Prickly Pears *Barry Allen*

Prologue

Sin-Va and Tilrira Sin-Va were scientists on Krypton, they studied the artifact known as Rao's Essence. It was an energy encased in a glass sphere. The Essence was discovered at the beginning of Krypton's history. It conducted the power of stars and suns and converted the energy into power that could be harnessed in technology.

The artifact was one of the most important relics Krypton had. Kryptonians believed that Rao gifted the essence to them as thanks for their devotion. The Essence powered and controlled almost everything on Krypton.

Despite the importance of Rao's Essence, Kryptonians didn't truly understand it's powers. This is because it attacked those who held it. It could not be touched. Sin-Va and Tilrira had to do all their testing from a distance with machinery.

Through their experiments, the couple discovered that The Essence could be harnessed by what it was held in, theoretically it could be inserted into a person to see what it was capable of. Instead of wasting time testing on animals, Sin-Va decided that they would inject their only daughter Santana with the substance. They would be able to study and control their daughter unlike other subjects.

Santana was only 8 when she was tied down and had a large needle pushed into her neck. She couldn't remember much of the event other than the colour orange and burning. She burned for three days. The pain was never ending, her parents monitored her and patiently waited.

Once she woke, it quickly became apparent that The Essence had changed Santana's biology. She was no longer completely Kryptonian. Her cells did not behave the same. Santana could also blast her parents away from her when enraged. When she wanted something, the object would fly towards her. Tilrira and Sin-Va were fascinted and conducted many experiments over the next two years. Until she was 10, Santana was not allowed to leave their home. She was given an education by her parents.

Eventually, what Sin-Va and Tilrira had done was discovered by the Council of Krypton. They had desecrated a sacred relic and mutated their daughter. What the couple had done was considered despicable and sacreligious. Sin-Va and Tilrira were sent to The Phantom Zone, Santana was stripped of her family name, The House of Va, had her powers locked away with an anklet and exiled. She was sent straight to Earth as a child who could not speak any of the languages known by the inhabitants of the planet. The child was lucky that she was found and sent to an orphanage.

Santana did not enjoy the Star City Orphanage for Girls, she couldn't understand most of what the other girls were saying not only the language barriers but the general interests they had. Santana was Kryptonian and homeschooled by scientists, this left her with a higher intelligence than other kids and little to no social skills. She often lashed out at the orphans and the nuns that ran the home. Everyone avoided her, the girls learned not to bully her after she punched a girl for laughing at her accent. Sally was sent to the hospital with a broken jaw and Santana was punished severely.

She also seemed to have secret superpowers. Santana had super strength, speed, sight and hearing, Her eyes could even shoot lasers. Overall, life was hard on Earth and she had no one to help her with these new powers.

It was a huge surprise to everyone when Robert and Moira Queen decided to adopt Santana when she was 11 in 2002, they had decided that adopting a child would be good for publicity. Thea practically imprinted on Santana when they met, no matter how much Santana tried to make the 7-year-old leave her alone, she kept coming back for more. Thea wouldn't allow them to leave with anyone other than Santana, she had the largest tantrum anyone in the family can remember to this day about it.

Santana settled into the family quite well, Robert helped her with her language issues and education, she confided her powers to her new father who helped her control and hide them from everyone. Thea caught her up with everything to do with pop culture and Oliver helped her open up to people and develop socially, of course he didn't have the best influence upon her, often finding her anger and insults towards people she didn't like amusing. However, no matter what she tried, Moira stayed cold towards Santana.