Chapter 12
Dr. Caitlin Snow was pacing nervously in the cortex of STAR labs, wondering what was happening in National City. Her friend, Felicity Smoak, kept her company sitting behind the desk, but doing nothing to calm down the young doctor. Both hadn't heard from their teams since Barry ran them there and Cisco opened a breach and carried the Rainbow Raider's reversing device at the D.E.O. Caitlin had wanted to go with him at the secret agency's base, but the engineer insisted against it, claiming that she should stay here with Felicity to wait for the arrival of the Legends and that they all would be coming back to the lab soon. It has been three hours since she had spoken to him and not one member of the teams had come back or made contact.
Wally was at the speed lab running circles, trying not to think about what was going on. Iris was at CCPN and Joe hadn't visited from the station. Rene had found the punching bag Barry keeps in one of the training rooms for when he wants to blow off some steam and with nothing else to do Rene decided to practice his fists. Caitlin admitted that the bag was more useful to Rene than it was to Barry since he almost immediately broke them with his speed. Now, Curtis, neither woman knew where he was. He had told them that he was going to take a look around the facility and that's the last they both saw of him. As for Diggle, he decided to stay in Star City. He didn't want to leave the city alone while all of team Arrow was away. Caitlin came to a stop in front of the blonde.
"You think they are ok?" she asked worriedly.
Felicity looked at Caitlin biting her lip. "I hope so."
#
At the D.E.O Winn shyly approached Cisco, who was silently watching Barry and Oliver converse about what happened in the field.
"Hey...hi." He said awkwardly gaining the other man's attention. "You are Cisco, right? The one that made Kara the device to travel between our worlds."
"It's actually called 'Inter-dimensional extrapolator'." Cisco was quick to correct the name of his creation.
"That's a cool name." Winn grinned wildly shaking his head. "I'm Winn by the way, Kara's friend. We weren't introduced before with all that was happening and all..."
Cisco smiled at the man and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, Winn. Kara told us a little about you, while she was on our Earth helping us fight the Dominators. You are a computerer right?"
Winn nodded viciously his head. "Yea, I am. I handle all the technical problems and occasional hacking."
"You should meet Felicity. She is on team Arrow, but I'm telling you she's the best hacker in every universe. The three of us should exchange same pretty amazing stories."
Winn felt excitement bubble in his insides. "That would be awesome. I wanted to ask you about the Inter-dimensional extrapolator, because Kara let me have a look at it and I am so impressed at how beautiful it is. I mean, it's an amazing piece of technology I've ever seen. But I can't understand how it works."
Cisco felt pride rise in his chest. It felt good to be complimented for his work, much more by someone who obviously understood a lot about tech. Cisco may be a metahuman/ superhero-in-making now, but first of all, he was and still is an engineer. Cisco was at the top of his field when the first Wells a.k.a. Eobard Thawn employed him to work at STAR labs. For him, tech was his heart and soul. Cisco smiled brightly at Winn.
"It's quite simple, to be honest." He said with a small laugh. "I was inspired by how my powers of manipulating the frequencies work. Each Earth vibrates at a very unique, different frequency..."
"And that's why they can't see one another." Winn interrupted. "Barry explained it briefly when we first met him." He explained.
"Right. So, those different frequencies are what separates the worlds, but...when those two frequencies collide with each other they become unstable. They create a boom of sort and that's how a breach get's created. The extrapolator does exactly that."
"A temporary get away to another world." Winn concluded in amazement.
It was mind-blowing really. Winn had stayed many nights awake trying to solve the puzzle of dimensional travel. But as much as he brainstormed, he was nowhere near finding the answer. Now though? Cisco was right. It's so simple and so clear. How could he have not figured it out sooner?
"Hey, guys." Alex entered the room, gaining all four men attention. "They are awake. J'onn and Mon-El are almost healed, but Dinah is still healing. Kara is with them right now." She informed them. Oliver and Barry nodded their heads, while Cisco and Winn just stayed silent. "I think we should move them to your headquarters. The agents will start asking questions and I'd rather not answer them. You have some kind of doctor who takes care of you right?" she directed the question to Barry.
The speedster only grinned slightly. "Only the best Dr. Caitlin Snow."
"It's a good idea. We don't want to raise suspicions. Is Dinah awake?" Oliver asked.
"She was, but she fell asleep again."
"I'll carry her then. Let's go."
Alex turned on her heels and exited the room with Oliver following her close by. Barry turned to the other two.
"I see you two already met." He stated, not waiting for an answer.
"Barry, I am coming too at STAR labs. Cisco told me that you already have a very skilled hacker, but I wanted to come over for so long. I was so jealous when I didn't get to come last time."
Barry chuckled at the man, who was clearly very excited about the new arrangements. "Ok, I think the more the merrier. Cisco when you are ready, open the breach. And don't worry about the reverser, I'll speed it back to the lab."
Cisco gave his friend a look of gratitude that he wouldn't have to carry the damn thing again. Opening a portal was not easy and now with having to transport so many people he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to grab the Prism reverser.
"I'm ready." He told Barry, who in return clapped his shoulder.
#
Bright blue light illuminated the breach room of STAR labs. In the cortex, an alarm went off signalizing all the people who were there. Caitlin immediately walked over to the computer to check what it was.
"What is it? Is it a metahuman?" Felicity asked freaking out.
The doctor shook her head and turned to look at her blonde friend smiling. "No, a breach is opening at the breach room. I think they are coming back."
Felicity sighed and relaxed. Then she looked alarmed again. "You think?"
"Well... it could be someone from another Earth, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure it's them."
"And why couldn't Cisco just transport them in this room?"
"There are probably a lot of people coming. We have the breach room for a reason." Caitlin explained.
Felicity nodded and sighed.
Barry Allen was the first person to enter the cortex along with Kara and Alex. J'onn was next with an overexcited Winn, who could not stop aweing all the way form the breach room to the cortex. Last was Oliver, who was caring a sleeping and bruised Dinah Drake, and an exhausted Cisco.
"Oh, my God! What happened to her?" Felicity was the first one on her feet upon seeing her friend beaten.
"I'm afraid that's my fault." Said Kara, feeling guilty for beating the woman.
"She's going to be fine. Nothing too severe. Besides we knew we would get hurt going up against Supergirl." Oliver told Felicity, then turned his attention to Caitlin. "Where should I lay her down?"
Caitlin got immediately in doctor mode. "Over here." She motioned for Oliver to follow her to the next room where the med bay was.
Alex looked around the cortex. She was very impressed by all the technology there was in just one room. STAR labs looked like an expensive high classed technological empire. Alex found herself wanting to practice her bioengineer skills at this place. The D.E.O was impressive, but STAR labs was like playground for Alex. She imagined all the things she could do with the equipment that was just in this room. She couldn't imagine what other toys team Flash held in the other rooms. They even had a freaking Breach Room just for breaches, so Alex only imagined that there was a lot to discover. Winn was thinking exactly the same thing as Alex was.
"I thought that STAR labs closed down after the particle accelerator exploded." She said to no one in particular.
"Barry owns the place now." Cisco told her sitting on his chair next to Felicity.
"You do?" Kara, Alex and Winn spoke at the same time looking at the speedster.
"After Harrison Wells passed away, he left STAR labs to me, along with everything STAR owned." He explained simply. "Are the Legends coming?" Barry asked Felicity.
Felicity nodded. "They are. And Iris is coming as well. She said she figured out why only we remember two different Earths."
#
Iris arrived at STAR labs coincidentally the same time team Legends did. She walked like a turbine into the cortex followed by Sara, Ray, Professor Stein, Jax, Amaya, Nate and Mick Rory. By then Rene had joined the rest of team Arrow in the main room, Wally had returned from the speed lab and so had Curtis from wherever he was wandering about. The introductions between the four teams were made and once everyone knew all the others and what part they had on the teams it was time to discuss the matter that brought them all together. When Rene suggested that someone should volunteer to tell the whole story without anyone else interrupting, everyone turned and looked at Barry. The speedster first groaned and then sighed and started explaining the situation to the Legends, who heard the story for the first time. Needless to say that only Professor Stein understood the magnitude of what Barry told them. The rest of the Legends just tried to grasp the idea by focusing on the general simple facts: there were two Earths. Now they are one, and only the people in the room knew. The rest of the word remembers nada.
"Iris you said you found something about the memory thing." Felicity asked the journalist.
Iris nodded. "First, I checked all the articles that involve superheroes and I found out that there are articles about people from Earth-38 published by CCPN that never excised and vise versa." She explained.
"But that means that our Earths blended like they were always one, not just patches in reality." Cisco noted.
"Exactly." Iris agreed. "Then I went through the files we have at STAR labs and there was nothing regarding the Dominator – I know you had a very detailed file about the invasion Cisco."
"Yes, I do have a file. What do you mean it wasn't there?" Cisco demanded.
Iris surged her shoulders. "It's like the file never existed because the attack never happened."
"What do you mean it never happened? I was there?" Kara asked confused.
"That's exactly why. You were there. And you were from a different Earth. You weren't supposed to be there."
Barry's eyes suddenly widened realizing where Iris was going with this. "I think I know what you mean. So, everything that happened when people from different Earths interacted actually never occurred."
Cisco gasped realizing that Barry was right. "Dios mio! You are right."
"But I never came to your Earth, how can I remember?" Winn asked.
"You interacted with Barry when he breached to your Earth by accident." He told him. "And J'onn and Mon-El brought Kara over here when the whole Music Meister fiasco happened. And team Arrow -except from Dinah- and Legends interacted with Kara during the invasion."
"That's why James remembers too." Kara concluded.
"Yea, but why does it matter that we interacted with each other?" asked J'onn. "Why didn't the events stay as they were? Why did they got erased?"
The Martian had a point. Everyone stayed silent trying to explain the why. Until Cisco spoke first. "It has to do with the vibrational frequencies. We should exist separately. We shouldn't be able to come to your Universe and neither should you. It's not natural. The laws of physics don't allow it. So I'm guessing that the different frequencies emanated from our bodies disrupted that."
"And when the Earths merged the balance of the world needed to be stable, so everything unnatural got erased." Professor Stein finished Cisco's thought. "It's quite astonishing." He said excitedly.
"I didn't understand anything either of you said just now, but it seems like a lot of shit is going down, so I'm in." Mick grumbled.
"I think I should call my cousin and tell him what is going on." Kara voiced her thoughts.
"That's a good idea." Agreed Alex and J'onn nodded positively as well.
"Is your cousin like you?" Oliver asked interested to see if there was another super-powered Kryptonian.
"Yes. He's Superman." Kara answered the archer.
Oliver nodded. "You should tell him. We might need his help."
Kara silently nodded and walked away from the cortex to call Kal-El. Unfortunately, his phone kept going to voicemail, which is very unlike her cousin. After she tried calling him five times and him not picking up, Kara decided that Kal-El must be doing Superman work. So, she texted Lois Lane, his fiancée, to tell Kal-El to call her as soon as possible. What Kara didn't expect was Lois to text her back that Clark wasn't in Metropolis at all. Shocked beyond imagination, confused as to where her cousin was and worried that he might be in trouble, Kara returned to the cortex and informed the others that she would fly to Metropolis to see what was going on.
#
Kara flew as fast as she could to Metropolis. She landed in the alley next to her cousin's apartment that he shared with Lois and changed quickly to her civilian clothes. Fixing her glasses on her nose, Kara entered the building and walked into the elevator, pressing the button of the level she wanted to go. Lois was waiting for her on the front door of her apartment. The journalist was accustomed to Clark's quick arrivals, so she knew that his cousin would be there just as fast. Seeing the blonde, Lois opened her arms and hugged her.
"I'm happy to see you, Kara. Come inside."
"Thank you, Lois. It's nice to see you." She smiled back.
Kara and Lois entered the apartment. Lois closed the door and led Kara to sit on the couch in the living room. Kara had visited Clark a few times in the past, but not too often because they didn't want to raise any questions and to keep Clark's secret identity as Superman a secret. Kara cleared her throat and adjusted awkwardly her fake glasses on her nose. Lois laughed pleasantly.
"You know, Clark always does that too. The thing with the glasses I mean. It's one of the things I find cute about him."
Kara's cheeks turned a light shade of pink at the remark. "Well, we are related after all." She laughed awkwardly.
Lois laughed and nodded her head in amusement. It was always entertaining meeting with Clark's younger cousin. Lois really liked Kara and enjoyed her company.
"So, do you know where Kal is?" the Kryptonian asked.
Lois sighed looked at the floor before returning her gaze back to Kara. "I don't know where he is." She shook her head hating to disappoint the young woman. "About a week ago Clark came home in a hurry and said that he was asked by someone to go and help with a global life threatening threat. He said that he was recruited along with someone named Rip Hunter on a two-person mission and that it was of utmost importance. That the whole Multiverse was at stake." She explained. "I know about the Multiverse, though I don't fully understand it. Clark tried to explain it to me like you explained it to him. He didn't say what the threat was or where he was going or how long he will be gone. He asked me if he should go or stay here and to be honest in the way he described it I knew that he needed to go. So I told him to go and I haven't heard from him ever since."
Kara didn't know what to say. After she met Barry Allen the first time and learned about the existence of the Multiverse, Kara had told her cousin all about her exciting new friend and where he came from. Of course, Kal wasn't a person of science much and Kara had tried to do her best to make him understand. He got the general idea, but in the end, so had Kara.
"So you have no idea." She mumbled to herself.
"I'm sorry." Lois offered apologetically. "Is there something wrong?"
Kara bit her lip and nodded. "Some superhero friends and I have discovered that our Earths have merged. And I mean they are harmonized like they were always one. And we are the only people from both planets that know the difference."
Lois opened her mouth shocked. "Oh, my God. How did that happen?"
The Kryptonian shook her shoulders. "We are not sure yet. We decided to get together, all our teams and try to figure it out. It's not natural for this to happen, so we think that a big threat is coming. That's why I was looking for Kal. I wanted to tell him what is going on."
Lois still in shock nodded. "Wow. Your life is never boring, is it?" she asked playfully.
"Nope. Never." Kara laughed and shook her head.
"So, I guess that this information is never to be published."
As a reporter herself, Kara knew the feeling of wanting the people to always know the truth. Her superhero and reporter sides were at conflict in the beginning as well, but Kara agreed with Barry and J'onn that they needed to keep what was happening to themselves. After all, it was a sensitive matter and not many people would understand or even accept the truth. They barely knew what they were dealing with themselves. Kara could see what would happen if their knowledge ever got public. Riots, panic and chaos. That's what would happen. And the government would for sure try and mingle with them. Kara was not a big fan of the government ever since the president ordered the D.E.O. not to interfere with the Daxamite spaceship.
"No, it can't." she answered honestly.
But Lois already knew the answer. She knew herself form dating a Superhero, that some things are to stay secret. Suddenly Kara had an idea. Her blue eyes widened.
"Oh, Rao! I think I know how to find Kal." She exclaimed happily.
Lois looked questionably at her. "How?"
Kara grabbed her phone and called Cisco. With his ability to vibe people, Kara hoped that her friend would be able to find her cousin. "It's complicated to explain. But I know someone who can see things. Hey, Cisco. I need your help."
#
Cisco arrived within three minutes. He didn't bother knocking, he opened a portal in the middle of the living room and walked in startling Lois, who had never seen anyone transport into her living room before. Vibe found it a little difficult to open a portal since he had never been to Metropolis before. So he focused on Kara in order to help him get the place right. He had started getting the hang of it. Seeing the stranger in her apartment, Lois jerked on her feet.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" she tried not to look scared. Not even Clark could do that.
Cisco raised his hands in surrender. "Relax, Lois, he's a friend." Kara explained quickly trying to calm her.
Lois looked suspicious at Cisco, who gave her a sly, apologetic smile for scaring her and decided that the man didn't look threatening at all. She sighed and her shoulders relaxed. Cisco waved awkwardly at the woman and looked at Kara from the corner of his eyes.
"Sorry for scaring you, it wasn't my intention. I'm Cisco, by the way."
"Lois Lane."
"So, Kara what do you need my help with?"
Kara jumped right to the point. "Lois doesn't know where my cousin is. Only that he left with Rip Hunter on a very secret and important mission about the Multiverse being threatened. So, I was hoping you could-"
"Vibe his location." Cisco finished for her.
The Kryptonian nodded. Lois looked between them, not knowing what they were talking about.
"What is a vibe?" she asked.
Both Cisco and Kara sighed. "It's complicated, but basically I can see past, present or future things about people. All I need is something personal to them."
"What about Kal's glasses? Did he leave them here?" Kara asked.
Lois shook her head weirded out by the information. "Yes. I have them in the bedroom."
"They should do the trick." Cisco agreed.
Not knowing what else to say, Lois decided to go with the flow. Kara said that he was her friend and she clearly trusted him after all. "I'll get them." She mumbled and disappeared in the bedroom. She appeared two seconds later holding Clark's fake glasses. Unsure, she handed them over to Cisco and the man took them eagerly from her.
The moment Cisco touched Clark's glasses the familiar sensation of a vibe beginning surrounded the young hero. Cisco felt his stomach twist and a shiver ran down his spine. Vibe had never said how vibing felt like. It wasn't a topic that he was comfortable talking about nor was the feeling before and after it happened. He had got used to it by now though – and better at it – so it didn't bother him as much as when the visions first started.
The vision of the vibe was dark and somewhat hazy. They always were. He was standing in a strange room, one he had never been to and was definitely not Earthly. Something felt off about this place, but Cisco could not put a finger on what. For a moment Cisco wondered if Kal-El was on Krypton, but then remembered that the planet had exploded. Then again their two Earths had merged, it's possible that the Krypton on their universe was still alive. Vibe didn't want to waste any more time thinking about alternative cases and not knowing for how long he could maintain the vibe. So he took a look around the strange room. He could see a man with dark hair and a suit similar to the one Kara wears floating unconscious in the middle of the room. Cisco guessed that this was Kara's cousin they were looking for. He stepped closer to the man. Superman appeared to be sleeping unaware of his surroundings. In his right hand, he was holding a spear. It looked old. Cisco had never seen it before, but he could guess that it held some kind of power. There was no other explanation as to why a super-powered Kryptonian would hold such an artifact.
"How long are we hiding the spear of Destiny here?" Cisco heard someone speak.
He diverted his gaze from the Kryptonian and looked through what seemed like a secure door. But it was more than that. The door created some kind of force field. There were two men on the other side. One of them was definitely human. He had short brown hair and he was wearing a long detective trench coat. Although Cisco had never met the man, he was sure that he looked very familiar to the description of Rip Hunter, Ray Palmer had given him. The other one was some sort of alien with humanoid body. His skin was red and so were his eyes. He was wearing a weird black suit with gold wristbands and a dark red cape. Neither seemed to notice that Cisco was there watching and listening to them.
"Until the heroes of your Earth put an end the war between Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor." The alien answered. " You know how important it is to hide the spear from both of them. Kal-El's universe was in the brink of destruction before I got to you and merged the worlds. If it had been destroyed the Multiverse would be imbalanced and would have caused a chain reaction that would lead to the destruction of the whole Multiverse. This is why this mission is so important. If one of them get's their hands on the spear the world will be destroyed. So, as long as Kal-El keeps the spear of Destiny hidden here the Multiverse is safe. Don't worry about Superman Rip Hunter, he will be fine, he can handle the spear's power. That's why I asked for both your help. And the heroes of both worlds will be able to defeat Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor. It's clear to me now that the heroes needed to come together for this war to end, because separate we would have a repeat of the destruction of Earth-38."
Cisco felt the vibe fading and soon he was standing in Lois Lane's apartment with her and Kara watching him closely, both anxious and hopeful to know about Superman's whereabouts.
"Did you see him? Do you know where he is?" Kara was the one to ask.
Cisco rubbed his eyes and groaned. Vibing was always difficult and it left him with a slight headache.
"I saw him. He was sleeping and no, I don't know where he is, but he's definitely not on Earth." The two women exchanged a worried look. "He wasn't alone though and I don't think that he is in danger."
Kara frowned. "What do you mean?"
Cisco sighed. "Come on, let's go to STAR labs. I have a lot to inform the team. I think I know what happened to our Earths."