The Tomorrow Knight: Vagabonds

by CDrake

In the sequel to Origins, the Knight is in for the fight of his life against an ancient enemy never vanquished. To save the family he returned for and prevent the future he most fears, he must draw strength from wherever it is found. Where better than the Vagabonds who choose to stand beside him?

2. Vagabond Origins: The White Revenant

After Jason's disastrous outing when he'd lost his powers last year, Bruce had made a point of planting a modified tracker in his suit, this time between the layers of armor that would shield it from damage and EMPs. He had told Jason about this one, and followed up with a stern warning not to attempt to remove it. Considering what had happened just a few days ago in Singapore, he wasn't likely to disobey anytime soon, even if he did go off the reservation. Thus, it was child's play for Cass to track him to Atlanta and use the Watchtower teleporters to arrive just after him, where she waited nearby in disguise and listened in on his interactions with Caden and Alex.

Was it a little underhanded? Sure. An invasion of privacy? Most likely. But if he thought he could go after Janus without her, he was sorely mistaken.

A little after Alex finished with his story, the three rose from their booth, the oldest talking to Jason in animated tones. They passed her on the way to the exit, sidling out one after the next as she prepared to follow. She gave just enough space before standing and moving out a different exit, predicting where they would be headed next given the privacy needed for this conversation.

"The short answer is…nothing. I know nothing about trans-dimensional energy, but from the roots of the word, I can guess that this has to do with transporting matter across dimensions."

Jason nodded to Alex as the trio strode out of the latter's restaurant. "Matter or energy, yes, and this can actually be used to transport those within the same dimension as well." He pulled out his PDA and tabbed over to a case file watermarked with the bat-symbol. "When Cass and I vanished in Singapore, the rest of the team used every piece of equipment they had to analyze the area for any trace energies or signs of where we had gone. What they found was a unique trans-dimensional energy signature, but with the Justice League occupied with the disintegrating situation in Bialya, they've been a little too busy to track it down."

Alex frowned and stroked his chin. "And you thought I might be able to use my ring to find similar signatures."

Jason sighed. "That was my hope."

"Well…you were right."

"Huh?"

Alex smiled. "I may not know a thing about trans-dimensional energy, but my ring gives me access to a galactic database of science and technical writing from thousands of alien cultures. Add to that the fact that this info can be uploaded directly into my head, and I should be able to project an appropriate device in a few minutes." He chewed his lower lip. "I imagine we'll have to be in low orbit to scan the whole planet though."

Jason grinned. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Caden arched an eyebrow at them. "Wait—we're seriously doing this? Now?"

"Well yeah. Better we go after him than wait for him to recover."

Drake frowned. "He regenerated from being gutted almost instantly."

"Yeah, when I still didn't have my powers. He bolted once I got 'em back. That can't have been a mistake, not for someone with his experience." Jason frowned. "He's scared, or at least he was in that moment, and I'm not about to give him the chance to readjust before we bring down the hammer."

Caden sighed hard, brandishing a chrome-plated Sig Sauer from beneath his jacket. "Fair enough. Let's do it."

He tucked the pistol into a magnetic holster at his side, him and Jason drawing close to Alex as his ring began to glow. Frowning, Cass withdrew a little further and made sure to keep out of sight while watching from a distance as the trio was encased in a glowing bubble of blue energy and slowly began to float. Then that slow levitation ramped up exponentially, and they shot into low orbit in a matter of seconds. Cass pulled her PDA out and accessed the location data on Jason's armor, relieved to find that the WayneTech satellites were still tracking his position. All she could do now was wait for them to get back planetside.

…

Jason had never seen a Blue Lantern work up close and personal. He'd been around a few Greens growing up, but the aura that surrounded Alex was completely different. Like, literally, he felt different the more Alex used his powers, and within the bubble…well, to say he felt the most comfortable he'd been in a while would be an understatement. Despite this, another part of Jason was uneasy, as he always was when someone or something altered his emotions, no matter how benevolently. He tried his best to stamp down on that overly paranoid part of himself (no doubt inherited from his father); Caden was friends with this guy and he was even less keen on emotional or mental manipulation.

If he was good enough for the eldest living Drake, he was good enough for Jason.

With some considerable mental effort, he muscled down his unease and accepted the warmth emitted by his newest ally. The blue glow of Alex's eyes drew his attention, a closer look revealing that he was looking at an overlay like holographic contacts, his eyes rapidly moving back and forth. Too rapidly to be reading, almost like he was…dreaming. Jason knew the human brain processed things in a different way while in the REM state; was that how the galactic database interfaced with his neural network? If so, he could understand how Alex was so sure of his retention speed with regard to constructing a device complex enough to track Janus' portals.

Indeed, less than five minutes after he began, the overlay on Alex's eyes faded to the more normal nuanced blue, and his gaze focused on the pair in his bubble. "I have it," he said. "Just give me a moment to check your parameters."

He reached out to Jason, who offered his PDA for analysis. While Alex gave the data a read, Jason unstrapped his pack and donned his armor, just tucking the helmet under his arm when the Blue Lantern was finished.

"I think I've got it. Strange…these readings fall within the Zeta spectrum."

Jason nodded with a frown. "Yeah, that's why we need a device that's fine-tuned to this particular bandwidth."

"If not," Caden chimed in, "you're gonna get a lot of false positives. The Justice League teleporters use energy from all over that spectrum, though on average they prefer higher bandwidth; less energy expended that way."

"Right," Alex said, frowning in focus as he raised his left hand. "A minute of silence, if you would. I've never produced something quite this complex before."

He didn't even have to ask. Jason was fascinated by the novelty of this experience, just as much as (he imagined) Alex was. The blue ring's glow intensified slightly, a thin stream of translucent energy projecting from its centerpiece, spreading outward in opposite-flowing waves that came crashing back together some three feet in front of him. The chaotic waves overlapped and roiled in an amorphous mass of sapphire light, the edges sharpening with a slight narrowing of Alex's eyes, his focus highly visible. Tendrils of hard-light from either side of the projection interlocked and twisted around each other, going taut and drawing each end into a particular pattern, like an intricate rope knot.

The end design was utterly alien (though considering where the designs for it probably came from, that was hardly surprising), but Jason had little doubt it would do the job. The only question now was how long it would take. When the projection was finished, Alex took another moment or two, then breathed a faint sigh of relief.

"All right. The projection is looped; it's self-sustaining now. All we have to do is wait."

Jason smirked as he took back his PDA. "Maybe not as long as you think." His fingers flew over the screen. "Here, link your projection to these three frequencies. It'll network the device to WayneTech's geosynchronous satellites, hopefully speed up the scan."

"You got it."

A moment later, it was done, leaving the trio to stare into the split horizon of their low orbiting position. On one side were the gradations of blue on the edge of Earth's curve, on the other the vast expanse of space.

"The powers are cool and all," Alex mused wryly, "but as far as perks go…you can't beat this view."

"No," Caden breathed in awe, "you really can't."

Around the edge of the horizon was the normally blinding glow of the setting sun, muted by the built-in filters of Alex's forcefield. Jason stared at it for a good minute or two, able to make out the faintest hints of its constantly roiling surface when his reverie was interrupted.

"Got something!" Alex exclaimed excitedly. "And it's a fresh one."

Jason's heart hammered in his chest. "Already?" he asked, voice shaking slightly. "Where?"

Caden's lips pursed as he looked at the device's screen, the readout overlaid on a projection of Earth's surface. "Looks like…oh crap."

"What?"

"San Francisco, less than four miles from Titans Tower."

Jason's blood ran cold. "Damian is there right now. Who here thinks that's a coincidence?"

No one raised their hand.

Jace turned to Alex. "How fast can you get us to San Fran?"

Alex smirked. "Faster than light from the sun."

And with that, they dropped like a rock. At least, that's what it felt like at first. It took Jason a second or two to realize that their descent was angular—with the path of Earth's rotation, using the spin to accelerate well beyond what the planet's gravity well alone could pull. As a result, Jason quickly saw the West Coast approaching much faster than was safe. For anyone who had to obey the laws of physics, that is. Alex, on the other hand, just had to apply an "elementary" antigravity field to his bubble, and they were floating along toward their target location.

Still at a breakneck speed, of course, but at least Jason could breathe now. It always put him somewhat ill at ease to be flying under someone else's power, especially at speeds and with maneuvers that he couldn't pull off himself. As they approached the target, however, all those concerns flew to the back of his mind. When his helmet came on, so did what he affectionately called "hunter mode." Damian called it tunnel vision. Well, if Jason was right about what was about to happen, his ornery brother would soon be glad of that hyper-focus.

They touched down a block or two away from the alley where Alex had pinpointed the signature, Jason turning to his two compatriots with a stern look.

"You both know as much as I do, so you can assume that Janus will be expecting us, but he fought one-on-one last time, not three-on-one. Stay spread out as much as possible—that should limit his ability to alter your timescale—and keep your distance. The full extent of his powers is unknown even to his own kind, so expect the worst to a power of stupid."

Alex and Caden stared at him blankly.

Jason sighed hard. "Just pepper him from afar and try not to hit me." He brandished his sword, allowing the sun's light to glint off the flat of the blade for a moment before collapsing it. "I'll take care of the rest."

"And if he teleports again?" Caden asked.

Jason scowled. "Then Alex scans again and we run him down until he exhausts himself. One way or another, this ends tonight."

His more seasoned partners exchanged a wary look, then shrugged as they silently agreed to follow his lead for now, Caden pulling a black balaclava over his features. It wasn't until they reached the edge of the alley in question that Jason caught a glimpse of anything resembling life, and when he did…well…

"Stupid, stupid, stupid…monkey suit!"

The three stopped in their tracks as they stared at the back of a young man struggling to muscle his way out of an exceedingly tight business suit. He hemmed and hawed over how to get it off, then groaned and stood up straight. A moment later, his entire form seemed to fade from vision for a moment, as if he had suddenly melded with his environment like a poorly splashed watercolor painting. Then he was solid again, and the black suit was on the ground, along with his mirror-shine shoes, leaving him in boxer briefs and not much else. Their observation suddenly became wholly awkward even as Jason's hackles rose at the speed at which the stranger gathered his clothes and stuck them in some sort of self-vacuuming bag.

He stuffed it into a leather messenger bag on his hip, pulling out another vacuum bag and emptying it. In the blink of an eye, he was dressed head to toe in something that probably should've been left back in the 50s—a black greaser jacket whose zipper he left open, revealing a gray-and-red Blüdhaven Bloodhounds t-shirt complemented by boot-cut charcoal jeans. The whole thing was capped off with leather sneakers that would look extremely expensive and high-end if not for the garish and downright obnoxious silver lightning bolts stitched to their sides with thick, dark blue thread.

His hair was a strange steel-gray, despite his appearance betraying maybe twenty years of age, and his ruddy complexion was a few shades darker than Jason. Or, well, what Jason would probably look like if he got a really dark tan. Nothing about him looked like Janus had in Bialya.

It meant nothing.

Janus was both Olympian and Titan. Fooling the eyes of mortals was the only thing both had in common other than their propensity for destroying the planet. He gave the others a discreet nod, floating up to hide in the shadow of a nearby building as he made his approach. The stranger whistled and twirled about for a moment before ambling toward one end of the alley without a care in the world. Every care imaginable forced him to halt when Jason descended in a silvery blur and landed less than four feet in front of him. Jason itched to hold his sword, but even with the energy signature and the stranger's speed, he couldn't be sure just yet. The surprise in his—he was close enough to see gray—eyes seemed real enough, but surprise didn't equate innocence.

Alex and Caden flanked him from the other end, one high, one low; boxing him in. He looked around, meeting their eyes briefly before returning his gaze to Jason with a sigh.

"So I guess you're the welcoming committee."

Even his voice was different—smoother, slower, like every word was carefully selected despite his abilities.

"Who are you all?" he asked, staring right at Jason.

The Knight snarled. "Like you don't know."

The stranger put a hand on his chin, humming as he looked the boy up and down. "Well…" he jerked a thumb behind him, "he's obviously a Blue Lantern…" he gave Caden a dubious look, "don't know about the bank robber over here, and you are…gimme a sec…" He stroked his chin a few more times before his eyes lit up and he grinned ear to ear. "You're a Bat. With powers. What a novel idea. So what do they call you, 'wings?'" He waved at the silver-on-red emblem on Jason's chest.

He gave the stranger a flat look. "The Tomorrow Knight."

The young man stared wide-eyed. "The To—" his head shook, "—wow. That is a mouthful."

"Bite me," Jason mumbled, blushing slightly. "What are you doing in the Titans' territory?"

He blinked, arching an eyebrow. "Just passing through. Why, you lookin' for me?"

TK took a threatening step toward him. "Should I be?"

The man's expression was absolutely unreadable as he processed the question. "Not unless Luke Carlisle has a bounty on his head."

Alex frowned. "Who?"

He glanced back at the Lantern. "Lucas Carlisle, me." He looked between both sides. "You really don't know who I am." He grinned, sticking both thumbs up. "Great. No evil dopplers this time."

Frowning, Jason eyed him with a narrow gaze. "Jokes in a tense moment. You're deflecting."

"Luke" blinked. "Now why would you say that?"

"Because it's what I do." He took another step toward him. "'Fess up, 'Lucas.' You can change your name, change your face, but you can't change your signature."

"My what?"

Jason clenched his teeth, hissing, "Your energy. The portals. I know it's you. Drop the act."

Lucas stared at him, frowning. He leaned back slightly, projecting his voice at the other two. "This one's not exactly socialized, is he?"

"Hey!" Jason grabbed his wrist, gripping hard enough to leave bruises on mere mortals. "You can't weasel your way out of this."

Lucas flinched at his grip. "Let. Go."

"Ja—" Alex cleared his throat, "—Knight, I'm not sure he's—"

Jason ignored him, hissing his words. "You're going to pay for what you did to Cass, you bastard."

"Dude," Lucas groaned, "I know like a dozen Casses, you're gonna have to be slightly more specifi—"

Bam!

Alex and Caden gaped at Jason and the spot where Lucas used to be. Used to be…mainly because Jason falcon punched him into a dumpster in the middle of the alley where he'd gotten changed. Their stares switched between the Knight and the immobile man slumped over in the crater left in the metal by his body.

"Oi!" Caden shouted. "Was that entirely necessary?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "He was being evasive."

"If I punched everyone who was evasive during an interview," Alex scolded, "I'd have been kicked off the force long before I got shot."

"And did you have to punch him that hard?" Caden added. "What if you're wrong?"

TK threw his hands up. "I held back!"

Their glares intensified.

Lucas let out a groan that could've been a wheeze.

Jason made a noncommittal grunt and waved at his still-immobile victim. "See? He's fine."

Slowly, painfully, Lucas dragged himself out of the crater to land on all fours, gingerly rising to a kneeling position. Suddenly, the air itself seemed charged, not only with the rising tension, but tangible power.

"Just remember…" Carlisle said coolly, threateningly.

And in the blink of an eye—Lucas' lightning-rimmed-eyes—Jason realized his mistake.

"…you asked for this."

The alley exploded with a blast of air as Luke vanished in a gray-and-black blur, trailing silver lightning the whole way. Caden was bowled over by the gust of wind from the backblast alone, hitting the pavement back-first and nearly losing hold on his pistol.

"A speedster," he growled, turning his glare on Jason. "You just had to piss off a speedster!"

Caden tried to lead the blur with his weapon only for it to vanish from his hand a split-second later. An annoyed snort left his lungs as he drew one of his knives. It too left his grip before he could do a thing.

"For the love of—"

The blur bowled him over this time, sending him flying into a tumbling roll across the alleyway. Jason grit his teeth, pushing his speed of perception to the limit and managing to make out Lucas' sprinting form amid all the lightning and chaos. He lunged forward, right into the speedster's path, and swung for his head in a hook that should've stopped him in his tracks. Instead, he watched wide-eyed as Luke bent over backwards and let his fist fly past his nose with a toothy, taunting grin. A split-second later, he was knocked face-first into a brick wall, swinging behind himself instinctively and hitting nothing but air.

Alex was a little smarter, opting instead to send multiple tendril-like projections after him in an attempt to trip him up, but as he spiraled around the walls of the buildings, he kept moving faster and faster until his form was completely indistinguishable. At least to a mere human. As powerful as he was, Alex's ring could only work as fast as his mind, and he was a little more than outclassed. Narrowing his eyes, Jason's feet left the ground as he analyzed the speedster's path for patterns and tried to time his next strike just so…

His fist smashed into a wall right behind Lucas, missing a direct hit, but the shockwaves from the blow made his feet leave the wall, leaving him vulnerable to a midair snag and throw by Alex. Jason threw a trio of ensnarement batarangs into his flight path, meaning to tie him to a wall. The speedster's body became a blur once more, despite having no physical anchor, and the trick weapons passed right through him, impacting uselessly on the far end of the alley. Down below, Caden leapt for Lucas' impact point, managing to tackle him before his feet hit the ground. He pulled the pin from a flashbang grenade—speedsters had one hell of a time getting around without sight—when Luke snatched the actual grenade portion and launched it over the rooftops with a flick of his wrist, leaving Caden with the pin and safety fin as he darted away.

Alex was ready for him this time, projecting a massive array of fans that created a backdraft and enough drag force to slow his ascent up a wall so Jason could get a clear shot at him. He anchored the end of his grapnel barb to a bola and hurled it with all his might, wrapping the speedster's right shoulder and arm, then swinging him toward the ground where he slammed back-first into the pavement. Groaning, Luke rolled out of the loop a little sluggishly, and then he did something Jason had never seen before. Planting both hands palms-first on the ground, he began to vibrate his arms, not quite enough to phase, but enough so that silvery arcs of electricity began sparking along the appendages toward the ground.

And from the ground.

His eyes slipped shut as his right hand left the pavement, waving just inches over its surface, connected only by the back-and-forth motion of silver lightning, which slowly crawled up and engulfed his entire body. He slowly curled it into a fist, a dangerous smirk on his face as his eyes opened. But where before he'd had gray irises rimmed with lightning, now…

Now his eyes were the lightning.

And then there were a thousand of him filling that alley. Jason scowled. He'd seen this trick before: the speed mirage. Carlisle was running back and forth between a thousand different locations faster than the mortal eye could distinguish.

And, Jason thought with a curse, apparently faster than my eyes can distinguish.

Caden glanced this way and that, unarmed and completely at a loss. A right cross from out of nowhere laid him out flat. Taking a breath, Alex tried to scan the alley for the real Lucas with his ring, only to gasp when one of the mirages suddenly got a whole lot closer. He instinctively fired off a ring blast, missing just barely and swinging for him with a left cross. His fist passed through Lucas' outstretched hand—or rather, Luke's hand passed through him…along with the rest of his body. Alex blinked, and suddenly, his left hand felt naked.

His sudden uncontrolled descent explained why; the speedster had pilfered his ring mid-phase—fifty feet off the ground.

Given the circumstances, Alex felt absolutely no shame in screaming at the top of his lungs until a firm grip around his shoulders arrested his fall and gently laid him on the ground. Jason straightened up, glancing around at the more solid-looking mirages, since they were sites more recently visited. He was so focused on making out the most recent path taken that he failed to hear the lightning bolt streaking at his back until it struck him full-force. Despite his armor's integrated insulation, it still felt like getting tased as a human. Every nerve felt like it was on fire, his entire body seized up, and he jiggled in place like a bug on a zapper, unable to so much as scream.

And then his helmeted head was grabbed and smashed into the pavement at Mach speed, and all he knew was darkness.

…

Alex gaped wide-eyed as the speedster held Jason's head to the ground for a moment to ensure he was out, then slowly rose to his feet, looking over his handiwork as his mirages faded to nothingness. A smug grin spread over his lips as he glanced between the two unconscious heroes, then shrugged his arms as if to say, "What are you gonna do?"

The next few minutes were a literal blur of motion and darkness, and before he knew it, Alex was in a darkened warehouse with only one active light illuminating him, Jason, and Caden; the latter of whom were chained to each other back-to-back. They were still out cold by the time Alex heard the soft clicks of approaching steps. The crunch of something being bitten followed a moment later, and he could just make out a faint silhouette before suddenly, Carlisle was standing in the center of the light. He stared down at Alex's sitting form curiously, chewing his apple at a sedated speed rather uncharacteristic for speedsters.

At which point Alex realized he wasn't chained to anything.

He glanced down at his free hands, meeting Lucas' eyes with an inquisitive look. "Why leave me free?"

Luke chewed a little longer, swallowing before giving his answer. "Two reasons. First, without your ring, you're significantly less of a threat. Second, you're a Blue Lantern. Of these three, I expect you'd be the most level-headed."

Alex thought for a moment or two. "Ahhh…" his head tentatively bounced back and forth before he shrugged, "yeah you're not wrong." He frowned again. "Who are you, really? I've never heard of a Lucas Carlisle before."

"I figured as much." He smirked. "Seems to be a constant trend wherever I go." His mirth faded as his gaze drifted over to Jason's helmetless form. "People trying to kill me out of the gate, not so much." He shrugged and gave Alex a rueful smile. "Well it's…kinda fifty-fifty, if I'm being honest." Lucas frowned. "Still, usually it's attack-on-sight just on principle." He looked back at Jason. "This seems personal."

Alex sighed. "Case of mistaken identity, I'm afraid."

"I figured that much, but who did he think I was?"

"Rogue god named Janus," Alex explained flatly. "Janus murdered his parents in the future. Then tried to murder him in the present. And nearly murdered his sister."

Luke's eyebrows steadily climbed upward with every statement. His head tilted a bit when Alex was done. "Yeah, that'll do it." He sighed hard. "Guess I better put this to bed, then." He knelt at Jason's side and tapped the side of his no-doubt aching skull. "Oi, tantrum! Wakey wakey!"

The kid jerked awake, haphazardly glancing around until his eyes turned toward the bright light and he cringed. "The hell…"

"We got a lot to talk about, and I'm only explaining this once."

Caden groaned himself awake, having been shaken up by Jason's jerky motions. He went perfectly still for a full two seconds before speaking in complete deadpan. "Can I just be dead? Because that would be significantly less embarrassing than that utter debacle."

Lucas gently rapped his knuckles on the side of Caden's head. "Sorry thuggy, not in the cards just yet." He frowned and pulled off his balaclava, eyes widening a moment later. "Hey! I thought that voice sounded familiar. You're Caden Drake."

Drake eyed him suspiciously. "Do I know you?"

"Nope. But I know you. Or, well, a version of you anyway."

Jason scowled. "If you're going to do us in, just get on with it already!"

Lucas groaned and lolled his head back. "Oh for the love of…I am not this…Janus character, or whoever the hell you've mistaken me for."

"I would've thought that was pretty obvious by now," Caden growled.

Jason's cowled features glared at Luke. "I'm still not a hundred percent convinced."

"Seriously?!" Drake half-yelled.

"Janus manipulated lightning when I fought him last, and I don't know exactly how immune I am to his time-warp." Jason's eyes narrowed. "He could've used his powers to mimic that of a speedster, get us to let our guard down."

Alex and Luke were about to protest when a new voice cut them off.

"He wasn't faking it."

Every eye turned to the pervasive shadows in the warehouse, a section of them at the edge of the light melting into a familiar feminine form.

"Sis?!" Jason shouted. "What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be—"

"What, in bed? Like an invalid?"

His eyes narrowed. "Does Dad know you're here?"

She hesitated. "I don't need his permission to live my life."

Jason shrugged, feigning concession. "Okay. Does Mom know you're here?"

She was silent.

"And that's what I thought." His lips pursed. "Wait…you were watching, weren't you? You've been tracking me this whole time."

"Of course."

He sputtered indignantly as Alex watched their exchange with no small amount of amusement. "We were getting our asses handed to us and you just stood there?"

She put her hands on her hips. "If you weren't so insistent on carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, I could've been there to tell you he wasn't lying." Her lensed eyes turned to a gaping Lucas. "At least, not about not knowing you."

"Does your body language thingy even work on Olympians?" Caden asked curiously.

"I avoided his every move until he warped time," she answered bitterly, arms crossed. Her gaze returned to the speedster. "His diction, his mannerisms, everything is all wrong. You can change your appearance all you want, but no one is that good of an actor."

Lucas huffed in relief and waved at her. "Thank you!"

Alex cleared his throat, nodding in the newcomer's direction. "This is uh—"

"Cassandra Cain," Luke interrupted, "Batgirl." His lips pursed. "Or do you go by Black Bat now?"

The speedster seemed completely oblivious to the way all four of them began staring at him until Cass spoke.

"How—"

"This isn't the first alternate I've visited," he interrupted with a smirk and a shrug. "I'm friends with the Bat Family in most of them." His eyes narrowed as he looked between Jason and Cass. "Wait…sis? With your powers, I'm guessing it's not biologically, which makes you…" his eyes widened in glee, "oh! You're Bruce and Di's kid!"

Jason gaped at him.

Lucas pumped his fists in the air triumphantly. "Finally! A timeline where I can be happy about those two."

Alex looked to Lucas, then to Cass, then Jason, and to Caden (who looked vaguely like he understood what was going on).

"What is happening right now?" Alex exclaimed.

Caden chuckled incredulously. "He's a breacher, Alex."

"A what?"

"A visitor from another timeline," Cass explained. "From another version of Earth."

Alex's eyebrows shot upward. "You're talking about Multiverse Theory."

"Correction," Lucas said, "Multiverse fact. I've spent roughly the last nine months mapping it."

"Then why were we led to you by a trans-dimensional energy surge on the Zeta band?" Jason demanded. "Speedsters don't give off Zeta-band emissions."

"Not usually," Luke conceded. "However, there are exceptions. Tell me, the Zeta band—does it fall within normal parameters for EM radiation?"

Jason snorted. "Of course not. If it did, the League wouldn't be able to teleport."

"So…they're extra-relative emissions…superluminal, faster-than-light."

"Yeah, so?"

"Know what else is superluminal?"

"Tachyons," Caden supplied. "You juice yourself up with tachyon particles to build the speed necessary to jump dimensions."

Lucas snapped his fingers and pointed at Caden. "Bingo! Give the man a prize."

"And tachyons fall within the Zeta band," Jason concluded with a groan as he let his head loll back, unintentionally banging it against Caden's.

"Ow."

Jason looked down at their restraints, giving Lucas a look. "You know I can get out of this."

He shrugged. "I figured as much, but doubt he could survive the strain of being on the receiving end of your strength unharmed." Luke pointed at (the enhanced but very-human) Caden.

Jason frowned. "Fair enough."

Something on his arm popped, and the chains sheared with a light snap of his elbow as his arm-blades sliced through them.

Lucas deadpanned. "Showoff."

"Says the guy who made a thousand duplicates of himself after showboating his ass off."

"Ladies," Caden interrupted, "you're both pretty, but unless you're planning on whipping out the rulers, I suggest we get back to our original objective." He turned to Alex. "San Francisco was a false positive, but were there any other results on that scan?"

Alex stood up and held out his left hand, his ring flying out of Lucas' jacket and returning to his middle finger. Lucas stared at his hand, then his face as his Lantern uniform materialized around his body.

"You were biding your time all along," Luke said.

Alex shrugged. "Of course." He projected the ring's memory of the previous scan, suppressing a curse. "I got a little overexcited, cut the scan off after we found him." He nodded at Luke. "I'll have to run it again."

"Low orbit?" Cass asked.

His head shook. "Now that I have access to WayneTech satellites, I should be able to bounce the signals with minimal noise loss." In moments, he did just that, forging the projection much more easily now that he had done it once. "That'll run itself and alert us if we get another hit."

"What makes you so sure you will?" Lucas asked.

"Janus is on the move," Jason said darkly. "When last we met, I proved he was vulnerable, and he knows it."

"As impulsive as he's been," Caden said, nodding at Jason, "I have to agree. Now that the Decembrists have been exposed, he'll be looking to shore up his resources. The FBI and I have been hammering what little influence he has left in Star City into dust, but if he manages to reinforce his allies there, we'll be right back to square one."

"So we're mounting a preemptive strike." Jason sent Cass a sideways look. "Which is why you shouldn't be here."

"If you think I'm letting you go after him alone—"

Jason grabbed her arms. "Sis, please."

"No."

She reached up and flicked a switch on the side of her cowl, separating it into two halves. The upper half was much like the Batman's, and the lower similar to a ninja mask (that also doubled as a toxin filter). Both halves came off, the lower section sitting against her collarbone, the upper pulled back like a hood. No point keeping it on since the only "unknown" apparently already knew her identity. And Jason needed to see her face to understand.

Cass grabbed the sides of his head, looking him dead in the eye. "What happened to me was not your fault. It was my choice to stand with you, it has always been my choice, it will always be my choice." She smiled. "And I would make it again because I know you would do the same for me. You did do the same for me." She tapped his nose, mild scolding in her tone. "So don't be a hypocrite; it doesn't suit you."

Jason stared her down a bit longer before sighing hard. "Okay."

With that emotional crisis resolved for the moment, Alex's attention returned to the speedster who was sitting on a wooden crate and snacking on the rest of his apple.

"What I can't figure out is why someone would decide to map the Multiverse," Alex said. "If you know so much about it, you know you've set an impossible task for yourself. It's infinite. Supposedly."

Something flickered across Lucas' eyes, something that he'd seen in Caden's all too many times. And then came the equally familiar response.

Deflection with humor.

"That's the fun of it," Luke said, grinning. "Infinite worlds with infinite possibility means I get infinite adventures. With some similarities, mind you, but no two worlds I've visited are ever exactly the same."

"Then which one are you from?" Jason asked.

Lucas hissed a breath through his teeth. "Well, that depends on how you mean 'from.' If you mean where I was born, that would be…Earth-14. If you mean where I actually call home, well, I call it Earth-Theta—or Earth-T. That also happens to be where I acquired my powers."

Alex grinned. "Ooh, are we getting an origin story?"

Caden arched an eyebrow at him. "Someone's excited."

"Hey, I may be a Lantern, but the only people I really know in this world are you and the Bats, and them only peripherally." His arms crossed. "So excuse me if I nerd out a little."

Lucas watched their exchange with unveiled amusement, waiting until their attention returned to him before speaking. "Hmm…where to begin?" His gray eyes rapidly moved back and forth with the speed of his thoughts. "Well, I suppose I should start from when and where I got my powers. Like most speedsters, my story begins with a lightning bolt. Unlike most, however, that lightning bolt didn't nearly kill me; it saved my life." His lips twitched with amusement. "One of a few reasons why they call me the White Revenant," he shrugged, "Rev for short."

Jason snorted and nudged Caden with his elbow. "And you thought my name was a mouthful."

Caden leaned toward him and whispered back, "They're the same syllable count."

Appearing not to hear them, Lucas continued. "I didn't understand the context until years later, and even then I only knew part of the story. Until I was almost eighteen, I couldn't remember anything before landing on Earth-T, and that was at thirteen. Six months later, I had a…near-death experience that ended with me being struck by lightning. When I woke up, I could feel the Speedforce coursing through me. Three years later, the Titans of Earth-T took me in, and a year later, I accidentally discovered my ability to traverse time."

Luke frowned at Jason. "Deadshot-Theta took a shot at Bruce Wayne, and I was in the middle of catching the bullet when I accidentally time-jumped fifteen years into a future where the Batman is dead." His frown deepened. "The rest of the world quickly followed when Ra's al Ghul and his League bumped off Earth's heroes one by one, starting with the speedsters capable of undoing his work. With the help of that future's Nightwing, I managed to return to the moment I left and caught the bullet, but after that I was terrified of any more 'accidents.' Kid Flash suggested I go train with his mentor in Central City, but when I got there…well, let's just say I got a little more than I bargained for."

…

Well this day just went from bad to worse.

The gloved hand holding him off the ground by his throat certainly seemed to agree, and the glowing red eyes that bore into his narrowed as he gasped for air.

"Where is he?" snarled Lucas' assailant. He slammed Luke against a wall and pinned him there. "Where?!"

Even if he had the air to speak, Lucas couldn't have answered him. Not truthfully, anyway. The Flash had stepped out some minutes prior, claiming the need to grab something he'd stowed away for safekeeping when Rev demonstrated a far more unstable temporal jump threshold than any other speedster he'd seen. He had an even worse time keeping focus on the here and now than Barry did when he first started out. One of the greatest blessings of being trained by Deathstroke and then the Batman's first apprentice was his ability to think fifteen moves ahead. Well, with the speed of his mind it was more like fifty, but still.

The problem with that, especially at extremely high speeds, was the drift of his focus to future events rather than remaining in the moment. Ordinary humans would just find themselves reacting slower to events happening around them.

Speedsters had a nasty habit of time-jumping by accident.

Thus, until he learned to curb that tendency or at least keep it from interfering with his powers, Barry had intended to give him a device meant to help manage his speed, keep it from reaching the relativistic energy levels necessary for time travel. Given who currently had his hand wrapped around Luke's throat, he had a pretty good notion that that device was why he was currently being choked out.

"I won't ask again," snarled the man in yellow, his empty hand vibrating at his side until it became an indistinct dark blur.

Rev knew what he was being threatened with: if he stuck that hand in the boy's chest and let it solidify just slightly, his atoms would displace Luke's, which would cause some serious internal damage. Likely lethal.

He was saved from having to make up an answer when a red blur slammed into the hostile speedster, throwing him into a far wall that caved in with his impact. The Flash shot back to Luke's side, helping him stand before turning his attention to the recovering interloper.

"Thawne," Barry hissed. "What do you want?"

The Reverse-Flash's glowing eyes flickered to something on Barry's belt, a vicious smile spreading over his masked face. "Oh, I already have what I want…or, I will shortly."

Lucas followed his line of sight to see a small, disc-like device hanging from the Flash's waist. Barry's hand drifted down to it, eyes narrowing as he adopted a defensive stance. At the same moment, both seemed to understand exactly what Thawne wanted and why. Not since Barry's first days as the Flash had his arch-nemesis been able to consistently outpace him. However, that device, tweaked and applied properly, could force blocks on Barry's speed, keep him from accessing the power he needed to match Reverse-Flash. Suddenly Luke understood exactly why Barry kept the damn thing under lock and key.

"Bail out, Flash," Rev said. "He can't get his hands on—"

"He'll kill you if I leave," Barry interrupted, "and he knows I know that."

Thawne grinned madly, taking slow, taunting steps toward the pair as they coiled up, ready for anything. The White Revenant's heart was beating almost a thousand times a minute, not unusual for combat situations, but this was a million times worse. This was Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash, the single most notorious evil speedster of all time. He hadn't felt this terrified since he turned on Deathstroke…well, actually he'd been more pissed off than terrified then. Perhaps not since his first confrontation with Quint, then…

Any other thoughts were quickly banished when Thawne's steps finally came to a stop, his gaze flickering between the two before he gave Rev a dismissive snort. Luke would've been offended if he didn't know how right he was to make it. The Revenant might've had his powers for almost four years, but he still couldn't hope to hold a candle to legends like the Flash and his nemesis. Thawne could kill him before he even knew what was happening; he knew that from the moment the bastard started choking him out.

And then Professor Zoom cracked his neck and smiled.

What happened next was pure chaos, a cacophony of red and gold lightning intermixed with opposing blurs of yellow and red. Rev couldn't make out where Barry ended and Thawne began, at least at first, so he stayed out of the way as much as possible. Then he frowned and focused as hard as he could, trying to speed up his perception to at least be able to track the movements of the two…just in case. Miraculously, it worked. Sort of. Instead of two indistinct blurs and coils of lightning, they were distinctly zipping past and smashing into each other, wrecking the room, the furniture, and the equipment strewn about.

The Flash had chosen to meet at Central City's chapter of STAR Labs, where he did most of the regular physical and Speedforce tests to ensure his health, and as such it was built for this kind of rapid movement. Well, for traversal, that is, not a pitched battle between two godlike speedsters. Thus, stacks of paper and containers holding various materials and equipment exploded into torrents of debris scattered by their rapid movements. Luke focused harder, as if trying to adjust his eyes to a faraway target, which was when he saw Thawne catch Barry's fist, using that point of contact to hurl him back-first into a wall.

The impact left a sizeable crater behind much like the Flash had with him, though Barry seemed more stunned than he was. To be fair, Thawne hadn't exactly gotten up in a hurry, but unlike the Flash, he would most certainly take advantage of the moment of vulnerability. On pure instinct, Rev lunged toward the Flash's prone form, grabbing him by the shoulders and zipping past right as Reverse-Flash's hand put a fist-sized hole through the deformed drywall. The Flash shot Rev an alarmed look, which was all the warning he got before the wind was knocked out of him and his legs were swept from under him.

He planted face-first on the tiled floor, quickly pushing himself up to see Barry grappling with Thawne. He headbutted the rogue speedster, flinching a bit, then throwing a hook at his head. Thawne ducked the blow and shot his right hand out at Barry's midsection, but to Rev's surprise, the Flash didn't recoil from the impact. It didn't even seem to have landed. Then he took a closer look at Barry's belt and realized what had happened.

"Flash, the device!" he screamed.

Barry's blue eyes went wide a second before Thawne gave them a mocking salute and took off toward the exit. The Flash instantly took off after him, Rev trailing behind and barely managing to keep them in sight. Barry threw his hand back in a halting motion mid-run when they reached the open streets of Central City.

"Stay here! I'm not kidding!"

Rev frowned but ground to a halt, sparks flying from beneath the soles of his friction-proof boots. He watched their chase from a distance, eyes narrowing in suspicion when something about the image just seemed so familiar.

Gold lightning trailing behind yellow…

And then the air in front of Reverse-Flash exploded in a shower of blue light, an all-too-familiar portal into the timestream that he sped into, followed closely by the Flash. At which point Lucas knew exactly why he felt a severe case of déjà vu. He had seen this before.

The night he died.

With that realization, he sped toward the rapidly collapsing portal without hesitation, vanishing into its infinite depths just in time. Instantly, his surroundings were an indiscernible cacophony of multicolored lightning and images that flew by faster than even his considerable mind could understand. He'd seen something similar twice before, both times during that horrifying incident in the future, and braced himself for the worst. Given that the Flash had managed to follow Thawne into the portal, he could expect that there wouldn't be any damage to the past just yet. All Rev could hope was that Barry would get his hands on that device before the maniac managed to reconfigure it for his purposes.

If he finally managed to kill Barry…

The only other speedster with enough experience to understand how to fight the Reverse-Flash was Jay Garrick, and he was nowhere near fast enough for it to make a difference. Those concerns vanished when he saw the literal light at the end of the tunnel, the collage of images yielding to a cityscape unlike anything he'd ever seen. This…was not the Central City he'd just left.

Buildings tall enough to blot out the sky, and floating buildings even higher than that…it was like the sprawling mega cities of the Dredd series, but vertical. Despite the alien nature of the architecture and environment, Lucas knew enough about the Flash's history to recognize where—or rather when—he was.

Thawne went back home…to the 25th century.

It made perfect sense. Here, he'd have all the tools he needed to reconfigure the device he'd stolen from Barry, plus the home field advantage of a city not even Barry would recognize. Or perhaps he would. They'd been enemies for almost a decade, so maybe he'd been here before. It appeared Rev would get the chance to ask, since not even the dark splendor of the futuristic city could hide the tandem lightning trails far ahead of him. They'd abandoned the city streets for the building walls, chasing each other up and down, far and across the skyline, leaping from one structure to the next.

Rev flinched away from a loudly-honking hovercar on his left, frowning when he saw the pair growing more distant by the millisecond. Eyes narrowing, he turned his attention to the line of hovering vehicles on his side.

I can't match their speed on my own, but maybe…

His hands began vibrating, electricity sparking and lancing between his fingers until he reached a familiar threshold and reached out with both palms as he passed a particularly large hovertruck, latching his grip on its metal surface. He gasped as a rush of pure energy flooded his system, and he felt his arms enveloped in a "skin" of silver electricity. The truck's driver frowned at his dashboard as his speedometer plummeted suddenly despite the throttle remaining constant, gaping at the speedster who streaked by and did the same to three more hovercars until his entire body was crackling with arcs of lightning.

The Revenant took a deep breath to steady himself—it felt disorienting every time he did this—electricity-rimmed eyes snapping to the distant lightning trails. Then he exhaled sharply and brought his legs down hard. The White Revenant shot off into the distance like lightning—faster than lightning. Every scrap of kinetic energy he'd absorbed from the vehicles had been stored in his cells as potential energy like a battery, converted back to massively enhance his speed when he chose to release it. He'd discovered that power completely by accident when faced with his reverse, an entitled twit named Theodore Quint who hired techy mercenaries to kidnap and steal most of his speed and used it to become the terrorist known as Black Paladin.

For months, the bastard had terrorized the Titans' home in Jump City, with Rev all but helpless to do a thing since he could barely clear 200 mph if he pushed himself—and no longer even generated lightning. And then an explosion caused by his people sent a car flying toward a group of civilians he couldn't get out of the way in time, and he stupidly tried to grab the car. Except it stopped in its tracks, and he felt the lightning in his blood once again. The boost hadn't lasted long before he was returned to his weakened state, but it had gotten him thinking.

The next time Quint was wailing on Luke after getting him alone again, he did the same trick, and to his surprise managed to actually land a hit on him. That repeated over the course of weeks, the Paladin withdrawing every time because Rev just kept getting faster. Until Luke noticed that Quint was also getting slower, and he realized that the Paladin was running on stolen speed that was all too happy to be drawn back to its rightful owner. The last time they'd faced each other, he'd taken it all back, and Quint was left no more super than he'd been when Luke snapped his spine by accident the first time he used his powers.

Of course, his disastrous visit to the future had dispelled any illusions he had that Quint would stay that way, but he hadn't expected to face down another speedster so soon.

With the added boost, Rev managed to keep their pace and even catch up, especially when the Flash intercepted the thief mid-jump and tackled him through a window. Rev entered through that window a moment later, halting at the edge of the hurricane left in their wake as they sped and spiraled around what looked like a vague approximation of an office space. With the enhancement to his speed, he was able to track their movements much better now, which was how he saw Reverse-Flash club Barry over the head with a fire extinguisher hard enough to send foam exploding in all directions.

The artificial smoke blinded Rev, but the Flash's pained cries were unmistakable. Gritting his teeth, Lucas charged into the smoke, approximating their position by the sounds of their struggle, and metaphorically crossed his fingers as he struck out with his right fist.

The blow connected.

And Eobard Thawne was sent crashing through a desk, ripping it in half as he ground to a stop. Snarling, he was on his feet in an instant, glaring daggers at Rev, who just chuckled nervously. Then there was pain and a severe lack of air as Reverse-Flash knocked the wind out of him with one punch. Gasping, Rev grit his teeth and powered through the pain, lashing out with several rapid strikes. None met so much as the brush of something solid. Thawne ducked and danced around his punches, bending over backward to dodge a roundhouse aimed at his head. He was smiling the whole time, as if this were just a game.

Which had the unfortunate tendency of pissing Rev off. Quint had pulled the same crap during their earlier duels and eventually paid for his arrogance. Thus, it got into Luke's head that he could do the same here, so he limited how much energy he spent and waited for Thawne to counterattack. Only when it happened, he wasn't nearly fast enough to try siphoning any of his energy. Attacks came from all sides, from all angles, and he couldn't tell if he was being punched, kicked, or just slapped really hard. Probably a mix of all three.

At any rate, it was a matter of seconds before Lucas was hurled into a row of desks, the furniture squeaking across the floor with his inertia as Barry pounced at Thawne's turned back. The Reverse-Flash turned at the last instant and deflected his punch, using his other hand to grab the Flash's head by one of his cowl's lightning bolts. Those two points of contact were used with Barry's momentum to flip him forward onto his back, landing hard. Thawne phased his right fist, snarling as he drove it toward Barry's head. The Flash vibrated his own hand and met the blow halfway, somehow managing to match Thawne's frequency and hold him there as if their appendages were still solid.

Rev gaped. I hadn't even thought of that.

The Flash snapped his leg up and caught Thawne in the top of his skull with a shin-kick, trying to follow up with a tripping swipe. Thawne leapt over it and drop-kicked Barry in the chest, sending them in opposite directions as Barry skidded across the floor. Reverse-Flash turned his short flight into a smooth backflip, landing in a runner's stance and pouncing on the Flash's prone form. Rev intercepted him halfway with a shoulder charge, spotting something on his belt that held his attention for the split-second before Thawne threw him off. Despite the pain of his rolling impact, Lucas gave the rogue speedster a bloody grin when he finally came to a stop.

Which was about the time Thawne and Barry both recognized the device clutched in Lucas' left hand.

"You little—" Thawne growled.

Crack!

Both speedsters gaped when Lucas vibrated his left hand at a massive rate, fast enough to cause massive cyclic stress to the device and shatter it into now-useless fragments.

He gave Barry a sheepish smile. "Guess I'll have to learn control the old-fashioned way."

The Flash smiled back just slightly before Thawne's roar of rage brought their eyes back to him. In spite of their longstanding enmity, the Reverse-Flash's attention was solely on the Revenant.

"I would say you'll regret this," Thawne snarled, "but you won't have lived long enough to."

With a whir of air and flash of red lightning, he was gone, and Luke breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Ho—ly—shit." Luke collapsed against the nearest solid thing, feeling lightheaded beyond belief as all the blood rushed to his extremities. "I'm alive."

Barry was less happy as he marched over to the young speedster. "For now. Take it from me, Thawne doesn't take interlopers lightly." He frowned in thought. "And then there's the way he phrased it…" His eyes snapped wide open as he gasped. "Luke!"

"What?!"

Rev stood upright in a snap, jaw dropping when he looked down to see his hands slowly fading, becoming translucent, and for a moment of panic, he thought it began to spread. Then he blinked, and his hands were perfectly solid again, a fact he tested by flexing his gloved fingers a few times.

"Barry," he said, voice shaking, "what the hell just happened?"

The Flash stared at him in unveiled horror. "Oh God…he's doing the same thing he tried on me—I think he just killed a past version of you."

Rev's eyes went wide. "He what?! T-Then how am I still here?"

Barry's lips pursed as he grabbed Luke's hands for a closer look. "You're a speedster. To an extent, speedsters exist outside of the normal timestream. It'll take time for the paradox to catch up to you, especially this far into the future, but it will happen if we don't undo whatever he did."

"And then?"

"And then it'll be as if this version of you never even existed. I probably wouldn't even remember having this conversation."

Rev huffed, pacing rapidly. "Where would he have gone? When?"

Barry frowned at the wall. "He would've aimed for a time and place when you were vulnerable, preferably before you even got your powers to hasten the paradox's effects. But from what I understand, that's a pretty wide window."

He shrugged. "Yeah, so what are we supposed to do, stalk me until he shows up?"

His head shook. "No, he wouldn't go after you directly. The Speedforce has rules about time travel, and when speedsters break them by interfering directly in past events, they send enforcers to punish them: time wraiths—or if you're particularly unlucky, the Black Flash."

"The Black what?"

Barry tilted his head. "Basically the only grim reaper than can catch a speedster."

"Joy."

"Yeah, so he would do something small but influential, cause a chain reaction that ends with the same result and none of his direct handiwork. All he'd have to do is make sure no one interferes." Barry frowned. "Think, Rev. Where would he have gone? When were you most isolated, vulnerable?"

Lucas thought for barely a second (practically an eternity in speedster time) when every strange sense of foreboding and déjà vu returned, and the answer hit him like a—

Rev's gray eyes shot wide open. "Three and a half years ago—from our present, I mean—in Blüdhaven. I was walking alone. There was a truck…"

Barry's eyes widened slightly with a nod. "I'm on it."

"And I'm coming with you."

The older speedster frowned.

"How else am I supposed to get back?"

He sighed. "Fair enough."

They took off together, rapidly accelerating until the world around them faded to an indistinct gray blur and the air in front of them erupted with the blinding glow of the Speedforce.

…

Lucas Carlisle was miserable.

For the last six months, he'd been building a list of all the things he didn't have, all the things life had robbed him of. His memories, his family…and now his home. Well, to be fair, he ran away, so it was more like he'd given it up. But he hadn't been welcomed there. He wasn't welcome anywhere. To cap off his absolutely perfect day, it was pouring like the Amazon. And cold. And nighttime.

So as he crossed a pitch-dark street (despite his startle at just noticing the blinding headlights of a pick-up truck he hadn't seen until it was right on top of him), he wasn't particularly shocked when his right side melded with its front bumper.

He rolled over its top, twirling through the air for a moment before landing back-first on the soaked pavement. The freezing water was almost deep enough to cover his ears, yet for all that he barely felt the cold for how suddenly numb his body was. He hadn't even felt the pain of his bones shattering, or his lungs filling with blood. He slowly suffocated in his own juices, and he couldn't even find it in himself to care overmuch. He blinked slowly, eyes flickering aimlessly across the weeping night sky.

Then a light erupted in his peripheral vision—or rather, two lights. One red, one gold, at the head of yellow and red blurs. They streaked toward him like bats out of hell, faster than ordinary eyes could track. With the water lapping at his ears and his fading consciousness, he didn't hear the supersonic crack of their passing forms, or the wailing scream of denial as the red blur sped past his shattered body. Somewhere behind him, they vanished in an explosion of blue light, and that should've been the end of it.

But something remained behind.

A silvery flicker of energy that slowly traveled up the streams of water that were suddenly frozen midair, leaping and arcing like crackles of electricity, but without a whisper of sound audible above the pounding of rain. Not that he could have heard it at this point anyhow. Even as the energy rose and roiled within the billowing thunderclouds above, his eyes drifted shut and his heart failed at last.

Until the sky itself roared in outrage, and a spear of silver lightning descended to smite his body.

His eyes flew open and he took his first breath in over a minute as the lightning plunged beneath his skin, twisting his ruined insides and forcing them right. It latched onto his bones, his muscles, his blood; mutilating his very DNA to house something far greater than himself.

Something that had been abused by the one being chased through time, who was tackled from the Speedforce back into the present, where he was subjected to every bit of rage mustered by the greatest conduit of its power.

As quickly as Lucas drew that breath, it was nearly forced from his lungs. Where before, he could feel nothing, now he felt everything, and with those feelings came an irrational, uncontrollable terror. A fear he would not later remember, but one that gripped every person chosen by the force of nature he was destined to hold.

The force of nature whose every scrap the Flash used to rain punishment down on his opposite, every movement a tornado, every blow a clap of thunder. Thawne held him back by nature of skill alone, but even the mighty Reverse-Flash knew he could only withstand his unbridled fury so long.

The lightning took Luke's body, but it cared little for anything else on his person or in his environment. Amidst the searing pain of his reshaping, his eyes locked onto something that had been launched into the air with the strike: a coin of unknown make or metal, with the crowned visage of a skull on one side and opposing arcs of lightning on the other. The one piece of his past, the one thing he still had left. He ached to reach out for it, but his body would not obey. He was a vessel now for a will not his own, and he would be until his transformation was complete.

The Flash took a brutal hit to the ribs that normally would've laid him out for hours, but such was his command of the Speedforce and his draw on its power that it formed a shield of sorts around the point of impact. He barely even felt it. That same blow was returned to his enemy, and it threw him careening through several walls at STAR Labs, grinding to a stop in a room devoid of windows or equipment. Just the two of them and a few support columns…and nowhere left to run.

Lucas clenched his jaw, fighting with all his might to stretch out his hand, to grasp the last shard of the person he used to be, the person he couldn't remember; but all he managed to do was clench his fists in impotence. His single breath built against his chest like a pressure cooker, his lungs heaving and belting a roar fit to challenge the thunder. But amid the pain and frustration and soul-crushing loneliness released in his cry, there were hints of something else that shone as brightly as the lightning dancing in his eyes.

Freedom. Hope. Joy.

In that singular moment, he was not alone, but connected to something far beyond what he could ever have imagined. Across time and space and every fabric and layer of reality, he felt them. The conduits. The others like him. All part of a grand legacy transcending the mortal bonds of the life that had failed him. For that briefest instant, he was happy.

Then his cry fizzled out, his eyes rolled back into his head, and his body went limp as the energy faded from view and he passed out on the pavement.

The coin fell and tumbled, flipping end over end as it plummeted through the rain-saturated air. It would fall into the water, dragged along by its current into a drain where it would rust, untouched and forgotten like the boy who had lost it.

The Revenant had other ideas.

In a flash of silver lightning, boy and coin vanished from the spot, spirited away on the back of a white blur. Even after all these years, he remembered the hospital and the way there, but had never been able to recall how he arrived the first time. As he laid Lucas' soaked body on a gurney in the ICU, the whole world stood still, and he took a moment to look at the boy's face. The creases and gauntness from stress and malnourishment. The darkness under his eyes. The tension in his face that would not vanish even in slumber.

The Revenant wanted so desperately to whisper in his ear, to tell him he just had to be patient, that he wouldn't be alone forever; yet to do so would upset the balance of the very thing that had given him a second chance. So he pried Luke's left hand open and pressed the coin into his palm, closing his fingers around it. He laid the hand on Luke's chest, a silent promise that not all was lost, nor ever would be.

And then the Revenant was gone, running across the flooded streets of Blüdhaven faster than he had dared before. There were no more distractions this time. His focus was unyielding.

He knew what was needed of him.

Like that, the Speedforce opened its arms to receive him, and he leapt into its ebbing tide without hesitation. In the infinity of that moment between moments, he felt what his younger self had forgotten: the overwhelming peace of that connection. And when he emerged to see his mentor pinned beneath the man who had wronged them both, he came out fist-first, without fear.

He saw Thawne's snarling retaliation and stepped out of its way, his vibrating hand coming up to ghost across the passing fist that quickly stopped in its tracks. Thawne attacked him again and again, but each time he stayed just far enough ahead to avoid being hit while siphoning kinetic energy from every blow. Given a moment to breathe, the Flash surged back into the fight, tackling Thawne into a wall where they proceeded to hammer him one after the next. No more running, no room to maneuver. Two conduits of a single arm, a single will, against the most odious of interlopers.

As the Flash hammered Thawne with a hundred fists to his body, the Revenant backed away and sprinted in an infinite circle, running into the energy he drew out and collecting it until the crackle of electricity reached a fever pitch. Then his hands came back to grasp the crackling tendrils of power with an iron grip and hurled them all at their enemy.

Thawne was out before he hit the ground.

The two speedsters stood over his limp form, Barry having the foresight to fit him with a set of speed-dampening cuffs before turning to the boy he had believed dead and uttering a single word.

"How?"

Rev looked at Thawne, then at Barry. "The Speedforce had other ideas."

Barry huffed a small laugh, nodding slowly. "You came to learn from me, but…I ended up learning a little something from you."

"The kinetic siphon?"

He nodded.

Rev looked down at his hands, smiling. "Yeah…maybe some other day."

At which point he promptly passed out.

…

The silence that followed Lucas' story was interrupted only by Alex's long whistle.

"And I thought I had a near-death experience. But you were like, actually dead. And…saved yourself?"

Luke smiled wryly. "Helluva paradox, right?"

"No kidding," Jason muttered. "Though that still doesn't quite explain how you go from hanging out with the Titans to traveling the Multiverse. I mean, why?"

He shrugged, again seeming far too nonchalant. "It's not like there was anything wrong with the place. I was content, home." Another shrug. "I got bored. Call it wanderlust. Besides, Earth-T had enough speedsters and more than enough heroes." He frowned. "An ill-fated mission to my original Earth taught me that not all universes are quite so fortunate."

"But it's not like you could patrol the whole Multiverse alone," Cass chimed in.

Luke met her inquisitive gaze with a mischievous twinkle in his gray eyes. "Oh but I can. Well…in a manner of speaking. Tell me, are you familiar with 'time remnants'?"

Caden's eyes widened in alarm. "Only enough to know that they are extremely dangerous to use and heavily frowned upon by the Speedforce."

Alex raised his hand. "Uh, 'scuse me? What's a time remnant?"

Jason turned to him. "It's a temporal duplicate a speedster makes when they go back in time and meet a past version of themselves. But…only if they stay in that time. The presence of two versions of the same person creates a paradox that'll do some nasty things to the timeline if it goes on unchecked." He frowned at Luke. "But you already knew that, so why would you do something so reckless?"

Lucas grinned and laid back on his hands. "Because I found a loophole." His mirth faded quickly. "On one of the Earths I traveled to, I met someone special who I grew to love, but was fated to die. She kept being killed, over and over no matter what I did, no matter how many times I went back to try again. Pretty early on, the Speedforce got pissed at what I was doing, and honestly rightfully so, so it sent the Black Flash to eliminate that version of me. He kept time-jumping trying to outrun it long enough to save her, but eventually found that the common factor between all of her deaths was himself.

"So…he went back to the time and place when I arrived on that Earth and tried to kill me. Almost succeeded, too. But the version of this woman who existed in that timeline already knew who we were and convinced him not to. I hatched a plan to get the Black Flash off our backs and allow my—oh, by this time he was like two years older than me—my remnant to stay with the woman he loved." His dark gray eyebrows knitted. "See, far as I can tell, my existence in the Multiverse is an anomaly. I don't have doppelgangers on other Earths." His head tilted. "Well, except for Earth-X, but…" he grimaced, "we don't like to talk about that one."

"We?" Alex asked.

"Why not?" Cass interrupted.

"Because Earth-X is basically Planet Nazi," Caden supplied grimly. "Everyone you can think of has their morality flipped."

Lucas nodded slowly, a pained smile on his face. "And my doppelganger happened to be the grand inquisitor of the freakin' Gestapo."

A chorus of "oooh" came from all four of the others.

"Yeah, so…I called the rest of my remnants and their teams together and we took him out…along with a good half of the Reichsliga."

"The what?" asked Cass.

"It's German for 'Reich League,'" Caden said. "Guessing that's their version of the Justice League."

Lucas nodded grimly.

Alex frowned. "And when you say 'took out'…"

Luke's lips pressed into a thin line as he mimed wringing someone's neck.

"Oh."

He snorted. "Like you would do any different if you found a version of yourself that twisted."

Alex lifted his hands placatingly. "Oh I'm not judging; I'm part Jewish." He shrugged. "Plus I'm…decently sure everyone in this room—with the possible exception of Miss Cain—would agree that Nazis are pretty much the universal exception to the 'heroes don't kill' rule."

No one said anything, but Jason and Drake just shrugged indifferently.

Luke cleared his throat. "As for why I came here, well…the tachyon device I have zeroes in on distinct frequencies that correspond to alternate universes, allowing me traverse them at will. But this one…this one had a unique signature I'd never seen before."

"Still," Caden said, "a suit and tie doesn't seem like the most…appropriate thing to wear when crossing dimensions."

Lucas blinked at him, then laughed until he was red in the face. "Oh. That. Now that is a funny story."

"Oh boy," Jason muttered.

"Relax, this one's quick. Besides," he waved at Alex's projection, "that scan's still going and it hasn't beeped or anything, right?"

Alex looked over to verify the device was working and checked for results but found nothing. "Yeah, nothing yet."

Luke grinned toothily, chuckling mischievously. "That story I told you just now? That happened like…two years ago. This…this was today."

…

"Hands up, pretty boy!"

Lucas blinked at the guy wearing a ski mask shoving a shotgun in his face. He was wearing headphones at the time, but they weren't playing loud enough to completely drown out what the guy was saying. But he didn't know that. So he pulled out the headphones and blinked at the thug inquisitively.

"Sorry, what?" he asked cheekily.

"Hands up and on the ground like the rest!"

Luke glanced around at the dozen or so people planted face-first. A sigh exited his throat as he realized he'd been so distracted choosing his next song, he hadn't even noticed he was walking into a crime in progress.

"Wait," Luke said, "are you…robbing me?"

"The bank," he clarified. "All your money's insured, so let's not make a mess of this; no heroes."

"But…but you're robbing…me?"

The guy stared at him like he was crazy, waving the shotgun at him for emphasis. "Yes!"

Lucas sighed and wound up his headphones, pocketing them as he muttered, "And I got all dressed up and everything."

"What?"

"I leave for a couple months, and you all start getting delusions of grandeur."

The gunman and his two comrades stared at Luke like he was crazy.

That was, until he met the shotgunner's eyes with his own dancing with lightning.

"Oh sh—"

In the next split-second, all three were thrown against different walls hard enough to instantly be knocked out cold. Luke had the first one's shotgun in his left hand while his right vibrated at a destructive frequency and cut through the metal and wood of its barrel like a cleaver. He tossed the remaining chunk to the side as everyone else in the room stared at him, still very much freaked out. He shrugged and nonchalantly waved toward the exit doors of the multi-floor bank.

"Please proceed outside in an orderly fashion, if you will." He pointed at one of the tellers. "Except you, dear. Before you go…" he pulled his phone out, "would you mind plugging this into the PA system and uh…hitting play?"

She stared at him agape, blinking rapidly as she hesitantly took the device. "S-Sure."

He grinned blindingly. "Thank you." When everything was set, he started sauntering toward the door that led deeper inside. "And three…two…one…"

The grainy static of the building's PA system rapidly yielded to a jaunty electric ensemble as The Heavy's "How You Like Me Now" played at full blast on every floor. Lucas strutted and snapped his fingers to the beat as he pushed the door open, making his way toward the stairwell that led to the eighth-floor vault. He bounced from one foot to the other, bobbing his head to the rhythm until he turned a corner and entered a hallway with two very-confused bank robbers. They snapped toward him, shouting in alarm as Rev closed the distance to one, pinning him to a wall. He grabbed the man by the neck and spun him toward the other gunman, blocking his shot, then picked him up off the ground and hurled him into his comrade.

A charging heel-kick laid them both out, groaning weakly at no-doubt bruised ribs. Then he just kept walking toward the stairwell. Having heard the commotion, three more burst in through a set of double doors ahead and opened fire with pistols. His perception sped up so the bullets were practically crawling as he kept walking forward. He tsked and flicked them out of his path with as little effort as possible, grabbing one and hurling it into the leg of the central gunman. When Rev's timescale returned to normal, the injured attacker screamed and collapsed to one knee, his involuntary flinch causing his gun to go off, the ricochet sending explosions of drywall and shattered tile flying everywhere.

The other two ducked down instinctively, leaving them vulnerable to Rev's charge as he palmed them both in the face, sending them skidding down the hall sans weapons. They tried getting up only for each to get a superspeed punch to the face. He was approaching the staircase when the song approached the first chorus, and he grinned as he heard alarmed shouts from above.

"We got trouble! Cut him off at the stairs!"

At which point he burst through the doors and sped up the staircase like a tornado, bowling over everything in his path and throwing a fair few over the edge in a fall that would no doubt break some bones. When he reached the end of the spiral, Lucas resumed his walking pace, though a little brisker now. Though not exactly the brightest bunch, this crew was fairly organized, and he had definitely spotted a radio or two among their gear. As such, he expected they'd all have been alerted to his presence by then. Thus, it was hardly a surprise when the hallway began flooding with more armed thugs.

He caught one before he could bring his weapon to bear, punching him in the face, then drawing back a step when someone else charged at him with a baton—a freaking baton! Grinning incredulously, Luke deliberately slowed his dodges to make the idiot think he stood a chance, then twisted his wrist mid-swing and brought his own baton into his temple. The gunman was KOed a second later, and the baton thrown into another incoming thief of three who burst through double-doors at the far end of the hallway. He dropped like a sack of rocks.

Lucas charged at the other two, who sprayed automatic fire at him heedless of their backstop—their two downed comrades. Gritting his teeth, he drew their shots to the other side of the hallway and streaked toward them on the ceiling and walls in a spiral too fast for them to track. That spiral pattern continued with passing strikes that sent them flying into the wall one after the other in a pile. He proceeded through the double-doors at a walk, unconcerned as ever. He had chosen this bank specifically because of its multilayer security, the vault and safe deposit boxes being kept on the eighth floor behind all those layers giving him a certain sense of certainty.

Even the best security could only do so much against a small army of thugs with automatic weapons. Thus, he made his way toward the elevator that was the only way up to the eighth floor, into a wide area that looked like a break room. Six more gunmen were waiting for him as he strode through the door, and they opened fire immediately. He rolled his eyes and ducked to the side, running to topple the lot of them in a zigzag pattern that sent the lighter chairs and paper cups flying with the wind running off his form. One groaned at the far end, and Lucas vibrated his right hand until it was crackling with energy, snapping it in his direction to shoot him with the rough equivalent of a taser shot.

Then he just kept walking, strutting actually, as the song steadily approached the second chorus.

The elevator dinged open right when he reached it, revealing another four startled masks standing inside.

Lucas smiled toothily. "Fellas."

Then he stepped inside, the chorus popped off, and the elevator became a catastrophe of panicked gunfire, ricochets, and grappling that lasted the whole chorus and most of the way up. When they were all on the ground, Lucas sighed and picked at his nails, straightening out his suit. He heard something over one of their radios, someone shouting orders to cover the door leading to the vault room—the leader, he supposed. If memory served, the vault antechamber was a large, open room with two levels and catwalks above that would serve as great firing positions.

Not that it mattered, of course.

As the elevator doors opened, Luke strutted down the hallway, bobbing his head to the bridge of the song still blaring over the loudspeaker.

"Does that make you love me, baby…"

He reached his hand out to the side, eyes slipping shut as he dragged his fingers along the wall.

"Does that make you…want me, baby…"

His lips slowly spread into a malevolent smile as electricity sparked between him and the wall, a rush of potential energy flooding his system with every step as he drew power through the building from the rotation of Earth itself.

"Does that make you love me, baby…"

His open hand curled into a fist.

"Does that make you…want me, baby…"

His eyes snapped open, consumed by the silver lightning he stored within.

And as the song reached its final crescendo, he burst the antechamber doors off their hinges, sending the two posted closest crashing to the ground under their weight. The entire room was suddenly engulfed with silver lightning, a veritable hurricane that sent panicked gunfire and scattered wind in every direction. Rev counted a dozen gunmen posted all around the room on both floors, not counting the leader holding the bank manager hostage. Every last one of them was hurled into the air within the space of about ten seconds, to the point where Lucas returned to the central aisle, strutting toward the leader without a care in the world.

All around him, the other bank robbers were flying into furniture or walls, or falling from the catwalks above, and Lucas just kept walking unfazed. Panicking at the chaos, the leader raised his Glock and started shooting at Rev, eyes widening further when the bullets went right through him unimpeded. He kept firing as Lucas drew within ten feet of them and came to a stop.

The idiot stared at him for a second before lifting the gun as if to throw it.

Luke snorted a laugh. "Right, 'cause the last two hundred bullets worked just fine."

His lips pursed, and then he put the barrel of his gun to the manager's head.

Rev gave him a deadpan glare. "That wasn't a better move."

"Now, you're gonna let me outta here, or—"

He never got to finish, since Rev closed the distance faster than he could blink, one hand pulling the barrel of the gun away from the hostage, the other phasing through the manager's chest to palm-heel him across the room. He landed with a wheezing gasp, devoid of the weapon that was now sitting in Luke's left hand. The speedster sighed and gave the manager an exasperated look, like he was saying, "Do you believe this idiot?"

She just stared at him wide-eyed and speechless.

He blinked. "Oh, that reminds me." He tucked the gun in the back of his pants and reached into the inside flap of his jacket. "I have uh…a withdrawal to make, filled out the form and everything."

Another long stare. "Are you serious?" she asked, waving at the various unconscious and groaning thugs around them.

Lucas gave his best winning grin. "Please? I did come in here to do business, and I'd consider it a personal favor. Plus, I am in a bit of a hurry—" he shrugged, "—speedster."

The woman still looked like she thought he was nuts, but hesitantly took the slip anyway and marched off toward the vault.

Which prompted Luke to turn toward the still-gasping orchestrator of this debacle, who he eyed with a cold gaze. His head cocked slightly.

"Now…what to do with you?" Luke took a step toward him, slowly drawing the Glock from the back of his belt, much to the guy's alarm. "I figure turnabout's fair play."

He raised the weapon and pulled the trigger before the thug could even think of pleading for mercy.

Click.

Lucas couldn't restrain uproarious laughter at the heart attack he could see on this guy's face. "Relax! You, you bloody amateur, were holding down the slide release lever with your thumb." He showed him what he was talking about and chuckled some more. "You never even knew you were out."

And he didn't either when Lucas bashed him square in the forehead with the butt of his own gun. Moments later, the manager returned with a small piece of paper.

"You requested a cashier's check?" she said uncertainly.

Luke broke out into a grin as he took it from her, slipping it into his jacket. "So I did. Thank you very much. Would you like to go outside now?"

She nodded emphatically.

He smirked. "I hope you haven't just eaten."

"Wha—"

Moments later, they were outside and she was trying not to retch.

"Sorry," he chuckled, "but I'd suggest moving across the street with the others. The police should be here any minute now."

She stared at him, nodding slowly. "Hey, aren't you—"

He was gone before she could finish, vanished into a nearby alleyway as he double-checked the writing on the check. Confirming it was valid, he was about to take off again when he felt and heard something just appear behind him. A resigned sigh left his throat a moment later.

"You just couldn't let this go, could you?" he asked, turning slowly to feel his heart sink at what he saw.

The first five he'd ever met in this town: Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Nightwing; standing on one of Raven's dark energy platforms as they were slowly lowered to the ground.

Nightwing stepped forward first. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be."

"I'm not coming with you," he said flatly.

Starfire held her hands out pleadingly. "Rev, please—we can work this out."

"There's nothing to work out. I was convicted of a bullshit charge and I refuse to spend the next six months or two years or however long appealing a crime I should never have been tried for in the first place." His eyes narrowed. "I know I should've expected this from Mister By-the-book," he waved at an exasperated Nightwing, "but you surprise me, Raven."

The pale woman frowned, BB gently gripping her hand. "I don't think you want to run any more than we want to chase you," she said.

"You and I both know that we don't always get what we want."

"So the alternative is better for you?" Cyborg asked. "Just…live the rest of your life as a criminal?"

Lucas smiled nastily. "We're all criminals, Vic. The difference is—"

"We have a conscience," Nightwing interrupted, eyes narrowing behind his mask. "And a line we're not willing to cross."

Luke held his gaze unflinchingly, lips pursed. "I'm not sorry."

"And what about Erica?" Star asked.

He flinched, turning away from them just enough to put his waistline out of their line of sight. "My sister has spent long enough in someone else's shadow."

"You already abandoned her once, dude," Gar said. "I don't think she's gonna like you doing it again."

He snorted derisively. "Shows what you know; she was the only one who understood my reason for leaving." He glared. "And for the record, the first time I left her with the wrong people; you and the Titans aren't."

Cyborg frowned and took a step forward, his cybernetics whirring as they went active. "We can't just let you walk away."

Rev smirked and met their eyes defiantly. "'Let' me?"

The next split-second, a charging whine came from Lucas' belt and the tachyon device he'd attached there. He vanished in a storm of lightning an instant before Raven encased his location in a bubble of dark energy.

"…damn."

…

Jason eyed the storyteller warily. "Why were the Titans of your Earth so intent on arresting you?"

Lucas flinched visibly. "Someone framed me for murder, then had the audacity to testify against me during the trial. I was convicted, and when I thought he was going to get away with it, I kinda…" he scratched the back of his head, "tried to kill him in a room full of witnesses. Of course, the truth came to light later, but…the court wasn't exactly willing to overlook attempted murder."

Cass' eyes widened. "That's why you weren't wearing a mask during any of that."

He shrugged. "Well, that and keeping a secret identity is a luxury for me, not a necessity. It's more to protect the people close to you, when you think about it, and the Titans aren't exactly shy about broadcasting where they live. You can try going after 'em, but with the tower's defenses alone, you're gonna have one helluva time getting close."

She shrugged. "Fair enough."

"I didn't want my friends to have to choose between me and their duty." He shrugged. "So I left." Lucas turned back to Jason. "I'm a convicted criminal. That going to be an issue?"

Jason frowned. "For what?"

"Us working together."

Three pairs of eyebrows shot skyward—though not Cass', as if she'd been expecting this.

"Working toge—you realize I tried to kill you earlier, right?" Jason asked incredulously.

He shrugged. "Meh, I've had worse first impressions."

Strangely, everyone believed him.

Caden frowned. "Why?"

"Why would I have—oh, you mean…well, it's kinda what I do. Go to a new universe, find a problem to solve." Luke turned back to Jason with a frown. "And this 'Janus' character seems like a pretty big problem if he took out Batman and Wonder Woman."

Jason stared at him for a second. "He is…and much as I hate to admit, I'm not in the position to refuse able help."

Lucas threw up his hands. "I laid all three of you out in less than two minutes."

"True," Alex chimed in, "but by that point, we all knew—" he sent a pointed glare at Jason, "—that you weren't the man we were after. I know at least that I wasn't trying particularly hard. Rest assured…" his eyes narrowed, flaring with blue light, "if you turn on us in any way, I will."

The speedster nodded firmly. "Understood."

Just then, a loud beep came from Alex's projection, and everyone whirled toward it as the Lantern checked the readout.

"I've got a hit! It's…wait…that can't be right."

Jason frowned and moved in, eyes widening in alarm. "Karbala…that's—"

"In Qurac," Caden interrupted, "right on the border with Bialya."

"That can't be a coincidence." Jason turned to Alex. "Warp bubble?"

He nodded. "Warp bubble."

Jason turned to his sister, her flat look and crossed arms leaving no question of where she was going. Finally, everyone turned to the Revenant, who had attached a round device to his belt that rapidly deployed a gray-white suit with a hex pattern to its form-fitting material. Segments of it were up-armored with steel-gray insets, especially around the joints and vital organs. On his neck was a high-collared housing unit that he touched a moment later, sending the bulky section in the back flipping over to cover the rest of his head, sans mouth and chin. On his chest was a gray-and-white lightning bolt not dissimilar to that of the Flash, something Jason knew he would ask about later. The uniform was enough indication of his choice, and the two exchanged a nod as Alex led them outside.

The Black Bat, White Revenant, Tomorrow Knight, Blue Lantern, and Caden Drake stood in the dim streetlights as a glowing ball of sapphire energy encased the five of them. Alex exchanged a look with Jason before he looked to the sky and clenched his left fist.

They shot off into the atmosphere a moment later.

---

AN: Okaaaaay, so that took way longer to write than I thought it would. Yeesh.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lucas Carlisle, go read my Teen Titans story. It's unfinished, but the first six chapters in particular have a lot of background with how he became a Titan. If he seems OP as crap now, relax. He is. In fact, speedsters in general are OP as crap, and this one in particular…well, he has over half a decade of experience at this point with cataclysmic world-ending events across the Multiverse. But that in no way makes him unstoppable. You'll see what I mean as the story goes on.

Just one more left to introduce now, or rather, bring into the fold. After all, that's five of six symbols on the cover art accounted for. I'll leave you to guess who the last one is.

Let me know what you thought of these origin chapters. I know I'm throwing a lot at you with these last two, and when you introduce speedsters and dimension and time-jumping…well, just let me know if I'm moving too fast…bad joke.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Now that introductions are finished, we can get into the meat of this arc and hopefully the rest of the story. It's gonna be a blast.

Drake out.

Musical Inspirations:

The Flash (Season 1) – Catch Me If You Can: STAR Labs break-in/fighting Thawne/time portal/déjà vu

Ruelle – Until We Go Down: start-0:48—Lucas' wandering/hit-and-run, 0:48-1:20—red and yellow/time jump/lightning strikes, 1:20-2:24—rewritten by lightning/the Flash vs. Reverse-Flash/the coin/passed out, 2:24-2:30—the coin falls, 2:30-end—the Revenant arrives/saving himself/embracing the Speedforce/conduits as one/"some other day"

The Heavy – How You Like Me Now: making a withdrawal

Formatting notes:

– Internal Thoughts/Flashback
– "Super-Hearing/Surveillance"
– Telepathy/Divine Speech
– "{Foreign Language}"
– [Text Message]