Chapter 11

Part 1

Lois led the way while I walked slouched over, pulling my hair forward to hide as much of my face as possible. She headed towards the nearby access point to Kandor's subterranean transportation system.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Dick.

Lois glanced at him over her shoulder. "Clark and I have a little hideaway downtown. It's separate from his official residence here in Kandor and should be safe for at least a while as we try to figure out our next step."

By the time she finished speaking, we had almost reached the stairway leading down into the station. However before her first foot was on the stairs, Dick reached out and touched her arm. With a shake of his head, he said, "If Clark has gone rogue, for whatever reason, then he will know about that place. We can't go there. I know of another place, which should be safer."

Lois arched an eyebrow in his direction.

"I've been here before, too, you know. And it is like Bruce has always said, 'You should always have a fallback plan ready.' I have a bolthole Clark doesn't know about."

Lois stared at him for a few seconds before acquiescing with a nod.

Dick immediately turned and headed down a small alley between the two nearest buildings on our right. We followed a zigzag course for several blocks, mostly sticking to the back alleys, until he found what he was looking for – a large hinged floor plate that gave access to a building's basement, not unlike similar ones I had seen in the older sections of Metropolis and Manhattan. Of course, while in some ways Kandor was the futuristic city you would expect from a highly advanced technological civilization, in other ways it felt sort of retro, too. I mean the area through which we were passing did sort of feel like a variation of the Manhattan 1930s art deco style with streamlined, yet heavy façades and a plethora of statuary that reminded me of Oscar from the Academy Awards.

With a few seconds work, Dick opened the locked cover over the control panel and powered the floor plate up and out of the way. I leaned over the edge and looked down. The hole was dark and foreboding with only a meager light showing the bottom was a good twenty-five feet below the surface. Once again I found myself wishing I had my powers.

"Quick, use your anti-grav belts and get down there before we are spotted," said Dick.

Lois lifted into the air until her feet were a couple of inches above the street and then glided sideways until she was hovering directly above the center of the opening. Then she descended until she wasn't visible without leaning over the edge of the hole.

Laurel went next and was quickly followed by Oliver and, after some hesitation, Digg. I glanced over at Dick and he gestured for me to proceed.

"Hurry up, Kara. I need to go last so I can set the hatch to close behind us."

I nodded, took a deep breath, and reached for my belt's controls. As I descended into the dark opening, I automatically tried to activate my low-light enhanced vision. Nothing. Damn, it was so annoying to not have access to my abilities for even this minor purpose. What would it be like if we ran into some serious situation that fell into the life-or-death category?

Reaching the bottom, I moved over with the others to clear a space for Dick. I touched the emblem for the House of Lar which was displayed across my chest. Quickly, it blazed to life with a bright, pale silvery-blue light. I showed the others how to turn on the family crests on their suits and abruptly the dark basement was filled with light.

"This way," said Dick after turning on the light in his suit. He led us through a maze of rooms and passageways until he reached a long corridor filled with large pipes heading off into the far distance.

Firing up his anti-grav belt again, Dick gestured in the direction that some inner voice told me was towards the center of the city. "We have at least five miles to go. We can make best time, if we fly."

I looked at him feeling a little dubious. The cleared space between the giant pipes was barely more than six feet wide and eight feet tall. Yeah, back when I was a young teenager in Argo we had done things like this just for sport, but my friends and I had had years of experience with the belts. Other than the forty-five minute descent through wide open spaces, Oliver, Digg, and Laurel had no experience with the belts and certainly had never attempted anything like this. I doubted even Lois had done much close-quarters flying.

But before I could voice any objections, Dick went speeding away.

"Not so fast," I shouted, "The rest of us are going to need to start out a little slower."

I could see he was slowing a little even as Lois lifted into the air and headed after him.

"Are you guys ready for this?" I asked quietly.

"Piece of cake," replied Laurel. I don't know if it was in anyway related to her Black Canary nom de plume, but she seemed to have the most innate abilities with the flying belts of any of my Starling City friends. Her hand flicked to her belt and she went racing off after Dick and Lois.

I turned my attention to Digg. He seemed be at the opposite extreme. "Digg, I can remote control your belt, if you like."

He nodded gratefully.

"Oliver, why don't you go ahead and let Digg and me follow," I said.

"Story of our life, Felicity, always bringing up the rear," stated Digg with a grin to indicate it really didn't bother him, or at least not this time.

Oliver grinned in turn before reaching for his belt controls. With more hesitation than Laurel had shown, he lifted from the ground and headed in the direction the others had taken.

I turned back to Digg and reached for the anti-grav belt around his trim waist. I flicked the couple of buttons necessary to slave his unit to mine and then straightened. I was just reaching for my controls when Digg reached over and stayed my hand.

"Felicity, we haven't had much time to talk. I just wanted to say I'm glad your secret is now out in the open with us. I mean, I've seen the spark between you and Oliver from the first time I saw you together, but knew something was always holding things back. Maybe now that everyone is free to just be themselves, things can sort themselves out."

Outwardly, I nodded while inwardly I was grinning madly. Only hours earlier I had discovered Oliver had known my secret for months. Still his feelings towards me hadn't been clear. But if Digg had seen a spark since the very beginning, perhaps Oliver really did have feelings for me.

"Are you okay with things, Digg? The fact I'm Supergirl isn't going to freak you out?"

Digg shrugged. "I'll admit it was a shock when you caught and tossed the giant machine that was falling towards us back in the abandoned factory. But after everything I've seen since then, I think I can handle your secret. I mean, I never would have believed when I got up this morning I would end up in Superman's Fortress and then be reduced to microscopic size to visit a city hidden in a bottle. Compared to that, your secret doesn't seem to be such a big deal."

I nodded again, happy Digg was able to accept me and the crazy aspects of my life, in particular with regards to the whole Justice League thing. Of course, meeting Wonder Woman and visiting Superman's Fortress and then traveling to Kandor was just the tip of the iceberg.

Part 2

The journey down the utility access tunnel felt a lot longer than five miles. If the flight down from the bottle's entrance hadn't been enough, this journey certainly helped reinforce the true scale of Kandor once you had gone through the miniaturization process.

However, after the fifteen minute flight through the confined space, the way abruptly opened up into a giant chamber which was the hub for the utility system under the sprawling city. It took Dick almost ten minutes of searching around the perimeter of the large chamber before he found the small passageway for which he was hunting. This one was even narrower than the last and this time he didn't even suggest flying. After we had all landed inside this access way, he proceeded forward at a walk, the bright lights built into the chests of our suits illuminating the way.

The narrowness of the passageway forced us to walk in single file. We walked for what felt like three blocks before Dick stopped in front of a heavy door built into the side wall. We had passed at least four similar ones along the way.

"Welcome to my humble abode here in Kandor. I'll admit it isn't as nice as my place in Blüdhaven, but it meets my needs for the infrequent times I have found myself here."

Dick pulled open the door and gestured us through. As always, officious Lois tried to lead the way, but she paused after barely setting her first foot through the doorway and let out a startled gasp. Dick looked passed her and then brusquely shoved her out of the way before charging through the doorway.

The rest of us created an almost comical traffic jam as we all tried to get through the narrow door simultaneously. But our moods sobered once we were inside and saw what had startled Lois so much.

The main chamber we had entered was Dick's workspace. The Kryptonian equivalent of computer monitors lined the walls. A large exercise mat covered most of the left half of the space, while the right half held an elaborate work bench covered with an assortment of partially disassembled mechanical and electrical gadgets.

But what had attracted everyone's attention was the woman sprawled in the compartment's one comfortable chair. Her silvery, skin-tight suit was covered with a large blood stain that started just below her left breast and extended down passed her hip. Oh, and the other minor special thing about her – while she had much shorter blonde hair, her face was an exact match for mine or at least what mine would look like if it was etched with a hard grimace of pain. She had to be the woman from the vidcast we had seen back at the café.

Dick had his hands pressed against her wound.

"Lois, the third drawer contains some towels," he said and pointed with his chin towards a cabinet along the back wall.

Then he glanced in my direction. "Kara, there's a med-unit in the bathroom; although I'm not sure it is going to be enough for an injury this severe." His eyes glanced to a doorway in the right wall.

I ran towards the indicated doorway while racking my brain on the topic of Kryptonian med-units. I hadn't seen one since I had left Argo. And while I might have been fourteen at the time, I had still been little more than a girl. My medical knowledge from those days was very limited. And since then, with a nearly indestructible body, my need for medical knowledge had been close to zero.

The bathroom wasn't that much different from an Earth bathroom. Quickly, I searched the available cupboards for the device. It should prominently display the Kryptonian equivalent of a Red Cross, but I couldn't remember what the symbol was until I actually saw it – an inverted black diamond containing a blue crescent. The device was roughly the size and shape of a cellphone.

I raced back into the other room and Dick grabbed the device from my hands. Obviously, he had used it or its like before.

He pulled back the white towel he had been unsuccessfully using in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood and pressed the device against the woman's wound. Immediately, a display flared on its upper surface.

It beeped and lights danced across its surface for about fifteen seconds. Then abruptly it announced, "The damage is beyond my ability to repair. A full-body med-unit is required within the next six minutes or death will occur. Would you like me to issue a medical alert?"

"No!" I shouted, my pronouncement surprising myself as much as the others. Based on the public-wide announcement we had seen back at the café, Clark was in pursuit of her and he apparently had the full weight of the Kandorian legal apparatus behind him. If we called for help, he would certainly capture her and doubtlessly the rest of us. And we still had no idea why he was doing what he was. But my gut instinct said we didn't want to fall into his clutches right now.

Frantically, my eyes swept the room for some alternate solution. Finally, they fell on Oliver and the bow and quiver strapped to his back.

"Oliver, you need to use one of the healing arrows on her. It is our only hope." Diana had pulled him away for a brief conversation after she had given him the bow. Hopefully, he knew what to do.

Oliver reached over his shoulder and his fingers seemed to unerringly select a specific arrow. He pulled it from the quiver and held it in front of his face. He closed his eyes and silently whispered some incantation. Then he moved forward until he was kneeling beside the woman in a position directly across from Dick. Lightly, he pulled Dick's hand and the med-unit away and then jammed the tip of the arrow deep into the still open wound. He whispered another incantation, now in a loud enough voice so that I could hear. But it didn't make any difference as I didn't recognize the language other than it somehow reverberated through me and felt very, very old.

He whispered in that arcane language for at least thirty seconds. As he continued, my eyes drifted to the woman's face. It was uncanny how much it looked like mine. How was that possible? Of course, in my years with the Justice League I had run into clones many times before, but something in my gut said this was something else. For it only took a single glance at her large boobs to know we weren't identical clones. And then my eyes naturally turned to my own much more petite chest. I had often fantasized about being more impressively endowed and now that version was right in front of me. I couldn't help but wonder how bigger breasts might have impacted my personality. Maybe I was about to find out.

My attention was drawn back to the current situation as Oliver began to slowly pull the arrow back out. The blood flowing so profusely from the wound when we had first arrived had now largely stopped. Then, when the tip of the arrow pulled clear, the wound abruptly sealed up as if by magic. Of course, that was exactly what it was – magic.

The woman let out a sigh and then abruptly she jerked up into a sitting position. Her eyes flashed around as though she had no idea how we had all gotten there. Then her eyes found mine and widened in further surprise.

"Who are you?" asked Dick quietly.

She continued to stare at me as she almost unconsciously replied, "I'm Kara Zor-L."

I shook my head. "That's not possible. I'm Kara Zor-El."

Her eyes had drifted down to my chest and a mischievous grin appeared on her face. I had a sudden inexplicable urge to wrap my hands protectively across my breasts.

However I forced my arms to remain at my sides and my attention back to her face. And now that her face wasn't all twisted in pain, I could see she wasn't my exact clone in another way besides her much larger endowment. She was definitely a lot older than my own twenty-four. She had to be somewhere in her mid to upper thirties.

Her eyes lingered on my chest for a moment longer before she turned her face back towards mine and her expression sobered. "I'm from an alternate dimension. I was barely able to escape before it was destroyed. I'm afraid your universe has been targeted next."

Part 3

I had heard talk of alternate universes among some of the more arcane members of the Justice League, but had never seen or experienced anything to prove they really existed. But now I was faced with not only someone who claimed to be from one, but who also said hers had been destroyed and ours might be next. The potential destruction of the whole universe certainly ramped up the situation to a whole other level from just a hunt for a missing Superman.

"I think you better explain yourself," I demanded, probably more hotly than was warranted, but then even for a member of the Justice League an end of the universe pronouncement wasn't an everyday occurrence.

"It's not going to happen in the next five minutes, probably not even in the next week. There is at least time for normal pleasantries before we need to get sucked into a whole gloom and doom conversation," my counterpart said with an almost negligent wave of her hand. Then gesturing towards me, she continued. "Obviously, you're my counterpart, the Powergirl of this dimension."

"Ah, actually, I go by Supergirl," I replied.

"Okay, Supergirl it is. Fortunately, that will help avoid confusion, not that anyone is likely to confuse us who sees us in person." She paused to run her hands casually across her large breasts in a motion I could never have brought myself to do in a room full of people. "My cover name is Karen Starr. How about you?"

"I used to go by Linda Lee. These days I use Felicity Smoak."

"Good. I'll call you Felicity and you can call me Karen to keep things simple." She paused to gaze around the room. "And who are your friends? The only one I recognize is Commander Steel." This last was said with a gesture towards Digg.

We all turned and stared at the tall man. If his skin had been as light as mine, I think we would have seen him blush from the attention.

"Commander Steel?" he echoed in a tone that implied he had no more idea why she had called him that than the rest of us.

"You're John Diggle, right?" asked Karen. When he nodded, she continued. "In my dimension, you were originally a marine who was severely injured in battle. Your injuries were repaired with cybernetic implants giving you great strength and speed. You had been a member of the Justice Society for a little over six years when the end came and I had known you most of that time."

John slowly shook his head. "I was in the military, but I was never seriously injured, certainly not to the extent of having body parts replaced."

Karen shrugged. "Our dimensions have obvious differences, as one look at me and Felicity will bear out. I'm glad you were never hurt, of course, but I have a feeling the strength the version of you in my universe possessed might come in handy before things are through."

She paused and swept her eyes across everyone again, but it was apparent she didn't know anyone else.

Feeling I should be the spokesman for our little group, I was just about to open my mouth to make introductions when Lois jumped in.

"Hello, Karen, I'm Lois Lane."

Karen's eyes flicked in her direction and then hung there studying Lois' face. "Of course, now that I have a name to go with the face I recognize you. It's just that most of the photos I have seen of the Lois Lane of my dimension were from a time when she was a lot older than you."

"Older than me?" asked Lois with a slight frown. It was nice to see a little of her continual, overbearing self-confidence shaken, if only for a moment. At thirty, Lois was near the peak of her beauty. She probably didn't want to think what she might look like when she was forty or even older.

"In my universe, many of the most famous members of the Justice Society were most active around the War era." She must have seen the lack of comprehension on our faces, as she amended before continuing, "The Second World War. Superman first went public in 1938. Lois Lane earned her first Pulitzer in 1945 for her coverage of the Nazi war atrocities. She and Clark Kent were married shortly later. She died somewhere in the late 1970s, I think. Anyway, it was decades before I first arrived on Earth."

Her dimension was certainly very different from mine. Here, Superman had made his first public appearance in 2001, roughly three years before I reached Earth at the age of fourteen. It was almost impossible to grasp that he had appeared in her world over sixty years earlier.

Lois had been momentarily stunned into silence, therefore I stepped back in.

"Karen, the others are Dick Grayson, Oliver Queen, and Laurel Lance."

"Dick," she said offering her hand. "I remember a Dick Grayson from early records of the Justice Society. He was . . . ah . . . I think it was Robin, an associate of Batman."

Dick nodded. "I went by Robin in my younger days. Now I use the moniker, Nightwing."

Karen laughed. "Let me guess, this is your place when you are in Kandor?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"In my dimension, I used the name Nightwing when I was in Kandor, too. This was the location of my hideaway in my version of Kandor and when I was hurt escaping El-Kal's goons, it was the only place where I could think to run."

"Serendipity," murmured Dick.

"Yeah," stated Karen in agreement before turning and offering her hand in Oliver's direction. "Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow."

"Ah, you've got the Oliver correct, but I don't know about the Green Arrow part," Oliver replied while shaking the offered hand.

"In my world, Oliver Queen was another of the original members of the Justice Society, recruited by President Roosevelt himself, I believe. I just assumed from the archery set strapped to your back, you are this world's counterpart to my Green Arrow."

Oliver nodded, but I could see his gaze was turned inward. People had been calling him either The Vigilante or The Hood. But perhaps it was time for a new title and the Green Arrow might be as appropriate as any other.

While I watched Oliver, Karen had turned to the last member of our group.

"Black Canary?" Karen asked, as she extended her hand.

Laurel took her hand. "Yes, although I have only been using that title for about six weeks and I think less than a half dozen knew of it before today. Did you know me in your world?"

Karen shook her head. "No. I knew several generations of Lance women who all went by Black Canary, but I don't remember any of them being named Laurel."

Perhaps the two women might have had more to say, but I was getting impatient to learn more about Karen's End of The Universe comment. "Okay, we've done the thirty second version of our life stories. I think it is time we move on to more relevant topics like why Superman is hunting you and what may be coming to destroy the universe."

Karen's eyes swept the room again, as though to verify everyone was in concurrence. "Very well. Let's start with Superman, since rescuing him is the more near-term priority, as we are going to need him, if we are to save this universe."

She paused, as though gathering her thoughts. "Your Superman is being held prisoner somewhere. I'm not sure of the location, but my best guess is one of the subterranean levels under the Hall of Justice tower."

"Wait a second," Lois interjected. "We just saw a public address where Clark was telling the people of Kandor to be on the lookout for you."

"That wasn't your Clark," began Karen. "It's all very complicated and difficult to explain. Maybe it would help to simplify things if we refer to your world as Earth-One and my original world as Earth-Two. El-Kal, the one who has seized control of Kandor, is a version of Clark from yet another alternate dimension that we could call Earth-Three. There, El-Kal goes by the moniker, Ultraman. And everything about that universe is the opposite of things here or in my universe. Instead of having a Justice League or a Justice Society, they have the Crime Syndicate of America. The Supermans, Batmans, and Wonder Womans of our universes are the villainous Ultraman, Owlman, and Superwoman of theirs. Where our worlds are mostly bright and happy, theirs is dark and bleak.

"Somehow, Ultraman managed to jump dimensions from Earth-Three to Earth-One and ended up here in Kandor. He plans to use this foothold as a starting point to conquer your world. And obviously, grabbing your Superman was his first big step. With him out of the way, Ultraman is free to impersonate him, if it suits his plans."

"How do we stop him here, when we don't have any special powers?" I asked. "I mean, I want to fix things, but I don't want to die in the process like you almost did."

"I think we are going to need help from someone who has gone up against El-Kal before. From what I overheard from El-Kal and his minions while they were holding me, I think our best bet is Alexander Luthor from Earth-Three."

Lex Luthor? She wanted to get help from Lex Luthor, the man who had tried to set off nukes in California? She had to be crazy. "Why would Lex Luthor want to help us? He's as bad as your El-Kal."

"Not the Lex Luthor of your world, I said the Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three. Apparently, he has almost single-handedly been thwarting the worst of the Crime Syndicate's grand schemes for years."

"So, how do we contact this Alexander Luthor?" asked Lois.

"The only way I know to jump to alternate dimensions in a controlled manner is to use The Flash's Cosmic Treadmill," said Karen. She swept her eyes around the group again. "Do you know where we can find the Jay Garrick of your dimension?"

If she had asked that question even two weeks earlier, I would have had no idea what she was talking about. And I still had no idea who Jay Garrick was. But I had only just returned from a visit to Central City to see my friend, Barry Allen. After months in a coma from a freak accident, he had just recently awoken. And it wasn't until my visit that I learned of his new meta-human nature. He wasn't going by The Flash in the same way as Oliver wasn't going by the Green Arrow title from Karen's dimension, but it somehow felt appropriate.

"Ah, The Flash wouldn't be someone who can run incredibly fast, maybe even faster than us?" I asked. I hadn't yet outed my secret to Barry any more than I had outed it to Oliver and Digg before tonight, so I hadn't actually run a race against Barry to determine his true speed, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was as fast as me.

"Yes. So you do know him?" Karen asked with an eager expression on her face.

"I don't know a Jay Garrick. I do know a Barry Allen, who may be this Universe's version of The Flash. But he just recently received his meta-human gift. I have a sinking suspicion he has no more idea than me what a Cosmic Treadmill is."

It certainly seemed like this was turning out to be a big day for outing people's secrets. I hadn't outed myself to Barry because I didn't think he had yet surfaced on the Justice League's radar. And it seemed to me he should be given the opportunity to explore his gifts at least a little before being sucked into the Justice League with all its associated baggage.

And, of course, if I'm going to be truthful, I hadn't outed myself to Barry for my own reasons. Barry's personality has always struck me as extremely effervescent and not one suited to keeping secrets. I had been very afraid that if he knew mine, intentionally or not, he would spill the beans to Oliver. But, hopelessly mixing my metaphors, that cat is now out of the bag.

Therefore, if Barry could somehow help us get to the Earth-Three dimension to secure the help of Alexander Luthor to defeat the Superman from that dimension, then the Justice League might be getting a new member tonight. Or a second, if you counted the Green Lantern. Or possibly a third, if Oliver was ready to step up to the Big Leagues.

End of Chapter 11

Author's Note:

I have been puttering along on this story for a year and a half. I started writing it near the end of season 1 of Arrow, but set it around where I expected season 2 to start. And after working on it for a year and a half, while it has stretched to eleven chapters, it only covers roughly a twelve hour time period and therefore is still in what would be effectively the first day of season 2.

I never expected when I started writing this story that they were going to spin-off a Flash TV series. I've been enjoying that show and thought it would be fun to incorporate some of that into this story. So I'm just going to assume in the version of reality of my story that the Flash-related events in season 2 of Arrow actually occurred towards the end of season 1. And that the time frame of my story falls around episode 5-6 of the first season of the Flash. Hopefully you can accept this tweak, as I think it will make this story even more fun.

Therefore in my vision of this story, the Justice League first came together around 10-12 years before the start of this story. Its original members were Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and probably a few others. Over the intervening years Supergirl, Nightwing, and others have joined. Now the next generation is ready to join including Green Lantern, Green Arrow, The Flash, Black Canary, and possibly others.

On a separate note, hopefully the addition of the alternate dimensions of Earth-Two and Earth-Three won't be too confusing. I like big epic stories and I have rarely seen anyone include these fun variations from the old comics.

Have a great day, Duane