I don't own any Arrowverse shows or related material.

Worlds' Finest Expanded

Chapter 1: All the Myriad Ways...

West Household, Earth-1:

Wally West could sense the tension in the room as he sat down with his father and sister. The mood was incredibly somber and there was someone missing. "Where's Barry?" Joe sighed.

"That's what we wanted to talk to you about Wally. What we're about to tell you only a handful of people know so you need to keep it a secret."

"Of course Dad, what's going on?"

"Wally, Barry's the Flash." Joe said. Wally sat stunned for a moment then the wheels started to turn in his head. So many things about Barry Allen started to fall into place for him.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner? Don't you trust me?"

"It wasn't a matter of trust Wally. Barry's enemies are dangerous and we wanted to keep you out of the crossfire as much as possible. People have died Wally. I lost my fiance. We just wanted to keep you safe." Iris said. Wally nodded.

"So why are you telling me now?"

"This may be a bit hard to believe, but we think Barry may be trapped on another Earth and while the team at S.T.A.R. Labs is working as hard as they can to get him back we don't know how long that will take." Iris said.

"Another Earth, you mean like a parallel universe? Okay you had me going for a bit, but now I know this is some kind of prank. Get out here Barry, you've had your fun!" Wally faltered when his father and sister didn't even crack a smile. "Oh. Oh wow."

"We know it's a lot to take in son. People ask questions when people go missing. You're family you deserve to know the truth."

"Why would Barry even go to another Earth?" Wally asked.

"From what we can tell it was an accident. He was trying out a new device to amplify his speed so he could fight a villain called Zoom and he ran so fast he ended up breaking the dimensional barrier." Iris explained.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Wally asked.

"I don't think so son and things are going to get more and more difficult the longer he's gone. Telling Henry about this is going to be bad enough, but I have no idea what kind of cover story I'm going to use with Captain Singh down at the precinct." Joe said.

"Not to mention people are going to notice that the Flash is missing and I can only run so much interference at CCPN. If we don't get Barry back soon everyone's lives are going to get a lot more complicated." Iris added.

"Thank you for telling me the truth. If there's anything I can do to help get Barry back just let me know." Wally said.

Earth-38, National City:

Barry Allen knew something was wrong when he reentered National City. If the army parking itself outside every entrance wasn't clue enough the people of the city behaving like zombies or robots certainly sealed it. He needed to find Kara, hopefully she wasn't being affected by whatever this was. He checked the D.E.O. first, but other than the fact there had been some kind of fight there was no clue as to where Supergirl could be.

Barry zipped over to Catco, where he thankfully found Kara trying to rouse her friends. "Kara, thank God you're not affected by whatever is going on. What is going on?"

"Long story short my evil uncle is using something called Myriad to mind control everyone in the city. It only works on humans though, which is why I'm fine. What I want to know is why you aren't affected." Kara said.

"Maybe it's because I'm from another Earth. There might be something different about my brain." Barry suggested. Any further conversation was interrupted by the dinging of the elevator as Cat Grant strode into the office.

"Kera, call Harrison Ford and tell him I'm flattered, but once and for all I don't date older men, especially when they're married." Kara cleared her throat and got the media mogul's attention. "Ah, Mr. Allen I thought you were leaving town. Kera we may as well drop the charade, I know Mr. Allen is the Flash and you were all chummy with him meanwhile the Flash teams up with Supergirl. I don't know how you pulled off being in two places at once before, but I know it's you."

Barry turned toward Kara for an explanation. "How does she know I'm the Flash?"

"She figured it out." Supergirl said with a shrug.

"Wait, she's not a drone like everyone else. You said Myriad only works on humans. Is she an alien?" Barry asked.

"No Ms. Grant is not an alien, that's ridiculous." Kara said with a chuckle, then she paused for a moment. "Wait, are you an alien?"

"No Kera, I'm not an alien. I leave that sort of thing to you and Superman." Cat said. Kara's cell phone went off and she pulled it out of her pocket.

"It's Superman."

"Can I get his number?" Cat asked.

"He's coming to help." Kara said.

"I get to meet your cousin, cool." Barry mused. The three of them headed toward the window. Only to see the city marching in an eerily Nazi-like fashion.

"Oh my God, what's happening to everyone?" Cat breathed.

"There he is! There he is." Kara said. Barry quickly spotted the man flying over the city.

"Who? Superman? Where?" Cat asked.

"What?" Kara asked as Superman stopped mid-flight and then dropped to the ground to join the crowd.

"What? Oh, God. No." Kara breathed.

"What is it?" Cat asked.

"Myriad. It's affecting my cousin too." Kara explained.

"But your cousin is an alien like you, why would he be affected?" Barry mused.

"Wait a minute, if it's affecting Superman, then are any of us safe?" Cat asked, her voice filling with dread. "Well, I may not be Superman, but I do have my moments." A new male voice said. Barry turned to see a man he'd never met before enter the room. Something about the guy instantly reminded him of Thawne and made his skin crawl.

"Do Kryptonians gloat? Because I'll bet wherever he is, ol' Uncle Non is feeling pretty good about himself." The man said.

"Why am I not surprised that your brain is intact, Max? What is it they say? Only cockroaches will survive the apocalypse?" Cat snarked.

"Wait who is this guy?" Barry asked feeling very out of the loop with the obvious animosity in the room.

"Maxwell Lord, he runs a billion dollar tech company. He's also very anti-alien." Kara explained.

"Ah yes, who is our friend in the red suit? I don't believe we've had the pleasure of being introduced." Max said.

"I'm the Flash, the fastest man alive." Barry said.

Ah yes, the Flash, I saw you help save Cat yesterday. Speaking of whom, you look lovely, considering the end is nigh."

"Why weren't you affected?" Kara asked.

"Ion blockers. I realized the Kryptonians were using my LTE interface system. That's why they broke into my lab over Christmas. They're using my satellites to send neural signals directly into the minds of everyone in National City. These scramble the signal before they reach my brain." Pointing to an earpiece he was wearing.

"If you invented technology that blocks Myriad, why didn't you give it to the D.E.O.?" Kara asked.

"Once Henshaw and his Trusted Girl Friday stepped down, I had no one at the D.E.O. to trust."

"Well, clearly, not everybody needs this ear-wig thingy, because I don't have one and my brain is perfectly intact." Cat said.

"I see you got the earrings I sent you last night." Max said with a smirk.

Oh, I get it. Ion blockers in the diamonds? Oh, so many karats and yet so functional."

"Didn't seem right for the world to lose Cat Grant's mind." Max said brushing Cat's hair aside in a flirty manner.

"If it only targets humans, why was my cousin affected?" Supergirl asked.

"Nature versus nurture. He may be an alien, but your cousin grew up on Earth. Seems like environmental factors, being raised by ordinary people, made his brain more human. The Man of Steel brought to his knees all because he went to kindergarten and watched Sesame Street." Max said with a chuckle.

"Then it should have affected me too..." Barry mused. "Wait this Myriad thing, you said it's using satellites to broadcast right?"

"That's right." Max said.

"That means it's being broadcast on a certain frequency band... the earbuds! The earbuds I made to block out Silver Banshee's scream, I never took them out. They must be stopping Myriad's signal from reaching my brain." Barry realized.

We have to stop them. They're using your satellites. Can't you reprogram them and destroy Myriad from the inside?" Kara asked.

"I tried. There's some pretty epic force fields around those satellites at the moment." Max said.

"You're always three steps ahead, Max. I know you have a plan." Cat said.

"Of course I do. We kill them all."

"No, there has to be a better way." Kara said defiantly.

"At the very least we can get your cousin back on our side. Your earbuds are in your apartment right?" Barry asked. Kara nodded. "Good so I'll go grab them and put them in for the big guy in the cape." Barry rushed off to Kara's apartment and quickly grabbed the earbuds.

Earth-1, Temporal Zone:

The Legends all rushed to the bridge as the Waverider shook violently. Sara Lance, the White Canary was the first to speak. "Rip, what the hell was that?"

"That Ms Lance, was a Time Quake, and quite a large one at that, it's an indication that a massive change has occurred in the timeline. It's not exactly something that happens every day." The rogue Time Master said in his British accent.

"Do you think Savage is behind it?" Kendra Saunders, the current incarnation of Hawkgirl asked. Rip paused to think about that for a moment, they had been jumping all over the timeline in order to stop Savage's rise to power and save his wife and son. Given Kendra's connection with Savage it made sense that he would be the first person to come to mind for her.

"As much as I wish it were Savage I highly doubt it." He answered. "As far as we know he doesn't have access to time travel technology; he's functionally immortal so he doesn't have much use for it. Frankly if it were Savage I could breathe a lot easier as the Time Masters would take care of our problem. Gideon, can you pinpoint the aberration?"

The holographic head of the ship's A.I. Gideon appeared on the console. "I believe I can Captain Hunter and as you thought this change in the timeline is quite large; it appears that Barry Allen has disappeared from the timeline in May of 2016." The weight of that news physically caused Rip to stagger as he looked at the display that showed the alterations to the timeline.

"Gideon, are you absolutely sure that Mr. Allen has vanished from the timeline?" The distress in Rip's voice wasn't lost on anyone in the room. All of them had interacted with the Flash personally at some point, save for Rip himself so the news obviously had an effect on the assembled group.

"So what, the fast kid in the spandex went missing. I don't see how that's our problem, right now we need to find a way to hide from the Hunters so they don't wipe us from history. Let the Time Masters deal with this mess." Mick Rory, otherwise known as the criminal Heat Wave piped up. Rip wasn't particularly fond of Mick and his skewed moral compass, not to mention the times that he'd tried to kill the rest of the team as the Time Master bounty hunter Chronos.

"You were trained by the Time Masters at the Vanishing Point Mr. Rory, I would think that you of all people would understand the implications of such a major aberration in the timeline. The Hunters aren't a concern anymore, the Time Masters now have much bigger problems to attend to and so do we."

"Look, we all know Mick's a little slow on the uptake, so why don't you just explain why Flash going AWOL is so bad so he and the rest of the class can understand. That was Mick's partner in crime, Leonard Snart, also known as Captain Cold.

Rip sighed. "Very well. Time is not an easy thing to change. As the Time Masters like to say 'time wants to happen'. You can make small deviations to the timeline but more often than not the timeline will simply compensate and continue more or less on the path it was meant to.

"This particular aberration, the disappearance of Mr. Allen is a uniquely dangerous one however. The Flash and his actions are integral to the timeline as we know it. The implications of him simply vanishing without a trace are nothing short of catastrophic. The Time Masters are going to have their hands full making sure the timeline doesn't fall apart at the seams. Since the Vanishing Point exists outside of space and time as long as the Time Masters and their agents stay there they will be unaffected by this aberration."

"So if the Time Masters are focused on fixing whatever is going on with Barry, we can use that time to figure out a way to strike at Savage, we can complete our mission and bring your family back. Just as long as we don't have to kill or kidnap any more kids." Sara was obviously referencing their most recent adventure involving the future dictator Per Degaton.

"If Mr. Allen isn't found, it won't matter if we kill Vandal Savage because this team will have never existed in the first place." Rip explained letting the frustration he was feeling leak into his voice.

"Wait what do you mean the team will never have existed, will we all just fade away?" Ray Palmer, the Atom asked.

"I'm afraid the why is a bit... complicated Mr. Palmer. Gideon, as you know is the Waverider's on board computer and artificial intelligence program that allows this ship to scan the timeline. Every timeship used by the Time Masters has an A.I. based off of this same basic programming. That basic program was invented by Barry Allen.

"Normally, the timeline would compensate by simply having someone else invent the program, but as I said before Mr. Allen isn't just anyone. He isn't a cog in a machine that can simply be replaced. His absence creates a butterfly effect the likes of which are rarely, if ever seen.

"According to these readings, if this new timeline solidifies Gideon will never be invented, which means no timeships. Which means that I never go back to Ancient Egypt to try and kill Vandal Savage, so he won't hold a grudge and seek out my wife and son specifically to kill them. So I will never go on this revenge quest and recruit all of you to stop his rise to power."

"Wait a second Rip, if Savage won't have a grudge against you doesn't that mean that your wife and son will still be alive?" Jefferson "Jax" Jackson, one half of Firestorm asked.

"Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that Mr. Jackson. My wife and I met as part of the Time Masters, however with the lack of timeships it is unlikely that we would ever meet and conceive Jonas. Even if we did there is no telling if we would be able to survive Savage's reign of terror." Rip said.

"All this talk of Mr. Allen's personal effect on the timeline is reminding me quite a bit of Thomas Carlyle's Great Man theory, and that went out of style at the end of the 19th century. Are you implying that Carlyle was correct in his hypothesis Captain Hunter?" Professor Martin Stein, the other half of Firestorm asked.

"Carlyle was closer than many gave him credit for, most people can live their lives in a myriad number of ways, but there are a chosen few whose actions absolutely define history as we know it. Barry Allen is one of those people."

"Hold on, if Mr. Allen has disappeared from the timeline then would that not affect the life of Eobard Thawne, the speedster who called himself the Reverse Flash? Thawne's past is directly tied to Mr. Allen's future, so the Flash's disappearance should cause a paradox of gigantic proportions. Thawne caused the particle accelerator explosion in our native timeline." Stein said.

"So you're saying if we don't fix this thing with Barry then we never become Firestorm, Grey?" Jax asked.

"Fortunately that is unlikely to be a problem. Thawne will continue to exist in some from as a timeline remnant. The Time Masters will be doing all they can to keep the timeline as stable as possible, details would be different but the general flow of the timeline would be much the same. Of course, if all goes to plan none of this will matter. We're going to 2016 to see if we can't figure out what happened to Mr. Allen and fix it before the timeline is irrevocably altered."

National City, Earth-38:

Barry had never faced anyone like Superman and he was really beginning to wish that still held true. It was like he was battling all of his worst rogues at once. Superman was at least as fast as Zoom, stronger than Grodd, and more durable than Girder. He'd thrown everything he had at the Kryptonian and it had barely slowed him down. Barry narrowly dodged between blasts of heat vision that even in his heat resistant suit made things just a little too toasty for his liking.

The Flash ran in a circle as fast as he could and threw lightning at the Man of Steel; the attack barely budged the other superhero who flew forward and punched Barry straight in the chest. Not for the first time he was grateful for the dwarf star armor that was in that part of his suit. Though he was certain he felt it and maybe even a few ribs crack it was far better than the alternative.

Barry went skidding down the street in no control of his movement. Superman followed up his punch with a blast of freeze breath that Barry was certain was absolute zero, he'd been hit by Snart's cold gun enough times to know what that felt like. With his legs completely frozen Barry could do little more than watch as Superman towered over him. The Kryptonian raised his fist to deliver a finishing blowto the Scarlet Speedster, but in that moment has guard lapsed and Barry was able to jam the earbuds into the Man of Steel's ears.

Superman dropped to his knees and briefly screamed in pain. Barry vibrated out of the ice his legs were in and helped the other hero up. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, who are you?" Superman asked.

"It's a long story, just call me the Flash for now. Your cousin is waiting for us at Catco." Barry said. Superman nodded and the pair made their way back to Catco where the others were waiting for them.

"Well, I'll be damned, those earbuds they were talking about actually worked. It's good to have the Man of Steel back on our side." Maxwell Lord said. Superman frowned.

"Well if it isn't Maxwell Lord, my second biggest fan next to Lex Luthor. I really shouldn't be surprised that you're unaffected by Myriad. Also, it's nice to see you Cat."

"Same to you Superman." Cat said with a girlish smile.

"So Max, you said you had a plan, what is it?" Kara asked.

"Back before you and I sang kumbaya and become friends I was working on a weapon to deal with the Kryptonians. All Kryptonians. A bomb laced with kryptionite particles, it would saturate the atmosphere, choke them out."

"Excuse me, but wouldn't that kill Superman and Supergirl too?" Cat asked.

"Not if they fly up and detonate it over the city center and then skedaddle, they wouldn't be able to come back to National City for fifty years, but that's a small price to pay."

"What about the human beings? Would it affect them?" Kara demanded.

"The force required to properly disperse the kryptonite would result in some... losses."

"Losses, what are we talking about losses Max?" Cat asked.

"Eight percent of the population."

"Eight percent of four million, that's three hundred thousand people Max!" Cat snapped.

"As opposed to the seven billion people that Non wants to turn into zombies, this isn't a difficult choice."

"We're not doing that, we'll find a better way." Superman said sternly.

Flash didn't feel like he had much to add to this conversation, this wasn't his Earth, he didn't have a full grasp of the situation. Kara must have noticed his discomfort because she motioned for him to join her on the balcony.

"You know, I really don't like that Max guy." Barry said once they were outside.

"No one does. Most days I'm not even sure he likes himself, but I didn't ask you out here to talk about Max. This is about you Barry." Kara said.

"Look Kara, don't worry about me; I'll do whatever I can to help you deal with this Myriad thing. The Flash is on the case one hundred percent."

"That's exactly what I'm worried about. Barry, just a few hours ago you found out you were going to be stranded in an alien universe for who knows how long. You need time and space to process this; you're in no state to be fighting anyone right now. You've done more than enough by getting my cousin back on our side. No one would think any less of you if you left National City for now and let us handle things from here."

"I know this is going to sound crazy Kara, but if I'm being honest, I'm kind of glad for the crisis. I mean don't get me wrong, the world is in danger and that's horrible, but it gives me something to focus on other than the fact that I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future." Barry gripped the railing as hard as he could. "Being the Flash, helping people, it's something I need to do. Otherwise I'm going to just wallow in self-pity thinking about the friends and family I may never see again."

"Don't worry Barry, we're going to do everything we can to get you back home. I promise, I know better than anyone what it's like to be stuck on an alien world." Kara said giving her new friend a side hug.

"I know, but until then I'm here and I'll have to make due, thanks Kara."

Central City, Earth-1:

The employees of S.T.A.R. Labs all rushed out as the heard the sound of the Waverider landing. Sara could see the group tense up slightly as they Mick and Snart, and oddly enough her as well. Cisco took point. "Well if it isn't our time traveling friends. What brings you to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

"Ah, Mr. Ramon, it's an honor to meet you." Rip said. "I'm afraid this isn't a social call. We've detected that something is amiss with Mr. Allen and we were hoping that you could shed some light on where he might be for us. The integrity of the timeline is in serious jeopardy."

Cisco shifted uncomfortably. "We're not exactly sure where Barry is either to be honest. Best we can figure he ran so fast he breached the dimensional barrier and is on another Earth, so unless that ship of yours can traverse parallel universes he's out of reach at the moment because the one person who could help us open a breach doesn't want to, in case we open a portal to the wrong Earth and let Zoom back here."

"Then it seems we are doomed. The anachronism of Mr. Allen's disappearance is setting fast and without Gideon I couldn't even begin to help you traverse to another Earth." Rip said.

While that sank in Sara pulled Cisco aside. "What's with that look you were giving me? What happened while I was gone?" She demanded.

"Sara, I don't know if I should be the one to tell you this." Cisco said.

"Tell me, or I start breaking fingers."

"Sara, there was a fight against Damien Darhk, and uh Laurel, she was killed, I'm sorry." Sara wanted to cry, but instead something else boiled up inside her: Rage. She rushed back toward where the Legends were.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me my sister died Rip? I've I'd been there-"

"You would have died as well, along with your father. A series of events that will very shortly come to pass as this anachronism seems impossible to correct before it sets." Rip said. That silenced everyone.

National City, Earth-38:

"Oh, looks like someone made it through security." Cat said. Kara turned to see Non entering the room.

"The son of Jor-El, how is possible that he is free of Myriad?" He asked.

"Who is this guy? Barry asked.

"My evil uncle." Kara said.

"Ah, bad guy, got it." Barry said.

"As for how I got free of your control, that's thanks to good old human ingenuity, the same thing you want to twist to your own ends. I suggest you surrender Non, there's no way you can defeat all three of us." Superman said.

"I have all of National City at my command, do you really think you can stop me. I know you won't want hurt the humans." Non said.

"You're that much of a coward Non? You can't just admit you lost. We can take you without hurting anyone and I doubt Indigo is going to help you. I think you and I both know that she would sell you downriver and use Myriad for her own ends."

"I do this for my wife, it's what she wanted." Non roared.

"Astra didn't want this, I was with her when she died." Kara protested.

"You lie!" Non rushed at Kara and she, Clark, and Barry rushed at him. As powerful as Non was, he couldn't take on three superpowered beings at once. Especially when two of them were unquestionably as strong or stronger than him. So it didn't take long for them to rain enough blows on Non that he went down."

"We should lock him up in the D.E.O., we'll still have Indigo to deal with but we can track her down after we snap everyone out of Myriad."

"I might have an idea of how to do that." Cat said.

Kara's phone rang and she answered it immediately. "Alex?"

"Kara are yo alright?"

"I'm fine, we're just about to take Non to the D.E.O. Did you make it to CADMUS?" Kara asked.

"We were on our way there when we heard about all this. Wait, we?" Alex asked.

"Clark's with me, along with Ms. Grant, and a new friend of mine, Barry." Where are you now? Kara said.

"At Mom's. Why wasn't Cat affected?"

"Maxwell Lord protected her and himself."

Alex sighed. Of course he did."

"Alex, we can handle things here, you just go on and find Jeremiah."

"Alright, I love you Kara."

"I love you too." Kara hung up.

"Alright Cat, what's your plan?" Kara asked.

"We're going to inspire hope and for that I need your help Supergirl."

"I'll take Non to the D.E.O." Clark said.

Okay, he's the first full length chapter, sorry the end was such and anti-climax, but I didn't think I could get a good fight scene out of it and the Superman vs. Flash scene was already a major part of why this took so long. I'm skipping over Supergirl's hope speech because it's the same as canon. Next chapter should wrap up Indigo and introduce us to Mon-El at least. As you can see things are starting to become very different.