"Batman, just how did Kid Flash wind up inside of the Bat Cave?" The other, older, and much sterner Batman asked his younger counterpart, who glared slightly at the older man.
"I do not see how that is pertinent to showing us where they left this dimension to facilitate us to go to the other." He answered by dodging the question, which made the other Bat glare.
"You dodged the question. What are you hiding?" The Bat from this universe asked with a stern tone, clearly wanting to get an answer out of the other version of himself.
But the younger Bat was not going to tell anyone about how Kid Flash broke into his secret sanctum, bypassed all of his security, and muscled his way into the most dangerous part of the place to wind up grabbing his dimensional transporter. It was much too embarrassing and Batman much too dignified for Batman to ever admit to such a thing ever having happened.
"It's a Bat Off." Green Arrow whispered to Vigilante, who nodded and looked over the seven heroes sitting before them.
It was odd to see these seven congregated around one another. Especially when he was so used to seeing Hawk Girl always hanging around Hawk Man.
"An' Ah'm not sure Ah know who's winnin' it." The cowboy whispered back to the archer, which made him smile for a moment before Iron Man took a step forward.
"Listen, guys, we're getting nowhere with both Bats stonewalling each other. We're only searching for two wayward customed crazies. And this is one place they traveled to. Clearly, they're not here still so we need to follow them to wherever they went."
"No, they're not here anymore. But the problem is not that they left, but in fact who they took with them when they left." Superman told them with a soft nod, which confused the eight heroes on the search for Wally and Deadpool.
"What do you mean? Who they took?" Iron Man repeated, suddenly feeling that their search for the two wayward males had just gotten a bit more complicated.
"The Creeper. One of the heroes that make up part of the Justice League." Martian Manhunter answered, looking over all the heroes in front of him and how differently this Green Arrow and Batman looked from the ones he knew. The others, though, were heroes he had never met. Oddly enough, Vigilante looked just about the same, if not for the lack of spurs on his boots.
"Creeper... Right..." Iron Man said slowly, "Just what kind of name is that? Is he supposed to creep the villains until they give up? Can that even be considered a verb?" Now he turned around to face Bruce, his Science Bro, who rolled his eyes at the completely Tony Stark question.
The Martian cocked an eyebone at the man's question but still explained, "When Kid Flash and Deadpool arrived here, Flash and Superman found themselves with a violent confrontation. But once they had reached an understanding, they were led to the cafeteria to be given food. While there, the Creeper struck up a conversation with Deadpool. And for some reason we cannot yet understand, when Kid Flash told Deadpool they were to leave, Creeper was taken with them."
The Batman from not this universe sighed and breathed out at Kid Flash's mounting stupidity, but Iron Man could only smile in frustration, "Which means we now have three dimensional travelers... Oh goodie..."
Bruce Banner took a step forward, "If you want us to help you with your problem, you are going to have to show us where they jumped. That way we can trace the energy left behind by their machine with our own and we can follow them to the next world." He explained softly but firmly, which made Superman nod.
"Alright. Follow me."
The Kryptonian led the group of eight towards the cafeteria, where Iron Man took out his own transporter and began to get a read on the energy in the place to be able to locate where the other group had jumped. Batman helped him with it and while they did that, Vigilante and Green Arrow decided to look around this Watchtower and see what heroes there they knew.
"Hey, slinger, are you prepared for poker night?"
Vigilante quirked an eyebrow when he saw a black beauty heading his way, one that was all legs and charm, and he smiled beside himself.
"Yuh've got the wrong cowboy, ma'am." He answered, "Ah'm here on visitation."
The woman's eyes widened slightly at his words, then she looked over at the group of heroes that she did not recognize and understood.
"Well then, you haven't by any chance seen a man that looks just about exactly like you? Only that he's from this world?"
Vigilante smirked at the woman but shook his head, "Can't rightly say Ah have. But, an' Ah must say this, ma'am, he's one lucky sonnovagun ta have a pretty lady like yuh so int'rested in findin' him."
"Vigilante! Get over here." His Batman gruffed out before the woman could answer him, which made him curse mentally but still tip his hat at her.
"Pleasure, ma'am." And as he walked away, he muttered to himself, "Ah can rightly understand why Kid Flash decided ta take someone from this world... Just wonderin' why we can't take that pretty lil' lady with us..."
The first thing that called my attention was the red cloth that covered all of his face. I guessed it was supposed to be a mask, but it was... A weird one at that. It was like a piece of red cloth that had two holes cut into it where his eyes were and then some black paint surrounding the holes. What was really weird was the fact that it was that it was tied to the back of his head by a very thin strip. It seemed like one of the most hazardous masks I had seen in my life.
"You okay, kid? You're not going to pass out on me, right?" He asked me with slightly worried blue eyes shining behind the mask.
His hair was blonde and wavy and kind of reminded me of Ollie's in a way. And he wore a black shirt below a dark brown trench coat that most probably hid a whole lot of weapons that he used. His pants were a dark gray and there were holsters attached to them, which led me to know that his weapons of choice were guns. And finally he wore red gloves and black, heavy duty boots.
He seemed every bit like a mercenary or anti-hero and those were always dangerous. At least he seemed nice enough.
"No... I'm not..." I managed to breathe out before turning away from the sight of the bodies on the floor to only look at him. "Whe-Where are we?"
The man breathed out softly when I answered, then looked around the buildings around us and motioned for me to follow him. "Ground Zero. What was once London."
"Was?" I asked in surprise, following the man through the rubble of the streets. "What happened?"
All around us I could see demolished buildings, broken streets, dead bodies, and running blood. There was so much blood.
"Aren't you caught up with the news, kid?" The man asked with a slightly annoyed huff, but shook his head as he opened a manhole, "The war between the Amazons and Atlantis, kid. Or how I kindly call it: Hell on Earth."
My eyes widened at the words, the very idea of any fight between Aquaman and Wonder Woman just... Unimaginable, but he climbed into the sewer at that point and only looked at me for a moment.
"If you follow me, I can guarantee you'll live for another ten minutes. If you stay up there, I can guarantee you'll die in the next ten minutes."
Without a second thought I followed after him and began to climb down after having placed the cover back on the manhole. And while we went down- the way was actually a lot longer than I thought it would- I spoke up.
"The name's... Well, they call me Kid Flash. You?"
"They used to call me Grifter. You know, back when there was a they. But I still run with the name for the heck of it."
I had never heard of Grifter before. He certainly wasn't from my universe. I highly doubt he existed there. Or, at least, he didn't operate as the Grifter over there.
"Just who would call you Kid Flash?" He called from below me after another moment of silence and I breathed out with a shake of my head.
"My friends. The people I used to fight beside. You wouldn't by any chance have seen them, right?"
"No sorry bodies that called out to me other than you. With that bright red and yellow, kid, you're a walking target."
Below me I heard the water splash as he fell into it, then, once I looked down and saw him waiting for him, I fell beside him and looked at him.
"Yeah, you're right." I muttered then pressed the emblem on my chest to go stealth mode.
His eyes widened when my costume went from yellow and red to gray and a more toned down red, then he asked, "You're not from around here... Are you?"
"You have no idea." I say with a shake of my head.
Then he begins to lead me somewhere and I followed without any other words to say. I had no idea what was going on, why he said Atlantis and the Amazons were fighting, nor why I had no idea why none of my friends were near me, but right now, I couldn't bother with those worries. I had to survive another day before I could start thinking of how to get myself home. And I don't think it would be easy if all the bodies out there were any indicator.
"Andra, were yours and Father Time's calculations correct?" Temps asked as they coursed through the dimensional stream, doing their best to hurry to the FP-Quadrant in the DC-Sector to try and beat the travelers there.
"Yes... And you are too late, Temps." Andra spoke into the comm unit in his ear and Temps could feel his heart drop for a moment.
Had they failed the fools?
"And not only do we have Kid Flash, Deadpool, Creeper, and Spider Man all in a world they do not belong in, their transporter is literally one jump away from chain reaction. If they manage to go any other world... That is the end of that world."
"But surely we can do something to impede them from-"
Suddenly, to the shock of the three people in the conversation, Father Time's booming voice was heard their communications units,"Yes, Tijd, and I have managed to separate them for long enough to stop them from jumping before you get there. It took some power and breaking some of my own rules, but... They all arrived at separate time locations. I separated them to ensure they would not jump again."
"Separated them, Father? How?" Temps asked curiously as he and Tijd looked past all of the Quadrants in the DC-Sector. Some were nice, others were slightly confusing and weird, but a small number were as daunting as the FP-Quadrant itself.
"I managed to send them into different time intervals of that Quadrant, Temps. Deadpool was the first to arrive, then Creeper, then Spider Man, and lastly Kid Flash. Deadpool met Barry Allen and is currently working with him and Batman to reactivate his powers. Creeper landed a few days later but in Metropolis where he met the Shazam kids and is now working with that resistance group."
"And the teenagers? Surely you sent them in later for them to not be so affected by what they saw." Tijd rationalized.
"That is exactly what I did. But my power was waning by the time those two were sent and I believe the location for Kid Flash was not the one I hoped for. Spider Man landed safely in Cyborg's sanctum after his meeting with the president and is cared for. But Kid Flash... I do not know where he was sent. I just know that it is maybe two days before the world resets itself."
"Then we must hurry, Father." Temps told the man, "Never have I heard of a world resetting itself with people that weren't supposed to be there and I am not looking forward to find out."
"Okay, Flash Boy, you already have your powers. Now are you going to help me find my friends?" Deadpool asked the man that had just recently gotten his powers back, who nodded with a sigh.
"Yeah... I will, Deadpool. Thank you for all your help."
"Save the thank yous for later, man." The mercenary bit out in alarm, "I have to find these guys before the world ends, okay? And we have to leave this place before it does."
Thomas Wayne glanced from one customed man to the other and shook his head. The first one going on about going back in time to save the world... And the other one going on about how he needed to find his friends to travel to another dimension.
Just how had he wound up with these freaks?
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