Flashpoint Mayhem

by TrueHorror88

Another victory for the team, yet someone was unable to celebrate that and chose to make a world-shaking decision. Barry saved his mother from death, changing his past and his present, but it also affected others without him knowing. Seth and his family are just as affected, maybe more. The team faces newer threats, but they're not new to the Lethal Protector. They're threats.

17. Chapter 17: Wrath of the Land

Hey you all folks!

Back again with another bedtime story for you. Great to see your messages and reviews, love them always!

Now to answer some reviews:

hunter41963801: Who knows? Better wait and watch as the magic unfolds. Glad to hear you liked the Cisco and Gypsy fight. Nice idea with the Elseworlds crossover, would be interesting for sure.

guest: Thanks, glad to hear, my friend. Yeah, Deadpool 3's gonna be epic. Can't wait for the madness between Hugh and Ryan on screen.

Ka4tyna27: I agree, I really like Gypsy. She's a great character. There's a number of possibilities, but think I may have laid it on too thick in the previous chapter. My bad

Guest: I have decided on HR's fate, whether it's different from canon or not I can't reveal just yet, unfortunately. I've thought about the Illuminati actually, doubt they'd be in this story, tho. But could imagine them in the future stories that're to come. The T'Challa idea definitely seems possible, and having watched Black Panther 2, I definitely agree with you. Black Adam could also be an interesting idea, hearing of the Lethal Protector and demanding a challenge.

And now…

Without further ado…

ENJOY!

Chapter 17: Wrath of The Land

The door to CCPN opened up, Barry Allen entering the newspaper publisher station. The hero spun around, looking around for his girlfriend.

"Hey babe." He turned around, seeing Iris walk towards him with a pep in her step. It was obvious why she was more excited since her story about the high tech rifles was met with much applause. Her article had quite the impression of the city's newest speedster, Kid Flash. Granted it was to keep the promise she made to her brother.

But more than that, she should be proud and happy about the article that'll make the perfect beginning of her amazing journalistic legacy. Going as far as even Pulitzer-level amazing. Her article will save lives. And her fear of her life being snuffed away before leaving a mark in history, without leaving anything behind is gone.

The reporter captured her boyfriend's lips quickly for a kiss. "What brings you by?"

"Well…" Barry smiled. "I was hoping I could pluck you away for a quick lunch date, maybe."

"Oh yeah? I could be up for that, actually." Iris nodded with a smile. "Nice and quiet lunch, just the two of us."

"Yeah. Heard Seth and Caitlin are taking their gang on a road trip. Figured if they're having a fun road trip, we might as well have some fun ourselves." Barry reasoned.

"I like that plan. Let's go." She said, the two walking towards the exit with her handbag over her shoulder. Barry holding the door open for her. "Thank you." She said, doing a mock curtsy.

"Of course, my lady." He asked, giving her a mock bow and with a fake British accent.

Iris turned around with a happy smile, which quickly turned into a wide mouthed expression when someone accidently ran into her. "Oh sorry, ma'am." The reporter and the speedster turned to the boy, seeing it was a young man with brown skin and dark-brown hair but is shaved on the sides. He's wearing a dark-green hoodie and brown pants along with dark-blue shoes with green straps. Crouched on the ground, he picked up the handbag.

"Oh?" Iris noted that her handbag was truly gone from her shoulder, somehow falling off her arm without her noticing it. "I didn't even see it on the ground."

"Yeah, neither did I." Barry agreed.

"Well, accidents happen, don't they?" The young boy said, his sleeves rolled up and revealing his black wristbands. He stood back up, holding out the bag. "Yours, ma'am."

"Oh yeah, thank you." Iris chuckled at his politeness, accepting her bag. "But please, cut out the "Ma'am"- part, makes me feel old."

"I will try." The young man assured the reporter. "Well, see ya both. And sorry for bumping into you like that." He said, moving backwards with two fingers pointing at them.

"What a nice kid." Iris admitted.

"Yeah." Barry agreed.

The young man turned down a corner, reaching into his right kangaroo pocket of his hoodie. He pulled out a wad of cash, his latest reward for "helping" others.

"Reporters make good money." He admitted with a smile, counting the cash.

X

Seth looked upwards, facing the rearview mirror and watched his daughters' expressions. Caitlin copied his action, looking into the rearview mirror to examine her daughters' reactions while keeping her hands on the steering wheel.

Evelyn looked out the window on the right side, her earphones popped into her ears and listened to one of her favorite songs to kill the time.

Frankie sat in the middle, her eyes reading up and down the pages of her English school book, catching up on missing homework per her teacher's instructions.

Ruby was seated on the left seat, her eyes closed and leaning against the closed window. It was unclear whether she was sleeping or not, seeing as there's a long road ahead of them.

Caitlin glanced at her mate. "They're looking forward to this trip." She sarcastically commented, none of them bearing the slightest resemblance to enthusiastic expressions.

"Guess they got that in common with their mother." Seth chuckled, taking note of her hands clenching the wheel like she's trying to choke the life out of it.

Caitlin nervously laughed at that comment. "Yeah, but you know how my Mom is. Remember the last visit?"

"Yeah, your mother might run colder than me dipped in ice." Seth quipped.

"Colder than Killer Frost, I'd bet." Caitlin chuckled hollowly.

"Good thing that theory will never be proved…" Frankie leant forward, poking her head out to the front seats. "Cause she will never come to be."

"Well, maybe, honey, but my mother already got a sneak peek of the frosty." Caitlin stated.

"So what do we do when we get there?" Evelyn started. "Ask her, "Hiya Grandma, you know about the crazier Venom look-alike who's got the hots for your daughter? Oh yeah, we're your granddaughters, the ones you've never met before till now.""

"I'd really like to avoid that formulation, like completely." Caitlin argued, really not a fan of her daughter's idea of breaking the ice.

"And we definitely need a better way to introduce you three." Seth admitted, following his mate's thoughts.

"Maybe not, think Ruby's snoring will be a hell of an intro." Frankie chuckled. "OW!" She exclaimed.

Ruby, with eyes open, retracted her foot after kicking her sister. "I don't snore, jackass."

"Yeah, you do, you snoring bastard. Kick me again, I throw you out the car." Frankie countered, flipping her sister the bird.

"That a dare, ass-hat?" Ruby challenged her.

Frankie clenched her fist. "Don't tempt me, douchebag."

Evelyn took out her earphones. "You two need anger-management therapy. Or maybe couples counseling?"

"Okay, you guys, hold your horses." Caitlin told them, as she parked the car at the nearest empty spot. "We're here. So stow your… Usual stuff." She instructed her daughters, unable to find a better word.

"That means, be on your best behavior and also be ready to jump into action." Seth instructed them, closing the door when getting out. "Last time we were here, your mother and I were interrupted by Shocker and Vulture showing their mugs here."

"Great, I remember those bastards." Evelyn noted, getting out of the car. "But honestly, I would not mind having another session with those bastards, considering what happened last time."

"You and me both, sis." Ruby agreed.

"Me three." Frankie asked.

"Well before that happens, you guys have another trial in store." Caitlin said, her three daughters giving confused looks as a response. "You're about to meet my mother."

"Mom really got a low opinion of her mom." Evelyn noted.

Seth shrugged. "We don't always… Get along with our parents, Evie. And Cait and her mother's relationship, it's strained, unfortunately."

"Think it will get better?" Evelyn asked, the five of them walking to the entrance of Tannhauser Industries.

"Jury's out." Seth answered as the doors slid open. They entered the lobby room of Tannhauser Industries. The daughters took in the looks of the interior, a large building with dozens of floors, white staircases all around them leading up to them all.

"Wow!" Ruby exclaimed, a few scientists giving her weird looks at her child-like behavior. The gravity manipulator considered giving them a malicious look in return but decided against it.

"Big place." Frankie looked around, taking in the exterior as well. "Must mean big bucks."

"Really, honey?" Caitlin asked her daughter.

"I mean, she's got a point, Mom." Evelyn chuckled. "Bet this place would have you swimming in cash."

Seth chuckled at their reactions, all of them thinking of the monetary values. "These girls are something else…"

"Yeah… Wonder if that'll change with what's next." Venom muttered.

"Jackie, have the applicants return home and, for God's sake, have them review their resumes." That familiar voice made the two parents snap their heads in the direction of the reception. Their daughters followed, seeing a woman in a gray suit, bearing similar features as their mother. The woman's brown hair is pulled into a bun, she has blue eyes and glasses over them. "They look like toddlers' drawings, at best."

"Is that…" Ruby pointed a finger at the strict woman.

"Yup." Caitlin nodded. "Mother." She called out.

Carla Tannhauser stiffened, turning around with surprise on her face. The surprise intensified when seeing her daughter, Seth and three unfamiliar young girls, each of them giving nervous waves. "Caitlin." She noted, taking off her glasses. She walked forward towards them both. "And your… Boyfriend." She noted, seeing the familiar mutant.

"Seth Fury. Pleasure to see you again, Dr. Tannhauser." He greeted the mother of his girlfriend.

"Ah yes, I remember that from our last… get-together." Carla awkwardly scratched the bridge of her nose. "It was quite eventful."

"That's one word for it, yeah." Caitlin admitted with a nervous tone. Frankie, seeing that something was missing, cleared her throat. Blinking her eyes, she realized her mistake and introduced the rest of her family. "Oh yeah, um, Mom?" She stepped back, standing behind her daughters and gestured to them.

Carla widened her eyes, realizing who these three are. "Caitlin, are these…"

"My daughters, yes." Caitlin nodded. "This is Ruby." Ruby nodded her head in a greeting. "This is Evelyn." Evelyn smiled with a wave. "And finally, Frankie." Frankie showed a peace sign with her fingers. "Your granddaughters."

"My granddaughters…?" Carla struggled to find the words she wanted to tell them. Tears began to sting her eyes and she breathed in deeply, a reaction Caitlin hasn't seen in her mother in a long time, shocking her instantly. "Let's take this up to my office, some privacy. As I'm sure this isn't a social visit. Follow me."

"Seriously, Mom?" Caitlin muttered.

"Look at the bright side, our daughters just made your mother speechless." Seth quipped.

He received a dry look from his mate.

X

Following Carla, the family of five entered the office. But the girls and their parents immediately noticed that the office was without an office desk.

"What happened to your desk?" Ruby asked.

Carla turned around, facing them. "Judging from your reaction, I'm guessing you haven't heard about Cait… Your mother's last visit to my company. And much like your father predicted, I require a new desk."

"Mom?" Evelyn got her mother's attention, the word making Carla flinch. "Did you break the desk?"

"Froze it, and not intentionally." Caitlin stated in her defense, inwardly she thought her children were confusing her personality with their father's.

"Still cool." Frankie stated with a smile.

"So… Your daughters… They know about your…" Carla gestured to her daughter. "Your condition, I take it." Caitlin nodded. She took note of the snowflake-shaped pendant hanging from her daughter's neck. "I assume the accessory around your neck is to suppress your powers?"

"Exactly, a power-dampener fashioned by my friends." Caitlin said. "And yeah, girls, this is your grandmother, Carla Tannhauser, CEO of Tannhauser Industries."

"Grandmother?" Carla laughed lightly. "I didn't think I'd be called that anytime soon."

"Given I hadn't… been able to find an appropriate time to properly introduce you to my daughters, it's understandable." Caitlin told her mother.

Carla nodded, shifting her gaze between her newly-discovered granddaughters. "It's a pleasure to meet you all finally."

"Sorry it took a while, Granny." Ruby casually said.

"Granny?" Carla said in surprise.

Frankie chuckled, pointing a finger at her sister. "Sorry, Ruby forgot her warning label. She's a bit of a swamp-mouth."

"Yeah, and you're a dick." Ruby countered. Frankie narrowed her eyes threateningly.

Evelyn faced her grandmother. "Yeah, they do that a lot. You get used to it."

"Also, you might wanna stock up on literally everything you have, Evie's a bit of a klepto." Ruby countered.

"They each have a story to them." Seth admitted. "But… Unfortunately, this visit is not social, like you've already surmised, Dr. Tannhauser."

"Yes, I assumed as much." Carla walked over to the window, looking out at the city. "Well…" She turned and faced the family again. "Why have you come?"

X

"Dr. Octavius?"

Otto Octavius turned around, using his mechanical arms to turn himself around. He saw Vulture fly in front of him. As he hovers in front of him, the good doctor could see that a worried expression crossed his associate's face. Sighing, he asked. "I take it the reason behind your visit is to deliver news, Mr. Toomes?"

"Indeed, Doctor, and unfortunately it is not of the good variety." A scowl formed on the doctor's face when Adrian finished. He then declared. "Unfortunately, none of our associates have seen that brute Aleksei anywhere."

That information made the doctor blink behind his goggles, not believing what he just heard. And it made him… angry.

Adrian barely had a second to react when one of his mechanical arms stretched out, slamming into his stomach and thrust him into a metal pillar. The elderly man grunted as the arm kept him pinned to it. "Answer me this, Mr. Toomes." Otto inched closer towards him agonizing slowly, each thud of his arms sent shivers down Vulture's spine. "How is it possible for you… To miss a brute with such a colossal physique?!" He screamed in his face.

"Doctor." Adrian tried to push the claws of the arm away, using all of his might to pry them off his sore body. "I assure you; we've already taken action to find the big oaf."

"Please, enlighten me of your so-called "actions."" Otto demanded.

"Considering the size of this city and our inability to remain incognito, I've enlisted the help of Edward Clariss." Vulture answered. "His powers, being identical to the speedsters of this city, allows him to move swiftly and be able to look out. Mr. Schultz and Mr. Gargan are out there as well."

"Searching for Aleksei, I take it?" Otto demanded.

"Not quite." Adrian answered.

With a sigh and scoff, Otto released the arm from him and let him fall. He turned around, facing away from his companion who's panting heavily from immense pain. He quickly assessed his options. Taskmaster and the symbiote-clad members are unavailable, as is Eliza Harmon who's out in search for her fourth recruit.

Then something else came to mind. Otto looked over his shoulder. "What exactly made Mr. Sytsevich rampant? Impatience?"

"Not this time." Adrian groaned, returning to his full height. "It would appear a… A rat caught his attention."

"A rat?"

X

(Tannhauser Industries)

"Excuse me, you did what?" Carla practically bellowed at her daughter. "You used your powers, even though I clearly told you should not use them. Why even ask for my help when you're not gonna accept it, Caitlin."

"That's what you're concerned about, Mom?! Me not listening to your advice." Caitlin bellowed right back. "Here I am, with my family, concerned that you might be targeted by a homicidal Venom-like maniac, and you're pissed about me not taking your advice."

"Do I need to remind you; you were the one asking for it?" Carla countered.

"I remember that!" Caitlin shouted, her frustration skyrocketing instantly. "And do I need to remind you how that ended?"

Evelyn, Frankie and Ruby faced their father with a disbelieving gaze. Seth knew what they were thinking, he undersold their familial bond. "Believe me, girls, this is the first time I've seen them having this kind of… Falling out."

"Something of a falling out, huh?" Venom mused, though he flinched every time the two women raised their voices.

Frankie looked between her mother and her grandmother, seeing both of them screaming their heads off. "Oh God." She walked towards her mother. "Mom?"

"Yes, sweetie?" Caitlin's anger descending rapidly.

"How about we put Family Time on pause, and maybe ask if Granny has seen the crazy or not? You know, the thing we actually came here for." Frankie snidely reminded her mother.

"Funny." Caitlin pinched her daughter's cheek. Frankie got out of her reach, her mother turning to her own mother. "Mom, please, have you had any weird encounters?"

"None of the demonic variety, no. Or anything that resembles Anti-Venom for that matter." Carla answered.

Carla kept her shock suppressed when seeing her daughter exhale in relief. "That's something to be happy about, I guess. Glad to hear."

Taking off her glasses, Carla asked. "Caitlin, has your pendant been working properly? Has it successfully suppressed your powers?"

"It has, Mom. My friends worked hard on it, and their work paid off." Caitlin assured her.

"Grandma." Evelyn got Carla's attention. "As far as we know, Anti-Venom did a deep dive into Mom, and we were worried this guy might come after you."

Carla gestured between her grandchildren. "How come the three of you know about Anti-Venom, exactly? Don't tell me your school's are raving about this maniac."

"You'd be surprised." Ruby chortled. "But no, it's because Dad, being a consultant for CCPD, brought this to us… Since it involves a significant person." She pointed an accusatory finger at her mother.

The CEO of the company faced Seth. "Interesting subjects you bring home to the dinner table."

"I know, right?" Seth reached into his pocket. "Here's a card with my personal number and my partner's number, in case something comes up. Or Anti-Venom pays a nasty visit."

Accepting the card, Carla said. "Good. Thank you. How long are you staying?" She directed to the entire family.

Caitlin tightened her hold on her handbag. "Why? Got any important projects that need your attention?"

"No, not exactly." Carla put on her glasses. "I was thinking of taking an early lunch break, maybe you'd wanna join me." The offer shocked her daughter, her eyes expanding to limits not even planets knew of. "There's a nice place around the corner, has a nice assortment of cakes. And I was thinking it'd provide a nice opportunity for me…" She faced her granddaughters. "To get to know my grandchildren."

"That sounds nice, and we'd love to." Seth stated for Caitlin, seeing that she was still awestruck and left speechless from her mother's… single act of kindness.

"Their family's messed up."

X

(Central City High School)

A camera flash went off, the crime scene photographer taking what was probably the fourteenth photo of the immense ice tunnel that's been bored down all the way through the lower floor and through the foundation. It was still a miracle it was still intact and hadn't even melted.

"How deep you think it goes, Julian?" Joe asked the metahuman expert.

Much like the detective and everyone else, Julian watched his step on the still frozen floor. "Quite deep, I reckon, Detective West." He admitted, having taken a sample of the ice. "But thankfully, we have excellent probes down there, surveying the ice tunnel."

Joe looked surprised. "I didn't hear anything about a probe down there."

"Would you please let me do it alone?"

Joe recognized his son's voice… Coming from the hole…

"We would if you stopped being such a baby. Just do it already!"

Joe definitely recognized his partner's voice… Also coming from the hole…

The detective looked at Julian. "You sent them down there?" He nodded to the ice hole.

"Of course not. It was their idea, and two of them were already down there." Julian replied.

"Of cour- Wait, you said two were already down there? There's one more?" Joe asked.

Julian didn't have time to answer when a voice downstairs stated.

"Seriously, I've heard of turtles going faster than you, Flash."

Joe definitely, instantly recognized Magenta's voice… Another voice… Also coming from the hole…

"I'm just… Being careful." Flash said in his defense.

"Screw careful! Let's give you a hand!" Magenta shouted.

"No. No! Wait!"

SCREAM

Much to the detective's horror, his expectations were met when he saw Flash come flying, and screaming, out of the hole. The Scarlet Speedster hit the frozen ceiling, bouncing off of it and landed on the cold, hard ice-riddled floor.

"Flash?" Joe crouched down by his son's side. "You okay?"

"Flash, how nice of you to "drop in."" Julian quipped.

"Funny." Barry groaned in pain. "Warning: Magenta's like her father. No room for niceties." He warned them as the detective helped him up. "Also, we checked the hole, it's leading all the way down to the sewers."

"It's connected to the sewer systems under the school?" Joe asked.

"Yeah." Barry nodded. "Lasher tunneled his way through floors with nothing but ice as his drill."

"Quite a handy fella, ain't he?" Julian joked.

Flash chuckled. "You'd think so, yeah. Magenta and Venom are down there, checking out where the sewer's connecting to. Might lead us to where Kumar is hiding out."

"Okay." Joe checked his surroundings again, remembering that this is a school, a high school at that. "Officer Korber." He got the officer's attention, diverting her attention from crime scene examination. "Give me a list of all the students, teachers and staff members. Kumar didn't come here for school admission, I take it."

"Sure thing, Detective." The officer nodded.

"And have Officer Doyle, Anderson and Gibbons comb through the list, call all families of the students and contact the teachers as well." Joe instructed. "I wanna make sure no kids are in that monster's hands. Get confirmation that they're present. Anyone's missing, you bring it to me."

"Right away." Officer Korber accepted, walking away.

"You think Lasher kidnapped someone?" Julian asked.

"I won't rule it out, at least." Joe said. Gesturing to the hole, he said. "Let's hope those two get a handle down there."

X

Both looking up at the ice hole over their heads in the sewer tunnel. Flexing their bodies, both father and daughter retracted their respective symbiotic forms and their faces showing wide smiles.

"Ten bucks says he's complaining and in pain." Frankie betted.

"Fifty says he's complaining to Joe." Seth counter betted. Both covering their mouths as the awful smell of the disgusting greywater intensified. "But all jokes aside, getting in a sewer is a pain in the ass."

"Thought you'd be used to it by now." Frankie referred to her father's history with sewers and his adventures in them. "But wonder why Rajeet tunneled his way down here."

"It's the sewers honey. They're underground so no camera will ever spot them, the stench is too powerful for any police hound to track down a unique smell, and the tunnels are spread all over the city. It's easy accessibility, allowing quick getaways. Part of Stealth 101." He answered. Seth groaned, the smell entering his mouth. "Plus, above all else, they're filled with all kinds of crap, literal mostly. Who'd wanna jump down here?"

As her father's releasing ice from his feet to cover up the greywater and using wind to blow away some of the disgusting odor, Frankie countered. "Us." She gestured to the two of them, gagging as the smell entered her mouth. Seth couldn't argue with that. "Dad?"

The mutant faced her, feeling a wave of uneasiness. "What's wrong?"

Much like her father, Frankie could feel the same wave of uneasiness, this one coming from him. "There something you wanna tell me, Dad? Cause I feel this strange uneasiness coming from you, and I've been feeling it for a while. And no, it's not nausea from our current surroundings."

"I'm… I'm…" Seth sighed. "Crap. Didn't want to get into this conversation now." He faced his daughter again, the uneasiness now taking place on his face. "Frankie… It's about Rueben."

"… You mean, Rueben Arias? My boyfriend from… before…" Frankie trailed off slowly.

"Yeah." Seth stated. "I'm really sorry you went through this, alone, without any of us knowing."

Frankie chimed in quickly. "Because I didn't say anything about it, Dad. It's on me." She countered. "I kept that to myself… Because it frigging hurt." She admitted. "I may not have lost my family, but I did lose someone who helped me a lot during a tough time."

"Before Barry reset the timeline, Caitlin told me about Rueben. Heck, I remember him too. He's a good kid." He didn't even touch the surface of the good that boy brought into his daughter's life. During the time he was on Earth-2, his daughter being the victim of bullying and a wave of sadness and heartache, that young boy made Frankie smile again.

He wasn't there to see her smile, something he regretted. But the fact that there was someone she could turn to, other than her mother or family, it was something truly he was happy for.

"I'm just sorry this happened, honey." Seth told her sincerely.

"Not your fault, Dad. Plus, Ruby's a great friend." Frankie noted. "Except for the times I confuse her with our Ruby, then she gets a little pissy."

"Pissy, like being a sourpuss, or pissy, like your aunt wanting to murder me?" Seth asked, cause it was nigh-impossible to decipher a teenager's words and feelings.

"What do you think?" Frankie quipped.

X

(CCPD)

"Officer Korber?" Joe asked, getting the officer's attention as he exited the desk area. "How's the list from the school going?"

"Faster with the extra manpower you assigned, thanks for that." The officer nodded with a look of gratitude.

"No worries." Joe assured him.

"Working hard or hardly working, am I right, West?"

That voice made Joe snap around like a speeding bullet, his eyes widening when seeing the familiar person walking towards him. He was clad in a thick beige overcoat. His clothes underneath being a formal black suit with a white shirt underneath it, a gray tie hanging around from his collar.

The man in the suit, being one Rufus Turner, a man of 6'0' height with the body of an alcoholic. The African-American with a big forehead, a small patch of slightly black hair on his head and a slightly grey mustache. On his chin's a soul patch, completely grey. He pointed his black eyes at his old friend.

"Rufus Turner? What cry for help brought your silly ass to our town?" Joe West asked the FBI agent. "Let me guess, another convention?"

"Like hell I'd get my ass out of bed for something like that. I'd shoot myself, in the foot, just to dodge that bullet." Rufus stated.

Joe could definitely imagine Rufus doing exactly that to avoid something as awful as a police convention. "Take one bullet, dodge another."

"Amen, brother." Rufus quipped.

"But seriously, what brings you down here? FBI boring you to death?" Joe commented.

Rufus laughed. "Didn't you get the memo, I'm a dead man walking, West. But Joes aside…" Joe slapped him at that poor lame joke. "I came because of something related to an old case of mine, popped back on my radar." They moved into the desk area.

"Oh God, last time I did something else with one of your cases, me and Chyre almost got suspended." Joe leant against his desk. "But I'll bite, what's the problem?"

"Remember Starlight Cannery?" Rufus started.

Joe sighed in disappointment.

Definitely a can of worms he wasn't looking forward to opening.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

"What?" Cisco started. "You didn't find anything in the sewers?" He directed to Seth and Frankie.

Iris walked up to Barry's side; the speedster looked at them. "You spent hours down there, and nothing?"

"Yeah, hours trenching through disgusting crap and filth from every single citizen in Central City." Frankie countered.

Seth nodded his head in agreement, having finished dousing himself with deodorant and handed one to his daughter. "Yeah, a crap-ass trip down the sewers, for sure. But yeah, we got jack down there."

"And you returned, stinking worse than a skunk." Caitlin jokes.

Iris noted. "I'm still shocked that the tunnel's still intact and not melted. It's been, what, a day or two, and it's still staying strong."

"Ice powers to boost its durability." Caitlin said.

After a leap, Evelyn stuck to the ceiling. "Where's H.R.?"

"Coffee binge." Ruby said, sitting by the console. With her feet up and on the desk, her hands busying themselves with the game on her phone. "Escaping execution makes a guy crazy for coffee, apparently. At least for him." While explaining the Earth-19er's situation, she lost focus on her game and her character died. "Damn it."

From the entrance into the Cortex, Joe entered and looked around. His eyes fell on Seth and Frankie, the latter spraying herself with deodorant. "How'd the search go? Another reptile biting on the hook?"

"Bupkis." Frankie said, putting down the deodorant. "Just hours of… Nothing."

"So Rajeet's still in the wind." Joe surmised. "Not great, but he's a slippery one." He tapped Cisco's shoulder. "Hoping your tech in this place will help me out with something."

"Well, please do share with the rest of the class, Detective West." Cisco stated dramatically.

Joe chuckled. "Pull up Starlight Cannery and the files I sent you."

Cisco snapped his fingers, beginning to work and typed away on the keyboard. Evelyn's eyes widened when hearing that familiar name. Barry turned to the detective. "What's Starlight Cannery?"

"A canning company on the outskirts of Central City, it's abandoned due to a bloody tragedy." Joe answered.

"Bloody background? In Central City?" Seth chuckled. "Sounds like a blast. What's the story?"

Joe laughed. "An old friend from back then came by and paid me a visit. He gave me an odd request."

"Guessing it's about this:" Cisco nodded to the monitors on the wall, around the display mannequin. They turned their heads to the monitors as well, seeing…

They saw an old, practically rusted abandoned building on the screens. It looked exactly as they expected, it's a canning factory… One thing did exceed their expectations…

And that was the humongous hole, bigger than a truck, on the other side of the building….

"Huh?" Cisco hummed. "That's a big hole."

Barry had the viber zoom in on the hole. "The way the edges are protruding, whatever tore through the wall wasn't from the outside."

"It came from the inside." Seth deduced, following the speedster's train of thought. "Only person in the city who could make that big hole…."

"Rhino." Evelyn snarled, the thoughts and feelings she felt from their fight before returning to the forefront of her mind.

Closing her eyes would just remind her of her suffering from that humiliating fight with the Sinister Seven. But even as they're open right now, she could feel the hits and the kicks and the immense pain that followed each of Aleksei's massive strikes. Even now, her body still remembers the weight of each of his attacks, hitting her with a force greater than a freight train.

A normal person would have died from just one of them. But Evelyn survived it somehow, despite the barrage of raining fists coming down on her. Her suffering prolonged due to her endurance…

And she was gonna make that rhinoceros-like bastard regret not taking her out back then.

"And this time…" Dusk mentally snapped her neck. "You're not alone against him, Evie." She assured her host.

Iris' mind began racing. "Starlight Cannery…?"

"Something wrong?" Barry nudged her shoulder, seeing the gears turning in her head.

"I think I have something on that location back at CCPN. Might have something to do with the Taskmaster search I've been doing." Iris said, moving towards the exit. "I'll call back when I've found it."

"Thanks babe." Barry stated. Facing his foster father again, he asked. "We got anything other than this photo?"

"Maybe, yeah." Cisco said. "Had Friday do a little sweep of on the web, see if any crazy kids saw a rampaging rhino near the abandoned cannery with the bloody background."

"Must have gotten lots of hits." Ruby mused sarcastically.

"You'd think so." Cisco countered. "But no, we got this photo." He pointed to the monitor.

Facing the monitor, the team saw that it was a photo of a crowd gathering near the old cannery. They examined the picture. Frankie faced the viber. "And this photo will help us how exactly?"

"Wait…" Evelyn narrowed her eyes on the photo, seeing something weird in the photo. "No wAYYYYY!" She exclaimed, interrupting herself and fell to the ground with a scream.

"Evie?" Caitlin looked at her fallen daughter. "What's wrong?"

Frankie looked at her sister. Ruby did the same, removing her feet from the table. Seth turned his attention to his daughter with surprise on his face, shocked that Evelyn just fell from the ceiling, something she's never done before.

"Oh, nothing!" Evelyn flipped back onto her feet. "I mean, it's nothing. I mean, it's not nothing. Actually, it's nothing." By now she didn't realize she was rambling like a crazy person who escaped from an asylum. "I just remembered I have to water my homework and do the plants. Bye!" She disappeared in a flash of burst of shadows.

…

Everyone has wide-eyed expressions on their faces, completely baffled and left speechless from Evelyn's abrupt rambling and disappearance.

Caitlin faced her mate. "Did our daughter just lie to us?"

Seth faced his mate. "And fail miserably, agonizingly and terribly at that as well?"

Frankie added. "And she's gonna water her homework?"

With a more bemused tone, Ruby followed up. "And do her plants? Never expected Eves to have that kind of green fingers. What a kink."

"Mind of the gutter, young lady." Caitlin told her daughter sternly.

Joe tapped the mutant's side. "I miss anything? Never seen Eve port out so fast like that before, she looked like she had seen a ghost."

"Same, well… Not since Earth-2." Seth felt Caitlin's eyes on his form, making him turn his head to her. "Thinking what I'm thinking?"

"From our kid's strange- Stranger-than-usual behavior, I think so, yeah." Caitlin stated. She turned to her daughters. "Frankie, Rubs, suit up and catch up to your sister."

"Sure thing." Ruby nodded. "But it ain't gonna be as easy as it was with Frankie."

"Yeah, Evelyn can shadowport and all that." Frankie added.

"But not impossible for you two." Seth said with all the confidence of the world.

"Got that right, old man." Ruby said, jumping out of the skylight. Frankie followed, leaping from the ground and through the open hole in the ceiling.

Seth turned to his partner. "You know when kids stop calling you "old?""

"You tell me, I ain't out of that foxhole either." Joe quipped.

"Joe, who told you about this? You said an old friend, right?" Barry asked him.

"Rufus Turner, FBI agent." Joe started. "He was an old P.I. Chyre and I worked with back during my beat cop days. Bit of a wild card, even back then. More so now, though his mouth's still the same. Back then, he dragged me and Chyre into so much trouble. He almost got Chyre suspended."

Seth listened to the detective's words, liking each one that came out. "Think I'd get along with Agent Turner."

"The two of you together in a room spells disaster." Joe quipped. "Wanna take a gander at this place with me? You are gonna have to wait anyway."

"Sure." Seth accepted with a nod.

Cisco spun in his chair, turning his head to the computer screen. "I'm gonna run all the faces of that crowd through facial recognition, maybe get a hit and figure out why Evie ghosted."

"Thanks." Caitlin tapped his shoulder. "Be careful." She said, kissing her mate.

"Gonna try to at least."

X

(Starlight Cannery)

On the outskirts of Central City, is the old abandoned cannery station. Standing in front of the old cannery, Otto Octavius examined the immense hole that his companion, Aleksei, had caused on the cannery's interior and exterior.

He sighed with regret. Vulture's hovering beside his leader, watching him take in the immense company. With a small cough, Adrian stated. "Dr. Octavius, I do not believe it's wise to stand out in the open like this."

"Mr. Toomes, we both know that this place is abandoned and forgotten by many. By now, it's probably gonna be the latest ghost stories to be spoken around the campfire, nothing more than to scare children and keep everyone away. Thus, making this abandoned ransack untouchable." Otto countered, having thoroughly done his research on the place.

When realizing that the good doctor had done his homework on the facility, Adrian inquired. "You know about this facility? The background?"

"Quite the story behind this facility." Otto started, his eyes taking in the facility again after his mechanical arms elevated him to a higher position. "Apparently, one man, a truck driver working for this facility during its golden days, learnt that his wife had been cheating on him with the owner of this facility. He did not take that revelation too kindly, in a manner of speaking. After his shift, he returned home and turned a shotgun on his unsuspecting wife at their dinner table. After staining the plates with his wife's blood, he returned to his workplace and unleashed the same fury on his coworkers, staff and factory workers alike, before finally emptying his weaponry on the man who bedded his wife behind his back."

"Interesting story for such a perky happy city." Adrian admitted.

"No such thing exists, not in any world or universe, Mr. Toomes." Otto argued steadfastly. "Happiness… Perkiness… Whatever the common folks call it, there is always something behind the mask. Something ugly, unfortunate and something that bears a striking resemblance to evil… That kind takes root and it's hiding behind facades of false innocence. It's a trait our native universe is very familiar with."

"That's putting it lightly, isn't it, Doc?"

Recognizing the voice, Otto and Adrian turned around and saw Mac Gargan and Herman Schultz. Both of them looked at them carefully. "Take it your ventures underneath went smoothly?" Vulture questioned.

"No troubles, but no success either." Herman stated.

"Almost encountered a few rats down there, but we stayed out of their way." Mac informed their leader, his tail spiraling around them. "Would have loved to leave them with a hole in their chests." He smirked, poison dripping down from his stinger.

A white hot flash of rage came over Otto's eyes. Within a single second, one of his mechanical arms lashed out and slammed into Scorpion's chest. Mac tried to pull the claws off his body, but as soon as they curled and tightened their hold on him, it made it impossible for him to escape the hold.

"What's the deal, Doc?!" Mac shouted, using his stinger to try and retaliate.

Though the stinger on his tail could elongate, just like his arms, Otto's mechanical arms could stretch out further than their competition. It was a pointless match. Otto slammed him down on the ground, the concrete under Mac's body cracked. "We cannot afford to be careless, Mr. Gargan."

"What's that mean?!" Mac shouted, using his claws to scratch and slash at the reinforced arm but to no success.

"Your desire to immediately penetrate any being that crosses your path, the impulse that plagues your mind into doing exactly that? That is recklessness, and your history points to you following that reckless impulse without concerns for consequences. Doing so stirs attention, unwanted attention. And if you were to do such a thing now, we'd no doubt face Venom, his cohorts and the speedsters again." The claws dug into the suit that protects the criminal, bringing him up from the ground with a grunt. "And, more concerningly, your actions will bring the attention of that wretched copy of Venom…"

"You mean Anti-Venom." Herman deduced, not even flinching as his leader threw Mac away and into the concrete. It was rare to see Otto Octavius be scared of anything, much less anyone. But he was, showing fear at even the mention of the wretched titan. "That one did leave an impression."

"One that I'm sure none of us would like to repeat…" Otto admitted. He was different from Venom, the one they've learnt to deal with for a long time. The elemental wields the might and the fury of various elements, all the while using his symbiotic powers to their fullest potential. Combined, he fights with the strength of an undefeated gladiator hailed as a hero in a Colosseum and the ferocity of a demonic beast from worlds with untamable infernos that not even hellfire could come close to.

But Anti-Venom, beyond logic, surpasses the elemental's levels. He fights uncaringly of his own well-being in a way that warriors without anything to lose fights and combines that with his brutality of a cornered wounded beast from universes beyond. He fights unpredictably… In a way that makes the strongest champions of the worlds fear for their lives and shake their legs in terror.

An experience the Sinister Seven became quite acquainted with from their first encounter with the wretched titan.

WHOOSH

Whatever tension there was between them was broken when a flash of crimson-red lightning entered their field of vision, a gust of wind hitting their faces and making them turn in their original direction. The Rival came to a stop, facing his companions.

"Hiya guys." Edward greeted them.

"Mr. Clariss." Otto turned his head. "Pleasant run, I assume?"

He pulled off his cowl, exhaling deeply. "Nice to stretch my legs after a while, I admit."

Vulture hovered over their heads. "Is that all?"

"Not quite, Toomes." Edward admitted. "Apparently, Aleksei is still following that rat that caught a glimpse of him when he was about to go home."

"The rat still breathes?" Mac groaned amidst his laughter. "Never send a rhino-sized bulk with the mind of a peanut to do a man's job."

"Don't think a scorpion-cosplaying maniac will be any less subtle, Gargan." The speedster quipped. Scorpion snarled. "Plus, looks like the other speedsters are out there as well."

Otto narrowed his eyes. "Meaning Rhino's antics and the aftermath of which will definitely bring Venom's attention." He sighed his silent rage, knowing that his words will have little to no effect on his subordinates.

"What's the plan, Boss?" Shocker asked.

Otto realized thinking isn't on the drawing board now…

The time for action… Especially considering what Aleksei has done to the canning station… Is what the good doctor orders.

X

(CC Jitters)

The doors of CC Jitters opened, a woman stepping out of them. Wearing her new bright-red pantsuit with a white shirt under her blazer and the newest handbag from Gucci under her arm, the woman definitely made it known she was not short of money. Which is also why she has bought two of the most expensive items on the coffee shop's menu.

The sun pouring down rays of beaming hot sunshine on her, her red sunglasses over her eyes shielding her. The woman began walking towards her red Audi Le Mans Concept car, a testament to her ever-increasing wealth.

With a smirk, she walked proudly and confidently to her vehicle.

Her strut came to a halt when someone bumped into her, her handbag somehow falling off her shoulder.

"Oh, excuse me, miss. Here let me help you." The woman turned shocked to see a young man crouch down and pick up her damaged handbag, the strap torn to shreds. He picked up her bag and held it out for her with a smile. "Here you go, ma'am."

"Oh, thank you kid. Means a lot." She thanked the polite kid. "Here." She reached into her pockets, pulling out twenty dollars. "Here you go, a little token of my appreciation."

"No thank you, ma'am. You're okay, and that's all I needed." The young boy assured the woman, stepping backwards. "Take care, ma'am." He gave her a wave, and she responded with one of hers. He turned down an alleyway, looking around before reaching into his pocket.

While being offered twenty bucks as a reward for helping would have warmed his heart, the 500 he stole from that woman's purse definitely opened up a lot more possibilities. "Now… Time for some Big Belly Burger." He declared with a smirk.

"Lunch's gonna have to wait."

That voice made the young man stop in his tracks. The boy turned his head around…

Only for what looked like a strange black wing to lash out at him, thrusting off the ground and sending him flying into a trash container. Crossing his arms, long curved silver blades ejected from the sides of his forearms. But the blades proved useless when the other wings knocked them away, their user's focus turning away and making the blades retract. The first wing thrust into him, pinning him up against the garbage-filled box. "Hey! Hey! I'm innocent!" He shouted, sweat pouring down his face. He gulped when seeing Eclipse stepping up in front of him, both of her eyes narrowed threateningly. "I haven't done anything! Scout's honor!"

"Cut the bullshit, I know you're no scout, Kai." Evelyn stated, subconsciously tightening the hold on him.

"You know who I am?" Kai asked in surprise.

"Kai Rankers of Earth-2. Second-rate thief, using petty tricks, faking kindness and politeness to get folks to give him cash or other stuff while already stealing the bigger score from their belongings." Eclipse explained. He pointed in the direction of the coffee shop. "Also, go-to-spot for easy targets: CC Jitters. You always stick to the same damn places even in other universes. Talk about predictable."

"What?" Kai asked in surprise, his hands letting go of the cash he pickpocketed. It fell but the other black wings on her body snatched the cash, intent on giving them back to their rightful owner. "Also second-rate, really? I'm more than that, thank you."

"Someone's been lying to you." Evelyn countered bluntly.

"Wait, who are you? Last I checked, I don't have murderous friends in scary costumes." Kai stated, feeling his bones being crushed to dust in his meat suit.

Sighing to herself, loud enough for the other thief to register the rising annoyance, Eclipse looked into his eyes. The mask around her face slithered off, her long deep-red hair and her equally threatening blue eyes. Kai looked confused for a bit, the red hair throwing him for a second, including the strange moon-like markings around her face, but then his eyes widened in recognition, realizing who's in front of him now. "Remember me now, Kai?"

"E-Evie?" Kai lurched his head forward as much as he could, considering the restraints. "No way, you're- You're here? How?"

"Kai, this is an interrogation and I'm the interrogator." The metahuman countered sternly. "Means I'm asking the questions, pal. How are you here?"

Kai looked baffled. "How is that different from mine?" The markings on her face shone brightly, her seriousness displaying loud and clear for the other one to see. Plus, the sight of her other serpentine wings showing up, mouths forming on the tips of them, definitely got his mouth running. "Okay, okay! I- I was sent here about a week ago. Some strange blue whirlpool popped out of nowhere, swallowing me up whole."

"A week ago?" Reap repeated the Earth-2er's words.

"When Gypsy and Cisco had their brawl." Evelyn deduced, recalling everything happening last week. "He said their battle reached Earth-2. Did a stray breach open up as well?"

Starting with a mental shrug, Reap stated. "Heck, if either of us knows the fallout from two vibes duking it out."

"Good point." Evelyn looked back up, facing Kai again. "So, for one week, you've been, what, slumming it? Stealing and eating Big Belly Burgers?"

"Pretty much, got nothing better to do, you know. Unfamiliar turf but still looks… similar to old turf." Kai nervously chuckled.

Her eyes remained narrowed, running up and down his body in an examining manner. "Starlight Cannery." She started.

Kai blinked rapidly. "You mean the old factory from our world, or universe, which is a thing now, the one we used to crash all the time? Count our loot."

"First off, quit hashing up old stories, means nothing now." She snarled. "Second off, were you at Starlight Cannery of this Earth? In this city? And was left with one… massive hole in the side of it."

"Oh, come on, Evie. You know better than anyone in this city that my powers can't be something like that." Kai countered. "Plus, I cut. That's my schtick. Smashing and crashing is more the big guy's thing."

"Big guy?" Alarms began blaring in Evelyn's head, and in response her face became enveloped by her "other." "You saw him? Rhino? Big guy in a rhino-like suit?"

"That his name?" Kai questioned.

"Little, little rat." A voice with a heavy Russian accent called out.

Kai gulped at that voice, the reason why he was stealing again and in heavy amounts at that. The very reason that he wanted to bail out of town and hit the roads. That fear made him shake and hope that he'd find a way off this rock and away from that monster who literally tore through a building to get to him.

He expected the same fear to show up on Evelyn's face, but a glance in her direction told him otherwise… and surprised him.

The girl he saw in front of him, the one under the mask she's wearing now… It wasn't the girl he knew was kidnapped by Zoom last year. The one who shook in fear and was always terrified of her own powers… The one… Who…

But the girl in front of him now is someone different. Someone strong and powerful, confident to stand against anything and anyone… And someone's eyes screamed of…

Vengeance…?

Both Kai and Evelyn turned their eyes to the other end of the alleyway, and much to their expectations…

Rhino stood there with a smirk. Just like their previous encounter, Eclipse could see him sporting an additional exoskeletal crimson-red armor. The four glowing laser-like eyes shifted between the two Earth-2ers. The two sharp horns on top of his head ready to ram through his targets without a shred of mercy.

Aleksei chuckled, seeing the familiar form of Eclipse in front of him again. "Little girl. Back for more pain?" He said viciously, cracking his fists loudly. His armor creaked with his action.

"Funny…" That was the first time Kai ever heard Evelyn snarl like that. And the look in her eyes…

It made Zoom look like an innocent kitten…

"I was gonna say the same. Cause I've been waiting to see you again, Rhino… Guess Christmas came early." Eclipse snarled again, her body oozing light and darkness. The mouths on her wings sneering, biting the air with hunger.

The ground under their respective feet, under Eclipse and Rhino, cracked. Fissured, their feet digging into the concrete. Kai looked between them with concern, feeling like he's been forgotten.

"I want little rat, then little girl… We dance." Rhino cackled.

"You want this guy?" Evelyn asked with surprise, the wing she's using to hold Kai wraps around his body and holds him up. "For real? He's not that interesting."

"Words hurt!" Kai countered, fearing that his old acquaintance is gonna serve him up on a platter for the big villain.

"Then you will not miss him." Rhino inched towards them.

"Yeah, she will!" Kai shouted.

"No, not really." Eclipse corrected him bluntly.

"Seriously-"

"Shut up!" Rather than waiting for Kai to listen to her instructions, Evelyn extended her wing around his body and had it cover up his mouth. She looked back in Rhino's direction. "But if you want him, it's for nothing good. So… Let's play!"

Eclipse, to Kai's surprise, ran ahead and jumped into the air. Darkness burst out of her body, wrapping around the humongous villain. Kai himself was enveloped by the dark miasma.

The metahuman of light and darkness shadowported them all away in an eruption of shadows.

X

The shadows burst out of thin air, Rhino dropping out with a thud and hitting the asphalt. Eclipse followed, landing on the ground with Kai tightly wrapped in her wing. Evelyn looked around in surprise, the flood of screams from all sides making her head snap left and right.

She found herself in the middle of a busy intersection. Cars in the middle of it, civilians screaming out of them in a rush at the sight of Rhino appearing out of thin air. The ones on the streets were no different, running off in various directions to escape whatever mayhem is about to unfold.

"This isn't the Badlands." Evelyn stated to herself in shock, not understanding why they're not at the spot they wanted to teleport to.

"First time you've tried to shadowport a regular-sized person AND a tank-sized Rhino." Reap told her host.

"My control and precision wavers depending on the size of the cargo I'm carrying." She deduced in surprise, shocked that her ability has this drawback.

Twisting his head around Kai managed to remove the wing from his mouth. "Who are you talking to?! And are you seriously gonna tangle with that guy?" He shouted each word.

"Right now, I'm the only one who can stop that guy. Otherwise, he kills you and tears up everyone else around us." Evelyn countered.

"Seriously Evie?" Kai asked, utterly shocked now.

Facing him again, she corrected him. "Name's Eclipse." Another wing of hers lashed out and grabbed a trash can. Kai barely got a word out before Evelyn practically threw him into it. "I've been waiting for that for… so long." She said, throwing the can away.

A growl got her attention, making her face Rhino again. The villain stumped the ground, shaking it with each step before reeling back, lowering his horns. "I will watch the life drain from your eyes."

"Keep dreaming." Eclipse formed a bow in her left hand and arrows between the gaps of her fingers on her right hand. Rhino roared, beginning his stampede as he charged the metahuman. Each of his big feet crashed down on the asphalt.

Eclipse took aim, unfazed by the rumbling ground, her arrows taking their aim on his laser-like eyes. Light came over her projectiles, coating them in a layer of dazzling light. She released her arrows, each of them flying faster than a bird.

Though it was too bright for him to get a proper look at them, Aleksei was able to see them coming for his eyes. Reacting instinctively, he lowered his head. One of his horns blocked two of the incoming light-clad arrows. The remaining two pierced into the back of his neck, but neither of them put a halt to his rampage.

Seeing that her arrows couldn't dent his armor, Evelyn resorted to other tactics. She took charge as well, running towards the incoming villain. Smog of darkness began emitting from her body as she ran. Rhino roared, getting closer to the metahuman.

When being within an inch of Aleksei's face, Evelyn shadowported and released an eruption of darkness in his face to obscure his field of vision. Rhino closed his eyes; his hands waving around to try and blow the smog away but to little success. Acting out of instinct, he ran amok and made a hard turn. Opening his eyes, his vision was no longer filled with darkness, but instead filled with bricks.

Hopping out of her shadows, Eclipse watched Rhino rush head-first into a brick wall. As she expected the wall did little against him, crumbling down to pieces. "Long-range won't cut it." She deformed bow, light emitting from her hands and formed long light swords. The mouths on her wings growling and shining with different elements inside of them. "A combo should do the trick."

Rhino tore his head out of the wall, pieces of debris sliding off his body. "You're dead."

"Bring it, bitch!" Eclipse countered. Her words made the large villain resume his charge, running after her with greater speed and more force than before. Shadowporting away from the ground, she reappeared over him and landed on his back. Rhino turned his gaze upwards, one of his eyes being cut off by her light sword.

He growled in pain, continuing to run amok. Evelyn turned both her blades downwards and stabbed the back of his neck. Her swords, despite being composed of pure light, did nothing to penetrate the thick hide that is Rhino's armor. But she knew that already from their previous encounter.

Her attacks only sufficed in annoying and pissing off the humongous villain she's using as a foothold. Rhino tried to shake her off, his arms raising up and trying to grab the girl on top of him. Her wings released blasts of light to deflect the hands, her other ones unleashes a rain of dark bullets on the back of the villain's head.

Aleksei's annoyance skyrocketed, making him blind with rage. Roaring louder than ever before, he made his way towards a tight-walled alleyway. "Crap!" Eclipse used her wings to shield her face and body when they entered the alley. Pieces of brick and trash pieces came flying, hitting her wings. But then Rhino came to an abrupt stop, and the young hero flew off his back.

With annoyance riddled all over his face, Rhino looked back up and saw the girl roll into a crouch. She cracked her neck, taking aim with arrows on her bow. Eclipse unleashed arrows after her, each of them bearing darkness or light within them.

The ones imbued with light didn't do any damage, the ones strengthened with darkness in them pushed him back with each projectile. Tearing into the wall on his left, Rhino hurled a barrage of bricks after her. But none of them fazed Eclipse, who used her wings to brush off the pieces of slab. Through her flailing wings, she continues her own barrages of imbued arrows.

Anger boiling like magma in his veins, erupting in a burst of rage akin to an active volcano awakening from its slumber. Rhino pushed through, charging towards the girl and lashed out his hand. Evelyn jumped backwards, using his hand as a springboard and leapt off it. But his other hand snapped her leg and slammed her down on the ground.

She grunted in pain, feeling the asphalt cracking under her body after being used as a hammer. Rhino swung her into a wall, another surface being destroyed. "You will die today!" He swung over her head, hurling her away and towards the other end of the alleyway. She hit the edge of the tight alleyway, her body bouncing off the wall.

Rhino watched with glee when Evelyn hit the ground. His glee turned to rage when she bounced off and out of his vision. Blinding rage filled him, his eyes settling on whatever's in front of him and he made it his target. Another warcry came from his mouth and he rushed out of the alleyway like a manic bull.

Eclipse looked up from the ground… Seeing that a school bus was in his path… She shadowported.

A trash can twisted and turned before falling down. The lid was pushed off, Kai Rankers sticking his head out and taking in a deep breath of fresh air. After taking another one, he looked up and saw the huge villain charging towards the school bus without a care.

He couldn't keep his eyes shut, the overlapping loud screams from the bus forced them open. And watched the huge villain inching towards it, and the screams got louder…

…

…

But then the screams stopped, gasps of surprise taking their place.

Kai, the civilians and the students in the bus… They took in the sight with awe.

Putting a stop to Rhino's advances was Evelyn Snow-Fury. Eclipse's feet dug and embedded in the ground after having been pushed back by the villain. Her arms pushed his head back as much as she was able to. Her wings doing the same on their end, each of them grabbing onto an arm or a leg to limit his movement.

Behind her mask, sweat had begun to cover and sting her eyes. The amount of pressure her body's in right now is unbearable, but she fought through the pain with all of her might. "You… Are not… Touching… Anyone!"

"How? You not strong enough!" Aleksei shouted, pushing back with all of his might but to no avail.

"Don't you know…" To his surprise, the lower half of Eclipse's mask tore open and revealed a mouth with huge sharp fangs. A rose-red serpentine tongue slithered out, licking her teeth in an animalistic manner. "We're not the same as before."

Removing one of her hands from Rhino's face, Eclipse clenches her fist. Without her seeing it, without Aleksei seeing it, darkness and light converge into her forearm. The darkness oozing out of her, lightning making her appendage shine like the sun. The elements combined within her arm, mixing together in an ominous shine of them both.

When the strange shine of darkness and light reached Rhino's face, he looked down and saw the swirling energy brimming within her arm. She thrust her hand forward…

PUNCH

Her fist slammed into his stomach, the immense energy in her arm was released upon collision with Rhino's body. Both elements released in waves, traveling through her arm, causing a shockwave that launched the huge mob enforcer off the ground and sent him rolling on the ground.

Retracting her serpentine wings, Evelyn looked down at her arm with shock. "That's new…" She listened to herself, hearing how she sounded and checked her newly-formed mouth. "Crap, stole Dad and Frankie's thing." Rolling her tongue back in, she reattaches the lower half of her face. "Better."

"Wasn't the worst thing, you know?" Dusk informed.

Eclipse turned around, seeing the wide-eyed looks from students. Walking to the bus doors, she knocked on them, getting the bus driver's attention. She turned a lever, the doors opening for her. Entering the bus, Evelyn looked around between students and teachers. "Sorry, folks, but school trip's over."

"Field trip." The teacher corrected.

"Field trip's been canceled due to unexpected visitation from unwelcome rhinos. Please exit the vehicle in an orderly, but quick, fashion." Evelyn turned around, about to walk off. But she halted when seeing that none of the occupants had even stood up. "Okay, "please" in this scenario means, "Run like you're pants on fire, on the double.""

She jumped out of the bus, and the moment she landed on the ground, the students and teachers obliged to her instructions, rushing out of the yellow transport vehicle like they're being chased. "Maybe just skip "please" next time." She looked up, seeing Genysis crouched on the bus roof.

"Thanks for the help?" She unsurely said.

"Sorry we didn't join in." Frankie started, making her presence known as she took a stance on the side of the transport. "Figured with your history, you'd want some alone time with Rhino here."

"You're starting to sound like Rubs." Evelyn stated. Frankie didn't know whether that was a warning, snipe or comment. Ruby was pissed off.

A roar got the three sisters' attention. They watched Rhino return to his full height, the former mob enforcer facing them with broken eyes. He tore off the damaged red laser-eyes, turning his blue shining eyes on the heroes. "More flies to swat."

"Dream on, Ox-face." Ruby said back, jumping down from the vehicle. Frankie followed suit, landing on the ground.

"We still got civilians behind us." Evelyn noted, reminding them of their current battlefield.

"I'll take care of them." Frankie started. "You two…" She gestured to the huge villain in front of them. "Take care of him, will ya?"

"That's the plan." Genysis cracked her neck. "Go." Frankie jumped over the bus, attending to her task. She glanced in Evelyn's direction, holding her weapon tightly. "Ready for action?"

"Always." Eclipse stated confidently, glaring at the humongous villain.

Rhino stepped forward, stopping to look to the sides. On each side of him is a car. With another roar, facing the heroes again, he thrust his hands down and into the cars on each side. Yanking them up, he holds his fists up as though he's ready for a boxing match.

"Substituting gloves with cars? Nice idea, original." Reap commented on the villain's choice of weaponry.

"Don't complement the bad guys!" Ruby shouted at her "other."

Running towards them, Rhino swung his left hand. The yellow car acting his left glove aimed for them. Genysis jumped in front of her sister, blocking the strike with her entire body. The blow didn't push her away, her gravity-enveloped body keeping her steadfast. The tongue shooting out from her collar, wrapped around his arm and the car, tightening its hold and keeping it from moving.

Evelyn used her sister as a springboard, running up her back. She stepped onto Rhino's restraint arm, forcing him to use his other one to attack her. She used the two wings on her right side, overlapping over one another to make a makeshift shield and blocking it. Taking a stance on the arm, she lashed out her two other wings. They thrust forward, their mouths opening up widely and bit down on the side of his throat.

Feeling the bite of both wings on his neck, Rhino pulled back, trying to pull them away. But Genysis' tongue around his arm kept him in place. Pulling back his other arm, he swung it down again after Eclipse. Evelyn jumped to the side, avoiding the attack which Ruby stopped with her gravitational powers.

With her sister keeping the enforcer's arms in check, Evelyn spiraled around and slammed her foot down on his head. Jumping off his head, she reeled back her hands and thrust out her hands. From her palms, rays of shining light shot out and hit his head. The strikes to his head disoriented him, causing his eyes to blur.

Genysis felt his grip loosen. Smirkingly, she retracted her tongue and channeled gravitational energy in her right arm. Delivering a straight punch into Rhino's stomach, her gravity traveling over her arm and into his body. Evelyn landed down on the ground beside her sister.

"Argh!" Aleksei was launched off his feet and pushed back. He rolled on the ground, turning back up and faced them. He looked between the two heroes facing him. Though they were the initial targets in his field of vision, his eyes settled the numerous civilians screaming and panicking around the heroes. A smirk formed on his face.

Eclipse narrowed her eyes. "You like that smile?"

Ruby gave her sister a dry look. "When have I ever liked anything?" Evelyn didn't argue with that.

"Catch this!" Rhino's next actions showed the reason behind his smirk when he grabbed onto cars closest to him, hurling them after the heroe….

After the civilians around the heroes…

Seeing that, all three heroes went into work.

Evelyn shadowported, taking a stance on top of the yellow bus. She releases an array of arrows imbued with light and darkness. They traveled through the air, piercing into the hoods of two of the cars. The arrows, superheated with their brilliant element, caused the engines to explode over their heads.

Ruby remained on the ground, her feet digging into the asphalt. Raising a hand, she forced three cars to stop with her gravitational force. Clenching her fingers, she compressed the vehicles into spheres. With the spheres she's controlling, she's hurling them towards the villain and his projectiles.

Frankie, much like her sister, prevented the incoming cars from flying with gestures of her hand. Clenching her fist, she tore the car into pieces. Most of the pieces she used to block the ones closing in on civilians from above, the other ones she sent after projectiles towards Rhino.

The sisters' combined efforts didn't damage his armor, but they managed to push him back. Rhino growled his annoyance, rage filling him. He took charge, all of the projectiles barely fazing him as he drove onwards. The three heroes dodged, avoiding his horn attack.

Aleksei's horn stabbed the yellow school bus, both of his crimson horns embedded into the side of the long vehicle. In fury of rage, the former mob enforcer snapped his head up and launched the yellow bus into the air.

They followed its trajectory, seeing that it was about to fall down… On a little boy who's hugging his sister.

"No!" Evelyn shouted.

The sisters were about to jump into action, each of them leaping from their respective areas. Each of them moved at full throttle, intent on saving the innocent siblings that were about to meet their fate…

But they didn't have to act…

To their surprise, and to Aleksei's, what could only be described as a geyser of sand erupted from the concrete, blasting out of the ground in front of the small siblings. The three heroes, the two siblings and the one villain showed shocked expressions on their faces when the eruption of sand morphed… Turning into…

A humongous sand hand…

Said hand stretched out his fingers, catching the incoming bus and grabbed it tightly. Tightening its hold on it, the hand crushed it and dropped off the remains. The hand shot out of the ground, the geyser of sand following and expanding. Everyone close by watched it grow bigger and bigger, surpassing their expectations.

Shadows burst out in front of the children, Evelyn coming out of them and wrapping her arms around the small children. Throwing a glance behind to take in the expanding sand eruption, shocked to see it up close, she shadowported and got the kids to safety.

Frankie stuck to the side of a tall building, looking out and seeing the sand take a strange form, forming another arm. Ruby jumped onto a traffic light, seeing the eruption forming… a torso? Evelyn dropped off the children in her arms, returning them to their mother, before seeing the sand manifesting… a head?

The head formed cavities, making makeshift eye sockets out of sand. After a nose was formed, a mouth formed next. Every single part of the sand eruption had taken the form of a sand deity with arms, torso and a head.

Rhino immediately recognized the person in front of him. "You!"

Ruby looked up at the sand deity's side. "No… Fucking… Way!" Like the other 616er, she instantly recognized that person.

The sand being cracked his neck, glaring down at Rhino. "How about you fight someone your own size, Aleksei?"

"There is no one my size!" Rhino snarled, charging towards his new target.

Sandman raised his hand, sand molding it into a mallet, he struck down his fist on the rampaging villain. Rhino delivered an uppercut to the sand weapon, his fist smashed the hardened sand hammer, causing the sand to disperse and scatter.

Aleksei formed a victorious smile. But it quickly faded when suddenly strands of sand wrapped around his form, grabbing his appendages and pulling him up. The villain was lifted up to Sandman's face. "You're right, I'm bigger!"

With little to no effort, Sandman raised his arm and swung the villain towards a building. Rhino ricocheted off the brick building, slamming into the ground before bouncing off it. Though he intended to chase Aleksei, he reminded himself of the heroes behind him.

He turned around, looking down on the heroes. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah." Evelyn nodded.

"Thanks. But who are you?" Frankie questioned.

"No fucking way!" In a very classy manner, Ruby jumped onto the side of Sandman's face. Her sisters gave her weird looks, wondering why she thought sticking to a colossal's temples like that is a good idea. Even he gave him a strange look. "You're Flint Marko."

It was strange seeing one of Sandman's eyeless eye sockets raise up in surprise. He reached up to his temple, holding out a palm. Ruby took the hint and jumped onto his hand like a foothold, she looked into his eyes. "You know who I am?"

Eclipse shadowported her and her sister onto the hand as well. "You know this guy, sis?"

"Why does that surprise you? She knows all kinds of folks, so why's a sand deity any different?" Magenta quipped.

"He's from 616." Genysis declared, gesturing to herself. "Like me."

"Don't know about this… 616 stuff, but…" Flint looked between them. "You too look really similar to a friend of mine."

"Flint?" Sandman looked down at the building on his left, seeing two speedsters in similar suits and he saw Venom. "You're here too?"

"Seth?"

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

Standing in the Cortex, Seth, Joe, Iris, Caitlin, her and Seth's daughters and Flint watched the news unfold on the monitor. The speedsters were the only ones to not watch the news as they're out searching the city for Rhino.

The headline say.

"STAMPEDE STOPPED; SAND GOD ASCENDS"

"The rampaging threat, who's very steps rival that of an earthquake, Rhino revealed his face once again. His rampage spread far and wide, but no civilians received his wrath, thankfully, as Eclipse were there to put a halt to his destruction." The news reporter spoke, beside is video footage taken from a cellphone that shows the young hero in action. It showed her single-handedly stopping the villain with her wings and her hands when he tried to attack the school bus. "She was not the only one to face off against this raging foe, Genysis and Magenta joining the fray shortly after. And when a massive entity made of sand revealed himself, aiding the heroes in their fight, Rhino's stampede was put to a stop."

"Sand God?" Seth read the headline with a chuckle. He turned to his old friend. "Bit of a rank-up from Sandman?"

The tall Caucasian man with the muscular build smiled at that comment. He ran a hand through his short brown hair, his brown eyes taking in the other pairs of eyes looking at him. Just like from back on Earth-616, Flint Marko kept his shirt with dark and light green stripes. A dark brown belt kept his light brown pants up.

"You know the media, Seth. Likes to exaggerate, and all… Also…" Flint pointed a finger to the side, aiming it at Cisco whose finger was inches from touching his shoulder. "Is he gonna keep doing that?"

"Cisco, please stop trying to touch the guy who helped my daughters in the field." Caitlin told him, though she felt like she should have included the part where he can expand his arm into that of a giant's and actually squash him.

"Sorry, it's just… Wow." Cisco exclaimed with utter awe and disbelief at the being beside him. "I mean, he's got powers like Sand Demon, but to a greater extent." The viber said, moving around the 616er with excitement. "He really is like a… Sand God!" He excitedly gestured to the headline with the same name.

"I prefer Flint, actually." Flint told him.

"Right, Flint." Cisco nodded.

Joe ran a hand down his face, taking in the 616er after seeing the powers he's got. He figured as far as elementals would go; Seth would be one of them closest to the pinnacle. But after seeing Flint Marko turn himself into a massive sand giant, he was immediately proved wrong.

"So…" Joe took their attention. "You… You are an elemental, like Seth?"

"Not quite, he's more of a full-body elemental, everything about them is element. Muscles, blood, everything, right down to the cells in their body." Seth said, gesturing to the full-body elemental. "He can do a lot more than me, trust me."

Caitlin asked next. "Flint, how long have you been on this Earth, exactly?"

"Few days, I think." Flint replied. "It's been a bit wacko, being in a totally different place."

"And world." Iris chimed in.

"Yeah." Sandman chuckled. He turned to Seth. "Remember all those theories that Matt had about the alternative universes, put me to sleep mostly."

"Yeah, I know that. Good times." Seth remembered those moments. "But at least you're a believer now, Flint."

"Still can't get over that there's a guy who's like an upgrade of Sand Demon." Evelyn admitted with crossed arms.

Pointing a finger at the girl, Flint stated. "Okay, you're like the third person in this place who's been calling me Sand Demon, and that includes some weird kid who's been running away from me like a bat out of hell."

"Sand Demon's this metahuman from Earth-2, another parallel universe. He's like you, just way low down." Ruby explained.

"Also, "weird kid"?" Seth questioned.

Flint rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, weird kid. Brown, black hair, ya high, got sideburns and runs like Road Runner."

"Yeah, that's the guy I put in the Pipeline." Evelyn realized who he was talking about. And neither her annoyed tone nor her eye-roll escaped them.

"You put someone in the Pipeline?" Cisco asked, turning to his computers and opening up the live footage, putting it on the monitors. "Without us knowing?" He asked in surprise, showing that the cell was occupied with…

With one unconscious occupant and in handcuffs.

Iris looked at the metahuman with darkness and light. "Were the handcuffs necessary?" She asked, reminding Evelyn that the cell itself dampens his powers.

"Better than having him roaming around in the cell, trying to figure a way out." Evelyn countered.

"And knocking him out?" Joe asked.

"That was for my benefit." Evelyn said with a happy smile.

"Okay." Caitlin faced her daughter, wanting answers now. "Who is this guy to you, Evie? You obviously know him, otherwise you wouldn't have gone to these measures to prevent him from escaping a very strong cell."

"He's nothing to me!" Evelyn shouted, her exclamation shocking her parents and sisters as well as the members of their team. Inhaling deeply, she revealed. "His name's Kai Rankers, we call him Mantis. He's from Earth-2."

"Earth-2?" Cisco started. "Does that mean he's been sticking around since last year?"

"Um, no, I don't think so at least." Evelyn started. "I was thinking it might have been because of you, Cisco?"

Wide-eyed, Cisco pointed a finger at his face. "I did?"

Seth smirked, giving the viber a hyena-like look. "You kidnapping kids from other universes, Cisco?"

"Dude!" Cisco exclaimed.

Flint was glad that Seth had changed that much in the humor department… Sorta.

Chuckling to himself, Seth stated. "Kidding, but I'm thinking Eve's referring to your brawl with Gypsy a while back."

"Yeah, I thought maybe it was a side-effect from Cisco's fight with Gypsy, their battle took place on Earth-2 after all." Evelyn explained.

"Guess it's possible, no one's ever seen two vibers fight like you two did, no one would know the fallout from such a fight." Caitlin deduced.

"And this guy's a meta?" Iris directed to Evelyn.

"Yeah, he can release these blades from his arms. He uses them when stealing from people." That caught the others by surprise. Evelyn added bluntly. "Oh yeah, he's a second-rate thief from Earth-2. We call him Mantis cause all he wears is green."

"Wait, I know him." Iris realized. Everyone turned to her. "After work, Barry and I went on a lunch date, and he bumped into me, and my bag had a damaged strap. He picked it up for me."

"And stole some money from you at the same time." Evelyn deduced. Iris' eyes widened. "It's his go-to move, pretend to bump into people, cut off the straps of their bags or anything like that, pick it up for them while he gets some cash for himself."

As the metahuman spoke, Iris checked the contents of her handbag. "Looks like you're right, I'm missing some money here."

"Probably this." Evelyn showed a wad of cash and held it out for her. She accepted the money with a smile. "I gave back the money he took from another woman. Second-rate thieves can't hold their scores no matter what."

"Glad to hear honey, but that better be the case for anyone you steal from." Caitlin sternly instructed her daughter. "So what's the plan?"

Joe looked at his daughter. "Sweetie, you got something on Starlight Cannery, don't you?"

"Yeah, back at CCPN. I can bring it over at the station, we can go over it together." Iris stated.

"Fine, I'll have Barry meet up with us after he and Wally do their survey." Joe stated.

"I'll join you guys after." Seth said.

"After?" Iris asked.

"After…" Seth turned to Evelyn. "Me and my daughter talk to our second-rate thief in the cells."

"Great, I have to talk to that dick." Evelyn released a frustrated sigh.

"She's usually not like this." Venom noted.

"Yeah, something's going on between these two, alright." Seth agreed. "She and I are gonna talk to Kai, get some answers. After that, I'll meet up with you two and Barry at the station…" He turned to the detective. "And then the five of us are gonna go on an exploration trip… At Starlight Cannery."

"Five?" Joe questioned.

Seth threw a glance in Flint's direction. "Ready for a field trip, buddy?"

"Oh brother." Flint was drained of all colors.

X

Pants of exhaustion and pain mixed together, Aleksei took residence on the ground of a trash yard, sitting on top of a rusty old black Impala. He put a hand to his chest, clutching it tightly. "Гавно!" He cursed in his native tongue to himself, enraged by this ordeal with the three young heroes and Sandman from his native world.

Dealing with Sandman again so quickly on this Earth left him in tatters and in pain. Their second encounter was worsened from his fight with the three young heroes. The number of enemies increased a lot with the addition of Flint Marko.

… And now the number of walls around the rat he aimed to strike down have increased as well…

"Mr. Sytsevich." Rhino looked up, shock hiding behind the lenses over his eyes, as he saw Otto Octavius walk towards him with the aid of his mechanical arms. "I take it the rat remains breathing and still holds precious knowledge?"

"Yes." Aleksei forced himself back to his feet with a groan. "Trouble stopped me."

"Yeah." Scorpion revealed himself, latching onto a car. "Sandy showed his face again, whooping your ass again like you're nothing."

Rhino growled at him. "Enough." Otto ordered, the two of them stopping what would definitely escalate into another raging fight. "You know the whereabouts of the so-called rat?"

"No, only who's he's with." Aleksei answered.

This time Otto gave a sigh of frustration, already knowing who was holding him close. "So it seems Venom and his allies have moved the first piece on the board, taking the pawn that was supposed to be ours. Now guarded by arrays of knights, each with a unique sword. Interesting play, indeed."

"Boss, you lost us." Scorpion admitted, feeling his brain hurt. "What's the play?"

"…" Otto smirked to himself.

Since they had valuable information to exploit, he might as well exploit the information they have.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

Moving his eyes behind his lids, Kai stirred on the floor before sitting back up. He groaned as he did so. His eyes snapped wide open when he took in his surroundings. Everything around him was panels made with some kind of blue panel. Moving his hands, he realized he couldn't, courtesy of the big handcuffs restraining his movements.

"What the what?" Kai said, trying to move his hands again. "What are these?"

"First time you've seen cuffs?"

Kai snapped his head to the front of the cell, looking out the glass cell door. He saw Evelyn standing there and with her was another guy in a brown suede leather trenchcoat. "Oh, not like this, I mean." He admitted with a glance at his cuffs. "Where am I?"

Seth walked forward, tapping on the cell door with the back of his fingers. "Containment cell, designed to keep metahumans in check and prevent them from causing havoc in the public. This alone can stop your powers."

"My powers." Kai gulped. "You know about my powers?" He glanced at Evelyn. "Wait, Evie, did you tell them about my powers?"

"I did." Evelyn bluntly said. "Figured it was best for an untrustworthy asshole like you."

"Seriously? Where am I? And who is this guy?" Kai asked, pointing his restrained hands at Seth.

"Unfortunately for you, kid, this isn't the kind of situation where you get to ask questions. It's the opposite, we ask the questions, you answer. Understood?" Seth said. Before Kai could think of a response, he quickly added. "That was a question, for the record."

"Yeah, understood." For some reason, Kai couldn't help but agree to the terms. Plus, the guy was scaring the hell out of him.

"Good." Seth nodded, starting the questioning. "First of, name?"

"Kai Rankers." Kai replied.

"Where do you live?" Seth asked.

"Central City… Um, on another Earth, if I get what Evie's been saying, you know." Kai unsurely answered.

Seth chuckled. "Understandable, theories about the multiverse are just that: Theories until they're proven. Bit different when you actually experience it. So since you're here, how long have you been here? And on that, how's your stay been?"

"A few days or so, been a bit busy. My experience with this Earth's been less than stellar." Kai admitted.

"Busy?" Evelyn jumped in. "You're talking like stealing's your job or something, dumbass."

Kai defended himself. "I needed the cash to skip town since I had a raging rhinoceros on my ass. Excuse me, for wanting to bail instead of getting rammed by a freaking horn!"

"If he went for your head, it'd just mean more empty air!" Evelyn shouted.

"Do I look like I have a death wish?!" Kai gestured to himself.

"Okay, okay, kids! Clam it!" He told them both, even clapping his hands together one time to get their attention. "Evie, honey, please take five."

"Seriously, Dad?" Evelyn faced her father.

"Dad?" Kai looked between the two. "Thought your Dad and mom were killed."

"Shut up!" Evelyn exclaimed at him.

"Evie, I am serious. Come on, take five. Don't worry about this one here, I'll keep an eye on the kid here." Evelyn huffed in rage, in a cartoonish manner, almost blowing out smoke. But a final stern look from Seth made her huff one last time before she turned around, walking away in a stride. His attention turned back to Kai. "Not often Evelyn gets angry like this, much less tearing someone a new one like she does with you."

"Yeah…" Kai trailed off, not knowing what to say in his defense. "You're Evie's Dad?"

"Okay, fine. I'll answer some of the questions on your mind since my daughter's been a bit." Seth inhaled, revealing. "My name's Seth Fury, the father who adopted Evelyn a year ago. Her name's Evelyn Snow-Fury now, actually."

"Snow-Fury?" Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Snow is her mother's side."

"Your wife?"

"Girlfriend, actually." Seth answered. Kai nodded his understanding. "How do you know my daughter?"

"Asking as her father or my… interrogator?" Kai asked. The mutant showed a steadfast look, one that told the metahuman it was both. "We ran in the same circles. Thick as thieves and all that."

"Okay. You stuck with those with the same hobbies as you, not a good hobby though." Seth added. Kai shrugged his shoulders with a dry look. "Your powers, how'd you get them?"

"Particle Accelerator explosion on my… Earth." Kai thought it was weird saying out loud still. "Jumped through a vent in the ground, tried to escape some… unpleasant people." Seth figured it must have been the wrong people he stole from, and they sought to retrieve what was theirs. "Ended up in the sewers, that freakish wave hit me and knocked him into a wall. I woke up afterwards, and I could…" He clenched his fists, trying to demonstrate his powers. But when they didn't, he remembered the power-dampening cuffs on his hands.

"Friday, disable the cuffs' tech." Seth told the AI.

"Got it, Boss." Friday obliged.

Kai looked at his cuffs, seeing the color change from green to red. Understanding what it means, he clenched his fists again and this time long curved silver blades ejected from the sides of his forearms. "This feels more like normal."

"Razor-sharp silver blades ejecting from the arms." Seth examined the metahuman's arms with intrigue. "Resembles Darian's powers."

"Don't remind us of Spike Boy, would you? We don't like that guy." Venom ordered his host.

"Like that's anything new, you don't like anyone." Seth told his "other," who did not argue a single time. Fully agreeing with that statement. "Neat trick you got. Next question, why do you bring the worst out of my daughter?"

Kai gulped this time, his blades retracting. "That's… A bit of… Let's just say, I haven't been the best of friends to your daughter."

"Honesty? Nice job, kid." Seth said, his "other" verifying his words. "You wanna tell me about that?"

"… Honestly sir, not really. Figure it's best for Evie to hear first." Kai replied.

"… Okay, I'll let it be for now." Seth accepted. "Onto the more important question then."

Already knowing the answer, Kai answered. "That Rhino guy? Yeah… He chased me after I stumbled into… Him and his posse."

"What? How?" Seth questioned, narrowing his eyes.

"You know that old cannery on the outskirts of the city?"

Seth asked. "Starlight Cannery?"

"Yup." Kai nodded. "On my Earth, that place used to be sorta the local hangout spot for kids like me. Evie used to hang out there too."

"Explains her reaction when she heard the name." Seth nodded.

"Yeah, and that place on my Earth was practically my home." Seth wondered what that meant. Kai continued. "I found the place, and made a beeline to it. I found the same exact secret entrance I used on my turf, and BAM!" He clapped his hands, well as best as he could with restraints. "That Rhino guy bulldozed his way towards me. I turned tail, trying to run away and then… Sand Demon showed up, fighting for my head."

"Not Sand Demon, it's Sandman. A close friend of mine, a hero who tried to save you." Seth corrected him. "If he hadn't been tailing you since Starlight, you may have gotten yourself flattened by now and become a bloody pancake."

"My hero…" He quipped to himself.

"He is." Seth assured him. "You said there's a secret entrance in Starlight? Where?"

Kai scratched his head. "I'm pretty sure you don't need me to tell you that, sir. You wanna hike into that hellhole, trust me, you're gonna find the entrance easily. Well, what remains of it, anyway."

Letting each piece of information settle in, Seth declared after some thinking. "Thanks for it, Kai. But for now, I think it's best if you stay in the cell." As he said that, the cuffs were turned on again and Kai cooed his disappointment. "Sorry kid, but this cell and us are the best to protect you. Sinister Seven isn't much for loose ends, and you got valuable information on you. Their hideout is something they'd wanna keep hidden, even kill for it." The mutant moved towards the panel, raising his hand to it about to close it.

"Seven?" Kai asked, that made Seth stop in his tracks. "I only saw six of them. Chased by one, though."

"Six, not seven?" Seth thought. That piece of information shocked him, and he had to deal with it, him and his team. He pressed his fingers to the panel, making a circular motion. The gate closed down and he turned around, walking down the small ramp. "Evie?"

He came to a stop, looking to the side and saw Evelyn leaning against the wall with a disapproving look. "I don't like this, Dad. He could just end up bringing massive problems over the building, it'll just bite us in the ass."

"Honey, while I don't understand or know why you have such strong resentment toward him, though I'm sure you have your reasons, Kai is a person of interest now and needs protecting. He's got a target on his back the size of Texas." Seth stated. "We're the only ones that can protect him."

"And he's just given us a hint on SS's location too, I know." Evelyn groaned. "I don't trust him, Dad. I know he's our compass to their hideout, but he could just lead us into a trap."

"Whether it's a trap or not honey, our destination's not gonna change, it's still a hellmouth." Seth walked over to his daughter, putting a hand on her shoulder. Evelyn looked up into his eyes. "If you're uncomfortable talking about it with me, lean on your mother and your sisters, honey."

"Trust me, Dad, you're probably the one who knows it best, except for Ruby." Seth widened his eyes when hearing her say that. "Later, okay." She didn't wait for a response, walking away and towards the Cortex.

"You think it's got something to do with her origins?" Venom questioned his host.

"No matter how far we go, our origins will find their way back to us. Standing in our way." Seth replied.

And as he thought so, he remembered how Frankie recalled her origins when she faced off against Rajeet Kumar. The fight she had with Carnage allowed her to awaken and realize her potential.

Perhaps the same fate awaits Evelyn.

X

(CCPD)

Standing by his desk Joe looked over the blueprints of the abandoned factory of Starlight Cannery. But after looking at it for what felt like hours, he felt unable to find something. He waited for Iris and Barry to get here soon, hoping whatever his daughter found may shed some light on the matter.

Maybe show something he hasn't found.

A plastic coffee cup came into his field of vision, swaying back and forth.

"What the?" Joe cocked his head back, seeing who's holding the cup in his face.

His expression returned to normal when seeing it was Rufus who had come to his desk. "Cup of Joe, Joe?"

"Oh great, you got the same jokes as my daughter." Joe sarcastically said, accepting the cup.

As he sipped on it, Rufus smiled widely. "Ah, so the daughter has great humor. You could learn a thing or two from her."

"Shut up." Joe spat back.

Rufus smirked, drinking from his own cup. His eyes turned downward, facing the blueprints. Removing his cup from his mouth, he said. "That's the blueprints for Starlight. Why are you looking at them?"

"A source of mine said someone was at Starlight earlier. He's the reason why there's a rampaging rhino in the city." Joe answered.

"Remember the days when we didn't have to worry about rampaging rhinos, maniac villains and heroes in gimp suits?" Rufus chuckled.

"Gimp suits?" Joe raised an eyebrow.

"Hey." Iris got the two men's attention, Barry following her in quick strides. "Sorry we're late."

"Yeah, got… Held up with Wally." Barry answered. He faced Rufus, giving him a surprised look. "Who's this?"

"Took the words out of my mouth, kid." Rufus looked at Joe. "Who're these two?"

"Barry Allen, our CSI. Iris West, my daughter and prized reporter of CCPN." Joe introduced them.

"Oh right, forgot you adopted some kid from a guy who knifed his wife." Rufus bluntly commented.

"That's a fun way to describe my father." Barry muttered.

Joe tapped his shoulder. "Rufus, that case was resolved. Henry was framed."

"Oh right, heard that too." Rufus recalled. "Good for you, kid." He delivered a pat on Barry's back. "And Iris here, is your daughter?"

"Yeah, and…" Iris pulled out a blueprint from her handbag. "I got something after doing some research on Starlight Cannery." She smiled when seeing that her father had the same idea as her.

"Already looked at the blueprints, honey." Joe informed her as she placed her blueprints over the one he had brought.

"You looked at the current blueprints, Dad. Not the old ones." Iris stated.

"Old ones?" Rufus looked intrigued. "You wanna dig up the history?"

"Best place to look if it has answers." Iris placed a finger on the old blueprints. "And it does. These are some of the old blueprints for Starlight before it became a cannery, they're from 1925. Now back then, there were a series of tunnels under the foundation during the Prohibition."

"Yeah, yeah, bootleggers used those. Smuggled in some of the good stuff back then." Rufus recalled.

Iris nodded. "Exactly, and apparently these tunnels connected to a large underground area, which wasn't used for years, decades even." As she explained, she had her finger trail the tunnel path on the blueprints. "Apparently, that area was used for storage, keeping it away from the law."

"It was never found either, been sitting there for a while now." Rufus deduced the reporter's thoughts. "You thinking those big-ass villains are using that spot as their hangout and trading cards?"

"Looks like it, yeah." Barry admitted.

"Huh." Rufus grinned, but Joe saw there was a hollowness to his smile, it wasn't one of joy. "It's a good idea."

"But?" Joe asked, knowing already what the FBI agent was thinking.

Rufus tapped the area. "I have a gut feeling that whatever's down there, neither cops or FBI agents can handle it."

"Yeah, looks like Flash or Venom might be the ones to contact for this one." Iris stated, turning to face her father and the FBI agent.

"Ah, looks like she got the brains of the family. Explains why your head's always so empty." Rufus tapped Joe's head.

"Shut up." Joe countered, slapping his hand away.

"Joe." Turning his head around, Joe saw Seth coming towards them. A mental groan came from the detective at the thought of him and Rufus in the same building.

"Seth." Joe greeted his partner.

"This your partner?" Rufus asked, pointing a finger at him. The detective nodded, the agent smirking. "Figured you were done with babysitting by now, Joe."

Seth heard the words, countering. "Oh yeah, shouldn't a fossil like you be resting your ass in a museum somehow, collecting dust up your crack?"

"Oh, he's got jokes, this one." Rufus noted, mildly impressed.

"Trust me, old timer, you ain't seeing nothing yet." Seth smirked. "But seriously, who's this guy? Janitor or something?" He directed to Joe.

"Remember the old friend I mentioned before?" Joe gestured to Rufus. "Rufus Turner, old friend and old P.I. turned formal FBI agent. Rufus, this is Seth Fury, civilian consultant to CCPD and my partner."

"Looks like a crook, this kid." Rufus commented.

"Thanks." Seth smiled. "Also, I may have gotten something on Starlight."

"What is it?" Joe questioned.

"There are tunnels under the factory?" Seth asked when seeing the old blueprints on the detective's desk. Iris confirmed it with a nod. "With a secret entrance?"

"Secret entrance?" Barry asked.

"Our special source told me of a secret entrance, which may not be so secret anymore after Rhino forced his way through it." Seth revealed.

"Matches with the facility's history." Joe nodded. "Gotta tell Wally about this too, he's worried too."

"Wally?" Rufus raised an eyebrow. "Who that?"

"My son." Joe answered. The FBI agent gave him a confused look. "What? I just told you, it's my son."

"Oh, I heard you, I just don't believe you." Rufus started. "Figured you'd be shooting dust after this one." He pointed a finger to Iris. Seth snickered to himself, Barry and Iris coughed sheepishly at the joke. "I mean, you must be shooting dust by now, right?"

"I like this guy." Seth thought to himself.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

Flint Marko looked around the Cortex with awe-expanding eyes, taking in everything that's around him. Granted he's seen bigger, having spent most of his time in S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities, occasionally it being either a holding cell, prison cell or a laboratory.

Suffice to say, he knows quite a few of the organization's facilities and what they make with their money.

The 616er turned his head to one of the monitors, replaying the footage of Aleksei bulldozing his way through the city. The sight of his rampage and the damage left as the aftermath didn't shock him, he was quite used to it from his times on Earth-616, and even more so.

"Reminds you of home?" Caitlin asked Flint, stepping up to his side.

"Reminds me of the usual on my Earth, yeah." Flint admitted with a nod. "With villains like Aleksei running amok like they own the city, crushing buildings in their wake and enjoying the havoc they cause." He crossed his arms. "Reminds me, sure, but not in a good way."

"Figured as much. Don't think our city's used to the Sinister Seven's actions yet." Caitlin stated.

Sandman turned in her direction. "Seven?"

"Yeah, they have Taskmaster on their side." Caitlin informed him.

That made Flint narrow his eyes in shock. "Taskmaster's joined them? That doesn't sound like him. Mercenaries aren't like that, joining a pack like the SS."

"Seth thought the same, but it's happening and our city's on the receiving end." Caitlin admitted.

Ruby, from the ceiling, looked down at her mother. "I wouldn't be worried about that, Mom. City's got us and Sandman himself." She nodded to the other 616er.

Sitting on the console railing, Evelyn warned Flint. "Careful, anyone from 616 who's been on an adventure with our Dad, she goes complete fangirl."

"Bite me, klepto." Ruby dropped down from the ceiling. "But I gotta ask you something, Flint."

"Shoot." He spoke.

"Is it true you fought both Dad and Spider-Man at a beach, and it ended up with the three of you saving the crew on an oil tanker at sea?" Ruby asked excitedly like a child on Christmas Eve.

Nervously laughed, Flint replied. "Yeah, that happened, we fought as enemies once and then that oil tanker caught on fire. The three of us took care of it, saving the crew before it exploded. Big event that happened back then. But also some bad memories for me, honestly."

"Okay." Ruby accepted, knowing he didn't wanna dig up his old and awful past again. "Really wanted to ask why he disappeared after that event?"

It was something she had done extensive research on back during her days as her birth mother's HYDRA assassin. After the three heroes saved the crew on that oil tanker, Sandman somehow and for some reason disappeared off the face of the Earth, nowhere to be found. Back then, he was seen as a villain, a hired gun for those paying. However, that all changed once he emerged again, standing as a guardian, like so many other heroes, against all evil that tries to threaten his city.

She wanted to know why and what made him change that way.

Her thoughts were broken when Frankie dropped out of the skylight, entering the Cortex. As her suit slithered back into her body, Evelyn and Ruby caught sight of the paper bags and soda cups from Big Belly Burger.

Realizing what the bags were for, Evelyn gave the loudest groan ever in her life. One that definitely made Cisco and her mother give her strange looks. "Do we seriously have to feed that dick?" She asked everyone in the room.

"Does she not care whether this guy lives or dies?" Magenta asked her host.

"Or his basic needs as a living being?" Frankie wondered as well.

Cisco pitched in. "You want him to starve to death?"

"Wouldn't be the worst thing nor would it be the first body that's dropped dead in this place, you know?" Evelyn quipped hollowly, not caring how dark she sounds now.

Caitlin sighed, walking over to Frankie. "Seeing as Evie's not up to feeding our newest inmate…" She accepted the food and drinks from her daughter. "I will be the one to feed him."

"Thanks, Mom. Don't wanna see that dick anytime, or anywhere at all." Evelyn admitted with another groan.

"Okay, that's good enough for me." Caitlin said, moving towards the exit.

The computer chimed; Cisco looked at the screen. "Uh, Flint?" He turned around, facing the viber. "Seth wants you back at Starlight. You need a breach?"

"Don't know what that is, but I think I'm good." Before another offer of transportation came his way, Flint stood under the open skylight and transformed into sand. The sand fell to the ground, forming a pile of sand. The heap burst into the air, releasing a burst of sand that shot out through the skylight.

"That… was awesome!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly.

X

(The Pipeline)

Turning her fingers around in a circular motion on the panel, Caitlin turned her eyes to the gateway and watched it slide open. She stepped out to the middle of it, standing in front of it and saw Kai's cell come into her field of vision.

She was mildly surprised when she saw Kai on the ground, his back on the floor and his legs leaning up against the back wall. With his restrained hands, he was twiddling his fingers together.

"Kai?" She called out. Getting his attention, Kai pushed himself up to his feet and saw the unfamiliar woman. "Hungry?" She waved the bag in front of the cell.

"Starving, actually." Kai looked at her with narrowed eyes. "You look familiar, have we met?"

For some reason, he felt a chill run down his spine at the sight of her. Kai subconsciously stepped backwards.

"Yeah, kinda. You've met my doppelganger, Killer Frost." Caitlin sheepishly told him.

"Doppelganger?" Kai gulped, fearing another awfully long explanation was coming.

"Long story short: She's my mirror image on your Earth. Don't worry, I'm good." Caitlin assured him, opening up a section on the cell, revealing a board. "And I'm Evelyn's mother." Putting the food on the board, she pushed it into the cell.

"You're Evie's Mom? And thanks." Kai said, rushing to the food. He went to take the food, but the handcuffs stopped him.

Caitlin saw his reaction. "How about you and I make a deal?" Kai looked at her. "I remove these cuffs, you get to eat properly, and you answer some questions of mine?"

Looking back down at his wrists, the male metahuman turned to the food in the paper bag. Even though it was closed, he could smell the smell of greasy burgers and crispy French fries, both of which are making his stomach growl. Turning back to Caitlin, he gave her a nod, agreeing to her conditions.

"Friday, remove his cuffs." Caitlin called out to the AI.

"On it, Boss Lady." The AI obliged, the cuffs turning off and falling off his hands.

"Thank you." He said in gratitude, turning to the bag of food and diving into it.

While in the process of shoving a burger into his mouth, Caitlin chuckled and asked. "I need you to be honest with me on this, Kai." He nodded, adding a handful of fries into his gullet. "Why does my daughter hate you?"

The question made him stiffen his body, even his mouth stopping to move. Pieces of chewed burger and fries falling out of his mouth. Kai quickly snatched the soda, removed the lid and poured it down his throat. Having forced all of his food down again, the metahuman inhaled deeply. "That's a bit of a story."

"You're not going anywhere, are you?" Caitlin quipped.

Kai nervously looked around, seeing the walls surrounding him again. "True." He inhaled deeply again, walking up to the cell door and putting his hands in his pockets. "You know she and I ran in the same circles once?" Caitlin nodded.

"Well, ran is the keyword. It was before Evie's parents were…"

"Before they were killed, she was on the run from the law and Zoom's henchmen." Caitlin finished off.

"Yeah. We went to high school together and all before Wells' explosion happened." Kai started. "Then it happened, we got our powers, and we changed our lives. We ran together as well, trying to stay under the radar… But I didn't see her for a week or something. Next thing, I'm hearing she killed her parents with her new powers. And everyone turned their backs on her without a second thought."

"You too?" Caitlin rather stated than asked.

"… Not my finest moment, honestly." Kai admitted. "She got her powers, just like me, and she went to me after that one week. But back then… I did the same as everyone else and turned my back to her."

"My daughter's holding a grudge." Caitlin deduced. "Not like her."

Kai chuckled. "Not like her?" He laughed to himself again. "She really isn't like she was back then, on our Earth. Last time I saw her, she was scared, terrified of both Zoom and the police force. But now… She's a completely different person. I mean, she wasn't even scared of that gigantic Rhino guy! It was unbelievable!"

"The Evelyn Sharp you knew of on Earth-2…" Caitlin trailed off, getting the other metahuman's undivided attention. "She was a bud, one that hadn't blossomed yet. The Evelyn Snow-Fury you saw out there, she's the flower that grew on the soil and the foundation that Evelyn Sharp made for her. Long ago, she may have been someone who needed protection, but now… She's a protector of this city and all those in it."

Kai couldn't disagree with her. Rather he wholeheartedly agreed with what she's saying actually. Evelyn had blossomed into a protector that wouldn't flinch in face of anyone, be it Zoom or an entire organization of villains. She'd stand standfast no matter what is in front of her. If a wall stood between her and saving the innocents, she'd be an arrow that'd not only pierce it but also demolish that barricade.

That was the person she was now… Nothing like before…

X

(Starlight Cannery)

Seth stepped up to the gates. He turned his head around, facing the others with him. Iris had a gun ready, one provided by her father. Joe cocked his shotgun, making sure it was ready. Barry, without his suit, stood ready as well with his girlfriend and the detective. Flint looked up with a determined look, ready to face whatever's on the other side of the factory gates.

"Hold on to your seats, folks." Seth stated. Black symbiotic miasma spread around his arms. As the mass spread to his hands, he flexed his fingers and they turned to claws. Reeling both arms back, his arms turned into adamantium before he slammed them into the gates.

The gates creaked, and a distinct metal clanging emitted from the gates. Barry reminded the elemental. "Seth, there's a lock on it."

But with a sharp intake of air, the mutant pried the doors open and a loud sound of metal splitting followed shortly. The gates pushed to either side of him. Seth stepped to the side, gesturing to the broken chain and lock on the ground. "And I had a key on me, like I said." He reminded the speedster.

Flint was surprised that Seth was still the same as ever. "Brute force as always."

"Best universal key there is, never fails." Seth chuckled. They entered the facility, passing through the gates and looked around in shock at their surroundings. Despite being old and abandoned for an expensive period of time, everything remained there.

Rusty tables with large empty trays. Dysfunctional cannery lines were around them, even over their heads. Along with those lines they are pipes, meant to pour oil into cans to preserve the contents. But what stood out the most are the shell casings on the floor, some of them rolling across the floor from the breeze coming from the open gates. The other thing that stood out as well are the splashes of dried blood on either the floor or the walls.

"Can't believe the blood on the ground." Barry said. It wasn't something he'd be used to.

"There's a story about this place?" Flint asked.

"Tale as old as time:" Iris started. "A truck driver worked here when it's seen better days. He found out that his wife's been cheating on him… With his boss. He didn't take that news too lightly, to say the least."

"What'd he do?" Seth asked, intrigued by the story as well.

"Once his shift ended, he returned home and brought a shotgun back with him. He used it on the wife who broke his heart." Iris continued. "Then, same day, he returned to Starlight and used his weapon on his coworkers, his friends, the staff and other factory workers. He finished his quest for revenge with his weapon trained on his boss."

"Finally ending the same man who dug a knife into his back." Seth stated. "Hell of a bedtime story, gotta remember that one for my daughters."

"Maybe granddaughters, pal." Flint countered, his own children being too old for bedtime stories.

"Don't pull that thread, man. He'll go ballistic." Joe teased the mutant, who shot him a dead glare.

"What's the plan, then?" Barry questioned their entire group.

Seth turned his head. "We pair up, and scour. Each human goes with a powered being, covering each other's back. Barry and Iris, you two go together, search everything on the left. Josephine and I will scour the right. Flint, you search for that secret entrance and scour ahead of it, looking for anything nasty."

"Wouldn't it be smarter if we all made a beeline for the entrance?" Flint asked.

"Well, unlike most of us, Flint, you can survive being hit by massive blunt force. If Rhino or the rest of the SS are here, then me and Barry need to get Joe and Iris out before they get in the way." Seth answered.

"Understood." Flint accepted, turning into sand and slithered into the cracks in the floor.

Seth gave a nod to Iris and Barry, the two of them walking towards the left to begin their investigation. A nudge in his shoulder made the mutant look in the detective's direction, Joe retracting his shotgun. "What is it?"

"You okay with this entire mess?" Joe asked the mutant as they stepped towards the right.

"What do you mean?" Seth questioned.

Giving his partner a dry look, Joe replied. "You sure about this plan, I mean? We're going after the same people that hurt your children, Seth. I just wanna make sure you don't go-"

"Berserk?" Seth cut him off. Joe didn't argue with that. "I understand your concern, but this way it's better. I can handle them, and Flint's here too." The detective noted hints of confidence and trust in his voice. "What about you? You okay with this case; I know your friend brought it along but still…"

"Rufus brings more trouble wherever he walks, even back in the day. So for him to bring this to our attention, means a lot." Joe stopped, facing the mutant. "About this Flint Marko fella, how'd you know him?"

"Long story for that, Joe." Seth stated, the detective looked interested and wanted that story. "Flint was a villain back then, but he showed that he was a hero after he helped me and Peter when an oil tanker exploded. We saved the crew together back then; he even got us out of the way before it exploded. He disappeared after that… Then I heard from an info broker that Sandman was spotted on a secluded island. I told Peter and… We went together."

As Seth explained everything, he remembered the entire event…

X

(Flashback)

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet's thrusters flared loudly, increasing the output and propelled the aircraft further ahead. The wide blue ocean under the jet rumbled and shook with the thrusters' increasing power.

Inside of the jet, Seth Rogers sat in the pilot seat, steering their aircraft. Granted, he did little to no steering of the jet as the autopilot feature had been turned on. But what he constantly looked at is the small screen on the panel, checking that the cloaking was enabled.

"You're still worried about that?" His "other" asked his host.

Seth mentally chuckled at his partner's words. Of course, he was worried. Not only had he stolen a Quinjet from his father's organization, but he's also using it for a rogue mission…

With a reliable… and unreliable partner…

"You really didn't think of adding a radio here?" Peter Parker, better known as Spider-Man, asked as he crawled on the insides of the canopy.

"Beats the purpose of stealth, Pete." Seth looked up; his head uncomfortably close to the spider-hero's backside. "Also, get back in your seat again, would you? Your ass's covering everything."

Pete looked over his shoulder, glancing down at his rear. "Think my butt's too big?"

"Down!" Seth snapped his fingers, pointing a finger to the co-pilot's seat. Peter chuckled to himself, jumping into his seat. "I brought you in on this mission, don't make me regret it."

"Anyone ever tell you; you sound like your dad." Peter stroked his chin in thought, giving the mutant a thorough look. "Think you could pull off the eyepatch, too."

"I'd rather tear it off than steal my dad's schtick." Seth countered. "And I'm sure he's gonna tear me a new one for this mess we're about to get into."

Peter leant back in his chair, strapping him with the belt. "Considering what Flint did for us last time, it's worth it. We owe Flint for saving our butts back then, it's personal now."

"Agreed." Seth nodded his head. He truly hoped that Flint was on that secluded island. The mutant agrees with the spider-hero, after being saved by Sandman it was personal now. They owed it to him to save him or help him at least.

A chime on his radar made the elemental look at it. "We're close."

Spider-Man checked his web-shooters, both of them loaded with web fluid. "Ready to go. Speaking of, when you said it was a secluded island, you meant-"

"Tropical."

Peter nodded his head. "Got it, tropical island." Realization dawned on him. "Wait, what tropical island?"

"The one under us." Seth pointed a finger downwards.

Looking out from the window, Peter's eyes turned downwards and widened at what's in his sights.

A gorgeous sand-covered tropical island is right under their noses. Towering palm trees, clearly visible even from their elevated vantage point. Water crashed against the shore from all around the island. Forestry is blooming in the middle of the island, sandy shores outlining it. Under the deep blue beautiful sky…

The island looked akin to paradise…

"You know, I expected more of a prison in the middle of nowhere, not a gorgeous tropical island." Peter nodded.

"Think everyone in Lost thought the same when they saw their island." Seth quipped, getting up from his seat. "I'm gonna keep the jet up in the air at this position, high enough to avoid any tracking or attacks but high enough for either of us to not get back in."

"We're jumping?" Peter asked, getting out of his seat next.

"Wanna back out? Last chance if so." Seth told him, the two of them moving towards the cargo.

Peter showed his decision as he pushed the button on the side, opening up the cargo doors. "Always liked sand between my toes."

"Just not in your suit." Seth quipped. They moved to the open cargo doors and without hesitation the two jumped out of the jet.

At almost the exact time, Seth and Peter shot a tendril and a webline respectively. They both connected to the underside of the jet. Both leaped off the aircraft and shot towards the island. Spiraling around, the mutant landed on the sand. His feet embedded into it, and as so, symbiote mass slithered out of him and ensnared him. After it engulfed his head, Venom snarled after a sharp intake of tropical air. Spider-Man used the elemental's shoulder as a springboard, jumping off of him and onto a palm tree.

"So where we looking?" Spider-Man asked.

"Deeper in there." Venom said, jumping onto a palm tree. "The broker said he's here, but that's all we know."

"You think Flint's here of his own will? Like some kind of self-isolation?" Peter wondered.

"Sandman's a villain in society's eyes. Saving the crew and us from an oil tanker won't change that." Seth replied. "But it's a start, at least. Let's find him…"

Hearing the words and the tone, Spider-Man stated. "Sounds like you got a bad feeling."

"You too." Seth deduced.

The two jumped into the air, shooting out tendrils and weblines that attached to tall trees around them. Yanking on them, they launched towards them. Both of them jumped from tree to tree, making their way deeper into the forest.

After what felt like hours of traveling through forestry, the heroes came to a stop to catch their breath.

"Not a single sign of Flint anywhere." Peter noted with concern and worry. He panted in exhaustion, putting a hand to his chest. "I'm beginning to think he's not even here."

"Same here." Seth admitted, his hand digging into the bark on the tree he's standing on. Rage began to boil in him, making his claws tear into the bark. As his fingers curl, piercing deeper into the trunk, pieces of wooden skin falling down to the ground.

When it fell to the ground… Landing on the sand with a thud… Something happened…

Pushing sand away, four hexagonal shaped turrets appeared out of the ground and turned their weaponry on the pieces of bark. Peter and Seth watched in shock and fear as the energy bullets came flying from four different turrets, blasting the pieces of wood to dust. Any pieces that remained were immediately targeted, blasted into nothingness.

Not even dust remained after the numerous energy shots. Neither Peter nor Seth moved a muscle, not an inch, they remained still and watched the turrets carefully. After each of them turned around, scanning their surroundings. When finding nothing, they returned to the ground.

Both Seth and Peter looked at each other. "Tropical." The elemental chuckled.

"If you like dangerous turrets and all that mess that comes along." Spider-Man quipped. His eyes looked back down at the ground where the turrets ejected from. "I think I've seen those turrets before?"

"Too big and too advanced for New York thugs." Seth stated, recalling the spider-hero's usual targets.

"I was actually thinking of A.I.M." Peter clarified.

That name made Seth raise an eye. Advanced Idea Mechanics, rather known as A.I.M., is an organization of an array of genius scientists. Genius, but not for the sake of goodness. With their genius minds, they sought to acquire and develop power through technology. This dangerous organization supplies arms and technology to radicals and subversive organizations to birth a violent technological revolution of society whilst filling their own pockets.

A worrisome thought crossed Seth's mind. "What if A.I.M has something to do with Sandman's disappearance?"

"Flint's powers are caused by a super collider that altered his body by bonding it with sand, down to the molecular level. It'd check their boxes in a sense." Peter noted.

"And fill their pockets when they provide armies with soldiers with sand powers. Immortal to physical blunt force, able to regenerate limbs and survive even the deadliest of attacks…" Venom feared the thought of what might happen if every malicious organization in the world possessed those kindz of soldiers.

"And each and every one of them could possibly control vast amounts of sand for their own benefits. Beaches and deserts would become one with them." Spider-Man thought the same, thinking along the same lines as the elemental.

"We need to find Flint." Venom stated.

"And fast." Spider-Man looked down at the ground under them again, his eyes looking over the ground again. "And I know how."

Seth looked worried. "How?"

"Like this!" Peter jumped off the branch.

The only thing Seth could think of was slapping himself when he saw Peter purposely forcing the turrets out and began shooting him.

Seth cracked his neck, joining his friend.

Their search for Sandman had begun, and they weren't gonna stop.

(Flashback End)

X

"Seth?!"

Eyes blinked rapidly when Seth was snapped out of his thoughts, his trip down memory lane coming to an abrupt halt when Joe slapped his shoulder. "Sorry, got lost in my thoughts for a second." The mutant apologized.

"Glad that was it. Was about to smack you with this." Joe waved his shotgun to empathize his words. "I know you asked about the story, but didn't think you'd stop in the middle and just daze off like that."

"Sorry." Seth stated. "Think the others have found anything on their end?"

"I don't know, honestly. But I'm worried. Especially about Iris." Joe lowered his firearm, facing his friend again. "You know, last time she was on the job, she roped Wally into it and was almost killed."

Seth knows the basis for his concerns, but the detective himself doesn't. Iris putting her life on the line for a story and scoop like she did with the arms dealer story was something that shocked the entire team, and even more shocking to Joe and Barry. Of course, one of them knew why it was happening and the other didn't.

And that fact continued to ache the mutant, making him increasingly angry, beyond normal levels.

"Calm yourself, Seth. For now… However hard it is, we have to respect Iris' wishes." Venom told his host, releasing soothing waves to calm him and to ease his pain.

"I know… Doesn't make it any easier." Seth told his partner. Facing Joe, he said. "Joe, sorry to remind you of this, but your kids… Best word that describes them is "Determination." Once they get something on their mind, they're like homing missiles and will always find their target. They'll finish their goal no matter what. Figured you'd be used to it by now."

"Funny, but no, you're not wrong." Joe nodded his agreement. "I'm worried they're gonna run themselves ragged and into a lion's den like Barry does with danger. And I can't be there to help them out of it."

"Take it from a guy who sends his daughters out to take care of villains every Tuesday, at some point in your life as a parent: You need to let your children spread their wings and fly. Cause the little chicks you raised will grow up to become proud strong hawks… Or vultures, depending on how you raise them." Seth stated.

Joe gave the mutant a look. "Thanks for insinuating I've been raising vultures."

"Think we both know Barry hasn't exactly been an angel, possibly a sign to him having been dropped on his head a few times. Or on purpose. I mean, you usually smack a TV when it's fucked. Bit Barry had the same problems." Seth mused.

Sometimes… Joe had to consider his friendship with Seth.

"Hey." Joe snapped his weaponry down, having it point at the floor. Seth followed the direction of his eyes, both of them facing a face made of sand. The detective gulped as Sandman moved his mouth, speaking from the floor. "I found the entrance."

"That was… easy?" Seth muttered in concern.

"Not really. This way." Flint's face dispersed into sand, which began moving towards the back of the room.

"That's normal to you?" Joe asked the elemental.

"Absolutely." Seth answered casually, following the moving puddle of sand with Joe behind him. "Flint, you got Iris and Barry following you?"

"Already making their way to the same area." Flint answered, remaining as a traveling sand pile. "But it's weird."

"Weird how?" Joe asked the weirder talking pile of sand.

Iris and Barry made their way to the others, joining them with Flint in front of them. "You find anything on your side?" Seth asked the couple. The detective watched with undivided attention; his eyes solely focused on the moving sand piles joining together.

"No, just a lot of nothing." Barry answered.

The reporter argued. "Well, we did find lots of empty cans of food. And we almost slipped in tuna oil."

"Good times, then." Seth mused.

The pile stopped moving, the others doing the same. Looking up, everyone saw the reason behind Flint stopping, in the form of a massive hole in the ground. Edges around the hole were protruding, shattered and torn.

Barry crouched down by the hole, examining the nearest protrusion. "Looks like something broke through."

"More like forcing their way through the floor." Seth argued, taking in the damage. "Flint, you were here when this happened, who did this?"

The sand rose up, forming Flint's body. "Mix of me and Rhino, actually. There was a tunnel under here, where the trapdoor was, and Rhino chased that kid Kai. I intervened, and punched them both through the floor and out of the tunnel. I dealt with Rhino as much as I could, but between defending Kai and stopping Aleksei, it was pretty hard to focus."

"Most have gotten worse when the rest of the Sinister band joined together." Iris deduced.

Flint nodded his agreement. The detective looked at Flint. "You said, "was a tunnel?""

"I looked down there, it's completely gone." Sandman answered. Swaying his head from side to side, he corrected himself. "Or rather, it's been blocked off, completely."

"Blocked off?" Seth asked. Flint nodded again. Facing the hole again, he walked towards it. "Stay here." His voice changed as pitch-black miasma secrete from his skin and ensnared his entire body. "And keep your weapons ready." He instructed them before stepping off, jumping into the hole.

Landing on his feet, Seth looked around in search. Darkness was the only thing looking back at him, covering his entire field of vision. Raising his clawed hand, flames burst out of it and enveloped it completely. The addition of the fiery element brought a bright light into the tunnel, illuminating it and scaring away the darkness.

With a radius of light now on him, Venom slowly walked deeper into the tunnel. Each step he took illuminated his path and what was ahead of him. He came to a stop, seeing what blocked off the tunnel.

His eyes locked onto the immense rubble in the tunnel. Stones and gravel filling his vision as though a landslide had taken place here. But those items confused the elemental and his "other."

"Cannery factories shouldn't have this much gravel and stone." Venom noted.

"At least not over their foundation." Seth added, examining the local.

"Seth!" Joe shouted into the tunnel. "You find the blockage?"

"We have, looks like a landslide took place here. It's blocking off the tunnel." Seth answered. "And it doesn't look natural."

"Natural was never on the table." Joe quipped.

"What's that…" Seth narrowed his eyes, seeing something sticking out of the blockage of rocks and gravel. Walking towards it, till he stood within arm's reach, he ran a hand down the ragged surface. His hand stopped when feeling the protruding object.

After removing his hand, he saw that the object was clearly different from the rest of the landslide. It was a stone, black as night with sharp edges. "Looks like obsidian." The way it stuck out seemed unnatural to him. Curiosity drove his next actions as he grabbed hold of the stone and pulled it out. The hole quickly closed up but the elemental didn't pay it any attention.

Venom looked at the obsidian-like object, it looked akin to obsidian. Turning it around, surprise came to meet him when he saw a cellular screen on the side of the stone. "A screen?"

The screen showed a static screen. "I do hope the execution is to your liking, Venom." The static screen disappeared, now showing Dr. Otto Octavius' face on the cellular screen.

"Octavius." Seth snarled.

"I found it appropriate to reuse the scraps that Eliza Harmon left me with for this device, which seems to have fit well." Otto boasted.

"This was your doing? Why?" Seth asked.

"As proven by your presence in this abandoned and forsaken place, the young boy has revealed the location of our hideout. Aleksei's task to… capture the boy failed."

"He would have done more than capture him." Venom argued.

"Perhaps." Otto stated.

"Where… Are you, Octavius? Stop running around." Venom growled.

"I assure you, Venom, we are not running. We've just decided to take advantage of our own information, just as you've exploited the information."

"What does that mean?" Venom said.

"You storm our hideout… We do some storming of our own." Otto said.

"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!" Venom bellowed.

The last thing on the screen was the smirk on Otto's face. It was then followed by the screen itself splitting open and revealing a timer…

Counting down from five…

Venom widened his eyes. The timer's reveal caused a series of beeping to emit from the landslide blockage.

Four…

Swinging his head in the direction of the landslide, Seth saw a multiple stones falling down and revealing beeping bombs.

Three…

"Flint! Barry! Get them out!" Seth shouted to them.

Two…

A flash of lightning sped from the hole, Seth knowing it was Barry helping Joe and Iris. From the same hole, an immense large sand hand ensnared the elemental's form.

One…

EXPLOSION

X

WHOOSH

Outside of Starlight Cannery Barry came to a stop, dropping off Joe and Iris. They checked each over, making sure none of them were hurt or harmed. After seeing that none of them were hurt, they snapped their heads to the canning factory…

Or whatever was left of it from the series of underground explosions that leveled it… and continued to do so…

"What happened?" Joe asked out loud in surprise.

"Octavius' work." The three of them turned their heads, seeing two humongous sand hands interlocked spouting from the ground. A pile of sand rose, morphing into a body. Flint looked at the natives of Earth-1. "He knew this was coming."

The sand hands opened up, releasing a pile of sand from which Venom fell out of. He fell down on his arms and knees. Panting and coughing, he spat out sand. The Wests and Barry watched him slither out his tongue and use his claws to brush sand off of it. Iris gagged at the sight, especially when he literally ignited flames around his tongue.

"Didn't we agree you wouldn't do that again?" Venom reminded Sandman.

"Not like we shook on it, pal." Flint quipped.

"What happened?" Iris asked.

Venom stood up. "Octavius knows we have Kai in our protection, and he knew this would happen."

"That's not good." Barry admitted.

"Get worse." Seth told them. "We think they know where he is."

"Where?" Flint questioned.

"S.T.A.R. Labs."

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

In the Cortex, Cisco continues to give H.R. a death stare as he continues to slurp on his third cup of coffee. The way he was slurping so loudly made it impossible for him to continue his work. Caitlin managed to ignore the constant slurping, her focus diverting between her daughters.

But her focus mostly went to Evelyn, watching her leaning against the console with crossed arms. Her expression displayed anger and frustration, clearly an indication of Kai's presence bringing her displeasure. Ruby and Frankie saw the reactions on her face, something that was unusual for them. She usually wasn't one to show such aggression.

"Evie?" Caitlin got her daughter's attention. "You wanna… Go down there and talk with Kai, maybe?"

"Rather swallow a bag of razors." Evelyn countered, not feeling up to the offer at all.

"That'd be an improvement from doing the plants." Ruby joked, her sister's face turning bright-red at the reminder of that mistake she made. "But maybe talk with him, vent out your frustrations."

Frankie added. "Probably not like Ruby would do it. You know, bashing out his brains and strangling him with his own guts. Or use him as target practice. Or swallow him up in utter darkness-"

"Okay! Okay! I get it." Evelyn jumped over the console, landing at the exit of the Cortex and walked through it. "But I'm gonna try that whole "swallow up in darkness" trick. Could be handy."

"Funny." Cisco said. Out of concern, he checked the status of Kai's handcuffs in the cell. "You left his cuffs disabled?" He directed to Caitlin.

Nodding her head, Caitlin stated. "He's a sweet kid, he shouldn't be in cuffs."

"Yeah, yeah, Kaido's a sweet kid." H.R. absentmindedly agreed.

"Kai. And you even know what's going on?" Cisco had to ask him.

"Oh yes, of course I do." H.R. stated. The viber crossed his arms, giving him an expecting look. Opening his mouth-

ALARMS

But no sound or word came from his mouth, completely deafened by the blaring alarms from the computers.

"Oh, what now?" Ruby shouted. What sounded like a nearby explosion appeared, causing the foundation of S.T.A.R. Labs to shake as though a tremor's taking place. "And what now? An earthquake?"

"Like we're ever that lucky." Frankie said, shooting tendrils from her waist to anchor to her place.

Caitlin held onto the console desk. H.R., forgetting to hold onto anything, fell onto Cisco. Both grunted and fell to the floor. "Friday, what's going on? What is this?!"

"S.T.A.R. Labs is under attack, Boss Lady!" The AI announced. The monitors showed what was happening outside. Vulture was flying over their heads, unleashing a storm of explosive feathers down on the facility. From the side of it, Shocker launched vibrational strikes to it. "Three of the SS are attacking us."

"There's only two there!" Cisco exclaimed, having pushed H.R. off of him.

Ruby didn't know what was happening to her, but in a matter of a second her "other" ensnared her form. She swung her head towards the direction of the exit. "Scorpion's here…"

"He's here?" Caitlin rushed out of the Cortex.

"Mom?!" Frankie exclaimed; her body enveloped by her symbiotic partner. "Where's she going?"

"To Evie's. Call Dad and the others!" Ruby declared, jumping over the console and rushed over to the exit. "Scorpion's mine, you take care of the ones outside. And have Evie get her ass out of the Pipeline now!" She instructed her sister before rushing out of the Cortex.

"On it! Take care of Mom!" Magenta leaped out of the skylight.

X

Caitlin went to the elevators, intent on getting down to her daughter in the Pipeline as quickly as possible. The Sinister Seven made their move now, on their base of operations. Neither Seth nor Barry are here to intercept them. Things couldn't be much worse than they are now.

As she rushed to the elevators, her snowflake-shaped pendant swung up and into her eyesight. Would it come to that? Would she risk becoming Killer Frost permanently to protect her team… Her family…

Would that choice come?

BREAK

Her thoughts were interrupted when the elevator doors in front of her were pried open. From the gap that followed, a pair of vermilion lenses looked out maliciously. Caitlin recognized the lenses, stepping back in fear.

"Don't worry…" Mac Gargan grunted, pushing the elevator doors to the side with tremendous force, the walls around cracking as a result. "I'll get the doors." He stepped out of it, placing him on all four.

"What are you doing here, Scorpion?" Caitlin demanded, but kept her distance.

The sharp stinger on his tail oozed poison. "Not your business, lady. But let's just say you're gonna regret wrecking our joint." Scorpion lashed out his tail for her.

Caitlin screamed, jumping back and hoped to get out of his range. She did, but the sharp stinger reached her neck. Not touching it, but the sharp weapon did cut her necklace. The snowflake-shaped power dampening pendant, falling off and landed on the ground.

The side of the tail hit Caitlin, launching her into a wall. She grunted with pain, bile coming out of her open mouth. She slid down the wall, her brown locks covering her entire face.

"Oh, come on. Figured Venom's pals would have a little more bite to them than that. What a letdown." Scorpion pulled his tail back, compressing his poisonous stinger. He then shot it out like a speeding bullet towards the downed woman.

Through an opening between some of her brown hair, Caitlin pointed an ice-cold whitish blue eye. "Like you should talk like that…" She sneered.

Raising her right hand, an immense ice-cold blast was released and deflected the stinger. Out of his control, Mac was unable to prevent his weapon from digging into the ground as a result. Facing Caitlin again, Scorpion watched with surprise as she stood back up. "Full of surprises, aren't you?"

"You have no idea." Killer Fros… Caitlin lashed out her hand, unleashing another blast of icy mist that froze the stinger to the ground, preventing him from removing it. "Why are you here?"

Scorpion growled with rage. "Like I have to answer anything you say!" He shouted, tearing his stinger off the ice lock that restrained it. Once again, he swung his tail for her body.

"Get down!"

Caitlin, recognizing the voice, crouched down just in time for Genysis to jump over her. The gravity manipulator swung her Chakram blade with her left hand, clashing with the poisonous stinger. Swinging her left arm to the side, pushing the stinger away, Ruby converges massive gravitational force in her right arm.

"Payback, jackass!" She exclaimed, thrusting her right fist towards him. Scorpion saw the fist coming, jumping backwards to avoid the attack with a wide smirk on his face. But….

Her fist continued its trajectory, thrusting forward, aimed at the criminal… And an invisible force shot forward, making contact with Scorpion's stomach. Bile came out of his mouth as the tremendous force dug into his body, as though a fist had embedded into his stomach and forced up all of his stomach contents.

As the bile hit the floor, Scorpion was hurled through the air and thrust into the elevator.

Caitlin got back up. "Friday, close the elevator and send it downstairs."

"Basement level, quickly!" Genysis ordered.

The AI obliged, turning off the elevator's functions and both mother and daughter saw the lift fall down the elevator shaft. Scorpion screamed the entire way down, his voice echoing throughout the fall.

"That was new." Ruby said, taking a look at her right arm with surprise. She clenched her fist repeatedly, only stopping when she heard the elevator finally reach the end. The loud echo of it slamming down in the lowest level reached their ears.

Picking up her power-dampening necklace, clutching it tightly, Caitlin inhaled deeply with closed eyes. Before she closed them, Ruby saw that her mother's eyes were coldly white. But after keeping the necklace close to her, letting the power-dampener do its work, she opened eyes again and they returned to their normal state.

Caitlin looked at her daughter. "Thanks for the save, honey."

"Save those for later, Mom." Ruby told her mother. "I'll handle Scorpion in the basement, only place I can let loose with him inside the facility. Friday, pass the news to Evie, get her out of there. She's still got business with Aleksei."

"Got it, Little Boss." Friday accepted.

"Ruby?" Caitlin stopped her daughter at the entrance to the elevator shaft.

"I know, I know. "Be careful."" Ruby predicted her mother's words.

"Not exactly." Caitlin countered. Ruby raised an eyebrow. "I was gonna say, "Be careful not to level the facility."" Genysis didn't argue with that warning. "And… Kick his ass."

Nodding her head in agreement, Ruby jumped down the elevator shaft and let gravity do its work, making her fall down like a meteor descending rapidly.

X

(Pipeline)

"… Got it, Little Boss?"

After hearing everything that was happening outside and inside the facility, Evelyn nodded. "Got it." She strutted towards the Pipeline entrance, walking up the ramp and made her way to the gateway. She stretched out her hand to the panel, but stopped an inch before touching it.

She began questioning her decision, wondering if this action would backfire and cause trouble for her, her team, her family and, more importantly, her city…

Another quake came, traveling through the entire building. "We got bigger fish to deal with, Evie. Forget Kai for now. Sinister Six is out there right now, they're the priority!" Dusk told her host in a serious tone.

"Good point." She couldn't argue with her "other," not now in this situation. Evelyn pressed her fingers to the panel, turning them and opened the gateway to the containment cell.

Kai looked up from the floor he's seated on, facing the entrance and was surprised to see Evelyn standing on the other side. Her expression displaying concern and urgency distressed him, making him jump back up. "Evie, what's wrong?"

"We're under attack." She announced, opening up his cell and walked in. With a keycard that her mother gave her, she unlocked his restraints. The cuffs fell to the ground with a thud. Kai looked up in confusion while rubbing his wrists. "They're after you, better you're not here then."

"Wait, you're letting me go?" Kai asked, following his old friend out of the containment cell. The facility shook again, the metahumans bracing them against the walls to support themselves. "That was intense."

"Only gonna get worse from here." Evelyn pointed to the other side at the entrance. "Get out of here, there's a back entrance leading out if you follow this hallway. Get out before you get in the way." She turned around.

"Wait, you're seriously not going out to fight those guys, are you?!" Kai exclaimed, grabbing her hand. Evelyn faced her, nodding her head. "Are you crazy? You're gonna be crushed out there."

"Better me than any innocent." She pried his hand off. "I'm not the same as I was before, I have a duty to protect my city with these powers that I've gotten. Piss off, leave this place. We'll arrange for you to go back to Earth-2 after this mess."

"But-"

"Kai, I have to go." Evelyn cut him off.

Before Kai could say anything else, she disappeared in a vast smog of shadows. Once again, he was left in shock and awe after seeing the determination in her eyes and the way she was prepared to take a stand against that crazy group of villains that chased him.

This Evelyn… was unbelievable….

X

Spiraling in the air, Vulture dove down towards the facility of S.T.A.R. Labs. Gathering momentum with his spiraling motions, he neared the building from above and came to a stop. Stopping mid-air, he spread his wings and unleashed another number of energized feather-like blades.

But a flash of purple lightning sparking from the rooftop emitted, stretching out to the incoming blades. Each of the feather-like daggers came to a halt mid-air.

While having a hand stretched out in the direction of the blades, Frankie spiraled upwards and onto one of the rooftop pillars. Showing a glare with her white flame-shaped eyes, she snarled at the villain. "You didn't show your invite!"

Her eyes shining bright magenta colors, and swinging her right hand with flashing purple lightning, Magenta returned the energized feather blades to their master.

Adrian did not even try to dodge them; he didn't see the need to as an extensive vibrational shockwave was released from ground level. The attack from down below obliterated the energized feather blades, reducing them to pieces with a single strike.

Herman Schultz smirked behind his mask. "Figured we could crash the party." Thrusting his hands backwards, he released powerful shockwaves from his gauntlets at the ground behind him. Along with wrecking and cracking the asphalt under his feet, Shocker was propelled from the ground and into the air.

He landed on the rooftop, rolling on it for a few seconds, before getting back on his feet. Clenching both of his fists, shockwaves began charging up in both gauntlets to the point where they're both brimming with energy.

Magenta watched them both carefully from her tower. On the rooftop itself is Shocker, who's ready to unleash a wave of shockwaves at any moment's notice. In the air flying over the facility is Vulture, a villain who can release feather blades that can explode upon contact with a target. On the ground is the speeding form of Rival, continuously running around S.T.A.R. Labs. "Three villains here, one more inside. Taskmaster's missing." She looked up, facing the direction of the city, smoke rising from two separate locations in the city. "Rhino's in the city… So is Octavius."

"What's the plan?" Magenta asked her host.

Frankie tightened her grip on the pillar, glaring at the two nearest villains. "Leave the speedster to the speedsters, we deal with the rest!" She replied, her eyes glanced up at Vulture who released a hailstorm of blades in her direction.

Lashing out her left hand, a tendril sprouted from it and attached to one of the other rooftop pillars. Pulling on it, she yanked out of the way and avoided the incoming blades. Frankie had to release her tendril's hold on the pillar when Shocker thrust both hands towards her, releasing a combined immense shockwave.

Thrusting her hands downward, tendrils shot out of them and pierced into the rooftop ground. Grabbing onto them as though they're ropes, she propelled herself down and avoided the shockwave. She landed on the rooftop, looking up again, seeing both villains on the rooftop.

Both released grunts, Shocker launched another shockwave towards her and Vulture released another wave of blades. Crossing her arms over her chest, purple lightning began sparking violently and multiple metal plates were torn off the rooftop.

Dozens of them began to orbit around the ferrokinetic. Seeing that the two attacks were coming towards her in two separate directions, Magenta uncrossed her arms violently, thrusting them out in the directions of the attacks. Some of the orbiting panels shot towards them.

The feather blades were blocked, piercing into the panels that flew into their path. The extensive shockwave met the flying panels, easily pushing them away, continuing on its path towards the ferrokinetic.

Magenta went to move, but a burst of shadows appeared beside her. From it Evelyn jumped out of it and grabbed her sister by her shoulder. With a hand on her sibling, she shadowported them both out of the way. Shocker snarled when seeing that his shockwave hit one of the pillars.

"Damn it!" He exclaimed, frustratingly blasting a shockwave at one of the other pillars.

"Calm yourself, Herman." Vulture scolded his companion from above. "Do not act out of frustration like that, these children may have increased their powers, widening their arsenals further and donning new forms, but they are still heroes. They will be back."

From the side of the single undamaged rooftop pillar, Eclipse and Magenta looked at the two villains. "Don't know I feel about that old coot calling us "children.""

"Why do you care about an old dude in a wingsuit?" Magenta asked her sister with a very serious tone.

"Oh, yeah. I don't." Evelyn was reminded.

"When the hell did she become an airhead?" Magenta asked her host.

"Don't ask me." Frankie replied, thinking it'd be a total drag to even try and explain.

Grabbing her hand, Eclipse stated. "Let's go, we need to deal with Octavius and Rhino."

"What do you mean?" Frankie questioned. "We still have to deal with these bastards." She gestured to the villains around their base.

Eclipse shook her head, arguing with her sister. "Mom told me Dad; Sandman and the speedsters are on their way here. We can leave this mess to them."

"Easier said than done." Frankie reminded her sister of the evil speedster running around their base of operations. "With Rival still down there, we might have to hold these guys off until they get here." She faced her sister. "You okay with that?"

Showing her answer with arrows forming out of her hands, Evelyn stated. "I take Vulture, you handle Shocker. And when Dad and the rest are back…" She put her arrows on her bow.

"Rhino and Octavius are ours…" Frankie agreed. Having shared a nod with her sister, she ran up the pillar at full speed. Reaching the top, she leaped off of it and spiraled in the air. As she spun and twisted mid-air, she morphed both of her arms into long blades.

Noticing a shadow over his form, Shocker looked up and saw Magenta swinging down her blades. Clenching his fists, vibrational energy charged immediately and, after overlapping them, he raised them over his head. Before the blades could touch him, Herman releases the condensed energy in a vibrational shield.

But despite a shield over his head, it stopped the blades from touching him, and only pushed him down to a knee. "I'm honestly getting tired of you brats."

"Feeling's mutual." Frankie countered, delivered a kick into his stomach. He didn't move an inch, only ending up with grunting from pain. But the second kick sent into his chest rectified that, sending him rolling on the rooftop.

Reforming her arms again, Magenta thrust them both forward and split them into dozens of tendrils.

Shocker, thrust out his arms, shooting out vibrational shockwaves as though they were bullets. The small but powerful shockwaves met the tendrils.

Adrian Toomes looked down at the clashing between shockwaves and tendrils, his eyes shifting between the two origins. "They're biding their time."

"Meaning what?" Evelyn demanded to know, making her presence known and aiming arrows at him from the nearest pillar which she's standing on top of.

"You know very well what I'm talking about, my dear." Adrian told her with a glare. Evelyn tightened her grip on her arrows. "You, along with Magenta, intend to hold us off until Venom and his companions make their way here. If only it'd be that easy…" He flew back, putting distance between him and the archer, before thrusting out his left wing.

Three blades were released from his action. Eclipse countered the blades with her arrows. The arrows, each one of them blessed with the light from their archer, and the energized blades from the villain's high-tech wings, met in a clash that resulted in a wide explosion.

The blast wind from the explosion pushed Vulture backwards and sent him into a spiral. Evelyn felt the blunt force of the blowback, pushing her off the pillar. She was sent falling. Looking back up while free falling, she lashed out her serpentine wings. Each of them dug into the pillar, pulling the host back to it.

Taking a look at Vulture, Evelyn saw that he got his bearings together and flew towards her. But an array of panels came flying, forcing the flying villain to change his flight path and get away.

Magenta, to avoid a massive shockwave, jumped off the ground and onto the same pillar as her sister. "How is it going on your end?"

"Great, just tiring him out." Evelyn quipped. "You?" She asked, noting that Shocker was looking for them, despite standing directly over his head.

"Peachy." She quipped back. "Wow!" She let out in shock when feeling the entire facility shake as though it's an earthquake, trembling the entire foundation.

"What now?" Evelyn complained, her wings anchoring her to the pillar of the shaking facility. Her eyes shift left and right to make sure it's not another rampaging attack from Rhino. If so, she'd be the one to fight him and finish him.

But thankfully it was neither an earthquake nor a rampaging Rhino…

The answer revealed itself in the form of multiple strands of sand bursting out of the ground, each of them shot up into the air and turned into a hand. Vulture saw them coming for him and flew back, trying to fly out of their range. Shocker saw them as well, but failed to evade them and was instantly caught by two of them and was hurled into the ground.

The sand that didn't try and capture the villains formed into a massive torso with arms and a head. Sandman looked down on the rooftop, facing the two daughters of his close friend. "You kids okay?"

"Mr. Marko, you really know how to make an entrance." Evelyn praised the man who came to their aid.

"Think your old man said the same a while back." Flint admitted.

That same person Flint spoke of joined them, landing on the rooftop. Venom walked over to his daughters, crouching down in front of them. "You okay? Not hurt?" He asked rapidly, looking over them both for any injuries.

"We're fine, Dad. But busy." Magenta told him.

"Rubs is down in the basement, dealing with Scorpion." Eclipse stomped her foot on the facility.

WHOOSH

A pair of flashes of lightning appeared on the rooftop. Kid Flash and Flash stood and looked around. "Looks like a party." Wally noted.

"Your idea of a party sucks." Frankie countered.

"Vulture, Shocker and Scorpion." Barry noted the three villains both inside and outside of their base.

"Including Rival." Seth reminded him with a nod to the evil speedster's location. "Think you and Wally can handle him?"

"We can." Barry said, assured and confident that Wally was ready to face off against the man he lost to in Flashpoint. What took place in that timeline will not repeat itself in this one. This time Wally was stronger, faster and more prepared. This time…

Rival will be stopped.

"Venom." Sandman got his attention. "You might wanna get to the city with your kids, chances are more trouble will happen with Octavius and Rhino out there."

Standing up, Venom asked. "You sure about that?"

Turning his back to him, his daughters and the speedsters, Flint replied. "Best way to stop these guys… And also…" He looked over his left shoulder. "This way, I can repay my debt to you, once and for all."

"Fine…" Seth shared a look with his daughter, Evie. Her hand touched both his arm and Frankie's forearm. As shadows began to engulf the three of them, the mutant couldn't help but recall the time when he and Peter repaid their debt to the sand colossal…

X

(Flashback)

With a grimace and a flinch, Peter watched as Seth tore down a gun turret with a hand cloaked in flames. He didn't stop there. He literally pushed his hand deeper down and into the ground from which the turret ejected from.

Grabbing hold of something in the ground, Seth told the spider-hero. "Got it something."

"Please, don't be a vole. Or a gopher. Or a groundhog. Or worse, a ground squirrel." Spider-Man spoke honestly, shivering in his boots.

His words made the elemental stop in his tracks, facing him with a raised eye. "You're scared of squirrels?"

"Hey, pay Squirrel Girl a visit, then you'll understand my fears. Trust me, Monkey Joe and Tippy-Toe will give you nightmares." Peter admitted.

"Still don't get why anyone would name a squirrel Monkey Joe." Seth admitted his surprise. Returning to the task at hand, he yanked the object out of the sandy grounds.

Peter saw bundled damaged cables in his hand. "Cables…. They're from the turrets. Must be getting their power somewhere."

"And somewhere is our destination." Venom added.

"How do we do this? Just tear up the cables till we find our spot?" Peter questioned.

"Why not just follow the trail?" Seth sarcastically replied, as he channeled a tremendous amount of lightning down his left hand, into the cables which made it go underneath and into the ground.

Somehow, to Peter's shock, the lightning began following a strange linear path under the sand, lightning up despite the amount of sand covering it. It lights up a path. "What was that?"

"When we grabbed it, we remembered something Matt told us about these types of cable. They typically use polyethylene for isolation purposes. Downside of it, polyethylene is sensitive to heat."

"Introducing lightning to them made them light up, and due to the increase of voltage they're practically bursting up." Peter stated. "Not a bad idea. Destructive, but useful."

"Another downside to this idea, we'll be announcing our presence and arrival with capital letters." Seth stated, running along the path of bursting cables.

"Go big or go home, right?" Peter quipped sarcastically, following the elemental.

The two heroes jumped off the ground and onto the big palm trees to see the cables bursting. They followed, leaping off tree to tree and getting closer and closer to the area where they lead to. Each leap increased their determination to find Flint and get him out of here, and quickly as well.

They came to a stop, both of them looking down to see the bursting coming to a halt. Strangely enough, the lightning that Seth had released traveled again, now in a stranger pattern. The lightning seemed to form a hexagonal shape, the lightning outlining something buried in the ground.

"Hexagon marks the spot." Peter joked.

"Let's do some digging." Seth followed his joking and jumped down from the trees. The two came to a halt, and saw that the lightning continued to light up the hexagonal shape. Venom reeled back both of his arms, the earth element inside of him wrapping around his bones.

With all of his might, the mutant dug his claws into the ground. Feeling something of a metallic nature meeting his fingers, Venom pulled up whatever it was. Sand began to rise, falling off the edges of what Seth pulled up.

Peter got a good look at it, seeing that it was an entrance with closed metal doors. On the side of it is a panel-mounted virtual keypad. Removing his hand, Seth raised a hand and wrapped lightning around it.

"Hold your horses, buddy." Peter stopped him. "Better I bring the shock treatment this time." He said, shooting a single webshot of electro web at the keypad. As expected, the electric webbing caused the keypad to overload, ending up exploding and the doors slid open as a result. "Not to be that guy, but you tend to overdo things when you start breaking things… Or people."

"Screw you." Venom countered, looking through the entrance and saw a long staircase leading down.

"Down we go!" Spider-Man announced, jumping in front of Seth and began swinging into the staircase. Venom growled, following him as he crawled on the ceiling. They traveled down the stairs, cautiously making sure not to encounter any trouble.

But both of them found it odd that they hadn't encountered a single security camera or a guard yet. Normally top secret bases would have at least a staggering number of guards to protect it and at least some security in the form of cameras.

Peter reasoned. "Maybe because of its location, security seemed unnecessary."

"It is isolated, away from civilization after all." Seth admitted. "Might have been overkill for them."

"Good point, but this is definitely an A.I.M. base." Peter said, noticing the secret organization's logo on the nearest wall. "Get ready, we might encounter trouble soon enough."

"Looks like yeah." Seth nodded ahead of them, seeing a group of four individuals walking towards them. Each of them are wearing large yellow hazmat suits with masks, each of them carrying high-tech firearms.

Spider-Man stretched his limbs. "What's the pl-" He stopped talking when he noticed Seth had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. "Oh crap." Realizing the mutant's plan, he slapped himself in the face.

As his face was covered by his own hand, Peter temporarily forgot about the incoming A.I.M. agents that immediately caught sight of the spandex-wearing hero. "Spider-Man? What are you doing here?" One of them demanded, he and his fellow agents raise their firearms at him.

Looking between the weapons aimed at him, Peter scratched the side of his mask. "I was looking for the bathroom, thinking I'm lost cause I somehow wandered onto this… quaint-looking place. So, mind helping a spider out?"

"What?" One of the A.I.M. agents questioned. "You actually piss with that suit on?"

"Except for the one time my fluid was too thick."

This time, all four A.I.M. lowered their weapons in surprise.

PUNCH

Their surprise vanished immediately when one of them was suddenly punched and sent into a wall. The three others turned their heads, seeing that Venom was slowly revealing his form out of thin air. The elemental lowered his fist, facing the enemies.

Two of them raised their weapons, aiming them at the mutant's head. But a pair of weblines were shot out from behind them, sticking to the barrels of their firearms and were yanked out of their arms. Spider-Man leaped ahead, delivering a swift kick into one of them. The strike sent him into the wall to the left. Venom clenched his fist, slamming it into the other one and knocked him out.

With just one of them alone again, the A.I.M. agent looked between the two heroes on either side of him. One of them looked ready to eat her. That thought caused her fear to go into overdrive, making her drop her weapon. "I surrender." She added with her arms raised.

"Well, that was easy." Spider-Man noted.

Venom scoffed. "Give us good info then we'll accept your surrender." He added with a flick of his tongue.

"Yes sir." She nodded her head vehemently.

"Seth, you really got to work on your manners, man." Peter thought to himself. Jumping onto the wall, he stuck to it and looked at the A.I.M. agent. "What is this place?"

"It serves as a covert laboratory that old A.I.M. uses when conducting extensive experiments." She replied.

"What kind of experiments?" Venom questioned.

"Replication of powers affecting the user on a molecular level." She answered.

"Replicating… Molecular level…" Seth muttered. "The powers you're trying to replicate, they're Sandman's powers." He stated his deduction.

"Yeah." She nodded. "A lot of people are interested in his powers; they want that on their side."

"It's like we expected, they wanna replicate his powers and give others the same treatment." Peter stated.

"An army of immortal sand soldiers." Venom didn't like that thought, especially now that their worst fears have been confirmed. "Where is Flint?"

"You mean, Subject S?" The A.I.M. agent revealed Flint's designated name under their "care." "He's down in the lab, end of the hallway, held in a sphere."

"Thank you." Peter expressed his gratitude, followed up with several webshots that attached her limbs and body to the wall. He also covered her mouth, silencing her grunts and preventing her from making too much noise and attracting her colleagues. "And sorry about this, but you are keeping our friend under lock and KEEEEYYY!" He screamed the moment Seth caught him off, grabbing him and carrying him like he was luggage.

"You talk too much." Venom told the spider-hero with a grunt. "Let's go." He let go of him and the two rushed down the hallway. Nearing the end of it, they saw closed doors. Running on all four like an animal, the mutant met the doors first with a clenched hand enwrapped by flames. With a single swing, he punched down the doors with a burning fist. He jumped out of it and Peter followed him.

The two heroes took in their surroundings, exactly as the A.I.M. agent stated. A large laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment all around them. Each form of equipment occupied by stunned A.I.M. agents that have turned their heads to the heroes. But what stood out the most… Is the large red sphere in the middle of the lab, held up by several tubes and cables….

Inside of the crimson red sphere is Flint Marko, the man himself looking absolutely worn out and held up with straps and pipes.

"Flint!" Seth shouted to his attention. But seeing that his eyes were closed, he deduced he must be unconscious.

"We need to get him out of there." Peter stated. Seth nodded his head.

"Intruders!"

Around them the agents began shouting and screaming at the sight of the two villains, alerting every member of A.I.M. to take up their arms. Much like the agents in the hallway, the ones in the laboratory equip their own high-tech rifles.

They began shooting energy bullets at them from every direction.

Spider-Man jumped into the air, sticking to a large pipe and began running on it upside-down. "Smart as these A.I.M. folks are, they have horrible manners. Don't they know, it's "offer drinks first, then open fire." Typical bad guys."

Venom leaped from the ground, attaching himself to a wall and began crawling up on it. "Laser beats drinks." He jumped off the wall and used the huge cables as springboards. Jumping from one cable to another, he told the spider-hero. "These guys may have weapons, but that's nothing against Flint." He jumped onto the sphere itself, landing on top of it.

"Yeah, these guys are nothing compared to what he can do." Peter agreed, swinging his way to a pipe over the elemental's head. "What's the plan? Cause I'm not a fan of them using us for target practice."

Looking down at the number of evil agents and then down at Flint under his feet, Seth stated. "Divide and conquer."

"I count eight agents down there. I'll take care of them, you help Flint." Peter told the mutant.

"Got it." Seth accepted.

Having made his decision, Peter ran across the sphere prison and jumped off it. Laser bullets from eight different rifles began shooting at him. A webline shot out from his right web shooter, attaching to an agent on the ground.

Pulling on it mid-air, Spider-Man yanked the evil agent into the air as well launching himself to the agent. Clenching his hand into a fist, he delivered a swift punch into the enemy's face. He landed on the ground, shooting webs at the downed agent's body, sticking him to a wall.

Sliding down the side of the sphere, Seth came to a stop when he was able to look directly at Flint's downed head. "Flint! Wake up!" He banged on the sphere, trying to wake him up with sound. "Wake up!" His exclaim did nothing to wake up the sand guardian.

Three guards aimed their weapons at the elemental, immediately shooting at him. Multiple energy bullets hit his back, making him groan at each shot. "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Peter got their attention, appearing in front of one of the agents, delivering a swift kick to his guts and knocking the wind out of him. "Your shoot first policy is awful, man. Come on!" He grabbed the rifle that fell out of his hand and knocked it into the head of the nearest agent, pushing him into a wall and rendered him unconscious.

The third agent turned his weapon on him, but Spider-Man shot a webshot at the nozzle and covered it up. Despite it being covered up, the agent pulled his trigger. But as a result the barrel burst open, and it exploded in his hand. "Faulty equipment, right?" Peter joked, webbing the agent to a wall with an array of webshots. "I know the feeling."

"Flint!" Seth delivered another powerful strike to the sphere, one reinforced with gravel enveloped his bones within his arms. "This guy could tear this flimsy thing to tatters all on his own, but with him unconscious now, it's impossible."

Peter knocked out another agent with a series of well-aimed punches, leaving only three agents for him to deal with. "Try shocking him awake if you can't break the sphere."

"Shocking him?" Seth thought. His eyes wandered left and right, settling on a pipe that's connected to a wire that's plugged into a cuff on Flint's right hand in the sphere. Crawling towards it, he put a hand on it. Lightning erupted around his entire body, crackling over his form before converging to his hand and traveled over to the pipe. It began cracking due to the immense intrusion of electricity, but the lightning continued onwards and across the wire inside of the sphere.

It made contact to the cuff around Sandman's wrist, who grunted in pain from the sudden shock. To the mutant's surprise, the cuff exploded as well as the other contraptions keeping Flint suspended. He fell to the bottom of the sphere.

"Flint!" Seth shouted, using both of his arms to pull out the damaged pipe.

The exclaim made Flint turn his head, facing upwards and saw Venom on the outside. Below him, he saw Spider-Man wrapping an agent up with webs and suspending him upside-down. "We're here for you, sleepyhead!"

"H-Help me…" He pleaded to the two heroes with a hand outstretched in their direction.

Venom growled, the sphere beginning to crack as he increased his force on the pipe. "That's WHY WE'RE HERE!" He roared, finally tearing off the pipe with all of his might. With his "other's" senses he knew there were two agents remaining on the ground, and with that he decided to put the pipe to good use. Roaring one more time, Seth swung the pipe downwards, surprising the agents, who were suddenly assaulted by the humongous pipe.

With one single swing from it, they were both knocked out immediately and left on the ground.

"Nice job." Peter praised his friend with a thumbs up.

"You too." Seth praised him back, giving him a thumbs up too. Stretching out his hand into the sphere, he split his arm into tendrils and had them wrap around Flint's body. He pulled him out of the cell and into his hand. Jumping off the sphere, he landed on the floor with Flint and put him on the ground. "Flint, you okay?"

"Okay… If that's a thing, I mean." He weakly admitted. Flint looked back up at the sphere that began shattering into pieces after Seth's onslaught on it. "Can't… For weeks, I've been in there and I couldn't even make a dent in it… Not even in my sand form… Can't believe you shattered it like that."

"They must have drained you with those restraints and other experiments." Peter realized, crouching down by his side.

"Only thing that these mad scientist types want from me: My powers." Flint looked up at the two heroes with a scoff. "After all the stuff I've done, what these evil people have made me pull… I can't believe you guys would get close to a monster like me. Much less, save me."

"Appearance-wise, we have you beat on the monster front, pal." Seth joked. "We owed you for saving us back then, Flint."

"You saved us, man. Thanks to you, we're here and a bunch of oil tank workers are alive too." Peter tapped his shoulder, accidently breaking it off due to its sand form. "Oops, sorry about that." He awkwardly said.

Flint chuckled. "All good." His face turned downwards, a cover of sadness coming over him. "That tanker episode, I figured I had to do that, I didn't mean for it to happen. I know I've done bad stuff, all on me." He clenched his fist, something that didn't go noticed by the heroes. "People always just, you know, use me… for what I can do. They don't see past my powers; they don't see me as a person."

"Sounds like you could use some downtime, maybe go bowling or something." Peter suggested.

"Never gone bowling, actually." Flint admitted.

"Whether people see you as a villain or not as a person… You are the one that decides to let it get to you." Venom started, getting Spider-Man and Flint's attention. "Whatever image the outside world has of you, that's merely a shackle that's meant to be broken by you and you alone. If the world sees you as a villain, as a beast… Then prove them wrong with your actions. Your actions will speak louder than what your appearance or powers show."

"Think it'll be that easy to get rid of that chain?" Flint questioned, each of the mutant's words settling in.

"Nothing's ever easy in this life. But you can work towards that goal…" He lowered his head and the mouth opened up, revealing Seth's head. Peter looked shocked at that, seeing that his friend was revealing his face to Sandman. "But how about you and I, together, work towards that goal, Flint Marko?" He held out his hand.

"Name's Seth, by the way."

Flint smiled, raising his own hand that expanded. "Flint Marko, not that you don't know that already. But hey." He shook hands with him.

"Beautiful friendship right here." Peter quipped. The alarms continued to blare over their heads. "But… Think we can move this to another location?"

Peter was right… as always…

(Flashback End)

X

The ground trembled with each step that Otto Octavius took, his eyes barely moving and looking at the numerous screaming civilians running past him. They knew what he was capable of doing with his four mechanical arms, and more importantly they knew who he was.

And that was enough for them to abandon their cars, their wallets and other belongings of theirs, and run away in fear of them being the next victim to face the mechanical claws.

But at some point…

Otto sighed his annoyance, having had his fill of obnoxious screams. Coming to a halt, he turned his eyes to the side, finding a van that was left alone. With his upper mechanical arms, he quickly snatched it and lifted it up over his head. The sight of him now wielding a projectile made the civilians run away even faster, their screams reaching new heights of volumes.

He scoffed at their continuously increasing screams and wailing. "This is tedious." He admitted, tearing the van into two pieces. With his claws he compressed the torn van into spheres and then hurled them away, sending each of them towards nearby stores.

But a geyser of shadowy darkness burst out in the middle of the road, and from either side of it, a figure leaped out of them.

Venom appeared from the left side. Turning his entire body into adamantium, he lashed out both arms and grabbed the incoming sphere. He slammed it into the ground with a roar aimed at Otto, who narrowed his eyes behind his goggles.

Magenta appeared from the right side. Rolling on the ground, she came to a halt with her feet breaking her roll. Her eyes shine brightly with a magenta shine while emitting violently sparking purple electricity from her entire body. Thrusting out her hand, she ensnared the metal sphere with her lightning. Lashing her hand out to the side, she dismantled the sphere into various pieces that began swarming her right arm. As the pieces began sticking to her appendage, she snarled at Otto.

"Oc... Octavius!"

The evil mastermind behind Sinister Seven narrowed his eyes on the young hero's form. "So we meet again, young one. Worry not, this time Rival will torment you as he did before."

The pieces of metal bulged as lines of symbiote mass popped out from between the gaps, appearing akin to veins shining with purple sparks. "Sucks for you, huh? Must make it easier for you then." She jumped ahead, thrusting out her fist towards him.

Otto, using one of his mechanical arms, deflected the incoming fist and spun around. Using his arms, he jumped off the ground and stuck to the nearest building. But as he looked down, instinctively he saw Iris helping a child back on his feet and into his mother's embrace. "Go, run!" She told the pair.

"Take your own advice." Otto muttered to himself, as her presence provided him with an opportunity. Iris turned her head, only for her vision to be filled with a mechanical arm that coiled around her form like a snake and lifted her up.

"Let her go, Octavius!" Magenta screamed at the villain who took Iris.

"Let go of me, octopus freak!" Iris retaliated, struggling in his grasp

With his attention focused on the heroes, he told them. "Let's move to a more comfortable locale." With expert ease, Dr. Octopus scales the tall building with his new captive.

"Fuck!" Venom shouted.

Magenta jumped onto the wall, running up it. "You're not getting anywhere!"

Looking to the side, Seth saw that Evelyn had gone ahead to Rhino's location. "Great, Iris is captured, again, and my daughters are dealing with villains in separate locations. Good times." He sarcastically said before jumping onto the wall, running up after his daughter.

X

"Argh!" Rhino screamed in joy and malice, his swinging arms knocking vehicles away with a one single attack. All around him, people ran away in screams and horror. Their screams of terror easily drowning out his shouts of enjoyment.

"Yes!" He shouted in overjoy. This time the humongous beast was able to let out all of his pent-up frustration and action. For a long time, he's been made to stay at their hideout, doing simple errands. A break-in there, tearing down a wall there, chasing a brat somewhere else.

Those small tasks were the only things on his list, and it irritated him to no end.

But now…

He could really let loose…

Rhino slammed his hands down into the ground, digging his fingers into the asphalt, the earth beneath them shaking from his overwhelming strength. With all of his might and with a laughter so high even the heavens could hear it, he lashed out his foot and launched a car off the ground.

The car came flying, nearing a couple who fell to the ground. They covered their faces, fearing for their lives.

But their surge of fear came to an end when Evelyn appeared in a leap, jumping in front of it. Reeling an open hand back, she formed a broadsword of light and delivered a downward slash that cleaved through the vehicle. It was cut in two pieces, sending both of them in separate directions and away from the couple.

Eclipse landed on the ground, her feet sliding against it. Looking at the couple behind her, seeing that they were okay, she said. "Get out of here." After nodding their gratitude for the quick save, they rushed away in a hurry.

She turned her head back to the humongous villain who's in front of her. Rhino growled, her hand lowered and the sword dissipated. "Rhino."

"Little girl, again. You wanna dance?" Rhino mockingly waved her over.

Facing him fully with undivided attention, Evelyn confessed. "You have my thanks, Aleksei."

"Thanks?" That single word from her entire sentence confused the villain, making him turn his head. He even knocked on the side of his head with a fist, making sure he heard her right. "Thanks?"

"Yeah… My thanks." She admitted, walking towards the villain. The markings on her face began shining brightly, at the same time her body began a mixed light from her inner darkness and light combining inside of her. "Because of you, I realized I was weak… Beyond weak. Couldn't protect those most important to me back then… You made me realize that. I'm grateful for that…"

She clenched both her fists, a bow morphing out of her left wrist and arrows sprouted from the gaps between the fingers on her right hand. "But that doesn't mean I can let you rampage as you like. No way in hell!" Putting her four arrows on her bow, she unleashed them immediately in a fury.

Two of them were imbued with immense light, causing them to shine like miniature suns as they flew towards him. The remaining ones are enforced with so much darkness, each of them looked as though they'd swallow one whole and toss them into the abyss.

The tremendous light blinded Rhino, forcing him to cover up his field of vision with his arms crossed over his face. The two blinding arrows pierced into his shoulders, causing him to trip and almost fall. The ones with darkness hit his chest, finally forcing the huge man down on his back with a grunt.

"And unlike before… This time…" She started, clenching her bow to the breaking point. "I'm gonna finally put you behind bars."

"Oh yeah?!" He roared, tearing off the arrows and revealing small holes they've made. "Then I put you in the ground!" He declared, getting back up on his feet.

"Let's not do that!" A voice argued behind him, but before Rhino could react he felt something push against the backs of his knees. He looked over his shoulder, and saw a green shadow jump over him. The figure slid to a halt beside Evelyn, both of the figure's arms adorned with long curved silver blades. Same types of blades are protruding from his shoulders, but they are much smaller. His face is covered with a green ski mask.

"You?!" Rhino snarled.

"You?" Evelyn questioned with a raised eye.

"Yeah, it's me… The man of a thousand blades." He posed, clashing his blades against one another. "The Slasher."

"We know it's you, Mantis. Plus, that name, pose and intro…. Tacky would be an understatement." Evelyn declared with the bluntness of a sword.

And that same bluntness pierced into Kai's mind, body and spirit, all at once. "You know, Eclipse… You could be a little less honest." A flash of inspiration hit him, making him turn his head to her. "I got it, what about Jack The Ripper? He was a hero in our world, after all."

"Not in this one, he's a serial killer in this one." Evelyn revealed and shot down his idea instantly. "Why are you here for that matter? I told you to run away. I don't like the idea of cannon fodder, you know."

"I'm glad you don't want me dead… this time." Kai admitted. "But more than that… I wanna actually help you, once and for all, Evie. Unlike what I did on Earth-2…" He turned back to face the villain with both blades overlapping. "If I can help you, even a little against this behemoth, then I will. I won't make the same mistakes as I did before. I won't… I won't betray you this time."

"Kai's been regretting everything he did all this time?" Evelyn was shocked. Kai rarely showed remorse or regret for anything, he's a guy who plays on people's kindness and steals from them to help himself.

"Don't you regret things from your past?" Dusk questioned her host.

"…" The metahuman didn't say anything in response, she turned her head to her old friend. "Stick with Mantis." She walked to his side, both facing the big villain. "It's easier and… Well, mantises aren't totally uncool."

"Not really convincing, Eves." He admitted.

"You want name, сопляк?!" Aleksei shouted, using the Russian word for a brat as he lowered his horns. "Then you get "Dead!"" He announced before charging towards the two of them.

"Oh shit." Mantis admitted at the sight of the beast running towards them. He… He truly, utterly questioned his entire life and whatever drove him to this moment.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, Basement)

Landing on top of the elevator, Ruby quickly saw the hole on the surface. "Why'd he make a hole in the top…" She stopped her question when seeing the long trail of deep cuts in the walls, a familiar green-ish poison searing into the walls of the elevator walls.

She quickly realized what his plan was when he fell while within the elevator. As the lift fell at tremendous velocity, he must have used his tail to try and halt his descent by having it pierce into the walls. It must have succeeded to a degree as she didn't find a lifeless body within the lift itself when entering it.

Stepping out of the destroyed elevator with her Chakram blade tight in hand, Ruby looked around in the basement level. It was completely empty, but there remained a number of S.T.A.R. Labs company vans. "What's wrong, Gargan? Scared of a little competition? Never thought scorpions would run away with their stinger between their legs."

She hoped her taunts would rouse a reaction out of him, something that'd make Mac make a mistake to give an indication of his position. But to her surprise, the criminal didn't make a single mistake, not even a foreign sound came.

"Guess he's got better self-control than expected." Reap admitted to her host.

… neither of them noticed a drop of a strange green liquid falling down to the ground from the ceiling…

… It fell behind her… She didn't see the stinger extending from the ceiling…

Ruby continued to look around, finding the slightest hint of Scorpion. But she came to a halt, stopping in her tracks as though a strange blaring alarm began to roar in her mind. And it wasn't just her feeling it blaring, her "other" felt the same.

Almost like Ruby and Reap's senses had become one and expanded to newer and wider limits…

Letting go of the ceiling, Scorpion landed on the ground without making a single sound… He reeled back his tail, lashing out his poison-dripping tail. A smile formed on his face. Mac thrust out his tail, aiming right for Ruby's back, intending to pierce through her spine and heart all at once…

Once and for all, he'd put this brat in the ground… After she's been choking on her own blood…

As she's about to perish and die, she'd feel the ultimate despair… AT HIS HANDS!

CLANG

But his goals came to an end when Ruby spiraled around with the speed of a professional dancer and thrust out her blade, resulting in his stronger and her vibranium weapon clashing. The clanging sound from their meeting echoed throughout the basement.

"Afraid of fighting me face-to-face?" She taunted him. "Sinister Six are a bunch of cowards."

Mac's smirk widened. "At least this time you're worth it. Not like last time, you were just a punching bag. Remember that?"

"Every time I close my eyes." Ruby admitted honestly, pushing against his poisonous stinger with her blade. Sparks emitted as the blades crossed and clashed against one another. "Last time… I was weak. I didn't hold a candle to you and Taskmaster… But now, things are different!"

Proving her point, Ruby's tongue shot out and hit the criminal's chest and pushed him back. Scorpion coughed up bile. He looked up again with a growl. "Damn brat."

"This time…" Genysis growled, as she does so, the ground begins to shake around her. Rendering and began to break, pushing up asphalt of various sizes and shapes. "I'm gonna end you!"

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, Outside)

Outside of the facility, an ever-increasing number of massively long sand hands traveled through the air in pursuit. Vulture kept glancing over his shoulder, watching the incoming hands carefully as they tried to catch up to him.

In retaliation to the numerous sand hands, Vulture thrust out his wings and launched a number of energized feather blades towards them. Several hands opened up, snatching the blades and they exploded within them, causing them to disperse.

But the ones that didn't explode from the blades, continue onwards in their quest to try and catch the flying man. Adrian groaned, spiraling around and maneuvered through the open skies to avoid them.

From the ground, while running away from what could only be described as a sand tsunami that's chasing him, Herman saw that his companion was struggling to escape the sand hands. "Seriously that flying coot can't take care of some dumbass hands or what?"

Hearing his words, Flint questioned. "Want one for yourself?" He raised a massive hand made of sand over Shocker and sent it down towards him.

The shadow of his arm came over him and the criminal's look darkened with fear. Clenching his fists, he charged both of his gauntlets with energy. Thrusting them towards the ground, he launched himself off the ground and into the air and avoided Flint's massive fist that slammed down on the asphalt.

Herman was propelled off the ground and landed on top of the rooftop. "Damn you. I never liked you once, Marko!" He admitted, shooting bullets of vibrational shockwaves at the sand entity's face, causing his eyes and nose to fall off.

Sandman faces the man with vibrational gauntlets. "Feeling's mutual, Schultz." He admitted, slamming the criminal into one of the rooftop pillars. His body smashed into it. "And I'm gonna stop you and Vulture."

The energized blades came flying, piercing into the side of his face. A second later, a bright flash of light enveloped him as his entire head exploded due to the numerous blades dug into his temples. "Think less about us, Mr. Marko, and more about yourself." Adrian told him, continuing his barrage of exploding blades.

Flint covered his face with his arms, but a series of precisely shot vibrational shockwaves from Shocker hit his left glenohumeral joint. Despite being made of sand in their state, they still held up the connection between his shoulder and his arm. Once severed, Sandman's entire left arm fell off and hit the ground, forming a massive pool of sand.

As it returned to its owner, Flint was too distracted and allowed an opening for the next wave of explosive feather blades and high-pressurized air blasts assault his face. The combination of both attacks resulted in a massive explosion that blew his head to pieces. The wave of attacks continued, decimating the sand entity's entire body.

"Continue the onslaught, do not falter for even a second, Herman!" Adrian shouted, continuing to unleash his storm of blades at the sand entity.

"Take your own damn advice, old man!" Herman countered, flinging his arms rapidly and hurled an uncountable number of pressurized shockwaves at their target.

With each strike, each air blast, each blade… Piece by piece, Sandman's limbs came flying off, and his body followed shortly after.

After what felt like an eternity of relentless attacks on Sandman, the two villains finally stopped and saw that the only thing that was remaining of Flint was a mountain of sand.

"Did that finish him off?" Shocker asked the smarter one of them.

Adrian narrowed his eyes. "For this barrage to defeat a man with his powers… I remain skeptical."

From the mountain of sand, countless sand hands sprouted like flowers and shot up towards them. Before either of the villains could react, they were both grabbed by them and swung into the air. The remaining sand erupted and took form, reforming Sandman's body. "Skepticism is good!" He exclaimed before hurling the two of them both into a nearby body of water.

Spitting out sand, Flint admitted. "I can do this all day, fellas. Bring it on."

X

WHOOSH

Three blurs of lightning ran through the city, speeding with blinding light trailing behind them. The one in the front of them is the blur of red lightning, running ahead of the others with ease. The two pairs of flashing yellow lightning followed closely.

The Rival in front ran up the side of a skyscraper, reaching the rooftop immediately. He came to a stop in the middle of a helipad, watching with a smirk as the two hero speedsters finally joined him. Both of them watched him carefully, with good reason.

Last time he faced off against these two in a fight, he was the man responsible for puncturing the overconfident Kid Flash with a pipe, delivering a fatal wound onto him and sending him into a coma. But that same fight was also the last one he ever had in Flashpoint…

Edward was sure this time, he wasn't gonna make that same mistake this time. This time… Neither of them would get away with a single wound, nor would they get away at all.

"Finally decided to join me?" Edward questioned them. "Bout time. Thought the two of you would be quaking in your pants."

"Why? I don't see any threats." Wally taunted the villain, mockingly looking around for a would-be threat.

Showing a dark smirk, Edward countered. "You mean like the time I stabbed you from behind?" Wally gulped in fear. He chuckled. "I know Alchemy gave you your speed, punk. Ready to reenact your death, kid?" Crimson lightning crackled over his form.

"That won't happen." Barry argued, stepping in front of Wally. "It won't be like Flashpoint. Not again." He said with determination.

"Oh yeah, why? Nothing's different here… Well, except for one thing, though." Edward smirked.

"One thing?" Wally asked.

WHOOSH

Rival sped into Barry, tackling him into the rooftop entrance that shattered completely from the Scarlet Speedster sent into it. The evil speedster cracked his fists. "This time… I'm gonna start with the bigger nuisance…" He looked over his shoulder, turning a single eye at Wally. "And leave the small fries for last."

"Small fry?" Wally gritted his teeth.

"You heard me." Rival turned his head back to Barry, who pushed himself. The evil speedster kicked him in the stomach, forcing him into a wall. "Get up. I'm not done with you, Flash. Maybe you need some motivation."

"Motivation?" Barry looked up.

Rival smirked.

WHOOSH

He didn't answer, instead he ran away.

"Wally, let's go after him!" Barry told the speedster before running off after him. Wally, after a few doubts in his mind, ran after his mentor.

X

Seth and Frankie traveled through the city, both of them shooting out tendrils to swing them through the city. Thankfully, they weren't far from Otto Octavius, the mastermind still remaining within their field of vision. From their position they are able to see Iris continuing her efforts in escaping his mechanical arms.

Magenta, running across the side of a glass building, commented. "We seriously gotta do something about our members getting kidnapped all the time." She leaped off the establishment, a tendril shooting out of her right hand and stuck to the side of a building.

Jumping off a rooftop, Venom ran like an animal on the road, bypassing car after car. "Got any ideas…" He jumped onto a truck, using it as a springboard and into the air. "Share with the class!" He stated, shooting tendrils out of his body. They attached to the nearest streetlights which he used to slingshot himself through the air.

Following her father in a hurry, the ferrokinetic increased her speed and projected herself off the surface she was on. "… I'm… Thinking." She announced.

As he continued to travel through the city with his extensive mechanical arms, Otto looked behind him. He was mildly surprised to see the two of them still able to follow him and with such great agility as well.

"You know you're gonna lose."

Otto looked at the one arm he's using to restrain his hostage. "Excuse me?"

Iris repeated. "You know you're gonna lose. Whatever your plan is, it won't work. You're gonna lose and end up in Iron Heights."

"Answer me this, Ms. West." Iris' eyes widened at the fact that he knew her name. "Are those your words, the words that your father Detective Joe West has told you… Or perhaps…"

As they got closer and closer, concern came over the father and daughter as they could see Doctor Octopus draw Iris closer to him, both of their mouths moving as they exchanged words. "Let's hope she doesn't piss off the guy who could easily drop her to her death?" Venom told his host.

"She doesn't run her mouth like her brothers… brother." Seth reminded his partner with a shake of his head. "She'll be fine… I hope."

Otto looked up, a smile gracing his lips as he laid eyes on the bridge and what was traveling over it. Coming to a stop, he used his arms to jump off the surface he was on. Eyes closed as Iris felt tremendous wind slamming into her face and she screamed at the uncomfortable feeling of traveling in the arms of a criminal.

Using his arms and claws, Otto grabbed onto the bridge. With his arms continuing to crawl across the underside, he reached the other side of the bridge and jumped over it. Magenta and Venom watched as the villain landed on top of a bullet train.

"Frankie, our back." Seth instructed his daughter who leaped off the building and onto his back. Reeling back his hand, lightning and wind erupted and ensnared his left arm. Thrusting his arm forward, he stretched it out like a grappling hook. His sharpened claws dug into the rear car of the train. Retracting his arm, he propelled them both towards the train.

Slamming his feet onto the metal surface, the elemental used his free arm to help his daughter off his back. Once standing on the metal surface, she crouched down low to avoid being blown off on the roof. Her father followed her, crouching down on the rooftop.

As both of them looked ahead, they saw that Doctor Octopus stood on the rooftop as well. With his mechanical arm, he smashed a hole in one of the windows and threw Iris into it. The symbiote-clad heroes wanted to ask if that was due to her talking his ears off, driving him crazy.

Otto turned around, facing the two heroes. "So you've come…" He looked between the two heroes. "About time."

"What is it with you and trains, Octavius?" Seth had to ask the mastermind.

"What?" Frankie asked, feeling like she didn't know the full story. Shaking her head and straightening her thoughts before shooting out tendrils both hands.

With his upper mechanical arms crossing over his face, the tendrils hit his arms instead of her body. Uncrossing them violently, Otto forced the ferrokinetic closer to him in an instant. With the distance between them immediately closed, Frankie used the momentum to perform a somersault before delivering a kick to his face.

In retaliation, Otto lashed out his upper left mechanical arm to strike her. But the arm was snatched by the elemental's clawed hand, his sharper-than-talons claws keeping a tight hold on his arm with adamantium reinforced by it.

Allowing his free arm to be of use to his daughter, Frankie used it to jump from and charged the evil genius with a large spiked mace. But Otto used his upper right mechanical arm to grab her, preventing her efforts to strike him.

Seth pulled on the arm in his hand, pulling Otto closer to him to deliver an adamantium fist into his stomach. The strike to his guts caused him to release his hold on Frankie. Pulling his hand away from his stomach, Venom snatched him by his collar and kept him there.

Both father and daughter slammed a fist into his chest, forcing him back and sending him skipping across the metal surface of the train rooftop. To stop himself he had his arms stop himself, sparks went off from the friction between two metal.

Raising his head, Otto sneered at the two heroes and took aim with his upper arms. Flexing the two sets of claws, he unleashes massive destructive soundwaves from both arms. Neither Venom nor Magenta had a chance to avoid it, both of them feeling the full force of the sonic torture.

One was brought down to his knees, the other managed to stay standing on her feet. Raising her hand, Magenta's eyes focused on Dr. Octopus, she slammed her purple lightning cloaked fist down on the metal surface. The lightning spread the plates in front of them and with a twist of her hand, she forced them up in front of them.

Destructive soundwaves were blocked by the makeshift barricade, giving the two heroes time to breathe and gather their bearings. "Forgot about the soundwaves." Magenta admitted, her form assimilating itself quickly.

"Whatever, we'll take care of him now." Venom announced, pulling out his sword. Using it as a bat, he slammed the blunt side of it into their shields. The force of the swing sent the barricades flying like throwing stars after the villain.

When the first one was within his range, Otto snatched it with one of his additional appendages. As the remaining two reached him, he waved his mechanical arm around and knocked them away with the metal plate. Using that one and only mechanical appendage, he crumbled the plate with ease like it was a piece of a paper. Throwing it away, he showed them a glare….

A glare that spoke volumes…

No more playing nice.

Shooting out two of his mechanical arms to the sides, he had them smash into the sides of the train and through the windows. An ominous chill ran down the spines of the two heroes when hearing screams emitting from within the train.

Retracting his arms from the car, Dr. Octopus revealed that each of them is clutching onto a civilian, a male civilian in his right arm and the familiar form of Iris West in his left arm. "Venom?" She shouted at the elemental.

"Rotten bastard!" Venom snarled, digging his sword into the metal surface under their feet.

With a growl, Otto hurled Iris away with a mighty swing. Iris screamed loudly as she was thrown over the train and neared the train tracks. If impact happened, it'd spell her death…. And it'd be a death that wasn't at Savitar's hands.

But a form veiled in both wind and lightning that jumped off the train quickly grabbed her out of the air, his immense arm wrapping around her form. Venom spun around, straightening himself, before falling to the streets and letting go of Iris. "Get out of here!"

With that instruction leaving his mouth, the elemental shot out tendrils from his arms and attached them to the back of the train. As he was pulled by them, he jumped off the asphalt to add to the momentum, shooting himself towards the massive speeding vehicle instantly.

But he released his tendrils when seeing Otto throw away his other hostage. Much like with Iris, the male hostage was sent towards the train tracks. Grabbing onto a traffic light, the mutant jumped onto the tracks and rushed towards the screaming hostage. Jumping towards the hostage, he grabbed him before he hit the tracks. Shooting out a tendril from his arm, Venom quickly placed him on a nearby fire escape.

"Get to safety!" Venom instructed the civilian before running after the train.

On top of the train, Magenta avoided the numerous swings and strikes of Dr. Octopus' mechanical appendages. But one of the strikes did push her back a few feet, forcing her back to hit the sword her father left behind.

Otto unleashes another linear strike with one of his additional limbs. Frankie, repeating what she's seen her father's done multiple times, reached behind her and tore the large crystal sword out of the metal surface. Swinging it horizontally with both hands on the handle, she clashed with the mechanical appendage. However, with the strength of her symbiote pouring into her attack, now Dr. Octopus was the one to be pushed back.

His back didn't touch the surface, his mechanical arms preventing that scenario from coming to be. They pushed him back on his feet after one mental command, and that allowed him to strike for the ferrokinetic's head once again.

Frankie used the sword to shield her head, knocking the weaponized arm away with a swing of the crystal sword. Otto used that chance to lash out two of his mechanical arms, each of them snatching her legs. Without a shred of mercy or hesitation, he used them and hurled the young ferrokinetic over his head and towards an incoming bridge.

"Oh fuck!" Magenta groaned as she closed in on the bridge. She threw the sword away with a hard kick, sending it over the bridge. Turning her attention to it, she clenched her fists and pried open a hole in its metal walls. With skills like no others, she got through the opening. Once on the other side, she performed a frontal somersault, gathering up momentum.

As the momentum increased, she formed a hand into a mace. She got closer to the villain, and when he was within arm's reach, she delivered an overhead swing with her mace. The strike pushed him off the top, the two of them falling off the roof and continued their fight on the side of the train.

A series of strikes from his mechanical arms rained over Frankie, making her use the sword as a shield. As they continued, Magenta stepped forward inch by inch. Her every step making the metal around her and glass windows under her feet tremor. "You know who my father is, how?!"

"Mere deduction, child. Your skills are proof of Venom's teachings, and only a child would react the way you are when someone of my stature makes queries about their parents." Otto declared, continuing his onslaught of mechanical jabs. Despite his attacks, he was pushed back by her advances.

Pushing back his arms, Frankie charged him and swung her fist. But instead, her fist met the overlapping mechanical appendages of Ottos as they barricade his body. With her hand making contact with the arms, her eyes shined brightly with a magenta shine, purple sparks emitting from her hand.

Seeing the sparks himself, quickly deducing her intentions, Otto stated. "Try all you will, child, but your ferrokinetic prowess will not rid me of these arms of mine. Their insulation was upgraded to counter your powers."

"Can't control it… Fine with me." When she was able to see an opening, she delivered a swift kick to his chest, knocking him back. Not giving him a chance to recover, she continued the onslaught with a series of swift strikes.

Avoiding his fate as a punching bag, Otto jumped off the side of the speeding train, narrowly avoiding another train passing by them on the adjacent tracks. Frankie leant all the way back, so close her back was touching the side of the train.

When it had successfully passed, Frankie jumped onto the top of the train again. Looking ahead, she saw Otto rushing towards the front at full speed. "What's he doing?" She asked herself as she took chase, following the octopus-like villain.

As she chased the villain, in the corner of her eye she saw her father running along the surface of the brick establishments on the right side. Try as he might, he found it hard to keep up with the bullet train. But enshrouding his entire form with lightning and wind, Venom's speed increased and he managed to close in on the train.

Once he was close enough, he jumped off the buildings and landed on top of the train. He rushed after his daughter. "What's happening?" He inquired, getting close to her side.

"He's running towards the front, don't know why. Here, it's yours!" Frankie said, throwing her father his sword back.

Grabbing his weapon, he put it on his back with tendrils wrapping around it like a scabbard. "I don't like where this is going." He faced his daughter, nodding to his back where his tendrils tighten their hold on his weapon. "Jump on!"

Nodding her acceptance, Frankie jumped onto her father's back and used the blunt side of the blade as a foothold. Venom increased the lightning and wind around his form, the intensity appearing akin to that of a thunderstorm. The amplification of his technique increased the elemental's speed once more, making him run faster and faster towards the villain.

Having made his way to the front, Otto looked over his shoulder and saw that Venom had returned. With a smile on his face, the villain relied on an old classic of his. Without even looking, he had one of his mechanical tentacles shoot down into a window.

The engineer in control of the entire vehicle was knocked out by the arm that shattered the glass. The crew members tended to their unconscious engineer, some of them looked up at the menacing mechanical arm that took control of the lever for the speed control. It pushed the lever up to the highest level, increasing the speed to its highest output.

Every single passenger in the train, in every single cart, felt their transportation increase in speed and travel much faster. The sudden change in velocity caused them to fall to the floor, hitting the surface with a loud thud.

The train passed by a station, each of the people waiting for it to stop fell, losing their balance after the violent gust from the ferociously speeding transport.

Feeling the intense wind pushing against his form, Otto smirked when realizing his plan had worked. But it could still be stopped with the turn of a lever. Reducing the possibility of that happening to zero, Dr. Octopus tore off the handle from within the train with his mechanical arm.

Coming to a halt near the villain, Seth dug his claws into the surface to anchor himself. The intense wind hit his face and his daughter's, both of them groaning with gritted teeth. "What did you do, Octavius?!"

Otto's smirk widened, turning to face the heroes and tossed them the item in one of his hands. Frankie caught it, seeing it was the brake system. "Oh crap!"

"You have a train to catch." Otto smirked, giving them both a salute. He jumped off the train, scaling across the surface of the brick establishments on the side.

"Fucker!" Magenta growled.

"HELP!"

A series of screaming cries of help bellowed out of the train, crew members and civilians crying out loud in fear and terror.

"SOMEBODY HELP US!" After his daughter jumped off his back, Venom crawled down the side of the long vehicle. The engineer, now awake, faced the window and saw the demonic elemental. "I can't stop it! The brakes are gone!"

Looking ahead, Seth narrowed his eyes and expanded his "other's" senses. With his eyes looking ahead and his senses spread to their limits, the elemental could see that the tracks lead to an underground tunnel that was collapsed. A ravine had completely closed it off. He jumped back onto the train roof. "Train's gonna crash into a ravine at this rate."

"We'll stop it." Frankie stated.

But a hand on her shoulder stopped her from acting. "We will stop it." Frankie turned confused. "You go and stop Octavius. You're best for that job… We will handle the train. Trust us, honey."

"You sure I can handle it, Dad?" Frankie asked with a gulp. She may have improved since her last solo fight against Dr. Octopus, but the fears and doubts of losing yet again against him rose back to the front of her mind. "Really?"

"More than anything, we believe you can defeat this monster. You… You can do it." He used the back of his fingers to stroke her cheek. "We love you. Go!"

Nodding her head in agreement, Magenta leaped off the metal surface and into the air. She gave her father one last look; he nodded his head in assurance. His pledge allowed her to jump quicker and hasten her progress.

Thankfully… As she looks down in a glance, she finds a scrapheap of what can bring her arsenal…

Seth turned his gaze away from his daughter who landed in a scrapyard, and settled his eyes on the front of the train. His ears picked up the numerous cries for help from the civilians in the vehicle. "Time to work." He looked down at the front window, seeing several people there. "Anyone in the front cart, move away to the back!" Hearing his bellowing instructions, they moved away and into one of the other carts.

With all of his might poured into his legs, Venom leaped off the roof. He landed on the tracks, his feet pushing against the metal. Crossing his arms over his chest, adamantium began his skin. With a roar, he uncrosses his arms and shoots tendrils from every side of his appendages, digging into every nearby surface he could find like they're hooks.

Seth and Venom knew very well that at that speed it was impossible for them to have the citizens escape. At its current course, it was bound to crash into the ravine….

Unless he stopped it himself…

Turning the rest of his physique into adamantium, Venom dug his feet into the ground, even breaking through the tracks with ease. He raised his hands, awaiting the speeding bullet train that's heading his way. And in a matter of seconds, the long transportation vehicle came very close to him.

Venom thrust both of his arms forward, slamming his hands into the front of the bullet train. Adamantium claws piercing into the metal. All the adamantium tendrils Seth had spread out like anchors began pulling back, pushing the elemental into the transportation vehicle.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Seth pushed back with all of his might. His strength increased as he focused every single piece of his earth element in his body to enshroud and clad his bones. Reinforcing his skeletal structure, his claws and arms began to dive deeper into the front.

A snarl from both pain and anger emitted from his entire being, quickly followed by a thunderous roar. His violent howl was matched by a tremendous surge of lightning bursting from his whole body.

From the inside of the train, the civilians saw the lightning bursting out from the front of their vehicle, and to them it looked like a blinding sun of thunder. That same sun releases sunshine that spreads throughout the tendrils around their transport…

Appearing like a web of pure lightning coming to being in front of their eyes… Covering their entire vehicle…

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

Alarms blared over the heads of the team members, making them turn their heads in fear of what mayhem is about to enter their radar.

"Oh, what now?" Cisco complained, contemplating if he should suit up and join the fight with his friends.

"Appears the alarms are sounding off." H.R. noted casually, gesturing to the alarms from both the computers and the ceiling.

"I know that, H.R.!" The viber exclaimed. "I'm asking why they're sounding off."

"Oh. I don't know that." Harrison confessed, returning to his seat in his chair.

Cisco slammed a hand down on the table with a heavy sigh. "One of these days I'm gonna strangle him."

Caitlin gave him a dry look. "And you think I've been influenced too much by Seth?" She chuckled sheepishly. Cisco matched her chuckle with one of his own. Turning her computers, she checked the city scans. "Looks we're dealing with…"

Cisco looked over her shoulder, facing the same screen. "Electrical outburst?"

"Similar to the intensity of a lightning strike…" Caitlin muttered. Her eyes widened in realization. "It's Seth."

"Where is it originating from?" H.R. questioned.

Receiving help from the A.I., Caitlin saw the location on a dialog box. "It's… In front of a malfunctioning bullet train."

"In front of… a speeding train?" Harrison inquired, getting out of his seat… and discreetly pulling out his recording device. "Why?"

Doing a quick scan of the transport vehicle from his computer, Cisco announced. "It's the train, its brake controls destroyed. I can't find it anywhere on the scans. Seth's trying to stop it himself before it crashes into a ravine."

"But why with lightning? He couldn't possibly want to cause the train itself to explode?" H.R. asked with surprise.

"No, not Seth. He wouldn't choose such a destructive method, especially not with civilians inside…" Caitlin stopped herself, realizing what her mate's goals were. "Destructiveness, that's his goal."

"Care to elaborate, Caitlin?" Cisco asked, a question mark appearing over his head.

Facing him and H.R. she explained. "Seth's intending to overload the train's brakes with his lightning, forcing it to stop by breaking them. He can't separate the train cars like he did before when Snart tried to escape with his diamonds with the train running at that speed, so he's choosing to destroy the wheels with his powers."

"Two opposing surges of electricity in one system, they're gonna cancel each other out and cause it to break. They won't speed up after destruction." Cisco pieced it together. He chuckled slightly at that solution. "Diabolical idea, Seth. Genius, but destructive and diabolical, for sure."

To some degree Cisco wasn't surprised that the elemental would choose such an idea to help those innocents. It was the only way for him to save them all, and knowing Seth, even destructive ideas such as this one were on the forefront of his mind…

No ideas were bad to him, cause he'd make them good.

"Then only one question remains…" Unbeknownst to him, Harrison got their attention but his back was facing them. Both Cisco and Caitlin see him hold his recording device close to his mouth. "Will our Lethal Protector's brute force be what saves this trainload of innocents… Or will it only provide them brief moments of salvation before their impending doom?"

For the first time in a long time now, Caitlin considered turning someone on their team into an ice sculpture.

X

"Really think this plan will work, Seth?"

Somehow, despite the immense train pushing him back, Seth managed to form a smile. "Got time to contemplate, means you got time to help more, don't you?"

Showing a mental grin from within his host's mind, his "other" released a series of additional tendrils and shot them into the ground. Much like their predecessors they also try to anchor the elemental to the ground, trying to solidify his position in front of the train.

More of the train's metallic surface dented and crumbled, compressing as Seth's adamantium body pushes against the vehicle. Lightning continued to crackle and run over his form, traveling across his numerous tendrils and spreading the thunder all around.

The adamantium tendrils that clashed against wheels began emitting violent sparks, the surges of electricity on both sides met each other in a vicious war. Sparks continued to go off, the friction surpassing that a blacksmith creates with ease.

But soon enough… the friction came to an end…

Various train wheels blew up, completely overloaded from the intense power surges canceling each other out. Screeches akin to banshees screaming echoed throughout the entire area. Smoke began emitting from where the destroyed wheels were once placed.

Smoke began emitting from both sides of the train, its wheels blowing up one after another rapidly. In a matter of seconds, almost all of the wheels had been blown up, releasing massive plumes of rising smoke.

Seth smelled the smoke, his teeth forming a smile when realizing his plan was working. Giving it a final push, he unleashes another series of adamantium tendrils from his body that pierce into the asphalt. The more anchors he had attached to him, the stronger he was able to push back against the train.

However, slowly as he began pushing back against it… He felt the transportation vehicle decelerate bit by bit. Feeling that, Venom looked over his shoulder and saw that they were getting dangerously close to the ravine.

With another widened smile on his face, the elemental snapped his head back to the train. Giving it one final push, the mutant released even more lightning from his core, having it crackle and dance over his entire form and his numerous tendrils. A howling roar emitted from his mouth, and Seth forced his lightning to burst across the tendrils immediately.

It was though the lightning was striking the remaining wheels with the ferocity of dragons, tearing into them with thunderous fangs and making them explode in a flurry one after another. The web of electricity reached its maximum, reaching every single wheel on the train. By now, all of them had exploded. The screeching from the train's exploded wheels…

Finally came to an end…

With it, its deceleration finally came to an end, the train coming to a halt once and for all. Allowing the mutant a moment to sigh in relief, he released his hold on the transport and looked over his shoulder. A scoff came from his mouth when seeing that he was mere inches from the ravine.

"Close one." He and his "other" admitted in unison. Turning back to the train, he saw a number of civilians hold their chests and finally breathe in ease. Sticking in his head through the nearest shattered window, getting a few gasps in the process, Seth asked. "You folks okay?"

"W-We're fine, sir." The elder engineer admitted, his right hand pulling off his hat. "Thanks to you?"

"Good." Seth nodded, retracting his head. Quickly, he tore off a few walls to allow the passengers to come out. "Cait, what's the status? How're the others doing?"

"Nice job with the train, Seth." Caitlin started. "Barry and Wally are chasing Rival throughout the city."

Venom stepped back with a scoff. "Figured it'd come down to those three brawling. Hope Wally's over his Flashpoint death."

"Same." Cisco chimed in.

"Frankie's closing in on Octavius." Caitlin added.

"Don't worry about her, she's gonna be fine. What about you guys? Any of them at the facility?" Venom asked, running up the side of a building.

"Vulture and Shocker are here, Flint's dealing with them both on his own." Caitlin stated. "Ruby's taken Scorpion down to the basement, taking him on alone. Evelyn's dealing with Rhino in the city."

"Sounds like our girls are gonna be busy. We're heading back to S.T.A.R. Labs, Flint needs help." Seth stated and swung his way towards the facility with tendrils shooting out of his arms.

Now… His hopes lie in his daughters defeating their respective enemy.

X

Otto Octavius, using his mechanical arms, swung through the city streets, mimicking the actions of a certain hero he's familiar with from his native universe. He was quite amused at how easy it was to replicate the web-slinger's method of traveling.

But unlike the spider-hero, who's welcomed with cheers and praises, Dr. Octopus receives only screams of horror at his presence. Even now as he scales the side of a building, the screams aimed at him get louder and louder.

He jumped off the wall, landing in the middle of the street and rushed through it, his mechanical appendages knocking over cars with ease.

However, his time of flipping vehicles came to an end when a harpoon-like projectile came flying past his head and knocked off his goggles. Dr. Octopus groaned and turned his head around, aiming a glare at the person who followed him.

Magenta slammed down on the ground, her right arm armed and equipped with a large barrel filled with harpoons and her left arm morphed into a massive board sword. Waving her sword, sparking with purple electricity, downwards she brought a number of scrap metal spheres down around her. Her eyes dazzling with purple light, aiming a glare at the villain with rage inside each eye.

"Suppose you let your father handle the train incident?" Otto rather stated than questioned.

"He can handle the train, but you? You're mine, and mine alone to tear to shreds." Magenta snarled, the metal around her sparking and levitated over her form. "How'd you find our base?"

"Simple manner of tracking all of you and allies' sightings with a hexagonal algorithm, extrapolating theoretical trajectories for each and every one of you…" Otto chuckled. "Need any further explanation?"

"No… Just your fucking screams!" Magenta roared, charging the villain with her right arm lifted up. With a clench of her arm, she unleashed a series of harpoons at him.

Swinging out his upper mechanical arms, Otto knocked them away. The spears pierced into the asphalt around him, the sound of them embedding into it grinded his ears. The grinding to his ears caused an opening in his defenses, and Magenta exploited it as she came up close.

She swung her left arm, swinging her symbiote-made broadsword upwards in a vertical slash. The attack pushed his additional arms away. Otto used his lower mechanical arms to jump backwards, avoiding her next slash.

Landing back on the ground, he was shocked to see Magenta raise her harpoon-equipped arm and dissemble it piece by piece. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad our last fight ended the way it did, Doctor."

"Is that so? Pray tell why, young child." He asked her.

Pieces began replacing pieces on her weapon, turning it into something else. "Losing to you and your cohorts… Made me realize I was weak. Too weak to protect my family… My city… My home." By now, the harpoon had been replaced by a massive makeshift arm made from scrap metal. Clenching the fist, she continued. "You made me realize the limits I had… And because of that loss you dealt me, I was able to overcome them. So thank you."

"Why, I am happy that you surpassed your limitations, young one." Otto elevated himself, standing tall and looking down on the ferrokinetic. "Let's see if we cannot expose anymore limits of yours then..." With that said, the villain unleashes devastating soundwaves at the ground, paving a way towards the hero.

Jumping off the ground, Frankie avoided the incoming sonic attacks. Reeling back her armored fist, she prepared herself for the fight that's about to cross her path.

X

"Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap! OH CRAP!"

To say Kai's debut as a hero was going awful… Wouldn't quite fit the bill…

Especially, despite his initial determination, he is now running away from Rhino who's giving chase. The young metahuman rushed through the city, jumping over cars and trash cans. Barreling through the myriad of people who're in his path, shooting through any and all gaps he could in the mass.

His eyes kept darting back, seeing Rhino continuing to follow him with a cackle. People screaming behind him as they run away in terror. "Does that guy never stop?!"

Evelyn came out of the shadows on top of an adjacent building, running across the ledge. "Would you seriously stop running for a second?!"

"Not with that crazy giganto on my ass, no!" Kai shouted, showing expert skills in evasion and speed when he jumped over a trash container. That same container was knocked into the air by the huge villain. The sight made the metahuman quicken his speed, running as fast as he could. "Please, help me!"

"Would-be hero or not, he's a wimp." Dusk admitted with brutal honesty.

"No kidding. Though it's a surprise he's managed to stay alive this long." Evelyn stated with equal amounts of brutal honesty. Looking ahead, she saw that there was an open construction area. What stood out the most was that it was empty. "Lead him to that construction site, we'll finish him there!"

"Your confidence is scary!" Kai admitted out loud. But he obliged to her instructions and made a beeline for the gate entrance to the construction site. When getting close to the gate, he ejected blades from his soles that pushed him off the ground just as he's about to jump. Using that small boost, he was able to leap over the fence and enter the area.

Evelyn shadowported to the same area, coming out of the darkness and stood beside Kai. "Thanks again."

"Um… For what? For watching me get stomped like an insect?" Kai questioned shiveringly.

"For helping me take down the same guy I couldn't defeat last time. It means a lot." Eclipse clarified. "Won't make up for everything that happened between us… But it's a start."

Kai nodded with a smile. "Means I can begin from there, so that's fine with me. Let's ace this dude."

The same fence that Kai leaped over was torn off its hinges by Rhino when he rushed through it. He came to a stop, sliding to a halt and glared at the two young metahumans. "Ah… Perfect." He took in his surroundings, admiring the construction side. "Empty and hollow, make the perfect graveyard for you two."

Evelyn pulled back an arrow, taking aim at the villain. "Don't get too cocky, you haven't won yet."

"Yeah." Kai agreed, crossing his silver blades over one another. But his legs were shaking a lot, his fear getting stronger and stronger by the second. "But seriously, how do we fight this guy without getting stomped on?"

"We'll figure it out as we go." Evelyn delivered their surefire way of defeating the gargantuan villain.

"F… Figure it out… as we go?" Kai replied in shock, reciting her plan of action.

An angry roar emitted from Rhino, making the metahumans face him again. The moment they saw him once more, they saw the villain grab a forklift and hold it over his head. Releasing another mighty cry, he hurled the construction vehicle at them.

Kai saw it coming, staggering back with fear. But as he stepped back, Evelyn jumped ahead, meeting the vehicle head on. With her wings shooting out like snakes, their mouths crunched down on the wheels and threw it back towards the enemy.

Aleksei blocked it with his hands, the returned attack of his pushed him back. But the vehicle in his hands shook, peering over the side of it and saw a growing number of arrows piercing into it. His eyes rose when seeing one imbued with light pierce into the fuel tank.

A single spark appeared… and it was all that was needed…

EXPLOSION

A big blaze enveloped the gargantuan villain, making him scream as all that filled his eyesight were flames.

"What the…" Kai chuckled hollowly with hints of relief. "Bet he's finished after that."

"He's not." Evelyn corrected him. She walked towards Kai, explaining as she did so. "This is Rhino, a villain from another universe… One that's been fighting Venom for a long time, one that could still stand his ground even after multiple attacks of his flames. He's not weak enough to die from something like that."

"Wait, seriously?" Kai gulped, facing the blaze-covered villain.

But a tug on his collar made him turn his attention back to Eclipse. "Forget him, what about you?" Her words left him confused with a gaped mouth. "I brought you here with me because I honestly believe you want to make up for the past you and I have. You said you wanted to stand with me against this guy, I believe that. Because of that, I'm giving you a chance to do so. If you're having second thoughts, get away from here… Cause this guy needs to be defeated, and we're the ones to do so."

She let go of his collar, allowing her words to sink into Kai's mind, body and soul. Once again, he couldn't help but be shocked by her determination that was sharper than a knife and stronger than an iron wall. It was like the person that he knew on Earth-2 wasn't there anymore, like that friend of his who was scared and on the run from villains and the law alike… She didn't exist any longer.

Like a serpent, Evelyn had shed that skin and remerged as a more powerful metahuman… as a hero…

With a clench of his fists and a grit of his teeth, he took a stance by her side with his blades crossed over each other. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Good…" Eclipse looked around, seeing the building under construction behind them. It was very tall, and not completed at all. Number of steel beams were still there, some properly screwed on whilst others weren't so lucky. "I got a plan."

"A real plan?" Mantis questioned.

"You can cut steel, right?" Eclipse questioned, recalling the time he bragged about cutting train cars apart.

"Not his steel." Mantis referred to the humongous villain who swung his arms around, generating enough air to extinguish the flames on his body.

"What about that steel?" Eclipse pointed a finger to the unfinished construction building.

Kai looked over the metal beams from his position. "Yeah, looks doable."

"AAAARRRRGGGHHH!" Rhino finally exclaimed, freed from the red flames that had entrapped him. "Enough games, you two die now!" He said with blind rage, running towards them in a charge. The villain raised his right arm, swinging it down with a clenched fist.

Evelyn used her forearms to block the fist that slammed down on her. The weight of the strike pushed her down, her feet digging into the gravel. Gritting her teeth, she had serpentine wings wrap around his forearm, keeping him restrained and preventing him from leaving.

"Go!" Evelyn exclaimed, her words making Mantis jump into action. He rushed to the building, lashing out his blades and began cutting with quick slashes.

With her "other's" senses, Eclipse saw that her friend had begun his task. Assured of that, she turned her eyes back to the villain. "Just you and me now, Aleksei!" She exclaimed, shooting out tendrils from her right arm and had them strike his head. As her wings remained wrapped around his arm, he was unable to escape and met the full force of her rapidly attacking tendrils.

But the attacks on his face did nothing to remove the smirk on his face at all. Rhino smiled, using his other arm to thrust his fist at her attacking tendrils. His strike pushed them away, forcing them to retract. The villain showed no sign of stopping, pulling back his fist before repeatedly striking it down with the speed of a machine gun.

Each of the punches reminded the young hero of her first fight with the massive villain, where she suffered at his hands that strike with the weight of a train. She groaned at both the physical pain as well as the mental pain from the memories resurfacing. Both of them together made her grit her teeth… In rage…

Her rage began boiling her blood, flooding her mind and warping her thoughts with nothing but rage and wrath. As though responding to her growing rage, her arms began shining once more. Both of them were cloaked by the darkness of shadows, but shined with the brilliance of light.

Unleashing a cry, Eclipse pushed back and uncrossed her arms, pushing Rhino's fist away. The push disoriented him and pushed him back onto one foot. Releasing her wings' hold on his other arm, she spiraled like a top and slammed her wings against his body.

Every single blow to his iron-clad body Rhino felt and he groaned at each one. But the one that hurt the most was when Evelyn reeled back an arm, light and darkness converging to it and emitting immensely from it, before she thrust it into his stomach. Aleksei felt it drive into his armor plate, the tremendous energy in her forearm was released upon impact. The elements combined in a massive explosion, pushing him back and into a pile of rusty steel beams.

A wall fell on top of him, allowing Evelyn a moment to examine her arm again. "Same thing happened again…" She commented on the strange mix of darkness and light in her arm.

"They combined with one another. Your light and darkness joined forces in your arm." Dusk realized, feeling the effects of the two elements in her host's arm. "That's definitely new."

"Two elements in one attack, twice the power." Evelyn scoffed in shock. In the past on Earth-2, she could remain conscious with two elements in separate arms. But now, after training and hosting a symbiote that heals her regularly, she is able to exceed her previous limits and now house them both in one limb alone without any drawback. Using them separately was the way she first learnt how to use her powers during her training with her father back on Earth-2, keeping them separate and without harming her body from within. But the results of their combined force shocked her greatly, enough to make her reconsider her methods.

With a clench of her hand and focusing her elements, she saw the darkness and light mix shine brighter. "Twice the power…" She lifted her eyes back up again, returning her attention to the villain who groaned and growled like an animal as he knocked the beams off of his body. "Twice the force should be more than anything to drive a hole through his armor." Evelyn continued as she saw the fist imprint on his armor she made with her previous assault.

"If done properly…" She added.

"Worth a try…" Dusk agreed.

Clenching both her hands and digging her feet into the asphalt, Eclipse sighed heavily, using all of her concentration. She closes her eyes, imagining her two elements as two rivers of black and white inside of her body, traveling throughout her entire being alongside her blood flow. But instead of flowing their own paths, she devotes all of her focus to make the two rivers spiral against one another for a few seconds…

Next, she had them join together… Imagining that the two rivers… the two natures began coexisting, living together in harmony. Darkness and light dancing with one another in a surge, quickly joining arms…

Opening her eyes again, Evelyn felt the same intense feeling in her arm spread throughout her entire body. Now her entire body is enveloped by shadows before shining with dazzling light. The markings on her face have a weaker, but similar shine…

Aleksei stood back up on his feet, growling at the girl, barely noticing her form enwrapped by her strange new but familiar ominous brilliant energy. "Little girl, you die now!" He kicked numerous steel beams towards her.

Thrusting out her wings, she had her wings bite down on the beams. Charging the villain with speed unlike anything she's had before, she appeared in front of him again. Aleksei's eyes expanded to new limits, surprised by her lightning-like speed. But his surprise vanished as she unleashed a barrage of swings to his upper body with the steel beams.

He grunted at each strike, but Rhino pushed back and swung his fist down. Overlapping the steel beams over her head, she blocked his attack before thrusting them all into his head. The villain fell down on his back, allowing the metahuman to backflip and jump into the air.

As she descends through the open skies, she performs a flip to gather up more momentum. Flipping in the air she focuses light and darkness in her right leg. Coming back down to the villain, she delivered a powerful axe kick to his stomach. Aleksei groaned through gritted teeth, feeling her foot dig into him. His armor cracked from the strike, but the ground under him was thoroughly pulverized, kicking up gravel, sand and asphalt in a large dust screen.

Delivering another slash of his right blade to a pillar to cut through the center, Kai turned his head and saw the dust screen envelop Rhino. From that same dust cloud, Eclipse jumped out and flipped onto her feet. "Remind me to never piss Evie off again…" He noted under his breath. He cut through another pillar.

Eclipse looked in his direction. "You doing okay there?"

Another pillar was cut with a single slash. "Is this even necessary? He's down." Kai said hopefully, not wanting to extend this bout with the villain.

But from the immense dust cloud a large hand shot out and grabbed Evelyn. Rhino squeezed her tightly before slamming her into the ground. Much like her attack did to him, the ground began fissuring from his immense force. He repeated this action, thrusting her into the ground without stopping.

Mantis stopped cutting, facing the dilemma his old friend is in. His eyes widened… And he acted without thinking.

"Let her go!" He exclaimed, running towards the villain with crossed blades. After Rhino slammed her down in the asphalt, Mantis appeared beside him and delivered a series of slashes to his arm. His blades didn't cut through his red armor, but that didn't stop him from continuing his assault.

However, his actions soon made the villain growl in rage. In retaliation, he slammed Eclipse into him. He grabbed her, but the massive foot that hit them sent them both flying. They both slammed into a pillar, one that hadn't been cut yet.

Sliding down it, Kai groaned. "How can one get used to this?"

With a chuckle, Evelyn added. "Trial and errors, that's the way of life." She groaned. "And a bunch of pain or so too."

A loud earth-shaking stomp got their attention, making the pair of metahumans face Rhino again. With what remained of his red armor, it was almost as if his face itself was turning red. The blood under his skin boiling in rage from being humiliated by a pair of children.

Rhino rushed towards them with his horn lowered, intent on driving it through them both. His rampage was thunderous, shaking the very foundation with each powerful step he took. The two of them watched as the villain slammed into one of the support pillars. As soon as that support beam fell, a chain reaction began and the damaged pillars from Kai's slashes all began to fall.

One of them fell in front of the heroes. Evelyn widened her eyes. "Hang on!" She said, grasping onto Kai's arm. Looking away from him, she saw Rhino's horn fill her field of vision. It was not the only thing. The second thing to fill her vision were the collapsing pieces of the construction building.

A massive dust screen kicked up from the entire building falling to pieces, every single piece of it falling on top of them all…

But it was only one person who fell under the collapse, evidently as Eclipse shadowported out of thin air with Mantis in her hand. Both fell to the ground, groaning and panting in unison. "He's… He's gotta be down from that, right?" He asked her.

Expanding her "other's" senses to their utmost limits, Evelyn searched for the slightest movement within the pile of remains of the construction building. "Fuck!" She exclaimed; her eyes widened when she picked up a presence.

"What?" Kai looked between her and the pile with shock. "Don't tell me he's still-"

SCREAM

A scream… No…

A warcry resounded as various steel beams were launched off his body. With a glare on his damaged body armor, Rhino stood back up on his feet. As he made his way through the swamp of support pillars, he crushed them with ease.

"Fucking hell… What does it take to knock this bastard out?" Eclipse asked, getting back on her feet.

"One more attack?"

Kai's words made her snap her head in his direction. "What was that?"

Standing up again, Kai nodded to the villain's body. "Look." Evelyn looked in the same direction, taking in Rhino's armor-clad body. As she saw his body, she saw something else. His red armor began crumbling, pieces of it falling off his body. She saw that in the middle of his torso was a hole, exposing his grey exoskeleton armor. "It's in pieces, his red armor."

"The red one's made to withstand my light attacks, if I could tear it off…" As she spoke the gears in her head began to turn. The only way she could defeat this villain was by tearing off his red armor, confident that in her current state she can defeat him in his grey exoskeletal armor. "His armor withstands my light, defensive against heat and piercing attacks like that. But…"

As her plan began formulating, she amassed plumes of darkness in both palms. "It's not the only element I have." The darkness mass in her hands intensified, she clenched her fists and the shadowy miasma slithered out the gaps between her fingers.

"You got a plan?" Kai asked.

"Can you distract him for a bit? Just for a short while?" Evelyn pleaded. "One opening, and I can chip off his armor on his chest."

Kai didn't wanna doubt her, but he had to question her. "Will that be enough to get him down?"

"No… But the next one definitely will." Eclipse admitted, taking a steadfast stance with her feet digging into the ground. "Just…"

"Don't worry, I got it." Mantis admitted, raising his arms up. "Rhiney, I'm your opponent now!" He declared before running towards the villain as quickly as he could.

Rhino turned his murderous and enraged glare to the male metahuman, clenching both of his fists which caused creaks to sound from his armor. "Then you first to perish!" He exclaimed, rushing towards him with swinging arms.

Mantis somehow managed to use his left blade to push his incoming fist away from him, deflecting it in the process. But it was tough to say the least, his blade and his entire arm hurting from connecting with the villain's fist. However, that didn't stop the metahuman from continuing his attacks.

Appearing under his torso, Kai delivered a slash to the hole in his arm. More pieces from the hole flew off, making it bigger. He went to deliver another strike to the same area, but met a massive foot instead as it kicked him away.

Kai was hurled into a stack of cement packs, some of them bursting open. While coughing up bile, cement powder began pouring down over his face. "Oh great." He wiped off the powder covering his face. "Now I have to take a shower."

"How?" That voice made the metahuman gulp in fear, making him look up and see Rhino staring him down with a raised fist. "You gonna be too dead for bath."

"Oh crap." Kai used up all the strength in his legs to jump backwards, hopping over the stack of cement. With him out of the way, the pile became Rhino's target and was completely demolished by his fist. Power flew everywhere, causing a dust cloud to come over them both.

The dust got in Kai's eyes, causing him to lose focus and not see where he's going. This caused him to trip over a log, falling to the ground. He grunted upon impact, his eyes looking back up with another wave of fear coming over him.

Much like their previous positions, Rhino was once again standing over the metahuman with a raised clenched fist. The crimson-red armor clad over his grey exoskeletal had cracks all over it, various creaking sounds emitting from the exterior armor.

Despite the situation he is in, Kai couldn't help but be utterly impressed and amazed at the damage on his armor, knowing full well that it all was due to Evelyn delivering storms of attacks on him like there was no tomorrow.

"HEY!"

Rhino snapped his head around…

But barely got a look at the attacks that came next, shooting at him with the speed of bullets. Glancing down at his torso, he saw what looked like smaller shadowy tendrils striking his chest. They retracted back to their origin, seeing that it was Eclipse who had released the darkness tendrils from her hands.

Pulling back her hands, Eclipse reformed darkness orbs in her palms once more, intending to continue the assault of darkness tendrils. Rhino glared at her, but he didn't get to react as she decided to act before he could make a move.

Snapping her hands forward once more, she clenched her fists over the orbs and released five shadowy tendrils of darkness from both hands. They weren't fast by any measure, but the short distance between her and the villain made it seem like they were speeding bullets. In a matter of seconds, they struck Rhino's torso, the hole in his armor getting bigger and bigger. Aleksei felt the blows striking him with the force of lightning, each of them feeling like a freight train hitting him. Swinging her arms, she repeated the attacks and sent them into his face, disorienting him with each strike to his head.

When she saw him about to lose his balance, falling down on a knee while panting heavily, she retracted her darkness tendrils. Kai looked between them in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"My…" She twisted her head around like she was fighting the control of someone who had a hold on her. When she finally stopped, the lower half of her mask split open and revealed a fang-filled mouth. "Next attack…"

Eclipse embedded both her feet into the ground, anchoring herself to the asphalt. Turning her glare to the villain, the markings on her face shining brighter than ever, she raised her serpentine wings. Mouths took form on each of them, snarling at the open air. Pointing towards a single spot between them, the mouths opened up and released the metahuman's inner elements. Two of them released darkness, the other two began releasing light. The two elemental energies swirled together, becoming one and took shape…

Darkness and light have become one… Joining forces and now spiraled as one entity…

A sphere spiraled over her head, showing a combined shine of both light and darkness. The brilliance it gave off seemed akin to that of a miniature sun, making both Rhino and Mantis cover their eyes. Seeing that, Eclipse saw her chance and thrust out the orb.

From it…

A condense beam of pure black darkness and untainted white light was released. Traveling at a speed greater than anything Rhino could hope to achieve, it was impossible for him to avoid it, resulting in it striking his chest. A painful scream emitted from the villain, his scream's echoing throughout the area and whatever remained of his red armor was disintegrated.

Rhino's screams came to an end when he was hurled into the ground, the force of it immediately knocking him out as soon as he hit the gravel-covered sands. The beam dissipated, leaving a massive scorched mark on Aleksei's grey armor.

Kai's mouth had practically made its home on the floor by now after seeing that spectacular attack of hers. "That was… What the hell, Eclipse?!" He exclaimed in her direction.

"What…?" She panted, falling down to her knees. "You know long-range's been my specialty for a long time."

"Hey!" He rushed down to her side, putting an arm on her back. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Just… Completely… Drained." She said with exhaustion, letting out pants and pained breaths. "I did my part… Now it's your turn." She told herself, thinking of her sisters dealing with their respective enemies.

But… She didn't have a worry in her heart…

Her sisters will prevail…

X

WHOOSH

A red streak of lightning traveled through Central City, running through the speed at high velocity. By now, the Rival had gone past the sound barrier. Every single form of glass surface he passed by shattered instantaneously.

And he did so with a gleeful smile, ecstatic at the sight of the numerous civilians screaming and cowering in fear.

WHOOSH

But the pair of yellow lightning speeding behind him quickly got the civilians out of harm's way and placed them inside of nearby buildings before resuming their chase.

Wally sped up to Barry. "Where's he going?"

"Good question." The senior speedster nodded. Pressing his earpiece, Barry got his team's attention. "Cisco, you got an idea where Rival's going?"

"Thought he was just wreaking havoc all over the streets." Cisco started. "But looks like he's making a beeline towards a specific location."

"Where?" Barry inquired.

"… Prescott Sawmill…" Cisco revealed slowly.

"But that's where-"

"Where you got fatally wounded by Rival in Flashpoint." Barry cut Wally off. "With the two of us here, he wants to re-enact our fight from Flashpoint again."

Wally gulped. "And I'm guessing he wants to do more than just leave me fatally wounded this time."

"It won't come to that." Barry told him. "We're still two against one. We got this, Kid Flash. Trust me. Let's go!" He confidently exclaimed, running after the evil speedster. Wally with another gulp sped after his mentor.

What would normally take an hour at best to get to it, the speedsters reached Prescott Sawmill in a matter of seconds. The two hero speedsters came to a halt, finding themselves in the familiar surroundings of the sawmill.

"Feels eerie being back here." Wally admitted, the memories of his first time at this place from Flashpoint returning to the forefront of his head.

"Yeah…" Barry agreed. This was the first time the two of them are here together in this timeline. But in Flashpoint their last time at Prescott Sawmill ended up with Wally suffering a great consequence. That wasn't gonna happen today, not again, not in this timeline.

He was gonna make sure of that himself.

"Fond memories, right?" The two speedsters looked to the side, the Rival revealing himself without wearing his cowl. His mask being playfully thrown between his hands. "I remember this place… That fight…" He chuckled, gesturing to the two heroes. "But it won't be like before."

"Yeah, that's right." Wally confidently stated. "You're gonna be worse off."

"Is that so?" Edward smirked, putting on his cowl again. "You took the words right out of my mouth, Kiddie." Less than a heartbeat, he sped towards the yellow speedster and delivered an uppercut into his head.

"Kid Flash!" Barry exclaimed as his disciple fell to the ground. With yellow lightning sparking over his form, the Scarlet Speedster rushed towards the villain. He retaliated with his fist thrusting towards Edward's face.

However, the black speedster backflipped, kicking the hero's hand away. Landing on his hands, he slammed both feet into Barry's chest and knocked him back. Rival spiraled back onto his feet. Without giving either of the heroes a moment to recover, he sped towards them both.

He grabbed them both by the back of their cowls before running up a pillar. Coming to a halt on top of it, he threw Flash off of it and sent him into a pile of wooden craters. The Scarlet Speedster didn't stay there alone for long as Kid Flash was hurled on top of him.

Both heroes shook their heads, snapping back onto their feet before speeding up the wall behind them. They stopped, briefly to see Rival rushing towards them like a warhead homing in on its targets, before sharing a nod and running in separate directions.

Having to make a choice now, Edward sped after The Scarlet Speedster.

Wally watched that, seeing the evil speedster follow Barry across elevated tracks on the right side of the sawmill. With his eyes, the young speedster followed the direction of the left side tracks and saw they circled around and connected with the right ones.

He sped away, gathering up enough speed for him to use.

Meanwhile Barry and Edward kept running. His opponent quickly caught up to him, and the evil speedster kicked him in the back. Flash was hurled into a roll, skipping across the tracks of the elevated railway. But the hero used the momentum to his advantage, returning to his feet and continuing his sprint.

Rival followed suit, speeding after him with all he had. Much like before, he was quickly gaining on the Scarlet Speedster.

However, the evil speedster didn't know that it was per Barry's plan, he was purposely slowing down so he could allow him to gain on him. When Barry was sure that Edward was close to him, he jumped into action. He spun around, lashing out his foot and swept his feet.

The strike hurled Edward into the air and sent him spinning.

The very moment he was hurled into the air, Kid Flash arrived from the left tracks. He jumped out of the tracks and delivered a kick to the airborne evil speedster. The strike to his side sent Rival off the bridge and back down on the ground with a heavy thud.

The two heroes ran down to the ground, standing on the same level as their opponent. Barry showed a look of appreciation to his mentee. "Not bad, Kid Flash."

"Had a pretty good teacher." Wally praised his mentor.

WHOOSH

Not getting a chance to reply to the compliment from his disciple, Barry was hurled off the ground by a red flash and sent into a steel pillar that knocked him out. Wally looked up and saw Rival stand in front of him with a victorious smile.

"What's the deal? Why'd you attack him like that?" Wally asked.

"Why bother interrupting him when I wanna take care of you alone." Rival growled, crimson-red lightning sparking over his entire body. "And like I told that one before… Goodbye, Flash."

The evil speedster showed off his incredible and superior speed, running around in a circle. His speed increased as he continued running, the momentum getting higher and higher till immense levels. With the increasing force of his speed, various objects were pulled towards him. Dust, gravel and sand turned out to be the most gathered of the nearby objects.

Wally's eyes trailed up in surprise and fear at the sight of dust and air combining into a massive towering tornado. It was the first time he's come face to face with such a calamity. While his focus was devoted to it, Rival sped out and quickly made another huge tornado beside it.

Now Kid Flash faces two cyclones in front of him, the force of them both was incredibly strong. The speedster covered his eyes with his arms, trying to block out the dust clouds that he felt gathering. He planted his feet into the ground when he felt himself about to be pulled into the twisters.

"Guys, I could use some help!" Wally shouted into his earpiece, hoping his screams of help would reach their team back at S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Oh, my God." Cisco said from the facility. "It's like Twister in there. The movie, not the game." He corrected himself.

"Cisco!" Wally shouted, gritting his teeth when feeling the pull get stronger.

"Sorry about that, off-track there." Cisco admitted before turning back to the screen. "Satellite's picking up two distinct funnel patterns."

"Yeah, I'm looking at them!" Wally shouted.

"They're tornadoes measuring F3 on the Fujita scale. Hell, this guy's giving Weather Wizard a run for his money." Cisco quipped.

The two twisters roar and howl, showing no signs of stopping. The ground rumbled under the power of the two calamities taking place. The force of the wings made the speedster lose his footing, causing him to fall to the asphalt. He looked up, his hands pushing him up.

Rival jumped out of the second twister, standing behind the two cyclones he birthed with his own two feet. For the second time in his life, he admired his own handywork. His aerokinetic powers truly shocked him. "Octavius was right." He looked at the hero speedster whose fearful expression spoke volumes. "Take out the strong link, wait for the weak link to shatter to pieces."

"Wallace, my prodigy." H.R. called out to his mentee. "You gotta stop those before they get any worse, pal."

"I- I don't know if that's possible. I'm not Barry…" Wally staggered back with a gulp.

"Right, you're not Barry." Harrison agreed, not helping assure the metahuman. "You're not the Flash, you're Kid Flash, Wallace West." Wally looked shocked. "No one here is asking you to be the Flash, Wallace, neither am I. We are asking you to be Kid Flash."

He looked up again, taking in the massive tornadoes again. "Really think I can do this?"

"Always." H.R. assured him. "But what matters now… Is that you believe it yourself. Believe in yourself. This is not Flashpoint, Wallace, this is now. Here and now, you can overcome that cursed timeline of yours. Outrun your tragedy… So run, Wallace. Run!" He told the speedster.

Lightning crackled over the surface of Wally's eyes. "I'm Kid Flash." He confidently told himself. Having heard of Barry's fight against the Rival during Flashpoint, Wally knew how to stop the two tornadoes in front of him. With all of his might he sped towards one, running into it and ran around inside of it with his incredible speed.

At that same moment, Barry stirred his head, feeling dust come over his nose and waking up. But his eyes snapped right open in shock when seeing two tornadoes in front of him. "What the hell?" He asked out loud, jumping back up to his feet.

"Back at it, Barry?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, I am and I'm seeing two tornadoes now." Barry groaned. He looked around in search. "Where's Wally?"

"Take a closer look at the tornadoes, B.A." H.R. stated.

With concern on his face, Barry looked at the tornadoes and saw lightning trailing inside of one of them. "H-He's trying to unravel it."

"Like you did. Kid Flash's learning from a pro." Cisco stated.

"That's…" The Scarlet Speedster looked shocked, taking in the sight as the first tornado dispersed and Wally jumped out of it with a triumphant smile on his face. Expertly he entered the second tornado and reused his prior technique. "Incredible."

Before now he was skeptical about his mentee's speed, wondering if it was possible for him to get this fast. But now it appears his worries were clearly groundless. Wally had gotten faster, much faster than he expected.

As he finished his thoughts, Wally dispersed the second twister and leaped out of it. He landed on a nearby warehouse wall and ran across the ripple-patterned wall, reaching the end quickly and jumped off it. Clenching his fist, he shot like a rocket towards the evil speedster.

Rival saw it coming and jumped to the side. But Kid Flash didn't let that stop him. Not hesitating he landed on his hands and delivered a strike with both feet into Edward's head, knocking him back and into a pile of craters.

Wally jumped back onto his feet and walked over to the downed speedster, standing over Rival. "Guess I'm the fastest now."

"Not bad… Kid Flash." Edward admitted, his consciousness fading after finishing his words.

"He's right… Not bad, Kid Flash." Barry agreed.

The Scarlet Speedster had a revelation at the sight.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, Basement-Level)

A growl of rage echoed throughout the basement. The predator was used to be hunting his prey and it'd rarely fight back unless they were those with superhuman powers. But now Scorpion was facing a force that was unlike most he's faced off against.

He jumped into the air in a spiral, landing on the ceiling with his claws digging into the surface. One of his vermillion lenses were shattered, blood dripping down his left eye. Mac panted in exhaustion as he looked down on his latest prey.

Much like him, Ruby was panting from exhaustion and released labored breaths while pain's riddled over her symbiote-covered face. Orbiting around her are various pieces of asphalt that she keeps around her with her gravity powers. Her tongue from her collar kept ensnared around the handle of her Chakram blade.

The basement of S.T.A.R. Labs were no different from a battlefield. Shattered ground all around them. Specks of blood from opposing forces already stained the floor. Holes of strange shapes and sizes made from the pools of green acid that were once there. Deep cuts on every surface around them, each of their missing slashes and cuts hitting the hard surfaces instead of each other.

Spitting out blood, Mac showed a maniacal smirk. "Not bad, kid. This time you can dance a little better."

"Careful, Gargan." Ruby snarled. "Keep talking like that and I'll waltz you all the way down… To Hell!" Swinging her arm, she hurled pieces of rubble towards the villain.

Scorpion took aim with his tail, shooting blasts of poison at the projectiles. Each one of them melted upon contact with the vile toxic. Genysis jumped forward like a rocket, lashing out her weapon as fast as she could. Her villain leaped off the wall, swinging his tail to deflect her blade.

But Ruby didn't let that stop her and thrust her right fist into his chest. Gravitational force had enwrapped her entire arm, strengthening her blow enough to knock him into the ceiling. With eyes snapping open, Mac lashed out his claws for her.

Genysis jumped down and avoided his swinging claws. Seeing that the distance between them grew wider, Mac crawled across the ceiling, appearing to run away. "Fuck no!" The gravity manipulator shouted, snatching him by his tail with tendrils splitting off her left arm. "You're not running away, Gargan!" She shouted, swinging him down into the ground on her level.

Mac groaned in pain. With what control he has he made the tail point at her, shooting out another array of poison. Letting go of his tail, Genysis crossed her arms over her chest and made the orbiting rock pieces fly in front of her to block the toxic attacks.

Jumping back onto his feet, Scorpion watched as her rock shields began to melt. "Losing ammo." He smirked. As he spoke he once again took aim with his weapon.

"Like that matters to me." Ruby clenched one of her hands slowly.

Before Scorpion was about to question her confidence, he felt something happen to his body. His tail fell to the ground and he was forced to fall down on his knees. His hands fell next. To his utter surprise and disbelief, he felt his entire body getting heavier and heavier till his limbs dug into the asphalt. "T-The hell's going on?" He looked up at her.

Once again, he was utterly shocked when he saw her with a glare aiming at him, one of her hands clenching slowly. Ruby kept imagining that the villain in front of her is weighing just as much as a planet, making submissive to her force of gravity. In her mind, every part, every bone, every cell and fiber in his body had the weight of an entire planet.

No human could move under that kind of pressure, and Mac Gargan was no different.

"I couldn't do this to you before." Genysis declared. "But now… I definitely can."

"Oh yeah?" He challenged her, trying to get back on his feet. But his resistance backfired, pieces of his armor falling off and his tail began breaking instead. What remained of his eye lenses fell off, shattering from the powerful pressure of gravity.

"You're finished." She declared. Reeling back her other hand, she clenched her fist slowly. Once fully clenched, she channels a massive wave of gravitational force through her arm. Despite the layer of symbiote miasma around her appendage, the cracking sound of her bones was loud and clear for anyone nearby to hear.

But that did not stop the young hero from pouring even more gravity into her arm. Genysis growled with an open mouth, her sharp fangs soaked in saliva. "This… Is for last time, Gargan!"

She thrust her fist forward with the speed of a comet, her hand slamming into the villain's body. The gravity she had converged in her arm released from her fist, coming out as a wave that traveled through Mac's body. What remained of his armor was torn off, blasted off his body and scattered across the floor. Even his tail was immediately torn off his back. Painful screams emitted from him as Scorpion felt the sheer force of her gravitational strike and with no form of armor to protect him. The strike pushed him off the ground, sending him flying through…

Not one… Not two… But three company vans…

The three vans tipped over, especially the one with Scorpion. He was completely embedded in the side of it. Ruby felt her right arm go limp, hanging down her side. "Fuck…" She fell down to her knees with a pained groan. "Fucking hell… That was insane." Thankfully, Mac was knocked unconscious and didn't show any signs of getting back on his feet.

For once in a long time… Ruby wanted to relax and sleep.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

A combination of both energized feather-blades and vibrational blasts shot out of the water, aiming towards the building of S.T.A.R. Labs. But a series of sand hands spouted, blocking the attacks. Each attack on them blew up the sand appendages.

Sandman reformed his arm, enlarging his fist before thrusting it down towards the villains in the water.

Vulture jumped out of the water, pulling Shocker out by his shoulders as well. The flying villain maneuvered as he flew, dodging the sand being's attacks. "Toomes!" He looked down at his feet, Herman's eyes looking up at him. "Get higher up, I'll blast that damn Marko to pieces from a higher vantage point."

"Perhaps not announce your plan of action out loud for the opponent to hear." Adrian advised his companion but it came out as a statement. Sand bullets came flying their way, forcing the villains to maneuver as well to evade them. "But I concur, we should put distance between us and Mr. Marko for a proper counterattack."

"Great!" Herman stated, shocked that for once these two agree on a plan. Rapidly thrusting out his fists, he releases vibrational shockwaves at the sand entity.

Utilizing his enlarged left arm as a shield to block the strikes from above, Flint elongated his right arm and morphed his hand into a mace. Swinging it like a whip, he lashed it out for the airborne villains. Despite being constructed purely of sand, it traveled like any other avian species flying through the open sky.

A number of pressurized air blasts flew down from above. Sandman dissolved into a body of sand on the ground. Each attack from above hit the sand mass, scattering it around. The strikes caused him pain, but Flint retaliated with a great number of sand spikes protruding.

Vulture released his hold on Herman, the latter landing on the top of the facility whilst the former remained airborne above the building. Though the two villains removed themselves from their flight, the numerous spikes appeared, traveling towards them. The villains countered, releasing blades and pressure blasts at them. The ones they couldn't strike down hit the roof around them.

"Damn bastard won't stop!" Shocker jumped back, avoiding the spikes that tried to stab him in a linear path.

"Once again Sandman's persistence remains superior." Vulture grunted, avoiding sand spears from various directions.

"Fuck it!" Shocker clenched his hands again, charging up energy in both gauntlets. "Let's just demolish this entire building."

"For once, I find your destructive ideas appealing, Mr. Schultz." Vulture entertained the idea, avoiding the sand strikes.

"Here's a second opinion."

Vulture snapped around, only for his vision to be filled by black tendrils. Adrian tried to fly out of their range, but a single tendril wrapped around his left foot. Venom wrapped his hand around the tendril. Turning his arm into adamantium he pulled the flyer down with a swing into the rooftop surface.

"Toomes!" Shocker aimed his gauntlets at the elemental.

But a large shadow came over him, making him glance up to see a massive sand fist over him. "Worry about yourself instead." Sandman advised him before slamming his fist down on the villain. As he was embedded into the surface, an array of cracks began to spread from the area of impact.

Both Seth and Flint anticipated that their respective villains would stand back up, both of them ready to strike back in a heartbeat and with greater might than before. Even if it meant tearing them limb from limb.

Flint removed his fist and saw that Shocker was completely knocked out. Seeing that, Seth used his tendril to turn Vulture on to his back. Much like the other villain, he too was unconscious.

"That was… Shocking." Flint admitted. They went down easier than he thought. Usually, the villainous members of Sinister Six would continue to stand their ground despite the ordeals they've been put through, all to obey the orders of their leader, Dr. Otto Octavius.

The confusion on Flint's face was the same on Seth's. But only one explanation came to mind. "These two did deal with our daughters before you intervened, Flint. Maybe that wore them down."

"Think so?" Flint asked but didn't get a response from the elemental who kept watching them both like a hawk. "What's the plan then? Kill them?"

"No." Seth shocked the sand entity. "We need to keep them alive for now. We can question them and get Eliza Harmon's location." He admitted whilst taking out his crystal sword. "But if not, we take off their limbs."

"Agreed." Flint said.

"Cait? What's the status?" Seth questioned his mate.

"Only Frankie and Octavius are left. The others are finished on their end, they won." Caitlin announced proudly.

It was understandable for Seth to smile widely as well, seeing as two of their daughters have overcome their defeat and returned the favor to their respective villains. Now Frankie had to do the same and follow the path she and her sisters have set out on.

… And defeat their past…

X

With all of her might, Frankie clenched her Scrap Fist before swinging it like a mallet. Otto launched his mechanical arms, wrapping them around her mechanical appendage. He tightened the hold on the makeshift arm and pulled her over his head.

"Damn it!" She cursed when realizing his plan. Unclenching her fist, she let go of the appendage and jumped away. Seeing that Otto immediately took advantage of the mechanical device ensnared in his arms as he hurled them towards her.

Magenta landed on the ground, thrusting out a hand that's releasing purple lightning. Same unique-colored sparks emitted over the metal pieces, allowing her to take control of the mechanical appendage that she just used. With a swing of her arm, she dropped the piece of metal down by her side.

Otto walked forward, a look of pure annoyance on his face. "It's high time we put an end to this tedious battle of ours, Magenta."

"Feel free to surrender anytime." Frankie retorted. But she knew better than most that he wouldn't do so.

"Not the end I had in mind, child." Otto displayed his counteroffer as he thrust out his upper mechanical arms. From each palm, massive destructive soundwaves came towards her.

With her eyes shining with blazing lights of magenta, Frankie crossed her arms over one another and had every available metal around her converge to a single spot in front of her. Clenching her hands, she had them form a shield.

But the immense soundwaves paved a way through the scrap shields, scattering the metal pieces in every angle. With the shield out of the way, Frankie took the full force of Dr. Octopus' attack which caused her to fly off the ground, skipping across the asphalt.

However, her travel across the hard surface was cut short by Otto's mechanical arms when they wrapped around her form. Showing no mercy, he slammed her into a brick wall. She groaned when she was smashed into the brick surface, pain spreading through her like a disease. Yanked out of the wall, she was then thrown into a van.

Eyes settled on a van, Otto grabbed hold of it with his mechanical tentacles, using it to knock Frankie off the car. Another groan of pain emitted from her as she was hurled through the front window of a jewelry store. Shards of glass flew everywhere on the floor and piled on top of the hero along with various jewelry accessories.

The young ferrokinetic coughed, sitting up and reached into her open maw. With another cough, she pulled out the big diamond ring between her teeth. "Whoever said diamonds are a girl's best friend is full of shit." She flicked the ring away.

Getting back on her feet, glass shards slid down her body as she looked ahead. "What do we do, Frankie? There's not enough metal for a massive scrap fist attack."

While dusting off whatever remained on her body, whether it was jewelry or glass, Frankie agreed with her "other's" assessment. One massive attack from Scrap Fist would take him down immediately, just like she did with Lasher.

"No people around us…. We gotta tire him… Out." Frankie stated her plan.

Magenta mentally argues with that plan since her host's the one who's tired out already. She's used up a lot of her energy after everything, seeing as she's chased the villain throughout the city, fought him on top of a bullet train and now fighting him again in the city with various metal devices around her. She's running on fumes.

"Whatever we decide… We're in it together." Magenta told her sister, releasing waves of calmness to help ease her host's load.

Frankie smiled as she felt the waves ease her pain. She grinned with sharp tooths as she expressed her gratitude. "Thanks Sis." The ferrokinetic leaped through the shattered front window, landing on all four like an animal. "Miss us?"

Otto narrowed his eyes on the ferrokinetic. "Your rise in confidence astounds me, Magenta." After lowering himself to the asphalt, he flexed the claws on all four mechanical arms. "Let us see how long it will remain strong."

"Quit yammering!" Magenta formed both arms into jagged swords. She ran towards the villain, swinging her right sword for his face.

However, Otto used his mechanical arms to jump backwards and out of her range. When landing again, using only one tentacle appendage, he spun around like a top with his other three limbs lashed out. Frankie spiraled into a jump, leaping over the spinning villain.

Reforming her left arm, she elongated the jagged sword on her right arm till it had the same length and form of a broadsword. Shooting down from above, she dove with her sword akin to a missile.

But Otto stopped his spinning as he landed on the ground, thrusting all four of his mechanical appendages upwards and towards the young ferrokinetic. Magenta, struggling to dodge mid-air, was unable to avoid the tentacles from wrapping around her form.

Dr. Octopus showed no hesitation as he slammed the metahuman down into the ground. He repeated this action on various surfaces around him, be it the ground, brick buildings or small stores. A tsunami of pain came over Frankie and Magenta with each devastating impact they felt.

Groaning out loud Magenta was brought before Otto's eyes, her head hanging down, seemingly knocked unconscious from the repeated torture. "It would appear the end is indeed close…" He noted, releasing two of his tentacles from her.

"Hate…"

"Pardon?" He said when hearing her mutter that single word, knowing that wasn't all she had to say.

With a sharp exhale, Magenta lifted her head and made eye contact with the villain. He looked into her blazing magenta eyes, shining brighter than flames. "We said… We hate… How we have to resort to this."

Otto's eyes raised in confusion. But it faded when he felt her resisting his hold on her. His confusion returned when seeing that her arms were still restrained, but despite that she kept on resisting and his arms were struggling to keep their hold on her.

"…Cause it… Reminds us of her…" Magenta growled. On her shoulders… Symbiotic purple miasma amassed… With another growl, two additional arms shot out of the puddles of symbiote flesh. Otto barely had time to react when the two additional arms flexed their claws before swinging for his face.

The mechanical tentacles released her, allowing the ferrokinetic a moment to leap backwards and out of his range this time. She landed on the ground. Purple electricity released from her entire body, all of her arms lashing out in response and spreading the lightning.

Various pieces of metal, the scattered and damaged, even the untouched ones, around her converged to her. They began spiraling above her akin to a swarm of bees about to dive down on their next prey. Her lower left arm and her upper right arm clenched their hands, making the metal shoot down to them. The pieces split into a number of pieces before attaching to her additional arms that broke into tendrils.

The tendrils were enveloped by various metallic pieces, sticking and attaching all sides of every single one. As each set of metal-enveloped tendrils combined into their previous forms as arms, now donning massive armor. Her remaining arms that remained untouched by metal reformed into swords.

Otto Octavius was shocked by her creativity and her newfound quick-adaptiveness to her abilities as both a metahuman and symbiote-wielder. Now she is capable of wielding two swords in tandem with makeshift arms. "Quantity over quality, I see." He noted with hints of impressiveness.

Flexing the hand on her upper right mechanical arm while licking the blade of her upper left sword, she declared. "Quit aweing." She declared, jumping forward and appeared before the villain again. In a moment's notice, he swung two of his tentacles downwards for her.

But she stopped both of them with her upper makeshift arm grabbing them. Pulling on his appendages, she forced his face closer to her and delivered an uppercut with her lower mechanical fist. The blow to his jaw caused blood to shoot out of his mouth.

This time Magenta was the one to show no mercy or hesitation, spinning around and lashed out her swords. Each spin of her blades cut and bruised his green suit, delivering an array of damage to his body. Otto groaned at the numerous strikes to him.

"Take this!" She exclaimed, thrusting her free armored fists into his stomach and pushed him back. But with her other mechanical arm still clutching his tentacles, he didn't get far and it allowed the ferrokinetic to pull him back into her reach. Once again, she delivered another powerful blow with her free makeshift arm and knocked him back.

She let go of his tentacles and jumped forward again. Otto used all four of his additional arms to retaliate, but she knocked them away with her swords before grabbing hold of his body with her mechanical arms. She tightened her hold on him, the metal fingers grabbing onto his sides tightly.

"You're finished." She announced before leaping into the air, the villain remaining tightly ensnared by her arms. Otto tried to get out, but the hands' hold on him got stronger in response. When she got neared the asphalt again, she swung both arms downwards-

SLAM

Pouring all of her might into that one strike, she slammed the villain down into the ground. Numerous cracks spread around the area where she buried Otto. Blood shot out of his mouth again, landing on the surface closest to his face.

Releasing her arms from her makeshift gauntlets, Magenta jumped backwards and looked at the villain again. With each second, she looked at him, she panted heavily from exhaustion. "Finally… Finally… We won."

"Frankie, you there, sweetie?"

Frankie smiled to herself when hearing her mother's concerned voice in her earpiece. "Fine, Mom. Completely fine." She smiled again at the unconscious form of Otto Octavius. "I won. Finally, I won against Octavius. And honestly…" She fell down to the ground, landing on her rear. "I'm beat."

"That's understandable."

She didn't like that voice… Not anymore…

When she registered her voice, Frankie felt an ice-cold chill creeping down her spine. A chill that made her regret ever letting her guard down. Turning her head around, she was shocked to see her behind her…

Despite the look of absolute terror on her face… Eliza Harmon showed a soft smile on her face.

"Nice job there, Kiddo."

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, Basement-Level)

"Oh, come on!" Ruby snarled, dodging a number of arrows. The ones that hit the ground, exploding upon collision, she avoided with a backflip.

Predicting another wave of trick arrows, Ruby put further distance between her and the new villain who showed up. She changed locations, jumping from the ground and stuck to the ceiling.

From her new position, she looked down at the combat chameleon with a glare. "You're a bit late to the party, Tasky."

Taskmaster holstered his bow and his arrows, looking up at the girl. "Better late than never. Not bad, taking down Gargan like this." He admitted with a gesture to his downed companion. Taking note of her clutching her limp arm, he noted. "Wasn't easy, I imagine."

"You're going down here and now." She snarled.

"Ruby, what's going on? We're getting strange seismic activity from your location." Cisco questioned.

"Taskmaster's here." She replied to the viber in a mutter.

"No thanks." He said, snapping her attention back to him. He walked over to Mac while retrieving an item from his belt. "In your state, it wouldn't be much of a fight." He stopped by Scorpion's side, turning around and faced her again.

Genysis saw a flashbang grenade in his right hand. "The hell are you here for-"

The mercenary didn't answer with his words, instead letting his actions speak for him as he pulled the pin with one hand. As the pin fell to the ground, he threw the grenade to the floor next.

Seeing that Ruby covered her ears-

EXPLOSION

Following the expected explosion, a deafening sound echoed throughout the basement level, assaulting all of the gravity manipulator's senses at once and making her scream in pain. She closed her eyes and covered her ears, trying to prevent the awful soundwaves from piercing into her skull as much as possible.

When it finally dimmed down, Ruby was able to open her eyes. But she quickly closed them again due to their strange blurred state from peering into the immense flash of light from the grenade. Instead of using her own senses, she used her "other's" instead.

Spreading those senses to their limits, she quickly realized that the flashbang was to grant Taskmaster an opportunity to retrieve Scorpion and get away.

"Fuck!" Ruby shouted. "Cisco, tell Dad, Barry and my sisters to be careful. Our villains might get extracted!"

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, Outside)

"Seth, be careful." Caitlin exclaimed to her mate.

"What?" The elemental asked.

"FFFFREEEEZZZEE!"

Following the loud exclamation, a massive wave of frost covered the rooftop of the S.T.A.R. Labs facility. Before the layer of ice could reach them, Seth jumped off the roof and into the air. Remaining in his sand titan-like form Flint slid away from the facility and plucked the mutant out of the air.

The ice reached the two downed villains, almost encasing them in ice.

"That wasn't you, was it?" Flint questioned.

"No." Venom shook his head. "But we know who. Come on out, Lasher!"

The newest user of ice revealed himself as he finally took a stance close to the unconscious members of Sinister Seven. Lasher looked up at the two heroes, the tendrils on his back wrapping around Vulture and Shocker. "Nice to see you again, Venom. Shame I didn't get to fight Magenta. Would have loved to put her own ice."

Venom saw him pull Vulture and Shocker off the surface and held them up in the air. "You're not taking them away Rajeet…" He trailed off with his sword lifted up high.

"Sorry, Venom but I got orders." Lasher clenched his hands, forming long spikes from the gaps between his fingers. "Gotta play the good guy and save these morons." He announced before thrusting out his hands, hurling a number of ice blades after the heroes.

Seth swung his sword, cleaving through the blades that came towards him. Shards of ice scattered and filled his vision. Flint enlarged his arm, using his forearm to block the ice spikes coming for his body.

When the ice attack came to a halt, the two heroes lowered their defenses and saw, to their dismay, that Rajeet had disappeared with Vulture and Shocker.

"Fuck!" Venom shouted.

He wondered what was happening to the others now.

X

(Prescott Sawmill)

A smirk formed on Rival's face, one that didn't get noticed by the two hero speedsters. Lightning erupted out of his body, getting their attention as he spun back on his feet.

"You're not down yet?" Wally noted his surprise.

"Persistent." Barry admitted.

Rival wiped his mouth. "Like you're one to talk, half-dead bastards. But sorry for you… My work is done." Before speeding away, he delivered a swift strike to both heroes' stomachs, knocking the wind out of them, allowing him more than sufficient time to get away in a flash.

Both speedsters fell to the ground. "Damn, that smarts." Barry admitted.

Wally scoffed. "Wasn't fast enough to stop him."

"I disagree…" Barry thought to himself, his previous revelation still standing in front of his mind.

X

By the construction site of the now-collapsed building. Eclipse and Mantis looked at the downed villain, an eerie feeling coming over them both, as though their fight wasn't over yet.

Unfortunately, their fears were confirmed to be true when a massive form appeared from the sky, landing before them like a comet. His adamantium feet dug into the ground.

What stood before them was a being akin to Evelyn's father, but he looked different. A massive being that looked a lot like Venom, but bearing a darkish-blue miasma over his form. Most of his chest and the entity of his head is crimson red. Much like herself and her sisters, this massive titan has flame-shaped pseudo eyes and ravenously sharp fangs. Red veins were spread all over his form, originating from his chest area.

Riot showed a wide grin. "What's up, kids? Like the mood?"

"Seriously, another giant!" Kai stated his disbelief and discomfort when coming face to face with that monster. He briefly wondered if being a hero was really what it was all cracked up to be. Especially as there are nothing but a number of villains waiting to storm your gates. "And who is this?"

"We don't know who he is under the mask, but he calls himself Riot." Eclipse stated, getting back to her feet but struggled as she did so.

"Pleasure to meet a fan." Riot stated, flexing his arm.

"Rose."

Eclipse and Mantis saw the adamantium villain pale and freeze instantly. They didn't understand why he looked like the Grim Reaper's shadow was over him.

What they didn't know was that it was Taskmaster's voice in his earpiece that made him drop his gleefulness. "Get on with the plan, quit wasting time on conversations."

With a fearful gulp, Joey stated. "F-Fine." He accepted and walked over to the member of Sinister Seven.

"What are you doing, Riot?!" Eclipse demanded to know as the villain easily picked up Rhino and hauled over his shoulder.

Riot smirked at the angry expression on the metahuman's face. "Just doing some pick-up, no biggie."

But hearing those words made Kai act and he rushed towards the new villain with a blade ejecting from his right forearm. "No way!" He swung his blade for Riot.

However, the larger villain easily knocked him away with a simple stretch of his right leg, throwing him back to his friend's side. He grunted from the blow. "Got you!" Evelyn shouted, using her wings to grab him and pull him in close. "You okay?"

"Feel… Feels like I've been hit by a train." Kai grunted out his response.

Evelyn looked back up, surprised to see that in the single brief moment allowed an opening for Riot to escape with Rhino in tow. It was as though he had disappeared without a trace, without even making a sound.

One set of obstacles have been taken down, but another set have revealed themselves next to their dismay.

X

"…"

Magenta didn't know what to say, much less what to do now. She was too exhausted from her extended fight with Dr. Octopus. She didn't have enough energy to take on a villain of Eliza's caliber now.

Eliza wasn't used to seeing so much fear in her niece's eyes, something she hid quite well behind her soft expression. "Calm down, kiddo. I'm not going to fight you. You've already been through the meat grinder, so to speak." She walked past the ferrokinetic, patting the young metahuman's head affectionately.

"W-What are you doing here?" She stammered, trying to force herself back on her feet but fell to the ground immediately after the first try.

As she walked over to the downed villain, Eliza looked over her shoulder. "Don't push yourself, sweetie. You'll only hurt yourself more." She came to a stop when coming close to Otto. "You pull out one miracle after another nowadays, kiddo. I was impressed when you took down Rajeet, but defeating Octavius?" She gave a whistle of awe. "That deserves a trophy, kiddo. I'm proud of you."

"That means nothing to me." The metahuman groaned.

"I know, I know. I'm the new Big Bad Wolf of Central City." She showed a smile to the young hero. "But you… You are still so much stronger now, kiddo. I can't help but be proud." Twisting her head around, her hair morphed into long symbiote hair strands, a mix of red and yellow hair with deep black streaks, which shot out and enwrap the downed Sinister Seven leader. "You did good, you won the battle…"

"But war's far from over." Frankie stood back up. "You wanna fight? Let's do it."

"Nope." She readmitted, holding the villain up high. "You're too exhausted to put up a proper fight, kiddo. Beside…" Eliza showed a smirk with mused eyes. "SS bought more than enough time."

"Time?"

Thunderous lightning erupted around Eliza's arms. "Until next time, sweetie. Bye." Before Frankie could even her mouth, the lightning-user slammed her hands down on the asphalt and released a massive flash of lightning that enveloped her entirely.

Frankie, after mustering up her remaining strength, jumped away in a flip, thinking it might be an attack. But when she landed on the ground again, she turned her eyes up again and saw that the flash was gone…

And so were Eliza and Otto…

"At least we won." Magenta comforted her host.

"Yeah…" Frankie chuckled. "At least we won."

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

After Seth had traveled through Central City, going to the spots where Evelyn and Frankie were to pick them up, he returned to the facility and let his mate take them to the medbay. Flint helped Ruby back up to the lobby floor and helped her into the medical bay so she could be treated like her sisters.

Barry and Wally had returned as well, the former bringing Iris with him, worried out of his mind when he heard she was in danger. It got to the point where she was enwrapped by his arms for a full hour.

"Barry…" Iris chuckled in his embrace. "I kinda need to breathe. Mind letting me go?"

"Yeah, right." Barry let go of her. "But I'm glad you're okay."

Iris nodded to the elemental in the medbay who's busy with handing Ruby a sling for her arm. "You can thank Seth for that. He got me out of there when Octavius threw him like a tennis ball."

"Yeah, I will." Barry chuckled, giving his girlfriend another hug and a kiss.

Flint saw the mutant tend to his daughters with a proud smile on his face. He was smiling from ear to ear after hearing that his daughters defeated the members of Sinister Seven. His girlfriend was wearing an equally proud smile on her face, but her expression was also warped by worry and concern as she tended her daughters' exhausted states.

"Those two are alike…" He trailed off.

H.R. shook his protegee's shoulders excitedly, his action making Wally break into a smile. "Wallace, my boy. You did spectacularly today!" He exclaimed. "My boy, you deserve all the coffee in the world for what happened today."

"Oh, come on, H.R. It wasn't that big." Wally smiled widely under the compliments he's getting.

"He's right, Wally…. Well, maybe not about the coffee, but you really did well out there. Without a doubt in my mind, you've gotten faster." Barry agreed with Harrison-19's words…

Most of his words.

By now, everyone had noticed that Cisco hadn't partaken in the conversations, much less say a single word, which made them turn to the console which he's occupying. "Cisco?" Barry made him look up with angry eyes, seething with rage to the point he was letting out steam from his ears. "Everything good, bud?"

"You've barely said a word, San Francisco." Harrison added.

"I am…" Cisco gave a dramatic sigh. "Waiting…"

Seth and Caitlin walked out of the medbay. Iris turned to them. "What's the status on the girls?"

Caitlin started. "All of them are exhausted beyond anything. Ruby's right arm is overworked, like what happened when Rhino first showed up."

Seth chimed in. "34 hairline fractures from Ruby's clavicle to her fingers. With Reap inside of her, she doesn't need her old casts but she will need to wear a sling for a while."

"Evelyn's entire body scans show she's been working her entire body, Seth theorizes she's been using her elements throughout her entire body. Nothing serious, thankfully, but with it being her first time doing that, she is understandably exhausted and needs a lot of rest." Caitlin explained her daughter's condition.

"Frankie's more or less in the same state as Evie. With her using her newfound powers to their maximum level, both metahuman and symbiote powers alike, on that scale for the first time she is beyond exhausted and needs a lot of rest." Seth explained his daughter's condition.

"So, they're stuck on R&R for a while." Iris noted.

"Precisely." Seth nodded. "Same goes for Kai, he's a bit winded from being kicked by a Rhino, but what kid wouldn't be?" His attention turned to Cisco who showed both him and Caitlin a glare. Noting the way he was fuming, the elemental asked. "Cisco, what's up buddy?"

"What's up, you ask?" He sarcastically started, getting up to his feet and slammed his hands down on the desk. "I'll tell you, "What's up."" He pressed a key on his keyboard, revealing a number of photos on the monitors. Some of the monitors showed the outside of the facility and its rooftop, others showed the video of the elevator falling down the shaft, and the last ones showed the state of the basement level. Each of them showed the ruined state of each area. "You know what this is, Seth?"

"Wow, SS really went all-out. They could have thrashed every inch of S.T.A.R. Labs. If it wasn't for our daughters, Cait." Seth nudged his mate.

"Yeah…" Caitlin trailed off, pretty sure her mate's missing the viber's point.

"Seth." Cisco got his attention. "This damage… is because of your daughters and you." He confessed with much annoyance. "Seriously, how much damage can one family do?!" He exclaimed to the entire team, each member raising the same question. "I mean, you stopped and even wrecked a train. Evelyn and her boyfriend cut down a construction site. Ruby tore up our garage, costing us three vans. And Frankie stole from a scrapyard and even smashed up a jewelry store. Caitlin was the only one in your pack who didn't go off the rails and destroy something."

With a sway of her head, Caitlin admitted. "Well, I did freeze the floor in the lobby."

"You did?" Seth snapped to her, seeing that her hand was clutching her pendant tightly. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Seth." Caitlin assured him, kissing him briefly. "Ruby jumped in before I turned completely into Killer Frost. Don't worry."

"Okay." Seth accepted.

"Still means you guys have to clean up the damage." Cisco adamantly stated.

"Fine!" Seth accepted. "I'll take the rooftop and lobby, clean them good and make sure they're not ugly. The train and construction site, yeah those are a no-go. Cops are already swarming them both, not my cop of tea." He waited for their reaction patiently, awaiting a laughter or two. The entire team faced the mutant with incredulous looks, questioning his sanity and his humor at the same time. "Really? Cop instead of "cup." No one? Tough crowd."

"Better luck next time, Seth." Flint chuckled. "But don't worry, I'll help take care of the elevator and the basement. Leave those to me."

"Good." Cisco finally cracked a smile. "But back to the topic, you guys did seriously awesome!" He exclaimed. "We nailed the Sinister Seven!"

"Kinda." Hearing that familiar groan, the team turned their heads to the medbay entrance.

They saw Frankie standing there, remaining clad by her symbiote. "Frankie, you should be in bed now." Caitlin told her stubborn daughter.

"I know, I know." Frankie held up her hand. "But there's something you should know." The team listened as she continued. "Eliza was the one who extracted Octavius."

"What about it, honey?" Seth asked in worry, wondering where she was leading to with this.

"Eliza… She said, "SS bought more than enough time."" Frankie revealed.

"What?" Barry asked.

"Were the SS a distraction?" Iris questioned.

"And if so…" Seth clenched his fists. "For what?" He and the rest of the team couldn't help but feel like they've been running in the palm of Eliza Harmon's hand. They felt like their entire fights with the members of Sinister Seven were for naught.

COUGH

Hearing that strange coughing from Frankie, the team watched as she coughed multiple times, even hitting her chest. "Frankie, are you okay?" Seth questioned his daughter.

"W-cough… I'm-cough…" Frankie coughed repeatedly, but giving one final cough she spat out the contents that were lodged in her throat.

They saw that the contents she coughed up… are…

A diamond necklace, a pair of amethyst gems and emerald rings.

"What the hell? Thought Evie was the thief with lack of impulse control." Cisco noted.

"Cisco." Caitlin showed a cold glare, making him cover his mouth and bow his head apologetically. "But seriously, honey, why have you swallowed jewelry?"

"I was hurled into a jewelry store, Mom! Not like I wanna eat this crap, they're worthless!" She exclaimed.

Others had their own opinion of the jewelry.

X

(CCPD)

With a loud sigh Joe finally leant back against the back of his chair. He and the entire police force had been running amok, going from one crime scene to another quicker than the Flash himself. The heroes had done their part in protecting the city, preventing the villains from going on a massive rampage but the damage that both parts left behind at the crime scenes needed a lot of mending.

The detective had been to various scenes. First in the middle of the street where Eclipse stopped Rhino from impaling a bus, then to Starlight Cannery which was still on fire, followed up by the tracks where the train was about to crash into a landslide, to the ravaged stores that Magenta destroyed in her fight against Dr. Octopus, to the abandoned Prescott Sawmills and then to the collapsed construction site.

Each place had been ravaged, almost to the point where it looked like a natural disaster had taken place in each location. Had each battle prolonged Joe wouldn't have been surprised if each of them had been obliterated beyond recognition.

"Joe." The detective turned in his chair and saw Rufus Turner walk towards his table.

"Rufus. Hi." Joe stood up. "Figured you'd have left by now."

"Hiya." Rufus shook hands with him. "Nah, considering the huge-ass mess here figured I'd hang back and give a helping hand. Saw the news, our heroes had their hands full today."

"Yeah, but they won the day like always." Joe nodded.

Rufus smirked. "Yeah, they did. But those guys got away unfortunately." Joe didn't argue with that, it was the truth after all. "But what's about another Venom look-alike?"

"The white one? That's Anti-Venom." Joe said.

"Nah, man, the other one." The FBI agent clarified. "You know the one who can turn into metal or stuff, he's the one I've been seeing. Saw camera footage of that one picking up Rhino like he was nothing, but who the hell is he?"

"No idea, but he keeps saying "Mood," like there's no tomorrow." Joe revealed.

"Mood?" Rufus raised an eyebrow. "You for real?"

Joe nodded with a vague look. "Yeah, from trusted sources. What about it?"

Tapping the desk, Rufus started. "You remember when you and I worked together, I was still a P.I. and you were a beat cop. We booked this one guy, one who kept saying "Mood" all the time. He was this big bouncer-looking guy who sent a couple of guys to the hospital, each needed surgeries to their jaws I think."

"Yeah, yeah… Name was…" Joe snapped his fingers, trying to recall the name.

"Joey Rose." Rufus remembered the name clear as day.

Snapping his fingers, Joe remembered the criminal. "Right, Joey Rose. That crazy big guy who practically wrecked people with one punch. Can't believe I forgot that chatterbox."

"More like a broken record, he kept saying "Mood" on a loop nonstop." The FBI agent stated. "Think you can manage this guy? I wouldn't mind pulling in a few favors at the bureau."

"No, keep those for the future." Joe told him. "But I'll tell Venom and Flash about this, maybe they can do something with this info. Thanks, Rufus." He shook hands with the FBI agent again. "Good to work with you again."

"Just as chaotic as always. Give me a holler if you need any help." Rufus patted his friend's shoulder before walking out of the desk area, making his way towards the elevators.

"Chaotic… Think it's worse than last time, Rufus." Joe muttered under his breath, looking over his files.

"Detective West?" The detective turned his head, seeing Officer Korber walking up to him with a file folder in her hand. "Are you busy?"

"No, and hopefully, you got some good news for me, Korber. Could really use some after this entire day." Joe groaned, rubbing his eyes.

"Bit of both, unfortunately." The officer started, making the detective face her with a look of surprise. "I found out who the missing student is."

Joe accepted the folder she held out to him. "Who is it?"

"… His name's Griffin Grey." The officer announced as Joe opened the folder and saw a photo of the young boy with a smile on his face.

"Oh hell…"

X

THUD

Having finally made his way back to the hideout, Riot dropped off Rhino on the floor. The sound of his body hitting the ground echoed throughout the entire base. The adamantium-user had to be careful when hurling the big guy, he wouldn't wanna hit the other unconscious Sinister Seven members on the ground.

Dusting off his hands, Joey retracted the symbiote and craned his neck. "Thought trash were supposed to be taken out, not in."

Taking a seat on a nearby chair, Taskmaster looked at the musclehead. "If trash is the issue here, how about drop dead outside?"

"Someone's testy." Eliza mused as she walked in.

The mercenary turned his head to her. "Where have you been?"

"Like I said, scouting. Took a while to get this one, to be honest." She admitted. "But she's on her way down here." Eliza turned her gaze around, looking for a certain someone. "Speaking of Rajeet hadn't come down yet?"

"Well, excuse me…" The members turned their heads up to see Rajeet land on top of a steel beam. He had a hand tightly wrapped around a tendril that's attached to a large ice cocoon that's lodged over his back. "For wanting to take a few breaks along the way. I've had a siesta in the sewers, needed some time on solid ground that wasn't filled with rat shit or human shit."

He hopped off the support beam and landed on the floor. "Not to mention, this one…" Rajeet nodded to the cocoon on his back. "… Wasn't exactly a compliant passenger."

"Are the kidnapped ever?" Joey questioned, falling down onto a couch.

"How is he?" Eliza asked.

Rajeet showed the state of his passenger, dropping him off on the floor. A loud groan emitted from him, the pain jolting him awake. Eliza smirked, walking over to the kidnapped boy. Crouching before him, she pushed his chin up so she could look into his eyes.

"Hi Griffin."

Griffin Grey widened his eyes at the scene he was in…

But he had no idea how much his world was about to change…

X

(CC Jitters)

"Cappuccino with vanilla and hazel and iced coffee with whipped cream for Snow-Fury!"

Hearing the barista call out her order, Evelyn got up from her recliner and walked up to the counter. After replying with her thanks, the metahuman accepted the drinks and returned to her seat. "One iced coffee." She handed the drink to Kai.

She and the metahuman from her origin Earth went to CC Jitters, enjoying a coffee together. They wanted to hang out one last time before Kai had to leave and return to Earth-2.

"First and last time I'm buying you something, you know."

"Uh, thanks." Kai unsurely stated in response. He drank through his straw, the metahuman smacking his lips after letting the beverage coat his tongue. "How come CC Jitters taste better here than on our Earth?"

"Your Earth." Evelyn countered. "And this place is less bar than Jitterbugs." She reminded the other metahuman.

"Good point." Kai looked at her with undivided attention. He didn't stop staring and watched her like a hawk.

Taking note of him staring, she removed her lips from her mug. "What is it? Why are you staring?"

"… Still… Thinking of the old you, the one I knew back on Earth-2." Kai admitted, removing his cup and placing it on the table. "The one I was friends with."

"The one you betrayed." She raised an eyebrow.

Kai hung his head down. "I'm never gonna live that down, am I?" Evelyn shook her head. "I meant, the old you. The one who wasn't a meta or a hero… The one who went to school was popular, smart, funny… Cool."

"And…" She raised her eyes, intrigued and flattered by the compliments.

"And you're… gone beyond her, I guess." He unsurely said. "It's kinda cool, I guess. Being a hero."

"Well, you did pretty good out there yourself, you know… Mantis." She teased.

"Really gotta figure out a better name back home." Kai leant back in his own recliner, his words inspiring his next question. "You ever thought about going back? You know, live out the life you had planned out for yourself. I mean, you always talked about your future as an interior designer, following your mother's footsteps and continuing to be an athlete on the sidelines."

"… No, never actually." She admitted with a shake of her head. That caught Kai by surprise, especially as he saw a smile form on her face. "I mean… Back there, I was hated by friends, shunned by family and had my face on a wanted poster. I have a serious load of bad memories from Earth-2. But here…" She nodded to her surroundings of the establishment on Earth-1. "I have a father again, a mother again… and I have sisters now. I have a family again, I'm a hero here… I'm happy."

"Valid points." Kai admitted. "Makes me wanna turn my life around."

"Never too late to start, you know." Evelyn countered.

"Yeah…" Kai thought about her advice. Seeing the life that Evelyn's leading as a hero now, as a person who's really happy with her life, he truly wondered if that was something for him. If that was even something that he could achieve. "Never too late to start… Might be worth it." He admitted.

She showed a smile, feeling like she had changed his mind on his current lifestyle. But at the same time, his own words had an effect on her. "My life… My future…" She hadn't given her future much thought to it until now.

What future would she have other than… Eclipse…

X

(Snow-Fury Residence)

Closing the door behind him with a tendril sprouting from his back, Seth entered his home. One of his arms holding up a stack of pizza boxes, his other one carrying a paper back with numerous cold drinks and chocolate-flavored beverages.

"Pizza's here and so are drinks." Seth called out to his family.

The only one to come out to meet him was Caitlin who sat out plates at the table. "Perfect. Would have cooked, but…" She trailed off.

Understanding her point, Seth agreed. "One of those days, I know." He placed the food and the drinks on the table. "Where are the girls?"

"Evie's out with Kai, hanging out before sending him home." Caitlin was sure she saw a vein pop on Seth's forehead. "Ruby and Frankie are on their way, they wanted to walk back after today. What about Flint? Did he go home already?"

"Yeah, said he wanted to get back home. Felt a little homesick, apparently." Seth explained. "But he's had a long past with the Sinister Seven back when they were just Sinister Six. And… Think he just wanted to get back to familiar surroundings as quickly as possible." He sheepishly added.

"God… He's had it tough today." Caitlin admitted, taking a seat on the couch.

Walking towards the couch, Seth inhaled sharply through gritted teeth. "Kinda like… You." He said, finally taking a seat beside his mate.

Caitlin leant against him, putting her head on his shoulder. "You were worried about me when you heard about me going cold." She noticed that ever since he heard her episode. Seth nodded before placing a soft kiss on her head. "I'm okay, Seth. I really am."

"But…" He said, knowing there was something more she wanted to add to her sentences.

"But honestly…" Caitlin looked into his eyes. "I was afraid that… When I did turn cold or frosty, I was gonna attack Ruby for a second." The shock hit Seth like a tidal wave, making him expand his eyes to new limits. "I know I was in control… But it felt like I wasn't for a second. I felt like it was just that part of me for a second, a part that I had no control of. And… I was fighting back, just enough for me to get my pendant back."

"What are you thinking, Cait?" Seth asked, his hand making circles on her upper back. In the back of his mind, he had an idea of what she might say next.

Caitlin leant up closer to his face. "I wanna try and get rid of my powers." She took his hand, rubbing the back of his hand before interlocking fingers with him. "I know you believe I can live with these powers… But… I'm beginning to doubt it." She raised her other hand in front of her face, twirling her hand around in front of them both. "I wanna get rid of my powers, Seth. I know it's not what you-"

"I know what you mean, Cait. And I won't stop you." Seth admitted to her shock. "It's your life, Cait, I can't tell you how to live it. But I am happy that you tried to at least."

"To a degree." Caitlin pulled out her power-dampening pendant. "But I think it's… Best for me to get rid of my powers."

"I understand." Seth nuzzled against her forehead.

He understood her fears. The fear of losing control, the fear of the loss of her dampener would cause her to lose control and turn her into someone she's not. It terrified her beyond any known measure, something she still felt right now, down to her very core.

Such is the cost of wielding powers like Caitlin's, powers that are unable to be controlled.

But despite her fears, Seth couldn't help but believe in a future where she was able to live with her powers. A future where, despite her fear of her powered side and the powers that side holds, she will live and stand against the numerous waves of evil that threaten this city, this world.

"But whatever choice you finally settle on…" Seth lifted her head up. "Know I got your back… always…"

Caitlin nodded her head. "I know that…" She leant up and kissed her mate. He reciprocated instantly, kissing her back with just as much as passion.

As they remained in a passionate lip-lock, a smog of shadows erupted over one of the recliners and Evelyn fell out of the darkness. "Hey!" She greeted them, both of her parents removing their lips from one another immediately. "Oh… I interrupted something, didn't I?"

"Yeah… Honey, think we gotta talk about you dropping in like this at some point." Caitlin stated. Evelyn chuckled. "You say goodbye to Kai?"

"Yeah, he's sent on his merry way. But I said we could speak again if possible." Evelyn stated.

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, in case this turns into a boyfriend thing, I'm expecting a five-thousand word essay on why I should let him near you."

"What?!" Evelyn turned bright red, glowing like a lava lamp. "He's not my boyfriend, Dad! No way in hell! Shut up!" This time she shadowported from the recliner.

And hearing the thud from above, followed by a sound of a creaking bed, the parents deduced their daughter had shadowported into her bedroom.

"Great, our daughter might get a boyfriend, meaning she's gonna be shadowporting out every time he swings by our universe." Seth stated his dismay.

"He's in another universe, babe. Chances of him swinging by are slim at best." Caitlin said.

The doors opened up, both Frankie and Ruby walked in. They greeted their parents again before making their way to the dinner table. Evelyn shadowported back into the dining room, her face still red as a tomato. As they began to dine on pizzas and drinking cold sodas, her sisters began teasing her about her bright blush, knowing it had something to do Kai.

Ruby noted how her feelings changed so quickly, especially about a guy she considered swallowing up by pure darkness.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, Speed Lab)

In the middle of the evening, a blur of lightning continued to run on the track course in the Speed Lab of S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry walked into the training lab, seeing the yellow lightning speeding around over his head.

The senior speedster turned his head around, taking in the sight of Wally speeding faster than ever. He chuckled during his observation, especially as the younger speedster is now training extra. He turned to the monitors, seeing his speed monitor displaying a higher level than ever.

WHOOSH

Wally sped off the track, sliding to a halt with a pant. Barry and he shared a chuckle. Grabbing his protégé a towel, the senior speedster tossed it to him. "Keep it up, at this rate, you're gonna reach Mach 3 soon."

Wally, with shock on his face, confessed. "I know, it's crazy how fast I've gotten in such a short time, right?"

"Yeah, fast enough to stop a cyclone." Barry showed a serious look. "And I'm gonna need you to get a lot faster."

"Why's that?" The mentee asked his mentor.

Barry replied. "Because I've done the math over and over, and I finally realized that I've been looking at things the wrong way." Wally looked unsure of what he insinuated. "I'm not gonna save Iris from Savitar… You are." He revealed.

With no hopes of being able to save his beloved himself, the Scarlet Speedster places his hopes on his promising protégé.

X

(Tannhauser Industries)

Wally wasn't the only one to burn the midnight oil. Inside of her office, Carla Tannhauser remained in her company and reviewed the last files that her secretary had brought to her. Giving them a nod of approval, she handed them back to her assistant.

"Thank you, Jackie."

"Course, Dr. Tannhauser." Jackie replied, trading her tablet with the approved files her boss handed. But before she put the tablet in her boss's hands, a chime repeated from it. The secretary looked at it. "What is this?"

Carla turned to face her secretary. "What is it, Jackie?"

"It looks like an alarm was tripped on one of the lower floors, in one of the file rooms." She revealed.

"Which one?" Carla worrisomely asked, already making her way to the hallway.

"161." Jackie followed her boss quickly, trying to catch up to her. More chimes emitted from her tablet. "Ma'am, several of the alarms have been tripped. Should we call the police?"

"Yes, immediately." Carla said, moving down the stairs at incredible speed. Jackie tried to catch up to her, but her boss had already made her way into the hallway.

Carla rounded a corner and came-

She gulped as she came face to face with a massive being… A demon with white miasma as skin, clad in black veins spread all over its entire body. With its crimson-red eyes on the number of files in its hand, the white titan with sharp fangs didn't pay the CEO of the research company any attention.

"T-T…" He tried to speak, say a single word. "Thomas. Thomas Snow."

"What?" Carla stammered out, her shock making her blurt out words. Especially as this monster spoke the name of her late husband.

But her speaking so suddenly made the wretched titan snap his head in her direction, facing her with a spine-chilling, paralyzing glare. "C-Carla." The being snarled, his hand releasing the papers in his hand. He turned his entire body, facing the CEO. "Carla Tannhauser…"

"What? How do you know about me?" Carla wanted nothing more than to run away, rush out of her own building to escape this monster. But with his eyes placed on her, piercing into her soul, her very being… It paralyzed her with pure terror, and she couldn't even move a muscle.

"How do you know about my husband?" Carla demanded.

But instead of getting an answer, Anti-Venom roared and jumped towards her.

SCREAM

Unleashing a scream, she fell to the floor and covered her eyes with her forearms, expecting a feral monster to tear her into shreds. But to her shock, she didn't feel any of her flesh tear off her skin, nor did she feel any of her bones be crushed to dust.

With great caution, she opened her eyes and lowered her arms to take in the monstrous figure once more. To her even greater surprise, the wretched titan was nowhere to be found. Her eyes wandered left and right, trying to find the being…

But the only thing she found was the door torn off the hinges of room 161….

To be continued…

The three symbiote users of Frankie, Ruby and Evelyn have finally thwarted the Sinister Six's attacks, and in the process of that they finally got revenge from their last encounter with the heinous group. And during their fights with their respective foes, the three young symbiote heroes also awakened new abilities.

All of this happened due to Kai Rankers of Earth-2 showing up and aiding in the fight against the villains of SS. His wanting to go to Starlight Cannery for shelter started the chain reaction that led to the various fights that took place in Central City.

But Kai ran away from Starlight as the metahuman feared that Sandman was none other than Sand Demon of his native Earth, resulting in Rhino chasing after him and rampaging through the city.

While happy he was able to reunite with a friend from the past, an old memory resurfacing as well, Seth put his faith in his children to defeat the villains of SS and he decided to stop the train wreck that Octavius could have caused.

He was not the only one to surpass and defeat a fated enemy. Wally West overcame his Flashpoint self and defeated Rival, overcoming the two roaring twisters that he brought to life with his own two feet.

Barry had a revelation at that moment when he saw his student defeat Rival, he realized that he could his faith in Wally and he'd be the one to save Iris from Savitar's blade.

But as that happened, Carla Tannhauser received a horrific surprise from the wretched titan Anti-Venom himself. After the beast stated her name, along with her late husband's, she thought her life was about to end when Anti-Venom charged her…

However, she did not face his wrath as the titan never laid a finger on her.

And while that happened, Eliza returned to her hideout and Rajeet returned as well…

With Griffin Grey restraint by his ice.

Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!