Here's my second chapter of the Exiles series. I hope you all really enjoyed the first and are waiting for updates because here it comes. Now just so everyone knows, my second semester of masters has started up so I will try and keep writing but it will be hard to find time so please be patient.
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Chapter 2: A Laughing Darkness
Oliver had quickly moved the injured trio to a hidden safe house with William. While there, he began administering treatment. Luckily there wasn't much to do. The worst damage to any of them were broken bones. Alex had a broken humorous and the second woman had a few broken ribs and a bruise on her head. Meanwhile, the unconscious man had no broken bones but also nasty bruise on his head.
Oliver had been tending to them for several hours but unfortunately; none of them had regained consciousness.
"Dad? Are they going to wake up?" William asked, worry in his voice.
Oliver continued to monitor the vitals for his patients. "I hope so William. They all got hit hard by… something."
"What happened to them?" William wondered aloud as he headed upstairs.
Oliver sighed. He wished that he knew. Something was clearly out there and from what he had seen, it was targeting Earth 38. He then pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Dig. I need you to come to my place ASAP. Something's happened."
As Oliver hung up, he heard someone groaning by the beds. Alex was coming to.
"Alex." Oliver said as he drew close to her cot.
"Oliver?" Alex asked, her eyes still groggy. "What's going on?"
"I was hoping you could tell me." Oliver said. "You and two others came barreling through a breach a few hours ago and passed out. From the damage to your clothes, I assume you just got into a nasty fight."
"I don't remember much. I was talking with Sara about her going to pick you up for the party when a fog rolled over the penthouse. Next thing I know, I can't see a thing but I hear screams and gunfire. I heard several people go down near me. I grabbed the first people I could and opened a breach out." Alex explained as she turned her attention to the two other unconscious patients.
"You mind telling me who your friends are? I remember at least one of them is an alien." Oliver said.
Alex said pointing to the man. "That's Brainiac 5 or Brainy to us. He's a bit of an acquired taste."
"How's that?" Oliver asked.
"He's got Team Flash's brain power and worse social skills than you." Alex quipped causing Oliver to scowl.
"And our final guest?" Oliver asked deciding to ignore Alex's remark about his social skills.
"That's Lucy Lane." Alex said. "Don't worry she's human. She's a high ranking DEO agent."
"That last name sounds familiar. Kara's cousin Clark is engaged to a woman named Lois Lane. Any relation?" Oliver asked.
"They're sisters but they're estranged. Not entirely sure why though." Alex remarked as she tried to stand up only to find that her arm was wrapped in a spring. She groaned in pain as she tried to move.
"Don't try and move too quickly." Oliver warned her. "You broke your arm coming through that breach. In fact, all of you have a series of nasty injuries."
"Any of them serious?" Alex asked, worry in her voice.
Oliver shook his head. "Everyone is stable. None of the injuries were life threatening."
Just then, the other two patients began to regain consciousness. "Oh my!" Brainy exclaimed. "My head is spinning even worse than after I drank all those mojitos. And not in a good way."
Lucy tried to get up but she cried out and fell back onto the clot gripping her chest tightly. Oliver could tell she was in immense pain. He moved from Alex to Lucy's bed. He put one hand on her back and another on her shoulder to help steady her as she rose from the cot to a seated position.
"Thank you." She managed to whisper.
Brainy meanwhile was back on his feet though he wasn't exactly standing straight. "Brainy, you should probably sit down." Alex warned him.
"Nonsense Director Danvers, my superior biology will allow me to recover much faster than your frail human form does." Brainy said as he touched a spot on his head causing his image inducer to fall and then reset seemingly healing his body.
Oliver crossed his arms and glared at the alien with a raised eyebrow. This drew his attention. "Hmm… Dark expression. Peak of human physic without genetic or mystical enhancements plus body language that mimics an angry snake that is about to strike. You must be Oliver Queen of Earth 1. It has been some time since we last met during our battle against Deegan."
"We're on Earth 1? Barry's Earth?" Lucy asked.
Oliver replied. "Yes Barry lives on this Earth too. You all came through a dimensional breach a few hours ago heavily injured. I've been treating you since then. Brainiac, Lucy, do either of you remember what happened at the party?"
"My recollection is unfortunately quite limited." Brainiac answered. "I recall a fog moving in, gunfire and something extremely fast strike at the heroes quickly. However I never got a an opportunity to scan it before it injured my visual cortex and Danvers pulled us through the breach."
Lucy nodded her head. "I might have seen something. As Alex was dragging me through the breach, I saw something attacking the Legends. I don't remember much except that is was fast and laughing."
"Laughing?" Oliver wondered.
"Oliver?" Diggle's voice sounded through the building.
"Down here Dig!" Oliver yelled back.
Down the stairs came Diggle dressed in tactical gear and armed to the teeth. Oliver moved to bro hug his friend. "I never said it was that kind of emergency."
"Well it's that time of year again. Last year you swapped bodies, the year before that were Nazis and before that were Aliens." Diggle shot back.
"Point taken." Oliver conceded. "Everyone, this is John Diggle, he works for A.R.G.U.S. He used to be my bodyguard before joining the team. Dig, that's Alex, Kara's adoptive sister, Lucy Lane and Brainiac… an alien."
"Green Arrow needs a bodyguard?" Alex asked incredulously.
Diggle smiled. "To be fair, when I was hired, I had no idea he was more skilled in combat than I was. He ended up saving my life more than the other way around."
Oliver's expression then returned the group back to business. "Dig, the party on Earth 38 was attacked. Only Alex, Lucy and Brainiac managed to escape."
"The attack would have ended several hours ago." Brainy spoke. "We should investigate."
Oliver nodded in agreement. "Brainiac and I will check out the site. Alex, Lucy, you two will stay here with Diggle and have him check you out once more."
"Like hell!" Alex groaned as she stood up and moved to Oliver. "My sister is in trouble and I'm not letting you bench me!"
"Alex, you're injured and going into the field anytime soon is too risky." Oliver countered. "Stay her and rest. The best way you can help is staying her and taking a look at any evidence we bring back."
"He's right." Lucy argued. "If we go into the field injured then we're putting Oliver and Brainiac at risk."
Alex sighed. "Fine. But if you're not back in 20 minutes, I'm going through the breach with the biggest damn gun I can find."
Oliver sighed. "Fare enough." Oliver moved to his hidden compartment and pulled out and donned his arrow suit, bow and his quiver. Brainiac then activated their breach device and the two heroes passed through to Earth 38.
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Lena's Penthouse, Earth 38
Stepping though the breach, the two were met be an eerie sight. The penthouse was abandoned and a complete mess. Tables were turned over and holes had been blasted in them. There were also several splotched of dried blood however there were no bodies.
Oliver noticed several different shell casings. Some matched the kinds of weapons that the DEO used while a few others were different. "Oliver grabbed a few of the shells and placed them in a bag.
"I believe I found something." Brainiac said.
"What is it?" Oliver asked.
"I've completed an olfactory scan of the air. I believe the fog we all claimed to see was a gas attack." Brainiac deduced.
"How can you tell?" Oliver asked.
"While it has mostly dissipated, there are some remnants of the gas in the air. Not enough to be harmful but enough for me to run a scan." Brainiac informed.
"Then do it." Oliver ordered. "We need to get back to Earth 1 before Alex gets any crazy ideas in her head about coming here half cocked."
Brainiac nodded and continued. However he was interrupted by the distance sound of a scream from inside. Both heroes dash in the direction of the scream. Reaching the inside, they saw a body facedown on the ground of the hallway, dried blood surrounding him. Oliver guessed the scream had come from a petite blonde woman was staring at the body in shock.
"What happened?" Oliver asked, his voice disguised.
"I… I don't know… I was just walking to give Ms Luthor a report to sign when I saw… him." The woman managed to say.
Oliver and Brainiac silently observed the body. The body was facing down and there were clear signs of a struggle on the man. The man was also wearing an L-Corp blazer so Oliver guessed that the man was a security officer for the company.
"Brainiac, help me move the body." Oliver requested. "We need to identify who this man is."
Brainiac nodded and helped Oliver lift the man and flip him over. When they did, the sight sent a cold chill down the backs of both heroes and the woman screamed again.
"Oh… That was unexpected." Brainiac stuttered.
Oliver looked at the man's face in shock. Oliver had expected some damage to the man's face from the fight that had obviously killed him but what he saw was worse. The man's face was contorted into an unearthly smile. His smile showcased all of his teeth, which had turned into a disturbing yellow color. However what disturbed Oliver the most was how the smile seemed to be frozen on the man's face. The man's dead limbs could be moved so Oliver knew rigor either hadn't set in yet or had run it's course. Thus Oliver deduced that the disturbing dead man's smile served a purpose. It was a calling card.
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Unknown Location
Kara came to and found herself in a disturbing location. Looking around, she could see the unconscious bodies of her teammates in several dark and foreboding prisons cells, like herself. She tried to activate her powers but they weren't working much like on Shelley Island.
By now Kara was scared. Being without her powers meant she was vulnerable and Kara didn't like feeling vulnerable. She tried to force her powers out as she tried to bend the bars but nothing happened.
"It's no good." A voice called. "I can't get them to bend either.
"Who's there?" Kara asked.
Kara allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness and made out the figure of Nate Heywood. "Nate? Are you ok?"
"I mean aside from the fact that I can't use my powers I'm peachy." Nate deadpanned.
"How long since you regained consciousness?" Kara asked.
"Maybe a hour or two. Whoever took us separated us several cells. I'm with Caitlin, Rene and Curtis. Who are you placed with?" Nate asked.
In her cell, Kara found Barry and Sara, both of whom were still unconscious. "Barry, and Sara."
"I think I saw Mick and Ray in another cell but I can't see anyone else's." Nate said.
"What about Alex?" Kara ask fearfully.
"I haven't seen her." Nate said. "I can't tell how many cells are in this room. They might have her in another cell."
"I need to find her." Kara said as she took a bobby pin out of her hair as she tried to unlock the cell door. After a minute of fiddling, she unlocked the door.
"Try and find out how they're dampening our powers and shut it off. Then we can come and help you." Nate offered to Kara as she silently took off. As Kara tiptoed through the secret prison, she ran into several cells, each of them holding her friends from both Earth 1 and Earth 38. Aside from Nate and herself, they were all still unconscious.
After several minutes of sneaking around, she found a device that looked similar to Shelley Island's power dampener. Kara pulled off the panel and began trying to disable to device. However whoever built it had anticipated this and Kara found herself dumbfounded with how to shut off the device short of smashing it, something she was incapable of without powers.
Kara then began to look around the room for something to attack the device with. Eventually she managed to find a workshop station near the device. The station had some extremely odd devices. Grenades painted with green and purple, gas canisters and tools that looked like the belonged in a circus rather than a workstation.
Without any warning, Kara felt something heavy smash into her head. The impact was strong enough to send her to the ground moaning in pain as a figure stood over her. The last thing Kara's brain registered before darkness took over was a disturbingly spine chilling laugh.
"heh heh heh heh heh… ha ha ha ha ha… HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"
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I hope you all enjoy this next chapter. I spent forever trying to find the perfect villain to be Oliver's enemy in this story so I hope you enjoy it.
For the next chapter, Oliver will be recruiting allies to help him save his friends so stay tuned. I will try and post updates ASAP.
Once again I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review or PM me if you enjoyed the story or have suggestions about pairings/plot/etc.