Chapter 66: Inversion

"Green Arrow and Black Canary are en route." Green Arrow commed to the rest of his team, as he and Black Canary sped through the streets of Starling City on his motorcycle.

"Supergirl and Vixen are in position." Vixen answered back.

"What's the situation?" Canary asked, also activating her comm.

There was a brief amount of static, and then… "Nothing so far." Vixen reported. "The ship is just floating there."

"Maintain your position, and do not engage unless they attack first. It's most likely a trap." Arrow ordered.

"Understood. Vixen out."

As the telltale static of a cut connection rang through their ears, Canary leaned over a bit closer to her partner's ear. "What do you think they're planning?"

"Nothing good." Arrow growled back. "That ship is here for a reason. What that reason is, I'm sure we're not going to like."

The pair of vigilantes arrived to the ship's site — a field just outside of Starling City. Both Supergirl and Vixen were already present, standing a little way's off from the ship itself, prepared to move if it decided to attack the city. Green Arrow parked his motorcycle next to them, but remain seated, while Black Canary got off and drew her new tonfas, specially-designed by Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon with a small device that allowed her to run an electric current through them. Combined with some special gloves, they would make effective weapons against the Dominator threat.

"Nothing yet?" Arrow asked Vixen, who shook her head.

Canary frowned. "What are they waiting for?"

As if to answer her question, the ship unleashed a beam onto the ground below. The vigilantes immediately prepared themselves for combat, only to falter slightly when they saw that all the beam did was float down some kind of device — a tall, metallic structure with a red, glowing orb in the center. The ship then flew off, disappearing from view.

Vixen blinked. "What just happened? Weren't they here to fight?"

"I guess not." Supergirl shrugged. "I wonder what kind of device that is."

"Something dangerous." Arrow grunted. "No one goes near it for now. I'll call in A.R.G.U.S. and they can bring in some special equipment to move it."

Before he could, however, a beam shot out of the device, hitting Supergirl. Vixen and Black Canary jumped back, while Green Arrow swung on the back of his motorcycle, ready to let it rip at a moment's notice. "Supergirl!"

Supergirl didn't reply. Instead, she glared at them all silently, then fired her heat vision. Green Arrow barely managed to dodge by driving out of the way, while Vixen and Black Canary dived to the side.

"What the—Kara! What are you doing?" Canary demanded, briefly slipping into using her teammate's civilian name. Instead of answering, she shot another blast of heat vision, flying high up into the sky. Canary ducked, rolling out of the way.

After seeing that, Vixen didn't hesitate. Pressing two fingers to her totem, the silhouette of hawk appeared around her. Using her arms to simulate the wings, she flew upwards higher than even Supergirl, then allowed herself to drop, catching the Kryptonian unaware from behind. She clutched her friend into a bear hug, the silhouette of an anaconda wrapping around her.

As Supergirl struggled for a bit, Canary turned to Arrow. "Do you think it's the device?"

Arrow nodded. "Has to be. It must be one of those mind control devices that J'onn spoke about." Without another word, he notched one of his explosive arrows and fired. The arrow embedding itself into the red core before blowing, but when the smoke cleared, there was no damage, much to both Canary and Arrow's horror.

A second later, Vixen landed (read: thrown) onto the ground next to them, worse for wear with some faint bruises on her. Supergirl made another swipe for the three of them, but Arrow firing another arrow, this time with a green arrowhead, stopped her. It pierced her shoulder, causing her to collapse to the ground in pain.

Canary gasped. "Did you use a Kryptonite arrow?"

"Yes." Arrow growled, though it wasn't directed at her. "It was precaution in case she was ever put under some kind of mind control and we needed to stop her before she did too much damage. This definitely falls under that category."

"It won't… hold her… for long..." Vixen stilted out.

"She's right." Arrow agreed. "We need to do something about the device."

Knowing the severity of the situation, Black Canary looked down at her tonfa, then at the metal structure. Making a quick decision, she flicked on the electrifier on one of the tonfa and rushed towards the device. From behind her, Supergirl had finally gotten the Kryptonite arrow out of her body and was about to charge her until Vixen, with a burst of adrenaline, bum-rushed her, this time with the projection of a gorilla around her. Green Arrow readied another Kryptonite arrow, just in case.

Once she arrived to the device, Canary jammed her electric tonfa into one of the metal junctures, making sure that the electrifier was on its highest setting. Noticing the current beginning to run through the metal, she quickly ran away, plugging her ears.

"GET DOWN!" She screamed to her teammates.

Arrow followed her instructions immediately. Supergirl threw Vixen off her and was about to charge at Canary again, when the device exploded. The electric current from Black Canary's tonfas had supercharged the energy cell inside, overheating it and causing it to blow. Almost immediately afterwards, Supergirl collapsed to her knees, grabbing her head.

"What happened?" She asked groggily.

"How did you all not die?" Kara demanded. She was seated in one of the infirmary rooms, on a bed. In front of her was J'onn, who had his hands on her temples, scanning her mind to make sure there was no lingering taint of the mind control used on her.

After the incident with the ship in Starling, everyone had forgone the Foundry for the local A.R.G.U.S. base. Unlike the rest of the Justice League, J'onn had not been deployed to Central or to Starling, remaining in Hub City or in the A.R.G.U.S. bases, helping parse through the Dominators' transmissions. He wasn't quite ready to face the destroyers of his people quite yet, despite being the planet's foremost expert on them. Once he had been made aware of what happened to Kara, he had insisted on checking her over just in case they had implanted any suggestions or triggers in her mind.

"I honestly don't know." Oliver admitted. "You should've been able to kill us instantly. Instead, for whatever reason, you were fighting far less than your full capacity; it almost seemed as if you didn't know how to use your own body."

"When the Dominators used such devices against my people," Everyone, startled, turned to J'onn, who was still scanning Kara's mind, "they would activate the device themselves by touching the orb in the center. The Dominators are telepathic like I am, but they cannot control another's mind by themselves. They need the devices they designed as an intermediary; that is, the device controls the mind while the Dominators use their own abilities to amplify its effects."

Laurel blinked. "There wasn't a Dominator to activate the device. It did that on its own. Does that mean that they didn't have full control over Kara's mind?"

"Possibly. Mind control comes in many different forms. Implanting suggestions and triggers, modifying or inverting a person's state of mind, but it seems the Dominators prefer the crude approach of overriding a person's thought processes entirely. Expedient, but if not done right you hamper the person's ability to act in whatever fashion you wish for them to act in an effective manner."

Mari raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

J'onn shrugged. "When you override a person's thought processes, they can't act on their own. You need to give them orders, as if you were playing a video game. And if you override their thought processes to the point that they can't even move without you giving orders, that's even worse — you have to manipulate them like they were puppets on a string, and we all know that puppets aren't for much movement beyond being jerked around. By the looks of it, the lack of a Dominator's presence meant Kara got the latter option, with the machine holding the strings. And no matter how advanced a machine is —"

"—it's still a machine." Oliver finished for him, eyes narrowed. "Why didn't they leave someone behind to man it for them? Why just the device? And why only Kara? They could've easily had someone activate it and mind control all of us before having the ship beam them away."

"Perhaps it was a distraction?" Mari suggested, but Laurel shook her head.

"Maybe, but if that were the case they would've done a better job with it. Even though it was Kara, we subdued her fast enough that anything they could've tried during that time frame we would've been able to react to immediately." The lawyer explained.

Kara frowned. "Then what other reason could there be?"

"Reconnaissance." Oliver snapped his fingers, a figurative light bulb over his head. "From the transcriptions of the most recent intercepted transmissions, while they've determined that Earth has metahumans and alien refugees, they've only been able to identify them as possible threats. They want to see who else might pose threat against their plan, even if they don't have anywhere near the amount of power you three have."

Laurel's eyes widened in realization. "They were looking for baseline humans that might resist, those who would know more than others. People that would rally the rest of the population into standing next to metahumans and alien refugees to resist the oncoming invasion." She turned to her boyfriend, making deliberate eye contact with him. The message was simple: They were looking for us.

Oliver grimly nodded. "We need to send word to Amanda. We'll have to continue monitoring the transmissions, but I think this confirms our worst fear: the Dominators are planning a worldwide invasion, not just on Starling or Central or even the United States. The rest of the planet needs to prepare."

"Hello, people of the world. We are the Department of Extraterrestrial Operations, a worldwide organization dedicated regulating the activities of extraterrestrial beings, better known as 'aliens', here on Earth."

"As you are no doubt aware, there have been two attacks on the west coast of the United States in the last twenty-four hours; the first on Central City, and the second on Starling City. These attacks were performed by a race of alien invaders called the Dominators, who have wreaked chaos and destruction across countless planets, eliminating any races who are advanced enough to be considered a threat to them."

"We first learned about them from a survivor of one their purges. You might know of him as the Martian Manhunter, a member of the Justice League and the vigilante protector of Hub City. After the destruction of Mars, Martian Manhunter managed to escape here to Earth, and made a new life here, with us humans. While he grew increasingly fond of us and his new home here on Earth, he could never shake the feeling that the Dominators would come here as our society continued to advance."

"As such, he revealed his existence to us and warned us of this threat. Since then, we have secretly and diligently prepared for this day, and it seems to have come. All the governments of the world have already been informed of the situation, and the decision is unanimous — we, the human race, and others that have made this planet their home, are at war."

"As of right now, all law enforcement and military around the world have officially been drafted. Trucks containing hardware specifically designed to combat the Dominators are being shuttled to every major population center in the world. We are sending our agents to give you a crash course in their use, along with combat exercises to prepare."

The message continued from there, detailing logistics of the newly created worldwide-spanning army, before continuing on to the civilian populace's own responsibilities. Barry tapped his fingers against the railing of the Cortex's control center, humming thoughtfully. Next to him, Jefferson watched with rapt attention.

"The best lies really are mixed with truth." He muttered thoughtfully. "Though creating another alphabet agency to limit A.R.G.U.S.'s exposure is next level."

Barry shrugged. "Theatricality is deception. It's why the best acting performances are those that come from the soul."

"Do you think this will work?"

"Maybe. We do need the numbers, and it's better than having unprepared screaming civilians around hampering our efforts to combat the Dominators. I'm just worried about what comes afterwards."

Jefferson adopted a flat look. "Ah, yes. The recent injection of military hardware onto the streets."

"Yeah, there's no way that's not going to haunt us when this is over." Barry winced.

Ring! Ring!

"I think that's you." Jefferson noted, looking over his own phone and finding it unresponsive.

Barry sighed, then took his phone out, clicking the call button without even bothering to glance at the caller ID. "This is Barry Allen. I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be talking to me right now and instead should be watching the TV. Alien invasion and all that."

"How long have you known?"

At the sound of that familiar voice, Barry immediately stood straight, slightly stunned.

"Iris?"

"Yes, Barry, Iris." Iris snarked into her phone. After the announcement began and mentioned the Martian Manhunter, she had snuck away and hid herself into a secluded room. Thankfully, she still had that anti-eavesdropping technology from the Amunet case, preventing the rest of precinct (most notably Eddie), from listening in. "How long has the Justice League known about the invasion?"

"What makes you think we knew?"

"Other than the fact that Martian Manhunter is one of your members?" She pointed out snidely. "You guys went into a recruitment drive all of a sudden despite having shown no interest in new members during your debut, starting with Black Lightning and ending with Laurel — yes, Barry, I know Black Canary is Laurel, once she and Oliver went public with their relationship it wasn't hard to figure out — and after that you guys became far more active with your team-ups. It's not like you guys didn't team up often before, but now it seems the seven of you unite and stop some city-wide threat in a different corner of the world every week, even when it could be handled by just two or three of you. It's like you all were training for something."

"Not to mention, several members of the Justice League were present at both attacks, as if they were expecting it. That cannot be a coincidence, because there is no such thing as coincidences when it comes to you guys. So, tell me — how long have you guys known about this invasion?"

There was a period of silence on the other end of the line, finally broken by Barry's amused laughter. "You're so smart, Iris — and correct. We've known about the upcoming invasion for about nine months now. I can't give you the specifics, but just know that we've been preparing for this, and we're going to be on the front line when the time comes."

Iris blinked. "Great. That's great. That's very reassuring." She responded, taking a deep breath.

"… You plan on fighting, don't you?"

"I am in law enforcement Barry, and they'll need everyone they can get. It's just… it's a lot to take in."

"I understand completely. We've been preparing for this for months and even now, I still have some doubts." He paused. "We'll just have to do our best, won't we?"

"Yeah. And we will." Iris sighed, then allowed a tentative smile to form on her face. "Good luck out there, Barry."

"… Good luck to you too, Iris."

"The world has gotten so weird these last two years." Tommy commented to himself as the announcement continued to play on the television. He the let out a huff, looking at the empty bedside to his left, before looking down at his phone. Where was Isabel? He had left numerous messages already, and she wasn't answering. It couldn't take that long to check out a derelict building in the worst part of town. Perhaps something had come up at the office?

He looked back at the TV. The channel was replaying the announcement. Deciding that he had already heard and memorized the important points, Tommy ran down to the kitchen. Most of the staff had gone home for the night, so it was him to sate his appetite. He was rifling through the fridge for a soda, having already grabbed a bag of popcorn kernels from the pantry, when he heard the telltale sound of the doorbell. Grabbing the soda and laying it next to the popcorn on the kitchen countertop, he walked to the front door as the doorbell continued to ring.

He opened it… and adopted a neutral look. "Detective Lance. Detective Hilton."

An oddly-morose Quentin gulped slightly, while a similar-looking Hilton simply nodded. "Tommy." The father of his former friend/crush said hesitantly.

"If this is about my father—" Tommy began, looking slightly annoyed.

"No." Quentin interrupted him. "No, this isn't about your father, Tommy."

Tommy frowned. "Then what is this about?"

The detectives exchanged looks.

The soda and popcorn were left forgotten for the rest of the night. When the maids arrived, one of them tossed both into the trash.

Poor Tommy. And yes, I wrote that scene to deliberately mirror the one where Malcolm found out Rebecca was dead. The parallels continue.

In other news, the D.E.O. does exist — as a cover for A.R.G.U.S. Though, after this, chances are it will be made real as another part of the organization. Who knows?

As for the reconnaissance thing, it's deliberate. In canon, the Dominators singled out Barry for creating Flashpoint. However, Barry did not create Flashpoint in this timeline (and never will), so other than Kara and J'onn, they don't know anyone else who would really stand out as a threat. Those attacks were basically to suss out the Justice League and determine which of them were the 'weak links', so to speak.

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