Riverdale's Supergirl - Chapter 34 to 48
by Archie Fan -  betty_cooper72@yahoo.ca 
The Origins of Sabrina and her magic. A prequel to her appearance in Riverdale's Supergirl


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The following story is available in .PDF version including illustrations on my
DeviantArt page at archie-fan.deviantart.com

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Chapter 34

The aftermath of Midge's attack was felt by the entire town. There had been
even more casualties with five people being killed in Ambrose's rampage
through down town and several dozen injured.

There had also been a strange incident near the outskirts of town where a man
had killed his fianc�e and dumped her body on the side of the road only to get
run over by a car about a quarter mile down the road. Police were baffled, it
was clear that he had killed her, his finger prints were found on her neck.
However how he had managed to transport her body there without a vehicle, or
if he did have a vehicle what had happened to it?

As for Midge's attack on the funeral home, there seemed to be a great deal of
denial over what had happened. The funeral director said he was just doing
what she had asked because of a lack of sleep from being over worked and the
others had said that their grief had made them susceptible to suggestion.
Cheryl was the only one who knew what had actually happened.

There was also no sign of where Midge had disappeared to. She had left a trail
of bodies in her wake over the course of her rampage, but now there was
nothing. It seemed however like the government was trying to cover things up.
There was absolutely no mention of the bomb whatsoever. It was probably quite
embarrassing for them to admit that somebody had stolen nuclear material from
one of their power stations and used it to make a bomb.

The Cooper family however found themselves at the center of a media frenzy.
The fact that their house had been the lone home on their block to be
destroyed by Ambrose had obviously raised some questions. Jughead rather
bravely stepped up and said that Ambrose had been there looking for him; which
had opened him to questions like why? Jughead kept his comments to a minimum
and soon the media storm passed him by.

Betty and her family had left to live out at the farm while their home was
repaired which was expected to take at least six weeks if not longer given how
extensive the damage was. Polly also got a new truck from the insurance.
Jason's funeral ended up being delayed a few days. When it finally happened
Betty was there sitting beside Cheryl. Betty was surprised that Cheryl wasn't
asked to speak during the funeral, despite the fact that Jason had been her
twin and she was probably closer to Jason than just about anyone. Their father
Clifford had delivered the eulogy and Betty had found it to be little more
than filler. He didn't tell a single story about his time with his son but
just rattled off some of Jason's accomplishments and constantly talked about
how the Blossoms were a loving family.

"What a load of crap," Cheryl had muttered after he finished.

About a week after that the Blossoms had been hosting a dedication ceremony
where they named one of the streets in the new subdivision they were a part of
developed, Jason Blossom Boulevard. However in the middle of the ceremony
Cheryl had suddenly interrupted.

"This is all crap!" she yelled at her parents. "Neither of you know a god damn
thing about your own son, you barely know anything about me!"

With that she had just vanished. And the next day at school she hadn't shown
up, but Betty had found she had an email from Cheryl which in itself was a
surprise.

"Betty, I'm so glad that you came into my brother's life, however briefly it
may have been," it read. "I'm sure you like the rest of the school, and
perhaps town, are wondering where I am. Well I've left Riverdale, hopefully
not for good. However Midge is still out there and I know that she's going to
try to kill me again. You don't force people to build a nuclear bomb just to
give up. But I'm not going to rely on you to protect me. It's not that you
aren't capable, but I need to find a way so that I can protect myself. I don't
know how or where I'll find that, but I can't return until I do."

Betty was a little sad as she read the email, but she understood. Cheryl was
someone who was used to being in control and because she couldn't protect
herself from Midge she felt like she had lost some of that control. Wherever
Cheryl was, Betty hoped that she found whatever she was looking for.

Cheryl's abrupt disappearance ended up causing major changes at school. With
the "Queen" gone there was a battle amongst the popular girls for the top spot
and Ginger Lopez emerged victorious. Betty and Sheila both quit the
cheerleading squad rather than deal with all the superficial turmoil that now
existed there.

It was now nearing Halloween and Betty along with Dilton, Sheila, Jughead and
Barry was hanging out with her friends in the barn out at the farm. They had
turned the loft into a cool hangout spot with a pair of couches and a pair of
large easy chairs around a coffee table that Betty had made from the barn door
from the old barn. Dilton had provided the electronics, with a TV and top
notch sound system as well as getting some fast Wi-Fi installed; he had also
bought some computers.

The five of them were sitting around sort of watching TV and chatting about
things, except for Dilton who was doing something on one of his computers.

"You know I don't see why you guys don't use your abilities to pull pranks at
school," Jughead said.

"That's not very responsible," Barry said.

"It's just a harmless prank," Jughead argued.

"Isn't the mantra of your favourite comic book hero with great power comes
great responsibility?" Betty asked.

Jughead was quiet for a long moment before he finally mumbled, "Yes."

"I rest my case," Betty said.

"Well how come you and Barry don't do any kind of hero stuff?" Sheila asked.

"Uh you do remember that we saved the whole town from a nuclear bomb, as well
as Midge and Ambrose?" Barry retorted.

"I will give you that, although Midge is still at large," Sheila said. "But
that was more than a month ago; neither you nor Betty has done anything
since."

"Uh..." Barry stammered trying to reply.

"I'm still worried about the Lodges," Betty said.

"Hiram Lodge seems more concerned about his own PR and Veronica left town;
last I heard she was in Central City," Jughead said. "Sheila's right you two
should get into the hero game."

"Like that Robin Hood guy in Star City?" Barry scoffed.

"Or that ridiculous guy that dresses up like a bat in Gotham?" Betty asked
with a chuckle.

"Laugh if you want," Jughead said. "But both of them are powerful symbols in
their cities."

"Fine, but still let's say we do, this is Riverdale," Barry said. "How much
hero stuff is there to even do?"

"That gas station on the north side got robbed two days ago," Sheila said.
"One of you could have stopped that."

"Yeah if we knew it was happening," Betty said. "I mean crime is so rampant in
Gotham and Star City you turn a corner and you're stumbling onto a crime
scene."

"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration," Jughead said.

"I could easily rig up a police scanner," Dilton intervened into the
conversation.

They all looked over at Dilton who staring at his computer screen working
on... whatever it was he was doing.

"Okay fine," Betty conceded. "But what do we do to stoop ourselves from being
noticed? It's not like we can just zoom in and zoom out in every situation."

"Well I can do this with my face," Barry said.

Everyone looked at him and noticed that his whole face was vibrating making it
look kind of blurry.

"I can still tell that's you Barry," Sheila said.

Barry stopped letting his face vibrate and slumped his shoulders in
disappointment.

"Well Halloween is just around the corner," Jughead said.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Betty asked.

"Well I've always wanted to do a group costume thing, you know as a group of
superheroes and we could have two actual super heroes!" Jughead explained
excitedly.

"Let me guess you want to dress up as that Spider-guy," Barry said.

"It's Spider-man," Jughead corrected him. "And no that's not what I thought. I
think we could make up our own group of heroes. You and Betty can be Flash and
Supergirl and Sheila, Dilton and I can come up with our own hero identities."

"Well yours has to incorporate gluttony," Betty said. "And even if we agree to
this, it's kind of late to start making costumes from scratch."

"Uh you seem to forget just who I am here," Sheila interjected. "The girl that
made her own homecoming dress three years in a row and it was the best dress
each time."

"Sheila I know you can make dresses," Betty said. "But super hero costumes..."

"So you don't think I can do it?" Sheila asked.

"There's five days till Halloween, and you think you're going to make five
costumes in that time?" Betty asked.

"Is that a challenge?" Sheila retorted.

"What? A challenge?" Betty asked confused.

"Yeah it sounds like you're challenging me to make these costumes in five
days," Sheila replied.

"She's right, it does sound like you're challenging her," Barry agreed. Betty
looked over at Jughead who nodded and then at Dilton who wasn't paying
attention.

"Fine, it's a challenge," Betty agreed.

"Then challenge accepted," Sheila said. "And if I win you've got strip the
entire football team naked so that I can see."

"Um... what?" Betty asked confused.

"That's how it works Betty," Dilton called over his shoulder. "If she wins you
have to do what she says."

"Oh come on," Betty moaned. "And I mean if I get near Archie..."

"I'll deal with that," Jughead said. "Or Barry will."

"It will be me," Barry said. "One hundred percent."

"Well I should get going," Sheila said getting up off the couch. "I've got
quite a bit of work to do."

"Well good luck with that," Betty said.

Sheila just gave Betty a smirk that made Betty think that Sheila had some sort
of trick up her sleeve and left Betty wondering if perhaps she'd just been
tricked into something.

*****************************************

"So Miss Lodge what exactly are you hoping to do with this property?"

Veronica was in Central City taking a tour of an old chemical plant with its
owner and his real estate agent.

"I have a few ideas," Veronica replied. "I'll know a little better once my
people come in and tell me just what kind of work needs to be done here."

"Oh we've taken care to make sure that the place is clean," the owner promised
her.

Veronica couldn't help but let out a derisive snort. The owner, a Mr. Brooks,
had been absolutely shocked to learn that she was even interested in the
property and it had been sitting as a tax right off for years as it had been
condemned by the Ministry of the Environment.

"I doubt that very much Mister Brooks," Veronica said. "But don't worry I
intend to pay you the full value for the property, which my lawyers have
estimated at thirty million."

Brooks whispered something in the ear of his real estate agent.

"The value of the property is actually..." the agent began to say.

"It's actually less," Veronica cut him off. "I know you've been having reports
about the clean-up of this property falsified. The agents you've been paying
off were more than happy to tell me about it, for a bigger pay off. But I'm
not going to pay you anything more than thirty million."

Brooks was a little disappointed he had been hoping to get a few more million
out of the deal. However he realized that he had obviously underestimated
Veronica, he should have realized that she was a lot more business savvy than
perhaps she appeared.

"Alright you've got a deal," Brooks agreed. "I'll have the papers drawn up
they should be ready tomorrow."

"Good," Veronica said. "Now if you don't mind I'd like to take a look around
alone."

Brooks shrugged and then left with his real estate agent. Veronica watched
them leave and then wandered over to the former chemical factory. Back during
the incident being called the "The Riverdale Attacks" by the media there had
been mention of not one, but two blurs. Veronica had quickly deduced that
Betty wasn't the only speedster. She'd set about trying to figure out who the
second speedster was, going first through Betty's family and then through her
friends.

Her breakthrough had come when she'd learned that Betty had recently become
friends with one Barry Allen who had moved to Riverdale from here in Central
City. In going through Barry's past she had learned that he'd been in some
sort of accident here on this very site which had involved a lightning strike.
He had been in a coma for three months and had apparently woken up with
absolutely no ill effects. Veronica however suspected that the incident had
somehow given Barry super speed.

Veronica's plan was to figure out just what had happened and perhaps duplicate
it. That would bring her closer to figuring out Betty Cooper's secrets. She
took one last look around the factory before turning and leaving.

*****************************************

Chapter 35

Betty was at her locker at the end of school gathering what books she needed
to take home to do her homework. It had been two days since she been goaded
into challenging Sheila and Betty had to admit she was somewhat curious to see
what Sheila could produce. Sheila had been at home hard at work every day
after school not hanging out with Betty and the others and she had showed up
to school tired having clearly worked well into the night.

"Hey Betty you want me to bring anything?" somebody asked from behind her.

Betty closed her locker and turned around to see Maria Rodriguez and her
boyfriend Frankie Valdez, the two had ended up being Home Coming King and
Queen.

"Bring anything to what?" Betty asked confused.

"Your Halloween party," Maria said holding out a piece of paper.

Betty snatched it from Maria and looked it over.

"Halloween Party at the Cooper Farm!" it read. "Start time 7:30, BYOB."

"Where did you get this?" Betty asked.

"Jughead was handing them out," Frankie said taking it back from her. "He said
it was your idea."

Without a word Betty walked off looking for Jughead. She found him at his
locker talking with Raj Patel, an Indian boy who was obsessed with movies and
movie- making. Raj was rarely seen without a camera in hand.

"Jughead, a word please," Betty said.

Before Jughead could say one way or another Betty grabbed him by the wrist and
dragged him outside and took him around to the far side of the school before
she grabbed him by his shirt and pinned him up against the school, his feet
dangling well above the ground.

"Um... is this about the party?" Jughead asked nervously.

"No it's about eating the last of my tuna salad the other day," Betty
responded sarcastically.

"Okay just so you know it wasn't my idea," Jughead said.

"Who's idea was it?" Betty asked.

"Polly's," Jughead replied.

Betty let go of Jughead and he dropped to the ground, his crown beanie falling
off. He quickly bent down and put it back on.

"This was Polly's idea?" Betty inquired.

"Yeah, but she knew you'd be against it so that's why we didn't tell you,"
Jughead said.

"But you hate these sort of things, why are you in on it?" Betty asked.

"Normally I hate these things," Jughead corrected her. "But you remember the
other how I said I always wanted to do that group costume thing the other day?
Well this seems like the perfect place to do it."

"Oh dear god," Betty muttered.

"And obviously Sheila is in on it," Jughead added. "But so are your parents."

Betty sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"I guess I'll just have to make the best of this," Betty said.

"Come on it'll be fun," Jughead said.

"Maybe," Betty agreed somewhat reluctantly. "What about Barry and Dilton."

"They'll both be there," Jughead said. "Barry agreed to help decorate and
Dilton said he'd DJ, and participate in the group costume thing."

"Ugh I can't believe Sheila is going through with this," Betty complained as
they walked back towards the front of the school.

"You know you're going to end up having to pants the whole football team,"
Jughead said.

"Does it make me a bad person to want her to fail?" Betty asked.

"Yes, but it also means your human," Jughead said. "Well somewhat in your
case."

"Ha, ha, very funny," Betty responded sarcastically.

They made their way out front where Polly was waiting. Rather than get a truck
again this time she had gone for the large SUV, getting a Dodge Durango. Part
of her reasoning behind it was that Betty was getting more friends and they
needed the seats to drive them all around, but she wasn't about to get a van
and she had loved the truck so this was the best compromise. Polly was sitting
in the vehicle waiting, and as Jughead and Betty made their way to the car
Barry and Dilton joined them.

"Hey Betty," Barry greeted her.

Betty just glared at him.

"Uh..." Barry stammered.

"She found out about the party," Jughead said.

"Come on Betty it's just a party," Barry said. "And it'll be fun."

"You don't understand," Betty complained. "All my life I've tried not to stand
out and not to be noticed because of what I can do."

"I think I understand just fine," Barry said. "But you can't just hide in the
shadows, if anything that'll raise suspicion in and of itself. It certainly
did with Veronica."

"I think her hitting me with a car had more to do with it," Betty retorted.

They all reached the car and got in. Betty climbed up in the front while
Barry, Jughead and Dilton got in the back.

"Hey guys!" Polly greeted them cheerful.

"We are going to have a talk when we get home, in private," Betty said, a
scowl on her face.

"She found out about the party didn't she?" Polly asked as she turned around
to face the boys in the back.

"Maybe the invites weren't the best idea," Jughead commented. "We probably
should have used e-vites."

"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty," Polly said.

"I think I still would have found out," Betty said grumpily.

"You know I don't really see what your problem is with this," Polly said to
her sister. "It's just a party. And it's not like I'm not inviting my own
friends."

Betty didn't say anything but just looked forward. She knew she was defeated
on the issue and figured it was better to just shut up and accept it.

Polly shifted the car into gear and pulled away.

"I've got to make a stop at Pansky's on the way home to pick up stuff for my
costume," Polly mentioned.

Pansky's was a costume shop named after the owner. He also had a small
jewellery business on the side. Polly pulled into the parking lot and came to
a stop. There were quite a few other cars there as well.

"Do you guys want to come in?" Polly asked. "It looks busy so it might be a
little while."

"Sure, what do you need to get?" Jughead asked. "We might be able to help you
find it."

"Well I'm being Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie," Polly replied. "I'm just
looking for something like the bottle she had in the show."

"You might have better luck at an antique dealer," Dilton said.

"It's a fairly popular costume I'm sure they've got something," Polly said.

They all got out and went into the store. It was indeed crowded with people
shopping for Halloween costumes. They quickly ended up separated.

Betty ended up finding herself in the less crowded jewellery section. The more
expensive stuff was kept in locked display cabinets, but there was some
costume jewellery that was out to be looked at more closely.

Betty looked over some of the rings. Most of the insets looked faked our
gaudy, but then she came to one that looked as though it were set with a
fairly large sapphire. Betty glanced at the price tag and saw it was quite
reasonable. She really liked the look of it so Betty decided to buy it.

Betty headed up to the front where she saw that Polly was already waiting in
line to pay, Betty lined up behind her sister.

"Oh what are you getting Betty?" Polly asked.

"I found this ring," Betty said holding it up to show her.

"Oh, that's quite pretty," Polly commented. "It almost looks like a real
sapphire."

"I know," Betty agreed. "I wonder what it actually is; it's not plastic."

"Maybe some kind of crystal?" Polly suggested.

Betty shrugged.

They paid for their items and after the others joined them went back to the
car. They all got in and drove back home to the farm. Betty went up to her
room and put the ring in her desk before going to join her friends in the
barn. Barry was showing off with his ability to juggle ten things at once, one
of which was a chainsaw.

"Knock it off Barry," Betty said as she reached out and snatched the chainsaw
effortlessly with just one hand.

Barry caught everything else and set it down on the ground.

"Don't tell me you're going to be the same way at your party," Barry said.

Betty just shrugged as they made their way up to the loft where Dilton and
Jughead were.

"So Betty you going to invite anyone to your party? You know a date?" Barry
asked.

"No... I don't think I'm ready yet," Betty said as she remembered Jason.

"What about you Barry, you bringing someone?" Jughead asked.

"No," Barry replied as he flopped down onto one of the couches.

"Not interested in any of the girls at school?" Betty asked.

"That's not it," Barry replied. "I guess like you I'm not over my first love."

"Oh this is not something I've heard," Jughead said sitting up from where he
was lying on the couch, suddenly interested. "Do tell more."

"I'm definitely intrigued by this," Betty said as she plopped down into one of
the chairs and put her feet up on the coffee table.

"There's not much to tell," Barry said. "Her name was Iris, Iris West. I
probably liked her more than she liked me, and her brother Daniel hated me."

"Older or younger?" Betty asked.

"Twin," Barry replied.

"Oh wow, that is a parallel," Jughead said. "Twins just like Jason and
Cheryl."

"So what happened?" Betty inquired.

"After my... accident, while I was in the coma, Iris broke up with me, she
started dating this guy Eddie, he's basically a blonde version of Reggie,"
Barry said. "She was a different person when I woke up, she wasn't quite as
nice and she was sullen. I soon learned that it was because her mother had
been killed."

"Oh what happened?" Jughead asked.

"It's a mystery," Barry replied. "She was home one night with Daniel and Iris,
while their father Joe was at work, he's a cop. It was fairly late and Iris
and Daniel were going to bed and suddenly they heard a cry from the kitchen
and when they went downstairs they found their mother dead with a knife in
their house."

"That's awful," Betty commented. "Did they catch whoever did it?"

"No, there were two sets of fingerprints on the weapon but they belonged to
Iris and Daniel and they were both upstairs when it happened," Barry said.

"Could they have done it?" Jughead asked.

"They could have," Barry said. "But there was no motive and there was no
reason not to believe their story. And then there was the strange fact that
they both blamed me."

"They blamed you? But weren't you in a coma at the time?" Betty asked.

"Yes, I don't think I could have had a better alibi," Barry said. "It's part
of the reason why I wasn't too upset to leave Central City."

"That's so weird," Jughead commented.

"Well forget them," Barry said with a shrug. "So what do you guys think we
should do for decorations?"

Betty let out a sigh as Barry and Jughead talked about the party.

*****************************************

Veronica Lodge double checked the address on her phone. She was standing in
front of a two story semi-detached home in Central City. After confirming that
she had the right address Veronica walked up the short walkway and onto the
small covered porch before ringing the doorbell. A few moments later the door
opened a teenage boy with short brown hair answered.

"Hi," he greeted Veronica, however his tone was anything but welcoming.

"Are you Daniel West?" Veronica asked.

"Who are you?" the boy retorted.

Before Veronica could respond a girl with similar coloured hair tied back into
a loose ponytail who was probably the same age appeared behind the boy.

"Oh my god Daniel, don't you recognize her? That's Veronica Lodge!" the girl
exclaimed.

Daniel however didn't seemed impressed.

"What do you want?" he asked Veronica.

"I was hoping I could talk to you," Veronica replied. "May I come in?"

Daniel didn't get a chance to respond before the girl, likely his sister given
how similar they looked, pulled him aside to let Veronica in. Veronica smiled
as she entered the house.

"And I take it that you're Iris," Veronica said.

The girl nodded slightly as a shocked expression crossed her face.

"How do you know us?" Daniel asked suspiciously.

"Well let's sit down and discuss things," Veronica said.

Iris led the way to the living room. Veronica took a seat on the chair while
Iris and Daniel sat down on the couch.

"So I understand that you two know a boy named Barry Allen," Veronica said.

"Yeah my sister dated the loser briefly," Daniel said his voice full of spite.

Veronica glanced over at Iris who has a rather angry expression on her face.

"I take it you don't like him much," Veronica observed.

"Barry Allen killed our mother," Iris said, venom in her tone and a deadly
expression on her face.

"It's my understanding that he was in a coma at the time so perhaps you could
explain," Veronica said.

"You don't believe us, just like the police didn't believe us," Daniel said.

Veronica had read over the police report concerning their mother's death which
included the police's interview with the West twins, that was why Veronica had
even come here in the first place.

"All I know is what I've read," Veronica said. "But I would like to hear just
what you two saw that night."

"Well we were both upstairs," Iris said. "I was in the bathroom and Daniel was
in his room, it was late like eleven or so. Our dad was at work, he's a cop so
he works all hours."

"I was just about to climb into bed when I heard our mom scream from down in
the kitchen," Daniel picked up the story. "I ran out of my room and down the
stairs with Iris right behind me. As we ran into the kitchen I thought I saw a
yellow flash or something."

"A yellow flash?" Veronica asked.

"I don't know it was just this blur, it was only there for a split second, not
even a second like half a second and then it was gone." Daniel replied.

"Anyway," Iris continued. "We enter the kitchen and we see our mom lying on
the floor the knife in her chest and blood is everywhere. There's this guy
dressed in a red suit kneeling over her. Daniel yelled hey or something at him
and he looked up and it was Barry Allen."

"You're sure?" Veronica inquired.

Both of the West twins nodded.

"It was definitely him," Iris said. "He looked a little bit older, I mean he
had a bit of facial hair but otherwise it looked exactly like him."

"He looked up at us, his face was shocked and then suddenly he just vanished
in his red blur." Daniel said.

Veronica sat back and considered for a moment. She could easily tell why the
police didn't believe their story, but after what she had seen in Riverdale
Veronica thought that it was certainly plausible.

"Well the police might not believe you, but I do," Veronica said.

"Well that's great but what good does that do us?" Daniel asked.

"I'm guessing the two of you would like to get revenge on Barry Allen,"
Veronica replied.

"He killed our mother and got away with it, of course we do," Iris stated
unequivocally.

"Well I think I know how Barry might have done it," Veronica said. "And if I'm
right with your help you can get that revenge."

*****************************************

Chapter 36

It was the day before Halloween and Betty was in the barn along with Barry,
Jughead, Dilton and Polly. Polly was down on the main level and was directing
Barry in what to do with decorating the place while Jughead was reviewing the
menu. Dilton was up in the loft and was apparently working on a music
playlist, but he was just staring at his computer screen like he often did.
Betty meanwhile was also up in the loft sitting on the couch not helping still
sulking over the fact that this party was evening happening.

"You know Betty if you were helping this would go a lot faster," Polly called
up to her sister.

"Just making a case for me not to help," Betty replied.

"Oh get over it," Polly retorted a hint of frustration in her tone.

Just then the barn door opened.

"Hey guys!" Sheila greeted everyone as she entered.

Everyone looked over to see that Sheila was carrying a pair of boxes.

"What's in the boxes?" Polly asked.

"Betty and Barry's costumes," Sheila replied.

Barry was over to Sheila in a flash, rather excited.

"Don't you want to try it on Betty?" Barry called up to Betty.

Betty somewhat reluctantly and slowly got up and came down from the loft, not
bothering to use her super speed. Barry was practically bouncing with
excitement beside Sheila as Betty made her way over to them.

"Come on put them on!" Sheila said excitedly as she handed Betty and Barry a
box each.

Betty cracked the box open a bit and looked inside.

"Really?" Betty asked.

"Come on just put it on," Sheila said.

"I'll race you," Barry challenged Betty.

"Pretty sure you'll win," Betty said.

"I'll give you a one second head start," Barry offered.

Betty sighed and set the box on the ground and opened it. Then using her super
speed she put the costume on. A second later Barry did the same. In less than
a second the two of them were standing beside Sheila wearing the costumes she
had made.

Barry's costume was a tight fitting full body suit that included a hood/mask
combination that left only his mouth visible. It was a bright red and had a
symbol that was a white circle with a lightning bolt on the chest.

"This is awesome Sheila!" Barry exclaimed as he looked down at himself.

Betty meanwhile wasn't quite so impressed. Her costume was a blue tight
fitting long sleeved top with a short red mid-thigh skirt and a pair of red
boots. There was also a red cape and a small mask that covered her eyes and
nose. Betty tugged at the fabric looking a little unimpressed.

"What's with the mask?" Betty asked Sheila.

"To hide your identity of course," Sheila replied.

"And the cape?" Betty inquired.

"Well you can jump really high right? So you can use it to sort of glide like
that Bat guy in Gotham does," Sheila said. "I got the idea when I saw that
video of him last week."

Betty had seen the same video, however that man's cape had been made from a
rather sturdy fabric; not the red nylon or whatever it was that this cape was
made from.

"The idea is nice but I don't think it's going to actually work," Betty said.

Sheila's face fell.

"You hate it don't you?" Sheila asked disappointedly.

"I don't hate it," Betty said. "Honestly I'm impressed you were able to make
this so quickly. But the cape is just..."

"Just what?" Sheila asked.

"It's not going to work how you want," Betty said. "It'll either rip or I'll
just end up plummeting down to earth like I normally would."

"Well why don't we go and test it?" Jughead suggested.

Everyone else agreed and chimed in.

"Alright fine," Betty relented.

Everyone except for Dilton who was still busy on his computer went outside the
barn and Betty stood lined up with the field. After making sure that there
weren't any cars nearby, she took three running steps before she leapt up into
the air. Betty launched herself a good two hundred feet up. She then grabbed
the edges of the cape to try and glide down to earth. However as she had
suspected, the material was far too flimsy to let her catch the air and she
came plummeting down to the ground. She was able to land running but her feet
sank into the dirt and she ended up running out of her boots which got stuck.

She was pulling the boots out of the ground and wiping them off when the other
came running over.

"Okay so maybe you were right," Sheila admitted.

Betty decided not to rub it in, but just gave Sheila a smug smile before
leading the way back to the barn. Betty picked up her clothes and the box the
costume had come in when she did.

"I'm going to go put this up in my room," she said. "I'll be back in a bit."

Betty made her way back to the farm house, going in through the side door that
entered the kitchen. Inside her mother was in the kitchen baking. Alice was
making cookies and cupcakes for the party tomorrow.

"Oh is that your costume Betty?" Alice asked as Betty came inside.

"I guess so," Betty said.

"Betty your friend worked hard to make that," Alice scolded her. "You should
show a little more appreciation."

"Yes mom," Betty muttered as she made her way through the kitchen to the
stairs and went up to the room she had claimed as hers, which had been her
mother's room when she had grown up here.

Betty stopped and looked at herself in the mirror. She had to admit that
Sheila had done amazingly well in make the dress proportionate for her,
despite the fact that Betty hadn't helped her with measurements or anything.

Betty then noticed that the ring she had bought the other day was sitting out
on her dresser. She picked it up and put it on. The blue of the crystal
actually matched the blue of the costume.

"Hmm maybe I can wear this with it," Betty thought to herself. "I get my
powers from a magical ring or something. Not because I'm an alien."

Just then she heard something outside her window. Betty ran to the window and
opened it up.

"Betty, Dilton just picked up something about an armed bank robbery in
Greendale," Barry said. "Come on now is our chance to prove ourselves."

"What?" Betty asked confused.

However Barry suddenly took off. Betty cursed silently for a second before
taking off after Barry. She didn't catch him until he came to a stop outside
the bank in Greendale about half a block away. The place was surrounded by
squad cars.

"Apparently they've taken hostages," Barry said. "Dilton picked up a call from
Greendale to Riverdale asking if they could spare some officers, it sounds
like they've got some heavy weaponry."

"And you figured we can just run in?" Betty asked.

"No, obviously we have to come up with a plan," Barry said. "This won't be
like when we stopped Midge."

"It would help if we knew what they were after," Betty said. "If it were
simply cash I think they would have gotten out of here before the police
arrived."

"That's probably true," Barry agreed. "Do you think maybe it's something in a
safety deposit box?"

"That seems likely," Betty said.

"Well how about I handle the guys watching the hostages you get the guys in
the safety deposit box room?" Barry suggested.

"I don't know, I mean that's putting the hostages in danger," Betty said.

"We can't do nothing," Barry said.

"Yes we can, we let the police do their job," Betty said.

"No, I'm going in," Barry said.

Before Betty could stop him Barry raced pass the police blockade and into the
bank. With a sigh Betty went after him.

Inside Betty saw Barry had already disarmed one of the robbers guarding the
hostages and was in the process of disarming the second one. Betty didn't see
any others so she made her way towards the back of the bank she saw three men
inside the safety deposit room opening up safety deposit boxes.

Suddenly she came to a dead stop feeling weak, she quickly realized what it
was. There was green meteor rock in one of the open safety deposit boxes that
one of the men had tossed out into the hallway. Betty dropped to one knee as
she felt her strength drain away. She didn't notice crystal on the ring on her
finger glow momentarily. A moment later Barry was there.

"Betty I..." he said then noticed that she was down.

Betty pointed at the meteor rock and Barry instantly understood. He grabbed it
and sped off. However as he did the men in the room suddenly noticed Betty.
Once the meteor rock was gone Betty got to her feet.

"You're a little early for Halloween girl," one of the men said as he pointed
a pistol at Betty.

Betty just gave him a half smile. She went to run in and stop them but she
went about two steps before she realized she wasn't moving at her super speed.
As she came to a stop the man fired his gun and Betty suddenly felt a pain in
her left shoulder. She looked down at it and noticed she was bleeding.

"What the..." she muttered before she dropped to the ground.

A moment later Barry reappeared and he saw Betty on the ground. He quickly ran
and disarmed and knocked out the three remaining thieves before picking Betty
up and racing back to the farm with her.

*****************************************

Veronica arrived at her recently acquired bit of real estate. She watched as
multiple flatbed trucks wheeled into some large transformers. Her plan was to
try and recreate the accident that had put Barry Allen into a coma. Of course
generating the same voltage as a lightning bolt was going to be difficult.
Veronica had considered perhaps building a lightning rod to try and tap an
actually lightning bolt, but unfortunately the weather for the next month in
Central City looked to be relatively clear, and she needed to work fast to
avoid the suspicion of her father.

Just then she received a call from him. Annoyed Veronica answered the phone.

"Yes father?" Veronica answered brusquely.

"Veronica why are you purchasing a great deal of electrical transformers?" Her
father Hiram inquired.

"Well since my other research was kyboshed by you firing me I decided to move
onto working on alternative energy ideas," Veronica lied hoping her father
bought it.

There was a pause on the other end.

"Alright, let me know how things go," Hiram said before abruptly ending the
call.

Veronica looked at her phone surprised. She had expected her father to be far
more suspicious of whatever she was doing. That in and of itself made Veronica
suspicious as to just what her father was up to. However she knew that she
needed focus on her current work.

Just then a black sedan pulled up nearby. Moments later Daniel and Iris West
got out, Veronica walked over to meet them.

"What's going on here? What is all this?" Iris asked.

"I'm sure you're aware that this is the place where Barry was found in a
coma," Veronica said.

"Yeah so?" Daniel asked not caring.

"So from my understanding there was some sort of accident where he was struck
by lightning," Veronica replied. "I'm going to try and recreate that
accident."

"Why?" Iris asked.

"Because I believe that the accident gave Barry powers; powers that somehow
allowed him to travel through time, and that's how he killed your mother,"

Veronica answered.

"Why would Barry from the future want to kill our mother?" Daniel questioned.

Veronica shrugged as she replied, "I can't know a person's motives."

"So why do you want to recreate the accident?" Iris asked.

"Because then I can give you the same powers that Barry has and you can go
back and save your mother," Veronica replied. "But only if you want to."

Daniel and Iris looked at each other for a moment, both of them clearly
considering what Veronica was offering.

"We'll do it," they both said simultaneously.

Veronica smiled and nodded.

"Then we've got quite a bit of work to do," Veronica said.

*****************************************

Chapter 37

Jughead, Polly, Sheila and Dilton were up in the loft of the barn listening to
the police scanner to hear how things were going for Barry and Betty.

"We've got shots fired!" they heard.

They were all slightly concerned. Not really for either Betty or Barry but for
the hostages. However when Barry showed up just a few seconds later with a
bleeding Betty in his arms that concern soon changed.

"Oh my god what happened?" Polly asked.

"I don't know," Barry replied as he and Jughead carried Betty up to the loft
and put her on one of the couches.

Sheila grabbed a pair of scissors and cut up the cape of Betty's costume to
make a bandage as Polly looked at the wound.

"She's been shot!" Polly exclaimed.

"I know," Barry said as he pulled off the hood of his costume. "I don't know
how that happened."

"Everyone calm down," Dilton said taking charge of the situation.

Everyone was quiet as they looked at Dilton.

"Sheila give that bandage to Jughead, Jughead press that against the wound and
hold it as tight as you can," Dilton said. "Sheila I want you to go get your
sewing kit, we're probably going to need to stitch that wound."

They both did as Dilton instructed.

"What about me?" Polly asked.

"The bullet is probably still in there," Dilton said. "We'll need tweezers or
something like that, try and find something. And some rubbing alcohol to
sterilize it."

Polly ran off to find what Dilton asked for.

"Barry, go sit down in that chair," Dilton ordered.

"But I can..." Barry protested.

"Sit down," Dilton said firmly.

Barry walked over to the chair and sat down. Dilton followed and sat on the
coffee table facing him.

"I want you to tell me everything you can about what happened prior to Betty
being shot," Dilton said.

"I don't see how that..." Barry began to argue.

"I need you to tell me what you remember to see if we can figure out how our
bulletproof friend here now has a bullet lodged in her shoulder," Dilton said.

"Well we showed up at the bank and... and I guess I ran in without having much
of a plan," Barry said. "I took out the robbers guarding the hostages while
Betty went to the back where three of them were getting into the safety
deposit boxes."

"And what happened back there?" Dilton asked.

"I'm not sure but I went back there and Betty was on the ground and there was
some green meteor rock nearby," Barry said. "I grabbed it and quickly ran it
out of the bank but when I came back in Betty had been shot. I don't know if I
was quick enough."

"Do you remember where you were when you heard the sound of the shot?" Dilton
asked.

"Outside the bank throwing the meteor rock into a dumpster," Barry replied.

Dilton nodded and stood up.

"It wasn't your fault Barry," Dilton said.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked.

"The meteor rock has to be in close proximity to Betty to affect her," Dilton
said. "With several thick walls between you she should have been fine which
means that it's something else."

Just then Polly returned with a pair of tweezers and a bottle of rubbing
alcohol, followed by Sheila with her sewing kit. Dilton took the tweezers from
Polly and poured the alcohol on them and then knelt down beside Betty.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Jughead asked worriedly.

"I've got a pretty good idea," Dilton replied confidently.

"Shouldn't we call an ambulance?" Sheila asked.

"And tell them what exactly?" Dilton retorted. "And we don't know how she'll
react to medication or a blood transfusion. Remember she's not human."

They all nodded but were still worried. Jughead pulled the bandage aside and
Dilton looked in and examined the wound. He then dug in with the tweezers and
after a few moments he was able to pull the bullet free.

"Sheila hand me the needle," Dilton said.

"No let me," Sheila said shoving her way in. "I can sew this up better then
you."

The others watched nervously as Sheila quickly and efficiently stitched up the
wound. Soon it was sewn up and the bleeding stopped.

"Now what?" Barry asked.

"Now we have to try and figure out what made Betty lose her powers," Dilton
replied.

Just then Alice came running into the barn.

"Betty, Betty!" she exclaimed.

"She's okay Mom," Polly said. "Dilton took out the bullet and Sheila stitched
the wound up."

Alice reached the loft and knelt down beside her unconscious daughter.

"I don't understand, how could this happen?" Alice asked.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Jughead replied.

Just then Betty began to stir.

"She's coming too," Dilton said. "Everybody step back and give her some space.

"Ugh, what... where," Betty muttered as she opened her eyes.

"Don't do too much," Dilton said.

Betty sat up and winced as pain shot through her shoulder. She looked down to
see the stitched up injury.

"What... I was shot?" Betty asked confused. "How?"

"We're not sure, we were hoping you could tell us," Sheila said.

"I don't, I don't know," Betty said.

"Barry has given us some of the detail," Dilton said. "There was some green
meteor rock, but what happened after Barry took it away."

"Well he took it away and I felt fine again," Betty recalled. "And I got up
and went to disarm them... and my speed. I was moving like normal. Before I
could figure it out that was when I got shot."

"Do you remember seeing anything else, anything at all?" Dilton asked.

"No, there were a few empty safety deposit boxes but that was it," Betty
replied.

Betty winced in pain once more and brought her hand up to touch the wound.
That was when Dilton noticed the ring on her finger.

"What's that?" Dilton asked.

"It's a ring, I doubt it at Pansky's," Betty said.

"Let me see it," Dilton said.

Betty tried to take it off but the ring seemed stuck.

"It, it's stuck," Betty stammered in surprise.

"Let me see," Alice said.

Alice took Betty's hand in her own and tried to get the ring off. However it
was indeed stuck.

"What kind of stone is that?" Dilton asked.

Betty shrugged and then winced from the gesture. Dilton knelt down beside
Alice and took a look at it.

"I think this is a blue meteor rock," Dilton declared.

"Blue meteor rock?" Jughead asked. "How do you know?"

"I've examined my fair share of the green ones," Dilton replied. "They all
have a common feature with these small little snow flake like things inside
them, it's unlike anything here on Earth. This rock has those same little
flakes."

"Well that's great but what do we do?" Polly asked.

"We have to destroy it," Dilton replied.

"Okay and just how are we going to do that when it's stuck on Betty's finger?"
Sheila asked.

"With Barry's help," Dilton replied.

Barry had been standing back and suddenly everyone was looking at him.

"What, me? How can I help?" Barry asked confused.

"You can create a vibration on the stone by rubbing it very fast," Dilton
explained. "Those little flakes inside weaken it making it susceptible to
shattering."

Barry nodded as he understood. Dilton took Betty's hand into his and gentle
set it down on the coffee table.

"I need to warn you Betty," Dilton said. "This is probably going to hurt.
Barry might accidentally dislocate or break your finger."

"It can't hurt any worse than being shot," Betty responded with a forced laugh
followed by yet another wince of pain.

Dilton nodded and then looked up at Barry and gave him a nodded. Barry placed
two fingers on the ring and began rubbing them back and forth. His fingers
soon became an almost transparent blur they were moving so fast. Suddenly
there was a crack and Betty let out a howl of pain as her finger was broken.

"Oh god that hurts more than being shot!" Betty exclaimed.

"Don't stop," Dilton shouted at Barry over Betty's cries of agony.

Barry furrowed his brow and concentrated continuing to rub. Suddenly a crack
appeared in the stone and then seconds later it exploded in a cloud of dust.
Barry let out a small triumphant cry as he stopped.

Betty pulled her hand away looking at her finger which was hanging loosely.
She reached up and pushed her finger back into place wincing as she did.
Moments later it was looking normal.

Everyone was looking at Betty's gunshot wound and as they watched the skin
suddenly healed over quickly popping the stiches out. In matter of moments
Betty was back to normal.

"It worked..." Betty said slowly and a bit surprised. "It worked!"

She stood and high fived Barry. Barry winced in pain from the force.

"Oh yeah... your strength is back," Barry grunted as he shook his sore hand.

"Oh I'm so sorry Barry," Betty apologized.

"It's alright," Barry said. "I heal fast."

Alice hugged Betty.

"Oh thank god," Alice said. "Don't you ever do that to me again."

"Trust me mom, I won't," Betty said.

Alice let go of the hug and Betty saw that her mom had been crying. Alice
quickly wiped the tears away.

"Well this couch is now a mess," Alice said. "I'll go get something so we can
clean it up."

She quickly hurried out of the barn, Polly went with her to help.

"Thanks so much for saving me there Barry," Betty said.

"Not a problem," Barry said. "But the one you should be thanking is Dilton."

"Yeah, he really took charge of the situation and he's the one that took the
bullet out of you," Jughead added.

"Although I stitched you up," Sheila added.

"Well thank you, all of you," Betty said. "Especially you Dilton."

"Between you and Barry you saved us from death by radiation poisoning, you
saved us from Ambrose twice and there's the other lives you've saved as well,
I think it's the least we could do to save yours this one time," Dilton
responded.

Betty felt like she was on the verge of tears, but she did her best to hold
them back.

"You know what, I'm really glad that I'm still alive," Betty said. "Enough
that I think I might want to have a party."

That drew a laugh from her friends.

*****************************************

It was Halloween and the party was underway. Betty, Polly and their friends
were surprised at the large turnout; there had to be close to one hundred and
fifty guests. About eighty or so were fellow students from Riverdale High
while another thirty-five were friends of Polly's from college or work.

Alice and Hal had held no illusions that there wouldn't be drinking at this
party, despite the fact that the majority of the party-goers would be
underage. Instead they collected the keys for the cars of everybody that
arrived and they wouldn't get them back unless they could prove they were
sober.

Betty and Barry were up in the loft along with Dilton who was DJ-ing while the
rest of the party was down below. There were decorations hung up all over the
barn as well as two tables laid out with snacks and candy. The party had been
styled bring your own booze and the guests had brought quite a lot of booze.
Unfortunately neither Betty nor Barry was able to get drunk. Betty figured it
was result of her alien DNA, while in Barry's case he actually did get drunk
but it was only for a few seconds as his body metabolised the alcohol
extremely quickly. Still that didn't stop the two of them from at least
trying.

"You willing to admit you were wrong about this party?" Barry asked as he and
Betty stood at the banister looking down.

In response Betty took a big swig from a large 60 ounce bottle of whiskey.
After she had she let out a disgusted gasp.

"God that's awful, why do I keep drinking it?" Betty asked as she passed the
bottle to Barry.

"Maybe you are getting drunk," Barry replied.

Barry then took a huge swig drinking nearly a quarter of the bottle. He
staggered about for a few seconds before shaking his head and regaining his
balance.

"I felt a little something there," Barry said.

"Must be nice," Betty said.

"Let me ask you something, if you could have invited anybody to this party who
would you have invited?" Barry asked.

"Why are you asking?" Betty responded.

"Just curious," Barry replied.

"Well if there weren't certain obvious obstacles, I'd invite Archie," Betty
answered the original question.

"Ah yes, his meteor rock necklace," Barry said.

"And he's dating Ginger still, I'm surprised they haven't broken up yet,"
Betty commented.

"That too," Barry agreed.

"So how about you?" Betty asked. "Who would you have invited?"

Barry considered for a long moment as he looked down at the party.

"I don't know... maybe Cheryl if she was still around," Barry replied.

"Really?" Betty asked with a smirk.

"Well I did save her life twice," Barry stated with a shrug. "I figure she'd
owe me."

Just then one of the guests came staggering up the stairs to the loft. She was
dressed in a sort nurse-bondage costume, her blonde hair tied into two
ponytails and her face painted up in clown makeup.

"Where's the DJ?" she asked her speech somewhat slurred indicating she was
drunk.

Betty almost immediately recognized her voice. It was a hard one to forget.

"Doctor Quinzel?" Betty asked.

"Do I know you... blue lady?" Harleen Quinzel asked.

"Um, we met briefly at Belle Reeve when I was visiting a friend," Betty
replied.

"Oh... oh yeah that mind controlled kid," Harleen said before she turned to
Barry.

"And who are you supposed to be red man? Captain Lightning Bolt?"

Barry wasn't entirely sure how to respond.

"What did you come up here for?" Betty asked.

"I want to hear some Lady Gaga," Harleen said.

Betty nodded her head towards Barry telling him to go speak with Dilton. Betty
then carefully helped Dr. Quinzel back down the stairs.

"Out of curiosity who invited you?" Betty asked.

"Oh I was invited by the mind controlled kid, Adam," Dr. Quinzel replied.
"Just between you and me I think he developed a crush on me when he was
there."

Betty wasn't aware that Adam was here, she did know that he had finally been
released. Of course with all the costumes it was difficult to tell who
everybody was. Just then Lady Gaga's Pokerface came on.

"I LOVE THIS SONG!" Harleen screamed as she began dancing about wildly.

Betty just stepped back chuckled to herself as she watched. She had definitely
been wrong about this party, and to think she almost hadn't lived to see this
because of a stupid blue rock.

*****************************************

It had taken about a week for Veronica to get all of the equipment set up but
she was ready to begin her experiment. Of course she needed to test the
equipment first to see if it could generate the necessary voltage of nearly
one hundred million volts. She went over to check with her technicians before
the test.

"The system will generate the voltage you want, but I don't see how it won't
end up damaging itself in the process," the head technician said. "As far as I
can tell you will only have one shot at this."

That was disappointing news as far as Veronica was concerned. She'd managed to
recreate the scenario that gave Barry his powers as best as she could manage.

"Forgo the test then," Veronica instructed them. "We're going to try this."

She called up the West twins and a short while later the two of them arrived
at the site.

"Thank you for coming so quickly," Veronica said. "We're probably only going
to get one shot at this since this experiment will likely damage the equipment
beyond repair."

Iris and Daniel both looked at each other seemingly sharing thoughts.

"Let's do it," Daniel said for both of them.

The twins were taken into the same room where Barry had been. Veronica and her
technicians were outside manning the equipment. Once Veronica was certain
everything was as it had been the night of Barry's accident she signalled the
test to begin.

The large generators she'd brought in wound up building up voltage. There was
an audible hum as power flowed through a series of high capacity wires. Then
all of a sudden there was a loud crack and a bright flash and suddenly the
entire system exploded in a shower of sparks. The technicians ran around
putting out small fires. However Veronica didn't care about the equipment, she
wanted to know if her theory had been right; if the test had worked. She made
her way into the room and found Daniel and Iris both lying on the ground not
moving just a few feet away from each other. Veronica knelt down next to Iris
and verified that she was still alive, she then checked on Daniel and noted
that he was alive as well. Both seemed to be in comas which was to be
expected.

"Bring the medical team in!" Veronica called. "We're transferring them to my
facility."

Veronica watched as Iris and Daniel were loaded onto stretchers and taken to a
pair of ambulances. Now it was just a matter of waiting for them to wake up
and see if it had been a success.

*****************************************

Chapter 38

It was the day before Thanksgiving. The Coopers were still living out at the
farm, the progress on their house had been delayed by the fact that partway
through reconstruction they had discovered that the foundation had been
damaged and needed to be repaired, a job that set the time frame back by two
weeks. All told they weren't expected to get their new house until nearly
Christmas.

Betty didn't mind though, she liked living out on the farm. There was
something to be said for sure about the increased privacy. She'd found she was
able to use her powers a little more freely out here.

One thing she had been doing was trying to gain control of her heat vision. It
had been tricky at first, she wasn't entirely sure how to even activate.
However she soon learned that concentrating on painful memories like Jason's
death activated it. With some practice she was able to learn to control it,
although in the process she ended up burning down a few trees and setting a
few scarecrows on fire. Betty came downstairs as she was getting ready to go
to school and stepped into the kitchen. Her mother was already in there
looking a little sadly at her phone.

"Is something wrong mom?" Betty asked.

"No," Alice replied looking up. "It's just your brother. He said he wouldn't
be able to come home until Christmas."

"Oh, that kind of sucks," Betty said. "I was looking forward to seeing him."

"So was I," Alice said. "It's been so long since he was home, and so much has
happened."

Betty nodded as she grabbed an apple from the refrigerator.

"Well at least he will be home for Christmas," Betty said.

"Well, have fun at school," Alice said.

Betty wandered over to the stairs.

"Polly, could you hurry up I'm going to be late!" Betty called up the stairs.

Moments later Polly came hurrying down the stairs still fussing with her hair.

"You know some of us don't wake up looking perfect," Polly complained.

"It's not my fault," Betty said. "Just another one of my many powers."

The two sisters left the house and got into Polly's SUV and drove into town.
Polly dropped Betty off outside Jughead's house so she could walk to school
with him and Sheila. Moments later Jughead came outside to join Betty. They
then walked down the block and met up with Sheila.

"Where's Dilton today?" Betty asked.

"He and his parents left yesterday to go drive down to Kentucky to meet up
with the rest of his family," Jughead replied. "Didn't he tell you?"

"He did, it just slipped my mind," Betty replied.

As they were nearing school a black unmarked SUV came skidding to a stop
beside them. The rear passenger door opened and someone Betty recognized
sprang out.

"Betty you need to come with me," Cricket said.

"Cricket? What are you doing here?" Betty asked.

"Just come with me," Cricket said taking Betty's hand.

She tried to pull Betty into the vehicle, but Betty easily held her ground.

"You're going to tell me what's going on first," Betty said.

"There's an issue that I need your help with," Cricket replied.

Just then the window of the front passenger window rolled down. Betty, Jughead
and Sheila looked to see a woman with short spikey dark hair and bright green
eyes.

"Why are you trying to grab some teenage girl Jackpot?" the woman asked.

"This girl can help us," Cricket replied. "And I seem to recall you getting
taken down by a teenager back in Gotham, Selina."

"That was one time. And he only got the drop on me because of the Bat," the
woman, Selina, protested.

"Jackpot?" Betty asked confused.

"It's a code name," Cricket said.

"I like it," Jughead commented. "You're the one with the money powers right?"

Cricket nodded.

"Look, I'm sure you'll want to help with this," Cricket said to Betty. "We're
pretty sure Hiram Lodge is involved."

That piqued Betty's attention. For the past two months the Lodge's had been
laying pretty low, and that was something that Betty felt was concerning.

"Fine, you've got my help." Betty agreed. "Jughead, Sheila can you cover for
me at school?"

"No problem," Jughead agreed.

"You might need this," Sheila said as she reached into her bag.

She pulled out the costume that Betty had worn back at Halloween.

"Why do you have this and why would I need it?" Betty asked.

"To protect your identity but still let people know you're a hero," Sheila
said. "And because I knew you would need it again eventually."

Betty wasn't sure how to respond, but before she could the bell rang at the
school.

"Crap we're gonna be late," Jughead exclaimed.

He and Sheila took off leaving Betty still holding the costume.

"It's a little... gauche, but your friend is right," Cricket said. "You might
need to protect your identity here."

"And why would I need to do that?" Betty asked.

"Get in and I'll explain," Cricket replied.

Betty climbed into the back seat and Cricket got in behind her closing the
door.

There was a man Betty didn't recognize sitting in the driver seat.

"Let's go," Cricket said.

The man shifted the car into gear and pulled away from the curb.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on? And who are these other people?"
Betty asked.

"You know I was working with the FBI right?" Cricket asked.

"So these are FBI agents?" Betty asked.

That got a laugh from the Selina and the man in the front.

"No, quite the opposite," Cricket said. "This is Selina Kyle and Leonard
Snart, they're both professional thieves."

"Hold on what?" Betty asked confused.

"Look it's not what you think," Cricket said. "After my cover got blown in
Vegas the FBI decided to hand me over to an off the books government
organization. We're called the Rogues."

"And what exactly do you do?" Betty asked.

"We steal things for the government," Selina replied. "For me stealing isn't
about taking things so I can have them. I can get by fine without having to
steal. No for me it's the thrill."

"Speak for yourself, for me it's about doing what I'm good at and not having
to be in prison," Snart commented, his natural speaking tone a bit monotonous
and yet droll.

"And what about you Cricket?" Betty asked.

"Well stealing was never really my thing," Cricket admitted. "But stealing
money I'm definitely good at. Plus I owe the government for keeping me safe
from the Lodge's."

"But you just said that this involves Hiram Lodge," Betty said. "Doesn't that
seem a little... counter intuitive?"

"I volunteered for this," Cricket said. "I want to strike back at them. They
held me prisoner for years."

Betty nodded understanding. However there was still a great deal she didn't
know like what exactly they were doing and why they needed her, which seemed
to be a topic that Cricket was dancing around.

"Cricket, unless you want me to kick that door off and jump out of this car I
suggest you tell me just what exactly we're doing," Betty demanded. "And just
why you need me."

"We're breaking into the Lodge Corp local offices," Cricket replied. "The
thing is these are no ordinary offices, they've got tighter security than the
Pentagon."

"There's an easy way in, the problem is that it's on the roof and there's no
way to get there without being detected," Selina said. "But Cricket says you
can help with that."

"So you just want me to get you guys onto the roof of a building?" Betty
asked.

"It's a fifteen story building in the middle of nowhere," Snart replied. Betty
shrugged.

"Not a problem," she said. "When are we doing this?"

"Tonight," Cricket replied. "It would help if you could get us back down too.
The roof's also the easiest exit."

"You gonna tell me what you're stealing?" Betty asked.

"Money, documents, maybe if there's something pretty I like," Selina said with
a smirk.

Betty still felt uneasy about all of this. She wasn't entirely sure if Cricket
was even telling the truth, if this was all just some elaborate hoax to trick
her into helping. The idea of government sanctioned thieves seemed a little
farfetched.

"So why did you have to pick me up now?" Betty asked.

"We need to case the place first," Snart answered. "Get the lay of the land if
you will."

"And you need me why?" Betty asked.

"We need you to go check out the roof," Cricket replied. "Check for security
cameras and the like."

Just then Snart brought the vehicle to a stop. Betty looked out to see they
were parked beside the Lodge Corp. Riverdale Industrial Complex. The area was
surrounded by a ten foot high chain link fence, there were about a half dozen
warehouses and the Lodge Corp. Riverdale HQ, a fifteen story office building
with the Lodge Corp. logo emblazoned on the side for about four stories.

Betty sighed and opened the door.

"Where are you going?" Cricket asked.

"You want me to check out the roof, I'm going to check out the roof," Betty
responded.

"Well you might want this," Cricket said holding out the costume that Betty
had left on the seat. "Your friend was right; you might want to protect your
identity."

Betty took the costume with a bit of a frown on her face. From the front of
the car Selina and Snart both laughed.

"Oh now that is something else," Selina commented.

"Not sure how that's going to help you sweetheart," Snart said.

Betty ignored them and walked over to the fence. In a single leap she hopped
up and over it to the other side. In the car Selina and Snart were surprised.

"That girl's got some hops," Selina commented.

"She's got more than that," Cricket said.

"What else can she do?" Snart asked.

"You'll find out," Cricket replied with a coy smile.

*****************************************

Betty quickly made her way towards one of the warehouses. There was an empty
dumpster outside of it and she jumped inside and changed into the costume. As
much as she didn't care for the costume she had to admit it made did do
something to hide her identity. She undid her hair from its usual ponytail and
fluffed it a bit before letting it fall past her shoulders. The last thing she
did was put on the mask.

She decided to leave her things in the dumpster which didn't seem like it was
being used anyway, and it would be a good place to get changed back. She then
peaked out to see if anybody was watching and when she was sure she was clear
she sped to the building. As soon as she reached it she leapt straight up into
the air. Unfortunately she had slightly misaimed she started to come down she
realized she was about two or three feet short of the ledge. Desperately she
reached out and grabbed a hold with one hand. Her fingers dug into the
concrete right up to the second knuckle as she caught herself. A few bits of
concrete fell to the ground below. Betty glanced down to make sure that they
hadn't hit anybody before quickly pulling herself up onto the roof.

"I am definitely going to have to practice that before trying to do it with a
person on my back," Betty muttered to herself.

She glanced about the roof taking it in. There wasn't much to see on the roof:
a few H/VAC units, what was probably the hot water tank and an access door.
Betty noticed that there was a camera above the door, but fortunately it was
looking down at the door.

Betty took a slow walk around the roof looking for anything else but there
wasn't anything worth noting. She then walked to the edge of the roof and was
about to jump down when she noticed that there were people dumping things into
the dumpster where she'd left her clothes.

"No! No! No!" Betty exclaimed.

The dumpster was nearly completely full of garbage already. As Betty watched
in horror a truck came along and the contents of the dumpster were emptied and
taken away.

Frustrated Betty walked to the far side of the roof. She took a look up at the
sky in frustration and stood with her hands on her hips for a moment. She then
turned and took a few running steps and leapt off of the roof. She completely
cleared the entire complex and came to a landing just a few feet away from the
vehicle where Cricket, Selina and Snart were waiting. Angrily Betty climbed
back into the car.

"How... what the?" Selina stammered.

"Where's your clothes?" Cricket asked.

"Don't ask," Betty replied.

"I think perhaps we should be asking her what she found," Snart said.

"There's just some ventilation units, the hot water and the roof access door,"
Betty said. "There's a camera looking down at the door but that's it."

"The camera can be dealt with easily enough," Snart said.

"Yes but it might be easier to get where we need through the air vents,"
Selina said.

"We can get that figured out after we case the place," Cricket said.

"Look this is all well and good," Betty said. "But I don't see why I need to
be here."

"Go home," Cricket said. "We'll come get you when we're ready."

Betty nodded and got back out of the car. She then took off for home.

"Where did you find this girl?" Selina asked Cricket.

"She's the reason I'm free from Lodge's," Cricket said. "And don't get any
ideas Selina. Betty's a girl you don't want to cross."

"What, what am I going to do?" Selina said. "But it would make jobs so much
easier if she worked with us."

"That's true, but not everyone is all about the score," Snart said. "Cricket's
friend seems reluctant even to help us."

"She's only helping us because she's got beef with the Lodge's," Cricket said.
"But she's a good person so let's try not to pressure her into doing anything
she doesn't want to."

"Fair enough," Stark agreed.

"Whatever," Selina said with a shrug.

Cricket sat back in her seat and looked over at the office building. She hoped
that tonight Betty didn't get put into a tough position because of Snart or
Selina. But Cricket wasn't sure; she'd only known the two of them for a couple
weeks. She was going to have to take their word.

*****************************************

Chapter 39

Betty arrived at her home and entered the side door of the farm house. Her
mother was in the kitchen getting things ready for Thanksgiving dinner
tomorrow. Betty could see the TV was on in the living room tuned into CNN
which was talking about some legal battle going on between Lodge Corp and
Wayne Enterprises.

"Betty, what are you doing back here?" Alice asked looking up from the turkey
she was working on. "And why are you wearing that?"

"It's a long story mom," Betty mumbled as she made her way to the cupboards
and got out a glass.

"We've got time," Alice responded.

"Do you remember back on my birthday that incident with the girl at the
amusement park, Cricket?" Betty asked as she set the glass on the counter and
went over to the fridge.

"Oh, she was the one that had been held in that medical facility by the
Lodge's?" Alice asked.

"That's the one," Betty replied as she got a pitcher of lemonade from the
fridge and poured herself a glass. "Anyway she showed up on my way to school
today asking for my help."

"Help with what?" Alice inquired.

Betty downed the entire glass at once before answering.

"She was here with these two other people to steal something from the
Lodge's," Betty said. "She had been working with the FBI, but she says she now
works with this off the books group whose job is to steal things for the
government."

"And what does that have to do with you being here in your Halloween costume?"
Alice asked.

"Well they wanted me to help them scout the place, specifically to check out
the roof of the office building over at the Lodge Industrial Complex," Betty
explained. "I got changed into this to protect my identity, as silly as that
seems. I hid my clothes in an empty dumpster while I went up onto the roof.
Well while I was up there the dumpster was quickly filled and emptied taking
my clothes with it."

Alice couldn't help but chuckle at her daughter's misfortune.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Alice apologized. "How about you go get changed
first."

Betty put her dirty glass in the sink and then went upstairs to get changed.
She then came back down.

"So, what are you going to do?" Alice asked.

"Well I don't know if I can go to school, I told Sheila and Jughead to cover
for me," Betty replied.

"That's not what I meant," Alice said. "I was referring to this heist.
Obviously you've got some reservations about this."

"I don't doubt that the Lodges have things that they probably shouldn't,"
Betty said. "I mean Belle Reeve shouldn't exist as far as I'm concerned. But I
just... there's something not right about this."

"What doesn't seem right?" Alice asked.

"Well Cricket seems genuine in this," Betty said. "And she definitely holds a
grudge against the Lodges for what they did to her. But her colleagues, they
just don't strike me as the most trustworthy people."

"But you trust Cricket?" Alice inquired.

Betty considered for a moment before nodding.

"I do," Betty replied.

"Then you should trust that she trusts these people," Alice said.

Betty was a little surprised at her mother's advice.

"You realize that you're asking me to go along with a robbery right? To help
commit a crime?" Betty asked.

"I realize that," Alice said as she set about stuffing the turkey. "But I also
know that you are anything but ordinary Betty, and because of that you're
going to find yourself in circumstances such as this. I have to trust that
your father and I raised you well enough to know what the right thing to do
is. The fact that you even considered going along in the first place tells me
that you believe there is definitely merit behind this robbery. And if you
think there is, then I trust that you are making the right decision."

Betty smiled and nodded.

"So if you're not going back to school you can help me prepare Thanksgiving
dinner," Alice said.

"Alright what do you need me to do?" Betty asked.

"Well how about you get the dough ready for the pies," Alice suggested.
"You're going to need..."

*****************************************

It was late in the evening and Betty was sitting out on the porch just looking
out towards the road. It was late in November so it was fairly cool, but the
cold had never really bothered Betty much. Even when she was younger she felt
perfectly comfortable going outside in the winter in shorts and a t-shirt; but
her parents quickly taught her that doing so would attract the kind of
attention she didn't want. However out here on the farm Betty didn't have to
worry about that so she was sitting out on the porch in jeans and a t-shirt.
She'd told Jughead and Sheila what had happened earlier and they had both
backed Betty's decision to help Cricket and her friends.

Just then Betty spotted a somewhat familiar black SUV driving along the road
slowly. Betty picked up her jacket and put it on as she began walking down the
driveway. The SUV turned into the driveway and Betty met up with it part way
down the driveway.

She walked around to the passenger side and climbed in. Once again Snart was
driving with Selina beside him in the front while Cricket was in the back. All
three of them were dressed all in black.

"That's what you wear to a robbery?" Selina asked.

"I'm not the one breaking in," Betty reminded her. "I'm just your human
elevator."

"And just out of curiosity how are you able to do that?" Snart asked.

"Does it really matter?" Betty asked.

"If you don't want to tell me that's fine," Snart said.

It was awkward silence until they arrived once more at the Lodge Corp
Industrial Complex. Snart parked the vehicle at a safe distance and they got
out and made their way to the fence. Betty was prepared to help the other over
but Selina scaled the fence almost as fast as Betty could have jumped it.
Betty was amazed at her agility. Selina dropped down on the other side and
gave Betty a wink.

Snart then pulled out what looked like a gun and pointed it at the fence. He
fired it at the fence and it let out a stream of blue energy. Everywhere that
it touched the fence, the fence froze. Snart then kicked the frozen parts of
the fence leaving behind a hole big enough for them to walk through.

"What is that thing?" Betty asked Snart.

"Cold gun," Snart replied. "I stole the plans for it years ago and now I can
build one from pieces you can find in an electronics store."

Inwardly Betty was admittedly somewhat impressed but she wasn't about to let
Snart know it.

Cautiously they made their way across the lot to the office. Several times
they had to stop and hide because of security patrols. Betty was definitely
curious about why there were so many security guards around; perhaps they had
forewarning of this robbery.

It took about twenty minutes, but eventually they were able to reach the
office building.

"Alright Betty, do your thing," Cricket said.

"Who's first?" Betty asked.

Selina stepped forward.

"Hang on tight," Betty said.

Selina grabbed a hold of Betty, and Betty wrapped an arm around Selina's
waist. She then coiled her legs and sprang up into the air and seconds later
the two of them were standing on the roof. Betty let go of Selina and then
dropped back down to the ground, landing somewhat roughly.

Snart was next and Betty repeated the process. She dropped down again to get
Cricket.

"I didn't tell them, but I'm not a big fan of heights," Cricket told Betty.

"We'll be up there before you know it," Betty said.

Cricket nodded and Betty grabbed a hold of her. Cricket closed her eyes and
then Betty jumped up onto the roof.

"You can open your eyes," Betty whispered.

Cricket looked around and was relieved to see she was on the roof. Snart and
Selina were already at work on the door. Selina had disabled the security
camera while Snart had opened the lock.

"You just wait up here," Cricket said to Betty as she went to join the others.

Betty nodded and stood by the door as the others went inside. She wondered
just how long she would be waiting.

*****************************************

It was almost twenty minutes later when Betty heard an alarm go off from
inside the building. Betty looked around worriedly wondering just what had
happened. Moments later Snart, Selina and Cricket emerged from the door onto
the roof.

"Quick get us out of here!" Snart exclaimed.

Betty grabbed Selina and leapt off the roof. She dropped Selina and jumped
back off and took Snart down before returning for Cricket. The four of them
then quickly ran across the yard to the fence before slipping back out. They
all piled into the car and drove off.

"Whew that was close," Cricket said.

"What happened in there?" Betty asked.

"Cricket got spotted," Selina replied.

"We're going to need to find somewhere to lay low for at least the next
twenty- four hours," Snart said.

Betty had a pit in her stomach, but she knew she had to make the offer.

"You guys can hide out at my place," Betty said. "We've only got one spare
room, but there's the couch or the barn..."

"Sounds good," Snart said as he stepped on the accelerator.

A few moments later they were pulling down the driveway. As Snart brought the
vehicle to a stop Betty saw her mother coming out of the house. Betty got out
and ran over to her.

"Is everything okay?" Alice asked worriedly.

"It's fine," Betty replied. "But they need somewhere to hide for a little
while."

Alice looked at the three criminals a little apprehensively.

"How long?" Alice asked.

"A day or two," Betty answered.

"So they'd be here for Thanksgiving?" Alice inquired.

"Is that a problem?" Betty responded worriedly.

"No, that's great." Alice said. "I've made far more food than I need to."

"Alright, well let me introduce you," Betty said. "This is Leonard Snart,
Selina Kyle and Cricket O'Dell..."

*****************************************

Thanksgiving the next day was definitely one of the strangest for the Cooper
family. Chic wasn't joining them, instead there were three criminals.

Betty had spent the day getting to know Selina. Selina's mother had died when
she was young and she'd grown up with her father who was a petty criminal
until he'd ended up imprisoned and Selina had ended up in the foster system.
From there she'd bounced around before ending up in one group home where the
woman taught the children to steal. That was where Selina had developed her
kleptomania. From there she'd progressed to bigger and more dangerous jobs,
until eventually she'd been caught by the vigilante in Gotham known as Batman.
While she had been in prison she had been approached with offer to have her
sentence commuted in return for working with the Rogues.

Trying to get anything out Snart on the other hand was like trying to squeeze
blood from a rock, it was impossible. About the only thing that Betty was able
to learn was that he was a Chicago Bears fan as he cheered for the Bears as
they played the Lions. He and Betty's father, who was a Giants fan, had talked
football for much of the afternoon.

Cricket had spent much of the day talking with Polly. The two of them were
only a grade apart and it turned out that they knew a lot of the same people
and Polly happily caught Cricket up on what was going on with them.

As they sat down to the meal Betty looked around the table. It wasn't quite
the same without Chic, but after getting to know the other Betty was thankful
that they were there to join them for the meal, and after all isn't that what
Thanksgiving is about?

*****************************************

A dark haired teenage boy got off the train at Riverdale. He walked over to
the ticket counter.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where the nearest hotel is?" he asked.

"There's a motel just a block away," the attendant replied.

"Thanks," he said.

The boy made his out of the station and down the block to the motel. He walked
up to the office.

"Can I get room?" he asked the receptionist who was busy texting on her phone.

"Aren't you a little young?" she asked.

The boy looked like he was only sixteen or seventeen.

"I can pay," he said not answering her question.

"Alright fine, what's the name?" she asked.

"Tim, Tim Drake," he replied.

*****************************************

Chapter 40

It was Black Friday. Alice and Polly had gotten up early to head to the mall
in Greendale to do their shopping as that mall was bigger than Riverdale's.
Betty didn't want to deal with the crowds though and besides they still had
their "guests".

Betty made her way out to the barn to find Snart. He had parked in the barn
just in case anyone came along looking for it. Snart had decided to sleep out
in the barn rather than in the house, he seemed to have a strange affinity for
cold.

"Hey Snart," Betty called out as she entered the barn. "You hungry?"

"No I'm fine," Snart replied.

Betty looked to see that he was up in the loft. He had probably slept on one
of the couches up there. Betty made her way up to join him. Snart was sitting
on the one couch looking at the coffee table. Betty saw that Barry's costume
was laid out on the table.

"Um, what are you doing?" Betty asked.

"Just wondering who in their right mind would wear something like this," Snart
replied.

Betty nodded in agreement, she thought the whole outfit looked a little tacky.
Especially the little lightning bolts by the ears. Of course it hid Barry's
identity better than her costume did.

"Of course it makes me wonder if you aren't the only one around here with
powers," Snart said.

"Well no, I mean Cricket has powers too," Betty said.

"I wasn't referring to Cricket," Snart corrected her.

Betty wasn't sure how to respond to that. Fortunately she was interrupted by
Selina entering the barn.

"Leonard, Cricket just got a call on our rendezvous point," Selina said. "We
need to leave in about an hour to make it on time."

"I'm ready when you ladies are," Snart replied.

"Well Cricket wanted to talk to you," Selina said.

Snart gave a sigh and walked down the stairs from the loft and out the barn.
Selina then made her way up to the loft where Betty still was.

"Thanks again for letting us stay the night," Selina said.

"No problem, it's been pretty fun honestly," Betty replied.

"What's this?" Selina asked pointing at Barry's costume.

"A friend's delusions of grandeur," Betty replied. "He wants to be a vigilante
like Batman."

"Well he's going about it wrong," Selina said. "I've actually met Batman and
honestly it's an intimidating encounter. This is not intimidating."

"I'll let him know," Betty said. "So where are you guys off to next?"

"We're going to meet up with our government contact some woman named Waller,
and drop of the items we... repossessed. And then we'll probably be given
another mission," Selina replied.

"Sounds like a bit of a lonely life," Betty commented.

"Well we've got each other," Selina said. "And when you're doing something you
enjoy it doesn't seem that lonely."

"I guess that's true," Betty agreed.

"I've been meaning to ask where did you get your powers from?" Selina asked.
"Cricket said she couldn't say."

"I was born with them," Betty replied.

It wasn't a lie, it was true. Betty was just omitting the part where she
wasn't born on this planet. Selina stared at Betty for a long moment, clearly
trying to determine whether Betty was lying or not.

"Well alright," Selina said with a shrug suddenly. "To be honest what you can
do is kind of frightening, I'm just glad that someone like you has your powers
and not somebody like Snart."

"Snart doesn't seem like that bad a guy," Betty said.

"He's not the worst," Selina said. "But there would be a lot of destroyed
banks and museums... the world would be a more dangerous place."

"And what about yourself?" Betty asked.

"I probably wouldn't be much better," Selina admitted.

"Well it's all speculation," Betty said. "There's really no way to actually
no."

"That's true," Selina agreed. "Well I should go help Leonard and Cricket get
ready to go. We've got a pretty tight deadline."

Selina made her way back down the stairs and out of the barn. Betty stayed up
in the loft watching her leave. She then turned around and looked at Barry's
costume before picking it up and folding it and putting in into a wooden
chest.

*****************************************

Tim Drake was in his motel room. He was eating some takeout while he did some
research on his laptop and the TV played the news in the background.

"...And in other news there was a break-in at the Lodge Corp facility in
Riverdale last night," the reporter said. "The company said about $500,000 in
cash was stolen. There are three suspected thieves."

Tim looked up and turned up the volume intrigued.

"Apparently the thieves made their escape via the roof, police are unsure as
to how they managed to get off the roof," the reporter said. "However they did
release this footage of the suspects."

The shot cut to some low quality security footage. The three thieves were
dressed all in black as they broke into a door. One of them had what looked
like some sort of futuristic laser gun from a sci-fi movie and he appeared to
the only male. The other two suspects looked to be female. As Tim watched one
of the women move about on the screen he almost instantly recognized her.

"Just what exactly were you after Selina?" Tim muttered to himself. "I know it
wasn't the cash."

Tim turned the volume back down and focused back on his laptop he had work to
do.

*****************************************

Thanksgiving weekend had come to an end and school had resumed. At lunch Betty
was sitting in the cafeteria with her friends all around the table as she told
them about her adventures with Cricket, Selina and Snart.

"And you let them join you for Thanksgiving dinner?" Jughead asked
incredulously.

"Yeah..." Betty answered slowly unsure why Jughead was so upset.

"I can't believe it," Jughead muttered putting his head in his hands.

"Can't believe what?" Betty asked.

"Now there's going to be less of your mother's famous leftovers!" Jughead
exclaimed.

Betty just sighed and laughed.

"Don't worry Jughead, mom set aside some leftovers just for you," Betty said.

"Aren't you going to be moving back into your house here in town soon," Sheila
asked. "It's looking pretty complete."

"Yeah, Polly and my mom were actually purchasing new furniture on Black
Friday, amongst other things," Betty said. "So that will be delivered during
the week. My mom is actually going to be there during the day to receive the
deliveries."

Just then they heard a murmur amongst the students in the cafeteria and
everyone looked up to see their Principal, Mr. Weatherbee, enter the cafeteria
with an unfamiliar student. He was a boy of average hard with short dark
almost black hair.

"Who's that?" Barry asked.

"No idea," Sheila replied.

Everyone else shrugged, they didn't know. Mr. Weatherbee and the student made
their way through the cafeteria.

"I think he's coming to our table," Jughead whispered.

All of them looked nervously as Mr. Weatherbee came to a stop beside their
table.

"Hello all of you," Weatherbee said. "I'd like to introduce you all to Timothy
Drake, he just moved here from Gotham City."

"Actually it's just Tim," Tim corrected Weatherbee.

"Anyway Dilton I would like you to show Timothy here around the school,"
Weatherbee said.

"Me?" Dilton asked his voice cracking.

Weatherbee gave him a withering glare.

"Is there a problem with that Mr. Doiley?" Weatherbee asked.

"Uh, no sir," Dilton replied.

"Good," Weatherbee said before walking away.

There was a bit of an awkward pause as they watched him leave and then they
all looked up at Tim not sure what to say.

"Why don't you join us?" Sheila asked indicating the empty chair beside Tim.

Tim shrugged and sat down.

"So what brings you from Gotham to tiny little Riverdale?" Barry asked.

"I'm hoping to get an internship with Lodge Corp," Tim replied. "They don't
have much of a presence in Gotham since Gotham is a Wayne Enterprise city."

"Why Lodge Corp?" Betty asked.

"I don't understand the question," Tim replied.

"Why Lodge Corp, why not get an internship with Wayne Enterprises?" Betty
inquired.

Tim was caught off guard by the question, he hadn't been expecting it.

"I... uh..." he stammered. "Their focus... it's more what I'm interested in."

"What exactly do you want an internship doing?" Dilton asked.

"Well I'd like to be a lab assistant," Tim said. "I'm looking to be a
chemist."

"Oh I love chemistry," Dilton said. "I'm more of a computer science guy myself
but chemistry could lead to the development of better microprocessors. I mean
if we could develop a way to synthetically create certain rare metals we could
have even better computers than we already have."

"That's quite true," Tim agreed.

"Why don't I show you the chemistry lab here," Dilton said. "I've got an
experiment I've been working on."

"Alright," Tim agreed.

The two of them got up and left the cafeteria leaving Betty and the others a
little confused.

"What the heck was that?" Sheila asked.

"I'd say it's a budding nerd-mance," Jughead replied.

"Or maybe bro-mance, or bro-nerd-mance?" Barry suggested.

"There's something a little weird about that kid," Betty commented.

"Yeah he's too good looking to be a nerd like Dilton," Sheila agreed.

"That's not at all what I meant," Betty said. "I feel like he's hiding
something. Like he's got an ulterior motive for wanting to work at Lodge
Corp."

"Who cares," Jughead said. "He's just a kid like us."

Betty nodded, but couldn't shake the feeling that there was something
different about Tim.

*****************************************

Hiram Lodge made his way through the woods to the cave. As he made his way
deeper into the cave it was illuminated by the green glow of the meteor rocks
inside. He went all the way in until he reached the cocoon that held Midge. It
had grown larger since he had last been here.

"It won't be much longer now," Hiram said softly as he rubbed a hand on the
cocoon.

He then reached into a wooden box that he had brought with him and pulled out
an ornate dagger. The pommel of the dagger was decorated with a large demonic
head and the blade was made of some strange dark metal that was almost pitch
black. Hiram then pulled out a small bowl made of the same black metal as the
blade of the dagger and set them both on the ground.

The last thing in the box was a large piece of white chalk. Hiram took the
chalk out and proceeded to draw a series of symbols on the floors and wall of
the cave. Some of the symbols were pentagrams, others looked like tridents and
others resembled various hieroglyphics.

Hiram then picked up the dagger and began chanting something under his breath
as he stood facing a particularly large meteor rock. He then touched the tip
of the dagger to the rock and the blade began glowing the same green as the
rock. Slowly the glow of the rock began to fade until only the dagger was
glowing.

Hiram then walked back over to the small bowl and knelt down in front of it.
He began muttering something else under his breath and then he cut his palm
and slowly let the blood trickle down into the bowl until it was full. He then
turned his hand up and all of a sudden the bleeding stopped.

Hiram then picked up the bowl with both hand and held it up while looking down
at the ground and chanting something else. The blood in bowl began to glow a
greenish colour. Hiram then stood up and dipped his fingers into the bowl and
began drawing the same symbols he had drawn on the walls and floor of the cage
onto Midge's cocoon with the blood.

The symbols glowed and with each symbol that Hiram drew they each glowed even
brighter until they were almost blinding. Then all at once they symbols
vanished and Hiram was left standing in the cave with the now empty bowl.

"Yes it won't be too much longer now," Hiram said with a small smile.

*****************************************

Chapter 41

Winter had come to Riverdale just in time for Christmas. The town was covered
in about half a foot of snow and Christmas decorations adorned almost every
street. The Coopers had finally moved back into their rebuilt home back at the
start of December. It was configured almost exactly as before, however Alice
now had a much nicer kitchen to cook in and the upstairs bathroom had been
redone very nicely as well.

Betty was heading to Pop's, she and her friends were doing a Secret Santa gift
exchange and they decided to meet up at their favourite diner to do it. They'd
each drawn names out of hat and Betty had ended up with Jughead. He had been
quite easy to buy for given his love of food and Betty had cookbook that
contained 101 Gourmet Burgers.

When she entered the restaurant she was greeted by Maria.

"Hey Betty, most of your friends are already here," Maria said. "I'll take
your present and bring them out with your food order."

Betty nodded and handed Maria the gift and then made her way over to the booth
where her friend were while Maria took the present into the back. Betty saw
that Jughead, Dilton and Barry were there already they were just waiting on
Sheila.

"Hey guys," Betty greeted her friends.

"Hey Betty," they all returned.

Jughead slid over to give Betty room to sit down.

"I hope you don't mind but I invited Tim to join us," Dilton said.

Betty shrugged but said nothing. She didn't really mind but she did find Tim
Drake to be a little odd. He was incredibly secretive and had that weird
fixation on wanting to work at Lodge Corp. She'd also followed him home one
day and had noticed that he was living at a motel. She hadn't brought this up
with her friends, particularly Dilton as Dilton had become good friends with
Tim.

A few minutes later Sheila arrived accompanied by Tim.

"Hey guys," Sheila said. "I bumped into Tim outside and he said he was here to
join us."

"That's right," Dilton said.

They all sat down and chatted.

"I hope you don't mind Tim but we're doing a gift exchange, we drew names just
before Thanksgiving," Barry said.

"No that's fine," Tim said.

Soon Maria came over and took their orders and they chatted while they waited
for their food. Maria then came out with another waitress bringing their food
as well as the gifts. Everyone looked eagerly at their gift and then around
the table, each of them wondering who had gotten their name.

Betty picked up her gift which was a small cube shaped box wrapped in green
shiny wrapping paper and gave it a shake. There wasn't any noise when she
shook it.

Next to her Jughead eagerly tore into his present and looked at it excitedly.

"One Hundred and One Gourmet Burgers," he read the title. "Man these make the
burger I ordered look sad in comparison."

Next to him Dilton had opened his present which was a rather nice black
leather wallet. Beside him Barry was opening his gift which was the second
largest one at the table. It was a red fake leather jacket with the logo of
his costume on it twice, a small logo on the front above the heart and a large
logo on the back.

"Did you make this Sheila?" Barry asked.

Sheila grinned and nodded.

"It is so awesome, I love it!" Barry exclaimed.

"Really?" Tim asked. "Seems a little tacky to me."

Everyone else looked at each other. They all knew that Barry was incredibly
proud of his secret superhero identity, but Tim didn't know about it.

"Red is my favourite colour," Barry said.

"And the lightning bolt?" Time asked.

"Because I got struck by lightning when I was younger and survived," Barry
explained.

"Hmm," was all Tim said.

Betty finally opened her present and saw that it was a ring case. She looked
around the table trying to figure out who had bought it for her, but couldn't
tell. She then opened it up to see it was a ring with a blue gemstone.

"Is this...?" Betty started to ask.

"...A real sapphire? No," Barry answered. "It's a synthetic sapphire."

Betty had initially thought that it was from Dilton and was a little surprised
that it was from Barry.

"I felt I should replace the ring I wrecked at Halloween," Barry explained.

No mention was made about the fact that the ring almost got Betty killed, and
that they had needed to destroy the ring to save her life.

Sheila was the last one to open her gift. Her gift was the largest of them all
and quite heavy.

"Oh my god! It's a Kenmore Limited Edition 17 Stitch Sewing Machine!" Sheila
exclaimed excitedly.

"Can I put in an order for some pants to match my jacket?" Barry asked half-
jokingly.

Everybody laughed. They then began eating their food before it got cold and
tried to figure out who got who what. It had been obvious that Sheila had
gotten Barry the jacket, and Barry had said he got Betty the ring. Dilton had
given Sheila the sewing machine and Jughead had given Dilton the wallet, and
of course Betty had given Jughead the burger cookbook.

"Oh that reminds me," Betty said while they were eating. "I got a postcard
from Cheryl."

"Really?" Sheila asked a little surprised.

"Yes, uh she says hi and apparently she's in Greece right now," Betty said.

There was a bit more written on the card but she didn't want to read it in
front of Tim.

"Who's Cheryl?" Tim asked.

"She's a classmate of ours," Dilton explained. "Betty was dating her brother
Jason who was killed in the restaurant massacre."

"So why is she in Greece?" Tim inquired.

"I don't know," Betty replied. "She didn't say why in the letter."

Betty wasn't lying about that, Cheryl hadn't actually even said where she was.
Betty only knew that she was in Greece because that was where the postcard had
been postmarked from.

"You know I never thought I'd say this, but I hope she comes back I actually
miss having her around," Jughead commented.

"How about a toast?" Barry suggested. "To Cheryl, and other friends that
aren't here."

They all raised their glasses.

*****************************************

Betty returned home wearing her new ring. As she stepped in the door she could
smell her mother baking gingerbread in the kitchen which was her older brother
Chic's favourite, especially gingerbread houses. Alice made some of the most
elaborate gingerbread houses every year for Christmas.

"Hey mom!" Betty called out. "Do you need a hand with the gingerbread house?"

"Nope I've got it cover little sis," Chic said.

"Oh my god Chic!" Betty exclaimed not realizing her brother had arrived home.

She ran over and hugged her older brother literally picking him up off the
ground. He looked different from when Betty had last seen him. He'd gotten his
shaggy hair cut into a standard military buzz cut and it looked like he'd been
exercising quite a bit, which was to be expected.

"Ow, ow, not so tight!" Chic grunted.

"Sorry, sorry," Betty apologized as she put her brother down.

"So I hear you've been busy since I've been gone," Chic commented. "Saving the
town and all."

"Maybe a little," Betty said.

"How about you tell me about it," Chic said. "And we can decorate the
gingerbread house together."

He and Betty sat at the kitchen table and together they decorated the
gingerbread house while Betty told Jason about how she first defeated Ambrose,
how she had fallen in love with Jason and how he had been killed by Midge, and
how she and Barry had managed to save the town from the team of Midge and
Ambrose.

"You know I have to say I'm a little jealous," Chic said when Betty had
finished her story.

"What? Why?" Betty asked a little surprised.

"Well I joined the military to protect people from all sorts of threats and
here you are protecting the town all on your own," Chic replied.

"Oh I'm not all on my own," Betty said. "I mean Barry helped a lot and the
others have helped me out too."

"Still none of it would even be possible without you," Chic said. "I know I
picked on you quite a bit when we were younger, but I just want you to know
I'm proud of you."

"Thanks Chic," Betty said.

"But you need to be careful too," Chic said. "Trust me you don't want the
military coming after you."

Betty frowned thinking that was an odd thing to say.

"Well I'm going to go up to my room for a bit to take a nap, I could not sleep
on the plane," Chic said. "Let me know if you need anything Mom."

"I think I'll be alright," Alice said. "Have a nice nap."

Chic made his way upstairs. He was staying in Betty's room while Betty was
again sharing a room with Polly. When Chic entered his room he was surprised
to see Polly in there sitting on his bed.

"What are you doing in here?" Chic asked.

"You know something," Polly stated.

"What, what are you talking about?" Chic asked confused.

"Your comment down there, about not wanting the military to go after Betty,
you know something," Polly said. "What is it?"

"Polly I..." Chic started.

"Nobody knows you better than me," Polly cut him off. "I know when you're
lying and I also know when you're hiding something. And you're hiding
something here Chic. So tell me."

Chic looked around and then closed the door.

"Alright fine," he said speaking quietly. "The military know about Betty."

"What?" Polly exclaimed.

"Shh," Chic hushed her. "Not about Betty specifically, they know that during
the meteor shower an alien spaceship landed. They had tracked it on their
radar."

"But they gave no warning about the meteor shower?" Polly asked.

"The meteors didn't show up on their radar," Chic replied. "I don't know why
exactly. But what I do know is that there's more to the story of Hiram Lodge
getting the clean-up contract."

"What do you mean?" Polly inquired curiously.

"The military wanted the space ship," Chic replied. "The deal they made with
Hiram was that he could have all the meteorites to do with as he wanted as
long as they got the space ship. The logic behind giving him the only contract
was that it would make it more likely he would turn the ship over. But we both
know that they never got it."

"Yeah it's buried like twenty feet deep out on the farm," Polly commented.

"Good, good," Chic said. "But the recent event here have the military
interested once again."

"How do you know any of this?" Polly asked. "You're just a recruit out at the
Air Force Academy."

"I was," Chic said. "I actually got recruited into a covert pan-military
organization called the ETA."

"ETA? What does that stand for?" Polly asked.

"Extra Terrestrial Agency," Chic replied. "The idea is to protect Earth from
aliens. It's headed up by General Sam Lane."

"Sam Lane... wait isn't he the father of that writer for the Daily Planet,
Lois Lane?" Polly asked, "The youngest Pulitzer Prize winner ever?"

"Yep, and he's frankly disappointed in her," Chic said. "He wanted her to join
the military like him."

"That's awful," Polly commented. "But why were you recruited?"

"Well I may have used some of the things Betty told me about Ambrose to make
it seem like I could tell the difference between an alien and a human that's
been altered by alien rocks," Chic admitted.

"I can't believe you Chic," Polly muttered.

"Look I didn't think it would lead to a search for Betty," Chic said. "And so
far it hasn't. But if she keeps things up it's only going to raise suspicion."

Polly sighed, "You're right."

"But you can't tell anyone about this, not Mom, not Dad and certainly not
Betty."

"Then why are you telling me?" Polly asked.

"Because I can't tell Betty to stop," Chic said. "She won't listen to me like
she would you. I can't say we've ever gotten along well."

"That's largely your own doing," Polly chastised him.

"I know, I know," Chic admitted. "Just... can you please do this? It's not for
me it's for Betty."

"I'll talk to her," Polly said. "But to be perfectly honest a lot of the saves
around here are actually her friend Barry. He takes the whole superhero thing
a little more serious."

"I saw her costume," Chic said.

"Her friend Sheila made it," Polly responded.

"Whatever," Chic said in frustration as he threw his hands up in the air.
"Could you please talk to her and could you please leave my room so I can take
a nap?"

"Fine," Polly agreed. "But you owe me one Chic."

"Whatever, just get out," Chic said angrily.

Polly left the room closing the door behind her. She could hear Betty and her
mother downstairs talking. Polly decided that she would talk to Betty later,
it wasn't that urgent.

*****************************************

That night Betty and Polly were getting ready for bed.

"Betty I need to talk to you about something," Polly said.

"Sure, what is it?" Betty asked as she changed her shirt.

"It's about you and the hero things you and Barry have been doing," Polly
said.

"What about it?" Betty inquired.

"I think you need to stop," Polly stated.

"Why? We're helping people," Betty said. "I stopped that drunk driver the
other day, he could have killed someone."

"Yeah that's true," Polly admitted. "But you're going to raise attention where
you don't want it."

"If you're talking about the Lodges I can handle them," Betty said.

"I'm not talking about the Lodges, I'm talking about people far more
powerful," Polly said. "Like the military."

"The military? Chic said something earlier... about not wanting the military
coming after me," Betty commented.

"Well he's right," Polly said. "If they could they would make you into a
weapon they could aim at whatever enemy they want. And there's not much on
this planet that can stop you Betty; that makes you incredibly dangerous."

"How do you know any of this?" Betty asked.

"Look I talked with Chic when I picked him up at the train station, he was
just telling me about the military and the things they do," Polly said. "It's
not hard to figure out what they would want to do with you."

Betty sat on the edge of her bed her jaw clenched.

"Nobody will ever use me as a weapon," Betty said.

"I hope not," Polly responded.

*****************************************

Veronica Lodge was attending a Christmas party at a hotel in Los Angeles. It
was being put on by a retailer that sold her fashion line. Even though
Veronica didn't have much to do with her fashion line these days she was still
the face of it and attending events like this helped the company's profile.

Veronica was standing off to the side just watching. She was close to the bar
in case she wanted another drink.

"Champagne?" somebody beside her offered.

Veronica turned to see a rather dapper looking man wearing an Armani Tuxedo.
He looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties with light brown hair
and similar coloured eyes.

"Thank you," Veronica said taking the champagne flute from him. "Do I know you
from somewhere?"

"I would think so," he replied. "We were in the same xenobiology doctorate
class."

Veronica looked at him trying to place the face. She hadn't associated with
any of her classmates so she couldn't.

"Sorry I was far more focused on getting my doctorate than making friends,"
Veronica said.

"Understandable," the man responded. "I'm Maxwell Lord the Third, of Lord
Enterprises; although you can call me Max."

Veronica's eyebrows arched in recognition.

"You recently had your father declared mentally incompetent and took over the
company," Veronica said. "My congratulations."

"Thank you," Max said. "And I understand you've been having some issues with
your own father."

"Everyone has issues with my father," Veronica responded.

"Well perhaps the two of us could work together for a mutual benefit?" Max
suggested.

"What did you have in mind?" Veronica asked intrigued.

Max looked around the party hall.

"This probably isn't the place to be discussing such things," Max said.
"Prying ears and all."

He reached into his pocket and handed her a hotel room key card.

"Why don't you come up to my room once you're done here and we can... discuss
things further," Max said.

With that he downed the rest of his own champagne and swiftly exited the party
hall. Veronica watched him leave and then glanced down at the key card with a
smile. This might be just the Christmas gift that she needed.

*****************************************

Chapter 42

"Oh god this is amazing," Veronica moaned.

She had left her own party early and gone up to Maxwell Lord's room, which
happened to be the hotel's Presidential Suite. The two of them had started
talking and having a few drinks but soon those talks moved to the bedroom.

"So, uh, my hope is to have these, grr, nanobots ready, guh, in six months,"
Max said as he fucked Veronica on the bed.

Currently he standing just at the end of the bed with Veronica's legs draped
over his shoulders, while Veronica was lying back and looking at a design plan
for his nanobots.

"Simply amazing," Veronica said.

"The nanobots or the sex?" Max asked.

"Both," Veronica responded with a smirk as she put the plan down on the bed
and looked up at him.

When they had first started talking Max had been explain to Veronica on how he
had been working on nanobots that when injected into a person would allow them
to control nearby electronics with but a thought. Veronica was quite intrigued
with the concept to say the least, and Max had felt that her expertise with
the biological side and his expertise with electronics they could both make a
fortune off this idea. Max picked up the pace banging Veronica harder, her
balls smacking against her ass with a sweaty smack with each thrust. Veronica
let out a high pitched yelp each time Max drove his well-hung dick into her.

"Oh yes! Oh yes!" Veronica cried out. "Oh I'm coming!"

"Me too!" Max exclaimed.

Both of them orgasmed simultaneously, Max grunted as he came forcefully inside
of her while Veronica let out a loud long wail. As they both came down Max
flopped onto the bed beside Veronica as they both panted from the exertion.

"That was good," Veronica commented.

"Not great?" Max asked.

"I think I'd need a second go to determine that," Veronica replied.

"Well how about we move this little party to Las Vegas?" Max suggested. "My
private jet can get us there in no time."

"Why what's in Las Vegas?" Veronica asked.

"Hotel rooms nicer than this, Lord Industries main laboratory, and 24 hours
chapels," Max replied with a smirk.

Veronica rolled over onto her side to look at him.

"Why Mr. Lord is this a proposal?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

"It seems the best way to cement our partnership here," Max replied.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to get an in with my
father's company," Veronica said.

"I know your father, and he'll make sure I can't touch his company," Max said.
"But it's my understanding that the two of you aren't exactly seeing eye to
eye right now and this could be a... fun way to get him back."

Veronica considered for a moment. Coming into tonight she certainly hadn't
expected for even the business proposal yet alone the marriage proposal.
Frankly things the last couple months had been rather tedious, with her father
pretty much kicking her out of his company all she had was her fashion line.
The West twins were still in comas and if they were anything like the Allen
boy they would remain that way for another few months at least, he had been in
a coma for nearly seven months.

"I have one condition," Veronica said finally.

"What's that?" Max asked.

"No Elvis wedding," Veronica replied with a smile.

*****************************************

It was Christmas Eve and Betty had slept in. She didn't have school or
anything else to do. She walked past Chic's room to see that he was already up
but when she went downstairs she didn't see him anywhere. He mother was in the
kitchen cooking as she almost always was while Polly was in the living room
idly watching TV.

"Good morning Betty, do you want me to make you breakfast?" Alice asked.

"No I'll just have some cereal," Betty replied.

Betty had poured some cereal and was getting the milk from the fridge when she
heard Polly call her from the living room.

"Betty come quick," Polly called.

Betty ran into the living room and looked at the TV.

"...the two were seen going into the Cupid's Wedding Chapel last night around
three a.m. local time," a reporter said. "Apparently the two had met earlier
that night at an event being put on by Veronica Lodge's fashion line."

"What's this about?" Betty asked.

"Apparently Veronica Lodge got married last night to Maxwell Lord," Polly
replied.

"Maxwell Lord? Isn't he the guy who got his father committed?" Betty inquired.

"Yep, and he got the company making him one of the richest men in the world,"
Polly answered. "And he's super good looking too. Man some people have it
all."

"Well good for her," Betty said. "And I guess she's stopped worrying about
me."

"I guess there is some small bright spot," Polly agreed.

"Oh come on Polly, I'm pretty sure that Maxwell Lord married her because of
who her father is," Betty said. "He probably wouldn't have much interest in
you."

"Hey!" Polly exclaimed.

"I'm just saying," Betty replied as she went back into the kitchen to get her
cereal.

She poured the milk into her cereal and then went back into the living room
and sat down on the couch beside Polly.

"... Lord Industries stock actually gained this morning on the news that he
had married Lodge Corp heiress Veronica Lodge," the reporter said.

"I wonder what her father thinks about this?" Polly pondered.

Betty shrugged not really caring, "He's probably unhappy about. But it seems
he's unhappy about a lot of things."

"That must suck having a father like that," Polly commented.

"Yeah maybe," Betty said. "Say have you seen Chic?"

"He went out early to meet up with some of his old friends," Polly replied.

Betty nodded as she ate her cereal.

The two sisters sat watching TV for a while as Betty ate. When Betty was
finished she took her dishes to the kitchen and then went upstairs to get
changed. She texted Barry asking if they could meet up to talk. Barry
responded saying that he had some last minute Christmas shopping to do so
Betty could meet him at the Wal-Mart in an hour.

*****************************************

Betty was standing outside the store waiting for Barry.

"Hey what's up?" Barry asked from behind.

Betty spun around a little startled.

"Man, don't sneak up on me like that!" Betty exclaimed.

"Why? Not like I can hurt you," Barry replied.

"No but you startle me enough and I might just hurt you," Betty retorted.

"Okay, sorry," Barry apologized. "So what's up? What did you need to talk
about?"

"Apparently our heroics have been attracting attention," Betty said. "And not
the kind we want."

"What do you mean?" Barry asked.

"The military, my brother subtly mentioned that we've been attracting their
attention," Betty said, "And not in the good way. I think we should... put our
heroics on hold, at least temporarily."

Barry stared at her for a long moment. He then looked down at her hand and saw
that she was wearing the ring he had gotten her the other day.

"That ring looks good on you," Barry said before turning to walk away.

"Barry wait," Betty said grabbing his shoulder.

"What Betty, why should I give this up?" Barry asked.

"Because we could both be in danger," Betty replied.

"I doubt that," Barry said. "But you probably are. So if you want to stop you
can, but I won't."

"That's not fair Barry," Betty said.

"No, what's not fair is having these powers and not being able to help people
with them," Barry said.

Betty took the ring off and gave it back to Barry.

"Take the ring back," Betty said. "What I want is for you to give up being a
hero for a little while, for me."

Barry looked at the ring in his hand for a long moment.

"Why is this so important for you?" Barry asked.

"The military is interested in using you or I as a weapon," Betty replied.
"Frankly the thought of that frightens me and I just think we should lay low
for a little while."

"Alright," Barry agreed. "But just for a month or two."

"Thank you," Betty said.

"And take this back," Barry said handing Betty the ring back. "It was a
Christmas gift and we're still friends."

Betty took the ring back and slid it back onto her finger.

"Thanks," Betty said. "I'll see you later."

Barry nodded and went into the store while Betty started making her way home.
She decided to take a meandering walk home through the town to look at all the
Christmas decorations.

*****************************************

Betty had just gone past the train station where a Christmas train had pulled
in and was walking past the motel she'd seen Tim staying at when she saw him
getting onto a motorcycle.

"What the heck..." Betty muttered.

She watched as Tim put his helmet on and slowly pull out of the motel parking
lot before driving away. Betty was rather curious about what he was up to and
decided to follow. She carefully followed him in spurts of speed doing her
best to make sure he didn't notice her. Eventually Tim stopped at a quarry
just outside of town. The quarry was closed for the winter so nobody was
around. Betty herself stopped partway down the road and watched.

Tim got off his motorcycle and took his helmet off and just stood there, it
looked as if he was waiting for somebody. Betty slowly crept closer to try and
get a better view.

Suddenly she heard something behind her and she turned around only have a pair
of electrified escrima sticks jabbed into her sides. Betty let out a startled
cry as she felt the electricity course through her but she didn't go down. She
quickly smacked the two weapons out of the hands of her attacker and shook her
head getting a look at him finally.

He was tall and had dark hair and he had a startled expression on his face
over the fact that Betty was still standing. He made a move to try and attack
Betty but she grabbed his arm and gave him a hip toss to the ground and then
grabbed his throat with one hand pinning him to the ground easily as she held
her fist up ready to attack.

"Who are you?" Betty demanded.

The man said nothing but just struggled to try and get Betty's hand off of his
throat. She then looked up to see Tim running over.

"Betty? What are you doing? Let him go!" Tim yelled.

"You know him?" Betty asked.

"Yes let him up," Tim replied.

Betty stood up slowly letting the man get to his feet.

"Who is this girl?" the man asked Tim.

"Dick this is Betty Cooper," Tim introduced. "Betty this is Dick Grayson."

Dick looked down at his escrima sticks which had been broken by Betty.

"How did you do this?" Dick asked picking them up. "Did you know about this
Tim?"

"No," Tim replied. "Betty what are you even doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Betty replied.

Tim stood for a moment clearly mulling things over in his head.

"If I tell you, then you need to tell me how you were able to follow me," Tim
stated.

Now it was Betty's turn to consider. It looked like her secret was already out
as it was, she figured there was no harm in telling him.

"Okay," Betty said. "I've got... abilities. I'm faster, stronger and a lot
more durable than a normal person."

"I noticed," Dick commented his hand rubbing his throat.

"Sorry about that," Betty apologized.

"Well I did shock you with over a million volts first," Dick said. "So I guess
it's a little understandable."

"So what exactly are you two doing meeting out here?" Betty asked.

Tim looked at Dick who shrugged.

"I'm here to try and infiltrate Lodge Corp to discover what Hiram Lodge is up
to," Tim said.

"Why? And for who?" Betty asked.

Tim glanced at Dick once more.

"Batman," Tim replied.

"Wait what?" Betty asked surprised.

"Batman," Tim repeated.

"Isn't he up in Gotham? Why does he care about what Hiram Lodge is doing down
here?" Betty asked.

"He's concerned that Hiram's up to something that would have implications on
perhaps the entire country or even the whole world," Dick replied.

"So what is your relation to Batman, and who is he?" Betty inquired curiously.

"I can't tell you who he is," Tim answered. "But both Dick and I have fought
crime alongside him as Robin."

"That is so cool," Betty said.

"Look you can't tell anyone this," Tim said. "My mission here is secret, it's
bad enough you know."

"You can trust me to keep a secret," Betty said. "We've each got leverage on
each other. I know your secret and you know mine."

"Fair enough," Tim agreed.

"And just so you know I'm with you on the belief that Hiram Lodge is up to
something," Betty said. "And if you need help I'm your girl. I've helped some
other people with Lodge Corp in the past."

"Oh did you help Selina back around Thanksgiving?" Tim commented.

"You know Selina Kyle?" Betty asked in surprise.

"We've both had a few run-ins with her in the past," Dick said.

"What was she after?" Tim asked.

"I'm not sure," Betty replied. "She was working with some government black-ops
group called the Rogues."

"The Rogues..." Dick muttered. "I've heard that in something before, I'll look
into it when I go back to Gotham."

"Well here's what I've found Dick," Tim said handing Dick a thumb drive. "Have
a safe trip back."

"Thanks," Dick said pocketing the thumb drive. "I'll see you in a few weeks
when I come for the next update."

Dick then turned and walked to his car which he'd parked down the road.

"Do you want me to give you a ride back?" Tim offered Betty.

Betty considered for a moment, she'd never ridden on a motorcycle before.

"Yeah sure," Betty agreed.

"I, uh don't have a helmet for you," Tim said.

"I don't need it," Betty said. "If a bullet can't pierce my head I don't think
a fall at 100 miles per hour would do much."

The two got onto the motorcycle and Tim started it up, the engine roaring to
life. Betty felt the sensation of the bike vibrating beneath her was unlike
any she'd experienced.

"Hang on," Tim called back over his shoulder.

He revved the engine a few times before skidding the bike in a tight one
hundred eighty degree turn and then racing away from the quarry and back to
town.

*****************************************

Chapter 43

It was the first day of spring break and Betty and her friends were hanging
out in the barn out on the farm, except for Dilton who had gone skiing in
Vermont with his parents. The four of them were sitting around playing
Monopoly.

"Is this what we're going to do all week?" Barry asked as he rolled the dice.

"You're just sore because you're losing," Sheila responded.

"No I'm not," Barry said as he moved his piece and landed on community chest
and picked up a card and read it. "Get out of jail free."

"Barry makes a decent point," Jughead said as he picked up the dice for his
turn.

"We've got a whole week ahead of us, we should do something."

"Like what?" Betty asked.

"I don't know," Jughead said as he rolled the dice.

"There's a charity magic show at Pickens Park this afternoon," Sheila said.
"We could go watch that."

"That could be fun," Barry agreed.

"As long as there are no clowns," Jughead said.

"You're no coulrophobic," Betty said.

"Color what?" Jughead asked confused.

"Coulrophobic, it's a person who is afraid of clowns," Betty replied.

"No, but I have this overwhelming urge to punch one," Jughead said.

"Well if there is a clown there I'll just hold you back," Betty said.

*****************************************

Veronica was in the laboratory that she shared with her husband Maxwell Lord
at Lord Industries. The two of them had been working together on Max's nanobot
technology for the past couple of months. Veronica's father had not been happy
upon learning about her marriage to Maxwell Lord and had pretty much severed
all ties with her and cut her out of the Lodge Family fortune, although he
hadn't gone so far as to write her out of his will.

Veronica didn't really care though. She was more focused on the work she and
Max were working on. They were making excellent progress and Veronica enjoyed
working with Max. She found that with him she was able to get more
accomplished than she had either on her own or with anyone else. Just then the
door to her laboratory opened. Veronica glanced up to see Max entering.

"Hello dear," Max said. "How are things going."

"Quite well," Veronica said as she looked back down into her microscope. "The
nanobots are just about ready for a test."

Max stepped up behind Veronica and rubbed her shoulders.

"That's excellent news," Max said.

"I've been meaning to ask," Veronica said as Max gave her a shoulder massage.

"What exactly do you intend to do with your nanobot technology."

"It's not what I intend to do with them," Max replied. "It's what we intend to
do with them. So what would you like to do?"

"I'd like to take my smug father down a peg or two," Veronica said.

"Well we can certainly do that," Max replied. "But in the meantime..."

Veronica felt something rubbing against her back. She glanced back to see that
Max was naked underneath his lab coat. Veronica smirked because she was as
well. For some reason having sex in the laboratory seemed to improve their
scientific work so it was a common occurrence.

"If we keep this up," Veronica said as she slowly jerked Max off. "We might
solve string theory."

"Well, wouldn't that be something," Max replied.

He quickly cleared off a nearby table and as the couple began yet another
session of laboratory love-making.

*****************************************

Betty and her friends arrived at the park. There was already a crowd of about
two hundred people gathered to watch the magic show. They each paid the five
dollars for the ticket to watch the show.

"I think you're good Jughead, I don't see any clowns," Barry joked.

"Who's the magician we're seeing?" Sheila asked.

"Um... the Sorceress Sabrina Spellman," Jughead replied looking at a program.
"Oh it says here she's the daughter of Zatara."

"Zatara?" Betty asked.

"Yeah he's the guy that made the Washington Monument disappear," Jughead said.
"But then he disappeared like a year after that. Nobody knows where he is."

"Oh yeah I remember reading about that," Sheila commented. "That was like
before we were born though."

"Yeah, wasn't his daughter like two years old or something?" Barry asked.

"I think four or five," Jughead said. "But not very old."

They took their seats at the parks outdoor theatre. Since they had come last
minute they had to sit near the back, but the crowd was mostly made up of
younger children so they could still see alright.

The show began with loud music. Everyone looked around wondering where Sabrina
was and suddenly there was a puff of smoke and she appeared in the middle of
the center aisle. She had platinum blonde hair and was wearing a white top
hat, white jacket with white bikini type bottoms and a black corset. The
outfit seemed a little revealing for a kids show.

"Whoa how did she do that?" Barry whispered to Betty.

Betty shrugged. She had no idea; she hadn't sensed Sabrina at all before she
suddenly appeared.

Throughout the rest of the show both Betty and Barry were watching Sabrina
closely. She performed the usual tricks like pulling a rabbit out of her hat,
a floating card trick, a making various handkerchiefs appear.

They then watched as she set a card on fire burning it to ash. She then held
the ash in one hand so everyone could see that it had been destroyed.

"Nurt kcab otni a drac," Sabrina chanted.

What happened next occurred so quickly that most people wouldn't have been
able to tell what had happened. But Betty and Barry were both able to see what
happened. The ash rose up and formed the shape of a card and then it seemed to
un-burn and become the card once more. To everyone else it looked as if the
card had just appeared.

"Holy crap!" Jughead exclaimed.

"Holy crap is right," Barry agreed. "She actually reformed the card out of the
ash."

"That's not possible," Sheila said.

"After everything we've seen you should know that anything is possible," Betty
commented.

Sabrina moved onto her next trick which involved choosing a volunteer from the
audience. She picked a young girl sitting near the front and the proceeded to
make her levitate, however beyond that she made the girl float all the way
over the audience and back.

"Do you think maybe she has actual magic?" Barry asked.

Jughead and Sheila both got into a discussion about it, but Betty was
distracted by her cell phone buzzing. She pulled it out and was a little
surprised to see a message from Tim.

Big trouble need your help, it read.

What kind of trouble? Betty sent back.

Demonic bees, Tim responded. They're heading for the center of town.

Almost as if on cue there was a buzzing noise. Betty looked up and her eyes
went wide as she saw what looked like a greenish-black cloud approaching.
However as it got closer she realized that it wasn't a cloud but rather a
swarm of massive wasp or bee like creatures; they were about the size of a
kitten with huge massive stingers.

"Get everyone out of here," Betty said to Jughead and Sheila. "Barry and I
will try to deal with this."

"Run for cover, run for cover!" Jughead and Sheila yelled.

The audience all saw the swarm of large insects coming in and began running.
Betty and Barry both stood staring at the approaching swarm.

"What the heck is it?" Barry asked.

"I don't know," Betty replied.

"How are we going to stop it?" Barry asked.

"I don't know," Betty replied.

"Llaberif!" they both heard Sabrina shout.

Suddenly a large ball of fire shot towards the swarm of insects. They watched
as several dropped to the ground dead and burning but the swarm kept coming.

"You guys need to get out of here," Sabrina said running over to them.

"No we're going to help stop this," Barry said.

"Are you two bee keepers or something?" Sabrina asked a little insultingly.
"Because..."

She was cut off as Betty unleashed a blast of her heat vision incinerating a
few more of the wasp creatures.

"You were saying?" Betty inquired.

"Let's just deal with this," Sabrina said feeling a little embarrassed.

Sabrina continued to launch fireballs at the swarm of insects and Betty used
her heat vision. Barry meanwhile spun his arms quickly create a pair of small
vortexes that sucked a bunch of the insects in which made it easier for
Sabrina and Betty to destroy them. However the insects kept coming.

"How many of these things are there?" Barry exclaimed. "They seem endless!"

"Tnaig llaberif!" Sabrina exclaimed.

With both hands she launched and absolutely massive fireball that completely
engulfed the swarm incinerating them all. When the flames cleared there seemed
to be nothing left. All three of the sighed with relief that the danger was
over.

"What the hell were those things?" Barry asked.

"I don't know," Betty answered. "Tim gave me a head's up."

"Tim?" Barry asked confused.

Betty hadn't told Barry about Tim's secret or what he was doing in Riverdale.

"Yeah, he's here in town investigating Hiram," Betty replied.

"Wait so do you think those bugs were altered with meteor rocks or something?"
Barry asked.

"Those weren't simply insects," Sabrina said. "They were demons."

"Wait, what, demons?" Betty asked confused.

Before Sabrina could reply a motorcycle came racing towards them. Betty
immediately recognized the rider as Tim. He skidded to a stop and hopped off.

"You stopped the swarm?" Tim asked rather surprised.

"Yeah, with the help of Barry and Sabrina here," Betty replied.

Tim looked at Sabrina and Barry confused as to how they could have helped.

"Sabrina here has magic," Betty explained. "And Barry is the fastest man
alive."

"Well we're not out of the woods yet," Tim said. "There's more trouble,
apparently at the grocery store."

"No, before we go anywhere you need to explain what's going on," Barry said.

"I don't know exactly what's going on," Tim said. "I was following Hiram Lodge
and he went for what looked like a hike in the woods. I went to follow him and
then next thing I know there's this swarm of giant wasps or bees flying out of
this cave heading towards town."

"Those weren't wasps," Sabrina said for a second time.

"Well then what were they?" Tim asked rather frustrated.

"They were Advespas," Sabrina replied. "Well immature ones it seemed like."

"What's an Advespa?" Betty asked.

"They're a very common demon in hell," Sabrina replied. "They're typically
used as shock troops in demonic wars. But these ones... they seem different."

"Different how?" Tim asked.

"The green, usually they're all black," Sabrina replied.

"Do you think maybe Hiram is combinding demons and meteor rocks?" Barry
suggested.

"If he is god knows what these things can do," Tim replied.

"They're stings inject a poison that normally causes its victim to go insane,
usually to the point of committing suicide," Sabrina told them.

"So we need to stop them," Betty said. "But how did they get here?"

"Well they're immature," Sabrina replied. "So it looks like they just hatched
within the past day or two. That makes me think there's an Advespa Queen,
maybe in that cave you mentioned."

"Then that's where we should go," Tim said.

"But what about the grocery store?" Betty asked.

"Oh yeah..."

*****************************************

Brigitte Reilly was starving. She had been out for a walk near the woods as
part of her attempt to lose weight when a swarm of giant bees had flown by.
Brigitte had ducked for cover but one of them had stung her. Despite the pain
however the wound seemed to heal very quickly but it had left Brigitte
starving. She was close to a grocery store so she'd made her way there looking
for something to eat.

As soon as she walked in she found herself in the produce section. She
immediately made her way over to a display of apples and picked one up and
began eating it. She then ate another and then another. She kept going eating
more and more.

Soon the apples were all gone and Brigitte moved to a large pile of onions
eating them whole. Customers were quite disturbed and a manager soon came over
to speak with Brigitte.

"Excuse me miss," he said as he put a hand on Brigitte's shoulder. "But I'm
going to have to ask you to..."

He didn't finish as Brigitte turned around. The man stopped midsentence as he
saw her face. Her eyes looked sunk and had turned black and her skin was so
pale that it was almost white. But perhaps most disturbing was that her mouth
had transformed into a huge gaping maw filled with multiple rows of razor
sharp teeth.

Brigitte let out a threatening hiss before she grabbed his hand and bit down
on it biting it clean off. The manager screamed as he held the bleeding stump
as Brigitte resumed eating the onions.

Customers in the store screamed and ran away in panic wondering what they had
just witnessed and who could possibly stop it.

*****************************************

Chapter 44

"We should split up," Barry suggested. "Betty and I can deal with the cave,
Tim and Sabrina can handle the grocery store."

"If there's an Advespa queen, or god forbid something worse; it won't be
nearly as easy to defeat as that swarm was," Sabrina said. "We should stick
together."

"I have to agree with Sabrina," Betty said. "She's the only one that knows
anything about demons."

"I have to agree as well," Tim said. "Having a tactical knowledge of your
opponents is crucial to winning a battle."

"Alright, well then Betty and I will meet you there," Barry said.

"No we should all arrive together," Sabrina said. "I can get us there all at
once."

"You can?" Barry asked in surprise.

Sabrina gave him a slightly condescending glance.

"Let's gather around Tim's bike," Sabrina said.

They gathered in a circle around Tim's motorcycle.

"Okay now we need to all hold hands," Sabrina said.

Somewhat slowly they each held hands. Betty was standing across from Sabrina
so she took Tim and Barry's hands.

"Tropelet su lla ot eht yrecorg erots," Sabrina said.

Suddenly they were all enveloped in gray smoke and then seconds later they
were in the grocery store parking lot.

"Whoa, that was trippy," Barry commented.

"Was that how you suddenly appeared at the start of your magic show?" Betty
asked.

Sabrina nodded but before she could say anything they heard screams coming
from the grocery store and saw people fleeing. Barry quickly took off for the
store with Betty behind him.

Tim grabbed a short pole from off of his bike. He pressed a button and it
suddenly elongated into a metal quarterstaff.

"Let's go," he said to Sabrina.

The two of them then made their way to the grocery store. Barry and Betty
stopped immediately inside the grocery store. There was a man lying on the
ground clutching a bloody stump where his left hand used to be, moaning
softly.

"We need to help him," Barry said kneeling down.

Betty knelt down as well although she wasn't sure what they could do. There
was a big pool of blood around the man and the wound seemed to be oozing black
puss, it was quite disgusting. Just then Tim and Sabrina arrived.

"Sabrina can you help him?" Betty asked.

"I don't know," Sabrina said. "That wound it looks..."

Suddenly the man began convulsing violently. Foam began pouring from the
corners of his mouth.

"He's seizing!" Barry exclaimed.

Barry and Betty tried to hold the man still. All of a sudden the seizing
stopped and he lay still. Betty placed her head to his chest.

"He's not breath and his heart has stopped," Betty said.

"Stand back I'll do CPR," Barry said.

"Don't bother," Sabrina said putting a hand on Barry's shoulder in a
comforting fashion.

Barry stood up and wiped his face. Betty wasn't sure but it looked like Barry
might have been crying.

"What did this to him?" Tim asked.

As if to answer the question there came a scream from in the store. They
quickly made their way into the store and were shocked by what they saw.
Standing in the middle of the cereal aisle was a large overweight woman her
skin almost a greyish colour. She currently had her back to them and was
pulling box after box of cereal off of the shelves and tearing them open and
pouring them into her mouth. Betty noticed there was a large red welt on her
right shoulder. At the far end of the aisle was a middle aged woman who was
just staring at the one eating in horror.

"What the heck?" Barry muttered.

"This... it's a gluttony demon," Sabrina said. "Or one that's possessed a
person."

"Wait possessed?" Tim asked. "Like in the Exorcist?"

"Something similar to that," Sabrina replied.

Just then the possessed woman turned showing a huge gaping mouth filled with
teeth. Both Betty and Barry gasped.

"Brigitte?" Betty asked recognizing her.

The possessed Brigitte just let out a his before grabbing another box of
cereal and biting into it, tearing the box in half with her razor teeth before
swallowing it whole. However she didn't seem to be a danger to people, she
seemed more concerned with eating.

"That's disgusting," Barry commented.

"Gluttony demons aren't particularly dangerous unless you interrupt their
eating," Sabrina said. "That's probably what happened to the man we passed at
the entrance."

"Can you save her?" Betty asked Sabrina. "Perform an exorcism or something?"

Sabrina thought for a moment.

"I can drive the demon out, banish it back to hell," Sabrina said. "But it
will not go willingly. And the moment I start casting the spell the demon will
try to attack me."

"That's alright we can hold it off," Barry said.

"No you don't understand," Sabrina said. "Any damage you do to the demon will
also happen to Brigitte. If you hurt her too much when the demon leaves her
she might die immediately."

"Okay... that makes things a little more difficult," Betty admitted. "But not
impossible. We've got to at least try, that's the least we can do."

Sabrina looked at Barry and Tim who both nodded in agreement.

"Alright, we need a plan though," Tim said. "Barry you need to get that other
woman out of the store. Betty you do your best to restrain the demon and I'll
stay with Sabrina as a last line of defense and in case of any other
surprises."

"Oh one more thing," Sabrina said. "I need you to keep her within the range of
my voice. If the demon can't hear the spell it stops working and I'll have to
start over."

"Great, another twist to make this more difficult," Barry muttered.

"Hey I'm the one that that's going to be doing the heavy work," Betty said.

"Knock it off you two and let's go," Tim said. "Barry get that woman and
anybody else out of here, now!"

Barry was a little shocked by Tim's authoritative tone. However he took off a
split second later to get the woman out and check the rest of the store.

"Get ready," Sabrina said to Betty. "The demon is going to be pissed."

Betty nodded and glanced back at the possessed Brigitte who was now opening
cans of soup with her teeth and downing the contents in a single gulp.

"Nemod evael siht lessev!" Sabrina said. "Nemod evael siht lessev!"

Brigitte turned around faced Sabrina she then let out a shrill ear piercing
screech before charging at them. Betty quickly intercepted her and grabbed
Brigitte in full nelson holding tight. Brigitte began yelling something in an
extremely deep and demonic sounding voice, however Betty didn't understand it.

"What is she saying?" Betty asked.

Sabrina didn't answer but just kept working on the exorcism spell. Betty
continued to hold Brigitte who struggled and tried to free herself. Betty was
surprised at how strong the demon was. Betty could feel her grip breaking.

Suddenly Brigitte let out a deep growl and that turned into a roar suddenly
spines shot out from her back. Betty was forced to let go as she felt them
pierce her skin. Betty looked down to see that she was bleeding. The wounds
were quickly healing but somehow the demon had wounded her.

"Betty..." Tim called out nervously.

She looked up to see Tim swinging his staff at the demon. He hit her twice in
the side of the head which seemed to have absolutely no effect. The spine were
still sticking out of her back, which reminded Betty of a skeleton of a
Dimetrodon that Betty had seen at the museum when she had been younger.

The demon smacked Tim's staff out of his hand with ease and was about to bite
into him when Betty ran over and tackled it to the ground. She struggled to
hold the possessed Brigitte down.

"Thanks," Tim said as he scrambled to pick up his staff once more.

Betty just grunted as she strained to keep Brigitte pinned to the ground.
Suddenly Brigitte gave Betty a hard shove to the chest and Betty flew up into
the air smashed through the ceiling and landed on the roof.

Betty had to take a moment to catch her breath, the wind being knocked out of
her. She then looked down through the hole to see that Barry had returned and
had intercepted Brigitte and carried her to the back of the store. Betty
dropped down through the hole landing beside Barry.

"I got this," Barry said to her confidently.

As Brigitte charged towards Sabrina once more Barry ran to intercept. However
as he neared her Brigitte lashed out and suddenly Barry was tumbling head over
heels from being hit with a vicious clothesline. He came crashing to stop
knocking over a row of shelves and cans of vegetables falling on him.

Betty wasn't certain but it looked like Barry was alive just knocked out. He
ran over to try and grab Brigitte once more but Brigitte hit her with a
powerful punch. Betty flew all the way across the store smashing through row
after row of shelves until she came to a stop against a wall of freezers.

Betty quickly got to her feet angrily and charged back across the store. She
tackled Brigitte around the ankles just as she was about to attack Tim
slamming her to the ground rather hard.

"Not today," Betty growled.

With a violent twist Betty broke both of Brigitte's ankles, however the demon
didn't seem at all bothered or in any pain. Instead it just lashed out
striking Betty yet again sending her flying across the store once more.
However when the possessed Brigitte tried to get to her feet, she immediately
collapsed in a heap. Frustrated the demon began crawling towards Sabrina as it
hurled demonic insults at her.

Across the store Betty once more got up. She wasn't in any pain but she could
feel her stamina waning. She ran across the store once more but she realized
she wasn't quite as fast as usual. She stepped down on the ankles of the demon
holding it in place. The demon lashed out at her but Betty was able to easily
dodge.

"Nemod og kcab ot lleh!" Sabrina shouted finishing the exorcism.

All of a sudden black smoke began billowing out of Brigitte's mouth. It
swirled around in the air above her like a growing hurricane before it plunged
down into the ground and disappeared. Brigitte let out a gasp and then fell to
the ground unconscious. The spines on her back were gone and her mouth seemed
to have gone back to normal.

"What happened?" Tim asked.

"The demon was sent back to hell," Sabrina said.

Betty quickly checked on Brigitte. Other than her broken ankles she seemed to
be fine, at least physically.

"Will she be alright?" Betty asked.

"She'll be fine," Sabrina said. "I'll take care of her go check on Barry."

Betty went over to check on Barry who had ended up near the entrance to the
store. Barry was slowly coming to as she got over to him. Betty knelt down and
gave a chuckle.

"Did it work?" Barry asked groggily.

"It worked," Betty replied with a smirk.

"That's good," Barry said with a sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. "Betty
why is the store spinning."

"It's not, you just got knocked loopy," Betty replied. "But I think you'll be
alright."

Barry looked over at her.

"Yeah, my vision is a little messed up," he said. "I mean it looks as if that
dead guy just got up and is about to..."

He never finished the sentence. The next thing Betty knew she was smashing
through the glass doors of the entrance and then crashing into a parked car.
Betty struggled to her feet holding her head and wondering just what had hit
her. She looked up to see the man who had died at the entrance making his way
towards her. His eyes were black and he had a sadistic grin on his face. But
the most frightening thing was that where his severed hand had been was now an
absolutely massive black claw that was covered in ooze.

"Not another demon," Betty muttered to herself.

She went towards it but found that her strength had dropped and she stumbled.
She looked up to see the newly risen demon was about to attack her when
suddenly it vanished from her view.

"Looks like you could use a hand," a familiar voice said from above.

Betty looked up to see what looked like a person floating in the air. She
couldn't quite make them out because the sun was directly behind them casting
them in shadows. But as the person slowly lowered to the ground Betty suddenly
saw that it was Cheryl Blossom. She was clad in a sparkly red body suit and
had on some golden coloured bracers on her arms.

"Cheryl? You're back?" Betty asked in surprise.

"And just in time it would seem," Cheryl replied.

"Where were you? How did you...?" Betty stammered.

"That's a long story," Cheryl answered. "I think we've got bigger problems we
should deal with first."

*****************************************

Chapter 45

Cheryl gracefully came to a landing next to Betty and held out her hand to
help Betty up. Betty grabbed Cheryl's hand and was surprised when Cheryl
pulled her to her feet almost effortlessly.

"Whoa, you're a lot stronger now," Betty commented.

Cheryl grinned and nodded, "Yep, maybe as strong as you."

"Well we're going to need that," Betty said.

Betty then glanced over the store where she saw Tim and Sabrina helping Barry
to his feet. Betty made her way back to the store followed by Cheryl.

"Betty what happened?" Barry asked. "Was that another... whoa, Cheryl?"

Barry stared at Cheryl dumbfounded his mouth slightly agape.

"Nice to see you again Barry," Cheryl said with a grin as she stood with her
fists resting against her hip.

"Who's this?" Tim asked.

"This is Cheryl Blossom," Betty introduced. "She's a class mate from school,
but she took a leave of absence after her brother's death..."

"There's something mystical about you," Sabrina interrupted as she approached
Cheryl.

Sabrina looked Cheryl up and down getting rather close. She even bent down and
sniffed at Cheryl's leg.

"Whoa, whoa, back off sister," Cheryl said as she grabbed Sabrina by her
jacket and easily moved her back.

"Sorry," Sabrina apologized.

Cheryl let go and stood with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Is that the Silent Armor?" Sabrina asked.

Cheryl gave Sabrina a look of surprise.

"How do you know about it?" Cheryl asked.

"Oh I know about just about everything magical, mystical and mythical,"
Sabrina replied a little indifferently as she continued to look Cheryl up and
down. "So what was your test like, how did you prove capable of acting with
wisdom and compassion?"

"How... how do you know about that?" Cheryl stammered.

"Like I said, I know just about everything magical, mystical and mythical,"
Sabrina replied with shrug.

"While this is all quite interesting, I think we're all forgetting that we've
got a bit of a demon problem," Tim interjected. "So how about we deal with
that and we can talk about Cherry..."

"Cheryl," Cheryl corrected him.

"Cheryl's magical armor or whatever afterwards," Tim finished.

"That's probably a good idea," Betty agreed.

"Yeah," Cheryl said with a nod.

"Alright," Sabrina agreed.

Betty glanced down at Barry.

"Barry? Hello?" she said waving her hand in his face.

Barry was still staring at Cheryl, his mouth hanging open.

"Barry. Barry! BARRY!" Betty began yelling at him.

Barry didn't respond and just continued to stare. Tim stepped up and with an
open palm slapped Barry across the face.

"Ow!" Barry exclaimed. "What the hell man!?"

"I know I look like, super hot," Cheryl said to Barry. "But there's other
things you need to focus on right now beside my breasts."

Just then there was the sound of sirens approaching.

"Uh-oh," Barry muttered. "We should probably leave."

"No," Tim disagreed. "We need to let the authorities know what is going on,
and what they can do to help."

"Well I don't want them to know who I am," Betty said.

"Me neither," Barry agreed.

"That's a good point," Tim also agreed.

"I can help with that," Sabrina said.

She motioned for Betty, Barry and Tim to all face her and she raised her arms
up in the air.

"dlac meht ni rieht oreh semutsoc," Sabrina chanted.

The three of them soon found themselves clad in their hero costumes. Barry was
excited to be in his costume for the first time in a while, and Betty
admittedly felt kind of good about wearing hers as well; although she still
disliked the mask. They then looked at Tim and were excited to see that he was
indeed Robin.

"Oh my god you really are Robin," Barry said excitedly.

"I told you I was," Tim said.

"Yeah but I had my doubts," Barry said.

"Really, this is what you wear?" Cheryl asked looking at both Betty and Barry.

"Sheila designed it..." Betty mumbled feeling a little embarrassed.

"Hey I like mine, it's great," Barry said.

"Eh, yours is fine, maybe a dark shade of red would be better," Cheryl said
dismissively to Barry. "But Betty that mask doesn't suit you, and your outfit
is cute, but it's missing something, like maybe a logo like Barry's."

"The fashion talk can wait girls," Tim said. "Cops are here."

Just then a pair of police cars skidded to a stop in the parking lot and four
police officers quickly got out heading towards the store their weapons at the
ready. Tim went out to meet them, and Betty and the others followed close
behind. Betty was keeping a careful eye out in case one of the officers had an
itchy trigger finger.

"Officers, we've taken care of the situation here," Tim said as he raised his
hands.

The officers looked around. They saw the dead body of the man who had been
killed and rose from the dead as a demon. It was quite obvious that they were
quite unnerved by it.

"You, you're coming in for questioning," one of the officers said nervously.
"How do we know you didn't cause this?"

"Right, because we'd turn somebody into a demon to attack us, because that
makes so much sense," Tim said sarcastically.

"I... uh..." the officer stammered then pointed his gun at Tim. "You're coming
to the station for questioning."

Tim went to respond, but Cheryl put a hand on his shoulder and stepped past
him towards the police officer.

"Now officer I'm sure you're confused by all of this," Cheryl said. "But what
you need to know is that we're only trying to help."

The officers looked at the five of them and clearly weren't buying the story.
Betty didn't blame them; they looked more like they were dressed up for
Halloween than stopping a demon invasion.

"I need you to step back mam," the officer said shifting his gun to Cheryl.

"Please don't point that at me, or I'll be forced to take it from you," Cheryl
said.

There was a long moment but the officer didn't lower his weapon. Cheryl gave a
slight sigh and then reached out and grabbed the officer's gun and ripped it
from his hand and tossed it aside. In response two of the other officers
raised their guns and fired at her. The bullets bounced off of Cheryl falling
to the ground harmlessly.

"I wouldn't do that anymore," Barry suggested. "You'll make her angry."

"You need to impose a town wide curfew, like immediately," Tim said. "Get
everybody inside. We will deal with the threat."

"What are you doing here?" one of the officers asked. "Why aren't you in
Gotham with the Batman?"

Tim just looked at the officer but didn't respond. He then looked at Sabrina
and nodded. Sabrina took her cue and had them stand around her in a circle.

"tropelet su ot eht tserof," Sabrina chanted.

Suddenly they were all teleported from the parking lot of the grocery store to
the edge of the forest.

"Follow me," Tim said as he motioned for the others to follow him.

He led the way into the woods, as Betty and the others followed him. Right
away they all noticed something was off. The forest was incredibly quiet as
though all the animals and even the insects had fled as if they knew what
danger lurked inside.

"So you can fly," Betty commented to Cheryl. "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah it is," Cheryl agreed. "I mean I can't move as fast as you or Barry, or
shoot lasers from my eyes."

"Actually it's concentrated infrared energy," Betty corrected her.

"That sounds like a Dilton term," Cheryl commented.

"You got that right," Barry chimed in. "I wanted to call it heat vision."

"See now that's a much better term," Cheryl agreed.

"So besides flying and the strength and being bulletproof, do you have any
other powers?" Betty inquired.

"I don't know," Cheryl replied. "I haven't really tried to do anything else."

"Oh there's several other things the Silent Armor can do," Sabrina said. "It
does more than simply protect its wearer. It is able to manifest weapons like
swords or spears. It has also been said that the armor can bind itself with
the weapons of the gods allowing the wearer to use them, when normally a
mortal would die from attempting such a thing."

"The fact that you know more about this armor than I do is unsettling," Cheryl
commented.

"Well," Sabrina replied. "As I've said..."

"You know just about everything magical, mystical and mythical," Cheryl
finished. "But how?"

"Oh well, that's a rather long story," Sabrina replied.

"Well I'd like to hear it some other time," Tim interrupted. "Look there's a
cave up ahead, be quiet."

They made their way towards the cave. The cave seemed oddly out of place in
the forest and as they approached they could hear a faint buzzing sound
echoing from within the cave.

"I think we've got the right place," Barry commented.

"Certainly sounds like there could be an Advespa hive in there," Sabrina said.

"Well let's go," Cheryl said leading the way into the cave.

She entered the cave followed by Sabrina, then Barry, then Betty and Tim at
the back. They were not very far into the cave when they noticed a green glow
emanating from within the cave.

"What is this glow?" Cheryl asked turning to look back at Sabrina.

Sabrina shrugged not sure her. But then behind them Betty stumbled and fell to
one knee.

"Betty? Are you alright?" Tim asked as he tried to help her to her feet.

"I know what this is," Barry said as he assisted Tim. "It's meteor rocks."

"Meteor rocks?" Sabrina asked.

"From the meteor shower that hit Riverdale sixteen years ago," Cheryl replied.

"The rocks... they're from my home planet," Betty explained as she struggled
somewhat to breathe. "They... they make me weak."

"Then you're not going to be any use in there," Tim said. "Come on, I'm taking
you back outside. The rest of you go."

Barry, Cheryl and Sabrina looked at each other somewhat nervously. They knew
losing Betty's help was going to make this difficult. However they continued
on into the cave while Tim assisted Betty out. Once they were outside Betty
felt fine once more.

"Are you alright?" Tim asked.

"I'll be fine," Betty replied. "If you can force whatever is in there out here
I can help," Betty said.

"Alright, I'll go tell the others," Tim stated.

He turned to re-enter the cave but then suddenly the ground began to shake.
Tim and Betty both looked at each other confused as they tried to steady
themselves.

"Earthquake?" Betty asked.

"I doubt it," Tim replied.

Just then there was the sound of cracking and the entrance to the cave
collapsed sealing it shut.

"The other's they're trapped," Betty exclaimed.

She went to go try and move the rubble away from the entrance of the cave when
the ground beneath her seemed to swell upwards. Betty looked down to see the
dirt sort of rippling almost like a drop into a still pool of water. Then she
heard something.

"Tim move!" Betty shouted at him.

A split second later Betty found herself suddenly tossed into the air as
something erupted from below. She was about thirty feet high in moments and
she looked down to see Tim lying on the ground having been knocked down.

Betty then experienced a brief moment of weightlessness as her sudden ascent
stopped before she plummeted back to the ground. As she did Betty saw
something emerge from the ground flying up towards her and realized that it
had to be what had caused these minor earthquakes.

It looked similar to the small wasps, or Advespas as Sabrina had called them.
But it was bigger, much, much bigger. Easily thirty feet long it was
absolutely gigantic. However where the head of the gigantic insect should have
been, instead was what looked like the upper body of a woman. She had eyes
that were segmented like an insect's and a pair of small antennae protruding
from her forehead. But there was also something oddly familiar.

"Midge?" Betty asked more to herself than anyone as she fell back to earth,
landing hard enough to create a small crater.

Betty grunted as she picked herself up as the huge half-wasp half-woman
creature flew up into the air, its vast gossamer wings creating a loud
deafening drone. Nearby Tim was getting to his feet, Betty raced over and
helped him up.

"We need to stop that thing!" Tim shouted over the buzzing of the creature's
wings.

Betty looked up, whatever the creature was, it couldn't fly particularly well
as its flight was awkward and slow. But it might also be Midge, possessed by a
demon like Brigitte had been. If that was the case Betty couldn't bring
herself to just kill her. Perhaps Sabrina could drive out the demon and Midge
could be brought to face the proper justice for everything she had done.

Betty looked up and remembered Jason's death and the anger and sadness that
she had felt. She felt the heat build-up in her eyes and then she unleashed a
blast of her heat vision. It struck the creatures wings and practically burned
them off. The buzzing noise stopped and the creature plummeted to earth
letting out a screech as it did.

"Nice job," Tim said slapping Betty on the back.

The creature picked itself up quickly however and turned around and looked at
Tim and Betty. It then let out another inhuman sounding screeching and
suddenly a gigantic swarm of the small Advespa came flying up from out of the
hole it had made when it had emerged from the ground.

"Oh crap," Tim muttered.

Beside him Betty was equally nervous not sure what the two of them could
possibly do.

*****************************************

Chapter 46

"So Tim, do you have a plan for this?" Betty asked as she looked at the huge
swarm of Advespa gathering in the sky, there were so many that they were
starting to black out the sun.

"I got nothing," Tim replied, as he desperately tried to keep the nervousness
from his voice.

Betty knew she could use her heat vision but using it repeatedly left her
feeling drained, and she wasn't sure she had it in her to deal with all of
these demon wasps.

The swarm began descending towards them; Betty let loose with a blast of her
heat vision blasting a hole through the swarm till the sky was visible once
more, but more of the bugs quickly filled the hole in. Betty couldn't help but
feel somewhat hopeless.

Just then they heard something and suddenly something emerged from the hole.
Betty and Tim looked to see Cheryl holding a sword flying up towards the
swarm. As she neared she let out a cry and the bugs all began trying to attack
her. Some she punched and others she slashed with her sword. Dead Advespa fell
to the ground in large numbers but there were still more.

"tniag llaberif!" they then heard as a huge ball of flame erupted upwards out
of the hole striking the swarm.

"Ha, ha, yes!" Betty exclaimed.

Betty unleashed another blast of her heat vision, being careful not to strike
Cheryl who was fighting away against the demons. Seconds later Barry was
standing beside her.

"How did you stop that thing?" Barry asked pointing at the giant half-human
half-wasp thing.

"Burned it's wings off," Betty replied. "But I don't think that stopped it."

"No and I think that thing is Midge," Barry agreed as they both saw the huge
creature ponderously making its way around the big hole towards them.

Suddenly Sabrina was standing beside them as well as she appeared in a puff of
smoke.

"Sabrina is that... is that a possessed person?" Betty asked pointing at the
monster.

"Yes, but it's unlike any kind of possession I've seen or heard about before,"
Sabrina replied. "It..."

"Can you do an exorcism, like you did with Brigitte?" Betty cut her off.

"Well yes," Sabrina replied. "But..."

"No buts, get started," Betty said.

"Are you sure about this?" Barry asked. "I mean you're talking about saving
Midge Klump, the girl that was willing to nuke the town."

Betty glanced up into the sky at Cheryl.

"I think it will work out fine," Betty replied as she looked back down at
Barry. "Now let's get rid of this swarm so we don't have such a hard time with
Midge."

"I've got an idea on how to deal with that," Barry said.

Barry took off in a blur and began running along the walls of the hole. Soon
he created a vortex of air that started to draw the wasp-demons down into the
hole, however it was also drawing Cheryl down with it as well. Desperately she
hacked away at the wasps as they were pulled towards her, however Betty
realized that Cheryl was about to be over run.

Betty took a quick running start and leapt into the air across the pit towards
Cheryl. She grabbed a hold of Cheryl and the two of them travelled the
distance across the hole until they both slammed hard into the ground.

"Thanks," Cheryl grunted as she got to her feet.

"No problem," Betty responded.

The swarm of Advespa were now all trapped in the pit by the vortex that Barry
had created. Across the pit Tim grabbed something off of this belt.

"Barry, get out of that hole!" Tim shouted.

Barry almost immediately ran out of the hole and came to a stop beside Tim and
Sabrina. Tim threw whatever it was he'd taken off his belt into the hole full
of the little demons. It exploded in a blue flash and then suddenly all of the
wasps were frozen in one large ball.

"Betty hit it with your heat vision," Tim called out.

Betty unleashed a powerful blast of her heat vision and suddenly the entire
mass of frozen Advespa exploded in a huge ball of steam.

"What was that thing?" Barry asked Tim.

"Cryo-grenade," Tim replied. "I took it off a guy named Victor Fries."

Across the pit Betty and Cheryl each let out a relieved laugh.

"Nice job," Cheryl congratulated Betty as they both grinned.

"Look out!" Barry shouted from across the hole.

Both girls turned around to see the massive wasp monster was almost right
behind them. From this close they could both see that the human half was
indeed Midge. Before either of them could react though, Midge smacked them
with one of her massive forelegs sending both girls flying. Betty and Cheryl
smashed through about a dozen trees before they came to a stop. The two of
them slowly got to their feet assisting each other as they did.

"I'm going to kill her," Cheryl said.

Cheryl held her right hand out and suddenly a large golden spear manifested in
her hand.

"Wait," Betty said as she grabbed a hold of the spear.

"What?" Cheryl asked.

"Midge has been possessed by a demon," Betty said. "Sabrina can drive the
demon out and return her back to normal, or as normal as she is. Then we can
take her to face the justice she deserves."

Cheryl glared at Betty for a moment, clearly considering things her mind.

"Alright," Cheryl agreed. "But if she tries to hurt any of you I will kill her
to protect you."

"Fair enough," Betty agreed.

The spear in Cheryl's hand suddenly vanished. She then leapt into the air and
began flying towards Midge.

Across the pit Barry and Tim were standing near Sabrina as she began her
exorcism spell. However not long in she stopped and looked across the pit.

"This isn't a possession," Sabrina said in shock.

"It's not?" Barry asked.

"What is it?" Tim inquired.

"It's a binding," Sabrina replied. "Somebody has forcibly bound the demon and
Midge together using magic. But such a spell is complex it takes quite some
time to do."

"What does it require to do?" Tim asked.

"Not a lot, a cursed dagger and the knowledge of the spell and time," Sabrina
replied. "Of course you'd have to keep an unwilling host body captive for the
duration."

"Well Midge has been missing for months so this explains that disappearance,"
Tim mused. "But perhaps we should figure out why her."

"I think a more pressing question is can you undo this binding," Barry
interrupted.

"I can," Sabrina said. "As long as Midge is willing."

"And if she isn't?" Tim asked.

"Then the only way to stop her is to kill her," Sabrina replied.

Across the pit Betty and Cheryl were fight against Midge trying to keep her
preoccupied.

"Is this going to be another shit show like with Brigitte?" Barry asked.

"Yes, but in this case you don't need to worry about hurting Midge," Sabrina
said.

"Well it looks like Betty and Cheryl are holding back," Barry said. "I'll go
let them know."

Barry took off around the pit to the battle. Cheryl was floating in front of
Midge landing a series of punches, but they barely seemed to be having any
effect. Betty was desperately holding onto one of Midge's six legs trying to
hold her in place.

"Cheryl, Betty you don't have to worry about hurting Midge," Barry said.
"Sabrina says this isn't a possession, it's a binding which is different."

"Can Sabrina still drive the demon out?" Betty asked as she struggled to hold
onto Midge's leg.

"Yes," Barry replied.

Betty then dashed around to the massive stinger at the end of Midge's wasp
body. She grabbed a hold on it and dug her feet into the ground and with a
massive effort began spinning on her heels. Cheryl was a little surprised as
Midge suddenly was pulled out of the range of Cheryl's punches.

As Cheryl floated in the air she watched as Betty slowly spun around smashing
Midge's massive body against the trees. Midge let out a loud screech as she
tried in vain to kick at Betty with her insect legs to no luck.

Cheryl flew up into the air and waited and then as Betty continued to spin
Midge around Cheryl dove and connected with a hard flying right cross to
Midge's face. Green blood flew everywhere as Midge's face was busted open and
her struggles became somewhat slower.

"Toss her up!" Cheryl called out to Betty as she flew up to about fifty feet
in the air.

Betty spun on her heels a few more times and then threw Midge up into the air
towards Cheryl. Cheryl flew a little high before dropping down as fast as she
could driving her shoulder into Midge and sending her slamming down into the
ground with a crash that caused all the trees nearby that were still standing
to shake. Midge lay still barely moving from beating she had taken as Cheryl
came to a landing beside Betty.

"Nice team work there," Betty said as she high-fived Cheryl.

Cheryl nodded but kept her eyes on Midge. Barry came over beside them.

"Remind me never to make the two of you angry," Barry commented.

"How much longer on the spell?" Cheryl asked. "I would mind getting a few more
licks in if I can."

"Just about done actually," Barry replied.

Suddenly from across the hole Sabrina launched a ball of white light at Midge.
Midge began convulsing wildly and Betty, Cheryl and Barry all stepped back a
bit as her huge body spasmed. Suddenly there was a flash of blinding light
that caused them all to turn away. When they looked back there was a large
cloud of black smoke in swirling in the air while a female humanoid form lay
on the ground. The smoke then erupted in a fireball and vanished.

"That... was different," Barry commented.

"What happened?" Betty called out across the pit to Sabrina.

"The demon couldn't return to hell so it was destroyed," Sabrina replied.

Cheryl walked over to look at Midge. She was no longer a giant half-human
half- wasp creature, however she still had the segmented eyes and the small
antennae and her skin had a greenish tinge to it. Betty stood beside Cheryl
looking down at Midge's unconscious form in disbelief.

"What the hell?" Betty muttered.

"You're sure you drove the demon out?" Cheryl asked.

"Yeah I'm sure," Sabrina replied.

Cheryl bent down picked Midge's unconscious form up with one hand holding her
up so that Tim and Sabrina could see.

"Got an explanation for this then?" Cheryl asked.

Sabrina and Tim were both surprised.

"What if this is a result from a mutation from what was done to Midge before?"
Barry suggested. "It's not unheard of we saw how Ambrose was sort of mutated,
and given that her powers were apparently developed from wasp pheromones and
meteor rocks..."

"Makes sense," Betty agreed. "But what do we do with her?"

"We lock her up," Cheryl said.

"Yeah but how do we stop her from affecting people with her pheromone powers
and escaping?" Barry asked.

"Arkham Asylum in Gotham has a cell that can hold her," Tim said. "But we'll
need to turn her over to the authorities first."

"I've got this," Cheryl said.

Before the others could say anything Cheryl flew off taking Midge's
unconscious form with her. Barry and Betty made their way around the pit to
where Sabrina and Tim were. Sabrina was clearly exhausted from casting the
spell.

"Should I stop her?" Betty asked the others.

"No, if Midge does anything Cheryl will stop her," Barry said.

"As much as we've stopped all of this there's still the question of how any of
this happened in the first place," Tim said. "I don't think any of us believe
that Midge summoned those demons."

"She definitely didn't," Sabrina said. "I could tell from how the binding was
dispelled that it was a forcible binding and not one with a willing host."

"So the question is who bound that demon to Midge," Betty stated.

"I think that answer is pretty obvious," Tim replied. "It was Hiram Lodge. He
comes into this forest and then suddenly the town is attacked by a swarm of
demonic wasps and then we find a massive demon Midge? That's too many
coincidences."

"You're probably right," Barry agreed. "But we don't have any definitive
proof. And there's a lot of other questions like what is he up to and why?"

"Or how about where is he?" Betty added.

"Let's get back to town and we can start looking for him," Tim suggested.

*****************************************

Cheryl came to a landing outside of Riverdale's police station. She pushed
open the doors forcefully as she made her way inside. She stopped at the
booking desk and tossed Midge's unconscious form to the floor. The officers in
the station all drew their guns and pointed them at her.

"Don't point those at me," Cheryl said angrily as she pointed at Midge. "Point
them at her. This is Midge Klump, the girl that tried to blow our town up back
in September."

"What... what happened to her?" the nearest officer asked clearly nervous.

"No idea," Cheryl replied with a shrug. "All I know is I found her, stopped
her and brought her here, with some help from my friends. So I suggest you
guys lock her up, probably some place air tight and don't let any men near
her."

"Why not?" A woman officer asked.

"Because despite that hideous appearance she can force any man to do whatever
she says," Cheryl replied.

With that Cheryl walked out of the police station.

"Hey wait!" an officer called after her as he tried to catch up to her.

However Cheryl had already taken into the air once more and flown off.

*****************************************

Hubert Smithers was going through the Lodge Mansion inspecting everything to
make sure that the cleaning staff had done their job properly. Hubert was the
Lodge family butler and had been with the Lodge's for fifteen years now. A
balding portly man, Smithers was a man of fierce loyalty. He'd been given
hundreds of offers over the years to betray Hiram Lodge but never once had he
accepted. To Smithers loyalty and his word was worth more than money.

He passed by Hiram Lodge's study, the door was closed as it often was.
Smithers never went in the study unless Mr. Lodge asked him to enter. He was
about to move on to the next room when he heard a thump emanating from behind
the study door. He stopped, turned back, and knocked on the door.

"Mr. Lodge? Are you in there?" Smithers asked.

There was no reply and everything seemed quiet. Smithers stood there listening
for several seconds before he started to move on again but then once more he
heard a thump. He turned back and knocked on the door louder this time.

"Mr. Lodge is that you?" Smithers asked.

Once again there was no reply. Smithers wondered if perhaps there was an
intruder. He flung the door opened and entered the room. But as he looked
around he didn't see anything. He walked around the desk and saw that a pair
of paperweights had fallen on the ground, although how they had fallen was a
bit of a mystery.

Smithers bent down to pick them up and put them back on the desk. As he was
standing back up he heard something behind him. Smithers turned around and let
out a terrified scream at what he saw but his scream was quickly silenced and
Smithers fell to the floor and lay still.

*****************************************

Chapter 47

Betty, Barry, Tim and Sabrina emerged from the forest onto the road.

"So where now?" Barry asked.

"Sabrina are you able to do a spell that can locate Hiram Lodge?" Tim
inquired.

"I can try," Sabrina said. "But if he's the one responsible for bonding that
Advespa Queen to Midge, then he's certainly capable of casting a spell that
can hide his location."

"Well if you could try," Tim said.

"Alright, but I'll need a map," Sabrina said.

"We've got some maps back at my farm," Betty said.

Just then they all saw Cheryl flying up in the sky. She gracefully came down
to a landing.

"Midge is safely with the cops," Cheryl reported.

"Good I'll use my contacts back in Gotham to try and get her transferred to
Arkham," Tim said.

"So what are we doing now?" Cheryl asked.

"We're going to Betty's farm so Sabrina can try a locator spell to try and
find Hiram Lodge," Barry answered.

"Alright, let's go," Cheryl said.

They gathered around Sabrina once more.

"Tropelet su ot s'ytteB marf," Sabrina cast the spell.

There was the whirl of smoke and suddenly they all found themselves standing
at Betty's farm about half-way between the farmhouse and the barn.

"Come on, I'm pretty sure Dilton's got a bunch of maps of the area up in the
loft in the barn," Betty said.

She led the way to the barn and up into the loft. The Monopoly board was still
set up on the coffee table.

"You know I think Jughead is cheating," Barry said.

"Of course he's cheating," Betty said. "Jughead cheats at every board game
that I've ever played with him."

"You knew and you said nothing?" Barry exclaimed.

"It's just a game," Betty said dismissively.

"We've got bigger things to worry about than somebody cheating at Monopoly,"

Tim said. "Do you mind cleaning this up Barry?"

Barry had the game packed up and put away in a matter of seconds. Betty looked
around and she found a large map of the state of New Jersey, she spread it out
on the coffee table.

"Will this work?" she asked Sabrina.

"It should work," Sabrina said. "Do you have a thumb tack or a nail?"

Betty went over to the desk and looked around and came back with a thumb tack
which she gave to Sabrina. Sabrina took it from her and nodded her thanks. She
then knelt down next to the map and ran her left hand over the map quietly
whispering something. A faint glow could be seen between her hand and the map.
Sabrina then held the thumb tack over the map with her right hand.

"Wohs em erehw marih egdol is detacol," Sabrina cast.

She let go of the thumb tack and it fell onto the map, bounced a few times and
lay on its side. Sabrina let out a slightly frustrated sigh.

"He's masked his location," Sabrina said.

"How do you know, maybe the spell just didn't work," Tim said.

"I know the spell worked," Sabrina said. "Watch I'll find somebody else."

She picked the thumb tack up and held it over the map once more.

"Wohs em erehw mit ekard is detacol," Sabrina cast.

She let go of the thumb tack once more. This time it flew straight down into
the map the pin sticking in deep. Sabrina pulled the thumb tack out and
examined the mark.

"I'd say that's pretty accurate wouldn't you?" Sabrina said.

"Who did you try and locate?" Tim asked.

"Why you Tim," Sabrina replied with a smile.

The others all crowded around and looked. The pin looked to have pierced the
map exactly where the farm was located.

"Okay that was pretty cool," Barry commented.

"Like I said," Sabrina said. "If he knows enough on how to bind a demon to
somebody he almost certainly knows how to hide his presence from a magical
locator spell."

"Well now what?" Cheryl asked.

"I have no idea," Tim said as he flopped down on one of the couches
exasperated.

"You could use Dilton's police scanners," Betty suggested.

Tim sat up and looked over at the computers. He then looked at Betty and
Barry.

"You have police... you know what never mind," Tim said. "I think this might
work."

He ran over to the desk and sat down and put on a pair of earphones.

Sabrina got up off the floor and sat down on one of the couches and then lay
over. She was clearly exhausted.

"I'm just going to take a little..." she started to say but fell asleep before
she finished.

"I'll go get her a blanket," Barry offered.

He quickly took off to find one.

"Betty do you mind if I talk to you for minute?" Cheryl asked. "In private?"

Betty nodded and the two of them walked down from the loft to a far corner of
the barn.

"So what's up?" Betty asked.

"I wanted to let you know, that whole reason I did this, the whole Silent
Armor and everything; is because of you, and Jason," Cheryl replied.

"Well, thank you?" Betty said not sure if that was the right thing to say.

"But I was wondering if you could do me a favour," Cheryl said.

"Sure, anything, what is it?" Betty asked.

"Do you mind if I were to stay here, at the farm," Cheryl replied. "I don't
think I'm ready to go home."

"Cheryl I'm sure your parents..." Betty started to say.

"My parents couldn't give a damn about me," Cheryl cut her off. "I was gone
for six months and they didn't do a damn thing to try and find me. Heck I had
my phone with me for the first month and they didn't even call. They don't
care about me, they never did. Jason and I were just props for helping them
sell houses."

"Are you sure this is about that?" Betty asked. "Or maybe you just don't want
to face the reminders of Jason when you return home?"

"Maybe," Cheryl admitted. "But either way I, I can't go home."

"Well why don't you stay with my family," Betty suggested.

"No, no," Cheryl said. "I love your mom Betty, after Jason died she was more
of a mother to me than my own mother ever was. And you and the rest of your
family are great. But I think I need to be alone."

"I get it," Betty said with a nod of her head. "You're more than welcome to
stay here. I should warn you though you won't be alone much, my friends and I
we are here hanging out just about every day."

"That's fine," Cheryl said. "I'm not saying I want to be alone all the time.
Heck, when school starts back up I'll probably go."

Betty let out a chuckle at that.

"What's so funny?" Cheryl asked indignantly thinking that Betty was being
insulting.

"Oh sorry," Betty apologized still chuckling. "I'm just thinking about what
all the other cheerleaders will be doing when they see you've returned."

Cheryl had to chuckle at that as well.

"I guess that depends on what kind of return I make," Cheryl said. "Look, I
know you hide who you are and with good reason, I respect that. But as much as
I want to be alone I can't do that. I mean the cops have already seen my face
anyway. I doubt it will be long before the whole town knows about me."

"You're probably right," Betty agreed.

"Besides, being a cheerleader doesn't really hold any interest for me
anymore," Cheryl said. "I'm surprised it ever did for you."

"It didn't really," Betty said. "You kind of manipulated me into it."

"Yeah... I guess I did," Cheryl admitted sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

"You don't need to apologize," Betty said. "If you hadn't, we probably
wouldn't be friends and Midge probably would have killed you."

Cheryl nodded in agreement. Just then Barry zoomed back into the barn with a
blanket for Sabrina. He gently draped it over her and then leaned over the
barrier looking down at Cheryl and Betty.

"What are you two talking about down there?" Barry asked.

"Nothing, just girl stuff," Cheryl replied.

She and Betty made their way back up to the loft. Sabrina was sound asleep and
Tim was over in the corner listening to the police scanner on a pair of head
phones.

"So what should we do now?" Barry asked.

"We can't do anything really," Betty said. "I mean the evidence we have
suggests that Hiram Lodge is behind this, the problem is none of our evidence
would hold up in court or even necessarily make the police believe us."

"And we've got no idea where he is," Cheryl added.

"I think I got something," Tim called.

The others all looked at him eagerly awaiting what he'd learned.

"They just found a dead body at the Lodge Mansion," Tim reported. "Sounds like
the police are trying to keep this quiet, but a 911 call just came in."

"Is it Hiram Lodge?" Betty asked.

"I don't think so," Tim replied.

"I could run over there and take a look," Barry offered.

"No, the place will probably be full of people," Tim said. "Somebody will
probably see you. I'll keep monitoring the police chatter, but I think our
best bet is to examine the dead body once it's in the morgue. It'll be much
easier to sneak in there."

"It will probably take some time though for them to clear the scene and move
the body," Cheryl said.

"At least a few hours," Tim agreed.

"So what do we do in the mean time?" Barry asked.

"Well Sabrina is obviously exhausted, and frankly I could use some rest after
the battle with Midge and all those other demons," Betty said. "I think we
should just recuperate for a little while."

"That's probably a good idea," Tim said.

"We should probably let Sheila and Jughead know what's going on," Barry
suggested to Betty.

"Yeah actually maybe they can pick up something to eat and bring it here,"
Betty added. "I'm starving."

"I could go for something to eat," Cheryl said. "I've had to survive on my own
cooking for quite a while now."

"Oh that sounds rough," Betty joked.

"Laugh if you want but I actually have learned a few things," Cheryl said.
"I'm not going to be winning any cooking shows but at least it's edible and
tastes alright."

"Hey that's good for you," Barry congratulated her.

Betty found her phone which she had left here and opened it up and texted
Sheila. She asked Sheila to pick up some food and come back to the farm with
Jughead so they could talk about what had happened today. About a minute later
she got a response from Sheila that she and Jughead were going to pick up take
out from Pop's and that they should be there in about forty-five minutes.
Betty added that there were five of them already out at the farm already so to
make sure to get enough food for seven people.

*****************************************

"Hey guys!" Jughead called as he entered the barn. "We brought food."

"Up here!" Betty called from loft.

Sheila and Jughead made their way up to the loft. They were each carrying
large paper bags that smelled of grease and deliciousness.

"We order fried..." Sheila started to say. "OH MY GOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD!
Cheryl you're back!"

Cheryl smiled from where she was sitting on the couch.

"I forgot just how excited you can get," Cheryl commented with a smile.

"Okay, and the magician is here as well, you guys have got to tell us what is
going on," Jughead said.

"Well sit down, and we'll tell you as we eat," Betty said.

Everybody sat down around the coffee table as Jughead and Sheila opened the
bags and brought out Styrofoam containers filled with fish and chips. Everyone
passed the food around so everybody had something to eat and then began
sharing the condiments and napkins. As they were eating Betty, Barry, Cheryl,
Sabrina and Tim each told Jughead and Sheila what had happened. Once that had
been done Cheryl had told the story of how she had gained her powers.

"So you're saying you met an actual goddess?" Tim asked her once she was done
her story.

"I don't know if who I met was actually Athena or not," Cheryl replied. "All I
know is what she told me. But I have no reason not to believe her."

"It probably was Athena," Sabrina said nonchalantly as she dipped a fry in
some mayonnaise and then ate it. "Your whole situation is just the sort of
thing where Athena would intervene."

"Have you met her before?" Cheryl asked.

Sabrina shook her head.

"No, but I know of her and I've met others who had met her," Sabrina replied.

"Man this is so cool," Sheila said excitedly. "I know somebody who talked to a
god."

"You know I've told you about everything I've been up to," Cheryl said. "But
I'd like to know what's happened here that I've missed."

"There's a few crazy things," Jughead said. "That new pizza place opened up
down near the beach, and yet they don't serve anchovies on their pizzas."

"I don't think Cheryl really cares about that," Sheila said.

"Well I do enjoy anchovies on my pizza," Cheryl admitted.

"I'm sure you'd like to know about how Ginger Lopez is the new head
cheerleader and how she's been dating both Reggie and Archie," Betty said.

"I'm guessing she kicked the two of you off the team," Cheryl said.

"Well I quit actually," Betty said. "You weren't there anymore and that was
pretty much the sole reason I was on the team."

"I quit too," Sheila said. "I don't think the other cheerleaders like me very
much."

"They don't," Cheryl said. "They find your exuberant cheerfulness...
annoying."

Sheila's face fell.

"Do you think I'm annoying?" Sheila asked.

"At first a little," Cheryl replied. "But honestly once I got to know you it
stopped bothering me. If those bitches can't get past that, it's their loss."

"Okay who are you and what did you do with Cheryl?" Jughead asked.

"You know Junior Prom is next Friday," Barry piped up. "We should go."

"Yeah we are juniors," Betty agreed.

"I think it would be fun to go as a group," Sheila said.

"That's not what I... never mind," Barry muttered quietly.

"Junior Prom? Well now I have to come back to school," Cheryl said with a
smirk.

"Oh boy maybe tomorrow we can go dress shopping," Sheila said excitedly. "And
the boys can go get fitted for tuxes."

"I actually own my own tuxedo," Tim said. "But I think perhaps we should
consider using tomorrow to try and figure out what Hiram Lodge is up to,
provided he doesn't try to destroy the town this evening."

As Betty looked around she could see disappointment on the faces of several of
her friends.

"How about we play it by ear Tim?" Betty suggested. "I mean tonight Barry and
I can go to the morgue and check on the body and tomorrow we'll see where to
go from there."

"I'll check on the body by myself," Barry said.

"What? Why?" Betty asked rather surprised.

"I can get in and out faster than you," Barry said. "And really two of us
going would just double the chances of getting caught."

Betty thought Barry was acting a little strange, but his point was rather
valid.

"Alright fine, go alone," Betty said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I could
use a couple extra hours of sleep."

Everyone else looked around feeling a little uncomfortable with the exchange
between Betty and Barry.

"So... what colour dress were you thinking of wearing?" Cheryl asked Sheila
trying to break the tension. "Because I'm really thinking that red is my
colour."

The conversation started up and got light hearted once more, but Betty
couldn't help but feel like Barry was acting a little strange.

*****************************************

Chapter 48

It was 2 a.m. and the Riverdale Morgue at the police station was quiet. The
only people in the station were the officers on desk duty, and they didn't
notice a red blur come streaking in making its way specifically to the morgue.

Barry came to a stop in morgue and looked around. Lying on the slab partially
autopsied was the body of the man from the supermarket who had died from blood
loss from his amputated hand, who had resurrected and grown a gigantic slimy
black claw that had attacked Betty, only to be killed a second time by Cheryl.

"Man that is just gross," Barry muttered to himself as he looked at the body.

He peeked under the sheet and saw that the man's insides had started to turn
black, but it didn't look like they were rotting per say, but rather that
something else was happening. Probably from the demonic possession Barry
thought to himself.

He went over to the cold storage drawers and went looking for the body from
the Lodge Mansion. The first two drawers he checked were empty but then the
third one he opened contained a portly balding man with wisps of dark hair.
His skin was incredibly pale and his veins could be seen beneath the skin, but
they looked to be a dark purple in colour, which Barry found odd.

Barry looked around to try and find the autopsy report. He looked it over and
found that the coroner had been unable to determine a cause of death but was
waiting on toxicology reports.

Barry took out his phone and using the camera he took a few pictures of the
body and of the report. He then put everything back where it had been and
closed the drawer and ran out of the police station.

*****************************************

In her cell Midge sat up as she thought she saw a red blur fly past. She found
that her vision was extremely sensitive now that she had weird segmented
insect eyes and the lack of eyelids now meant that she couldn't close her eyes
to sleep so the smallest little change in lighting would wake her up.

The holding area she was in had three single cells and there was a wall of
bars that led to the area just outside the cells. That was currently covered
up with thick plastic, probably as a way to protect against her pheromone
powers, although Midge wasn't sure if she even had them anymore. She'd had no
contact with anybody since regaining consciousness.

However she had overheard people talking about her. Apparently she was going
to be transferred to some place called Arkham Asylum. If she was recalling
correctly it was located near Gotham.

Midge got up off of her bed and walked over to the cell door. She pulled on
the bars trying to pull the cell door open but it wouldn't budge. When she had
been possessed by the demon she'd had an incredible amount of strength, but
now it seemed like she just had her normal strength once more. But Midge knew
that something about her had changed, she just needed to figure out what,
hopefully before she was moved to Arkham because escaping from there would be
a lot more difficult.

*****************************************

It was fairly early in the morning and Betty arrived at the farm. She made her
way to the barn and up into the loft. Sabrina and Cheryl were already there.
Sabrina had spent the night at the farm along with Cheryl. Cheryl was sitting
in one of the chairs with her feet up on the coffee table while she drank a
cup of coffee. Sabrina was sitting crossed legged on one of the couches while
she had a cup of tea.

"Hey Betty, do you want some coffee or tea?" Cheryl offered as she indicated a
tea pot and a coffee pot sitting on the table.

"No I'm okay," Betty said as she sat down next to Sabrina. "Have you heard
from Tim or Barry?"

"Tim said he was on his way," Cheryl said. "I guess Barry talked to him about
what he found."

"I'm surprised Barry didn't talk to me," Betty commented. "I feel like he's
upset about something."

Just then they heard the sound of a motorcycle engine getting louder till it
came to a stop just outside the barn. Moments later Tim entered.

"Is everyone here?" Tim asked.

"Everyone except Barry," Sabrina replied.

"You'd think he'd be the first one here," Tim said. "What with how fast he is,
I'll text him."

Tim pulled out his phone and sent Barry a text. Not even fifteen seconds later
Barry arrived.

"Hey Barry, how's it going?" Betty greeted him.

"So I found something rather strange last night," Barry said ignoring Betty.
"Tim do you mind grabbing that lap top?"

Tim went over and grabbed one of Dilton's laptops and set it down on the table
and turned it on for Barry. Barry pulled his phone out and plugged it into the
laptop and uploaded the pictures he had taken the night before. He then
clicked on the files and opened the picture up. Sabrina gave a gasp almost
immediately as they all saw a picture of a man who looked incredibly pale with
dark purple veins prominent all along his body.

"Are the colours here accurate?" Sabrina asked.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked.

"His veins," Sabrina said pointing at the picture. "They were the same dark
purple?"

"Yeah pretty close to that," Barry replied.

"Crap," Sabrina muttered.

"What? What is it?" Tim asked.

"I took a picture of the coroner report," Barry said bringing up another
picture.

"There was no listed cause of death yet, but they were waiting on a toxicology
report."

"It will be negative," Sabrina said. "I know what killed him, or at least how
he was killed."

"What killed him?" Cheryl inquired.

"His soul was consumed," Sabrina answered.

"Something ate his soul?" Betty asked somewhat confused.

"Eaten isn't quite the right term for it," Sabrina said, "Because it's not
quite the same as when you or I would eat something. Certain demons are able
to draw the soul out of a human and absorb it into their body. A removed soul
is simple a floating ball of energy kind of like a small sun. Some of them
absorbed seemingly by inhaling it, others simple absorbed it into themselves."

"So why's this so bad?" Tim asked.

"Because consuming souls isn't a power that most demons have, it's something
only the most powerful demons, the ones known as the Lords of Hell," Sabrina
said.

"Okay that doesn't sound good," Barry said.

"Are you saying that one of the Lords of Hell has been brought here?" Cheryl
asked.

"It looks that way, but it's not possible," Sabrina said. "There's a barrier
between our realm and hell that prevents the most powerful demons from coming
here, and if that did happen the balance of hell would likely be disrupted."

"So what exactly is going on?" Betty asked.

"I don't know," Sabrina admitted. "I'm going to need to talk with some others
to find out."

"Talk to who?" Tim inquired.

"Well I wasn't just born with magical knowledge," Sabrina said. "I had to
learn so how and I had several teachers, witches, warlocks, sorcerers, and
even a couple demons; not all of them are evil."

"You're going to go talk to demons?" Barry asked in disbelief.

"Well a demon, multiple demons would probably be unnecessarily dangerous,"
Sabrina corrected him. "It might take about a day."

"Take me with you," Barry insisted. "Please?"

Sabrina looked at him surprised.

"Why do you want to come?" Sabrina asked.

"Because I want to see this stuff," Barry said.

Sabrina shrugged.

"Alright," she agreed. "But don't say anything and stay close to me. However I
need to go back to my place first to get something."

She took a hold of Barry's hand.

"Tropelet su ot ym emoh," Sabrina cast.

Suddenly she and Barry vanished in a cloud of smoke.

"I am never going to get used to seeing that," Tim commented.

"Why do you think Barry wanted to go with her?" Betty asked.

"He's interested in demons and stuff probably," Cheryl said as she sat back
down and sipped her coffee once more.

"I dunno, I feel like he's upset about something," Betty said.

"I guess," Cheryl agreed. "Kind of reminds me a bit of when Reggie would get
jealous when I would talk to other boys."

Betty slapped her forehead as she suddenly realized what it was.

"Oh my god I know what it is," Betty said. "It's because Barry has a crush on
you Cheryl."

"So? Most boys do," Cheryl said. "I am pretty hot. I recall he was staring at
my breasts for quite a while yesterday."

"I don't mean like that," Betty said. "Well okay, that's part of it, but I
think it's more than that."

"Really?" Cheryl asked a little doubtful. "I mean we don't really know each
other that well."

Betty shrugged.

"Well to be perfectly honest I'm not that interested in boys at the moment,"
Cheryl said.

"That's disappointing," Tim commented.

Betty and Cheryl both looked at him having forgotten he was even there.

"Oh don't stop on my account," Tim said holding up his hands. "This is all
utterly riveting."

"You know I could throw you all the way back into town without breaking a
sweat," Betty commented.

"So could I," Cheryl said.

"Hey, hey no need for violence here," Tim protested. "We're all friends."

"You know, maybe we should figure out which of us is stronger," Betty
suggested to Cheryl.

"That's an interesting idea," Cheryl said. "How do you propose we do so?"

"Probably the simplest way would be for the two of you to arm wrestle," Tim
suggested. "Although I would recommend taking it outside and doing it on the
ground. I have a feeling if you did it on the table here it would break in
half."

"Yeah, avoid excessive damage is probably a good idea," Betty agreed.

"Alright, let's go do this," Cheryl said as she stood up.

Cheryl hopped over the railing from the loft jumping all the way down to the
floor of the barn, not bothering to take the stairs. Betty followed doing the
same.

"Show offs," Tim muttered as he took the stairs so he could watch.

Betty and Cheryl made their way outside and found a nice flat spot outside and
they both lay down. The two of them held their hands out and interlocked their
fingers.

"I'll start you," Tim offered.

Both girls glanced over at him and then nodded.

"Alright, ready, go!" Tim started them.

Cheryl and Betty both began pushing trying to force the other's hand to the
ground. Betty didn't use all of her strength immediately and found herself
being pushed down by Cheryl. She put more force into and began forcing
Cheryl's arm the other way. Across from her Cheryl frowned and growled and
suddenly Betty found her arm being pushed back down once more. Betty responded
with a loud grunt of her own and slowly began pushing Cheryl's hand to the
ground.

Cheryl strained trying to reverse the effort, but Betty was too strong. Betty
slammed Cheryl's hand into the dirt leaving an imprint.

"Ha, ha!" Betty exclaimed triumphantly as she got up.

"I almost had you there," Cheryl said.

"You did," Betty agreed. "Although I wasn't using all my strength until the
end there."

"Me neither," Cheryl admitted.

"Well now we know which of you is stronger," Tim said.

"Of course how strong that is, well that's going to be pretty hard to
measure," Betty said.

"So... what should we do while we wait for Barry and Sabrina to return?"
Cheryl asked.

"Well Jughead and Sheila will be coming by soon, we were going to play
Settlers of Catan," Betty said.

"What's that?" Cheryl asked.

"It's a board game," Betty replied.

"A board game, no it's THE board game," Tim said. "Settlers is like the best
strategy board game ever!"

"Do you want to play?" Betty asked. "Because Jughead has the expansion so you
can play with up to 6 players."

"I never say no to a game of Catan," Tim replied.

"Awesome, I'll text Jughead asking him to bring the expansion," Betty said.

*****************************************

Barry and Sabrina appeared outside a large Victorian style house.

"This is your home?" Barry asked.

"Yes... sort of," Sabrina replied. "I live here with my two aunts. They're a
little... odd."

"I'm the fastest person alive, one of my best friends is an alien and the girl
I've got a crush on can fly," Barry said. "I'd say my life is filled with odd,
how strange can they be in comparison?"

"Hold on to that thought," Sabrina said as she led the way up the steps to the
covered porch.

As they reached the top of the porch the door burst open and a woman with long
bright orange hair who was dressed like a 1960's hippy came out.

"Sabrina!" she exclaimed spreading her arms and then embracing Sabrina in a
hug.

"Hello Aunt Hilda," Sabrina said somewhat reluctantly returning the hug.

"Oh and who is this?" Hilda asked as she broke off the hug and looked at
Barry.

"Aunt Hilda this is..." Sabrina began.

"Barry Allen," Hilda finished for her.

"What... how did she?" Barry stammered in surprise.

"It was in the cards," Hilda said.

She held up what looked kind of like a Tarot card, except it had an image on
it that somewhat resembled Barry's hero costume. Underneath the image it read
LXII. - The Flash � Barry Allen.

"What the heck?" Barry muttered as he looked at the card completely confused.

"My Aunts are witches," Sabrina said as if that should explain everything.
"They can help us with what we need to do."

"So this isn't you bring a prospective husband home?" Hilda asked her niece.

"No," Sabrina replied emphatically. "Barry's only 16, he's still in high
school."

"Love doesn't care about age Sabrina," Hilda said.

Sabrina just sighed and shook her head.

"Is Aunt Zelda home?" Sabrina asked.

"She's inside," Hilda replied.

"Come on Barry," Sabrina said as she made her way inside. "My Aunt Zelda is
odd too, but in a different way."

As Barry followed Sabrina into the house he wondered just what he should
expect.

*****************************************

To be continued

The following story is available in .PDF version including illustrations on my
DeviantArt page at archie-fan.deviantart.com