Chapter 2: Metropolis SCU Blue

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.

Metropolis, Year 2 ASW

"Officer Margaret Sawyer, reporting for duty, sir!"

Inspector William "Bill" Henderson, commanding officer of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit, looked up from his desk to regard the young woman standing in front of it. The Metropolis PD uniform looked brand-new and the woman inside of it couldn't be much older, either. Certainly no older than 20, he estimated, fresh out of the academy. Blonde hair cut very short, standing at rigid attention, she projected the very image of a young and eager police officer straight off a recruitment poster.

"At ease, officer," he finally said, causing the woman to relax slightly and shift to parade rest.

"Sir," she simply said, looking straight ahead.

He dug through the many file folders littering his desk until he finally found what he was looking for. The folder containing the info on the new recruits scheduled to bolster the department's numbers. The Special Crimes Unit of the Metropolis PD was still a relatively new institution, created but a few months after THAT day. Talk to any citizen of Metropolis (or the world at large, for that matter) and everyone knew what was meant by THAT day. The day the world had changed forever when a flying woman had saved a plane full of passengers from certain doom. The day the world learned that people with superpowers existed. It hadn't taken long after that for the first superpowered criminals to make trouble, too.

For some reason Metropolis had more than its fair share of them, hence the city had been one of the first to create a special police division to deal with out-of-the-ordinary threats. Superwoman was great, no doubt, but she was just one woman and couldn't be counted on to be everywhere all the time. Never mind that it was still the cops' job to protect the city, not a flying woman's from outer space, no matter how awesome she might be.

"Margaret Sawyer," Henderson finally found her page in the folder. "Fresh transfer from Star City after graduating the SC police academy with honors. Says here you applied for this posting even before you graduated, officer. Any particular reason?"

"Sir, I heard about this new department and its purpose during my final year of training. I applied on the very next day."

"Eager to hunt super villains, officer?" Henderson asked, somewhat weary. The last thing his department needed was a thrill seeker.

"No, sir. I do believe, though, that we are facing an entirely new form of criminal activity, one that will benefit from having fresh minds and fresh outlooks."

He could tell the response was prepared, but that did not make it any less true. A lot of the veterans on the force had trouble accepting that there were perps with high-tech combat suits, that they might face robots or giant apes, or that they might have to count on a flying woman to come save them from some kind of mutated monster. Young people, not as set in their ways, might well have an easier time of it. Maybe.

"Why Metropolis, though?" Henderson asked. "I hear Star City is considering an SCU of its own. You could have gotten in on the ground floor there."

"I had… personal reasons for leaving Star City, sir."

Henderson nodded, not intending to pry any further than that. Sawyer would certainly not be the first police officer to ask for reassignment in order to escape from some kind of personal situation. The only thing he cared about was whether she could do the job.

"Okay, Officer Sawyer. Welcome to the Metropolis SCU then. Hope you survive the experience!"

Maggie's first two weeks on the job were boring as hell. She was reading up on procedure, getting acquainted with the special ordnance the SCU was using courtesy of S.T.A.R. Labs, and getting to know the city. Necessary, all of it, but still boring as hell.

Early in the third week, though, the SCU responded to an emergency call and boredom went out the window.

"Okay, people, listen up," Henderson told the officers as their armored transport carried them towards the incident site with screaming sirens. "Five minutes ago we received a report about some huge muscle guy appearing in a flash of light in the middle of Metropolis Grand Central Station. Some officers confronted him and then all hell broke loose. Explosions, building coming down, and scattered reports about some sort of giant robot, too. It's pandemonium out there."

He looked at each of them in turn.

"I've been told that an SOS has already gone out to call Superwoman to the scene. Unfortunately we received a report that she is currently somewhere in the Pacific. Something about a volcano, I was told. So it looks like, boys and girls, that we will have to take care of this one on our own. No flying woman coming to the rescue this time. But we're the SCU and we don't like super-powered freaks or freak robots tearing up our town, right?"

Grunts of agreement echoed around the transport.

"Okay, we're there. You all know your job, so get out and do it!"

The transport screeched to a stop and the SCU officers emerged into a scene of total chaos. Maggie had been to Metropolis Grand Central before, but roughly half the building was simply gone. Fires were burning among the rubble and smoke filled the air. Maggie looked around, seeing that fire trucks and ambulances were already on the scene as well. A moment later there was a mighty crash and another part of the damaged building collapsed.

"That way," Henderson yelled, leading the charge.

Maggie didn't hesitate and ran after the Inspector. The gun in her arms, a special rifle that fired rocket-propelled titanium-tipped bullets strong enough to rip through reinforced steel, seemed to weigh a ton. She had fired it a dozen times in training, but never in a real-life situation. Thankfully she was wearing tactical gloves, otherwise she was sure it would already have slipped through her sweaty palms.

The SCU officers entered through one of the train station's side entrances, though it took a moment to make it through the flood of civilians running the other way. There was screaming from inside, another huge crash, and Maggie almost lost her balance when the ground beneath them shook from some sort of tremendous impact.

Finally they made it inside and Maggie paused a second to take in the scene. They were in the main part of the station near the rail platforms. Thankfully it seemed that the vast majority of civilians had already escaped, only a few stragglers were still present. Some idiots were standing near the walls, taking pictures. There was even a news crew, filming the entire thing. She would have despaired over the stupidity of some people, but a moment later her eyes finally found the perpetrators of the chaos.

The robot was the first thing she saw. Maggie wasn't sure when exactly robots became a thing one could encounter in everyday life, but the SCU even had training courses for encountering runaway war machines these days. The thing they were facing now was huge, at least three times as tall as your average human, and almost as broad. It was made from gleaming crimson metal and positively bristled with weaponry, both guns and several wicked looking blades. Even as she watched a compartment in its shoulder opened and two missiles launched from it. With its other arm the robot grabbed the nearest train, ripping one of the wagons loose, and lifted it effortlessly, throwing it at someone standing roughly thirty feet away.

Maggie looked at the robot's opponent, and, yes, huge muscle guy was certainly a fitting description. He was a very tall and broad man, standing at least seven feet, and sported a large mohawk haircut. He was clad in a formfitting blue and orange uniform that looked like it was painted onto his chiseled physique, the only identifying feature a huge eye-like symbol on his chest. Maggie's mouth fell open as the huge guy moved with an ease defying his bulk to evade the two missiles, before simply swatting the train wagon aside. Both missiles and wagon crashed into the walls of the station, doing even more damage to the building. Maggie was sure the roof would come down on them any second now.

"Who's the bad guy, inspector?" one of the other SCU officers asked. Between a heavily armed giant robot and a muscle guy who was obviously super strong, it was a valid question.

"They're tearing our city apart, Spunkmeyer, so as far as I'm concerned, they both are. Lock and load, open fire on my signal!"

Taking a megaphone, Henderson took a step towards the two warring brutes, who had so far shown no signs of noticing the arrival of the police or if they had, they simply did not care.

"This is the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit! Cease all hostile actions immediately! On your knees and hands above your heads or we will open fire!"

Maggie hadn't really thought that this would work, and predictably it did not. While the mohawk guy just spared them a brief glance before focusing on his opponent again, the robot turned toward them. It didn't have any facial features worth mentioning, but Maggie imagined its red eye slits were narrowing.

"Declaration: I am Murdermek! Intercorp Death Droid, classification 42119. Statement: You interfere with my mission!"

Its huge right arm came up and Maggie found herself looking directly into the muzzle of the largest gun she had ever seen.

"Open fire!" Henderson yelled.

Maggie pulled the trigger without any conscious thought and was almost deafened by the sound of weapons' fire. Dozens of rocket-propelled bullets impacted against the giant robot's frame... and did no damage whatsoever. The bullets merely bounced off the metallic hide, not even leaving a dent. Maggie had seen these bullets tear down steel walls. What was that thing made of?

From the corner of her eye she saw the big mohawk guy start to move towards them. Then the robot returned fire.

Maggie blinked, not sure what had happened. She found herself lying on her back, her ears ringing like crazy, and spots were dancing across her vision. Her rifle was no longer in her hand. With a groan she sat up, feeling bruised all over, and looked around. There was a huge crater where she had been standing last she remembered. Of the huge red robot there was no sign, though from the sounds of things he had moved on and was causing more damage somewhere else.

"Better stay down, police officer," a deep voice said beside her. "I fear this is out of your league."

She looked up and saw the huge mohawk guy shrugging off pieces of rubble and climbing back to his feet. The fabric across his huge chest was shredded and she could see some scattered bruises beginning to form on the flesh underneath. Had he... had he taken some of the bullets meant for her team? No, that was nonsense. A robot shrugging off bullets, okay, but a flesh-and-blood guy? No way! Maggie stood up with some difficulty and drew her sidearm. She still had perp to catch.

In the blink of an eye he was in front of her and squeezed the barrel of her gun shut with two fingers.

"I am not here to hurt anyone," mohawk guy told her. "Believe it or not, we are in the same occupation! It is my job to stop this automation!"

Maggie opened her mouth, but no words came out. She was in over her head. She had no idea what to do. Apparently mohawk guy thought so, too, because he just left her standing there and ran in the general direction of the noise, running faster than most cars could drive.

For a long moment Maggie just stood there, useless sidearm pointed at empty air, uncertain what to do. Looking around, she saw that most of her colleagues were down, though from the groans she heard it seemed they were merely unconscious (she hoped). Henderson and two or three others were missing, probably having avoided whatever knocked the rest of them down and having followed the robot.

"Suck it up, Sawyer," she muttered to herself. Spotting one of the rifles lying a few feet away, she quickly picked it up and ran after mohawk guy. She might be completely out of her league, but she was still a police officer. And she still had a perp to catch.

The fight had moved into the entrance hall of the train station, where a few civilians had yet to evacuate. Several cops, Henderson among them, were firing on the robot, who was completely ignoring them at this point. It seemed entirely focused on mohawk guy, who was slugging it out with the big tin can and seemed to be holding his own despite being barely half its size. Inevitably he caught some bullets as well, but they simply bounced off his hide as if it was nothing. Yep, he was bullet proof after all!

Okay, Sawyer, she told herself. Both of these guys just laughed at bullets. Shooting at them only meant that innocents might catch the ricochets, nothing more. She was reasonably sure that the robot was the bigger threat, so priority one was to take it down. Mohawk guy was doing his best but didn't seem to make much progress.

The robot's shoulder compartment opened up to reveal more missiles about to launch and Maggie acted without thinking. Lining up the rifle, she pumped a number of bullets directly into that spot. Her aim was true and the resulting explosion blinded her for a moment, making her stagger back.

"Great shot, Sawyer," Henderson said, suddenly by her side to steady her. "I think you... oh damn!"

When the smoke cleared, the robot was still standing, though its shoulder seemed damaged at least.

"Observation: local law enforcers are becoming a nuisance. Conclusion: Eliminate the nuisance!"

"Hit the deck!" Henderson yelled.

The two cops dove to the ground, even as some kind of energy weapon ignited the air where their heads had been but a moment ago. Maggie could feel her short hair begin to smolder from the heat.

"You are not killing anyone while I am still here, machine!" mohawk guy yelled, driving his huge frame into the robot's torso. There was actually a dent where he hit, but the robot seemed unbothered. A huge blade emerged from one of its arms and mohawk guy only just managed to avoid being sliced open from shoulder to ankle. Unfortunately it sent him straight into the path of one of the robot's giant fists. He went down hard, his body practically imbedded in the concrete.

"Ok, I think we're going to need the army or something," Henderson said, coughing from the smoke in the air.

A shadow fell over the two cops and they looked up to see the giant robot standing above them, its huge gun aimed right at them.

"Statement: Time to die!"

Suddenly the building shook, something that sounded like a sonic boom blew out several windows, and a red and blue blur crashed into the robot with enough force to lift it right off its feet and propel it into the far wall. The blur became a humanoid shape and Maggie found herself gazing at a towering blonde angel in a red and blue suit that clung to her magnificent body like a second skin.

"About time," Henderson grunted.

"Sorry I'm late, inspector," Superwoman told him, a dazzling smile on her face. "Redirecting a lava flow is not as easy as it sounds."

"I'll take your word for it."

Her gaze snapped toward mohawk guy, who was back on his feet and coming towards them. Maggie saw her muscles tense and there was a hint of red in her eyes.

"He is on our side," Maggie suddenly heard herself saying.

Both Henderson and Superwoman looked at her, causing her to feel about three inches tall. "Uh... at least I think so."

"She speaks true, Superwoman," mohawk guy said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "I am O.M.A.C., agent of the Global Peace Agency."

"Never heard of it," Henderson said, his sidearm not quite pointed at the huge guy.

"Well, I am not surprised," O.M.A.C. said. "It is..."

He was cut off as the mountain of rubble Superwoman had propelled the robot into exploded, the crimson menace bursting free. A moment later it raised both its arms and started firing at them.

Maggie closed her eyes, throwing out her hands in a futile gesture to stop death from reaching her, but quite suddenly a red-and-blue shield was standing in front of her and Henderson. Superwoman rocked back on her feet but remained standing as missiles and energy blasts impacted her invulnerable frame, apparently doing no damage whatsoever. When the barrage stooped after a few moments, she moved, bridging the distance towards the robot in the blink of an eye, and hit it with a haymaker that looked like it could have demolished a building.

The robot staggered, its metal hide dented, but remained standing. Then its steel limb lashed out and Superwoman went flying, almost hitting Maggie in the process.

"Statement: Murdermek is invulnerable! Murdermek will not fail!"

O.M.A.C. jumped back into action, using a metal pole like a baseball bat and smashing it into the side of the robot's head. It staggered again, seemingly confused for a second, but caught the pole on its backswing. O.M.A.C. immediately let go of the improvised weapon, though, and slid through the robot's legs. He then kicked it in the back, propelling it forward.

Maggie ran towards the far side of the hall, where Superwoman was climbing back to her feet. The woman pushed a stone pillar that had to weigh at least a ton away from her body with ease.

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked, feeling a bit ridiculous in the process. This woman had weathered a barrage of energy blasts and missiles without looking any worse for wear. Surely hitting a wall would not bother her much.

"It's a lot tougher than I thought," Superwoman said, rubbing her jaw. "Definitely not your average combat robot."

"You have an average for combat robots?" Maggie asked, bewildered. She was sure if she stopped to think too hard about that, her brain would explode.

Superwoman just shrugged, gave her a dazzling smile, and then flew back into action. There was a tremendous boom and then the air positively sizzled. Red light exploded from Superwoman's eyes and the robot's chest plate bubbled, molten metal flowing down its legs like water. Maggie could feel the heat even from halfway across the hall.

"Statement: Murdermek cannot be stopped! My mission will succeed!"

"Not this time," Superwoman growled.

Maggie stumbled as the building shook once more. Both Superwoman and O.M.A.C. hit the robot at the same time and finally the machine seemed to have met its match. It broke apart in a shower of sparks and flying shrapnel, belching smoke, and clattered to the floor.

"I think we're in the clear," Superwoman finally said when the thing did not get back up.

Maggie found that her legs were shaking like crazy, the adrenalin surge wearing off. She simply sat down on the ground and tried to breathe, feeling dizzy. Something was in her eyes and when she brushed the back of her hand over her face, she saw that there was blood on it.

Her eyes rolling back in her head, Maggie fainted.

When she regained consciousness, Maggie found herself in a hospital bed. Her head was bandaged, and her arms were littered with bruises.

"Welcome back, officer," Henderson's gruff voice sounded beside her. "Finally done lazying about?"

She blinked, looking at the inspector. "I... yes, sir. Just give me a minute to find my uniform."

Henderson maintained a stern look for a minute, then smiled. "I think given the circumstances I can give you the rest of the day off, Sawyer. Good job!"

Maggie looked at him, confused. "But... but I didn't really do anything? It was all I could do not to die out there!"

"But you didn't die," Henderson reminded her. "You stayed on your feet until the job was done. Never mind that you were the only one who really managed to damage that big tin can before Superwoman got there. Not bad for your first super crime scene, rookie!"

Maggie ducked her head to hide her blush. "Uh… thank you, sir. What... what happened with that big mohawk guy?"

Henderson leaned back in his chair. "Well, it seems you were right about him being a good guy. Once the robot was down, he immediately cooperated with us and made no further threatening moves. When we saw you collapse – you got decked by a piece of shrapnel, by the way, when that tin can finally went down for the count – Superwoman carried you to the hospital and then..."

Maggie looked up. "Superwoman? She... she carried me?"

Henderson gave her a knowing look. "Now don't feel too special, Sawyer! About a dozen people here in the hospital were carried here personally by her, given that the ambulances could barely get to the scene. But yeah, she took you here and was back at the scene less than a minute later. She briefly spoke with this O.M.A.C. guy for a minute and then, well, he vanished in a flash of light."

"Was he really... I mean, what about that agency he mentioned?"

Henderson shrugged. "No idea, and I figure it's above my pay grade anyway. S.T.A.R. Labs recovered what little remained of the robot and Superwoman helped clear the rubble before she had to head off. Something about a bush fire in the Congo."

Maggie chuckled, trying to dispel the image of being snuggled against that powerful chest with the famous S symbol on it as she was carried through the air.

"Was this a typical day in the SCU?" she finally asked.

Henderson rose, put on his jacket, and headed for the door.

"Keep up the good work, rookie," he merely said, smiling. "See you at the precinct!"

Maggie leaned back, looking out the window. For a moment she imagined seeing a red and blue figure shooting through the sky, but that was probably just her overactive imagination.

End Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Maggie Sawyer as shown in this chapter is based on the original comic book character created by John Byrne for the 1987 Superman ongoing. I changed her history a bit, as Sawyer originally stayed in Star City, married a guy, had a kid, then had her coming out, a divorce, and only then moved to Metropolis to head the SCU, which was formed when Superman first appeared. Since Superwoman debuted quite a few years earlier in this world here than canon Superman did, it changed Maggie's history as well. She moved to Metropolis much sooner and never married. Inspector Henderson previously had a very short appearance in chapter 7 of "Adventures of a Super Family", this chapter here taking place later that same year.

The fight Maggie witnesses is loosely based on DC Comics Presents #61 from 1983 where the Murdermek android is sent from the future into the present to kill the ancestor of Buddy Blank aka O.M.A.C., the One Man Army Corps. O.M.A.C. follows him and teams up with Superman to stop Murdermek. In my version, of course, Maggie doesn't know any of that, she is just happy to have survived her first encounter with superbeings. We'll see more of Maggie as these tales go on, as she makes for a great down-to-Earth POV character for the Super Family's exploits.