• July 05, 2017 •

Mon had almost toppled off when that portal closed and he felt that unmistakable feeling that he hadn't been the only one who had ascended to the warship from that portal. 

He was certain that the last thing he had seen, before the light from the closing portal had wiped everything out, was the bright azure of Kara's eyes rather close to him. Almost as if she had crossed the portal too. 

But as he looked around, he couldn't see anyone else except for him and he shook the suspicion off. However, his suspicion had been right because Kara and Wally had followed him through that portal. He couldn't detect it because of the blinding golden light and Wally's speed force.

Right then, the two had sought a hiding place from where they were keeping watch on Mon.

Mon's arrival had been rather expected because soon the Daxamite guards had begun to surround him, kneeling down in respect in front of their prince. Mon looked uncomfortable and his eyes searched for his parents, landing on Queen Rhea who had approached.

He could see that his father wasn't beside her and Zuphail's words echoed in his head again.

"Mon-El, my dear son," she stepped closer and gently took his arms, eyes examining him as if checking that he was alright or not.

"Where is Father?"

She smiled as if he had asked a very irrelevant question, her voice saccharine as she replied, "oh but he has gone to Daxam already. He awaits us there."

"I don't believe you," he stepped back, retrieving his arms from her hold, "where is Zuphail?"

"Zuphail?"

"My bodyguard," he elaborated, "I want to see him."

"He's not..."

"Mother, you have been lying to me this entire time, haven't you?" His voice was cold, a tone he hadn't used with anyone when he was on Earth. And those blue eyes of his were sparking in a threat.

It reminded Kara of the time he had woken up from his coma after he had crashlanded on Earth. And right then both Kara and Wally could agree that angry Mon-El was a terrifying sight indeed.

"Mon, I have no idea what you're talking about," she shrugged it off as if it was no big deal, "I'm just so glad you came back and we must head to Daxam right away."

"Zuphail warned me not to come to Daxam. He said it was a trap and that you must have done something to get Father out of the way too."

She gasped in alarm, a mixture of shock and rage taking over her features, "how dare you..." 

All the guards that had stooped down to their knees stood up, their spears held at the ready, awaiting an order from their queen.

Mon took in the situation calmly, all his suspicions proving right. The guards were loyal to the queen and not the king of Daxam. There was no knowing whether the king was even alive or not.

"What should we do?" Wally whispered to Kara who was observing the scene.

"If they attack him, I'll intervene. And you will have to use that time to search for a way out so that we can escape."

"Got it."

Mon had not fazed at seeing all the spears pointed toward him as he addressed his mother again, "your behavior right now and your guards threatening me only prove my assumption right."

"I have had enough of your stubbornness, Mon-El. Either you go with us willingly or I'll have to force you."

He took a step closer and two guards had immediately come to Rhea's sides, their spears crossed in front of her like a shield. 

Mon paid no heed as he stopped a few steps away from her, eyes burning through her identical blue irises, "the funny thing is I was actually willing to go with you before I got a message from Zuphail. Now I would like to see you try and take me."

Without warning, he had grabbed both the spears shielding Rhea, twisting them out of the guards' grip. Rhea was shocked because the spears were lead-based and even the guards had protective armor in order to wield them. But the way Mon-El had snatched the weapons and threw off the opposition showed that he was much stronger than they had expected.

The point to be noted was that he had been exposed to the Earth's yellow sun for much longer than them hence he had a resistance to lead and was stronger than earlier.

Seeing that he needed help as all the other guards had ganged up on him and Rhea had backed off for her own safety, Kara gave Wally a nod and left the hiding place, coming to Mon's help.

Mon got briefly distracted to see the familiar red and blue suit, "Kara, what are you doing here?"

"Helping you, what else?" She disarmed the guard coming her way and tripped him, using laser vision to melt the weapon of another, "now don't get distracted, watch out!"

Rhea was beyond herself with rage, "I told you to come alone!"

"Sorry Ma'am but you're being quite unreasonable at the moment," Wally remarked as he sped around her, managing to tie her up. 

That got some guards distracted from Mon and Kara to help their queen get free whereas Wally whizzed around them multiple times, making them dizzy then sped past the entire warship, looking for an escape.

"How do we get out of here?" Kara asked Mon who had dropped the lead weapons as they had begun to sting worse, knowing that they had to leave before more guards showed up to Rhea's aid.

"We have to get to the main portal, I'll do something."

But Wally had found it in time as he came back, took hold of both and sped off again, "I found it. You just have to open it because even if I can try all the code combinations, it would take time."

Mon quickly punched in the code that he remembered and thankfully, the portal started to open up.

"Stop them, now!" Rhea who had gotten out of her bonds ordered the Daxamites but the portal had been opened and Wally made haste to get them through.

"The portal will stay open so there's a high chance that Daxamites will follow us," Mon told them, "we have to get to Mount Justice and carry out the lead infusion just in case..."

Kara flew both of them safely to the ground, but they were well aware that the Daxamite guards were attempting to follow. And true enough, missiles had started to shoot their way from the warship.

Dodging them the best they could, the three of them made it to Mount Justice and Wally had sped off to tell Richard of the situation. He found that the others had anticipated such a situation occurring and all the preparations had been made already to release the lead-based fumes into the air.

As the warship was lowering and guards were jumping out, it gave them a direct target and they released the fumes.

"We have to get Mon inside, quick!" 

Wally nodded and rushed out, taking hold of Mon and brought him in. They were sealing Mount Justice so that no outer air would penetrate because Mon had to be kept safe as well.

The rest of the YJ was outside, battling the Daxamites that had descended, the effects of lead making them a weak target. But the missiles from the warship were a different case altogether and had to be stopped or else major destruction could occur.

"I want to go help them," Mon insisted but Tim didn't let him leave as he was the one put in charge of keeping Mon safe inside.

"No, you aren't going outside. Do you see what that lead did to your hands? They are all burned up."

"Tim, this isn't your fight nor the YJ's, let me handle..."

"Shush," he smacked his shoulder, taking his ear as he dragged him away from the door, "I know of a way you can help. You will help me stop the warship from shooting more missiles and we'll do this while staying inside."

"What, how...? Preposterous!"

"Shut up, you don't have a choice," Tim had brought him in front of the computer set up at the Mount Justice, "I hack, you give me the information."

"Wait, what?"

Tim had a smug look on his face as he saw Mon look back at him in shock, "what? Never heard of someone hacking into a system before? The warship is coming in range, I can do it if you know enough to help me with it. Or else I'll just have to improvise."

Tim cracked his knuckles, pulled him down on the seat beside him and got to work, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he typed and the screen showed the target locking onto the warship.

"And what good will hacking into the warship's system do?" Mon was still quite confused.

"It will help disable all the weaponry units for instance," Tim sighed, "honestly, Mon, I hadn't expected you to be just as dumb as Connor. So keep your questions for later and just tell me whether you've operated this warship before or not."

"I have but..."

"Excellent," Tim looked even more determined than earlier, "so whenever I ask you for a specific code, you'll tell me, okay? All we have to do is trick the system into being controlled here rather than there. I'm not explaining further so just do your part and tell me when I ask you."

***