Chapter 38: Meet the Devil

In a certain secluded street of San Francisco, a slender figure with long white hair ran as she stumbled on some bicycles and people that were on her way.

As she ran, she would occasionally look behind her as if she was being followed.

The people on the streets would also look in her direction in curiosity but when they looked behind her, they didn’t see anyone chasing her at all.

What they didn’t notice was that a shadow of a figure was jumping across the rooftops agilely.

The white haired woman didn’t dare slow down and continued to run as fast as she could.

Eventually, she tried to see if she could throw off her pursuer by heading to an empty alley.

But before she could get far, a figure jumped down right in front of her which made her stop abruptly.

She didn’t hesitate for a second and spun her body as she used her left feet as an axis and her right led to send a kick towards the figure in front of her.

The figure hurriedly raised both arms to block the attack which caused the pursuer to be pushed back a bit.

“My, my. Did the little cat finally decide to bite?”

“Aren’t you the one wearing the cat mask?”

The white-haired woman saw the figure in front of her was actually a female wearing green clothes that resembled a kimono. Though, the skirt part didn’t even reach her knees as it was cut short instead.

On her face was a mask that looked like a cat that was grinning from ear to ear.

The masked woman tilted her head and reached for the katana behind her back.

“Never heard of the Cheshire Cat?”

The white-haired woman kicked onto a steel pipe below her feet and tossed it to the air as it landed on her hands.

“I’m not one to read little girl stories.”

Cheshire and the white-haired woman clashed as they both swung their weapons and released punches and kicks at each other.

While crossing blows with Cheshire, the white-haired woman asked.

“Who the hell are you and what do you want from me!?”

“Oh, dear Rose. We don’t want anything from you.”

“Then what gives!?”

Rose was really annoyed.

She was just minding her own business while shopping when this damn woman started to chase and attack her.

If it wasn’t because she didn’t have a weapon in her hands, she wouldn’t have run for so long.

Cheshire brought her face closer to Rose and smiled under her mask.

“We want to know where your father is.”

“My father?”

The two separated as Rose jumped back a few times.

She frowned as she asked Chesire.

“What about my father?”

“You see, Deathstroke suddenly went and disappeared along with Joker and a few others. The others are getting anxious and thought that he may have...betrayed us. We figured if we take you, Slade would eventually come to us.”

Rose gritted her teeth and lunged forward to attack again.

“I don’t know anything about that bastard!”

“Wow, you got daddy issues huh? You and me both.”

Cheshire acted like she didn’t care about Rose being angry as she just laughed.

Cheshire clashed with Rose once again and caught her off guard as she swept under her feet and pushed her down on the ground.

“Why don’t you come with me? We might become friends?”

“Screw you!”

“We can do that too.”

“...”

Rose was a bit speechless.

Suddenly, a casual voice was heard from behind Cheshire.

“Ahem. As much as I want to see a catfight, I need both of you to stop already.”

Surprised with the sudden voice, Cheshire grabbed Rose and jumped back as she held Rose in front of her with her katana placed to Rose’s neck.

Cheshire looked at the person in front of them warily.

She saw a man wearing casual attire standing there without any care at all. If you saw him, you’d think that he’s just an ordinary man you can find on the streets.

However, his face was blurry as if vibrating at high speeds.

Speedster!

A word popped up in Cheshire’s mind as she saw him.

She brought her katana closer to Rose’s neck and a small line of blood dropped.

“Who are you?”

“Me? I’m called Prime.”

Lucas stood there with a smile. Though the smile was blurry since he was vibrating his face.

His eyes glowed white and all of a sudden, Cheshire found herself unable to move.

Lucas had used Martian Manhunter’s telekinetic abilities to control her.

“W-what...did you do!?”

Cheshire spoke in difficulty after finding her entire body went stiff.

Lucas’ synchronization rate with Martian Manhunter hasn’t reached max yet so he can only do this for a few minutes. Still, it was long enough for him to take Rose.

White lightning trailed behind him as he sped towards Rose and took her in his arms while at the same time restraining Cheshire using his hard light powers from Green Lantern.

Rose was surprised to suddenly find herself in a princess carried by someone.

She looked up to see the man’s face but it was still blurry.

“Well. That takes care of that.”

“...Who are you?”

Rose asked.

Lucas hesitated for a moment since he overheard them earlier and figured that Rose wasn’t much of a fan of her father.

Still, he answered.

“Your father was worried that you’d be in danger so I came to get you.”

Rose was surprised for a second but scoffed the next moment.

“Hmph! Suddenly he shows he cares!? Let me go! I don’t want to have anything to do with that bastard!”

Lucas looked awkward but still let her down.

He thought for a moment and said.

“A-ahem. He said...you were a fan of mine…”

“...Huh?”

Rose frowned in confusion.

Lucas sighed and looked at Cheshire who was restrained on the ground. He can feel that she was glaring at him from behind the mask.

Lucas knocked her out first so she can’t see before stopping the vibration on his face.

He smiled and looked back at Rose.

“I-”

“Idol!”

Before Lucas could say anything else, Rose had lept back in his arms.

“...”

This is crazy…

Lucas laughed bitterly as he thought about this.

He was then reminded by another ‘crazy’ woman who’s calling him cupcake.

“Ha-choo-!?”

Inside the Siren bar, Harley Quinn suddenly sneezed inexplicably.

Selina looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“You're sick? Wait, sorry. Forget I asked...”

“How rude! It’s probably my cupcake that’s thinking about me all the time! Hehehe~”

“...”

Pamela only glanced at her with half-closed eyes.

Back in Mount Justice.

Slade just finished the training session with the team when he felt a shiver down his spine.

He quickly drew his katana and looked around.

Enemy!? No...what is this...bad feeling in my chest…?

His face darkened as he kept having this feeling.

It was worse than facing either the Green Arrow or Batman! He felt as if he is against an enemy he can never hope to defeat!

“What...is this…!?”

At the side, Robin and the others glanced at each other and shrugged as they didn’t know what was suddenly going on with Slade.

What the heck is wrong with him?

After a while, Lucas returned to Mount Justice with Rose and Cheshire.

He tossed Cheshire to a prison cell first then brought Rose to Slade.

At first, Rose was still mad about her father, but after Slade gifted her the katana which was signed by Lucas, she suddenly hugged him and completely forgot about her hatred.

Feeling Rachel’s glare at him, Lucas cleared his throat and excused himself for now and quickly left the mountain.

As Lucas flew in the sky, he sighed deeply.

Before, when Lucas stayed in the Watchtower, there’s Diana and Mera.

When he stays in Wayne Manor, there’s Barbara and Pamela. Now, even Lena and Thea had joined in.

Then, in Mount Justice, there’s Rachel, Donna, Kara, Karen, and that fangirl Rose.

Lucas felt he needed another place to crash to hide from the girls…

When he was first sent to this world, he really never meant to sleep with so many women. At most, he only thought of Barbara and Pamela then things sort of escalated…

“Sigh...it’s really hard to be handsome. How does brother do it?”

Lucas touched his face and remembered that he shared the same genes as Bruce so Bruce was also quite handsome. But he doesn’t seem to have as much issue as him?

“Hmm...should I become dark and broody?”

Just then, his phone rang.

Looking at the caller ID, it was Bruce.

He answered the call and greeted him.

“Hey bro. I was just thinking about you!”

“Hm? Why?”

“I was thinking if I should become like you and brood all the time.”

“...”

Bruce suddenly had the urge to hang up the call. However, remembering why he called, he stopped himself and sighed.

“Stop fooling around. There’s a mission for your team.”

“...Does it have to be now? I just escaped that place…”

“...”

Lucas sighed and listened in on the mission.

Feeling that it wasn’t too important, he flew back and ordered a few people to complete it.

Speedy, Static, Miss Martian, Aqualad, and Beast Boy.

This team should be more than enough to handle it.

The mission was simply to investigate some ruins in Africa. It was a simple recon mission so there shouldn’t be much fighting.

He figured he can let the new guys handle it while Speedy and Aqualad can lead them.

Lucas sent out Miss Martian as well since her abilities are perfect for stealth and recon. She could also gain some experience along the way.

Beast Boy is familiar with Africa so he sent him as well.

After telling the team to be careful and to contact him if there is any danger, he let the team leave on the bioship that belonged to Miss Martian.

Once he was done delegating the tasks, Lucas left again while pondering where to lay low for a bit.

He then remembered something in his past life.

“Hmm...does that place also exist in this multiverse?”

Lucas thought for a moment and gave it a try as he took out the interdimensional extrapolator he got from Barry.

EARTH-666, Los Angeles.

Lucas reappeared in an alleyway near a certain club in Los Angeles.

He looked at a tall building and smiled.

“Lux.”

Lux is a club at the top of the tall building which is owned by a certain celestial being.

It was still daytime so the club wasn’t open.

Lucas looked around and couldn’t see the person he was looking for.

After searching for a bit with his x-ray vision, he found him at his penthouse located further above the club.

Using the elevator, Lucas went up and entered the penthouse.

“Detective. Any new cases for us?”

A man with an English accent asked as he turned around. But after seeing someone unfamiliar, he raised an eyebrow and asked.

“Who’re you?”

“Lucas. Lucas Wayne. You must be Lucifer Morningstar?”

“Ah. I am indeed.”

Lucifer smiled and did a curt bow.

“So. To what do I owe this visit?”

Lucas opened his mouth to say something when suddenly, Lucifer’s phone rang.

“Oh, excuse me for a bit.”

Lucas gestured he didn’t mind and that he could answer the phone.

Lucifer answered the phone and nodded every now and then before ending the call.

“Sorry about that. Duty calls. Uhh, is this important?”

“It’s fine, it can wait. Actually, do you mind if I come with you?”

“Huh?”

“You work with the LAPD right? I can help out too. Dealing with bad guys is kinda my thing as well.”

'Super' bad guys that is.

Lucas chuckled at the thought.

The reason why he wanted to come was simply because it seemed fun to tag along.

Also, he doesn’t have much to do at the moment. It would’ve been awkward to stay here and wait or go back.

Lucifer shook his head and couldn’t care less.

“Suit yourself then.”

“Cool. Where to?”

“Long Beach it seems. There’s been a murder. Hah! Don't you just love Los Angeles?”

Lucas chuckled and shook his head in exasperation.

“Driving there is too slow. Come on.”

“Wait, why are you grabbing me?”

Lucas grinned and held Lucifer then started to run as white lightning trailed behind them.

In the next 2 seconds, give or take, they arrived at an empty spot near the beach.

Lucifer looked around in complete shock.

“What...the HELL just happened!?”

“Never heard of a speedster before?”

"Speedst-?"

Lucifer cut his sentence short as he realized something.

“You’re not from this Earth, are you? Did Constantine send you?”

“I haven’t even met him yet. But yeah. I’m from a different Earth.”

“Then what are you doing on this Earth!?”

“Ah...I just came to chill actually. There’s a lot of...women problems on my Earth…”

“...”

Lucifer was speechless.

Just as he was about to say something, a blonde woman called out to him.

“Lucifer? Wow, you got here fast. Didn’t I just call you?”

“Detective!”

At this moment, the blonde detective saw Lucas and asked.

“Who’s this?”

“Lucas Wayne.”

Lucas smiled and introduced himself.

“Chloe Decker. LAPD Detective”

Lucas shook hands with the detective as she introduced herself as well, believing that Lucas was a friend of Lucifer's.

Lucifer quickly separated the both of them and glared at Lucas.

“I don’t care about your 'women problems' on your Earth but don’t start doing it on this Earth as well!”

“...”

This time, it was Lucas’ turn to be speechless.

Chloe looked at Lucas and Lucifer in confusion.

“Do I even want to ask what this is all about?”

She shook her head and headed to the beach and took a look at the crime scene.

Lucifer continued to glare at Lucas for a few more seconds before following her.

"Detective! Wait for me!"

Lucas sighed and followed as well.

Arriving at the scene, Chloe took a look at the dead body and asked a female forensic personnel.

“What do we have here, Ella?”

“Victim was shot in the chest about 3 times and bled to death. Time of death is about 4 hours.”

Lucifer looked at the dead body and saw that he was holding a gun on his right hand.

“This guy’s holding a gun. Did he shoot someone else?”

Looking around, there weren’t any other dead bodies at the scene.

Ella nodded.

“I noticed that too. See how the body is lying down in this direction? This means that before the vic fell down, he was facing the ocean. Which means…”

“The person he was shooting at might’ve been swept by the waves…”

Chloe frowned since it might be hard to recover the body.

Ella knew this too and sighed.

“Judging from the time of death of this guy, it might take some time to find out where the other body is.”

Lucifer scoffed at that.

“He’s in Hell for sure.”

“Lucifer, focus.”

Chloe rolled her eyes at Lucifer who wasn’t taking this seriously.

“Come on, detective. So what, two fools shot each other to death. Case solved.”

“It might not be that simple. We don’t even know if the other person is really dead or not.”

Chloe shook her head and asked Ella.

“Any ID on this victim?”

“Not yet, I’ll have to go back to the lab and check.”

“Good. Go and do that then. In the meantime...we’ll have to wait for the results in finding the other body.”

Chloe sighed.

At the side, Lucas, who had kept quiet all this while, suddenly spoke up.

“I can help with that.”

“Hm?”

The three turned and saw Lucas approach them.

Lucifer snorted.

“Help how? Talk to fish and ask if they see a body?”

“Nah, I’m not Arthur.”

Lucas just chuckled and didn’t mind the ridicule in Lucifer’s tone.

Chloe frowned as well as she wasn’t really familiar with Lucas.

“Excuse me, this is a crime scene. You can’t be here.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be done in a sec.”

Lucas smiled and walked towards the ocean.

Ella looked at Lucas then turned to Lucifer.

"Who's this handsome fellow?"

"Someone not of this world it seems."

Chloe was shocked and about to continue asking when Lucas called out to them.

Just as he reached the waters, he turned towards Lucifer and the rest.

“Have you heard the story of Moses?”

He grinned and waved his hands as he used Mera's water magic.

Then...the ocean split!