Barry Allen Brings Home An Alien!

STAR CITY


Barry's first stop was to the familiar city where Team Arrow operated. He discovered John Diggle and Oliver Queen scouting a warehouse, as usual when he ran into them. He plucked the two men from the warehouse, then, in the interior of Oliver's apartment, he let time catch up. 

Diggle, instantly, sprinted outside to release his barf over the edge of Oliver's balcony. 

Barry winced. "I'm sorry, man, I--"

"It's okay!" shouted Diggle, through his heaving. 

Oliver closed his eyes, taking deep, tense breaths to refrain from screaming at Barry. 

Felicity exited from a door across the living room. She set her tablet on the table, crossing her hands over her bare arms from the slight breeze. She noticed the door opened, then Diggle throwing up over the balcony, and her lips split in shock and minor worry. 

"Hey," greeted Barry with a smile.

"Hi, Barry," she sighed. 

"So, who was that guy?" he asked Oliver. 

"That was Vigilante, and we nearly had him!" 

"You 'nearly had him'? Ollie, he looked like he was about to Scarface you guys."

"Barry, is there something I can do for you?" snapped Oliver. He jabbed, "Another evil speedster to help you with, or--"

"Maybe, actually," said Barry, tilting his head, "but that's not why I'm here!"

"What's so urgent that you had to rush to Star City?" asked Felicity. 

A grin broke out across his face. For suspense, Barry paused, then whispered, "Aliens."

"Aliens?" asked Oliver. 

"Aliens," he confirmed. 

"I swear to God, Barry, my life was somewhat normal before I met you," snapped Diggle, wiping his mouth repeatedly with his sleeve. 

Barry offered a coy smile. 

Thea Queen then entered into Oliver's apartment. She shuffled into the living room, holding up a document in her hand. She slowed when she noticed Barry speaking. 

"Look, okay, they're real and they're already here and, from what Lyla told us, this doesn't appear to be a visit for peace," explained Barry.

Felicity softly mumbled, "Oh, no."

"Lyla knows about this?" asked Diggle darkly.

"Yes, Lyla, came to--"

Before Barry could finish his sentence, Diggle was mumbling angrily under his breath and stomping out of the front door. 

"Where are you--" tried Barry.

"I called Thea," interrupted Felicity. 

"Uh, yeah I came to have you sign this before the City Council went into mutiny, but that can totally wait. Count me in," she said. 

"For what? I thought you retired," said Oliver accusingly. 

"Yeah, but it's--- it's aliens," she stuttered, in a 'how can I miss this' sort of tone. 

"Awe, that is so cute, you guys are just gonna get together and go fight some aliens-- have you lost your minds?! They're aliens, and there is only four of you!" reminded Felicity worriedly. 

"Ah, not if we get Stein and, you know, all the others," offered Barry optimistically. 

Oliver raised his eyebrows, amused. "They're calling themselves the Legends."

"Egotistical, but catchy," noted Thea. 

"Do you know where they are?" asked Barry. 

"I know where they were."


CENTRAL CITY 


Barry didn't exactly understand what Felicity and Oliver's plan was to get the Legends out of time and back to 2016, but he didn't dwell on it. He zipped an agitated Diggle to the planned Base of Operations for the new scandal, then Thea, then both Felicity and Oliver. 

Cisco and H.R. texted, assuring they were on their way with a majority of the equipment. Caitlin had arrived before Team Arrow joined, bouncing Melody in a baby carrier on her chest and setting up a couple computers on a desk in the center of the hangar. 

"What are you doing?" laughed Barry. 

Caitlin turned around, then looked down to the carrier and posed to model it for Barry, whose grin only widened. "I thought it would be better, you know, instead of having to carry her on our arms. Hands-free babysitting! Don't bother paying me back. It's a gift from me to the team."

"Well, I'll stick to carrying her in my arms, but thank you, Cait. That's really nice of you," said Barry graciously. She smiled. He wiggled his baby girl from the carrier and started to bring her outside the hangar. 

Thea caught up with him and Melody, not noticing the baby, at first, since her interest was in the S.T.A.R. Labs property around her. She spun in little circles as they exited the hangar, taking notice of every little aspect and design within the building. 

Barry looked around with her. It was an expansive space, mostly empty. A few stray S.T.A.R. Labs van were scattered throughout the hangar. It had been abandoned after the Accelerator Explosion, though, for some reason, turned out to be a property included in the will of Harrison Wells. 

"What is this place?" asked Thea. 

Barry looked around with her. "Uh, it's this old hall/hangar thing that S.T.A.R. Labs owns. Er-- that Parker and I own. Well, I own, now, I guess." 

"You should do something with it," she encouraged.

"That's what Park said," smiled Barry softly. He looked around again, imaging Parker twirling with him in circles and examining the place. "There was one day we came here to look at it, see if we should sell it. She said no."

Thea offered a remorseful smile. "How come?"

"She was set on making it into a museum," explained Barry.

"Museum for what?" 

"Me." 

"Smart woman," complimented Thea. She stuck her tongue out at Melody. "A smart woman who makes a beautiful baby, right, cutie?"

Barry withheld his comment to change Thea's sentence into past-tense. Instead, he forced a smile and moved Melody's hand to wave at the woman. 

By then, they caught up to where Felicity and Diggle were standing outside. The two were searching high in the sky for any sign of a ship that wasn't of alien descent, this time.

Felicity did a double-take when she saw Barry with his baby. She twisted a strand of Melody's hair in her finger, chuckling when it bounced back into place, then asked Barry why he brought her. 

"I figure she's safest surrounded by a bunch of superheroes," he said, shrugging. "Plus, you know, I think we need something to make us smile right now."

Felicity nodded knowingly. She turned her attention back to the sky.

"All right, so let me get this straight: our time-traveling buddies in a flying time ship are supposed to just pop up right here?" asked Diggle.

"Yeah," said Felicity. "This is the time and place I gave them, so if they got my message, they should be here--" 

A yellow rip in the sky appeared, shooting out a ship, appearing infinitely more friendly than the other ones they had seen in the past few days. 

"--right now!" finished Felicity. 

Diggle stared at the ship, face blank, as though he wasn't able to be surprised by what his eyes were witnessing any longer. "You know why I've never done drugs? It's because I was always afraid I'd see weird stuff."

Barry looked behind him to see Cisco jogging for him, holding his Vibe glasses in the air slightly to warn him. He handed off Melody to Diggle, who took her graciously, already converting to the fatherly instinct inside of him by mumbling little nothing's to maker her smile and feel comfortable with him. He was overjoyed his girl was good with strangers. Passing her off to people she wasn't familiar with was going to be extremely common for the coming days. 

"Where are you going?" asked Felicity. 

"Well, since we're fighting aliens, I figure we should get one of our own, right?" asked Barry. He waited for Cisco to join the group. "You find the right Earth?"

"Tachyon device tracked you to Earth-38 when you met her, so you should find her there," said Cisco, shrugging. 

"All right."

Cisco paused. "Just so you know, I'm only doing this because we're on a mission. I'm not gonna let my issues with you get in the way of that."

Barry did nothing except nod. 

Cisco slipped on his glasses and opened a breach. As Barry placed his hand safely on his friend's neck, Cisco warned, "This might take a few tries," then nodded, allowing Barry to run them into the breach. 


 NATIONAL CITY


A wrong turn or two later, Cisco and Barry flew out of a breach and came to a stop in the middle of an apartment. Barry spun around frantically to search for something familiar within it.

"This better be the right place," begged Cisco, "'cause if this isn't the right place, someone's about to be real confused."

The front door opened. Tense, the two waited to see who entered.

Kara Danvers lifted her head from the floor. Eyes widening, she dropped her arms, filled with grocery bags, and shouted Barry's name. 

"Hey!" he greeted, relieved. 

"I knew it! I knew it was you in that weird space!" she squealed.

"Sorry," he said, hugging her. "It took a couple tires to get here. This is my friend, Cisco."

"Friend is a loose term, we work together," he corrected, reaching to shake her hand. "Hi. Cisco. I have to say: this is a nice universe you got here."

"Thank you," smiled Kara.

Barry jumped straight into it: "Do you remember last year when I helped you out, and you promised you'd do the same for me?" 

"What are we up against?"


CENTRAL CITY


"Team Arrow is here!" said Felicity, pointing to Diggle, Thea, and Oliver. She slid over to the other group, an ensemble of Professor Stein, Jax, Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, and Mick Rory. "Team Legends is here!" She stopped in front of them. "Is that everyone?"

"I think so," said H.R. enthusiastically. 

"Nate and Amaya are back watching the Waverider," said Sara, smirking. "The newbies."

"Ooh, someone remind me to get a picture of the Waverider and Melody. Baby's first Space Ship," said Caitlin excitedly. 

A breach in the hangar opened, throwing Barry, Cisco, and Kara through. Barry and Cisco both reached to steady her when she wobbled upon hitting the ground. 

"Oh, that was cool," breathed Kara. 

"Guys! Thanks for coming!" greeted Barry. He zipped across the hangar to take Melody from Diggle. She squealed and hugged her father's shoulder happily. "Hi, baby. I missed you, too. Are you ready to meet a bunch of your... Uh... Extended family? I guess."

"I'll take it," agreed Felicity. 

Ray's eyebrows shot up. "She's yours?"

"Uh, yeah, this is Melody," introduced Barry, waving her hand for her. "She'll be hanging around us for this whole thing."

"And be camera ready, because this is so going in her Baby's First's book," warned Caitlin. 

Sara looked around. "Where's her Mom at?"

"Parker!" cheered Jax. 

"Will she be joining us?" wondered Ray. 

Kara clapped her hands together excitedly when she remembered. "Oh, Parker! That's, uh, Barry's wife, right? Do I finally get to meet her?!" 

Cisco, beside her, tensed. He swayed slightly, debating on whether or not to leave. Kara heard him shake his head, defeated, and trudged farther from the conversation at hand.

She watched him leave, crinkle in her brow, wondering if she had done something to offend him. 

Kara watched hi leave, frowning, confused as to if she had done to offend him. She wondered if Earth customs on Earth-1 were different than on her own planet. She turned back to Barry, listening to him, to see if he would answer the questions the others asked. 

"Uh.. Well, uh..." he said softly, struggling to break the news. "Park's not, uh... She's--"

"Parker has passed away!" shouted H.R., in what he thought was a helpful situation, but was way happier than it was respectfully supposed to be. 

It was not only a tense cloud that fell over the meeting. Barry felt their emotions. He felt the utter disappointment, the grief, the clear shock that came with the news of their friend's death. Their happy eyes had declined, and he was met with sorrowful looks from a number of the ensemble.

Mick Rory glanced to his team, unaffected by the grief as the others were. He knew of the girl, but not to the level the others had. He didn't know what to say, except, "Cold was a fan of her."

"We all were," muttered Ray sadly.

Oliver cleared his throat. "Barry? I thought you were bringing an alien."

"Yeah, we did," said Barry, thankful for the change in topic. He turned around, gesturing for Kara to come by him.

Kara did so nervously, shuffling forward. She unlocked her fingers from against her abdomen to apply her hand to Barry's back, offering her own apologies for what happened to his wife. She then smiled shyly at everyone. 

"Everybody, this is my friend, Kara Danvers, or, as she's known on her Earth, Supergirl," introduced Barry.

"What makes her so super?" asked Jax.

"Well?" prompted Barry.

Kara spread her feet apart and motioned her wrists down, lifting her body gracefully into the air. She used her heat vision to burn her family crest, the famed 's', into the floor behind the huddled group. 

"I'm convinced," said Diggle. 

"Best team up ever!" squealed Felicity. 

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