A/N: Chapter ten. This should wrap up the Knightfall segment of the story. Fair warning, this happened to be one of the longer chapters. Especially with the numerous fight scenes, but I just had to wrap up Knightfall in this chapter.

KNIGHTFALL: BATTLE OF HEROES

CENTRAL CITY

2220 EST

"Hey guys…" Barry announced slowly. "Let's talk about this."

With no verbal response, Thea aimed her bow, Diggle and Rene aimed their guns, Hal aimed his ring, Kara prepared her heat vision, Firestorm and Mick readied their weapons and abilities of fire, Amaya summoned an energy spirit of an elephant, Ray prepared his gauntlet weapons.

"Ah shit." Batman muttered under his breath.

The next thing the five of them knew, multiple arrays of bullets, arrows, fire, and energy beams flew their way as the mind-controlled, fallen heroes began attacking them. Their arrays of attacks converged together, striking the spot where the five allies stood side-by-side. The result of the converging attacks was a bright white light, causing the mind-controlled heroes to look away and hold up their arms in front of their eyes as a cover.

Smoke spread and whirled around the area where the five allies had been standing. The mind-controlled heroes finally looked back, carefully focusing on the smoke's clearing. The allies had to be outnumbered and outgunned. It was the five of them against numerous street tiers, the entirety of the Legends, an Amazon, the Green Lantern, a Kryptonian, Cisco, and two speedsters. The smoke eventually cleared as it revealed five vibrating figures behind it. Barry held onto Batman and Oliver while Lyanna held Arthur's shoulder, the two speedsters vibrating their three allies as the five of them phased through the attacks in time. Barry and Lyanna ceased their vibrations as the five allies stood shoulder to shoulder.

"So you don't wanna talk?" Barry asked rhetorically before giving Lyanna a small nod.

The mind-controlled heroes prepared to attack again as Hal, Kara, Firestorm, and Ray flew towards them with Wally and Jesse running forward at super speed, the rest of the mind-controlled ones ran behind them. Quickly, Lyanna stepped forward, vibrating her hands as they coursed with white lightning before clapping them together. A wave of white lightning emerged from her hands as the mind-controlled heroes were all knocked back and sent flying several feet before crashing on the ground. They were visibly dazed and slowed down, but from the look of it, still under Brainiac's influence.

"Just to be clear…" Oliver whispered as he leaned closer to Barry. "You're the one who saved her?"

"I find it equally hard to believe." Lyanna quipped, eavesdropping on the pair as she winked at Barry.

Oliver whispered even quieter as only he and Barry heard what he said next. "If and when you marry that woman, I'm going to the wedding."

"Be my best man." Barry whispered back as he and Oliver stood side-by-side.

"We need to split them up. Divide and conquer," Batman ordered. "Barry, Lyanna, you take Firestorm, Kara, Hal, Wally, and Jesse. Arthur, take Diana. Oliver and I will handle the rest."

"Noted." Arthur said, before propelling himself forward with high speed, strength, and ferocity, leaving behind a brief and powerful wave of wind as he spear-tackled a dazed, mind-controlled Diana, the two of them tumbling across the ground before crashing into a nearby building several yards away.

Barry and Lyanna exchanged a nodded glance before the two raced away from the area at super speed, disappearing in quick flashes of orange and white lightning. Wally, Jesse, Kara, Hal, and Firestorm, under the influence of the mind control, followed them at similar speeds. Not fast enough to reach or surpass them, but fast enough to follow them an intimidatingly close distance.

Back at the debris and remains of STAR Labs, Oliver and Batman stood shoulder to shoulder as they prepared to square off against the rest of the Legends and team Arrow. Diggle, Thea, Rene, Sara, Nate, Mick Rory, Ray, and Amaya. Quickly, Batman threw forward several metal spheres as they rolled on the ground before stopping in front of mind-controlled heroes. Smoke burst from them quickly as in mere seconds, it dispersed all around them, filling the once visible area around them with thick smog. The smoke spread further and further as it began approaching Oliver and Batman, who slowly walked backwards and onto the debris of the destroyed facility of STAR Labs.

"Ever seen a horror movie before?" Batman asked as the smoke reached them and covered the entirety of the debris of STAR Labs and them in it.

"Yeah, why?" Oliver replied, having an idea at what the dark knight was hinting at.

"Time to drop our 'friends' here like some flies." The Dark Knight said before giving Oliver a nod.

Oliver nodded back as he tightened his grip on his bow while Batman clenched his fists. The two split up in opposite directions, disappearing into the smoke as they went after the mind-controlled heroes in the smoked area.

Arthur raised his trident in the air, blocking a strike from a mind-controlled Diana who brought down her sword. Their strength was far too neck-to-neck, neither one of them strong enough to fully overpower the other in their current position. Arthur's hands tightened on the metallic rod of his trident while Diana pushed her sword further down. He looked at her, seeing her forehead glow with red energy.

"We are not your enemies, Diana!" Arthur gritted. "Try to think, damn it!"

Arthur quickly side-stepped to the right, pulling his trident away as Diana's sword struck the ground. Cracks broke through the concrete as her sword was lodged in. Taking a quick split second of opportunity, Arthur rushed her, spinning his trident in front of him at supersonic speeds. Fast enough that it appeared as a blur, even to Diana, before he struck her. Diana was sent flying as the Amazonian crashed through the walls and skidded across the streets of Central City, breaking through the asphalt and concrete of the roads and sidewalk as she did.

Mind-controlled and unable to think, in a bloodlust and rage, Diana lifted her head up, glaring at Arthur as he emerged from the building he'd just thrown her from. She quickly drew her lasso as she threw it at him, Arthur leapt into the air, dodging it as he brought his trident downward at Diana. She quickly drew her shield as the trident struck it, releasing a sonic wave as they were both thrown back. Arthur crashed against the lower end of a building, leaving a deep crater in the concrete as the entire building's foundation began cracking and crumbling. Diana, on the ground and relatively dazed from the previous hit, looked up just in time to see the building tumble over as it collapsed on her and Diana.

Smoke and debris covered the area around the building and for several seconds, the only sound that etched through was that of smoke spread through. Then, Arthur leapt from the debris with Diana hoisted on his shoulder before he crashed her onto the ground. She was on her back as Arthur kneeled on top of her as he struck her with a punch, causing a crater on the ground. He did so repeatedly as the crater under Diana's back deepened with each hit. Arthur then stepped back as he took his trident and watched while Diana sprawled onto her knees and elbows.

"Stand down, Diana," Arthur advised, despite knowing full well that even the Diana he knew would have never done such a thing. "I do not want to fight you and this is not a battle you can or should win."

Under the influence of Brainiac's control, and upon seeing an opportunity, Diana lept in the air, looking down at Arthur as she brought her arms together and smashed her bracelets, releasing a series of sonic waves at him. Arthur quickly reacted as he brought his trident to the ground, the three prongs buried deep into it as he held his stance. The two warriors continued their fight.

"We can't just outrun them forever!" Barry yelled as he and Lyanna ran side-by-side in streaks of orange white lightning.

On the ground, not more than ten or twenty feet behind them, Wally and Jesse chased them with trails of yellow lightning. A few feet above them, Hal, Kara, and Firestorm flew above as the five mind-controlled heroes followed the duo with their own form of super speed or flight. As Barry and Lyanna ran, they turned left and right around corners, the force of their speed breaking car windows and shattering glass from buildings. Despite being faster and ahead, the two speedsters couldn't lose those behind them.

"What do we do?" Lyanna yelled back as she and Barry ran side-by-side.

"I've got an idea," Barry replied. "Head to the water. I'm gonna run in a vortex. Counteract my direction. Just like-"

"Like a tornado." Lyanna nodded. "Got it!"

Barry nodded back as he and Lyanna took off at super speed, heading further and further out of the city before they eventually reached the docks as they ran on the water. With Hal, Firestorm, Kara, Wally, and Jesse hot on their trail, after running a few feet on the water, Barry and Lyanna began running in circles, each of them running in opposite directions. The sheer force of their speed began forming a rising vortex of water past the Central City docks as Hal, Kara, Firestorm, Wally and Jesse were thrown off their balance and sucked into the vortex, trapped in a whirling tornado of water.

For several seconds on end, Barry and Lyanna ran in opposite directions at the top of the water-formed vortex, which had grown up to a hundred feet. Then, Barry and Lyanna began slowing down as the vortex dissipated in a wave of falling water. The two speedsters jumped off as Barry held Lyanna, wrapping his arms around her before he fell onto the ground on his back, shielding her from the fall. He groaned as he leaned back, releasing Lyanna.

"Sorry." Lyanna apologized awkwardly as she found herself on top of Barry.

"Don't worry about it." Barry groaned as she got up before helping him to his feet.

"You alright?" Lyanna asked.

Despite sustaining a few broken bones, Barry managed to stand properly enough and crack a shoulder back into place.

"I'll live." Barry replied wearily.

From the water, Hal, Firestorm, Kara, Wally, and Jesse emerged as they were all drenched and soaked from the vortex. Firestorm, due to the water that had neutralized him, crashed on the ground as Jax and Stein unmerged, laying on the ground unconsciously. Wally and Jesse were knocked out as a mind-controlled Hal and Kara flew them out of the water before dropping them to the ground.

"And then there were two left…" Barry whispered.

"Split them up again?" Lyanna suggested.

Barry nodded. "Keep them on their toes and wear them down. They can't fight forever and they won't last as long as we can."

The two speedsters took off in separate directions with Hal trailing Barry and Kara trailing Lyanna.

At the widespread realm of debris and wreckage of what used to be STAR Labs, smoke conquered the entire area for several yards - for the entire area of the facility grounds that were now destroyed. The area was covered in such a powerful smog that any form of vision didn't allow for visibility for further than two feet. At least, not for the mind-controlled heroes of the Legends and Team Arrow, who split up and slowly crept through the area. Two against an army. A dark knight and an emerald archer roaming in the shadows, choosing their targets carefully and waiting for the correct moment to strike. Their techniques planned and replayed in their mind as they stalked their targets in the smoke. Like predators stalking their prey in a dark forest lit by nothing but weak moonlight.

The mind-controlled heroes had split up. Some into groups of two or three. Some had gone on their own. Their vision couldn't go far. It was their hearing and raw instinct they would have to rely on. But was it enough? Could it be enough for the sheer skill of the emerald archer? The endless chasm of strategy and intellect that was the dark knight's mind? Their combat ability? Their stealth? Their use of weaponry? They didn't know. They didn't care either. Their emotions, lives, personalities, even free will had been stripped away from them. They were just drones of Brainiac. Soldiers stripped of emotional and mental freedom. But could they feel fear?

Thea and Rene, their foreheads glowing with a weak red light to symbolize their mind-control, slowly walked side by side. She notched an arrow on her bow while he kept his gun up. Suddenly, from the corner of Rene's eye, a black shadow whirred past him in the shape of a large bat, moving faster than his mind could process. Fast enough to be just a blur, his perception barely enough as it took him a second to register if he'd really seen something. He quickly turned around and aimed his gun in the direction he'd seen the blur. He stood back-to-back with Rene as they aimed their weapons in opposite directions. Their eyes tuned in for even the slightest move of a shadow, their ears perked up for the sound of anything as light as a pin dropping on a carpet floor. Suddenly, a cable wire with a metal, bat-shaped hook zipped from beyond their vision as it wrapped around Thea's ankle.

Thea, caught off-guard, was pulled from the source of the cable as she fell on her back, her arrow fired off up into the air. She turned to her left and tried to grab her bow but was quickly dragged away by the cable wire on her ankle. She disappeared into the smoke from Rene's vision as he had two seconds to see her reaching away from whatever was dragging her before she was gone. Quickly, under the influence of mind-control, Rene held his gun up at the direction where Thea was taken as he fired quickly. Seven shots. No other sound came after that. Not even a footstep. Just the booming of seven shots. Silence echoed. Then, from his right, a batarang flew from the air and hit Rene's gun, knocking it away from his hand. Rene whirled to his right in the direction of where the weapon flew from as he saw a shadow of a bat before a fist struck his head, knocking him down the ladder of consciousness.

Elsewhere, fire breezed through smoke as Mick Rory aimlessly aimed his heat gun at anything in front of him. He briefly released his finger from the trigger just as an arrow flew from the air before striking the orange tank of the gun, causing an explosion that knocked Mick off his feet as he fell onto his back. He looked up to see a blur of dark green burst into his field of view before punches were thrown at him, his head swinging left, right, left, before a final punch knocked him out. Oliver held his bow with a tight grip as he kneeled over Mick's unconscious body. He looked up as he overheard a pair of footsteps heading towards him. He focused on the sounds of the footsteps he was hearing. Two of them. One of them sounded like metal beating down on concrete, the other seemed to blend in with the sound of animals roaring as a blue light seemed to glow faintly in the direction of the two pairs of footsteps. Nate and Amaya. Oliver realized.

As the two neared towards him, just as they appeared in his field of vision, Oliver quickly drew a tranquilizer arrow as he aimed it at Amaya before firing. The arrow struck her thigh as the sedative went in and took effect within seconds, causing her to drop to the ground unconsciously. Nate charged at Oliver, who let his bow magnetically attack to the back of his quiver as he pulled out a certain arrow of his. The archer rose to his feet and charged back at Nate, who formed his skin to metal as he swung his fist. Oliver quickly ducked before leaping in the air and double-kicking Nate's chest in mid-air, Nate stumbled back, briefly off-guarded by the hit. Quickly, the archer took his chance as he struck his arrow to Nate's neck. The tip of the arrow latched itself on as it sparked with electricity, electrocuting Nate's metal skin. The metal acted as a conductor as Nate dropped to his knees, the electrocution of the arrow completely paralyzing him before he fell on his back, unconscious and knocked out. Oliver unhooked his bow from the magnetic grip on his quiver as he turned around and ran off into the smoke.

Sara Lance kneeled over the unconscious bodies of Cisco Ramon and John Diggle as a smoggy smoke covered and encircled around the two mind-controlled heroes. Beside them, she saw a metal weapon, a sort of throwable knife in the shape of a bat. Her forehead glowing to show her mind-control as she looked around the smogged up smoke that surrounded her. She utilized the best of her senses and training before she quickly whirled around and swung her two batons at the bat-shaped figure behind her. Batman ducked under before getting back up as Sara swung the batons back. With raw strength and speed, Batman blocked the attack, interlocking the batons between both of the gauntlets on his arms. He broke the batons in half, disarming Sara of them before front flipping twice, throwing two wheel kicks to her upper body with each flip before the last wheel kick sent her stumbling back.

"Push yourself harder." Batman dared as he held up his clenched fists in a composed sparring form.

Sara did the same as the two narrowed their eyes at each other for a few seconds of tense silences. The two then charged at one another as Sara whirled around, throwing several tornado kicks at Batman's directions. He ducked and dodged each of the kicks before grabbing Sara's ankle upon the last kick as he grabbed her leg before grabbing her and throwing her to the opposite side. Sara fell to the ground before quickly getting up as she grew more fierce and enraged in her mind-control. She threw a series of rapid-fire attacks at him. Neck chops, punches, back-handed strikes, kicks, sidekicks, tornado-whirling kicks. Batman did his best to dodge and deflect the attacks, the two of them looking to be equal in speed as he pulled his strikes, remembering he couldn't afford serious injury to her or worse. Sara leaped upward as she kicked Batman square in the chest with both feet before landing on the ground. She backrolled, landing on one knee and stretching out her leg in a pose as Batman stumbled back before straightening himself.

"Better than I thought." Batman whispered under his breath.

Sara got up from the ground as she charged at him, front flipping to perform two kicks. Batman quickly stepped to the side before quickly whirling around and doing a turning kick to her stomach. In her perspective, he moved like a blur of black and struck harder than any human possibly could as Sara fell on her back. She stumbled upward as she and Batman traded hand to hand strikes. Focusing on her attack pattern and fighting strategy, Batman mentally analyzed her as an offensive attacker. This meant she left herself exposed relatively often. As she threw a missed punch at him, Batman grabbed her wrist with his left hand before striking her throat with his right fist. Dazed by the hit, Sara stumbled as Batman grabbed her wrist and threw her across his body and down to the ground. He stood above her before dropping his knee to her face, knocking her out.

"You fought well," Batman commended. "You were just on the wrong side unwillingly."

As he took off into the smoke, a couple thoughts crossed his mind. How many more were left? And how could they undo whatever trance or mind-control Brainiac had over them?

Elsewhere, in the smoke, Ray slowly crept up and walked on the ground as he held up both of his arms. The gauntlet weapons on his suit whirred as he prepared to fire them at any incoming threat. The smoke reduced visibility to just about zero for anything more than one or two feet away from him, He utilized the x-ray vision in his visor as he looked forward. Even with the x-ray vision, he currently didn't see much. No active threats. At least not in front of him. He quickly whirled around as he caught an arrow, stopping the tip of it just inches away from his face as he held it. He saw a certain figure in dark-green clothes and a hood lowering his bow as Ray held the arrow. Just as he lowered his arm, electric sparks jumped from the arrow and crept up his suit, which began whirring and beeping as it malfunctioned. He dropped the arrow as he stumbled, his suit malfunctioning for a couple seconds before it calmed. Ray looked back in the direction where Oliver was only to see nothing. Gone. Without a trace or a peep.

Ray looked forward only to slowly turn around and see a black, bat-shaped figure standing just a single foot away from him. He quickly held up his arm and fired a gauntlet blast as the light beam headed his direction. Batman whirled his body back, narrowly dodging the blast before perceiving blitzing Ray with a strike. The punch broke through his visor as his fist connected Ray's nose, knocking him back. Ray aimed both of his gauntlets at Batman before firing while the dark knight leapt upward acrobatically, avoiding the blasts as he front-rolled towards Ray to break his fall before striking his chest, punching a hole in his at the very heart of it. Ray swung his left fist towards Batman, who responded by catching his wrist with one hand and shattering the gauntlet weapon with his other arm. Ray stumbled back, seeing his damaged left gauntlet spitting electric sparks before powering down. He then powered towards Batman with his right fist before the dark knight repeated the same maneuver. Both of Ray's power gauntlets were damaged and sparking with electricity. Batman immediately took his chance as he attacked Ray with a barrage of fast-paced, hard-hitting strikes. Punches to his face, knee strikes to his stomach, kicks to his knees. He then front flipped, performing two wheel kicks at Ray, who was knocked down as he fell to the ground. As he looked up, the last thing he saw was a blur of dark green striking down a bow at him before he was knocked out.

Oliver rose to his feet as his glance met Batman's. "Is that all of them?"

"I handled Thea, Rene, Diggle, Sara, and Cisco." Batman informed. "You?"

"Took out the others." Oliver replied. "That should be all of them on our end. How long until this smoke clears out?"

"A few more minutes." Batman said. "Let's find a clear path out of here and round up the others."

Arthur dragged Diana's unconscious body by the ankle of her leg as he neared the damaged debris of the now-destroyed STAR Labs facility. Smoke that had swallowed in the area had dispersed. He saw Batman and Oliver standing beside the unconscious bodies of Cisco, the rest of Team Arrow, and the Legends. He dropped Diana's body beside them before flashes of orange and white lightning whirled around them as Hal, Kara, Wally, Jax, Stein, and Jesse's unconscious forms joined the rest of the heroes who'd fallen under mind-control.

"That's all of them." Barry sighed.

"This couldn't have been Brainiac's main goal," Batman said in a warning tone. "This and destroying STAR Labs. It has to be a sort of distraction."

Lyanna let out an incredulous scoff. "Not that you're wrong, but if this was a distraction, the main event must be a bloody nightmare."

"What was he distracting us for exactly?" Arthur asked as he, Barry, Oliver, Lyanna, and Batman stood over the rest of their unconscious friends.

"Guys!" a woman's voice echoed from the debris of STAR Labs.

THe five of them turned to see Felicity half-carrying a limping Lyla, who had her left arm swung onto her neck. Barry immediately frowned in worry upon seeing only two women when there should have been three.

"Where's Caitlin?" Barry demanded.

"They took her…" Lyla gasped, her breathing ragged. "The Dominators took her."

"We can't stay here." Batman said urgently as he noticed some of the unconscious heroes starting to slowly awaken. "Barry, get us back to base. Lyanna, follow Barry and help him get all of us there."

The two speedsters nodded as numerous flickers of orange and white lightning before everyone disappeared from the destroyed remains and wreckage of where STAR Labs once stood tall. It seemed that this would be the last time Barry would be speeding away from it and in the back of his mind, he thought of all the memories - good, painful, and both - that had come from his former base of operations.

NEPAL-TIBET BORDER

MOUNT EVEREST

2300 EST - LOCAL TIME: 0845 HOURS

At the very top of Mount Everest, a machine roughly ten feet tall glowed with blue light as blue energy and electric sparks danced all over it. Inside the machine, Caitlin Snow, now turned into Killer Frost without any meta-dampening technology to hold alternate ego back, groaned as she clenched her fists tugging against the metal restraints on her wrists, ankles and waist. Despite the cold smoke that came from her hands and the ice she could create, she couldn't break out of the machine or through the restraints that held her in place. Frost hissed and groaned as she felt several needles from the machine enter her skin on her face, arms, and legs. It felt as if the machine was absorbing her powers, powering itself off of her. Like a solar panel to the sun.

A few hundred feet above, in his massive, skull-shaped ship with its several, long tentacles, Brainiac stood before the glass window in his throne room. His hands behind his back, his own eight tentacles beside him as he looked down with a look of stoic satisfaction.

"Is the machine ready?" Brainiac asked.

"Yes, my lord." A Dominator responded with a bow.

Brainiac hummed in response. "Detonate it. Now."

The Dominator turned to a holographic panel beside it as the creature pressed a button, which responded with a beep. As the device powered and glowed with blue light, Brainiac couldn't help but smirk.

"And now Hell shall freeze over." Brainiac whispered.

Inside the machine, Frost screamed as her voice echoed in a cold tone, electricity swarmed the machine before it sent off an explosion. An omni-directional, dome-like wave of whitish-blue smoke expanded from the mountain as it spread on and on before disappearing from her point of view. Above in his ship, Brainiac watched as the wave expanded across the mountain, then the country, and continued to envelop the rest of the world.

CENTRAL CITY

"How are they?" Batman asked as Barry and Lyanna approached him, Oliver, and Arthur, the five of them standing a few feet away from the rest of the heroes, who seemed to be recovering, albeit weakly, from the effects of mind control.

"Better." Lyanna replied.

"We ran diagnostics on all of them," Barry explained. "They're good. Whatever mind control Brainiac put them under, it's subsided. For now, anyway."

Oliver crossed arms as he nodded. "We better keep a close eye on them still. Just in case."

"Oliver's right," Batman added. "For all we know, the mind control could just be dormant. Let them all rest but for now, watch them carefully."

"Hey guys?" Felicity called out in a tone mixed with fear and weariness as she sat behind a desk of numerous computers. "You might wanna see this…"

The five of them approached her as they all stood behind her. On the main computer screen, they saw a blue 2-D, rotating model of earth as a sort of satellite simulation went through it. From somewhere on the China-Nepal border, a white wave boomed as it began spreading omni-directionally in a circle formation all over the group. It was expanding quickly, enveloping the entirety of Asia in a matter of ten seconds and accelerated its speed drastically.

"It's coming from Mount Everest." Batman deduced.

"And spreading." Arthur said warningly.

"It's gonna encase the globe," Lyla sighed as sat in a wheelchair, her leg in a cast. "How long until it reaches Central City?"

"At this rate…" Felicity replied as she rapidly typed on her computers before pulling up a countdown sequence as she stared in horror. "We have thirty seconds before it covers the entire globe and converges here in Central City."

"Lock down this building." Batman replied.

At super speed and in trails of orange and white lighting respectively, Barry and Lyanna rushed over to the hangar doors as they pushed each one before closing them. Barry pressed the red button beside them as locks on the doors connected with each other. The other heroes seemed to notice the urgency.

"What's going on?" Thea asked, a hint of worry spiking into her tone.

"There's some sort of wave spread across the entire world," Barry explained quickly. "And we have less than thirty seconds before it converges here in Central City."

"It's a tsunami?" Mick Rory asked incredulously.

"No," Arthur said grimly, holding his trident with a tight grip. "I can feel the oceans as well as billions of creatures in the sea. It's no tsunami or tidal wave, but whatever it is…it's cold. Arctic cold."

Suddenly, the entire building began shaking with tremors as the heroes were taken aback by the rumbling. Through the window, Barry could see a whitish-blue, powerful-blowing, foggy wind going on for a few seconds before it left as the rumbling subsided. After the wind left, Barry could see what looked like snow falling as he turned to Felicity.

"It's done," Felicity sighed. "The wave's encased the world. Temperatures all over the world have dropped drastically."

"How bad?" Lyanna asked.

"Negatives in Fahrenheit and Celsius, all over." Felicity responded.

Cisco let out a gasp. "That's why Brainiac took Caitlin. He wanted to freeze the world."

Barry turned around as orange lightning coursed through his body before he sped away, phasing through the doors. The other heroes could only watch him leave in less time than the blink of an eye took. He sped through the city, running through snow and ice before he stopped at the rooftop of Central City's tallest building, looking around. Strong winds blew the falling snow from the clouds as the moon and the rest of the night sky shined, acting as the only source of light. Snow was heaped all over the streets and buildings. Ice reconnected the destroyed bridges as several chaotic ice sculptures throughout the streets, some of them tore through buildings and even caused them to collapse. Barry could only look in horror and shock.

"Brainiac, you psychopath, what've you done?" Barry whispered.

"Barry!" Cisco's voice cut into his comms piece. "Barry, come in!"

"I'm here," Barry replied, his breath visible in the cold air as he spoke. "You guys seeing this?"

"We are," Cisco confirmed. "But we got bigger problems on our hands right now. Brainiac's sent some sort of bomb and it's a whole lot stronger than a nuke. It's got enough energy to wipe out an entire state based on our readings."

"Where and how much time?" Barry said, shaking his mind off the shock as he realized he had to focus.

"Washington state, STAR City." Batman replied as he chimed into the comms section. "Two minutes to impact."

"Tell Lyanna, Wally, and Jesse to speed over." Barry commanded. "I'll meet them there."

"Already on the way." Oliver replied. "Kara and Hal are en route as well. And Firestorm. And Barry…save my city. You're the only one who can."

Barry sighed, not having a proper response. The old Barry Allen would've given any response to assure Oliver, but after today, he wasn't so sure nor was he optimistic. He didn't want to take the risk of making a promise he wasn't entirely sure he could keep. Regardless, he straightened his back and shoulders before running off in a flash of orange lightning. He had an entire city - an entire state - to save from a bomb sent by an alien who came to this earth for him.

A/N: Well damn, to think all of this has happened in one day in this story (yes, it has). The next chapter, in terms of days, will wrap up the rest of the day this story has taken place in so far. There's going to be a bit of a time jump in this story, especially with what has happened.

In case I didn't imply it well enough, the device Brainiac detonated (via absorbing Caitlin/Frost's cold powers) basically sent the world into an ice age. So, now the whole world is basically covered in Antarctica weather.

The cold wave spread through the world, including the oceans and seas, which we know Aquaman can sense as per DC Comics, hence why he could sort of sense the cold wave.

Hope the fight scenes were good. I don't know about you guys, but man would Daredevil have a field day with that fight scene in the smoke at STAR Labs' remains. What do you think?

Also, the 'base' that the heroes went back to is the one from the canon Invasion crossover. I mentioned I'd be using the one as well in this story and with STAR Labs destroyed, it only makes sense for the heroes to go there.

The Legends' (and others heroes') confrontation with Barry on Flashpoint will happen, now that the Legends know about Barry changing timeline as of the eighth chapter. I don't support how they handled it in canon and I'm not on their side when they handle it in this story either. However, it does have to happen, otherwise it just becomes a major plot issue at that point.

Sorry that the rest of the fight scene of Barry vs Hal and Lyanna vs Kara got cut off, but this chapter had gotten too long with the smoke fight of Batman and Oliver against Team Arrow and the Legends. I might add the missing fight scenes as broken-up flashbacks to the upcoming chapters if I have space for it. If not, then just make up some headcanon for yourselves.