The Shooting Star
Disclaimer: I don't claim that I own any of DC. It's true.
Vigilance
"Hi. Jason." Jason simply nodded at Kara.
"Should we be talking about this here?" Kara asked nervously, looking around.
"Only people within a one mile radius are us and these unconscious goons. It's alright. Although I would prefer if we talked at your base after getting these guys locked up." Jason said, turning to Revan at the end.
"Yeah, let's do that." Revan said, clearly still shaken. The heroes quickly rounded up the goons and hurried back to DEO.
On arrival, Jason patiently waited with Alex, Winn and J'onn in the separate room they usually talk privately in, while Revan and Kara locked up the goons and joined then.
"So, Mr. Snow, is this our unknown ally from the stadium?" J'onn asked.
"Yes. Allow me to introduce him, Director. This is Jason Todd from my Earth. Also known as Vigil." Revan spoke.
"Hello." Jason curtly said.
"Hi." Winn chirped nervously, raising a hand in greeting.
"While I'm glad your friend is alive, I thought you said your Earth was destroyed. How did he survive? The way I understand it, you were alive because of your speed, accidentally breaching away." J'onn inquired.
"That's what I thought too. So how did you survive, Jason?" Revan asked.
"Wait, you think you accidentally breached?" Jason asked.
"Didn't I?" Revan asked.
"No. No you didn't. It was Tempus and Vibe." Jason said sadly.
"What?" Revan asked, clearly shocked.
"Tempus slowed time across the whole world, just enough so Vibe could save as many people as he could, breaching them away, anywhere." Jason spoke, his voice slowly seeming to break.
"Wait… then Caitlin! Is she okay? Tempus and Vibe? How many did they save?" Revan asked.
"I'm sorry, Rev. I was with Cait, and Tempus and Vibe. They didn't make it. The last person Vibe transported as they got consumed… was me." Jason was now looking at his feet, fists balled up. "They should have… should have been alive."
"Hey. I beat myself up for almost a year over it. Don't go there. We did everything we could. There was no way of knowing Zoom would build that Magnetar so fast." Revan said, pulling Jason into a hug, which he returned.
"Thanks, Rev." Jason said, breathily as he let go.
"But where have you been, all this time?" Revan asked.
"I was sent to a different Earth, Rev. I had to find your vibrational signal in the Multiverse. It's like finding a needle in the mother of all haystacks." Jason answered.
"Right." Revan said.
"Wait, how did you find him? Or get here?" Winn asked.
"And you are?" Jason asked.
"Sorry, Jace, this is Winn, our tech whiz, and J'onn, the director, this is Alex, badass agent. You know Kara." Revan quickly introduced.
"Right, well, Winn, I built a Multiversal scanner and scanned for months. Then when I finally found him, I simply breached over. I'm good with tech too." Jason said.
"Jason, what do you know about this masked guy. He's come up with some very dangerous tech, which is almost impossible to recreate." Revan asked.
"That's because it's not ordinary tech. It's meta-tech." Jason answered.
Revan slapped a hand on his forehead. "Oh God. Of course. There's no way circuitry that intricate could be engraved into the lattice of something as brittle as Quartz. Stupid me didn't run a photon shifter over it. I'd definitely get some readings." he said, cursing himself.
"Hey, relax. Now we know. So we need an anti-metatech field emitter. Fortunately, I'm on the verge of finishing one." Jason said, putting a hand on Revan's shoulder. "I'll finish it and bring it here. Then we can make a plan and get this guy."
"Alright, Jace. I'll see you back here, let me know when you're ready." Revan said, a small smile on his lips. "It's good to see you."
"You're telling me." Jason smirked. "Also, I see you finally have a girlfriend?" he spoke quietly into Revan's ear.
"Shut up, Jace." Revan shoved him off. He noticed Kara behind them, cheeks red. "She has super hearing, you know."
"But the others don't." Jason said, before walking to Kara. "I don't think I know your name yet?"
"Oh, I'm Kara. Kara Danvers. Well that's my Earth name. My Kryptonian birth name is Kara Zor-El." Kara answered, offering a handshake.
"Jason Todd. But you already knew that." Jason said. "I'll see you guys when I'm done with the emitter." He said to both heroes, before suddenly disappearing in a flash of gold light.
"What the…" Kara said.
"Yeah, he can teleport to and from anchor points he's set up. I'm pretty sure he left one here somewhere." Revan smirked. "His tech is something else. If anybody can counter this masked guy's meta-tech, it's Jason."
"Well, shall we go home?" Kara asked Revan, bumping shoulders with him playfully.
"Yep. Let's grab some pizza on the way." Revan replied.
"Good idea!" Kara said enthusiastically and sped off, Revan following.
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Sunlight trickled in through the curtains as Kara woke up, still snuggled up to Revan. She looked up to see his deep, black eyes looking straight back at her, smiling.
"Morning, Kara." He said, pressing a kiss on her forehead.
"Good Morning Revan." Kara broke into grin, giggling as she received the kiss on the forehead. She then sighed and snuggled in closer, burying her face in Revan's shoulder. "Before you say 'We have work' I want five minutes more of snuggling." Her muffled voice spoke.
"Okay." Revan chuckled, before wrapping his arms tightly around her.
Five minutes later, they got up, freshened and dressed. Kara wore a white shirt and beige pants with a black blazer, while Revan wore a red t-shirt, black jeans and a leather jacket.
"Is that new? The jacket." Kara asked.
"Yeah, my coat's at the cleaners." Revan replied, shrugging.
"It looks good, Rev." Kara smiled.
"Let's go to work, Kara." Revan smirked, offering Kara an arm.
"Killjoy." Kara said, sticking her tongue out, before bursting in laughter again, Revan chuckling with her.
Work was boring for them both, but it usually was after having rather heart-racing moments with villains. Of course, that didn't stop Revan from focusing. Kara always felt so good watching him work. He very rarely, if ever, looked up from his work, either to get something related to work, or probably to get some coffee. She didn't notice this often, but he drank a lot of coffee, but he probably doesn't have to worry about an overdose with that metabolism of his, she reasoned.
She broke herself out of her thoughts and focused on her work. This article wasn't going to write itself, after all.
The day rolled by, as Kara and Revan worked on their own assignments. Revan got up once to get his dose of caffeine, sipping away as he typed through the day, until the sun slowly started to set. Orange rays of light flowed in through the glass panels of their floor walls. Revan got up, having finished with his work, to see Kara already standing near his desk.
"Hey. All done?" Revan asked with a smile.
"Yep. You?" Kara asked, returning the smile.
"Yeah, just. Let me save and submit this stuff, and we can go get something." Revan said, hitting a few more keys and getting up, gathering his things and putting on his jacket.
"Burgers?" Revan smirked.
"Yeah, let's do it." Kara said, grasping Revan's hand and pulling him towards the elevator.
"I'm coming, relax!" Revan said, chuckling as Kara dragged him along with her.
As the elevator doors closed, Kara quickly went and captured Revan's lips. Revan hummed in surprise, before getting into the kiss, moving his mouth with hers.
"What's gotten into you right now?" Revan asked as they broke the kiss.
"I don't know. Feeling bolder, I guess. I'm just a bit excited right now." Kara said, a little breathless.
"I figured. But we're almost at the bottom." Revan said, pointing out the floor indicator.
Kara looked at it, then looked at the two of them, all pressed up together, Kara's arms snaked around Revan's neck, faces inches from one another. "Right." she said, letting go and straightening up. She heard Revan chuckle a bit, before he took her hand in hers, fingers intertwining. He pulled her close to plant a kiss on the side of her head. "I love you." He said.
"I love you too." Kara smiled. The elevator doors opened and Kara and Revan walked off.
.
.
The Big Belly Burger joint was a little crowded, but that didn't stop the heroes from getting their burgers. They also ordered milkshakes, carefully carrying their food to their table.
"This never gets old." Revan said with a sigh of satisfaction, taking a bite out of his burger.
"Agreed." Kara said, having already stuffed her mouth with several morsels of food.
"It's not a race, Kara. Relax and enjoy your food." Revan chuckled.
Kara ignored him, sipping some milkshake out of the straw. Revan merely chuckled, looking at how adorable she looked right then. Funny AND cute, a deadly combination.
Soon, they were finished with their food, and they got out of the place and were walking back to their apartment, when suddenly, their communicators crackled to life.
"Comet, I have it." Jason's voice came across. "Meet you at the DEO."
"On our way." Revan answered. "Let's go."
"Right behind you." Kara nodded, and the two sped off.
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"So, it's finished." Revan spoke just as he skidded to a halt in front of Jason, Kara behind him.
"Yeah, now we need a way to locate him." Jason said, pointing at a device the size of a phone, maybe a bit bigger.
"Okay, how will this work? How close does this need to be to counteract his meta-tech?" Kara asked.
"Not too close. A good few feet will be fine." Jason said.
"I'm running algorithms on the satellite." Winn chirped in from his desk.
"Alright!" Revan replied.
"Okay, here's the plan. I have to stay hidden until he's off guard." Jason spoke. "For that, you two will head in first. Rev, I can count on you to keep yourselves safe, right?"
"Of course." Revan answered.
"Okay, so you two go in. As soon as he triggers his meta-tech, feign weakness. Once he thinks he's got you, I'll trigger my device and we'll take him down. Be careful of hidden traps and such." Jason explained.
"Alright, got it." Kara said.
"Well, shall we go stop a villain?" Winn said.
"You mean we, not you?" Revan smirked.
"Come on, man!" Winn threw up his hands.
"Alright, knock off the horseplay. Come on." Revan said, gesturing to Kara and Jason. "Jace, a card?"
Jason handed Revan a pitch black card. "What's that?" Kara asked.
"My way in." Jason said. "Go."
Revan nodded, and sped off, Kara following, taking to the skies.
"Winn, let us know as soon as you have something." Jason said, snapping his fingers and disappearing from sight.
Revan and Kara stopped on the roof of CatCo.
"We're waiting, Winn." Kara said through the comms.
"I'm on it, I'm on it." Winn said. After a few minutes of waiting, he spoke excitedly, "I got it! Sending you coordinates!"
"Let's go." Revan's vibrating voice sounded off, and they raced to the location.
In front of the two heroes stood a small, unassuming shack, a few hundred meters away from a warehouse.
"Winn, it's a tiny shack away from the warehouses. Are you sure this is the right place?" Kara asked.
"The algorithm says so." Winn said. "I don't think it would have pointed to that shack instead of the warehouses if it didn't mean something was special about it."
"He's right. X-ray vision." Revan said.
"I can't see anything inside. It looks like a whole block of lead to me." Kara said.
"Then it isn't a regular shack." Revan said. "Let's go."
Revan slowly approached the door, and opened it. Inside, there were regular tools and appliances, things one might expect inside a toolshed beside industrial workplaces. He looked around, running his eyes and his scanner over everything. Sure enough, a wrench sticking out of a high shelf gave off some shifted readings. "Meta-tech" Revan said as he pulled on the wrench. As he did, Revan felt the ground under his feet disappear. Luckily, Kara quickly grabbed onto Revan, levitating with him in her hold.
"Thanks." Revan said as he looked down. The ground had given way to a big portal, a swirling mass of white and blue energy, just like the portals their masked villain had used.
"Think it leads to his hideout?" Kara asked.
"The portal looks exactly like the ones he uses, just bigger." Revan replied.
"I'll take that as a 'most likely'." Kara said.
"Indeed. Could be his hideout. Could be a trap." Revan said.
"So we're going in." Kara smirked.
"Obviously." Revan replied smugly.
Kara slowly lowered into the portal, not trusting it enough to just freefall in. On the other side, they saw they were now in a large room, with a pathway leading out of it, seemingly into other rooms and pathways.
Kara scanned the way with her vision. "I can see the paths, but it's hazy."
"What do you mean?" Revan asked.
"I don't know. It's not like someone's blocking my vision with lead, it's just hazy, obscured." Kara said.
"Stay sharp." Revan said as the two made their way through the hallways. It didn't seem like a maze, rather an elaborate home base. Revan was double checking everything on their way to make sure it wasn't a trap.
"Winn, what are we walking into?" Kara said in a low voice into her earpiece. No reply came. "Winn?"
"Dead zone." Revan said, looking at his bracer HUD. "No comms."
"Great." Kara said.
Soon, the two came into a big hall of a room. The far end was set up with several computers and a big screen on the wall, with a holographic display table. To the left was what looked like laboratory equipment, no doubt to make some of the meta tech the villain had used. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash and a deafening sound. A flashbang mine of sorts, Revan guessed, as he didn't notice anything thrown. He wasn't blinded, but disoriented. Kara was much the same, swaying off balance for a bit, eyes screwed shut. Revan saw several men with guns and those artificial kryptonite rings and meta-dampeners rush into the room. Once the dizziness passed, a swirling mass of blue energy opened up, the masked villain stepping out.
"I didn't think your tracking algorithm was good enough to find me so fast. Kudos to you!" he said, mock clapping. "How do you like my place? I hope it's comfy."
"Plenty, thanks." Revan growled. He knew they were powerless at the moment. But he had to think on his feet. Plus he had Jason's card. "Who are you? How are you making meta tech?" he asked.
"Oh, so you figures out my tech isn't normal, huh?" the man seemed to smirk behind his mask. "It's true, I am a meta. But that's all you need to know." He turned away, stopping a few feet away from them. "As for who I am…" the man turned again, this time towards them, slowly, deliberately taking his mask off. It hissed as it opened up for him to get it off his head.
"Xa-Du?!" Kara near yelled.
"You remember me? I'm flattered, Kara Zor-El." Xa-Du chuckled.
"You escaped the Phantom Zone?" she continued.
"Oh yes I did. But being in there for so long…" he looked down at his own hands, his body, "it warped my physiology. I can't absorb solar radiation like you. Fortunately, though, it also bombarded by genome with enough dark matter to essentially turn me into a meta. You know what the humans say, when a door closes…"
"Why are you here, Xa? Why are you doing this?" Kara asked.
"Why, good, old fashioned revenge, of course!" Xa-Du said maniacally. "Against your mother who sentenced me to prison for life. Against that cousin of yours for locking me up in the Phantom Zone. Against you, in turn, to cause them pain. Alura may be dead, but you're not."
Revan didn't interrupt. This Xa-Du, or whatever, he'd gotten emotional. He'd used this opportunity to turn on anti-meta tech field. He'd also flicked Jason's card into a corner. It had formed into the teleportation anchor he'd grown used to seeing at important places, a sign of Jason's foresight.
"Now you know who I am and why I'm doing this, which is the first thing most heroes ask really. Now, let's see how I'll hurt you slowly." Xa-Du said, his demeanour much more psychotic than before. He'd put his mask back on, probably some kind of life support apparatus.
"Now!" Revan yelled. Several of the lights shot out. There was another flash of light, this time from behind the two heroes, as Jason jumped out of the shadows. Revan quickly sped around, using the anti-meta-dampener. Kara also had her Kryptonite shield, developed by Lena, now deployed and over her Coat of Arms on her chest. She watched as Jason quickly dispatched the mercenaries with two high-tech pistols in his hands, Revan running around him, focusing on people close to Jason, knocking them out, catching bullets heading his way.
Xa-Du was heading down a newly opened route, clearly focusing on escaping.
"What do you say, Girl of Steel?" Revan said as he stopped beside his girlfriend. "Shall we catch this guy?"
"Let's, Shooting Star." Kara smiled.
"Hurry up!" Jason yelled, already running down the hallway.
Revan shrugged before running after Jason, Kara following, picking Jason up along the way.
X-X-X-X-X
Well, this was probably not the biggest chapter. But oh well.
FYI, Xa-Du is another lesser known character in DC, a Kryptonian villain. I'll make sure to let everyone know more details about my version of this character, in the next chapter.
I'm leaving it on a cliffhanger again, purposely, because I'm already on another chapter for this, and I'm subconsciously pushing myself to get it out soon. College exams and stuff are going to begin soon and I won't be able to write for a while, so I at least want to end this arc. And I'll get it done.
As always, do review to let me know your thoughts on the chapter, and tell me what you liked and didn't like. I will see y'all again soon, on the next chapter. Peace!
