Chapter 9

PALMER TECH

2:31 AM

"You're sure about doing this without Scully's supervision?" Curtis asked Felicity.

"The woman's a hero, but she's only human," Felicity reminded him. "She's been up for nearly three straight days. If she doesn't get a few hours sleep, she's not going to be any help to us, and she knows it."

"And the fact that she knows more about magnetite than we do?" Rene asked.

"That actually isn't that much," Curtis said thoughtfully. "According to the files, she only heard about her last year at the Bureau, and she never saw it used more than once."

"Besides, Winn figured out how to utilize effectively in less than an hour," Felicity reminded them. "I've got my title to defend as brains behind the costume right now."

Given the nature of how they fought their battles, Felicity had figured the best way to utilize the magnetite was to melt it down into bullets for Spartan and Mad Dog and the tips of arrows for Oliver. Granted Church was not a full-fledged supersoldier in the same way that the ones Mulder and Scully had fought were, but the same principles would probably apply.

And considering that the labs they were in had helped build the suit that had turned Ray Palmer into The Atom, they figured this would probably be the quickest distance between two points.

"What about the rest of it?" Curtis asked gently as they entered the lab.

"I honestly don't know what to think," Felicity admitted. "I mean, I'm a very lapsed Jew bordering on an agnostic, but hell, if that relic is accurate, it's a deadlier weapon that whatever Church is right now."

"The religious stuff is way above my paygrade. Maybe even Oliver's." Rene hesitated. "But I actually read some of the files around it, and that might be another problem"

"You read the rest of the files?" Felicity asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Some of it had to do with the supersoldiers. Thought it might help us. But I get why Scully and Mulder were reluctant to hand it over."

"You think this has to do with those UFOs they found?" Curtis asked.

"Scully reported that the one she found in Africa started acting out three or four of the plagues from Exodus before she left," Rene told them. "And the other one – the one in North Dakota – there was a whole cult devoted to try and make sense of it. The ship did a whole Ark of the Covenant thing on them before it shot up into space. "

Felicity had actually talked to Scully about those files, and knew what none of them were mentioning – that somehow, some part of her and Mulder's infant son had been able to somehow activate that ship. She also knew that after a man had injected William with magnetite, his powers had been neutralized. Though how Scully could be so sure of that, considering she'd given him up for adoption within days of that event, was something that none of them had wanted to press.

"We have to concentrate on what's in front of us," she said reluctantly. "Our priority has to be to stop Church and shut the Syndicate's play. The rest of it, we'll worry about that down the road."

"Granted I'm the newest member of this team, but how long after you kick something down the road does it come back to bite you in the ass?" Rene asked.

"Given everything that I've seen so far, about a week," Curtis said gently.

To be honest, Felicity seriously doubted they would even get that much time.

DEO HEADQUARTERS

"So after nearly fourteen years of the supersoldiers being completely off the map, they now seem to be everywhere," Kara told them.

"Doggett's reports said they couldn't die, remember?" Winn reminded them. "The fact that he saw McMahon get a hole in her chest and her head knocked off didn't exactly seem to preclude that."

"And according to some of the reports, there were a crowd of them who witnesses Scully give birth that were never accounted for again," Alex tried to stand up again.

"One of them practically crushed your windpipe," Kara told her sister "You're not the Danvers sister who heals quickly, so for both our sakes will you please take it easy?"

Alex looked like she was about to argue, then clearly thought the better of it. "What about the inspectors who came in with her?" she asked Hank.

"None of them have said a word since I blew up their Ultimate Warrior," Win said proudly. "We're running DNA and bioscans on all of them, seeing if we can get names and IDs on them."

"Not that it matters," Jonn told them. "They're clearly working for the Syndicate and they had one priority – get Church."

And at that very moment, a pounding so loud it could be heard throughout the DEO began.

"Why do I have the feeling that part of their job is going to be made easier?" Alex said.

Supergirl flew to the room where Church was being held prisoner. What she saw was enough to unnerve her. The walls of Church's cell – made of material that could hold her – were beginning to crack.

"Open the doors," she ordered Winn.

"Need I remind you that thing nearly took you down less than twenty-four hours ago?" Jonn said slowly.

"Those aren't the only doors you're going to open."

Five seconds later the doors were open. Three seconds after that, there was a sonic boom, and both Church and Supergirl were no longer in the DEO.

"Why does my sister always have to be so noble?" Alex asked rhetorically.

Winn had opened the doors to the sky pad as well. Within a minute, they were on an empty airstrip outside National City.

"We've already played this game sister," Church seemed not just to have been rebuilt physically, but his attitude had also returned to normal. "Didn't work out so good for you last time."

"Didn't exactly work well for you either." Supergirl argued.

"You know damn well you can't beat me," Church said in that cocky tone that had struck fear into the hearts of criminals and cops alike in Star City just a few weeks earlier.

"And you can't beat me either," she countered. "If I were in your metal shoes, I'd seriously consider a tactical retreat."

"We both know that's not gonna happen," he pointed out. "Same as I know the only reason you flew me out to the middle of nowhere was so that no 'innocent people' would get hurt." He walked around. "You hero types are so noble. Also means no one's going to help you when things go rotten."

"I could tear you apart right now, and no one would notice. Or care."

Church gave another one of his laughs. "You know, Star City wasn't my first choice when I came to take things over. I seriously considered coming to your town."

"You really do have a death wish," Supergirl said, shaking your head.

"See, that's where you're wrong. I had two reasons. First, I figured you were so busy dealing with aliens and metahumans; you wouldn't get your hands dirty with a lowly drug dealer. Not enough profile. But the other reason is, unlike Queen, you got a code." Church reminded her. "Much as it might be to your disadvantage, you wouldn't dare hurt another human. You'd follow the truth and justice ideals that your cousin believes in, but the American way would let me go, and in a few weeks, we'd start dancing all over again." He gave a smile. "Oh, the fun I could have had with you."

"Well, you're not exactly human any more."

"Oh well." Church heaved a mock sigh. "Plan B. Let's just kill each other."

He readied himself to charge. Supergirl did the same

Almost on impulse, they started charging at each other at the exact same time. She figured she'd hit him in exactly three seconds.

Which was why she was shocked when she hit nothing.

"Made you look."

Church was on the other side of her, about ten feet to her left.

"I've learned from my mistakes," he told her. "Which is no bad guy ever goes one on one with Supergirl and lives to tell the tale."

"You really think you can just run away from me?" Supergirl said. "You don't even know where you are!"

"Maybe. But I've gonna have one thing you don't."

And then, she started to feel it. He hadn't run away. He'd left a mark.

"I didn't hit you with enough to kill you. Just give you a splitting headache for about three minutes." Church said. "I've got other things to handle. Till then, to quote that great philosopher, beep beep.""

And like that, Church made tracks. Supergirl fell back.

"Supergirl, you there?" Jonn was shouting into her earpiece.

"Get a fix on my coordinates and tell Alex, I'll be taking the bed next to hers for awhile," she said, before falling to her knees

STAR CITY

7:34 AM

"I guess a lot has been going on while I was in New Mexico," Mulder said to Maggie. "But the most important question is, how pissed is Scully I ditched her?"

"Considering everything that happened, you may have actually been safer than all of us," Maggie told him. "From what I understand, it's the first time you've run out of the mouth of danger. "

"I am a bit rusty," Mulder admitted.

"Was that why you took Supergirl with you?" Maggie asked.

"I'm not sure what I was expecting to find there. Usually, I handle the daring do kind of stuff, and Scully handles the mental part." Mulder pointed out. "So, in that sense, I think we went with the right people."

"What's my job going to be?" Maggie asked, only part in jest.

"Filling out all the paperwork." Her dismay must've been obvious. "You do want a career in the Bureau when all this is over, right?" he said, only half in jest himself.

Maggie was inclined to think that, even after everything that had happened; Mulder still believed the Bureau would be happier if he and Scully had never resurfaced. And the truth was, while the rank and file was glad for the truth coming to life, the further you got away from field agent, the more people there were who were embarrassed by everything that had come up. Maggie had spent much of her first couple of weeks at the Bureau trying to dodge the attention of a senior Deputy Director named Kersh who had fired Mulder and Scully in the first place and was more inclined to think that what they were doing was an embarrassment to the Bureau. She could've argued that it was just as embarrassing for the FBI to have known about something this horrendous and sat on it for at least twenty years. But Mulder had told her very gently that they needed to be careful not to step on any toes.

And if Congress' planned interrogation of Lyla Michaels was any indication, they might need to keep their head down for awhile. Of course, Mulder had never believed in keeping his head down, which is why they kept trying to cut it off.

"So what is the master plan?" Maggie asked. "Or do you intend to fly by the seat of your pants again?"

"Well, that got through my first ten years at the Bureau," Mulder reminded her. "Of course, it also got me kicked out. But I still believed in one thing. The public's right to know. Congress wants to make a scapegoat of ARGUS. But why should we stop there?"

Maggie wasn't sure whether to be thrilled or panicked by what Mulder was implying. "You called in a favor with her just a couple of days ago," she reminded him.

"Cat Grant said she was on our side," Mulder had that look in his eye again. "Besides, given the nature of this hearing, my guess is she'd want a foot in the door regardless. I'm giving her cover as much as she's giving it to me."

"You sure about that, Mulder?"

Mulder had arrived from New Mexico about an hour earlier. He'd been reluctant to disturb Scully because he figured she needed sleep more than he did. He'd forgotten that his better half had spent the last decade working shifts at a hospital, where going on short rest was an even bigger part of life than it had been at the Bureau. She'd gotten four hours sleep and said she would meet them in the lobby in fifteen minutes. It had actually been less than ten.

"Cat Grant is as invested in this fight as we are," Mulder told Scully in lieu of a hello.

"The problem is, this isn't just our fight anymore," Scully reminded her. "If Lyla Michaels get torn a new one by Congress, that's one thing. If it happens and the media is there, it could cost her career and we could lose a vital ally in this war."

Mulder considered this. "We do this and she doesn't have cover, we could lose her as an ally anyway."

"You're both looking at this wrong way." Maggie pointed out. "From what little I know about the people at Team Arrow, they seem to have built their careers on being outsiders. Having someone on the inside is helpful, but they have ways of working around it. Throw in how Lyla got this job in the first place, and she might not necessarily object to losing it if she went out on the right side."

Mulder considered this. "Scully, have either you or Maggie gotten a chance to actually speak with Lyla Michaels directly?"

"We've been dealing with a lot of shit in the last few hours," Scully pointed out.

"Then maybe it's time to do something we spent our entire careers avoiding before this," Mulder said. "Actually have a conversation with someone in authority."

Maggie's eyebrow must've gone all the way into her hairline. "I knew the two of you were iconoclasts, but never?"

"It went against everything Mulder stood for," Scully said. "And after awhile, I learned that most of them couldn't be trusted."

Now Maggie was even more stunned. "You actually trusted people in authority?"

"What can I say?" Scully shrugged. "It was the nineties."

ARROW HEADQUARTERS

11:03 AM

Oliver looked at his new toy. "So the tips are actually magnetite?"

"Took us awhile to find the right melting point. Otherwise, we'd have had them two hours ago." Felicity said.

"And more of them. I only see five here." Diggle pointed them.

"There's only one Church, remember?" Rene reminded him calmly.

"You hit him dead center, one will be all you need." Felicity paused. "Assuming Church actually is a supersoldier."

"All that time under observation, the DEO still doesn't know if that's what Church is?" Oliver demanded.

"To be fair, until he showed up, they had no idea what a supersoldier looked like," Curtis said. "Until your encounter, it's not like there were a whole lot of survivor's accounts."

It was a valid point. One that Oliver Queen was never much for acknowledging if he wasn't the one who made it. "I shoot Church dead center, and this doesn't do what you say it will, there won't be another one," he argued.

"We're well aware of that, but thanks for reminding us," Felicity actually sounded a little huffy this time. Then again, she had gotten a lot less sleep than even Mulder and Scully by this point.

"I'm sorry." There was a long pause.

"Oliver Queen apologizes? I didn't see anything about hell freezing over." Rene said, deadpan.

"I can check online."

"This is new territory, even from the guy who dragged you into it," Oliver said quietly. "I knew, given the nature of our lives, that we'd probably be dragged into this alien quagmire; I just thought it would be at least a matter of weeks, rather than days."

"I'm now going to say something which may not make you happy," Felicity told him. "If I'd known when I was in my formative years that there was an agency made up of actual People in Black, I would've headed there instead of Star City. "

Diggle actually looked a little surprised at this. "Doesn't that go against being a hacktivist?"

"It didn't really stop Mulder and Scully," Felicity reminded them. "And they were closer to the government that we are."

"I'm actually inclined to agree with Felicity on that," Curtis admitted. "I mean, heck, I want to save Star City too, but that's not going to mean much if we can't save the planet first."

"So I guess you're alright with signing on to this task force," Oliver told them.

"Did I mention how thrilled I am to be working with Supergirl?" Felicity said with a genuine smile. "She almost makes me wish I had a costume myself."

Oliver actually gave a small smile of his own. "If there's one thing the last four years have proved, it's that you don't need to wear a costume to be a hero."

"I think the atmosphere is getting a little too sugary," Rene said, mock gagging. "But you got a good point. Besides, I want to get a couple of shots in at whoever put our names on that list."

"You haven't been with us that long, Rene. You might not actually be on it yet." Diggle pointed out. "Of course, if you do this, you definitely will."

Rene actually paused to consider this. "I've been taking my life in my hands ever since I put on that hockey mask. I haven't been doing for my city as much as I've been doing it for my kid. If I don't join up with you, my kid won't have a future. Here or anywhere."

"We've all known we were taking our lives in our hands since Tommy died," Thea said seriously. "It's kind of ironic, actually. You've spent so much time pushing us away, saying it was to keep us safe. Now, if we don't work together, none of us will be safe. Anywhere."

Oliver looked at them. "And if I'm being gut-wrenchingly honest, maybe a lot of it's been about protecting me." He swallowed. "Understatement of the year, I don't get close to people because I don't handle loss well. I never even seemed to take into consideration that you all had some personal stake in this yourselves."

"Hell Oliver, any one of could of told you that, if you'd been willing to actually listen to us," Diggle reminded him.

Oliver opened his mouth, and then closed it. "I'm guessing the excuse about seeing the things I saw over the past five years isn't going to fly any more."

"Maybe it would if you would actually tell us some of those things." Felicity said, with no subtlety at all.

"When I get my memoirs written, you can have the first draft, "Oliver said wryly.

"That would be great, if anyone read anymore," Curtis pointed out.

"You have no idea how many calls from publishers we took just the first month Ollie was back," Thea said. "Then again, we didn't need the money back then."

"The point is, I will tell you what I saw. After we finish this particular mission."

"Can we get that in writing?" Diggle said dryly.

"Hey, we all heard it. He can't deny it anymore." Felicity told them. "And to be clear, this mission means stopping Church, not the whole alien invasion."

Oliver actually smiled at that. "You're going to work extra hard to find Church now, aren't you?"

"He's a dangerous threat to this city," Felicity said. "And we have to stop dangerous threats."

ARGUS HEADQUARTERS

1:21 P.M.

Given everything that was about to fall on her, the last thing the Director of ARGUS needed right now was have a meeting with the two people who, however indirectly, were responsible for the chaos she was dealing with. Then again, maybe that was exactly what she needed. So when her husband had called her an hour ago and told her that Mulder and Scully wanted to set up a meeting before she flew to D.C, she only hesitated a few seconds before agreeing.

"I must say, I'm a little shocked you want to meet me now, just before I'm about to lose my job," she said as they walked into their office.

"I'd tell you about the joys of retirement, but considering that I spent most of mine on the run from them, I'm still not sure what they are," Mulder replied.

"And to be perfectly honest, Director Michaels," Scully said, "as glad as I am to see another woman in power, I think you've found out in the last few months that it's not all its cracked up to be."

"And right now, it looks like the only reason I have it, is so that I would end up holding Amanda Waller's bag," Lyla sighed. "My people verified the authenticity of your footage, by the way."

"I'm still not sure how she could've done it," Diggle told them. "We were in the room when she got shot."

"I can give at least a partial answer to that," Lyla said. "After I saw the footage, I order an exhumation of Waller's body. We took a DNA sample. No match."

"So you're saying she used a double when HIVE had her killed," Diggle said.

"I backtracked her movements the three weeks prior to her killing," Lyla told them. "There's at least one occasion where she was seen in Kabul and Paris within three hours of each other. She'd been using a double for at least that long."

"Setting aside the how she could've done it – which admittedly may be more our territory then yours," Mulder told them, "the bigger question is, where is she now?"

"I've had ARGUS' facial recognition software scanning every camera we have on file. But considering that she was instrumental in setting them up, she knows exactly how to avoid them."

"Have you tried cross referencing them with Luthorcorp locations?" Scully asked.

"Considering the Luthors spent a considerable amount of their fortune resisting the construction of this software, I'm not expecting much luck on that end either."

"I've heard politics made strange bedfellows, but Lillian Luthor and Amanda Waller, that's a pairing even I would never want to see," Mulder replied.

"I inherited your movie collection, Mulder. I really doubt that," Scully said wryly.

They were joking about a pornography collection? Lyla had been with John a long time, and even she didn't think she'd ever be able to reach that level of comfort.

"I've seen some of the technical things our government can do," Mulder said seriously. "Let the record show. When this is all over, I'm going to use a serious amount of whatever influence in making sure that it all gets taken down."

"It may surprise you, Agent Mulder, but I'm actually in agreement with you on that front," Lyla said sincerely. "Waller went to a tremendous level of overreach in the name of national security, and considering what she was actually doing it in the name of, I have no problem if you want to rip every camera down."

"I'm pretty sure I can get half of Oliver's people to help," John seconded.

"You might want to be careful about saying that before you go before Congress," Scully told her. "Which is actually why we're here in the first place."

"I know what happens when the powers that be decide they want to bury you," Mulder reminded her.

"Which is what they want to do. I have no intention of going quietly, but they are going to throw me under the bus. And as much influence as you have, I don't think you have enough."

"You may not. And we may not." Mulder paused. "But the three

of us and Cat Grant, that's whole different story."

Lyla raised an eyebrow. "She'd be willing to back me."

"She has more knowledge of the players in this game than anybody in the media." Scully paused. "And you know how pissed she gets when she thinks a peer is being attacked."

"You don't have to remind me. I still remember her outrage two election cycles ago." Lyla said. "This is a whole different ballgame, though."

""Which is why she wants to play it different." Mulder told them what they had in mind.

"You know, if we'd had people like you on our side from the start, I think a lot more people would prison and a lot fewer of our friends would be dead," Diggle said honestly.

"Well, we weren't exactly a position to help before, but I appreciate the support," Mulder said.

"What Mulder's trying to say without bragging is there are no people like us," Scully said gently.

"Hey, it hasn't worked yet, and we've still got miles to go." He looked at Lyla. "Are you in?"

"What the hell. I got into this job because of Waller's manipulations. Feels only right I return the favor." Lyla offered Mulder her hand. "I'm in."

DEO HEADQUARTERS

"Church must be staying out of sight," Win said resignedly. "Four hours scanning everywhere in a hundred mile radius, and his face hasn't pinged once."

"It what Luthors do best," Alex had recovered a little quicker than her sister, and had spent the last two hours interrogating the 'inspectors'. None of them had said a word. If the body scans hadn't been saying they were human, she would've been sure they were statues. "Adopt, adapt and improve. You get anywhere on that device you found on one of them?"

"Its Luthorcorp technology and it was definitely designed to reactivate Church," Winn told them. "Unfortunately, immediately after I tried to run a more thorough scan, it was rendered completely inoperable. Given how they work, I have no doubt that was by design, too."

"Any progress checking traffic back to Star City?" Jonn asked.

"Nothing in any vehicle going there that even looks like Church might be in it," Winn said. "Guys, maybe this is a stupid question, but is there any chance Lillian Luthor might've pulled Church off the board entirely, at least for now? I mean, his only purpose seemed to be to get rid of Team Arrow, and now that they're alert to everything we're doing, the Syndicate might have figured that Church has failed in his mission and gotten rid of him. Or maybe he knew that both sides might be gunning for him, and he got out while the getting was good."

It was tempting to believe. And hell, given everything that had happened in the last several hours, it was even plausible. The Syndicate under the old leadership seemed to have a Plan A, and after it failed, try Plan A again. In the short time that they'd been dealing with them, it was already very clear that the new leadership was much smarter and subtler in its approach. Church had failed in his mission. Keeping him could hurt them. The women in charge of the Syndicate wouldn't show any hesitation in making sure it didn't blowback on them, even if it had been an asset in the past. Hell, Amanda Waller had once had a whole team programmed to self-destruct if they got too uppity. Lillian Luthor could've just as easily put one of those bombs in Church's head.

Then again, the Syndicate had as much to gain by keeping Church on the board, at least as a distraction. As long as Church was out there, he was keeping the DEO distracted from trying to chase the Syndicate down. While they were capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, they had to prioritize certain threats. A supersoldier on the loose certainly qualified.

"I have a feeling that the Syndicate's going to try to give us the worst of both worlds." Kara was back on her feet too, but she wasn't going to be much good as a fighter for the next few hours. "They'll keep Church off the board until the worst possible time, and then send it at our most valued asset."

"He's already gone after you and Oliver's team," Jonn pointed out. "Who does that leave? It's not like taking out one of us will end everything."

"The conspiracy's always been willing to take out everything that stands against it," Kara reminded them. "Which means whatever they're going to do it's going to be a warning shot. Something to show they can get to any one of us at any time."

"Um, they already tried to go against the strongest of us," Winn argued. "That didn't work."

"So maybe they'll try the opposite." Kara said thoughtfully. "Someone whose death would cause the most emotional damage to us. Someone who doesn't even know about Church and the danger he poses."

"Friends and family," Winn said, thinking.

"Problem is, most of the people we care about already know everything about the conspiracy." Alex reminded them. "They'd see someone like Tobias Church coming a mile away."

"They have more reach than we do," Kara reminded them. "And they do know more angles than we do."

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

3:35 PM

"You do know if we do this, and it doesn't work, we will have unleashed a volcano upon us."

"Now is not the time to show scruples," Amanda Waller said into the phone.

"You know just how pissed Oliver Queen gets when those he loves are in danger. He already wants you dead; he'll put your head on a pike after this."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. "There are other alternatives, Monica, "she said slowly. "We have eyes on the wife of a police lieutenant right now. Say the word, and I can send one of my people to Barbara Doggett."

Monica Reyes closed her eyes.

"There's also this family in Wyoming. Nice couple. They have a child, too. Fourteen years old. Still doesn't know he's adopted."

"You are a bitch."

"That's why you people reached out to me in the first place. I've gone through my probation. Need I remind you you're still under yours? Do your job." Click.

Monica Reyes knew she had to maintain her position within the Syndicate if she was going to have any chance of thwarting their plans. She also knew that after Mulder's escape a month ago, she was dancing on the edge of a pin. She knew that she had compromised her ideals long ago to try and save the planet, and a result people she loved would best see her in a prison. But this – this seemed like a line that she'd never be able to go back from. Was this how all of Mulder's informants had felt once? Is that why they'd come to him? Seeking solace for things like this?

Just then, she heard the school bell ring, and knew that once again she'd run out of time. She had only one choice.

She got out of her car, and walked up to her target – an eleven year old boy. "Excuse me, are you William Clayton?"

The illegitimate child of Oliver Queen looked up. "Who are you?"

She took out the badge she hadn't used in more than a decade. "I'm Monica Reyes. I'm with the FBI. I need you to come with me."

His eyes narrowed. "What's this about?"

"I'm sorry to tell you this, William, but approximately one hour ago, your mother was abducted."