Nest chapter, a bit delayed due to essays and projects for school. From now on, I'll attempt (key word attempt) to update every friday or saturday, so expect something one of those days each week. But here you go, Karry will begin either next chapter or the one after that.
Earth 1: STAR Labs
"Guys, we have a problem." Oliver said as he entered the Cortex. Only Caitlin, Felicity, Ray, and Snart were in the room. The others had gone their separate ways to sleep.
"I thought you were setting up a training exercise or something?" Ray asked.
"I was. But something followed me. It was humanoid, but I didn't see it's face or it's body." Oliver said, setting down his duffel bag on the ground.
"Well, then how did you know it was humanoid? Did it speak?" Felicity asked.
"Nope. But I used the infrared mask you gave me after shooting a smoke arrow at him." Oliver said.
"Nice. So what are we dealing with? Metahuman? Assassin? Stalker?" Felicity asked.
"Probably a metahuman." Oliver said. "The meta was invisible until I used the infrared goggles. But his shape was blurry and not focused." Oliver said.
"I don't know what that tells us." Caitlin said honestly.
"There was one more thing. We're dealing with one of two superpowers. Either teleportation or super speed. I couldn't really tell." Oliver said.
"Maybe Peek-a-Boo? She hasn't been seen for a while and her power was that she could teleport to any place that she could see." Caitlin suggested.
"No, I smoked the area so she couldn't see and couldn't teleport." Oliver replied, shaking his head. "And they were invisible."
"Well, we have many recorded metas plus some that we haven't recorded. There's bound to be at least one meta with mulitple powers. Or powers that have mulitple variations. We probably have a new player on our hands." Caitlin said.
"We don't have a motive, though. We should put up more security everywhere, just to make sure if it happens again, we're prepared." Oliver said.
"If you are setting up more trinkets, I'm gonna try to get past them. If you know me, then you know I have to know everything about everything." Snart said.
"I'm not just going to set up cameras or motion sensors or metal detectors. I mean full on shifts. 24/7." Oliver replied, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, but to have night shifts, you have to have something you need to protect. What are we protecting?" Snart asked.
"Ourselves. And the technology we possess. We can't let ourselves or our possessions, our weapons, our technology, get in the wrong hands." Oliver said.
"Not it!" Snart suddenly announced as he stood up and walked away. "Don't worry! I'm not stealing anything. Everyone needs sleep, so that's what I'm getting."
"Great, I'll go back to the other building to finish setting up and protect all the training gear." Oliver said.
"Cool, I'll come with you!" Ray said excitingly. Oliver turned toward Ray and stared at him blankly. "What? Everyone needs a second in case of a fight."
"Um, Ray, there's not going to be any fight." Oliver said.
"Well, just in case. We should actually also bring the whole team. To test out the training center that you setup." Ray suggested.
"Why now, isn't it an odd hour to do that now?" Oliver asked. Ray shrugged.
"Well, yeah. But we should do it now because other threats won't sleep and won't let us sleep. So we should test out the team's vigilance and also test the training exercises." Ray stuttered noncommittally. Oliver raised his eyebrows.
"Okay. Let's do it. Felicity, can you call the rest of the team and tell them to meet at the new training center?" Oliver asked.
"What, now?" Felicity asked while typing on a keyboard with a pen in her mouth.
"Yes, now." Oliver confirmed.
"Wait, seriously?" Felicity asked in shock, taking the blue pen out of her mouth.
"Yeah, seriously?" Ray asked in equal disbelief.
"Yes. Our combined enemies are strong, but we are stronger together, only if we work as a team. We need to learn how to work with each other." Oliver explained. "Let's go right now to finish the setup, Ray. Get going, Felicity!"
"Okay, well, bye!" Felicity shouted as Ray followed Oliver out of the Cortex, suit in hand.
"Ray, hurry up! If we want to train tonight, we have to get the training center just right. And to do that, we need time." Oliver said as they entered the garage.
"I'm driving!" Ray exclaimed.
"No your not." Oliver grunted.
"Fair enough." Ray got into shotgun and put on his seat belt when he saw that Oliver had put some sunglasses on. Honestly, they looked really good on him.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses? It's nighttime." Ray stated.
"If Oliver Queen, once famous son of a billionaire, was spotted driving a STAR Labs van down a dirt road, I'm pretty sure everyone would be confused." Oliver said.
"What about an assumed dead billionaire? That would raise some eyebrows too." Ray said. "Can I get a pair?"
"Sure, I think there's some in the glove compartment." Oliver said, not really caring. Ray dove right into the glove box, pulling out a pair of... bright green swimming glasses.
"What are these?" Ray asked, holding up the goggles.
"Is that an actual question?" Oliver asked as he glanced at the goggles. "I think there are some more glasses in there."
"Great." Ray said, setting the goggles on the dashboard and taking out a pile of different glasses, dumping all of them with the bright green goggles. "What do we have here?!"
"A pile of varying glasses." Oliver answered.
"It was a rhetorical question." Ray said. Oliver sighed.
"I know, Ray. I was being sarcastic." Oliver said.
"Oh, well, let's see what we got." Ray said as he took a random pair of glasses out of the pile. "Great, this is going to do so much good."
Ray held up a pair of glasses that had fake, clear lenses. Basically fake prescription glasses.
"What? They're still glasses." Oliver said.
"The frames are the only things that cover something,and their so thin! These glasses will literally do nothing. Anybody who's anybody will recognize me!" Ray exclaimed, throwing the glasses back into the glove box.
"I know that, Ray." Oliver said.
"Is there anything actually useful here?" Ray asked. Oliver glanced over and pointed at a pair.
"What about that one?" Oliver asked. Ray picked up the one he was pointing at and held it up in front of his face.
"Are you being sarcastic again? These are sunglasses with windshield wipers on them. First of all, this design contradicts itself with windshield wipers for glasses designed for the sun and warmth." Ray said. "They're perfect. Let's go!"
"I'm already driving." Oliver said as Ray put the glasses on.
"Well, keep going then." Ray said.
The rest of the drive went by in silence, with barely any cars passing them in the dark night. When they arrived at the building, Ray took off his glasses and set them back down on the dash. Oliver did the same and they both got out of the car.
"So, how much do we need to do?" Ray asked.
"The concrete part of the building is for the computers and technology and storage and other stuff. You can set up that while I work on the actual training setups." Oliver said.
"Let's get to work, then." Ray said.
About 30 minutes went by, not much talking between the two except questions and confirmations about the setup. Ray finished the majestic computer layout while Oliver perfected the turf setup. When the whole thing was finished, it seemed as if the whole team arrived at the perfect time.
"Didn't I say I was going to get some sleep, oh, less than an hour ago?" Snart asked.
"Yeah, you did." Ray confirmed. "I realize not it was a rhetorical question."
"Correct, pretty boy, it was. And I haven't gotten much of that planned sleep, so why exactly are we here?" Snart asked.
"Training. Out enemies won't sleep much, so neither will we. At least, for tonight." Oliver said.
"You have a loose term of 'tonight'. It's past midnight, Oli." Thea said, yawning. "Not that I haven't been up this late before, but I haven't gotten much sleep the past few days and I was hoping to get some 'tonight'."
"I don't think any of us have." Sara said. "Snart's right in asking why we're here."
"I already told you, we finished the training center, and now is the time to test it." Oliver replied, sighing.
"Not really, we can do this in the morning." Kendra said.
"Look guys, this training session is to test your mental ability. If you can think in battle-like conditions, at this hour in the day, than you can fight in any conditions. Now, I hope you guys can suit up in the next ten minutes because we don't have that much light left." Oliver said, looking at his watch and walking away to presumably suit up.
"Did he just make a joke?" Felicity asked. "I think he made a joke."
"I guess there's a first time for everything." Diggle said.
Earth 1: Unknown Area
"Fuck, that didn't go well." Storm said to himself. The wound in his shoulder had almost completely healed, but Storm knew he screwed up. Oliver had almost definitely told others about his encounter, and now he was probably going to have to do something about it. He didn't think Oliver completely knew who he was dealing with, but he saw his powers, or, didn't see his powers.
Then Storm had an idea. He could pretend to be his old self. Barry Allen, the Flash. He could play with emotions and toy with his former friends.
It shouldn't be hard. He had all of Barry's memories, emotions, tendencies, and personalities. All he had to do was imitate Barry and when he had to or wanted to take action, he would.
"If I want to be Barry, might as well start now." Storm - no - Barry said. Barry smiled and stormed down the dirt road, knowing where he was going to go and what he was going to do.
After a bit of running, he found himself running past the sign that welcomed people coming into Central City and going deep into the heart of the metahuman populated city.
He still had his iconic red Flash suit on, and he knew that some people would see his trail of lightning or feel the wind he created when he passed by them. He was actually counting on it. He wanted people to know, to think, that the Flash, their hero, hadn't abandoned them just yet.
"Well, Barry, time to win an Oscar." Barry said to himself as he neared the place that started this weird and epic chapter of his life. STAR Labs. "Show time."
Barry saw the entrance to the infamous building and took a deep breath. He wasn't sure why he was nervous. He knew how he had to act. He knew how he had to feel. He just wasn't sure if the act would work. Oliver was super paranoid and there were a lot of smart people that surrounded his old friend. He just hoped that the naïve part of Caitlin would hold him back.
He had to stop delaying the inevitable. He wasn't a little boy. He didn't have restrictions and he shouldn't fear consequences. He had to face the inevitable.
Barry tightened his mask and lightning flashed in his eyes. He speeded through the doors and ran into the Cortex, surprised at the number of people in the building, but ignoring them to an extent.
"Barry?" Caitlin asked in disbelief as she saw the back of the hero of Central City. Barry fumbled his mask off and whipped around, facing Caitlin and several familiar faces.
"H-how-how long was I gone?" Barry mustered a confused face and stuttered the words out.
"Less than a week. How did you get back?" Caitlin asked.
"Well-" Barry said.
"You know what? Let's get everyone here. They need to hear this." Caitlin said. She turned on the PA system. "Everyone, come to the Cortex, quickly! You're gonna want to see this."
"How many people are here?" Barry asked.
"Everyone. Team Arrow. Team Legends. And what's left of team Flash. We made a sort of super-team, but we can talk about that later." Caitlin explained.
"What? Where's the fire?" Jax asked as he entered with the rest of the super-team.
"No fire. We have something better." Caitlin said excitingly. "Barry's back!"
"Hey guys." Barry said awkwardly, waving with a smile. Only Ray waved back. Oliver stared at him, skepticism written all over his face.
"How were you able to come back here?" Oliver asked curiously.
"Oliver! I'm sure Barry here needs some rest after being lost without his home and me." Iris said, rushing to Barry and putting an arm around him.
"Umm, it's fine Iris." Barry said, genuinely annoyed at Iris's sudden action when he gently pushed her arm off. "I ran out of the breach and found myself in a city, but it wasn't Central City, and a chunk of the city was in the air and falling pretty fast. I didn't know how it got there, but I figured if I created a vortex under it, I could cushion the impact. So, I started to run as fast as I could."
"That's genius." Stein complimented.
"Thanks." Barry said. "But after a few minutes of running, well, few minutes to me, the tachyon enhancer must've turned back on because I was pulled into another breach. And that breach took me to a dark forest."
"Ooohh, spooky." Ray commented. Barry smiled.
"That's not even the best part. I saw a werewolf." Barry said.
"Mr. Allen, that is just simply impossible. Werewolves is a fairytale species, they aren't actually real." Stein said.
"Tell that to the werewolf." Barry said with a smirk. "Anyways, the werewolf was sniffing around and looking at trees. I think it was looking for something or someone. When it saw me, I panicked and rotated my arms to push him back into a tree, knocking him out."
"Cool." Carter commented.
"It was." Barry said. "I then proceeded to run away, hoping I could gainenough speed to conjure a breach leading to this Earth. It sort of worked, but instead of coming here, I ended up landed on yet another world. This went on for awhile until now. I'm home."
"You did that for five days straight?" Oliver asked unbelievingly.
"Well, I took some breaks here and there, but for the most part, yeah." Barry said. "I couldn't really tell time, but it felt like forever even though it could've been a week or it could've been two seconds."
"Huh. Okay." Oliver said.
"Well, you missed training last night. It was awesome." Ray said.
"Debatable. I saw my life flash before my eyes multiple times." Dig said.
"Too bad we couldn't kill anyone." Mick said.
"Why are you two here, exactly?" Barry asked, gesturing towards Snart and Mick.
"They're Legends, we stick together." Sara said. "Unless you're Rip Hunter. I think he just doesn't like playing with a lot of people."
'That's cool and all, but why are you here?" Barry asked, gesturing to the entire room.
"We all decided that if any of us go down, all of us help them. We're basically a huge ass unit that has superheroes and criminals. You could say we're a diverse group." Diggle said.
"Nice." Barry said.
"It was actually prompted by your disappearance." Caitlin said.
"Cool, I feel special." Barry said sarcastically. "So what now?"
"After you get some rest and we check your health, I guess you can start training with the rest of the league." Caitlin said.
"Wait. Just one more question." Oliver said. Iris opened her mouth but Oliver put up a finger to stop her. "Do you know where Cisco is?"
"I mean, there's more than 30 Earths that Cisco could've landed on. That's more than 75,000 miles of land. He could've been on any of the Earths I was on, but the chance of me running into him would've been highly unlikely." Barry ranted.
"So that's a no?" Oliver asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes, it's a no." Barry said.
"Okay then! Let's go Barry. You need to clean up and rest." Iris said, picking Barry up and helping/forcing Barry to go to their house.
"You remember I have super speed, right?" Barry asked.
'Yeah, I remember." Iris laughed as they walked out of the Cortex. Oliver looked at everyone else in skepticism, knowing what his gut was telling him, and trusting it.
"Mick. Snart. I need to speak with you in private." Oliver said, walking out of the Cortex.
"What fun. A therapy session." Snart said and got up and followed Oliver with Mick trailing behind. They arrived at Cisco's workplace. "So, what's up Doc?"
"I need you to follow Barry, or whoever he is, but from a distance." Oliver said.
"What are we, your slaves?" Mick asked.
"I agree with Mick. And why do you even want us to follow dear Barry?" Snart asked. He put his hand on the gun and a sound of pure energy gave way, Snart charging up his Cold Gun.
"I don't think it's the Barry we know." Oliver said, picking up heavy screw and feeling the cold patterned crevices. He twirled the cold metal screw and rolled it in his hand inconsistently, the screws shape not rolling properly making Oliver have to adjust every so often.
"And why would you think that? You're paranoid of everyone and everything." Snart pointed out. Oliver threw up the screw and caught it, cushioning the fall.
"His story is too elaborate. Too thought out. I think he's lying about what happened and who he is." Oliver said.
"Well, not everyone is as paranoid as you, but I'm pretty sure Barry is just plain old Barry. Hero of Central City." Snart said.
"I'll roast him for you even if he isn't." Mick stated. Oliver shook his head.
"It isn't out Barry. I'm gonna follow him if you don't. We need answers." Oliver said. "We're a team now. We have each other's backs and we stick together."
"Fine. But one condition. We do it my way." Snart said.
"Why does everything have to be done your way?!" Oliver hissed.
"I come up with the best plans." Snart said.
"But don't you say we always have to get rid of those plans?" Mick asked.
"Exactly. That's always my plan." Snart said. "Nobody has the guts to realize when they have to do something else. Or they don't even try to stick to the original plan."
"That's nice and all, but how about we start right now? The quicker we find out what happened on another Earth, the quicker we can find the real Barry."
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Earth 38: Unknown Skyscraper
"Did I forget to tell you I'm afraid of heights?" Cisco asked. "Not deathly afraid, but I get a bit nauseous."
"That's nice." Alex said. Cisco was glad that there was railings on the side of the roof, otherwise he would look down and maybe pass out.
"This is the place? Cause if it isn't, we can just go back down right now." Cisco said.
"This is the same skyscraper." Supergirl confirmed. "Right on the helipad. That's where the portal was."
"Okay, one, it's called a breach. And two, I can sense the multidimensional energy. It's really strong in this area."
"Great, so let's hurry up. The longer we wait, the more dangerous Barry will get." J'onn said. Harry tiredly went up to Cisco and smacked him in the face. His type of motivation.
"Thanks Harry." Cisco said sarcastically. Jessie came up to Harry and put her hand on his shoulder, a gesture of calmness.
"Okay. I hope I can do this right." Cisco said.
"I hope so too." Winn added. "So what exactly are we expecting to happen?"
"I honestly have no clue. The process of going through the breach is quick. It gets cold for a bit, but when you exit, you get a bit disoriented. We have to be ready for anything when we exit the breach." Cisco explained.
"So for all we know, we exit the breach and be run over by a car on the highway." Winn checked.
"I'm sure that won't happen." Cisco said. "Besides, if it did, the car would break due to Kara."
"That's reassuring." Winn said sarcastically. He had a shouldered bag with a laptop and some snacks. He tightened the strap. "Let's get this over with."
"Okay, if you say so." Cisco said. He put his goggles on and reached out his fist.
"Please tell me this is going to work." Alex said, patting the pouch she had on her belt that contained multiple syringes of the antidote to the Raptor.
"It will. It has to." Kara said. She wasn't going to let Barry harm himself or others.
"Patience, young one." Cisco said. Blue energy started to form around his fist and the outline of a breach started to become clear in front of him.
"Is that it?" Winn asked.
"Almost." Cisco said, concentrating solely on the breach. The outline started to get more defined and the shape started to fill. "It's getting there."
"Hurry up. We're on a clock." J'onn rushed.
"Jeez, I'm close." Cisco said. The breach suddenly enlarged and fully filled up, pulsing with energy and resonating like a vibrating glass.
"That's better." Alex commented. Cisco put down his arm and smiled at his work.
"Now we just step through and hope we don't walk into a volcano." Cisco said. He walked through the breach and everybody entered after him, one at a time.
Cisco exited the breach and looked around. He saw the basking golden sun through a tinted window, lined with orange and brown paint. As his acquaintances exited the blue pulse and stood next to him, Cisco smiled sadly at the familiar setting. He was overjoyed at his homecoming, but he knew that Barry had lead them to a difficult situation. Barry was coming for his friends.
"Where are we?" Winn asked curiously. Cisco shook his head and took in the potent smell of caffeine and the constant chatter between children, adults, and elders.
"Welcome to CC Jitters, location, Central City. Earth 1. My home." Cisco announced. They all saw that the other occupants were staring at them, but they ignored it and instead strolled over to a table. Cisco smiled at the familiar experience, just with different friends.
"I'll get us some coffee." Cisco said, setting his goggles on the marble high table and going over to the empty register. A female barista came over and put on a smile that was all but genuine.
"Hi, can I get anything?" the barista asked, brushing her silky brown hair behind her ear and looked intriguingly at Cisco's clothes.
"Yeah, can I have seven Flashes please?" Cisco asked. "All venti."
"Sure." the young woman said. She went to the espresso machine and started to lazily fulfill Cisco's request. Meanwhile, Cisco returned to his table and hopped into the orange chair.
"Did you take us here on purpose?" Kara asked. Cisco shook his head.
"Nope. This was all Barry. Well, maybe not the exact location, but the same Earth." Cisco said. "I think that's partly my fault, I could get the location better."
"What do we do next?" J'onn asked, his eyes darting around the room.
"So, since Barry chose to come back to Earth 1, it's kind of a double-edged sword for us. I know where we can go and where Barry might go, but he's probably going to go for our friends. So we need to both have our attention on them and Barry." Cisco said.
"Cool, so we have to save more people than Barry." Alex said.
"Yup." Cisco sighed. The barista came up to the table and put down seven mugs with colorful designs and the CC Jitters label. Cisco looked up and thanked the woman before taking a petite sip of his mug.
"So, what is this anyway?" Winn asked, referring to the strange mugs that all held the same dark brown liquid.
"Oh, this beauty was added to the menu a couple of months ago after Barry and Firestorm saved the city from a singularity." Cisco said. "Don't worry about Firestorm. It's a long story."
"But what is it?" Winn repeated.
"It's called the Flash. Way more caffeine than anything else served here." Cisco explained. He rubbed his eyes and took a sip of his coffee. "Sorry guys, what with the deprivation of sleep and this return to home, I'm kind of low on energy."
"It's fine." J'onn said, taking a sip of his mug. "I think we all need an energy boost right about now."
"Where's Barry?" Kara asked hurriedly. Cisco shook his head methodically.
"He could be at STAR Labs, Star City, maybe moved on to another Earth. Our best bet is to wait it out, maybe look at some possible locations. Maybe STAR Labs, maybe his old home." Cisco said.
"So we just wait for something to happen?" Kara asked.
"Well, technically. But let's go to STAR Labs first to check in and tell everyone what happened." Cisco ordered.
So, I heard the people's voice, and I actually agree with it. Storm was a name I came up with off the top of my head, and obviously, I probably shouldn't have made one at all. Karry is charging up. Buckle your seat belts and get read for the incoming ship.
Questions/Comments:
heros bane
Question: not to sound rude but it's been 11 chapters they look like just friends to me,also did the legends and oliver need their own large sections in a karry story?is this a slow burn where barry's gonna be ''storm'' for the majority of the story and the last chapter karry happens cause i can basically see them failing to give him the cure or he destroys it and get's question you made"storm"so fast yet oliver can still tag him have you seen season 4 is he that fast or is he slower
Answer: It's fine, you don't have to worry about this being insulting or offending to me. This is a slow burn story, and multiple factors come in when it comes to the Karry relationship. BTW, for those who haven't seen season 4, SPOILER! turning invisible to the naked eye is a power he gains. I'm not sure if it makes him be able to phase thru things, though. SPOILER DONE!
Chevalier Lecteur
Question: SPLENDID chapter! I think your doing great on the slow burn, I mean, slow and steady wins the race... (Sorry speedsters.) Also if Barry was vibrating to the point of invisibility, wouldn't Oliver's arrow go through him?
Answer: Like I just said, I'm not sure how that works. I just go off the tv show and they don't really explain to deeply, so I just have to use my brain and guess on some certain science.
chloe
Question: Good chapter although not sure on the new name
Answer: Me neither, that's why I changed it, for the reader's satisfaction and clarification.
LegancyZ
Question: Just get to the Karry, Please.
Answer: Don't worry, Karry is still happening, and soon.