After the particle accelerator explosion people had to redefine their sense of 'normal'. The sky is blue, water is wet, and mutants were no longer restricted to the pages of comic books. Humans had inherited a new categorization: meta or norm. New procedures were put in place to cover this new development and situations that might arise as a result. Not a single one of those covered spontaneous black holes appearing over the city.
"At least it wasn't aliens."
Len cast his sister an apathetic look, "No, it just tried to swallow our city."
Lisa shrugged, eyes traveling over the disaster area. "Still better than aliens trying to take over."
"You've been hanging around Ramon too much," Mick grumbled.
"Seems they're doing a lot more than 'hanging around'," Len sneered. Bad enough she was dating someone who had a direct hand in the particle accelerator, but did it have to be someone who worked so closely with the CCPD?
Mick laughed, a quick sharp barking that was entirely too amused for Len's tastes. Len glared at his long-time friend even as he continued to check the wreckage around them. Several city blocks had been affected by the singularity and he sighed out through his nose as he wondered off on his own, eyes picking over everything, taking in all of the destroyed buildings, the rubble spilling out into the streets. Everything that had been sucked into the air had come crashing back down when the singularity closed, making an even bigger mess of things.
They'd been in the middle of a job when the sky had suddenly opened up above them. They'd been distracted and they're mark had taken off, heading right towards the epicenter. Eying the destruction, Len thought that it would be a wonder of the idiot had survived. He was shaking his head at the stupidity of some people when his eyes snagged on a burst of color.
He picked his way over, calling out to the others. "I have something over here."
He heard their acknowledgements as he reached what had drawn his attention, the splash of red bright and eye catching. His mind absently identified it as potentially arterial blood even as he followed the slight trail, eyes zeroing in on the body of a woman.
His eyes cataloged everything. She wore combat boots that looked well-worn but not ratty paired with jeans and a long-sleeved Henley that were both threadbare and littered with rips and tears. Whoever she was, she was a little too clean to have been homeless, but she was still filthy. Blood and soot stained the clothing, smearing over too-pale skin and coloring her hair a washed-out red streaked with brown. The blood was all fresh, the same bright red that had first caught his attention.
He idly noted the lack of debris, his mind postulating that she'd probably been caught up by the singularity before it had closed. He was ready to leave her be, there was no help for someone already dead, when he realized her chest was moving shallowly. Sighing to himself, he carefully approached her, thinking maybe his old eyes had been playing a trick. He knelt beside her to check just how strong her pulse was, his eyes traveling to her thigh where something was sticking out, blood leaking around it. He was so focused on what he was pretty sure was an arrow that he missed her eyes snapping open.
† † †
Her first day on the new Earth... it did not go well.
First, she woke up completely disoriented. Second, she woke up to Commander Cold standing over her. She saw his hand reaching for her and while she didn't see any sign of his trusty gun, she knew that he was more than powerful enough to do some serious damage on his own. She reacted on instinct.
Her hand came up and she released a scream, channeling and pushing the energy. Surprise flashed across his face as he went flying but she didn't give herself time to enjoy the fact that she'd managed to catch him off guard. She staggered to her feet, biting back a cry when pain flashed up her leg. She ignored the pain knowing that Cold wouldn't be down for long and took off in a random direction.
She'd only taken a few staggering steps before a column of flames flashed in front of her, causing her to stumble to a halt. She cursed, her eyes tracking back to the source.
"Backdraft," she growled, stepping back.
"Don't know no 'Backdraft', though the name does have a certain catch," he grinned back. "Name's Heatwave."
Her foot caught on ice and she fought to retain her balance.
"And I have the dubious pleasure of being Captain Cold. Now that we've introduced ourselves all proper like, what's your name?"
She turned, careful of the ice, until she had both men in view. They had their arms held loosely at their sides but she'd faced them enough times to know just how quick they could draw their guns. Her eyes darted from their empty hands to their hips, brow wrinkling when she only spotted normal handguns. Her gaze traveled to the lingering flames and the ice patch underneath her before going back to the men, confusion mounting. Cold's hand twitched, it was barely a movement but it was enough to draw her attention, to have her eyes zeroing in on his hand, zeroing in on where a light coating of ice crystals was slowly building.
"You're metas," she breathed disbelieving.
"So we've been told," Cold drawled lazily.
"Since when?"
"I'd say since the particle accelerator decided to blow up. So going on six months now."
Her chest constricts, her heart stuttering. Her eyes darted around them, taking in their surroundings. They'd had a brief run in with breachers a few years back and the last thing she remembered before waking up was being swallowed by a black hole. It wasn't that big a leap to realize she wasn't on her Earth anymore. Looking around made it very evident, though seemingly unbelievable, that she was not on her Earth. While it looked like something had done a number on the city, it in no way resembled the war zone that hers had become. That Cold hadn't executed her while she was unconscious supported the whole alternate Earth thing too.
"Well fuck," she breathed.
"Language."
Her gaze shoots back to Backdraft– no, Heatwave, who'd just called her on her language? She is seriously not up for this right now.
She takes a step back, trying to think of how to get away, when she hears a woman tsking softly at her. She should've known, really. Wherever Cold goes, his sister is never far behind.
Sure enough, when she glances over her shoulder it's to see Gilded Lady and, like her two companions, she's sans gun as well. Her hands are loose at her side, she looks completely relaxed but the sharp glint in her eye indicates her readiness.
"Lisa Snart, though if we're going by our handles I guess that makes me Golden Glider," she smiles sultrily, angling her head in a way that brings her ponytail swinging over her shoulder. "Now, what's your name sweetheart? That was a pretty impressive show, sending Lenny flying like that."
"Not sure I should be telling my name to complete strangers," she hedges.
Cold smiles, it's every bit as sharp as his sister's. "Come now, we're not strangers. Besides, if you can't trust the police, who can you trust?"
He carefully reaches to move his jacket, showcasing the badge clipped to his belt. "Detective Leonard Snart, my partner, Detective Mick Rory."
Her breath stutters again and she narrows her eyes, gaze moving over all three as she curses herself for relaxing even the slightest. "Metahuman Task Force," she hisses. "Didn't think they'd be willing to accept metas when their job is to hunt them down."
Lisa's mouth opens to respond but she isn't going to stick around any longer than she has to. Her lips part and she starts humming the first song that came to mind, a tune that was every bit as alluring as it was haunting, immediately snagging their attention. She slowly brought her hands up, one aimed at Lisa and the other at the two men, as she continued, manipulating the energy to gradually captivate all three.
She wasn't a fan of this aspect, she always viewed it as tantamount of taking someone's control away, it bordered entirely too close to what Eilling had done to them, but she didn't know enough about this Earth just yet to chance taking out three police officers. Instead, she lured them all in, getting them to drop their guards and waited as their lids slipped closed.
The moment she was sure they were all out, she took off. For them, it would be like they'd blinked and she was gone, so she had to hurry while she could. She only had a few seconds before they snapped out of it, their minds returning to them fully. She was nearing the edge of the damaged area when she spotted a convenience store that she ducked into. It looked pretty abandoned, no doubt everyone was a little sidetracked by the gaping black hole that had appeared over their city.
Now that she thought about it, she wondered how they'd gotten it to close. Or had her and Wally closing things on their end closed it here too?
She shook the thought away, not wanting to get too absorbed in the possibilities. She grabbed one of the generic backpacks from the wall rack before she made her way through the store gathering what she needed. It was pretty well stocked and it was eerily similar to the one on her Earth, though that just made it easier to know where to look for things. She felt a little bad for popping one of the cash drawers but she buried the feeling as she cleared it out.
She was in and out of the store in under ten minutes, slinging the backpack over her shoulder as she wove around people who were still gaping at the sky. She wandered to one of the shadier ends of Central and found a room that rented by the hour, the clerk didn't even blink at her appearance, and she used the time to clean herself up. Most of her wounds were closed over, she had to reopen the one on her leg so she could retrieve the rest of the arrow that had broken off in it, and she was never more thankful for the fast healing that came with the Speed Force.
A quick shower later and she was as clean and presentable as she was going to get. She left the key on the dresser and left, her next stop a public library where she claimed a computer in a corner and stayed until the librarian informed her they were closing.
She hadn't found everything she was looking for, but she had a start now. If she wanted a chance in hell of making it here, then she needed help and from what she'd gathered, her best shot right now was in Star City.
She really hoped that she didn't run into any arrow-happy psychopaths...
