Reverb's mouth split into a thin, vicious grin. He raised both hands toward Jack Kadere, palms open, the air between them already warping. "There's even cooler stuff. Want to experience it?"
"I'd love to." Jack Kadere smiled like he'd been offered dessert.
Reverb blinked. He'd expected hesitation, maybe posturing—not cheerful acceptance. The grin curdled into something feral, and he fired a shockwave straight at Jack Kadere's chest.
The way Deathstorm had flinched earlier told Jack everything he needed to know about Reverb. Ruthless, decisive, and perpetually scheming to outgrow his leash. Reverb had never been content serving under Zoom. He was always looking for leverage, always calculating how to climb higher. And a speedster he couldn't control? Better to eliminate the asset than risk it falling into Zoom's hands.
The shockwave tore through the air with a low, concussive hum. Jack Kadere watched it come, felt the vibration prickling across his skin, and raised one hand.
An identical shockwave erupted from his palm.
BANG!
The two forces slammed together midair and locked, neither advancing. The impact rattled windows in their frames and sent loose debris skittering across the pavement.
He thought: He can use shockwaves. My shockwaves. How the hell does he have my abilities?
Reverb's eyes went wide behind his goggles.
"Please," Jack Kadere said, tone perfectly deadpan, "call me Fifty-Fifty."
Reverb snarled and pushed harder, pouring more energy into the wave. The air between them shrieked under the competing pressures.
Jack Kadere matched him. Exactly. The stalemate held—two identical forces grinding against each other, the ground cracking in a widening circle beneath the collision point.
"Deathstorm!" Reverb barked.
Deathstorm hesitated for a beat, then thrust both arms forward. A torrent of flame screamed toward Jack Kadere from the flank.
Jack Kadere laughed. "That one too."
BOOM!
Fire erupted from his free hand and met Deathstorm's blast head-on. The two streams of flame crashed together in a roiling burst of heat and orange light, then dissolved into black smoke and sparks. Deathstorm roared and doubled down, shoving both palms out. A full column of fire surged forward, thick enough to swallow a car.
Jack Kadere flipped his palm. A pillar of fire to match it roared back.
One hand projecting shockwaves. The other projecting flame. Two opponents, two abilities, and Jack Kadere standing at the center of it—perfectly balanced against both.
Fifty-fifty. It's actually goddamn fifty-fifty. What kind of freak ability is this?
Reverb ground his teeth and pushed again. Deathstorm followed suit. The energy on both sides climbed, the air turning thick with ozone and heat, asphalt softening underfoot where the fire columns grazed the street.
The stalemate didn't budge.
Then Jack Kadere chuckled, and the sound carried easily through the noise.
"I've played enough at fifty-fifty. Time to crush you."
The power in both hands multiplied. The shockwave ballooned outward, swallowing Reverb's blast whole and continuing forward like a freight train. The fire column tripled in diameter and devoured Deathstorm's flames in a wall of roaring heat.
BANG! BANG!
Reverb launched backward off his feet, hit the ground rolling, and came to a stop against a concrete barrier. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. Something inside his chest felt cracked—shattered, like his organs had been put through a blender.
Deathstorm skidded across the pavement ten feet away, a blackened scorch mark seared across his chest, smoke curling from his jacket.
They looked at each other. Then both dragged themselves up and threw everything they had left at Jack Kadere.
Jack Kadere didn't bother with fifty-fifty this time.
He felt it before he saw it—a spike of cold at his back, sharp and fast.
The Speed Force fired through his legs and he blurred sideways. Two ice spikes shrieked through the space where he'd been standing a fraction of a second earlier, punching through the dissipating shockwave and fire.
They kept going.
Pfft! Pfft!
Two wet, crunching impacts. Reverb looked down at the spike of ice jutting from his sternum, frost crackling outward from the entry wound. Beside him, Deathstorm stared at the identical spike buried in his own chest. Both raised their heads and found Killer Frost standing in the distance, arm still extended from the throw.
Disbelief froze on their faces longer than the ice did.
Thud. Thud.
They collapsed flat. The light drained from their eyes.
Jack Kadere walked toward Killer Frost. The timing of her ambush had been excellent—if the target had been anyone else.
She lay crumpled on the ground, twitching. White hair splayed across the pavement in tangled strands. Black eyeshadow smeared around her lids, purplish-blue lipstick cracked at the edges. She wore black leather from neck to boots, and the leather across her torso was smoldering, thin trails of smoke rising from the material. Blood seeped from the corner of her mouth with each spasm.
Jack Kadere stood over her. Killer Frost struggled to raise one hand, fingers hooking weakly toward him, then her arm dropped back to the asphalt with a dry snap.
"What a pity." He looked down at her for a long moment. "I actually liked Killer Frost. Guess I'll have to wait until Caitlin becomes her."
He raised both hands. White vapor curled around his fingers, the temperature plummeting until frost crystallized on his knuckles. Then the cold in one hand vanished, replaced by heat—flames licking up from his palm while the other hand stayed ringed in ice.
"Does this count as experiencing both sides?"
He shook the frost and fire away and turned to leave.
"Hey."
The voice came from behind him. Jack Kadere glanced back.
A head poked out from a car parked thirty feet away—long golden hair, features he recognized immediately, a black choker tight around her throat, and a silver septum ring glinting between her nostrils.
The look was a complete departure from the Laurel Lance he knew.
"Do me a favor and let me out?" She lifted her hand high enough for him to see. A shimmering bracelet clamped around her wrist—the kind of meta-dampening cuff designed to suppress powers.
"Almost forgot about you, Laurel Lance."
Earth Two's version. Not Black Canary—Black Siren. The particle accelerator had given her actual ultrasonic abilities, built into her vocal cords. No gadgets, no external devices. The real thing.
"Killer Frost grab you?"
Jack Kadere walked over and pulled open the car door. Black Siren sat cuffed to the seat rail, black leather creaking as she shifted, her free hand resting on her thigh.
She gave him a look of wide-eyed innocence. "Come on. Do me a favor?"
Jack Kadere leaned in, gripped the cuff, and let cold flow through his fingertips. Frost spread across the metal in an instant, the bracelet turning brittle and white. He yanked her hand free.
Crack.
The cuff shattered into pieces that scattered across the car's floorboard.
"You're welcome." He straightened up and stepped back from the car.
Black Siren stared at the broken fragments, a sharp gleam crossing her eyes. She climbed out after him—and both of them turned at the sound of tires screeching and doors slamming.
Three police cruisers had pulled up along the curb. Officers spilled out with weapons drawn, taking cover behind the hoods.
"Don't move! Hands up!"
Iris West stepped forward from the lead car, dressed in a fitted tactical jacket with a badge clipped at her waist, her gun raised and leveled. She advanced slowly, eyes locked on them.
"Doesn't matter which world it is," Jack Kadere murmured, smiling. "They're all just as annoying."
He raised his hands in a lazy approximation of surrender.
Black Siren glanced at the ring of gun barrels, then back at Jack Kadere. A sly grin spread across her face. "Need help?"
"Knock yourself out."
Black Siren turned toward the police line, tilted her chin up, and opened her mouth.
"AHHHHHHHHH—"
The sound hit like a physical wall. Every windshield within fifty yards detonated simultaneously, safety glass spraying outward in glittering sheets. The police cruisers rocked on their axles, side mirrors snapping off, hoods buckling inward. Iris and the other officers dropped to their knees with their palms clamped over their ears, mouths wrenched open in screams that couldn't compete with the frequency tearing through the air.
The sonic wave held for a long time. When Black Siren finally closed her mouth, the silence that followed rang almost as loud. Shattered glass tinkled down from storefronts. Officers lay curled on the pavement, groaning.
Jack Kadere lowered his hands and turned to Black Siren, still grinning. "You are really loud."