And now another bedtime story you wonderful people in the world.
Once again, very, very sorry for the long wait. With everything happening around the world, it's been a bit hectic, to say the least.
I hope you all are safe and healthy wherever you might be. And while it is hard, please be cautious about cautious in regards to human contact with either friends or family or significant others. It's for the reduction of the Corona virus, guys.
More importantly, it's for the better of everyone around you and yourself. So please, stay safe and stay health, ladies and gents.
Now to the other stuff, mainly to this story:
This is the second chapter of the Flash and Arrow Crossover: Heroes Join Forces, featuring Vandal Savage as the big bad wolf that's trying to find the three piglets…
Or two birdies, in this case. Or reincarnations of warrior priests.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, there will be changes, more scenes, friction between characters and longer fights.
Once again, I hope you guys are gonna enjoy this chapter.
So without further ado…
ENJOY!
Chapter 18: Legends of Yesterday
With the brimming threat known as Vandal Savage still at large, the two teams from both Central City and Star City had to take action. Meaning that they had to set up a temporary new base of operations. Thankfully, they found one thanks to John Diggle's wife, Lyla Michaels who gave them a secure location whilst they deal with this immortal madman.
The two teams were placed in different vehicles, both filled with equipment and people. One is a small car with Oliver, Thea, Laurel Lance and Felicity. The other one was a large cargo van with John behind the wheel. Caitlin was seated beside him. In the cargo trunk were Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall with Olivia Fury and Frankie Fury.
The female reincarnate looking to be sleeping with closed eyes and the male reincarnate watching her sleep.
As they continued to drive, John looked in the rear-view mirror and looked at the psychic mutant while shifting his gaze between the front and the back. "Olivia?"
"You know, my friends call me Liv." She joked with her eyes looking at the rear-view.
John chuckled. "Are we friends?"
"Depends on your next question." Olivia stated.
The former soldier couldn't help but chuckle at her statement. "I was just wondering where your husband is, that's all."
"That's a surprisingly boring question coming from the man who's working with the Robin Hood rip-off." The psychic joked with a humorous tone. "Matty's with Cisco and Barry for the moment, think he's helping them carry their stuff here."
"So Uncle Matt's been demoted to transportation services?" Frankie joked.
Caitlin chuckled. "Sounds about right, sweetie."
"Strange world." John muttered.
"What do you mean?" Caitlin heard his words.
"I'm in a van with a normal human doctor, her metahuman daughter with an alien inside her, two reincarnations of hawk-people and a psychic woman from 600 universes away." John chuckled, he recalled the days that the strangest he's ever heard or seen were miracle drugs giving people enhanced physical abilities… plus driving them insane.
"Not to mention, Frankie's a cannibal and I'm a mutant." The mutant reminded with a chuckle.
Caitlin could swear she could hear the color draining from John's face at the mention of her daughter's cannibalism. Gulping, the former soldier said to the doctor. "Your daughter is a cannibal?"
Rolling her eyes at his question, surprising him greatly, Caitlin assured him. "She doesn't eat people anymore. She only did it once." Those words didn't exactly calm him down.
"Don't worry, Mr. Diggle, I don't eat people. As long as I eat chocolate, it's fine." The young metahuman told him.
But then John's mind tried to work up a reason that would explain how chocolate was a possible substitute for human… failing instantly at it, he felt like he would get a headache.
"John." He turned his attention to the psychic via the rear-view mirror. "The world is always gonna be stranger and stranger. People like us, heroes or whatever the hell you want to call us, we have to adapt to it."
"Easier said than done." John said.
"I never said it would be easy, Johnny Boy." Olivia stated and leant back. "It's something that takes time and effort. You just have to go through it with the right people, friends and family, and then you'll come out of the storm with only a few scratches and nothing serious. The world of heroes is a wasteland of storms appearing out of the blue at any day and time, you just have to learn how to tackle them through team effort."
"Sounds easier, yeah." John agreed. Thinking that was definitely easier to understand than what he was thinking before.
"Are we there yet?" Frankie whined childishly.
With a chuckle, Caitlin threw a glance to her daughter. "Now you choose act like a child?"
Olivia laughed and ruffler Frankie's hair. "Leave it to Seth's daughter to be a complete weirdo at the strangest of times." Her niece pouted and placed her head on the psychic's shoulder.
Her mind then sparked at the thoughts Olivia heard. Recognizing the voice that followed the thoughts, the psychic looked to Kendra and saw her stirring. Without showing it on the outside, the mutant homed in on the female reincarnate's mind.
But the only thing she could get were faces… her own… Carter's face… Vandal Savage's… from an olden time…
Kendra snapped her eyes open and inhaled sharply. She turned her head to the side and avoided eye contact with Carter Hall, knowing that she just felt a memory from a previous life resurface to the front of her mind. "You okay?" Came the question from the male reincarnate.
Caitlin and Olivia shared a look, the doctor knowing that the psychic had probably already read the flying woman's mind. Kendra looked to Carter and said. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just have a headache." The other women knew that it was lie.
Carter looked unsurely at her. Having experience with what she is going through, he asked. "Are you sure? Usually, that's a sign of your memories returning."
"Yeah, I'm sure." Kendra continued to lie. "I can't remember anything yet."
As they followed their road, the young metahuman noticed that they were nearing a farmhouse. "A farmhouse?"
Olivia looked out the front window and noted in her thoughts. "Reminds me of Barton's." It reminded her of the times she was asked to babysit Clint Barton's children. Couple of troublemakers those boys, his daughter was sweet and easy to manage… except for the times when Seth looked after her, then she would be a hellhound.
As they reached the farmhouse's driveway, the various people got out of the vehicles and took out their bags. Thea closed the door and commented. "A bunch of superheroes in a farmhouse? Feel like I've seen that in a movie before."
"What kind of movies do you watch?" Frankie curiously asked.
Oliver then stated. "We need a secure location." He closed the trunk after getting his duffel bag with his suit and other small items. Felicity had already gotten out of the car and Laurel was picking out her stuff
"What's wrong with S.T.A.R. Labs?" Caitlin asked the archer when walking past him.
"Well, I mean, absolutely nothing," He started sarcastically. "if you forget about the revolving door you guys installed so the bad guys can come and go as they please."
With a quip, Caitlin inquired. "Remind me again what happened to your old lair?" she shifted her head and added. "Or the one before that?" While Frankie laughed, Oliver didn't answer to the quip.
But his girlfriend was more than happy to take care of that. "Well, lair number one was comprised by the police." The two Queen siblings gave her dry looks while Frankie and Caitlin smirked victoriously. Registering the dry looks, the hacker said. "And I will stop helping."
Olivia walked forward and Felicity. "I am beginning to like you more and more Smoak." The hacker smiled happily at the comment.
Oliver then briefed the others while they walked towards the entrance door. "Savage only let us live because he felt Kendra start to emerge as Hawkgirl and went after her. He can sense her and Carter's presence."
The psychic understood the archer's plan. "And you don't want to make it easier for him by staying in the city limits."
With a chuckle, John looked to Laurel Lance who they picked up from her mother's home. "Bet you wish you stayed at your mother's place now."
Laurel couldn't exactly deny that and let it out with a shaking head and a humming. But parts of her were glad as she would finally get the chance to see the faces behind Angel Fury, Magenta and Iron Knight. She already knew that Barry was the Flash but those three would be nice to meet face to face.
Turning around she looked at the young woman with long magenta colored hair. She had never seen Olivia before so she was instantly curious about her the moment she saw her. Stepping backwards a bit, she met the psychic. "Hey."
"Hey." Olivia greeted back and looked her over. "I'm guessing you're part of Team Arrow?"
"Yeah." Laurel held out her hand. "Laurel Lance. Black Canary by night."
"Olivia Fury-Stark." Olivia introduced with her hand shaking the other woman's hand. "I'm Angel Fury whenever trouble calls in Central City."
"You were the missing sister that your big brother, Seth was looking for, right?" The mutant nodded. "The one from another universe and all?" She nodded to Laurel's question. "God. I never thought there would be a brother who would jump into a whole new universe to save his sister." Laurel couldn't help but look at Thea and Oliver, knowing what the elder brother did for his younger sister was impressive.
She never thought there would be such fearless siblings in the multiverse, and that says a lot considering what she did for her sister.
Unbeknownst to her, Olivia was using her psychic powers to dive into her mind, trying to get some information about a certain someone on the team.
Laurel's eyes widened with realization and looked to the mutant again. "And I can't believe you're Angel Fury. I've seen your fights before, you're a monster out there." She hoped that she didn't accidently insult the powerful woman.
While Oliver opened the front door, Olivia told the Star City native. "I'm flattered."
"Hey, I was just wondering, who made that suit of yours?" Laurel asked.
"That would be my husband. He's coming soon with Barry and Cisco." The psychic revealed.
Once the front door was fully opened, the two teams walked through the entrance. Frankie looked at her aunt and the district attorney of Star City conversing together before looking to her mother. "Looks like Aunt Liv is making new friends." She giggled.
"That's probably the most surprising thing right now." The parent let out with a short laugh.
They walked deeper into the house and Oliver stated their plan as he put his duffel bag on the nearest table. "We need to find a way to neutralize Savage's advantage." He looked to the back door and saw Barry and Cisco walked through with a cart. "Barry, you're late."
"Sorry." Barry started. "It turns out it's not easy finding the ass-end of nowhere."
"Yeah, for real." Cisco looked at his phone. "The roaming charges alone are going to bankrupt me."
Olivia looked between them. "Did you guys leave my husband alone or something?" She asked as though the nanite mutant was unable to defend himself. Even though he was willing blast anything and anyone with his repulsors without hesitation.
"He said he would come shortly, he had to pick up something from Felicia's." Cisco told her.
Felicity looked intrigued. "Who's Felicia?"
"An infamous thief from my home universe." Olivia replied to the question. "She's our friend here and is helping Frankie train." The young metahuman waved at the mention of her name.
The sound of metal clanging outside could be heard and then they saw Iron Knight walk through the back door with two metal suitcases. Laurel was shocked to see his armor and found it undoubtedly cool. She watched the suit disassemble into small metal orbs and converged to the shining device in the middle of the chest plate.
His helmet dematerialized as the last and Matt Stark looked around the people looking at him. "What you expecting pizza delivery or something?"
"What's in the suitcases?" Cisco asked with a gesture to the two cases he nanite mutant was holding.
Holding one of them up, he said. "This is one has some defense discs. I'm gonna place them around the farmhouse. After seeing what Savage did to the church with the Staff of Horus, I'm gonna have these serve as a defense barrier that pops up when a signature matching the same blue energy nears the house."
"Think it's gonna do much against an immortal's magical weapon?" Olivia had to ask.
"No idea, but I can fight easier with these around the base." Matt walked over to his niece who was standing by the table. With a smile he placed the second suitcase on the table. "And this one is for Frankie."
"For me?" She asked shocked at the SHIELD emblem on the top of the suitcase.
"Yeah, thought it was time I would spoil my niece some more." Matt quipped and looked at the shocked face on Laurel's face. "Hi, Matt Stark." He greeted.
"H-H-Hey. I'm Laurel Lance." She couldn't prevent herself from stuttering at the sight of his suit turning into metal orbs. "Wait? Stark? You're Olivia's husband?"
"That would be me. Pleasure to meet you, Laurel." Matt felt a shiver run down his spine and he turned around to meet Caitlin glaring ice-cold daggers at him. "W-What's wrong, Caitlin?"
Crossing her arms over her torso, Caitlin told him sternly, her eyes pointing to the psychic as well. "We're gonna have a talk about the two of you spoiling my daughter."
Chuckling fearfully, the nanite mutant let out. "I thought it would nice if she got this one thing from me." The Star City natives looked baffled to see the mutant speak in fear when conversing with the female doctor.
"What is it?" Frankie wondered if he took the joke about making her an iron suit for real. She loves her uncle but wouldn't want to wear something like that.
"Check it out for yourself." He stepped back and let her open it. Frankie did exactly that and watched the contents within. Her eyes widen at it. It was a suit, a black tactical uniform made of a jacket and pants. While running her eyes over the material, she took in the white piping and the pinkish detailing, so faint that no one would see it from afar.
Beside the clothing was a small deep area in the suitcase with three small grey canisters, all of them appearing to have liquid in them. Liquid metal, judging by their reflective capabilities. When seeing that Frankie returned her attention to the piping again and saw that it was small long tubes. On the middle of the chest, she found a SHIELD emblem there.
"What is this?" Frankie asked.
"It's a S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical suit." Matt said. "Felicia and I noticed that you tend to destroy property with your magentokinesis. To maybe lessen that damage, she and I came up with this suit. The canisters are filled with liquid metal that allows you to use instead of other metals around you."
"But how's it gonna work with her symbiote form?" Cisco asked while taking in the beauty of the suit. Simple but impactful.
Matt already took that into account. "Thought of that already, Cisco. She can have this suit underneath her symbiote's form, and the tubes on the suit allows the metal to flow out to her hands."
"Cool!" Frankie looked to her uncle and hugged him tightly. "Thanks, Uncle Matt."
"Don't worry about that, honey." He patted her head. "Go and try it on. Then we can see if you can still use it as well possible." His niece nodded and took the suitcase to walk to a spare room to change.
"That suit is surprisingly stylish." Olivia noted in slight surprise. Matt was good at styling suits, but this was something unlike his usual styling.
"Felicia's idea." Matt said sheepishly. "She said she wanted to be responsible for the styling, otherwise she would steal my suits again and sell them on eBay."
"She did that?" Barry asked seriously.
"Yup. Just as a prank." Matt breathed out in annoyance of the time he had to steal his suit back from the infamous thief. He looked around again and asked them all. "So what have we been missing?" He referred to Barry, Cisco and himself.
Oliver answered. "We're discussing how to take away Savage's new-found power."
"His magic stick thing." Felicity said with a mimic of a staff… or stick in her case.
Carter heard her unsure words and said. "Uh, Staff of Horus." The hacker looked at him gratefully for his correction.
"Oh that's gonna be fun." Olivia clapped in mock excitement. "But that means taking care of that annoying energy field that's protecting the staff."
"Yeah, she's right." Barry agreed with the psychic. "I couldn't lay a finger on it."
"Maybe wear mittens next time." Felicity joked.
Caitlin stepped to the blonde hacker; her mind inspired by the joke. "What if we made some sort of insulated gauntlets?"
Cisco heard their conversation while searching for bars and agreed. "Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The magnetic shielding could disrupt the-"
"Staff's magnetic polarity." Matt stated, catching onto their train of thoughts. Felicity, Laurel and Thea all gave him a strange look of surprise. Noticing the eyes on him, he explained briefly. "I'm an uber-nerd too, guys. Just more techy than your nerds."
"Don't think you can out-nerd me, pal." Felicity said with a finger pointing at him. It was though she was throwing down the gauntlet for a duel. She then twisted her head upon quick realization. "All right you probably could since you made that cool suit with lasers and missiles and whatnot. But let's see if that brain of yours works well with these brains." Like an announcer at a game show, she gestured to herself and the Central City scientists.
"Game on, Smoak." He accepted and let them lead the way. Matt thought about reminding Felicity about the face that he has been working with the scientists for a while now. But then decided against it, as this would be a nice challenge.
Olivia called out to her husband. "Matt, I'm gonna call you later, I'm gonna need a sparring partner to kill some time, alright?"
"I will be there, honey!" Matt called out his response and his wife smiled.
Oliver looked between Barry and Olivia and said. "Well, while the geek squad works…"
"Heard that, honey." Felicity called out to her boyfriend.
"Screw you, Queenie!" Matt shouted.
With a forced smile, one that Olivia noticed, the archer continued with a correction. "While they work to get the staff away from Savage, we need to know everything there is to know about him." He moved from the dining room area to the kitchen area with the two powered beings following him.
When getting into the kitchen area and living room, Olivia looked around for her niece but she was nowhere to be found. "Must still be changing, that one." She muttered as she did find Thea and Laurel unpacking their stuff. With her eyes narrowed on the red archer, she thought "Gonna have to keep my eyes on that one."
Thankfully, the mutant found no bloodthirsty thoughts in her mind… now.
Thea took out her phone and informed. "Well, I googled "reincarnated nutjobs" and came up with nothing."
Carter moved into the living room with a large chest-like case. "Uh, Kendra and I would be the reincarnated nutjobs. Savage is merely immortal."
""Merely"?" Laurel recited with widened eyes from his casual tone.
"Welcome to the new normal." Thea said.
"Immortals are not that bad." The psychic got their confused attention. "Come on, who wouldn't like an immortal sandbag that hits back."
"You do realize that this sandbag stabs back, right?" Carter reminded her.
"Just adds to the fun." Olivia said with a hollow chuckle, the chuckle sending shivers down his spine.
John Diggle stepped into the room. "Anyone who's been around for 4,000 years should leave a trail. I'll check with A.R.G.U.S. See if they have anything on him." He walked away and left them alone.
"Uh, Laurel and I can check police reports and stuff like that." Thea suggested and Laurel agreed with a nod, closing down the screen on her laptop before getting on her feet. The red archer turned around to look at Olivia. "Wanna tag along, Olivia? We might need a psychic."
"Thanks but no." Olivia spun her left arm around. "Being stuck in that van got my body all stiff, so I'm gonna stay here and train a bit in the backyard, I guess."
"Oh, we might join you when we get back." Laurel said with a smirk.
"Oh yeah? I'll be waiting then." Olivia accepted and then saw someone come through the other entrance into the living room. "There you are, Frankie."
They all looked back and saw that Frankie was now in her new unique S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform suit. Thea and Laurel noticed that the suit's styling was matching her Magenta form. Oliver and Barry saw that the suit have tubing along the sleeves and to the hands as the nanite mutant explained.
"Looks good on you, Frankie." Olivia gave a thumbs up.
"Thanks, Aunt Liv." The young metahuman flexed her hands, using her magnetokinetic powers to move the liquid metal in her cannisters to the tubes' entrance point and through them slowly. "Feels nice to have this."
"And then you could probably end up doing less damage than your father have ever done in his entire life then." Olivia joked.
Laurel looked at bit unsure and asked the psychic. "Is it a good idea for your niece to be here? I mean, she's just a kid."
"Yeah, wouldn't it be better if she was still at S.T.A.R. Labs or something?" Thea agreed with her fellow hero from Star City.
Pointing a finger at the young metahuman, Carter added as well. "Yeah, they're right. I mean, no offense to her. But Savage's an immortal, not exactly kid-friendly."
Facing the flying man, Frankie said. "From what I heard, you didn't stand much against Savage yourselves with your 0 for 206 losses, flying pervert."
"Okay, how I am exactly a flying pervert?" Carter had to ask.
Olivia bluntly stated. "You have wings and you kidnapped a woman off the ground." Thea and Laurel looked at her with widened eyes of shock. She then revealed to the others. "And while Frankie is a kid, sure. But she's probably stronger than Carter and Kendra, and the entire Arrow Team put together."
"Overestimating a bit." Carter said skeptically.
Frankie looked at him daringly. "Wanna put that to the test?" Carter stepped backwards in slight fear of what the girl might do to her.
"Careful, Carter. You might get three big problems if you mess with her." Olivia said and then everyone gave her questioning looks. "Me, her uncle and worst of all, her father… Venom."
Carter widened his eyes. "Venom is Frankie's father?" Frankie nodded and so did Olivia. "Shit… you're not gonna say anything, are you?"
"Depends on my mood." Olivia said. Carter continued to shiver and the psychic looked to Kendra, also noticing that Thea and Laurel had moved away. "Now that our birdy knows about her other half, shouldn't we see if she can use them?"
"Other half?" Kendra questioned.
"Olivia's right." Oliver agreed. "We need to find a way to utilize your new ability."
"My ability?" Kendra questioned again, directed to the archer this time.
"It might give us an advantage." Oliver reasoned with her.
Barry then pitched in. "Yeah. Whatever you do, don't let him train you." Oliver gave him a dry look and the speedster defensively said. "I'm sorry, but when it rains, I can still feel where you shot me with those arrows."
"You shot Barry?" Olivia didn't hear anything about the archer actually shooting the speedster before now. Oliver didn't say anything, but his thoughts spoke volumes. "Impressive." She admitted and Oliver smiled.
Walking around the kitchen area, Carter said. "I'll handle her training then."
"I can help if I have to." The psychic added.
Oliver accepted that with "Yeah" said softly.
"Oliver." Felicity walked over to her boyfriend.
But he took hold of her forearm and said. "I need to run something down. I'll be back as soon as I can." He walked to the exit in haste.
That haste brought question marks over the hacker's head and she rushed after him.
Olivia narrowed her eyes and took the back entrance.
X
Quickly reaching her boyfriend, Felicity asked urgently, the same amount that matched Oliver's urgency. "And what exactly are you running down?"
"Don't worry. It's nothing dangerous." He tried to assure her and shake her off as they walked down the small staircase.
"Well, are you okay?" She asked him in concern.
Oliver decided to throw a quip. "Well, we're up against an immortal madman armed with a magical staff, so I do have a few things on my mind." They reached the ground level.
"Yeah," Felicity knew there so much more. "but you were acting fine with everything while we were home." Oliver turned around to face her. "And now that we're here in Central City, you've just been not… you."
"Well, maybe it's too bright and sunny for me here." Oliver once again threw a quip. "There is something going on, and I'm going to tell you all about it. I would just like the chance to know what I'm dealing with first."
"Okay." Felicity accepted finally. She trusted Oliver more than anything and would continue to do so no matter what.
"Okay." Oliver expressed in happiness before walking away.
As she was left alone with the hacker now, Olivia decided to speak. "Yo." Felicity snapped around and was shocked to see the mutant on top of the roof and looking down on her.
"Liv, what are you doing up there?" She asked her from the ground.
With a quick shrug, she jumped off the roof, landing on the ground before walking to the hacker. "Not much, just chilling."
Crossing her arms, Felicity asked suspiciously. "You didn't by chance eavesdrop now, did you?"
"Forget that for the moment," Olivia got a serious expression. "I was wondering if you could shed some light on something for me?"
"Shoot." She was ready to reply to anything.
But her own words came back to bite her as the next question had her stumped.
"What's the deal with that Thea girl on your team?"
Felicity gulped at the psychic's question. "What do you mean? What are you talking about?" She tried to play dumb.
However, the SHIELD agent "Felicity, you know perfectly well that I am a psychic with telekinetic and telepathic powers. Don't insult yourself by playing dumb and act like you don't know what I am or what's going on with Thea."
Donning a serious expression herself, her defenses lowering quickly, Felicity asked. "How did you know about Thea? Or what do you know?"
"Telepathy allows me to read others minds and dig into their minds as well in search for something." Olivia started. "I used it during the fight with Savage to try and stay ahead of him. But… when Thea suddenly stepped in and fired off her arrows… I heard her thoughts. And there was nothing but a bloodlust in her thoughts, almost like she craved to kill whoever her arrow pointed at." This time the psychic took on a darker expression, almost like her eyes were turning lifelessly serious. "And the last time I heard something so… dark and bloodthirsty… was from the bastard that killed my best friend and my nephew."
Felicity felt herself sweating increasingly so like a waterfall as the psychic stepped closer to her again. "So, once again, I am asking what's the deal with Thea?"
Knowing that it would be futile to try and divert the question with whatever means she could think up, the hacker sighed and confessed. "You know how your brother jumped into a totally different universe for you?" Olivia nodded instantly. "Siblings do a lot of crazy things for each other…. Like Seth did for his little sister, Oliver did something crazy and unbelievable for his little sister."
"What do you mean?" Olivia asked.
"Last year… Thea was stabbed through the heart with a sword by the last Demon's Head." Felicity revealed and saw the mutant's eyes widening bafflingly. "Yeah, she died." Her eyes wettened by the memory of Thea in a hospital gurney, a respirator helping her breathe back then. "And Oliver had to make a deal with the devil to save his little sister."
"He brought his sister back somehow?" Felicity nodded while wiping away her tears. "How the hell did he bring her back? It's impossible to bring someone back from the dead."
"Should be, but it's not." The hacker stated. "It was something called the Lazarus Pit, the waters can bring someone back from the dead…. But there were side effects." Olivia listened closely. "It changed something in Thea. Merlyn said it was something done to her soul."
"And it left her with this…"
"Bloodlust." Felicity helped her by finishing off her sentence. "Apparently, for it to subside, she needs to… gulp… take a life. She does, and she goes a month without killing, I think. That's what Malcolm said anyway."
"That's a seriously messed-up thing she has." Olivia noted. To have an insatiable bloodlust that was impossible to subside without any other choice than giving in to it…. Seemed like hell. To have it scream in their heads… like the voice of a devil in your ears…. To kill your target… to crave a kill…
Looking to Felicity again, the mutant asked. "Can she keep that bloodlust under control?"
"… Malcolm had her kill some of his men to… ease her situation or whatever, so she doesn't feel the need to kill anyone for a while." Felicity answered.
Olivia rubbed her chin and said. "I hope so. Cause otherwise, that thing she has… is gonna make her a liability in the field. Hopefully, your beau knows that." She finished off and turned around, about to walk away.
"Liv!" Felicity's word stopped the psychic. "What would happen if Thea couldn't control it."
"I would have made sure that girl was nowhere near my niece. And if she gets out of control, then I will happily be the one to stop her." Olivia informed without facing the hacker and continued her walk.
She wouldn't let anyone hurt her family no matter what. Their lives and safety were some of the most important things to her, and she would defend them like a fallen angel on a mission… with nothing to lose…
Other than its mission and her family.
X
The moment Cisco saw Kendra and Carter separate from each other, he instantly rushed to find the woman he cares for. Finding her walking through the grassy field in the backyard, he rushed to her side.
"Hey!" Kendra looked at him sprinting up to her side before looking forward again. Cisco came up to her. "You must be going through a lot right now." He was glad that he was able to talk to her without Carter Hall here. He was sticking to her like glue ever since he found her. The engineer was happy that the flying man was away to pick up something for Kendra to use.
"Yeah." The female reincarnate felt like that was the understatement regarding this entire situation. It was like a way of making light of a massively dire situation. "You know… we should talk."
That didn't sit well with Cisco and he voiced his thoughts. "Never in the history of romance have those words ever meant anything good."
"I just mean we should probably talk about everything that's happened." Kendra corrected herself. "That's happening."
"You know what? I'm just gonna suggest something radical here and say let's not talk." Cisco suggested and Kendra listened. "Look, you got a lot on your plate right now, and I just don't want to be that piece of very nutritious broccoli that you scrape off the plate to give to the dog." He knew that Kendra was smart and funny enough to know what his point was, but he still explained. "My point being, I don't think you can afford to be distracted right now."
As they gazed deeply into each other's eyes, trying to let their each other's words sink into their minds and cores, Carter walked up to his reincarnated soulmate with a large chest. "Let's go." He turned around and walked.
Cisco nodded. "Yes. Let's." He followed Carter.
But Carter shook his head disapprovingly. "Sorry, buddy. This is private."
The mechanical engineer stopped. "Private?"
"Yep." Carter confirmed while placing the chest on a bench.
Both reincarnates faced Cisco. He held up his hands as though they were pointing guns at him with his eyes before pointing a finger towards the other side of the backyard. "I'm just gonna go do some push-ups over there."
The moment he started walking away from them, Carter placed his right hand on the chest lid with eyes pointing at Kendra. "Open it."
"Why?" Kendra walked forward to him and the chest. "What's inside?" she stopped a few feet from him with crossed arms.
"Something we have to track down in each of our incarnations." Carter began. "Sometimes, I find it. Sometimes, you find me and we go look for it together. Four thousand years, 206 lives, we've seen about every combination there is."
Flipping the hasps open for her, he gestured for her to open the chest herself. Kendra sighed and walked over to the chest. With both hands on either side of it, she pushed the lid open and looked at the contents inside with a shocked look.
It was a folded suit that appeared to be like the one Carter wore. The first thing she noticed was a helmet like Carter's, the metal donning feather-like pattern on either side of it with the eyes and nose area resembling that of a hawk's face and beak.
Giving the suit a skeptic look, knowing what Carter was planning, the flying woman said. "I don't think I'm really-"
"Ready for this." Carter finished her words. As she gave him a shocked look, he revealed. "You say that in every lifetime." They looked to the chest again. "Look, as you emerge, as your memories come back to you, so will other things. Skills. Languages. Pieces of your prior lives." Turning to her, he tested. "Understand?" he spoke in Egyptian tongue.
"I do." She subconsciously replied in Egyptian, her eyes widening at her own words that came out like it was natural for her.
"There you go." Kendra just confirmed Carter's own words.
And she couldn't help but groan at what this meant. "Oh, this is nuts."
"It's okay. I'll help you through it." Carter supportive assured her.
Kendra had to resist the urge to scoff. "Yeah, well, the last time you "helped" me, I got pushed off a building."
Once again, Kendra proved his points and he bragged. "Yes, and after that, you, uh, you soared, if I remember correctly. And that is because anger, fear, adrenaline, those are the things that bring out the warrior within. Even the mutants agreed with me back on the building."
"Well, according to Savage, I'm a priestess." Kendra said.
Carter explained. "The clergy were warriors. Warrior priests. And that is the side that you need to remember." He continued as he reached into the chest to pull an item up.
Kendra watched the flying man examine her… the helmet she wore in prior lives and questioned. "And if I can't?"
Frowning sheepishly he said. "Well, then we'll, uh, both probably die… Again."
X
Later that night, Barry was speeding through the city to reach a meeting spot that Malcolm Merlyn had arranged a meeting with the immortal madman, Vandal Savage. Olivia and Matt, Barry himself and Oliver had been notified of this meeting and have been ordered to attend.
Apparently, the Demon's Head thought that negotiation is the only way out of this situation. He was convinced that Vandal Savage was going to decimate the entirety of Central City to get what he wants.
And the decimation of Central City would with no doubt end up killing his daughter, Malcolm Merlyn was willing to even make a pact a with a madman on a hunt like a bloodhound.
It was a thing that Barry hoped to be avoided…
But as he ran through the city…
… he didn't see the familiar light pulsating behind him… a blue-ish light.
Just like in the past… Barry didn't see it… but he did hear it.
An eerie feeling erupted in the pit of his stomach and he turned his head around to look at the source of the sound… his eyes expanded to newer limits at the eyes looking back at him… his own eyes…
A speeding and blurry… version of himself… with everything included, every detail included… the suit and the emblem… the yellow lightning generated from his running form…
Once again, The Flash met the eyes… of The Flash… of himself…
WHOOSH
The blurry vision of himself ran away in an instant. Barry looked away and as quickly as he ran, he stopped himself when realizing that he has reached his destination.
WHOOSH
He lightly panted when stopping and came into the meeting point. "Thank you for coming." Barry looked upwards to see Oliver looking at him in his Green Arrow suit. Matt and Olivia are present as well, both suited in their suits with Malcolm Merlyn too. "I know this is more than a little crazy." He threw a glance to the Demon's Head.
Matt chuckled and gestured to Malcolm. "Yeah. Well, your friend with the creepy and tacky ring asked so nicely."
Malcolm nodded to the psychic mutant and corrected. "I asked her nicely, to be precise."
"Thanks, but I'm taken." Olivia quipped with a finger pointing to her husband who glared at the man through his shining visor.
Despite the strange sight he saw while running, Barry walked to them and hopefully asked. "Please tell me we're not going to negotiate with terrorists. Or, you know, 4.000-year-old bad guys."
Oliver then assured him. "Just think of this more as a fact-finding mission. Maybe Savage slips up and gives something that we can use to our advantage."
Laughing at the archer's newfound optimism, Malcolm said. "Thea said you were being a little bit more humorous lately."
A question appeared in the nanite mutant's mind and he looked to him. "Feels like an appropriate time to ask, but how do you know so much about Savage, anyway?"
Looking to him with a deadly serious glare, Malcolm answered. "I don't know anything about him, Mr. Stark. No one does. That is why I'm afraid of him."
Olivia shifted her eyes to the other end of their meeting spot. "Looks like the guest of honor decided to show his face."
""Guest of honor"? A title that haven't been associated with me before. Thank you, my dear for such caring words." Vandal Savage announced his presence to them all. He looked to the Head of the League. "And, I assure you. The lack of knowledge about me, is not the only reason to fear me." He greeted the mutants with a nod of his head. "Thank you for joining me."
"Well, the decimation of an entire city and its residents sounded like a pretty good incentive to come." Olivia quipped, and the immortal madman was still in delight of the fact that this woman was still holding onto her spunk despite losing to him before. Even as she is standing in his presence.
"What do you want?" Oliver asked.
With each step he took, Vandal spoke. "What all living things want. Not to die."
Barry narrowed his eyes. "I thought that wasn't a problem for you."
"Only if I take the life force of Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara." The immortal revealed.
Barry simplified it with the reincarnates' current names. "Kendra and Carter."
"The three of us are locked in a vicious circle played out over thousands of years." Vandal gave them a look. "None of your concern."
"That ship sailed a long time ago, Savage." Matt said. "We've made it our concern."
Oliver nodded and, in a flash, he fired off an arrow. The immortal madman grunted in pain as the arrow penetrated his right shoulder.
But just as quickly the arrow had pierced through his skin, he instantly pulled it out. Holding up the arrow to the widened eyes of his opponents. "Robin of Locksley. I taught him how to use a bow. He taught me how to not feel pain. I'm the enemy you can't defeat." He walked till he only stood a few feet away from them. "The only way for you and yours to live through this is to render unto me what is mine." Facing them all once more, he demanded. "Turn over Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara within 24 hours,"
He waved the arrow in front of Barry's face and the two mutants. "or I will lay waste to this city, killing everyone that you three hold dear." His heartless gaze was strong enough to make them know that he was speaking nothing but the truth. Savage walked to the archer. "And after that, I will travel to your home and do the same there."
"Awfully confident, aren't you Savage?" Matt dared him.
Walking back till he stood before the mutant, he said. "The fight I had with you was truly invigorating, young knight. As well as the fight, when your… wife, I presume," the psychic looked shocked but kept it hidden. "joined the fray and fought alongside you. Truly a fight that I will remember throughout my coming years. I hope that you all do not continue to stand in my way, as it will only serve to lessen the time you have with your beloved."
"Careful…" Matt sneered.
Vandal then recalled their previous fight in the loft. "I do apologize for the discomfort that I brought upon you when I pieced your back, young knight. But I do hope that the fire you fanned within you during our last battle will burn as just as brightly in our next fight."
"Careful what you wish for." Matt growled.
"All right, I'm just curious," Barry cut their stare off short. "did you rehearse that speech in a mirror this morning or is this all just off the cuff?"
Laughing at the speedster's humor for a moment, Vandal's humor faded. "Why would you risk the lives of your friends and family for two strangers? Two hundred and six times I have killed them. What hubris possesses you that kames you think you can prevent me from doing so again?"
Barry shook his head. "Not hubris. Hope." He corrected him.
"Hope that will vanquish your so-called desire to end Kendra and Carter's lives. Vicious cycle or not, you will lose to us, Savage." Olivia stated adamantly.
While he did find her spunk and will delightful, the immortal couldn't help but laugh at her willfulness. "I came to this meeting out of curiosity. It is now sated. Bring Khufu and Chay-Ara to Jurgens Industrials in 24 hours or I will see you dead and buried under the bodies of your loved ones." Vandal Savage turned around, dropping the arrow in his hand and walked away. It's clattering sound echoing
Oliver said adamantly. "We're not giving up Kendra and Carter."
"Agreed." Matt said in agreement with the archer and Olivia nodded approvingly.
"That's not your decision to make." Malcolm disagreed and walked after them all. "This is a cycle that hs played out for the last 4,000 years."
"Savage may be immortal, but he isn't a god." Barry pitched in.
"No. But he's the next best thing." Malcolm countered. "Oliver."
"What?" The archer faced the current Ra's Al Ghul.
Donning a serious expression, he said. "You better be certain that your stubbornness does not get my daughter killed. Because if that happens, I will come for you, and in a way that will make you beg for the likes of Vandal Savage." Malcolm turned around and left the four heroes.
"I like that guy." Olivia commented while they all thought about what should be done.
X
The team of four returned to the farmhouse to break the news to the others the next day. Olivia was the one to announce the horrific news. "We got a deadline now guys. Twenty-four hours."
Frankie nervously asked. "Until what?"
Matt then answered. "Until we are supposed to hand Kendra and Carter over to Savage or…"
"Savage lays waste to Central City." Carter finished the mutant's words.
In worry, Caitlin put her hands on the shoulders of her shivering daughter while the psychic directed to the flying man. "Is this a repeat of what he's done?"
"Yeah, we've been through this before." Carter asked. "1887, The Huang He flood, Savage killed nearly two million people to get to us. And he did."
Oliver looked to the male reincarnate. "We weren't helping you then. We are now."
"Which means, that we have 24 hours to come up with a workable plan." Olivia stated.
"No, this is insane." Kendra countered in disagreement. "My life isn't worth millions of people's lives." She walked away.
"Kendra." Carter called out to her, but she was already out the door. "I'll talk to her." He assured the others and went to walk after her.
"Hey, I got this." Cisco said and went to follow her.
But Carter faced him and reminded. "I said I'll talk to her." He resumed his walk and left the others.
Cisco looked at him with lingering hate and said. "Hey, here's an idea. Why don't we just toss him over to Vandal Savage?"
"Sounds worth exploring that idea, but for now just keep that in the back of your mind. We might have to resort to that one with Carter's shitty attitude." Matt agreed with a smirk. He looked to his wife and asked. "You still up for that spar?"
"Anytime and any day." Olivia excitedly said.
"Frankie?" The nanite mutant got his niece's attention. "You're coming with. We need to see if you can handle using that new suit with both your metahuman powers and Magenta's help. After me and your aunt are done fighting, you can spar with either of us. You decide who the lucky winner is gonna be."
"Okay, Uncle Matt." Frankie nodded and looked to her mother. "It's okay right, Mom?"
"Of course, honey. Just be careful." Frankie nodded to her mother's words and looked to Cisco. "Cisco, see if you can work on the gauntlets again. I'll stay here and help Felicity."
"Alrighty, it's better than watching Carter continuing to be an asshole while working with my girlfriend." Cisco said and walked out with the powered beings.
Felicity looked to the doctor. "You got to tell me what's motherhood's like? Especially with that little chocolate addict of yours."
"Wonderful. Her aunt and uncle, not to mention Seth are troublemakers." Caitlin smiled and Felicity didn't fail to notice the redness that took over her face.
"I didn't know about this till a bit recently… but you must be really happy that Seth's still alive." Felicity said.
"I really am." Caitlin admitted immediately with a wide smile gracing her lips. "And I can't wait for him to get back again."
X
Barry was pacing back and forth with his hands cupped together and pressed against his mouth. With what happened the last time he saw his own blurry version running past him before disappearing again, he knew that something horrible was gonna happen.
The last time he saw himself ghosting was when Mark Mardon used his powers of advanced atmokinetic properties to create a massively raising tidal wave that was about to vanquish the entire city. He ran and ran along the shore to make a wall of wind that would sap the energy out of the tidal wave. It was the final line of defense that would take on the tidal wave if Olivia and Matt and their nice were to fail against the tsunami.
But as he hoped and roared with determination to try and increase his speed, to surpass whatever limits he had back then… His adrenaline being pumped into him like a second heart frantically beating at Death's doorstep.
And that was the edge he needed. He broke through the barrier and travelled back in time… and got a second chance to rewrite the fate that would have been brought down on his hometown of Central City.
While it did succeed… time stroke back with a new fate.
That was the fate of the speedster when he…ghosted that time.
"Where were you?" Cisco got his attention.
"Hey." Barry walked over to his friend.
Walking into the shed, Cisco said. "You missed the whole "save the city or turn my girlfriend over to an immortal psychopath" briefing." he turned his attention to the gauntlets and commenced his work.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Barry chanted and revealed urgently. "Uh, dude, I- Last night, I, um, I ghosted."
Cisco stopped his work on the gauntlets and looked at him with horrifically widened eyes. "No."
"Yeah. I think I'm gonna-"
"Don't say it." Cisco interrupted the speedster.
But Barry continued nonetheless. "I'm think I'm gonna time jump-"
"I just you not to say it!" The vibing metahuman exclaimed.
"I'm sorry." Barry had no choice, feeling like he was gonna burst. "I don't know what else I'm supposed to do."
The vibing metahuman didn't feel the need to say it, but he had to remind the speedster himself anyway. "Barry, the first rule of time travel is you don't talk about time travel! Because by having this conversation, we're screwing history."
"Look, I know that time travel has consequences." Barry frowned. "I thought I was responsible for killing Seth, but instead I sent him flying into another universe. And I mean, the last time you vibed-"
"I saw Seth in a deathmatch with Thawne, lose an arm and dying after Caitlin became Lady Venom." Cisco wouldn't forget that anytime soon. And yeah, he tried. "Plus, I'm not vibing anything right now. Okay, um, all right, look, don't panic." He walked around the table and stood in front of the speedster. The engineer then listed. "A, you don't know that you time-jumped for a bad reason. It could have been a good one, right? B, now that you know you time-jumped, you might not do it, right?"
Barry looked a bit skeptic at those points. And the last time he time-jumped was because of a bad thing… well bad things. Seth did die. He time-jumped because of the dire situation at hand.
He turned his attention back to Cisco who continued his explanation. "So, knowing the future might change the present, which might change the future." He stopped suddenly for some reason.
"What?" Barry inquired.
"My head hurts." Cisco admitted, just by starting the process and trying to explain it… blew his mind to pieces.
X
Once again Kendra's rushing through the backyard with haste and a heavy mind and an even heavier heart. Her life or the lives of a million lives of innocent people… an entire city? She knew what she would do if this really was the choice.
However, the choice she would make would not sit well with her friends who are willing to put their lives on the line for her.
"Chay-Ara! Sorry. Kendra!" Carter corrected himself as he called out to the female reincarnate. "You shouldn't run off. We don't know if Savage is-"
"Do we ever kill ourselves?"
Kendra's abrupt question got Carter to stop and he asked for confirmation. "Excuse me?"
"In our prior lives." Kendra began. "Savage has to kill us in order to live forever. Do we ever kill ourselves in order to deny him that?" she looked to him in search.
Carter chuckled humorlessly. "You know, in our past lives, I'm typically the one that makes the plans. And I'm starting to think this is probably why." He walked closer to her.
Gesturing to the farmhouse itself, Kendra stated. "Everyone in there is willing to die to protect us, even that little girl, Frankie. You don't think that's a little bit insane?"
"No. I think It's noble." Carter admitted. "I think it's what makes them all heroes."
Those words weren't enough to quill the feelings that Kendra was harboring. "Yeah, well, heroes or not, I'm not letting anyone die for me." She turned around and began walking.
"Then don't." Carter's words halted her before walking to her from behind. "Be the person, the woman, the warrior you were meant to be." She hesitated for a few moments before turning to look at him again, her hesitation clads on her face like armor. "The one you always have been." He stepped backwards till he stood a few feet from her. "Come at me."
"What?" Her hesitation was replaced with confusion now.
He elaborated. "Hit me or… or try to."
"Yeah, well, as much as I'd like to do that," She admitted, "I'm really not in the mood right now."
"Oh, really?" He started sarcastically. "Well, I'll just tell Savage to come back when you are." He finished off sarcastically, hoping to light a fire in Kendra.
And it did because she charged for him the next moment. She swung for his head with her hand, but he couched and dodged it while using his foot to sweep her, sending her down to the ground. Upon impact, she let out a grunt.
Carter looked at her downed form. "Again."
Kendra got up again and rushed him. But Carter took advantage of her attack and used it against her. Using his hands, he added additional weight on her body and sent her down to the ground again. This time she rolled. Carter walked over to her as she tried to get back up, but he used his foot and pressed on the back of her right thigh, pushing her back to the ground again in an effort to fan the flame in her.
He turned around and walked. With his finger spinning in the air, he ordered. "Again."
This time, she got up again and glared daggers at Carter. Kendra arched her back and yelled in rage, her wings sprouting out in response. With her wings out now, she once again charged for him, this time much faster and the flying man was shocked by her utilizing her wings.
He grunted and coughed in pain after the flying woman tackled him to the ground. Carter looked upwards and into his soulmate's eyes. "Good." Her wings retracted and she calmed down. "Do you feel that? The rage? That's the key, Kendra. It's the only way of finding the warrior within."
Kendra understood that. The rage, anger… it was those things that brought her wings out to begin with. So that she could emerge. Fear add adrenaline are the things that brings out the warrior within her. Matt also stated that those were some of the triggers for powers' activation.
"Hey." The winged people looked up and saw Felicity narrow her eyes on them. "Sorry to interrupt… the weirdness." They separated from each other and got back up again while she continued. "Uh, John, Laurel and Thea are back, and they've got something."
"Alright, let's go-"
EXPLOSION
Carter's question was cut short when the three of them heard an explosion coming from the other side of the farmhouse.
Kendra looked to Felicity. "Don't tell me Savage followed us?"
"Oh no, don't worry." Another loud explosion erupted from the same side of the farmhouse and the winged people looked at her with dry looks. "Okay, maybe a little be bit worried. But don't worry, that's just the married couple."
"Are they trying to kill each other?" Kendra asked when hearing another loud explosion.
"I don't think so. But the two of you come with me, alright? Cause I do not want my mind blown off or my limbs shot off. And you two come back alive in good shape and all right?" Felicity turned around and walked in the direction of the training married couple.
"So it's okay we're getting killed all of a sudden now?" Carter wondered.
Kendra chuckled and looked at him. "No, I think it's okay for you to be killed." The flying man paled at the thought.
X
John, Thea and Laurel heard the explosions too and walked out the house to see the shocking sight of the two mutants training viciously. Frankie and Caitlin were there too with Cisco, the two scientists watching the fight apparently.
Both of them were in their suits and they saw the psychic fly upwards like a bullet with an energy veil around her form.
Angel Fury reels her whip back before swinging it forward and wrapping it around the arm of her husband who was at higher altitude than her. The psychic energy around her increased and she pulled on her whip, pulling the armored knight to her.
Even though one arm was caught by her whip, Iron Knight opened both palms and used his repulsors to fight back her pull. Matt onto her form with his HUD screen locked. The panels on his shoulders opened, revealing series of small launchers armed with missiles.
John looked upwards at them in shock. "Wait, is he seriously gonna fire missiles at his own wife?"
"Yeah, he is." Cisco casually answered as though it was expected to happen.
Laurel looked between them. "And you're not gonna stop him?"
"No, not really." Caitlin surprised the Star City natives with what she said.
"Why not? Olivia's gonna die." Thea considered running for her bow and arrows.
"Don't worry." They looked to the young metahuman who kept looking upwards to her fighting uncle and aunt. "My Aunt Liv is really strong." Hearing the confidence in the magnekinetic's words, they looked back up again, but were still worried about what happen if the missiles connected with the psychic.
Matt noticed the growing audience. "We got spectators now, Liv! Give them a good show!" He fired off the missiles from his shoulder pads and they flew towards his wife.
"I'll try to do that!" She let out and waved her other hand to the side, emitting a psychic blast that hit the missiles from the side, causing them to explode. Two missiles were spared and continued their path to strike her. Olivia smiled. "I am getting rusty, aren't I?!"
Gathering psychic energy in her left palm, she compressed it into an orb before lashing it out and colliding with the two missiles. She caused another explosion that shot her downwards with the blast, her descend akin to that of a falling meteor.
Using her psychic energy around her to gain control again, the psychic flipped around and landed in a crouch on the ground. She grunted and looked upwards. Her vision was covered by the sight of her husband shooting down for her with his right arm forming a large energy blade, pulsating with repulsor energy. It was outstretched and coming down for her with increased velocity from his blazing thrusters.
The psychic energy around her body increased and she grunted in response and gathered it into her palms, enveloping both hands with her pinkish aura. The moment the blade was close enough to connect with her face, she caught it with both hands, holding with her palms pressed on either side of the blade.
Matt looked at his wife and through his mask, he smirked. "Not bad for a training session, wouldn't you say?"
"Could go without the gallery, if you ask me!" She shot up to her to her feet and let go of the blade, using her elbow to push it to the side and spun around. Telekinetically increasing the strength of her muscles in her legs, she outstretched one of them before slamming her right foot into Iron Knight's helmet.
The force emitting from her foot sent Matt off and rolling on the ground. Olivia looked around and saw her whip on the ground, she used her powers to pull it into her grasp again. With another swing of it, she aimed for his head.
But Iron Knight used his palm repulsors to shoot himself up and landed on his feet after a quick spin. He outstretched his left hand and caught the whip. "Think I'm gonna fall for the same trick again. In your dreams!" He pulled on the whip and had her lose her balance and pointed his right hand for her, his repulsor gathering energy before shooting at her.
"Thought as much." Olivia smirked and dodged the first blast with a spin. And jumped away to avoid the next blast. A third blast she managed to block with a psychic wall forming before her. Using her own wall as a footing, she jumped off it and into the air.
Spinning in the air, she pulled the whip and dragged the nanite mutant to her. While he swung his other arm with a blade, she placed her hands on his shoulders and dodged it by leaping off him. "Gonna have to borrow Grodd's move." She thought to herself and increased the strength in both arms before clenching them into fists.
Olivia slammed both hands into both side of her husband's head. While she knew her fists wouldn't be able to slam through his helmet, she knew that the shockwaves from her impact would be able reach Matt's head. And the grunt coming from him was enough to know that it worked.
The nanite mutant held his head in pain and the psychic used that chance to swing her leg for his chest.
Matt counted on his wife going for an attack when she would see an opening like that, and instantly fired off an unibeam. But Olivia avoided it by backflipping and let the blast hit the backyard, leaving a huge hole.
"The heck's wrong with those two?" John said with sweat pouring down his face.
"Yeah, are those two really married? They look they're just trying to kill each other." Laurel admitted in shock as well.
"They're both fighters, it's kind of like their way of chilling." Caitlin explained and watched as they're both readying for another fight.
"Oh come on." Frankie annoyedly said. Inhaling deeply, she then called. "Aunt Liv, Uncle Matt! When is it my turn?!" John looked at the young metahuman and hoped his daughter Sara wouldn't turn out like her, so eager to fight like this… Seemed like a real troublemaker to raise, to say the least.
Both mutants were hit with realization at their niece's shout. Chuckling at their own stupidity, their masks dematerialized, and they turned to their niece. "Sorry, honey. We got a bit carried away." Matt said and walked over to her with his wife.
"Carried… away?" Carter recited the mutant's words and looked at the damage left from the aftermath of their sparring fight. He could still see smoke emitting from the hole that he made with his chest beam.
Thea looked around at the damage as well. "You really don't hold back, do you?"
"It's sparring, there's no point in holding back against each other. Besides, I know my hubby, he's no weakling." Olivia said and turned to her niece. "So, honey, who's gonna be the lucky winner now?"
"You aunt Liv!" Frankie instantly said and looked to her uncle who was holding his head with one hand. "Uncle Matt might have a concussion now."
"Yeah, a bit maybe." He smirked and looked to his wife. "Thanks for that, babe. Really hurt."
Olivia giggled, "Sorry, Matty, but I had to be serious." Looking to her niece, she said. "Let's go, Frankie, time to put that suit to the test."
"About that…" they all watched the hacker cough sheepishly. "John, Thea and Laurel just returned a while back, and they might have something we could use."
"Really?" Frankie looked disappointed with annoyance riddled on her face.
Caitlin chuckled and put her hands on her child's form. "Frankie, this is important too. Plus, your aunt is not going anywhere, she'll be here and you can fight her afterwards."
"Fine." She whined like a child.
Matt chuckled and walked closer to the psychic. "She's probably the only one eager to fight the fiercest woman on Earth." Thea, Laurel and Kendra heard his words. Caitlin smirked as she heard the story from Seth and Frankie giggled having heard it from her father.
Olivia blushed up a storm and elbowed his ribs and looked at her husband. "You still remember that?"
"Never even forgot it." He kissed her check caringly and walked after the others into the farmhouse again.
X
Caitlin and Cisco looked to their teammates. The doctor then said. "I'm gonna go and help Cisco with the gauntlets again. Frankie remember to listen to your aunt and your uncle alright." She told her child like a stern parent.
"Mom, I know!" Frankie whined embarrassedly and her mother chuckled before kissing the top of her head.
"Love how she can still act like a kid in this entire mess." Olivia thought to herself as she saw Cisco and Caitlin walk away to continue their work.
Once getting inside, John looked around and noticed that two people were missing. "Where are Oliver and Barry?" he directed to Felicity.
With a quip, she replied. "Oliver's back in secret-keeping mode, apparently. Barry, I don't know. And we all saw Caitlin and Cisco leave to work on the anti-Staff gauntlets." She turned around to look at John, Thea and Laurel. "What do you guys have?"
Laurel lifted her hand and revealed a video cassette. "Video cassette?" Matt said. "The fuck, people still use those?"
"Nope. Just the old people." Laurel assured him and he overdramatically sighed in relief. "You really don't like those, huh?"
"Nope." He used her own words.
"Betamax. Aw." Felicity cooed. "Where'd you get this? Off of eBay?"
"Lyla hooked us up." John revealed.
Felicity hollowly laughed. "Yeah, well, it's gonna take a while to play, since we live in a digital world now."
Laurel then explained. "The tape came from a conspiracy theory group that's interested in Savage."
Frankie looked to the D.A. "Wait? Our immortal psychopath had a fan club?" Laurel sheepishly nodded. "Awesome."
"She's too much like Seth." Matt admitted at his niece's words. Olivia nodded agreeingly.
John then added. "The Pentagon had a file on Savage back in '86, but it's all been heavily redacted."
As they spoke, Felicity managed to patch a connection between her laptop and the TV screen and was able to put the cassette on the screen. "Got it." The screen flickered for a few moments before showing something.
Starting with the camera pointing at the torso of a man, a brown formal suit with a white shirt underneath the vest. "Is this on? I hope so." The man said and adjusted the camera, making it point directly into his face. Despite the connection still proving to have problems, everyone could see that it was a brown-skinned elderly man with white hair and a white beard. His glasses placed on the bridge of his nose, with his eyes pointing into the camera lens. "My name is Dr. Aldus Boardman. I'm a professor at St. Roch University. The date is April 8th, 1957." He started after checking the date on his calendar on the wall.
They all gave their full attention, watching the video displaying on the TV. "I don't think anyone else knows this. And those that do… don't believe. He's a myth. An urban legend." The ones in the farmhouse knew better. "He's been compared to Machiavelli and Nostradamus. He's gone by many names. But I know him as Vandal Savage, and he will be the death of the world." That didn't inspire any hope in the ones who are to face-off with him. "But I believe there is a way to stop him."
All of them looked with undivided attention, afraid to even blink. "Savage is an immortal Egyptian priest. His long life is the result of an unearthly calamity. I believe that any object associated with this calamity… should be able to undo its effects and kill him. And I suspect that our precious, fragile would may one day depend upon us…" Professor Boardman walked closer to the lens. "…doing so." The video ended immediately after he spoke his words.
"Well, that's the understatement of the year." Felicity commented. "Or, you know, the last 4,000 years."
John looked to the winged people. "You have any idea what he meant by these objects? This calamity?"
"No, I don't recall a calamity." Carter said.
Kendra then said. "The staff."
Matt turned to her direction. "The Staff of Horus?"
The flying woman nodded her confirmation. "Yes. I think the staff belonged to Savage back in ancient Egypt."
Giving her a suspicious look, Carter asked. "You remember?"
She then said, "It's a hunch." Her words were thought to be the truth, but it was lie as the psychic could hear her thoughts. "And if Professor Boardman's guess is right, that staff is how we kill Savage."
"So we're gonna turn his own weapon against him? Sounds like a plan." Olivia stated, happy at the plan.
Laurel understood and said, "Okay, someone needs to inform Oliver and Barry." Felicity nodded to her words, wordlessly volunteering to be the one to be that person.
"Great." Olivia looked to her niece. "Ready for that sparring, honey?" Frankie nodded.
Thea gave them a wide-eyed look. "Is this really the time for a sparring?"
"We got the time till our Speed-Freak and Robin Hood Knockoff comes back, we're gonna use it the best way we know." Olivia stated before walking towards the door with her niece, the hacker giving the psychic a look.
"I'll help Cisco and Caitlin again with the gauntlets." Matt said and walked over to their location.
Felicity looked to her teammates and told Thea. "Um… Thea? Can we talk for a bit?" The red archer nodded, and John and Laurel listened closely as the hacker told them of the conversation she had with the psychic mutant.
X
ROAR
Olivia didn't appear the least bit fazed by the roar that came from the young metahuman before her. Despite the demonic persona of Magenta wrapped around her like a second skin, she was used to far worse and was ready to take on her niece.
"Come on, Frankie!" she confidently called out to Frankie and watched Magenta jump into the air with her left hand morphing into a sword with sharp jagged edges on both sides. She spun around in the air and swung for her aunt's head.
Predicting the attack, Olivia crouched and watched the sword drive into the ground. Looking into her niece's pseudo white eyes, she said. "Frankie, you're supposed to see if you can use your metahuman powers with your new suit underneath."
"Sorry!" Frankie said and jumped backwards, withdrawing her blade from the ground. Landing on the ground, she clenched her hands. With her eyes closed, she focused completely on her metahuman powers, on the metal flowing up from the canisters on her belt and through the tubes.
The young metahuman shivered at the strange feeling of the metal flowing through the small tubes. It wasn't something she was used to her and the feeling of it moving through the tubes were a of a coldish sensation. It was enough for her to almost lose her concentration.
Having listened the thoughts brimming in her niece's mind, Olivia called out. "Frankie. Don't worry about that feeling that's new to you, the feeling of the cold metal running through tubes so close to your skin, kind of like ants crawling up every side of you. It's strange and not nice, but don't let beat you so easily. You can control metal and you are Magenta, Frankie. So what are you gonna do?"
"Use the metal… and control it!" Magenta said with her eyes snapping right open again, her hands shooting outwards. The symbiotic mass around her hands opened and metal was shot out of them. They came flying through the air like a speeding bullet penetrating through a thin layer of flesh as they quickly took the form of balls.
Worried for a moment, Olivia crossed her arms and formed a psychic wall before her and blocked the balls. The balls ricocheted off the psychic wall and shot into the ground, diving through the ground and embedded deeply into the earthy foundation.
Dispersing her wall again, the mutant looked at the holes in the ground. "Normally, Frankie wouldn't be able to do that with just metal that she tore off the ground in the streets." She recalls giving her niece giving them a shape. "Giving them a form to match the visual image in their heads?"
Landing beside her aunt, Frankie stated. "Can't believe I did that? Is that wrong?"
"No, it's the opposite." Olivia looked to her niece who was retracting her suit. "You did just an incredibly amazing thing. You gave them metal a form."
"A form…" She looked confused; her father didn't say anything like that when teaching her of her powers.
While she had spoken, the psychic brought the metal balls up from the ground again and placed them both in her hand. Fiddling with her hand, Olivia said. "You and I are the same. Like I can shape my psychic energy, you can shape metal with your powers."
"Like I can mingle metal into my symbiote form?" She asked.
"Exactly. You think of bringing the metal to your body and they melt together in a fight." Olivia threw the balls to her niece, who caught them with her powers. "Kinda of like in your fight against Carnage."
"That was scary." Frankie admitted.
The psychic patted her head. "You were incredible that day, honey. Fighting the one guy that your dad and many other heroes are afraid of in your first fight ever, and actually able to keep up with him? That's something incredible that can't be described."
"Yeah." She blushed embarrassedly.
Olivia was sure of one thing. With Frankie gaining more and more experience as she is from the countless training sessions and battles, past, present and future alike, she would definitely become stronger than her father in no time. Even stronger than Carnage himself. And she couldn't help but look forward to that time, knowing that her niece would be stronger than ever at that point in time.
"Hey!"
The psychic and the magnekinetic looked to the side and saw Thea rushing over to them with hateful eyes. John, Laurel and Kendra walked from behind. Narrowing her eyes curiously, Olivia asked. "What's wrong, Ms. Queen?"
Stopping in front of her, Thea said with clenching hands. "What is it about you not trusting me? Felicity told me." Her teammates and Kendra looked a bit nervous about the younger Queen sibling.
Frankie looked to her aunt and saw her looking at the red archer with emotionless eyes. "Had a feeling that Felicity would spill the beans. But…" she looked into the archer's eyes again. "Can you blame me for asking? With you acting the way you did, I had to be on the safe side."
"With the way I was acting…" Thea's hands turned white as she clenched them.
John crossed his arms and told the psychic. "Back off. You don't know what she went through."
"Actually, I do." Olivia stated to their shock. "I know she was close to dying, if not already dead. Oliver made a deal with the former Ra's al Ghul, whatever the hell that means, and brought her back. Side effect of that debacle, Thea is stuck with a bloodlust that makes her want to kill whoever's on the other end of her arrows so she can calm down for a while."
"And you don't trust her because of that?" Laurel asked in shock.
Having heard the loud voices coming from outside, Matt had decided to check what was going on and saw the Star City natives glaring daggers at his wife. Knowing who she was and trusting her, he wasn't really worried about what Team Arrow would do and he leaned against the wall to watch it from the porch.
"Guys calm down." Kendra said with hands lowering downwards repeatedly, as a slider lowering the volume of a video. This really wasn't the time for anyone to be fighting, especially for teammates to be fighting one another.
Olivia narrowed her eyes. "And if she can't control that lust, and it controls her, she might end going berserk and killing whoever's in front of her, innocent or not, enemy or alley, without a care." The mutant looked at the scorching eyes in Thea's eye sockets. "And that makes her a liability in the field, not to mention she might attack my family."
"You think I'm like that?!" Thea screamed with her blood boiling in her veins from her volcanic rage that kept getting hotter and hotter due to the mutant's words. "That I just attack someone without a single thought's hesitation?"
"Normally, no. I can see that. But I can also see that bloodlust affecting you right now." Olivia said. "Frankie, step away and walk over to your Uncle, would ya?" Her metahuman niece listened and walked over to her uncle on the porch.
Thea scoffed. "Sure you're not just using your powers? Cause I bet for a second you couldn't handle a real fight without using powers." Her teammates on Team Arrow hoped that Thea's words wouldn't set off the mutant.
Olivia didn't appear fazed by Thea's claims. "Sorry, little girl, but it's gonna take a little more than a little tantrum to get me angry." She leant closer to her face. "Plus, I learnt how to fight without my powers long before I began to integrate my powers into my fighting skills. And it was much longer than you did, little girl."
Thea saw red and swung her leg for the mutant's head.
"Thea!"
"Stop!"
Neither John nor Laurel's words reached her ears, not even Kendra's gasp of shock when they saw the red archer swing her leg for the mutant.
But they were speechless when they saw the mutant block the foot with her bare hand. All the while wearing an apathetic expression as though she wasn't just about to be attacked. Thea was shocked, and saw the psychic flip her hand around and pushed the foot away. The sudden force pushed the archer down to the ground.
Seeing the archer point her eyes upwards and into her blue eyes, Olivia asked. "Got it out of your system?"
Thea's hand clenched around the grass again, and she growled. "Don't look down on me!" she shot up to her feet and launched her right fist.
However, the mutant parried the fist with her left one and she then saw the archer continue with the fists, trying to hit her but never managed to connect with Olivia. Sighing through the barrage of fists, the psychic used her hands, pushing the opposing fists to the sides before slamming her right palm into Thea's stomach.
The archer held her stomach with both hands while hearing the psychic speak. "I've been training for years, Thea. I've been fighting on more war grounds than you have. I have more experience than you." She knew that her words is a fuel being poured over a flame, but she wanted to see if she could resist the bloodlust that was embedded into her body.
Thea faced her and began to growl in anger like an animal.
Seeing that, Olivia announced. "And don't think for a second, I would lose to an animal like you. It's gonna take more than a mindless beast to take care of me."
Laurel and John recognized what was happening. The former solider then said warningly. "Liv, st-" he stopped when he felt a hand grasp his shoulder. He looked to the side and saw Matt giving him an assuring look. "Thea might kill your wife."
"Did you guys already forget what Frankie said? My wife's pretty strong." Matt assured them and nodded to the two fighting women again.
Thea jumped into the air and lashed out her hands for Olivia's head. But they were dodged and once again, Olivia heard the bloodthirsty thoughts brimming in the archer's head. This time the thoughts were homed in on the mutant herself.
Smiling to herself, she blinked and her blue eyes were shrouded with psychic energy. And with a flex of her hand, she stopped the archer from moving, encasing her body with a thin layer of psychic energy. Laurel and John were shocked to see that.
They had seen the psychic use her telepathy and telekinesis in extraordinary ways before on television, but to see it up close were an incredible sight to witness. But they got worried when seeing the mutant step closer to their telekinetically bound teammate.
"Wait, Olivia!" Laurel said. But like John, she felt the nanite mutant place his hand on her shoulder.
With Thea still growling in anger and rage, Olivia placed her finger on her forehead. Thea's eyes widened when feeling the finger send out strange sensations in her mind. Like her mind was cleared and not burdened anymore, making it lighter.
"There all done!" Olivia announced and they all looked shocked and confused at her words.
The psychic casing around Thea faded and she was released from it. Feeling her head clearer than before, she looked into the mutant's eyes with shock. "What?" Thea looked at her hands and flexed them a few times. "What did you do to me?" Her hands placed themselves on her temples.
"Temporarily blocked your bloodlust or whatever it's called." Olivia revealed, to the shock of them all.
"Wait?" Kendra looked shocked. "I understand a bit about this thing, but you can actually block it?"
"Kind of." The psychic clarified. "It only blocks the bloodlust's effects on her mind, so she doesn't start howling like a crazy wolf at the moon."
Laurel looked confused and asked. "This was your plan the entire time, right?"
"Yup." Olivia simply answered.
John ran his hand down his face. "Why didn't you say this?"
"Like I said before, I had a feeling that Felicity would tell you guys about it and Thea would get angry. It would be a good chance to see her bloodlust myself and estimate how much I can block it." Thea smiled, but it faded when Olivia's hand was held out in front of her face. "I did manage to block it, but it's more of a mental thing, so the block is only temporary and can only last a few days, most likely two at best."
"But why did you do it?" Laurel asked the obvious question. She tried thinking up possible reasons for the psychic to do this. But she to no success.
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "You guys do know that I'm a psychologist, right?" Their mouths widened as did their eyes. "You guys didn't know that, huh? Cool. Well, I help people normally with my powers like that. Telekinetically blocking a strange sensation in the mind is something I've done before, just did the same to your friend here. And as I mentioned before, it kinda makes her a liability if we were to fight Savage with her like this. This way, she can fight with a calm mind."
"Calm as I can be when fighting against an immortal." The red archer joked. "But thanks for it."
"Don't worry about that. I should be apologizing for making you angry and all that, Thea. I'm sorry." Olivia apologized and walked around the group and let out. "Gonna go have a drink. I'm thirsty."
Matt laughed at her whine. "Sometimes, I forget the Fiercest Woman on Earth have a heart." He quipped.
Kendra looked at him with curiosity plastered over her face. "Why do you call her that?"
"It's an old nickname she got when she had just graduated from SHIELD Academy." Matt rubbed the back of his head and said. "Think she was maybe a year or two older than Frankie is and graduated and she was on her mission that took a swan dive down south." They looked at him curiously.
He then elaborated. "She had a mission to infiltrate a secret enemy base stationed at a fortified fortress with a team she was assigned with. But they were ambushed, and her entire team had been injured and they only had one medic that could treat them on site. Livia was safe, thankfully. The director of SHIELD, her dad, ordered her to retreat and try again with a larger group of agents. But despite being adopted, she got the director's stubbornness and disabled her comms so she could take on the enemy base herself."
"Seriously?" Kendra asked in shock.
"Yeah." Matt nodded. "She couldn't forgive the enemy for ambushing her team and went to do some old-fashioned payback, and absolutely destroyed the fortress without mercy. That's actually how the name "Angel Fury" became known throughout our world. And because everyone saw that it was a woman who stood on top of the ruined base with a demonic appearance, Angel Fury was later known as the Fiercest Woman on Earth in newspapers. Pretty cool if you ask me."
The nanite mutant didn't pay attention to the others giving him strange and bewildered looks from hearing of the origins behind Olivia's other nickname. His eyes were focused on the skies that appears to be darkening from the descending sun. Both hands clenched as he realized what this meant.
"Our deadline's closing in."
X
As the nighttime was slowly falling over the outskirts of Central City, Oliver Queen returned to the farmhouse with a heart heavy as a planet… or perhaps even bigger and heavier than that of a planet's weight.
He learned the truth today… That he had fathered a child… A boy by the name of William, to a woman that told him that she lost the baby.
But it was a lie that his own mother, Moira Queen, had initiated by tempting Samantha Clayton, a woman of his past, a past fling, with a one-million-dollar check.
It worked and Samantha moved to Central City and raised her son without Oliver none the wiser of his own child being raised without his father. Despite the woman of his past telling him that William wasn't his, he had met liars before and the archer was too sharpened to ignore the obvious facts.
So with polished skills, he managed to pick a hair strand from William's cap, a sample of his own DNA. Everything that would confirm his thoughts and doubts. He then asked Barry to run it against a sample of his own blood, unbeknownst to Barry himself. To see once and for all, if the child was truly his own.
It was a match as he suspected and went to confront Samantha about her lie.
At her house, the one where she showed him the check that Moira Queen wrote for her and showed that it was never cashed. Samantha didn't need that woman's money to know she didn't want her anywhere near her child. Or Oliver himself near William, for that matter.
Samantha didn't see it possible for Oliver to be part of William's life, to be his dad. Even like his dad. Back then, Oliver wasn't the best influence and not the best person either. With him punching out paparazzi and getting young girls knocked up left and right, it wasn't the right influence for her child.
And Samantha knew that Oliver was not that person anymore, with him running for mayor, following the footsteps of his killed mother. His friend Tommy Merlyn too. She knew that these events had made him a different man, but she honestly couldn't expect his life to be any less crazy. Better that their two worlds were to remain separated.
Worst of all… if Oliver wanted a relationship with his son… he had to keep this from the woman he loves…
… from Felicity…
He walked through the open white-picketed fence and was met with Felicity herself standing there in the night fallen front yard. She faced her boyfriend. "Everyone's waiting for you."
"Sorry, just something I had to take care of." Oliver replied as he walked past her.
"So I guess you're off the secret-keeping wagon." She quipped knowingly.
He shook his head. "That's not it."
"Then what is it?" She demanded to know.
He turned around, remembering briefly the conditions Samantha gave him before answering, with a lie. "I think Damien Darhk has someone operating in Central City. So I sent Barry to run down a lead."
What Oliver didn't know was that Felicity knew exactly what that lead was and she brought it with her. She found Barry in his CSI lab at the police department and saw him trying to hide a piece of paper. But she caught him putting it away and pried him enough till he finally revealed the paper.
Showing her a DNA test, checking to see if two DNA sequences are a match to find the father of a child. And she recognized one of those sequences at first glance.
She showed that very same paper, the one that Oliver saw back in Barry's lab, to Oliver again. "This kind of lead?" Oliver looked at it soulfully before looking back to Felicity's face. "He didn't know what he was giving me. But I've run enough tests on your blood to recognize your DNA sequence anywhere."
"You don't know-"
"You had him run a paternity test, didn't you?" Felicity interrupted him immediately.
And Oliver didn't make a single motion, neither nodding nor shaking his head at her question, not even giving her an answer. So instead she came to a conclusion herself. "Look, Felicity-"
"Stop!" The hacker interrupted him again with a raised voice. Raised, but a heartbroken voice was also raised to keep him from walking away. "I cannot hear another lie!"
Oliver didn't look at her, crossing his arms and said. "It's more complicated than that."
Felicity couldn't believe what she was hearing right now from him. "God, Oliver, you are the only person on this planet who considers the truth "complicated"." She walked around him till she stood in front of him once more to look into his eyes. "Just to be clear, I don't care that you have a child… I can't believe that you have a child that you didn't tell me about. I care that you lied to me just now."
Lowering his guards with her, he said with teary eyes. "Do you know that my whole world just exploded? And I think that I'm entitled to… a minute to process that by myself."
"You somehow managed to go to C.C.P.D. and track down Barry." Felicity said, her boyfriend didn't know what to say now. "You didn't keep it to yourself. You kept it from me. When were you planning on telling me?"
He didn't speak for a few moments. "I don't know."
She inhaled deeply, fighting back tears. "If you loved me… if you trusted me… telling you wouldn't be such a burden. It would be a relief."
The front door opened and both Matt and Barry walked through it and saw Oliver and Felicity in a heated conversation. They shared a look after hearing the hacker say. "But you don't trust me." Now the two powered men gulped. "You never will. And how can I be with someone who doesn't trust me?"
He didn't know about the speedster's thoughts, but Matt regretted walking outside now. They just stumbled upon something they shouldn't be hearing.
As she got no response from the archer, Felicity walked away and left Oliver to his own devices.
"Felicity…" Oliver softly called out for her.
Barry then asked Oliver in concern. "Are you guys okay?"
The archer was wearing a blank and emotionless expression and Matt asked. "Queen? What's wrong? What happened?"
He inhaled deeply. "Nothing. I'm fine." Oliver told them and walked to the front door.
When reaching them, the nanite mutant said. "Sure about that? You don't look fine. Actually, you look out of it?"
Oliver didn't give the mutant any attention and looked to the speedster. "Is everyone inside?"
Knowing that he couldn't pry into it further, Barry nodded. "Yeah."
Oliver walked into the house and Matt turned to Barry. "Think he can handle this?"
"I hope so." Barry unsurely said, he was acting unlike himself.
X
"We're coming up on Savage's deadline." Oliver announced when stepping into the farmhouse with the powered men coming behind him.
Laurel looked outside and didn't see their friendly hacker. "Where's Felicity?" Matt waved his hand, telling her without words to not ask about that subject.
"Are the gauntlets working?" Oliver asked the geek squad as he so elegantly put it.
"They're gonna have to be. We're out of time." Caitlin answered, but was worried that if they don't then her daughter might be in the crossfire.
While wearing the gauntlets himself, Cisco said. "I think they'll work." He looked at the gauntlets and quipped. "That staff's gonna go from Can't Touch This to Invisible Touch."
Inhaling deeply once more, Oliver stated. "Savage doesn't know Kendra has access to her full abilities," he turned to face the hawk people, pointing at finger at the woman. "which makes you our ace in the hole. We're gonna put you up against Savage. You attack with the element of surprise. Matt and I will lay down cover fire. Olivia distracts him with close range fighting." The two mutants nodded in agreement while the archer looked to the speedster. "Barry, you speed in and…"
"Snatch the staff. I got it." Barry said in agreement.
John asked with a gesture to him, Laurel, Thea and Frankie. "Where do you need us?"
Giving them a look, Oliver stated. "This is me, Barry, Olivia, Matt, Kendra and Carter. We've got it."
"Ollie!" Thea tried to protest.
"What the-" Frankie's protests were cut short.
"No." Oliver sternly said. "We're not risking any more lives tonight than we have to." He gave Caitlin a look and said. "And I certainly not putting Seth and your daughter in danger, Caitlin. Not against a guy who's been destroying villages since before any of us were born." he walked away to suit up.
Caitlin looked shocked at the archer's thoughtfulness and thinking of her daughter like this. Especially as he didn't seem to care much about Seth the last time those two met face to face. And that he's not here, Oliver was caring about their child.
Even the mutants were shocked to say the least.
Olivia asked her husband. "What's going on with Queen?"
"No idea, suddenly he just turns cold after a heated conversation with Felicity." Matt revealed.
"What the hell did they talk about?" The psychic wondered.
Barry then took the helm of the ship and ordered. "Suit up."
It was time to head into battle now.
X
(Jurgens Industrials)
The Flash, Green Arrow, Iron Knight and Angel Fury were all ready for battle. They walked on either side of the two handcuffed hawk people, Hawkgirl and Hawkman. They walked deeper into Jurgen Industrials and all wore worried expressions.
Angel Fury looked to her husband and asked. "Think this will work?"
"We're going up against an immortal madman with combat experience than any of us combined. He managed to take on both of us before, killed me and even fought against the four of us together and still managed to stay alive." Matt grimly said. "Of everyone in here, in the entire city, he's the most dangerous one here. He can't be underestimated."
"You're right." Olivia understood his points.
"You brought them." Vandal Savage announced his presence, his hand tightly clutched around the Staff of Horus, his powerful weapon from his first life. "And dressed for the occasion, I see."
Oliver then growlingly said. "We're only doing this because two lives aren't worth two cities."
"Like you said, Savage." Matt followed up. "Two strangers' lives aren't worth our friends and families' lives."
Vandal smirked. "Well, in that case, you are wiser than I gave you credit for." He faced the mutants and pointed at them with his staff. "But I expected nothing less from the two beings that fought me so gallantly before. The two of you… have my respect."
Olivia shrugged. "Well, people have considered us more villains than heroes anyway."
The immortal chuckled. "My dear, you still have such humor that is out of this world." He noted and looked to the knight. "For what it is worth, young knight, I was hoping that you and I can could face one another again. You bear the title of a knight, yes, but you wield the skills of a plethora of weapons masters. An opponent such as yourself… are a rare species indeed."
"For what it's worth," Matt used his own words. "It's been educational fighting against you, Savage."
"I am pleased to add more to your repertoire, an expanding arsenal frightening to any inexperienced fools before you." Vandal admitted and walked closer to the hawk people. "It's been a lifetime. Still wearing those ridiculous outfits. I see." He chuckled at his own gesture to their suits. Scoffing, he looked to the four heroes. "You don't need to be here for this." he revealed the insides of his jacket, showing them all an array of knives. "The culling has a tendency to be unsightly."
Matt glanced at Barry's hands, seeing him wield the anti-staff gauntlets. "If those don't work, it's the end of us all." He thought darkly.
Savage looked again to the hawk people. "Your new friends betrayed you." He told them.
Carter said hastily. "Just do what you're going to do."
He smiled briefly before looking to the latest incarnate of Chay-Ara. "It's wonderful to see you again, my love."
Kendra shook her head defiantly at his words. "I will never be your love."
"I know." Vandal said, having heard similar words in the past lifetimes when he had to hunt them down. He withdrew a knife from his belt. "That always makes this easier." He inched closer to her and swung the knife around in his hand. "Chay-Ara, parting is such sweet sorrow." He went to stab her.
But Oliver grabbed his hand and slammed his bow into the immortal's side, causing him to grunt. Olivia jumped forward, landing behind Vandal and swinging her whip around. With a single crack on the ground, she lashed it outwards to wrap it around the madman's throat and pulled on it.
With his head pulled back, the archer repeatedly punched Savage's face with his bow.
Sharing a nod between them, Barry and Matt jumped into action. The Flash broke the handcuffs around the flying people and Matt jumped into the fight with Savage.
Blocking the fist coming from archer again, the immortal spun around, unwrapping himself from the whip. Spinning his staff around, he slammed the whip away before hitting the end of it against Green Arrow' thigh. Raising it high above his head, Vandal blocked the incoming energy blade from the armored mutant.
"And our fight continues, brave knight." Vandal smirked.
"Let's go!" Matt ignited the thruster under his left foot, aiming for his enemy's head with his knee shooting upwards. Vandal foresaw the attack and parried the blade and deflected the knee with his staff. Spiraling around, while putting distance between them, the immortal blasted an energy blast at the knight, shooting him away. He pointed in the direction of the speedster, blasting him away as well with a blue energy blast.
Olivia lashed out her claws, swinging them from downwards and swiping upwards for him. The immortal grabbed her wrist and hit her face plate with his staff. She remained strong and grabbed the staff with her other free hand. "Now, Matt!" she telepathically called out to her husband.
While still in the air, and having heard his wife's words, the armored mutant quickly gathered repulsor energy into his arc reactor on his chest. It was shining brightly with the energy transferred to it and he unleashed onto the immortal in an unibeam. The blast connected with Savage, sending away and his grasp on the staff was released.
Telekinetically increasing her strength, she threw the Staff of Horus away and following her husband's example, she fired off a psychic blast at the immortal. But it was dodged, and he threw knives after the mutants. Half of them were deflected from the archer's arrows that he fired off. The ones that came their way were enveloped with a psychic aura.
Olivia swung her hand around and sent them back to Vandal. They hit his body but were quickly pulled out, the immortal not even giving off an expression of pain at the feeling of his own knives pulled out of his flesh and bone.
Hawkman flexed his back and his wings sprouted out in an instant. He looked to Hawkgirl. "Now, Kendra!"
Mimicking his way, Kendra flexed her back too… but unlike him…
… her wings didn't sprout…
Her eyes were wide with realization as she realized that her training was wasted. She gasped in fear and shock as she looked to the flying man.
Oliver engaged in a fight with Savage, swinging his bow for his head. The immortal lowered himself in a crouch dodging it. As he returned to his full height, he drove his fist into the side of Oliver's stomach. Fighting the pain, the archer swung his bow again, but it was avoided as well and he was met with the enemy's fist connecting with his face.
The blow to his face brought him down to the ground and Oliver looked up to the madman, seeing him lash his foot into his face and sending him down to the ground.
Angel Fury lashed out her whip again, shooting it out for the madman from behind. But he predicted that and grabbed the bladed tip of the thong. Facing the psychic mutant, he pulled on it and brought her closer to him. He punched her throat before wrapping his hand around her neck. "Sorry, my dear, but I have business to attend to."
With impressive strength, he threw the psychic away, throwing her into the armored mutant's body and pushing him down to the ground.
Reaching into the insides of his coat again, he pulled out two knives and threw them after Carter. As he was still distracted from the sight of his soulmate not able to unleash her wings, he failed to notice the knives coming his way.
The moment they pierced his chest, Hawkman was forced down to the ground.
"Carter!" Hawkgirl exclaimed. A strange veil of white-ish energy came from the dead Hawkman's mouth…as though something had departed from his mouth.
Kendra saw red, driving her into a wrathful rage that left her unbalanced, making her blindly charge for the immortal in hopes of avenging Carter with the death of Vandal Savage. But her impetuousness backfired, in a way that was to be expected when fighting a man who have ended her life in the past lifetimes. The flying woman reached that same conclusion when Vandal Savage drove a knife into her body.
The sound of the knife tearing through flesh, muscles, fibers and blood echoed and the other four heroes saw their friend pierced by an ancient hunting knife.
"Kendra!" Matt screamed in dismay at the sight of Cisco's girlfriend being killed.
A similar white-ish energy departed from Kendra's face and to5 absorbed by the immortal madman.
As he slowly withdrew his knife from Kendra's body… Oliver fired an arrow at Savage. It bounced off him as though the flesh on his body had grown firmer and stronger.
Olivia looked to Barry. "Flash! The staff!" The speedster nodded.
WHOOSH
Barry rushed and picked up the Staff of Horus. The two mutants flew to Oliver's side where the speedster stopped as well.
The moment Barry stopped, he pointed the staff at the immortal madman, unleashing a violent beam of blue energy. But somehow, Vandal Savage was able to raise a blue energy before himself, blocking the beam from the speedster.
"I've got it!" Barry shouted as he continued the beam. Hope seemed to raise and the four heroes thought that they could avenge their fallen comrades.
"Sir! The gauntlets are appearing to be malfunctioning!"
Hearing the AI's exclaims, Matt looked to the gauntlets that appeared to be sparking violently. "Oh no!"
"What's wrong?" Olivia followed the direction of her husband's eyes. "Oh no!"
And just like that, hope was lost.
"The gauntlets aren't working!" Barry shouted, experiencing the same as the gauntlets became riddled with the same blue energy, like the Staff's powers were overpowering their capabilities.
Both mutants shared meaningful looks. Their masks opening up so their green and blue eyes could meet one another without any filter.
"Fight till the end?" Olivia asked.
"Or die trying." Matt confirmed her thoughts with the elemental's own catchphrase.
Oliver rushed to Barry's side, dropping his bow and took hold of the staff and continued the beam with Barry Allen. The two mutants snapped around and locked eyes with the immortal madman.
Olivia Fury enshrouded her entire being with psychic energy, eyes blazing with the pinkish energy and her hair shooting upwards from the immense power she was emitting from within. Her hands curling agonizingly slow as the psychic formed giant energy spheres in both palms. Her mouth opening, letting out a warcry, before thrusting both hands forward, exploding the spheres and converging their energy into one elongated psychic beam that connected with Savage's shield, pushing him back with Barry's help.
Matt Stark arched his back, launching ten levitating ion cannons from his back. All of them flipped open and charged repulsor energy. His arms forming larger ion cannons and pointing them at the immortal madman as well. All of the cannons lighting up and charging with repulsor energy stopped before firing twelve massive energy beams from his cannons. Converging them all to the Savage's shield.
But despite the three different beams firing against him, Savage's shield remained strong, stronger as he have consumed the lives of his prey. The beam from the Staff of Horus, despite being on the good guys' side, fought against the repulsor beams and the psychic beams.
Oliver reached the same conclusion. "Let go, Barry!"
Barry shook his head. "No, I'm not leaving you. Any of you!"
"You have to, Barry!" Matt shouted, increasing the energy output of his weapons to the max. He bit his lower lips at the sudden and new sensation of pain from his gauntlets heating up around his arms. It was like a drought that birthed an overheat, strong enough to be searing through his flesh to try and find his adamantium bones.
"Get going, Flash!" Olivia screamed as well. Like her husband, she increased the strength of her psychic powers and try to penetrate the shield with her psychic beam. It got to the point where the familiar and old sensation of pain from her head bursting with ripe pain emitted through her head. Blood began to flow down her nostrils. "Damn it, not now!" she thought annoyingly at the pain.
Oliver then said. "You're fast enough to get away. Go!"
"Guys, no." Barry said through the crackling of energy masses happening in the collision of energy beams.
But Oliver then said… knowingly of what was about to happen. "Run, Barry, run."
Barry let the words sink in… and the anti-staff gauntlets let the blue energy from the staff sink in and were only able to take so much… and they exploded from overloading.
The explosion sent him flying into the air and down on the ground rolling. The sudden explosion caused the staff's beam to disperse and the two additional beams collided. While Vandal Savage remained strong, he saw the two mutants falling to their knees.
He was shocked to see the armored knight's arms falling down to ground, hanging off his body and the pieces of his gauntlets falling off one by one. He saw blood flowing down flowing down from the psychic's nose and from her eyes as well. Reddening her pale-white skin.
The immortal shot forward and grabbed the staff from the archer, pulling it out of his grasp and pushing him down to the ground.
Matt looked to his wife. "Livia…" he mouthed the word to his true love.
Olivia looked to her husband. "Matty…" She mouthed the word to her true love.
And as those words were uttered by the married couple, the immortal madman spun around. With the quick spin fulfilled, Vandal Savage slammed the Staff of Horus into the ground, unleashing an explosive pulse of energy that spread like a devasting and destructive blazing virus.
Oliver was the closest to it and saw it… no… the first to experience it first-hand. The energy pulse instantly burning through his suit, his skin, his blood, his muscles… his organs and his skeleton in an instant.
The two married mutants kept their eyes on each other as the pulse reached them. Watching each other as the pulse burned through their suits like it was paper. Burning their skin, their hair, their blood. But they smiled to each other lovingly when pulse reached them.
But Matt was forced to see his wife die before his eyes, seeing her entire being reduced to dust before him because of that devasting strike. With half of his face and almost his entire body burned from the pulse, he turned to the speedster with half of his adamantium skull looking at him.
"Run you fool." He said hoarsely as the pulse reduced his adamantium skeleton to nothingness and ending the nanite mutant's life.
WHOOSH
Fighting back tears of sadness from seeing his friends and close comrades dying in front of him, Barry sped away and out of the building… but the destructive pulse continued to spread and blast Jurgen Industrials to smithereens.
As Barry ran, he realized that Vandal Savage was perfectly capable of destroying an entire city. The powers of the Staff of Horus in his hands were nothing like what Barry did when he wielded the staff. In his hands, it was only be an enlarged firearm.
But in the hands of the immortal tyrant, it was a weapon… capable of reducing an entire metropolis to ashes with a magical energy blast. Able to burn everyone and everything in its blast radius to ashes…. Man, woman, child…
… none would survive…
… even those on the outskirts of the city…
X
(Outskirts of Central City, Farmhouse)
It was like an earthquake was taking place now.
The entire farmhouse was shaking violently and the two teams of heroes were struggling to even stand properly as the entire house was shaking by whatever was causing this.
Frankie was keeping close to her mother.
And Caitlin kept herself close to her daughter as they shaking continued.
Cisco looked around nervously with John and Laurel.
Thea kept her eyes on Felicity felt the shaking too and got up from her table.
"Mom, what's going on?" Frankie asked with a feeling that took fear to a whole new level.
"It's okay, honey." Caitlin hugged her. "I'm here." She tried to speak with a calming voice, but her own fear was quickly overwhelming her attempt at kindness.
John, out of curiosity, looked out the window, upon hearing small explosions from technology out in the front yard, seeing that something blue was shining through the glass from the other side…
…and immediately came to regret that decision… at the sight of a blue energy blast wave coming towards… them…
He snapped around to shout its incoming, but it was useless… because the blast wave already connected with his body and Laurel's. reducing both of their bodies to ashes in an instant. Mowing through the farmhouse like it was nothing compared to its strength.
Cisco staggered backwards, and tripped. But before his body could land on the wooden floor, his body was hit by the blue energy blast, reducing him to nothingness.
Thea tried to reach Felicity. But the blast wave already touched them both, obliterating them both within an instant.
Caitlin hugged her daughter tightly, Frankie reciprocating with her own arms wrapping around her mother.
The two stayed in the embrace… as the blast wave reached them… and immediately…erased the mother and daughter… before either of them could ever get the chance to reunite with the elemental they love.
X
Barry continued running, trying with all of his might, trying to outrun the massive blast wave that was decimating his hometown so easily. He used his powers to the maximum power, trying to stay ahead of the magical blast.
His speed increasing with each second and each step he took. His lightning coursed through his entire body, crackling against every part of his being, right down to the molecular level and crackling against all of his cells like he was hit by another lightning bolt.
Like a lightning bolt striking down anything in its path, Barry stroke down his limits as he did everything, he could to escape the blast wave that was on his tail.
His determination and his will power to escape that blast wave came out in a roar.
ROAR
A flash of blue light emitted around his rushing form the moment he opened his mouth.
And he ran into it.
X
When he came out of the blue flash of energy, he looked around and found himself running through the city again, but this time in the opposite direction.
And rather than running through the decimating form of his hometown… he found himself running down the night streets of Central City.
A familiar sensation of confusion took over his mind, but he didn't stop running and looked ahead…his eyes looking to the right… and widening at the sight.
He saw his own two eyes… looking right back at him…
The familiar form… of a speeding and blurry… version of himself. Every single detail included… the suit and the emblem… even the yellow lightning coming off his body too…
Like he had done in the past with Mark Mardon's gargantuan tsunami, he was now looking into eyes of himself again.
WHOOSH
The blurry vision of himself ran away in an instant. Barry looked away and as quickly as he ran, he stopped himself when realizing that he has reached his destination… his previous destination, that is.
As he came to a stop, he panted heavily while snapping his head around in bewilderment at the locale that he had come to before. It was one that he recently visited… the very last day in fact.
"Thank you for coming."
His eyes widened at the voice… the voice of a friend he thought to have fallen to the immortal tyrant. He looked to the direction and did indeed find Oliver Queen standing there as Green Arrow again with Malcolm Merlyn beside him. He wasn't the only on there.
Olivia Fury was standing there as well. Alive and well, standing tall and proud in her suit as Angel Fury. She was standing beside her husband.
Matt Stark was beside his wife. Like he, he was also alive and well, leaning against the wall with arms crossed over his armored chest. His entire body geared up with his suit as Iron Knight.
"I know this is a little more than little crazy." Oliver continued with a glance to the mutants and the speedster, before throwing another glance to the Demon's Head.
Matt chuckled and gestured to Malcolm with a pointed finger. "Yeah. Well, your friend with the creepy and tacky ring asked so nicely."
Malcolm nodded to the psychic mutant and corrected. "I asked her nicely, to be precise."
"Thanks, but I'm taken." Olivia quipped with a finger pointing to her husband who glared at the man through his helmet.
Barry finally realized what had happened… that he has once again travelled through time. And by doing so, he was blessed with another chance to prevent a horrible fate from befalling on his home and ending the lives of his friends and family.
Matt noticed that Barry was not speaking and looking at him and Olivia with wide eyes. Eyes wide from overwhelming surprise… and joy?
The nanite mutant grew concerned and looked at him. "Are you okay, Barry?" The speedster nodded without uttering any words.
Before Olivia could question him herself, she heard thoughts coming from the other end and announced. "Looks like the guest of honor decided to show his face."
""Guest of honor"? A title that haven't been associated with me before. Thank you, my dear, for such caring words." Vandal Savage announced his presence to them all. Barry clenched his hands in rage, seeing the man who decimated his home… who would decimate his home if he took the wrong course of actions.
The rest of the meeting went as it did before, following the same words and actions as they were yet to be done. But Barry kept his wits and quips to himself throughout the entire conversation, letting the others state their words.
"I came to this meeting out of curiosity. It is now sated." The immortal tyrant said, using familiar words that only the speedster has heard him utter before. "Bring Khufu and Chay-Ara to Jurgens Industrials in 24 hours or I will see you dead and buried under the bodies of your loved ones." Vandal Savage turned around, dropping the arrow to the ground and walking away.
Oliver, having noticed the metahuman's lack of conversing, asked him curiously. "Barry, you all right?"
Matt saw him. "Yeah, you look like you've seen a ghost." He worriedly asked him.
Barry shook his head assuredly, but inwardly… he was looking at the faces of three ghosts before him.
X
(Farmhouse)
Barry ran back to the farmhouse with superspeed on his side and Oliver drove to the house on his motorcycle. Olivia and Matt flew the way to them and landed on gravel-covered grounds with a clattering sound.
The two mutants saw that something was weighing on Barry's shoulders, like a heavy burden that forcing him deeper and deeper in the ground. It seemed to increase with him panting heavily.
Matt knew that the speedster's state of mind was important, but the fate of the city was in fear of absolute destruction and closing in. "We need to be brief the team."
Oliver nodded his agreement. "Yeah and come up with some type of counterattack." He took of his hood and walked.
Olivia saw Barry still standing there and looking to be struggling with something inside of him. "Barry, what the hell is going on with you? Something's bothering you, anyone can see that."
Barry steeled his nerves and announced honestly. "It's not gonna work." He said with a raised voice, shocking the archer who turned around and the two mutants.
"What do you mean, Barry?" Matt asked suspiciously.
"Nothing, all right. Never mind." Barry took off his cowl. "I shouldn't have said anything. I-" he saw that Oliver, Olivia and Matt stood around him and kept him from moving, barricading him from moving onwards.
"What's going on?" Oliver asked him.
"You're acting weirder than normally, Barry. What's on your mind?" Olivia calmly asked, but like her husband she was also suspicious of his strange behavior.
Knowing that the two mutants have dealt with him acting like this, experiencing sudden time jumps, he directed to Oliver. "Okay, look. This isn't going to make any sense to you, Matt and Liv have already seen this, but I…" he sighed and got a saddened expression. "All right, so I traveled back in time from when we tried to take out Savage. I mean, later, when we try to take him down, in the future, and… it doesn't work."
"You're right. That doesn't make sense to me." Oliver confirmed.
Olivia rubbed her temples. "You time traveled again?" the speedster nodded. "God, why is our world always the strangest."
"Wait." Matt walked closer. "You ghosted?"
"Yeah." Barry found it hard to look at the mutants, having experienced their deaths before his eyes was still lingering in him.
"Ghosted?" The psychic inquired.
"Last time, before Barry time-jumped, with that entire tsunami thing he told us about, he saw himself running beside him, appearing out of nowhere, like a transparent version of himself." Matt explained as best as he could.
"Okay, ghosted. Got it." Olivia simply said, not wanting to dive deeper into the scientific term.
Oliver understood his words and said. "Well, maybe we use that to our advantage. You say that whatever we do against Savage doesn't' work?"
"Yeah." Barry answered.
"Then we come up with a new and better plan." Olivia said.
But then the speedster shook his head frantically. "No. No, no, no. Okay, look, we can't. When I mess with time, it just… it doesn't end well."
"Barry, we know that time always finds a way to get back at you for messing with it, we know that." Matt told him. "But what you're telling us is that it already doesn't end well." Barry inhaled. "Barry, you know as well as I do, that people in our lives, this line of work, we don't always get second chances."
"Matt's right. And we need to take this one." Oliver said.
"All right." Barry accepted their words and their wills, their determination to bring about a better fate than the one that he saw few moments ago. "I hope you guys are right."
"Cool." Matt smiled and they all walked. "So let's begin with what went wrong.".
"Oliver did." Barry surprisingly stated and they continued walking as he elaborated while making eye contact with the archer himself. "When we go up against Savage, your head's not in the game. You're not yourself."
"Why not?" Oliver inquired. The speedster was hesitant and didn't look like he wanted to say anything, but the archer persisted. "Barry, why not?"
The four of them stopped, three of them looked to Barry with serious eyes as he tried to gather up the courage so he can say the words he's withholding. "Okay, are you planning on giving me a hair sample to run forensics on in the near future?" He already knew the answer to that question, that future had already been experienced.
"Yeah." Oliver nodded, he had retrieved a hair strand from the baseball cap that belonged to Samantha Clayton's son, William. With that, he was gonna have Barry unknowingly compare the DNA of the hair to his own blood to see if they were a match. The two mutants could see that something was weighing on his shoulders of a whole different magnitude, something very different from Barry's burden. "Yeah."
"Well, I did." Barry spoke of his actions in the future, the one he time traveled from. "And you were pretty shaken after the fact." The archer kept his eyes from widening. "And then Felicity found out. And you guys had a pretty big fight, and it sounded like it was over between you two."
"Must have been one bad fight." The nanite mutant said, saddened that the cause of a dark future was because of the couple breaking up.
Tilting her head, the psychic asked. "What was the fight about?"
Oliver briefly wondered if the mutant had read his thoughts or something as that was supposed to be his question.
Inhaling deeply, the speedster then revealed. "I'm pretty sure you're someone's father, Oliver." Oliver widened his eyes, gaping his mouth and took on a blank expression from the tidal wave of surprise that just attacked him.
Olivia looked to him and said. "Congratulations." She used her powers to hear his thoughts and found out about the age of the child. "Nine years old, huh? Means that this kid was born before him and Felicity then." She furrowed her eyes at the reminder of her brother repeatedly calling him "Cheater Boy." Though from what she read about the guy before, she knew that he definitely wasn't holding back when meeting a hot woman, be it the sister of his then girlfriend or the fiancée of his friend… at their wedding no less.
"Damn." Matt didn't expect the archer to father a child. He didn't seem like the father type. Perhaps that would change in the future.
"So when we go up against Savage, you're not focused." Barry told the archer. "And then Kendra can't access her powers and then the tech they're developing to counteract Savage's staff does not work." He sighed. "Everyone dies, Oliver." He looked to the mutants who looked shocked. "I saw you guys die before my eyes. You, Liv and even Matt."
"Why's that surprising?" Matt asked. "I can still die for God's sake."
"This time, you won't." Oliver got their attention with a determined expression. "This time, they won't. This time, we do things differently." He walked over to the house and left the three powered people alone.
The speedster looked to the mutants. Recalling what happened to them, the armor plates around the knight's gauntlets falling off piece by piece, blood coming out of the psychic's eyes and nostrils like her brain was boiling and threatening to explode. "Can I ask you guys something?"
"Something to do about our death scenes in the future you just escaped from?" Matt quipped his statement and Barry clenched his hands with a saddened expression. "Thought as much." He noticed his reaction. "Sorry you had to see that, Bar."
"Sounds like we still have our work cut out for us, Matty." Olivia stated.
"I still can't believe that I saw what I saw back there." Barry shuddered at the fresh memory of his friends disintegrating before his eyes. "I saw you guys there… and something happened to you."
"What happened?" Olivia asked.
"With you, your nose and eyes were bleeding while you tried to break through Savage's defenses." Olivia widened her eyes at the speedster's words. "What was that? I don't think that's happened before with you." Barry said.
"I might have trained longer than you have Barry, have years of experience with my powers, but I still have limits myself." The psychic informed him. "And my powers originate from my brain capacity. If I go past that capacity, it lowers the strength of my powers, hurts my brains and I get nasty nosebleeds." She chuckled and placed her hand over her eyes. "I haven't bled from my eyes in years. I must have really gone past my limits and it backfired."
"It did. You tried with all of your powers to defeat Savage with Matt and Oliver and I, and it hurt you in the process." Barry said and looked to the nanite mutant. "Your suit began falling apart as well."
"Must have overheated." He placed his hand on his chin. "It used to happen a lot in the past with my prototype suits. Like Liv's brain capacity for her psychic usage, my suits have their capacity. And like her getting nosebleeds, my suits would fall apart from going past their limits and causing them to fall apart." Patting the armor plates around his body, he added. "Might wanna think about making some improvements to this one then."
"Yeah and Savage… he decimated the entire city with the Staff of Horus." The speedster gulped. "Matt, his attack destroyed you and your entire body like it was everyone else's."
"Barry. I might able to survive somethings that can kill a normal person, but I can still die." Quickly thinking back to how Seth explained his powers, Matt explained. "Every part of a powered being's abilities are like muscles. They have limits and if you overwork them then they tear and you can suffer drawbacks. The same applies to my healing factor, the thing that allows me to survive various attacks that would kill any normal people. It takes some time for my powers to heal the damage."
Matt narrowed his eyes. "But if I were to be hit by something that could attack me from every side then it could end up with my healing factor taking too long to heal and I would die. It takes time and energy for it to attack work and heal all my damage, that's why I didn't shoot back after Savage pierced my back. That's why I was decimated in your future fight with Savage, because my healing factor couldn't keep up with my body disintegrating rapidly."
"Never thought about it that way, I guess." Barry admitted.
"Yeah, thought as much." He noticed his wife looking down, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. "I ain't going anywhere, you know that right, Livia? It's gonna take more than a stupid immortal to get rid of me."
"I know that, dummy." She perked up and looked into his eyes. "I love you, and I'm gonna make sure that I'm here with you too." She leant up and kissed his lips lovingly. He returned it and wrapped his arms around her.
Barry looked around awkwardly and only stood there for a second before walking away and over to the farmhouse himself. He didn't feel the need to be a spectator to the two's romance.
X
The next day, in the workshop beside the farmhouse, Cisco was working hard in the woodshed. The gauntlets are an essential part of the plan to take down Savage. These gauntlets are the only thing that allows the heroes to wield the Staff of Horus.
He knows that these gauntlets will also be the important chess piece in the game that decides the fate of his girlfriend, Kendra Saunders. Cisco was unsure if he could still call her his girlfriend considering that in every one of her previous lifetimes, she's always been destined to find the latest reincarnation of Prince Khufu.
What chance he did he have against a reincarnated prince?
Shaking his head of those thoughts, he continued working on the gauntlets. While detaching a few cables from it, Cisco heard. "How're they coming?"
With a quick glance, he saw that it was Oliver Queen who came to his workshop. "For my first pair of anti-Gandalf magic staff gloves, pretty good, I think." He held up one glove for the archer who looked over his shoulder.
Knowing full well that Cisco is an amazing engineer and that this is his area of expertise, Oliver know that their current state is not enough for them to take on Savage. "Yeah, just double and triple check, okay? I'm a little worried about them not working."
After walking past the archer, Cisco came to a stop and inquired. "Based on what?"
"Call it a gut instinct." Oliver walked over to the engineer again. "Also, I need you to talk to Kendra."
Putting down the glove, the engineer sarcastically said. "Oh, I get it. You shoot arrows, you give love tips. It's like you're Cupid or something."
Fighting back a chuckle, the archer said. "What Carter is doing with her isn't working. We need her power to fight Savage, and we need her to be able to use it reliably."
Pausing his work, Cisco said, enragedly. "Carter's a jerk. But he's supposed to be with her, 'cause destiny says they're supposed to be together and he's supposed to be her soulmate. So I'm not even sure what I could say-"
"You need to do something, Cisco!" Oliver cut him off. "We need to reach her."
"Egyptian reincarnation is not in my wheelhouse." he told the archer.
Calming himself down, Oliver said. "What Kendra is going through is about accepting who she really is. Who better to help her do that than a guy who is clearly in love with her?" He made a gesture to the engineer himself before leaving him alone, hoping that his words were enough to have made his gears turn.
"I don't know if we're at the L-bomb stage yet." Cisco sheepishly called out to the archer, who stopped and turned around to face the mechanical engineer again. Seeing the dry looking directed at him, he said. "I'll talk to her."
Oliver walked away, finally getting the engineer to cooperate.
X
"You don't think that's a little bit insane?" Kendra Saunders directed to the flying man.
The barista had rushed through the backyard with haste and a heavy mind and an even heavier heart. Her life or the lives of a million of innocent people… an entire city? Maybe two even? She knew what she would choose if this really was the choice.
However, the choice she would choose would not sit well with her friends who are willing to put their lives on the line for her.
"No." Carter Hall lightly shook his head and admitted. "I think it's noble. I think it's what makes them all heroes."
"Yeah, that's nice." Cisco announced his presence when reaching the two reincarnated flyers. "I'm gonna talk to Kendra for a minute, He-Man." He pointed to his… the girl he's been dating.
Carter chuckled humorously like it was a joke. "It's Hawkman. Thanks." He patted the engineer's shoulder before walking away.
Stepping closer to the flying woman, Cisco said. "We should talk."
Smacking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, Kendra reminded. "I thought you were the one that said we should wait till this was all over." She walked along the wooden fence and Cisco followed.
Making sure he didn't misunderstand, he clarified. "Oh, this isn't that talk. This is the trying-to-help-you-sprout-wings talk."
"Yeah, well, according to Carter, I'm a warrior priestess, and rage is the hey to rediscovering myself." She said.
"Yeah, I'm not surprised Mr. Aggro thinks that, but I think he's got this whole thing twisted." He told her. "Instead of focusing on the warrior, focus on the priestess." Kendra looked surprised and shocked at the same time. "And the nurturer. The good-hearted person inside."
She then wondered with a quip. "How do you know I was so goodhearted 4,000 years ago?"
The two stopped before a bench and Cisco put his hands on her shoulders. "Because I know, Kendra, and some things don't change. I think you're resisting what Carter's trying to teach you because it means remembering who you were, and that is somebody else. Somebody who loves him." He said with a heavy heart.
She had to fight back whatever she thought would come when she heard him say those words. Kendra knew that this situation, Carter being here and what it would mean was hard for him as well as herself. But despite how hard it is, he acts like a good man and continues to be the shoulder that can she lean on.
"Ever since I emerged, I've been remembering our first life. In Egypt." Kendra revealed. "But I've been telling Carter I can't remember anything because… because I don't want to accept that I'm some reincarnated Egyptian warrior priestess."
Cisco put his hands on his sides and sighed. "Okay. Yeah, that's pretty heavy." He stepped a few away from her. "But it's also pretty amazing." She looked confusedly at him. "I've been through this. You know I have. And what you're going through right now, this is a gift. It's a miracle that most people don't even get to experience."
"Yeah, well, it feels like a nightmare." Kendra stated her true feelings on the matter.
"Yeah, but that is a choice." He walked to her again, standing before her as she took a seat on the bench. "You can choose the other thing. To remember who you are, or who you were." He kneeled before her. "Close your eyes." She looked hesitant. "Just close her eyes." He softly pleaded.
Kendra inhaled deeply before closing her eyes and listening as the engineer continued with his instructions. "Let yourself… Let yourself… remember."
He didn't say a single word as she kept her eyes shut. Cisco saw her eyes moving frantically behind her eyelids, like she was truly experiencing something. But he couldn't be sure.
"She is watching something, Cisco."
Cisco widened his eyes and looked to the side, seeing Olivia Fury sitting on the fence and looking at the two. Remembering that Kendra was in front of him, the engineer started his first mental conversation with the psychic. "Is… Is she okay?"
From her seat on the fence, the mutant nodded. "Right now, she's watching Savage get into her… I'm guessing it's a bed chamber, pretty fancy but she was a warrior priestess at that lifetime so it must be normal."
"She's seeing her first life?" The psychic nodded again to his mental question. "Get through it, Kendra. I believe in you." She heard him say with his eyes solely focused on the flying woman. Cisco widened his eyes and looked embarrassed at Olivia. "You didn't, by chance, hear that did you?"
"It's adorable, Cisco." Olivia could swear she could see him blush despite the distance between them. It was like seeing a lit lava lamp in the night.
Hearing the next thoughts coming to Kendra's mind, she listened closely to those thoughts. "Horus, your children need you now. We need your protection. Shroud us in your wings."
Olivia chuckled. "Such is the birth of Hawkman and Hawkgirl."
A while later, the flying woman snapped her eyes open and Olivia canceled her telepathy. She removed herself from the grassy field and let the two talk between themselves. Seeing his girlfriend get out of her trance and the mutant leaving, Cisco put his hand on Kendra's shoulder and said. "What? What happened?"
"I think I know how to beat Vandal Savage." Kendra revealed.
EXPLOSION
Cisco and Kendra looked in the direction of the sudden explosion's origin. The mechanical engineer lowered his eyes as he realized what was going on. "Think the happy married couple are having that sparring session they promised."
Kendra widened her eyes. "Is that safe?" She inquired in worry when seeing smoke raising high above and into the skies.
"Yeah, totally safe." Cisco assured her. another explosion came from the other side of the house. "But just to be sure, let's make sure they don't accidently blow up this entire farm. We can use Carter as a shield, no one will miss him. Maybe Savage."
X
A while later, a lot of things happened.
The married mutants had plowed through the front yard, blowing up holes all around the place throughout their sparring match. A few of their attacks almost Carter actually, which was funny… to some of them anyway.
Frankie was no different than her aunt and uncle. The moment she was allowed to fight, she resembled a ravenous animal on a hunt and tried to tear into her aunt. But the psychic expected that and fought her off. And though the point of a sparring was to train, their sparring was also to see how well Frankie would fair with her new suit that would allow her to manipulate metal in the cannisters attached to her belt.
Safe to say, the destruction was slightly more increased.
Their training came to an end when Thea Queen stormed into the field and stared into Olivia's passive blue eyes with anger in her own. The red archer had heard of how the psychic had been questioning her team about her sudden rage outbursts, her Bloodlust.
It led to Olivia revealing, straight to Thea's face, that she wouldn't let a liability like her out of her sight for even a second, knowing full well that she couldn't control it. And with someone like that in the field, it could very well lead to someone on their own side being hurt by her.
Thea didn't like that and engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, right to the point where her bloodlust manifested once more and she tried to attack her in a fit of a rage. But the psychic was more experienced than her and would not lose to an animal who fights purely in accordance to its prime instincts, and that was to tear into everyone on the other side of her fangs.
But the psychic used her psychic powers to restrain the younger Queen sibling. And after tapping the red archer's forehead with her finger, Olivia revealed that her plan with fighting Thea was to put up telepathic barriers in her mind. A helping hand so she'd fight with a clear mind in the upcoming fight with the immortal tyrant.
While it would only serve as a temporary help, only able to last a day or two, the psychic was confident that it would definitely help her along for the time being.
Now that nightfall had fallen over them, Cisco and Kendra walked through the back door and the engineer made eye contact with the green archer. "Oliver, you were right. I don't know how you knew, but you were right."
Giving the archer a strange look, the nanite mutant asked of the native engineer. "What did you find Cisco?"
"The gauntlets won't work. They're missing a critical element." Cisco informed.
John looked confused. "How do you know?"
"Think our little birdy knows that answer." Olivia threw a glance to the flying woman.
"You've been reading my mind, haven't you?" the psychic winked with a smile. Kendra chuckled and said. "He knows that because I remembered. I remember how Savage killed us the first time. Back in Egypt."
Carter narrowed his eyes on her form with narrowed eyes. "I've never been able to remember our first death." He admitted.
"Kendra finally let herself remember." Olivia looked to Cisco and gave a nod of approval, the engineer smiling happily. "But what did you see, exactly?"
"Well, these sky rocks," she shook her head and corrected. "meteors, they fell, and they completely destroyed the royal palace."
Felicity got up from her chair and stepped forward. "During the Middle Kingdom, Egypt experienced a high level of meteorite activity." Her team gave her narrowed eyes of shock and so did the youngest metahuman as well. "I know stuff."
Frankie turned to her mother and said. "Think we know who's the brain in that couple."
"Keep that to yourself, honey." Caitlin ruffled her daughter's hair.
Laurel smiled. "Which is one of the many reasons we love you so much, but also doesn't seem to help us stop Savage."
The young magnekinetic perked her head. "Meteors falling over a palace? Sounds like a calamity."
Caitlin knew what her daughter was going for. "It's the calamity Professor Boardman was referencing."
Kendra nodded in agreement with the mother and daughter. "The meteors, they had a glow about them. And Savage's staff had two gemstones with the exact same glow."
Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out his arc reactor. Quickly, placing it on his chest, he let the nanites swarm over his torso. When feeling the nanites adapt to the entirety of his right arm, he flipped his hand around and showed a blue holographic screen. The screen was displaying their fight against Savage back at St. Marks. Giving the AI an order, he stopped at the image of the immortal madman with the staff and holding it high.
The screen zoomed in on the staff's bird top, the bird emitting a blue glow. "Something like this?"
"Yeah." Kendra nodded in shock.
"You recorded our fight?" Oliver asked in shock.
"Thought I could see if the immortal bastard had some openings in his fighting." Matt revealed.
Barry walked closer to the image of the glowing stones in the staff's bird top. "Yeah, the gemstones might be made up of the same element as the meteorite."
Felicity got a look of realization. "The Egyptians would use meteorite in their craftsmanship."
Caitlin perked her head and pointed a finger. "And the minerals glow in proximity to each other." Felicity nodded in agreement and rushed to her computer.
Cisco snapped his fingers. "Like Sankara Stones." He threw a reference into the air.
Thea pointed a finger to the engineer while forming a confused expression. "Oh, wait, the Indiana Jones reference is the only thing I understood." Oliver gave his sister a look as though he understood her.
"Two pieces of the same meteorite, like an Nth metal." Cisco looked to Matt.
"And right there, we have the key to counteracting the staff." The nanite mutant confirmed his thoughts.
Shifting his eyes between the two nerds, the green archer admitted. "Believe it or not, that isn't actually the craziest thing I've heard today."
Felicity found something on her computer and revealed. "There's a sample of the meteorite from the Middle Kingdom at the Keystone City Museum of Natural-"
WHOOSH
Barry disappeared off while Felicity spoke. "And he's off." Matt thought to herself.
WHOOSH
"-History!" Felicity finished her sentence with an exclaim as a wind gust hit her face when Barry returned to the farmhouse, with the meteorite sample in his hand.
Barry sighed and directed the meteorite sample to Matt's and Cisco's eyes. "Hopefully, I got the right one."
Cisco took the sample in his hands and the nanite mutant stated. "Cisco, you should be able to synthesize a compatible isotope out of that rock and coat the gauntlets with it."
"Yeah, you're right, Matt." Cisco examined the sample with his hands and eyes.
"Okay, do it." Oliver patted the engineer's shoulder. And made eye contact with the others. "Savage doesn't know about Kendra's gained access to all of her abilities. That makes you our ace in the hole." Kendra nodded and inhaled deeply nervously.
Olivia looked to her. "Don't worry, Kendra. It's time for you to fly once more, and you'll be able to, Hawkgirl."
"Thanks Liv." Kendra smiled.
Followed with a gesture to Laurel, Thea, John asked. "Where do you need us?"
Looking to them determinedly, he said. "Suit up."
"Aunt Liv?" Frankie directed to her aunt, wanting to know what her instructions were.
The psychic smirked. "Sharpen your fangs, Magenta. It's time for to let your demon loose."
At that moment, Frankie flexed her back and her entire body was instantly enveloped by the symbiotic mass of her partner. The lower half of her mouth split open to reveal her sharp fangs plus the serpent-like tongue that licks the surface of both the upper and lower half of her jaws. "We're ready for battle."
Laurel widened her eyes at the sudden transformation. "Is that normal for her to do?"
"Her dad's Venom, normal was hurled out of the window months ago." Matt quipped.
X
(Jurgens Industrials)
The deadline had come. The time to deliver the latest incarnations of Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara to the mad immortal tyrant, so he could once more continue the vicious cycle of murder and live on with stronger powers in his disposal.
All of them have suited up and arrived at the meeting spot.
Green Arrow looked deeply into the empty space of Jurgens Industrials. Iron Knight and Angel Fury were watching with The Flash from behind. All of them ready for battle along with their friends and family also suited up for battle.
Inhaling deeply, Barry stepped forward and walked to the archer's side. "Ollie. Everyone's in position." Oliver nodded. "Are you sure about this?"
Turning to him, Oliver asked. "About changing the future?" Barry chuckled.
The mutants stepped forward next and they looked to the speedster. The knight asked with a hollow scoff. "Barry, answer me honestly? What can happen here that is worse than what already did?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be so worried." Barry answered.
"Whatever happens next…" Olivia started and curled her fingers. "We're gonna do it, together."
"Let's do it." Oliver walked forward.
Matt looked back saw the hawk people in their suits with the handcuffs on their wrists. "Let's go, Hawks." They nodded and walked forward. Following the heroes, they all walked into the middle of Jurgens Industrials with heavy steps, knowing that this fight would lead to either the decimation of the city or the deaths of the reincarnated hawk people.
"You brought them." Vandal Savage announced his presence to the heroes. He gestured to the handcuffed hawk people. "And dressed for the occasion, I see."
Oliver then growlingly said. "We're only doing this because two lives aren't worth two cities."
"Like you said, Savage." Matt followed up. "Two strangers' lives aren't worth our friends and families' lives."
Vandal smirked. "Well, in that case, you are wiser than I gave you credit for." He faced the mutants and pointed at them with his staff. "But I expected nothing less from the two beings that fought me so gallantly before. The two of you… have my respect."
Olivia shrugged. "Well, people have considered us more villains than heroes anyway."
The immortal chuckled. "My dear, you still have such a humor that is out of this world." He noted and looked to the knight. "For what it is worth, young knight, I was hoping that you and I can could face one another again. You bear the title of a knight, yes, but you wield the skills of a plethora of weapons masters. An opponent such as yourself… are a rare species indeed."
"For what it's worth," Matt used his own words. "It's been educational fighting against you, Savage."
"I am pleased to add more to your repertoire." Vandal admitted and walked closer to the hawk people. "It's been a lifetime. Still wearing those ridiculous outfits. I see." He chuckled at his own gesture to their suits. Scoffing, he looked to the four heroes. "You don't need to be here for this." he revealed the insides of his jacket, showing them all an array of knives. "The culling has a tendency to be unsightly."
Matt glanced at Barry's hands, both wearing the newly adjusted gauntlets, coated with the meteor component, theoretically allowing their bearer to wield the Staff of Horus. "We're gonna win this. The future's gonna be changed, right here and right now." He wouldn't their future be written in stone, it was never like that. He, his wife, his friends, nor his family won't die.
Not before they've had the chance to reunite with Seth Fury. Not before he's had the chance to defeat Venom with an overwhelming victory.
Savage looked again to the hawk people. "Your new friends betrayed you." He told them.
Carter said hastily. "Just do what you're going to do."
He smiled briefly before looking to the latest incarnate of Chay-Ara. "It's wonderful to see you again, my love."
"I will never be your love." Kendra dejected willfully.
"I know." Vandal said, having heard similar words in the past lifetimes when he had to hunt them down. With a scoff, he withdrew a knife from his belt. "That always makes this easier." He inched closer to her and spun the knife around in his hand. "Chay-Ara, parting is such sweet sorrow." He went to stab her.
Both Matt and Oliver jumped into action. The nanite mutant firing a pair of repulsor blasts at the immortal while the archer fired an arrow and pierced the hawk people's restraints, releasing them both and allowing to battle.
Olivia cracked her whip, swinging it for the immortal who deflected it with the Staff of Horus. Swinging it again, she aimed for his head. But with the staff spinning in his left hand, he jumped backwards and dodged the whip strike.
As he was now free of his restraints, Hawkman charged for the immortal who had plagued and vanquished his existence in the past. But with a quick charge of energy in the staff, Vandal Savage pushed him aside with a slam from the staff.
Savage used the staff to block the energy blade that came for his head. Pushing against it, the immortal's face neared and looked directly into the nanite mutant's fight. He couldn't keep the smirk from forming on his face and said. "And our fight continues, brave knight."
"Bring it on, Savage!" Matt's back quickly formed wing-shaped thrusters before flaring up, pushing him against the immortal's staff. Stretching out his free hand and lashing it to the side, he opened his palm and the repulsor blasted to the side, slamming it into the staff and pushing Savage away from him. With his thruster on his foot, the mutant lashed out his left foot and it blasted his enemy away.
Oliver saw that the nanite mutant was gaining the upper hand against Savage and shouted to Kendra. "Now, Kendra!"
Taking but a single step forward, the flying woman arched her back…
… and let her brown feathery wings sprout from her back, spreading out to the sides…
She pushed herself off the ground and took flight. Hawkgirl tackled from the skies, hitting Savage and sending him hurling into the ground.
A van drove in from the side, its tires screeching loudly as it neared the battle.
Savage pushed himself off the ground and aimed the Staff at the two mutants, the bird on the top gathering blue energy. But its trajectory was pushed off in the wrong direction after something was hit into it, the blast sent off and hitting a pillar.
Savage and the two mutants saw that the object that slammed into the staff was a pair of metal balls, the size of marbles. All three of them swung their heads in the direction of the balls and saw that it was the form of Magenta that shot them.
Both her hands forming into jagged blades as she looked at the immortal with a savagery look. "Let's fight, old man!" she said with crossed arms.
"It appears that there are still young ones in sore need of discipline." He swung the staff in her direction, shooting a blast for her.
Magenta dodged the attack, jumping onto the ceiling and running along the surface. While running on the surface, she swerved around and avoided the energy blasts he shot after her. Leaping off the ceiling, she swung both her bladed arms from above.
Spinning around, he blocked the bladed attack from the young metahuman with his staff raised above his head, holding it with both hands.
Frankie let out tendrils, wrapping them around the immortal's staff. With the strength of her tendrils intensifying, she had leverage and spun around like wheel. Her feet landing on the staff like a platform before she outstretched her hands, forming claws and swinging for Savage's head.
Registering the claws, Vandal Savage gathered energy into the whole staff and unleashed a pulse, pushing Magenta off him and into the air. Performing a spin, the young metahuman landed on the ground and reformed her blades into axes before taking charge again.
Savage aimed his staff at her again but widened his eyes when seeing that the girl had disappeared.
His ears sparked at the sound of clattering feet and he spun around, swinging his staff again. He didn't hit anything but the young metahuman deactivated her powers, revealing herself to him and swung both her axes. Jumping backwards, he dodged the attacks and the fired an energy blast.
Magenta dodged it by leaping backwards, the blast hitting the ground instead. Allowing a grunt of annoyance to come out of his mouth, the tyrant's ears then perked up at the sound of tires and spun around. He blasted the front of the van, causing it to spin around and the back of it points towards them.
The trunk opened up and out came the heroes from Star City. Spartan jumped out and began firing his gun at the immortal. Speedy began to fire her arrows as well. Black Canary in her black suit and a collar around her neck.
Her mouth opening up and allowing a deafening canary cry, a screech very much like a banshee. Savage felt the pain from the screech and grunted while deflecting the attacks from the two long-range fighters.
But even though, he was the enemy… he wasn't the only one to experience the affects of the sonic screech.
SCREAM
Magenta held her head with both clawed hands and her mouth splitting open, right to the point where it was trying to separate itself from her entire head. Frankie felt the sonic attack rippling through her body from the painful sound waves. Her symbiotic mass was shaking like water and looked to be on the verge of separating itself from her host's body.
"Frankie!" Angel Fury let out in worry and rushed her to niece's side.
"Canary, stop it!" Iron Knight shouted, considering blasting the collar off her throat.
X
A figure near the battlegrounds heard the deafening screech and the sounds of the young metahuman screaming in pain.
The figure frowned at the sound of her pain.
Raising a hand, the figure pushed a small blue button on a device in their hand.
X
Laurel didn't feel it, but crackles of electricity ran along the sides of her collar. Her mouth was still open, but the cry stopped abruptly. While her teammates continued their firing, she shook her collar, trying to it get it work but to no success.
Thankfully so. The symbiote reattached to her host's form but was brought down to knees. She would have fallen to the ground, had it not been for her aunt holding her close. "I'm here, Frankie."
"…Thanks… Aunt Liv." She spoke with her mouth reattaching itself again.
Savage fired off an energy blast at the three heroes, but they dodged it in time. Spinning around, he shot another blast for the mutant and her niece.
Iron Knight saw it and shot forward. Landing before his family and locking himself to the ground before crossing his arms, both swarming with nanites before forming a circular shield. When the blue blast connected with his shield, his body shook but he held strong and survived it.
Glancing to his family, he asked. "Are you both okay?"
"Frankie's still shaken out from that sound attack, but she's okay otherwise." Olivia nodded to the immortal who engaged in a battle with the Star City heroes. "Take him."
Confirming with a nod, he shot like a missile with his thrusters flaring.
Savage slammed Spartan to the side, pushing him down to the ground. He blocked the attack from Black Canary, pushing back before slamming the staff into Speedy and pushed to the ground.
Before he could continue his attacks on them. He felt a pair of feet slam into his back, pushing the immortal down to a knee. Iron Knight landed on his feet and raised his arms, both forming cannons that rapidly unleashed their fury on the tyrant. He charged his entire staff with blue energy again before spinning it around like a bo-staff, blocking each of the repulsor blasts.
The thrusters on his back flared and he pushed himself off the ground. Both hands returning to their normal forms before the mutant formed a circular shield and tackled the tyrant into the ground. His staff falling out of his hands.
Barry saw that and sped to it, picking it up from the ground and returning to his former position. "Stand clear!" he shouted to his friends. All of whom ran off to the sides or into the skies and dodged the blue stream of energy that Barry unleashed after pointing the Staff of Horus at Savage.
Like in the battle that would have destroyed them all before, Savage was able to form an energy shield to halt the attack.
But this time, Barry didn't feel the staff unleashing excess energy that caused his gauntlets to malfunction. "The gauntlets are working!" he shouted happily at that.
Olivia formed a psychic shield around her and her niece's form, protecting them both. She saw her husband descending to the ground beside them. He stood ready with cannons on both hands. He wanted to aid the speedster, but this time he would put his faith in Barry Allen.
"Come on, Barry." He muttered.
Oliver rushed to the speedster's side, placing his hands on the staff as well. Feeling like this would be the beginning of what happened in the timeline he time-jumped from, Barry paled. "No, no, no. Oliver, get yourself to safety!"
"We're not leaving each other!" Oliver dejected. They continued the stream of energy, the blast pushing against the tyrant's shield, pushing him back.
"Matty?"
He turned to his wife, who nodded to the tyrant. "Give them a hand, would ya?"
"Sure thing." Matt said and jumped into the air and hovered till he was near the immortal. Raising a hand, he gathered energy into the repulsor and said. "See you never again, Savage." He fired a repulsor blast into the immortal's back, causing him to grunt and his shield wavered.
The two heroes who joined forces, their powers put into wielding the Staff of Horus, took advantage of the mutant's opening and poured their all into the staff. Pushing it forward, the energy blast was amplified, breaking through the shield.
Vandal Savage yelled in pain as the blast connected with his body. His scream faded as his entire body… turned to ashes from the explosive power from the staff.
The energy unleashed from the staff returned to it and it… imploded, collapsing upon itself and disappearing.
The mutants walked over to them with slow steps. Olivia was holding onto her niece with one arm around her waist and her hand on her shoulder. Frankie was still holding onto her head with one hand. "Nice job, guys." The psychic praised them.
Oliver looked to the mutants and saw Frankie's condition. "Olivia, what happened to Frankie? Did something happen to her?"
"Yeah." Olivia nodded.
Then the other heroes rushed back to see them.
"Did we do it? Is he gone?" Hawkgirl rapidly asked.
John looked around and saw the tyrant was nowhere to be found. "Yeah, looks like."
"I knew you could do it." Carter kindly told Kendra.
"I'm having the strangest déjà vu." Laurel admitted and looked to the mutants.
Oliver sighed knowingly after glancing at the mutants and Barry. "You're not the only one."
Laurel saw Frankie's condition and asked. "What happened to Frankie?"
"You did." Matt revealed to their confusion with a finger pointing at the crier. "Frankie's a symbiote bearer, their partner's weaknesses is the host's weaknesses. Symbiotes are weak to sound attacks." Laurel widened her eyes while Oliver narrowed his eyes intrigued. "Essentially, your little sound collar just hurt our niece."
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Laurel told the mutants apologetically before looking to Frankie. "I'm so sorry, Frankie. I didn't know."
"It's okay… I gotta learn to be more truthful to people and be more resistant to sound." Frankie chuckled even though she was still having a headache.
Thea looked to Laurel's collar. "Wait, did you stop because you knew you were hurting her?"
"No my Canary Cry just stopped all of a sudden." Laurel placed the tips of her fingers on her collar. "It suddenly turned off, I think. Maybe it malfunctioned."
Matt narrowed his eyes curiously and pointed his eyes to the collar. Via the HUD screen in his helmet, he scanned the device quickly, finding the cause of its sudden power loss. "It wasn't malfunctioning, it was hit by an EMP, a really small one with a powerful burst."
"Savage's never used an EMP before." Carter noted curiously.
"That's because it wasn't Savage." Matt looked around and called out. "You mind showing yourself, Cat?!"
"You really are a bother."
The heroes from Star City and the two hawks looked shocked at the sudden voice and saw a form falling from a ceiling patch. They all widened their eyes when seeing that it was a woman with platinum blonde hair and a black skin-tight suit with white accents. Her eyes were covered by a pair of visor-like goggles.
Thea and Oliver and John were about to draw their weapons, but Olivia raised her hand stopping them from that. Sighing she looked to the infamous thief again. "You could have told us that you'd drop by, Felicia."
Felicia Hardy chuckled and walked over to them. "And ruin my chance to see my little Rose bloom in a battle? No way." She looked to her disciple with concerned eyes. "Are you okay, Rose?"
"I'm fine." Frankie gave her mentor a thumbs up.
Matt laughed. "Thought I recognized that EMP signature somewhere. You've been messing around with Laurel's tech huh?"
"Wait you did what?" Laurel asked in annoyance.
"Trust me, sweetie, I did you a favor." Felicia assured the crier. "You don't wanna mess with the Furys and Starks because you hurt their family." She then added seriously. "Besides, I promised Caitlin that I would make sure her daughter is safe and that includes tampering with your tech if I have to."
"Understandable." Laurel agreed, inwardly happy that the thief stopped her sonic attack from hurting the young metahuman.
"Now that's been established," Matt lifted his niece in his arms and said. "let's blow this place." They all nodded and walked away, leaving Jurgens Industrials…as they have now slain the immortal tyrant once for all.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
While Barry and Cisco were seeing off the hawk people, Caitlin, Frankie, Olivia and Matt decided to return to the facility. The doctor walked out of her private lab where she placed her daughter on the gurney. The young metahuman was sleeping right now, having used so much energy left her greatly exhausted. She walked into the Cortex.
With a smile, she said. "Home, sweet home."
"Got that right." Olivia said as she walked into the Cortex herself. Her hands cupped around the two forms of cups with Jell-O and spoons. "Your daughter told me you like strawberry."
"What? Thought your brother and niece was the only ones with a sweet tooth in this family?" she mocked offense.
Olivia laughed as she handed one cup to the doctor. "No. I wouldn't be surprised if all of you had sweet teeth, to be honest. But I would definitely not wanna be your dentist." She began to dig into her cup of Jell-O. "It's good."
"Yeah." Caitlin swallowed her own spoonful of Jell-O. With a gesture to her private lab, she asked. "Did you come to check up on Frankie?"
"Yeah, I was a little worried about her after that sound attack." She looked over to the sleeping form of her niece. "Knew she would stronger, but I'm surprised by how much she's able to handle that sound attack. Much better than Seth did at her age."
"What happened when Seth experienced his first sound attack?" Caitlin asked, she couldn't recall Seth ever telling him of that experience.
"It was against a villain, calling herself Shriek." Olivia said. "She was able to project these massive sonic cries from her mouth. They would make Laurel's cries look like a bad joke. But she met Seth once after a robbery, and he was immediately hit by one of her cries. Back then he was a bit older than Frankie's age, but he lost consciousness afterwards and didn't wake up for a while, think it was around few hours."
"Frankie didn't lose consciousness; she just got a big headache after Laurel's cry." Caitlin looked to her daughter on the gurney.
Olivia nodded. "Magenta is the child to the clone Venom symbiote inside Seth. Every time a new symbiote is born, it's always bound to be stronger than its parent. Wouldn't be surprised if Magenta and Frankie might become stronger than Seth and Venom."
At the mention of the clone symbiote, Caitlin turned her curious eyes to her friend and asked. "About that clone part. I know that the experiments that happened to you guys were to make you biological weapons. And I know Seth's symbiote is a clone of the original Venom. But what were the changes done to it?"
"They tried to make a perfect clone of a symbiote, one that could overcome its own weakness. That's why they took Seth's blood regularly." Olivia remembered all the files from that filthy place and had read them together with her brother and her then-boyfriend. "They would dose the symbiote with blood to take on the advantage of utilizing elemental attacks, effectively giving it Seth's attributes. In the process, it somehow lowered its weakness to fire, making it more durable. In case of Seth resisting, my blood was thrown in too. Not a perfect clone, though, since it still takes damage from sound attacks, or if he's being attacked by something or someone that can overwhelm him."
"Has that happened before? Aside from Carnage, of course?" Caitlin asked.
"Fought against a green rageaholic and lost." Caitlin widened her eyes with shock and Olivia chuckled at the doctor's reaction. "Yeah, my brother's pretty incredible in a fight and not afraid of anything, but he's not invincible. He still has weaknesses, that few people know about. But he's strong enough to accept those weaknesses and try to fight through them."
"Looks like a family trait." Caitlin quipped. "I hope he comes back soon."
"Yeah…" Olivia frowned. "I'm actually a little worried."
"That's new." The quip came from the doctor.
Olivia looked at her and said. "Not what I mean. I'm worried about Earth-2 with my brother there."
Caitlin laughed at the mutant's words, knowing that the elemental would not go easy on that Earth. He would do everything in his powers to fight against metahumans under Zoom's rule and find a way back home to her and their daughter.
Hopefully, he would be able to find a breach and get back to them…
… to Frankie… and… to her…
To be continued…
And that's the second and last half of this crossover, folks.
A catastrophic decimation has been prevented due to another time-jump by Barry Allen, preventing the deaths of an entire city, not to mention the lives of both his friends and family as well as a dozen of heroes were saved.
Even a psychic block made to keep Thea's bloodlust in check was made, despite Olivia having to resort to less-than-generous methods to keep her from becoming a liability in the field. Typical hazard for anyone who's been resurrected by a Lazarus Pit.
And because of his time-jump, Barry learnt the mistakes of their last attempt against Savage, and he was able to prevent that from happening again. the deaths of the mutants were prevented and Oliver losing his cool due to the revelation of his son didn't happen. But he still follows the demands that were given to him by Samantha Clayton.
The secret of him having a son… is to be remain a secret, even from Felicity.
Not to mention, future catastrophes, seeded by the immortal madman, have been prevented, thankfully, the moment the Staff of Horus had laid waste to Vandal Savage.
As previously mentioned to you guys, the next two chapters will be Earth-2 chapters, featuring our Lethal Protector fighting against the rival of Zoom, Blackfire.
Hope you guys are excited for that, I know I am.
Once again, stay safe and healthy and indoors and minimize physical contact. It's only for the better of yourself and the better of those around you. And let's cross fingers for this virus to end as soon as a virus have been made. Various countries are working full-time to do so, let's hope they succeed.
So stay tuned and until next time, peeps!
