Disclaimer: I do not own Daredevil, Arrow or anything else you may recognize
Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.
Guest: Thanks for the review. Glad you're loving my rewrite. The mystery of the speedster will be revealed in this chapter.
Chapter 6- Doppelgangers
"You're kidding me", Curtis said to Felicity on the video chat, "Are you kidding me? This feels like a really bad wedding prank."
"No, I wish", Felicity said.
"You want us to come, then?" Curtis asked, "Dinah, Rene, and I can be up there in a- what's another word for "Flash"?"
"No", Felicity immediately vetoed the idea, "We need you guys in the bunker, expanding our search for the Earth-Xers. I linked S.T.A.R. Labs' system up with ours so you can know what's going on as we do."
"Copy that", Curtis said with a smile, "I will get to work on hacking Palmer Tech's spectrometers-heh- to help the search for Nazis."
"Not Nazis. Hydra", Felicity corrected before waving her hand, "See you soon."
The video chat was then cut.
Oliver was standing quietly on a corner.
"Hey", Laurel said as she walked up to him, "Caitlin and Wells are trying to find these Earth-Xers using some sort of dimensional vibrations."
"Sounds complicated", Oliver joked.
"Are you all right?" Laurel asked concerned.
"Are you?" Oliver asked, "And what about Thea?"
"Well, she's better right now than she was when 'not Tommy' killed himself", Laurel said and Oliver sighed in relief.
Oliver said, "I know it's not really Tommy but-"
"It's still hard", Laurel said, "I know. He died on my Earth too when the Particle Accelerator exploded."
"I'm sorry", Oliver said.
"I'm sorry too", she said.
The two hugged each other to offer some comfort.
Later, Oliver and Laurel walked into the main lab.
"What's going on?" Oliver asked.
"Our Hydra friends broke into Dayton Optical Systems", Felicity said and showed them a video of Darkdevil leading some Hydra soldiers into the building, cutting down the security guards.
"All right", Barry said, "Let's head out."
"Only you, me and Kara", Oliver announced to everyone's shock.
Sara tried to protest, "But Ollie-"
"This could be a trap", Oliver said, "So all of us going there is not the best idea."
Laurel and Sara nodded as they understood his reasoning.
"Okay", Barry said.
"Let's go", Kara said.
Later, Kara landed on the ground and Barry sped up next to her. Barry looked at her as she straightened and then shrugged.
The two then waited for a while as Kara whistled. That moment, Oliver arrived, riding on his motorcycle. He pulled over near them and got off.
"Just a reminder", he said in an annoyed tone, "Super speed- I don't have it."
"Noted", Barry and Kara said simultaneously and they moved towards the building.
"So what do we know about this place?" Barry asked, "Why are the Earth-Xers targeting it?"
A distorted voice then spoke up, "Because-"
The trio stopped as they saw Dark Arrow, Overgirl and the speedster walking towards them, the speedster carrying a device in a glass cube.
As he put it down, Dark Arrow finished his sentence, "They had something we need."
Green Arrow began, "Whatever you stole-"
"Well, we're gonna want it back", Flash finished.
"Your confidence is predictable", Dark Arrow said scornfully, "You've faced some of the greatest evils known to man and you've defeated them. But if you think so highly of yourself that you can defeat every threat that comes your way-"
He then pressed a button and to the trio's shock, the mask of Dark Arrow and Overgirl faded away along with the device on the speedster's face who had now taken off his mask.
"How do you feel about us?" Dark Arrow asked smugly.
"Not again", Barry groaned as he saw the speedster looking at him with his own face, a smug smile on his face.
The three were taken aback by the fact that these people were their doppelgangers.
"This is sick", Oliver muttered as he stared at his doppelganger.
"To look at your reflection and see only weakness?" Dark Arrow asked rhetorically, "I agree."
Barry looked at the speedster. While he looked exactly like him, there was something familiar about his stare.
"Hello, Barry", the speedster said with a smirk, "It's been a while."
"Who are you?" Barry asked.
"Oh Barry, always so clueless", the speedster said, "Like I said, I'm always one step ahead."
Barry couldn't believe it.
"Thawne?" he gasped in shock.
"Yes", Thawne said with a smirk and did gestures with his hands, "Direct from Earth-1."
"But the Legends said you were destroyed", Barry said in disbelief.
"Oh, those insolent fools", Thawne muttered, "I wasn't destroyed. I was trapped back inside the Speed Force with no hope of escaping."
"Well then", Barry asked, "What happened? How did you get out?"
"The credit for that, my friend", Thawne said, "Goes to your team. When they were getting you out of the Speed Force to fight the samuroid, I escaped too."
Barry's eyes widened in horror on hearing that. Because of him and his friends, his worst foe was out and killing again.
"Then", Thawne said, "I escaped to Earth-X and took the face of your Earth-X version. Do you like it?"
"You're twisted", Barry said angrily.
"I thought to put it on to show you that not all evil versions of you look like a half-baked pizza", Thawne joked with a smirk and then gestured to his face, "Plus, young and handsome."
"Tommy killed himself", Oliver informed Dark Arrow.
"I heard your Tommy died years ago", Dark Arrow said to their shock, "That's what this earth does. It makes people soft."
"We've been watching you", Overgirl said, "We've been watching all of you and how you've squandered the potential of your worlds. On our earth, we've developed a meritocracy. We've accomplished greatness."
"You're perverse", Kara said in horror and disgust.
"No, Kara, you're the perversion", Overgirl told her scornfully with disgust, "The most powerful being on the planet rendered weak by saccharine Americana?"
She then chuckled and said, "My pod was blessed to crash in the Empire."
"Then go back there", Barry said.
"This is not your earth", Oliver snarled, "Leave."
"I don't answer to the likes of you", Dark Arrow sneered with contempt in his voice, "My allegiance is to the Empire and to my wife."
As he said that, he exchanged a look with Overgirl.
"His wife?" Kara said in disgust as she realized the relationship between her and Oliver's doppelgangers, "Gross!"
Turning to Oliver, she said, "No offense."
"None taken", he assured her.
Turning to the Earth-X trio, Oliver then said, "Last chance. Go home."
"And stay there", Kara added.
"All of you", Barry finished.
Thawne cracked his neck and putting his mask back on, sped towards Barry. Barry rushed him and the two started running around, fighting.
Oliver aimed an arrow at Overgirl.
"And what do you think that's going to do?" Overgirl asked him mockingly, "Bullets bounce off of me."
"Oh, this arrow won't", Oliver retorted confidently and fired.
As the arrow flew towards Overgirl, its lead casing fell away, revealing a green arrowhead. It hit Overgirl on the shoulder and embedded into it. She winced in pain and staggered back, her eyes full of pain and surprise.
"Is that a kryptonite arrow? Why do you have a kryptonite arrow?" a startled Kara demanded.
"In case an evil you ever showed up!" Oliver justified.
Overgirl pulled out the arrow and leapt into the air to throw it at Oliver. Kara stepped in the way and used her super breath. The powerful wind sent Overgirl back by a few feet. She crashed through some glass as Dark Arrow ran to support her.
Barry was thrown to the ground by Thawne.
"Get the prism out of here!" Dark Arrow told him. Thawne quickly complied and sped away.
Dark Arrow supported Overgirl and asked in concern, "Are you all right?"
"I'm pissed!" she growled as he helped her to her feet.
"Well, take it out on that", Dark Arrow said as the two looked at an unfinished construction site.
Overgirl smirked and fired her heat vision. It damaged the structure enough to make it collapse.
Oliver and Kara heard the terrified screams of the construction workers. Kara flew up to the construction site.
Oliver helped Barry up and the two looked at the construction site.
"It's gonna fall", a horrified Barry said.
"All right, get me over there", Oliver commanded and Barry complied as he grabbed Oliver and sped over to the construction site while Kara flew towards it.
Kara grabbed a falling beam and held it in position while commanding, "Get the workers to safety!"
She then fired her heat vision to re-weld the beams into the structure while Barry sped around and saved the workers.
He then sped up and stood on a beam.
"We need to stabilize the building", he said.
Oliver had been put on the topmost beam by him. He fired an arrow with a line and swung to the beam. Like that, he used his arrows with lines at the weak points of the structure while Kara used her heat vision to re-weld the beams into place. In no time at all, the building was stable again.
"The site's cleared", Barry said.
"And stabilized", Kara said.
"Nice work", Barry said to both.
"Let's not celebrate just yet", Oliver said, "We gave those doppelgangers the window they needed to escape."
"Escape with what?" Kara asked.
"Dayton Optical Systems calls it the Prism", Felicity explained later in S.T.A.R. Labs.
"What on earth do they need a sub-light generator for?" Harry asked no one in particular, "It's basically a spectral emitter that-"
"Uses quantum entanglement", Harry and Felicity finished together.
"You could also use it to create a stable fusion reaction", Caitlin said as she walked towards the computer.
"Ok, which all means what?" Laurel asked.
"Not all of us are rocket scientists", Thea pointed out.
"Well, basically", Harry said, "The device they stole can be converted to a neutron bomb."
"Pfooo", Felicity did a failed imitation of a bomb exploding.
"Oh boy!" Laurel said.
"I wish I hadn't asked ", Thea said.
"The bottom line is that we have to catch these parallel-earth goose-steppers", Felicity then said as Harry nodded.
"This might help", Barry said as he walked in, holding the kryptonite arrow.
"Is that a kryptonite arrow?" a startled Alex asked as she took it from Barry.
"Yup", Barry said simply
"I know I shouldn't have to ask this question, but I have to ask this question", Felicity said, "Oliver didn't shoot Kara, did he?"
"Sort of", Barry said before revealing, "The other Archer and flying woman are Oliver and Kara of Earth-X."
Everyone gave him shocked looks on hearing that.
"When you said that Earth-X was horrible, you might have undersold it", Caitlin told Harry who simply nodded.
"Wait a minute", a confused Alex asked, "How-how could there be another Kara?"
"Well", Harry started explaining, "There are infinite Karas, just like there's infinite Kryptons and infinite Earths."
"And the Thawne from our earth is working with them", Barry announced. Caitlin's jaw gaped open in horror and shock on hearing that.
"He's an idiot", Harry said, still bitter about the fact that the speedster had taken the face of his doppelganger and posed as him.
"And he has now taken the face of Earth-X Barry", Barry announced and everyone was horrified on hearing that.
"I don't even want to see that", Caitlin said with wide eyes.
Felicity then said, "Ok, if that arrow has not-so-Supergirl's blood on it, we c-"
"We could track it using quantum analysis", Harry said.
"Hey, guys, I think I might have a quicker way", Alex announced as she looked at the arrow through a microscope.
Barry, Caitlin, Harry, Laurel, Thea and Felicity walked towards where she was.
"These red blood cells are suffused with shortwave radiation", Alex said as she looked up.
"Solar radiation?" Caitlin asked.
"Yeah, incredibly high amounts", Alex said, "Like nothing I've ever seen."
"Can you track it?" Barry asked Felicity.
"Well, I once caught a deranged serial killer off his face cream, so", Felicity said as everyone nodded, "No joke. Heh!"
"Let's just do it", Barry said, "And fast."
"Ok", Harry said as he went off to work with Caitlin and Felicity.
Later, Oliver was walking through a hall when Kara walked up to him.
"Can I talk to you about the kryptonite arrow?" she asked.
"I had no ill will towards you when I made it", Oliver said with a sigh.
"It feels like you did", Kara said defensively.
"Well, I didn't", Oliver said and she looked at him, "Kara, when we went up against the Dominators, they whammied you pretty bad. We were helpless against you. The only reason we survived was because Barry, Cisco, Caitlin and Felicity found that device. If something like that happened again, you could very easily kill us all!"
"No I wouldn't", Kara said defensively.
"You don't know that", Oliver said, "And you're not the only Kryptonian around, are you? According to you, there were Alura and Non. And this General Zod. What if there are more Kryptonians like them in the Multiverse and they choose to attack this place?"
Before Kara could respond , Oliver continued, "And like I said before, the brainwashing can happen again. To you or your cousin. So if you don't understand the danger you pose to us, you shouldn't be out there at all."
He then walked off, leaving a contemplative Kara behind.
Later, after completing the search, Felicity told everyone, "Your Hydra doppelgangers are at a shipping depot outside Danville."
"Let's move out", Oliver said.
"Fast", Barry said.
Sara suited up took her bo-staff.
John and Alex suited up and took their guns.
Roy put on his hood after having worn his mask and the rest of his suit and picked up his bow.
Jax and Stein joined hands and merged into Firestorm.
Laurel put on the suit she had worn when she had come over to Earth-1 and put on her mask too.
Barry put his cowl over his head.
Kara ripped off her shirt, revealing the Supergirl suit inside.
Oliver put on his suit. He picked up his mask and put it on before putting the hood over him. Picking up his bow, he went out.
And then- Green Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Black Siren, White Canary, Arsenal, Spartan, Firestorm and Alex headed out to fight.
So yes, this speedster is Thawne with Earth-X Barry's face. The theory of his survival was made by Youtuber Reverse Fuhrer. Thank you to him.
I hope you liked this twist of him having Barry's face. Like I said, twisted and disturbing.
Like Stand with Ward and Queen has pointed out in his 'United we stand', if Kara doesn't understand why some people need to keep kryptonite as a safeguard against her, she shouldn't be out there at all. I'm still salty about the way she behaved with Lena in 3x17. Even Superman understands he can be a threat so he gave Batman some kryptonite.
I still want some of what the writers smoke because this time, I watched the original 1960 'Psycho' while locked up in my room with no lights. Anyone else thinks the stairway murder scene is scarier than the iconic shower scene?
*Everybody points guns at me*
Only me? Okay!
Things are gonna get very intense and interesting over the next two chapters.
Please review. I always appreciate your feedback.