Issue 6: "The Secret City"

“3... 2... 1...” Barry launched himself forward, doing his best not to cause a sonic boom in the middle of Central City. It would break the glass around him, and could do damage to bystander’s hearing as well. He reached the edge of Central City, and the cityscape quickly faded into open country. He slowly sped up, and eventually he broke the sound barrier.

Barry stopped accelerating, and ran at a steady pace until he reached the ocean. He kept running, and ran across the surface of the water, similar to the way the basilisk lizard is able to. It was more difficult to navigate on the ocean than on land because there weren’t many landmarks, he didn’t have any star charts, as if they would be useful at the speed he‘s running not to mention that it‘s mid-day, and it would sometimes get difficult to tell if he was running straight, or not. He found that it was easier just to keep running until he reached land, then navigate from there.

Barry saw land in the distance, and moments later was running through a desert. He continued to run and found himself in the middle of a grassy plain. He decelerated until he was at a stop, and looked around. He spotted giraffes drinking from a nearby water hole, and his suspicion was confirmed. He had stopped Africa.

He spotted several elephants in the distance, and watched as they crossed his field of vision then he turned back to the watering hole. The giraffes were gone. Barry heard a snarl come from behind him and he whipped around to come face to face with a cheetah in mid-pounce.

The cheetah seemed to freeze in mid-air as Barry accelerated. He walked around it and then decelerated. It landed on it’s feet and looked around. Before too long it spotted him again, and pounced. Barry moved around just as he had before with the same outcome.

The cheetah turned towards Barry and was about to pounce, when it suddenly fell over dead. It was impaled by a spear and blood trickled out of it’s wound. Barry turned but didn’t see anybody around. Barry ran in the direction he thought the spear came from. What he found startled him; dozens of Tribesmen scattered around with their spears raised. Barry raised his arms into the air. “I mean no harm.”, he said slowly.

“Mjima!”, one of the tribesmen shouted.

A young boy ran over and whispered into the ear of the man who had called him. The boys skin glistened in the sun and his shaved head was dripping with sweat. He walked over to Barry, stood up straight, and placing his hands behind his back. “I apologize for our behavior, but ever since the gorillas came we have been very jumpy.”

“Gorillas? You just killed a cheetah with one spear! It didn’t even know you were here, how could gorillas be a problem?” Barry wasn’t quite sure that he would believe that gorillas could be a threat. They’ve been around for hundreds of years already, and they shouldn’t even be aggressive enough to attack these tribesmen.

“These are no ordinary gorillas. They have weapons far more advanced than anything we’ve ever seen before. They use them to conquer all that they see, and none of the tribes that they have come up against have survived.” Mjima said hoping that Barry would believe him. “We saw your power, could you please use it to help us?”

“Sure, what chance do well-armed gorillas have against the fastest man alive?” Barry sped up and ran across the plains in search of the gorillas.

Barry began to accelerate so that he could charge the commanding gorilla, but was shocked again. This, along with the dozens of lasers being pointed directly at him forced him to stop. “What the heck is this thing?”

“It’s an Adaptation Mine.”, the gorilla said smirking. “It counteracts your greatest strengths. In this case it electrocutes you when you try to use your speed.” Barry began to reach for the mine. “Oh, and don’t even bother trying to take it off, it will just shock you to death.”

The gorilla turned towards the other gorillas, and starting barking orders. “Our king demands for us to bring this man, the Flash, to him alive. I want the six of you-”, the commander pointed to six of his men, “to take him. He is no longer a threat, so holster your weapons. They will not be needed.” Barry wondered how they knew what he was called but had no sure-fire way of figuring it out. He decided that he would just wait and see.

The six gorillas surrounded Barry and began walking away from the rest of the group that had attacked him. Barry followed the gorilla in front of him without struggling. They wanted him alive, but they didn’t say anything about wanting him uninjured. He would not be able to recover quickly without proper use of his powers. Also, if the mine dealt with his accelerated healing the same way it did his speed then it could shock him throughout the entire process.

After walking for what Barry estimated to be a little over a mile, the group stopped. One of the gorillas raised his arm to point ahead of him, and pressed a button on a metallic device that lay across his wrist. Then the gorilla walked forward, and seemed to disappear. The rest of the gorillas then followed after him. Barry was a little confused about this, but he followed anyways. When he too, walked through the field he was amazed by what he saw.

It was a large futuristic city full of tall buildings with unusual shapes, colors and designs. Hovercrafts filled the air and further up the road that Barry was on, a huge important looking building towered over the rest. Barry came to the obvious conclusion that this was some kind of palace. Barry also spotted several groups of guards. There were most likely more in the hovercrafts as well.

They walked for a couple minutes until they reached the palace. They entered through a gigantic gate. It’s doors seemed to open themselves, but just as they were walking through, Barry spotted some kind of camera or scanner right above the top of the gate. It must have cleared them to enter.

There was only one room inside the gate. It was large and round but there were no stairs, elevators or even doors in it. Barry followed the gorillas to the center of the room where they all stopped. Barry wondered what they were doing until one said “Top floor.”

The walls suddenly began glowing purple and Barry became slightly dizzy. A moment later the walls returned to normal and he regained his balance. “Teleportation complete!” a female electronic voice said enthusiastically. “Location: Top floor. Continue forward to reach the Throne Room! For information on the other floors simply say floor map.” The gorillas ignored the voice and walked forward, through a door that hadn’t been there before. “Teleportation… They are even more advanced than I had thought…”, Barry said quietly. He followed the group of gorillas and what he saw in the throne room amazed him.

An even larger gorilla than any of the others that he had seen was sitting in a large decorated throne. His eyes glowed bright red as he stared at Barry. His mouth was slightly open and Barry could see large fangs hanging out of the gorillas mouth.

“Lord Grodd, we have brought you the human.” one of the gorilla’s said bowing. The rest followed suit. “You shall bow for our king, Grodd!” one of the gorillas said preparing to beat him.

“No, he shall bow soon enough, underling.” Grodd said in a deep, evil sounding voice that couldn’t possibly be mistaken for a human’s. “Whether or not he likes it, he will bow, just like the rest.”

Barry reached a certain speed, still holding back the pain and he ran straight at the wall. He reached it and phased through, then he slowed down to about half speed.

“Look, he’s escaped!”, one of the guards shouted. The other pulled out it’s blaster and fired at Barry. Barry calculated where it would make contact, adjusted his position, then he completely stopped. The laser whizzed through the air and impacted with Barry’s adaptation mine.

The mine broke into pieces and fell of Barry’s chest. “Thanks, that was getting uncomfortable!” Barry said as he blew across the hall he punched the gorilla that had shot at him, square in the jaw. It fell to the ground unconscious. Barry grabbed the blaster and turned towards the other gorilla. He ran straight around it and slammed it down on the back of it’s head.

Barry bent over and checked several different pouches on one of the gorilla’s belts, for something resembling a key. After a few moments Barry found a key card and ran over to Solovar’s cell. He swiped the card across the scanner on the control panel. The door opened up and Solovar walked out with a slight smile on his face. “Thank you friend.” He said.

“No need to thank me, we’re not out of this mess yet.”

They both ran to the teleportation room. Naturally Barry arrived there first, but when Solovar reached the room the voice flicked on. “Solovar! I thought you-”

“There’s no time now. Just get us to the top floor!” Solovar said quickly.

“Yes sir!” the voice responded, sounding even more eager than usual. Seconds later after the walls had both begun and ceased to glow, the throne room was directly ahead of them.

Barry immediately charged past guards on both sides of the door and straight at Grodd. At the same time Solovar moved over to the guards and quickly knocked one out. The other raised his blaster at him, but Solovar chopped down on the gun with his hand and it fell out of the guards hand and onto the ground at the guards feet. Solovar then proceeded to raise both fists, clamp them together and smash down on the guards head.

Barry reached Grodd and pulled back his arm in preperation to throw a punch but before he could follow through psyonic waves began to pulse from Grodds head. Barry was pushed back by this, causing him to fall over backwards. The waves pushed Barry across the floor. He sped up and attempted to charge at Grodd again. The waves hadn’t reached Solovar so he quickly bent over and began to search through the guards armaments for something he could use against Grodd.

Barry managed to stand up and charge back at Grodd. He slowly gained ground until suddenly the waves stopped. Barry flew forward ready to deliver a series of punches but just as he reached Grodd a giant fist reached out for his head. It turned out to be Grodd’s. He brought his other fist down around Barry’s chest and tightened his grip so that Barry couldn’t move his arms, then he released Barry’s head. Grodd raised Barry up to his eye level. He tried to look away from the red eyes but he couldn’t move his head.

Grodd then laughed so loud that it hurt Barry’s ears. “You are finally mine… In moments you won’t even be able to think for yourself!” Then Grodd continued to laugh, now even harder.

“Flash, phase now!” he heard Solovar say, it was difficult for him to think, but he managed to understand. He sped up as quick as he could and phased through Grodd’s arm. The next thing he knew, Grodd was roaring in agony. It was at least twice as loud as his earlier laugh. Barry looked up and Grodds eyes had returned to normal and he had both arms in the air. Barry took the moment to run across the room then turn and run straight at Grodd. He delivered 3 left hooks, 3 right hooks then an uppercut to Grodd’s face. Grodd groaned then fell over backwards with a loud thud.

“What in the world did you do to him?” Barry asked Solovar inquiringly.

“Take a look for your self.” Solovar said with a long smile across his face.

Barry turned back to Grodd and began to examine him. Almost instantly he spotted something on Grodd’s chest.

“That’s a-”

“Yes, that is an adaptation mine…”

“So I phased to let that pass through?”

“That’s right.”

“And when it adapted to Grodd it disabled his greatest strength, his enhanced mind…”

“You got it.”

“Well, at least we were able use it for something positive. It should make Grodd easy to keep imprisoned. Hopefully he won‘t be a threat any longer. Will you need any help gathering up Grodd’s henchmen?”

“No, with my city freed they should be no problem.”

“Well. I should probably get going then.”

Solovar waved his hand indicating the teleportation room. “Let me escort you out to the gates.”