A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And thank you to DaisyJane for the beta. There is a quote from a certain 90s movie in this chapter, brownie points to whoever gets it first :)

In the blink of an eye,

I was falling from the sky,

In the blur, you took my breath away,

And my heart starts beating,

And my lungs start breathing,

And the voice in my head starts screaming,

I'm alive,

You're like a laserlight burning down,

Burning down on me,

You're like a laserlight burning down,

Burning down on me,

LaserLight—Jessie J

Chapter Thirteen

Ignoring the impossibility of the situation, Alexa stayed calm. She could escape with minimum effort if she needed to, but for now she was unharmed and being taken somewhere. Which meant either this was Gorilla Grodd reincarnated to … really big, or this ape was being used by someone else, for reasons unknown. But if she didn't struggle, then those reasons wouldn't remain unknown for long. The massive fingers around her squeezed tighter and crushed ribs. Reflexively, she pried the fingers holding her apart. As she did though, King Kong flickered somehow, went blue and wibbly like a hologram. And then it was gone completely, leaving her in mid-air.

Instinct would have saved her, obviously, but it didn't have to. Because after she'd fallen about three feet, someone caught her. "Oh."

"Are you alright?" Kal asked worriedly.

She nodded. "Humiliated, but fine."

"Humiliated?"

"Well, yeah. I was just kidnapped and then rescued. That hasn't happened since I was- That's never happened." She smiled charmingly at him. "When anyone in the League asks, this was part of the plan to draw out King Kong, right?"

He grinned. "Right. Though you realise you could have stopped that thing without any effort, don't you?"

"Yeah, but not without blowing my cover," she pointed out. "I'm just a silly society heiress, remember? Completely harmless." He snorted, and Alexa laughed. "Well maybe not completely harmless. But I have a cover to maintain."

"You were about to tell your fiancé," he pointed out as he set her down on a roof.

She raised an eyebrow. "You were eavesdropping?"

"Not intentionally."

"Private conversations exist even when you have radar ears, Kal," she said heatedly. "I don't listen to everything I hear."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have done it and I don't know why I did."

"I have to tell Michael," she said, more gently now. "Aside from the fact that it would be unfair of me to marry him before he knows the truth, if I'm going to spend the rest of my life with him-"

"But you're not though," he interrupted quietly. "Alexa, he gets to spend the rest of his life with you, but you can't do the same. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can. It's a harsh lesson to learn, believe me."

She was torn between wanting to comfort him and still being annoyed. He'd given up that chance. She was interrupted by a great roar that went up across the city—this one not animal, but reptilian. They both looked east, to the river and to where a massive, five hundred foot high lizard was busy storming through the city's industrial district.

"Is that…Godzilla?" Alexa demanded.

"Looks like it. Godzilla and King Kong—what is going on?"

"I'll head to the Metrotower as soon as I can, find out where these things are coming from. Do you need backup?"

Kal shook his head. "I don't think so. After I'm done, I'll come to the Metrotower and we can track down whatever this is."

"Alright. Be careful."

She watched him go, and then was distracted by her cell phone ringing. Somehow she'd managed not to drop her purse in all the commotion. Caller-ID told her it was Michael. She answered in a fake shaky tone, "I-I'm alright, Michael."

He knew that she was intelligent and level-headed, but most normal people would at least be a bit freaked out after having King Kong grab them off a balcony. She couldn't explain everything about herself to him now, so she kept up appearances.

He let out an explosive breath of relief. "Are you sure? You don't sound alright."

Alexa stopped herself from rolling her eyes and continued in a quietly shocked voice. "I'm sure. Superman saved me."

"I saw. Are you still with him?"

"No, he dropped me off and went to deal with … Godzilla."

"Where are you?"

"Um … my best guess would be the roof of the art gallery," she said, looking at the buildings around her.

"He couldn't have put you on a sidewalk?" Michael muttered.

"I-I think he had other things on his mind, Michael. In any case I can get down."

"How're you going to do that, fly?"

She was unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes this time. "Roof access," she said patiently. There was a door, which was locked, but that really wasn't a problem. "Might need some help getting out of the building though."

"I'm on my way."

"Ask the President if you can borrow some of his security," she joked weakly.

As soon as she went inside the main corridors of the art gallery, the cameras picked her up and security guards were dispatched. Alexa had about a minute to turn herself into a blubbering trembling mess—so she proceeded to do just that. When the security guards careened around the corner with flashlights and tasers pointed squarely at her, Alexa had tears falling down her cheeks and she could barely walk. It wasn't subtle, but it fooled the guards.

"What the – Who the hell are you?"

Alexa burst into fresh sobs. "I – My name's … Oh my God …"

"Jesus, Henry, put that taser down!" the older guard barked to his partner. He turned back to Alexa. "It's Miss Wayne, isn't it? Alexandra Wayne?"

'Henry' snorted. "That's not –"

Alexa nodded. "Yeah, I'm Alexa Wayne, c-can you help me? P-please? I need to get to my fiancé …"

"Okay, honey, we'll help you. How did you get in here?"

"There – There was – I don't even believe it, I – It's was King Kong. It was fucking King Kong, and I thought he was gonna kill me! B-but then Superman saved me –"

"That's what he does for folks here, ma'am, we're lucky to have him," the older guard said. "So he put you on the roof?"

"Y-yeah, but he had to go …"

Between the two guards, Alexa managed to get down to the lobby, slowly getting 'calmer' until her tears were almost over, for the time being. In the lobby, the Secret Service—looked like Michael had managed to borrow some of the President's along with his own—were physically breaking in through the glass doors. Michael was there, along with a huge crowd of paparazzi. When they had smashed their way in, no one apologised. Alexa burst into fresh sobs and threw herself into Michael's arms. He seemed just as convinced as everyone else by the act, or he understood the importance of it, because he didn't do anything except hug her closely, stroke her hair and whisper soothing words into her ear.

When she'd calmed down a bit, he pulled back. "Are you hurt?"

"D-don't think so," she sniffed, wiping her eyes.

He kissed her forehead. "Thank God. Come on, let's get out of here."

Fifteen minutes later, they were both in her hotel suite, Alexa tucked up in bed, feigning emotional exhaustion. To be fair, faking tears for a prolonged period could be tiring.

"Here," Michael said, passing her a glass of water and a small white pill. "Something to help you sleep."

She took it, and pretended to swallow both. Not that she didn't trust Michael, she did, but she also intended to go and help Kal as soon as possible, and even a tiny amount of drowsiness wouldn't help with that.

"Thanks."

He plumped up the pillows behind her. "You're welcome, honey."

The word sounded strange; it belonged to couples who weren't them—couples for whom 'darling', 'sweetheart' and 'love' came naturally. Couples who were deeply in love. Couples like her parents. She wrinkled her nose a little bit. "Don't call me that, Michael."

He nodded seriously. "Alright. Is there anything else you need, Alexa? Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No, I'll be alright. Thank you though. Would you give my apologies to everyone?"

"Of course." He kissed her. "I'll be back in an hour or so. Get some rest."

As soon as he was gone, Alexa got up and slipped her com-link into her ear. "Batwoman to Superman."

"Get off the roof okay?"

"Yeah. Had to fake a few tears, but I'm all yours now. What do you need?"

"To find out where the hell these things are coming from. So far we've had Godzilla, a giant worm, a huge spider and a pterodactyl thing. They hit me, I hit back, land half a dozen blows and then they disappear like King Kong did."

"Alright, I'll track down the source of the hard light constructs and get back to you. Batwoman out."

Next, she accessed the Batcave computer remotely, using voice-command her father had built into it decades ago. "Computer, beam suit two to my location."

"Voice print accepted. Charging teleport now."

A few seconds later, her batsuit was lying on the bed in front of her. She threw it on quickly and then opened the balcony doors and took to the sky. She headed for the balcony of the ballroom, diving down to the ground where she might find anything useful. She closed her eyes briefly, visualising where she had been when King Kong had appeared. Once she had, she went down to the ground to have a thorough search. She didn't find anything on the ground but then she noticed a tiny silver box attached to the wall.

Alexa scanned it with x-ray, infrared and for any other kind of energy signature, with no results. It appeared to be completely inactive, so she touched it, examining it more closely. It was plain, apart from a circular hole in the centre at the front, and a similar one at the top. Alexa took a small laser pointer from her belt, acting on a hunch, and lined it up with the front hole. A jet of red light lanced forwards, shifting diagonally to the left. She followed it to a building opposite and found another little box. This one linked to another, and so on. All in all, there were four silver boxes, forming a cage 200m square. Alexa pried the last one off the wall and pulled the casing apart. Clearly a computer of some sort, but she'd check through its programming when she got to the cave. The important thing was finding their source. There was definitely a receiver here, as well as the transmitter for King Kong, but it had obviously stopped receiving as soon as the gorilla had disappeared. In order to trace the signal, Alexa needed one of these boxes that was still active.

She touched her com-link. "Batwoman to Superman. Are you still being attacked?"

"Yeah," he said tightly. Then there was the unmistakable sound of a body being put through several metres of concrete. After the noise had faded, he said, "Dragon this time."

"I found what's causing them. Any chance you could keep this one busy without destroying it?"

"You mean, can I let it breathe fire all over me and not hit it back, and do absolutely nothing else?" he replied, apparently through gritted teeth.

"I didn't say do nothing," she said, shooting into the air. "You can dodge."

It was easy enough to find Kal and the dragon when she was in the air; they were making enough noise to wake the dead, then there were bursts of light and heat as fireballs rose into the air. If it was all simulated … it was a very clever piece of engineering. It looked like she was right about the limitations of it though—it wasn't actually moving much. Instead of heading to Kal to help, she dove down to the dragon's feet, looking for more of the silver boxes. It was a fairly simple task: they were connected by a blue line of light. She went quickly to the nearest one and pulled the casing off gently.

"Got it yet?"

"Not yet. Keep it busy."

She plugged her computer into the box, accessing the programming. It was guarded by firewalls, which was expected, but they were almost primitive compared to what she was used to. Within thirty seconds, she'd bypassed them.

At that moment, a Kryptonian slammed into the sidewalk not ten feet from her. He got to his feet almost immediately. "You know this plan of my dodging? It's not working."

"I'm back-tracing the signal now," she called back.

"Any great ideas in the meantime?"

"Just move faster."

"Move faster," he muttered. "Great idea."

Alexa's attention was focused on the computer in her hands; she barely noticed the dragon issuing a bellow of flame at her, or Kal using his own body as a shield. The computer was narrowing it down quickly. "United States … Eastern seaboard … Metropolis … come on, come on, come on …" Here though, the signal seemed to dither for too long, before finally settling in the park. "I've got it!" she yelled to Kal.

A second later, the dragon gave a huge roar as it was punched to earth. Kal followed it, and only he landed; the dragon disappeared into nothing before it hit the ground. Kal looked pretty beaten up himself. His suit was torn in several places and he had bruises coming up. Alexa checked the time—only a few hours till sun-up.

She put a gentle hand up, turned his face with a concerned frown. Black eye too. "You look like hell."

"Gee, thanks. Where's the signal coming from?"

She lowered her hand and pointed at the five-inch screen. "The park, southern end."

"Let's go then."

They were about halfway to the park when another roar went out across the city, this one more reptilian than even the dragon had been. Easy to see why—it was a hydra, three heads hissing and spitting in every direction.

"That's the hospital district," Kal said, heading for it.

Alexa caught his shoulder. "I'll deal with it. The machine in the park will probably be lightly guarded because of its location. Destroy it gently, if you can."

"Be careful."

Even knowing it was only a hologram (albeit a solid one) Alexa avoided severing any heads. Instead, she went for body shots, planting explosive devices where she could and blowing limbs off instead of heads. It might have been a mistake, since one of those heads suddenly swooped down to bite her head off – She threw her arm up, and the hydra broke its teeth on her bracer instead. Shortly afterwards, it disappeared.

"Machine's down," Kal's voice said in her ear. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. You need to get to sunlight as soon as possible though."

"It'll be dawn in three hours."

"It's already dawn over the Atlantic."

She could hear the smile in his voice. "Yes, ma'am."

"I'll see you in the Metrotower tomorrow."

No answer, which was a little odd, but he was probably in the middle of the ocean by now. She directed her message to the Metrotower instead. "Batwoman to Metrotower. Let me know when Superman checks in."

"Roger that."

She had less than five minutes to get back to her hotel room before the hour Michael had said he'd be gone was up. When she was back inside, she tore the batsuit off, stuffing it into her luggage and burying it under other clothes. Hardly ideal, but it would have to do. She'd only just slipped back into bed when the door opened, and Michael came in. Hastily, she covered her ear (com-link still in) with her hair.

Michael looked surprised to find her still up. "Hey. What're you still doing awake?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"Really? That pill should've knocked you out. Want another one?"

She shook her head. "Not now that you're here."

He smiled. "Give me five minutes."

After he'd changed for bed, Alexa actively snuggled, mindful that she was still supposed to be scared, seeking comfort. Michael's arms were warm and comfortable, and she had no problem drifting off into genuine, dreamless sleep in them.

"What do you mean, 'He hasn't checked in yet'?"

"I – I'm sorry, Batwoman," stammered the unfortunate civilian member of staff in front of her, "but he didn't check in, and –"

"Move out of the way," she snapped.

"But only I'm supposed to access –"

"Move!"

He moved, and Alexa scrolled quickly through the list of League members who had checked in or set foot inside the Metrotower within the last twenty-four hours. Kal's name was not on the list. Quickly, she checked for logs submitted. That was what had led to this situation; she'd emailed her report to the Metrotower to be added to Superman's, only for the Metrotower to respond with a denial that any such report had been received from Kal. It appeared they had been telling the truth. Worry was slowly blossoming into panic in the pit of her stomach. She had tried contacting Kal via his com-link—no answer.

"Where's his com-link location?" she barked at another technician.

"We're not getting a signal."

"Where did it place him the last time you did?"

"Metropolis Park, 1:17 a.m. yesterday."

The time when he suddenly hadn't replied to her. "Shit."

A/N: Review please!