I know the Worlds Finest episode was entirely from Kara's POV. But what was Barry thinking the entire time?
A/N I may have thrown in a few extra scenes they never showed, but possibly happened.
Disclaimer: I own none of the plot except for a few things.
He was running. He had never gone this fast before. It felt as if he were in a jumbo fighter jet taking off from the runway at Mach 1. No...actually he had taken off at Mach 1. He felt the air temperature drop sharply and felt his ears pop as he broke the sound barrier. Barry was only half conscious of Cisco's voice whopping in the background of his comn. Instead he focused on running faster and faster.
Eobard was right. As much as Barry wished he could have punched the evil man in the face when he had time traveled back in time, he had succeeded in getting the information he needed out of him; information on how to increase his speed. A tachyon device. It would absorb tachyons in the Speed Force therefore increasing his speed each time he wore it. How long would he have to wear it? He had no idea.
At the moment though he decided to enjoy the thrill of running. He loved it; the wind in his face, the crackling of the electricity as it arched off him, and how it seemed he could run forever without stopping.
Barry wasn't quite sure what exactly happened. In fact he didn't know how it happened. But the next thing he knew, was he was running down an unfamiliar looking street. He happened to glance up and spotted a woman plummeting down the side of a skyscraper. Without even pausing a moment to think, he raced towards her. He ran up the side of the building, and in a swirl of gold electricity he snatched her away from the pull of gravity. He paused for a split nanosecond to correct his course, so that he was facing down instead of up before racing down the side of the building.
Unfortunatly, Barry was moving so fast he didn't realize how far he had run, until he saw the ground he was running had changed from asphalt, to rocky ground covered with bushes and small cacti, to a meadow like ground with a chain linked fence along side it. That was when he was conscious that he was still carrying the woman he had caught.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, he put her down preparing to apologize to her immediately. He paled upon noticing her shirt was on fire and the apology was temporarily forgotten.
"You're on fire!" he said in a slightly high-pitched voice.
He moved forward to help the dazed woman put the flames out "I—" but backed up just as quickly, "—Nope...I'm..."
The woman shook the daze off and started bloating the flames out as if she were used to catching fire.
"You don't seem that bothered by the fact you are fire..." he stated as a matter-of-factly.
He frowned slightly and quickly before the woman could catch sight of it. Barry was confused as to why he hadn't heard Cisco's voice teasing him. Or asking him for the lady's phone number.
"I didn't need you to save me..." the woman said finally putting the flames out.
She looked and sounded slightly offended.
Barry let out a short chuckle and said in disbelief, "You just fell from a skyscraper so um...so if I hadn't been there you would have gone splat."
Again...he was thrown off by the fact he hadn't heard anything from his teammates.
"I have to get back to the city..." the woman said glancing around.
"Yeah...and I think you should be placed in a hospital..." Barry thought to himself, "You clearly have hit your head when you fell."
"Okay..." he said out loud stepping towards her to carry her back the way he had come.
Before he had even touched her, he saw her—through his accelerated perception—crouch down and take off. She literally flew...and without the aid of wings. Barry glanced up and had some discarded clothing land on him. He crumpled it up looking down at it and the woman who had on an outfit with a giant red S in the middle, along witha large cape. She quickly disappeared out of his line of vision.
"What the what?" he said looking around slowly in confusion, "That's a new one. I thought I was the impossible."
He dropped the clothing and took off back towards the city.
"Yo...Cisco you there?" he asked touching his comn link slightly as he raced up the rolling hills of wherever he was.
He heard nothing but static. For a moment his heart race increased, he felt it increase. It sounded like a low hum in his ears and in his chest. Barry planned to use the nearest phone booth or borrow someone's cell phone to get in touch with his teammates to find out what the hell was going on.
He spotted a flicker of movement and saw the flying lady—whoever she was—land in front of the path he was going to run on within a second. Uncertain about what he was doing, he skidded to a stop in front of her. However, he was on his guard and was ready to fight if need be. Considering with most Metahumans he met in his career, he usually knew he would fight them.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
The only other person he knew that could fly was Kendra. But she used hawk-like wings to do so. This Metahuman did not.
The woman gave him a look of absolute disbelief and surprise," I'm Supergirl."
She eyed him nervously.
Barry arched an eyebrow and cocked his head slightly to show his confusion, "You are who now?"
The woman 'Supergirl' opened her mouth slightly before turning her head away and rubbing her ear, "I'm sorry I was just a little disoriented from the scream—" she turned back to him and put her arm down,"—how did you save me?"
Wait what? Barry bit his lip for a moment before blabbering, "Well I..." he turned away from her for a second before turning back to her, "You fell out a window and I caught you—" he used his hand to mime 'running up a building' as he spoke before looking around again as he talked; slightly unnerved by the unfamiliar landscape, "and ran you all the way out here. Which I did not mean to do but I have been working on my speed and I guess I am faster than I thought."
"Yes, yes...but I," 'Supergirl' exhaled slightly before cutting off her explanation and moving straight to a question, "Who are you?"
Barry gave her a quick smile before saying, "I'm the Flash."
"The who now?"
"The—" Barry cut himself off before saying slightly panicked, "Wait...you do not know who I am?"
"Should I?" Supergirl crossed her arms and looked clearly confused.
"What about the Green Arrow?" Barry asked.
Supergirl looked from side to side and gave him a half-smile that showed her confusion. He also could tell she was thinking he was crazy.
"Black Canary?" he tried another one of his friend's hero name.
The half-smile faded and the woman set her lips in a straight line. She shook her head.
"Firestorm? Atom?" he asked.
She pursed her bottom lip and shook her head again.
"Zoom?" Barry asked hoping at least with the monster's name he would get a familiar reaction.
"Sorry..." she said looking from side to side.
Crap. Crap. Crap. He did again. Oh man except this was much worse than time-travel. Much worse. No wonder he was not able to contact his friends.
"Oh boy..." he said in a low voice, "Not as sorry as I am."
He hooked his fingers under his mask and started to wiggle it off his face. The temperature had to be in the low eighties; it stuck to his face like glue. After tugging on it for a second he managed to get it off. He glanced up and saw Supergirl's face turn into something close to amazement.
"Hey..." he said trying to keep the worry out of his voice, "I'm Barry Allen. I'm the fastest man alive. I also think I am on the wrong earth," he looked at her, "And I am going to need your help."
The woman gave him a determined look and put her hand on her hip. For a moment she didn't speak.
"And why should I believe you?" she asked.
Barry pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers and tried to think. He had a bad feeling that flying wasn't the only power the Metahuman woman had.
"Please..." he begged sliding his mask down over his face again, "Just please give me the benefit of the doubt."
"Uh huh," Supergirl clearly wasn't impressed with his explanation.
He sighed with slight exasperation, "Ok...look. You want the real explanation? Fine. I'm a hero from an alternate universe—earth sorry—who ran too fast and kind of ended up on another earth. And not to mention that I know at least three people who will kill me if I don't get back—no make that five people. No actually—"
"I get it..." the woman's face soured slightly, "And what do you think I should do?"
Barry bit his lower lip to keep it from trembling. What would happen if he was stuck here? No...he couldn't think like that. Positive thoughts. For all he knew this could be a parallel earth not an alternate one. Which meant there was a possibility that there were doppelgangers of his friends.
"You have a computer?" he asked.
She arched an eyebrow no doubt confused by his odd request. For a moment it looked as if she were juggling the choices she had. Barry couldn't blame her; if he was in her place he would be acting the exact same way.
"Alright..." she said slowly as she crossed her arms again, "I'll show you where there is a computer that you can do whatever you are planning to do in peace. But as long as you can keep the location a secret."
Barry nodded slightly relieved, "Fine with me. And um...do you know where I can get a change of clothes?"
~~~...~~~
He really missed the S.T.A.R Lab computers. The one Supergirl—who had later identified herself as Kara Danvers after she had purchased him some clothing to blend in with the civilians—had shown him one in a room that clearly needed a paint job. It was regular type of computer, one you could buy in a store for a hundred dollars. But it ran kind of slow. Not to mention it was located in the exact same building that he had rescued her from about an hour before hand.
And now it seemed that his explanation had finally sunk in.
"What do you mean you are from another earth?" she asked leaning over the seat he was sitting in to peer over his shoulder at the computer screen, "How many other earths are there other than this one? I mean...we're earth."
As she talked he typed in names he was familiar with. Just as he had feared, nothing came up except one.
"You guys have Central City," he said leaning back into the chair, "But you don't have S.T.A.R Labs. No Cisco Ramon, no Harrison Wells—" he sighed and got to his feet while saying, "No Catlin Snow—Nobody who's gonna to be able to help me get back home!"
He walked to the side of Kara and stood several feet away from her while she looked at the computer screen as if it were written in Martian. Then the door opened and two men walked in causing her to whirl around to face them. One was an African American man and the other man was white with a checkered shirt on—he was a bit shorter than the former. Both looked relieved when they caught sight of Kara.
"Hey...are you alright?" the shorter man asked.
Neither of the men seemed to have noticed Barry. He stood there uncomfortably, unsure of whether or not he should split.
"Yeah I'm fine..." Kara sighed, "What happened to Siobhan?"
What kind of a name was that? Sounded like snob.
"Oh well," the shorter man replied, "After she went all Mariah Carey on you she just split."
"Oh..." Barry came out of the background to stand next to Kara, "So we both have Mariah Carey," —Kara looked at him a look that showed she was impressed or surprised—"That's...something."
"Who are you?" the African American man pointed a finger accusingly at him.
"Hey sorry...I'm um...Barry Allen," Barry said shaking the guy's hand.
"James Olsen..." the man gave him a suspicious look.
"And this is Winn..." Kara pointed at the other man.
Barry held his hand up in greeting and Winn did likewise but looked kind of unsure. Kara then started explaining everything about Barry being from an alternate universe in a way that reminded Barry of himself when he tried explaining things to Oliver (the first time they had met).
"Cool!" Winn grinned in a way that reminded Barry of Cisco, "Whoa, whoa! So the theory of the multiverse is—"
Barry nodded, "True. Oh yeah...big time."
"Yeah I still can't believe it and I'm from another planet," Kara put in.
Barry looked around thinking they were playing some type of joke on him, "What?"
Aliens didn't exist. Half-sharks yes...reincarnated warrior priestess yes, immortal psychopaths yes. But aliens? Come on.
"Oh yeah...she's an alien..." Winn said pointing at Kara.
Barry did a double take. Kara looked like any other normal person. She wasn't green skinned or had a big head.
"You're an alien?" he asked.
He wanted to make sure he wasn't hearing things.
"Yeah..." she smiled.
"So do you like have other aliens on this earth?" he asked.
Fortunately before he could go on a tangent, James brought him back on track about asking him about "this earth". Barry decided to use a nearby whiteboard to explain things. He sent a silent thank you to Martin Stein for explaining the concept to him months before. Now he was able to explain it likewise.
"—multiple version of earth. Um...one where...the Nazis won World War II. One where Kennedy was never assassinated."
"Oh yeah!" Winn raised his hand as if he were a student in a classroom, "One where all of us are evil."
Barry frowned. He wasn't mad at Winn for bringing that particular earth up. But hearing about it brought back unpleasant memories of Earth 2.
"Been there. It sucks," he decided to say.
He explained how the earths occupy the same space and time but the reason they couldn't see one another was because they vibrated at different frequencys. Winn immediately joined him at the whiteboard and stated that if anyone could travel fast enough, they could create a breach, and end up on another earth. Barry was impressed that the man knew that much. Even though Winn looked nothing like Cisco, he had a feeling that the man was this earth's equivalent of him.
"But how can you travel that fast?" James asked getting into the conversation for the first time.
He clearly was unimpressed. Barry shrugged off the man's look.
"Um, well, um," Barry grinned and put the marker down.
He raced off, snagging a couple of dollars from a wallet lying on the desk behind the computer as he left. He ran down a couple of blocks, snatched up three ice cream cones from a vender, dropped the cash, and raced back to the room before they even knew he was gone.
Kara was excited about getting her ice cream, James kept glancing between the ice cream and Barry, and Winn's eyes just about bugged out of his head. He eyed the ice cream as if he could not believe he was holding it; though it hadn't been there seconds ago and that was a bit unnerving.
"Yeah so um...I was struck by lightning the same night a particle accelerator exploded," Barry explained, "And I became a...superhero."
Kara let out a short chuckle of admiration.
"So...so...you're a superhero to?" James asked.
Barry nodded.
"Oh..." James turned away from him, "That's cool I guess..."
Barry got the feeling that James was jealous of him, but didn't want to make a scene in front of his new friends. So he decided to show he wasn't hurt by it at all by showing a confused look.
Winn raised his hand again and said in a voice that sounded like he was on a nervous breakdown, "So you can just like bop back and forth between universes?"
"Uh no actually," Barry explained, "This actually happened by accident. I have traveled through time before by accident—"
"That's cool," Winn interrupted as he cautiously took a lick from his ice cream.
"But I've never jumped parallel dimensions without meaning to," Barry continued, "So until I figure this out...I...um...stuck here."
Which was just great because then he could have possibly opened another breach for Zoom to come through. But he decided not to say that out loud. Better to keep it to himself.
"Well...don't worry. Don't worry at all," Kara said shaking her head slightly with a worried expression on her face, "Because—" she came up behind Barry and gave his shoulder a tight squeeze, "We're going to help you."
"Ow..." he said quietly.
Her grip felt like steel and it felt like his shoulder was going to pop out of his socket. Kara immediately released him and apologized. That was when he heard his stomach rumble and realized he was starving.
"Um first I going to need some food," he said slightly embarrassed, "I need to um consume about 10,000 calories per day..."
Or pass out. Or find out what it was like to wipe out when doing six hundred miles per hour on a city street. Kara asked him if he like donuts.
"Who doesn't like donuts?" he scoffed.
"I know a place..." she grinned.
~~~...~~~
"Out of curiosity...but why didn't you like those nicknames Cat Grant gave you?" Winn asked.
Barry took a quick bite out of the burger a wiped his mouth before answering. He had eaten about three donuts and was currently on his fourth burger and wasn't even beginning to feel full. It didn't help matters when the waitress walked by to take his plate and give him a strange look.
"I didn't like them because those—I kid you not—were the exact same nicknames I was straddled with the first few months I became active," Barry answered.
He really hated them too.
Kara laughed, "No wonder you looked annoyed."
Barry shrugged, "And no offense your boss is kind of scary. I thought my boss was scary until I met her."
Well...Captain Singh was only scary when he was in a bad mood. Which was about ninety percent of the time.
Winn smirked, "Thought you were a superhero. They don't get scared"
"I am..." Barry took a bite of his food, "And heroes do get scared. Sometimes I get over something I found scary maybe about a month ago and then something else pops up that scares me. Even my friend Green—never mind. Anyways I can't believe that just wearing glasses prevents people from recognizing you as a superhero."
"Better believe it buddy..." Winn grinned, "How do you disguise yourself? I mean besides having a mask that covers almost your entire face."
Before going to the small restaurant, Barry had decided to show Winn his costume since the man was very interested in it (as well as nagged him about it). He knew Cisco was going to be so jealous that he hadn't heard the praise in person.
"Um...vibrate my vocal cords" Barry replied.
Winn arched an eyebrow so he demonstrated. Before he spoke, he looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping.
"How does this sound?" Barry asked in a low voice that sounded metallic and as if he had swallowed a microphone.
"Whoa! That is cool..." his friend grinned.
Kara gave Barry a weird look. He noticed it and was not sure how to take it.
"Um? Did I say something wrong?" he asked tentatively in a normal voice.
"No..." she shook her head, "I'm just thinking about those other names you listed."
"What other—" Barry stopped when he realized what she was talking about, "Oh those. Yeah...all of them except the last name are the names of heroes active on my earth."
"Wait...you have other heroes on your earth?" Winn's face lit up, "Cool. Can you talk about them?"
Barry at first considered not talking about his friends. After all...there was something called a secret identity. But after seeing their pleading faces, he decided to talk about them; minus the civilian identity.
"Um...Green Arrow. He's sort of a modern day Robin Hood," he said, grateful that his friend didn't hear him say that, "He's an excellent shot with a bow. Pet peeve is people failing his city. He kind of taught me for a while till I cut off the schooling."
Technically he still asked for advice but only when he really needed it.
"What did he do?" Kara asked, "Shoot you?"
"Still feel where he shot me with those arrows," Barry winced as he recalled the memory and rubbed his shoulder blades, "Especially when it rains. And it was a bit unfair how he did it to...he did it when I wasn't looking."
He talked about Black Canary, Firestorm, and several of his other friends and their talents. He also talked about his own team. He talked about crazy Cisco and how many times they binged watched TV shows and movies. He talked about Catlin and how she always gave him a free lecture whenever he got injured on the job. Hell...he even talked about Harry even though the man was annoying and really arrogant. Iris, Joe, and Wally and how much they were like a family to him. However he avoided talking about his father and what had happened to him when he was eleven. No...he couldn't talk about that. Even now the memory of holding his mother as she died was still fresh in his memory.
"Sounds like your earth's amazing..." Winn breathed.
Barry shrugged unsure of what to tell him. He shuddered slightly remembering the giant wormhole incident. If Ronnie, Martian Stein, and him hadn't stopped it...this earth could have possibly been swallowed up along with his earth.
"Well...now that we know about your team..." Kara grinned mischievously, "I think it is about time I show you mine."
~~~...~~~
"Hey..."
Barry noticed Kara leaning over the balcony looking pretty upset and glum. He couldn't blame her. The fight they had had with those two villains ended badly. He had found out what it was like to get a bruised back as well as a broken rib as a cause of being shocked with electricity. Not to mention he had second degree burns on his arms and chest for about half an hour. Though...he would admit the facial expression of the doctor at the D.E.O was priceless upon noticing his burns healed before she could put on a bandage.
Kara got the worst injury though. Her ears had bleed and it took a while for them to heal. His hearing was fine thanks to the comn links Cisco had installed. They were able to withstand his sonic booms and protected his ears from being damaged from the shockwaves. Kara didn't have any protection at all. Her flying had been wobbly and uncertain as they fled from the warehouse. He had offered to carry her, but she had refused. Fortunately they managed to make it back to their base without her crash landing.
"How are you doing?" he asked stopping next to her.
She nodded as she answered, "Well asides from my eardrums ringing like church bells, I am ok."
He nodded but knew she was hiding something. He knew from experience when someone was hiding something, he himself had done it frequently. The way he knew that he reacted the same was as Kara was currently doing was because of his friends; mostly Iris.
"You sure?" Barry asked smiling slightly before winking at her and shaking his head, "You don't seem ok."
Kara sighed and was quiet for a few seconds.
"I'm sorry..." she eventually replied shaking her head slightly, "I shouldn't have made you rush in on Livewire without a plan. I didn't even know even know she was going to have a cohort."
He shrugged and placed his hands on the balcony and stared down at the cars for a moment. He remembered how something similar to this had happened to him throughout his career and remembered how he felt after having his ass handed to him.
"That's the thing about being a superhero..." he replied looking up, "Sometimes we need to prepare for the unexpected."
"Something happened to me a few weeks ago..." Kara said.
Barry turned to look at her. She looked slightly disappointed and upset but continued to talk.
"I was exposed to this...substance that made me go crazy," she said closing her eyes for a second, "I did a lot of horrible things."
"That's rough..." he said quietly turning away from her.
He recalled how he had been through something similar to her. Roy G Bivalo had warped his emotions, causing him to act mean and scary. He had nearly killed Oliver and Eddie until he received color treatment to reverse the effects. However the damage had been done and he had a task force on his back for several months. Until he had saved several police officers from the Reverse Flash and many months had passed, did he finally receive the respect he originally had back.
"I was helping people as Supergirl. I was so happy..." Kara continued, "And now these people won't let me help them and I feel lost. And I am in such a hurry to prove myself again that I keep making stupid mistakes like today."
Barry gave a knowing smile as she spoke. He knew how she felt...he had felt the exact same way when he experienced something similar. He realized that his experience the past two years had made him a 'veteran'. He had learned from his mistakes and continued to do so. Which meant he could give advice he had learned to someone who was inexperienced. Experiences he had learned from being a hero. A hero's experience.
"This is going to sound ironic coming from me," he said biting his tongue for a split second to keep from laughing at his own advice, before turning to Kara, "You need to slow down. Just keep doing your good work, don't worry about the rest."
He smiled and nodded, "The public will forgive you. I promise."
Kara gave him an uncertain look and asked, "How can you be so sure?"
He dropped his smile and looked away from her slightly embarrassed, "Because the same thing happened to me."
She looked startled but she asked, "Really?"
"Uh hmmm," he smiled.
There was silence for a couple of seconds. Then Kara asked tentatively, "What finally fixed things?"
Barry cocked his head to the side trying to come up with a single word that would sum up everything.
"Time..." he eventually replied with a smile; he turned to her and glanced up and down quickly before continuing, "You're used to fixing things with brute strength or in my case amazing speed. Its hard to accept that there are things out of our control."
He looked away again for a second letting her process his advice.
He smirked slightly and then smiled and asked turning to her, "Its humbling right?"
Kara nodded, "Yep."
"Believe me," Barry turned away from her again, "When you stop trying to force the solution, it will happen on its own."
She shook her head and looked at her hands for a minute. When she spoke again, she sounded sympathetic.
"I'm really sorry you are locked out of your world—," she said turning to him.
Barry faced her as she continued.
"—but I am really glad you are here..." she finished lightly rubbing him on the back.
He smiled and replied, "Me to."
Barry left her alone on the balcony so she could finish contemplating her thoughts.
~~~...~~~
"Back on my earth we had a villain who used sound waves as a weapon," Barry said as he tweaked a few wires in the ear bud, "He called himself Pied Piper."
Who was currently reformed because of a time traveling necessity. Cisco was defiantly going to be impressed that he had managed to build some tech without any help.
"That's a cool name..." Kara grinned.
"Yeah...so I whipped up these bad boys," Barry said as he folded the towel and grabbed a pair a tweezers to grasp one of the ear buds, "Sorry, I keep saying bad boys."
He held the tweezers out to her.
"Are they ear buds?" Kara asked gently touching the device before taking the tweezers from him.
"Yeah...they should protect us from Silver Banshee's yelly voice," he responded.
Kara turned the tweezers around to get a look at the hopefully protective device. It didn't look like much. It looked like a regular ear bud except it glowed blue and had wiring through it.
"James just called..." the tough-looking lady who was named Lucy said walking up to them, "Livewire and Silver Banshee kidnapped Cat."
Before Barry could make a comment about why anyone would want to kidnap that particular lady, the computer screens in the background flickered. Livewire appeared on them and she looked pretty smug.
"Hello red and blue..." she said, "Come to National City Park now unless you want Cat's blood all over your hands or all over the street."
Lucy turned to Barry and Kara and gave them an expectant look. Livewire cackled in the background before disappearing from the screens. Unfortunatly she must have short-circuited the wiring in the screens since they sent out a shower of sparks, causing D.E.O agents to back away from the electronic devices.
"You don't have to do this Barry..." Kara said turning to him, "This is my fight."
He frowned and shook his head. Even though this wasn't his earth, he wasn't about to abandon thousands of people like he had on earth-2. Even though his new friend was pretty capable of taking care of herself, he knew that she shouldn't go in alone.
"All for one and one for all for—" he started to say before cutting himself off and turning to Kara, "You guys have the Three Musketeers here right?"
She sighed and turned away before answering, "All for one."
He snorted before smiling slightly. He pulled his mask over his face before racing out of the D.E.O amidst protests from the scientists. They were not pleased about all the re-filing they had to do whenever he blasted out of the facility. Kara was not far behind him so they were both to blame in this case.
~~~...~~~
"Oh I how I hate electrical based powers..." Barry moaned quietly.
He was well aware of something burning and he had a feeling it was him. Livewire hadn't been too gentle with zapping him with an electrical blast.
"Maybe I shouldn't have called her Sparky..." he thought sitting up and clutching his head.
He smiled and winced from the effort. The insults he had come up were good enough to tick them off temporarily. And he had to admit the villains' shocked expressions was worth it too. Kara's dig about Banshee losing her voice was also funny. He was a bit disappointed he couldn't have caught all of the fight on video; no way Cisco would believe him that he had gone against two female villains on an alternate earth.
Barry got to his feet with a groan and spotted a police helicopter hovering over the scene. That was when he heard Livewire shout from the ground below—yeah her voice was that loud.
"I HATE HELICOPTERS! she screamed.
He spotted blue electricity shoot up from the ground and immediately guessed that she was trying to shoot the helicopter down (for whatever reason he had no idea). He was about to trying leaping off the side of the building, grab the pilots, and jump onto another building before they got electrocuted. But then he spotted Kara throw herself in front of the blast. She hovered several seconds as the electricity died down; then she fell to the ground.
Barry gritted his teeth and prepared to race down and knock out both the women before they knew he had hit them. But he stopped noticing that the crowd of pedestrians were surrounding Supergirl as she struggled to get to her feet. Protecting her even though they were putting themselves in harm's way.
"Leave her alone!" one of the pedestrians—a woman—shouted.
She looked scared out of her mind but she still stood her ground. So did the other civilians.
"Today you people were ready to string her up!" Livewire sneered, "Now you are willing to die for her?!"
"She was willing to die for us," the woman pedestrian responded.
Kara lifted her head and looked around. She must have caught sight of Barry looking down at her for she met his gaze for a moment before turning away. He smiled slightly even though she didn't see it. It seemed his advice had paid off.
"Why don't we thin the herd?" Livewire grinned.
She levitated herself off the ground with electricity and prepared to blast the civilians with lethal bolts of electricity. People were starting to panic but none fled. Kara managed to crawl several feet towards Livewire. Barry prepared to evacuate civilians if he needed to.
Kara pleaded, "No. Wait...please."
Before Livewire could make a snarky reply, a blast of water struck her. She sputtered and collapsed to the ground out cold. Electricity arched off her, and struck Silver Banshee who collapsed gasping. Barry glanced in the direction the water had come from and grinned as the crowd burst into applause. The cavalry had arrived. Apparently one of the firemen must have remembered his fourth grade science; they used the fire hose in order to douse Livewire in a deluge of water. Since water conducted electricity and the woman was mostly made from it, she had short-circuited. As an added bonus, her cohort happened to be standing close enough she got struck as well.
Barry watched as the chief fireman made his way towards Kara. The man offered his hand towards her and she accepted it. She got wobbly to her feet and nodded. The man smiled and walked away from her. Barry decided it was time he joined her. He raced down the side of the building and came to a stop next to her. The blast of wind that accompanied him caused several pedestrians to back away from them. Many of them looked at him in amazement and some grinned in excitement.
Barry touched Kara gently on the shoulder and asked, "You alright?"
She nodded. Then she frowned, "Where were you?"
He smirked, "I got electrocuted. And I decided to watch to see how you would play this out on your own."
He gestured towards the crowd who had gotten over their shock and were approaching them cautiously. They eyed him nervously.
"Is that the Blur?" someone muttered.
Kara glanced at Barry for a moment and smiled.
"No...his name the Flash," she responded, "And he's a friend of mine."
Barry thought about saying 'What's up!" but decided that would be a bit too creepy. Instead he settled on bowing his head for a moment and smiling slightly. The crowd started clapping again and about half a dozen kids came running up. Several of them were girls and started begging Kara for her autograph. Barry smiled when he saw his friend's clearly stunned expression.
He turned and saw a couple of police officers hauling Livewire and Banshee off in handcuffs. Both women were still unconscious, so the officers were dragging around dead weight. He glanced around before breezing up to them.
One of the officers yelped and pointed a gun at him. Barry held his hand up to send the message 'easy' and dropped them when the chief approached him. The man shot a look at the officer who lowered his weapon.
"You're with her?" the chief asked gesturing at Kara.
She glanced over at Barry worriedly. He winked at her to convey the message, "I've got this."
Turning back to the chief he nodded.
"Well...thanks for helping out..." the man said, "Whoever you are."
He stretched his hand out and Barry shook it gently. The chief smiled before turning to his officers.
"Get them in the car before they wake up," he shouted.
He started towards them but Barry grabbed him by the arm, stopping him.
"Wait..." he said disguising his voice.
The man whirled around slightly startled. Several nearby civilians looked at Barry in shock.
"You...you talk?" the chief asked.
Barry arched an eyebrow, "You didn't hear my insults? I'm insulted."
Kara who had joined them let out a bark of laughter. Several other people joined her.
"Just teasing," Barry chuckled when he spotted the chief's apologetic expression, "Just wanted to ask you...where do you plan to put those two?"
He gestured at the cop car that the two villains were being placed in. He knew unless this earth had a Metahuman like prison, they would escape again.
"In prison..." the chief answered slightly muffled, "Where else?"
Barry shook his head, "No. They will escape in about two hours."
The man frowned, "Then what do you suggest? Since when do you know about these types of people...we've never heard about you before or seen you before."
Barry laughed, "I come from a long way away. Anyways...I suggest you build a cell that has no electrical outfits and reflective glass. And for Shrieky I recommend building a cell that is like an echo chamber. That way if she tries breaking out, her own scream wave will knock her out."
Kara fortunately stepped in and explained that her friend knew what he was talking about. The chief still looked suspicious but eventually agreed to do what 'The Flash' had told him to do.
Barry raced off before the press could swarm him. He didn't need to influence false hope on an earth he wasn't from.
~~~...~~~
"Barry!" Kara hissed at him as he navigated his way to her boss's office, "What are you doing? She knows you're him!"
He turned to her and held up his hand to silence her. Then he entered Cat Grant's office and stood in front of her desk.
"Hello Mr. Allen..." the woman said without even looking up from magazine, "Or should I say the Flash?"
She looked up at him no doubt hoping for a reaction. Barry gave her none except a confused look. Kara meanwhile stood behind him with a worried expression on her face.
"Me...the Flash?" he snorted, "Have you seen me run?"
Cat Grant lifted her head up and glared at him, "You are beyond a reasonable doubt him."
"I'm not..." Barry answered even though he still had no idea what to make of her, "I'll prove it to you."
He pulled out Winn's cell phone—which he had snatched on the way here and needed to return—and pretended to talk into it. He felt like an idiot doing it to but he needed to keep his secret I.D a secret just in case fate caused him to end up here again. Kara gave him a look that showed how confused she was and he shot her a wink. Cat Grant gave him a suspicious look.
Barry then started running back and forth so fast he caused a speed mirage. One mirage had him wearing his costume and the other was him being his regular self. It helped that he had his backpack nearby.
"See...him there...me here," he said in his civilian identity.
He gestured at the after image of himself wearing his costume. Then he quickly changed back into his costume and acted out nodding his head in agreement. And then he changed back into civilian clothing before the after image of that faded. He kept up the charade for several minutes while Kara watched in absolute confusion and amazement.
"Then it seems I owe you an apology..." Cat Grant grumbled clearly unhappy about apologizing, "Both of you."
Barry nodded in both identities. He was starting to get a headache about how confusing it was to keep both images of himself up.
"And considering Mr. Allen is not you Flash..." Cat continued turning to the afterimage of Barry's costumed self, "Who are you."
Barry quickly bounced into his hero identity and answered in his disguised voice, "Just your average citizen...with above average speed."
Then he made it seem that the Flash 'disappeared' when in reality he had shoved his costume into his backpack so fast that neither Kara or her boss were aware of him doing it.
"Well Ker-ah..." Cat sighed turning to Kara, "It seems that you were wrong about Mr. Allen being the Flash as well. Now aren't you going to show him the door?"
She pointed with a pen at the door and both Barry and Kara left without another word. But as soon as they were out of earshot, Kara punched him in the arm with enough force to make him yelp in pain.
"What...how?" she asked.
He sighed and rubbed the sore spot, "I moved so fast that the human eye or in your case alien eye could not catch individual glimpses of me. All you saw were after images of myself."
Kara shook her head in amazement, "Unbelievable. You really are fast."
He shrugged, "I guess."
He turned away from her so she couldn't see the expression on his face. He was fast...but not enough to stop Zoom.
~~~...~~~
"You really think this is going to work?" Kara asked arching an eyebrow.
Barry couldn't blame her for her doubt. His idea to get him home sounded crazy.
"Well..." he said slowly, "Watching Livewire and Banshee work together reminded me of something we tried on my earth once."
He remembered how he had to team up with the man who had murdered his mother—or at least a younger version of him. He had to do it so Cisco wouldn't die.
"You and I joined forces," Barry continued glancing briefly at Kara, "Literally,"—he walked forward as he talked, "—We combine your speed with my speed and you throw me forward at your fastest then..."he turned to look at her," I might just break the dimensional barrier and get back home."
Kara smiled briefly, "What. What do you mean? A race?"
Barry smiled slightly and jerked his left shoulder in a careless way, "Yeah I guess."
Kara started laughing.
"Think you can keep up Girl of Steel?" he teased.
"Oh just you watch Scarlet Speedster," she smirked.
He started laughing as she walked forwards until she was even with him, "Alright."
She smiled, "I'm going to miss you Barry Allen."
Barry nodded, "I'm really going to miss you to, Kara Danvers. Or Kara Zor-el."
She smiled and he grinned.
"Which is your alien name," he continued, "Because you are an alien. Which I think is really cool."
Kara laughed. Barry paused for a minute. He felt like he should tell her something he had noticed during his brief time on this earth.
"I think James Olsen thinks so too..." he said.
"What makes you say that?" she chuckled; shaking her head in denial and turning towards him.
Barry decided he should give his friend one last piece of advice before he left. It was one he had learned from having several relationships and failing to get the one he really wanted.
He grinned, "Remember before when I told you to take things slow? That's good advice for a superhero. Lousy advice for two people who like each other...maybe it is time for you to speed things up."
Kara nodded, "Maybe..."
She smiled and Barry smiled in return. He spread his free arm out—the other was currently holding onto his tachyon device. Kara laughed and spread both her arms out.
"Come here..." she said.
She gave him a big hug and fortunately didn't crush him in the process. He backed away after several seconds and pressed a button on the device to cause it to spread out and latch onto his chest.
"Alright," he said.
He pulled his mask over his face and crouched down in a running position. Kara did likewise.
"On your mark..." he said.
"Get set..." Kara said.
"Go!" Barry finished.
They both took off. He glanced to the side of him and spotted his friend keeping pace with him. She grinned and he grinned in return. He felt his molecules start to vibrate and he ran faster and faster. Kara kept up fortunately. Faster and faster he ran. It seemed like minutes but in reality was seconds, did he feel a familiar pull. He felt a hand shove him on the back—hard. This time, he saw the wormhole open. He crouched in a fetal position so he could go through it without touching the sides.
"Bye Kara..." he said quietly and sadly to himself.
He thought he heard her respond him in return. But he concentrated on running. He ran faster and faster until it seemed like he was running through a blue tunnel that glowed with light. He kept running until he shot out the other end of the wormhole and found himself running down a familiar looking street. He kept running until he blasted right into S.T.A.R Labs. He saw Catlin, Cisco, and Iris grinning widely. Barry yanked his mask off in disbelieve and confusion.
"I'm back..." he asked panting looking around, "How long was I gone?"
His friends gave no indication he had been gone very long. It had to have been a day at least...right?
Cisco grinned, "Let's put it this way: You just annihilated your old record."
"Yeah, you went four times faster than you've ever been," Catlin's face was practically beaming.
"Four times!?" Barry asked in disbelief, "That's as—"
"Fast as Zoom," Harry remarked dryly as he entered the room sipping a cup of coffee, "Well faster actually."
He lifted his coffee cup in greeting before turning his back on them. Barry grinned widely. In the excitement of learning how fast he had gone, he completely forgot about his out of world experience. When Harry mentioned later on about how it was impossible to create a breech between earths just by using his speed, Barry was reminded about his team up. He decided not to say anything; there was too much on his team's minds.
After all...who would believe him?
As you can see...I changed the ending. It kept bugging me since episode 18 aired. Barry never mentioned meeting Kara so I decided to write up why. Anyways hope you didn't mind.