Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowlings and Supergirl the CW. I own nothing and I don't make any money from this story.
Chapter 2: I am Paladin
An hour had passed since the strange happenings at the DEO. All agents who had survived the assault on their headquarters had reconvened at a local bar frequented by the cities alien residents. A favorite of the Danvers sisters and their closest friends.
The various agents were currently moving between the tables and booths trying to take stock of every resource they had left to use. Winn was busy setting up computer terminals so they could continue gathering intelligence on the situation in National City. Meanwhile, Kara and Alex were dealing with something much more personal.
The adopted siblings were currently standing over the bed J'onn J'onzz the leader of the DEO, the sole surviving green martian and the sisters surrogate father figure.
J'onn had been a major influence on both of their lives. Not only training both sisters to operate as agents, but he was the one who had recruited Alex into the organization to begin with.
J'onn had originally come to earth as a refugee after his species, the green Martians were wiped out by the more aggressive white martians on his home world. This included the deaths of J'onn's wife and two daughters.
With the death of his family he fled Mars and came to earth to start a new life. But had unintentionally attracted the attention of the DEO, at the time a new organization. Led by Hank Henshaw, a xenophobe of the highest order, they attempted to police alien activity the world over. But thanks to the intervention of Jeremiah Danvers, J'onn was able to escape and begin living on earth.
By posing as Hank Henshaw.
At the time J'onn believed Henshaw to be dead. So he felt comfortable assuming his life. And as the head of the DEO, he was able to make sure that they didn't unjustly persecute any harmless alien refugees. After he was outed to the world as an alien himself, he spent several weeks hiding from his own agents. Until he helped Kara battle the Fort Rozz escapees and save the world from Myriad. For that he received a full pardon from the president and was reinstalled as the leader of the DEO.
When Rhea began the invasion J'onn tried to stop her. Which led to him lying on the cot before Kara and Alex, back in his green Martian form completely unresponsive to anything going on around him.
"Do we know what Rhea did to him?" Kara fretted.
Letting out a sigh of frustration, Alex looked down at J'onn and pondered how to respond. "His vitals are erratic." She hedged. "It's like his neurons are working over time. He's comatose on the outside, but on the inside..." Alex stopped there because she really had no idea how else to describe it.
"Will he wake up?" Kara asked.
'That is a very good question.' Alex thought. Wisely keeping her musings to herself. Not want to make this situation seem worse than it already was. Alex was saved from having to respond by a welcome arrival.
"Look who found us." Winn said, drawing the attention of the sisters.
Walking in behind Winn was James Olsen. Decked out in the protective gear, with his helmet in his hand, of his superhero alter ego Guardian. He had been out fighting in the streets trying to save as many lives as he could. But his timing couldn't have been better. They needed to regroup and figure out what to do next. Not just to fight the Daxamites but to find a way to drive them out of National City and more importantly, off the earth.
"James, I am so glad you're ok." Kara quickly walked over to hug her friend. Relieved that he was alright.
"Yeah me too. Its a war zone out there." James told her as he returned the embrace.
Kara hadn't been thrilled when James decided he wanted to make a difference in the city. She didn't believe somebody without superpowers, alien technology or at least government training should be fighting battles against alien criminals. Kara wasn't able to talk James out of it, but with no way to force him too stop, she simply resigned herself to being there to watch his back whenever she could. Though it remained a point of tension between them.
"Daxamite troops are beaming down from everywhere, setting up check points, arresting resisters," he continued as Alex walked over to hug him as well. "It's almost like they are instituting their own martial law."
"Yeah, not to mention the full on Independence Day going on with the mothership hovering over the city." Winn added, gesturing over his head to help illustrate his point in his typical Winn fashion of gesticulation and movie references.
"Mon-El is on that ship." Kara cut in. Bringing the focus to her boyfriend who was currently being held prisoner by his own mother aboard the Daxamite flagship. "Rhea took him. She took Lena too."
Lena Luthor is the sister of Alexander 'Lex' Luthor. The greatest enemy of her cousin Superman. She is also the head of L-Corp, the multi-billion dollar company originally named after her brother. But after it was revealed that he was behind multiple attempts to kill superman, attempts that often led to the deaths of innocent people, he was incarcerated and Lena assumed the CEO position. Her first action was to move the companies headquarters to National City in an effort to gain a fresh start and distance herself from her brothers reputation.
She was also Kara's first interview as a reporter at CatCo. Lena had fully expected Kara to write a hatchet piece about her and her alien detection device. When she didn't it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
"Have you reached Clark yet?" James inquired. Not only asking about Kara's cousin, the man of steel, but also one of his best friends.
"I called Perry White, he's not at the Daily Planet. He's not at the Fortress of Solitude either." She replied.
"Well maybe Superman is out there right now. Fighting on the streets." Alex said, hoping to shine some light on a dark situation.
"If he is I didn't see him." Exclaimed a National City police officer as she walked in the door.
"Maggie!" Alex ran over to kiss her girlfriend Maggie Sawyer. A kiss Maggie was all to happy to return.
"I'm so glad you're ok."
"I'm so glad that when things look their worst we both thought to run strait to a bar." Maggie replied with a smile. Happy to see that the woman she loved was alive and well. Even happier to see her comment get a laugh out of Alex.
Kara hated to break up the happy reunion. But they needed to get back to the problem in front of them. So gesturing for Winn and James to follow her, she moved closer to Alex and Maggie. "We're all together. Now we can fight back."
It was James who asked the all important question. "Where do we start?"
"Without the DEO mainframe we're flying blind." Winn began.
"Not to mention the Daxamite military patrolling the streets." Maggie continued.
"And J'onns' not here to lead us." Alex piled on.
'How much worse could things get?' Kara pondered. "Maybe I could be of service." Came from the again open door. 'Oh, that's how much.' Kara realized as Lillian Luthor, Lena's mother walked into the room.
Alex, Maggie, James and every DEO agent in the room drew their weapons and pointed them at her. Lillian wasn't like her daughter. She, like her son Lex, saw aliens as a threat. All aliens, Daxamite and Kryptonian, innocent and guilty, parent and child all of them were a threat in her eyes. And she and her organization of like minded followers, referring to themselves as Project Cadmus, had tried to commit mass genocide on National Cities alien immigrants on more than one occasion. Safe to say she is not a friend to anybody in the room.
"What, not happy to see me?"
No one made any attempt to respond. Everybody in the room just continued to point their various weapons at Lillian, who didn't appear concerned in the least. She placed a metal case about the size of a one gallon milk jug on the table next to her.
"You people are so predictable." Lillian drawled, sounding almost bored with the current situation.
"Put your hands above your head." Alex ordered advancing on Lillian, gun pointed at her heart. Or where her heart should be. It was up for debate if Lillian actually had one.
"No," was her dismissive response as she took off her gloves. Completely ignoring the many weapons pointed at her.
"You made a mistake coming here." Kara declared. Making her distaste for Lillian apparent.
"Oh I find it as distasteful as you do Supergirl. But I need your help." Lillian said, looking right at Kara and continuing to ignore Alex who still had a weapon pointed at her. "And you need mine."
"Where's my father?" The question came from Alex. Referring to Lillian's kidnapping and imprisoning of her father Jeremiah. After he saved J'onn from the real Hank Henshaw, it was Cadmus who faked both of their deaths and had been holding Jeremiah hostage. So imagine Alex's surprise when Lillian said, "I don't know."
Not believing her, Alex responded, "That's the wrong answer." While raising her gun from Lillian's chest to right under her chin. Implying what would happen if she didn't talk fast.
Lillian merely glanced down at the gun with disinterest before looking back at Alex. "Well its the truth."
"Alright what do you want?" Kara intervened before the situation could get out of hand.
"To take down our common enemy." Lillian began, striding forward with poise as though she were a queen addressing her subjects. "Everything I've warned against has come to pass. The alien invaders have come to destroy our way of life, and claim our planet. Just as I said they would." She finished as she took a seat on a bar stool.
"You could just say 'I told you so." Grumbled Winn, sick of Lillians holier-than-thow attitude already.
"I did tell you so." She emphasized. "And now you can shoot me." Apparently she had finished her little speech. Alex, who was staring Lillian down, just tilted her head as if considering doing just that.
"Or," She started again, clearly on an ego driven role. "We can work together. And we can save our loved ones, and this city."
There were several protests from Maggie, Alex and James. All along the lines of "we got this," and "we'll never work with you." Lillian weathered all of this with barely a twitch.
"Fine," the harpy said rising from the stool that she had perched herself upon. "If that is how you feel then I guess I'm wasting my time."
'That was way to easy.' Kara thought as Lillian pulled her gloves out of her pocket.
"I suppose I will just have to take my chances with the new hero in town."
"What?"
"New hero?"
"What are you talking about."
Came the surprised exclamations from Maggie, Winn and James. Kara and Alex just turned to each other, having a silent conversation as only siblings could. They both knew who she was talking about.
"I'm referring to your new speedy friend." She continued. Turning from their friends, she addressed the sisters instead. "You know who I'm talking about. The man that saved you from your fall and fought every single Daxamite soldier in the DEO alone."
Everybody turned from Lillian to look at the two of them. A million questions clear on their faces. They hadn't had the chance to tell anyone about the mystery speedster yet. It sucks that they had to find out from Lillian of all people, but there are bigger concerns to deal with first.
"How do you know what happened at the DEO?" Alex asked. Ignoring everybody else for the time being.
"After the Daxamite assault on it your HQ was completely abandoned. Once I followed the cities security footage and realized that was where he first appeared I just hacked in remotely and watch what happened." Lillian replied with nonchalance. As if she hadn't just admitted to illegally hacking into city systems and government security in a room full of DEO agents.
"How did you know to even look for him?" Kara questioned.
Lillian just looked at her with disdain. "Really?" She said with no small amount of scorn. As if she was insulted she even had to answer that question. She just shook her head and proceeded to walk behind the bar. Pulling out a remote she pointed it to a nearby flatscreen and turned it on.
The screen showed news coverage of the Daxamite ships as they hovered over the city. Not surprising. Ever since the Daxamites arrived the story had been world news as every city in the world wanted to know what the invaders wanted. And more importantly where they were going next if they conquered National City.
Lillian changed the channel to another stations coverage of the invasion. This one showing the city streets. Civilians were running from soldiers who were firing on anybody trying to resist. Before a bolt of silver lightning shot through the streets. It knocked the Daxamites off their feet and started grabbing civilians and quickly carrying them out of the area. Clearly the speedster hadn't gone to ground like they had after he left the DEO.
Lillian changed the channel again. This time showing what the script at the bottom of the screen said was amateur cellphone footage. It showed a group of about a dozen people gathered together, surrounded by Daxamites, all pointing weapons at them. From off the screen came the same silver lightning. I plowed through the nearest soldiers before it started grabbing civilians. That was the point that a dozen more soldiers started coming out of nearby buildings and started firing.
It was a trap.
The soldiers obviously couldn't see the speedster to aim at him. But with their numbers and firing blind it didn't matter how fast he was, the soldiers were bound to get lucky. And one did.
As the speedster was returning for more civilians, a lucky shot managed to send him flying. The blast obviously damaged whatever cloaking technology he was using because he was suddenly in full view for everybody to see as he landed fifteen yards away. One leg extended behind him and the other beneath him. His arms reaching in front of him with the metal claws on his fingers digging gouges into the concrete to stop him. Looking up from that position he looked less like a man and more like a jungle cat about to pounce.
He charged the wall of soldiers lined up in front of him. In an instant the middle one was sent flying backwards with claw marks on his chest. Then the two on his left and right were sent fly in opposite directions. Then another soldier, and another and another all in a flash of silver lightning. Until all of the soldiers were down and the speedster was left standing before the civilians. Some of them started clapping and cheering. The speedster stood still for a moment, taking this all in, before he became invisible again and started taking them to safety.
Lillian pressed the off button on the remote and turned back to them. "Perhaps he will be a little more open to my help."
"Ok and just who is he? Because that did not look like our buddy the Flash." Said Winn.
"It wasn't." Kara interjected. "We don't know who he is. He just appeared shortly after Alex evacuated the DEO."
"But just in time to save her from falling to her death apparently." Came Maggie's tense reply. Kara wasn't sure what Maggie disliked more, the idea of her girlfriend nearly getting killed, or some unknown speedster being the one to rescue her.
"I would have saved her. He just got to her first." Kara tried to defend herself.
"What else do we know about him? I don't remember the Flash with claws like this guy?" Asked James with some suspicion.
"He's male, about 5'10, 5'11 feet tall with an athletic build. Obviously fit like most speedsters." Alex lectured.
"Hmm tall and athletic." Began Maggie turning to look at Alex. "Should I be jealous Alex?"
"Hey, I was assessing a possible threat. That's all." Alex replied with some humor. Knowing Maggie was just joking. Bringing some much needed levity to their situation.
"As riveting as this is, can we get back to the real issue." Interrupted Lillian. "Can he help with this situation?"
"I'm sure that he could but how do we get in touch with him?" Kara responded. "You saw the trap they set for him. If I fly out and stop him in the streets every Daxamite in the city will converge on us before we can even finish introductions."
"We gotta bring him to us." Came James' statement of the obvious.
"Well how are we supposed to do that." Winn spoke with some doubt. "Its not like I have a speedster dog whistle handy."
"I believe what you need is right here." Lillian walked over to the metal case she left on the table. Kara had forgotten she brought that in with her. Looking around at the others she could see she wasn't the only one.
Opening the case, she revealed something that looked like a next generation solar lamp. "This should do the trick."
"I-I'm sorry," Winn stammered as he moved towards Lillian. Hand raised to indicate the device. "But Cadmus just happens to have a device that will what? Summon a speedster with the push of a button?" After hearing the question out loud the others were just as confused and skeptical.
"It wasn't designed to summon a speedster." Came the curt response. "It was originally designed to attract a metahuman. One you should be familiar with. A miss Leslie Willis."
"LIVEWIRE! Why on earth would you want to attract her." Exclaimed a suddenly alarmed Kara.
"Because she fought you twice and nearly beat you both times. And despite what she has become, she is still human." She explained. "A metahuman granted, but still human. And I thought that she might be useful in the long run." Clearly when given the choice, she preferred the company of metahumans over aliens. No surprise there. But in typical Lillian fashion, she expressed that with a comment that was equal parts compliment and insult.
"Yeah, if you're hoping to try to turn Livewire into your own personal weapon, I should warn you its been done already." Referencing the last time Leslie escaped custody. She had been kidnapped by a man who hoped to use her as a battery to create other electrical powered metahumans.
"I'm aware of that Mr. Schott." She didn't look pleased at being interrupted. "That's why Cadmus never bothered to use the device after her last escape. We didn't believe she would be very receptive to our offer at the time."
No one had anything to say to that.
"But this device is designed to generate a field of static interference that will cover the entire city." She lectured. "Harmless and relatively unnoticeable to the average person. However, somebody with electrical powers like Ms. Willis would find it very hard to ignore. And would be able to follow the field to its source."
"O-oh I see where you're going with this." Winn's sudden excitement at the possibility of working on an experimental piece of technology apparent to the entire room. "A speedsters cells are bonded with a charged energy field comprised of tachyons, dark matter and a few other exotic particles. That is what makes them a speedster."
"Yes, and with your help I believe we can modify this device to effect the energy given off by a speedster instead." Lillian concluded.
They had finally come to it. It was time to address the elephant that had been in the room ever sense Lillian showed up. Do they take the risk of working with one of their worst enemies in an effort to better their chances of saving their loved ones, or do they tell her to 'get the hell out' and take their chances by themselves.
Every one looked to Kara.
It was her boyfriend and best friend being held hostage on that ship. She was the one with the most to lose. So everybody silently agreed it was her call to make. She didn't trust Lillian. She chafed at being in the same room as her, let alone work with her. She didn't like it, but these were desperate times.
"Winn, get started."
It took less than an hour for Winn and Lillian to modify the device to attract a speedster. James and Maggie wanted to stick around and meet the mystery speedster, and keep an eye on Lillian. But ultimately they needed to get back out on the streets and help people.
Kara and Alex waited quietly while they worked together. Alex had approached Kara twenty minutes after they started working to check if Kara knew what she was doing. Kara tried to reassure her, but the truth was she was just as shaken by the idea of working with Lillian, and Alex could tell.
"Ok, I think we are ready to turn this puppy on." Winn exclaimed turning to where the sisters were standing. "Either of you want to do the honors?"
Lillian, completely ignoring him, flipped the power switch on the base of the device. The look on her face showing just how impatient she was getting.
A clear cylinder in the middle of the device lit up as the sparks began to fly between electrical coils within. The sound of static filled the room as a panel on top of the device began to glow.
Alex counted to five in her head before she saw Winn turn to the door as if waiting for the speedster to walk through it. She got to ten before he began glancing around the room as if he missed the speedster's arrival. And twenty before he turned to behind him to look at them finally breaking his silence.
"Umm, what do we do if this guy doesn't show?"
Whoosh, every piece of paper not held down went flying as the speedster came to a stop between the door and the table where Winn and Lillian had been working. Winn didn't even flinch.
"Never mind." Winn flatly finished. Turning back to look at the speedster in all his black and silver glory.
Seeing Lillian take a step toward him Kara knew she had to act fast. She couldn't risk Lillian making the first inroads with this potential ally.
"Thank you." She said, perhaps a little to loudly. But at least her enthusiastic comment surprised Lillian enough to halt her in place. Striding forward with purpose until she was within arms reach of the speedster. "For saving my sister."
He just looked at her. Or at least Kara thought he was looking at her. It was difficult to tell without being able to see his eyes.
"Your welcome." His voice echoed. Kara recognized it as a trick Barry showed her, where a speedster vibrated their vocal cords as they talked. Clearly he didn't trust them, if he was making efforts not to give away anything about himself by disguising his voice.
"I'm Supergirl." She introduced herself, trying to make some kind of connection. "That's Alex," she gestured to her sister behind her. "That's Winn. And that is Lillian." Having finished identifying the others in the room, it was time to bite the bullet. "What's your name?"
An eternity seemed to go by as the speedster continued to stand perfectly still right in front of her. The way he stared at her made Kara wonder if this is what it felt like to others when she used her x-ray vision on them. She was just about to lose hope of working with him when he finally spoke.
"I am, Paladin."
Sorry for the delay. I wanted to post this on Friday but this chapter proved harder to write than I expected. Anyway already started on chapter 3. Will hopefully be up on schedule. Have a nice night.