The Shape of Things to Come

8

Kara had been considering how to handle this moment for a year, and for a year, she'd hadn't been sure she'd reached the right decision, but she did know that she wasn't about to let herself be dosed with Kryptonite tranquilizers and chained to a gurney again. She'd forgiven J'onn for it long, long ago but that didn't mean she'd forgotten the indignity of the incident, or the fact that it prevented her from helping fight the fire she'd been on her way to assist with.

She started by altering the route. She knew that she'd been caught last time because the DEO had a spotter on her apartment, and time to maneuver the team into position along the flight path to fire. So, she swung wide, using  her X-ray vision to spot the team while keeping out of their line of sight.

The fire was easy to deal with. A few puffs of freeze breath, a couple of quick air lifts to get trapped people out of the building, followed by a far, far more liberal application of freeze breath. It was the work of about ten minutes before everyone was safe, and the firefighters were walking the building, making sure there were no hotspots that might flare back up. She didn't wait for a thank you, or to talk to anyone after. She just headed back home, making sure to pick a route that would give the team a clear line of fire.

The team was good, the ambush well-laid. A perfect trap if the prey was unsuspecting like they thought she would be.

She hit the first dart with her heat vision, vaporizing it before it was close enough to be a threat. The second and third darts, she caught as she started to descend. The fourth dart, she let hit her, watching with amusement as it bounced off the kryptonite barrier fabric a moment before her feet touched the ground.

"The next person who shoots at me will regret it," she said, loud enough for the entire team to hear.

Of course, it would be Alex that would step out of cover and fire a shot.

Kara was not as fast as Barry, or even as fast as Wally. She couldn't even touch the speed force the way they could, not without Velocity 12 in her system. But not being as fast as they were didn't mean she wasn't insanely fast. Alex hadn't finished pulling the trigger before Kara was across the distance, barrel in hand, squeezing. It's something she'd never do with a firearm, but the tranquilizer darts were fired via compressed air, so the dart jammed in the barrel nice and solid, without the bolt blowing out of the back of the rifle. 

Kara moved again, snatching the rifle out of Alex's hands, careful not to break any fingers, and brought it down over her knee, destroying it beyond repair, before she grabbed the zip cuffs hanging from Alex's belt. They were useless against most aliens, but they worked against Kryptonians under the influence of Kryptonite, and some of the weaker species. And against humans. 

From the time Kara issued her warning, until three DEO agents were on the ground in zip cuffs, their smashed rifles laying on the ground next to them, it was less than ten seconds. 

"Mouse trap," Alex yelled, her voice garbled by the voice changer built into her mask. Almost instantly, the entire alley flooded with green light as Kryptonite emitters came online. 

Kara made a big show of raising a fist to her mouth and yawning into it. "You know, Alex, you could have just come by my apartment and picked me up. It would have probably saved a lot of money out of the DEO budget".

"What?" Alex asked, and even through the voice changer, Kara could tell she'd shaken her sister. Which was exactly the point. 

The cell emitters back at the DEO base, as well as the wrist shackles, used real kryptonite in a fail deadly arrangement. They required power to stop or reduce their emissions. However, loss of power would result in them being turned up to maximum power instantly. The portable emitters in the alley used banks of super-high-intensity LED's that emitted radiation in the same wavelengths as Kryptonite. Wavelengths which were harmless to humans, but which disrupted the function of the photocondria, the organelle in each cell that stored and released energy absorbed from sunlight.