Chapter 3

Earth – 1; Star City

The city of Star City was currently experiencing a totally unusual weather phenomenon. The sky had suddenly turned red, and lightning was unleashed in every corner of the city.

A lightning bolt sputtered a pole, knocking several blocks of concrete onto the ARGUS van. Curtis Holt, who was inside the vehicle, observed the anomalies in shock.

"Okay. I know this sounds nuts and completely unscientific, but I think that freaking lightning is following us."

Further on, stood John Diggle "Dig", accompanied by several ARGUS agents armed with rifles, ready to apprehend a frightening assassin.

"Focus, Curtis!" Dig exclaimed, regardless of the phenomenon.

"This is me focusing! These atmospheric anomalies are playing all kinds of hell on my equipment, plus you don't want that lightning to hit when you're engaging Deathstroke's son."

Suddenly, a lightning bolt struck right in front of the agents, throwing them away. It was then that Joe Wilson, aka Kane Wolfman, the new leader of the Deathstroke, appeared in his black jumpsuit, with a saber hanging on his back.

"Kane Wolfman, you're under arrest for violations of international law!" said Dig, standing up and threatening the criminal with his weapon.

"Really?" Kane replied in a neutral tone. "Does that include the murder of…(he counted the agents in front of him.) ARGUS field agents?"

"LAST CHANCE, ON THE GROUND NOW!"Dig ordered, brandishing his weapon in front of him.

Kane Wolfman brandishes his saber. Field agents shot him, but their bullets bounced off his armor. Kane rushed to Diggle, hitting him and destroying his rifle with his saber. Then he went to the charge on the other agents, stopping them.

Dig pulled out his pistol and fired at Kane again, but Kane attacked him again, pushing his gun away, hitting him in several places before dropping him to the ground. He put his foot on Diggle's stomach and brandished his sword ready to kill him.

"This isn't personal, just business," he said.

But that he could not deliver the final blow, a blowing wind threw him away, then it was a lightning that pushed him back. And before Kane could fight back, Flash slammed him against the spare tire in the back of an SUV, then it was two arrows that trapped him, preventing him from moving.

"Son of a bitch!" Dig exclaimed when he saw his four rescuers and got up.

Barry, Supergirl, Oliver and Thor stood before him.

"Is that any way to greet your friends?"retorted the Kryptonian.

"All I know is that whenever the three of you show up with the God of Thunder, it usually means we have one huge problem."

"You've no idea!" exclaimed Thor, looking at Barry and Oliver.

Later, our heroes had gathered in the ARGUS premises. They had been explained the current situation to their friends Dig and Curtis. The two of them couldn't believe what they had just learned.

Diggle fixed a finger on Barry and Oliver.

"So you're you."

"And you're you," Curtis added, looking at the two heroes whose bodies were inverted.

"An immortal Egyptian, aliens, parallel Earth Nazis and a Mad Titan with magic stones. I have no idea why I'm even surprised at this point," Dig said.

"Even I, who have lived for a thousand years, this situation is truly unprecedented," Thor replied with amusement.

"I'm still trying to figure out if this is more like "Freaky Friday" or "Quantum Leap"." Curtis wondered.

"No. If this were like "Quantum Leap", I'd only look like myself in the mirror." replied Barry, amused.

Curtis nodded, shaking his head at Barry in the appearance of Green Arrow.

"Yep. You are definitely not Oliver Queen."

Supergirl hastened to answer:

"We think that the red skies and these lightning strikes have to be related to whatever happened to Barry and Oliver somehow."

"We need you to solve the somehow while we're in Gotham." Oliver added in his Flash outfit.

"No problem. I mean, A.R.G.U.S. has all the best analytic toys," replied the young Black. "but what we really need is a pattern recognition algorithm, and, unfortunately, Felicity isn't…"

"I called Felicity," Oliver said.

"Wait, wait, you called Felicity?" Dig said.

He was still confused by the exchange of bodies between Barry and Oliver. Then Felicity Smoak came towards them, as if nothing had happened.

"I've been summoned?"she cried without looking at anyone.

Obviously, she was upset. Oliver motioned for Barry to answer for him, as he looked.

"Yes, thank you for coming," replied the young speedster who had become an archer.

Believing to be addressing her husband, the young woman continued.

"Off course. I mean, things might be fraught between us, Oliver. That doesn't mean I'm not gonna show up."

"They are?" exclaimed Barry, shocked. (He turned to Oliver.) "They are?"

But Oliver gave him a sign of annoyance.

"They are. Yeah, which is... Sad." continued Barry with a tone that did not correspond at all to the archer.

Oliver looked up at the ceiling, while Felicity looked at the one she thought was her husband, frowning.

"So, um, this lightning thing. Um, could you help me out with that? Can I kind of show you kind of what I'm thinking?" Curtis said to the young woman.

Then he dragged Felicity away from them. Dig spoke to them again, once alone.

"Okay, so why didn't you tell Felicity?" He asked.

"Well, because we tried to tell everybody at S.T.A.R. Labs, and it didn't really go over so well." explained Barry, embarrassed.

"Why would it go over so well?" Thor intervened. "Hey guys, you have Kara and me, now! We can prove that you are not one or the other. (Then he looked lost.) Still, Diggle is right, even I am lost. This thing is too weird and rather funny."

Barry and Oliver glared at him.

"Sorry guys, sorry, this is all new to me," added the Asgardian.

Supergirl spoke again.

"If you find out how this lightning thing relates to whatever it is that we're dealing with here, can you please tell us?"

"Copy that," said Dig. (He spoke to Barry and Oliver.) "Hey. This thing isn't gonna be permanent, is it?"

"I hope not,"said the two superheroes at the same time.

Finally, Supergirl, Thor and Barry set off for the ARGUS agency, and Oliver ran to join them.

"Oh. Barry, there's something I'd like to discuss before we go." he retorted, reaching for them.

"What's that?," replied the speedster who had become an archer.

"That you probably shouldn't go. Oliver Queen is a public figure and an infamous vigilante. If you are in Gotham City, you're attracting the type of attention that we don't want."

"And is that the problem?"Thor asked, frowning. "Oliver Queen isn't considered a hero on this Earth?"

"Not quite," replied Oliver, embarrassed. "But you can't… understand that, Thor. We have nothing to do with the Avengers."

"No," objected Barry, continuing: "If Gotham can handle the Batman, it can handle the Green Arrow."

"The Batman? What is that, the Batman? Another hero?"asked the Asgardian again, looking at Kara.

Before the Kryptonian could answer, Oliver hastened to retort:

"The Batman is just an urban legend."

"Wait. You don't believe Batman's real?"exclaimed Barry, incredulous.

"He's not real. He's an urban legend concocted by the Gotham police department to scare criminals. And I'm the original vigilante, Barry, Thor."

The God of Thunder rolled his eyes, while Supergirl was bored with all the bickering.

"Okay, if you guys are done fooling around…" she exclaimed before being interrupted.

"Actually, you know what? Could you pull that thing up?" retorted Barry. "Because, unlike you, my identity's not public, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"This isn't your real face!"replied Oliver, dumbfounded.

"It might end up being my real face if we don't sort this mess out, so could you?"insisted his friend vehemently.

Annoyed, Oliver sighed and put the Flash mask back on his head.

"Happy?" He shouted.

"Ecstatic!" replied Barry.

"I don't know what is worse between listening to the cheesy music of this asshole Quill or listening to you chattering like kids," retorted Thor who was starting to get bored.

"Apparently, you guys aren't done fooling around." said Supergirl.

She took Barry away and disappeared in super speed. Thor brandished Stormbreaker and disappeared through lightning, leaving Oliver alone in the hallway of the ARGUS building.

"Well, I guess I'm running alone," he whispered defeated.

And he disappeared in super speed.

Gotham City

It was pitch dark in the city of Gotham. Nothing alarming seemed to disturb the tranquility of the city. Until a Kryptonian landed on the roof of a skyscraper, with an archer in her arms. Then the God of Thunder landed near them, lowering his ax.

All three looked around, observing the surrounding buildings.

"So this is Gotham? That's dark! It looks like this city is under the influence of several dark forces." Thor commented, looking around.

"Doesn't look so tough to me. " said Barry.

"Don't trust appearances, Allen. I don't know the city, but I perceive the darkness that reigns in this place."

"Where's Oliver?" Kara asked, looking around.

"I don't know."

Finally, an electric blur springs from nowhere, overtaking the heroes.

"Guess he's still getting the hang of it." said Supergirl.

Then Oliver's figure emerged and stopped running near them. He seemed well overwhelmed by his new abilities.

"I'm still getting the hang of it. " he said.

"Stay calm, the scarlet speedster, you're going to get used to it," kindly encouraged Thor.

"Thank you for your concern, Thor."

"All right. All right. So how do we find two people in a city of 16 million?"asked Kara.

The four of them walked up to the railing and looked out at the city below them.

"There is a radio personality named Vesper Fairchild." said Oliver. "She knows everyone in Gotham, and I know her. She was doing an exposé on white-collar crime back in the day, and I wanted to persuade her that Queen Consolidated was above board."

"So, you slept with her," Barry replied with amusement.

Kara and Thor looked at Oliver with raised eyebrows.

"No… I… I don't know," replied Oliver, with an air of false innocence.

"Gosh. You really got around back in the day, didn't you?" replied Supergirl without looking at the archer who had become speedster.

"Oh. One time, Oliver cheated on his girlfriend with her sister." replied Barry, still amused.

Kara was shocked, while Thor was annoyed.

"Barry!"replied Oliver, annoyed.

"Oh no, no!"Kara exclaimed, disgusted.

"And I thought that it was only the humans of Midgard who were stupids…" commented the Asgardian.

"Thor, please keep your comments for yourself," Oliver replied, embarrassed and furious.

"So," said the Kryptonian. "what, depending on this past relationship with this woman, we might have to come up with a plan "B". Is that what you're saying?"

"Yeah," replied Oliver.

Thor sighed in annoyance.

"Well, we are no more advanced to find our two men with this Book," he grumbled.

"Guys! Take a look at this." said Barry, walking to the other side of the roof.

The four of them came to a big tarp that covered something. When they removed it, they discovered an old projector covered with dust. In the center, there was a stylized emblem of a bat affixed to the light. Judging by the amount of dust, this projector has not been used for years.

"You still think he's a myth?" Barry persisted, showing the projector to Oliver.

But Oliver remained firm.

"Yeah," he replied.

Barry was stunned.

"Batman's real," he whispered, shocked.

"Is that Batman? An old dusty projector?" Thor asked, looking at the bat emblem.

None of the four heroes suspected that a dark figure watched them from the top of an imposing tower. Batwoman had her eyes fixed on the new arrivals in her city. Whoever these people were, they were not going to stay long.