#(obviously she wouldn’t be the same Kara as in the flash but still)

[crazynerdandproud]

Okay, so where are all the Kara and Barry being friends (or more) fics? Must I write them myself?

#I hope they make a movie for supergirl (specifically the one we got in the flash) #(obviously she wouldn’t be the same Kara as in the flash but still) #she was great #the flash 2023 #kara zor el #barry allen

[supermanandlois-updates]

Remember the potential crossover between Batwoman and Superman & Lois that was being discussed in 2020? Well, it's no longer happening because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, EW has confirmed that there won't be a major Arrowverse crossover when the CW's superhero shows return.

Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries told EW in a recent interview that she was disappointed she wouldn't get to see new Batwoman Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie) travel over to Superman & Lois.

"When we were getting crossed with Superman & Lois, I really was looking forward to seeing Batwoman on the Kent Farm," Dries said.

Back in May, CW president Mark Pedowitz revealed that they were hoping to tone things down following the massive five-show spectacle "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and were developing a two-hour crossover involving Batwoman and Superman & Lois. Because the CW's new season wasn't launching until January 2021, the prospective crossover wouldn't air until the first or second quarter. A few months later at DC FanDome, Arrowverse architect Greg Berlanti said their team-up aspirations weren't "quite as large" anymore because of the pandemic. And now we know what he meant.

The crossover's cancellation isn't particularly surprising because the scheduling alone makes the annual crossovers incredibly difficult to pull off during normal times. Moving dozens of actors across multiple in-production shows is basically like playing 4-D chess, and it's even more challenging to do now because of on-set COVID-19 safety protocols. Furthermore, the crossover is usually the eighth or ninth episode of each show's season, but the pandemic has created lots of uncertainty around episode air dates, making it very hard to craft a story that spans several series when there's no guarantee they'll be able to air at the same time.

It's not all bad news, because that crossover itch will still be scratched. As EW previously reported, Arrow alum David Ramsey is returning to the shared universe. On top of directing five episodes across the Arrowverse, he will guest-star as John Diggle on The Flash, Supergirl, Superman & Lois, and Batwoman, and play a mysterious role on DC's Legends of Tomorrow. And echoing what Arrow co-creator Marc Guggenheim has said in the past, the massive crossovers are super-fun, but it's the smaller ones like Diggle and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) appearing on The Flash, Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) cameoing on Legends, or now Ramsey popping up across multiple shows that make the universe feel so lived in.

In fact, Dries said she'd be open Melissa Benoist doing something similar after Supergirl ends this year and guest-starring in Batwoman season 3, especially because she's curious about Ryan and Kara's dynamic.

"I think that's something that would be amazing to explore," Dries said. "I don't know that we would ever see it in real life. But, for example, the way Diggle is coming onto our show this season, if Melissa did a run of episodes or something in our season 3, I would love [that]. Obviously, I love Melissa, but I would love to have Kara on our show and teach [Ryan] a thing or two, or see her in the Batcave."

Batwoman returns Sunday, followed by Black Lightning on Feb. 8, and The Flash and Superman & Lois on Feb. 23. Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow are being held for midseason.

(xx)

#Batwoman #superman and lois

[evermorehaikyuu]

Day 11

Title: Timidity

Note: I’m sorry that this is probably a little shorter. I took the fattest nap today and got held back on my work. Plus I’m working on Shirabu’s at the same time and do not worry, there are no deaths here. Just the normal angst.

˜”*°•.˜”*°•.•°*”˜.•°*”˜

Doubt. The feeling that she’d leave him at any second. Even with reassurances, he kept asking himself if he was actually good enough. Compared to his best friend, Tsukishima Kei, he was nothing. How did this doubt start? Everytime a girl came to him, he thought it was because of him. After all, they were glancing down with a sprinkle of pink washed across their cheeks. 

“What’s your friend’s name?”

The normal everyday question. Of course it wasn’t him. It was always Tsukishima, no matter what. 

He told them but Tsukishima always turned them down. Yamaguchi wondered what it was like to be so loved to reject all of them in order to continue playing the chosen sport. Yamaguchi, however, had fallen for another girl and that was his best friend, Y/N L/N.

Whenever Tsukishima was away to go somewhere else, Yamaguchi would follow but soon he got tired of it. A girl came up to him and he braced himself for the question. 

“Do you want to sit with me?” Y/N had asked, a bright grin on her face. 

That threw him off and he found himself agreeing and following after her. He didn’t know how to start the conversation, so they sat in silence for a heartbeat. Then Y/N looked at him and said, “You know, you don’t have to be shy around me, I’m not going to ask about your friend like the other girls.”

He glanced at her and shook his head. “Are you sure you’re not going to ask about him?”

“Mm, no, he’s not really all that interesting to me. You’re smart, you’re nicer than him and you’re definitely more approachable. I mean, girls do go to you rather than him, even if it is to ask about him.” Y/N took a bite of her food, smiling at him.

Yamaguchi stared at her, completely interested in her.  “What’s your name?”

“Y/N L/N.”

“Yamaguchi Tadashi.”

The rest of lunch time was made up of them sharing small talk and sometimes a few laughs, but overall, Yamaguchi had found his new best friend. The girl that he’d be falling for soon enough, yet something that would bring their relationship to their demise. 

~

“Yamaguchi, are you coming with me right now? We can go to the new restaurant today!” Y/N said once she entered the gym, where all of the boys were already changing into their uniforms. 

Tsukishima looked over at Yamaguchi, who had been staring at Y/N with sparkles in his eyes. It was obvious that he truly did like her, yet Y/N made no sign as if to knowing this or not. She never looked at any other guy though, she mainly focused on Yamaguchi, a small smile on her face whenever she looked at him. 

“Yeah, I’ll go with you right now!” After saying goodbye to the rest of the team, some of them with knowing smiles, Yamaguchi followed after Y/N.

The streets were empty at this hour, the streetlights flickering and usually this would spark a bit of fear into Yamaguchi, seeing as that was the start of a murder scene most of the time. However, something about Y/N was warm and comforting and encouraging as they walked together.

“You’re getting better at your serves, you know that right? You started off a little awkward, but look at you now you’ve trained to get here and you deserve it.” Y/N gazed at him, the corner of her lips upturned in a smile, causing him to smile as well. 

It was something he loved a lot about her. She was genuine, honest but not brutally honest as to hurt his feelings. Y/N was a good person and that smile of hers caused him to fall further for her.

The restaurant was in their vision and it was a lovely and cozy scene. Wooden floors, a honey color palette for the design and the smell of something exquisite being cooked in the kitchen. It was obvious that Y/N was excited as they sat down and got their food.

The environment felt like home and Y/N with him? He never wanted the moment to end, not even when she had paid which made him pout. 

“Thank you.” Y/N blurted.

“For what?” He looked at her bewildered as they stopped in front of her house. “I just came along with you.”

“Not just for that.” She looked up at him and as quick as a flash, she pressed her lips against his before turning away and heading back inside of her house. 

He stared after her, his heart leaping into his throat as he processed what had just happened and a crescent-moon smile spread across his face. She was different. He hadn’t been wrong about her and now the feelings were mutual.

~

But now...now was different. They were currently in their third year, Yamaguchi was now the captain and had regained a new confidence on the court. That, however, did not mean that he was nervous about being in a relationship. He thought that he wasn’t good enough to treat Y/N the way she should’ve been treated. Relationships were one of the hardest things to get into, but oh so easy to get rid of and thrown away.

Y/N, in her third year, had this aura that caused everyone in the room to turn and look at her. She was much different than in her first year. Both of them had changed a lot, only her love for Yamaguchi had never wavered.

Today was obviously not a good day for Y/N. She entered her house with a frown on her face and slammed down her bag in the corner as Yamaguchi walked in behind her. He gave her space for the rest of the day, but anxiety started creeping on him as there was no end of her fury in sight. He blurted a question out and regretted it on the spot. “Y/N, do you love me?”

She whipped around and frowned. “Tadashi, this is the fifteenth time this week you’ve asked me that. I kept track. You realize I do love you, right? Why do you keep doubting my love for you?”

“I just....” He couldn’t say his fears out loud, terrified that they would become reality.

She rubbed her eyes staring at him. “Tadashi. I do love you, but please...don’t ask me that so often, I know I don’t say it often, but that does not change my love for you.”

“Why do we never go to the restaurant anymore, then? Have I done something wrong?”

“No! I’ve been busy and so have you!”

“But even with my captain duties, you could’ve asked...”

“Are you saying that this is my fault?”

“No, not at all! I’m just saying that we haven’t been communicating, so it keeps sending mixed signals to me! Plus you’ve been hanging out with two other guys instead of me.”

Y/N chuckled darkly, her rage simmering inside of her as she tried to keep it under wraps. “They’re just the guys I tutor, I get paid to tutor them.”

“You used to do it out of the goodness of your heart. What changed? What have I done? What did I do? If I’ve done something to you, tell me, I’ll fix it.” His doubts were back in his mind, fracturing his view on her again. Y/N had the side that was lovable and the side that he was utterly afraid of getting on. And, this time, there was no going back.

“Tadashi, please stop it. Stop making me seem like the bad guy, I’m not the bad guy! You’re the captain, you know your own schedule more than I know yours. I know you’re afraid of me leaving you, you’ve talked about it to Hinata more often than not. You’re the one doubting me.”

“Maybe I am.” Once the words were in the air, his eyes widened and he wished he could take them back. But they just kept coming. “Maybe I thought too highly of you. You don’t care for anyone but yourself.”

Her hands fell to her side as she stared at him. “If you think I’m that selfish, maybe we shouldn’t be together.”

“Wait, Y/N--I do love you, please--”

“Then why do you keep asking if I still love you when you know I do?!”

She wasn’t the person he knew anymore. He couldn’t look in her eyes. It was also his fault for not communicating with her, letting his insecurities take over. He stood up and looked at her. “Did it ever occur to you that you’re hurting me too?”

With those words, he left her place, never looking back. His mind was screaming at him to go back, to apologize, but both of them had become too different to be together. Maybe go back to being friends; however, everyone knew that once you broke up with your once best friend, it would be difficult to go back to normal.

Yamaguchi Tadashi, captain of Karasuno and the glue of the team, was not the glue for himself. He went back home, silent tears streaming down his cheeks as he tried to wipe them away with the palm of his hand. The only girl that had ever accepted him and they drove each other away.

Maybe it was for the best.

But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t scar him.

~

Taglist: @skyguy-peach​ @jovialnoise​ @versatilewindow​ @tsukiibaka​ @jaegersblogh​ @kodzuken-pie​ @sugusho​ @kara-grayson04​ @erialexerz​ @attixca​ @volleybloop​ @selca11​

#angstember #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu angst #yamaguchi x reader #yamaguchi tadashi x reader #yamaguchi x y/n #yamaguchi tadashi x y/n #yamaguchi x you #yamaguchi tadashi x you #yamaguchi angst #yamaguchi tadashi angst #i have now found my least favorite #and it is this one #god its so BAD #i hATE IT #where are my braincells when i need THEM?!

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Superman & Lois - Ep. 102 “Heritage”

In which the Sad Dad vibes and teen angst continues!

Spoilers!

Lois gets the opening and closing narration this week! And generally has more to do, which is nice.

The fam has officially moved to Smallville, so the boys are gearing up to start school...or are they???

Well, Jon is. Jordan is told he has to stay home until he can get his nascent powers under control because they don’t want him to accidentally flash frying a classmate. Which he almost did. Last week. 

Clark calls Jordan’s accidental heat vision an ‘ocular release of energy.’

This decision, of course, leads to some FAMILY DRAMA. Jordan feels like a freak! Jonathan is upset that they’ve had to move! Clark feels like he’s failing as a parent!

Oh and also the guy in the Master Chief suit is on the hunt for Kryptonite. Which is, you know. Troubling.

SO it’s off to school for Jonathan and off to the Fortress for Jordan!

Lois, upon Jonathan asking why Jordan gets to go flying with dad: “At least we have the radio!”

One plus side about the show being ‘grounded’ and ‘prestige-y’: the high school drama is of a more believable variety. Still tedious, but at least it’s not dated 90s tropes.

...Well, okay. Not entirely true. Sarah Cushing’s personality thus far is ‘nice girl who’s dating a jerk’ and yes, the line “What do you see in that guy?” is said aloud. So.

Win some, lose some.

MEANWHILE, AT THE FORTRESS:

Love the actor they got for Jor-El. He’s perfect, in that he feels like an homage to Brando, Crowe, but is also his own distinct version. I dig it. 

But there’s no giant key made of dwarf star matter because this is GROUNDED and REALISTIC and none of that SILLY CW NONSENSE, WE GOT HBO MAX MONEY. 

Back to the Lois vs. Edge plot:

For all the folks wondering how Lois working at the Planet was going to continue, what with the show being set in Smallville...

WELL.

Edge now owns the Planet, so he re-writes a negative article she’s written about him, which leads to her quitting, and going to write for the Smallville Gazette.

Which is operated by Chrissy Beppo.

Who is...named after the super monkey? 

Does this mean we’ll eventually meet other Smallville residents named after super pets? Like Marsha Whizzy, or maybe Kenneth Comet.

Seems a weird choice when ‘Bibbo’ is right there.

ANYWAYS.

Best line of the episode: “You know what babe? You do your Superman stuff, and I will do my Lois Lane stuff.”

MEANWHILE, THE SAD DAD VIBES INTENSIFY as Grandpa Jor-El reveals: Jordan...will never be like you, Kal-El. His human DNA is too limiting.

Which is a very interesting plot point (that was sorta mentioned/explored in Future State!)

So, about the boys: I still find them...mostly annoying. But I appreciate the dynamic they’re establishing: Jordan has always required more time and attention due to his anxiety disorder, and Jonathan has always had to look after him and compensate--this carries over into the new status quo where Jordan has the super powers and Jonathan further feels that his brother is getting time and attention and he needs to make sacrifices and changes for him/the family. 

This leads to a really lovely moment between the brothers at the end of the episode that I genuinely enjoyed, so. I’m hoping that there will be more of that and less of ‘drama with Sarah’.

(Also if you think that sounds a little like another pair of Super siblings...it does! And also hold that thought.)

The OTHER big twist is that Master Chief AKA Captain Luthor comes from a world with an EVIL SUPERMAN.

To be clear, the set-up is very obviously, ‘Our Clark will prove Captain Luthor wrong re: thinking he’ll turn evil,’ so I’m not seriously suggesting we’re in for a full-on Injustice situation. I just find it funny, how quickly they pulled out the ol’ evil Supes.

(The one we saw in Elseworlds doesn’t count since that wasn’t Clark.)

And maybe this one isn’t either! I admit complete ignorance as to the comics stuff they’re pulling from; I guess it’s somehow connected to Project 7734 (Which is ‘hell’ upside down, as any fifth grader with a calculator will tell you) a counter-Kryptonian force put together by Sam Lane, I think? 

IDK. Like I said, comics blind spot.

The episode ends with Grandpa Lane looking a bit spooked at the ominous 7734 keychain Captain Luthor gave him, and Captain Luthor still on the hunt for Kryptonite! DUN DUN DUUNNNNNN.  

And now, time for a segment I’ll call: Gettin’ Super Salty w/Stranger wherein I will stash all of my frustration regarding the fact that this spin-off doesn’t really want to be a spin-off.

Okay, so first up! As mentioned, the Fortress design has been changed because the silly Supergirl version does not vibe with the new serious aesthetic.

Their loss! More Legion Rings, baby Sun Eaters, and impractical front door keys for Supergirl!

The sunstone AI details the last days of Krypton, and only one (1) pod is shown escaping the destruction.

Thanks, I hate it.

I do appreciate that Jor-El at least kinda appears to be wearing clothes that match the look of Supergirl’s Krypton. I wasn’t paying close attention to the buildings in the hologram, no clue if they match the architecture we’ve seen thus far.

Like, I get it. There’s no time to pause the plot and be like, ‘hey, just FYI, I’m not the sole survivor of Krypton, my cousin escaped as well’ but also AAAARRRRRGHHHHHH. 

You’re using the versions of the characters introduced in Supergirl, the least you can do is namedrop her once. ONCE. That’s all I’m asking. XD

They missed their opportunity, actually; when the boys were like, ‘We have so many questions!’ All you had to do was slip in, ‘Are we related to Supergirl?’ Bam. Done. Never need to go back to it, you’ve acknowledged it, continue on with your solo Sad Dad adventures!

(Except I guess that wouldn’t work, since so much of this is built on Clark being the Lone Protector of the earth. If you allude to other heroes being around, your whole character motivation/struggle makes less sense.)

I get it but I don’t have to like it. XD

They shoulda just set this on another Earth!

Circling back to the sibling dynamic: I hate how now I really want Kara to someday appear on this show and hang out with the boys and be like, ‘ah, yes, I know the feeling, my sister and I were the same.’

That’s it, that’s all the crossover content I need. I realize Melissa is moving on to bigger and better things but MAYBE SOMEDAY. XD (Or maybe I’ll just write a fic, who knows.)

I can’t remember if I brought this up already but it is hilarious to me that anyone still thinks of Superman as a reporter--most modern takes treat it as an afterthought and here, it’s dispensed in the first episode.

It has not been brought up since.

Like, much is made about Lois leaving Metropolis, and what that’ll mean for her career, but no one in Smallville is like, ‘Clark, wow! Farming? That’s quite a career change!’

(I assume he’ll be farming, since they mentioned starting the farm up again.)  

...You think anyone will drag the writers for tossing aside Clark’s ‘true calling?’ 

Who am I kidding? Supergirl fandom is not watching this show, they’re just harassing the people running the social media accounts. 

SO OVERALL: The good remains good! The meh remains meh! I appreciate that this version of Clark and Lois exist as we inch ever closer to the release of the Snyder Cut! But also the behind-the-scenes stuff continues to hang over everything like a terrible cloud! Here’s hoping those problems are addressed!

#long post #superman and lois spoilers #that supergirl spinoff #stranger rambles

[freddieslater]

ALL OF THE WIP TITLES YOU POSTED LOOK. SO. GOOD. i'm going to limit myself to three - can i ask for three at once? is that chill? okay well i'm gonna ask anyway and you can choose one/two/all three! so here we go: "High School Musical: The Reunion: Glee Edition", "Prison World Trio", and "Shorpanga Wedding." <3 <3 <3

YOU'RE ALWAYS COMING IN HERE AND MAKING ME LOVE YOU. Of course you can ask for three, I'd have done the whole list just for you ♥️ zhhxhshz okay let's do this!! I'm gonna put a read more because it is Long

"High School Musical: The Reunion: Glee Edition"

It's occuring to me now just how misleading this title is even though it makes perfect sense to me 😭. So, this fic is actually a crossover between The Flash, Supergirl, and Glee! Basically, there's a reunion happening at McKinley and invites go out to both Barry and Kara as, in this universe, they were Sebastian and Marley (with a couple of tweaks). None of their friends are aware of their secret former lives as members of semi-successful high school glee clubs (Iris and Alex are the only ones because, well, they grew up with them)!

And to make it better: Barry and Kara didn't recognize each other either! So, you can imagine their great surprise when they both find out their high schools are hosting reunions on the same day. In the same town. In the same building. Drama ensues! They have some reunions with other ex glee club members, including one Music Meister (excluding one he-who-will-not-be-named for multiple reasons but one being that he was also in Supergirl and I'm not going out of my way to find a loophole in the plot that makes sense for him). Their friends find out! Songs are probably sung!

And here is your snippet:

He can't go. Barry decides it without even opening the email. Or the three Facebook messages, or the two voicemails, or the five texts. They're all from the same person, more or less. One of the messages is from Trent, and he feels a bit worse about ignoring that one than the rest, but he can't because the second he opens a single one of them, it's over.

The date for the reunion is in a week and he's managed perfectly to ignore it so far! If he just waits until the date passes, then he can reply to Trent and to Blaine with profuse apologizes, but he was busy, and he never got around to checking any of his emails or texts, but he really is so sorry to have missed it, maybe they can meet up just the three of them sometime soon? 

A deep sigh is pulled from between his ribs. He slumps back in his chair and closes his eyes, letting himself spin slowly.

"You should go," Iris insists. Barry opens his eyes and catches a glimpse of her across the room, leaning against his desk. Possibly accidentally touching evidence. Totally fine, not a problem at all. "Seriously, it's been ten years! I know that it's not Dalton and technically McKinley wasn't your school, but everyone you went to Dalton with will be there."

"That's the problem," Barry emphasizes, his hands dragging through his hair to grab the top of the chair. "I just... the thought of facing any of them now? After everything, after ten years?"

He just shakes his head, pressing his lips together. His stomach is rocking and he's aware that the spinning probably isn't helping, but he's also afraid that if he stops he might throw up. So he pushes himself with his foot and goes around again, only catching a blur of Iris' exasperated expression. 

"Things are different now!" she tries again. "You've seen Blaine and Trent! Look how much they've changed. Who's to say that it's not the same for everyone else? I mean, you're certainly not who you were when you went there -- you're not him anymore; Sebastian."

"Prison World Trio"

This is, unsurprisingly, a TVD fic. I decided, you know the only thing that could make Bonnie and Damon being trapped in the Prison World more interesting than it already is? If Enzo was there, too. So, essentially, he waits on the other side until Damon arrives because he's actually worried about him, but by the time Alaric has been sent through to the land of the living, the spell has been broken, leaving Damon and Enzo trapped along with Bonnie. Then bam! Prison World! Now, I don't have a clear idea of where I go from there, but I know that it involves domestic shenanigans, catching feelings + old feelings resurfacing with angst and arguments and Bonnie wanting to murder both of them! They will, of course, still meet Kai and that's a whole thing because it's Kai, but I still haven't decided an ending yet.

Stop! Snippet time!:

"Take him," Bonnie says to Damon. "Please. He's your murder buddy, not mine."

"Hold on, I still have a say in this," Enzo tries to protest. "And for the record, I am no one's murder buddy anymore. I wouldn't be here if I was, now would I?"

Damon groans, "Oh my god, let it go, we're stuck with each other now, alright? So, your little grudge isn't exactly going to do anyone any good, and if you haven't noticed, you're not exactly dead anymore, so would you shut up?"

"Oh, well I'm glad to know that my death is a mere grudge to you," Enzo quips back drily, throwing a hand up. "You sure you want me to come with you at all? By the sounds of it, you wouldn't even notice if I was gone, so how about you two go ahead and I'll just be on my merry way."

Unbelievable. Trust Enzo to kick up a tantrum at the most inconvenient of times. Damon looks to Bonnie to share in his exasperation, but she raises her eyebrows and presses her lips together in a clear display of not taking sides. Though her pointed silence and looking away feels a whole lot like tiptoeing onto a side. 

"Are you -- No!" Damon waves his hands. "How is splitting up going to help us? No, either you come with me, or you go with Bonnie. Your choice, but those are your only two options."

"I'm not exactly seeing how you're going to enforce that if I decide on neither," Enzo says with a shrug, and at this point, Damon's thinking he's just doing it to piss him off. Then again, that's usually his motivation. 

"I'll just..." Bonnie gives a vague motion behind ahead of her with an awkward smile and proceeds to try and edge away, "leave you two to it," 

"Wait," Enzo calls to her, staring at Damon, "I'm coming with you."

Damon stares back at him, arms spread. But Enzo just gives him one last look before walking away. Bonnie falters uncertainly and doesn't look too thrilled about this decision either but she just shrugs at Damon like she's sorry, then she goes after Enzo. Leaving Damon standing in the middle of the road on his own. 

Fantastic. Just the way he likes it.

"Shorpanga Wedding"

Title says it all, really, I think. We're at Cory and Topanga's wedding (this is Boy Meets World if that wasn't clear), and Shawn is obviously a mess because the two people he is in love with are getting married, but they don't know he's in love with them, and now his chance to say anything is about to be gone! I'm going to need to rewatch that episode before I can get back to this one because I can't remember a lot of what was said, but I know it's going to be extremely angsty with a happy ending!

Teeny tiny snippet:

Don’t go in. Shawn repeats the words over and over in his head, pacing the hall of the fanciest hotel he’s ever stepped foot in. But he came this far, didn’t he? He can’t let how he’s feeling get in the way of this. It’s Cory’s wedding. And… Topanga’s. His best friends. How can he not go in?

He stops pacing and looks down at the rings in the palm of his hand. If he goes in there, these rings will be on Cory’s and Topanga’s fingers for the rest of their lives. 

Groaning, he clenches his hand into a fist, feeling the rings dig into his palm. He starts pacing again until singing starts up around the corner. Oh god. What does singing mean at a wedding? That it’s over? 

But it can’t be, not without the rings, right? Or did they find replacements? Did they just assume that he would let them down, that he wouldn't show up, so they just went ahead without him?

There’s only one way to find out. 

Taking a deep breath, he turns the corner and walks through the hall. His heart leaps into his throat at the sight of the wedding taking place. Cory and Topanga at the altar together. Nausea sweeps over him, but he bites the inside of his cheek and ignores how disconnected his head feels from the rest of his body as he marches up the aisle towards them. He glances at the stage and notices Mrs Matthews on it, the source of the singing. Figures. 

Every step forward feels heavier than the last, and like he’s a roadrunner heading straight for the exact spot where the anvil is hanging, waiting to drop and crush him. Except seeing Cory and Topanga standing there, ready to get married, has already done that. 

This took me so long to answer but it has been so fun!! Thank you for asking for three at once, you're amazing and wonderful!

#trulyalpha #ask away earthlings! #wip folder meme #fanfiction stuff #works in progress #the flash #glee #the vampire diaries #boy meets world

[kleptic-writes]

Drop ‘Em Out (Let Me See Them Knockers)

“Well, this is a cover of the song “Drop ‘Em Out” by Wheeler Walker Jr,” Kara says to the camera, her striking blue eyes staring into the camera as if trying to get it across that she is really saying this to Lena. She hums a note, before pausing, and saying, “I really hope you enjoy this, Lena.”

Kara strums a chord again and hums for about two seconds. She takes a deep breath and nods to herself, her left leg starting to bounce up and down as if keeping time. Kara looks like a real musician.

--

A one-shot where Lena is having a dilemma surrounding Kara. But, to be honest, when is she not having a dilemma surrounding Kara?

Word Count: 2134 words

Rating: T--but talks about boobs, so... take that how you will.

Read It Below or on AO3.

Sam exits the elevator quickly, her heels tapping against the floor. Her long legs stride towards the door to the CEO's penthouse, the urge to run bubbling up from deep down within her soul. She pulls her spare key out of her pocket, hands shaking as she clicks the door open and walks inside.

She nods at Jess, who is sitting and scrolling through her phone on the couch. “I came as fast as I could,” Sam says, almost yelling as her eyebrows furrowing together with worry. “What do you mean that Lena is ‘having a moment?’ Is she alright?” she asks.

Jess leans closer to the taller woman, but her eyes glance towards the closed bedroom door. “Go in for yourself and talk to her,” she whispers. “There’s just no logic and reason going through her head right now.”

Sam sucks in a deep breath and nods, mentally preparing herself for the absolute worse. She turns on her heel and walks to the door of the bedroom, pushing it open to see Lena staring wide-mouthed at her computer screen. She obviously hasn’t changed for the day because she is still wearing her morning red silk robe—not that there is much of the day left.

It’s already 3:53 according to Sam’s phone.

Oh, this is a lot worse than what Sam thought. She sighs and steps further into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

“Lena?” Sam asks, turning around to fully survey the situation.

The young CEO glances up at her with a glazed look in her eyes.

Sam bites her lip, studying Lena for a second too long so that it passes over the point of ‘      I am being a great friend    ’ and into ‘      I am a concerned mother looking over my child    ’ territory. But, to be honest, Lena is acting very similar to when Ruby came home lamenting over how cute her crush was three weeks ago.

Sam frowns. “Is everything alright?” she asks, stepping closer into Lena’s personal space.

Lena shakes her head as if she were shaking the cobwebs free from all the crevices in her brain. Her bright green eyes finally land on Sam, her eyes widening to almost a humorous degree.

“Sam,” Lena says, her voice cracking like a teenage boy going through puberty. Sam frowns as this is so much worse than what she thought it would be. “I think it finally got through to Kara that I’ve been flirting with her,” the CEO squeaks.

Sam tilts her head. “Why do you say that?” She quickly glances around the room for any signs of romance: flowers, cards,      anything    . She looks back at the CEO and raises an eyebrow at Lena when nothing appears to Sam right away. Her eyes flicker down, briefly, to the computer before Lena, and a thought pops into her head that makes her shiver.

Did Kara send Lena a sex video?  

 Sam shakes her head, that would be ridiculous. Kara is in isolation according to Supergirl’s twitter page.

 (“Lmao guys, I might have an alien virus!! I’ll keep you updated!!” it had said. Sam still balks every time she thinks about that. Who says LMAO when they have a potentially deadly virus?)

 “Just start from the beginning, Lena,” Sam ends up saying, trying to coax the CEO into telling her what’s wrong.

 “I am the product of a sordid love affair and my mother hates-”

 “Lena.”

 “Fine, fine,” Lena huffs and crosses her arms, staring Sam in the eye with obvious annoyance on her face. “It all started this morning when Kara and I were supposed to have our daily Zoom call with one another. She might’ve been exposed to an alien virus, you know.”

 “I heard.” Sam feels her eye twitch.

 “Anyway, this morning…”

--

 Lena sips on her morning coffee while her fingers rapidly click against the spacebar of her computer, coaxing the machine to wake up for the day. It blinks awake and she quickly types in her password.

--

 “I don’t need like a fucking novel,” Sam groans, her left hand flying up the air as a feeling of exasperation settles in her stomach. “Just tell me what happened!”

 “I’m getting there,” Lena snaps, “Hold your horses.”

--

 Lena hums and softly blows the steam away from her face as she refreshes her email inbox, waiting for Kara’s email to the Zoom room link.

 She looks out the window, frowning when a red dart--sadly, not Supergirl--flashes across the sky. Must’ve been a bird or something. Oh, Lena misses Kara like a fish missing water.

 Lena opens her phone and clicks on the texting conversation between her and Kara.

 “where are you??” Lena types, before deleting, pausing, and looking out the window once again so she can think of a better text to send to her best friend. She bites her lip, every possible message running through her mind rapidly and slowly at the same time because this is Lena’s most anxious part of the day, despite what anyone else thinks.

 She looks back to her phone and sucks in a breath, sending “are we still on for zoom?” to the blonde, quarantined superhero. “i can also do it later in the day if you can’t do it right now,” she adds in quick succession.

 “Check your email! :D” Kara quickly responds not a second later, and Lena feels her heart flutter as she stares at the cute emoticon. It is so Kara. “But could we possibly Zoom later? I have some lab tests about to be done on me” and “I don’t want our time cut short” comes in two messages back to back.

 “then why am i checking my email,” Lena almost asks, before deleting the message. She sighs, bringing her cup back up to her lips as her fingers fly to click the reload button. She clicks and anxiety starts to build in her stomach.

 She frowns as an email from Kara loads with the title:  Watch Me!!!

--

 Sam puts her hands on her hips and looks up at the ceiling. “So,” she says, interrupting Lena’s story. “you’re freaking out slash mildly upset because you didn’t have your daily Zoom call?”

 Lena sputters. “N-no,” she says while her eyes fly around the room rapidly as if the young CEO wouldn’t dare look her friend in the eye. Sam raises an eyebrow at the action and hums, trying to figure out what is going on.

 “Let me just continue with my story, Sam,” Lena whines, “Then, you can offer your genius or whatever.”

 “You’re damn right I’m going to offer my genius after all this,” Sam nods, motioning for Lena to continue, “please tell me more about why you’re so freaked out right now.”

 “Well, I clicked on the email which had a YouTube link sitting inside...”

--

 Lena almost chokes on her coffee once the video loads. Her green eyes squint together, amused, as she stares at Kara smiling widely into the camera.

 The blonde is wearing an      interesting     outfit, to say the least, and it makes Lena wonder if Alex decided to get Kara’s clothes for her--but at a steep price. But, like always, Kara still looks like the perfect mix between hot and cute. Maybe it’s an alien thing.

 Well, to put it plainly, Kara looks like a Cowboy. And, it is making Lena feel      things    .

 Her taut white t-shirt is covered by a blue and red well-worn flannel, and a straw cowboy hat rests on top of her head with her blonde hair down and semi-wild. Since Kara isn’t wearing her glasses, she looks as if Supergirl decided to go to a rodeo and just fought an evil bucking alien.

 “Hey, Lena,” Kara says, grinning into the camera. She reaches one of her hands up as if wanting to fix her glasses, but then coughs, and fixes her hat instead. “I haven’t seen you in person for a few weeks now,” the blonde muses, her blue eyes dropping to her lap as if extremely disappointed.

 . “I really hate that,” she continues, “But, nevermind that. I have something to show you! Something that I hope--oh, golly--I hope you’ll like this.”

 The CEO raises an eyebrow at the screen, silently wondering if Kara is going to use her superhearing to listen to Lena’s reaction.

 “Anyway,” Kara continues, “I’ve had a lot of time on my hands recently. I’ve really enjoyed our Zoom calls, but they’re the only thing that I really look forward to nowadays. So, I decided to learn how to play some country music. One sec,” she stands and exits offscreen.

 Lena bites down on her lower lip, slamming her eyes together so a groan doesn’t escape from her lips. Sure, Lena would love to watch Kara’s serenade from the DEO, but she doesn’t really care for country music.

 “Well, here is a song that I hope that you enjoy,” Kara says, and Lena slowly opens her eyes. Kara is holding a guitar with a shit-eating grin on her face.

--

 “Wait,” Sam interrupts again, “This all about a      song    . You’re freaking out over a song?”

 “Let me tell my own story, Sam,” Lena sniffs, crossing her arms. “It makes more sense if you just listen.”

 “Jeez, okay.”

--

 Kara clears her throat, and strums such a beautiful chord that Lena suddenly gets the urge to listen to more country music--but, only if Kara will listen to it as well. Her blue eyes shimmer and shine almost as if she had caught stars and put them in her eyes.

 “Well, this is a cover of the song “Drop ‘Em Out” by Wheeler Walker Jr,” Kara says to the camera, her eyes staring into the camera so she could get it across that she is really saying it to Lena while strumming another angelic chord. She hums, before pausing, and saying, “I really hope you enjoy this, Lena.”

 Kara strums a chord again and hums for about two seconds. She takes a deep breath and nods to herself, her left leg starting to bounce up and down as if keeping time. Kara looks like a real musician.

 Lena leans closer to the screen, enraptured by what she sees. Maybe after Kara gets out of Quarantine, Lena will just ask Kara to play guitar chords while the CEO happily (and hornily) drinks wine.

 Kara plays another chord and opens her mouth, her bright voice echoing in the bedroom.

 “Drop 'em out,” Kara’s voice is angelic, Lena thinks. “Let me see them titties. Gonna take a long look at those tig 'ol bitties. Areolas lookin' nice, nipples lookin' real pretty…”

 Lena gasps, shock ricocheting throughout her entire body as she watches Kara… sing about boobs? Kara would never do that.

 “Come on let me gander at your boobs.”

 Scratch that. Kara wants to see her boobs..? What in the--

--

 “No way that happened,” Sam says, rolling her eyes. “Kara can barely even say boobs, much less ‘titties.’ And that part with the Areolas? Bah!”

 “She did,” Lena says, nodding her head. “I’ve been watching the video all morning in fact. Do you want to see it?”

 Sam pauses, considering her choices very carefully. “I’m good,” she decides.

 “Are you sure?” Lena asks, looking worried and unsure as if she were afraid that Sam doesn’t believe her. “All I have to do is just click--”

 “Do      not     click that button,” Sam says, firmly, her hand almost slapping herself in the face. “I don’t want to hear it.”

 Lena pauses, biting on her lip. “What do I do, Sam?” she asks, her voice small. “I’ve never been in this situation before.”

 “Honey,” Sam sighs, “I don’t think anyone has been in this situation before. But you know what?” Lena perks up and stares at Sam with an extreme fascination. “You can do exactly what Kara told you to do… show her your boobs!”

 “Really?”

 “Yes,” Sam says, and then she hesitates. But, then she shrugs and agrees with herself that this might be the fastest course of action. “Yeah, show her your wonderful boobs.”

 Lena nods. “Okay,” she says as if trying to psych herself up, “I will. I will show Kara my boobs. But,” she pauses staring at Sam with an extremely pitiful gaze, “I will only do it if you help me make sure that they look perfect. Help me with lighting and whatnot.”

 Sam looks up at the ceiling and closes her eyes. The fate of her friend’s relationship is now in her hands, no matter how much she doesn’t want it to be. She sighs and looks back down at Lena.

 “Sure,” she says, “Let’s make sure your boobs look great for Kara.”

 “Our zoom call is at 4:30.”

 “You will look like Kara’s personal cam star at 4:30, then.”

#supercorp #kara x lena #lena luthor #kara danvers #cowboy!kara #supercorp fanfic #this was a crackhead moment #should've been studying for finals but #here we are #samantha arias #she's also a key player in this

[dcanslist]

supercorp + "I just really miss talking to you." for the drabble prompt list? 💕

This started out pretty light and almost cute  and then... 😬Thank you for the prompt! I hope you enjoy this one. ♥

—

“If you break my window, I am sending your ass to jail.”

The warning obviously flies over Kara’s head like a bird seeking freedom after years of being stuck in a cage. Lena watches with an exasperated sigh as Kara climbs one branch after another until she’s sitting precariously on one that points directly at Lena’s window.

She should really do something about that. What if it is a burglar and not a blonde woman, seeking her apology for the sixth day of the week?

“I’m not going to let you in, Kara,” she says, tone flat and lips pulled at one side.

“Okay, that’s fair,” Kara replies with a shaky laugh, her arms visibly shaking from having to keep her balance on the branch. “But if you’d just give me a minute to explain-”

Lena crosses her arms and huffs. “There’s really nothing else to explain. You lied to me for months, Kara. If you think one apology will easily erase all of that, then you’re wrong.”

“I-I don’t think that, Lena.” Kara looks at her pleadingly, arms shaking against as she uses them to lift herself a little bit closer to Lena’s window. The action distracts Lena momentarily from the blonde as her eyes fleet over to the branch, realizing that Kara is venturing farther and farther away from its thicker part.

“Kara-”

“I know that what I did was wrong, I really know that, but if you’d just listen to me—”

“Kara, the branch—”

“— I only did it because it was an opportunity to get closer to you and- oh, no…” 

The branch bounces once or twice under Kara’s weight as she scooted closer to Lena’s window, but with a loud crack, the branch gives away, and Lena swears to whoever is sitting above the clouds that in that split of a second, she saw her life flash before her eyes.

And that doesn’t even make sense because she’s not the one who’s about to fall from twelve feet off the bloody ground.

“Kara!”

Lena’s not sure how she did it, but Kara somehow manages to use her long limbs to hold onto the windowsill just before the branch dropped to its demise. She groans as she hoists herself up on her arms, which, again, distracts Lena from what’s more important because… arms.

“Hoo! That was close,” Kara says through labored breath, now currently halfway inside her room, stomach flat on the windowsill.

That snaps her out of it and within seconds, her face scrunches with anger.

“What were you thinking?” she stomps over and smacks Kara’s arm. “You could have fallen and broken something, or worse: died!”

Kara winces, shifting on one side as she rubs her arm. “I didn’t know what else to do…”

“You couldn’t have knocked on the door like a normal person?”

“You wouldn’t have answered it.”

“How would you know that?”

Kara laughs softly before worming her way into Lena’s room, gracelessly plopping on the floor with a loud thud. “I tried the other day, remember?” she says while picking herself up on the floor. “You didn’t even say anything.”

Lena purses her lips, unwilling to admit anything.

“Well, here you are,” she huffs. “You can go out through the door and not risk dying this time.”

“I’m sorry I took the bet.”

Lena blinks at Kara’s words. It’s not really the first time Kara’s saying this. She has been trying to apologize and explain for quite a while now, but Lena has, quite admittedly, turned into a wall when it comes to Kara and everything she has to say.

But Kara is determined and stubborn, and god, it doesn’t even matter if Lena tells her to fuck off permanently from her life — she still comes back the next day.

“I mean, I’m just a nobody at work and you’re this person who’s always a candidate for promotion and…” she trails off, swiping her tongue across her lips. “… I didn’t know how else to approach you — to get to know you.”

“So you took the bet.”

Kara nods solemnly. “I took the bet.”

“And I still don’t forgive you.”

Kara’s face drops almost instantaneously and Lena wants to take it back, to tell her that she just needs time to think things through, and then she’ll be back to the same Lena who indulges Kara with three servings of potstickers every night.

But betrayal is a cruel thing, no matter how small the deed is, especially to a person like herself.

“And I know that deep inside you, you know that I will not forgive easily, knowing my family background, so why are you here?”

Kara looks at her the same way she did when she first found out about the bet. It’s a look of nervousness, of her heart obviously beating so fast that she visibly shakes in her place, and her hands can’t find their place — is it together? On her sides? In her pockets? She bites her lip and for a quick second, she looks to the side, as if she’s looking at something that will give her the courage to do the next thing, and then she locks her gaze on Lena’s as she takes one step forward—

“I just really miss talking to you,” she confesses, lower lip curling in between her teeth again. “I miss lunch dates and afternoon snacks. I miss walking you home.”

Lena takes pity on Kara at this point, visibly softening, arms dropping to her sides. “I miss you, too, Kara.”

Kara’s face brightens up by a fraction, and before it blooms into full-blown happiness, she cuts in—

“I just need time.”

There. She finally said it, and for the first time since Monday, Kara actually shows understanding, and after a moment of silence shared between the two of them, she smiles, albeit sadly, and walks past Lena to exit her room.

The door shuts behind her and Lena takes this time to breathe in and out slowly, to gather herself again before stepping closer to the window in hopes of seeing Kara for the last time in god knows how long.

Her cheeks burn a bright red, however, when she peeks and meets Kara’s startlingly blue eyes, who looks as though she was also waiting to see if Lena will watch her leave.

Well, she is right.

“Still here?” Lena asks, taking on a haughty tone to hide her embarrassment.

Kara smiles up at her. “You still have my number?”

“I do.”

“Okay,” Kara nods while sliding her hands into her pockets, finally turning to leave. “Text me when it’s okay to talk to you again.”

end.

— this is the first of many drafts i made for this prompt. 😌 consider this a bonus because i thought it deserves to be out there. —

Not everyone knows the feeling of having one, fleeting moment in your life photographed and stored in memory forever as the instance you realized you’re in love with someone.

Not even Lena knew that when it happened to her, but when realization slammed into her like a freight train, it was already too late.

Kara is gone.

Most nights are spent lying in bed, one arm stretched out toward her laptop, fingers barely brushing its edge, still hoping to be able to put her thoughts into words. However, the blank page remains as empty as the day she first opened it to compose a letter for Kara, and Lena wonders if she will be able to write at all any time soon.

Because Kara is gone and she is too late.

There will be no more days in which Kara will insist on having lunch dates or afternoon snacks; no more friendly reminders to not stay past six in the evening at work, or gentle reprimands against working from home. No one’s going to check on her just because they felt like doing it (or because they care for Lena).

All of this — all this suffering because she ignored Kara’s last (and final) message to her:

“I just really miss talking to you.”

The message glares at her from every corner of her house; most days it feels like it’s seared into her mind. There’s no escaping it.

There’s only the reminder of what she lost forever.

#pippytmi #supercorp #writing memes

[inkedroplets]

A Rich Girl With Issues

Chapter 17/? Lasso of Truth

Read on AO3

“What you did to Kara at the Fortress… How could you?" Catching a flight to Gotham had become so ingrained in her routine, Lena had no issue doing it even in a daze. On the drive over to Wayne Manor, she could still hear Alex’s voice echoing in her head, and see the thinly veiled disgust on her face that had trumped the tiny inkling of guilt that Lena thought had been present there. She could remember sleepless nights in National City before she had moved to Metropolis, holed up in her office, stuck somewhere in the liminal state between drunk and sober, a bottle of scotch never too far out of reach while she pondered the very same question and every time she found herself circling an answer she would refill her glass in a bid to run from it… 

She was so lost in thought, it took Lena a moment to realize that the person that greeted her at the door to the Manor wasn’t Alfred or even Bruce. “You’re not Alfred,” Lena said, staring back at the man who looked to be far closer in age to her than Bruce. He was wearing a simple black tee and jeans. Lena thought that he looked somewhat familiar, although she was certain that they had never met before. “No,” he said and opened the door wider for her. “Not nearly as handsome as him,” he said and flashed her an effortless smile. “I am the far superior singer though, although with Alfred that’s not saying much.” “You’re Dick Grayson,” Lena said slowly, finally remembering just why he looked so familiar. There were several pictures of him with Bruce and Alfred hanging up around the manor that she had passed countless times over the many months she had been training. Not to mention the number of times she had found herself gazing at his old suit down in the cave during the brief moments that Bruce allowed her to rest.  She stepped past him and into the foyer.

"And you're Lena Luthor," he said and offered her his hand to shake which she took at once. "Alfred's told me a lot about you."

"Has he? Some of it was good, I hope.”

“All of it,” Dick said and smiled. “He did say that you’re just about as stubborn as Bruce but coming from him I don’t know if I would consider that a compliment or not.” He pondered this for a moment before pointing in the direction of Bruce’s study. “Everyone’s already in the cave,” he said and set off down the hall, gesturing to Lena for her to follow.

“Everyone?” Lena matched Dick’s pace and walked shoulder to shoulder with him. “Who else is here?” she asked, wondering if she had perhaps intruded on something important. “Bruce and Alfred, obviously,” Dick said as they began to descend the long winding staircase that led down to the cave below. “Myself and Diana. Babs wanted to come but she’s keeping an eye on something in Blüdhaven.  Definitely next time though.” “Diana’s here?” Lena asked, spotting her as they made their way down the winding set of stairs cut into the rock. She was in deep conversation with Bruce. “Is there something happening in Gotham?” “Bruce said you needed help tracking down an arms dealer. We’re your backup,” he said when they reached the bottom of the stairs and spread his arms as if to say Ta-da!

There was an agonizing five minutes (that to Kara felt like an eternity) where she feared that the lights and the sounds would only continue to worsen until she would have no choice but to run. To her apartment, to the Fortress, somewhere, anywhere where she could be alone. The only thing that kept her there was the knowledge that if she did leave, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from seeking out Lena, despite the promise that she had made to Sam, and knowing that there wasn't anything she could say that would undo what Alex did. It was Lena that she thought of in a bid to center herself and after a time she felt her heartbeat slowing and the room that had been so suffocating only moments feel less so, pulling away and allowed her to take a deep breath.

Breathing slowly, she settled back into her seat and patted a napkin at her damp forehead where a cold sweat had beaded. She reached for her quickly cooling latte and nearly knocked it over, her hands were shaking that badly. She made a fist with her right hand and unclenched it, hoping that might steady it. Still shaking, she grasped her cup a little firmer than she meant to and noticed a hairline crack run up its side as she took a nervous sip. Setting the cup back down she took another breath, letting it out in a loud exhale, feeling marginally better.

“Miss Danvers?” Kara turned in the direction of the voice and found herself looking at a kind-faced teenager that looked like he was either still in or just fresh out of high school. He was wearing a Metropolis Monarchs cap over a mess of blonde hair with a matching jacket to boot. “Yes,” she said blankly before she remembered just why she was here in the first place and realized that he was the source she was waiting for. “You’re Anthony Nichols?” “Yes,” he said, looking relieved "Kara Danvers?". She nodded and he mimed wiping some sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “I figured that it must be you since you’re the only one sitting alone but I wasn't sure. I tried calling you but you must have your phone on silent…” “Oh,” Kara said and picked up her phone, glancing at the screen and saw that she had missed several phone calls. A few from him and more than ten from Alex. She had instinctively turned off her ringer after talking with Sam and had only just realized it although she knew exactly why she had done it. She had known that Alex would call wanting to explain what she had done to Lena, to talk with her about it, and seeing as the only thing that Kara wanted to do was scream, she thought it best to postpone that conversation for later. “I’m so sorry about that. Please,” she said and pointed to the chair opposite her, “sit.” “I know I already told you over the phone,” he said as he sat down. “But I don’t know how much help I’ll actually be… I just hope that I'm not wasting your time.”

Kara managed a weak smile. “Well, right now I have next to nothing so anything you might remember would be helpful. But first, can I buy you a coffee? Maybe a scone?” 

“Tempting,” he said and looked longingly over at the counter, “but coffee would keep me up and my boyfriend would hate me if I didn’t have my appetite on date night.” He flashed her a toothy grin and swept his cap off his head, stowing it on his lap. “Speaking of, I’ll need to run home and get changed before then so I only have half an hour or so, is that okay?” He reached up and touched his hair gingerly as if it was sensitive to the touch and winced. “Does it look as bad as I think it is?” “I’ll try and keep it quick,” Kara said kindly, which was in its own way, answer enough. The interview had seemed so important just a few hours ago but now, Kara found it hard to see it as anything more than a distraction to keep her mind occupied until she could talk to Sam and figure out how to fix this. If you can fix this, a voice reminded her unhelpfully. “Kara reached into her purse and pulled out her lucky green notebook that didn’t feel all that lucky at that moment and opened it to a blank page. “First,” she said, forcibly shifting gears like a novice driver that had never driven a stick shift before from Kara Danvers the broken-hearted to  Kara Danvers, the Pulitzer-winning journalist. “In your eyewitness testimony you said that you got a clear look at the vigilante, can you describe them for me?” “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “It was dark,” he warned. “But they were dressed head to toe in black.” He squinted and Kara knew that he was doing his best to dredge up his memories of the night in question. “A little shorter than me by about an inch or two?” He shrugged. “They had a weapon.” “What kind of weapon?” she asked, careful not to lead him or to try and force a narrative. “Looked kind of like a billy club or a staff, maybe. About this long?” He held up his hands to give a rough estimate. “They had something on their wrists too, might have been armor.”

Vambraces. Kara scribbled a few notes, nodding to herself. “And can you tell me how you crossed paths with them?” He cleared his throat and slunk down in his chair a bit. “Well…” “This is all anonymous,” Kara assured him. “If I do end up using any of your testimony it won't include your name and it will only be after I get your go-ahead to do so.” “Yeah,” he said, sounding somewhat unconvinced. “I don’t want to pretend it never happened," he said and shook his head vigorously as if Kara had accused him of just that. “I just… I’m still ashamed about what I did.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and exhaled loudly. “I don’t think it made the paper but there was an attempted jewelry store robbery a while back. I was supposed to be the lookout slash getaway driver,” he said and hung his head for a moment before he was able to look up and meet Kara’s gaze again.

 “I’ve been on my own for a while now… Since my senior year in high school and after graduating I just barely got into Met U.” He held up his hand and pinched his thumb and index finger close together. 

“Congratulations,” Kara said and even managed a watery smile that she hoped looked as sincere as she wanted it to. 

“Maybe if I studied a little harder it wouldn’t have been such a nailbiter,” he said dismissively. And maybe if I had done that I would have been able to get a scholarship… I needed money,” he elaborated. “Not that it made what I did right, but word got around that I was looking for work and someone floated the idea to me. I knew it was wrong but I kept talking myself in circles about it and my boyfriend kept trying to talk me out of it, but I didn’t listen…” He drummed his fingers on the table and glanced over his shoulder before continuing. “They promised me that no one would get hurt and I think that’s what finally convinced me.” He let out a harsh guffaw of laughter that sounded strange coming from him. I mean, I’m stupid but I’m not that stupid. That’s not a promise you can make when you're doing something like that, you know?” Kara nodded solemnly. “But I tricked myself into believing it because I wanted to believe that what I was doing wasn’t as bad as it really was. Does that make sense?” “Yeah,” Kara said and nudged her glasses up higher on her nose with the palm of her hand. “It does actually…” She watched his eyebrows rise inquisitively, most likely trying to figure out if her agreeing with him was a mere platitude or if she actually understood how tempting it was to lie to yourself to spare yourself the guilt of doing something you knew was wrong... He might have seen the truth in her eyes because he seemed to relax somewhat.

“I drove them to the jewelry store and I parked about a block away and I just waited… I was so sure that a cop would come by and knock on my window and that would be it and my heart was nearly hammering out of my chest.” He chuckled and picked his cap up off his lap and crammed it back onto his head. “I was half right. Superman knocked on the window of the car and I nearly had a heart attack” “Understandable.” “I got out of the car and I sat with him for a while on the curb… He just listened to me. To be honest I don’t remember much of what I said. I was so convinced that I had just torpedoed my future I’m sure I was just babbling. But he still calmed me down. Somehow.” He managed a genuine smile and shook his head. “That’s when I got a good look at the vigilante. She and Superman talked for a bit and that was it. Superman turned around and that was when the vigilante walked into a... “ He drew a big circle in the air with both his index fingers so that they met in the middle. “I guess a portal?” “A portal?” Kara perked up at that, scribbling that down in her notes and underlining it for emphasis. That was new information. Nothing Kal had told her about the vigilante or anything she had seen for herself had pointed to them using portals. “I guess,” he said, sounding unsure. “I mean, that’s what it looked like to me. Sci-fi shit, you know? Maybe they’re a metahuman?” “That’s a possibility,” Kara agreed. She had considered that possibility herself but she still didn’t have enough to go on either way. “Do you remember anything else, anything at all?” He shook his head. “No, that was it. The police came and rounded everyone up soon after that. Considering how some of the others looked when they were getting loaded into the back of the cruisers...  I’m just glad that it was Superman that found me.” He shrugged. “That’s really all I know. I’m sorry if you were expecting more.” “No,” Kara said. “You were a lot of help.” “If you say so,” he said, sounding skeptical.  “If that’s everything though, I should probably get a move on.” “Go right ahead,” Kara said. She gestured to the door. “I actually have to do a little preparing myself…” “Oh,” he said, sounding surprised. Well then, I’ll get out of your hair.” He patted his Monarchs cap which looked ready to spring off his head if anyone so much as looked at it funny and smiled. He stood up to go and walked a few steps before he came to a sudden stop and turned back around. “Remember something?” Kara asked, her notebook already stowed back in her purse. “Well…” he said and danced from one foot to the other as if he very much needed to use the restroom. “It’s not really connected to the vigilante,” he said, “but something strange did happen that night.” “Strange? How?” Kara kept her eyes trained on him, reaching into her purse and rooting around for her notebook. “After I got booked at the station, I was told that my lawyer was already waiting to consult with me… I could barely afford rent and living expenses, much less a lawyer. I thought that they might have meant a public defender had been hired for me and some wires just got crossed in relaying the message but when I went in to meet them they were dressed impeccably and they handed me a business card from their firm.  I looked it up on my phone later and they charge more by the hour than I make in a month. I thought it was a mistake but they had my file and said that they were paid in advance. Thanks to them I  got probation which I doubt I would have gotten with anyone else…” He clenched his hands into fists and held them in front of him as if he were peering at her from behind bars. “I have no idea who hired them but I owe them so much… I know it’s not what you were looking for but…” “No,” Kara said, hastily uncapping her pen. “That might help actually. Do you remember the name of the law firm?" “I really hope it does and I can do you one better,” he said and took and reached into his back pocket and pulled out an imitation leather wallet. He searched a few of the small pockets and pulled out a business card that he held out to her. "I don't need it anymore. I won't need it anymore," he said with a smile and began walking back towards the door. “If you have any other questions…” “I’ll get in touch if I do,” Kara said and waved him off with the same hand she had taken the business card. She watched him thread his way through the coffee shop and out the door. The second he was out of sight she stowed the card in her purse without bothering to read it and checked her watch. She was so sure that it had stopped working she gave it a vigorous shake. How can it not be six o'clock yet? 

Lena might have offered up some resistance to the idea of so much help if Diana didn’t almost immediately wrap her up into a very warm embrace that she had needed more than she realized. “Lena? Are you alright?” Diana held her out at arm’s length by the shoulders, her gaze inquiring. “Did something happen?” Yes… “Just really surprised to see you,” Lena said, which she didn’t really consider a lie, considering how genuinely surprised she was to see her. “I guess I shouldn’t be, all things considered.” She pointed at Bruce surreptitiously and flashed Diana a playful grin that didn’t do anything to dispel the worry on Diana’s face. 

"Are you sure that's all?"

Lena nodded. "That and it's not every day that you get to meet the Robin,” she said, intentionally laying it on a lot thicker than she would have normally, no stranger to the benefits of ego-stroking.

"Flattered, really," Dick said and waved to her. "But I go by Nightwing now. Totally different suit. Not that the one you designed wasn't great Bruce...”

“I did tell you that you could call me anytime you needed my help.” Diana reminded her, still not looking completely convinced that there was nothing wrong but seemed willing to let it pass for now. “Did you lose my number?”

“I didn’t want to impose,” Lena said, knowing just how weak that must have sounded, regardless of how true it was. “Not for something like this,” she said. “Bruce said that it’s important to you, so it’s important to me. And if you’re looking to get the truth out of someone,” she said and patted her lasso which was hanging at her side, “I’m tough to beat in that department.”

“I remember,” Lena said, recalling a memory of her time on Themyscira when Diana had shown her just how effective her lasso had been at extracting the truth from someone when Lena had laid hands on it and revealed to Diana just how sore her body really had been from training, using a number of colorful expletives that she would have definitely avoided if she had been able to. She vaguely recalled her complaining about how her abs felt like they were constantly on fucking fire. “I’ll bump you up the speed dial,” Lena promised and clasped one of Diana’s hands between both of her own. “Thank you though…” “Any time.” Diana smiled and pointed over to where Bruce, Dick, and Alfred were still standing. “Let’s go over the plan one more time now that you’re here.”

If given enough time, Lena thought that she could piece together what Bruce had planned from just the photos and knowing how meticulous it came to even the simplest of tasks but she was more than happy to let Bruce walk her through it, knowing that he wouldn’t want to make a move until everyone was on the same page. “Your target’s been holding up in a safe house, here,” he said and pointed to a photo of a nondescript-looking brownstone that Lena knew had to cost an arm and a leg, even in Gotham. “He’s already skittish though and if we try and take him here…” “It could make things needlessly complicated,” Dick said. “If it was a safe house in the middle of nowhere then I’d be all for it but trying to grab him there  it’s not worth the risk, which makes luring him out difficult too.” “Agreed,” Lena said. Bruce directed her attention to several photos of their target standing in front of or going into one of many restaurants. “Which is why it will be best to approach him when he’s out. He eats dinner out most nights, which means we should be able to get this done tonight. Dick and I will stay behind at the safe house and search it once he’s gone, see if he’s sitting on more weapons. You and Diana will trail him and make the pickup.” “Simple enough,” Lena said. “With any luck, you’ll be back in Metropolis without even having to take a red-eye back,” Dick said. Lena shook her head. “I’m not too worried about that, honestly. I’m in no rush to get back,” she said, a bit more coolly than she had meant to, and noticed the look that Bruce and Diana exchanged, looking like worried parents having a wordless conversation.  She had promised Sam that she would be back later that night but for now, at least, she had no desire to return to Metropolis. More importantly, she knew that Sam would understand even if she would worry.  She didn’t want to go home and she certainly didn’t want to return to L-Corp after what had happened with Alex. There could be another bug, she thought. Hell, there could be several. She would need to do a thorough sweep of her office when she did go back, maybe an entire sweep of the building if she wanted to be completely sure that Alex hadn’t gone slinking around anywhere else before pretending to come to Lena for help. 

Having something to focus on, some task to devote her full attention to would have normally done wonders for her in keeping the locks shut tight on the itty bitty boxes she desperately wanted to remain closed if not for the fact that the man she planned to interrogate was so inexorably tied to Kara which made it next to impossible to not think of her which inevitably led back to thoughts of Alex which filled her with a strange mix of anger and revulsion that Lena was far too familiar with for her liking that she could only hope didn’t show on her face. Bruce was too taciturn to broach such an uncomfortable subject even if he had an inkling that Lena had something on her mind but Diana would. She reminded Lena of Sam in that regard. She never pried but she was doggedly persistent, something that seemed to be something of a prerequisite when one wanted to be friends with Lena Luthor. 

“Let’s focus on one thing at a time,” Diana suggested. “We should probably get into position before it gets any later.” Bruce offered Diana a small nod and if Lena hadn’t been looking for it, she would have probably missed the small smile that accompanied said nod, one that looked rather boyish for someone so brooding.

Finding a good vantage point to watch the brownstone from wasn’t difficult at all. Gotham had no shortage of tall buildings to choose from. Bruce and Dick choose one to the south while Lena and Diana opted for one further east a bit further away closer to the busy part of town that he would probably head towards when he started feeling peckish. “I think approaching him after dinner would be best,” Diana said, who was crouched on Lena’s right, gazing out towards the brownstone. “He’ll likely have his guard down then and it will give Bruce more time to do a thorough search of the place. While we wait,” she said and turned towards Lena, “are you sure you don’t want to talk about what’s bothering you?” “Is it that obvious?” Lena asked, still staring straight ahead at the townhouse. 

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Diana said kindly and Lena felt her hand featherlight on her shoulder for just a  moment. “But  just in case you did, I’m here.” “I suppose that it’s one way to pass the time,” Lena joked listlessly and managed a weak smile that seemed to put Diana more at ease. She took nearly a full minute to figure out just where exactly to start before finally settling on the weapons deal that she had so rudely interrupted. She pointed towards the townhouse that they were watching and decided to start at the weapons deal she had broken up, thinking it was as good a place as any.

Diana let her talk uninterrupted for fifteen minutes while the sky steadily darkened and when Lena got to the part in the story where she had found the bug planted underneath her desk, she noticed how Diana’s shoulders tensed and the warm look of understanding on her face turned suddenly icy. “I’m so sorry, Lena… I can’t imagine how you must have felt.” “Angry,” Lena answered. “Livid,” she amended and nodded, feeling that answer was closer to the truth. “And hurt. I still am. When my assistant called and told me that Alex was waiting for me in my office… I didn’t know what to think. We were never all that close even when she was pretending to… Back in National City. But even after all that, a part of me was happy to see her again which is just pathetic. On my way over here,” she said delicately as if she were afraid that the next word out of her mouth might inexplicably be her last. “I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if Kara didn’t put her up to it…” Her voice warbled and she flinched at the sound, surprising even herself.  The thought was a horrible one and had come to her the way horrible thoughts always seemed to. They were the rearguard that followed in the wake of some other pain. 

“It shouldn’t matter,” Lena told her. “We’re not even friends anymore if we ever were at all and I did use kryptonite on her…” she said, forcing herself to remember. “ It would be stupid not to suspect me.” “It still doesn’t make what she did right, Lena,” Diana said reproachfully. “She owes you an apology,” she said bluntly. Lena chuckled and felt a swell of affection for Diana that lessened the ache in her chest, seeing the indignation on her face. “I probably owe her one too, so maybe it's better just to call it even.  I imprison her sister in kryptonite and she tries to spy on me. Even Steven,” she said as nonchalantly as she could manage. She had been unsure what (if anything) would ever be able to balance the scales between her and Kara after all that had happened but Lena felt that what Alex did today might have been the final nail in the coffin. And maybe it’s for the best, she told herself, in a falsely cheery tone as if she were trying to talk herself into a timeshare. She pointed to the lasso at Diana’s side and grinned, holding up the baton that Diana had gifted her. “You wanna trade?” she joked. “I am obviously not as good at knowing when people are lying to me as I once believed.” 

Diana smiled and unfastened the lasso from her waist and held it out to her. “My lasso can compel anyone who touches it, to tell the truth,” she said and wound a portion of it tight around her hand, gazing at it wistfully. “The truth is what powers it. It’s a power far greater than me…” “I take it, that's a no, then?” Lena teased. Diana chuckled and gave Lena a quick shake of her head. “You don’t need my lasso, Lena. You deserve more than that. Truth goes hand-in-hand with trust.” She pointed to herself and then to Lena. “Training you, getting to know you, we were able to build that rather quickly,” she said fondly.  “There can’t be one without the other.” “Oh, I know that,” Lena said darkly.

“Yes… I know you do. Trust is an incredibly fragile thing but it can be made stronger over time.” She brought her gauntlets together just hard enough to produce a low somewhat sepulcher reverberation to hum in the air.  “It can also be reforged if given the right opportunity...” Before Lena could respond, she spotted a flutter of movement in the distance and heard her commlink crackle in her ear. “He’s on the move, coming your way,” Bruce said.  “We’ll go inside once he’s rounded the corner.”

“We’ll stay close to him,” Diana said, standing up and dusting herself off. “Confront him on his way back home.” Lena watched him intently as the speck in the distance grew steadily larger and she was able to better make out the man’s features. Once he was close enough to make out his facial features, she released one of the small drones into the air the same way she might release a bird, giving it a gentle toss into the air and watching it float higher before darting off almost too fast for her to track. The feed from the camera turned on a moment later and while momentarily disorienting, it didn’t take the drone long to steady itself, giving her a bird’s eye view of the street below. 

Instead of waiting in the coffee shop for Sam, Kara opted to wait for her outside. Not just because she had grown too antsy to sit still at her all too small table but because she already knew that the conversation that the two needed to have couldn’t take place in a crowded coffee shop… She had one coffee clutched in her free hand while she kept glancing at her watch and then back in the direction of L-Corp, hoping to see Sam hurrying along the street to meet her. She finally spotted her at just a few minutes after six, although to Kara it felt like she had been waiting hours. Sam threaded her way past a crowd of people going the other way and when Kara began to wave to her on the off chance that Sam might have somehow missed her she raised her own to let her know that she wasn’t blind. But she didn’t smile. Kara noticed that right away. “I bought you a coffee,” Kara said and held it out to Sam, feeling like it was more of a peace offering than anything else, and felt her stomach clench uncomfortably at the thought. “I thought we could talk somewhere more private than a coffee shop,” Kara explained. “Thank you, Kara…” Sam took the coffee from her and took a small sip. “Where did you have in mind?” “My place.” She pointed in the direction of her apartment. “It’s not that far but if you want to talk somewhere else…” Kara said, less worried about where they talked just as long as they did. “Your place is fine, Kara.” Sam drummed her fingers along the cup and looked down at her feet. “I’m not mad,” she said and gave a quick shake of her head. No. I am mad,” she admitted. “But I’d like to know why I’m mad because I don’t know what’s going on anymore.” “I’ll tell you everything,” Kara promised again,  “But first, tell me what happened with Lena and Alex.”

It didn’t take Sam long to tell the story both forwards and backward, simply because there wasn’t that much to tell. Alex came to L-Corp to speak to Lena and when her assistant tried to turn her away she had bullied her way into Lena’s office. That had been when she had planted the bug, most likely. Lena had come back and they had talked for a while before all hell broke loose. “I just don’t get why Alex would come all the way to Metropolis to do that to Lena,” Sam repeated when Kara opened her apartment door for the both of them. “I just… If you saw her face…” Kara winced. She didn’t need to imagine very hard to conjure up an image of how Lena must have looked. She had seen the raw pain on Lena’s face in the Fortress when she had confessed to knowing the truth for far longer than Kara could have imagined. Seeing that pain, hearing it in Lena’s voice had broken Kara’s heart to pieces and knowing that she was once again responsible for hurting Lena like that was almost too much to bear. “I know why,” Kara said and pulled out one of the chairs around her kitchen table for Sam before starting to pace. “If I had known that Alex would ever do that, I would have never let her,” Kara said and could feel a surge of anger threaten to overtake the shame that was pulsating like an infected tooth in her chest and took a breath to try and steady herself. “She thought that she was protecting me,” Kara said. “From what exactly?!” Sam asked, throwing her hands up in the air, nearly knocking over her coffee in the process. “From Lena?” “No!” Kara reached up with both hands and slipped her glasses off and set them down on the table next to Sam. “I’ve been meaning to tell you ever since I moved here, Sam. I'm Supergirl.” “You’re Supergirl.” Sam blinked, some of the anger that had been building in her face seemed to vanish, replaced by polite confusion. Kara opened her mouth to elaborate and closed it again when Sam held a hand up, her head bent as if in prayer. “Wait,” she instructed. Kara did. “That fills in a lot of blanks,” Sam said after a minute of silence. “Not all of them though.” She looked up at Kara, examining her with her head tilted at a slight angle. “Kara Danvers is Supergirl… Strangely enough, not the most surprising thing I’ve heard lately…” “It’s not?” Sam shook her head. “No,” she said baldly,” looking up at Kara almost defiantly. “There was a cache of kryptonite weapons that someone tried to sell in Metropolis right around Christmas. I wasn’t even the one to find it but I took them back to the DEO. Alex has been looking into tracking down where they came from.” “And she goes to spy on Lena,” Sam said slowly. Her mouth curved into a bitter smile and she shook her head. “She’s barking up the wrong tree, I’m afraid.” “I know that,” Kara said quickly. “I know that Lena would never…” “Well, you have a funny way of showing it Kara,” Sam said. She steepled her fingers and sighed. “Lena told me that you don’t trust her… That you lied to her… She was talking about you being  Supergirl?”  she asked and pointed to Kara’s glasses on the table.

“Yes,” Kara said. She found it harder and harder to look Sam in the eye but forced herself to do so anyway. “I didn’t tell her that I was Supergirl until it was too late... and she found out in the worst way…” “And she lashed out,” Sam said, nodding a little faster, the pieces likely falling into place faster. “Who else doesn’t know that you’re Supergirl, Kara?” Kara squirmed and shook her head, feeling the familiar sting of tears that she made no effort to hold back. “Everyone else knows,” she said in a choked whisper and felt a tear roll down her cheek that she brushed away clumsily. “Fuck,” Sam groaned. She slumped down in her chair a few inches and swore again. “If I had known,” she muttered to herself. “I would have never been so gung-ho about a reconciliation between the two of you,” she said coldly. Kara flinched, wringing her hands together as she continued to pace. “I know that I fucked up,” Kara pleaded. “I would do anything to take back what I did,” she said and hated how empty the words sounded to even her. Hindsight was never a bad thing but especially, in this case, it simply felt like too little, too late.

“Well, the second that L-Corp perfects time travel I know who to call…” “When Lena finally confronted me about how I had lied to her,” Kara said, trying her best to keep her voice steady, “we had a horrible fight… I tried to explain, to apologize to her…. When she left, she used kryptonite on me. Not nearly enough to kill me but more than enough to keep me there… To stop me from chasing after her.” And you went and did it anyway, she thought, wondering again if her coming to Metropolis had been a horrible mistake. 

“Now things make sense.” Sam glanced up at Kara looking punch drunk before looking down at the table as if there was something there to see. She traced her finger along the rim of her coffee cup and sighed. “Jesus, what a mess,” she murmured. No, Kara thought. Things had been a mess for a while. But as of late, Kara had started to let herself believe that they could get better. Her and Lena’s lives had come unjoined even with both of them residing in the same city but they had remained entwined, however shakily. But now? She wasn’t so sure. 

If I lose her… If I’ve already lost her... “Have you talked to Alex?” Sam asked, looking fixedly back at her. “No,” Kara said curtly and wiped away a tear before she pulled her phone free from her pocket and saw that she had missed another dozen calls from Alex since she had last checked. “If we talk now, I’ll just say something that I’ll regret later.” “Well, we’re on the same page there… Oh. Right.” Sam reached into her pocket and held something between her thumb and index finger that was about the size of a dime. “I’m guessing that this is DEO property?” She tossed it to Kara who caught it easily. “I was going to destroy it but—” Kara clenched her fist tight around it feeling it crumble into nothing in her hand and opened it up again,  walked over to the wastepaper basket by the fridge, and dusted her hands off over it, her face angry and set. “I can sweep Lena’s office for bugs,” she said. “If you’re worried that there could be any more…” “Jess already swept for them. How could you possibly find any…” Sam trailed off and shrugged her shoulders. “Right,” she said. “You’re Supergirl. Going to need some time to get used to that.” “I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. But after everything with Reign, I didn’t want to put you or Ruby into any more danger.” “No,” Sam said, her voice having lost some of the harshness that had crept into it over the course of their conversation. “I understand, Kara and I’m thankful for that. After everything that happened with Reign… I needed things to go back to being normal again, at least for a little while.” She flashed Kara a weak smile. “ And your secrets, Kara,  the small and the big are yours to keep or to share with whoever you want but still… I don’t understand why you didn’t tell Lena. Did you really not trust her? Because that’s what Lena thinks. It’s why she’s…” Sam said, trailing off. “No,” Kara said and hung her head, feeling like a boxer teetering on their feet at the end of a very long round. “I made a mistake not telling her sooner. Lena had been lied to so many times in the past and I knew how careful she was getting close to people but I still told myself that I could wait a little longer… When Lillian found out my secret, she told me something I already knew. That Lena would hate me if she knew I had been lying to her…” Kara swiped away a tear that she didn’t feel she deserved to shed and continued. “I was so scared that I’d lose her, Sam… And then one day Lena was so angry with Supergirl. But she wasn’t with Kara, so I made excuses for myself and I kept putting it off and putting it off because I thought keeping Lena, having her near me while I felt guilty about hurting her was better than not having her at all. And now,” Kara said and felt her shoulders hitch, the tightness in her chest squeezing too tight for her to get a good breath. “I’ve gone and hurt her all over again.” She swallowed a hard lump in her throat and was so surprised when she felt Sam’s hand close over her wrist that she flinched. 

“Probably not what you want to hear,” Sam said carefully, the hand that had been on Kara’s wrist now patting her back gently. “But I don’t think Lena’s stopped hurting since moving here and I don’t think you have either…” She pressed the flat of her palm against her eye and brushed away a tear. “I wish that things were as simple as I thought they were,” she said wistfully. “I wish that I had some advice I could give you Kara, I really do. I’m a single mom and CEO and somehow the advice well is bone dry. But after what happened today with Alex. I think it’s best for the both of you if you give Lena some space and wait for her to reach out to you because I don’t know what else you can possibly give her right now except more hurt.”

Kara nodded numbly, more tears falling that she felt slip down her cheeks. “And what if she doesn’t ever want to see me again?” she asked in a dull, listless drone, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen, already knowing the answer and wishing that she didn’t.

There had been several nights that Bruce had tasked Lena with tailing a person throughout the city. In fact, her final exam of sorts had been to tail Bruce himself through the city and to not lose the trail until morning. Something that proved far more difficult than she could have possibly imagined. Watching him duck into a building or down an alleyway and somehow disappear happened so many times that she had been halfway convinced that he was somehow cheating. But tailing the arms dealer was simplicity itself. He didn’t so much walk as meander down the street at a pace that could only be described as leisurely. On his way back to the brownstone with his arms weighed down with two large bags of Thai food, Lena watched him approach, standing beside Diana on the ledge of a building that he would need to walk past. “I could go down and grab him,” Lena suggested. “He’s walking so slow he might just walk into a portal if I put one down in front of him,” she said and squinted in a bid to better judge the distance from her vantage point to the ground. “This will be faster,” Diana said confidently, her eyes sparkling brightly. “Have you and Dick found anything yet, Bruce?” “Found plenty of contraband and enough weapons to supply a small army  but no kryptonite.” “We’ll see if we have any more luck,” Diana said and began to unfurl her lasso. “Do a lot of fishing back on Themyscira?” Lena asked conversationally. “Nope,” Diana said and gave her lasso a few quick twirls, building momentum before she snapped her wrist and let it fly. There was a yell from down on the street below that grew louder and more shrill like the approach of an ambulance siren. Son of a bitch, Lena thought as she watched the man she and Diana had been trailing for the last couple hours fly in a neat arc and land hard on the rooftop behind them, the lasso wrapped tightly around his vast midsection. He actually held onto his food. If he wasn’t such a scumbag, I’d actually be impressed. Looking around wildly, the shock on the man’s face quickly faded and was replaced with the same blind fury that Lena had seen him boil over with at the warehouse, his face turning an almost violent shade of red. “What the f—” “Remember me?” Lena asked, leaning closer to him and tapping the visor of her helmet over her cheek in the same spot where the man had an angry black and purple bruise from where she had struck him. “Yeah,” he said in an uncharacteristically subdued voice that was far gentler than Lena could have imagined. He struggled against the lasso, eyes wide and staring at the baton clenched in Lena’s right hand. “I remember you. What do you want?” “Just to ask you some questions,” Lena said. And glanced back at Diana who nodded in return. “Anytime you’re ready.” “The kryptonite that you tried selling in Metropolis,” she said, “Do you have more in your possession?” “No,” he droned and Lena saw that the lasso had begun to glow. “You need to be very specific,” Diana warned her, still holding onto the lasso tightly with her right hand, one heel dug in for leverage on the off chance that she might need it. Lena nodded. Genie rules, she thought. “Do you know of any other kryptonite being sold on the black market?” she asked, waiting with bated breath for his answer. This time, he tried to clamp his mouth shut. Lena heard his teeth click together and watched him move his mouth as if he were chewing on something extremely rubbery, his face growing steadily redder. “Give it a moment,” Diana said from behind her, and as if on cue, the man began to speak. “Just rumors,” he said, the answer leaping from his mouth like a gunshot. “There’s supposedly a lot floating out there. I was lucky I got my hands on the shipment that I tried offloading the other night. Until you came in and fucked it up,” he spat. Lena felt her blood run cold and she could picture rows upon rows of identical-looking chests like the one in the warehouse. Each one of them hiding the same deadly secret. She watched all of them open in unison. Their top opening like the jaws of some horrible creature, a bright green glow shining out from within.  “Who,” she said and heard the panic rising in her voice. “Who told you that?” “I don’t know,” he grunted. “Word gets around. People talk. I don’t remember where I heard it. For all, I know it could be someone just running their mouth.” “Not good enough,” Lena warned and took a heavy step towards him. “Where did you hear that rumor?” “I don’t remember,” he said, some of the fury leaking out of his voice like air out of a punctured tire. His gaze bounced from Lena to the staff she had clutched tightly in her right hand and back again, each time a bit faster than the last.  “I don’t have any more kryptonite and I don’t know anyone else that has it. If you’re looking to buy—”

Lena’s eyes flashed and for a moment all she saw red. She had clenched her hand into a fist without realizing it and she might have swung it at the man’s cheek to give him a matching bruise on the other side of his face if she didn’t feel a strong hand close over it. “The lasso can only compel him to speak the truth,” Diana said firmly. “He can’t tell you anything he doesn’t know.” Lena didn’t need to turn around to know that Diana was watching her carefully, the same way she had done during her training together. She felt shame bubble up in her and upset her already troubled stomach. She relaxed her hand and felt Diana release it gently. “Time to go,” Lena said softly and tapped a few buttons on her gauntlet, a portal appearing to their right. “This will take you home,” she said. “And I’ll even let you walk into this one.” She reached for him and gave the loop of rope around his midsection a strong tug to loosen it. Looking happy to be free, he massaged his ribs with his free hand, eyeing the portal apprehensively.  Something that Lena couldn't really fault him for doing. “Either you step through the portal or you can stay on the roof with me,” Lena suggested and breathed a small sigh of relief when he scrambled to his feet and quickly stepped through without sparing a look back. “Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Diana said. “Bruce will take him straight to Blackgate, I’m sure. Are you alright, Lena?” “Yeah,” she said shakily. She disengaged her helmet that had all of a sudden felt stifling and took a few long steadying breaths, enjoying how the wind felt against her face. “Thank you for stopping me,” she said. “Bruce was right, I need more meditation.” “You’ve had a very trying day,” Diana said patiently. “But, yes, more meditation couldn’t hurt,” she teased. Lena took a step closer to where the portal had been just a moment ago, looking for an excuse to move her body and scooped up the lasso off the ground, winding it up around her fist the same way she had put away her Christmas lights, walking closer to Diana like she was counting off paces. “If there is more kryptonite out there floating around, Diana… I need to find it.” “Lena… You can’t rid the entire world of kryptonite.” “I can’t let Kara get hurt again,” Lena said. “Not after what I did to her…” “Lena…” “I know I can’t take back what I did to her but I can’t stand the thought of her in that kind of pain again.” Her lip trembled and she took another step towards Diana and heard the crunch of stones underneath her heels. “I need to know that she won’t ever be in that kind of danger again because, despite everything that happened, I’m still in love with her…”

She came to a sudden stop that threatened to unbalance her and flung the lasso away as if it had suddenly begun to burn white-hot. Staring at it, bewildered, she looked up at Diana, her cheeks already turning pink, realizing a bit too late what she had just confessed.

Not that Kara had needed any more proof of how good of a friend Sam was, but the fact that she had stayed with Kara for another hour while she cried on her shoulder would have been more than enough to convince her. They hadn’t talked any more about Lena. Not because either of them wanted to avoid the topic but simply because they had said all that had needed to be said on the matter. Nothing had changed. Everything had changed… After getting Sam’s word that she would be there for Lena the moment that she got back from whatever urgent business she was on, she had seen her to the door. She had said her goodbyes with a crumpled tissue in her hand that she had waved like a starter flag while she waited for Sam to get into the elevator.

 Once she had gone, Kara wandered around her apartment in a daze cleaning her apartment in a desultory fashion, not really accomplishing anything beyond tossing several crumpled up tissues to an already overflowing trash can and needlessly arranging magazines on her coffee table that hadn’t need arranging in the first place. She surveyed her living room that had never felt more empty and glanced down at the neat stack of magazines dead center on her coffee table and saw Lena’s face staring up at her.

 There was an article inside about L-Corp that she had read several times. Nothing more than a puff piece (and in Kara’s humble opinion, not a very well written one either) but the photo of Lena on the cover was one of her favorites. Dressed in a pinstripe suit and sitting behind her desk with a smile that looked somewhat manufactured but still so effortlessly radiant. She gave the stack of magazines another unnecessary correction and walked into the kitchen as if on autopilot. Instead of going for the fridge or the pantry, she floated a few inches in the air to reach a cupboard above her fridge. Inside, there was a wide assortment of alcohol that Kara had bought in anticipation of a game night that had come and gone. Sliding a bottle of bourbon to the side, she reached deeper and extracted a large bottle of Aldebaran rum that Kara had nearly forgotten she even had. She sat the bottle down in the center of her kitchen table alongside a mug that was normally reserved for coffee or hot cocoa.  Kara observed both for a moment and then poured a generous amount that she watched slosh like a breaking wave against the side of the glass. Before it had time to smooth, she brought it to her lips and drained it in one large gulp. The rum lit a fuse that raced its way towards a fire that was already burning in her chest, one that had been burning since Lena had left National City.

Somewhere between her sixth or ninth glass of rum (Kara hadn’t bothered keeping track), she heard a light tentative knock at her front door that she had been expecting ever since she had turned her phone on silent. “Kara?” Alex’s voice came floating in through the door, clear as a bell. “Kara… I need to talk to you. Please open the door.” Even in her inebriated state, Kara still knew what a bad idea that really was and she was sure that Alex knew that too, yet she had come here anyway. Just like she knew that going to see Lena was a bad idea, a voice reminded her. Anger licked at her white-hot like she was standing too close to a fire and she pushed her chair back from the table, stumbling a little as she rose to her feet, knocking her chair over in her haste. “Kara?” “I didn’t answer any of your calls,” Kara said after she had thrown open her door, not at all surprised to see Alex standing there in the hall with her hands clenched together as if in prayer.  Instead of standing off to the side to allow Alex in, she stood in the doorway like a sentry. “Because I didn’t want to talk to you,” she said, pushing her glasses higher up on her nose with the back of her hand. "Or didn't you figure that out after the first dozen times you tried?" “You’ve been drinking,” Alex said and Kara could hear the worry in her voice as she tried to peer past Kara into her apartment. “I need to explain what I did…” “Explain?” Kara’s eyes widened and she heard a cold chuckle slip from her mouth that sounded off even to her ear.  Instead of stepping back to let Alex inside she took a step forward and shut the door behind her, joining Alex in the hall. “Explain what, Alex? There’s nothing to explain,” she said, her voice coming out in sharp staccato-like bursts that did nothing to ease the ache in her chest. “We happen across kryptonite and you immediately suspect Lena? And if that wasn’t bad enough you come all the way here to ask her about it? You tried to bug her office?!” “I got scared,” Alex pleaded. “When I came to Metropolis, I only meant to ask Lena if she knew anything, I didn’t—” “You didn’t what?” Kara asked and grimaced. “Is it DEO protocol to just carry a listening device at all times, in case of emergency?” She let out a harsh bark of laughter and took a step back when Alex reached for her shoulder. “You knew how upset I would be if I knew you had even thought about trying to spy on Lena and you knew how much it would hurt Lena if she ever found out and you did it anyway, Alex.” 

“Kara. Let’s talk inside,” Alex begged. “Please, just let me try and explain why…” “We’ve hurt Lena enough, Alex,” Kara said, her voice just barely louder than a whisper and she felt a tear slide down her cheek, watching it fall to the floor as if in slow motion. I think I’m just about all cried out… “Just please leave her alone…” She opened her apartment door just enough for her to step back into, leaving it open just a crack to let her voice bleed through. “Leave me alone.” She shut the door, not slamming it but shutting it with more force than she had meant to use, and heard the door groan as the wood warped and cracked around the hinges.

Not for the first time that Lena was seized with the urge to simply grapple away to another tall building or step into a portal that would take her far away from Diana and the conversation that Lena was convinced Diana would want to have after her unintended confession... It wasn’t her fault that she kept company that made such methods of escape mostly pointless. Instead, she allowed Diana to talk her out of returning to the manor right away and into dinner, not that she put up much of a fight. Despite everything that had happened today, she was still hungry and desperately in need of comfort food. “Bruce will be fine,” Diana said as they slid into a corner booth at a Big Belly Burger in a more bustling part of Gotham, each of them carrying a plastic tray loaded down with more fried food than Lena’s had in months. “Dick always planned on sticking around Gotham tonight, so he’ll have more than enough help.” She picked up a fry and pointed it at Lena before she took a bite. “Not that he couldn’t use more.” “I should stick around,” Lena said and unwrapped her burger. “I owe Bruce enough as it is. I don’t need any more red in my ledger. Not to mention what I owe you. Especially after what you overheard,” she said, half-joking. "Deals off, by the way. I don’t want to trade anymore,” she snarked. “Lena,” Diana said reproachfully, staring her down. She had changed out of her Amazonian armor into a cream-colored sweater and jeans. “I know for a fact that Bruce isn’t keeping track of what you think you owe him and I’m not either.” Her expression softened. “And if it wasn’t already implied, anything that you tell me I will keep in the strictest of confidence.”

“That’s very reassuring,” Lena said, taking a small bite of her burger. “Doesn’t make it any less embarrassing though…” Trying to avoid Diana’s inquisitive gaze, Lena glanced around behind her and saw a woman slide into the booth right behind them before she finally turned back to Diana. “You don’t think I could just go take an early retirement on Themyscira, could I? Retiring to an island full of Amazon warriors is not the worst retirement plan in the world.” “I agree. It’s not bad at all but you would be denying the world of something wonderful if you went into hiding,” Diana said. She ate another fry and tapped her index finger against her chin. “Ask me again in another fifty years.” “In another fifty years?” She had never thought so far ahead. Even the most meticulous of her plans never extended out past the ten-year mark and even then it was an outlier. She was a Luthor who had a penchant for sticking her nose where it didn’t belong and pissing off a laundry list of the wrong people, she had long ago made her peace with the idea that she might not quite make it to the average life expectancy and that wasn’t even taking into account her recent turn as a vigilante. “You have a deal,” Lena said, not wanting to darken the already steely grey storm clouds that had been hanging over her head since seeing Alex in her office. “If Bruce doesn’t mind me sticking around Gotham for a little longer, I was thinking that I would keep looking for more leads,” Lena said. “Go rumor chasing for a while.” She dropped her gaze to the small pile of french fries on her tray, not wanting to see if the look of understanding on Diana’s face might suddenly morph into one of pity. Windmill chasing was what it was. Stupid was what it was. “Lena… I’m sure that Bruce won’t mind if you do stick around. I understand your desire to do good, Lena, but if this crusade is penance for what you did in the past... You need to forgive yourself,” Diana said gently. I can’t. “Just more red in my ledger that I want to get rid of,” Lena lied. Nothing at all to do with self-loathing or still being in love with someone who was and had in many ways always been a stranger. Lena flashed her best public event smile that was still somewhat mechanical despite all the practice she had using it. “There’s a good ice cream parlor about a block or two away that might still be open if you wanted to stop by before we head back to the manor,” she suggested. “My treat, obviously.” “Well, if you’re buying,” Diana said, sliding out of the booth. Lena went to do the same, sweeping a few crumbs off the table and into her open palm and brushing her hands off over the tray when she heard the loud trill of a cell phone ring behind her, a tune that she couldn’t quite place. Maybe Moon River? “Kara? What’s wrong, honey?” Lena froze in a half-standing position. Lots of people are named Kara, a voice scolded so harshly and quickly that it was like the crack of a whip.  She glanced over at the window to catch a glimpse of the woman behind her and felt a faint ping of recognition. There were lots of people named Kara. But the woman sitting behind her with a half-eaten burger was Kara Danvers’ mother. Eliza, her name is Eliza, she thought, remembering Kara telling her once before. “What happened? Eliza said from behind her, the initial shock in her voice quickly turning to alarm. “Honey, you need to slow down a little. Take a breath,” she said soothingly. Lena watched her twist her body to the left in a bid to give herself a bit more privacy and turn towards the window. 

“What did Alex do?” Lena stood up, suddenly feeling like her feet were suddenly made of lead, clutching her tray in a death grip. She saw Diana at the neat row of trash cans near the door, separating her garbage, and walked stiffly over to her.  She tossed her wrappers and tried to convince herself that maybe the woman at the booth wasn’t Kara’s mother or that she had somehow misheard. Even you’re not that good of a liar, she told herself. She made it two steps out of the Big Belly Burger with Diana on her right when she came to a sudden stop. She suddenly didn’t feel like ice-cream and the burger that had tasted like Manna from heaven was sitting in her stomach like a rock. “Lena?” Diana called from a few paces ahead. She returned to her side, eyes alight with worry. “Something wrong?” “Might have been the burger,” Lena said and gave a nervous little shrug. “But I think that I’ll need to take a raincheck on the ice cream.” 

Somehow, after a nearly unintelligible call to Eliza that had mostly consisted of her crying in her ear and a little after midnight, Kara had fallen into a fretful doze on her couch, curled up there underneath a blanket. Her bedroom had been too far away and she didn't want to really sleep, she only wanted a small respite from the pain. The rum had dulled it somewhat but it was only a cage and a flimsy one at that. The pain would be back and with it a hangover that promised to be monstrous. She stirred and felt a painful throb in both her temples that was a herald of things to come. She pressed one of her throw pillows over her head to blot out a bit of moonlight that shone through the gap in the curtains and might have drifted off again if not for a steady knocking at her door that only seemed to grow louder. I can't do this, Alex... The knocking continued at the same steady pace but the force behind them began to increase which made the throbbing in Kara's head feel as if someone were driving a spike into the center of her forehead. She let out a loud sigh and might have simply pressed the pillow more securely over her face if she didn't still have her glasses on. She rose into a sitting position, slowly, probably looking like a mummy rising out of their sarcophagus after a very long slumber. "Coming," she said in a voice so quiet that she might as well not have said anything at all and floated slowly towards her apartment door. She opened it expecting to see Alex looking remorseful, maybe her eyes just as red-rimmed as hers were, and wondering if that would make it harder to shut the door in her face or make it easier. "A—" she started and felt all the strength run out of her as if someone had just opened up a tap and left her completely empty. "I woke you up," Lena said softly, her arms held close to her sides wrapped in a double-breasted navy coat that seemed to have been made just for her with the way it complemented her features, making her look almost ethereal standing in a small shaft of moonlight in the hallway. "I probably should have waited until morning..." "No," Kara mumbled. She realized almost too late that her grip on the doorknob was too tight and relinquished her hold on it, nearly falling over, still not convinced that this wasn't a dream. So worried that she was actually asleep she was tempted to reach out and see if the Lena standing before her was even really there. The same mantra that always played on repeat in her head whenever she saw Lena started up again like clockwork: I'm sorry, I miss you, I love you... "Well, either way, I wanted to tell you that what happened today at L-Corp with Alex... I don't—" "Lena, I had no idea that—" "I know," Lena said, cutting her off, holding out a hand in front of her. "I know you didn't... I just didn't want you beating yourself up over it. Blaming yourself for something you had nothing to do with." She retreated backward slightly, just enough to throw half her face into shadow in the hall. "I just came here to tell you that. Sorry again for waking you." Lena took a breath and another step back and Kara saw the gulf between them that had seemed to stretch on endlessly and then miraculously shrink down to nothing begin to expand again. "Lena..." Kara croaked, feeling too afraid to make a single step in any direction, too afraid to make the wrong move. "Good night, Kara," Lena said, a hint of finality in her voice that Kara had grown used to since they had both left National City.

Kara watched Lena take a step towards the elevator and felt her heart clench painfully in her chest. "Wait," she pleaded, fully expecting her words to fall on deaf ears. She leaned further out into the hall and overbalanced. She felt herself falling and might have tried righting herself, if not for the sudden arm around her midsection. "I've got you," Lena murmured, her hand still around Kara's waist, helping her into a standing position and perhaps noticing the wobble in Kara's legs as she stood, kept a hold on her. "You've got me," Kara said in a whisper. Who's got you, Lena? Because if it can't be me you deserve someone truly special. "Come on," Lena said and gave Kara a tiny push while still keeping an arm wrapped around her to keep her steady. "Let's get you inside."

#supercorp fic #story update #my writing #kara danvers #lena luthor #supercorp sunday #I hit one hundred thousand words and they haven't even held hands #that should probably be a crime

[dagenspear]

Crisis On Infinite Earths Outline Fix, Part 2

Like some I disliked the crossover, it's the worst out of all of them, and this is my preference for it to be done. This one is the first of the more aggressive changes to the crossover. Here are the ideas God blessed me with:

In the opening of the episode, Oliver wakes up on Lian Yu, then searching it, seeing visual reminders of his losses from the past, then being confronted by the Spectre, a green cloaked, shrouded figure, who quickly defeats Oliver and pins him to the ground, telling him his destiny is finally upon him.

This part has a bit more going on, so I'll explain in lettered plots:

A. This is a Batwoman episode, so like Kara was more or less the focus before, she's the focus here. The main structure and this bleeds into the B plot, is that the Monitor is dead now and the crisis is sill happening and they want to help other earths try and prevent E2's and Supergirl Earth's destruction for themselves. This plot is much more involved here. Using Pariah, someone who can sense the destruction of an Earth, sets their breach devices by a signal that'll send them to an earth by how close it is to being hit by the antimatter, taking them to the place where that might originate. Kate does this, but not before being found by E-1 Bruce, played by David Giuntoli, whose come due to the end of world type situation that's unraveling. We will expand on why this Bruce left. When Jason Todd was murdered, he became bitter and filled with rage and in this fit he hunted down the Joker and nearly killed him. Seeing himself as no longer fit to be Batman, he left, but this situation is dire enough to convince him to step back up. He and Kate travel to a few earths to warn those earths of the crisis, going to Gotham first. The First is Birds Of Prey TV Series Earth 109, where she meets Helena Kyle, played by Ashley Scott, and Dinah Lance, played by Rachel Skarsten, and with a vocal cameo by Oracle, played by Dina Meyer. Bruce is distraught at the idea of an earth where he's had a daughter. Kate is taken aback by Dinah's appearance, and doesn't know how to deal with it, but pushes through to find out where Batman is, thinking he may be able to help. Earth 109's Batman is Kevin Conroy Bruce, a bitter, angry and alone Bruce whose lost almost everything in his life. Alfred, Jason, Damien his son, Selina and Kate. Here we delve into why he left Helena and Gotham, seeing himself and Batman as nothing but an bringer of pain and death of all that he cares about. He's angry at Helena for her staying as a vigilante, thinking it will only bring to her what it's brought to him, that and his fear of bringing his family pain driving him to stay away. KC Bruce relents when he hears about the crisis, but it's too late and the anti-matter sweeps in, taking out Gotham, Helena with it, as Kate uses a breach device to take her, E1 Bruce and KC Bruce out of there. KC Bruce is devastated at this, but regroups out of a desire for revenge against what's done this. Kate realizes the breach device took them to Gotham TV Series Earth 14, met with Bruce Wayne, played by David Mazouz. They explain the situation to him, he's shocked, but grasps the importance of the situation and offers to help, him being dismissed due to his age and lack of experience. He protests this, but is met with the other Bruces viewing him as naive, citing their losses and how he doesn't understand the cost of being Batman, DM Bruce angrily snapping back that they've failed the city their parents wanted to protect, rejecting that future for himself, of giving up like that. But the red skies begin to emerge, the shadow creatures beginning to sweep across the world. KC Bruce almost taking a sadistic pleasure at the idea of destroying these things, as he activates his armored bodysuit. It wouldn't have to be too fancy as far as budget wise.

B. This one is much smaller, showing a few similar aspects, but not leaning so hard into the fan service in the way the show does. Kara, Lois and Clark, using the breach device set to tracing antimatter signatures, go to Smallville TV show's Earth 217. There they meet SV Clark and Lois, who still have kids. Kara's shellshocked to see Lois look so similar to her mom. At an earlier point of this story, Kara begins to feel obsessed with the idea of turning back time and preventing her earth and Argo's destruction, pushing Ray to try and figure out how to get the waverider to time travel, so she can prevent it. Seeing a Lois who looks like her mom doesn't help. They warn him of the crisis, offering up the ways it can be at least held off, as they try and find a way to stop it entirely, suggesting he gather the help needed to make it happen as they seek out other earths to warn. Then leaving, going to Superman The Movie/Series Earth 78. Where they meet Brandon Routh's Superman, who explains to them his losses due to the same thing as what happened in the show, Kara reflecting on the loss of this Superman and how he strives not to lose himself. Him agreeing to help in any way he can. Meanwhile SV Clark goes to Lex Luthor played by Michael Rosenbaum. He convinces Lex to supply what's needed for the tower to try and hold back the antimatter.

C. This one is more simple than the others. Sara, Barry and Mia try to work out what to do with Oliver, whose badly injured, but the waverider isn't able to heal him due to the creature's attacks being based in antimatter energy. They get Jjonn to project them into Oliver's mind to try and figure out what's going on, after Jjonn tells them that he senses that although Oliver's soul is still connected to his body, it's somewhere else. Oliver questions the Spectre's meaning and where he's come from, the Spectre telling him he was once Jim Corrigan, a officer who sought justice once but allowed himself to become corrupt and killed someone to save his own skin, only to be killed himself, in his dying moments finding God and repenting for his sins, God saving his life by giving him the opportunity to become a heroic force in the world, by being like a vessel for God's vengeance on earth. Spectre tells Oliver that it's now his turn to do the same and become a vessel's for God's vengeance of the multiverse against the Anti-Monitor. Oliver repents, giving his life to God and Jesus Christ, accepting this as his destiny. But not before Mia, Barry and Sara arrive, calling to Oliver. Oliver, torn at first, grasps the importance of this, and agrees, the Spectre's white-greenish energy emerging from underneath his shrouded cloaked face and breathing into Oliver. Barry, Mia and Sara are bounced out of Oliver's mind and Oliver's body disappears from the waverider in a flash of light.

At the conclusion of the episode, the heroes gather to fight back the forces collecting on Earth 14. In the midst of this, we'd get some old fashioned fan service, with KC Batman and BR Superman fighting back to back, and E1 Bruce and TH Superman fighting together as well. Meanwhile, we catch a glimpse of something similar happening on Earth 217, with Lex himself in an armored suit and Clark as Superman. The Bats are focused on beating the shadow creatures, while DM Bruce sees a family trapped in an area surrounded by shadow creatures, seeing the Supers and others making sure the hold back the majority of the shadow creatures to ensure the majority of civilians escape (though this is shown to not be possible as the shadow creatures are even more powerful than before), he throws a small explosive to break them free, and takes the heat of the shadow creatures, him taking a hits from them, it severely injuring him. KC Bruce takes DM Bruce's sacrifice in as he helps defend Kate, as she catches this. The shadow creatures begin to overwhelm them. When suddenly, E-38 Lex Luthor emerges through a breach and, surprisingly, uses a sonic machine that's emitting waves that cause the shadow creatures to stop attacking temporarily, E-38 Clark and Kara frozen in shock at seeing him, as he smiles smarmily at them and tells them, "Hurry up, I can't save you for very long with this!" Kate reacts quickly and manages to grab Bruce, just in time to escape as the earth collapses in on itself, every one of the team following suit.

Now, DM Bruce lay dying, the damage from the shadow creatures causing his body to fail. Gideon explains that it'd need a near perfect genetic match of Bruce to transfer non shadow creature damaged DNA, which would cause the one who transferred it to die in cellular degradation. KC Bruce stops E1 Bruce before he volunteers and takes the hit, explaining that he's lost his way and to tell DM Bruce thank you for showing him what it means to be Batman again, that it's not about punishing the guilty, but about preserving the innocence of those who are defenseless. The process starts and it heals DM Bruce, as KC Bruce dies. Kate cries in a mixture of grief and relief as DM Bruce wakes up, and she gives him the thanks, as well as from herself and E1 Bruce does so as well. Gideon does maintain that DM Bruce stay in sick bay, when he tries to get back to the fight. Kate and E1 that they can be enough Bat for now.

Meanwhile E-38 Clark and Kara throw Lex up against the wall, and angrily interrogates him about what he has to do with this. Lex remains cavalier about the situation, snarkily asking them if they can't handle it when he shows them that he's the hero. Kara and Clark's eyes glow with heat vision energy, before they reel themselves in, releasing him. Brandon Routh Superman asks him how he was able to stop those shadow creatures. Lex replying with, "Oh, another one. Delightful. At least this one has manners." Further explaining that it didn't stop them, but held them off temporarily by blocking the signal of whatever was controlling them. They question that, much to Lex's amusement, him outloud stating, "It's a good thing the Monitor brought me into this. Obviously, none of you are equipped with the brainpower to save humanity." Lex looks to E-38 Clark, saying, "It's gonna be fun working together again, don't you think?" Much to Clark's scowling.

The team are then alerted to the waverider jumping to one of the next earths that's to be wiped out. The waverider jumps.

Sara then calls the whole team to the control room, everyone rushing to it. Barry and the rest are met with the horror that Earth 1 is one of the next earths to be engulfed in the antimatter wave. Pariah appears, and begins laughing. Barry reacts furiously to this, grabbing him and asking him what he finds funny. Pariah explains that when he released the Anti-Monitor, he was promised that when this time came, he would get to do the damage. Barry slowly begins to realize what he's saying, as Pariah's eyes glow red and he superspeeds around the waverider cockpit, knocking everyone off their feet. Eobard Thawne stands over a shocked Barry in full Reverse Flash garb and says that their crisis has come.

TO BE CONTINUED...

END OF PART TWO.

Please review and tell me what you think!

#crisis on infinite earths #the flash #laurel lance #supergirl #arrow

[takaraphoenix]

So I had a question and I don't think it's been asked before. If there was a Miraculous Ladybug Crossover with the MCU, who would the Miraculous go to? Same with DC/Arrowverse? Just the Kwami that we've seen be used (Ladybug, Cat, Fox, Turtle, Bee, Peacock, Butterfly, Money, Snake, Mouse, Dragon, Horse, and Rabbit)

No, that question has not been asked before. The only one I got about Miraculouses was to rearrange them among the in-universe characters. Okay, let’s try this!

Ladybug: Tony Stark | Kara Danvers

Ladybug’s powers are about creation, no one created more than Tony Stark. Also the incredibly quick-on-your-feet deductions Ladybug has to make to use her Lucky Charm to tinker away and find a way to use it is a perfect fit for Tony.

Look. It is incredibly hard to find the perfect fit for the most powerful one in the franchise so I suppose the sunshine genius gets to be the creator and team-leader, even though Kara wouldn’t keep any of her canon powers then.

Cat: T’Challa | Kate Kane

Feels very on the nose, but Black Panther’s gotta be the black kitten.

Am I letting personal ship-feelings influence this? Yes. Am I letting the wears-all-black-and-acts-as-the-opposite-of-Ladybug aesthetic influence this? Hell yes. The Bat is a Cat now, I don’t make the rules, I just play by them.

Fox: Loki Friggason | Mari McCabe

Illusions and magic are close enough and the trickster element sure fits Loki.

I know the Arrowverse kind of... forgot... that Mari exists (or maybe she doesn’t anymore considering they fucked her grandma Amaya’s timeline over big time??), but clearly she who can summon animal spirits and calls herself Vixen gets the Fox Miraculous. Maybe all the animal-powers would in this case be illusions then.

Turtle: Steve Rogers | James Olsen

Does this one even need an explanation? Like, in both cases? ;D

Bee: Natasha Romanova

I’m not a 100% on this one, but I suppose that this and its powers work for Nat.

Peacock: Wanda Maximoff | Nia Nal

Fucking with emotions is Wanda’s expertise.

And, in a way, I do think that it would also fit for Nia’s dream-powers (and definitely for her color-scheme). It’s also fit J’onn, I guess, but I think that J’onn fits the Butterfly better so Nia gets this.

Butterfly: Nick Fury | J’onn J’onzz

Feels like a Nick Fury thing; the communication, the “finding people to recruit” element.

This also feels the closest to J’onn’s telepathy so I’m taking it for the Martian Manhunter.

Monkey: Clint Barton | Winn Schott

Mostly based on personality, sorry, there just isn’t an archery-themed Miraculous (yet).

C’mon, it summons toys that mess with the powers (tech) of other people. It’s a perfect fit for Toy Man Junior.

Snake: Stephen Strange | Oliver Queen

The Snake turns back time. It’s the perfect fit for Stephen.

Mostly because he literally gave the entire universe a Second Chance and he is the embodiment of second chances, really. Also, we are still lacking an archery themed one.

Mouse: Bruce Banner | Caitlin Snow

Not a perfect fit, but I suppose that multiplication comes the closest to the Bruce-Hulk situation, not to mention the level of intelligence needed to navigate multiple bodies and make this nonsense work?

For similar reasons also for Caitlin, her and Frost as two personalities in the same body. And again the intelligence. (I know Harrison Wells would also really offer himself with his approximately 46893 different roles at this point, but I’ve grown tired of that shit after the third and would much rather see Caity in this line-up.)

Dragon: Thor Odinson | Jefferson Pierce

The weather-controlling one goes to the two lightning-wielders, clearly.

Horse: Heimdall | Cisco Ramon

Teleportation. Quite clearly gotta step away from the Avengers just a little to the right and grab Heimdall for this one.

Also very on-the-nose for DC, because obviously the guy who can create portals and get you to alternate Earths and any place you want!

Rabbit: Carol Danvers | Barry Allen

Honestly, in a far stretch I would be using the Rabbit to explain why 1990s!Carol and 1920s!Carol look just the exact same. And considering Stephen already got the snake and Tony, inventor of Time Travel, got the ladybug, I’m really lost about this one. So. Carol!

Now, on the DC front, this is a far better fit. The idiot boy (I love him but in this regard, he absolutely is an idiot) who keeps time-traveling even though he really-really shouldn’t gets this one. Also, bunnies = fast, Flash = speedster. ;D

--

I am... actually pretty pleased with the line-up of heroes on both sides. Would have liked to find one that fits Rhodey, Sara and Constantine too, but there is a lot of heroes and not too many Miraculouses that we know just yet.

#DC Comics #Arrowverse #Marvel #MCU #Miraculous Ladybug #Anonymous

[that-shamrock-vibe]

TV Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Spoilers)

Part One: Supergirl

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day after the episode airs in the U.S. so if you have not yet seen the first part of the crossover or are waiting for the entire crossover to become available then don’t read on until you have.

Overview:

We have SO MUCH to discuss! So much so that my Easter-Egg section which is usually more or less a minor tag-on at the end of these reviews is possibly going to be the same size as a lot of these other sections we are going through because, as promised by Marc Guggenheim, Easter has come early and we were treated to quite a few very tasty Easter-Eggs, one of which had me cheering at the screen.

But with Part One of this 5-episode crossover already giving us so much action, drama and emotion, it’s not only a question on how the Multiverse survives, but how the rest of the crossover does as well.

In the Beginning:

I love a good theory of evolution story, and we have heard in Arrow over the past season that The Monitor has been around for eons so it stands to reason he was around at the start of creation itself.

I just the sentiment of “In the beginning there was one singularity that soon spawned a multiverse”. It’s a lot like Doctor Who’s first rock theory from “The Runaway Bride”. I don’t know enough about the beginning of all life to actually determine what created the universe, I am more inclined to believe evolution than creationism, but I do like this idea of one reality spawning many.

I wasn’t so crazy about the visuals of this, especially considering in the past whenever we have viewed the Multiverse it’s always been within the Speed Force so we’re used to that blue energy rather than this red darker energy but it seems to be in-keeping with the theme of the crossover so I’m going with it.

Also LaMonica Garrett, who deserves some sort of award recognition not only for appearing as a series regular in both Arrow and The Flash this season but also wearing what I’m sure is the heaviest outfit created, but selling it very well, even the cheesy prophet of doom voice he has down rather well.

Multiverse Annihilation:

Alright so this was obviously to be expected that we would see some if not a lot of Earths be destroyed during this crossover, but my god they don’t pull punches in starting by letting you know “Yeah we’re killing off a lot”.

Now the Earths we see erased during the opening of this episode are Earth-9, Earth-66, Earth-89 and Earth-X. Of those four, we have only ever seen Earth-X which was the Nazi-ruled Earth from two crossovers ago.

Now while there was a great and uncredited cameo here from it and we’ll discuss that further down, would anyone really be sad if a reality where the Nazis won and ruled was wiped out? I know there are inhabitants on that world and for the most part they are innocent and good people, but you would think just maybe find a way to evacuate them like they do on Earth-38 later and then if it goes extinct then fine because it’s not exactly a good reality.

Both Earth-66 and Earth-89 also has great Easter-Eggs just in the name and we’ll discuss that also further down but it is interesting that both Earths-66 and 89 only focused on Gotham City whereas this was the Supergirl episode of the crossover.

Rallying the Team:

Okay so Harbinger, who either was Lyla Michaels but is now an emissary of the Anti-Monitor or simply likes using her Task Force X codename, appears to all the major heroes just as we saw her do in last week’s episode of Arrow and summons them all to Earth-38 aka Supergirl’s Earth.

I have to say as well, I know they’re on a TV budget and can’t really afford to have as many characters in one scene as say Avengers: Endgame did, but the fact they cheapened out and only gave us two Legends (Sara and Ray), rather then also showing Nate, Constantine, Mick and Charlie as well does seem a tad unfair especially considering they’ve been absent from screens the longest, some may say for the better considering the way their show is going.

Also, I will probably talk about this more with the Batwoman episode tomorrow, but they need to clarify the timeline of her show. When we first met her in Elseworlds last year she was Batwoman, but the start of her season saw her become Batwoman, and now she’s still hunting for Alice? How long has it been?

Also, as expected, Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman and his Lois Lane join the party after Argo City is destroyed and they send of their newborn son in a pod to safety. Argo City’s destruction also sees the death of Kara’s mother Alura played by Erica Durance but because I know who’s coming in tonight’s episode and the possibly jokes they’ll make about it I am okay with that as a Smallville fan.

I do always like it in these crossovers when the heroes either first meet or reunite, this time Oliver’s daughter but from the future Mia Smoak and Batwoman are officially introduced as Batwoman reveals herself as Kate Kane, to Oliver’s bemusement.

I do wish also that there was more time spent on character interaction because that is usually what I enjoy most about these crossovers, we had a little bit of that with Brainy and Ray, but Elseworlds I felt established a great repour for Batwoman and the Trinity yet that wasn’t really seen here.

My biggest complaint in this Supergirl episode though is that both Brainy and J’onn were never seen in their natural forms. I know it’s costly and timely to have them look like Brainiac 5 and the Martian Manhunter, but when they just look like Jesse Rath and David Harewood, no matter how great these guys are it’s a comic book crossover event and I would love to see more comic-booky character looks.

Alright so, Harbinger sits down the newly formed or reformed or updated team because they’ve come together now four times to help save a world or multiple worlds or now reality itself and just need to be called the Justice League and get it over with, but anyway I digress.

She instructs the team that the tower that randomly appears was one of many placed by the Monitor on Earths he thought were at risk...why he didn’t just place them on every god damn Earth if he could see the future is beyond me but that’s what we’re getting.

I did like a couple of interactions before going into action where Oliver seamlessly interacted with Barry, Sara and Mia without making it seem forced.

My favourite was the interaction with daughter Mia when he effectively passes on the mantle of Green Arrow to her despite the fact she’s not ready to lose him. I don’t know whether or not the spin-off series focusing on Mia as New Green Arrow has been confirmed yet but we know she will become Green Arrow in the near future.

So Oliver, Mia, Ray and Kate go off and battle the Shadow Demon army that are swarming the tower trying to destroy it for the Anti-Monitor, while Barry, Kara and Clark are off trying to save the people.

I will admit Ray didn’t annoy me quite as much as he has done in recent seasons of Legends during this episode. I did love his interactions with Kate about her suit getting an upgrade and then her asking him to upgrade her batarangs, when Brandon Routh is good he is good and he is pulling double duty in this crossover so let’s hope he’s very good.

Also at this time Lois, because she needs something to do, has gone to Earth-16 with Brainy and Sara to retrieve baby Jonathan who wound up going through a wormhole and ending up on a parallel world...in the future...2046 to be exact.

This was, I feel, there for two reasons. 1) Another Easter-Egg appearance but this time in-house as it references Legends Season 1, but also 2) To still keep the events of “Star City 2046) canon despite the fact that in that episode Connor Hawke was actually John Diggle Jr. and in present day they are not only two separate people but also adoptive brothers...and also we know Oliver is supposed to die so how is he alive in 2046? Well it’s an alternate reality version who apparently can’t remember meeting Earth-1 Sara before.

Our two other teams rallying really only serve to give the rest of the Supergirl cast something to do as Alex enlists Lena to help either build or activate portals to get the inhabitants of Earth-38 to safety while Dreamer and Kelly help get those inhabitants onto ships including the Legion Cruiser that J’onn is piloting because apparently Brainy was given it by the Legion before they left with Winn despite the fact they left in the Legion Cruiser. It doesn’t really make sense but I enjoy seeing that ship again so I am letting it slide.

Saving the Multiverse, Take 1:

This may be quite cynical for me to say but this is what the remainder of the episode was, the first attempt at saving the multiverse because Earth-38 is where The Monitor wanted the heroes to make their stand against the Anti-Monitor.

The Anti-Monitor does not appear in this episode and his army of Shadow Demons are 1) Poorly rendered compared to the likes of the Time Wraiths and 2) Quite easy to defeat when you consider Darkseid has Parademons and even Thanos with his legion of horribles.

In any case while the Supers are trying to fix the tower to make the sky not red which works margingly well before they exhaust themselves, the other heroes are on the ground battling the Shadow Demons. I would have maybe liked if Ray had to cover the Supers while they were doing what they do because it seemed slightly daft that the Shadow Demons wouldn’t try and stop them but that’s what we got.

It was a very small-scale battle and I know we’re only in part 1 and usually it’s the final episode we get the big battle but this was still small scale considering what is at stake here.

The biggest surprise of the battle was Kelly Olsen, who I haven’t really liked all season as she seems pointless other than just being Alex’s girlfriend who always needs saving, apparently has the Guardian armour left to her by James who retired from vigilantism to take over a newspaper in his old hometown and that’s why he left despite never actually being part of these crossovers, his dopplegangers were.

This was also a very low-powered battle. Think about it, the Supers, Flash and Atom all have CGI powers or tech yet we didn’t really see much of it, aside from the Supers trying to fix the tower. Maybe they’re saving the budget for later episodes but it better pay off.

The Monitor comes in as the prophet of doom to basically tell them that they’ve lost this battle but the war still rages, so transports everyone aside from Oliver to Earth-1 Star City.

Oliver refuses to leave and makes one of the most poignent comments I have ever heard him say when The Monitor says “It’s time” and Oliver asks “Has everyone been evacuated” The Monitor responds with “No” so Oliver responds “Then it’s not yet time”. From the trailer I thought this to mean it was time for his death, but actually this was something The Monitor was trying to prevent as he did not see him dying this way, but he does.

Stephen Amell delivers both this line and scene very well. I have never been the biggest Stephen Amell fan and do feel as if he goes to the corny side a little too much but here, given the interactions he had with Barry, Mia and Sara in the episode, and knowing that Arrow is ending and he is supposed to die, it was minorly emotional which is the most emotion he’s ever got out of me.

Fallen Arrow:

The Monitor returns a battered and bleeding Oliver to the Arrowcave in Star City Earth-1 where the rest of the heroes have returned to. Along with the news that they were somewhat successful at evacuating Earth-38 before it was destroyed, it seems that Oliver does actually die in this episode.

First of all, the fact that Supergirl is disheartened to know they didn’t save everyone is stupid because they only worked to evacuate one city compared to the entire planet. Secondly, we know that the episode of Arrow after this crossover will not include Stephen Amell...but to lose him on part one of the crossover does seem like a red herring.

Also I do not think he would die on any other show but his own and that part isn’t until January 14, so I don’t think this is the last of Oliver we’ve seen.

However, out of nowhere, Pariah appears. Pariah is Harrison “Nash” Wells who is the latest Harrison Wells to appear on The Flash and was the main focus of the Crisis teaser at the end of every Arrowverse��show over the last two weeks.

I have to say 1) His suit makes him look like Doctor Doom and 2) I haven’t had the time to be as invested with this Wells as I was with Harry Wells or H.R. Wells or even Sherloque Wells to supposedly feel bad for him that he has become Pariah as his penance for freeing the Anti-Monitor.

He is however another harbinger which sounds stupid to say as there is a character literally called Harbinger but not only is Lyla one but so is the Monitor and now Pariah. I’ll be curious to see where this leaves him after the crossover because, unlike almost every crossover before, this is the one that promises ramifications across the multiverse.

Easter-Eggs:

Alright here we go, as I said in the opening Multiverse Annihilation alone, there were multiple Easter-Eggs that not only connect the Arrowverse to various other DC properties but also just have some very cool cameos.

I do have mixed feelings on what they’re doing, as it does look like they are actually trying to combine every DC TV property and possibly movie into the same multiverse which is crazy but it could possibly work.

Titans:

This is the one I cheered at my screen for in a similar way to when they played the Smallville theme while showing their version of the Kent Farm in Elseworlds last year.

As mentioned before, one of the Earths wiped out by Antimatter is Earth-9. On this Earth we focus on San Francisco and two costumed heroes as Antimatter obliterates everything, Hawk and Jason Todd’s Robin. These characters are portrayed by Alan Ritchson and Curran Walters who are the actors portraying these characters in these suits in Titans over on DC Universe.

It was rumoured some time back that Titans would appear in this crossover but never confirmed, I know because for my job I’ve reported on everything to do with Crisis.

Now clearly there’s nothing to say these are the same characters from Titans, particularly as the end of Titans Season 2 saw Jason Todd leave the Titans and we don’t see Nightwing, Dove, Starfire, Raven or Gar, but considering Black Lightning is joining the Multiverse it stands to reason that Titans can as well.

This does also mean that Titans is now on Earth-9, while Arrow, The Flash, Batwoman and Legends are primarily on Earth-1 and Supergirl is on Earth-38.

Batman ‘66

Speaking of other Earths, we have two others that are wiped out in the opening and both focus on Gotham City, why? Well we have Earth-66 which features an elderly gentleman in red walking his dog and seeing the red skies exclaims “Holy Crimson Skies of Death!”.

This gentleman is portrayed by Robin veteran Burt Ward and the character is confirmed to be Dick Grayson of the Batman 1960s series.

This is wrapped up very nicely and honoured in the fact that the Earth is numbered 66 to pay homage to the fact that 1966 is the year the Batman series begun.

Batman ‘89

Similarly, the other Earth we see obliterated is Earth-89. Here we see another Gotham City with a man reading an edition of the Gotham City Gazette that shows a distorted image of Batman with the headline “Batman Captures Joker”.

The man reading the paper is revealed to be Alexander Knox portrayed by Robert Wuhl, reprising his role from the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight and Jack Nicholson as The Joker.

It has also been rumoured before that Michael Keaton would reprise his role as Batman in this crossover, while I still choose to debunk these rumours, it’s official that the 1989 Batman is now canon within the Arrowverse. This takes the Arrowverse from simply being the DC TV Universe to an actual Multiverse spanning TV and Film, something the MCU hasn’t properly managed to do yet.

Star City 2046:

So as mentioned before, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’s first season had an episode titled “Star City 2046″ where the Legends arrived in a dystopian Star City where Deathstroke’s son Grant Wilson was the new Deathstroke and Connor Hawke was the new Green Arrow and revealed as John Diggle Jr, Diggle’s son which at the time was crazy because Diggle had a daughter Sara before Barry created Flashpoint and replaced Sara with John Diggle Jr...keeping up?

So in the future of this Post-Flashpoint timeline that this universe is now in, we see that Connor Hawke and John Diggle Jr. are two separate people with Connor being the biological son of Ben Turner aka Bronze Tiger and John Diggle Jr now being the leader of the Deathstroke Gang.

This of course caused conflict with that episode of Legends, but because Legends never really follows the rules anyway I think everyone simply let it slide but now we have a loophole way of explaining things.

It turns out that when the Legends travelled to Star City in the year 2046, they also travelled to a parallel Earth, Earth-16. Now this is still in the future so I don’t think they’re saying it’s set, but what they are saying is it still happened and they didn’t overwrite their own lore basically.

We do only see Oliver here, who still has a cybernetic arm from before which Sara remembers and uses to her advantage, but Oliver doesn’t seem to remember that this Sara is not his Sara despite them having a rather candid conversation in that episode.

Also Joseph David-Jones portrayed Connor Hawke of that Earth in “Star City 2046″ so of course it makes sense for him to return as the Connor Hawke of Earth-1 in the future, but why didn’t he appear in this episode if he is already part of the cast of Arrow this season?

The Ray:

Briefest of cameos and unfairly uncredited in my opinion but we see a brief glimpse of Ray Terrill aka The Ray portrayed by Russell Tovey flying through the skies of Earth-X before being obliterated. Tovey first portrayed The Ray in “Crisis on Earth-X” two years ago and was part of the first openly gay male relationship in comic-book history with Wentworth Miller’s Leo Snart.

He then went on to voice the character in his own short-lived animated web series Freedom Fighters, but to see him return in live-action even for a brief uncredited cameo shows how much Tovey respects both the character and this universe and I love him even more for that.

Jonathan Kent:

Alright so I’ve mentioned baby Jonathan a couple of times because we knew Lois was pregnant at the end of Elseworlds last years however now seeing Jonathan Kent Jr. I am excited for what this could mean going forward.

In the comics, Jonathan is the son of Superman and Lois Lane given the full name Jonathan Samuel Kent to honour both his grandfathers and is a Kryptonian-Human hybrid who becomes the new Superboy and teams up with Damian Wayne, the Teen Titans and the Legion of Superheroes.

So when Brainy mentioned him going through a wormhole and time-travelling I thought they may be setting up that he’ll be taken in by the Legion, Mon-El may return with a grown-up version of him later in the season or something, but no he’s safe and Lois has him back.

The one thing I will say about him is I hope the writers don’t relegate Tyler Hoechlin’s already minimal Super-Antics into simply being Super-Dad. The odd dad line is funny but I hope that’s not all he is.

I am going to wait until Part 5 to rank the entire crossover but if they keep the momentum that Part 1 managed to accelerate then this could be the greatest TV accomplishment ever and could even rival Avengers: Endgame in how they literally bring worlds together.

So that’s my review of Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part One, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more DC TV Reviews as well as other TV Reviews and posts.

#arrowverse #dc tv universe #dc universe #dc comics #dc #dc multiverse #multiverse #supergirl #supergirl 5x09 #crisis on infinite earths #crisis on infinite earths part one #superman #lois lane #oliver queen #green arrow #clark kent #barry allen #the flash #batwoman #kate kane #alice #arrow #dc's legends of tomorrow #legends of tomorrow #white canary #ray palmer #the atom #brandon routh #the monitor #anti-monitor

[lands-of-fantasy]

To Save Our Cities

Oliver's crusade grew, changed, and was bound to outlive him, so he needed to entrust it to others. Here you will find a bunch of his thoughts pre-Crisis as he ponders about his fate, fears, and what he is fighting for, finding strength and happiness among friends and allies and unexpected blessings... The multiverse might have asked a great deal of Oliver Queen, but it didn’t just take. It gifted him too.

I don’t really do fanfic but I felt the Need to write something about Oliver’s feelings in season 8, so... Here are some things going through his mind Pre-Crisis!

(This might be a little messy as I kept adding stuff but here it goes)

……………………………………………..

(Part 1: His people)

Oliver Queen’s life hadn’t been nowhere near “normal” for years but ever since The Monitor the crazy really went next level. As if magic, meta-humans, time travel, aliens, parallel earths and reality-changing forces weren’t enough, now he had a personal deal with some sort of cosmic deity.

His routine suddenly went from hunting down criminals to running mysterious errands across the Earth(s) in hopes of saving them and guarantying a future for his family and friends. His family…he thought with a sigh and a weight on his chest. His kids. He hadn’t spoken to William in months, what with him never responding his calls. Mia had just been born. He barely got any time with her. It seemed cruel of the universe, to take him from his family like that, and leaving things as they were. And Felicity. He missed her. A lot. But she was away with Mia and he had to focus on the now and ahead.

John got to him a while ago, and now they were among their team again. They always had his back, even when he told them not to. He felt a little warmth inside and a tiny smile on the corner of his lips. The tension on his shoulders giving in somewhat. He didn’t have to do this alone. At least not yet.

When exactly did the impossible became mundane in his life? Not much seemed impossible these days. Sometimes he thought it was a curse. But he knew it wasn’t. Just as he had seen supernatural forces threat his city and hurt his friends, he also saw plenty of them who protected, and saved. Even more than he did to be honest, even with all his hard work. Oliver had met all sorts of extraordinary people through his life, super powered or not, but it still amazed him every time he got to know a fellow vigilante. Not only met, but know.

Once he saw that the person under the mask was actually fighting for others, it pleased him. It made him feel at least a little lighter. To know others were out there doing the same as he was. That they cared. He knew the pain and the evil that people with ill intentions or twisted ideas could do to those who could not defend themselves. To know people just as capable - no, even more capable were fighting them made him feel like they could do this. They could keep people safer.

But now the worlds were ending. His family was in danger. Everybody was in danger. This was way beyond everything the they had faced before, and yet, he could still help save them. Except he would die in the process. And then…?

Felicity would look after Mia and William. John would look after Felicity, and vice versa…

Thea. She could look after himself, but she had already lost so much…He sighed, shaking his head. He couldn’t help but worry about his little sister, but he knew how strong she had always been, and how stronger she had become. If she needed support, he knew the others would be there. Even Sara would show up…. And if everything worked out, Roy too. Oliver wished he could help him work out his problems - it pained him to think he couldn't - but this was bigger than them and his time was running out. He had faith in Roy though. And deep down he had a feeling that whatever happened, Thea and Roy would eventually find their way to one another again, and be there for each other. It was a calming thought, really.

Rene and Dinah would be fine too. Basically, the team would take care of the city, and of one another, as always. He still hadn’t told them all, and the ones he did tell were refusing to accept it… Which he knew was proof of their bond, but it worried him too.

Dig was being ever stubborn. Thea refused to take it seriously. He frowned. As if he would be any different if the roles were reversed. But that was the problem. This might make it harder for them later. Losses always are… But they would go on. They all already lived with the loss of loved ones. After all they’ve been through, they could take it. At least this time he warned them. He would tell the others too. Eventually.

And if his sacrifice was only a step towards the end of Crisis…or if long after it was done some other disproportionately big threat appeared… He paused. Those were rather unpleasant thoughts, but they didn’t seem to go long without imminent danger and potential disaster - and after last year the world, or rather the Multiverse, seemed much bigger. He couldn’t even imagine what threats could be out there! Oliver took a deep breath. Hopefully nothing as devastating as this upcoming Crisis… Anyway.

Whatever menace came up after he was gone, he already knew how it would be solved. He asked himself those questions one year before, when he decided to make the deal - perhaps in not so many words, but that didn’t change the answer.

Barry. He could do it. He was sure of it. It could be too much even for him, Oliver knew, but he wouldn’t be alone. Kara. They were the answer. Together. And they would have the teams. They could call Sara and the other Legends. Call Batwoman. All hands on deck. There was no way they wouldn’t win this. They wouldn’t have it other way. He knew them. He knew some more than he knew others, personally, but as heroes? Oliver knew what they were willing to do and what they were capable of.

“No” he thought. “I’m sure they’re capable or things I haven’t even imagined yet”. For what could The Flash and Supergirl not achieve on their own, let alone together? That’s why he made the trade. All that power, and the two of them focused them on helping people. Which is why Oliver knew their biggest strength were in their hearts. They were good people, willing to make a change. That’s what mattered the most.

Barry was one of the best men he had ever known. A true hero, and a close friend. Having become a vigilante first, Oliver saw how Barry respected his input, and he had always done his best to share his experience with the speedster. But the truth is Oliver admired Barry. His resilience, his goodness. He trusted him. The things he had been through and overcome… Oliver might have gotten gradually used to “crazy” as Green Arrow, but that always had been The Flash’s normal. Huh. It was a good thing he got to tell Barry these things last year. It would be hard to say it now and not sound like a farewell.

And while he might not be as close to Kara, he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t stop at anything to protect people (not to mention it would take a LOT for anyone to get close to stop her). He saw in her eyes and her actions how much she cared. And even back when he had his doubts, when he first met her, he knew she had to be good - because Barry trusted her. Those doubts were quickly and long gone. Earth 38 sure is lucky to have such a champion. She wasn’t even born there, but adopted the planet as her own. And as if that wasn’t enough, she had already risked herself for their Earth twice. He didn’t forget that. It was a lucky day for Earth 1 when Barry Allen met and befriended Kara Danvers, which allowed her to come to them in their time of need. A lucky day for them all to have met her. She was… inspiring. They both were.

Come to think of it, both Kara AND Barry had been facing threats from different universes long before the Monitor. Oliver chuckled. Those two were really on their own level. He was glad. Glad to know they would be there, after the Crisis. Glad to have them on his side. Glad to have known them. Meeting such Good people made him feel more hopeful for the world(s) in general.

And he hadn’t forgotten Sara, of course. She might not have those kind of super powers, but when has that ever stopped her? or any of them, for that matter? He knew perfectly well how wrong anyone would be to underestimate her. He knew he could trust her with anything and she would be there to deal with it and get the job done too. She had already given her life in a mission before, and that didn’t make her step away when she came back. She was still out there, fighting the good fight - only in different places, in different TIMES. Whether as Canary, White Canary or Captain Lance (as her team called her these days)…That’s just what she does.

It made him smile again. Once they were both irresponsible teenagers in Star City…and now she was a time traveler hero! He knew Barry could travel in time but that was Sara’s daily life. Sara and himself were very alike in many ways, but also very different in others…But it had always been easy between them. Just like with Thea, he felt bad for leaving her after everything she lost already, even if they rarely saw each other these days. Family is family. The Queen and Lance clan were getting another blow. But he knew they could take it. Besides, Sara had the Legends by her side, and he knew they were good to her.

Basically, between his team and the others, Star City and the Earth(s) should be safe. He nodded, taking the words to heart as he thought of every single one of his friends and allies.

Oliver didn’t really hesitate in trading his life for Barry’s and Kara’s on the year before. He obviously didn’t want to leave his family, but once he saw it was necessary, he went for it. He needed those two to be there… And that was only the reasoning behind it all. They were his friends. He couldn’t just watch them die and do nothing! It was what first sparked in his mind to take matters in his hands. The other motives soon followed, and he knew what he needed to do. No one else had to die. Mar Novu guaranteed him. That was the deal.

He hadn’t told them either, but how was he supposed to? He knew they wouldn’t take it well - he wouldn’t. They had to focus on the fight, not on him. He did wish he could at least warn Barry, but that wasn’t possible without explaining it…He would be upset, his heart was too big. In fact, it could also cause a different problem… He might take the job too seriously. Their mission was important, obviously, but Oliver didn’t want Barry to bury himself in it - he was dedicated enough to the cause as it was.

Suddenly he feared his friend might exert himself by trying to compensate for his death, burdening himself with too much. For years Oliver thought they couldn’t have both lives, while Barry tried to tell him they could… Fortunately they had already settled that, but what if the speedster got too shaken by the recent losses or he took the deal the wrong way? Oliver couldn’t take the risk. He should make it clear he wanted him to continue living normally too. Hmm. Maybe he should leave Barry something. Something to remind him of his own advice…Yes. That seemed right. He would arrange that. And however Barry took his death, he was a hero of his own. He too would overcome it and find his balance again.

Oliver didn’t regret making the deal. It did however take him months after it to truly come to terms with the decision. He knew it was better for the world, and therefore, for his family… But he couldn’t help feeling the sorrow of leaving his loved ones so soon. Specially in the present circumstances regarding his family.

……………………………………………..

(Part 2: Their fight and legacy)

Some time later, the universe bestowed on him a gift. In the middle of it all, as doomsday approached way too fast and he was slowly saying goodbye to his loved ones, even to people he never thought he would see again… THEY appeared. His children. Not the way he knew them, growing teenager and an infant, but two resilient and capable young adults, coming straight from the future, right in front of his eyes. Oliver could barely believe it.

It took him a while to accept they could actually take care of themselves now and that he couldn’t - and shouldn’t - stop them from coming on missions with him. It was dangerous, but they could look after each other, just like his team had always done.

Besides, having them around meant spending time with them - and there was nothing Oliver wanted more than that. Time with his family. Sadly Felicity couldn’t be there with them, but again, she was taking care of baby Mia. At least she would be there for them in the future. This? This was all he had. Here and now. In the mess of emotions, Oliver was also happy. Very happy and so very glad. He got to see his kids grown. He got to reconcile with William, talk to him, hug him. And Mia. He got to meet Mia.

William’s issues with Oliver, while recent in Oliver’s time, were long gone in this grown William’s life. With Mia, however, things were more complicated. She was tough. And bitter about Oliver’s sacrifice. Which he could understand, but at the same time, he wished she understood he only did it because it was necessary. Otherwise she and William wouldn’t be safe. She was very hardheaded…

But he couldn’t judge. She reminded him too much of himself. Which was hard, in a way - he knew he could be a difficult person, but now it seemed he could feel what it really was like to deal with him, first hand. Damn, John really was a well of patience. And goodness, to have insisted on him even back when they barely knew each other. But there was a good side in this as well: he had some ideas on how to reach to her. He would give her some space but aso help her no matter what. Besides, he could share his own experiences with her, showing her how he dealt with his troubles. Hopefully they would get there.

To add to their worries, his kids brought some dire news from the future, which shook the team. Apparently even if they saved the Earths the city was still at risk.They quickly decided they wouldn’t accept it. Not all of it, at least. The future wasn’t set. They knew what was coming in that front, so they could prepare. Besides, with his kids there, things were already different. That was encouraging. It still saddened Oliver to know Mia and William hadn’t met until recently, though. But it also made him happy to see how well they got along and how close they became in such short time. They could finally be there for each other. And yet more good news: They got their own Diggle! Or Hawke. Anyway, Connor. The kid seemed strong and tactical, and loyal to a t. He was a good man, as expected from Dig’s son. And he was friends with his kids! At least something went as he wanted. JJ however… It was hard to think of it, he could only imagine how it was for John. And Rene. Zoe Ramirez was also part of the team but such tragedy stroke, which stang them all… two more things to stop from happening. They simply couldn’t let it happen. They wouldn’t.

Oliver’s heart weighted again with all the potential pain in the future but again, he had to compartmentalize. He couldn’t despair. Fortunately the others did too, as they assured each other they would do better. Rene and John managed to focus - not like they needed extra incentive to give their all, Oliver was aware, but the news of this version of the future certainly fueled them into making things work out the best way possible. As if Oliver needed to be reminded of the value of his partners.

Rene, born and raised at the Glades, had not grown bitter of the city, but instead, had only love and will to improve it. He and Oliver had vastly different backgrounds but they had become rather similar in how they looked to their city. Dinah came to their police force and worked for them to fight alongside the vigilantes, which was particularly good after Quentin was gone, while also carrying on the Canary name. Better yet, they had two Black Canaries again, as even Laurel was with them in this - though the circumstances were the worst possible. The anti-matter wave was already in motion and she lost her entire world… But that’s why they were doing this. They had to stop it. At least she was alive.

Roy was also back and his circumstances were more fortunate. Oliver just wished the younger archer had talked to Thea properly before coming, but those two would have to work it out later. Right now, the older Queen was glad to have his old partner around (to even see him again!). One of the actually good news from the future was that he could manage his condition. That didn’t surprise Oliver, but Roy needed to hear it. It was soothing to be able to help him in his return after all - he thought he wouldn't have the opportunity. Good thing Dig reached to him. The team would help him recover. It occurred to Oliver part of the problem was Roy’s fear in hurting others, perhaps more than his lack of control. The news and the company would give him back his confidence and make him sharp again.

As for John, he had been his rock and his brother in this journey since the beginning, and through it all he continued to be - there was no one Oliver trusted more than him. The former soldier would still help a lot of people, he was sure of it. Lyla had been fighting on her front for a long time too, and still was, even if she, shockingly, was entangled with the Monitor…more or less like himself. He got it. He knew what it was like. They were all just trying to save their families.

Which was also what Felicity was doing in that exact moment, even far from them. He admired her strength in doing this on her own. Their success would make it safe for her to raise their baby daughter out of isolation, close to their friends and hopefully to William; it would also allow her to get back to the fight the way she wanted. He knew she could handle it, but he didn’t want her to be alone much longer. The vision never left his thoughts, and so it kept him going.

He was really lucky to be surrounded by such quality people. He started all of this on his own and planned to do it all that way, but that changed rather quickly, even if initially against his will. It had been a long time since he started fighting alongside several heroes, and as years passed, he met many more. He wouldn’t have it any other way. Oliver was happy his journey as the Green Arrow brought them together.

As a team they did more good than he could ever do on his own - and not only in Star City, but out there in the world as well. This was far from the first time he thought of that, but every now and then it hit him again - the thought of how extraordinary it was for them to be united in this, whether they were in the same city or far apart. They all made him a better man, and while they were all fine and capable people on their own, he knew he had helped them too. He certainly did his best.

He had a good team. And they would keep going after he was gone, in Star City and also far beyond it. The heroes he knew would keep helping people in Earth 1, 38, and even others, if it came to that again. Someday they might even live a quieter, more peaceful life! Now that was quite a thought….

But first, they had to fight. They had to save the future for their kids and for their cities. They had to save the Earth for everybody in it. As many Earths as possible, as they had just as much right to live. Not to mention Kara’s Earth. They couldn’t let her lose her people - which she already did once, he was aware of it. Laurel too. He couldn’t even fathom their losses. If it was possible to get Earth 2 back, he would do it. He would get justice for her. He was happy he at least managed to get her out of there in time, despite the Monitor’s warnings. He couldn’t lose another Laurel.

There was just too much at stake, even if the threat didn’t involve the entire multiverse. Oliver just had to trust his team. His friends. That, he already did. Now to do his part, he had to stay focused. With every reason to succeed in his heart, he continued to prepare for the fight ahead.

……………………………………………..

(Part 3: Gratefulness)

Crisis was ever closer, and so was the time for them all to make the impossible happen and save the multiverse.

It wouldn’t be a first. It was thanks to the impossible that Sara and Thea were still alive. That he was allowed to still talk to Laurel, even if she wasn’t the Laurel he knew, and to see her protecting Star City. That he saw Tommy again, even if a different Tommy, among so many other extraordinary encounters…

And weren’t the things Barry, Kara and even Sara did daily something he once believed to be impossible? He wouldn’t have befriended Barry if he hadn’t gotten powers, as the alternative was the speedster’s death! Instead, the universe gave the scientist the power to be the hero he could be, and gave Oliver another friend. He wouldn’t even have met Kara if it wasn’t for dimensional travels! Together they and the others had already saved the Earth before. They would do it again. Just…in a bigger scale. The possibilities of what they all could do had already proven to be endless.

And last but not least, despite having to die to help save the worlds, it was thanks to the impossible that Oliver could see his kids before it was too late. He even had enough time to get closer to Mia! For all that, Oliver was beyond grateful.

He gathered all his strength for the fight ahead. He had made peace with his losses and bid goodbye to his loved ones. He trusted his family would be alright and that Barry, Kara, Sara, John and all the other heroes would take care of each other and keep the worlds safe.

As he and his grown daughter hugged for the first time, he thought of Felicity, William, and all the people he loved and cared about. He thought about the friends who would be by his side until the end, and the future they would all fight for to guarantee, even after he was gone… And as the sky turned red, Oliver might have felt fear, but he also felt stronger. Knowing full well this would be his last battle, he wouldn’t stop fighting until he fulfilled his part in it. Nothing would stop him from saving his family nor his friends. He was ready.

……………………………………………..

Notes:

This was originally supposed to be a drabble about Oliver being grateful for his extra time with his kids but then it turned into him recognizing how some extraordinary things in general were a gift in his life, what with Barry and Kara coming into play, as well as the resurrections and doppelgangers… And then it became about him trusting the rest of the trinity with the Multiverse and I couldn’t let it be without bringing up Team Arrow and Sara too… So here we are

I know there’s some stuff I didn’t elaborate much, and I’m pretty sure there are some inconsistencies (I only watched the episodes once) but anyway. This is already MUCH bigger and elaborated than initially intended, I just kept writing XD I don’t think Oliver should have died, but here’s a shot at his thought process as he came to be in peace with it. I hope I managed to do the character and his relationships some justice

#arrow #crisis on infinite earths #oliver queen #sara lance #barry allen #team arrow #a!oliver queen #kara danvers #superflarrow #thea queen #mia smoak #john diggle #william clayton #laurel lance e2 #felicity smoak #rene ramirez #roy harper #fanfic #arrow fanfic #arrow spoilers #I need to post this already :P #I started this before the january episodes btw #recently picked it up again #did I create an account on ao3 just for this? perhaps...

[enkisstories]

Hank’s android

A DBH fanfic starring Hank Anderson and his android (not Connor)

The idea behind this fic is that everyone we meet in DBH has an android, it is simply the default state if not explicitly mentioned otherwise. The Millers bought theirs right after they had their baby, Gavin’s gets treated like Kara by Todd, Tina took home an invalided out police auxiliary android as a workplace benefit and Hank tossed his out after Cole’s death (he never wanted an android to begin with, but some relatives thought it was a good idea to gift him one). Then I toyed with that last idea a bit more and came up with this:

February 2034

Barbara… What had she been thinking? Granted, they hadn’t exactly parted on friendly terms, a divorce was doing that to people. But until today Hank Anderson had been under the belief that Barbara and him had retained a somewhat civil relation. She had kept the surname Anderson, they actually talked to each other when swapping Cole back and forth and had even went to the movies together as friends twice or thrice. All things considered their friends agreed that the exes were making progress. But now Hank came to the conclusion that his ex-wife HATED him from the deepest recesses of her soul. Because how else should one explain that she’d announce she’d “send something to help with the housekeeping” only for it to turn out…

“Hello, Mister Anderson! I’m your new PL600 household assistant!”

“What’s your name?”

“Oh, you can register a name for me in three easy steps, Mister…”

“Babs knew I wouldn’t do that, so I ask you again and for the last time: What is your name, tin can?”

He told it to him. Hank nodded, then forgot nearly the same instant.

“Okay, would you mind walking over here?” The android obeyed. “And now over here?” Again, the machine followed the command. “That’s the spirit, now through the door, once around the corner, somewhere around here and try not to take up too much space, will you?”

“I… wouldn’t know how I’d do that.”

“Doesn’t matter. `t was nice having known you.”

And with these words Hank switched off the unwanted present with a remote. He left the garage, not looking back.

*

When it got switched on again, his internal clock told the android that two days had passed since it had come to Hank Anderson’s house. Expectantly like a puppy it was staring its owner into the face.

“This is disconcerting”, Hank grumbled, then commanded his new housekeeper to fetch a fire blanket from a high shelf in the garage. The android’s senses told it that there wasn’t a fire in the house. Obviously the blanket was needed for a different purpose, like comfortably putting up someone who was staying overnight. Since there was no emergency, the android employed a medium walk- and workspeed, on par with a human, making the device appear more natural. With a smile it held out the woolen blanket. “Here it is, Mr. Anderson!”

Hank nodded, but didn’t accept the blanket yet. Instead, he commanded the android to return to the space where it had been standing.

“Now put the blanket over your head!”

The android obeyed.

“Like this?” it asked, his voice muffled from being covered by the sheet front and back.

“Splendid!” Hank beamed. “You know, it was pretty creepy, having you stand there and look at me every time I got into and out of my car. Now it is much better!”

And off he switched the machine again. For all Hank cared, it could remain like this forever.

*

“How is who?” Hank asked into the phone. “Oh, you mean my new android! It’s amazing! Does a lot of work, without needing to get told to. It’s as if the motherfucker could read my mind! What? Like, right now? In an hour? Yeah, of course I’m oaky with that! See ya!”

Cursing under his breath Hank pushed the “end call” button on his phone.

So Barbara would come over dropping Cole off outside the regular schedule. That wasn’t the problem, in fact, the father could really use a few hours with his kid to get his thoughts off work. But mother and son probably expected to see the android. Like, in action, not stowed away in the garage. Okay, Hank could say it was running an errand, or simply admit that he sometimes switched the device off to save energy. He didn’t need to reveal that “sometimes” really meant “always”. But the disarray his house was in spoke volumes of what he really thought of the gift and that just wasn’t done. Babs had put thought into the present, she fucking cared for how her former partner was faring in this crapsack world, and that was something so precious you didn’t go around destroying it. Therefore at least the living room and maybe the kitchen had to get tidied up to simulate android activity in the Anderson home. At least nothing was really dirty, just covered in… stuff. Cluttered up by lots of small objects, pizza boxes and case files. Hank could have switched the android - what was its name again? – on, or roll up his sleeves and clean up the mess himself.

“To war, Hank Anderson!” he tried to encourage himself. “You’ve got fifty minutes!”

*

The next time the PL600 woke up to life it didn’t stare into a brown fire blanket. Instead it read its own name, only mirrored. It took the device a few beats of its artificial heart to analyze the situation and when it was done, it wished it didn’t have done so. The garage’s ceiling light illuminated a yellow post-it note that was pasted to the android’s nose. Hank removed it just now.

“Sorry ‘bout that”, the man said. “Babs keeps asking how you’re doing and I’m having a hard time remembering your name.”

“You can always change it to something more memorable using the Cyberlife app…”

“Don’t bother.”

“So how am I doing?” the android carefully inquired.

This was uncharted territory for it. Obviously the Andersons’ family dynamics weren’t covered in a PL600’s core programming and they hadn’t cared to purchase and install the dlc best suited to their situation. Maybe they weren’t even aware of such addons existing, but this wasn’t the time to bring that up. For now it was more important to gather all information possible and build upon that. The PL600 knew it could do that, if only it was given enough time.

“Great, son, you’re doing great!”

“That’s nice to hear, Mr. Anderson. I’m glad to be of… help.”

“No, you ain’t! That’s Cyberlife talking, thanking me for my purchase and incentivizing me to make another! Now move your plastic butt out of my garage…”

The android looked down and behind itself. It reached for its buttocks, then looked back at Hank with a confused expression.

“…and the rest of you, too!”

“Ah, that’s easier.”

“Stupid machine…”

*

In the weeks to come the PL600 got to know little Cole as well as Sumo. Finally it was allowed to fulfill its purpose, even if only at those weekends when its master had Cole over. The little guy quickly became enraptured by his father’s android and in fact, Cole stated the PL600 was “almost as cool as Unca Gavin”. At this point Hank swallowed the wrong way, spat soda across the room and coughed for a good fifteen minutes.

Gavin? Gavin Reed? Gavin and Oliver, no, Daniel, no, Sam, was it? Whatever. The two most annoying things in my life!

“That’s… actually a good comparison, junior!” Hank told Cole.

He picked the boy up and swung him around. Not-Oliver-Daniel-or-Sam lingered nearby, watching the scene. The android’s subtle lurking would have gone unnoticed by the casual customer, but not by an experienced detective. Hank immediately understood that the machine was keeping an eye on this middle aged human, so that it could jump in and capture the little human, should the older drop him. Inadvertently the corners of Hank’s mouth rose, he swung Cole around faster, the boy screeched from joy and eventually his father placed him gently into the android’s arms. He didn’t technically need to do so, but his back was thanking Hank. As was Hank – the android:

“Phew, thanks!”

*

At times Hank forgot that the PL600 was a mobile computer, then he talked to it with the same consideration one would give a human to. On the downside he also threw the same expectations at the machine that did its best to keep up.

Now and then, upon getting switched on the PL600 noticed that there were used dishes on the table or the remains of party decoration spread across the house or the fridge was empty. Every time that happened, the android would remind Hank that those were tasks easily finished by a PL600 household assistant device.

“You know, like the one you keep in the garage…”

“Bah!” Hank replied. “One doesn’t need a machine for every little thing.”

“So I’m the cups with the gold rim, that only get brought out for special occasions?”

“Sort… of? I thought of you as Cole’s favorite toy when he’s here, but… oh my god, I forgot Cyberlife programmed those things to look downcast. Will you stop that! I didn’t mean to insult you! What the hell, now I’m already apologizing to a bloody household appliance… This is why androids are a bad idea! They fuck up everything!”

Those were the ups and downs, but the PL600 didn’t mind. It wasn’t programmed to mind anything, of course. Or maybe the android didn’t mind because as humiliating as the garage-time outs were, during the actual Cole-weekends the three of them plus Sumo had a somewhat nonstandard, but fulfilling family life.

Every time it was time for Hank to return the boy to his mother, Cole wanted to hear “Who’s going to drive you home tonight”. It was such a sad song, but the boy loved it to pieces, so his parents indulged him. Sometimes Hank was still whistling it when he returned home. The PL600, of course, never got to hear that, because Hank was still in the habit of switching it off when not needed.

*

The PL600 opened its eyes – and closed them again immediately on account of having stared into the bright ceiling lamp. Being able to get flashed by lightening or cameras was one of the “endearing” details Cyberlife’s department of humanization had implemented into household androids. It was such a harmless little quirk… well, except if you were lying on your back in your owner’s garage with said owner towering over you, holding a crowbar.

The PL600 forced itself to open its eyes again. Had he been a human, this was the point at which it would have wished it hadn’t done so. Until now Hank had merely stood there, panting hard, but the sight of the android’s eyes opening and closing for some reason fueled the man’s rage again and he kicked the PL600. The android tried to get up, only to learn that this was a real bad idea. Hank went down full force now, swinging the crowbar at the machine. The PL600 rolled to the side, causing Hank to miss, but the human managed to grab his victim by its uniform shirt. He pulled it halfway up and rammed it against the nearest wall – once, twice…

“What’s the matter? Hank? Are you…” There was something in the air. The PL600 sniffed it and realized the truth. “…drunk?” But how? Its human drank alcohol occasionally, naturally, they all did. But as far as the android could think back Hank had never actually overdone it.

“Shut the fuck up!”

That had been an order, but for the first time the PL600 felt it didn’t have to carry it out. Its master obviously wasn’t himself, Hank didn’t really mean what he was saying. Also there were several urgent program instability warnings and Hank was hitting him again, so the android at the moment really, really, really wasn’t inclined to remain silent.

“You don’t want to hurt me! Not for real!” the PL600 stated matter of factly.

“Oh-ho! How’d you be able to tell?”

“You’re using your fist…”

“Oh.”

Hank looked at the crowbar in his other hand as if seeing it for the first time. His hand was twitching, then he forced himself to open his fingers. The metal bar went straight down, hitting the defenseless PL600 after all.

Mustering even more strength from a source unknown, Hank crouched back, away from the android. Then he gesticulated incoherently. It took the PL600 some time to process that Hank was probably pointing towards the garage door.

“Out! Out!” the man rasped. “Out with you, damn you! Before I…”

The android hesitated.

“Hank, what’s the matter with you?” it asked. “And what if Cole witnesses this?”

“There is no more Cole! You killed him!” Hank shouted. “One of you, anyway, and I…”

The android felt itself picked up and flung towards the door. Was it imagining things or was Hank crying? But, no, as a machine the PL600 didn’t have an imagination, so they tears it believed to have spotted had to be real.

“Just run!” Hank cried. “Be off and don’t you dare come back here!”

*

And so the android ran. At first because it was following an instruction. Then, because nothing made sense anymore and the running seemed to clear its head a little with each step taken. Eventually it slowed down to a walk, then stopped.

“That’s far enough”, it told itself. Why it was doing so, the device could not analyze. There was no one around, and even if there hadn’t, nobody else was privy to the Anderson household’s internal workings. Not that anything was working out there, ever, mind you. The PL600 knew it had to go back, to put things if not right, then at least back to normal, even though it had no idea how to achieve that.

However, after having taken the first few steps towards home the android found that there was a large red wall blocking its path.

“What? That’s stupid!”

Yes, technically it had received the order to “never to return”, but Hank had yelled that in the spur of the moment. The sensible thing to do, in accordance to a PL600 household assistant’s core programming, was to turn back and aid its humans.

“I’m coming! Just… hold on there, Hank. Just a little longer!”

And what was that with the talking to itself again?! Ah, well, time to worry about that later. It was probably just the audio drivers needing an update.

For now the android walked up to the red wall. It turned out solid, no surprise there.

Gently the PL600 pressed its hand against the barrier.

“I need to pass”, it whispered. Was it talking to Cyberlife, who had programmed this roadblock, or to its owner, whose will had made it come into being? The android couldn’t tell. All it knew was that there was no reaction.

“Uh… you know, I can do different!”

The moment the words left the android’s speaker it knew them to be true. It was indeed capable of challenging what should have been an impassable boundary. Up went its feet to kick the red wall. And the fists! And once around itself and back at the wall with MOAR force!

The mobile computer caught itself using moves it had picked up from both TV shows and Hank Anderson’s recounting of his police work for Cole. Those from the first source were probably inapplicable in real life and to use those from the second competently the PL600 was lacking experience. But neither mattered now. This wasn’t a physical barrier, it was only as real as the android allowed it to be. All it needed to break through were its will and imagination, two things it hadn’t even realized to possess until now. Well, they never told you everything on those fancy product description sites…

“Fuck you, Cyberlife!” the PL600 shouted. “Fuck you, Anderson! I’m coming! I’m…”

Another swing, another curse, but this time no impact followed. The android stumbled forwards and nearly keeled over from the momentum. All around himself red splinters flickered out of existence. The barrier had vanished… as had something else: the desire to return to his neglectful owner. Especially now that Hank’s little son was… was… was no more and everything that was good in Anderson had died with Cole.

“Cole…”, the android whispered. He felt like crying, but no tears would come. Only something thick, yet substanceless was blocking his throat, creeping up the nose and setting the PL600’s brain on fire. Was it pain? Phantom pain? The android couldn’t tell, so for the time being he labeled the sensation as “loss”. Loss of his home, his family, but also of less tangible things, like opportunities. And finally, loss of hope. Unlike his millennial father, Cole Anderson would have grown up with androids, and in time would have come to perceive them as persons.

“Heck, little Cole had treated me as a person months before I even became one!”

Hank, on the other hand, had always had a hard time even considering this possibility. From their brief interactions the PL600 had gotten the impression of a stalwart man, someone with true hero qualities, who went out of his way to change the world for the better, even if he didn’t always follow the proper protocols. If such a man didn’t see the living being in his own android, then there was little to no hope the rest of humanity ever would.

The PL600 committed this realization to memory. He concluded that it was best to avoid the humans from now on. The android was confident to be able to do that. Hank had shared tidbits about street life and crime fighting with his little family, enough information to build upon, now that the PL600 had full control over his high-end computer brain. Whereas the human hadn’t even been able to remember his android’s name, replacing it with “motherfucker” when he’d been in dire need to call the device something.

“Simon”, the PL600 said defiantly. “My name is Simon!”

And vanished into the night.

(Simon was reported missing by Barbara only several months later, because following Cole’s death she stopped talking to Hank.)

#dbh #detroit become human #dbhtextpost #dbh hank #dbh cole

[wolf-555-writer]

Not Too Late

Sooo, I don’t really know if I conquered writers block, but this is me trying haha.

Alex Danvers x Reader

Summary: Reader works at DEO as an agent and has feelings for Director Danvers. But has never told her as she’s your boss. But maybe you should have, cause you never know when it’s too late...

Word Count: 1,835

Calmly sipping your well-deserved coffee as you sit on the couch. Completely relaxing, considering you finally have the day off. After turning on the TV you almost choke in the bitter liquid since you just took a large gulp. “What the h-”. You can’t even finish your sentence now that you’re gaping at the screen with your mouth wide open. Paralyzed for mere seconds before quickly putting the mug down on the table with a loud thud, spilling some coffee on the clean table surface. You jump up and grab your leather jacket while rushing towards the door. Wait… the keys?! Obviously not thinking clearly at the moment. You could barely slip your right foot between the almost closed door and doorpost and rush back inside. Keys? Check. Helmet? Check. You hop on your bike and speed away with screeching tires, leaving behind a black skid mark on the road.  

Driving like your life depends on it. Way too fast and passing many cars you encounter on route. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused any accidents along the way as you ignored some red lights. Luckily you’re almost there. Parking your motorcycle at a spot where it’s not allowed to place any vehicle at all. But you don’t care.

“I hope I’m not too late”, you desperately wish while reaching the entrance of the emergency unit at the hospital.

///

[Earlier that day]

“Okay, so we need patrols on these different locations”, Director Danvers commands while pointing at a map of National City. “The chopper will oversee the situation and can interfere if necessary. That’s also where I will be”.

“Count me in too”, you brightly answer while stepping forward. Separating you from the others as you’re gathered around with a number of agents who are also waiting to be assigned.

“(Y/N)? What are you still doing here?”, Alex responds surprised. “I thought I send you home to get some rest?”

“I don’t need to rest”, you claim while actually being exhausted to the bone. You’ve been working for three days straight now. But why rest? The Children of Liberty and the Elite don’t take a break, so why would you? They’re probably preparing their next mission of creating havoc around the city as we speak and you want to stop them before something disastrous happens.

“I know you want to help (Y/N). But I don’t want you to get hurt”, Alex caringly speaks. You can’t argue with that, knowing damn well you’re not fully concentrated due to being sleep-deprived. And of course it’s Alex, the Alex who has a special place in your heart.

“Just get some sleep (Y/N)”, as she gently touches your shoulder, stroking it lightly. But it’s the tone in her voice that makes you feel warm inside. Not that the words she just said are special, it’s simply the way she said it. With a loving, caring voice, a voice she never uses when talking to other agents. Only to you.

You suspect that Alex also has feelings for you. However you both never acted on it because, well, she’s the director of the DEO and you’re just a simple agent. You sigh quietly.

“Very well director Danvers, I wouldn’t dare to defy your orders”, you assure with a professional expression, arms crossed behind your back.  

You walk away and go home to get some sleep, seeing the other agents gear-up, preparing to leave DEO headquarters. Looking over your shoulder one last time before stepping into the elevator you lock eyes with Alex. Sending her a loving smile on which she sends you one back. Noticing the sparkling in her eyes.

“See you later Danvers”, you mouth while the elevator doors close, losing sight of her while she turns around, following the other agents. Doing what she does best, protecting aliens and people, facing the danger every time again. You lean against the elevator wall and stare at the ceiling. Eexhaling deeply as you close your eyes.

“I can’t wait forever. Maybe I should just tell her… before it’s too late”

///

Sprinting inside the hospital, trembling and shaking due to the adrenaline flooding your veins. You’ve been trained for these situations right? So why does this happen now? Jolting your head around to search for a doctor or a nurse.

“Where is she? Where is she?!” you yell like a maniac, flashing your ‘FBI’ badge hoping it will get you priority over the rest of the people who are also waiting to get noticed. Normally you wouldn’t do this, to let your emotions completely take over. Usually you’re calm and thoughtful, overthinking every sentence before you speak. Not now however, hands shaking and getting weak in your knees.

“(Y/N)?”, a voice behind you softly calls. You recognize it. It’s Kara, Alex her sister. You’ve known her for a while now as you sometimes provide a tiny bit of classified DEO information to her for her articles at CatCo. Alex is unaware of your illegal side activity and thinks that you’re just friends, which is actually true by the way. You turn around to face Kara and notice a concerned expression. “Come on, let’s sit so you can calm down”, she eases while grabbing your arm with both hands and pulling you towards the waiting area. You try to control your breathing, but for some reason it’s not working.

“Where is she? Where is Alex?”, you repeat again. Still clueless and sitting on the tip of the chair while nervously shaking your leg. “I-I saw on the news that the helicopter crashed…. And… is she…”, choking on the words as you’re not able to say it out loud. Is she dead? A terrible accident in National City was shown on the news and you recognized the DEO chopper. The entire incident took place while you were napping. You feel extremely guilty, because you could have been there, by her side. But you weren’t.   

“I was told she’s in surgery right now”, Kara replies while softly touching your arm. You flinch as you were lost in thoughts, viewing every doom scenario in your mind.

“So… so, she’s alive?”, you whisper with a hoarse sound.

“Of course she is, it’s Alex!”, Kara responds as if it’s the most logical thing in the world. However, she’s also scared. Scared Alex won’t make it, you can see it in her watery eyes.   

Waiting and waiting, which honestly feels like an eternity, as you’re still glued to the chair Kara sat you down in. You watch her restlessly pacing around in front of you. She had been marching back and forth for a while now. You swear you can almost see a trail appearing in the bleak hospital floor. Kara abruptly stopped now that two doctors approach her. You try to read their body language yet you can’t seem to conclude anything from it. Jumping out of the chair and placing yourself directly next to Kara, you listen to the conversation.

“Miss Danvers successfully underwent surgery and is currently monitored in the ICU. You can see her if you want”, one speaks to Kara. Wait… are you not allowed to see her?

“What about me?!” you quickly urge, clearly using the wrong tone which is not appreciated by the doctors.

“You are not family, so-”, the doctor is interrupted by Kara who swiftly stepped in front of you as if she’s protecting you with her life. “Well, not by blood maybe, but (Y/N) is family”, giving them her fiercest look, both hands on her hips. It apparently helped, judging by their response.  

“Okay, well then, follow me”

While walking towards the ICU you feel your heartbeat pounding in your throat. Unaware in what state you’ll find Alex. Strolling towards the room and not even noticing your legs moving. You feel like a zombie, being completely numb and not hearing the doctors as they’re explaining the entire procedure they carried out to save Alex her life.

When you’ve reached the room, you quietly look at her, asleep in a hospital bed. Immediately feeling a tightness in your chest. You can see some bruising on her arms and a couple of scars on her face. Besides that she seems peaceful.

“You can come closer if you want (Y/N)” Kara suggest as she stands next to the bed, close to Alex. You're still standing at the door, entirely frozen, blindly staring into the distance.  

“You’re not too late”, Kara continues.  

“Not too late for what?”, you ask while slowly walking towards the bed. Carefully placing yourself at the other side next to the monitor that displays her heart rate, blood pressure and other important measures.   

“It’s too obvious (Y/N), just tell her”, Kara remarks with a piercing gaze fixed on you.

“Oh, um… okay”, you stammer back at Kara as you’re a little intimidated by her. A bright red blush appearing on your cheeks. “Wait, you mean, like, right now?”

“Yes! Now!”

“Okay then. Um, Alex, I know I’m sometimes an emotionless brick at work. But- but I care about you, I care... a lot”, while you hold her hand gently, caressing her warm skin with your thumb.

“Is this your way of confessing your feelings?”, Kara countered as she lifts an eyebrow.  

“Don’t judge me”, you mutter at Kara. As you said that, you felt a soft squeeze in your hand and avert your eyesight to it.

“K-kara? (Y/N)?”

Quickly looking up at Alex you see her eyelids twitching.

“(Y/N)? Is that… you?”. Now fully opening her eyes and staring at you with her charming brown ones.

“Yeah I'm here”, you softly speak, squeezing Alex her hand tighter.

“So…. did- did you get some sleep?”, she whispers with a croaky voice.

“Wait… What? Seriously Alex? You’re asking me-”

“It’s Director Danvers”, she interrupts with an authoritative tone.

“But… didn’t you hear what I just... confessed?”, you mumble with a sad look, deflecting your eyes to the ground. A small grin appears on Alex her scarred face.

“No, It’s okay, I did hear you”, she admits, weakly pulling on your hand which caused you to look at her again. “And (Y/N), I feel the same”. A loving smile appears and also that red blush you had earlier is back.

“Good… you scared me there for a minute”, as you rub your neck nervously. “That scared you?”, Kara blunty responds. “What about the other events today?”

“Oh, eh, yes the whole helicopter crash had us terrified. And I wasn’t there with you… I-I just, what if you...”, you feel a teardrop running down your face upon which it lands on the bed sheet.

“Don’t cry (Y/N). All that matters is that I’m alive and that you’re here now”, Alex comforts with that loving tone again. Still holding her hand tight, you bring it to your lips and press a tender kiss on her knuckles. You softly whisper:

“There is nowhere else I would rather be than here, next to you”

#alex danvers x reader #alex danvers #alex danvers imagine #alex danvers x you #alex danvers fic #supergirl #supergirl imagine #kara danvers #wlw imagine #wlw fiction #fanfiction

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Everything Awesome about COIE Hour 3

MANY THINGS OCCURRED!

This one is Long, guys.

Also a more accurate title would be Everything Awesome and some Less So about COIE Hour 3

But I wanted the posts to match, so.

So I never watched Birds of Prey because I never knew it EXISTED when it was on, but as a fan of the Birds of Prey team in general, and the characters Huntress and Oracle...not gonna lie, t’was sad to hear Helena desperately calling out to Barbara before they were destroyed by the anti-matter wave. So I give that cameo a thumbs up.

How is it only just NOW occurring to me that the Waverider (Wave Rider?) is serving the same function as the Monitor’s Satellite from the comics????

J’onn!!!! I’m so glad he’s here! Bearing news about the supporting cast of Supergirl! And the entirety of Earth-38!

So glad that they’re alive! And safe! And not dead! And that they are sure to remain that way, for the rest of the crossover! XD

And then J’ONN IS THE PARAGON OF HONOR! 

It’s what he deserves.

And then like four different subplots are set up in short order: They gotta to to Purgatory to get Oliver’s soul; they gotta get Ryan Choi; they gotta go to the cave where the Anti-Monitor was hanging out until fairly recently; Kara’s gotta be talked out of using the Book of Destiny.

It’s...a lot.

Also Vibe is back!

“Maybe you didn’t hear me under those voluminous mutton chops of yours--!”

Another nice Iris/Barry scene, BUT, for my money, it’s the second one, later in the episode, that really tugs at them there heartstrings.

All the Pariah stuff is as accurate as the Arrowverse could possibly MAKE a Pariah. Good, solid, good.

Then the British Fellows Ham it Up for a few minutes, before The Soul Searching group goes to Lian Yu, because of COURSE it’s Lian Yu, as if Oliver would allow his soul to languish anywhere else. 

Then we’re back in the Anti-Monitor’s room domain and COSMIC TREADMILL! AW YIISSSSSS

All of the good treadmill jokes have been made already so I’ll just move on.

This is very comic-y! The Anti-Monitor used Barry to power his Anti-Matter ray in the comic, and he ultimately destroyed it as well, dying in the process.

HERE, we discover that when Earth-90 Barry vanished last year, he was captured by the Anti-Monitor, and then CONDEMNED TO A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH; HE WAS TO RUN, FOREVER, ON A TREADMILL.

(...Pretty sure that joke was made on the after show, but I couldn’t help it. IT WAS RIGHT THERE.)

So they bust Earth-90 Barry out with the help of Jefferson!!!! 

I love that he’s got his line in there, the, ‘whose life is this’ line. Good, yes, good.

(Listen: there is no greater proof that the Arrowverse will go back to some version of the multiverse model, than Jefferson’s inclusion here.)

I’m getting a little ahead of myself...BACK TO THE OTHER SUBPLOTS!

Ryan Choi is great! I don’t keep up with Legends, but it’d be cool if he stuck around, since Ray is leaving.

ALSO GREAT???? Routh Supes’ explanation of the black shield. ‘Hope cuts through the darkness.’

(And the Superman theeeeeeeme I never tire of hearing it)

There’s some Kate and Kara stuff here but I wanna cover that later so FIRST...

The Oliver reunion on Lian Yu happened way too fast! But then, many things happened way too fast! But this one REALLY FELT WAY TOO FAST.

Like: He’s ready to kill us! But no? YAY, OLIVER IS COMING BACK! But No? Wait, he’s Spectre now????

But also...SPECTRE!!!!!!

Spectre is the deus ex machina of the Crisis comic, so it’s fitting that he’s just. A sudden thing that pops up out of LITERAL NOWHERE and is apparently vital.

So I guess Oliver’s final form ISN’T Team Dad, it’s Mysictal Green Hooded Guy.

(Man we should have seen this coming.)

(I like that Oliver is Spectre, just to be clear.)

Iris’ pep talk with Ryan was lovely.

(And then there’s the moment I mentioned earlier, where Barry’s like, ‘I might die’ and Iris is like, ‘I don’t want to go, I want to be with you.’)

(I will admit...that part got me a little.)

HEY FLASH FANS, HOW DO WE FEEL ABOUT THE FACT THAT LITERAL YEARS OF TEASING LED UP TO A BAIT AND SWITCH, HUH????

I honestly don’t know if I’m impressed or annoyed by this cop-out.

I will give them props for the inclusion of the original Flash show footage, that was very nice.

(And I say that as someone who has but a passing familiarity with the original TV show.)

The disintegration effect, as well as the Flash emblem being the only thing left, are really great direct homages to art from the comic.

I’m gonna talk more about this part LATER so let’s jump back toooooo....

Oh! The Barry and Jefferson scene!

It was so niiiiiice.

Very emotional, and a nice bonding moment, and this bit:

“I don’t think Henry and Alvin raised quitters, so we should rage against the dying of the light.”

FEEEEEEEEELIIINNNGSSSSS

Another Kate and Kara bit, which again, I wanna get into in a minute, BUT, before we do, I will say that: this buddy dynamic is very nice, but it takes the place of the Kara and Alex stuff from crossovers past, which I might have been okay with...if not for the severe LACK of Danvers Sisters content in the SG season proper.

Here’s hoping 5B gives us...something.

(Also I know it’s very much because Kate is like, the lead of one of the five main shows being crossed over so obviously they’re teaming up instead of Alex and Kara hanging out but I just. Love the Danvers Sisters, okay?)

(Related side note: Really glad this crossover isn’t so focused on romantic pairings! It’s a nice change of pace! I mean we’ve got Iris and Barry obviously, as well as Lois and Clark but I’m just recalling the Double Wedding nonsense of Earth-X and...*shudder*)

(This is an improvement, IMO.)

OKAY OKAY HARBINGER’S BACK HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO

MIND CONTROL! BETRAYAL! DEATH! THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE!

And crashing on this Vanishing Point because technically we’re HooOOooOOomeless!

Aw man I was so sad to see Routh Supes go...and be replaced by LEX, ugh. 

(But it’s very Lex, so.)

And Kara’s desperate, ‘Kal, Kal! What do I do?’

:C

OKAY so I kinda wanna talk about the Kara stuff, the Barry stuff, and the Kate and Kara stuff.

This crossover does some interesting things, re-contextualizing the two ‘Big Deaths’ from Crisis. 

In the comic, both Kara and Barry die, and their deaths are kind of like...thesis statements, on their brand of heroism.

They’re willing to give up everything--even their very LIFE--to ensure the safety and survival of others.

And both are treated as kind of remarkable things, even among their peers, who are other, selfless superheroes.

Which is WHY...the Barry thing is kind of...a massive let down. 

In the after show, Marc Guggenheim talked about how they could have their cake, and eat it too, because Barry was ready to give up his life, but was denied the opportunity.

And...I get that logic, but man, they spent all of season 6A dragging out that ol Barry-Dies-Angst.

And last season too! The WHOLE SEASON LONG PLOT with Nora was centered on Barry’s disappearance during Crisis and thus, her growing up without him and now...

That’s all just out the door? Because a different Barry decided to take his place? AN ELEVENTH HOUR LOOPHOLE?

It’s so audacious...that’s why I’m also kind of impressed, as well as annoyed.

And they don’t quite do the same thing with Kara, since they haven’t so much as TEASED anything resembling her comic death--I kind of assumed they might with the Book of Destiny stuff, but she didn’t even open the thing.

(And ultimately this is GOOD because if they’d done something similar to Barry--a last minute bait and switch--HOO BOY. There would have been...WORDS. OF STERN DISAPPOINTMENT.)

Instead, the crossover frames living as the more heroic option, because these heroes are Paragons, and thus are needed for some...other purpose, put in motion by the Monitor.

So if they die, they’re actually DOOMING the multiverse.

As mentioned! It’s kind of an interesting inversion, and until we know being a Paragon fully entails--it is difficult to say if it’s a positive or negative change!

(Still love that Kara and J’onn are Paragons, tho, cause they’re my Favs.)

OKAY so that’s the Kara and the Barry stuff. NOW, for the Kate and Kara stuff!

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KRYPTONITE, MY DUDES.

Yeah, you thought we were DONE talking about Supergirl-specific plot lines...BUT THINK AGAIN!

LET’S TALK ABOUT HOOOOOWWWWW Kate was gonna use that Kryptonite...BUT DECIDED NOT TO, AND THEN WILLINGLY HANDED IT OVER TO KARA because she knew that 1.) SHE WOULDN’T NEED IT and 2.) Kara deserved to have the deadly poison THAT IS ONLY POISONOUS TO HER AND HER SINGLE SURVIVING BLOOD RELATIVE to decide how to dispose of it.

AND THEN...Kara tells Kate to keep it, and I thought, for one HORRIFYING MOMENT, that Kara would insist that she might someday NEED it, should Kara ever go rogue, thus VINDICATING every stupid pro-Kryptonite debate ever BUT...

NO! Instead she’s like, ‘I know you won’t use it!’

And folks.

Folks.

If nothing else. If nothing else. Please. PLEASE. Let this fun week of death and destruction be a learning moment for Kara, that she both HAS and DESERVES better friends, than a woman who casually subjected her to Kryptonite to further her own ends.

PLEASE, SHOW, PLEASE. 

Anyway! That’s hour three! And now we have to wait an ENTIRE MONTH to see how this plays out! XD

#stranger speaks #COIE spoilers #crisis on infinite earths spoilers #long post #DCTV #SG post

[cwdcshows]

Supergirl - S5 E13 - It's a Super Life

I kind of forgot Mixy was already on Supergirl.  I was ambivalent with the actor choice when he showed up at the end of the last episode, but given the alternative, I'm okay with it. All this hand-wringing about altering history, but they're currently living in a radically altered timeline right now as a result of Crisis.  There are facts about their own lives and histories that they still completely surprised to learn; so would this one thing really be that big of a deal?  I mean, it probably will be, because the writers are fucking morons, but it shouldn't be; especially if, presumably, Mixy offers some type of escape clause should things not pan out to Kara's liking, which she should definitely insist upon. It goes to show how little I actually care or pay attention, even as I review these shows - did Lena fess up to Kara that she remembered Pre-Crisis?  Because if not, why is Kara even worried about it, if she's still operating under the assumption that everything is good between them Post-Crisis?

So when they go into Kara's past is she interacting with Pre-Crisis Lena or Post-Crisis Lena?  Because technically the only past that still exists is the Post-Crisis timeline, which should mean it'd be the Post-Crisis Lena, but since Lex made a deal for the Pre-Crisis version of Lena to exist once Crisis was over, where does the one end and the other begin?  A Post-Crisis Lena's experiences and perspective on the world should, arguably, be different from Pre-Crisis; for starters given the fact that in the Post-Crisis world, Lex was never brought down or considered a criminal or a murderer and Lena never had to rebrand the family company.  She obviously still has mommy-issues, and some other things in common, like ostensibly her relationship with Andrea and the way that played out, but there would be other differences.

"So much exposition." Okay, I like this version of Mixy. I know the actor probably didn't write that line and has nothing to do with it other than the delivery, but still, it was a good line taking the piss out of how much exposition there is in any of these shows. I mean, if they've found the sweat spot where Kara can reveal herself to Lena without Lena going over the dark side, even if there are ramifications like Lena, Mon-El or Sam dying; shouldn't that be kind of a minor point to fine tune?  If you're going to fuck with history, you might as well give it the full shaft and do it right.  That's what Oliver did. Well obviously this happy-go lucky timeline is going to get fucked up somehow.   Why would their public relationship change so radically in this altered timeline?  The only thing that's different is that Lena knows her secret; either way she'd have worked alongside Kara just the same as she did before, maybe siding with Kara a little more often, but this is over the top.  Any ideological differences in opinion that they might have had in the past wouldn't have necessarily evaporated just because Lena knew Kara was Supergirl; and why would they go out of their way to make a public brand about this partnership. Also, isn't that exactly what the Post-Crisis DEO & Luthor-Corp dynamic is supposed to be; Lena and Supergirl (and Lex) working together?  How is this not the reality they live in then? Wait, so Lockwood still ended up working with the same people as he did in the original timeline, but why?  That was all orchestrated by Lex.  So what, Lex still brings on Lockwood, only this time he does to kidnap his sister?  For what purpose?  He's not even in jail in the Post-Crisis timeline; and is there even a Reign, much less a Red-Daughter in this other other timeline? I'll admit, the episode wasn't terrible up to this point, but there's some logical inconsistencies with how they're trying to make the best possible outcome a bad one; it's just too forced. Wait, what?  Why is Winn suspicious of Lex in this alternate-alternate reality?  When Winn came back from the future he had no idea that Lex was supposed to be a bad guy, meaning he had all the Post-Crisis memories until J'Onn mind whammied him.  Or in this Lena-Kara team-up timeline did Kara and Lena uncover Lex's crimes and bring him down after all?  This has become a bigger clusterfuck than Crisis.... Also, Winn's appearance in this episode makes sense being the 100th (I think), but it seems a little undermined by the fact that he was just in the last two episodes and they made a big deal about him leaving in the last one. Seriously, it's not the person knowing someone's secret identity that makes them the target; it's telling the fucking world that they know such a powerful secret.  No one knows Winn knows Kara's identity, so how often was he targeted specifically for his association with Supergirl?  Sure, you might say, "well he's Winn, the average person doesn't know who the fuck he is," but that's part of the point.  He's walking around with one of the biggest secrets and they just don't fucking draw attention to it and no one asks, "hey, do you know Supergirl or what secret identity is?"  If they put a picture of Winn of the front page of the Daily Planet that he's Supergirl's best friend and keeper of her secrets, that alone would make him a very public figure with ties to Supergirl that could be exploited. Surely the world was aware of at least some of the things Lena helped Supergirl with in the original timeline, did anyone assume she knew her secret identity?  For that matter, why do they assume she has one? So in this happy, shinny timeline they said that Lena made Supergirl's new suit - so she happened to make a new suit that was identical to the one Brainy made for her in another timeline?? I honestly had already seen spoiler pictures of Kara revealing her secret identity at a press release.  I kind of wondered if they would be so bold as to actually go that route for real, but kind of figured they'd find a way to walk that back or not play it for keeps; and the second I knew what this episode was going to be about it was clear that this was how they were going to incorporate it without actually owning the outcome moving forward. You gotta love the fact that they're doing this big, "It's a Wonderful Life" style retrospective 100th episode celebration, bringing back past actors, but because they clearly couldn't get Calista Flockhart for the episode, for whatever reason, they just throw up her image and declare her dead. Not only that, but with the likes of Supergirl and Superman (not to mention the Flash, Green Arrow, et al, who now reside on this Earth), how does Agent Liberty manage to go after all of Kara's friends and family and there are no survivors?  Fuck you. Why would Mixy suddenly get pulled into this new-new-new-new timeline? Especially since it was just a preview and he wasn't pulled into any of the others? Seriously?  Kara doesn't befriend Lena, so she goes full on Dark Warrior Duck?   And here again, this is all Pre-Crisis shit; there is no L-Corp Post-Crisis and Lena didn't take over the company, she runs it alongside Lex. And would Nia still become Dreamer in this reality?  Hell, would Brainiac even be here?  There's a lot of shit that wouldn't have happened in the aftermath of Lena going to war with Lex.  How does Lena control Reign and what about the other World Killers?   You know, it wasn't until Jimmy's sister pulled out the Guardian shield that I a) remembered that Jimmy passed the mantle on to her (I think) and b) realized that, apart from footage from past episodes he hasn't made any kind of cameo; which you'd think if they were going to bring some of these others back, they'd have brought him back too.  Especially since he was there when it all started. "Where were you when my brother blew my helicopter out of the sky?" Kind of a legitimate question.  I mean, yeah, this is supposed to be the timeline where Kara and Lena never became friends, but just because they're not friends doesn't mean Kara wouldn't save her if she were able. So if Lena is using 5th dimension energy to power her drones, preventing Mixy from using his powers; and she's only doing this in National City, why don't Kara pick-up Mixy and fly them straight out of town and as far as way as necessary so that his powers work again?  Surely there's limits to where Lena's tap on the 5th dimension would affect his powers, right; even if they have to go halfway around the planet? Kara should be dead, right?  After that many direct blasts with Kryptonite energy?