Chapter 2
Inside the large S.T.A.R. Labs truck, Professor Stein and Jax were showing the recording of Future Barry's message to Barry and Oliver.
"A war is coming, Captain Hunter," the distorted voice of Future Barry Allen announced on the small device in Stein's hand. "And, at some point, you're gonna be called back to Central City to fight it. So you need to know that, while you and your team have been in the temporal zone, I made a choice that affected the timeline. As you know, whenever you alter the past, those changes affect the present and get compounded in the future. When you return, you will be in the new timeline I created, where everyone's past and everyone's future has been affected, including yours. When you come back, don't trust anything or anyone. Not even me."
"Where did you get that from?" Barry asked.
"We found it in a secret room inside the Waverider," Jax answered. "It was sent by you, forty years from now."
"Forty years from now?" Oliver repeated in disbelief. "Barry, what the hell does this mean?"
"It means I screwed things up when I changed the past," Barry explained, an ashamed look on his face.
"What did you do?" Stein asked.
"I went back in time, and I saved my mom," Barry answered. "I created a timeline where she's alive. It's called Flashpoint. I lived in it for a few months... until I realized that I made a big mistake, and I tried to reset the timeline, put things back to how they were supposed to be, but..."
"But I didn't work," Jax guessed.
"No," Barry said.
"Wow," Jax said, incredulously.
"Barry, that's..." Oliver began, at a loss for words.
"So what's changed since you did this?" Stein asked.
"Cisco's brother is dead," Barry began to explain. "Caitlin has powers. Diggle has a son now instead of a daughter." He looked up at Oliver as he'd said the last sentence.
"What? John had a daughter?" Oliver asked, surprised.
"I didn't just screw up my life, man," Barry said, guilt in his voice. "I screwed up everybody's lives, and apparently everybody's lives in the future. It felt like, when these aliens got here, that finally something had happened I didn't cause and maybe I could make up for everything I'd done to everybody, but I..."
"I think we should be on the up and up with everybody," Jax suggested. "We gotta tell them."
"We're going up against a bunch of aliens, and you want to tell people that their lives might have been affected by time travel?" Oliver said, disagreeing with Jax's decision. "One sci-fi problem at a time." He turned to Barry. "You made a mistake, Barry. It's part of the job. But we can't deal with it today."
Clark hovered twenty feet in the air as the 'test run' was in progress. Ray, clad in his Atom exo-suit, fired energy beams at him, but Clark remained completely unaffected. Well, unless green, blue or gold kryptonite was present (so far, there hadn't been any indication that Krypton even existed on Earth-1 at all, let alone kryptonite), what else should one expect when attacking a being whose invulnerability allowed him to survive even something as powerful as a nuclear explosion without suffering any harm whatsoever? It was when Clark was eighteen when he had found out even a nuclear explosion couldn't hurt him, as he once had to jump all the way up to outer space to prevent such a missile from destroying Smallville, its intended target.
Ray briefly shrunk himself to a miniature size as he flew around Clark in a maneuver, reverted back to his normal size, and attempted to attack the Kryptonian from behind. However, Clark effortlessly overpowered Ray and tossed him to the ground, utilizing enough force to cause Ray pain, but not enough to break any of his bones or cause any damage to the exo-suit.
The Atom landed near where White Canary, Speedy, Heatwave, and Spartan were already lying. Clark had knocked the latter four heroes down with a shockwave he'd created by clapping. Of course, contrary to what Oliver told him, Clark had been tremendously holding back, because all the participants of the 'test run' would be severely injured, if not dead, for sure if he hadn't.
"And Clark used, like, only a hundredth of his strength to take them all out like that," Conner said with a smirk, as he and Ollie were standing by the S.T.A.R. Labs truck near where Felicity was sitting. "They're so screwed."
"Which is why I think this test run thing will be a waste of time," Ollie replied.
White Canary, Speedy, Spartan, and The Atom all groaned as they climbed back up to their feet. Heatwave, however, remained on the ground, as he was the only one who had fallen unconscious.
"He really is a badass," Thea commented.
"Yeah, it's kinda hot," Sara remarked, figuring she would've said the exact same thing if Superman was a girl.
"Let's go again!" Oliver instructed.
Immediately, The Atom started firing more beams up at Superman in vain, while Spartan fired his gun, only for the bullets to get crushed upon slamming into Superman's indestructible chest. Even his blue and red suit didn't appear to show any signs of damage.
Having regained consciousness, Heatwave blasted Superman with his flamethrower, which proved as futile as The Atom and Spartan's attacks.
Ollie walked up to Felicity and said, "I know that it's not really any of my business, Felicity, but you and your Oliver, are you guys, um..."
"Seeing each other?" Felicity finished, knowing exactly what Ollie was about to ask.
"Yeah," Ollie nodded. "Sorry, couldn't help but ask, since you really remind me of someone that I know."
"No, no, it's fine, it's totally fine," Felicity assured him. "I mean, it's not exactly everyday another Oliver Queen from another Earth shows up on yours, right? But to answer your question, well, Oliver and I were together for a while last year, but not anymore. I sort of broke it off after I found out he kept this really big secret from me."
"Oh," Ollie said. "Well, whatever that secret was, maybe he had a good reason for keeping it from you."
"He did, but I still didn't have it in me to accept the fact that he never bothered to tell me, the person he supposedly loves more than anybody else in the world, about it," Felicity admitted, recalling the time when Oliver had hidden the fact that he had a son from her. "But we're still close, though. Close friends, that is. We look out for one another, we work really well together as a team – most of the time anyway – even if we do have our disagreements from time to time."
"Doesn't everybody?" Ollie pointed out.
"What about you, Oliver? Or Ollie, as everybody's calling you to distinguish you from this world's Oliver? Is there anyone special in your life?" Felicity asked.
"Yeah, I'm actually married," Ollie answered.
"Really?" Felicity asked, widening her eyes in surprise. "Wow, so Oliver Queen finally got married." With a chuckle, she then added, "I never thought I'd ever say that sentence. What's her name?"
"Um, Chloe," Ollie answered. "Chloe Sullivan. And from the little I've seen of you so far, I'd say the two of you really have a lot in common."
"What makes you say that?" Felicity asked. "So this Chloe Sullivan, your wife, was who you were referring to when you said I reminded you of someone you know."
"Yeah, it was her," Ollie nodded. "For one thing, both of you are blonde female computer tech-geniuses who each work alongside a Green Arrow in your respective worlds. But, besides that, you're smart, kind, spunky, full of energy, and a highly valuable member of your superhero team despite not having any superpowers or not being on the field as often as the rest of us just like her. I think you and Chloe would get along perfectly."
"In that case, I'd really like to meet Chloe someday," Felicity said. "I mean, it's highly unlikely that I'd ever get to meet her, considering she's a whole different universe away, but it's definitely not impossible, right? Because literally anything is possible."
"You don't have to remind me of that," Ollie said.
The 'test run' against Superman went on for a few hours. Following the latest round, Clark landed his feet on solid ground and turned to Oliver. "Are you sure it's a good idea that I keep this going?"
"Yeah," Oliver groaned, as he and the other worn-out participants slowly climbed up to their feet. "Yes, just give us five minutes, please."
"What? You mean you wanna go another round?" Ollie asked his counterpart. "Clark has been going on with this for hours! Don't you think right now would be a good time for everybody to call it quits? Barry and Cisco did not bring Clark, Conner, and me to this world just so we could just stand by and watch you guys use Clark as target practice all day long."
"You may share my first and last name as well as my vigilante identity, but you don't seem to take things as seriously as I do, do you?" Oliver retorted, having noticed that Ollie's laid-back attitude was, in some ways, reminiscent of the way Oliver himself had been prior to Lian Yu. "The entire point of this training is to make sure these people fully realize that this threat isn't one to take lightly."
"What threat?" Ollie argued. "Because all your teammates are doing right now is wasting most of their energy and firepower on someone who's not even remotely a threat to them when they should be saving their batteries for the aliens who are actually threatening this planet."
"Your counterpart does make quite a valid point, Oliver," Ray said to the Earth-1 archer. "We've thrown everything we had at Superman for hours, yet we've managed to put not a single scratch on him."
"One more round," Oliver instructed. "Then we'll be done."
Deciding against further arguing with his counterpart, Ollie turned to Conner and said, "You'd tell me if I ever acted that stubborn, right?"
In response, Conner just gave Ollie an amused look.
Just then, Cisco came out of the S.T.A.R. Labs truck and approached Barry.
"Hey," Cisco said.
"Hey," Barry replied.
"You know what this is?" Cisco asked, showing Barry the device containing Future Barry's message. "This is really you. Like, Future you."
"Come on, look..." Barry began, speaking in a discreet manner, but Cisco interrupted him.
"You told them, right?"
"I'm gonna tell them, yeah, when this is finished," Barry said.
"When this is finished?" Cisco repeated. "Even though you're about to lead them through an alien war? Even after Flashpoint?" He then raised his voice in anger. "After everything you've messed up? All the lives you've changed? You still don't think you should tell them?"
"Tell us what?" Sara demanded, catching the end of what Cisco said.
"Uh, Jax and Professor Stein found a message from me in the future saying that, right now, I can't be trusted," Barry explained, nervously.
"And why would Future you say that?" Sara asked.
"I think because I went back in time and changed the timeline," Barry answered. "And now things here are different than before I left, including some of your lives."
"Some of our lives?" Clark asked, frowning. "Whose lives are you talking about?"
"Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, Dig," Barry answered.
"Me?" Diggle asked, frowning. "Why? What happened?"
"Hey," Oliver said, as he turned to Diggle. "Apparently, you had a daughter."
Diggle turned back to Barry. "I had a daughter, Barry?"
"Baby John was Baby Sara," Barry nodded.
A look of disappointment appeared on Diggle's face. "So, wait, you... let me get this straight. You just, uh, you just erased a daughter from my life?"
"Yeah," Barry admitted.
"You can't go back and just change things like that, Barry!" Sara said, firmly.
"I know," Barry said.
"You know how hard it is for me to not alter events?" Sara continued. "To bring my sister back? But I don't, because I know the implications!"
"And all those aberrations we spent the last eight months, traveling through time, trying to correct, you just decided that it was okay for you to create your own?" Ray added, also disappointed in Barry.
"We should've told them before," Jax said.
"Guys," Felicity spoke up, as she received a message on her cell phone. "Guys, it's Lyla. The President's been abducted by the Dominators. She needs us now."
"Okay, you guys go, all right?" Barry instructed everyone. "I'm gonna sit this one out. Obviously, you have Superman and Superboy. They're just as fast as I am. Get the President. We can talk about this later."
All the heroes, except Oliver, Clark, Conner, and Ollie, prepared to head off. Barry approached Clark and asked, "You still trust me, right?"
"Of course I do, Barry," Clark answered, without a hint of doubt. He placed a comforting hand on Barry's shoulder. "You made a mistake, and believe me, I know firsthand what it's like to make the same kind of mistake you've made."
"What do you mean?" Barry asked, curious.
"I once went back in time and saved the life of a woman I loved," Clark explained, with a heavy sigh. He was referring to when he had traveled back in time a day and prevented his then-girlfriend, Lana Lang, from getting killed in an automobile accident, only for his Earth father, Jonathan Kent, to succumb to a heart attack in the current timeline. "But because I did that, my adoptive father died that night instead."
"I'm sorry," Barry apologized.
"Don't be," Clark said. "It was no one else's fault but mine. But I learned my lesson from that mistake a long time ago, and I have no doubt that you'll do the same if you haven't already."
"Guys," Oliver called out to the heroes who were leaving, "this is cr... hey! This is crazy! Everyone is going, including Barry. I... I'm not going without him."
"Then you'll be here, Oliver," Diggle said, not in the mood to work with Barry after discovering what happened.
"Oliver, Conner, why don't you two stay behind with Barry and his Oliver, maybe keep them company in the meantime, while I go with the rest of the team and help them get the President?" Clark instructed.
"Why are you saying we should stay here?" Conner asked, frowning. "Wouldn't I, at least, be more useful if I came along with you?"
"The reason I'm telling you to stay is for backup in case something else happens to go wrong while the rest of us are not around to help," Clark pointed out.
"I see," Conner nodded, understandingly. "You're saying Barry and the Olivers could use a Kryptonian's help if something else happens before you and the others make it back."
"Exactly," Clark said.
"That makes sense," Ollie agreed. "After all, it's best to be prepared for any and all possibilities."
"If you need us, we'll be there," Barry said to Clark, who then nodded.
Clark headed off with Diggle, Sara, Ray, and Jax, while Barry, Oliver, Ollie, and Conner stayed behind.
"So, um, your date of birth wouldn't happen to still be May 16th 1980 by any chance, would it?" Ollie asked his counterpart.
"Actually, it's May 16th 1985," Oliver answered.
"1985? So I'm older than you by five years then," Ollie said, clearly wasn't expecting to learn that. "And are your parents Robert and Laura Queen, who were part of this secret society called Veritas and were killed when their plane was sabotaged by a man named Lionel Luthor when you were nine years old?"
"First of all, my mother's name was Moira, not Laura," Oliver corrected, "Secondly, I never heard a thing about whatever this 'Veritas' is, and the circumstances of my parents' death were different than what you're telling me. They died when I was already an adult."
"Do you mind sharing with the rest of the class what those circumstances were?" Ollie asked.
"Actually, I do," Oliver answered.
"I can respect that," Ollie nodded. "Now, I seem to recall someone earlier, I think it was Sara, mentioning you being on an island. I take it the shipwreck happened to you too?"
"It did," Oliver answered, quite darkly. "That island is the main reason I'm the person I am today. I became someone else... I became something else."
"I can relate," Ollie said, recalling his own transformation from a spoiled rich brat with no day job to the responsible green-clad superhero archer he was today. "How many years were you stranded on your island?"
"Five years," Oliver answered.
"Five years?" Ollie widened his eyes in disbelief. "You're kidding."
"It's a long and complicated story," Oliver said.
"Man, and I thought I had it bad when I was stranded on my island for just two years," Ollie remarked. "When it wasn't pouring rain, it was blistering sun. There were mosquitoes that ate me alive. But... to think, that another version me had been stuck on the island for an additional three years... no wonder you turned out to be such an uncompromising hard-ass."
Barry and Conner both burst out in laughter at that, amused as they were watching the two Green Arrows converse.
Oliver glared at his counterpart. "You could think of me however you want. But nobody, certainly not you, can even begin to fathom all the hell I had to endure during those five years I was away from Star City, all the while everyone that I care about believed that I was dead. This person you see me as is who I am now, plain and simple."
White Canary, The Atom, Firestorm, Spartan, Speedy, and Heatwave arrived at a warehouse, the location where the President was supposedly being held hostage by the Dominators.
"Sure we're in the right place?" Ray asked, uncertain.
Just then, Superman rapidly swooped down from the sky and landed his two feet on the ground. "Well, this is the last place the President's tracer gave a signal," he announced to the others. "Must be nearby." Staring at the warehouse, Clark activated his x-ray vision and saw what appeared to be a person standing inside the building. "He's in there all right."
"How do you know that?" Mick asked.
"I saw him in the building," Clark answered. "X-ray vision is one of my abilities."
"Oh," Mick said. "You can see everyone's bits with those little peepers, huh? Bet that ability comes in handy when it concerns the ladies."
Clark rolled his eyes at Mick's comment, but didn't say anything.
"Just ignore him," Sara advised.
"How did you get the name Heatwave?" Clark asked Mick.
"I burned my family alive, and I like to light things on fire," the arsonist answered.
"Oh," Clark said, frowning again. "That's quite a backstory."
"Well, my shrink thinks so," Mick remarked.
"But given that you're part of a team of superheroes, I assume all that matters is the man you are now," Clark said.
"If you say so," Mick said. "By the way, I'm not gonna call you Superman. It's stupid."
"You could call me Clark if you like," Clark suggested. "Or you could even call me Kal."
Mick shook his head. "Those won't work either."
"Well, let's say you need my help," Clark asked. "What are you gonna call me then?"
"Cape Man," Mick answered, causing an amused look to appear on Clark's face.
Thea chuckled. "Seriously?"
"Seriously," Mick answered. To Clark, he said, "But I'm not gonna need your help."
"Hey," Ray said to Clark. "I've been meaning to ask you… that is, unless you mind of course."
"No," Clark said. "Go ahead. Ask me whatever you want."
"Okay," Ray nodded. "So you and Superboy, if you two are from a different planet, what are you guys doing here on Earth? Well, not this Earth exactly. I mean, the Earth in your universe."
"My planet Krypton was destroyed when I was a baby," Clark explained, letting out a sad sigh. "My parents saved my life when they sent me to Earth in a spaceship my father built just minutes before Krypton exploded."
"How the hell does an entire planet explodes?" Thea asked, incredulously.
"Krypton's core became highly unstable due to an all-out civil war, leading to its eventual destruction," Clark said.
"Oh, my gosh," Ray said, with a horrified expression. "Were there any other survivors besides you and Superboy?"
"Just me and a few others," Clark answered. "It took me three years to arrive on Earth. After my ship crash-landed during the meteor shower, I was found and raised by the best adoptive parents I could've ever asked for, and Earth is the planet that I've called home for most of my life."
"Well, it sounds like you ended up with a happy tale after all despite what happened to your home planet," Ray noted.
"You could say that," Clark agreed. "After all, everything and everyone that I love is on Earth. And as for Conner, he's not actually from Krypton. Only half of his DNA is Kryptonian, while the other half is human. It's a little complicated."
"It always is, isn't it?" Ray remarked.
"Guys, let's focus," Sara interjected. "We still have a President who needs saving."
The assembled heroes, led by Clark, headed inside the warehouse. After entering, they walked through the place, looking around cautiously as they did so.
"Look! The President!" Diggle announced, as he spotted the man in question, whose hands were bound in handcuffs.
"Get me out of here!" the President exclaimed, relieved by the heroes' presence.
"This doesn't feel right," Jax said, feeling as though he and the others were heading directly towards a trap.
"I agree, Jefferson," Jax heard Stein's voice reply in his head.
Suddenly, they heard an eerie hissing sound.
"Something's coming," Clark warned.
The heroes and the President all looked up. Indeed, standing on the upper railing looking down at all of them was a Dominator in all its glory. The Dominator was standing next to some sort of red-glowing, oval-shaped, high-tech equipment that was clearly not native to Earth.
Thea lifted her bow, aiming an arrow at the Dominator. Also, Ray raised his arm, preparing to fire an energy beams.
"Release the President now!" Clark demanded.
We knew you would come. The Dominator spoke. Its loud, terrifying, alien voice echoed in the ears of everyone who was currently in the warehouse.
"Did you guys hear that?" Ray remarked. "Because I heard it in my head."
"Yeah, we heard it," Sara said.
"Well, if nobody else is freaked out by it, far be it for me to panic," Ray said.
"You don't need to harm him to get whatever it is you want from us," Clark said to the Dominator. "Release him and nothing will happen to you."
He's not who we want. The Dominator replied. He raised his arm, which contained some sort of gauntlet, and aimed it at the helpless President. The Dominator fired the gauntlet, which emitted a yellowish-green energy blast that proved powerful enough to completely incinerate the President on contact, reducing the man literally to nothing, much to the heroes' horror.
"It's a trap!" Clark and Diggle exclaimed at the same time.
The Dominator activated the oval-shaped device, causing a wave of red energy to emerge from it and envelop all the heroes, including the nigh-invulnerable Superman.
Everyone placed on their hands on either side of their heads as they doubled over and groaned in agony. Their foreheads started glowing brightly.
"Superman, do something!" Mick groaned.
But the Man of Steel was as helpless and in as much agony as the rest of the heroes.
After they arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry led Oliver, Ollie, and Conner into the time vault and showed them the holographic newspaper article from April 25th 2024 containing the headline 'FLASH MISSING – VANISHES IN CRISIS', along with the sub-headline 'RED SKIES VANISH'. The article was written by someone named Julie Greer, something that disturbed Barry, since, in the pre-Flashpoint timeline, it had been Iris who would write it in the future. Somehow, though, in the current/post-Flashpoint timeline, the name on the byline had changed to the Julie person.
"I didn't think about it, guys," Barry said to the Olivers and Conner, all of whom had confused looks on their faces. "I didn't think about the future. I was so focused on the past, I didn't think about it until now. I changed so much."
"What is this?" Oliver and Ollie asked, studying the futuristic newspaper. The Olivers briefly glanced at each other, realizing they'd spoken at the same time.
"This is an article from the future," Barry explained.
"The future?" Conner asked, with an intrigued look.
"Yeah," Barry nodded. "It's a story about me vanishing."
"What?" Conner said, incredulously. "What causes you to vanish in the future?"
"I'm not sure," Barry answered. "This used to be written by Iris West-Allen."
"Iris West-Allen," Ollie repeated. "Wait, as in your girlfriend Iris?" After Barry nodded, Ollie continued, "Okay, so from what I'm understanding, one, you two are destined to get married in this future of yours judging by the fact that she has your last name, or will have your last name one day, and two, she was supposed to be the one to write this newspaper article that you're showing us. Hmm, a superhero marrying an intrepid reporter. Why does that sound so familiar?"
"Yeah, I guess that would sort of make you and Iris this Earth's version of Clark and Lois," Conner said to Barry, who clearly wasn't in the mood for quips at the moment.
"I don't know what's in store for me and Iris in the future anymore," Barry said. "Something's... something's changed in the timeline with our future. God, what did I do?"
"Barry, this is a weird-looking newspaper article," Oliver said, unable to even begin to wrap his head around something like time travel. Hell, stuff like aliens, meta-humans, magic, alternate Earths, and meeting an alternate version of himself that looked nothing like him was quite unnerving, to say the least. "It doesn't mean anything," he continued. "You need... you need to stop beating yourself up over this."
"I'm sorry, but how can you say that?" Barry snapped. "I'm responsible for all of this."
"Maybe, maybe not," Oliver said. "Barry, you made a choice. You wanted to see your parents alive again. Do you honestly know anyone that, if they were in your shoes, wouldn't do the exact same thing? I would do the exact same thing."
"He's right, Barry," Ollie agreed with his counterpart. "I think I've said something like this to Clark once, but, um, believe me when I say I'd go to hell and back just to wrap my arms around my folks one more time."
"Barry, after the Gambit went down, it was me, my father, and a crew member on a life raft," Oliver said. "Lost at sea. Enough food and water for one person maybe. My father took a gun, shot the crew member, told me to survive, and then turned the gun on himself."
"No way," Ollie said in absolute disbelief. "Can I assume that was the beginning of your five years marooned on the island and presumed dead by the rest of the world?"
"It was," Oliver nodded. He turned back to Barry. "Anyway, my father shot himself in the head. He sacrificed himself so that I could live. Nothing I could do. No choice. Slade Wilson drove a sword right through my mother's heart in front of my sister and I. I was there. I was helpless on the ground. I was powerless to stop it. No choice."
"Okay, now I'm officially certain you've had it much worse than me here," Ollie said, shocked and, admittedly, quite perturbed by the circumstances surrounding his counterpart's parents' death. "No offense to you, but I wouldn't trade the life I've had, to live yours, for anything."
"None taken," Oliver replied. "And I wouldn't ask you to do that."
"Wait a minute," Ollie said, realizing something. "Slade Wilson, you say, killed your mother?"
"Yes," Oliver said. "You know a Slade Wilson on your Earth too?"
"Unfortunately," Ollie answered, with disgust. "The Slade Wilson we knew was a major bastard too. To make a long story short, not only he intended to capture all the superheroes in the world so he could exploit our abilities, but he once managed to turn the world against us. But things are okay now. We eventually got back into the people's good graces. Well, for the most part, and not to mention that Slade, or his daughter Rose for that matter, hasn't really been a threat to us in the last few years."
Oliver was about to say something, but was abruptly interrupted by a loud rumbling noise coming from outside.
"Hey, guys, wherever you are right now, we need you," Cisco's panic-filled voice sounded over the intercom.
Barry pressed a button on the futuristic device, replacing the holographic image of the 2024 newspaper with live footage of what was going on outside of S.T.A.R. Labs. The footage showed all the heroes who had gone off to try and rescue the President running (or flying) around wildly, using their powers and weapons to cause damage to S.T.A.R. Labs' property. Needless to say, none of them were acting like themselves at all.
"What the..." Conner exclaimed in disbelief.
"You can say that again," Ollie remarked.
"Things just got so much worse," Barry added, then stared at the other three occupants of the time vault.
