Spider Lost

by FumbleFeatures

Peter Parker/Spider-Man is flung into a new world unfamiliar to him. A world of heroes similar to his own, but endlessly different. Landing in a city called Gotham, Peter initially just wants to go home. Making new friends and enemies along the way, can Peter adjust to this new world or will he crumble under the mounting pressure of Parker luck?

15. Chapter 15 - STAR Attraction Part 1

S.T.A.R. Attraction Part 1: Red Herring With Mustard.

[Skeets' Log – Entry 165]

[December 20th, 2022]

Not much to report about this event…

At 16:41, a Justice League team entered S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham City.

At 16:41, S.T.A.R. Labs was destroyed completely.

DC Universe – Prime Earth

Gotham City – S.T.A.R. Labs

December 20th, 2022 – 16:41

The fight was over, it was over… The threat should've been gone, but they were sloppy, if only they were more careful. If they had checked the lunatic's vest, then Peter wouldn't be staring at a primed grenade ready to blow.

They had taken down the criminal, the madman, the joke. Perhaps they should have taken him more seriously, no time for that now. They were going to die, but maybe not, Spider-Man moved inhumanly fast, faster than even Flash could perceive, but then again, his powers had been playing up on him recently, Peter could hardly blame him for that.

In fact, if Flash's powers were working as they should, Peter had no doubt that Barry would have dealt with the lunatic himself in the blink of an eye. But they weren't working, and so it was up to Peter. He grabbed Nightwing and Dr Sarah Charles by the back, it wasn't hard, they were standing closer to the cackling madman, in front of Spider-Man.

In one smooth motion he wrenched them both off of the floor and tossed them several feet behind him as, without looking, he fired his shooters in tow with them, fashioning them a comfortable landing as they bounced on a giant cobweb.

Peter turned to the side for a moment, the whole world seemed to move in slow motion, he saw as Flash was trying his best to run to him, hand outstretched. Poor dude, he wouldn't make it in time, his powers were still gone. Peter hoped 'The Fastest Man Alive' wouldn't blame himself for what was about to happen to him, he knew better though, Flash was like him… Always taking responsibility.

He heard the cries from Flash, Nightwing and even Dr Charles, they were faint though, as if they were crying from underwater. Peter felt the ocean they were screaming from surround him too, his last moments alive felt truly liquid. He was drowning in their tension.

Maybe he wouldn't die… Maybe he was strong enough to survive the blast… He doubted it… This last-ditch attack was different than the others… And besides, with what Peter planned to do, he would be so close to the blast, even his spider-powered body wouldn't be able to walk this off.

He dropped to his knees in less than a fraction of a second, and he grabbed the grenade from off the villain's chest, tearing apart his own webbing. He pulled him off the ground and threw the man several feet through the air, hearing as he landed with Nightwing and Dr Charles on the giant cobweb.

He clutched the grenade close to his chest as he fell to the floor and huddled as small as he could around it. Each beep of the grenade's timer felt more intrusive, harsher, than the last, each one pierced its way into his skull, spelling out his final moments in his mind. He saw the splashes of watercolours painting the blank canvas that was his mind, an immense landscape, a tapestry of his entire life. This was it.

'Ben… Terri… May… I'm so sorry…'

The beeping stopped, a blinding light filled the space, hues of yellow and red filled the irises of Spider-Man's allies as they widened in terror. But the worst part was the sound, a crackle of thunder was a baby's whimper compared to the deafening boom that emanated from the centre of the room.

One Hour Earlier

Watchtower – War Room

Grunts of exertion and the disorderedly patterned sounds of combat echoed through the Watchtower's training room. Despite the implications of the sounds reverberating throughout the space, there were no training programs running in the War Room, nor were there any hard-light holograms occupying the space.

Instead, the War Room's two occupants had opted for a simple sparring match, focusing their offensive and defensive strategies on each other. Peter had sparred with his allies several times in the past, especially during his stint at SHIELD, but all of that seemed completely irrelevant as he sparred with his current partner. In spite of his training, he had been beaten several times with little difficulty. So, upon his partner's request, he stopped holding back, and in spite of this he still lost, again.

Once more finding himself in a seemingly unbreakable headlock, he tapped his opponents arm three times and took in a deep breath as he was released.

"Well done, Spider-Man. You are indeed a gifted warrior…" His partner spoke as she stood next to him and offered her hand.

"Thanks… Though, wish I could've won at least once…" Peter replied as he took the hand and pulled himself to his feet, watching Wonder Woman as she made her way to the storage cupboard and tossed him a water bottle. He deftly snatched it from the air before unscrewing the top and frantically chugging the transparent liquid, absentmindedly catching the plain towel also flung his way as he drank. He began dabbing his unmasked forehead with it.

There were no fears of his identity being noticed by any Leaguers not already in the know, no one was set to enter the War Room or the observation pod above, and Diana had already heard Peter's entire story when he had his meeting with the seven core members.

"Don't doubt yourself. Your fighting style was tricky to adapt to, it is so… unique. But I have been fighting for millennia, the odds were never in your favour… And while you may not have bested me, you never made it easy… Especially that last round, I can still feel a slight sting from that last punch you landed…" Diana spoke as she lightly rubbed her chin.

"Thanks… And sorry, but you said not to hold back…" Peter replied.

"And yet you still did." Wonder Woman gave a slight smirk as she raised her eyebrow at him in suspicion while approaching with her own towel and bottle.

"I- Whattt…? Okay a little bit, how'd you know?"

"You just told me."

"Ugh. How'd I fall for that? Okay. Okay. You got me… Sorry but I don't really know my max strength output and I didn't want to risk it."

"You never tested? I'm surprised a scientist like yourself wouldn't revel at the opportunity to experiment after your bite."

"Oh, I did. My baseline is like ten tons, but I've gone a lot higher than that when under stress… Then there's adrenaline which gives a boost… Throw the Other on top of that. Now I have no idea how hard I can hit."

"Then perhaps it's time for another experiment…"

"What'd you mean?"

Wonder Woman closed the distance until she was standing directly in front of Spider-Man, placing her towel and bottle on the ground, she looked back up to him and smiled with an intense fire in her eyes, "Hit me."

"Wha—"

"Hit me. No holding back this time."

"I'm not sure I understand…?"

"Really, I thought you were smart? I've been speaking pretty plainly."

"I—Are you sure you can take it? I mean, I can still feel the adrenaline running through me… I literally have no idea how strong a full powered punch right now would be."

"Perfect time to test it then." Wonder Woman replied as she crossed her arms and fixed Peter's eyes with a look that screamed, 'look who you're talking to…' "If you are hesitant because you fear you might hurt me, then stop. You won't, trust me."

"But you said that in the last round I—"

"I lied. In truth, while I felt your punch, I was being very generous with my wording."

Peter squinted slightly as he ran through the moral dilemma in his head, on one hand, he felt conflicted about hitting someone while they were unarmed and not fighting back, on the other hand, Diana was very adamant that he 'test' his strength.

He eventually conceded, if anyone could take a full powered punch from him, it'd be Diana. She seemed about as strong as Thor, maybe even stronger. Peter knew that Slimbiote powered or not, a full powered punch from him wouldn't cause the Thunderer much harm besides a mild headache at best, "Alright… But umm… Remember, you asked for this…"

He breathed out heavily and cocked his arm back as he focused all his strength into his closed fist, preparing to move and strike Wonder Woman on her chin as she braced for impact.

The punch never landed, nor was it thrown, instead Batman's voice cut through the tense air from the speakers next to the observation pod, "Spider-Man, you have a mission. hit the showers, suit up, and get to the observation deck."

"Saved by the Bat it would seem…" Diana spoke with a smirk as Peter's arm dropped back to his side.

As Peter paused within himself, his eyes flicked up to observation pod before awkwardly landing back to Diana's "Errr… Rain check?"

"Apparently so… Don't think you've wriggled you're way out of this though, Peter."

"I'm slightly weirded out by how much you want me to hit you…"

Diana simply turned away from him as she picked back up her bottle and towel, slinging the latter over her shoulder, "In battle, not knowing the true capabilities of your allies can be the difference between life and death… You're one of us now, Peter, it's important we know you're limits. But for now, you should go shower and get yourself ready… Unless you want to be late for your first League assignment?"

"Right. That's true, any pointers for the first day?"

"Trust your team and try not to die…" She plainly stated.

"Oh. Well, that's kinda' what I was planning to do anyway…"

"Then you're off to a good start."

Peter made his way to the washrooms, covering his face with his spare mask as he wandered the halls in non-descript training clothes, he quickly entered a shower pod and felt the water rinse away the dewdrops of sweat decorating his form as he soaped himself up and performed a hasty cleansing ritual, careful not to wet his hair, lest he suffer the worst, most heinous, most evil, mask hair when he donned his costume.

After drying himself and equipping his Gotham Suit, that he had dubbed Scarlet Spider MK III in honour of his clone brother, he found himself fully suited and standing on the observation deck next to several other costumed heroes, Batman opposite them as he briefed them.

"Several days ago, S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham experienced an energy spike causing a minor power outage in the surrounding areas. Yesterday at 0500 hours, there was another, larger spike which cut the power on a wider scale. And two hours ago, there was a third, which has blacked out the power of nearly half the city.

"Wayne Industries have stationed multiple mobile generator facilities around the city so everyone can get on with their days, but—"

"How generous of Wayne Industries to save everyone from a day off work…" Barry Allen, The Flash, one of the other seven founding members of the League, chirped in with a smirk.

Batman fixed him with a mildly exasperated glare before continuing, "But… They won't be active for a few hours… By that point the workday will be over." He added a slight twitch of his lips as if to say, 'Happy now?'.

"So, why is the League needed, to be guardians of late-stage capitalism while the WI guys set up the generators?" Nightwing asked.

Batman now turned his minute glare to his foster son before breathing in slightly and continuing, "No. S.T.A.R. Labs have requested assistance. They haven't been able to find the source of the energy spikes… Flash was asked for personally by Silas Stone while he's on transfer in Gotham."

"So… We're tech support? Wow, and I thought Avengers assignments were exciting…" Spider-Man added.

Batman sighed yet again and looked from Flash, to Nightwing, to Spider-Man, regarding each of them with a look of mild annoyance before resting his eyes on Black Canary, the fourth and final member of the team. Dinah simply shrugged with a soft smirk as if to say 'You picked the team…'

"No. If you'd stop interrupting and let me finish—"

"Where's the fun in that?" Flash added.

Batman ignored the comment as he continued, "—The League has been called because the staff at S.T.A.R. Labs reported seeing a face across all the monitors during the last spike… S.T.A.R. Labs have theorised Livewire or another electric based villain was responsible, but I believe the spikes are being caused by someone slightly more… extra-dimensional…" Batman looked to Spider-Man as he finished.

"Extra-dimensional? Cthulhu's causing glitches at S.T.A.R. Labs?" Flash added with slight confusion.

"Different kind of extra-dimensional… Less Lovecraftian more… Disgruntled New Yorker with an identity crisis." Spider-Man added with a tinge of recognition as he was picking up on what Batman was insinuating.

"So basically Lovecraft? New Yorker with an identity crisis… I mean, you know he was a racist right?" Nightwing added.

"Everyone knows he was a racist… It's like the thing everyone knows about him. Also don't blame New York for that, he hated living there…" Spider-Man added, long since over the surprise of the similarities of pop culture between the worlds despite the many other differences, "But I think what Batman is suggesting, is that the spikes are probably because of one of my guys…" Spider-Man added as he looked back to a very unamused Batman.

Batman nodded, "At first, Livewire was also our main suspect, but we've confirmed her status, she is still in her cell in Metropolis…"

"But based on the pattern of arrivals in Gotham, there is a high chance it is one of Spider-Man's rogues. Besides Octavius, there are still two villains from earth triple 61 present during the collider crisis left unaccounted for, Vulture and Electro. Considering the nature of the problem, we've concluded Max Dillon, AKA Electro, is the most likely culprit. Though, he may not be alone.

"As League members aware of Spider-Man's origins, you've all been briefed on his villains abilities… Still, as the only one truly familiar with them, Spider-Man will take point with Electro, but Canary is still team leader. That being said, there is still the possibility its someone, or something, else, so make sure to be on guard."

"You not joining us? Gotham is your stomping ground, after all…" Flash added, mildly confused.

"One member of the Batfamily is enough, besides Bruce Wayne is needed elsewhere to publicly oversee the deployment of the generators…" Batman added as he turned off the hologram displaying the details of the mission.

"That's just his thinly veiled excuse to get out dealing with the three of you together on one mission…" Canary added as she turned to the rest of the team before looking back to Batman with a smirk.

Batman simply glared at Canary with a knowing look. In truth, they were both fully aware he had the stomach for whatever cocktail of quips Flash, Nightwing and Spider-Man would blend. His true reasoning behind sitting the mission out being that he wanted to push Peter out of his shadow and let the rest of the League see him as the hero he knew him to be, and not just another member of the Batfamily.

Batman could see it, they all could. Many of the League knew he was part of Batman's team, which meant many assumed he was a new sidekick… Some, such as Hal Jordan, even saying as much. Peter was not a sidekick, and it was clear to everyone that knew him, that he was getting sick of people assuming he was.

Gotham City

S.T.A.R. Labs – Plaza

16:38

Oddly enough, despite being the cause of the power outage effecting nearly half the city, S.T.A.R. Labs was still fully operational, the lights dotted about the plaza painting the scientific hub as a lone light in the steadily growing dark of the late, winter, afternoon.

The four heroes arrived just before sunset and were immediately greeted outside by a young, dark-skinned woman with short black hair wearing smart jeans, a blue shirt and pink waist coat. She appeared barely older than Peter himself, a couple years at most, but her mannerisms and polite, yet clearly purposeful, formality gave her an air of authority as she regarded the group, specifically approaching The Flash and speaking to him with a slightly drained smile of relief.

"Flash. Good to see you, glad you could get here so soon… Sorry to waste League time with something that could be nothing, but we think it's better to be safe than sorry." She said as she shook Flash's hand.

"Well, we're leaning towards something… So don't stress it. Everyone, this is Dr Sarah Charles, she's part of Silas' team."

Nightwing stepped up and shook her hand as he spoke, "Nice to finally meet you, Dr Charles. I've heard nothing but good things about you… Any friend of Cyborg's is friend of ours."

Dr Charles blushed slightly and let out the smallest giggle, slightly betraying her youth against her otherwise professional cadence, "T-thanks… Nice to meet you, Nightwing… I—I'm a big fan. Oh, and please, call me Sarah…" She absentmindedly pushed her hair back before immediately clearing her throat as she stood taller and adjusting her body language back to polite formality in spite of reddening cheeks, "Um, all of you… is, uh, Vic coming? Silas was hoping to see him."

"He's busy unfortunately… Titans mission." Nightwing replied. Lying.

In truth Vic simply didn't want to see his father, although the two of them had definitely lessened the gap in their relationship over time, he still needed his space and wasn't really fond of being part of a League mission with Silas looking over his shoulder.

"Oh… Well tell him I say 'hi' when you see him next…" She turned to the rest of the group and regarded Canary, "And you must be Black Canary, also a big fan of yours I'm afraid." she spoke as she shook Canary's hand with a smirk, her eyes gleaming in starstruck awe while her cheeks kept their red hue.

She was just as smitten with Canary as she was Nightwing, but had managed to draw back her composure… slightly. She was trying her best to temper her outward excitement in spite of the butterflies fluttering through her body.

16:39

"Thanks. Nice to meet you too." Canary simply replied with a friendly smile. She noticed Sarah's infatuated gaze but mercifully pretended not to.

Sarah held the moment for half a beat more than was socially comfortable before snapping out of her revelry in being in the presence of her two biggest superhero crushes. She finally turned to Spider-Man, who she hesitantly offered her hand to, fixing him with a mildly suspicious look, "And… Red Hood? G-good to meet you…"

Peter shook his head slightly as he sighed and took her hand, "I've been getting that a lot lately… I'm Spider-Man. Nice to meet you."

She squinted slightly, "Oh, right… I was pretty confused. Last thing I heard Red Hood was a criminal, so color me relieved…" Nightwing tensed uncomfortably as he stood to the side of the interaction, out of view. Sarah continued, regarding Spider-Man "But I don't think I've heard of you… Sorry. I've only been in Gotham for a couple weeks…"

"Ha. So have I… I'm also in New York sometimes, different suit though." He said as he released her hand, "Which I'm starting to think I should have worn instead."

"Probably… You know, to save the confusion. But sorry, I don't keep up with the happenings in New York, we're mostly Metropolis based… But um, I'm sure you're great…"

"Thanks, I'm sure I am too…" 'That's a lie, Pete, and you know it… Woah! Where did that come from?' he thought as he stammered out a chuckled response.

He tried flicking away the dredges of insecurity that suddenly clawed their way into to his conscious as he felt a chiding tone from Other brush his psyche in response to his own self-deprecation. It wasn't purposeful, sometimes his uncertainty just sneaks up and grabs him with a cold, cruel hand. He didn't like when it happened, and clearly neither did the Slimbiote.

Peter swiftly shifted his mind out of his sudden attack of self-doubt and continued speaking, "You know, I'm actually working on a new suit, I haven't finished it yet though. But hopefully, I can wear it in both New York and Gotham and… I've just realised that's not at all important or relevant right now and that I should probably stop talking so we can actually help you with your problem. Umm… Lead on…?"

Sarah, for her part, took Spider-Man's ramblings in her stride and showed no hint of impatience, simply chuckling softly as she spoke and began leading the group to the entrance, "Right this way… We still haven't been able to figure out anything solid on our end yet. We've tried working with the clues we were given, but frankly, I think it's a red herring."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Canary asked.

"I'm sure you'll find out when you talk to Anne… She'll cooperate, don't worry, poor girl's been so anxious ever since the last spike… But again, in my professional opinion, that's a dead end, so I hope you guys are up for some investigative sleuthing…"

"Eh, while I'm no Red Robin, I can still sleuth with the best of them…" Nightwing added as he strode confidently passed Spider-Man and patted him a couple times on the back in sympathy, clearly noticing Peter internally reprimanding himself for allowing his mouth to move without his brain. "I am curious about this ominous aura you've built around Anne, though…"

"Well, whoever she is, it seems as good a lead to start with as any." Canary chimed in.

"At least until we can confirm its Electr—" Spider-Man began before being cut off by Canary.

16:40

"An electronic fault… We're hoping it's nothing sinister and no one's done anything to compromise S.T.A.R. Labs… The sooner we can confirm it, the sooner you guys can get on with whatever it is you do." As she spoke, she looked at Spider-Man with a slight glare of caution as she softly shook her head to indicate they should keep their theories close to their chest for now. Peter got the memo and subtly nodded back.

Sarah side eyed them both for a moment before disregarding the odd behaviour and replying, "Hopefully… Everyone's been on edge since the last spike though, me included." They finally reached the two sets of double glass doors leading inside when she paused and regarded the whole group, "Just a warning, you'll feel some slight static as we go inside, it freaked me out the first time when I came out here to wait for you guys. I tested it like three times…"

"No kidding. I can already feel it… Wow, there's a lot of juice running through the whole building…" Flash said as he felt the soft jolts of electric current dancing in the air ahead of them, "It's like the entire building is surrounded by a constant EMP…"

"You can say that again... My Spider-Sense is already going haywire just standing here. Are you sure it's safe to go inside?"

Disregarding whatever the hell 'Spider-Sense' meant, Sarah replied, "Should be, it's kinda like stepping through a ticklish waterfall… It'll maybe give you some goosebumps, but that's it. But you're right about the EMP bit," she said turning to Flash, "in fact none of our external comms systems are working, I had to stand outside in the plaza just to be able pass on Silas' request. We're basically on a closed network in there, one that we can't shut off even if we wanted to."

"Great…" Peter said as he turned to Nightwing, "Just once I'd like to go on a mission where the comms actually work."

Nightwing smirked as he shrugged back a response, "Eh. It makes it more interesting for the plot…"

"What?"

"What?"

After some more brief mutterings and uncomfortable stares between the heroes, they entered one by one. Canary sending a final message to the Watchtower, informing them they will be going non-contact while inside to which J'onn replied affirmatively. Besides, if they desperately needed to contact the League, Flash could always just run back outside and send word.

16:41

As each of them walked through the doors, they found that Dr Charles' comparison to a waterfall was mostly accurate, even if her grammar was decidedly not. 'It should be tickly, not ticklish, right?' Peter thought as he stepped through the static barrier, the second to last to make the transition from the outside to the in.

His Spider-Sense whirred erratically for a brief spell, and he felt the Other wordlessly voicing their concerns as well, but no harm came to him or any of the others who passed the invisible, electrified, barrier around the entire facility.

That was, no harm came to any of them, except the Flash. As soon as Barry entered the facility, he felt every hair stand on end as the sparks of static shot through his body with incredible speed, faster than even he could register.

The speed and power of the force that shot through his body was enough to make him stumble as he grasped his head in confusion and anguish, mutterings of pain escaping his lips as he felt himself slipping away from consciousness, an intense ache squeezed every thought into one tiny point and crushed them against each other in his brain.

He felt his body being supported by Black Canary beside him who was asking him concerned questions he couldn't decipher as his head continued to pound.

Images shot through his frazzled mind in a blur, none of them lingering in one spot long enough for even the 'Fastest Man Alive' to comprehend… Flashes of bright blue electricity, yellow and red blurs, golden flickers of shimmering light, whiteness so bright it stung his mind's eye, blackness so dense it smothered all his senses and a nothingness so absolute it shocked him to a point of near fainting.

He stumbled further into Canary's arms as she adjusted their weight in relation to each other, to stop him falling. Peter and Dick were also quick to react upon seeing Flash's reaction, though they didn't need to physically support him as Canary managed to lead him to a wall and helped him to rest against it.

Instead, they tensed and watched as Black Canary gently helped Flash to a sitting position, leaning against the wall, speaking as she did so, "Flash! Are you okay? What's happening?"

"Wish I could tell you, that was... weird. My powers feel like they're on the fritz just from going through the door." Flash said as he rubbed his head and pushed off from his feet, still leaning on the wall, but closer to standing.

"How on the fritz? Do you need to sit this one out?" Nightwing asked, looking his friend over with concern.

"N-no. I'll be fine, I'm sure it's just some a reaction to the excess energy flowing through this place."

"Okay... but as soon as you feel something like that again, let us know, we can't be having a member of the team nearly fainting at every energy spike. Especially considering what we're dealing with. I'll step out and let Batman know, if this place is messing with your powers we might need backup."

Before Flash could respond and offer a mild protest that he was indeed fine, a new figure appeared outside and promptly entered the building, smiling slightly smugly and waving as they did so.

"No need to call for backup Canary, it's already here. Me! Bats said you might need an extra hand, so I—woah…" the figure paused as they passed through the invisible EMP barrier, their gold and blue suit flickering with static as their robot companion seemed to vibrate and sputter out a couple sparks of electricity, "That does feel weird." They added as they passed the electromagnetic gate enveloping S.T.A.R. Labs.

Everyone turned to the new arrival, a range of differing emotions being presented to the unexpected visitor.

Canary was the first to speak, shattering the silence with a voice of confusion and bewilderment, "Booster? What the hell are you doing here?""

"Hey, weren't you listening? I just said. I'm your backup." The new arrival, Booster Gold, replied.

"I think what Canary's asking is, why are you here, Booster?" Nightwing added.

Flash was standing fully now, albeit with a slight wobble as he still felt lightheaded. Spider-Man stood next to him, cautiously eyeing him in case his stance wavered again. Flash caught his eye and smiled before nodding his head toward booster and shrugging. Peter didn't know much about Booster Gold, if anything at all besides his name, and so Peter simply shrugged back as they watched the exchange.

"That just feels like the same question with different wording…" Booster replied.

"Well to be fair you haven't really answered either of them." Spider-Man finally chirped in.

"Has everyone here got short term memory loss or something…? Also, who's this guy?" He said while pointing a thumb at Spider-Man.

"Spider-Man. Hi, and you are…?" He replied.

"Oh, for real? I was expecting red and blue… Name's Booster Gold, kid, and before you ask, yes, that Booster Gold… I have spare pens if you want an autograph…"

"Why would I want a—Doesn't matter, also kid? Dude, you look barely five years older—you know what… also doesn't matter." Peter shook away his rambling defence against Booster's disrespect, "Anyway, I'm working on a new suit…"

"Cool, cool. Sounds great, kid. Just remember gold is my color… anyway, to answer your question, Canary, I'll say it one more time, everyone listening? I'm your bac—"

"Our backup, yes. You said, a lot… Forgive my scepticism… or don't, I don't care, but I haven't put the call for backup out yet, so your timing is… convenient." Black Canary added.

"What can I say, timing is my thing…"

"Right… Good one. Been practicing that one in the mirror?" Canary smirked before sighing and shaking her head, "I'm gonna' have to step out and check with Batman, this is odd… He'd definitely make sure to tell us if you were meant to be coming."

"Well good luck with that, this whole place is like one big EMP. No comms in our out."

Canary sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "We know tha—Why am I humoring this? I'm going to step out for a moment, outside the range of the pulse, I'll get a sitrep from Batman and let him know what's happening…"

"Hey, there's really no need…" Booster added.

"Yes… there is. Stay here and… don't touch anything." She replied.

"We're in the lobby, there's nothing here to touch… except maybe the walls, I guess." Canary simply glared back at Booster with a serious expression of authority and impatience, Booster stopped talking for a moment and shrugged, "Fine I won't touch the precious walls… Go out and call Bats, but he'll just tell you same thing I have…"

"Somehow Booster, I doubt that." Canary replied as she walked past him and out the door.

As soon as she stepped through the barrier of static, Canary felt a soft electric current ripple through her whole body. This was not an unfamiliar sensation; in fact, it was the exact same sensation she had felt when she first entered S.T.A.R. Labs. What was unfamiliar however, was the realisation that she had shifted through space entirely.

Instead of passing through the wave and finding herself outside as she had planned, she in fact found herself walking forward through the lobby once more, still inside the lobby, starting from exactly the same position she was in when Booster Gold entered.

"Am I seeing things, or did Black Canary just teleport?" Spider-Man asked the group.

"No, you're definitely not hallucinating, that happened…Somehow." Nightwing replied as he approached the doorway and gingerly touched the invisible barrier.

Canary paused as she looked about herself, an expression of immense confusion painting her face before she saw Dick approaching the doorway, "Wait, Nightwing, what are you doing? We have no idea what's—" she stopped as she watched as he too popped back in to place beside Spider-Man, several feet from the door, "… Never mind, I guess."

"Woah… trippy." Dick spoke as he felt himself softly being poked by Peter, "Why are you poking me?"

"Don't mind me, just checking you're real… That was risky you know; there's no guarantee that was safe, Canary could've just got lucky…" He said as he continued to poke at Dick's shoulder before he shrugged Peter's prodding away from him and gently slapped Peter's hand away.

"Eh, you're a scientist, call it an experiment, besides if you really thought it was dangerous you would've stopped me." Nightwing responded with a shrug.

"Maybe… or maybe I just wanted to see what would happen without risking my own skin…" Peter joked back before asking, "So, any ideas what just happened?"

Canary watched Spider-Man and Nightwing curiously for a moment before her expression shifted and she turned to face Booster Gold with severe eyes, "I have one. Booster… What did you do?"

"What? Me? I didn't do anything, I literally just got here!"

"And now our exit isn't letting us exit! Am I just supposed to think that's a coincidence?"

"Yes! Because it is! This is not my fault!"

"To be fair to the Golden Goose here, we don't know if Booster is to blame, my powers went on the fritz the moment we arrived, it could be something to do with that." Flash added diplomatically, he was fully standing now, and it appeared as if his light headedness had left him completely.

"See! Thank you, I didn't do this…" Booster replied.

"Actually, Booster, you kind of did." Another voice spoke with a metallic echo as the little golden, rocket-shaped, robot that entered alongside Booster gold finally spoke. The iris of their robotic eye lighting up every time they spoke.

"Correction, I didn't do this on purpose. Skeets, what didn't I do on purpose? What is this?"

"From my diagnostics check, the electro-magnetic field around this place possesses unique properties not found in your average EMP. It momentarily shorted your suit's chronal system and now the entire building has been frozen in spacetime… Sorry, everyone…"

"So, what does that mean? Time moves normally outside, but it'll look like everyone's frozen in here?" Flash asked.

"The opposite actually, the entire interior of S.T.A.R. Labs is stuck in one singular point in time, so no matter how much time passes here, to everyone outside, no time will have passed at all."

"So, we're stuck here?"

"Until the electro-magnetic field is disrupted, yes."

"Well at least we'll be home before dinner I guess…" Flash replied with a sigh as he quickly noted the time, it was 16:41:59, and it would be for however long it took them to finish their mission. They were literally stuck in the last second of 16:41.

"And if anyone tries to leave…?" Canary asked, jumping into the back and forth between Skeets and Flash, theorising on an answer herself, but wanting to hear solid confirmation.

"They will revert back to their original positions from when Booster and I first entered."

"Great…" Canary grumbled.

At the same time Flash and Canary were conversing with Skeets, Doctor Charles sidled up to the hero closes to her and leaned over as she whispered, "He has a robot? Who is this Booster Gold guy anyway?"

Peter turned to her and replied, "Good question" he leaned over to his other side and whispered to Nightwing, "Who is this Booster Gold guy?"

"Time traveller from the 25th century, glory hound, obsessed with fame, member of the League…" Dick whispered back.

Peter nodded and turned back to Dr Charles, "Time traveller from the 25th century, member of the League." Sarah seemingly accepted the answer as she too nodded in response to Spider-Man, though despite his efforts to maintain the visage of professionalism for the League, he could tell Sarah definitely heard Nightwing's additional snide comments about Booster.

As he replied to Sarah, Peter was also listening in to the conversation with Skeets and butted in when he had a realisation, "Wait, wait… they revert back to their original positions? What happens if people move about, and someone tries to leave with someone else in their position?"

"Then they would phase into each other, and both die… Quite horrifically." Skeets replied, flatly, but with a tinge of embarrassment… An interesting tone to hear from a little flying robot, "But! Don't worry, that is a very unlikely probability based on the size of this facility."

"Either way, we probably should worry just in case. Okay team, we need make sure everyone knows they can't leave. We all agree on that, yes?" Flash asked the group to an array of nods and mildly annoyed grumbles of acceptance.

"Agreed. At least we don't need to worry about other people coming in since we're frozen in time, that's something, I guess." Canary muttered, desperately trying to claw back some optimism.

"While that is a plus since it limits the threat and stops anyone else getting in danger, this still complicates things, a lot. Electro isn't one to care for collateral damage, if we can't evacuate people then this could be tricky…" Spider-Man responded.

"Who's Electro? Are they the one causing all this?" Srah asked, confused and mildly confrontational as she was starting to feel her confidence in the team waver slightly by the hiccup caused by Booster.

Peter slapped his forehead gently and sighed as he internally reprimanded himself for letting the cat out of the bag, "Errr… yeah. At least that's our current theory, but I wasn't supposed to say that, so please pretend I didn't." He turned towards Canary who was looking at him with an unamused expression, "Never mind, she heard…" He waved awkwardly at Canary, and she smirked slightly with exasperation in response as she shook her head softly.

Dinah knew Peter didn't mean to share as much as he did, and she also knew he was probably distracted by their current predicament, on top of the constant stress of everything else going on in his life, a minor slip up was nothing to dwell on. Besides, she was too preoccupied with her annoyance at Booster for arriving unannounced and immediately compromising the entire mission to hold any ill will to Spider-Man.

"So, if you guys already had a working theory for who was causing this, don't you think we should know so we're more prepared?" Sarah spoke with mild confrontation. Her wavering confidence threatening to fall down completely with the added secrecy.

"Frankly… No. It's a theory that we need to confirm first, we were working on a need-to-know basis because we have no idea if anyone at S.T.A.R. Labs may be compromised too." Canary added, "We weren't trying to undermine you or anyone else, but if we're right, this individual can apparently be… volatile. We didn't want to put anyone else at risk."

Sarah looked about the group with marked suspicion and soft betrayal, but sighed as she smiled softly and nodded, seemingly accepting the explanation. She realised the main cause of her scepticism was actually due to complication of Booster Gold's arrival, her being kept in the dark was actually a very reasonable decision for the League team to make.

"Okay. I guess that's fair, besides, you may be right, especially if our 'Anne the spy' theory turns out to be true" Sarah added.

"Anne the spy? Is that the red herring you mentioned?" Nightwing asked.

"That's the one, but you never know, it could turn blue. This night seems to be chocked full of surprises already," Sarah looked between Flash and Booster, fixing the latter with a harsh glare, "Well, whoever this Electro guy is, I hope you're equipped to deal with them, especially now that no one can leave. Let's get going, we should meet up with Silas, we've wasted enough time here…" Sarah said as she turned away and began leading the group further into S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Yes, let's. Lead on, Sarah." Spoke Canary.

"This way…" she said as she lead the group, now with Booster and Skeets in tow, though pointedly at the back as Canary continued to offer fixed stares at the blonde 'hero' every now and them.

Peter felt his ears prick up for a moment, he swore he could hear the muffled sounds of Skeets communicating something directly to Booster's earpiece, Peter shifted his head a fraction as he tried to focus on the disjointed sentence he was hearing, "spike… ause… west… nerator roo… ysalis… asement..."

The basement? Are they planning something…? I should tell Cana—

Peter was pulled from his thoughts by Sarah's voice, "Wow, accidentally frozen in time by a blondie from the future with a golden robot…" Sarah smirked slightly as she felt her doubt being subdued again by her amusement, she leaned further over to Spider-Man as she continued, "Is this normal for you guys?"

Ignoring the incomplete information revealed by his eavesdropping, he replied, "Ehh… the time thing? Yeah, happens all of time…" the wink beneath his mask was practically audible. Sarah sighed, "We usually save the robot for special occasions, though, sometimes we even splurge for a platinum robot…" He added chipperly, not wanting to appear like a newbie, which, relative to this world, he kind of was.

Sarah simply chuckled as they eventually reached the main labs where everyone seemed to be gathered, some of the scientists trying to keep up with their work as the local system was still online. The majority however, seemed to just be clustered in groups, chatting amongst themselves with varying degrees of frustration and concern on their faces.

As they entered the lab, an older scientist with dark skin, greying hair and glasses approached the group and immediately greeted them, singling out Flash much as Sarah did, "Flash. How've you been? Central City still treating you well?"

Flash returned the greeting, "Oh you know, same ol', same ol'. The museum's had to go through some repairs after Captain Boomerang got a bit antsy last week, but otherwise things are going great, Silas. Thanks…"

"Good to hear… Though, forgive my bluntness, I hope you can figure out what's wrong fast, lots of these people want to get on with their projects. Lots more want to go home…" Silas Stone replied as he quickly looked the group once over and felt a tinge of regret when he saw that Vic wasn't present. He elected not to mention it, his son would have his reasons, and there was no point wasting any more time on his absence.

"Ummm… About that, Dr. Stone… We're gonna' need to keep everyone inside until this whole situation is fixed… There's been a… complication." Canary added as she approached Silas, side eyeing Booster as she did so.

Booster had been uncharacteristically quiet during the whole ordeal, and simply gave an embarrassed look of apology as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh? Nothing too serious, I hope?"

"Hopefully not, but we'll fill you in as we go to save time." Not that we need to save time, since it isn't moving at all... frickin' Booster—Breathe, Dinah. Breathe… She looked back up at Silas who was looking at her curiously, she cleared her throat and continued, "Umm… we'd rather play this pretty close to the chest until we can be 100% certain…"

Silas fixed his gaze, "Hmm. Okay, I'll take your word for it. Besides, we were planning on keeping everyone here until you guys gave the all clear anyway, so no major change."

"Right. That's good, should hopefully speed up the process, Sarah told us you had a lead?"

"Yes… Though none of us feel too confidently about it to be honest, Anne seems more shaken up than anyone."

"Why's she a suspect anyway?" Canary.

"She's not really, we're just isolating her to be safe… Our only lead was the voice through our systems, it 'incriminated' her… if you can even call it that, when I say the thread is loose at best, I'm being generous, it's basically frayed."

"What did the voice say?" Nightwing asked.

Silas regarded the young hero, "It was patchy, but all we got where two syllables, 'Spy… Anne' but there was static between them, so they could've been saying something else. Here, we had a diagnostic program running at the time and were able to recreate and record the message based on its data."

Silas opened a new window and pressed the space key, a crackle of static audio played from the monitor, like a symphony of electric current, within that symphony, the tones shifted and became semi-coherent. Word like, but not fully, a tune that resembled the patterns of words, but that had no distinct accent or tone.

Until it did, "S-Spppiii—" a snap of static, "D—d—" A crackle of current, "M—m… Annn—" A pop of power. The message ended.

Nightwing turned towards Spider-Man with a smirk. Peter was already rubbing the bridge of his nose as he began speaking, "Yeah, you can let her go…"

"What? How do you—Oh, Sorry, we've not been introduced yet, you are?" Silas asked.

"Spider-Man. And incidentally, that's what the voice was trying to say, 'Spi-der-M-an'. It wasn't saying 'Spy, Anne'."

Silas looked at Spider-Man curiously as he asked, "How can you be sure?"

"It's a long story, I just am."

"Still though, we should talk to her, even if it's just to put her at ease…" Canary spoke.

"Okay, but where do we go from here?" Flash asked.

"Ummm… I have an idea, how about—" Booster was cut off by a glare from Canary.

"Hey! Just cause I showed up late, doesn't mean I can't help!" He replied.

She stared daggers at him, and leaned closer, whispering so Silas wouldn't hear, and they could preserve a fraction of respect in S.T.A.R. Labs, "You didn't 'show up late', you showed up unannounced and compromised the entire mission…"

"Well, I don't think that's fair, I was-" Booster whispered back a half-heated rebuttal.

"Actually, it is a fairly accurate summation of events, Booster." Skeets added, his volume low.

"Not helping, Skeets. Listen you wanna' hear my plan or not?"

"Fine… Go ahead." She sighed, bringing her tone back up as there was no longer a need to whisper.

"We… check the basement."

Peter squinted slightly with suspicion, on the verge of opening his mouth to question Booster before Canary did it for him, "The basement? Why?"

"Uh… because that's where the generator is…"

"But this place is on the city's grid, it's what caused the power cuts…"

"Yeah, but how i—"

"How's the power staying on…? You think whatever is causing the spikes is feeding the generator and keeping this place powered…" Peter added.

"Exactly." Booster had a smug smile on his face.

"Not a terrible idea, but we still don't know if there anyone is compromised in the staff, we should check them before we try running diagnostics on the power…" Canary spoke again.

"We could split up… You guys do the boring stuff while I do my hero thing and solve the real problem." Booster replied.

"Okay, Booster's going to be interviewing every member of staff while we go check the generator…"

"Hey, what!"

"Ummm… Canary, as much as I'd love to spite the attention junkie here, shouldn't we try to be practical here, try and work from a lead, so we're not wasting our time…?" Nightwing added diplomatically.

Canary sighed, "Yeah… fine. You're right. Start with the interns?"

"Unless we have any other leads?" Flash added.

"Well, you could always look into the newest employees…" Booster sounded defeated, stroppy.

"I—What do you mean?" Canary sounded sceptical, as if shocked Booster was able to come up with two separate, and solid, ideas.

"Well… Spider-Man got here a couple weeks ago, right?"

"Right… How do you kno—"

"Come on… does no one listen…? Batman obviously briefed me… like I said… Backup. Anyway, are there any employees here who joined within that time frame? Just look into those guys… question them and all that blues… Then, once that's over, we can go to the source… the basement."

"I— Again… That's actually not a terrible idea." Canary said before turning to Silas, "Are there any employees who joined around that time?"

"Err… I'll have to check the system, the director of this branch is off on sabbatical, this isn't our usual team, Sarah and I are just covering… give me a moment."

"Actually, can you widen that range to a few months, we know that some of Spidey's rogues got here earlier than he did." Nightwing added.

"That's true… I hope for my sake they didn't though, if Max Dillon of all people knows more about this world than I do, I think I'd cry…"

The group spoke as they followed Silas to his desktop and he began his search of the employee directory, his brow furrowing as he listened to them speak, "This world? Where are you from?"

"Another universe. Long story… we think your electrical problems are linked to one of my guys… sorry about that by the way." Peter replied, confident enough that they were far enough away that the information wouldn't be overheard by anyone.

Both Sarah and Silas paused for a moment as the older man looked up to his colleague, both wide eyed before Silas simply shrugged, brushing off the reveal as he turned back to his computer, "Okay… Last few months, four employees in total… Buddy Standler, one of the chefs in the canteen… He got his job 2 months ago… then more recently we have Aiden Graves, a janitor and our two interns, Warner and Anne, they each only joined a few days ago… Which is… curious."

"Right after the first spike, I'm guessing?" Nightwing asked, his face mildly perplexed, 'Buddy Standler? Why do I recognise that name?'.

"Yes."

"Are any of them still unaccounted for?"

"Warner and Anne are in the main lab, over in the corner…" He casually pointed his thumb over his shoulder where two people were sat, away from everyone else in a side office, an older man, presumably Warner, comforting the other as she looked mildly panicked, "I'll check the others… Sarah."

Sarah was snapped out of her bewilderment as she focused and looked back to Silas, "Y-yes, sorry."

"Do you have that paper register we made?"

"Oh… umm, no need." She said as she caught up with the conversation and added, "Both Buddy and Aiden said they were gonna' keep working, Aiden should be cleaning the downstairs bathrooms and Buddy told me he needed to mix some new sauces…"

"And you didn't question them?"

"Why would I? Buddy's too passionate to argue with and Aiden's… well an old grouch quite frankly. She replied candidly, before whispering an aside to herself, "Besides, the ladies' definitely needs cleaning… fucking Debbie… it's like she gets paid to clog the toilet every time she takes a shi—" she paused, and felt her cheeks redden as heat rushed to the side of her face, clearly everyone still heard her whispered rant.

Flash, spoke, drawing the attention from Sarah and putting her out of her misery, "Well, well, well… The plot thickens… Err, I mean the chef and janitor thing… not the Debbie thing, as gross as that is…"

"Yeah. I'm just gonna' say it, those two are our new main suspects, right? I'm gonna' guess 'Buddy' is Max's cover, and a grouchy old man…? Aiden Graves…? Adrian Toomes… I mean, come on… Plus grouchy…? It's like he's being purposefully obtuse… Plus, I'd love to see ol' Toomes-y unclogging a toilet…" Peter replied.

"Definitely sounds like Aiden fits Vulture's bill." Flash gave a self-aware smirk.

"Wow… I cannot believe you actually just made that pun… But you're right, that does sound like the best call… But then again, those interns… At first it was just one with an unfortunate name, but both joining just as the spikes start? One coincidence could be chance, but two…" Nightwing added.

"Nightwing's right… We should talk to the interns first, even if it is just a coincidence of Anne's name, the date they joined does throw a bit of suspicion back on to them…" Canary added.

"I don't know Canary… I mean I agree, but who knows what Max and Adrian are getting up to while we waste time here?" Spider-Man added.

"Umm… speaking of wasting time… Is there a reason my computer has been saying its 4.41 for about 5 minutes now…? I'd brush it off, but my phone and watch say the exact same thing…" Silas asked.

"We're frozen in time…" Sarah casually replied, Silas turning to her wide eyed, "Long story…"

"It's Booster's fault…" Flash added, not seeing Canary facepalm at the oversharing of info.

"Not on purpose! Jeez, I swear, you accidentally freeze time once and no one will let you live it down… I apologised, didn't I?"

"Actually, you didn't." Nightwing added.

"Not once." Flash piled on.

"Skeets apologised." Spider-Man offered.

"Okay! Okay! It's… my bad alright, it was my suits fault. My, accidental, bad everyone… There, happy now?"

Spider-Man leaned over to Nightwing once again, "Did… did he think that counts as an apology? Cause' that wasn't an apology, that was barely even an acceptance of responsibility…"

Nightwing just shook his head and whispered back, "Probably the best we're gonna' get to be honest…"

"That wasn—whatever…" Canary added before stopping herself, "Okay… here's what's gonna' happen, Booster, you're sticking with me, I am not letting you out of my sight… We're gonna' talk to the interns, hopefully clear the air and confirm it is all just wrong place, wrong time… or, if we find out if they are involved, how and why.

"Spidey, you take Flash and Nightwing and find out if the janitor and chef really are your villains. Keep cool heads and try not to engage unless necessary, soon as you figure out what they're up to let us know… internal comms work so everyone stay in contact. When me and Booster are all done here, we'll meet up and check the generator in the basement as one unit… Sound good?"

"Split up and look for clues, then big team up for the boss fight? Sounds good to me… Er, Sarah, you alright to show us the way to the canteen? We'll check out 'Buddy' first. Yo can head back over after…

"Don't worry though, my guys are all bark and no bi- Okay… they're mostly bite to be fair, but they're bad at it… all gum and cheeks, no teeth. Okay, a little bit of teeth, but if you can just lead us on the right path, we'd appreciate it… Plus, with Nightwing and Flash, this'll be overkill, you'll be perfectly safe, I promise…" Spider-Man rambled.

"Right. Sure… This way…" She said, slightly apprehensively, as she led them away.

"Remember, be on guard everyone, comms open…" Canary called out as they left, "Silas, we're gonna' go speak to Anne, can you let everyone know they're gonna' need to stay here a while longer?"

"Of course... Anne's just through there." Silas said as he pointed Canary and booster in the opposite direction to Spider-Man and co.

Canary followed Silas' route as she nodded for Booster to do the same. As they passed through the labs, a number of relieved faces from the S.T.A.R. Labs greeted them, as well as a few harsher ones from the more disgruntled members of the company who clearly wished to continue their work, and/or go home.

All the faces changed into ones of annoyance and groans could be heard throughout the space as they heard Silas break the bad news to the S.T.A.R. Labs employees. They quickened their pace.

Within a matter of moments they were walking into a smaller office, completely transparent, separated only by glass doors and windows. On a sofa to the side sat both of the interns, Anne who had been isolated due to her 'incrimination', and Warner who sat next to her. Talking gently to her, paternally.

"I'm sure everything will be absolutely fine, Anne, look here's the Justice League now… Just tell them everything and I'm sure this'll all be a funny story to look back on in a week's time." Warner was saying as he watched Black Canary and who he assumed was Green Lantern enter.

Warner was much older than Anne, a decade or two at least, but his face… He had large brown hair, and glasses… but, to Dinah, it was one of those faces that looked uncannily familiar, not in the sense that she could point to a singular person and see the resemblance, but in the sense that he looked like someone she had vaguely seen before. She didn't have time to linger on the thought, her attention was grabbed by Anne almost immediately upon entering the room.

Anne perked when she saw the two heroes enter, the most animated she had appeared since she was told she needed to wait in the office, suddenly in this moment it looked as if her shattered life might have a hope at being mended, all she had to do was speak to the Justice League, "Oh my god! Black Canary, Right? You gotta' believe me; I have nothing to do with this! I-I—I have no idea why the voice in the computer would say my name, you have to believe me! Please!"

Canary flinched in surprise for a moment before putting her hands on the young girl's shoulders as she tried to calm her down, "It's okay, you must be Anne… listen, we think we know what the problem is, take a deep breath and try to calm down, we're sure this all one big misunderstanding, okay? Just sit down and breathe…"

"Breathe… yeah… okay…" Anne replied, nodding softly between heavy breaths.

"Why don't we start from the beginning, there was a voice coming from the monitors…?"

"Yeah… during the last spike, i-it said my name… I don't know why… Said I-I was a spy… but I'm not! I-in fact I think the voice was saying it's s-spying on me! I'm not the bad guy here I swear, I-I think I'm the victim…"

Booster sniggered slightly and covered his mouth with his hand as he saw a confused glare from Anne messily land on his own as a cutting stare from Canary pierced into his soul. "Ahem… sorry… but um… yeah, you are… the victim I mean. It's pretty exciting actually, you see—"

"Booster, stop talking…" Canary's eyes were flaming daggers as she stared at him.

"W-what? What does he mean?" Anne cried with fear.

"Oh my god… Anne, we need to get her out of here!" Warner also let out a panicked call.

"Wait! Hold on, again, my bad… I worded that badly… You are a victim, but not of the spikes, you aren't in danger, instead, you're a vict—"

"Booster! Stop. Talking!" Canary once again cut in, rubbing her eyes with her fingertips as she cupped her nose in embarrassment.

"But I'm explaining…"

"Badly." She said, bluntly, before sighing and looking back to Anne, "What my… 'colleague' here is trying to say, is that you're a victim of circumstance… we theorise that the voice that came through your system was actually trying to say something else, and unfortunately, your name just so happens to be similar…"

"That's exactly what I was gonna' say…" Booster muttered to himself as he crossed his arm, Skeets let out the robot equivalent of a sigh.

"S-so I'm… I'm in the clear, I can go home?" She said, excitedly but with apprehension.

"No." Canary replied, "Sorry… But even if we could let you go, we actually have a few more questions, for both of you… please, take a seat, this shouldn't take long."

"Umm, okay…" Anne said as she looked back to warner with confusion, he simply shrugged.

Sitting back on the couch, Canary went to the door and turned the dial for the window dimmer, turning the glass walls and door from transparent to an opaque, silver hue, she grabbed one of the office chairs and swung it around the desk so she could sit opposite Warner and Anne on the sofa Booster eyed the other chair before deciding against it.

Booster remembered hearing about an archaic custom of this time from Ted Kord, 'good cop, bad cop'. Booster himself felt the whole concept was, old fashioned, inaccurate, and quite frankly ridiculous, 'What the hell is a good cop?' being his initial thought.

Nevertheless, despite his own reservations, it could prove to be an effective stratagem to interrogate the interns, so he elected to take the bad cop role, and chose to stand behind Black Canary as he cleared his throat, puffed out his chest, and crossed his arms.

It was a barbaric display of performed masculinity that felt rather alien to Booster who hailed from a time where (from his perspective ancient) societal structures such as 'patriarchy' were looked down upon as the wholly inefficient, completely ineffectual, and needlessly cruel social practices of a bygone era… The associated emphasis on the, so-called, 'importance' of gender, an aspect of social roleplay which was entirely optional within Booster's time, was one of the most mind-boggling aspects of the 21st century for him.

This then meant, as Booster performed his little display of feigned male chauvinism, he did not achieve the desired affect of intimidation on the suspects, instead, all three of the office's occupants turned slowly and looked at him with confusion, and for the case of Canary, embarrassment.

Booster Gold, however, was a master at misinterpreting other people's expressions to serve his own ego, so he was none the wiser to everyone else actual reactions. In his mind, his performance succeeded without exception.

Black Canary inhaled deeply to stop her face from cringing, she looked forward and spoke, "Could either of you tell me how long you've been working here?"

Warner looked at Anne before speaking on both their behalf's, "Not long… Five days or so…"

"Both of y—?" Canary was cut off.

"Right after the first energy spike, hmm?! Suspicious…" Booster spoke so quickly that everyone visibly flinched.

"Umm… I guess so, we were told about it shortly after joining…" Warner spoke. His voice was unique, not entirely American, but not distinguishably accented either.

"Funny accent you have there! If that even is your real—"

"Booster! Hehe… Excuse us…" Canary said with an apologetic half smile and embarrassed chuckle, before standing up and grabbing Booster by the arm and leading him out of the office, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Good, right? We make a good team, I think."

"What the fu—" The heaviest of sighs escaped her lips, am impressive feat considering how many heavy sighs she had already let out this evening, "What," she quieted herself to a whisper, "and I mean this with all kindness… the fuck, do you mean? What are you doing, you can't ask someone questions like that!"

"But… cops…"

"What? Elaborate… you can't just say 'cops' as I'm somehow going to understand what that means! You have to explain!" She kept her voice quiet, but it was a struggle with her growing aggravation.

"But that's what we're doing, right? It's supposed to make the interrogation go quicker, that way we can get to the basement sooner…"

"One. What is supposed to make it go quicker? Two. What is your obsession with the basement…? Are you that desperate for some action?"

"Err… to answer your second question first… yes?"

Skeets interrupted, "Technically, it is because—"

"Not now, Skeets…" Booster cut his robot companion off.

Canary looked between Booster and Skeets suspiciously before deciding to ignore Skeets' unfinished explanation, "and my first question…?"

"Well, um… Good cop, bad cop. Ted said it's a big thing… I'm the bad cop, since, you know, you're not mean enough to be bad co—"

"Oh, my fu—Booster! You're an idiot…"

"Okay, maybe you are mean enough, wanna' swap?"

"No, I don't want to swap… I want you to stop talking, completely!"

"Right, okay. I'll stay quiet, use my eyes to scare em', good idea…"

"No! You won't do anything… there is no 'good cop, bad cop', there is me asking the questions and you sitting in silence doing, and I cannot stress this enough, nothing…"

"Huh? I mean, sure, I guess, I'm confused though, Ted told me that good cop, bad cop, was the thing people did when interrogating people, I-I'm sorry if I screwed it up, I-I just thought that…"

"Well stop thinking!" Canary snapped before the therapist within her came to the surface and suddenly the puzzle of Booster Gold began to piece itself together in front of her eyes. She softened her face and sighed out her aggravation as she spoke, kinder this time, "Listen Booster, Blue's death hit us all hard… and I know you're only trying to help, doesn't excuse you showing up outta' nowhere—"

"What do you mean? Batma—"

She silenced Booster's interruption with a pitying look "But, on this mission I'm in charge, okay? Just, follow my lead… and please, stop trying to help. No matter what Ted said, he's not here… not anymore. So, can you please, just, sit back…?" Canary couldn't help but feel a pinch in her heart as she saw Booster's expression change; his face fell, it fell so far and so fast.

"I—I… Yeah, you're right… sorry I just got a little too excited… didn't mean to hop on your toes…"

"I believe the saying is, 'step on your toes', Booster…" Skeets interjected.

"Right… what Skeet's said." Booster's voce was cold for a second, he noticed Canary's uncomfortable look for a moment, he chirped up immediately, "We'll follow your lead, and the moment you need me to work my magic, just say the word and Skeets and I will be on the case, you've got our backs, Canary…"

"Booster, I think you meant 'we've got your ba'—"

Canary held up her hand, "I-it's fine, Skeets. I think I got what he's trying to say… Listen, Booster… I know you didn't mean to compromise anything, even this whole trapped in time mess, as much of a pain in the ass it is, it's not like you chose to do it… so we're cool, for now… I'm gonna' trust you… Don't let me down, okay?"

"You got it, Canary… I don't normally play sidekick, but if that's what the team leader needs, it's what they get…" he did finger guns and winked… it was clear his heart wasn't fully in it.

"I believe you, now let's get this interrogation over with so we can join the others…"

Meanwhile

S.T.A.R. Labs – Canteen Entrance

"Here's where Buddy should be… If 'Buddy' is even his real name…" Sarah said, her voice low, barely above a whisper, she was hiding it well, but she was starting to get nervous.

"Right… Thanks, if it really is Electro, I doubt he's still here… but hopefully he left us some clues, like tiny electric breadcrumbs... Or actual breadcrumbs, ya' never know, this is a canteen after all, he might've got peckish and swiped a snack..." Spider-Man whispered back.

"Thanks, Sarah, you should head back now, we've got it from here…" Nightwing said.

"Ummm… Can I stay? W-with you guys I mean? I'm a bit nervous about going back alone…"

"I can run you back?" Flash offered.

"I-I I mean… I kinda' also… want to… watch you guys in action… I mean don't get me wrong I've seen Cyborg and Flash kick ass before, you know, with the whole Parademon attack a few years ago, but like, everyone was rushing to save Vic's life, and it was all stress and 'aghhh scary demon bugs!'… but I mean, here there's no rush or anything… And like you guys know who you're fighting, right? I-it it'd just be cool to see… you know?"

The three heroes looked about each other, Spider-Man spoke first, "I mean, usually my emphasis on 'great responsibility' means I try to keep civilians out of potentially dangerous situations, not actively invite them to spectate…"

"Yeah… same here… But I mean… Hey, Flash?" Nightwing spoke.

"How're your powers doing? Could you run her back if anything goes south?"

"Y-yeah… I t-think so."

"Hmmm… Okay… but just in case… Spidey?"

"Yeah, I can also swing her back if anything happens… But stay in contact in case your with one of mine, I know how to push their buttons." Spider-Man replied.

"Alright, agreed. Sarah, you can tag along, but stick close to the Flash and Spider-Man… The moment you're in any danger, or even if you just want out, you say, and one of them will run you back to Canary and Booster… Sound good?"

"That is absolutely good with me! Ahah! Err… Sorry. I'm just really excited."

"I'm glad, but maybe, you know, try to keep your voice down, we dunno' if Electro's on the other side of the door…" Nightwing replied with a smile.

"Aheh… sorry." She sheepishly whispered back.

"Right, how do we play this? Shall I go in first? Draw any fire in case Max is still in there?" Spider-Man asked.

"No need… I can do recon; he won't be able to see me even if he is in there… back in flash!" Flash replied, before a whiz of yellow lightning filled the space where Flash's body used to be.

There was a shared groan between Nightwing and Sarah as Flash vanished from sight, which was undercut by Spider-Man stating, "Ha! Flash… Good one…" he saw the other two staring at him, "What? Does… does he say that a lot…?"

They nodded. He did.

"It's his 'swing by'…" Nightwing said with a mildly accusatory tone.

"Oh… so a lot, a lot, then?"

Again, they nodded.

Inside the canteen, Flash was less than a blur, moving so fast the room seemed static. Which it admittedly was, nothing in the room would be moving regardless of whether or not Flash was running as fast as he was.

Until flash reached the window facing the kitchen, inside something would be moving. A human figure was… preparing sauces? He was wearing black spandex complete with a half-mask attached, red gloves and boots, a golden oval with a black crown symbol on his chest. He was currently in the stage of equipping his, assumed, weaponry around his waist.

Next to him two large pots with different coloured liquids inside, slowly bubbling away… Whoever 'Buddy' really was, he was certainly telling the truth about preparing sauces, Flash could smell the evidence.

As Flash was pondering what was going on, he felt a jolt and once again his mind was assaulted by visions he didn't understand. As they shot through his mind, he felt his body weaken as a strong sensation of static peppered his muscles.

All at once his speed left him, and he panicked as his momentum carried him forward, straight through the kitchen door, he stumbled and fell to the floor, befor rolling on his back and sliding along the ground as if in a slapstick cartoon. He slid next to the stranger in perculiar garments, Flash's head stopping right beside his foot.

The stranger looked startled for a moment before staring down at Flash who was staring back up at him with an uneasy smile. They shared a moment of eye contact before a large, red, tube-shaped gun was pointed in Flash's face.

He chuckled nervously before gingerly placing a hand to his ear and whispering, very softly into his comms, "Uhhh… Flash, requesting back up… please and thank you…"

Less Than a Minute Earlier

Star Labs – Lab Office

"So, you're both on the same program?" Canary asked the interns in front of her.

"Correct…" Warner replied with his unique accent.

"And what program would that be?"

"It's err… on the job training through an independent party…" Anne spoke.

"What independent party? If you don't mind me asking…"

"Not at all, Ms Canary…" Warner spoke, his voice upset something withing Dinah, she couldn't explain what, it's like his voice was a ghost, passing through her, giver her the shivers, "It's a small company offering apprenticeships, internships, scholarships, traineeships—"

"That's a lotta' ships, this company wouldn't be a cruise liner, would it?" Canary knew it was a bad joke, but she wanted to calm Anne and try to gauge Warner's response, something was… off about him.

Despite being very conventionally attractive, Warner's smile was ugly, not physically, but it's energy was terrifying… his chuckle was even uglier, "No… Of course not."

"Well, does this company have a name?" Canary was trying her best to hide her growing disdain for Warner, mostly because she still couldn't pin down why she felt so disgusted by him.

"Technological Illumination Network… or T.I.N." Anne added, meakly.

"You could say, we're just 'S.T.A.R.T.I.N.' our careers with S.T.A.R. Labs…" Warner said with a dry chuckle, each inflection of his voice causing a ripple of goosebumps for both Booster and Canary.

"Hmm… good one." Canary tried to feign amusement.

"It's the slogan for the S.T.A.R. labs training course… He keeps trying to pass it off as his own…" Anne said with a sheepish smile.

"Guilty…" He raised his hands as he smiled with his mouth, his eyes were, dead, fixed… one could even say cruel.

"Uhhh… Flash, requesting back up… please and thank you…" Barry's voice rang through both Booster and Canary's comms.

Warner's eyebrows raised imperceptibly as he watched Canary and Booster react to the message that played in their ears, the same message that was picked up by their own comms…

Canary and Booster shared a look… Booster pointed to himself as if to ask, 'shall I go?', Canary considered for a moment before nodding., as she turned back to face Anne and Warner she felt her heart drop, 'Warner' was standing and he looked at her darkly with a cruel face as he tore his brown hair piece off his head, revealing a bright blonde wavy style beneath.

'A wig?' Canary' thought as she immediately recognised the face as he also removed the spectacles on his face.

As Booster began to move, he suddenly felt nauseous as all balance left his body and he fell to his knees, he turned back to see Canary keeling over on the floor as she fell off her chair, groaning with severe discomfort.

"Sorry… We cannot let you leave… We have been asked to not let you interfere… Nightwing and Dr Charles was already too much of an oversight on our parts." 'Warner' spoke, ditching his fake accent as a strong eastern European cadence took over his voice. Waves of nausea inducing psychic force emitting from the implant in his ear, demolishing both Booster and Canary's sense of balance.

"Ho-w-w… a—re… y-you.. doi-ng… thi—" Booster tried speaking as he crawled, slowly on all fours towards his attacker.

"Balance… It is a silly thing, the moment it is disrupted, even the strongest among us fall to their knees…" He looked smugly between Canary and Booster.

"V-vertig-o-o…" Canary managed to speak with disgust, a stupid disguise and a phony accent and that was it, that's all it took to fool her.

"That's Count Vertigo to you… Peasant." He said as he kicked her in the chin, she still managed to block even with the nausea, but she was still flipped over on to her back by the blow.

"A-all of-f this-s w-was a trick-k?"

"No. And yes. We are here to oversee an… issue. Anne's cover being compromised was not part of the plan, but it worked to our advantage… Keeping any unnecessary prying eyes away from our allies was our goal anyway…"

"Th-en-n you failed, Fla-ash and Spi—"

"I said unnecessary… Though, I do wish the other two had also decided to stay here… would save us so much trouble… No matter we shall kill them shortly after we are done with you…"

"H-hey… Vampula…" Booster meant to say 'Dracula', he had forgotten the name, "Y-you f-forgo-tt something… It's k-kinda' important-t"

"And what is that…" Werner Vertigo paused as he tried to recognise the other hero, "Green Lantern…?"

"Rea-ally? I-it's B-Boost-ter G-G-Gold-d… I'm n-not e-ven we-earing g-green-n…"

"Is that it? I forgot about you, and you wish to tell me your name before I kill you?"

"N-no… you- forgot-t my friend… S-skeets…"

"What are you prattli—"

Skeets flew towards out from behind Booster, straight towards Werner, "Good evening, Werner Vertigo, AKA Count Vertigo… My name is Skeets, please refrain from your attack on my allies…" As he spoke the ring on his iris began to steadily glow brighter as he began to fire concussive blasts at Count Vertigo.

Werner was able to dodge them, barely, as he kept his focus on intensifying the waves of nausea used against Booster and Canary, "Anne… Destroy the robot." He said as he leapt behind the desk and flipped it over to block Skeets' attacks.

Anne, who had been silent and still this entire time, stood and sighed before reaching towards Skeets, her arm extending past its normal length as her flesh turned into a light brown hue and took on a liquid like structure.

They encased Skeets as her whole body shifted into clay. There was a tension in the clay arm holding Skeets, then there was horrible screech of metal straining, a strong crunching sound, and a resounding fizzle… pieces of golden metal and circuitry began falling from Clayface's arm.

"S-Skeets-s! No…" Booster called, weakly.

Canary strained as she looked towards Booster, his face of utter defeat and heartbreak grabbing at her heart as she felt a rage grow inside her. She turned back as Vertif=go stepped out from behind the office desk and began approaching the two of them.

He looked at Canary's rage filled expression and began to taunt, "Black Canary… It looks as if you would like to say something… I better get this collar on you before that happens… Clayface."

Canary went to scream; to fill the room and knock down Vertigo with a sonic attack, her mouth was encased in clay before that could happen. She widened her eyes, and still began screaming, she could feel the clay becoming softer, a few more seconds and it would be gone.

She looked up and realised she wouldn't have the chance, Vertigo pulled out a metallic inhibitor collar from the bag next to the sofa, and began to fasten it around her neck.

Just before he could latch it in to place however, a ray of golden light hit it, destroying the collar completely as he felt his hand getting singed slightly.

He called out in anguish and surprise as he stumbled back, before looking down and seeing Booster pointing at him with his closed fist, it was smoking, he had destroyed the collar with his last energy. Booster smirked before all his strength left him and he passed out.

Werner growled in frustration, then, a soft ringing hit his ears. He looked down and widened his eyes in horror, the clay was nearly gone from Canary's mouth entirely.

"Shit..." He managed to say in his native language, Vlatavan, before the entire room was encased in a high-pitched screech. It's force powerful enough to destroy half of Clayface's body, send Vertigo flying backwards, and completely shatter the glass exterior of the office.

There was a pause. All of the S.T.A.R. Labs staff stopping what they were doing as they froze and looked towards black Canary as she stumbled to her feet, surrounded by a pile of broken glass…

They began to panic, Canary looked over to Silas, "Dr Stone, fire procedures! Get everyone out of the labs!"

Silas nodded, "Everyone, quickly, don't panic. This way…"

"Silas! Remember, no one can go outside, just get them far from the labs and canteen…" She was now on her feet, though she was still wobbly, she was picking up Booster's unconscious form as she called to Silas, watching as he directed people out of the labs.

She heard a groan and turned in annoyance as she saw Werner slowly pulling himself to a sitting position, Clayface just in front, already starting to reconstruct his body. 'Great. Hold on boys, this might take a while...' She thought as she wrapped Booster's arm around her shoulder and began leading him to a safer area so she could focus on incapacitating Vertigo and Clayface.

Meanwhile

S.T.A.R. Labs - Canteen

"Buddy Standler! Now I remember… Condiment King! He had a tussle with Batman a couple years ago!" Nightwing called cheerily as he flipped from table to table, avoiding blasts of BBQ sauce from the 'villain in the middle of the room'.

"Indeed, Nightwing! I knew Batman and his lackeys would be here soon… It was only a matter of time before my cover was blown!" Condiment King replied as he grinned maniacally, firing akimbo from his sauce guns at Nightwing and Spider-Man, one gun firing ranch dressing, the other firing BBQ.

Flash, now aware he was fully depowered, was sat in the corner of the cafeteria with Sarah as the two of them were wiping him down with wet paper towels, desperately trying to wipe of the ranch dressing off of him. Flash would be lying though if he said he wasn't in pain, turns out getting ranch dressing squirted directly in your face hurts. Especially if you have your eyes open at the time.

Sarah was helping as best she could, and she felt bad every time she saw him wince as he tried to blink out the pain in his eyes, but she also couldn't help herself from giggling every now and then at the absurdity of the situation. Flash, to his credit, took with good humour and laughed along with her.

"Cover? Dude… You're using your real name… Now that I think about it, aren't you on parole? Isn't this just your actual job…?" Nightwing continued as he continued to effortlessly jump and flip around the room.

"All a cover, I played you for fools… After I am done here, I go after the Bat himself… then everyone in Gotham shall bow before the Condiment King!"

"Jeez guy, come on, Condiments King? You're gimmick's almost as bad as Paste Pot Pete's!" Spider-Man replied as he flipped away from the spray of ranch dressing, landed on the floor, and lifted the nearest cafeteria bench up with his palm on one hand. Turning it onto his side as he took cover from the, completely harmless, projectile of sauces.

He looked to his side as Nightwing flipped behind the table beside him, they shared a knowing look as they both tried to stop themsleves from bursting into a fit of giggles.

Peter spoke as he peaked over the cover and saw as Condiment King was spraying sauce around him like a lunatic, not even looking where he was firing, "You know, I used to think Batman was this big scary guy that no one would ever want to mess with… Now a know he's been fighting a guy called 'Condiment King' for years… and suddenly, I don't find him intimidating at all..."

Nightwing smirked as he replied, "Did you just say you have a villain called Paste Pot Pete?"

"He goes by Trapster now, but yes… point taken."

A small cylindrical device flew over top of their cover, Spider-Man barely looked as he attached a line to the grenade and flung it back over towards the 'villain' who through it. There was loud 'Bang' and a cry of annoyance from the other side of the table.

"We've probably wasted enough time here, right? We should wrap this up and go after the janitor..." Nightwing asked as he peered over the table and watched as a now mustard covered Condiment King stumbled about, desperately trying to clear the sauce from his eyes.

"Yeah, probably… I guess Buddy here was another red herring…" He said as leapt out from the side of the table.

"Well one red herring with mustard coming up!" Nightwing quipped as he threw his baton at Condiment King's head.

Condiment King cried out in pain and annoyance as his head snapped back as he felt the baton collide with his forehead. He stumbled back once before he felt his feet being fastened together and pulled out from under him, he landed on his back as Spider-Man pulled the webline he had attached to Buddy's legs.

He landed on his back and moaned, desperately trying to grab something from a pouch on his chest before his entire upper body was covered in webbing. Spider-Man and Nightwing began approaching Condiment King's prone body, Dick turning to Peter and pointing at his cheek, "Err… you've got a bit of…"

Spider-Man pulled his hand to his mask, "Oh really, thanks…" he swiped it off, it was a bit of mustard, clearly from one of the grenades thrown earlier.

Suddenly, terror struck him as he remembered sitting on a rooftop with his sister the weekend just gone, his own words taunting him, 'Ugh… Come on! Can you not get mustard all over my new costume?'

He sighed, 'I don't care if we said no screts. I am never telling Terri about this… she'll never let me live it down...'

Both Spider-Man and Nightwing turned to the side as they heard Sarah running up to join them, Flash, still wiping his face, strolling casually behind her. Sarah curious to see the villain close up and so she approached him as he wriggled and writhed on the floor, Nightwing beside her.

Peter then felt a throb in his subconscious, 'Spider-Sense? Why?' It was so strong, so intense. Everyone was in danger, he looked and saw the flashing lights on another grenade attached to a pouch on Condiment King's chest, he was only just able to pull the pin.

This one looked different, higher tech, and Peter's Spider-Sense was screaming at him.

Everyone stared at Condiment King curiously as an intrusive beep silenced everyone in the room.

"You fools, now I'll show you my newest prototype, even I don't know its true potential…" Condiment King cackled as time seem to slow for Peter.

They were about to laugh, but Spider-Man's voice stopped them, "Move!"

Sarah was confused, but her confusion shifted to terror when she saw Nightwing's face drop and immediately become focused. Dick knew if Peter was stressed than his Spider-Sense was telling him something, this was no longer a joke, this was serious.

Meanwhile

S.T.A.R. Labs – Main Lab

Canary continued her forward leap off her hands as she avoided the clay projectiles being launched her way from Clayface. She landed on Count Vertigo's shoulders with her pelvis as she wrapped her legs round his neck, she shot out her left arm as she spied Werner's hand moving in her peripheral. She wrestled the handgun from Werner's grip as he tried to press it to her side, wrenching it from his hand and tossing it across the room.

She used her right hand and delivered a swift, hard, punch to Vertigo's face. She watched with slight satisfaction as his nostrils exploded out blood as the bridge of his nose was shattered, his consciousness shattered right along with it.

As Vertigo fell backwards, forwards from Canary's perspective, she used his momentum to continue her own. Unwrapping her legs from his body and stretching them out. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she began moving, diving into a roll away from Vertigo's still falling form as she dodged yet more clay thrown her way.

She pulled herself back into a standing position and kept leaping and flipping out of the path of Clayface's attacks, "Let me guess, Clayface, the Light is using nanotech to control you again?"

He sighed as he replied, "Yeah… I swear I don't want to hurt ya'"

"I believe you, sorry we couldn't stop them… but I need to help my friends… Any idea where Vertigo kept the control device?"

"Top left jacket pocket… And hey, Canary. Tell your buddy I'm sorry about his robot will ya?"

"Will do." She flipped back into a backwards handspring back towards Vertigo. When she landed next to his unconscious body and started rummaging through his pocket, she noticed he was slowly waking up. She took found the control device and began to pull it out his pocket.

Werner began groaning as he felt a semblance of sobriety return to him, "What is-?You—" Canary punched him in the face once more. He went back to sleep.

She looked up and her eyes went wide, barely leaping out of the way in time to avoid another superpowered punch from Clayface. She landed in a roll and turned back to him, screaming at a frequency to destroy the second arm being thrown her way, it was pulled apart by the sonic attack which reverberated up the limb and to his chest, essentially ripping him in half.

She pressed a button on the device and spoke quickly into it, "Clayface, stop attacking!"

He froze, the clay around him ceasing their movements to as he rebuilt himself.

"Err… Sorry…" she said with a guilty smile.

"I get it…" He replied, quite sadly.

"Um… Clayface, I command you to act of your own free will." After she finished.

His body unfroze and once again the bits of clay began reattaching themselves to the main body. When he was fully rebuilt, he shifted back into Anne.

"Thanks…" They spoke.

"Back to Anne, huh?"

"Eh… I can just say Vertigo and Clayface attacked together, and that was keeping me hostage or something... I should be good."

"Sorry, Clayfa—Anne… I can't let you join them. You're gonna' have to go back into lock up. Don't worry the League will have your back, none of this should come back to you. But you're still a wanted criminal… I can't let you roam free."

"I—Yeah… that makes sense. I just, some of em' where nice, you know." They way Clayface spoke, it was like they had once again embodied the role of Anne… before her voice took on a darker intonation, "You know, I could go back to attacking."

Canary sighed, "You could. And I could order you to stop." She waved the device.

"You could. So why don't you?"

"I could ask you the same question..." She smiled slightly before dropping the control device and stomping on it, destroying it completely, "Do me a favor?"

Anne/Clayface smiled, "Sure."

"I'll let you join them… but when this situation is over and we aren't frozen in time anymore—" She saw Anne/Clayface's confusion and waved her hand dismissively, "long story… Anyway, you can join the rest of the staff, but only if you promise to hand yourself in when this is over. Deal?"

"Deal." Anne/Claface offered their hand.

"Great…" Canary shook the hand offered, Claface may be a criminal, but Dinah'd been in Gotham long enough to know they were honest and were working on being better, "Oh and, you don't have any idea who else is out there, do you?"

"Nope. Vertigo never left my side…"

"Figures… Alright, if someone else pops up, can you keep the rest of the S.T.A.R. Labs staff safe?"

"You got it, Black Canary. And… thanks again.

"No problem." Canary waved Anne/Clayface off as she approached Booster as he sat in the corner of the room, he was starting to come to.

He groaned as he looked up and saw Canary staring at him, smiling and offering her hand. He took it, "Ughh… Thanks. What happene—Skeets!"

He began to move frantically before Canary grabbed his arm to stop him moving and pulled him back to her, she put her hand on his shoulder as she looked him in his eyes, "Booster, I'm sorry, I already checked. He's gone…"

"N-no…" Booster fell to his knees, "How did this happen? This was supposed to be easy; we were supposed to get in, get Kid Flash and everything would be fixed, but now… Skeets…"

"Wait… What are you talking about? Kid Flash? He's in Jump City…"

"No. Not him. The other one." Booster's voice was dull. Blank.

"What other one?"

"I—There's—" Booster paused as violent 'Boom!' shook the building, bits of the ceiling began crumbling around them as they both started stumbling around the room.

Then there was a light. Ripples of electricity began ripping apart the building and Booster watched in horror as a bolt of pure white, blue, bright power struck Canary and her entire body was fried into ash before his eyes.

He would've yelled. He didn't have time. He was disintegrated next. Then the entire building followed.

At 16:41, a Justice League team entered S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham City.

At 16:41, S.T.A.R. Labs was destroyed completely.

A Minute Earlier

S.T.A.R. Labs – Canteen

The fight was over, it was over… The threat should've been gone, but they were sloppy, if only they were more careful. If they had checked the lunatic's vest, then Peter wouldn't be staring at a primed grenade ready to blow.

They had taken down the criminal, the madman, the joke. Perhaps they should have taken him more seriously, no time for that now. They were going to die, but maybe not, Spider-Man moved inhumanly fast, faster than even Flash could perceive, but then again, his powers had been playing up on him recently, Peter could hardly blame him for that.

In fact, if Flash's powers were working as they should, Peter had no doubt that Barry would have dealt with the lunatic himself in the blink of an eye. But they weren't working, and so it was up to Peter. He grabbed Nightwing and Dr Sarah Charles by the back, it wasn't hard, they were standing closer to the cackling madman, in front of Spider-Man.

In one smooth motion he wrenched them both off of the floor and tossed them several feet behind him as, without looking, he fired his shooters in tow with them, fashioning them a comfortable landing as they bounced on a giant cobweb.

Peter turned to the side for a moment, the whole world seemed to move in slow motion, he saw as Flash was trying his best to run to him, hand outstretched. Poor dude, he wouldn't make it in time, his powers were still gone. Peter hoped 'The Fastest Man Alive' wouldn't blame himself for what was about to happen to him, he knew better though, Flash was like him… Always taking responsibility.

He heard the cries from Flash, Nightwing and even Dr Charles, they were faint though, as if they were crying from underwater. Peter felt the ocean they were screaming from surround him too, his last moments alive felt truly liquid. He was drowning in their tension.

Maybe he wouldn't die… Maybe he was strong enough to survive the blast… He doubted it… This last-ditch attack was different than the others… And besides, with what Peter planned to do, he would be so close to the blast, even his spider-powered body wouldn't be able to walk this off.

He dropped to his knees in less than a fraction of a second, and he grabbed the grenade from off the villain's chest, tearing apart his own webbing. He pulled him off the ground and threw the man several feet through the air, hearing as he landed with Nightwing and Dr. Charles on the giant cobweb.

He clutched the grenade close to his chest as he fell to the floor and huddled as small as he could around it. Each beep of the grenade's timer felt more intrusive, harsher, than the last, each one pierced its way into his skull, spelling out his final moments in his mind. He saw the splashes of watercolours painting the blank canvas that was his mind, an immense landscape, a tapestry of his entire life. This was it.

'Ben… Terri… May… I'm so sorry…'

The beeping stopped, a blinding light filled the space, hues of yellow and red filled the irises of Spider-Man's allies as they widened in terror. But the worst part was the sound, a crackle of thunder was a baby's whimper compared to the deafening boom that emanated from the centre of the room.

Nightwing freed himself first, he dropped to the floor and began running to Spider-Man, his body was intact… He met Flash halfway on his way there, they shared a grim look before they both reached Peter.

He was kneeling, and shaking, he was alive! But, the amount of red that was dripping from his chest, the blood—Suddenly Flash sniffed, "Is… Is that ketchup?"

Peter stood up, he was still shaking, not from shock or pain, but from disgust and rage. He turned to face Flash and Nightwing, half of his body covered entirely in ketchup, the other half, entirely in mustard, "Not. A. Word!" His voice was so angry, but it's hard to be intimidated by a man dressed as a hot dog.

Flash and Nightwing slowly turned to each other, before both of their lips started quivering. Dick broke first, he leant over his knees and began hysterically laughing. Cackling even. Tears began streaming from his face.

Barry didn't take long to follow, he put his hand on his belly as he leant back and began his own hysterical laughter, calling to the sky in hilarity as he began wiping his eyes with his fingers.

"Oh sure… enjoy it. Have a good old giggle at Spidey's expense why don't ya'? Relish in the moment…"

Laughter. "I-I think I saw some r-relish over their at the salad b-bar!" Even more Laughter. "Yano', if you wanted to complete the look!?" Flash finished his reply as he pointed to the counter. There was no coming back from here, Dick and Barry were laughing even harder now.

Dick began to lose his composure and had to steady himself on Flash's shoulder, "I-I just, you were sooo serious! You were like, 'Move!' and then—And then!"

"Oh… no, yeah, sure… Mock the guy who just took a hit for you guys… It's not like I was trying to save your lives or anything…"

"And my dry-cleaning bill thanks you…" Dick replied with a chuckle, the laughter was cooling but was nowhere near finished.

"Ugh… I'm completely covered. My sister is gonna' have a field day with this... But, ugh, why did my Spider-Sense—?" Peter paused.

"What? Is there gonna' be another attack? What is this time? A mine filled with Sweet chilli sauce?" Flash replied.

"Shhhh! I—"

"Ehehe… Spider-Man, come on…" Dick spoke, his laughter slowing down, "What is it?"

"My Spider-Sense is still going…"

"What?"

"That wasn't what set it off, something else is— Oh god!" Peter grabbed his head, his Spider-Sense had never felt so intense before, he dropped to his knees as he writhed in aguish.

"Spider-Man?!" Dick immediately grabbed his friend as he fell to his knees gripping his head.

"Oh god… what is this… anaphylactic shock? I- is he allergic to anything in the sauces, maybe?" Flash spoke as he went to help Peter back to his feet.

"N-no! Arggh…" His mind cleared, a calm before the biggest storm, he looked forward as he realised the scope what was about to happen, "Oh god… We're all gonna' die…"

A violent 'Boom!' shook the building, bits of the ceiling began crumbling around them, crushing cafeteria tables. Nightwing turned in horror as he heard a scream, that ended almost as quickly as it started, a large chunk of the ceiling fell directly onto Sarah and Buddy, still stuck in the cobweb.

The amount of blood and… They were dead. She was dead, crushed.

"Sarah!" Dick calling out was pointless. Running to her was more pointless. He did both anyway.

Then there was a light. Ripples of electricity began ripping apart the building and Flash felt something within him spark, setting fire to every molecule in his body. He screamed in pain and Peter watched in horror as pure white, yellow, bright power exploded outward from within Barry, his entire body being fried from the inside out as he was ripped apart into charred flesh and ash right before his eyes.

Peter looked over to Dick who was wide eyed in horror, pausing his rush to Sarah's remains and turning back just in time to see his friend being torn apart from within. Dick and Peter's eyes landed on each others... They both knew they were next.

They would've yelled. They didn't have time. They were disintegrated by a bright blue waves of electricity. Then the entire building followed.

At 16:41, a Justice League team entered S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham City.

At 16:41, S.T.A.R. Labs was destroyed completely.

16:41

"Booster? What the hell are you doing here?" A female voice spoke as Booster struggled to concentrate on his surroundings, a high-pitched ringing assaulting his ears.

Booster didn't reply, he just blinked as he looked at all the surprised faces staring at him… He was back in the lobby, and everyone who was present when he first entered S.T.A.R. Labs was present in front of him, even Black Canary who was fried to ashes in front of him just moments ago.

"Booster! Hello… I'm talking to you!" Canary clicked her fingers in his face to snap him out of whatever stupor he was in.

"I—I What is this? Where—" He looked to the side and saw his robot companion, "Skeets! You're alive! Thank goodne—"

"Booster!" Canary cut him off… "Why are you here? Why are you ignoring me? And, what are you talking about, you can't just enter a building and start babbling incoherent nonsene!"

"I—What time is it?"

"Four-forty-one…" Flash said, while checking his watch. "And fifty-nine seconds if you want to be—Huh? Darn… EMP must've screwd up my watch as well as my powers… It's stuck."

"Skeets…? What's going on here?"

"Booster!" Canary asked again, shocked he was still ignoring her.

"Booster, I am confused by your question, you told us we should come here so we could rescue Wally West and save the timeline, is that no longer our goal?"

Flash, Canary and Nightwing spoke as one, "What?!"

"Err… Surprise…!" Booster said as he did his finest ever jazz hands.

Peter just looked to his side and saw that Sarah was also looking at him, her confused face matching Peter's own exactly below his mask. Coincidentally, they both also shared the exact same thought. Verbatim, word for word, 'What the fuck is going on here? Is this how every League mission goes?'

Still confused as to why he was back at the lobby, Booster realised he had a major issue on his hands, or a major solution, after all, he'd rather be stuck in a loop than dead…

'Ugh… What was the name of the movie Ted made me watch…? Ground Control? No. That's not it… Ground Day? Nah… I'll remember it… Pretty sure I'll have the time to do it… Oh! That's a good line... I should put that on some mech.'

Author Notes:

I HATE writer's block. I legit had to just keep pushing through it and eventually the chapter was over… but PHEW I can't even tell if this is legible, let alone enjoyable… Which sucks cause this chapter kicks off one of the arcs I've been most looking forward to.

Anyway, sorry that this took so long, I tried to write the Miles one-shot I'm working on BEFORE tackling this chapter, but then I hit a block on that and thought to come back to the main story, but that just meant I struggled to start this one.

Despite having the idea for this chapter (which has now been split into parts because its quite a big arc) for literal months now, this was still difficult to get down into words. Hope you enjoyed the first part of it, this arc should be fun, lots of twists and turns…

Again reminder, this fic will be BIG, but I've started tackling things closer to the end of this story (potential sequels not withstanding…) and I'm looking forward to showing you lovely people what's to come.

I plan to finish this arc (S.T.A.R. Attraction) before publishing the Miles one-shot (Miles From Home) but depending on how my flow goes on this it may come out in between chapters.

Also, for anyone wondering, yes, that WAS a Rice Krispies reference, I was eating cereal while writing that part…

Till next time, stay beautiful.

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