Arrival 1.6Breath in. Breath out.
Breath in. Breath out.
A fire without fuel was nothing, and a constant source was required to grow. Paradoxically, it also required constant regulation so that it did not grow out of control. Left unchecked, the embers could easily blossom into a raging wildfire. Under other conditions, Lung would be happy to let it rage.
The cold of the steel biting the various joints and leverage points of his body, and the drugs flowing through his veins instead made it a constant battle to keep the embers lit. His power was so easily suppressed at times. Yet, even restrained and drugged like an animal, Lung could call upon his power in small amounts. It was difficult, like tending a bonfire in a storm, but he was nothing if not persistent.
He shifted in his bindings, and the guards at his cell both looked at him, fingers resting above the triggers of their rifles.
"I fucking hate it when he does that." said the smaller of the two.
The larger shook his head and resumed looking forward, "He's messing with us, trying to make us paranoid."
"Well it's fucking working." the first muttered, imitating his larger comrad.
For some reason, Lung mused, the PRT troopers were feeling a bit jumpy around him. He couldn't possibly imagine why.
Besides, he was only interested in adjusting himself. Being forced to stand unmoving for hours at a time while the gears of bureaucracy ever ground forward would make even the most stoic of men anxious. Patience was a virtue he struggled with, an enemy he often fought.
Yet, now he felt an old enemy was made an ally. The PRT believed his defeat had been a fluke, pure luck from an unknown cape. Lung knew better than them, and he felt the fire within spark anew.
Breath in. Breath out.
This Supergirl was no fresh blood, no green cape that had stumbled onto an astounding victory. There was no hesitation, no uneasiness in her actions. Her attack had been quick, precise. She had determined Lung's and Oni-Lee's weaknesses within seconds. The Supergirl was many things, but Lung did not believe for one second that she was new. That girl had more experience than half the capes in the Brockton Bay, and far more power.
Under other circumstances, Lung could have forced himself out. Stoke the fire of his rage to rip his restraints like so much tissue and return to his throne within the Bay. But now he knew, there was a threat waiting for him. An enemy to be treated with caution.
When the time came, Lung would free himself, and reclaim what was his. But at the moment he would have to sit and bide his time, no matter how much such a concept burned at his pride. He knew for a fact that with his absence, the dogs would descend on his territory to take it for themselves, and there would be new competitors looking for their own cut.
Lung's face split into a grin. Let them come, the more the merrier. As before, he would crush them beneath his might. Even Supergirl would find herself quailing before the might of the Dragon.
-S-
"Pft, some dragon. Motherfucker got his shit pushed in by a fucking girl scout!" Squealer collapsed into a leather couch and stretched, "Plus side, we get his fancy fucking hoard!"
With the ABB suddenly lacking capes and, as far as they could tell, most gang members in general, it had been all too easy for the Merchants to just waltz in and start claiming territory for themselves. Some of that territory was overrun by cops and the Protectorate, but the Merchants hadn't aimed for all of it. Nah, Squealer and Skidmark had gone for the good shit, one of Lung's personal apartments.
"I expected more feng shui shit, honestly." Skidmark said, slowly circling the apartment. It was clean and well maintained, nice granite countertops, leather love seats, an oversized bed with silk seats. There was some small shrine with a woman's face on it and some of those fancy incense sticks the ABB loved so much set in front of it. The ends were hard and blackened, long since burned out.
Skidmark smirked, plucked one up and put the unburnt end to his lips, striking a pose out of a movie, "Look at me, fucking fancy as shit now. Nowhere to go but up now."
"Empire won't know what fucking hits them." Squealer giggled.
"They're the easy ones. Racist fuckheads think they can look down on us, but now it's just them and us." Skidmark paused and flicked the incense stick at the shrine. "Well, and the Protectorate."
"And the girl scout!" Squealer chimed in.
Skidmark sucked in a breath and flopped onto the couch next to her, "Yeah, and the girl scout. Her."
Squealer looked at him with one brow raised, "You're not seriously worried about that bimbo, are you? Shit, she just caught Lung off guard, that's all. Just another Glory Girl wannabe. Ya handled that slut, you can handle this one too, babe."
Skidmark smirked and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, "Yeah, I guess I can, but I'll handle this slut right here first."
"Mmm, I like that…" Squealer purred, a noise best compared to a dying two-stroke engine.
Time would tell, Skidmark knew, if this exchange of territory would last. He felt somewhere, deep deep inside, that he had missed an important detail. But that thought was quickly dismissed; something far more pressing had his attention at the moment. Besides, if it was that important, he wouldn't have forgotten it in the first place!
-S-
"The point that you're missing, Brad, is that Supergirl didn't just beat Lung. She wiped out the entire ABB overnight. Every initiated member, every operation, all of it is rotting in the BBPD prison. That is why we're not scrambling for territory."
Maxwell Anders, alias Kaiser, glared across his italian maple desk at the man sitting in front of it. Brad Meadows, alias Hookwolf, looked as out of place in business attire as a pig did in a dress. Under normal circumstances, Maxwell would never have considered summoning the man to his office at the Medhall Corporation building. But these were not normal circumstances.
Members of the Empire had quickly informed Maxwell of Hookwolf's push into the now abandoned ABB territory. Mostly gun depots the cops hadn't had time to properly lock down; Brad had dealt with them as he did everything else, with an excessive amount of violence. Hence why he was now sitting dressed business casual and pouting like a scolded child.
An accurate comparison in Maxwell's mind, because that was exactly what the man was. A child, upset that his playtime was over. Under ordinary circumstances, allowing Brad the freedom to go about his business was fine. But, the situation in Brockton Bay had rapidly changed overnight. Now, it was time to tighten the leash, whether he liked it or not.
"She got lucky, it happens. New kid no one knows about, no way Lung would've seen her coming. Now we know about her, and Lung will probably throw a temper tantrum over it in like a week." Brad shrugged, "Why not take advantage while we have it?"
Maxwell had to bite back a snapping remark, closing his eyes and sucking in a breath before he was ready to respond, "Clearly, you are not paying attention, Bradley. So let me explain."
He reached up and turned his monitor around, revealing the rough but accurate timeline of events that he had been working on.
"At 10:17 last night, Supergirl interrupted a human trafficking operation by the ABB. Police reports noted she was agitated by the entire experience. By 10:32, she called in three separate ABB drug dens. At 10:37, she turned Lung and Oni-Lee into Protectorate custody." Maxwell skimmed through the timeline and pointed at the last entry with emphasis, "At 1:32 AM, Supergirl made her last ABB arrest of the night. In three hours, our largest competitor was wiped out by one girl."
He released the monitor and sat back in his chair and glowered at Hookwolf, "I know numbers don't mean much to you, but even you have to grasp the severity of what we're dealing with."
To his credit, Hookwolf's expression had turned into one of thought, a rare sight to Maxwell's eyes. After a moment of thought, Hookwolf said, "We have like… six times the number of capes on our side? We could lay a trap for her or something."
Maxwell let a ghost of a smile grace his lips, "I applaud the thought, but no. We wait, we watch, and we learn what we can about her in the meantime. If we tried to bring all our forces to bear on her, the Protectorate would certainly get involved. Besides, if we let her continue to operate against the Merchants and other capes of the city, that gives us more to work with."
Hookwolf seemed unsatisfied by this, so Maxwell decided it was time to trade the stick for the carrot. He leaned forward, hands folded neatly on his desk, and said, "When the time comes, Hookwolf, you'll be the tip of our spear. You'll get your chance at Supergirl; you just need to be patient."
The man's face split into a feral grin, "Oh ho, I like the sound of that."
"I thought you might." Maxwell leaned back into his chair, "You're free to go. Lay low, and we won't have to have a talk like this again."
Hookwolf took his dismissal with a silent nod, still grinning as he stood and walked toward the office door, his heavy footsteps following his wake. Once he was gone, Maxwell turned his monitor back around and narrowed his eyes. He held no illusions about facing Supergirl at the moment; what he had seen so far was enough to show him that she would shake the foundation of Brockton Bay, one way or another. Until he knew how, though, he would sit and wait.
And in the meantime, he could relax and let idiots like Thomas Calvert stir the public against her.
-S-
No previous records, only a single sighting outside of Brockton Bay, and it was in Houston the same day. The time between her appearance in Houston and her appearance in Brockton Bay was barely over an hour, which put her at least three times faster than a commercial jet. She was smart, if naive, and was strong enough and durable enough to put her above any Brute in the city beyond Lung at his strongest; and, well, Lung hadn't put up much of a fight against her.
His chair creaking as he leaned back into it, Thomas Calvert, alias Coil, rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He glanced out of one eye at his mask lying on his desk next to his keyboard and sighed. In the privacy of his own lair he could afford to go without it, though it was an opportunity he rarely took. After the previous night though, he needed to think free of its confines.
Eyes flicked back to the monitor where a picture of the girl sat. 'Supergirl' what an unimaginative name for such a colossal thorn in his side. The worst part of course was how oblivious she likely was to what she had done, at least to him personally.
Calvert had plans for Brockton Bay, plans he had spent years working up to and preparing for in advance. Little by little, step by step, Brockton Bay would have become his and solely his. A bastion of order, his order. And now this naive child had upset the entire network.
He'd lost agents, he'd lost investments, and most importantly he had lost time to her little interference. Everything had been building towards a grand discrediment, to see the Empire exposed, the Merchants washed clean and Lung caged and shipped off like the animal he was. At the very least, that had still gone to plan. Now he had to adapt though, because Supergirl was an unknown.
No one knew exactly what she could do beyond what she had displayed, and the way the girl acted hinted that she held far more power than that. Her actions against the ABB had also made it clear that she wasn't going to tolerate the criminal elements of Brockton Bay. While Calvert hardly considered himself a true criminal, unlike the likes of the Empire or Merchants, he knew someone as naive as Supergirl wouldn't see it that way.
So it was important, paramount even, to make sure that no matter what she did, the public did not trust her. There was nothing in Calvert's arsenal that could deal with her physically, which put assassination as a possibility out of picture. At least, a physical assassination.
Character assassination was still a possibility.
He had gotten the ball rolling of course, the BBN was an excellent tool in that regard, but now it was time to move forward and to emphasize the 'trouble' Supergirl had brought with her. Calvert straightened up and picked up a phone; with a few quick calls, the 'Empire' would begin taking advantage of the void left by the ABB's sudden defeat. In a few weeks, other outsiders would take a sudden and vested interest in that void; Brockton Bay would become more chaotic than it had in years, and everyone would have a single person to blame.
Supergirl.
Despite the small smirk on his lips, Calvert paused and looked at the file again. A thought occurred to him, a detail he had missed. He scrolled back to Supergirl's first appearance in Brockton Bay…
And soon a smile split his face from ear to ear.
He could work with this, but he'd have to work fast. After all, who knew when Supergirl would strike again.
-S-"Oh my gosh, look at how fluffy he is, I'm gonna die!"
Together, Vicky (She had grown tired of me calling her Victoria) and I squealed in delight at the pen full of month old kittens. They tumbled over one another, exploring the confines with youthful excitement. A brown tabby waddled up to the glass wall and stood up on his hind legs, batting playfully at my face.
"Ooooooh!" I covered my mouth and tried not to squeal again. I failed, of course, and tapped the glass while smiling.
"I'm so sorry little fuzzball. I'd love to take you home with me, but I don't have a home for you." I paused and glanced at Vicky, "Unless…"
She snorted, "God I wish. Mom doesn't do pets."
"Would you really be happy cleaning up a cat's litter box, Vicky?" asked Dean. He was Vicky's boyfriend, and had met us at the Boardwalk. He was about my height, give or take an inch, with short blonde hair and soft brown eyes. Very cute, dressed in jeans and a plain white-T with an open button up over it, very stylish. I won't lie, I was a little jealous of Vicky, but they seemed happy with each other and really I wasn't all that envious.
She hugged onto his arm and smiled, "Well I think if I got free cuddles from an adorable fuzzball, it might be worth it. Why else would I keep you around?"
"And here I thought you wanted me for my personality." He sighed dramatically and his shoulders dropped, "Now I know you only want me for my looks and my money."
"Among other things." Vicky snickered.
Amy groaned and rolled her eyes, "Vicky, we're in public."
"I'm not doing anything." her sister replied, though she released her boyfriend's arm and smiled at me.
"This was a great idea, Karren. Total mood spa."
I looked back at the kittens as I spoke, "Whenever I'm feeling a bit down, I find spending time with an animal helps with my mood. Their innocence is infectious and it helps remind me to enjoy the simple things in life."
"Plus they're totes adorbs." Vicky added.
"That too."
Our trip to the Boardwalk had been by bus instead of by flight like Vicky wanted. Amy had seemed uncomfortable with the idea of flying to the Boardwalk, so I had suggested the bus as a compromise. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that unlike me, Vicky and Amy had public identities. Trapped on the bus, they had been swarmed with questions… pertaining to me. Thankfully, neither of them had outed me, but it had been a chaotic and awkward ride that had left both of them in a sour mood.
Thus, the trip to the pet store. Hardly anyone could stay in a bad mood when a kitten or puppy was demanding their attention, and my assumption had proven correct. Even Amy's mood had lightened, even if she was still withdrawn from the rest of us. I was beginning to think that she was simply a quiet girl, and there was little I could do about that beyond extending common courtesy and remembering that she was a part of the group.
We left the pet store shortly after, as hard as it was, and made our way down the Boardwalk. It was a beautifully sunny day in the middle of winter, and it was busier than it had been yesterday. Thankfully no one swarmed us like they had on the bus, though Vicky and Amy got their fair share of looks and silent gawking that they both ignored.
Dean walked up next to me and whispered softly, "So just to confirm, you are Supergirl right? Vicky was super vague about the whole thing, but I've never heard of you until today, and never saw you at Arcadia…"
My lips tightened a little and I thought briefly about denying it, but lying to him like that felt wrong. I relaxed and smiled, "Yes, but please don't go around telling anyone about it."
"Hey, I get it." he jerked a thumb at himself, "Capes stick together and all that. You might be independent, but I'm not ratting you out."
I glanced past him at Vicky, who was talking quietly with Amy at the moment, then looked back at Dean, "Well, good. I do appreciate my privacy."
"Understood, it's just… well I wanted to say thank you. For taking care of the ABB that is." he shrugged awkwardly, "I've seen what they do, and it was frustrating that I couldn't do enough to stop them. But now… it's like a weight has been lifted."
My heart went out to him, and I put my hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that, Dean. It's not an easy thing, to see people you know and care about getting hurt and being powerless to stop them. But you and I, we did stand against people like the ABB. We're proof they can be stopped and beaten. You might not have my powers, but you've got the heart and that's just as important."
He stared at me as we walked, almost uncomfortably long, before Vicky seemed to notice. She walked over and snaked her arms around his shoulders, "Everything okay, babe?"
Dean shook his head and blinked, "Yeah, sorry. Can we sit away from the crowds? I'd rather not talk about it this publically."
A look of concern on her face, Vicky immediately dragged Dean to a bench overlooking the bay. The crowds still went by behind us as we sat, but were far enough away that if we kept our voices down no one would hear us. Unless they had super hearing of course, but take it from me unless they were specifically listening for us, it'd be next to impossible for them to pick up on our conversation accidentally.
"Alright, spill." Vicky said as we sat, "What was with the soul staring?" she demanded, her eyes narrowed.
Dean let out a sigh that suggested he was all too familiar with Vicky's tone, "It wasn't anything like that Vicky. It's just… I think your friend might be a trump, too."
"A what now?" I asked dryly while sitting to the left of them.
"Power classification." Amy explained as she sat next to me on my left hand side, "A trump basically nullifies or interferes with another cape's power."
Dean nodded and tapped the side of his eye, "I can… see? An emotional color connected to people's emotions. Reds for anger, blues for sadness, etc. Kind of a pseudo telepathy. Except when I look at you, it's like looking at static on a TV. I get some flickers of emotion, but otherwise you're unreadable."
"You don't have a cheat sheet for her." Vicky sang, relief visible in her face.
"I don't have a cheat sheet for you, either." Dean said dryly, "Even though I desperately need one."
She hugged him again, "Nah, you love it! Keeps you on your toes!"
I rolled my eyes and looked at Amy, "They always like that?"
"Unfortunately." she sighed and looked away from them both.
I did the same, giving the lovebirds a little space and sweeping my gaze up and down the Boardwalk. There was a small but noticeable crowd gathered around a small electronics store, clearly interested in whatever was on display. My eyes narrowed and suddenly it was as if I stood among them, and saw what had grabbed their attention. It was the news, again.
I Listened and the audio came in clear as day.
"Several police confrontations with the Merchants have already been reported in territory formerly occupied by the ABB. Though there have been no recorded injuries yet, authorities believe it is only a matter of time before-"
I shifted my attention away from the news, to the crowd itself. It couldn't be helped, I had to hear what they thought about this, to see if they were of the same mind as the media.
"-I never liked the ABB, but we knew what to expect with them-"
"-I saw Merchants walking down my street this morning, that never happened when Lung was around-"
"-We trade out gangsters for drug peddlers, great-"
"-capes love to grandstand with their 'great victories' but what does that shit mean to us, huh?"
I couldn't listen anymore, and tore my attention away to stare out at the bay. In the distance, I could see the Protectorate's main base of operation in the city. I'd read it had once been an oil rig but it had been repurposed as an example of Protectorate power. The Rig was a marvel of modern architecture and engineering and peering at it closer I could see it was loaded with incredible technology hidden beneath the surface. But I could also see how the people that lived in Brockton Bay wouldn't exactly feel comforted by its presence.
The people here had to worry about the safety of their homes while it seemed their heroes lived safely tucked away from it all in an ivory tower of their own making. Obviously there was more to it than that, but it wasn't hard to see how that could make some people cynical. That thought alone saddened me.
A nudge shook me from my thoughts and I looked to see Dean and Vicky looking at me with clear concern, "You alright?" Dean asked, "You're looking depressed."
I smiled sadly, "I thought you couldn't read my emotions?"
"My powers can't read your emotions, but only an idiot couldn't see that something is bugging you."
"He's perceptive like that." Vicky chimed.
With a sigh, I glanced back down the Boardwalk, "Just… the news. It's depressing. That's all."
I didn't mention what I'd heard from the people watching it, I didn't want to bother them with it. Vicky made a noise of disgust, stood up, and dragged me to my feet, "Don't pay attention to that garbage. You've got a busy, and productive day ahead of you. We're gonna walk in the opposite direction now instead, we're going to find you a cute as hell pair of shoes that Dean will pay for, and you're going to get your mind off that bullshit. Got it?"
Another smile, genuine this time, broke my features, "Yeah. I got it. Thanks Vicky."
She patted my shoulders, "You're welcome, now come on, I know just the place for you."
I took a step forward to follow her, and froze. Through all the voices, all the cars and the rest of the city, a single piercing noise rang through my ears. A constant high pitched droning that I was all too familiar with. I reached out and grabbed Vicky's arm, stopping her dead in her tracks.
She turned toward me, brow raised, and stopped at my expression. "What is it?"
"I've got to go. It's Taylor, she needs me."
Vicky blinked, "Taylor - the girl from yesterday?"
"I can hear her, I need to go Vicky."
"Say no more, go!" she gestured inland and I was off like a shot.
I made sure not to move too fast through the crowd, but once I found an alley between a pair of shops, I dove down into it and stripped out of my loaned clothes. Karren Star entered that alleyway, and Supergirl came rocketing out of it.
It was easy to ignore the shouts of astonishment from below, as I was totally focused on the droning now. Somehow, someway, Taylor was in trouble, and I could only pray that I was fast enough to reach her in time.
A/N: I LIVE!
So this chapter went through like, six rewrites at the beginning before I finally settled on a little marathon through the local villain community reacting to Kara's shenanigans. I'm going to TRY and update sooner with the next chapter, but I promise nothing. I hope at the bare minimum the chapter was enjoyable.
In addition, I plan on focusing solely on DoT until this arc is finished. Which could be anywhere from five to ten more chapters to go. Fifteen in an absolute worst case scenario. So keep an eye open for that.
As always, don't forget to check out the link for the RP PHO Thread for this story. I tend to make little update posts there whenever I make a new chapter. Not every post there will go into a PHO interlude, but it keeps my mind going with new thoughts and ideas and people seem to be enjoying it.
That's all for now, I hope to see you all much sooner next time. Have a wonderful weekend all!