Lasspoint Chapter 9

 I saw bright lights, my assumption was that a guy like me made it to Heaven somehow, a guy who would proudly pick up a weapon and drop a body no-questions-asked for the powers that be. Funny how introspective you can get when you see your legs going in the opposite direction of the rest of you. But no, despite my belief that there was no way I was actually still alive after the fall, I wasn't dead. Little did I know, from that point I probably never would be. The heavenly voices I'd heard were actually those of my Sisters, only they weren't my Sisters yet, they were concerned onlookers that saw a woman in need and did everything in their power to help her. They dug up clay from the ground and set about rebuilding the 78% of my body that I'd lost on the way down, I remember them raving about the sky finally opening. I remembered the sorceress mentioning that she'd cut the island off from the view of the Gods. I heard a commanding voice, one with age, wisdom, and all the tenacity that centuries of leading a tribe of Warrior Women essentially exiled from the modern world. She called up to the skies, and it sounds like you've seen a lot Flash, so I'm not sure if this will be as unbelievable to you as the imaginary people I pictured myself explaining it to in my head, but the skies actually spoke back to her. She pled and demanded they help me and my tenuous connection to my mortal consciousness started to grow more clear and firm until I opened my eyes to see the women smiling down at me.

I would come to know these women as Hippolyta, my Mother, in the sense that I'd all but lost my life and she gave it back, Artemis, Nubia, the people who would grow to become my closest friends and family, but then, in that moment, they were a bunch of super powerful strangers who rebuilt the body I hadn't had the chance to get used to brought me back by directly petitioning the Gods to do so. I'd been brought up believing there was only one God and that he was pretty stern but hands-off, here I was being brought back to life by a whole handful of them. They'd wrapped me in bandages to help the new clay limbs bond then left me on the beach for fear of harming me before I was fully healed. I lied on the beach for days, feeling the loose clay forming my limbs harden, then loosen, then become flesh. A part of me. Or was I a part of it? I usually wouldn't get caught up in transcendent hokum like that, but I was immobile on a beach for a few days, so, "when in Themyscira" as they say.

When I could finally move on my own, I had been baking in the sun and I had no idea where the women had went. I found out later that they'd come looking for me but my dumb ass wandered into the woods and tried to fend for myself. I was aware of how I'd changed, but that didn't stop the existential crisis that hit me when I caught my reflection in a lake I'd stopped to drink from deep in the forest. I don't know if it's conceited to say that I'm the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, I played no part in my appearance. I started to lose my sense of self, think about all I'd lost, but then, damndest thing, I saw a fucking kangaroo. Or at least, I thought it was a Kangaroo, its a divergent species native to Themyscira called a Kanga. They're actually capable of flying, well, more jumping really high and really far, kind of like Superman before he got the hang of it. Anyway, that really puts it into perspective, you're on a magical island with flying Kangaroos after a group of immortal women rebuilt your body out of clay and you're worried that you're pretty now? So I sucked it up and looked for civilization.

When I came upon them they were having a celebration. What of? Another day passed, they don't have work weeks or schedules. They train, they build, they celebrate. Wine by the barrel-full, the most elegant music I'd ever heard played live, laughter. No creeps lording over them, no worries of what's to come, no godsdamned war keeping them on edge. When they saw me, none of them had looks of concern, unease, or even pity for what I'd been through. One of them, I'm still not sure which, shouted "Sister!" And they all surrounded, embraced, greeeted me and supplied with the most delicious wine I'd ever had. I was never much of a wine guy, but I guess I wasn't any kind of guy anymore. In the moment I'd felt like I had no qualms with what I'd become, but when they started to treat me as one of them, talk about how excited they were to have a new woman amongst them, offer me some of their skirts and girly outfits, I started to feel a little upset about it. They understood, they'd been alone on an island for centuries, of course they'd be patient.

Back where I come from, if you threw a fit, the commanding officer would make sure that rebellion was beaten out of you. But they gave me my space, made sure I was fed, and constantly reminded me that I'd be welcome to join them as soon as I felt ready to do so. Eventually I'd had enough time to convince myself that my reservations were nonsense. I was a woman by every verifiable metric now, the fluidity of gender isn't something society was very aware of back then, but that's neither here or there. If I were a woman in every way that could be verified, why was I so adamant about drawing the line at a skirt? I apologized for my attitude and accepted my new attire. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have immediate reservations after seeing myself in them. My Sisters didn't really have mirrors, not that they didn't believe in them, they just had no reason to have them, so I had to borrow a reflective shield to get a look at myself. I was lost in the sight, until Artemis, one of my Sisters, challenged me to a sparring match. I got my ass kicked.

It took some effort to shake off the competitive streak I'd developed before but I think I handled it decently, that was when Hippolyta took me aside to talk to me about my place on the island. She asked who I was before, I told her that I was a pilot. After explaining what a pilot was and who I was a pilot for, she boiled it down to the simple concept, "So you were a soldier." After that, she explained to me that I had to take a role on this island to be seen as equal among my Sisters, she doesn't usually offer such counseling unsolicited, but since she gave me my new lease on my life, she felt responsible for me. Like I was her child, then she told me all about her yearning for a child, that she felt being a Mother was her purpose, but being on an island of all women and being cut off from the Gods who could grant such a thing, its like I was a Godsend, except she knew the Gods weren't sending help. So she felt my arrival was something greater, even above that. I thought it was silly at first, but as the memories of my old life and my old Mother faded, I started to consider her my Mother just as she considered me her Daughter.

It's hard to keep track of time without calendars or bills or obligations, but it did eventually seem apparent that I wasn't getting any older. I knew that they all looked great for their age but I hadn't, until then, considered that I was now one of them. Immortal. I'm glad the realization took me so long, because I think if I had known nothing bad could happen to me, I may not have tried so desperately during my training to avoid being hurt and probably wouldn't have been as effective in battle as a result. My old life and anything before that day I became Stefania, the name Hippolyta chose for me, was a distant blur. But I remembered the battle, there was a battle. There was a war. It wasn't over. I'd felt like I abandoned people I didn't remember to a fate I didn't understand.

A ceremony was held in which I'd officially take my place on the island as a warrior, I'd officially be declared Hippolyta's Daughter, and be sworn in as a Sister to all of the other women on the island. The only thing I had to do was tell them that that was who I was. They presented me with a golden, glowing lasso, the same one I used on you, they wrapped it around my wrists, and asked me who I was. The lasso compels me to tell the truth, based on the people I've seen try to resist, it begins to hurt, pushing every urge within you to truthfully answer the question being asked of you. But to my surprise, I felt nothing, "I am Stefania of Themyscira, Daughter of Hippolyta" rolled off my tongue just as natural as anything I'd ever said. There was much drinking and celebrating that night, not often that a new Sister joins their ranks. It would be a natural assumption that they fool around with each other, the only ones on the island, never having seen a man, spend all day sweating and sparring, and your assumption would be correct. I didn't partake because, well, even if I'd accepted the new person I was and the new place I belonged, I still hadn't grasped the concept of having a new body that was the opposite of everything I was before, so I politely declined their advances. I knew I was shorter, even though the only thing I had for reference was the seat of my old plane I'd found washed ashore. No matter how strong I got, stronger than a human could ever be, I felt soft. I would have to shave twice a day if I had work in the morning and a date at night, now I couldn't grow a thing under my eyebrows. Sweet benefit of being an Amazon I guess.

Things were great there, but I couldn't help think about the outside world, the people I left behind, the battle I checked out of early. So I told my Mother that I wanted to go back, not to stay, but to make sure I'd done everything I could to prevent loss of life. To make sure the witch that did this to me wasn't still out there, terrorizing anyone. The Amazons spoke legends of Circe, an immortal sorceress, but they could think of no reason she would hold a grudge against them. After a long back-and-forth she eventually agreed to grant my wish and allow me to return to Man's World. Given a boat and sent out into the open ocean on my own, I felt a sense of panic being out in the open water again, but I was determined to make it back to land, to see what fresh chaos this woman has brought to the world and put a stop to it. I wondered what I might see and wondered just how long I'd been gone.

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1944. Romania.

"Right this way. But remember, it's our secret." The witch smirked as she spoke to the teenage Arabic girl in her native tongue as she led her up the mountainside.

"If you are misleading me, my Father will parade the heads of your loved ones through this village." She replied, unamused but still curious enough to follow.

"If you trust me in regard to nothing else, trust that I don't have a single loved one in this village. I'm here for two reasons, to share this secret with you and because I just adore the castle." The leader of the village had lived in the castle until just about the time the red-haired woman arrived. Anybody who ventured up the hillside to question her about the disappearance disappeared just as mysteriously. She had promised them a plentiful harvest and livestock even in the dead of Winter. She delivered. The ground remained fertile and there were more pigs than the villagers knew what to do with, between that and the intimidation of being disappeared as well, everyone decided to leave well enough alone.

"Then just your head, it will save on pikes." The teenager quipped.

"Do you truly concern yourself with the amount of unoccupied pikes you have on hand? A beautiful young girl like you?" The witch asked, the young girl blushed and instinctively raised a hand to the large scar that took up half of her face, including through where her left eye used to be, running the few fingers she had left across it. Probably someone who had a score to settle against her Father. The source of her wounds were unimportant, to the witch at least. The winding path had led them to a cavernous opening with a tricky, long trek down to a natural pool with an unnatural purple glow, a pool that the girl instantly recognized.

"Why is it purple?" She asked, illuminated by waters.

"It's like the one you have back home, but with a few extra touches from yours truly. I thought we girls could not only de-age us and heal us, but make us look as pretty as possible. Go ahead." She motioned the girl toward it, their proximity seemed to make the pool bubble.

"Father says that-"

"Nobody cares." The witch interrupted as she shoved the young girl into the pool, she struggled and gasped. The witch laughed before reaching out and helping the girl out, she now looked a few years younger. She blinked, astonished that she was blinking, she could see out of both eyes. As she looked at her hand, realizing she had each digit back, she quickly touched her face, running her fingers along the area where her scar used to be. "I'll give you a moment. Careful climbing up, the pit makes you a little... hazy for a while."

The witch scaled back up to the entrance of the cave, where several men dressed in black ninja outfits, wielding swords. The witch smirked, as one stepped forward to issue a threat, he suddenly dropped to the ground and screamed in pain as his form shifted and altered to that of a pig, too panicked and mindless to comprehend the cruel fate that had just befallen it, it scampered away and started to sniff for food. She did the same thing to each of the remaining would-be assassins before sitting down, using one of the pigs as a footrest, conjuring an apple from nothing and eating it until the young girl was ready to join her. The girl tried to thank her, but the witch shushed her.

"No thanks necessary, Talia. Remember this location, use it as much as you'd like, if your Father asks, tell him you DON'T remember. All I ask in return. Run along now, I've got a few decades to kill."

Lasspoint - A DC Comics TG Crossover - Chapter 7

Having somewhere to go during the day brought a noticeably more positive outlook into Berni's worldview. Iris was ecstatic that Berni had a friend to spend time with and never questioned or tried to get in the way of it, despite how many meals she didn't attend or the one-on-one time she felt they were finally perfecting. EO, on the other hand, always had a "tell me about this Mandi," or a "what do you two get up to in the city with this girl?" Berni knew that trying to trick Eobard Thawne thinking that a young woman showing up in the same costume, with the same powers, with the same code name as his old nemesis into thinking it was someone other than her was an impossibility, but she'd been doing a great job at preventing him from suspecting that she was aware of Eobard's alter ego as well. She knew some day sooner or later he would turn up in that ugly yellow suit for the grand reveal he's been meticulously planning for the decades he'd spent pretending to be a normal guy. Until then, Berni just had to do what every other young woman does when grilled about her social activities by her parental figure: Lie. Poorly.

Berni had to convince Mandi to arrange an Uber to pick her up at her house, drive her around the block to a convenience store, then run to PRIME Labs. Suspicion would be raised at Berni pretending she was walking into the city from their quaint little suburb every day. After arriving, she was into the suit and they were surveying what catastrophes The Flash would be preventing for the day. Things had been quiet since all of the heroes went missing, but the villains began to realize that their absence wasn't a ploy to lull them into a false sense of security. Mandi's research had determined that 3 different super villains were planning different attacks across the country that day. Metallo in Metropolis, Doctor Polaris in Coast City, and Black Mask in Gotham. The Flash was hoping to nip the problems in the bud before any massive damage or, worst of all, casualties. She was happy to help out for her friends in their absences, plus even as Barry she was excited to take on someone else's Rogues gallery. It was the nerd in her, keeping a mental file on every costumed maniac in the metahuman encyclopedia in her head.

First up was Metallo, one of Superman's classic Rogues, used to go by the name John Corben, retired armed forces, worked security for Lex Luthor before a Kryptonite mech suit built by Lex exploded due to a malfunction during a fight with Superman. Turned out that Lex had put Corben in the suit as a test run for the suit he'd eventually use, so a malfunction of some sort was expected. What Lex didn't expect, however, is that Superman would be Superman. He braved the Kryptonite poisoning and did his best to save Corben, his brain survived but not much else. Luthor had Corben declared dead, but he secretly placed that brain into a robotic body powered by a heart made of Kryptonite. He had convinced him that Superman was at fault, the loss of sensation drove him further to madness. Mandi quipped "at least he'll never have to taste coconut again" before Berni was off to stop the metal man.

With Superman gone and Lex taking a leave of absence, Berni had trouble figuring out what Metallo's goal was with this attack. But it soon became apparent that he was finally turning his anger toward the people that did this to him. He was attacking Lex's science division, firing beams of pure Kryptonite through the lab building. When used against someone who isn't a Kryptonian it doesn't have the immediate poisonous effect, but it does contain enough radiation to burn through surfaces and people if fired at a strong enough concentration. Judging by the holes in the building, the concentration was strong enough. When Barry had helped Clark master phasing through solid objects in the old universe, it was as simple as reaching in, grabbing the Kryptonite so it disconnects, then putting it back. His system will reboot and he'll be incapacitated long enough to return him to a holding cell that nullifies his abilities beyond base life support. However, Berni wasn't yet comfortable with her phasing ability to pull out someone's heart and put it back, even if they were threatening the public.

"I'm usually more creative than this." Berni said to Mandi over their comms, drawing a confused head-tilt from Metallo before she sped away. Metallo returned to his distraction before The Flash appeared behind her holding a cinder block lifted from a local construction site and hit him in the back of the head with it at super speed, knocking him out. A PRIME Labs drone with a camera hovered nearby, Mandi asked over the comms for The Flash to pose for a picture with Metallo, which she did before turning Metallo in to his holding cell and speeding off to the West Coast in order to take on one of Hal's old enemies.

Doctor Polaris was Neal Emerson, a man with magnetic powers, the ability to manipulate and move metal with his mind. He kept to himself usually, but had a split personality and that alternate persona was the one that was a super villain. Hal usually said "it's Doctor Polaris, just don't stand in front of anything sharp and knock him out while he's distracted. Barry Allen would always complain to Hal that his power is literally creativity but it was annoying that when it came down to it, he preferred to just hit the lower-level bad guys in the head. But as The Flash saw Doctor Polaris to use his abilities to hover over Coast City, The Flash put herself between him and jagged metal sheet that had been knocked loose from a car he had thrown before she arrived. She slowed her perception at the sound of the creaking metal, about to be pulled through her. She moved out of the way in time and, too quickly for Polaris to perceive, placed a row of cinder blocks from a local construction site atop the piece of metal then moved out of the way. Polaris stopped the metal upon realizing The Flash was gone, but couldn't stop the momentum of the cinder blocks that pelted him, knocking him out of the sky, landing on the ground unconscious.

"You know, if this is what you're going to keep doing we should probably get rid of the lightning bolt on your chest... I'll draw up some Cinder Block designs. Do you want to be The Cinder? Maybe The Block?" She said as the camera drone entered and focused its lens.

"I'm getting used to it again. Just take the picture." The Flash said as she posed with the unconscious Doctor Polaris.

As night fell, The Flash only thought it approritate to save the last job in Gotham for when the sun went down. Black Mask was planning to rob a GCPD transfer of confiscated weapons. With Batman gone, Nightwing busy in Bludhaven, and Catwoman leaning slightly more to the side of bad recently, there was a power vacuum breaking out, Black Mask seemed to be the frontrunner to take over. Black Mask didn't have powers, he was a spoiled kid of a crooked businessman who got a black skull mask melted onto his face and decided to leverage that into a career in shooting people until Batman punches him in the face. But Berni was getting hungry, so she just zipped through, disarmed everyone, put the goons into the back of the GCPD escorts, gave Black Mask a good scare, then did the same for him. Crisis averted. In great time too as she was starving, Mandi had figured out how to prepare calorie-dense meals capable of sustaining a speedster's inhuman metabolism, and by "figure out," she means that Berni had described something she had established long ago in the old universe and presented as theoretical. Mandi was smart, but Berni couldn't spare the time it would take to come up with them from scratch.

The two sat about the lab, Mandi looked over the photos and videos she took throughout the day, claiming that it would be key to continue getting grant money to show that their contributions could do some good instead of just cataloging the bad. Berni chewed on the highly-compressed energy bar. Even for a speedster, they took a while to chew. The large monitor that Mandi was using began to flash red, "Meta Distresss Signal!" Mandi shouted to herself as she opened the alert. "Oh no its out of our jurisdiction."

"So?"

"It's a lot of red tape and-"

"Are people in trouble?"

"You're right. Who cares? It's in a forest near Romania, I can upload the location to your earpiece, it will act as a super speed GPS."

"Got it. Who are we dealing with?"

"It sounds like a werewolf honestly... They say its a creature that is snatching cattle and hunters in the woods." Mandi said, sounding creeped out as Berni put her cowl back on and sped off. "Oh, Berni, could you take the drone? It caught up to you eventually before but I think this might be a little far..."

"I thought we were doing this off the record?"

"Yeah. I guess... I wanna see you fight a werewolf."

"Maybe I'll bring it back with me so you guys can meet in person."

"Don't joke about that."

The Flash arrived in the jungle, realizing that at this point the GPS wouldn't be of any use. She slowed her perception and moved at superspeed throughout the forest searching for any signs, finding several mutilated animals and abandoned hunting kits, eventually she found the exact center of the activity and stood in the open for a few moments before getting the feeling she was being watched. Waiting until the last moment to move, she thought she'd simply evade the target and then she'd know what she was dealing with, but all she felt was a sharp, splitting pain in her calf, she was brought to the ground, and got up just as quickly, only to see a blur circling her. She slowed her perception to see the attacked, it wasn't a werewolf. It was a... Werecheetah? A woman with Cheetah fur and sharpened claws. She moved quickly, not as fast The Flash, but was unpredictable. She'd been practicing at this for a while.

Flash managed to get in a punch but Cheetah was cunning and soon had her from behind, her claws inching ever-closer to Berni's neck.

"Flash? You aren't saying anything. Are you looking for a cinderblock?" Mandi asked. The faint sound to Cheetah's heightened hearing put her on edge. She let go of Flash and began to look around on guard. She began to stand up as she heard fast, heavy footsteps approaching. Was this a pack, was that the alpha? Are there alphas in the cheetah kingdom? Berni prepared for impact when she saw the blur of a blonde woman clad in red, black, and silver sprinting through the forest and shoulder-checking the werecheetah, throwing her against a tree.

"Wonder Woman!" The Flash shouted, she turned to look at Flash, momentarily distracting her and leaving her open for the Cheetah to strike. But she calmly batted away her claw with her gauntlet, the speed and impact causing a small sonic boom. She headbutted the beast in the face, sending her stumbling back, dazed. Wonder Woman then grabbed the lasso attached at her hip and wrapped it around the monster as it wailed in pain.

"What is your name?" She said in a blunt, authoritative voice with an accent that was much closer to an American accent than Flash was used to hearing from Wonder Woman.

"Fl-Flash." She muttered intimidated.

"Not you." She said, turning back to the monster struggling in her lasso. "What is your name!"

"Cheetah!" She squealed through a growl. The monster could talk.

"That's not your name. WHAT. IS. YOUR. NAME." She shouted. The monster cried out. The lasso began to glow and sizzle as if the fur and skin under it were beginning to burn.

"BARBARA!" She hissed. Her eyes looked slightly more human as Wonder Woman loosened the lasso and she ran into the woods.

"She's getting away!" Flash cried. Wonder Woman stopped her with a calm hand on her shoulder.

"There's no stopping her. She's a beast fueled by envy, rage, and dark magic. She'll hide, lick her wounds, and show up elsewhere. I'll find her again."

"How long have you been chasing her?"

"About eight decades." She said, as if that weren't an odd thing to say. "What about you? Why are you here?"

"Well, I'm The Flash and I'm trying to help. I um... Sorry, where I come from, Wonder Woman looks... Different."

"Where do you come from?" She seemed a bit suspicious of Berni, who could blame her though.

"Well, I'm a speedster and speedsters they, once they get fast enough that is, can travel through time or to different universes and... Sorry, does that lasso still make people tell the truth in this timeline?" She asked as she borrowed Wonder Woman's lasso and wrapped it around her wrists before telling her everything. The end of the world, the new Flashpoint, Thawne, the missing heroes. All of it. Wonder Woman simply smiled, she seemed impossible to surprise.

"In your old world you were a man?" She asked.

"Yes! But I was placed into a version of myself that was born a girl, and 10 years later. I know its hard to believe but-"

"I believe you." She assured him before taking the lasso from his wrist and wrapping it around her own. "My name is Princess Stefania of Themyscira. But once, long ago. My name was Steve Trevor."