion down the line, a couple of loud voices yelling that the aliens couldn't just pull shit like this, and several of the guards split off from the group and went over to check. Later on, Lois would argue that her common sense had taken a holiday, because she used the distraction and quickly slipped between the gap left in the line of Dominator soldiers and joined the guarded people. Doing her best to look casual, she stood at the back of the group.

"What do you think you are doing, lady?" the redhead, who had apparently noticed her stunt, hissed at her without looking. "The bloody thing didn't beep for you!"

"I'm finding out what's going on here," she hissed back.

"You some kind of agent or undercover superhero?"

"I'm a reporter!"

Lois could not see it, but she was reasonably sure the redhead was rolling her eyes at her stupidity. Granted, Lois would probably have done the same if the situations were reversed. Now that she took a few seconds to think about it, this was a pretty stupid stunt. Well, too late to change her mind now.

"Well, reporter girl," the redhead whispered. "Let's hope those disc heads are not ready to cut us open or anything, otherwise you'll really regret joining this party!"

"I already do," she replied. "The name's Lois, by the way."

"Lena," the redhead replied.

J'Onn J'Onnz, better known as the Martian Manhunter, was currently wondering about the universe's sense of humor. Or maybe humor was not the right term. Sense of drama, maybe? How else could it be explained that on the very same day that he attempted to infiltrate the Dominators, a certain Daily Planet reporter who was in the know about Superwoman and Superman just snuck along? J'Onn had never encountered Lois Lane in person, but Karen had told the Justice League about her, so he quickly recognized her.

He sighed, feeling very old. As if this mission was not bound to be complicated enough all by itself.

Showing no sign of irritation or recognition, he simply remained in the guise of a Dominator guard until the aliens were finished with their scans for the day and packed up. Nine humans had been selected, fitting whatever criteria the Dominator scanning array was looking for, and this group, plus one, was now being herded into the Dominator landing ship.

The plan, such as it was, was relatively simple. Batman was certain that the Dominators – who were known as the finest genetic engineers in the galaxy – were interested in Earth for more than just Superwoman's presence. The way they scanned people from all over the globe meant they were looking for something, possibly a way to crossbreed their own super-powered Kryptonian hybrids like Kona. It was merely a theory, of course, (and a slim one at that) but there was a chance that wherever they took those humans that fit their criteria, would be the same place where they held Karen captive.

Infiltration work required, above all else, patience. Thankfully J'Onn was an old hand at patience, having spent so many years of his life alone on a dead planet. The landing ship they were on took off and rose into the sky. J'Onn was standing near a viewport, so he could see that they were bypassing the massive battleship that was hanging directly above Metropolis. The blue sky quickly turned black, and the sound of the engines subtly changed as the small ship left the atmosphere.

This was to be expected, of course, but left them with one more issue. If he managed to find and free Karen, they would have to cross vacuum to get back home. No problem for them, but there were the captured humans to consider, too. They would need a space-worthy transport of some kind.

Diana, can you hear me? J'Onn strained his telepathic powers to the limit.

Loud and clear, J'Onn, the Amazon's thoughts rang through his head.

We are heading towards a destination in space. We will need a way to transport the hostages back home. Is the Swan ready?

Ready as can be. Keep me posted as to your position. I will be there!

J'Onn nodded mentally and focused on the physical world again. Keeping an eye on the view port, he took a moment to look over at the prisoners the Dominators had taken. It was six women and four men, varying ages (though thankfully no children), varying skin colors, they seemed to have nothing in common as far as the eye could see. Well, if Batman was right and the Dominators were looking for something in their DNA, it would not be something easily spotted.

The speakers in the ceiling spewed forth a gargle of alien language. J'Onn did not understand it, but he quickly read the mind of the guard next to him. They were apparently approaching their target and should be ready to unload the 'specimens' the moment the loading ramp opened. J'Onn did not like the choice of the word 'specimens' at all, to be honest.

A quick glance out the view port showed him that they were approaching another massive Dominator ship, though this one looked somewhat different than the battleships he had seen so far. It seemed even more menacing somehow, if that made sense.

Opening his mind, J'Onn found that the feeling of Karen's presence was growing stronger.

We are approaching a ship, Diana, he broadcast to his colleague. I can sense Karen's presence on board.

The relief Diana felt was palpable through their telepathic link. I'm ready the moment you give the word, J'Onn.

The stars vanished from view as the landing ship entered the massive hangar bay of the gargantuan ship.

Lois Lane was led – or rather, forced – through the interior of an alien spaceship and the novelty of being in outer space was rapidly wearing off, leaving little but stark fear in its place. For the hundredth time she wondered what she had been thinking, just inviting herself along on this journey.

"Finished your exposé yet, Lois?" Lena asked sarcastically, walking next to her.

"Still working on the headline," she answered snidely, somewhat thankful for the distraction.

"How about, Dominated - an inside look at alien abduction and experimentation?"

Lois almost chuckled at that, but quickly sobered again as they entered a larger space. The room was mostly empty, basically just a large metal cube. The rear half of it was separated from the rest by a shimmering curtain of energy and behind it...

"Looks like we're not the first guests," Lena muttered.

Dozens of humans were imprisoned behind the force field, by the looks of them from all over the world. Lois did a quick headcount and came up with nearly 80 before she was roughly shoved forward.

"Move it, apes!" the Dominator said in broken English.

Turning around to give the alien guard a dirty look – just about the only weapon she currently had in her arsenal – caused her to look up. A moment later all thoughts of reprimanding an armed soldier who cared little about her survival vanished from her mind.

"Oh God," she muttered, causing Lena and a few other people to turn around and follow her line of sight.

About halfway up the wall of the cube-shaped room was something resembling a floating jail cell, only comprised of pure energy. And inside of it there was a motionless body, hanging in mid-air as if she was leisurely floating. It was impossible to look at her face, as nearly her entire head was covered by some kind of technological contraption that – like most of the Dominator's tech – looked like a cross between metal and plant fiber. Even so, it was impossible not to recognize the woman, given the very famous suit she was wearing.

"Superwoman," Lois muttered.

"Is she... dead?" someone else muttered, voice full of despair.

"No," Lena said, loudly. "She is breathing!"

Lois looked closer and saw that Lena was right, Superwoman's chest was slowly rising and falling.

"That thing on her head is probably some kind of cerebral inhibitor," Lena muttered, talking more to herself than anyone else, it seemed. "Keeps her docile while they try to figure out how to get past her invulnerability."

Lois looked back and forth between the captured heroine and the woman beside her.

"You are not talking like a typical college student," she finally said, accusingly.

Lena merely smirked at her. "Nothing typical about me!"

Something about that smirk, that look of amused arrogance, on Lena's face seemed very familiar to Lois, but she could not quite put her finger on it. Not that it mattered right now.

"We need to get her out of there," Lois said. She was sure that it was not coincidence that Earth's greatest hero was imprisoned in full view of the human prisoners. The despair and hopelessness were almost palpable.

"Sure," Lena scoffed. "Let's just get past those two dozen armed guards and disable the alien technology keeping her contained. It will be a breeze!"

Lois opened her mouth, though she was not sure how to reply to that rather factual assessment of their situation, when all hell broke loose.

J'Onn spent a few minutes assessing the situation. Karen was here, but imprisoned. He could pick up her thoughts, but they were disjointed and all over the place. Whatever that thing on her head was, it interfered with her mental processes to the point where he doubted she could so much as voluntarily lift a finger. Plus, there was the energy cage around her. Scanning the thoughts of the Dominator guards around him, he quickly realized that they were all simple soldiers and none of them knew how it worked or how to disable it.

Diana, I am with Karen, he transmitted. I will need a distraction!

Coming up, the Amazon replied.

Barely five seconds later the entire huge battleship shuddered and seemed to lurch to the right. Everyone around him stumbled, but J'Onn had braced for the impact and began to move the moment it happened.

Martians were neither as strong nor as fast as fully powered Kryptonians, but they were still stronger and faster than just about anyone else. By the time the Dominators began to register that something was wrong, J'Onn had already knocked out most of the guards and was blazing towards the last few. The final Dominator still conscious started to shout a warning before he was grabbed by something that had still looked like yet another Dominator just a few seconds ago, but was now huge, intimidating, and green. Then he found himself airborne.

The human prisoners started cheering as they recognized him, but there was no time to waste. He grabbed a rifle from one of the downed guards and started shooting at what he estimated to be the controls for the energy fields. A moment later he got lucky and the energy curtain around the humans flickered and died, freeing them. He then turned towards the still-captive Karen.

The ship lurched again, the lights flickered, and screaming could be heard down the corridor.

"Dominators, meet Diana," J'Onn muttered under his breath, even as he began to take potshots at the wall surrounding Karen's floating energy cell. He got lucky on the fourth shot and the energy field died, leaving Karen floating in mid-air, that device still on her head. Flying up, J'Onn carefully guided her down to the ground.

"We need to get that thing off of her!" Lois Lane had appeared beside him suddenly, a Dominator rifle of her own in hand. Looking up, he saw quite a few of the captured humans arming themselves. Good, he could use all the help he could get.

J'Onn carefully moved his hand over Karen's body, his senses clearly detecting the presence of the force field that was the source of her invulnerability. It was still there, but weakened a good deal. Turning his hands immaterial, he carefully slid his fingers into the device on her head, feeling around for any booby traps.

Finding none, he unceremoniously ripped it off, trusting in Karen's toughness to protect her from any damage. Smashing the device on the floor, he carefully probed Karen's mind. Her thoughts were still jumbled, but clarity was rapidly returning. She blinked at looked up at him.

"Took you long enough, Cousin John," she muttered, smiling.

"Sorry, but we had to get the timing right," he replied, helping her to her feet. "Can you move on your own?"

She took a careful step, but immediately stumbled. J'Onn was steadying her.

"Afraid not," she muttered. "That thing messed up my balance in a big way." Her eyes briefly lit up red, but faded back to blue almost immediately. "My energy levels are pretty low. Those bastards were using some kind of Null field to drain me to the point where they could extract blood and DNA from me."

Sensing an approaching presence, J'Onn looked up just in time to see the huge doors of the room shatter. A moment later Wonder Woman walked inside, looking none the worse for wear.

"Way out is free for the moment," she announced, "but we should hurry." Her eyes found Karen and her smile was brilliant. "Sister, it is so good to see you again."

"You, too, Diana."

Diana moved in to steady her, but J'Onn waved her off.

"You and I need our hands free for the way out, Diana," J'Onn reminded her. He looked at the gathered humans. "We need two of you to help Superwoman until she regains her strength!"

Lois Lane and another young woman, a tall redhead, were immediately at Karen's side and draped her arms across their shoulders.

"Ready to go home then," Lane told him.

Diana and J'Onn quickly led the group of freed captives back the way they had come. Only a few Dominators appeared to bar their way and were quickly dealt with. Given the wide-spread damage they encountered, it seemed Diana had taken care of most of them on her way in.

"We are jamming the ship's communications," Diana told him. "But I fear the rest of the fleet will soon notice that something is wrong. We need to be gone by then."

They entered the huge hangar. A few smashed space craft littered the ground, but apart from that it appeared to be empty.

"Didn't you say we had a ride waiting?" the red-headed woman asked.

Diana merely smirked and moved forward, her hand brushing over something that rippled into visibility upon contact. It was a large, almost bird-shaped vessel, looking like a huge swan made from glass. A ramp opened up, the material of the hull seemingly flowing out of the way.

"Hurry up, everyone," Diana said, beckoning them forward.

"I am glad your sisters managed to finish their work in time," J'Onn told Diana as they boarded. "I was having some doubts, to be honest."

"Building a space-worthy craft is not something we Amazons ever had a need for before," she told him, strapping herself into the pilot seat. "But she handles beautifully and not a single Dominator craft even noticed we were there."

"Let's hope it stays that way on the way back."

With barely a ripple, the Swan Plane moved out of the hangar and shot into empty space, leaving a heavily damaged ship and hundreds of unconscious Dominators behind.

The Bat Cave, outside Gotham City

The nearly invisible Swan Plane settled into the landing bay hidden beneath the waterfall near Wayne Manor. They had made a brief stop to unload the freed hostages near Metropolis. Getting Lois Lane off the plane had been a bit of a chore, she had wanted to accompany them, but Diana had finally put her foot down and all but thrown the reporter out.

The moment Kara, once again able to walk on her own, stepped out of the plane and into the dark interior of the Bat Cave, a small body was upon her and clung to her like a limpet. She stumbled a bit, but quickly regained her balance and closed her own arms around her daughter.

"I'm so happy to see you, mom!" Kona's voice was barely understandable from where she pressed her face into Kara's body, inhaling her scent.

"Missed you, too, baby girl," she replied, pressing her own nose into Kona's golden locks. "From what Diana and J'Onn told me along the way, you did a great job while I was gone. I'm proud of you."

Their moment together did not last, naturally.

"We don't have time to be idle, I fear," Batman told them, appearing from the shadows. "The Dominators have noticed our little jail break. They just broadcast an ultimatum. Unless the 'renegade Kryptonian' returns herself and the other 'specimens' to confinement within the next 4 Earth hours, the ships in orbit will open fire."

Kara nodded, having expected as much.

"Then we are on the clock," Kara said, looking at the others. "How are we standing with the preparations for Plan Sigma?"

"Everything is ready on our side," Batman told her. "We just need to contact the others and get everyone into position. Shouldn't take more than two hours, max."

"We have had no word from Clark, naturally," Diana said.

Kara balled her fist. "Clark has done his part; I am certain of it!"

The others all nodded. There really was no other choice but to assume that Clark was ready and waiting. If not... well, then this would be a really, really short uprising.

"Okay, then. Bruce? Where can a girl soak up sunlight for the next two hours around here?"

End Chapter 87

Author's Note: The Swan Plane Diana flies is, of course, the infamous Invisible Plane, though I have taken the name and design from the excellent "Wonder Woman: Earth One" story. It's been mentioned before (chapter 68) that the Amazons have not been idle in developing technology of their own, though remarkedly different from the rest of the world and they're not flaunting it. Just imagine Paradise Island as the Super-Family universe's version of the MCU's Wakanda.

One more part to go in the Invasion storyline as Earth and the Justice League make their final stand against the Dominators.