The Legends of Forever by Barry Lyga (books to read for beginners .txt) 📕

“I’m writing you a prescription for stay out of this until your powers are back,” Caitlin told her.

“I’m at low power,” Supergirl conceded, “but still more powerful than you are.”

Caitlin tilted her head and blinked meaningfully at Supergirl, who blew out an abashed breath.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply . . . I’m just frustrated.”

“I feel you,” Caitlin said. “I think we’ve all hit our limit of crazy and evil and more crazy. Help me find something.”

“What are we looking for?” Supergirl asked, scanning the room at the same time. Cisco was a genius, but not much for sharing. He had an organization system for his workshop, but he had never bothered to explain it to anyone.

Caitlin described what she needed and the two of them began pawing through the junk piled everywhere. The workbenches were littered with the detritus of his various experiments—polymer swatches for costume prototypes, wiring and cabling for weapons systems. Nothing intact that they could use, so Supergirl started going through drawers.

She found what they needed in the fourth drawer down on the second workbench. Supergirl held it up with a quizzical expression on her face. Caitlin’s grin confirmed she’d hit paydirt.

“Great, hand it over.”

“Nope. I’m not letting you—”

Caitlin sighed. “Do you even know how to use it?”

Supergirl’s mouth opened in protest, then shut. With an air of resignation, she handed the gadget over to Caitlin.

“Is Owlman still in the room with Xanadu?” Caitlin asked over her comms bud.

“Yes,” came Iris’s voice. “Do you have it?”

“Yep. Kara found it in a drawer, next to paper clips and Post-it notes.”

“Will it work?”

“Who knows?” Caitlin asked rhetorically.

Iris said nothing for a moment. Caitlin and Supergirl sneaked out the door. Down the corridor was the medical bay. “Caitlin, it’s too dangerous. Let Kara do it.”

“She’s right,” Supergirl said with a note of apology in her tone.

They tiptoed down the hallway toward Madame Xanadu’s room. “Nah. We’ll do it together.”

“He could kill you,” Supergirl told her.

“Details, details,” Caitlin muttered. She shoved open the door to Madame Xanadu’s room, stepped inside, and took aim. Beside her, Supergirl tensed, ready to leap into action.

“Freeze!” Caitlin shouted, and pulled the trigger on the gun she wielded.

With a casual, cool air, Owlman turned from Madame Xanadu’s bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re supposed to shout Freeze! and then give me a chance to surrender before you pull the trigger.”

Nothing had happened when she’d fired, though. Frustrated, Caitlin whacked her palm against the side of the weapon. It had an uncomfortable grip and a big tank strapped to the top of it. It was heavy and hard to aim, and it was making her really angry right then.

“Uh, Caitlin . . . ?” Supergirl muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “Do something . . .”

“You don’t . . . It was supposed to be a joke . . .” She whacked it again. “It was funny because this is—”

“Do either of you have anything you’d like to say,” Owlman asked solicitously, “before I knock you unconscious?”

Caitlin realized the problem. She hadn’t disengaged the safety catch on the gun. Mostly because she hadn’t known it was there. Cisco usually didn’t have time to add such niceties to his gadgets.

“Freeze!” she yelled again.

Owlman rolled his eyes. “I told you . . .”

The gun bucked in her hands this time and a blast of cold air whooshed out. In an instant, the cold gun that Cisco had originally built as a counter to heat-based villains froze the water in the air around Owlman’s feet. Patchy blocks of ice formed from his knees down to the floor, anchoring him there.

Caitlin enjoyed the expression of sheer disbelief on Owlman’s face as he tried to tug his feet free. She sauntered over to him.

“Now,” she said, “do you have anything you’d like to say before I knock you unconscious?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she didn’t give him a chance; she swung the butt of the cold gun at his jaw and knocked him out.

“I coldcocked him!” Caitlin turned to Supergirl and crowed, then giggled at her own pun. “Cisco would be so proud!”

49

Barry watched as the first breach formed in front of one of the Time Trapper’s. A half man, half robot in a half-yellow leotard skipped directly into the second breach—Cisco’s—and ended up running into the Time Trapper. He was followed by a green-haired woman with a giant floating eyeball, a man with an ax, another man with what appeared to be a cloudy fishbowl on his head, and a . . .

A thing. Barry wasn’t sure what it was. It was enormous, built like a huge, hairless gorilla, with no eyes and a transparent dome where a head of hair should have been. Lightning crackled around the visible brain matter.

“Validus.” Barry turned to see Superman standing nearby. He had a black eye and a split lip. A trickle of blood wended down from a nasty cut along his hairline. Without powers, he’d fought his way from Wally’s safe spot to here. “The Time Trapper has summoned the Fatal Five.”

“Fatal Five? The bad guys name their groups now? I can’t keep track of all the villains we’re facing,” Barry said.

“Cisco’s smart,” Superman said. “This is a good strategy.”

Barry nodded, watching as Cisco conjured breaches to match the Time Trapper’s. Every enemy who emerged went straight into a new breach and ended up running into the Time Trapper. Most of them were confused and outraged by their time-napping, and they immediately attacked the Trapper. Those who didn’t found themselves in another breach, dumped out into empty space.

Even from this distance, Barry could tell the toll this was taking on Cisco.

“We have a little reprieve,” Barry said over comms, “but I don’t know how long it’ll last.”

“We need to come up with a plan while the Trapper’s distracted,” Superman agreed.

“Fall back into the sphere!” Sara yelled over comms, pointing to the cut-open prison where Wally had been running for who knew how long. “We need shelter!”

Oliver sent an explosive arrow into a cluster of super