Issue 20: "Random Flashes"

The words echoed in his mind as he sipped his coffee. “We have to go underground.” The hot liquid made him tingle as it went down his throat. Barry Allen rubbed his chin and looked over to Iris, who stood at the doorway. Her brow was furrowed. She was confused. “What are you…?”

“What am I doing here?” He sipped his warm beverage, and smiled. “I’m eating breakfast.”

“But you aren’t…” She walked over to him, and picked up his hand. Next to his wedding band was nothing. A thin line of pale skin where something once was. “Where…?”

He pointed in front of him, to the lightning emblazoned ring that lay beside his toast. “My shift doesn’t start till tonight.”

“But you… You do other things,” she stammered, “You… Do…” She looked him up and down, “You go running…?”

“I’m not a clone, Iris. I’m not a villain disguised as your husband. Don’t worry,” He shrugged nonchalantly. “Anyways: Did. I did other things. I can’t do anything now.”

Iris sat beside her husband, and nestled her head against his shoulder, holding his hand. She gazed at him with her deep eyes. “What do you mean?”

“We’re wanted criminals. I (Me, not Hal or Bruce) put the President of the United States into a coma. Me. I’m worse than… I’m worse than Captain Cold for God’s sake!” He shook his head and took a large bite out of his toast. “I’m worse than Captain Cold.” He looked at her, and stroked a stray bit of hair from her face. “Do you know how that makes me feel?” He put his toast down and changed the subject. “Is Bart awake?”

“No, not yet. Joan is coming round later to have a look at her ‘Little Jay’.” Iris beamed. “Should be lovely.”

“Yeah.” Barry gritted his teeth, a pain in his chest hitting him suddenly. “Uhht.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

He smiled, shrugging off the pain that had already begun to fade. “Nothing. Cramp.”

The door rattled, someone knocking on it hard. Barry went tense; he grabbed his ring and pulled it on, and then realised he was moving so fast that Iris hadn’t even turned yet. He pulled back, slowed down, and readied himself. “Shall I get that?”

“Sure,” nodded Barry, “be careful.”

She smiled, and went for the door, sipping her own drink. “We don’t have any reason not to, Barry. We’re a family. Not the Flash and company…”

She approached the door and looked back over to Barry, who smiled. She was right. She was always right. He rubbed his temple and scratched his stubble-laced chin and then watched as the cup in Iris’s hand slowly fell to the ground as she opened the door wide. “Iris?” He stepped up, his ring around his finger in a blink of an eye, and then she was grabbed by a hand encased in black metal. A twist of a wrist and she crumpled to the ground, her eyes rolling up back into her head as her neck broke. He reached out, and a group of men, the super soldiers that had been assigned to hunt down the Justice League, entered the room, their weapons blazing--

He blinked.

Iris was standing at the door, and she still hadn’t opened it. Damn. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was over-thinking things. If he over-thought things he was liable to experience ‘flash forwards’, the scenarios in his mind that haunted him when he was at his most troubled. But this was no time to be careless. “Iris, wait.” He placed his ring on his hand and walked toward her, motioning for her to move into the kitchen. “It’s best to be careful.” He gritted his teeth, and heard his molars grind together at the back of his throat. Calm down, he thought, calm down and don’t get messed up. His hand tightened around the door knob. He heard the lock click and clunk, and then he slowly opened the door itself, a whining creak as it opened wide. His eyes widened.

“Why the shocked expression, chum? Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to do the funny faces?” Ralph Dibny grinned as he embraced Barry Allen, his arms stretching and wrapping themselves around his best friend time and again. “We saw the broadcasts on the television. You know what the ol’ ball and chain is like.”

“Old?” Sue Dearbon Dibny patted Ralph on the back of his head, and his neck snapped forwards, stretching on for a metre, his tongue sticking out.

He moved on back, and released his hold on Barry, his arms snapping back into their proper size and shape like a whiplash. “Oh, bunny, you know I’m joking. It’s me! It’s part of my charm!” He turned to Iris. “And there is Mrs Allen!” He nudged Sue, and winked. “You go entertain our beautiful host, I need to chat with Barry over here!”

Sue smiled in understanding, and walked over to Iris. “Where is your beautiful son? Where is li’l Bart?” The two women smiled and headed for the nursery, and Ralph turned to Barry, his face suddenly serious and solemn.

“What happened?”

Barry sighed. “Lord was being controlled (just as Aquaman was), we think, by an alien parasite. We broke into the White House and were tricked. I pulled off the parasite and Lord fell into a coma… And somehow, someone recorded the entire ordeal. So here we are.”

“This is why I voted Grahams.” Ralph smiled. “You must be feeling the pressure though, man… No offence.”

“None taken.” Barry grimaced. “I’ve got to do something. My entire life I’ve done one thing, and that’s uphold the law. But now… I’m going against everything I believe in. I’m stuck between a rock and… and a bigger, sharper, scarier rock.”

“Was that humour, Barry? Was that humour I heard leaving your lips?”

“Right now, that’s all I’ve got, Ralph. I can’t… do anything else.”

“You’ve got to do what you believe in, Barry. You can’t go against your morals.”

“I know,” Barry rested his hands on his lap, and nodded slowly. “I know what I’m going to have to do, Ralph.”

Ralph pouted. “What do you want me to do?”

Barry placed his ringed hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Look after my family.”

“What are you going to do?”

Barry pulled the tiny invisible trigger on his ring with his forefinger. In between blinks he was standing in his lounge, the Scarlet Speedster, the Avatar of Speed; The Flash. He breathed in deeply. “I’m going to go for a run. And I don’t know when I’m going to be back.”

“Barry?” Iris stood in the kitchen, looking at her husband, holding their son. “Barry, you’re not…”

“I’m doing what I swore I’d do when I became a police officer, Iris. I’m upholding the law.” He paused, and stroked the face of his son. “And I’m doing it for you. For my family.”

“You don’t have to do this, we can move away… We can go abroad, anything, just…”

Bart Allen gurgled in his mother’s arms, and then opened his eyes. He saw his father, clad in his red and yellow costume, and reached out with tiny arms. He didn’t cry. He didn’t make any noise. He just… reached. Barry took him in his arms, and rocked him back and forth. “I’m doing this for our son.”

“Barry…”

“I don’t want our son growing up thinking I’m a villain; thinking I’m just as bad as Captain Cold. No, that is not a world I want him to live in.” He gently kissed his son on the forehead and nodded slowly. “Because… I’m the Flash. And since Jay, that name has meant something.”

“Barry…”

“Iris, please, don’t try and talk me out of this.”

“Barry…” She frowned, her forehead creasing slightly, and then stroked her hand across his face. “Do what you have to. And I’ll love you no less.”

She kissed him, and took Bart back, and then Barry looked over to Ralph. “Protect my family.”

Ralph nodded. “Count on it.”

A Few Hours Later

“We’ve got DEO on the way.” Police Captain Macky declared.

He caught his breath, and clutched his chest as it ached for a moment, before turning to the group of police officers who stood around him. Reporters and cameramen were present, recording the events as they unfolded. Barry turned to several officers, giving a confident smile and nodding towards them.They nodded slowly back as the sound of helicopters filled the air, the wind from their rotors causing the ground to shudder and shake, with paper being whipped up and banners being creased and torn. Sunlight glittered against the emblem carved into the front of the police station.

Barry Allen did nothing. He watched as the super soldiers ran out of their transport and surrounded him, their weapons raised and aimed. He watched as news reporters spoke to their cameramen and recorded the events unfolding.

He moved his hands in front of him, and a soldier approached him, slowly placing a pair of enhanced shackles onto his wrists. The soldier then paced backwards, and another group approached. Barry arched an eyebrow, and watched as suddenly dozens of wires shot into his costume. He didn’t feel the electricity racking his body. He had surrendered. He went down quietly, and live on television.

“Wake up.” His side exploded with pain as someone kicked him hard. “Wake up, dirt bag.” He looked up, through a drug induced haze, and saw twenty-three guards. His eyesight glimmered slightly, and then the guards slowly began to reduce in number. Three. Three guards. Or two? He recognised the third man. Silver hair and smug mannerisms. Crap. He knew who this was. He was on a cold hard surface, and he could barely feel his wrists. His chest burned with an almighty pain. Worse than before. Worse than the pangs of suffering from the past month or so. What was going on? He was dragged to his feet.

The silver-haired man spoke quietly. “You don’t speak. That’s the rule.”

“S-sucky rule--” A burst of pain struck his side. Electricity. “NYAAAH!” He slumped over, breathless.

The silver-haired man repeated himself, this time with force. “You don’t speak.”

He didn’t reply. He felt like crap, and he couldn’t vibrate out of his bonds. Something was cutting him off from the Speed Force, and he felt like he was being eaten up from the inside out. If he even tried to escape they’d be on him like a bad case of… He groaned. He couldn’t think of a quip at this moment in time. This looked bad.

“We know everything about you.”

“What’s… my f-favourite… colour?” Again, he was struck by something. Taser. Must be. He didn’t cry out this time. He was expecting it. “That doesn’t… c-count… as an, an answer.”

He was led through a dark corridor, and then a door opened. He was placed in a chair, and then his eyes rose up, to the desk in front of him. What he saw hit him worse than the taser. Or the ache in his gut.

Oh, Lord. Oh, no. He hadn’t thought this through at all. You have super-speed thought processes and this is what happens? You don’t think of the one thing that can… Oh. Oh, no.

His mask rested on the table.

“You understand what’s happening, don’t you, Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen?” King Faraday sat opposite the chained speedster, Barry’s red mask sitting on the tabletop between them. “You understand that this is a war, and that your friends; they aren’t the good guys. You understand that, don’t you?”

Barry didn’t answer. His blue eyes were concentrated solely on the red mask lying in front of him. They knew his name so they knew about Iris. About Bart. You’re a fool, Allen. You’re a fool.

“We can end this. We can end it before anyone has to die. You already put Lord in a coma. You committed grievous bodily harm upon the President of the US of A. Don’t you understand? WLEX has the video evidence of you causing him to fall into a coma on a continual loop. And it always comes down to you. You nearly killed Maxwell Lord. You will be tried for treason. And, come on, you’ll be found guilty.”

“You didn’t play the game right,” Faraday continued. “Neither you, nor any of your buddies, knew that President Lord, and some other concerned citizens, had put together an organization that was preparing to stop just this sort of thing, did you?

Barry looked up at Faraday, and snarled slightly. His wrists were bound to his ankles with a huge metal chassis, red lights blinking on and off as they counteracted the Speed Force connection that was part of Barry Allen. “The J-Justice… League… won’t… let anyone… die…” Each word was an effort. He was exhausted, and for every moment he sat there, his stomach hurt more and more. “You… are the only… villain… here…!”

“That’s regrettable.” King smiled and rearranged his tie. “I’m only doing my part to protect the people of this country. America will be the frontline of one of the biggest battles that will ever be fought, you know that?” He sighed. “I’m sorry Barry. If you tell us where the Justice League are, and who they are behind their masks… You can return to your family.”

Barry slumped over, saliva dribbling out of his lips. Everything hurt! His chest was throbbing! His muscles were quivering! “My f-family…?”

“We have them, Barry. You think we wouldn’t find them? Alone in your apartment?” King smirked. “You’re not very fast, are you?”

Alone. In your apartment. Barry could have sighed with relief. Faraday was bluffing. Ralph would die before he let Iris and Bart come to harm. That’s the reason the Dibnys were Bart’s godparents! “You’re… Hrrn…” He gritted his teeth, and pulled himself up. “You’re threatening my family?”

“I’m not threatening anyone. You placed them in danger with your rogue antics.”

Barry couldn’t repress his smile. “Rogue…?” He bit down on his lip and then coughed, doubling over onto the table, his head resting next to his mask. He could taste blood. Something was wrong… Something was happening!

“Yes and… What…” Faraday paused, “What’s wrong?”

“You’ve… tried…” Barry looked up. Suddenly everything was quiet. No thoughts rushing through his minds eye. No stark predictions formulated by calculating events from what has occurred in the past. Only pure… clarity. “You’ve tried to cut me off from the Speed Force.” His eyes sparked.

Faraday smiled smugly. “Our scientists…”

“Your scientists…” Barry strained his arms. He clenched his fists. His costume tore around the shackles as he tensed. “… Didn’t do… Jack!” The restraints burst open, and Barry began to vibrate. He didn’t mean to. He didn’t know what was happening to him. King Faraday pulled his pistol from its holster and unloaded it at the blurring hero. The bullets just passed through him.

Faraday threw the weapon to the ground and gritted his teeth as the wind picked up in the small room. “Stand down, Allen! Think about what you’re doing!”

“I think you’ll find--”

The voice coming out of Barry wasn’t his own. Barry was in two places at once. Then he wasn’t. He was just… himself. And next to him? Standing next to him, in a blur of red and blue? A hint of silver atop his head?

Jay Garrick smiled. Grabbed Faraday by his collar. And knocked him out with an uppercut.

“--We’re thinking this through quite well, thank you very much.”

Barry’s eyes fluttered closed. He had no idea what was happening. But Jay Garrick grinned as everything faded to black. This had to be a dream.

“Barry?” He drifted in and out of consciousness. “Barry!” He was being shaken. His eyes opened. He blinked as everything became clearer and clearer.