Timeline 23: Future Fight (Long Hot Summer Epilogue)

by Nicholas Ahlhelm

Jack Flash opened his eyes to a broken city. He recognized the remains of Aesir Park around him, but even Valhalla proper seemed faded. The buildings were old and in ill repair, most of their exterior paint gone.

The streets were deserted. No sign of human life was visible. Everything seemed eerily empty. Only the whistling wind broke the silence around him.

He wondered briefly if his last time-jump took him past his planned destination. But he doubted that to be true. The way Doctor Cosmic spoke, this timeline would draw him in simply because it’s’ where he belonged, or close to it.

He wished he could remember what happened to Valhalla. He wished he could remember anything about his life in this time period.

“I felt your arrival, stranger. You have treaded on to my domain and for that you will die.”

The figure floated down out of the sky. Clouds dissipated around him as he landed on the ground in front of Jack. The green and black armor was of a very familiar design. On multiple occasions he fought similar versions of the suit.

“Overlord.”

“Yes, yes. I am the Overlord. And you are another fool that thinks they can waltz on to my land, challenge me, and destroy me. Prepare to die.”

“I didn’t come all the way back here to die,” Jack said. “I came here to beat you before you can do anymore damage to the timestream.”

Overlord’s visor scanned across Jack’s face. Jack could sense the realization hit him. “It cannot be. I killed you. I eradicated you. But yes, it is you, isn’t it. You’re the meddler, the one obsessed with saving Hero. You failed, fool, just as you will fail today.”

“I’m not going down. I came too far, fought too hard, to make it back here. I’m not going to let you destroy that for me!”

Jack hurled his entire body at Overlord’s armored frame. He summoned the full fury of his flames, but this time he didn’t hold them in. He unleashed them straight in to Overlord’s suit.

He could see the armor buckle under the heat. He watched it liquefy and roll away as it was blasted away by the fury of Jack’s flames.

The armor fell away from his foe’s skin. The helmet was the last to go as Overlord whipped it from his body. Jack could only stare. He recognized the face in front of him.

“Fool! You had the advantage, but your own heroism has doomed you.”

Overlord unleashed the full fury of his lightning across Jack’s frame. As his body shook under the blast, memories flooded his mind for the first time in years. He was washed away in the fury of his own mind.

He was ten. He watched the Odin Statue explode before him in Aesir Park. He could only focus on the power such destruction could cause.

He was fourteen. He read every story about the so-called American Hero he could find. As he did, he couldn’t get over how much he hated Valhalla’s old hero. He only wished that Hero wasn’t dead, so that he could beat him.

He was seventeen. He felt the fury he felt at his parents and brother. He planted the murder weapon at the house of his dad’s drinking buddy.

He was twenty. He stood in the heart of a nuclear reactor. His armor protected him from poisoning even as the radiation activated the metavirus he injected minutes before. He blew the reactor to pieces as his full power was unleashed. He took the city of Clinton and miles of farmland with it.

He was twenty-six. He stood over the corpses of a team of heroes. He felt alive as he declared himself the sole ruler of Valhalla.

He was thirty-one. His time displacement core was finally ready. He could finally travel back in time. He could finally destroy the accursed Hero and prove once and for all he was the most powerful metahuman ever.

He was thirty-five. A strange man appeared before him. The same man that foiled him so many times before…

Jack snapped back to reality. No, it can’t be. I can’t be—

It is. It’s the truth. I know it. And I know what I have to do now.

He held up one hand and felt the lightning quiver around his fist. It felt right as he pulled in Overlord’s own attack. Overlord’s fury faded as he watched his attack disappear in to Jack’s fist.

Not Overlord. John Fletcher. Just plain John Fletcher.

“I remember everything,” Jack said. “Just as you will someday.”

“What are you talking about, you old fool? I will kill you today!”

“For the first time in your sad pathetic life, you’re right, John. All that’s left to say is goodbye.”

Jack grabbed John by the shoulders. He felt the full force of his fire burn out of his pours. The fires of time burned through his body as he locked eyes with John. Jack could feel his body burn away. Even his body could not hold in the fire at this level.

Overlord’s voice echoed through the flames. “No, stop! Please not like this!”

His scream was the last thing Jack heard before it was all over.

*****

He could feel the sun beat down on his back. He rested in a crouch, though he couldn’t really remember how he came to be here. He wore only a strange pair of rags across his body. His skin felt raw against them. He stood on a cracked and broken street. A few men and women backed away in fear as he raised his head.

His hands smoked in front of them. He summoned the flame to his hand. It felt right.

He remembered. Jack, he thought. My name is Jack Flash. It’s June 21. 2004. This is the Divide and I’m here to help. I’m here to save these people.

Jack Flash set out in to the Divide. His job was only beginning.