The Ritual

The Man:

Jumping and flipping through the air, I grab the guardian by its head and slam it down onto the street. It doesn't destroy the guardian right away but it does stun it long enough for me to stab the guardian in its head.

The guardian shakes and twitches as the lights in its eyes go out. Pulling out my sword, I hear footsteps coming up from behind me. Spinning around, I slice the arm right off a second guardian. Its arm falls to the ground, the wires sparking and the fingers moving slightly. The guardian pulls back its other arm. It throws a punch but I dodge it, crouching down and slicing off both its legs. Exactly like the one before it, I stab this guardian in its head while it's on the ground. As I pull out my sword, I see more guardians approaching us.

"This is getting us nowhere," Ivy shouts, raising her hands. As she raises her hands, the street cracks and opens, and thick, dry, brown roots shoot up. They stab a few guardians but the guardians are resilient. Despite some of them losing their arms and legs, they still walk or crawl toward us. As for the ones that weren't stab, they simply break the roots and walk toward us.

Reaching into my jacket, I pull out a handful of kunai and throw them at the guardians. My kunai either explodes or releases an electricity charge that short-circuits the guardians. One by one, they're either blown up or fall to the street smoking. Watching as a guardian is electrocuted, I hear Ivy screaming and turn around.

One of the guardians that lost its legs grabs Ivy and is pulling her down. It pulls her down until she's on the street. With one hand on her throat, the guardian pulls back its arm. About to punch Ivy, Cold kicks it off her.

"Get off her," Cold yells, freezing the guardian and stomping on its frozen head. Once the guardian is disabled, Cold turns to Ivy, dropping to his knees.

"Are you okay," Cold asks.

"Yeah," Ivy answers. Cold offers her his hand and she takes it. Together, the two stand up and look right at each other.

"Excuse me," I say, struggling to keep rid of the guardian that has me in a headlock while keeping another guardian from pulling me down. "I could really use some help here!"

Reverse-Flash:

Running around Raven and her pathetic group, I dodge all the incoming magical blasts and bolts. Running and ducking, I slide underneath some beam attack from some stupid kid with horns and blue skin. Running right up to him, I punch him across the face, knocking him to the ground.

They all turn toward me and fire but using my super speed, I run around them and punch some tall woman with a gold mask. She screams as she falls to the street. With his back turned to me, I'm about to punch some old man with black hair and a suit. However, before I can, something hits me. It hits and knocks me to the street.

Moaning as I push myself up, I look up to see Raven. Using her dark magic, she crushes a bunch of guardian robots, turning them into green and silver metal balls. She throws them at me. Dodging them, I run up to Raven. Pulling back my arm, I throw it forward, trying to punch Raven. Throwing it with all my might, I stop all of a sudden.

Holding out her hand, Raven smiles as she picks me up. My feet hover in the air, and my arm is pushed back.

"I know speedsters like you can heal fast," Raven says with a smile. "But I wonder if you can heal from a broken neck?"

Using her other hand, Raven magically grabs my head and starts turning it. I try to fight back but Raven's magic is too strong. All I can do is scream as I feel my head turns against my will.

"Aghh," I cry out. With my neck already hitting its limit, I can't even see Raven anymore. However, I can hear her screaming. When she screams, my head snaps back and my feet hit solid ground again.

"What the," I say, seeing a smoking Raven on the street.

"You okay," someone asks. I turn to see Barry standing behind me. As he asks this, I see both his arms smoking.

"Yeah," I answer. "Come on. We need to move now!"

"What," Barry yells. "Are you insane? We should leave now! This is too much for us! Raven and the rest of them are here! And in case you've forgotten, Raven is getting a power-up from the Lords of Order! Even with our speed, we can't beat them!"

"Think you," I say, tapping Barry's forehead over and over. "We don't have to beat them! We don't even have to fight them! We just have to find Black Mask!"

I turn around and lower myself.

"You can go back," I say. "I'm going to find Black Mask!"

About to run off, I stop when I see the old man from before. He's pulling back his hands, preparing another spell. Already, his hands are covered in red lightning.

"Dammit," I think, "Raven stopped me before I could punch him. Son of a bitch."

I watch in slow motion as the old man shoots out his hands. Red lightning bolts shoot out from them, heading for me. About to run out of the way, I hear Barry shouting and look around me.

"Get out of the way," Barry yells while running in circles. As he runs around, he generates electricity. After only a few hundred laps, he stops and throws out his arm. All the electricity he generates shoots through his arm and into the air. His lightning bolt overpowers the old man's lightning bolt. It hits the old man, electrocuting him and knocking him down.

Watching as the old man stays on the street, I turn to Barry. I bite my tongue and swallow my pride.

"Thanks," I say. It seems I shocked Barry slightly. He freezes and looks at me.

"Uhh, no problem," Barry says.

I turn my head when I see some strange lights coming from somewhere deeper in Gotham. As the strange lights glow brighter and brighter, the ground starts to shake.

"Hold on," I yell, Barry and I dropping to our knees as whole buildings shake left and right. The shaking gets so bad a few guardians that are still climbing buildings are thrown. They're thrown from the buildings and hit the street with a loud thud. Surprisingly, despite being thrown from high up, they're still moving toward Barry and me.

I look back at Barry and he looks at me. We both nod our heads and run over the guardians toward the strange lights.

"Attention everyone," I say while running at super speed. "Barry and I see strange lights coming from the south of Old Gotham! We're heading there now!"

Kara:

Hitting a wall again, I fall off it, screaming when my burning chest hits the floor.

"Ahh," I moan as I push myself up. Pushing myself onto my knees, I hear a thud and look up. Lady Shiva, still holding the lightning staff in her hand, jumps through the hole in the wall and lands in the empty apartment room with me. Taking many breaths, I push myself onto my feet and bring up my hands.

Lady Shiva, seeing me back on my feet, raises her lightning staff. Power gathers inside the crystal, lighting it up. A few seconds later, it fires another bolt of lightning at me. Instead of trying to fight it, I fly over the bolt. The lightning bolt hits and destroys the wall behind me. Flying past Lady Shiva, she turns around but as she turns around, I use my frost breath to freeze the floor beneath her.

Lady Shiva jumps away. She's trying to dodge my frost breath but I follow after her, freezing the whole floor. As Lady Shiva lands on the frozen floor, she slips, falling to the floor and dropping the magical staff. It slides across the floor and out of the building.

"No more lightning bolt," I say, slowly approaching Lady Shiva as she struggles to stay on her feet. As I hover toward her, Lady Shiva spins in the air and kicks me. She doesn't knock me back. Instead, Lady Shiva pushes against me, sliding across the floor. Sliding out of the room and through the hole, she spreads out her arms as she falls down.

"She's going after the staff," I think, "I can't let her get it!"

I waste no time and follow Lady Shiva. She flips through the air and swings from ledge to ledge as she quickly climbs down. Landing on the street, she looks around for the staff. Seeing it nearby, Lady Shiva lunges for the staff but before she can grab it, I grab her first.

Holding her by the arm, I look right at Lady Shiva. She tries all sorts of tricks to escape me. She hits me all over the place. She pulls out knives and daggers but they all break immediately.

"What is Black Mask planning," I yell. "Tell me!"

Lady Shiva doesn't answer me. Instead, she turns her head. Wondering what she's looking at, I turn my head and see one of the henchmen bursting through a door. He sees Lady Shiva and me and comes charging toward me. Pulling out a pistol, he fires off a few shots as he runs toward us.

The bullets bouncing off of me, I fly over to him and grab his hand. Lifting him into the air, I bring the two of them together.

"What is Black Mask planning," I yell again. "Tell me!"

Before either of the two can tell me anything, something else hits me. It's not a bullet but something else. I turn around and see a little girl standing not too far from me and the two. In the little girl's hand is a rock.

"Let go of my daddy," she yells, winding up her arm.

"Daddy," I repeat.

Black Mask:

I scream as I feel the magic rushing into my body. The runes on my body start to glow and the massive rune on the ground is already brighter than the sun. The glow only intensified as I put the three pieces together. Once I'm finished putting the key together, I jam it into the ground and turn it.

Turning the key, the ground within the rune split opens. The whole cavern shakes as the ground quickly splits open. A few seconds afterward, a large bony arm bursts up.