A/N: Here we go! The penultimate chapter, where the final battle continues! Stick around, because I promise the ending will be very different than what we saw in the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover.
Chapter 11
"Waiting for some good news here," Cisco announced, as he kept pursing the Wellenreiter.
"I wish we had some to give you, but we don't unfortunately," Chloe said.
"The only way to take out their shields is to get someone onboard that ship," Felicity added.
"We're on our way," Killer Frost announced over the comms, as she, Vixen, and Zari were ice-sliding towards the Wellenreiter. The three women soon entered the Nazi time ship and took out the soldiers who were onboard.
"We're on the bridge, guys," Zari spoke into the comms.
"But we don't know what we're looking for," Amaya added.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm working on it," Felicity responded.
"Okay, I am now sending you the source code for their deflector shields," Chloe said.
"Yeah, got it," Zari said. "Manual override protocol."
"Assuming I'm reading this correctly, all you need to do now is..." Chloe said.
"Hit the big blinking red button," Killer Frost finished, heading over to the button in question and did exactly that.
"Bingo," Chloe said. "The shields are down."
"Harry, you think you can handle this bad boy?" Cisco asked.
"Walk in the park, Kazansky," Harry answered, as he took control of flying the Waverider.
"Where are you going?" Iris asked.
"Getting our friends off that ship," Cisco answered. He put on his vibe goggles and turned to Harry. "On the count of ten, hit them with everything we've got."
"You got it," Harry said.
Cisco opened a breach and went through it.
High up within the clouds, a two-on-two battle was raging between Superman, Superboy, Overman, and Overwoman. While Superman and Overman's battle was quite evenly matched, Superboy was losing to Overwoman due to his reluctance to attack an opponent who was not only female but bore the exact face of Lois Lane.
"You're holding back," Overwoman noted. "Such a shame."
"Honestly, I'm not really into punching girls all that much," Conner admitted, as Overwoman sent him hurtling across the sky with a punch to the jaw. He caught himself and flew back towards her. "And it doesn't help that you also look exactly like someone I care about."
"This saccharine world surely has brainwashed you severely," Overwoman scoffed. "It rendered you so weak that you're not even willing to confront your opponent at a hundred percent in an effort to save your own skin. Pathetic. Not that I actually care of course, because it'll only be that much easier to kill you."
"You know what? You're not even our Lois anyway!" Conner angrily pointed out. "And you may be a girl, but it doesn't change the fact that you're a killer and a Nazi! So if you want one hundred percent, I'll give you just that!"
At that point, he started putting in more effort against Overwoman, as the two traded blows and fired heat vision at each other. Sure enough, just like Superman and Overman across from them, Superboy and Overwoman's battle quickly became roughly an even match.
"Come on, Ramon," Harry said, as he was still flying the Waverider. He fired several beams at the Wellenreiter, finally destroying the Nazi time ship, which then exploded into a ball of fire. The remains of the Wellenreiter started falling towards the ground.
A breach opened in the Waverider, then Vibe, Killer Frost, Vixen, and Zari emerged from it. "Nailed it!" Cisco exclaimed triumphantly, taking off his goggles.
As the three speedsters raced back to the ground, Barry and Bart managed to knock Reverse-Flash against a pillar as they each delivered a hard blow to his chest. Barry angrily grabbed Thawne, picked him up, and pinned him to the pillar as he vibrated his fist, extremely tempted to end the speedster who'd killed his mother once and for all.
"Go on, end it," Eobard Thawne taunted. "END IT!" As Barry then stopped vibrating his hand, Thawne asked, "What's stopping you? Oh, I forgot. Barry Allen is above killing. Isn't that right?" He then turned to the other Flash and said, "And you certainly aren't up to the job either... are you, Bart Allen? The Flash of Earth-21. That's right, I know exactly who you are. We've had a few encounters in the future after all. You're..."
Barry suddenly decked Thawne in the face, knocking his nemesis out cold.
"You sure shut that annoying jerk up," Bart remarked.
"Watch him in case he wakes up before I come back," Barry instructed. "I gotta grab something from S.T.A.R. Labs."
He disappeared with a streak of yellow lightning, then returned a second later with the Speed Force bazooka.
"Whoa, what the hell is that?" Bart asked, frowning.
"We call it the Speed Force bazooka," Barry answered. "I'm gonna use it to send Thawne into the Speed Force prison. Make sure he never causes anyone problems again."
Wasting no time, he aimed the bazooka down at the unconscious speedster and fired it. Enveloped in a bright light, Thawne started screaming, feeling as if his body was literally being torn to shreds. A few seconds later, the Reverse-Flash disappeared completely as he was sent into the Speed Force.
"Are you sure you didn't just kill him with that thing?" Bart couldn't help but ask, stunned by what he'd just seen.
"A part of me wishes I had," Barry admitted, sighing. "I sent him to a place where he'll be forced to live in an eternal hell, which is quite satisfying as it is."
With that, the two Flashes whooshed off.
I'm detecting dangerously high radiation levels. Gideon announced to the occupants of the Waverider.
"Disembodied computer voice lady is right," Cisco said. "Overwoman is about to go supernova."
"Superboy, Ms. Lane's doppelganger is about to have a meltdown," Harry announced into the comms.
Superboy was looking on in horror as Overwoman, her hands clutched to her ears, was screaming in agony. Her eyes and body started glowing brightly.
"What do I do?!" Conner exclaimed, his voice filled with panic.
"You need to fly her up!" Harry instructed. "Up! And away! Now!"
Superboy grabbed the glowing Overwoman and flew as fast as he could all the way up to outer space, where Overwoman's body then exploded.
Overman abruptly abandoned his fight with Superman as he stared up to the sky in absolute horror.
"NO!" Overman fumed, the realization that his wife had just died sinking in.
Taking advantage of his opponents' distraction, Clark pulled out a small pentagon-shaped crystal containing the House of El emblem. "Please still work here," he muttered.
"I'm going to kill you, your wife, and the rest of the people on this planet!" Overman spat out, furiously. At the exact moment he turned around, however, Clark quickly placed the crystal against Overman's chest and activated it, causing the Nazi Kryptonian to immediately vanish in a bright blue flash of light.
"Enjoy your stay in the Phantom Zone," Clark hissed.
Standing on top of a black van, Oliver and Dark Arrow were engaging each other in close combat. They were blocking and dodging each other's attacks. However, when Dark Arrow suddenly became distracted by Overwoman's explosion in the sky, Oliver took advantage of it and nocked an arrow, fully intending to finish off his doppelganger permanently. Sure enough, at the very moment Dark Arrow spun back around to resume the fight, Oliver released the string on the bow and fired the arrow, shooting Dark Arrow directly in the heart. The Earth-X version of Oliver Queen collapsed on top of the van, dead.
Ollie and Dark Arsenal were similarly engaging each other in close combat. They were blocking and dodging each other's attacks. As Dark Arsenal suddenly became distracted by the explosion in the sky, Ollie took advantage of it and nocked an arrow, contemplating finishing off his double for good. At the very moment Dark Arsenal spun back around to resume the fight, Ollie released the string on the bow and fired the arrow, shooting Dark Arsenal in the leg. He then kicked the Nazi archer in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
Grunting in pain, Dark Arsenal turned off his holographic mask, looked up at Ollie with a smirk, and said, "You shoot me in leg? Really?" He chuckled menacingly. "You don't have it in you to deliver a shot that's just a little bit more fatal, do you? That's why, of the two of us, I'll always be the better archer. You completely lack what it takes to kill your opponent."
"But I don't!" White Canary announced, as she suddenly appeared in front of Dark Arsenal and stabbed him in the throat with one of her knives.
After Sara yanked the bloody knife out, Dark Arsenal placed his hands around his heavily bleeding throat, then collapsed to the ground, dead.
"It had to be done," Sara said to Ollie, who was a bit taken aback.
"Trust me, I'm not complaining at all," Ollie replied. "I'm just glad my fight with this guy is finally over."
Clark flew up and caught Conner in mid-air as the smaller Kryptonian had plummeted all the way from outer space after being knocked unconscious by the impact of Overwoman's explosion. As Clark landed on the ground, Conner came to.
"Clark?" Conner said, a bit dazed.
"You're safe now," Clark said, releasing his younger brother from his arms.
"Whoa, what a mess," Conner said, as he and Clark looked around at all the Nazi soldiers lying on the ground everywhere.
"We've seen worse," Clark pointed out. "I think it's safe to assume that it's all over now. And that we've won."
"Just like you said we would," Conner said, smiling. "But how did you defeat Nazi you?"
"With this," Clark answered, showing Conner the crystal.
"You sent him into the Phantom Zone," Conner said in realization.
"I picked it up when Oliver and I briefly went back to our Earth to fetch Dinah and Bart," Clark explained. "I figured we'd need a way to stop the Kryptonians for good without killing them."
"I'm glad you defeated him and all, but how did you know the crystal would still work even if you were to activate it on a completely different Earth?" Conner asked.
"I didn't," Clark admitted.
"Oh," Conner said. "Well, let's just hope your doppelganger doesn't eventually escape."
"That shouldn't be a problem," Clark said, confidently. "The crystal that was used to exit the Zone was destroyed when I crushed it years ago. We can send things in, but nothing can ever get out."
"So, you're going to another Earth and I'm going to another time," Sara said, as she and Dinah Lance were walking along the grassy park near where Professor Martin Stein's funeral had just taken place.
"Yeah, that's kind of how we roll, huh?" Dinah said.
"Totally normal," Sara remarked.
"It was great meeting you, Sara," Dinah said. "You're exactly the kind of sister I would've wanted. Not to mention you sure know how to kick ass."
"So do you," Sara said, smiling. "You weren't bad at all against those Nazi soldiers, even when you weren't using your Canary Cry."
"Boss!" Mick called out to Sara, as he approached her and Dinah. "The ship's ready."
"Hey, Conner, it's time to go!" Sara said, looking over to where Conner was standing with Clark, Barry, Bart, Oliver, Ollie, Lois, Chloe, Iris, and Felicity.
"Give me a hug, sis," Sara said, then she and Dinah embraced.
"I'll miss you, Sara Lance," Dinah said.
"I'll miss you too, Dinah Lance," Sara said. "Stay out of trouble."
"I'll try," Dinah said, before heading over to her Justice League teammates.
"I gotta go, guys," Conner said to his former Justice League teammates. "Sara and the others are waiting for me."
"Stay safe, Conner," Clark said.
"And have fun time-traveling," Chloe added. "I'm glad you've made some pretty amazing friends."
"But don't forget about us, Superboy," Lois also added. "The Legends may be your friends, but the Justice League is your family. Remember that."
"No matter where or when I am in time, there's not a single moment that goes by where I'm not thinking about you guys," Conner said. "See you around."
At the same time Conner walked away, Dinah came over.
As Clark pulled out a newly repaired inter-dimensional extrapolator device, Ollie asked, "Is that a new one, Clark?"
"No, it's the same one," Clark said. "Cisco managed to repair it so that we could use it to return to our Earth."
"Thank you, guys, for everything," Oliver said to the Earth-21 visitors.
"No problem," Clark said. Turning to Barry, he added, "Barry, I'm really sorry your wedding didn't turn out the way it should've."
"Well, at least it was memorable," Iris said.
"Yeah, other than the part where I almost got my heart cut out of my chest by that modern day Josef Mengele, the time we spent on this Earth battling Nazis was definitely thrilling," Lois said.
"This is another adventure to add to our long list of things to tell our grandkids about," Ollie remarked.
"Don't think about grandkids just yet, Ollie," Chloe said to her husband. "Our son is only six years old in case you've forgotten."
"Well, it doesn't hurt to think about our future every now and then, honey," Ollie pointed out. "After all, that's the exact thing the two of us are planning on sharing for the rest of our lives."
"Speaking of which," Lois said, looking at Barry and Iris, "you two have any plans for a wedding do-over after everything that's happened these last few days?"
"Uh, Iris and I talked about it..." Barry said.
"And, yeah, we're just going to get ourselves a justice of the peace and get it done," Iris finished. "Quick and simple."
"Fewer Nazis that way," Barry pointed out.
"Smart move, Mr. and Mrs. Allen," Lois commented. Pointing to Iris, she added, "Oh, and don't you forget my advice about returning to your job as a reporter, especially if you believe that's truly where your heart lies. If you're really serious about going back, don't think about doing it, just do it."
"Okay," Iris nodded.
"I'm serious, Iris," Lois said, giving the other woman a firm look. "I know a potentially great reporter when I see one and that's you."
Iris smiled appreciatively at Lois' words, as did Barry.
"We should get going now," Clark said to his fellow Earth-21 visitors. He, Ollie, and Bart shook hands with Barry, Oliver, Iris, and Felicity, while Chloe and Lois gave the Earth-1 individuals hugs.
"We made one hell of a team working together, Watchtower, just like I figured we would," Felicity said to Chloe.
"We definitely did, Overwatch," Chloe agreed.
"I totally can't wait to do it again," Felicity said. "You know, team up again next time the world is literally crashing down on our heads."
Oliver rolled his eyes at his girlfriend and asked, "What do you mean 'next time'? Felicity Smoak, are you trying to jinx another disaster?"
"Let's be real, Oliver," she said. "The likelihood of another invasion or any sort of world-ending disaster occurring sometime within, say, the next year or so is more than ninety-five percent. I mean, if you look back at our history, this year it was Nazis, last year around the same exact time it was the Dominators, and the year before last year, also around this time, it was an immortal Egyptian psychopath. Seriously, am I really the only one of us noticing a pattern here?"
"No, you're not," Chloe said, "because your Earth isn't dissimilar to ours in that regard."
Oliver and Felicity then hugged Dinah.
"Take care of yourself, Dinah," Oliver said.
"Is that your subtle way of telling me to not get killed?" Dinah asked, half-jokingly.
"Something like that," Oliver nodded.
"Dinah will be fine," Ollie said. "We won't let what happened to this world's Black Canary happen to her."
"It's the beauty of being part of a team who look out for one another, no matter what," Dinah said. Turning to Oliver, she asked, "You really cared about Laurel, didn't you?"
"Are you kidding me? He and Laurel used to date," Felicity said. "Well, it was practically a lifetime ago when they dated, but Oliver never really stopped loving her even when they were no longer together."
Dinah glanced at Ollie, then turned back to Oliver and Felicity. "That's different between me and this Ollie, because we never actually dated in our world."
"Really?" Bart said with a teasing smile. "Because, from what I seem to recall, you two did have a bit of fling going on at one point."
Dinah glared at him and said, "But that doesn't necessarily count as dating, Bart, not that it's any of your business anyway what Ollie and I were doing at the time."
"Point is, blondie, you two were still together even if it was just for a few weeks," Bart said, causing Dinah to look as if she wanted to punch him.
"Let's see if this thing works again," Clark said, preparing to activate the extrapolator.
"Wait!" Bart suddenly exclaimed, causing everyone to look at him.
"What is it, Bart?" Clark asked.
Bart turned Barry and said, "Before we leave, Stretch, how about a rematch? You and me, a single lap around the world?"
"What?" all the Earth-21 visitors, plus Felicity, asked in surprise.
"What do you think you're doing, Bart?" Ollie demanded. "We're about to head back to our Earth!"
"I know, Ollie," Bart said. "But before we do that, I just thought it'd be a pretty good idea if Barry and I raced again, this time with witnesses. I mean, this could be our last interaction for all we know, and plus, this way we can find out for sure which of us scarlet speedsters is the true 'fastest man alive'. So what do you say, Barry? A lap around the world?"
Barry pondered Bart's challenge for a few seconds. Finally making his decision, he super-sped off and returned a second later, fully clad in his Flash suit.
"Barry?" Iris said, frowning.
"All right, Bart, let's do this," Barry said.
Bart spun around several times as he, too, changed into his Flash suit.
"Holy frak, they're really gonna do it, aren't they?" Felicity said, staring wide-eyed at the two Flashes. "Barry and his counterpart are really gonna race?!"
"It looks like they are," Lois said.
"They're totally gonna race," Iris said.
"The race of the Flashes of two worlds!" Chloe announced, enthusiasm in her voice.
"Which will absolutely be the best race ever!" Felicity added, with even more enthusiasm than Chloe.
"Which of you want to do the honors of counting down?" Barry asked, as he and Bart stood side-by-side in positions.
"I'll do it," Clark volunteered. "Three, two, one, go."
With that, Barry and Bart whooshed off, causing the hair of the others to blow upwards from the powerful gust of wind. As the two Flashes pushed themselves to their absolute limits, they already made it to the ocean after five seconds and ran directly across the water. As it appeared, Barry and Bart's maximum speeds were exactly equal, as neither Flash was capable of outrunning the other.
Suddenly, a portal rapidly formed before the scarlet speedsters.
"Oh, boy," Barry muttered.
"What's going on, Barry?!" Bart asked.
"I think we've been running too fast!" Barry answered.
Before they could slow their speeds down, the Flashes ran right into the portal and disappeared off the face of the Earth.
As they reemerged from the other end of the portal, the first thing Barry and Bart did was slow to a halt. They looked at each other.
"Dude, did we just go through a portal?" Bart asked, incredulously.
"That, I'm sure we just did," Barry answered. "But what I'm not sure about is if we just time-traveled, entered another Earth, or did a combination of both."
"Well, let's go find out," Bart said.
Just as they were about to super-speed off, their ears registered the commotion that was going on around them. Specifically, the pair of speedsters heard sirens, gunshots, and people's voices. Barry and Bart looked around and noticed a wild shootout the between the police and several masked men going on at a bank that was obviously being robbed.
The Flashes sprang into action and super-sped over to the scene. While Barry knocked out all the armed thugs, Bart caught any bullets that would've struck some of the police officers. After they finished the job, the bystanders in the vicinity clapped as Barry and Bart just stood there with their arms crossed against their chests. Several people also took out their phones to take pictures of the red-clad speedsters.
"Looks like you guys beat me to the job, whoever you're supposed to be!"
Barry and Bart simultaneously looked up at the speaker of the female voice and opened their mouths wide at what they saw. Hovering twenty feet in the air was a very attractive blonde woman, smiling broadly with her hands placed on her hips. But that alone wasn't what surprised the speedsters. It was mostly the fact that she was in a red and blue outfit that looked similar to Clark's, complete with a long red cape floating behind her back and the extremely familiar House of El emblem printed on the chest of her suit. The main difference was that the woman's costume consisted of a red skirt instead of blue skin-tight pants.
"Kara?" Bart called out in surprise. Thinking of Clark's biological cousin was his first instinct, but then he actually got a look at the woman's face and noticed that, while there was some resemblance, she looked quite different from the female Kryptonian Bart knew. In addition, the new woman's blonde hair was slightly shorter and several shades darker than Kara's.
"Hey, isn't she related to..." Barry said, focusing on the woman's costume.
"I don't know," Bart said. "She kinda looks like Supes' cousin, but this chick is definitely not her." Acknowledging the woman, he asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm Supergirl," the blonde woman answered, as if it was supposed to be the most obvious thing in the world.
"Supergirl?" Barry repeated with a frown. "Any relation to a Superman? Aside from some obvious differences, your suit does look similar to his."
"Well, Superman is my cousin," Supergirl said.
"Hold on a sec, your real name wouldn't happen to be Kara, by any chance, would it?" Bart asked, pronouncing it as 'Care-rah'. He was starting to get the feeling that he and Barry had just traveled to a different Earth and encountered an alternate version of Kara Kent, who, unlike on Earth-21, apparently still went by the name Supergirl instead of Superwoman.
"Actually, it's Kara," Supergirl corrected, pronouncing it as 'Car-rah'. "How do you know my real name? Who are you guys?"
"First of all, do you mind if we take this conversation somewhere a bit more private?" Barry suggested, glancing around at the civilians who were watching them.
He and Bart super-sped up to the roof of a nearby tall building. Supergirl flew up as she followed them. The three superheroes stood on top of the building.
"I'm The Flash!" Bart answered Supergirl's question.
"We're both The Flash, actually," Barry added. "It's a bit complicated to explain."
Supergirl frowned. "You guys are who now?"
"The Flash!" Bart repeated. "Come on, gorgeous, surely you must've read stories about the fastest man alive at some point!"
"Should I have?" Supergirl asked, still frowning.
"What about the Green Arrow? Have you heard of him?" Barry decided to ask. As Supergirl shrugged her shoulders, he then asked, "Black Canary? Firestorm? Atom?"
Supergirl once more shrugged, not recognizing the mentioned names in the slightest.
"Okay, what about Aquaman? Cyborg? Or Superboy?" Bart threw out names of superheroes from his Earth as well.
"Sorry," Supergirl said, not recognizing those names either.
Barry and Bart exchanged glances, then Bart turned to Supergirl. "So, you've heard of Superman, but you really have no idea who the rest of us are?"
"Bart, I don't think this is either of our Earths," Barry said, knowingly.
"Yeah, that's kinda what I was starting to figure out too," Bart agreed.
"Here we go again," Barry muttered with a sigh, as he pulled down his cowl. Turning to Supergirl, he said, "Hey, I'm Barry Allen. I'm the fastest man alive."
Bart removed his domino mask and smiled at Supergirl. "Bart Allen. Also the fastest man alive. Whichever of us really holds that title is still up for debate."
"After that race we just had, Bart, I'd say we just call it even," Barry said.
Supergirl pondered for several moments. "Kara Danvers," she introduced herself, deciding she could trust fellow superheroes with her civilian identity. "Where did you two come from? You're clearly not from National City."
"It's a long story," Barry said. "We're actually from different Earths."
Supergirl rolled her eyes in confusion. "What? What do you mean you're from different Earths? What... how many other Earths are there other than this one? You know, we're... Earth."
"Like I told you, it's complicated," Barry said. "Bart and I have quite a bit of explaining to do."