Oliver Queen finished off the last of his scotch, then signaled to the bartender for another. The party boy thing had gone a little to far, and he had moved past it for the most part, but sometimes he still needed a break. Some time to get away from everything and just think about what the Luther's had done to his family and how sweet revenge would be some day soon, just as soon as he tracked the monster down. He looked around the bar and felt a little disgusted at all of the drones surrounding him. They were all exactly the same, women in their expensive outfits, tailored specifically to seduce rich men, and rich men in their six thousand dollar suits and wedding bands in their pockets. It was always the same thing, even the faces hardly seemed to change. He leaned against the bar and smiled halfheartedly at the girl on the dance floor who had been giving him the 'come hither' eyes all night. She would do for the night, she was more than pretty enough. He took a drink out of the new glass the bartender had set down and looked in the mirrored glass behind the bar. From the angle he was at, he could see the front door, and the small boy gesturing angrily at someone inside the bar as the bouncer leaned down to listen. The bouncer nodded finally, handed the boy something he angrily shoved in his back pocket, and the bouncer let him through. Oliver turned to watch the boy walk up to a man sitting at a table with a young lady, curious about what was going on. As soon as the boy stepped into the light, Oliver had to grin, because the small boy wasn't a boy after all, she was a young girl. A very unhappy young girl who couldn't look more out of place if she tried, with her old flannel shirt, jeans with the torn out knees, and dirty old sneakers. Her light brown hair was caught back in a loose ponytail, and Oliver made himself comfortable as she approached the unsuspecting man who was engrossed in conversation with the lady, even leaning close so he could hear the impending conversation better.

"Bennet!" the girl said tugging on the mans sleeve, looking worried, and Oliver re-assessed her. Now that she was closer, he could see she wasn't all that young. She had curves beneath her baggy clothes, even if she managed to hide them well. She was a very small young woman, maybe eighteen or nineteen.

"Lyra! What are you doing here?"

"Maya said you were here. Bennet, we have to go."

"Not now Lyr, I'm busy."

"Ben! It's important!"

"Who is this Benny?" the lady asked with him asked with a nervous smile.

"My kid sister," the man said, and Oliver knew it was a lie. "Lyr, this is Becky, Becky, this is my kid sister Lyra."

"Bennet!" Lyra said tugging on him again, "we have to go! Now!"

"Chill out Lyra!" Bennet said untangling her hand from his sleeve. He stood up, pulled her away from the table and the worried looking Becky to a darker corner of the bar. Oliver used the mirror to watch Bennet lean over Lyra, holding her arm in a vice grip and shaking her roughly to emphasize whatever point the was making to her. He stood up straight finally and let Lyra go, looking down at her with a scowl, and Lyra stared down at the floor as she nodded.

Oliver signaled to the bartender, closing out his tab, picked his coat up off the back of his chair and headed out the door. Darkness had become his friend long before this night, and he used the shadows to meld into the background as he waited outside, still curious. This seemed more interesting by far than the woman on the dance floor. The girl came out less than two minutes later, looked over her shoulder at the bar resentfully, then looked up and down the street fearfully. She walked several steps towards Ollies hiding place and pulled a cell phone out of her back pocket and stood in the shadows, dialing.

"Hey, it's me. Yeah, I found him, but he won't leave. No, I tried to tell him but he wouldn't listen. We leave without him, that's what. We don't need him. No Maya, we don't! He doesn't do anything but make you feel like crap anyways! Besides, he's going to get us caught. No, I don't think I was followed. They're still out there? Ok, listen. Turn off all the lights, like you are going to bed, turn the TV on in your room, then go across the halls to Miss Janice's apartment, she'll still be up. Just tell her Mike locked himself out again and you need to use her fire escape, she won't ask any questions. Go all the way up to the roof, hey hold on a sec, I got a text. Hey, you there? No, it wasn't Benny, it was Josh. No, LAN party, it doesn't matter. Ok, so listen. You can get up onto the roof of the cleaners next door, go across and then down on the Chinese place's roof. There's a fire escape that's not locked around the back, go down it and take that back alley all the way up to seventh street. Take seventh all the way to LaMonte. I'll meet you there," she said as she looked up and down the street again, then she started walking. Oliver followed her, staying well hidden. "Bring everything Maya, k? Ok, see you in a while." She hung up the phone, shoved her hands in her pockets and started walking, her head down. Ollie let her go and went back to his car. He did, after all, know where she was going.

He was waiting at the corner of seventh and LaMonte a short time later, perched on the roof across the street watching for the girl and her friend, wondering who they were hiding from. He checked the tension on his bow and adjusted the arrows lined up on the quiver so they were all at precisely the same angle. He saw a tall skinny woman round the corner, a bag on her shoulder, looking around like she was being hunted and he lifted the night vision goggles to his eyes as he tapped up the sensory output on his amplifiers. She paced the corner a few minutes, hitching the bag nervously and flipping her dyed black hair impatiently. She might have been pretty to someone who liked the dark kind of girls, if she didn't look so plainly frightened. Lyra moved out of the shadows on the other side of the building and Oliver frowned. She hid well, like someone who did it often, even flying under his radar. He switched the goggled to infrared, just to make sure no one else was also hiding nearby, then went back to the night vision.

"That took forever!" the girl he assumed was Maya whispered looking around.

"It wasn't very long, it just seemed like it did because your afraid. Are you sure they didn't follow you?"

"Yeah, I peeked around the corner at the end of seventh. I could barely see it, but their car was still parked. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. Maya, I think someone was tailing Bennet."

"Are you sure? How do you know?"

"I'm not positive, but I think I saw the mark. Come one, we have to move before one of those Luther goons trips over us."

Oliver dropped the goggles to look down at them. This suddenly just got very interesting. He shadowed them from the rooftops as they made their way to the subway, then followed them in at a distance. They were both very good at making themselves unremarkable, no one seemed to notice them at all in fact as they avoided the few people there were and went to wait at the empty substation for the next train. Keeping off of their radar wasn't hard, there were more than enough places to hide, even once they got on the train. He slipped into the car behind theirs and moved to the door at the end where he could see into their car. They sat together, alone, avoiding the old man who looked like a bum, and the younger man who looked like a factory worker getting off work. Oliver made himself comfortable as the girls sat through seven stops , finally getting off at the very end of the trains route. He slipped off on the opposite side, hiding in the shadows and watching the girls debate over something there in the station. His equipment was useless down here since the sound of the trains drowned out everything, so he just watched their body language until the train was finally gone. It was obvious they were both conflicted about something, and his guess was it was about what they were going to do next. When he was finally able to hear, he was proven right.

"…won't be able to for very long."

"It will be long enough. He'll be fine, we have to look after ourselves, and that means getting the hell out of dodge. Seriously Maya, we have to do this. Look, the bus station is just four blocks south of where we are now, we can be in Starville by Sunday! Anybody could lose themselves there!"

"That's what you said about Metropolis! And they found us in less than a week. I'm so tired of running Lyra!"

"Do you really want to go back to that place Maya? After everything, you just want to give up and let them put you back in a cage?"

"No! No, but Lyra, it's different for me. I can, you know.."

"Is that how you want to live your life? As real as it seems, it's still just your imagination Maya! Besides, what if they take it from you, like they did Angies? And Johanna?"

"Lyra, aren't you tired of running?"

"I'm tired of getting chased, but that doesn't mean….. shh. Someone is coming."

They both stood still, facing the tracks like they were waiting on the next train and two young men came down the stairs through the turnstiles. The boys eyed them standing there, then started towards them

"Ladies, nice night. You two want to come chill with us?"

"No thank you," Maya said politely, not looking at them. Lyra stared hard at the train tracks.

"Oh come on, you aren't to good for us are you? Come here a minute baby," one of them took hold of Mayas arm and Lyra spun around. Oliver knocked a stun dart and drew, waiting to see if he would need to use it.

"Let her go!" Lyra said grabbing the boys arm.

"Oh! Look at this little beauty Marcos. It's a two for one special tonight, come on girls, lets party." The man shoved Maya towards the one he had called Marcos and pulled Lyra closer to him. Oliver paused a second, trying to pinpoint what was odd about the scene, then he realized, the girls weren't struggling or screaming, or even afraid.

Lyra opened her mouth and started singing, and her voice was angelic, beautiful. Both men stopped and stared at her, watching her with rapt attention as she continued to sing, and Oliver realized there were words in the melody, but he couldn't make them out. The two men heard the words, and they moved to obey, walking away from the subway as if they were dream walking. They didn't come back, even after she stopped singing, and Oliver released the tension on his bow. So that was why Lex was after her. Imagine the limitless power the man would have if he could harness the power of a walking talking siren. Why were the girls so afraid if they could get rid of pursuers like that though? He followed them again as they left the subway, both silent this time, and he noticed Maya was helping Lyra a lot more, and Lyra was swaying dizzily as she walked, almost like she was drunk. A meteor ability with side affects? Was that normal? He would have to ask Chloe later. Maya led the girl to a bench just outside of the bus station, then looked around nervously as she watched Lyra losing a battle with consciousness. Oliver hit the homing beacon button on his belt, then stepped out of the shadows just as Lyra lay down. Maya didn't notice him right away, but when she did, she held up her hand warningly.

"Get back freak, I can promise you, you do not want to mess with me right now!"

"Take it easy, I can help you."

"Yeah right, never heard that one before."

"You need to get away from this spot, the bus station is the first place Luther's men will look when they find out you skipped out on them."

"Wha… I don't know what you're talking about. Go away!"

"How long is your friend going to be out like this? Does she always pass out after she uses her powers? You need to get her moved before they come looking. I know Luther's men, they will come looking, usually sooner rather than later."

"Who are you?"

"Someone interested in pissing Lex Luther off. I've also been known to help out a few meteor freaks, I know a place where you can go. Have you ever heard of Isis?"

"Meteor freaks? What are you talking about? Are you on something? You must be to go around dressed like that. Who are you supposed to be, Robin Hood?"

Oliver smiled. "Something like that. Look, I know all about your abilities, and I know where you can get help. Do you want my help or not?"

Maya looked up and down the street again, then back at Oliver worriedly. "Can I really trust you?" she finally asked.

"I'm one of the few left who you can trust."

She nodded, not looking convinced as a white limo pulled up. Oliver opened the door, then picked Lyra up off the bench and motioned Maya to get in. He slid in behind her and lay Lyra on the seat next to him, a little shocked that he didn't really want to let her go.

"So who are you?" she asked as the limo pulled away from the bus stop.

"I'm a good guy."

"Right. That's what a psycho would say before he took a girl back to his place and chopped her up."

Oliver smiled and looked back down at Lyra. She was beautiful. Even prettier up close than at a distance, and he wondered why she hid herself the way she did. Most women with her looks tried to stand out and get noticed. Unless you saw her face, she was so unremarkable she would pass by unnoticed anywhere. As small as she was, the chances of getting a good look at her face the way she always looked down, was slim and none.

"Most guys don't look at her that way," Maya said watching him look at her. "She has a way of making people kind of see right past her."

"I'm practiced at seeing things people don't want me to see."

"Where are we going?"

"To see a friend of mine at a place called the Isis Foundation."

"Is that some sort of halfway house? We're not like battered and abused women or something."

"I know what you are. The Isis Foundation is for people with special abilities, like you and Lyra."

"There aren't many of us left, and how come I have never heard of this place? If one of the others had used it, I think I would have heard by now."

"It's fairly new and it isn't widely advertised. People who need it find it."

"Who has been there? Kelly is the only one we haven't heard from, it has to be her."

"I don't run the foundation, but my friend can tell you if this Kelly was there. There are a lot more of you, you know. A lot of people were infected when the meteors hit."

"Meteors? Man, I still have no idea what you are taking about."

"The meteors that gave you your abilities."

"A meteor didn't give us our abilities, Hera did."

Oliver laughed. "Hera, like the Greek goddess?"

"Exactly. She created Lyra and I, and all of our sisters too."

Oliver stared at her a moment, then looked down at Lyra again. He supposed he had heard weirder stories, people believing much stranger things about themselves. "So, how does a siren and a..?"

"Crocus."

"Crocus, sure, how do a siren and a crocus find themselves in Metropolis in 2008?"

"We traveled the world for years, then we slept in stasis for a long time after Hera and Zeus left. They said there were problems on their home world, and they would return for all of us some day. They never did, but we were woken from stasis right about twenty years ago I guess. None of us knew what happened. This new world was strange to us, but we adapted. People now are less effected by our powers, almost like their senses have been dulled to a point where they can hardly feel anymore. It takes so much from all of us just to alter one human now, it drains us."

"What about the man, Bennet? Who is he?"

"He is someone we met a few years ago after Luthercorp had captured us. We escaped a prison with him and he has been helping us hide ever since. He can interrupt electronic things, make them quit working while he's around."

"Handy," Oliver said looking back out the window. This was all starting to sound like something Clark needed to hear. They say all myth stems from a partial truth, and if she wasn't completely insane, it was sounding like earth had some Kryptonian visitors a very long time ago, ones who had been woken up when Clark crash landed.

"So where are all of your sisters now?"

"Spread out. So many of us got caught, we decided we needed to spread out and try and stay away from each other so we wouldn't give each other away.

The limo pulled up in front of the Isis Foundation and Oliver got out, picking Lyra up again. He carried her inside, Maya following him. He wasn't worried about the limo, no one would get near it, and if they were especially persistent about trying, it would pull away. It was driven by a sophisticated satellite and GPS system with a computer so hi-tech that only Chloe knew how it worked.

"Hello!" he yelled as he entered. "Anyone home?"

"Hey!" Chloe yelled from the depths of the office. "Just a minute Oli… oh hey, all of you. What's up?" Chloe looked embarrassed as she smiled, and he knew it was from the near miss with his identity.

"Chloe, this is Maya and Lyra, do you have a place back there I can lay her down? And see if you can run Clark down, I think he needs to meet them too."

"Sure, hang on a sec, let me move some of these files. What's wrong with her?" she asked as she moved some boxes off the couch.

Oliver laid her down and looked down at her with concern as Chloe texted someone on her cell phone, he was guessing Clark.

"She drained herself," he answered absently and felt a blast of wind and turned to smile tightly at his friend Clark.

"Hi Clark," Chloe said with her usually sunny smile. "We were just about to do introductions."

"Hello Chloe, Green Arrow," Clark said looking at the newcomers curiously.

"Clark, I think you need to hear about this. Maya, these are my friends Clark and Chloe, they are the other two good guys left in the world. Will you tell them what you told me?"

Maya repeated her story to them, and midway through, Clark started pacing with his back to all of them. Ashe finally finished and Clark turned and looked down at her. "You say they had problems on their home world, did they say where it was, did they give a name?"

"No, they never did."

"What were they like? Did they have any special powers?"

"Of course they did, all of the gods did."

"All of them, how many were there? What kinds of powers?"

"All kinds of powers. They flew, obviously since the lived above the earth at Olympus. There were dozens of them. Some could make the winds blew so hard they flattened a house, and the waters rise up and swallow cities, hurl lightning bolts from the sky, all kinds of things."

"What was Olympus like?"

"We were never allowed, but from earth it looked like a shining silver city."

Clark looked at Chloe. "Do you think they were from my home?"

"It wouldn't be the first time your people had decided to come to earth and play god. Maya, do you remember any symbols that they wore, or maybe you say on them?"

Maya shrugged. "Not really, it was a long time ago. All of us are beginning to lose hold of what we were."

"How long will your friend be asleep?"

"Probably till morning."

"I can take them out to the farm," Clark said.

"No, Lex is after them."

"Lex is gone."

"You and I both know he is out there somewhere Clark, pulling strings from the shadows. Think of what he could do with Lyra's ability. We can't let him get his hands on her again."

"What is your ability Maya, do you sing too?" Chloe asked moving over to a computer to start looking a few things up.

"No, I am a crocus."

"Like the flower? The one that sends people off to dream world?"

"Yes. I can trap people, or myself, into their minds, in a fantasy they do not wish to wake from."

"Another ability we don't want in Lex's hands. Clark, I'm going to fly them out to my place in Edge City, it's high security, and I have 'help' there to make sure they are safe."

"If Lex is after them, or even just Luthercorp flunkies, they won't even be safe in your place," Chloe said staring at her screen. "We all know the technology Luthercorp has at their fingertips. I'm not really finding any evidence of any similarities between any ancient Greek symbols or myths that even come close to Kryptonian Clark, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. It was a long time ago, and look at it this way. If some alien life form were to compare our modern day writing or pictures to our ancient writing, they wouldn't see a lot of similarities either."

"Hey Chloe, you were at Black Creek, do you remember these girls or any of their sisters?"

"I guess I sort of skipped all of the mixers."

"You were there?" Maya asked, suddenly wary of Chloe.

"I was a prisoner, like a lot of other people."

"What are we going to do with them tonight? It's going to look conspicuous if your private jet takes off the same night Lex's marks go MIA."

"Maybe we'll use that then. I'll send my pilot to Aruba tonight, then a little world tour. We'll take them out to your farm until I can get them to a safer place."

"It would be more believable as a decoy if you were on the plane too," Chloe said going to her purse and getting her car keys. "I can drive them out.."

"No. I'll send one of my doubles. I'm staying with her," Oliver said looking down at Lyra.

"Right," Chloe said looking at Clark with raised eyebrows. One look at Lyra was enough to see that she wasn't Oliver's typical arm candy, so his obvious interest was a bit of a shock to both of them. They had never seen him with a girl who couldn't have stepped right off the cover of a high end fashion magazine. This tiny girl looked more like a runaway boy, even if she was pretty when you got a close look at her. "Well, you might go ahead and get rid of your ride, that's pretty obvious for someone looking."

"Sure," Ollie said, his hand going to his belt absently.

"I'm also not sure all of us are going to fit in my car.."

"Oh, don't worry, I have my own transportation," Clark said grinning.

"Well, I guess that's that then," she said with a smile. "Maya, you want to stop for a cheeseburger or anything?"

Oliver looked down at the girl in his lap, crowded in the back of Chloe's back seat. Maya was riding in the front, but she was turned so she could keep an eye on everyone, especially Lyra.

"So who are you people?" she asked about twenty minutes into the trip. "A group of friends who sometimes dress up and help people? Do you all have abilities? If you were ay Black Creek as a prisoner, it's pretty much a given that you do Chloe, but what about you Sherwood?"

"No. I'm just a normal guy."

"Normal. Right. So what can you do?" she asked Chloe.

"It's complicated."

"What about Clark?"

"He's complicated too."

"Well I heard you all talking, like he's from the same place as Hera? Is he a god like them?"

Chloe smiled with amusement. "Clark, while he has many fans, is not a god. He wouldn't like the comparison either."

"So why do you all help people like us?"

Oliver tuned the girls out as he shifted and pulled Lyra closer. She smelled like soap and wintergreen candy he thought idly as he played with a strand of her hair. She was unbelievably small he thought for the millionth time as he lay the back of his fingers against her cheek, amazed at the perspective it gave him. From palm to fingertip his hand completely covered her face and neck, and even given that he had large hands, it was still almost un-natural. It was also incredibly sexy in a way he couldn't understand. That made little sense, because he loved tall girls with long sexy legs, and hot, hard bodies. Lyra was not any of those things. She was tiny in a way that made him realize he had complete and total control. That was what it was. He had never seen a girl so utterly vulnerable. It was driving him crazy. His hand trembled slightly as he slid it beneath her flannel shirt and under her t-shirt to rest it on her flat little stomach. It wasn't hard and sculpted, just small like the rest of her. He squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his hand away, trying to shove the thoughts he was having away. This was all completely new to him, this need. He took a ragged breath and made himself look outside. They were in Smallville already? How had time possibly passed that quickly? He had just looked down at her a moment ago….