One Call Away (Book One of The Unmatched Records)

Chapter One

"I told you," Nyssa told Oliver pointedly.

"I'd sooner slice her throat," Malcolm added.

"Try to, you mean," Nyssa threw him a glare.

"Malcolm, you said you were willing to do whatever it takes to get Thea back," Oliver reminded Malcolm angrily. "So here we are!"

"Fine," Malcolm spat. "But does she know?"

Oliver didn't answer. "Know what, Mr. Merlyn?" Nyssa narrowed her eyes, walking closer.

Malcolm turned to her and gave her a mocking smile. "One of the people we are up against is your sister."

Nyssa stared blankly at Malcolm, then sighed and looked at Oliver incredulously. "Nyssa, I wanted to explain it to you in person," Oliver began, then turned back when his monitor beeped. "We have Chase's C-130," he announced, and Malcolm and Nyssa both moved closer. "Flew out over the coast, banked southerly twelve degrees . . . which – " He faltered. "Which means . . . "

"Which means?" Nyssa prompted.

Malcolm watched as Oliver looked up and swallowed hard. "I know where he's taking them," he said hoarsely.

A familiar whooshing noise sounded behind them, and when Malcolm and Nyssa both swung around, reaching for weapons, Oliver quickly stopped them. "No, wait!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cisco quickly threw up his hands, taking his goggles off in the process. "Good guy! No shooting! I'm a good guy!"

"Cisco?" Oliver frowned, walking forward. "I called for Barry!"

"Er, yeah," Cisco shuffled awkwardly. "Uh . . . Barry's unavailable."

"Unavailable?" Oliver repeated dubiously. "Cisco . . . why are you telling me this?"

Cisco swallowed. "Well, you see, there was this speedster Barry was fighting, who called himself the god of speed. He did something extremely clever and trapped the Flash from a different universe in the Speed Force, and to fight the guy, we let him out, but in the process, the Speed Force became unstable and started raging on Central City – "

"Cisco!" Oliver snapped.

"And Barry went into the Speed Force to end it!" Cisco blurted out, swallowing hard. "Barry's gone, Oliver. He's stuck in the Speed Force, and we're not sure how to get him out."

Oliver faltered, narrowing his eyes. "Gone?" he repeated in disbelief.

"Yes," Cisco nodded miserably. "I'm sorry, Oliver, but I wanted you to hear it from me instead of over a phone call or a text."

Oliver blew out his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. Malcolm gave him a worried look, and Oliver finally looked back at Cisco. "What about the Legends?" he asked. "Anything from them?"

"No," Cisco shook his head, making Oliver swallow. "That was the first thing I thought of when I saw your message. I tried to contact them, gave them the date and time and everything. They never showed, Oliver. Either they didn't get the message – which I highly doubt – or they can't help. I'm sorry, Oliver, but there's no one else who can help."

Oliver turned back to the monitor, taking a deep breath. Barry had been one of the first people he'd thought to contact when he heard his son had been taken. It had been Barry, after all, who had helped him find out about William. But if Barry couldn't help, and if Sara and the Legends couldn't be contacted –

His mind took another route, and he slowly looked up, his eyes widening. Cisco had said there was no one else who could help . . . "Not on this Earth," he thought out loud.

"What?" Nyssa frowned.

"Cisco, you said no one else could help," Oliver turned around.

"Yeah," Cisco looked confused.

"No one else on this Earth," Oliver emphasized.

Malcolm and Nyssa looked at each other in confusion, but Cisco's jaw dropped. "Oh, my God," he breathed in realization.

"Cisco, I need you to open a breach for me," Oliver nodded, taking a deep breath. "I need you to take me to Kara."

***

When they jumped through Cisco's breach, they found themselves in a back alley, away from the noise of streets. "OK, well, without Barry, this is the best I can do," Cisco rubbed his hands together, taking off his glasses and leading Oliver out of the alley. "Lucky for us, though, Kara gave us some information about where to find her if we ever needed to find her."

"The sooner we find her, the better," Oliver nodded reluctantly, following Cisco as they walked out of the alley.

And what appeared to be in the middle of what appeared to be the clean-up of one hell of a battle.

"Holy frack," Cisco's jaw dropped, and even Oliver did a double take as he took in the rubble covering the streets. Several of them were closed off, and crews were clearing the debris everywhere they looked. Even some of the buildings looked as if chunks were missing from them.

"What the hell happened?" Oliver asked, looking around.

"Wait, wait, wait," Cisco ran over to a nearby newsstand, looking at the different newspapers and magazines. "CatCo! That's it!"

"What is?" Oliver walked over.

"Kara works for CatCo Worldwide Media," Cisco answered, taking one of the magazines. "Look at this!"

Oliver looked down at the cover, eyes wide when he saw the image. There was Kara, in full Supergirl regalia, a stern look on her face. On the other side, however, was a dark-haired woman with a cruel look in her eyes, a circlet of some sort on her head, wearing a blue dress. "Supergirl Victorious," he read the title, eyes wide.

"What did Kara face?" Cisco breathed, looking around.

"Well, let's ask her," Oliver lifted his gaze. "CatCo it is."

He walked off, and Cisco hurriedly replaced the magazine to catch up to Oliver, looking up to see the building just on the next street.

***

No Barry, who's stuck in the Speed Force. No Team Flash, trying to keep their city together. And no Legends, who let me just say, they kind of had what happened to them coming. Great last line, Sara.

That was sort of what I wondered . . . why did Oliver turn to former villains for his team? Why not his friends? Obviously, the only reason I could think of was that something really drastic happened and they just couldn't help. Barry stuck in the Speed Force takes care of that, and the Legends are cleaning up their issues. And maybe Oliver didn't take the time to think that there's a super alien in another universe who just fought a giant war, but she's the only one that didn't land herself in heaping loads of trouble.

SuperArrow reunion is next!