Disclaimer: I do not own anything you may recognize
Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.
Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for all his help with this chapter, much appreciated.
So, fair warning, next few chapters are all going to be really long, over 10,000 words, and even over 20,000 words at some points. But, they will be rich in good content, so I hope you all enjoy it.
Also, next week, I won't be able to update, due to being on a vacation then, so apologies in advance for that. So the chapter after this one shall come next to next week, but on my usual update day and time.
TW: Thanks for the review and glad it was very good.
Chapter 12- On a new world
Unknown Universe, Unknown world
Steve crashed onto the ground, while the monster's body hit some sort of tentacle.
As Steve got up, the tentacle lashed out, trying to grab the body of the creature, but struggled with the weight.
Upon hearing the screech, Steve rolled away and could only look at the mouth in the ground open with a long tongue reaching out. He watched in shock before commenting, "That's no weed."
Then his eyes began to wander to his surroundings, and widened. Everything was clouded in the dark of night, the ground was dark and the air misty. The flora was unlike anything Steve had ever seen, glowing a bioluminescent red light with twisted shapes that made him think of some kind of Witch story.
But what really caught Steve's interest and concern were the explosions filling up the sky, along with the distant sounds of what the Captain of the Howling Commandos assumed were weapons.
Artillery, guns, he didn't know, but already his mind began to drift to times the Avenger would rather keep in the past.
Accessing his situation, Steve stood straight and gazed into the distance where more explosions and smoke seemed to emanate. The creature and he fell through a breach, and now, they were definitely not on Earth, or, they were, and the Earth of this Universe turned out VERY different than his own.
Could the breach have also led to somewhere else in his Universe? The Avengers or any of their allies had turned up no such record of the breaches transporting lifeforms across their resident Universe, but Steve could not rule it out.
Usually, breaches seemed to lead to other Earths, but they were still mysteries to even Tony and his other friends.
Cap had to keep his mind open to all possibilities.
For now, Steve had one priority: find signs of life and see if they could help him. The Star-Spangled Man had his plan, with a shield on his back and pistol by his waist. He walked towards the direction of the explosions and smoke.
"Long way from Brooklyn", Steve could not help from muttering.
Earth-1, Star City
Team Arrow, Team Leverage and Hunt were in the Arrow Cave together, trying to trace where Ray's video was coming from.
"How long have you known?" Oliver inquired.
"About a week", Felicity confessed. "But I couldn't do much, I was still dealing with Curtis' death. Then Eliot was captured, you'd the whole thing with Waller, and then Takeo coming after me. Didn't get a chance until now."
"Oh we'll find him", Hardison assured her. "We've done much more impossible things before." He looked at Hunt. "No offense."
Hunt just shrugged.
There was a beep as Felicity realized. "The back trace program worked."
"Check it", Eliot said simply.
They typed a bit, and then Ray Palmer's face came on the screen.
"Felicity, Felicity, is that you?" Ray asked her.
"Oh, my God, Ray!" Felicity sighed in relief.
"Ray, where are you?" Oliver inquired.
"I don't know", Ray said sadly. "And if that wasn't enough, I think I'm being held against my will."
"What?!"
"Yeah, they want my suit, or at least the tech", Ray told them. "The good news is, the tech is useless to them in my current condition."
Oliver started. "Ray, if you have your suit, then why don't you just—"
"Bust my way out? Yeah, that's not really happening."
Oliver inquired. "What, the suit doesn't work?"
Ray revealed. "Actually, it worked a little too well."
Dig asked him. "How well?"
Where Ray was, he looked up at the glass case inside which he was kept alongside his suit, both shrunk to a miniature size.
Few minutes later
Diggle was rubbing his forehead in shock. "I need to go out, get a few drinks, because this-"
"Yeah, like how did he shrink to the size of a tater tot?" Thea inquired.
"You've people from another world before you and this is where you draw the line?" Eliot inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Normal people from another world!" Dig said.
"Fair point", Thea spoke at the same time.
"Ray is the size of a tater tot", Felicity noted.
Ethan told the rest. "You know, there's some bedtime stories of an operative the size of an ant. If the stuff that happened in the past few years on my Earth is anything to go by, tiny humans isn't that much a stretch."
Felicity then spoke. "The bottom line is that Ray jury-rigged a short-range message burst that was intercepted by whoever's holding him captive."
Oliver noted. "Ray thinks they want the suit for its technology, but they can't use it while its small."
Laurel added. "And while he's small, it's like looking for a needle in a city of haystacks."
"There was something to help him there, right?" Parker asked, as Felicity played part of the new message again.
"Back at Palmer Tech, I've got schematics for a machine that should be able to resize me."
"I'm gonna go get it", Felicity said as she walked off.
"I could come with you", Hardison stood up.
She started. "I think I can-"
"Felicity, take Hardison with you", Oliver said, and she relented, walking off with Hardison.
"Now I wish I'd brought Luther and Benji with me", Hunt commented.
Central City, STAR Labs
Strider, Batman and Harry stood in front of where the breach to Earth-2 STAR Labs was, with the rest of Team Flash behind them. They had packed up supplies to help themselves.
They turned around, seeing Cisco, Caitlin, Joe, Iris and Barry, who sat on a wheelchair, as he had still not recovered from Zoom's beatdown.
"I wish I could come with you guys", Barry said sadly.
"You are terrible right now", Strider told Barry. "You should try to get better again."
Barry simply nodded as Caitlin told the three. "Good luck, guys." She looked at Harry. "I hope you get your daughter back."
"I will", Harry told them.
"You sure you don't want me to come and help?" Cisco asked again.
"We already know where she is, and you haven't learnt to control your powers fully", Batman pointed out.
"Fair point."
"Just, come back safe guys", Joe said to them. "With Jesse."
"Yeah", Iris agreed.
The three looked at Team Flash one more time, then turned around to the breach, walking into it as they started seeing many things.
First, they saw a dark-skinned man in a Green Arrow suit firing an arrow.
Then they saw what looked like another man in a Flash costume, a stubble underneath his face.
After that, they saw a blonde woman in a suit and skirt with a 'S' symbol on her chest flying, her cape flowing behind her.
Then, they saw a man in a hat, the right side of his face heavily burnt.
Next up, they saw a man wearing glasses running around, having a Walkman with him.
Then, they saw another Batman who seemed to look just like the Batman with them.
And finally, they stepped out on the other side of the breach, in the STAR Labs of Earth-2, Aragorn looking around. "So that is how it is like to travel through one of these."
"Yeah", Harry told him as they walked further.
"This does not look too different", Strider said, the three walking out in the night, as they saw Central City of Earth-2.
People were moving around, and there was a train running on a rail above.
"What is that?" Strider looked at the train.
"Just something many people can move around in, from one place to another, if they pay", Harry explained. "Its called a train. Its like a big car, for many people."
Strider nodded, as Batman looked at the train disappear. "That is….a weird train."
Harry did a double take, shocked to hear Batman joke, then said. "Welcome to Earth-2."
After that, he said. "We don't have much time, we need to get to Ascension Cliffs quickly."
"You two go ahead, I'll join you quickly", Batman said, as he walked back inside.
"What does he want now?" Harry wondered.
"I am not sure of that myself", Strider shook his head, then saw the old style cars nearby. "These….cars look very different from the ones in that world."
"Yeah, like I said, our world is different", Harry shrugged.
"I can feel it in the air as well", Strider noted, then looked at the sky. "Even the sky looks different."
Inside, Batman plugged his drive to a computer, and typed through, deciding to see what this world was like, including his doppelganger.
He found some articles of his Earth-2 self, throwing huge parties all over Gotham City, and absconding with supermodels, though there were reports of Batman too.
That could only mean one thing- his doppelganger had learnt to differentiate between Bruce Wayne and Batman. He was still trying to learn that.
And he fought some strange villains- a crocodile man? And a man in a pig mask?
Batman decided to keep this info with him, in case any of these showed up in his world.
He also looked through info about Team Flash and Team Arrow members on this Earth.
He found out Robert Queen was The Hood here, and had been exposed recently, though the circumstances around that were unclear, while someone else had taken up the mantle, but without any information, Batman couldn't tell who the new vigilante was.
Since Robert was dead on this Earth, that meant Oliver Queen was The Hood or the Arrow, as well as the Green Arrow. He'd figured it out a while ago, but this had confirmed it to him.
Then he saw something else, and narrowed his eyes.
Strider and Harry were waiting, as Batman came out, glaring at the latter, and suddenly punched him, making him stagger away as he held his face, to Strider's shock.
"Why did you do that?" Harry inquired.
"Is he a speedster in secret as well?" Strider inquired, but Batman shook his head.
As Harry recovered, Batman grabbed him by the collar and slammed him to the door. "The Particle Accelerator- you never took responsibility and made meta-human trackers to profit off of this?"
Harry tried to argue. "It was for the peo-"
"Bullcrap, it was to profit off of the rise of meta-humans while hiding your role in this", Batman snarled. "They're throwing them into black sites like they're not even humans. Did you ever think about that?"
Harry looked down, unable to face Batman, as Strider asked. "What do you mean?"
"An accident caused by him is responsible for the meta-humans in this world. Now, they are being treated as less than human because they're different, and he has not taken responsibility for it", Batman sneered.
Strider looked at Harry in disappointment. "Why would you not accept the consequences of your mistakes?"
Harry sighed sadly, Batman asking. "How'd you face your daughter like this?"
He could imagine how Jesse would feel, finding out her father was not who she thought he was. He could feel it too, as he'd felt similarly not too long ago on finding out Thomas had asked Falcone to threaten that journalist, even if Falcone had gone ahead and murdered the guy.
At least his father was going to turn himself in before Falcone had him and his mother murdered to silence them.
Harry had covered up his part in this mess.
"I…she found out", Harry told them, remembering their last ever conversation before she'd been taken. "She was not pleased."
"She was right", Strider said.
"You know what? Yes, I messed up, and I hid it. But, if you let me go and help me save my daughter, I'll come back here, and I'll make it right, I promise", Harry finally said.
"Make it right", Batman snarled, letting him go. "Or I'll come for you."
Suddenly, there was a beeping sound all around, as Harry looked at his meta-human detector, which also passed alerts of meta-human attacks on this world.
"What is it?" Strider inquired.
"A meta-human attack is happening", Harry said, before tapping as he saw some footage, and his eyes widened. "They work for Zoom."
Strider was shocked by what he saw. Two of them looked like Cisco and Caitlin, the former having done his hair differently, with a strange contraption around his eyes, while the latter had hair that were a mix of white and golden, but he could see the bloodlust in her eyes. The third one had flames upon him, looking not too different from how Jax and Stein looked when they fused.
Batman was not shocked, as he'd found out about these three during his research. "Cisco's, Caitlin's and Ronnie's doppelgangers."
"They are evil in this world", Strider noted in absolute horror.
"I'll deal with them, maybe we could get something on Zoom", Batman said as he walked off.
"I am coming with you", Strider offered.
"No, I'll do it alone", Batman shook his head, then ran and glided away.
Universe-208, Tatooine
Vizsla could only stare at his lieutenant. "You can't be serious."
"Why not?" Bo-Katan reasoned to the leader of Clan Vizsla. "You've seen him fight. He can handle himself."
"It's not his ability I question, it's whether he would even consider it."
"We gave him a place to rest and heal."
"Reluctantly", Vizsla pointed out. "He knows this, not to mention, he hasn't been the most gracious of guests either."
Duchess Satine's sister gave him a dull look. "Would you call Saxon and Awaud gracious?" Vizsla scoffed. "Asking won't do any harm."
Vizsla stayed quiet, staring at his helmet before shifting his gaze to where the warrior in question moved in a practiced kata, fast punches and kicks to the air that were a blur to his sight. "Asking will yield no result...unless we offer an incentive."
Landing on his hands and knees after a 540 degree jump, Blade moved his back leg forward, moving into the next position of the Unsu kata only for his hearing to pick up footsteps in the sand, coming closer.
Annoyed at his practice being interrupted, Blade waited for none other than Pre Vizsla himself to approach, but his eyes locked on the sheathed sword in his hands.
Blade's sword.
"I have a proposition for you." Blade said nothing, except shoot his arm out and catch his weapon after Vizsla's throw. "Have a job coming up, and we're undermanned."
"There a part where I'm supposed to care?"
"Care? No, but this may interest you." Blade's brow rose, but he did not react otherwise. "Those wounds of yours have been healed for days. Truthfully, I didn't care, but now I need a man of your talents."
"You have plenty of people."
"Most of them are searching for bounties or scouting for our new base, my forces are divided." Blade remained stoic, to the annoyance of Vizsla. It felt like he was talking to a wall. Time for the wall to crack. "Help me, and I'll take you to whatever planet you want."
The reaction was brief and confided to the eyes, but Vizsla noticed, and it confirmed that Blade was human. He had him.
"Do we have a deal?
Earth-1, Star City
Parker, Eliot and Hunt were stealing the device from Kord Industries that was needed for Ray's device, as Hardison and Felicity were directing them from the base.
"Hello?" Felicity gasped as she and Hardison saw Ray's face again. "Is anyone there?"
"Ray..." Felicity noted.
"Any luck with the schematics?"
"I realize the quantum manifold could present a challenge. Nothing a little late-night shopping at Kord industries couldn't solve", Felicity assured.
"Yeah, and our friends are doing it right now", Hardison added.
"Oh, that's great. Thank you, Felicity. Now we just have to figure out how to—" Ray paused for some reason.
"Ray, you still there?" Felicity inquired, only for her eyes to widen in horror on seeing Damien Darhk's face hovering behind him. "Oh, no."
"Who is that?" Hardison asked her.
"That's Damien Darhk."
Same time
Oliver was discussing strategy with Adrian as the latter told him. "This city, its been having a hard time recently."
"I know, with those militants and all that-"
"Not just them, the murders that happened just a while ago", Adrian reminded Oliver. "This city's murder rate managed to skyrocket. And its pretty obvious there were a bunch of murderers."
"Yeah, this city is shaken up from that", Oliver said sadly.
"Which is why I have a suggestion", Adrian revealed. "A speech."
"What?"
"Yeah, a speech", Adrian told him. "This city needs to see that the man who leads them knows about the problems they're facing. They need to see that their leader not only knows of their problems, but empathizes with them. A leader who shows them that they have a bright light at the end of this dark tunnel, the light being-"
"Me", Oliver realized, remembering Barry's words as well of how he could inspire as Oliver Queen. "I guess you're right about that."
"Yes, I am, because I believe you are the man who can save this city, Oliver", Adrian said while pointing at him. "You just need to make the rest of this city believe the same thing."
"Thank you, Adrian", Oliver said with a smile. "That means a lot."
Then he got a call and saw it was Felicity. "Sorry, I've to take this."
"Its fine", Adrian assured with a shrug as Oliver walked off.
Earth-2, Central City
Reverb, Killer Frost and Deathstorm were causing havoc in the bank, as people were running around, when a Batarang struck Deathstorm from behind in the shoulder, making him gasp as they turned to see Batman there.
"Look who decided to make a trip from Gotham City", Killer Frost quipped as she fired at Batman, and he rolled away to avoid it.
Leaping, he threw his Batarangs, but the three used their powers to deflect those, as Batman made to go up onto the ceiling, but Reverb saw it coming due to his glasses and blasted there, hitting Batman as he fell away.
"I know you're from another Earth!" Reverb taunted Batman. "Your journey here is a waste. I can shatter your entire nervous system without breaking a sweat."
Batman staggered up, barely avoiding a shard thrown by Killer Frost, then trying to avoid a fireball by Deathstorm, though it did sing his shoulder as he grunted a little, but ran off and took cover behind a counter.
Reverb fired just as Batman raised his hand to throw a Batarang, making him retract it at the last second.
"You can't touch this!" Reverb smirked.
"Come out and play, cowl!" Deathstorm added, when Batman threw a Batarang, but not at them.
It flew around, shattering all the lights in the area, before flying back to him, the entire place now cloaked in darkness.
"That was…very stupid", Deathstorm said as his hands lit up with flames, only for a smoke grenade to fall near them, emitting smoke as all three were blinded, and coughed a little as well.
Reverb angrily blasted around the place, only to accidentally hit Deathstorm and Killer Frost both. The former was knocked away as the latter hit the door of the lounge, breaking it as she fell down, groaning.
Batman's silhouette appeared behind Reverb, who tried to turn, but Batman caught his arm, then ripped out the symbol on his own chest, revealing it was actually a Batarang-knife. Using that, he sliced Reverb's tendons on the right arm, disabling it as he screamed in pain, before slashing across his face, getting the glasses that shattered, taking away Reverb's powers to see through Universes. Then, he decked Reverb one more time, sending him kissing dirt.
At that moment, a fireball hit Batman's chest, sending him hurtling to the ground, his armor now scorched and melting.
Attaching the Batarang-knife back to his chest, Batman made a run for it, disappearing in the shadows. Deathstorm started hovering above the ground, his flames lit up as he looked around.
Hearing a motorcycle, he flew out to see the Caped Crusader riding away on that.
Snarling, he followed.
Batman tapped his earpiece. "Reverb is taken care of, Killer Frost escaped. I have nothing to stop Deathstorm."
Noticing a fireball in the rearview mirror, Batman swerved to avoid that.
"There is one way."
Batman's eyes suddenly lit up. "Ronnie and Stein were fused on Earth-1 before as well. That's how they used their powers. Maybe these two need to be split now."
"Yes, now there should be a Quantum splicer on his chest. Go for it."
Batman saw another fireball incoming, and didn't dodge this time. It hit the bike, crashing it as he rolled away painfully, groaning before coming to a stop, unconscious.
Deathstorm landed and smirked at the Caped Crusader. "Not so tough now, are ya?" Chuckling, he reached for the mask. "Now let's see who you really are."
That moment, Batman's eyes snapped open as he threw his palm forwards, attaching something to the splicer. Deathstorm was too shocked by the sudden movement to react, as Batman then kicked his chest, sending him back.
The meta-human noticed a blinking light on his splicer, and tried to burn it off before it exploded, only causing an even larger explosion of fire.
Batman averted his gaze as Earth-2 Ronnie and Earth-2 Stein were split into two.
Groaning, he pushed himself back to his feet, then rushing to Earth-2 Ronnie, lifted him by the collar. "Where is Zoom? Do you know anything?"
"Haven't….seen him in a while", Earth-2 Ronnie groaned before losing consciousness as Batman dropped him.
This meant there was a huge chance Zoom still hadn't recovered, so they'd some time.
He reached for his earpiece. "Call the CCPD, and an ambulance. Then, we'll go ahead."
Earth-1, Central City, STAR Labs
Barry heard the ring tone, then sighed in relief as the call was picked up.
"Hello, Barry?" Patty asked from the other end.
"Hey Patty", Barry greeted her. "I wasn't in today, so just wanted to talk to you."
"Yeah, I noticed. What happened?" Patty inquired
Barry did not want to lie to her, but he wasn't ready to fully tell her everything yet either, so he went with the middle ground.
"I had a bad accident", he finally said. "And I can't move around for a bit, so I'm not in."
"Maybe I could come", Patty offered, Barry smiling at how caring she was. "Bring you something. We could-"
"I appreciate it, Patty, I really do", Barry assured her. "But I don't want to be a burden. Focus on the job."
"…..Right", Patty noted from the other end, then said warmly. "If you change your mind, offer is open."
"I'll keep that in mind, thank you", Barry told her. "When I get better, we'll be making up for this."
"I'll hold you to that", Patty said. "Bye."
"Bye."
Earth-205
Sam and Dean were investigating deaths in a small town shortly before Halloween. Sam entered their motel room and immediately drew his gun, moving forward in an offensive stance, ready to attack. "Who are you?!"
Dean rushed in, and tried to stop Sam. "Sam! Sam, wait! It's Castiel."
Dean puts his hand on Sam's gun and pushed it down, and Sam stood there stunned. "The Angel." Dean spotted another figure in the room, standing by the window.
"Him, I don't know."
Sam looked at Castiel in wonder and a smile crossed his face.
"Hello, Sam", the Angel greeted him.
"Oh my God – er – uh –" Sam stammered over his words. "I didn't mean to – sorry. It's an honor, really, I – I've heard a lot about you." Sam stepped forward and held out his hand to shake Castiel's.
Dean went and closed the door to their room, and Castiel looked at Sam's hand like he wasn't sure what to do with it. Sam shook it a little, and Castiel finally understood and put his right hand in Sam's.
"And I, you. Sam Winchester – The boy with the demon blood." Castiel then added. "Glad to see you've ceased your extracurricular activities."
The other one was still facing the window, but spoke. "Let's keep it that way."
"Yeah, okay, chuckles." Dean looked back at Castiel. "Who's your friend?"
Castiel simply asked. "This the raising of Samhain, have you stopped it?"
"Why?"
"Dean, have you located the Witch?"
"Yes, we've located the Witch", Dean replied.
Castiel asked. "And is the witch dead?"
Sam started. "No, but –"
"We know who it is."
Castiel walked over to the table by the bed. "Apparently the Witch knows who you are too." He picked up a hex bag and showed it to them. "This was inside the wall of your room. If we hadn't found it, surely one or both of you would be dead. Do you know where the Witch is now?"
Dean and Sam exchange a look as the former said. "We're working on it."
"That's unfortunate", Castiel noted.
"You know about the breaches, right?" Sam then asked Castiel, making him and the other Angel turn to him. "Can you tell us more about those?"
"Not important", the other Angel shrugged.
"What?" Dean asked. "We literally met two people a while ago from a different world, who helped us with a case. There's a lot more than just this world out there."
"And we're facing monsters from other worlds too", Sam added. "We can get lots of allies, and lots of enemies as well."
"That is not important right now", Castiel said. "The raising of Samhain is one of the 66 seals."
Dean realized. "So this is about your buddy Lucifer."
"Lucifer is no friend of ours", the other Angel snarled.
"It's just an expression", Dean pointed out.
Castiel said. "Lucifer cannot rise. The breaking of the seal must be prevented at all costs."
Dean shrugged. "Okay, great, well now that you're here, why don't you tell us where the Witch is, we'll gank her and everybody goes home, unless we get more of these visitors! Or we end up being visitors somewhere else!"
Castiel revealed. "We are not omniscient. This Witch is very powerful, she's cloaked even our methods."
Sam started. "Okay, well we already know who she is, so if we work together –"
"Enough of this", the other Angel said.
Dean inquired. "Okay, who are you and why should I care?"
The other Angel turned from the window and looked at Dean.
Castiel revealed. "This is Uriel, he's what you might call a… specialist." Uriel walked toward them.
Dean asked. "What kind of specialist? What are you gonna do?"
Castiel revealed. "You – uh, both of you – you need to leave this town immediately."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"Because we're about to destroy it." Sam and Dean exchanged a worried glance.
Dean was shocked. "So this is your plan, you're gonna smite the whole friggin' town?"
Castiel told them. "We're out of time. This Witch has to die, the seal must be saved."
Sam pointed out. "There are a thousand people here."
"One thousand two hundred fourteen", Uriel said.
Sam inquired. "And you're willing to kill them all?"
Uriel revealed. "This isn't the first time I've… purified a city."
Castiel said. "Look, I understand this is regrettable."
"Regrettable?" Dean asked.
Castiel told them. "We have to hold the line. Too many seals have broken already."
Dean inquired. "So you screw the pooch on some seals and this town has to pay the price?"
Castiel pointed out. "It's the lives of one thousand against the lives of six billion. There's a bigger picture here."
Dean shrugged. "Right, cause you're bigger picture kind of guys."
Castiel said. "Lucifer cannot rise. He does and Hell rises with him. Is that something that you're willing to risk?"
Sam told them. "We'll stop this Witch before she summons anyone. Your seal won't be broken and no one has to die."
Uriel said. "We're wasting time with these mud monkeys." Castiel turned away from Dean to Uriel.
"I'm sorry, but we have our orders."
Sam couldn't believe it. "No, you can't do this, you're Angels, I mean aren't you supposed to – You're supposed to show mercy."
"Says who?" Uriel asked.
Castiel said. "We have no choice."
Dean asked. "Of course you have a choice. I mean, come on, what? You've never questioned a crap order, huh? What are you both, just a couple of hammers?"
Castiel tried to placate them. "Look, even if you can't understand it, have faith. The plan is just."
"How can you even say that?" Sam asked.
"Because it comes from Heaven, that makes it just."
"Oh, it must be nice, to be so sure of yourselves", Dean sneered.
"Tell me something, Dean, when your father gave you an order, didn't you obey?" Castiel asked.
Dean looked at Castiel and took a second. "Well sorry boys, looks like the plans have changed."
Uriel asked. "You think you can stop us?"
Dean started over and stood in Uriel's face. "No, but if you're gonna smite this whole town, then you're gonna have to smite us with it, because we are not leaving. See, you went to the trouble of busting me out of Hell. I figure I'm worth something to the Man upstairs. So you wanna waste me, go ahead, see how he digs that."
Uriel snarled. "I will drag you out of here myself."
Dean shrugged. "Yeah, but you'll have to kill me, then we're back to the same problem. I mean, come on, you're gonna wipe out a whole town for one little Witch. Sounds to me like you're compensating for something." Dean turned back and looked at Castiel. "We can do this. We will find that Witch and we will stop the summoning."
"Castiel!" Uriel said. "I will not let these peop–" Castiel held up his hand at Uriel. "Enough!" He stared at Dean for a second. "I suggest you move quickly."
Earth-1, Star City
Ray's location had been found, and now it was time to put the plan into action. Oliver was outside the Latin building, about to swing his way in, when suddenly two Ghosts struck him with the butts of their guns, knocking him out.
Oliver came to, seeing the two Ghosts chaining him up as Damien appeared, holding his bow and quiver. "Oh, these are nice."
He snapped an arrow into two. "Oops!" He looked at the Ghosts. "Leave us."
They walked off outside after sharing a look, and then one of them stood outside the room while the other one walked to a pad, disabling the security systems. "Guys, package is delivered. Are you all ready?"
"Ready", Laurel and Sara said at the same time, standing side by side.
"Ready", Dig and Thea said as well.
"This is gonna be fun", Parker said, having parachute equipment with her, Hardison in her front, the two together.
"With you and the rest, I've done this stuff quite a bit, but its still scary", Hardison admitted.
"Worry not", Parker assured him, wrapping an arm around his chest to comfort him. "You're with me. Nothing will happen to you."
Hearing her comfort him, Hardison was reassured, and smiled. "I know. You won't let anything happen to me."
Inside the base, Hunt typed more on the pad. "Security system is disabled."
And then, Parker and Hardison leapt off, Parker cheering happily as the parachute appeared, Hardison simply controlling his fear, while they crashed inside through a window, lying down, a Ghost above them.
"You guys all right?" Hunt asked.
"Yeah, this was just warm-up", Parker said as they got up.
"And I'm not dead because of her", Hardison added, the couple chuckling.
"Let's go then", Hunt said as the three made their way.
Sara, Thea, Laurel and Diggle had entered too, and engaged in a firefight with the Ghosts, taking cover as Dig fired back with his gun, getting two of them, while Thea got one with her arrow, and then Sara flipped, kicking one down, and then spinning and elbowing one's face, as Laurel engaged another.
Damien walked to Oliver. "You mind if I take a little peeksie? I mean, I've my suspicions, but I wanna see if I'm right."
Oliver suddenly leapt and kicked Damien back, while ripping out of the chains, then grabbing his bow and quiver, fired an arrow that Damien barely stopped.
"Haven't you learnt anythi-"
The arrow beeped and exploded, sending Damien flying back. "Right, you have."
As he staggered up, the other Ghost kicked him from behind, sending him flying forwards. He took off his mask to reveal Eliot Spencer.
Before Damien could turn back around, Eliot kicked him forwards again into Oliver who spun and kicked his face, sending him staggering back. He tried to turn around but Eliot decked his face, then spun and elbowed it, before kicking his gut, while Oliver grabbed him from behind in a chokehold.
Hunt shot down 2 Ghosts in the way, Parker and Hardison behind him, as they reached where Ray was held, inside what looked like a glass case, Parker noting. "Now we'll have to get past this."
"That's gonna take a while", Ray noted. "Five years and an NSA-grade computer."
"Hey, we're here to save you, gratitude goes a long way", Parker said, shutting him up.
"I have an idea", Hardison said. "We can enlarge him now and break the cube with his size."
Ray realized what could work. "They put mini-cams here with me and those need to draw power from somewhere."
Damien flicked his hand and Eliot was sent flying off, as was Oliver to the other side. He looked at Oliver first. "Now I'm pissed off."
He started choking Oliver with his power, when Eliot kicked him forwards from behind, then Oliver threw something in his face. It was a fletchette, that caused a small explosion of light, blinding him.
When Damien regained sight, Oliver and Eliot were gone.
Hardison used the machine to resize Ray, as he finally broke out of the cube in his suit. They turned to see some Ghosts appear as Hunt shot one down, then another was tranqed from behind, revealing Oliver, while one more was knocked out from behind, revealing Eliot.
They walked forth as Oliver said. "Good to see you, Ray."
"Nice suit", Ray complimented.
"Thanks, though I'm looking for an upgrade", Oliver said.
"Let's get out of here", Eliot told them.
"Yep, best idea", Hunt agreed as they made their way out.
Earth-199999, Sokovia
Zemo put forth schematics of a machine. "This machine brought an alien army to our world a few years ago."
"Where did you get the schematics?" Lex inquired.
"I have connections", Zemo simply said, thinking about the Hydra cell near Novi Grad. They'd posed as SHIELD to get people to volunteer for experiments, but after the Fall of SHIELD, Zemo, via his resources, had found out they were all Hydra.
He hated that they were so near his city, in his own country, but they did not have the manpower to drive Hydra away.
So all he could do was benefit himself from the situation the best he could.
"It is like my machine, only its opening a portal to Space instead of through worlds", Lex noted. "And with a different power source."
Lex suddenly wigged out, and then gasped, holding his chest in pain. "We need to complete it quickly I think."
"That would be for the best", Zemo agreed. "I will gather the materials."
"Some things might need to be worked out, as from what I've looked up, a few of the material used for my machine don't exist in this world", Lex noted, still rubbing his chest.
"I know some people who could build this machine with the required modifications, and could know of what materials to use", Zemo said, deciding he had to recruit the Hydra scientists now. "And I know just how to convince them."
Earth-2
Strider, Batman and Harry were making their way through the forested area of Ascension Cliffs now, about to reach the abandoned station.
Suddenly, they felt really cold, Strider narrowing his eyes. "This does not seem like the weather."
"Frost", Harry realized, as she stepped out from between some trees, smirking.
"Are you here for more fun?" She asked, preparing ice blasts in her hands. "Because I'm really mad!"
She fired at them, as they leapt away to avoid, taking cover. Batman hurled a Batarang but she destroyed it with an ice blast, while Harry fired his rifle but a beam of ice from her countered it, as he took cover again.
"I shall draw her away", Strider told them, then rolled away, getting behind a tree as he fired an arrow at her. She barely dodged, then fired some icicles.
Strider dodged most of them, but one spiking pierced his shoulder, making him grit his teeth before he pulled it out, getting an idea.
He saw Frost moving towards him as she snarled. "I'm gonna get you!"
Strider took off into the woods, disappearing in some foliage, as Frost made her way after him, only to find no trace of him except a few tiny drops of his blood.
Hearing the whistle of an arrow, she looked up and her eyes widened as she barely dodged it, then looked up and saw Strider was gone again.
Then she heard a twig snapping, and turned to that direction, following it, but found no one there, before an arrow fired from behind her struck a tree nearby, making her jump before she turned around, not finding Strider anymore.
She went to the direction she figured the arrow had come from, and found tiny little drops of blood there, and followed those, only to see something on the ground- a ring that had the likeness of two serpents intertwined with eyes made of green jewels, meeting beneath of crown of golden flowers that one upheld and one devoured.
Frost stepped forward, only for her foot to step onto her own ice spike she'd fired at Strider before, as she howled in pain.
Strider had dug a small hole, planted the ice spike inside, hid it with leaves, grass and dirt, then put the Ring of Barahir there to get Frost's attention.
Then, Strider appeared out of nowhere and knocked Frost out with a punch, before lifting up the Ring of Barahir, looking at it reverently as he put it back on his finger.
She might have been a powerful meta-human, but a forest was Strider's element. As a Ranger, he had lived and wandered through forests for years. Killer Frost did not have the slightest chance at victory.
Walking back to where Batman and Harry were, Strider said. "She has been defeated. Let us go to Zoom's lair."
They nodded, walking forth.
Earth-1, Star City
"So, the Multiverse is real, and I missed it?" Ray asked no one in particular. "That sucks, I mean, I'd have loved that-"
"We're still here, man", Hardison raised a hand.
"And that guy is like an American James Bond in real life, even pulls out similar tech", Felicity told Ray about Hunt. "They're still here, you can talk to them."
"Oh yeah, that's gonna be so much fun", Ray looked at Eliot, Parker, Hardison and Ethan.
"Yay", Eliot muttered sarcastically, turning to Hardison. "There are two of you now."
"And I love it!" Hardison smirked.
"Not more than me I hope", Parker pouted.
"Never", Hardison assured her as they shared a kiss.
"So, I made a little decision", Felicity then said, holding out a paper that she put down. "Running a business, not my thing."
"You serious?" Ray asked her.
"Yes, in fact, I'm wondering what you were thinking giving it to me", Felicity said. "I mean, I signed without knowing what it was."
"I guess…" Ray sighed. "I let my optimism and our relationship from a while ago cloud my judgment there."
"Congratulations Ray", Oliver smiled at him. "Its yours again."
"Actually Oliver", Felicity spoke up. "Its both of yours."
"Come again?" Oliver narrowed his eyes.
"The company did belong to your family", Felicity said. "I decided both of you could share its ownership, be partners. Besides Oliver, you're about to be Mayor, owning your company again would help your rep."
"That's…" Oliver trailed off. "Thank you, Felicity, I really appreciate it."
She just nodded, as Ray smiled at her too, then turned to Oliver. "How are you gonna handle that, being Green Arrow, and this Mayor thing at the same time though?"
"About that Ray", Oliver looked at the man. "I was hoping you're more trustworthy than the last business partner I had."
"Oh I assure you, your trust in me won't fail", Ray did a mock salute. "I can run it, and keep you updated."
"I'll keep myself updated and attend it every now and then", Oliver shrugged, as Felicity handed him a pen, then he and Ray signed it one by one, becoming the owners of the business now.
"Be good though", Parker smirked at them both. "Otherwise we'll have to come for you."
"And that ain't pretty", Hardison added.
"Wouldn't want to piss you guys off now, would we?" Oliver chuckled.
"I think you two can do a lot of good this way", Eliot said. "If only more people like the two of you were rich."
"Yeah, all worlds would be better", Hunt muttered. "Anyways, I guess we'll need to go off soon enough."
"I know", Oliver sighed. "Still, you could stay a while, I hope."
"A little longer, yeah", Parker shrugged.
Earth-205
Samhain had been freed, breaking the seal, but the brothers had stopped it.
Dean was now sitting on a park bench watching kids play. Castiel was on the park bench next to him. Dean was looking the other way, but sensed the Angel's arrival. "Let me guess, you're here for the "I told you so".
"No."
"Well, good, cause I'm really not that interested."
"I am not here to judge you, Dean", Castiel said.
"Then why are you here?"
"Our orders –"
Dean cut him off. "Yeah, you know, I've had about enough of these orders of yours –"
"Our orders were not to stop the summoning of Samhain, they were to do whatever you told us to do."
Dean was surprised. "Your orders were to follow my orders?"
Castiel revealed. "It was a test, to see how you would perform under... battlefield conditions, you might say."
"It was a Witch, not the Tet Offensive", Dean said. "So I, uh, failed your test, huh? I get it. But you know what? If you would have waved that magic time-traveling wand of yours and we had to do it all over again, I'd make the same call. 'Cause see, I don't know what's gonna happen when these seals are broken, hell I don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow. But what I do know is, that this, here? These kids, the swings, the trees, all of it is still here because of my brother and me."
Castiel told him. "You misunderstand me, Dean, I'm not like you think. I was praying that you would choose to save the town."
"You were?" Dean inquired.
"These people, they're all my Father's creations. They're works of art, and yet, even though you stopped Samhain, the seal was broken and we are one step closer to hell on earth, for all creation. Now that's not an expression, Dean, it's literal. You of all people should appreciate what that means."
Dean looked at him a little pained, and sad.
"Can I tell you something if you promise not to tell another soul?"
"Okay", Dean agreed.
Castiel then said. "I'm not a… hammer as you say. I have questions, I have doubts. I don't know what is right and what is wrong anymore, whether you passed or failed here. But in the coming months you will have more decisions to make. I don't envy the weight that's on your shoulders, Dean. I truly don't."
They shared a look, then Dean asked. "Well, I think the portal problem is still a thing. Would it make the rising worse?"
"Focus on the seals", Castiel said, seemingly not registering how bad the portal problem was.
"Okay, what is this? Every time I bring that up, you seem to become someone else entirely", Dean noted.
Castiel then grasped his head, as if in pain, and disappeared, leaving the confused Dean behind.
Earth-2
Strider, Batman and Harry were right outside Zoom's lair now, the former two having climbed up the cliff while helping Harry do the same.
"Zoom is gonna be angry", Batman warned them. "We'll have to keep him that way. He is vindictive, he'll want revenge from us, and he'll want to hurt us."
"So, what do we do?" Harry asked while grunting.
"Endure it", Batman said simply. "The nanobots will protect us from his phasing, but he can kill us in other ways. Wait for my signal."
"What is this signal?" Strider inquired.
"You'll know it when you see it", Batman assured him, as they climbed into the place finally, looking around and seeing how rotted it looked.
Walking further inside, they found a young girl behind some bars, her hands chained up, Strider and Batman knowing this had to be Jesse, while a man in an iron mask was behind a glass cell, tapping it continuously.
"Jesse!" Harry let out as he rushed to her, and held her by the face.
"Daddy?" She cried out with tears of joy. "You're here? Is it really you?"
"Yes, I'm here", Harry assured her as he stepped back, and lifted up the bars, then embraced her tightly as she cried into his chest. "I'm here for you."
Zoom theme plays
Suddenly, a blue blur sped in, grabbing Harry and throwing him off as Jesse screamed in horror, the man in the iron mask looking very distressed as well.
Zoom stood there, glaring at the three of them. "You made a mistake coming here."
He ran at Batman, trying to phase his fist through him, only to be pushed back, as Batman smirked at him.
Roaring, Zoom grabbed Batman by the collar and hurled him away, as Strider took out his sword, but Zoom rammed into him, sending him flying off and his sword falling too.
He then grabbed Harry, lifting him up by the collar, and punched his gut thrice, before throwing him into the wall again, while Strider aimed an arrow, but Zoom sped and snatched his bow while cutting the strap of his quiver, making it fall and spilling the arrows everywhere.
Then he struck Strider's face with his own bow and he fell down once more.
Turning around, he grabbed another Batarang that Batman had thrown, and rushing to him, pinned him to the wall by the throat, then stabbed his side with it as he grunted. "I told you, that you're next."
He punched Batman in the gut many times as he spat out blood while gasping, and then he threw him down.
Strider was getting up but Zoom sped into him again and sent him crashing to the ground.
"The three of you will pay for what you've done", Zoom sneered, punching Batman again as he spat blood onto the ground. "Now, you die!"
Batman suddenly threw something at Zoom, who dodged easily, but the thing attached to the wall, revealing a circular device.
Zoom loomed over the downed hero. "Is that all you got?"
"It's all I need."
The device suddenly blinked red and fired a hook into Zoom's shoulder from behind, making him roar in pain as it pulled him into the wall.
"Strider!" Batman threw the blade from his chest to the Ranger, who was back up and close.
Strider caught it and quickly stabbed Zoom's knee, then pulled out, only to thrust the jagged blade into the murderer's abdomen, dragging it across, allowing blood to flow out, as Zoom continued to roar and howl in agony.
Continuing to scream, the speedster charged electricity in his fist and struck down Strider, then vibrated free of the hook, only for a recovered Harry to fire the pulse rifle, and it directly hit Zoom as he screamed loudly, falling near the edge as Harry continued to fire at him, bringing more of the pain.
Growling, Zoom vibrated himself, resisting the pain, and vibrated his hand really fast, trying to hurl a lightning bolt at Harry.
There was a flash of steel, and then Zoom howled in utter agony as blood sprayed everywhere, his arm having been chopped off.
He'd still not fully recovered, and in his rage, he'd been so focused on Harry he hadn't paid attention to Strider, who'd recovered his sword, and sneaking close, had used it to chop off Zoom's arm before he could hurl the lightning bolt.
Zoom looked at his stump in horror as he continued to scream, blood spraying out while Strider looked at him. The speedster tried to stand up, but his wounded knee did not support him, and he lost footing, plummeting down from the cave below as his screams continued to be heard, until they drowned out.
"Did you get him?" Jesse asked in a whimper, as Strider turned around, Batman staggering up too.
"With people like him, its never a guarantee", Batman said as he walked to Jesse, and grasping the chains, held them up for Strider, who brought his bloodied sword down, breaking the chains, freeing Jesse.
"Daddy!" She cried out, running to him and hugging him. "I…I….."
"Its okay Jesse, I'm here now", Harry assured her, not letting her go.
Strider looked at the man in the iron mask, and inquired. "Who is he?"
Parting from her father, Jesse said. "I don't know, but he has been here from way before I was here. I think he has been trying to talk to me. Zoom beat him up a few times too."
"I believe we should free him", Strider turned to Batman.
Batman walked to the glass, and sprayed some kind of gel on it, then stepped back, before telling the man. "Step away from the glass."
The man complied, and then the gel caused the glass to explode, shattering it into pieces.
"You're free now", Harry told the man, who stepped out of the glass, looking at all of them, appreciation in his eyes.
"What manner of helmet is this?" Strider asked.
"I think its something to prevent him from talking and…other things", Harry realized. "Come with us, we'll help you."
And with that, the group of rescuers and rescued people started making their way back.
Earth-199999, New York City, Avengers Tower
Tony flew back into the Tower, his suit coming off as he walked forth, when he heard JARVIS' voice. "We have two visitors outside sir."
"Give me the view", Tony said, and then he saw two men outside, one tall, one medium-sized, knocking at the door.
"Uh, hi. We're here because of Captain America", the taller one said.
"He fell into one of those portal things. I'm sure you're aware", the medium-sized one added.
"Send them in", Tony said immediately.
Few minutes later
Tony looked at Bobby and Piotr in front of him, as the former was saying. "So, we came to help Captain America against the giant….creature."
"It climbed a building, so Cap asked me to throw him at it. I did, the creature died, then both fell into a portal", Piotr finished. "And, we're mutants. He is Bobby Drake, I am Piotr Rasputin, from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."
"The X-Men", Tony noted.
"You know?" Bobby asked.
"Alcatraz", Tony shrugged. "That incident is well-known. But anyways, thank you for coming. Now tell me where this portal is."
Earth-1, Central City, STAR Labs
The breach started acting up, as Barry sped into the room, with Cisco, Caitlin, Joe, Iris and Henry Allen soon following.
And then, Strider and Batman leapt out of the breach, followed by Harry holding Jesse, and then the man in the iron mask came out as well.
"I see you are walking once more", Strider noted to Barry.
"Running actually", Barry smiled, turning to Henry. "Had some help there."
"I do not think we have met", Strider said.
"Meet my father", Barry revealed, as Henry held out his hand.
"I'm Henry Allen", he said, and Strider shook his hand.
"I am Strider", he simply replied, as Caitlin walked to Jesse.
"I'm sure you need to be checked up", she noted, going into doctor mode. "Come with me."
"She does need to be treated, yes", Strider nodded, as Caitlin and Harry led Jesse away gently.
"Who is he?" Cisco asked, gesturing to the man in the iron mask, who was staring at Henry weirdly, tilting his head.
"Someone else Zoom had prisoner, Harry says the iron mask is stopping him from talking and other things", Batman told Cisco.
"I'm sure we can fix that", Cisco shrugged.
"How was it here while we were gone?" Strider inquired.
"Nothing much, just dealt with a telepathic gorilla", Joe shrugged.
"What is telepathic?" Strider inquired.
"It has a power to get into your mind", Barry explained, Strider nodding in understanding. "But its in ARGUS custody now. Authorized prison, like you said."
Strider simply gave a slight smile at that, when Cisco looked at his bloodstained sword. "Whoa! Whose blood is that?"
"Zoom", Strider revealed. "He was trying to strike Wells with lightning, so I chopped off his arm after having wounded his knee and stomach. He fell from a cliff."
"Whoa!" Cisco commented. "Guess he is dead, or will bleed out to death. Well, that's our problem solved."
"Yeah, we don't have to worry about him now", Barry nodded as well.
"Don't make assumptions until you see a body", Batman warned them. "Though his meta-human lackies are dealt with."
Before making their way to Ascension Cliffs, Harry had called a tip to get the unconscious Killer Frost arrested as well. Now, they were all down.
"Many enemies would lie in wait for a moment of weakness before striking. Do not fall for that trap", Strider warned Barry and Cisco as well.
"So, what now?" Cisco wondered.
"Treating Jesse, taking off this guy's mask", Barry gestured to the man in the iron mask. "Then finding a way back to his world." He turned to Strider. "And yours."
Strider smiled at Barry, and nodded. "I am very grateful for that, my friend."
"No", Barry shook his head. "We're the ones grateful to you." He turned to Batman. "As well as you."
Star City
Oliver, in his suit (not the Green Arrow suit), stood in front of the various people and reporters at the podium, lights flashing on him, as he smiled, sharing a smile with Thea, and a look with Adrian.
"Our city hasn't been having a good time recently", Oliver said, his face grim. "There have been many murders, and I understand that its causing fear amongst all of us."
Then, he carried on. "But, I'm here to tell you all- we will not be scared anymore!"
As all watched him, he said. "People like these, whether they've been corrupt one-percenters, or deranged psychopaths, they have tried to hold this city down for too long. An we can't let them do that. Not anymore. We have to show these people, that we are not scared of them now! All of us, we have to come together, and break this city from the hold of such people, and then we can achieve greatness!"
The chord was struck with the people, as they started clapping and cheering for Oliver, who smiled.
Suddenly, one person's phone beeped, and then another's, and eventually, the phones of all reporters and civilians were beeping. They took out their phones, and were all horrified at what they saw.
Oliver's phone beeped too, and he took it out, looking at it.
It was an image, of a brutalized body hanging from some wires, and the body belonged to Takeo Yamashiro! His face was the only thing left unscathed, and that was clearly to give Oliver a message.
Whoever had done this, he was coming for him now.
Unseen to everyone, Adrian, while acting like he was covering his face in horror, smirked.
Oliver was supposed to give this speech to unite the people, get rid of their fear. Now, the people of this city were more scared than ever, right after Oliver himself had started giving them hope, all because of his own past.
"What the…?" Hardison trailed off in horror, sharing looks with Eliot, Parker, Hunt, Sara, Dig, Ray, Laurel and Felicity.
Whoever had done this, he was clearly not planning to mess around.
Earth-199999, New York City
Tony, in his suit, hovered some distance above where the portal was supposed to be, according to Bobby and Piotr.
"So, this is it, J?" Tony inquired.
"I detect the wormhole's energy signature here, sir", JARVIS confirmed.
"Well then, time to bring Cap back", Tony said as he flew towards the breach, and it appeared, only for him to be pushed back suddenly by an invisible force. "What the…?"
"Some unknown form of energy seems to be pushing us back, sir", JARVIS revealed.
"Ah, this always has to happen!" Tony groaned. "Guess its time to modify the IDIOT, make it bigger, and force this thing open."
Unknown Universe, Unknown world
Steve continued to walk. It had been hours now, maybe even a day, he'd lost count by this point. All he could do was walk in the dark, in an area populated by trees, but he could make out signs of a battleground here.
There were scorch marks in the surroundings and indents in the ground where bodies once were. Steve stared down at a particular spot, blinking once, and opened his eyes again to see a young man wearing an olive green uniform lying on the wet sand, clutching at the blood leaking from the wound in his gut as he screamed for help.
He blinked again, the young soldier was gone, and Steve was back on the shadowy alien planet. Steve had to shake his head to get rid of such thoughts, there was no time to rethink the past, no matter how much he was getting reminded of it.
Fortunately, a high-pitched shriek stole the Captain's attention. Unfortunately, as Steve tilted his head up, his eyes found a pair of glowing green birds in the distance, and they were coming closer, allowing his enhanced sight to see they were definitely not birds. They were large and winged, but almost crustacean-like in appearance, with two very large claws that did not look friendly.
And they were coming right for him.
Steve grabbed his shield and hurled it at the closest creature, striking it as the Super Soldier leapt to a tree and pushed off towards the second flying predator, but not before activating the magnet in his arm to recall his shield just into time to bash it against the bird-creature's face.
The collision forced the enhanced human and creature to the ground, the latter snapping its teeth and trying to reach its would-be prey with his claws, only to be held back by Vibranium. With cold efficiency, Steve punched the creature under the jaw to stun it before raising his shield up and bringing it down with enough force to slice through the skin, spraying green blood on the ground and partly on Steve's suit.
Hearing the other one coming back for more, Steve was about to charge forwards to the creature, only for blue lasers bolts to come from the side like bullets and hit the thing, sending it crashing to the ground with a whimper before it lay unmoving.
Looking from the dead alien animal to the source of the lasers, Steve found a blue/white armored humanoid, a white helmet with a blue emblem across the material, with a kind of gun Steve had never seen before, pointing right at him.
"Hold it!"
The voice was male, and Steve slowly raised his hands to not be threatening, moving away from the green blood and corpse he'd made. Whoever the blue/white armored person was, he seemed like a soldier, by his stance, how he handled the gun, and if the emblem was anything to go by, possibly the symbol of his faction.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm afraid I'm a little lost."
The person looked at Steve, unsure of him, especially due to how he was dressed and what he was carrying.
He tilted his head. "You do realize there's a war going on?"
"The explosions kind of give it away."
The blue/white armored soldier looked the human up and down, his helmet hiding the confusion of what kind of suit he was wearing, before speaking again. "What's your business here in the first place?"
"Originally, none. I don't know how I got here. I was fighting some creature in one city, then next thing I know, I'm stuck here with those things," Steve pointed to the now dead alien animals, "trying to make me a snack."
"How do I know you're not just an Umbaran spy?"
Steve withheld his questions on what an "Umbaran" was to speak sincerely. "You don't. I can only give you my word that I am not your enemy, nor do I intend to become one."
Whatever was running through the soldier's mind, Steve thought the man believed him. The man with the laser gun sighed and lowered his weapon. "I need to call this in."
"I understand." Steve nodded, keeping a respectable distance with his hands in the air, watching as the soldier tapped something on his wrist, a green light appearing as he spoke to what he assumed was a wrist communicator.
"Captain Rex."
At the ridge where the 501st made trenches for their troops to rest after the taxing landing upon the shadowy service of Umbara, Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, stared out across the dark world of the Umbarans.
The initial battle was costly, the native militia possessed weapons that so far neither Anakin nor his troops had encountered before. He feared what other tricks the Umbarans had up their sleeves and how they could impact the campaign, but more importantly, what harm they could do to his men.
But Umbara was a vital supply route, one that the Republic needed to possess the strategic advantage, and so, Anakin and his Clones were called to action, ready to do their duty. Plus, he really wanted to get his hand one of those starfighters.
However, as he gazed across the alien world, images flashed in Anakin's mind.
A shield.
A symbol of a star.
A man clad in blue, white, and red, but he couldn't make out the face.
The sudden influx of images caused the Jedi to clutch his temple and groan, earning the attention of his first in command. "General?"
"I'm okay Rex, just a lot on my mind."
"That's never a good thing", his captain joked, which Anakin appreciated. Rex' expression turned serious. "You seem to be distracted lately, sir, even before the landing."
"Well, you're not wrong", Anakin told his comrade who had seen many of the same battles. "I've been feeling a lot of, I don't know what to call it, disturbances I suppose, visions clouding my mind. Can't make any sense of it."
"Could it be a Sith trick?" Rex guessed. His knowledge of the Force and those who wielded it was limited to what he'd seen and heard from the Jedi.
Anakin shook his head. "No, this is something else. Something more."
Then a call came to them on the commlink.
"Sir."
"What is it, trooper?" Rex inquired of Jesse.
"I have a civilian here. Or well, not a civilian exactly."
"Umbaran?"
"No, human. He's not exactly dressed...normally." Rex and Anakin shared a confused look.
"Is he armed?"
"A….slugthrower I think, and a metal shield." Anakin's eyes widened.
"A shield?" Rex questioned, unaware of his General's look.
"Bring him to the camp", Anakin ordered, to his first-in-command's surprise.
"Are you sure, sir?"
"Something tells me we should meet this stranger." While Rex spent much time with the General, he was still a Jedi, and they always confused him.
"Alright. You heard him, Jesse, bring him to the ridge."
"Yes, sir."
Steve patiently waited, but kept his eyes on the skies, not just for more of the flying creatures, but from the explosions that filled the air above and in the distance.
"The General wants to see you. Follow me."
"Very well." Steve got closer, but the white/blue armored trooper held a hand up.
"I'm gonna need the weapon."
Steve never needed a gun, nor did he particularly like using them, even in the war, but he did not wish to be seen as hostile. Using his left hand, having equipped his shield to his back, he pulled the gun out slowly and offered it to the soldier, who examined it through his visor, tilting it in his hand in a way that Steve thought he was confused.
"A slugthrower?"
Raising a brow at the term, Steve hesitantly replied. "It's a pistol."
"Don't usually see these around the galaxy", Jesse commented but lowered his blaster and the gun, gesturing toward the camp where the 501st rested, the strangely dressed man complying.
It didn't take long before they already started to see the walkers when the stranger talked. "My name is Steve, Steve Rogers."
Hmm, seems friendly, Jesse thought. His tone or body language didn't portray any hostility, he gave up his pistol without issue, he could at least share his name. "Jesse."
"Pleasure to meet you."
A small, surprised snort escaped him, but he responded. "Likewise."
Yes, Steve is in Umbara now.
Remember what happened in Umbara? Yeah, its gonna happen here. And no, Steve and Blade won't cross paths in the SW Universe right now, as one is on Umbara, the other on Tatooine, and the Death Watch will be going to Carlac where Lux Bonteri met them anyways after leaving Tatooine.
While Vizsla has recruited Blade for a mission.
And now, within the first 6 episodes of Arrow Season 4, I've managed to fix the show totally. Giving up the whole Queen Consolidated plotline was a stupid move on the writers' part.
Now, I don't mind changes in status quo, but not when the original status quo hasn't even been fully explored.
In 'Angel', they changed the status quo a few times, but each time, every status quo felt fully explored to the ends.
Even if the writers couldn't tell business stories, I mean, you could just do it like Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox, with Bruce doing his thing as Fox runs the business.
99% of the accusations of 'Arrow' ripping off Batman are bullshit, as are the accusations of Arrowverse Oliver Queen being a Bruce Wayne rip-off, but this was one time where the 'Arrow' writers should have actually taken from Batman, because it made sense.
But then again, Arrowverse writers are not exactly known for logical writing. Plus we could get fun plots of Oliver going after corrupt board members of his company.
But anyways, Oliver and Ray both have the company now, and Ray will be like Lucius Fox. Felicity getting to run a business was more stupidity by the writers.
And really, without the Olicity melodrama and Felicity emotionally abusing Oliver, 4x6 was shortened to less than 20 minutes.
While I dislike Olicity a lot, I don't have a burning hatred for it like I have for WestAllen. But in this episode and 4x15, I hated Olicity as much as I hate WestAllen. The scenes where Felicity emotionally abuses Oliver in this episode when he is basically being the perfect boyfriend were really hard to get through.
Meanwhile, the expedition of Aragorn, Batman and Harry to Earth-2 was successful. Three of Zoom's meta-humans are down, while Zoom lost an arm.
The Grodd episode happened off-screen now, and since Grodd was sent to Earth-2 on Harry's suggestion, let's just say Team Flash teamed up with ARGUS here and sent Grodd into an ARGUS prison.
Besides, in Season 3, Grodd did try to do that Gorilla City thing anyways, and in Season 5, King Shark was the hero who stopped him, so Grodd is too far gone to help.
With this, most of Flash Season 2 has been finished.
So after the Vandal Savage crossover, any one-off Flash Season 2 episodes will happen off-screen unless I need to show something important.
Lex and Zemo continue to work together as well.
Due to Cap falling through a breach, some of the Avengers and some of the X-Men have met too.
Nothing much in the SPN world right now, except we continue to see Castiel having some problem whenever the Singularity problem is brought up.
I'm planning another big storyline on the Buffyverse side, and it will be a huge crossover, and it shall start after next chapter.
Meanwhile, Adrian screwed with Oliver again, by having him give that speech to give the city hope, then everyone saw Takeo's body, scaring the city again.
The cameos during the breach hopping were- Connor Hawke as Green Arrow from the Star City 2046 episode (since there is no LOT here, it's a different Earth from the start), John Wesley Shipp's Barry Allen/Flash from the 1990 TV show, Melissa Benoist's Supergirl from the 'Supergirl' TV show (which, at this point, wasn't part of the Arrowverse and didn't air on CW but CBS), Jonah Hex, Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver from the new timeline of the X-Men movies, and finally Earth-2 Batman before they came onto Earth-2. Earth-2 Batman would also be played by Robert Pattinson, so he'd look not too different from Earth-1 Batman.
Anyways, hope everyone enjoyed, and see you all next time with another chapter.