Chapter 35

A couple of rows of pods containing kidnapped teenagers lined side by side on the wall. It took a little bit for Caitlin, Lena, and Karen to get everything sorted out. They had some help, in the form of Doctor Lynn Stewart, the mother of Jennifer and Anissa. She wanted to make sure her daughter was okay, in addition to doing what she could to help out the children.

Hanging outside of the door, Anissa stepped inside to check out the progress.

"Dad's resting," Anissa said. "He's stable. How's Jen?"

"Your sister is stable, although we need to make sure when we get her out of the pod, it's done safely," Lynn said. "The others, I don't know."

"Some of them have tested positive," Karen said. "Others have not. Although what the Reach did to them to make their powers come out…."

"It's a good thing," Lena replied.

Lena could only shudder to think what would have happened if the Team could not reach them. It was going to be a long hard road. Lena, Caitlin, Lynn, and Karen all mulled over the systems. It was only thanks to Ruby's help to translate where they could get any headway.

"I'm ready to safely open the pods," Caitlin said. "Stand by."

The pod which contained Jennifer opened up first. Jennifer staggered a little bit, her body still glowing, but she was steady. Lynn reached out to grab her, but Karen stopped her.

"Don't touch her, her powers aren't completely stable," Karen said.

"What do you mean they aren't completely stable?"

"Ms. Pierce, can you hear me?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah, I can hear you, but...ooh I feel like I have a hangover," Jennifer groaned.

It was the mark of how serious the situation was, that Lynn did not ask how Jennifer felt such a thing. She rubbed the side of her head, groaning a little bit. Jennifer moved from the pod, to an area of the lab to be checked out by Caitlin and Lena while Karen and Lynn worked for the rest of the pods.

"So, everything is clear?" Ruby asked. "Do you need any more help?"

"We have everything we need," Lynn said. "You should get some rest."

"RUBY! Oh, Thank God! Are you okay?"

Samantha Arias rushed into the room. The Blue Beetle scarab armor retracted and Ruby rushed in, to throw her arms around her mother to hug her in greeting.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, seriously Mom, it's okay," Ruby said.

"Artemis and Megan told me what happened," Sam said. "And what were you thinking agreeing with this?"

"I was thinking I was saving these people," Ruby said. "It's...it's bad enough without you lecturing me about this? That Black Beetle, I was scared for my life."

Okay, Sam just could agree with that, given what they said about it.

"I'm going to get some sleep," Ruby said.

"Okay, take care, get some rest, and we'll talk about this later," Sam said.

Ruby stepped out of the room. Sam sighed and moved over to get some coffee, which Lena helpfully presented to her. She would need to make more.

"None of them would have been here if she didn't help," Lynn said.

"I know, I know, it's just, I can't help but worry," Sam said. "This is a choice she's made and I know Harry wouldn't let anything happen to her, but I still worry."

"I understand," Lynn said. "Do you think we can get a hand to me?"

"Oh, yes, sure."

Sam joined the rest of the room. Jennifer was the first out of the pod. Only a small fraction of the children tested to a meta-gene. The others were just unfortunate enough to get through hell. It would be a long road for them to get there.

Harry dropped down from the rooftop and turned his head to the right to the left. He cleared his throat.

"The coast is clear."

Natasha moved out of the shadows to meet him. The Black Widow held out a folder and she passed it to Harry.

"We uncovered three more bases, complete with Reach agents and technology," Natasha informed him. "No experiments like the one you could. The DEO captured a couple of the Reach, but the rest of them scuttled out like cockroaches."

"Typical."

Lyta appeared up. Natasha raised her eyebrow, when she faced the other woman.

"This is Lyta Zod," Harry said. "Lyta, this is Natasha Romanova….."

The Black Widow, I've heard of your work," Lyta said.

"And I've heard of yours."

The normally imposing Black Widow, who spent a good portion of her life studying Lyta's work, had looked pretty impressed.

"They refuse to speak, but the technology is being held at the DEO," Natasha said.

"We're going to have to grab it before someone picks it up," Lyta said.

Natasha understood what she meant. While there were a lot of good people at the DEO, it could be as compromised as everything else. Given the United Nations had been compromised and there were a lot of people in the American Government, and other governments which were shifty, Natasha just waited.

"I might know someone," Harry said. "Providing of course it's not already been moved."

"And I'll look into one facility they've been sent to," Natasha said.

"It would be much easier for us to take them all down before they got started," Harry replied.

"Agreed," Lyta said. "Take this, and contact me the moment you find out anything."

Lyta slipped a two way radio into Natasha's hands. It had been surreal joining forces with a woman who she had been studying.

"And give Agent Carter my regards."

"I will."

Harry watched both of them slip off. With both Natasha and Lyta gone into the shadows, Harry put his finger into the ear piece and enacted it.

"Progress?" Harry asked.

"Out of the pods, and being tested," Karen told him. "Only six of them had an active meta-gene. Any luck on your end?"

"Not yet," Harry said.

The problem was that the bases did not seem to have any kind of pattern. Harry moved off into the shadows and kept his ears open for any other news. And he would need to make a couple of phone calls to get his hands onto the technology, along with the data banks they were in the painstaking process of encrypting back at Starrwave.

Black Beetle had to be somewhere though and he would be the easiest to find. He was not the easiest person to find out there after all.

Speaking of the devil, Black Beetle was well aware that he was being hunted. The Reach regrouped and thanks to the help of their partners, had been shielded. Of course, the Kryptonian and his allies were way too close. The General added to the headache and what was worse, Black Beetle's armor had been damaged in the battle with the Blue Beetle.

He found himself in an off sight LexCorp lab, to adjust the armor. Black Beetle grumbled, as sparks flew from the armor. He slapped it a couple more times to stop the armor from jamming.

"The little Beetle will pay for this one," Black Beetle said. "She'll suffer."

The Scientist's quest for knowledge caused his damage. Black Beetle did the proper adjustments. Despite being a soldier, and not a scientist, Black Beetle found it necessary to be able to understand how to fix the scarab.

"Good, fixed," Black Beetle said. "I'll hunt her down and rip her apart. I don't care whether or not they want the scarab, she must pay. She won't live another day."

The moment the Black Beetle stepped outside to begin the hunt, a loud thump echoed behind him. Black Beetle spun around and activated the arm cannon. It clicked into place and he fired into the door.

At first, he thought it was one of those stupid Earth animals. Black Beetle relaxed and eased up, and dropped his guard.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, a figure from the darkness jumped down and grabbed Black Beetle. Black Beetle made an attempt to stab the figure.

Nothing, and a loud crunch echoed from the attack. Black Beetle smashed into the wall with a force which shook every building on the street.

A force of nature ripped the Black Beetle limb to limb. Each punch rocked the Black Beetle. At first, the Black Beetle thought it was the General which they all feared. But, no, it was something else, something far more dangerous overall.

"What the devil are you?"

"Justice will prevail."

Black Beetle experienced true and utter horror for the first time right before he experienced nothing else. Every bone in the Black Beetle crunched as he slid to the ground, broken and destroyed.

One more crushing blow busted the Black Beetle's front mask and blood oozed from his body. The figure disappeared into a blur into the wind to leave his remains to be found by horrified police officers the next day.

Deep underneath, Harry, Karen, Carol, and Chloe poured over the Reach Databanks. Every little scrap of information they had in front of them, was essential to figuring out the Reach's master plan. It was a painstaking process to first translate and then to access it all.

Chloe closed her eyes as she looked over everything.

"Yes, they plan to look for people with certain markers, they plan to observe and befriend certain key politicians, and obviously, they're working with Lex," Chloe said. "Vermin obviously attracts vermin after all."

"Stay on task," Harry warned her.

"Right," Chloe murmured.

Being possessed by a doll demon and being on that island for years thanks to Lex had rightfully put Chloe on edge, just a tiny bit. Her heart stammered against her chest a little bit as Chloe carefully combed through the archives for any hint something out of the ordinary was going on.

"Anything about the Reach being part of what happened to the League?" Carol asked. "Did they delay returning to Earth?

Chloe combed over the database one more time in painstaking detail. That appeared to be the question.

"All indications say no," Karen said. "Which means, we have other problems regarding the Reach."

Harry sighed. While the Reach might not be connected to the League's delay in returning safely to Earth, their presence resulted in a problem. They diverted Harry from his mission.

"The only good thing is we've crippled their resources," Carol said.

"If what Lyta's said is true, it's a setback," Karen said. "Two of their most dangerous minds are out there. The Ambassador appears to be a smooth talker and the scientist can rebuild what they lost."

"And let's not forget about Black Beetle," Harry said.

Anyone who went up against that terror would not be forgetting about it for a long time.

"There's parts of this databank missing," Chloe said. "The Reach didn't put all of their eggs in one basket. Clever. A pain in the ass, but clever nonetheless."

"I trust you'll keep digging," Harry said.

"Well, yeah, although I keep hitting nothing but rocks," Chloe said. "But, you know me."

Harry did.

"The runaways are settling in," Karen said. "Dinah's talking to them and we're...we hate to do this, but we're going to have to run a few test to figure out what the Reach did to them."

"Although technically they're not Runaways, not all of them at least," Chloe commented idly. "Like Jennifer and Danielle, they were both abducted. Not sure about the rest of them."

"Keep working."

Chloe leaned up against the caves after a long couple of days of work. She returned to Smallville. It was more serene back to her teenage days.

"Lois told me I might find you up here."

Harry walked up to join Chloe and hand her a cup of hot chocolate. Which Chloe gratefully took.

"Sorry, I didn't find anything," Chloe said. "I'm concerned that something bad has happened. And you have your own problems, so I guess it's down to me to find out what happened, isn't it?"

"No, it's not," Harry said. "But, I know you take it as a personal challenge and an insult."

"Thanks, but I do," Chloe said.

Chloe leaned back. She had never been one to go completely nostalgic about a situation, at least too much. However, she had found herself just thinking back.

"I always returned here. Things were a lot more simple back then. Just a bunch of meteor powered teenagers jacked up meteor rocks and angst, with powers. And almost killing us all. Claire dealt with them, and then we started the process next week. Is it crazy that I almost miss those days?"

"Only you can decide that."

Chloe realized her hand grasped Harry's. She sighed.

"Healing completely means living fully," Chloe said. "I have this second chance with life, and I'm not dying alone."

And with those words, Chloe laid a huge kiss on Harry's lips. Harry wrapped her arms around the beautiful blonde. Oh, it had been way too long since she experienced pleasure. And now Chloe was one hundred percent healed and ready to get back on the horse, so to speak.

"Time for you to live again, Ms. Sullivan."

Harry scooped up Chloe into his arms and flew off to the nearest bedroom. The rush of adrenaline got Chloe excited until they reached their next destination.