"Are you sure it was him?"
"Are you positive he knew who you were?"
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yes" Dreamer answered, to all counts, for the tenth time in the last hour.
They'd all been fussing over her since she got brought in to the DEO following her ordeal with the Children of Liberty. She was fine, but nobody seemed to believe her. She put it down to them being worried. She couldn't blame them, she was worried for a while there too. But Brainy ran his tests, Lena checked her over and Alex debriefed her and now everyone was standing around her medical bed discussing the implications about what she told them.
There was more than a few conflicting opinions.
"We need to put out an APB, bring in everyone affiliated with the Children of Liberty" Alex said.
"You can't arrest everyone just because they might have a connection" James argued pointedly. "I was affiliated with them too, remember?"
"You were undercover!"
"Beside the point. There are good people in that movement who are just misguided."
"He's right" J'onn agreed, looking at Alex compassionately as he explained "the DEO don't have jurisdiction to apprehend domestic political terrorist. This is a job for the FBI or NCPD."
"But they are targeting alien refugees, and superheroes now!" Alex countered. "Their safety is our jurisdiction."
"But we don't know who they are" Kara reminded her. "They don't remove their masks. And besides, they're just ordinary citizens. The people we need is the Sentinel."
"Supergirl is right" Brainy said before Alex could argue back. "As the instigators, removing them from the streets should help dissolve this extremist faction and avoid further violent acts."
"And then what? We just let them scurry back into whatever holes they were hiding in after Lockwood was arrested?"
"We can't control people's beliefs or opinions" J'onn sighed. "But we can punish those responsible for their crimes. Finding their hideout has struck a mighty blow."
"Yeah, the police arrested sixteen members of the group after Supergirl found them" Lena agreed.
"And the important thing is Dreamer is safe" Kara finished, looking at Nia in relief. "You had us worried for a while there."
"Yeah, I know" she said, her heart still racing from the fear she wouldn't have been found. When Kara came back after losing the Sentinel and found her caught in the Blacksmith's snare the young woman had begun shaking, the adrenaline gone after the desperate fight out of her own execution. She was grateful to be somewhere safe, but that wasn't her main concern any longer. "There are still more out there. They wanted to use me to destroy what little hope they have left."
"if you had been killed publicly like then intended, they might've succeeded" James said, pulling out his phone and showing her the article he quickly got Kara to help right up while Nia was treated and sent to print. "Fortunately, the city already knows you escaped, so their plan failed. It's not going to be as easy as they thought spreading fear and hate through the city a second time."
"We hope" Kara said. "There's already been a rise of support towards the Children of Liberty, more people being swayed to their side. And with this scare a lot of refugees have gone further into hiding. It's not good."
"Then we need to get out there!" Dreamer said, pushing herself off the bed and back onto her feet, ignoring the ache in her muscles from all the strain her powers left. "We need to show them they don't need to be afraid. Show them we're out there."
"Absolutely not!" Alex interrupted, stepping in front of Nia when she tried to leave. "You're going to lay low for the time being. You're a target. A big one!"
"I've always been a target for these bigots" she replied. "I can handle it."
She pushed past Alex only to get stopped by the last person she thought would bench her. "Alex is right" Kara said gently. "Just for now, until you get your strength back, maybe you should stay off patrol."
"Kara" she argued, but Brainy agreed. "For your own safety" he told her.
"I'm not going to hide while there are people out there who need us" she said passionately.
"And what happens when the Children of Liberty come after you again?" Alex asked her.
"I'll be ready for them this time."
But Alex stepped forward pointedly. "What if they don't wait for you to be in costume next time" she asked. "The Blacksmith is working with them and he knows who you are. I don't care what he told you, but what's stopping him from sharing your identity with their leader. They could come after you at your apartment, at work, on the street…"
Nia hadn't considered that, the noose around her neck suddenly feeling tighter. She looked around at the others, particularly Supergirl. She realised Kara and Alex had been discussing this a lot because Kara looked at her sister before putting her hands on Nia's shoulders. "I know this is the last thing you want to consider" she said in sympathy. "I promise, the moment we get a lead on the Sentinel or the Children of Liberty you'll be the first to know. But for now, we're just asking for you to stay safe. You have no idea how scared we were when we thought you'd been…none of us want to risk losing you" she said.
Nia was struggling to find and argument that could win her over, but she ended up arguing back "if the Blacksmith knows who I am, then he knows who you are too. You're in as much danger as I am. They have kryptonite. You need all the help you can get."
"We both do" she agreed. "But I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you. The Blacksmith knows who you are because of me. The last thing I wanted was for the people I care about to get hurt because of my mistakes." Nia shook her head, opening her mouth to insist this wasn't anything to do with Kara, but the blonde insisted "please, just for a little while. I can't force you, but I can ask."
Nia stared at Kara, the concern and fear in her eyes bringing the powerful superhero to tears. She looked at the others, all echoing the sentiments. It was moving to know how much they cared about her. Enough to bench her to keep her safe. She couldn't agree to be happy about it, but she reluctantly nodded in understanding. Kara smiled, embracing the girl, just glad to have her back. "If I do agree not to go on patrol, that doesn't mean I won't come running if you need help" she whispered.
Kara chuckled. "I wouldn't expect anything less" she acknowledged.
Their friends waited for the touching moment to pass before turning to address the next issue. "With the Children in the wind, we'll need to increase our patrols in the city" Alex stated. "Hopefully the exposure of their hideout will have them scrambling, more likely to make a mistake."
"I'm already scrubbing the footage from every camera in the vicinity to try and track their member's movements" Brainy reported. "I have a dozen possible points of interest for us to investigate."
"Is there anything else you can tell us about them?" J'onn asked Nia gently. "Anything you might've seen or heard while you were captive?"
"Nothing I didn't already tell you" Nia replied, reluctant to go over her experience a second time. But when her memory conjured the scene of her talk with the black man she did remember something. "The Blacksmith mentioned the name Oakridge. Miss Oakridge. Made a comment about not being a friend."
"A member of the Children of Liberty?" James wondered.
"The leader?" Lena hypothesised. She saw Dreamer nod, sharing the hypothesis.
Brainy did a quick search through his database and reported "there are over forty individuals with the name Oakridge in the state. Approximately twenty-four in the city alone. A third of that ratio is male, leaving sixteen female candidates."
"We can't be sure she's who we're looking for" Alex warned. "Right now, I'm not viable to trust anything the Blacksmith might've said to you" he told Dreamer. When everyone looked to her inquisitively she explained her doubts. "Consider the source, and who he works for. Jake had us fooled and been operating under out nose for who knows how long. And considering that, how do we know this isn't another manipulation."
"There's no evidence to say Jake is involved in the Children of Liberty" James said.
"That we know off. That bastard's been covering his tracks this whole time. He could be the Sentinel for all we know!"
"I've seen the Sentinel's face" Nia told her.
"You know what I mean" Alex sighed.
"She makes a point" Lena admitted. "Last time it was Lex manipulating Lockwood and his movement. Jake could be doing the same."
Nobody wanted to agree but they admitted it was a possibility. "It's still a lead" Kara said, nodding to Nia trusting her gut. "Whether it proves to be a wild goose chase or a trap, we need to follow it up."
The others nodded too. "I'll begin cross referencing their names with the data I have, and continue to trace the IP address of her internet profile to see if there's a match" Brainy said, turning away to get back to work.
"I might have some contacts who used to monitor Children of Liberty activity" Olsen said, texting on his phone to try and connect to some of them. "Maybe they can give me a lead on where they might be meeting."
Alex watched both of them disappear, releasing a long sigh saying "Alright, I'll coordinate with the NCPD to look into anyone called Oakridge they might know about. I'm also increasing the security detail on your place, no arguments" she told Dreamer before she could object. She then beckoned Lena to follow her so they could "talk about making those GPS beacons permanent."
Lena groaned, predicting another long and passionate debate about privacy and security and morals etc. she paused briefly to nod to Dreamer telling her "I'm glad you're okay" before reluctantly following Alex.
Nia stood between J'onn and Kara, fiddling with her signal watch muttering "might not be a bad thing."
"Maybe, but Lena has her reasons" Kara told her. She asked Nia one last time if she was alright before politely excusing herself. "I'm going to circle the city, take one last look for the Children of Liberty before I go pay Eliza a visit. Alex has already screened five of her calls and I'm worried she'll come here if one of us doesn't run interference." Her friends chuckle as they bid her goodnight.
After Nia excused herself, promising J'onn she'd talk to him if she needed to, she went to the DEO locker room where she kept a spare set of clothes. She always found it risky changing in there, in case somebody caught her, but Alex assigned her a locker beside Kara's in a private corner away from prying eyes. It gave her the space to peel out of her costume and change into more comfortable civilian clothes.
As she climbed out of the blue and silver outfit she winced painfully, looking down to see the large bruise on her ribs from where she'd been struck. Peppering it were three pairs of burn marks from where the cattle prods electrocuted her. Her costume couldn't insulate all of the electricity. Flashes of the pain ripped through her mind along with her screams, until the young woman shook her head and pushed them back. The medics had already looked at it and said it'd heal on its own, giving her some pain killers in case it got worse. She took two tablets and swallowed them before climbing into her clothes. She packed her costume away, leaving the mask till last looking at it as she sat on the bench.
"Without the mask she's just another freak" the Sentinel had said. Nia stared at it wondering how much of that statement was true. If she wasn't Dreamer who was she? Dreamer was the hero, the symbol for unity, for hope. Nia Nal was just a reporter at a media conglomerate. Do the two really compare?
She heard footsteps approaching and quickly hid the mask into her bag, looking up to find Brainy coming around the corner looking for her. Her shoulders relaxed as the young man joined her, taking her hands and leaning in to kiss her. They embraced and stood with their foreheads touching, just glad to be together. "I am relieved you're alive" he whispered. "I had calculated the odds of you escape their captivity with the variables we had as…not good."
Nia chuckled. "Good thing we're getting good and beating the odds then" she replied. Brainy nodded awkwardly. She knew he hated things not making sense. Calculations and facts were his specialty, but when illogical acts turned the tide in infuriated him, even when it was in their favour.
She picked up her back and doubled checked she had everything, Brainy promising to see she got home. "You don't have too" she told him, but he insisted. She looked at her smashed phone and groaned. "I guess I was due and upgrade" she muttered as she dropped it in her bag.
"I'm sure we can fix it" he said confidently.
"No, it's fine. All the photos are backed up anyway" she replied, distracted by her bag as she searched through her costume.
"If you don't mind me asking, as I'm sure you are exhausted and wouldn't want to go over it again" he said cautiously, interlacing his fingers as he waited patiently against the locker while Nia surveyed her bag. "How were you able to escape your confinement?"
Nia smiled, the first genuine smile she'd managed since she got back. "I used my astral projection" she explained, looking at Brainy proudly. "I left my body and I was able to pull the cables out of the fuse box."
He looked back in surprise. "You were able to make your astral projection corporeal?"
"It was only for a second, but yeah."
"Hmm" he mused. He was not expecting such innovative thinking, not at this time. He saw Nia shifting through her bag asking "what are you looking for?"
"Nothing, just…" she gave up, closing her eyes to think about when she last saw them and sighed. "My gloves, the ones you made for me."
"The gauntlets used to focus your astral energy into physical projections?"
She nodded. "The Children of Liberty must've taken them off while removing my signal watch and phone. I didn't see them when I picked everything up so they must still have them. Or just lost them in the ambush."
"They were not at the hideout when we apprehended the suspects" he told her, a thoughtful look crossing his face. "If you were not wearing them…you're briefly detailed how you used your powers to escape and fight the Children of Liberty" he said, looking at Nia curiously.
She shrugged, saying that was true. Then she realised why he found it curious. The gauntlets were made to focus her energy so she could create her constructs, fire her blasts of energy and manipulate the energy. She narrowed her eyes and looked at her hand, her ordinary pale hand. Experimentally she summoned an orb of blue energy in her palm, which she did effortlessly. Brainy examined the stable construct and hummed again. "Well, that's intriguing" he mused as Nia shut it off.
"What doesn't it mean?"
"It means you no longer require the gauntlets to harness your energy" he explained, looking at her with a mix of admiration, pride and curiosity. "And when you consider how you were able to use your astral projections and make it corporeal, I can only come to a conclusion. You're abilities are exceeding the projected capabilities I had mapped out. You're progressing faster than I anticipated."
Nia titled her head inquisitively. She was aware that Brainy knew about her from the future, how she became a superhero and everything. He'd been helping her manage her powers since she found it. But until now it hadn't been a concern that Brainy knew all about how powerful she could become, until now. "Is that good?" she asked him, wondering if her getting stronger too soon was going to affect her future.
He looked back at her after giving it some calculated thought. But at this time all he could say was "I am not sure. I guess we'll have to wait and find out."