"Bleez, round these people up," Supergirl said, not breaking eye contact with Sam. She was still recovering from Supergirl's violent entrance, worried about moving while under the sinister glare.
"Get what information you can from them, no unnecessary violence," Supergirl said.
"I think I should say the same thing to you," Bleez smirked as she spoke, Supergirl shot her look. It was a pleasant respite from the drilling eyes. Staying upright was already difficult after the beating she had taken from the gunfire, what made it worse was her prosthetic was working with a mind of its own. It uncontrollably twitched while her fingers refused to stay still, clenching and unclenching into a fist with no real rhyme or rhythm. Her eye was still watering and there were pains all over her body, she winced as she brushed the rubble off herself. She inhaled sharply at each pat, there was no part of her body that was not aching. Her haywire arm occasionally whipped back into her to aggravate the bruising even more. Supergirl had stopped bickering with Bleez and turned her attention back Sam's way. A strong red glow emitted from her, she squared her shoulders and stepped right up to her. There was an intense heat coming from it as Supergirl got too close for comfort.
"I don't suppose you could cut this off again?" Sam said, she stuttered as she spoke and gestured to her flailing arm. Levity was all she could think to do. Her first memory after Reign left her mind was looking up at the red Supergirl. She had tried to keep up with Supergirl's movements when she was recovering at the fortress. Despite the narrative painting her as far more merciless and violent, she bore no grudge against her. Reign deserved what she got and whatever Supergirl had done expelled her from her mind. It was of little comfort though, there was no telling if Supergirl would lash out at her again.
"I said, what are you doing here?" Supergirl said, baring her teeth at her and pulling her even closer. Being pulled forward aggravated her already beaten body, the heat from Supergirl's hands started to singe her shirt. Despite Supergirl being slightly shorter, it felt like she was being dwarfed by her. The heat from the aura and heavy breaths burned against her skin, she could hear faint growling with every breath. She awkwardly craned her neck backward to get as much distance as possible without testing the iron grip that had pulled her in. She held her breath, the aching aggravated every motion she made. The scowling powerhouse who had taken hold of her was glaring right into her eyes.
"We were attacked, by whoever these people are," she said. Supergirl let her go, Sam stepped back and let the rush of she had held air escape her lungs, only after being let go did she notice how tense her body had been. She wanted to stretch out but feared for the bruising's reaction.
"Bleez, who are they?" Supergirl said.
"Still working on it, darling," Bleez said. Supergirl stared her down for a while longer, the strength of the red glow dimmed slightly as she backed off. She bent down and inspected what was left of the bullets that were littered around her.
"Kryptonite infused…" She looked back at her. "Where's agent Danvers?"
"They were trying to take her…" she said. Alex jogged over.
"I'm here, I'm here. Just calling in back-up and trying to keep the public away," Alex said. Sam wilted back slightly, no grudge or not she wanted nothing more than to keep her distance from Supergirl. She grabbed her artificial arm by the wrist to try and steady it, more than happy to let Alex do the talking.
"Why is Reign with you?" Supergirl said.
"Ms. Arias was with me regarding D.E.O. matters, Supergirl. I was driving her home," Alex said. There was an odd amount of animosity from someone whose life was just saved. Supergirl flared her nostrils and exhaled sharply. One of the attackers cried out as he was thrown at their feet.
"This one tells me he's feeling co-operative," Bleez said, stretching out her boned wings to their full span as she yawned. Alex eyed this new arrival with suspicion, before her attention was drawn to the man on the floor. Sam inspected him closer, X-ray vision revealed he had a broken arm and leg.
"We can interrogate him back at headquarters, now isn't the time or the place," Alex said.
"He talks now, or he doesn't talk at all," Supergirl said. No matter what she was doing, Supergirl's focus kept coming back to Sam. She was still doing her best to keep her arm under control, though each piercing glare thrown her way seemed to hit harder than the bullets.
"This is the D.E.O.'s jurisdiction. Thank you for your help, we'll take it from here," Alex said. Sam was taken aback at how firm Alex had been. She was still struggling to even look at Supergirl standing this close, it was difficult not to shy away from her intensity. Supergirl rolled her eyes and picked up the man by the neck.
"Who do you work for?" Supergirl said, Alex watched on with her own intense look as the man tried to splutter out words. "You know, I've never tested just exactly how hard I have to squeeze to break a neck in half."
"CADMUS, we're with CADMUS," he blurted out through coughs.
"Supergirl, I can't let you…" Alex started.
"He's talking, don't you have a crowd to control?" She said, looking over as a few of the public started to edge toward them. Alex huffed.
"If you hurt him at all, this will not end well for any of us," Alex said.
"Unless our friend here gives her a reason, I'd say we're fine my dear, Supergirl really is quite the soft touch," Bleez chimed in. She was merrily weaving between the other attackers, the conscious ones were on their knees. Alex met Supergirl's gaze for a moment, before backing off and doing what she could to disperse the public. Supergirl's eyes once again flitted toward Sam before she went back to her victim. Even though he had spent the last few minutes shooting her, she could not help but feel bad for the man.
"Awfully bold to attack people out in the street," Supergirl said.
"It was supposed to be a quick grab, we were told to watch the D.E.O. HQ and take targets of interest if we had the chance," he said, rasping as he spoke on the verge of tears.
"You've always had the information and resources to do something like this. Why so reckless and why now?" She said, her voice leaned more into that growl as she spoke. She could see her grip start to tighten, the man could barely speak and his legs starting to spasm. As his face began to turn an alarming shade of purple it became too hard to watch.
"You're killing him," she said. Supergirl turned slowly to her, her eye was twitching as she glared directly at her once more. Sam took a step back and looked down, almost regretting speaking up. There was a thump as the man clattered to the ground, he twisted awkwardly and looked up at Sam.
"Thank you," he wheezed at her. Supergirl crouched beside him.
"Answer me," she said.
"We know the D.E.O. is stretched thin, we've been raiding their supplies, we were told now's the best time to try and capture some of their people. That's all I know, I swear," he said, the desperation had not left his tone and he was doing his best to crawl back away from her. Supergirl advanced with his whimpering retreat.
"Nothing to do with her," Supergirl said, pointing at Sam. "Nothing about World Killers?"
"We knew about Reign, I don't know what else you mean, please don't hurt me," the man groaned.
"Useless," Supergirl said through gritted teeth. They both turned as sirens started to blare out in the distance. "More D.E.O.. Bleez, we're leaving," Supergirl said as she started to hover.
"You shoot over here without warning and now demand we leave just as things are getting fun? You're such a tease," Bleez said, she drifted lazily toward her.
"We have more to discuss and we aren't doing it here," Supergirl said, she shot upward. The force of the take-off brushed against her aching skin and forced Alex to steady herself. Bleez watched Supergirl arc upward. Before she set off Bleez looked right at Sam.
"You, my dear, are lucky she has so much self-control," Bleez said.
"You call that self-control?" Sam said, looking down at the whimpering victim. Bleez laughed out loud.
"She was harbouring so much rage I'm surprised everyone lived to tell this tale. As I said, soft touch," Bleez said. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she felt a chill down her spine. It distracted her enough that she loosened the grip on her arm, it's new bout of twitching brought her back down to earth. She shook off the chill and forced herself back into the present, the flailing arm happily reminded her how odd that present was. Steering into the skid had always been a strength of hers, she reasoned there was no use stopping now.
"Need a hand?" Bleez said with a sultry smile. Sam pushed past the joke and let go of her arm.
"Would you?" She said, Bleez seemed taken aback by the candid response. She put her ring near the top of the twitching arm, there was a small jolt of red and her arm finally came to a halt.
"Thanks," she said, grateful that it was just hanging limp and not doing its best to keep hitting her.
"It's been a pleasure," she said before gently drifting away, rotating slowly upward and letting her wings flap out before shooting off in a similar manner to her counterpart. As cars arrived at the scene and D.E.O. agents started to file out of them, Alex made her way over and started issuing orders. Sam stood there awkwardly as the scene was brought under control and the attackers were rounded up. Now she had some time to get a proper look at it she could see just how bad a state her arm was in. She prodded at it to see if there was any life in it whatsoever. The upper section was barely still attached, only a few miserable looking joints doing their best to hold it together. There was also nearly nothing left of the casing on her forearm, wires poked out in random directions and the smell of fried, exposed circuitry tickled her nose. The poor thing looked to be as far from a working state as she could imagine. The pain from hail of bullets was starting to dull, though it still ached when she moved too quickly. Once things were starting to calm down and the agents were starting to settle with their orders, Alex came back.
"I imagine that was quite the ordeal, are you okay?" Alex asked.
"I'll live," Sam said, before doing her best to relay the information Supergirl had gotten from her interrogation.
"Thanks for telling me, if I'd known CADMUS would be so aggressive so fast I certainly would have left you alone," Alex said.
"He said we're targets of interest. Does that put Ruby in danger?" She said.
"CADMUS may be bold, but they aren't stupid. They lost a lot of men today, men that can tell us what they know. We'll keep a close eye and I'll keep you informed if we think there's any more threat from them," Alex said.
"I have to ask, what was up with Supergirl. That friend of hers said I'm lucky to be alive," she said. Alex let out a long sigh.
"There's not a whole lot I can tell you, it's tied to the remaining World Killers. You probably gathered she doesn't work with us. It makes things complicated, it's also another reason we're spread so thin. Losing her… it's put a lot of strain on an already strained department. Worst of all there isn't a lot we can do about CADMUS except defend ourselves," Alex said. Sam thought of Ruby and the entire mess she had been unwillingly pulled into.
"If I help you with this World Killer business, can I then be done with all of this nonsense and go back to life with my daughter," Sam said.
"I wish I could tell you that you could walk away from all this, that we could protect you and Ruby, but I can't," Alex sighed. "I don't want to force you into anything or think we're extorting you and we will do everything we can to keep you safe if you want nothing to do with us. That said, I can't guarantee there won't be more violence or targeting." Sam took in a deep breath and looked at all the destruction around her, it was horrible to take in. Since her teens she promised to herself she would control her own fate, and if she could survive this then it felt worth the risk.
"I think it'd be better to face the problem head on than wait on the side-lines and hope for the best. I'll have to check with Ruby first, she has to know I'll be in harm's way and has to be given the chance to tell me not to," she said. Alex looked conflicted.
"Contact me when you've made a decision, the sooner we start, the sooner we can end this," Alex said, she looked like she wanted to say more but refrained.
"I can arrange medical attention for you," Alex said.
"No it's alright, I'll make my own way from here," she said.
"Are you sure, you took a hell of a beating?" Alex said.
"I've had worse. I'd rather get out of here," she said, she eyed the crushed van and crumpled bullets.
"Thank you, for what you've done today," Alex said. If she was not so heavily distracted by having to keep the scene in order she probably would have said more to her.
"Same to you," Sam said before moving off. She had no real idea of what she was doing, every way of moving forward seemed like a bad one. She took a breath and thought to herself to think one step at a time. It was still early in the day. Her arm dangled carelessly beside her. The best course of action appeared to be a trip to see Lena, driving Ruby to and from School would be tricky with one working arm.
Lena gladly dropped what she was doing to help her and before long she found herself in a lab again. Lena had let her borrow a set of clothes that hadn't been shredded by bullets. It was oddly comfortable to be in business wear again. Lena merrily rolled between workbenches to use various tools and checking readouts. She pulled on thick work-gloves and knocked down what looked like a welding mask over her face. She meddled with the arm further, a tool she didn't recognise was sparking brightly each time it touched the arm. The occasional mild twitch in the arm was all she managed as Lena poked different sections.
"The news report mentioned a lot of gunfire, but did you have to take every single bullet to the arm?" Lena's voice was slightly muffled behind the mask.
"I'll ask them to aim elsewhere next time," Sam said, Lena was always more at ease with lab equipment to play with. She rolled back on her chair, the wheels making a satisfying whoosh along the hard floor. She lifted the mask to reveal a smiling face. She pivoted on the chair and reached for a small tablet to tap away on.
"The good news is, physically you're fine. There'll be a fair amount of bruising from the more concentrated fire, thankfully you're already healing fast and it seems you rank high on the bullet-proof side of things. The bad news is, the arm is done for. The circuitry is totally fried and I'm getting some odd energy readings from it, nothing bullets would be able to manage. You said there was Kryptonite involved, were there any other elements to the rounds?" Lena said.
"The bullets, no. The arm was out of control so Supergirl's sidekick jolted it with that ring of hers. Lena looked confused.
"Sidekick?" Lena said.
"She called her Bleez, had a similar symbol, without the "S" and wore the same red and black colour scheme," she said. Lena pouted.
"Right… well anyway, I'm afraid the best way forward is to remove the arm and construct a new one," Lena stood up and started arranging the tools back to their rightful places. "It'll likely take a few days to sort things out and wrangle the materials under the radar.
"Are you sure that's okay, I don't want to cause trouble," she said.
"Well, I'm using my own money and I'm free to use any L-Corp equipment as I see fit. So I'd say there's no trouble," Lena said.
"I didn't mean it like that, I meant your time and effort. You provided me with top of the line equipment and I bring it back wrecked a few days later," she said, Lena smiled.
"Trust me, doing this is far more worth my time than L-Corp business at the moment. And while I'm always happy to help, I would quite like to know what you were doing with agent Danvers. Her line of work is pretty dangerous," Lena said.
"A day after I got back she said she was with the FBI and they were checking on me, she also told me they could use my expertise," she said, Lena stroke her chin.
"Of course they did, I thought you wanted some time," Lena said.
"I must admit I underestimated how accepting everyone would be. Got myself a lot more worked up than I needed to. Despite that I still left it be, I wanted to make sure I was properly settled, you know?" she said.
"Makes sense. What changed?" Lena said.
"A strange man appeared at my house. Told me Alex was lying to me and actually works for a department called the D.E.O.. He also knew I was Reign. I was worried so I called Alex, she told me to come in and identify him. When I got there it became clear this man was telling me the truth. Next thing I know there are three other World Killers to worry about and to make things worse, even the journey home becomes a lot more eventful than I'd like," she said.
"The D.E.O. do good work, they helped me a lot with keeping things quiet with you and Ruby. Though they can be… clumsy, at times. For instance, I am not amused at how quickly they've swooped in for you," Lena said, she thought for a moment longer. "A very select few people know about you, tell me about this man."
"He told me to call him Spark…" she began, a hint of recognition appeared on Lena's face, she sighed heavily.
"Let me guess. Hoodie, acts like knowing everything is not big deal, oddly chipper at the worst possible moment?" Lena said.
"You know him?" She asked.
"He's a… an associate of mine. A fan of memorable names. Not sure what he's playing at surprising you like that though," Lena said.
"Should I be worried?" she said, Lena seemed distracted.
"Hmm? Oh, no. He's a good man at heart… I think… and certainly doesn't mean you any harm. If he does anything like that or you see him again, you're better off calling me than the D.E.O.," Lena said.
"The D.E.O. did seem to be on to him, should I cover for him like that?" She said. Lena's apparent distrust of the D.E.O. was unsettling, there was likely more to the story. However, Lena had more than proven in the past couple of months that she was looking out for her, the D.E.O. had lied to her from day one.
"Trust me, if the D.E.O. found anything on him it was because he let them," Lena said.
"Now you mention it, all they had on him was a false driver's licence with the initials D.E.O.. It was registered to the Headquarters' address," Lena chuckled.
"I have to hand it to him, that's a good one," Lena sat back down and rolled back over to one of work benches, she took the welding mask off. She shifted through the various tools sitting on the work bench, they lightly tapped against each other as she eventually found some safety glasses to put on. "I'm not going to tell you how to move forward, it's your life. Just be careful when dealing with the D.E.O., they have to worry about the big picture so their methods can cause a lot of collateral damage. And as you've discovered yourself, associating with them potentially puts you in the crosshairs of a lot of other people. Not to mention the other three World Killers being potential wildcards." As she spoke, she got out a threatening looking tool with a narrow drill-bit attached. Sam eyed it up and down wearily.
"What's that for?" she said.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt," Lena said, lining it up with a small gap at the top of the arm joint. There was an odd needling sensation as Lena pushed it in. It tingled as it whirred to life, pulling at the joint slightly. "Hold on, only seven more times," Lena moved her arm for the next slot and repeated this process, holding occasionally holding on to her shoulder to steady herself. The grip felt like nothing, especially compared to Supergirl holding on to her and staring her down. She shuddered slightly.
"Hold still, please," Lena said, now concentrated entirely on her work.
She had time to think as the pressure on her arm started to loosen and promptly realised she had no idea where to go from here. Alex seemed so sincere in her request, yet Lena seemed to think Spark was more reliable. Most of her wanted to give up on it all and just think about picking Ruby up from school. With this thought she noticed she would be leaving Lena one arm down. She waited for Lena to finish up detaching the sorry-looking arm before speaking up.
"I don't suppose you have a temporary replacement so I can pick Ruby up?" she asked. Lena looked around the lab, spinning in her chair to look at the different sections. It seemed like she was genuinely curious if she could whip something up with the random parts at her disposal.
"I doubt I could throw together something that would 100% work, probably easier just to ask my driver," Lena said, the lifeless arm flopped miserably in her hand
"It's fine, I was joking. I can just arrange a cab or something," she said.
"Ah. Right. Well the offer's there," Lena said.
"You've already done more than enough for me," she said.
"If you're sure," she stood up again. "Despite the circumstances, I'm glad you could stop by. I'll contact you when the replacement is ready to go," she said. Sam wanted to give Lena a hug, but Lena would usually flinch when she tried. In the moment she took to think, Lena held her arms out. She was surprised by the offer and could sense the minor discomfort Lena felt. Despite this she leaned in and gave her a quick hug.
"Thank you," she said.
"Stay safe. And remember, if you see Spark again, come to me first," Lena said. She pulled away, putting the arm aside and started clearing up the cluttered lab equipment.