Chapter 25: The Beginning of Myriad
Ray's eyes cleared. "What happened?" he asked, a second or so later.
"Myriad activated sooner than we expected. You were affected, and thank goodness the ion-blocker worked. Problem is I only had enough time to make five, and we need to put two on people who can get us access to the media and a lot of technology, that isn't legally shut down," Cat explained attaching one to Lois and then Clark.
"The reason that Clark needed one is that his mind is more human than the rest of us. Barry, Barry, and Sebastian weren't affected because they're mentally linked to a Kryptonian, and Newt, is sort of linked to a Kryptonian, and he's a wizard so his brain isn't the same as a normal human's," Ariana finished for her sister
"Okay," I said typing furiously on my laptop. See I bring it everywhere.
"The Myriad signal expanded further than expected. It's reached National, Central, Starling, Keystone, and Coast Cities, and obviously here in Metropolis," I said.
"As for the people of power, I'm thinking Cat Grant and Maxwell Lord," I continued, after cross-referencing all of the other candidates and ending up with those two.
"Why them?" Marley asked, confused. She doesn't pay much attention to the news.
"Well, Cat has the control over the media we need, and kind of looks like Aunt Katerina. And Max Lord, while he's a jerk, has the lab and tech we can use to intercept Myriad without the world questioning it and he has more tech than S.T.A.R." Ariana answered, tapping one of the ion blockers with her wand, transfiguring it into a pair of diamond earrings.
"Okay, everyone needs to quickly change into super suits in the nearest bathroom and meet back here, then we will head out," Cat stated and raced off to the bathroom, the rest of us girls followed, while the boys went the other way.
A few seconds later we all zipped back to where we had just been. Standing in a circle in the middle of a church were, Kara, Clark, Marley, Ariana, Cat, Barry, Barry, and I, all dressed in super suits, mostly all courtesy of Cisco and Caitlin.
Clark was dressed in his typical Superman suit, and I don't want to explain it because the rest of us have not been out in the field yet.
Kara was dressed in a more feminine version of Clark's. She has a blue top, embellished with a red crest of the house of El, outlined in yellow. She also has blue pants with a golden belt topping it. Attached to her shoulders was a red cape, and she was wearing red knee-high boots.
Marley was wearing a silver top with a blue crest, a blue belt topping a silver skirt, and a blue cape and knee-high boots. I should mention that none of the boots have high heels because you really can't fight in heels.
Cat was dressed in a black shirt embellished with a silver crest of the house of El crossed with a pawprint. She also has blue pants topped with a gold belt, a silver cape, and black combat boots.
Next to her was Ariana dress in a blue top embellished with a silver crest crossed with a gold lightning bolt. She's also wearing black pants topped with a silver belt, a blue cape, and blue and black combat boots.
Then next to Kara was Barry dressed from head to toe in red reinforced tripolymer with gold lightning bolts, and a blue circle crossed with a lightning bolt in the center of his chest.
Other Barry was next to Ariana, dressed in blue reinforced tripolymer with silver lightning bolts, and his symbol matched her's.
I am also dressed in my super suit. Mine has a red top embellished with a blue crest, blue pants, and blue cape, with red combat boots, and a gold belt.
"Okay, we need to figure out who is going where, because we don't have the time to have the entire group go both ways. I'll take Ariana, Barry, and Felicity to CatCo, while Clark will take Kara, Marley, and Barry with him to Lord Technologies," Cat explained, handing out communication devices to all of us.
"How are we supposed to keep contact without someone staying here?" Clark asked.
"Newt and Ray will be staying here, as long as that is okay with them," Ariana answered. Newt nodded.
"It's fine with me. Just stay safe, all of you, your mom might destroy the world if something happened to you. Cat, here," he opened his briefcase and walked down into it, Newt came back a few minutes later, holding an invisible something, I'm not what exactly, because it's invisible.
"Dougal?!" Cat said.
"I can't take him out there, it's not safe," she retorted.
"Please, I trust you'll keep him safe, plus when do you not need a demiguise," Newt replied and Ariana giggled.
"That's not what you mean, I can literally read your mind, and you are handing me a babysitter," Cat complained, and Ariana laughed even harder.
"I think it's romantic and really adorable," Ari giggled, Cat rolled her eyes at their antics. She took the demiguise, hugged Newt tightly, and took flight.
We all flew out an open window. Kara and Ariana both holding one Barry. Both groups went in different directions. A few seconds later we landed on Cat Grant's balcony. I'm going to let Ariana narrate for a little while.
Ariana's Point of View
We walked through the door leading into Ms. Grant's office from her balcony, to find Ms. Grant sitting at her computer typing, but not like everyone else, she was acting like it was just a normal day for her to have everyone sitting around her brainwashed. We all stood there awkwardly, not sure how to approach her, or start a conversation. Ms. Grant looked up.
"What is it Halloween?" she asked seeing our suits.
"In a way, yes, because the world is slightly more terrifying today than most days, but in another, it's like Christmas and you get us as gifts, plus two more, at least. Six or more heroes for you to brand, across six cities, but only if you help us," I said calmly, internally wondering how she hadn't been affected by the Myriad wave.
"Three questions. Who are you? What is going on? What are your real names? The last one is for personal use only," Ms. Grant said, putting on a pair of glasses.
"As for the last one, you'll have to promise to never tell anyone even under extreme pressure. The reason for that is if you were to tell anyone, even on accident, it would put not only us, but everyone we hold dear, friends and family, and you would be put in even more danger yourself. This type of promise would make it impossible for you to say anything or even slip up," Cat explained.
"As for the first question. I'm Legend, this is my partner Myth. This is Savitar and Overwatch," Cat said calmly.
"The answer to the second question is Myriad. Basically, it's mind-control technology developed by Kryptonians," came Astra's voice from the balcony.
"Astra, how did you end up here? Last time I saw you was at your trial, when our dear sister," Cat did air-quotes around the word sister, "sentenced you to Fort Rozz, for something that could have saved the planet." Astra smiled, which she does very rarely.
"Aunt Katerina?" Felicity and I said in complete unison.
"Who are you? I recognize Astra and Felicity, and I'm hoping Marley and Kara are okay, but I have no idea who you are," Aunt Katerina said bluntly.
"Oh, sorry, I keep forgetting to introduce myself. Do you remember when your brother traveled to Earth? He ended up in the future, he didn't know how but fell in love with my mother Bellatrix, I was born, and then when my mother was pregnant with my sister Sunny, he left to go back to Krypton, without a word, he didn't even know about her," I explained sadly, resisting the urge to let down my guard. Barry wrapped his arms around me, clearly and obviously knowing that I was struggling. Aunt Katerina, on the other hand, showed barely showed any reaction whatsoever other than a slight amount of wonder.
"I'm sorry about that, our brother was the least considerate of others feelings of any person on the entire planet of Krypton. Now your real names please," she said, I sighed.
"I'm Ariana, this is my sister/other half Cat, and my person Barry, then you already know Felicity and Astra," I said not really sure what to call Barry, boyfriend doesn't seem right and soulmate seems a bit on the nose.
"Now the promise is just a spell that we came up with to prevent secrets being spilled to people that don't already know them. It makes torture pointless and truth potions about as effective as water," Cat explained waving her wand in a complex motion and spoke.
"Mysterium obsignatorum in vobis erit." (Latin for secrets be sealed within you)
"Well, that was interesting, I also sense a few mental links in the room," Aunt Katerina said curiously.
"That would be a long list, but here it goes. Cat and I are the same person, sisters, and really close so we have the sisterly/best friends bond, same with Lena, Victoire, and Felicity. Barry and I have the soulmate bond. Cat's are the same as mine, except instead of Barry, her soulmate bond is with Newt. Felicity has a friendship link with Cat, Victoire, Lena, and I, but is yet to find her soulmate. And I am not sure about Astra," I explained quickly, counting off on my fingers.
"Astra and I had one," Aunt Kat said.
"But, once she was locked in Fort Rozz it sort of fell dormant because we were so far from each other, but should be fine now. "
About twenty minutes later, the rest of the group arrived. "There's only one way of doing this, we blow everything up. The bombs will have to be laced with Kryptonite, to stop the other Kryptonian's in their tracks," Lord said as they landed, apparently wanting to get right to work on blowing everything up. Then there's the "side effect" that includes killing hundreds of thousands of people. You know for someone who is supposed to be a genius, that was a stupid idea. There are probably thousands, if not millions, of other solutions that won't kill all the people in six different cities.
Felicity's Point of View
"I already don't like you," Ariana said, running her hands over her face tiredly.
"That's most humans for you, their first resort is to blow everything to smithereens, and this is mostly why have I refuse to date for a very long time," Kat said clearly exasperated. I'm kind of tired of saying Aunt Katerina, so it's just Kat from now on. If it confuses you, well then, you confuse me. So ha.
"So that's why you keep turning me down," Lord said. We all wrinkled our noses.
"It's actually because you are about as useful as a cockroach," Kat said staring Lord down.
"We need a better plan than that, the only reason we bothered restoring your mind is that you have the technology we might need to fix this," Ariana snapped angrily, her glare making Lord cower significantly. Barry held her back, with a hug, of course, trying to keep her from attacking Lord, obviously, what else would she be trying to do?
"Well we need to figure out a way to broadcast, you," I pointed at Kara.
"Along with your crest, everywhere. We need it on phone screens and Kara giving a speech filled with inspiration and hope, on TV's inside and outside, computers, tablets, phones, and things of that sort and magnitude," I explained.
"If that works, I'll be a bit shocked, but it's worth a shot," Cat explained.
"Which is saying something because I have pretty much lost the ability to be shocked."
We all sped around the room clearing the area and putting other equipment in the room, that we could use to execute our plan, when Alex stalked into the room dressed in full body-armor with Kryptonite emitters, her hair was cut at her chin, her eyes were blank, and she was wielding a blade made of Kryptonite.
"Oh no, if she's here," Barry trailed off and sprinted away somewhere.
"Where is he going?" Barry 2 asked, still clinging to Ari, to keep her from attacking Lord, and because he's a clingy puppy sometimes.
"The DEO. It's possible that if Alex is here, she has already activated the prisoner release, so we have to go and get everyone back in their cells. It should be fine with just Barry and me," Kara explained and then flew off in a gust of wind, that ruffled/blew back everyone's hair.
"Why the heck would they have a prisoner release? That makes absolutely no sense, especially since mind-control is a thing. Enemies can force a random agent to just let all of the prisoners go and then what? Or if the city is under attack, do they just plan to let all the prisoners go?" Ari paused and then continued.
"That is a really stupid thing to have, or to even be a possibility for them to release everyone, I mean one person maybe, but have it be individual so that it would take longer. My point is what were they thinking when they created that?" Ari ranted angrily.
"Did everyone just forget about Brainwashed Alex over there, she's just standing there," I asked incredulously.
"I'm here to kill Kara Zor-El, but the rest of you will do nicely for a warm-up. You're all easy kills," Brainwashed Alex sneered.
"Easy kills?" Cat questioned.
"Really?" Ari asked. They both just looked at Brainwashed Alex with weird looks on their faces, of mostly confusion, anger, and they both also looked offended.
'Kara's never going to be able to take her on,' Ari piped up in my head, using the mental link for communication, as to not alert Brainwashed Alex to any plan we may create.
'You are definitely right, she'll lose spectacularly due to a combination of the facts that one, Alex has been like a sister to her and the Kryptonite weakens her significantly. So she'd most likely be out of commission for awhile or the entirety of the rest of the conflict going on,' I thought back.
'Someone needs to knock her out, or at least tie her up until I have the time to make another ion-blocker,' Cat's voice chimed in.
'This is really amazing! Give me a minute to freak out over the fact that I am mentally communicating with two of my best friends. I vote I don't knock her out since one, I am busy fangirling, and two, I know Alex a bit better than you two do,' I thought back at both of them while bouncing on her toes, well sort of
I am still floating in mid-air since I never actually landed.
'I'll do it,' Ariana volunteered, still inside my head.
'I don't really know her, other than her name really, so I got it.'
Cat and I agreed, and no sooner than we did Ariana took off taking a chair from outside and a random computer cord, and tied Brainwashed Alex to the chair with it. As Ariana sped back to where she had previously been standing, the chair continued to spin, with Brainwashed Alex in it.
A few minutes later Kara flew back into the room through the window, followed closely by Barry.
"Thank Rao, you chose Lois over mating with Maxima, because Maxima is really really annoying," she complained and Barry wrinkled his nose and nodded, clearly agreeing with her, on this matter, but they pretty much always agree on pretty much everything.
"She also seems to need a new shirt, because her's has a really huge rip or tear on it that is showing WAY too much skin," Kara continued and Clark just laughed.
"I take it that Krypton was a lot better than most other planets about covering up skin that definitely does not need to be exposed, judging by the fact that you still haven't figured out that it's considered a type of fashion. In my opinion, a very silly fashion choice," Clark explained.
Also, I know it seems like Kara is a bit dim sometimes, but she's actually really smart and is a lot worse with change than Marley and I are. She's still adjusting to life on in Earth, and just life in general. Our parents on Krypton sheltered her a lot and then once we got here so did the Danvers, who lived in a very small and private town, so she hasn't really had the full experience of living on Earth yet, which is kind of what college is for anyway. She also tends to be a bit oblivious to fashion trends, then again that is pretty much how our entire group is. Except maybe Thea and Santana, but other than that we all our.
"So that's why Thea sometimes goes around in sparkly silver pants and a white half t-shirt, actually she never really seems to have a full shirt on, unless it is the winter time," Kara said realization dawning on her face.
"Okay, back on track here. What's the plan?" Aunt Katerina asked, growing impatient and irritated rather quickly at the fact that we can't stay on track even slightly.
We explained the plan to her, in full detail. Which I am not going to spoil because that would ruin the whole thing.