"Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour's close at hand" Younger Barry recited, making Caitlin and Kara burst into laughter. Older Barry almost face palmed but chuckled. "What? Best way to make the best of a shitty situation is to joke. Have you met me already?" he smiled.
"It's almost midnight. We should get going. I don't think we want to be late" Clark changed into his Superman suit.
"I'm going ahead" the Martian replied morphing into Superman himself. The two Kryptonians grabbed the shields and they all headed out. At midnight a transformed J'onn was standing in the courtyard of the Abandoned factory as it was written in the note received by Clark Kent. A shadowy figure stepped out of the darkness with a Kryptonite knife holding it at the throat of Lois Lane. Superman and Supergirl both a ways away so not to be seen scanned the face and were not surprised by what they saw. It was Lillian Luthor. The woman had supposedly been dead for a while, or so they thought.
"Welcome, Superman. I would start with the introductions but there are some people who would really like you dead. So, how about you be a good boy scout and die for me" the voice said. In the next second, three bullets and two Kryptonite blasts passed through the Martian who was smirking. Older Barry was already running like a bat out of hell, he managed just in time to phase Lois out of Lillian's arm before the knife cut the place where her throat was a second ago. She was unconscious so before anything, the speedster raced back to Clark's apartment and deposited her on the couch returning to the site of the battle.
"You don't think Superman would have fallen for something that was so obvious of a trap. But since Lois is now safe, how about we take care of business" The Martian turned back into his own form and flew straight at one of the Metallos that stepped in to the courtyard from the shadows. Superman and Supergirl were out, shields forward attacking Corben which had started to throw Kryptonite blasts himself. Reactron came out second, from behind the supers, two radiation blasts flying at them which were stopped immediately by a triple layered ice wall. Frost joined the fight smiling at Kara who nodded her head in thanks. The two Flashes and she had already cleared the area of the snipers that posed a threat with their bullets.
"So you`ve brought friends. Good, more people to kill" Livewire and Banshee joined the fight, but for some reason both of them focused their fire on Kara more than on her cousin. While J'onn was fighting Corben and Superman with the Kryptonite shield was battling the other Metallo, Kara found herself caught in the Crossfire, being attacked by those two as well. Frost didn't really sit and think, after the first yell a cloud of blue fog enveloped Banshee, just like the first time they had dealt with her, effectively taking her out of the battle. Leslie however was another problem. She kept throwing electrical attack at the blonde and she got really pissed when her apparent friend got sidelined so easy.
Frost iced up, it was the first time older Barry and Kara had seen this new form she had and in the middle of the battle the two stopped to gawk at her. That proved to be a bit of a strategical error, Corben managed to let out two kryptonite blasts that were heading straight for Kara. Older Barry stepped in front of them and the impact threw him into a pile of scrap metal. He managed to get out but he had a pipe stuck in his arm which went straight through. Thankfully it didn't hit bone. He winced and pulled it out. Frost saw that and produced a cloud of red fog with silver tint that was moving straight at Kara.
"Get in the cloud. You'll see why, both of you" she yelled going back to attacking Livewire keeping her busy while the cloud hit the couple. It dissipated in a few seconds but Kara felt better instantly and the hole he had on his arm was completely healed.
"Now she can heal people too. We really need to get the 411 on her new powers" Kara looked at her speedster who nodded.
Leslie wanted to move through wires to get back to them but she didn't pay attention to see the younger Barry that was racing toward her. The punch hit her point blank with a force that sent her flying into the legs of what looked like a water tower. Kara took that opportunity to melt the bottom of the reservoir to see if there was any water in it and she was in luck, a torrent of water mixed with rust started to flow over livewire literally shorting her. Frost didn't lose any time and encased her in a block of ice for safe keeping and transport later.
"You don't think that you people are the only ones that can come together. We have friends too and these people will do anything to take scum like you off the streets" Superman hit Corben so hard that he flew a couple of feet but rebounded almost instantly and came back at him.
J'onn was keeping Reactron at bay as well as he could. But he could not let the blasts that he was putting out hit him under any circumstances. They would have wounded him since they were nuclear in nature. So he phased while avoiding one of them, while passing through him it hit Frost who was behind him helping Older Barry take care of the other Metallo. The blast should have harmed her pretty badly since she took it head on. Instead she turned around unharmed and threw two ice spears at Reactron.
"Hey, keep your blasts to yourself" she yelled while returning to her own fight. J'onn was impressed, the thick armor she had on her didn't seem to have suffered any kind of damage even from a blast that was extremely hot. In their battle none of the heroes noticed the array of toy airplanes and soldiers including some interesting hyper elastic balls that were being dropped as bombs. Oliver however saw from a distance that they were coming.
"Be careful, there are toys incoming" he yelled. The heroes clumped together and Frost made an Ice umbrella which managed to keep the strange balls at bay. The toys however were loaded with the same Kryptonite bullets and piece of the green rock that they started dropping. The strain was becoming obvious on Superman. He was backing away from Corben only defending but not attacking. Kara was not feeling well. The power meter in her suit started flashing yellow because of the exposure even with the new suit on.
"We need to get these rocks out of here" Younger Barry said with a sense of urgency
"You remember how to phase, right?" Older Barry asked him and he nodded
"Yep, back from the time with the tanks when you came to help. You want to get rid of the toys don't you?" Younger him inquired, he nodded and the two started a mad race around the compound phasing all the pieces of green rock away. The balls were a problem, they weren't just balls they were remotely controlled from somewhere, they changed their trajectory in mid-flight and the kinetic energy they had in them was enormous. Two of them hit Frost causing her to fall to the ground in pain.
"Frost you ok?" Kara asked.
"Impact dazed me. They didn't manage to go through my ice armor, so I'm perfectly good to fight" Caitlin replied prompting a look of admiration from Kara. She took two direct hits that would have straight passed through a normal human and she was barely dazed. At the sight of Kara weakened and Caitlin being hit as well Older Barry got extremely annoyed. He started to drain the kinetic energy of everything around him. The balls, with as much speed as they had, if they came into the area they simply fell to the ground dead. With the newly acquired energy, Older Barry took some ground and accelerated to Mach 20 hitting the second Metallo with a punch so powerful that it made a crater under him. Making him fall. Frost didn't have a good angle to hit him so amazing everyone around her except her husband she sprouted wings and flew straight up. When the line of sight was better she started to make another ice spear, larger and thicker this time which she threw at the fallen man. The spike went straight through the kryptonite in his body shattering it and coming out the other side
"Nice!" Kara smirked at her "1 for the ice princess, 0 for the bad guys. Also since when can you fly?!" She inquired but saw Caitlin's eyes that said clearly "I'll tell you later", so she got up but her bracer was still flashing yellow and after being hit by a stray blast from Corben, she went straight from yellow to red. Older Barry didn't sit by, he started to concentrate his energy into a large bolt which he threw at his girlfriend. IT was more than enough, her bracer jumped to 80%, became green and the display disappeared.
"Thank you" she smiled brightly at the speedster as she was revigorated. She started to fly in at supersonic speed and punch Reactron, helping J`onn with the nuclear menace, baiting his blasts but making sure none of them hit her.
"No problem. In case you need more charge say something. With the speed needed to keep the field clear of stupid Kryptonite rocks, bullets and toys I can't check the bracers as much as I could" Older Barry told her and she nodded.
The Toys were becoming a problem. Oliver managed to down most of the planes with his arrows and the flashes managed to destroy some soldiers, but for some reason no matter how many they destroyed, it seemed like there was the same number in the air and on the ground. Frost was now in the air taking down the airplanes with precise hits that impressed the archer. She soon got annoyed and created a few dozen ice spikes that left travelling horizontally and destroying a large portion of the kryptonite laden planes. Kara was looking at her work and she was thoroughly impressed at the extent of the control she had over her powers.
"Kara, can you scan the building see if someone is staying away from the fight?" Oliver asked through the comms that were all now tied into one another.
"Yea. Give me a minute" She went straight up and looked down into the building from a safe distance. What she didn't see were the two toy planes that were coming up behind her. They shot a couple of bullets straight at her before two lightning bolts from the ground took them out.
"Be careful. I know you might be armored now, but don't let yourself be surprised by stuff like that. You can beat Alex and Hank at hand to hand, surprise attacks should be a problem for someone who is as skilled as you are" she could hear older Barry in her head. She looked down and there he was looking at her.
"Minor mistake. I did see the planes but I was concentrating on helping Oliver. If he manages to take out Toyman this would be much easier" she gave him a smile and saw him speed away starting another running punch to go intro Reactron. "Oliver, there is someone on the lower floor of the factory, in what looks like an office. I don't know how you can get in, for some reason it has walls on all sides. Might be some sort of hideout. Here. I'll show you where" The girl of steel let out a beam of heat vision which lit up the night showing the archer where he should go. Immediately planes started to go for her, she had given up her exact position, but that wasn't a problem. The moment she did that she went straight back to the ground where Frost was giving Superman a hand with Corben.
"Got it. Going to check" The answer came and her superior vision saw Oliver enter the building. She followed him as he went through seeing if there weren't any dangers. Of course there were, Toyman was a master of mechanical traps. She sped away just in time and went through the wall in front of Oliver rustling up a cloud of dust, just in time for three circles that looked like buzz saw wheels to hit her and fall down in pieces. The archer had stepped aside but she couldn't be sure that he wouldn't be hit.
"Oliver, remember tactical thinking. Don't rush in here, this guy is a mad genius with a passion for traps and mechanics. While toys are the attacks he loves to use, his real strength is in the part where he plans to capture you if you go after him. Please be more careful" she said with a stern voice. The archer was surprised that she cared that much about what would happen to him.
"Thank you for that, I was expecting lasers and kryptonite, not Buzz saw blades. It does seem weird that he would put such a rudimentary trap when it doesn't even scratch you. Nonetheless, since now I know what I'm dealing with, I'll be more mindful of my surroundings" He gave her a grin and a nod. Supergirl flew back outside to help her cousin. Both Barrys were handling the toys. One was throwing lightning bolts at the planes in the sky, the other was breaking the toy soldiers on the ground. A bunch of them however managed to make it in the vicinity or Superman and fired shots at him. The man of steel reacted too late but before the shots actually hit him, older Barry stood back to back with him and in front of the speedster an ice wall had been put up simply stopping the other bullets in their tracks. He turned around holding 3 Kryptonite bullets which he phased into oblivion. One did manage to get through just grazing Clark but creating a large gash on his arm that didn't seem to heal because he was in the presence of Kryptonite. Frost saw that and blew another cloud of red mist at the man of steel.
"Thanks. I wasn't fast enough to react to all of those at once" Superman thanked him while parrying a hit from Corben.
"You`re welcome. Thankfully I am fast enough. Get into the cloud, it will heal that arm wound" Kal did as he was told letting Corben advance while he was retreating into the mist. After a few seconds the cloud dissipated and the gash on his arm was gone. He smiled visibly impressed. The speedster grinned and flashed away, to help his girlfriend who was now fighting Banshee. The impacts and the explosions managed to dissipate the fog that was keeping her prisoner so she came back to the battle with a vengeance. Her yell disoriented everyone that was fighting, enough to have Reactron throw some fire balls in the direction of said yell. One was stopped instantly by an ice wall, but the second was heading straight for Kara. Older Barry picked up the other shield and blocked the hit, but it melted through the shield and hit him in the arm as it was redirected provoking a large burn on his skin. Half the suit was gone and His hand was bleeding profusely where id didn't scorch.
"God damn it" he cursed while J'onn managed to steer the blasts away from the rest of the fight. The Martian had been doing a marvelous job in keeping the nuclear blasts away from the others while they were fighting. He was taunting Reactron into hitting him and the man was so angry that he forgot where the actual battle was.
"That looks bad" Supergirl looked at the wound "Thank you for the save"
"No problem. It's not that bad, but it hurts like all hell" He commented starting to vibrate. The wound was fixed in no time but he could feel himself running out of energy "And I'm starting to run out of energy" The other Barry heard him and stopped near him giving him two strange looking bars.
"Eat these, they will return some of your strength" He told him and flashed away to help Caitlin who was now in the process of trying to skewered Metallo with ice spears. While that would seem pointless, some of her attacks actually made pretty large dents in the robot's outer housing. Older Barry did what he was told surprised at the fact that they tasted like chocolate, finding out that his younger self was right. He could feel that his hunger had left him and he felt his strength returning.
"Supergirl, try to get banshee to scream toward me. I have a surprise for her" Older Barry looked at his girlfriend who was flying around trying to keep her screams away from the others. She nodded and he started to vibrate his hands in front of him creating something that looked like a concave shield. She stood right in front of it and when Siobhan screamed she stepped aside. The scream was reflected and amplified by whatever her Barry had put up throwing her into a wall and completely disabling her.
"Nice work, Supergirl" he smirked at her
"Not that shabby yourself. You reflected the sound back at her" She gave him a hi five and both went back to help. Kara stepped in attacking Corben from the back and Barry started to punch Reactron again.
Oliver kept going in deeper and deeper in the factory coming up to the place what Supergirl had told him that had no entrance. He asked her to confirm that was the place and she did. He tried to shoot a couple of explosive arrows at the walls, but they had no effect. He went around the so called room and found no way in or out.
"Can anyone who has a bit of spare time can come and break down this wall for me?" He asked through the comms.
"Stand back. I'm on my way" Older Barry replied and at the moment he found some cover a flash of lightning came and hit the wall directly creating a hole with the impact of a punch. He smiled at the archer and went back outside. Oliver continued into the room only to find out that it was devoid of anything except one console at the other end. He shot an explosive arrow at it only for it to be shot down by some lasers that came out of the walls. "Great, Laser self-defense grid and the guy isn't even here" He tried a few more times with no success. The defense system shot down all the arrows he threw at it. He decided to take a different approach. He took out a smoke arrow and shot it in the middle of the room. Strangely enough the lasers didn't react but when the smoke came out, Oliver could see clearly that there were laser curtains that directed the beams. They swept across the room in an orderly manner. He saw that there was literally no way to avoid them.
"Flash, Toyman isn't here. There's just a Console which is probably controlling the toys remotely. But I can't get to it, it's surrounded by laser curtains and a defense system" He told in the comm. After a few seconds Supergirl was next to him grinning and blasted her heat vision at max power for a few seconds transforming the console into a pile of smoking metal.
"But if he isn't here, where is he. I'm sure I saw someone in this room when I scanned the area" Kara told the archer.
"I don't know, can you scan the ground? See if there's any sort of escape route or anything?" he asked the alien. She looked around and nodded negatively. "Oh well. I'm coming to help then outside. If there are other toys around and if they aren't disabled I'll be able to keep them off your back" she nodded and disappeared. The Kryptonite shield that had remained undamaged had taken quite a beating from both Reactron and Corben. It was starting to buckle which in turn made Kal and Kara less and less powerful. There were still toys, but Oliver made it his mission to keep them off the heroes' backs. He even ran out of normal arrows at one point prompting the younger Flash to go around and collect them back for him. Superman was impressed at his accuracy and the fact that even as human as he was, the contribution he brought to the fights was massive making sure that the toys didn't hit him or his cousin. He realized then that people like Oliver were the real heroes, they went into a fight with super powered menaces and still came out on top. The man of steel was happy that such a person was on his side.
Corben was advancing on Superman, he managed to hit him so hard that he flew a couple of meters. Kara stood between him and her cousin while the robot was powering up his blasts.
"This is the end of you two. You can go to" before he managed to finish his sentence a hand busted through his chest. It was her Barry that had a really annoyed look on his face. She noticed the return of the black eyes that always seemed to appear when he got over the top angry with something or as vat had told her, whenever he felt her safety or life was threatened.
"We can stay here, thank you very much. As for YOU, you can go to the trash heap. We aren't taking any chances with you anymore. Rest in Pieces" He started to vibrate his hand literally breaking the robot apart. He fell down in chunks and fully deactivated while older Barry held in his hand the piece of large kryptonite that powered him. He dissolved it, sat on the ground looking at his hand which was useless and his eyes suddenly returned to normal.
"Hey, you didn't have to do that. I could have taken him" Kara came to him to see how bad the wounds were.
"Not with that power level" he pointed at her bracer which was almost flashing red by now. The percentage was extremely low. But they were close. They only had Reactron to deal with now. "What do we do about him?" older Barry asked while younger him and Caitlin flashed by their side seeing the damage that he had incurred.
"He is still wearing a metal suit. What happens if we try to freeze it and then heat it at the same time. Should the temperature differential make the steel fragment?" Caitlin asked.
"It should, but you have to remember that it's the only thing that's absorbing his radiation. If we destroy the suit then he will begin releasing it into the atmosphere close to an atomic reactor that's gone critical" Kara reminded them.
"You can always throw him into space" older Barry chuckled at his girlfriend
"I would but not with this power level and not with him still having that kryptonite powered suit" She said bluntly
"Let's get rid of the suit then. I'll try to freeze him, Supergirl, Superman you throw all you have into your heat vision and try to melt him. Let's see what happens" Caitlin suggested and they agreed. The heroes started to hit him from the back while he was battling J'onn. Caitlin hit him with her ice beams, which after being supercharged by her Barry looked more like laser cannon fire than simple beams. Kal and Kara were almost out of power. Older Barry took another bar from Caitlin's pocket and ate it, throwing two large lightning bolts at the blonde whose heat vision quadrupled in output. The Martian joined in as well firing two beams of light from his eyes that hit the nuclear reactor. While before it was safe because of the EM shield that was put around it to give him protection from those kinds of attacks, now since his suit was falling apart the EM shield was gone and the kryptonite that was powering him simply vanished when hit. Without the protection of the shield his suit started to buckle, part of it being melted and part of it being frozen off him. After a few more minutes of constant attack the suit fragmented off him and fell to the ground.
Older Barry gathered the last of the strength that he had in order to not black out and threw two bolts at Kara recharging her partially. Caitlin encased the man into an ice block to stifle the immense amount of radiation that was coming off him and Supergirl grabbed him and flew straight up. Clark was spent, he could barely move after the fight.
"Let's hope she has enough strength left to not be hurt when coming down" Older Barry voiced his concerns about what his girlfriend was doing. She flew high up, the block of ice was starting to melt because of the heat the man was putting off, but she didn't waiver. She approximated where he would break free of the earth gravity and threw him out, seeing him float toward the interminable mantle of stars in front of her. She was weak, but not out of power, so she decided to let herself fall and counter the gravity at the last moment with the remainder of her strength. As she went down she remembered what she did the last time and send two heat beams through the clouds to show the speedsters where she was falling to.
Around her a tornado started to form just as she hit the lower atmosphere. The updraft created was slowing her down considerably and in the middle of the storm, her Barry waited to catch her. At the base of the tornado she could see the beautiful lightning dance of the other two speedsters that were generating the vortex that was braking her. She used the last of her strength to slow herself down enough for her Barry to be able to catch her and then sit down with her in his arms. The vortex soon died, with two panting speedsters coming to a half and sitting down themselves. Kal, J`onn who turned back into Hank and Oliver all sat down. Livewire was still a block of ice, Siobhan knocked out, one of the Metallos was still in one piece with a large ice spear through him which had started to melt. Corben was in pieces and Reactron was gone. All in all, a solid win for the heroes, even with they were still unable to find Toyman.
"This proved more difficult than I had thought. Thank you for the help. I'm pretty sure I would have been dead if I came here alone and Lois along with me" Kal reached out and shook the hands of the three that crossed universes to help.
"How is that even an issue" Younger Barry smiled brightly even if he was panting "Kara is part of our family. You are her family. Which makes you important"
"Of course we'd help Clark. It's not like we have done something that you wouldn't do for us if we needed assistance" Caitlin gave him a warm smile even in her Frost form.
"You know me, Kal. Even if we have our differences, I've always considered you a friend. All I needed to know is that you were in over your head and I flew here as fast as I could. Which reminds me, DEO Vans should be here shortly to pick these people up, I called Alex before this all started" He added
"Kal, just curious, does Lois know who you are?" Older Barry asked pretty bluntly.
"Yea. I told her a while back, she didn't talk to me for a while, but now we're all good. Why do you ask?" Superman was interested to know why the speedster wanted that information
"Because we're all dead in the water when it comes to energy, so we will need to rest a bit and the only place we can do that is your apartment. I asked because if she didn't know who you were, a collection of people like us could have shocked her for a while and I don't really want to end your relationships for you" Older Barry told him. Of course he had a point, if Lois didn't know by now who he was, then this rag tag team of heroes would have scared her.
"So, who's up for some chocolate flavored speedster power bars? There are two more helpings so we runners can get these people home to rest" Caitlin quipped taking two of the supplements out of a hidden pocket. The Barry's got them both and downed them, feeling their energy returning enough to move everyone.
"I'm going to see where the DEO vans are and come take care of the cleanup. I was the bait for Reactron so I still have most of my strength. You people need to go rest. Very nice work, all of you. Barry, Kara, I'll see you tomorrow" Hank smiled morphing back into his Martian form and taking off.
The speedsters started plopping back and forth and after a couple of minutes all of them were back at Clark's apartment, greeted by an awake and very confused Lois Lane.
"Clark? Who are these people? Why am I in your apartment? I don't remember anything from the last few days" she asked him quite scared.
"You were kidnapped by Cadmus. They sent me a ransom note for Superman to come get you. Only it was a trap. I had to gather some of my friends to help me take care of them" He smiled at the people that were already in the room.
"I was writing about them, so they did manage to come and capture me. I'm so sorry I should have been more careful" She ran to him and gave him a kiss. Clark didn't bother changing from his superman suit. "So ... who are these people? I know some of them, but not all"
"Well from this universe, you already know Supergirl and the Flash. Or better said, Kara Danvers and Barry Allen" He motioned toward the two who had already switched clothes and were now resting.
"What do you mean from this universe and ... your cousin and her boyfriend. Why am I not surprised? Must be from your side of the family. Also, the cops that captured Toyman a while back. Very nicely done you two on that one" Lois replied pretty surprised.
"Well, there are a lot of universes and some people have learned how to travel through them. Including these. From the other universe, you might recognize another Barry Allen, which is the Flash there and his wife, Caitlin Allen, which goes by Frost. The other dark figure is the Green Arrow. Another hero from their universe" Clark explained. Oliver took off his cowl and offered a hand. Thanking Clark for giving him the chance to introduce himself and not blow his secret identity.
"Oliver Queen, some people have told me that in this universe I was a fat drug addict. Oh well. I guess not all people had the life I did" The archer smiled and Lois shook his hand sternly.
"OK, wow" Lois took a seat still trying to process what her boyfriend had told her. "Multiple universes, multiple versions of the Flash and an archer that in this universe is supposed to be a fat slob. This is my life now"
"To be fair, it's nice to have other heroes from another universe come and help. If it wasn't for them I would have probably died tonight. They managed to bring two Metallos, Reactron, Toyman who apparently escaped from prison, Livewire and Silver Banshee. I might be Superman, but I do have limits myself" Clark told her.
"I think we should take care of that don't you think?" Caitlin asked bluntly pointing toward the older Barry's hand that was still bleeding. She produced a red mist that was floating in the middle of the room in the form of a column. "You know what to do" she smiled. He went into the mist and after it dissipated he came out with his hand fully healed.
"It's wasn't as bad as the first time. The EM field must have been weakened. Just a severed tendon and a few sprains, no breaks. Without the fog you would have been fine in a few days. Thanks for that, Caitlin" She winked at him while he sat down. Lois wanted to ask something but young Barry cut her off.
"All speedsters have super healing. I had my spine broken and I recovered so, there's that" he spoke.
"I actually wanted to ask what that fog was" Lois spoke after him
"It's one of the many abilities Frost has. That fog accelerates healing and can provide an additional boost of power to her Barry" Kara replied. "What was that form though and the fact that you can apparently spread wings and fly now?" she asked pretty surprised.
"It happened when I was pregnant. The ice armor became what you saw earlier. It's not just ice, they are cells that act like ice crystals. Which means they are flexible enough. As for the wings, back when I tried that … I just thought I wanted to fly and they appeared out of nowhere" Caitlin replied leaving most of the people there with a shocked look on their faces.
"That's my wife for you, all rolled into one. Now I can't complain that there's nobody in my universe to take me flying" young Barry smiled giving Frost a kiss.
"Right. Now we need to eat so … be right back. Younger me, mind coming to give me a hand? Don't worry, we'll keep it slow, we're almost out of power ourselves" He smirked. He nodded and the two flashed out the door. Lois was still frozen seeing the gathering of heroes in Clark's living room. While on route to buy food, the two started to talk.
"Remember you told me I should come to you when I needed something that relates to money" Older Barry started "I saw that the ring you gave Caitlin was custom made. I want something like that myself"
"Oh, I see. So you want to pop the questions. Well, let me be the first to congratulate you then" Younger Barry gave him a goofy smile.
"She hasn't said yes yet so, no point in congratulating me now" the reply came
"Dude, don't be an idiot. She loves you as much as I love Cait. You can see it on her face. You might be older than me but you really must be a moron to think that she can refuse" the candid answer surprised older Barry who realized that his younger self had a point. Besides he could feel what Kara felt for him. It wasn't even a question if she would accept at this point or not.
"I guess you have a point. Here. Take this" He gave her two pieces of paper with designs on them. One had two designs for rings and one for a bracelet. Under them there were specific instructions on how to do them properly
"Why the specific instructions. Are they so important?" younger him asked.
"The bracelet is a tradition from Krypton. It has to be done exactly since even a slight deviation from the design could mean something else. It's what's used for weddings on her planet, back when it was you know ... not in pieces scattered across the galaxy. The rings are the same. I used the patterns to make rings out of them. They are not bracelets, but what they signify is the same. That's why they have to be done exactly as I designed them. I would have done that myself, like I did with the bracelet that I gave her for Christmas, but for some reason the jeweler that I went to seems to have moved and I don't have time to scour the countryside to find him" The answer came
"I see. You want to keep tradition from her home world. I think that's sweet. Don't worry, I'll have them done for you. I suspect the first thing you'll need is the engagement ring? Which one is that from these three?" his younger version inquired.
"Well the one that has a diamond on it of course" He snickered, but also pointed at one of the designs. "That pattern is something that I came up with I guess. There is no thing as an engagement on Krypton, so I made a combination of the one that signifies marriage and the one that means love. The others have precise meanings however"
"Don't worry. I'll get them to you. I'm going to give you some more diamonds so you can plan this whole proposal thing well. She wouldn't keep talking about the date you two had when you visited. Nice one with making an impression on her with that one" young Barry snickered.
"Thank you. It seems a bit odd that I'm asking this of a version of me that is loaded and way more successful than I've always been" Older Barry replied.
"No problem. I've already told you. You two look so good together and I'm going to help make that happen. Well me and Caitlin since she found out from back then that I sent you the diamonds. You know what her reaction was?" young Barry told him. The older version shook his head "Why the hell didn't you send him more? It's not like we don't have money" Both of them started to laugh as they gathered pizzas, donuts, sweets and pot stickers but this time from the Chinese place in National City. "I'll let you know how long it will take. Then you can plan your approach accordingly" The two speedsters landed back in Clark's apartment with a tower of food. Lois looked at what they brought like they were feeding half of Africa, but she soon realized that it might not be enough, seeing the speedsters, Kara and Clark eat. Oliver just got himself a solitary pizza which he didn't even manage to finish.
"This really hit the spot" Caitlin smiled after finishing a dozen pizzas just by her lonesome.
"You know, I'm starting to get jealous of you and Kara. You can eat like pigs and keep your beautiful figures, while I eat a pizza and I get love handles" Lois admonished herself.
"So what's wrong with those. You know I don't like skinny women" Clark cracked a smile. Both Barry and his younger duplicate started to laugh.
"When we both woke up and Cait saw how much she had to eat she actually was worried that she might get fat. I know it was a while ago but still, that discussion still makes me laugh. To be fair, I did get her fat, just not with food" Young Barry told the group.
"Barry Allen, you always told me how beautiful I was, you have never mentioned once the word fat" She replied to her Barry
"Context, my dear, context. We were talking about getting fat" He replied "Even if that meant pregnancy" the two Allens started to laugh loudly
"Well, now she has abs, kind of like you. Which is surprising considering that she gave birth not long ago" the older version cracked a smile to which Kara replied with a pout
"So what? You like athletic women that have a six-pack now?" Older Barry shut her up pretty quickly with a long deep kiss. Clark had to turn his head, it still seemed weird to him to see his cousin snogging someone in his house.
"Shut up" older Barry told her, but everyone could see that she was all a smile after they separated from the kiss.
"We should get going. I think we might sleep better in our own beds and we do want to check in on our little one. I don't think Henry and Tina can keep up with him that well. Oliver, you can stay with us in the penthouse and we can run you tomorrow back to Star City. Is that ok?" young Barry asked. The archer nodded prompting Lois to look at the two crooked.
"Penthouse?" she asked to which Kara responded.
"These two are billionaires. Also, I should mention geniuses in at least three fields that I know of unless you decided to up your game. So yeah, penthouse"
"Well I did kind of have to get an OBGYN specialty, since Cait was pregnant, but beside that no, nothing new just the usual Bioengineering, Genetics, Both Doctors, Hematologists, CSI's, you know ... same old, same old" Young Barry gave her a grin. Lois's face fell. Young Barry put a call in to Cisco who told them that he will get to the penthouse and open a breach straight there. In about 30 minutes a large swirling vortex opened at the end of the table.
"I guess we'll see you around" young Barry told the group.
"Don't hesitate to call if you need help also, you can just drop in to spend a lazy day at the pool like you have done before. That vacation house is not just for us you know. Clark, Lois you two are welcomed as well" Caitlin threw them a smirk.
"We will don't worry. The same applies to you. Call if you need help. Me and Kara will be there to assist" Older Barry replied prompting a nod from the blonde.
"Count me in too. Thank you for the help you three and we might just take you up on that offer for a lazy day at the pool, Caitlin" Clark told them. They all said their goodbyes and the three walked back through the portal as it closed behind them.
"I guess we should get some rest. Come on, Lois. I'll take you home" Clark looked at the two on the couch that were still yawning.
"It's fine, I'll sleep here with you. You look tired. No point in taking me home now. You should rest too" she smiled at him as they went into the other room and closed the door.
"Good night beautiful. I love you. Sweet dreams" Barry thought to his beautiful girlfriend.
"Good night to you as well, handsome. I love you" she replied as they changed into their pajamas and laid on the couch. They fell asleep almost instantly happy for a day well spent and for the two that were reunited after everything that happened.