Here we are again, in the cusp of the story. I said in week but I was off by about 2 days, better now than then though, I guess. I hope you guys enjoy it, I know it may seem a bit short, but the ending is worth it. All will be explained in the coming chapter, we got flashbacks and side stories that will explain everything.

17

Man Plans and God Laughs

As the evaluator started to descend, there could be a low eerie noise emanating from below. Obviously, the sound of the one of the many experiments conducted in this lab. It was the same where they incubated Superman's DNA to create Superboy, though since then, certain breakthroughs in genology had allowed them to speed up the growing process of clones. No longer did they need the help of Cadmus, as Lexcorp had liquidated all funding and illegal funding from the government. If Lex was going to make his play for secretary general, he would need to disassociate himself from any public crimes he has committed in the past.

Not that any of it would matter anyways since all experiments concerning the Light and their new associate Doom would be handled on private labs. Dooms new alliance with Darkseid meant that now the Light worked for Doom. As much as it pained him to admit, Doom was a very intelligent man, in the short time he had been on this earth, he managed to seat power in one of the most influential third world countries in the world. While Doom only seemed interested in positioning himself in a seat of power, Lex knew that those weren't his only goals. He could tell that he and Doom were cut from similar material. Call it an intuition, but Lex knew that Doom was going to betray Darkseid and the Light eventually. But he was already preparing for that contingency.

As Lex descended deeper into the lower levels of his lab, his concentration was momentarily cut off by the sounds of screams being heard from the lab. He guessed conditioning on his little contingency was getting a little more tiresome than he had hoped.

Though he couldn't blame his scientists, the subject in question was unique to say the least. Based on there study of the genome, Spider-Man's DNA was subjected to genetically radioactive stimuli. He assumed some type of experiment or accident happened to Spider-Man that gave him his powers. He was leaning more towards accident, as previous profiling of Spider-Man didn't suggest that he was a lab rat or would have volunteered for any kind of operation. The way he fights, how he intentionally protects innocents and helps others, suggests that he may suffer from some feeble notion of responsibility. He seems to be obligated to be the hero, not for selfish reasons, but for something; or maybe someone. But that was just Lex's educated guess.

Lex finally reached the lab as the elevator came to a stop. As he entered the lab, the scientists stopped their conditioning process on the clone as not to irritate Lex with its cries. All scientists present began to take a deep breath as Luthor walked past them, even though Luthor hardly ever raised his voice, they new he had far more painful ways of dealing with people than verbal punishment.

As Luthor approached the clone, the lead scientist turned and addressed Luthor, "Mr. Luthor, we didn't expect to see you at least for another day."

"Always expect Donovan, you'll live longer." Luthor stood in front of the vat that contained the clone, marveling at how precise it came out looking. At least they had some reference to what Spider-Man looked like under his mask. The clone looked to be about 17 years old, physically. With brown hair and Caucasian skin. An average looking person by almost all standards. But since Spider-Man wore a mask, he could have some horrible disfigurement on his face for all they knew. The clone was built with baseline genetics, as if it wasn't changed since the day he was born.

Doom seemed to both respect and despise Spider-Man, from what he told the Light about him. On his earth Spider-Man was a very close ally of his rivals, the "Fantastic Four" as Doom called them. Despite the strange name, they were a force to be reckoned with. The fact that Doom himself was from an alternate reality opened new doors in Luthor's mind. Multiverse theory is real, endless earths, endless possibilities. Worlds that are so vastly similar and yet, can be so drastically dissimilar. As much as Luthor wanted to further explore the topic, he had more intimate matters to attend to.

"Sir, by all previous tests, project Scarlet Spider seems to be fully ready for deployment" Donovan handed the Qpad with all the data on the clone to Luthor as he quickly read over it.

Luthor quickly read through it and handed the Qpad back to Donovan and then approach the vat containing the clone more directly.

He knocked on the glass, as the clone finally opened his eyes, which took a minute to adjust to the fact that he was underwater. He starred coldly at Luthor as he smirked, finally getting the clones full attention.

"Good to know there's some semblance of a developed mind in there" Luthor smiled as he looked at the clone's vitals which monitored his brain waves and heartbeat.

"Now then, are you aware of where you are?" Luthor asked, only for the clone to wince as he continued to stare blankly at him.

"Are you aware of who you are?" Again, the clone did nothing, as he had no answer.

"Good, now that we have a baseline we can get down to business." Luthor turned to one of his scientists. "Is he ready for commands?"

"Yes sir, whatever you tell him to do, he will comply to the letter."

"Okay then" Luthor turned his back to the clone and straightened his tie, starting to pace the floor is a calm yet determined matter.

"Your name is the Scarlet Spider; your first assignment is to take care of some loose ends. I have some dealers for Metaplex that need taking care of. I thought distribution of the drug would keep some of my more proactive enemies busy, but it has gotten out of hand. New heroes and villains popping up, making a mess of my supply is costing me money. It's losing me certain off world investors, and seating distrust in my ability to accomplish goals." Luthor stopped his pacing and turned back to the clone.

"You see, loosing trust is costing me investors. Loosing investors is costing me money. Loosing money is costing me Metaplex. Loosing Metaplex is costing me my patience." Luthor said with a raised tone, before stopping to regain his composure.

"And loosing my patience, is bad for business."

"You can understand my dilemma. I will give you specific targets in which you will go, sever our business deals with the dealers, retrieve whatever Metaplex you find, and make sure nothing gets in your way."

"Understood?" Luthor raised a slight eyebrow hoping the clone got all of what he said.

The clone blinked a couple times before taking a deep breath, causing a thick layer of bubbles to leave his vat. Before speaking in a low tone. "What do I do if the other one shows up?"

"On the off chance you do run into him, stay away. You are by no means allowed to engage him in any way." Luthor pushed a button on a control panel that started to drain the vat of the liquid that contained the clone.

As the clone finally stood on his own two feet, he could finally see his own reflection in the vat. He starred at the face looking back and started to ponder, before he readjusted his eyes to Luthor on the other side of the vat.

"I will comply"

"Guess that's a no" John pulled out his lighter from his pocket and lit his cigarette before taking a long inhale.

Most of the team looked dumbfounded as there stared at the trench coat wearing magician. Nightwing was the first to step forward as he extended his hand to shake Johns.

"John Constantine; didn't expect for Fate to send you here" Nightwing slightly grinned as he and Constantine shook hands.

John stuck his cigarette between his fingers, before pulling out a strange looking necklace from beneath his white button down. "Well it was me, or Etrigan, and he's not exactly a people person mind you" The necklace in question had a small looking glass on it, John started to scan the entire area while looking through it. "Plus, I owe Z, she helped me out with nicked item last year. Some daft tosser made a mess of Glasgow and I was too plastered to help. I mean for f k's sake, you'd think demons would know the difference between a soul deal and a card deal."

"Whoa there chief" Superboy chimed in as he held his hands up at Constantine's language. "There are kids present."

"Don't be giving me that, these yanks here more wonky words on the telli than they would form me" Constantine explained. Like he really cared at all at how others perceived him.

Spider-Man chimed in, "So who's Mr. personality here?"

Before Nightwing could answer Huntress stepped in, turning to address the entire team. "This is John Constantine, he's an occult detective from London. He and Batman have a history."

John flicked his cigarette blunt to the ground before immediately pulling out another and lighting it. "Right you are lass, me and ole' Bats go way back."

"Yea, so what was with the weird necklace?" Beastboy asked pointing to it still hanging from Constantine's hand.

John held up the necklace so everyone could it, "This little trinket, can identify any curse, seal, or spell within sight. A little souvenir I picked up from Hong Kong. You ever go there, look for Wuzings Bar. He got the best sake this side of the pond." He then hid the necklace back under his shirt.

"From what Fate told me about this Doom wanker, he's got some serious mojo. Better to have an idea of what we're walking into than go in halfcocked."

"So, anything on the magic side of things?" Red Arrow asked.

"Eh, no actually. From what I could see the only magic thing in there is Doom and Z" Constantine pointed out.

"Luckily I got this little bugger here" Constantine pulled out a glowing crystal from one of his side pockets. "Think of this as a magic tracker of sorts, since me and Z's last meeting I got a scent of her magic, sort a speak"

"Going in is most likely a trap" Aqualad replied.

Nightwing nodded in approval, "Right then, Spider-Man; any ideas on what to expect going in?"

Spider-Man scratched his head as he tried to think of what Doom might plan for. "Hmmm, you can expect the regular bad guy fortress stuff. Lasers, robots, boobytraps, etc. Also some magic stuff as well"

"So except the unexpected" Aqualad was sure that this was the least of Doom surprises.

"Any ideas on how we get in? I doubt they'll just have the door unlocked" asked Guardian.

"Yes actually, I called in a favor to some resident heroes in the area. They'll help us get into the castle itself" Nightwing then put his finger to his com and signaled for his allies. "Terra, Geo-Force, were ready"

Before anyone could notice the ground beneath them began to lower, as if they were on a platform. All of them except of original team were surprised by this. In a matter of moments, the ground finally reached and underground tunnel, that had looked as if it was freshly dug out.

Standing at the entrance was a young girl and older boy who both had a smile on there face. The older boy looked to be around his late teens, with short reddish-brown hair. His costume was a full bodysuit with a mix of yellow and brown, with a large GF logo on his chest. His mask connected with his costume and cover his upper head only exposing his hair. The young girl looked to be about in her early teens with short blonde hair and a similar costume to the boy. The only real difference was a slightly different pattern and her sleeves only went up to her upper arm. She wore a regular brown domino mask over her face instead of one connected to her suit.

"Woah, who's the babe?" whispered Beastboy as he nudged Static.

Static gave a raised eyebrow at Beastboys comment, "I don't know man, why don't you ask her?"

Terra giggled, "You know I can hear you right?"

Everyone collectively around Beastboy groaned in embarrassment, just like him to make a stupid comment before a mission.

"Real subtle BB" Robin said shaking his head in disbelief.

Beastboy tensed up, "Oh, was that out loud? Sorry."

"Anyways, this is Tara and Brion Markov, there resident heroes of the country of Markovia, they know the eastern European countries better than any of us. They can help us get in to get Z out" said Nightwing.

"Wait, Markov? As in the royal Markov family!?" Wonder Girl had heard of the name, the King and Queen ruled over the country, she had seen from news reels that they had at least 3 children. And the more she looked at Terra and Geo-Force the more she realized they both looked like 2 of the royal family's children.

Geo-Force did a polite eager bow to the team, "Prince Brion Markov, second in line for the throne of Markovia, pleased to be making your acquaintance"

"And I and Tara Markov, Princess of Markovia, nice to meet you all as well" Terra did a small curtsy to the team as she introduced herself.

"That's crash! Having the own royal family protecting their own people. That's what I called affirmative action" Kid-Flash zipped around each of them as he admired their costumes and looks before making his way back to the team.

"Tara and Brion prefer to do their hero work in the background of the country's efforts" M'gann pointed out.

"The beautiful green lady is correct, better as to not draw public attention to ourselves to protect the country's reputation" continued Geo-Force.

"Batman trained them as a private covert team called the Outsiders a couple years back" Batgirl said giving the team validity as to their competence for the mission.

Nightwing put he hands on Terra and Geo-Force's shoulders patting them with approval. He had become real good friends with Brion in particular, since he had personally helped train him and Tara when they first got their powers.

As luck would have it, both siblings had been on a diplomatic mission in Gotham a few years ago. They had the unfortunate trouble of running into the penguin who had planned to kidnap and hold them for ransom. Metaplex had just hit the market back then and penguin was one of the first to start selling. During Batman's rescue attempt, one thing led to another and both siblings got exposed to the Metaplex, activating there metagene. With Bruce being Bruce, he felt responsible and trained them on how to use there powers effectively. Ever since, they been trusted allies for as long as the Bat family has known them.

"Well as fun as this has all been, can we just crack on?" Constantine lite another cigarette as he voiced his discomfort at the teen supreme meetings.

Spider-Man finally stepped up and addressed the elephant in the room, "I agree with Castiel over here, since introductions are out of the way, how do we go about this mission?"

Nightwing took the lead as he pulled a small scanner from his belt, "Readings show that the castle has underground catacombs running all throughout it. Terra and Geo-Force will clear a path for Alpha Team to sneak through. Constantine is with Alpha we'll use his crystal to get whereabouts on were Zatanna might be, Terra and Geo-Force, you two stay up top as a diversion while we sneak into the castle."

"Beta we will be the decoy, create as much noise and damage as possible, get their attention" Aqualad motioned for Beta team to come with him as Terra used her powers to open a hole at the end of the tunnel that broke directly into the catacombs.

Red Arrow pulled out his bow and readied an arrow, "That leaves Gamma, we'll be doing the same as Beta, only directly on the castle itself"

"Now your talking my language" Bumblebee shrunk down and readied her bio stingers for maximum output. She had been itching for some proper payback on Doom.

"Let's get going then" Guardian secured his shield around his arm as winked at Bumblebee.

Geo-Force then lifted the ground platform that they were already on and into the air as Terra and Gamma squad started to fly off on the rock to the castle.

"Now that we have our objective, lets go get Zatanna back" Nightwing pulled out his escrima sticks and started down into the catacombs.

Spider-Man leaped to the top ceiling as he started to crawl along the top and scout ahead. He was surprisingly faster crawling on the ceiling than the team thought he would be. He was able to keep a slight lead on them as they were running on the ground. Spider-Man turned a corridor and immediately leaped to the side wall as he dodged an incoming laser blast.

"Looks like I've stepped in it now" Spider-Man saw that there were at least 7 doombots in front of him, along with 3 automated turrets on the ceiling. All of which were firing at him. He quickly did a series of flips and leaps as he tried to dodge the blasts. Seeing as he was clearly outmatched, he went back around the corner for cover. He casually leaned against the wall as he saw the rest of Alpha team finally catch up to him.

"Lots of bad guys over there" Spider-Man pointed his thumb around the corner as blasts continued to shoot past him.

"Got ya covered webs" Blue Beatle gave himself a boost with his scarab as he created a shield and went around the corner to block incoming fire.

"If anyone can take out these robots, I'd sure be grateful" Blue Beetle was struggling to keep his shield up, he didn't expect the blaster fire to be as tough as it was.

"Don't worry your bonnet mate, I go ya covered" Constantine ran behind Blue before clapping his hands together. A yellow aura surrounded his hands as his chanted some incoherent words before slamming his palms on the ground. The yellow energy then crawled quickly across the ground before engulfing the doombots and turrets. Within a second, purple glowing cobras began to magically emerge from each machine and strangle them until they were nothing put pieces on the ground.

"Nice trick" complimented Arsenal as he rounded the corner. He noticed a security camera that was currently watching them at the end of the hall. Just as quickly as he noticed it, he took it out with his arm.

"There on to us" Tigress used her bow to scan for any more surprise attacks.

"I think they were on to us whenever we first landed" Wonder Girl replied. To her this whole plan was a trap from the get-go. Which made sense, considering what they go through on a daily basis.

"Stay sharp guy, this is going to get more difficult as it continues" Tigress held her bow close in hand with the previous arrow still drawn. She rounded another corner with her weapon armed, but the hall was all clear.

The rest of Alpha team followed suit, since the hall was clear they continued forward, following Nightwing's scanner. The scanner showed the layout of the castle, and they were heading to one of the lower levels. Constantine used his crystal which would glow brighter the closer they got to Zatannas location to lead the way.

The entire team was on guard as they awaited whatever traps Doom had set, what was surprising though was that there was none present. They reached a long elegant hallway of the castle, which was decorated with candles, a deep green carpet, and multiple chandeliers. At the end of the hallway was a large painting of a man in royal attire. What was strange was that there were no doors or anything in the hall. Only the painting at the end of it, and the way that came. The painting in question was of a very handsome man by the looks of it, with a strong jaw, short flowing black hair. He was wearing a large green cape that draped nearly his entire body. Next to him was a small pedestal which had a metal mask positioned to a pose. The man had his right hand resting on top of the mask itself, the mask of Doom.

"Is that…. Doom?" asked Wonder Girl.

Spider-Man slowly walked to the painting, examining it. The Fantastic Four had told him that Doom face was horribly scarred beyond recognition. Which is why he was wearing that mask in the first place, he had seen his face on the TV since being in this universe, and he had wondered how his face had been healed in the first place.

"From what I've seen from the news, that's him. We're definitely in the right place" Superboy added. He silently scanned the hall for any thing that looked out of place, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"This doesn't seem right" Spider-Man pointed out, "Doom would normally put all kinds of traps and distractions everywhere. He doesn't like to be disturbed"

"So why does everything seem so quite?" Blue Beetle questioned.

"This is bad, he's expecting us, but he isn't defending himself, he wants us to come to him" Superboy made a keen observation. This whole situation seemed bad.

"Gamma squad, Beta, come in. Everyone proceed with caution…hello? Can anyone hear me?" Nightwing was trying to get through to the other squads, but all he was getting was static. "Dammit, I'm getting anything, this has to be him"

"Why are we using coms in the first place, thought Miss Martian could use the physic link" Arsenal brought up a valid point.

Superboy crossed his arm annoyed, "We would have, but after the previous attack on the watchtower, and helping J'onn, M'gann is still getting over the mental stress, plus we thought Doom might be expecting it, so decided to go old school"

Arsenal groaned, this whole operation was getting annoying, he just wanted to shoot something. "Well, this is going swimmily"

Constantine held up the crystal, holding it in different directions to see which way it glowed the brightest, it only glowed brighter in front of the painting. But there was no way to get there, there was no door or entrances in the hall. "Looks like we've reached a dead-end mate"

"Well then it's a good thing I brought my all access pass then" Superboy motioned at Blue Beetle who knew that he was thinking the same thing as him.

"Cannonball?" Blue asked.

"Cannonball" Superboy grinned.

"What's cannonball?" asked Spider-Man. He watched as Blue Beetle got about ten feet from the painting, he spread his legs as his armor morphed bracers from his feet to the ground. His arms them merged into what looked like a slingshot of sorts. From his arms morphed a bipod like set up to the ground for stability.

Superboy then got in the slingshot itself tucking himself in a cannonball fashion. The armor then morphed a protective ball around Superboy with the same pattern as Beetles shield.

"Wait, you're actually going to shoot him through the wall!?" Spider-Man was nervous about it, but also excited to see it.

"I don't know about that lads, from what I could tell from my necklace from early, that wall is reinforced with steel and at least 5 feet of concrete" Constantine, puts his hands in his pockets as he casually watched on.

"Then looks like we'll need a boost" Blue Beetles back then made what looked like lightning rods extend from his back.

"Arsenal, juice me" Blue Beetle saw as Arsenal nodded and got behind him.

Arsenal's arm started to glow as he shot beetle with a large amount of energy. Blue Beetle gritted his teeth as he absorbed the energy, while it was working, it still sent a shock throughout his system. His entire suit began to glow as the energy crackled all along his suit and into the slingshot. As Blue's eyes glowed a bright blue, he shot Superboy at an almost unfathomable speed.

Before any of them could react, the Superboy ball was flung through 5 walls, straight through the painting. All the team collectively looked through the large gapping hole in the wall to see if Superboy was okay. They saw the ball lodged into the 6th wall, it started to crack and crumbled to pieces showing Superboy still in his cannonball position only upside down.

Superboy had his eyes closed before slowly opening them, "Ow" he groaned before falling to the floor.

"You ok Conner?" Spider-Man asked.

Superboy groaned as he stood up putting his arms on his back cracking it. "Yeah…. I've felt worse, let's get going"

The team all made there way through the wall into a secret room, Superboy made his way through the other 4 holes he made making his way to the secret room. They all noticed that the room had steel plated walls everywhere. The team made they way down the corridor before reaching a large door. When they attempted to open it, it opened on its own.

"This is not good" Spider-Man was very worried about this, it seemed like Doom was several steps ahead of them.

Before them was a large machine, which held an unconscious Zatanna attached to it, she had a device attached to her head as well, her arms and legs wear bound by metal tubes that seemed to be draining her based on how the machine was pulsing whenever Zatanna took a breath. At least she was alive.

Zatanna moaned as she raised her head, slowly opening her eyes as she began to regain conscious. "Hey guys, glad you could finally make it" Zatanna muttered.

"Zatanna hold on!" Nightwing called out.

Arsenal went to fire at the machine to release her, before Nightwing grabbed his arm, "Wait, we don't know what she's hooked up to, look at the way the machine is pulsing, that thing could be dangerous is we just start shooting"

Arsenal ripped his arm away, "So we do this the less fun way" He ran over to the machine and stuck his arm near a small port on it. His hand then transformed into a small plugin that he stuck into the machine, trying to deactivate it.

After about 3 seconds Zatanna screamed as the machine seemed to power up causing a shock to Arsenal, who was blown back by the feedback. Wonder Girl caught him before he hit the ground, the machine then died down and became engulfed by a green shield that seemed to emanate smoke.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you, the feedback loop from the machine means that anyone who doesn't have authorized access gets quite a negative charge" came an echo from around the entire room.

The team looked around for were the voice came from but to no avail. A large door at the other end of the room opened that showed Doom in the flesh. But he wasn't as they were expecting, he was in a business suit with no armor to speak of.

Blue Beetle took a chance and shot out one of his staples to try to subdue Doom. As the staple reached Doom his stoic face didn't change as the staple just seemed to fly towards the ground sticking right in front of feet. Almost as if something invisible forced the staple to the ground.

Doom continued to approach the team as they all prepared themselves for a fight. He raised his hand in a defensive manner as if he was trying to defuse the situation.

"Please this is not called for, if you have any questions you simply ask" Doom appeased.

Tigress decided to humor him, "Ok then, why did you take Zatanna?"

Doom gestured his hand towards Zatanna, "I needed her help, her abilities were crucial for me to get home"

"Forcing her someplace without her consent doesn't seem like a proper cry for help" Superboy replied.

"Well if you know me, you know I don't ask, I take" Doom knew all too well that this rile up the youths.

Wonder Girl was piqued by one of statements, "Wait, you said get home, you mean you don't want to rule the world?"

"I have no intention of ruling this world, my goal is to bring order to my world, nothing more" Doom made it clear that he had no intention of staying on this earth.

"Then why all of this? Why go to all this effort, take over a country, try to destroy the justice league, why?" Nightwing questioned, he was very close to losing his composure.

"Because I needed assists, I needed a way to get home, Doom doesn't ask for charity, he does not ask for help. I have though noticed a certain charm of your world though, the magic that flows through this world is untamed, wild. I am more powerful here, than I have ever been. The technology here is almost as advanced as my own. Your world is strange, you seem to value power/metahumans more than anything. But there are also some similarities, both my home and your owns share an affinity for heroes. People who fear those with power, people who want to control those who they feel can undermine them"

Doom made his way over to the machine that held Zatanna, "People can't control those who have power, people like me. Your friend here has certain access to the magic that flows here, unlike your Dr. Fate, she has no limitations to what she can do, no lord or order giving her restrictions. Her powers combined with my own and your earths boom tubes can give me access to go home"

"Well then would you please give her back? We don't want you here anymore than you want to be here, if you let her go, we can help you and Spider-Man get home" asked Tigress. She was trying to approach the situation from a reasonable aspect. Even though Doom was a bad guy, if they offered to help him and Spider-Man get home, he could be there worlds problem again, and not their own.

Doom smirked, "I'm afraid not, in order for this process to work, I need all of Zatanna power, which means she mostly likely won't survive the process"

That was a clear indication that a fight was about to ensue, there was no way that anyone on the team would let her die. "You don't need to kill her, there are other ways of doing things in this world, you said it yourself, your more powerful here than ever. Surely there is some spell that can get you home" Nightwing was getting more and more worried about Z, given their history, he wasn't going to let her down. Not again.

Doom stance changed from calm to assertive, his hand tensed up, "I admire your commitment boy, but this is the fastest and easiest way to get home"

"Were not going to let that happen" Superboy stated. All the team pointed their weapons at Doom waiting for him to make a move.

Doom raised his head, he glanced over the team, he stared at the back of the group, noticing Spider-Man, who was being uncharacteristically quiet.

"And what of you Spider-Man, what do you have to say about all of this. We are both trapped on this world, I know you must be homesick; otherwise you wouldn't go to all of this trouble to stop me" Doom tried to appeal to Spider-Man's wants and desire to get home.

Spider-Man was being quiet, he did want to go home, bad. This may be the only way for him to get home. He didn't even know these people, there was no familiar things that this world had to his own. None of the same people, no of the same faces, all he wanted was to go home. For a split second, he thought about helping Doom, the feeling passed almost as soon as it came.

"I won't let any more people suffer because of your or my mistake! Now let her go, now" Spider-Man pointed at Doom with malicious intent.

Doom simply smiled and waved his hand towards the machine which started to activate. As it activated a large rob started to protrude from the top of the machine. Zatanna screamed as she could feel the energy being sucked out of her.

"NO!" Nightwing screamed as he threw an explosive towards doom on for it to explode before it even touched him.

The rest of the team attacked while Spider-Man jumped towards the machine trying to find a way to deactivate it. As he looked at the control panel, he realized he had no idea what to do. He reached for a switch only for his spider-sense to go off, telling him no to touch it. That's when he had an idea, he moved his hands across the control panel with the intention of pushing of pulling whatever switch or button he could find. He spider-sense would continue to go off, but that was his plan. He was going to use his spider-sense to figure out which button was the right one to press.

The team was fairing far less than Spider-Man though. Blue shot a blaster towards Doom the blast merely just redirect off what seemed like an invisible barrier and back towards him, knocking him to the ground. Wonder Girl and Superboy tried to punch him, only for Doom to catch each of there fists with his own, they could tell it was magic because Doom hands glowed green as he started to crush their fists. He knocked them against each other before throwing them at Tigress and Constantine.

"Anyone have any ideas?!" Constantine yelled as he caught Wonder Girl with his magic before she could knock him over.

"Keep him busy!" Spider-Man yelled.

Constantine rolled his eyes, he clapped his hands together as magic started to surge throughout his body, his eyes glowed as sigils formed in front of his hands. Chains came out of seemly nowhere as they flew towards Doom and started to wrap him up.

Doom turned his head towards Constantine with a slight hint of respect, he could sense his power. "John Constantine, I've heard many things about you from the mystic community. You have a reputation"

"Hopefully everything said was good" John smirked.

"Believe me, they say many things about you, none that I'm willing to repeat in mixed company" Doom whole body glowed with energy as the chain around him turned green and started to obey him as they unraveled from his body and began wrap around Constantine.

"Bloody hell mate" Constantine struggled as he tried to get loose from the chains, only for them to get tighter and begin to pin him to the nearest wall. "I'll admit that's a nice trick"

"I don't have time for this" Doom turned his attention towards Spider-Man who continued to work on the machine, he blasted him which sent him flying into a wall. "I've had enough distractions, I'm finishing this now"

Doom summoned his armor as it started to form around him from his back. He walked over to the panel on the machine while the team continued to through everything they had at him. Doom just ignored it as nothing was happening.

"Zatanna!" Nightwing screamed as she screamed louder and louder, he could think of nothing to do as a small rift started to open from atop the machine.

It looked like a tear in reality; as it started to grow bigger and bigger the team could only watch in horror. It crackled with electricity as Doom smirked under his mask. Finally, he was going back to his own world, and there was no one who could stop him. Leaving Spider-Man hear would be a bonus, one less pest to deal with.

The rift energy was reaching all the way across the room, Tigress had taken cover behind a panel trying to avoid being caught by a stray blast. Then something started to happen that caught Tigress attention, the lightening started to change color. It went from a green to a yellow, she peaked from behind the panel to see what was happening. But what she saw, it was something she hadn't think she'd ever see again.

A silhouette started to vibrate into frame, one that was very familiar. It was still to blurry to make out as a person, but Tigress knew who it was. The lightening from the rift then started to emanate from the silhouette instead of the machine. Doom looked confused as he noticed the silhouette avert the energy away from the machine. It held out its hand and redirected the lightening towards Doom, he was caught off guard as the blast knocked him to the ground.

The team saw the silhouette as it ran up to the machine dragged Zatanna out of it grasp and carefully placed her on the ground. The silhouette was still to blurry to make out, but everyone knew who it was except Spider-Man.

The machine began to slowly power down as it had no power source. The rift remained open but was starting to close.

Tigress looked on with tears in her eyes as the silhouette ran towards Spider-Man. Spider-Man didn't know what or who he was looking at, but it was as if he was flickering in and out of existence. The silhouette started to become clearer as Spider-Man was able to make out what he looked like. He looked like Kid-Flash, only taller and a redhead.

The team was awe struck, Nightwing ran to Zatanna making sure she was alright, he checked her pulse to see if she was still alive. She was unconscious, but alive.

Tigress made her way to the silhouette, taking off her mask to get a better look, tears ran down her face as she looked at him.

"Wally?"

The silhouette turned towards Tigress and smiled, "Hey babe"

In the words of Kronk, "Oh yeah. It's all coming together". Kid Flash is back, kinda, it will be explained next chapter, which is almost entirely set from Wally's point of view. We will get an explanation of what happened and were he has been. Which if you have a brain know its the speed force. Anyways expect the next chapter whenever, no latter then a months time. I've got them in the bag. Let me know what you think of story so far and leave a review or private message.