Welcome to the Universe! Sorry it took so long to make an update, but now that we've gotten some progress in other fanfics, it's time to continue this story. Enjoy.

HELPLESS

THE EARLY sun's rays bled through the dark blinds of Raven's room, her eyes slowly opening in irritation to their unwelcomed glow. Shifting her arm, she shut the curtains and pulled herself out of bed, giving a long, drawn-out yawn as she moved over to her vanity. She wiped the sleep from her face and looked at her reflection, jerking back in shock.

Her entire body had turned, her once purple skin replaced with a peachy Caucasian tone. She looked at her hand, fear moving through her tremulously as it shivered. She disrobed and looked at herself in the mirror, seeing that every inch of her had changed.

"What the hell?" She breathed heavily.

Feeling herself panic, she clasped her head and muttered to herself, calming her mind as she stepped toward the centre of the room. She lifted her arm, summoning books from her shelf and clothes from her wardrobe, donning her leotard and cowl as she hovered and began reading.

The pages flipped and the words flew into her mind, her magic exhausting as she hastily burned through all of the literature she had. If there was something to explain what was happening to her, it would be within these books. She opened another one, beginning to read when she felt heat swell up within her, a stream of red energy exuding from her mouth.

"Trigon." She gasped.

She frowned and glanced around the room, dropping her books on the floor as she hovered over the expanse in search of the presence she sensed. She pulled her sleeve and looked at her forearm, sighing in relief as the Marks of Sceth weren't glowing. She frowned though, looking from corner to corner as she felt something or someone was there.

"Hello?" She turned around.

A ball of purple energy appeared before her, spreading and forming into a magic circle that hovered near the wall. The aura swirled, creating a bright light that dimmed into an image of a woman clad in a white cloak. Raven raised her brow, flying closer to the projection, confusion etching on her face.

"Arella?"

"Raven, it took me a while to find where you were."

"What're you doing contacting me?" Raven frowned, looking at the buildings in the distance behind Arella. "Where are you?"

"I'm in Azarath."

"What? But, Azarath was destroyed." Raven's eyes dilated.

"It was, I was it's only survivor, but not until two months ago."

"Two months ago?"

"Yes. There's been a sudden shift in the cosmos, I lost much of capability to contact you and I was lost in a desolate purple realm, but that was until I stumbled onto Azarath. Its buildings, all its people, they're alive, Raven."

"But how? I saw it myself – you only made that illusion –,"

"Because I was unwilling to leave the past behind … I didn't want to accept what Trigon had done to my home, but I'm telling you the truth, Azarath has been restored."

"What about Azar?"

Arella frowned. "He's still gone."

"What's happening here?" Raven sifted her mind. "I end up in a different earth, my body's changing and now Azarath has returned?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." A white dove landed on Arella's shoulder and she petted it. "The cosmos has changed drastically and because of that, our connection to it has been disrupted. I was only able to sense you because I sensed Trigon; he's still alive."

"No, but my friends and I –,"

"Only weakened him. He had barely regained his power when he came to earth and had to bide his time after you had driven him away."

"Do you know where is?"

"No, but he has taken his gem from you and that's why I was able to sense you."

"So, I'm changing because he's no longer connected to me?"

"Yes."

"I'm finally free of him." Raven looked at her hands then it hit her. "But that means he doesn't need me anymore. He can come to earth at will."

"I had to warn you, Raven, you need to be prepared. He could attack at anytime and anywhere and him taking his power from you means he's far stronger now than ever."

HEARING THE door of the Quinjet open, Dick and Barbara walked onto the platform slowly, led by two SHIELD agents who walked them up to Phil Coulson. Removing the bags from their heads and unlocking their handcuffs, the soldiers stepped back from the two who looked at the director in confusion.

"Was that necessary?" Dick rubbed his wrist.

"We had to make it look good – even had 'em look like CIA ops to ward off suspicion." Phil shrugged. "Plus, we can't let you know where our base is."

"Well, what'd you arrest us for?" Barbara raised her brow.

"You disobeyed a direct order, you were supposed to leave Lex Luthor to us."

"We can't leave him unwatched, he's dangerous." Dick frowned.

"We already know that, that's why we've got ops surveying him."

"Well, we'd have gone a step further and gotten enough intel to incriminate him."

"What you did was trip several silent alarms and have his men on you in minutes. If we hadn't stepped in and pulled off that fake arrest, you'd have been captured."

"The alarms were tripped? But how? We hacked their motion sensors and surveillance." Barbara turned to Dick.

"I may be a lil rusty, but I'm not that rusty." Dick frowned.

"Whatever new systems he has in play, they spotted you." Phil received a tablet from an agent, looking at the document it showed. "Look, we understand that you've encountered him several times before, but let us handle this."

"You don't understand –,"

"I do understand, but this situation needs a level of discretion you don't have. He knows you and he's been preparing for you for years – he'll see you coming. Luthor has evidence that can reveal Changed Earth to the public and until we can obtain it, we need to keep a safe distance." Phil frowned. "Now, I need you to stand down and leave Luthor to us. That's an order, you understand?"

Dick glanced at Barbara then huffed. "Fine."

"Good, glad we understand each other." Phil walked away. "Bag 'em."

"Oh, not this again."

Two SHIELD agents tied black bags over their heads.

KARA ROUSED to a blinding light, squinting as she came to and looked around the room. She lay on a gurney in a small ward, the only other person in the room being Helen Cho who checked her vitals on a screen nearby. Hearing the blonde stir, the woman walked up to her, looking at her reactions carefully before speaking.

"Hello, Kara." She cooed.

"Nn … where am I?"

"You're back at the Door, I'm Dr Cho and I –,"

"Kara?" M'gann peeped into the room. "Oh, thank God, you're alright." She walked up to her, jerking back as the blonde winced. "What's wrong?" She turned to Helen.

"Try to keep your voice down." The woman whispered. "Her body's still adjusting after the shock, so she's gonna be a little sensitive for a while."

"What happened to me?" Kara strained.

"M'gann and Kaldur'ahm found you bleeding out on the floor of a Hydra base you attacked. You were in a critical condition and you're lucky they'd brought you back in time." Helen held a tablet up to Kara, showing her an X-Ray image of her body. "A host of three million nanites had entered your bloodstream, corroding your blood vessels, sub dermal skin cells and internal organs causing severe haemorrhaging. If it weren't for your body healing itself, you'd have died in minutes." She moved the tablet aside. "Thankfully, the machines had metal in them, so we were able to remove them magnetically and the Cradle did the healing your regeneration couldn't. You'll need a couple days bed rest before you can get back into the field. You've got some good friends, Kara, you should be thankful."

"Thank you." Kara turned stiffly to M'gann, giving as much of a smile she could muster.

"You don't need to, you'd do the same." M'gann smiled at her.

"Maybe." Kara chuckled.

"Hmm." The Martian pouted, crossing her arms.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone." Helen took her leave.

"Thank you again, Dr Cho, we don't know what we'd have done without you." M'gann turned to her.

"Oh, it's nothing really." Helen chuckled. "Just be sure to stay in bed and you'll be fine."

Kara smiled in response and the doctor headed out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her. Entering the hall, she raised her brow as Kaldur sat outside, wondering why he wasn't inside as well. Shrugging it off, she walked on, leaving the Atlantean who frowned and leaned against the wall.

Stepping away from the bed, M'gann picked up the tablet Helen left on a counter nearby. "Man, you Kryptonians sure are strong." She chuckled, not noticing Kara frown slightly. "Three million nanites and you only look like you're coming back from a really bad cold."

"Well, you heard what she said; it was a miracle I survived."

"Yeah." M'gann placed the tablet down. "They said they were damaged during extraction, so we don't know what they were made for."

Kara sighed and turned over, her body stiffened by the unyielding numbness that flooded over. Every inch of her was manacled, even moving her thumb was a strain as she rested on her bed that seemingly felt like nothing was beneath her. She heard shuffling behind her, noting that M'gann had sat down – her breath slowing.

"Kara, what were you thinking?" The Martian waited for a response, receiving none. "You could've gotten yourself killed and if it weren't for Raven keeping me up with her laughing, I wouldn't have noticed you leaving." Her brows stitched as Kara remained motionless, sighing as she continued. "Something's bothering you, you can tell me."

Kara sifted her mind, frowning as she chose to remain silent, stiffly pulling her blanket over her shoulder and sinking into her pillow. Seeing that she wouldn't get an answer, M'gann got up quietly and left the room, seeing Kaldur waiting outside. Judging the look on her face, the Atlantean entered the ward, watching the Kryptonian lie in her bed.

"I heard that you've recovered. It's good to see you whole again." Kaldur moved up to her bedside.

"Well, I'm numb mostly." She struggled to turn. "Glad I don't have the impossible itch."

"Do not strain yourself, you do not want to induce haemorrhaging." He sat nearby.

"Yeah." She sunk into the bed and lay on her back. "What'd you wanna see me for?"

He paused, sifting his mind. "Your actions lately have been … questionable; you risked your life and your cover in one fell swoop and could get on SHIELD's bad side."

"M'gann already lectured me on that." She frowned. "I learned my lesson, the really hard way."

"I'm not here to chastise you; I'm concerned. You've been closed off from everyone else and your nightmares are becoming more frequent." He noted her face harden as he spoke. "The last incident proved there was more to them; they weren't mere bad dreams." He leaned toward her. "What's going on, Kara?"

Her eyes darted around as she avoided his gaze, her lip twitching slightly as she fumbled through her thoughts. "It's nothing, Kaldur."

"It isn't." He frowned slightly then shifted back. "I'd spoken to M'gann about the Team's missions during my absence – she told me about your breakdown during a raid on a Hydra base in Las Dubai." His expression softened as he saw her turn sharply, noticing how much strain it put on her. "… You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He stood up. "But you don't have to face this alone."

She glanced at him as he began to leave, sighing as he reached for the door handle. "Wait." She halted him. "There … I've been hiding something." He took a seat her beside, concerned as she pushed herself to sit up, raising a hand to stop him. Looking into his eyes, she sighed and shut her eyes, breathing in as she began to speak. "My home world was invaded by an alien called Brianiac, a destroyer of worlds. Minutes after his arrival, he killed thousands of our people and invested our planet with his technology that engulfed the planet. My father fought them off, taking my mother and I to a secret facility where we'd escape on a ship with my cousin's family." She sighed tremulously. "But it was too late … we were ambushed and my parents died trying to hold them off." She choked up. "They sacrificed themselves to save me."

"I'm sorry, Kara."

She sniffled. "I thought things would be different here, you know? I thought with these powers I could stop something like that from happening again, but I was wrong. He's back and I … I was just as helpless as I was back then." A tear ran down her cheek.

"What do you mean he's back? How do you know?" He raised his brow.

"People who're under his control have a frequency I can hear; I heard it with the Hydra soldiers. He's back, he's gonna kill us –,"

"And thought it wasn't wise to tell everyone about this?"

"I wasn't sure what to say, so I went to find out for myself and here's your answer." She gestured to herself.

"We need to alert Director Coulson and the others."

DICK FROWNED as he stared at his laptop, his fingers speeding over the keyboard as he read through files that ran down the monitor. Barbara worked on hers across from him, rubbing her nose as she battled sleep and turned over to him.

"You ever wonder if your face would get stuck like that?" She chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"That Batman scowl you're always sporting – try lighting up a little."

"This is important, Barbara." His frown deepened.

"Okay, just saying." She raised her hands in defeat, turning back to her desk.

He read further into the files, his face lighting up when something caught his eye. "Hey, take a look at this."

"What is it?" She rolled her chair toward him.

"There's a virus that's been collecting tons of metadata from government servers around the world." He scrolled down the page. "Weapons caches, nuclear codes … there's a schematic of the missile silo in Area 51!"

"So, they were behind the sudden launch." Her eyes dilated.

"They could detonate every single nuclear warhead all over the world once it's done. We need to bring this to the Director."

"WE'VE ANALYSED the patterns the LexCorp virus has taken, but we're yet to discover the source." Phil addressed the Team, stepping back as documents appeared on the monitors. "We've scanned headquarters nationwide, but haven't found any matches. Whoever programmed it isn't in the company."

"So somebody's framing them?" Jaime raised his brow.

"It's highly unlikely." Kaldur frowned. "They must've kept it in a secret location so that it couldn't be traced back to them."

"Which is exactly why we're bringing more people in on this mission." Phil pocketed his hands.

"What? Why? We don't need any more members." Wally folded his arms. "I remember the mess we had when we had nearly twenty members. Twenty! Can you believe that BS? And Bumblebee? Heh, surprised we didn't get sued for that."

"Meta-criticism aside, the team we'll be adding will be taking a separate mission; finding and taking down the virus."

"What will our mission be?" Artemis' brows stitched.

"Your mission stays the same; find Hydra and take them down."

"And who're the people you're giving the other mission to anyway?" Connor leaned against the table.

"They're a SHIELD team much like yours, comprised mostly of high school students called the New Warriors led by Spider-Man. Due to the level of stealth needed for the mission, Ant-Man, an Avenger, will be joining the mission." Phil brought up documents from their previous missions.
"Sounds like a much cooler mission." Wally sunk back in his chair.

"Your mission is still very important and we'll need all hands on deck if we wanna succeed." Phil turned to the screens. "With Kara's help, we were able to lock onto frequencies emitted by soldiers under Brianiac's control. Though we can't do a wide area scan because the frequency are so low, we were able to make short range scanners that can pinpoint them within a twelve metre radius." He brought up the frequency number onscreen.

"That's it!" The Scarab's voice echoed in Jaime's mind. "That's the frequency I picked up in Area 51. It came from the computers in the control room and in the missile silos. It was very low, even for a Kryptonian, but I detected it."

"Really?" Jaime raised his brow.

"Really what?" Phil turned to him.

"The Scarab said he detected that frequency during our mission in Area 51. He said it came from the control room and missile silos at a level even a Kryptonian would be unable to hear."

"How's that possible?" Kara frowned.

"That means Brainiac's behind the virus as well." Dick's eyes dilated.

"It could mean that Hydra, Lex Luthor and Brianiac are all working together on this. With MODOC being at the Hydra lab Kara raided, AIM's also involved. This's very bad." Phil stroked his chin. "We need to act quickly, but we need everyone to be mission ready before we can. Get some rest and prepare for our next mission; moving on Lex Luthor."

"Wait, I thought you said we shouldn't try to go near him." Barbara's brows stitched.

"I said let SHIELD handle it and we did – we have a way of taking him on without exposing ourselves." Phil crossed his arms.

"UH, DR Cello?" Wally peeped into the lab as he walked in slowly. "Hello?" He jerked back as he saw the scientist standing on the ceiling above, his clothes and hair flowing upward as if he were standing on the floor. "How're you doing that?"

"I defy gravity!" Dr Cello fell on his head.

Wally scoffed and shook his head, chuckling when he saw a double of the scientist standing on the ceiling. "How're you doing that!?"

"Physics cannot –," Dr Cello fell on himself.

Wally watched with his mouth agape, dumbfounded, as the two Dr Cellos helped themselves up and looked around nonchalantly. "How're you –,"

"Stanley Tucci!" The scientist pushed his double off camera.

Wally stammered. "Where did –,"

Dr Cello sat on a rocking chair across from him, wearing a rubber chicken on his head whilst smoking before fireplace. "Father, why do I still feel guilty? … hashtag, Marvel rules."

"How –,"

"She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes!" Dr Cello sung as he cut a hot knife with a slab of butter.

"Will you stop doing that!" Wally growled.

"You were saying?" Dr Cello apparated behind him, typing on a computer as if nothing happened.

"I." Wally huffed. "Wanted to try out the Cosmic Treadmill again."

"You sure? You nearly hurt yourself last time you did that." The scientist walked up to him.

"I was just a little out of it last time, but I'm prepared now." The teen nodded determinedly.

The scientist stared at him blankly, his whole body frozen in place as he stared unblinkingly into the distance. Wally waved his hand before his face, confused as he remained still. "… Excalibur, Excalibur!" Dr Cello danced around.

"Will you focus!"

"Okay, okay, I'm done." The scientist did the Can-Can dance, twirling over to the treadmill. He keyboarded on the computer nearby, looking at him eagerly. "Well, are you jumping on or not?"

Giving a drawn-out sigh, Wally walked onto the machine and stretched his arms – turning to the scientist who he began to second guess. The treadmill came on and he began jogging, quickly sprinting as his legs and arms quickly become blurs. Yellow lightning surged out of his body and he took a deep breath, focussing on charging his energy into the machine.

Wally's disappeared and reappeared in place, losing his balance and falling off the treadmill. Jerking back in shock, Dr Cello ran to his side, helping him up as he shook his head.

"What happened? You just disappeared." The scientist looked at him in a panic.

"I …" Wally rubbed his head. "I think I know where The Flash is."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Welcome to the Universe! What has it been? Like three weeks? Sorry I took so long, but I thought I'd take a breather and focus on something else for a while.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I do again apologize that it's taken so long to progress. I'm juggling writing four stories at once and the ideas for new fics keep popping in our heads, so I can get a little scattered at times.

I'd like to ask, what DC fic do you think would be interesting? We have some ideas in the works, but I wondered what you guys would be interested in seeing us write. If you've got ideas, leave 'em in a review. If you wanna see more, read more, favourite or follow and Await the Awesomeness as we dive into the Universe. Thanks for reading.