Post by C_Miller on Jul 23, 2011 5:59:45 GMT -5
Ultimate Flash #4
First Strike Pt. 4
***
Everything was happening so fast. Twelve hours ago, Barry Allen was in a plane crash and now he was an on island and had met a man calling himself Max Mercury who said he was a speedster like The Flash. Now it appeared that everyone on the plane was now dead and the man who was responsible for all of this, his mentor, Dr. Eobard Thawyne, was staring him right in the face.
“THAWYNE!”
“I’m right here, old friend, no need to shout.” The man sneered at Barry. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find my destiny. I’ll be seeing you soon.”
Barry started to run towards Thawyne as he calmly walked out of the room, but he felt Max’s calming hand on his shoulder before he could move. “This is not the way, Barry.”
He spun around to see Max’s sad eyes looking down at Iris’ body. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way…”
“What did he mean… he fixed history?”
Without answering Max went back to his desk and started ruffling papers until he came to one that had what looked like a map of the island in relation to the rest of the world, except it had arrows pointing out from in every direction. “For the most part life is one giant variable. We think there are rules, but they are simply barriers that we haven’t learned to cross yet. One rule that we have held here is that no one besides the chosen few can get to this place… that ended today.”
“We who’s we?”
“The Negative Speed Force and myself,” Max stated matter-of-factly without looking up at Barry. Understanding Barry’s lack of understanding he further explained himself. “One of the so called rules we have yet to break is that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When the Speed Force was created, the Negative Speed Force was spawned in reaction. It has spent… a very long time to get the best of me so to speak and today it may have succeeded.”
Barry was wearing that confused face that Max had become very familiar with in the last hour or so. Before he could ask another question, Max answered. “It is the common held belief that time is a line, but that is more or less false. Time is a measurement which we use to quantify something that cannot be understood.”
The Speed Force isn’t just a matter of moving through space, but time as well… the Negative Speed Force is the same way.”
“Are you saying that it went back in time to change the past?” Barry was almost enraged at himself that he was following along with Max’s insanity.
“Precisely, now you’re getting it… now how to go about fixing it…”
Barry looked down at Iris and shut her eyes with his hand. “What are you going to do?”
“I can’t do anything. But you can…”
“No. We tried this.”
Out of nowhere, Max began to run around the room at what Barry could only describe as super speeds around the room. He scooped up Iris and placed her firmly in Barry’s arms. “Do you believe me now?”
“I want to believe…” Barry said in a state of shock.
“Well, close enough.” Max went back to his desk as Barry set Iris down gently on the bed and then moved behind Max at his desk to see what he was looking at. “Okay, so it’s pretty clear the NSF is messing with the timeline, which he can only do on the island. I don’t think he’s messing with their births, but preventing the plane from crashing here…”
The pair heard something moving off in the corner and they both looked up and saw Roger Hayden stirring and then shooting awake. The injuries that he had sustained had apparently disappeared and he stood up and walked towards Barry.
Barry quickly shot his head towards Max and then back to Hayden. “What’s going on here?”
“I don’t know. After the plane was struck by lightning a man in a red cloak and a gold mask came to me told me that I needed to help you… or something. He said I had to tell you that you need to be the hero.” Hayden spoke clearly and as confidently as he could, but with each word, a little ounce of doubt crept in.
Max ran towards Hayden and gave him a brief look over. “He wasn’t supposed to do this… dammit. Okay, there are two many rips in the timeline right now, you need to repair them. Come with me.”
Not wanting to question it further, Barry dutifully followed. They took another set of winding hallways and ended up in a large room that’s sole feature was a treadmill in the center of the room. “You want me to go for a run?”
“More or less. We really don’t have much time to discuss this… if I set this right, it should take you to the point where Thawyne and the Negative Speed Force ruined the timeline.” Max began pressing a few buttons in rapid succession on the treadmill. “There. Go.”
“What?”
“Barry, get on and run. Do what you were born to do.”
Feeling an odd sense of duty wash through him, he got on the treadmill and it instantly activated under the weight of his feet. He felt a jolt of electricity jump through his body and he began to run faster and faster and faster until he was running faster than he had ever run before. Lightning bolts began to encapsulate the entire treadmill and then it disappears in a flash and loud boom.
Max smiled and nodded. “God Speed, Barry Allen.”
Roger Hayden soon joined him in the room. “Hey, Where’s Barry?”
“Saving his future… “
Roger looked towards the space that Max had his gaze fixed on. “Hey, this was in my pocket… the man, called himself the Psycho Pirate said you could explain it to me.”
Max took his gaze off of the spot where Barry was and looked at the device in Roger’s hand. “I’m so sorry… I was hoping that we could avoid this, but once again history repeats itself… I need a second champion.” Max put his hand to Roger’s head and lightning shot from his fingertips and caused Roger to fall to the floor and writhe in agony. “Hayden… are you okay?”
He continued to squirm. “Why are you doing this? What’s happening… who the hell is The Flash? Barry? Jessie? Wally? Jay? Bart? Johnny? Leonard? Eobard? Jack? Hunter? Max? Iris? ME? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE IN MY HEAD!?! ARGH!”
“Hayden, try to follow me here. You have to help Barry fix the future. You now have the ability to see… mistakes, for lack of a better word, in the timeline that are caused by the Speed Force… you need to fix them for all of our sakes… make sure Thawyne doesn’t succeed.” Max knew that this was a heavy cross to bear, but he also knew his new awareness would make him believe it.
Hayden shook his head with pain and slight insanity in his eyes as he pressed a button on the device and he teleported away.
“I’m sorry, old friend…”
***
The treadmill reappeared in the middle of the jungle with Barry still on top of it with a wide-eyed look on his face. He began to look around and saw a man sneaking around. “THAWYNE!” Barry shouted. The man looked at him and then took off at what Barry could only call super speeds. Not knowing what to do, Barry took off after him and to his great surprise, he began running at super speeds as well.
Every tree that he had used as benchmarks in his mind came up much faster than he had expected and before long he was on the beach with Thawyne. “You too, Barry? Isn’t it great?”
“I’ll spend time reflecting on it when you’re behind bars.”
“Dear God, you sound like a boy scout. “
Barry took off towards Thawyne and landed a punch on his jaw. He could feel it crack under the pressure of his fist as he went past Thawyne and almost ended up in the water.
“Ha. I didn’t think you had it in you.” So I see you had to use the treadmill to get here… the lightning did say that you and Mercury were more limited…”
Barry wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but that wasn’t the important part. “Thawyne! What did you do to Iris and the other?”
“I didn’t do anything yet.” Thawyne looked up in the sky with a big toothy smile and saw a lightning storm begin to brew. Barry followed his gaze and saw a plane flying around in the storm.
“Is… is… is that us?”
Thawyne smiled at Barry and gave him a bit of an over exagerated bow. “Why yes it is… and you can’t save them this time.”
“This time?”
“Barry, you think in such linear terms. The only reason that anyone survived the plane crash is because you saved them… but not this time, I’m going to stop you.” Thawyne charged at Barry with all of his speed and pushed him to the floor with his arm around his neck.
Barry closed his eyes and focused on getting out. Almost instantly, he stopped feeling the grasp of Thawyne and he opened his eyes to see Thawyne’s hands passing through Barry like he wasn’t there. Not wasting the time he was given, he jumped up and quickly kicked Thawyne in the side, leaving him writhing on the floor.
“That was a nice parlor trick, Allen. Did Max teach you that one?” Barry gave him another kick as he began to pull out the silver handcuffs that were still attached to his belt.
Suddenly they heard a crack and they looked up at the plane and saw that it had been struck by lightning. Nearly instantly, the plane began to smoke and it took a downturn towards the ocean.
Okay, Barry… there’s no denying this now… Max is right… you’re fast. Well, that’s an understatement. So. How do I stop a crashing plane? Never seen The Flash do that.
“You can’t stop it Barry, they’re all dead.” Barry spun around with his arm held out and to his surprise the force pushed Thawyne back down to the ground.
Maybe…
He looked up at the sky and held his arms up and began spinning them and much to his pleasure it created a whirlwind. Aiming it at the plane, he began to move his arms more furiously. Again to his pleasure, once the whirlwind hit the plane it began to straighten out and he started to move his arms to safely land it on the beach.
“NO!” Thawyne yelled as he jumped up and knocked Barry to the ground, making him lose his concentration and the whirlwind along with it. “It’s not supposed to be this way… I’m supposed to win… without her you can’t be a hero.”
Suddenly a shot rang out and Thawyne doubled over. Barry looked up and saw the gold masked, red-cloaked man from his dreams was standing there with a gun drawn on Thawyne. “Barry, continue.”
That voice… no… It couldn’t be.
Barry turned back to the plane and began to bring it down safely. After five minutes or so, it was safely, albeit badly damage on the beach, but before he could check on the passengers, it all disappeared in a flash and they were back in the temple. However, the people were no longer dead; they were all standing around as if nothing had happened.
“Dani… Iris… you’re okay?”
The women looked at each other with a questioning look and then back at Barry. “Um… are you feeling alright?” Iris asked him.
Barry peered over their heads and saw Thawyne creeping in the entranceway from outside and he ran after him at super speeds. The Marshalls, Danielle and Iris all looked at each other and ran after him.
Barry was running after Thawyne and he was quickly losing track of how far he was going. He saw random cityscapes and deserts and tundra and oceans, but he would always circle back to the island. They repeated this several times before they finally stopped on the island on top of a cliff. “Barry, are you going to chase me forever?”
“If that’s what it takes?”
Thawyne rolled his eyes. “Why are you making this so personal?”
“You used my work and perverted it. Experimented on people and made me finish the studies…”
“You didn’t know what I was doing. You’re not responsible! There over, done. Now we can end this.”
“Barry!” Iris yelled as she and the group caught up to them. Barry turned to look at them and then he quickly looked back at Thawyne who had a wide, evil smile on his face.
Without saying a word, he kicked into super speed and charged towards the group when the dust settled he had Danielle in a headlock with her gun pointed directly at her temple. “Allen, you once told me I don’t care about human life… well, I’m going to prove to you… that you were right.”
He pulled the trigger and Barry instantly tapped into the Speed Force, but he was frozen in fear. He watched as the bullet passed through the barrel and inched slowly through the air. Once the bullet hit her head, it instantly split the skin around it and dug slowly in, sending out blood, broken bone and brain tissue out of the hole to make room. And at the same speed, he saw her take her last breath. His partner was dead and it was his fault.
“NO!” Barry didn’t take long to jump into action after that. He ran towards Thawyne and pushed him through three adjacent trees. “No… Thawyne… Goddammit, why? She’s married… has a four-year-old daughter. Why?” He cried as he rapidly hit Thawyne at super speeds leaving him bloody, but still laughing.
“For this, Allen. Because she was important to you. You need to have this reaction to understand me.” That caused him to punch him hard in the chest, noticeably breaking his sternum.
Barry landed one last punch across the face. “Well, the joke’s on you Thawyne. I’m not going to kill you.” He leaned Thawyne up against the nearest tree and clasped his handcuffs that had mysteriously ended up back on his belt around Thawyne’s arms linked them with the tree. “It’s the end of the line… the end…”
He solemnly walked back to the group and knelt down at Danielle’s body, bringing it up in his arms, just holding her there for a while. It wasn’t too long before Iris walked up to him and held him tight. “I’m so sorry, Barry.”
“Yeah… me too…” was all he was able to croak out.
***
“Max, I’m so sorry about what I’ve done earlier… I’ve changed.” Chambers was practically on his knees begging.
“Tell that to your daughter, Chambers. You all but stole her childhood from her. Luckily she found a loving home…”
John began to tear up. “I’ll apologize to her, anything… just let me back in.”
“You will do no such thing. I never want you to see her again!” Max raised his voice to a harsh tone, but then quickly calmed down and sighed. “But, I will grant you a second chance. Barry has a long road ahead and he’s going to need help if he is to rise to the occasion as my champion.”
John scrunched his face up. “Your champion. That should be me. I paid my dues. I spent all this time suffering for you… I passed your tests.”
“I am perfectly fine with retracting my offer, John. Take it or leave it.”
John knelt his head in shame. “Okay…”
“The formula on the wall… speak it and the Speed Force will be yours.”
Before he could say any more the U.S. Marshalls, Barry and Iris came walking in solemnly with Barry carrying Danielle’s body. Max opened his mouth to speak, but Barry cut him off. “It’s over… Professor Eobard Thawyne isn’t going to be a problem anymore.”
“You killed him?” Johnny asked in shock with a little bit of hope in his voice.
Barry sullenly shook his head. “No. He’s tied to a tree about two hundred yards from here… I… I don’t plan on getting him when we get rescued.”
To Barry’s surprise there was not a single objection in the room. The Marshalls simply nodded, Max gave an expression that Barry couldn’t quite pin point, but he thought it was somewhere between reluctant acceptance and condescension and Iris slid her arm around his back and held him close. “Max, can we speak.”
Max nodded and waved his hand towards his back entryway. Barry handed Danielle’s body off to the head Marshall and walked towards Max. When they were out of earshot of the rest of the group, he began to speak. “Max, you said the Negative Speed Force is an opposite reaction to the Speed Force, then why is it more powerful?”
“It’s not, Barry. But you’re a hero. You have limits. It will change the past, present and future at will with little regard to the consequences. We cannot do that, not because we don’t have the ability, but because we can’t morally.” Barry nodded and Max continued. “But it’s trapped here and it can do little damage without a champion… much in the same way that I can’t do much good without one. Let’s hope Eobard Thawyne never finds his way out.”
Barry began to rub his chin and nodded again. “Yes. So, where do we go from here?”
“Well, I have to let you go home. The island will disappear and all of the passengers will be in the water. I’ll put you near a boat so you won’t be in there for very long… Danielle Quinn will be your only casualty…” Barry winced at that, the death not having sunken in yet. “And Thawyne and Hayden will have been lost at sea…”
“What happened to Hayden?” Barry asked curiously.
“He’s fulfilling his own destiny… But no one but you… and Chambers will remember this.”
Barry shook his head. “What about Iris?”
Max closed his eyes and sighed. “Iris obviously cares about you very much, but are you sure you want to put her through the life you have set out for you?”
“What life is that?”
“Whatever one you choose, Barry, but you are more than human now. That cannot be forgotten.”
“Can I undo it later? If she goes through too much pain?”
Max was hesitant. After a minute of mulling over he simply said “yes.”
Barry shook his head. “Then, yes, I want her to remember.”
Max nodded, gracefully giving a wave of his hand and the room began to fade away. Barry looked back at Iris and ran towards her. “Iris, I have you.” The room quickly began to fill with water and before too long the room was completely filled. Using both of their legs, they began to kick up towards the ceiling, but the ceiling wasn’t there. They crested on the surface of the water and emerged in the ocean.
“Barry look!” Iris pointed down and saw what they knew to be their plane sinking deeper and deeper into the water. “Barry, the island! What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later! Just hold on!” He held her close with one hand as he continued to tread water with his legs and free arm.
The passengers stayed there in a state of near panic for close to a half hour, but then someone shouted out “a ship!” and sure enough, shining against the mid day sun, there was a luxury liner approaching them and within the hour, they were all aboard.
While there wasn’t enough room for all of them to have their own space, many were able to pair up into a suite, including Barry and Iris who spent most of the evening in their room, exhausted and reveling in a memory only the two of them shared. “So, you’re a meta now… like one of the JSAers?” Barry simply nodded. “Well, maybe your kind will be accepted now that that asshole Reagan isn’t President anymore… When I was a junior in high school, I wrote a paper on how he was wrong to break them up. Got an A-.”
“Well, it’s good to know I have someone so articulate on my side.”
“You know it…”
A pregnant silence fell between the two, but this time it was Barry to speak up. “Iris, I’m not sure what the future holds. I will tell you that I feel more… alive, for lack of a better word than I ever have. I will say that I want to discover my place in the world with you.”
“Barry, we just met…”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like I know you from somewhere, like from another life or something…”
“You’re right, that does sound crazy. But, you know what’s crazier? Before we left I was offered a job in Keystone City as the senior news analyst for your newly merged Keystone City Press. Is it a coincidence?”
Barry smiled. “I don’t believe in those anymore.”
“Barry… I’m going to take the job.”
Barry’s smiled grew wider and he looked over at Iris who was sharing his large smile. “Well, here’s to the future.” He raised his glass of water that was on the bedside table and toasted it towards Iris.
The End!
First Strike Pt. 4
***
Everything was happening so fast. Twelve hours ago, Barry Allen was in a plane crash and now he was an on island and had met a man calling himself Max Mercury who said he was a speedster like The Flash. Now it appeared that everyone on the plane was now dead and the man who was responsible for all of this, his mentor, Dr. Eobard Thawyne, was staring him right in the face.
“THAWYNE!”
“I’m right here, old friend, no need to shout.” The man sneered at Barry. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find my destiny. I’ll be seeing you soon.”
Barry started to run towards Thawyne as he calmly walked out of the room, but he felt Max’s calming hand on his shoulder before he could move. “This is not the way, Barry.”
He spun around to see Max’s sad eyes looking down at Iris’ body. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way…”
“What did he mean… he fixed history?”
Without answering Max went back to his desk and started ruffling papers until he came to one that had what looked like a map of the island in relation to the rest of the world, except it had arrows pointing out from in every direction. “For the most part life is one giant variable. We think there are rules, but they are simply barriers that we haven’t learned to cross yet. One rule that we have held here is that no one besides the chosen few can get to this place… that ended today.”
“We who’s we?”
“The Negative Speed Force and myself,” Max stated matter-of-factly without looking up at Barry. Understanding Barry’s lack of understanding he further explained himself. “One of the so called rules we have yet to break is that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When the Speed Force was created, the Negative Speed Force was spawned in reaction. It has spent… a very long time to get the best of me so to speak and today it may have succeeded.”
Barry was wearing that confused face that Max had become very familiar with in the last hour or so. Before he could ask another question, Max answered. “It is the common held belief that time is a line, but that is more or less false. Time is a measurement which we use to quantify something that cannot be understood.”
The Speed Force isn’t just a matter of moving through space, but time as well… the Negative Speed Force is the same way.”
“Are you saying that it went back in time to change the past?” Barry was almost enraged at himself that he was following along with Max’s insanity.
“Precisely, now you’re getting it… now how to go about fixing it…”
Barry looked down at Iris and shut her eyes with his hand. “What are you going to do?”
“I can’t do anything. But you can…”
“No. We tried this.”
Out of nowhere, Max began to run around the room at what Barry could only describe as super speeds around the room. He scooped up Iris and placed her firmly in Barry’s arms. “Do you believe me now?”
“I want to believe…” Barry said in a state of shock.
“Well, close enough.” Max went back to his desk as Barry set Iris down gently on the bed and then moved behind Max at his desk to see what he was looking at. “Okay, so it’s pretty clear the NSF is messing with the timeline, which he can only do on the island. I don’t think he’s messing with their births, but preventing the plane from crashing here…”
The pair heard something moving off in the corner and they both looked up and saw Roger Hayden stirring and then shooting awake. The injuries that he had sustained had apparently disappeared and he stood up and walked towards Barry.
Barry quickly shot his head towards Max and then back to Hayden. “What’s going on here?”
“I don’t know. After the plane was struck by lightning a man in a red cloak and a gold mask came to me told me that I needed to help you… or something. He said I had to tell you that you need to be the hero.” Hayden spoke clearly and as confidently as he could, but with each word, a little ounce of doubt crept in.
Max ran towards Hayden and gave him a brief look over. “He wasn’t supposed to do this… dammit. Okay, there are two many rips in the timeline right now, you need to repair them. Come with me.”
Not wanting to question it further, Barry dutifully followed. They took another set of winding hallways and ended up in a large room that’s sole feature was a treadmill in the center of the room. “You want me to go for a run?”
“More or less. We really don’t have much time to discuss this… if I set this right, it should take you to the point where Thawyne and the Negative Speed Force ruined the timeline.” Max began pressing a few buttons in rapid succession on the treadmill. “There. Go.”
“What?”
“Barry, get on and run. Do what you were born to do.”
Feeling an odd sense of duty wash through him, he got on the treadmill and it instantly activated under the weight of his feet. He felt a jolt of electricity jump through his body and he began to run faster and faster and faster until he was running faster than he had ever run before. Lightning bolts began to encapsulate the entire treadmill and then it disappears in a flash and loud boom.
Max smiled and nodded. “God Speed, Barry Allen.”
Roger Hayden soon joined him in the room. “Hey, Where’s Barry?”
“Saving his future… “
Roger looked towards the space that Max had his gaze fixed on. “Hey, this was in my pocket… the man, called himself the Psycho Pirate said you could explain it to me.”
Max took his gaze off of the spot where Barry was and looked at the device in Roger’s hand. “I’m so sorry… I was hoping that we could avoid this, but once again history repeats itself… I need a second champion.” Max put his hand to Roger’s head and lightning shot from his fingertips and caused Roger to fall to the floor and writhe in agony. “Hayden… are you okay?”
He continued to squirm. “Why are you doing this? What’s happening… who the hell is The Flash? Barry? Jessie? Wally? Jay? Bart? Johnny? Leonard? Eobard? Jack? Hunter? Max? Iris? ME? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE IN MY HEAD!?! ARGH!”
“Hayden, try to follow me here. You have to help Barry fix the future. You now have the ability to see… mistakes, for lack of a better word, in the timeline that are caused by the Speed Force… you need to fix them for all of our sakes… make sure Thawyne doesn’t succeed.” Max knew that this was a heavy cross to bear, but he also knew his new awareness would make him believe it.
Hayden shook his head with pain and slight insanity in his eyes as he pressed a button on the device and he teleported away.
“I’m sorry, old friend…”
***
The treadmill reappeared in the middle of the jungle with Barry still on top of it with a wide-eyed look on his face. He began to look around and saw a man sneaking around. “THAWYNE!” Barry shouted. The man looked at him and then took off at what Barry could only call super speeds. Not knowing what to do, Barry took off after him and to his great surprise, he began running at super speeds as well.
Every tree that he had used as benchmarks in his mind came up much faster than he had expected and before long he was on the beach with Thawyne. “You too, Barry? Isn’t it great?”
“I’ll spend time reflecting on it when you’re behind bars.”
“Dear God, you sound like a boy scout. “
Barry took off towards Thawyne and landed a punch on his jaw. He could feel it crack under the pressure of his fist as he went past Thawyne and almost ended up in the water.
“Ha. I didn’t think you had it in you.” So I see you had to use the treadmill to get here… the lightning did say that you and Mercury were more limited…”
Barry wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but that wasn’t the important part. “Thawyne! What did you do to Iris and the other?”
“I didn’t do anything yet.” Thawyne looked up in the sky with a big toothy smile and saw a lightning storm begin to brew. Barry followed his gaze and saw a plane flying around in the storm.
“Is… is… is that us?”
Thawyne smiled at Barry and gave him a bit of an over exagerated bow. “Why yes it is… and you can’t save them this time.”
“This time?”
“Barry, you think in such linear terms. The only reason that anyone survived the plane crash is because you saved them… but not this time, I’m going to stop you.” Thawyne charged at Barry with all of his speed and pushed him to the floor with his arm around his neck.
Barry closed his eyes and focused on getting out. Almost instantly, he stopped feeling the grasp of Thawyne and he opened his eyes to see Thawyne’s hands passing through Barry like he wasn’t there. Not wasting the time he was given, he jumped up and quickly kicked Thawyne in the side, leaving him writhing on the floor.
“That was a nice parlor trick, Allen. Did Max teach you that one?” Barry gave him another kick as he began to pull out the silver handcuffs that were still attached to his belt.
Suddenly they heard a crack and they looked up at the plane and saw that it had been struck by lightning. Nearly instantly, the plane began to smoke and it took a downturn towards the ocean.
Okay, Barry… there’s no denying this now… Max is right… you’re fast. Well, that’s an understatement. So. How do I stop a crashing plane? Never seen The Flash do that.
“You can’t stop it Barry, they’re all dead.” Barry spun around with his arm held out and to his surprise the force pushed Thawyne back down to the ground.
Maybe…
He looked up at the sky and held his arms up and began spinning them and much to his pleasure it created a whirlwind. Aiming it at the plane, he began to move his arms more furiously. Again to his pleasure, once the whirlwind hit the plane it began to straighten out and he started to move his arms to safely land it on the beach.
“NO!” Thawyne yelled as he jumped up and knocked Barry to the ground, making him lose his concentration and the whirlwind along with it. “It’s not supposed to be this way… I’m supposed to win… without her you can’t be a hero.”
Suddenly a shot rang out and Thawyne doubled over. Barry looked up and saw the gold masked, red-cloaked man from his dreams was standing there with a gun drawn on Thawyne. “Barry, continue.”
That voice… no… It couldn’t be.
Barry turned back to the plane and began to bring it down safely. After five minutes or so, it was safely, albeit badly damage on the beach, but before he could check on the passengers, it all disappeared in a flash and they were back in the temple. However, the people were no longer dead; they were all standing around as if nothing had happened.
“Dani… Iris… you’re okay?”
The women looked at each other with a questioning look and then back at Barry. “Um… are you feeling alright?” Iris asked him.
Barry peered over their heads and saw Thawyne creeping in the entranceway from outside and he ran after him at super speeds. The Marshalls, Danielle and Iris all looked at each other and ran after him.
Barry was running after Thawyne and he was quickly losing track of how far he was going. He saw random cityscapes and deserts and tundra and oceans, but he would always circle back to the island. They repeated this several times before they finally stopped on the island on top of a cliff. “Barry, are you going to chase me forever?”
“If that’s what it takes?”
Thawyne rolled his eyes. “Why are you making this so personal?”
“You used my work and perverted it. Experimented on people and made me finish the studies…”
“You didn’t know what I was doing. You’re not responsible! There over, done. Now we can end this.”
“Barry!” Iris yelled as she and the group caught up to them. Barry turned to look at them and then he quickly looked back at Thawyne who had a wide, evil smile on his face.
Without saying a word, he kicked into super speed and charged towards the group when the dust settled he had Danielle in a headlock with her gun pointed directly at her temple. “Allen, you once told me I don’t care about human life… well, I’m going to prove to you… that you were right.”
He pulled the trigger and Barry instantly tapped into the Speed Force, but he was frozen in fear. He watched as the bullet passed through the barrel and inched slowly through the air. Once the bullet hit her head, it instantly split the skin around it and dug slowly in, sending out blood, broken bone and brain tissue out of the hole to make room. And at the same speed, he saw her take her last breath. His partner was dead and it was his fault.
“NO!” Barry didn’t take long to jump into action after that. He ran towards Thawyne and pushed him through three adjacent trees. “No… Thawyne… Goddammit, why? She’s married… has a four-year-old daughter. Why?” He cried as he rapidly hit Thawyne at super speeds leaving him bloody, but still laughing.
“For this, Allen. Because she was important to you. You need to have this reaction to understand me.” That caused him to punch him hard in the chest, noticeably breaking his sternum.
Barry landed one last punch across the face. “Well, the joke’s on you Thawyne. I’m not going to kill you.” He leaned Thawyne up against the nearest tree and clasped his handcuffs that had mysteriously ended up back on his belt around Thawyne’s arms linked them with the tree. “It’s the end of the line… the end…”
He solemnly walked back to the group and knelt down at Danielle’s body, bringing it up in his arms, just holding her there for a while. It wasn’t too long before Iris walked up to him and held him tight. “I’m so sorry, Barry.”
“Yeah… me too…” was all he was able to croak out.
***
“Max, I’m so sorry about what I’ve done earlier… I’ve changed.” Chambers was practically on his knees begging.
“Tell that to your daughter, Chambers. You all but stole her childhood from her. Luckily she found a loving home…”
John began to tear up. “I’ll apologize to her, anything… just let me back in.”
“You will do no such thing. I never want you to see her again!” Max raised his voice to a harsh tone, but then quickly calmed down and sighed. “But, I will grant you a second chance. Barry has a long road ahead and he’s going to need help if he is to rise to the occasion as my champion.”
John scrunched his face up. “Your champion. That should be me. I paid my dues. I spent all this time suffering for you… I passed your tests.”
“I am perfectly fine with retracting my offer, John. Take it or leave it.”
John knelt his head in shame. “Okay…”
“The formula on the wall… speak it and the Speed Force will be yours.”
Before he could say any more the U.S. Marshalls, Barry and Iris came walking in solemnly with Barry carrying Danielle’s body. Max opened his mouth to speak, but Barry cut him off. “It’s over… Professor Eobard Thawyne isn’t going to be a problem anymore.”
“You killed him?” Johnny asked in shock with a little bit of hope in his voice.
Barry sullenly shook his head. “No. He’s tied to a tree about two hundred yards from here… I… I don’t plan on getting him when we get rescued.”
To Barry’s surprise there was not a single objection in the room. The Marshalls simply nodded, Max gave an expression that Barry couldn’t quite pin point, but he thought it was somewhere between reluctant acceptance and condescension and Iris slid her arm around his back and held him close. “Max, can we speak.”
Max nodded and waved his hand towards his back entryway. Barry handed Danielle’s body off to the head Marshall and walked towards Max. When they were out of earshot of the rest of the group, he began to speak. “Max, you said the Negative Speed Force is an opposite reaction to the Speed Force, then why is it more powerful?”
“It’s not, Barry. But you’re a hero. You have limits. It will change the past, present and future at will with little regard to the consequences. We cannot do that, not because we don’t have the ability, but because we can’t morally.” Barry nodded and Max continued. “But it’s trapped here and it can do little damage without a champion… much in the same way that I can’t do much good without one. Let’s hope Eobard Thawyne never finds his way out.”
Barry began to rub his chin and nodded again. “Yes. So, where do we go from here?”
“Well, I have to let you go home. The island will disappear and all of the passengers will be in the water. I’ll put you near a boat so you won’t be in there for very long… Danielle Quinn will be your only casualty…” Barry winced at that, the death not having sunken in yet. “And Thawyne and Hayden will have been lost at sea…”
“What happened to Hayden?” Barry asked curiously.
“He’s fulfilling his own destiny… But no one but you… and Chambers will remember this.”
Barry shook his head. “What about Iris?”
Max closed his eyes and sighed. “Iris obviously cares about you very much, but are you sure you want to put her through the life you have set out for you?”
“What life is that?”
“Whatever one you choose, Barry, but you are more than human now. That cannot be forgotten.”
“Can I undo it later? If she goes through too much pain?”
Max was hesitant. After a minute of mulling over he simply said “yes.”
Barry shook his head. “Then, yes, I want her to remember.”
Max nodded, gracefully giving a wave of his hand and the room began to fade away. Barry looked back at Iris and ran towards her. “Iris, I have you.” The room quickly began to fill with water and before too long the room was completely filled. Using both of their legs, they began to kick up towards the ceiling, but the ceiling wasn’t there. They crested on the surface of the water and emerged in the ocean.
“Barry look!” Iris pointed down and saw what they knew to be their plane sinking deeper and deeper into the water. “Barry, the island! What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later! Just hold on!” He held her close with one hand as he continued to tread water with his legs and free arm.
The passengers stayed there in a state of near panic for close to a half hour, but then someone shouted out “a ship!” and sure enough, shining against the mid day sun, there was a luxury liner approaching them and within the hour, they were all aboard.
While there wasn’t enough room for all of them to have their own space, many were able to pair up into a suite, including Barry and Iris who spent most of the evening in their room, exhausted and reveling in a memory only the two of them shared. “So, you’re a meta now… like one of the JSAers?” Barry simply nodded. “Well, maybe your kind will be accepted now that that asshole Reagan isn’t President anymore… When I was a junior in high school, I wrote a paper on how he was wrong to break them up. Got an A-.”
“Well, it’s good to know I have someone so articulate on my side.”
“You know it…”
A pregnant silence fell between the two, but this time it was Barry to speak up. “Iris, I’m not sure what the future holds. I will tell you that I feel more… alive, for lack of a better word than I ever have. I will say that I want to discover my place in the world with you.”
“Barry, we just met…”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like I know you from somewhere, like from another life or something…”
“You’re right, that does sound crazy. But, you know what’s crazier? Before we left I was offered a job in Keystone City as the senior news analyst for your newly merged Keystone City Press. Is it a coincidence?”
Barry smiled. “I don’t believe in those anymore.”
“Barry… I’m going to take the job.”
Barry’s smiled grew wider and he looked over at Iris who was sharing his large smile. “Well, here’s to the future.” He raised his glass of water that was on the bedside table and toasted it towards Iris.
The End!
