Day 42 of 100

Volume 2, Chapter 21

MAIN EARTH, THE CITY BENEATH THE BREACH
(ARGUS designation)

"Ruby, honey, I need you to stay with Lisa and do as she says, okay?" Samantha spoke evenly as Jim drove the van. "Yes… I will talk to you later, yes… I love you, too." When Cait had gotten back on the line and apologized for Ruby getting on the line after she'd heard her name mentioned, Samantha had allowed herself to grit her teeth while Kendra worked to stop the bleeding from her arm.

"You're alright, it's not that deep," Kendra informed her.

"Easy for you to say, you're not looking forward to a lecture from a twelve-year-old tonight," Samantha looked out the window rather than at the wound. It just seemed like the world was determined to give her one bruise or wound after another, traumatizing her daughter even more every time.

"Oh, you think she gives me a pass?" Kendra laughed. "That kid is going to rule us all someday, you just watch."

"I believe that," Jim nodded from the driver's seat. "Did she find you a name yet?"

"I'm not even going to mention the front runners so far, one of them would stick and I'd be done for," Samantha shook her head, wincing as Kendra cleaned the wound.

"I can just ask her, she'll tell Auntie K everything."

"You do that, then we'll find you a new one, Artemis."

"No, thanks, I'm good."

"Alright, look alive, there's something going on up there," Jim called.

"Just wrap it for now, we'll fix it later," Samantha motioned, and Kendra did as told.

The 'something' which had caught Jim's attention now was, much to their disbelief, their fourth fight between breachers in a row. They were always from different quarters, yes, but never the same two – or three – quarters at a time. The last one before this had been this one to leave Samantha with the wound on her arm, after a breacher out of Light had pulled a blade in the end, as Jim was restraining his partner. Samantha had jumped in, meaning to stop him, and then he'd swiped the blade at her. She'd hit him – with her other hand – and sent him sprawling before realizing she was bleeding.

These ones, only two, appeared to have come from Mist and Dark respectively, which turned the whole thing just a bit pointless. The Mist one looked like she could barely breathe, and the Dark one was squinting back the sun at every turn she made.

"I'll take this one, if you don't mind," Kendra stepped up, and Jim happily stepped back. "Hey, break it up, right now," she told the two women. They did stop, though only long enough to look at her, and then they were back going at each other. "Listen, I am not interested in fighting either one of you, but I will if you leave me no choice, and by the looks of you I will barely have to try. Come on, let's just… okay…" Kendra pushed in between, setting one hand on each of the women's shoulders and forcing them apart. They didn't even have the force to fight back.

"Now what's the problem with you two?" Jim asked, as Samantha moved in to stand near, in case one of them had any mind to try to jump in again. After two days of this they were getting to the point where they were starting to have a good idea of how these encounters would turn out. Either they'd get cursed out for sending them back, or they'd get pleads to let them stay, or they'd get the silent treatment. These two existed firmly in the third option.

Having secured them both and brought them on to the van, they turned and made their way toward where they might find the Waverider's jump ship for a transfer, thanks to Iris directing them, back at headquarters. Kendra got back to tending Samantha's wound as Jim drove.

Samantha could see the woman from Mist staring at her wound, looking at it like it terrified her. She guessed back where she came from, a cut like that could mean trouble, infection, with the conditions they were under.

"Why did you come here?" Samantha asked her, in a kind voice as she might have used with Ruby, not judging, just caring. The woman still said nothing. "I bet if someone told me to go somewhere for some reason, somewhere with air I could breathe… I wouldn't even ask why, I'd just say 'when do you need me to go and what do I have to do?' And then I'd be out of there." The woman stayed quiet, though she kept her gaze now. "Do you know what people have been doing with your city's water, over in another quarter? Made it into a weapon, killed hundreds of people already."

"We were told… they needed it, to make it clean again," she spoke now, her voice weak, as though she'd coughed too much.

"The people who sent you here?" Samantha asked, and the woman hesitated. "You didn't actually do any harm, did you? Not to anyone here, barely to each other… There's a chance you wouldn't have to go back." She didn't want to bribe them into anything, and she made sure not to make any promises, only to lay out facts. The Dark woman, hearing this, had looked to the one she'd been fighting with not too long ago, giving her a short nod as though to encourage her to go on; this could mean freedom for both of them.

The woman from Mist had indicated her pocket, unable to reach because of the cuffs. Kendra had finished bandaging Samantha's arm, watching her all through the conversation, wondering if this would actually work. Now she went and reached in the woman's pocket as instructed. A small piece of paper, folded. When she opened it, Kendra saw it was a crude map of the city, which in essence was any of the cities, regardless of Earth or quarter. It was this city. One point was marked, by the looks of it, roughly where the two women had been found fighting, along with a time.

"I never saw who left it," said the woman from Mist. "I wasn't supposed to bring it with me."

X

The fire had broken out in small house which doubled as someone's home office. Ronnie and Killer Frost were just around the corner and they'd smelled the smoke, so they'd taken off running to see what was happening. As they got closer, they could see one old man standing outside, facing the house, the smoke wafting back on to him.

"What's he doing?" Ronnie shook his head as he went toward the man, his legs stretching to lengthen his stride and get him there faster. "Sir? You need to step back, it's not… safe…" he stalled as he realized this was not the house's resident… This was their fire starter; his eyes glowed and his hands, Ronnie realized, were the source of the smoke around him, not the house. "Hey, this guy needs to cool off, right now," he called out, just as Killer Frost came up. In no time, 'Old Man Smokey,' as he'd come to be referred to, had been neutralized, which was good, but then it still didn't take care of the fire. "Do you hear that?" Ronnie asked Killer Frost, who was already marching toward the house and sending out a blast of chilled air, beating against the heat.

"I hear it," she assured him. "There's someone in the attic."

"Cait, are the firefighters close?" Ronnie asked, staring up at the house.

"Two minutes out," she reported in his ear.

"Right… okay…" he replied, coming up with an idea. "Hey! Hello? Can you hear me in there?" he shouted. "Hello? In the fire, hello?"

"What are you doing?" Cait asked.

"Hello?" he just kept calling, getting as close to the house as he could without touching the flames. He had yet to test what would happen if he were to come into direct contact with fire. All he knew was that everyone referenced rubber, and plastic, whenever they talked about his power, and he knew too well what happened to those when a flame was involved.

Then a woman in a suit appeared at the attic window, looking frightened.

"Yes, hey! Hi! Open the window!" Ronnie motioned. She shook her head. "Do it, please!" he insisted. Finally, she did as she was told. "Don't freak out!" he called, and then his body stretched out toward the open window. As soon as he could, he grabbed on to the ledge. "How do you feel about slides?" he asked.

Whether she cared for them on a day to day basis, today she was very comfortable with slides, and she used Ronnie for that exact purpose, making her way from her window and to the ground. As soon as she was down, he'd returned to his normal shape, shaking off the heat which had been way too close for comfort by the end. And by the time the firefighters did make it to the house, Killer Frost had already put it out, emerging from the house and giving them a tip of the head before moving to the old breacher who she'd put on ice.

"For a second there I thought by the time we'd get back, you'd have melted your way through. What's the matter, couldn't get a spark anymore?"

"Why would I go and do a thing like that? Do you think I wanted to do this? All my life, I've had to hide what I could do, and now they make me use it for this? Now send me back, give me to those ARGUS folk, make it a good parade back to Dark so I can get my granddaughter back." Killer Frost was so taken aback by this that within seconds she was Amaya again.

"They have your granddaughter?" she asked.

"She's only fourteen, she's like me. We aren't allowed in the city, my own son turned her away so I am raising her. Now, arrest me and make it quick."

They'd contacted the jump ship. Waiting with the man outside the house until they arrived, Ronnie and Amaya sat on the grass. According to the old man, he'd returned from getting food from 'the green one's cave,' as the alien would go into the city and bring back supplies every week, allowing him and his granddaughter to take whatever they needed, only to find their own cave empty. His granddaughter was gone, but there was a message left behind, and it told it all plainly: go to the other Earth, do 'what you do best,' or else they'd give the girl back to the dark.

The jump ship had arrived, the crew inside looking briefly confused when they saw who their breacher was. Amaya told them to 'make it look good' when they brought him back to Dark, and Old Man Smokey welcomed this with tears that sizzled against his cheeks and repeated thanks. He was taken on to the jump ship, and then he was off, leaving behind the Elongated Man and Killer Frost.

"It just doesn't stop, does it?" Cait's voice was in their ears.

"Will you let us know if you hear how things go back in Dark?" Ronnie asked. "When they drop him off?"

"I will," she promised him. With a breath, the duo had moved on, wondering what the day would bring them next.

X

Oliver knew there was something on his little sister's mind. She thought he couldn't tell how she'd run up ahead of him whenever she didn't want him to see. Well now he didn't need to see what she was thinking to know that she was thinking about something, a lot, and it was pulling her focus. But then it was not pulling it so much that she wasn't able to do what she had to do when she had to do it, so he did his best not to show that he knew something was up… no matter how much he'd worry over her.

They had the benefit of being able to do something the others couldn't, which was almost like a game, except for how they really had to be at the right place at the right time to get to play it.

Every so often, as they'd go along running, they would see a breach opening, very slowly. And then they'd see someone jump through. And when they did, they would quickly get a hold of them and simply toss them back through the still open breach, waiting until they either tried again or the breach would close and disappear. They called it 'catch and release.' There was no telling whether that would put an end to all endeavors for the breachers in question, but at the very least it would slow them down, maybe give them a chance to be caught… or change their minds.

"That's three for me and two for you, Flash," Thea declared after sending another back. "Now, I don't mean to brag here, but I do, I really do, so… ha!" she nodded. "Alright, let's go!" she started running again, and he dashed off after her. She was doing it again, pulling ahead, and finally he had to say something. So he really ran after her now, and then he was ahead of her and able to get her to stop again. "What is it?" she asked.

"You know what," he said. "What's wrong?" She hesitated, eyes darting aside for a moment.

"Nothing," she lied.

"Thea," he pronounced very quietly, even though there was no one around to hear.

"This is really not the time, trust me," his sister shook her head.

"I think it might be," he insisted. She sighed, turning sideways away from him for a moment, thinking, before facing him again. "We've never had secrets from each other."

"Except for the whole aliens, speedsters thing when I was younger."

"Again, we were kids, and I couldn't even say for sure if you'd get it, and… Look, you get what I'm saying. Whatever's wrong, we can handle it. I know things are changing, with Mom and Dad back in the picture, but it doesn't mean it has to change us. You and me, that's how it's always been."

"I…" she started, and seeing how she resisted the revelation, the micro tics she had, only visible to a fellow speedster like him, did nothing to settle his own apprehension. "It turns out there's a reason why Malcolm Merlyn is dangerous to us, besides the whole fugitive thing that Supergirl told us about." A pause, again. "He's… he's my father."

The words resonated and rebounded inside his head.

"He's…" he started to repeat it, but he couldn't even do it.

"Mom and he… got together briefly, I…" she shook her head, not eager to get into that kind of detail. "I only found out the night before last, and… I've been trying to tell you, about that, about Tommy, and…"

Tommy… Tommy Merlyn… He'd be her brother, too, if it was true, and once he was added into the puzzle, there was almost no chance to deny it anymore. The moment Oliver had seen him, there'd been something familiar in him. And now he knew why.

"I know it's a lot to take, and I… I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, and I don't… I know this will be different for you, you grew up around her and…"

"I remember him," Oliver blinked, thinking back.

"You do?" Thea asked.

"Sort of… it's vague, but there was this man who'd come by the house when I was little, and… then he stopped coming, not long before you were born." They stood in silence for a few seconds. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made you say anything, I…" he shook his head. "Are you okay?"

"Strangely, a lot more than I thought I would be. Not that I thought about something like this ever happening, I mean it sounds straight out of some soap opera or something. Dead parents not really dead, oh, also, your father is not your father, your father is a bad man, also here's a brother you never knew."

"Sounds terrible," he gave her a small smile.

"Not a fan," she agreed. "Can we try not getting into it with them tonight? Pretend like I haven't told you yet or something?"

"I'll try," he shrugged. He was being honest, really. He thought about being in the room with their parents and pretending like he had no idea, and somehow he always ended up standing there, staring at his mother, his father… and then it would all come out. But they'd just gotten them back, after all this time thinking they were dead… How could they not want to hold on to that? "I'll really try."

"I couldn't ask more," she tipped his head. He stepped up and hugged her now, much to her – weak – protest. After that they'd gotten back to running, seeking issues to fix. This time now, they ran evenly, side by side. No one ahead or behind, just the Speedsters Queen, the Flash and Kid Flash dashing through the city.

TO BE CONTINUED (tomorrow, in volume 1)