Chapter 5: The Star Labs Connection
The cold, sterile air of the S.T.A.R. Labs' Cortex was a stark change from the temperate, utopian climate of Luminaris. It smelled of ozone and the faint, ever-present scent of burnt toast from a coffee machine that hadn't been cleaned since the last major alien invasion. Blinking lights and the incessant beeping of computers provided a chaotic symphony to the controlled genius of Cisco Ramon. He was hunched over a console, his fingers flying across the holographic interface that Elliot had provided, his tongue sticking out in concentration, a tell-tale sign of a man in his element.
"Alright, so I've integrated the Luminaris interface with our main systems," Cisco said, not looking up from the shimmering data streams. "We're running a deep scan of the Blight's data signature. I'm telling you, man, this is like trying to reverse-engineer a black hole using a spork. It's beautiful, but it's fundamentally wrong. The tech is so advanced it's almost… an insult to my own intellect. A beautiful, glorious insult."
"I take it you're having some trouble," Elliot said, a small, knowing smile on his face. He watched as Cisco's hands, a blur of motion, navigated the incomprehensible data streams. He was an engineer, but this was a different kind of tech entirely, a frantic, chaotic, and beautiful dance that he couldn't replicate.
"Trouble? No, no, no," Cisco said, shaking his head without looking up. "This is a challenge. A cosmic riddle wrapped in an existential crisis. The signal... it's not just a digital signature. It's like... a song. A really awful, dissonant song that wants to eat your face and steal your lunch money. And the architecture..." He trailed off, his eyes wide as he saw something new, something impossible in the code. "It's beyond anything Vibe has ever...vibed."
"So, what's the verdict?" Elliot asked, leaning against a workbench, a little out of place in this whirlwind of kinetic energy and jargon. He felt like a static object in a world of constant motion.
"The verdict is you're a wizard, dude," Cisco said, turning to him with a manic grin that lit up his face. "This stuff is more advanced than Kryptonian tech. It's like... a reality engine. And you just... have it. That's not suspicious at all. Not even a little."
"Well, he's not wrong. The System is a reality engine. And it's very, very suspicious. I just hope he doesn't look too deeply. I can't tell him the truth. He'd never trust me again. I'm not the hero he thinks I am. I'm just a guy who got lucky."
Elliot felt a familiar knot of anxiety tighten in his stomach. He was a fraud, and every interaction was a tightrope walk over the chasm of his secret, a single misstep away from disaster.
Cisco's mind was a maelstrom of data. He sat in his chair, a look of profound concentration on his face. He had run the Blight's data signature through every known technological protocol, every cosmic algorithm he had in his arsenal. Nothing. It was a digital ghost, a corrupted code that couldn't be parsed, a language that had no alphabet.
"Okay, Elliot, I'm getting a lot of nothing here," Cisco said, rubbing his eyes. "It's like the data is... broken. It doesn't follow any known laws of physics or code. It's just... entropy in a bottle."
"The System said it was a 'contagion'," Elliot offered, a whisper of a suggestion. "Maybe it's meant to be unreadable."
"A contagion that is also a data stream that is also an... energy wave," Cisco muttered, his eyes closing in concentration. He reached out with his mind, a familiar tingling sensation at his fingertips, a product of his Vibe powers. He pushed past the physical, past the digital, and into the ethereal, a space where his mind could dance with the universe's vibrations.
And then he saw it.
Inside the clean, digital code, there was a swirling, unnatural color. A deep, impossible purple and black energy that looked like a storm of dying galaxies, a stain on the fabric of reality. It wasn't code. It was... magic. Not the sleight-of-hand kind, but the raw, terrifying kind.
"Holy—" Cisco's eyes flew open. He pulled his hands back from the console as if it had burned him, the energy leaving a faint, static charge on his skin. The air in the lab, previously smelling of ozone, now had a faint, coppery tang, the scent of something ancient and dangerous.
[SYSTEM: DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED—MAGICAL INFLUENCE CONFIRMED. THREAT CLASSIFICATION: MYSTICAL.]
Elliot felt the System's message flash in his mind, a cold confirmation of what Cisco had just seen. He looked at the console, which now flickered with a faint, purple-black energy, a sickly, beautiful light. It wasn't just a technological problem. It was an arcane one.
"Dude," Cisco said, his voice a whisper, his eyes wide with a mix of fear and excitement. "There's magic in the code. Actual, honest-to-god magic. Like, Hocus Pocus, abracadabra, David Copperfield but also super dark and spooky. It's a sorcerer's virus. A curse written in code."
Elliot sat in the S.T.A.R. Labs' break room, a steaming mug of lukewarm coffee in his hands, its bitter taste a welcome distraction from the bizarre reality he now faced. The distant, rhythmic thump-thump-thump of Barry's feet on the treadmill was a constant reminder of the speed at which their world, and now the Multiverse, operated.
"So, what you're telling me is, we need a magician," Elliot said, looking at Cisco, who was now vibrating with a barely contained excitement.
"Yeah! A real one!" Cisco said, gesturing wildly with his hands. "Not like, a guy who pulls rabbits out of hats, but a guy who pulls rabbits out of... different realities! This changes everything! The rules are different now! We can't just throw a Batarang at this thing. We need spells! Incantations! A guy with a top hat and a flair for the dramatic! Someone who knows the difference between a scrying mirror and a funhouse mirror."
"Do you know any?" Elliot asked, a hint of desperation in his voice. This was so far out of his wheelhouse he couldn't even see the comfort of his own specialization anymore. Magic, to him, was a fundamental coding error, a bug in the universe.
"I know of one," Cisco said, leaning forward conspiratorially. "The best. Zatanna Zatara. She's like... the Beyonce of magic. We just have to find her."
"And how do we do that? Do we just yell her name in reverse?" Elliot asked dryly, a flicker of his old, sarcastic humor returning.
"No, that's just for summoning a demon, which, by the way, is a whole other thing we should talk about," Cisco said, his eyes gleaming. "No, we go through the proper channels. We get a lead. We find her. And then we save the Multiverse with magic! And maybe a little science, just to be safe."
Elliot walked back to the portal to Luminaris, the weight of the coffee mug feeling heavy in his hands. He was a scientist, an engineer. He solved problems with logic and reason. Magic was the antithesis of everything he knew. It was unpredictable, chaotic, and terrifying.
"I'm not a hero. I'm just a guy with a system. I can't fight magic. I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. A slight headache began to form, a familiar thrum behind his eyes, a physical manifestation of his stress. He felt the System's presence, its constant, low hum, but for the first time, it didn't feel like a comfort. It felt like a crutch. A very fragile crutch."
He touched his head, a wave of cold dread washing over him. He was out of his depth. A new, unsettling energy, a magical one, now charged the air in Luminaris, a faint, metallic tang on the breeze. He had saved a dozen people, but in doing so, he had stepped onto a battlefield he was not equipped to fight on. He had a powerful system, but it was just a tool. It didn't give him the courage to face a threat he couldn't even comprehend.
He looked at his hand. He had the ability to open portals, to save lives, but what about the lives of the people who would face the magical side of the Blight? He had no one to help him. No one to turn to. He pulled out a comms device and looked at Cisco's contact. He had a lead. Zatanna Zatara. A magic user. He was about to step out of his comfort zone, out of the realm of science and into the realm of the unknown. His face was grim, a look of grim determination mixed with an icy fear, as he made the call. His hand clenched into a fist, the knuckles turning white, a silent testament to his anxiety.
Love [ DC : Floating City Owner ]? Unlock More Chapters and Support the Story!
Dive deeper into the world of [ DC : Floating City Owner ] with exclusive access to 35+ chapters on my Patreon, plus new fanfic every week! Your support starting at just $5/month helps me keep crafting the stories you love across epic universes like [Grimm, Teen Wolf ,blacklist,Game Of Throne ,MCU and Arrowverse].
By joining, you're not just getting more chapters—you're helping me bring new worlds, twists, and adventures to life. Every pledge makes a huge difference!
👉 Join now at patreon.com/TheFinex5 and start reading today!