A Million Reasons | K. Danvers ✔

[68] A Difficult Negotiation

• July 05, 2017 •

When Kara came to Mount Justice, she found out that Mon had just returned as well after his negotiation with Lar Gand and Rhea. But by the look on his face, it was clear that it did not go well.

For the first time in his life, Mon-El was seriously worried about the negotiation he had to tackle with his parents. Even though he had spent a considerable time as Daxam's ambassador to other planets and handled many negotiations, he knew it was of no credit to him because all he had done was make things worse.

He could hardly care less back then but the situation had drastically changed. He could not afford to be careless again because he did not want to shoulder the blame for another mass destruction.

However, all his efforts went in vain. The least he could do was buy some time from his parents to think but deep down he knew that it would be of no use. Their war fleet was already in Earth's vicinity and there was no way they would go back without him.

"How did it go?" Wally asked, exchanging a glance with Richard briefly who nodded, silently communicating that something was off.

"They are not agreeing," Mon told the YJ, rather resigned because he had tried his best but not achieved a positive result. "They have realized that I am not in captivity but they still blame you guys for making me want to live here instead of going back with them."

"That's ridiculous," Meg mumbled, "no offense meant, Mon, but your parents should know that they can't just force you to come with them without your will."

He sighed, "they think I have been brainwashed."

"Even worse."

"And as a result, they are willing to go to any lengths to rescue me," his voice was getting more ridden with guilt and he sighed again, hands reaching up to his throbbing temples, "I'm so so sorry."

"Hey, it's not your fault," Tim was about to reassure him but got distracted by the signals their radar had picked up so he left the sentence there and went to check.

"Kara, I'm really sorry," he looked up at Kara at last and though he expected her to turn away or be angry at him, she merely shook her head.

"It's not like an apology can fix this," she replied, "the priority right now is to stop your parents so we better focus on that first."

He didn't object and bit off what he was about to say.

"We have a suspicious fleet in the territory, closing in on Earth and it seems as if it is following a similar trajectory to Metropolis," Tim spoke up, taking them all by alarm, "if we don't stop it, we might get attacked."

"Oh, crap," Artemis swore under her breath.

"Fifty bucks say it's Mummy and Daddy Daxam," Tim mumbled, beckoning Mon to come closer, "you recognize the fleet, Monnie?"

"Yeah," he replied, tone wavering with anxiousness, "it's their warship."

M'gann spoke up, "but it's only one warship? Doesn't make sense. What if they are just coming in peace?"

"There's room for an entire army on board," Mon winced, "also I don't think they are here in peace. They were not so peaceful during my meetup with them either."

"We'll make sure of that and won't attack without reason, I promise," Richard took the lead, "but first we have to be prepared on how to tackle them. All of you, put your minds to work and no one is allowed to give stupid suggestions."

Tim was focusing on tracking the warship while Richard had gone to contact the Justice League if he could or else call Clark for help. There was no way they would deal with that alone because if they did and things got screwed up, he would be the one to face the most heat from the decision.

Mon was thinking about how to stop them and then immediately got struck by an idea, "is any of you allergic to lead?"

"Allergic?"

"I don't think so," Richard mused, thinking again if any of his teammates had ever been allergic to lead.

Mon turned to face the rest, "Meg, Kara, Connor, not even you guys?"

"Nope," Meg replied, "why do you ask?"

He explained that he had figured out lead was poisonous to Daxamites on his trip to Maaldoria where he had been driven out due to lead weapons. Plus, the red sun of the planet had already made him weak that once so it had been difficult for him to stay even a second longer.

If they could apply the same strategy and infuse the air with lead, it would repel the oncoming Daxamite troops. Unlike them, Mon had stayed on Earth for a considerably longer time and the yellow sun had enhanced his abilities.

So there was a chance that he might be able to sustain the effects of lead for a longer period as compared to the rest of the Daxamites. He didn't voice that out though because he knew the YJ would refuse to use the method if they figured out that it could be harmful to Mon as well. 

"So you mean to say that lead is kryptonite for Daxamites?" Tim's eyes sparked as Mon's explanation came to a halt, "that's ingenious!"

But Kara had detected the very obvious loophole in his explanation and spoke up, "but if we infuse the air with lead in order to drive Daxamites out, wouldn't it be poisonous to you too?"

Silence gripped them all as Mon shook his head, "it doesn't matter."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter? We can't poison you as well!" Connor spoke up indignantly, "no way, not happening."

"Connor, listen," he tried to make him understand, "if we don't take this route, it will be even more harmful to all of us. Think about it this way, one life or the whole earth... Don't refuse."

"But you're our friend! We can't just let you sacrifice yourself!"

"I won't die," he spoke reassuringly but his tone was sad, "but I won't be able to live here either. I will have to leave."

"How long can you sustain if the air is infused with lead?" Wally asked with a calculative gaze in his eyes.

"I don't know. Would be my first time seeing that too."

The silence between them was heavy because none of them wanted Mon to get hurt in the process. Not even Kara.

Because after her long discussion with Zach about everything that had happened, he had made her realize that it wasn't Mon's fault either that his parents chose to blow up that building.

"We don't have enough time to think of an alternative," Richard who had just contacted Batman and Superman spoke up, "we have to try and contact the fleet to be sure of their intentions. And if they decline our signals, we'll have to check for ourselves by approaching."

They all knew that meant sending their powerful team members to approach the fleet and that included Kara, Connor, and Richard. Of course, Superman would be there to make sure things didn't get out of control.

And if things did get out of control, they would have to use Mon's suggestion of infusing the air with lead. Both options were risky but at such short notice, they couldn't go for any other alternative.

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