One Friday afternoon in Gotham City, a man in a red suit with lightning symbols stood upon a technologically-advanced treadmill-like platform emitting vibrant lights, surrounded by men in lab-coats. At the front of a viewing booth, a man in a business suit with trimmed hair oversaw the activity in the room.
Barry Allen aka The Flash was testing Wayne Enterprises' newly-made Dimensional Treadmill, approved by business CEO Bruce Wayne, secretly known as Gotham's Dark Knight Batman, and designed by the best scientists the city could find.
It was meant to be a more advanced version of the Cosmic Treadmill, but for more cross-dimensional travel. For years, scientists had studied quantum theory and the nature of the mysterious realm known as the multiverse.
Now, after the world had faced many an extradimensional threat, Wayne Enterprises had decided to invent the means to access the multiverse.
"Alright, Flash." Bruce said into the mike, "The machine is powering up, you know what to do. Just like with the Cosmic Treadmill, you have to run as fast as you can."
"Fast is my middle name, Mr. Wayne." Barry replied with a smug grin.
"Good luck, Mr. Flash." A scientist encouraged.
"Just Flash."
"Powering up!" An employee declared.
Scientists slapped on their visors and levers were flipped, the machine hummed vibrantly and more lights flashed around the room. The treadmill vibrated to life and Barry began to walk, the walk became a jog and then the jog exploded into a run. Go time!
He ran like the wind as the Dimensional Treadmill went faster and picked up speed, lightning crackled around Barry's body and the room around him became a blur.
The fastest man alive saw a bright light as it surrounded him and kept running until every molecule in his surrounding environment seemed to be shifting and flowing all around him.
A flash engulfed his vision and the lab vanished along with the treadmill, Barry found himself running through a void full of lightning and churning matter. He glanced downward, seeing that he was running across a rainbow road that generated into existence with each step he took.
The speedy superhero could see it all, the multiversal rift, so many worlds to explore. He'd wound up in some transdimensional situations plenty of times before, using that Dimensional Treadmill to adventure into the universe of universes beyond the universe was something else.
Lightning exploded across the air around Barry and a brighter flash engulfed him, he was no longer running, he was spinning through the void and falling to a new world surrounded by what seemed to be dark matter.
Was he going to Apokalypse, was the Anti-Life Equation involved?
Barry felt solid ground beneath and blinked, he was now in a... new environment. The place was a barren wasteland with a red sky, jagged rocks and rubble with smoke rising into the air every now and again. He'd traveled to that place, hadn't he, the netherworld known only as Hell?
No, this wasn't it, this was a world ravaged by dark forces. Barry walked around, bewildered by the new environment. Least the air was fresh in some way, but there were no signs of civilization anywhere.
Or was that the case?
Lightning burst across the sky, rupturing a jagged mountainside as rocks flew everywhere. The Flash broke into a run, racing across the mysterious and apocalyptic landscape.
This was a mysterious planet in another universe, he had seen many universes and timelines, this world was nothing like what he'd seen in the past compared to Apokalypse...
'Whoa.'
He came to a screeching stop, looking up at the sight before him. A large, mountain-shaped shrine loomed above, standing high enough to touch the red sky, surrounded by jagged pillars with a tall and ominous statue near the entrance depicting a massive humanoid being in war armor with a skull necklace.
Barry ran up to the statue to take a closer look at it. This guy was no Darkseid, but whomever this statue was depicting, he was bad news.
Thundering footsteps sent chills down Barry's spine, he stepped away from the statue, preparing himself for an impending battle. The lightning-fast superhero looked around, looking for his impending foe. Those footsteps did not sound friendly, he could hear the clanking of armor, and a dark shadow loomed over him.
Heroes rarely showed fear. Barry looked up, looking into the face of the enemy depicted in the statue, a face he would never forget. The visage would make Darkseid wet his armor.
Dark-brownish skin with purple linings under orange-red eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth, pointy ears with purple lobe-diamonds, blood-stained armor with blood-stained shoulder plates with spikes on almost every side, a belt with a sword at the side and a long brown skirt that stopped at his feet.
"Mortal..." The being declared, "YOU STAND IN THE DOMAIN OF Z'OR'OGH-RO'GON, CONQUEROR OF GALAXIES AND UNIVERSES! What brings you here to this world which I rule along with countless planets and universes that I have conquered in my name?"
"Uh, my name is Barry Allen?" Barry replied, "I'm The Flash?"
"And I wondered why that outfit looked familiar..." Z'or'ogh rumbled, "I slayed The Flash and the Amazon with the lasso and the Batman, just as I destroyed all in my path to conquest, THE SAME WAY I WILL OBLITERATE YOU WHERE YOU STAND! NOW YOU FACE Z'OR'OGH'GEDDON!"
Above, the sky turned a brighter shade of red and more lightning exploded as the warlord drew his blade, which oozed with black and red shades of blood. Barry prepared himself, this fight was unavoidable.
"FALL, INSECT!"
Z'or'ogh brought down the blade and Barry zipped out of the way, racing past the statue of his enemy. In his attempt to slice down the fast-moving superhero, Z'or'ogh sliced his sword through his own sculpture and the statue exploded in rubble.
The conqueror roared with rage and leaped into the air with his sword raised as he went right for Barry. Barry ran into the shrine, running past pillars and more statues of his towering enemy, Z'or'ogh plunged his blade into the ground in front of him, attempting to block any of the superhero's potential attempts to escape.
However, as fast as lightning, Barry ran between Z'or'ogh's legs and out of harm's way before veering back around and leaping onto the overlord's back. He yanked his ears and Z'or'ogh screamed, stumbling around as he fought to shake off the red-colored "ant", who then popped over his head and kicked him in the eye.
The conqueror yowled and snarled, shaking off the minor injury, as The Flash made a move for his enemy's sword and ran around it, generating a tornado that was powerful enough to send it spinning through the air... and sliced off Z'or'ogh's hand.
Dark blood exploded out of the stump and the dismembered hand fell to the ground, disintegrating into ash. Z'or'ogh roared in fury and grabbed his sword from the tornado with his remaining hand despite the force of the Flash Tornado.
The inhuman conqueror glared at Barry, who was a blur now, and sliced at him, missing him by inches.
"Ya too slow?" Barry called. He zipped out of the shrine, running as fast as the wind.
"I'LL SHOW YOU SLOW BY THE TIME I HAVE FINISHED WITH YOU!" Z'or'ogh roared, "AND I WILL CONQUER YOUR WORLD LIKE THE OTHERS, YOUR ALLIES WILL BURN ALONG WITH ALL OTHER POTENTIAL COMPANIONS AND THE REST OF THE MULTIVERSE WILL BURN!"
He gave chase, despite his weight and how much he was wearing, Z'or'ogh leaped into the air, creating an earthquake that made half his shrine collapse when he came down. Then he sheathed his sword and crouched down before breaking into a run on all fours, chasing Barry with a monstrous roar.
Barry chuckled, he couldn't wait to tell Bruce and the others about it, assuming he lived long enough and got back home.
SLAM! He veered out of the way just as Z'or'ogh slammed down in front of him, the scarlet speedster raced towards the mountains, running over the terrain as lightning fast as more lightning exploded across the sky.
He heard a shink and turned around, seeing Z'or'ogh had thrown his sword, the blade arcing like a boomerang towards him. Speed Force kicked in, time crawling to a slow pace. The Flash watched the blade come his way and ducked just before it could hit him.
He grabbed the hilt of the weapon and ran towards his foe, who was leaping in the air in another attempt to pounce him. The Flash gripped the sword with both hands, racing towards Z'or'ogh and then...
K-SWHINK! Barry skidded to a halt, putting down the sword slowly, and time returned to normal. He heard Z'or'ogh let out one more roar of fury, then he heard the body fall, cleaved in half at the midsection. Black blood tainted the blade, no more activity from its owner.
"Ok, now we better get outta here." Barry remarked, he positioned himself in a starting stance, "C'mon, Speed Force, faster than the speed of light, you can make it back home even without the Dimensional Treadmill. You absorbed it's power, you can make it and we are not going to be stuck here."
He concentrated with his will, thinking twice as hard as he could even with all the lightning flashing across the sky.
More energy crackled around him and, with enough strength in him, Barry Allen broke into a run, racing faster than the speed of light until he broke the barrier, racing through the dimensional speed rift, back to his home universe...
The End