Déjà vu

Chapter 1 - A Life Hangs in Imbalance

Lena sat in her office typing up an email to the board about an upcoming project. She leaned back in her chair, her white linen suit, the red satin lining on the jacket showing where it fell open over the white camisole on one side by design. This project was groundbreaking, but losing control of it to the board could be a tactical disaster. Lena needed to create some anticipation without raising too many expectations to have them push for early results. In her role of CEO of L-Corp, it had all become a balancing act. As she searched for the perfect point to pick between puckering and actually kissing ass, a commotion from outside her office door caught her attention and then Jess' voice became clearer.

"You don't have an appointment," Jess said. "You can't go in there!"

The door nearly burst open. "I need you to come with me right now!"

Slowly, Lena rose to her feet, her mind needing a moment to register the person standing before her. "Agent Danvers?"

"Now, Luthor, now!" In black tactical gear, at least four weapons strapped to her body, and her every muscle tensed, Alex Danvers strode across the office and grabbed Lena's wrist. "Let's go!"

Grabbing her one hand with her other one, Lena pulled back suddenly and broke the agent's grip...possibly to both of their surprises. "Are you out of your mind? This suit is linen. You wrinkled the sleeve. I have two more business meetings today."

"No, you don't. Your meetings are canceled. You're coming with me. It's a matter of life and death."

Lena tensed. "Wait, is this about that weapon cache of Lex's my mother had found? Is she...Is my mother on her way for me?"

"Yes and no," Alex replied, grabbing Lena by the wrist again. "We found the weapon cache. Your mother doesn't have it again."

"Then why...? Let go of me! Honest to God, Agent Danvers, you are going to get yourself drown in lawsuits if you don't stop right...Wait. Is this about Kara? Is Kara all right?"

"I..." Eyes closed, Alex took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Jesus, Luthor, I can't go into this right now. Look, Kara is...Kara is not the problem. It's Maggie."

Eyes narrowed, Lena asked, "The officer who arrested me?"

"Right, right, yeah. Look, some cops were following a tip about some alien tech. It was Maggie and a few others. She got down there, saw what the tech was, and realized it was out of their league. She was just calling me, telling me they needed backup when there was screaming and cursing, and then the line went dead. So I—"

"Let go of my arm."

"Will you just let me—"

"Let go of my arm," Lena demanded with a bit more force.

"Fine!" With a tossing motion, Alex pushed Lena's arm back toward the CEO. "Look, when we got there, we found this!"

Alex pulled out her cellphone. She opened it bringing up a video. At first, all one could clearly make out was the line of black vehicles that obviously were owned by some federal division or another and the agents, all dressed like Alex, huddled behind them. Then, as the camera view was raised and zoomed in, the image changed. Drones zoomed through the air and not the little ones children used as toys. These were easily the size of a kitchen table. They seemed to be creating some kind of perimeter around a warehouse of sorts. Then, lumbering into view, it came. It was a mech, and although it was a bit hard to judge size given the perspective, it looked to stand somewhere between twelve and fifteen feet tall if not taller. Where it wasn't a silvery-gray, it was green and purple. In place of a hand on one side, it had a machine gun. On the other side, it had two large cylinders that looked to fire shells. It had no head, instead just an area on top where cubes that fired missiles sat. It walked on feet with three toes, two in front splayed out and one in the back, but on the top of each foot sat a tread making it look as if it could switch to a different mode of movement. In the middle of its torso were a big black L with slightly smaller purple C within it.