Note 1: So I recently watched the pilot for Flash once again for reasons Karry Universe readers need to wait and see about, but from there I realised the 'main lab' at STAR Labs is called the Cortex! They seem to forgotten to designate it that these days so have reinstated the name in this chapter and all that follows, so please don't get confused when 'the cortex' is mentioned from now on.
Note 2: Please also remember that this is set in the early part of 'Verses Zoom' so Zoom's real identity as Hunter Zoloman isn't yet feely known (same applies to all revelations/twists since said episode aired, including Jesse's return to Central).
Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.
Chapter Three – From One Stand of Hair.
"Her name was Kara." They were outside now, as they couldn't risk returning to the lab yet because of the clone Kyle Nimbus' effective poison gas cloud. Cisco insisted they could vent him, but Barry didn't want to take that risk; if he was confined in STAR Labs it was better than causing havoc in the city. Now though they wanted to know about the hair, about 'Sparky and Shrieky' and why Barry had been so distracted since breaking Zoom's speed record.
"When I ran, before with the speed canon device Wells made from Reverse-Flash's information, I breached; it seemed like a moment to you guys but it was longer for me." Barry explained thinking of the time he was gone. "I breached twice, actually – I went to two different Earths."
"Two Earths? Woah!" Cisco looked shocked, but it was nothing to Iris or Caitlin's silent reaction.
"You did go off the radar for like a second, yeah" Caitlin commented quietly, trying to make sense of it all and remembering when Barry had 'disappeared' only to reappear a moment later. She hadn't given it much thought until this moment. "But I thought you'd just gone so fast we couldn't keep track of you…"
"How long, Barry?" Iris had taken Barry's hand, looking at the expression on her best friend's face.
"Two days…" Barry muttered, looking her in the eyes this time, seeing her purse her lips in shock at the information.
"Wait, you were gone for two days? But it was only a second, like Caitlin said" Cisco pointed out now, trying to make sense of the time difference.
"I dunno," Barry removed his gaze at Iris to look at Cisco, "I time-travelled back to the moment I left, I suppose, but it still happened, I can't forget… it's hard."
"What happened? Who is Kara?" Caitlin asked, but there was more to her simple question than words would allow. There was a look in Barry's eyes when he said her name and Caitlin couldn't help but feel there was more to Kara than Barry was letting on.
"When I breached," Barry moved away from them now, looking away as he explained, "I landed in another world. The first world I went to – Earth-3, I guess – in that world you guys weren't in it, not even STAR Labs. Central was around though. But Kara… she was, well she is, a superhero and I mean super." He looked to Cisco now, as he couldn't help hide a grin. "She was an alien. I saw her spaceship."
"An alien?! How…? What…?" For once Barry had made Cisco somewhat speechless. "That Earth had aliens? I mean seriously aliens? Were they green? Did she look humanoid? She had a super power? What type of powers? Why could she do it? Why was she –?"
"Calm down!" Barry said holding up his hand as Cisco questioned him. "One at a time. She looked human enough, was about your height, Caitlin, and our age, had a job by day and saved people by… well, whenever she should. She had all these cool superpowers too. It was something about the yellow sun being able to charge her body or something. It made her different so I assume her home sun was different, but she had these laser eyes and was able to let out a blast of cold air from her mouth, she had super strength and could fly and was even almost as fast as me on foot, too! Possibly faster or the same while she was in the air."
"She sounds… impossible" Caitlin pointed out, but Barry could tell she, along with Cisco and Iris, did believe him.
"I helped her though. I was able to do my part. See the speed canon thing didn't work, not being of that Earth so not vibrating right, I assume anyway, so I thought I was stuck. She had this ex-colleague meta who could scream so loudly it was like a physical barrier, like Harley's glove things – I was even able to fashion ear plugs from when he was our enemy." He had to remember he'd changed that part of history now; the Pied Piper was no longer a nemesis to STAR Labs.
"I guess that one was Shrieky?" Cisco commented and Barry nodded. "Who came up with that name?"
"I did!" Barry protested, adding, "But she called herself Silver Banshee."
"Now that is cool. Silver Banshee," Cisco nodded approvingly as Iris and Caitlin rolled their eyes at him and Barry sighed.
"Sparky was actually called Livewire and had the ability to manipulate, and become, electricity. I don't actually know how either of them got their powers as it wasn't even Central City and, like I said, there was no Particle Accelerator to explode…" Barry realised this as he said it, the conversation never having come up with Kara as he took for granted meta-humans these days. It had never accorded to him they shouldn't exist there anyway, what with the alien Supergirl.
"You weren't in Central? Where were you then?" Caitlin asked.
"National City," Barry said. "Nice place. Had never been there before, even if it was an alternative Earth's National."
"Odd question, but did you meet Cat Grant?" Iris spoke out, Barry looking to her amazed.
"Yeah, Kara was her assistant. How do you know about Cat?"
"She runs the company that owns the newspaper I work for. I thought you knew?" Iris stated innocently. "CatCo Media. Big in National but not as well known outside the city, from what I've heard, Cat is power-hungry and won't be happy until she has her claws in every major city in America" Iris now chuckled.
"That sounds like her. I think she did it in that reality, conquer America I mean." It felt good to finally talk about his time away, to find that it wasn't too alien the other world he'd been to after all. So if Cat Grant existed, who else did?
He'd gotten on well with Winn. Then there was James who had seemed jealous of him for no real reason. What about Kara herself? If there were aliens in the other universe why not in this one? Was there's an Earth-1 Kara somewhere? Had her planet never exploded in his universe or did she die with Krypton, instead? It was also possible her and her cousin never made it to Earth; perhaps they were sent to another planet? Or were they here but in hiding? Even if they were here her last name might not be Danvers – it could be anything. Any family could have taken her in. Hell her planet might have even formed life in this universe. There were way too many possibilities and they made Barry's head hurt trying to think.
"The hair," Caitlin interrupted. "It's hers isn't it? The alien girl with the superpowers?"
"I assume so." Barry nodded solemnly now, concentrating on their discussion, "I mean the only other people I know with long blond hair are the Lance sisters, Felicity Smoak and Patty. Duplicate already had Patty's DNA though and I haven't been to Star City in a long while. There hasn't been a chance to meet the other three to get a stray hair off them." He shrugged. "But would Duplicate even be able to clone an alien? She mentioned animals and humans."
"There's a body in the cortex and you lot are on about clones." None of them had heard Doctor Wells come outside to them, but Cisco jumped at the sudden other voice and the two women glanced to the doctor. Barry remained stoic in his position however, "which means either you're up to something dangerous or there's a meta on the loose who can clone other metas."
"Mist is dead?" Barry asked quietly.
"If that's what you called him then yes." Wells responded. "And if your latest foe is who I think she is you need to be ready for anything."
-SuperFlash-
Duplicate had made sure to clean up after she had had left, as the cortex was poison gas free and Nimbus' dead body was solid. It was almost a shame to have even given him life to just take it away so quickly, proving Duplicate had no concern for human life herself, beyond her own of course. It was worrying.
Barry and Cisco had removed the corpse from the room, leaving him in the cooler storage and returning to the cortex to hear Wells' explanation on what he knew toward their latest meta. He was sitting quietly at the desk as the guys returned; Barry hadn't even taken off his Flash outfit.
"So, Duplicate?" Barry asked the moment he and Cisco walked in. "What do you know?"
"On my Earth she went by the name 'Doppelgänger', and she was dangerous." Wells started, addressing all in the room but focussing on Barry. "When Zoom found out about her, he recruited her into his little gang; he had a plan to use her to clone himself and steal his own clone's speed. But it didn't work. At least not in the way he'd planned."
"How do you know all this?" Barry interjected.
"When your daughter is kidnapped and possibly dead, you do all you can to find out about the psycho who took her in the first place!" Wells snapped at Barry, taking a moment before adding thoughtfully, "Everything but his true identity of course…" he sighed, pinching his noise as he continued from before. "Anyway, stealing his clone selves' speed proved effective in short bursts, like Caitlin's Velocity mix, but he couldn't keep on killing himself for his powers, it's why he turned his attention to other speedsters like yourself, Allen. True speed-force, not a simple copy of it."
"What did he do to Duplicate – I mean Doppelgänger?" Cisco breathed, hanging on to Wells' every word.
"He killed her of course," Wells replied casually. "Turning his attention to me as he did so. But it proved something too. Doppelgänger wasn't so… selective on who she copied. There was a time, Mr. Ramone, when there was more than one version of a meta-human on my Earth. You thought it was bad when you had to face off Killer Frost, Deathstorm and Reverb? Imagine plenty of them, all working for Zoom under Doppelgänger's tutelage. But when Zoom killed Doppelgänger in cold blood, all but the originals died with her. It was almost a relief for us, to suddenly be faced with so little."
"She's going to create another Flash to control. And Supergirl?" Barry voiced, his tone hollow with worry.
"Supergirl? Is that Kara?" Cisco asked Barry who nodded. "Who does the names over there? That's a really ageist… or sexist… or whatever name. Surely Superwoman…?"
"Not now, Ramone," Wells cut him off, annoyed at Cisco's intervention. He looked at Barry. "Can you bring yourself to do it Barry, to kill someone to stop them from unleashing a force you can't stop?"
"To cut off the head of the snake…" Barry quoted, almost in a trance.
"No. Barry, that's not you!" Iris pointed out quickly, finally speaking out. "You don't kill metas, you don't kill anyone!"
Barry seemed to come out of his trance as he looked to Iris. He was torn. "You don't know the full strength of Supergirl; I could never face her off on my own, or another version of myself, for that matter. I have a hard enough time dealing with Zoom, not to mention the Reverse-Flash, but if I could stop them both at their source, before they can do any damage…"
"I think it's too late for that." Caitlin, unnoticed by the others had set up her laptop, probably searching for Duplicate while they spoke, but now she had turned the monitor to face the others and Barry saw a face he thought he'd never see again on the screen, albeit slight pixelated. Button nose, piercing blue eyes, rolling dirty blond hair… the only thing that was different was the outfit; she was all in back instead of blue and red, and there was no cape or 'S' symbol. The image was a close-up from surveillance footage and she seemed to be hovering, looking at something. Watching. Waiting?
"It's her!" Barry breathed. "Where is she?"
"Central City Bank. And she's not alone." Caitlin swapped surveillance footage to show a red streak dashing into the bank below the floating woman before it zoomed out again. "Why didn't she follow?"
"She's luring me in," Barry sighed. "I… gotta go face her."
"Be careful." Iris now intoned.
"Remember what I said, Allen." Wells added as Barry nodded and vanished in a red streak himself.
-SuperFlash-
Barry arrived at the bank a mere moment after he'd left STAR Labs. He hadn't even had time to really think of how he was going to deal with this Supergirl, or if she had any memories from her other life – she had just come from a strand of hair after all. The other Flash had been and gone already, and Caitlin was tracking Barry's vitals to match anything similar in the city, hoping to find Duplicate's hideout at the same time.
Now the real Flash stood atop the rooftop of the bank, hardly being able to take in the figure floating above him. Below, on ground-level, plenty of the authorities were gathered, weapons pointed but it seemed they hadn't acted. It was good considering those guns would do nothing at all. Barry was glad that Joe wasn't among them too.
"Kara?" Barry now asked tentatively, his attention on the woman.
"Flash," she replied harshly, "or should I say Barry Allen? It wasn't hard for Duplicate to realise who you were when she copied you."
"It was inevitable," Barry replied. "Kara, do you remember me?"
"Of course I don't! Duplicate made me from genetics, not memories. She may be good but she's not a god. At least I know a name to go by now."
"Why did you wait for me? To lure me or fight me?" Barry had his fists clenched; he was ready even if he didn't want to face it.
"I… yes," Kara stated, hesitating for a mere moment, seeming unsure before powering up her eyes.
"You figured out how to work them then?" Barry kicked off, running headlong into the clone before she could respond or fire at him and pulling her from the air. He didn't stop as he tried to throw her from the rooftop, but she stopped a few feet out, dazed but floating.
"That was unfair!" She replied, breathing her cold jet of freeze-breath on Barry, which he of course only just managed to dodge.
"I don't know what her plan is, but I can't hold her off forever guys!" Barry called to the mic in his suit, connecting to Wells and the rest of STAR Labs.
"Get her to chase you!" Caitlin replied, sounding a little hesitant, but it was respectively the best plan; Barry didn't want innocents harmed.
"You think that was unfair? How about trying to freeze an innocent hero!" Barry finally retorted to the Kara clone.
"You're no hero, Flash!" She replied, going full out for Barry now as he ran – leaping off and down the building and away from the audience, the clone of Kara only just on his heel as he gave into a chase. Why did it always seem to end up that they raced? First on Earth-3 with the 'original' Kara to get him fast enough to open a breach, then on Earth-4 with Zoom on their tails and now this. There must have been something to it.
An idea struck Barry as he lurched forward. Why hadn't he thought of it sooner? He'd used it, unsuccessfully, on Zoom on Earth-4 after all.
In one quick and fluid moment, Barry span, grabbing the lighting that resulted from his speed and flung it directly at his pursuer.
Kara froze for a moment, still caught mid-run as the lightning struck her. Barry suspected that had this been either of the Kara's he'd previously met, with the life experience behind her, this would have been no different to being lightly tapped on the chest, but for the inexperienced clone that had only just learned to use her powers, the lightning was enough.
The clone Kara collapsed, still speeding forward due to the momentum and Barry didn't have time to act as she went headlong into the side of a building, bricks and mortar flying and imploding at the same time.
"Barry, what happened?" Wells' voice came on over the intercom.
"She'll be okay," Barry sighed, inching over to the collapsed wall now as he could just make out the woman in the rubble.
"Bring her back to the lab, she'll be an interesting study." Wells replied as Barry shifted a few bricks.
"Are you mad? You can't even penetrate her skin let alone…" he stopped as he heard the copy of Kara groan something under the bricks. "What?"
"I didn't say –" Wells responded.
"Not you! Kara…" Barry moved closer as he heard her words, repeated, like she was stuck in a loop.
"Can't hear… no control… Duplicate…" It sounded almost desperate, like she was lost.
"I think something's happened," Barry said softly, leaning down to the semi-conscious clone. "I think Duplicate's lost control of her!"
"Get her back, now Allen!" Wells commanded, Barry not stalling now as he scooped Kara from amongst the bricks and sped her back to STAR Labs.
Postscript; Not quite a big cliff-hanger as this week's episode, but I hope you guys liked. Next chapter on Monday/Tuesday time. Please REVIEW.