Chapter 5: Level One Completed
-Lena-
"How long is this going to take? I'm starving," Supergirl said with a groan, pacing around the back of the plane and rummaging through storage compartments.
"Mary mother of saints," Lena muttered under her breath. "I should have brought you a bag of Cheerios or something." Remembering the lunch she had forgotten to eat she pulled out a protein bar from her bag and tossed it in the Kryptonian's direction.
Lena watched the woman wince reading the label. Seeing Lena was looking at her, the young hero's expression turned serious, filled with dutiful resolve. She crammed the entire thing into her mouth and closed her eyes concentrating as she chewed and swallowed. "It tastes, um -healthy," the hero commented cautiously.
"There are rations in the bag on top of that crate." The words were barely out of her mouth before Lena saw several wrappers drifting in the air and the Kryptonian stacking the bars together like a sandwich.
Lena rolled her eyes, "No wonder you get along with Kara. The two of you could probably polish off a candy store and still be tempted to pick up some donuts," she said indulgently. The young Luthor was starting to find it difficult to remain intimidated by this very human looking woman. Lex had always told her about their dangerous ignorance of humanity and inherent sense of superiority, like Kryptonians viewed the world as a child would playing with anthills.
Pulled from her contemplation by sounds from the instrument panel, Lena informed, "We're approaching the coordinates in 15 minutes. I will take you out for anything you want to eat as long as we both get out of this alive."
Supergirl peered contemplatively out through the cockpit glass, "Lena, do you think your brother has anything that might be able to detect this ship?"
"Jet, Supergirl. If it flies in the air and stays on this planet. It's a jet, -or a plane," Lena corrected airily deeply amused by Supergirl's look of indignation. "I'm helping you be better at human things. And yes, it's possible, likely probable. There are disrupters for radar and sonar, so thermodynamic detection is probably where we're most vulnerable. I can do some thermal cloaking on the internals and the engines where designed to leave minimal impression. Hopefully, if I redirect most of that energy internally under the cloak and we'll just register as a large bird for the scanners."
Supergirl did some mental calculations, eye's widening. "The redirected heat would probably melt the soles off those expensive shoes Ms Luthor."
"Do you have a better idea?" Lena asked witheringly.
"Of course," Supergirl said mimicking Lena's previously airy tone, "Krytonian things." Then with a grin, "I was right to start with, I'll fly you in."
"We need to keep the jet close for extraction Supergirl. Waiting a few minutes for the jet to get to us if I dock it out of range might mean our lives" Lena said in an exasperated tone.
"Trust me, cut the engines and I'll take care of it," Supergirl said with unflinching confidence.
"You want me to cut the engines of my $90 million jet, mid-air, over a bunker full of explosives -while I am inside of it."
"It would probably be hard to hold onto you and carry the jet at the same time. So yeah, you should probably stay inside. Safety first," she said grinning and sped out the escape hatch before Lena could respond again.
Lena pulled out the cross she kept hidden around her neck and kissed it wishing briefly she actually believed in God, but taking comfort from the ritual. Mechanically, forcing herself through every movement, the CEO went through the override sequence to disengage autopilot and then her own firewall. Lena briefly thought of where Kara must be right now and felt a pang of regret. She pushed the last button and turned the manual key before shutting her eyes and bracing for impact.
Her stomach heaved with the sudden dip in altitude thoughts rushing at her I hate flying. I hate flying. I hate flying. Can this even count as flying? The forces of flight are lift, drag, thrust and weight. What keeps a Kryptonian in the air, magic? Fucking magic!?
She buried her face in her hands and focused on feeling the solidness of the chair under her. Coming back to her senses, she noticed the plane was flying smoothly through the air. There's no turbulence, no hum or rattle of the engines, I've never flown on anything that's felt this effortlessly smooth she thought with some amazement.
It unnerved her thinking about it, the hum of engines and whirling mechanics typically comforted her. When she had to fly she was able to focus on laws of aerodynamics and the function of the mechanisms indicated by the different sounds keeping them in the air. It was a trick Lex had taught her when he noticed her braced against her chair, muscle staining against impending impact, on their first family trip when she was five.
She barely registered her phone ringing, but her hands moved to answer it numbly. "Ms Luthor, Lena, are you okay?" Lena heard a calm voice muffled by softly whistling wind. "I can hear your heartbeat going crazy. I'm sorry I can't be there right now. I've done this before a dozen times I swear."
"I know," Lena gasped, words coming out between gulps of air, "You caught my -helicopter when we met and I- I saw the plane you caught last year. Was that -was that actually the first time?" Lena asked, desperate to hear the hero's voice again.
Lena felt lightheaded and removed, like her voice was coming from further and further away as she spoke. The voice that anchored her held a smile. "No," she said with fondness. "The first person I saved was actually Kal back on Krypton. He was on a little antigravity playing platform in the living room. Our pet, well he was kind of like a domestic Jaguar. -I called him streaky. Well, he was sleeping a few feet away and Kal glided the platform over toward him. And -eh, bit his tail. He was such a brat. Anyway, Streaky jumped so high he tipped Kal's platform over. I dove and caught him, but crashed my head into the coffee table. I was so worried about Kal that I ran him straight to my mom, crashing into things all over the house. I can't imagine what she thought. Kal was probably covered in blood and I couldn't see him because so much got in my eyes. The whole time I just kept yelling that 'I can't see him, I can't see him. You have to look.' Supergirl chuckled softly. "He was perfectly fine, still doesn't have a scar on him come to think of it. I never should have told my sister that story. She likes to blame everything on my obvious brain damage."
Lena felt something ease in her chest and the voice told her, "Lena it's okay. We're touching down now. Without the landing gear, you'll feel a couple of bumps, but I'll be careful."
"Thank -." Lena said voice choking. Lena felt the light stuttering of the plane touching the ground and lurch as it came to a halt. Standing on shaky legs, forcing her mind into a meditative calm until she regained her faculties. Lena then began reactivating some of the internals and opened the cargo hatch, before collapsing onto a bench in the cargo bay. At the top of the stairs she saw Supergirl pacing with anxiety as the doors opened, not waiting for the ramp, she flew next to her landing softly, and narrowed her eyes intently, gaze flicking and sweeping over her body.
"I think I wore a green set today," Lena said with a wavering smile. Desperately wanting to avoid talking about what had just happened, the CEO hoped that flirting with the superhero would distract her. Gratified when the blonde started stammering, "I would never, not without permission, I mean not -um on purpose."
"Well," Lena said pushing herself to her feet, "I feel like pizza might not be reward enough for tonight. Maybe I'll extend certain exclusive privileges, say every third Friday of the month." She finished touching the superhero's arm as she walked to the storage containers.
"But that's in 2 weeks," Supergirl complained then closed her mouth sharply, blushing.
Opening crates, Lena grabbed out a dozen pieces of propriety tech she'd designed for this and tactile suites she'd engineered for her stealth team. "The skirt and primary colors might be a little conspicuous. These suits have similar cloaking technology with EM emissions, heat-masking, bullet proof," she said with a smirk, "fire-proof, solid electrical resistance. I've never worked with Kryptonite before, so I didn't know exactly how to block its effects on you so I tried a lead mesh on the suit itself and there's a rebreather attached that should protect from anything aerosolized. Look!" she said holding it up, "I even put the S on yours."
Supergirl turned in Lena's direction retorting reflexively, "It's not an S-" Seeing Lena, the hero's mouth gaped for a moment before she quickly turned back toward the cockpit, cheeks dusted a light shade of pink.
Lena, enjoying herself, had started unbuttoning her blouse, a flash of green silk and considerably more skin visible while she continued explaining, "The kinetic energy from the heat absorption, is getting converted into electrostatic and will release into the ground." Zipping up her suit she immediately missed her heels, feeling her ego shrink with her height for a moment. She turned around to grab her pack and felt the breath catch in her throat.
This might be the best day of my life. The CEO thought then angrily forced her brain to stop mentally cataloging the quality of previous life experiences to not impugn on her fully experiencing the glory of Supergirl, clad in a matching blue sports bra, the fine chain of a necklace draping distractingly over her cleavage, and tight blue boyshorts. Her muscles seemed to move in slow motion -stretching and rolling out her shoulders and neck causing a ripple to move across her back as they stretched and relaxed in turn. She casually turned to one side as if preparing for a run, her shredded obliques playing over the v of her pelvis. Turning to finish her stretch she winked mouthing 'even' and Lena caught a flash of mouthwatering abs before the hero sped into the suit and next to Lena.
Lena worried she might have hallucinated the wink when she saw Supergirl's serious expression, intent blue eyes scoping out the expanse between them and the warehouse.
Reminding herself of the months she spent worrying about this mission, the young tech genius focused and sifted through small gadgets and weapons in the myriad compartments on the craft, holstering a couple for quick access. In her pack she made sure to bring the portable dialysis and surgical kit, grimacing at the idea of using it on the Kryptonian. Satisfied with her arsenal, Lena folded her tablet and tucked it into a pocket before nodding to Supergirl. She replied with a brief reassuring smile and gestured for them to move out while they activated the cloaking.
-Kara -
Kara kept looking nervously for Lena, her mind not wanting to accept that she couldn't see anyone occupying the space where she clearly heard Lena's heartbeat.
The superhero felt impatience tug at her, itching to speed over and incapacitate the guard she heard in the watch tower above them. Listening to the bored steady rhythm of their heartbeats assured Kara that they hadn't been seen. Avoiding confrontation of any kind would be safest for Lena so she let go of her focus on their heartbeats as they approached the building entrance.
Inner fangirl making an appearance, Kara felt like she was in the forbidden section when she saw a disembodied hand remove a glove, then clip a wire and wrap it around another attached to a small device, LED readout displaying rapidly changing numbers. The sequence must have meant something to Lena as her other hand moved quickly across her tablet in response to the readout she was getting from the device.
Kara smiled appreciating Lena's genius. She'd calculated the thickness of the door with lack of visible hinges and complexity of the locking mechanism and knew she wouldn't be able to hit it hard enough without ringing the place like a bell. And she didn't dare use heat vision, not being able to see behind it and remembering Lena's warning.
Lena's look of fierce concentration shifted to satisfaction as her device flashed green three times and the door's locking mechanisms shifted. Kara pulled open the door.
Of course the entire place would be lead-lined Kara thought to herself. Lex obviously made this building as Kryptonian-proof as possible. Kara felt claustrophobic with the unfamiliar restriction in her field of view. Suddenly unsure what might be waiting for them hidden in the walls.
She straightened herself chest puffed forward with determination. The Kryptonian refused to let anxiety prevent her from getting Lena out of this safely. Kara knew in her gut that if she had refused, Lena would have ventured here on her own. She worried that the Luthor's lack of trust would put her into similar situations in the future. In Kara's experience there was always something that needed saving and having people was more important than having powers. She felt warm with the thought that Lena trusted her, even as Supergirl, and wanted to earn it. To prove to Lena that there was someone who wouldn't let her down.
Looking again, Kara found that there were several spots where the lining had oxidized, and readjusting the depth of her vision, she was able to make out a blurry incomplete picture of spaces beyond those spots of rust. Doing a quick scan of the room she saw three adjoining rooms and two exits into corridors coming off from this room. She also noticed nine pressure plates, a laser matrix guarding something in a side room and a half dozen fishlens security cameras.
Taking out her tablet, she started a quick sketch of the room and filled in details including a few laser trip wires Kara hadn't noticed. Kara added to the sketch what she could pick up from her spotty x-ray reconnaissance.
Satisfied with what they had, Lena wrote a message on the bottom, No speed, Don't fly. Kara furrowed her brow at that, obviously Lena had noticed some sensor she hadn't. She also drew an arrow pointing toward one of the corridors.
As they edged around the room, Kara concentrated on minimizing the sound of her footfalls. Not enjoying that she couldn't cheat by taking the weight off with a hover. Hearing a click she looked up to see a red beam of light near Lena's heartbeat shoot at the nearest security camera. Then a spray of mist revealed a pattern of lasers connecting to the far wall. Keeping their pattern in her head Kara twisted around the invisible grid. Next movie night with Lena should be a Bond marathon she thought excitedly. Remembering the sketch, Kara executed an awkward asymmetrical pirouette to avoid the lasers and dance around a pressure plate.
She felt silly more than anything, part of her grateful that the nifty invisibility cloak Lena had given her prevented the Luthor from seeing her during that last move. She really hoped that Lena would let her barrow it later so she could mess with Alex, but then Alex would probably want one and there was nothing worse than an invisible sister.
Carefully weighing the risks and benefits of future sneaky adventures, Kara started to have fun with the puzzle as she moved her body through the room. They really should set something up like this at the DEO, she thought. She was technically a secret agent. They didn't exactly pay her for hero work because that seemed wrong, but her identity was top secret and the DEO gave her snacks and replaced all the suits she ripped apart and stuff. Even if she was part of a secret government agency or whatever, she didn't really feel like a spy. She could totally learn how to be super sneaky. Then J'onn couldn't complain about her being all muscle and no mind again. She probably shouldn't eaves drop on him, but if he had such a big brain maybe he shouldn't mutter mean stuff to himself in a room only 3 floors away from her.
She bet Lena had one of these rooms somewhere. This is really hard and Lena must be doing it all too while shooting lasers at stuff and everything. Kara thought, then wondered if the Luthors all did this in their free time. Lena looked pretty comfortable with a weapon saving that kid, she bet the Luthors used to have little Lena training like an assassin so she could save her own life.
Kara felt proud enough about that tricky bit at the end that the Kryptonian was actually a little disappointed it was over. Her and Lena making it through that first room felt like pulling the flag down after the first Bowser castle. She walked through a door to the hallway and felt a wave of relief encountering normal walls, allowing the return of her x-ray vision. Feeling more confident about their mission with the Luthor assassin at her side, Kara caught herself before she started humming the Mario theme and turned to cross the last few steps toward the sound of Lena's heartbeat.