A/N: Hello again, everyone! I know it's been a bit, but between Crisis and some unexpected life events, writing time has been scarce.

After Crisis, I just feel like there's so much more to write about now. Not that ideas are in short supply, though. Finding the time will be the trick.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter because I sure did!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except a STAR Labs sweatshirt….

Chapter 24 – First Encounters

A streak of crimson and lightning tore across the streets of downtown Central City at supersonic speeds, the dust and wind kicked up in its wake sending any pedestrians unfortunate enough to be out and about into coughing fits.

"Sorry," Barry muttered sheepishly, though his eyes never wavered from the path in front of him. He'd learned the consequences of his inattention early on by way of several painful crashes into all manner of obstacles. "How's everything looking, Cisco?"

"Not too shabby, my friend! You're clocking some good speed, but nothing record-breaking as of yet." There was a pause before he continued. "If you want to really get things going, I think our best bet is going to be the tachyon device."

Barry hummed to himself as he took a shortcut up and over a skyscraper before making a sharp u-turn in the direction of STAR Labs. "Got it. I'll be back in a –"

"I swear to God, Barry, if you say 'flash' again, I'm going to add an enema to your next physical!" Caitlin's voice called over the comms, annoyance evident.

He blinked and nearly stumbled over himself, barely avoiding a collision with a motorcycle and its irate rider. So maybe he'd used that joke a few too many times. "Uh, right! No more 'flash' stuff…got it."

Cisco was still laughing when he came to a stop in the Cortex.

"Dude, you sounded like you were two seconds away from shitting your pants!"

"Shut up," Barry grumbled though he glanced around worriedly trying to spot Caitlin. "Where is—"

A chill shot down his spine causing him to shudder violently.

"Baaaarry…"

"AH! Caitlin, wait, no!" He jumped two feet in the air, hands flying to cover his butt. "Please don't do it! I'll never make a 'flash' joke again, I swear!"

The good doctor rolled her eyes, but the satisfied smirk on her lips spoke volumes. "Relax, Flash, I just want to do a quick eval before you and Cisco try and blast a hole through space and time. It'll give us a baseline for before and after."

"Oh, thank God," Barry sighed in relief, a shaky smile on his face. "For a minute there I thought that—"

"BARRY ALLEN WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

This time it wasn't a shiver or a sudden drop in temperature that assaulted Barry. When he heard that roar, his mind immediately flashed to hours upon hours of hand to hand combat training, bruised ribs, sore muscles, and sneak attacks from the shadows beneath Star City and sometimes even plain sight.

On cue, the two scars on his upper back burned. He swallowed thickly and slowly turned to face a livid Oliver Queen storming into the Cortex, motorcycle helmet tucked under one arm and fists clenched to stymie his anger.

"H-hey Oliver…"

"Don't you 'hey Oliver' me, Allen! Do you realize that you nearly ran me off the road a couple of minutes ago?! And then I almost crashed into a frickin' school bus before I could get everything back under control!" He stomped right up to the gangly speedster and scowled. "What. The. Fuck?"

Barry's eyes went wide. "Oh…that was you, huh? My bad!"

"Your bad?" The archer's tone and expression were unimpressed. "I'll show you 'your bad!' Training session, right now! It's time we worked on your dodging; I need to practice hitting a speedster running all out anyway."

Terror and dread filled his being and Barry turned to Caitlin and Cisco, eyes pleading for help.

"Dude, yes!" Cisco's enthusiastic yell was like a dagger to his heart. Already the long-haired engineer was typing away at his keyboard, presumably making corrections and adding additional data for the new circumstances. "I've been wanting to see if Green Arrow could get a clean hit on a speedster for a while now."

"I recall tagging Thawne with that speed force sucking cocktail you all whipped up last year," Oliver pointed out, scowling. "Also, Barry's got the makings of a smiley face on his back thanks to me."

Cisco wasn't fazed. "Eh, Thawne was distracted by Barry and Firestorm so that doesn't count. And your pre-set traps hit Barry during that whole 'don't use the force, use your eyes' training debacle."

Oliver's right eye began to twitch.

Sensing their guest's rising indignation, Caitlin chose that moment to tactfully interrupt. "I would like to, once again, voice my opposition to the use of actual lethal weapons in training. I find it an unnecessary risk."

"Didn't Cisco shoot rockets at me at one point?"

"A decision I was vehemently against."

"Ah, he'll be fine, Caitlin," Cisco said in what he no doubt assumed was a reassuring voice. "It's just arrows."

Barry saw Oliver's hand twitch and swallowed nervously.

"Yes, Caitlin, it's 'just' arrows," parroted Oliver, doing everything in his power to glare a hole through the oblivious techno-genius' head.

"Fine," Caitlin relented much to Barry's dismay. "I've got your vitals pre-tachyon device at any rate. Once Cisco gets everything set up and you get moving, I can start collecting data on any changes." She gave both heroes and bright smile, completely missing the desperate look on the Flash's face. "Please don't kill him, Oliver."

He nodded, a smirk gracing his lips. "I'll do my best."

"Not reassuring," Barry called over his shoulder while Cisco hurriedly strapped on the prototype over his chest. He grinned. "But training with you on a more regular basis has made me think that was a one-time thing. Kind of like a –"

"Barry…," Caitlin warned, pun sensors tingling and her hackles rising in preemptive annoyance.

"Flash in the pan, you know?"

Silence.

Caitlin took a long, deep breath, then looked at Oliver. "On second thought, kill him."

"Okay, is everybody in place?" Cisco, back on comms now that the test was ready to go live, paused for a moment to reevaluate his question. "And by 'everybody' I mean you, GA."

"I am aware," Oliver growled, everyone able to hear his clenched jaw and grinding teeth.

Barry grinned from where he was bouncing in place near the edge of Keystone City, an impish glint in his eyes.

"Are you there yet?"

"No."

Cisco caught on immediately.

"Are you there yet?"

"No."

"Are you there yet?"

"No."

"Are you there yet?"

"No."

"Are you there yet?"

"No!"

"Are you there yet?"

"No!"

"Are you there yet?"

"NO!"

"…Are you there yet?"

"NO!"

"BOYS!" Apparently, Caitlin had had her fill of their shenanigans. "Can we all please act our age?"

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

"Thank you, Caitlin." The sound of an engine turning off and some quick shuffling dominated the comms for a moment before Oliver cleared his throat. "…I'm here."

Barry shook out his legs and then his arms, stretched his neck, and rolled his head around a couple of times, breathing all the while. Bending at the hips, he reached for his toes and felt the stretch in his hamstrings, modifying the normally static forward fold – which he'd grown familiar with thanks to Nyssa's insistence that any and all vigilantes make a point of limbering up prior to patrolling – by coming up and down swiftly.

With a satisfied sigh, Barry set his feet and leaned forward. "Okay. I'm ready when you are, Oliver."

"I'm good to go. Just hurry up, would you? I've been spotted by what looks to be an all-male running club in very short shorts and they are giving me serious stink-eye."

There was a snort from the comms. "I can see the headline now: 'Famed Hardcore Vigilante Apprehended By Central City Running Club.'" Cisco's laughter echoed through both heroes' ears. "Or, or: 'Green Arrow – All Hype, No Substance?'"

"One day," Oliver growled to the sound of him drawing and nocking an arrow. "One day I am going to have homing arrows, Ramon. And I am going to use every single one of them on you!"

"Turning it on," Barry interrupted loudly, activating the device on his chest. He nearly fell to his knees at the sensation that swept through his body. The feeling was an almost total euphoria as the tachyons interacted with the speed force within himself. "Oh, wow!"

"What?" Caitlin's concerned voice sounded in his ear, bringing the speedster back to reality. "Are you okay, Barry? The readout isn't picking up anything new, but you said you turned the device on?"

Barry shivered, trying to tamp down on his sudden sensitivity to everything. "Y-yup."

"Well, your heartrate has skyrocketed – more so than normal – but other than that there's nothing out of the ordinary. What are you feeling?"

"It's like every fiber of my being is going haywire. In a good way," he quickly amended, cutting off the flood of medical questions from Caitlin before they could start. "My cells are just…excited!"

"Dude, gross," Cisco gagged. There was typing for a moment and then he spoke again. "Okay, I adjusted the parameters to include the influx of tach-particles. We should be able to track everything normally now."

Finally, his body normalized the new sensation. Barry did a few extra jumps and set his feet, prepped once more. "Okay, here we go: three, two, one!"

He ran.

"Holy shit!"

"Holy shit!"

"Holy shit!"

"What?! What is it? What am I missing?!" Oliver asked, his voice rising slightly. "Did he go? I'm a little blind here, people! Somebody talkto me!"

An annoyed groan from Cisco. "Stop yelling, would you? You're really killing the mood. Side note: figure out how to install an in-mask HUD for the domino mask wearing nerds in Star City."

"Barry's going to be there in about ten seconds, Oliver," Caitlin informed the vigilante helpfully.

Sure enough, Oliver could see the tell-tale lightning and hear the trademark boom from down the street. He took a deep breath and set his sights on the fast approaching speedster. "Whatever you do, Barry, don't slow down. Just keep coming straight at me."

"Wait, what? Are you standing in front of me?!" Barry's gasp was enough to confirm the fact for Cisco and Caitlin. "Why are you standing in front of me?! Do you realize what's going to happen to you if you don't move?"

"Don't you worry about me. I trust you."

"I don't even know what you want me to do!"

"Just keep running."

"Oliver I…"

They were only a few feet from each other when Oliver fired the arrow, intent on forcing Barry to make a snap decision. However, out of nowhere, a bright blue portal of light appeared in front of him and swallowed Barry, and the arrow, whole.

"Well, that's not good." He huffed a resigned sigh. "Looks like I'm taking my own lesson."

Then he sprinted into the light.

When J'onn J'onnz woke up this morning, he had not expected to have to deal with an ally gone rouge and he definitely hadn't considered that ally would have been a Kryptonian who just so happened to be one of the nicest people in the universe.

"Any leads on Supergirl?" He asked the room at large as he entered the main hub of the Department of Extranormal Operations.

"No, Director," the answer came through the computer system where one of the computer screens showed a frazzled looking Alex Danvers looking down into her phone at the hustle and bustle within the DEO. "We haven't been able to catch up with her since she lambasted me with the fact that she really hates me and has just been keeping it to herself an hour ago. It's like she just vanished, sir."

"Well, it's not out of the realm of possibility. But if she's being as recklessly spontaneous as you think, then she'll show up eventually." He went quiet, thinking to himself. "Go ahead and come in, Agent Danvers, we'll just have to –"

On screen, the background behind Alex lit up with a vibrant blue light and a red blur shot past, lightning trailing after it and dancing across every surface. The redhead was blown off her feet and sent tumbling into a nearby wall where she landed with a groan, a crack now running down the screen and her phone somehow still clutched in her hand.

The groan she let out quickly morphed into a scream when an arrow slammed into the wall inches above her head.

"Danvers!" J'onn shouted, his concern outweighing the normal carefully maintained professionalism.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" The room fell quiet as a new voice came in over the speakers and a powerfully built man wearing what looked like dark green leather outfit that was decorated with several lethal looking flachettes, throwing knives, and a wicked looking blade across his lower back. He wore a hood and was holding a bow as he stepped into the frame. "That arrow wasn't meant for you."

"What the hell…," Alex asked in a daze. "Who the hell are you?!"

Instead of answering, the hooded man knelt next to her and gave her a brief once over. Seeing no serious wounds his gaze fell to the cell phone on the floor and the video chat that was still broadcasting what looked to be a government organization.

"If it helps, we come in peace," he hesitated. Behind him, the blue portal closed catching his attention. He sighed and shook his head. "I can't believe I just said that. Look, all I need to do is find my friend and we'll be out of your hair. Probably. It…really kind of depends on him actually because I'm pretty sure this is a first."

"Who are you?" J'onn asked, repeating Alex's earlier question, watching the stranger warily as he yanked the arrow out of the wall. After examining the arrowhead, he clicked his tongue in disappointment and tossed it aside.

"I'm no one you need to worry about."

Then he was gone.

There was no sound from either end of the connection, both Alex and J'onn unsure how to proceed with what they'd just seen. It was the latter who broke the silence.

"Agent Danvers stay where you are. I'll send a team out and get you back to the DEO for a medical check-up."

"Director, I'm fine! William fucking Tell just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of downtown looking ready for war and I am the closest person to him. Send the team, but I'm going after him!"

With that, she grabbed her phone, stood up, and ended the call.

J'onn took a steadying breath wondering how in the world he hadn't had a conniption when it came to the Danvers sisters. "Vasquez."

"Sir?" A short-haired female agent snapped to attention.

"Get a tact squad together to assist Agent Danvers before she gets herself killed. And try to keep things on the down low, please."

"Barry can you hear me?" Oliver tapped at the comm in his ear. "Barry come in." He growled in annoyance, not liking the fact that wherever they'd wound up – because they sure as hell weren't in Central City anymore – their communications weren't working. Considering they ran off the STAR Labs satellite and were lauded, by Cisco, to cover pretty much the entire globe, that really wasn't a good sign.

He honestly thought it wasn't worth the headache.

"Dammit," he cursed, thankful for the cover of darkness as he jogged down the road, following the trail Barry had left behind. He guessed this was one situation in which he was thankful for the destructive tendencies of superspeed. "How far did you go, you idiot? I thought you'd gotten the hang of this whole running thing."

"Well adding this tachyon device kind of changed the game, you know?"

"GAH! Fuck, Barry! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Oliver barked, heart in his throat. "Wait, how'd you even do that, anyway? You're not exactly subtle when it comes to…anything really."

Barry scoffed. "Funny. For your information, I walked."

"Must have been hard for you. I had no idea you were still capable of something so simple."

"I had no idea your sense of humor was this evolved."

They stared at each other for a long minute, neither breaking eye contact.

Eventually, Oliver broke. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"Not a clue. I honestly didn't even realize I was somewhere else until the emitter stopped working and I managed to slow down. That's when I noticed all the posters and billboards advertising a media company called Catco, some tech empire called Lexcorp, and an interesting looking coat of arms plastered all over the place." He shrugged helplessly. "None of which I've ever seen or heard of before."

Oliver pondered the new information, turning it over again and again in his head. "Have you ever encountered something like this before? Big shifts in reality where nothing's familiar?"

"Personally? No. At least, nothing this big. There was that time I had to save Central City from a tsunami and went back in time a whole day." Barry tapped a finger to his lips in thought. "I've got a theory, but it's a little outlandish. Of course, Thawne was from the future and that's pretty crazy. His whole schtick was trying to get back there; he made us build him a time machine, too."

"You have a time machine in STAR Labs?"

"…N-no."

"And you've just been sitting on that little piece of information for, what, a year?"

"We don't…know how to use it?"

"Did you mean that to be a question? Because it sounded like a question."

A deafening sound from overhead startled both men out of their conversation and they were forced to take cover as the windows that hadn't been destroyed on Barry's initial jaunt down the street exploded in a shower of glass shards.

"What in the hell was that?!" Oliver growled, an arrow already nocked as he scanned the night sky, eyes alert.

"Oh, wow, so that's what that's like," Barry said as he shook his head to clear it of the lingering ring. "Did you see what it was?"

The archer shook his head and looked back at his companion. "No. Whatever it was, it was too fast. It sounded like a jet though. The sonic boom nearly took me off my feet."

"Well damn," came a voice from behind them, the timbre distinctly feminine but resting in a rich alto range. "That would have been a first for me. Sweeping a man off his feet, that's a cliché dodge if I've ever heard one."

Barry would never admit that he'd had the breath stolen from his lungs when they finally turned to see their new arrival.

Avoiding clichés and all.

Blonde hair fell in unbelievably soft waves to just below small but strong shoulders. They held up a modest bust proudly, no doubt whatsoever in her posture or her face, which itself was spellbinding. Only a single blemish could be seen, in the form of a small scar that sat almost delicately atop her expertly manicured left eyebrow, but it only added to her appeal. A pair of intense, piercing blue eyes stared both heroes down without flinching as she watched them curiously. A perfect nose led down to pink lips that looked soft and inviting, especially with the cocky – and somehow still attractive – smirk that pulled at them.

Her outfit did nothing but flatter the lithe figure it clung to like a second skin, the all black ensemble hugging her form closely from neck down to her ankles, where it fell over a pair of heeled boots that looked like they could devastate whatever stood in their way. The only splash of color was a bright red rendering of a coat of arms that stuck out in stark contrast to the rest of her outfit located over the right side of her chest.

Also, she was floating.

"Uh…um," Barry stuttered after managing to pick his jaw up off the floor. She gave him a grin and, despite the warning in the back of his mind, he felt his heart skip a beat.

"What's the matter, Scarlet? Super Babe got your tongue?" the blonde greeted back, a hungry look in her eyes as they roved over the speedster's skintight ensemble. "And aren't you just delicious?"

His eyes shot open wide and he swallowed audibly. "I-I-I…!"

Oliver facepalmed.

"Aw, and he's adorable, too!" The delight in her eyes shifted in an instant to an annoyed frown and both men audibly heard her crack her knuckles. "But, unfortunately for you, you've messed up my city. I don't like it when strangers mess up my city. So, tell me…"

In the blink of an eye, she was no longer in the air. With a thunderous crash that shook the ground and splintered the concrete beneath her feet, the blonde landed on one knee and with a fist in the ground. She stood a moment later, brushing off the harsh impact as easily as if it were lint on her clothes. When she lifted her head, Barry and Oliver recoiled.

Her eyes were glowing an angry orange.

"Which one of you fucked up my city?"

"Oh, shit! Umm…hide." Thinking quickly, Barry grabbed Oliver and flashed them away. A few miles later, he ducked into an abandoned building and set the archer on his feet. Looking around and seeing they were in the clear for the moment, Barry leaned against the wall and slowly slides himself to the floor.

Oliver opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a very familiar voice.

"I know you two are in there."

Looking at Barry, the archer raised a curious brow. "I thought you flashed us here."

"I did. There's no way anyone could've followed us, much less kept up with us." Barry puffed up. "I'm the fastest man alive, remember?"

"I can hear you!" There was a note of amusement in her voice. "And I'm pretty sure both my cousin and I would argue your 'fastest man alive' claim. Though, obviously after I beat the both of you into a pulp it won't really matter."

Both men's eyes widened.

Immediately, Oliver's voice dropped to a barely there whisper. "Barry…what did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything, Oliver!" The speedster responded in the same murmur. "And, frankly, I am offended that you automatically default to blaming me when things go wrong!"

"You were the impetus behind the last three major events we had to deal with."

Barry huffed. "…touché."

"So," the as of yet unidentified blonde and the uninvited C in their A/B conversation called again. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, boys."

"What's the easy way?" Barry shouted back, ignoring the resounding smack of skin on skin as Oliver facepalmed again.

There was a slight pause, like the woman couldn't believe he'd asked. "You…you come on out, I knock you around a couple of times – less so for you, Scarlet, because I'm positive you're a heartthrob underneath that cowl and tall, dark, broody, and Emerald looks like he really needs a beating – and I don't burn you to a crisp."

"Hmm," Barry hummed, holding his chin in his hand, thinking.

"I swear to God, Barry, if you ask her what the hard way is—"

"What's the hard way?"

SMACK!

"Ow!"

Outside, Kara blinked at building in disbelief.

"I can't…believe I'm having this conversation," she said to herself, listening easily to the hushed discussion taking place between the two handsome strangers from within the depths of the decrepit structure. It sounded like they were planning to split up and try to hit her from both sides.

She scoffed.

With an excited grin, Kara was just about to crash their party when she heard the revving of a motorcycle followed by a screech of brakes.

"SUPERGIRL!"

A growl forced its way passed her lips as the Kryptonian turned toward the source of the shout, annoyance building. She knew who she was going to see the moment she'd heard the engine and, sure enough, there stood Alex Danvers next to the two-wheeled vehicle, fists clenched at her sides and staring intently back at her.

Kara floated down slowly, scowl still in place and arms crossed over her chest. "Well, well, if it isn't big sister Alex. Let me guess, J'onn sent you to be the sympathetic ear, right? He figures our 'sisterly bond' will help you talk me down and get me to come in?"

"Kara…," Alex started softly, eyes looking at the blonde imploringly. "Please, just—"

"I already told you I'm done with all that bullshit, Alex," Kara interrupted with a snarl, the response drawing a frown from the elder sister. "I am done caring whether or not people will accept me for who I am. I am done making myself look like some innocent little lamb who needs her sister to guide her! I am fucking done taking orders from a self-righteous asshole in a shadow organization whose only successful operation seems to be using my supposed 'sister' to take me down!" She was breathing heavily, her emotions reaching a boiling point.

Alex shook her head. "Kara, please calm down!"

"Don't tell me to calm down! I'm sick and tired of having to watch everything I do! That's all it's ever been! Don't touch too hard, don't squeeze too hard, don't do this, don't do that – it drives me crazy!" Taking a deep breath, Kara smirked. "But you know what? No more. If I want to take something, I'm going to take it. If I want to break something, I'm going to break it! And if I want to bust down a fucking wall and make out with a random, hot, speed demon stranger who appeared out of nowhere, I am going to bust down a fucking wall and make out with a random, hot, speed demon stranger!"

The perplexed look on Alex's face was evident and she struggled to come up with a response. "W-what are you…?"

Faster than a speeding bullet, Kara blasted off from her spot next to Alex, sending the redhead tumbling through the air in her wake, crashed through brick and mortar, and tackled the red clad man to the ground seconds before he could speed away.

"Uh…hi," Barry managed, blinking as he stared into two of the bluest eyes he'd ever seen, his mouth going dry at the proximity of the beautiful woman on top of him.

"Hi," came the husky response, the blonde practically devouring every inch of him with her gaze.

Barry licked his lips. "Uh…w-why are you, uhm, on top of me?"

"Because you are amazingly sexy, and I want to see what you taste like!"

It was all the speedster could do to keep himself from choking on his own spit. He cleared his throat. "I mean...I'm not opposed to the idea. You're absolutely gorgeous yourself and I would be an idiot to refuse. I just—MMPH!"

She crashed her lips to his, drawing only a small wince from Barry, and whatever else he was going to say vanished from his mind.

Pulling away from his lips, the superheroine grinned hungrily down at him. "Shut up and kiss me, sexy."

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"Barry have you seen—" Oliver stopped upon walking into the room, words failing him as he saw his friend furiously making out with the black clad super being who'd been running amok over the last few hours. "Huh. So that's what that's like." He shuddered when he heard Barry squeak out a moan, and then covered his eyes upon spotting the cause – their target's hand grabbing, and squeezing, a healthy handful of the speedster's rear. "Ugh, it's like I'm in the Twilight Zone. This is the kind of shit I was getting into my first year back."

A moan – from who, Oliver couldn't tell (but he was leaning toward Barry) – had the archer turning away in disgust. "Yeah, I'm just gonna…not be here."

Stepping around the furiously making out couple and through the newly created exit, Oliver spotted the familiar figure of the woman he'd seen upon crossing over to…wherever they were, as she struggled to get to her feet. Figuring she'd at least be able to tell him where they were, he moved over to her.

"You!" Though still shaky, the woman – who's attire painted her rather obviously as some kind of law enforcement – was able to get herself back to her feet with the help of the motorcycle at her side. She pulled her gun from its holster and pointed it right at his chest. "I've been looking for you for the last hour!"

Oliver slung his bow over his shoulder and held up both hands up in a placating gesture. "Easy. I told you and whoever you work for that I mean no harm and that's the truth."

"Who are you? What are you doing in National City? What's you're purpose here?"

"Never heard of National City before," he mumbled to himself, thoughts going internal for a moment before he shook his head. "Listen, my name is Green Arrow. I'm a vigilante and, along with my friend, the Flash, – who is currently making out with a rather aggressive blonde in black – we do our best to keep our cities safe from criminals and threats that law enforcement can't. We're good guys."

The redhead took a moment, trying to process what she was being told. Then her eyes went wide.

"Wait. Did you say making out?!"

"Yeah. It looked like she'd tackled him to the floor and then proceeded to try and shove her tongue down his throat," Oliver elaborated.

"Son of a bitch!" She hefted her pistol, pulled back the slide, and charged into the partially destroyed building. "Get the fuck off of her!"

BANG!

"AH! MY LEG! YOU SHOT MY LEG!"

"I MISSED!"

"WHY WOULD YOU SHOOT ME?!"

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY SISTER BEFORE I SHOOT YOU DICK OFF, ASSHOLE!"

Oliver's eyes widened, stunned.

"UGH, ALEX! I HATE YOU! YOU'RE ALWAYS RUINING MY FUN!"

"I just –"

"WAIT! PUT ME DOWN! AHHH!"

WOOSH!

Another sonic boom followed the dark streak tinged with crimson that took off into the night sky, a frustrated yell the only thing left behind.

"BARRY!" Oliver shouted when his mind finally caught up to what he saw.

The redhead, who the archer could now assume was named Alex, ran out of the building staring after her sister and her captive with a helpless expression on her face.

"KARA! COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" She watched the shape of her sister disappear over the darkened horizon and hung her head. "Please…"

"Dammit," grumbled the billionaire. "There goes my ride home."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Kara didn't' know which was louder – the screaming man dressed in the skin-tight scarlet uniform held in her arms or the irritated growl that was currently bubbling up from her throat at the fact he'd been doing so for the entire flight.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She bit her tongue, trying to justify to herself that dropping him, while tempting, would be a perfectly good waste of delectable man. Because he was handsome and he'd already willingly – her tackling him and latching onto his mouth notwithstanding – made out with her to some very satisfying results. And handsome men eager to make out with her had been few and too far between thanks to her goofy persona.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

However, she was going to need her ear moving forward. The fact that her eardrum hadn't ruptured yet thanks to proximity alone baffled her, not that she wasn't thankful. Kara couldn't be sure, but she thought she could make out a faint ringing noise just below the terrified shouting.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Would you please…SHUT UP!"

Immediately, her passenger ceased yelling, his eyes going wide as he took in the sight of her annoyed face. It didn't seem to take him long to figure out that it would not bode well to piss off the woman who currently had him a good thousand feet in the air. In a relatively safe bridal carry, but still.

"You good now?" she asked, voice flat and one eyebrow raised.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that." He swallowed and took a tentative look below. "I just, well, I don't normally get snatched up and flown around at high speeds on a whim, you know? I'm…more of a running man honestly."

That got a smirk from the blonde. "So I've seen. You're pretty fast for a human."

"Meta-human, technically. There was an incident with a particle accelerator, dark matter, lightning, and some chemicals one night and…poof! The CSI with a propensity for never arriving on time is now the CSI with a propensity for never arriving on time even though he has superspeed." He knew he was rambling, but at this point he realized it had more to do with his proximity to the beautiful blonde who held him in her arms than flying.

"Great kisser and humorously self-deprecating?" Kara said with a grin. "If you tell me you're a world-class chef I'll marry you right now!"

Barry blushed. "Well, world-class may be a bit of a stretch, but…I do enjoy messing around in the kitchen."

"Hm. Is it wrong of me to hope that's both a euphemism and a testament to your culinary skills? Because I could really use a guy with like you if that's the case."

He could feel his heart pounding – a substantial feet considering it was normally off the charts to begin with – and he was suddenly very much aware of where her hands were holding him and the feel of her chest against his shoulder.

It was the first time he'd really thought his suit was too tight.

"S-so," Barry said, clearing his throat after his stuttered start. "Where are we going?"

Kara adjusted her grip, grinning at the yip of surprise the scarlet clad hero let out when she squeezed his butt. "I've got to stop off at work really quick – I need to have a conversation with my boss about a few things. Namely how she's marketed me to the public as a goody-two shoes, cheerlead, ne'er do wrong." She gave him a grin. "Once we clear that up then you and me can get back to more…exciting activities."

Barry swallowed, but decided to ignore the brazen innuendo. "Um, isn't that a bad idea? Like, for your secret identity and stuff?"

"You would think," she said with a snort. "But the people here are pretty stupid when it comes to the obvious. My cousin has lived among them his whole life all while pretending to be a mild-mannered reporter hiding behind a pair of glasses. A façade of awkward that's worthy of an academy award."

"Seriously? I think I'd be able to recognize you pretty easily – you're gorgeous!" He blushed when his mind caught up with his mouth. "I-I mean you…um…you stand out! In a good way! A pretty way! Oh…boy…"

Her throaty chuckle sent a shiver down his spine. "Please, continue showering me with compliments. It's a great change from the norm."

"I'm just gonna stop talking now."

She laughed again.

After staring after his now disappeared friend and the woman who'd kidnapped him, Oliver sighed and walked over to Alex and cleared his throat. "So, loathe as I am to admit it, I'm going to need to get my friend back before we can get out of your hair. Are we going after them or…?"

"Who the hell are you people?"

Oliver took a moment to curse Barry's ability to screw things up for him prior to answering. "I don't have the whole picture, but I think it's safe to say that my meta-human friend managed to flash us somewhere neither of us have ever heard of," Oliver said, rubbing a hand over his face.

"You've never heard of National City?" Alex gave him an odd look. "Where did you say you were from?"

"I didn't."

Alex glared.

Oliver didn't even blink.

After a long drawn out silence, during which neither party broke – much to the ire of Alex, who was used to having people fall in line whenever she so much as raised an eyebrow – the archer spoke. He'd seen the redhead's hand twitching toward her gun and didn't feel like antagonizing her any further.

"Are you always so trigger happy?"

She threw him an incredulous look. "What?"

"You shot my friend."

"He was sucking face with my sister! It's my right as an older sibling to put a bullet in anyone who tries to violate my sister like that!"

"Pretty sure she attacked him." At her disbelieving snort, he continued. "Do you seriously think the first thing he was thinking after somehow winding up on a different earth was finding someone to make out with?"

Still, the speedster not immediately getting away from his attacker prompted Oliver to make an adjustment to Barry's training.

Again.

"A-another earth?" Surprisingly, Alex didn't immediately shoot down the prospect. In fact, she looked simultaneously relieved and intrigued, all her earlier fury forgotten. "So, the multi-verse theory is true?"

Oliver was caught off guard at her sudden shift in attitude.

"So it would seem," he answered with a raised eyebrow. "We breached by accident."

"You accidentally broke the barrier between worlds and breached onto a parallel earth?" Her disbelief was reflected in her tone. "How is that even possible? I feel like that's something you'd have to be very much concentrated on doing to even have a chance."

Tires screeching cut whatever answer the Earth-1 hero might have come up with short. The trio turned to see three black SUVs pulling to a stop about fifty feet away from them. Doors opened and several people dressed in black tactical gear spread out, each one armed with an assault rifle which they quickly aimed at Oliver.

"Agent Danvers," came a woman's voice from the lead figure. "Are you alright?"

Alex raised her hand to placate the new arrivals. "At ease, Vasquez, I'm fine. He's a friendly," she glanced at Oliver and gave him another glare before turning back to the other woman. "He's going to be helping me track down and bring Supergirl in."

"Ma'am, Director Henshaw—"

"I know what he said, but I'm telling you what I'm going to do. I'll deal with the consequences later."

As they watched the agents pile back into the SUVs Oliver stared at Alex, who pointedly ignored him. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you don't like my buddy very much."

"He was trying to taste my sister's tonsils."

"He didn't do anything!"

"Didn't exactly push her off though, did he?"

"Based on her moniker, I'm going to say he probably couldn't."

"…that's a fair point."

"So…your sister's an alien," Oliver grumbled from his seat across from her in the back of the DEO van, his mind reeling at Alex's most recent revelation.

They encountered almost no traffic, the few cars and their drivers quickly getting out of their way with a quick whine of the siren. According to Alex, resident media mogul Cat Grant had issued a warning to the populace that their superhero was currently not to be trusted. Apparently, the woman had so much pull she could clear the city on a whim.

Nodding, the redhead laughed at his expression of disbelief. "Yeah. Crash-landed here about…thirteen years ago."

"And the sun gives her superpowers?" She'd given him a basic break down of Kryptonian physiology.

"Yep. She found out about them the same way we did – by accident. I can't tell you the number of times we had to remodel because of an out of control sneeze or temper tantrum induced heat vision."

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "You're joking."

"Well it's not so much a sneeze as it is freeze breath."

"…Of course." Oliver held a hand up when it looked like Alex was going to speak. "Please stop. I want plausible deniability when it comes time to explain everything to Barry. Though watching his head explode with the information overload might just be worth it."

Alex snorted.

"Wait," a thought seemed to occur to the archer. "She has superspeed too, doesn't she?"

"Yup," She gave him a searching look, staying quiet for a moment. "So, you going to tell me who you are, or should I make up my own name?"

"Do what you want."

"Captain Steampunk it is."

Alex thoroughly enjoyed the affronted look on Oliver's face, the archer struggling to come up with a counter yet desperately wanting to.

"I don't…you…I." Oliver's normally stoic and unflappable persona fell apart as he blustered uselessly.

Alex shrugged. "I mean look at yourself: dressed to the nines in dark leather, your hood covers your face ridiculously well, and you've got buckles and throwing knives coming out your ass." She glanced behind him pointedly and nodded at blade sheathed on his back. "Almost literally."

"I do not –"

"Of course, I guess I could call you Van Helsing. That fits too. You've got the same tools, but I feel like he was less a broody tough guy and more a lovable rogue."

"You've known me for five minutes. How do you know I'm broody?"

"You guys come in pairs, right? That's usually how these things work – your red clad comic-con wannabe is the goofy, happy-go-lucky heart and soul of the team and you're the mood-killing realist who's always looking for ways to suck the fun out of a situation."

Looking about as offended as she'd seen him so far, Oliver spluttered. "What do you think this is? Some kind of buddy cop comedy?"

"I mean, if the shoe fits." Before the archer could retort – and it would have been a colorful one judging by the look on his face – Alex continued. "I'll keep making up names if you don't give me something."

Oliver's eye twitched and he leveled a glare that mildly impressed the DEO's second in command.

"You're part of a clandestine government organization, your sister is a super-powered alien who has gone rogue, and you shot my friend. Forgive me if I'm not in a trusting mood."

Alex's brow lifted. "By your own admission you're on a parallel Earth with noallies and no way back. Do you really think the best strategy is to antagonize the only person willing to help? Who, by the way, has unlimited resources thanks being government funded."

"Dammit, Barry," Oliver groused under his breath. Not for the first time since he'd met the speedster Oliver wished he were back on the island. At least there things were simple. "…I go by Green Arrow."

"When you're cosplaying?"

He didn't know it was possible for someone to get under his skin so fast. His eye started twitching and he had to fight down the instinct to send an arrow at her.

Not everyone was a speedster with super healing.

"When I'm protecting my city," he corrected reluctantly, wincing at how that sounded the moment the words left his lips.

Alex let out another snort. "If my sister didn't fly around in a skirt and cape spouting the same kind of nonsense, I would be giving you so much more shit for that. Unfortunately, she does. At any rate, now's not the time. You mentioned you had a way to track Red."

"Yeah. After the most recent attempt on his life, I took the liberty to put a tracking device in his boot."

"Does he face life or death situations often?"

"Feels like every week."

This time the redhead laughed out loud. "I can relate."

Checking her watch, Alex grimaced, wishing there was a faster way to get to headquarters. "Look, we need to find my sister. She was infected with a substance known as red kryptonite which has lowered her inhibitions and, worse, tapped in to any and all negative emotion she's ever harbored."

"So, she's dangerous," Oliver summarized.

"Not normally. But right now? Yeah. I love her to death, but I know she's been keeping a lot of things repressed for a while."

Oliver nodded. "Okay then. Let's find us an alien."

"Kryptonian."

"…Seriously?"

"Just track your friend! Who knows what they're getting up to right now."

They'd landed in front of an enormous building labeled Catco – the name ringing a bell in Barry's mind from his initial run through the city – amid a relatively empty street, the evening traffic having dwindled down during their flight.

Kara had told him to wait for her on the sidewalk while she confronted her boss, saying the conversation wouldn't take too long. He'd shrugged and given her a thumbs up.

True to her word, barely five minutes had passed before a terrified shriek filled the air and Barry looked up to see an older blonde woman falling fast toward the ground. There was a moment when he considered waiting for his flight-empowered kidnapper to swoop in and save the tumbling female but, glancing even further up, he saw a blonde haired figure dressed all in black floating just over the ledge of the building, watching the rapid descent closely.

He'd sprinted up the side of the Catco building, measured the distance, reached, successfully caught who he could only assume was Cat Grant, changed direction, and ran her back up to the top.

Once he'd settled the shaken Cat into the comfort of her office, Barry flashed back to the comfy balcony set up and looked up at the hovering Kara. She was frowning at him with narrowed eyes and arms crossed, the smoldering look sending a shiver down his spine. He couldn't be one hundred percent sure if it was a shiver of foreboding or excitement.

He was leaning toward the former out of principle.

"I was going to catch her."

"I'm sure you were." Barry shrugged. "But you've got a hell of a poker face and I wasn't willing to take that chance."

Kara scowled and landed in front of him. "You have no idea what that woman has put me through on a daily basis for the last few years! Constantly belittling me or blaming me for things that were out of my control. The least she deserves is a little scare."

"She was three feet from becoming a new Rorschach inkblot! I'd say that's more than a little scare."

"I think the world would've been curious to know what all makes Cat Grant tick," Kara countered with a scoff. "After they got over the shock."

Barry stared at her in shock. "That's a little heartless don't you think?"

Her knuckles cracked audibly, and she took another step toward him, bringing the pair almost nose to nose. "Call me that again."

"Whoa! Whoa! I'm sorry, okay? I'm just not used to the hero throwing innocent people off a roof." He couldn't keep the bite out of his tone and, for a second, considered that those may well be his last words.

"Oh, please! Supergirl is a total hack! I am sick of being a glorified cheerleader for these people. I go from being lauded and praised one day to being crucified on social media the next!" She laughed, her voice sounding slightly hysterical. "Do you know how absolutely maddening that is?!"

"I know a thing or two about it, yeah," Barry answered. "It's part of the superhero gig."

She smirked. "Well then you'll understand why Supergirl is dead. Kara Danvers is dead. And in her place? Kara Zor-El: last daughter of Krypton and giver of zero fucks!" She waggled her eyebrows. "I'm willing to make an exception for you, though, cutie."

Eyes widening, Barry felt his heart start to pound. It was zero to a hundred with this woman!

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who's excited about the possibility," Kara purred, moving infinitesimally closer with a smirk.

"How do you…" his eyes shot open as her words clicked. "You have super hearing too!"

"And super stamina, sexy. If you catch my drift." She chuckled at his blush, the husky tone sending Barry's embarrassment into overdrive. "What part of 'Supergirl' did you not understand? You name it, I've got it."

"Superspeed?"

"Check."

"Super strength?"

"Affirmative."

"Invulnerability?"

"Of course."

"Super hearing?"

"Already established. As is flight, in case you forgot the ride over here."

"I didn't, but I like to make sure. What else?"

"Well, I have what we've been calling heat vision."

"…seriously? That is so cool!"

"Damn right it is. Then I've got freeze breath…"

"What?!"

"…and microscopic vision…"

"R-really?"

"…telescopic vision…"

"…"

"…and X-ray vision." Kara finished, the cocky smirk growing as the speedster hastily covered himself.

Barry didn't think it was possible but she'd somehow managed to move closer, foreheads and noses touching "A-anything else?"

"Well those are the only the ones I know of. Now, can we get back to business?"

"W-what do you m-mean?" He'd been trying to ignore the fact that their breaths were mingling, and personal space had long since been abandoned.

"I'm going to kiss you again, stupid."

"I-I really think we should talk about –MMPH!"

There was no part of Barry Allen that could deny the feel of her lips on his wasn't pleasant. He'd even go so far as to admit the kiss ranked in his top ten kisses of all-time. But something tugged at the back of his mind, a feeling of wrongness with the whole situation. His eyes widened when he felt Kara's tongue push insistently at his lips.

She pulled away and grinned at his cross-eyed expression. "Less talking, more kissing, Speedy Gonzalez."

"Thought you were an alien," Barry managed through his daze, trying desperately to clear his head.

"Saturday morning cartoons were an essential part of me trying to fit in growing up. Looney Tunes saved my ass in conversation more times than I can count." She reached around him and took an aggressive handful of his butt drawing a startled squeak from the meta. "Now, back to the making out."

Thinking quickly, Barry began vibrating his body to try and phase through the blonde's iron grip. To his shock (though he probably shouldn't have been surprised given her long list of powers), he saw her scowl in realization and move to increase her hold. However, in the next instant, her eyes shot open wide before rolling back, her mouth fell open with a husky moan, and her legs clutched desperately at him.

"Oh Rao!"

Then he was free and a good distance away from the super-powered alien who stumbled on shaky legs before she shook her head and stared at him, a smoldering look in her eyes.

"Please tell me that that's something you can do on the regular!" In the blink of an eye, she was in his face again, a dangerous, sexy smirk on her face. "A girl could get very used to that."

When it clicked, Barry felt his mouth run dry and his heart stop. "Wait, Kara, I didn't mean to…uh, wait, wait, wait!" She didn't listen, running her hands teasingly up and down his chest. When they strayed further south, he'd had enough. "STOP!"

That did it.

Starting back, a look of pained rejection flit through her eyes briefly only to be replaced by an angry resignation. "Whatever. You wanna turn me away too? Fine. I don't need this shit. Don't know what I was hoping for when I stole you away from your friend. You want to go back to him? Fuck it! No skin off my back." Contrary to her words, her anger was palpable as she punched a hole clean through the concrete wall behind her. "I'm going to get a fucking drink."

A deafening boom set Barry's ears ringing and then tumbling back to the ground when Kara blasted off into the sky, vanishing out of the speedster's sight before he could recover.

"Ow," Barry groaned, rubbing his backside once he'd risen to his feet. Staring after the wayward hero, he mulled over her parting words and frowned. He hadn't meant to set her off like that, but there was only so much intimate mauling from a stranger – albeit an incredibly attractive one – he could take before enough was enough. Still, that look of rejection he'd seen was nagging at him, all but begging he go after her.

Damn his bleeding heart.

"I really hope I don't regret this."

With that, the speedster flashed away in the same direction Kara had gone, hoping there weren't too many bars he'd have to search in order to find her.

"I've gotta hand it to you," Oliver said as he took in the DEO headquarters with an appreciative glance. "This is the most impressive command center I think I've ever seen."

"How many have you seen?" Alex asked, leading him toward the center of the wide-open room.

Oliver grunted. "Enough. Though this is the first time I've been in one willingly."

"Well, I'm glad the DEO could provide you with such a memorable experience," Alex said with a scoff.

"And why is the DEO playing host to an unknown entity, Agent Danvers?"

Both Oliver and Alex turned to the new voice, the latter wincing, revealing a tall, dark-skinned man with close-cropped black hair and a stern, no-nonsense visage that screamed 'man-in-charge.' Despite the slight difference of height in Oliver's favor, the new arrival's presence seemed to fill the room.

"Director Henshaw," Alex said, snapping to attention. "This is one of the breachers from earlier. He goes by Green Arrow and he's offered to help us locate Supergirl before things get even more out of control."

Henshaw crossed his arms and focused his attention on Oliver, taking in the archer's appearance and obvious armaments. The he locked eyes with the masked vigilante.

Maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him – Oliver had been through a lot in the last couple of hours – but for a moment he thought he saw Henshaw's eyes glow red. However, when he blinked the red tint was gone, and a stoic frown had replaced the outright refusal present on the director's face beforehand.

"Green Arrow, huh? Is there a story behind that?"

Oliver shook his head. "Just that I use this identity to bring down those who are poisoning my city. I went through a harrowing ordeal that showed in order to do that – to break the corruption and actually make a difference – I needed to become someone else. Something else."

Alex and Henshaw looked at each other when the archer fell silent, unsure whether he was going to continue after his dramatic words. When he didn't, the director spoke up.

"Well, while I'm normally in the habit of questioning the motives of someone who appears out of nowhere, these circumstances aren't exactly an everyday occurrence." He sighed and shook his head. "If you're willing to help us take bring Supergirl in, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Thank you," Oliver said, giving the older man a nod. "Alex was telling me on the way over that Supergirl has some incredible powers. As it stands, if she's still got my friend, I can only guide you to her. I'd be pretty useless in a fight which doesn't really sit well with me – I'm a front-line kind of guy."

"I think we can help with that," Henshaw said with a grin. "Agent Danvers take our new friend here to the armory. I think the Green Arrow is going to need an addition to his quiver."

Eventually, Barry found her in a brightly lit, relatively crowded restaurant sitting alone at the bar.

Several of the occupants were throwing her surreptitious glances, wondering if who they were seeing was indeed Supergirl. Her current attire didn't exactly give off the same vibes as a cape and skirt, nor did the lack of the vibrant smile Barry had seen on several billboards earlier. But the telltale logo, bright red and obvious over her heart, was enough to give them pause.

Her eyes were fixed on the television just behind the bar, watching intently as Cat Grant – looking markedly less pale and even somewhat regretful – addressed the city at large. Judging by the slowly darkening look on the blonde's face, she wasn't liking anything the older blonde had to say.

Barry's eyebrows rose in question when she dumped a bowl of peanuts on the bar top in front of her, drawing the attention of some of the more oblivious patrons. When she flicked the first peanut and shattered one of the bottles of alcohol, sending the rest of the customers running in terror, he took a deep breath and stepped into the restaurant.

"If you're here to try and convince me not to go back to CatCo and toss that conniving bitch off the roof again, let me tell you, Speedy, you're in for a hell of a battle," Kara said without bothering to look at him.

"Fair enough. Although, I think it's only right I tell you that that particular moniker has already been given to someone on my earth and would just cause a whole lot of unnecessary confusion with the guy I came here with whenever we run into him again." Barry stood by her side, a hand on the bar stool on her left. "Mind if I take a seat?"

She shrugged in response. "Whatever. If you want a drink though, you'll have to pour it yourself. Pretty sure the bartender took off with the rest of those miserable humans when the peanuts started flying. After he shit himself, of course."

A shiver ran down the speedster's spine as he sat down, but he shook it off. "Nah, alcohol doesn't work with the whole 'super-speed' thing. Metabolism's too fast."

"And you burn right through it," Kara said with a short laugh. She snorted and shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips. "I guess that's something else we have in common. My sister…" The smile vanished and she bit her lip with a scowl, her hands clamping down carving deep gouges into the counter. Inhaling deeply, the superheroine managed to reign in her temper. "Booze was talked up a lot all through high school and college, but when I finally turned twenty-one…nothing. Talk about a fucking let down." She set up another peanut and flicked it.

Through the wall.

Blinking at the terrifying yet fascinating display of power, Barry licked his lips. "So, I saw that look you gave your boss before you decimated the tv and judging by the mess you made of the counter when you almost started talking about your sister, I think it's safe to say you've got something on your mind."

"Wow. Figure that one out all by yourself, Flash?"

"…Sarcasm aside, I think you need to talk about it." Barry said. "Wanna talk about it?"

For a moment, Kara looked like she would've preferred to do anything else, her fists clenched so hard her knuckles went white. Then she felt a hand settle gently over hers, looked up to meet the speedster's kind eyes, and sighed. "What the hell? Can't hurt too much to vent a little. If I feel you judging me, I can always just turn you into a pile of ash, right?"

"Uh, I…guess?"

"Cool." Another heavy sigh. "Ever since I crash landed on this planet, I've been told to hide. To keep everything I can do, everything I am, under wraps. And that was fine when I was thirteen and terrified of my own shadow after waking up on an alien planet with powers I could have never imagined!" Kara huffed a laugh. "But after I stopped screaming every time my x-ray vision triggered? Or managed to not rip doors off their hinges whenever I entered a room? It was still, 'Kara, you can't let anyone know,' and, 'Kara, conceal don't feel.'"

Barry couldn't stop his snort at her words. "Seriously? Those were their exact words?"

"Shut up! That's not the point, ass!" She growled and glared at him, quieting his laughter. "What I'm saying is that there's never been a point in my life here where I was allowed to be me – Kara Zor-El – and not Kara 'happy-go-lucky-nothing-ever-gets-me-down-so-long-as-there's-pizza-and-potstickers' Danvers. You want to know the first thing I did with my powers that made me feel whole?" At his nod Kara continued. "I saved a mother and her daughter from their burning car before it blew up! Tore open the door and pried apart the warped steel faster than the Jaws of Life and pulled them out. Five seconds later, the thing exploded. I was thirteen years old."

"Whoa," Barry breathed, eyes wide. "That's amazing!"

Kara scoffed, a dark look in her eyes. "My sister berated me. My adoptive parents told me I couldn't use those powers if I ever wanted to blend in and be normal. Jerimiah – my Adopt-a-Dad – even gave me a pair of lead-lined glasses to keep me from freaking out about the x-ray vision."

Staying silent for lack of anything to say, the speedster opted for a nod instead, encouraging the blonde to continue.

"Then, earlier this year, I saved my sister – the gun-toting redhead you had the misfortune of meeting – and about two hundred other people from dying a fiery death via crashing airplane. Later that night, she barges into my apartment and screams a lecture at me about how I'm risking everyone finding out about me and how my decision to save her life – the life of one of the most important people in my life – was irresponsible, dangerous, and stupid. I mean what the fuck!" She slammed a fist on the countertop and turned it to rubble, drawing a wince from Barry.

"And to top it all off, it turns out that she'd been lying to me for years about her job. For the longest time I thought she was just working a lab or something; hours were crazy but, hey, sometimes shit gets ridiculous when there's a breakthrough, right? Frequently leaving the country? 'Oh,'" she sighed dramatically, her voice lifting in an overly embellished falsetto. "'It's another conference my boss wants me to go to, sis. Gotta work on networking!' Bitch. Come to find out she's been working as an agent for a clandestine government organization that doesn't 'officially' exist. Doesn't that sound like a hypocrite to you?"

Despite Kara's impassioned – though decidedly angry – demeanor, Barry found himself enraptured, both by the story and the woman telling it. The fire in her eyes as she bitterly recounted her grievances since coming to Earth sparked a swelling compassion within the speedster, her dilemmas mirroring his own in his early days as the Flash.

Still, while he could sympathize with her and could definitely understand the occasional desire to let loose, trying to rectify the vengeful, emotionally conflicted woman in front of him with the picture of sunshine and happiness that he'd seen plastered all around town was just the slightest bit difficult.

Maybe she just needed an outside perspective to come back to herself.

"Listen, Kara…"

"I swear to Rao if you're about to give me some kind of 'come back to the light' pep talk, I'm going to heat vision your dick off."

Barry flinched back, looking like he'd been slapped in the face and spluttering incoherently as he struggled to come up with a response. He opened and closed his mouth multiple times, blinking at the blunt, brash threat while the blonde in front of him flicked yet another peanut clean through the back wall. She may be adopted, but Kara's blunt declaration – eerily similar to her adoptive sister's earlier threat – made him wonder if it was a family thing. Eventually, he settled with putting a hand to his chest, adopting a scandalized expression, and huffing. "How rude!"

"Yeah? Well, great kisser you may be, Speedy, I'm not in the mood for a lecture from anyone."

There was a commotion outside and Barry saw several black SUVs pull up across the street, creating a makeshift barrier between them and the public who hadn't caught wind that the rogue heroine was currently remodeling the bar. When the doors opened, dozens of what looked to be SWAT members came pouring out, guns raised, and sights set on the entrance. Last out of the lead vehicle was the redhead who'd shot him – Alex, according to Kara – and a very familiar man in green leather.

Before he could say a word, Alex raised a bullhorn to her lips and spoke.

"Supergirl, come out and stand down. We don't want a fight."

Kara snorted and stood, grabbing a napkin to wipe her hands clean. "Well that's a first. Too bad I'm not one to break tradition."

"Wait, Kara…!"

Barry's plea fell on deaf ears and he could only watch her swagger arrogantly out the front door, oozing confidence. She gave the gathered force a nonchalant wave.

"Did someone say fight?"

She brought her hands together and, to the speedster's immense shock, produced a visible soundwave that shot out all around her, blowing out every glass window on street level and knocking over everyone who hadn't braced themselves or dove for cover

Barry was relieved to see Oliver as part of the latter category.

Kara flew into the air, cocky smirk in place, and gave the fallen group a condescending shrug. "That it? I was hoping for at least more than five seconds!"

Pulling herself back to her feet with a growl, Alex shouldered her own weapon, sights locked on the floating blonde, and barked, "Open fire!"

What had once been a quiet night in downtown National City now exploded into chaos as dozens of agents let loose a barrage of weapons fire that bathed the street in a sickly green hue, the muzzle flashes lighting up like an overzealous Christmas display. Looking closely – and concentrating just a bit so things would slow down – Barry saw that it was actually each individual bullet that pulsed with the same unearthly color, not some effect of the rifles being used.

After he'd taken all this in a wave of concern for Kara washed over him. They'd had a breakdown of her powers, sure, but there was something ominous about the ammunition being used.

It turned out he needn't have worried.

Green sparks fell in a continuous shower as bullet after bullet bounced harmlessly off Supergirl who never once lost her self-assured smirk. He would never admit it out loud, maybe not even to himself later in the safety of his own mind, but a rush of arousal shot through the Flash at the sight of the woman's absolute confidence.

Thankfully, he didn't have enough time to be ashamed of the feeling – or overanalyze it – as the blonde dive-bombed her attackers, sending several tumbling end over end to crash painfully into the ground.

Alex collided with the SUV she'd arrived in, her rifle hitting the ground well out of her reach. She gasped forcefully; the air having been forced out of her lungs upon impact leaving her hard-pressed to catch her breath. Her head throbbed and a high-pitched ringing filled her ears as the image of her sister swam in front of her, blurry and fading in and out.

"K-Kara, please…"

Blonde eyebrows rose. "Please what, Alex? Do you want me to let you keep running my life? Bow to your every command like some subservient animal? No," she shook her head. "No, I'm done listening to you."

Swallowing, Alex grimaced through the pain and tried again. "I-I don't want you hurt. Just stop. Please!"

Kara crossed her arms and laughed, the sound physically jarring Alex at the malice coloring the tone. It was so far removed from the warm, joyful noise her younger sister was known for and had filled her life with hope ever since she'd crash-landed on Earth.

"Sorry, sis. I ain't got time for that." Her eyes lit up, bright blue super-heated light masking any sort of inkling into what the Kryptonian was thinking, though Alex was pretty sure she wouldn't see her sister's sympathetic gaze this time around. That, above everything else, tore at the DEO agent's heart. She knew that, if no intervention came in the next few seconds, Kara would kill her and probably feel absolutely nothing afterwards thanks to the red Kryptonite.

However, when someone – most likely J'onn – managed to purge her of the synthetic drug coursing through her veins, and Kara realized what she'd done, it would destroy her. Alex felt a few tears streak down her cheeks, unable to fight off the sorrow that thought evoked. If it had been anyone else in the world, they would be able to get over accidentally killing someone while unable to control what they were doing.

Kara wouldn't.

Kara didn't deserve that.

'What is that arrow-toting asshole waiting for?' Alex thought angrily, breath still coming in short, shuddered gasps. All she needed was a distraction. It didn't have to be anything crazy, just enough to let her get to her gun. What was the point of bringing that son of a bitch in on the whole DEO secret and making a god-damned plan to subdue Kara if he wasn't even going to do his part?

THWIP!

An arrow came cutting through the air, bright green arrowhead standing out in stark contrast to the once again darkened street, headed right for Kara's face. Alex's breath caught and her stomach tied itself into a knot, silently hoping they hadn't condemned Supergirl to die.

She almost cried in relief when Kara's hand shot up to defend against the oncoming projectile, just like they had anticipated.

What they had not expected was for the blonde to not try and catch the arrow.

Instead, she had chosen to simply hold out her palm to intercept the projectile, no doubt expecting it to crumple the moment it impacted skin the way every other sharp, pointy object in her life had under Earth's yellow sun. The result was a sickening squelch as the arrow pierced clean through the front of her hand and out the back, stopping its journey inches from her face.

There was a moment where nothing moved, everything fell silent, and the world held its breath.

"AAAAHHH! OW! WHAT THE FUCK?!"

That silence was quickly broken.

"AN ARROW?! A FUCKING ARROW?! WHO EVEN USES ARROWS?!"

Heat vision lobotomy delayed for now, Alex pushed off the car behind her and crawled as fast as she could toward her rifle while the enraged Kryptonian turned away, successfully distracted by the hooded archer currently standing his ground in defiance.

'Idiot.'

Seconds after his arrow hit home, Oliver could see the effects the alien material had on Supergirl. From the point of contact and all along the side of her face – and, he assumed, up the entirety of her arm – veins lit up bright green. Even though the woman was screaming, he spotted the shudder that ran through her body and the slight stagger in her step.

And then he locked eyes with her and saw the unbridled rage and fury all but radiating off her.

'Alex said the Kryptonite would weaken her, and she's definitely injured. I just have to make sure not to – shit!'

With a roar and a blur of motion, Kara appeared an arm's length from his face and grabbed him by the throat. With what appeared to be only a mild struggle Oliver felt his feet leave the floor, his oxygen supply slowly being cut off as his trachea started to give under Supergirl's vice-like grip.

"You want to play with arrows, Pretty Boy?"

When she didn't continue immediately, Oliver figured she wanted an answer. So, despite the black dots appearing in his vision, he did his best to answer. "…N-no."

"Well, that's too bad because I happen to have found one! It went through my fucking hand! And," she examined his outfit, took in the bow he was holding in a quickly flagging grip, and twitched at the sight of the quiver on his back. "What do you know? It looks like it belongs to you!"

It was miniscule, but Oliver had been in enough life or death situations to notice the strain sneaking into her voice and bleeding into her grip. Small tremors started in her arm and he heard her growled at him when it was evident she wouldn't be able to hold him up much longer.

Oliver had never experienced flight before. But, as he flew through the air and passed through the space that was formerly the window to the bar Supergirl had stepped out of and landed in an ungraceful heap atop one of the scattered tables, the billionaire decided that particular ability was overrated.

He heard a creak and thought for a second that it was his spine snapping retroactively before the table gave out, dropping him unceremoniously to the floor.

"Ow. That hurt. That really hurt." He tried to lift himself up, felt a twinge in his low back, and fell back down with a moan, eyes shut tight. "This morning I was lying in bed with Nyssa, minding my own business. Then, I get a call from Barry and he asks if I would help him train to get faster and, like an idiot, I agree. I should have known something was going to happen because he's Barry fucking Allen! Something always happens!

"Now, I'm in a parallel universe fighting an alien with every super power under the sun – which, ironically, is the source of said powers – without knowing if we can even get home, and I have just been manhandled – alien-handled? – into a bar, and crashed through what feels like a very sturdy table. And I might die." He felt his eye twitching. Taking a deep breath to center himself he held it for a moment.

"How is this my life?!"

"Hey, Oliver. How you doing, bud?"

Opening his eyes, Oliver met the amused gaze of the perpetrator of this whole fiasco. He took another deep breath, clenched his fists, and then gave the attempt at meditation up as a bad job. "Of course you're here. In this moment. Watching me. Laughing."

"I'm not laughing at you. I was just casing my environment, getting a feel for the situation."

"You're never going to let that one go, are you?"

"Technically, it was two, and no. No, I'm not."

"…God dammit."

Kara glared after the archer for a moment, then focused her attention on her injured hand and the pulsing arrowhead draining her powers. She flexed her fingers, momentarily fascinated at the feeling of pain.

"Well, I can't say I'm not impressed, Alex. I never thought you'd have the balls to give the go ahead for your sister's murder. Attempted murder at least. Of course, you didn't pull the trigger – and I guess the point could be argued that no one did, technically – but it's the thought that counts. Right?"

Yanking the arrow out, she looked up to give Alex another smirk, already feeling the kryptonite's effects wearing off. But the redhead had vanished from the heap she'd been left in, a vaguely human shaped indentation in the SUV the only evidence anyone had been there in the first place. A pained groan off to the left caught her attention.

Turning, she saw Alex attempting to crawl toward her fallen rifle.

"There you are, sister-mine!" Kara watched for a moment, taking a dark satisfaction in Alex's struggling form. "Not so high and mighty now, huh? Crawling on the ground like the pathetic, insignificant bitch that you are!" A cruel, harsh laugh bubbled from her chest. "I was going to spare you, you know? Even after you bitched me out back at my place and then came to crash my party with my new friend in the skintight red spandex. I could forgive that. But this? This was the final straw."

Her lazy saunter finished, Kara kicked the redhead in the side, flipping the other woman onto her back.

"Kara…please."

Eyes lighting up, Kara snorted. "Hey, you tried to kill me first. I'm just returning the favor."

"…I love you."

"You've got a funny way of showing it."

Suddenly, pain erupted in her side and she was sent crashing to the ground a good thirty feet away. Unable to stop herself after her initial landing, Supergirl continued to slide despite the asphalt beneath her, creating a sizeable furrow along the way. Finally coming to an ungraceful stop, Kara shook her head clear and glared back at her assailant wondering who else had signed their death warrant.

J'onn stood, Hank Henshaw guise still in place and hovering protectively in front of Alex, hands clenched at his sides and sending a scowl of his own at the rogue superheroine.

"And replacement daddy shows up to save the day!" Getting to her feet, Kara brushed the dirt and dust off her dark ensemble. "I should have known when Alex showed up you wouldn't be too far behind. What? Did you get bored sitting on your Martian ass ordering everyone else to do your dirty work?"

"Dude, did she say Martian?"

"It did sound like it, yes."

"Do you think…?"

"That we should stay out of this? One hundred percent."

"Aw! But if he's really a Martian…!"

"Barry, you saw what Supergirl is capable of. I'm assuming by the way Director Henshaw was able to punch her clear across the street that he's at least as strong as she is. Do you really think our best course of action is to interfere in the fight?"

"…Well when you put it that way, no."

"Exactly."

"I guess revealing my true form was inevitable," J'onn said with a shrug. A second later, what looked like sizzling red light began to spread from the center of his body and out, crawling slowly over his frame.

As the wave passed, in it's wake it left new colors and textures and the already formidable physique of Hank Henshaw grew more than half a foot in a matter of seconds. When it was over, a whole new being stood for the world to see.

And he was green.

"Oh my God! He's a frickin' alien!"

"…."

"This is so cool! Damn! I wish Cisco was here to see this!"

"…"

"He would totally be freaking out right now!"

"…"

"And Dig, too! Can you imagine? He'd probably stand there and gawk the whole time!"

"…"

"Although I'm a kinda disappointed that he's not a little green man. You know."

"…shut up, Barry. Please."

"Welcome to the party, J'onn."

"Supergirl, stop this! You're not in your right mind."

His please fell on deaf ears. Kara cracked her knuckles, rolled her shoulders, and tilted her head from side to side, working out the leftover kinks from her impromptu slip 'n slide adventure.

"I disagree. I've never been more in my right mind than the last few hours. It sucked listening to you bitch and moan about every little thing I did." She scoffed. "If you're going to complain that much, then I say just do the shit yourself."

Both aliens stared each other down for several long moments that, to Oliver, somehow stretched impossibly to infinity. When he saw the pair begin to move in slow motion – mind bending, reality breaking slow motion – he knew something was up.

It was then he became aware of the hand clutching his shoulder in a death grip – and the bouncing speedster it was attached to. A small arc of lightning sparked just out of his line of sight, causing the archer to flinch before he realized, upon further examination of his person, that there was electricity bouncing all over him.

"…Barry?"

"Yeah?"

"I can't help but notice that everything around me is moving astoundingly slowly. Including the superpowered blonde who, in the only encounter I've had with her until now, could move just as fast as you." Oliver paused, allowing his words to settle in his friend's mind. "Seeing as this is no longer the case, I can only come to one conclusion…a conclusion that I thought we would never come to again after the last time."

"Uh…what conclusion is that, best buddy?"

"That you've somehow messed with the timeline – again!"

"Well, that's not exactly – "

"What the fuck did you do to the timeline, Barry?!"

Huffing, the speedster was quick to defend himself. "Easy, Ollie. This isn't a timeline thing. This is what I call…Flashtime!"

A beat.

"Explain."

"So, I was experimenting with my speed one night during training after everyone had gone home. I kept coming up short when it came to matching Zoom's speed and every failure just started piling up leaving me more and more frustrated. It got to the point where I wasn't paying enough attention and getting sloppy with my form. I stepped wrong and wound up twisting my ankle which, let me tell you, is pretty gnarly at high speeds."

"Barry…"

"Anyway, long story short, I kind of…threw a fit while Caitlin was wrapping it and, the next thing I know, everything around us has all but stopped. Come to find out, I was just moving my body really really fast."

"I thought you said you twisted your ankle," Oliver said, eyes narrowed at his friend. "How were you moving that fast with only one good foot? And with Caitlin?"

Barry shrugged. "Insert Speed Force cop out here."

"What?"

"I said it's basically what happens when time slows down relative to a speedster – in this case, me. I didn't have to actually be physically moving for it to go into effect. It's actually happened before, almost a soon as I came out of the coma, but this was the first time I'd brought someone along with me. Think of it like V.A.T.S. from Fallout."

Oliver brought a hand up and dragged it down his face in exasperation. "You and Cisco have been playing that way too much." He frowned as a wave of fatigue hit him out of nowhere. "Whoa. Why do I feel so tired all of a sudden?"

Barry winced. "That'd be because your body isn't used to moving at this speed. I've basically been holding your hand this whole time and it's finally catching up to you. Sorry about that. Didn't mean to drag you along. I am just so stoked for this alien brawl!"

"Just…just put me back at normal human time, please."

Unaware of the chicanery taking place in the bar over the course of nanoseconds, the tension between the superpowered individuals reached its zenith and they leapt into action. At least, J'onn leapt into action, jumping forward to catch Kara as she collapsed into a twitching heap, a vibrant red light outlining the falling blonde as she fought tooth and nail to stay conscious.

Behind her, Alex stood unsteadily on her feet, the rifle she'd struggled to reach once more in her hands and aimed at her sister, the violent red beam held dead center on its target. The DEO agent gnashed her teeth when she heard Kara's pained growls, her duties as an agent warring with her instincts as a sister. She knew Kara would be fine – the weapon was non-lethal and only designed to kick-start the purging – but it still sat wrong in her stomach to see her sister fall at her hands.

J'onn caught her eye through the red glow and nodded, letting her know that she could ceasefire. With a shuddering sigh, Alex released the trigger and clicked on the safety. She tossed the weapon to the ground and immediately went to her sister's side, a wave of relief rushing through her when she saw the look of adoring recognition fill the blonde's eyes for just a moment before Kara passed out.

In that moment, Alex threw all semblance of decorum to the wind – J'onn had just revealed he was an alien for fuck's sake – and wrapped her sister in a hug, burying her face in the crook of her neck. The sounds of her fellow DEO agents beginning to stir and J'onn's barked instructions were relegated to the background in favor of the steady rhythm of Kara's breath.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, though her grip on Supergirl didn't waiver. Looking up, she saw that J'onn had returned to his human guise, Hank Henshaw's normally hard face softened in concern.

"We need to get moving. We've already been out here for too long, and our scuffle with Supergirl hasn't done us any favors in dispersing the crowd. Anyone that was scared off is actually coming back." He nodded toward several small groups that were emerging from nearby buildings and alleyways, their phones leading the charge. "I'm already going to get a dressing down from the President about the collateral damage. I don't need our faces plastered all over the internet too."

"If you want, I can totally snatch up those phones and delete the videos, before they even think of posting anything."

Both Alex and J'onn turned to see the speaker approaching and, upon recognizing him, the former let out a snort of amusement.

"You must be Barry or the Flash," she said, eyeing the man's red outfit with a raised brow. "I take it we have you to thank for there not being more chaos?"

Barry's eyes widened as he jumped back. "GAH! You're the one who shot me!"

"I am, yes. I'm glad you remember me." Alex stepped into his personal space and glared at him. "I don't have to shoot your again, do I? You didn't do anything to besmirch my sister's honor, right?"

He shook his head frantically, resulting in a blur.

"Keep it that way and we won't have any problems. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am! Um, but could you maybe not say my name out loud?" He winced when she crossed her arms but continued regardless. "Please?"

Oliver snorted. "That's a first. How many people have you revealed yourself to back home? I've never known you to be shy when it comes to your identity."

"Oh, that's rich coming from you! Don't all your enemies know who you are before you even know they're there? Did you even give these guys a name? Or was it the silent treatment? Or did you just tell them that you're a hooded vigilante who's been trying to, and I quote, "bring down those who are poisoning my city," and about how in order to do that, you, "must become someone else. Something else.""

It was J'onn who broke first this time, his own chortle of amusement bubbling up before he could contain it, and Alex followed shortly after.

Oliver scowled.

Barry was close enough to see the faint blush dusting the archer's cheeks just below his mask. He crossed his arms in satisfaction. "I got it verbatim, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did, Flash," J'onn said after containing his laughter.

"Yes! First try!"

Adopting his usual scowl, the Martian in disguise spoke again. "We can discuss this more back at the DEO. However, I would be grateful if you'd follow through with your declaration on deleting whatever footage those civilians have managed to capture, if you don't mind."

"Right away, Mr. Martian Man, sir!" With a sharp salute, Barry vanished in a blur of yellow and red.

A cacophony of shrieks, squeaks, squeals, and shouts of shock rose from the gathered mob of intrigued onlookers. Mere seconds after each sound came cries of indignation and exclamations of disbelief when it was discovered whatever footage had been recorded no longer existed.

To top it off, the crimson streak – that no one was really sure was there to begin with – went straight from the crowd and into ground zero, where it proceeded to collect any and every fallen weapon and store them away in the surrounding trucks.

Alex blinked. "He's pretty handy to have around. I wish we had one to help with clean up all the time."

"Trust me, he's not always this helpful," Oliver said, smirking at the speedster who'd come to a stop by his side. "He's usually a pain in the ass."

"That's a lie and you know it, Oliver."

It was Oliver's turn to scowl, and he knew his eye was twitching in annoyance. "Oh my God, you do not know how to keep your mouth shut, do you?" Oliver's growl drew a flinch from his friend. "What was the first thing I taught you when in unknown, potentially hostile situations?"

Barry blinked. "Uh, to never rush in headfirst?"

"…the other thing."

"Keep all personnel information to yourself?"

"KEEP ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION TO YOURSELF!"

It was late the next day when Kara finally woke.

Alex, having never left her side, was the first to talk to her. Judging by the tears the older woman was vehemently brushing away as she left the room a good fifteen minutes later with a wobbly smile on her face, Barry knew they would both be okay.

"She wants to see you," the redhead said, coming to a stop where he'd been sitting at one of the empty computer terminals. "If you don't mind, that is."

Barry grinned. "Of course. Red K Kara was a trip, but I'm kind of looking forward to meeting the real Kara Danvers."

Shaking her head, Alex gave him a grin of her own. "I'll tell you this much – Kara Danvers is the most amazing being I've ever met. The fact that she's my sister…let's just say she makes me want to be a better person. Right now, though? She's fragile. Please try not to overwhelm her, okay?"

"You got it."

"Thank you."

Looking over at Oliver – who was currently in a heated discussion with the newly revealed J'onn J'onnz over whether or not he could keep the kryptonite arrow – Barry chuckled fondly. Trust Captain Paranoia to campaign for weapons on foreign soil with absolutely nothing to barter with.

He hesitated for a moment at the door, his mind flashing back to the events of the previous twenty-four hours. With a deep breath, he reached up to knock.

"This room isn't exactly private, you know. You don't have to knock."

Rubbing his neck sheepishly, Barry entered the med wing and gave Kara a crooked grin. "Sorry. Force of habit. I've walked in on more than my fair share of things that've required purging from my brain and dodged a few arrows more than is clinically healthy because I didn't knock first."

"You certainly have an interesting life, don't you, Flash?"

Blue eyes met green and, damned if he didn't find himself short of breath once again.

Nothing had changed since their initial introduction. She was sat up against the reclined bed and still wore the black, form-fitting outfit with the red 'S' shaped symbol. Her blonde hair remained loose, though it now lay fanned out over the pillow her head rested on. Barry corrected his mental assessment when her smile faltered, and she turned her gaze away from him.

Something had changed.

Gone was the overwhelming, borderline terrifying, confidence that had literally swept him off his feet minutes after his arrival on this Earth. The smoldering, predatory look she'd held up until their conversation in the bar was absent as well, replaced with an unsure, embarrassed look.

She worked at the ends of her sleeves nervously, the lack of any response to her teasing question leaving her feeling even more awkward.

Barry mentally berated himself when he realized, despite his abilities, he'd actually not delved into Flashtime – she was just too distracting – and left the poor girl hanging. "Yeah! Uh…yep! I live a very interesting life! Although this is the first time that I've accidentally crossed into an alternate Earth!"

He supposed it could have been worse and, hearing the quiet giggle his words elicited, he decided it was worth it.

Walking over to her bedside, Barry fought off a frown as Kara actively avoided making eye contact. "May I sit?"

"Please." Breathy and uncertain, her words were good enough for the speedster.

Plopping himself into the empty chair, he sent the blonde a reassuring smile. He got a small twitch at the corner of a lips even as her gaze remained fixed on her fidgeting fingers. Another stretch of silence settled over the pair, neither quite sure how to start a conversation. Still, speedsters weren't exactly known for their patience.

"Your sister said you wanted to see me."

Kara nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I did. I do." She licked her lips, looking like she wanted to continue but losing her confidence the moment she opened her mouth.

"I'm not gonna lie – I wanted to see you too." Bold, maybe, but Barry wasn't going to lie to her.

That caught her attention. Looking up, she met his eyes for the first time since he'd entered the room. "Y-you did?"

"I do," he said gently, a teasing grin as he repeated her words. "Because I think we got off on the wrong foot. I mean, I'm all for a good old-fashioned mac session, but I normally like to get the other person's name first."

Though she flushed a violent shade of scarlet, Kara smiled. A second later she bit her bottom lip, worrying it between her teeth. "I…I'm sorry about that. About how I acted and what I did…I…wasn't in my right mind. I promise that won't ever happen again! I don't even –"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down! It's okay," Barry said, holding up his hands in an attempt to calm the frantic blonde. "This isn't the first time I've encountered some form of mind control. Though it is the first time I wasn't able to phase out of someone's grasp when I really put my mind to it."

Once again, his mind caught up with his mouth just a little too late. Both heroes were practically glowing when that particular moment replayed over in their heads.

"Uh…"

"I…"

"What I meant was…"

"Oh, this is so embarrassing!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Barry said, chuckling sheepishly as the red hue slowly left his face. "I have a tendency to speak before I think. What I'm trying to say is that I understand. I was fighting this baddie once who got the jump on me. I got whammied before I had a chance to take him down and suddenly, I was angry at everything, jumping down everyone's throats, and making some pretty ridiculous decisions."

Kara's mouth hung open slightly, recognizing the similarity in their situations. "I bet you didn't have to worry about accidentally killing someone though."

A rueful grin crossed the speedster's face. "Not for lack of trying. You remember the archer that stuck you with that arrow?" At her nod he continued. "I beat him black and blue – no matter how much he denies it – and would've put him down for good if he wasn't a better fighter than me."

"Did he shoot you too?"

"Yup."

"And you still work together?"

"He's my best friend – he never even held it against me," Barry said with a grin. At her shocked expression, he shrugged. "You going to tell me your sister is holding you accountable for what happened?"

She shook her head.

"Well there you go. Oliver may not be the friendliest guy at first, second, or even third glance, but he's the brother I never had. There isn't anyone else I'd rather have at my back." He laughed. "He's as human as could possibly be, just like your sister, but he helps keep me grounded and he's there to talk to – even though he absolutely loathes feelings and talking about them – when I need someone to listen."

That drew a giggle and a shake of her head as Kara's countenance brightened just a bit more.

"What I'm trying to say is that things will get better. Sure, they might suck for a bit and some people might take longer than others to come around, but that's when you lean on your friends – on your family." Barry gave her a soft smile. "They're always going to be there for you."

Kara swallowed thickly, blinking quickly to stave off the tears that were threatening to start all over. "Thank you. I really needed to hear that after…today." She wiped at her eyes and gave him one of the most beatific smiles he'd ever seen. "Now, I don't think we've been properly introduced."

Barry smacked a hand to his head playfully. "You're right! Oh, how could I have let this happen?!"

"Let's call it a flub on both our parts. Does that work for you?"

"It does," Barry said, eyes alight. "I'm Barry. Barry Allen. Or, the Flash whenever I'm wearing this." He gestured to his crimson getup.

It was only with an iron will befitting the Maid of Might that Kara kept from giving him yet another once over. Instead, she met the sparkle in his eyes with one of her own. "Well, Barry Allen, around here I'm known as Supergirl. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, Supergirl." He offered his hand to her.

Looking into the speedster's green eyes, the Kryptonian felt her heart flutter. Taking his hand, she shook it with gusto.

"Call me Kara."

A/N: Shout out to SpeedForce 1229. Call me Kara was the first SuperFlash story that I ever read, and I've never looked back!

So, here is the fated first meeting between Kara and Barry. This chapter really kind of just…exploded from the original 'let's make it short' plan. But, as is wont to happen whenever I sit down to write, the story just goes where it wants to. Bringing Oliver into it was the plan from the get-go because Barry and Oliver are my favorite bromance of all-time and I needed to give Ollie a little love post-Crisis.

I hope you enjoyed it!