Day 96 of 100
Volume 2, Chapter 48
MAIN EARTH, THE CITY BENEATH THE BREACH
(ARGUS designation)
ARGUS HEADQUARTERS
The city was coming back to life. More and more people were leaving their homes, walking about… There were still many signs of the struggles of the past few days, a lot of destruction in need of fixing. But there was a definitive drive in all of them to get their lives back in rhythm. It would take some time before everyone started going to work again, sending their kids to school, doing their shopping, going to the movies… They were starting, and that was more than enough for today.
At ARGUS, there was still this sort of held breath in them, as though they took the responsibility of that worry away from the people of the city so they could go about resuming their lives. Of course, the people in the city, for the most part, remained unaware of a lot of what had been happening out there while they were – mostly – staying away. Others had wanted to carry on as though it was all good and fine and ended up in some trouble for it. Thank goodness for heroes then, yes?
Iris West continued to occupy her borrowed station, although for the most part it was so that she could follow the developments out there, hearing from various teams patrolling the city.
It was all so different for them, too. Cait, sitting nearby, still wore that smile about her, like it was stuck to her face. Ronnie was back, he was fine. Iris had tried so much to comfort her in the time of Ronnie's disappearance, but she knew there would be nothing strong enough to erase the worry from her face except for his return. Looking at her face this morning, she saw how right she'd been. Everyone sort of had a version of that today, with the return of their people…
Everyone, but not her, not at this moment.
Her brother was back in Haven right now, with the Green Arrow, and the Flash, and Supergirl… looking for their father. She'd just gotten him back, and he had to go out there. Sure, she understood why he needed to do it, and she also knew he could take care of himself, on the whole, but… this didn't feel like something he would get out of, if things really went sideways.
"I think we'll have to leave soon." She looked up to find Ruby standing next to her. She looked a load happier, too, now that her 'aunts' had returned. Iris smiled back at her.
"Why?" she asked.
"Well, it's all over, isn't it? We're not usually supposed to be here, are we?" Ruby shrugged.
"Maybe not, although who knows. Someday you could be an agent just like them… unless you see yourself going more into your mom's line of work," she gave her a pointed look, making her laugh.
They still hadn't told her about the thing with her father, and Iris wondered if Samantha ever would. On the one hand, she could understand why she wouldn't want to have her daughter be aware of something like that, but on the other… secrets had a way of making things worse.
"Maybe," Ruby just laughed. "But when we go, it's just… You're from that other Earth, aren't you?"
"I am," Iris confirmed.
"So, we're not going to see you again?" Ruby looked sad now, and Iris had to smile, getting up from her chair to hug her.
"I'm sure we can work something out, you and me. Just you wait."
X
BREACH EARTH, HAVEN QUARTER
THE BREACH SHIP WAVERIDER'S JUMP SHIP
Wallace West was pacing the floor of the jump ship. He'd tried sitting and it was simply no good. He couldn't do it. Was it some kind of after effect from being trapped in that room all week, or was it that he knew his father was out there right now? He couldn't say, maybe it was both. He was all on his own in here, and he knew himself to well to think that sooner or later he would fail to resist the urge to go out there, to get involved. He had to stay here, he had to. Do it for Iris.
Eventually he went and sat down at the controls, looking at all that he saw before him. Maybe there was something here that could… Communication link. They all had something, the ones that were out there, they had earbuds and all that. He could talk to them, or maybe he could listen in.
Most of the others were standing out there with the cops, but Supergirl and the Flash had gone in, crashing through the window and everything. The active buds were not identified as anything except being active, except for the one that belonged to Leonard Snart, which he guessed made sense. The rest of them were spares. So now he only had to find the one that either belonged to the alien girl or the speedster. He tapped the first one and listened… No… Second one? No. Third?
X
Supergirl had not expected for this technology to affect her. She wasn't a metahuman, she didn't have some magic tool, she was an alien, and her powers came from the sun… yet this thing made her feel at once vulnerable and powerless from the moment she'd crashed through that window. If she needed proof, she needed only to look at the scratches on her arms… She was bleeding. She couldn't let anyone see that this was in any way out of the ordinary, although if anyone would know…
"Yes, Supergirl, even you and I," Malcolm Merlyn told her, an amused smile on his face as he answered the question she had not asked. "Though I'm sure it's even stranger for the likes of you."
"You know, for a guy who can't run away right now, you're really not understanding the situation very well," she replied.
"Is this the girl that's been chasing you across the galaxy?" Joseph West inquired. Sitting in his chair the way he did, he looked as though there should have been a roaring fireplace behind him, while a butler brought him his drink. It said plenty about what he thought of them.
"The very one," Malcolm told him. "Yet here I am."
"Are the two of you looking to start up some comedy act or something, because so far I'm really not feeling it," the Flash told the two men.
"As it turns out, we're not exactly in a laughing mood ourselves," Malcolm told him.
Standing outside, the rest of the team could only listen in for the time being. The Green Arrow and Spartan had explained to the detectives about the device Merlyn and West had in there. It was already something that the comms continued to work. So, for the time being, no one was to approach or attempt to enter, although Tommy Merlyn looked like he was just itching to go in and share some words with his good old dad. Hearing him talk was not helping.
"Something doesn't feel right," Michael was saying, and Tommy turned back, finding him addressing Sara, Dinah, and Lyla.
"Trap?" Dinah asked.
"No," Michael shook his head, still staring at the building, the gaping window. "They're keeping up appearances, but they really didn't expect us."
"So why the field around them?" Sara understood. From what they heard through their comms, it sounded like Oliver had come to the same conclusion.
"Does it have anything to do with that Future field around here?" he asked, rotating his finger around the room. "What's the matter, you're not into visitors?" he asked.
He really wished it wasn't this that had given Malcolm away, but he'd made a face and right then and there all Oliver could think about was Thea. She had so much of their mother in her, but this… This she'd gotten from him. She had that look whenever he would get too close to hitting the nail on the head with something he said. After that, the pieces fell into place easily enough.
"Or are you trying to keep some people away from you?" The look was still there, but it felt like he was getting closer. Supergirl figured it out first, and she chuckled.
"They double-crossed you, didn't they? Albert, Savage, Holt?" she asked. And the hammer met the nail.
They weren't saying anything. They were probably thinking about what manner they would use for getting away from the two of them, if they would go the way of trading blows or not. Knowing how both Felicity and Oliver were presently powerless and might not know how to fight that well without those powers, it would have been all too easy, especially against Joseph.
Outside, Tommy looked to the detectives. He didn't care what they said, one way or the other, he was going to get in there, but he preferred to go at it with respect if he could. Detective Garrick sighed, giving him a nod. He didn't wait for him to change his mind. He hurried across the street, shooting out a line and, once it had locked into position, he was pulled up. Within seconds, he dropped in through the broken window and landed between Supergirl and the Flash.
"Morning," he nodded before pulling off his helmet.
"Nice friends you've got here, Tommy," Malcolm told his son, standing from where he sat.
"Really? From where I'm standing, I don't see you being one to talk about the company I keep," Tommy glared back at him before turning to greet… "Mr. West," he tipped his head.
"Thomas," he replied. Tommy chuckled.
"Yeah, still annoys me when you do that."
"How are my kids?" he asked.
"Oh, you know, wishing they weren't related to you, same as usual. We have that in common," he turned back to his father. "If we can move on from all that, what happened with the others?"
X
THE BREACH SHIP WAVERIDER'S JUMP SHIP
"How are my kids?"
Wallace could feel his heart going fast in his chest. His hand went to his neck, finding the chain Iris had insisted to put around there before he left Main. It usually sat around her neck, holding their mother's ring. He knew why she'd put it there. A reminder. Keep calm, Wallace, don't do anything stupid. He was still sitting here, so it must have worked, right?
In those words, he knew that, while his father and Malcolm Merlyn hadn't seen them coming but, now that they were there, he knew how they'd found him. He knew Wallace was back safe with his sister, with them, and he'd told them where to find him. But he'd also brought up Iris in the process, said it to Tommy, and while Wallace was sure… fairly sure… that their father would never allow anything or anyone to get close to her, maybe he wanted to seed some doubt in Tommy's mind, to trigger him.
"Don't rile him up," he mumbled to himself. "Just get it done." He had forgotten about the comm link, and the fact that they might be able to hear him, too, until Oliver said his name out loud.
"Wallace?" He'd said it sort of low, surprised, but the room had to be tensely quiet enough that everyone heard, including Joseph. He had to think fast. This might have been his only shot.
"Give him your earbud," Wallace told Oliver. There was hesitation. "Please?" Several seconds went by, with nothing but ambient sounds, and then…
"Hello, son."
He held the chained ring in both his palms, almost in prayer, to his sister, to the… ghost of his mother… His pillars to keep him strong.
"You need to put an end to this," Wallace's voice came forward, solid, unwavering. "Turn yourself in, it's over."
"In all our years together, have I ever given you the impression that I would ever do anything like that?" They couldn't see each other, and it still felt like his father's gaze was boring holes into him.
"No, I guess not. You're more the kind to have your son kidnapped and held prisoner so he won't be able to give you up."
"See how well that turned out. There's still time, Wallace."
"To do what? Join you? I'm not doing that." Silence. "You stood there, in that room. You stood there, and you watched me, sitting down there with the other people you all had get taken, too. And if you ever tell me that you did it because you didn't have a choice or because it was for my own good, then you really haven't been paying attention. I am done with you, I have been done with you. I've been putting my life together without you and doing just fine. And you know something else? Mom would be ashamed of you… She'd be ashamed."
He didn't so much press the key to end the comm link as slap his whole hand against it. When the light turned off, he got up from his seat, pacing the length of the jump ship, breathing… It had felt good to say what he'd had to say, but it only came at the expense of his having to live with the pain, too. Whatever happened next, he'd said his part.
X
No one else had heard what Wallace had told his father, only him. Tommy, Oliver, Felicity, even Malcolm, had watched him the whole time, and there was no doubt the man had to be a solid poker player, because his face gave nothing away. When he pulled the earbud out and held it out to Oliver again, that was the only way they knew the conversation had ended.
"Now I don't know what you kids expected to happen, showing up here like this, but let me make something clear," Joseph West looked back up to them. "I'm not going anywhere with you. I don't need powers to take you down." The change in his posture was so smooth, simple but clear. He was ready to go at them.
Oliver's gaze turned to the two at his side. Tommy only had eyes for his father, waiting to see what he would do. Felicity was looking at Joseph West as though she had identified him as the biggest threat and was now considering her course of action if she was to fight without her abilities. The only thing Oliver could think was we need to get out of here. There was no way this would end well if they fought like this.
The others outside must have thought the same thing, because that was the moment the door busted open. It wasn't the detectives at the front, but rather the Green Arrow and Spartan, and they didn't wait one second before going for Joseph and Malcolm respectively.
"We need to find what's generating that field," Tommy looked to the powerless Supergirl and Flash.
"No," Felicity shook her head. "So long as they're in here like this, your father doesn't have his speed, and that's a good thing."
"And whatever's got them so worried about the other three, we don't need them showing up here right now."
"Vandal Savage is from Future, he would know how to bypass this, wouldn't he?" Felicity wondered.
"They don't seem to think he can," Tommy shrugged.
'They' were still fighting, and neither Sara nor Michael was making it easy for them. It seemed for a moment like they might actually get the upper hand on them, but then there was the one thing they could do, wasn't there? They barely had the time to realize Malcolm had deactivated the field before he had gone and grabbed Joseph and run them both out of the room, sending their opponents sprawling.
"Go!" Sara shouted, and the Flash sped off, Supergirl on his heels.
It was ten minutes before the two of them returned… empty handed. Malcolm had breached out before they could follow. By the time they'd manage to try and track them it would already be too late, the trail would be gone.
The group returned to the jump ship, finding Wallace had stopped his pacing but generally looked like he was still doing it in his head. When he saw them, he sprang to his feet, looking at all of them.
"Did you…"
"They got away," Tommy told him, and he sat back down.
"Was it my fault? What I said to him…"
"Don't worry about it. Whatever you did say, he probably had it coming," Felicity told him. He gave a nod. Part of him knew she was right, but it still felt like, for all the time he'd spent in that room, thinking about what he'd do if he ever got out, he had missed his chance. He could have gone out there with them, he could have done something, but… He could feel the coolness of metal at his neck, the presence of the chain, the ring… No. He'd done exactly what he was supposed to do. It was only that, sometimes, it just wasn't enough. His father was beyond that.
He had meant what he'd told his father about his mother, and it wasn't as though he went around thinking that his father wasn't aware of this, deep down. On the surface, he was probably telling himself he had all the reasons in the world, that this was right, but that would only work so far. Sooner or later, if they scratched deep enough, he would hit that part where he knew the real truth. And Wallace had just made his father go digging.
As the jump ship took off, to return to Main, he reminded himself they were headed to find Iris again, and he focused on that. He'd have to tell her how it had gone, but he knew she, more than anyone, would understand how he felt.
TO BE CONTINUED (tomorrow, in volume 1)
