Chapter 35
"Does anyone have any idea who or what Orion is?" Jax asked from somewhere in the back.
"Or the New Gods?" Cisco added. "I mean what name is that? These guys ain't original at all."
Barry folded his arms in front of his chest, right below the Flash symbol. He had a thoughtful frown on his face as he stared at the message on the holographic screen. "Gideon, do you know who they're talking about?"
"I'm afraid not, Barry Allen." The AI's voice answered. "My archives do not contain this information."
"It'd be too easy if they did now, wouldn't it?" Oliver said with a sigh. "Perhaps we can go back there and get more information." He suggested.
There was a loud squeal from Cisco. "I'm sorry, but I don't plan on becoming insect food any time soon."
"This is our only lead, Cisco." Oliver objected.
"Perhaps Zatanna can help when she regains her strength." Kara interfered before the two got into a fight.
"Who's Zatanna." Barry asked confused.
The others stared at him. Right, he hadn't met Zatanna because he was on Earth-2."
"She is a Witch. Constantine sent her in his place." Felicity told him.
"She needs a lot of training, but she has much potential." Sara added.
Barry nodded. "That's great." He said shutting down the AI again. "So, what else did I miss?"
Barry was seriously impressed. In his absence, the team not only had managed to but Dr. Elias behind bars, but also put an end to Blacksmith's operation and found more information about Darkseid.
"It's very impressive what you accomplished while I was away."
"We missed you every day." Kara offered him sweetly.
"True. It was like missing a limp." Cisco added.
Barry blushed from the compliment and cleared his throat. "Well, Kara can you see if you can find anything about Orion or the New Gods in the Fortress?"
Kara nodded. "I can try. As long as I don't ask about the Worldkillers I think it's going to be fine."
"Good."
"Speaking of which..." Felicity said. "We were able to transfer the information out of the crystal and Winn and I are working on a virus to hack it."
The shocked expression on Barry's face was hard to miss, as it shined for everyone to see. "That's amazing! Keep working on it. The sooner we deal with it the better."
"So what is our next move?" Alex asked.
The speedster shrugged. "I don't think there's much we can do right now. Go home, get some rest. You deserve it. I'll go meet our newest member. But before that, Wally, Oliver, can I have a word?"
The two men nodded their heads and followed Barry in the hallway. The rest remained in the cortex at Cisco's subtle bulging eyes.
"What is it?" Oliver asked Barry, while Wally just waited for the speedster to start talking.
Barry sighed lightly. "So, Iris and I have decided to finally have the wedding. I've already asked Cisco to be my best man, so what do you say, want to be my other groomsmen?"
"Heck yes." Wally exclaimed loudly. "I look good in a tuxedo."
Barry laughed at the younger speedster's excitement.
"I'll be honored, Barry." Oliver smiled.
Barry couldn't help but smile too. "Thanks guys. I'll go meet Zatanna now." He clapped them both on the arm and left.
Oliver and Wally looked briefly at each other and then walked back to the cortex.
"Now that they are here, what is it Cisco?" Dinah was the one to ask.
The engineer eyed the med bay making sure that Barry wasn't listening and then returned his attention back to the team. "We need to prepare."
"Prepare about what?"
"Barry and Iris' wedding." He explained, but when everyone kept looking at him with a blank, clueless expression he elaborated. "I mean we should prepare for a fight. A superhero is getting married. There's no way everything will go smoothly."
"I think he is right." Felicity acknowledged.
"I think so too." Alex agreed. "There's no way it won't rain supervillains on the Flash's wedding day."
"So, are we in agreement? We'll all bring our weapons and A game to the wedding and even the day before?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. And that was the moment something completely unexpected happened. Supergirl sneezed. The team stared shocked at the girl of steel.
"I thought you couldn't get sick." Jax voiced with concerned.
Kara was clueless and speechless at the same time.
"Maybe she caught something while we were on that alien planet." Ray suggested. "She didn't have her powers due to the red sun."
"Wouldn't she have healed when she got them back?" Caitlin asked.
But Alex shook her head. "Not necessarily. She was already infected when she got them." She explained. "We should do some tests, Kara. Caitlin, you want to help?"
The doctor nodded and the three of them walked to the med bay.
#
When Barry got back to the loft he found Iris wedding planning like crazy.
"Iris?" he said to get her attention.
The woman's gaze lifted immediately from what she was doing and a big smile appeared on her face as she saw him. She dropped the magazine and run to him hugging him tightly.
"Babe, your back." She exclaimed happily as she kissed him.
Barry couldn't help but respond to the heated kiss. He had missed her terribly after all.
"What are you doing up so late?" he wondered.
Iris guided him to the couch and showed him the wedding plans. Barry was very impressed. In just a few weeks, Iris had managed to organize the entire ceremony. He had wanted to help with the preparations too, but sadly his superhero job had prevented him from helping out much.
"Wow! How were you able to do all this so quickly? Are you sure you're not secretly a speedster too?" he joked.
"I had help." She admitted smiling. "Caitlin gave me her own plans from her and Ronnie's wedding planning. I had Cecile and Kara and Felicity, and Lois took time off from the Daily Planet and came from Metropolis for a few days." She said sounding very grateful for her friends' help.
Barry chuckled. "I see. Girl power at maximum."
Iris gave him a pointed look, which made him chuckle again. "Are these the new invitations?" he asked picking up the letters. "They are beautiful." He said tracing the paper with his fingers and then proceeded to check all the names they were addressed to.
"I asked Caitlin to be my maid of honor and Felicity and Kara to be my bridesmaids." Iris continued. "I wanted to ask Lois too after everything the woman has done for me –we have become good friends- but she said that she would only walk down the aisle when she and Clark get married."
Barry averted his eyes from the invitations and gave Iris a warm smile. "That's great. Cisco is already my best man and I just asked Oliver and Wally to stand up for me too." He informed her.
"Really?" Iris asked surprised. "You asked Wally?"
"Of course. I know that he is your brother, but technically he's mine too and he was all too happy when I asked him. So you're done with everything? There's nothing I can help with?"
Iris shook her head. "No, babe. I've got everything under control. The only thing left is to find the wedding dress. Everything I have tried on either doesn't fit right or is too pricey for what they're selling." She sighed sadly.
Barry traced with his eyes the last name of the invited. His eyes shined and smiled proudly at what he thought. "I think I have an idea about that. I'm going to deliver these real fast and then I'm going to order you your very own special-made wedding dress."
Iris eyed him skeptically. "What do you have in mind?"
"You'll see." He smiled in mischief. "Just expect a call from a great designer."
Barry kissed her one more time and then he left, running to all the friends and family they had on Earth-1. He left three of them at STAR labs to have Cisco send them to Earth-2 and Earth-3 and then, with the last one still in his hands, he raced over to Detroit.
Vixen was in the middle of hunting down a criminal gang that was responsible for dealing a very dangerous new drug to teenagers. After a month of research and multiple dead ends, Mari had finally found their lair (as Cisco would say). She had counted at least two dozen armed men inside the warehouse. She had already taken down six and was about to add two more on her list. That was until a very familiar and annoying whoosh echoed, accompanied by a light breeze. The air became electric and the next moment every man was knocked out and tied.
The Flash stood in all his red glory in the middle of the warehouse, looking proud of his work, if the stupid, smug, smirk on his face was any indication. Despite the fact that Mari respected and admired the superhero, it was often that she found herself irritated by him. With a sigh, Mari approached the scarlet speedster. He was here for a reason and she was determined to find out why.
"I had that." She said loudly with a strong voice. She needed to show the Flash that she wouldn't let him mess with her, although she knew he wouldn't. That was the Green Arrow's specialty.
Barry turned to the direction of her voice and smiled that sweet, bright smile of his. Mari had always wondered why other metahuman's feared him. The Flash was like a cuddly teddy bear. However, once she had worked with him she saw what he was truly capable of and then she understood.
"I know." He said cheerfully. "But I wanted to ask you something and this looked like it would take a while."
Mari didn't fight her urge to roll her eyes. "I appreciate the assist, but why are you here, Red?"
The Flash shook his head. "Not here. Let's meet at your place."
Seeing his eyes filling with lightning, Mari quickly raised her hand to stop him. "Don't you dare carry me." She warned him. "I'll meet you there."
Barry gave her a sheepish look and then sped off. Vixen touched her totem and summoned the spirit of the hawk. Then she followed him.
When she entered her place, Barry was already there and had changed from his bright, red suit, to normal, civilian clothes.
"You want something to drink?" she asked grabbing a beer for herself.
Barry shook his head. "No, thank you." He declined politely.
"So, to what do I owe this visit?" she asked taking a seat and nodding for Barry to do the same. "Are you here to recruit me to your little Justice League?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
Barry chuckled. "Actually, no." he replied sincerely. "Have I wanted to? Absolutely! But I know that you prefer working alone. I respect that."
That was the thing about Barry Allen, he was always sincere. He didn't lie to you, he didn't have a secret agenda. She always appreciated that about him.
"Now that you mentioned it, though..." he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I want you to know that if ever you are in need of help, you can always call the League to assist."
Mari raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "In exchange for what?"
Barry simply shrugged. "Nothing. I'm not trying to make you join the League, Mari. But superheroes have each other's backs. And I want you to feel comfortable asking for help if you ever need it."
Mari was thoughtful for a moment. Then she nodded her head. "Okay."
"Anyway, I'm here to give you this." He shoved an envelope in her hands.
Mari eyed it carefully and then opened it. "You're inviting me to your wedding?" she asked surprised.
Barry shrugged once again. "Of course. I consider you my friend, Mari. I'd be very happy if you came."
Vixen felt something warm inside her. She realized that, like her, Barry didn't have family members to come to his wedding. The speedster would only have his superhero friends sitting at his side of the church. And suddenly, Mari felt honored to be invited. She smiled at him.
"Of course I'll come. Thank you for inviting me."
Barry visible sighed. "Great! And on top of that, can I ask you for a favor?"
Mari lost her smile and looked him dead in the eyes. "What?" she almost growled.
The man chuckled nervously. "I just became aware that Iris has had bad luck finding her perfect wedding dress. Are you interested in making one for her?"
One thing became clear to Mari at this moment. Iris West was a very lucky woman.
#
In National City Kara Danvers was having a very bad day. Scratch that –she was having a very bad week. As it turned out, in the time she had spent under the red sun in apocalypse planet she had gotten sick. Caitlin and her sister had gotten her under the lab-created red sun radiation that Stein and Ray had created and run countless tests on her. After a lot of pocking the results had come in. Because Kara had never gotten sick in her alien life, her body didn't have the antibodies to fight the sickness. Therefore, despite the fact that Kara had gained all her super abilities once she returned to Earth, her organism was fighting the virus like any normal person. Both doctors had told her that she needed to wear a bracelet that radiated red sun radiation in order to avoid any...unfortunate accidents caused by her powers, that seemed to leave and return at unknown times.
Kara groaned and turned sides in her bed.
She hated this. She hated being sick. She couldn't comprehend how humans got through sickness all the time. Her stomach was turning, her nose felt like a balloon and her head and throat hurt like a...beep. She wondered when all this was going to go away.
As another pained moan left her lips, Mon-El appeared from the kitchen bringing a bowl of soup to her.
"I think I have this recipe that your mother gave me perfected." He said happily as he placed the chicken noodle soup on the nightstand.
"I don't feel like eating anything any time soon." Kara groaned.
Mon-El scolded at her. "Kara you have to. Alex and Caitlin made it pretty clear that you need to eat soup for your strength, drink tea and take this medicine for the fever.
Oh, yeah, fever. Add that to the list of symptoms she had.
"By the way, Eliza called and asked if she should come and take care of you, but I told her that I had everything under control." He informed her. "Except if you want her to come. I can totally call her back and tell her that you need her."
Kara couldn't help but smile tiredly at how sweet Mon-El was. This past week he had treated her like she was the queen of everything. It was hard to imagine that this beautiful, amazing man was once a selfish, arrogant, prick of a Daxamite prince. Mon-El had come a long way since his arrival on Earth and Kara was really glad to be a part of his life. She reached out and took his hand to hers.
"No, you're all I need." She replied with a hoarse voice. "Thank you for being here and taking care of me."
Mon-El smiled back and caressed her cheek. "I wouldn't be anywhere else. By the way, J'onn said that he would take over both our superhero sifts so I can stay and look after you."
"He doesn't have to do that. You can go. I'll be fine." She objected.
"But I want to stay with you."
"Well," Kara started and tried to sit in a more upright position. "I can help. I'll take off my bracelet and most of the symptoms will go away."
Mon-El gave her a disapproving look. "Do you remember what happened at STAR labs?"
Kara remembered it very clearly. She had sneezed and blew a hole in the wall. And the next moment she lost her powers and hit her toe in the corner of the bed that caused her to scream from the unimaginable pain she felt. She had immediately tried to take her injured foot in her hands but had stumbled and fell on Caitlin's medical tray and got hurt even more. From that moment, both Caitlin and Alex had forbidden her from leaving her bed beside going to the bathroom.
Kara groaned again but this time not from the sickness. "I remember."
#
Barry was working on a DNA analysis when Joe walked into the lab. The younger man picked up from his work and gave his foster father a small smile.
"Hey, Joe."
Barry knew why he was here. He had told Joe everything that went down with DeVoe and the detective had promised that he would look into it to see what he could do. Now he was here, almost a whole day later, to share the news. How much had he screwed up? The man was never supposed to die. It pained Barry, despite the fact that he had stopped an evil man from taking control of everyone's mind. One good deed didn't erase a bad one. And Barry knew that he should follow the law regardless. A person had died and the police needed to know. It was just easier if Joe was the one to ''find'' it.
"Hey, Barr." Joe greeted back.
However, he didn't make an attempt to dive into what ate up Barry. The CSI rubbed his hands in anticipation and his legs moved up and down in a fast rhythm to accompany his neurotic habit. Joe considered for a moment to just tell him what he found right away. But then, Barry was very amusing when he was nervous.
"Cecile says hi." He said instead, attempting small talk.
Barry nodded abruptly, his eyes moving all over his lab but not staying long in one place.
"So, what happened with the body?" he asked no longer able to wait.
Joe decided to take pity on him. "He's not dead."
Barry's eyes widened. "He's not? But..."
Joe shook his head. "He's not dead, but he might as well be." He sighed. "He is in the medical center, his brain is dead, can't function. His doctor said that he is basically a vegetable."
Joe was right, he might as well be dead. Another kind of pang ached inside Barry's chest. He had sentenced a man in a life worse than death. Barry raised his hand and hid half his face in his palm.
"What have I done, Joe?"
The other man was quickly at his side laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't think like that. You were trying to prevent a very bad thing from happening. What have I told you? In this line of work you can't save everyone, there is going to be collateral damage. All you need to do is not let it get in your head and continue to do a good job."
Barry raised his head and looked shyly at Joe. He opened his mouth to reply but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by Captain Singh walking into the lab.
"Mr. Allen. Do you have the results I asked for?" he asked and then spotted Joe too. "Oh, hey Joe."
"Hello, Captain." The detective said with respect.
Barry was quick on his feet. He grabbed the file underneath all the papers on his desk and gave it to David. "Here, Captain. I was going to bring it to you in a few."
Captain Singh nodded his head and his eyes drifted to the report. Finally, he closed it and a pleasing look appeared on his face.
"That's good, Barry. You clocked out half an hour ago, go home." He said to his employee.
And just then another voice entered the lab talking loudly. "You know, you can't have a bachelor party when the groom is missing." Cisco clearly hadn't seen that the Captain was there too. "What are you still doing here, Barry? Are you trying to bail on your own party? You already made Oliver promise no strippers."
It's needless to say that Barry was horrified. But Cisco didn't seem fazed at all, even when his eyes fell on Singh. He just smiled and greeted him like they were old friends. Barry hopped that Singh didn't punish him instead. Behind Cisco, Oliver, Wally, Ray and Jax came in along with Rene, Winn and Mon-El –all of them ready to party.
"Come on, slowpoke. We don't have all night to waste." Rene said eyeing the funny expression on Barry's face.
David was confused. His eyes hadn't left the bunch of men that had entered Barry's lab. The man in question said his good-byes to the Captain and along with Joe, followed his friends out. But David was still confused and taken aback. He didn't know that Barry had so many friends. The man had always guessed that his young CSI was a loner. He obviously knew about Cisco and Caitlin as the two of them often visited him at the station. But this...? The Captain was still confused as to how exactly Barry was good friends with Oliver Queen. The mayor of Star City didn't seem like the type to click with Barry's personality. And the others...those he had never seen before? David briefly heard two of them saying that they hadn't seen nightlife outside National City as the gang walked away.
He frowned.
Oliver Queen and Mr. Ramirez had come all the way from Star City to celebrate Barry's bachelor party, and Ray Palmer no one knew where he lived these days. The black guy he didn't know who he was, but he seemed fairly familiar as if he had seen him somewhere. So he was probably from Central City. And those other two were apparently from National City. It was weird that Barry's friends were scattered around.
Unless it wasn't.
What other group of people came from the same cities? David's eyes widened. No way!, he thought as the realization hit him. And then, that was replaced with dread. He needed to tell his officers to bring their A-game and always have their eyes open around Iris and Barry's wedding day. They all needed to be on high alert because something bad was going to happen –he just knew it. And he needed to pass this command without raising suspicion.
Barry Allen was a pain in the butt.
#
Oliver was tired. And frustrated. Sometimes he hated his decision to become the mayor of Star City. Honestly, what had he been thinking? Today was one of these examples. He had just got out of a meeting –one that was a big disaster. Seriously, these people couldn't communicate even if you threatened their lives. Oliver hadn't threatened them but... He sighed with frustration as he sat on his desk in his office ready to continue his most important work.
He was seriously tired. And then he remembered that he needed to go to Central City later to celebrate with Barry and the other males. Oliver let out a groan. Perhaps he could finish this in the morning...or the day after. He couldn't not go to the bachelor party. Barry was like a little brother to him. The two men had been through a lot together. Oliver needed –no, wanted to be there for the speedster.
Current work forgotten, Oliver seriously thought about taking a short nap to recharge his batteries. That's when his eyes fell on the envelope sitting on top of his desk. There was no sender written on it, just his name: OLIVER QUEEN written in bold, calligraphic letters. Curiously, Oliver picked it up and opened it.
Dear Mr. Queen,
The 9th circle is happy to inform you that we would be happy to invite you to continue your parents' legacy as a member of our society. Your later father Mr. Queen and mother Moira were members long before their unfortunate departure from this world. Seeing your recent accomplishments, we are now certain that you are going to be a valuable addition to our community. You may process this invitation for as long as you want. We will be waiting for your answer.
The 9th circle.