Kara Zor-El, the last daughter of Krypton and adopted Hero of Earth put in a final stupendous effort and pushed the hulking mass of alien metal that was Fort Roz out of the planets atmosphere even as she felt the last of her breath leave her.
Being Kryptonian her lung capacity was tremendous and she could hold her breath for hours on end enabling her and her cousin to survive under water, underground or indeed in outer space for hours before needing to breath again. But lifting a million ton prison tended to knock the wind out of even superhuman lungs. So even as she managed to save the Earth from Myriad she could already feel her lungs constricting as the last of her air escaped. She turned listlessly towards her adopted home wanting to cry out in pain and anger and deep sadness but all came out a single gasp of breath and her eyes started to close...
Until off in the distance she saw something making its way towards her...
Her space ship... The pod she had arrived in! Was making its way towards her and inside she could see her sister. Alex! She had come for her! She drew closer and Kara willed herself to hold on, because while National City and indeed today, the entire world had looked to her as their hero, she looked on Alex as hers because her sister had once again done the impossible and saved her.
As Alex grew closer still a niggling thought entered Karas mind. She was Kryptonian, hence the harsh emptiness of space did little to nothing to her, but if Alex were to open the pod to let her in, she would get sucked out and space would rip her sister apart.
Supergirl started frantically shaking her head then willing her sister to go back and not risk her life like this. She knew what the older woman was thinking; it didn't matter to Alex if she died, what mattered was Kara not die.
Space did not allow her to convey her message and so the craft drew nearer. But then there was a blast so loud that she could almost hear it all the way up here. Instantly her mind was assaulted by images of a short, long haired man strapped in what looked like a hospital bed with blood streaming out from under a weird visor covering his eyes as his body contorted in pain.
Then their was a rushing sound and she could barely believe what she was seeing. A man in an iron suit was flying effortlessly towards them. There were drops of icicles on his suit that even now were melting off of him.
She would have screamed if she was standing on firm ground but all she could do was stare as the iron suited man closed in on her, latched a hand around her middle and with a blast from leg thrusters shot back down towards the Earth with Alex in her pod following them closely.
Tony Stark had arrived in Sacramento on Stark Industries business, now that Pepper had stepped down from her position as CEO and their relationship was pretty much in shambles he had to handle the day to day with the help of Friday. Considering the fallout between him and Cap a couple months back and the Captain going rogue it did nothing much for his stress levels to sit in on board meetings for hours on end.
Finally fed up of the constant blathering from idiots who ran this branch of his company he called for his suit which assembled around him in ten seconds flat while he was sitting. He needed to tweak that; ten seconds was way too long.
Without waiting for a command Friday opened the full sized window behind him and he activated his thrusters taking the chair with him and flying out of the meeting room leaving two circular burn marks on the side of the table where he was sitting.
For the fun of it he headed straight up passing Mach 2 and breaking the sound barrier in two seconds flat, that needed fixing as well. As he reach the inner atmosphere though his suit picked up another boom and immediately his vision started to go haywire as the suit started giving diagnostic readings. He blinked twice as he looked at his HUD. According to Friday he was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! He glanced down reflexively to check and sure enough solid skyscrapers and highways greeted his sight. Holding back a sigh at something else that needed fixing he ignored his AI who was showing her concern at him apparently being teleported from the city to the sea.
Tony ordered Friday to hack into the nearest satellite and triangulate his correct location only to have the AI report that the Satellite was monitoring an alien space ship floating above orbit detecting two life signs one inside the ship and one outside.
He put all the power in the thrusters and asked Friday for a visual. Seconds later a grainy image filled up his visor and his eyes widened as he took the scene in. Thank god he had took the time to modify his suits for temporary space exploration after his first foray into the Final Frontier.
"Friday give me full speed and track the signal from the satellite, I want to know what we're dealing with."
Friday didn't respond but Tony knew she was hard at work already. In five minutes time he was nearing the space ship; which was more of a pod really and he approached the floating blonde in the red and blue outfit only to catch a glimpse of the woman piloting the pod.
Her eyed widened as she caught a glimpse of him and he immediately detected her distrust of him. Friday decided just then to chime in.
"Mr Stark, I traced the signal back to its origin and it appears to originate from a location marked as the DEO. My database tells me that this is a government sanction covert ops organization that deals with the monitoring and apprehending of Extraterrestrial Organisms."
"DEO?" he asked the AI. "The hell is that? And why haven't I heard of it till now?"
"This information is part of a multitude of Intel that has only just surfaced following a loud sound of explosion heard by all. It appears sir that four times the data that was readily available has appeared on servers a cross the world a lot of it is duplicate data and has been discarded but the new intel has already integrated into the system flawlessly as if it was always there... "
The AI trailed off leaving Tony confused which was not a state of being he was used to. But he didn't have much time to ruminate as he was soon upon the drifting craft and girl. He glanced momentarily at the pod before grabbing the now unconscious blonde and shooting off his thrusters land ward well aware that the pod was following him.
"Sir it appears that the landscape has changed since you took off last."
"What?!" asked Tony slowly descending as to not hurt his non suited cargo with the pressure changes. "What do you mean the landscape has changed? How can Sacramento suddenly change?"
"Sacramento still remains sir, but somehow it has been moved approximately 450miles East of here. The city that is below, according to GPS, is named National City."
"National...? What the fuck? The hell kind of name for a city is that? Moreover how does a city just pop into existence out of nowhere?"
"I'm afraid I can't answer that, sir. What I can tell you is that this is not an isolated incident, according to the latest geographical maps from Stark Industries own satellites there are at least six more new cities that have appeared aside from the one below us. Metropolis, Gotham, Central, Starling, Opal and Coast City, sir."
Tony glanced down at his still unconscious young charge and shook his head.
"The fuck is going on?"
Tony finally reached safe flight pressures passing under the cloud cover a very large city underneath him instead of Sacramento as he had left it. He circled for a moment and spied the tallest building with a helipad. A building marked with the words C. A. T. fit and he headed for it landing smoothly he lay the girl down and asked Friday to run diagnostics.
Seconds later the pod landed and the cockpit opened to reveal a lean brunette with short cropped hair dressed in a suit similar to SHIELD Agent attire except unmarked. She exited the craft swiftly. She also exited with a gun.
"Step away from her." she ordered training the weapon right between his eyes.
"Friday run a search for her," He said not turning on external speakers. Then he spoke to the woman. "Relax I mean no harm."
"Who or what are you?" She asked concisely her gun arm not wavering an inch.
"I'm Ironman ." He replied confidently.
"Who." She asked still steady.
"Ironman?Tony Stark? Do you really not know who I am." He flipped his visor revealing his face causing the woman to actually tighten her grip on the gun.
"Mr Stark. She is named Alex Danvers, A DEO Agent daughter of Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers." Friday spoke finally into his ear. "Her information is part of the new Intel we just gained."
"Hmm. I guess she really doesn't know who I am." He muttered. "Listen," He started louder this time trying to step closer to Danvers.
"No you listen," Alex replied menacingly. "How much you wanna bet that I can get a round through your skull before you have time to pull that helmet back on?"
Tony went completely still. She had a point; he was pretty sure he could lift his hand to cover his face before she let off a shot but he didn't want to risk it. Danvers looked like she meant business the unconscious girl was obviously important to her.
He put his hands up and backed the hell away allowing Danvers to run to the blonde. "You know you're making a big mistake, the chances of her surviving in the outer atmosphere with absolutely no protective gear is virtually non existent but I scanned her earlier and her vitals are stable. In that case I'm your best hope because can get her help faster.
"I don't need or want your help," she replied caustically weapon still trained on him while she checked the blondes vitals. "Kara. Kara, please wake up. Come on Kara wake up." She tapped Karas cheek a few times to no avail. Tony saw that she was withholding tears. She whipped out her phone. "Hank. Kara's not responding send Evac ASAP." She cut off the call and finally let the gun fall and Tony activated a magnetic field similar to the one he had fitted on Caps gloves and the gun soared through the air and into his hand.
Alex startled but Tony opened his palm charging up the repulser and pointing at the Agent. "Uh uh uh," He tutted. "Don't move. And don't reach for that back up behind your back. Or the one on your ankle. Or the knife. Damn woman you're a walking armory. Anyway don't reach for any of those." He nodded at the suit. "Friday?" and the armor dismantled and formed around Tony in seconds. "See? I could have done that before, and believe me I didn't need my helmet to deflect your bullet from before. I need you to calm yourself and listen to me rationally. And no I'm not going to hand you you weapon back as a display of trust. I'm not the Cap and neither am I stupid. This girl is hurt. She's obviously about to die and I'm the only one who can get her where you want to take her the fastest. I don't need you to trust me. Just trust yourself, your instincts, your obviously highly trained, do you really think me a threat?"
Alex scowled at him. "I don't trust anyone but myself when it comes to Kara, because I'm the only one who puts her safety first."
"Right. And now the safest and fastest option you have here is me. Does this Hank guy have something that can travel faster than sound? I can."
Alex was now very conflicted and Kara was still not responding. "You don't know where you're going..." she tried.
"Friday," He said again and the AI gave him directions to the DEO headquarters. "The DEO headquarters?" he said to Alex. "And I'm assuming this Hank is Hank Henshaw? The Director of the National City Branch?" She reluctantly nodded. "Tell them to update their firewall," He muttered swooping down to scoop up the unconscious Supergirl now with an unresisting Alex Danvers looking on. "See you there." And off he flew towards the DEO a sonic boom sounding two seconds into his flight.
* * *
Barry carried Cisco in his arms and flashed as fast as he could to Joe's house. He set Cisco down on the couch and snatched up the home phone to dial Caitlins number willing for her to pick up.
Tears streamed down his eyes as he ripped of his mask and stared down at his friend and the damage he had caused knowing full well that whether he managed to reach Cait or not his friend might never be the same again.