After Kid Flash and Artemis vanished, the rest of the team huddled on a clearer patch of land, brushing off the cold. There was no path, no structure—just endless white. Still, they regrouped, trying to figure out their next move.
Then the ground lit up beneath them.
A white portal opened without warning—and pulled them through.
Superboy and Aqualad hit solid stone with a hard thud, groaning as they pushed themselves up. Miss Martian floated down gently, and Samuel landed with a mid-air correction, stabilizing before his boots touched the ground.
What surrounded them didn't make sense.
Gravity folded in on itself. Staircases twisted sideways, upward, into nowhere. Platforms floated like thoughts in a dream. At the center of it all hovered a massive golden bell, glowing and pulsing like a beating heart.
Standing beside it were Kid Flash, Artemis, and an old man in a worn cloak—Kent Nelson.
"Guys! You're here!" Kid Flash shouted.
Nelson turned calmly. "Friends of yours?" he asked.
"Kaldur!" Artemis called out. "There are villains—after the Helmet of Fate—they—"
She didn't get to finish.
A bolt of lightning snapped past her, nearly frying her on the spot.
Two figures stood on a twisted staircase above. One was a grinning man with a waxed mustache and a wand. The other—a pale boy in a black suit—had wild hair and eyes that sparkled like a child setting fire to ants with a magnifying glass.
"Abra Kadabra… and who's the kid?" Aqualad muttered.
Samuel didn't hesitate. He activated his status screen.
Name: Abra Kadabra
Type: Normal
Ability: Pick Up
Name: Klarion
Type: Dark
Ability: Dark Aura
[Klarion is radiating Dark Aura!]
Samuel felt it immediately—Klarion's energy was sickening. Vile. Chaotic. Abra Kadabra barely registered by comparison.
The boy grinned, petting the red-eyed, tiger-striped cat on his shoulder—the same cat Samuel had seen outside the tower. Its eyes locked with his.
"Ooh, Abra. That's the one. I want that one!" Klarion squealed, pointing straight at Samuel. "Bring him to me! I want it!"
The voice was shrill, childish. But the power… it wasn't childish at all. It was raw and unfiltered. Dangerous. And for reasons Samuel didn't understand, it was focused entirely on him.
Then—while Klarion was distracted—Kid Flash and Kent Nelson reached the bell. They touched it.
Gone. Pulled inside like it was a portal.
Klarion's eyes widened.
"Oh no you don't! You don't get to take the fun away from me!" he shrieked, launching forward.
He vanished into the bell just before it sealed.
Only Abra Kadabra remained—twirling his wand with a dramatic flourish.
Samuel stepped toward Aqualad.
"We don't have time. That boy who followed them—he's dangerous. If we stay here, they won't come back."
Aqualad glanced at him, surprised by the urgency in Samuel's voice. Then he nodded.
"Then we end this now."
"RAHHH!"
Without warning, Superboy launched skyward, caught Abra by the neck mid-sentence, and slammed him down. The ground cracked beneath the impact.
But when the dust cleared, only Kadabra's clothes remained in Superboy's grip.
"What the—?"
A voice answered behind him.
"Quite barbaric for a hero. Let me show you how the wizard handles an audience."
Abra Kadabra fired a bolt from behind. It struck Superboy before he could react. A crackling electric cage wrapped around him, locking him in.
"ARGHH!"
"Superboy!" Artemis shouted.
She fired a quick volley of arrows. Three midair. Kadabra snapped his wand—a reflective barrier flashed up, and the arrows bounced away, exploding harmlessly.
Miss Martian phased upward and tried to strike from above. But Kadabra clapped—releasing a burst of dissonant sound. She tumbled, dazed.
"Too predictable!" he mocked.
Aqualad charged next, blades of water slicing the air. Kadabra warped out of reach, blinking across the battlefield. But Aqualad pressed, forcing him into close quarters. Blade met wand. Energy clashed with flow.
Still, Kadabra twisted space itself. Arrows reversed direction. A shot from Artemis curved midair. Miss Martian reappeared upside down, crashing into the floor.
He was directing the battle like a conductor.
At the edge of the chaos, Samuel stood still—watching.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," he murmured. Clarke's law. And it rang true.
This wasn't real magic.
It was tech. Advanced. Simulated. A show.
But tech could be analyzed. And tech could be countered. Unlike magic that worked on its own rules, there was no risk using his skills on a lucky guy with future techs.
"Aren't you going to do something?!" Artemis shouted, ducking behind a broken stair.
Samuel didn't even look at her.
"Yes."
"What do you mean, yes?!"
He blinked.
[Samuel used Yawn!]
A soft pulse rippled out—a visible shimmer of air shaped like a breath. It drifted through the chaos, subtle and slow.
Abra blinked.
His eyelids twitched. The grip on his wand loosened. He swayed.
"No... No, this isn't right. I don't get tired... I—"
His systems flickered. His defenses tried to stabilize. But the wave slipped through—calm, inevitable, viral.
The team didn't wait.
Artemis reloaded. Miss Martian gathered herself. Aqualad surged forward, his weapons glowing brighter.
But Abra wasn't done.
"You want a finale?! Fine! Here's your finale!"
He ripped every safety from his gear. Floating drones shot out of his cape—sleek and fast. They locked on, swarming.
His wand lit up—firing energy nets stronger than before. They flared toward Superboy, sparking against the cage and rebounding outward.
Drones raced toward Miss Martian's neck—meant to cut her powers. She phased just in time. Artemis fired a flare arrow that was knocked out of the air. Aqualad raised his blades—but a drone slammed into his chest.
One by one, they began to fall.
And then—
"Protect."
[Samuel used Protect!]
[Samuel protected himself.]
The shield flared to life—hexagonal, unbreakable. An electric net struck the barrier aimed at Samuel—and disintegrated.
But the others weren't so lucky. Smoke filled the air. The team struggled, stunned.
Only Aqualad remained standing. Static arced across his armor. His breath was heavy, but his stance didn't falter. His water-bearers shifted into a massive mace, larger than before, glowing with condensed force.
Samuel let his shield drop.
He turned away.
"He should be asleep by now. I'm going to help Kid Flash. You handle him."
[Samuel used Helping Hand!]
[Samuel is ready to help Kaldur'ahm!]
Aqualad felt it instantly—an energy rush through his limbs like a tide rising. He smiled.
"More than enough."
Samuel walked away, boots tapping calmly on the warped stone.
Behind him, Abra was laughing again—high, wild, and desperate.
"You think I'm going to sleep?! I'm wide awake! I'm—"
He staggered.
The wand slipped from his fingers.
His knees buckled.
He collapsed.
And just before the black took him, he looked up to see Aqualad—charging, mace raised, silent fury in his eyes.
Then—
Darkness.
As the chaos faded behind him, Samuel walked steadily toward the golden bell hovering at the center of the twisted dimension. Each step echoed on floating stone, gravity shifting slightly with every movement—like the world bent itself around the artifact.
He stopped in front of it.
The bell pulsed—steady, rhythmic, alive. Light shimmered across its surface like liquid gold. For a moment, Samuel hesitated.
Then he reached out.
The instant his fingers touched it, his vision snapped—flung forward, upward, through streaks of light and time. The world twisted around him and reassembled.
He was at the top of the tower.
Kent Nelson lay motionless on the ground.
Dead.
Samuel froze, breath caught in his chest. His eyes rose to the light ahead—brilliant, blinding.
Dr. Fate hovered midair, cloak billowing, body glowing with divine power. Energy crackled from his hands in a beam of raw gold—not at Klarion himself, but at his cat.
The tiger-striped familiar shrieked, red eyes flaring as it took the full brunt. Klarion screamed.
"NO! Stop it! You're ruining everything!"
He clawed at the air, desperation twisting his face. "I told you, you crusty old fossil! You always ruin the fun!"
Shadows surged around him, thick and wild. With one last glare, Klarion and his cat vanished into the void, swallowed by their own darkness.
Silence fell.
Only the hum of Fate's magic remained, buzzing like a divine static charge across the broken air. Samuel stood motionless. He'd seen monsters. He'd seen Klarion's chaos.
But this?
This was something else.
Power like gravity. Like the universe itself made room for him.
He stepped forward. Something was wrong.
No Kid Flash. Just Kent's body—and the figure above.
Samuel studied the stance. The size. The height.
Familiar.
With a flick of his fingers, he pulled up his status screen:
Name: Wally West
Type: Psychic / Dragon
Ability: Aura Break
Psychic. Dragon.
That wasn't right. Wally was speed, not sorcery.
This wasn't Wally.
This was Dr. Fate's helmet.
And Kent Nelson… was gone.
Samuel clenched his jaw. The game had changed.
He looked up.
"Where is Kid Flash?" he asked, voice low but steady. "What did you do to him?"
The golden figure turned. Eyes blazed through the helmet's slits.
"I am not the one you know," the voice echoed—layered, both youthful and ancient. "I am Nabu. The Lord of Order. This body is now my vessel."
"He's not a vessel," Samuel said. "He's a person."
"A child," Fate corrected. "One who chose to act. One who understood the cost. The Lords of Chaos are rising. Klarion is just the beginning. Someone must restore the balance. This world has been left to disorder for too long."
"And you think you get to fix it?" Samuel snapped. "So that's it? We went from supervillains to magical freaks, and now we've got gods playing chess with human lives?"
He laughed once, bitter. "What's next? A multiversal tournament arc?"
Dr. Fate floated closer.
"You mock what you do not understand."
"I understand plenty," Samuel said. "I understand you stole a kid's body. I understand you call it protection, but it's control. And I understand that every so-called god who says 'it's for the greater good' ends up doing more harm than anyone else."
"The world needs a protector," Fate said coldly. "More chaos will come. Klarion will return. Others will follow. Without me, this world will fall."
"I agree," Samuel said. "The world needs protecting."
Dr. Fate tilted his head slightly.
"But not from a self-righteous ghost in a helmet," Samuel finished. "Not at the cost of someone's future."
Silence.
Then, Fate looked deeper.
His eyes glowed brighter—piercing through Samuel. Past his words. Past his posture. Into something deeper.
"A ripple..." Fate said slowly. "You are not of this world."
The light shifted, dimmed.
"Your power—it's not bound by this reality. It exists outside the laws of this dimension."
His voice dropped, a whisper wrapped in thunder.
"You are an anomaly."
Samuel said nothing.
"A threat to the balance," Fate concluded. "A variable the Lords of Order cannot allow to exist."
Samuel exhaled slowly. "So what, now you're going to 'balance' me, too?"
"It is my duty."
The air thickened. Magic pulsed from the walls, golden light flooding the chamber. Fate raised both hands—palms crackling, power surging between them like miniature stars.
Samuel didn't flinch.
He just smirked.
"Then you're not a protector," he said. "You're just another tyrant with a shiny helmet."
Fate charged his energy, divine light swelling in his palms—
—and Samuel acted.
[Samuel used Encore!]
The world flickered.
The power in Fate's hands surged—again. And again. And again. Trapped in repetition, caught in the cycle of his own spell. Locked in the loop.
His eyes widened.
"You dare—"
Samuel stepped forward, eyes gleaming.
"Yeah," he said. "I do. Now give back the kid."
