Issue 18: "The Long Road Home: Beginning of the...

Central City

Barry was rocking his baby crib. Iris was sleeping the room next to him. The baby woke up and looked at him with yellow eyes. He smiled. Being a father had completed him, and he felt immense joy. Ever since Iris told him that she was pregnant, the idea had completely obliterated his depression from Jay’s death. And now that he was actually watching his new born, he thought that he was now the fatherly figure that his idol had been to him.

The baby gurgled a bit, and in a blink, Barry had prepared his milk and changed his diapers. No need to wake the lady, he thought. He was even more thankful of his speed powers now that in many fights with villains.

Unfortunately, his radio started beeping. Iris woke up, and looked at him through sleepy eyes. “Barry… what is it?”

“Ugh… So sorry honey, there’s an emergency. I’ll compensate you some way.”

“There’s no need to do that, Barry.” Iris said, and then yawned. “You need to go. Make a better future for Bart, honey.”

He kissed her in the lips. “I will.”

He felt that familiar pain in his chest as he started to run. It felt as if something was trying to burst out of his stomach. It had started after the battle with Savitar and it only hurt when he ran. He considered running over to STAR labs for a check-up but opted against it.

He arrived at the police station seconds later. And soon he knew why he had been called. The sky was rapidly turning red, and what appeared to be aurora borealis danced all over it, making it a wonderful and scaring sight at the same time.

“It all started about a minute ago. And it just swallowed the whole sky.” Said Chyre, moving towards the Flash. “We already sent a signal to several weather stations, but there hasn’t been any answer.”

“I don’t like that, don’t like that at all. Send a message to the radio; tell them to advice people to stay indoors unless it’s necessary.” And he left.

Barry ran through Central, and then Keystone. Both skies had already turned red. And surprises kept coming. When he tried to go outside for help, he ran into an invisible wall. He tried vibrating through it, but it seemed something else was keeping him inside. Something like magic. He tried going through several places, and failed each one of them. The invisible wall was apparently a complete sphere, impeding excavating through it.

Barry ran to the police station when suddenly, something tackled him, making him lose his balance and fall. He looked up, and a fist punched him hard in the head. The hits kept coming. He looked up, and saw several weird looking people with tuxedos, red eyes and moustache. They punched too hard and felt to cold. Robots.

“What do you think about them, Flash?” said a man that looked exactly like the machines, except without the red eyes. He kept a hand inside his suit all the time. “Made with state of the art pieces, programmed to attack and kill the so called fastest man alive. Constructed thousands years from now, with something called speed metal. Police, for my new utopia.”

Barry moved through the robots, who almost matched his speed. He vibrated his fingers through some of their heads, removing circuits. In seconds, he had already successfully stopped half of the robots. He grabbed one of the robots’ hands and yanked it away. He then used to destroy the remaining ones.

“Who are you? And what did you did to the sky?” asked Barry, catching his breath.

“Bravo!” The man shouted. “Now, for my second trick of the evening. Nothing down my sleeves now…Voila, and good bye!” He made a movement with his hand, and two dressed up villains appeared in a cloud of smoke in front of him. The man vanished, with a smile.

Barry quickly recognized one of the Rogues, Weather Wizard, but the other one seemed new. She had a blue shirt with a blue skirt, and ice-skates instead of shoes.

“Oh God, no. Not another Rogue attack.”

The femme fatale’s skates glowed and then started levitating. She then flew towards the Flash, arms stretched and hands clutched as fists. “You killed my brother, you bastard!”

Barry evaded the attack, but fast as lightning, the woman bounced back at him and made a deep cut with her skate in the Flash’s shoulder. The Weather Wizard moved towards the speedster, and electrocuted him. “Say hello to Golden Glider, Flash. Isn’t she wonderful?”

Barry was having a hard time containing both Rogues. They were destroying more than attacking him, breaking through walls and creating little contained storms. He took hold of one of the Golden Glider’s ankles, and looked at her skates. They seemed somehow familiar. And then she kicked him with her other skate, lifting part of his scalp.

“Apokoliptian technology provides the flying, the speed and the power. Mirror Masters provides quick escapes.” She entered a mirror, and appeared in a building, looking down at the Flash. Her skates opened, letting little bombs fall from it, causing quick bursts of light. “Trickster’s tricks. And that’s just the start.”

“I didn’t kill your brother! He died in an accident with his gun!” Barry shouted. He evaded her attacks and a Weather Wizard lightning.

“Don’t lie to her, Flash. We shall have revenge.” Mark Mardon, also known as the Weather Wizard said. He created several tornadoes throughout the street, and then continued to attack the scarlet speedster. “This is your last day. We are the emissaries of evil!”

“Wow, who knew you could say such grown up words” A voice behind him said. He looked back, to see a green and yellow blur behind him, dispersing his tornados. Roscoe Dillon, also known as the Top, smiled at Mardon and sent a kiss to Lisa, the Golden Glider.

“What are you doing here, Dillon!?” Mark shouted angrily. He was also afraid of him, of his unstable behavior. “We are supposed to be the first ones to attack. We were meant to!”

“No problem-o. I’ll just watch you. Kick him the yarblockos.” Roscoe broke in laughter after this commentary.

But the Flash was not stupid. He had used the opening. When the Weather Wizard tried to grab one of his weather wands, he found nothing. They had been removed.

“You won’t be needing this where you are going, Mark.” The Flash said.

“Jail?”

“Jail” The Flash said, and then knocked out the Weather Wizard with two hits.

Golden Glider launched herself at the Flash, making full contact. The speedster crashed with a wall, and received another tackle. And another. Then, Lisa placed her skates over Barry’s feet, cutting him with her sharp razors. The Flash started vibrating at super speed, and then disappeared. The air around Golden Glider started thinning, until she fainted.

“Nice trick, Flash. Ran around her?” The Top asked, still with a smile on his face.

Barry ignored the question and prepared for another attack. “What do you want, Top? They’re going to tire me again? That’s their plan, right?”

“Not at all. At all not. Why the bad faith, Flashy flashy flashy flash? That’s no way to treat a friend. You see, I’m here to help you. Really, I am. Visit the cemetery. The old Flash memorial. Answer to questions in there.” The Top spun away from there, leaving Barry with a predicament. Should he listen to him, and probably be led to a trap, or decide not to, and lose a possible clue as to who was behind him? And the top’s flip flopping position didn’t help at all.

Seconds later, he was running to the graveyard.

The Flash could not believe his eyes. Standing in front of him was a gigantic pillar of pure metal standing where his mentor’s mausoleum had been. Strange, since he had been there just three days ago to his weekly visit. The construction whirred and squeaked, and seemed to move. Little sparks of electricity flew, and Barry could feel the static all over the place.

“You! Thanks the Speed FOrce you are here!” Someone shouted. The man was in a blue with white suit, with blood stains all over it. He had his wrist, ankles, shoulders and feet inside compartments of the machine, and a metal rod went through one of his elbows.

Barry recognized the man from Jay’s memorial. “Fox…? John Fox!”

“Yeah, that’s me. Now get me out of here, before he comes.”

“The Rogues? Who?”

“No, not them. They are but pawns in this game! The real mind behind this all is a normal guy from the distant future. Name’s Abra Kadabra.”

Barry had vibrated his hand to destroy the metal imprisoning the other speedster, and cut the rod with his hands. “Kadabra?”

John Fox pressed a button in his belt, and a treadmill appeared in front of them. “Yeah, Kadabra. We are leaving now!” They both jumped into the treadmill and started running.

“Who is Kadabra?”

“Citizen of the 65th century, where science is the new magic, allowing anyone to do anything. So, this guy, gets bored, and decides there’s nothing better to do than use one of the forbidden sciences. Time Traveling.” Barry’s ear popped. Sound barrier was broken. Soon, the color from everywhere drained out, leaving white. Shapes lost form and became circles of light. Events passed through their eyes. “Do not look in there. We are seeing your future. The events surrounding your age are of extreme importance to the continuity.”

Barry closed his eyes. “So, he decides to conquer the past?”

“No really. Well, yeah, but with the excuse of proving a thesis of his. He says that the Speed Force, not the speed, could be used as a power source, allowing even more advances in science. But to do so, he had to travel to a place where the concentration of it was strong. And this time and era, is where the biggest concentration of it exists. Also, there are loopholes, allowing the easier extraction of it.”

“Loopholes?”

“I forget you are hundreds of years in my past. Yeah, loopholes. Someone changes the timeline, expanding and bending it, creating another different timeline. But then someone corrects it, by cutting it or rearranging. But that is too much strain for it. There might be damaged areas, creating what we call non-existent time. And those areas, involving speedsters, make the Speed Force more wild.”

“Oh… Yeah, Jay had a theory of something like that. Time and Speed Force connected, and the repercussions of time traveling in the fabric of reality. Of course, it was way less than what you said, and with more…”

“Archaic terms? Yeah, Jay was a visionary. You can open your eyes now. There are no more visions.”

“Wait, are we entering the speed force?”

“Kadabra was in the act of gathering Speed Force, so we are meeting him.”

“We are entering the Speed Force?”

“Kind of. Yeah. But not entirely in. You see, Kadabra can’t get entirely in. That machine out there collected Speed Force, storing enough of it to send him where we are going. We’ll be able to get out, do not worry.” John Fox responded.

“Ok…” Barry said.

Cold and his crew moved towards the huge machine in the graveyard. They walked slowly, not moving his eyes from their target. They were bringing the machine down.

“Are you sure this is the one, Hunter? If not, I am screwed.” Cold asked to the analyst through a radio.

“Hundred percent. Not just with that, with all the other things too.” Hunter Responded.

The four of them continued walking. Cold looked at the Elongated Man. “And you?”

“Also a hundred percent sure. There is no mystery left for my twitching nose.” Ralph Dibny asked, with a solemn tone, like someone seconds before a war.

“Look you two, I got to say this. I hate working with you, and hate even more that I had to ask you. If one day killing you will work for my convenience, be damn sure I’ll do it. But this time, we are here to save the city, so please everyone work as a team.”

Besides the machines, they saw colorful people in costumes guarding the spot. The Clown, Murmur, Girder, Tar Pit, Razorback, Kobra, Heatwave and the Trickster moved their hands to their weapons. Both teams walked a bit to each other and stopped.

“Kl vvryne!” Murmur said.

“So you are alive, Cold? I knew it. I just knew it.” The Trickster shouted, and then smiled. “And Boomerang, really disappointed. I could have given you so much power, wealth…”

“You *** ** * ****” Cold cut in. “You brought my sister into this. My sister! You’ll pay.”

“New Rogues, make them bite the dust!” Trickster shouted.

“Rogues, kick some ass!” Pied Piper shouted, happily.

The battle had begun. The Elongated Man quickly got trapped in Tar Pits stickiness, while Girder attacked him. The Pied Piper flute started playing, but the Clown with his gimmicks and Kobra impeded the song from working its magic. The Boomerangs met the Razors and the Heat. Meanwhile, ice and bombs flew across the battlefield.

“Come on, man. Put up a happy face! It’s like a Rogue reunion!” Trickster said, evading an ice ray. “Party on!”

The Murmur moved towards Cold from behind. When he was near enough, he jumped towards the Rogue leader, who received him with fists to the face. He then trapped his hands with ice to the floor, and then turned toward the Trickster, continuing the fight.

The Elongated Man was receiving a beating. The Pied Piper kicked the Clown in the groin, and played his flute once more. Heatwave burnt Boomerang’s left shoulder. Everyone was too busy to see the reflection in the left fist of Murmur. Scudder, the Mirror Master appeared. “I’m getting you out of here, buddy.”

Cold moved nearer Trickster, freezing one of his guns. He pointed his gun at Jesse’s face. Suddenly, the Mirror Master appeared in front of the New Rogue’s leader, smiling.

“Scudder? Oh, crap, I thought I had killed…”A knife went right through Cold, penetrating right besides a liver. No organs were touched, but the blade was doused with a very powerful venom. Frenzy venom, from the killer known as the Murmur. He took a step, and fell to the ground.