Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Earth – 1; Central City
Deep in the city, Black Panther, Vibe, and Frost were stunned by Pariah's presence.
Puzzled, Vibe stared at the green suit that surrounded the man who was Nash Wells.
"Mm-hmm, new name, new suit guess no one's consulting me anymore, huh?" he said with a disapproving tone.
"Wait, what exactly happened?"Frost wondered.
"I searched these tunnels as Nash for Mar Novu to kill him," Pariah explained, lowering his head in regret. "Expose him as a false god, and now I'm being controlled by another god."
"You were tracking the Monitor, but actually, you were tracking the Anti-Monitor without you knowing it," T'Challa concluded. "He used you to set him free."
"That's right," Pariah agreed. "He laid a perfect trail for me to follow, but all along, he was manipulating me so that he could gain a foothold in this universe."
"Why didn't you resist him?" resumed Frost.
"His will was too strong and now I am forced to bear witness as he destroys world after world."
"That's why we're gonna stop him." Vibe retorted.
"Can you tell us how to get in?" asked the King of Wakanda.
But the man in the green suit shook his head.
"No, I'm sorry. My memories as Nash are somehow lost to me as Pariah. (Then he turned to Vibe.) But you can."
"By vibing those memories?" Cisco supposed.
"Yes," Pariah replied.
"That explains why Novu returned your powers, Mr. Ramon, so that you could use Nash's memories that would allow us to access the source of the anti-matter," Black Panther said.
Taking a deep breath to prepare, Cisco put his hand on elder Nash's shoulder. He shivered as a vision flashed through his mind.
He saw Nash smile confidently and observe the symbols on the wall. Without hesitation, he pressed the signs in a specific order. The symbols sparkled with each push of a hand. Then a powerful bright light engulfed the depths of the city.
At the end of the vibe, Cisco collapsed to the ground. Black Panther hastened to help him stand, then Frost came to him in concern.
"What did you see?" she asked.
"A way in." Vibe replied, panting determinedly.
Waverider
In the timeship's lab, Supergirl was chatting with Lex Luthor, still a prisoner on his platform. The Girl of Steel asked him how to use the Book of Destiny to bring back Earth – 38, as well as all other Earths. But to her annoyance, her worst enemy wasn't very cooperative, which didn't surprise her at all. It was Lex Luthor. A psychopath without any logic. Seeing the Multiverse being destroyed by the Anti-Monitor didn't seem to bother him much. See not even at all.
The bald prisoner just laughed sarcastically.
"You think the Book can bring back the destroyed Earths?" he said after the female Kryptonian informed him of her intentions.
Kara gave him a cold look, then Lex burst out laughing, which annoyed Thor and Kate, also present in the lab.
"I understand why Kara and her cousin hate this guy," Thor muttered grumpily to the Gotham woman.
Amusingly, Lex turned to the Asgardian.
"And you, the God of Thunder, don't you have a way to bring everyone back to life with your lightnings?" he sneered smirk.
Thor gave him a mirthless smirk.
"You are the worst human bastard I've ever seen on Earth! I knew a billionaire genius who was much better than you! I find it hard to believe that a man with such a great intellect like you doesn't care about the destruction of all worlds!"
Lex shrugged indifferently.
"I'll settle for the other worlds that will remain. If the Anti-Monitor hasn't destroyed them all already."
"We don't have time for this." Kate growled, lowering the invisible enclosure to Lex's platform.
Immediately, she grabbed the bald man from behind, and slammed him against the wall, twisting his arm behind him, making a strong-arm.
"Tell us how to use the Book or lose an arm your choice!"
"I like her more and more," Thor commented with an amused smile.
But Lex just replied sarcastically:
"Do the strong-arm tactics work in Gotham City?"
In response, Kate twisted his arm, making him moan in pain. Thor took the opportunity to join them, brandishing his ax with an amused smile.
"Do you prefer her way or mine?" he said, flashing lightnings on Stormbreaker. "Choose!"
"The Book channels ancient and endless power." Lex replied, moaning furiously. "It takes immense willpower and focus to make it work."
"But you, you're just a mortal and you used it without that affecting you when you hunted down and killed the Supermen." the Asgardian pointed out to him, frowning.
"What did you focus on?" Kate roared threateningly, twisting Lex's arm.
"His hatred of Superman," Supergirl replied neutrally.
"Got it in one." exclaimed the bald man sarcastically.
Then Kate twisted his arm again. He continued:
"But that was easy for the Book to provide. You try to use it on the scale that you're talking about, and it could drive you mad. Like Deegan."
At these words, Thor stopped staring at Luthor, and looked thoughtful. He vividly remembered Doctor Deegan who had used the Book to reshape reality. He had first swapped the bodies of Barry and Oliver, and then transformed the whole world into a new reality. He remembered the man who looked like Loki. And in the end, after restoring all of reality, Deegan's face was completely distorted. If changing reality could do such damage, then bringing back an entire world, even several, what consequences would that entail?
He remembered the words of the Monitor when Kara had suggested to if she use the Book of Destiny to bring back her Earth:
"Trying to re-create an entire world would surely drive one to madness…"
As he meditated in his thoughts, Kate and Kara had Luthor brought back to his platform, then Supergirl took the Book of Destiny away much to the fear of the God of Thunder.
Apparently, Kate had the same fears as him, as she hurried to join her.
"Kara, there's no telling what kind of ripple effect this could have."
"I'm supposed to be the Paragon of Hope, right?" Supergirl insisted determined. "Maybe this is my role, to bring back my Earth, Argo and all the others…"
But Kate and Thor weren't convinced. The Asgardian worried about his friend. Was she really serious or was it her pain of losing her world that made her react that way?
"Thor, Kate, I have to find a way to fix this." she said as she left the lab.
As Supergirl left the place, Lex couldn't help but chuckle:
"Poor Kryptonians, always so arrogant and convinced of being right about everything! Good luck getting her to change her mind."
"Shut up!" Thor growled, giving the bald man a murderous look.
"See you soon," he said to the two heroes, who both left the Waverider's lab.
Earth – 666; Los Angeles
"So why did we take a detour to another parallel Earth?" Diggle asked, as he, Mia, Clint and Constantine had just arrived in a dark alley in Los Angeles.
"So many Earths are already gone. The pillars of magic are crumbling, leaving me the worse for wear, so I can't get us into Purgatory." Constantine said. "But don't worry, squire. Luckily, I know a guy!"
He knocked on the door of a nightclub. Then, when it opened, a man in a black suit, surrounded by two women in his arms, came to greet them. While discussing with his ladies, his gaze fell on Constantine and had a funny smile.
"Always a pleasure to see you, Lucy." Constantine told him. "It's time."
Puzzled, Clint and Mia exchanged curious glances at the mysterious dark-haired man. While the latter withdrew from his two ladies.
"Excuse me, ladies. Seems like you're not the only ones who want a piece of me. I'll see you later." he said to them gently.
Then he came to greet the man in the trench coat.
"Johnny! I'd like to say it's a pleasure to see you on my Earth outside my club! It's not!"
He looked at Clint and Diggle with a strange smile, then when he found Mia his smile widened even more.
"Hello!"
Clint came to stay next to Oliver's daughter, like a protective sentry, as if he had in front of him a sexual predator.
Ignoring the archer, the brown man came over to Mia.
"Don't believe we've met. Lucifer Morningstar."
"Lucifer Morningstar?"Mia exclaimed, smiling incredulously. "As in…"
"The Devil. Yes, exactly." replied the man with a carnivorous smile.
"You're the Devil? Really?" Clint asked with a mirthless smile mingled with skepticism.
Being an Avenger, Clint had met strange and amazing individuals before, but seeing the Devil as a man who looked like a male model was new.
"Yes, I am, buddy," answered the so-called Lucifer, looking at the archer of the Avengers with little interest. "How do you like me?"
Clint laughed and retorted:
"I imagined you a little bigger, very red with big horns!"
It was Lucifer laughing.
"You're so funny, man! Have we met before?"
"If I had met the Devil dressed in a male model, I'd remember, man," retorted Clint always skeptical.
Lucifer laughed more, then returned his attention to Mia.
"So tell me: what is it you desire?"
Mia's gaze suddenly froze, as if she was hypnotized. Fearing that she was undergoing a mental spell like what he had already undergone several years ago, Clint came over to Mia, wanting to keep her away from the Devil.
"I… I… uh… I desire to get my father back." she whispered without taking her eyes off Lucifer.
"Ooh, Daddy issues. Why didn't you say so?" exclaimed the Devil.
"Look, I don't know if you have an Oliver Queen on your world, but ours has, uh, shuffled off this mortal coil." added Constantine.
Lucifer nodded, muttering:
"A soul retrieval, blah, blah, blah, the worlds are ending. It's all very Biblical, John! Okay, okay! I'm only doing this 'cause I owe you for Maze."
And he turned to Diggle and said:
"You remind me of my brother, by the way tall, dark, annoyed by me."
"You gonna help us or not?" Dig retorted indifferently to the Devil.
Clint interjected in a loud voice:
"Hey look, Lucifer or the Devil, I don't care who you are… We're here because we need your help! And we've got a long way to go, so hurry up..."
"Oh, flirt, dude!" Lucifer snickered in front of the Avengers' archer. "The Devil always sees through on a deal. Take this card."
He handed Constantine a Devil's card.
" You'll have a limited time once inside Purgatory, and once the picture completely fades…"
"Our souls will be decimated, blah, blah, blah…" interrupted Constantine indifferently.
"And trapped in eternity forever." Lucifer said with his smile. "So, I don't recommend it. Consider us even, John Constan-tine."
"It's Constantine," the man in the trench coat corrected with a grim look.
"Is it? I don't care!" Lucifer said, then spoke to the two men. "Always a pleasure doing business with mortals."
And he went back to his disco, closing the door.
"Goddamn! That was really the Devil?" Clint commented. "This dick?"
"He forgot to tell us what to do." Mia replied annoyed.
"Did he, now?" Constantine retorted amused, brandishing the demon card.
The map began to burn, then our four heroes disappeared…
And reappeared on the shores of a strange island, surrounded by tree trunks. Stunned, Clint looked around, while Constantine looked delighted.
"Ah! Welcome to Purgatory!"
"Looks a lot like Lian Yu." Diggle pointed out.
"Lian Yu? Like Oliver's Island?" Clint asked in amazement, his eyes wide. "Is that what your Purgatory looks like, guys?"
"Which is Mandarin for 'purgatory.'" clarified Mia.
"Lovely little coincidence, eh?" Constantine said, walking on the shore.
"Any idea why Dad's soul would choose to come here?"asked the young female archer again.
"Souls choose their prisons." Constantine explained. "This place must be what Oliver thinks about when being trapped for all eternity. It's a funny thing too, considering his memories are probably missing."
"What are you talking about?" asked Diggle.
"The second that Oliver's soul landed here, his memories would've been… how can I put it?… Squeegeed."
"So we'll have to make him remember us." Mia said nervously.
"And we haven't much time." Clint pointed out anxiously.
"Yup, we have to move, right now…" Constantine declared looking at the map. "This card is already beginning to fade. Well, when you work with the devil you never know quite what you're getting."
"No pressure there, right?"Diggle said wryly.
"I have met Gods, aliens, and now the Devil in a suit, and I'm in Purgatory!"Clint exclaimed stunned. "Yeah, right. The end of the world sucks!"
Earth – 1; Central City
After inspecting the perimeter, Flash found Black Panther and his two friends.
"Perimeter's clear." he declared. "There's no sign of any Quantum Tower on Earth – 1. (He noticed elder Nash in his green suit.) What are you doing here, Pariah?"
"Behind this wall his domain."he declared.
"What Mr. Green Jeans is trying to say is once we get inside, we can actually stop the anti-matter wave right at the source." Vibe clarified.
"We will be able to stop this Crisis behind this wall," Black Panther added.
"All right, let's do it." Flash said determined.
Vibe turned to the wall and pressed the symbols in the same order he had seen Nash do in his Vibe. The symbols glowed as he pressed them and on the last, the door opened.
The place our heroes entered seemed like a cross between a laboratory and an enemy's lair. On the other side, there was some sort of huge tower with a beam of energy shooting up to the sky, and in the center of the place was a platform with a conveyor belt with a fuzzy red figure on it.
"Whoa!" Vibe exclaimed, putting his hand on the wall. "This place has some crazy vibrational frequency surging through it."
"What is this?" Black Panther asked, looking around.
"This place is the nexus between the anti-matter universe and your own." explained Pariah, contemplating the great tower with the beam of energy. "Behold, Anti-Matter Cannon this is the source of the wave."
"And what is this on this platform?" asked the King of Wakanda as he watched the red blur twirling on the treadmill.
"Guys, I think this blur is alive." Frost said in surprise.
"Let me check it out." Flash said, getting ready to run at super speed.
"No!" interjected Pariah.
But too late, Flash sped off to the treadmill. In the Flashtime, he could see who the speedster was running at superhuman speed. It was the Flash from Earth – 90 also known as Barry Allen, but it was the lookalike of his father, Henry Allen and Jay Garrick of Earth – 3. The old Flash looked like he was getting tired. while he was running on a treadmill but did not give up running. As he saw young Flash running towards him, old Barry raised his hand to stop him. But it was too late because Earth – 1's Flash crashed into a barrier at full speed and bounced hard against the wall.
"Barry!"exclaimed Frost, joining him.
"Flash, what happened?" Black Panther asked, opening his black helmet.
"It's a force field! I couldn't get through!" Barry gasped in shock. "It's the Flash from Earth – 90! A Flash like me! He's trapped on that treadmill!"