Updated chapter 21! Hope you enjoy!
Kara awakens to pouring rain and War Machine tapping on her forehead.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." –Rhodey says, relief palpable even through the armor's speakers.
She groans as she rises, looking around the place she landed. She's on what remains of the top floor of an office building near OsCorp Tower – empty, thankfully, but utterly destroyed by the crash. Her uniform's in tatters, too, especially around her midsection, where the beam hit – her abs are completely exposed, unharmed but covered in soot, and her skirt is nowhere to be found, the rest of the suit torn and singed in places.
Lena will get a kick out of this, probably – she used to laugh every time Kara complained that the girls in the anime shows they watched seemed to lose their clothing entirely at random. She fastens the bottom of her cape around her midriff, sort of like a Greek chiton. "Thanks, Rhodey." –she says. "How long was I out?"
He hums. "Couple minutes, if that. I would've tried to catch you, but the killer robots got in the way." –he says, nudging the broken remains of a HAMMER Industries drone with one of his jet boots. "Plus, you got struck by lightning in midair. Terrifying, but...kinda cool."
She blinks. "I'm sorry, what?"
"JARVIS says you got polarized by the beam." –he shrugs. "Doesn't seem to have affected you much, though."
"Yeah, well, I guess the Tesseract was more than enough." –she says. "That thing packs a wallop, geez."
"Tesseract? Like...the cube Loki opened the portal with?"
She nods. "The energy of it, at least. I was struck with a beam shot from the reactor core of a S.H.I.E.L.D.-upgraded version of Obadiah Stane's armor." –she explains. "Some merc is piloting it on behalf of Centipede, hunting Lena because she stole a viable sample of their Super Soldier Serum."
"Jesus. Tony's gonna be thrilled about that one." –War Machine groans, long-suffering. "Y'know, the Air Force was a lot simpler than whatever this is."
Kara's suddenly very glad Lena isn't around to bring up the laundry list of issues with the US Military-Industrial complex. "It's Avengers business, Rhodey. Better get used to it." –she snarks. "Help me take down Titanium Man?"
A squadron of drones zip by them, followed very closely by Iron Man. Even through the storm, Kara can hear Tony ranting about Justin Hammer. "We'll catch up with you once these guys are dealt with." –he promises. "I'll radio in S.H.I.E.L.D. for reinforcements, too."
"No, don't." –Kara finds herself saying. She winces. "Something isn't adding up with S.H.I.E.L.D.; first their convoys get attacked, now we find out they reverse-engineered Tony's armor tech and combined it with the Tesseract's energy? And let it get stolen? I think Fury and his goons know a little more than they're letting on." –she says.
Rhodey hums, a little disconcerted. "Right...well, be careful, then. We'll be there ASAP."
"Roger that." –she says. "Godspeed, Colonel."
All things considered, the damage from their brief fight doesn't look too bad; only about half a dozen floors around Lena's office could be considered as destroyed, and none of them are on fire, thankfully. She flies in through the massive hole she left in her wake, finding the place empty, as expected. She then makes her way to what remains of the CEO's office. Again, no one.
Kara purses her lips; clearly, Centipede expected their little excursion – maybe they did hack into her conversation with Lena, somehow. Then again, it's looking increasingly likely that S.H.I.E.L.D. has some leaks to plug – which she can only hope Alex has nothing to do with. In any case, Centipede expected her to come, but...they weren't ready for her, were they? Kara's willing to bet that Titanium Man's Tesseract-boosted Unibeam – say that three times fast – was his trump card, and the worst it managed to do was knock the wind out of her and ruin yet another suit. The prospect of an extended fight isn't looking good for them, which only makes her wonder how they expect to win this conflict.
The noise of the storm outside lessens, somewhat, which lets her realize that a firefight is going on far below her; she plunges into the empty space in the middle of OsCorp Tower, trying to assess the situation. OsCorp's lobby once again hosts something of a battlefield, though this time, the bullets aren't filled with fancy paint, and the costumed heroes have a little more in the way of experience. The Avengers have been busy; well over a dozen bodies are strewn about the floor, both living and dead, defeated by the more...down to Earth trio of Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Captain America. The mercs don't seem to be much of a challenge to them, except for one in particular – a woman wielding a pair of electrified whips, seemingly derived from the ones used against Tony by Ivan Vanko, keeping Steve at bay with quick, accurate lashes of her unpredictable energy weapons. She's lightly armored, including a simple faceplate shaped like a downwards pointed chevron, a chestplate, an armored shoulder pauldron on her left arm, gauntlets and greaves, all colored a blue-ish shade of silver.
First Stane's armor, and now this? Kara's beginning to sense a theme, here.
She dives in, grabbing a surprised merc by the ammo harness on their chest, and throwing them at the Whiplash successor. She manages to dive to the side, demonstrating somewhat superhuman reflexes and agility, lashing out in turn with one of her whips. Kara actually manages to catch it, but it proves to be a fool-hardy move; Whiplash 2.0 supercharges the whip and a surge of electricity courses through her body, making her cry out in pain.
Fortunately for Kara, Steve takes quick advantage of the situation, using his shield to cut through the tensed cable, sawing off one of the villain's whips. The current ceases, leaving Kara panting as the Avengers finish the villain off, quickly becoming encased in quickly hardening foam by one of Hawkeye's trick arrows, and knocked out by a roundhouse kick from Widow. Cap then throws his shield, somehow bouncing it off all three of the remaining mercs' heads.
"You ok?" –he asks her, easily catching the massive discus.
She rolls her shoulder, her muscles still feeling the burn from the zap. "I'm fine. Electrocution hurts, but it won't kill me." –she says. "Kinda took the wind out of my sails, though."
He smirks. "Happens to the best of us." –he says. Outside, various emergency vehicles have gathered – she can see everything from SWAT vans to ambulances. Steve follows her gaze and nods. "I'll handle the authorities. Hawkeye and Widow, secure the area, prep the wounded for treatment."
"I'll find Titanium Man." –Supergirl says, scowling. "We've got a score to settle."
"Just keep your focus, Kara. Don't make it easy for them to catch you off-balance." –he advises, then winces. "'Titanium Man', huh? Stark's gonna love that."
Kara snorts. "So I keep hearing." –she says, sarcastic. "Any idea where they went?"
"Down the chute." –Widow says, pointing her thumb at the elevator. Kara hadn't noticed, but there's a hole where the elevator doors used to be – the kind a massive suit of power armor might've left behind, trying to catch up with Peter and Lena.
"Right..." –she mutters. "Well, here goes nothing."
Supergirl dives into the opening, powering through a mess of concrete, plexiglas, and aluminum. Down at the bottom, the mangled remains of the elevator lead to another set of broken doors, which she flies through – and almost immediately gets shot by a mercenary. The woman's reflexes must be commended, but the bullets, of course, bounce harmlessly off her chest. Kara takes advantage of the momentary confusion to dive forward, yanking the assault rifle out of her hands with one hand and pushing the merc away with an open palm to the solar plexus. The power behind the strike is minimal, but she still hears the distinctive crunch of fractured bones, as the soldier bounces off a nearby wall and onto the floor, groaning in pain.
Kara winces, but continues on, following the imprint of Titanium Man's massive footsteps into a sort of...tram station, a jarring find beneath the high tech obsidian monolith that is OsCorp. The tram leads north, and it's protected by about twenty of the same kind of generic mercs from before, all of whom immediately point their weapons at her.
"Um...hi." –she waves. "So, those don't really work on me. Like, at all. Why don't I save you guys the ammo and instead you just tell me what's going on here?"
The apparent leader, a grizzled man in his late fifties or early sixties, derisively curls his lip at her. "Cross her off, boys."
Supergirl crosses her arms, resigned, as a hail of bullets harmlessly bounces off of her. After a few seconds, they all run out, and she shakes her head, disappointed. "See what I mean?" –she says, calmly walking towards them. "There's literally nothing you can do to me that I'll even feel, so just drop your weapons and answer my questions."
Desperate, the leader yells. "Light her up, dammit!"
Ever dutiful, the squad shoots her again. Kara keeps walking, unfazed. "What is she, the fucking Terminator!?" –one of the mercs fearfully asks as he depletes his ammo.
"Guys, come on!" –she says, pitying. "Did they even tell you you'd be fighting the Avengers? Even the non-bulletproof ones would kick your asses."
The leader lowers his weapon. "Wait a fucking minutes. You're an Avenger?" –he asks, genuinely surprised.
"Geez. Out of the loop, much? I've been on the team for a while, now."
He scowls. "Centipede's fucking everywhere, Avenger. They pulled me from Vienna, García's posted in Morelia, Smith and Morgan were brought in from Austin, and the techie back there is stationed in Los Angeles." –he says, pointing to a timid younger woman, half-hidden at the tram's controls. "Shit-ton of labs and secret little compounds everywhere, you get the idea."
"Uh...should we be telling her this, boss?" –the tech expert asks.
The guy shrugs. "Fuck it, Mary, they ain't paying us enough for this, anyway." –he says.
Kara raises an eyebrow. "So, what's the mission here?"
"Four squads, complement of Enhanced. Breach OsCorp, grab an alien device from the CEO's office. Shouldn't be any opposition, the place was supposed to have been closed for inspection or some shit." –he grumbles. "Of course, then the freak in the spider costume and that hot brunette took the serum and ran, so we had to play catch-up."
Kara scowls. "And the Enhanced?"
He grunts in disgust. "Couple of nutjobs, you ask me. The chick with the whips, she's doped up with one of their serums. Fucking liability, honestly – they say the juice makes you go nuts after a while, so I'm glad she wasn't assigned to my squad. Then again, we got sidled with the lazy jackass in the powered armor, so maybe they're the lucky ones."
Well, none of you are dead, so probably not, she thinks. "Then...you didn't know we'd be here?" –she surmises.
"Would've brought some heavier shit if we had, so...no."
Kara hums. "Well, thanks for the info. You guys are surprisingly talkative." –she says, then charges forward, straight into their loose formation. It's a bit of a slaughter, to be honest – no one dies, but they're all just scared, baseline humans. It doesn't matter whether they shoot or punch her; to her, it's all the same – which is to say, completely harmless.
The only person left conscious is the techie, cowering beneath the tram's controls. "Oh God, please don't kill me! I'm on your side!" –she pleads.
Kara crosses her arms. "I don't kill." –she states. "Your squadmates are just unconscious. What do you mean, you're on my side, Mary?"
"Mary? Oh, the alias. Well, it used to be my name, back in the orphanage. No, call me Skye." –she says, less terrified but still nervous, rambling. "I really am on your side. We have a mutual friend in Daredevil." –she explains.
The Kryptonian's eyes widen in surprise. "You're the hacker he mentioned?"
She scrunches her nose at that. "I prefer the word hacktivist, but yeah! I'm, uh...her. Matt asked me to look into Centipede a while back, which led me to one of their labs in L.A., which I, um...infiltrated."
Kara shakes her head. "You infiltrated Centipede? Do you guys not get that these people are extremely dangerous?"
"Hey, we all have our talents, alright? I know I don't look like much, but I can fake any ID and sell some fake interest in fascist ideology with the best of them." –she says, defensive. "Besides, I'm not the one planning battle dates over Twitter."
The blonde blushes madly. "How do you know about that?"
Skye winces. "I sort of...maybe...tried to find some dirt on all of the Avengers?"
Kara narrows her eyes. "...yeah, you're gonna have to explain that one to me."
"Look, I'll tell you on the way." –she compromises. "You do want to catch up to Lena and Spidey, right?"
"Fine." –Kara says. "But you better have a good reason for reading my DMs, hacktivist."
As always, thank you for your attention! Make sure to comment or message me if you have any questions about this story. Look me up on Twitter as Darthkvzn or Tumblr as darthkvznblogs if you'd like - and on Ko-fi, as Darthkvzn, if you like what I do and have a buck to spare.
Until next time!