Confusion and shock threatened to overwhelm Kara as she stood rooted to the spot. Her senses went numb even as Caitlin scrambled around the main console, practically slamming a command into the controls. Immediately, an alert went off inside S.T.A.R. Labs. "Stand by for security lockdown," intoned an automated message.
"Looks like we upgraded just in time," Harry mused.
"What…what's happening now?" Kara stammered.
"A high-energy field is going up around S.T.A.R. Labs. Completely spherical, even through the ground underneath us. It should be able to block even Barry from phasing through," Harry explained.
"But that'll cut us off from helping him!"
"Unfortunately, we have to start by helping ourselves," Caitlin interjected, bringing up new feeds on the lab screens. Four faces appeared.
"Jay, Jesse," Caitlin said urgently, addressing the two speedsters who had shown up on the left hand screens, "Barry's gone rogue. We need you two in the Speed Force. Make sure he doesn't try to alter the timeline."
Despite the lack of information, the speedsters immediately grasped the severity of the situation. "Copy that. Keep us informed," Jay replied. Then both screens went dark.
"Cisco, Gypsy, stay alert in the multiverse," Caitlin then said, turning to the right-hand screens. "Make sure to contain any damage to Earth-1."
"Forget that, I'm coming back to S.T.A.R. Labs! I can help!" Cisco urged, clearly wanting to figure out what was wrong with his friend.
"Cisco, I need our speedsters to keep the Speed Force safe. Without them, you and Gypsy are the only ones protecting the multiverse."
"Don't worry, Ramon," Harry jumped in. "We'll figure this out."
"We'll get Barry back, I promise," Felicity added.
Cisco still hesitated. "Cisco," Caitlin finished, soft but firm, "I need you to do this."
A final pause of reluctance, but then Cisco nodded. "Roger that, Dr. Snow." His screen and Gypsy's went dark.
"It's lucky Barry hasn't hit our Leaguers on other Earths," Felicity remarked.
"Let's hope it stays that way," Harry said.
"So what now?" Alex asked.
"Now," Kara said, "I go out and find him."
"Kara, wait," Caitlin replied, putting up a placating hand. "We don't even know what's going on, and he just beat Clark."
"I'm faster than Clark is. James said so himself, and he would know!" she insisted, turning to walk out of the lab.
"But you're not faster than Wally," Caitlin countered calmly, stepping sideways to block Kara's path. "And he got taken out, too."
"I don't care! I have to find him!" Again, Kara tried to push her way out of the lab without resorting to her powers. Felicity reached out and softly laid her hand on her arm.
"We will, Kara," Felicity soothed. "But we need a plan. With the communicators down, we're on our own."
"I can't do nothing!" Kara's emotions were bordering on frantic, and her head swiveled from side to side, trying to will the others to understand.
"Kara," Alex finally said, taking her sister's head in both hands and forcing her to look Alex in the eyes, "we will save Barry. I promise you. It will take time, but we will save him."
Every alarm bell and panicked thought in Kara's head screamed in disagreement, but the conviction in Alex's eyes was such that Kara couldn't help believing her. Her distress lightened by a tiny fraction. For now.
Reluctantly, she nodded, taking a breath. Hang on, Barry. I'll get you out of this.
"Well, for starters," Felicity began, eager to get something going before Kara changed her mind, "clearly Barry got Kryptonite somewhere. Whatever we end up doing, we can't have Supergirl be vulnerable. She's the hardest hitter we have left."
"Actually, Winn sent us a design for a new Supergirl suit that's supposed to protect her from Kryptonite radiation," Caitlin said.
"Right, he told me about that," Alex put in. "It has integrated technology from the suits Non and his followers wore when they attacked National City."
"Cisco had a prototype made, but I don't think he finished it before he left with Gypsy." Caitlin turned to Harry. "You think you can complete it?"
Harry nodded. "Anything Ramon can do, I can do better," he declared, walking out to get to work.
Rolling her eyes slightly at that, Caitlin turned back to study the video feeds they were able to record of Barry's fight with Wally and Clark, playing on multiple screens on a loop around the lab. "Now we just need to figure out why Barry's doing this."
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Kara insisted. "He's being coerced somehow, or even controlled! Psi or Rainbow Raider got to him!"
"Probably," Caitlin replied, matter-of-factly. It was a sign of the crazy times they all lived in that this was, if not a mundane occurrence, then certainly not an unprecedented one. "But we need to figure out exactly what's happening. Maybe they were nearby pulling the strings."
"You think there may be clues in these feeds?" Alex asked, as she and Kara moved to join Caitlin and Felicity at the console.
"It's all we have to go on for now."
…
An hour of repeatedly scanning the feeds later, all four women were visibly frustrated.
"Barry's alone out there. I don't see Psi or Rainbow Raider or anyone," Felicity complained, clicking through her video of the Metropolis fight frame by frame for the tenth time.
"Well, at least we know he's knocking out Leaguers, not killing them," Alex replied. "If he'd wanted to kill Wally or Clark, he could have. The fact they all disappeared from the cameras means he sped off with them somewhere."
"He's so fast now," Caitlin muttered, as the looping video replayed Barry and his speed completely dominating Superman. "He managed to shut down the League across the whole country in one day."
"Barry's so fast, he could have easily taken out Clark's JL communicator at some point during the fight," Kara added. "Wally must have been the only one fast enough to stay ahead of him, at least for a little while."
"Which is why we were able to stay in touch with him even with the rest of the League dropping off without a word," Caitlin continued, nodding in agreement.
"Okay, but what does all that tell us?" Felicity wondered.
"It means someone wants to destroy the League," Kara replied. "Even if they're not killing us, clearly someone or something's trying to remove us."
"Yeah, but I can't find them anywhere," Felicity countered in frustration. "Even kidnapped, you'd think a Kryptonian or Martian life sign would be easy to detect."
"There must be some sort of shielded bunker or prison somewhere," Alex reasoned. "With Barry's speed, it could be anywhere in the world."
An annoyed sigh passed through the four of them, staring at a still shot of Barry's face, uncovered by the cowl and advancing on Wally. "It doesn't look like he's acting out of rage, the way you'd expect if Rainbow Raider hit him," Caitlin admitted.
"And you're sure there're no weird signals detected? Something else that may be invisible to us that might be affecting him?" Kara asked.
"I've done a full electromagnetic sweep using S.T.A.R. Labs' satellite," Felicity replied, dejected. "Nothing."
"What about psychic energy?" Kara persisted.
"We've already looked for Psi," Alex pointed out. "She's not there, and her effective range is short."
"Can we scan for psychic energy anyway?" Kara asked, desperately. "There has to be something."
"Hmmm," Felicity said, starting to type into the console. "Tracking psychic energy is pretty difficult, especially since every source of it is different. We may not see anything if we don't even know what to look for."
"Can you try? Please?" Kara continued, pleading with her eyes.
Felicity nodded, shrugging. "I'm out of ideas, so let's give it a shot," she said, typing furiously. Bars started sweeping across the image of Barry's face as Felicity's various filters went to work. After a tense half-minute, the screens returned the processed image to show any detected anomalies.
Everyone froze. Felicity's program had regenerated the stoic image of Barry's face in black and white, with one exception. There, in the center of his forehead, was a circular pattern of pink, sparkling energy. They had seen something like that only once before, during an alien invasion that had threatened the entire world.
"Oh, frack me," Felicity muttered.
She didn't consciously register making any decision. Her brain saw the image on the screen, and the next thing she knew her legs were striding for the exit, cape billowing behind her.
"Kara, stop!"
"It's Dominators, Caitlin! We can't wait!" Kara was legitimately on the verge of bulldozing past the doctor on her way out of the labs.
"What's going on?" Harry asked, reentering the lab.
"Dominator mind control," Alex updated him. "That's why Barry's acting the way he is."
"Lovely," Harry muttered sardonically.
"I'm leaving," Kara declared, making for the exit again.
"Kara, we've been through this," Harry lectured at her. "You saw Barry take down Superman and Kid Flash. You're not fast enough. You can't just—"
"Then give me a plan!" Kara snapped, finally at the end of her rope with just sitting and doing nothing. Barry was under Dominator mind control, the entire League was under attack, and she needed to do something about it. She glared around the room. "I'm open to anything, but I am not just going to wait without any idea of what to do next! Barry needs me. Now."
A small part of Kara's brain understood things from everyone else's point of view and felt guilty for yelling at them like this, but her urgency was at a breaking point. Her thoughts had squarely been on saving Barry up to this point, and while that urgency remained, the stakes had suddenly become much, much higher with the real threat now revealed. Luckily, she saw Caitlin sigh and view her not with pity or defensiveness, but a perceptive understanding of what Kara must be feeling.
Caitlin started walking towards a blank wall of the lab. "There might be one option," she offered reluctantly.
"Snow…," Harry began, warningly. Caitlin ignored him and stopped in front of a seemingly random location at the edge of the lab. She pressed her hand against an innocuous, outwardly random tile in the pattern of the wall, and suddenly a secret compartment opened up in the tile right next to it. Reaching inside, Caitlin pulled out a vial of red liquid. "Absolutely not!" Harry cried.
"Harry," Caitlin countered, a warning in her own voice, "she has a right to at least consider her options."
"What is that?" Kara asked immediately, refusing to be referred to in the third person when she was standing right there.
"It's called Velocity 9," Caitlin explained, holding up the vial. "It's a serum designed to enhance a speedster's connection to the Speed Force, temporarily boosting his or her top speed."
"Call it what it is, Snow," Harry interrupted. "It's a drug. It's a speed drug."
"Which Harry and I developed together," Caitlin added.
"Yes, for speedsters," Harry shot back.
"Wait, so how does that help Kara?" Alex asked.
Harry gave Caitlin an intense glare, as if daring her to say any more, but Caitlin was not intimidated. "A while ago, a woman named Eliza Harmon got ahold of the drug and ended up using it. She became a speedster, despite being a human with no connection to the Speed Force."
"Are you serious?" Felicity asked, shocked and slightly aghast.
Caitlin nodded. "At the time, she was even faster than Barry."
Harry's attitude suggested to Kara that there was more to this story. "What happened to Eliza?"
"She died," Harry answered harshly. "Her body couldn't handle the serum and literally disintegrated right in front of Barry. Nothing left but her suit."
Silence prevailed over the group as the horror of the incident washed over everyone. Kara could still see where Caitlin was going with this, however. "I'm not human."
Caitlin shook her head, seeming to have expected Kara to catch on quickly. "No, you're not. Your Kryptonian biology is way tougher than ours, so even without a connection to the Speed Force, you may still be able to take it without it killing you. You'd be able to keep up with Barry for a while."
Harry scoffed. "Even if she doesn't die, that's not the only disaster waiting to happen with this drug."
"And what does that mean?" Alex interjected.
"It means she'll go crazy!" Harry snapped.
"Harry!" Caitlin reprimanded.
Harry closed his eyes and took a breath, seeming to acknowledge that he had chosen his words poorly. When he opened them again, he looked directly at Kara. "Eliza was perfectly healthy before taking the V-9. After she took it, she developed a split personality. The drug destroyed her mind."
Kara curled her hands into fists to keep them from shaking. First Psi, now this?
"Besides, it's a cheat," Harry insisted. "A shortcut to get faster."
"Harry, Kara's not a speedster," Caitlin shot back. "It's a question of Kryptonian biology, not Speed Force connection. Her natural speed has an upper limit."
"Making that drug was one of the greatest mistakes of my life," Harry persisted, in a sober but dogged voice, "and in the end, not even Barry used it. Kara, it's too dangerous. For us and for you."
The sincerity of his voice struck her, and for a moment she hesitated, turning to Caitlin with a silent question in her eyes. Will this work?
Caitlin shook her head. "I can't know for sure, Kara. I believe your biology would protect you, but everything Harry's said is also true. Under any other circumstances I wouldn't recommend this, but it's your decision."
What a decision it was. Without more information, more tests, every part of Kara's rational being was telling her to find another way. The emotional side of her, however, focused not just on Barry, but on Clark, and on all the Leaguers who could be at the mercy of homicidal aliens. How long before they used Barry to sweep away all resistance? How much longer could the Girl of Steel do nothing?
She turned to the person she trusted above all else. "Can you look at it? Tell me what you think?" she asked Alex.
Nodding, Alex understood immediately and walked over to Caitlin, holding out her hand. "Let me examine this serum before we decide anything."
Too late, Kara realized she may have inadvertently insulted Caitlin, unwilling to trust her opinion on something she helped create, but fortunately Alex picked up on that as well, following up, "You're the expert on Barry's physiology, but I know more about Kara's. It'll take both of us to give her as much information as we can." Unable to argue with that logic, Caitlin handed over the vial, and Alex headed to the bio lab.
"In the meantime," Caitlin then said, as Alex walked away, "we can still make other preparations. Harry, is the suit almost ready?"
"This is a bad idea," Harry began, clearly unwilling to give the conversation a rest.
"Harry," Caitlin repeated, calmly and evenly.
Harry sighed. "Yes, it's almost ready."
"Good. Keep me posted." Caitlin turned to Felicity, still seated at the desk while watching the ping-ponging conversation the whole time. "Can you track the origin of the Dominator signal?"
"I think so," Felicity replied, swiveling on her chair back to the controls. "We've seen this type of signal before from the last invasion, which is probably why the satellite was able to see it at all. Should be able to trace where it's coming from."
"Get working on it." Caitlin's head turned to face Kara, a silent question of her own now. How's that for a plan?
Kara gave her a small nod of gratitude. "Thank you," she mouthed.
…
"This suit's design and material will protect you from Kryptonite's long-range effects. You won't feel weak or nauseous, just like Non's suit did for him."
"What about direct attacks?"
Harry hesitated. "Normally, your other abilities would be more than enough to counter anyone trying to physically hit you with Kryptonite."
"Against Barry?" Kara persisted.
"Well," Harry continued, "with all due respect to your nickname, from what Caitlin's told me, Barry learned how to punch steel just months after getting his powers." He paused, seemingly trying to remember exactly how Caitlin had explained it. "Something about a meta that could turn his skin into metal. Barry's only gotten stronger since, and now that he's got Kryptonite behind those punches…"
"…I should be careful," Kara finished for him. "Got it." Observing the suit Harry had finished for her, Kara could certainly appreciate the workmanship he, Cisco, and Winn had put into it. It was a full, dark blue, one-piece uniform that covered from neck to toes, closer in design to Aunt Astra's militaristic style rather than her own skirt-and-leggings combination, with reinforced padding around the thighs, knees, shoulders, forearms, and elbows to handle the stress of fights. The sleeves ended in straps to be looped around the meat of her thumbs, in a similar style to her normal suit. An armored belt broke up the upper and lower sections, and the S-shield was heavily stylized in a cool, almost glowing blue. Attached to the shield and running both around the neck and down the back was a dark red cape, the hue matching padded, fitted calf boots.
"Honestly, an upgrade like this was long overdue," Harry said, observing his handiwork. "I don't know why you and your cousin don't wear suits like this all the time to protect yourself from Kryptonite."
"Because suits like these are for battle," Kara quickly answered. "For war. That's not what the House of El represents." Her admiration for the suit's technical and aesthetic qualities didn't mask the bitter taste in her mouth at the idea of wearing it. As Harry didn't seem to have a retort, however, she continued to acquaint herself with it, her eyes drifting to the top. "What's that for?" she asked, pointing at the face piece.
"That will protect your mind from any external psychic threats," Harry explained, taking it down to show her. It was a minimalist piece of tech, attaching around her forehead and under her chin while leaving the rest of her head and face clear. "We don't know yet how Barry got mind-controlled, but we need to make sure you're safe, whether the psychic attack comes from Dominators or metas."
Kara nodded. "Thank you, Harry," she said, inflecting her voice to let him know she appreciated the custom protection and the work that went into it. "Really."
"You're welcome, Kara." With that, Harry turned to return the headpiece to the dummy on which the suit was currently draped, and Kara heard a knock.
"Hey, can I talk to you?" Alex asked, walking in.
"Sure," Kara said. "We can go to the med bay."
"Don't bother," Harry interjected, already walking past them towards the door out of Cisco's work lab. "I need to update Caitlin anyway." Without another word, he left them alone.
Kara turned to Alex. "Will it work?"
"I…I think so."
"Good enough for me."
"Kara," Alex began, passing the V-9 between her hands, "just because this serum can make you fast enough to stop Barry, that doesn't mean it's worth all the other risks. Caitlin and I have no idea what kind of side effects you'll suffer with your physiology. Physically or mentally." She paused a moment before finishing, "Barry wouldn't want you endangering yourself like this."
"This isn't about Barry," Kara snapped, weary of yet another "it's too dangerous" argument.
Alex gave her a look and crossed her arms. "You can't lie to me, Kara."
Kara held Alex's eyes for a moment before dropping them and sighing, slightly chastened. "Okay fine, it's not just about Barry." Looking back up, Kara saw that Alex had softened, accepting her unspoken apology for trying to brush past the issue. "I promise Rao, I'll do whatever I have to do to save him, but it's more than that."
"Is this about your panic attack?"
Having a perceptive sister is so annoying, Kara thought. "I just…," she started, grudgingly, "…I need to make this right. While I was knocked out on the ground, Barry got mind-controlled, and we saw him take out Clark and Wally. I've just been sitting here," she added in frustration, flipping her hands downwards to emphasize her point, "and meanwhile he probably took out J'onn and Oliver and anyone else who could beat him, too."
"We don't know that for sure," Alex shot back.
"S.T.A.R. Labs was the only JL hub to install the new security upgrades, and we still got lucky Barry didn't come after us, activating them as late as we did. None of the others could be defended like ours. That has to be why we can't bring them up on comms." She had to make Alex understand. "I'm the only one left with even a chance."
"Kara, this isn't your fault," Alex urged. "Getting ambushed by Rainbow Raider. Getting ambushed by Psi. Your reaction afterwards. No one blames you for this, and rushing out to prove something to yourself is just not a good idea."
"Alex, I'm one of the founding members of the League," Kara replied, willing her sister to understand, "and the League is in danger." She took a couple steps forward and covered Alex's hand, the hand that held the Velocity 9, with her own. "This is my responsibility."
Kara wasn't sure there was ever a moment in her life on Earth that Alex didn't worry about her in one form or another, but at least this time she could see Alex respect her decision. Alex's hands shifted to grip Kara's. "Well, you're not going at this on your own."
"I never said I was," Kara quipped, rolling her eyes and chuckling. Putting on a mock pout of annoyance, she needled her sister. "Geez, you never listen to me," she sighed.
"Shut up."
…
Alex walked into the main labs to find Caitlin, Felicity, and Harry hunched over the console. Caitlin and Harry turned to look at her, a silent question in their eyes.
"We're a go," Alex said. Caitlin nodded. Harry tightened his jaw but said nothing.
"There," Felicity said, pointing to a blinking dot on her screen. Everyone else turned to the console. "That's where the Dominator signal is coming from."
"Where is that?" Harry asked, squinting his eyes.
"Somewhere in the middle of the Great Basin Desert."
"Not a bad place to hide," Alex acknowledged. "The DEO's used the desert to conceal plenty of sensitive secrets."
"Can you disable it from here somehow?" Caitlin asked.
"No," Felicity replied in frustration. "And even worse, I recalibrated the satellite to look for alien signals, and there're jamming fields all over the place. National City. Star City. A new one just went up in Metropolis, too."
"What about Barry?" Caitlin asked. "Can you find him?"
"He must be moving too fast," Felicity replied again, "and obviously he must have ditched his JL earpiece a long time ago. I have no idea where he is."
"But if we destroy the source of that signal, that should free Barry, right?"
"If our history with the Dominators serves."
"There's no way it could be that easy," Harry insisted.
"Well, I guess we're about to find out," Kara interjected, walking into the labs.
Alex turned around and immediately saw what Kara could be like if she stood for war, for rule and conquest, and not peace. The full-body one-piece suit, the stylized S-shield, the glowing face pieces and armor-like padding, the dark red waves on her back that seemed to be part cape, part cloak. Alex knew it was all the same to Kara's Kryptonian physiology, but the various pieces of the outfit nevertheless seemed to weigh more heavily on her, giving her a more serious, almost cold bearing. It was hard thinking of her as Kara Danvers, rather than as Kara Zor-El.
Then she caught Alex staring and rolled her shoulders awkwardly in response. "It itches," she complained, making a face. Alex laughed.
Harry stepped forward and gently took the Velocity 9 vial Kara was holding in her hand. "Once again, I'd like to protest this," he persisted.
"You said it yourself," Kara countered. "Taking out that Dominator transmitter can't be as easy as it looks. We have to assume Barry will be defending it."
"And in that case, the V-9 is Kara's only chance," Caitlin finished.
Sighing, Harry walked around behind Kara and gently lifted one corner of her cape at her left shoulder. Pressing a button, he opened a small compartment hidden in Kara's shoulder pad, inserted the vial, closed the compartment, and then let her cape fall back into place, completely hiding it. "That compartment includes a miniature delivery system encased in lead," Harry explained. "If you activate it, a small needle laced with low levels of Kryptonite will inject the V-9 into your bloodstream and then retract back into the lead casing."
"How can I activate it?"
"Your shoulder pad material will recognize your fingerprint. Just touch any finger to it, and the system will deploy."
Kara nodded. Felicity stepped forward and handed her a JL communicator to place in her ear. "We'll be with you the whole way. I've modified this to cut through the Dominator jamming fields that we've seen."
Taking the earpiece, Kara flipped her hair back to insert it, seeming to catch what everyone was thinking as she did so. "I won't use the V-9 unless I have to," she reassured them, looking specifically at Alex.
"Just be careful," Alex urged.
"I will."
A minute later, the S.T.A.R. Labs group stood gathered around their screens as Kara flew out and up away from the building. Caitlin entered a command at her station, and a small circular hole opened up at the top of the protective, spherical force field around them. Kara flew through it, the hole closed behind her, and they watched as she soared into the distance.
…
"You should be right over it," Felicity said in her ear.
"Are you sure?" Kara yelled back, trying to make her voice heard over the wind as she flew through the clouds.
"Yeah, why?"
"Because there's nothing here." All she saw was the dirt and brush of the desert in every direction.
"That's not possible," Felicity insisted. "The signal's coming from those coordinates, clear as day."
"Well, I don't see anything," Kara insisted back, arcing herself downward so that she was speeding back and forth closer to the ground. "It's all just—"
BANG.
Kara's body crumpled like it'd hit a solid wall before bouncing backwards in the air and plummeting to the ground. Her eyes widened in surprise as she found herself suddenly on her back, facing the sky.
"Kara? Kara, are you okay?" Alex asked, concerned.
Kara blinked several times in confusion, her limbs splayed on the ground as though she was about to make a snow angel. "I…I hit something," she said, nonplussed. Standing up, Kara's head swiveled left, right, forward, and back, but she still didn't see anything other than the plain colors of the desert. Walking forward, she tentatively raised her hands in front of her, like she was stumbling in the dark, and stopped when they flattened against something she couldn't see. "There's something here."
"What is it?" Caitlin asked.
Kara narrowed her eyes, calling on her X-ray vision, and suddenly the space in front of her was lit up with glowing bodies. Unconscious and neatly laid out, but clearly breathing, bodies.
"I found them!" Kara exclaimed, recognizing what she saw. "The Justice League! They're all here, and they're definitely alive!"
"Wait, seriously?" Felicity asked in disbelief.
"There's some kind of cloak around whatever they're in, but I can see them with my X-ray vision."
"Can you get them out?"
"One sec," Kara said. She disabled her X-ray vision and began running her hands over the seemingly solid air in front of her. She felt smooth, metallic curves but could not otherwise discern any sort of door or latch, and so finally, losing her patience, she drew back her fist and punched forward. The metal cratered underneath her superstrength in a way it hadn't against her flight collision, sending ripples through the air in a vague formation until the form of a ship materialized before her eyes, the cloak failing in the face of her assault.
The Dominator vessel was the size of a multistory house, dome-shaped, and built out of shiny grey metal they had all seen before from previous Dominator ships. The one blemish in the smooth design of the ship was a red orb that she could just barely see, way at the top of the hull, secured by three spindle-like prongs. She instantly recognized it.
"Hey, you all seeing this?"
"Oh yeah," Felicity replied. "That's the same kind of orb that controlled everyone's minds last time."
"Rather conspicuous, isn't it?" Caitlin commented.
"All that matters is that it's a clear target," Alex quipped.
"Copy that," Kara said. Crouching down, she leapt high into the air, easily clearing the top of the ship, and the peak of her jump, she pulled back her fist. The wind rushing through her hair, Kara plummeted down towards the orb, ready to disintegrate the source of all this havoc.
Unfortunately, mere feet from the orb, her body suddenly rocked off course as a glowing fist slammed into her face, sending her spiraling through the air away from the ship before landing in a cloud of dust and dirt. Shaking her head and pushing herself up to one knee, Kara looked up at the top of the ship only to catch a burst of lightning streaking down the hull. Before she knew it, the lightning stopped in front of her, yielding the sight they all feared, that she dreaded most of all.
It was Barry.
His suit was a mess, torn in various places and covered in dirt. His cowl was in pieces and fluttering around his neck, and while it hadn't been clear from the video earlier, Kara could now see that his face sported various new cuts and bruises that nevertheless looked days old. He clearly hadn't gotten through all of his Justice League abductions unscathed, but his healing powers were as functional as ever. Most disturbing to Kara were his eyes. Those same eyes, capable of so much love and affection, that she could still see light up whenever he was around a person he loved, were devoid of any emotion. The coldness in those pools made her throat tighten painfully.
She rose to her feet. "Barry," she began, holding out a hand. She was calmer than she expected, but even still there was a slight tremble in her voice. "Barry, snap out of it. Please." No reply.
"Are you sure that new suit's even helping?" Alex asked in frustration over the comms.
"She's standing, isn't she?" Harry retorted. "In any other situation, Kryptonite that close would have her on her knees." Eyes drifting over to the green glow around Barry's tattered fists, Kara had to admit that Harry had a point. She didn't feel the excruciating rivers of ice that flowed through her veins and up every nerve whenever Kryptonite affected her normally. Working her jaw, which smarted from the punch, it was clear Barry's pure speed was the biggest danger here, combining with the Kryptonite knuckles to counter her normal superstrength and invulnerability.
She tried again. "Barry, you have to fight it! We know a Dominator's controlling you!"
At first, there was again no reply, but then Barry began to grimace slightly, wincing as though a migraine was coming on. In the next moment, his forehead glowed with the pink, sparkling pattern showing a Dominator's mind control. Even worse, it was then that Barry finally spoke. "So, the puny Earthlings figured it out."
Kara took a step back, recoiling. It was Barry's voice, but there was an echo in it, similar to the way Caitlin spoke as Killer Frost. Except this echo was harsh, grinding, and undeniably alien, as though a being unfamiliar with the workings of humanoid vocal chords was gnashing through the words. The rhythm, cadence, and inflection of the speech were all wrong, a fundamental violation of Barry himself, and outrage bubbled up in Kara's chest.
"Let. Him. Go," Kara intoned darkly, fists balling at her sides.
Barry laughed, and the chilling, hollow sound made Kara's skin crawl. "Or what? Compared to me, you're practically in quicksand."
"You'd be surprised," she muttered. Hoping to catch him off guard, Kara took off, hoping to tackle Barry and physically knock sense into him. When she was inches away, however, Barry's own speed kicked in, and he grabbed her arm, spun her around at least a dozen times, and then threw her back from the ship, her velocity slamming her into the dirt.
He disappeared in a burst of lightning, and suddenly he was in front of her again as she lay on the ground. "Pathetic," Barry intoned in disgust. "You may be faster than most, but you're still no match for me."
"Stop talking like that!" Kara spat. "Don't talk like you're him. You're not Barry!"
"Hmm," was Barry's reply, smirking slightly as he looked condescendingly down at her. "Girl of Steel, did I hit a nerve?"
"I swear to Rao, I"ll—"
"You'll what?" Barry interrupted. "Stop the fastest man alive? You couldn't even beat a couple of humans playing mind tricks with you."
It took a beat for Kara to realize what the Dominator was talking about. "So Rainbow Raider and Psi are your allies?"
"'Allies' is rather strong a word," Barry sniffed arrogantly. "You humanoids are so susceptible to our telepathic abilities. To them, I was just another human with a lot of money who needed a job done."
"They were mercenaries?" Kara asked incredulously. All the grief that had been caused by those two, and the metahumans were just hired help?
"Son of a…" Felicity muttered through the comm in her ear.
"Ah, so easily deceived," Barry taunted. "I'll admit, the fear-inducing one…'Psi,' was it? She proved quite useful in incapacitating this body," he said, motioning with his hands to indicate himself. "I even let her borrow these lovely green knuckles to take you out. It really is so convenient that the ruins of your world are scattered throughout the galaxy." Barry began inspecting the bulky, reinforced Kryptonite knuckles enveloping his hands bizarrely, like he was checking on his manicure. "After that, it was a simple matter of using the orb to take over the speedster's mind."
"Just his?" Kara asked suspiciously.
"Yes well, you humanoids have proven to be astoundingly unreliable, as we all learned in our previous invasion," Barry retorted airily. "Rather than enslave a group of you and let you run amok, I decided singular control of the Scarlet Speedster would be better. And look," he gestured, waving his hands to indicate the ship behind him. "Turns out the whole Justice League can be defeated by one alien-controlled metahuman."
"And you used Barry's speed to set up jamming fields all over the country, to block our frequencies," Kara followed.
"How do you humans manage without telepathy?" Barry mocked. "Some jamming transmitters, some tedious running around the country, and in no time you were…what's your expression, again? 'Chickens with your heads cut off'?"
"Well, how about you let Barry go and show yourself?" Kara asked in irritation. "You've got the rest of the League. What're you afraid of?"
Barry's chuckle was light and mocking. "You sell yourself short, Supergirl. I've great respect for your abilities, and I'll enjoy taking your life."
It was Kara's turn for a mocking laugh. "I've already seen inside your ship. All of the Leaguers are still alive. You can't kill me even if you want to, can you?" Her challenge was met with a hideous scowl on Barry's face that she desperately hoped she'd never see again, but it also confirmed her suspicions. "What's the matter? Barry fighting your mind control?" Her smug face was triumphant…and proud. "You can abuse his powers, but you can't make him kill."
Barry flexed his neck angrily as the Dominator contorted his body. "No matter. Once I take you down, your entire precious Justice League will get blasted into space far, far away. I don't have to kill you all to be rid of you and clear the way for our takeover of Earth."
"Try it." Once again trying to catch Barry off guard, she stood suddenly and used her superbreath, hoping to blast him into the air where he'd be more vulnerable, but once again Barry was simply too fast. The air was barely out of her lungs before he sped across her, slamming another punch into her stomach. She stumbled but recovered, only for Barry to zoom past in the other direction, clocking her in the face. Desperately she tried to raise her arms to defend herself, but she couldn't stop the predictable left-right-left-right assault simply because of how blindingly fast he was. Like Clark before her, her own enhanced speed only gave her enough forewarning to know a strike was coming, but her reflexes to do anything about it simply weren't good enough. Finally, a jarring right hook sent her back to the ground. She spat dirt out of her mouth as she pushed herself onto her knees.
"Interesting," Barry observed, dropping out of superspeed to casually pace in front of her while examining the green glowing from his fists again. "You don't seem as affected by the Kryptonite as your cousin. The new suit, perhaps?"
Kara wasn't keen on this Dominator figuring out her only protection from the deadly ore, so she leapt into flight in order to get some distance from him. Before clearing more than a few feet, however, she saw a streak of lightning and then felt a sharp tug on her cape, the sheer force of the pull dragging her off course. Then she was swinging around and around through the air, the newly designed cape unfortunately working against her as this one wrapped around her neck before flowing down her back. Pressure built around her throat as Barry spun her in circle after circle, until suddenly the pain vanished and she hurtled through the air, stopped only by a stack of boulders hundreds of meters away that her body pulverized. Dust and dirt choked her as she held her throat and dry-retched from the strain.
Before she could catch her breath, a hand grabbed her bodily and speeded her all the way back the way she had come, throwing her into the dirt at the foot of the huge prison ship. As she rolled to a stop, Kara didn't have to look up to know Barry was stalking towards her again, relentless in his toying of her.
She closed her eyes as she heaved and coughed, always knowing it would come to this but still nervous nevertheless. "He's too fast," Kara muttered. "I can't even get airborne. I can't do anything without him reacting immediately."
"Kara…," Alex warned over the communicator.
"I have to do this, Alex."
A moment of silence passed before Alex replied. "Be careful, Supergirl."
Taking a deep breath, Kara got back up on one knee and rested her right hand on her left upper arm, as though it was injured. The Dominator contorted Barry's face into a sneer as he approached, pink sparkling energy on his forehead glowing, if possible, an even more sinister shade. "Ready to give up, Supergirl? I'll put you next to your cousin, if you'd like. The last children of Krypton can wander the void of space together, with dead human bodies as company."
"Remind me to tell Barry never to do a bad guy speech," Kara grunted. "It doesn't suit him." With that, she raised her hand from her upper arm to her shoulder, pressing her fingertips against the pad. Nothing happened outwardly, but she felt a stab as the hidden Kryptonite needle pierced her skin, injecting her with the V-9. She winced again a couple seconds later when the needle retracted from her body back into its lead casing.
Barry's eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?"
"Leveling the playing field," Kara growled. Looking down, she glimpsed tendrils of lightning curling around her hands and forearms. A slight tremor through her body quickly morphed into violent jerks and convulsions, like she was being electrocuted. Quite the opposite of Kryptonite exposure, Kara felt like every artery, vein, and nerve was on fire as all her muscles seized up, and against her will her head jerked back, her eyes burning as she involuntarily let out an anguished scream towards the sky.
"What've you done?" Barry demanded, the Dominator's control surrendering a look of alarm.
"Kara, talk to me!" Alex cried.
As suddenly as the agony had come on, it stopped, and Kara choked out air her body had been unable to release. Tipping sideways, she threw out a hand to lean against the side of the Dominator ship, breathing heavily, and turning her head, she saw herself in the reflective hull. Despite the metallic material and awkward curve of the ship's exterior, Kara could still make out her own eyes, charged with an energy quite different than her heat vision. If anything, it looked like miniature lightning bolts were shooting across her blue irises.
"No," Barry snarled, rushing forward to grab her. Without even thinking, Kara raised her hand and caught Barry's wrist, bringing him to a dead stop. It took both of them a beat to realize what had happened: Barry used his superspeed, and Kara stopped him.
"Barry," Kara said, resolve flooding her body along with the V-9, "I'm bringing you home."
…
Author's notes: Kara's new suit is based on artwork and promotional images for Supergirl in the Injustice 2 video game.