Chapter 4

Maxima and Lana wake up in a cell, with grids of a kind of laser, lying on separate beds with metal frames. Maxima realizes that she's without her gloves and wearing handcuffs that inhibit her powers.

"Na'halia dast! Wa kraznia han!"

"How wonderful ..." Lana grunts sarcastically. "They took the glove with your translator. Now I'm stuck in a cell with an alien who does not understand me."

"I do, Lana Lang. I studied the local language before approaching Kal-El. Easy to learn, compared to the seven languages ​​spoken in Almerac. My telepathic abilities also helped. I only used the translator to avoid gaffes and misunderstandings. My mission is extremely serious, with no room for misunderstanding." Max gets up. "Now, I have to get us out of here."

"Get 'us' out? Glad you included me in your escape plans."

"I have no sympathy for you, Lana Lang, but nothing like the hatred I feel for Vernax. And nobody deserves the fate he holds for us. Nobody."

"Thank you for your consideration. Anyway, I've already called reinforcements, thanks to a transmitter built into my wedding ring."

Sazu approaches the cell. Lana feels the air weigh with the look of hatred that Maxima directs to her (ex-) maid. The unpublishable vocabulary that the princess of Almerac assigns to the ginoid shows that Maxima had learned well the local curses. I didn't imagine that an alien princess could be so foul-mouthed, Lana thinks. Though, in the face of such a traitor, I can't blame her.

"You should to address such vulgar insults to Lord Vernax. After all, it was he who reprogrammed me. Besides his enormous powers, who would say, he is a great hacker."

"That's why he found me here on Earth. You revealed my location to him, you two-faced creature! When I put my hands on you, I'll smash your tin-can face and dismantle your circuits, hacked or not!"

"Save your effort, princess. The spacecraft's hyperdrives are in the process of heating. As soon as they are ready and the master gets rid of some unexpected intruders, we will take flight."

Sazu walks away and leaves. The "unexpected intruders" would certainly be the reinforcements summoned by Lana, but Maxima decides not to count on the good will of potential rescuers, preferring to free herself and Lana. The princess projects her handcuffed hands violently against the metallic edge of the bed in an attempt to break the shackles. No effect. She tries again. And again. And again. Uselessly.

Lana is without handcuffs. Certainly, his captor judged her harmless. Only her purse had been confiscated. She decides to try something, taking advantage of being underestimated. She asks Maxima to stand still and takes a good look at the handcuffs.

Despite the alien design, there do not seem to be any essential differences in comparison to Earth's handcuffs (except for the power-nullifying mechanism). Then she removes a hairpin from her hair, framing it in picklock form, at the sight of Maxima's incredulous gaze. Lana inserts one end of the hairpin into the single visible hole of the handcuffs.

Lana isn't proud to have been a rascal pest and troublemaker in her teens, but she can't deny that time brought her some useful knowledge. Among them, the one to open the most diverse types of locks, including handcuffs (Lana gave much trouble to the then Sheriff Maisie Swan, of Smallville).

Extremely concentrated, Lana manipulates the hairpin with dexterity and precision, making subtle movements until she hears a CLACK. Like magic, Maxima's handcuffs open and fall to the floor.

"Not even a pair of alien handcuffs is a match for a Terran improvised gadget at the hands of a former juvenile delinquent."

"That was ingenious. Thanks."

"Not bad for a 'stunted figure', isn't it?"

"I underestimated you, I admit. Now we have to get out of this cell. Do you have a coin?"

Lana's hands are rummaging through the back pockets of her pants. She finds a quarter-dollar coin. Free of inhibiting handcuffs, Maxima uses his telekinetic powers to make the coin go through the bars of the cell and hit a button on the wall, disabling the laser grid.

Lana and Maxima flee, but less than a minute later, Sazu appears accompanied by two robots with long ray guns. Maxima is quick to protect her escape fellow.

"Behind me, Lana Lang!"

The robots shoot, but Max blocks the shots with a psychokinetic shield and easily disarms them, levitating one of their weapons into Lana's hands. While Maxima crushes one of the robots with telekinesis, Lana shoots at the other with the loaned weapon, hitting the joints and causing it to dismantle itself.

"Nice aim! Your youth must have been really exciting, Lana Lang."

Lana smiles at Maxim's comment. Of the robotic enemies, only Sazu remains. She fires an electric blast at Maxima, who dodges as she swiftly advances to the enemy.

"You won't catch me off-guard again, you scum!"

With her right arm, Maxima unleashes a powerful punch that breaks through Sazu's robotic face. Pulling her arm back, Maxima brings in her hand part of the inner wires and cables from the head of the gynoid, who falls to the ground.

Soon after, the two of them pass through a room where Maxima's gloves and Lana's purse are. Maxima picks up the items, hands the purse over to Lana, and puts on her gloves.

"I'm going to teleport us out of here. Hold on to me."

Lana obeys, and after Maxima presses a few buttons on her gloves, a glow surrounds the two women, who disappear.

They reappear outside the ship (the range of the teleport isn't so wide, even more carrying two people). They see, in the distance, Vernax defeating the reinforcements summoned by Lana: Jim Harper, the Guardian; John Henry Irons a.k.a. Steel and Jose Delgado, the Gangbuster.

"Run away, Lana Lang! I'll deal with him. Take the laser gun with you in case of an emergency."

Lana nods and runs.