Ultimate Flash #5 The Time to Change

[jay]

Ultimate Flash#5

The Time to Change

The boomerangs were still exploding when Barry stood up. He charged forward instinctively. The man with the huge laser gun was about to fire at him again. Barry coudn't stop himself. He ran up towards him. The man fired. Barry zig zagged to avoid the shot, but couldn't stop in time. He ran through the man. For a brief moment Barry saw the man's muscles and bone structure. He looked back over his shoulder.

Sam Scudder felt his whole body start to shake. He felt like he had been blown on all over by a hair dryer. He couldn't move but he felt his body start to tear itself apart. He screamed. He saw Weather Wizard coming towards him.

“Damn you.”

“Sam!!!” yelled Weather Wizard as he saw his friend start to shake. Mirror Master let out a scream as he exploded! Weather Wizard charged forward and tried to strike the blur with a bolt of lightning but it was gone. So was Mirror Master...Sam. Captain Boomerrang screamed as the blur ran off.

“I...I killed him!” Barry said as he kept running. Barry tried to slow down. He couldn't. He just couldn't he. Suddenly an hand reached out and grabbed him. It was Windrunner. He pulled Barry hard and suddenly Barry was back in the Speed Force. As they were pulled back, the events that happened when Barry arrived back in the real world happened in reverse. The man he ran though, the battle, the building, and then...nothing.

“Are you all right?” Jay said helping Barry up. “You gave us quite a scare. I haven't seen Windrunner move that fast in a long time.”

“What the hell was that?” Barry asked looking around at the three speedsters. Johnny Quick snorted for a moment and went back to looking at the cave. Windrunner looked like he was out of breath. Jay was the only one who seemed to be caring about Barry's question.

“That was a anomaly. It happens here from time to time.”

“That was horrible. I couldn't stop running. I couldn't change direction. I just ran through a guy and blew him up!”

“No. You didn't. That anomaly occurs with every speedster since the beginning. It puts you in a place where your worst fears come to life. I just didn't expect you to have one of these so quickly.” said Windrunner as he finally caught his breath and sat down. “You will learn control in time Barry Allen. Your fear is that you will hurt someone with these powers. This is a good fear to have. One which makes you understand what kind of power you weild now. Your first step has begun.”

“You are going to have to give me a better explanation than some kind of damn test this place decided I needed to have!” said Barry as he finally began to calm down. Johnny turns backed to him.

“I'll explain it in a way you might grasp it. There is time and then there are anomalies. Think of them as a alternate way of getting from point a to point b. Time has fixed points. One of those fixed points is you getting sucked in here. You can't change that from happening, but if you get caught in one of these anomalies you can sort of coast to the next point, but it may not be what actually happens.”

“So it's like a river.” Barry said trying to wrap his head around it. “It may fork but it ends up at the same place. Sort of like a alternate timeline then?”

“You got it smart guy.” Johnny said turning back to staring at the cave. “ Windrunner pulled you out of it because it could have turned into the main time line. That's the danger of anomalies. Somethings can be changed and some things can't. That's the hyperactive nature of the unstable anomalies.”

“So there is time and, I guess, hypertime then?” Barry said finally wrapping his head around the concept of what just happened to him. “So what happened in the real time line?”

“You will find that out when you wake up. Until then. It's time to start training.” Jay said as he started to stretch. “You gotta learn how to do things the right way. That's my job. I'll teach you the basics. Then these guys will teach you some more specific stuff. While your body heals we'll work on getting your thoughts to match your speed. Ready?”

Barry didn't want what just happened to happen again. He nodded his head. He was tired. His mind was asking a billion questions on how this could work, but right now he had to focus. He had to make sure he didn't kill someone with these powers when he finally woke up.

Regular Timeline

_________________

“Weather Wizard! We have your surrounded!”

“Perfect timing. Hurry up with those diamonds, Now!” He then turned to the direction he heard the loudspeaker. “I highly doubt you are prepared for me that well officer. I suggest you just let me take what I want and stand down.”

Suddenly he heard the sound of canisters hitting the ground. He quickly adjusted his to his wind gusts switch and blew the tear gas canisters out the way they came.

“That worked well, but I still need to get the output better.” He thought as he grabbed one of the exchange workers. “If you do that one more time I swear I will tear this man apart with a tornado!”

There was a pause as the negotiator checked with his superiors.

“What do you want?”

“That's more like it. Just stay out of my way and no one else will get hurt.”

“Just let you walk away with all of the diamonds you want.”

“Officer, if you don't play nice I am going to have to get nasty.” Weather Wizard smiled. Mark Mardon would be scared out of his mind right now. He would be trying to negotiate his way out of this with very little, but he is not Mark Mardon right now. He’s not some shy little inventor who always got pushed around. No. He’s got real power now. The power to control the weather itself.

“I’ve got a better deal for you.” came a new voice over the loudspeaker. “The name is Agent Derrick Quinn. How about you come out and surrender or we get nasty.”

Suddenly all the lights shut off in the building. Weather Wizard quickly activates the lenses in his cowl so he can see in night vision. The guards who were gathering the diamonds decide to bolt.

“That’s not...” A shot rings out and Weather Wizard is on the ground. The wind knocked out of him. A large rubber bullet round hit his armor knocking the wind out of him.

“Move in!” Agent Quinn yells out as the swat team starts to head into the Diamond Exchange. Weather Wizard still had his hand on his wand and started pushing the buttons for an electrical storm. He gets up only to become surrounded by the SWAT team.

“Drop it!” The lead SWAT officer says pointing a shotgun right at Weather Wizard’s head. He drops the wand. As he does so it suddenly starts shooting out random spurts of electrical energy. The SWAT team dives for cover, but a few are hit as The Weather Wizard grabs the wand again. He fires a bolt into the ground out into the crowd of police cars. As he gets to the steps he hears the sound of many guns locking onto him.

“Stand down son. You’re a thief, not a moron.” says Agent Quinn smiling from behind the cop cars. Weather Wizard knew he couldn’t take out all of the guns before they struck him. The air was calm aside from a whirling sound.

“Cavalry is here mate...” Weather Wizard smiled as Captain Boomerang spoke in on his earpiece. From the air blasts of light energy started to fill the area. Wiz looked up and from the now decloaked ship he could see Mirror Master with a assault rifle version of his reflection pistol. He fired strategic shots, feed to him by a computer through his cowl’s lenses, making sure to hit near enough to the police officers that they would duck and cover. Weather Wizard activates the wand’s wind functions and flies straight for the ship.

“Thanks for the assist guys...” Weather Wizard said as he just narrowly landed onto the edge of the cargo bay door. Mirror Master punches him square in the jaw. The cargo bay door shuts at Captain Boomerrang starts flying away recloaking.

“We never go solo. Never. That's one of the rules for a reason!” Mirror Master recomposed himself. “Why the hell did you do something this stupid?!”

It was quiet on the ship for a long time. Mark removed his cowl and looked down at it. He looked like he was about to cry. Captain Boomerrang put the aircraft on auto pilot after recalibrating the stealth mode.

“This may come as a shock to you, but I suck at this. The Bridge Job showed me there was something wrong with my wand. I needed to do recalibrations, but I needed to find out if they worked. I didn't want to not test it again before we did our next job. I didn't want to screw this up again or worse accidentally electrucute someone because I didn't give this a proper feild test.”

The other two Rogues looked at each other. Digger finally took off his Captain Boomerrang head gear and Sam removed his Mirror Master cowl.

“All right.” said Digger, smiling a bit. “Here's the deal. Your heart was in the right place, but your head was up your ass this time Mark. I can't speak for Sam here, but I am going to cut you a break. I'll talk to Leo for ya, but we're going to run some more training for ya before we do the next mission.”

“I'll talk to him as well. I've screwed up before so I know how you feel man. We do this because we have to. We're not all going to make it through this if we don't realize that we need to trust each other though.” Sam said putting his hand on Mark's shoulder. “You screw up again though. You are going to have to deal with the consequences. Got it?”

Mark nodded. He wasn't going to screw up again. He was done with that. He was done feeling like a failure. With friends like this supporting him. He might actually, for once in his life, feel like he mattered.

_________________

“Damn it!” Agent Quinn uttered as he saw Weather Wizard fly out of range into the ship. Suddenly he heard a sonic boom. A shot of air comes past him as he see’s the red blur heading towards the Twin City Bridge. “What the hell was that?”

Whatever it was he was going to need more help to deal with these guys more than these cops. He was gonna need to call in a favor. He pulled out his cellphone.

“Hey. It’s Quinn. I need a favor. What’s Sage is currently assigned to...”

_________________

Inside Central City Memorial Hospital Henry Allen sits waiting to hear news of his son.

“God. I know we don’t talk much. I know I haven’t been the best father, husband, or much of anything. I’m not even sure why I am doing this now. I’ve not talked to you since that night. He’s all me and Nora have left. I know he hates me. I don’t blame him. I don’t, but if you can make sure he pulls through this. I’ll do whatever you want. I don't want to lose him like I lost my other children. He's all we got left.” Henry heard the sound of someone running in the hallway. He turned to see who it was. It was Ralph. Tired, hungover, and about to pass out from running. Ralph held up the portable hard drive.

“I...hate...the traffic here. How is he?” Ralph said gasping. Henry just shook his head.

“No change, Yet. They got the best doctors trying to keep him stable right now.” Henry said taking his seat. Ralph caught his breath and sat down next to him. “Nora should be here sometime soon.”

“Good. He'll want to see her and you when he wakes up Mr. A.”

“No he won't Ralph. I doubt he'd ever want to see me after what happened.” Henry said staring off into space remember the last time he had talked to Barry. He was so angry. He was so upset that he said some things he didn't mean, and now he may never get to apologize for them.

“Stop it.” Ralph said calmly. “This isn't about that shit. You are here now. I don't care what you guys said to each other that did this. I was there. Barry is as stubborn as you are Mr. A. It's really sad when it takes something like this for you to actually try to talk to him though.”

“Don't you dare try to lecture me on being a father.”

“Then don't you dare try and make this about you.” Ralph said in a serious tone. It shocked Henry more that Ralph wasn't making jokes right now instead of keeping this arguement up. “I know you guys have had it rough. I've been there for all of it. Right now though, you need to be here for your son. Just be here. That's enough. Trust me. The fact you are here right now would shock him back into a coma.”

There was a long quiet pause. The two men sat in silence until they finally got word for a doctor a half hour later.

“Mr. Allen?” Henry and Ralph stood up at the mention of the name. “Your son is stable finally. He's under a lot of sedation. As of right now it's still touch and go.”

Henry started to cry. He was all right for now. As soon as this was said three men walked into the waiting room. Ralph perked up. Henry looked at the three men. All the fancy types. He knew them from the news. Some of the youngest and brightest businessmen in the “Twin Cities”. He recognized only one really by name. Leonard Snart. Something about him seemed familiar. Leonard stepped forward and held out his hand.

“Sorry to meet you under such circumstances Mr. Allen.” He said smiling. “ My name is Leonard Snart. Barry's a close friend. If you or your wife need anything do let us know. We're going to make sure he has the best care possible. For a moment Henry hesitated to shake this man's hand. He couldn't figure out why, but there was something about him that just rubbed him the wrong way. He let it slide and shook the young man's hand.

“Good to meet you to Mr. Snart.”

Follow Barry's Journey in Flash #6, What happens from this point till Barry wakes up will be covered in the Ultimate Flash Miniseries: “The Rules of The Rogues”