Alex had arrived quickly and they were on the road toward the centre of National City. The rumble of the tarmac droned on and the journey had mostly been describing what she could remember about Spark.
"Where are we headed?" Sam asked.
"We have a headquarters in National City, I've called ahead and they're expecting us. I have a suspicion on who this man might be and want to confirm it," Alex said.
"Am I in danger?" she said.
"If my hunch is right, then I don't think so. I'm sorry I can't be more reassuring than that," Alex said. It did little to ease her worries, at the very least she had stopped shaking.
There was a moment she picked up on where Alex went to scratch at her arm, she stopped herself and let out a small sigh.
She was led through a modern building. There was a lot of security to get through and Alex flashed identification at them each time. One peculiar thing she noticed was the further in she got the less attention they paid to her. The inquisitive looks diminished along the way, even amongst the FBI she was almost put off by the lack of curiosity they displayed about her. After being led through some barren corridors and more checkpoints she was brought into a busy area. There were dozens of screens and work-stations about, glass walls into various other sections with strange technology and lighting. It reminded her more of a NASA control room than any law-enforcement office.
"What is all this?" Sam said.
"We're well funded in National City," Alex said, she beckoned her over to one of the workstations. "This is Agent Schott. The man waved at her. His screen had a series of pictures lined up, various men who had similar features to what she had described. "Are you able to identify this man from any of these?"
She looked closely, most of them were mug shots with a few outliers of pictures taken in the street.
"Can I get a closer look?"
"Of course," the agent said. One picture took up the whole screen, she was able to scroll through them one at a time
She scrolled through the mug-shots first to no avail. The other pictures were slightly blurry or taken from afar. She was worried the man would be hard to recognise, Spark had only spoken to her briefly and her memory of him was already hazy. As these concerns floated around her head, a clear picture hit the screen. There was no mistaking who it was, it was a flattering compared to the rest and he was leaning up against a wall. He looked past the camera and off into the distance with a half-grin. Where he stood in the frame and how he stood, if it was as if he was posing.
"Him. That's definitely him," she said. Alex and agent Schott shared a look.
"I'll run it through facial recognition right away," Agent Schott said. Alex took her away from the screen and speaking as they walked toward the centre of the room.
"Is there anything more you can think of, anything at all about this man?" Alex said, a slight edge crept in her voice.
"I've told you what I can, he called himself Spark and knew more about me than I'd like. Is there something I should know?" She said.
"It's alright, we think this could be a man whose popped up on our radar very recently. Your confirmation will allow us to move forward. From what we know he isn't violent or malicious, you and Ruby should be safe even if he's poking around," Alex said, seemingly overcompensating a kind tone after her last question. Sam nodded, not liking the use of the world "should."
"How recent exactly? What do you know about him?" she said.
"Let's just confirm things first," Alex said. Avoiding the question was exactly what people did when the truth was inconvenient.
"Agent Danvers," Agent Schott beckoned to them.
"That was fast," Sam said.
"Well funded," Alex said. When she moved to follow Alex, she stopped her. "If you don't mind waiting here, sorry."
"Alright," Sam said. She did not want to be left out of the loop. The place was busy and it wasn't long before she found she was in the way.
"Excuse me Ma'am" someone said, he manoeuvred carefully as to not spill any of the coffee he was holding. He had not even given her a second look, as she paid more attention to her surroundings it was clear no-one in the room had even the slightest concern a ghost-white woman and a bionic arm was milling about. The more she looked the more it became clear something was off about this place. She tried to get a glance at a few of the screens around her, the agents did a good job of keeping them angled away. Alex certainly knew about her connection to Reign, either everyone else here was ignorant of that fact or more worryingly, this was business as usual for them. Spark's warnings played on her mind. There were no FBI logos to be seen and the extremely high-tech nature of her surroundings were red flags. It was a strain to tune her hearing over to agent Schott just as Alex approached.
"What have you got?" Alex said.
"A record from the DMV pinged," he said.
"The DMV, there has been precisely zero info on this guy and now you're telling me he has a driver's licence?" she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Finally a bit of luck I guess," he said.
"I want a name, address and at least one agent to keep an eye on him at all times," she said.
"Name: David Orian, Address…" he stopped mid-sentence.
"What's the hold up?" she asked.
"His listed address is… well…" he was struggling to find words
"Out with it, Winn," she said.
"It's our address, as in this building." Even from afar she could see Alex's face was quite the mixture of bemusement and confusion.
"How is that… wait." A moment of realisation hit Alex's face. "I don't suppose that licence has a middle initial?"
"Yeah it's…" Winn began.
"E" Alex finished for him.
"How did you know?" he said.
"Check the initials, he's mocking us," she said. Sam put it together in her own head "D.E.O., a lot can be gleaned from a name" she whispered to herself. There was at least some truth to what Spark had said, but she still trusted these people a whole lot more than him. There was no point playing it quiet, she wanted an explanation. She strode over to the two of them.
"Now I think of it, there was another thing Spark mentioned to me," she said.
"Any information you can give us helps," Alex said.
"He said that someone like you would come along and that they weren't really with the FBI," she said.
"I'm sorry if what he said was distressing. I'll get you some coffee and we can go straight to recording a full statement. If he brought up anything else we can go over that too," Alex said. She had been through enough negotiations in her life to know the concern was a ploy. A lack of a denial and rapidly changing the subject felt very similar to the avoided question earlier.
"So, I guess the initials DEO actually mean nothing to you,"
Alex's face remained soft, but she picked up a slight twitch on Winn's face. Sam stayed silent, watching Alex's concerned expression. After a tense few seconds, the façade dropped and Alex's face turned sour.
"You were listening to us."
"I've got a strange man who you claim to know something about appearing at my door, and a woman who lied to me about working for the FBI," she said.
"Look, I'm sorry for the deception. We have your best interest at heart, what can I tell you to make you understand that?" Alex said.
"Just give it to me straight," she said.
"I don't have clearance to do that," Alex said.
"I don't care," Sam said. Alex held her gaze.
"I can take you to someone that does," Alex said.
"Lead the way," she said, wanting this ordeal to be done with. She was brought up some stairs, the D.E.O.'s set up looked even more impressive from above. The busy agents below all rushing about or working away. Alex knocked on a door, there was a plaque beside it that read "Director." There was no name beside it, which made it far less inviting. She wandered to herself if she had made the right decision in revealing her hand.
"Come in," the words came form inside the office. The door swung open to reveal a dark-skinned man with very short hair.
"You must be Sam Arias," he said, extending his hand. She shook it carefully, paying close attention to how much pressure she used with her prosthetic. "J'onn J'onzz,wWhat Can I do for you?"
"She knows we aren't FBI. She wants the truth," Alex said. J'onn let out a long sigh, it was the type of sigh she had heard before. One that suggested this was another issue piled on top of a whole host of other ones for him.
"I have no context here and quite frankly don't have the time to learn it. You think this is the best way to approach this, Agent Danvers?" He asked, folding his arms.
"I do, sir," she said. His eyes flitted between two of them.
"I'll trust your judgement. I'll also trust you to look out for Ms. Arias in an appropriate manner." He said.
"I understand, sir," she said. J'onnz' hands moved to on his hips.
"Apologies for the deception, it's standard procedure and we wanted to ease you into our set-up," he said.
"Why approach me at all?" she said.
"It wasn't a lie when Agent Danvers here was checking in on you, Superman has kept us informed of your wellbeing and I wanted to make sure you were settling in okay," he said.
"And recruit me, apparently," she said.
"Also true, the fact of the matter is we've been on back foot recently and lost one of our best people. Having you with us could help a lot with our primary goal, one that's taking up most available time and resources," he said.
"What goal, and how am I supposed to help," she said.
"There's no way to sugar coat this, so I'll be blunt. You were a World Killer, we have reason to believe there are more out there," he said.
"More…" she slumped, of course it was not over.
"Our intel is that there are four World Killers. We have it on good authority that you're safe. Which leaves three unknowns, we've had the occasional word or rumour reach us. It hasn't been much to go on and I'm hoping you would be able to focus our search," he looked to her expectantly.
"I'm afraid I didn't really know anything before I… changed. And have very little memory of when Reign was in control," she said.
"Not to worry, Agent Danvers can follow up and ask any further questions we may have. There's also a much more recent issue that has come to our attention. We've caught wind of a cult in National City, one that's obsessed with Krypton and have a particular interest in the World Killers. As I said, I wanted to ease you into this but here we are. As far as they know, Reign simply disappeared. You're in a far better position to approach them directly and gather information then us, you could even dismantle it if they're willing to do what you say," he said. Sam found the seat behind her and slumped into it, not even a week and she was back in the fray.
"I'm sorry if this is a lot. We will of course respect your wishes if you want nothing to do with this. That said, we could really use your help," he said.
"I want to go home," she said.
"I understand. Agent Danvers, see that she's looked after. And please, consider our offer. It'd make a huge difference to our efforts here," he said. She did not respond, it played on her mind that there were more out there like her, going about their lives unaware of the danger they presented it. It was a lot to take in. Alex put her arm around her.
"Come on, I'll take you home," she said.