Gotham City, C District

Year 2044

Zari clicked the joysticks with intense precision. Her eyes remained focused on the screen as she successfully pounded in the button combination and executed the command. Her avatar on the screen obliterated the other player's in a flurry of kicks and punches. The other avatar fell to the ground as Zari was declared the winner.

Zari sat in a bean bag on the floor of her tiny studio apartment. The room consisted of a kitchen with a card table for dining, a small TV in front bean bags chairs, a twin bed in the corner, and a small bathroom the size of a walk-in closet.

This was where Zari lived and where she was predicted to spend the rest of her life. She had been designated a "C" class citizen by A.R.G.U.S. per the Citizen Designation Act of 2025, making her the lowest class of citizen. This meant she would always be bypassed by B and A class citizens for better paying jobs.

The CDA created a system of qualifying citizens by their perceived value to America. Politicians and members of the military were given priority. Beyond that, citizens were scored based on their physical fitness, test scores, and "flight risk." Zari had earned her classification for her poor academic performance, disruptive behavior towards authority figures, and by virtue of being a child of immigrants. Zari had only her modest collection of stolen retro video games to keep her distracted from her abysmal quality of life.

Zari tensed up when she heard a knock at the door. She didn't say a word. She waited. If this was A.R.G.U.S. they'd announce themselves, wouldn't they?

Zari looked at her bag on her bed, which contained her family's sacred Air Totem.

No! she realized, If they know about the totem, they're just going to kill me and take it. I have to move now!

The Air Totem belonged to Zari's younger brother, Behrad. He had been branded a criminal for possession of the totem, which was a family heirloom and granted him wind powers. This alone was against the law; any use of superhuman powers was considered a serious crime.

Behrad was part of a resistance. Though they hadn't taken action beyond protest yet, Behrad recently revealed to Zari that a tide of change was coming before leaving the totem with her and leaving. He needed to leave the totem behind because A.R.G.U.S. had been using it to track him. That shouldn't have worked with Zari though, since she wasn't connected to the totem like Behrad.

It didn't matter. Zari just needed to escape now. She had finished pulling on her backpack of supplies when an enormous scimitar crashed through her door. A man in dark robes brandished the blade, revealing it to have glowing red marks.

"Wow," whispered Zari, "You're definitely not A.R.G.U.S."

Zari leapt off the bed as the figure rushed in and swung the blade downward into it, cleaving the mattress in two.

Zari stumbled away from her bed and pulled her backpack in front of her, pulling out her handgun and the accompanying clip. She let her bag fall to her feet as she loaded the gun and unloaded the entire clip at her assailant. The being effortlessly repositioned their sword to deflect each of the bullets individually.

"What the-!?"

Zari had never shot a person before, but she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to go like that.

The being raised their sword and rushed at Zari again. Zari stepped back but immediately found herself up against the wall with nowhere to run. She was certain the blade would connect and kill her, but instead she felt a rush as yellow lightning sparked in her peripheral vision. She was behind the assailant on the opposite side of the room, a slender man in yellow and red spandex standing beside her.

"No way," realized Zari, "a speedster!?"

Like all meta humans, speedsters were required by law to work for A.R.G.U.S. None did. They all either went missing or were killed.

"What's going on!?" cried Zari, "Who are you!?"

"Well…" began the speedster.

Before he continued, there was another flash of yellow lightning and the assailant was lying incapacitated in the ground with the speedster standing proudly next to them.

"This guy's from the Cult of Darhk," he continued, "I'm Kid Flash. And I'm here to save you."

"...Kid Flash hasn't been around in over a decade," said Zari, "...and he's white."

This Kid Flash was Black.

"...did you miss the part where I'm here to save you?"

"I think I'm entitled to more of an explanation than that."

"Fine," conceded Kid Flash, "I'm from the past in an alternate timeline, alright? I'm part of an interdimensional time traveling team of superheroes here to save you. Happy?"

"No!" yelled Zari back, "That makes even less sense!"

Both Kid Flash and Zari froze as they heard the sound of thrusters out the window. Zari peered out and saw several LexCorp combat units, fully weaponized androids produced for A.R.G.U.S. by LexCorp. They were specially designed to apprehend rebellious metahumans.

"Crap!" cursed Zari, "They must have sensed you using your super speed."

"Come on," said Kid Flash, "Let's get you out of here."

He knelt beside her bag and pulled out the Air Totem standing and placing it in her hands.

"This is yours, right?" he clarified.

"...it's my brother's…"

Zari tensed as she saw several figures in black cloaks rush in through her front door. Kid Flash hadn't noticed them yet, but before Zari could vocally get his attention her totem acted on it's own. Reacting to Zari's wishes, the Air Totem produced a gust of air that knocked the entire group of assassins into a pile on the ground. Kid Flash responded by quickly knocking each of them out before turning to face Zari again.

"Seems to work for you well enough," he noted, "Look out!"

There was another zap of yellow lightning as Zari found herself on the far side of the room away from the windows just as an explosion of energy blasted away the wall that had been there. The combat units were on the attack. One of them swooped in through the smoke, landed in the apartment, and faced both of them. The android charged its arm-mounted weapon.

"Surprise!" cried a man in a mechanoid suit of his own as he grew into the room out of a singular point, firing a huge burst of bluish white energy at the android and blowing it to pieces.

"About time, Ray," sighed Kid Flash, "Where's Sara?"

"Here I am!" declared a woman as she ran into the room, "By the way, the Cult of Darhk are here."

"We noticed," replied Kid Flash flatly.

Zari took a moment to access her situation. Behrad's Air Totem was working for her and her apartment was missing a wall now, for starters. On the other side of where that wall used to be were multiple combat units ready to kill her. In her destroyed apartment were half a dozen masked assassins wielding swords, a superhero from an alternate past, a man in his own mechanized suit, and a somewhat frantic looking blonde woman in jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt. And they were apparently time travelers.

"Ray, Wally," ordered the woman, "You two hold these robo cops off. I'll get Zari to the Waverider."

"I'm sorry," interjected Zari, "Who are you?"

"My name's Sara Lance," introduced the woman, "I'll explain everything when we're aboard the Waverider. Come on."

"What's a Waverider?"

"Our timeship!" yelled Sara impatiently, "Now let's go!"

Lightning danced around the room as Sara and Zari both found themselves out in the hallway of the apartment, away from the open window and combat units. Kid Flash and Ray both engaged with the androids as Zari followed closely behind Sara on their way out of the building.

"What the hell do I have to do with any of this!?" demanded Zari.

"Your totem," replied Sara, "the Cult of Darhk will stop at nothing to get it."

"And what the hell is the Cult of Darhk?"

"They're part of some magical… thing."

"Thing?"

"Just trust me, alright?"

Zari couldn't believe this. It was absolute madness. Not only was she facing A.R.G.U.S.'s inevitable assault, but now she was dealing with magic and time travel. As if she didn't have enough to deal with before this.

Sara and Zari had made it out the back of the building and were sneaking down alleyways. They turned the corner and soon found themselves face to face with another man dressed in long black robes. Sara held up her fists, ready to fight. The figure raised their arms and flames burst from the earth. Growling filled the air as a rush of heat punched both women in the face. Horrific horned beasts with rows upon rows of teeth crawled from the crater left behind.

"Great," sighed Sara in frustration, "Hellhounds…"

"Hi good boys!" sang a voice from over their heads, "You want a treat?"

Zari and Sara looked up to see a short and perky woman leaning over the edge of the roof with a chunk of raw meat in her hand. The hounds paused the growling to sniff the air. Then they all began to clamber up nearby fire escapes to reach this woman and her delicious snack for them. The robed figure was looking up in awe of their spectacular failure when Sara punched them unconscious from the side, leading Zari out of the alley and to a clearing in a parking lot.

"Smart thinking, Mona," said Sara to herself.

"You sure she's going to be okay?" asked Zari.

"Mona knows what she's doing," assured Sara, "probably."

"So you're all time traveling superheroes?" clarified Zari.

"Call us Legends."

"...is that supposed to sound less pretentious?"

There was a flash of yellow lightning as Kid Flash and Ray appeared beside them.

"Oh, good!" smiled Ray, "You made it!"

Ray was wearing a helmet that covered half his face with a visor, but the enormous smile on his lips was as clear as day. Zari wasn't quite sure what his eyes looked like, but she was sure they were smiling too.

"Where's Mona?" asked Kid Flash.

"Guys!" called the woman from before out from a distance, "Get aboard!"

They all turned in the direction of the voice. Mona was sprinting toward them, an entire pack of hellhounds chasing after her from behind. She no longer had the bait and they no longer seemed interested in listening to her.

"Crap!" cried Sara, fumbling with a transmitter on her watch, "Gideon, get the back hatch open, now!"

"Aboard what!?" cried Zari, "What hatch!? What's going on!?"

The night sky shimmered as an enormous grey ship materialized in the parking lot. The back end dropped open a hatch and provided a ramp up and into the ship. Zari barely had time to take the sight in before yellow lightning surrounded them all again. The whole group of them were suddenly up and in the ship as the hatch was closing shut behind them, cutting off the hellhounds.

"Gideon!" continued Sara, "Get us out of here and into the timestream! Now!"

Everyone except for Zari braced themselves against the wall as the entire ship lurched. Zari was thrown to the ground. She scrambled back up in a frenzy.

"Wait!" she objected, "You can't just kidnap me from my time like this! What if I don't want to go!?"

"We can take you back," assured Sara, "We just need to get you away from the Cult of Darhk so we can get a second to breathe and talk."

"Alright, then talk!" demanded Zari, "What do you want with me?"

"Hey," assured Ray gently, "We're on your side."

"Well excuse my skepticism," replied Zari coldly.

"We know the Cult of Darhk wants your totem," explained Sara, "We don't know what their plans are, but we know they're bad. Until we know for sure, you're better off staying with us as we look into it more."

"You mean join your superhero team?"

"Oh," scoffed Ray with a smile, "Don't call us heroes. We're Legends."

"...you guys are really proud of that one, huh?" sighed Zari.

"I like it," shrugged Ray.

"Look, I don't know what's going on here," said Zari, "but I know my brother wanted me to look after his totem. That's all I want to do."

"You mean the totem that started responding to you when the Cult of Darhk showed up?" asked Kid Flash.

"That can't be a coincidence," noted Sara.

"...fine," conceded Zari, "I'll stick with you. At least until I know more."

"That's… reassuring," responded Ray after a moment.

"...let me show you the bridge," added Sara cautiously.

Zari strolled across the floor of the enormous silver room, taking note of the large console at the center of the room and a raised area heavily decorated with stolen-looking antiques. At the front of the room was a single captain's seat flanked by eight additional chairs. So this is what the bridge of a time ship looked like.

"So to clarify," said Zari as she looked about the bridge, "I can't change the past?"

"Technically you could," acknowledged Sara, "but it wouldn't change your present; it would just create a new timeline in addition to yours. Chances are an identical timeline to that already exists. There are infinite timelines."

"So that's why you guys haven't killed Hitler," realized Zari.

"Actually we have," said Sara, "nine times in total I think, not including clones. It doesn't remove him from history, but it's still cathartic to do sometimes."

"Why is stopping the Cult of Darhk any different?" asked Zari, "Why do you have to stop them?"

"Their actions are outlying," explained Ray.

"What does that mean?"

"When something outlying happens in any given timeline, it creates infinite more timelines of alternate futures," said Sara, "the more this happens, the higher the risk of timelines colliding and destroying one another."

"But there are already infinite timelines, right?" clarified Zari.

"Right but there is more than one level of infinity," explained Ray, "Like how there are more real numbers than integers, even though there are infinite of both. Cool, right?"

"Is he always like this?" asked Zari, turning to Sara with an eyebrow raised.

"Always like what?" asked Ray, smile unwavering.

"Pretty much," nodded Sara, "Ray here is a brilliant scientist. He was a superhero during the Age of Heroes."

"They called me The Atom!" declared Ray proudly.

"Rings a bell," nodded Zari, "What about the rest of you?"

"Mona is from the same time," explained Sara, "Wally and I here are from different timelines entirely. We know Flash and Black Canary, but not the ones you've heard of. Wally was a superhero like Ray."

"And you?" asked Zari.

"I was an assassin."

"Charming."

"Alright," said Sara, losing her patience for Zari, "let's keep the tour moving."

Zari followed Sara into the next room as Ray continued to stand smiling with his hands on his hips.

"This is the kitchen," announced Sara, gesturing at the room as she entered.

"Looks… Like a kitchen," said Zari.

The two stood across the room from a table where a gruff man dressed in a black leather jacket with matching gloves and a pale man with an intense stare and frosted white hair. Leaning against the wall across from the table was a femme dressed in punk boots, red skinny jeans, a black leather jacket, and her curly black hair worn up and to the side.

"This is Mick, Leonard, and Charlie," said Sara.

"Hi," offered Zari.

"It's a pleasure," said Leonard, looking at Zari out of the side of his eye.

Mick grunted and drank his beer.

"So has our captain bored you to death with her rubbish tour yet?" asked Charlie with a smile.

"Charlie," sighed Sara in frustration.

"Kinda," answered Zari.

Sara looked blankly without blinking at Zari for a moment.

"Tell you what," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself, "Why don't we take a break? You can mingle here with the rest of the crew."

"Sounds good," said Zari.

Sara smiled so hard at Zari that it looked like it hurt. Sara clearly didn't like Zari's attitude, but she knew that Zari's time was better spent getting acclimated to the crew than getting acclimated to the ship. Sara walked backwards out of the room, silent the whole time.

"As I was saying before our captain so rudely interrupted," said Charlie, "I like Mick's idea."

"Do we want to bring the new girl in on this?" asked Leonard.

"I don't know," considered Charlie, looking Zari up and down, "Can she be trusted?"

"If this is about keeping secrets from Captain Hardass," said Zari, "You have nothing to worry about."

Charlie smiled widely, pointed at Zari in satisfaction, and looked over at Mick and Leonard.

"I like her," grunted Mick.

"Me too," added Leonard.

"Alright then," said Charlie, approaching Zari, "If you must know, the boys here and I have something of a bet going."

"A bet?"

"You remember Mona Wu?" asked Charlie, "Short, talks a lot, helped lure away the hellhounds during your escape?"

"Yeah."

"Well," grinned Charlie, "She also happens to have a condition where she turns into a man-eating Kaupe if she loses control of her anger. I was betting these two that I could get her to transform before our next mission."

"If being chased by hellhounds didn't transform her, I'm with them," scoffed Zari, "There's no way you'll be able to agitate her more than that."

"Oh, it's on then?" smiled Charlie.

"What are we betting?" asked Zari, "You guys own a timeship. Money can't possibly have any meaning."

"Indeed," said Charlie, "Which is why the winner will write a speech that each of the losers have to give in public."

"Being quite confident with your pluralities," said Leonard.

"So we got ourselves a deal?" asked Charlie.

"Deal," said Leonard.

"Deal," nodded Mick.

"Deal," said Zari.

"Brilliant," said Charlie happily, "Guess I better get started!"

Zari quietly chuckled. This was one way to get acquainted with her new situation.

"Captain!" greeted Ray cheerily, "How's the tour going? Where's Zari?"

"Talking with Charlie, Leonard, and Mick," sighed Sara as she walked onto the bridge.

"...something wrong?"

Sara paused at the console. Then she turned to Ray.

"Zari seems to think there is," said Sara, "Apparently my tour was too boring."

"Boring?" chuckled Ray, " That's ridiculous. Your tours are fun!"

"Ray," said Sara, "Your idea of fun is reading scientific journals."

"Exactly!" smiled Ray, "So I know fun when I see it."

Sara smirked. Ray's support still helped. Being thought of as boring didn't bother her too much, but Zari's general attitude did. Zari came from a time where every authority figure was looking to harm or imprison her. She was unlikely to develop any respect for Sara just because she was captain.

"We'll sort it out later," said Sara, "She'll learn soon enough that she needs to listen to me if we're going to defeat the Cult of Darhk."

In truth, the Cult of Darhk itself wasn't the problem. They were closer to a symptom. Though the members of the cult were outliers distorting the timeline, stomping them out only served as a temporary solution. In order to end the threat, they'd need to find whatever sparked the formation of the cult and eliminate it at the source. Gideon was currently cross referencing the Cult of Darhk's historical activity to find their geographic and temporal point of origin.

"Think the Bureau could help?" asked Ray, "Or at least point us where to go next?"

"I'll call Ava and find out," said Sara, "We'll find this magic… thing and take care of it. I know we will."

"We should probably come up with a better name for it," said Ray.

Charlie peered around the corner and saw Mona walking toward zyr. She was dressed in a white sweater with pink jeans and white gym shoes. The smiley, bright-eyed woman's walk was as perky as ever, carrying a book under her arm.

Charlie ducked back around the corner, stuck out zyr leg, and waited. A few moments later Mona rounded the corner and walked directly into Charlie's leg. She let out a cry of surprise as she fell forward onto her face, sending her book flying.

"Hi there delivery girl," said Charlie, taking a jab at Mona's previous job.

"Hi Charlie," responded Mona meekly, getting to her feet.

"What do you have there?"

"Just a new book."

"Can I see it?"

"No, I- Charlie!"

Charlie had rushed past Mona and snagged the book off the ground. Ze opened to a random page in the middle of the book.

"She slowly caressed the nape of his neck, breathing into his ear as she gently touched his-" read Charlie, smiling wide, "Oh, Mona! How tantalizing! How bawdy!"

"Give that back," insisted Mona, grabbing at the book.

"Hey now," said Charlie, stepping back and pulling the book away from her, "I haven't finished reading, now have I?"

"That's not funny!" insisted Mona, jumping for the book but unable to reach it, "Charlie!"

Charlie grinned. It was working. Mona was getting more and more irritated. She would transform any second now.

"What's going on here?" demanded Sara as she rounded the corner.

"Charlie stole my book and ze won't give it back!" whined Mona.

"...Charlie?" said Sara.

Charlie sighed and rolled zyr eyes.

"Fine," ze conceded, tossing the book back to Mona.

"Come on, guys," said Sara, "We're going to need each other as we fight this magic… thing that's threatening the timeline. Don't be at each other's throats over something as trivial as this."

Charlie scoffed and walked away. Ze could feel Sara's indignant stare into the back of zyr head. This wasn't an actual feud, just a one-off prank. Charlie couldn't very well say that in front of Mona though. Ze had to change zyr tactics. As ze wandered, ze eventually found zyrself in the Waverider's lab.

"Oh, Charlie!" perked up Ray as ze walked in, "Nice to see you! What brings you here?"

Ray was sitting at the lab's computer and had been typing something. Now his joyous attention was entirely on Charlie.

"Just walking around," said Charlie, noticing a discarded gauntlet, "What you working on, Rayge?"

"Oh that," chuckled Ray, "That's an old prototype for the hyper-molecular compressor."

"The what?"

"The, um, shrink ray."

"Right," said Charlie, "What are you doing with it now?"

"Scrapping it for parts," said Ray, "It was never really very practical. At this stage it shrunk the first object it touched, shrinking vehicles and clothes while leaving the people inside normal sized."

"Interesting."

"Oh," realized Ray, "It's a good thing you're here. You can watch over the hyper-molecular compressor and make sure no one plays with it. I have to use the little Eagle Scout's room."

"Sure."

"Thanks!" smiled Ray, walking off.

Charlie looked down at the gauntlet. Ze looked back to make sure Ray was gone. He was. Charlie took the shrink ray gauntlet and put it on zyr right hand, altering the settings appropriately.

Charlie snuck out of the lab and around the ship until ze came across Mona in the hallway again. Charlie hid the gauntlet behind zyr back. Mona huffed and turned her nose up at Charlie. Charlie smirked in response but said nothing. The two passed one another and kept walking. Then Charlie spun around and fired the gauntlet's beam directly at Mona's butt.

Had Charlie used Ray's current shrink ray, doing this would have shrunken Mona by a few feet for a few minutes. Only this prototype couldn't recognize Mona and her ensemble as one object, so it only affected Mona's pants.

Mona squealed as her pink jeans suddenly became four, then six, then ten sizes too small for her. She tugged at the crotch and butt, but there was nothing she could do with the pants being too tight to pick out. She had ended up with a permanent wedgie and front wedgie as she stumbled, trying to mitigate the effects by pulling at the fabric. Charlie doubled over laughing.

"Charlie!" cried Mona, "What'd you do!? Fix this!"

"Sorry, don't think I will," sneered Charlie.

"Come on!" whined Mona, squatting as widely as she could to minimize the pain of the wedgie, "I don't know if I can even take these off."

"Oh relax," dismissed Charlie, "It'll only last 15 minutes or so."

"My legs are already starting to go numb!"

Charlie just smiled in response. There was no way she could make it the whole 15 minutes before her anger toward Charlie overtook her. All Charlie had to do was wait her out.

"Charlie! Mona!" shouted Sara, "What's going on here?"

"Charlie shrank my pants!" yelled Mona.

"...whatever that means," said Sara, "fix it, Charlie."

Charlie rolled zyr eyes and fired the ray back at the pants. Mona let out a sigh of relief as her pants returned to their proper size. She then got to work plucking pants out of the affected areas.

"Spoilsport," frowned Charlie, walking away.

"Make sure you include something about boy bands," added Leonard, "Charlie hates boy bands."

"I know what I'm doing," dismissed Mick gruffly, adjusting his glasses as he continued to click at his typewriter.

"Oh," added Zari, "Maybe you can have zyr say-"

"I said I know what I'm doing!" growled Mick at Zari.

Zari raised her hands in absolvement.

"Sorry," said Leonard, "My husband is a little particular about his writing routine."

Mick grunted in indignant acknowledgement and continued typing.

"How do you think Charlie's doing?" asked Zari, "You don't think ze can do it, do you?"

"It's possible," said Leonard.

"But not likely," added Mick.

Mick was at his typewriter at the kitchen table across from Zari. Leonard stood leaning against the nearby wall.

"Then are you nervous?" Zari asked Leonard.

"Of course not," smirked Leonard, "If a little bet like this could get on our nerves, we would never have made it as criminals."

"Criminals?" realized Zari.

"That gonna be a problem?" asked Mick, not looking away from his typewriter.

"I guess it depends on the crimes," said Zari.

"Burglary, breaking and entering, occasional treason…" listed Leonard.

"Arson," added Mick emphatically.

"Mostly harmless," grinned Leonard, looking to Zari expectedly for her response.

"You had me at 'treason,'" shrugged Zari, "How did you end up on a team with a bunch of superheroes?"

"We've been in and out of the slammer for years," explained Leonard, "Flash caught us hitting up Central City Bank in 2029. According to history, that was our last job. We were destined to spend out the rest of our lives in prison. We didn't know this of course, but the Legends did. Then a day came when they needed the best pair of thieves in history, so they snuck us out and onto the ship."

"Wow," realized Zari, "You're that good?"

"No one beats us," smiled Leonard.

"No one as expendable to the timeline, anyway," said Mick between typewriter keystrokes and sips of beer.

Leonard glared over at his husband.

"OH," realized Zari, "They recruited you because you were imprisoned and therefore wouldn't affect the timeline, didn't they?"

"Well what about you?" demanded Leonard, changing the subject, "You bring any skills to the team, or just that shiny trinket?"

"Beyond the impressive amount of survival skills it takes to exist as a C class citizen in 2044," responded Zari, "I can remotely access top level A.R.G.U.S. files if you give me the right computer."

"So you're a computer geek," grunted Mick.

"I prefer hacker," responded Zari dryly.

"Is that so?" said Leonard, raising his eyebrows, "That gives me an idea."

"What?" asked Zari.

"Here," said Leonard, approaching a wall-mounted console, "Take a look at this."

Zari did. The Waverider's interface was mostly foreign to her. Surprisingly, when she began interacting with the program she saw it slowly conform to a UI she was familiar with. The software seemed to be learning and adapting to her. It was incredible. Within minutes she had access to just about everything in the ship's computers.

"Any chance you can see a certain captain's schedule?" asked Leonard.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Just do it."

"...nothing much," said Zari after looking it up, "It looks like she has a call with someone called the Time Bureau soon."

"Perfect!" grinned Leonard, "That'll be our next mission. No way Charlie will turn Mona by then. This bet is as good as won."

"Huh," said Zari, "Cool."

Leonard continued to look at the screen, grinning.

"What are you thinking?" asked Mick.

"I think we use this opportunity," said Leonard, "Charlie doesn't know ze's as good as lost. Let's use that to have some fun…"

"I've never tried anything like this before," said Wally.

"That's why we've got to try it!" insisted Charlie, "I mean, what's the point in all that power if you can't use it to have a little fun, eh?"

"That's a good point," said Wally.

The two were standing in the kitchen next to the fridge. Charlie had suggested Wally use his powers to allow him and Charlie to party together at high speeds. They could go until they both crashed and still be done in only a few seconds. Wally could speed Charlie up with him, so it was theoretically possible. It definitely seemed fun.

Charlie had insidious intentions. Ze knew that Ray's chore wheel assigned Mona to kitchen cleaning duty today. Charlie and Wally would make an entire party's worth of a mess mere minutes before Mona began cleaning. Charlie's goal was to get caught, thus enraging Mona and triggering a transformation.

"Okay," said Wally, taking a deep breath, "Let's do this."

The two clasped hands. Yellow lightning danced all around them as they looked around. It was hard to tell if they were seeing things in slow motion as Wally normally did at this speed, since nothing in the room was moving.

Charlie grabbed a dish rag off the counter and threw it into the air. Once it reached the apex of the throw, it seemed to freeze in the air. Closer inspection showed it to be falling ever so slightly. It had worked. They were both in Flashtime.

First they broke out the beers and talked about their favorite bands as the rag made its way about a quarter of the way down. Charlie then started doing shots and Wally took out his special speedster liquor, the only thing that could get him drunk. By the time the rag was halfway down they were synthesizing different fried foods from the fabricator to satisfy their drunken hunger. Before the rag got to the ground they had both had a dance off and made a mess of the counter trying to make their own waffles.

There was a loud whoosh as yellow lightning danced around the two again. Flashtime was over.

"Oh no!" cried Mona, "What did you do?"

Perfect timing! thought Charlie.

"Just had ourselves a high speed rager," ze grinned, putting zyr arm around Wally's neck.

"Were you going to clean up after yourselves?" asked Mona, "It seems unfair that I have to do it just because you did it on my galley cleaning day."

Wally hiccuped and fell into Charlie. Ze laughed and guided Wally back up to his feet.

"Sorry, love," shrugged Charlie, "I gotta go get this bloke some water. Carry on."

"Wait!" called Mona, "Charlie!"

But the shapeshifter and Wally were already gone.

"Conniving, isn't ze?" came a drawl from behind Mona.

She turned around to see Leonard standing there, sneering at her as he leaned against the wall.

"Ze makes me so mad!" growled Mona.

"Don't let zyr get to you," advised Leonard.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?"

Leonard walked over to Mona and leaned over so his face was directly in front of hers, eye to eye.

"You beat Charlie at zyr own game."

"Anything else to report?" asked the woman on the other end of the holocall.

"Yes," said Sara, "Gideon just finished analyzing the Cult of Dhark's records and applying it to her time map. She has found the origin point of the cult in the timeline with the most dark futures. That's our magic… thing. I know it."

"Where is that point?"

"Gotham, 1975."

"So that's your next mission," said the woman, "What's your plan?"

"Eh," shrugged Sara, "We'll wing it."

"Sara!" admonished the woman, "You can't just keep flying by the seat of your pants with these things!"

"If you're referring to the time I literally flew by the seat of my pants," said Sara, "It worked out pretty well if I recall correctly."

The woman stifled a laugh, but stood up straight and gave Sara a stern look.

"Alright," sighed Sara, "We'll have a team meeting and figure something out."

"Understood," said the woman, "Over and out."

The hologram blipped off. Zari, who had been standing there the whole time, turned to Sara.

"So who's the nerd in the pantsuit?" she asked.

"That," said Sara carefully, "was Ava… My girlfriend."

"...awkward," mumbled Zari.

"What's going on with you!?" came Charlie's voice.

"Just let me pants you!" growled Mona.

Charlie ran out onto the bridge with Sara and Zari. Along with zyr came Mona, who was gripping onto Charlie's belt and being dragged as ze ran. Charlie ran to the middle of the bridge and swung zyr hips. Mona lost her grip and flew several feet before landing on her side, groaning.

"What in the world are you two doing!?" demanded Sara.

Mona got up to her knees, trying her best to hold in her anger. Although she didn't know about the bet, she preferred to avoid transforming into her Kaupe form if she could help it. Mona was about to get to her feet when she felt Charlie's hands gripping the back of her underwear. Mona let out a wail as Charlie yanked the cyan high waisted briefs up to her shoulders.

"Ooh," grunted Sara as both she and Zari winced in sympathy.

"Gr…" growled Mona as she shoved her underwear back into her pants.

Mona's eyes turned yellow.

"I did it!" cheered Charle, "Woohoo! Anyway, what did I miss? What are you lot up to?"

"We were getting our mission assignment when you and Mona barged-" began Sara.

"We received a mission assignment?

"...yes."

Mona's muscles were bulging, stretching the sweater to its limits and obliterating her socks and shoes. Mona's alternate form, Wolfie, was emerging.

"And we received it before I came in and made Mona transform?"

"...yes."

Charlie bit zyr lip and scuffed zyr foot in frustration. Ze had lost the bet by a hair. Then Charlie noticed the shadow of the figure growing behind zyr. Charlie spun around to face Wolfie directly as the fearsome Kaupe roared in zyr face.

"Ah, bollocks," sighed Charlie.

Wolfie grabbed Charlie by the back of zyr leather jacket and swung zyr over her head, slamming zyr down on the other side. It was times like this Charlie was glad zyr shapeshifting and the accompanying healing factor made zyr effectively immortal. Wolfie began to punch Charlie over and over again, busting zyr ribs more than once as the healing factor kept repairing them.

Wolfie concluded by grabbing Charlie by the leg and throwing zyr across the room into the wall on the opposite side. Charlie cried out as ze slammed into the wall and then the floor, groaning in pain as zyr bones slowly healed. Wolfie huffed and walked off.

Sara and Zari both turned to Charlie, who was slowly regaining the ability to get to zyr feet and stand. Charlie laughed uncomfortably as ze finished healing and began walking backwards toward the exit, then turning and running out.

Zari blinked in bewilderment.

I guess that means we win, she thought.

"Alright," announced Sara as the Legends filtered onto the bridge, "As some of you know, we have a mission."

"When is Charlie going to make good on zyr end of the deal?" whispered Zari to Leonard.

"Charlie's a shapeshifter of zyr word," said Leonard, "Just you wait."

"Here we've located the exact time and place of the origin of the Cult of Darhk," began Sara.

"Excuse me? Everyone?" chimed in Charlie.

"What is it this time, Charlie?"

"I just wanted to let everyone know that I love boybands," ze said, "Just love 'em."

"...Charlie?" prodded Sara.

"Also my favorite color is pink and I'm terrified of mice. I'm terrified at the very sight of them. Also pip-pip cheerio."

Most of the Legends just stared at Charlie in befuddlement. Mick smiled with pride in his work. Zari and Leonard shared smug looks. Charlie glared at them from across the room.

"...anyway," said Sara, "That point is Gotham, 1975. Anyone have any ideas of what we might encounter?"

No one responded.

"...I guess magic isn't really our wheelhouse," shrugged Ray, "None of us have the experience with magic necessary to know what we're up against."

"One of us must have some experience," said Sara, "Charlie, you're a magical creature. You must know something."

"I'm telling you: people like me have spells put on us," said Charlie firmly, "Not the other way around."

"Surely you must have run into somebody with some magic knowhow," said Ray.

"There is one bloke," acknowledged Charlie, "but there's no way we could take him out of a timeline. Fella's pretty important to history. He must have banished a dozen demons if I've heard right."

"Who is it?" asked Sara.

"John Constantine," ze said.

"Who?" asked Wally.

"I thought you said he was important to history," said Leonard, "Why haven't I heard of him?"

"He does his stuff in the shadows," said Charlie, "Not everyone is obsessed with being the center of attention like you lot."

"Gideon," said Sara as the AI's holographic rendering came up.

"John Constantine does indeed appear in a number of high profile incident reports," said Gideon, "Removing him from any point in his life risks damaging space-time. Even in his last moments he was making deals with demons."

"What were his last moments?" wondered Charlie aloud, "How did he die?"

Charlie knew John from zyr time in London in the late 70s, where the Legends had found and recruited zyr. It was odd to think of John's inevitable final moments being recorded on records from the future.

"In most timelines, John Constantine died when he confronted a demon named Neron in 1987," said Gideon, "Most historians speculate that he sold his soul to Neron and was dragged directly to Hell."

"That's it!" concluded Ray.

"What's it?" asked Sara.

"Since he dies in 1987 in most timelines," explained Ray, "If we take him out of the timeline after he was supposed to have died, we could recruit him while still leaving most timelines intact."

"I'm afraid that'll be difficult," said Gideon, "Constantine's deal with Neron is speculated to have saved dozens of lives. For the timelines to remain stable, Constantine must agree to this deal. He must go to Hell."

"Right," said Ray, "So we pick him up after that."

"Pick him up after he was dragged to Hell?" said Sara.

"Well the way I see it," said Ray, "If he really was dragged to Hell, then Hell must be a place in space we can reach, right?"

"I don't know about all that time-space nonsense," said Charlie, "but there are ways of getting to Hell. Most aren't pretty."

"Sounds fun," growled Mick with a smile.

"Captain?" asked Ray hopefully.

"Alright Legends," said Sara, "leave your snowballs behind because we are going to Hell!"