Issue 15: "Funeral for a Friend"

The bell rang, and the students reentered the school from recess. Soon, the playground was empty. A man sat outside on a bench. He sighed, and stood up. He strolled down the street, and seemed to speak to nobody. “I know you’re there.”

A man appeared in a cloud of smoke. “Hello Roscoe. I guess you’ll be present at the event this afternoon, am I right?”

“I was watching the kids, there. You know, I was in high school when they left me in a vegetative state. I mean, I could have been in university, top of the class in Harvard, but they were afraid. They were always afraid of me. Afraid of a kid of fourteen, for God’s sake!”

“You aren’t talking like you usually do.”

“Well, I’m not feeling super today. Mood swings again, I think. Woke up nostalgic. Visited my folk’s house, but couldn’t enter. I loved them, I really did, but they were always a pain.” The villain known as Top stopped and looked at his companion. “Are you sure this is okay? Of course I still hate the Flash. But he is doing a pretty decent job in this city. I don’t know if I could do the same. They would be scared again.”

“I see you won’t take part in the event. And I understand. You take your time, Roscoe Dillon. I know you’re smart and will side with us in the end.”

“Maybe.” Roscoe answered, but the man was gone. He continued talking. “I wonder… What would I do if I were the hero?”

The Dillon residence,

There were many different ways of persuasion, and Heatwave, pyromaniac and arsonist knew lots of hideous ones. He had a mission that day, handed to him by the Boss himself, an hour or so ago. It was a simple one, but the resolution of it could change the tide of the war, even if it hadn’t started, and even if one of the sides was uninformed of that event, unknown that the idea was being initialized already.

He broke a window and entered the mansion. Ornaments, statues, pieces of arts, books, and etc. filled the place. Mick felt really good at the sight, the more beautiful things were, the better they burned. It was almost lyrical to him. Heatwave checked the house, and seeing that the residents were not present, he sat down in one of the chairs and poured some wine in a glass. Half an hour later, a noise came from the entrance, and a couple entered the house. Heatwave stood up and pointed at them with the gun. “Oh, hello. Look, this is completely not personal, and they told me to be polite and quick in this… tragedy. Now, I don’t want to keep you waiting. So, Mr. and Mrs. Dillon, please, burn.”

Cemetery,

The Trickster stood on the podium again. With a wave of his hand, the crow went silent. He motioned two of them to move forwards. “Viper, Razorback, come. You have shown yourselves reliable, so come. Boomerang, please.” Boomerang mumbled something, and then opened the suitcase he carried. Inside, there were two different guns, property of the deceased Captain Cold and Mirror Master. He handed the weapons to them. “The war is near, but today we need to tell the world that they won’t be able to forget us. We will hand out this, and you will be able to do with yours what you please. Kill if you want, today is a special day. Only one rule. No one touches the Flash. Got it? If any one of you goes and attacks him, I personally will wear your ears on a necklace for a day. Not kidding.”

The home of the Elongated Man,

The room was dark, with only a single light turned on. Ralph Dibny was investigating Barry’s case when his wife, Sue, entered with a tray carrying sandwiches and milk.

Ralph stretched his hand and grabbed the tray without turning from his work. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

“You know I don’t like it when you miss breakfast.” Said Sue, crossing her arms. “So what case are you working on now? The Case of the Missing Bullet?”

“Huh? No, I’ve already finished that. It appears that the bullet bounced and left the body from a knife wound he had in his back. Weird, but not even in the top fifty of the strangest case I’ve had. I’m working on the frozen case.”

Sue grabbed some papers and photos laying in the desk. “What are these?”

Dibny moved one of his eyeballs to the papers Sue had. “Oh, those are the papers from the radiation levels of Cold’s gun. Medical papers from both the Mirror Master and Cold, and the photos of the autopsy. Funny thing, they had to do it in a storage room, in a minus ten degrees Celsius. They found the insides, although slightly melted, the same way a living being has them. Is amazing. You see, Cold’s ray is not a vapor of coldness, nor a beam of cold, or something like that. In fact, is extremely hot. You see, the beam, what it does, is to absorb the heat and energy from around it, and from the objects it touches, reducing it to the absolute zero. Normally, he only froze the surroundings of a person or thing, causing in the worst cases, a bad case of pneumonia, but once in a while he could freeze a person. Scientists are examining the possibilities to turn every cell in the body to water, and then to freeze it. It’s very complicated, but it is possible with a… Sorry, I must be boring you, aren’t I?”
“What? No, of course no. I love it when you get so involved in your work. It’s kind of funny.” She leaves the paper in the desk. “So, did they check if Scudder’s appendix was removed?”

“What?”

“Yes, here it says that Scudder, whoever it is from these two, had his appendix removed in Iron Heights after being imprisoned by the Flash.”

“Of course! I need to leave, fast. If what I’m thinking is correct…” Ralph stood up, and started putting on his suit. He ran to the stairs, then went back, kissed Sue, and again headed the stairs.

The Dillon residence,

Roscoe Dillon walked through the remains of a charred mansion. Black smoke still rose slowly, lingering to the sky. The columns and supports were destroyed, and in some places, a reddish glow still was seen. He walked, almost unconsciously, to where the library, the place were most of his “normal” life had happened, stood before the fire. He was in a shock, he thought he could be in one of those violent dreams he had as a boy. Dreams, not nightmares, because he, as hard to accept as it was, had enjoyed them plenty. He bent down and grabbed a twisted piece of metal, which could have been part of the chandelier or something else, when he heard a noise behind him. There, stood a man in an asbestos suit, flames dancing around his suit, two big green goggles as eyes. He carried a long, rifle-like weapon.

“G-Guy Montague?”

“Huh? No. Name’s Heatwave. The Boss sent me here, y’see, he won’t tolerate disobedience.”

“He killed my parents because I missed that stupid funeral!” Roscoe shouted, then stared at Heatwave for a few seconds, and stood up. He took of a long coat he was wearing, exposing his green and yellow suit. “If your ’umble Dillon disobeys that bloody moustache of a guy, what will he do now, huh? He just killed my parents! That murderer just released me! I’m unchained! Free!”

Heatwave took a step back. The man in front of him was looking crazier by the second. His eyes stared, penetrating but blankly, almost like a vacuum. His smile had turned into a grotesque smirk. “Yeah, he also added that he would bomb that place where he found you in the morning. Sentimental place, I guess?”

“You… you idiotic, mindless dog! I shall… shall…” The Top, threw the scrap of metal at the villain, but before it could make contact, it disappeared.

Keystone,


“Surrender! Now!”

“We are not the bad guys here! We’re avenging ourselves from the society that turned us into these things!”

Flash evaded a hit from a giant steel hand, and slipped in a pool of black oozing liquid. “I hate when the bad guys start crying and start pointing fingers.” He knew he was playing with fire, but the more time it saved, the better.

“Why, you…” The villain known as Girder threw another punch at the scarlet speedster, but a gust changed the direction and impacted against Tar Pit. “God, get away from me!”

“I can’t!”

The Flash opened a hydrant, and cooled both of his enemies, turning Tar Pit into a black statue surrounding Girder. “Now, you two stay in here, and if I ever know that you two turn into a demolition team again, I’ll disassemble both. Ok?”

A police car stopped, and signaled the Flash to approach them. One of the policemen talked to him. “Flash! There’s been… Two of the groups have joined. Murmur is now aided by a group of delinquents! We need your help!”

“But how…? Of course! The Mirror gun? They must have teleported! Take those guys to Iron Heights, and call for an escort. We can’t risk losing any of them again.” The Flash left, quickly, passing by the fourth and Seventh Street. The fire had been extinct. Strange, given that he had not seen a single fire truck, and that he had not put them out himself. Kid Flash? he thought, and continued on his way. There would be time later to worry.

He arrived at the Flash Museum a second later. There were a dozen of police officers, and even a helicopter circling around in the sky. A mob, armed with clubs, bats and even guns had people taken hostage in the outsides of the building. They were the gang known as the Apokolips Hounds, a group of homeless people that lost their way of life after the invasion a year ago. After talking to one of the officers, he approached slowly, with his hands raised, to the leader of the gang. A practiced routine for him. But the real problem was inside the museum, where Murmur, the serial killer, had been spotted.

“Drop the guns, kids. Let’s talk.”

“Uh? Flash? Whu… We all want is homes for all of us! And money! They forgot us, all of us! They rebuilt the city, but left our part untouched!”

“That’s not true.” Sadly, it was. The money shortened out, and the city council had to leave the constructions as they were. Even with the charity funds for the invasion, it just couldn’t support everything. Besides, it was known that the gang had left their dreams, and just used them as an excuse for violence. “Let’s talk.”

“Like hell we will talk.” He shot his gun at the speedster, who easily dodged the bullet. The gang members switched their attention to their hostages, who now where safely placed with the police.

“Now, can we talk?” The Flash asked, one more time.

“What is it?” The apparent gang leader asked.

“We need you to tell your people to stop this. They will end up in jail, but it will evade useless bloodshed. And we may consider shortening your sentence.”

“Can’t do. That’s up to the boss. He decides everything, he is the chosen one. He killed some of those flyin’ demons and has the rod.” The gang member had planned to continue speaking while he thought of a plan to get out of there, but ended up interrupted when a body crashed through a window of the museum and landed on top of a car. It was Murmur.

“Well, well, welllll. If you aren’t the most educated and thoughtful little punky brat, I’ve ever seen. You’re missing the “slang”, you piece of garbage, you.” said a man standing on top of the Flash statue. “Oh, hello Flash. Well, let’s start spinning, people.”

Flash looked around as every person in sight fell down to the floor. They looked white as paper, and some of them even green. Some threw up, and the rest just lay still. The Top spun, acting as some kind of helicopter, and landed safely. He looked like he had been crying.

“Top, you… What have you done?”

“What, me? Nothing. Well, knocked them out, I think. Made them dizzy in their tummies, and crazy on their heads, at least for a while. A big spinning, I must say. But I’m not here to receive generous praises, and a bed of roses and laurels. No, those rewards are for later, but first I’m here to talk. I’m afraid, Flash. Afraid of myself. I have these powers, but you know, I still find the same things the same way that ten years ago. I still love reading, and oh, the school is still there… Memories now. Right now, I can’t be with the nymphets I long for without becoming a repugnant monster.” He laughed at this, for no particular reason. “The spinning has started again. The ebb. The switcheroo. I can see things I know I’m not supposed to in my mind. The future is here, and the past. And is stronger than ever. The choir is back, and so are the trombones and the trumpets and the violins. It’s like a cacophony, no, more like an epiphany. Yes, that’s it. An auto-in-out of the mind, if you know what I mean.”

The Flash got near his opponent carefully, watching for the slightest hint of betrayal. “What can I do for you, Top?”

Roscoe continued as if the Flash hadn’t spoken with him. “I really love this chintzy place, and the lethargy in the unnerving air is something I can surely fix. I took care of the fire, and of the other group or gang or whatever, and the else, and the clown, and the barmen… But I think I’m a goner now. Inescapable faith. Sorry, Barry. Yeah, Barry, I know the name. Just one more thing. Your kid will be really fast. You should watch him carefully. Heh.” The Top made a salute, and disappeared after punching the Flash in nose.

In the realm of Nonalin, Savitar lay prostrate before his Master.

“You have disappointed me again Savitar. It was a simple mission; abduct the woman so we can lure the thief back here. I see you can’t be counted on for these simple tasks. Very well, it seems I will have to pay the so-called Fastest Man Alive a visit” said the glowing blue figure.

Mota's Lab,
Iris stirred on charred floor of the dismal lab. The last thing she remembered was a bolt of lightning striking her in her chest. But her clothes weren’t at all singed. She could feel lightning coursing through her body and her blood grew cold.
SHe ran out of the warehouse screaming, "My baby!"


To Be Continued!