Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Call Me Kara

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 51:

“I won’t lie to you, I won’t ever lie to you. You are going to have to spend some time with Grandma, only a few hours hopefully. There are some bad men and women me and Daddy have to fight. We don’t know how many, or what their powers are. Its dangerous, but we do have the element of surprise on our side. They won’t expect to see us there. They won’t have time to be prepared.”

Lexie smiled up at her mother. She was lying on her very soft blanket on the floor as Kara lay on her side next to her and over her, looking at her daughter with adoration tinged with worry.

“I know what you are thinking, at least what you would be thinking if you understood what I was telling you. Mommy, this sounds dangerous. Yes it is. Anytime we go into a fight it is dangerous. Mommy went with Ollie, Thea and Dig to a fight once and even I was shot. Want to guess why, you little stinker? Somebody borrowed my sunlight without warning me. Thats okay, you can have it all if you want. I can see that sunlight on your face, behind your beautiful eyes. I am going to make a promise to you. I won’t break any promises to you. I swear to you we are all coming back. I won’t leave anyone behind and Daddy and I will make it back. I’ll even keep an eye on Aunt Alex and Aunt Nyssa. They have to change your diaper at least once, right? They can’t avoid it forever.”

The tiny version of Kara began rocking back and forth, not close to rolling over yet but so impatient to move, then crawl, walk and then run. Soon she would be trying to go faster, just like her Daddy.

“Uncle Cisco and Aunt Caitlin are going to be listening to us so if you need to hear my voice just use your little I’m bored cry and I can talk to you. I can do that while I am fighting because I am awesome. No matter the powers, whoever is there can’t possibly be ready for me and Daddy. I bet one day they won’t be ready for you either.”

Kara began lightly tickling her daughter’s tummy trying to get more smiles until Charlie’s bark alerted her to a customer up front. Her hearing picked up a heartbeat. She had been in business two days and had two customers in those two days stop by. The first had bought a painting. Perhaps she would be lucky again.

Picking up her daughter and wrapping her in light blanket, she walked to the front and saw who she assumed to be a fireman. He had black pants on a dark blue shirt adorning his upper body with the shield of Central City Fire Department on it. Kara was assured by Captain Singh that no one outside the Police Department knew her identity. If this man did, Kara swore she would start wearing glasses again.

“Good morning! How are you today?”

“Hi, I’m Steve, uh Steve Crowder. I’m a Captain at Central City Fire Department.” the older man, probably in his fifties, with dark, close cut hair showing signs of graying. “I’m not really used to places like this, sorry.”

“As you can see by my dog, my baby and my blue jeans, I like to keep things casual.”

“Yeah, nice shirt. You don’t see many people wearing a Central City PD shirt anymore. Seems superheroes are all the rage.”

“My husband is a CSI there. I like to think there are a whole lot of people without super powers who are heroes, including your department.”

“Huh… thanks. Is this your place?”

“Yes sir.”

“Its very nice. Cute dog, beautiful girl in your arms, it seems you are doing all right for yourself. Is she a niece?”

“No, she is my daughter. She is seven weeks old.”

“Wow. Not to be taken the wrong way, but you have recovered quickly from the birth.”

Kara froze for a moment, the smile plastered on her face. “I didn’t gain a while lot of weight during the pregnancy.” she explained, hoping he would let it go.

“Good for you. It took my wife a year and she complained about it every day after our first born. I’m here because the mayor finally gave us a budget to spruce up the Main Station downtown a bit. I thought some paintings on the wall might class the place up. I don’t think the things you have in here are going to be in our budget though. You paint all these?”

“Yeah, every one.”

“You do beautiful work. I shouldn’t waste your time. Maybe I can head to that crafts stores and get some reprints framed. Posters are good enough for firemen.”

“I am negotiable.” Kara told him quickly. “Why don’t you look around and see if you like anything. We can talk.”

“Thank you ma’am. I think I will do that.” Crowder didn’t expect to find anything that his five thousand dollar budget could afford, considering he also had to hire a contractor to renovate the kitchen at the Main Station. But the smile on the blonde, the baby in her arms and the cute mutt in the back, watching them both like a tiny guard dog, was too much to pass up.

Kara stood in the back, watching the man. He seemed to like what he saw, particularly one she had painted of her view of Argo City from her bedroom window. She didn’t overdue the red tint, just had more coppery colors giving the whole thing the feel of Rao without focusing on it strongly. Then he stopped at one of her favorite pieces and looked at it for a long time.

Crowder was amazed by what he saw. The painting seemed to be from the vantage point of someone lying on the ground. A fireman was reaching down towards the unseen person, his hand open as if trying to help the person up. He wore turnout gear on his bottom half but his top was a dark blue shirt, similar to his, with a crescent on the chest that read Fire Department. No city was on the printed badge. The fireman was older, perhaps a Captain, and the kindness in his face struck him. He could see every crease on the man’s face, the sympathy in his eyes.

“This… I’ve never seen anything like this. The vantage point is from someone lying on the ground.”

“Yes it is. It was me.” Kara told him, walking towards one of her favorite paintings she had ever done.

“You?”

“I moved here almost two years ago. Before that, shortly after I met my husband, I was in a park. A powerline fell and shocked me. I was near it, though it didn’t touch me. I suppose the ground was wet because I was knocked unconscious. I understand while I was out, quite a few people in the park came to my aid. But once my head cleared and my vision returned completely the first thing I saw was this fireman reaching down to help me up. The kindness in his eyes, the love, is something I will never forget as long as I live. I was in a very low place in my life and he helped give me back hope from such a simple gesture, more than he will ever realize. I will never forget him as long as I live.”

“Well, it is beautiful. The detail… amazing. I wish I could afford it but $3500 would blow my budget.”

“I actually priced it that high because I didn’t want to sell it. Its one of my favorites.” Kara admitted. “But I never expected a Fire Department to be interested. I’ll make you a deal, you bring me a Central City Fire Department T shirt and its yours.”

“What? I can’t do that. This is…”

“He would like it, knowing that his act of kindness is living on for others to see. You and your men are heroes. It can be easy to fight crime and save people from burning buildings when you have superpowers. What your men and women do takes a lot more bravery.”

“I don’t know about that. What Superwoman, the Flash and whoever this new girl is did with that plane yesterday was pretty amazing. Flying it through a bridge like that was something else. Saved over two hundred lives. Never seen anything like it and never would have believed it before yesterday.”

“Yeah and it was your department who evacuated that bridge knowing a plane was flying towards them. I insist. Just don’t forget to bring me my t shirt by the end of the week.”

“Thanks… really. Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Kara took the painting from the wall and handed it to the man. “Let your people know I do family portraits as well. Usually $500 hundred depending on size but I can work out a discount for the Central City’s bravest. I’m sure my husband’s boss has already told the City’s finest that I offer discounts as well.”

“Who is your husband?”

“Barry Allen.”

“Oh, that CSI. I should have out it together, name of the place and everything. I heard his wife was like a ray of sunshine. It fits you. Thank you Kara.”

“Thank you. I couldn’t imagine it having a better home. By the way, his name was Steve also.”

“His name? Whose name?”

“The firefighter. I can’t remember his last name but I know he introduced himself as Steve. He really helped me, more than he will ever realize. Have a good day, Captain.”

Kara watched one of her favorite memories of National City walk out in the Fireman’s arms. She could paint another but that one would be just for her, so one day she could tell her daughter the story of how her mother and father were saved by firefighters, despite her father’s confidence that they could have won.

“We are going to count that as a sell, okay? Two for two. At this rate I may be able to pay for your first two weeks of college without touching Daddy’s money. We gave it to him because that man and his firemen and the people in that park saved my life in more ways than one. Daddy thought we had it but neither of us were that smart at the time when it came to plans. Daddy thought he would beat King Shark too but Mommy had to save his bootie. Speaking of over overconfident Daddy, you ready to have lunch? We have to see Daddy a lot now because he is feeling left out. Charlie is about to get mad because he is going to have to travel in Mommy’s purse or on a leash because of those stupid leash laws which is ironic because Mommy is about to lay down the law on something or someone called Leash. I hope if it’s a he or she, he or she isn’t slimy. You can’t imagine how icky it is to fight someone who is slimy. Hopefully me and you are the only aliens that will ever wind up on Earth in this universe, because meta’s aren’t generally slimy… wow, I just said that. Pretty much guaranteed to be fighting alien prison escapees now. Oh well, I’ll kick their butts too. We can send them back into space with mean old Wizard man. I’ll tell you that story when you are older. A whole building fell on me and it wasn’t my fault, but I still get picked on about it. Do you know why? Because when anything goes wrong they blame the blonde girl, guaranteed and we are the only blonde’s on the team beside Sara. They won’t blame Sara because they know she will hurt them badly.”

The three moved down the sidewalk enjoying the cooling but still warm temperatures. Lexie was cuddled up in a blanket in her arms because Lexie cried when Kara started preparing the stroller and Charlie in her backpack because he barked when she brought out the leash. Kara never could deny her babies. On her other shoulder she had the diaper bag complete with formula filled bottles that would be heated by her vision as soon as she was in Barry’s lab.

Walking into the station she was attacked by a herd of police officers, Joe being the first, practically grabbing her daughter out of her hands. Charlie barked at the attack and tried to jump out of the pack, before the blonde swung it around and caught him, preventing a far drop to the ground. Because of her twisting, the diaper bag dropped from her shoulder but she twisted and grabbed it before it hit the ground. She must have been a blur as she moved because once it was settled the group of officers were looking at her.

“That is so freaking cool.” a patrol man named Tony commented, a round of agreements from those around.

“A little warning, Grandpa?” Kara asked, faking annoyance at her daughter’s sudden abduction by one of her three grandfathers.

“Sorry, Kara,” Joe told her, not really sorry. “you looked tired or something.”

“I am not tired!”

Joe didn’t bother responding because Lexie was smiling. Kara nearly jumped when Barry appeared beside her. She used to be able to see him clearly no matter how fast he moved. Now she couldn’t even track him with her eyesight at times. Giving her a deep kiss that was unnoticed by the inhabitants, due to the Princess of Central City being present, Kara was glad to see he looked much better today. His smile was back and the gleam in his eyes she used to see was back a bit but the apprehension was there. She knew he was thinking about their hopefully soon trip to Vietnam.

Alex had joined the group worship of the child, pushing her way through the front of the crowd and being threatened by Joe if she took the girl. Joe reached out and practically demanded a bottle. Kara was worried about Lexie being frightened but she seemed to be loving the attention, smiling at the gathered police department, giving her the attention she felt she deserved.

“Actually Barry was going to feed her.”

“It’s okay Kara.” he assured her, loving to see Joe with his grandchild.

“Okay, I need to go heat it up.”

“Just do it here!” one of the officers encouraged. They did love to see her heat vision.

“No.” she replied immediately. There was absolutely no telling who could walk in to the crowded police station.

“She can’t do that idiot! Anyone can walk in!” another officer concurred with her thoughts.

Kara walked to Barry’s lab, heated the bottle quickly and moved back down, handing the bottle to Joe. Barry held her from behind and they enjoyed the moment, as Joe finished and then handed her to Alex to be burped. Kara was secretly excited as it appeared in the bustle to get her hands on her niece, her sister had forgotten to put a rag over her shoulders. A minute later, Lexie performed as expected, Alex’s black shirt decorated in white formula that Lexie decided she didn’t need. The look on her face made the whole trip worth it.

“Wow, white looks good on you, Alex.” Barry commented, as the full smell of the mini vomit hit her.

Barry, Kara and Alex’s phones went off. All knew what that meant. Handing the baby back to Joe, Alex checked her phone.

“Looks like I am changing clothes anyway. Felicity found them.”

“Found who? Whats going on? We under attack?” Singh asked immediately.

“Nope, we are going to Vietnam.” Barry answered, looking at his daughter.

“You are about fifty years too late.” Singh reminded the three.

“Remember the team we fought in Keystone? We found out that its an organization that has been kidnapping teenage metahumans and making them fight to the death. One of ours was taken yesterday and the pig lady got him back. We just found the location.” Zatanna was not as catchy as the pig lady among local PD.

“How many metahumans? Do you know?” Joe asked, the station quiet, knowing this was one fight they couldn’t help in.

“No.” was Kara’s simple answer.

“And you all have to go?” Stacy McGee asked, looking at Lexie and then the two parents.

“This is what we do. We will be back in a couple hours. Beat the bad guys, rescue the kids and back in time for dinner. No worries.” Kara assured all of them confidently.

Barry tossed the keys to the Volvo on Joe’s desk. “Can you take her to S.T.A.R.? Eliza is there.”

Joe nodded. “Please be careful.”

Kara shook her head.”Careful would be not going but that isn’t an option. If it was Iris you would want us to get her back, right? Nobody else can or will. A lot of parents and kids are scared right now. Its time to make sure this never happens again. We got this. Back for her feeding in three hours, I promise.”

Barry moved to his lab, grabbed his suit and was back in a blink, still surprising the officers. Both the mother and father kissed Lexie followed by Alex and the three took off, Kara changing quickly into her outfit hidden in the diaper bag and Alex running to her Porsche.

Five minutes later, Alex ran in, moving to the locker room and changing. When she walked out, she saw the rest of the League already assembled and was grateful to see Zatana was at least wearing jeans and a pair of hiking boots, no doubt designer. She briefly wondered how much of Ray’s money she spent on clothes and if Ray even noticed. Then she saw her fiancee black robe over her red top that also served as light weight body armor. The familiar scarf completed her outfit, leaving only her eyes visible. The quiver on her back held many arrows, none of them trick arrows and she had an extra quiver and bow. She walked up to Alex, handing her the bow and quiver. Unknown to the others Nyssa had worked with Alex on archery and she was quite good.

“Stars on your wrists, good, handguns, take the tonfa off. Tonfas are for street fighting. This requires blood.”

Alex reluctantly took of the tonfas handing them to her mother. Joe walked in with his granddaughter in his arms, Eliza taking the girl immediately.

While the interactions were going on Barry and Kara were standing over Felicity looking at the Tororeng Prong volcano.

“Three vents, a wireless signal coming from the east vent. The volcano has never shown any signs of eruption or even earthquakes but it is a volcano. There is a crater lake nearby and the cone has an entrance. The cone is deep, probably five hundred feet but cloud cover is making it difficult to see how many are inside or how many layers there are.”

“I can’t teleport us there if I don’t know exactly where it is.” Zatanna too told the group.

“Can you teleport us and charge Donna’s lasso?” Nyssa asked her, planning for a war in her head.

“I can… I’m not sure. I’ve gotten more powerful. Caitlin has helped me… I will be ready.”

“And until I hear confidence in your voice we will not count on you. Dr. Stein, can you do it?” Nyssa did not have to say what it was. She wanted the Firestorm matrix to destroy this creature.

“I am not sure. We can flood him with protons but I cannot guarantee it will be enough. Harry has developed a weapon that we believe will counteract the dark matter but until it is tested or we know the concentration of matter we cannot be sure.”

“Give me the gun.” Carter ordered, taking the offered rifle from Harry. Cisco walked in with his visor on.

“What are you doing?” Kara asked immediately.

“You wanted me to get better. I’ve been working with Harry and can use the vibrational blast when I want.”

“And you expect to come with us after not working with us?” Barry asked. “Can you knock that coffee mug off the desk?” he asked.

Cisco raised his hands before Barry stopped him. “Can you do it without destroying the wall?”

The shorter man’s head dropped.

“Keep working on it. We are going to be in an enclosed rock structure. We can’t take a chance of you bringing the thing down on us. I’m sorry man, but we need you here this time.”

Kara breathed a sigh of relief at Cicso’s acceptance. She didn’t want him to feel less but she didn’t want him to die either or worse for him, living with the guilt of causing someone else’s death.

Barry took a deep breath and looked over the team.

“This is what we have been training for. We apprehend those we can, we free those who want to be free and we take down the rest by any means necessary. I don’t like the idea but we won’t lose anyone today. When we get there, we will be in the middle of the this death match arena. If Fairchild makes a move she will be close to the arena which I am betting is at the bottom. Kara and I will go first. We can be there in ten minutes. We scope it out and go in. As soon as five minutes are up, Zatanna teleport the League to where Kara is.”

“Where we are.” the blonde corrected.

“Ray, make sure Zatanna finds cover and do not let her be injured. We are going to need her to charge Donna’s lasso if the weapon doesn’t work. Once we are all together in the pit, Nyssa takes the lead. Do as she says. If she orders a kill, then kill, do not hesitate. If she orders us not to go after someone who runs, don’t go after them. If she goes down, guard her and Oliver takes the lead in the field. Everyone understand?”

“Why Oliver?” Alex asked immediately, irritated.

“Because you are going to have your mind on and be protecting Nyssa.” Kara told her sister, who suddenly understood. If Nyssa went down there was no way she could be impartial. Most of this team had followed Oliver at some point and trusted his instructions. Alex defending Nyssa would be a mess of rage. If Alex went down, Kara could protect her while Nyssa remained cool. She had the ability to block out everything when directing a battle, knowing winning the battle quickly was the only true way to help Alex. Alex had not developed that yet, especially when it came to Kara or Nyssa.

“Carter, give me the rifle. I’m a better shot.” Alex demanded, doing her best to sound as if it was a request.

Carter thought of arguing then considered the bullets he had taken from the short haired woman Nodding, he handed over the rifle.

“How am I going to make it there in five minutes?” Kara asked.

“I won’t ask if you trust me, I know you do. Just fly above me, stay as close to the ground above me and we have this, okay?”

Superwoman nodded, wondering what he planned but not asking now.

Before the assembled League prepared to watch their leaders depart, Jeremiah called Alex and Kara over.

The two daughters noted both parent looked extremely worried, Eliza holding Lexie tightly in her arms.

“I won’t try to talk the two out of going.” Jeremiah started, “But please promise us you are both coming back. Kara don’t act like you are invincible and Alex, I know you have taken on aliens but you have to assume there could be fifty or more of these. If whoever is in charge wants these kids to fight to the death they are obviously dangerous. Bring each other back to us.”

Both daughters nodded and hugged the man, Kara running her fingers through the little light blonde hair Lexie had on her and smiled.

“We have to go to work. We will be back in time for dinner, promise.” Kara told them, then walked to Barry.

“You ready for this?” he asked, not really needing too.

“I’ve never left her. Charlie is in Joe’s car still. I hope he remembered to bring him inside.”

“He will. Lets go.”

A moment later, Central City heard a sonic boom, all the citizens recognizing the noise. Superwoman and the Flash were moving fast, meaning danger was coming or they were going to stop danger somewhere. Many of them sent a silent prayer in their direction and moved on with their lives. The heroes would be back. They always were.

Kara meanwhile was feeling faster and stranger than she ever had in the air. She was keeping pace with Barry but he did not appear to be in cruising mode. Instead he was glowing.

Barry for his part felt everything around him. Reaching out he felt the kinetic energy of the city, cars moving, people walking, a traffic copter flying. This time he grabbed onto the feeling as he did in training and redirected it, sending it to his wife above him, wrapping her in the Speedforce and essentially letting her borrow speed. It should have slowed him down and it did to a degree but not enough to make a difference. As long as she was skirting no more than fifty feet above him, he knew both were fast enough, reaching Mach 20 with no problem.

“Barry, what are you doing?” his wife asked over the wind shear but Barry did not hear her, instead focusing on what was in front of him, deciding when to phase and when to solidify. Despite the tremendous resistance of the wind, Kara’s suit did not rip nor did the wind slow her down. She was wrapped in whatever Barry had around him, invisible but there.

Back at S.T.A.R. the brains support team and the muscle watched, amazed.

“I get Barry but how in the hell is Kara flying that fast? She has never flown over Mach 2.” Cisco muttered but all heard. “Caitlin?”

Dr. Snow activated Kara’s suit, bypassing the normal vitals which were perfect and checked her cellular structure. She had planned to watch Kara closely, making sure she had no power outages. Instead she had a surprise. Kara was nowhere close to running out of power and Cait wondered if she ever would again.

“She is altered. I mean her cells… I’ve been checking Lexie’s but not Kara’s since the birth. Lexie’s cells are a mix of Kara’s solar absorbing power along with an empty area we believe could compensate for the power of the Speedforce like Barry’s. Kara’s are exactly the same.”

“So she could be as fast as Barry?” Wells asked.

“I doubt it. His cells are completely open to his power and are always fully charged, emitting an electric signature that has never been seen, I would imagine only speedsters would have it. We know his DNA is altered but I am betting Kara’s is as well now, probably something Lexie shared inside the womb. I never thought to recheck her DNA.”

“So suddenly she is this fast?” Alex asked, wondering if she had to worry about her sister burning up along with her brother in law.

“No,” Harry told her, taking an educated guess. “He’s figured it out. He is a genius. The other day he stole kinetic energy from the battlefield. This time he is reversing the effect. He has her wrapped in the Speedforce. He is sharing speed.”

“Is there anything he can’t do?” Cisco asked proudly, his disappointment at being unable to go into battle momentarily forgotten watching the super powered couple moving together over the Pacific and then onto mainland Vietnam.

The two heroes stopped at the shore.

“Go and I will follow. I got us here but I’m not exactly sure where this Volcano is. Can you see it?”

Kara looked over the Southeast range of the jungle country. Using her telescopic vision, it wasn’t hard to pick out, the mountain ranges in the jungle land, towering over the trees.

“I’ll fly a quarter mile ahead so you don’t have to watch me constantly and can avoid crashing into trees.” she told him, fifty feet above and then shot up into the sky, immediately sensing the loss of speed and the weird feeling of having kinetic energy wrapped around her. The two arrived halfway up the cone when Kara landed.

“Wow! That was amazing! How did you do that? You are so getting lucky when Lexie goes to sleep. That felt soooo good.”

“I shared my speed with you. I figured out when I stole kinetic energy during training. As long as you stayed close I could send it towards you.” Barry explained as if this was an everyday occurrence. “We can work more on it later. What do you see inside?”

Kara used her X ray vision, looking down.

“Not much unfortunately. There is a lot of lead in the makeup of this cone. I can see activity at the very bottom. It looks like a lot of people in a circle and… Fairchild and I think the team she led in Keystone are in the middle. This isn’t good. We need to get down there now.”

Down below, Caitlin Fairchild was feeling a few emotions but the main one was disgust at herself. She had failed. The disappearance of Oliver Queen’s friend from his cell caused Harvest to order Lilith to examine everyone in the Colony, Ravagers and metas destined for the Culling. Although Fairchild’s team of Ridge, Thunder and Lightning and Terra were good at hiding their thoughts, Garfield Logan, the one meta abductee Fairchild believe she could trust and would be valuable in the revolt was not. Only 16, he had been very frightened by Shadow Walker and didn’t need to talk. Lilith, as poor a telepath as she was, saw everything. They were taken in their sleep and woke up in the crucible, surrounded by the young metas already brainwashed by Leash, prepared to fight to the death. Leash had them attached to his psionic wires, the blue skinned man dressed in his trademark purple outfit and the helmet Harvest had developed to help him focus and project his powers. He was the transportation for the Ravagers but also the slave owner. His wires could influence minds, which is why her team was unable to fight and the innocent metas around them were ready to kill.

A large part of Fairchild was nervous that her team would have to fight these innocents until Harvest, Shadow Walker and Warblade stepped up. She understood then, this was an execution.

“Too bad Fairchild. You had a great body, we could have had quite a bit of fun.” Warblade told her, looking her up and down for the last time. Leash had forced her into her normal form and the way he was gazing at her made the woman sick.

Taking off his shirt, his upper body turned to metal and his arm changed into a spear. He jabbed the blade towards her chest and struck home.

Only it was the wrong chest. Standing in front of him was a woman he had seen news feed of. Superwoman. His sharp tipped metal arm hit her in the chest but went no farther. Instead he just heard a crack and the sizzle of electricity.

“You jerk!” Kara shouted. “You destroyed my chest piece!”

Grabbing the metal spear she twisted sending the man to the ground, then with a kick, sent him flying into the creature that must have been the shadow thing the rest saw at the South Pole. Kara was pleased to see the black creature fly back, telling her he did have a solid form.

“Wow, Fairchild, you are a lot smaller than the last time I saw you. Feel like bulking up?”

“I can’t. The creature on the second level is controlling us. It’s Leash. He has the metas surrounding us brainwashed to attack. They are innocents.”

“The Flash is near!” Harvest told his Ravagers, backing up and drawing Kara’s attention. She took him in, armor remaining stainless steel but obviously lighter since it did not slow him down, or he was incredibly strong. She noted the metal wings on his back and wondered if they were for decoration or functional. Then she took in his head, the metal covering everything but his mouth…

“You are so Voldemort! Can you see out of that thing? How do you smell? You have to be a mouth breather right?”

“Would you focus?! Leash! Second level.” Fairchild reminded her.

“Yeah, I know. Why do you think I am distracting him?”

Kara knew, she could feel something moving down, some sort of energy and prepared to move if she had to, but she doubted she would. Movement in the air and a thunderous clap characterizing someone being hit with the force of a tomahawk missile told her Barry had found Leash. Immediately, Fairchild and her team were free and she bullked up, Ridge flexing the muscles under his rock exterior.

“He is on our side, right?” Kara asked to make sure.

“Yes I am.” a deep voice told her.

“You can talk? That would have been helpful in Keystone City.” Kara informed him. Barry blurred to her side.

“So the Flash was around. Did you kill my Leash?” Harvest asked.

“He really does looks like Voldemort.” Barry agreed with Kara, ignoring Harvest and looking around. “So this looks like a lot of metas.” The Flash took in the dazed teens behind glass walls.

“Most are innocent but a few are very aggressive naturally. They have been brainwashed and until it wears off they won’t be very nice.” Fairchild mentioned.

“Templar, release the metahumans, let the Culling…” Harvest order was cut short when he was hit from behind by the Flash, then the front again, almost falling when he spun, only to be hit again. None of the Ravagers had even seen Barry move. He was much faster than the last time they had encountered him.

“Who is Templar?” Superwoman asked, not sure if she wanted the answer.

“He is the director, second in command.” The girl Cisco had dubbed as Lightning told them. Before Barry could let that sink in however, Shadow Walker and Warblade were up. The Flash took them both in, then noticed the glass walls were down, the metas moving slowly towards them.

“They are the most dangerous.” Barry guessed thinking of Shadow Walker and Warblade. Harvest got to his knees and was hit by Barry again. “Him, not so much.”

Kara used a heat blast on Warblade knocking the man back while Barry and Lightning tossed lighting bolts into Shadow Walker, who seemed to be affected but was not thrown back. The two continued, not stopping when a bright light behind them announced the arrival of the rest of the Justice League.

“Don’t kill the metas unless you have to. They are brainwashed.” Barry’s vibrating voice told them. Kara ignored them, focusing on Warblade who was becoming very hot. She then switched to freeze breath, causing him to harden instantly and struck the man in his chest, her fist breaking through. Unfortunately the metal his body was composed of, recovered quickly and wrapped around her arm like puddy she couldn’t shake.

“Flash, forget that creature! Take as many of these metas out as you can. All of them, put them to sleep. Firestorm attack, Atom protect Zatanna.” Nyssa ordered.

“Keystone City team is on our side!” Kara told them, swinging her arm back and forth into the ground, the floor making a crater with Warblade’s body. Her arm may have been stuck in him but that meant he was stuck to a much stronger Superwoman. Barry made a circle as the teen metas seemed to gain even more awareness and move towards the middle. All dropped quickly when the vibrating fist struck their jaws.

“Bring my true Ravagers!” Harvest yelled. The League and Fairchild’s team stopped, all caught up in darkness. Lilith Clay had stepped onto a ledge above and exhibited her true power, the casting of illusions, and this one was simple, complete darkness. Seeing Clay above, and Shadow Walker reaching out for her, Kara shot into the sky, carrying the metal blob with ease. Omen seemed surprised to find Superwoman immune to her ability but didn’t have time to dwell on it, because Kara swung an arm covered with a metal body at the woman, not only knocking her out but cracking her skull. The rest of the League recovered and took in the surroundings. Some of the stronger metas were standing up, only to be knocked down by Barry once again. Ridge was held back by Fairchild from attacking Shadow Walker knowing he could not handle the deadly creature.

“Valkyrie! Firestorm!” Nyssa commanded. Both stepped up immediately, Alex fired Harry’s weapon along with Firestorm, trying to send a blast of pure protons into the creature. He was knocked back and Alex fired again, only to have the gun fizzle and spark. She dropped it just as it exploded on the ground.

Donna had wrapped her lasso around her fist and flew towards the creature, striking him in it’s face. She had little affect and the group for the first time heard him laugh, a deep dark sound that did not resemble a human.

Harvest took advantage of the momentary distraction and lifted off. Before anyone could give chase, more meta’s dropped from above. These were those like Shadow Walker loyal to Harvest.

John Diggle looked around for Wilson but did not see the little bitch. He opened fire on a huge metahuman, one who appeared Japanese only at least 9 foot tall with a large amount of fat on him. Beside him was an equally large man, only muscular and carrying a large hammer in one hand, neither wearing anything other than a large robe around their massive waists.

“Arrow, Valkyrie, Canary, Spartan, join me in taking down these two. Speedy, Rose Wilson is yours. Find her.” Nyssa ordered.

“She is mine!” Diggle disagreed immediately.

“Wilson’s father killed her mother. She owes him a blood debt and killing his daughter justifies it, not your brief torture. Pay attention to the giants! Fairchild please make your team useful or run.”

Fairchild with a look at Ridge attacked Fuji and Hammersmith, Thunder using a sonic boom to bring the meta known as Windshear crashing to the ground before he could fly through the heroes with the two blades in his hand. Lightning continued to send blasts of electricity into Shadow Walker, holding him at bay but not defeating him. Donna dodged a tendril of dark matter and sent her lasso wrapping around the creature, Zatanna seeing an opportunity, reaching out with a spell and channelling the power of the Earth into Donna’s lasso and her. The creature held, so Donna made contact with the ground with her bare hand and began channeling the power of Gaia herself, a technique she used for healing herself that she would never normally employ in a fight but the darkness radiating off this creature was greater than Hades. She needed more power.

Terra looked around and lifted the ground up, a column shooting under her feet straight into the sky, up through the cone and once at the top she ran. The teen only wanted to escape this hell and saw a chance.

“Hawkman, Hawkwoman, bring the Harry Potter villain back to us. I want him questioned.” Nyssa ordered, questioned being her favorite term for tortured and/ or killed. Alex took advantage of the muscular giant’s distraction by the Canary Cry Sara unleashed and powered up her glove to full power, Jumping onto the enormous sumo wrestler with one foot, pushing off and striking the enormous body builder in the side of the head. The shock sent him to the ground, and Alex flying in the opposite direction only to be caught by Ray and sat on the ground. Fuji moved towards her until an arrow hit his eye, causing the man to stop, and scream in pain. Nyssa slid between his legs, swords in both hands slicing the oversized tendons in his knees. Though not cut the creatures weakened tendons could not hold the weight and cracked, sending him to the ground. Sara landed on his face, driving the arrow home with her foot, deeper into the man’s skull.

While the non metahumans were battling the giants and bringing them down, Kara was dealing with a metal blob that was slowly crawling its way around her body.

“Alright enough.” she whispered and unleashed her heat vision at full power, The metal heated, the suit fabric on her arm not able to stand the temperature of metal that hot burned up. Warblade’s head appeared from the mass of molten metal and screamed. He tried to back off her but it was too late. Kara screamed, more power than she had ever exhibited, wanting to get back to her daughter, the temperature so great that everyone in the crucible covered their faces except Barry who never took his eyes off of her. His retinas burned and healed in milliseconds. Warblade was bright red, no metal present only resembling molten lava and slid off her body. Still she did not stop and the man spread out, flattening on the ground, no longer resembling anything human. Stopping the vision but still feeling very strong she looked up at a scream. Carter and Kendra were both being thrown off the ledge they and chased Harvest onto.

Flying up quickly, she saw an energy wall present, a male on the other side smiling, obviously thinking he could not be touched. She swung and was instantly blasted back. Behind him stood Harvest and a man she guessed would be Templar, an older gentleman in a suit, not resembling Voldemort at all.

“Flash! Have a meta up here with some sort of energy barrier. I need to get through!”

Barry moved quickly, phasing through the energy field with ease. The meta did not have time to be surprised because a blow he could not see hit his jaw, sending him down. Fairchild and Ridge continued to fight Hammersmith, Ridge destroying the hammer and the rest JL and Ravagers pounded on the one giant left standing. Alex lowered her power but continued sending electrically charged blasts in the downed giant’s eyes. Sara and Oliver continued to cut at the man’s knees, Dig fired into the massive chest at point blank range and Nyssa stepped back to survey the scene. Most of the young metas were down but a few were coming too. If Leash were dead, she guessed the hold on them would be broken much like the paralyzing affect was broken on Fairchild’s team.

Carter and Kendra were unconscious, from whatever happened above. Thea was searching for Wilson. Looking at Clay, Nyssa suspected Kara had cracked her skull and the young psychic wouldn’t be using her ability any longer. Donna, the girl who threw lightning, Firestorm and Ray were holding the dark creature but making no progress on killing it. Zatanna was constantly throwing spells Nyssa could not understand but the dark matter did not disperse. The killing machine Kara had melted was cooled into a pool of red metal and showed no signs of reforming. She suspected his atomic structure was destroyed and the man who was metal was dead. Once again someone had left Kara with no other option and once again she had done what needed to be done.

Thea had climbed a rock wall looking for a hallway of some sort. She ran up the shaft she guessed must lead to the top, looking for Rose Wilson. She was not disappointed and had no trouble finding her quarry. Wilson was waiting for her, dressed in a skin tight yellow and blue body suit, katana in hand and face covered by a mask resembling the one her father wore in the uprising.

“I had hoped it would be your brother but I suppose I can start with you.”

“For someone who hates her father and calls him a fool you sure do have an obsession about dressing like him and going after his enemies. Do you have any life of your own?” Speedy asked, dropping her quiver and bow and pulling the katana from her back. The two faced off, Wilson moving much faster than Speedy expected.

“You should know I killed your father, as well. I have his other hand if you are interested in seeing it before you join him.” she told Thea while the two pressed blades.

“Damn, now I really want to thank you instead of kill you. I guess since you are determined to die today I should say thank you now.” Speedy pushed back and landed a roadhouse kick and another roundhouse to the stunned Wilson. Rose flipped back to her feet quickly and the battle continued.

Above Kara and Barry looked at Harvest and Templar trying to decide what to do.

“We don’t need him.” Kara pointed to Templar. Before she took a breath Templar was unconscious.

“You truly are anomaly on the time line. Rip Hunter must hate you. Somehow you have made the Flash faster as well. I am impressed. I am also thankful. I have been doing much experimentation on young metas and had the opportunity to perfect cloning. You Superwoman have been an inspiration to me. I even made a man, a boy really, just like you. Your powers are so fun to copy. The strength was built in him five years ago but the laser vision was not as easy to replicate, but once I saw you I knew he had to have it. He is only five, just a child really, but I think you will find him quite the opponent. I even named him after you. Superboy is near.”

The two heard two screams below, sounding like Jax and Donna.

“Go take out this Leash and whatever that thing is. They can’t do it or would have by now. Be careful. Here, take him with you. I’m going to find this experiment.”

Kara grabbed Harvest by the top of his chest plate and threw him behind her, sending him to the ground below with a crunch. Barry hesitantly did as she asked, running down, up again to Leash’s unconscious body and tossing it to the ground. The metas around were awakening but it would be up to Nyssa to decide what to do with him. He appeared to be just a thin man, bald, in his forties only with blue skin. As soon as he hit the ground, Oliver jammed an arrow into his back. The man never moved again. The hold over the young metas was broken and in their place stood 16 confused teenagers.

The entire Justice League was concerned after Firestorm and Donna had been knocked back by the Shadow creature. Ray did his best but had to shrink to avoid a tendril of dark energy. Sara tried a Cry but it had no effect. The dark monster began moving towards the group, Alex and Dig trying bullets before being ordered to stop by Nyssa.

“Fairchild, what can stop this thing?”

“No one has ever figured it out.” the red head admitted. Even Ridge and Thunder backed away, obviously frightened. Dig began pulling Kendra and Carter back as they lay unconscious. Tendrils of darkness rose from the man, at least ten and shot towards the group. The tendrils were stopped when Barry Allen ran into the monster.

Inside, Barry vibrating faster than he ever had before looked around, taking in the strange matter and make up. This thing was death, perhaps a man before whatever happened to him but now was solely the opposite of life. The neutrinos and electrons reminded him of a theory he read once on Anti matter. The darkness attempted to take over Barry, but was unable, the sheer speed he was moving at could not compete. Barry moved even faster, causing static electricity to build up and allowed it to explode.

The Justice League and Ravager members in the crucible, along with several of the young metas including Garfield Logan watched the feared creature known as Shadow Walker begin to shake, a light beginning to seep forth through his hide. A rumble and shockwave knocked all back to the ground as Shadow Walker exploded, his darkness dissipating and a blurry red form standing in his place, yellow lighting swirling around his body. Barry slowed down, and was soon clear to his teammate’s vision.

Zipping over to Harvest he lifted the man to his feet and ripped the mask off.

“Wow, I really should have kept that on.” he muttered, taking in the man’s burnt face. Whatever had happened to this man had been horrible, perhaps horrible enough to drive him insane.

“Where are Speedy and Superwoman?” Olive asked immediately.

“Speedy is taking care of a blood debt. Where is Superwoman?” Nyssa asked the Flash.

“Looking for some clone project Harvest made. Supposedly inspired by her.”

“Oh don’t worry, he will find her.” Harvest’s raspy voice told them. “I made him myself, accelerated his growth for the past five years as well as his powers. The strength was a given but your girlfriend’s other gifts gave me inspiration. Albeit he can’t fly on his own, the anti gravity suit he has is more than capable. He is more powerful than she is.”

“I doubt that.” Barry told the mad scientist.

“Max Lord did it once. We need to find her.” Alex told him, worry in her voice, thinking of Bizarro. She had a feeling Max had nothing on this bastard. Before Barry could agree they all heard an explosion up above. Kara had been knocked into the cone but remained in the air. A man, a teenage boy really, with dark black hair and a muscular body stepped out. His black suit showed his strength but the red glowing lines running along it most likely provided the anti gravity suit. The boy jumped out, grabbing Kara by the throat and both flew high out of the cone and out of sight.

“Kara!” Barry screamed and moved, running up the wall reaching the top and not seeing her. Then a boom above and he made out their small forms, high in the sky.

“We need to get out of here. Fairchild can you get these metas out of here? We can arrange transportation…” Alex offered.

“There are escape pods programmed two days ago by me to take all to various areas of the Earth in an attempt to confuse Leash. We will leave, those that wish to do so.”

“Come back to Central…”

“No. A.R.G.U.S. must be watching you and I won’t be involved with them again nor will the ones I have deemed to take care of. Go.”

“Not without Speedy. The rest of you go and I will find her.” Oliver told them.

“I’m right here.” Thea walked out of a back entrance none had noticed before, blood covering her face. Judging by her smile and the body she was dragging by the foot, it wasn’t her blood. “This woman is going to require medical attention.”

“You didn’t kill her?” Sara asked, surprised but pleased, as pleased as Nyssa was annoyed.

“Nah, she can share a cell next to her daddy. I’m not going to kill, even if she is a mass murderer. We are better than that. What happened to these guys?”

“We killed them,” five voices spoke at once.

“Oh… okay… cool. So where is Supes?” Thea asked, checking out the giant bodies and the really blue dead man. The old man seemed to be still alive along with the flying Voldemort.

“She is up.” Alex told her worriedly. “Way up.”

A rumbling was heard in the walls, the floor shaking.

“Thought this place wasn’t due for an eruption?” Jax asked, Martin confirming in his mind.

“We need to get up top. You stay put, we will be right back.” Oliver told Harvest lying on the ground before firing two arrows into the man’s knees. The armor wasn’t as strong as it looked. Donna turned him over and ripped off his wings.

“Can’t have you flying off while we take care of business. Whoever can’t fly, grab a hold of my lasso.”

Leaving the prisoners behind, Fairchild hustling off metas to escape pods, the JL went up top and landed at the bottom of the cone to find Kara and see what was causing the rumbling. If lava was flowing from one of the vents it would be bad, especially for the nearby villages. On solid ground, Donna saw Kara engaged in battle.

A battle of heat vision.

On top of the cone was a terrified and angry Terra, her hands raised and the rock around the cone trembling around her.

“Stop!” Alex yelled, an eye on her but continuing to look at her sister. Barry was trying to find a way to her, judging by the lightning in the trees going up, jumping in the sky and falling down again.

Her and Diggle knew the girl was trying to cave the cone in and raced towards her, slowly due to running up a large mountain. Alex fired an arrow at the girl’s leg, missing the slim target. Carter and Kendra would have been faster, but instead they along with Ray, Firestorm and Donna shot skyward towards Kara.

Kara did not see the fastest man alive trying to learn to fly. The boy before her was making sure of it. He was strong, he was fast and his heat vision was nearly as powerful as hers. She hadn’t seen anything else resembling her gifts and X ray vision showed her the suit was most likely the tech that gave him flight. He was a danger to her teammates even if he couldn’t overpower her. She overpowered his heat vision, not blinding or killing him but knocking him back in the air, tumbling yards away.

“Stop this! There is no need for it. Whatever he did to you, he is done. He won’t hurt anyone again. There is no need for us to fight.”

Unlike Bizzaro this boy did not seem to have any understanding. He didn’t respond and his face showed no emotion, nor any expression. It was as if the life wasn’t there.

“He is a clone.” Donna told her, flying up and joined by Firestorm, Ray and the Hawks. “He can’t be reasoned with. There is nothing to reason. His brain has been grown to battle. I would guess there is no emotion in him. He doesn’t have a soul Kara. He is a biological weapon.”

“He is alive. There was something in him, he has… he is alive.” Kara argued, struck by how similar this boy looked to pictures she had seen of a certain teenage Kansas farm boy she had been sent to protect. They weren’t exactly the same but the similarities caused her to pause.

The boy attacked, not going to Kara this time, instead flying right in Jax, knocking him to the ground where the Flash jumped from a tree, caught him and ran him down before he caused a crater in the ground. Donna threw her lasso but the kid was to fast, dodging it. Ray fired but the blast had no effect, instead the returned heat vision fried his suit and sent him falling, his controls gone.

“Kendra, catch him. Carter stay back, do not attack. You either Donna. Go to the ground. I can handle this.” Carter reluctantly obeyed his team leader, but Donna didn’t move.

“We are comrades.” Donna told her, flying up beside her. “Sisters do leave each others side in battle. I can take whatever he has. He isn’t as powerful as you. Is he really a clone or perhaps from your former home?”

“No, I can see through him. He isn’t Kryptonian. His powers are hardwired somehow into his DNA. Harvest is smarter than Max Lord. He didn’t even need a comatose girl to turn into a monster. He just grew his own. I’m going to grab him, you rope the both us and take us to the ground. Barry can put him to sleep painlessly. He is fast enough and can vibrate into his brachial artery. If we can keep him asleep then…”

“There is no him Kara, but go ahead. Do what you must.”

Kara moved, flying under a heat blast and grabbing the boy from behind, using her strength to hold him. Donna’s lasso wrapped around both and she pulled but the strain was considerable. The three began lowering to the ground very slowly.

On the bottom, Flash ran up to Carter, while Zatanna tried to figure out a way to fix Ray’s armor and was failing. She couldn’t pronounce half the words Ray was telling her normally, much less backwards.

“Ray speak like you are speaking to the rest of us. Nobody knows what a damn data quantum processor is and she can’t pronounce it backwards!” Jax scolded. Barry appeared before Carter.

“Get me up there!”

“To do what? I can’t hold you if you are vibrating and you can’t fly. Trust her. Her and Donna have this.”

The rumbling caught all their attentions and they saw Alex and Dig had made it half way to the top. Oliver and Thea fired arrows that fell short of Terra. Alex fired her gun at the girl who saw the tranq dart coming and lifted a column of earth to block it.

“You don’t have to do this? Its over!” Alex pleaded.

“He has experiments, he is still alive, Templar is still alive. It isn’t over. They all have to be buried!” Terra shouted back. The ground under her erupted, the cone caving in, carrying her with it. Alex saw Terra trip, being to slide down, her arms waving but unable to control the onslaught of rocks around her. She heard her scream but could do nothing because the volcanic dome cracked. She saw several small metal pods in the distance launching from the other side of the cone, no doubt from the vent Fairchild talked about. But that was not chiefly on her mind. She and Dig were falling, the entire side collapsing. Before she could fall a foot, she found herself at the base of the cone then Diggle next to her, Barry’s arms wrapped around the larger man.

Kara was having a difficult time, as the one Harvest dubbed Superboy began to head butt her from behind, busting her lip and nose.

“Donna hurry up and throw us to the ground!”

Donna pulled with every bit of strength Zeus gave her, sending the Kryptonian and the super powered clone to the ground, causing a huge crater. Donna landed next to it, her lasso loose but not able to see due to the dust scattered. The boy stood up first but was hit by an uppercut. The Flash ran towards him and hit him, swinging faster than he he ver had, and nearly knocking the clone unconscious. Barry made for another run but ran straight into a blast of heat vision, burning his shoulder, dropping him to the ground. Kara screamed and jumped the boy from behind, an arm around his neck. Donna tried to move in and hit him in the gut but his heat vision turned on her and she barely blocked it in time with her bracelets. Then the heat vision turned towards Kara’s friends, her teammates, her family that were still standing.

She tried to stop his head from moving, the Hawks and Ray were trying to lift Zatanna, Thea and Alex, Donna torn between helping fly others away or helping Kara.

Nyssa ordered Alex to grab onto Carter’s hand as she, Oliver and Thea prepared to attempt to fire arrows into the boys eyes. Dig fired but the bullets bounced off of the clone. Alex ran towards Kara, gloves turned on, prepared to fry the monster her sister was holding.

Superwoman saw her sister running, the beam of light slowly traveling towards her and the Justice League.

“Please don’t make me do this. Somebody has to be in there.” she whispered in the boy’s ear. It was too late though, She couldn’t stop the head from turning, the heat from the vision was affecting her as well and Barry had a hole in his shoulder he was vibrating to heal and she knew the moment it did he would rush into the laser again, probably try to phase through it. Alex was getting closer, planning to beat him in typical Alex fashion despite what the kid had shown in power. Kara moved her leg inside the boy’s leg, tilted his head up, sending his heat vision up, then leaned back, flipping him face first on the ground. Both arms wrapped around him she twisted hard. The sound of his neck breaking was one she would never forget as long as she lived.

Kara slumped over the body, the area suddenly quiet. The cone had caved, crushing all those and all Harvest’s work beneath it. Fairchild and her metas had gone somewhere, hiding most likely, maybe to start new lives, though Kara had no doubt they would see her again. Her family was alive. That was what mattered.

Her body shook with sobbing, her back to the Justice League, hoping to keep it unnoticed. All of them saw the rise and fall of her shoulders and gave her space except for Barry. He walked up to her slowly and pulled her off the boy. Looking at her he saw she had a lip busted in two places, a bruised jaw, her forehead was red and her nose was probably broken. Her teeth were covered in blood but none were knocked out.

“I could have killed him at anytime. I didn’t want to.” she whispered.

“I know. Kara he wasn’t a person, he was an experiment that Harvest grew. He told us so.”

“I saw pictures.”

“What?”

“I saw pictures, Kal, he showed me pictures of him growing up once. When he was a teen, this boy… he could have been him. I killed him, just like Kal had to kill Zod. He was just a kid.”

“He was a killing machine made in a lab.”

“He was a person. He breathed, he had blood pumping through his veins and he had a chance. He could have had a chance.”

“He never would have, baby. I know it hurts right now but…”

“I’ve never killed a person with my hands before. Not like that. His neck… it doesn’t matter. He had no choice, no control, he was never given a chance and I had no choice.” Kara sniffed once more through her bloody nose and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her suit that hadn’t been burned off by the metal blob that used to be called Warblade.

“That bastard I melted, he didn’t seem real to me, like some extra from a Terminator movie. This kid had all this power and no direction except the one given to him by a mad man. I had no choice.”

Kara moved to the team who had been watching her. She took in the cone which had collapsed.

Looking at Nyssa, she asked for a report.

“Harvest and all the prisoners in the cone are dead, along with the girl who ran and caused the cave in. Fairchild most likely got all the young meta humans out. We won.”

“Okay…”

“But we have much room for improvement. Frankly we need better weapons, stronger weapons. All our planning against the shadow creature and nothing worked.”

“How… is it gone?”

“I destroyed it. I went inside it and destroyed the dark energy with my own.” her husband explained.

“We need better weapons. Kendra and mine, our weapons are strong but not strong enough sometimes. The psionic wall we encountered knocked the hell out of us. My head is still hurting.”

“Mine is too Prince Khufu.” Kara agreed, trying to forget the sound and feel of snapping necks and focusing on being a leader. “Maybe we can work on something to counter that if we come across it again. We have room for improvement, we didn’t have the prisoners we wanted but that was on the girl. We went in, saved a bunch of kids who escaped and defeated the mad man behind this. That is what matters. That and the most important thing, we are still alive. Good job everybody.”

The teams reflection was cut short by the sound of choppers.

“Vietnamese?” Barry asked. Kara looked with her telescopic vision and sighed.

“Worse, A.R.G.U.S. Dig they are beginning to be a problem.”

“They won’t be. I promise Kara.”

Firestorm walked up to the dead body of the clone, following the instructions of Dr. Stein. Standing over the body he unleashed fire, hot enough it affected everyone standing thirty feet away. Within moments the body was gone, even the bones dust. When the League looked at him questioningly he shrugged his shoulders.

“Grey’s idea and he had a good point. We can’t leave anything for A.R.G.U.S. to find that can hurt us. Since he is dead he should burn easier and as you can see, he has. If they got a hold of that body they would try to reverse engineer it. We don’t need any other mindless creatures with super powers running around, especially being weapons for them.”

“They wouldn’t do that.” Dig told him quickly.

“Wouldn’t they? Your wife set you up hoping to get us involved. Guess what, she got what she wanted and you almost got killed in the process.” Jax argued. Dig moved closer even though the man was on fire until Oliver held him back.

“Not the time Dig. Yo want to come back with us or wait for Lyla to land?”

Dig met Oliver’s eyes and then looked at the ground. “I can’t guarantee what she… they would do. I’m going back with you guys, heading back to Star City and having a very pointed discussion with my wife.”

“Zatanna, you good?” Barry asked.

“Yeah.” she answered tiredly. “Ekat su ot rats.”

Just like that the League appeared in ST.A.R. labs. Firestorm split, Rays’ suit was torn and practically fell off, Alex had a bruised jaw and a swollen wrist from hitting the giant at full power, then using a bow and handgun, Thea had a cut from a katana on her shoulder. Donna held her ribs but stood tall. The rest seemed okay except for Kara. Alex and Barry grabbed her arms.

“We need to get you under some sun lamps but get cleaned up first okay?” Alex suggested, Cait running up, trying to shine a pen light in her best friend’s eyes.

“No, I want to see my daughter. Then I will get cleaned up.”

Kara walked over to her mother and gently took the girl from her arms. Lexie smiled. Somehow that made it all better. Kara had to be strong. At the Volcano after killing the boy she lost it for a moment but pulled it together because she had to. She remembered Nyssa’s words. A hero has to make the tough call sometimes. She made it today and faced with the same situation she probably would have killed him sooner rather than letting the others be endangered and Barry to get burnt. He was healed but the hole in the shoulder of his suit was obvious, as Jeremiah asked to look at it since Eliza was taking care of Kara. Finally Harry asked the question all wanted to know.

“We kind of lost contact when you were all in the volcano but heard a bit when you exited. It sounded like a war. How did it go?”

Kara looked up from her daughter pulling her closely to her and smiled through bloody teeth at Harry.

“We won. We saved a lot of lives and we survived. We weren’t able to save the people who were responsible for this but we tried. We had to kill some of them before they killed anyone else. The main thing is we came back alive and now we are home. Thats a win. Mom, take her. I need to get cleaned up. She shouldn’t see me and Daddy looking like a mess.”

Kara and Barry walked hand in hand towards the locker room. Her powers weren’t gone, she felt as powerful as ever and could feel her wounds healing. She would lay under the lamps for a while to make everyone happy, let Caitlin scan her body and ensure all was right with her, then she would go home, with her husband and daughter and dog and focus on what was important in life. She made the call, would live with it and not fret over it. That’s what heroes had to do sometimes and if nothing else, being a mother had made her strong enough to keep going. If she had to explain this to her daughter one day, she wouldn’t be ashamed. This was the price you sometimes had to pay when you put on the cape.