Yo. I don't have a lot of free time, and I made this in about two hours. I play DCUO every once in a while, and I really like the premise. SOO I made this and I hope someone likes it.
Oscar was swimming, it was the only explanation. The way that everything in his field of vision swirled and twirled in a blurry fog, the muffled sounds that he could hear all around him, it all must've meant that he was underwater.
But how was he holding his breath for so long? It didn't make any sort of sense, and not to mention that his—
"Fr…ure…!"
Oscar could barely make out the sounds of… someone… calling out to another. His head was starting to pound in his skull, perhaps from not breathing air in a while?
"Frac…re!"
Oscar's head suddenly felt much worse in the span of a few seconds. His vision began clearing up, and through the throbbing pain lancing through his temples, he could see a giant figure standing in front of—no, above him?
"FRACTURE- Goddamn it… QUEEN! GET THE HELL UP!"
Oscar Queen, shot upright from his position on the ground, and as his sight returned to him he recognized the man standing over him.
Alexander "Lex" Luthor, the man responsible for the great Brainiac Heist and liberation of Exobytes from the evil drone himself. The man who had granted him his incredible powers.
The man who had murdered his family.
◦╟Џ╢◦
Flashback: 5 Years Ago
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY OSCAR!" Cries rang out through the Queen household, as Oliver Queen brought a then-fourteen-year-old Oscar into the main dining hall by the hand. Dozens of guests were sporadically all over the place, ranging from undercover superheroes like Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, to their protégés and his friends such as Tim Drake and Stargirl (well, perhaps it was more like Oscar had a crush on the latter, but he didn't dare tell anyone). Even Bruce Wayne had shown up, a large grin on his face and a noise streamer clutched between his teeth.
Oscar himself was at a loss for words, his juvenile brain paused as he took in the sight before him. It took him a good five seconds before uttering out a response.
"Wait, all of is this for my Birthday?" Oscar turned towards his father, who was grinning ear to ear. "Was this why you were being all weird today? Was it 'cause of this?"
The crowd gathered shared a good-natured laugh as Oliver sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
"Lil Greeny, you and your ma can correct me if I'm wrong, but from my experience with your dad, he's weird every day!" cried out Helena Bertinelli, hosting a conical white party hat with balloons decorated all over it. She reached behind her and grabbed a small party popper and yanked the cord, letting the confetti fall around her feet.
"Oh, and by the way, surprise!"
Oscar was soon surrounded by friends and family members, all swarming him with congratulations and well wishes.
"Hey, congrats you little squirt!"
"Congratulations, Oscar."
"Happy fourteenth, dude!"
"Ha! Welcome to the hell that's high school, dude."
"We're so proud of you Oscar. We love you so much…"
"… So… much…"
◦╟Џ╢◦
"GET UP YOU IMBECILE!" Luthor's booming tones reverberated through Fracture's head, as well as the surrounding hallway. His tremendous war suit strode over to the Queen heir's legs and picked up a great chunk of ice and rubble, courtesy of a collapsing ceiling. With a groan, Fracture stood up to his full height, only coming up to the stomach of Luthor's suit.
"Ugghh… thanks Luthor. Have—AAHH!" Fracture grasped at his side in pain, and his suit's HUD flared up with warnings about multiple contusions and bone bruisings.
"Have… Brainiac's forces breached the Fortress' defenses? I managed to seal this little pothole off, but there's little pockets of them everywhere. They just keep popping up like giant, glowing metal roaches."
Luthor's face was grim as he replied, "Unfortunately, they've managed to take the main hall and the west atrium. The inner sanctum remains untouched, but we need to get the backup generators back online. Time is running out, so move your quintillion-dollar hide and assist me in sealing up the entrances to the hall." Luthor took off into a sprint, his suit's weight creating loud clumping noises and shaking the immediate area with every step. Fracture followed suit, his suit's systems already hard at work repairing his body's internal damage. Together, they both set off to set up their last line of defense, and pray that this last-ditch effort wasn't in vain.
◦╟Џ╢◦
Flashback: 5 Years Ago
The Queen family gathered around the head of the party table, Oscar getting pats on the back and shaking a few hands of family friends as his parents sat him down. Everyone hushed one another, letting Dinah Queen have center stage.
"Ozzy," she began with a dazzling smile towards her beautiful boy, "Even as you grow older… as you've reached your tenth year, no matter what your father and I will always be proud of who and what you're becoming and what you will become." Oscar's mother stopped for a brief moment to blink rapidly and sniff a few times, refusing a tissue from Richard Grayson as he held out a box of them to the superheroine. "I'm fine Dick, get that crap away from me."
A few chuckles made their way around the room, Richard shrugging with a smile before tossing the box over his shoulder.
Regaining her composure, Dinah breathed in deeply before continuing.
"You know, when you were about to be born your father and I adamantly refused to open you to this life. We were abhorrent to the idea of what would happen if others were to take you away from us for reasons related to our nightly outings, and we both agreed to never let you know what we do." Oliver leaned against his son's chair, nodding in agreement.
"But then—when you were born—the both of us came to a realization: what kind of parents could we call ourselves if we hid perhaps the biggest secret of our lives from our beautiful, bouncing baby boy?" The archer ruffled his son's blond hair at that remark, his son groaning and trying to dislodge his father's affectionate form of endearment.
Oliver took up where his wife trailed off.
"So we thought, 'Hey if our little bean is gonna know about us, then he should know about it from the start. No secrets, no hiding in plain view… none of that. You were too small to remember then, but we brought you over to the Hall of Justice when you were a couple of months old so that everyone could see you, and you could see everyone."
"We let you decide what you wanted for your life, even deciding to accept it if you wanted to follow in our footsteps one day," Dinah spoke once more, only to be interrupted by her husband.
"WITH rules and regulations… after all it wasn't like we would let you take up a mask or cowl as an eight year-old—oof!"
"Even though this moron wanted you to take up Roy's old mask and bow and do that exact thing." Dinah had walked around the table to stand next to her husband's side, promptly elbowing him as he finished talking. "The thing is, even though we tried our best to put our foot down when you were younger, you simply refused to be put out. Then your dad started training your accuracy, and I started showing you hand-to-hand and footwork…"
"And then all of our original plans kind of got thrown out a window!" Oliver chuckled along with his wife, soon leading to a ripple of laughter that died down after a minute.
Dinah hugged her son tightly, as Oliver's hand came to rest on his opposite shoulder. "Whatever happens Oscar, just know that we're so very proud of you."
"And we couldn't be happier with what you're becoming."
"We love you kiddo. Don't ever forget it."
The room was soon a cacophony of sniffles and the cooing of some of the more sensitive among them. It was even said that Bruce shed a tear.
Only one, he insisted.
The moment was soon broken by Jason slamming a box down on the table, haphazardly wrapped in Batman Wrapping Paper™.
"Alright kiddo, you need to open this thing now. I'll be damned if you're gonna open anyone else's first, I spent a crap-ton of time finding the perfect gift and I guarantee that mine is the best here!"
"Dammit Jason, your present can wait! Cake and food first you heathen!"
"Bite me, short stack."
"Wha—? You…!"
The rest of that day had been one of the memories Oscar would cherish for the rest of his life.
Before it changed forever.
◦╟Џ╢◦
With a tremendous CRASH, Luthor smashed a metal fist into the body of a Brainiac Enforcer and watched with grim satisfaction as the giant mech flew backwards and crashed into two others.
That Queen brat had done an adequate job in playing keep away with the inner sanctum and the projector room, but these damnable drones were almost infinite in number and their assault was only proving that sentiment even further. His powers would be a godsend if only he could control them more evenly.
It couldn't be helped, he supposed. Luthor only had enough time to install the Exobytes that he had, and even he hadn't fully realized which ones had been implanted properly.
Luthor sighed to himself, crushing another two Brainiac drones beneath his feet.
Those damn Exobytes.
Their would-be conqueror was smart. Numerous defeats and failed excursions had shown to his latest and most terrifying creations. These tiny nanomachines would implant themselves into whichever host they were directed to and digitize their Metagene until their unfortunate victim was robbed of everything that made them special. It was fascinating, truly, to watch the terror in the likes of Black Lightning and Plastic Man as their powers failed to move to their whims and then be near-instantaneously collected into the Coluan's vast amount of digitized civilizations.
But them Luthor watched as his own ally's were attacked just the same. Cheetah, Livewire, Grodd, Clayface, and even the likes of Deathstroke and Deadshot. He would've been assuaged in his fears if it was only those with Metagenes, but then those with proclivities towards magic and the aethereal started to vanish as well, like Zatanna and Circe. Even Lantern rings were broken down and no more.
Their green alien enemy was indeed covering all angles, as soon tech-based heroes like Cyborg, Grid, and even Calculator were being collected and digitized as well. Luthor himself would've been just another casualty, his every being taken and dismantled before Brainiac.
But then the answer – the solution to the alien menace – quite literally screamed at him.
The Queen child, Oscar. His Metagene activated at that moment, and with a power that dwarfed his mother's he shredded the battalion that had come after them. He was possibly the only Meta alive on the planet after so long a time running from Brainiac and his ships. The Batman had insisted bringing him along for an excruciating amount of time, yet Luthor was almost so happy in that instant that he wouldn't be added to the collection he would've hugged the brat.
Leave it to the Bat to have every situation still under his control. Batman had discovered his Metagene even before Oscar's parents had, and the then-sixteen-year-old was still reeling from their death at the hands of the man who he was on the run with.
It turned out that his power wasn't just his mother's yet amplified. He could mimic powers that he came across and amplify them.
Suddenly their tactics switched drastically, going from hiding in the shadows to taking the fight directly to Brainiac's Bottle ships and breaking away with Exobytes to implant within the boy. Their first claims were the combined powers of the villainess Killer Frost and heroine Ice.
The end result was a pseudo-ice age that the west coast of North America would likely never fully come back from. At the very least, not even Brainiac deemed the area salvageable, and withdrew forces from the area almost overnight.
Since then he had gained twelve new Exobytes, although from them he had only accessed a tiny fraction of the Speed Force (presumably from one of the lesser speedsters) that allowed for tiny bursts of super-speed every now and again, and a bout of super-strength that had come from Clark Kent of all people.
Small wonders he supposed, that his old friend was a Meta and didn't even know it. Lex missed his old childhood friend, more than he cared to—
"LUTHOR!"
Batman's bellowing yell rang out across the chasm, breaking Lex from his walk down memory lane and making him fire up his boosters to head over to the portal where Batman was standing next to the Phantom Zone portal.
"What is it? How far along are we?"
"Almost there. The chronium wave is unstable, but as long as we can get Fracture through then there we won't have any problems." Batman growled out, throwing the final switch and activating the teleporter that they had been working on for the past six months.
"All we need is Fracture to get here. His untapped Exobytes should provide enough latent energy to send him through without ripping him to shreds."
"Where does that leave us, then?" Luthor posed the question that Batman was tired of answering.
"I've told you before Luthor. We won't be going through."
"And once more, I remind you that this won't change this future! It will only change whatever altered timeline he ends up in! I've no intention of waiting to die here!"
"This world is dead because of you, Luthor," Batman ground out with hatred seeping into his voice. "The Justice League is no more because of your lust for Superman's death, and with him gone as well as the rest of the JLA, there's no chance we have of saving this timeline now!"
Batman walked up to Luthor, staring up at him as both took in their respective states.
Luthor was nearly unable to call himself human anymore, having spliced Brainiac tech into his suit and systems in order to keep himself alive. His body was a mangled and charred mess under the confines of his battle suit, and that suit was currently on its last legs.
Batman was no better, he himself nothing more than head, respiratory, and faint nervous systems that were intermingled with a failsafe that he had made years ago in order to keep himself alive if such an occasion should have occurred. His mechanical body was nearly in shambles, and he could have easily been mistaken for the shadow of death with how gaunt his still-organic face looked.
Both were in a sorry state, and whatever strength the two had left would not be enough to defeat the other if they came to blows.
Before any punches could be thrown however, Fracture burst through the far side of the cavern and summoned a blistering cold wall of ice to seal his entrance. Seeing the two figures on the other side of the pit, he leaped over to them with a small burst of speed and shot a grin at Batman.
"Sorry I'm late, I saw the doorbell going off and dealt with some protesters."
"Cute," snarled Luthor, "but we're running out of time. Do you still have the canister on you?"
Oscar nodded, and reached into a small pouch in his suit. He brought out a small container no bigger than a small Soder can.
"A single Exobyte gave you your first set of powers, Oscar. That container you hold contains millions." Lex stood in front of Fracture and looked down at him, his face stoned without emotion.
"They are Earth's only hope. The world you land in will be nearly identical to our own, set approximately ten years in the past – more than enough time to prepare and train whomever receives those Exobytes."
Oscar looked down at the canister, his eyes fixing on the small etching he had carved into the side.
"Fletchling."
◦╟Џ╢◦
Flashback: 5 Years Ago
"It's all about the follow through, Fletchling. The breath you hold is released, and with that breath goes the string."
Oscar nodded at his dad's words, nocking another arrow and taking aim at the target hanging from the tree. The bowstring groaned as it was pulled back to his ear, the shaft sitting on it almost shivering. With one final breathe in, he released the arrow and as it left he swore to himself as he realized he hadn't let go of his air until the arrow released.
"Well kiddo, at least you're hitting the tree. That's a step up from the field behind it, eh?"
Oscar sighed at his father's words. "I still can't get the steps right. I mean, I know what to do but I just forget at the last second!"
"Relax Oscar," Oliver smiled at his boy. "You're thinking to hard to impress little miss Whitmore, am I right?"
"DAD! Don't say that out loud!"
"Alright, alright! I was kidding, bud. How about one more time, then we head inside, and we make some dinner. How's that sound?" Oscar smiled at his dad and nocked another arrow to his bow.
"Alright, let's do it. Watch this shit!"
"LANGUAGE!" shouted out Dinah from the end of the field where the picnic table was.
"You heard your mom. Cuff it."
"Okay, okay, okay."
"Once more, little Fletchling. Hold, then release."
◦╟Џ╢◦
"I understand, Lex. I won't fail."
The man simply nodded and turned back to Batman to say something but was instantly cut off by the far wall at the end of the room exploding inwards.
Brainiac had made it into the inner sanctum.
"Fracture! You have to go! Step into the portal, and we'll hold them off!" Batman shrugged off his cape, and with a flourish he loaded up his weaponry systems, Lex doing the same with his suit's cannons.
This was it.
Oscar stepped up to the portal entrance, looking back once more.
Batman had launched into the fray, taking out drone after drone as he tore a path right down the middle. Lex stood by the portal's entrance, his suit's twin cannons firing a salvo of emerald beams and blasts that melted whatever they came into contact with.
They were magnificent.
Oscar stepped back up to the portal and prepared himself to step into its citrine light, but a hand fell on his shoulder. Suddenly, Oscar found himself flung off of the portal's pedestal, and Lex himself walked right in.
"LUTHOR! NO!" Batman shouted out from across the room, before trying and failing to make his way back over to the portal and Oscar.
Oscar reached down to his pocket and found that the canister that contained the Exobytes were gone from their pouch. Lex had taken them for himself and now the portal was closing fast behind him.
"OSCAR! GO THROUGH! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, JUST GO!"
This time, Oscar didn't look back. He called upon what little of the speed force remained in this world, and barely made it through before the portal whined and sputtered into inactivity.
He wasn't even worried about Bruce. He was the Goddamn Batman.
◦╟Џ╢◦
Oscar's first feeling on the other side of the portal was pain. The wall he had just ran into hadn't exactly helped things either. With a groan, the boy stood up and yanked off the helmet surrounding his head and face, and breathed in a shaky gulp of air. It was nighttime, wherever he had landed, and he could hear the sounds of street cats and dogs as they brayed and howled into the sky.
Oscar smiled to himself. He hadn't even realized how much he had missed such sounds.
He had done it. He was back, and he would save his mother, his father, and Lex would be stopped before whatever plan he—
LUTHOR!
Oscar shot up from his spot in the alley, and remembered everything before he was tossed through time and space. Lex throwing him away and going through himself, the missing Exobyte canister, and Bruce yelling at him to go through.
The Queen heir spotted a newspaper that had been tossed haphazardly on the ground and swiped it up. It looked fairly decent for sitting in a garbage bin, so it had to have been recent. Oscar spied the date in the top corner and—
"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me."
Ten years? Bruce's math needed to go fuck itself.