Chaos on Earth-2

by TrueHorror88

He did it to save his new home. His family, to save his daughter and the woman he loves. But instead Seth Fury was flung into Earth-2 and became Zoom's prisoner. Now aiming to use everything in his powers to find his way back to his Earth and reunite with the ones he loves, he fights. But it won't be easy. How will Earth-2 fare against a true demon? A mutant? A Lethal Protector.

22. Chapter 22: Bullet of Vengeance

And now another bedtime story for you wonderful people in the world.

I hope you are all safe and healthy wherever you might be, and please continue to be cautious of human contact.

And I hope you are all doing okay with everything else happening around in the world. Things beside Corona is hitting and affecting the daily lives of everyone now.

Thanks for the all the reviews, means a lot and keeps me going.

Some small things for the story:

In this chapter, I have added some characters from both Season 4 and Season 6 of The Flash TV Show, giving them some different personalities and different roles… including some different skills, if you will. Weapons, skills and uniforms are taken from different TV Shows, ranging from Marvel and DC. Small amount is also from an anime show.

And seeing as this is a Christmas chapter…

Without further ado…

ENJOY and Merry Christmas!

Chapter 22: Bullet of Vengeance

Christmas was right around the corner. Gifts and presents being bought from every open store in the city. Decorations put up everywhere, the streets, various offices and facilities are decorated to fully experience the Christmas mood.

Though, despite this being one of the most favored times of the year, not all facilities are decorated to fit the Christmas mood. Such was the case for McCulloch Technologies.

Tim Kwon closed the folder in front of him with an exhausted sigh. He leant forward; his elbows placed on the edge of his desk with his hands running over his face. "What a drag." His eyes focused on the three other folders of paperwork he has to go through. Only then, could he go home and help his girlfriend decorate their apartment together.

Hopefully by mixing in some naughty foreplay to get a different outcome than what is planned.

Gene Huskk placed a holder with vials on a table while looking to Tim. "You doing okay there, Tim?"

He chuckled with a gesture to the folders on his desk. "There's not many folders here, but I have to do the paperwork on all of them to ensure Merlyn Global Group wants to work with us."

"It would be one hell of a Christmas gift if we could make it work." Gene admitted. Nodding to his unfinished paperwork, he offered. "Need a hand with them? I got the time."

"And risk you getting scolded by your kids and wife because Daddy didn't come home in time? No way, man." Tim chuckled with his response. "But thanks for it, anyway. You just go home while I make sure these paperwork goes well."

"Alright." Gene accepted and took hold of his coat on the back of his chair. "Gonna go now, just call me if you get into any trouble or something."

"No promises, pal. Give my regards to your family." Tim told him.

"You betcha!" Gene stated as he walked out the door.

Tim chuckles as he looks to the nearest folder on his desk. Taking hold of it, he opens it and sees that he has to contact the CEO of Merlyn Global Group, Malcolm Merlyn to complete this stack of paperwork. "Gotta wait till after Christmas then…" he sighed again.

The only reason why he got this much paperwork was because his own CEO, Joseph Carver. The man was like a taskmaster and kept throwing more and more work on the laps of his employees without a single regard to their own lives outside of their workplaces. He was basically ruining Tim's Christmastime.

STATIC

Suddenly a static sound reached his ears, and Tim jumped out of his chair in shock with the lights abruptly turning off. His eyes suddenly assaulted by the thick shroud of darkness that came over the office. He looked around in confusion. "What's going on?"

"…"

Tim kept his hands on the desk, making sure he could feel where it is as he moves around it. For some reason, he felt like there was someone else in here. "Huskk, that you?" He didn't receive any response. "Anyone here?" he asked again.

"Would say it's good to see you again, but that'd be a lie."

The scientist snapped his head around in shock at that voice, a voice so distorted and morphed it sounded completely inhuman. "Who's that?!" He shouted, spinning around on his feet to find the person.

With a turn, he looks to the window behind him. His eyes widened in fear. Thanks to the reflective surface of the glass, he sees that someone is behind him. But it was while wearing a strange mask…

A mask so pitch-black it became one with the surrounding darkness. The rest of their body one with the darkness already. But it's the three red glowing eyes like lasers on that mask that brought his attention to that reflection.

Tim Kwon turned around in an instant to see that same masked person looks at him, the three laser eyes continuing to glare at him. "W-Who… Who are you?" He stammers.

With a scoff, a hand comes up, as though it came out of the darkness, and placed its fingers around the front of the mask. The hand pulled on the mask, taking it off and revealing the person's face to the scientist.

Tim gaped his mouth. "Yo-"

BANG

The bullet that was projected from the gun in the person's hand put an end to the scientist's sentence. Tim's body fell against the desk, blood coming out of the wound on his forehead and soaks his unfinished paperwork with a fresh layer of blood. His eyes glazed as his soul departed from its husk.

Reequipping the mask, the person states. "Christmas is only for good kids." The person turned around and walked into the darkness again. But not before they muttered.

"One down, four left. Better be prepared."

x

(Lindy's Headquarters)

"I'm sorry, can you please repeat that, Seth? Cause I'm pretty sure either you hit your head or I hit my head." Lindy asked the damaged elemental.

She, Kendra, Tony and Marcus were shocked to see both Mera and Seth walk into their base again. Especially after he told them he would return home with the girls. Because of that, Lindy demanded to know everything. Which led to her needing to ask for him recite it.

"Like I just explained:" Seth then recited the story again. "I met up with Mera and the girls at that old facility. We were about to step through the breach and then, much to our dismay, Zoom speeds in and takes hold of Jesse and kidnaps her right in front of us. He speeds away with her before I can take her back. Because of a promise I remembered, I couldn't leave Jesse behind in his clutches so I had to send Ruby and Evelyn through the breach and into my world." He formed a smile at his own word. Mera, while she was being treated by Kendra, knew why he was smiling. "After that, I realized that even together, me and Mera wouldn't be able to keep off Zoom and his entire gang of misfits, and… I don't even know how to re-explain what happened next."

"Let me help you with that." Mera said, trying to pitch in on the story. "You don't know how or why, but for some reason, your new black flames and your sword worked together without listening to you and suddenly projected your flames at the breach and it went up in flames."

Kendra couldn't believe what she heard for the second time now. "You destroying breaches now… What the hell's going on in this world?"

Seth shook his head at her remark, his left hand grabbing his quivering right arm. "That's not what I or Mera said, Kendra. We said that the flames and the sword… in a way resonated and then combined their strengths… and launched the flames into the breach."

"Rendering it to ashes…" Lindy muttered with shock, her fingers intertwining as she entered a trance, devoting her senses to swim in her thoughts. There was more to the black flames in Seth's body and his sword, both of which belonged Blackfire at one point. But when both were in possession of Blackfire, he's never done this before.

As she was deep in her thought process, Lindy's blue eyes noticed something shaking. With a blink, her red eyes focus on Seth's limb, seeing his right arm shaking and he has to hold it with his other one. "Seth, what's going on with your right arm?" The other natives looked to that arm. "It didn't shake like that before."

"It's because of Blackfire's flames." Seth clenched his hand and ignited his black flames before their eyes. He noticed the look of shock and fear on their faces. "Unlike my other elements, these flames are confined in my right arm right now."

"The rest are spread throughout your entire body, aren't they?" Mera asked.

"They are. My entire body is like an environment for elements, like animals. All of them are free and all over the environment, but they listen to me." He gestured to his blazing right arm. "This one, is more complicated. I have to make it adapt to my entire body."

"But you haven't done that yet." Marcus noted.

"Yeah, because it takes time to let a new element adapt to my body, and I have to isolate myself in a separate area. It's bad with such an unstable dark matter element in a single place like my arm." Seth made the black flames fade away. "It's the same case with Evelyn before, with an element in a confided space, its limits will burst open and I will lose my arm."

"I remember you saying something like that once." Mera recalled. "But I thought that was because she was inexperienced and you're not."

"Guess you could say I'm the same, I'm inexperienced with dark-matter elements." Seth tightens his left hand around his right arm. "I'm gonna have to make this element bend to my will and I will make it adapt to me."

"Yeah. Would suck for you to burn up Christmas with your black flames." Tony quipped.

Seth reared his head back in realization and chuckled. "Wow… it's Christmas… I forgot all about it…"

Kendra looked at him. "You don't have Christmas on your Earth?"

The elemental looked to her. "You mean the one holiday we have where we cut down trees and sing songs to celebrate the birth of a baby 2,000 years ago, and then the Romans killed him so we give each other gifts?" He nodded quickly. "Yeah we have that one."

"That's your definition of Christmas?" Tony asked, shivers running over his skin like a swarm of ants.

"Well since it is this time of year," Lindy cracks her fingers. "I'll fire up my program and search for a breach to get you home again."

"Wait." Seth shocked them with that one word. "Hold off on that. I can't go back yet." Shock continue to grow, followed by confusion. "Before I can even think of going back to my world, I have to get my black flames under control and save Jesse. Until then, I can't go home."

"Not the only thing we have to think of before returning home, partner." Venom reminded his host.

Without replying to his partner, he directed another matter to the technopath. "Lindy, there is something else you could for me."

"Shoot." Lindy leant forward.

"My sword: Get everything you can find on it from any available source you can get your fingers into…" Remembering how she explained her powers, Seth corrected himself. "Or any of them that feels particular chatty on the subject of gigantic crystal swords."

"Funny." Lindy chuckled. "But until then, what are your plans for Christmas, Seth?"

"For now, go to Iris and Barry at CCPD and maybe seeing if they want their rude elemental back under their roof." Seth got up from his chair and turned to the exit. "But until we meet again… Merry Christmas, guys." They smiled and watched him walk away.

"Gotta admit…" Mera smiled. "I'm kinda of glad he's still here with us."

X

(CCPD)

Sitting at her desk with dozens of folders, and a few baskets with cookies, canned drinks and other gifts, Detective Iris West looked over the total arrest records everyone found at the motels and hotels that once belonged to Eric Frye. She felt like she had to go over the total result over and over again because she couldn't get enough of this feeling.

The feeling that her mentor was finally avenged and she was able to stop giving more thought to Blackfire's terror. Like her, many other families were finally able to liberate their minds of his horrors. And it was thanks to Seth's help.

Now she just hopes that this city can handle itself without Venom now. More work for the CCPD then.

She shook her head of missing the elemental and returned her attention to the files before her. While Iris was finally happy about this, she was shocked at the total number of arrested Johns and Janes at the hotels and motels. "Thirty-six Janes and twenty-eight Johns… Still can't believe it."

"Want me to go over them all with you, just in case?" Seth offered as he looked over her shoulder to see her files.

"Sure that'd be helpful Seth." Iris looked to him with a thankful smile before returning to her work. Her body stiffened as she realized who she was just talking to. She shot up from her chair and spun around to look at him with wide eyes and a gaped mouth. "Seth, you're here?!"

"You know anyone else who's this 100% awesome?" He smugly said with a chuckle.

"Oh my God." Iris exclaimed while she hugs the elemental. "Can't believe you're still here!"

"Pretty good reason for that, Detective." He said with his left arm wrapping around her, his right arm still shaking like a leaf in the wind. "But I can wait a bit on that, for now." He noticed the gift baskets with various kinds of cookies and his eyes zoomed in on those with chocolate. "What's with the baskets here? Your birthday or something? Don't blame me for forgetting to give you a birthday gift."

"No, it's from those parents and their families whose children were kidnapped by Blackfire." She revealed before leaning closer to him, making sure that one else could hear what she had to say. "Apparently someone told them that I know Venom and who it is under the mask, so a lot of them just stormed into the place earlier today and gave me dozens of these baskets." Iris laughed. "How can being your friend turn out to be such a pain in the ass?"

"I will gladly take them off your hands. All of them, of course." Seth smirked, wiping away drool with the back of his left sleeve.

Iris laughed again. "Greedy bastard. But don't worry, I will bring them all to the house for Christmas." She points a finger to the mutant. "Assuming, you are joining us for Christmas."

"Seeing as you're my only friends here, I'm guessing that's the only option for this lonely man." Seth admitted with a shrug. "Otherwise, it's gonna turn into one boring Christmas."

"Spend it with your friends, Seth. they're gonna love having you here." Iris smiled.

Seth turned around with eyes peering around the area. "Where's the Crows? Are they gone now?"

"Nah, not yet. Their Commander is talking with the Mayor and the Captain at City Hall, seeing if there's any need for them to stay in the city any longer." Iris informed. She then looked around him when she realized something. "Where's the girls?"

"That's part of that story I wanna tell you." Now, he looked around in search. "Where's Barry? I wanna tell it to the both of you."

Iris nodded upwards, "He's upstairs, working on another case that popped up. He asked for my help when I'm done with the paperwork here. Wanna come with me?" He nodded and the detective smiled and leant down to the files. Taking hold of a nearby pen, she quickly wrote her signature on the line. "Done. Let's go."

"Let-"

"Remember the cookies, you dimwit!" Venom shouted in his host's mind.

Seth was not a fan of his partner's abrupt shouts anymore. "Mind if I take a basket with us? My worse half is adamant about getting his daily dose of chocolate."

"Of course he is." She nodded sheepishly, clearly not convinced of his words, and took a basket which she handed to him. "Let's go."

X

(CCPD, CSI Lab)

Barry was not looking too well as he was looking at the files and their attached crime scene photos. He's been assigned to aid the case of a murder at a highly advantaged technologically company in Central City. Aside from Atlantean tech, this was the one most sought for in terms of its immense technical advancements.

And to boot, he was given photos of the victim and saw that it was Tim Kwon with a bullet wound in his forehead. Barry had to place his hand over his mouth in discomfort as he had to take in the crime scene photos. "Why would anyone kill him?" he asked himself.

He visited the crime scene himself earlier and took the necessary photos and notes so he could examine them in his lab. But this was still unclear to him. He's gone over the files and photos a few times, even his samples, but there wasn't a single clue as to who the murderer is.

Barry had to wait for his wife to bring in her detective wisdom to perhaps shed some light on the case. He already had an idea on how to approach but remained unsure for now.

"Yo, Barr."

The CSI scientist dropped his files in shock at that and swung his head around to see, to his shock, Seth Fury beside his wife. He did forego the large chocolate chip cookie in his mouth while he used a hand to wave to him. "Seth?! What are you doing here?"

Taking a large bite of the cookie and swallowing it quickly, the mutant said after exhaling in relief. "Heard there were cookies with my name on them. Couldn't turn my back on them, that'd just be plain rude. Ow!" He said when the detective elbowed the side of his stomach.

"He's got some story for us to tell." Iris pushed a pair of wheelchairs near him and herself. "Seth, come on tell us the news." She looked to her husband. "Barry, I will help you with your case afterwards, I promise."

"Thanks." Barry discomfortingly closed the folder with photos of Tim Kwon's death. "Could use your eyes on the matter, to be honest." He gestured to the files before taking a seat in his own chair. "But what's the story behind your return."

Seth swallowed another cookie and started. "Once upon a time- Ow! Seriously, Iris, stop hitting me, would you?"

"Be serious, and I might consider it." The detective said retracting her elbow.

"Fine. Here's the story." Seth then spent the next few minutes telling the story of what happened at the warehouse, not foregoing any details. Though he did pause every now and then to bite into a new cookie, much to the annoyance of the married couple.

But he did finish with one last sentence. "And that's how your friendly neighborhood anti-hero Venom chose to remain in this shabby universe."

"So you let your new daughters go on while you stayed behind to find Jesse… Sounds like you alright." Barry admitted with a smile.

"Happy for you, pal." Iris said with a happy smile herself.

"Thank you both." Seth smiled and then saw their faces, he sighed and asked. "You both realized this would happen, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah."

"I'm surprised it took this long."

"Were we the only ones who didn't foresee this?" Seth asked himself when hearing the responses from both Iris and Barry.

"Apparently so." Venom said with a mental shrug.

The detective laughed to herself. She was happy that the two girls were able to be accepted into Seth's life, as his children. It was a happy sight, and she kinda wished that she could have been there herself to see it with her own eyes. She did wonder how this would be with Ruby's situation.

She then looked to the folders on her husband's desk. "Babe, with story time over now, is there something about your case you needed help with?"

Barry nodded. "Yeah… Tim Kwon of McCulloch Technologies was found dead on his desk with a bullet wound on his forehead this morning."

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me your Santa Claus shoots the naughty kids off his list? That takes crossing them off to a whole new and dark level, that I'm uncomfortable with."

"Sounds like a nightmare." The CSI scientist said. "But no, he doesn't. Lawton's the detective on this case and asked for my help."

"So that crosses him off the suspect list, seeing as the victim was actually hit." The mutant looked at her with shocked eyes. Iris registered his eyes on her and elaborated. "Of all the officers and detectives on the force, he is the only one who can't hit his target with a gun no matter how close his target is to him. It's kind of pathetic."

"I would have gone with lame, but if the shoe fits…" Seth admitted and looked to the files again. "Is it professionally done? A bullet to the head sounds pretty professional and even a bit personal, actually."

"It does seem professional." Barry agreed and opened his folders and showed them to both Iris and Seth. "There wasn't a single DNA at the scene that I could find and use. It's like he was killed by a ghost."

Iris flipped over the files and looked at the photos. "Not a single footprint either? They must have left something behind."

"Actually, they did leave one thing behind." Barry reached for a bag on his desk, pulling it out and showing them the bag. "The bullet."

The detective took the evidence bag and examined the projectile with her eyes. "Looks like the type professional assassins use."

"Maybe instead of focusing on what their weapons might be and what they didn't leave behind, let's look at their target." Seth took out a file from the folder, turning it around to show the logo of the technological company. "McCulloch Technologies, that's where this guy was found and killed. That must mean it has something to do with them."

"Maybe a rival company? Taking out competition or something. There's some rumors going around with them being rivals with Atlantean tech companies." Iris revealed to the mutant.

"Guess that means we have to pay a visit to McCulloch." Seth told them.

"You going with us?" Barry wondered. He received a nod.

"Alright. Gonna bring Lawton in on this too, he's the leading detective on the case, after all." Iris stated. "And hopefully we can solve this case before Christmas, we need to decorate our home."

X

(Lindy's Base)

Lindy's eyes kept going over the screen with rapid speed. Once he had gone away the technopath immediately went to work and spoke with thousands of machines, databases in every single part of the city to try to get information on the sword that Seth possesses. So far it was going slow, not advancing much. It felt like she kept ending back on square one.

But she kept going no matter what. This was important and she had to do this to help Seth and the rest of the city.

Mera and Kendra watched their leader work from the other side of the desk.

"Think this search is gonna do any good?" Kendra asked the Atlantean.

"I don't know about that, actually." Mera said as she ran a hand through her crimson red hair. "Problem is that sword. The only one who knows anything about it was Blackfire but Seth turned that bastard into a pile of ashes."

"Maybe the Crows something about it." Kendra suggested.

Hearing the suggestion, Lindy shook her head. "No, they don't, just checked it. I'm checking CCPD's database right now, and not much luck there so far. Gonna go to Argus's data next."

"This sword is full of mysteries." Kendra honestly said with a chuckle.

"Yeah." Lindy removed her hands from the screen, one of them came to her face and stroked her chin thoughtfully. She turns to Mera. "What happened back at the warehouse when Seth and you stood before the breach, Mera?"

"After Seth sent the girls through it, he and I planned to stand there and fight Zoom's group by ourselves. Then like he explained, both his flames and his sword suddenly acted of their own volition and combined their strengths and… Poof goes the breach." Mera unsurely explained.

"Great, that doesn't help much." Lindy stated as she rubs her eyes.

The Atlantean was about to comfort her friend with soothing and encouraging words, but the chiming sound from her phone in her pocket. She reached into it and pulled it out. "It's Seth." She announced when seeing his name on the caller id. She accepted the call and placed it to her ear. "Hi Seth, what's up?"

"Yo, Mera. I got a few questions, one of them is for you." Seth started.

"What's the first one then?" Mera inquired.

"You got plans for Christmas with your hubby?"

"He's gonna work overseas so it's gonna be without him this year." Mera informed.

"Sounds like you're gonna be free for Christmas, meaning you can spend it with me and the West-Allens at their house." Seth said with a quip.

"You're inviting me to Christmas?" Mera asked intrigued.

"Yeah. By the way, this is the kind of offer you can't turn down."

"Wouldn't be you if it wasn't." Mera jokingly said. "But yeah, I accept."

"Awesome." Seth gratefully said. "Back to business, any chance you can put the call on speaker? I need to ask you and Lindy something related to a case."

"Alright." She pressed the speaker function on her phone and told him. "Seth, you're on speaker now."

"Thanks. Lindy you there too, right?" The mutant called out from the other end.

Lindy perked up from the desk. "Seth, what's going on? You need help?"

"Yeah. I'm helping Iris and Barry with a case of theirs." He started. "A man at McCulloch Technologies was found dead earlier today, Tim Kwon. According to the leading CSI scientist, there wasn't a single piece of DNA to tie to the murderer. But there was a bullet there, pulled from the hole in his forehead."

"No DNA and it was headshot?" Kendra muttered with a hand on her chin. "Sounds like a professional assassin, maybe."

"We're thinking the same, Kendra. We're gonna check out McCulloch now. And in the meantime… Mera do you know if your hometown has some disagreements with McCulloch? This could be a rival thing. Lindy, I'm gonna send you a picture of the bullet-"

"And want me to see where it's manufactured and check out the recent purchases and buyers, right?" Lindy cut him off.

"Read my mind like a machine, Eye Sight. Thanks, you too Mera. Gotta hang up now. See ya." Seth instantly hung up.

Mera looked around, shifting her gaze between her friends and asked. "Did he purposely hang up so he couldn't hear our responses?" she received a series of nods from both Kendra and Lindy.

X

(McCulloch Technologies)

The four of them walked past the entry point of the massive entrance door of McCulloch Technologies. Seth closed the flip phone in his hand as he trailed behind them, having to finish his call to Lindy's base before waking past the threshold.

Floyd turned his head back to the elemental. "Surprised to see you're here, Seth. My partner told me you would return home."

"Change of plans." The mutant vaguely answered. "But for now, what can you tell us about this guy who was killed?"

"Heard from some interviews that Tim was a good guy. He was a dedicated worker and always friendly with everyone." Floyd said after pulling out his notepad, full of his notes from his interviews. He had a pencil in his hand, pointing it at the marked note. "Spoke with his girlfriend before, actually."

Iris realized what he was thinking. "You think she had something to do with this?"

Lawton shrugged his shoulders. "At first, yeah. It's been that case many times before. But I spoke with her before, and not only did she have an alibi for the time of death, but she was also surprised and completely devasted by the news of his death. So she's off the list." Confident that the girlfriend wasn't lying.

"Anything else that can help us with this case?" Barry asked as he straightened the bag with his tools around his shoulder.

"I don't know if this will help, but I do have one interesting fact, though." Floyd turned around to face the others. "Some of his co-workers didn't want to talk about him," those words caught the mutant's interest. "but others did talk and said that last year, few days before Christmas he did act strange, distant even. His girlfriend said the same."

"Strange…" Seth let out.

"Maybe he's a Grinch?" Barry joked.

"No, not that, Barr." Seth shook his head, he looked to Floyd again. "Lawton, you just said there's people who didn't want to talk about this incredibly friendly and dedicated co-worker. Maybe we should look to those people, see if they know anything useful."

"He's got a point." Iris said in agreement. "Who are those people?"

Flipping to the next page of his notepad, the detective ran his pencil down the page till he found the names. "Here we go. There's three of them: Sheila Agnani, Kurt Weaver and Ramsey Deacon." Barry looked shocked at those names. "Apparently, these three and the deceased were set to take over McCulloch one day, as co-CEOs."

Barry gushed. "Yeah, they're incredible in the field of science, revolutionary technology pulled out of their minds. They've even considered technology that could improve the better of those with rare disorders. So say they are tech gurus, is truly an understatement to their brilliance." He would have fired more off, but saw that his wife, her partner and their friend was looking at with shock. "I'm… an admirer of their work, is all." He stated unconvincingly with his hands straightening his bowtie.

"That's one word for it." Venom admitted.

"Whatever you say, Barr." Seth said with a chuckle. "But maybe we should go to these three, seeing as they're the Kwon's former workers, teammates and chooses not to talk about their deceased friend."

"That does sound like a plan, yeah." Floyd agreed.

X

His hands shaking, sweat intensifying on his face, cascading down his face and greasing his beard. Ramsey Deacon kept his eyes on the bathroom mirror inside of him, just staring into it like he was expecting an answer to his feelings while the faucet lets out a stream of water, completely unnoticed by the McCulloch scientist.

He couldn't handle it. The news of his co-worker's murder, in this very building of his work, brought the walls closer to him, like he was suffocating in a chamber with small airholes. Ramsey sank his hands into the growing water mass, letting the cold liquid envelope every inch of flesh on each hand.

The last Christmas was colder, cold enough to mistake him for a corpse. His behavior was akin to that of a corpse last year. This year was hard for the big scientist. This was the same holiday… where he… he…

"Deacon?!"

Ramsey gasped with an exclaim, spinning around to face the direction of the sudden voice, a wet hand on his chest to try and calm his breathing but also drenching his shirt. He relaxed his breathing when seeing his co-worker Kurt Weaver look at him with hands held up similar to someone staring into the barrel of a gun.

"…Kurt." Ramsey let out after exhaling a few times and ran his wet hand down his face. "What are you doing here?"

"You've been in here for twenty minutes man." Kurt exclaimed with a gesture to the empty bathroom. He sighed and turned off the faucet. "You've gotta calm down."

"How can I do that?" Ramsey asked rhetorically.

"Just do it!" Kurt whispered loudly with a scold, but his words nor his tone appeared to affect the big scientist. "The boss wants us to talk to the three of us. Sheila's waiting for us now. Let's get going, unless you wanna get fired, man."

"Wouldn't be wrong if that happened." Ramsey said with a hollow tone.

Kurt slapped his co-worker's arm, not getting a response once more. "Suck it up, it was last year, man."

"For you." Ramsey corrected him. To him, it was yesterday.

"Whatever, come on. Sheila and the boss's waiting and you know Sheila's a bitch when kept waiting." Kurt stated and walked out the bathroom.

Ramsey gave the mirror one more look, looking at the reflection of the man he is, regretting being the person, regretting what's he done. He felt like he didn't deserve to be part of this joyous time of the year. He sighed and walked out of the bathroom.

As soon as he was stepped out of the bathroom, lights began to flicker in the bathroom. At the end of the bathroom, darkness covered the entire section of the bathroom.

But within the darkness… three glowing red eyes lit up.

X

Kurt Weaver and Ramsey Deacon turned a corner and entered the waiting room. Inside the room, waited both the CEO Joseph Carver and Sheila Agnani, the former standing against a table while the latter has crossed arms over her chest and an impatient look on her face as she was seated on a seat.

Their female coworker got up from the table, her hands slammed against the table. "Where'd you two go off? We've been waiting."

"Ramsey was taking too long in the bathroom." Kurt complained with a thumb pointing at the big scientist.

Joseph leant off the table. "You doing okay, Ramsey? Stomachaches or something? Something wrong?"

Sheila chuckled ironically. "What's not wrong with the big oaf?"

Not paying any mind to the insult, Ramsey directed to their boss. "What's up, Boss?"

"Think you know CCPD's here, guys." Looking around to make sure no one was spying on them, the CEO reached into his inner pocket and pulled out three thick envelopes. "And you know… we have to keep what happened tight-lipped."

"You mean, Tim's death or the very possible reason why it happened?" Ramsey rhetorically asked.

"Shut up, Deacon!" Sheila scolded him.

"Sheila, calm down." Joseph told her. "Ramsey… you know it's better to keep it… under wraps." He took one envelope and holds it out to Ramsey. "You won't go empty-handed." The CEO shook the envelope of cash for empathize.

But then the big scientist gently pushed the envelope back to his boss's hand, shocking the three of them together. "I don't want money like this, Boss. Don't worry, I won't say anything when the officers come." He walked past the CEO to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"Well…" Sheila casually took hold of an envelope and Ramsey's envelope out of Joseph's hands. "Seems like a waste to not use to them." she walked to the other end of the breakroom.

Kurt sheepishly looked to his boss. "So…"

"Here's yours, Weaver." Joseph handed him his envelope.

"Yes!" Kurt loudly whispered and put the cash in the inner pocket of his jacket before retaking a seat. "Rest in peace, Tim, I just got your cut."

"Weaver." Joseph scolded.

KNOCK

The four looked to the entrance and saw Detective Floyd Lawton standing there with three others. "Mr. Carver, I take it?" He gestured with a pencil to the CEO.

"Ah, yes, Detective Lawton." Joseph Carver stepped forward and shook hands with the detective. "Sorry, I couldn't speak with you before. But may I ask what's the reason behind this second visit of the day?" He looked to the other three people with him. "Also, there's more people than before."

Floyd points to Iris. "This is my partner, Detective Iris West." Then to Barry. "This is our CSI scientist, Barry Allen." He unsurely points a finger to Seth. "And this is our civilian consultant, Dr. Seth Fury."

"Just Seth, still not that formal, Lawton." Seth pitched in, the detective nodding. The mutant saw a larger scientist near a kitchen counter, holding a mug with steaming hot coffee with both hands.

"Of course, understandable." Joseph nodded and placed a hand on his chest. "My name is Joseph Carver, the CEO of this company. And these are three of my brilliant employees, Sheila Agnani, Kurt Weaver and Ramsey Deacon. Remember their names, they might be the next ones on the company name."

Seth saw Ramsey's hands shake around the mug in the corner of his eye. Iris and Floyd shared a shocked look. Nodding to him, Floyd turned to the CEO. "You seem very chipper despite the fact an employee of yours was found dead in his office, with a bullet hole in his head, Mr. Carver."

The CEO of the building smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "While his death is unfortunate and saddening to all here, we have to soldier on." He clenched his hand tightly. "It's what Tim would have wanted from us, to continue working in his name."

Seth faced the CEO without emotions on his face. "He was killed in his own office, assassinated, not died from natural reasons, when everyone left the building. Seems like this guy had enemies, some with deep pockets."

"Not Tim." Ramsey said with a shaking head, getting everyone's attention. "Tim was a good worker and a better friend, he couldn't make an enemy, not like this."

Iris looked to him. "Mr. Deacon, right?" He nodded. "Anything else you can say about the victim? You seem to have been close to him."

"We haven't talked that much lately, sorry. Just passing by one another mostly." Ramsey told her with a sad tone. "Can't believe he's actually gone, though."

Sheila had to keep herself from forming a scowl at his words. Inhaling sharply, she points her eyes to the detectives. "His death… murder is still taking its toll on us."

"Of course it is." Floyd said understandably. "But we'd like to speak with all of you together."

"Actually," Kurt got up from his chair and said sheepishly. "I promised to help some colleagues two floors up with a project of theirs. Any chance I can have my talk a bit later."

"Sure, just remember you have to take talk with us." Iris stated in an ordering fashion.

"I promise I will be there." Kurt agreed and walked out of the breakroom, slowly walking past the mutant who was glaring daggers at him.

X

When sure he was out of their visual and hearing range, Kurt took long strides to the elevator. Standing before it, the scientist pressed the button and called the elevator to his floor. It came to his floor, opening up, revealing that it was empty as he walked into it.

The doors closed and Kurt smirked victoriously as he pressed the button to get the elevator to the lobby floor. He wasn't gonna stick around for some stupid interview with the pigs. He had gotten his usual hush money from his boss and wasn't gonna waste his precious time on anything like talking with a pair of detectives.

He pulled out his envelope of cash again, opening it up slightly to look at the stack of cash in it. Bringing it closer to his face, he takes a long sniff of it. Exhaling happily, he relishes in the aftermath of the delicious smell of easy money.

And it was because he agreed to do one small thing with the others last Christmas. It may have ended up in a massive failure, but he sure wasn't gonna complain with anything that gave him easy money.

Strangely enough the lights above his head began to flicker and the scientist looked up in confusion. "Jesus, that's what we get for hiring third-class mechanics."

"Of course that's what you'd think of."

Kurt spun around and was met with terrifying sight. A person was standing there, wearing a strange uniform. A black suit with a green bulletproof vest worn over it. Padding on both knees and both elbows. Tall heeled boots on their feet. Double thigh holsters on her legs, holding batons and handguns. There's a pair of big guns on her back.

Strangely enough there are pieces of what looked like pieces of another type of firearm around their body, like its pieces are attached to it like glue.

But what stood out the most is the black metal mask with three red eyes. Two for both eyes and one on the forehead. It was accompanied with darker metal strap on the chin.

"Who the heck are you? Halloween is over, freak." Kurt feigned a strong and defiant persona, but the sight of those firearms and those hunting knifes and batons made him step backwards. But he stopped when his back hit the elevator doors behind him.

"… Do you enjoy your money? The reward for your sin?" The person withdraws a gun from her thigh holster. Holding it high up to his forehead. "Did you?!"

"Who are you…" He asked in fear, the barrel of the gun now pressed to his forehead.

"Vengeance incarnated."

BANG

Kurt Weaver's ventilated hole in his forehead caused blood to splatter on the doors behind him. his body falling to the floor and blood leaking from the wound.

The gun-wielding assassin stepped closer to the dead body. "Two down, three to go." The person noticed the stack of money sliding out of the envelope. "Money as always, Joseph. That's how you always do it, isn't it?" A foot slammed down on the envelope, grinding against it with anger. "You will get a bullet through that heartless chest of yours, if it's the last thing I do."

X

Fortunately, the sound of a fired bullet echoed through the elevator shaft and entered nearby floors of the company building. Iris and Floyd shot forward, their hands wrapped tightly around their firearms, prepared for a firefight. Barry followed them but called for backup in case this turned into a bigger mess than they could handle.

The detectives ordered the staff members away urgently. When they were away and out hearing distance, Iris turned her head back to face the mutant. "Seth, take the stairs and see if you can find the assassin? It's better for you this way, too."

"What makes you think he's not still in the elevator, partner?" Floyd asked his partner.

"Elevators are all the same, they have an emergency exit at the upper corner of them. Seth should be able to find an emergency entrance into the elevator shaft if he follows the stairs. And unlike us, he's got little more fighting skills." Iris stated, praising his capabilities. "But go up, doubt this person's dumb enough to go down to a crowded lobby."

"Alright, don't die, you guys!" Seth exclaimed and rushed to the corner, turning to the left and immediately tackled the door to the right open, finding himself into the staircase. Seeing that he was alone now, quickly enveloped his entire form with the symbiote's form and jumped onto the upper railing.

Using that railing as a platform for his footing, the mutant leaped onto the next upper railing. He continued doing so, his form remaining that of his normal size to better maneuver his way through the railings.

Stopping at a railing with both planted on it, Seth looked up. He got a shot when seeing not one, not two, but three glowing red eyes. "They got three-eyed ravens here, too?" He wondered out loud at the sight of the person four floors above his current position.

"They're called triops, dumbass." Seth heard his partner quip.

"Who are you?"

"Not your business, Venom." The masked person with the black mask said in a distortive voice. Reaching behind their back, the person pulled out a familiar weapon, one that the mutant had seen in his home universe. Seeing the white eyes narrow with familiarity at the weapon, the person said. "You've seen a Desert Tech Stealth Recon Scout before?"

"Yea-"

His answer was cut off when the masked person pulled the trigger of the weapon, unleashing a rapid succession of lead bullets. Seth spun around to get onto the staircase, dodging the bullets in the process, making them embed into the walls. Pulling his sword out of his partner's dimension, he ran up the staircase.

The masked person also ran up the stairs but stopped every now and then to take aim and unleash another array of bullets for him. Venom dodged the wave again and jumped onto the railing again, leaping off them one by one till he got to the masked person's floor.

"Got you!" Seth swung his sword for the person, seeing that it was a female.

But she rolled out of the way, managing to force her rolling body up the next few steps of a staircase. "Think again!" She let out with an exclaim, aiming her weapon at the mutant again and firing once more. Her bullets met an ice shield on his arm. She quickly ran up the staircase again, getting closer and closer to the rooftop.

Breaking off his shield, Seth stretches out his arm, latching onto a railing on her floor and pulling himself towards like a slingshot.

The masked woman sprinted up the staircase and avoided him. When reaching the door to the rooftop, she slammed her elbow into it and attached her rifle on her back. Rolling on the rooftop, snow plastering all over her form with her motion, she reached the edge of the roof.

Planting her foot against the ledge, she crouched on one knee with one hand reaching behind her and taking hold of the gun on her lower back. Reaching down to her left calf, she grabbed the barrel and plucked it off her magnets before quickly screwing it on the main gun part. Reaching to her right calf, she took the magazine and placed it.

With her current situation, she didn't see the need for the scope on her belt. Holding her quickly assembled sniper rifle up, she took aim at the entrance of the door. Her right glowing laser eye zoomed in on the entrance when seeing the pitch-black elemental walk through the entrance.

Pulling the trigger, she watched as the bullet travels through the air. Seth registered the bullet and jumps backwards, springing into the air and into a backflip. He landed on the on the roof of the doorway, his white eyes narrowing on that weapon. "She assembled that thing in such short time? What the hell?"

"Sorry, Venom. I know what you've done for those girls and this city and I'm grateful for it, but I don't want to hurt you. You're not on my list." She said as she rose to her full height.

"List?" Venom muttered. "Wait!" He exclaimed when the masked woman stepped on the ledge and casually jumped off it. He rushed to the ledge himself and looked down. Confusion came over like a tidal wave when seeing that the masked woman was nowhere to be found.

Her body hadn't landed on the top of any car, it was like she had disappeared into thin air.

"Christmas just got a lot more interesting." Seth admitted, and realized that the next time they meet, he couldn't hold back anymore.

X

(West-Allen Household)

Despite everything they tried, Iris, Barry and Floyd were ordered to leave the McCulloch Technologies at once. Apparently, they didn't want the official's help anymore. And though they had their duties to fulfill, Joseph Carver threated to sue the entire police department if they stayed any longer.

The married couple parted ways with the other detective and made their way back home with Seth following them. After entering their household, Seth helped Barry decorate the interior of the house while he explained what happened at the company building.

"A woman with tons of firepower, guns and everything on her." Iris repeated the mutant's last words while taking a box of Christmas decorations for the two men.

"Yeah. Gotta admit, she was really good." Seth stated with tendrils coming out of his body and wrapping around ornaments. "But I don't know, there's more to this then we think." He added while placing the ornaments on various branches on the Christmas tree.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked as he hang stockings over the fireplace.

"A hunch, I guess." Seth said with an unsure shrug. "What about those two others, Ramsey and Sheila?"

"We can't do anything right now with CCPD threatened to stay out of their place." Iris said as she took out more ornaments for Seth to hang. "It's crazy and I want to talk with those two, they know more than we think."

"Yeah, I agree. Hope Lindy managed to find something that we can use." Seth hoped.

KNOCK

The detective turned to the door and walked to it. Barry looked to Seth. "You didn't any invite any Christmas Grinches, did you?"

"Not yet, I couldn't find Zoom's number in my contacts list." Seth joked. Barry wondered what would happen to their house if Seth really did invite dangerous guests to this household. He can't imagine it holding up under any circumstances like that.

Iris opened the door and saw three familiar faces there. "Lindy, Mera, Kendra, what are you three doing here?"

"Hey, Detective, long time no see." Kendra greeted nervously. Last time they saw each other was after the flyer almost killed both Seth and Ruby.

"Merry Christmas, Iris." Mera greeted cheerily.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas." Lindy greeted happily as well.

"Thanks you, please come in." Iris stepped to the side to let them in. Once everyone had come in, she closed the door and asked. "But what brings you all here?"

"Seth asked for my help before to see if I could help with this murder, and this new one too, I assume." Lindy answered. She gestured to the flyer and the Atlantean. "Kendra's here because she's encountered some dangerous gunmen in her bounty hunter days and Mera's got some news about Atlantis's rivals."

"Starting with that:" Mera faced the mutant who used tendrils to continue decorate the house. "Sorry, Seth, but according to my friends, my husband too, any rivalry there was with other companies have long since dissipated and turned into friendships."

"That's nice, I guess." Seth said. "But what about that bullet I asked about?" He directed to the technopath.

"This person's smart, I think they make their own bullets." Lindy answered.

"She." Seth said and got wide eyes. "I saw this person before, it's a woman with some crazy gun skills. I think she actually assembled a big ass sniper rifle in less than thirty seconds, maybe."

Those words got the flyer's attention. "Wait a second, did this person have a strange metal mask?"

Now Seth turned his attention to Kendra. "Yeah, with three laser eyes. For some reason, she didn't use a scope. Think those eyes of hers augments her eyesight."

"They do. I know who this person is" Kendra scoffed with shock at this situation. ". Back when I was serious about bounty hunting with Carter, we faced a lot of competition, a lot of them who tried to go for our heads. But there was one person who didn't target us for killing, she attacked us to hone her own skills. Every fight we had, she always managed to get closer and closer to shoot us. She was improving herself bit by bit and managed to shoot our wings, even managed to shoot our feathers. And her arsenal was impressive to say the least, she managed to assembled her weapons in short time, even in close ranged combat."

"She's that good?" Mera was shocked to hear this. On her own, Kendra is fast and strong enough to give anyone problems and combined with her firearms she could take down foes from afar. And in aerial combat, she is second to none. Throw Carter into the mix, then those two would be able to take down various targets, be it powered or not.

This person is an incredible sniper.

"What's her name, by the way, Kendra?" Asked the elemental.

"Don't know what's her real name is, but around the dark places, she's called Assassin." Kendra stated.

Seth raised an eyebrow. "That's officially the best nickname I have heard since coming to this universe."

Lindy narrowed blue eyes on him. "Hey, Eye Sight's not that bad, you know Venom."

"Yeah, I know my name is really cool." Seth smugly smiled; his smile faltered when looking between them. "Anything you guys can tell about McCulloch, especially their CEO and these two last members of this team that was set to take over the company?"

Lindy took a seat on the couch and stated. "I did a search on them all. One common thing I did notice:" Her red eyes focused on them all. "The five of them of them, they weren't home at Christmas last year, they were at McCulloch, and hadn't come home till at least two weeks after the holiday."

"Five?" Barry asked.

"You mean, their CEO was there too, Joseph Carver?" Iris followed up.

"Exactly." Lindy nodded. "This was a pretty weird thing."

Mera looked to Iris. "Iris, can't you get a search warrant to check for that? It's too much of a coincidence to overlook."

"That's a possibility, but if we return to their building, Mr. Carver has threatened to sue the police department itself." Iris annoyingly stated.

"Well, since CCPD can't meddle with them," Seth smirked with tendrils pointing at himself, Mera and Kendra. "I can think of three people who operates outside of the CCPD and follows their own rules." Another tendril came out of him and pointed to Lindy. "Four if we can bring our shapeshifting technopath with us."

Barry blinks his eyes rapidly as realization dawned on him. "You're gonna break into the building, aren't you?"

"Yeah, with these three on my side, it's gonna be an easy task." Seth said with a mischievous smile, sending chills down the spines of all the natives. "Plus, it'd be really fun to take down that sniper with numbers. It's gonna be a bloodbath."

"Dude, have you ever considered speaking with a shrink? It might do you some good." Iris suggested honestly.

"Nah, had one session with my baby sister, and it instantly turned into a brawl." Seth revealed.

X

Snow fell over the entire city, even on the tall construction building she had found. Any other day, it would have been a happy time for her to take in the immensely white Christmas sight. It was the day before Christmas Eve after all,

But that would forever remain a thing of the past.

Seated on a red metal beam on the same construction building with her one leg hanging off the edge, not far from McCulloch Technologies, was Assassin herself. McCulloch Technologies was once a place that brought her joy and happiness, a place that was meant to develop technologies for the better of the city and the citizens. Kindhearted and good-willed people streaming in and working 24/7 to make devices to improve the lives of everyone.

Now it is a filled with people who would do anything rotten or inhumane to earn extra cash. They signed the dotted line on the contract and let the devil take their souls without a second thought.

Five.

Five rotten-to-the-core people resigned the rights to their souls last Christmas, only for some cash and the small luxury that followed that envelope of cash.

But they would realize that their actions last year were gonna be the end of their lives… and a bullet through their heads is what they deserve. Though it's a fate too nice for these good-for-nothing scumbags.

Assassin took off her mask and placed it on the beam, her shoulder-length blonde hair whitening with snow falling over her head and her emerald green eyes peering down to her right hand. Her thumb rubbing against the surface of her small photo, over the face in the photo.

"They're gonna pay… every single one of them."

She pointed her green eyes up, gazing with a deadly emotionless glare to the company building of McCulloch Technologies within her range of vision. His head would be the last to meet her bullet… but the two others are gonna taste them first.

X

The city had darkened greatly with nighttime coming over the city, citizens returning home to get a good night's sleep under their own roof with their family close to them.

Though everything had darkened and left their workplaces, a certain company building wasn't spared from the troubles following the nights. McCulloch Technologies's company building, the scene of two murders, was the unlucky building this night.

Hawkgirl was flying above the building, her hands under the armpits of Mera Curry as she was carried by the flyer. Venom landed on the rooftop of the building; Lindy was shakily hanging onto his oil-like skin with all of her strength.

The mutant felt the technopath dig her fingers into his body and he turned to look at her. "Lindy calm down. You look you're about to fall off at any moment."

"I feel like I had to hold on for dear life while you leapt from building to building like a damn gorilla!" Lindy countered in a loud whisper.

Kendra lowered Mera to the rooftop before lowering herself. "Lind, I did offer to fly both you and Mera, but you said no."

Unhooking her fingers from the mutant's symbiotic skin, the technopath slid down his back till she was on the ground again. "Oh my God, last time I ever agree to piggyback on your back, man." She directed to the mutant with a gasping voice.

Mera chuckled, "Think it's Venom-Back with Seth here." She giggled at her own joke,

"Funny." Seth commented before walking around in search.

Lindy then looked to the flyer. "And Kendra, you can't fly properly while carrying two people."

Seth turned his face to them. "We could have carried you all three on my back." The mutant said with a morphing voice, shrinking his symbiotic form from its standard humongous size to fit his normal size. "Found it." He let out happily when he found a roof hatch and opened it.

"You knew there was a roof hatch here?" Lindy asked him intrigued.

"While walking through the hallways earlier, I found a ladder attached to an upper section." Seth said. "Don't think there's a floor above there, so I guessed it was a roof ladder." He gestured into the hatch, pointing to the ladder. "And I was right."

"Nice job." Lindy praised the mutant who gave a mock bow. "But before we go in," she got his full attention. "Why exactly do you need us all here? Wouldn't you alone have been enough for this?"

"I'm more up close and personal fighter. Against a sniper I'm a bit out of my elements, especially against one that can take down a flyer." He nodded to Kendra who spoke those words before. "If this Assassin chick shows up again, she's gonna have to deal with both me and Hawkgirl."

"Aw thanks." Kendra said with a coo, feeling happy at the feeling of getting closer to earn Seth's trust. "But why Mera and Lindy then?"

"I have some bad feeling about this entire situation and if Lindy can't find anything from her base or Iris's place, it's better if we hack in at their headquarters. They might be amateurs and leave trails." Seth hopefully said and turned his eyes to Mera. "Mera's here to be Lindy's vicious bodyguard from the deep."

"On it." The Atlantean instantly agreed and slammed her trident to the ground under her feet, letting a thudding sound emit and echo.

Seth had to ask this time; he couldn't hold it back anymore.

"I'm sorry, but where the heck do you keep that thing? You didn't even leave with it!"

X

The four of them either jumped or climbed down the ladder, landing on the surface of the highest floor of McCulloch Technologies's company building. They walked along the wall, trying to keep themselves hidden and being careful of staying out of the security camera's fields of visions.

At the thought of the security measures, Seth looked to Lindy. "Eye Sight, wanna work your magic on those cameras?"

"Already on it." Lindy informed as her hands were placed on a keypad, her eyes closed and her hair changing through different colors.

Seth looked to Kendra and Mera. "She doesn't take the serum I made anymore?"

"Lindy took it two times after your first injection wore off, but before she wanted to take another one, she said she wanted to get it under her control. Without the serum's help." Kendra answered while keeping her firearm ready.

"You've been kind of a strange but good influence on this world, Seth." Mera stated with a laugh.

"Glad to be of use…" Seth trailed off with a saddened tone.

Mera noticed his sentence and his tone. "What's wrong, Seth?"

Seth exhaled and leant against the wall to his left, answering the question. "This is my first Christmas without my family or friends, no offense to you guys. But it would also have been my first Christmas with my daughter, Frankie… and my new ones, Evelyn and Ruby." He scratched the side of his head. "Guess I hate that I can't spend one of my favorite holidays of the year with my family is all, the first one with my family in my new home world."

"Sorry." Mera stepped closer to him. "I really am sorry that you don't get to have Christmas with your family back home."

"Don't worry about that, Mera. I made the choice to stay behind even though the doorway to my home was right in front of me. I don't regret that choice, it meant my daughters could go to their new family and stop fearing Zoom." Seth told her. "I don't regret anything like that."

"On the bright side;" Mera gestured to herself with jazz hands. "You get to spend time with this Atlantean babe." Seth paled at her words.

Kendra frowned and nudged Mera with her handgun. "He's got a girlfriend and three daughters, and you're married." She reminded her.

Mera swung her head around and defensively stated. "That's not what I meant!"

Seth looked over the Atlantean to look to Kendra. "Kendra, mind joining us for Christmas, just to make sure the "Atlantean babe" doesn't try anything funny."

"Might be a good idea, actually." Kendra rapidly nodded.

"Hey!" Mera shouted to them.

Lindy removed her hands from the keypad and looked to the others. "Love that you guys are bonding so much, guys. I really am. But do I need to remind you all that we're here to break into the CEO's office?"

"Tell that to Mera, she's the one who wants to get freaky all of a sudden." Seth pointed a finger to her. "Ow!" He let out in pain when he felt her poke his foot with her trident of all things. "Do I have a sign on my back that says, "Poke Seth when he jokes?""

"Trust me, there should be." Mera admitted.

Lindy chuckled. "Let's go, some of the cameras showed me the way to Carver's office." They nodded and walked with her leading the way. They came to the end of a hall.

Placing a hand on the technopath's shoulder, Seth stopped her from going. He jumped up and attached to the ceiling. He began crawling on it and turned around a corner to the left. He kept crawling till he looked down and saw a door there. A metal sign showing the initials of Joseph Carver, J.C. beside the word, CEO.

"Bingo." Seth said and detached from the ceiling, landing on his feet. "It's clear, come on." They walked around the corner themselves and met up with the elemental. "Viola, one Joseph Carver's office."

Lindy placed her hand on the keypad, eyes closing and speaking with the machine in her head. "Good. Thank you." She directed to the machine and the door opened up before them. "Big ass companies like this have horrible security."

"Nice." Seth led the way and the others followed. Once in, they all took the moment to see the room. It was highly impressive and expensive CEO office. The entire wall was a glass wall, an impressive view of the city. White pristine shelves on one end of the office, awards and trophies on them and a white couch. The other end of it was a desk with framed photos on it.

And a computer screen, right in the middle of the desk.

"Lindy, there's your way into the system." Seth said.

She rushed to the computer and took a seat in the plushy chair. "Nice chair." Lindy smiled as she wiggled her behind in the chair. Her hands took their place on the computer. "Gonna take a while, you three stand guard."

"Check the cameras on the other floors, too, Lind. There might be others in the building right now." Kendra suggested while placing her back against the door frame. The technopath nodded and brought up the security camera footage on the computer screen while she searched for anything on the others. Mera walked to her side, looking over her shoulder.

Before Seth could move to stand on the other side of the doorframe, he felt his vision weaken and turned blurry. Huffingly, he placed a hand on the nearest wall to balance himself. "Fuck…" He turns his trembling eyes to his agonizing right arm, the current cage of his black flames. "Have to get his one under control soon." He felt his partner send an array of soothing emotions to ease his pain. "Thanks, Venom."

"We're in this together, brother." Venom assured his host, feeling the same pain as well.

Kendra heard his muttering and turned to him. "Seth? What's wrong?"

"It's the black flames in my arm." Seth inhaled and exhaled sharply repeatedly. "In simple terms, they're not feeling like being such a small place."

"They're claustrophobic?" Kendra joked.

"Another way of putting it, yeah." Seth nodded. "I need to find a place where I can adapt the flames to my body, but without people. Somewhere I can let the flames burst without hurting anyone."

"Try the Badlands." The flyer offered another suggestion, the mutant snapping his head to her like he had just witnessed a thunder strike. "It's this huge wasteland on the outskirts of the city, and a perfect for expelling dangerous flames that destroy all life around them."

Her flat response shook him, but he brushed that off for now as he said. "There's a Badlands on my world too, used to adapt to another element too. Guess some things are meant to repeat here."

"Yeah, looks like. Kinda of your thing." Kendra joked.

"Bingo!" Lindy exclaimed triumphantly, clapping her hands and getting everyone's attention. "Got into their system, come over here guys." She waved the others over. Kendra and Seth walked around the table till they stood beside the technopath. "Look here, last Christmas there was a gathering of people, working on a secret experiment. And from the number of people with access to it…" She reared her head back with frown of confusion at the numbers. "Not five people, but six people."

"So there's one more target? Oh shit." Mera rubbed her forehead.

"Could be yeah." Lindy said.

"What was the name of the experiment?" Seth asked.

Lindy tapped a few keys and brought up the file, most of the lines are covered with black stripes. "Okay it's a all pretty redacted, but the name is still good. "Vita Ex Machina."" That name confused Seth, Mera and Lindy. "That doesn't sound good, but it was shut down after Christmas."

""Life from Machines."" Kendra translated the experiment name. "What did they do?"

Lindy shook her head while reading through the page. "Can't see it. It only has five names; the sixth person is redacted. It says there was a… test subject, but it's not redacted… it's just not there."

"So there never was a name? Removed, maybe." Mera asked.

"Could be." Lindy answered unsurely.

Seth asked. "Wait. The test subject and the fifth person are the only ones we know squat about. But what the five remaining?"

Zooming in on the five scientists, she answered. "Tim Kwon and Kurt Weaver, both obviously dead." She added at the end. "Then there's three others. Surprise, it's the Three Musketeers."

"Ramsey Deacon, Sheila Agnani and Joseph Carver." Mera stated knowingly. "So what do we do now? What about this case now?"

"Since Carver doesn't want anything to do with the CCPD." Seth said and leant over the table, pointing a finger at the screen, placing it on the two other names. "Means we gotta schedule a meeting with Ramsey Deacon and or Sheila Agnani."

"That's gonna be sooner than you think." Lindy enhanced the video footage from one camera till it filled the entire screen. The mutant and the flyer and the Atlantean looked to the screen, seeing the two in question standing walking into an office.

"They're here." Seth breathed out in a mutter.

X

"Ramsey, wait!" Sheila Agnani called out to the big scientist, rushing towards him with long strides through the long dark hallway.

Ramsey turned the key in the lock, opening the door to his office. He couldn't close the door behind him as Sheila slammed through the door and kicked it close. "Deacon, wait up!" She shouted after him.

"I can't handle this, Sheila!" Ramsey shouted to his co-worker, his hands pressing against the sides of his head with his fingers digging into his skin. "Tim and Kurt are dead now! Dead! Killed!"

"And it has nothing to do with us!" Sheila got up and into his face with another shout. "They were killed because they wasted their money on the wrong things. Gambling, drugs, prostitutes even or whatever the hell the boss wants their deaths to be about."

"We know better than that!" Ramsey's eyes were widened to the limit and his breathing came out in an array of huffs. "Sheila, what happened to you?" Sheila looked confused, but the bigger scientist knew that was a feign, a facade. "Do you honestly not regret what happened last Christmas? What the five of us did?"

"Six of us!" Sheila corrected him with a sneer. "We weren't alone in it!"

"But she tried to stop us, and we should have stopped." Ramsey thought back to the times before last Christmas. "You were a good person, Sheila. You, me, Tim and Kurt were good people and now…" He scoffed. "Now, we all deserve to go to prison and rot in cells. And you act like you don't even regret what happened then."

"I don't regret trying to save someone like that, I regret failing them." Sheila confessed. "But what happened… happened. We can't change that."

"Yeah… but someone is coming to put an end to us all. Our time is coming to an end." Ramsey admitted.

"Tha…" Sheila stopped herself, when noticing something coming from the through the window…

A red laser… connecting with Ramsey's back.

"Ramsey, get away!" Sheila grabbed his shoulder and pushed him away to the side, sending him to the ground and-

GUNSHOT

Both he and she were frozen when the sound of a lead projectile piercing through the glass and penetrating the side of Sheila's stomach and brought her down to the floor.

"SHEILA!"

X

Back at the CEO's office, the four powered beings watched the entire event unfold on the computer screen.

"Assassin's here." Lindy said with realization. "What do we do now?"

Seth swung his head around and to the window wall, looking through it and locking onto the trajectory of the bullet. "The bullet came from that direction." He pointed to the glass wall. "From one of those buildings."

"The construction building." Kendra said confidently, completely sure of her own words. "It's gotta be that one."

"You sure, Kendra?" Seth asked. He got an adamant nod from her. Choosing to trust the flyer, the elemental looked to Lindy and Mera. "You two rush down to their floor, call Iris and Barry, help them."

"You're the doctor, shouldn't you go there instead?" Mera asked him.

"Not this time." He looked to Kendra. "Me and Kendra are gonna go and pay a visit to our not so friendly sniper."

"With pleasure." Kendra agreed.

X

As she was lying flat on her stomach on a support beam on the construction building across the company building of McCulloch Technology, Assassin removed her head from her scope, her red laser eye patch narrowing in surprise at Sheila's action. "Sheila Agnani, putting herself in harm's way to protect someone else. Who'd thought that? Christmas really does bring out the best in people."

She reached along the barrel of her Nemesis Arch Nemesis and reloaded another round. "But I don't miss a second time, Sheila." Assassin placed her head the scope again, aiming at Ramsey's head. "Bye, Ramsey."

"Think again!"

Assassin swung her head and saw none other than Hawkgirl carrying Venom, in his humongous pitch-black form.

"Throw us!" Venom said and the flyer spun around. Getting the momentum for few times, she stopped and threw the mutant for the sniper. He withdrew his sword again and swung it downwards to Assassin.

The sniper rolled to the left, dodging the attack which ended up with the beam being cut in half. Assassin gave a brief glance behind her, seeing another beam behind her and landed on it with her back. Using the momentum of her leap, she rolled to a crouch and raised her rifle again.

As her scope zoomed in on the elemental's head, her sight was then covered by a winged woman. A pressure on the side of her barrel, made it turn to the side and was followed with a kick slamming into her head and sending her down.

Assassin spun around and jumped off the beam. She landed on a beam a level below. Pointing her eyes to the air again, she sees Hawkgirl flapping her wings with her own eyes meeting the snipers. "Long to no see, Hawkgirl."

"Same to you, Assassin." She greeted the woman who used her and her deceased boyfriend as target practice.

"Heard about your boyfriend, sorry for it." Assassin said, at that moment Venom landed on a pillar, his feet placing on it with his right hand attaching onto a metal beam over his head. "Guess you're flying with that guy now."

"No, just invited her for some Christmas fun." Seth growled. "We know you're killing them because of project Vita Ex Machina."

Her hands tightened around her weapon. "You… Know… Nothing, Venom!" With rage blazing behind her mask, she raised her weapon again and pulled the trigger, sending a storm of bullets to both Hawkgirl and Venom.

Stretching out his left arm he wrapped it around Kendra's form and pulled her behind his frame, letting his body take on the bullets. Unwrapping his arm from her, he latched it to the sniper again.

Jumping backwards, the sniper jumped off the beam and aimed her rifle at him when landing on the platform. She pulled the trigger and fired off a bullet for him. The bullet met Hawkgirl's bullets who were in the air and fired bullets from her gun.

Hawkgirl dove with her mace in hand, twirling it around and gained momentum before swinging her mace. The mace smashed into the sniper's weapon, which Assassin used as a guard. The force of the mace combined with the strength of the flyer's power caused the weapon to be smash into pieces, violently sending the dissembled pieces all around her.

The flyer spun around and lashed out her foot and kicked the sniper away.

Venom snarled at the sniper. "Stand down, Assassin! It's over!"

Pushing herself up from the platform, the sniper spun into a backflip before landing on her feet. "It's not over, not until Carver gets a bullet in his head! Not until all of them are dead." Sliding out her foot along the floor, she spun around and gathered the pieces of her sniper rifle.

Continuing the spin, she took the pieces and quickly assembled the rifle. Backflipping, she landed on her stomach and aimed the rifle at a metal cable that was holding up a beam. Pulling the trigger, the bullet pierced through the cable and caused the beam to fall.

Looking up both Kendra and Seth saw the beam coming down towards them like a meteor. Thrusting his arms upwards his limbs splitting into thousands of tendrils. All of them converging on the beam and wrapped them around the beam. He placed the metal beam down on the platform.

Both he and Kendra looked to Assassin's position, but they were shocked to see that the sniper was nowhere to be found.

"These villains sure love to pull a Houdini act." They symbiote thought.

X

(Central City General Hospital)

Seth's foot was tapping against the floor of the hospital floor, his right arm still shaking like a tremor tearing through his limb. He, Kendra, Iris and Barry were getting tried of waiting the day after the powered people broke into McCulloch Technologies. The detective and her husband rushed into the place when getting

Mera's call. They were shocked to find a bleeding scientist and a hyperventilating scientist on the floor, the technopath and Atlantean nowhere to be found.

But they managed to get over their shock and called an ambulance. While they performed CPR, they also managed to console Ramsey.

At the thought of Lindy and Mera, Iris got up from her seat and asked the mutant. "Seth, do you know where Lindy and Mera went? They weren't there when we arrived at McCulloch's."

"They called me earlier, apparently they didn't want the heat of you two possibly arriving with a group of cops." Seth said before chuckling amusedly. "It's pretty funny if you think about it."

"Yeah, of course." Iris chose not to talk about his shaking arm. Instead she focused on the case. "Seth did you guys learn anything last night from Assassin? Anything that could help us, even the tiniest slip up will help us."

Nodding to Kendra, asking for her assistance which she agreed to and got up from the chair. Seth looked back to the detective. "We did find something on Joseph Carver's computer, an experiment that took place last year."

Those words caught Barry's attention and he rushed to partake in the conversation. "What experiment?"

"We don't know the details of It, but it's called "Vita Ex Machina." And it has something to do with a test subject." Kendra answered. "And it looks like Assassin has four more people on her kill-list."

"Four more?" Iris asked baffled.

Seth confirmed her fears with a nodding. "Lindy used her powers back at McCulloch's, pulled up the file and it showed that six people had access to this experiment file. Two of whom are dead, two others in this very hospital cause one of them has a bullet stuck in their stomach, and the two last ones, no idea about those. One of them anyway." He admitted with an annoyed tone.

"So the only ones left are Ramsey, Sheila, and we know about one of the last two people, right?" Iris asked them.

The flyer nodded. "One of them is Joseph Carver, the CEO of McCulloch." Kendra answered. "The last one is the mystery."

Barry then asked the two. "What about this test subject? Did you find something about this?"

"Nah, but we think it has something to do with this experiment, Life from Machine." Seth translated the name of the experiment for them. "Something happened to this test subject, but the file was seriously redacted and we couldn't get any information."

Iris nodded her understanding and stroked her chin with thumb and index finger. "Guess there's only one thing to do."

"Ask the two known members of this experiment." Seth stated as he caught on. "Well, looks like we're gonna be breaking some eggs." He stated with cracking fists.

X

(Lindy's Base)

Lindy was busy in her base, working rapidly at gathering information on both Seth's sword and its origins as well as breaking down McCulloch Technologies's security measures from her headquarters. She wanted help Seth and Iris with this case, and that meant she had to figure out what happened last Christmas, what happened with Vita Ex Machina.

She had to figure it out, her skills as a hacker and technopath would be the rock to shatter the glass that was the company's security systems. "Come on. Come on. Come on." Lindy chanted hopefully to herself as she tried to find a breach in their defenses, trying to slither her way inside the company's walls.

Mera walked to her side of the desk and placed a cup of steaming hot coffee beside the metahuman's keyboard. "Black coffee without sugar and milk for one overworking technopath?" She feigned the behavior of a worker at a fast-food restaurant.

The metahuman rolls her eyes. "Funny. You really like to remind me of my time when I worked at Big Belly Burger, don't you?" She rhetorically asked and took the cup in her hand. "I was in college back then, I had to make money. Not everyone here is from Atlantean royalty, you know." She sniped at the Atlantean.

"Yeah, being rich is truly a burden." Mera said in mock pain as she fans her face with her hand. "Whatever should I do?"

The technopath laughed at Mera's antics. "You don't change." While sipping on her coffee her eyes returned to the screen before her.

Following her eyes, Mera asked. "What's the status on the case and Seth's sword?"

"Neither of them doing any good for now." Lindy answered with sigh before making eye contact with the Atlantean. "The sword is one thing, but this experiment at McCulloch is a whole other mystery. I've been trying to hammer my way through their defenses, but so far-"

"It's like throwing pebbles at a huge steel wall." Mera threw in an analogy and got a chuckle followed by a nod from the metahuman. "Don't give up, Lind. Apply enough pressure on a spot, it's bound to break."

"Yeah, you're right. I just gotta keep trying." Lindy nodded before changing the subject. "You think there's any sources that knows about that sword in this city?"

"Like I said before, the only one I can think of is the one Seth burned in front of Zoom's henchmen." Mera said, referring to the original wielder of pitch-black flames. "And none of his old contracts will be useful in any way… What about this experiment?"

"Nah…" Lindy got into a thoughtful trance. "What if we're actually going the wrong about this?"

"What do you mean?" The Atlantean inquired as she took a seat in a chair.

Lindy then voiced her thoughts. "We know that this Assassin wants to kill the team, having offed two of them, and tried to kill the other two, and according to Kendra there's two others who are on her list… but what if that's the problem."

"You think there's something about those last two?" Mera wondered with interest.

"Seth and Kendra said one of them is Joseph Carver, but what if the last person… is Assassin." Lindy revealed her thoughts.

"That would mean there's a personal grudge in this, but what?" Mera asked.

"That is the million-dollar question." Lindy joked and turned her attention back to her screen. But before she could think of returning to her search, her phone began to vibrate and ringing as a phone call was coming through. The technopath took the phone in her hand and checked the caller id, getting wide eyes of shock at the displayed name.

"What the…" Lindy snapped her head to Mera and asked quickly. "Mind stepping outside for a moment, bit of an odd caller."

"Sure." Mera answered and stepped outside of the office.

When the door closed, Lindy pressed accept and put the phone to her ear. "I have to admit… I didn't expect you to call me ever again, old friend."

X

(Central City General Hospital)

Iris was the first one to walk into Sheila Agnani's hospital room, followed by her husband, then Kendra and Seth as the last. They walked in and saw Ramsey Deacon sitting on a chair beside the hospitalized scientist who had a tube from an IV bag attached to her forearm.

Sheila was awake as was Ramsey and they turned their heads to their guests. The big scientist narrowed her eyes at them. "You three came to McCulloch yesterday."

"Before Kurt was killed." Sheila followed up.

"Yeah, sorry for your loss." Iris offered her condolences. But then she continued with the persona of a seasoned detective. "We know of what happened to you, Ms. Agnani, but we'd like to talk about something else of great importance."

Seth shifted his gaze between Sheila and Ramsey. "Something you both know of."

"What…" Ramsey gulped in fear, fearing the worst questions coming their way.

"Vita Ex Machina." Kendra told them, watching their eyes expand to the brim as she closed the door behind her. "We want to know everything you know about this experiment, everyone who was in on it, the test subject… everything." She repeated steadfastly.

The two scientists shared a look and Barry looked at them. "Please tell us everything you know of this. We know it happened last Christmas and six scientists were part of this."

As he saw their faces pale in response to the CSI scientist's words, Seth furtherly stated. "And we know there was a test subject, someone you guys experimented on, we take it." Their hands clenched, knuckles cracking and turning white. "Judging by your reactions, you seem to know who Assassin might be. And also why this person is after you."

"Yeah… we do." Sheila let out a gulp. "It's because of last Christmas, because of what we agreed to."

"What happened?" Kendra asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

Ramsey inhaled deeply, steeling himself for what about to come out of his mouth. "We-"

"Hey guys!" Joseph Carver greeted them all as he walked into the hospital room. Seth and Kendra scowled at his sudden presence. Looking between his employees and the visitors from CCPD, he states. "Sorry, guys, but mind if I talk with my employees?"

"Actually, we'd like you to stay here while we question you and your employees." Iris stated.

Joseph looked skeptic. "I'm sorry, but I don't-"

"Vita Ex Machina." Seth cut her off and made the CEO look to him with shocked eyes. "We know about you and your team of four, including a sixth person was part of this experiment."

"How'd know you this?" Joseph asked with a shocked expression, his eyes darting to the door and worried that others might be listening in on their conversation. He briefly considered rushing out of here, but with a detective here it could end up going on his record and he'd risk losing everything he had.

Seth noticed his travelling eyes and stood ready to strike if he tried to make a run for it. He then said. "What matters is that we know of its existence. What we don't know of is what it is, and we want to know it now, Carver." The CEO looked nervous, like he was on the verge of breaking down. "Carver, your people's lives are on the line, not to mention your own."

Joseph scoffed and took a seat on a nearby seat, readying himself to reveal the biggest project that he came up with. "Vita Ex Machina, Life from Machine… the biggest project in McCulloch Technologies's history. The project to…to use machines to cure rare medical disorders."

"You tried to use machines to cure diseases?" Seth sneered; he felt a mix of soothing emotions coming over him like a rain inside of him. But that very rain was colliding and clashing with the uruption of his raging feelings of hate.

"Last Christmas, I felt like trying something new. I wanted to use our technology for more than what's always being used for. More than just factory machines, phones and weapons. So we assembled a best team, Kwon, Weaver, Agnani and Deacon." Joseph started. "Some of associates are doctors and nurses at nearby hospitals, even this one, told us that… so many people showed up with rare medical disorders."

Sheila then continued. "When boss came to us four about this experiment, we jumped at the opportunity. The four of us wanted…" She made eye contact with Ramsey. "We wanted to help people with our technology. This was a big chance to achieve that goal."

Ramsey exhaled. "We were trying to suppress the effects of rare medical disorders like hemophilia and Von Willebrand Disease. We wanted to use our technology to do that."

"How would you accomplish that?" Kendra asked.

Joseph answered, his face suddenly filled with something. "We had the idea of using technology, devices that could deploy nanites directly into the patient's body via the bloodstream and target the sources of the disorder and shrink it." His eyes turned greedy. "That project would have catapulted this entire company into a whole new era, money would have come over like a blizzard, we would be buried in millions-"

"What were you thinking?!" Seth screamed, rushing to the CEO.

Joseph pulled back in shock of his towering voice. "What? We were trying to save lives."

That sentence made the mutant grab Carver's collars and yank him from the chair and pinning him to the wall. Fear was stricken to his face. "Why would you even think of doing this?! For money?! Cause I can't imagine you guys doing this for the better of humanity, you greedy bastards!"

"Seth, calm down!" Iris shouted, grabbing hold of his shoulders and pulling him back. Her pulling him back made him lose his grip on the CEO's collars. "Seth, he can press charges for you assaulting him like this."

"Bastard chooses to use experiment on people with untested tech, and you think I give a damn about him pressing charges?" Seth sarcastically stated.

"I won't press charges." Joseph straightened his coat and adjusted his tie. "I know this… fiery gentleman is a fiery doctor and doesn't want patients to be put through anything unorthodox."

"That's one way to say it." Kendra admitted and pulled the mutant back with one hand, getting him to scowl in annoyance. She narrowed her eyes between the three. "Who was the last person on this experiment?"

"…" Joseph sighed and rubbed his neck with both hands similar to wringing a towel. "…Eva… Eva McCulloch."

"McCulloch? As in McCulloch Technologies?" Barry asked.

Sheila groaned with a nod as she pushed herself against the headboard of the gurney. "Yeah, she was the founder of the company."

"Never heard of her before." Seth said and turned to Barry, seeing as he has more love for this company. "Barry, you heard of her?"

"Yeah, a bit. In terms of technical, engineering and knowledge, not to mention practical skills, she was superior than the four minds of the ones who were set to inherit the company." Barry admitted, the others briefly wondering what his definition of "bit" was.

Joseph nodded with a chortle. "To say she was brilliant would be an understatement to her tremendous mind and her achievements. She was an incredible person, and when she agreed to marry me… I couldn't have been happier."

"You two were married?" Iris asked, she hadn't heard a single thing about him being married from Lawton. "I didn't hear anything about this before now, I thought you were unmarried."

"Not many know of my marriage, despite it's been four years now." Joseph admitted.

"What happened to your wife then? Or rather, what happened to her after the experiment, because it sounds like she vanished after that." Seth said rapidly in a cold manner.

"She was part of the experiment, reluctantly, I might add." Seth narrowed his eyes on the CEO's words. "But the experiment failed and she isolated herself and disappeared into thin air."

"Why did it fail?" Came the question from Barry.

Ramsey took over. "The Particle Accelerator explosion that unleashed dark matter came from underground, it happened two years ago. And we didn't know it back then, but there was considerable amounts of trace dark matter in the underground sections."

"And that's where we had performed the experiment itself." Sheila elaborated. "Under McCulloch's, there's an underground laboratory close the underground sections of the city itself to the train tracks. We have the theory that the technology we made caused the dark matter to react and suddenly cause the devices to malfunction, like the dark matter was reawakened and affected the tech itself.."

"Sort of like a miniature explosion of dark matter." Seth stated and they nodded. He clenched his hands and asked heavily. "What happened to your test subject?"

"… He died, the tech was applied to his body and though it did manage to shrink his disorder, the nanites were affected by the sudden burst of dark matter and… abruptly returned the disorder to its original size and caused the symptoms to worsen, at a rapid rate." Joseph wipe a tear away from his right eye.

Keeping a lid on his boiling rage, Seth demanded. "Who was this test subject?" Joseph didn't answer, neither did his two employees, all of them forming pale faces of disgust… and regret. The mutant recited angrily. "Who… Was… The test subject?"

Joseph sighed with wetting eyes. "He… He was my six-year-old stepson… Eva's son."

"You… You experimented on a child?" Iris asked, feeling the urge to slam her handcuffs on the CEO's wrists right now. "Your own son…"

"He was hemophiliac." Joseph ran his hands over his face. "He… He… I wanted to save him, Eva too. But…"

Kendra noticed him trailing off. "But what?"

Ramsey took over with a heavy heart. "Eva was against the experiment the entire time… and when the devices suddenly began spark and act strange, she tried to shut it down."

"But the boss, Kwon, Weaver and I… we didn't want to stop yet. So, so much good could come out if this experiment succeeded. So many people of different ages could be saved from this." Sheila added with a hand running through her hair. "We were greedy." She looked to Ramsey. "Deacon here was the only person who sided with her and tried to stop the experiment too."

"But I said that it was nothing more than small sparks on the device… and continued the experiment." Joseph confessed. "Because of that… Eva's son died on Christmas and she disappeared without telling me anything."

"And you had to take up the mantle as the CEO of the company…" Seth said with a brimming hate.

Iris looked ready to state a statement, but then Joseph looked to her and told her. "Detective West, I know what this means. But I take full responsibility for approving this experiment, so please don't punish my employees. I was the one who turned my stepson's disease into an opportunity for profit."

"That might be the case, Mr. Carver. But your employees agreed to this experiment and helped you with it." Iris declared.

Ramsey got up from his seat and asked. "May I please be excused to get a cup of water? I will come back again, I promise." He added, thinking they don't trust him yet. The detective nodded and watched as the big scientist walked out of the room and into the hallway,

Sheila exhaled sharply before looking to the detective. "Ramsey was against the experiment the entire time, he only thought of what would happen to the test subjects if the experiment failed. And when it really did fail, he's been punishing himself the entire time." They all looked to her with confused looks, telling her to continue, and so she did. "He's married, was anyway. But when this project failed, he immediately asked for a divorce. He only sees his kids once a week, under supervision which he personally demanded, like he didn't trust himself with his own children now."

"He's not even seeing his own children?" Seth asked in surprise, he didn't know anyone back in his worlds who would do this.

"He's that kind of guy." Sheila admitted sadly.

X

Reaching a small cart with water, coffee and other refreshments, Ramsey's shaking hands took hold of a pitcher with water and a cup. He watches the water pour into the cup and as it slowly fills up, he reflects on what has he has done.

His actions last Christmas was made with good intentions and a pure heart, to take the very first step to save lives who suffers from medical disorders. He didn't have any experience in medicine, but others did, and he wanted to help them. To be the kind of husband his wife would be happy and proud to be with, to be the kind of father his children would be proud of.

Put everything, his hopes and ambitions and his desires… turned to ashes the moment the first spark from the device showed itself. Dark matter had become a curse following the disaster of metahumans showing up at every corner of this city. And though people like him wanted to try and make changes for the better, dark matter, like metahumans, wound interfere with dreams and turn them to ash.

That's what led to Eva's son dying that Christmas, to him doing everything in his power to atone for his sins.

"Nightmare on Christmas Eve…" He muttered to himself as he stood alone in the hallway of the hospital floor. He placed the pitcher back on the cart when seeing his cup filled to the brim with water. "I really am sorry about this, Eva. I wish I could say it to you… as people who could be friends again."

"That's impossible and you know it."

As though he knew she was already there, no surprise came over the big scientist when he turned to the left and looked into the barrel of a gun. But he looked past it and saw the familiar blue-eyed face of his boss and friend, Eva McCulloch, no mask covering her face. Though her hair was shorter now, he could still recognize that same pale white face.

"Hey, Eva." Ramsey greeted her longingly as he placed the cup on the cart.

"Hey, Ramsey." Eva greeted back, her hand cocking the gun and readying it to shoot. "You don't seem surprised." She noted at his lack of reaction, his lack of shock specifically.

Shrugging Ramsey stated hollowly. "With Kurt and Tim dead, I had a feeling this would happen, I guess. Me, Sheila and Carver would be next on the list." He waved his hand to her suit and advanced weaponry. "Gotta admit, I never expected you to go into guns like this. Always thought you'd keep your distance from guns."

"People change with the loss of a child." Eva stated flatly and pressed the gun to his forehead. "No matter what you say, you won't escape this bullet, Deacon."

"I know that… I just wanna say… I'm sorry for it all, Eva." Ramsey apologized.

"Apology…not accepted." Eva coldly stated and placed her finger over the trigger.

But fate had other plans in store, leading to adamantium tendrils to slam into the woman's stomach and pushed her back and into the wall. Her gun falling to the floor with a clutter. The big scientist followed the tendrils and to his surprise, saw Venom standing there.

A snarl coming out of his mouth as he looked to Ramsey. "Deacon, get out of here. Find Detective West and inform her of this situation. Now!" He ordered loudly and the big scientist rushed off to do as told. Venom turned his face to see Eva McCulloch struggle her away out the tendrils' hold. Pulling his tendrils back into his arm, he said. "We know why you're doing this, Eva."

A second later, Hawkgirl flew to his side. "We know what happened to your son last Christmas… It must be hard."

"You think it's hard…" Eva looked down, her hair covering her eyes as she reached behind her and pulled out her three-eyed mask. As she attached it, she continues. "My own husband is responsible for the death…" A clicking sound came as the mask was cully placed over her face and her red eyes lit up. "… of my child. The man I loved killed our son! For money!"

She reached behind, pulling out her Desert Tech Stealth Recon Scout rifle and unleashing a hailstorm of bullets. Kendra felt tendrils pull her back behind Seth's humongous form. As his front was continuously riddled with bullets, he directed to the flyer. "We have to get her out of here, quickly!"

"I have an idea! Pull her to me!" Kendra jumped backwards and sprouted her wings. Seth launched his left hand and split into tendrils, dodging through the storm of bullets and wrapped themselves around Assassin's form.

Eva manage to force her arms out of the tendrils' hold, a hunting knife in each hand. With a distortive cry, she began to bring the blades down on the oil-like tendrils in rapid succession. But as she continued to bring down the blades, tendrils suddenly turned into adamantium and, upon contact, caused the knives to crack. "Damn it!"

Strengthening his muscles with the earth element, the elemental dug his feet into the floor and quipped demonically. "Nice flight!" Raising his left arm over his head after facing Kendra's direction, he pulled on his tendrils and threw the sniper away. His tendrils assimilating once more while he calls out to the flyer. "Hawkgirl, your turn!"

Assassin's body skipped against the ground repeatedly like a stone skipping on water, her hunting knives falling out of her hands and shattering on the floor. Her role as a water skipping on water came to an end when Hawkgirl wrapped her arms around her in a bearhug. "Let's go for a flight, Eva!" She launched herself with a flap of her wings and locked onto the window in front of her.

"Let go of me!" Eva tried to struggle her way out of the flyer's arms.

"Not this time!" Kendra shouted as she crashed through the window.

"Let's go after them!" Venom told his host.

"Definitely." Seth agreed and rushed after them like a predatory animal on all four limbs. But he came to a stop when he felt his right arm ache with pain. Turning his eyes to it, he saw the symbiotic skin retract and reveal his bandaged arm smoking. "Damn black flames…"

X

Chilly wind and falling snow pushed against their faces as Kendra Munoz-Saunders continued her ascend into the air. The flyer noticed that the elemental wasn't following them. She deduced that his black flames were fighting back again, like they did back in McCulloch's company building.

"Damn flames…" She muttered to herself, but then steeled herself with determination. This time Kendra had to be the one to take flight and fight. Seth had sacrificed enough for this city; it was time for her to fight for it herself.

"Let go of me, Hawkgirl!" Assassin let out in anger as she managed to take her firearm off thigh holster.

Hawkgirl laughed. "Alright!" Spinning around to gain greater momentum, the flyer hurled the sniper into the nearest building.

But Assassin surprised her as she spun around in the air and made sure her feet faced the building. And when they connected with the wall, Eva applied additional pressure on the surface. The flyer was shocked to see the sniper remain standing on the wall.

"You got some new tricks up your sleeves." Kendra noted surprisingly at the sight of Eva still standing there.

"Retractable heels made of Dwarf star alloy, a rare and incredibly powerful and dense metallic alloy." Eva gestured with her gun at her feet. "Easily able to hold up an entire person's weight, as you can see right here. Because of their strength, and after making them spiked heels, they can pierce through any surface."

"Let's see how that holds up against me then!" Kendra charged her, her wings covering her entire form as she sent herself into a spin.

Taking out her other firearm, Eva pointed both of guns at the flyer and pulled on the triggers, shooting a pair of lead projectiles. The flyer's wings lashed out and deflected the bullets. With her right hand, she took her mace in hand and swung it into the sniper's guns.

Eva was disoriented by the loss of her handguns and didn't have time to avoid Hawkgirl's left hand that grabbed hold of her mask. "Here we go!" Kendra shouted as she increased her strength and tore the sniper off the wall and into the air again.

This time, Assassin wasn't gonna let herself be at the flyer's mercy. With her hands now devoid of any objects, she placed them on her wrist and swung her legs forward, lashing out her feet and tried to hit Kendra's face with her extended Dwarf star heels.

The flyer either managed to dodge twisting and turning her head or block the heels with the sides of her helmet. But the heels are made of Dwarf star causing them to crack Kendra's helmet. "Damn you, Hawkgirl!" Eva slammed both of the heels into her stomach.

Groaning in pain, Kendra felt her eyes glow with pain and anger, glowing with a familiar redness. But she fought and buried it again before seeing that she had reached the top of the building. Her nails sharpening into claws and digging into the sides of Eva's mask.

Unleashing a warcry, Kendra threw the sniper onto the rooftop with violent strength. Clashing against the rooftop with a roll, Eva forced herself to a crouch. She groaned in discomfort when she noticed her left laser eye cracked and unusable. Grabbing onto it with both hands, she took off her mask and looked at the flyer.

Kendra landed on the roof with her eyes focused on the sniper's true face. "Eva, stop this, now! You don't wanna do this, not in the name of your deceased son."

"Deceased? Is that what you call it?!" Eva shouted in rage, her hands swiftly taking off the disassembled pieces of her sniper rifle. "The man I loved is the one who killed my son!"

"He tried to save him, Eva!" Kendra countered in a shout.

"For money!" Eva exclaimed and stepped closer to her. "Joseph only did this for money. My son's disease… the one thing that kept him from living his life to the fullest…" Tears came streaming down her eyes. "He took advantage of my baby boy's curse and he continued this sick experiment to gain profit, a better reputation! He doesn't deserve to live anymore; he deserves a bullet in his head." She quickly assembled the Nemesis Arms Vanquish rifle, she was within arm's reach and pointed the gun at her head. "What do you know of my feelings…"

At those words, it felt like something resonated with her head. A familiar tune playing and it was like for a moment it blurred her vision for a second. Kendra blinked and widened her eyes when looking at the sniper again…

But this time… it wasn't Eva McCulloch who holds the rifle anymore. Now it… it was… herself?

Kendra saw herself now, but at the same time it wasn't herself. It was someone she was… the person who had to carry her dead boyfriend's body into Lindy's base, the aftermath of the two flyers fighting against Zoom. When she was filled with nothing but hate and rage that overwhelmed her like a tsunami, drowning her in a sea of extreme anger and grief.

Then she threw a belt of grenades into a bar and watched as it blew up before her eyes. Watching the bar with Zoom's metahuman henchmen blow up, not worried or caring if anyone else had been caught in the explosion. A mistake that almost cost the life of an innocent young girl.

The person she turned into… a person Carter wouldn't recognize anymore.

Retracting her wings into her, Hawkgirl reached up for her helmet and took it off, revealing her true identity to the sniper of vengeance. "Believe me, I know that, Eva. I lost Hawkman months ago and I… felt devasted by his death."

"A son and a boyfriend are different things." Eva shouted.

"Not the fact that they are loved ones, people who holds a special place in our hearts." Kendra stated, Eva widening her eyes in response. A hand placing over the unmasked flyer's chest. "The man Hawkman was… he was more than just that… he was my everything. I couldn't imagine a day without him, just like you couldn't imagine a day without your son."

The sniper felt her hands shake and no matter how much she tried to stop it; it wouldn't work. Her hands remained a trembling mess.

"I never had the courage to be a mother like you, so me comparing my pain to yours is nothing but an insult." Kendra stated and Eva's hands continued to shake violently around the rifle. "But every one of us feels pain from a loss, and we feel anger and grief and… sometimes we let that dictate our actions. Cause I know that anger in you." She smiled as she recalled words from a person who turned into her friend.

"Don't let that anger… that rage… don't let it dictate you like it's already doing. The moment you do so, you'll become someone you don't recognize. Worse…" Kendra stepped forward, allowing the rifle to connect with her forehead. "… You'll become someone your loved one won't be able to recognize. The things you're doing in your son's name… It's wrong and he wouldn't be able to recognize his own mommy because of it."

"I… I…" Eva lowered her eyes with regret, a feeling that only intensified with each word sinking in. "My son won't be able to recognize me…"

"I know you want to avenge your son." Kendra stepped forward, gently pushing the rifle away till she stood before the sniper. "But you can't do this in his name? He's your son after all. And there are other ways to avenge your son, ways that doesn't involve bloodshed. Your husband has to pay for this, and I promise you that he will."

"She's not the only one to promise that." Venom announced his presence with an assurance as he landed on the rooftop ledge.

"So you finally decided to get off your ass, huh?" Kendra joked.

"It's Christmas, can't take anything serious this time of year." Venom showed a toothy grin.

"Yeah… it's Christmas…" Eva remembered and turned around to face the building that bears her name. "I built this company and wanted to do good with it. Thought that would be possible with my husband beside me and my son having been born… I thought I could do anything in the world with those two behind me. Guess that was wrong to assume…" She muttered as snow continued to fall over them. "What do I do now?"

"You know the answer to that question yourself, Eva." Venom knowingly said with a nod pointing down to the front of the building.

"... Yeah, I do." She said with a knowing look, one that was pointing to her three-eyed mask, her pride as the sniper Assassin.

X

Iris had called Lawton and now both of them stood before the entrance to Central City General Hospital, both standing in wait as they looked for the mutant and Hawkgirl to come back safely. They hoped that they would be able to take down Assassin.

The detective felt her phone chime and pulled it out. "Lindy?" She noted at the caller id before placing it to her ear. "Lindy, what's up?"

"Hey, did you guys find out about the experiment?" Came the inquiry from the technopath.

"Yeah, a pretty big something, though." Iris then spent the next few moments to explain everything they learnt from the conversation in the hospital room. Everything they learnt the detective explained to the metahuman.

"Carver used his own stepson as the test subject for this project? I can't believe it." Lindy admitted.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying, Lindy. But it's the truth." Iris looked to the company building with disbelieving eyes. "My husband loves this entire company and the good it does… who'd thought this place he admires so much would hold so much darkness. I can't even imagine how he must think right now."

"Your husband's gonna be fine. I mean he must be a tough guy since he married a badass like you." Lindy quipped supportively.

Iris laughed. "Thanks… But we think we have an idea on who Assassin really is."

"The sixth person." Lindy knew where she was going.

"Yeah, Eva McCulloch." The detective stated with a nod. "Let's hope Seth and Kendra can take care of her now, Christmas would suck without them."

"Partner!" Iris looked to Floyd and saw him point upwards. Hanging up on her call, she followed the same direction of his finger and saw Venom jumping off the rooftop of the tall building before them, landing on the ground. Hawkgirl lowered herself to the ground, her hands under the armpits of Assassin.

"It's Assassin!" Iris shouted and both she and her partner raised their firearms.

Hawkgirl landed on the ground and let go of the sniper. Assassin nodded her gratitude to the flyer before stepping forward, her hands raised up as she was at gunpoint to two officers of the law. With slow movements, she grabbed hold of her mask by both sides and slowly pulled it off, showing her face to the officers.

"My name is Eva McCulloch, also known as Assassin… I hereby surrender." Eva honestly said with her wrists touching one another side by side.

The detectives turned shocked, facing the elemental with a snap of their heads. Nodding his head, he assured. "Eva McCulloch is turning herself in for the murders of Tim Kwon and Kurt Weaver."

"As well as the attempted murders of McCulloch Technologies's CEO, Joseph Carver and his employees, Ramsey Deacon and Sheila Agnani." Kendra continued.

"That easily?" Floyd asked skeptically.

"What can I say…" Eva turned her head to the flyer. "This one knows how to talk some sense into misguided people…" Hawkgirl smiled appreciatively. She turned back to the officers. "I'm ready to turn myself in, Detectives."

"Alrighty." Iris accepted and walked to her while unclipping her handcuffs from her belt. "Eva McCulloch, you are under arrest for the murders of both Tim Kwon and Kurt Weaver." Taking the sniper's hands behind her back, she cuffed them and continued. "As well as the attempted murders of McCulloch Technologies's CEO, Joseph Carver and his employees, Ramsey Deacon and Sheila Agnani. You have the right to remain silent Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

"I accept it wholeheartedly, Detective West." Eva stated earnestly as she was pushed to the car.

"Um, Detective West?"

Venom, Hawkgirl, Iris, Floyd and Eva turned to the entrance of the hospital. To their shock, they see Joseph Carver stepping out of the slide door. The sniper widened her eyes. "Joseph."

"You look good as always, my love." Joseph lovingly greeting his wife for the first time in an entire year. He turned his gaze to Iris and said. "If possible, do you have room for one more in your car, Detective?"

Sharing a confused look with her partner, Iris asked for assurance. "What are you saying, Mr. Carver?"

"In exchange for Sheila and Ramsey receiving immunity for it, I, Joseph Carver, CEO of McCulloch Technologies admits to approving and proceeding the experiment Vita Ex Machina which resulted in the death of my stepson, David McCulloch." Joseph confessed with a serious expression.

"You're confessing to this experiment?" Eva asked in shock.

"I am." Joseph nodded. "It's time I pay for what happened last Christmas." He placed his fists beside each other. "But please, I was the one who started this experiment, Ramsey and Sheila don't need to pay for this."

"Alright." Floyd said and took his hands and cuffed them behind his back. "Let's go, bud."

X

(West-Allen Household)

"Finally!" Seth shouted as he heard the timer chime. Grabbing hold of a pair of mittens, he opens the oven and pulls out the incredibly hot tray with triple-chocolate cookies. "Trust me, Barry, you and the wifey are gonna love these, a Fury family Christmas tradition."

Barry used a tissue to wipe away some steam from his glasses. "You really go all out with chocolate pieces? Did you dump three bars into the dough or something?"

"Accurate." Seth proudly said while using tendrils to place the cookies on a large metal tray. "Is Joe on his way?"

"You mean, Joseph?" Barry asked with a smirk and he got a nod. "He's on his way, yes, and is undoubtedly making a list of insults to throw at me."

"Want me to get him drunk or something? Worked well with the Joe West I know." Seth offered villainy.

"No. Tempting but no. I just have to hope that he's touched by the Christmas spirit." Barry twisted his head. "Would be the first time though."

Nudging him with his elbow, the mutant told him. "I'm here to buffer and more, man. Don't worry."

"Good, he's probably the one to bring Grandma Esther's eggnog." Seth groaned at Barry's words, memories of the one he knew of was not boozy enough.

The two men then moved into the living room and took in the decorated room. Blazing red light emitting from the lit fireplace. Its light touching the humongous Christmas Tree and ricocheting off the large ornaments on the tree. Tinsels around the living room and stockings above the fireplace, all of them touched by the warm light that comes from the dazzling fire.

From afar, Seth could see some of the ornaments have the shapes and forms of The Flash emblem and Venom symbol. Smiling happily, he turned his face to the guests.

Aside from Joe, the invited guests are already are. The three women already in beautiful dresses. Wearing a beautiful blue dress, Iris placed Christmas mugs on the table. Wearing a red Christmas sweater with a goofy Santa Claus face, Kendra wrapped green spruce garlands around the railing. While humming a Christmas tune in a green and gold dress, Mera stood on a stool and hung a mistletoe on the ceiling.

"Perfect!" Mera let out happily, gesturing to the perfectly hung mistletoe with jazz hands. Jumping off the chair, she gently pushed the chair to the side. "Now people, you can give your kisses with a Christmas approval, as long as you're under this beauty, of course." She added with a finger to the plant above her head.

"Beats a lump of coal." Kendra quipped as she noticed something on the table, or rather something that wasn't there. "A Christmas without nog? That's just wrong."

"Fear not, my Dad's bringing Grandma Esther's original nog for Christmas." The detective explained assuringly. She smiled and looked at the two men. "Are you two gonna stay there all night or actually join us for Christmas?"

Seth tilted his head like it was swaying on scales as he said. "Sure, but first…" The mutant used his free hand to abruptly push the CSI scientist forward, till he stood under the mistletoe. "I think there's a certain CSI scientist waiting for his wife under a hemiparasitic plant."

"Seth!" Barry chastised his behaviors.

Iris smiled flirtatiously as she strode to her husband and wrapped her arms around her husband's neck. "Well, since they're asking for it, we might as well give them a show." She quipped playfully and Barry smiled back before the two kissed passionately under the plant.

Kendra swung her eyes to the doctor with a questioning look. "Hemipa- What?"

"Hemiparasitic plant." Seth points to the mistletoe while placing the tray of cookies on the table. "If I recall correctly, it's from the genus Santalaceae family in the North America-"

"Right, always forget the doctor part." Kendra sheepishly admitted.

Mera was about to pitch in but then saw the married couple still engaged in their kiss, quickly turning it into a make-out session. "How long are they gonna go at it?"

Kendra smirked. "Till they bring out the handcuffs." Seth paled at that image forming in his head.

"Stop them! Now!" Venom, like his host, wasn't happy about the image forming.

KNOCK

The married couple separated at the sound of someone knocking on their door. "Saved by the bell." Seth happily admitted and saw Iris walking past him, taking a moment to slap his arm, before going to the door. "People love hurting the mutant from the other world this Christmas."

"Your fault." Mera sniped instantly.

Iris opened the door and was met with her father, Joseph West with wide open arms, one hands clutched around two gifts and the other one wrapped around a large covered pitcher. "Pops!" The detective stretched out her arms and the two embraced in a hug. "Glad you came."

"Of course, baby girl, it's Christmas after all." Joseph said as he unwrapped his arms from her and walked into the house. He saw Barry in the middle of the room. "Bartholomew."

"Joseph." Barry greeted his father-in-law flatly.

"Merry Christmas." Joseph told the husband to his daughter with a smile, inwardly remembering that he promised Seth that he would go easy on Barry.

"You too, Merry Christmas." Barry said back with a smile.

"I see this Christmas is gonna be a bit merrier than normal." Joseph noted at the three other guests here.

"It's Christmas, Joseph. Get in the mood, man." The elemental joked as he took the pitcher in his hand and brought to the powered ladies. They each held out a mug for him to pour eggnog into them. "Let's taste-test Grandma Esther's recipe."

"Cheers."

The three of them said before sipping on the eggnog. They widened their eyes at the boozy taste. "I love this." Seth instantly said, immediately thinking this was better than the Joe he knows makes.

"Hear, hear." Kendra agreed with a smile and couldn't keep her lips off the mug.

"So Seth…" Mera smiled and walked to behind the couch, pulling out a gift-wrapped package. "This is from me and Kendra. And I'm sorry to spoil it, but this is a very, very sweet sweater with something from the both of us."

"Sweet as this one?" He asked with finger pointing to Kendra's sweater.

"Oh yeah, but Santa has the trident in his mouth and a pair of wings above his head." Kendra corrected.

"Fuck yeah." Seth walked to the tree and took two packages and handed them to the ladies. "Something for you two as well, and for helping so much since meeting you."

Mera took one in her hand and admitted sincerely. "We may not have met under the strangest circumstances, to say the least, but I am glad that was the beginning and it lead us to here."

Kendra took the other one. "Same. I'm sorry for everything that I did, and I'm hoping I can work my way up to the right place to call myself your friend."

"You're already there, Kendra." Seth revealed and the two smiled happily. "Merry Christmas, you two." He opened his arms and pulled them into a three-way hug, the powered ladies wrapping their arms around his form. "By the way, those gifts are some ugly-ass sweaters and Christmas antler headbands, Iris helped me find them."

They laughed at his words and unwrapped their arms from him before walking around the living room. Seth was about to mingle himself, but then had another thought in mind. Making sure no one was looking in his direction, he used a tendril to come out of his palm and slither up the wall till it reached a certain plant on the ceiling. It plucked it off and placed it into his hand.

Clutching it with a smile, he walks to the exit. Before getting to it, he turns to Iris. "Hey, gonna go out to take some air." She nodded and watched him walk out the door.

Barry walked to her side. "You waiting for the right chance to give him that present of yours?"

"I am." Iris smiled and turned her head to look at him. "And I think it's now."

X

Seth walked out of the house and onto the porch. Placing his hands on the wooden railing, he looked over the grassy front yard of the West-Allen household. He turned around and leant against the railing, his right hand coming up and over his head. The tips of his fingers holding the plant over his head.

It was an object that made his Caitlin Snow and her share perhaps the most passionate kiss on a similar porch, just on a different Earth last Christmas. It was a strange time for the both, with Caitlin's thought-to-be-dead fiancée Ronnie Raymond returning from the dead with blazing heads and flaming hands.

The mutant might have been holding various secrets, the biggest one about Carnage's poison that was inside of his body. Surely that was not reasonable karma for him to be relentlessly attacked by an array of fireballs. But was because Firestorm thought Seth was gonna put Caitlin in harm's way.

That night was the Christmas night that he thought Caitlin would leave him and go back to her fiancée, who miraculously returned to land of the living. Like a knight of flames coming back to slay the elemental dragon to take back the cold princess.

But Caitlin poured out her heart to Seth and assured him that she wasn't going anywhere, that she wasn't someone who would string him along like that. Seth was shocked when hearing that she couldn't believe that he thought she would even consider leaving him because of Ronnie's return.

Christmas Eve that year turned into a night of revelations and declarations. Seth swore to both Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein that he'd attack them both without hesitation if they ended up hurting Caitlin in any way. One of the multitude of times when he jumped in front of danger for her.

Venom and Cure…

He was the venom that always protects the cure, just like she'd be the cure to protect the venom. Dangers could range from fiery attacks from a multi-minded metahuman to a humongous Singularity, but he wouldn't hesitate to take them on, to be the Lethal Protector, her Lethal Protector that takes them down with fists, blades and fangs. For her, their family, nothing could force him to his knees.

He loves her…

She loves him…

…beyond the weak confines of different universe… even if they currently are on other universes.

With his eyes pointed up to the plant in his fingers, he used his other hand to touch the dog tags with his, Caitlin's and Frankie's names. It was the best present he could ask for. A gift that represented Caitlin's feelings for him, that he would be protecting her no matter what.

His fingers pulled on the chain, revealing it to his eyes and turned them to the dog tag with his daughter's name. Her dog tag right beside her parents. In the past, Seth didn't anticipate having another child, or children for that matter, as he failed to be father to Bucky, especially with children from different universes. But with those children, Frankie, Ruby, Evelyn, and with Caitlin beside him, his true love… he would be ready to retake the title as a father.

He was thankful to Caitlin making him love again, as both as boyfriend and also as parent.

Seth returned his eyes to the mistletoe. "Thank you, Caitlin… I love you."

"You should make more tags; our family have grown bigger now." Venom told his host.

"Yeah, you're right." Seth thought out loud in agreement, inwardly thinking about what to engrave on them when he returned home. He brought the mistletoe down to the railing when hearing the door open up. Tilting his head in confusion, he sees Iris step out, wearing a jacket and holding cardboard package. "What's up, Detective?"

"Think it's time…" She held the package before him. "You got your present."

"You two already got yours? Mera hooked me up with those Atlantean phones and she said could get some tickets for an Atlantean cruise by the end of the week." Seth said as he took the package.

"Yeah, thank you. But you need yours now, and I think it will suit you better than me." Iris told him honestly.

Getting curiouser, he opened the package and saw that it is folded leather. He got curiouser again and took out the folded leather out of the package. He unfolded it after stepping back and was shocked at its unfolded form.

A brown suede leather trenchcoat.

"Damn, that's a nice coat." Seth said as he admired the coat. "It looks new."

"Kinda is, never been worn." Iris elaborated. "When I finally became detective on the force, Fred Chyre gave me this coat, his own coat. But I never wore it because it was weird to wear his coat… also because I'm not exactly a trenchcoat person. Barry's not either… but you look like the kind of person who is."

"I am, my Dad gave me one of his when I got older." Seth smiled. "I gave that one to my daughter, before I suddenly was hurled into this side of the universe."

"When you get back to your world… how about you wear this one… that way you will always remember us." Iris told him.

Seth smiled and put the coat on. He straightened it out and posed for the detective. "What do you think?"

"Looks like the coat found its rightful place on a hero's body." Iris wrapped him into a hug. "Thanks for everything you did for my city, Seth."

"Don't worry, Iris." Seth said back.

"Hey, guys!"

Unwrapping their arms from each other and looked out to the front yard. They see Lindy walking up to them. "Lindy, what are you doing here?" Seth asked the technopath with surprise. "You're not celebrating Christmas with anyone?"

"I am going to meet up with Thea and her family later, but first…" Lindy looked to Iris with a sheepish smile. "Mind if I go off with Seth for a bit? I have some people who wants to meet with him."

"Who?" Seth asked.

"I can't say, I promise them I wouldn't. So mind joining me for a hot sec?" She gestured to the jeep at the curb. "Got a driver and everything. Though, Tony's rusty at best behind a wheel."

"Thanks for the warning, let's go then." Seth stated and nodded his farewells to the detective. He walked to Lindy's side and they walked to the car.

"Nice coat." Lindy admitted.

"Thanks, just got it." Seth appreciatively said as he and the metahuman got into the car.

X

Seth and Lindy sat in the car and looked out their separate windows, Tony driving them surprisingly well. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure what is it?" Lindy answered the mutant.

"What's going with Thea? Is she doing well with life now? Life out of Blackfire's hell operations?" Seth asked him.

"Settling in slowly." Lindy started. "It's gonna take a while for her to get back to the normal that once her life."

"She looks like a strong girl, she's gonna be alright." Seth told her supportively. "And she's got you and the rest of your team, a whole support team who can ease back into the life that was hers once. But it's a marathon, not a sprint. Take it slow and steady, for her sake."

"I know… but thanks to you, she's safe again." Lindy stated with a smile.

"I can't wait to meet these mystery people who wants to meet me on Christmas Eve." Seth said with a chuckle and then inquired. "Can I ask something else, some a bit more opening?"

"Now that sounds interesting." Lindy admitted bemusedly.

Getting a serious expression, he asks. "What is your real name? It's not Lindy, I know that much. And I'm guessing you can change your facial features too, though I haven't seen it yet."

"Yeah, only limited to face, hair and eyes." Lindy said before closing her eyes and inhaling sharply. Suddenly her hair changed color, into clear blonde hair. Her eyes were closed but appeared to changing too. Like a drop of water hitting the surface of an ocean, a ripple came over face and once again… her face returned to normal.

And Seth widened his eyes at the face. "What the hell…"

Lindy turned to him and looked at him with familiar blonde hair and familiar blue eyes. "Hey Seth. I'm real name is Felicity Smoak."

"What the fuck?" Seth said in shock of seeing the familiar face of the Starling City hacker from the Arrow's team on this Earth. "Didn't expect to see your face here again."

"You've seen my doppelganger?" Felicity chortled. "How is she?"

Quickly summing up the words he could think of, he states. "Intelligent, witty, tech-savvy, reckless, caring, selfless, bit of pervert, thinks I'm an octopus, and moral."

"Did you just put "pervert" and "moral" in the same sentence?" Felicity asked. "And what does octopus have to do with this?"

"Yeah, I did." He stated without hesitation. "But she's a good person overall and… looks like that's a common factor with her doppelganger too." Seth gestured with a smile to the technopath.

"Thanks." She smiled happily, but she did notice that he didn't answer her second question. Felicity stopped when feeling the car slow down and felt the aftermath of the pressure of the brakes being pressed. "We're here. Thanks Tony."

"Don't mention it. Sure, I should just leave?" Tony asked Felicity.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Felicity told assured him and got out of the car.

"See ya, Tony." Seth bid his goodbyes and walked out himself. The elemental found himself standing in front of a dark alleyway with Felicity, Tony driving away to leave them alone. "Don't tell me, you brought me here to kill me or something?" He noticed trashcans, either rolling on the snow-covered ground or still standing but overfilled with trash. Snow might coat every inch of the

Felicity scoffed. "I know better than to mess with the guy who offed Blackfire. Though I might beat you in a game of poker."

"I have a symbiotic chocolate addict slithering in my body that not just eats people but also detects lies." Seth revealed with a joke. "So you do not want to play poker with me, Lin- Felicity." He corrected himself.

"Count me in, if it's strip poker, that is."

Seth widened his eyes in surprise at that familiar distortive and icy voice coming from the darkness of the alleyway.

"Two sounds boring, why not add a third one?"

The mutant knew that callous voice anywhere.

He six months of listening to those voices while they looked at him like he was a tropical animal in a zoo. And he told those two that he would kill them the next they meet.

Then out of the darkness, came the two deadly beauties.

One with long brown hair along the side of her right shoulder, wearing a black leather suit. A top with coattails reaching down to knee length. Christmas time, but she remained true to her long sleeves that remains connected to the top with fishnet material below her shoulders. Black leather gloves, still resembling the ones opera singers wear. Fishnet black leather pants looking like knee pads and high heels. A black leather choker with a gold bell in the middle still remains around Black Siren's neck.

The deadly siren had revealed herself, next came the deadly ice queen.

With her as she is, she wouldn't see the need to change anything in her attire, even during Christmas. Snow did nothing to her dark blue leather jacket and pants of the same material and color. The sharp heels of her high heels making holes in the snow with each step she took. Underneath her jacket, she continued wearing a blue leather animal blue print top with a dark leather belt around her west. She stopped and flicked her hair to the side, making way for Killer Frost to rub along her linear earring with a flirty smile.

Seth found himself in shock at the sight of two of Zoom's metahumans standing here before him right now. And now he wondered one thing.

How snow would in red?

To be continued…

And that's a chapter, peeps!

Taking down an Assassin on path of vengeance, bringing her off of it thanks to Kendra's help, the two co-founders of McCulloch Technologies Eva and Joseph both confessing to Vita Ex Machina which lead to the death of their son, Christmas Eve with the West-Allens, and then invited to a surprise meeting by Lindy, who revealed herself to Felicity Smoak of Earth-2 with metahuman powers, then the meeting led to Killer Frost and Black Siren showing up out of the blue. Seth and Venom, throughout this Christmastime, feeling the side effects of the confined black flames in his arms and making him weak by the second.

Safe to say, Christmas turned into one hot mess.

Things are gonna be strange in the next Earth-2 chapter.

Some small things to note:

The suit Eva McCulloch uses is akin to that of Black Widow's fugitive suit in Avengers: Infinity War. The weapons she uses are weapons used in the Marvel TV Show, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

The mask, however, is inspired the mask from an anime Show, Danball Senki, based on the head part of the Assassin Model.

Yeah, I know bit of a weird thing to give them the same name, but I was re-watching the show and it got my brain thinking.

Another thing to note, the trenchcoat that is given to Seth in the end, is the same trenchcoat that Samuel Jackson wears in Shaft, a movie he stars in. Love Samuel Jackson movies.

Next time, we're gonna see how things are going to go with Team Flash of Earth-1 meeting the two new additions of the Fury Family.

Stay tuned and find out.

Until next time, peeps!