Welcome back to Elemental Crisis Book I. Last time, Malefor introduced his new forces, the Dark Knights, and each appears to be somebody a member of the League knows, some in unrecognizable forms. And the battle did not go well at all. The League was almost decimated and Spyro and Cynder weren't doing so hot either. Thankfully, the Spectre, aka Oliver Queen, arrived and got everybody out of there, but not before Flash appeared to absorb Spyro's stolen Fire element. So, what the heck is going on here, and will Ollie be able to help them at all? Read on to hopefully start discovering...
(Our scene resumes in an underground location, one that should be very familiar to longtime fans of the decade-long run of the Arrowverse. Flash and White Canary certainly recognize it)
Flash: Wait, are we...?
(A shudder falls over the room as a cloaked figure enters the room. Oliver Queen has arrived)
Oliver Queen: Yes, Barry. The old arrow cave.
White Canary: Ollie?
Oliver Queen: Good to see you too, Sarah.
Batwoman: Am I the only one who's confused?
Black Lightning: That's Oliver Queen, once the Green Arrow, now the Spectre.
Spyro: Wait, you're the Spectre?
Oliver Queen: (Turning to face Spyro and Cynder, then taking a knee) Ignitus told me to keep an eye out for you two. (Shakes their hands) It's an honor to meet you two.
Cynder: I'd say the honor is ours, Spectre.
Oliver Queen: Please, call me Ollie. All my friends do.
Supergirl: As nice as this is, Ollie, I think somebody owes everybody an explanation.
Superman: Yeah, like who the hell did we just face?
Batwoman: And what the hell happened when Barry intercepted that stream of fire?
Oliver Queen: I know everybody has a lot of questions, and I hope to answer as many of them as I can. It all begins, as it so often does, with the Multiverse...
(With a wave of his hand, Oliver Queen casts aside his old lair, replacing it with an image of the Multiverse forming.)
Oliver Queen: Some of you here have heard the old rhyme a thousand times. It all began with a spark they say. But what fewer know is that that spark cast a shadow.
Flash: A shadow?
Oliver Queen: A shadow beneath the multiverse. A space that ended up populated by worlds that were never meant to be. A Dark Multiverse, so to speak. No world in this space lasted very long, no life truly able to survive, until the Anti-Monitor.
White Canary: Wait, didn't Ray set it so he'd be shrinking perpetually when we beat him?
Oliver Queen: You did. But he eventually shrank below the Microverse, ending up in this Dark Multiverse. I saw this and figured since nothing survives down there for very long, it would make a perfect prison. And for a while it was. Until he showed up.
Spyro: Malefor.
Oliver Queen: Exactly. I don't know how he ended up down there, but after his defeat at Spyro and Cynder's hands, Malefor's spirit wound up adrift in the Dark Multiverse, where he found the only other being even close in power to what he was.
Supergirl: The Anti-Monitor.
Oliver Queen: Exactly. How he did it is a mystery, but somehow Malefor absorbed the Anti-Monitor and then, well, you saw what he did to these two.
Cynder: Stole our Elements somehow and then proceeded to almost kill us with the aid of his Dark Knights.
White Canary: Which brings to mind the next question, who were they?
Batwoman: Yeah, there's no way that thing was Kate.
Oliver Queen: It was. Sort of. The Dark Knights are the same people you think they were, but they're from worlds in the Dark Multiverse. Versions that should never exist.
Supergirl: Like a world where Myriad was never stopped.
Batwoman: Or one where Kate became the Joker.
Oliver Queen: Exactly.
Martian Manhunter: Interesting. It seems Malefor seems to have anticipated our intervention in his plans, and chose his Dark Knights to fit us perfectly.
Oliver Queen: Exactly, J'onn.
Spyro: He was always good at psychological manipulation.
Flash: So what do we do? How do we stop him?
Oliver Queen: There's only one force that can seal Malefor away. (Summons the symbol of Aether) Aether, the raw untapped power of creation itself. However, we have a problem. The power of Aether can only be unlocked by combining the eight Elements stolen from Spyro and Cynder.
Flash: (Thinking he knows where this is going) I think we may have gotten one back then.
Oliver Queen: We almost certainly did, when you absorbed the element of Fire. But if you're going to beat Malefor, you'll need to learn to use it.
Spyro: Leave that to me.
White Canary: Meanwhile the rest of us will figure out where Malefor went so we can recover the other seven.
Cynder: Looks like we have a plan then.
Oliver Queen: (As he looks out over the team of his old friends and comrades) Alright then. Let's get to work.
(And on that moment, our scene ends for today)
And that looks like a good spot to end for now. So, we finally get some answers. Among other things, Malefor chose the Dark Knights specifically from the Dark Multiverse to mess with the League in particular, knowing they'd probably get involved. Probably the Anti-Monitor talking there. And now Flash has to learn to use Fire in addition to his usual powers. This ought to be interesting, not just in seeing Flash use something other than speed, but in seeing Spyro try to teach something that should be pretty instinctual for dragons. Moravec's Paradox in action! So be sure to tune in for that! Same time... same channel!