Bill Finger, Martin Nodell, John Broome Gil Kane, Dennis O'Neil, Emerald Gladiators all…

Chapter Thirteen: Emerald Gladiators

Place: Offices of DC Comics, New York City

Year: 1986

[Special thanks to Sunflare2k5 for contributing story ideas concerning Kilowog and Soranik Natu]

The staff at the meeting had finally finished their work of the Big Three and it was good work whose effects would last for years to come. However, while that was finished, the work on the rest of the DCU had only just begun.

The Justice League was seen, and rightly so by the average fan as DC's greatest team but when looked at from the point of view of the average sentient being of the DC universe, it was far different. In their eyes, the universe's greatest heroes were not those of the League but those of the Green Lantern Corps. How else could it be when the billion year old brotherhood stood as a force for justice and peace across the cosmos? Superman, in fact, was not just the only Earth hero for whom the myriad races of the larger DCU had any respect; he was the only one they knew anything about. There was even a rumor that if he was the greatest hero of them all, it was only because the Guardians had created him. (Partly true, as revealed by Maggin's comics.)

For their part, the Guardians of the Universe were seen, in fact, as just that. They were recognized as the highest moral authority in the cosmos and would have long since been worshipped as gods if they had allowed it. It was they who had safeguarded physical reality ever since their mad brother Krona had left it so grievously wounded, thus sowing the seeds for the Crisis. And it was the Guardians' relative impotence in the Crisis that hit them that much more harshly, or so writer Gerard Jones said the next day of the conference.

"They have to take their place as the DCU's front line not just in their titles but in every title," said Jones. "If they guard the universe, I say we let them act like it. That means that the Green Lantern mythos is due for a major shakeup but I know what it's going to be. My partner, Giffen, called in sick but don't worry I got his notes and I can talk for both of us.

"Let's start with Alan Scott. We've already talked about how the Guardians captured excess magic into a stone and cast off whereon it ultimately fell to Earth-Two. Now we just say that instead of falling to another dimension, it fell to the one Earth where our guy found it. But beyond that I say that if it's going to be one universe we take advantage of it!" He looked across the conference table and Elliot S. Maggin and asked, "In this new continuity, you've having Superboy be trained by the JSA right?"

Maggin looked at him nodded. "Yeah. It's so can keep part of his first hero ever shtick."

The new GL writer looked around at everyone else and thundered, "He was trained by the JSA… well that includes their Green Lantern, Alan Scott! So imagine this… an old and retired Scott is at home when someone knocks on his door. He opens and is surprised to see Superboy and a red skinned alien. What's more surprising is that the alien bears a lantern symbol on his chest and ring on his finger… His young protégé walks in and asks the alien, Abin, Sur to follow.

"From the two Alan Scott learns that Superboy had been on a routine space mission—Scott smiles at that; his boy is already flying into space—when he encountered a group of alien bandits. That's hardly unusual in the Kryptonian's life, nor are interstellar adventures wherein he has to save entire worlds. What was unusual was his plan for a Green Lantern coming to everyone's rescue working. The Teen of Steel was glad to see the stories he'd heard from various alien were true. For his part, Abin Sur was shocked at Superboy's existence as Kryptonians were supposed to be all dead. He was also surprised by the boy's claim that there had been a Green Lantern active on Earth for decades. After exchanging pleasantries, Sur agreed to follow his new acquaintance home and solve the mystery.

"Back in the present, the two Green Lanterns try to unravel the secret. After analyzing Scott's ring with his own, Sur sees that it is indeed a legitimate power ring as is his battery but he says that there is only one Lantern for Earth's sector and he is that one. There is no record whatsoever of any human ever having been inducted into the Corps…

"In order to solve the problem, the two new friends journey to Oa where the Guardians say that billions of years ago, they made an attempt to collect excess magical energy. Magic is too chaotic a force to be let loose. It was concentrated into an orb and was cast adrift in the void. It of course ultimately made it to Earth where, in ancient China, it was formed into a lantern that passed through a succession of owners before falling into Alan Scott's hands. It contained recordings of its time with the Guardians and gave the Earthman instructions for building a ring. The rest is history.

"Scott's initially worried that that means he's going to get drafted into the Corps but the Guardians decide to let him keep the ring. He never asked for it but on getting it he upheld the ideals of the Corps even without knowing it. In recognition of his good works and of his bravery, the Guardians make Scott an honorary Corpsman.

"Abin Sur shows Scott around and he meets Sur's best friend, Sinestro. The Earthman goes home and continues his work—albeit quietly until Superman inaugurates the new age of heroes. That's when Hal Jordan comes along and becomes Earth's first official GL. Remembering his experiences with Clark, he gives Hal Jordan a helping hand now and then.

"As for Hal Jordan, he's still a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft. The only change there was that reason he has no fear was that he had nothing left to be afraid if when he saw his test pilot father die in a plane crash as a child. He grew up, joined the Air Force, and eventually became a test pilot for Ferris where he befriended Tom Kalmaku. He also has a… difficult relationship with Carol Ferris. They like each other but he's just too irresponsible for any kind of serious relationship

"By the way, I talked to Alan Moore and he said that he had an idea for Abin Sur's crash, that he heard a prophecy from a demon that his ring would fail him at a critical hour thus forcing him to take a spaceship as a precaution. That, of course, backfired which likely what the monster had in mind.

"Regardless, the dying Sur bequeaths Jordan the ring. Strangely, when that happens we see him with his chest symbol blank, just a white circle. Jordan being Jordan ignores it in favor of a joy ride. The only person he trusts with this is Tom who says he's a superhero; when Hal says he isn't and that this Lantern stuff belongs to a some kind of space cops, Tom says, 'weird costume, superpowers, sounds like cape and tights to me.'

"Hal realizes that's true and begins to play hero, catching banks robbers and rescuing cats from trees. All America sees him on the news and they just love his dashing devil-may-care movie star heroics. But the better things go for Green Lantern the worse they get for Hal Jordan thanks to his already exhausting job as a test pilot. Living a double life takes its toll and his performance begins to slip. He even crashes a plane; that's normally something bad but this time it's real bad.

"Hal is thus actually relieved when Sinestro shows up to draft him. He tells the Earthman that the Guardians had received a message from the ring when Sur died and that Alan Scott had reported Hal to them after seeing him on TV. Power rings are potentially the most powerful weapons in the universe; they just can't let yahoos run around with the blasted things! He must report to Oa for training or forfeit the ring. Jordan is uncertain. Magic rings and alien planets? He asks for time to think about it and he gets it.

"His thinking is done for him when he goes to talk to Carol and she tells him he's fired. She tells her stunned employee that his performance as a pilot has fallen drastically in recent months. He can barely stay awake and he's late all the time. And of course there's his crashing the new plane. The whole company had been riding on getting a contract with the Pentagon but his screw up cost Ferris that contract this leaving it on the verge of bankruptcy! She demands that he explain himself but he can't tell her that he's moonlighting as a superhero. Unable to lie, though, (the ring chooses somewhat completely honest in addition to being without fear) he lamely says he's been doing some volunteer work.

"Carol Ferris doesn't accept it. Maybe she does love him but she's through being his codependent enabler. He's an idiot whom she has to bail out of jail and whose rent she has to pay because he keeps blowing his paychecks. As his boss she put up with his antics because, despite everything else, he was the best pilot around but now he doesn't even have that. With that Jordan goes with Sinestro to Oa. There's nothing for him on Earth now. He then gets to Oa just in time to hear the Guardians introductory speech to the latest class of recruits.

"The rest of Emerald Dawn will show Hal's training, his return to Earth, and Sinestro's fall from grace. As to why it was because he was too good. He was supposed to have been the greatest Lantern of all before he fell right? He supposedly had the most peaceful space sector in the universe right? At the same time he made a utopia he made his world one of slavery.

"That means that in order to create a world without war, famine, crime, poverty or disease he abolished freedom. It makes perfect sense guys! If he with one ring can make a perfect world in less than a decade why haven't the Guardians done the same with the universe if they've had thousands of Lanterns and billions of years? He's like Maggin's Zod. He does care about Korugar in the abstract and he did raise living standards. But when it comes to actual people, to individuals, he doesn't care about them at all. Arrest without trail, no freedom of speech, phones tapped. He'll even execute innocent people if it's for 'the greater good.' You know what the worst part is however? It's that he's actually sincere."

Jeannete Kahn nodded. "So it's lawful evil versus chaotic good. Sinestro sounds to ready to hit new heights… or new depths as it might be! But remember Gerard we're not just here to reimagine the past…"

"But to use it to make a new future, I know boss. The future will see two things. Firstly, the Controllers will be recast as Maltusians who split from their brothers over how to deal with evildoers. As for the Zamarons I'm saying that the alien warrior women were originally female Maltusians who left their men. They saw no need to involve themselves in their husbands' crusade; Krona was punished so why keep at it?"

A mischievous grin then crossed Jones face. "I can just imagine it… 'Now you listen here Mr. Guardian of the Universe!'" said Jones in an angry wife impression. "'Today was our anniversary but do you remember?'" Jones pursed his lips. "' I don't think so! "Oh but I'm busy stopping that sun from going nova…" Honestly you care more about perfect strangers than you do about me!'"

There was a round of laughter at the wife joke. Even Miss Kahn smirked at that. "Alright, alright," she said, "let's get back to work."

Jones nodded. "Right boss. The first big story Giffen and I have set for the present will have the Guardians go into exile. I've talked to the current writer Steve Englehart who's been building up to a heck of conclusion in Green Lantern #200. There in his stories, the Anti-Monitor knew that the Corps stood the best chance of stopping him and so launched an attack of Oa.

"The sad thing is that he didn't have to. Despite it being indirectly their fault with how Krona inadvertently created the Anti-Monitor, the Guardians didn't even try to stop the Crisis. They said well, Krona's chicken is coming home to roost so we might as well just kick back and let it happen. When the universe needed its Guardians needed the most, they turned into a bunch of emo whiners ready to let everything go to hell!

"Yes the universe did—does—survive, kids are picking up the last issue of Crisis right now… but it was no thanks to the so-called Guardians. Englehart will reveal in #200 that the reason why is that while they do have eternal life they don't have eternal youth. They've gotten old and they will keep getting older. Yes, the universe got lucky this time but they shudder to think how their beloved Corps will deal with the next universal threat if it's cursed with a doddering, senile leadership. They know if they are no longer able to exercise their duties that the most responsible thing they can do is to abdicate their responsibilities.

"Having decided to retire, they appoint Salaak as the new leader of the Corps and former Guardian Ali Apsa as his right hand. They raised their Corps like their child but now it's time for the child to stand on its own. The Guardians and their Zamaron wives withdraw to a pocket dimension where they can rest and hopefully sire a new generation of Guardians to take their place. The Zamarons, having cultivated the powers of their bodies are much younger and stronger than their intelligent but physically weak husbands and admit to being eager to conceive and bear children after so long.

"As for the larger Corps, Hal just recently became Green Lantern again after leaving to be with Carol. We can work with that. After he left Ferris Aircraft to be destroyed in issue…" he checked his notes, "178 to save another planet, Carol said it's me or the ring. Now realistically, Hal had no choice; what could he have done? Let billions of people die? Still, it hurt him and Englehart ultimately had Hal quit. John Stewart got the ring instead.

"It's not an easy thing. Look here." Jones pulled a comic book from his folder and opened it to show everyone a ringless Hal Jordan who'd been beaten half to death. "He once held the power of the gods in his hands and now he's beaten and humiliated by some punk in an alley. Carol asks him if he's ok. And Hal snaps at her. 'Do I look OK!?'

"Sad thing for Hal is that it was all for nothing. He'd had an on again off again relationship with Carol mostly because she was Star Sapphire. He only gave up the ring because he thought she was cured of it, that the Zamorans who had kept transforming her had given up. He was wrong in the worst possible way. Carol had long since come to hate Hal for playing hero and leaving her to cry. She grew sick of playing the love sick puppy waiting for her man to come home and saw the Zamarons offering her money, power, beauty, and the chance to have anything. She took it and erased her memory as part of a complicated revenge scheme." He paused when he saw their faces. "Seriously guys, Steve used half of #192 to tell it.

"Star Sapphire had previously been a false identity forced on Carol and a rather innocuous one at that who 'only' wanted to have GL as prince consort when she became queen. Not anymore. Its kinda like alcohol; yes the gem's mind altering power has taken her worst qualities up to eleven but when all's said and done its all her. She asked for it and she got it. With how she's now cutoff from her 'loyal' subjects the Zamorans it's just a very angry and embittered woman with the power to enforce her vindictive and selfish whims.

"She's going to be a major villain for the first year or so but not for long. Katma Tui, Green Lantrern of Korugar, will slap some sense into her; she knows how much love can hurt. She left her fiancée for the Corps. That was why she was so hard on Hal when he turned in his ring—and so supportive when he got it back. That's also why she was able to get through to Carol. She still hates Hal but at the same time she still loves him.

"For the next part, I've also been in contact with a fan, Geoff Johns." He pulled out a stack of papers from his portfolio. "He's young, maybe just thirteen, but that's the same age Jim Shooter was when he began work on Legion of Superheroes and other titles. He has ideas and I've promised him that if we get the go ahead that he will be credited and compensated.

"Our ideas thus combined show that in the years since he was exiled to the Anti-Matter universe, Sinestro was making his own Corps. The Weaponeers of Qward, evil worshipping arms dealers of that dimension, made his ring and he's charged them with making more rings like it. He's recruited men for his Sinestro Corps from the ranks of this Anti-Matter Universe and now that the Guardians are gone, he knows it's time to strike. Maybe the Korugarians were a bunch of ingrates but that doesn't mean he was wrong to try to help them. Now it's time to 'help' the universe… For that reason, his soldiers cry out 'In blackest day, in brightest night, beware your fears made into light, let all who'd dare to stop what's right beware my power, Sinestro's might!'

"An example of his backwards logic might see a Lantern whose home world was destroyed in the Crisis." When that story was finally written the alien was named Kilowog. "Desperate to save his people he downloaded all 16 billion of them into his ring and then released them on a new planet. Or so he thought. He might believe he could do such a thing but the ring doesn't work that way. All he's done is surround himself with a civilization of constructs. He's just playing sock puppet with himself because insanity is preferable to accepting his people are dead.

"Sinestro sees this seizes the chance to strike fear into the hearts of the universe when he and his Corps destroy this new world. Yes billions will die but it's for the greater good, isn't it? That at least is what he wants people to believe. For own part, he knows that the Lantern's" Kilowog, "home world is a lie and destroyed it out of respect for this once great Corpsman. He hoped that it would snap him out of it. He succeeded in that though not surprisingly the recipient of his kindness is far from grateful.

"It escalates with the Sinestro Corps launching an Empire Strikes Back level attack OA. Unlike the Rebels, the Corps manages to drive them away but only barely and with heavy casualties. Here we see a moral turning point because as the Sinestro Corps attacks get more intense, as more innocent people die, Lanterns petition for the use of lethal force. They have a prohibition against taking sentient life and their rings' programming enforces it: no lethal constructs. Apa Ali Apsa sees the Lanterns request as just but Salaak shoots it down.

"He pauses to remind the former Guardian that he has given up his power and is only there in an advisory role. Yes, he adds, he does respect everything about the Guardians, and that including their decision to retire for fear of going senile. He warns that the Sinestro Corps is exactly what the GL Corps will become is they cross that line in the sand. How does he know? He knows because that's what Sinestro said! He spoke extensively with Sinestro when they last had him in custody and saw that in a twisted way, the villain still loves the Corps. He created his own only to succeed where the Guardians failed. Well… that and to force the Lanterns to become the Corps he always knew it should be, one that believes that the ends justify the means—any means. 'Tell me right now,' Salaak asks, 'do you really want to belong to a Corps that Sinestro would be proud of?'

Moral debates aside, fans noted that Salaak tended to look the other way when Lanterns facing Sinestro Corpsmen found… creative ways around that prohibition.

"Furthermore adds the four armed administrator to Apa Ali Apsa in private, he's used his ring to scan for alternate timelines where the Guardians ultimately never left. It was meant to gain insight, he added. To his horror, the Corps was brought to the brink of destruction by Guardians gone mad and the decision to kill was the starting point.

"Like the saying goes, the only easy day is yesterday. Some help comes when the new Guardians—and Zamarons—finally arrive. Time flowed differently while they were reared in the pocket dimension by their parents so that they are adults with untold centuries of preparation for their tasks. They saw their fathers in their twilight years and loved them but now their fathers are completely gone mentally and are dependent on the tender mercies of their Zamaron wives.

"The new Guardians are mostly male, though there are some female now. They are much younger than their fathers but say that they will provide an advisory role only to the Green Lantern Corps. They have no desire to take away the autonomy it is gained and deserved. They're kinda like monks or hermits; secluded but available to anyone who makes the trek to seek their wisdom. I don't plan on them getting a major role. We've seen the Guardians long enough and we can try a Corps without them

"It's their sisters, the Zamorans who will steal the show. They will look much more alien than their mothers and will start to form the own corps, the Star Sapphires. As Queen Agapo says, the firstborn of all her sisters, they have already mastered the purple light of love and their mothers created a prototype in Carol Ferris. All that's left is to start recruiting. The Star Sapphires have a very different focus from GLs as they're there to fight evil with the power of love."

Neither Gerard Jones nor a teenage Geoff Johns were surprised when DC released its Star Sapphire/Sailor Moon crossover in 1997. At least in that continuity, it was revealed that Serena's Imperium Silver Crystal was, in fact, a Star Sapphire gem.

"Even the female Lanterns see them as naïve and to be certain they are certainly more emotional and idealistic. Regardless, they'll ultimately prove a useful partner to the GLs and pick up the most interesting recruits. For example…" Jones stopped to pull out a character profile from his folder. "Damn Johns," he said under his breath, "but you'll have to come work for us."

Jones cleared his throat and continued. "For example, one of their Earth recruits will be Arab American girl from Detroit called Sira Baz. She's got lots of love in her heart, for her family, her home, her religion but she's shocked by the… revealing uniform she has to wear. Raised in a conservative Muslim home, Sira asks Queen Agapo if she can make an exception for a more modest uniform. She gets it and busts baddies in a head scarf."

"Modest?" asked Wally Wood. "Are you trying to turn DC into Spires Christian Comics?"

Of course Power Girl's inker would say that. "C'mon Wally," Jones countered, "you have to admit that the clothes we have our female heroes wear wouldn't cut it at your usual church social."

"Maybe not" cut in George Perez, "but is there any reason you're making this new character an Arab?"

"Arab American. I'm not trying to make a statement or anything, it's just that after seeing Johns' ideas I got to thinking why not? If they exist, and they do, why shouldn't one of them get superpowers? It's not like there's a rule that only white people can get superpowers, is there?"

Perez smiled. He was going to be watching this.

"Their other Earth recruit," continued Jones, "is Carol Ferris. Queen Agapo is shocked when she personally goes to recruit the woman who had been her mother's queen and finds a bitter, burned out woman filled with hate for Hal and for her life. Carol looks at her gem, dead for years, and mockingly asks what she could possibly know about love. Agapo explains to her that there are many kinds of love; her very name is evokes to the Earth word agape, which means compassionate love. She asks her to come.

"Fully aware that if she doesn't do something, she's going to fall into a pit, Carol decides to go with Agapo to planet Zamoran. The Zamoran people welcome her and assist in her training. She gets back the hang of it after the usual training sequences and more importantly learns to let her feelings towards Hal go. Soon enough, a now more hopeful Carol, motivated by her newfound love for all living things, returns to Earth and the first thing she does is save some people from a burning building. And yes, she says, 'I'm Star Sapphire and I'm just here to help!'

"The next thing she does is track down Hal Jordan and confront him. He's still wary from their last encounter, more so with how she has that blasted ring. She however explains everything to him. She tells him that knows that her chance to marry Hal has long since passed but if she cannot love him as a husband then she can love him as a brother. Can he at least love her as a sister? He says yes, yes he can."

After wrapping up a few remaining points on the subject of Hal and Carol's new love Jones continued on the need for the Corps to find a worthy foe. He said that if DC ever had a crossover on the level of Crisis again, then the GL Corps would have to be the front line. He would get his wish with 1989's Invasion where the Corps served as the single strongest bulwark against an alien alliance's attempted conquest of Earth.

Plotted by his partner Keith Giffen, the Alliance of Dominators, Khunds, Durlans, Okaarans, Thanagarians, Psions, and Citadelians sought to take over the world in the single biggest alien invasion DC ever faced and the Corps was there. Not only was helping the poor Earthlings the right thing to do but the Corps suspected that the Alliance had an even more sinister motive. It was right. The Alliance wanted Earth's metahumans was to unlock the 'metagene' and thus create an army of super soldiers.

The Justice League admittedly did handle the fight on Earth but it was Hal and the rest of Corps that forced the Alliance into hand-to-hand fighting instead of just destroying Earth from orbit with the "photon torpedoes." Quite simply, in the main series and in their own titles, Invasion made everyone, both in the in DCU and in the fandom, realize for the first time just how awesome the Green Lantern Corps could be.

This was only reinforced when the DCU's greatest foe, the Anti Monitor, returned to destroy the universe in Our Worlds at War. This time, however, the Corps was there to trade blow for blow. It was Salaak who forged the alliance of the Corps with the New Gods, Earth, and every sentient race in the universe that wanted to live. For all his bureaucratic posturing, it was his knowledge of red tape and politicking, more than anything else, that helped save the universe. The Corps provided the muscle there and in many of DC's other big crossover events something that didn't change when Geoff Johns finally came home to DC.

He had been contributing scripts and plot ideas for years by the time he finally got into the business officially. DC was afraid that that generation's Jim Shooter would take the route that the original had and leave for Marvel; Johns didn't. Instead, he brought in the full Emotional spectrum with revenge crazed Red Lanterns, the greed obsessed Agent Orange, and the compassion based Indigo Tribe. The most interesting tribe was the Blue Lanterns, seen at first as holier-than-thou rivals but who eventually proved their worth. They were partners in peace and auxiliaries in war.

Johns' also orchestrated the long delayed marriage of John Stewart and Katma Tui. The two had had an on again, off again relationship for years in the pages of Green Lantern Corps and the other GL books. Unlike Hal and Carol, however, John and Katma approached love as responsible adults fully aware that love meant sacrifice. Thiers was a hard life but they were ready for it. The fact that they always had each other even made the sad times worth it. Their happiness was only made complete, however, when they adopted a young Korugarian girl named Soranik Natu.

The two Lanterns were of course biologically incompatible but they were determined not to let that get in the way of starting their family. The route was obvious when Katma learned of an orphaned girl in need of one. There were some eyebrows as to what kind of childhood she and John Stewart could provide the girl; certainly unusual and possibly dangerous. Regardless, Soranik genuinely loved her new parents and gained for herself an unparalleled education as she toured the universe. It certainly beat living on the streets and she told her parents that when they asked her feelings.

Geoff Johns revealed his master plan when he revealed Soranik was Sinestro's long lost biological daughter. He had been determined to save the universe from itself, and, in another perceived act of compassion, arranged for his daughter to be adopted by the kindly Natu family. When she asked him why then he had abandoned her to live on the streets, he responded that he hadn't. He thought she died in the fire that killed the Natus; he never knew that her four year old self managed to escape the burning building by dumb luck.

She responded that if his words were true then she wished she hadn't. She told Sinestro that she knew all about the atrocities he had committed in the name of utopia and wanted no part of him. If anything, she hoped to become a Green Lantern to follow in her real father's footsteps.

Fighting back a tear Sinestro could only say, "Then my daughter truly is dead."

Author's Notes: Hi guys, sorry it took so long! I was thinking of of getting this in time for Christmas; seems that God had other ideas. But then on the other hand, being that Christmastide doesn't truly end until Three Kings Day, January 6th, I guess you'll have your presents after all! Once again, thanks to Sunflare for the help. :-)

Sir Thames: Thanks for your kind words as always. :-D

Wolvbm:... wow...

Well, as for Stephanie Brown, I said in Chapter 12, part 1 that Bett Kane "ceded the Batgirl identity to Barbara Gordon and her proteges like Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain." She's there though I have no thoughts for her.

Helena, remember I said she's from a possible future not the future. As such, time can change without her disappearing.

As for being a father, yes. After finding hope once more, Bruce took his daughter back and raised her like a father should. Looking back and reading it again, however, I do see that it could have been more clear. :-(

Considering the kind of man Superaman is, I see it as very likely that he would give Lois a final goodbye; he would always love her. Good point.

Diana and Clark would eventually have a baby but I was running out of time by that time. In all honesty, I thought of writing their earthquake wedding night and climaxing with her saying she'd gotten pregnant! ^_^; But I decided against it... a little too juvenile. ;-)

Batwoman and Superwoman... assuming you mean Kara and Barbara... well, I didn't think about that. Considering how the Kara Zor-El Supergirl and the Barbara Gorden batgirl were shown as friends, it stands to reason that when Kara does return that they would get caught up. Considering how Kara has become stronger than ever to being as big a (Kryptonian) man and Barbara, as I wrote her, is physically burned out and getting by on a cane, it would put a crimp on their relationship. They'd probably work around that though.. Thanks for your kind words!

That's all for now but I plan on the next chapter coming out a little faster. I should when its for the the fastest man alive!