Chapter 36: The Message

If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 50+ chapters at patreon.com/Darkphoenix11 Additionally, I have many other works you may be interested in. Please enjoy! 

--------------

Star Labs Hanger

Afternoon

"Okay, I think I got this," Kara said as she walked over to Team Arrow. "Oliver-"

"Green Arrow," He said simply.

"Laurel-"

"Black Siren," Laurel said with a smirk and Sara winced.

Never had she been more grateful than now when Oliver had told her about her sister's doppelganger. She doubted she would have been prepared had Oliver not told her when he contacted her.

"Thea,"

"Speedy," Thea said and Kara smiled.

"Awesome. Okay," Kara walked over to Sara. "Sara-"

"White Canary," Sara said, trying to take her mind off her sister's doppelganger.

"And Jax and Professor Stein?" Kara asked.

"Firestorm," The two told her, as in psycho as when they merged.

"Ray?"

"Palmer. The Atom," Ray told her with a smile.

"And Mick?" Kara asked and the man looked up from the burrito he was eating.

"Hmm? Oh, Heat Wave," Mick clarified with his mouth full.

"And Steve?" Kara asked as she walked over to The Avengers.

"Captain America…or at least I was," Steve said wistfully.

"Well who are you now?" Thea asked as everyone looked at him, The Avengers in compassion and everyone else in confusion.

"I'll let you know when I figure it out," Steve said with a strained smile.

"Okay…Natasha," Kara said as she pointed to the redhead.

"Black Widow," Natasha said with a smirk that caused a shiver to go down Kara's spine.

"Clint," Kara said as she pointed to him.

"Hawkeye," Clint said as Oliver raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" Oliver asked and Clint shrugged.

"I didn't pick the name. I guess I just don't miss," Clint said confidently and Oliver narrowed his eyes, smirking at the challenge.

"We'll see," Oliver said as Natasha, Thea, and Laurel rolled their eyes at the antics of the archers.

"Sam?"

"The Falcon," Sam introduced himself.

"And Wanda?" Kara asked as she turned to the brunette.

"I do not have a codename," Wanda shrugged sheepishly.

"I'll come up with one for you," Cisco promised.

"Aaaand Caitlin and Iris," Kara said as she turned to the mentioned women of Team Flash.

"That's right," Iris said and Kara smiled.

"And you have cold powers but can't use them," Kara listed and Teams Arrow and Legends turned to Caitlin.

"You have powers?" Thea asked surprised.

"It's a long story," Caitlin said vaguely.

"Let's get started Cisco," Barry said, sensing Caitlin was uncomfortable.

Cisco nodded, sensing what Barry was doing and more than happy to help. Cisco clicked on his tablet and a screen in front of them lit up with the image of the Dominators Lyla had given them earlier.

"These are The Dominators. We don't know a lot about them but Kara says her people were invaded by them before she was born," Barry gestured to Kara.

"I heard a lot of stories but no one really liked to talk about it," Kara said apologetically. "All I really know is that they came to Krypton, my home planet, experimented on a lot of people, killed a lot more, and that they are really strong."

"According to Allen, you're pretty strong yourself," Clint noted and Kara blushed.

"We should use Kara as a stand-in for training," Oliver said in an authority filled voice.

"Since when Is Robin-Hood calling the shots?" Mick demanded and Oliver shot him a dark look.

"What I think Mick is trying to say is that it would be nice if we knew who was in charge around here," Jax stepped in before Mick could piss Oliver off any further.

"Yeah, maybe we should take a vote. Choose someone we can all trust," Ray suggested.

"Since Barry brought us all together, I think it should be him," Steve said to Barry's surprise.

"Took the words right of my mouth," Oliver said.

"Okay, Barry's been nominated. All in favor?" Clint said and everyone but Cisco, Stein, Jax and Mick raised their hands. "Good, it's decided. Allen, you're team leader."

"Alright," Barry said thinly, wishing he'd gotten some heads up. "Oliver has a good idea about you Kara. Most of us have never fought an alien before, so would you mind serving as a…for lack of a better word, practice dummy?"

"Not sure how I feel about being compared to a dummy, but sure," Kara shrugged.

"What do you mean most of us?" Mick demanded.

"I'm always fighting aliens on my earth," Kara supplied.

"And we fought off an invasion a few years back," Clint said as he gestured to himself, Steve, and Natasha.

"Yeah, but that invasion destroyed a good chunk of New York. Let's try to avoid that here," Barry said and the Earth-66 trio were shot surprised looks. "You three and Wanda, sit this one out. Everyone else, suit up."

"Okay, them I understand. But why Wanda?" Sara asked as Barry was sent mental images of his very painful death by Wanda with the promise of great suffering if he was being overprotective.

"Well," Barry shook off the mental images as best he could. "You see…how do I put this…"

"What Barry is trying to say is that Wanda would kick Kara's ass," Clint said bluntly and Wanda stared in surprise.

"I wasn't gonna put it like that, but pretty much," Barry said and Wanda flushed as everyone shot her stunned looks.

"This I gotta see. You," Mick pointed at Wanda. "You're fighting Skirt over there at least once."

"Skirt?" Kara repeated as Barry shrugged.

"Okay fine, Kara, Wanda, you two get to spare before the others. Everyone, suit up," Barry ordered and everyone began to move out. "Hey, Oliver, Kara," Barry called out and the two paused, walking over to him. "I really wanted you two to meet. Oliver was the first person to train me."

"Really? Well, you did a really good job." Kara told Oliver.

"Because I didn't hold back," Oliver said bluntly, "I shot him."

Kara looked at Barry incredulously and he nodded with a wince.

"You can't hold back either," Oliver warned her.

"Um, are you sure about that? I just met these people," Kara said uncertainly.

"These people need to understand this isn't gonna be easy. Don't hold back. Especially against me," Oliver told her firmly.

"Clint, you okay?" Sam asked as the rest of The Avengers noticed Clint watching Barry, Oliver, and Kara with an odd look on his yes.

"Yeah. I just…they're us," Clint said and his teammates looked at him oddly.

"Come again?" Steve asked confused.

"Oliver, he's the best archer on this earth. He's me. Kara is basically a really perky mix between Wanda and Nat. And Barry is nearly Caps' clone with super speed. Tell me you don't see it," Clint said as he gestured to the trio as Oliver walked off.

"Oh my god, he's right, they're you," Sam said as he looked back and forth between them.

"There are…similarities," Wanda noted a little unnerved.

After splitting off from Oliver and Kara, Barry rounded a corner and saw Cisco and Ray talking.

"Hey, everything set up?" He asked and Cisco looked over at him.

"Yeah, we're all good," Cisco said and there was a noticeable tension between the pair that Ray picked up on. "I better go get to work."

"Yeah," Barry nodded as Cisco walked off.

"Everything okay with you two?" Ray asked.

"No, but we're working on it. Hey, uh, where's Snart?" Barry asked and the look on Ray's face told him everything he needed to know.

"I'm sorry, I forgot we never told you," Ray said apologetically.

"What happened?" Barry asked, hit with an unexpected pang of loss.

"He sacrificed himself to save us all. He died a hero," Ray explained.

"A Legend," Barry said with a sad smile and Ray nodded.

Barry looked over and saw Wally standing outside the hanger, arguing with Iris. With a tired sigh, Barry looked over at Ray with an apologetic smile.

"Excuse me," Barry said before walking over to the arguing siblings.

"Barry, tell her I should be here," Wally said once he saw Barry walk over.

"Barry, he's not ready for this," Iris said with a pleading look.

"You both have a point," Barry said to their surprise. "Wally, you're a part of this now. So you deserve to be here. But you'll mostly be on backup. Everyone else here has been doing this a lot longer and, while you have come very far in a extremely short amount of time, I'm not sure you're ready for this. You can stay here, but you have to follow orders. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Wally nodded.

"Okay, come on in," Barry gestured and, with a cheer, Wally walked inside.

"Barry-" Iris began.

"Iris, I know you mean well, that you're worried about Wally. But, if you go behind my back and try and be a backseat mentor to Wally again, we will need to have a serious conversation about your place on the team," Barry told her firmly.

Barry then turned and walked off, catching up with Oliver, now dressed in his suit.

"You okay?" Oliver asked and he nodded as Steve walked up.

"We're ready to start," Steve said as Jax and Stein walked up to them.

"Barry, Oliver, before we start training, there's something you two need to hear," Jax said.

"A message that would be better if we could share it with you in private," Stein said with a pointed look at Steve, who nodded.

"Understood, I'll step away," Steve said as he began to walk off.

"It's okay, you can stay," Barry said and Stein sighed.

"Alright, but no one else," Stein said and Barry nodded in agreement.

"Let's make it quick," Barry said.

The five of them headed outside and got in one of the equipment vans. Stein pulled out a small device and pushed a button. A voice then spoke, one that was different but familiar to Barry.

"Captain Hunter, something has happened. A war is coming. At some point, you and your team will be called back to Central City to fight. When you return, nothing will be as it seems. Do not trust anyone, not even Barry."

"Where'd you get that?" Barry asked softly once the message had ended.

"In a secret room on The Waveridder," Jax explained.

"It was sent by Mr. Queen, from the year 2056," Stein said to their shock.

"So, I sent a message forty years in the future saying that Barry couldn't be trusted? Any idea why Barry?" Oliver asked confused.

"Flashpoint," Steve said and Barry nodded.

"Flashpoint," Barry sighed.

"What's Flashpoint?" Jax asked confused.

"After my dad was murdered, I went back in time and saved my mom. I created a timeline where she's alive, it's called Flashpoint. I lived in it for a few months before I realized I had made a mistake and I tried to set things back to how they were supposed to be but-"

"It didn't work," Jax finished and Barry nodded.

"Nope," Barry said miserably.

"Wow Barry, just…wow," Oliver said, stunned, disappointed, and understanding all at once.

"What's changed since you've done this?" Stein inquired.

"Cisco's brother is dead. Caitlin has powers. Diggle has a son now instead of a daughter," Barry listed.

"What? John had a daughter?" Oliver asked horrified as Barry nodded shame on his face.

"If you wanna yell about it, go ahead. I didn't just screw up my life, I screwed up everyone's lives, and apparently everyone's lives in the future" Barry said in guilt.

"You can't keep thinking like that Barry," Steve said as he put a hand on Barry's shoulder.

"I think we should bring everyone up on the up and up. We gotta tell 'em." Jax said firmly but Oliver shook his head.

"We are going up against a bunch of aliens, and you wanna tell everybody that their lives have been affected by time travel?" Oliver asked incredulously, seeing everything wrong with that plan. "One sci-fi problem at a time. You made a mistake Barry, it's part of the job. But we can't deal with it today."

"Oliver's right," Steve said and Stein and Jax looked over at him. "When we were facing the Chitauri on our earth, we found out a secret was being kept from us and our team nearly self-destructed. It took someone dying for us to come together. We deal with the Dominators today, Flashpoint tomorrow."

Oliver nodded in thanks before walking, Jax behind him. Barry saw the disappointment on Stein's face and looked away before walking out. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Steve.

"You don't have the right to judge him," Steve said and Stein looked up at him. "He made a mistake. But you have no idea what he's been through because of that mistake. He's suffered enough for his one mistake, lay off."

Steve then turned and walked off. He rejoined the others, who were gathering to watch the sparing session between Wanda and Kara. He joined Barry and the other Avengers to watch just as Kara took off into the air, ready to begin.

Kara shot off some low level heat vision at Wanda, but Wanda waved her hands, which glowed with red energy. A shield of red energy appeared in front of her and blocked the two beams from hitting her. Wanda flicked her wrist and the beams were sent back at Kara. They hit Kara, who flew back a little, more out of surprise than actual pain. Wanda smiled innocently at Kara, who narrowed her eyes as she flew at Wanda.

Wanda moved her hands in a circular motion and Kara glowed red. Wanda moved her hands down and Kara slammed down into the ground, hard, leaving an imprint on the ground. Kara stood up but Kara quickly moved her hands and Kara glowed. She tried to move but was unable to as the stone around her began to lift up. Suddenly, Kara found herself trapped by stone as Wanda stopped, smiling.

"And you're dead," Clint said with a proud smile at Wanda.

"What are you taking about?" Kara demanded as she broke free, the stone shattering around her. "I'm not beat yet."

"Yeah, you were," Oliver disagreed.

"If this were a real fight, you'd have lost the moment Wanda got you on the ground and trapped you," Barry explained. "If this were the real thing, then Wanda would have captured you at that point. And anyone with her could have either knocked you out or killed you. Wanda beat you Kara."

Kara has to concede as everyone else looked at Wanda, in awe of the power this young woman possessed.

"Dude, your girlfriend's a badass," Wally told Barry and he smirked.

"Tell me something I don't know," Barry said proudly and Wanda smiled at him.

Cisco eyed Wanda, a look of deep concentration on his face. Then, he grinned.

"Got It! Scarlet Witch!" Cisco exclaimed and everyone looked at him in confusion. "Wanda's new codename, Scarlet Witch. She's got those powers-which are awesome, by the way- that make her look like a witch. And she's got the whole red thing going on. Scarlet Witch."

Wanda tilted her head to the side, a thoughtful look on his face as Oliver picked up his bow.

"Let's go. We've got training to do," Oliver ordered and Barry nodded in agreement.

"Wanda, come sit out with the others. We've got work to do," Barry ordered.

-------------

If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 50+ chapters at patreon.com/Darkphoenix11