December 25th, 2020 - Conowingdo Dam, Maryland

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A thousand memories and feelings assaulted her all at once, tearing at her mind in two very different directions. For one, there was the older woman who had fought against the Great Enemy for nearly three decades, a battle that was being lost day by day and was left with the only option left. The other, a young woman still just a girl. She looked around in a daze as the temporal dissonance became stronger with the ripples of her monumental alteration of hypertime. Her one singular act of interference had broken every rule that had ever been written about time travel, to *never* change a keystone event. Such events were defining moments in the timestream, such as the rise and fall of Chingis Khan, the splitting of the atom, the birth of christianity and the victory of the Titans in the second Titanomachy. They were supposed to have won here on this day, break the human spirit and inspire a golden age that would follow.

The golden age that would be birthed from a bitter resistance of the survivors and the use of weapons that would later be buried along with those who had created them, all except for one. That was what she came back to prevent. To prevent the need for such a weapon to ever be unleashed and ensure the Great Enemy never came to be. Why then did she simply not return? She was supposed to fade with the severance of the previous timeline, along with everyone she had ever known. Nor were there the screams of the time-wraiths, creatures who were supposed to protect the integrity of the timeline. No, instead she felt uneasy and off-balance.

People called her name and spoke to her through a communication device in her ear that she remembered being given by Grim, and at the same time never had. She had spoken briefly with her before arriving, telling her that she needed to take care of something first, but also knew that she had been dead for centuries. All of them lingered as fond memories, of a few battles fought together, a stern lecture to use her abilities responsibly, and a very awkward introduction to the king of Atlantis. Yet none of them had ever truly met her, had they? Or had she?

Electricity crackled around her hands, the fingers clenching tight as she struggled internally, her brow furrowing while she tried to sort it all out.

[color=IndianRed]"Will you be joining us?"[/color]
[color=A9A9A9]"Good morning to you too. Woulda been a shame if you missed out on the fun Velocity!"[/color]
[color=LightSeaGreen]"Welcome to the glory, Little Lightning Bolt!"[/color]

There were others too, drifting off to the side in her memories. A mother who was a fighter, recently severely wounded and taking a long break from field work. A grandfather who was eccentric at best, and people she knew as friends from a place that had long since been destroyed in what she knew as her real life. Only problem was that she started to question if it really was her real life. Someone was missing from this group, the real speedster who was supposed to be here. Except… These new memories that fought against her had nothing on him. There was no Celerity to her, not even the supposed identity of the man. It was the only thing that truly screamed out as an inconsistency. Everything else she could just mark off as simple temporal dissonance, but this one little detail immediately felt wrong.

More voices spoke, and there was a battle being fought overhead. There! Lady Arcana was fighting the mastermind of this whole mess and trading blows in a fight to decide who would truly decide the fate of the earth. At the moment there was nothing she could truly do, her feet unsteady as she bolted from her landing spot in this timeline, and appeared next to the other heroes. She had to play along for now, to act as if everything was fine and she truly was their Velocity.

[color=ed145b]"I'll help however I can, though with them that high up all I can do is hurl lightning bolts. A little risky with Lady Arcana so close, I would rather not zap her."[/color] Vera thought for a long moment, her eyes rapidly tracking the two at a speed far faster than any of the others would likely be able to do. For her they would be moving as if in slow motion, her mind processing every movement of their bodies and starting to anticipate their next moves. It was partly a measure to focus her mind on something else, but also to make sure that the job she came here to do was done.

[color=ed145b]"Wait!"[/color] Bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet, her skirt waved a little from the motion, her hand pointing out into the clouds. [color=ed145b]"Tank, how hard can you throw about… A hundred twenty-five pounds? Think you can hit the stratosphere?"[/color] Then she turned to Emerald Knight, a part of her thinking it amusing they were nearly of the same height. [color=ed145b]"How fast and how far could you generate precisely placed platforms, Emerald Knight?"[/color] Hopefully both of them would understand her plan of action, a flash of speed-force energy building behind her eyes as her mind raced and calculated the angle of approach and speed needed. If she could get high enough and build up enough energy, she felt like she could make a breach stable enough to end this once and for all.