song and steel a Glee / Supergirl crossover event

chapter eleven

Hank Henshaw, the director of the secret government agency known as the Department of Extra-Normal Operations - or D.E.O. for short - stood impassively across the small examination room from Quinn, crossing his arms and peering at her with a rather stern look on his face. "Now, Miss Fabray," he rumbled, his voice deep and resonant, "I understand you had quite an encounter with an alien being of some kind very recently."

"Yes, sir," Quinn replied. She was seated on an exam table in something like a hospital gown, with a nurse hovering around recording her vital signs and other information on a tablet, a blood pressure cuff still wrapped around one arm. It was all she could do not to squirm under the imposing man's intense gaze. It reminded her all too much of her father's, and that was something she didn't particularly care to be reminded of.

Nor was the recent encounter of which he spoke, quite honestly; but she had given her word to Rachel and Supergirl that she would do whatever she could to help them investigate and either capture or destroy the otherworldly being who had threatened her and all the other people she loved most in the world – the Glee Club. And so here she was, in a secret room with yet another alien being, not wanting to answer the questions she knew were coming, knowing that she must. She shifted in place, feeling profoundly uncomfortable, but trying not to show it.

Henshaw, of course, could see her discomfort not only with his human-appearing eyes, but with his mind. As one of the world's most powerful telepathic beings, he could very easily extract each and every detail he needed from the poor girl's mind; but as the director of one of the world's most important and clandestine organizations, he rejected such a tactic as completely unethical and wrong. Moreover, to do such a thing would be to violate and possibly damage her forever, and that was something he would never do, not as an agent of the United States Government, nor as a universe-spanning superhero. In this area, perhaps, it was more important to heed that moral imperative than any other. Indeed, having had his own mind turned against him on occasion, he knew that better than most.

"I know this is difficult, Miss Fabray, believe me. If there were any other way we could do this, we would, but...none of our scanning equipment has been able to pick up any trace of the entity that attacked you," he said, modulating his voice to try and calm the obviously skittish young woman. "Whoever – whatever – this creature may be, it's apparently able to elude all of the very sophisticated technology we have here at the D.E.O. But from what I understand, you were able to sense this thing before it revealed itself to you. What we need to determine is how that was possible, and whether this means you have some kind of extra-normal, metahuman ability."

Quinn shook her head, holding back a bitter, rueful laugh. "Me? No, I'm just a normal girl from Lima who gets good grades, hopes to get a scholarship to Yale, and sings in her high school Glee Club. I'm as far from superhuman as it gets."

The nurse removed the blood pressure cuff from Quinn's arm, then nodded at Henshaw. At his answering nod, she left the room without a word, and they were alone. He took in the details: she was very blonde, very pretty, and very frightened. Whatever it was that had nearly taken her life had shaken her badly, understandably so; but he also had the sense that the girl was nothing if not a fighter, and that she would not merely accept what had happened to her in that hotel room. No – she would persevere, battle her way through the trauma and move forward, because that was who she was. That was what she did.

After four hundred years of observing humans, he could see this with barely a glance, as easily as the girl would see her own reflection in a mirror.

He chose not to speak of what he saw in her just yet. Instead, he pulled up a chair and sat, putting himself at eye level with Quinn. "That remains to be seen. However, your friend, Miss Berry - she is most certainly not human, despite her appearance. Did you know, before you all came to National City, that she's an alien as well?"

"Rachel didn't even know it herself. To us, she was just...Rachel. Short, smart, talkative, a little bossy at times, but incredibly talented, and more than that, incredibly good-hearted. One day, she's not even good at sports – the next, she's able to bend steel in her bare hands and leap tall buildings in a single bound."

The softness of her voice, the small smile on the girl's lips as she spoke about her friend, checked a box in Henshaw's mind. "But she's...more to you."

"Yes," admitted Quinn, biting her lip. "She's my best friend. Rachel was there for me in my darkest hour, when hardly anyone else was. She wasn't just willing, but eager, to help me, and she did in so many ways. And this was despite the fact that before we were friends, I wasn't...I wasn't exactly nice to her, to say the least. I'm a better person because of her. The rest of the Glee Club deserves some credit, too, I guess – but mostly it's because of her."

"And how do you feel about her now, after her...transformation?"

Quinn frowned. What was the big man trying to imply - that she would somehow feel differently about Rachel now that it had been revealed she was an alien? Her father was anti-alien, as he was anti- so many other things, but she was not her father. The mere idea that she could ever be anything like him absolutely sickened her.

"I always admired her, even when we weren't friends, Mr. Henshaw. Nothing could ever change that. To me - to all of us - she's still the same Rachel, just with a lot of extra...qualities we didn't know about."

"Well, it would seem that Miss Berry holds you in similarly high esteem. The power she brought to bear in that hotel room to save you - it was off the charts. Her abilities are nothing short of remarkable, and they're growing. Your best friend, ultimately, is going to be able to shatter mountains, level cities and boil seas. One day - and that day, Miss Fabray, is not terribly far off - her abilities will enable to tear whole worlds apart, should she choose to do so."

He paused meaningfully, watching Quinn carefully. She paled slightly, but didn't flinch, at his words.

Impressive. The girl had steel in her spine. The way she surprised him with her next words confirmed it.

"But I'm not here just to talk about Rachel, am I, sir? No, you want to know about me too. I'm aware of your abilities, Mr. Henshaw. I know what you can do. But Rachel – she scares you." Quinn laughed. "Imagine that. Rachel Berry, of all people, scares the mighty Martian Manhunter. I know what you're getting at - you want to know if there's some way, somehow, that I could rein her in, put a leash on her, if she ever goes bad."

Henshaw's eyes narrowed. A muscle quivered at his jaw and his lips thinned to a dangerously taut line, but he said nothing. He added perceptive to the list of positive qualities he could attribute to the girl.

"That's part of why you want to know if I have some kind of powers myself," Quinn continued, expanding on her thought. "Not just to help you with whatever the thing was that attacked me – but to help you figure out if there's a way to control Rachel, if it ever comes to that."

Henshaw stood slowly, so as not to intimidate the young woman with his height and bulk, letting out a deep breath as he rose. It would do no good, obviously, to alienate the girl when they really did need her.

"Here at the D.E.O., we have to prepare for all possible eventualities, Miss Fabray. You're clearly an exceptionally intelligent person, so I know you understand that. The D.E.O.'s mission is not just to protect this country, but the world, and even the galaxy from any conceivable threat."

Quinn's hazel eyes flashed with anger. She knew the man didn't mean to be patronizing, but she was irritated and uncomfortable and just wanted this all to be over as soon as possible.

"Thank you for the compliment, sir, but I can tell you there's absolutely no way that Rachel Berry will ever go bad or threaten the Earth. She's got the kindest, warmest, most generous heart of anyone I've ever known - and whether she was born here or on a planet 500 million miles away, that will never, ever change, no matter what."

"I hope you're right, Miss Fabray," Henshaw said gravely. He turned his gaze away from her then, and towards one of the large monitors mounted on the wall above them, where a picture of Rachel and a list of all her powers – the ones they knew about, anyway – filled the screen. Then he swung his eyes back to her, and what he allowed her to see in his face sent a shiver down her spine.

"Because if you're wrong, I'm not sure that Supergirl – or even her cousin – could stop her."

Quinn did flinch at these words, in spite of herself. It was impossible for her to imagine the girl she knew one day fighting both Supergirl and her more famous cousin to a standstill, let alone defeating them. Could Rachel really be that powerful?

Suddenly, the door opened and the nurse returned, and the director nodded a perfunctory acknowledgment of her presence. She stood before Henshaw, ignoring Quinn, and said in a crisp voice, "Sir, everything is ready. Should I -?" Now she turned to look at the still-seated girl, who looked on intently.

"No," Henshaw replied to the nurse's incomplete question. "No need. Standard procedures, as normal."

"Normal?" Quinn chuckled derisively. "With all due respect, Mr. Henshaw, what the hell are you even talking about? There's nothing normal about any of this, nothing at all."

The D.E.O. Director looked directly at Quinn as the nurse stepped over and placed herself next to her. "Believe me, Miss Fabray, when you've been in this business for a while," he said with a smile that looked more like a grimace, "You find that your definition of normal changes very quickly."

The nurse motioned for Quinn to hop off the exam table and follow them; evidently she was meant to be her escort. Quinn wondered what possible need there could be for that when she was walking behind a giant Martian who possessed multiple superpowers. The logic escaped her, but she did as she was bidden, and together the three of them left the room, the lights dimming automatically behind them as they did.

The D.E.O. complex was a dizzying maze of labyrinthine hallways and tunnels, laden with more technological wonders than Rachel could have imagined. Around every corner, it seemed, were machines large and small, and uniformed people scurrying about doing this and that with them. It was almost overwhelming, the activity that filled nearly every square inch of the sprawling compound, and Rachel was hard pressed to keep her mind and feet focused on following Agent Alex Danvers wherever it was she was being taken.

Alex watched her from the corner of her highly trained eye. It was endearing, really, to see the way Rachel's eyes seemed to grow perpetually wider with each new marvel she encountered. She found it hard to reconcile the report they'd gotten from Kara about her incredible power levels with the sight of the small, exotically pretty girl who was obviously finding it incredibly difficult to keep herself from stopping to gawk at the various pieces of advanced tech strewn all about the place. Yet a glance at the power monitoring app running on her smart watch told her that Rachel Berry was far from an ordinary girl – or alien, for that matter - and she suppressed the urge to shudder at the data it presented.

"Oh!" Rachel exclaimed, finally stopping at one particular window, where a pearlescent craft stood on an enormous table, gleaming like a star-jewel. "That's – Kara's -" She pointed excitedly at the craft as Alex walked back to join her. "Her ship. The one that brought her to Earth."

"Yes. How did – how did you know?" Alex was genuinely puzzled. "No one has seen that ship but me, our parents, Superman and the people here at the D.E.O."

"In her memories," Rachel replied, still staring with wide, rapturous eyes at the beautiful, elegantly designed spacecraft. "I saw it in her mind. I came here in a ship too, but I don't know what happened to it. My dads told me it just...disappeared."

Then she turned to Alex with such a hopeful look on her face, it almost broke her heart. "Is it – is it here? My ship?" she asked, an excited light kindling in her eyes. "I mean, if you've got Kara's ship, you could have mine too. I would love to see it again. I...I don't have anything from my world at all."

Alex hated to disappoint the girl, but she didn't think so. They hadn't even been able to determine what kind of alien she was, or from which planet she'd fled. As far as the D.E.O. was concerned, Rachel Berry was a complete mystery. And although Alex would never say so in front of the girl, that fact worried her, just as she knew it worried Director Henshaw.

Kara, though, was another story; it didn't seem to bother her at all that Rachel was such an unknown quantity. Clearly, her sister was enamored of the girl, and it wasn't hard to see why. She was quite beautiful, in a unique, exotic way, with her large eyes and sharp cheekbones, her lustrous hair and full lips, and even her slightly oversized nose. And she had quite the charming personality as well; Alex didn't think she'd ever met a more polite person in her life. She hoped that Maggie would forgive her for thinking so, but the girl had quite a pair of legs on her too, long and shapely despite her short stature.

"I don't think so," she said softly, wanting to deliver the blow as gently as possible. "It seems another agency - now defunct - got to the site where your ship landed before we did, and there's no record of whatever might have been taken from there."

"Oh. I see." Rachel cast her eyes downward, and Alex knew it was because the girl didn't want her to see the tears in them. "Um. I guess...we should continue, then. I'm sorry for holding you up."

Alex felt badly for the girl. She was a lot like Kara had been when she was younger, the way she crumpled inward at being disappointed. She found herself wanting to say something to cheer her up. The agent walked ahead silently for a few paces before she blurted, out of nowhere, "You know, my sister really likes you."

Rachel, who had been lost in her thoughts, immediately perked up at these words. "What? I – I mean, she does? Really?"

Alex stifled a laugh at the tone of shock and amazement in Rachel's voice. "Yes, really. When she first told me about you, she couldn't stop going on and on about this amazing girl she met. She described you as having a huge singing voice and a personality to match."

"She did not," Rachel said, in the same wondering tone, and Alex could tell the girl was just as smitten with Kara as Kara was with her. "She did?"

"She really did. It seems you've made quite an impression on her - and not just because you're apparently one of the five most powerful beings on the planet."

Rachel froze in her tracks, blinking as though her enhanced hearing had somehow failed her. "I'm sorry, Agent Danvers...could you repeat that? I...I'm not sure I heard you correctly."

Alex turned to give her a gentle smile, remembering how overwhelmed Kara had been when she'd learned the full extent of her abilities several years before. Rachel seemed even younger than Kara was then. She had to remind herself of what Kara had told her regarding the girl's age.

"We believe you to be one of the five most powerful beings on Earth right now, pending our official assessment."

"Who...who are the others?"

The girl's face registered genuine shock and disbelief. It was obvious to Alex, who had been dealing with meta-humans for several years already, that Rachel truly had no idea of the true extent of her abilities, and again, that was cause for concern. Someone this powerful, without knowledge of just what she could truly do, was likely to cause a ton of damage without that knowledge, without proper training. That was why it was imperative that they get some concrete data about her powers, and then begin to teach her how to use them properly, as soon as possible.

"That's classified," the agent replied, "Although you've already met two of them, and one of their relatives is kind of famous."

Rachel bit her lip, thinking. "Kara – I mean Supergirl, obviously. Your boss, Director Henshaw, also known as J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. And..." Her eyes widened. "Superman."

"Very good," Alex laughed. "But I'm not telling you who the others are. You'll find out for yourself one day soon, anyway."

After a few more minutes of walking, with Rachel lost in silent contemplation of what she'd just been told, Alex stopped in front of an enormous bay door at the end of what had seemed like an endless corridor. There was an elaborate security mechanism next to it, including a keypad, a hand scanner and a retinal scanner.

"Here we are. The Assessment Area," she said. "This is where we evaluate the power levels of all of our allies, and the prisoners we hold here, because we're the only ones with the technology and training to hold them. Right now, we have only a general idea of what your abilities are, but once we go through all the testing procedures and protocols, we'll know much more."

Alex paused to type in the long, complex passcode (which included several parts in different alien languages), then presented her palm and finally her right eye to the scanners. There was a soft beep, and then Rachel's super-sensitive ears picked up the release of the intricate system of locks that kept the room behind the door completely and totally secure.

"I know you've already seen a lot of pretty incredible things here, Rachel, but trust me – you haven't seen anything yet. This room is one of the most important parts of this entire facility. Every known superhero has been in here, having his or her powers assessed, learning how to make better use of them. For some, it's a place of rehabilitation after injury. For some, it's their first step towards their destiny. For you, I think it's that, but I also think that, more than anything else, it's a place where you'll start finding the answers to a lot of the questions you have about yourself."

She looked at Rachel for a long moment, searching for any sign of fear or nervousness; but the wide, excited smile that lit up her face told Alex that she was anything but fearful or nervous. She was only too eager to step into this new world and find out more about what who she was and what she could do.

"Looks like you're ready to go," Alex dryly observed. She pressed a button hidden somewhere in the wall, and the door slowly rose to reveal the room behind it. "Come on in, then."

The happy squeal that Rachel let out as she raced into the room nearly burst the older woman's ear drums. She shook her head, chuckling to herself, and followed as the massively heavy door slowly descended and finally locked shut with a solid thunk.

In the dimness of the sprawling underground complex, a group of infiltrators offered their thanks to the universe that the D.E.O. seemed to prefer mood lighting to bright illumination. They moved as one in the shadows, creeping along as furtively as they possibly could, hoping against hope that they wouldn't be discovered before achieving their ultimate objective. This was indeed a dangerous mission, and there was no guarantee that they would get out of it alive – but they had sworn to see it through to its end, come what may.

"I can't believe we've gotten this far without getting caught," Artie whispered, craning and twisting his neck to look up at Puck, who was pushing his wheelchair along as silently as he could manage, while still keeping up with the rest of their intrepid group.

"Dude! Don't jinx us," Puck hissed in reply. "Just be glad that Rachel, Quinn and that Danvers chick decided to walk and not drive here, or we never would've been able to follow them, let alone gotten into this place."

"Yeah, but without my sense of direction, we would have gotten lost a hundred times," Mike whispered. "Not that anybody's thanked me for that or anything."

Santana turned back to both of them with a fiery glare. "Would you idiots please shut the hell up? You say you don't want to get caught, but then you just keep blabbing on and on." It had been her idea for them to tail their friends and the National City reporter to wherever it was they were going, but now that they were all here, she found herself regretting that she'd allowed several of the other New Directions to come along.

"If we do get caught, Mr. Schue will kill us," said Sam, peering ahead into the darkness of the seemingly endless hallway. "If Ms. Corcoran doesn't kill us first, that is. Are you sure you saw Quinn and that huge dude come this way, Brittany?"

"Positive," Brittany answered, though she didn't sound positive at all. The blonde girl chewed on the end of a lock of her cornsilk hair with a look of uncertainty on her face. "I mean, I think so. It could have been a couple of robots disguised to look like Quinn and a big guy. They have robots all over the place here, don't they?"

Artie adjusted his glasses in the gloom. He was pretty sure that this was as close as he would ever get to being on the deck of the starship Enterprise. It was a lot to take in, and he was having a little trouble wrapping his brain around it all.

"If they don't, I'm gonna be so disappointed," he whispered. "For real."

"Me too," said Sam, offering his fist for Artie to bump, which the wheelchair-bound boy did, happily. "This place is like the Transformers' home planet or something – there's tech everywhere."

Puck rolled his eyes at them. They were his Glee Club bros, and he'd do anything for them, but seriously. "You guys are such freakin' dweebs. Based on this conversation," he scoffed, "I now refuse to believe that either one of you has ever kissed a girl."

Slapping her palm against her face, Santana fumed. They were all going to get thrown in jail, or worse, if these losers couldn't keep their mouths shut – and she was not going down like that. And anyway, all she wanted to know was what was happening to her friends in this place, which most definitely did not look like the kind of place you took someone on a casual day out. She might not have said it a lot (if ever), but the truth was, she really cared about Quinn and Rachel, and she didn't want to see anything bad happen to them, even if Rachel did have superpowers. What if it turned out that the little diva was actually from Krypton like Supergirl and her cousin, and this whole complex was lousy with Kryptonite?

Uh-uh. Not on my watch, she thought. Nobody gets to abuse my friends but me.

"For the last freakin' time, will you all just shut your damned mouths?" she snapped. "Worst Scooby gang ever."

Suddenly, they caught sight of a giant hulk of a man flanked by a shorter, dark-haired woman in a crisp set of what looked like blue hospital scrubs – a nurse of some kind? - and a younger, shorter woman with hair so blonde it was almost white. No - a strikingly beautiful girl, one who walked with her head held high and her shoulders back, who walked with the proud stride that marked her instantly as a one-time McKinley High School Cheerio.

"Oh my God, it's Quinn!" Brittany exclaimed in a hushed voice, clapping her hands in delight. "I totally knew I was right. You all should listen to me more often."

Santana pressed a proud kiss to her girl's cheek, wrapping an arm around Brittany's waist and pulling her close. "That's right, Britt-Britt. Now come on, losers. Let's follow them – quietly. If you mess this up, I will go all Lima Heights on your stupid, sorry asses."

The group crept forward, unaware that a new shadow had silently come up behind them, and was following them them even as they trailed after Quinn and her companions.

Following, and wielding a weapon in its dark hand.

In her career as an officer with the National City Police Department, Special Metahuman / Alien Investigations Division, Maggie Sawyer had seen a lot of things. She had seen all kinds of monsters and madness, all manner of things strange and bizarre. Nothing she had seen to this point, however, quite matched the audaciousness, if not outright stupidity, of this group of kids - one of them with a freaking Mohawk, for goodness' sake - sneaking into this most secretive of government installations and wandering its halls as though they were the corridors of whichever local high school had been missing its favorite bunch of delinquents on this particular day. After having spent her morning investigating a variety of cases involving aliens, it actually felt nice to be tailing a bunch of ordinary kids and not aliens who could shoot lasers out of their eyes or suddenly grow ten feet tall or reach out to grab her with multiple tentacles. A refreshing change, really.

She crept after them quietly and carefully, holding her gun, but not expecting she'd have to use it for anything. This was hardly a dangerous-looking group of kids. The one with the Mohawk was even pushing along a boy in a wheelchair, and there were two girls in the lead. One of the girls was a tall, pale-skinned blonde, the other a shorter, dark complexioned brunette, and behind them were the boys, a tall, dark-haired one, a shorter, more muscular blond, and then the Mohawk and the wheelchair kid. They all wore T-shirts and jeans except for the one in the wheelchair, whose clothing was more difficult to make out due to his seated position and the low light the D.E.O. seemed to favor, and which she hated.

Why were they here, Maggie wondered, and where the hell were they going? And how did they even know this place existed? The only reason she herself knew about it was Alex, whom she had come to surprise with an impromptu lunch date. They both worked so hard at their respective jobs that it was difficult for them to find time to spend quality couple time together, but spontaneous things like this helped to remind them that they were more than just their occupations. And now, she thought ruefully, this bunch of truants was cutting into that precious time. She knew she should just rush up and bust them now, but her curiosity as to their intentions was too strong. She really wanted to see what this was all about before she hauled them all into Hank Henshaw's office, where they would no doubt get a good tongue-lashing from the agency's intimidating Director.

As she drew closer to the group, she began to make out their hushed voices whispering back and forth to each other. The ringleader was obviously the dark-haired girl, and the way the blonde girl stuck to her side told Maggie that the two were together. She couldn't help but smile, remembering her own first love from back in high school. Something told her, though, that these two were far more than the average teen couple; she just had a sense of these things. Just like she had a sense about herself and Alex. Clearly, they were all good friends, despite the ringleader's evident exasperation with the others. They interacted with the practiced ease of people who spend an inordinate amount of time together, like Winn and James, who were Alex' sister Kara's two closest friends.

And then was finally close enough to hear them clearly: "Oh my God, it's Quinn!" said the tall blonde girl. "I totally knew I was right. You guys should listen to me more often." The darker one, the ringleader, planted a kiss on the blonde's cheek. "That's right, Britt-Britt. Now come on, losers. Let's follow them - quietly. If you mess this up, I will go all Lima Heights on your stupid, sorry asses."

Maggie had to smile at the girl's sassy attitude; it reminded her of her younger self once again. But now that she knew what they were doing, it was time for her to put a stop to it. This place was far too dangerous to let a bunch of clueless, if quite harmless, kids roam around it unsupervised. She was amazed that they hadn't tripped any kind of security measures by now - but then again, she hadn't, either. Maybe that was because they were designed more to detect metahuman and alien types than ordinary human intruders. She'd have to have a word with Alex about that later. Right now, she needed to get this bunch upstairs and let Henshaw decide what to do with them.

"Freeze! National City Police! Stop right where you are, and put your hands up - all of you. NOW!"

The group's movements ceased immediately. Maggie smiled. She had them.

"Turn around. Slowly."

Again, they did as they were told, and now Maggie could see their faces for the first time. Wait a minute - she recognized these kids! Alex had insisted on showing her a slew of videos on YouTube the other night. These were the New Directions, a group of singing, dancing teens from somewhere in Ohio, here in National City for some kind of competition. Alex had mentioned that her sister was covering that competition on her first assignment as a reporter for CatCo Media, and that she had discovered one of them was actually super-powered alien, a girl named Rachel Berry. Peering in the dim light at their faces, Maggie determined that the Berry girl wasn't among this group, and heaved a sigh of relief. From what Alex had told her, that girl was as powerful as Supergirl, maybe even more powerful. Her gun would have been less than useless in that situation. She hated that kind of situation.

"Don't shoot me," the boy in the wheelchair said, fear evident in his features, hands held up. "I'm a bleeder."

"Shut up, man. I've dealt with cops before. Let me handle this," said the boy with the Mohawk. He stood behind the one in the wheelchair, with a smirk on his face as he crossed his arms. Maggie stifled a laugh at the boy's absurd cockiness, the typical macho bravado of the teenage male juvenile delinquent. She was not impressed.

The ringleader, whom Maggie now saw as a beautiful Latina, spoke up, standing protectively in front of her tall blonde girlfriend. "No, Puck. If we let you handle this, we're all ending up in juvie. I'll do the talking." Smart girl, Maggie thought.

"Officer, I'm sorry. My name is Santana Lopez. There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding here," the girl said smoothly, ignoring the glare sent her way by the boy she'd called Puck. "We were just following one of our friends, who was brought here for reasons we don't know, and we wanted to make sure she was safe."

Maggie was about to reply when she saw the hulking form of Hank Henshaw suddenly looming behind them, looking thoroughly irate, his eyes red with anger. Literally red. She had to remind herself of his Martian origins to keep from shrinking back. He was fearsome even when he was in the best of moods, but when he was pissed...she shivered in spite of herself. These kids had no idea of what was in store for them.

"What the hell is going on here?" he thundered. All the kids except the one in the wheelchair jumped, nearly startled out of their wits. The blonde girl yelped in surprise, clinging to Santana. "Who are you people, and what are you doing in my compound?"

Another blonde girl suddenly appeared in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere. "They're my friends! Leave them alone!" she cried. Maggie could see that she looked drawn and tired, and that she was shocked to see her friends here. Clearly, she'd had no idea that they were coming.

"Quinn!" they all shouted in unison, turning to engulf her in a massive group hug. "Thank God you're okay," Maggie heard one of them say; she couldn't tell which one, in the press of bodies. She was touched by their loyalty, even if this was a supremely stupid thing for them to have done.

"This is a government facility," Henshaw growled, unmoved by the touching scene. "You are all in very serious trouble."

At that, the group separated. "San, I don't want to go to juvie," said Santana's girlfriend, her blue eyes wide with sudden fear. "They fight over waffles in there!"

Before anyone could say anything else, a blur of blue and red streaked down the hall, another streak beside it. All at once, Supergirl stood next to Maggie, and a shorter, visibly upset girl with large brown eyes and a very short skirt stood next to her. Immediately, the name came to Maggie - this was Rachel Berry.

"J'onn! What are you -?" the Girl of Steel asked, one arm extended in front of Rachel, as though to bar her way. Rachel was too shocked at the sight of her friends in the middle of the D.E.O. complex to even speak, much less run to them - or worse, attack the Director. Confusion swam in the girl's large, deep brown eyes - until she saw Henshaw looming behind the New Directions. Then they narrowed, and a blaze of angry heat rose in them.

Maggie whispered to Kara, "The girl is ready to blow. Please don't let her." Kara's eyes flicked to meet hers in acknowledgment, even as Rachel stared a hole through J'onn's broad barrel chest.

"Stand down, Miss Berry," Henshaw barked, immediately seeing the look of anger on the girl's face, the tension in her body. Those two things told him that she would not hesitate to launch herself at him in order to protect this group of young people. He felt the power rolling off her in waves. "I'm not going to harm them," he said, much more softly this time. Rachel didn't look convinced. Her fists were clenched at her sides. He tried again. "Everything is under control."

Quinn stepped forward, tears standing in her hazel eyes. "Rachel, it's okay. I'm fine. They're fine." She held her arms out, inviting an embrace. "Come here. Please."

Maggie and Kara locked eyes. What could they do if Rachel decided to attack? The tension grew thicker. The boy in the wheelchair looked as though he was about to pass out. Santana held her girl tight, the blonde's face buried in her shoulder.

And then, after several long and frightening moments, Rachel finally ran over to Quinn, who wrapped her arms around her as tightly as she could. She barely even the pain in her ribs, where Rachel's powerful arms encircled her torso. She let her tears flow freely into her best friend's long, dark hair as everyone else let out the breaths they'd been holding.

Kara sent a thought to J'onn through the mind-link they shared, breathing a sigh of relief as another part of her mind absently noted her sister's out-of-breath arrival on the scene, and Maggie going over to hug her. We need to talk. Let's get them upstairs and figure this out.

J'onn wearily nodded his agreement. An already long morning was getting even longer. He was afraid to even wonder what else could happen.

And that was when a high, keening alarm began to sound, shattering the silence.