Mini Golf sounded like it could be fun and Kara was having fun on her date. William was a good man; her lunch with him a few days ago was nice. She could talk with him easily. At the moment they were playing a close game of mini-golf. A little friendly competition didn't hurt anyone. The next obstacle that laid before them had one route traveling through a log or you can make the trek around.
Kara figured she'd risk it all, she aimed and hit her golf ball firmly. It sped along the green and went easily through the log and rested near the hole on the other side. Kara grinned and glanced back at William.
"Well, it's not over yet." William placed his golf ball down and carefully began to aim. He took his time as he lined up the shot before he swung. His golf ball made it through the log obstacle however he wasn't as close to the hole as Kara was.
"Very nice." She gave a small nod in his direction. Kara sunk the ball in easily keeping her hope of winning alive. William, unfortunately, made his shot as well. They still had one more hole and then it'd be game over.
As they walked toward the last hole there was a small shack with an incline. In the center was a specific hole that had a stick of dynamite spinning just above the hole. There was only a small opening in the dynamite stick; you'd have to be very fast and accurate to hit that shot. Of course, if you missed your ball you wouldn't win a free game.
William went first and as he whacked his ball, it launched forward and pinged off the dynamite and missed. "Looks like it's going to be a tie unless you score a free game."
Kara bit her lower lip as she was gauging the speed of the spinning and waited patiently for the perfect moment to send her golf ball flying. Kara hit hard, her brightly pink colored ball sailed up and landed perfectly in the center scoring Kara a free game of mini-golf. She screamed in delight and jumped up as the shack began to sound victory music. Kara turned to William and they exchanged a high five. It was during her victory that she noticed behind William, the back of a man. His black hair had an all too familiar cut. Was that Leo? Was he back? The man soon turned and Kara's joy of seeing him was deflated. It wasn't Leo at all.
Unknowing to her William had leaned in toward Kara to kiss her. When Kara snapped out of her daze she accidentally smacked William in the face. William groaned his hands quickly holding his nose. "Oh my God! William, I-I am so sorry. Are you alright?"
"Uhh, don't worry about Kara." He carefully checked his nose only for him to realize just how much damage Kara had caused. "It's broken."
Kara's demeanor went sour, she broke his nose. Oh, this date couldn't have gone any worse. Of course, she ended up hurting him all because she was distracted. "I'll take you to the hospital." This was one of the worst dates she's been on in a very long time.
She couldn't wait to get home she'd never been so embarrassed in her life. She wanted to crawl under a rock and just die there. Die silently and pray no one saw her break William's nose, but it was in public so others saw the utter crash and burn of the date. Kara opened her cupboard and as her eyes spotted a container of chocolate chip cookies she eagerly brought them out. She bit into one, if only the power of sweets could make you forget your most embarrassing moments.
She had thought she'd seen Leo, she did miss him but it was fine. Was it really fine? She wasn't over him. Perhaps she could text him? No that was a horrible idea… or. She had finished one cookie already and took a second her eyes glancing at her purse where her phone resided. She walked over with a cookie in her mouth as she retrieved her phone and began to type. "So how's space?" She hit send and after a few moments, it was delivered. How's space, that was stupid. What was she thinking? She wouldn't blame Leo for not responding to that horrendous text.
Leo fell hard onto the mat, he clutched his side. "Ahhh ok give me… give me a moment."
Diggle chuckled. "I thought you said you could handle it."
Leo grunted. "You're enjoying this too much… when I asked for your help to teach me some fighting moves I didn't think it'd hurt this much."
Diggle offered a hand out toward Leo. "Well, when I would spar with Oliver he used to kick my ass quite a bit." Leo took the offered hand and was soon up onto his feet.
"Sounds like an interesting guy."
"He was like a brother. I miss him." Diggle turned to grab a water bottle laying off to the side and took a long drink. He turned as Leo's cell phone buzzed signaling a notification.
Leo picked up his phone, surprisingly he had service still up here. A small smile appeared on his lips as he read Kara's text. He typed back. Space is great. It's really nice, staying busy up here.
I hope you're at least getting some sleep and not working 24/7?
I'm too busy to sleep.
No rest for the world-saving genius huh?
"Who's the girl?"
Leo blinked. "Huh. What do you mean?"
"Come on Leo, you brightened up as soon as you got that text."
"It's Kara."
"Kara? Supergirl? Well, that's interesting."
"It's complicated though…"
"How is it complicated?"
"The Monitor, he told me that if I was to remain in Kara's life, to be with her that she'd… she'd die." Leo admitted to Diggle.
"The Monitor? Here I thought that we were done with him after everything that happened with Crisis. Look, man before I met Oliver Queen, my life was simple. There were no aliens, no time travel, and no super-powered beings. Are you really going to let some superpowered entity control your life?"
"What if he's right? What if she does die?"
"She could or maybe you two will find a way to overcome that. You really should talk to her about your concerns."
"I know, it's… just with everything that happened I reacted badly when I found out she was Supergirl. I made a lot of mistakes so coming up here was a good change of pace. I hurt the woman I love Diggle, I need to work on myself first before I dive into a relationship. If she even wants a relationship… she trusted me and I betrayed that trust. How am I supposed to make up for that?"
"No one is perfect, you need to forgive yourself and then you do your best to be a better man." Diggle furrowed his brow as an alarm began to sound and Leo rushed over toward the nearby console on the wall of the training room. "What's going on?"
"I set up an alert to notify me of any break-ins at any Luthor Corp facilities. Well, the ones that house technology that the D.E.O acquired. One of the alarms has been tripped..." Leo dismissed the alarm.
"Well, let's go. I can kick someone else's ass for a change instead of yours." He clenched his fist and raised it in the air and grinned before his green ring shimmered and a black and green suit materialized over Diggle's body. In the center of his chest was a symbol, it was a lantern, a green lantern. All Diggle told Leo was that he had found the ring and was recruited into the Green Lantern Corps. Put simply they were an intergalactic police force that protected life in every form. They'd been established thousands of years ago. There was more to the story that Diggle hadn't offered to tell him.
Leo grabbed an arm of a Lexosuit he had been modifying on his own. It wasn't complete yet. He was working to make the Lexosuit into something good. Lex created it to kill Superman, Leo wanted nothing more than to make it assist Supergirl. Removing any Kryptonite blades from the suit took time as well as the weapons that were meant to harm Kryptonians.
Leo and Diggle made their way to the teleporter and transported down into Luthor Corp. Leo led the way heading into one of the lower levels of Luthor Corp that housed D.E.O confiscated technology. He never wanted to run the D.E.O but thanks to his brother's revamp of the world he was placed that nice package.
The elevator doors slid open and both men exited, low emergency lights in the storage area were on. The low yellow glow flickered. "I've got a bad feeling about this." Diggle.
"Did you have to say that?"
"What? The emergency lights are flickering why would I have a good feeling about this situation? You take point."
"Take what?"
"You lead, I'll back you up."
Leo slowly trekked forward his muscles tense as he headed down the first aisle. Each side was lined with metal shelves and which held containers filled with different technology. His head snapped toward the right as he thought he heard someone rummaging through a container. Leo crept toward the right and as he neared the end of the hall he waited for Diggle and with a nod from Diggle Leo jumped around the corner the arm of the Lexosuit raised ready to find but instead of an intruder, he spotted Sam. "Sam!" Leo rushed toward her side before kneeling beside her. "Sam!" He looked her up and down for any injuries but it appeared she had just been knocked out.
He heard her groan. "Leo?"
"Yes are you alright what happened..." as the words were leaving his lips Diggle called out a brief word of warning.
"Heads up!" Diggle used his ring to construct a shield as it appeared, the green energy blocked a hatchet as it came spinning toward Diggle. It bounced off and landed on the floor. The man that appeared opposite him was of Native American descent. He had a headdress on top of his head the skull of an animal Diggle couldn't recognize with black feathers flowing along the headdress. Dark fur covered his shoulders and upper back and on each shoulder was a small animal skull that fit perfectly functioning as shoulder guards. The man had a small staff in his one hand about 3 feet long. There was a single satchel hanging across his chest. This muscular man rushed forward, he was fast, very fast. He seemed to move effortlessly and as he jumped upward before slamming down the bunt of the staff at Diggle. Diggle transformed a construct forming a sword and he blocked the downward strike. His opponent was strong as well, the strike seemed to cause a ring from the impact.
Leo lifted his head upward Diggle was standing behind him dealing with some threat. Leo's eyes rested upon a familiar blonde-haired woman. Gemma Cooper or Gamemnae. Her hand flicked outward and Leo raised the shield on his arm out as Gamemnae released electricity from her fingertips. "You're supposed to be dead."
"You fool I am a Goddess as if Supergirl thought she could subdue me! Let me return the favor and rip you apart. But first I'll need your hand. I don't need you alive for that!"
"Diggle little help!"
"I got my own problem, Leo." Diggle shouted back as he blocked his attacker's strikes before he shot a beam of energy toward the man it hit him directly in the chest however as the beam made contact the man's body burst sending a wave of black raven's emerging from his body. "The hell?" Diggle walked forward as his attacker disappeared and he readied himself. Must have been some sort of copy, how or when that happened he couldn't tell.
Leo stood up blocking another wave of electric current, from Gemma. He carefully walked forward and as soon as she lowered her hand as she could not keep up the attack for long Leo raised his arm to fire an energy projectile only for him to feel someone knock his arm down. He could feel the staff of the Native American around his neck holding Leo firmly. "We were not supposed to kill him Gamemnae."
Strangely enough, the blade of the Native American's tomahawk had not cut Leo's arm. He had swung down with enough force that he should be bleeding. The tomahawk blade was sharp enough that a graze would be enough to cut the skin. Leo was not bleeding or injured. Just who was this man? Was there a reason our Lady had requested him to be brought back alive along with the shrunken members of Leviathan and the base?
"I'm altering the plan!" She hissed as her arm raised, one of the gun emplacements that were used to detect intruders activated. The weapon lowered from the ceiling and aimed toward Diggle. The gun emplacement began to activate before a golden tiara came spinning through the air. It smashed the weapon before it ricocheted toward the Native American holding Leo. He had to drop Leo to dodge the tiara. He flipped backward before landing on his feet next to Gamemnae.
The tiara instead connected against the metal shelf and ricocheted back into the waiting hand of a woman. Leo froze as his eyes rested upon this newcomer, who was she? She had long black curly hair, her dark brown eyes narrowed at Gamemnae and the man. Her armor was unlike anything he'd ever seen. Armored boots, her armor was a mix of red and blue and gold. She held herself as a warrior and the shield and sword was another indication. What surprised Leo the most was Gamemnae's look of confidence faltered. She knew this woman and it was enough to make her uneasy.
The newcomer placed the tiara back on her head before she lunged toward Gamemnae and the Native American. "Manitou!" Gamemnae shouted as she raised her fingers outward. The Goddess of Technology's powers reaching out and activating more gun emplacements. Three of them lowered in front of Gamemnae, as they activated they began to fire at the newcomer. The woman began to deflect the bullets using her metal bracelets, moving at an incredible speed as the bullet casings began falling at her feet.
Manitou shouted, "Inukchuk." Before throwing some type of powder at their feet causing a cloud of smoke to cover Gamemnae and himself. When the smoke cleared they were gone from sight and Leo aimed at one of the guns before firing at one and Diggle fired at the other two guns his ring easily taking care of them.
Leo stood up, "Sam!" Leo reached out his hand and Sam took the offered hand. "What the hell is going on Leo! If it wasn't for your friend coming in when she did we'd be dead."
Diggle stepped forward standing beside Leo. "Is she with you?"
"I don't know who she is." Leo replied and all three rested their eyes on this strange woman. She turned then facing them and simply took her lasso off her hip and handed it out toward them. Leo blinked his eyes veered from the woman's face down toward the lasso.
"Take hold of the Perfect." She replied simply.
"I think she means the rope." Diggle began only for Leo to slowly extend his hand out toward it. His fingers hesitated before he firmly took hold around the lasso Diggle and Sam followed suit.
She began to speak. "I am Diana of the Themyscira, daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons."
"John Diggle."
"Sam Arias."
As Leo's hand grasped the strange rope he felt a wave of raw emotions running through him. He felt compelled to tell her his name. To reveal any truth. It was more than that though as he met her gaze he felt he could see into her soul. Her depth, her motives, her very being and he knew she could feel everything he was. He'd never felt this open to anyone before, she knew what was in his heart. She'd seen past his walls, he almost felt venerable. He could feel her motives and that gave him peace, he felt at ease. "Leo Luthor."
"What is this rope?" Diggle felt the feeling as well, they all did. It had to have been some sort of magic, there was no other logical explanation.
"It is not a rope. It is the Golden Perfect, the Lasso of Truth. Its essence is truth, and truth brings understanding and trust. You all know the intent of my heart, as I know yours. Do you trust me?"
John and Sam both replied rather quickly only leaving Leo as the last one. Sam glanced at Leo. "You can't seriously not trust her after this, if it wasn't for her we would be dead."
Leo shook his head. "I do trust you." He knew without a doubt that Diana was pure of heart. She'd wanted to do good in the world and within moments he knew he could trust her. He lowered his hand letting the lasso go, Diggle and Sam followed suit before Diana placed the lasso on her hip.
"What were they after?"
Leo sighed as he went toward the nearby shelf and grabbed a case that had the bottle of the shrunken Leviathan members and their base. It was nothing more than a power source, but it seemed Gamemnae wanted it badly enough. "This, its members of Leviathan and their base shrunk down and made into a power source. I didn't think that Gamemnae would be after it. The only reason she didn't get past the lock is it needs my fingerprint to open the case."
"Who's Leviathan?" Sam was confused. Rightly so she had no memories of before Crisis.
"Short version, Sam they are very powerful aliens that have an organization, and recently they tried to kill billions in the Obsidian VR. It's their twisted way of keeping the populous under control. Thank you, Diana, for stepping in when you did. What brought you here?"
"I've been tracking Leviathan for many months. I came across one of their assassins while I was in London. They have been responsible for many disasters, they must be held accountable for. That assassin led me here to National City and then to Lex Luthor. He has something of mine." Diana looked toward Leo hoping he'd have an answer.
Leo cleared his throat. "Well, that doesn't surprise me my brother tends to have a habit of offending people. I am not my brother."
"No, you are not your brother. You are a very different man, Leo."
"Well, you can't leave this…" Diggle pointed at the case Leo had in his hand. "Here, since Leviathan wants it. Wants it badly enough to kill for it we should keep it up in The Watchtower. We could also use the extra help, Diana you're welcome to come with us."
"I will join you. Leviathan, is responsible for too much destruction. They must be brought to justice." Was it logical for them to trust a complete stranger so easily. So quickly? Under normal circumstances no, however, these weren't normal circumstances. Could it have been a trick? No, there was no way it was a trick. What he'd felt, it was impossible to be a trick. Which is why Leo believed she could be trusted.
Leo nodded, "Alright everyone grab on to each other I'll teleport us to The Watchtower." He needed to explain to Sam, he hadn't wanted to get her involved but if Leviathan came here Sam needed to know. Leo teleported the four of them up to The Watchtower.
When they finally arrive Sam looked around, "You've definitely put in a good deal of work into this. Actually looks impressive, now are you finally going to give me some answers."
Leo nodded, "Yes, follow me. Diggle, uh show our newest guest around."
Leo and Sam walked out of the control room of The Watchtower and down in the hall. He led Sam to his lab on the space station and he placed the case down in the lab before moving over and removing the Lexosuit arm and placing it on the lab table. He found a small device in the shape of a ring, then he pulled a stool over. "You should probably sit down... I'm going to show you memories, this device will show you. It's going to be a lot of memories, but you'll be completely safe."
"Memories?" She paused before nodding. "Alright let's do this." Sam sat down on the stool before Leo twisted the device and placed it against Sam's arm.
Sam's mind with flooded with memories, her memories of things that happened from before Crisis. They weren't familiar to Sam yet after the sudden flood of memories she could clearly remember both her memories from before Crisis and afterward. "You shot Lex? You manipulated Kara? You honestly thought that it was a good idea to work with your brother? I can't believe I thought your brother was a good man before. I need a drink. You have anything up here in your lab."
Leo crossed his arms over his chest. "I made mistakes for sure and yes I realize how stupid it was of me to work with Lex. Can we move on to more pressing matters?"
"You mean your love life?"
Leo sighed, "No."
"Right, your love life is in total shambles as is your relationship with Kara." Leo's narrowed eyes and obvious frown of disapproval made Sam relent and change subjects. "Leviathan, well I mean can they even get up to your secret space station?" Sam asked as Leo went over toward a cabinet and got a bottle of scotch and poured them each a glass. He handed one to her and Sam took a sip.
"You need a key that will teleport you here. So unless Leviathan can teleport on their own they won't be getting this. I didn't mean for you to get involved, after what happened with Regin. You and Ruby deserve a happy and normal life." Leo began to drink his scotch.
"We are happy and I know it's not your fault that Leviathan exists and well shit happens Leo. It's good to be back in National City though, I do miss seeing you. I really should be getting back though." Sam had already been working way longer than she'd like. Her run-in with Leviathan was unexpected and just made her night more complicated than before. It was supposed to be a chill night at home with Ruby.
Leo nodded. "I'll send you back. Tell Ruby I said hi." He led Sam back to the main control room and motioned for her to stand on the teleporter pad.
"This is safe right?"
"You're asking that now? Don't worry, if you get put back together wrong I'm sure I can fix it." Leo stated as he adjusted some buttons on the control panel.
"What?" Sam's eyes widened as Leo pushed the button sending Sam back down to earth. It was then that Diana and Diggle walked in. "All done giving her the tour?"
"Considering most of the rooms aren't filled it was surprisingly fast. I'm going to get something to eat. I'll leave you two alone." Diggle replied as he left and went toward the kitchen.
"What do you think?" Leo asked.
"It's impressive I didn't know this was up here."
"Well, Bruce Wayne, was talented at keeping secrets. I'll show you to your room. If you need anything just ask me or Diggle." Leo walked out of the control room with Diana walking beside him.
"You seem to be familiar with powerful beings." Diana noted, first Diggle and Leo was fighting with Leviathan. His experience with fighting powerful enemies or having friendships with powerful beings was growing more and more common.
"Well let's just say I've had my run-in with aliens. You're just another powerful alien who's joined the game."
"You've never met a woman like me." Diana smiled as her statement made Leo pause in his tracks.
"What's different about you?"
"For starters, I'm not an alien. I am from Earth." Diana explained she could see Leo's mind ticking through the possibilities of why Diana was so powerful.
"I've never heard of… the Themyscira. Where is it?"
"Of course you haven't heard of it, it's hidden from the world of men. I grew up there and the gods blessed me with power."
Leo blinked. "Gods? What do you mean?"
"Zeus."
Leo said nothing but began to walk down the hall again. Was she serious about the Gods? "You mean Zeus and all of those Gods are real?"
"Well of course they are real. Why wouldn't they be?" Diana was puzzled by Leo's reaction. She hadn't told many about where she came from. The truth was, Diana, didn't disclose that information to everyone. Most saw that information as Diana was insane.
Zeus? Hades? These gods were real? The idea that these fictional Gods were real was absurd. Yet, he saw firsthand what Diana could do, she was a wonder. "I was taught they didn't exist. They are tales of myth and story." He opened one of the rooms and entered, it was a modest room. It wasn't decorated, but it was very basic and had all the primary needs. "Here we go, you got a beautiful view of earth from here." He pointed over toward a large glass window and as he walked toward it his eyes rested upon the planet.
"It's beautiful, makes you want to protect it even more." Diana replied as she stood beside Leo looking down at the earth.
"It's our home, we need to keep it safe."
"I will help you keep it safe, Leo."
As Gamemnae and Minato Raven appeared back at one of their safe houses they were greeted by a single question. They had come back empty-handed. "What happened."
"We did not acquire the item and Gamemnae wanted Mr. Luthor dead." Minato answered for both of them. Gamemnae scowled toward Minato. He did not have to reveal all of that information but Minato was loyal to the cause. He was obedient, any changes he'd object to.
The woman had long raven colored locks that fell along her shoulders. Her green eyes narrowed. "You forget Gamemnae it was because of me that you are here now. I brought you back I can easily take that away." She snapped her fingers. "Within moments... if I want someone brought to me alive then I expect you to listen."
"Very well Lady Amphitrite..." Gamemnae wasn't in charge anymore her plan had failed Amphitrite was their leader now.
"I expect you two to get that container from Leo Luthor and I want him brought before me."
"He assisted Supergirl in stopping our plan. Why is he important?" Minato Raven still found it odd that his grandfather's tomahawk could not pierce Leo Luthor's skin. It would not cut the skin of an honorable person. Just who was he and why was lady Amphitrite interested in him. He got the feeling there was more to this than he realized. If Leo was just as bad as Supergirl then Leo Luthor's arm should have been cut cleanly off.
"He could be very useful, despite his allegiance with Supergirl. I believe he could be a very powerful ally." Amphitrite answered.
"Why are we even bothering with the container? We should just kill Supergirl and any who stand in our way." Gamemnae began only to narrow her eyes as she was cut off with a hearty laugh.
Off to the side, there was a man sitting with his feet up and a pipe in his mouth. He was only about 4'10 rather short. His black hair was in a buzz cut. His dark brown eyes met Gamemnae's and if looks could kill, Gamemnae would skin him alive with one look. "Oh because that went so well last time! Shall we ask Rama Khan, Tezumaka, and Sela." He snapped his fingers, "Oh that's right it didn't go well! Would you like to go inside the small little container and ask them?" The Whaler didn't fear making Gamemnae angry, what was she going to do? Nothing would happen, their mission was far too important to risk them severely hurting each other.
"You little shit." Gamemnae hissed as she took a step toward him only for someone to step in between them.
A very tall, pale-skinned, and bald-headed man. He towered over her standing around 6 foot, he puffed out his chest his muscles tensed. "Calm yourself, Gamemnae we should not be fighting with each other. It is a shame we lost so many of us. Praise be to Rama Khan, the gentleman king who traveled from Jarhanpur. We are fortunate Rama Khan brought our own angel, the lady Amphitrite, exalted lady. Without her guidance and leadership, we would be lost. She gave you the waters of life, resurrecting you." The Anointed One had strength enough to go head to head with Superman and the mentality of a peacekeeper. He only fought when it was necessary.
Gamemnae had to admit that she would still be gone if it wasn't for Amphitrite using her powers to bring her back. Rama Khan, was correct they did need her with Leviathan.
"What caused you to fail your task?" Amphitrite had difficulty believing that Leo could oppose them by himself.
"The Amazon that's been trailing us interrupted us." Was all Gamemnae said and it was enough to cause concern within the group.
"Well, apparently we will need some assistance when we encounter this Amazon again. I foresee she will not abandon her crusade against us. I shall visit Venturia and persuade Queen Clea to join us. Until I return do not attempt to engage any of our enemies." In due time Supergirl and her allies will be destroyed, the world would be theirs to control and Leo Luthor was an integral part of that fulfillment.
