A/N: First off, happy 2020 everyone! Wow, this one was a lot more challenging than I thought. I have a lot of plans for this story, I just had to get through this one section. I'm not sure I'm 100% pleased with it overall, but I hope you enjoy! Feedback is encouraged and appreciated, don't hesitate to let me know how you feel about the direction I'm taking the story!
The soft whir of a ship engine sounded over the quiet afternoon air, vibrating out from the landing pod. Kara closed her eyes, focusing intently on listening as she stood on the bottom of the pad, magnetic boots holding her in position. "Ship is in position," she whispered into her comm, before returning to her focus.
She heard the ship open, and three sets of footsteps step off the ship. Patience, she mentally told herself, just a few more minutes.
Finally, the signal she needed. Another set of footsteps sounded on the metal runway.
"It's time," she then ran forward, disconnecting her magboots and leaping forward. Next, the jets on her boots activated and she spun midair, darting towards the ship at intense speed. Thank you, Winn, for the multipurpose boots.
Her fists made contact with one of the three guard substitutes, knocking him out instantly. She spun, lifting her leg up and slamming it into the other's face in a brutal spinning kick. She ducked under a punch from the one remaining guard, grabbing her by the collar and elbowing her twice in the face to knock her out.
It was then that J'onn, Alex, and Mon-El landed. "Took ya long enough," she quipped, dragging one of the unconscious bodies onto the ship.
"Good work, Kar," Mon commented, looking at her with admiration. She smiled back, shyly, before getting back to work. Mon-El and Alex both grabbed an unconscious body and dragged it on board and they stepped onto the ship.
"Winn was right, the ship's totally automated," Alex spoke up as she finally had the guard's uniform on. All three of the field agents were dressed and ready.
"Remember the plan," J'onn spoke with authority, a deep sound that made everyone stop whatever they were doing and listen. "You get in, you draw no attention to yourself, you find the prisoner, and get the hell back here. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" they all said in unison, before sitting down and preparing to enter the station.
Hold on, Oliver Queen, help is on the way.
Oliver's throat burned, dry and inflamed from the lack of anything more than the bare minimum of sustenance to keep him alive. He had long since lost feeling in his shoulders from the strain of being chained up. He wanted nothing more than for it to be over, for him to just close his eyes and for the pain to be over.
They wouldn't even let him die. Every time he drifted towards the other side they injected a stimulant into him to keep him on this side of death's door. It was agony.
But he gave them nothing. His dad made him promise to finish his mission, and he wasn't going to let his father down this time. God knows he'd done that enough for one life time.
The doors to his cell opened once again, and so he prepared for another round of torture. He wasn't sure how much longer he could take this, but one thing was for sure: they weren't getting a damn thing from him.
"Alright, nearing the landing zone," J'onn spoke up from his spot monitoring the cockpit. "Get ready team. Be fast."
They all nodded, and got ready. The station was massive, seven giant metal branches all coming off of the center station. The center tower was a massive cylinder of steel. Overall it gave off a regal and dark vibe, one that sparked awe and terror in equal measure.
Game face, Kara. There's a part to play, and she had to play it to the best of her ability. Which meant she couldn't be visibly afraid.
Their transport touched down into the ship, flying through the blue force field and landing in one of the massive hangar bays of the station. Multiple different ships lined the spaces of the station, massive machines of gray and a regal and avian design.
Kara, Alex, and Mon-El stepped off the ship the second the exit ramp lowered, and were met by two guards and a man in an officer's uniform.
"Ah, new recruits. Welcome to Kairos Station. Typically, we give new guards a few moments rest before sending them to work, but unfortunately we are in an atypical situation."
"Does this have anything to do with the prisoner?" Alex questioned, wearing her mission mask.
"That it does, guard," the officer nodded with a smirk, beckoning them to follow him. They did so as he continued talking. The walls themselves ran so gray they were almost black, with attached pipes colored a deep blood red.
Even the ship itself screamed bad guy. As far as interior decorating goes, it was effective in its purpose: fear. It made her skin crawl even being inside it.
"As you know, we captured a high-profile prisoner. He has information vital to our success against this insurgency. The prisoner is being…uncooperative, and we need you to get him…talking. Inquisitor Non is in charge of the interrogation, but has requested that upon your arrival you three take over while he reports to the Emperor."
Kara could feel her heart in her throat. Uncle Non was here? He was a monster, even before the war began, and Kara had always been uncomfortable around him. She never understood what her Aunt Astra saw in him, or why she chose him and Zod over her family…
Focus, Kara, she reminded herself. She couldn't afford to get distracted when a mission was this dangerous.
"So, we're immediately interrogating the prisoner?" Mon-El spoke next, attempting to deepen his voice to make himself sound more intimidating. It completely failed, and she had to fight to keep a smile off her face.
The officer gave him a look all parts judgmental and confused, before shaking his head. "No, guardsmen, you are simply watching over the prisoner while Inquisitor Non reports to our Emperor. No interrogation, just eyes on."
Silence rang over the group as they traversed the corridors of the station. After a few more minutes of walking they reached the central point of the station, a massive chamber where all of the many arms converged to one place. This chamber was a giant cylinder, only really consisting of rows of circular walkways leading to each of the many wings and cell blocks of the station.
It seemed that the three rebels all had the same thought at once: how the hell were they gonna get out of here?
John Diggle stepped out of his vehicle, staring up at the massive house in front of him. Queen Mansion. It was impressive, he had to admit. For a family full of platinum spoons and privilege he could only dream of, he had to admit they had a beautiful place.
He wasn't sure exactly what he was doing here, why his agency was even bothering to send him on this case. He wasn't one for the typical rich family drama of exposing cheating husbands or finding out who embezzled money from who's company. It wasn't the type of case he tackled.
Since leaving the Alliance of Earth's Nations military, Diggle was stuck in a crossroads in his life. He had been floundering, stuck between jobs and unsure what his purpose was when he wasn't in the line of fire. He was a soldier without a war, and so after security didn't work out he found himself working for the best private investigation organization in the US.
With a sigh, he knocked on the door. From investigating international espionage to solving rich people problems, how the mighty have fallen indeed.
After a few minutes the door opens and Diggle was face to face with a woman with golden blonde hair. He immediately caught on to the energy she radiated, grace and regality with traces of strength. She was older, but she clearly took good care of herself to the point that guessing an actual age would be quite difficult.
"Oh, welcome! Are you Mr. Diggle?" the woman questioned, entering a mode of charming warmth and kindness. Anyone else would have believed it to be entirely genuine, but Diggle made a living by reading people. She was hiding emotions beneath the surface, and was putting on a polite front. He had grown used to this in the presence of the elite, but something about this felt…different.
He shook her hand, smiling back. "Yes, ma'am." It was a part of being soldier he never quite turned off, that formality and respect.
"Thank you for coming," She opened the door wider, beckoning him inside. "Please, make yourself comfortable."
If the outside was beautiful, the interior was an absolute work of art. Everything was kept meticulously clean and exactly in its place, pictures lined the walls and tables. The deep brown wood was absolutely beautiful, and it was tough for Diggle not to appreciate it.
"Your home is lovely, Mrs. Queen," Diggle spoke out loud, looking at the Queen matriarch.
"Thank you, Mr. Diggle," she smiled as they entered a living room area in the mansion. They sat down, Diggle on the couch with Mrs. Queen on one of the chairs. "Now, Mr. Diggle, before we start I must have your assurance you can keep everything said in this room…just between us?"
"Of course, Ma'am, we have a strict policy when it comes to privacy. The only people on this planet who will hear about whatever it is you want me looking into will be myself, my boss, and potentially a partner if they decide I need one."
"Good. Well, on to business then. My husband, Robert Queen, left on a trip to Krypton exactly one week and three days ago. Krypton is a week away from Earth at lightspeed travel, yet my husband hasn't reported in or answered any of our calls. We figured he got busy, but my family has a way of tracking the ship. Or, I guess had is a more apt term, because the tracker cannot find the ship. It's like it disappeared. I want you to find out what happened."
Diggle was surprised, to put it mildly. Ever since the governments of the Earth united to form the Alliance of Earth's Nations, forming all the different nations of Earth into a loose confederacy, humans have been able to travel through space. A lot of this came from the Kryptonians and their willingness to assist humanity in its ascension to the stars.
Diggle personally had never left Earth, so this assignment was going to take him into some incredibly unfamiliar territory.
"I understand that I am asking a lot of your agency. But my husband and my son were on that ship, and I need to know what happened. I compiled a list of every detail I could find, a list of passengers, all the data the tracker had before it disappeared, everything."
Diggle took the drive she was offering, staring at it as his brain raced to process everything. If he took this job, which was a pretty big if, he would have to travel halfway across the galaxy to a planet who all reports indicate isn't exactly super friendly to find what seemed to be a needle in a haystack.
But, people's lives were counting on it. The people on that ship deserved to have their fates out there, whether it was because Mr. Queen just ran off and ditched the ship or if something happened to it. And the Queen's deserved to know what happened to their family members.
"I have to take this to my boss, company policy. Anything offworld is handled case by case. It'll take us a few days to look over everything and figure out where to start, but we'll find out what happened to them, Mrs. Queen. You have my word."
Her walls broke at that, and she gave him a genuine smile although tears had formed in her eyes. "Thank you, Mr. Diggle."
Diggle stood up, nodding his head. Don't thank me yet, he thought to himself. We still have to find them.
The different wings of the station all housed cell blocks, which consisted of several stories of long corridors. Each cell block contained three of these corridors on each story, but none of them were more than just a straight line of cells. It made navigating to the cell they needed surprisingly easy, especially due to their luck in the fact that the prisoner they needed happened to be on the same floor that they needed to be on to get back to the hangar bay.
Kara, Alex, and Mon-El stood outside of a cell, watching as the officer worked on opening the door.
The door slid open after a few more seconds, and the four descended the steps. Her eyes went to the occupant of the cell, and it took all of her willpower not to throw up. Oliver Queen had been…brutalized. Several wounds littered his body, having just began the process of scarring. He was bloody all over, and had several burns on his torso and arms. He looked like he had one foot in the grave already, defeated eyes drooping and hair matted to his face with sweat.
"As you can see, we have already—" the officer began speaking, but was silenced quickly when Kara's fist crashed into his skull, knocking him unconscious. Oliver seemed to wake up at that, looking at her with shocked eyes.
"What the hell…? Who are you people? Why…did you do that?"
"My name is Kara Zor-El, and we're here to rescue you," Kara smiled at him before shooting the shackles, letting his arms fall free. "Do you have the data your dad wanted to give us?"
Oliver looked at her, and was visibly torn. "Jor-El…" he muttered, and she could tell that he was losing it fast, fading out of consciousness quickly.
Oliver collapsed to his knees, arms falling limp at his sides. He looked completely out of it, so she rushed over and helped him up.
"Can you walk?" She asked, and he nodded shallowly. She wrapped his arm over her shoulder, and helped him out of the cell, Mon-El in front of them and Alex behind.
"We have to move, fast," Alex commented, readying her weapon. One of the guards in the cell block tried to stop them, but Alex was ready and shot first. It took another minute for the alarm to go off, but it did just as they reached the connection point between the central hub and their cell block. A swarm of guards raced to that entryway, and the four escapees found themselves trapped in this entranceway, taking fire from all sides.
"Okay, this is really not good," Mon-EL complained, peaking his head out to fire off a shot a guard. "Anyone got any brilliant ideas on how we get out of this mess?!"
"I'm thinking," Alex shot back, shooting from the other side. Kara leaned Oliver against the wall, looking through the many pouches on her belt for some of their medical stims. Finally, she found the one she was looking for and pulled the bright blue syringe from her pack.
"Oliver, this is a medical stimulant designed to speed up the healing process and stabilize your vitals, at least until we get you to a regular doctor. It may sting a bit."
"Can't be worse than it already is," he rasped dryly, a faint smirk appearing for a second on his lips. She jabbed the needle into his chest, pushing down to administer the liquid into his bloodstream, and that phantom grin faded and he winced in pain.
"Alright, I got a plan. It's a longshot. We use up all of our grenades to distract them and poke a hole in one of their lines, we use these shields Winn whipped up to phalanx up and we storm through."
"Are you insane? Your plan is to just run right through them?! You're gonna get us all killed!
"If you have got a better plan, feel free to share with the class! If not then shut up and prepare your grenades, we go with the group on the right. Ready?"
It took a few seconds, but eventually Mon-El was ready to enact Alex's suicidal plan. "J'onn, have the ship ready ASAP!" Kara called into the comms as they stood crouched behind the wall. Mon-El and Alex leaned over, each tossing four grenades. The metal spheres soared through the air, and both the throwers activated their shields and surrounded Kara and Oliver as they fled from their cover in time with the explosions ripping through the air. It was massive, those grenades were heavy duty, and gave them the perfect gap to escape.
Kara ran as fast as she could while carrying a barely conscious and extremely heavy shirtless guy next to her. She refused to acknowledge just how hard and strong his very muscular body felt against her side, (where the hell did THAT thought come from?) as she ran, firing off a few shots from her sidearm at stragglers who the massive explosion hadn't cleared out.
Most of the guards' shots either missed or dissipated against the bright blue shields that Mon and Alex now held, protecting them as they charged through the base towards the hangar bay. They ran through the corridor, and finally went through the door to the hangar. Kara slipped a small sticky grenade onto the door as they shut it behind them, buying themselves another minute.
J'onn stood at the ramp to the ship, beckoning them on. Mon-El went on first, Alex following. Kara stopped, turning around to see if anyone got the door open. When she saw it begin to open she activated the bomb, blowing up the doorway and providing them more cover.
Kara brought Oliver onto the ship, laying him down. J'onn rushed to the controls with Alex, while Mon-El stood at Kara's side.
"Activating Winn's signal scrambler…now," Alex said as she plugged a drive into the ship's main computer. Their shuttle immediately rose off the hangar floor, darting quickly back into space and out of that station. "And…it seems to be working. They're mobilizing fighters, but none of them can find us on any of their radar. I think we just broke onto Kairos Station and got away with it!"
They all cheered, before immediately turning to Oliver, their new charge. He survived, barely, now time to get that data to Jor-El.
Score one for the good guys, Kara thought with a grin.