Issue 14: "Bitter Reflections"

Barry Allen has reached the final part of the Trickster’s mysterious plan. After the truce between the Rogues and the Scarlet Speedster ended that same day, he had to take care of the Trickster, Weather Wizard, Heatwave and Captain Boomerang. Now, he was face to face with the leader, Captain Cold and also with the most powerful of his villains, the Mirror Master.

The laser beam landed less than an inch away from one of Barry’s feet. But he knew they were just playing around with him. The Mirror Master stood half way out from the reflection in one of the ice walls that covered the empty space, gun in hand, smiling.

“You have humiliated me for the last time, speedster!” cried out the Rogue. He continued firing his weapon, the beam reflecting everywhere around the room. “I send you to the bottom of the ocean! I have created countless dimensions! I am a God! But you still had the courage to beat me, but it’s over!”

As one of the lasers cut open one of his cheeks, the Flash knew that it could be true. It could be over, but hell, he wasn’t going to go without a fight!

He sprinted towards the Rogue, running through the slippery ice walls like it was nothing. But Mirror Master was ready, submerged himself in his mirror dimension, disappearing from his position. He threw just his hand out, grabbed the Flash and threw him down. The tendons in the rogue’s arm ripped after stopping the speedster, but the adrenaline served him as anesthesia. The speedster slowed down his fall moving his hands in circles at super speed.

The rogue entered and left his mirror dimension so fast that even the Flash had trouble knowing where he was in the room (if he was in a reflection in the room). Finally, stopping to punch the speedster in the face. Flash fell down, just in time for another hit from the Mirror Master. This went over and over again, with the Rogue disappearing, punching the Flash, and then leaving again.

“See Flash, you’re nothing against me! How many reflections are created by the different angles in this room? Hundreds, thousands, millions? And how many are there all over the world?” the Flash intercepted one of Scudder punches, and threw him to the floor, where the green and orange rogue disappeared yet again. “See what I tell you Flash? No one can comprehend or use the real power behind this. It’s infinite.”

Barry was tired of hearing his opponent praise himself, so he did the only thing he could think of. Faster than lightning, he started melting the ice in the walls. One big pool was better than a thousand gates for the Mirror Master. But as soon as he started, he felt a cold blast in his feet. He tried to move them, but they were inside a block of ice. He looked back, and one of the statues, pointing at him, crumbled, freeing Captain Cold.

“Flash, listen. This can be avoided. This can only end ugly for you. We don’t need to kill you, you just stop messing with us, and we’ll stop messing with you. What do you think?” Len Snart says.

“What the ‘ell are you saying, Cold? The Flash will die, and that is it!” Mirror Master says, stepping out from one of his reflections.

“Think about it Flash.”

The speedster feels his blood slowly stop moving in his legs, and shivers down his spine. “Never.”

“Then, there is no escape.” He pointed his gun at the speedster, and pressed the trigger. A bluish energy sprouted from the point, leaving a cold cloud as a trail. The Flash vibrated his hands and broke the ice that trapped his legs just in time for him to escape the ray.

Mirror Master shot again, this time hitting the Flash fully in the back. The speedster fell to the ground.

The Flash was running out of stamina. He knew it, and what was more dangerous, his enemies knew it too. They could see the sweat under what was left of his suit, and the scars in his arms and legs. It could have been so easy to just stop and surrender. Or die. But today, he wasn’t just fighting for his cities, not for Wally, hell, not even for Jay. What kept him going was the idea that he was going to be a father.

He swirled around colorful beams and ice rays. Finally stopping at one corner of the room, facing both Cold and the Mirror Master. “Come on Rogues, this is what you wanted, wasn’t it? Hit me with the best you can after all, I’ve beaten you, and doing it again is no problem.”

Scudder frowned under his mask. “Awright Flash, this is yer end!”

“Stop. It can be a trap.” Cold said.

“I know, but still, he asked for it.” The Rogue disappeared in one of the reflections, and appeared just behind the Flash. He fired his gun, but the laser just went through a mirage of the speedster. Then, it bounced until it hit Cold in the shoulder.

“You Goddamn idiot! Told ya it was a trap, you…” Cold said, more angry than actually hurt. “ He may be hurt, but he still is the fastest man alive!”

“Your boss is right, you know? You should pay more attention to him more often.” First, the voice had no origin, but then the Flash appeared in the middle of the room.

“Oh, shaddup…” Scudder managed to say before the speedster punched him in the back of the head, and then kicked him in the chest, making him crash against one of the walls.

An ice ray trapped the Flash in a giant ice cube, but he just vibrated away from it, and then slammed into Cold, sending him to the floor. Now that he had the upper hand in the fight, he started to think more calmly about the situation. First, he removed three ice guns from Cold. “Now, Scudder, I know you are somewhere, so how about you step out nicely and surrender?”

“NEVER!” The Rogue shouted.

“Knew it.” Barry murmured to himself. He now had the time to laugh, which relaxed him even more.

“Hey, Flash. Now you don’t see it …” Cold said, in a tone that the speedster could barely hear him. “Now you do.” He was still on the floor, with one hand in his ribs, but now in the other he had an ice gun. The hero’s face was in shock when a giant, hard as a rock snowball landed in his chest, sending Barry down. “Hehehe.”

Barry opened his eyes, and looked everywhere. His head was spinning from the impact, focusing almost impossible. Then he felt one hand in his knee, and then another… and then, dozens of hands appeared out from the floor, dragging him down “Wha...” But before he could finish, one last hand covering his face pulled him completely into one of the reflections.

He fell down a place where there was nothing. Everything was white, there didn’t seem to be up or down, but he was still falling. Then everything turned multicolor. Then nothing.

Rogue Hideout,

“Where is it?” Mark Mardon said, desperately emptying the boxes and the closet in his room. Finally, he threw it all to one corner, and in a hurry, ran to his teammates rooms. He didn’t find what he was looking for in Cold’s room. Digger’s room, besides beer, and adult magazines, there was nothing and neither in Trickster’s room. Scudder’s mirror room was empty. It had to be him, he thought, and hurried to last of the Rogues’ room.

Mick Rory’s room was the most disturbing of all, and not because of bad decoration. There was nothing in there, except for ashes and burnt marks all over the walls, floor and even the ceiling. And in the piles of black dust, animal bones could be seen. It was known by the Rogues that if you lost one of your things, you could find it the next day burnt in there. But the Weather Wizard could not find what he was looking for.

“Rory, you’ll better not be stealing my stuff, or else I’ll cook you faster than your wildest dreams!” The Weather Wizard burst out, after grabbing Rory by the neck of his shirt. “Where is the alien cube?”

The Trickster watched all the fight, insults, and else from the second floor. Lisa Snart was besides him. “Do you know what Mark lost?” She asked.

“Yeah, I do. You see, when we made the truce with the Flash, we didn’t just sit down and waited. After creating some, not so lawful businesses, we decided to take a one year long vacation. As you can see, most of us carry technology way too advanced for our blue neck friends (Me being the exception that proves the rule).” He passed one of his arms around Lisa’s hip. “So, Mirror Master and Heatwave spent some time, not comprehending but replicating his weapons, and training, I think. Cold, studied it, but where he went is still a secret. But Mardon here, just couldn’t stop there. He started collecting weird gizmos and machines, things like that. I can’t figure out why he did that, but I know what he is searching. The particular item he is talking about is of the Apokosomething technology he acquired during the invasion.”

“Apokolips? Wasn’t that the world that tried to conquer us?” Lisa asked, and the Trickster nodded. “How did he get it?”

“We fought the flying monsters, and some of them had interesting things. Surprised?” Lisa nodded. “Why, did you thought we Rogues just sat down and stared? We destroyed bunch of those flying monsters, they were destroying our homes! Our cities! Our money!” The Trickster was now clearly angered, veins marked in his neck.

“I like knowing those kinds of things. It makes me feel more like… In a family.” Cold’s sister said, and embraced the colorful Rogue. The Trickster, quickly moved the device he had robbed Mardon from under his cape to a safer place.

Mirror Dimension,

He was tired, and none of the portals he had entered had taken him anywhere. A future where Nazis reigned, Antarctica, someplace that looked alien. But those places where just illusions, mirror tricks. Barry was now running through the jungle. He felt an overwhelming heat emanating from the soil, along with nauseating fumes, and could hear several things following him. The Flash looked back, and tripped with a tree’s root. He stopped several yards after hitting solid rock. His nose was bleeding from the impact. The creatures approached him. They were apelike, with fiery red eyes, and had thick green and orange fur.

“This is ridiculous. Mirror Master is one egocentric lunatic.” He turned his head, and saw another one of the portals. Enduring the pain, he ran through it.

The other side was strikingly familiar. It was a city that he knew, the buildings, the river, the sun shining over the skies. There were a few changes though, but the essence was the same. He ran through the place. It was Central. He traveled to the neighbor city. It was Keystone

“Flash, you are the best!” Said a man that was walking down the street.

“You are my hero, Flash.”

“Fastest man alive forever!”

The people in the streets surrounded him, all of them with euphoric faces. Some girls were even crying. After signing autographs, he continued searching for some flaw, but there wasn’t any. The only thing different was that signs praising the Flash, statues, gift shops of the speedster, abounded more than usual in both cities.

The door opened, and his wife entered carrying two bags. She was a carbon copy of his real one, from the hair, to the eyes that had won him during their first date. But still, he had a feeling in his gut that it wasn’t right. “Barry! I’m glad you re here! They are throwing your fiftieth second weekly parade, and you sure won’t miss it, right?”

“Parade?” Asked Barry, baffled.

“Well, you did saved the world single handedly. I know you’ve said that it is not necessary, but the city loves you.”

“Daddy!” Said a little kid that looked like him when he was a little kid, but with his wife’s hair and eyes a startling color. “Didya saved the world again, daddy?”

“This… is not right… I mean…” Barry wanted to escape, and to stay, and to nothing. He was confused. He knew that it wasn’t real, but it felt so good.

“What? You live like a king, you’re more loved than Superman, what can be wrong, sweetheart?”

“It’s not… This can’t be…What do I do for a living? What was the first restaurant we visited? What is the name of your cousin that went to France last year?”

Her wife, just smiled like he knew what he was going through, and said, without making any mistakes. “You work in a lab, solving crimes, La Piazetta in the Lincoln avenue, and none of my cousins have visited France, you’re probably talking about my niece Daphne.”

“Barry, son, I see you’ve finally arrived.” Said a familiar voice at his back. Barry turned around, and to his surprise, there he was. Impeccable smile in his face, grey hair, hopeful eyes, red shirt with a lightning in it, tin helmet. At the door was his childhood hero, Jay Garrick. Still alive.

Iron Heights,

Hunter Zolomon, Rogue profiler in Iron Heights, walked down the corridor with his cane in hand, guarded by two metahuman officers. He was running late for his weekly meeting with one of the most dangerous villains he had ever met. He passed by lots of cells, including the ones with the serial killers Murmur and the Clown. Finally, he stopped at the Top’s one.

“Roscoe, I’m here.” He shouted. There was no answer. “I got the tops, and the book you wanted. Please open the door.” Silence. “Roscoe, I’m coming in.”

The profiler opened the cell, but there was no one inside. Just a giant red cross painted in a wall, with “Here there be dragons” written underneath. The Profiler walked to the wall and scratched the painting. “Blood.”

“Code red, I repeat, code red. We have an escapee and a possible assassination.”

Somehow, the Mirror Master had created a perfect world for the Flash. He was a proud father of an excellent kid, Jay was alive, he was the biggest hero in the world and there existed no rogues.

“So, are you going to the parade, Flash?” Asked his wife doppelganger.

“This… Is really a perfect world, right?” Barry asked, his eyes wandering everywhere. His voice sounded doubtful.

“It is. We couldn’t ask for a better one. Barry” Jay Garrick’s double said, laughing.

“I’ve wanted to tell you this for some time, but… well… Barry, I’m pregnant again!” Said Iris West. Flash could only think of that. Iris. “Well? Aren’t you happy?”

“This is not real.” Barry murmured.

“We know, but this is a better place to be.” Jay said, patting him in the back.

“It is, but I don’t belong here! Look, I hope you can understand me, or forgive me, or whatever you do, but I can’t be here. This could be a “perfect world”, but they really need me? Back where I come from, my wife is still pregnant, the Rogues have under their power both cities, and if I don’t return, I will have failed to everyone, so… Sorry.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry too, Flash.” Said Iris, tears streaming down her cheeks. “For you can’t go back.”And with this, everything turned dark and both she and Jay attacked the Flash.

Barry sidestepped the attack, and kicked the image of his mentor. He felt guilt and pain for doing that, even if he knew that he had to. Defending himself from Iris wasn’t easier. He needed to reach another one of the portals, and after scouting the cities, he knew where they were. The place that it was harder for him to access. “THIS IS NOT REAL!” The Flash screamed, before he ran through Iris, his wife, dispersing the image instantly and entering another one of the portals.

The Flash stood up. But there seems there is no end for this. He is tired, hurt. “What tells me that when I get out of here, it will be easier? What tells me that even if I defeat Mirror Master and Cold, there won’t be more traps?” His rage started to show in his expression, and he started to vibrate at high speeds. “What if I fail? God, what would Jay think of this?”

Then he exploded. He punched the floor, still vibrating. The area around it broke. He punched again. The air and earth cracked even more, leaving multicolor images free. It wasn’t the portal. He was actually breaking the mirror where he was. He didn’t know how he figured that out, but the idea wouldn’t leave him. If his plan failed, he would have sealed his doom.

One. Two. Three drips of water. Barry Allen woke up several hours after it he fainted in the warehouse. The block of ice where he was trapped had been melting. He punched a hole out of it. After realizing where he was, questions flooded his mind, some without answer. Had he stopped the Rogues? Maybe from attacking him. What happened to his powers? After a quick exercise, he determined that it was just exhaustion what had slowed him down so much and not the other thing. What happened with the Mirror Master and to Captain Cold? He looked through the frozen room (Frozen? Hadn’t he removed all the ice?) and through the mist. There, standing in the middle, was an ice statue of Len Snart, aka Captain Cold. Also, leaning to a wall with his gun in hand, was another perfect statue of Mirror Master. Barry wasn’t sure of the powers of Cold, so it could have been all perfectly sculpted. But the memories of the last parts of the fight were something that did not fit well. Not well at all.

Minutes later…

“So… What do you think?” Barry asked, with a new suit, the one he had used against the rogues barely covering him at all. He had already called the cops, and after that, he would go directly to the hospital to treat his wounds. He could feel broken bones recovering wrong already.

In the middle of the room stood a good friend of the Flash that was the only detective he could get this early in the (It was 2: 00 am). The man wore a white and purple costume, and he was checking the entire place carefully. The Elongated Man moved his head, facing Barry. “Well, for what I can see, and with your story, I can conclude that either there was a malfunction in Cold’s gun, or he committed some sort of hara-kiri. The ice statues are perfect in the inside and outside, with exact replicas of organs. The Mirror Master is missing his appendix, and his file affirms that. But it all seems so dramatically, Barry. Why would the Rogue boss decide to kill him? Why not kill you, why protect you instead? Yeah, for what you said, he could have a change of heart, but still, it doesn’t seem right. And then…” He grabs a pile of metal pieces in a scale. “This. This are all the pieces I could find in this place, and they weigh approximately the same as three ice guns. So, this are the ones you removed and destroyed early in the fight. Then, that in the hands of Cold, is the fourth gun, intact. I couldn’t find any differences with it and with the ones you brought.”

“Meaning?”

“And you are the forensic specialist. You saw an explosion. Explosions of machines normally destroy the machines in pieces. That gun is intact.” Ralph Dibny smiled. He enjoyed this.

“Maybe it works differently as other machines.” Barry said, just giving an option, but the point made by his friend was clear. That gun had not exploded. “Maybe it didn’t explode. Maybe it was a special gun with some kind of new function?”

“Well, it may be that. Maybe we’ll never be sure.” Dibny stepped through the hole that the Flash had made in the wall of the room so that the police could enter when they arrived. “I have to leave, Sue must be waiting for me. And no, I don’t need a ride, thanks. Any new leads will be welcomed.” Ralph winked, and turned his back at the Flash. His nose twitched.

Epilogue:

The Top was really on Top. He smiled down at the city. HIS city. The mystery man was standing next to him. “So, they thought I killed all those people?”

“Yes, until they found out you had released other people too, like the Clown and Murmur.” Responded the man.

“I don’t like killing. Well, sincerely, I don’t know. Sometimes I do, I crave for it, and sometimes I don’t. So, who did it?” Roscoe Dillon said.

“Murmur. Why?”

“I’ll show him that you don’t implicate the Top in low, bestial things like that. I’ll make him spin.” Roscoe smiled. “Before you go… Where is that “meeting place” you said before?”

“There, the cemetery. Search for this grave, it won’t be hard to find.” He handed a paper to Roscoe. “You have the potential, Roscoe. You are the only one that can beat him and her in times yet to come.”

And then he disappeared, leaving Roscoe alone. He opened the note, which read “Jay Garrick, the Flash.” He then laughed of the irony. The meeting place to end the Flash was in the grave of the last one.