Burning Bridges

Through the Barricades

The attack on Starling faltered after a few hours but not after masses of tanks and helicopters were destroyed. Buildings were crushed, and there were dozens of civilian casualties in the area. Military death was estimated to hundreds of officers. Even with the aid of other meta humans like FIRESTORM, they couldn't take down the opposing group, until the invaders withdrew their forces. They knew it was only a matter of time before they would come back with more firepower.

Teams Arrow and Flash stood in the cortex, waiting as the scarlet speedster struggled to compose an easy way to break it to them.

"They're aliens."

The reaction was as expected—everyone else was shocked and disbelieving as if they thought he was saying a joke, a really bad joke, save for the stoic archer and the thrilled Cisco.

"I'm not kidding!" Barry threw his hands up.

"You're telling me that aliens exist." Cisco gripped a nearby stool, slowly raising one of his hands to his chest. His expression was exactly the same when he first saw Barry run, cerise lips forming an inaudible 'oh-my-god' mantra. "The 'we-come-in-peace' type?" He scrunched his nose, flicking his index finger. "Never mind, that was a stupid question."

"They are Kryptonians," Barry answers. "From the Planet Krypton."

"I'm not really one to listen to science class but isn't Krypton an element?" Thea's brows met.

Diggle was still staring at Barry. "I can't even absorb that you're this fast and now aliens are suddenly real."

"The truth is out there," Cisco grinned, waving his hands. Thea raised an eyebrow at him. "X-Files? Come on, anyone? Don't y'all have televisions?"

"How would you even know these things? It's not like we actually have enough time to figure out the existence of aliens on our planet when we're trying to defeat Zoom." Cait said.

"Remember when we tested out that tachyon device? Well long story short, I ran too fast that I ended up on Earth-3 and met this girl named Kara—who's also a Kryptonian, but a good one. A superhero. She helped me get back here when I thought I was stuck there."

"So let me get this straight," Caitlyn pressed her hands together. "You went to an entirely different Earth, met an alien, and you didn't bother to tell us?"

"My head hurts." Diggle grunted.

"We were busy then." Barry sighed. "Anyway, as long as these guys are here, we're defenseless. Kryptonians are impervious to everything, except kryptonite. It's a glowing green rock from her planet, but since that is another universe, it most likely doesn't exist in this one."

"Can't we just call her over?" Oliver asked.

"That would be great if we had an interdimensional Skype," Cisco replies sarcastically. Everyone looks at him. "Okay, I can look into other universes but I'm not E.T. phone home!"

"I could fetch her." Barry said. "Cisco, ready the tachyon device. We're bringing in the Maiden of Might."

"This better work." The Emerald Archer huffed, ducking as Non's minions chucked a couple debris in their direction.

Diggle leaped from car to car, hitting the Kryptonians with no success. The arrows and bullets simply ricocheted off of their skin, bending on impact. Thea was stealthily hurdling over the buildings, attaching gadgets to a few key corners.

Barry leaned against the white van beside Oliver. "It will." He tilted his head and stuck out his lower lip. "Probably."

"So guys, let's go over the plan again—which is crazy, by the way." Cisco's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Barry. You have to run a little over Mach 13.5 but that should be a breeze with the tachyon enhancement device. It has to be the same road, same speed or you might jump to another Earth. Good thing Cait keeps records of your test runs."