It wasn't easy to circle the island and keep all three of the Samaritans chasing her. Whenever one of them seemed to be slowing down or contemplating turning around, Supergirl spun around and did something to catch their attention. She used Heat vision, strength or super speed, whatever she had to rush in, attack and dash out of range before their friends seized the advantage. They fired back with energy cannons, rail guns or flamethrowers, all of which she avoided easily. None of these mercenaries were proficient in flight so she was able to spin circles around them. But the countermeasures designed to adapt to her powers made it difficult to land a disabling blow, their shields absorbing her hits and repelling the force back in equal measure. So she made her first priority to keep them in the air away from the prison.
"Dreamer, how are you doing back there?" she asked over her earpiece, listening to the distant fight from the DEO base.
"It's tiring" Nia replied between pants. "They're using their electricity snares again and my astral projections aren't working. I thought maybe I could duck into a room and project myself to try and disable them, but they aren't giving us any room to breathe. It's exhausting."
"Just hang in there. I'll come back as soon as I can" she promised, whipping through the sky luring the Samaritan's out over the ocean.
"I'll try" Nia said, stumbling against a wall breathless feeling her legs wobbling. She'd been on the move constantly for over ten minutes now and she didn't have the energy to keep flipping or sprinting beneath their attack anymore. She kept resorting to protecting force fields to deflect blows, each strike knocking another chunk of energy out of her. Her nose was bleeding and she had bruises on her shoulders from where the lucky punches slipped in, their attacks dissolving her projections. She almost got snared twice by the same traps they used before. Fortunately Brainy was quick to disable them before they grabbed her, shooting them out of the air with his pistol while he was coordinating with their agents. Lena hunkered in her lab, an energy weapon in her hands peppering the suits with projectiles. One of them had smashed through the glass into the lab a moment ago so she whipped out the gun and fired upon it, knocking it out onto the balcony where Dreamer whipped a lasso around its boot and yanked it back down to the floor. They couldn't keep this up forever. "what are they after" she thought as she pushed herself forward, wiping her nose and spurring herself back into the fight unwilling to let herself stop. She didn't want to fail again.
Throughout the base more agents were racing to help while others were following lockdown procedures and taking emergency positions. Most had sprinted to the armoury and loaded up their rifles or handguns before following the corridor to the main floor. The medical suite was locked up and the scientists and doctors remained hidden inside with a few guards watching the sealed doors. The rest of the rooms were empty, only the handful of stragglers passing through on their way to either return to their posts or assist their ally's upstairs, locking security doors behind them using their passes strapped to their belts. One of these stragglers paused by the locker room to check for others who might be hiding out instead of running. He stepped inside and scanned the interior loosely, finding only benches and open lockers.
He did not see the figure hidden behind the open door he came through until his gloved hands were over his mouth and throat, an electrical current buzzing through the material into his nervous system making him cry out into the palm as he was dragged back into the corner. His legs kicked out wildly until he fell unconscious and collapsed to the floor. The Reckoning stepped over the stunned operative calmly, reaching down to unhook the security pass from his belt before walking out of the locker room locking the door behind him.
The alarms of the facility flashed overhead as the figure dressed in black and red armour stalked the corridors, their smooth faceplate refracting the reflections over the visor continuing to twist them into a Rorschach Image reminiscent of a skull, the faint glow of his red eyes scanning the empty halls. The trident sat on his back, the shaft folded in to a two foot long cylinder with the metal prongs over his shoulder preventing it from interfering with his stealthy infiltration. Not even his boots made a sound as the soles absorbed the noise, the armour plating sliding effortlessly over the fibre wire fabric and chainmail. He moved like a silent ghost through the base to the first security door, sliding the security pass into the lock to open it. He slipped inside and listened, waiting until he was satisfied his entrance went unnoticed before walking onwards.
They had mapped out as much of the building from public records and hacked government schematics to get the lay of the facility, the last few weeks spent probing the base for structural weaknesses and blank spots in the security. The exploit around the lockdown was stumbled upon almost by accident, and the coincidence of the Militia's intentions provided an opportunity the Reckoning couldn't pass up. Now he was inside he followed the projected path to the server room, amazed at how empty the halls were thanks to the effective distraction. They got so confident they began whistling, the tune coming so casually though it came out distorted through the helmet sounding more like a kazoo.
Along his path he passed the evidence lock-up where the DEO held various alien technology and hardware. The Reckoning was compelled to pause upon glimpsing some of this technology, his whistle cutting off as his eyes were drawn through the gate. He looked at his gauntlet and the timer glowing in LEDs, then looked around the empty corridor again. He had time he decided, using the pass to open the gate and take a look around. He scanned the racks and shelves with his visor, whistling in approval. There were guns, grenades, tools and devices he couldn't identify as he walked the room and scanned them, picking up a handle to get a closer look. He found some of the technology fascinating, especially some of the energy discharge coils. He carefully dismantled a few of the components from some weapons and slipped them into his belt to analyse later, knowing his partner would find them interesting. Before he left he found the sword hanging on the wall, sheathed in a lead scabbard. His head tilted as their visor detected the kryptonite mineral, taking the weapon off the wall to reveal the glowing green blade. The whistle was full of praise, sliding the katana back into its scabbard slinging it over his shoulder to take with him.
They continued their journey to the server room, meeting no obstacles or resistance by the time they slid the security pass into the locking mechanism. The door opened at they were met with the ice cool air conditioned environment and a maze of server towers. The Reckoning weaved through the computers and data stacks towards the centre of the large space where an isolated computer terminal sat awaiting an authorised administrator login. They stepped up to the computer and pulled out a USB dongle from their belt, plugging it into the terminal and bringing up the command prompt. A few key strokes later and the program was bypassing the firewall until the intruder had access to the entire DEO database. After that it was just a matter of seeking the files they were looking for and initiating the download.
Unfortunately Brainiac Five had implemented his own security systems into the database in case the firewall was breached. Which meant the moment the Reckoning got access then a silent alert was sent to his personal PDA which pinged in the middle of the firefight upstairs. He dropped into a crouch behind a desk to quickly review the alert, bringing up the camera feed from the server room where he found the Reckoning stationed. "Sprock!" he muttered in surprise, immediately triggering a failsafe to lock out the terminal. It was met with the same blockade Lena suffered when she tried to hack the Samaritan suits again, the virus rewriting the firewall code to keep them out of the system. "Sprock!" he said again, radioing the director reporting the situation.
Supergirl could tell the mercenaries chasing her were getting tired of this game. Or maybe frustrated would be a better word as they switched their tactics from trying to catch her with their fists or shoot her with cannons to instead target her with their rockets. She twisted into barrel rolls or summersaults to avoid the barrage of missiles detonating around her as she flew along the ocean surface, leading them in a wide circle between Stryker's island and the mainland, weaving between geysers of water and fire. She flipped in the air and flung her arms back to rocket in the opposite direction, catching two of the missiles out of the air as she flew past the three Samaritans disorientating them as they flung their thrusters forward to slow their pursuit. She used the disorientation to throw the missiles back at them, watching them explode against two of the suits and sending them crashing into the third where they all tumbled chaotically into the ocean with a splash. It would've been funny if they hadn't been trying to kill her.
She briefly scanned the water to see if they were drowning. Apart from flailing in an attempt to control their rapid decent and swim, the pressurised suits were undamaged keeping the mercenaries alive and allowing them to breath underwater. She deduced she had enough time to get the prison under control before she needed to come back out here and pull them out. "Okay Alex, I'm on my way back to you" she said over her earpiece, flying back to the island. "The Samaritans are stuck in the ocean for a bit. I'll fish them out once we've…"
"Negative Kara! You need to get back to the DEO!" Alex told her, the sounds of the riots almost drowning her voice out.
Kara arrived above the prison and found her inside the metahumans wing watching the entrance where prisoners were banging on the gate. Jon and Guardian was with her and it seemed Hank's cell was intact. The facility didn't appear to be under control. "What going on?" she asked, directing her attention to the DEO in the distance listening to the ongoing battle while Alex explained "Brainy called. He's there!"
"Who's there?"
"The Reckoning" Brainy interceded, his voice cutting through the radio joining theirs. "He's in the server room accessing the database."
"We've been locked out of the system" Lena explained, telling her how she'd been trying to halt his access once Brainy informed her of the situation. "They're using the same computer virus that's rewritten the Samaritan code. He must've been the one to reprogram them."
"So we were right?" Guardian asked. "This was a distraction."
"Yeah, distracting us from a heist" Kara realised, glancing down at the prison unwilling to leave her sister with such a mess. "I can help wrap up everything here before…"
"No before Kara!" Alex said sternly. "You get to the base and you grab that guy."
"But…"
"No buts" she insisted and Kara felt the reluctance behind that statement. "The Samaritans have trapped Dreamer and Brainy on the main floor. With the lockdown none of them can get to him." she let out a worried sigh explaining "you're the only one who can get in there and stop him."
Kara could hear the fear in her sister's tone. She shared her concern. Whoever this Reckoning was had been able to beat her every time they fought, shut off her abilities and make her vulnerable. Alex didn't want Kara to face him alone, but they didn't have a choice. Whatever he's stealing from the database can't be good and she can't let him get away with it. So Kara didn't defy the order, racing through the air towards the city. "I'm on my way" she told them.
"Swing through my lab when you get here" Lena suggested, firing her energy rifle at the hostiles unleashing her last projectile. She dropped the weapon and ran back into the glass room, stepping over broken glass and equipment to check the device still in its charging port. The readout said SIXTY-THREE PERCENT. It wasn't complete but given all the chaos she was thankful it was still functioning at all. She ran a final diagnostic while the room rattled from the impact of one of the suits falling against a wall downstairs. She looked down through the cracks and saw Dreamer blasting it with her astral energy, the blast rippling across its armour as its shields countered her energy to deflect it. She stumbled on her feet from exhaustion, shaking her head keeping her eyes open and focused. Behind her Brainy covered her back trying to get some agents to flank the suits and intercept the Reckoning. But the exits were blocked by the four mercenaries whose intentions had finally become known. They were here to keep them away from the server room. It all made sense once Lena realised it, her brother's laugh praising the audacity of the plan. It made her wonder if Lex was the man behind that mask. But then she dismissed it. His pride would never let him hide his face.
There was a gust of wind in her hair and she turned around and found Supergirl dashing into the building hurriedly scanning the fall, immediately flying through the Samaritans either knocking them aside or disabling them temporarily. They fell or collapsed to the floor in surprise giving everyone some breathing room. There was even cheers when she landed on the balcony and jogged into Lena's lab. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine" she replied, accepting Kara's hug with relief to see her.
"I tried to remove their power cells, but those shields..." Kara informed her, looking at the Samaritans already recovering. Dreamer summoned a collection of shackles and ropes to bind them, keep them on the ground for a while. "They must've activated the protocol for me before I got here" she guessed.
"Never mind that" Lena said, ripping the device out of its port and bringing it to her. She hooked the triangle shaped device onto Kara's chest, hooking a harness over her shoulders and around her torso and twisting a dial that tightened the straps to her tightly. "Find the Reckoning. Then when you get there, press this against your chest" she ordered, the device covering her family crest. Kara looked at her inquisitively but Lena didn't have time to explain how it works. "Go! Get that bastard!"
With a nod, Kara used her super speed and sprinted through the DEO building, whipping around corners and down the stairs through locked doors like a bulldozer. She hoped they would forgive her for the damage she did as door were ripped from their hinges on her way to the server room. Her eyes scanned the rooms on her way, finding nobody waiting to ambush her. The server room was harder to pierce with her x-ray vision, the walls protected to prevent outside wireless signals, the same materials interfering with her eyesight. She kicked the door opened and entered more cautiously, scanning the maze of data towers as coolant dropped into the room in a dense fog. She looked at the air conditioning, the dials switched to a higher setting than the last time she visited the room. She made a be-line for the computer terminal in the middle, stepping into the open centre only to find it empty.
"Shit" she thought, tapping her earpiece about to report she'd missed him. But then she realised she couldn't hear anything outside this room, outside the hum of the air-con and the fans cooling the servers. She couldn't hear the fight upstairs or any of the voices from her friends. She couldn't hear the traffic outside. She checked her vision, but she only had twenty-twenty. Her powers were gone. "I'm in" she whispered, moving even more cautiously as she slowly peered between the server towers circling the room, stepping through the thick fog of coolant. "I can't see him. But I know he's here."
While she's waiting for her friend to reply she hears something in the room, what she thought was footsteps. She forgot how disorientating not having her enhanced senses to fall back on was for her, forcing her to think like a human. It was frightening. But not as frightening as the feeling of dread she had the longer she waited for something to jump out of the fog to find her. To take her mind of it she checked in with Dreamer. "I'm trying to hold them down, but my projections won't hold" she said, her voice strained from exertion. She noticed on her way through how drained she looked, on the verge of passing out almost.
"I'm sending agents now to help find the intruder" Brainy reported. "They'll be with you as soon as they can" he assured her.
She nodded, creeping to the next row of servers looking between them. She turned around finding nothing, only to be greeted by a powerful kicked to the chest out of the blue. She gasped in shock colliding with the server bank, clutching her gut in discomfort. She forgot how much it hurt without her indestructible skin. She looked up at the fog in front of her, a large shape materialising out of it with a fist swinging towards her. She dodged to the side in the nick of time, the punch hitting the computer crunching the circuits under the impact. She looked up at the faceless helmet of the Reckoning, the figure coming out of the fog to engage the powerless kryptonian.
She ducked under his attack and grappled him, pushing him against the terminal with a grunt. Without her usual strength she was a young woman fighting against a figure twice her size, yet she managed to grab his arms and pin them to his sides. Instinctively she head-butted his helmet, her forehead cracking against the visor. She had a second to feel the throbbing start before he head-butted her back, the blow knocking her on her ass in a daze. She groaned in pain crawling to her feet while the Reckoning circled her growling. "I was hoping it would be you" he said in his distorted voice.
"Yeah, me too" she replied defiantly, rising to her feet clenching her fists. She swung at him, but he caught the wrist and punched her back to her knees. She rolled with the impact and used her feet to trip him up, sending him crashing to the ground. She tried to jump on him but he twisted and kicked her back, flipping onto his feet and following up with an uppercut to her chin.
He had skilled training Kara didn't, his hand-to-hand fighting almost superior. Kara tried to implement the training Alex gave her, but he outmanoeuvred her almost blow for blow. She got a good punch to his skull that cracked his head to the side, but he delivered and even more brutal punch to her stomach before grabbing her cape throwing her into a server bank. "You rely on your powers too much" he observed, noting how she instinctively would turn to her defunct abilities periodically before being reminded they weren't available. He punctuated the point by unhooking the trident from his back, the shaft springing to full length whereupon he swung it in an upwards arc cracking her across the head, the wing lifting her off her feet and across the server room into another server wall where she gasped for breath.
Lena's voice came through her earpiece, having been listening to the fight and trying to call her name. "The chest piece. Pressed the device with your palm" she instructed. Kara pushed herself to her knees and did so, slamming her palm hard against the device. It lit up with a yellow glow as her crest illuminated over it, needles piercing her flesh until she felt a sudden rush of adrenaline. She inhaled sharply feeling warm energy pumped into her, her veins glowing yellow beneath her skin spreading outwards. She closed her eyes and felt the yellow sun energy filling her cells rapidly, her power springing back to life. She rose back to her feet feeling rejuvenated.
The Reckoning advanced on her, the trident twirling comfortably in his hands inside the confined space, taking hold of it with both hands and jabbing it at her with the sharp pointy ends. They were met with unbreakable skin as they bounced off her shoulder as the kryptonian turned around, her eyes glowing hot. She couldn't see his expression but she imagined it was off surprise as she took hold of his weapon and snapped it into pieces before slamming her palm into his chest sending him hurtling across the room. He slammed into the wall with a grunt, stumbling on his feet until she dashed forward, lifted him into the ceiling and dropped him back to the ground hard. She stood over his groaned body a second before yanking him onto his feet and pinning him to the server wall. "It's over" she said confidently with a triumphant smile on her face.
The Reckoning looked at the device on her chest, the portable harness Lena created for her, designed to be charged with yellow sun energy and pumped directly into Kara's cells negated the effects of the red sun field he was generating. "impressive" he said. "Crude, but effective."
"We know about yours" she said looking at his belt and the glowing red buckle.
He looked at it and chuckled. "Then you know it has a second setting" he said, reaching down and twisting the dial around the miniature solar lamp until it changed colour. The red glow in his suit was replaced with green and Kara immediately felt the effects of the Reckoning's kryptonite setting. She tried to fight it but her body instantly weakened from the sickening field loosening her grip. He waited until her skin turned pale and her veins became a sickened hue before ripping her hand off him and hitting her with a jab.
She stumbled back unsteadily, tripping over her feet as the Reckoning stalked after her. She scrambled to her feet firing a beam of heat vision at him, but he sidestepped it and punched her with an upper cut, his gauntlet glowing with kryptonite. He drew the katana from his back, the green blade glowing brighter when he swung it at her head. She ducked into the maze, the blade getting stuck in the data banks. The cramped confines made it impossible for him to use the sword, which gave her an opening to try and attack him. He dropped the katana and instead caught her wrist, slamming her into the server before slamming his other fist into her side, a blade springing from the gauntlet stabbing her. She screamed in pain, staring at the faceless figure as he glared at her. She head-butted him again, the blow catching him by surprise forcing him back. The blade was pulled free and she collapsed to the floor, crawling along the server room clutching her side feeling the wound infected. She looked back at the weapon and saw it glowing with a green edge. She cursed, scrambling forward until she reached the edge of the server room.
The reckoning followed like a predator, his blade on display dripping with her blood, its visor glaring at her refracting her reflection into a skull full of menace. She pushed herself to her feet clutching her side, her skin a sickly pale with a green infection spreading everywhere. She was in more pain than she could stomach but she stayed on her feet even as the nails dug deeper under her skin the closer he got. But then he stopped, the timer in his helmet pinging indicating the download was complete. He turned back to the terminal, glancing at the injured young woman hesitantly before retracting his blade. "It's your lucky day" he said, walking back to the terminal. He pulled out the dongle and shut down the computer, moving towards the exit. He looked back at Supergirl who was watching him intently. "I didn't come here to kill you."
"Then why did you come here?" she asked, following him out until she collapsed to her knees groaning.
He didn't break his stride as he switched off the kryptonite dial on his belt. "All in good time Miss Danvers" he replied, bring a new sense of dread to the superhero as she was left bleeding on the floor of the server room.
While he made his exit, he heard the frantic footsteps of the operatives on their way to intercept him. Before they got there, he lifted his wrist and brought up the status of all the Samaritan suits being used by the militia. Eight were still operational, the other three inactive due to the compromised or missing power cores. He initiated an emergency trigger Maxwell never got to test in those three suits, warning his co-conspirators to activate their faraday shields. By the time he looked up the team of operatives sent to back up Supergirl were coming into view and raising their weapons only for the entire facility to go dark.
Eagle received the warning and followed the advice, the shields engaging just in time to prevent the internal systems from being compromised by the two electro-magnetic pulses triggered from the disabled Samaritan suits in the courtyard. Every lightbulb in the area shattered into sparks as the discharge fried every electrical outlet on the island, cutting the power to the whole prison. The pulse also disabled the generator to the metahumans wing, bringing down the protective shield that was preventing their entry.
Once the suit ran an automatic diagnostic to stabilise the systems and determine the faraday protocol was a success he radioed his men ordering them to evacuate before finally breaking out of his icy casing, the vented heat melting the ice enough to break free. He stood up in the suit groaning, his skin sticking to the insides from sweat ordering the computer to switch the air-conditioning back on while he approached the wall of the courtyard. Scanning the concrete finding the right wall he raised both arms and fired twin rockets at the barrier.
The wall folded inwards from the explosion as he punched a hole into the metahumans wing directly outside Hank Henshaw's cell. The trio of heroes guarding it were thrown to the ground from the shockwave and left disorientated when the Samaritan stepped into the dark hallway. With the power out every lock in the facility was disengaged, a safety measure, enabling every prisoner access inside and outside the prison. Guards were too busy trying to stop the rioting nobody was there to stop the armoured battle suit from storming into Cyborg Superman's cell and approaching the glass box he was shackled in. the man looked up at the bulky machine, his eyes narrowing when the helmet folded away revealing his lieutenant behind the helmet. He grinned manically watch his fist raise and then slam into the thick glass with a powerful thud, resonating a sonic frequency upon impact to shatter the glass instantly.
Alex pulled herself out of the dust and rubble and sprinted for the cell, drawing her handgun and raising it just as she heard the thick shackles fall to the floor. "Freeze!" she bellowed, pointing her gun at the Samaritan.
Eagle didn't hesitate to raise his hand charging an energy blast in his palm. But Hank held out his hand and convinced him to lower it, looking at the young woman with his cold robotic eye. She held her stance, glaring back defiantly even though she knew this gun wouldn't be enough to kill him. "Give my regards to your father" Hank scowled, his red eye glowing firing an optic beam at her.
She stood frozen watching in slow motion as the laser cut through the air towards her until there was a roar from J'onn flying between them, taking the blast to the shoulder painfully as it knocked them both through the hole into the courtyard in a heap. Alex gasp in shock finding herself outside, rolling onto her side seeing J'onn in pain clutching his burning shoulder. She cried out to him, rushing to help him until she hears a thunderous crash from inside the prison. She looked up and saw Hank and the Samaritan flying out of the roof and escaping the prison, screaming curses at them as they disappeared.