Chapter 4
KARA
Everyone in the room stared at Kara and she hated it. She glared at each of them with as much spite as she could muster and lifted her chin high.
The lady in the pink dress stood in front of the small crowd. "Now! Here we have Kara Zor-El. Daughter of Alura. Under a yellow sun, she possesses special abilities, and under a red sun, she is still very capable then other females her age," explained the lady in the pink dress.
"Is she eligible for manual labor in the fields and such?" asked one of the rich looking beings in front of them.
"Yes, yes. She has proved to be quite strong for someone her size," she replied. She was practically advertising Kara as a product! She couldn't- she wouldn't stand for it!
"Hey!" Kara shouted, earning a look of surprise from the audience, "Would you all quit talking about me like I'm not right here! I'm a Kryptonian! Not some slave to be bought! This is wrong. All of it!" Hushed whispers traveled throughout the room. Not many had dared to speak during their own auction.
As Kara gazed through the crowd, she didn't anticipate the guard behind her knocking the back of her neck with the butt of his weapon. Kara winced and fell to knees where a rough hand on her shoulder kept her there.
"Care to share any other thoughts, dear?" the lady asked knowingly. Kara was angry, but not suicidal. She snarled at the lady but said nothing else. "You see? She may be uncompliant at first, but with proper training you'll have a well-behaved Kryptonian princess at your disposal!"
"Democracy," Kara corrected quietly under her breath. Murmurs of agreement now spread across the room as people being to nod their heads and grin at Kara.
"This one's got quite the personality! She'll make a nice pet to have by my feet!" exclaimed a man from Thorngate with oddly shaven facial hair.
"I am not some dog that will bend to your every command! I will not-" Kara was interrupted by the cloth the was tied around her mouth, acting as a makeshift gag.
"Now then, who would like to start the bidding?" Shouts went off around the room. As it turned out, Kara was quite popular around this crowd.
"30 quartz crowns!"
"50 quartz crowns!"
"85!"
"One hundred quartz crowns." After this the room went silent. Whispers of discussion from other bidders.
"100 quartz crowns! Going once…"
"150!" shouted a martian in the back of the room. The man from Thorngate glared at the martian and countered.
"175 crowns."
"180!" the martian challenged.
"Two hundred quartz crowns," the Thornian said slowly with a smirk on his face. No one spoke.
"Two hundred quartz crowns! Going once… twice… Lovely! Sold to the wonderful Thornian in the front! Kara here will be waiting for you first thing in the morning, love."
Kara was pulled roughly to her feet and through the doors.
"That wasn't so hard now, was it?" the lady said with a repulsive smile, "After all, you fetched quite a price for us." She grabbed Kara's chin, "Have fun now, little pet."
Kara jerked away from her fingers and headbutted her as hard as she could. It gave her quite the headache but the surprise and disgust on the lady's face made it worth it.
"Take her away! I hope you rot wherever you end up, Kara Zor-El!"
As long as you rot with me Kara thought.
The guard tossed her into yet another cell and had not bothered to remove her restraints or gag.
"Hey!" She tried to yell, but all that came out was a muffled shout that was ignored as the guard left without a word. She groaned in frustration.
"Kara? Is that you? Are you alright?" When Kara looked over, she was surprised to feel relief at the sight of Mon-El in the cell next to her. After all it was nice to see a somewhat friendly face.
"Here," he offered as he reached through the bars to lower the cloth from her mouth.
"Thanks. No restraints or anything huh?" Kara asked, finding Mon-El there without any cuffs.
"Guess I was a hell of a lot more compliant than you were."
"Guess so," she replied.
"So how much were you sold off for?"
"That's what you're wondering?" She asked incredulously.
"Hey, I'm just curious. Not like we have anything better to do."
"200 quartz crowns." Mon-El whipped around and stared at her.
"Two hundred? That's like enough to buy a small planet!"
"Not quite though. How about you?"
"95 crowns," Mon-El muttered. Kara laughed lightly. "Well sorry I'm apparently not as popular as you on the black market of slaves!"
"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, should we talk about more important things? Like our escape plan?"
"I'm open to ideas, princess. 'Cause so far, I got big sack full of nada."
"I don't know yet, but we have all night to figure it out, don't we?"
Mon-El groaned. "Guess we're not getting any sleep tonight, huh?"
"No way," she replied.
"Take me with you. Please," croaked a voice across from Kara's cell.
Kara jumped in surprise, oblivious to the fact there were other prisoners in the room. "Who's there?"
"My name is Arinna. I've been here for so long, I've lost count of the days," she fell into a fit of coughs before continuing, "Please, I can't stay here any longer. You have to take me. You have to. Please!" The old lady gripped the bars of her cell tight, her eyes wide and desperate.
"Arinna. I will get you out of here. All of you," Kara said determinedly.
"We will?" Mon-El asked, glancing at Kara, "I mean it'll be hard enough getting ourselves out of this hellhole let alone everyone else!"
Kara shot a glare at him. "Yes. We will. I don't know how yet, but we will. Or at least I will."
Mon-El sighed. "You know I'm with you, princess. Not like there's a better prospect ahead for me."
"Your own selfish reasons aside, we need to come up with a plan. A strong one," Kara said.
"Yes! Thank you! Gods bless you!" Arinna shouted.
There was a small window at the end of the hall that told them it was close to the break of dawn. None of them hadn't gotten a wink of sleep and they agreed to rest until someone came to fetch Kara or Mon-El.
Kara started to the jangling of keys in her cell. Well, it's now or never, she thought. As she had predicted, quite a few guards showed up to see to it that she was cooperative. She struggled to stay true to her character, but intended to cooperate properly. Cooperation first. Punching later. She stood as the guards pulled her away. Before she left she shot a meaningful glance and a reassuring nod to Mon-El and Arinna.
As she left the room with the cells, she took in her new surroundings. Just an white endless hallway with doors on both walls. She assumed (and hoped) this was where the other prisoners were being held. She started counting the doors on the left so she could find her way back.
She looked over at the guard to her left and right. Two expressionless, emotionless Dominators. Five doors.
She glanced behind her to see a guard with intimidating looking spikes protruding from his wrists. Best not to mess with those. Eight doors.
Ahead of her, was another guard that was more homosapien looking with a utility belt around his waist. Fourteen doors. She took a closer look at the belt to see a small key chip about the size of a quarter that resembled the one used earlier to remove the cuffs. Bingo.
Kara's hands were bound, but they were in front of her at least. She forced herself to trip over her feet and stumble into the man. As smoothly as she could she reached forwards and pulled the card out of its pouch.
"Sorry! I've been sitting so long in that cramped cell, I guess my legs are a little sluggish," Kara joked lightly.
"Keep moving," the man replied, brushing himself off.
Kara quickly concealed the chip inside her fist, trying not to look too suspicious. The last time the cuffs had been removed, they had made a small ping! sound, so she had to be quick once the cuffs were gone. How would she be able to pull this off? She drew strength on an old memory.
When she was young, Kara's father, Zor-El, used to train her in the gardens of their home. They sparred for hours until the sun was low on the horizon. Oh, how Kara missed her home and her family now. But she had to be strong now if she wanted to see them again.
"I need to use the bathroom," she stated, not really expecting them to be so gullible.
"Hold it," said the guard behind her, barely sparing Kara a glance.
"But I just got my period," she blurted, "I don't think it'd look very appealing to this buyer if his new pet had blood all over her pants, would it? I mean, if he doesn't know basic female anatomy, he wouldn't know that I'm only bleeding out of my-"
"Okay!" the man in front shouted, clearly disgusted as Kara had hoped, "But the cuffs stay on. And no funny business!"
"Of course," Kara replied, quite pleased with herself. They reached the end of the hallway and the guard stopped in front of a door. By the time they reached here, they had passed twenty two doors by her count.
"You have two minutes to do what you need to do, or I'm dragging you out myself," he said as he opened the door.
Alright, two minutes to think of something or everyone in here becomes slaves. No pressure. She thought. The bathroom was one stall with a toilet, a roll of paper, and a sink, nothing fancy.
She could pull out the sink's pipe, but it would create a racket that would raise suspicion. Unless, she knocked them out before they could call for backup? The toilet's flush would probably cover up the release of the cuffs, but she had to be ready for them flooding in through the door. Well, it was all she could come up with for the moment.
She flushed the toilet and quickly slid the chip across the cuffs awkwardly and they unhooked with a small ping! She sighed and twisted her newly freed wrists. The guard started pounding on the door for her to hurry up.
"Just a second!" Kara shouted. She wrapped her hands around the pipe and put a foot on the wall for leverage. On three. One…
What if she wasn't strong enough?
Two…
She had to be.
Three… Now! She pulled on the pipe with all her might and it sprang free with quite a bit of effort, spurting water.
"Hey! What's going on in there!" The door was kicked open, but Kara was ready. She swung her pipe at the man's head as it came through the door, knocking him out cold. She grabbed the taser from his belt and turned her head to see the Dominators trudged towards Kara angrily. So much for the element of surprise.
The first Dominator charged Kara and she slammed the taser into his side, stunning it to the ground.
The second approached more cautiously. It waited for Kara to make the first move, which she did. She lunged forwards, but the Dominator sidestepped the taser easily and pushed the taser out of her hands and knocked her to the ground.
"Stay down," it hissed. Yeah, right. While the Dominator was presumably using its telepathy to call for backup from his Dominator buddies, Kara grabbed the taser quickly and shoved it into the Dominator's gut.
"My turn," grumbled the gravelly voice of the remaining guard with the spikes as he cracked his knuckles.
He swiped at Kara with his spike and she barely stepped back in time. She jabbed forward with the taser aiming for the chest, but this Spikes guy was faster. He blocked her arm and knocked the taser across the floor, too far for her to reach. She hesitated for a moment, panicked. Spikes swiped at her again and she threw her arms up reflexively taking the slice of his spikes on her forearms.
She grunted in pain but retaliated with a successful left hook to his head. It made contact, but wasn't nearly enough to knock the creature out. She kicked him back in the stomach but he used the momentum to pierce her side with his left spike. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground.
"They tell us we're supposed to leave the merchandise untouched and alive, but since you've been a pain in all of our arses, I think they'd make an exception just this once." He raised his spike and stepped over Kara.
She desperately looked around. The taser was much too far to reach. But the pipe… the pipe! The pipe was within arm's length! She was sure not to make any sudden movements as she wrapped her hand around the pipe.
"Goodbye, Kryptonian," he snarled, bringing his right spike down on Kara. She pulled the pipe on top of her body and held on firmly, closing her eyes tight.
MON-EL
What was taking Kara so long? It would've been better if they'd taken him first. He knew they it would be Kara the moment four guards came in together. Considering how obedient and cooperative he had been, he knew they wouldn't be so careful with him. If only Kara had thought this way! There was no way she could fight off four guards by herself. They were all doomed, including himself and Arinna.
Also who was coming to fetch him? They wouldn't be entirely doomed if he could fight off whoever they sent for him. He would rather die fighting than be sold off to that repulsive woman in the thick fur coat with snakes for hair. He was still royalty after all!
All he could hope was that Kara was okay and had succeeded, but at this point Mon-El wasn't very optimistic.
KARA
When she reopened one eye hesitantly, the first thing she realized was that she was alive! Then she saw Spikes hanging over her, impaled by the pipe in her hands and a spike millimeters from her chest.
Gasping, she shoved him off. She had killed him. Killed him. She hadn't planned to kill anyone. Murder was the number one law she intended never to break. But he was going to kill her, did that make it alright?
Her side and arms were bleeding profusely from the spikes and her head spun. Gasping for air, she yanked the tattered shirt off Spikes and tore it into three strips. One for each arm and one for her side. She tied it as tightly as her shaky hands could manage. Taking a shaky breath, she recollected her thoughts. Keys! She needed keys.
She stumbled over to the man in the threshold of the bathroom. After pulling the belts off of the man, she dragged them all into the bathroom and flipped the lock. Of course it locked from the outside. This was a prison after all.
She yanked the ring of four keys from the belt and tried each of them on the double doors that led out of the hallway. It locked on the third key. She made a mental note of which one worked on these doors, then she sprinted down the hall twenty two doors down. The banging on the double doors behind her only made her run faster. When she finally reached the door, she scrambled to figure out which key unlocked the outside door. She gasped in relief when it clicked on the first key. She swung it open.
"Kara!"
"Oh, Kara, thank the gods you're alright!"
The room tilted around Kara and she fell to her knees.
"Kara! Hey, hey! Look at me! Look at me, Kara!" She felt a finger pulling her chin up. She refocused her eyes to see Mon-El's eyes, staring into her, "I need you to focus, okay? A whole lotta people are depending on you, including me, so I need you to not pass out on me, okay? Kara, can you do that?"
Kara blinked a few times and shoved all the pain aside and nodded. She pulled herself up with the bar and tried the second and fourth key into the groove. The fourth clicked and turned.
"Yes!" Arinna shouted in approval.
"I'm sorry," Kara whispered. Her world had begun to blur at the edges. Mon-El bolted out of the cell to catch Kara before she fell over. Her eyes fluttered closed.
"No, no, no, Kara, don't you dare…"
HEYO IM BACK :D
If you saw my recent chapter on my other story, you already know I almost abandoned this fic, but I found some time to write and I have a long chapter up and about for you all.
Anyways, hope you liked it. Is Kara alright?! You'll find out next chapter, mwahaha. BTW quartz crowns were the currency used when there was a bounty on Kara's head from Rhea, so I thought I'd keep that consistent.
If you watch Supernatural, you'd know where the inspiration for Spikes came from (Jefferson Spaceships lol). So disclaimer for that if there's some sort of legal problem, I don't know. Also hmu in the PMs if you wanna rant about Supernatural or Destiel or Flash (Flash fans can go check out my other story, "Wanted") or Supergirl or Karamel or basically anything, because I have a lot to rant about ;)
Also if you saw the Supergirl SDCC panel, you know that Chris Wood was there and confirmed that Mon-El will be back for season 3 (internally screams with happiness).
Please review to give me more motivation to write (aka faster updates haha)
Until next time…