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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:19:30 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:21:35 GMT -5
The Flash
Issue 9: “Speed Demon”
Written by Charles HoM
Cover by Borize
Edited by David Charlton |
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:22:09 GMT -5
[Editors Note: The Following Tale Takes Place Before Teen Titans #8]
Prologue, 1940…
“OCCCCULT!” he spins round, the green fist catching his square in the jaw and knocking him into the back alley wall. “YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD TRAP ME? THOUGHT YOU COULD CORNER ME LIKE SOME WOUNDED ANIMAL? WROOONG!” The massive creature claws its way towards the near unconscious magician, his talons slowly growing as he gets nearer, smelling weakness, fuelled by the fear that the mysterious figure known as DOCTOR OCCULT exudes. “YOU’RE A COWARD OCCCCCULT! I SMELLL IT ON YOUR SKIN AND YOUR BONES…”
“Coward?” Doctor Occult jerks up smiling. “No, I was just drawing you close so I could do this.” He raises his bloodied right hand, a small circle with seven etches meeting in the middle. “Banished.”
The creature screams as its body is sucked into the object, its inhuman mass slowly sapped away in a bright red and black light. As the deed is done he collapses, only to be held closely by a woman who appears from nowhere, stepping out of the shadows to hold her lover.
“Richard… You don’t need to do this…”
He smiles slightly, and runs his hand down her cheek. “Rose, my love… this is the last.”
Never the last because I’m still here Richard! I’m coming for you! I’m COMING FOR
YOU!
End Prologue.
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:22:36 GMT -5
Like a scene out of a bad 50s horror film, I dream once more. The images are dark, grainy, flickered details and grey peoples taking part in their daily lives before my eyes. Just then – Fire. Fire and flame that falls from the sky and burns off the flesh of Keystone and Central City’s citizens. I hear the screams but cannot act, frozen in a moment of my own time, just standing, watching, my friends, colleagues, the people I vowed to protect… All dying the most agonizing of deaths. Who would rain down such pain and destruction?
Who indeed?
Barry Allen awakens from his sleep, sweating profusely, his hands shaking. He looks over to Iris and then down to his hand, to the golden rings on his middle two fingers, one a wedding ring, one a special ring only he and another wears. His limb flickers like the wings of a hummingbird, and he grabs it, steadying himself, not allowing the vibrations to spread through his body. He smiles, and then remembers the dream. He had another flash forward, another flicker of memories that aren’t of this time, and he has a theory…
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:23:00 GMT -5
The Titans are all going about their real lives. Learning, travelling, healing from the nights before. But he just sits in silence, remembering. Wally West has been many things in his life so far. Impulsive, enthusiastic, but he’s never really been the one for deep analysis. But over the months before this day, so much has happened… He was helpless at the hands of Dr Spectro, and his inability to act nearly cost lives. He was attacked by Deathstroke, his knee damaged… and it was times like that that made you think about your life, make you evaluate it in ways that you wouldn’t before. Sure, he nearly died, but he had his team, his friends, and they saved him…
“Fleet foot, quick runner, pursuer of power, runner of ways…” Wally West turns at the voice, but sees nothing, no one. He’s alone in his room, a voice whispering into his ear, but no one present. No one there.
“Who’s there? Who was that?” He changes into his familiar yellow and red, and raises his fist... The voice was empty, echoey, like a voice spoken deep within a cavern, the sound allowed to amplify and expand as it moves outwards. “Hello? Rachel?”
“YOU’LL DO!” A gloved hand connects with his neck, choking him, causing him to gag, catching him totally unawares. “I NEED MORE POWER, MORE RUNNERS!” The man grabs Wally’s hair, and punches him in the nose, blood spraying across his hand. “Oh…” he stumbles back, his grip still tight, and then a smile forms on his lips. “Wally West. Ha… You don’t know what’s coming for you, and I could… San… Save you…” He laughs, and then releases the young speedster, who jerks up and attacks the villain with a flurry of punches, but his fists pass silently through him, leaving the villain smiling even more so than before.
“Who are you?”
The villain backhands the young speedster across the room. “A man with only a foot fully inside this timeline, boy… Someone that… If you survive the coming crisis… You shall come to know better!”
Kid Flash motions forward but the man vanishes, leaving the young hero alone in his damaged room. “God…” He falls to the floor, his wounds healed, but doubt surging throughout him. “Idiot, idiot, idiot!” He slaps his forehead, anguished. “Jay taught you what to do in those situations… vibrate your limbs until you match the opponents chronological frequency, then strike, matching the fluctuations… You’re an idiot, West…." he shakes his head. “Flash facCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” His body vibrates to a zenith degree, his skin burning, his limbs on fire, tears streaming down his face as the great pain surges throughout him, following the doubt and anguish of the months before!
“Fleet foot, quick runner, pursuer of power, runner of ways…”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:23:20 GMT -5
“What’s wrong Barry?” Iris leans forward toward her husband, and runs her hand through his blonde hair.
“Oh, sorry baby… I’m a bit distracted.”
Jay Garrick smiles, and then looks to Joan who sits next to him, and then back to Barry. “You sure kid? You don’t look so good.” He looks at the speedster who carries on his legacy, who sits back in his own soft chair, surrounded by the lunchtime crowds in Scillarios’ Café, a mainstay fixture of Keystone City.
“Sorry Jay, my minds is… was elsewhere, I’m…” He shrugs and smiles. “I’m elsewhere.”
Jay nods, and takes a sip from his glass.
“I’ve been having the dreams again. Terrible, horrible things…”
Iris smiles slightly, and places her hand into his, and he takes it, holding it gratefully.
“For how long?” Jay leans close, intent to discover what ails his protégé.
“Weeks. The end of the world, that kind of thing.” He laughs at the way he talks about it, the simplicity of how he states it. The simplicity of it all. “You know, the usual.”
Jay looks at Joan and Iris. “Flash forwards.”
“Yes.” Barry nods. “An interesting aspect of my powers, don’t you think?”
Iris laughs quietly. “And something only you experience. I’d say it was interesting!”
“Yeah…” Barry nods and places his coffee mug on the table, then looks at Jay, a dark look spreading over him. “Hey, what’s the time?”
Joan smiles and looks to Jay then back to Barry. “Are you trying to change the subject Barry?”
“No… It’s 1 o’clock… Wally should be here and you know our power INCREASES our chances of being on time…” He smiles awkwardly. “I think I might give his dorm a call. Or the Embassy, see if it’s Titans trouble…”
“He’s fine, Barry.” Jay smiles but then turns, his eyes widening. “Do you feel that?”
Barry looks around. “Like a shiver.”
Jay nods. “Like a shiver.”
The room explodes before the two heroes can think to react, but time slows as their perceptions get in tune with the action. They spring up, grabbing shards of glass as it moves towards the other men and women in the café, between picoseconds, before anyone can see them. Jay turns to Barry as they move, and then they both nod, and change into their uniforms, Barry pressing the button on his golden ring and his red costume springing out and expanding, and Jay spinning in a vortex, and then picking his silver hat from his bag and placing it on his head.
They move Iris and Joan away in a blink, and then return to the scene, and look to each other, talking in between picoseconds.
“What was that?” Barry looks at the piles of glass on the floor, and then runs to the street outside. “Like a sonic boom… But that feeling before it struck…”
“Like someone was stepping on your grave. I felt it too.” Jay turns. “My God!”
A flash of light flickers at the top of the street, illuminating a creature glowing deep scarlet and throbbing with the shadows riding over its flesh, with streaks of light flowing out of its mouth and eyes.
“What is that?”“
Before they can move the entire street erupts as the creature slams its clawed hands together, and the two heroes fly into the air and slam against the building at the end of the road, halting their sudden lesson in flight.
“What was that?” The two men stand, but the debris-strewn street bears no sign of the strange speedster, only the wounded men and women caught in the crossfire.
“I don’t know Jay, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:23:41 GMT -5
They help the wounded, and wait for the paramedics to arrive, and then they head back to Barry’s home, where he and his wife live peacefully. Iris is at work, reporting the news, and she won’t be back for hours. The phone rings and the duo freeze. By the second buzz of noise Barry picks it up, and the voice on the other side of the line does nothing to make the duo less spooked.
“Hello?”
“Barry, are you ok? Second ring and all, gets a girl worried…”
Barry sighs slightly, and shakes his head. “Zatanna? Zee? Is that you?”
“Yes. I was calling to see if you were alright…”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” He shakes his head and then looks to Jay, who is sitting in an armchair, his hat on his lap, considering the attack in downtown.
“I… My powers aren’t entirely focused on mnemonic enchantments, you know that… I have a level of empathic awareness regarding magic and there’s a lightning streak of chthonic energy spreading from New York to Keystone, with a familiar scent, if you know what I mean…”
“Frankly, no.”
“Speed force, Barry…. I felt the Speed force mixed up in all that supernatural energy. Something is straddling the two dimensions and coming out on top, power wise.”
“Holy Hannah!”
“I can’t do anything from Las Vegas, Barry, and my team have a lead on the Joker, so I’m needed, but I have the name of someone with a particular talent when it comes to possessions of bodies, hell, and the demons that inhabit that particular dimension. Even if he does not consider it that…” She sighs. Barry can hear the strain in her voice.
“Who is it?”
“He was never the same after his wife vanished. We all knew that. Alive for… One hundred and seven years but he doesn’t look a year over forty… Never the same…”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:24:05 GMT -5
He can’t get drunk. He’s too powerful for that. Not willpower, not because of his high constitution, nothing like that… It’s because his body is a magical reactor crafted to make wizardry, and the alcohol is transformed into happy feelings and pixie dust, and in his current state, the state of wanting to get head over heels drunk, it doesn’t make him feel any better. He stares at his glass, and sighs.
“Richard, someone on the phone.” The black haired man rises from his booth in the shadows, and walks over to the bar.
“Thanks.” He sighs, and takes the phone.
“Richard Occult?”
“That’s my name, what’s yours…” he takes a breath slightly, and feels his being reach out, and touch the life of the man who is on the other side of the phone call. “Baaaarrrryyy?”
“… How’d you… Uh… I’m glad to have gotten hold of you on such short notice.”
“I don’t wander too far from here. No point anymore. Not that you would know my back-story Mr Allen, but then again… You spoke to Zatanna… And what a wonderful person and student she was. So, Barry Allen. What’s your other name?”
The other voice pauses, wary of where to go now, but then sighs, and answers the question. “The Flash.”
“Jay Garrick is the Flash… Not that… I…” He slaps his head, tired but aware that he once again gave up another hero’s identity. Oops.”
“No, Richard.” The magician turns, and nearly falls over, the sight of a man in a red and yellow one piece costume shocking him slightly. “I’m the new one. But he’s waiting to talk to you, too.”
Occult sighs slightly. “Let me guess you’ve got a demon problem. Possession or incarnation?”
“We don’t know.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:24:27 GMT -5
The phone rings again, and Jay answers in a flash. “Hello?”
“Hello, is this Mister… Barry Allen?” The voice is quiet, contained and polite.
“No this is a friend of his. I’m currently waiting for him to get back.”
“Is… Iris Allen available?”
“Out too, I’m afraid, can I help?”
“No, it’s… A private matter. I’ll call back later.” Jay can hear her go to hang up, and his eyes widen.
“Is this about Wally?”
“Wallace? Y-Yes, it is…”
“Where are you calling from?”
“New York, but--”
“Are you one of Wally’s special friends he meets at the Themysciran Embassy?”
“Y-Yes?”
“I’m the Flash, miss, the one before the current holder of that name. We haven’t head anything from young Wally for a while, and he missed a lunch date we had, and I know that’s not like him… Is he injured? On a mission?”
“No… Nothing like that but… But I fear something has happened…”
“What?”
“His room at the embassy is empty, burned to a crisp, and his uniform… Is in tatters…I fear something horrific has occurred… I sensed a malevolent presence and when I came to his room to investigate… Nothing…”
“This… there was a creature here. In Keystone… That…” He trails off.
“What, sir?”
“It’s Wally. Something’s got a hold of Wally.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:24:42 GMT -5
The anguish he feels writhes in his stomach like a serpent composed of lightning, moving across his soul and taking over his body. It hurts, yes, but what hurts more, what preys on his mind is that he’s a failure. He got shot in the knee by a super villain and he was out of that fight like a speeding bullet for it. Barry Allen, his uncle, doesn’t need him anymore, Jay Garrick, his mentor’s predecessor, being his go-to-guy nowadays, and that man who took him surprise at the embassy in such a way that… Wally West screams for his soul as the demon takes a hold of his heart and squeezes.
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:25:01 GMT -5
“Moses!” Richard Occult nearly vomits, suddenly appearing in a different room, a different city. “You could’ve warned a guy!”
“No time, Doctor, we’re on a tight schedule.”
“Right, right… Hey Jay, long time, no see…”
“I wish this were under better circumstances, Richard.”
He arches an eyebrow. “That bad?”
Jay nods solemnly. “Indeed.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Kid Flash has been possessed. We think. Jay nods at his words. “And Ms Zatara informed us of a chthonic surge of energy in New York and now here… Suggesting it’s all linked, and Raven, a colleague of—“
“I get the picture. Where’s the kid?”
“HEEEEEREEEE!” The room explodes as Jay Garrick is punched through a wall, and the glimmering red figure that seems to bleed white light appears in front of Barry and Occult. “HRAAAH!”
Barry is grabbed and punched hard, blood spraying from his nose.
“Hey kid!”
The possessed Wally turns, and looks at Occult, a strange metal disc in his hand, and a knife in the other. “Homunculi!”
Richard cuts his arm and blood leaps onto the demonically inhabited speedster, his glistening skin burning at the touch of the warlock’s blood. “Blood magic!”
The demonic racer spasms, and then vanishes, and with an upward glance, Barry leaps up and gives chase.
“God, in all my years, a kid has never been so rude…”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:25:21 GMT -5
“Wally!” Barry catches up with his protégé outside of Metropolis, and pulls him back in the speed vortex, back towards him, dragging them both to an abrupt stop. “This isn’t you, son! Fight it!”
“Fight? FIGHT?!” The red form of Wally flickers, revealing a dishevelled Kid Flash beneath the fire and brimstone. “Fighting… Is all I’m doing Barry… I… I feel it, my soul… Hurts…”
“Wally!” Barry reaches out, but Wally’s form flickers back to the demonic, and dives upon his father figure.
“I WILL FEAST UPON YOUR SOUL!”
Barry shakes his head. “Clichéd.” He vanishes from beneath his attacker, and slams his fists on his head, causing him to buckle. “Been said.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:25:41 GMT -5
“Eurgh.” Jay stumbles back into the room, and looks at Occult, who feverishly works on his chalkboard, scribbling his ideas. “Richard, what are you doing?”
“My eyes… Are special.” He moves his head down his face, motioning to his bleeding eye sockets as he writes. “Needed one good look, and I know the identity of the demon that’s got your kid….” He smiles, a new determination washing over him. “A challenge, at last… A chance to forget…”
“Richard, I’m sorry about Rose--”
Occult grimaces, and then shakes his head. “No, I don’t talk about that. Choose another question…”
“What are you writing?”
He spins around, smiles manically, and then shows the two lines he’s drawn in bold white chalk. “Ignore the runes. “ He points to the top of the first line and then to the bottom one. “Heaven and hell, ignore all your preconceived notions on those realms… They exist. Angels roam the Earth, I know this, I’ve had to kill two and I’ve shared a scotch with another. Hell exists, because when I was a kid there was this demon that… ANYWAY.” He draws attention away from his words and back to the drawing board. He moves the chalk over the lines he’s drawn, creating a spiral. “I saw something in that demon’s eyes. Lightning. I recognise it from a book I read….” He smiles slightly. “Not one that you’d find on the shelf at Borders, I assure you. ‘Nonalin’. Living dimension of lightning.”
“The… The speed force?”
“Maybe.” He continues. “Nonalin intersects with heaven and hell, meaning certain demonic entities such as the one with its claws deep in Kid Flash can gain access to the lightning, and let me tell you... The runners that live in your… ‘Speed force’? Not all of them are nice and pretty in their red one pieces, you get me? So through hell, through Nonalin, into a wounded soul…”
Jay looks at Richard, confused. “Wounded soul?”
“Hurt. Inside. Full of anguish, pain, self doubt? Through all that, during some escalation in that negative feeling, the creatures can enter this world. “He shrugs. “Your kid was a tad wussy to resist, eh mate?”
“Watch your mouth, Occult. You may be feeling down and out, but that’s no excuse. We need to figure out how to stop that demon and free Kid Flash.”
“I’m thinking.” He looks down at the black and red disc in his hand, and places it on the desk next to him, and then takes out his penknife and fiddles with it. “Thinking, knowing…” He tears his shirt off, and then begins to carve into his chest.
“”OCCULT!”
“Get the kid here…” He continues to cut the knife into his flesh in a circular pattern in his chest, the blood pouring down his stomach. “Weakened mind you, get the speed demon weak, and bring him here! GO, FLASH!”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:26:07 GMT -5
“I’m so sorry son…” Barry unleashes another barrage of blows upon his young protégé, causing him to buckle and fall once more, and then, in a flash of light, Jay appears, and looks over to Barry. “What--”
“Richard has a plan!” Jay grabs Wally and nods at Barry. “We need to drain him of his power--”
Barry nods, and then grabs Wally’s shoulder. “On it!” He slams his hand onto Wally’s distorted chest insignia, and a bright light explodes outwards as the possessed speedster’s speed is stolen b the more experienced runner, ounce by agonizing ounce. “Will… This… Stop… Him…?” Barry breaks the link between him and Wally, and then turns to Jay.
“No, the speed force is alive in him until his dying breath… But it’ll sure as heck slow him down!” Jay takes off his hat and whacks Wally over the head, dizzying the demon infested young man again, and then he places his back on his head. “We need to get back!”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:27:22 GMT -5
What do you think you’re doing? You’re playing the hero and you know it… Always hurts in the end though, don’t it? Always. Rose saw that, didn’t she? And she was ripped from your soul like all else will be when the great magician returns… When I come back…
“Shut up.” Richard continues to carve the knife into his flesh, seven slashes and then one long cut around them. He clutches the blade and then drops it, blood falling from the wounds and his head dizzied.
Oh it hurts, doesn’t it? Hurts inside? You started this, Doctor. Opened the way for me to come through, and the only time you can’t hear me, is when your head is fuzzy with the drink, your mind is clouded with alcohol, and really, in that state, you’re no threat to me. But now it hurts, doesn’t it? You can feel the abscess in your soul where your heart once was… And where I grow in power… Worse than the cancer in your chest and the tumour in your brain, sobered up one last time because you didn’t want to die the loser…
Occult turns and slaps himself in the head, spitting blood as he does so. “SHUT UP! YOU WILL SHUT UP RIGHT NOW BEFORE I KILL YOU!”
You can’t kill me dear doctor, because that would mean killing yourself, and now that your beloved Rose is gone from you and you don’t have the strength of mind to go through with it… You’re too scared of the darkness because of all you’ve seen… you don’t truly believe if you could get into the pearly white gates of Heaven and live in eternal peace.
Doctor Occult looks at the mirror opposite him and sees an ethereal image of his one true love on one shoulder, and then the dirty, fetid vision of the demon that lurks in his soul on the other.
“So?”
At that moment, the two speedsters burst through the door with the flickering Kid Flash in their arms.
“DOCTOR! You’re…”
“Bleeding like a sonofabitch, yes… I know… Come on, hold him down.” He rolls his finger down his own chest and draws a lightning bolt over the sign in his chest and then with his own blood repeats the gesture on the young speedsters head. “My own Sign of Seven couldn’t… reverse the transformation… But a larger one, fuelled by my life blood…” He watches as the lighting bolt insignia burns into Wally’s skull, magical blood too much for the demon possessed human. “Nonalin, abda – Ket Kell…” The speedster spasms, his skin bulging. “Nonalin, nadania, kel ket…” A strange light erupts from Wally’s skin, and a horrific creature claws its way out of his mouth, And is then slowly sucked into Doctor Occult’s chest, the Sign of Seven on his body sealing shut as scars form, a prison created for the speed demon that had possessed Wally West.
The young speedster collapses, as does the Doctor, and then Barry and Jay blink, unaware what had just happened.
“All I’ve seen, all I’ve witnessed with the Justice Society and with you… This…”
“Takes the cake.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:27:50 GMT -5
“God, I feel like a total ass…” Wally sits up in bed, his long red hair flat, and his hands behind his neck, stretching out his kinks. “Where’s the man who… Where’s Doctor Occult?”
Barry smiles slightly. “He teleported himself back to the bar he was at.” He shrugs. “When Jay offered to accelerate his metabolism he flinched, didn’t want none of it. And off he went.” He shakes his head and looks to his protégé. “Wally, you left.”
“Excuse me?”
“You moved to New York, joined the Titans and… I thought that meant that you wanted to grow AWAY from the Flash legacy. Jay lives across the river, he’s closest to call on, and I thought you wanted to be left alone. I didn’t think you wanted to be involved anymore… I know that sounds ridiculous but if I knew you felt differently I wouldn’t have… Not called you. You’re my partner, not my sidekick. But I thought you wanted to be left alone…”
“I… I wanted to…” Wally searches for his words, unsure of what to say. “I wanted to be among my peers. My friends… For a while. That’s why I left, not because I was bored of you Uncle Barry!” He smiles. “But after Deathstroke and… You didn’t need me. I felt useless. Jay’s always got your back now and I was… I dunno. Redundant.”
“Kid…” Barry slaps Wally behind his head, laughing. “You’re like my son. You’re always welcome here, and…. And I hope… Down the line, when you think the time is right for YOU… You step up and accept the mantle of the Flash for yourself. My Flash then yours. You’re like my son.”
Wally smiles, his throat tight. “I…”
“Don’t EVER think like that. There’s no one else I’d rather fight side-by-side with. Not Superman not Batman not that new Green Lantern. World’s finest, whatever! We’re family.”
“I really should get possessed more often Uncle Barry.”
Wally smiles and the laughs, and Barry joins in.
“Yeah, whatever!”
“What are you kids laughing about?” Jay smiles and follows Iris into Wally’s old room.
“Yeah Barry, Jay was regaling me with tales of his youth and we got a bit worried about you. I mean… Wally was LAUGHING… And come on… You know I haven’t heard laughter in this house for a long time…”
Jay laughs. “I think I was boring her.”
“No!” Iris puts her hand to her mouth and smiles, and Barry nods slowly.
“Well, once again Family Allen and young West, I have to take my leave, as my beautiful wife is expecting me for dinner! Are we still on for tomorrow?”
“Indeed we are, Jay.” Iris smiles and hugs the man and Jay smiles and shakes Barry’s hand. “Speak later.”
“Sure.” With that he vanishes in a burst of speed, leaving Iris, Wally and Barry alone in the room. “So, Wally, you feeling up for dinner tomorrow?
“Sure Aunt Iris!”
Barry smiles. “You bringing anyone?”
“What? No… I…” Wally blushes, his face nearly matching his hair.
“Because that Rachel girl called asking for you while you were asleep, and she sounded lovely…”
“Well, she’s not really the type you bring home to meet the family…”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:28:23 GMT -5
“You did the hero thing again Richard.” The red haired man takes a sip from his scotch and shakes his head. “Always looking for an excuse aren’t you?”
“Yeah well Jimmy… I had to do something.” Richard Occult sits opposite the man in the dark bar, both of them in the same shadowy booth that Occult resides in most nights.
“And you did it well. How was everyone?”
“I left before the kid woke up, but Zazazel is back in hell, where he belongs, and I’ve given the kid a clean bill of health. They have my number, and this Doctor… He makes house calls.”
“That was a poor one.”
“I know.”
“And your own personal demons?” The man looks at Occult and shakes his head slightly.
Occult downs the shot glass and then smiles slightly. “Vintage scotch takes the edge off his words.”
“I don’t understand you, Richard. You’re friends with some of the most powerful beings on this plane of existence--- and many other!---, but you don’t exorcise him. Or remove your brain tumour. Which I must say… Is getting big. You’re not going to last much longer. Little over a year by the looks of it…”
“We both know the reasons I don’t exorcise it. One, my soul is so intertwined with it I could risk begin exorcised by mistake, and then he’d have complete control and come on, you’d have a mighty big trouble taking me down, wouldn’t you, and maybe HE wouldn’t let it, hmm? And if I exorcise it, it becomes corporeal. Physical. Real. And then it’d be unstoppable for even you. Deadly. It’ll die with me and thank god that’s soon.”
“I can’t touch it.” Jim places his hand on Richards’s head and grimaces. “Damnation.”
“Richard shakes his head. “Now then, why are you here? You only visit on the anniversary of your… Death. And this… This isn’t your death date.”
“Something’s coming and I’m forbidden to act.”
Richard turns and grimaces. “EXCUSE me?”
“I’m forbidden to act because… He decrees it. A crisis is coming, Richard.”
“How do you know?”
“The Spectre knows all.” Jim erupts in a blinding white light, red hair and flesh melting away and then finally, once the light clears a man whose skin is a glowing white, stands clad in green, an empty look in his eye. “And one of your new friends is going to die.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2006 21:29:38 GMT -5
NEXT ISSUE:
CRISIS! 'NUFF SAID.
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Post by mockingbird on Jul 31, 2011 12:27:27 GMT -5
To let us know what you think of this issue, please visit the letters page here!
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