The car's radio was droning the latest news at them, she was not taking any of it in. She rested her head against the window and watched the slow traffic. She was trying to organise her thoughts and could only think to herself how much less complicated ignorance was. It was easy to be envious of the pedestrians that walked by her window with their trivial concerns. It also dawned on her than any one of them could be a World Killer waiting to awaken, a fate she would not wish on her worst enemy. She looked back to the dashboard, it was late morning. She relaxed a little knowing she could at least pick up Ruby later, she longed to hear about her day and chat about her friends or whatever else was occupying her mind.
The car came to a stop once more as another red light glowed at them from the distance. Alex reached out and clicked off the monotone background voice.
"I'm sorry about all this," Alex said. Sam turned to her, Alex seemed genuinely concerned.
"Don't apologise, it's a lot to think about is all," she said.
"No, I rushed you into this. That was my mistake," Alex said.
"Maybe," Sam looked back out the window. "Knowing is certainly harder, but I guess it's better than being blind-sided further down the line."
"I shouldn't have taken you to the DEO so soon, I'm… heavily invested in this World Killer business. I let you pay for it, I should do better for you," Alex said. Sam cocked her head, this woman was being very open for a secret agent.
"I can handle it, lord knows I've had my mettle tested recently. My main concern is my daughter, she's done nothing to deserve all this," she said, gesturing to herself and waggling her artificial fingers. Alex glanced down at her own arms, before moving off the car again.
"Is she bothered by it at all?" Alex asked.
"Honestly, I don't know. At the moment I think she's grateful to have me around again, I do fear my hugs feel a bit weird or when things settle she'll worry about it more," she said. Alex exhaled through her nose sharply, still largely paying attention to the road.
"I guess another reason I wanted you around was the arm, it can be hard. More selfish reasoning I know," Alex said. Sam looked forward to the road, a car horn blared out. It did not make the queue go any faster.
"Why me? I mean you told me you knew about support groups and no-one at your work seems to be concerned," she said.
"I did, but these arms are so effective…" Alex briefly glanced over at her, "I guess it feels like I've cheated. A lot of people who are going through similar injuries will never get anything as advanced," Alex said. Sam inspected her own arm, listening close to the mechanical wooshes it made when she twisted it round.
"I guess I hadn't really thought about it that way, I still barely believe how I ended up like this and I was there for it all. I guess my head is so wrapped up in aliens and powers that I forgot about normal life. May I ask how it happened to you?" she said. Alex hesitated and rubbed her chin.
"I'm a field agent, front line for some of the weirdest and most dangerous things the city can offer. One day I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Alex said. Sam nodded, she took it as a roundabout of way of telling her it was classified. "My girlfriend has been so supportive about it all, reassuring me whenever she can and helping me if I need. I just can't help but wonder if it burdens her or forces her to keep at a certain distance."
"I suppose I'm fortunate that Ruby's still at an age that's easy to read," she said. Alex laughed.
"I have extensive training in interrogation and investigation, yet my girlfriend's poker face still leaves me totally stumped," Alex smiled, Sam smiled as well. Alex' concerns were like her own, it was impossible for her to hold a grudge against someone who needed help just like she had.
"Look, I can't say I'm overly grateful for the position I'm in, but it's not your fault. If it's forgiveness you're after, you have it. At this point I just want to do what's best for Ruby," she said.
"Thank you, and while it may sound like another recruitment pitch. This World Killer cult could be seriously dangerous, they'd obviously have a direct interest in you. I won't tell you it wouldn't threaten your personal safety confronting them, but the longer they're around the more of a threat they could be," Alex said.
"How much do you know about them? Please tell me they don't know about Ruby," Sam said.
"Our intel is pretty lacking I'm afraid, new info has come in recently but there's still a lot we don't know." The car came to a stop again, there was a long line in front of them and nothing was coming from the other side of the road. It looked like they were going to be sitting there for a while. Alex turned to her "If they knew about you or Ruby they probably would have made a move by now, all we do know for certain is vague associations and names of the other World Killers. We've kept an eye on peculiar activity that could relate to it all and have some theories along with possible locations. Nothing around National City you'll be pleased to hear," Alex said.
"What are the other names?" she said, she hoped they would be unfamiliar
"Flower of Heaven, Perrilus and Deimax" Alex said. Sam let out a small sigh of relief when she failed to recognise them, for now it was all she wanted to know.
"I have to say, you're much calmer than most people would be in your circumstances," Alex said. Sam laughed.
"I didn't know what truly constituted a crisis until Ruby came into my life, as good as she is, parenthood can be seriously testing."
"Ha, I'll take your word for it," Alex said. She started to drum on the dashboard. "Traffic hasn't been this bad in a long time, I don't suppose you could look up ahead to see what the stop is?"
"May as well use the perks I guess," Sam said as she focused far forward. "Looks like there's a truck blocking the road."
"I really wish people drove more carefully," Alex said. Sam inspected the scene further.
"It's odd, there doesn't seem to be any damage. The truck's empty," she said. Alex's hands immediately dropped off the steering wheel, one dropping to her holster.
The thunk of the car unlocking sounded off, "Can you take a look around? Something's off." Sam obliged. The scene up ahead seemed uneventful, a few others had left their cars and were inspecting this conspicuous truck. There was a man talking to a police officer. She honed her hearing past the beeping of car horns and idle chatter.
"I don't know, it just turned to cover the road and the driver ran off."
"The block was definitely intentional" she said to Alex. Her hand went from hovering around her holster to arming herself. An aggressive revving from behind caught Sam's attention, she immediately turned to it. A black van turned out from the line behind them and was rocketing up the empty side of the road.
"Errr… Alex?" Sam said, pointing up the road. The van was some ways off, she tried to look inside but her vision was somehow blocked.
"Get behind the car," Alex said. She was hesitant to move, her legs took a little too much time to respond. She had been to slow, the van screeched to a halt in front of her. She could smell the burnt rubber from the hard stop. The numbness in her legs wore off as the Van's back doors were hurled open and armed men wearing balaclavas jumped out as.
"Grab them" she heard one say. Each one of them clicked something on their guns and a green tint glowed at the sides. Time slowed down for her as they opened fire and she saw bullets rip through the air with that same green tint flying toward her. She heard screaming and saw people scramble out of their cars. All she could think to do was crouch and try to cover her face. She gritted her teeth as a new sharp pain hit her as each bullet smacked against her, it was like being pelted by rocks. After a few seconds of this the menacing roar of the gunfire finally came to a stop. She stood up, looking down in disbelief at all the squashed metal surrounding her. They had been crushed just by hitting her.
"That should be enough, throw her in the van, You two, go around and grab Danvers."
She painfully stood up and saw a few of the masked men put the guns to their side and went to grab her. As one grabbed her, she carelessly shoved at him with all her strength. He got thrown back and hit the side of the van hard. More tried to move in, so she carelessly swung at them, trying to keep them back. As the man she had shoved groaned loudly they started to back off.
"It didn't work, she's still too strong."
"Plan B. Keep her supressed and we'll just grab Danvers."
Upon hearing this, she closed her eyes and braced herself again. She moved her artificial arm to try to block her face and body. Another roar of gunfire was concentrated on her. A lot of that same pelting pain came at her, one of the bullets made her knee buckle and it jolted her downward. There was no pain in it and the arm was doing a decent job of protecting her from the pain. More bullets drove into it, merciless volleys of gunfire roared at her and it was becoming clear that the arm lacked the same sturdiness the rest of her body did. The arm began to take chips and scratches as the bullets panged off it. While this happened, she could see more men going around the car. Alex was being defiant.
"I'm not going anywhere," she said. She strained to listen in over the gunfire, the headache barely registered as the rest of her body took the consistent beating.
"Unless you want us to start shooting civilians, you will," was the response she got. There was a brief pause in conversation. It was difficult to make out what was happening as the onslaught of gunfire continued. She was sure she heard a gun drop to the ground, when she opened her eyes she saw Alex with her hands up walking around them with a wide both.
"No," Sam said, struggling to a standing position as bullets continued to try and batter her down. There was no let up in the firing line, she clocked that they were reloading at different intervals to maintain the constant barrage. Shell casings rained own and pinged off the tarmac. She doubted waiting would make any difference, so she struggled forward. Step by agonising step, she inched closer to her attackers through the unrelenting waves of bullets. Her arm started shifting involuntarily and her fingers flexed back and forth seemingly at random. As it shifted away from her face bullets started to pelt where she tried to cover. A bullet to the eye jolted head back and it began to water. She was forced to turn her head down and could not see where she was stepping.
"I won't let you take her," she said, flinging her arm aside and stamping the ground. There was a thunderous crash, the gunfire stopped, glass shattered all around her. A tremendous force blasted into her, she dug in her heels. She slid back several feet, it crunched grooves in the concrete and she crashed into the car behind with a hard thud. She felt slightly dizzy and the vision in her good eye was taking a moment to come into focus. She was embedded into the car's side, she needed a lot of force to pull herself out and lurched forward when she finally got herself unstuck. The ache in her back was palpable, debris and shattered glass rolled off her. It was unclear what she had done but the armed men in front of her had been flung from their positions.
It did not take her long to notice something was not right. The crack in the tarmac where she had stamped barely reached the firing line and the floored men that had not been catapulted behind her were scrambling toward her rather than away. As she slowly craned her aching neck upward, she saw what was left of the van. It had crumpled from the from the top, splitting it in half. Standing at this point of impact was a shining red blur. She strained her eye to focus on it. She could see the distinctive black and red uniform, the "S" symbol amongst that threatening circle glowing out just as brightly as her ring's aura. There was pure fury in her eyes directed straight at her. One of the men dangled limp in Supergirl's hand. She had to assume it was the driver, as the crumpled front half of the van lay empty.
"Supergirl, don't…" Sam snapped back round to the voice, it was a man standing next to Alex with a gun pointing at her. That was as many words as he got out before the driver's unconscious body rag-dolled into him, knocking the gun out of his hand and sending him clattering into the street. Now empty-handed, Supergirl stepped off the van and squared up to her, that stare of hers never breaking.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Supergirl said, a growl creeping into her voice. Before Sam could respond a blue-skinned woman in a similar uniform with wings of bone fluttered down beside her.
"Oh my dear, she really doesn't like you," the winged woman said.