I admit, I did not mean to put this off as long as I did. This occurred for a couple reasons. Two times losing progress, on top the fuck ton of awesome games coming out while trying to balance my internship for my master's. So yeah, it's been a crazy ass semester. I passed my exit exam so I writing this stress free.
ACTUAL RELEVANT STUFF READ TO AVOID CONFUSION: In case it isn't clear, the events of the first chapters shifted this earth in the multiverse, but they don't know that yet. However, I will now label Karry Dark's earth as Earth 0 from now on.
Chapter 5: Attack of the Kryptonians and Foundations
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Earth 0, NCPD headquaters, National City, 0700 hours...
Barry yawned a bit as he walked into the police station, idly watching as his fellow morning shift coworkers were also shuffling tiredly like zombies throughout the building. He was extremely glad he'd taken the time to grab coffee for Ella and himself on the way to work, because speedster or no, coffee is the lifeblood of the working individual. He took a sip greedily, enjoying the taste of the Columbian blend, before making his way to the forensics lab.
After handing Ella her cup, he placed some ear buds in and went to work, making sure to use his powers whenever he could do so without Ella seeing him. He thought back to his date last night with Kara, which had gone amazingly. Much to Barry's embarrassment/delight, they'd fallen asleep watching Futurama reruns, which meant he'd woken up this morning with Kara snoring on top of him. One mild freakout and gentle kiss goodbye later, Barry and Kara both left for work, leading to the present moment. He shook his head a bit, before resuming his work. Unfortunately for Barry, their case load was sparse at the moment, so he'd finished relatively quickly. With nothing better to do, he'd pulled out his phone, and began to browse the news and reply to a few text messages. His text messages from Lucifer were emoji laden, though he could somewhat translate the eccentric man's messages. Something about fun times catching baddies, and annoying Chloe, though the last message seemed like it got cut off. Barry chuckled at the man's antics, before his DEO alert message made his phone go ballistic, ending any amusement Barry was feeling:
ALL DEO AFFILIATES. SUIT UP. MASSIVE KRYPTONIAN ATTACK IN PROGRESS ACROSS CITY.
Barry froze momentarily, before he shot out of the lab and into the main hall of the police station. The floors and people he passed soon gave way to the fire escape to the roof. Pressing his wristwatch, he felt his armor morph on to his body, before he looked out at the city. Smoke and cold winds littered his view.
"Oh man. This is not good at all..."
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Western District, National City...
Four Kryptonians(Two Male, two female) stood laughing in a now ruined city block, reveling in the destruction they'd wrought on the weak humans. The smoke of burning buildings and burning flesh left an acrid smell in the air, and actually made it hard to see the sun with out thick it was. The entire block was either reduced to rubble, wrecked cars, or cinders that scattered across the city streets that were bustling with activity mere moments ago.
They were about to move one, when a rather stretchy man with black hair and goggles landed in front of them, before placing a red haired woman with green skin down beside him. The man had a giant grin on his face, while the woman possessed a slight frown on her pretty face. Both wore black and white form fitting suits which seemed rather durable. The man looked around at the chaos and whistled.
"Well, darn, babe, and here I was hoping we'd be able to go our whole vacation without playing hero." He said jovially, making enlarged comical expressions with his apparently malleable face, prompting the woman to snort lightly. "Come onnnn, you're not mad about the fact we're going to miss the botanical gardens now, are you?"
The red haired woman let out another soft chuckle. "I like plants, okay, leave me alone. You turn yourself into a human balloon, I like to watch plants grow. You married me. You don't get to judge me, Plastic Man."
"I only judge you a little, Poison Ivy, when our garden at home makes those gardens look like some cat ladies roof garden in NYC..." Plastic Man
"Careful now, darling. Keep that flattery up, and we'll get some noise complaints tonight from the hotel staff." Poison Ivy purred at the malleable man beside her, who's face morphed into an exaggerated goofy grin. He then slapped himself to refocus, before narrowing his eyes at the now baffled Kryptonians ahead of them.
"Welp! You heard my lovely and brilliant wife. You're cutting into our vacation time, and that is a SERIOUS no no." He punctuated this by enlarging his right hand into a giant finger wagging gesture. Poison Ivy sighed, before she began subtly using his powers to form plants with knockout toxins around the extremely confused aliens.
"Do you foolish Earthlings truly believe you can stop us? We are Kryptonians." One of the burlier looking aliens stated arrogantly.
Plastic Man nodded sagely. "Mhmm, mhmm. Except for two veeeeeery important things. One? You blocked out your access to the sun. And since you guys haven't even remotely been as creative as Supes with your powers, you're either not used to having them! Meaning my lovely partner gets to do this." Upon finishing, a cloud of pinkish gas blasted them from vines which shot up around them from cracks in the concrete. They gasped and choked, before they fell to the street with sanctimonious thuds. Plastic Man stretched his arm and poked them with a stick he'd found, before his wife smacked him on the back of the head.
"Your antics are equally amusing, endearing, and annoying." She then leaned and kissed his cheek. "My hero~" She said sarcastically as possible, though there was a hint of fondness. She then began walking back towards their hotel.
"Uh, honey, shouldn't we be walking TOWARDS the explosions rather than our hotel?" He asked nervously, before pulling on his suits collar anxiously. He watched his wife pause, before looking back with a wicked enough grin that reminded him that he had in fact, married a former villain.
"This city has enough heroes to handle this without us. To say nothing of the plans I have for you." She finished before chuckling darkly.
Plastic Man felt sweat build up on his brow, before he followed after his wife. It was going to be a long day/night...
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Eastern District, National City...
It was not a good day for Detective Chloe Decker. She'd had to chase down two idiots dumb enough to try purse snatch in front of her, and if that wasn't enough, Lucifer almost insighted another gang war, because 'it would have been amusing.'
And if that alone hadn't been enough reason to write off today, then these blasted aliens decided to attack the city. Lucky for her, Lex Corp and some alphabet government agency had teamed up to outfit most officers across the nation with higher tech equipment more suited to dealing with metas and aliens. Unfortunately for her, her sonic blast pistol ran out of charge twenty two seconds ago, and there were still 4 Kryptonians left standing. She bit her lip in worry as she looked out at the ruined warehouse district by the docks, which was littered with bodies of both aliens and humans, some dead and some not. She was about to about to start praying, when a blur landed in front of her.
"You know, I always wanted to admonish dear old Dad for his little side projects. Though, ironically enough, it was dear old Uriel who convinced him to wipe your slate clean with that whole star imploding." Lucifer's eerily calm voice came from the dust kicked up from his entrance. Chloe's heart soared at seeing her boyfriend and partner. She watched him turn to her slightly, before he offered a small smile, before turning back to fact the remaining hostile aliens.
"Rest easy, Detective, as the cavalry is here. You've done more than your fair share. Please allow me to do mine."
Chloe nodded a bit, too tired to argue with Lucifer at all. He chuckled slightly, before turning back fully towards the aliens.
"Now, I see you have just made a rather awful mistake." She watched as his demonic bat wings ripped through his Armani suit, and he rolled his shoulders a bit. "You were foolish enough to attack this city true...but you were even stupider to attack my lovely little detective. I highly doubt you little aliens have a concept of me in your culture, but...you're about to dance with the Devil." His voice distorted with his divine and demonic powers at the end, before launching himself at speeds that even the Kryptonians couldn't match. Chloe watched as he easily handled beings that should have been on the level of Super Man, and was once again reminded that even in the time of metas and overpowered Aliens, that her boyfriend was still a cut above the rest.
"Oh, come now! Surely you can do better than this! Even dear old awkward Uriel could have handled you all in his sleep!"
Chloe sighed in exasperation at her boyfriend's incessant taunting. He couldn't even fight without annoying people.
"Same old Lucifer." She thought to herself, before kicking back to enjoy the show while waiting for the EMTs to show.
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Central District...
Non and Astra floated above the streets of National City, watching as their followers began the push for establishing their supremacy over the Earthlings. Astra had a frown on her face, clearly wondering if their goals were worth the short term death and destruction being wrought in their name and cause. It clashed with her own beliefs, given her past occupation, to unleash violent criminals on civilians. It left a horrid taste in Astra's mouth, and not for the first time, she felt doubt grip her heart and soul.
However, before she could do anything, her niece and the armored hero with super speed appeared before Non and herself. She had to restrain herself from moving to hug her beloved niece, though there were...differences in her appearance than the last time Kara stood before them. There was a cockiness to Kara's stance that hadn't been there before. As for the speedster, she could tell he was analyzing her husband and herself, from the muffled sounds of an AI reading tactical analysis her enhanced hearing picked up from his helmet.
"Call off your attack dogs and surrender peacefully." Voidrunner drawled at her, before he turned to face her husband. "You, not so much. Please resist. From what I've heard about you, I'd love to punch in your utilitarian face."
Non scoffed in disbelief. "You think yourself equal to me-" Before he could finish, Voidrunner tackled him into a nearby building, cutting off whatever her husband had been about to say.
"And then there were two." Kara commented dryly. "Astra, what happened to you? I can't imagine a woman with a strong sense of justice as you is too different from the one in my universe. So that leads to wonder why you've decided to let murderers and rapists with superpowers run rampant on a city." Astra felt her heart break at the tone of disgust in her niece's voice, though some of what she said set off warning bells.
"What do you mean in your universe?" Astra demanded, the gears in her head turning at a frantic pace at the implications.
"Simple. The original Kara died, and told me to take her place. So I did. However, you've become a pale imitation of the woman you used to be, Aunt Astra."
Astra heart felt like it was pierced with ice, her blood running cold. She sank to her knees amidst the rubble and debris.
"My little Kara...is dead?" She asked weakly, all will to fight gone from her system.
"Well, yes and no. Judging from your reaction, you were as close to her as I was to my Aunt Astra. So if by 'my Kara', you mean the one from this Earth, then yes." Kara explained in a bored manner.
"H-How did she die?" Astra managed to ask, trying to hold herself together until she could grieve properly.
"I'm not telling you anything, unless you surrender yourself to my custody and call for your forces to do the same. Ba- Voidrunner might still struggle with being a bleeding heart, but I have no qualms killing those filthy criminals...including you." Astra shuddered a bit at the cold tone and ruthless attitude displayed by her niece's doppelganger. Seeing her kindhearted niece's face saying something so callous made her uncomfortable. "So what will it be, Aunt Astra?"
Astra said nothing, but paused. Could she actually fight and possibly kill her beloved niece for a goal she found herself increasingly disillusioned with? She thought back to every moment she had felt sickened by the actions taken by Non and herself in the name of 'greater good for Kryptonians'? If bettering or recreating a dead society required the subjugation of another intelligent species, was it truly worth doing?
'No', Astra thought. 'I will not sell out on my ideals again and lose my niece in the process.'
She knew what she had to do. Looking her niece in the eye, Astra felt more at peace than she had in years.
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Elsewhere, with Barry and Non...
Barry threw the Kryptonian man into the ground as he came to a few miles outside the city. The barren landscape was a stark contrast usually bustling city streets that had been devastated mere moments ago. There was an deceptively calm breeze rustling through the plains, with a few tumbleweeds blowing between Non and himself. The Kryptonian glared at him, eyes glowing red with energy and anger.
"You dare lay your hands on me, human? You should know your place." The husband of Astra ground out, teeth gritted in indignation.
Barry tiled his armored head, before rolling his shoulders under the armor.
"Never understood Kryptonian arrogance. Yes, you're strong as hell comparatively, but there's literally multiple ways to make you no different than us 'filthy humans'." Barry commented casually, before willing the dark speedforce energy to coalesce and arc around him. "I mean, I have a red sun radiation blaster and a vial of kryptonite in my suit. Don't worry though, I don't plan on using them. I'm going to crush your power with mine."
Non could do nothing as Voidrunner was instantly in his face, slamming hits into the alien's abdomen. After a few more calculated hits on vital spots, Barry threw his shoulder into Non's solar plexus, before then flinging the man over his shoulder at high speed.
This trend continued for a few minutes, before Non acclimated to fighting a faster opponent. Non smashed his fist into Barry's helmet, jarring him, before kneeing him upwards into the sky, following closely.
"You can't do a thing if you can't run, speedster!" Non yelled in triumph, though it fell flat as Barry grabbed Non's hand before it hit him again, before spinning them rapidly towards the ground like a certain anime ninja with a bowl cut. "No no no no NO-"
The man's cries were silenced as he impacted the ground at extreme speed. Barry skid to a halt a few feet away, none the worse for wear. He sighed a bit, before ensuring the Kryptonian was unconscious using his suit's scanner. He was about to move to pull the unconscious man out of the ground when his comms went open.
"Barry, this is Hank. Your vital readings are returning to normal, so I assume you took out Non." The voice of head of the DEO chimed in his ear.
"Correct, Hank. I'm about to run him to you guys before heading back to clean up the rest of the Rozz escapees." Barry said as he pulled the Kryptonian villain out of the ground like a vegetable.
"There won't be as many left as your assuming. Apparently some other super heroes were on vacation and decided to lend a hand. They did not, however, stick around. I did feel it prudent to send them an invitation to join us at our HQ in two days, though."
"A lucky coincidence then. Anyways, I'll leave Non at the entrance with the Kryptonite cuffs. After that, I'm going to go check on Lucifer and Chloe. I need to make sure they're okay."
"Solid copy. I'll debrief you when you finish. Hank out."
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Eastern District...
The scene that greeted Barry as he arrived at Detective Decker's location was rather baffling. The block was destroyed like a a fight had gone down between heroes and villains, in addition to use of anti-Kryptonian weapons. As he was surveying the surroundings, he spotted the esteemed detective. However, it was who she was with that made him freeze. Chloe was hugging a red skinned man with bat wings, with several unconscious aliens scattered around them. He walked up to them slowly, before clearing his throat.
"Detective Decker. I was making my rounds through the city to clean up the remaining villains. Are you and your...friend okay?" He really hoped she wasn't cheating on Lucifer. He liked them both too much.
"Oh, I assure you, Mr. Scary Armor, that these miscreants posed almost zero threat to someone as myself." The demonic looking man answered, which made Barry freeze. It couldn't be.
"Wait. Lucifer? You're a meta?" Barry asked tentatively, forgetting he was still wearing a mask.
"If you're implying I'm merely a flimsy human with powers, I am slightly offended." Lucifer replied indignantly.
Chloe, however, was on edge. "How do you know his name, Voidrunner? You two have never met, in his normal form or this! Who are you?" She demanded quickly, becoming defensive at a potential threat to her boyfriend and partner.
Barry weighed his options, before sighing. He reached up to his left ear, and pressed the button behind where it would be. He watched his HUD power off before the visor retracted and opened, revealing his face to the demonic looking Lucifer and frazzled Chloe.
"Hello, Lucifer, Chloe. I guess we have a lot to talk about."He commented dryly., a sheepish expression on his face.
Chloe's jaw dropped and Lucifer just clapped excitedly. Things were about to get interesting...
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To be continued...
So sorry for the repeated delays guys. I lost progress so many times that it killed my motivation for a while. Luckily, I am somewhat inspired to write again, though with my classes back in session I'm not sure how sporadic my writing will be. Hope you like the chapter.
Raizen out.