There were days when the Kents could have done without the presence of superpowers or heroes in their lives, but not that day. While the Kents and Olsens tended to Linda inside the house, the rest of the League (who had arrived shortly after the confrontation had ended) pitched in to help fix the damage on the property; with everyone's combined effort, it took less than an hour repair everything. While Hal and Carter left to go back to their duties at the Watchtower, the rest joined the others in the living room, where Linda sat on the couch, flanked by both Jonathan and Martha, staring silently at the hot cup of tea she cradled in her hands. The burn on the back of her neck had already healed, the once charred and blackened skin back to its normal, healthy pink.
Batman glanced quickly between his teammates before his eyes settled back on the teenage girl. After a few moments, Linda glanced up at him, her eyes radiating with annoyance.
"The last thing I remember was flying through a thunderstorm last night," she said bluntly.
"You peeked," Batman replied.
"I didn't have to," Linda retorted. "I know how you think, Bruce." Her gaze fell back on the cup as she gingerly took a sip; she—along with everyone else—missed the brief and slight curl of the corners of Batman's mouth.
"Why were you flying through a thunderstorm last night?" Martha asked.
"I wanted to get back to Central City as quickly as I could without being seen," Linda explained. "Next thing I know, I got hit by something with a lot of energy—I don't know what it was—but it hurt, a lot. At first, I thought I'd been struck by a bolt of lightning, but I quickly knew it wasn't that, because Cisco hit me with one at S.T.A.R. Labs on Monday, and it didn't even faze me."
"Excuse me?" Jonathan asked, frowning, as he looked over at Cisco. Cisco paled as the farm quickly got to his feet and crossed the room, stopping a foot away from the engineer. "What do you mean you hit my daughter with a bolt of lightning?"
Cisco swallowed nervously. "Uh…," he said slowly.
"It was my idea," Linda spoke up. "I wanted to know more about my abilities; Cisco performed a few tests, that's all." Jonathan looked unconvinced, and Linda sighed. "Look, we can talk more about that later; right now, I'd like to figure out why I'm missing ten hours of my life, and why it looked like there was a Battle Royale here earlier."
"Actually," Superman said slowly, "we know what happened." Linda looked at him expectantly. "Jor-El somehow took control of you."
Linda furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "Jor-El?" she asked. "Are you sure?" Superman nodded sympathetically. "Why me? I thought you told me it was Jor-El's wish for you to rule this planet."
"It was," Superman replied.
"Then why come after me?" Linda asked. "I didn't even know him."
"Because your ties to Earth are not as strong as Clark's," Batman answered bluntly.
"You say that like it's her fault," Jimmy spoke up.
"It's fact," Batman replied. "Clark was raised as a human all his life, so when Jor-El attempted to take control of him, it failed because Clark sees himself as more human than Kryptonian. Linda was raised as a Kryptonian and hasn't even been on Earth a full year. Like it or not, if Jor-El's strategy was to obtain an easy conduit to execute his plans, then Linda was the best choice."
"But why now?" Jonathan asked.
"Because I didn't have all my powers until yesterday," Linda answered softly. She glanced up and saw everyone staring at her; she chuckled mirthlessly. "The more powerful the soldier, the better the probability of a successful conquest."
"A sound strategy," Wonder Woman spoke up from her spot. She glanced over at Superman and saw his eyebrows furrowed. "What's wrong?"
"Something's not adding up about this," Superman replied. "Even when we were fighting Linda, something felt…off."
"I lost ten hours of my life by being mind-controlled by the brainwaves of my dead uncle," Linda replied wryly, "and I tried to kill everyone. Everything about this is 'off,' Clark."
"That's what I'm talking about," Superman said. "What Jor-El did to you was almost a complete one-eighty on what he did to me; to be honest, if I hadn't heard you talk about 'destiny' I wouldn't have even recognized it as Jor-El in the first place. And he branded my chest with our family's symbol; he never used a tattoo like the one I saw on your neck."
"I'd just like to know how a tattoo can control someone like that," Martha said.
"It's a form of nanotechnology," Linda explained, "created centuries ago. It involved microscopic circuits implanted underneath the skin at the base of the skull, connecting to neural pathways. Whoever branded the person could upload programming directly to the brain, essentially gaining control over the person in question."
"Mind control," Flash replied.
Linda nodded once. "It was created originally as a means of controlling criminal behavior, but—as you guys witnessed—it could easily be misused; it was banned before it could ever be implemented." She noticed her cousin's expression. "What?"
"It still doesn't make sense why Jor-El would use that," Superman replied. "If the technology hadn't been used in centuries, why take a risk on whether or not it would work on you?"
"Well, apparently he did," Oliver spoke up, "and we all saw how effective it was."
"Maybe," Superman continued, "but what really bothers me is the brand itself. No matter what Jor-El did when I was younger, he always connected it with the House of El—but I don't recognize the symbol he put on Linda's neck."
"What did it look like?" Linda asked.
Superman blurred into the kitchen and returned a second later with a small sketch pad and a pencil; he quickly sketched the symbol, then held out the sketch pad to his cousin. "Here," he said. Linda put her cup down and took the pad, staring at the symbol Superman had drawn. Her stomach turned violently as she felt all the color drain from her face.
"What is it?" Jimmy asked.
"This wasn't from Jor-El," Linda said quietly. She swallowed the lump in her throat as her vision blurred with tears. "This is the symbol of Zor-El." Disgusted, she tossed the pad onto the coffee table and got up from the couch. Wordlessly, she left the living room, heading out the kitchen door; Jimmy quickly followed.
Linda stormed out of the house, slamming the kitchen door open. The hinges snapped under the force, causing the door to fall to the ground and teeter for a few moments before leaning up against the house and doorframe. The teenager closed her eyes and sighed in frustration. She knew there was very little chance that the others had missed that, but she didn't feel like checking for confirmation. Without saying a word, she headed onto the porch and carefully leaned against the nearby rail, staring at the buildings and land that showed no signs of the fight that had taken place not too long ago.
"Hey."
Linda closed her eyes and sighed. She knew why he felt like he had to be there and under normal conditions (she mentally snorted at the word 'normal') she would have welcomed his presence, that soft voice would have lifted her spirits—but not right now.
"You don't have to be out here," she mumbled without turning around. "I'll be fine."
"And we both know you're only saying that because you're freaking out by what happened," Jimmy replied.
"Of course I am," Linda retorted, finally turning around. "I have ten hours of my life that I can't account for, and when I finally come to, it turns out my psychotic father, who died months ago, somehow managed to take control of me and use me as a weapon against the people I care about. What's even scarier is that I have no idea where I was during that time: Clark said he searched the caves, and there was nothing to indicate I was there, which means there's something Kryptonian out there that we don't even know about."
"And we'll deal with it," Jimmy reassured her.
"How?" Linda asked. "We don't even know where to begin looking."
"Actually, we might have an idea."
Jimmy and Linda glanced over and saw Clark (who had changed into his civilian clothing) and Cisco standing near the kitchen doorway; it was Clark who had spoken.
"What do you mean?" Linda asked.
"Do you remember when I told you yesterday I could vibe different points of time?" Cisco asked. Linda nodded slowly, furrowing her eyebrows. "Well, seeing how I already vibed you once and saw your future, I was thinking maybe I could try vibing to see what happened to you while you were missing." Linda raised an eyebrow. "I mean, unless that totally freaks you out, and if it does I won't do it."
"Didn't you try vibing Linda's stuff earlier?" Jimmy asked slowly, confused.
"Yeah, but I'm thinking maybe I need to actually make contact with the source for it to work in this case," Cisco replied.
"You think it'll work?" Linda asked. "I mean, J'onn couldn't figure out what had happened to me, and he's a powerful telepath."
"Yeah, well, vibing isn't hindered by brainwaves," Cisco replied. "I think."
Linda glanced at Clark. "What did Mom and Dad say?" she asked.
"Well, Dad wasn't too thrilled about it," Clark answered, "and Mom tried not to appear too worried, but they both said it was up to you."
"What do you think?" Linda asked, glancing at Jimmy.
"You know more about this stuff than I do," he replied. "To be honest, part of me is saying no, but you said you wanted to find out where you'd been," he shrugged, "so, I'll go with whatever you decide to do."
Linda gave him a grateful expression before looking back at Cisco. "Will it hurt?" she asked.
"No," Cisco replied.
"So, why aren't the others out here?" Jimmy asked Clark.
"Too many people watching makes it hard to focus," Cisco answered, "and the last thing you want to be when vibing is distracted." He held out his hand. "So, you ready, Skittles?"
Linda stared at the offered hand, torn. She desperately wanted to know what had happened to her, but there was a part of her that was terrified at what she'd actually find out. She quickly realized that not knowing what her father had done to her—no matter what it turned out to be—scared her the most. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and gingerly took Cisco's offered hand.
Cisco inhaled sharply before flashes of light filled his vision, then quickly vanished as his world was engulfed in deep blue hues. The engineer glanced around, trying to take in his surroundings. His eyebrows furrowed when he realized stood in a large room with stone walls and pillars. Unfamiliar symbols were drawn in various locations, symbols he had never seen before but knew exactly what they were; it quickly dawned on Cisco that he was standing in the middle of the Kawatche caves that Linda had told him about.
Movement caught his attention, and Cisco turned his head in time to see Linda walking toward him from the direction of the entrance. She didn't appear bothered by her burnt and singed clothing as she walked slowly and methodically past Cisco. She approached a section of wall with an octagonal slot surrounded by four rings of symbols and covered the slot with her right palm.
A golden glow emanated from the slot and the surrounding symbols lit up, slowly rotating clockwise. Linda touched a symbol on the second ring from the center; the ring suddenly stopped as the symbol turned from gold to blue. She touched another symbol on the outer ring; it stopped and became bright yellow. When she touched a symbol in the ring between the other two, the ring stopped as the symbol glowed red.
Cisco glanced around as what sounded like gears rotating echoed through the large cavern; he looked back down in time to see rings rotating again until the newly lit symbols lined up at the nine o'clock position and locked into place. A new sound—like a heavy grinding—came from another part of the cave, and Cisco looked over to see another symbol on the upper back wall glow bright white. The wall split at the center of the symbol, and the two halves separated like a pair of sliding doors, revealing a circular chamber behind him. Linda didn't appear fazed as she simply walked toward it.
Cisco followed and stopped just inside the entrance and stared around, his mouth slightly open. While the rest of the cave looked natural, as if the rock had been weathered away over a long time, the new chamber looked like it had been purposefully carved into the rock. It was perfectly round with flawlessly smooth walls covered in more symbols, but Cisco noted these symbols were in perfectly spaced lines (about ten of them) from floor to ceiling encircling the entire room. The floor appeared to be made out of light gray concrete that had been polished until it was smooth as glass; one ring of symbols that matched the ones on the walls encircled the center of the room perfectly.
Cisco looked over as Linda walked to a section of wall near the entrance and raised her left hand, and he saw the octagonal shaped metal disc in her hand. She brought it near the wall and the key flew into slot. A loud click echoed through the chamber before the symbols on the floor lit up with blue light.
Linda calmly walked toward the center of the chamber, stopping in the center of the ring. The symbols glowed brighter before shooting beams of light upward to the ceiling, encasing Linda in a tube of blue energy. There was a flash of bright light, and Cisco reflexively turned his head, closing his eyes. A few moments later, Cisco saw the back of his eyelids darken, and he slowly opened his eyes and turned back, his mouth slightly open in disbelief.
Linda had completely vanished.
Before Cisco could react any further, there was another series of quick flashes. He gasped softly, blinking a few times, and everything returned to normal. He was once again back on the Kent porch with Linda, Jimmy, and Clark, who just stared at him.
"What did you see?" Linda asked, and Cisco could tell she was trying to stay calm.
"I'm not sure," Cisco answered. "You were in the caves."
"I checked the caves," Clark replied, "every inch of that place; Linda wasn't there."
"I know what I saw," Cisco insisted. "Her clothes were singed, but she walked in like nothing was wrong and touched this slot on one of the walls."
"The octagonal slot?" Linda asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
Cisco nodded. "Yeah," he replied, "it opened up this wall in the back part of the cave into some kind of hidden chamber." He paused briefly when he saw their confused expressions. "You didn't know about that?"
"The room, yeah, we know about," Linda answered. "I discovered it a few months ago," she looked troubled, "but the last time the wall opened, I used my key on the slot."
"If you're talking about an octagonal piece of metal," Cisco said, "you did have it with you."
"I did?" Linda asked.
"You must have come here before going to the cave," Jimmy said to Linda.
"But it wasn't there when I checked the caves," Clark added before looking at Cisco. "Are you sure you saw Linda with her key?"
"Look, I'm just telling you what I saw," Cisco replied, trying to stay focused; he had a ton of questions he wanted to ask, but he knew better. "Linda came in, touched the wall, symbols glowed, she touched some of them, and it revealed this hidden room with all these symbols in it. She walked in, put that metal key or whatever it is in a slot near the entrance, and this ring of symbols on the floor lit up with this blue light. She stepped into the ring and was engulfed in the light-and then she was gone."
"Where did she go?" Jimmy asked.
"I don't know," Cisco answered. "That's all I got before the vibe stopped."
Clark glanced at Linda, who still looked troubled. "You okay?" he asked gently.
"Not really," Linda answered bluntly. "We still don't know what happened to me or why I was missing."
"But we have a starting place," Clark said, "and it has something to do with that chamber you found."
"But why didn't anything happen the last time Jimmy and I were there?" Linda asked, "and why didn't I need the key to open it this time?"
"I don't know," Clark replied honestly, "but I'm going to find out." He turned to Cisco. "Do you remember which symbols Linda touched?"
"If this was Klingon," Cisco answered, "piece of cake, but Kryptonese is a little out of my—"
"Passage," Linda interrupted, "Polar, and Stronghold—in that order."
"You remember that?" Jimmy asked, surprised.
"Not really," Linda replied, glancing at Cisco with a guilty expression. "Sorry. I know you really don't like me doing that, but—"
Cisco held up a hand, stopping her. "Look, if it helps us figure out what happened to you," he said, "it's okay." Everyone glanced at Clark as he turned and headed down the stairs, removing his glasses. "Where are you going?"
"To the caves," Clark answered, "try to see if I can get some answers."
"I'm coming with you," Linda said as she followed him.
"Like hell you are," Jimmy spoke up, grabbing Linda's hand, but she ignored him, pulling her hand free before heading down the stairs after her cousin.
"Clark," Linda said.
"Linda, you're not coming," Clark said, turning to face the young girl as she reached him.
"Why not?" Linda asked.
"Because you were missing for ten hours," Clark answered, "and it has something to do with those caves." He spun in a tight circle, changing into his costume. "I'm not letting you go back there until we figure out what happened."
"I'm the only one around here who knows how to work those caves, remember?" Linda said.
"Maybe," Superman replied, "but you're still not coming." Linda opened her mouth, but the hero stopped her. "This is not open for discussion. You're staying here. Do you understand me?" Linda scowled before storming off down the walk and toward the barn, arms crossed. Superman sighed before glancing at Jimmy and Cisco. "Let the others know what's going on. I'll be back as soon as I can." He bent his knees before launching himself into the air, heading upward.
(End of Chapter 5)
