And now another bedtime story for you guys out in the wide world.
Once again, sorry for the long wait. Busy guy here.
As I announced in the latest chapter, this chapter as well as the next one will be Earth-1 chapters, focusing on the crossover Heroes Join Forces with Vandal Savage as the big bad wolf on the heroes' doorstep.
There's gonna be some changes, more scenes and longer fights.
I really hope you guys are going to enjoy these chapters.
So without further ado…
ENJOY!
Chapter 17: Legends of Today
Even though the sun was dazzling and touching every inch of the shore near the Waterfront, not a single person from Central City was witnessing the actions taking place there. The waters near the waterfront rippling violently from the shockwaves emitting through the clash of fists and energy blasts by the two beings. Ground shaking as well, cracks opening up and small pieces of rocks flying off the earth.
One armored being flying into the air after jumping backwards with a blaze emitting from his feet thrusters and his hands. Spiraling around, Iron Knight opened his shoulder pads, revealing a series of missiles, with crossed arms over his chest. His HUD screen beeping and chiming with a target circle locked onto his target.
With his forearms covering his chest plate, the light in his arc reactor was shining brightly with energy converging to it. "Take this!" He exclaimed and uncrossed his arms, the missiles launching themselves from his shoulders and the unibeam blasting out of his chest.
Angel Fury stood her ground, digging her feet deeply into the dirt. Psychic aura erupting around her entire body, she crossed her arms over each other and unleashed a pulse. The pulse manifested a thick psychic barrier around her. More of the psychic energy spread around the barrier, increasing its strength.
The missiles met the barrier and exploded against the thickness of the psychic wall. The barrier withheld against the launched projectiles. Then the unibeam connected with her shield, pushing against the psychic wall and pushed the psychic back. Cracks appeared around the dome-like surface of the psychic wall and the aura around Olivia's form was decreasing.
"Come on, Livia! You can handle this!" Matt encouraged and flexed his back, panels opening up and shooting out levitating ion cannons. They flipped open and pointed at the psychic mutant, each and every one of them charging with repulsor energy. "You didn't want kid gloves, then you're not gonna get them. Come on!"
A piece of the shield fell off and landed on the ground, shattering like glass and dispersing before touching the ground. Olivia smirked under her mask. "Thanks, Matty!" She uncrossed her arms and the shield expanded till it shattered, scattering the unibeam. With her hands free, she put them together and gathered energy in them.
"That's the spirit." The nanite mutant placed both arms beside each other, forming elongated ion cannons with spiked energy tips at the end of the barrels. Energy gathering in all cannons, both the ones on his arms and the levitating cannons increased their power intake before shooting out a combined repulsor beam that came for his wife.
Olivia lashed out both hands, shooting out a blast of psychic blast that connected with the nanite mutant's blast. Resulting in an explosion that dug up a giant piece of the ground and a massive smokescreen to fall over them all.
The two mutants didn't pay much attention to the smokescreens, their masks preventing the smokescreen from touching their faces and being inhaled.
Their third party however did not wear a mask and coughed repeatedly. "Come on guys, I just had my hair done today!" the voice of Black Cat let out when more dust fell near her face, using her hands to wipe away any excess dust from her face.
Grabbing hold of her face plate, the psychic pulled off her mask to look at her. "Hey, you wanted to train us here, Cat. You reap what you sow."
"Remind to never help you crazy pants again." she jumped off the pillar she used as a seat. Felicia walked to them and asked. "So how did this, number 13th sparring match, right, go?"
"Better." The nanite mutant replied with his mask dematerializing. Twisting his wrists around, he said. "Think these matches have actually increased my reaction time."
"They have." Felicia confirmed with a tapping of her finger on the mutant's chest. "Remember, don't scan with your suits. Sometimes the eyes can give a much better result than your tech, Iron Junior."
"She's right." Olivia said agreeingly. "I could feel more energy spiking in my body right now."
"Think Ace used to say something like this. "With the right reasons and the right heart, then your powers can really blossom."" Felicia played with a strand of her hair. "Boy should have become a poet."
"Sounds like the stuff of nightmare." Matt confessed. "You got anything else for us to try out."
"Maybe some close-range combat would be nice." Felicia watched the two mutants gain confused looks. "Know you both know how to use that, but not against… each other." They gained wide-eyed expression, strangely enough at the same time. "You two are soulmates. Creepily made for each other."
"Thank you." Matt said with a quip. "But why fight against each other?"
"Because, Iron Junior, your greatest weakness is fighting full strength against your wife." Black Cat pointed a finger at the psychic, the armored mutant scoffing annoyedly at the truth. "You need to learn how to fight against her at full strength. Once you overcome that little wall, you'll be much stronger than before." Suddenly, she shrugged. "At least that's what I think anyway."
"Convincing." Olivia breathed out with a hand running through her hair. "Let's go again. 14th's bound to be the charm."
"Definitely." Matt agreed and formed his helmet again. facing his wife, he said. "Let's go!" he jumped backwards in a spin, hovering in the air with long swords forming on his arms.
With her mask forming again, and her hand enveloped with psychic energy, Olivia pulled her whip handle to her hand and pressed the button, the razor whip shooting out and cracking in the air. "Time to rumble."
"And now, Hell continues!" Felicia made a mock announcement as the two mutants charged each other.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
"He just hit 1,375." Caitlin commented as she, her daughter and Harrison Wells from Earth-2 watched the speedster running on the treadmill in the other room with everything he has. Everything in him to train his body to surpass the velocity of Zoom.
"That's pretty fast…" Frankie noted halfway, she stopped when seeing the blank expressions on Harry's face.
Looking back through the glass to Barry's speeding form and asked. "What's the fastest Barry's run?"
Quickly thinking back, Caitlin responded. "Little over Mach two, when he ran back in time."
Harry shared a look with the doctor. "That's not good." He noted before pressing the microphone to talk to the speedster. "That's good, Barry." As Barry stopped running and stepped off the treadmill, the otherworldly scientist continued. "We have our work cut out for us."
Panting and heaving from his training, Barry walked into the room with them. "I'm not getting faster, am I?" he asked them
"Well-"
"No, you're not." Harry interrupted Caitlin's attempt to say the words.
Frankie raised an eyebrow. "Don't sugarcoat it or anything, Wells."
"I didn't." He countered and Frankie felt like slapping herself in the face from his casual words.
"All right, well, let's fix this, right?" Barry hopefully suggested. "I mean, I can't beat Zoom at this speed. It felt like I was standing still next to him."
"That's because you practically were." Harry casually stated. "Zoom is at least three, four times faster than you at this point."
"Geez, Wells. You really need to know how to hold back." Frankie commented.
Harry turned his eyes to her. "That's not how I built my company, so no. I won't."
At that point, Frankie felt like cutting him in half. "Don't! Waste of juicy meat!"
"Ew!" Frankie thought back to Magenta who kept licking her teeth within her host's mind, the host came to regret thinking of killing the otherworldly scientist instantly.
Caitlin stated her question. "How is he so much faster than Barry is and Jay was?"
"Mom. We don't actually know how fast Jay was, we've never seen that guy run before." Frankie told her mother.
"True." Caitlin agreed with a tilt of her head.
But nonetheless, Harry answered. "Physiology, form, strength, could be a number of things. Attitude, diet." He added quickly.
Barry narrowed his eyes at those last words, feeling like they were insults aimed at him. "Okay, all right, well, there's got to be something we can do about it, so let's just figure it out…Fast, okay?" his phone began to vibrate, and he pulled it up to see it. "All right, I got to go. I'm meeting Patty. I'll see you. Thank you." He finished off before walking away.
Harry turned to Caitlin who titled her head in question. "So how are we going to help Barry? I'm out of ideas, Liv and Matt don't know anything, and Seth's personal notes don't have anything in them about enhancing Speed Force, and we've tried everything you've suggested."
"Well, not everything." Harry smirked.
Frankie didn't know whether to like that or not.
X
The S.S. Tithonus had docked a while back, coming back from a long trip.
And the police chief was eagerly waiting the captain and his crew to step onto the docks. And so they did. The Captain was the first one to walk over to him. "Welcome home." The police chief welcomed the man back with a handshake. "Any trouble?"
"Nah." The captain started. "But believe it or not, we got ourselves a stowaway."
"He give you his name?" the police officer asked when seeing three crew members bringing up a man with black hair and black beard in a blue shirt and matching trackpants. His wrists held together by the handcuffs.
"Didn't say. Sat in the brig silent for three weeks." The captain answered. "He was all decked out in this when we found him." He handed the officer a coat. The insides of it was overwhelmingly holding dozens of knives. Too many for the officer to even count.
"Jeez, how many are there?" The officer asked, still in awe and shock of the many, many knives before his eyes.
"32." Came the response from the man who had been quiet in three weeks. "And I'll polish them all in blood before long. I've waited a long time for this hunt, and you have brought me very close to my prey." He bowed his head with closed eyes.
The captain walked to him slowly. "Mister, you're not going to do any hunting in those handcuffs." He walked till he stood in in front of his prisoner.
"Oh, but, Captain," The strange man smirked. "you're wearing the cuffs." To prove his point… he raised his hands and revealed that no constraints kept his hands together.
And they were around the captain's wrists now.
Slamming his shoulder into the captain's chest, sending the man to the ground as well as walking out of the crew members' grasps. The officer took out his gun and aimed it at the strange man. "Who taught you that? Houdini?"
"Actually, I taught him." the man said.
Pulling the trigger, the police chief fired a bullet. But it was easily dodged, hitting one of the crew members' sides instead. The strange man quickly took the officer's hand and twisted it around. With the gun still in his hand, the strange man slithered his hand through the gaps and found the trigger.
GUNFIRE
GUNFIRE
GUNFIRE
Applying pressure on the officer's finger, the trigger was pulled three times, forcing it to unload into its owner's stomach. Letting go of him, the police chief was brought down to the ground. reaching down for his long coat, the strange man pulled on his coat, feeling complete now with it clad on his body.
Three of the crewmembers were too shocked to even more. The quick killing of two men, one armed nonetheless was causing them stand there in a paralyzed state. They watched the strange man pulled out a knife from his coat, an ancient hunting knife by the looks of it. He was examining it for a short moment before he threw it into one of the crewmember's chest.
All of them were distracted by that attack. Too distracted to notice the strange man rush forward and pull the knife out of his chest. Using that same knife, he slashed the throat of one member. While still stained with the blood of that crewmember, he stabbed the last crewmember's heart.
Pulling it out, he watched the three crewmembers' lifeless bodies fall to the ground. The strange man walked forward with an uncaring expression, not in the least bit caring about the three men he just mercilessly slaughtered. Flipping the knife around in his hand, the blade pointed upwards.
Nearing the police chief, he quickly bent down and pierced the down officer's heart with his knife. With a yank, he pulled it out. His eyes glancing the big city within his eyesight, soulfully piercing the tall buildings in the far as a familiar feeling of needing to be here.
"Soon another sacrifice will be made." He stated...
The vision of an armor-clad female being with wings appeared in his mind.
Intrigue fell over the long-coated man. "I feel you out there." He sneered hungrily. Hungry for what was gonna happen… what was gonna happen to her.
X
(CC Jitters)
It was that time again.
The time for Cisco Ramon and Kendra Saunders to go on another date. They once again used the popular coffee shop as a local for their date.
Kendra was the to open the door into the coffee shop with a twist of her key. She held them with a triumphant expression. "Advantages of a trusting manager." Cisco and the barista laughed together.
Cisco put his hands in his pockets. "Oh, a lot's gone down in this place." The lights turned on and he smiled. "Nice." He and Kendra walked deeper into the shop, the engineer asked. "So what's up? I thought we were gonna go to dinner."
The barista didn't reply directly with her words. Instead, she had a wide grin on her face and pointed a finger at the middle of the shop, pointing towards a table with wine glasses and steel covered plates like it was a reserved table at a restaurant. Even two bottles placed beside the covered plates. "Whoa." Cisco let out in impressiveness. "What's going on here?"
Smiling widely still, the barista admitted. "I couldn't decide which restaurant to go to, so I thought we could create our own." Kendra removed the cover of one plate. "Voila. Short rib, Yukon gold puree, and asparagus." Cisco was shocked to hear that incredible menu. "Got to have a vegetable." She added playfully.
"This is nice." Cisco praised.
"I like to cook." Kendra revealed. "I didn't know if you like red of white, so…I got you both." She nodded to the two bottles.
Forming a mock concerned face, Cisco said. "Ooh, two bottles. That's kind dangerous, don't you think?"
Kendra tilted her head. "You're not gonna run away all of a sudden, are you?"
"Trust me, I'm staying by your side as long as possible." Cisco instantly responded.
"Good." Came the just as quick response from Kendra. She threw her head down for a moment before saying. "You know, it's been really great hanging out these last few weeks. And it's helped make the move a lot easier, so…" She had already walked around the table and when she stood before him, she placed her hand on top of his. "Thanks."
"You're very welcome." Cisco said and the two moved in for a kiss.
Their lips connecting and-
However, both of them were forced to separate from their brief kiss when hearing the voice of a man talking in a foreign language. Facing him, they saw that he was a man with a dark blue coat. Brown eyes and black hair on his head as well as on his face… all the while his menacing eyes pointed themselves at Kendra's form…
… her latest form…
Kendra looked at him shockingly. "Sorry. How did you get in here?"
Cisco faced him too. "Hey, man, this place is closed."
The man didn't pay any mind to what Cisco said… as his attention was solely devoted to Kendra. "You are just as beautiful in this life as any other, Priestess Chay-Ara."
"Priestess?" Kendra repeated confusedly.
"You're going to have to go, dude." Cisco stepped in front of Kendra.
"Oh, not without her…" the strange man pulled the sides of his trench coat open, showing the dozens of knives on both sides. "…dude."
"Oh, my God. Cisco." Kendra fearfully let out. Her fear increased when the strange man took out a knife. "I don't understand. What do you want?"
"I believe I was clear." He flipped the knife around.
Thankfully, Cisco had his hand around his phone and pressed the screen, sending out a distress call to a pair of heroes. But he had to stall for now, to ensure that both of them would be here in time. "Kendra's not going anywhere with you, Highlander."
Smiling viciously, the man pointed his knife at the woman. "Oh, is that your name now? Kendra? Quite boring." Once again, he flipped the knife around. "I believe it allowed you to blend in for a while." He continued to flip the knife around. "Now, give her to me, and I'll make your death fast."
"It ain't gonna happen." Cisco defiantly said.
The strange man smirked interested. His hand reeling back, preparing to throw the knife-
WHOOSH
But thankfully that was not meant to be thanks to the Scarlet Speedster slammed into the strange man with his shoulder.
SLAM
The strange man was knocked further back when a flying form slammed conjoined feet, shining with repulsor energy, into his form. Iron Knight backflipped, landing on the ground and aimed both hands at the man. "Place is closed, read the sign!"
"You are done here, pal." The Flash stated and walked closer to him.
"So is he!" The strange lashed out his hand and launched his knife… towards Cisco…
Matt faced him and focused energy in his palms, ready to blast the knife into pieces before it would ever connect with his friend's form. But the moment he faced that direction, he registered The Flash having his hand around the knife handle.
"Thank God." The nanite mutant let out in relief.
He and the metahuman snapped around, looking back in the direction of the strange man. Much to their dismay, he was no longer here. "Fucking hell, jackass's gone." Iron Knight said displeased.
They heard a loud exclaim of relief and looked to Cisco who walked to them, placing a hand on both Matt's shoulder and Barry's shoulder. "Thank God you and Matt came, Barry."
"Dude, come on." Barry said displeased that the name of his secret identity has been let out… so easily.
"Are you shitting me, Cisco?!" Matt voiced his displeasure… much louder.
Whilst the shock of this was reeling in, Kendra had eyes wide as saucers.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
"I can't believe you're The Flash." Kendra said with her eyes pointing at the mannequin wearing the Flash suit in S.T.A.R. Labs. She saw the whole team there and the other heroes too "And that you work with The Flash." She faced Cisco with disbelief. "And Iron Knight, Angel Fury and Magenta."
She couldn't believe that she had made drinks in their names this whole time… even served them.
"Yeah, let's keep that on the DL." Cisco said sheepishly.
Olivia looked to her husband with an inquiring look. "So, our secret identities? Are they just available for anyone this day and age?"
"You'd think. Cisco didn't have a problem with saying our names before." Matt threw a glare to the native engineer.
"Again, sorry about that." Cisco apologized.
Frankie looked displeased. "I should go invisible more." She said to herself and her mother ruffled her hair.
Barry then got their attention, pointing to the knife that he stopped from penetrating Cisco's body. "This is the same knife that was used to kill the men at the docks." Earlier he informed them of the killings of four crewmembers, their captain and a police chief. All of them done by a single blade wielded by the same man. "Residue's a perfect match."
"So it is the same guy?" Joe's question came out as a statement.
"Definitely." Barry confirmed. "But the thing is, these blades are old, centuries old."
Olivia walked closer to the blades. "No kidding. I mean, did this guy go grave-robbing or something?"
"Where? In an Indiana Jones movie?" Matt joked.
Iris looked to the barista. "Do you have any idea why this guy would be after you?"
"No, I've never seen him before in my life." Kendra revealed with a shaking head.
Gesturing to her, Cisco added. "Well, he was certainly acting like he knew you. He kept calling her Priestess Chay-Ara."
Harry turned his eyes to him. "That's Coptic."
Caitlin frowned with a tilted head. "You mean Egyptian?"
"That's right." Harrison causally said.
Kendra looked confused, even more so than she already was. "Well, I grew up in Wisconsin, and I've never even left the States, so…"
Matt took notice of the look realization dawning on Cisco's face. Like he knew what was going on here, or at the very least had some idea to what's going on here.
Barry then said. "This guy, he's clearly incredibly dangerous, so I need you to at least let us try to protect you."
"I can put a detail on her." Joe suggested.
"Not gonna do squat against that him." Matt dejected.
Cisco nodded. "You didn't see this guy, Joe. Not offense, but I don't think a cop is going to be able to protect her."
"Yeah, he took a hit from my suit and he still managed to back on his feet." Matt said.
"Yeah, but we do have a few friends who could lend a hand. But we're gonna have to leave Central City." Barry admitted.
"And go where? Hogwarts? Dangle Draco Malfoy in front of him like bait on a fishing hook?" Olivia quipped.
"No somewhere better." The psychic wondered if he really admitted that there was a place better than Hogwarts. "Star City to get Green Arrow's help." Barry confidently stated his answer.
The psychic raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
X
(Star City, Argus Base)
Whilst his two co-workers lie dead on the ground, the very life force in them sucked out of their bodies like juice squeezed out of a juice carton, his body was slowly about to enter the same state. And it would be done so by the hands of the pale terror in a black suit, Damien Darhk.
Well, hand.
Damien's men, Ghosts, were standing like loyal soldiers, not showing anything or saying anything as they watched their boss mockingly make the same reactions as his victim he was draining. All of them looking through their black headgear, goggles and masks to see the victim's struggles lessen.
Still, though ARGUS had fallen to their boss's powers, the men were ready in full tactical armor and guns and everything to ensure that they got what they were looking for.
Once all life force was sucked out of the man, his body fell to the ground. Right beside the two other dead ARGUS agents. "Oh gosh, that's fun. I really could do this all day." He walked forward and over to the large truck in front of him. His Ghosts following him to the cargo truck. "Open it up."
His men pried the doors open and revealed the contents of the cargo to their boss. Showing Damien Darhk the large black container. A container with a very delicate and dangerous weapon. Damien laughed. "They could've at least tried to hide this chemical bomb. Serves them right, it getting stolen and used against them."
Suddenly the familiar sound of a string pulled back a moment reached their ears. A second later, the sound of a sharp edge piercing the ground reached their ears as well. Turing around to the direction of it, they found a familiar green arrow embedded into the ground. A green arrow with a metallic device around the middle of its shaft.
Looking upwards, they found their answer and narrowed their eyes on the three standing on top of the cargo.
To the left side, a small woman was standing tall and confident. Clad in a red Kevlar-laced leather suit with a red hood over her head. Her eyes looking through her red eye mask with anger pointing at the Ghosts and their boss. Her back equipped with a quiver, filled with arrows. Her left hand clad around the handle of her compound bow. A scabbard behind her quiver, holding a sword that was nothing short of a blade in the fiery red hands of the scarlet archer, Speedy.
To the right side, was a tall dark-skinned man. His face covered by a silver helmet. One with a visor going across the eyes and nose and stopping near the mouth. Protective black leather clothing, lined with Kevlar, clad on his body, allowing the darkness to be one with him. One hand around the handle of his gun. Spartan was ready to for action.
In the middle of them both, stood the emerald archer. Standing tall in a light green suit, was the Green Arrow himself. A suit more advanced than that of its predecessor's, the Arrow suit. Like the red archer, he too has his left hand wrapped around his compound bow and his back equipped with an arrow-filled quiver. His head covered by a light green hood and a dark green mask over his eyes.
Damien looked in mock surprise, not at all surprised to see that the meddlesome vigilantes have come to try and foil his plans again. "Oh, you brought arrows to a gunfight."
"What guns?" Green Arrow said his quip with the voice modifier and pressed the side of his suit. The arrow that he fired off earlier released a magnetic pulse that forced the guns out of the ghosts' hands, forcing them to gather around the arrow.
Surprised by the magnetic arrow's function, Damien said. "Oh, that was actually pretty clever." He shortly chuckled before ordering his men. "Kill them." He walked away… just as the three heroes jumped down from the cargo truck.
Green Arrow slammed his fist into the nearest Ghost soldier, sending him down to the ground. And that was start of a massive fight. The Ghosts charged the three vigilantes.
Legs lashed out to deliver kicks. Arms thrusted forward to send hurtful punches. Bows slammed into the sides of enemy faces. Arrows taken out of their quivers to stab into the nearest enemy. A sword swung to slash through the armor of the soldier-like criminals. Guns shooting out of sleeves to send out lead projectiles and puncturing flesh on the various enemies.
Oliver Queen dodged the incoming fists of two Ghost soldiers. But his concentration was somewhat divided when he heard his girlfriend speak through the open line in their comms devices… mimicking his voice.
""Felicity, the magnetic arrow gag will never work."" Felicity Smoak chuckled in her seat in front of the computers in the new and improved Arrowcave. Oliver managed to grab one Ghost's arm and hurled him to the side. "Yes, it will, my love., because I am really smart. And guess what, Oliver? It did work."
Grabbing the other Ghost criminal by the back of his neck, Oliver slammed his head into the hood of an army jeep… all the while sheepishly speaking to his girlfriend… at the worst possible timing. "Felicity, honey, it's a little hard with you doing that in my ear." He repeatedly slammed the Ghost soldier's head into the hood of the vehicle till his body slid down because of his unconsciousness.
He could hear the inaudible shocked gasp from Felicity in the bunker. "Oh, I totally forgot that this was an open line. Keep doing what you're doing. Make smart decisions." She quickly said before cutting off the line.
Smart decisions were made with the Emerald Archer lashing out his foot and knocking away a Ghost soldier. Twirling around, he blocked another from attack with his bow and thrusted out his other hand, slamming it into his face. He saw how the others were faring against their share of soldiers.
Speedy was doing well. Kicking one Ghost and spinning around to deliver a roundhouse kick. The two kicks knocked him down to his knees and she slammed her bow into his face a few times before sending out an uppercut, knocking him out.
Spartan parried the fists of an incoming Ghost, pushing them away and spun around. Using the momentum of the spin, he appeared before another Ghost. Blocking a fist with his forearm, he punched the criminal in his face, pushing him away and in time to John Diggle to grab an incoming fist from behind with one hand and use the other one to deliver a punch to the first Ghost he attacked. This attack sending him down to the ground.
The other Ghost swung with his fist, but Spartan crouched and dodged the attack. With the low position, he slammed his fist into the Ghost's stomach. This impact knocking the criminal down with hands around his stomach.
Green Arrow saw a Ghost running over to him and he spun around, using the velocity of the spin to kick the criminal towards Spartan who delivered a kick of his own to the man's face. Oliver smiled under his hood and thrusted his fist into one Ghost's face.
Using that same hand, he wrapped his digits around his throat and slammed him into the ground. Getting back on his full height, he turned around-
And came face to face with Damien Darhk. The leader of H.I.V.E. instantly placed the palm of his right hand on the side of the emerald archer's chest. Feeling the effects of the life absorption powers he has, Oliver was paralyzed. "Ooh! You know, I got to be honest. I really thought we'd be doing this dance a lot longer. Night-night."
He watched the life draining from the archer's face… paling by the second as he continued to have his physical contact with his body. Damien knew that this was gonna be one victory that he would savor for the rest of his operation in Star City.
WHOOSH
But a flash of yellow lightning dragged the archers and the armored man away.
Damien exclaimed shocked by that sight. "What was that?"
X
Meanwhile, the two archers Green Arrow and Speedy were still standing disoriented by the sudden escape and running at the speed of sound.
A flash of yellow lightning returned and The Flash stood before them… while a disoriented Spartan looked around in shock. That shock was instantly replaced when he felt something ugly making its way up his lungs. John pulled his helmet off and bend down.
VOMITTING
Barry winced at the sound of the former soldier vomiting, mostly because it was his fault. "Damn it." John Diggle sighed. "Every time." He wiped away any excess vomit from the corners of his mouth with the back of his sleeve.
Speedy, Thea Queen, looked shocked to see the Scarlet Speedster before them. "It's The Flash." Oliver nodded to her statement. "Did I know we knew The Flash?" Thea was still in shock and her elder brother nodded. "We know The Flash. Okay. I didn't know we knew The Flash."
"Oh, you found them."
The Star City natives looked upwards and saw Iron Knight descending to the ground. He walked up to the speedster and said. "Took a while, didn't it?"
"Had to look all over the place, yeah." Barry admitted with scratch of his neck.
"It's Iron Knight." Thea said in shock. John nodded to her statement. "Did I know we knew Iron Knight?" Thea knew she was reciting her own words with a few changes. John nodded again to her words. "We know Iron Knight. Okay. I didn't know we knew Iron Knight."
"Calm down. I'm not that big of a deal." Matt assured the red archer.
"Okay." Speedy said, but to her he was a pretty big deal.
"Thank you." Oliver directed to the speedster. He gained a serious expression as he shifted his gaze between them both. "But I don't think you guys flew and ran all the way here to protect us."
"Nope. Sorry, but it wasn't to protect you guys." Matt answered.
"We need to protect a friend." Barry finished off.
X
The Arrow team showed the metahuman and the mutant the entrance to their bunker. They were trustworthy, despite Oliver having harbored feelings of distrust towards the nanite mutant during his last visit to their city. Now they all waited in the elevator together.
Matt looked to Barry. "Did you know they got a new hideout?" His helmet was still covering his head.
"No." The speedster replied and then pointed to the nanite mutant's helmet. "Dude, why are you wearing your helmet in here?"
"Oh yeah." Matt let out. Arching his neck, the nanites forming his helmet dematerialized and retracted into his suit. "Sometimes it feels natural to wear that in unknown territories."
Oliver glanced at him. "Wouldn't that mean, you don't trust us yet?" the nanite mutant didn't answer and narrowed his eyes on him.
"Ollie." Thea chastised her brother. Now she was not wearing her hood, letting her short brown hair and green eyes be shown to the two from Central City. Turning to the mutant, she said. "Sorry, my brother has a nasty habit like that."
"Nah it's okay." Matt glanced back to the elder Queen sibling. "Pretty sure your brother here doesn't trust me yet anyway." Oliver didn't answer and turned to face the elevator doors again. The nanite mutant chuckled and outstretched his hand to the red archer. "Forgive my manners. My name's Matt Stark."
"Oh." Thea let out and held out her own hand. Grabbing his, they shock hands. "Thea Queen. Oliver's little sister."
"You gotta tell me how it is to have such a hard-ass of a brother later." He made sure it was loud enough for the elder Queen sibling to hear and he could hear his teeth gritting.
"Maybe if you tell me how you don't feel stuffed in that armor of yours." Thea quipped with a gesture to his armor.
"Ventilation is God's greatest gift to this world." Matt said. He noticed John looking at him intently for some reason. "What's with you, John? You look like you've seen something of this world."
Gulping loudly, the former soldier said. "Oliver told us that you… somehow got a… larger suit… out of your body." He spoke slowly and pointed to the mutant's body.
Matt gaped his mouth in realization. "Oh yeah, my VenomBuster suit. That one took a while to make. But yeah, what about it?"
"How does that not hurt?" John asked, referring to how the nanites swarmed out of his insides.
"It does hurt." Matt indifferently stated, like it the most normal thing in the world.
And that actually shook the former soldier's core.
The elevators opened and they all walked into the new Arrowcave. Matt remembered that Cisco had been helping Felicity with setting up the bunker under the building. He saw a large array of computers around the lair. In the middle of the lair, he saw a platform there. Two areas with computers and between them a large rectangular computer monitor attached to a stand, appearing to be connected to the two sets of computers on either side of it. A very fine and large lamb hanging above the platform. The lighted panels under the platform floor was a nice touch. Looking around again, the nanite mutant found training facilities. He even found strange cases to the right side of the lair.
His mask forming quickly to scan the cases' materials and found polycarbonate in the casings. Further scanning showed him biometrics keyed to specific users only as well. "Not bad." The nanite mutant admitted impressed with his mask deforming again.
Barry nodded and took in the sight of the bunker. "Nice new digs." Oliver smiled in appreciation of his friend's words. The speedster then took a look at Oliver's suit and noted. "Also, I just noticed, no sleeves. Don't you get cold?"
Oliver said. "I spent the better part of five years on an island in the North China Sea. I don't get cold, Barry."
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Show-off."
Hearing a pair of small feet walking towards Barry and Oliver, the mutant saw Felicity Smoak coming to them with a smile on her face. "Barry, it's so good to see you." she greeted the speedster.
"Felicity." He wrapped his arms around the expert hacker. "Good to see you, Felicity." He smiled happily.
Once their arms were unwrapped from one another, the hacker punched the speedster's chest. "How come you didn't tell me Zoom broke your back?"
"I-"
Felicity cut him off with another hug. The mutant scratching the side of his head in confusion while the hacker told the speedster earnestly. "Oh, I'm so glad you're okay."
While still in the embrace, Barry shifted his head to the archer who smirked. "So this is what it's like dating her?"
"More bruises from her than from Deathstroke." Oliver quipped.
The nanite mutant chuckled and showed a holographic screen from an opening panel on the gauntlet on his left forearm. John saw the screen appearing out of his arm and walked over to him. "What are you doing?"
"Seeing when our other friend and our protectee are gonna be here." He answered… with a lie. Looking up to the platform, he saw they have already arrived. "And here they are."
John saw Cisco walking up to the platform with an attractive young woman behind him. The engineer was watching the equipment tenderly. Kendra looked around the place and admitted. "Okay, S.T.A.R. Labs is impressive, but this is…"
"This is completely wrong!" Cisco loudly voiced his disapproval of Team Arrow's tech. Felicity looked shocked at his words and faced him while Matt looked interested with crossed arms. "Did you guys even look at the specs I sent over? This a tragedy. I'm mourning for the death of engineering. Matt you agree, right?" he looked to him.
However, Matt surprisingly shrugged. "Guess it is good for them and their operation." Felicity looked hurt at him and Cisco looked at him disbelief. "Guys, I work for a governmental operation that makes ARGUS look like an upstarting kindergarten. Heck, we don't have a base like you guys, we have a Helicarrier in the skies that goes invisible when the director orders it to. And it's manned by hundreds of agents."
"A flying base?" Kendra asked curiously. And he nodded, making the barista widen a smile. "That is definitely better than this. And cooler."
"Yeah we can compare bases later." Cisco said to the mutant and faced the hacker again. "But remember: copper wiring to handle the processing speed from the Palmer Satellite, or else your system is gonna overload."
"Yeah, but that hasn't happened." Felicity defiantly said. "I mean, it hasn't happened since last week."
"You mean, it happened yesterday, right?" Matt knowingly said and the hacker threw him a shocked look. Shrugging uncaringly, he revealed. "I wanted to see their setup so I did a quick scan is all and found more than a few errors."
"Hi." Kendra broke the ice and stepped forward.
"I'm Felicity." The hacker greeted.
"I'm Kendra Saunders." She walked down the short staircase to shake hands with Felicity. Oliver giving her a suspicious look. Glancing at Cisco, she added. "I'm Cisco's…" she stopped herself from speaking, having no idea on how to explain her relationship with Cisco at this current moment.
Seeing her look at him for guidance, the mechanical engineer sheepishly answered. "She's, uh, my, uh, new, beautiful friend who kisses me occasionally." He got series of strange looks from everyone around him.
"Cisco." Matt got his attention. "Want me to get Livia to get you some kind of mind scrubbing, kind of like she'd try to set it right or something like that? It would probably help you out in these kind of situations."
"Might actually be a help." Thea chuckled. "Right, Um, I'm Thea." She introduced herself before pointing to the grinning former soldier. "This is John Diggle and my brother."
"Oliver Queen." Kendra already knew who the man was.
"Hi." Oliver shook hands with her with a smile.
"Wow." Kendra let out before stating. "Okay, first to meet The Flash, Iron Knight, Magenta and Angel Fury and now the Green Arrow." She looked to Cisco again. "Do you have any other surprises for me?"
"Please, no more surprises." Cisco hopefully muttered.
"If that's her reaction to us, what's it's gonna be when Venom comes back?" Matt joked.
Cisco's faced paled. "She might just get a heart attack."
"Wait?" Felicity rushed to the nanite mutant. "I thought Barry said he died."
"Oh yeah, we thought the same. But apparently he's doing well… just away from here." Matt said with a chuckle.
Gaping her mouth in hurt and shock, the hacker slapped his armored chest. "Why didn't you guys ever tell us that?" Her other hand wrapped around her slapping hand that was hurting from the contact with his suit. "Ow! That's hard."
"It's an armor meant for a battle. Not a saddle for My Little Pony. It's supposed to be hard, Felicity." The mutant quipped seriously and then said. "And about Venom and all, it's a long story, we'll get into it later. Promise." Felicity looked content with that response, but still held her hand tenderly.
"For now…" Oliver faced the barista from CC Jitters. "Barry and Matt said that you need our help. Somebody very dangerous is after you."
"Yeah, and I have no idea why." Kendra said.
Thea looked worried. "What does this guy even look like?"
"Hold on." Barry stated and walked over to a sketchbook lying on a table. Opening it, he withdrew a pencil. Using his superspeed, he went to work and began to draw. Matt narrowed his eyes, briefly wondering if the speedster was seriously doing this to show off right now to the Star City team. Especially since, the nanite mutant had already taken a photo of the man himself during their fight.
Which he told Barry of.
Finally done with the drawing, he returned to them and showed an exact drawing of the man himself. "Okay, this is him."
John leant against a pillar with a shocked expression. "Yeah, see, that's something I would never think of."
Felicity looked at the sketch. "Hey, kind of rocking that Dothraki look…" she took the sketchbook in her hand. "Hot." They gave her looks like she had two heads. "Let's see if facial recognition can find a match." She walked to the platform.
"Jarvis give her a hand." Matt said to his gauntlet and lashed out his hand. The top panel of his right hand opened slightly to shoot out a small device that attached to the back of the computer. The device began to shine a bit with a blue shine.
"Nice shot." Thea impressively said.
"You and your big bro aren't the only long-range fighters here, Thea." Matt quipped. "Jarvis, help her."
"Affirmative, sir."
Thea and Kendra gasped. John withheld his shocked gasp from hearing that voice. The red archer faced the knight. "What… Who is that?"
"Jarvis, an AI from where I'm from." Matt said before looking to Felicity. "He's gonna help you, Felicity."
"He sure is." Felicity said without making eye contact as she fully devoted to her work. "Mind if I borrow him for a while?"
"Yes." The nanite mutant replied instantly. "Yes, I would mind you using him."
Felicity returned to her work with speedy fingers. Thanks to the combined work of both the AI and the expert hacker, they were able to bring up a matching image. Even though the image was in black and white, Kendra was able to see that it was clearly the face of her attacker. "That's him."
"Mr. Stark, I believe we have come across an error that appears to not be an error."
"What do you mean, Jarvis?" Matt asked while walking behind the Star City hacker.
Felicity nodded in agreement. "Yeah, strange. This picture's from 1975."
"Which would make him about 80 years old right now." Barry deduced.
"Okay, what else can you tell us?" Oliver asked.
Kendra looked unsure of what to answer. "He said we've known each other for ages, but I've never met the man before."
"Well, there has to be some kind of connection." Oliver stated.
"Not one I can think of." Kendra regretfully said. "I just moved to Central City six months ago."
"Why'd you move there?" Oliver continued with the questions.
Matt narrowed his eyes; this was quickly taking the form of an interrogation.
"I just felt drawn to the city, I guess." Kendra said.
Oliver persisted with the interrogation. "Kendra, there is a reason this guy's after you. Think."
"Hey, Queen." They all heard Matt's raised voice and watched him cross his arms over his chest with a stern expression on his face. "This ain't an interrogation. Stop treating it like it is. And stop treating it like it's Kendra's fault."
"Matt, you're an agent for an organization like ARGUS, maybe better even, then you know these are standard questions to ask anyone who's targeted by some mysterious guy like this." Oliver felt like reminding him.
Matt then reminded him back. "And last time, I checked. You're not an agent of any organization, Robin Hood. Don't act like you know any better than me." His tone was sharp and cold like steel.
"Look, man," Cisco continued, "we just came out here to hide out for a bit until we figure things out, so you can just take it down…" he used his fingers to mimic the amount he needed to tone down.
"You came here because you need our help." Oliver reminded the engineer sternly. "This is what my help looks like."
"You call treating friends and allies like enemies help?" Matt scoffed casually; his tone didn't sit well with the green archer. "You're one messed up fool, Green Arrow." His words got the archer to clench his hands into fists while they were placed on the sides of his stomach.
Barry saw the same and reminded his friend. "Oliver, I just saved you guys from whatever the hell Flock of Seagulls was about to do. The least you can do-"
"Barry, none of us have superpowers." Oliver cut him off. Barry and Matt scoffed and Felicity showed them an apologetic look. "You brought Kendra into our world without knowing who she is or what this dude that is after her is looking for. You made all of us unsafe. So maybe you ask the questions."
"Aw." Matt mocked a coo. "Don't tell me you're afraid now, Ollie? A little shaky in your pants, huh? Because of a guy you've never met or is it because of this soldiers Barry told me about."
Oliver saw red and wanted to take down the mutant. However, the hand of his girlfriend on his shoulder while she made eye contact with him from her chair. With a quirky smile and a gesture to all around, she said. "We're all friends here, right?" the green archer hummed. "Why don't we go back to our place and have some drinks, and we can talk?" she suggested hopefully.
Shrugging the speedster agreed with a simple. "Cool." He looked to Matt who looked disapproving. "Matt?"
"Guess we could use some liquor to get into a more… cooperative mood." Matt agreed with a glare to the archer.
"Perfect!" Felicity let out with hands lashed to the sides. "Remember to bring your girlfriend too."
"My wife." He clarified and the hacker's mouth gaped again. "Yeah, we got married a while back."
Felicity shot from her chair and slapped his chest again. "Why didn't you invite us?" she had to hold her hand again with her other one from slapping his armored chest… again.
X
(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)
With Frankie out swinging above the city streets as Magenta to find the infamous thief, Black Cat and inform her of what have here in case her powers were needed, Caitlin remained seated in her seat before the main console. Her eyes looking over the screen in front of her.
She smiled happily at the sight of the photo revealed on the computer monitor. The entirety of the screen was displaying the latest and greatest photo that she, Frankie… and Seth took. It was shortly after she and the elemental got back together again.
It was from the night that they went out with their friends to a restaurant that Felicity Smoak and Ray Palmer had arranged for them. That night was certainly hectic because it was also the night that bees from Bug-Eyed Bandit, Brie Larvan, wanted to get revenge at Tina McGee for ruining her career.
But it turned out great nonetheless, because before they separated from the rest there, the three of them snuck away and found a nice white background for them to use so they could take a few photos to remember this night. And so they did that very same night after apprehending the mad scientist.
Caitlin smiled at the picture still… and at the memory of it… because it was without a doubt…
… one of her fondest memories…
X
(Flashback)
"Come on, Cait!"
"Okay, alright!" Caitlin finally agreed to let the mutant drag her and Frankie back to the restaurant. All three of them had gotten back into their formal clothes of that night… well actually it was just the mutant and his daughter that had to change back into their formal clothes of a suit and a dress. Caitlin was already in hers.
Frankie lifted an eyebrow. "But how did you get them to let us back in here, Dad?" she curiously asked her father.
Showing a slick smile, the elemental stated. "Come on, honey. Do you know anyone who can say no to this face?" He pointed a finger to his own face while wearing a goofy expression.
Despite how funny it truly was to see the serious-at-work Seth Fury wear a funny expression on his face, Caitlin couldn't help but narrow her eyes with crossed eyes and asked suspiciously. "You didn't threaten the manager now, did you?"
As they were let through the entrance door, the mutant threw up his hands. "Come on Cait. I would never…" he trailed off when seeing his daughter join in with the suspicious looks. His demeanor falling to pieces and he confessed. "I asked Ray Palmer to get us back in here just for tonight."
"And he agreed?" Frankie asked as they walked into the large dining hall again by waiters.
"Yup. He said it was his version of a "Welcome-back-to-life"- present." He answered with quotation marks. His girlfriend and his daughter both giving him wide-eyed looks. "Don't be surprised guys, we're talking about Felicity Smoak's boyfriend here. She's bound to find someone as screwed-up as herself."
Caitlin laughed. "Someone to match her crazy."
Seth smirked and pulled Caitlin close to him with his arms around her waist. "Yeah, I know the feeling."
Gaining a mock hurt expression, she inquired. "You calling me crazy now, Dr. Fury?"
"Oh yes, I am, Dr. Snow." Seth smirked and leant closer to her lips and kissed her with closed eyes. The female doctor wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to the embrace, both of them closing their eyes to enjoy the kiss they shared with one another.
Frankie blushed embarrassedly as she watched them kiss. "Seriously? Now?"
Disengaging from his girlfriend, her father reached over to her head and ruffled her hair. "Fine, Ms. Thing. Let's get down to it." He stepped backwards till his back hit the wall behind him. "Perfect spot, right?"
"For what, Dad?" Frankie wondered.
She got her answer when Seth used a black tendril to pull out a camera. "Thought it would be nice to have more photos of all three of us back home. It's not every day that we get to dress up fancy, so it'd be memorable."
"So that was your genius plan, huh?" Caitlin stepped over to him till she stood beside him. "But it's a good idea, yeah."
"Yeah." Frankie agreed and stepped over to her father's side. "Let's do it!"
Seth wrapped an arm around his daughter's head and pulled her close, making her laugh embarrassedly. His other arm wrapped around his girlfriend's waist again, this time pulling her to his side and her head facing his own that met hers.
The tendril holding the camera stretched itself longer without worry, knowing that the staff were in the personnel areas working. It split into two tendrils to hold the camera and focus on the three of them.
Frankie was smiling happily while in the embrace of her father's arm.
Seth was looking soulfully into Caitlin's eyes.
Caitlin was matching his eyes, with a soulful gaze of her own.
The two leant closer to one another… and their lips once again met in a passionate kiss that was full of nothing but the love that the two feels for each other.
The camera flash appearing the next second didn't appear to disturb them in the least… as it went completely unnoticed.
(Flashback End)
X
Placing her fingers on her lips, she kissed them. Pulling them from her mouth, she placed them over the image of her boyfriend's face. "I love you, Seth. Come back." She longingly said.
But she knew all too well that she didn't even have to say. She smiled at the memory from Cisco's vibe. Where he determinedly declared to the menacing speedster Zoom that he would not prevent him from getting back to her and their daughter.
That Zoom would never defeat him no matter what he threw at him.
Seth will prevail and charge head-on with his sword.
She found the sword intriguing and couldn't wait to examine it when he returns.
Hearing the sounds of keys on a keyboard being pressed repeatedly in her private lab, she perked up her head and saw Harry working on the computer there. Curiosity drove her to look into it and she minimized the photo and got on her feet.
Walking up the small staircase to her lab, she asked him. "What you working on?" she walked closer to him and saw him working on the computer… a simulation possibly.
Glancing at the native doctor once, he said, "This is a formula meant to increase a speedster's velocity that I've been developing since Zoom showed up on my Earth." Caitlin pursed her lips curiously as she listened. "Ironically, this was meant to help out Jay Garrick."
"You want to give Barry a drug to make him run faster?" Caitlin quickly deduced.
Harry cocked his head. "Temporarily enhance the Speed Force in his system, yes."
Caitlin narrowed her eyes. "So you're trying to make nitrous oxide for speedsters." She cheekily compared.
"Good analogy." Harry smiled. "Yes, I tried. Five times I fried. Five times I failed. That's what you get when your background is technology and not biochemistry."
Caitlin scoffed confidently. "Well, then you are lucky I am here."
"What does that mean? Did your husband have notes on this subject?" he inquired at her words.
"First, Seth's not my husband, he's my boyfriend." Caitlin corrected him firstly, though she was blushing by the thought of Seth as her husband, as she took a seat beside him. "Second, you've doing this the wrong wat. You've been thinking of this as a mechanical problem, not a biomechanical one."
"And what does that mean?" Harry recited unsurely.
Taking over in front of the computer, she informed. "When a speedster runs, they consume an extraordinary amount of oxygen," she put in the formula of nitrate on the computer simulation and began reconstructing it as she spoke. "so we just need something to give an extra boost of oxygen during that time."
"Like an oxygen generator." Harry caught on.
"Exactly." Caitlin agreed. "So we just need a chemical that's rich in oxygen that would release it as a nearly pure gas as it decomposes… something like…"
""Sodium chlorate."" The two reached the same conclusion in unison.
Caitlin then continued. "Then all we'd need is heat to release the oxygen."
"Which a speedster generates naturally in the form of lightning." Harry added instantly.
The native doctor smiled happily. "I think something like this just might work." She and Harry looked at the computer simulated pieces of drug.
"You think you can help me figure it out?" Harry asked Caitlin.
"I can certainly try." Caitlin confidently replied.
The name… "Velocity" written at the bottom of the screen.
X
(Star City, Thea Queen's Loft)
Thea Queen's loft was definitely impressive.
With a view over the city, it was worth standing out on the balcony with a drink in hand to take in the nightly skies of Star City. Turning around, the nanite mutant walked into the loft again to retake in its interior beauty.
Two staircases on both left and right of the loft, both leading up to their own sections of the upper floor. Separated and assumingly leading up to bedrooms upstairs. Two couches on the ground floor, right in the middle of the room. A section to the right side was holding the kitchen area, right under the staircase leading to the right section of the upper floor. A section to the left was secluded for a wall with a large television there with a couch in front of it.
There was also a small fireplace covered by glass that shined over the small table with alcohol and drinks and glasses. Which happened to the nanite mutant's next destination. Matt refilled his glass with more scotch. "Ice?" A steel bucket of ice cubes was held out in front of him.
Looking to the direction of the hand holding the bucket, he saw that it was Felicity who holds the bucket. With a chuckle, he accepted. "Thanks." He took the tong and placed a few cubes in his drink. He took the bucket for her and put it on the table. "Nice place Thea has."
"Yeah, it's the bomb." Felicity laughed before gesturing to Oliver and Barry. "About how Oliver was acting. I'm sorry for that."
"You're not responsible for his actions, Felicity. Your boyfriend is a grown man. If he regrets his own words, he can apologize for them himself." Matt drank from his drink. "But seeing as he's not apologizing, he's not regretting it."
"Well, you did go pretty far yourself back in the bunker, you know." Felicity pointed out.
"Only because of your boyfriend who gets scared by a problem he's not seen yet." Matt added.
"Oh, he doesn't get scared so easily." Felicity proudly bragged.
Matt smiled. "Guess he and I does have something in common then." He gestured to the others who in deep conversation. "Let's see what the fuss's about."
"We shall." Felicity agreed with a nod.
They walked over to the others. Felicity separating from the nanite mutant who walked over to the other couch and saw on the other end of it, adjacent to Thea. The red archer gave him a look before saying to Cisco. "I'm not changing my nickname. I like Speedy."
"Speedy's your name?" Thea nodded to Matt's query. "Sure, you're not just hoping to become a speedster." The younger Queen sibling glared at him before laughing herself. Barry, Oliver and Felicity listened as they conversed.
"Are you familiar with my body of work?" Cisco asked, getting their attention and Kendra smiled. "If you are, then you know I can come up with something so much better than Speedy. Tell her, Matt." He wanted the mutant's help.
"Sorry, but your naming sense has it's ups and downs." Matt admitted with crooked smile.
"Wait, did he come up with yours?" Thea directed at the mutant.
"Nah, that's my own design." Matt calmly said.
Thea nodded with an upheld head and faced Cisco again. "Why don't you get a haircut? And then maybe we can talk about it."
Cisco narrowed his eyes. "I think you're just mad because my conditioner game is on point." He took a few locks of his hair to empathize his point.
"God, you're way too proud of your hair, man." Matt leant against the back of the couch and heard Barry and Felicity converse.
"So the CEO of Palmer Technologies is living with Oliver Queen." Barry gestured to the secret archer. Felicity smiled. "It's insane how much life can change in six months?"
"Which you would know better than anyone, considering Seth was thought to be dead, there's another Flash, another Dr. Wells, from another Earth… which is where Seth is right now and alive." Barry hummed agreeingly. "I mean…"
"Yeah. No, it's been trippy lately." Barry said. "Oh yeah, Matt, his wife, his niece they all hated me for a while."
"Already apologized once, you're not getting any more from me, Speedy." Matt pitched in.
"Hey where is your wife and your niece?" The hacker asked.
Matt cocked his head. "Livia's on her way here, Frankie's in Central City with her mother. They need a protector while their residential speed-freak is on vacay."
"Wouldn't call this a vacay, man." Barry disagreed. "Besides, they got Jay Garrick and Dr. Wells over there too."
"One's powerless and only got his brain working, the other's a douche. My money's on my niece." Matt admitted.
Felicity narrowed her eyes curiously at the mention of the doppelgangers. "I wonder what Oliver's doppelganger would look like. Bald, pot-bellied…." She and Barry faced the archer at the bar table. "agreeable." At that point, she almost sounded hopeful.
Matt tilted his head and thought to himself while drinking his scotch. "Seth might get along with that one. Maybe."
"You seeing anyone?" Felicity wondered of the speedster.
"I am, actually." Barry answered.
"Good." She said.
"Patty is her name." He revealed. "She's amazing."
"You deserve someone amazing." Felicity sincerely told him.
"Thanks."
CHIME
"The pigs in a blanket." The hacker let out happily at the sound of the oven chiming. She instantly rushed over to take care of the heated contents in the oven.
"Can she cook something that's safely edible?" Matt joked as he got up from his seat to stand beside the metahuman.
"Yeah… I think." Barry chuckled.
"Hey guys." Oliver said as he walked to them.
"Oliver." The mutant greeted.
"Hey, Ollie." Barry sighed before confessing. "Um, look, sorry that we laid all of this on you. I know that it wasn't fair."
"But it was Barry's idea and he thought it would be the best way to make sure that Kendra's safe from whatever the hell this dude with a knife fetish is." Matt added casually and emotionlessly.
"It's okay." Oliver surprised them with his words. "I'm sorry if earlier I was a little…"
"Snippy?" Barry wondered.
"Hard-ass-y?" Matt added.
"I have been called worse." Oliver admitted after hearing Barry and Matt state those words. They chuckled with grins. "No, but I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad you reached out. I would have thought your other friends like Matt would have been enough, but it shows a real maturity, and I would know that because I've never been that mature."
Matt knew that the archer was only speaking to Barry at this point. The speedster looks up to Oliver. And has been for so long. He would even continue to do so for a very long time….
"I'm always here for you." Oliver said honestly. "For both of you." he told Matt.
"Thanks, Oliver. And sorry for being an ass myself back there." Matt said.
"It's okay." Gesturing to the others, the archer said. "Think the others liked that you were a bit of an ass towards in the bunker."
"I did." Barry admitted and gestured to the others as well. "I got to say, this isn't the same Arrow team I'm used to seeing or the same Oliver Queen. You seem really…" the speedster was unsure of what to call Barry.
"Happy?" the archer asked.
"Yeah, that's it." Matt stated. "You seem happy, more than before." He was different for sure, not willing to accept any outside and unknown help without a thorough investigation.
"Because I am, I am happy." Oliver genuinely smiled, surprising the mutant. He wasn't used to seeing the secret archer smile so brightly. Usually, he would resemble something like a dark ball of darkening anger. Like Seth was. "I finally have everything that I've ever wanted. Being with Felicity has given me a real sense of peace, something that I haven't had in a long time."
"Didn't you tell me that guys like us don't get the girl?" Barry chucklingly asked with a gesture to Oliver, Matt and himself.
"Yep." Came the quick response. "I was wrong." Just as quick as he spoke, he quickly walked away.
"That was weird." Matt admitted and the speedster agreed with a nodding head and the two followed the archer who stood before the others in the middle.
"I would like to propose a toast." Oliver got everyone's attention. "I wish it wasn't just the dark times bringing us together."
WHOOSH
With lightning speed on his side, Barry rushed past Oliver and landed beside him… with the archer's drink in his hand. While everyone was chuckling and laughing as they watched Oliver's face sorrow at the loss of his drink. "But it is friends like you that make those dark times worth having."
"What a guy." Oliver chuckled as he took back his drink. "Steals my drinks, steals my words. As I was saying, it's good to see everyone."
"Yes." Barry agreed.
"Back at ya." Matt agreed with his own glass held up.
"Cheers."
Everyone said the same as they reached toasted to this gathering despite the darkness that was looming over Kendra's head.
And at the thought of that darkness, Cisco got up from his chair to go over to the small kitchen area of the loft.
Matt saw the look on his face and walked over to him. "Wanna talk about it?"
"Talk about what?" Cisco placed his glass on the table.
Giving him an eyeroll, he said. "About the little sad cloud hanging above your head." Cisco's worry grew tenfold. "Look, don't worry. We'll protect Kendra, all right?"
"Yeah, I know." Cisco faced him. "There's something I never told you. Barry knows this, but you don't." Matt gave his full attention. "The first time I kissed Kendra… I got a vibe."
The nanite mutant frowned with disgust. "Downstairs? Upstairs? Where are we talking? Just be clear if its former, I don't want to know anything, and I will walk away immediately."
"Not, not like that kind of vibe." The native engineer shook his head, assuring the nanite mutant instantly. "Like, I vibed vibed."
"Yeah, think Frankie said something about a Flying Man or something, right?" Matt started. "You think this has something to do with Kendra?"
Cisco nodded and shook his head out of the blue. "It wasn't a man…. It was Kendra. She was, like-"
""A bird."" The two said at the same time.
"How'd you know?" Cisco wondered.
"Basic deduction." Matt shrugged. "But I've seen people with wings before in my universe before. Though none of them usually kept their wings inside their bodies." The mutant looked at him again. "You think that Kendra's a metahuman?" Cisco shrugged unsurely of what he was feeling. "And you told Barry? Hurtful."
"Well, I didn't think it was related, but I guess now it has to be." Cisco added.
"She know about your powers?" Matt inquired.
"No." Cisco inhaled. "Look, I don't want her to know about my powers." Both of them looked at the laughing barista who was conversing with Barry. "It's not like with Bette. I have this great thing going with her. She laughs at my jokes, and she loves movies, and…." Cisco gained a loving expression. "I felt like this with Better, but at the same time I just… I never felt like this before, and I don't want to sabotage it."
"I get the feeling, sort of." Matt never kept anything from Liv. Sure there were times he did almost make decisions without her consent, but that was only for her safety or the safety of her family. "But Cisco?" He hated being the one to tell his friend. But someone had to.
"Yeah?" Cisco grew worried at his expression.
Steel-hard seriousness. "I know it's hard to hear. But Bette broke up with you because you distanced yourself from her. It was because of whatever Wells' particle accelerator did sure, but you were the one to keep those memories to yourself and not share with her." Cisco looked down. "My point is, tell your loved one about this. Better from you than anyone else."
"Maybe." Cisco breathed out.
Kendra was talking with Barry and then saw something out of the window. "Look!" she exclaimed with a paled face, pale as a ghost.
SHATTER
Before anyone had time to look at the source of her worries, the sound of glass shattering echoed within the walls of the loft. Cisco and Matt threw their eyes to the broken glass and saw that it was the same man who had attacked the mechanical engineer back in the coffee shop in Central City.
His menacing eyes turned to face the scared barista, the presences of the others not worth his attention. "I will always find you, Chay-Ara."
WHOOSH
In a flash, Barry sped out to retrieve Oliver's bow and quiver and gave it to him. Once he was armed and had an arrow reeled back on the arrow shelf, he ordered. "Don't move."
"Then how will I kill you all?" he asked in mock confusion. Seeing something in the corner of his eye, he held up his right arm and blocked the brass-armored hand. The strange man narrowed his eyes intrigued by the person with steel-determined green eyes. "A fine will you show, young man."
"Compliments from a bad guy? Guess I can cross that off my bucket list now." The nanite mutant quipped while pressuring his fist into him.
"Oh don't worry about crossing off more items, young man. You will be departing shortly." The man smirked evilly and the mutant widened his eyes.
The man outstretched his elbow, slamming it into the side of the brass knuckle. The strike from that trajectory forced the brass knuckles to slide off Matt's unclenching fingers and down to the ground. Spinning around, he appeared behind the mutant with his left hand around his opponent's left hand while his right hand retrieved something in his coat.
"Shit!" Matt exclaimed when realizing what his plan was.
"Matt look out!" Cisco exclaimed.
STAB
It was too late for him to register the words spoken when Matt felt the sharp knife pierce through his flesh and dig into his spine. He felt the man chuckle and twist the sharp weapon around within him. "It was shame. You would have made an excellent opponent." The man said with a dark chuckle and yanked the blade out of his body before pushing away to the side, sure that he was dead.
"Oh no!" Felicity gasped with her hands over her gaping mouth.
"Matt!" Thea exclaimed in fear.
Both Cisco and Barry shared a look.
The man faced them all. "Appears that this one was not a favorite amongst your gathering. Truly a shame." He said and not even a second later, he reached into his coat with his other hand and launched both hands, throwing five knives after them.
While time slowed to a crawl, Oliver managed to fire an arrow and the speedster sped in front of his friends. Grabbing the five knives from the air before they could hit any of his friends. But time returned to normal next as the metahuman felt a knife embed into his back.
Oliver snapped to the man again, firing another arrow again. But like his first one, his second one too was caught. The archer rushed to the man and swung his bow for him like a melee weapon. Dodging it by leaning backwards, he was hit by Oliver's fist but shrugged it off as it was too ineffective.
The man flipped the arrows around in his hands and then exchanged blows with the archer's fists. One of his attacks were blocked by Oliver's forearm, but it showed an opening that he took advantage of. The knife-wielding man lashed out his foot, hitting the archer's side. Following up with another kick, Oliver had to lower his shield and got another kick that pushed him to the ground.
Letting go of the arrows, falling to the ground, the man reached into his coat again and pulled out another knife and threw it.
But Barry grabbed with a single hand and said. "Yeah, I can do that too."
Oliver got on his feet again, his right hand pulled back the string before shooting another arrow. The man didn't even flinch and used a Japanese war fan to deflect it. And so were the other arrows coming from the green archer.
Barry put his hand on Oliver's shoulder and gave an assuring look, his expression wordlessly telling him to not fire anymore. Trusting his metahuman friend, he let up and it surprised Thea who jumped back to the with her own bow and quiver.
Still holding the war fan in his hand, the man narrowed his eyes. "Is that all you could offer your guests? It saddens me to say this, but the only thing that could satisfy my hunger…" He pulled out another knife with his free hand. "…would be your deaths!"
He reeled it back to throw it-
But the man felt something sharp wrap around his wrist and it was sharp metal digging into his flesh.
"Sure I can't be a better appetizer?"
The sound of that strange distortive female voice, the two men from Central City smiled while the enemy turned around to see her. The form of the psychic hero, Angel Fury with her razor whip around the man's wrist.
Thea looked shocked by her appearance. It was the first time that she had ever been so close to the female hero from Central City, and it was truly a menacing form to have. She wondered how some in that city even felt assurance when seeing that form.
Felicity looked at her with saddened eyes. "Angel… Matt… He killed Matt."
"Matt?" Her voice was not of sorrow or hurt, but confusion and curiosity? Angel Fury looked to the right side and saw his body shaking beside the couch. Sighing, the psychic called out. "You okay?" She widened her eyes when hearing those thoughts brimming in his head. "Matt? You're gonna lay around there the entire time?" She asked with a joke, knowing that the strange enemy did a stupid thing by stabbing his back.
Raising a hand to the armrest of the couch before him, the nanite mutant pushed himself up. The enemy and the natives of Star City and Kendra were shocked to see the man get back on his feet, even though a knife penetrated his back a short moment ago.
"I'm not really okay." The nanite mutant said with his eyes placing themselves on the enemy's form. "I'm pissed." He sneered out and his skin began to waver like ripples running through an ocean.
While the strangely trench-coated enemy was still in shock of the sight of the man he killed return to his full height, the next shocking thing happened.
With his jacket falling off his arms, both of the mutant's arms were revealed. Everyone watched as the skin on his body opened up with holes around his limbs. They watched as metal orbs, like insects crawling out of their nests, swarmed over his arms and made their way to his hands. Assimilating together, each of his hands were now holding a long sword.
Both hands spinning around, twirling the swords around while the nanite mutant's daunting green eyes looked at his killer. "Big mistake you made, old man."
"What, pray tell, was this mistake, you speak of?" The strange man asked while eyeing his returned victim and the woman with the horrifying form.
Crossing the swords, he said with a growl. "Stabbing my back, you bastard."
"Been a while since I saw you like this, Matty." The psychic thought to herself with a smile. "Let's go, Matt!"
"Ladies first, Angel!" Matt said and used the couch as a springboard.
The enemy waved his war fan, about to use it to intercept the mutant who jumped off the couch. But the razor on his wrist unwrapped from his wrist and cracked against the war fan, pushing it back. The man was forced to use to his knife to intercept one of the swords.
While the other hand swinging the sword around, he spun around to stab with the sword from the side. But his opponent leant backwards to dodge it. Matt anticipated it and used his other sword to glide up the knife to swing for his head again.
But it was avoided by leaning further back. Feeling a presence behind him, he turned around with widened eyes when seeing Angel Fury standing there and swinging her fist for his face. He used the blade of his knife to block the attack.
His back was exposed, and Matt swung both of his swords from high above. The man foresaw an attack from behind and swept with his left foot, hitting the mutant's foot and forcefully changed the trajectory of his swords. The enemy had to grunt in pain when feeling the sword in the nanite mutant's left hand pierced through his left thigh.
"Insolent insects!" the opponent growled and twisted his hand around the female hero's right hand and swung her away. His war fan, like a blade, swung for the mutant again.
Changing the hold on his sword, the one still embedded into the man's thigh, he let more nanites shoot out of his hand and wrapped around the handle of his sword. The nanites adapted to the handle and elongated at a phenomenal rate into a blade of a sword. The second blade on the sword was formed to act as a shield to block the war fan.
A dangerous smirk formed on his face, as Matt pulled the bloodied double-edged sword out of his enemy's body. With a spin, he swung both swords for him and the man dodged it with backwards jump, the mutant's body leaning downwards to avoid the feet.
Mimicking a smirk, the enemy swung from low with his fan. But he failed to notice the two clawed hands place themselves on Matt's back and pushed up the female mutant who leaped over her husband. With her foot outstretched, she kicked the side of the man's face.
While he was pushed back, the psychic spun around on one foot and kicked the opponent's side with her other foot. Utilizing the momentum of the spin, she thrusted her fist into his stomach and quickly followed up with her other one.
Olivia expertly avoided the incoming slashes of either his knife or war fan. Her eyes shined brightly with telekinetic energy as she commanded her whip to wrap around her right hand. Reeling back her armored right hand, she thrusted it into the enemy's stomach.
Coughing up bile, the man was too distracted to even register the psychic place a hand on top of his head and while still have his hand embedded his stomach. Registering the grunts coming from the woman, he saw the woman's entire body shine with pinkish energy.
Angel Fury increased the strength of her muscles with telekinetic energy, to the very point where she could hold the enemy up in the air with both hands. "Get out of here!" She screamed in rage and threw the man towards the windows again.
The man however, put all of his weight in his feet and landed on his feet and looked back up at the mutants. One spinning one sword in one hand and the other hand spinning the double-edged sword, the other one cracking her fists together before taking a battle stance.
He smiled at their readiness. Finding it delightfully impressive and invigorating.
"Impressive, both of you." The man praised.
SHOOT
Before either of them could say anything themselves, they saw a pair of arrows pass between them and hit the shoulders of the man. Each arrow pushing the man backwards, and closer to the balcony. Both mutants turned their heads around to see the young archer Thea pull back an arrow and aiming for the enemy.
Olivia widened her eyes in shock of what she heard from Thea's head. Those thoughts… they were like something out of an animal on a hunt. No… not a hunt. Something unnatural. Something darker even. Something out of this world…
… A bloodlust…
"Thea, no!" Oliver exclaimed. But his words fell on deaf ears because Thea still fired off the arrow.
The arrow traveled through the air and hit the man again. The velocity of the third arrow was enough for his body to be pushed over the balcony railing… and they all saw him fall over.
The two mutants faced the panting archer again. Her older brother stepping closer to her from behind. "What did you do?"
"I ended it." Thea adamantly said.
"Was that really the same guy who attacked you, Matt?" Olivia directed to her husband. But she saw him hold the side of neck, the tips of his fingers running over something there. Walking over to him, she put her armored hand on top of his arm, gaining his attention in the process. "Are you okay? I know where he stabbed you."
"… sorry. I didn't want you to see me like that, ever again." His fingers tightened their hold on his neck. "Brought back loads of bad memories that I just didn't want to remember."
"Hey, hey, hey." She chanted softly and cupped his face. Her armor didn't even matter the least to him, he could still feel her love and care through them, as though it were her actual hands touching his face. "It's okay. We all have bad days. Ours might just feel like something dragged out of hell because of our past, but it's okay. We're there for each other, right?"
"Yeah. We have to." Matt chuckled. "Or die trying, right?"
"Yeah, Seth's gonna kill you for still stealing his catchphrase like this." Olivia laughed through her mask.
Oliver gained an angry expression. "This is why we ask questions." The archer walked past the married couple with Barry beside him to the balcony.
The mutants followed and the four of them looked over the balcony. However, they were all surprised to see not find the damaged form of the man they sent over the building. "Wait. W-Where did he go?" Barry asked in search.
"Oh, boy." Oliver let out in discomfort.
"Great, this guy can pull a Houdini act too!" Olivia screamed in dismay.
Matt used the blunt side of his sword to tap the side of his neck. "Guess, we got another strange one on our hands."
"Oh yeah." Olivia said as she and her husband walked into the loft again.
Thea looked at the female hero. "Who are you?"
She shared a look with her husband. Getting a confident nod as her response, the psychic nodded her gratitude. Shaking her head, the nanites disassembled form her helmet and retracted into the suit. Her long magenta-colored hair flowing down her back and her blue eyes pointing to the young archer who was shocked by her beauty.
"Name's Olivia Fury." The psychic introduced herself.
"Olivia… Fury?" Oliver asked from behind and got the female mutant's attention. "Who?"
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Who the hell are you?"
That question surprised Thea, Kendra and Felicity… knowingly of his past.
X
(Arrowcave)
Everyone returned to the Arrowcave, where once again Felicity and Jarvis ran a facial recognition on the strange man that had just assaulted the home of Thea Queen. John Diggle had been called to hear about the situation at hand. Like the Queen siblings, he too was surprised to meet the psychic, Olivia.
Even more surprised to hear that Rogers was not her real name nor her brother's. Only a name to ensure that no one would retaliate against their father, Nick Fury through them.
While her boyfriend was speaking with the Police Captain of Star City Police Department Quentin Lance, Felicity was searching for anything that resembled their attacker. She paused and looked to the psychic who looked over their base. "Pretty cool, right?" She directed to the mutant.
Olivia shrugged unsurely. "Like the entire underground base theme, sure. But the thing about having your suits in display cases? It's not a museum, guys."
"It's a nice touch." Felicity defended.
"To each their own, I guess." Olivia walked closer to the hacker.
The Star City hacker poked the side of the mutant's stomach and in mock hurt said. "You lied about your real name."
"So I did." She said casually.
"And you're not sorry?"
"No, I am not." The mutant said with a smirk and laughed along with the hacker.
"Okay." Oliver said. "Thanks." He hung up on the phone and faced the others. "All right, Lance is gonna call if he gets any information on…" He gestured to the photo of their attacker. But not a single thought came to mind on how to describe him. "whoever that is."
Olivia walked to her husband and whispered. "Why don't we just ask Cisco? He could vibe us a few answers right here and now."
Matt looked to her and whispered his response. "He doesn't want Kendra to know about his powers. He's worried that those might just ruin what he has with her right now."
"Poor guy." the psychic admitted.
Barry put his hands in his pockets. "I know where we can get some info."
Matt knew what he was referring to. Or what who. Facing the mechanical engineer, the mutant stated. "Cisco."
Cisco got a sorrowful look. He really didn't want to cross this bridge; it could mean the end of another great relationship he's had. And he didn't want to be the reason for another failure of a relationship. But Matt was right. He had to be the one to tell Kendra about this.
It was his responsibility.
Looking to her with a heavy heart, he began. "Kendra, I have powers." Confusion came over everyone who didn't know about this development, containing solely of Star City natives. "I get these vibes from people. They're visions of metahumans… and I had one of you."
Felicity had to sum everything up. "So, A, you're saying you're a metahuman," A finger pointed at Cisco, "and, B, she's a metahuman?" She shifted the finger to point at Kendra.
"I don't know." Cisco revealed, shocking the others with his words. "In these visions, you could fly. It was like you were some a bird of some sort."
"A bird?" Kendra wanted confirmation.
"Yeah."
Kendra shook her head. "What else did you see?"
He then shook his own head and said. "That's it… just you… with wings."
"Oh," Felicity threw her head back. "I did not see that one coming."
Hearing a range of other thoughts in the room, Olivia exclaimed. "Everyone, look out!"
The lights suddenly shut off. The moment they turned on again. Everyone saw a group of armored men. All of them wearing identical clothing. Protective dark-green and black suits that resembled that of the Star City Emerald Archer's suit, utilizing Kevlar. Aside from a single one in the front, all of them had black face masks covering their mouths and noses. Hoods covering their heads and only their eyes visible for others to see.
Matt looked at their weapons. All of them were wielding all-black PSE Chaos AD Compound bows. And all of them having utility belts around their waists and quivers attached to the slings around their bodies.
The one in the front was a man with white skin and black hair and brown eyes. He had his eyes facing the blonde hacker and said. "Oh, I think there's a lot of you didn't see coming."
John Diggle and Oliver Queen had their guns aimed at the man they had met before. Thea, Felicity and the Central City residents were shocked to see that man so silently appear here. Olivia had her eyes shining with energy and her curling hands raised, Matt pointing both elongated cannons on his arms at them as well as four levitating ion cannons.
"Great. More surprises. Who the hell is this?" Cisco voiced his shock.
"It's my Dad." Thea said with disgust.
"Ra's!"
Hearing the voice of one of his men, Malcolm Merlyn, Ra's Al Ghul himself, turned around and raised an eyebrow at the sight. Without him noticing it, all of his men were suddenly wrapped in some pinkish energy and their hands placed around their own throats, as thought they were trying to suffocate themselves.
Looking back to them, Malcolm Merlyn shifted his eyes to the woman with magenta-colored hair who emits the same color of energy in her eyes. "I assume this is your doing?" he pointed a thumb backwards to his suffocating men.
With a shrug of her shoulders, the psychic asked sarcastically. "Do you have any better response for random people showing up in an underground base? Not to mention, people with bad fashion choices."
"You'd do well to lower my men to the ground again. Unless you want the wrath of the Demon's Head on your shoulders." Malcolm threatened and the Star City natives looked curious as what her response would be.
"Just the head, huh? Bitch, please." Olivia smirked daringly. "I fought against a real demon my entire life and almost lost my life more than a few times. I ain't scared of a single head."
Matt charged his weaponry for empathize before stating. "She's not the only one."
Felicity wondered right now if the married mutant couple were willing to take on the entire League of Assassins just by themselves. And she prayed that was not going to happen right now.
X
(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)
Frankie was fidgeting around in her spot as she was crouched on the ceiling. She looked down on her mother and Harry as they continued to work on what Caitlin said was something of a speed-steroid for speedsters.
She crawled around on the ceiling on all four and crawled directly above the two scientists' heads. After she told Felicia Hardy, who informed them that she would come if she was needed, Frankie went back to the facility and checked up on her mother's work.
Feeling the eyes from above, Caitlin looked up to her. "Are you bored, Frankie?"
Looking downwards to meet her mother's eyes, her long brown hair falling down from the gravity of her high position, like it was hanging from her head, Frankie said. "A bit. But it's okay, Mom."
While working on his end, Harry wondered. "Doesn't she have friends?"
"I do have friends." Frankie answered. "But they're busy right now or out doing their own things." She replied sadly.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Caitlin knew that she had friends, but some of them were bit harsh on her daughter. Now that she was fatherless. Her school thinks that Seth is gone and using his expertise as a doctor to help things in other cities after the Singularity's eruption in the skies. But a lot of her classmates thinks that he just ran away and left her and his girlfriend alone.
Some of the girls in her class even thinks that it's just a poor lie from an orphan as they've never seen the mutant before in real life.
Felicia managed to put some of them in their place, but that only lasted a while. Caitlin thought about doing the same, but it would probably end up escalating things.
Worse was that Frankie lied about it so much that she thought she had fooled both her mother and her mentor.
Caitlin returned to her work with a heavy heart, knowing that even if she were to ask, she would only get a lie in response. With the computer still running the simulation of what would be the speed-enhancer, the female doctor input more data into it. Adding the chemical structures of other elements into the combination to see how well they would adapt with one another.
Seeing an interesting result there she perked her head up. "I think I did it."
Getting interested, Frankie detached from the ceiling and landed on the railing beside the computer. "You really did, Mom?"
"I think so, at least." The doctor replied to her daughter.
Harry walked over to take a look at the work. "What do you know, Snow?" He started impressed by the work. "I think you did do it." Caitlin smiled proudly and her daughter hugged her with an equally proud expression.
"Someone's coming." Magenta noted when feeling a presence coming through the corridors. Feeling her host take on a battle-ready expression, the symbiote slithered under the clothes of her partner.
Facing the direction of the entrance, she saw the form of the Earth-2 citizen Jay Garrick walk into the Cortex. Her mother and the otherworldly scientist heard footsteps, looking towards the same direction and saw the former speedster standing there with confused expression.
His eyes pointing at the screen and read the words. "Velocity-6?" Harry smiled and rubbed his hands together when seeing the former speedster arrive in response to his urgent call. Both Caitlin and Harry were too happy to notice the look of distraught come over the man's face. "This is what was so urgent, Harrison? You get me to come here so I can take your speed drug?"
Harry pointed an excited finger at him. "That's right." He said seriously.
Shifting his eyes to Caitlin, he asked. "You knew about this." His words came as a statement.
"Of course she did." Harry assured him with a finger proudly pointing at the woman. "She figured it out."
Frankie cocked her head. "Didn't you guys make this to help Barry?" Caitlin's expression was one of agreement and shock.
"It is to help Barry," Harry assured the mother and daughter. "which is why we need to do test runs on subjects who once had the Speed Force in their system." He gestured to the man himself.
The anger on Jay's face was amplifying by the second as he let Harrison's words sink in. "The Speed Force doesn't work like that. It's not something you can create in a lab."
"How do you think you became The Flash, Garrick?" Harry stepped closer to him. "By me and a lab. Science is what did this to you, to Barry, to Zoom, and science is what we need to stop Zoom, and this is our only option."
"Find another." Jay adamantly stated his demand. "The Speed Force can't be replicated or enhanced. It's a living thing." Garrick felt as though the very idea of making a speed drug was an insult to the very essence that had him running faster than the speed of sound for a long time. The very gift that granted him the powers to even become a hero. "It's a gift that was given to me. That drug? You have no idea what it's gonna do. I'm not going to let another one of your experiments mess with me again, Harrison."
Both mother and daughter looked at each other with worried eyes, worried about the former speedster who was voicing a raging anger from within. Jay continued, his anger still blazing strongly. "You find someone else to be your guinea pig." He went to move away.
"Jay." Caitlin called out to him.
"Jay, please." Frankie got off the railing. "This might help us bring my Dad back."
Jay saw the pleading look on the girl's face but put a stop to her hopes, as well as the hopes of her mother, with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry, Frankie. But Caitlin, keep that serum away from Barry." The former speedster walked out of the Cortex, this time fully leaving them alone.
Caitlin threw her hands to the sides in confusion and astonishment. "Where are you going?" she heard her daughter direct to Harrison who put on his cap and walked to the exit.
"To pick up what we need." Harry replied with his head pointing at her.
The female doctor was even more shocked and astonished by what she just heard. "Wait. Jay just said we shouldn't give it to Barry."
"Yeah, so what's the plan then?" Frankie followed up.
Harry, with a determined face, stated. "We're gonna do what we need."
Frankie looked to her mother with a hand scratching her hair. "Why are Earth-2 people so unwilling to work with us?"
"Think it's because of your father's influence on this world. He wasn't exactly much for working with us in the beginning." Caitlin admitted.
The young metahuman nudged her mother's side with her elbow and corrected with a teasing smirk. "You mean, he wasn't willing to work with Barry. Dad said he was always willing to work with you, Mom."
The magnekinetic was sure that her mother's face was glowing like a lava lamp from the level of blushing she just did. Lava's redness wouldn't even come close to her mother's level of blushing.
X
(Star City, Arrowcave)
Unclenching both her hands, Olivia dropped the assassins down to the ground. Each and everyone of them had to cough repeatedly as they finally felt air travel down their throats. Oliver and John removed their fingers from the triggers and pulled their firearms back. Gaining a nod of confirmation from his wife, Matt lowered his hands as well, both cannons returned to their former state as hands while the flying cannons retracted to his back.
Malcolm Merlyn looked to the psychic and offered a small bow. "Thank you for releasing my men, would have been a pickle to drag a bunch of corpses through the city by myself."
"Well, I could kill you as well, then we can have someone drag all of you out of here." The psychic gained a serious expression. "And don't get the wrong idea. I know you know something about this guy we're fighting right now. Whether you get to live or not next, depends entirely on how what you have to say. So don't lie."
The Demon's Head of the League of Assassins smirked, intrigued that this young woman was able to figure him out without what looked like an effort. There was more than meets the eye to this one. Malcolm faced them all and stated. "The man you're looking for is Vandal Savage."
Putting his gun in his holster, John replied. "Vandal Savage? Never heard of him."
Felicity looked to the mutants. "Do you guys have someone like him on your Earth?"
Matt then said. "Don't expect us to know that. And our Earth's people are different than yours in ways you'd never think possible."
"Yeah, it's pointless to ask them, they're 600 universes away from here, remember?" The speedster told the Star City natives before looking to Malcolm again. "Well, who is he?"
With a blank look, he said. "Some say he was the most trusted advisor to Genghis Khan. Others say he guided Julius Caesar through the Gallic Wars. But one thing the League knows for sure… He was there for all of it." Everyone in the bunker looking absolutely confused by what was going on now. A man to be there through massive events of history and come out looking like he's always been.
"So what are you saying?" Cisco asked in confusion. "He's like a vampire or something?"
"Please, don't jinx it, Cisco." Matt said urgently, not wanting to face off against a vampire of all things. He'd choose strange and dangerous metahumans everyday over them. Anything to escape something as farfetched as supernatural beings.
"Not a vampire," Malcolm assured them, the nanite mutant breathing out in relief. "an immortal."
"Okay, I know we just saw metal come out of Matt's body before, but we've officially stepped into crazy town." Kendra stated her thoughts at the mention of immortals walking amongst them. "Immortality?" she shifted her head around to the others in the secret base.
"Wait." Thea said. "No, no, no, this makes sense. This explains why he looks the same as he did in 1975." Barry nodded his agreement.
"This can't be possible." Kendra said again.
"There's nothing you can do to save her now." The Demon's Head stated adamantly.
"Wow, thanks for the pep talk, you can leave now." Olivia bluntly said while the others looked down at the words he said.
Barry didn't look down and looked to Kendra who was distraught from the words the leader of the League of Assassins spoke. "Kendra do not listen to him." he comfortingly told her.
Kendra held up her hand. "I-I just need some air." The Jitters barista walked out of the bunker. Cisco gave a glance to the others and walked after her to help her through this trying time.
"Hey." Barry walked closer to Malcolm. "We're gonna do whatever we have to keep Kendra safe, whether you think we can or not."
"Besides," Matt got their attention. "Who the fuck ever said we should take the words of a man who thinks a tacky old ring makes him a demon?"
"Careful. This demon has an army." Malcolm gestured to the assassins who lightly drew their swords.
"And do I look scared of them?" Matt said with a cold look.
X
"Kendra!" Cisco sprinted after the barista who was still in a state that was yet to be named. What exactly is the name of a mood that was birthed because of the fact that an immortal psychopath was out for her life?
Without even looking at her, Cisco knew that she was absolutely out of her mind because of what the man from Arrow's past had said. Increasing his speed, he closed in on her and stood in front of her. "Hey. You gonna be all right?"
"It's just a lot to take in right now." Kendra breathed out.
"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about me before." Cisco said. "I didn't want things to be different between us."
"It's not that, Cisco." While he felt assured by her shaking head, he knew there were more to it. "If what everyone's saying is true, and it's beginning to seem like it is, my whole just changed, and I so not ready for that."
"I hear what you're saying. I do." Cisco knew he had to draw experience from an old friend again. "Someone I knew a while back, she got powers herself. I didn't really understand her situation until I got mine. When I first learned about my powers, I remember feeling that exact same feeling, like you and her, and sometimes I still feel that way, and all I can say is…" he looked unsure of his own words for a moment. "every day gets a little bit more normal."
He cupped her hands together and assured her calmly. "I promise you."
"Thank you." Kendra calmly said. She was inwardly thankful for Cisco being her for her like this. He was the shoulder that she was leaning on now, he was holding her up throughout this entire time. And he knew what this overwhelming and surprising time was like, to suddenly have their life turned upside-down by a situation that was too much for anyone to bear alone.
"You're so welcome." The metahuman told her.
The barista narrowed her eyes on him. "About this other one you just talked about? A woman, right?" Cisco nodded. "Was this maybe your ex-girlfriend?"
"Yeah." Cisco inhaled sharply. "I kinda distanced myself from her after I learnt of me being a meta. Bit of a trying time, you know. And Bette, my girlfriend at the time, she tried to reach out and I still kept putting distance between us like an idiot."
"Because you were scared of your powers." Kendra knew what he was saying. "You can't put that on yourself, Cisco. You were scared of yourself and didn't want that to affect your relationship with Bette."
"And it still did anyway." He hollowly chuckled. "It was my fault and I couldn't let my past mistake repeat itself… Not with you, Kendra."
"Thank you." She said with blushed cheeks and leant in to kiss him.
But a strange sound emitted from behind them… Like something more in unison… like flapping?
Both she and Cisco looked in the direction and to their shock, saw something… a man in golden brown armor descending on them… with large dark brown wings. And in the blink of an eye, his arms were wrapped around Kendra and pulled her into the skies with screams coming out of her.
"Kendra!" Cisco screamed after her as she was kidnapped by a flying man of all things.
As if things couldn't get any crazier than this.
X
Kendra was too scared to look down and was forced to look at the strange winged man that kidnapped her from the ground like a hunting hawk wrapping its talons around its prey. His wings continued to flap and flap, holding both him and his…
… soulmate… in the air…
The flying man saw a roof to the left and headed for it. Landing on it, he immediately felt his soulmate push herself out of his arms. Giving her latest form a look over, the man took off his helmet. A pale man with short dark hair, dark stubbles.
Now that they had touched down, Kendra was able to look at the armored and winged man much better than before when she was quickly plucked out of the ground. She saw that it was brown armor with golden plates at some parts of it. He has a gauntlet around his left forearm, brown armor with golden plates on the top of it. Brown steel pads on his shoulders. His helmet had a feathered pattern on either side of it with the eyes and nose area resembling like that of a hawk's face and beak.
She was utterly shocked by the presence of this man, wondering why in the world he kidnapped her. Maybe he was in cahoots with Vandal Savage? It would explain the similarity in ancient armory and weaponry they both wield.
While admiring her, he finally admitted. "You look as beautiful as ever." He took a step towards her, but she instantly did the opposite, stepped away from him. Noticing her reaction, he assured her calmly. "Chay-Ara, it's me, Khufu."
At the mention of that name… it was Kendra's mind was being assaulted with strange images… visions that felt like memories even. His face, Khufu's face, on a body similar to the one he has now, but in strange clothing. White and golden jewelry like something meant for royalty.
Another vision came over her eyes. Khufu returned there. But he wasn't alone no more. He was with someone else…. One with her face and body? And like him, she was wearing strange and foreign clothes with royalty jewelry as well.
And… she was embracing Khufu in a kiss… a passionate kiss of love that felt like it would last for eternity.
Another set of quick visions came over her mind again. Quicker than the previous ones, visions of her and this man, Khufu, before her in bed. Both embraced in a moment of passionate love and kissing and so much more.
"Do you remember?" The flying man asked her as she was silenced after the mention of his name. "Look at me." He asked and she turned her confused eyes to him. "You need to wake up."
"What are you talking about?" The barista asked with fear and confusion. "I don't know who you are."
"You will once you emerge." Khufu assured her. "Until then, you need to stay by my side so that I can protect you."
"Protect me?" Kendra felt like his definition of "protecting" was completely wrong. "From what?"
Khufu gained a serious look. "The man who's hunting you, Vandal Savage." He saw the look of confusion and fear expand on her face. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you sort of just kind of have to trust me on this. I-"
He was cut by a blue energy blast that connected with the ground before his feet. "Think the lady just said no, pal."
Kendra sighed in relief when hearing that voice and looked to it. Khufu did as well and both he and his soulmate saw Iron Knight have his gauntlet point his repulsor at him. "You know, Robocop, I'm kind of busy here."
"Yeah, whatever you say, you perv. Get away from the girl and put your hands on the ground and your head behind your wings." Matt demanded.
Kendra looked confused at him, like he was having a stroke or something. Khufu rolled his eyes and told the woman. "Just one second. Stay right there." He put on his helmet and jumped into the air with his wings stretched out as he took flight.
"Flying away from me, huh?" Matt growled. "As it that's gonna be enough." Facing Kendra, he said. "Don't worry, my wife's coming. Me, Barry and Queen will take care of Kentucky Flying Chicken there." He flew after him with his thrusters blazing and shooting him forward in his pursuit after the flying man.
X
Khufu looked back, seeing if the Iron Knight was behind him. But he wasn't there and most have decided to rendezvous with the others. Khufu knew that Central City's Flash was in the city and with the Green Arrow of this city.
However, he had no idea about Iron Knight having entered the fray now. It was an unexpected hindrance for him to encounter now. especially as Khufu was seeking to protect his soulmate from the walking terror known as the immortal Vandal Savage.
And nothing would prevent him from protecting High Priestess Chay-Ara. Be it Iron Knight, The Flash, Green Arrow and Vandal Savage… though that immortal madman had succeeded before in previous ages.
"Found you!"
Khufu didn't have a chance to look as he felt a pair of feet slam into his back. Upon impact, he felt something much harder touch down on him, harder than human skin could ever be. He was sent flying down but straightened himself and ascended once again, he saw the armored knight hovering above him.
He flew higher up in the air, till the flying man was in front of the mutant. "You really don't know how to take a hint."
"Comes from the pervert who kidnapped a woman who just told him she didn't want anything with you." Matt countered blankly with nanites swarming around his left gauntlet.
"I'm not a pervert-" Khufu was interrupted when the mutant launched himself and swung his short energy blade. Forced to dodge the attack, the flying man looked at him with an angered look. "Hey, listen when I talk, damn it!"
"I don't get paid to do that." He bluntly replied and lashed his arms to the sides, wing-shaped thrusters formed on his back while an unibeam shot out of his chest. The flying man spun to the left and dodged the repulsor beam.
With another powerful flap of both wings, Khufu launched himself away from the armored knight.
Matt tapped the side of his helmet unsurely. "This guy is really good at getaways." He saw the flying man fly lower and dive down. "Jarvis, he's trying to attack someone. Who's coming in his direction?"
"It appears to be Mr. Queen our flying culprit is about to intercept. Mr. Allen is on his way as we speak." The AI informed the mutant.
"Let's see if that green archer needs help." Matt's thrusters, feet and back alike blazing and shooting forward.
X
Passing a corner while riding his motorcycle, Green Arrow looked upwards and saw the flying man flew around a building. "I got eyes on him." Khufu saw the green archer and charged for him with a mace in his hand.
Oliver took out an arrow from his quiver and put it on the arrow shelf on his bow. In rapid succession, he fired off a series of arrows for the flying man. Some of his arrows were sent off course by another a powerful flail of his wings. Others hit a wing but were shrugged off.
Green Arrow kept charging for him on his motorcycle, but Khufu spun around and threw his mace. The spinning weapon collided with the front wheel of the vehicle, forcing the archer off it and hitting the ground with his entire body rolling painfully upon impact on the asphalt.
Khufu landed on the ground, right before his mace and saw the green archer get back on his feet. As he saw that, the flying man retracted his wings and picked up his mace once more.
"Give me the girl." The archer's voice modifier was activated so his voice was still too deep to be recognized.
"Not gonna do that, Robin Hood." The flying man replied casually.
"You're making a big mistake." Green Arrow replied.
"I'll take my chances." He said with a smirk.
"Wanna try that again?" Iron Knight got his attention with his words and his hands forming short energy blades. With so many cars around them, his repulsor blasts could end up causing explosions that could damage everything around them.
"Fun, a real party." Khufu joked and flung his mace at the archer. Oliver used his bow to repel the mace, sending it flying off to the side. And watched as the man charged him. Green Arrow spun around with his bow, swinging it and it was immediately blocked, followed by the man punching it out of his hands.
Kicking him in the middle, the flying man pushed the green archer away from him. Hearing the sound of metal from behind, Khufu twirled around and saw the armored mutant launch himself with both blades reeled back.
In unison, the energy blades were thrusted forward at the same time and the flying man had to lean backwards to avoid losing his head. But he was forced to dodge another series of incoming slashes. He was able to raise an arm, blocking the slash before grabbing his opponent by his arm with his free arm.
But he had to let go once the armored mutant used the thruster on his right feet to shoot his knee into his guts. Matt grabbed hold of his back and raised his blade before slashing from upwards. Managing to struggle his way, Khufu shifted to the left and dodged the blade. Thrusting a clenched hand into his face, he pushed the mutant back.
He had to turn around and saw Green Arrow get on his feet again. Khufu growled in annoyance and swung his hand. Oliver crouched, avoiding the fist. Raising himself to his full height once more, he let his fists fly and punched the flying man a few times.
Wrapping his hands around the archer's head, he brought his knee into his stomach. The force of the knee strike forced him to stagger backwards and the flying man unleashed a kick and pushed him even further back, sending him to the ground.
Before he could bask in the glory of his attack, the flying man felt metal hands touch his shoulder. The sound of energy shooting out of Matt's back thrusters echoed and he brought the hawk-like man into the air. With the energy output increasing in his thrusters, he spun around and threw the flying man away.
Raising his hands again, while hovering in the air, he blasted a series of repulsor energy blasts at Khufu, each blast sending him further back and against the road. His wings shot out in an instant and fluttered with a wingbeat, shooting him into the air. Using the force, he landed on the ground again with a backflip.
"Why do you want Kendra?" Matt demanded to know coldly.
"What part of "not your business" don't you get, Robocop?" He said angrily with his wings retracting once more.
"Huh? Guess we have to gut this fish to pick at its brains." Matt's HUD screen showed that a familiar yellow lightning was running through the city and was immediately nearing their area. "Take him out, Flash!"
Khufu saw the lighting running towards them from the back. Emitting a battle cry, the man took charge and rushed. As the Scarlet Speedster neared him he jumped into the air with his wings outstretching before he leaped into the speedster, tackling him into the air by flying.
"Oh, come on!" Matt said annoyingly at the sight of the flying man charging into the metahuman and dragging him into the air with ease. Green Arrow got up as well. They watched Khufu reach a certain point the skies and let go of the speedster, basically letting him free fall to his death. "Oh, he let go." The mutant let out uncaringly, like it was expected to happen.
Green Arrow pulled out a grappling arrow and shot it into the side of a building. Flash managed to see it through the darkness surrounding them from the night sky. Wrapping one hand around it, he glided down the rope. Adding his other hand to it, he gained better control and slid down till he stood beside the mutant and the archer.
"We need to expose his wings." Oliver said.
"I'm open to suggestions." Barry said.
"Now you guys are listening to me?" Oliver said.
"Your city, Queen. Your rules. Say something." Matt pointed a finger to the flying man again who charged them in flight. "Otherwise, you're gonna have a human-sized fried bird man."
"Hold that thought. We might need it." Oliver joked, but something told him that the armored mutant was smiling hopefully behind his helmet. Chuckling, he looked to the flying man. "All right." He shared a look with Matt.
Nodding his consent, the two long-rage fighters stepped forward and both began shooting. One shooting arrows with his bow rapidly like an automatic firearm. The other one swiftly shooting repulsor beams from the arc reactors in his palms.
Though the array of various attacks was forcing the flying man to dodge to the left and right, he was able to close in on them, nonetheless. And spun with his mace before swinging it.
Using the thrusters on his back, he blasted himself in front of the native archer and raised his right arm. Nanites swarmed around the limb and he quickly formed a large white shield. Forming foot clamps on his feet, he anchored himself to the ground and took on mace strike. Shifting his shield, he deflected the flying man's weapon, and therefore himself, to the side.
Straightening himself the flyer returned to the skies again. Barry lashed out his arms and spun them around, unleashing a pair of wind vacuums that connected with Khufu's body when he tried to dive in for a strike. And as the speedster continued to unleash the vacuums, they kept their enemy from trying to come closer to them and forced him to remain airborne.
Seeing the two vacuums himself, Matt lashed out his arm. Panels opening up along his appendage and revealing small missile launchers. Locking onto the vacuums, Iron Knight said. "Barry, keep the vacuums in check." The speedster nodded and watched as the mutant clenched his hand, the small missiles, the size of marbles, shooting out and let themselves be carried by the force of his vacuums.
They all neared the flying man as they spiraled around in the wind vacuums. As they closed on him, they shined and Matt smirked. "Kaboom."
EXPLOSION
A series of explosions pushed the flying man and he grunted in pain from feeling the explosive force of the mini explosions connect with his body. Oliver saw an opening, shooting an arrow that pierced his left shoulder. The trick arrow unleashed a thick cable that wrapped around the flying man, forcing his wings back in and forcing him down to the ground.
"Flash!" Iron Knight called out with his hands forming cannons in case his plan failed.
WHOOSH
Barry instantly worked. He ran around the bound flying man in a circle. Khufu managed to wrestle out of the trick arrow's rope and got up on his feet. Both he and Oliver Queen got a confused look as they watched the speedster run around in a circle for what was probably the fiftieth time. But it was probably above the hundred numbers.
The Flash stopped and time slowed down to a crawl once more. The energy, the lightning he generated as he ran, passed over his body and latched onto his right arm. He was withholding the war cry in him as he swung his arm for the flying man, shooting out the bolt of yellow lightning… like Zeus hurling a spear of lightning.
The flying man was rolling on the ground from the lightning blast that knocked him out. "Not bad, Barry." The armored mutant praised the speedster, greatly impressed with Barry's lightning throw.
Motioning the same movement as Barry performed, Oliver said astonished. "That's new."
Barry smiled. "Yep, comes in handy."
"So…" Matt said and crouched before the hawk-armored man. "Wanna gut this pervert?" he said sadistically with his arm forming a large energy blade.
And the heroes of this universe thought that the elemental was the sadistic one in their team of three.
X
(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)
After watching the otherworldly scientist continue his work on the speed formula, Caitlin couldn't help but hear Jay's words repeat themselves in her head.
"The Speed Force can't be replicated or enhanced. It's a living thing."
Her crossed arms tightened their holds as she thought what could happen because of a speedster taking this speed drug. The costs of artificial enhancements could be too great for anyone to pay. While she and her team, her family even, have dealt with them for a year, metahumans still remain an unknown territory with far too many unknown variables.
One wrong move it could very well be the falling domino brick that brings the entire row down.
Frankie also looked unsure of what this drug might do. Her thoughts were running along the same line of thoughts as her parent's thoughts. Her arms were crossed too and worriedly looking at the injection needle that was sucking up the Velocity drug into its barrel.
While worry was still engraved on her face, Caitlin said with a determined face. "We can't use that serum on Barry."
"That's up to him, isn't it?" Harry replied casually while detaching the barrel from the needle. "If Barry wants to stop Zoom, this is what he needs." He put the barrel into the injection gun.
"And knowing Barry, he will accept it no matter what. If it meant Barry defeating Zoom he would accept in a heartbeat." Frankie stated, by now she already knew how the speedster was thinking. For that matter, everyone on the team knows how Barry thinks by this point.
Caitlin worriedly said next. "Jay said it could hurt Barry."
"Well, Jay's a coward." Harry bluntly admitted.
Frankie scoffed. "Anyone who's willing to go out and fight for others, are no cowards, Wells."
"We're talking about the same guy who escaped to another universe to escape Zoom. So yeah, a coward." Harrison reminded them.
The female doctor then jumped to the former speedster's defense. "Jay's a scientist who knows a lot about speedsters."
"You're a scientist, Snow." Harry said with his eyes pointing at her. "You've been watching Barry, not to mention mutants from universes afar from this one. You know he's nowhere near as fast as he needs to be. This other mentor, this other Harrison Wells, did not want him to reach his full potential. I do."
"Yeah, he did too. Because he wanted to get his ass back home, just like you want your daughter back right." The young magnekinetic stated.
Caitlin nodded and admitted. "You know, you're really starting to sound a lot like him." she gives him a quick look over. "Frankie help with some things in the lab, will you?"
Frankie looked unsure of whether to accept that request or not, feeling like she couldn't risk letting the man from Earth-2 be alone. Feeling like he would do something rash and irreparable. But she then heard. "Frankie, help your Mom. It's better than driving yourself crazy over one man's crazy science experiment." Magenta told her.
"I know. But this entire thing… I just don't trust it."
"I'm the same. It's too dangerous to rely on something that's still too unknown." Magenta added.
Turning to her mother, Frankie gave a nod. "Sure, Mom." She followed her parent into the lab and began to help her.
Harry looked at them for a moment, wondering briefly he was able to have the same kind of relationship with his daughter… after she was pulled out of the world that Zoom's been plaguing.
"Put your hands in the air."
Harrison Wells spun around to see an unfamiliar woman walk towards him with a firearm pointing his way. "Who are you?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
"You're under arrest." Patty Spivot said cautiously. "Dr. McGee was right. She did see you."
"Christina McGee?" Harry wondered.
"At Mercury Labs. You're Harrison Wells." Patty kept her gun trained on him.
With the injection gun still in his hand, Harry got an annoyed expression as he realized what she meant. "Yes, I'm Harrison Wells. I'm not the Harrison-"
"Stop!" Patty ordered him. "You move closer, and I'll shoot."
Raising his injection gun to point at her gun, Harry said. "Give me that-"
Mistaking it for a real firearm of his own, Patty's instincts kicked in and took action.
GUNSHOT
And that action was a reflexive action that led her to pull the trigger of her firearm, projecting a bullet through the air and penetrating the upper left side of Harrison Wells's chest. The bullet shell from her fired bullet clattering on the ground.
The next sound to be echoed through the Cortex was the sound of Harry's body falling to the ground.
Both Caitlin and Frankie heard the sudden sound of the gunshot and rushed into the Cortex. "Oh, my God," the doctor let out in shock and horror before facing the detective. "what have you done?"
Frankie got down beside the man and shook his body. "Harrison? Harrison, stay with us. Come on."
"Stay with me, Harrison." Caitlin said as she applied first-aid, placing her hands. "Stay with me, Harrison, come on. Stay with me." She snapped her head towards Patty. "Why did you shoot him?" In the corner of her eyes, she saw her daughter use her symbiote partner's tendrils to try and seal the open wound.
Patty gestured to the injection gun, still in Harry's hand. "I thought that was a gun. I'm sorry. I'll call 911." She reached for her phone.
"No, don't!" Frankie roared like an animal, shocking the detective from taking out her phone.
"W-Why?" Patty stuttered her response.
Caitlin kept holding her hands over the wound. "Because this-" She stopped herself for a short moment, trying to quickly come up with an explanation for this strange situation. "Didn't Joe West explain this to you?"
"No." Patty let out hectically.
"Just call Uncle Joe!" Frankie roared again.
"Okay." Patty quickly dialed his number and called her partner to tell her of this entire weird predicament.
X
(Star City, Arrowcave)
Back in the Arrowcave, everyone watched the chain-bound form of the man who kidnapped Kendra Saunders before. Matt watched him with his wife beside him, both of them armed with energy blades and razor whip, respectively. The bound man was unconscious right now, the aftermath of the fight on the streets still affecting him.
"So this is the strange guy with wings who kidnapped Kendra before?" Olivia examined him with her blue eyes. "And why haven't we killed him yet?"
John looked at her curiously. "Do you have any ideas that does not involve killing people?"
"Not at the moment, no." She replied with a shrug.
Felicity widened her eyes. "Wait, Liv can't you read his mind while he's like this?"
Olivia nodded. "Yeah, I can."
Thea looked worried. "Wait, you can just read people's minds?"
"Yeah. Think of it like people's minds are an open library for me and I'm the only who can check out the books in them." Thea found it weird how she could speak so calmly about invading others' minds like it's a normal thing. Olivia walked closer to the man. "But it's harder with Barry around, because his mind and thoughts are like on fast-forward. Kinda of like an audiobook that's too damn loud for anyone to actually listen to."
"Heh, sorry." Barry apologized with his hand rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"Aw, it's good training for me. Don't worry, Barry." Olivia placed her hands the bound man's temples. "Let's see what's inside of his noggin." Her entire being shining brightly with pinkish psychic energy and she let the energy travel up her arms till they connected with the sides of his head. Blue eyes instantly became shrouded with a curtain of psychic falling over them.
Everyone watched as the energy took on the forms of small threads and slithered into the man's head.
Oliver still held his arms crossed as he watched the psychic dive into their prisoner's mind. Turning to the other mutant, he asked. "Your wife does this often?"
"Beats interrogation." Matt replied knowingly, the archer rolling his eyes.
"And there's no side effects of this?" Felicity wondered, her boyfriend's ears perking up at the question.
"Depends on what the hell this guy is." Matt nodded to the bound man his wife was telepathically invading.
"You don't think he's a meta?" John was the one to inquire.
"No idea. Something about him… feels different." Olivia said while trying to infiltrate his mind. Her eyes widened at what she found. "The hell…" she said with disbelief and had a baffled expression as she tried to figure it out but with no success.
"What's wrong, Livia?" Matt grew worried.
"What did you find?" Cisco asked, hoping that whatever she found would give them some answers to this dilemma.
The psychic energy that went inside the man's head slithered back into the psychic's mind. The energy around her body faded away. Running a hand through her long magenta hair, she sighed. "The hell's wrong with this guy? For that matter, what is he?"
"What are you talking about?" Thea asked in confusion.
Matt narrowed his eyes. "What did you find in his head?"
"Precisely that." Olivia said and question marks appeared over everyone's heads. "There's something really weird about this guy." She faced the others again. "He doesn't have one set of memories."
"I'm sorry. Set of memories?" John wanted an explanation and parts of him knew that he would regret his own words.
"Whatever a person experiences in a life, good and bad alike. They're automatically stored in your mind, memories." She began. "And when you experience a lot of them, be it your first ice cream, picnic with family, first kiss, the family you start with your loved one, they pile on each other. That's a process that repeats itself every day of your life, ending up with forming a lifetime's worth of memories. A single lifetime's worth of memories, I call them a set of memories."
"And everyone has only one set of memories?" Barry asked.
"Yeah they do." Gesturing to herself, the mutant replied. "Psychics are a bit of an exception. Depending on their skills, they're able to copy others' memories and even store them in their own or others, something I can do. But an entire set… an entire lifetime of memories is bit harder to copy." She looked at the bound man again. "And for some reason, this guy has more than one set."
"So he has two sets?" Oliver wondered.
However, she shook her head and stated. "No. He has dozens of sets, and for some reason, they're not put there via telepathic powers."
"What? Does this mean he's experienced more than one lifetime?" John already regretted his words.
"No fucking idea." Olivia swore angrily as her confusion reached the stratosphere. She faced the bound man. "Let's ask Sleeping Beauty himself."
SLAP
The Star City natives winched when they saw the psychic abruptly slap their prisoner. The blow got the man to stir awake and Khufu's opening eyes snapped open at the feeling of metal chains constricting his movements. Even though there were a bunch of chains around his body and keeping him bound to the iron support pillar, he still managed to shake them with his struggles.
"He's more than human." Olivia thought to herself. There was something more to this guy than meets the eye. Whether it was good or not was yet to be decided.
Their prisoner looked to them all. "Where is she?" he growled his question.
"What's your name?" Oliver said, unfazed by the growling he continued to emit.
"You're putting her in danger, and I'm the only one capable of saving her." Khufu continued to fight his chains.
Thea gained a hollow and humorless expression. "You have a very interesting perspective on what the word "saving" means."
Khufu looked at her. "She's the love of my lifetime, sweetheart. I was not gonna hurt her."
"So you're not just a flying pervert. What an improvement." The psychic let out sarcastically.
The bound man rolled his eyes. "Not a pervert. You need to let me go." He paused his struggles as he saw someone walk out from the side of a corner. It was Kendra Saunders who was watching the bound man with curious eyes. "Chay-Ara."
"My name is Kendra Saunders." Kendra corrected him.
"In this life." The flying man corrected her, the others looking confused at his words. "And I am… was Carter Hall, but that is not who we are."
"Come again?" Matt said.
"What does that mean?" Kendra still asked baffled.
Feeling déjà vu, Carter Hall took the easiest explanation. "You're Priestess Chay-Ara. I'm Prince Khufu. And we're lovers." Cisco didn't like that. "Soulmates." The engineer really didn't like that. "We've been partners for 4,000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die, we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again. And now that I've found you, we should really get out of here." He empathized his words with another struggle in his bounds.
"Okay, Romeo," Cisco stopped him from continuing with his hand with a scrunched face. "why don't you pump the brakes?"
Carter didn't react to the engineer's words. "These people cannot protect you from Savage any longer."
"Why do I get the feeling that you know more about this Savage guy than you're letting on?" Olivia stated her inquiring words.
"Do you?" Oliver demanded to know as well.
The question seemed to form a saddened expression on Carter's face. "In every lifetime, he hunts us down and kills us."
"That explains the dozens of sets of memories I've found in Carter's head before." Olivia said with realization.
"He's done it 206 times, and I'm not planning to make it 207." Carter admitted.
"Killed 206 times? God, how much training do these two need to actually put up a fight." The nanite mutant thought to himself.
"Why does he kill you?" John asked.
"His life force is tethered to ours." The reincarnate stated. "Every time he kills us, he becomes more powerful. You do the math."
"You're 0 for 206, and you still think you're her best bet, hmm?" Cisco had to stop himself from laughing.
"You do the math." Matt said and he flying man looked like he was stung by their words. "You think we don't stand the chance against Savage. How about yourself? Right now, you're the ones who lost their lives to him, multiple times. We haven't."
"Okay, so what we need to do is just find Savage and get rid of him." Barry suggested.
Matt cracked his fists. "Sounds like a plan."
Carter laughed at their optimism. "Well, you can't get rid of him, my friend."
"We're not friends." Matt said sharply.
"Watch us." Barry dared him.
Olivia turned her eyes to a dark corner. "Think it might be a bit harder than we think. Isn't that right, Malcolm Merlyn?" she heard his thoughts a mile away.
Chuckling, the Demon's Head stepped out of the shadows with his men and revealed his presence to them all. "If I didn't know any better, I swear that you could hear my thoughts." The mutant didn't do anything, be it make an expression or smiling or anything. "You're certainly a warrior in your own category."
Barry looked shocked. "Is that the only way this guy knows how to enter a room?" Oliver held up his hand, knowing that it was futile question to inquire.
Malcolm Merlyn then revealed his information to them all. "My associates tell me Savage left Star City a few hours ago."
"Where did our immortal madman run off to?" The psychic mutant wondered.
"We're not quite sure." He said. "But I assume after his run-in with you, he realized he needed something more powerful to complete his mission. We think he's trying to locate the Staff of Horus."
While Carter seemed to pale with realization at the name, Thea was the one to ask the question on everyone's minds. "Sorry, what is that?"
"It's a relic from our past, an ancient and powerful weapon." Carter revealed before looking to them. "If Savage gets his hands on it, it's going to be nearly impossible to stop him."
Cisco widened his eyes. "Since when did our lives suddenly become an "Indiana Jones" movie?"
"Maybe it's because we have an immortal of our own." Felicity pointed to the nanite mutant.
"Not immortal, just have a really good healing factor that lets me survive various fatal attacks." Matt said, but they still looked like he was trying to simplify rocket science. Sighing he said defeatedly. "Forget it, it's a drag to explain."
Oliver nodded his agreement and looked to his girlfriend. "Felicity?"
"Yeah?" She said.
"Think you can find it?" he asked.
"Yeah. It's probably at some museum somewhere." Felicity suggested. "I'll, uh, work my magic, see what I can find." She walked away.
Matt opened a panel on his gauntlet. "Jarvis, help her and check to see if this Staff of Horus thing is some rich bastard's basement. Rare and valuable relics are usually bought at some shady private auctions."
"As you wish, sir." The AI responded.
"We're running out of time." Carter said and looked to the latest reincarnate of his soulmate. "You need to emerge now." Barry and Matt and Olivia looked to Kendra with narrowed eyes. "Come on, what is it gonna take for you to believe me? You saw my wings."
"Which you used to kidnap her; you perv." Olivia reminded him.
"Still not a perv, just tried to protect her." Carter reminded them. "I know you know this is true. Please, just let me show you how."
Matt looked to Kendra. "Kendra." He got her attention. "What do you want to do? It's your choice whether you want to believe him or not. We'll back you up and kill him if he does the wrong thing."
Carter paled with fear… he also saw the psychic form a menacing smirk at the thought of ending his life.
X
(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)
Joe West rushed to the facility when getting the distress call from his partner. Hearing that she had was unbelievable. Shooting the man she thought was Harrison Wells of this world in the chest… it was a mistake. But he couldn't blame her too much as he almost did the same when he laid eyes on Harry Wells.
However, Patty did in the same facility as his niece and her mother. He hoped that neither of them were there to witness the shooting.
He saw Caitlin Snow working on the downed man in the middle of the Cortex. He was already attached to the breathing machines and placed on a gurney with various patches taking his vitals. Her daughter wiping away any excess sweat or blood on the man's form. She heard him and looked to him the moment he asked. "How's he doing?"
Caitlin formed a saddened expression before saying. "He's losing oxygen."
Joe looked around and placed his eyes on his partner. She was wearing a sorrowful expression as she watched the doctor work on the man she thought was dead and returned to this world to rob from Mercury Labs. Pointing a finger at her, he demanded. "I need you to leave."
"Joe, I-" she walked closer to him, trying and hoping to get out an apology.
"Patty, go." Joe interrupted her and pointed to the exit. Patty walked to it with crossed arms and regret painted all over her face.
Seeing the detective leave, Frankie asked her mother. "Mom, what's the situation now? Is he gonna be alright?"
"There's a bullet in a branch of his pulmonary artery that's blocking off most of the blood flow from the left lung." Caitlin informed to the detective and her daughter simultaneously.
"Are we able to get the bullet out?" Joe asked urgently. "I mean, Seth was able to do it with his tentacle things, can't Frankie do the same?"
"Not without causing too much damage. And Seth's a doctor. Pulling out bullets with his tendrils of people were his specialty." Caitlin said before admitting. "I need Jay's help."
Joe nodded and reached into his pocket to take hold of his phone. Frankie looked to her mother, knowing what she was thinking. "You really think Jay is gonna help us out now? You think he will take Velocity-6?"
"I hope so." Caitlin gulped and looked at Harry again. "It's Harry's only hope now."
X
(Star City)
"You're joking, right?" Matt asked out loud as he stood on the ledge of the very tall building. He looked downwards, the same as baffled Kendra, confident Carter, skeptical Cisco, Barry and Oliver looking downwards in disbelief.
They heard the wind whooshing and colliding with the other nearby buildings around them. But Matt was definitely not agreeing with this plan that Carter proposed. He doesn't care about his past reincarnations or even this one for that matter, he just didn't want Cisco's girlfriend to be put in danger.
And freefalling from a tall building was definitely dangerous.
"So…" Kendra stepped away from the ledge and Carter and Cisco looked to her. "you just want me to jump."
Carter shifted his head around. "Fall, jump, swan dive, whatever suits you. Just, uh, do it."
"This is a horrible plan." Matt jumped off the ledge and walked to the others.
"Okay, this isn't the X Games." Cisco stated.
Oliver then pitched in. "And this is how she emerges? She just falls towards her death?"
"Yep, 4,000 years of experience says that's exactly how. Just watch and learn." Carter told them.
Cisco looked to Matt, hoping for something that he would bring reason into this mess. "Matt, come on. You know more about powers than any of us. Tell us he's wrong."
"Sorry, I can't." Matt shook his head. "Life or death situations have the advantage of bring people to Death's doorstep. And when one steps on that doorstep, an enormous amount of adrenaline shoots the body. For normal people, it can be those flashes of one's life before your eyes."
"And for powered people it can be a type of power activation. Like mutants experiencing moments of distress." Cisco knew where he was going with this.
"Yeah." Matt looked shocked. "How'd you know?"
"Seth told us something similar when his powers went dormant for a while, after fighting Blackout." Barry said.
"Oh yeah. Bastard told me about that a while back. Can't believe he went through that." Matt chuckled.
"No, I'm sorry. What are we doing?" Barry looked around his friends in disbelief. "Why are we listening to this guy?" he asked them while the barista kept looking over the ledge. The speedster faced Oliver. "Come on, Oliver, you're supposed to be the one who asks questions."
"Okay." Oliver reluctantly nodded and slowly. "But after what we saw, after what Cisco said, after what Matt just said," he looked in disbelief at his own words that he uttered next. "I cannot believe I'm going to say this, but it…kind of makes sense."
Matt felt like he saw Oliver struggle with his own words. Like he was struggling to even swallow inhaled air itself because of those words.
And the mutant understood why. This wasn't metahumans, he had faced before. Nor was it mutants that the knight had faced before. This was a supernatural territory, elements known as reincarnations and immortals belonging to this area.
"A crazy world we live in." Matt kinda missed the days of Earth-616, where he had to be a SHIELD agent and only think about the next mission that was waiting out there in the world.
While the men talked intensely, Kendra made her decision and got up on the ledge. The men looked at her with expanded eyes. "Wow, wow, are you serious about this, Kendra?" The nanite mutant asked in fear for her safety.
"Yes, she is." Carter spoke for her and pushed the barista off the ledge.
SCREAM
Kendra's screams reached the high heavens as she was plummeting to her death.
"Barry!" Cisco exclaimed to the speedster before rushing to the ledge to see her falling.
WHOOSH
Barry sped into action and ran down the side of the building to pursue her falling form. Matt looked to the flying man. "You suck as a teacher."
WHOOSH
The speedster appeared beside them on the rooftop once more with Kendra, safe and sound. "What the hell was that?" He demanded to know from Carter.
"Saving her life." He said calmly. Carter looked at his reincarnated soulmate. "You should have emerged. Something is blocking you. Well, we should just try again and see what's-"
"No way in hell!" Matt screamed.
"No!" Cisco screamed.
"No, no, no, no, no." Barry chanted. "We're not doing that again. Kendra, you don't have to do this." He told the barista. He shifted his gaze between Oliver and Matt. "Oliver, Matt, we can stop savage, okay?"
"Barry." Oliver got his attention.
"What?" Barry growled like an enraged animal.
He felt a hand take hold of his shoulder and looking to the person, he saw that it was Matt wearing a sharp and cold expression. "Let's have a talk." The mutant's words came out as an order and he pushed the speedster to the archer who waited for them. "Cisco, keep an eye on Carter. He acts fishy, shout and I'll toss his body over the building." Cisco nodded his agreement.
With another push, he pressed him to the speedster till they stood before Oliver. "What is going on with you?" the archer demanded to know of the metahuman, seeing that he was acting more and more agitated.
"I'm trying to keep her alive." Barry replied immediately, as though Oliver didn't know of their current mission.
"Bar, if we really want to save, then maybe we should let her jump." Matt stated.
"Matt's right." Oliver agreed with the mutant.
"Are you guys kidding me?" He said in shock.
Oliver knew what was going on. "Barry, I get that you're desperate to help and you want to be the hero and you want to save her yourself, but I think she has to have a part in it too."
Barry looked around in disbelief, even greater than what he wore before. Much greater even. Like it was disbelief itched into his very heart. "Barry, what the hell's going on with you now?"
"It's just-" he stopped himself and confessed. "The rules keep changing. One day I have to run through time, I lose a friend and his family hate me, the next day I'm fighting a telepathic gorilla, a-a-and now we're what? We're chasing down an immortal madman on a rampage against a reincarnated warrior priestess?"
"Plus a fucking annoying piece of shit prince." Matt added humorously.
Barry looked over Star City from the high spot briefly before admitting. "I just never thought I'd have superpowers and feel more powerless than I ever have in my entire life."
"That part I understand." Oliver pitched in understandably. "But you have already helped Kendra. You have kept her alive. So now let's help her get her wings, and then she can give you and Matt a lift back to Central City."
"Over my dead body, Queen." The nanite mutant said. Oliver looked to be in deep thoughts as the mutant looked to Barry. "And Barry, as heroes and scientists, we're always gonna be face-to-face with something strange and unknown. It's part of the job description. We face the problem once; we probably fail and then we strike back in teams. Being a hero isn't about going at it alone, not always of course. Sometimes you must learn how to ask others for help, every once in a while."
"I thought Seth was the wise one in your trio." The metahuman joked.
Smirking the mutant said. "Who do you think told me those words?" Barry reared his head back in realization.
"Central City." Oliver got their attention with that single word before walking over to the others again.
"Where's he going?" The knight asked.
X
(Arrowcave)
The group arrived back in the Arrowcave and the knight saw his wife looking at him curiously before walking towards him. "Hey, what's going on?"
"Think Queen's using his brains." Matt quipped and they walked onto the platform.
Oliver looked to his girlfriend. "You need to check Central City for the staff."
"What exactly makes you think it's Central City?" the psychic asked.
"It's what Kendra said before." The archer revealed and looked to the barista. "Kendra, you said you were drawn there." She confirmed it with a nod. "I think you're drawn to things that destroy you the same way you two are drawn to each other."
Felicity pointed a finger to her computer screen. "That's why it wasn't in any museum or private collection, because it was consecrated eight months ago at St. Mark's in Central City."
"We've got to get it before Savage does." Barry said.
"Then we have a plan ready." Matt said.
Oliver nodded his consent before looking to Carter. "Carter, stay here."
"I'm not going anywhere." Carter told them.
The archer nodded. "Call Thea and Dig, and we'll have them hold down the fort in case Savage shows up."'
"Shouldn't Liv or Matt stay here too then?" Felicity asked the mutants.
"Sorry but I wanna face this immortal bastard again." Olivia smirked villainously. "He's like an unending sandbag. Perfect for tearing apart thousands of times and will still be alright no matter how much you rip them apart. I ain't passing up a chance to take him on at full strength."
"I have some revenge of my own to dish out." Matt rubbed the lower part of his neck. "If he thinks he can get away with killing me then he's dead wrong."
Barry looked to Kendra. "Kendra, last year, I lost my powers. Not just me, but also a friend of mine, the man who's Venom. The only way we could get them back was if we just forgot about everything happening around us and focused on who we were. Just believe in yourself, and your true self will emerge."
"Thanks." Kendra smiled happily.
Felicity took hold of Oliver's hand. "Hey, are you sure that you want to do this?" he didn't answer and continued to look at her. "If this guy's immortal and Merlyn's right about how powerful this staff is..."
"Don't worry, Smoak." Olivia said with her entire body being enveloped by the nanites swarming out of her box on her chest. With a swing of her head, she let them adapt to her head and long hair. Angel Fury looked at the hacker. "We'll be fine."
The speedster agreeingly nodded. "Kiss her." he told the archer while watching the nanites from the Arc Reactor sending out the nanites to form his Iron Knight suit.
"We'll be fine." Oliver assured his worrisome girlfriend before kissing her on the lips.
The two mutants watched as the archer and speedster walked to the display cases, two of which opened up to reveal their respective suits.
Nudging her husband with her elbow, the psychic said. "We are never doing that."
"You can kill me if we do." The nanite mutant told her.
X
(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)
While their heroic friends and family were suiting up for a battle with an immortal madman, Caitlin and her daughter and Joe West were dealing with a battle of their own as they desperately fought to keep Harrison Wells from Earth-2 alive. His blood flow was still struggling to flow with the bullet still embedded in his system.
Caitlin saw something in the corner of her eye and saw Dr. Wells stirring wildly while in the gurney. Frankie saw the same. "Now what?" she asked in fear.
Rushing to look at the monitor displaying his internals, the doctor noted. "His systolic pressure's dropping. He's gonna code." Frankie staggered back in fear and her hands over her mouth.
Thankfully, the next person to walk through the entrance of the Cortex was Jay Garrick. The others saw him and he asked them. "How bad is it?"
Swinging her head to him, she informed. "There's a bullet in his pulmonary artery."
Jay walked closer to the hospitalized man and examined the man himself with his eyes. "Can you close the wound if I get it?" he asked the native doctor.
"Yes." She replied immediately.
Unbeknownst of everything they have worked on in here, the detective asked confusedly. "How are you going to do that?"
Jay looked hesitant and all color drained from his face as though he had witnessed a ghost. He really hated how he had to use Wells's drug. It would mean going against everything he said before and manipulating with the gift that he lost.
Caitlin grabbed the injection gun, filled to the brim with the special speed-enhancing drug.
"What is that?" Joe asked as the gun was held in front of Jay.
"It's a serum called Velocity-6. It could give Jay temporary speed." Caitlin said. "He can phase through Doctor Wells's chest and remove the bullet."
"Yeah," Jay confirmed but his hesitation remained strong with his gaze pointing at the injection gun. "but I told you, I have no idea what's gonna happen if use that." He told the native doctor.
"It's our only option. If you don't do this, Dr. Wells will die." Caitlin told him pleadingly.
With the help of her "other", Frankie was able to feel the hesitation brimming with the former speedster. And then watched as Jay took hold of the injection gun and pressed it against his pulse on his wrist. Pulling the trigger, the barrel shined brightly with a blue light.
They all watched as he let go of the gun and put it on the bed. Jay leant forward, both hands pressing on the bed railing.
The others didn't see it, but his eyes were riddled with yellow lightning… as a familiar feeling of lighting crackling against every cell in his body.
The sudden feeling of that sensation caused his body arch with a grunt. And it was then everyone saw his right hand… as it was turning to a blur.
"It's working." Joe said astonished by the serum's effects.
"Come on, Jay." Frankie said and they watched as the Earth-2 man dived down.
His hand still blurring, and his body not used to the powers of this serum and it phased through the man's chest. They all watched with bated breaths when it was still inside Wells's chest and hoped that he had found the bullet.
They got their long-awaited answer when Jay pulled out his blurring hand out of the man's chest…holding the bullet that was once resident in Wells's body… which the monitor registered and showed that once again the blood was flowing.
Caitlin walked to the monitors herself with her daughter. "BP and oxygenation is rising. Blood flow's returning to his lungs." She felt her daughter wrap her arms around her waist. "Looks like we're still stuck with Wells, honey."
"Yeah." Frankie turned her head to face the exhausted Jay Garrick. "Thank you, Garrick."
He held up the bullet and smiled at the young metahuman.
X
(Central City, St. Marks Church)
The four heroes entered the church. Angel Fury standing ready with her razor whip in her hand. Iron Knight have his blades and cannons ready. Green Arrow kept his hand on his bow. The Flash looked around, ready to speed into any direction when an attack would come.
Oliver got confused. "What's going on?" he directed to the other heroes, all of them looking strangely around this place.
"Nothing." Barry started. "I just like to speed into rooms, usually."
"And we just fly into rooms and start shooting people." Matt said.
"Not me. I fly into rooms and crack my whip like a crazy monster." The psychic stated.
"Huh-uh." The archer said unsurprised. "Where do you think we find this thing? I haven't been in one of these places in a while."
"Guys." Matt got their attention. Pointing a finger to the ambo. They saw that it was cracked in the middle of it, the location of the Staff has been found and the staff itself have been taken. "Savage beat us to it."
"We're too late." Barry noted.
However, Olivia did not agree with those words as she heard sinister thoughts brimming. "Shit."
"Something you're not used to saying very often, I'd imagine." Vandal Savage announced his presence with his hand around the Staff of Horus. A long golden staff with a golden bird on the top of it. A golden hawk.
Green Arrow pointed an arrow at the immortal who scoffed. "You tried those arrows once before, remember? They didn't quite finish the job, now, did they?"
"I'm not gonna make that mistake again." Oliver growled.
Savage couldn't help but smile at their bravado. His interest was piqued when turning to the two mutants. "I see you are still standing, young knight. And the menacing angel too? Perhaps this trip will be more worth than I anticipated."
"Careful now, pal." Angel Fury shot out her whip. "We're not known for being kind."
"Then we have something in common, my dear." Savage made eye contact with the knight again. "I see a fire burning with you, young knight. Perhaps our fight earlier brought back some unpleasant memories."
"Good guess. How about I give you some bad ones myself." He reformed his cannons into blades.
"You're gonna leave Kendra alone." Barry demanded.
"I can't do that." Savage told the speedster defiantly. "While my destiny is to live forever, Chay-Ara's is to die, as is yours now." He raised the staff and blue energy gathered around the golden bird before shooting out a massive blue energy beam.
Barry sped away and Olivia jumped into the air and took flight. Oliver dodged the beam before firing off an array of arrows. Matt stood his ground and formed a circular shield on his left hand and took it on. The force of the beam pushed him back, his feet digging into the floor and pushing up pieces of wood.
Reeling back her hand, Olivia sent her whip flying and it cracked against the Staff of Horus, cancelling the madman's attack on her husband. Savage faced her and projected an energy blast for her. She dodged it and another one before using her powers to launch herself for him.
Savage was prepared for that and lashed out his staff, forming a blue energy barrier around him. Blocking the psychic's attack, who then used the barrier as a footing to jump backwards and land on her feet again. Cupping her hands together, she quickly gathered psychic energy in them and blasted it into the barrier.
However, Savage swung his staff, twirling the energy barrier to deflect the psychic blast before cancelling it again. With his barrier down again, he rained down a barrage of blue blasts for the female mutant who was hurled back from them.
With her pushed away, he fired other beams for the male heroes. Barry kept dodging the attacks by speeding around the rows while Oliver kept firing arrows. Matt flew forward with his wings blazing once more. While dodging the energy attacks, the armored mutant opened panels on his shoulders and shot out a barrage of missiles.
All of them were forced to meet the blue energy barrier once more. The collision with it caused an explosion around Savage's field of vision and a smokescreen. Swinging his staff once more, he blew away the smokescreen while deactivating the barrier.
With the barrier gone, he saw the armored mutant pointing both his palms at him. Energy gathered in them were instantly fired into repulsor blasts that neared the immortal. But with the staff gathering energy of its own in the bird figure on the top of the staff, Vandal Savage swung the staff for the two repulsor blasts. Cancelling them out before lashing it out and firing a surge of blue energy into a beam, hitting the knight in his torso.
"ARGH!" Matt screamed and was forced to be sent flying into the wooden rows. His heavy body smashing through them like a bulldozer.
"Matt!" The psychic let out and used her telekinetic powers to lift her husband and herself to the other side and landed between some rows to dodge the energy blasts.
"Any ideas?" Oliver asked as he jumped behind a row.
"Oh, now you'll listen to me?" Barry wondered.
"It's your city." Oliver stated.
The psychic looked to her husband. "Are we chopped liver or something?"
Between the destruction of the rows with each energy blast connecting the words, Matt said. "That's what you get for working with people in spandex."
Olivia gave him a narrowed eyed look. "I don't think you had much of a problem with tights and spandex when you worked with my Aunt Carol."
Blushing embarrassedly behind his mask, the nanite mutant let out. "You're never gonna let me live that down."
"Learnt from my brother after all." The psychic winked.
Another energy blast was fired and caused the four heroes to lower their heads. "God, he's pissing me off now." Matt let out in annoyance.
"All right, let's just try to get the staff." Barry suggested.
"Fine. We can draw his fire. You and Robin Hood do something about his staff." Olivia stated.
"I'll help with distracting him." The mutants nodded their consent to Oliver. "All right, on my mark." They all nodded again. Green Arrow shot up and fired arrows. Matt and Olivia jumped into the air, flying and rapidly fired off repulsor blasts and psychic spheres.
All the fired attacks and projectiles met the energy barrier. The moment the barrier was deactivated, Barry saw an opening and sped forward like a striking lightning bolt. The speedster wrapped his hands around the staff, but Savage gathered immense energy into the entire staff.
The energy came out in a burst, unleashing a pulse that send the speedster into the air. But managed to catch The Flash before he could connect with the rows again.
Oliver walked forward between the rows and send more arrows for Savage, but all of them were met with the barrier's force and bounced off. The immortal concentrated energy again before lashing it out and pushing the archer back with another energy pulse.
The two mutants then shot forward. Olivia swung with her clawed fingers and Matt lashed out with his energy blades. Both close range attacks, blocked by the Staff of Horus. The immortal madman gathered energy into it again, filling the entire length of the staff with the blue energy.
Pushing them away lightly with the staff, the immortal raised his staff over his head and spun it around rapidly. The blue energy surging through the staff intensified before swinging it again. Savage slammed the golden bird into the armored mutant's torso, the pulse bursting into his body and sending him flying. Using the back of the bird, he slammed it into the psychic's body and hurled her into the air with another pulse.
Both mutants straightened themselves with their respective powers and flew over to Oliver and Barry.
As they did so, Vandal Savage spoke in an Egyptian tongue. He then said in English, telling them his compliments. "In all my countless years, I've never encountered anybody with your capabilities. Astonishing!" he raised the Staff of Horus much higher again, blue energy gathering around him like he was in the eye of the storm of pure energy. All the energy converging to the golden bird on the top of the staff.
All the heroes looked worried and prepared their weapons. The next blast would be worse than the previous ones. Much more powerful.
But for some reason, the energy Vandal Savage gathered around him faded away and he breathed out. "Chay-Ara." He could feel it. Even though she was a city away. He could feel it as it has happened in a plethora of lifetimes.
The moment she would fully emerge… and her wings would once again sprout.
Vandal looked to them. "I used to enjoy slow deaths. Now… I just find them boring." Blue energy gathered on the golden bird once more.
"Barry, get us out of here!" Matt exclaimed to the speedster.
Using his superspeed, Barry grabbed hold of both Oliver and Olivia. Matt took flight… at the same time Vandal Savage slammed the Staff of Horus into the ground… unleashing an explosive pulse of blue energy that spread and impacted the entire church.
X
Matt flew out of the church just in time to dodge the explosion following the pulse. Barry had already run out with the psychic and the archer. But the pressure of the explosion sent all four down to the ground.
The knight got on his feet at the same time his wife flipped herself up to her full height again. "That was massive. Thanks, Barry."
"Yeah, of course." The speedster assured the psychic.
They all watched the church burn with the flames still blazing strongly within the establishment. Barry then asked his friends. "Any chance he blew himself up in there?"
"Not likely." Oliver was the one to answer.
"So that's, like, a tie, right?" Barry said.
"Seems like it." Matt rubbed the back of his head with the gauntlet on his right hand.
"I'll take it." Olivia said. "But why the heck did he stop before?"
"My guess." Iron Knight looked in the direction of Central City, where he had a feeling of what happened there. "Our little birdy jumped off the nest and finally learned how to fly."
And the nanite mutant thought that this must have involved Cisco somehow.
X
(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)
The next day, Caitlin and her daughter walked into the Cortex again to check on Harrison who hadn't woken up yet from his slumber despite the bullet removed from his body. Jay was there too and watched the downed doctor as well.
"He's still down for the count?" Frankie asked her mother in shock. Seeing as though the bullet was removed, she expected him to wake him within a few hours after the removal.
"Might not be long for him to come back now." Caitlin said to her daughter as she stood on the right side of the bed and looked over the monitors again. She then heard a sharp intake of air and looked down to see the man open his eyes. "Dr. Wells?"
Wells opened his eyes wider and looked around, seeing that he was on a gurney. "You're gonna be okay, Wells." Frankie assured him calmly.
"That's good news." He commented happily.
Caitlin then said sadly. "You will probably be very sore for a little bit, though."
"Sore is better than dead." Harry said hoarsely.
"Definitely beats the alternative." Frankie said with a chuckle.
Giving the young metahuman a strange look, the otherworldly scientist told the doctor. "Snow, your daughter is very strange."
"Hey!" The magnekinetic let out offendedly and slapped his arm. Harry took in an intake of air as he was still sore, and the slap from the young symbiote-bearer was not helping in the least.
Her mother laughed and said. "She got that from her father, trust me. Not me." Her daughter pouted in hurt and crossed her arms. Caitlin walked around the bed and over to her, hugging her daughter tightly. She and Frankie walked over to the private lab on the right side of the Cortex, leaving the two Earth-2 men with each other.
Harry noticed the former speedster not looking at him and asked. "How are you doing, Garrick?"
Jay looked to him. "Your serum's out of my system… and I will never take it again." He turned around and walked to the exit.
"Jay…" Harrison Wells stopped him with his words. "Thank you."
Turning around to look at him, Jay said. "You can thank me by keeping that Velocity-6 away from Barry." He stated his request and walked away.
Leaving the facility… and the scientist to think about the usage of Velocity-6 serum in the future.
X
(CC Jitters)
With Vandal Savage retrieving the Staff of Horus, the immortal armed with a weapon capable of laying waste to a church like it was nothing, everyone in Star City moved to Central City, the current location of the immortal madman.
It was great as the two mutants were able to spend time again with their niece. Now they decided to get some coffee from Jitters. Matt, Olivia, their niece and Oliver and Barry waited in line for them to reach the counter. The physic and her niece were embraced tightly in a hug as they waited in the line.
Once disengaging, the magnekinetic metahuman said. "Felt weird without you and Uncle Matt here, Aunt Liv." Frankie noted as she looked to her aunt's face. She noticed the small scars around her face and neck. Whoever this Vandal Savage is, he's very strong. "Aunt Liv, are you okay?"
"I'm more than fine, baby." Olivia assured her niece calmly. "Just a few scratches, nothing I can't handle." She petted her head gently.
Matt chuckled. "Our little niece was worried for her uncle and aunt the entire time the entire time, such a good girl she is." Frankie blushed embarrassedly and let her uncle hug her.
Oliver laughed at their family fun and then looked around. He saw various menu cards on the tables and screens on the walls promoting their new and various superhero coffee drinks. "Since when is that thing?" With his grinning head, he gestured to the various promoted superhero drinks on the menus around them.
"About eight months." Barry smirked. "Maybe if you save Star City, you might get one too."
"All fun and all true, but we still have to deal with Savage." Matt stated.
"We'll get him." Oliver assured them all.
A young boy then walked between Oliver and Barry, bumping into them both and his toy fell out of his hand. Oliver leant down and saw that it was a figure of The Flash. "Watch yourself, buddy." As he brought the toy closer to his face, he smiled upon eye contact with the speedster. Looking back to the young dark-brown haired boy, he said. "You don't want to lose this guy."
As the boy was handed his action figure back, he expressed his gratitude. "Thanks, mister."
"Yeah." The archer said back and watched the young boy run away. Briefly following the boy, Oliver got the shock of his life when seeing who the boy was talking to.
Samantha Clayton… a woman of his past who said that he might be more than the man he was… kneeling before the young boy and straightening his small hoodie in a caring and parental manner.
Right before kissing him on his forehead… like a mother would with their child.
To be continued…
And that's one half of this crossover, folks.
The next one is gonna be about the big fight with the big bad immortal that everyone are to face. An immortal was thought to be something out of a loony tune, but it's true.
And so is the possibility of reincarnated beings with wings, humans who have lived through two-hundred and six lifetimes and only to be vanquished by the same evil madman who's been stuck in the same manic cycle of murder that binds them.
0 for 206 with Vandal Savage, and Carter still thought he was the only one capable of defending his soulmate, Kendra Hall. Now that Kendra's wings have sprouted, fully emerged as Hawkgirl now, it means that she's accepted that there's a bigger destiny in wait for her, and it was just dropped into her lap out of the blue.
While the others were dealing with the encounter with Vandal Savage, Caitlin and Frankie were busy with helping Harry Wells to construct a serum to enhance the Speed Force within speedsters, the infamous speed-drug Velocity-6.
They didn't have any way to test it to begin with, but after Patty Spivot accidently pulled the trigger of her firearm, shooting a bullet and it being stuck within the man she thought had robbed Mercury Labs, Caitlin found a way to test the drug.
It did involve the aid of the powerless speedster, Jay Garrick, who in the beginning refused to take the drug as it would be manipulating with the gift that he was gifted with, but had to take it reluctantly as he was the only one able to harness the full capabilities of superspeed and allow his hand to phase through Harry's body to pluck the bullet out.
Thankfully, it was a success, granting Harry more time to enjoy life and the chance to hopefully reunite with his daughter, should she return safe and sound. But Jay demanded that the speed drug was nowhere near Barry, making Harry promise himself to not use it anymore.
Caitlin's goal with helping the otherworldly scientist was solely because she thought it would lead to her boyfriend coming back home to her and the rest of their family.
But only the future will be able to decide whether it will be used or not?
So stay tuned and until next time, peeps!
