Crossroads to Crisis
Prologue: Heroes and Villains
Earth-166666
2 years ago,
Frances Beck rolled her eyes underneath her helmet, as the crowd burst in cheers. The sounds of applaud pleased her, but like so many times, it did little to fill the emptiness in her heart. Something always felt missing, and today was no different.
She was in her full costume… a green suit with a purple cape and a dome shaped helmet that completely hid her face. The persona of Mysterio, a creation of her late adopted brother.
If the audience did not know who was behind the mask, they were intrigued from the start. It was a subconscious signal that maybe they were not supposed to figure out the mechanism of her tricks, merely revel in the mystery.
She loved the theatrics, while her brother had always loved the deception. Not that she hated it, but she was not a genius like Quentin was, merely a good learner.
The applause ended abruptly, immediately replaced by cries of fear and disbelief as random people in the crowd eroded to dust without any warning.
In recent years, with the advent of superheroes, she had heard of many strange and scary things, but none like this.
Then she felt it herself.
An uneasiness like no other.
A crippling weakness.
A feeling of being turned inside out.
She looked at her gloved hands, which slowly became specks of dust. The process soon spreading all over her body, making her too terrified to scream… It was not agony, neither was it peaceful… It was just unsettling.
It should not end like this.
Not when she had so much more to do.
That was the last thought that her mind had, before she was swallowed by the oblivion.
And then, she was back again.
Other people said she had been gone for a day or two, even though it felt like much more.
She felt like a different person altogether, or maybe for the first time in forever, she truly felt like herself.
Frances Beck had been an ambitious stage magician with dreams of fame and clout, but no longer…
Those were paltry goals.
Why settle for card tricks and illusions, when there was actual magic in the world?
Magic, she was denied.
Oh, she was not Frances anymore.
Well, not just Frances.
It had been a fun ride, and not totally worthless…
She did like how Mysterio sounded… and a dual identity might keep the nosy sorcerers of Kamar Taj off her back long enough for her to reacquire some of her assets.
After that, it would be payback time.
Agatha Harkness was back, and she remembered everything.
Centuries ago…
Salem was reduced to ashes, its inhabitants, mortal and magical alike, were incinerated by the waves of raw power that collided against each other.
"You killed them all!" Agatha screamed in fury, her face contorted in agony, as she felt her links to her coven… her sisters, her children, flicker out.
"You have only yourself to blame, witch!" The Ancient One said coldly, not caring for the bloodshed around them… the raging flames that had devoured everyone in the town.
""You have the power of a demon flowing through your veins, and yet you judge me!" Agatha spat.
"Semantics." The androgynous woman waved her hand, as she passed through the flames unscathed, her bright yellow robes not scorched in the slightest, while Agatha was covered in ashes, her purple robes torn at various places.
As crazy as she was, Agatha knew she could not win this fight, not when her opponent was a much older and more experienced mage, with the addition of having extradimensional demonic energies backing her along with the power of time itself.
The Ancient One had orchestrated this attack on the night of the Belthane, a time where all the covens of their close-knit community had gathered… all the witches and warlocks of their bloodline.
And she had massacred them all in the blink of an eye.
Just because their powers frightened her.
As if decreeing their magic as "unnatural" and shunning them from rest of the arcane community was not enough punishment for just existing…
But there was one thing… one magic the Ancient One couldn't have known about, a secret she had kept closely guarded.
Not all her family was lost in the carnage today.
A single survivor carried on in the wilderness, a lone wolf… quite literally.
Banishment for his petty insubordination had seemed like a step too far, but now Agatha considered it a boon from Hecate herself.
His son still lived, and so does her bloodline, and her chance for vengeance.
Purple fumes swirled around her, as she gathered up her energies. No matter what, the bald hypocrite should not get an inkling of what she was attempting to do, which meant putting up a decent distraction.
Thorny vines erupted from the barren terrain, and enclosed around the Ancient One, who promptly turned the vicious flora into dust with a burst of green temporal energies.
"Give up now, and I will show you mercy. A quick painless death." She said, her voice melodic like a siren's song. No wonder she had converted the Masters of Mystic Arts from the pillar of the community to a cult.
"I have no need for your mercy!" Agatha spat, taking to the air.
Unfortunately for her, the Ancient One had prior knowledge of her peculiar abilities, which meant she could not trick her into a direct magical duel and siphon her powers, but even without that, she could put up quite a fight.
Winning this was impossible, but she would be damned if she did not make that pretentious prick bleed.
"Incendio Maledictum!" She chanted, pouring her magic into the spell, and watched with demented glee from above as the sorceress lit up in flames.
It would buy her a fraction of a second, and that was all she would need.
Her coven… her family might be dead, but the soil was littered with their bones and the dirt stained with their blood. Their magical energies hung around like a thick smog, which she started to channel into her own body.
Her eyes shifted into serpentine slits of purple flames. Her arms lit up with mana, and cracks started to appear in her skin.
There was a reason she had never absorbed the magic of so many people before. It was beyond something a mortal shell of flesh could contain, but she didn't need it to hold.
The Ancient One had swatted off the flames, and looked up at her, not yet realizing what she had done. She swirled her hands, making golden spell circles as she took to the skies herself, facing her.
Agatha smirked, diving headfast at her, clutching her form as they tumbled down, and she let go of the power she was holding.
Her body exploded, taking the Ancient One down with her, and the sky turned purple following the expulsion of her magic.
The Eye of Agamotto clattered on the ground, and it stayed there for a quick second, before a green spell circle appeared underneath, and ashes were restored into flesh and blood, resurrecting the Ancient One's form. Her naked form laid in a fetal position, as she grew oriented to what had transpired moments before.
In thousands of years, no one had ever been able to defeat her in a duel even once till today. Though she had come out the sole survivor and victor by technicality, the witch had shown she was no pushover.
She got up to her feet and rotated her hands. Strands of green energy flowed out from her amulet, and she was clad in her robes almost instantaneously. She extended her hands, and the time magic creeped to her arms, reforming her slip ring as well.
She looked around and sighed.
All this could have been avoided.
If only that coven had listened to her.
She had done worse things in the name of the greater good, including surrendered entire dimensions to oblivion and eradicated entire timelines from existence, yet this time, it felt more visceral.
Yet like all the other times, she really did not have a choice.
The Ancient One rotated her hands, summoning a portal back to her abode in Kamar Taj, and walked through it, her heart heavy but satisfied in knowing that she had culled yet another threat to her dimension, not realizing how wrong she was…
For while Agatha's mortal form had perished, her consciousness persisted. Moments before her body essentially became the equivalent of a bomb, she used a tiny silver of her magic to bind her soul to her bloodline.
Her consciousness existed in the backdrop of the mind of her estranged son, Nicholas Scratch, and would continue to pass on to his scions, till the day, one of their descendants would be born with sufficient magical energies to awaken her consciousness.
She had essentially put in the groundworks for her reincarnation into a new body… a body powerful enough to cast magic that could defeat the Ancient One.
However, things did not go according to plan, because of the single most chaotic event in the history of the multiverse.
The Snap.
It preemptively revived her in the body of one of her descendants, the one with the strongest magical potential of her bloodline as of now, but with the unexpected side effect of fusing her consciousness with that of Frances Beck, otherwise known as Mysterio.
It was mostly inconsequential, since Agatha became the dominant personality, but aspects of Frances bled into her individuality, one of which being the adoption of the pseudonym Mysterio.
Current day…
"Bitch!" Mysterio screamed in indignation for the fifteenth time, as she was stranded in the Mirror Realm for what felt like hours.
It was one thing to be defeated by a fellow witch, but being outsmarted by a novice without any magic… That was an insult on whole another level.
The infuriating arachnid had somehow managed to capture her in her own enchantments, suspending her from a middle of a fake lamppost, her form wrapped up in web and her hands bound. And even though she had her slip ring, it was useless if she could not make hand motions.
Oh, how she hated that accursed Spider Woman.
The plan after her return was simple. Gather intelligence and find a way to defeat the Ancient One, only for her to discover that her sworn enemy had already died, and the new Sorceress Supreme was an infant, yet born with tremendous power that made the Ancient One look like an amateur.
Mysterio had redirected her efforts to increase her own magic, and at that moment, hunting down a street vigilante who had the powers of a spider totem, and yet showed no visible magical abilities seemed like fun and less taxing than a witch fight.
The plan had backfired.
Just then, she felt the web bindings loosen slightly, and she snapped into alertness.
It was still glued to her hands, but she could move her fingers.
She took a deep breath, reeling in her anger, and trying to harness the ambient magic in the dimension, but not enough to risk hurting herself or sending a beacon to any of the trapped creatures in here.
Bolts of purple magic escaped her hands, and the web vanished, liberating her from the humiliating position.
She took a deep breath, rotating her hands in a circular motion, and summoning a portal away from here.
As she returned to her home, Agatha breathed a sigh of relief.
She had made a gross error in her judgement.
The spider was not just a measly bug she could just step on and siphon the totem's magic. Somehow even without accessing the full potential of the totem through magic, the girl had predicted her attacks and dodged her spells with an uncanny luck.
She was not to be underestimated.
And after the humiliation Agatha went through, she was not letting the girl go off easy, and this entire encounter made the Spider Totem more enticing to her.
As much as it hurt her to admit it, beating the bug to submission was not going to be a one-woman job.
She needed help.
A team sinister enough to outwit and overpower the spider.
Thankfully, New York City was in no shortage of supervillains.
Agatha removed her helmet and smirked.
"Oh, this is gonna be a gas!"
Earth-2
Central City
For the longest time, Jesse Wells had no purpose. She was her father's daughter- a prodigy who could understand the intricate complexities of science, with the barest of efforts, but she wanted more... an identity of her own.
Getting hit by the dark matter explosion, which gave her a connection to the Speedforce, gave her the purpose she so desperately needed… to be a hero in the footsteps of not only those who had saved her from Zoom- Barry Allen, the Flash of Earth 1 and his team, but also her mother, Libby Lawrence.
Her mother had died when she was a child, and Jesse had always been told that it was while she was on a road trip with some old friends. The circumstances around her death had remained mysterious till recently, when one of her mother's friends, a man by the name of Pat Dugan contacted her father and her, revealing that Libby had been part of an elite team of covert superheroes called the Justice Society of America, and that she and most of her team had been murdered by another secret society, but one comprising of superpowered criminals called the Injustice Society.
Pat was mentoring a new team to be the next generation of Justice Society, surprisingly consisting of teenagers from Blue Valley, Nebraska, who had defeated the ISA and with the threat of ISA no longer hanging over them, Pat had been reaching out to the families of his fallen friends, revealing the truth about their hidden past as superheroes.
Pat had shown them folders containing photographs of Libby in her superhero form fighting all sorts of supervillains as well as simpler photographs of her just hanging out with her teammates, and even after all these years, the revelation gave her closure.
Her dad had been shocked and a little betrayed as to why Libby had never confided in him, but Pat had assured him it was nothing personal- merely a precaution they had all taken to ensure that the ISA could not track their families.
Her mom got her powers from an hourglass amulet created by one of her teammates, which gave her enhanced speed and healing for a limited timeframe. Pat had deduced that she was the speedster of Central City, which had been an additional incentive for him to reach out to her.
Her dad theorized that the Dark Matter blast might have activated latent residual energies she might have inherited, and boosted her to be a full-fledged speedster.
Pat had left but not before giving her an invitation to join the JSA, something she had considered but ultimately declined, knowing Central City needed her more, but she was glad either way that Pat had reached out to her.
Barry, Wally, Jay and even his successor had embraced the moniker of the Flash, but somehow, she could not bring herself to do the same. Maybe it reminded her of the time Zoom had masqueraded as the resident Flash of Earth 2 or maybe it was something else. She just did not feel right calling herself the Flash…
And now, she knew why.
Because she was destined to walk in her mother's footsteps as the Liberty Belle.
Earth-2808
Earth had gone through some major changes in recent years. Of course, things had not been the same since the early 90s, when humanity was attacked by the space witch Rita Repulsa and quickly forced to accept that the two things mankind had always relegated as fiction… alien life forms and supernatural forces, both were very real. But the same day, they realized that with supervillains, came superheroes… the Power Rangers, a group of five mysterious beings clad in different coloured spandex, wielding both medieval weapons and advanced laser blasters, and trained in martial arts. They also piloted giant mechanical dinosaurs, to fight similarly sized monsters.
Over the years, the teams changed, and so did their motifs and zords… from dinosaurs to mythical creatures, wild animals, vehicles and spaceships, but for the most part, their interference in human history was limited to battles against supervillains.
But then, things changed.
1999, Earth entered a loose alliance with alien representatives from other planets, and with their guidance, created a massive ship capable of interstellar flight and hosting an entire city with artificial biomes. Thus, the Terra Venture Mark 1, humanity's first space colony was formed. Others followed, but they mostly stayed in orbit of the planet instead of trying to venture further into the galaxy, after the loss of communications with Terra Venture, though it was later established that the inhabitants of Terra Venture found a new home with the people of planet Mirinoi.
Concurrently, NASADA, an international offshoot of NASA, formed following the existence of sentient alien life, developed a separate wing for S.P.D., an interstellar police organization.
2001, S.P.D. discovered that humans have known about the existence of aliens for decades, and have been conducting unethical experimentation on captured aliens for decades in several places marked simply as "Areas", including the infamous "Area 51" as well as several other locations, including "Area 62" near a city called Pinewood Ridge. Though they successfully shut down the operations, and liberated the aliens, it strained intergalactic relations, and negotiations of Earth
2006, the city of Briarwood discovered that in the woods surrounding it, was a gateway to a separate dimension, one filled with magical beings of legends and fairytales.
2022, following the final battle of the Dino Fury rangers, refugees from the planet Rafkon took up shelter in the abandoned Area 62 warehouse and its surroundings.
2023, when Lord Zedd attacked and laid siege on the planet, the Rafkonians were key in the resistance movement, which earned them the goodwill of humanity. Since Earth had a vast number of ranger teams, it was regarded as one of the safest places in the galaxy, especially after the fall of Eltar, and refugees from destroyed planets made their way to Earth. The United Nations promptly sanctioned the formation of New Tech City, a space where aliens can live in harmony with humanity with S.P.D. setting a base there.
2025, Earth was again attacked by an alien empire… the Troobian Empire, but the alliance with S.P.D. paid off, as the SPD rangers fought off the invasion.
Though the world was changing rapidly, nothing could have prepared humanity for what came next.
A threat that no one expected.
2032, Millions across the galaxy just disintegrated into dust.
The Dusting.
It claimed half the population of any planet, including many rangers and their loved ones.
And the rangers of Earth got together to assess the situation, even calling in aid from their allies from other dimensions… only to discover that the same event had happened there as well.
Before they could investigate more, the individuals reappeared. Though not the ones who were claimed in resulting accidents from the initial event, which meant there was still a mass casualty.
And no one saw this coming…
Not even the Time Force or the various clairvoyant mages of the Mystic Dimension.
So, the representatives of ranger teams sought a way to communicate with the only ones who could know what was going on…
The Command Center (underneath Cranston Tech Building in the outskirts of Angel Grove)
"Are you sure about this?" Kendall Morgan the Purple Dino Charge ranger from the Dino Charge dimension (Earth-2808-D) asked.
"I am hardly wrong on these matters." Dr. K said briskly, as she checked the connections between the cables to the huge crystalline structure they were attached to, in the center of the laboratory. She was the mentor and the inventor of the ranger series operator morphers from the R.P.M. dimension (Earth-2808-V).
Billy Cranston the blue ranger sighed, as he looked at the various scientists and rangers talk with each other. Alpha 9, Cameron Watanabe the Green Samurai ranger, Nate Silva the Gold Beast Morphers ranger and the tech experts of the Lightspeed Rescue, Dino Thunder, and Operation Overdrive teams- Dr. Angela Rawlings, Hayely Ziktor and Andrew Hartford looked over the calculations one more time.
Several other rangers were here as well, as representatives of individual teams in addition to all members of the Cosmic Fury team.
"Hey, it is going to be okay." A gentle voice said, as Billy felt an assuring hand on his shoulder.
"I sure hope so." Billy said, turning around to face the yellow ranger of his team, Minh Kwan. "It's just that the last time I tried to communicate with an extradimensional being…"
"I know…" Minh said.
"I am sorry." He winced, remembering whom he was speaking to.
"Nothing bad will happen this time. You are not working alone anymore. You have the best minds in the universe… heck, multiverse, maybe, working with you, and you have multiple teams of rangers as backup, in case something goes wrong." She said calmly. "Don't worry."
Billy smiled at her. She was no longer the impulsive fifteen-year-old who became a ranger trying to avenge her mother, but a grown woman who was just as kind and intelligent as her mother before her.
"Thank you."
"Anytime." She gave him a quick hug just as Rose Ortiz and Ethan James came up, holding holographic tablets showing that they have checked the equations and energy outputs.
"We are ready." He said, turning around. "Everyone, take your places. Alpha, begin the process."
The scientists working on the apparatus backed up, as green fluid passed through the cables… Morph-X courtesy of Grid Battleforce, and funneled into the crystalline structure, which was shaped like a shuriken, the Ninja Nexus star, which had conveniently appeared on Earth again.
Billy could hear Mick Kanic fidgeting behind him. Knowing his history with the Ninja Steel rangers, Mick was the one with most knowledge on the Nexus Star, and his involvement was crucial in this mission.
Amelia Jones the Red Cosmic Fury ranger and her teammates came forward, as the star flared to life, and a portal began to generate in front of it. Her team was the first in centuries to have direct contact with the Morphin Masters, and their former leader IS a Morphin Master himself.
The portal suddenly flickered out, and everyone looked at each other in disappointment.
"No…" Aiyon the Gold ranger murmured crestfallen. Amelia sighed, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I am sorry, Aiyon. I wanted to see him too. We all did." Izzy the Green ranger said.
"What happened?" Minh asked.
"I don't know." Billy said, as he and the various scientists looked at the computer screens and holographic projections, hoping to figure out what went wrong. "The ninja nexus prism is the only artefact in the universe that has direct contact with the Morphin Masters, who often use it as a medium to observe our universe from within the Morphin Grid. We were attempting to reverse the process of sorts, hoping it would grant us an audience with them."
"The readings… everything adds up." Nate sighed.
"Which means that the portal was closed from the other side." Ollie the Blue Cosmic Fury ranger said dejectedly.
"It means we are on our own." Billy grimaced. "Whatever is going on, the Morphin Masters won't help."
"That doesn't sound like them." Amelia murmured.
"No, it sounds exactly like them. Except Zayto and Master Green, none of the others have been eager to help us or directly intervene before." Javi pointed out, his voice dripping with accusation.
"It was a long shot anyway." Billy said.
Just then, the crystal started to hover from the ground, and the cables attached to its surface fell off, as it started to whirl around rapidly.
"What is happening?" Minh asked.
"Nothing we are doing." Billy snapped into action. "Rangers, be ready to morph."
"No need." Said an all-encompassing voice, as the central spherical surface of the crystal became liquid, and a being popped up from the surface. A being in regal white armour, with a pale-yellow cape.
"Zayto!" Aiyon cried out in relief and happiness as he ran over to tackle him in a hug, the other rangers of his team following closely behind.
"I missed you guys too!" He laughed. "Though I have been watching over you guys always."
"Your portal worked but Master Blue shut it down almost immediately. It took me and Master Green decades to convince the others to allow me to communicate with you guys."
"Decades?" Fern the Orange ranger asked.
"Time passes differently in the Morphin Grid." He said, as he let go of the rangers. "I do not have much time. Every second I am here on this plane of reality, we risk drawing unwanted attention."
"What do you mean?" Izzy the green ranger asked.
"The conflicts ahead will be bigger than anything we have ever faced before." He said, before looking ahead to address the others in the room. "I have the answers you all seek, but I am afraid you won't like them much."
He raised his staff, and their surroundings were replaced by a 3-dimension holographic projection of several figures fighting a purple alien in a forested area.
"It is kind of a long story." He started. "The origin of our current predicament was in another universe when a being known as Thanos gathered powerful objects known as the Infinity Stones..."
Earth-38
Gotham had seen a few years of relative peace and quiet following a mysterious explosion at Arkham Asylum, which was rumored to have killed most of its residents including notorious criminals like the Joker, Riddler, Black Mask, Bane, and others.
After that, the criminal element that had once plagued the city dwindled down, but Dick Grayson knew it was not over… not by a long shot.
He pushed his wheelchair to move past the glass cylinders where the old suits were preserved. He sighed, looking at his own former Robin suit.
He had found a way to continue doing his part in protecting the people of Gotham, and he had come to peace with the realities and limitations of his current condition, the events of that day still haunted him…
Bruce was barely able to save his life, but it was still too late.
The nerve damage had been too intensive, and even the best neurosurgeons in the world had not been able to reverse it.
It was that event that had tipped Bruce over the edge. He had disappeared from the surface of the earth, and the explosion at Arkham happened a week later.
It didn't take a genius to connect the dots.
And there was a vial of Lazarus waters he found on his desk a month later. He was so tempted to inject it to his veins, and have the waters heal him… But it would not be right. Other victims of the Joker did not get a second chance to be okay, and that's if they survived whatever demented torture that madman put them through.
Besides, he knew the price of the waters.
Heck, Bruce was the one who had told him that Ra's al Ghul became more and more deranged every time he used the waters. Using it came at the cost of losing his sanity.
Though Dick supposed that the waters were not going to be harmful to his sanity at a low dose, but he did not want to risk using it.
He had stored it in one of Bruce's vaults, keeping it for a real emergency.
He knew Bruce was the one who had sent it to him, and that all but confirmed where he was… Nanda Parbat.
Bruce's faith that Gotham could be better had finally been shaken.
He had joined the League of Assassins… an organization he detested.
And worst of all, he had broken his sacred rule… the one thing he swore he would never do… He had taken lives.
Dick didn't think Bruce was beyond redemption. He would never think that. Heck, someone like Harley Quinn can see the light, Bruce was not beyond getting back to his senses.
And while he hated it, a small part of him was glad that the Joker was finally gone.
There were 'superheroes' and 'vigilantes' who killed depraved monsters… And that did not make them monsters, merely soldiers in a war, where they were forced to make hard decisions.
But he knew how Bruce thought.
After breaking his code, he would never become Batman again, and he was Batman. Had been, ever since the day his parents died.
Bruce thought of himself as a monster.
And Dick absolutely abhorred the fact that Bruce was forced to become who he was, because of him…
Dick shook his head. It wasn't his fault. He knew that.
Bruce could have made a different choice.
He could have believed in justice, just like he had done so many times before…
If anything, it was the Joker's fault.
He ruined everything.
Bruce… his second father was gone.
Bruce must be hating himself for what he had done.
And the League… the accursed League had preyed on his moment of weakness to turn him into one of theirs.
He couldn't blame Bruce. He wouldn't.
He didn't know what lines he would have crossed if someone had hurt Bruce.
Damn it, if Alfred was still alive, he would have been able to stop Bruce. But he wasn't here…
Part of him wanted to go after him, but he knew he was in no condition to trek Everest to reach the secret lair of the League, and even if he somehow did, he knew Bruce wouldn't talk to him unless it was on his own terms.
Besides, he had other matters to concern himself with.
After Bruce was gone, Gotham still needed someone to protect the people of Gotham. For a while, he had helped the GCPD by hacking into their servers and leaving anonymous tips, but it wasn't enough. Thankfully, Gotham soon got another hero.
Bruce's cousin, Elizabeth 'Bette' Kane had moved into the manor shortly after Bruce's disappearance and though he tried to tell her he didn't need her help, she was persistent, till he relented and let her help take care of him, drive him to his doctor's appointments, board meetings and such.
A year after the Arkham explosion, Bette had found one of the hidden entrances to the Batcave, and Dick was forced to come clean about everything.
Beth had surprisingly taken it well…
Or at least he had thought she had.
Till the next day, a new Robin was in the headlines for stopping a mugging.
He had forgotten, that just like Bruce, Bette had lost people. Her father and sister to one of the many crimes orchestrated by the Joker, and her mother had taken her own life soon after, leaving her in the care of her grandparents till she grew up.
Dick had been furious, but Bette had refused to stop. The city needed a hero, she had. It was the legacy Bruce had left behind, and the responsibility Dick wasn't able to continue himself.
He had eventually agreed, but only so he could keep an eye on her. He trained her the best he could, tutored and mentored her the same way Bruce had guided him, till she was ready…
He didn't like it.
Heck, he wondered if this was how Bruce felt when he became Robin.
But Bette was not a Robin replacement or a replacement for Batman.
She was not like them.
She was hopeful and optimistic; in a way Bruce and he never were.
Bette reminded him of Superman in many ways… and an old kryptonian legend he had once told him came to mind… Of a hero called Flamebird.
That was the perfect name for Bette, and she approved wholeheartedly.
Flamebird became Gotham's newest protector, and he remained behind the computer, assessing threats, disabling security feeds, and gathering intel. Despite not being able to fight himself, he was still able to use his IT skills to help save the city.
Oracle…
That was what Bette named him.
And he supposed the name fits.
Together, the two of them tried to keep the streets of Gotham clean. Though the big guns were gone, the crime families still operated and there were always the occasional muggers and rarely, ruffians or disgruntled scientists who got their hands of some of the left-over weapons and tech by the Riddler or the chemicals and research by Doctor Freeze or Poison Ivy.
And then, the Dusting happened, and after people came back, some of them started getting strange abilities. Bette being one of them, and unfortunately, a lot of Gotham's resident criminals as well.
A few weeks ago, a new vigilante popped up, cleaning the streets of Gotham. While this new guy was brutal, he didn't kill. From what he recovered from security tapes, his fighting styles reminded him of that of Bruce's... Something felt eerily familiar about him, but he couldn't place his finger on it. He was trained, that much was evident, and he was always gone before Flamebird arrived. He wasn't sure if he could be trusted yet, but in the very least, Dick wanted to make sure that this new guy wasn't going to be a loose canon, and go berserk.
Recent events just proved his point that Gotham is always just one bad day away from reverting to the hellhole it once was.
Bruce broke his oath to save Gotham.
They would do everything in their power to ensure it wasn't in vain.
Author's Note:
The Agatha Harkness variant here is different from the Mysterio! Agatha from MovieBrat's stories, though obviously inspired by them. More will be revealed about the heroes and villains of Earth 166666 soon… I have some interesting stuff planned, some of which I have teased already.
Frances Beck is named after the character of the same name from the Ultimate Spiderman TV show, though that version is Quentin's daughter not his sister. Interestingly, unlike most Mysterio variants, they canonically use real magic, which is another reason I chose to reference them.
Also, most of the confrontation with the Ancient One is from Agatha's perspective, and obviously, she is biased.
I had written the short segment for Jesse Quick ages ago, and it was going to be part of a larger chapter, but decided to put it here instead, and the idea behind it was to link her to the JSA like her comic version is, as well as bridge the gap between the various Earth 2 heroes and the JSA seen in "Stargirl."
Since Cosmic Fury is the last installment of the main Power Rangers continuity for the foreseeable future, decided to incorporate the "canon" PR universe in here via Earth-2808. I purposefully set the year where Snap happened in this universe as 2032, so that I can include the events of "Soul of the Dragon" graphic novel in the future.
Earth 2808-D is the world post the events of Dino Charge, with 'D' standing for 'dino', since in this universe, owing to some time travel shenanigans, dinosaurs did not go extinct, and co-exist with humanity.
Earth 2808-V is the world of the RPM rangers, following the events of the season as well as its future appearances/references in other seasons, with 'V' standing for Venjix.
I had these plans for Earth 38 variants of the Bat Family since last year, but needed to streamline the ideas a bit more. Bette Kane is a doppelganger of Beth/Alice from Earth 1, and her being Flamebird in addition to reference to the comics, is another inverse… Instead of Nightwing, we have Flamebird. And before anyone asks, I do have plans for this world's Kate Kane.
Dick is the Oracle here. I got the idea independently since I wanted an inverse of Barbara being Nightwing in the Smallville comics, but later discovered that the comics already had Dick as Oracle in Earth 2, which is cool.
The early seasons of Supergirl made one or two references to Gotham, so I am extrapolating that Clark knew Bruce, but they aren't as close as they are in other universes, and merely "work friends."
The new vigilante is Turner Hayes from the Gotham Knights TV show, a multiversal refugee who appeared on Earth-38 following the destruction of his home dimension, in one of SC-8's stories.
This will be my main IC fic going forwards, though I will continue my ongoing stories till they are finished.