When Ky Danvers regained consciousness, she instantly wished she hadn't. Literally everything hurt – from her toes to her ears. Plus, the beeping off to her right was already digging into her brain, making the headache worse.
She lifted herself onto an elbow, blinking at the new surroundings. It was a hospital room? Maybe? But her memory of Earth hospitals was much lower tech then this place… and much more depressing.
This place still had that new shine, the walls gleaming, the machinery advanced. Even the bed she was laying on was better than the one she'd been subjected to when she was registered.
When she tried to move beyond her elbows, a groan escaped. Fuck she was so dead.
"Whoa, okay, hey," so fucking dead. Because, apparently, Maggie fucking Sawyer had been keeping guard. Only now did the Detective turn to face the bed, hands raised but hesitating to actually physically restrain her from sitting up. "How 'bout you stay down, huh?"
Ignoring that, because she really had to get out of here, she pushed herself up until she was resting on her hands. "Where am I?"
That seemed to stump the women for a moment, her mouth opening and closing. "Ah, a government facility."
"What!?" she swung her legs off the bed. If she got caught up by social services-
"No, no! We're not gonna keep you or anything, you're okay," Maggie interrupted that thought, hands finally dropping to her sides. "You were hurt, so my people decided it was safer to bring you back here, rather than take you to a hospital."
Suddenly it occurred to her - "This is the DEO."
"You know about the DEO?"
Giving her a skeptical look, Ky inched off the bed, keeping her hands braced as her legs protested. "Hey! Would you stay in bed for a minute? You literally stopped a missile with your body, kid."
Ky shrugged, slowly lifting her hands and testing her balance. Not too bad – she'd dealt with worse. "See? I'm fine. Now I have to go."
Maggie stepped in time with her, not letting her inch towards the door.
"Can't let you do that."
The girl looked the Detective up and down, smirking. "You planning on stopping me?"
That brought her up short. "Ah…"
"She won't, but I might," and there was Supergirl. Fuck me.
"Truth, Justice and the Detainment of Minors?" Ky shot back, forcing a faux casual tone. "Guess that is the America way."
The caped hero's eyes went so wide, Ky had to suppress a snort. "It's not detainment! You almost died!"
"No," she looked around for her shoes, finding them just to the right. It was only now that she realized she was in dry, foreign DEO issue clothes. "You almost died. I made a calculated decision."
"To stop a missile with your body?"
"It worked didn't it?"
That stumped them again, giving her time to jam on the untied boots. They were still sopping wet, but that was fine. She needed to get out of here. She ducked past the human, managing to get out to the balcony overlooking the main operation.
"Wow," the girl breathed, eyes soaking in the awesomeness that was this place. "This is the DEO?"
"What did you expect?" Maggie, again, now at her side, eyes waiting for any stumble.
"I don't know – more cloak and dagger, less advanced military operation."
"Ha! You should meet our Directors."
"Can I?" Damnit – that was definitely the wrong thing to ask. Because now the superhero was nodding eagerly and leading them down the stairs. Towards Lucy Lane or J'onn J'onzz. Ky just couldn't help it – it was like meeting your actual childhood hero's, the people her mother told bedtime stories about. She was so completely dead.
They were at the bottom of the stairs, Maggie still inching behind her cautiously, when she saw her. Kara did this very endearing hand sweep, ignoring the dubious look that Lucy gave her. "Meet Co-Director Lane!"
"Great, awesome secret-government-facility keeping," Lucy almost hissed back, walking over to meet them. But she still fixed worried eyes on Ky. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she responded, suddenly aware that the Martian could be anywhere, psychic powers and all. "If you could just show me to an exit, I'll be on my way."
Lucy glanced uncertainly at her escorts. "What's your name, kid?"
"What, so you can look me up on the registry?" Ky genuinely did not mean that to come back so argumentative. Her mother's arched eyebrow and warning look flashed behind her eyes.
"Do you have something against the registry?" Kara asked. And suddenly, she remembered her mom explaining that it was intended as a good thing – gave aliens basic rights and freedoms. Make life safer. It was just that her personal experience was far worse than average, even for an Exodus crewmember.
"Are you registered?" The Crinkle™ formed. "Didn't think so. Again, an exit?"
But before anyone could do something deeply annoying like worry about her, there was a flash. Just in the corner of her eye, but enough to make her turn. For fucks sake.
Standing just to her right was Ve, staring right at her in all her translucent, astral projection glory.
Lucy and Maggie both went for their side arms.
"Found her," Ve said, speaking to people in another room on the other side of the city. She looked behind herself, at nothing anyone at the DEO could see. "She's fine Drew, stop worrying." Looking back, she squinted directly at Ky, "we'll be there in a second." And then she vanished.
"What the-"
Ky spin back, stepping up to Lucy. "If your people are particularly trigger happy, you might want to tell them to stand down, like, right now!"
Her eyes flicked back to Ky, eyebrows dropped. "What are you talking about?"
"You're about to get a bunch of unwanted visitors, and I highly recommend not shooting them."
"Shooting-" Too late.
A jumping portal opened up just up the stairs by the balcony, behind their little group. All four of them spun around, as did every agent in the room. Everyone but Ky and Kara drew their weapons – eyes trained on the unfolding madness.
Ella and Drew jumped through. Drew landed hard on one knee, while El skidded to a stop, just before the first step.
"Stand down!" A new voice shouted, coming down from the opposite side Ky had been treated. Director J'onzz."Hold your fire!"
The order was followed, but no one dropped their weapons, even the small group surrounding Ky. Drew stood, motionless, eyes fixed on the various guns. Conversely, El was unconcerned, running a finger along the railing as she descended the stairs.
"Shinny place you got here!" she called, grinning widely at Lucy as she approached, gun still leveled at her.
"Guys, you did not have to come here," she hissed back, taking note of how stiff Drew looked.
"You know these guys?" Maggie asked, gun lowering just a notch.
"Ah… yeah, their kind of my guardians?" Not entirely inaccurate?
"Just while her mom is off-world!" El answered, entirely too honestly. Jesus. But the answer made Maggie lower her gun completely, a few nearby agent's half following her example.
Now that the immediate danger had decreased, Drew finally made their way down to the lower level, marching right over to Ky. El occupied herself by poking at a computer nearby, making the IT guy there jump to his feet with a yelp.
"Is she free to go?" Drew's raspy voice came out very demanding, but the fury in their red eyes spoke to how much they were restraining themselves at the moment. So dead.
Maggie and Kara both glanced over at her, seeming to be waiting for an indication that all was well. When she forced a half smile back, Lucy was who responded, finally holstering her weapon. "Of course – we aren't in the business of holding minors against their will."
"Excellent!" El clapped, and the IT guy literally inched away, clutching his tablet to his chest.
Ky stepped away from her entourage, towards Drew, whose eyes softened just a little at her obvious hesitation. Reaching out and grabbing her by her shoulders, they moved to check her over. Eyes flickering up and down her body, looking for any sign of injury.
"You're okay?"
"I'm fine."
"She got hit with a missile," Maggie countered.
Drew's eyes widened, and Ky winced. Awesome. They hadn't known that. But eventually, her mom's Second sighed, giving her a gentle shake. "Given your family, I know there's practically no hope of you not putting on a stupid outfit and saving the day – but could you at least wait until you aren't my charge anymore?"
"I'm sorry I worried you," which was genuinely true. She had zero intention of doing anything when she went down to the waterfront. She'd even brought Lincoln and Freyer! It was just too tempting, knowing her aunt might be just a few blocks away. All she wanted was a glimpse.
Sighing, they released her, scuffing up her hair before wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"Don't worry KD!" El called, already walking back towards them from her adventure in terrifying the techy. "We won't punish ya!" She twirled around just as she passed Lucy, making the other women's eyebrows shoot up at the antics. Walking backwards, still facing the superfriends, she called "your mom will take care of that for us!"
Groaning, but accepting her fate, she let Drew start to lead her up the stairs, towards the still hovering portal. Okay, so things would be bad in a couple days, but nothing really bad happened here. It could have been so much wors-
"Wait," fuck. "I'm sorry," J'onn wasn't exactly blocking their exit, but he was half standing in the way. Deep eyes were fixed on Ky, even though she avoided contact completely. "Have we met before?"
Even Drew's arm stiffened. They must have finally put two and two together.
"Nope," she popped the 'p', hoping nonchalance was effective. She couldn't even make eye contact to sell the half-lie, so she had little hope.
The Director seemed to hesitate for a moment – caught between his gut (something in his mind twinging) and this girl's obvious anxiety around him. Eventually he acquiesced, stepping completely out of the way with a nod. But the entire way through the portal, every single eye was fixed directly on Ky.