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Mercy

Chapter 10: Part Ten

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

 

Supergirl and her companion set down lightly in the middle of the gravel driveway, weapons following them down and Superman strode over to the two with a smile. The Canadian military were in awe of the two heroes but remained their discipline and went back to their duties, though kept casting the caped aliens glances.

“Kal!” Supergirl said with a grin and embraced her cousin with the force of a train and he rocked back on his heels before returning her embrace, albeit with less enthusiasm. “Hey.”

“Superman,” J’onn said as he landed and morphed back into Hank.

“J’onn,” Kal nodded a greeting and all three aliens looked over at the laboratory.

“The army has taken the scientists into custody, and is negotiating their transportation with the FBI where they will be taken to trial.” They walked towards the laboratory as Clark explained what had happened that afternoon.

“Their forensic team has been in since one but I thought you’d both like to see this.”

He led the way past soldiers who stood straighter in the presence of the two heroes and down into the laboratory and living space.

“There is everything you need to function topside down here,” Kal explained. Pointing out the gym, shower, toilets, laundry, rec-room, barracks, kitchen, storage rooms, and the laboratory-including the holding cells (alien and human), which he had been livid to discover.

“From what I’ve gathered so far they were trying to merge the DNA and abilities of various aliens and give them to humans…but I think the humans volunteered, or at least agreed to the testing.”

Kara had gone pale, and shuddered in disgust. “Did they succeed? Where are the aliens? Or the humans? Do they need help? Are they okay?”

“They were taken to the hospital immediately, and quarantined the best the city could do. I’m sure the DEO would be willing to take them?”

Hank nodded and looked around him. “We’ll arrange it.”

Kal shrugged. “I don’t know if they were successful, but it seems like they were. One of the scientists had somehow managed to bind one of the abilities to a human, but they aren’t here.”

“What human?” Kara asked worriedly, brow furrowed.

“What abilities?” Hank was still stern and watchful as the army moved the equipment around and back up to the trucks above ground.

“I don’t know, and neither did the scientists, apparently they are only lower ones and lack the skill and intelligence to get the DNA match just right, but there are samples here. You should take those and have your lab look at them. I set off an alert when I came down here, and the tech guys say the scientists tried to wipe everything so I’m not sure what we will get from the computers.” Clark then led them down to the holding cells. There were soldiers here with big guns and they looked at the three but didn’t move from their posts.

“I wasn’t sure what to do with these. I couldn’t just let them out.” Clark explained wincing when Kara shot him a betrayed look and looked back at the cells and the aliens inside them. They wore white cloths for modesty and some were chained to their cells and others had dazed looks in their eyes, evidence of sedation. They were a mixture of humanoid and non-humanoid aliens and she recognised many of them from her fights for the DEO and from her classes on Krypton.

“We have to get them out of here, “Kara said quickly and looked beseechingly at Hank.

“We’ll move them to the DEO,” he said reassuringly. “And then take steps to see what kind of danger they may pose to society.”

“And….there’s one other thing,” Clark said hesitantly. “When I first came down here they shot at me with Kryptonite weapons.”

Kara spun and shared a look with Hank and then back at Kal. “Are you okay?” She asked quickly and he nodded reassuringly, smiling his winning smile that would make lesser women swoon.

“I’m fine, Supergirl. I just thought I would warn you that Luthor-Corp has weapons that can hurt us.”

Kara fidgeted with the fabric that held her sleeves down and Hank folded his arms.

“We don’t know for sure, Supergirl,” Hank said quietly, gently, and Kara’s head rose and a bitter-sweet smile crossed her lips.

“Sure we don’t,” she said reluctantly and turned to look at the aliens in the cells.

Brow furrowed Clark turned to Hank in question and the Martian shook his head. “Actually, Superman, how did you know about this facility?”

“Well,” Clark said as the three began to walk back out of the laboratory. “I didn’t. James Olsen received a note this morning telling him to tell me to look around.”

“Hm, I’d like to have a look at that note when we get back to National City,” Hank commented as the three walked up into the shed. It had been cleared of the motorcycles and buggy’s and was now providing temporary storage as the army dissected the lab.

“Agent Vasquez,” Hank spoke into his comms.

“Director.”

“I want a half dozen mobile containment units here ASAP. Bring the medical unit as well, and Bravo Team for protection. I want this area secure.”

The Agent was quick to reply. “It’s already being prepped sir, and has been since Superman called. I have our agents intercepting the FBI and taking control of the prisoners in… forty-two minutes if it goes according to schedule.”

“Good, and have Agent Schott flown out here. I want him to look at these computers.”

“Yessir.”

Hank turned back to both Super’s. “The DEO will take the technology and alien prisoners. We’ll make sure it stays in our hands.”

Superman was hesitant, visibly, but when Hank reminded him who was an official protector of earth and who had government authority he had to concede. After all, his day job was no-doubt calling him.

“Alright. But please let me know what you find,” he turned and looked at Kara and smiled at her. “It’s good to see you, Cousin.”

Kara looked away from the humans loading the equipment onto trucks and beamed at him. “Race you to the border?”

In response Superman launched himself into the sky, leaving a sizable crater behind him.

“Hey!” Kara yelled and leapt into the sky. “That’s cheating Kal!”

Hank just shook his head and rose slowly into the sky, as though to show the watching humans how a professional flew, and sped after the two supers. The DEO had Lex Luthor’s mess to clean up, and there were reports that Lena had had gone to visit him, and he wondered if maybe he oughtn’t pay the CEO a visit, surely he would be justified in using his powers on her if it would save a lot of lives.

 

~*~

“Lena Luthor.”

Lena lifted her head from her cell-phone and looked at the woman who had drawled her name as she slid into the seat opposite her.

“Mercy,” Lena inclined her head. “You’re looking…well,” she offered and took a pointed sip of her wine. She wasn’t looking well.

The woman sneered in response but ignored the jibe. “What can I do for you?”

Lena cast a glance around the restaurant and then leant forward and spoke lowly. “Lex told me you were the woman to see about a certain rock from Krypton?”

Her voice was barely above a whisper but she knew the other woman had heard her, or maybe read her lips, by the way she leant back in her seat and lifted her brow contemplatively.

“That would be correct,” she folded her arms and glanced at the sever who looked slightly nervous as she approached. The girl was one of the regulars that had served her during Lex’s trial and she knew the girl by sight and name. Melissa.

“Good-evening, what can I get for you…two…tonight?” The question was directed at Lena.

“My friend won’t be dining with me, I’m afraid.” Lena ignored the glare Mercy shot her. “But please cook her meal and bag it, she has somewhere she needs to be.” Terms given Lena turned cool green eyes on her brothers former assistant and lifted a brow. “I’ll have the Caesar Salad, thank you Melissa.”

“A salad?” Mercy sneered in disbelief. “You’re getting a salad?” She shook her head and turned to the waitress. “I’ll have a streak, fries, and two eggs-sunny side up.”

Melissa jotted the information down and then after a glance to Lena walked back to the kitchen and Lena took another sip of wine.

“Interesting that you come asking for that,” Mercy said and took a glass and started to pour her own wine. Lena allowed it, merely gazing over the top of her glass. “I didn’t think you agreed with the family views?”

“Let’s just say a conversation with Lex enlightened me…. and now our goals are aligned,” Lena lowered her wine glass and looked at Mercy squarely. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Sure…for a price.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “Of course. How much?”

A Luthor like glint entered her eyes and she leant forward, eager to negotiate a deal.

 

~*~

The black unmarked convoy moved through the mostly silent streets of Metropolis with grim purpose, and in the cold night it was almost sinister. A four-door jeep led the way with four armed guards inside and with a group of them seated on the outside. A large truck followed with a shipping container on its trailer, and that was followed by a large black four-door ute. The rear tray had a cover over it, but it moved with the wind so whatever was hidden had some space beneath it.

It was the roar of motorcycles that first alerted them to the impending attack and they were swift to draw their weapons as orders were called. Down the convoy information was exchanged through earpieces and they determined that there were five motorcycles approaching from the south. The jeep in the front had soldiers in full combat gear, black and unmarked, and they were the first vehicle to be taken out.

There was a thunk and then a softer thump and the jeep swerved off course, the bullet hole in the windscreen evident to what had befallen the driver. The passenger was swift to the driver’s side, pushing the body from the seat and assuming control of the vehicle as a large SUV roared from a side street and slammed into the side with a shatter of glass. The jeep went rolling and the truck behind it drove on, gunfire spitting from the open windows.

The black canvas on the ute fluttered to the ground as a guard stood at a machine gun in the rear tray and he swivelled around and opened fire on the motorbikes, who returned fire with enthusiasm. The shops and windows of the street shattered and there were screams of passer-by’s and other cars swerved to avoid the convoy and its attackers.

A second SUV screeched from a side road and slammed into the cab of the truck, forcing it to the side. The responding bullets dove into the glass of the SUV but it was thick and the bullets only slammed into the glass, cracking the area around it but held and the driver drew away and then slammed back to the truck like something you would see in an action film.

The night was lit with the crack of gunfire and the spit of light from the muzzles of the weapons and three minutes into the attack the truck screeched onto the highway flanked by motorcycles as the ute followed and tried to shoot the attackers down. The bulletproof, and obviously reinforced, SUV had pulled away as soon as it had guided the truck onto the high-way and vanished into the night, leaving only motorcycles as part of the assault. As one of the bikers went flying into the concrete and the motorbike squealed and fell onto the highway the sound of a chopper could be heard.

A second mob of motorcycles emerged from the shadows of an underpass and fell upon the ute at the back of the convey, firing on the machine gun before it could be brought around to fire on them and the guard cried out and fell, the machine gun rearing up with the kickback and slamming into the cab. It swerved and jerked but eventually slammed into the concrete divider with smoke pouring from the hood. A jeep had followed the motorbikes and was following at the back of the attack.

The motorbiker’s that hadn’t been shot turned their attention to the container truck, and they had a passenger which held a handheld grinder and started to cut at the container. It sparked and groaned as the metal was sawn through and the drivers had to maintain a careful distance between themselves and the swerving truck as they tried to cut it in half. The truck was relying on its bulk to try and crush the smaller motor-vehicles and succeeded once, twice, before the drivers grew wise, the vehicle jumping as the bikes were caught under its wheels. One was stuck, pinning the driver between it and a wheel and his screams could be heard before he was pulled under the wheel.

“Police are three minutes out. Extraction in two,” a man commanded down the comms.

The squeal of the grinder’s cutting into the container and spitting sparks punctuated gun-fire as the reinforcements for the convoy arrived and a few motorbikes peeled away to engage the assault. There was a jeep and an SUV and they opened fire on the would-be hijackers and some of the motorbikers fell quickly.

The jeep moved forward and there was a guard leaning over the top and resting a gun against the rollbars, and it was a grenade launcher. There was a trail of smoke left behind it as it tore through the air and the Jeep managed to swerve it, but the SUV was soon lit like a bomb and was launched back through the air like a great ball of fire.

With assistance from the jeep the motorbikers were able to hold the reinforcements off, driving them back as the chopper they heard from earlier dove down from the sky. It had what looked like a great plug dangling from its belly, waving in the air like some sort of pendulum. One motorbikes pulled away and gunned up to the front door of the truck, veering away as the double barrel of a shot-gun emerged out the side window. A small semi-automatic came up and was fired furiously into the cab and the driver slumped forward over the wheel. The motorbiker drew closer and edged their leg over the side of the bike, maintaining their speed to match the truck. It was still maintaining a steady course, the cars on the highway pulling over and letting the convoy barge on through, perhaps the sound of gunfire or maybe the helicopter alerting them to the danger at their rear.

The motorbiker ripped the drivers door open and the dead driver was thrown down to the highway as the biker clambered inside and the truck jerked slightly as the tires rolled over him. Another jeep was pulling onto the highway from an entry ramp and was edging alongside the truck. The motorbikers gunned away, and returned to their wounded or dead companions down the highway as the sound of sirens could be heard faintly in the distance with the first jeep peeling back to provide transport.

“Ninety seconds,” the warning came and the helicopter hovered over the truck and the great plug clanked onto the top of the container and then the chopper started to rise. The cord snapped tight and the helicopter drew up short before straining and rising into the air.

The rear of the truck lifted from the ground, wheels spinning frantically and there was a straining and then an oddly musical tearing sound as the container was torn from the truck, edges jagged and glinting maliciously. The helicopter jerked in the sky and looked out of control for a moment as the swinging container top looked almost comical beneath it. Screeching and bouncing the truck’s rear-wheels returned to the ground and the chopper pulled back, dropping the container and magnet on the highway with a clank. It rolled a little bit, digging into the highway and ended up half on the divider. The chopper sped forward before catching up to the truck which was slowing down and crawling to a halt.

“Thirty seconds.”

The sirens were louder now and they could see far behind them where the blue and red lights lit up the night.

The shipping container’s edges were jagged and burnt and inside it there was a silver box, about a meter and a half by the same, with wheels on the bottom and it was locked into place by great clasps.

A line snaked down from the chopper and a man was soon to follow, unclicking himself and moving to the ties and sawing through them with a great big knife the size of his forearm. A second man landed and did the same with the other side and the driver of the truck got out and ran over to the second jeep as two men jumped from the back and carried over a rolled up mess of thick straps.

A hook was lowered and the four men on the ground were quick to roll the mat open and underneath the silver box before clipping it to the chopper and jumping off the truck. The helicopter rose for the second and final time and lifted the silver box away and flew off into the night as the four men entered the jeep and were quick to flee the scene. It was a little cramped but they made do.

“Mission successful. Package acquired. Move to your assigned locations and await further instructions.”

The men in the jeep cheered and clapped each other on the back as they left the highway and avoided the major roads and intersections until they got to the river. There they left the jeep and one took a can of fuel from the rear tray of another pickup and scattered it on the inside and along the hood. The others were peeling off their equipment and tossing it into the storage container on the pickup. There was another car there, a little red four door and as soon as two of the men were set in their clothing they entered it and drove away.

A man was left with a lighter and set the jeep on fire before entering the front passenger seat of the pickup and they left the scene. It was all very professionally done.

The men in the pickup drove around town for a bit, stopping at one fast-food joint and then another before eating at the port lookout and then heading back across town. News was all over the radio about the gunfight on the highway, but the more important news was of a fire at a local school where what sounded like the entire facility caught fire, and the police and fire-crews had been concerned with fighting the blaze and seeing to the borders instead of the gun-fight which authorities were already calling gang-related.

It was early morning when the pickup finally pulled into a closed saw mill at the edge of town towards National City, and there was a U-Haul truck waiting there as well as a sleek black Jaguar and their own vehicles.

A woman was leaning against the Jaguar and picking at her nails. She was wearing a tight black skirt and a white blouse and lifted her head as they got out of the vehicle.

They looked around, trying to find their companions and were feeling it was a trap when a shot rang out. The driver was forced back into his door and slid down the frame, leaving a smear of blood as the other two men were quick to go to their side arms.

A second shot rang out and the rear passenger fell with a cry, falling face first into the gravel and the front passenger huddled next to the car, peering through the window trying to find the sniper.

The woman was still examining her nails, seemingly unaffected by the shootings around her. A shot hit the pickup and the passenger flinched, it sounded like it hit far too close to home.

“You traitor,” called the passenger as he panted alone behind the protection of his four-door, his companions dead around him, and he suspected the rest of his team were as well. “We had an agreement!”

“Hardly,” the woman drawled and straightened and he really, really wanted to wipe the smug look off her face but didn’t dare move and give the sniper the shot he wanted. “This was the plan all along.”

She pushed off the jaguar with her hip and opened the passenger door and pulled out a small semi-automatic and brought it around to face him and he swore, cursing her mother, her womb, and calling her all manner of things.

“We were going to give you the money and keep our side of the bargain,” she said as she clicked the magazine into place and flicked the safety off. “But one of your comrades,” she ran her tongue along her teeth. “Looked into the box and our employer was very specific. No one knows what’s in the box, sorry,” she ducked her head sounding anything but, and her finger tightened on the trigger and on reflex he shifted and brought his gun up to fire at her.

A shot from the sniper soon brought him to his knees and the gun fell from his hands.

“What-what’s in the box?” He asked as he slowly toppled backward, blood flowering on his shirt.

She came closer, standing above him looking like the Angel of Death, haloed by the single light on in the mill. “Kryptonite,” she offered and the gun rose from the ground.

“Get that to National City,” she instructed the sniper as he came up behind her, large rifle in his hands, and turned the safety back on.

He grunted in agreement, grey eyes sharp, and strode over to the truck as she got into her jaguar and gunned from the yard, gravel scrunching beneath gleaming tires, her final words as cold as the night air. “And do it how Lena Luthor wanted.”

 

Notes:

I had the plot set out mentally before I did some research, Mercy being Lex's assistant is a coincidence to the title of this fic and has nothing to do with it. Apologys for the confusion. As always, if you're liking it leave a review or Kudos-they make my day and I check my emails way to often for them (and for fic updates but who doesn't). I don;t always reply, but I do read them and I do love them. Thanks guys.