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Day 1 on Earth ?
Dante signaled to his team to stop, and the uniformed men and women paused where they were and holstered their weapons. He reviewed the team; all of them were dressed in dark military fatigues that heled them blend in with the darkened sand and hunks of charred cement that littered the landscape. He also knew from experience that it was hot as all hell.
He knew that, underneath those blank, featureless helmets, his team was staring at him.
Dante hated those stares.
Still, he had a job to do. He flexed his fingers and began move them in complex patterns in front of him.
We are a mile away from where the distress signal was received. Are you ready?
Most of his team remained completely silent, but one began to sign back.
What code was the distress signal?
Dante hesitated. He had honestly forgotten what the exact distress code had been, but he didn't want to show weakness. Luckily, he had one advantage that the others didn't. With a thought, the information was pulled up on the HUD in his helmet. Quickly reviewing, he signed back, Code 7, unidentifiable threat, which was cut off hallway through.
No one else signed anything, but he could pick out the reactions. Several people's hands twitched towards their weapons, and he could see others stiffen up, and he knew that their heart rates were already picking up.
Worst of all, he could feel a sudden shift in dynamics. He was nominally the leader of the team, yes, but everyone on this team had far more experience. But if they were going to be facing something who had taken out Squad 18, then they needed him. Needed his…firepower, for lack of a better word.
We're moving in, Dante signed. He grabbed his weapon and started moving. His feet, wrapped in specifically developed technology, were completely silent, as were the others behind him. Dante pushed a button on the side of his helmet and a faint layering of information covered his HUD, information on his team's health.
Dante was glad that the others couldn't see his heart rate monitor; even after dozens of missions, his hands still shook as they grasped his scythe.
Half a mile. He signed. A few of his team had eyes on the sky, but there was nothing.
Quarter mile. He signed. His scythe began to glow with light in anticipation. His HUD wasn't registering any active heat signatures nearby.
Finally, they reached the destination, and his team spread out into tactical formation the moment they saw the first of their comrades sprawled on the floor. As they advanced, they came upon signs of a struggle, a few guns disassembled, clear signs of injury, but none of them dead.
Dante set his jaw and let his power flow. The blade of his scythe began to glow with an ethereal red light that can and would slice through most anything, and he was ready to use it.
Suddenly, a woman jumped out from behind a blackened concrete, hands held up in the air to demonstrate her lack of weapons. Of course, that didn't mean much, given their world, and his team still raised their weapons.
"Wait! Don't shoot, I'm a good guy. Er, good girl. No, that sounds wrong. I'm a hero!" The woman shouted. Dante flinched back at the sound of her voice, but refocused. She was wearing the same uniform as all of his team, though hers was baggy and ill-fitting, but he didn't recognize her. She had to have gotten it off of one of the members of Squad 18, all of whom were unconscious.
This woman was the threat.
Squad 18 was a team with no mutants on it, but they were among the most effective strike forces around. If this woman was able to take all of them down, then he would need to respond with maximum force.
He stepped forward and swung his scythe at the woman. A rupture of crimson light split the air as it raced towards the woman…who disappeared, letting his attack slam into the concrete behind, shattering it into hundreds of pieces.
Wrong. She hadn't disappeared. She was flying.
Dante's heart almost stopped, and he came worryingly close to soiling his pants as he stared up at the blonde woman floating in the air above them.
"Look, I don't mean you any harm." She tried again.
At any moment, she could take any of them out. Dante signaled to his team, and they began shooting, soft red light nearly hitting her as she managed to dodge all of the shots almost effortlessly.
Maneuver 25, Dante signaled. The woman wasn't making any attack, typical arrogance from her kind, and they had to take advantage of it. He also pulled up his emergency contacts and sent out a distress signal. They just needed time.
Dante's attacks were strong, but aiming was difficult under the best of times. His team laid down fire that she dodged with the same ease, but put her exactly into the spot he needed. With a roar of exertion, a swath of energy was sent directly at the blonde.
Once again, she disappeared, and reappeared on the ground with a frown on her face. "Look, I'd rather not, but I will resort to violence if you keep shooting at me." She warned. "And it won't be pretty."
Dante had never heard of this strategy, but he could figure out how it worked. If they actually laid down their arms, then she would butcher them. Give her hell, he signaled. He's on his way.
One of his teammates lobbed a special grenade at the woman, and she flew up out of the range. "Well, time to resort to violence." She sighed.
Then the grenade went off. Red sun grenades were a precious resource; they had a larger area of effect than their red sun guns, but it required one to build a disposable light generator (which was apparently a pain in the ass to do as his superiors lectured him) and then it was destroyed using it.
In this case though, it was just what they needed. The woman had been able to dodge their red sun guns, but not the red sun grenade. The woman fell to the earth, where she kicked up a plume of dark sand.
Move! The effect won't last forever. Dante signaled. His team surrounded the woman, who made her way to her feet somewhat unsteadily, eyeing their weapons warily, especially Dante's glowing scythe.
"You know," She said conversationally, "This is the second time today that I've had guns pointed in my face. It didn't work out so well for your friends, now did it?"
Dante could see several of his teammates tense up even more, and he anticipated their question by signaling an affirmation. All at once, the squad fired, and red light slammed into their enemy. The light wasn't substantial, not enough to harm, but it would still keep her powers at bay for a bit longer.
The woman huffed, and crossed her arms. She met Dante's gaze beneath his helmet and gave him a dazzling smile. Dante almost reflexively smiled back, and then internally chastised himself. He couldn't get distracted, not-
The woman was moving. Closing the distance within a few steps, her hand caught him right in the throat, where the protection of his armor or his helmet didn't extend.
He reeled back, instinctively letting go of his scythe as his hands went to his throat. He heard the faint buzz of his teammate's guns powering up as they took aim at the woman, but she ducked behind him, and kicked out at his knee, robbing him of his balance.
The woman's arm came around his throat and kept him off balance and just on the edge of choking. "Rao, Artemis will never let me hear the end of this if she hears I actually used her moves…" He heard her mutter to herself.
His teammates didn't fire; he was too valuable an asset to be injured trying to take down one opponent. They were at a stalemate.
Dante kept his eyes focused on the internal timer in his helmet. Only a minute more, and he would be there…
"Well, look what we have here? It appears the vaunted Human Alliance has some internal strife."
If it were possible to be more frightened, Dante would have been. He couldn't see whoever was talking, but he recognized the familiar accent at the edges of their words.
A man floated down from the sky, a tight red outfit outlining every grotesquely large muscle covering his frame. A sigil of something that looked vaguely like a twisted sword was displayed proudly on his chest. One from the Military Guild, no doubt. The only thing not covered was his face, which allowed Dante to see the amused smile on his face.
If they weren't screwed before, they certainly were now.
"Human Alliance…?" Dante heard the woman behind him mutter to herself. "Who are you?" She shouted up at the man. Dante could feel her strength returning as her grip around him involuntarily tightened, nearly cutting off his air supply.
The man smiled panderingly, as if she were a small child. "I am Zon In, owner of this sector. My scanner picked up an electrical disturbance in this area, and I find you humans playing in the dirt instead. Sol, I should've just sent a Kelex…"
The woman behind him stiffened, and then dropped Dante onto the ground. He gagged for air as he scrambled to his feet and returned to his team, grabbing his scythe on the way back.
"You're Kryptonian." The woman stated. Dante could see that she wasn't exactly happy about that fact, to his surprise. Was she…some sort of rebel?
Zon In rolled his eyes. "Was it the flying that gave me away? How about the sigil on my chest?" He snorted and looked around with disinterest. He sighed. "Well, looks like I'm going to have to take you all in. Trespassing is a crime after all. Hope you like the Phantom Zone."
"I didn't know that this was owned land." The woman protested. "Look, I'm Kara Zor-El, surely that means something to you?"
There was silence for several seconds, and Dante motioned for his team to slowly pull back. Suddenly, Zon In began cackling, as if he heard something hilarious.
"Wow, you are inventive, I'll give you that, but pretending to be a Kryptonian? There's no house of Zor-El, though you were a bit close. That's one of the dumbest things a human has ever tried on me."
Kara Zor-El crossed her arms and nonchalantly took to the sky, and Zon In stopped laughing. "I'm not human." She pointed out.
"I remain unconvinced, given you humans have an annoying propensity for developing odd powers." Zon In pointed out. Dante felt an odd irritation that a Kryptonian for whom English was a second language had a larger vocabulary than him.
Kara Zor-El's eyes lit up, and twin beams slammed into the dirt below them, the sand burning up as she traced out a familiar symbol; a diamond with an ornate 'S' in the middle of it.
Zon In's eyes widened, and he bowed, something that looked rather odd when one was hovering the air. "My apologies, I…misunderstood your name. I thought you were claiming to be 'Kara', I've never heard the name 'Karazor' before." He said quickly, chuckling nervously. Then his eyes narrowed. "Then these humans must have attacked you." His eyes began to glow, and several of his teammates broke formation to run.
Dante felt pity for them. They should know that one could not outrun a Kryptonian.
"No," Karazor El said firmly. "This was merely…sparring."
Zon In's eyes lit up, and not in a heat vision way this time. "Oh, you must be wanting to join the Military Guild! I assume that no one else in the House of El knows?" He said teasingly.
Dante stared at the Kryptonian man in horror. Was he…flirting?
"…No. I'm trying to keep it a secret from them." Karazor El said. "You know how it is."
Zon In chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't tell. I've heard tell of how…stuffy the House of El can be. To be honest, I was unaware that they had a daughter."
"I don't exactly take after my parents. I'm prefer fighting to anything else." Dante got the niggling feeling that Korazor was just bullshitting, but given that she was the only thing keeping them from the Phantom Zone, so he hoped she was as good at bullshitting as she was at fighting.
"I totally understand. I have to say though, sparring with your human servants….very interesting. Are there any results that you have seen?" He asked eagerly.
Karazor El looked slightly off put, but nodded. "Yes, very promising." She lied. "I apologize for intruding on your territory, I was unaware that we had, uh, crossed the border."
Zon In waved a hand. "Bygones. Again, I apologize, both them and you are dressed in similar style to the Human Alliance. Perhaps wear something different next time you spar? And maybe invite me as well." He smiled charmingly.
Karazor did not look remarkably charmed. "Maybe," She said noncommittally. "Now if you'll excuse us, we need to go over strategy."
"Of course, of course. Bless the light of Sol." Zon In said.
"Uh, yeah. Bless the light of Sol."
Zon In was gone in a flash of red, and Dante and his team were alone with a Kryptonian who had motivations he couldn't understand.
Karazor El landed on the ground in front of them. "Well, he seemed polite enough." She said aloud, seemingly to herself. "Of course, that's a low bar, given that every other Kryptonian I've met was evil…or related to me…or both. Mainly both."
She looked around expectantly, as if waiting for someone to comment, then caught herself, and began to amble over to Dante's team. "Well, now that I've prevented you from being thrown in the Phantom Zone, are you ready to listen?"
Dante could feel his teammate's eyes on him. He coughed to clear out his throat.
"Yes," he croaked, his voice trembling from disuse. "But why lie to him at all? And why did you attack Squad 18?"
Karazor shrugged, not looking remotely abashed. "I haven't had a lot of good experiences with other Kryptonians. A lot of them have tried to kill me. Besides, I need information about those weapons you used against me. What was that?"
Dante almost gaped at the Kryptonian woman. How…how did she not know? "Red sun guns." He said slowly. His tone quavered slightly, and that shamed him more than anything else. His voice used to be one of his most important assets. Before all this…mutant stuff.
Karazor snapped her fingers, a look of realization on her face. "Right, yellow sun gives me my powers, red sun must take it away. Man, if you hadn't been shooting at me with those, that would be cool. Can't believe I didn't think of that."
"…And attacking our squad?"
"Ah. That." Karazor actually looked embarrassed. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Well, when I got here they shot me with one of those red sun guns- that's fun to say by the way- and they were being kind of rough with me, and my very expensive dress tore. They weren't too keen on letting me change, so I…took them out."
"Without powers?" One of his teammates asked incredulously. Her voice was a lot stronger than his own.
Karazor gave her a pointed look. "I took down your boss here without powers either." She reminded her.
"Yeah, but he's…never mind."
A lump formed in Dante's throat, but he got past it. It was no secret that his fighting skills weren't much without his power to supplement them. But to have someone say it…
Karazor looked at them with a knowing gaze, which just made Dante feel worse. His grip tightened on his scythe, but he didn't power it up.
This was the first time that he had encountered a friendly Kryptonian, he told himself. More than that, one who actively seemed to distrust other Kryptonians. He had to try and get her on their side.
He held out a hand. "My codename is Ravage, but you can call me Dante."
Karazor reached out and shook his hand. Her grip seemed no tighter than an average human. "Only two names? I've got three. Step up your game, Dante. You can call me Kara."
"Short for Karazor?"
Karazor shook her head, a bemused look on her face. "No, but I suppose some things are different on this Earth. Huh, I guess this is what Barry felt like…"
Dante stared at Kara with disbelief. "This Earth? As in…more than one?"
"Hm? Oh right, multiverse stuff. I need to find a friend of mine, he's the only one who can get me back home. Have you seen him, he's uh, really fast?"
"Well, that's as good an entrance line as I'll ever get." There was a blur of motion, and another figure was standing among them, dressed in a suit of armor similar to Dante's own, but far sleeker, designed with aerodynamics in mind. In the center of his chest was an insignia with a lightning bolt on it.
You're late, Dante signed at the man reflexively. He and his entire team could've died, and there wasn't much of an excuse for being late when one had super speed.
Not late, the man signed back. I was nearby.
Dante gaped, and his scythe reflexively began to glow. And you didn't help? What if she had decided to attack us instead of lying to the other Kryptonian?
I took a risk, and that risk has paid off.
The man stepped forward and put forward his hand, at the same time going to his helmet. It dissolved, receding into his helmet, revealing a handsome, smiling face. "My name is Bartholomew Allen , but you can call me Blur. If you want to come with us, we'll help you find your friend."
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Day 1 on Earth ?
Barry Allen was sick and tired of getting his bones broken. It had almost never happened before he became the Flash, though he certainly had gotten his butt kicked on his quests to investigate the extraordinary. But since he had become the Flash, he had broken nearly every bone in his body at least once.
As he laid on the ground, he mentally bemoaned the fact that he was effectively immune to pain killers.
And that apparently, the people on this Earth were complete and utter jerks. He could hear all of the people around him, but no one was calling for help or even attempting to help him. Considering that he was in the middle of the street, people couldn't have not seen him, so that was particularly damning.
He tried to move, only for his body to scream at him in protest. His shattered bones stabbed at the insides of his muscles. He grit his teeth and began to vibrate, pulling on the Speed Force to heal him faster than even before.
A scream leaked past his lips as he was forced to stop. Embedded in the ground as he was, he didn't have much room to move, and trying to vibrate was too painful. Unfortunately, even failing at healing took a huge toll on his energy. A headache began to pound at his temples, but he continued to vibrate, forcing himself to heal.
By the time Barry could climb out of his little hole, the world was swimming in front of him and dark edges threatened his vision. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, breathing heavily. There was someone in front of him making odd hand signs, and he struggled to get the words out.
"Yeah? Sorry, I'm a little…in pain."
The person reeled back, as if surprised, and his hands started making signs again until he stopped midway.
"Sir, do you need me to contact someone?" The man's words were oddly strained, as if he were unused to speaking, and his words had a somewhat familiar burr to them that Barry couldn't place.
"Uh, no. I'm good, thanks. Actually… What city am I in? And, uh, when am I?" There really wasn't a point in pretending this was a normal situation after all, he had just been spat out of a hole in the sky.
The man's eyes widened. "Oh, you must be one of the Science Guild's newest experiments! How exciting, I didn't know they were trying time travel." He said enthusiastically.
"Yes, it's fascinating, but could you actually answer my questions?" Barry bit out, his temper slightly thin due the whole 'being on the verge of unconsciousness'.
The man colored slightly. "Oh, sorry. You're in Mal Sota, and the year is 205 A.C."
Mal Sota. Something about those words tickled his brain, but he couldn't make the connection, not in his current state. And A.C wasn't something he had heard of before.
"So, when did you come from?" The man asked eagerly. The world swayed as Barry rose to his feet, and the man rushed to help steady him. He was a short man, with vibrant orange hair and a rash of freckles across his face.
"Sorry, that's private information. Don't want to cause paradoxes or anything." Barry said vaguely. He wasn't going to give up a ready-made excuse easily.
If anything, that caused the man to get more excited. "Really? Oh, that must mean something really big is going to happen." He practically squealed, which nearly made Barry's head split down the center. The man clearly noticed his pain and his smile was replaced with a worried frown. "I'm sorry, are you okay? Can I help?"
"Uh, yeah. Do you have any food? Time travelling makes you hungry."
The man hesitated for a brief moment, indecision warring on his face, and he pulled out a small round pill. "Here, take this."
Barry accepted the pill without complaint, even though he could practically hear Artemis and Oliver screaming in his ear about how bad it was to accept food from strangers. He was too tired to care.
He downed the pill and nearly yelped as he could feel his glucose levels rising. This thing was like eating one of Alex or Cisco's special calorie bars! His headache began to recede and he managed to stand up a little straighter.
He thanked the man profusely, and the man tried to appear nonchalant despite the pleased flush on his face. "It's no problem, man. Like Rao says, kindness is the light of life. We have a duty to spread it."
Rao.
Well, that was something he recognized. Barry looked around and, without being in blinding pain or on the verge of blacking out, marveled at the sight of Mal Sota. It was an impressive expanse of metal and stone merging in elegant ways that no modern architect would ever commission, rising even higher than any skyscraper Barry had ever seen. And dozens of stories above him, people were flying.
They were Kryptonian.
Great, Barry had managed to find himself in a universe that apparently had a large population of people just as powerful as Kara!
Oh god, Kara. He had seen her plunge into the breach after him, but had lost in her the storm of interdimensional energy. If she had come out anywhere near him then she would be surrounded by a place that mirrored her dead world. Kara and Barry had talked about Krypton quite a bit over the past few months, and he could see the raw pain that she tried to keep from showing. Being in a place like Mal Sota couldn't be good for her.
He had to find her. He had to get them back to Earth 38.
"Hey, man, you okay? Are you sure I can't help somehow?" The man asked with concern. "Look, why don't I call one of the Guildmasters and-?"
"No!" Barry shouted. He just needed to get Kara and get back home as soon as possible. Then he saw the man's shocked expression and felt bad. "Sorry, I just…need to report back as soon as possible. Thank you for all your help though."
"No, I get it, don't worry! But if you ever need another person to go through time, just look up Jimmy Olsen."
Barry stared at the man, tried to reconcile what he knew about Earth 38's James Olsen with this short, very unmuscular man, and failed. "Uh, yeah. Will do, James."
"It's Jimmy."
Yeah, that was definitely weird.
…He was definitely going to have to bring this up to Winn when he got back.
Barry shook his head. No, he needed to focus. He nodded at Jimmy and took off running through the winding streets of Mal Sota, trying to keep his speed under 200 mph to keep his suit from bursting into flames. It already had major tears in it from his landing, but he'd prefer to avoid being naked. It would probably make trying to find his partner harder.
Despite that calorie pill that Jimmy had given him, his reserves were still low. Healing took a lot out of him, and he had burned quite a bit of energy running against the breach's pull. He needed to conserve his energy so that he could open a breach the minute he found Kara.
What would Artemis say if she were trying to track someone down without access to technology?...Probably to get high ground. The problem with that was Barry was pretty sure that the reason no one was descending upon him was that he was at street level, but if he tried to run up one of the buildings one of the Kryptonians was sure to spot him.
A sudden screaming invaded Barry's thoughts, and he immediately skidded to a halt as he looked around for the person who was in danger. It was only because of that that he could catch an image of a screaming woman before she slammed into him like a truck.
Barry quickly became intimately familiar with the wall of the building opposite him, and he felt his newly healed bones fracture in multiple places, as well as a few bonus broken bones and a bonus concussion. He crumbled to the ground and let out a groan that was half pain, half frustration.
From his prone position on the ground, Barry could make out the woman standing above him, wearing a tight blue jumpsuit and what could easily pass for a motorcycle helmet. She babbled something in a language that he couldn't understand, but was able to recognize as Kryptonian from Winn's attempts to teach it to him.
He attempted to wave her off, only to come to the realization that his humerus was probably broken. Scratch that; definitely broken. The woman stared at him, or at least, seemed to stare at him, he couldn't really tell given the helmet. She stooped to pick him up, and Barry let out a muffled scream as her fingers brushed over his broken ribs.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of this." The woman said firmly. Barry stared at her. Her words were lightly accented with the lilt of Kryptonese, but the voice was unmistakable.
"K-Kara?" He asked, his voice coming out barely a groan.
The woman's head rotated towards him, and she used one hand to press a finger to her helmet, which collapsed and retracted into a pair of goggles on her forehead, revealing a short cut bob of blonde hair and familiar blue eyes that looked at him curiously. "Yes, I'm Kara El. Have we met?"
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Hey, everyone, Phantom Prince here again. Due to a work trip, I will be completely unable to write for about a week or so, and I know that the last chapter ended on a cliffhanger, so I didn't want to leave people with nothing to go on for two weeks. As such, this chapter is pretty short, but hopefully it'll help tide you over until I get back.
If you have any questions, please ask! I love feedback and the chance to improve on my writing. Also, I've put up a more official artwork for the site, but if anyone is interested in drawing it, I would love a drawing of Barry and Kara on the rooftop in their civilian clothes, that would be really cool.
And, as always, remember to FOLLOW, FAVORITE and REVIEW!