Hi, everybody! Sorry for the delayed update, this section ended up being a beast. I hope you're enjoying the story so far 😊 Please feel free to send reviews, feedback, or even just your views on the Nyssara/Avalance relationships!
Part Seven
With Nick and Amaya on their way to some temple in Nepal and Zari set up in her hacker garb, her laptop tethered to the screens in the library, Sara, Mick and Ray piled into the Jump ship. Each of the three team members were dressed in a generic looking, light blue jumpsuit with a zipper that ran down the front. Sara glanced down at her getup as she settled into the Captain's seat of the smaller ship. "You know, I always like the name Chyler," she commented as she noticed the embroidered name on the chest of her outfit. "I also always liked the idea of having a job where I got to wear one of these. I mean, I always thought fighter pilot or something, but I'll take Timeship repair person."
Sara keyed the controls that fired the engines and input the coordinates to the Time Bureau, which she knew by heart at this point. She thought wistfully of the times she'd made the trip to surprise Ava with lunch or coffee, and the jitters she would get when the Time Bureau Director would call just to chat once their relationship took on a new tone. She wished again that things had gone differently, and she had her partner to bounce her developing ideas off of for what she knew was going to be a nearly impossible mission. One that would likely end in a face-off against Mallus. Sara only hoped Ava would come to terms with Nyssa's presence on the mission as few things made Sara more fearless than knowing the tall blonde woman was watching her back. Especially when it comes to using the death totem.
Sara triggered the comms unit and was met by a brief crackle and Zari's voice. "Hey, you and the boys ready to roll?" The brown-haired woman asked, backed by the rapid-fire sounds of the keyboard as she was clearly occupied with whatever diversion plan she had in mind.
"Yeah, we're rolling out. You good there? What's your plan anyway?" Sara asked, having completely forgotten to follow-up on that aspect earlier. Granted, the question was born more from curiosity than concern or hesitation. The hacker would get the job done, Sara had no doubt.
The sound of laughter met the blonde woman's question. "It depends on a couple of things, mainly the level of security they have on their ships in the docking bay. I had a few minutes to check out the Time Bureau ship when it got to us, and I think I have an idea that will draw their attention away from the East Wing."
Having only slightly more information than she did before, the Captain shook her head and carried on with the launch sequence on the Jump ship. "Okay, well, just don't hurt anyone if you can help it, I guess. We're taking off. I'll hit you up when we land. If I can get into the vents without issue, just have the diversion on standby in case we need it to get back out." Sara glanced over her shoulder at her two teammates as she locked her shoulder harness. Both men met here eye and nodded as they also got situated.
"Hey, Boss," Mick began, "is it weird that we're going to kidnap your ex-lady friend from your current lady friend?" Sara completed the launch sequence and held both arms up, middle fingers fully extended on each hand, and they took off for the short trip to the Time Bureau.
Sara deftly landed the ship, cloaked and invisible to the world around it, behind the northeast corner of the Time Bureau building. The three Legends unloaded from the Jump ship, the delivery area empty around them as the schedule said it would be, and removed the fake cargo and dolly from the ship's storage compartment. They used the access badge provided by Gary to enter the Cargo elevator and arranged themselves with Mick leaning against the back wall, his dart gun secured in a holster along the push bar of the dolly. Sara and Ray stood along opposite side walls of the elevator, each with a dart gun secured in a shoulder holster under their jumpsuits and the jumpsuits remained unzipped a quarter of the way down to allow access to the weapons.
An instrumental version of Cool for the Summer played as the Legends ascended to the fifth floor of the building, only one of two options allowed by the Cargo elevator. Sara momentarily wondered if Ava had anything to do with the elevator music, though clearly way below the Director's purview, Sara didn't dismiss the idea knowing how Ava enjoyed the little things. Plus, she clearly recalled catching the taller blonde woman singing Sorry Not Sorry very unapologetically in the shower one morning. It was painfully endearing and led to a rather prolonged shower experience for both of the woman.
Sara smiled as she realized that not only had she been casually dancing to the Demi Lovato hit, but that Ray had joined her. It had surprised the Captain when she realized it was Ray who was always most willing to join in an impromptu dance party around the Waverider. And Nate, of course, but that fell in line with the man's grown child personality. It was easily one of the blonde woman's favorite memories the night that the entire legends team, to include Jax and Martin, had an all-out dance party after a particularly difficult mission. They took turns choosing the songs, though Gideon eventually took over as acting DJ for the group. Nothing was better than watching Jax teach Martin how to floss.
As the elevator finally reached the fifth floor, Sara bounced lightly on the balls of her feet and met the eyes of her two companions. "Okay, let's try not to seriously injure anyone. Let's just grab Nyssa and get out with as little attention as possible. I already dread explaining this to Ava." The two men nodded, the elevator doors slid open, and Mick stepped up to push the dolly toward the semi-circle service desk in the middle of the room.
Sara followed the larger man and instinctively let her eyes take in the room immediately as she departed the elevator. It was a large warehouse styled room with tall shelves that lined the entire north wall off to Sara's right. In the center of the room were two, semi-circle desks that would form a large circle if viewed from above, a swinging waist-high door on both the north and south sides to join the two desks together and allow access to the middle. Beyond the service desks, on the wall opposite the elevator, was a huge access hatch made of two doors that met in the middle, probably operated by some hydraulic system and clearly large enough to allow the transport of the larger parts required to repair the Time Bureau's fleet of ships.
The doors were currently closed, but Sara recalled from the blueprints that the ship repair area lay just beyond the doors and the large ship docking station was located beyond the repair bays. Along the southern wall, there were three workstations, each outfitted with a tool station and each in a state of slight disarray due to ongoing modifications. One station was currently occupied by a Time Bureau employee who wore a jumpsuit identical to those donned by the Legends.
The man looked up from his project, but only spared the three newcomers with a cursory glance as they were greeted by the two service desk members. Sara stepped to the right of her larger teammate to take the lead and greeted the Time Bureau employees with a smile. She lowered one arm behind her back and signaled for Ray to take the man at the workstation and Mick to take the left-hand guy at the service desk.
As she approached the desk, she addressed the two men and reached into her jumpsuit as though to retrieve paperwork for the delivery. "Hi there, we have a delivery for…it doesn't matter." The men looked at each other in confusion. She grasped the handle of her dart gun and signaled to her teammates. The Captain smoothly removed the weapon, aimed for the neck of the man she was responsible for and seamlessly pulled the trigger.
Ray and Mick followed suit and the three Time Bureau employees dropped like bags of sand to the floor in three successive thumps. "Alright, Ray, Mick, grab Ray's guy and put him behind the service desk with the other two." As the two men placed the unconscious Time Bureau employee out of sight from either entrance, Sara scanned the room. On the south wall, there were two access points into the ventilation system and she moved toward the one that would pass over the holding cells.
Sara keyed her comms unit earpiece, "Hey, Z, we're in and about to hop into the vents. How's it look on your end?" There was a brief pause before Zari replied, "Everything is good on my end. The security feed looks clear and Nyssa is still in the third holding cell down. Let me know when you're ready to drop and I'll start the loop."
Sara moved toward the access point, Mick and Ray went toward the workstation that was positioned just below the grated entry. Something about standing in the middle of a warehouse in a facility that you weren't permitted to be in was just unnatural. Sara deftly hopped onto the table and reached with a small screwdriver to begin detaching the metal cover to the ventilation system.
Ray quickly grabbed the blonde woman's ankle who very nearly stabbed him in the face with the screwdriver for his troubles. "Ray, what the fuck?"
"Captain, look," he pointed to a rectangular panel on the wall. "I know that symbol. It's a security panel. We used the same company at Palmer Tech." Sara dropped her arms to her sides and glanced at the resident thief. "Mick, what the hell? You didn't mention anything about security on the vent itself." The large man flipped open the hinged cover to the panel and exposed a security keypad.
"It wasn't in the schematics, Boss." He shrugged his shoulders in response and leaned closer to inspect the hardware. "There's nothing I can do about this kind. It has a built-in failsafe to keep you from tampering with the face of the input system. That sound right, Haircut?"
"Yeah, it's a top of the line system, Captain." Ray keyed his own comms earpiece. "Hey, Z, can you access the schematics for this thing? It's a CyberArk system, maybe a 3050 or 3128." He got on the table with a knee and peered through the slats on the metal grate. Behind the aluminum cover, he could clearly see green laser beams in an impassible pattern about a foot inside the ventilation duct. "Yeah, try a 3128, it has the laser sensors."
Suddenly, a memory clicked in the Captain's mind. "Shit. I knew about this," she said, clearly frustrated at her mistake. "About a month ago, Ava had to cancel a lunch with me because she had a meeting with some security people. One of their prisoners had temporarily escaped through the ventilation ducts, so she had the security measures increased on the infrastructure throughout the building. I bet that was Nyssa. Shit, shit, shit!" She smacked her hand against her thigh in obvious frustration. "Zari, this one's on me. Can you get us through this thing?"
Rapid keystrokes could be heard through the earpiece. "Uhm, give me a few minutes. We don't have time for me to crack the access code, it's a 9-digit randomized number provided by a key fob, but I think I can break the failsafe and then I can talk Ray through hacking it from the internals. Just… hang tight." The three Legends looked at each other, feeling very exposed just hanging out in the warehouse of the Time Bureau facility, as they made absolutely zero progress.
As if fate felt the temptation, the hydraulics on the oversized door creaked into motion. Sara and Ray quickly hopped off the table and crouched behind the workstation they'd just dismounted. Mick began to move toward the door and was stopped by an abrupt sound from the Captain. "Mick, get down! We don't know how many there will be." With a slight growl, the man moved back toward the wall and kneeled on the opposite side of the workstation Ray and Sara were hidden behind.
Three figures entered the large warehouse space. One was immediately recognizable by the slight shrill tone of his voice. Gary. Sara mouthed back to Ray, who rolled his eyes and remained otherwise motionless behind the Captain. The tall, thin man walked between two larger men, one in a standard-issue suit and the other in a service station jumpsuit. Shit, Sara thought, hoping the service desk employee wouldn't be immediately curious at the unmanned workstation and abandoned desk.
As if he had a sixth sense, Gary, mid-sentence, almost immediately spotted Mick. His eyes widened, and the awkward man slightly tripped over his own feet, which caused him to bump into the service station employee. "Hey! Watch it you idiot!" The larger man hopped back from Gary, his arms spread wide and an incredulous look on his face. "You couldn't be more useless, I have no idea why the Director likes you so much," said the man in the suit. Gary's face became a rendition of a look Sara's English Bulldog would make when she'd had an accident. She bristled at the harsh treatment the men used with Gary.
To the Captain's surprise though, it was Mick that immediately jumped up and charged toward the three men. Gary instinctively squeaked and dropped to the ground. Sara cursed and darted toward the men as well. She took two long strides and leaped onto the service desk. Another step and she launched herself into a flip toward the men, her weapon drawn. She darted the man closest to her in the neck, completed the rotation, and allowed her knees to absorb the impact, lightly bouncing to bleed off the energy.
Mick had taken a more direct path as he ran at the man in the jumpsuit and whacked him across the temple with his dart gun. The man dropped to the ground with a groan and Mick then shot him in the neck with a dart. Sara smirked at her large teammate, "Why'd you hit him and then dart him?" She asked, curiously.
He shrugged a shoulder and offered Gary a hand up, "I hate bullies," he said simply. Sara returned the shrug and turned her attention to Gary, now on his feet next to Mick. "Honestly, Gary, I'm glad to see you." The thin man was slightly surprised, knowing the Captain was usually apathetic at the man's presence. Granted, their relationship was starting to improve with the reduced interference of the Time Bureau in Legends' activities.
The compact blonde moved toward Ray and the security panel under the ventilation access point. Gary and Mick followed the Captain, though Gary immediately raised his hands in front of him when he realized what Ray was looking at so intently. "U-u-uh, I'm not going to be any help," he offered to the blonde woman's back. He flinched at the scowl she tossed over her shoulder in his direction. "I-I-I mean I can't help. Not that I wouldn't help if I could," he quickly explained.
Sara stopped and turned to face the thin man, her hands on her hips and a questioning look on her face, complete with a raised eyebrow. All the members of her team would immediately recognize the 'bullshit' face. "No, really, I don't have access to the key fob. Only Director Sharpe has one and she keeps it in her personal safe when she's gone, which I'm sure you know she currently is."
Sara shrugged her shoulders in response and tossed one hand flippantly in the air. "Sure, yeah, of course I knew that," she obviously lied. "Okay, so that's the only one? Locked away in my girlfriend's personal safe in her office?" Sara mentally weighed her options and keyed her comms unit again. "Z, did you hear that? Any progress on your end? Any chance we can get through this thing without having to irreconcilably invade my partner's privacy?" she asked, hopefully. She really and truly wanted to avoid crossing that particular line, though she could see the burning excitement at the proposition in her resident thief's eyes.
She could already see the wheels turning in the man's head. Probably trying to decide what brand of safe she uses. Zari responded, "Uhm, yeah, okay. I've located the schematics and I've created a hard bypass for the external security on the panel. Ray, I've sent the program to your Atom suit. You should be able to input into the side access port on the panel and then the program will theoretically take about 30 seconds to deactivate the security. After that, it'll be too easy to bypass the internals and deactivate the sensors."
Sara couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Mick was obviously dejected. Ray quickly removed his Atom suit and stripped out of his jumpsuit to change. Gary was a new level of anxious. "Uh, begging your pardon, Captain Lance, but I really can't be here for this. I-I-I mean, surely you don't need me for anything…ri-ri-right?" Sara agreed with the Time Bureau employee that the less he knew, the better.
"Yeah, okay, get out of here," she replied, with a slight shooing motion. "Hey, and keep your mouth shut about this, yeah?"
Gary raised a thumbs up over his head as he moved toward the smaller, side access door that would return him to the service bay. He sincerely hoped no one would wonder where his previous companions were, and released a held breath as he made it to the atrium without question.
Ray was in his Atom suit and keyed the micro-computer on the arm of the suit. He quickly loaded the program Zari had sent and was immensely grateful once again at the processing upgrades the hacker had offered once she'd deemed him worthy of her talents. He removed the wireless auxiliary plug from its place on the side of the micro-computer and inserted it into the proper plug on bottom of the panel. "Okay, Z, it's plugged in." Ray could hear the keystrokes in his earpiece, and what felt like a moment later, the hacker replied. "Alright, you're good to go."
Ray popped the faceplate off the security panel and peered at the wiring. It looked vaguely familiar in comparison to the model of security he'd used at Palmer Tech. "It looks pretty straightforward," he mentioned to the now looming shadow of Mick Rory standing next to his shoulder. "Hey, Zari, will a standard 1 to 3 bypass work?" he asked, always slightly surprised that the woman could hear anything over the industrial metal he could hear in the background.
While Mick, Ray, and Zari all understood what the finely groomed man was asking, Sara took the opportunity to ditch her jumpsuit, knowing she'd have nothing to offer. So, she now sat cross-legged, her hair tied up in a bun and her head propped up by a hand as her elbow rested on a knee, trusting her team to deal with the current obstacle. She heard Zari's confirmation, smirked as Ray and Mick briefly fought over who could strip the wires faster, which Ray quickly won by reminding Mick of the two men he was allowed to shoot thanks to Ray's sleeping darts, and then let her mind wander as the anxiety of seeing Nyssa again started to build.
She could almost feel the anxiety as though she were in the moment once more. It was the first time the two women sparred following the unexpected development of their relationship. Granted, Sara had known for a long time that she was most certainly infatuated with the experienced, powerful, deadly woman. But, to have the dark-haired woman take a legitimate interest in the younger blonde had come as a welcome surprise to Sara.
The sparring room that Nyssa preferred in Nanda Parbat was really a glorified cave of sorts. It was on one of the lowest levels and could be reached by a secret passageway from a hidden stone doorway behind a hand-embroidered tapestry in the dark-haired woman's sleeping quarters. The open cavern was lit with torches ensconced along the uneven surface of the rock walls. Stone pillars were sporadically located throughout the cavern and offered support to the high ceiling of the cave. Each pillar was adorned with elaborate carvings of runes believed to offer protection to the space. Sara had once asked Nyssa who had carved the pillars, but the woman only responded vaguely with 'ancient people'.
Nyssa was dressed as she always was when they sparred, a black, sleeveless gambeson that offered some protection for her torso and stopped mid-thigh. It had a tapered waist and was closed up the front with garnet clasps. Completed with black leggings and a red sash around the woman's waist, the dark-haired woman often reminded Sara of a black panther that she'd seen in the zoo as a child. The same restless energy exuded from the woman and the keen intelligence in her dark eyes spoke of a deeper understanding somehow.
Sara was similarly dressed but chose a deep blue gambeson with a black sash and black leggings. Both women sparred barefoot, something that had taken Sara some time to get used to on the sometimes rough, stone floor. She was glad she'd had some time to toughen up her feet in Lian Yu and on their travels back to Nanda Parbat.
Sara remembered the anticipation as she faced the taller woman. As her clear blue eyes met the woman's deep brown, a chill went down her spine and she had to take a deep, cleansing breath as the woman had taught her. Nyssa appeared to lean casually on her bo staff, but Sara could see the muscles twitch in the woman's well-defined jaw. As always, Nyssa waited for Sara to make her first move, letting the compact blonde woman choose which technique she wanted to practice this session.
Sara took a deep breath, hopped twice on the balls of her feet, and held her bo staff with one arm, over her shoulder so the weapon was positioned behind her back. It was a technique she was growing to prefer as it allowed her to hide her offensive moves from her opponent and supported her sometimes aggressive fighting style. She smirked at the older woman who nodded in response and straightened. Nyssa moved to stand with her bo staff across her body, her dominant side slightly higher.
Sara quickly lunged at the taller woman, her first round of strikes being easily deflected. She realized she was more sensitive to the dark-haired woman's smell than she remembered. A slightly spicy scent that Sara had never smelled before, but now easily associated with her mentor. As the women spun and entered into another pass, the compact blonde woman became more determined. She had finally started feeling confident with her weapon of choice and had added some more complex movements to her repertoire. In fact, she'd been fitting in extra practice during one of her scheduled breaks with one of the guards in an effort to challenge the dark-haired woman.
The blonde used her lower center of gravity to her advantage and tried a new sweeping maneuver that had worked with her guard partner. However, the dark-haired woman simply grinned at Sara as she deftly hopped over the attempt and decided to go on the offensive. Sara immediately felt the shift in her mentor's energy. Nyssa's eyes took on a glint and her body acquired an energy that Sara could now feel her body respond to in an entirely new way.
Nyssa was beautiful when she fought. Sara had known that for a long time having spent hours watching the woman practice during their return trip from Lian Yu. The blonde woman found herself fighting to defend herself as she was quickly getting distracted by how the fire played off the woman's tanned skin and the shifting muscles of her arms. She held her own for a few passes by her mentor, but finally lost all hope when the taller woman took a step and did a lazy flip over her head and landed behind her.
Sara was able to move her staff behind her to deflect the strike, but when she turned to follow-up with an attack of her own, she was met with dark eyes that took on a red hue with the firelight, and a feral grin much closer than she thought she'd be. The compact blonde couldn't fight the thrill those eyes sent down her spine and she released one hand from her own staff, grabbed her mentor's, and threw both weapons to the ground.
Without words, the dark-haired woman grabbed the compact blonde by the shoulders, spun them both around, and pressed Sara up against one of the carved pillars. She pinned both of the younger woman's arms over her head, holding them by the wrists with one powerful hand. Nyssa met the clear blue eyes, almost translucent in the torchlight, and slowly undid each of the onyx clasps down the front of the smaller woman's gambeson. The dark-haired woman pressed one thigh between Sara's lean, muscular legs, and smirked as the blonde woman pushed her hips out to increase the contact along the length of their bodies.
Sara realized she must have spaced out for longer than she thought as her two teammates were both staring at her and Zari's voice was calling her name in her ear, clearly not for the first time. Her elbow slipped off her knee and she snapped her head up. "Huh? Wait. What?" She asked as she snapped herself back into the present. Right. Saving my ex-girlfriend. Fuck. "Are you ready for me?" she asked as she tucked her legs back under her and stood on the worktable.
Mick and Ray looked at each other and returned their gaze to the Captain. "Yeah, Boss, you're up." Mick said, willing to ignore the woman's obvious distraction. Ray was slightly more forward, "Captain, is everything okay? Are you sure you don't want me to go get her?" he asked.
Sara momentarily stretched her arms overhead and then waved her teammates off. "No, no, I'm good. Was just thinking about… sparring. I'm fine. Lasers are off? Security clear? I'm good to go?"
"Yeah," Zari responded in the blonde woman's ear, "everything should be clear. Again, just click the comms three times to let me know when you're ready to drop and I'll start the loop. The lasers are off until we turn them back on and the guards appear to be in their normal places. You're good."
"Okay then." Sara took a deep breath and removed the grate that covered the ventilation system and handed it back to Ray. She surveyed the duct that was located around shoulder height, rectangular and probably three feet wide and two or two and a half feet high. The compact blonde woman figured she'd have plenty of space, and even Nyssa's larger form should be able to clear the walls of the duct without issue. "I'll be right back. Be ready to move," she said to her team as she easily lifted herself into the vent duct.
Clad in her black, close-fitting attire, with her hair contained, she was able to quickly and smoothly move through the dark ducts. The light from the warehouse behind her faded and she tried to use a recurring ridge that she felt under her fingertips to judge how far she'd traveled. Being a government building, it was constructed without a lot of wasted space, so she came upon the first vent after only a couple minutes of progress. Sara approached the vent that should be over the first holding cell and paused above it to peer through the grated opening a moment to see how the cells were setup from this new perspective.
It appeared as though each of the cells were laid out in the same fashion. A small twin-sized bed on one wall and a small sink in the opposite corner. There weren't chairs or other facilities of any kind, and Sara recalled seeing a bathing/latrine facility further down the wing she was traversing over. I wonder how long it took Nyssa to use that to escape? Feeling good about the layout, Sara continued her journey, being careful to maintain control of her body to avoid making any unwarranted noises.
She traveled another couple of feet and was able to see the light being emitted from the access vent that would allow her to drop into Nyssa's room. The Captain took a moment to key her comms unit to notify Zari that she was ready for the hacker to begin the video feed loop. Sara steadied her breathing and continued forward with a quiet determination. As she perched herself over the vent, she could make out the top of Nyssa's head, her legs crossed beneath her, and her hands each closed in a loose fist on her knees. She was on the bed, almost directly under where Sara's feet now were. Sara wondered for a moment what the dark-haired woman was thinking about or if she was just meditating to pass the time.
Knowing it would be dangerous for even her to just drop into the room, she let out a soft whistle that she knew the assassin would easily identify. The sounds had barely left her lips when she saw the dark head snap back and the woman's deep eyes locked onto the vent. Nyssa stretched her legs in front of her and moved to stand in the middle of the room. The tall woman faced the back wall and conveniently blocked the view from the small window in the door of the holding cell, on the off chance the outside guard glanced their way.
It's like she can read my mind sometimes, Sara thought to herself. She gently eased the latches that held the vent closed from inside the ventilation duct. Careful not to let the metal scrape any more than absolutely necessary, she used the small chain that had been installed to hold the access gate open. She poked her blonde head down through the gate and was met with a whole-hearted smile on her former lover's face with one of her own, her clear blue eyes higher than the tall woman's own.
A spark in the deep eyes, "Beloved."
"Hey there," Sara replied with a wink. She pulled her head back up through the hole and smoothly suspended herself above the opening as she allowed her feet to pass through. Sara landed in front of Nyssa with a short hop. The two women simply stared at each other for a moment, waiting to see what the other would do. Sara could feel her heartrate pick up as she stood face to face with her former lover. Upon meeting the dark-haired woman's eyes and seeing the radiant smile she was greeted with, Sara knew Nyssa held no ill will toward her for yet another imprisonment paid as the price for having loved the blonde woman.
Sara cast her eyes down and began softly, "Listen, I'm sorry you're in here because of me." She looked up into dark eyes as she felt Nyssa's fingertips, gentle against the skin of her cheek, as the older woman tucked a misplaced blonde hair behind her well-formed ear. Then an easy pressure on her chin as the taller woman tilted her head back, forcing Sara to meet her gaze. Even under the fluorescent light and generally unfavorable living conditions, Nyssa was beautiful.
Nyssa took a step closer and moved her other hand up to the back of Sara's neck. Sara's breath caught in her throat at the feeling of the strong hands on the sensitive skin of her neck. She knew Nyssa felt it by the smirk on the woman's face. Fuck, she's always known the affect she has on me. Sara returned the look with a grin of her own as she instinctively placed her hands on the woman's well-formed hips. Through the thin fabric of the jumpsuit, rough under her fingertips, Sara could feel the reassuring solidness of the assassin.
"Beloved, I have always gotten into trouble just fine on my own. This is not your fault." Nyssa eased the younger woman forward with a steady pressure on the back of her neck and softly kissed her forehead. She felt the woman's warm breath as she sighed against her collarbone. The compact body moved into hers and she felt the blonde's powerful hands slide to the small of her back. It had been so long since she'd had physical contact of any kind or felt any real emotion from her isolated place in the holding facility. To have it be from her beloved was so surreal that her already extraordinary senses were heightened. On the edge of her hearing, she picked up a slight whirring noise that was out of place and getting closer.
The taller woman regretfully lifted her head and felt the increase in pressure of the strong hands on her back, holding her solid form in place. She filtered out the eucalyptus mint of the blonde woman's hair, a smell that would always bring up vivid memories of the younger woman. Nyssa briefly closed her eyes and focused on the sound she'd heard. As she pinpointed its location, her eyes immediately went to the ventilation duct once more. She was momentarily torn, knowing if she made too drastic a movement she'd risk drawing the attention of her ever-present watchers from the security booth and entryway, but every instinct screaming to protect her Beloved. Instead, she pulled the younger woman's body closer and took a step back toward the door to put more distance between the blonde woman and the sound she could now track moving down the ventilation duct.
Sara heard the change in the woman's heartbeat and felt the shift in the grip of the long fingers on her neck. She relaxed her grip from around the woman's waist, glanced up, and noticed the focused expression on the taller woman's face. "Nyssa, what is it?" Sara felt her own body tense in preparation for whatever had triggered the assassin.
"Beloved, something followed you down the ventilation duct. I can hear a whirring sound coming toward us, but I cannot identify its source." Nyssa slowly reached into the elastic waistband of her loose, cotton-blend pants and removed what could only be described as a shank. Sara raised both eyebrows and grabbed the woman's wrist, bringing the makeshift weapon into the light between them. The long fingers held what was once a toothbrush that had been filed into a point and then enhanced by a razorblade held in place with what looked like a bed spring. Nyssa shrugged in response as she freed her arm from the woman's grip around her wrist, her eyes never leaving the duct opening.
"Nyssa, there's no way my team let something follow me down the vent. Seriously." At the mention of her teammates, Sara immediately knew the source of the sound. She waved off the questioning look on the assassin's face and keyed her earpiece, previously set on silent to avoid detection while she traversed the duct system. "Ray, is that you coming down the duct? What the hell, Man?" She gently scolded the miniaturized man, though she knew she'd taken too long and he was probably right to have been worried. She wondered for a moment if the man had seen any of the moment shared between the women.
Ray released the atom mechanism on his suit and abruptly appeared in front of the two women. Nyssa instinctively pushed Sara behind her as she shoved Ray against the far wall, the shank now at the man's throat. Sara, having felt the surge of adrenalin from the taller woman, quickly wrapped one arm around the woman's waist and grabbed the arm that threatened Ray, pulling it back down against the woman's side. "Nyssa!" she exclaimed through clenched teeth, as loud as was possibly safe.
Ray pressed himself against the wall, his hands raised in a defensive position, as he trusted his Captain to diffuse the impressively fast, dark-haired woman. "Uh, hello, I'm Ray," he said and offered his hand to the contained woman.
Nyssa reached behind herself with her free arm and patted the blonde woman on the side. It was a sign they'd developed long ago after a series of particularly challenging missions the women undertook together. Upon their conclusion, Nyssa's reflexes were hair-triggered and she'd had to rely on the compact blonde woman to reign her in on more than one occasion when startled by a store clerk or some other mundane interaction within normal society. Before Sara, she would have simply gone into seclusion until she had herself back under control, but the younger blonde woman had insisted on trying to find her own sanity again by immersing herself in a 'normal' life for a time. So, the dark-haired woman tried her best to compromise by joining her blonde lover and meditating as often as possible.
"I am sorry for my abruptness," Nyssa said and bypassed the man's hand to grasp his forearm, a mannerism favored by the League to show that no blades were hidden under one's sleeve. "My name is Nyssa Raatko. Thank you for your assistance in freeing me," she looked back at the woman behind her. "At least, I assume that's why you're here?" Sara made a mental note to question why the woman had abandoned her father's name, something that had defined the assassin's identity for so long.
Sara lightly rubbed the woman's back in front of her. "Yeah, of course it is. I mean, there's more to it than that, but we better get out of here before the guards catch on or Mick starts beating people up. Ray, go ahead and shrink and get out of here, we'll be right behind you." The man keyed in the command on the wrist pad of his Atom suit and was on his way.
"That is phenomenal," the dark-haired woman commented on Ray's disappearance as Sara moved ahead of her to stand under the duct opening. "Do you need a boost, Beloved?" Nyssa asked with a smirk and her hands on her hips, though she made no move to help the shorter woman.
Sara quickly smacked the woman on her shoulder, and shook her hand out, figuring it probably stung her more than the solid form beside her. "I asked you for a hand up one fucking time," she mumbled to herself. The holding cells had 9' ceilings, but the compact woman bent her knees and surged upward, her arms outstretched to easily catch the edge of the opening. Sara set her grip on the ledge and smoothly pulled herself back into the ventilation duct and moved forward enough to give the taller woman space to follow.
Sara watched behind her and spotted the strong hands of the assassin grab the edge. It only took a moment before the dark head cleared the opening and the woman was pulling herself up into the duct behind her. Sara was startled as her earpiece chirped in her ear, the emergency signal to re-establish communications. Shit. I shouldn't have wasted so much time getting her out of there. She keyed the comms unit, "Zari, what's up? We're in the duct and about to head back now," she informed the hacker on the other end.
"Yeah, I know," Zari replied, a hurried tone in her voice. "I just fucking saw Nyssa's feet clear the opening on the security feed. More importantly, the security guards saw them too! They've already triggered the silent alarm. They're going to try to snag you guys. Get the fuck out of there, now! I'll try to distract them." The hacker turned her full attention back to the code she'd been working on while her teammates retrieved the League member. With a few final keystrokes, she initiated the first part of her plan and pulled up the security feed from the docking bay at the Time Bureau.
The hacker took a moment to mentally pat herself on the back as she could see the engines of all the Time Bureau ships initiate at once. "Ha! Whoever thought putting the remote access to the Time Bureau fleet in a cloud-based application is ridiculous," she said aloud. Even if the security surrounding the application had taken her almost two hours to break through. Now for stage two. Though she was momentarily distracted by a new frequency alert from the comms system. "Yeah, what's up, Nate? I'm a little busy."
"Yeah, uh, I think we broke this ship. Can you help us?" the confused man asked.
"Oh, shit. Uhm, that's me. You guys are just going to have to chill there for a few. The Captain and the boys ran into a hiccup and I temporarily took control of all the Time Bureau ships. If I release your ship, they'll know it's us for sure," she explained to Nate as she grabbed a thumb drive that had a short program she'd coded the night before and plugged it into her laptop.
"Oh! Uhm, okay. Cool. I mean, we'd offer to help, but I guess there's not much we can do. Just holler when we're good to go," he said, both concerned and maybe a little excited to prolong their adventure.
Zari re-synced her comms unit with Sara and the crew's channel and flicked through the various security feeds to check the progress. She watched as one of the security guards from the office approached the large warehouse from the side access door, his weapon drawn. "Mick, you got one coming your way," she informed her teammate and watched him begin to fiddle with some of the equipment on the workstation in front of him. The hacker couldn't make out what the guard said as he entered the warehouse, but she heard Mick reply, "Nah, man, everything's… fine here. I'm just replacing the seal on this hyperdrive gasket."
Zari was shocked at the man's smooth reply and whispered in his ear, "Nice one, where'd you learn that?" The guard slowly moved toward the larger man and responded, still not entirely convinced, but moving more confidently at the normality of the situation in the warehouse. That is, until he passed the side opening and saw behind the service desk. Zari could clearly make out the "What the fuck" on the man's lips as he spotted the unconscious employees on the floor behind the desk. She watched as Mick raised his weapon up in one smooth motion and planted one of the darts in the security guard's neck. "I helped Jax fix one once. Well, I drank beer and watched him fix one," he commented as the guard dropped to the floor.
"Shit, shit, shit." Sara cursed, her standard self-scolding response. She quickly began moving down the duct back toward her team, suddenly super aware of the lasers they'd previously de-activated and took a moment to hope that they were just alarm lasers and not, well, slicing lasers. Over her shoulder, she addressed the woman that moved along with a sinuous grace just behind her. "Hey, you may have to use your shank after all. Something must have glitched with the security loop and they saw your feet coming up."
Thankfully, without the need to worry about making noise, the return trip was much faster, and the two women quickly made it to the end of the tunnel. Sara slipped out and dropped back onto the workstation table and deftly hopped off to make room for Nyssa to follow. Nyssa shortly joined the small team and nodded toward the large man she had yet to meet. Mick replied with a quick once-over and a glance toward the compact blonde woman that now stood beside him, who simply said, "Shut up," and smacked the man in the back of the head.
Zari continued to scan the security feeds and watched as a number of additional security people and the docking bay folks scrambled to figure out what was going on. A few of the security personnel began to move toward the warehouse, where she knew Sara and Nyssa had just joined Ray and Mick. The hacker pulled up the new program and keyed the execution code to activate it. She laughed to herself as she heard the music through her teammates' communications units and watched all of the Time Bureau personnel look around in confusion as each ship in the docking bay now broadcasted the same song.
As Sara was about to lead the team back across the large repair warehouse, all four team members quickly hit the deck as a loud noise began in the docking bay. It took a moment for the racket to filter into sound and Sara looked over at her teammates in confusion. She keyed her comms, "Z, what the hell is happening over there? Is that… Def Leppard?! And are those ship engines?"
From Mick's position on the floor, she heard the man comment, "Pour Some Sugar on Me… I lost my virginity to that song."
Surprisingly, Nyssa replied, "I realized I was a lesbian to that song," and instantly made a friend out of the gruff man who couldn't restrain a burst of laughter.
"Sara, don't worry about it. Just get out of there, you don't have much time," Zari replied as she watched the same three guards from before shake off the distraction of the music and start to move back toward the storage warehouse.
The three Legends and the assassin scrambled to their feet and Sara waved the key card in front of the sensor to access the elevator. The light flashed red and Sara cursed, but Nyssa grabbed her by the wrist and led the three Legends to a stairway exit next to the elevator. The dark-haired woman threw the door open and moved quickly through it, her shank out and ready. Sara followed behind her and Mick brought up the rear. Sara signaled with a whistle and Nyssa took the stairs leading downward, verbal communication virtually unnecessary between the two women.
As they quickly cleared the first set of stairs, Zari chimed in, "Sara, you're going to have company on the way down. Manageable, but coming at you on the next floor."
Nyssa moved with a lithe grace and impressive quickness down the stairs. Sara gave the signal for incoming just as the dark-haired woman approached the door that simultaneously opened toward the dark-haired woman. The assassin immediately cross-kicked the knee of the first guard that made his way onto the platform of the staircase. She struck his wrist as he went down and caused his weapon to clatter to the floor. Sara flew off the stairs behind her, throwing the full weight and speed of her body into the metal door that collided with the man who tried to follow his companion.
Sara landed and turned just in time to throw up a forearm block that stopped the dark-haired woman's forward motion which would have embedded the shank in the guard's neck. Instead, Sara kneed the man in the head, knocking him unconscious. She turned and faced her former lover, her hand resting on the dark-haired woman's hip, "We can't kill them."
Sara saw Mick dart the two fallen guards and nodded in the direction of the stairs for the two men to precede them the rest of the way down. Nyssa's face was set in a stubborn and determined manner that Sara knew all too well, and she had a tough time blaming the woman on this one. "Look, I know they've had you locked up here and that sucks, but I'll explain later. Just please don't kill any of the Time Bureau guys." Nyssa gestured toward the stairway and simply replied, "As you wish."
The Legends were thankful that the lower floors were occupied by much less portentous government agencies, and they only encountered one more team of security personnel in the final two floors of their descent. They burst through the exit door at the ground level and turned toward the corner of the building, since the stairs put them on the east side of the structure. They pressed themselves against the brick wall, Sara back at the head of their formation, and she keyed her comms unit once more. "Zari, open the hatch. How's our escape route looking?"
"You're clear to the ship if you go right now," she responded as the group sprinted toward the lowering hatch. Zari continued to provide the status update as they ran toward the ship, "I still have control of their ships, but Ava's about three minutes out. Sorry, I didn't realize she uses a separate standalone system for her ship. Super smart, really," the hacker said, with a note of admiration. "I tried to hack it, but it's a style of code I've never seen before and there just isn't enough time," she informed the Captain as the group made it onto the ship.
The two men took the seats they were accustomed to and Sara pointed at a seat on her right for Nyssa as she quickly strapped in to the Captain's chair. The blonde woman didn't waste any time as she efficiently fired the engines and worked through the launch sequence for the ship. It took a few moments longer than normal since she had to perform all the functions manually, but she figured they'd still be gone before Ava returned, as long as she didn't utilize the same path out that the Time Bureau Director used coming in. Sara quickly reached up and pulled down the ship's communication panel so she could receive updates while keeping both hands free to pilot the ship.
Zari's face appeared in the comms window. "Hey, can you tell which route Ava's taking coming back to the Time Bureau? I'd really like to avoid running into her." The Captain heard a simultaneous scoff from both Ray and Mick and gave the men the finger with one hand while she continued to input their destination and route with the other.
"Sorry, Boss, she cloaked her ship about four minutes ago. She was hauling ass southwest the last time I was able to pick her up though. She was coming straight toward you, so maybe do some fancy flying when you take off," the hacker caught the eye of the dark-haired assassin over Sara's shoulder and gave a casual wave. "Uh, hi there, I'm Zari Tomaz," she greeted the woman. Nyssa inclined her head in greeting and replied in a smoothly accented voice that made Zari feel feelings inside, "Pleasure to meet you, I am Nyssa Raatko."
Sara took the throttle, triggered the pressure chamber, and looked back at her former lover. "Stop distracting her, I need her focused," she said with a wink in the woman's direction.
"Ta-er al-Sahfer, la 'aerif ma aldhy tatahadath eanh," Nyssa replied with a smirk, having been told many times by the blonde woman how mesmerizing it was to listen to her speak Arabic.
"Oh please," Sara replied, "you know exactly what I'm talking about."
Zari laughed and turned her attention back to the monitors in front of her, "Yellow Bird, huh?" she questioned the dark-haired woman who was momentarily startled by the hacker's understanding. The Captain looked from Nyssa to the hacker on the comms monitor. "Yeah, yeah, I'm focused. Shut up."
"Alright, fingers crossed. We're heading back." With that, the Captain slowly hit the throttle, though every fiber in her being urged her to go faster. Sara was forced to move slow and steady through their departure to maintain a smooth appearance of the cloaked ship in the surrounding atmosphere. She only had a moment to decide which route to take and instinctively turned the ship away from where she knew the Waverider was ultimately located. Although it was more challenging to pilot the ship manually in its cloaked status since you simply had to know where you were on the radar, she decided it was worth the test of her piloting skills. With the knowledge that her current lover was mere moments away, Sara's knuckles were white on the throttle and she dug her nails into her palm on her other hand, the restraint of their slow escape driving her insane.
They had traveled for approximately 25 seconds before Zara's head reappeared on the comms monitor. "Good choice on the route, Sara, it sounds like Ava just landed at the Time Bureau. Hey, anyone want to take a bet on how long before she shows up here?"
"I'll get in on that action," Mick replied. "Haircut, calculate the odds table and lay out the over under."
"Sure, give me just one minute. Hey, are we applying the Legends factor on this one?" the square-jawed man was forced to bat a flying pen out of the air, the Captain finally losing control.
"All of you, Shut. Up." Oh, fuck this, she said to herself, and the ship burst into motion.