General Danvers Week: Day 4 – Hostage AU
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“I really don’t have time for this,” Alex muttered as she elbowed the woman attempting to capture her in the gut. All that she gained was a bruised elbow as she hit some sort of plating. Twisting didn’t do anything, and Alex felt embarrassed she couldn’t get herself out of it. She prepared to call for help, only for the woman to let out a hissing noise, and for something stinging against her neck, causing any words she tried to get out to silence. Panic started to filter through her blood, but her training automatically ensured her heart-beat didn’t rise.
“You are to come with me,” the woman said with vitriol, before wrapping an arms around her waist- but that wasn’t right, there were too many, and there were arms around her neck and front already. Then they jumped, the wind slapping Alex in the face as they went up, and up, until they slowed, and the alien – it had to be an alien – started to hover. Alex watched as a circular hole in the sky opened, the alien flying through it slowly, revealing the other side to be some sort of circular base.
In the middle was a panel shaped like a crescent moon, surrounding an empty chair, manned by three other aliens, who had over a dozen arms all over their torsos, each hand on one control. But that wasn’t what Alex paid attention to – she looked to the cells surrounding them, noting the lack of any different light that would indicate kryptonite and the glass between them all. Because of it, she couldn’t tell how many cells there were, or how many people to a cell there was.
Kara can find me.
Then her eyes fell to a fifth alien, who was carrying a prisoner out of its cell, towards the empty chair. Alex watched with horror as the alien pressed the prisoner into it, strapping them in place, the prisoner silent despite how they seemed to scream.
Kara has to find me.
The alien holding Alex turned abruptly though, facing her towards the cells to her previous right. The glass steamed, before rising up, being replaced with lines of live electricity to cause the only other prisoner inside to look up. Alex’s eyes widened.
Astra.
Likewise, Astra seemed to be shocked at her appearance. The alien brought Alex forwards, before shoving her forwards, the electricity bending to accommodate her, before the glass lowered again. Alex stumbled, but remained on her feet, bringing her hand to her neck, where the stinging hadn’t abated. Upon the surge of pain, as if she’d touched some sort of wound, she whipped her hand away. What did it do to me? She looked to Astra, who brought her hand to her collar, pushing away her hair to show a dark mark that she would have called a hickey, if not for the transparent skin around it that showed the inside of her neck, and what Alex knew to be her vocal cords, which were a sickly purple in comparison to the light pink of everything else.
Alex looked to the left, to their neighbours. Every single one that she could see had the same mark, the same transparency and the same purple vocal chords. They’re trying to keep us silent. She looked to Astra. Doesn’t mean we can’t communicate though.
Coming over, she crouched down in front of the Kryptonian, who was still looking at her unblinkingly. She brought her hands up, speaking in ASL, asking her if she understood. Astra’s eyes drifted to her hands, and she asked again, but Astra didn’t seem to understand, only frowning lightly. A bang caught her attention, and she turned her head to see someone on the other side of the room signing frantically.
Unfortunately, the aliens in the middle of the room saw too, and one of the two not working at the controls – doing things and watching the man in the chair and oh my god they’re vivisecting him – went over to the glass, making a high pitched sound. The person in the cell obviously didn’t hear it, continuing to sign to Alex about how she’d been kidnapped and so had everyone else and that they were doing experiments on them. Alex nodded, telling her to calm down because the aliens were speaking in their own language, which was obviously when the girl stopped, turning her attention to the alien right in front of her face. It peered at her, before two of its hands copied what she had been doing…
And then it replied to her.
Alex felt sick as she watched it sign about how they were going to learn humans, understand their biology – and then they were going to change them, give them gifts so that they could fight for their armies in the name of their leader. The girl in the cell was sick, the alien not seeming to care as it pressed hands to the glass, causing colours to reverberate off the area. The alien somehow made a gas appear in the cell, the girl soon dropping into a sleep, along with her three cell-mates. The list of things they could do was quickly growing, and Alex didn’t like it.
Kara has to find us.
She jerked at the hand on her wrist, turning back to Astra, who tugged her to the ground. Caught off-guard by her behaviour, Alex let her come near to her face, pressing up against her. What the…
“They are extremely colour-perceptive, and have minds that run at the speed of your computers,” the Kryptonian breathed into her ear, causing Alex’s eyes to widen. “Their hearing, however, is even better. They have knowledge on how loud humans can be, with or without voices, and so enforce the cells with sound-dampening technology. Their venom can cause paralysis to vocal chords. It was once a way for them to stop their prey from making any noise – now, they use it only on their enemies. The darker the venom, the stronger it is, though you and I would not be able to tell. It fades minimally over time. My physiology though is superior and strange enough for the venom, even without the benefit of Yellow Sun rays, that it does not affect me.” She pulled away slightly, eyes flickering over Alex’s shoulder. Alex glanced over, seeing one of the aliens peering at them. She thought it might be the one that brought her in.
It touched the glass with a few dozen hands. Alex worried for a moment that it was going to send them to sleep, only for English to type itself out on the clear substance.
ARE THESE OTHER MATING RITUALS OF YOUR PEOPLE? THEY ARE NOT DOCUMENTED ON YOUR WORLD WIDE WEB, BUT YOUR PROCLIVITY TOWARDS INTERCOURSE DURING LIFE-ENDING EVENTS HAS ALREADY BEEN NOTED. MANY OTHER SUBJECTS OF CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE EXPERIMENT HAVE EXPRESSED THEIR FEAR IN VARIOUS FORMS. THEY HAVE BEEN ALLOWED THIS PRIVILIGE, AND MORE TIME TO ADJUST TO THE FACT THAT THEY WILL SERVE A NEW, GREATER PURPOSE.
Alex flushed at the bluntness of it all, wanting to deny having that kind of relationship with Astra, but Astra’s words returned to her. Minds that run at the speed of your computers. It had obviously already seen other people kiss, and have sex, however long it had been doing this – it would suspect something, and then Astra might be discovered, and then…
Turning back to Astra, she didn’t give the Kryptonian any chance to blow her own cover, putting her hands on either of her cheeks, leaning forwards to kiss her. Astra, to her credit, seemed to pick up on what she was doing, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her onto her lap. Alex wondered how she’d survived as her hands drifted to her hair, how she’d come back to life after she, Alex, had stabbed her through the heart…
The reflective nature of the curved walls let her know that the alien had departed, turning and leaving. But she didn’t stop kissing Astra, waiting until she needed to breathe before finally parting for breath. Astra pressed their foreheads together, and Alex brought her hands down to her neck carefully, avoiding the sensitive mark. Bite mark, I suppose…
“Kara will notice your disappearance soon, and this ship will be found shortly. They were previously in your New York City, where no organisation like the DEO had any chance of discovering them.”
Alex swallowed, nodding slightly. Let’s hope she finds us soon. Alex had no designs of being put in that chair any time soon.