Chapter 3 — Prologue III: My Name Is Richard Cox

“So, what happened next?” Ellery asked, intrigued. “Oh, now you’re interested?” Richard sarcastically remarked. “You just got chased through an interdimensional portal by Clara Vance. Of course, I’m interested.” “Very well then.”

Richard braced for impact, tumbling out of the portal. He stood up and scanned the area to find out where they were. “This is not my universe,” Richard soliloquised, confused. “No, it is not.” Vance stepped out of the portal too, her body armour weighing her down. “Just leave me alone, Vance. I just want to go home.” “Don’t worry, Cox. You’ll be home in a bit.” Vance raised her gauntlet. “You just won’t be alive.” Vance fired a plasma blast from her hand. Richard dived to the side and barely avoided it. He saw a nearby bin on the side of the street. He picked up the lid and threw it at Vance. It just bounced off her. “What was that supposed to do?” Vance grabbed Richard by the neck. The jets in her suit activated, and they flew into the air. They increased in altitude rapidly, and Richard was helpless to do anything. “I hope Phineas was right about the probability ions,” Richard thought to himself. Vance stopped at four thousand feet above the ground they were previously on. She held Richard up, still gripping his neck but slightly looser. “This is where your story ends.”

It was a Friday morning. The sun shone brightly over a clear sky. What a beautiful day. Deep in the city lived a married couple. The husband was a crime scene investigator for the local police department. The wife was an independent reporter with a blog called ‘The Citizen.’ They lived humbly in their loft. “Good morning, Iris,” he said as she walked out of the bedroom, yawning in exhaustion. “Good morning. What are you doing up so early?” “Singh had to come in early to work on the Cicada II case.” “Alright. Nora is sleeping in. Want me to make you breakfast?” “NO!” Iris was notoriously bad at cooking. “I mean, I already ate.” “Okay. Bye, hun.” “Bye.” He quickly kissed her before rushing out the door. After half an hour of walking, he arrived at the precinct. He always travelled to work on foot: he never needed a car. He walked up to one of his co-workers, Officer Daisy Korber. “Hey, Korber.” “Allen,” Korber responded, “Singh wants CSI around the corner from his apartment. One of his neighbours was killed by Cicada.” “Okay…” He turned around and walked back to where he was needed. On the way there, his phone rang. It was Cisco Ramon. “Barry!” Cisco frantically yelled. “Downtown, a man is being held in the sky by some lady in a mech suit! Get down there now! Nora, Ralph, Frost, and I are on our way now!” Barry sighed and whispered to himself, “Singh is gonna kill me for being late again.” He picked up the phone again and said, “I’m on my way.” He snuck into an alley so he wouldn’t be seen when he ran away at sonic speed, leaving nothing but a lightning trail and gust of wind in his wake. The scarlet speedster was on his way.

“I’m doing humanity a favour by what I’m about to do.” Vance slowly began to loosen her grip on Richard’s neck. “Eres solo peso muerto sobre el resto de nosotros.” Vance let go. Richard began to descend to the ground. He accelerated rapidly, crashing down like a meteor. He closed his eyes, accepting his fate. Suddenly, he opened his eyes as something caught his attention. Even Vance was surprised. An orange glowing streak of lightning manoeuvred through the streets, scaling buildings and crossing canals on its way towards him. The streak raced up the skyscraper he was falling next to before leaping off and catching him. They slid down the side of another building and landed on the ground. Richard looked up at his saviour to see the blur resolve into a man in red, golden strips of lightning accenting his attire, his lightning emblem – a similar hue – gleaming like a fire in the dark. The man held his hand out, helping Richard up. “You okay, man?” he asked. “Who are you?” Richard asked, confused. “I’m the Flash.” “What are you? Some kinda superhero?” “Are you, like, new here or something?” “Yeah, but we can talk about that later. LOOK OUT!” Richard drew Flash’s attention to Vance flying down towards them at high speed. The Flash raced Richard to the side of the street, and he faced Vance, who had just landed, denting and cracking the road like a crater. Suddenly, a portal, a breach, opened behind them, and Team Flash stepped out of it: XS, the Elongated Man, Killer Frost and Vibe. “Sorry, we’re late, Flash,” Elongated Man quipped. “Actually, you’re right on time.” “Who’s this chick?” Vibe wittily asked. “I’m Clara Vance,” Vance began, “and you guys have something that belongs to me.” “This man isn’t going anywhere with you,” XS said defensively. Killer Frost mirrored her tone: “You don’t want this smoke, sis, so I suggest you back off…” Frost formed daggers out of ice. “…Before we make you.” “Very well then.” Vance fired a plasma beam that knocked Elongated Man back into the wall. Flash and XS ran in circles around Vance, charging up Speed Force energy. A mix of golden and purple energy formed a ring around the villain, exponentially increasing in strength. In the meantime, Vibe fired vibrational blasts at Vance, Killer Frost shot icicles at her and Elongated Man stretched around her, restraining her. Then, Flash and XS stopped their rotation to use the energy they had built up to hurl lightning at Vance. The lightning struck Vance; however, rather than inflicting damage, her armour absorbed the lightning’s energy, making the suit stronger. She then broke out of the Elongated Man’s restraints. She threw him to the side and used the power from the lightning to smash the ground, creating a shockwave of electric energy that launched everyone back. Vance reached for a car off the side of the road, lifting it over her head. She hurled it at the heroes. Vibe acted quickly, using his powers to open a breach to escape, and the rest of the team and Richard followed him. “Well, that was weird,” Richard joked. Flash looked at him and chuckled: “Welcome to Central City.”

Team Flash breached back to S.T.A.R. Labs to see their mission control: Iris West-Allen, Joe West, Cecile Horton, and Sherloque Wells. Killer Frost relaxed. Her white reverted to brunette, and her icy blue eyes and lips became their natural colour as she transformed back into Caitlin Snow. “That was not our finest hour.” Sherloque pointed out abruptly in his French accent. “Sorry for the bad impression,” Flash apologised to Richard. “We’re usually more successful in our missions.” “I doubt it was your fault,” Richard reassured them. “I just learnt in the other universe that I’m a jinx.” “Other universe?” Vibe became curious. “Yeah. How much experience do you guys have with the multiverse?” Richard asked. “Quite a bit, actually,” Iris confirmed. “Sherloque here is from another Earth.” Harrison ‘Sherloque’ Wells is a variant, a doppelgänger, of Harrison Wells from Earth-221, a master detective. “Interesting… Anyway, I’m Richard Cox, and I’m—” Elongated Man giggled. “Don’t be immature, Elongated Man,” Flash said, frustrated. He turned to Richard. “Continue.” “I’m from another universe, and I’m kinda trapped here. I was in another universe with these two genius kids who were about to build a device to get me back home, but I ended up here.” “Genius kids?” XS was so excited. “Phineas and Ferb?” “Yeah, how do you know them?” “It’s only one of the greatest pieces of kids’ television!” Vibe exclaims. Caitlin looked at him, concerned: “You were sixteen when the show came out.” “I indulge.” Vibe turned back to XS. “How do you know about Phineas and Ferb?” “I enjoy retro media. It’s so schway!” she said.

“Anyway…” Richard changed the subject. “I need your guys’ help: to get back home, but also to control my abilities.” Cecile stepped forward while sipping her hot coffee and asked: “What abilitie—” She cut her sentence off short when she tripped over Sherloque’s foot, dropping her Jitters coffee cup and spilling her coffee on Sherloque’s leg, burning him. “OW!” Sherloque yelled in pain. Caitlin, a bioengineer, ran up to Sherloque. “You okay?” she inquired, bending down to examine and treat the burn. “No!” Sherloque was frustrated. Caitlin began to wrap Sherloque’s wound when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. “Oh, a penny!” Caitlin excitedly grabbed the coin and shoved it into her pocket. “Hello! Injured patient here!” Sherloque yelled, annoyed. “In a moment! Geez!” Flash, just witnessing these events, looked back at Richard: “You can manipulate luck, can’t you?” “Yeah,” Richard nodded. “Except I can’t control it.” “Well, I’m Barry.” He pulled back his cowl, revealing his face. “That’s Iris, my wife.” XS removed her domino mask. “I’m Nora. I’m their daughter from the future.” “We’ve already introduced you to Sherloque,” Barry continued. “That’s Iris’ dad, Joe, and his girlfriend, Cecile.” “I’m Ralph.” Elongated Man introduced himself, removing his mask. Vibe did the same, removing his goggles: “I’m Cisco. I’m the funny one.” “I’m Caitlin,” Caitlin said. Then her eyes glowed an icy blue, her hair and lips transforming too. “And I’m Killer Frost.” “Odd name for a hero,” Richard commented. “Whether I’m a hero is… debatable.” “Ignore her,” Barry said. “She can be a bit aggressive at times.” “Noted,” Richard replied. “So, when do we get to training?” “Well, we don’t know much about your powers, and the last person to have powers like you was Becky Sharpe, who’s kinda… dead. But we do have a friend who has a one hundred per cent success rate when it comes to training people in combat.” “And who is this friend?”

Despite metahuman serial killers and multiversal wormholes, Central City was a peaceful city. Team Flash did a good job of cleaning up the streets and spreading hope to its citizens. The same cannot be said for its sister city: Star City. Star City was the birthplace of vigilantism. The city was riddled with crime, too much for the police to handle. This left the responsibility of keeping the city safe on whoever dared to take it. Luckily, someone did. In an abandoned warehouse deep in the city’s trenches, the city’s heroes fought in battle with a red-leathered archer and her underground gang. “I spy with my little eye,” the Red Arrow mocked, sneaking around the space. “A couple of cowards in masks.” She quickly reached into her quiver and fired an arrow into the shadows. Emerging from them was Team Arrow, the Green Arrow deflecting the woman’s shot with his bow. “You don’t have to do this, Emiko. We don’t have to fight,” the Emerald Archer pleaded as his team behind him prepared for battle. “As long as father’s blood courses through you, yes, we do.” As she said that, members of the infamous terrorist organisation known as the Ninth Circle appeared from behind her, firearms in hand. “Sorry, hoss,” Wild Dog said, “But it looks like we have to fight.” With that, Team Arrow charged into battle. They moved quickly, avoiding the flurry of bullets flying towards them. Wild Dog and Spartan wielded their pistols, spraying as many Ninth Circle members as they could. Mr Terrific threw one of his T-Spheres, which flew around autonomously and blasted enemies with energy pulses. Black Canary pulled out her bo staff, hitting enemies. Arsenal used the variety of trick arrows provided in his quiver. The Green Arrow, however, charged straight for the Red Arrow. They traded several punches and kicks, firing the occasional arrow. Back at the Arrow Bunker, Team Arrow’s tech support and resident hacker, Overwatch, guided them through their communication systems while watching by hacking into the camera network in the building. “Arsenal,” she said, “A guy is aiming a gun at you, six o’clock.” Arsenal turned around and fired two arrows attached by a rope, restraining the man to the wall. “Thanks, Overwatch,” he responded. One of the gunmen looked up at the ceiling and shot the wires holding up the ceiling light Spartan was under. “Spartan! Look up!” Overwatch warned. Spartan rolled out of the way of the falling ceiling light. “That was clos— LOOK OUT, ARROW!” While he was distracted by Red Arrow, a bullet was sent flying, Green Arrow’s heart in its trajectory. Right as the bullet was about to pierce the green leather of Arrow’s suit, all of Team Arrow was zipped away in the blink of an eye. “What was that?” Red Arrow asked her team, confused.

At the Arrow Bunker, Overwatch heard a gush of wind. She turned to see Team Arrow behind her, along with Team Flash and someone new. Spartan quickly took off his visor helmet and threw up from motion sickness. “Damn you, Barry!” he said. “Every time!” “Sorry, Dig.” Barry apologised. “Barry,” Green Arrow began. “This better be important, because I swear if you interrupt another one of our missions, you won’t live to see that Crisis.” “It is, actually. This is our new friend, Richard, here, has powers that he can’t control. Given your experience with training people, I figured you could help us deal with them.” Green Arrow took off his mask, revealing his face as Oliver Queen: “First Kendra, now this guy. Let me guess: this guy is being hunted down by someone.” “Yeah, how’d you know?” “Lucky guess.” “Actually,” Overwatch interrupted, “Iris posted about it on her blog.” She looked at Richard. “I’m Felicity, by the way.” Mr Terrific took off his mask: “I’m Curtis.” He pointed at Spartan. “That’s John.” He pointed at Black Canary. “That’s Dinah.” He pointed at Arsenal. “That’s Roy.” He ripped off Wild Dog’s hockey mask. “This is Rene.” “What was that for, hoss?” Rene asked angrily. He walked up to the Green Arrow. “And this is Oliver.” Oliver was annoyed: “So we’re just revealing all our secrets now?” “I mean, we’re not helping Richard if we’re keeping secrets,” Barry commented. “Plus, you guys were deputised by SCPD, so all your identities are public anywhere,” Cisco added. “Focus!” Oliver yelled in irritation. He turned to Richard. “If you want to train, you need to be dedicated and disciplined. You think you can do that?” Richard nodded: “Yes, I can.”

Our heroes gathered in an abandoned S.T.A.R. Labs storage facility in Star City. “Okay, Richard,” Oliver began, “Strike me down.” “I thought we were trying to help me control my abilities,” Richard said. “You have that Vance lady hunting you down, right?” “Right.” “Well, if you want to survive, you’re gonna need to learn combat, so strike me down.” Richard charged at Oliver with all he had and threw a punch. Oliver easily blocked the punch and trapped Richard in a headlock. “I said strike me down, not try to!” “How is this supposed to help me?” Richard frantically asked, loosely gripping the remaining oxygen in his lungs. “I’m not just here to train you. I’m going to weaponise you, turn you into an unstoppable force not even Vance will want to cross. Now strike me down!” Richard breathed, gathering all his strength into one concentrated kick to push Oliver back. He charged at him, trading punches and blocks until he lost focus, and Oliver kicked him to the ground. “Good job, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.” Barry walked up to Oliver, concerned. “Oliver,” he said, “You don’t think you’re being a little too hard on him?” “I trained Curtis, Evelyn, Rene, and you like this, and you all turned out fine.” “Evelyn went rogue and tried to kill you.” “Seventy-five per cent success rate is good enough for me.” Oliver joked. He then turned back to Richard. “You ready for round two?”

“Okay, Richard,” Barry said, “I’ve designed two identical obstacle courses across this entire building. You have to use your speed and agility to get through every obstacle while racing Cisco. Once you make it to the end of the obstacle course, I will drop a dummy from that tall building. You both have to use your powers to save the dummy from falling. While Cisco isn’t allowed to use his powers during the obstacle course, you are allowed to use yours so you can create advantages for yourself and disadvantages for him.” “Well, that’s not fair!” Cisco complained. “Neither is you breaching to the end of the course. Besides, he needs to be able to learn how to control his powers somehow.” “And it had to be at my expense?” “You said you were great at obstacle courses.” “Yeah, but not when the literal forces of the universe are against me.” “Who knows if he’ll even succeed this time?” “I’m willing to bet.” “Don’t be like that.” Barry stepped back as Richard and Cisco got ready. “You guys ready?” They nodded. “Go!” They were off. Cisco was hopping from platform to platform with kickflips and somersaults. Meanwhile, Richard was barely alive. Every jump he made, he missed. Every step he took, he slipped. Every breath he inhaled, he lost twice as much. Meanwhile, Cisco was zipping through every obstacle like it was nothing. Richard wasn’t going to make it. By some miracle, Richard and Cisco made it to the end of the obstacle course at the same time. This was the final challenge. The dummy came crashing down. Cisco aimed his fist, preparing to open a breach to reduce the size of the fall. That was it. Cisco was going to win. Richard breathed in, relaxing his body. “Focus… you can do this…” he whispered to himself. He channelled all his energy. To his surprise, he managed to release a pulse of red electric energy. The wave hit Cisco, and an aura of the same energy glowed over him and both the dummies. “What was that?” Cisco asked playfully, chuckling. “It kinda tingles.” Cisco fired blue vibrational energy from his fist, opening a breach. However, while he was opening the second breach, he lost balance and tripped, changing the angle of the breach. His dummy fell into the breach and came out the other end, flying into the air. Cisco’s dummy crashed into Richard’s dummy as it was falling. Richard saw this as an opportunity and leapt up, catching both dummies. Cisco looked up, lying on the floor in awe: “The hell kinda tingle was that?” “You did it!” Barry exclaimed with pride. “That was so schway!” Nora said with excitement. “And I got Cisco’s fall on video.” “You’d better delete that footage right now.” Cisco playfully threatened. “You’re gonna have to catch me first.” Nora disappeared in a streak of orange and purple lightning. “Oh, it’s on.” Cisco opened a breach and chased after her. Oliver sighed and facepalmed, disappointed at the foolishness, before turning to Barry: “Is this what your team does all day?” “You try fighting a metahuman serial killer with a telepathic link to a power-dampening dagger.” Barry quipped back.

Back in Central City, Ivo Labs was broken into. A woman came crashing through the windows. It was Cicada II. She was a hooded figure, draped in black, her breathing audible through the ventilation mask she wore. She wielded a kukri knife in each hand, a glowing dagger in her holster. “Who’s there?” Cicada yelled, her question echoing down the halls she lurked in. “That depends… Who are you?” Another person lurked through those very halls. She wore a dark red, long-sleeved top with a zip down the front, over which she had a dark black armoured vest. On her back, a quiver filled with arrows was visible, with red fletchings and arrowheads. She wore dark, armoured gauntlets on her forearms, wielding a customised recurve bow in her hand, with fléchettes strapped to her right thigh. “I’m metahuman Armageddon…” Grace stated ominously. “Well, that’s cute. Most girls want to be a princess when they grow up.” Emiko mocked. “And you look like you got a little too into D&D.” “Cut the chit-chat and tell me why I’m here.” “Wait… You got an anonymous invite to meet at Ivo Labs?” “Yeah…” “Well, so did I, so… who brought us here?” A new voice echoed through the halls: “I did.” From the shadows emerged Clara Vance, mech suit and all. “Grace Gibbons and Emiko Adachi, I need your help.” She spoke to them both as they walked through the corridors. “Cicada, you want to kill Team Flash and all metahumans, right?” “Yeah,” Gibbons answered. “Red Arrow,” Vance asked, “You want to kill your half-brother, Oliver Queen, and get revenge on the Queen family to avenge your mother’s death, right?” “Yeah!” Adachi answered with passion. “Well, they both have a new friend, Richard Cox, and I want to end his life.” Vance led them into one of the rooms. “We all have a common goal now, and I have a way we can achieve it: together.” Vance pressed a button on one of the consoles. All the electronics turned on and went into hyperdrive, drawing all their power into one device. All its lights glowed a menacing white, complementing the bland yellow of the main body. “With this, we can defeat any superpowered being who comes in our way. Now, who’s in?”

“Team Tech, release the drones!” Barry commanded. “With pleasure.” Felicity, Cisco, and Curtis responded in a joyous unison. They each pressed the buttons on their individual tablets, activating each of their robots. Humanoid combat drones designed by Cisco, traditional hover drones equipped with laser blasters designed by Felicity and Curtis’ T-Sphere went online and prepared an assault on Richard. “You got this,” Richard murmured to himself. He charged into battle. His hand-to-hand combat skills had drastically improved. He weaved and dodged every punch Cisco’s robots threw at him, while landing some of his own, defeating every single one. Oliver turned to Barry, proud that his training had succeeded: “And you said my methods wouldn’t work.” “Okay, an eighty-three per cent success rate is better,” Barry said, admitting defeat. “But I definitely helped him with his powers.” “We’ll see.” Felicity and Curtis’ drones advanced towards Richard. This time, Richard didn’t push forward to fight. He instead took his time, avoiding any lasers flying his way. He then aimed his fist at one of the T-Spheres and blasted it with a wave of red energy, negative probability ions. At that moment, a wire in the sphere burst, causing the drone’s targeting system to malfunction. The T-Sphere turned around and accidentally blasted one of Cisco’s drones, knocking it back into all the other drones, causing them all to crash to the ground. “I did!” Richard yelled in shock and pride. “Yes, you did.” Barry smiled smugly at Oliver. “I’m still a better trainer,” Oliver claimed. “Whatever.” “Hey, Richie,” Cisco called to Richard. “Curtis and I have something to show you.” Richard was curious, so he followed Cisco into another room. At that moment, Curtis walked in, rolling a wheeled suit stand with him. “I called up our friend, Ray,” Curtis said sincerely. “And he hooked us up with some dwarf star alloy so we could make this.” “You’ve earned this.” Cisco commended. On the suit stand was a metallic black suit of armour, the limbs lined with a red glow. The full helmet had a red visor for the wearer to see through. “Is this mine?” Richard asked, speaking quickly as his eyes widened, and his pupils dilated to an otherwise unnerving degree. “Yup. I tricked it out with all the tech in Barry’s suit,” Cisco stated, proceeding to nerd out, “A fully customisable HUD, self-repairing armour, and flotation mode, as well as sensors all over the suit to monitor your bodily functions and track your vitals, and a communications system so you can talk to us or anyone else from a distance.” Cisco went on, “I also added some unique features, like a remote-control function, nanoparticles to generate any weapon, and a supersonic jetpack, because what’s life without soaring through the streets at eight hundred miles an hour?” “That’s so cool, but how did you make this suit within the day that you’ve known me?” “We’ve actually been working on this for months. It was meant to be for Iris, but when you came along, I quickly redesigned it.” The chest piece of the suit had an emblem in the centre, red in glow: a W element cell right off the periodic table with electron shells orbiting around it. Richard was confused. “Why is tungsten’s element cell on the chest?” he questioned. “Because,” Curtis explained, “We tracked the energy signatures you give off whenever you use your powers and…” “… Your power works similarly to mine: they’re tied to the energy that binds spacetime together. You’re not just controlling probability; you’re altering the cosmic balance of the universe.” Cisco added. “Tungsten’s W symbol represents my name for you: the Weaver.” “Cool name,” Richard commented. “Yeah, it’s kinda my thing.” Richard got into the suit to test it out. Suddenly, a robotic but lively voice called to him from within: “Welcome, Richard Cox. I am the Functional Reactive Interface for Emergency Neutralisation and Defence, or F.R.I.E.N.D. for short.” “You put an AI in my suit.” Richard inquired. “I put an AI in your suit,” Cisco said. “Your F.R.I.E.N.D. is based on Gideon’s code and has full access to the internet, so she has full access to all information you might need. She can also see through all the cameras in your suit so she can analyse and alert you of any threat.” “That’s cool! I’ll be sure to—” Richard was interrupted by Felicity’s call: “Everyone, Emiko and Cicada were spotted at Ivo Labs! This is an all-hands-on-deck situation!”

“So that’s where the name came from?” Ellery asked. “Yeah, that’s Cisco’s thing,” Richard stated.

The Flash and XS sped into Ivo Labs and searched the halls. An eerie silence echoed through the building as they whizzed through it. They took a turn and walked into a room. The room was a small engineering lab with tools all over the ground. They heard footsteps in the shadows. “Who’s there?” XS called into the darkness. The darkness answered: “I am.” A beam of green energy flew into the light, sending Flash and XS crashing into the computers on the desks. Vance revealed herself to the pair, and Cicada and Red Arrow followed her lead. “The heroes of this world are so pathetic.” Vance mocked. A.M.A.Z.O. appeared too and began to scan Barry and Nora’s meta DNA. Suddenly, four breaches appeared behind them. Before A.M.A.Z.O. could copy Flash and XS’ powers, Caitlin appeared out of a breach, turning into Killer Frost and knocking A.M.A.Z.O. off balance with an ice blast. Just then, the whole team — Team Arrow, Team Flash, and the Weaver — were standing beside them. Green Arrow took charge: “Terrific, Canary, Weaver, go after A.M.A.Z.O. Frost, Vibe, Elongated Man, go after Cicada. Spartan, Arsenal, and I will go after Emiko. Flash, XS, Wild Dog, go after Vance.” With that, our heroes were off. The Flash and XS ran around Vance, throwing a mix of punches and lightning bolts, while Wild Dog sprayed bullets at her. Green Arrow, Spartan, and Arsenal went toe to toe with Red Arrow. Oliver and Roy used a combination of arrow shots and bow swings, while John kicked and pistol-whipped. Cicada tried to use her superpowered dagger to dampen everyone’s powers, but her dagger didn’t affect Frost. Cicada threw her dagger, but Killer Frost dodged. On the recall, Frost used her powers to push the dagger, keeping it out of range. Everyone’s powers were back. Vibe blasted Cicada back into the wall. She then got up and pulled out her kukris, and the four danced. A.M.A.Z.O. used his abilities to replicate the latent meta DNA in Black Canary, despite her being unable to use her powers. It used her canary cry to knock her, along with Mr Terrific and the Weaver. Weaver tried to use his powers to give bad luck to A.M.A.Z.O., but tripping over and falling ceiling lamps wasn’t enough to stop it.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Iris, Joe, Sherloque, Cecile, and Felicity arrive in the S.T.A.R. Labs van. They rushed into the Cortex and connected to the communications system. Meanwhile, in Ivo Labs, the heroes were fighting for their lives. “Team Base, you there?” the Flash yelled over comms. “We’re here, Barry, Iris responded. “You couldn’t breach or speed us over?” Felicity remarked sarcastically. “What happened to ‘emergency,’ ‘all hands on deck’?” Flash questioned. “What happened to ‘we’re fighting the combined force of some of the strongest enemies we’ve ever faced, so let’s stop bickering and focus’?” Green Arrow commented with infuriation. “Sorry…” Felicity said. “Cecile,” Iris began to command, “You monitor Richard, Dinah, and Curtis’ vitals. Sherloque, you monitor Frost, Cisco, and Ralph’s. Dad, you monitor Oliver, Diggle, and Roy’s. I’ll monitor Barry, Nora, and Rene’s. Felicity, you make a virus to take down A.M.A.Z.O.” “I’m gonna need some help with that,” Felicity stated. “Team Tech, that’s your cue,” Iris said into the comms. A breach opened in the Cortex, and Cisco, Richard and Curtis came through. “Exactly who I was looking for,” Felicity said. “We can work in Cisco’s lab.” The four of them walked out of the room. It only took a few minutes: the genius of Team Tech. The virus was ready.

Meanwhile, at Ivo Labs, the heroes struggled. Emiko, along with her intent to kill, was far more agile and indefatigable than her opponents, easily overpowering Oliver, John, Roy, and Rene. The combined force of Vance’s power suit, Cicada’s dark matter negating dagger, and A.M.A.Z.O.’s DNA replication abilities allowed them to easily defeat the metahuman powers of the Flash, XS, Killer Frost, Elongated Man, and Black Canary. They were about to be killed. Weaver, Mr Terrific, and Vibe appeared through a breach, in frightened awe at the scene. “Stop right there, Comic Con.” Richard confidently quipped, in hand the flash drive with the virus on it. He caught the villains’ attention, and they all turned to the three, ready to fight. “That did not go as well as it did in my head.” Emiko quickly reached into her quiver and drew back her bow, aiming at Richard. “I’m going to enjoy killing you,” she said menacingly. Richard wasn’t worried, though: he had a plan. “Cisco, open a breach there and there,” he commanded, pointing at the relevant areas. “Curtis, on my signal, throw a T-Sphere just in front of the second breach.” They were at a brief, dramatic standstill. Then it happened: “Now!” Cisco opened the breaches, and Curtis threw the T-Sphere. Emiko fired an arrow at Richard. Richard threw the flash drive at the body of Emiko’s arrow. He let his luck take the wheel from there. When they collided, the arrow was deflected into the first breach, and the flash drive launched into the air. The arrow flew out of the second breach, where the T-Sphere was. The arrow crashed into the T-Sphere. At that moment, the flash drive had ricocheted off the ceiling and was falling. The drive and the T-Sphere collided, sending the drive flying into A.M.A.Z.O.’s right eye, injecting the virus. The android’s systems were overloaded, and it exploded. The force from the explosion, combined with all the dark matter and meta DNA A.M.A.Z.O. had collected, launched Cicada’s dagger away and overloaded it, disabling its power dampening. All the heroes now had their powers back and were ready for round two. “Excellent work, Weaver!” Flash commended. “Now, let’s cuff these ladies and turn them in.” “I don’t think so,” Vance stated firmly. The green energy coursing through her armour began to build up until it created a flash of light. With that, the three were gone.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, the heroes celebrated the partial victory. “Great job, Richard,” Barry said again. “You really saved us.” “Just know that I trained him with that throw,” Oliver commented wittily. “It’s not a competition…” Barry said. “But I did help him learn how to use his powers.” “Hey,” Cisco joined in. “Don’t I get credit for being involved?” “Everyone gets credit. You all did exceptionally well today.” Iris stated, mediating. “But Richard really did help a lot.” “Well, we’d better be getting back to Star City,” Felicity said. “We have a lot to get done after yesterday.” Oliver agreed: “Until next time, Barry.” With that, Team Arrow had left the building. “And you need to get back to your universe,” Cisco said, turning to Richard. “For some reason, I haven’t been able to vibe you or anything about your universe, but every universe vibrates at its own frequency. If I analyse the frequency you vibrated at, I can vibe blast you with that frequency, and you should just phase into your universe.” “Let’s go.” Richard accepted. Cisco began to blast Richard. The vibration coursed through Richard’s body. He was gone.