1 GUESS WHAT?

It was a beautifully refreshing day. The sun was shining brightly, the birds were merrily chirping and flying in the sky. The streets were quiet and calm, with people busy in their own work-a-day lives. In fact, the entire week seemed oddly peaceful as compared to the rest of the typical days of Central City; there were no rogues busy with their errands, AKA robberies. No alien invasions or extra-terrestrial attacks of some sort. Not one criminal holding the citizens' hostages. Nor were there any berserk metahumans terrorizing the people by creating fatal tidal waves or fire hurricanes.

All in all, one must feel that the Flash was doing a marvellous job at keeping his city safe, and that he was indeed doing, along with his hardworking team, not to mention his own fantastic forensic skills. Which is why it was a bit strange when suddenly a portal opened out of the blue in the middle of a street. A figure fell out of it, landing face-first on the ground with a thud. People who'd witnessed this event came gasping as soon as the portal closed. The figure remained unmoving on the street.

'It's the Flash!' a woman shrieked dramatically, as if the tight, scarlet suit and lightening-shaped bolts for ears weren't clarifying things enough.

Before anyone could act upon it, another portal opened to their left and out popped a figure dressed in leather, with shoulder length black hair and weirdly cool-looking goggles. 'Flash!' he yelled, turning him around and pressing the lightening-shaped bolt on his suit, making him wake up with a start.

Flash had no idea of what had just happened. He saw nothing but his best friend kneeling in next to him. 'Cis—'

'Systems! Yes, all the systems are working fine!' yelled Vibe suddenly, nodding at the people standing next to them who obviously didn't know their names. 'He is alright, really. I've got it,' he added to the people who were refusing to leave. Flash got up on his feet and waited for them to disappear, no matter how slowly. His head was filled with a buzzing, as if he had a few bees inside his prefrontal cortex.

'Dude, what exactly happened?' Vibe asked as soon as they got privacy. For some reason, Flash was just standing there still, staring around. He was creeping him out.

'Not here.' Without another word, Flash zoomed the two of them till Star Labs, not stopping till they were inside the deserted Speed Lab. Removing his mask, Barry sunk low on the stairs and clutched his head.

'Barry, where were you? Your comms weren't working! You didn't show up in the morning! Then suddenly you are falling out of a portal opened on 22nd and main street?' Cisco said confusedly.

'You will not believe what I just saw,' Barry said darkly.

'I rarely do,' Cisco agreed. 'But will you please start with what you did for you to see what you saw in the first place? Because seeing things is my forte, not yours. Unless—'

'I travelled in time, I think,' Barry said.

'Shocker!' yelled Cisco. 'Back to the past or back to the future?'

'Unfortunately, the future,' Barry said. 'When did I become so reckless? God, I don't know how I'm going to fix this.'

Cisco couldn't help but sink down on the stairs as well. He was feeling a bit light-headed, wondering if he had a dollar for every-time he'd heard Barry say these exact words, he'd be richer than God.

'Okay, what did you see?' Cisco asked hesitantly. 'Should I know? I mean—'

'I have to tell someone,' Barry said. 'But I have to choose them very carefully.'

'Well, start with me. What happened in the future? Also, why did you go to the future?'

Barry made an apologetic face. 'You remember how two years ago – before the whole flashpoint fiasco, how I used to travel in the future to get the season finales? Which we had concluded on our little boards to be perfectly harmless, right? Just travel in time to download it in the Time Vault at the dead of the night! No one sees you – so no consequences—'

'Barry, you don't have to repeat that! I was there when we figured that out!' Cisco snapped. 'But I was also there when we realised from the flashpoint fiasco that we shouldn't be doing any of it! We made a deal! NO TIME TRAVEL!'

'I know, Cisco,' Barry sighed. 'I don't know what came over me. It was so spontaneous!'

'You went there for Game of Thrones, didn't you?' Cisco suspiciously narrowed his eyes. 'It is the only one whose finale would be out tonight! You couldn't wait one more day?' Cisco stopped talking, his forehead creased in a frown. 'Wait, we figured it would have no consequences! Are you saying our math was wrong?' he asked, as if it were an equivalent to committing a sin.

'We didn't take one element into consideration,' Barry said, unsure of the best way to put it.

'I think we were pretty thorough,' Cisco said. 'What element?'

'I did travel to the future, precisely tonight at midnight. I intended to run till the Vault, but I had to stop at the gates.' Barry tried to stay calm. 'There was no Star Labs, Cisco. It'd been blown away. Nothing but a huge hole in its place.'

'Did you find any of our bodies buried inside that said hole?' Cisco asked faintly.

'Don't be silly! I wouldn't be telling you this if I had!' Barry said without thinking for a second, then quickly looked at a pissed-off Cisco. 'Because obviously I would've been busy trying to save you!' he added.

'Never mind that! What did you find out? Tell me you stopped behind to see something that would help us stop this mess!' Cisco said desperately. This cannot be happening again, but it was. When was he going to learn his lesson which was that Barry was never going to learn his?

'I looked around, for obvious reasons. But couldn't linger behind to witness it all, again, for obvious reasons. So, I zoomed around to catch glimpses of what was happening. And what I found is the very reason I cannot tell anything to the League! It would be too dangerous!' Barry said, although more to himself than to him.

'What did you find?' Cisco asked quietly.

'Demons,' Barry said darkly.

'Exaggeration?' Cisco hoped.

'No, Cisco! Literally demons!' Barry said. 'The – the gates of hell had been opened.'

'You told me once they were sealed a long time ago!' Cisco protested. 'What are we going to do? Why can't we tell the League?'

'It's – complicated,' Barry sighed, looking at Cisco with painstaking eyes. 'It's Hal. I saw his body.'

'Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern?' Cisco gasped. Barry nodded quietly. 'Bar, we will need help! We cannot do this alone!'

'We are getting help,' Barry agreed, 'but from someone who is really great at keeping secrets. That's right. We are going to Gotham City.'