Chapter 3

Almost immediately, The Flash, Superboy, and the two Green Arrows rushed out of S.T.A.R. Labs. They needed to figure out a way to restore their friends' minds to normal, there was no doubt of that. But it certainly wasn't going to be an easy task.

They noticed that Superman, The Atom, Firestorm, White Canary, Spartan, Speedy, and Heatwave all had appeared a few meters before them with menacing looks on their faces.

"Guys," Barry called out, feeling a little frightened, especially since Superman's mind had also been corrupted. Sure, he and the Olivers had Conner on their side, but Barry figured even that probably wouldn't mean much, since Clark was significantly stronger than Conner. "Can we talk about this?" he attempted.

As if in response, Speedy fired an arrow directly at Barry's chest. Fortunately, he was quick enough to effortlessly catch the arrow in his hand.

"Guess not," both Olivers said, once more speaking at the same time.

White Canary flung several shurikens at the four heroes, Heatwave fired his flamethrower, and Spartan fired his gun.

Conner jumped in front of his three teammates, allowing the attacks to strike his invulnerable chest.

"What's wrong with them?!" Barry exclaimed.

"I don't know," Oliver answered, "but we need to find out."

"And make sure they don't kill us," Ollie added.

"I got Clark," Conner announced, clenching his fists.

"All right," Barry nodded.

"Conner, be careful," Ollie warned. "You do realize how much stronger than you that Clark is."

"Do you really have to remind me of that now, Ollie?" Conner remarked.

Barry grabbed the Olivers and super-sped them over to the nearby S.T.A.R. Labs van, which the three hid on the side of.

Conner levitated into the air and flew over to Superman, who was giving the smaller Kryptonian a death stare.

"Listen to me, Clark!" Conner exclaimed, as they hovered face-to-face with each other. "If you're in there somewhere, then you know that I really don't..."

Without warning, Superman rapidly lunged towards Conner and punched him in the face, knocking Conner towards the ground. Managing to catch himself in mid-air, Conner flew back up and punched Superman in the face. They exchanged several powerful blows until Superman grabbed Conner and flung him down.

Conner crash-landed against the S.T.A.R. Labs van, severely totaling the vehicle beyond repair.

"Conner, are you okay?" Barry asked with concern, as he and the Olivers were standing nearby.

"I'll live," Conner replied, immediately flying back up to resume taking on the bigger Kryptonian.

Suddenly, Barry and the Olivers were violently knocked backwards and into the air by powerful blasts, courtesy of The Atom and Firestorm, that missed them by a few feet.

Barry super-sped himself and the Olivers against a wall, hiding from their brainwashed pursuers.

"Okay," Oliver groaned. "You really did it this time, Barry!"

"Seriously?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, seriously," Oliver said.

"And how is any of this Barry's fault exactly?" Ollie asked.

"Well," Oliver began, "he comes to Star City, he asks for my help, and then, inevitably, immediately, we end up, up the creek!"

"Yeah, okay, that's fair," Barry said.

"Listen, Grumpy Pants, don't you think that, instead of pointing fingers over something none of us had any control over, we should actually be discussing how to defuse whatever the hell is controlling our friends out here?" Ollie said to his counterpart.

Out of nowhere, a beam fired by The Atom struck the wall directly above the heads of Barry and the Olivers.

"I guess that's our cue to move on," Ollie said, as he, Oliver, and Barry stared at the hole The Atom's beam had created in the wall.

"You don't say," Oliver remarked.

The three heroes emerged from the wall they were hiding against, only to stop dead in their tracks at the sight of their pursuers standing (or hovering) a few meters away from them.

Barry super-sped forward, knocked out Heatwave, then ran to the top of the S.T.A.R. Labs building. He looked up at the sky and noticed Superman and Superboy continuously throwing punch-after-punch at one another. While Superman merely had a small drop of blood on the corner of his lip, Conner had quite a bit more damage done to him. Not only was the smaller Kryptonian's lip also busted, showing more blood than Superman's, but he also had a busted nose, as well as several cuts and bruises on his face and arms. It didn't help that Conner was exhibiting some signs of fatigue during the battle, while Superman remained relatively at full stamina.

"Come on, Clark, you can fight this!" Barry heard Conner plead. "You're literally the strongest person I know!" the young Kryptonian-human hybrid continued. "Please! Please, Clark, fight it!"

Barry couldn't help but feel terrible for the predicament his poor friend was in. Of course, he would've given Conner a hand against the brainwashed, more powerful Superman, but unfortunately, Barry was still tied up in his own battle, as The Atom and Firestorm had followed him up to the roof of S.T.A.R. Labs.

Hovering in the air, The Atom and Firestorm stared down at Barry, intending to finish off the scarlet speedster.

Barry super-sped around in circles, then hurled lightning bolts at The Atom and Firestorm, easily taking them out of the equation.

Barry then heard a loud thud behind him. He turned around to discover Conner lying on the roof a few meters away. By the time Barry made it over to him, Conner had already climbed back up to his feet.

"He's way stronger," Conner said, looking up at Superman. "It's really hard taking him alone."

"You won't have to," Barry assured the other hero. Barry sped around in circles again and hurled a lightning bolt at Superman, which did nothing at all.

Superman fired his heat vision and the blast missed Barry's feet by less than a foot, though the force of the blast sent Barry flying off the roof, causing him to painfully land on the grass below, mostly unharmed. Conner soon appeared at Barry's side and helped him off the ground.

"You ready to continue this, Flash?" Conner asked.

"Let's get him, Superboy," Barry replied confidently, before the two of them sped off to fight Superman.

At the same time The Flash and Superboy were taking on the Man of Steel, the two Green Arrows were managing to hold their own against Spartan, White Canary, and Speedy. Ollie constantly ducked and blocked with his compound bow as White Canary fiercely kept attacking him with her batons, while Oliver constantly dodged kicks and punches from Spartan and Speedy. Both of them slightly pulled their punches and kicks whenever they struck their three mind-controlled friends. Until Team Flash and Felicity discovered a way to return White Canary, Spartan, and Speedy to normal, it was up to the pair of emerald archers to hold the three off.

"What is going on?" a surprised Joe West asked, as he, Wally, and H.R. entered the cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Barry, Superboy, and both Olivers stayed behind while everyone else went to go save the President," Cisco answered. "But now everyone else is crazy and going all Kill Bill on the four of them."

"The Dominators have them under some sort of mind control," Caitlin added.

"They may not be able to hold them off forever," Joe pointed out.

"I should get out there and help them," Wally suggested, figuring the current moment was as good a time as any to utilize his newfound Speed Force abilities.

"The hell you should," Iris said firmly, disapproving of her brother volunteering his help. It wasn't that she was actually against his desire to help fight evil. She simply felt that he wasn't ready yet, given his inexperience and the fact that it had only been a few days since he gained his speed, and didn't want him to risk getting himself killed. She wanted... no, she needed Wally to understand that fighting the likes of Dr. Alchemy, Savitar, or aliens wasn't something that one could just show up and try without proper training.

"I know they still got Superboy on their side, but right now, they can use all the help they could get," Wally pointed out, "especially with Superman against them."

He abruptly super-sped out of the cortex in a streak of yellow lightning.

During his and Superboy's fight against Superman, who was hovering fifty feet in the air while the former two were grounded, The Flash had flung several more lightning attacks up at the bigger Kryptonian, each of which had proved completely futile.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Conner asked. "Trust me, electricity cannot affect us."

"Wally!" Barry called out in surprise, as the guy in question suddenly appeared next to him.

"Kid Flash," Wally chuckled. He then noticed Conner and said, "It's Superboy, isn't it?"

"Just call me Conner," the half-human/half-Kryptonian said, smiling.

Out of nowhere, a red and blue blur swooped past and struck Wally, sending him flying roughly thirty feet in the air. Wally was knocked unconscious upon hitting the concrete ground.

Barry sped to Wally's aid. "Wally!" he exclaimed. "Talk to me, Wally." He spoke into his comms. "Guys, Wally's hurt pretty bad, but he's alive."

"It's okay, Barry!" Conner exclaimed, as he once again found himself exchanging blows with Superman. "You deal with Wally! I'll keep holding off Clark!"

"I'll be back as soon as I can!" Barry promised, then immediately super-sped the unconscious Wally back into S.T.A.R. Labs.

This wasn't the first time Clark and Conner fought each other under circumstances where the mind of one of them had been altered in some way. The last time it happened, Conner was under the influence of red kryptonite, which stripped away the inhibitions of any Kryptonian who came in contact it, causing him or her to become highly unpredictable and dangerous to those around them. He remembered Clark confronting him that night when he had been moments away from killing Lois, something that Conner had never forgiven himself for since he most definitely would've killed her had Clark not shown up in time. Clark easily overpowered the red kryptonite-infected Conner in battle, which ended with Clark destroying the red k ring, reverting Conner's mind to normal.

Since then, Conner had always known that he'd never be a match for Clark in a fight. How could he ever be anyway, since Clark was a full Kryptonian, while Conner was a Kryptonian-human hybrid? Which meant, while he was still quite powerful in comparison to humans and meta-humans alike, when it truly came down to it, he was only half as powerful as an actual Kryptonian.

That was the exact reason why the outcome of his fight against the mind-controlled Clark hadn't surprised him. His skinny little neck was left at the mercy of a large hand. A hand that belonged to the person he thought would be the last to ever wanna hurt (let alone murder) him. It hurt like hell. And Conner wasn't referring to his life being slowly and painfully choked out of him. What hurt was the person behind what was happening to him – Clark Kent, also known as Kal-El, Superman and the big blue Boy Scout, of all people. Granted, Clark's mind had been corrupted and altered by some rogue alien species known as the Dominators, but that didn't make what Conner was feeling any less painful. Because, either way, if he died tonight, it was going to be by Clark's hands, mind-control or not. Conner was going to get killed by the very guy he'd come to think of as a brother and father at the same time. Such a thought was worse than the pain of getting stabbed in the gut with a green kryptonite knife.

"Clark, please," Conner begged with the remaining breath he had left. With all his might, he desperately struggled to free his neck from Clark's grip. But no matter how hard he fought, no matter how much strength he utilized, no matter what he did, it was no use. Conner even blasted Clark's chest with heat vision, but the heat did nothing to faze the latter in the slightest and the grip around Conner's neck remained strong as ever.

Hopeless, Conner stared directly into Clark's eyes, which stared back at him in a very cold, very emotionless, very un-Clark-like manner. "Come on, Clark… you don't wanna kill me," Conner continued. "Clark, it's me… it's Conner… Conner Kent… Kon-El... your bro... ther… I'm your brother, Clark... Clark... Clark…"

Clark paused for a moment, that emotionless look on his face not going anywhere and his grip around Conner's neck not getting any weaker. After about ten seconds, which felt more like ten hours to Conner, Clark looked prepared to snap Conner's neck until he suddenly became distracted by the shouting voice of Barry Allen.

"Hey, Superman!"

The Man of Steel turned in the direction of The Flash.

"Let's finally see who's faster!" Barry taunted. Wasting no time, he sped off.

Superman flung Conner aside and immediately flew after Barry. When Barry had returned Wally to S.T.A.R. Labs, he learned, from Cisco and Felicity, about the weird signal coming from the salt mines at the warehouse where the heroes had tried to save the President. Barry then had asked if they could jam the signal to shut down whatever was mind-controlling the heroes, but Felicity answered 'no'.

That was when Barry had come up with the idea that perhaps he could trick Superman, as strong as the red and blue hero was, into destroying the device, which led to the current situation of Barry allowing Superman to pursue him throughout the city. The scarlet speedster only hoped that his plan wouldn't backfire somehow. Taking into account most of his past missions, that was always a valid possibility. He certainly didn't wanna end up in the iron clutches of Superman the same way Superboy had a minute ago.

Eventually, The Flash and Superman arrived at the salt mine warehouse. For the former, it hadn't been easy getting the latter there, especially since there had been several instances where Barry had to evade Superman's heat vision being blasted at him. Once he discovered the oval-shaped alien equipment that was responsible for the mind-control, Barry stood right in front of the thing as Superman appeared about thirty feet in front of him.

As Superman headed for him, Barry vibrated his entire body, causing Superman to literally fly directly through the him and, therefore, obliterate the mind-control equipment, though crashing into the alien machine caused Superman to get thrown to the ground.

The Man of Steel groaned as he got back up to his feet. The bright glow on his forehead disappeared as his mind instantly returned to normal. Bewildered for a few moments, Clark noticed The Flash standing in front of him.

"Barry?" Clark called out. "What happened?"

"You didn't kill me, so my day's looking up," Barry chuckled.

"Barry, I'm so sorry," Clark apologized. "I..."

"Hey, you're not the only superhero who's been mind-controlled," Barry said, thinking back to when he'd fallen under the influence of Rainbow Raider's rage-inducing meta-human ability a couple of years ago.

"And this wouldn't exactly be the first time for me either," Clark said, recalling all the times over the years he'd either been possessed by a (particularly evil) spirit, hypnotized and/or mind-controlled, or infected by red kryptonite.

Suddenly, Conner whooshed in and appeared behind Barry. He glanced over at Clark, who was apparently back to normal.

"Clark?" Conner called out in a somewhat wary tone.

"Conner," Clark replied.

"Oh, thank god you're back to your usual self," Conner gushed, throwing his arms around the bigger Kryptonian, who then did the same.

After they let each other go a few seconds later, Clark noticed some blood on Conner's lip, although whatever injuries Conner had gained from their fight had already healed as if they were never there in the first place.

"Conner, did I..." Clark began, "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Well, you were pretty damn close to squeezing the life out of me," Conner answered, placing his hand on his neck. "I really thought that was it. That I was actually gonna die."

Tremendous guilt immediately ruled Clark's brain. "Conner, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. How could I ever possibly hurt you? I didn't mean..."

"Hey," Conner interrupted. "Don't even worry about it. You weren't yourself. We both know how much of that goes around in these situations. Besides, I'm already healed anyway." He turned to Barry. "But I am curious. How did you manage to get Clark back to normal?"

"I, uh, I just led him here while he was chasing me throughout the city and tricked him into destroying the device that was controlling him and the others," Barry explained, glancing down at the remains of the alien technology they were standing next to. "I just stood in front of it, vibrated my entire body, and allowed Clark to fly through me so he could destroy it."

"Oh," Conner said, impressed. "Using Clark's own strength against him, huh? That was pretty clever."

"Tell me about it," Clark agreed. He turned to Barry. "You saved me and everyone else, Barry. You're the hero of this one."

"Well, there are still the Dominators we have to deal with," Barry pointed out.

"And we'll deal with them together," Clark said. "No matter how long it takes, Conner, Oliver, and I are not leaving this Earth until this threat is over. Even if we have to fight them to our last breaths."

"I'm with you on that, Clark," Conner agreed. "You know, I just realized it's actually a good thing Barry, the Olivers, and I didn't come along with the rest of you guys. We would've been under that mind control thing too if we had and there would've been no one around to stop us."

"Let's just be glad that didn't happen," Barry said, shuddering at that thought.

With that, the two Kryptonians and one scarlet speedster super-sped off.

Oliver, Ollie, Diggle, Thea, Sara, Ray, Jax, Mick, and Felicity were gathered outside of S.T.A.R. Labs. Like Clark, the rest of whoever had been mind-controlled were also back to their normal selves.

Suddenly, Barry whooshed in and appeared within the group with Conner in tow.

"So what was it like being all mind-controlled and stuff?" Felicity asked, that question directed at Mick.

"I didn't realize he had a mind to be controlled," Jax remarked.

"Barry," Ray called out, "about before, message or no message, we're with you."

"Thank you," Barry said, appreciatively.

"Where's Clark?" Ollie asked.

"Scanning the city to make sure there aren't any more of the orbs that whammied everyone," Barry answered.

"Okay, so now what?" Diggle asked.

"We call Lyla," Oliver answered. "Tell her these Dominators aren't here peacefully."

Just as everyone was about to head inside, Sara was suddenly engulfed in a bright yellow light. The next thing everyone knew, the white-clad assassin was literally sucked up to the sky.

"Sara!" Oliver shouted, looking up.

Then, the same thing happened to Diggle and Thea.

"Everybody inside! Go!" Barry instructed.

Conner, Ollie, Felicity, Mick, and Jax rushed into the S.T.A.R. Labs building. Ray was about to do the same, but unfortunately, he got sucked up as well.

Lastly, the same yellow light engulfed Oliver. In a great surge of panic, Barry super-sped towards Oliver, but by the time Barry reached him, it was already too late. Oliver Jonas Queen, also known as the Green Arrow, the Earth-1 version of the emerald archer, was gone before the horrified eyes of one Bartholomew Henry Allen, also known as The Flash, the fastest man alive.