DC : The Template System

Clone Max turned his head slightly, his eye narrowing behind the mask.

"Aren't you gonna show up already?" he asked aloud.

Lois blinked. "Who?"

He pointed behind her.

"Them."

She turned quickly—and froze.

From the shadows behind the collapsed bridge, figures emerged, some human, some… not.

"It's the Resistance," she whispered in shock. "Grifter… G.I. Robot… Hyde… Canterbury Cricket… and… some kind of demon."

Grifter stepped forward first, dual pistols holstered at his sides. He wore a red mask and a tan trench coat, casual and dangerous all at once.

"Relax," he said with a cocky grin. "We're on your side."

G.I. Robot, towering and metallic, thudded forward behind him. His cold, glowing eyes scanned Max and Lois with mechanical precision, a massive chaingun mounted on his arm.

Beside him was Hyde—massive, hulking, and grotesque, with gray skin and twitching muscles. A bloodstained coat barely hung over his frame as he grunted like a feral beast trying to be civil.

Canterbury Cricket skittered along the rubble. His spindly limbs twitched as he adjusted his armor, a strange mix of medieval and insect-like design. His glowing green eyes blinked from under a cracked cricket-like helm.

And finally, stepping out last, was Etrigan the Demon—towering, red-skinned, and snarling, flames flickering from his mouth.

"Do you really want me to say your name before you show yourself?" Clone Max asked flatly, his eye narrowing beneath the mask.

A sudden blur of yellow lightning zipped in from behind the rubble near where the Resistance had gathered. A man in a yellow suit with red glowing eyes came to a halt, grinning wickedly.

The Resistance startled, immediately raising their weapons—Grifter drew his pistols, Canterbury Cricket leapt into a defensive stance, Hyde growled low, and Etrigan's eyes began to glow with fire.

Max's visible eye narrowed.

"Thawne."

"Who?" Lois asked, still catching her breath.

"Him," Max clone replied dryly, pointing.

Lois glanced between the two, exasperated. "You really need to work on your delivery."

Thawne chuckled. "Well, it seems I've been discovered. I suppose Barry told you everything about me?"

"Then you know what needs to be done to end this," Max said, stepping forward slightly.

Thawne sneered. "Don't think it'll be that easy."

Before anyone could react, Thawne vanished in a crackling flash of yellow, reappearing right in front of Max with a punch aimed straight at his face.

Max barely moved, tilting his head to the side. The fist grazed his mask, nicking the edge—just enough to leave a scratch.

Max's eye suddenly shifted—morphing from the Eternal Mangekyo into the cold ripple of the Rinnegan.

"Shinra Tensei."

A powerful gravitational blast erupted from Max's hand, slamming into Thawne's abdomen like a freight train. The speedster was launched backwards, flipping through the air before skidding face-first across the ground, tearing up chunks of asphalt.

He rolled to a stop, groaning—and looked up just in time to see four missiles rocketing toward him.

"Shit."

He blinked away in a flash of speed just as the explosives detonated in a deafening roar, blowing apart the rubble where he had landed.

As the smoke cleared, Grifter opened fire, bullets streaking toward Thawne's afterimage.

The Reverse-Flash snarled.

"Not worth it," he hissed—and in a burst of lightning, he vanished.

"Well he's gone" Grifter said

"His name is Eobard Thawne," Max's clone said, retracting his missile-launching arm back to normal with a quiet clank. He flexed his fingers—using the Asura Path still felt unnatural, even now.

"Nice trick. You a cyborg, like Cyborg?" Grifter asked.

"That's irrelevant," Max's clone replied flatly, turning away.

"Where are you going?" Lois asked, stepping forward.

"I'm heading to where Thawne will be," he said without looking back. "And it would be wise not to follow me."

"Hey, we might need someone like you," Grifter called out.

"But I don't need you," Max's clone shot back, before vanishing in a swirl of leaves

"Cocky bastard," Grifter muttered, then motioned to the others. "Let's move while we still can.

Back at Wayne Manor

"We still need help. In my memories of this timeline, a meteor struck a city," Barry said.

"Metropolis. Thirty years ago," Batman clarified.

Barry nodded. "That's the same day Superman arrived in our timeline," he added, gesturing toward Max.

---

Sometime later

The three stood atop a tall building, gazing down into a massive crater that had swallowed the heart of the city.

"So this never happened in your world?" Batman asked, glancing at Barry and Max. Barry now wore his full Flash suit, arms crossed.

"No," Max answered. "In our world, he landed on a farm. A couple in Kansas took him in as a baby."

Barry turned, narrowing his eyes at Max. "How do you know that?"

"I know a lot of things," Max replied calmly.

"You're not from this timeline, are you?" Barry asked, already knowing the answer.

"Correct. And why I know the original timeline isn't important right now," Max said.

Barry looked at him a moment longer, then nodded. "I'll trust your word. For now."

"If you two are done," Batman interjected, "we still have your space baby to find."

Barry let the subject drop and turned to Bruce. "Where's your contact?"

"He's on his way," Batman replied, just as mechanical hums filled the air.

They looked up to see Cyborg descending from the sky with a group of aerial drones, landing with a metallic clang.

"I wasn't expecting your call," Cyborg said, stepping forward.

"Cyborg!" Barry said with a grin. "Vic, you look... different."

"Barry—time," Max interrupted.

"Oh—right. Sorry. I go by Flash ," Barry added.

Cyborg blinked. "Uh… have we met?"

"He's new. Calls himself Flash—super speed," Batman said. Then he gestured to Max. "His name's Tobi, and he's—"

"You'll find out on the way," Max cut in, his tone sharp.

"You still need a strategist—someone who can pull together a team?" Batman asked, arms folded.

"Yes," Cyborg replied. "Badly."

"Then I'll do it," Batman said. "But on my terms. I've already picked two candidates—Tobi and Flash."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Alright. But what's the mission?"

"We need your help locating an alien that crash-landed in Metropolis," Batman said.

"An alien?" Cyborg asked.

"The meteor that hit here decades ago—it's not what the government led people to believe," Batman explained.

Cyborg's eyes glowed as he activated his scanners. "I'm picking something up… but my systems are being jammed. Someone doesn't want me seeing what's under that crater."

"Then we go there," Max said flatly.

He stepped forward and slammed a palm into the rooftop.

"Summoning Jutsu," he muttered.

In a puff of smoke, a massive bird with green feathers ,a yellow beak and strange metallic rods protruding from its neck appeared, its purple ringed eyes glaring.

Barry stepped back. "You know magic?"

"Sort of," Max replied, deliberately vague.

Cyborg blinked. "Okay. That's… new."

"Hop on," Max said. "Hold on tight."

Batman and Barry exchanged a look before nodding and climbing onto the bird's back. Cyborg activated his thrusters, floating beside them.

The summoned beast let out a distorted screech and took off into the sky, cutting through the air like a black missile toward the heart of the crater.

They descended in silence, wind whipping past them until the giant bird touched down within the vast crater. Max stepped off first and dismissed the creature in a puff of smoke.

"Neat trick for travel," Batman muttered, his cape fluttering behind him.

They walked through the desolate crater, boots crunching against ash and fractured debris. Eventually, Cyborg stopped near a barely visible hatch embedded in the ground.

"Found something," he said, forcing the panel open. He dropped inside without hesitation, the others following.

The interior was sterile and dark, illuminated only by Cyborg's glowing circuits. He hacked door after door, bypassing each security protocol with practiced ease until they reached a massive blast door—emblazoned with the symbol of the House of El.

Just as Cyborg moved to hack it, Max raised a hand. "I got this."

A sudden hum filled the air as a blue, ethereal skeletal arm formed at Max's side—an incomplete but terrifying fragment of a Susanoo. It reeled back and slammed into the blast door, tearing it from its hinges with a thunderous crash.

Barry winced. "And there goes our element of surprise."

"They already knew we were here," Max replied calmly, gesturing toward the chamber beyond.

Inside, illuminated by harsh overhead lights, was a frail and withered figure lying against the far wall—skin pale, bones visible beneath thin flesh, eyes barely open.

Barry's voice caught in his throat. "Superman…"

The room fell silent, the weight of what they saw anchoring everyone in place.

End of Chapter