Supergirl's Sacrifice Read online

  She quickly filled the others in. “It looks pretty bad,” she concluded.

  “If whatever’s in there was powerful enough to hurt Superman,” J’Onn said, “then it’s very bad.”

  “Do we think it’s from another Earth?” Alex asked.

  “Could be. Could also be some other, non-Earth dimension.” Supergirl frowned, her eyebrows clustering at the worry line that furrowed her brow. “I’m not going to be dumb enough to go up there without a plan, though. Not if whatever’s up there could knock Kal for a loop.”

  “We have to do something, though,” Lena said.

  “Perhaps we could develop some sort of remote viewing apparatus,” Brainy suggested. “Something that could monitor this . . . breach from a safe remove, gathering information and intelligence.”

  Before anyone could react or respond, a slight groaning sound came from the bed. Superman opened his eyes.

  It took him a split second to realize where he was and what was happening. He smiled apologetically at Kara.

  “Sorry I missed your brunch.”

  Tears flowed freely; she hugged him tightly.

  “Whoa!” Alex said. “Easy on the patient.”

  “I’m fine, Agent Danvers,” said Superman, sitting up slightly to return his cousin’s embrace. “Easy, Kara. I may feel like I went ten rounds with Darkseid, but I’m all right.”

  “I didn’t think you would be.”

  He quickly took in Lena and Brainy, then the cylinder mounted next to his bed, its energy dissipating, the glowing green rock slowly dimming from neon bright to a dull matte finish.

  “That looks familiar. An anti-kryptonite derivative?”

  “We call it Kryptonite-X,” Brainy said with a sly anticipatory glance in Lena’s direction. When Lena did not rise to the bait, he continued: “I see you’ve capitulated to my superior intellect and superior naming skills.”

  “No, it’s just that I realize that insisting on having the last word is, well . . .” She sighed. “It’s very tenth-level intelligence behavior.”

  With that—and a wicked grin—Lena turned on her heel and strode out of the room. Brainiac 5 marched out after her, yelling, “You take that back!”

  Superman grinned as they argued their way down the hall. “Finally: a Luthor-Brainiac team-up I can get behind.”

  “What a world.” Kara sighed heavily and took his hand. “I’m glad you’re going to be OK.”

  “I’m feeling better and better with each passing second.” He sat up a little straighter.

  James entered the room and slapped his hands together in delight. “You’re OK!” He ran to Superman’s bedside.

  “Jimmy,” Superman said, his eyes lighting up. “Good to see you, pal. I’ve been in worse scrapes.”

  “I keep thinking your luck’s gotta run out someday,” James said as they grasped hands.

  “Maybe my luck will, but not my invulnerability.” He paused, taking in everyone in the room. “Or my friends. Thank you all.”

  And then, to the astonishment of everyone, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up with nary a wobble or stumble.

  “Superman!” Alex exclaimed. “You shouldn’t be standing! You need to rest.”

  He nodded to her. “I respect your medical expertise, but trust me—I’m fine. I’ve taken worse hits.”

  “Speaking of, Kal . . .” Supergirl arched her eyebrow. “What did this to you?”

  “You’ve seen the breach?” he asked. When she nodded, he went on: “I was in Smallville, just doing some routine farm upkeep, when I heard . . .” He frowned. “Difficult to describe. It was like an enormous popping sound, combined with the sound of a match being lit. I looked up . . .”

  “And the sky was torn open,” she finished for him.

  “Yes. By the time I got up there, it had already doubled in size. And I can see now that it’s even larger. Kara.” He put his hands on her shoulders and gazed deep into her eyes. “There’s something in there. Something that wants to come through. I tried to go, to confront it, but . . . The energy of the portal . . . It actually hurt. And I think the sun on the other side of that breach is red—I felt my powers draining away. And then . . .”

  “And then you woke up here,” James supplied.

  “We need to stop it,” Superman said, then winced in unfamiliar pain. Seeing the Man of Steel evince any kind of discomfort was . . . troubling, to say the least. Kara had been hurt before, but she wasn’t used to watching her cousin squint and suck in his breath with twinges.

  “We need you to rest up,” she told him. “J’Onn and I will go take care of this . . . thing. No matter what it is.”

  Superman hesitated a moment, then nodded slowly. “Be careful, Kara.”

  “I don’t know how to do anything else,” she said with as much assurance as she could muster.

  But she knew that if she was about to face something that could knock down Superman, careful might not be on the agenda.

  4

  A breach formed in the center of an isolated room at the DEO. Its blue waveforms shimmered and shivered, and then two figures dropped through.

  Green Arrow stumbled to one knee, disoriented by the transmission of his molecules from one vibrational plane to another. Barry helped him to his feet. “You all right? It can be a little tricky.”

  “I’m fine.” Oliver brushed off Barry’s hand as he stood. The two of them saw a figure nearby, a man who stepped out of the shadows.

  “Welcome,” he said, “to the place you call . . . Earth 38? Right?”

  They took him in. He was tall and powerfully built, with hair so black that its highlights seemed almost blue in the eerie light of the DEO building. He was quite possibly the most at-ease man Barry had ever seen. He stood with a confidence and a disarming charm that belied the obvious enormity of his powers. Barry swallowed hard, aware that he was in the presence of something—someone—truly magnificent. He felt simultaneously awed and completely safe, both sensations at levels he’d rarely experienced in his life.

  And then Oliver, of course, had to puncture the moment, like an arrow through a helium balloon.

  “Who’s this guy,” Oliver asked suspiciously, “and why is he wearing Supergirl’s costume?”

  Classic Oliver Queen. Whenever Green Arrow felt too good, too secure, too happy, he had to ruin it. Oliver believed that relaxation was a ninja that sneaked up on you and caught you off guard. And when he was caught off guard, he reacted reflexively and without sympathy.

  The man’s smile, already broad and relaxed, grew even more. “I’m her cousin. I’m known as Superman here, but you can feel free to call me Kal, if that seems more comfortable for you.” His eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. “Flash. Green Arrow. I like the costumes.”

  “How many ‘super’-people are there?” Oliver asked as Barry immediately stepped forward and shook Superman’s hand. The grip was somehow strong and comforting at the same time. Barry was keenly aware that Superman could crush every bone in his body to powder in the blink of an eye, but that he was effortlessly controlling his strength. What was it like to live in a body so incredibly powerful, he wondered. What was it like to be able to do anything?

  “Kara thought it would be best for the two of you to come through in a private area,” Superman told them. “I agree. We’re not quite as accustomed to Multiversal travel as you appear to be. We wouldn’t want to cause a panic here.”

  “Where is Kara?” Barry asked.

  For the first time, a glimmer of doubt and concern flickered across Superman’s expression. “She and one of our allies have taken to the sky to confront this creature coming through the breach.”

  Barry and Oliver exchanged panicked glances. “That’s a supremely bad idea.”

  Now Superman outright frowned. “I warned them against doing so, given my own experience with the creature—”

  “You fought it?” Oliver interjected.

  “Yes. And came away with the scars to prove it.” He smiled briefly. “Metaphorically speaking. You’re worried about Kara and J’Onn. That’s enough for me.”

  “You barely know us!” Oliver protested.

  “Kara trusts you. And I’m a fairly good judge of character.” He tapped his left ear. “You have good hearts.”

  “I don’t think he’s speaking metaphorically anymore,” Barry said.

  “Can I show you to the command center?”

  With a cheerful grin, he turned and led them away.

  “Can he?” Oliver whispered to Barry as they watched the Man of Steel’s cape swish in his wake. “What choice do we have?”

  “He can hear you,” Barry reminded Oliver, and then followed Superman down the hall.

  • • •

  The DEO command center had been cleared of all but the most essential personnel for the meeting of the heroes from two universes.

  Barry was thrilled to see Kara’s sister, Alex, again but was disappointed to learn that Winn Schott, who’d helped him so much the first time he’d visited Earth 38, was no longer available. “Long story,” Alex said.

  Instead, he was introduced to a striking woman named Lena, as well as a slender young man with a shock of black hair whom everyone called “Brainy.”

  “We need to tell Kara and her friend to call off her attack,” Barry said. “Now. Can you communicate with her?”

  “Why can’t we just send him to get them?” Oliver asked, hooking a thumb at Superman.

  “My powers are still coming back,” Superman said with a note of true apology in his voice. “I wouldn’t get there fast enough.”

  Barry grimaced. Speed was his forte, but flying wasn’t.

  Brainy stared down at the bank of screens built into the pedestal at the center of the DEO comm
and chamber. It almost seemed as though he caressed the monitors with his gaze. Just when Barry was about to ask what he was doing, the DEO agent spoke.

  “Their comms are off-line. No doubt due to interference from the breach and the . . . creature.”

  “We need another way to get in touch with them,” Alex said. “Brainy, you hacked into J’Onn’s telepathic channel before. Can you do it again?”

  Brainy shook his head once. Curtly. Efficiently. “Not at this distance, I regret to say.”

  They all looked around the room at one another, with mingled expressions of fear, desperation, concern. “We have to do something!” Alex yelled.

  “You need an arrow,” Oliver said quietly.

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  5

  Iris would never admit it, but sitting across a table from James Jesse was absolutely unnerving.

  They sat together in one of the anterooms at S.T.A.R. Labs, steaming mugs of coffee before them. Caitlin had apparently made a phone call and arranged for a nice Danish platter, but Iris’s stomach was tied up in knots—she couldn’t even think of eating. Not while the man who looked exactly like the Trickster gazed at her with no more than two feet of lousy conference room table between them.

  “You’re thinking about my evil Earth 1 duplicate, aren’t you?” James said.

  “No, no!” Iris lied. “Not at all.”

  “You’re staring at me and not saying anything,” he said gently.

  Iris laughed hollowly. “I, uh, didn’t sleep well last night.”

  He didn’t believe her, but he let it go. “Should we continue?”

  Meeting with James was one of ten million things on Iris’s to-do list today. He was the nominal head of the Earth 27 refugees who’d come through the breach that had almost led Anti-Matter Man to destroy the world. Now there were more than ten thousand Earth 27 denizens trapped on Earth 1, their own world polluted and destroyed. They were currently “housed”—a misnomer if ever there was one—in the local baseball stadium. Iris was coordinating with the city authorities to try to figure out what to do with so many interdimensional refugees . . . all of whom possessed at least some degree of superspeed.

  And their leader was the Earth 27 version of a man who—on Earth 1—was an insane, diabolical terrorist and murderer. Iris knew intellectually that the man sitting across from her was kind, gentle, and good. But her gut screamed, Run! Get away from him!

  “We’re doing our best to figure out housing for your people, James. The Central City Housing Authority is looking into converting some warehouse space into—”

  James wrinkled his nose. “Warehouse space?”

  “A temporary measure,” she assured him. “Better than camping out on a baseball diamond.”

  Strumming his fingers on the table, James grimaced, then nodded very, very slowly. “Look, Ms. West-Allen—”

  “You can call me Iris.”

  “—Iris, thank you. Look, we appreciate the difficulties here. And we get that it will take time. But I can’t go back to my people, who are scared, who have lost everything, and tell them that the people of this world plan to literally warehouse them. Like . . . cargo. It’s already unnerving enough, being here, where all the good people we remember from our world are evil.”

  So, they both got to use unnerving.

  Iris drew in a deep breath and slowly released it. “James, we’re doing our best. There’s a lot going on. There’s close to eighty million dollars in property damage downtown alone from Anti-Matter Man’s breach and the chaos caused by the Crime Syndicate when you all came through. Believe me, I know how long each second can be to a speedster—but I promise you we’re working as hard as we can, as quickly as we can.”

  He considered, then nodded. “I believe you, Ms. West-Allen.” He caught himself and grinned. It was—here comes that word again—unnerving. She half expected him to whip a lethal joy buzzer out of his pocket.

  Instead, he stood and offered his hand.

  Iris shook it. She didn’t really feel like she deserved his politeness, but she’d take it anyway. It was that kind of day.

  So, one item checked off her list. Iris made the rounds, heading down to the Dark Lab, where Barry and Cisco stored weapons and such, confiscated from super villains, in “Danger Boxes” designed to protect the rest of the world from their power. She checked the locks on the Danger Box containing the lasso they’d taken from Superwoman and triple-checked the one holding the ring from Power Ring.

  Even through the box, she thought she could feel the pulsating energy of that ring. Barry had told her that the ring exuded bad energy, bad thoughts, bad emotions when he held it. Right now, it seemed as though all that pent-up evil was worming its way through the Danger Box. Almost speaking to her . . .

  She made a mental note to have Cisco look into reinforcing the box . . . then cursed herself immediately. Cisco was lost in time. Who knew when they’d get him back? She would see if Felicity could whip something up.

  One item crossed off the list—CHECK ON SUPERWEAPONS—and one item added. At this rate, she’d never get anything done.

  Down an elevator and through a winding corridor, she made her way to the Pipeline. Once upon a time—when S.T.A.R. Labs had merely been a particle accelerator—the Pipeline had acted as a chamber for off-gassed dark matter particles. Now, after a retrofitting by Cisco, it acted as a prison of sorts for the very worst metahumans, the ones they feared Iron Heights couldn’t hold.

  Like the Crime Syndicate of America, Earth 27’s very worst metahumans.

  Ultraman was asleep in his cell when she entered. Superwoman ignored her. Power Ring was curled up in a fetal position on the floor of his cell, shivering. Without his ring, he was like a drug addict going through withdrawal symptoms. A flicker of sympathy shivered through Iris. Then she remembered that Power Ring had used his ring to rip air-conditioning units off the tops of buildings and throw them down onto the fleeing crowds on the streets below. So, yeah, he could suffer through his withdrawals a little longer.

  In the last cell was Johnny Quick, who had removed his cowl and leaned against the glass on one forearm, staring at her with utter loathing.

  She’d been told by Barry what to expect when Quick decided to remove his mask. But she still wasn’t entirely prepared.

  Johnny Quick. Evil superspeedster from Earth 27. And the doppelgänger for Earth 1’s Eddie Thawne, the man Iris had once loved.

  Earth 1 Eddie had died years ago, sacrificing himself to save the world from the depredations of the Reverse-Flash. So it was startling to see him again, living, breathing. Even more startling was the look of sheer hatred in his eyes. It was the face of the man she’d loved and lost, twisted with a rage and a vile abhorrence she’d never imagined.

  “You,” he said, spitting the word. White flecks of saliva speckled the clear thymoplastic between the two of them. “I know you. You’re Joey West’s kid.”

  Joey West. What had her father been, on Earth 27? What had she been?

  “I saw you die!” he bellowed, smashing a fist into the glass. It shook but held. “I saw you die! But if I have to kill you again, I will!” He slammed both fists against the glass now and howled.

  Iris’s jaw clenched. Her arms, clutching a smart clipboard, tightened, pressing the clipboard against her chest. She said nothing. She could do nothing but stare at the raving lunatic before her.

  “Hey, it’s OK,” said a comforting voice behind her.

  Caitlin Snow had come up behind Iris as she stood there, bearing Johnny Quick’s withering assault. She put a hand on Iris’s shoulder as Quick ranted.

  “You have to remember that he’s not the Eddie you knew and loved.”

  “I’ll kill you as many times as it takes!” Quick screamed, pressed against the glass, his mouth running with drool.

  Iris made a hmpf sound. “Idiot doesn’t even understand parallel worlds,” she sniffed, and turned away.

  As she and Caitlin made their way back along the Pipeline entrance, she consulted her clipboard. “You were the next stop on my little tour today,” she told Caitlin. “You texted me that there’s some special agent or something who wants to talk to me?”

  “He’s been coming by every few hours and ringing the doorbell. I think he’s with the FBI. Agent Smith.”