The Hero Who Had Never Become

The Hunt

After an hour, the pain knocks her right from her feet, and Kara collapses into the dirt. It feels like waves of fire scorch her body as her veins crackle her skin like dry sand in a desert. She pants, hacking harshly, spraying her blood. Her vision swims and she isn't sure if it's from exhaustion or sweat leaking into her eyes as blackness bleeds into the corners.

Kara digs her nails into the mud, letting it build under the beds, and tries to claw forward. Even her thoughts drew out slurred.

Need...to keep...going...

She can hear the ticking of her own bomb like a countdown in her ears. The plants around her seemed to shrink away, almost growing brittle, from the boiling heat that she is radiating. She went limp, not passed out, but failing to move. She felt paralyzed.

And usually, Kara feels hollow and empty, but this time was different. This time the emptiness had a sickening side affect and not from the cancer.

For the first time in a long time, she felt...sad. But the second she thought of it, she pushed it away along with the unruly feeling. She made herself empty again, emotionless.

And so, she channeled the only emotion she allowed herself to feel. Anger.

With the sudden surge of motivation, she crawled, using the leaves and the swelling roots from the ground to pull herself forward. 

....

Alex couldn't help but pace anxiously. Superman is off to the skies, searching, and most of the agents had joined the hunt. She's still not found. J'onn who is next her, seems perfectly calm and still. 

"Director Henshaw," came a small voice and Alex turned to see one of the younger agents approaching him with a tablet in hand. "We didn't find her, but about ten minutes ago there was an abnormal spike of heat towards the west reaching up to 450° Celsius."

The martian scrunched his face and tells her to wait on his command for any further investigation. Alex waits until she leaves and advances towards J'onn. "What do you think it was?"

He pauses for a long moment, and says, "I don't know."

....

More men come in her direction and Kara searches frantically for a place to hide, but nothing is close. She bears her teeth and desperately tries to rise to her knees, the pain spiking up her body, and she drags her feet up to the ground. The stomping builds more intense. 

She starts to limp, barely even a crouch, and struggles at a walk. She grudges through and grips onto a tree, tiny little splinters settling into her palm, and ducks behind the trunk. Her back slips down the tree, as she sits down again, and puts her hand over her mouth as an attempt to conceal her heavy breathing. 

They're so close Kara can hear them talking. "Is this the spot?" A gruff voice says. 

"Yeah, this is where the boss said." Spoke another.

"Then where the hell is she?" One snapped.

 Kara knew this was her chance and held the gun strongly. "Search the perimeter. She's close, no more than a thirty feet radius."

She could hear them disperse and waited patiently. One particular set of boots is closer than the rest and she grew as still as possible. A man came around the side of the trunk and Kara lunged. With a swift and silent movement, she wrapped her arm around her neck and let him fall limply. She sets him down carefully and looked down at the scrubs from the DEO that now barely clung to her shoulders. 

Within a few minutes, Kara emerges from behind the branches with the man's gun, and wearing his pair of bulky pants and jacket with a thick vest. Not the snuggest thing in the world, but it will do. She stuffed the pistol she had earlier in the belt around her waist and sucked in a deep breath. Like everything else, she stuffed the pain deep down.