Author's Notes: Ages ago, when I first joined this site, the very first fan-fiction I posted was one of Barry Allen Flash teaming up with (and developing a crush on), Zatanna. It was called "The Flash: A Night on the Town". I've long had a soft spot for it precisely because it was my very first fic on this site. I've danced around the idea of doing a sequel or a remake of it for years not, but somehow it never happened. But at long last, I finally have a sequel, and that's this here one-shot. Enjoy.

A Proposal

Barry Allen wasn't any good at these sorts of things.

Fighting bad guys, he could handle. Breaking the sound-barrier, running on water, hell, traveling through time and going faster than light itself in flagrant violation of the laws of physics, he could do all of that. But what he was about to do now? That was outside his area of expertise.

He had tried it once, with Iris. Unfortunately while the Forensic Scientist/superhero usually had an exemplary memory and good information-based skills, his marriage to Iris had been so long ago, not to mention filled with painful memories that he had gone out of his way to try and forget, meant that he no longer remembered details about it well.

Including how he'd managed to actually get through the proposal stage.

Making matters worse this time around was in how this new woman he was planning to propose too wasn't just a nice, ordinary girl; she was extraordinary, in every way.

For one thing, she was a superhero like him.

Barry instinctively shot a look at the poster advertising her latest magic act. Zatanna Zatara, the Mistress of Magic, premiere sorceress, world renowned stage performer, heroine, and relentless altruist. And, it must be said, the first and still greatest "sexy magician". She wore the same costume of fishnet stockings, black leather boots with heels, black leotard, white female tuxedo waist-coat and black jacket, top-hat, and pristine white gloves in both her superhero and stage magician jobs. Concerning the latter it actually wasn't a costume any other stage magician really wore these days, having mostly been big in the late 19th Century and early 20th, but Zatanna hardly minded this. Quite to the contrary, that was part of why she wore it; it was more distinct, which suited her, and in any event she liked the classic, retro look, and also preferred it's more distinct, classy, (and sexy and flamboyant), design to the more mundane and banal stuff that most modern Stage Magicians wore.

And perhaps he was just a bit biased, but Barry Allen for one preferred it too. Lord only knows he'd certainly been...*ahem*, pleasantly distracted by it quite a few times over the years.

He considered going into the theater to catch her latest show, but thought better of it. He'd wanted to surprise her, and if she saw him in the audience it would ruin that surprise. He supposed he could chance it by sitting way in the back, but he didn't want to. He knew Zatanna; she'd almost certainly spot him. Especially when him going to her shows was hardly an unusual occurrence, and so she might be expecting him and know to keep an eye out for him.

So instead, Barry waited for the show to be over and stood outside her dressing room waiting for her to return. He was aware of how creepy that might seem to those who didn't know or recognize him, but years of going to Zatanna's magic shows and fighting alongside her in their costumed "second jobs" had ensured that Zatanna's troupe recognized him and so knew he meant no harm. He'd actually grown quite friendly with many of them, particularly the strongman, with whom he enjoyed discussing physics (the man being both brains and brawn).

Barry looked again at the box that contained the ring. He had decided against recycling the ring he'd given to Iris and instead gone out of his way to buy a new one. Not the easiest thing to afford on his salary, but then that was rather the point; A good wedding ring ought to be ridiculously expensive. Barry joked to himself, shaking his head as he did. He went on to play out the upcoming scenario in his head again and again; Zatanna would come back, he'd surprise her, and then somehow, someway, work up to the moment when he busted out the ring and asked her to marry him. He actually wasn't worried too much about whether or not she'd say "yes". Zatanna had been a bit commitment-phobic for as long as Barry had known her, but that was in part because her prior flings with Bruce and Constantine hadn't gone anywhere. Hell, the former had technically not even ever happened (though it did come close).

However, Barry did still want to make a good impression of it, rather than make a fool of himself. And if he couldn't work up the nerve to say what he wanted to say, then there'd be no proposal at all, and thus no wedding. And that simply wouldn't do. Not when he'd reached the point where, quite simply, he did not ever want another woman besides Zatanna Zatara ever again.

But, life as it so often did interfered with his personal life in the name of his alter-ego's never-ending responsibilities.

"Flash." Came a deep voice within his mind. "I need you in China."

"What?" Barry responded telepathically in response. "Why?"

"I'm afraid that Zoom is up to his old tricks again, and with Wally West still in the Phantom Zone containing the crisis there alongside Kal and Diana off in Asgard to contain the crisis there, you are the only one with anywhere near the speed needed to handle him. The Chinese Trinity is already engaged, but they are, as you might imagine, overmatched."

Barry sighed. "Yeah, I know. OK, I understand, I'll be there. Thanks, J'onn."

Barry considered; the speed he and Zoom moved at, he could probably get the whole business over and done with and come back in time to catch Zatanna, if he was smart about it. Still, it was doable, even with it being over in China. One of the benefits of being so ridiculously fast.

Changing into his iconic red costume as he ran, Flash arrived at China in seconds. And he wasn't surprised to see that already the city he'd been directed to was in chaos; buildings bore terrible damage, cars were overturned, and lamp posts split in half like old tree branches.

First things first, he had to clear out the area of any civilians that be left. Doing so didn't take him long, Barry safely moving everyone to an area some miles away that was not so remote that they'd be helpless there. He then sped back to look for Zoom, and didn't need to search long before he picked up the trademark yellow blur that was also Eobard Thawne's signature...or had been, before his well-deserved (and in Barry's mind long overdue), demise.

"Flash..." Zoom said slowly, that odd verbal tic of his that stood in stark contrast to his incomprehensible speed. "...but...not...my Flash...his...predecessor..."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Zoom." Flash said with a frown as he stared him down. He could see meanwhile that the Chinese knockoffs of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman had indeed been pounded something fierce; the former had one leg broken and couldn't move, the latter's long, sinuous serpent body was twisted and lay sprawled on the ground while the woman's long black hair covered her face completely, and even their crimson-clad Superman was barely standing, blood coming out of his broken nose and his lip split.

"Stand down, Super-Man." Flash told him. "You did what you could. But I can handle this."

"They...are...weak heroes..." Zoom slurred. "They...need to...become...better..."

"Maybe, but leave that to the actual heroes, Zoom." Flash said before zipping at him. Zoom avoided him easily, before trying to hit at Flash from every angle he could. Barry did what he could to parry the blows or else dodge them, but with them coming in from so many different directions, he wasn't exactly having an easy time of it. Flash had the Speed Force and all the wonderful boons it provided, but Zoom did too, along with reflexes and combat speed that both operated at roughly the speed of light. And that wasn't even him at top speed.

But, Flash hadn't gotten the title of "Fastest Man Alive" for nothing; he finally managed to nail Zoom in the side of his head, and from there began giving Zoom a taste of his own medicine, running across the globe over and over from multiple directions, and each time he did delivering Zoom a punch that hit like a white dwarf star, or so he hoped. Even if not that strong exactly though, each speedster was hitting the other at the speed of light again and again, and they kept on going. And what was perhaps most remarkable about the whole thing was that from everyone else's perspectives they hadn't even moved a muscle. In fact, for better or worse the entire thing would be over by the time anyone else watching could react to what their eyes and brain were taking in.

And yet, ridiculously, Flash was still worried about making it back to Zatanna in time. He always was paranoid.

"You...are...strong, Allen." Zoom said in-between the exchanged blows. Neither man was a master martial artist by any stretch, but they weren't totally inept in hand-to-hand either, and so both could hold their own.

"I do my best." Flash replied, unfazed at Zoom referring to him by his last name. He managed to sock Zoom across his jaw, but Zoom rolled with the punch and retaliated. The sad fact was that no matter how hard Flash tried, Zoom was just so quick even by his standards that he could not only anticipate, but counter Flash's every move. Any hit Flash landed successfully was always met with a retaliatory blow. And the rest were simply dodged, blocked, or parried as needed.

"Your losses...have made you...stronger." Zoom continued. "Tragedy...is necessary...for a hero to succeed."

Flash said nothing in response to this, instead thinking to the tragedies in question that had set him on his path to becoming a hero, and to the loss of Iris that had been his lowest point. Having gone through both, Flash saw little wisdom in Zoom's twisted philosophy; people could emerge from tragedy stronger, and without conflict and pain people would become complacent, but even so the idea of forcing tragedies to happen just to strengthen a hero's resolve, that was something Flash couldn't reconcile.

"I...will...make all heroes...better...starting with...your successor..."

"Not while I'm still around you won't." Flash snarled, hitting Zoom hard enough to send blood out of his mouth. He knew about what Zoom had tried to do to Wally's then-pregnant wife Linda. It was the sort of thing that ensured he felt no guilt at all in hitting Zoom again and again. And to be more frank, had he not the set of morals that he did, he'd have sought Zoom's death for such attempted atrocities.

"You...cannot...protect him...forever..." Zoom slurred, the fight continuing all the while. They raced out of the Chinese city and then out of China altogether. They circled the globe hundreds of times in seconds. Less than seconds. Fending off each-other's attacks all the while. If they had wanted to, they likely could have started running through time too so as to make their battle even more chaotic than it already was. But as deranged as he was, even Zoom knew and understood that it wasn't prudent to mess with time unnecessarily, and so the battle remained firmly in the present. That suited Flash just fine.

Finally, somewhere in Egypt the battle at last seemed to come to an end. By this point, both men's colorful costumes had become dirtied and covered in scorch marks, burns, and tears, and each of them was also bruised, bleeding, and sweating. Flash's arms felt stiff and sore from so many punches and parried blows, and his logo had been torn off at some point in the battle. As for Zoom, he was swaying and appeared to be at last fatigued. About half of his yellow cowl had been torn off in addition, exposing his close-cropped dirty blonde hair. His unnerving black eyes with red irises narrowed at Flash, a gesture that Flash returned.

"It's over, Zoom. I don't know about you, but I don't want to fight anymore. You could probably beat me either way. Kill me even. But I know you don't want to do that. I know that's not what drives you."

"No...it isn't..." Zoom smiled at Flash. A positively blood-chilling one, especially with the blood coming out of his mouth and nose and how his exposed face now looked vaguely like a pounded hamburger patty. "We...will meet again...Flash."

And then Zoom was gone...in a flash.

-X-

When Zatanna went into her dressing room, she was just a little surprised to see Barry Allen step in through the door. Having helped to repair the damage done to the Chinese city by Zoom, as well as returned the civilians he'd earlier moved to safety back to their homes, Barry was now back in Gotham City ready to tell her what he wanted to. However, fast as his healing was, injuries sustained from his fight with Zoom hadn't entirely faded.

"Ouch." Zatanna said, raising a white gloved hand to feel the bruises on Barry's face. "What happened to you, Barry?"

"Zoom." Was Barry's simple reply.

"Should have figured." She said, shaking her head. "Did he get away again?"

Barry nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so. He's actually faster than me, you know. Only reason I could hold my own as well as I did is because he was holding back enough that the gap was a lot smaller than it should be. Even then it was a fight."

Zatanna kissed him on the cheek. "You poor thing. Having to fight Wally's arch-enemy for him."

"It's not Wally's fault." Barry pointed out, smiling. "He's still in the Phantom Zone you know. J'onn told me as much."

Zatanna nodded her understanding. "But that isn't why you came here, is it?"

Barry shook his head. "No, it's not."

"What is it, Barry?"

"Zee, I..." Barry trailed off. He realized that he'd been so caught up in everything involving Zoom that he'd entirely forgotten about how he would handle this conversation with Zatanna. He reasoned that he could use his super-speed powers to slow things down for Zatanna and give himself more time to think up something. But instead he decided that he was too tired, too tense, and too impatient to kiss this beautiful woman in front of him to give a damn for niceties.

"Zee, you know I feel about you." Barry said. Zatanna nodded. "I do. We've been dating on and off for a while now..."

"Well, I want more than that now. I want to have you in my life as much as I can, for the rest of my life. I love you, Zee, and I want you." He took out the small box, and opened it. "Zee, will you marry-"

Barry was cut off when he realized that something was coming at them at an incredibly fast speed. So fast, in fact that only one of his speed level could ever hope to perceive it. And what he perceived, was a horribly familiar yellow blur. And it was headed...towards Zatanna.

For a microsecond, Barry feared that history was about to repeat itself in the worst possible way; that once again he would lose a woman he loved to an evil speedster garbed in yellow.

But another microsecond later, and Zatanna had, incredibly turned around to see Zoom coming at her and raised a white gloved hand at him.

"EZEERF MOOZ!"

And Zoom was frozen stiff in a field of purple magical energy that kept every last inch of his body from moving. Barry's jaw was almost on the floor at the sight. Zatanna turned to him and smiled. "J'onn let me know that Zoom was at large too. So I took precautions; I cast a spell on myself to enhance my speed to the point that I could react to Zoom."

"I...I didn't know you could do that..."

Zatanna shrugged. "I couldn't, until recently. But I've been growing in power for years now. Luckily me I became powerful enough to do this just in time for it to be needed."

"Still...it's incredible. With just a single spell said backwards you can become faster than me."

Zatanna's red lips formed into a red smile. "I can do almost anything I want just by saying it backwards, remember? My limits are very few, Barry." She paused, then said happily: "And to answer your question, yes, Barry. I'll gladly marry you." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you too, Bartholomew Allen."

They kissed, and now Barry Allen had no trouble with things at all.

Author's Notes: Yes, China has it's own Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and yes the latter has a snake body. This is actually a thing DC did. I decided it would be fun to include it here.

And yes, Asgard exists in DC as well as Marvel, GoW, and Norse mythology. ;)